My Most Nostalgic,Pious and Exotic Trip ever

When the Konark Express left from the Lokmanya tilak Station,I knew that this would be a long journey(I have travelled in that train for like 20-25 times in my whole life till now,no kidding)So I knew what was coming ....But I was more worried about the journey that ensued from here which would take us from the Jagganath temple in Puri to a small little place called Changanacherry in Cochin which lies in the western coast of the Arabian Sea.20 Days frankly did'nt look a long vacation when I was in School but it felt like 20 months when we came back here.I guess partly it was because of the fact that we had'nt been on such a long vacation for a long time...So brace yourselves ppl coz here comes a looooong Account of my experience in those 20 days ........

13'th Jan:
We reached Bhubaneswar early in the morning ...something like 4.30 and made sure every soul had a early rise.The place had already started giving me a haunting welcome just before sunrise.I made sure that I had my share of 2 hour sleep that I did not have in the hustling noise and coldish wind that the train brought about.The short nap rejuvenated me completely and I thought why not get into business straight away .Called up my good ol' friend Jyoti(yes,he is a guy).Dude do the needful will you ?...With No question asked,within a minute he brought his Pulsor and we were off to Vineet's place.After Few laughs from the past and then viewing his Girlfriend's pic on his P.C(cheezie but cool :P) ,we were off to see my good ol' Tution sir.Well he is the same ...has'nt changed..He too made sure to show his new lenovo laptop and all the gadgets that he had....I did meet up with many others as well ..Bless jyoti people for that ...Guess he screwed up his own holidays for me ..(He's doing his engg frm manipal and was on a holiday himself) Before meeting some more people I went to a town called Jajpur which was my cousin's place.I stayed there for like 2 days.Nothing much to mention here but I had tremondous fun with my nephew :D..Then the day I came back I met with my school girl pals ....I thought it would be just a "Hi Hello kind of a Meeting ...but hang onn...These girls wanted to go to a cake shop with me...I thought that could not get better.....After a good 20-25 minutes with them,recollecting all the school gup-shups, I came back ....and Guess how ...in one of the girl's scooty :P...Must say this was one of the better ride's I have had in my life :D....Purpose of my visit to bhubaneswar was my cousin brother's thread ceremony.It was farely private affair.Nothing frankly to mention here as well .Younger Cousin Bro cried coz he could not see himself getting bald but guess that was all part of the rituals...Rounded up my Bhubaneswar Trip with a visit to the World Famous Jagannath Temple..I had almost turned something like an atheist actually in my engg life but going there I felt there's nothing wrong in being religious..Infact I felt Pious and had Peace with myself.

21'st Jan:The Howrah-Kanniyakumari Expess was on it's way and I thought yet another tiring journey for a whole 2 days but I was wrong....The journey was great :D
23'rd Jan:
A man in his dhoti (90%people were in their dhoti's here)welcomed us...Hotel chorne ka hain saheb???..He asked in his tamilian accent :D...Booked a hotel quickly and got a Sea Viewing room as well....Kanniyakumari people is frankly a Place as little as my hometown Vashi....(No kidding)...It's not a big Place....
1'st Site:Devi Kumari temple:Note:All men have to remove their shirts and banniyan's before going inside...wtf !!!!....Did I read that right ????....Yup I did...I did not go in....Later I realised I made the wrong decision ......But there were young women for god sake's .....I was petrified initially .....Later we made our way to the gandhi memorial and reached in time to see the sunset point.....
2'nd Site:Vivekanda Rock Memorial:An absolutely Stunning Place to See....If you love your history ,this will be a wonderful place.Vivekanada statue and everything pious to be found ....This was really cool....
Just 10 feet away was the Thiruvallavur Statue which is nothing really ......It's just 75 foot statue .....nothing special.........
We also toured the Surrounding regions of Kanniyakumari as well but these were the only things there really to see coz as I said it's a very small place.....but a beautiful place non the less...and yes the three water bodies :Arabian Sea,Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal do Collide here but it was not really visible to me thanxs to the low tide .....The water bodies surrounding the place really make it beautiful and the reason for it to be so famous............

The Kerala Journey

We Booked a Car from a local tours and travels guy to tour kerela which was just a 2 hour journey from kanniyakumari.....
First Stop:Kovalam Beach:->Did I once say that Colva Beach in Goa was the Best Beach I saw .....Well this Beach comes very very Close to that actually.....This is one of the most cleanest,safest,and scenic beaches you are ever gonna find.The Trees and Vegetation overshadowing the Beach make for a Breathtaking site.

Next Stop:Trivandrum:

It's the capital and nothing really in this place except a Zoo,an art and culture musuem but yes...there's a nice temple called the padmanabhan temple ......Now even if u are not a temple guy or girl ......no especially a "guy":P...be here ....One has to be half naked and wear a dhoti to go inside ....Inside it feels Great ...Temples in the south are completely different ......Temples are like these caves and gods are kept kind of into the caves ...So even if you are not a temples person .....Just Try it once ...

Next Stop:The 8 Hour Boat Ride From Kollam To Allaphuzha(Alleppy)

Now This is what I would call as "Exotic"....The Boat had some 30-40 People out of which only 5 were Indians including us....Rest were all Europeans....I thought I had seen enough of P.D.A ...but wait there was more on display here .....But frankly this boat ride was great .....Back waters in Kerala are not famous just like that....Back waters and the exotic greenary around with superb view from the lower deck make for a
"Breathtaking watch".....Ohh 8 hours were not boring at all if you ask me ....A guy frm Charni Road who had come on a honeymoon and was only one of the 5 Indians on board said Life had become so slow and boring on the boat but I could Understand him ....He was on a Honeymoon :P....It came to a halt finally in the evening .....This ride was ....*undescribable*
Allepy also has a Beach ......Yeah the beach is good .....may be Great but had enough of it already in life as far as beaches went ....But the Beach was nice :P

Next Stop:Thekkedi

We were in the "REAL GOD OWN'S COUNTRY" now...I recalled that the tours and travels guy had said to us in his tamilian accent"AGAR KERALA DEKHNA HAIN TOH MUNNAR DEKHO AUR TEKKHADI DEKHO"
Tekkhadi welcomed us with the first stop being the
SPICE GARDEN: You will find different trees of different spices here .....COFFEE,CARDAMOM,TAMARIND etc etc.......WAS OK NOTHING GREAT
Next Site:The Kathakali Dance
Yup ...I did catch some kathakali too in tekkhadi.....A one hour show where dancing is done through the face and various postures are made ....AGAIN OK ....17'th Century Tradition is being maintained Nice to See
Next Site:Periyar Tiger Reserve :
It was some 6.45 In the Morning ...We were on a boat again...it was damn cold....Here there was no tiger no lion ......Nothing ....Just a pig to show for ......and that too the noobhish foreigners kept onn taking pictures of that pig for some reason (*silly*)
Tekkhadi was disappointing actually .....I am sure it had a lot to offer ...but probably we did'nt explore a lot........

Next Stop:MUNNAR

MUNNAR was the best place in kerela ......I wonder why people speak more highly of OOTY and never speak of munnar.....A hill station which has probably 100000 acres of tea garden all around the place....It provides a Breath-taking site of "MOTHER NATURE" and it's a pity that we could not spend more time here :( ....but did manage to go to the TEA FACTORY",ECHO POINT AND 2 OR 3 DAMS .....but this place is GREAT ..."A MUST VISIT" :)

NEXT STOP: COCHIN AND THE CITY OF ERNAKULAM

cochin is a nice port city .....had the third boat ride here after having a boat ride in periyar .......This was also great....again a place to be visited is Jew town in changanacherry .....It felt as if I have come to European City or something .......A jewish kind of a town with a jewish Temple and a Dutch palace.There's also A church in that place ...Nice,That place too also feels pious with arabian sea cozing up all around you.......City of ernakulam is for "Shopaaholics":P......
We were back to Alleppy or Alaphuzza coz we had to catch our nethravati from there.....After Some more Shopping there and ofcourse a walk near the back waters ....we were ready to leave .......I won't say that we did'nt want to go from that place....But it truly had left a mark on all of us ....One which we would never ever Forget.Period.

P.S1:Travelling with my Parents was a great experience ....Yeah there were plenty of shortcomings but we made sure that the 3 of us should have "BALL OF A TIME " and we did :D
P.S2:No Pics Guys Sorry ...I got that traditional Camera and I have'nt Scanned them as well ...I wanted to write this Blog flaunting all the pics ....But that was'nt possible....... :(

The "Second Home" Coming

I am off to Bhubaneswar tomorrow which is kind of like my second home.It's also been like four and half years since I have been there and so it almost feels like it's the second time I am going there and hence the title of the blog. :P According to me,the age between 10 to 15 is when you grow as a person and learn a lot of things.It was around that age that I happened to be in the "City of Temples".It was kind of a Culture shock for me after being here for so long in my own hometown and leaving my old school and all friends to go to what I would call as a "Townish city" was really difficult.Making Friends there initially was difficult.Since I was too fair that time,people were vulnerable. Taunts followed initially like they would ask ....Have you come from Australia or New Zealand etc etc .....Soon the things began to settle though.There were spells of loneliness but ongoings were roughly smooth.School that I went to was kind of interesting.I got to hear some incredible pronounciations by the teachers. My memory seems to fail me but I kind of remember one of the words.The word Journey was pronounced something like johh ney ....something weird like that.It was'nt one bit funny though.Sometimes I thought where have I landed myself into.

Anyways it would be a much better second home coming....Atleast I hope so.Planning to meet up with my school friends and tution friends there and also with my old tuition teacher.Kudos to the good ol' Private tuition classes.After a week's stay am off to the God's Own Country i.e to Kerela.Ironically I have never been to the South of the Country except a vacation to Banglore and Mysore which was about 11 or 12 years ago.Gee those were the days where it used to be a vacation every summer or even once in a blue moon winter.That's why they say School days are fun.How many of us have travelled after 10'th standard....Atleast I have not barring a trip to Delhi and Goa.
So unfortunately there will be no more blogging from moi this month... (
and you know what's coming up next after this.....A blog about my trip to both the places of course ~Adios~
P.S:
One chat
Me:So,What are you doing in the vacations ?
X:Nothing man,I am at home only..... *Yawn*
In Another Chat
Me:So,What are you doing in the vacations ?
Y:Well probably might join vacation classes..... *AARRRGH*
While In Another one
Me:So,What are you doing in the vacations ?
Z:Have'nt decided yet ...let's see..... *That's even worse coz you end up doing nothing*
Bottom line: *Whatever You do ......Have fun.Period.*

An Old College Review

Now when you surf the various sites on the net you come across various different kind of stuffs.Some Sites are great,Some are just average and Some are just plain boring and here am talking about contents of those sites ofcourse.And then there are some sites where you get to find some very readable,interesting and straight from the heart written articles.I found a very similar thing while surfing yesterday .There was this review of my college written by a student who I presume to be an old student of the college.It was written some 4 years ago.Things have drastically changed from then till now .The College has shifted it's base from Koperkhairne to a now very developing kharghar.And as this reviewer puts it,Things are constantly improving in my college but some of the stuff written in it especially the start of the review and the part of the proffesor's "Quotes"or rather mis quotes really had me laughing :D.......Go read !!!

Link:http://www.mouthshut.com/review/A_Chudaman_Patil_College_of_Eng-48267-1.html

2007:->2008....There goes another Year

It's been a farely good year for me .I passed in "THE EXAM OF MY LIFE" which I gave in the month of May .and of course how can I forget...I started blogging this year.Blogging has been a farely enriching experience for me .Here are a few things that I learned about blogs and blogging as a whole
->Think before you publish a certain post.
->Never try to hurt anyone through your blog.
->Don't stop typing in the middle of the post thinking this would not work ..I have done that several times and regretted it.
->Try not to alter your image or yourself in general through your blogs coz there is a huge danger of doing something like that.
->Type everything properly and clearly coz I have made several grammatical mistakes in the past without really any intentions of making them and at the end of the day It really makes you look a lot silly or rather noobish which you know you are not..... :P
->Get a really good template for your blog ....though I have changed mine ... but am still not happy with it ...coz I feel that other blogs that I visit are much more stylish and presentable than mine is.... :(
->Get some interesting and fun stuff in your blog(which I intend to in 2008)so that other's keep visiting your blog frequently.
->And finally I have also learnt that if you want to get more comments for your blog ...either you just have to leave a comment on somebody else's blog or have Friends and I mean genuine friends who themselves write blogs and get comments from them and you return the "favour" : P...Changing the topic now .....
Movie of the year according to me:
Now I have'nt watched too many movies this year ....funny I should say that coz anyways I don't watch too many movies in a year :P....Now I don't watch too many English Movies and I am not embarrased in admitting that.The reason being that I can't seem to get the U.S accent. And I am also not in the league of those people who sit through a english flick pretending that they are understanding everything coz let's face it ,they are not :P...(I know a lot many ppl like that)....
For me the best movie I saw this year was Johny Gaddar...Now if you are a fan of those "Who dun it"??...kinda books or novels then u sure gonna enjoy this one....I agree that it seemed like a English Flick,but it also seemed like a fresh and vibrant movie unlike those silly hindi "thriller" movies that we hv been bored to death with.....I hope I get to see similar kind of movies next year...
Blogging in this Year stops with this...... Happy new year readers .....Adios 2007.....and welcome 2008 !!!!

P.S:I don't belive in either astrology or numerology coz I feel you write your own destiny and jo hona hain woh ho ke raheta hain but still here's a thing to chew upon :P
2008=2+8=10=1+0= 1
My birthday:16/05/1987=1+6+0+5+1+9+8+7=37=3+7=10=1+0= 1.. :P
Both add Upto 1... :P
*rejoice*...well not exactly .....This does'nt not mean I become Khumbkaran and hibernate for the rest of the year ..does it :D ???

"Incredible Fascination"

When I was coming back home from giving my sem exam yesterday, I decided to call up my friend who was my classmate with whom I had'nt been in touch for the last 5 years .I had only his number stored in my phone but did not call him all this while coz normally I deal only in messages and don't call up anyone as my balance always reads below 10(*Interesting excuse heh*) .I decide to scare him a little bit.Mauja hi Mauja hounded my ears for about 45 seconds when a sleepy voice answered the call(guess he was sleeping).Is that Mr.Samal? I asked in Oriya...Aagyaan he said...I said Huh???.....Then I realised that it meant yes sir..the ploy had worked...He thought I was some elderly person..After bothering him for a minute or two I told him who I was..Abuses and laughs came from the other side.He was in Kolkata doing his mbbs.So another 2 years to go huh..I asked...no dude not 2 .....another 4 and a half years to go ......

The guy had stood 2'nd in our school in the 10'th standard.He was shrewed,arrogant and had a lot of attitude(around 90% of the scholis are like that,are'nt they :P)..bullied me a lot in school and here I was, a good 2 years senior to him(degree wise) though we were of the same age.He had taken a 2 year drop inorder to get into a good medical college.He wanted to become a doctor at any cost.Infact more than 50 % of my classmates of 10'th standard in bhubaneswar are atleast 1 year junior to me(degree wise) as they have taken a drop after their 12'th to "prepare"for either their engg or mostly medical to get into a good college.Compare it with here in mumbai ....the % could be hardly 20.

I remember in one of our pct(communication subject) session practicals in this sem itself we were asked to introduce ourselves in front of the prof and one of the guys in his own introduction told that he had wasted two years to get into a medical college and now finds himself here in this college.The ma'm quickly responded saying don't say you wasted it.you did a learn a lot ...I did'nt bother responding then but..."learn a lot".....what did he learn .....that the hard work of 2 years does not pay off.....I am actually not against people taking a 'n' years of preparation time but the point is that if you want to be a doctor or something that really you want to become, why do something like that.why not work harder during that 10'th-12'th standard period..agreed that luck does not favour you all the time but if you have the determination to do something ,you are bound to acheive it.and if that does not work out,why not go for something else.I really can't think of anything that is to be learnt in that 2 years really except the bio,physics and chemistry fundamentals:P...As one prof had once said you are actually gonna retire one year before your actual retirement age:P
The guy who I was taking about earlier is also a womanizer ...so you can imagine what he did in those 2 years. :P.. He does have a girlfriend in his coll...So well it's actually not gonna be 4 years dude ...it will be another 5 .. :D ..Just kidding ........wish you well all the time :)

Song I am listening to:
"Tera Mujhse" from Aa gale lag jaa (1973 flick)
Tera mujhse hain pehle ka nataa koi
yoon hee nahi dil loobhata koi ~~*Beautiful Lyrics & a Beautiful Song*

Endurance Personified

Read A beautiful Article/Story in Mumbai Mirror yesterday
Hoped that I get it on the net and I did
Here it goes

Students who fail to clear their SSC or HSC exams in the first attempt, or even subsequently, should take heart from the approach of Zohaib Salmani. The 25-year-old did not clear the SSC exams in his first attempt. But he did not give up and tried again. And again. And again... Coming back to the point, Salmani’s perseverance paid off when he passed the exams this year in his 14th attempt.Salmani was a student of Anjuman Islam High School at CST. He loves cricket and plays cricket. When he first appeared for the SSC exams in March 1999, he managed to pass in just one subject, which was Urdu. Soon after, he started assisting his father, Aqueel Kiratpuri, at his hair cutting saloon.In March 2000, he tried again but failed to pass in any subject.Salmani says, “In October 2000, I again sat for all the papers, except Urdu, but still couldn’t clear any. I wanted to leave studies. Since our saloon is at Lokhandwala in Andheri (W), TV stars were regulars and I thought I should stop attempting SSC and concentrate on a career as a hair stylist.“However, my father wanted me to complete my SSC at any cost. Each time I failed, he used to ask me to try the next time.”He took admission in a night school at Malad. His efforts began paying off. In March 2003, he passed his science paper.“It gave me fresh hope and I decided to attempt all the papers in March 2004. But to my dismay, I could clear only Urdu and science papers. failed in all the other subjects,” says Salmani.When he failed in the October 2004 exams too, instead of feeling dejected, he resolved to clear the SSC exams.In March 2005, he managed to clear English but could not pass in the remaining subjects when he appeared for the exams in October 2005. “In March 2006, I cleared the mathematics paper and in October 2006 the Hindi and Marathi papers. Now the only subject that remained to be cleared was social science,” says Salmani.But it took him two more attempts to clear the paper. “I was not successful in March 2007 but cleared it in the October 2007 exams,” says Salmani.The results were released on Friday and Salmani says, “It was the happiest day in my life. I am happy I listened to my father’s advice and persevered.”His father distributed sweets among family and friends to celebrate Salmani’s rather unique success. “The good part is that he kept on trying and did not lose hope. So what if he took 14 attempts? At least, I can proudly say my son tried really hard for his SSC,”

Love the last few lines spoken by his father
quote:"I can proudly say my son tried really hard for his SSC.”
There is no substitute to trying.It just goes on to show what determination can do.The question is not about failing,the question is do we try enough as individuals .Whatever his problem would have been,the guy who passed did "try" .
~kudos~

Time to "Vomit"

In these two and a half years of my engineering life I have realised that mugging can be a great stress buster.I mean it's like a "jap"(pronounced as jp or jaap)...You keep on repeating the things again and again like a sadhu does and if your lucky ...(i.e if your stars are in the right place :P),you even get to understand the concept behind it .....exam time is here again and the irrepairable continues..... *Sigh* ...."Best of luck to all engg aspirants"(Hopefully the "JP" works :P)