East Cost Road, Chennai - A great place for holiday

After a long time, me and my friends have planned for a get together. When we thought of this plan, we were confused on a location where we could spend a whole day and also in a cost effective way. Many of my friends suggested different locations such as Pulicat Lake, Konai falls etc. But all these places are bit far from the Chennai city and so we decided against them. Then finally decided on ECR which the only possible place to enjoy in a cost effective way. Since its a holiday tomorrow on account of Gandhi Jayanthi, we decided to have that get together tomorrow at ECR. Keeping my fingers crossed to meet my friends after a long time. Let me post about the experience later in my blog. Right now chao!!!!

A Memorable Ride

Rode through Snow, Dust, Fog, River, Forest, Markets, Highways and what not... Cant forget the -4 degree blistering snowfall while on the way back from Pangong Tso and taking the offroad track to the lake-side camp in the middle of the night with no clue where we were heading... That was one hell of an experience...Pouring rains, Zero-Visibility Fog, unexpected Snow-fall, Raging rivers in the middle of the so called roads... it was adventure biking at its peak... The friendly Army men in Kargil to the little lamas of Lamayuru, the range of people we met on this great journey was awesome...

The accomodation and things were way beyond expectations... even in places like Lamayuru and Kargil, hospitality was top class...

We had an awesome Bullet Mechanic with us in Naresh... So we were resting assured bout our bikes' condition...

But I thought 15 days were a bit too short...

Anyways...All in all... the 15 days were the best 15days of my life...

Looking forward to exploring the Unexplored and Exotic North-East and other great destiantions with India on Bike...

Kudos to all the bikers who were involved in this great expedition.

---Great Journeys are complete when we realize that we've found our home in them---

India vs Pakistan, ICC Champions Trophy, 2009

Its all here. The ICC champions trophy started this week and the biggest match of the tournament is here. India vs Pakistan, the rivals face each other in the ICC Champions trophy, 2009 today. I am eagerly waiting for this match to start in few hours as this is the first match for India and they are looking forward to win it. On the other hand, Pakistan beating West Indies comfortably in their first match come with lot of confidence. So, this match is going to be a thriller as usual. So, if you are a cricket fan then don't miss this match even for a split second. Enjoy the match and let me post what I felt about this match in the future post.

Back to blogging after a long time

Yeah! Thats true. Am back to blogging after a long time, nearly a year after. There are several reasons why I was out of blogging and the main reason being my education. Anyways, those tough times are over and the sun has started to shine. Hereafter I will be frequently updating my blog. So, my blog visitors and friends keep visiting my blog for some interesting posts and post some valuable comments that will keep me posting good informations.

A great murugan temple

I am a dedicated devotee of Lord Muruga. I have been to many murugan temples. To name a few, Vadapalani murugan temple, Arupadai veedu at besant nagar etc. Thougth there are many murugan temples in and out of the city, my favoutire is skanda-ashram temple.This one is very close to my house in Salem.They have strict temple timings. Its very peaceful there.Sitting in chennai, i miss going to that temple.Another one of mine favourite is Kumarigiri again in Salem.Its on a hill top. From there you could have a full view of salem city. The statue of god is enchanting and lovely.

One great tour

this is during my b.e days. 8 of us started from mysore to nagarahole and further iruppu falls on 4 bikes. mid way (border of nagarahole forest area) in no man's land, 1 bike got punctured so badly tat it needed a new tube. Forget about new tube, we cudn't even get smell a puncture shop anywhere in 10 kms. radius. We spent an hour under a tree by finishing few ciggies and met a near by villager. he took us to his village which was around 2 kms. from that spot. Since it was lunch time, the house members offered us have our lunch there. We had one of the best lunches served ever. We didn't want to return back to mysore. So, we parked the punctured bike at that house and 8 of us travelled on 3 bikes to nagarahole and then further to iruppu falls. Since we had very very poor budget and also we had to save Rs.200 for the tube, we realy had a tough time in searching a small budget hotel. We couldn't find any for our budget, so we decided to have a free stay. And we found our friendly traveller, KSRTC bus parked in the bus stand and scheduled to leave the next morning from iruppu. We negotiated with driver and conductor and finally slept on the bus. we all got up in the wee hours to finish all our nature calls under mother nature :-). Since we saved on our accommodation, we had good money to spend on breakfast :-). We then returned back by picking up the bike and getting it a new tube on the way back to mysore.

By the way, we saw good amount of wild animals (bisons, elephants and deers) and had a good shower in iruppu falls among all the other adventures

Sauna

My first experience was in a club where there was a 20-25 year old male masseur. It was cold November morning and I was alone so went to get a massage. That was my first time and the man asked me to remove my clothes and I removed only the shirt he laughed and hastily removed my pants and underwear as well. Man, I was shy there were people passing and they could see me as I was near the poolside. I was totally nude in the sweet sun of the November morning and soon I became normal to the nudity. The masseur even massaged my ass and groin IMAGINE! After that I went to the sauna room and I decided to throw off my towel and again I lay on the wooden planks in nude. Then some 18-20 year old guys came in they were 5. First of all they giggled then one of them slowly removed his underwear and then another and another. Man, I was feeling I am on cloud nine being naturist and I even walked around that way in the club in front of 10-15 guys. Now when I reflect back that day it makes me say-"oh my god what did I do"

Sweetest of all apples

Recently I was in Hartola, a Himalayan village close to Rambagh in Nainital district of Uttaranchal. The event was the annual editorial meeting of my publication and all of my journalist colleagues in Tehelka were present. The village was very beautiful and we were staying in tents erected in an apple orchard. We were there for about five days and eating apples five time a day turned the biggest `extra curricular' activity.(The journey to Hartola was very hectic and at first I had to board a Delhi bound flight from Trivandrum. A night train (Ranikhet Express) took my team from Old Delhi station to Kathgodam in Uttaranchal. From there it was a four hour long bus journey through the steep hills).
On the concluding day, I had asked the owner of apple orchard to arrange a few fine variety apples to take home. He immediately agreed. while boarding the return bus, he told me that an apple container was already loaded on top of the bus for my exclusive use. Only when the bus reached Kathgodam Railway Station, I realised that the container has over 35 kg apple. Then I hired a porter to take it out of the bus and to load in inside the train compartment. The wooden container supported by coir turned a little bit embarrassment to me as most of the fellow travellers were travelling like business executives. In Old Delhi station, I had hired yet another porter to load it in a taxi. On reaching my lodge in GK-2 of South Delhi, I had no option other than spending my own energy to take it into my room. Even in the hotel reception, I felt em brassed over the rough appearance of the apple container. The very next day, I took another taxi and loaded it to reach the domestic airport. At the airport, those who at the security check demanded Rs 100 per kg as freight charge. That Means Rs 3,500 for the container. Then what would be the price of 1 kg apple?There were two options in front. first was to pay the hefty some and ensure the reach my apple bag in Trivandrum. The other one is not paying anything and distributing it among the flight staff and passengers around. No question of paying money. Finally, somehow, the flight crew agreed to transport the apple container without any fee. They were in consideration of my journalist status and also of the efforts I had put in to take the apples from hartola. At last, the apple reached Trivandrum airport. While all passengers were moving out with trolley bags and suit cases, I was the sole exception with such an idiotic wooden container supported by coir. Anyway, those apples were sweeter than any of the imported apples I had tasted before and after the incident.

To my native after 3 years

i went to my native place for my vacation. Almost, three years has passed since i went there and this time it was a special journey because it is my cousin's betrothal and our whole relatives gang was assembled there. It was really a happy moment to see all your relatives at the same place and also at an happy event. Not a single person could identify me. I had to introduce myself to them and i felt bad that i couldn't make them remember me. And after the betrothal, had a great lunch and the usual gang meet of relatives. I wished to have a look at the houses where i played as a kid. So, i went to that area and to my surprise everything in that area had changed except for the house i stayed. It was still the same old fashioned house and the same old rusted door. Its almost 15 years and nothing had changed. I would never forget those memorable days and just came from there with heaps and heaps of memories running in my mind. Definitely a great trip to my native.

Louise L Hay

I dont know if any one of yu guys heard of Louise L Hay but attending one her workshops has been a life changing experience for me, it gave me answers for everything about life.I would like to share some of what i learnt.I believe resentment,criticism,fear and guilt give us the most problems.Just understanding evryone is doing the very best they can at an moment,situation and letting go is the answer.Letting go does not have to be painful, it can be fun n fast if u choose to, i would laugh out of the chair if i look at my life n think about the things that i thought were hurtful b4 but not anymore.It would be foolish not to enjoy life today because of something that happened long ago in the past.I dont condone the behaviour of those who hurt people but for our best it just means forgiving them n letting the whole thing go and live in the moment,each day full of wonderful surprises,trusting the process of life and knowing the future is bright and joyful as all of us deserve the very best and what does failure mean anyway?does it mean things dint turn out the way we wanted?The law of experience is always perfect.Every experience is a sucess.Its our natural birthright to go from sucess to sucess in our life, believe it now and you will find little miracles happening for you as what we believe becomes the truth for us and always remember its only a thought and it can changed- Every passing minute is a chance to feel good..have fun

Beach

It has been almost a week since I posted a personal post. So here is one, specially for my friends. Its about the get together we had on Sunday. It was said that all of our class guys would turn out for the get together. But as usual, our guys sticked on their television sets as it was the Wimbledon finals and also the Asia cup cricket finals between India and Pakistan. Only ten of our class guys turned up at the beach. But we did not miss out any of the fun. As usual our conversation started with teasing on of my fiends and we took opportunities teasing every one of us. After the teasing game, we went to the shore and dipped ourselves in the waves. When the drowning games got bored, we left the water and went to the nearest stall and had plates and plates of the local dish called Bajji. It dint stop there, we had ice creams, sugarcane juices etc. Apart from this, we sighted lots and lots of beautiful looking girls who are busy talking to their friends either boy friend of girl friend. Of the girls we saw, no one sticked on to the culture which India especially the south India was known for. Every girl was showing some part of the other of their body and it really distracted the views of the visitors of the beach. I wondered why these modern girls have changed like this. Hoping that this cultural damage doesn’t get worse, we left the beach and it has become another evergreen moment of my life.