Goa galatta

It seems as if a light year has passed since my last blog. Lets not go into the reasons now. I must tell ya folks that i had been to Goa recently with four of my friends - Rajesh, Skely,Akki and Biju.The Goa plan started way back (actually 4 months back) when Akki and skely got a flight ticket from Goa to B`lore for the price of a peanut. Rajesh, myself & Biju could`nt resist to join these guys.

Life away from the routine office work in itself is an enchanting experience. The amount of fun we had is worth a bagful of diamonds. It all started in the train from B`lore to Goa when Biju celebrated his B`day. The Charlston resort in Calangute with amazing rooms on the shores of the Calangute beach was one of the cleanest beaches in Goa. Banana boat ride and Para-sailing experience is worth a mention here. Though i had accomplished Banana boat ride in Bangkok, the excitement level was at its peak. Right from the word go, i knew that the banana boat will be made to topple, and due to this, there was a small sense of fear in me (i am yet to learn swimming).

I have no words to describe the Para-sailing experience in Calangute beach. Sailing in the sky at a height of 80 odd meters with the beautiful view of the beach at your disposal made me wonder why i had not experienced this before. 1200 bucks for 2 of us was really worth the money. Biju had the privelege of sailing twice, coz we were 5 of us in total and 1 of us had the chance go twice.

All the guys were really co-operative and the four days passed away like a jiffy. Except for Rajesh who missed Suki, the rest of us were in semi excited meta-stable state all the time. The car drives from one corner of Goa to the other was like an icing on the cake for most of us who loved driving. There is lot more to tell, but let me stop here for want of time.

I am now looking forward to Bunjee-jumping, snorkeling, scuba diving and similar thrilling adventure sports.

Rules - watt !#$&??

I do not know if it is just me who gets pissed-off with the traffic sense of fellow citizens. Its hard to fathom why ppl fail to understand the simple rules of traffic. If it is red, u bloody put the breaks on and wait for the green signal. It is also hard to see people stop behind the "stop line" in a signal.

After the timers being introduced in the traffic signals, the traffic sense is even worse. People start off when the descending count nears 10. I do not understand if time is so valualbe to these gentleman? It is not a crime if you do not follow these simple rules, but wat pleasure do you really gain from not following `em ?

I have found a way to take these things off my mind while riding in my bike - listening to the latest film songs from VV and SOK. I keep the volume to medium so that i do not miss anyone honking from behind. I am not claiming to be "Rules Ramanujam" here. It is a nice feeling for a pedestrian if a vehicle stops for him / her to cross the road. It makes the world so different and a lovely place to live. It will be hard for me to explain unless you experience what the pedestrian feels if he is given way ( I have experienced it several times in Australia).

Now a days, folks who follow the rules are considered "old fashioned" and "un-imaginative". Let me tell it is quite tuff to follow rules, since an opportunity unfolds every minute for you to break the rules. Breaking the rules (watever the rule be) is the in-thing these days. I bet there are a billion other ways to show ur imagination and creativity.

Just wondering if this simple idea would solve pollution and fuel problem in India. How about switching the Engine off when the vehicle is waiting on a signal. Most of the signals during the peak periods are about 2 to 4 minutes long, and there is a timer for you to indicate as when the signal would turn green. There is something called "Rules" which you can enforse to make this happen. But the fundamental question here is - How many of us follow rules?

1st Anniversary

It has been a year since i started blogging and i cant believe this fact. When you think that time could fly like anything, you want to enjoy life to the fullest when you are young. When you are 35, you want to be like "Been there, done that" kinds. Travelling around the world is a great feeling and i thank my company for giving me such opportunities. Adjusting with the new culture, people, food, colleagues is a challenge. Singaporeans are very hardworking and they expect you to work duing week ends too. Very well mannered people and they treat you like a gud friend.

I went with a lot of expectaions to watch VV, but felt there was too much violence and the story line was banal. I dont know where tamil cinema is heading to. Though most of the movies are sub-standard, it is bringing in the money to keep the movie makers happy. For example, movies like Anniyan and Gajjini seemed very ordinary to me (except for the songs), but they made it big in the box office.

Wish i could attend Rajesh`s engagement next week with the whole gang eagerly waiting with enthusiasm.

Lot of people around me have lost interest in blogging. The initial josh is no longer there. There is influence from your buddies too. When you see your peers blogging with enthusiasm, then you would feel left out and want to compete with them. But things are dormant now. People sometimes become lazy ;) , dont they ??

Work is a hectic here in Singapore, but as long as i like wat am doing I am willing to slog. Singapore is a nice place, but am still searching for places to go. I have seen the zoo and night safari before, but still want to go again. One of my wild fantasies is to take picture of me hugging a Lion ot a Tiger. When I was a schoool kid, I wanted to buy a little tiger and keep her as a pet.

Life has taught me so many things, and i am happy that am experiencing things that i have never come across before. Now, its like entering unfamiliar terrains and unseen territories. I always believed in doing things according to my conscience and i will continue to do that.

My Soccer Team

I came up with a soccer team, considering the present form of the players.

Strikers

• Thierry Henry
• Klose

Mid fielders

• Ronaldinho (left flank)
• Frank Lampard
• zidane
• David Becham (right flank)

Defence

• Roberto Carlos (left flank)
• Alessandro Nesta
• Lucio
• Cafu (right flank)

Goal keeper

• Buffon (Italy)

Bench

• Ronaldo
• Franchesco Totti
• Kaka
• Ferdinand
• Vieria

Laugh it out !

Sometimes I kick myself for being absent minded. But now these incidents seem so funny to me.

About 6 years back i went to a nearby bank in my scooter (like Kannathil Muthamittal maddy) and returned home walking. After a while, i realised that the scooter was missing. I couldnt think of anyone taking the scooter, coz it was so old and no one but me knows how to kick start the machine. It took hours to figure out that i had left my scooter in the bank.

I was going to my friends appartment, and i wrongly entered the nearby appartment (truse me both looked similar) and went in. I was enquiring about Hari there and luckily this guy spotted me from the next house to rescue me out. What an embarrassing situation..

My friend and myself were returning home from college in his bike. Suddenly the bike stopped and my friend found it difficult to handle with too much traffic behind. So i got down and thought i could help him handle the bike, and this guy without realizing happily speeded up and went away.

I went to watch a movie in on of the multiplexes which had about 5 thetres and i wrongly entered a different cinema hall and was watching the movie for 5 minutes ( I thought they were showing a trailor of a different movie movie). Then i realized that this was a different movie and checked with the guy next to me only to find out it was a different cinema hall.

I hate Process !

I never used to be so formal in wearing my dresses. But i am forced to comply coz i have to go to a "customer site". The daily routine of polishing my shoes, wearing a tye, making sure your shirt and trousers are wrinke free makes me wonder wat am here for.

And I have to mention about my Project Co-ordinator here who is from IBM (actually the project is sub-contracted to us by IBM). Let me tell you she is making our lives miserable. The amount of crap work we are doing is more than the amount of project work we do. She wants us to prepare the following,

1. Sessions callender ( which details all the sessions we have with the users)
2. Minutes of the meeting ( i never knew meeting minutes will be scrutinized so much)
3. Weekly status report
4. Issue tracker list
5. Open items list

let me stop here, coz the list is so big..

Imagine we almost took a day to prepare a weekly status report (wat a waste of time!). My point here is i have lot of other important work to complete the project. Instead of doing that this lady is expecting me to do other stuffs ( in my opinion not so important things).

From that picture, you can realize that Thailand ppl can eat anything that is red/black/brown in color when cooked.

I had never been superstitious in my life, but let me tell you "13" is not that lukcy.

Swad e crub ! Swad e ka !

Bangkok is a place known for its hospitality. I realised that from the way I was treated here. It has been a good experience so far. I thought food might be a problem, but to my surprise, no issues at all.

Sitting in a meeting for an hour without understanding a word was quite an experience. I did not understand anything was contrinuted by the fact that the meeting was in Thai. After 15 minutes, i thought what the heck i am doing here and just went off for my lunch. I had a hard time explaining the taxi driver that i need to go to a nearby shoppingmall so that i can find some veggie stuff.

You must be wondering what the heading of the blog meant. It is just a greeing to say Hi in Thai. Swathikrub used to greet gentlemen and swathika for ladies.

Atlast i finished reading "Da vinci code". It was a interesting book with lot of facts, but the ending could have been better. I also read "five point someone", thanks to skely and dada. The book was too gripping and can u imagine, i finished the book 4 working days.

Bangkok Invites

It has been long since i blogged. I dont think i would be blogging so frequently as i used to, but will surely chip in when ever i find interest and time.

I will be leaving Bangkok tomorrow for a project which might last for 2 months or more. Being a vegetarian food is going to be a big issue. Hoping to learn a few Thai words there.

On cloud nine

I had recently been to Avaya communications, a business partner of our company. I had a one day assignment in Avaya and i was quite astonished to know that the company is located on the 71st floor of Pertonas twin towers.

I had to go through a series of security checks before I was in the elevators. I had to change the elevators in floor number 41 and when I peeped outside the glass windows I got some idea of where I was heading for. When the elevator ascended, I had a feeling as if I am on a flight which was taking-off.

I was about 15 minutes early for the appointment, and i thought i should'nt have missed my breakfast. Then I began to go around the office and the scene I saw from the window was simple breathtaking. I had earlier imagined that I would be seeing clouds passing by, but that was not the case. Nevertheless I felt I was on the top of the world.

The employees of Avaya require no more motivation to give their best than the fact that they are on top of the world.

Then the sad story of Black Tuesday (9/11) struck my mind.

Joke of the post

The minister asks his King “Your Majesty, with what courage in mind have you called the enemies for war”.

The King replies “Don’t you know that our tunnel work is over”.

Fear Factor

When I returned to Madras from KL, I was greeted by my aunt, uncle and my grand parents. I was surprised to see my sister too, whom I had not seen for a year now. Then I went up to my mother and asked her “what was going on?” to which she replied “Nalaikku unakku kalyanam da, adhukku dhan ellarum vandhurkanga”. It was a shock of my life when I heard this. I did not know how to react. Then I asked her about the girl and came to know more about her. I asked her to show me the photograph, but she asked me to go and meet the girl in person.

In a few minutes I was waiting in the lobby of a well known hotel for this lucky girl. Suddenly I heard an alarm and thought there was a fire in the hotel. I opened my eyes to see my mobile phone ringing, and I had to switch off my alarm.

I peeped outside my window to see the twin Petronas towers. I thanked god that I was still in Malaysia. This was one of the scariest dreams I ever had.

“Roket Rohit”

In the earlier post I had talked about my niece and this time it’s my nephew Rohit. This guy studying his 3rd standard is extremely naughty. If you look at the open area outside the veranda of my house, you will easily find atleast 10 rockets. I told him you are the true follower of Dr.Kalam and I will get you a job in ISRO.

Starting from this post I would be writing one kadi joke per post and I wud be answering to the kadi in my next post if none of the readers have the answer.

Kadi of the post:

What is the opposite of STD?

Malaysia - Truly Asia
Twin Petronas towers


I came to know recently how the name Malaysia originated. This country was earlier called as Malay. These people copy everything from Singapura (Singapore). What they did was they borrowed the first two characters and the last one from Singapura and appended them to Malay.
I have spent almost two weeks here. Visited couple of temples, went to the KLCC towers (Petronas), have some plans for the week end too. As far as the guest house is concerned, it is an awesome appartment and my place is on the 18th floor, and the view from the balcony is fabulous. Can sit all day and gaze around.

Few things that i noticed about this place is the spellings they use here - Polis, Restoran, teksi, Telekom to name a few. Lot of localites speak tamil here. There are lot of south Indian veg restorans here like SB, Sangeetha, New woodlands.

This place did not impress me as much as Melbourne. I bet everyone agrees with me that nothing can beat INDIA.

Back to Blogging

It has been long since i blogged. I was actually not very impressed with the rediff blog. So i had to switch over to this one, which is more superior than rediff.

The trip to Pondicherry is worth a mention here. Around 14 of our SSN mates joined hands to make the trip a delight. The place called Shunambar in Pondy was so scenic and for nature lovers, it would be hard to get back from that place. Actually it is an island and you need to ferry to the island (a beach).

I will be leaving to Malaysia for an official on-site visit. I would most probably be there for a months time. Looking forward to njoying my time during week ends.

That`s my niece ramya. Highly intelligent, talkative (that is definitely an understatement), short tempered. The song she likes most is "sutrum vizhi chudare".