life goes on

Nov-Dec has been extremely hectic, even though B school life is supposed to be hectic we were having a nice breeze of a life mostly, apart from small patches of crazy storms. By those standards my life is in a hurricane now. First on the list was my bangalore wishes over diwali break. Reached back on 5th and IInd sem had already started. This time the conditions were different, I was in finance, seniors placement season was coming up, there was apprehension and doubt in the air. All the novelty factor of an MBA was gone. People were talking about hard days ahead full of studies, the dread of being taught by the venerable Kali, everyone respects him but dare not go against him. Seniors have created enuff brouhaha abt him that makes me not look fwd to our rendezvous.
Coffee with SIBM is coming soon, actually its over but this is a backdated post. I'll post it soon

LPG circa 1991

why can't we have more privatization? why can't we have less govt. intervention in the working of private companies in India, like other democracies. One might say thats what is holding our economy from going the US way. I disagree, its more coz we lack basic human ethics. Indians will never leave a chance to usurp all rules of morality and make a quick buck. I know the same old adage -"politicians are spoiling the name of the entire country. We're being generalized based on our ruling/representing political class". Its not just pliticians, is now seeped down to the very core of our society. Trust, honesty and integrity, instead of being omnipresent are now considered foolish virtues to possess. The one who does is hailed as a national hero, his past all washed away by just one virtuous act.
Indian economy doesn't have the morals or the spine to hold on its own without govt. intervention. They have harbored this bad habit of bein ruled. Unless they know someone is watching they won't tow the line. Even bound within rules, we tend to look for loopholes to take advantage of. Harshad Mehta, Ketan Parekh, UTI, all cases in point.
We keep pushing for privatization but thats only to further our own personal interests. The bigger picture is what no one likes to look at, its taboo. The rationale is to ignore whats doesn't concern you.
FIIs entered in huge numbers with all guns blazing. Our sensex was only at the 5000 levels. It started zooming. There was no restriction and hardly any monitoring on foreign investments. Sebi tried to regulate P-Notes. There was widespread criticism and the move was stalled. Nobody cared as long as money came in. Whats happening now?
Everyday the sensex is spiralling its way down, we are helpless. Govt rebates keep the sensex from falling for a day, next day the same story unfolds all over again.
The bloated PE multiples are coming down to their absolute value. Now we'll know whats the true worth of the India market, thats to say if the stock price was ever an indicator of the worth of a firm.
People say only 5% of the Indian population has invested in the stock market, it can't be an indicator of the economy. Then why does the RBI and FM go all crazy when the sensex shed 100 points, start giving assurances to avoid selling. I say the amount of influence the stock market has on the India psyche is more than it is in any other country. But the fact that hs market runs on pure speculation is another matter of worry. There might be so man Liame Neeson(Barrings) in the making here. Thanks to the heavy regulation and monitoring they've not been able to spread their wings. The moment they're let loose, even God won't regulate us that day.

Yexam time!!!

Again & again i am tormented by this malady. After gettign a taste of leisurly office days its corporal punishment to sit n study with concentration for exams.
Mugging is an art i no longer possess, so if i read something today next day i'll have no freakin idea wat i had gone thru. Its a nightmare to confess such things just a day before exams. Since morning all i have done is Play NFS UG2 (this too after a gap of 3.5 years), catch up on F1 Shanghai circuit, the SINOPEC GP. Hamilton is all set to bag his first drivers championship. This is the 2nd last race of the season and I'm ashamed to reveal I've not seen one complete race this time. Gotta watch the brazilian gp from start till end, no excuses will do.
The mess refused to gimme brkfast at 1010 hrs, had to go all the way to the canteen in the searing sun.. paapi pet ka sawaal hai.
Now its lunch time and again mess will act up if i get late. So no studies effectively till 1500 hrs. I'm kinda screwed but the full force of this blunder will hit me tomorrow in the exam hall and the guilt will drown me later on in the evening when I'm sure i'll curse myself and devour BD. If by any chance the guilt fails to set in then BD too is screwed. Comm i'm gonna risk any which way. Pain would be to stay in campus til 25th bidding farewell to all for diwali vacations. I have amasses a huge repository of movies, tele series to watch and of course books are always there ( only for scaring others).
Wishing me all the best for the exams, this one's just an eyewash, the grand finale will start on Nov 18th. Lets wait n watch.
Here's wishing everyone a happy diwali in advance.

SIBM Live Vizag

Major I team event, admissions team, weeks of preparation, culmination in 4 cities, a gathering of ambitious dreamers - thats SIBM Live - held on 7th September, hotel Meghalaya, Vizag. I was sceptical about the concept behind this until I saw the twinkle in our audiences' eyes, their thirst for knowledge, their searching questions, frankly the response we got was beyond imagination. though vizag is a fairly popular town and my perception of vizag was quite differet from what i saw. Its quite small for starters but kinda pricey, not the number of oriyas as i had expected, 'The Hindu' rules there (i was right about this one) and it works like a govt organization. Last but not the least vizag has only the world's 2nd submarine on display as a museum - worth a dekko, etc.

We got a Honda city cab to Mumbai at around 1830 hrs, stopped by at a petrol bunk for snacks, had a very hectic day earlier, we were all famished. Hogged like crazy. We reached Bombay airport around 2130 hrs. This was my first time in this city and i was all enthu about stowing away our huuuge luggage

The heat was what hit me, I hadn't been exposed to this kinda heat and humidity since I left Chennai but fortunately i was here only for 3 days and we had AC rooms.

The moment we reached the hotel we started pestering the management about the arrangements. We were not college students but hard core corporates and thats what we made the hotel staff to believe in too.

The first day was all about marketing, visiting coaching centres, harping on and on about sibm live till the audience(mostly coaching centre faculty) was glassy eyed and lost consciousness. We left them to recover and headed for the next destination. I had a well drawn out plan to hit the beach in the evening and some hilltop from where u can have great views of the bay of bengal. But as luck wud have it we got a chance to see 'rock on' arranged by our dear alumni Vijay. So we hit the movie instead and man was it worth it!!! one of the best movie to hit the india cinemas in recent times.
Later that night we got out on the streets and painted the town with SIBMLive merchandise, posters, banners, et al. Next morning we got up early to see the sunrise at the beach, of course we got a little late and the sun didnt have mercy on us, but we had a nice dip and headed back for a looong day. The event backed by flawless planning was a grand success and participants stayed back for QnA quite late. But that didnt tire us down. We again went to the waterfront, hoping to somehow get up the lighthouse, which i have tried numerous times in other places n failed miserably n again failed here too. but we stayed out on the streets till past midnight and enjoyed all the ganapati processions. It was an experience in itself, 3 drunk guys and one too tired to manage them, wandering aimlessly, euphoric after accomplishing their mission but not sure how to celebrate, was all really amazing.
Next day we packed up all n headed back to Mumbai and to Pune
All said and done I know whenever i think of Rock on m gonna go back to vizag and that memorable trip that was quite a watershed early into my MBA.

su-30 MKI

A test pilot has this to say about the pride of the IAF

"The Aviators who fly her love her, but the ones who fly against her wish they never did... Many call her the eight wonder... They believe she parallels none in the sky... None when she Strikes, none when she escorts, none when she Intercepts... Beacuse she does not merely guard the skies, she dominates the battle space... the Sukhoi 30MKI is every fighter pilots' dream machine.. she may have the ruggedness of the russian airframe and the finess of the western avionics, But she belongs only to the Indian airforce.. Modernised and customised to serve as a strategic weapon "

Now those are some awe-inspiring words and believe me i have seen this machine fly as close as 200m above the ground.. of course it can;t do the cobra manouver at that altitude, but whatever little it could was breathtaking.. so much so that it created a vacuum around us n we lost all track of time. I will never forget that Aero India show in 2005, I happened to be in b'lore just by chance, having met with an accident and hence delaying my departure to delhi. Looking back now i thank God that the accident was minor and i got to see aero india too.

Apart from the Su 30 spectacle i also got to see the new Russian Mig 29 OVT or rechristened as the Mig 35 which flauted its new thrust vectoring system to impress the IAF. The gripens,rafales and F15s too made their presence felt. I saw the sea-harrier perform for the first time, they're an ageing fleet and India is desperately waiting for the 16 Mig 29K with INS Vikramaditya, wish the Russians wud send it sooner, greedy lot that they are. (The 3rd pic is of the mig 29K painted in IAF colors)

I'll verify that quote about Su-3o, it gets a little overboard by calling it the 8th wonder and about it being only being with the IAF. AFAIK Russia sold a lot of su-30s to china too, but ours is an improved version called MKI. Only issue is China is already mass producing the model that russia gave it. Its gonna be there primary fighter whereas India will use Su-30 as its premier a/c and as a user of the last resort.

Homebound

The 15th august weekend was fast approaching and I was planning a quick getaway to namma Bengaluru, but as i later realized, so were countless others from pune. Getting a ticket home was next to impossible or thats what i was made to believe. I ran to the city, my roomi too had a sudden urge to go to b'lore. I managed to get a few tickets in VRL, but roomi changed his mind. I went ahead n bought my tickets. I was a little apprehensive if I'll be able to make it to this place called 'swargate' by 7 pm on a thrusday particularly when i wud hav to travel for somewhere around 25 kms after my classes got over. Anyways that was for later, right then i was happy just to hold the tickets in my hands, loking fwd to the trip ahead. Rads had got me a new Swatch from BKK, I was bursting to get my hands on that plus the lure of home food too was pulling me away. I still am of the opinion that this mess food os better than what we had in NSIT but home food is always mouth watering.

As D-Day or rather I-day approached my roomi again wanted to go to b'lore n this urge got really desperate with him ready to pay double the ticket amt. I suggested him to try his luck at the travel houses on the d-day, so he came along and after a long wait, wherein we tried lots of travels and some came with schemes like charging double the amt for a seat in the cabin and so on, he finally got a seat in my vrl bus at no extra cost and that too a window seat. Now thats luck!!!

Well off we went on a 16 hr journey in a volvo, was quite comfy, they played 2 movies, funny n eternal bores. 'welcome' n 'golmaal' which i have seen grudgingly plenty of times. Early morning we reached Chitradurga in Karnataka and it was a sight to behold... all around us peeking thru the low clouds were rotating heads -- windmills, thousands of them!!!

The site ranked pretty high on one of the most beautiful mornings ever rating. I wish i had a picture. I was so mesmerized i even forgot to take a snap but its clocked forever in my head.

VRL score high when it comes to infrastructure setup and their quality of service too is better, it kinda justifies the high ticket rates they charge. They almost manage to stick to their timelines and the buses are in good condition, the pitstops are at good places, they have their own logistics centre at chitradurga, very scenic to say the least.

I too was quite impressed alongwith my roomie though i hated to accept it coz of the higher ticket charge but the journey was fun and i was in b'lore by morning 10 am, took nearly 14 hrs for me to be greeted by the great b'lore weather, which was almost the same as we had in pune when we left.

Later on at home we had to dispose off a few puppies that a stray bitch had left on at our doorsteps (literally doorsteps), it was sad but had to be done, will put a pic of them huddled in front of the door. Later we dropped their mom too at the 'dog shelter'. We all felt guilty but my parents and the neighbors were having a tough time handling all the irate passers by, who were being chased n scared by the bitch. It was an act of cruelty for welfare of the masses, with whom we had hardly anything to do, but sadly man comes first n all others suffer.

Tryst with a tyre

There we were cruising above 100 kph the streo blaring some foot tapping numbers, me enjoying my McD 'chicken' burger almost in a trance and all of a sudden there was a small almost missed out 'thud' followed by a small burring sound. My first thought was that its some new song starting but then it continued and got out of tunhen our esteemed co-ordinator realised its a puncture. I had never imagined a puncture in a 20 lacs Skoda Laura with tubeless tyres and that too when it was running. As a general rule Tubeless tyres, when punctured go flat when they're still, not moving.

Its been raining mercilessly in Pune for the last fortnight or so and that fateful night was no different. Pranav did call his driver but he was on the other end of Pune and we being engineers suddenly had an itch to fix this issue at hand.

And the hunt started for the spare, found the spare and the tools,but that was just the easier part. Now starts the tamasha, the jack was in no way similar to what I had seen for a maruti or other small cars. We were all cranked to say the least. We all got down on the muddy road to figure out first where do we plug in the jack, that is if we ever manage to unscrew that thing. The 'Laura' is a huge car and has a huge base, mostly plastic, so I had to probe the underbelly near the tyre to find out a solid base. Till that time were all drenched and covered in mud too, looked like that kareena kapoor ad, when she was smeared in chocolate only difference being we were all in formals and weren't appealing in any sense of the imagination. That done we moved to unscrewing the jack, the instructions weren't helping. We put it under and did it, but as it turned out, we had done it upside down and as mentiones above we were all covered in what seemed like hot chocolate but was actually mud. My headache wasn't helping things.

Then more help arrived in the form of Mr Chaddi n Manish. We had realised this jack position was not correct as it wasn't very user friendly. Pawan took the lead and fixed it the other way and this time it worked but the spare tyre now decided to not help us. It was spotted rolling away from the car at some distance and Pranav had to sweat it out to catch up. There were a few more instances of pure absurdity like when we didnt' know where to find the screws for the radial and stuff. The 10 pointer gal in our team (read Snehal) came to our rescue there and left us all red faced.

There was more than one humbling experience that night and for a person like me who already has most of his ego leaked out had a tough time coping up.

But experiences are there to be recounted and pondered over and laughed at. I'm sure I'll recount this for atleast few more days to come coz its been a long time since I was marooned in the middle of nowhere and had shitloads of fun doing it.

induction & intro

I was loaded, it was just too much for me after having a gala time at work for almost 3 years at my reputed company. The need to put in commitment and patience into my work was just not there inspite of winning so many awards at the company for undying commitment and superb quality of work. There were a lot of things to learn, the saddest being lack of sleep and bad food (no chicken). All this frustration lasted only the first week, come week 2 and we were loaded with so much work that all I could do was just glance at my bed for a few minutes a day. All the leisurely jogs in the mornings were pushed aside, sleep was paramount, ramblings for food to were forgotten just gobbled something up and ran for the classes, mobiles were forbidden and suspensions doled out to the brave and mighty who dared using them on campus. Life all of a sudden had taken a turn and the slow steam engine was replaced by a bullet train. it rushed past before you could say hello. Tough times for a benevolent ignoramus.
Engineers have an uncanny ability to adjust to anything and come out trumps on it too. It runs in their blood. I just had to pump it up a notch and voila (cud be 'eureka' too) life's back to normal. Plenty of pending work, sleep back intact, enjoying life; now that wat is living!!
A few days back while doing a case study, we just went past all accepted norms of finishing it quickly, knowledgeable that we all are our group ended in the mess till 4 am. No matter how much dinner a mortal soul has had at 9 pm, spending 6 hrs in the mess makes you hungry. My ingenious tema members smuggled out bread and jam from the mess coffers. I havn't tasted bread that was sweeter and more wholesome, the best i had ever had. 'Pet puja' done we stepped put into a campus shrudd with clouds, we were in them. I could feel condensed water drops all around me and the whole landscape was under a misty shroud. It was the best 4 am of my life (i can count the no of times i was awake at 4 earlier, after 4 weeks here, its beyond me).
Life will go on and engineers to be MBA's will manage to scrape thru, who knows may even score a few browny points with their occasional brilliant sparks. Lets hope to see quite a few of the sparks lighiting the skies of Lavale.

is it the righ path?

i am having second thots about quitting now, what with the job market not happening now, ppl scared to put in papers even with humiliating compensation reviews n me here all set to quit and join the academia again.
The world i am steppig into now is of break neck speed and cut throat competition, watever u do ur neck is always on the line. Decisions have to be taken in a jiffy and if u falter even for a second there's someone else to take an upper hand over u. Confidence levels have to be paramount and one must be always on his/her toes ready to embrace whatever's coming at them and extract the most out of it. All's very rosy till u have a steady supply of self belief and conviction the moment u r unsure of urself u lose it all.
I am more of the TZP kid kind, not a brilliant artist but i like to ponder over things on the pot, enjoy nature and the views even if I'm just walking on the road side. A slow leisurely pace is what makes me happy. So am I ready for the journey thats ahead of me? to shift gears and go into hyper drive? Well for starters there's no shortage of confidence or conviction in self. Smart Risks are in short supply, most of mine have been disastrous and I've been in a philanthropic mood lately. Thats a serious issue. I want to be a ruthless, competitive, cold psycho with no care for humanity but thats wat I want to be, my love for any form of life is too overpowering to ever make convert me and I'm glad for it. Its always a toss between the practical and the dreamer kind. Be practical only when needed else I love to dream.
I was reading 'India unbound' by Gurcharan Das. One partcular section in it made me ponder.
He says people have intrinsic abilities based on their caste (i hate casteism and reservation). He gave examples like from India. The baniyas are into trading, business empires, stocks,etc and flourishing. They are expert risk takers and mostly it pays off for them. The indian IT revolution was launched by Brahmins. Its based on theory and conceptual thinking and they too flourished. The artisans or 'vaishyas' are very good at creativity now I don't remembr what example he gave but I found out my own examples among friends and I was convinced that the theory he had put forward is quite true when applied to the indian context.
That again set me thinking, am I on the right path?
I am damn sure I am and I'll prove it soon enough (hopefully) :)

energy security

With the rising oil prices doesn't it hit us all that oil is a non renewable resource all over again. Though the price rise has nothing to do with depleting oil reserves at all as has been confirmed by the OPEC countries and has more to do with a weak dollar but I feel its high time all the countries realised how soon we might be running outta all fossil fuels and the position we are in with renewable resources is not very bright. We'll be brought back to the stone age and all activites will come to grinding halt. All the civilizations will come to a nought. It would be an ideal doomsday scenario.
The present day realization about energy resources is pathetic to say the least. Governments are concerned about growth, industrialization, obliterating poverty but this issue which if we were to face in a matter of 50 years, wud be a disaster beyond imagination. Though the time scale with us is a little more than 50 years but it isn't far off. As such India's biggest operational oil-field Bombay High's output has already gone down and our dependence on crude is increasing manifold every year, the number of cars on our roads notwithstanding, most of our power requirements are met by thermal power plants. Forget about other countries, our country will be thrown into complte chaos and looking back at some of our communal clashes, the violence that will follow would be savage.
The only possible alternative for power generation is nuclear but our politicians don't have the courage to take it on. But this too is not a long term solution and is totally dependent on uranium supplies which again is not permanent.
Some other alternatives like solar power, wind power, fuel cells are either not efficient enuff or are extremely costly. A very good option would be nuclear fusion but we've not been able to have controlled reactions yet.
All in all the picture is very gloomy and there's no hope in sight. There's so much hype and propaganda over global warming, hope they extend their agenda to include alternative forms of energy too (though it's part of their agenda but the reasons are different). All the citizens of this planet must realize this basic truth, the repercussions of which may not be far away and work united to sustain our energy needs lest we want to welcome another stone age.

last day mail at infy

Today is the last day of my 2 years 8 months and a few days long journey with infy.
As much as i want to avoid this but the sentiments do pour out on such occasions, so if this mail ain't senti, then nothing is!!!
For all these times it was not just a job here but a way of life.
From a student I trained to be a professional, now I am going back to be a student albeit a polished one.
The friendships developed here would remain invaluable, the ups n downs we together shared will remain as fond memories. A part of me didn't want this stint to end, while another wanted to move on to the next challenge in life.
I had the rare opportunity to work with the best sort of people around, be it my managers, teammates, colleagues and I hold no grudges against anyone. I have made friends whom i have not met till date but that won't come in the way of maintaing the bond.
Finacle as we all know has taken the big leap and I hope it reaches the stars.
I have a special corner for Fin Russia and I wish all the people associated with it, all the very best.
As we finish one chapter of life, a new chapter starts. Its the memories that stay with us forever.
With this parting note, I wish all of you the very best in all your future endeavours.
Au Revoir!!

Chilika

If you ever happen to catch a train from Kolkata to Chennai, Bombay and know where Orissa is then I wud suggest to keep your eyes glued to the window screen after crossing Balugaon Station coz soon enough you'll cross the largest salt water lagoon in Asia - Chilika lake, sprad across 1100 sq km covering 3 districts of Puri, Khurda and Ganjam. Believe me the sight is as breathtaking as a sneak peak of a snow covered mountain peak from a flight, early in the morning glow. The splendour has to be experienced to understand i'm not exaggerating. You can find some pics in my orkut album which I took from a moving train when going by Konark Express. It was dusk and there was hardly any line of distinction between sky and water, the horizon had disappeared. Far away I could see the sandbars and the Bay of Bengal in its majestic spread.

Chilika is famous for its tiger prawns which are mostly exported leaving precious few for th elocal population to relish. Dolphins and Sea Cows have also reportedly been spotted in Chilika but by now they must have fallen prey to the heavy fishing trawlers that are destroying most of the flora and fauna thats found in this habitat.

Lots has been written by Oriya poets like 'bhaktakabi' Madhusudan Rao, Gopabandhu Das (Raha raha khyane Vaspiya Sakata, dekhibi chilika charu chitrapata) and Radhanath Ray (major kavya composer) about Chilika and I had no idea about their works until an uncle of mine introduced me to the lines I have quoted above. The sheer beauty of the literary prowess of these erstwhile bearers of oriya heritage has directed me to do more research into their works. My poor grasp of the oriya script not withstanding I will make it a point to read some of their works especially on Chilika.

I have not had an opportunity to go for a boat ride on it but thats another item on my to-do list, will bear fruit soon enuff.

oriya wedding

indian weddings can be quite an affair and are no less synonymous than the the 'big fat greek weddings', if any they're all the more gargantuan, like a lumbering elephant slowly making its way thru the 10-15 day proceedings.

Now of course the ever improvising indians have shortened it to 4 day affairs citing the vagaries of professional lives including the leave constaints of the marrying couple.

I think now having a house wife is a big liability, if u need a decent lifestyle, then ur wife ought to earn somewhat similar to ur package but its at the risk of a satisfied family life, well i can commnt on it only after i gt some first hand experience.

This year is the year of marriages for me. Its heppening all around, 3 cousins, handful of friends, many college mates, wherever i see someone i know is donning the wedding hat. god bless all of them!! I got to attend 2 marriages, after a long long time i was able to participate in a family gathering of this proportion. Its an extremely happy event, with so many happy reunoins, functions, ceremonies, rituals, a must have experience.

The important rituals in chronological order are as follows.

1.Mangana(the Bride's brother called 'Baradhara' comes to groom's place to give him the invitation) - the invitation is read out by a pandit from the bride's place to the elders of the groom's household followed by some pooja.

2.Haldi Ceremony - On the morning of the grooms departure for the wedding, all the ladies in the house put lotsa haldi (turmeric) on him, probably to make him look fairer and for the antiseptic properties, it also acts good against suntan. he's made to look like a monkey n then allowed to go for a bath, all the others have a gala time teasing him. I've seen women in chennai with so much haldi on their face that their skin actually looks an amalgam of black n yellow, u wud think its a new breed. But once they start speaking... well looks are deceptive.

3.Marriage - Its a a host of proceedings clubbed together, starting rom the groom leaving his house, throwing rice back at his mom followed by the baraat going to the bride's place (hectic dancing activity), then some pooja where in all the elders from bride n groom's side performing poojas with their respective candidates. Then comes the main marriage pooja followed by the unwinding of the knot by the bride's sister('saali'), she demands for some moolah for opening this knot, its a funny exercise. Next come thje games, handled by the bride's side elderly women, the groom is made to loose these, fun nevertheless.

4.Bidai - The Bride leaves her fathers house for the groom's place. Generally a teary affair and I refrain from capturing these scenes.

5.Arrival - The groom's sis ('nananda' in oriya) blocks the bride's way and asks for gifts before letting her enter the house, again its fun. Then the bride puts jaggery (sticky gur) onto all her dewars (brothers in law), kinda like holi but here we can eat the color, sometimes the dewars also feel like reciprocating this gesture(i missed this one, forgot we too cud do this). The Bride is accompanied by her brothers so that she's not harassed much. As I have seen, its the groom's side who end up troubling the brothers n they scamper for cover asap, leaving the bride to our mercy. Come on!! we ain't so bad yaar.

6.Reception - There are generally 3 receptions, one from the bride's side, one by the groom's side n one by both for their friends in their workplace(wherever they're settling). Its a pain for the couple, they have to sit painted and dressed thruout the event and keep smiling at whoever arrives to shower their blessings on them. Sometimes a camera is permanently focussed on the couple and the live feed is shown outside to the guests, leaving the couple in a dilemma as even to eat might look improper u know, when thr are ppl waiting in queue to bless u.

7. Fourth day pooja - This is where there is no elder's involvement. the couple starts their life from this pooja, till this day the bride is worshipped as a goddess (after all so much pooja was done unto her all these days) and is barred from touching anyone's feet or seeking blessings. Hence from this pooja they are actually man and wife and can live together.

The above was a very short description of an ideal 'oriya' wedding. It used to be much more stretched out in the days of yore but nowadays what i have described is pretty much what happens. In between there's lots of conch blowing and 'hulhuling' for warding off evil spirits, u gotta be there in those sessions, it can make u seriously constipated, I pity the evil spirits who lurk around to haunt on such occasions.

One good thing I picked up in these 2 marriages is the subtle art of conch blowing. I cna saw i'm well on my way to master it. Feeling very proud.

Some wedding pics can be found at my orkut profile i'll leave one pic each for all the occasions i mentioned above.

The amount of involvement that u feel in these occasions is good enuff to leave u craving for more such occasions but the irony is that I'm next in line after this batch of cousins is thru and i'm in no mood to surrender my bachelorhood so soon. Hopefully the plans I have in my mind bear fruit and I get what I want. Its tough trying to please all. Its just impossible according to Newton's laws, somebody's gotta loose i can just make it 'Zor ka jhatka dheere se lage' mild.

Its an important lesson i've learnt over the years, u shud be extremely careful not to hurt those who care for u the most. Ok now I'm veering off course, lets stop it here for now. I gotta put one more post for my oriya literary prowess (all gained in this recent trip, thanks to my chacha (uncle) who, with his son was in hyperdrive this wedding and made sure there was a not a dull moment thruout the stay).

blogger doesn't allow me to attach more than 5 pics at a time, its a shame. Lets see if i can pull out a jugaad.

Done somehow but the sequence is in a disarray, make out for urself which is what.

Bekal

I had seen photos of the bekal fort posted by a few people who had ventured there, i was enthralled by its beauty and had a desire to visit it. Though its not all that elusive and is quite well known but it hasn't had a great tourist following. So when i set about scouting for info i could get only precious little. The one thing that works in its favor is its proximity to mangalore and hence is easily accessible. All i had to do was book tickets on the ypr-mnglr express, but little did i know that the day we chose to travel, a goods train would derail ahead of us inside a tunnel blocking the route for a few hours. we reached mangalore 5-6 hours late. From there we caught another train to kasargod, its just a 1 hour journey. I had found out a few hotels from people i knew who belonged to kasargod and chose one which they said is the best, Apsara Regency, its more of a lodge but cheap on the pocket.
We set out for Bekal fort from there around 4 pm, we didnt know the tickets to go inside are sold only till 5:30 pm and entry is not allowed after 6 pm. This was not mentioned anywhere except at the fort entrance. We pursuaded them n got in anyways and had a first hand experience of what i had seen only in photos and heard descriptions of. The sight form the fort is spell binding, one could sit there for hours just taking in the magnificent view it offered. It was so good that we decided we would come again to it the next morning. It been maintained very well by the local body. Traveling is easy even without your own vehicle, all the things worth visiting are in one straight line (road) and local transport available (ksrtc buses) is enough. A hired taxi will save some precious time.

apart from bekal fort which in itself will take better part of a day, there's Chandragiri fort(not much left of it), a few ashrams(not much to look at apart from the 40 man made caves carved outta of a single stone at nileshwar ashram). One more major attraction are the houseboats but they need advance booking especially on weekends. we could only get a one hour ride. They are luxurious but few in number, the major hotspot for houseboats being Alleypey. The backwaters ate valiaparamba are said to be the most beautiful in the country and there were a lot of flying fishes who came out to see us, it was indeed a magnificent ride, they even let u jump into the water with lifejackets on. Of course there's the usual snack/food on board with of course, music. Then there's the beautiful lighthouse at kasargod, just like any other light house(incidentally they are all awe inspiring). A hill station called Ranipuram is around 50 kms from bekal but it needs one full day so we decided to skip it.
There will be plenty of places enroute where the backwaters meet the sea, we got down at one such place and saw a fisherman cast his net and he was managing to get a good haul too. but these locations are slightly dicey and one should tread with care, there could be quicksand at such places. the fisherman told us that the depth could all of a sudden go upto 20 feet at such places due to heavy water flow. But they are extremely scenic all the same.
If time permits you can visit gokarna.om beaches near mangalore too and sea bathing is possible in bekar fort beach, punambur, malpe,etc.
It was a very fruitful trip without denting our respective bank balances significantly.