One hell of a trip it was....

I had never been to Pondicherry. I suddenly got some urgent work there this Saturday so had to rush there. It was on a very short notice so I didn’t get direct tickets, had to go through Chennai. So I started my journey on Thursday night. I was supposed to catch a bus to Chennai from Shanti-Nagar bus stop. There was this guy in the bus. All through the way to bus stop he was crying out loudly while talking to someone on cell about the build he gave and it got failed and he was supposed to finish his work by Monday and now he won’t be able to deliver it and this is appraisal time and the mail got escalated. Now I was expecting some peace when I left office but I had to hear all this crap. Finally I reached the bus stop and boarded the bus to Chennai.

I was happy that finally I am getting out of this IT crap and will get to enjoy life for a few days. But there was something else in store for me. I must have done some sins in the past and the almighty chose this day to punish me for my sins. There was a group of 4 girls and 2 guys. As Friday was off thus making it an extended weekend, they decided to encash the opportunity like everyone else and planned a quick visit to their native places – Chennai. As they got settled down in the bus they started complaining about their company. They started with how they dreamed of getting into development and ended in testing; how bad their appraisal go; how they were transferred to Bangalore in spite of opting for Chennai etc.etc. They were discussing on how to shift to development and grab an opportunity to go on site. Now there was this a**hole sitting behind them. He was listening to them. As they paused to take a break he started his own story. He had a 4 plus years of experience into this IT industry so he thought it was his birth right to jump into someone else’s discussions and give them free gyaan at the cost of the comfort of other poor souls who were desperately seeking a way out of this IT and were trying to get some sleep. He started saying that the freshers are like raw material, you can mould them into anything and you all are freshers, should learn new technology and get knowledge blabh blabh blabh…. I felt like stabbing him to death or hacking his mail account and sending his resignation letter to his lead. But I was helpless. Somehow with great difficulty I got sleep.

I reached Chennai in morning and immediately got a bus to Pondicherry. I was happy that finally I am out of all the noises; or so I thought. First hour of the journey was ok and then the bus came out of the city and hit the highway. Now the driver of the bus was a bit old and was driving carefully and at a moderate speed. There were these 3 jerks that started complaining to the conductor about how slowly the driver is driving even though it is a highway. The conductor ignored them and went at the back of the bus and sat down there. Those 3 were getting impatient and after 10 minutes started shouting at the driver like crazy asking him to drive fast. One of them was sitting next to me and the other two were exactly behind me. They were shouting in my ears. The driver stopped the bus and he also started shouting at them. It felt like they would kill each other over the speed of the bus and will make me go deaf by shouting out so loudly. My head was aching badly with all the torture I had been through right from the moment I had started my journey from my home. As if all this was not enough, a dust particle went into my eye and caused a lot of irritation. I tried everything to get it out, washed my eyes several times with water but all my efforts went in vain. I finally gave up and thought of going to some doctor in Pondicherry if the problem persists.

Finally somehow I reached Pondicherry, alive but with a head ache and irritation in eye. It was around 10 A.M and it was scorching hot. One of my friends had done all the arrangements. I directly went to the hotel and the first thing I did was to wash my eyes again with cold water and it was gone; the dust particle was no more stuck in my eyes. I felt relaxed, checked in the hotel and after taking bath went to bed with a bad head ache thinking how bad my journey was. I woke up after some 3 hours and zappp – head ache was also gone. I was normal now. My friend had arrived a day earlier and got a bike on rent. Now it was the time to explore Pondicherry.

It is a nice but hot place. The very first thing one should do is to get a bike on rent because it’s very difficult to commute through bus and auto guys will rob you of your cash. I had lunch in a café. There they have this special Italian pizza which they will bake on wooden bricks and in a weird kind of oven. They don’t use microwave. Then there is a bakery. The rates are very less. You can get fresh breads, cakes, pastries at a very low rate. Going forward on the same road you can go to the ashram. I am not so much into ashram so I didn’t go there. The ashram is famous and people who come there do visit that ashram. My friend didn’t find it interesting and so I also ditched the plan of visiting it. Also it gets closed in evening and there is about a km walk from the parking to go to the ashram so all the interest of visiting that ashram vanished in a second because no-way I was in for a km walk in that sun. It was very hot there.

As it was hot we came back to the hotel and went to the terrace and sat there under the shade. I had seen this kind of view only in movies. We were facing Bay of Bengal. For a moment I was stunned, there was nothing but just water in front of my eyes. There was nothing beyond that. The waves were hitting the shore, creating a soft noise. One can spend hours sitting at a place like this.

In evening two more people joined us. One of them told that there is a beach somewhere in Pondicherry where we can see lots of foreigners and that too in the proper costume. He was not sure about the name of the beach so we made him call his friend who was his source of such valuable information. His friend gave us the directions and we reached there within half hour. The name of the beach is Auro beach. This was the second time in a day that I was stunned. Again I have seen such things only in movies. What a view it was, not the beach but the people out there. I forgot to admire the beach and was just admiring the people who were in their proper costumes. There was a small building on the side of the beach where all foreigners were going after taking bath in the beach. We also try to enter but were stopped. We were told that Indians are not allowed inside so we couldn’t enter. I think it was some place to stay only for foreigners. After spending some quality time on the beach we went to the market.
The market is also huge and it’s mainly for clothes and handicraft materials. Then we went to Pondicherry beach for some time, had dinner somewhere came back to hotel and slept.

Next day I finished the work for which I was there by 12.30 P.M. Went to the market again and then went to Pondicherry beach. It’s a beautiful beach. There is a café on the beach by name Le Café which is open 24*7. One can easily sit there and spend hours. We spend some time there and then had lunch in the India Coffee House. It was awesome. My friends had to buy some stuffs for their girl friends so we did some shopping. By that time it was evening and we again went to Pondicherry beach. The beach road is blocked after 5pm and we cannot take our vehicles to the road. We can park it in parking and just walk on the beach and the road. It was even more beautiful in the evening with the lightings on one side of the road and the beach on the other.

There are also many good churches. I went to just one of them. We returned the bike at night and caught the train back to Bangalore. As a whole it was an amazing trip. Pondicherry is also famous for cheep liquor but since none of us drink, it wasn’t of any use for us. Well if someone is fond of food, booze, beaches it is surely a place to visit.

Priceless....

Last few days were hectic. Gave two exams and many more yet to come.
P.S: Don't you dare ask me how I did in exams....

Saw this pic and MasterCard ad somewhere which I would like to share with everyone.



My condition is somewhat like this. Have nothing new to write.

And the MasterCard advertisement which goes like this-

GMAT - 250$
Manhattan GMAT classes - 1400$
Application to each school - 200$
Travel cost for interview - 350$

One admit from the dream school - PRICELESS!!

After this,

Tuition fees - 80000$...


But...
After MBA, dreams you convert into reality.....PRICELESS!!

(I am sure many of my friends would relate to it.)

This year it's different....

1/12- This day comes every year....
But this year it's different; this year it's special, very special.

1st anniversary....

During my college days I didn’t like the concept of blogging at all. I use to feel that it is a waste of time and laugh out at my friends who were bloggers. I couldn’t understand the logic of putting down your views, writing stories on some website and also reading out some crap written by others.

My views changed completely after I joined office. Thanks to few of my friends who inspired me to read blogs and then one fine day I actually made one of my own and not just that, I also wrote a post. Still that time I was not at all sure if I would be able to maintain my blog and post regularly. But here I am writing and updating my blog regularly and celebrating the 1st anniversary of my blog. It’s a big deal for me that after 1 year I am still alive here.

I would like to thank all my friends and fellow bloggers who have tolerated me and my writing so far. I don’t think I can write but my friends say I sometimes write well. That time I know I have made some really good friends who actually don’t want to tell me about my atrocious writing. Thank you guys.

I refuse to grow up....

We all are actors wearing masks and pretending to be someone we are not. This might be hard to accept for us but yes, this is the truth. We are someone else when we are with our parents/relatives pretending to be all decent, we jump into some other character when we are with our gf/bf pretending to be loyal and faithful, when with elders/teachers/colleagues we are the one who is trying to present himself as mature and intelligent. I am not saying that one is not decent, loyal, mature or intelligent that he needs to pretend all the time but we cant disregard the fact that we have done this at some point of our life or still do or will do in future. One thing I understand that may be we pretend because we try to create a good impression on others.

But not with friends. We can be ourselves in front of our friends(I mean really good friends). With friends we need not to fear about creating any impression because they know us well. If we are 30 but still a kid by heart, we can show our true side to our freinds which cannot be the case with others who will consider us immature if we do so but our friends won't because they know us and understand us well. Afterall this is what friends are for- you can be as stupid as you want to be, as childish as you want to be, do whatever you feel like. There is a child in all of us but yes we would be considered immature if we show our childish behaviour to others and here is when friends come to our rescue. We won't be considered immature if we behave like that in front of our friends. Ofcourse we should know how to present ourself when we are with other people. We cannot afford to be called immature by others. What matters is how we put our views to others. One can argue that you are 30 and a kid by heart so how can you present yourself as a mature person in front of others so here I would like to say that being 30 and a kid by heart is different from being 30 and a kid by mind. Altough you are a kid by heart, your mind which is mature enough will eventually stop you from acting as a kid in front of others and the same mind will set you free to be what you are when you are with your friends.

Many a times we deprive ourselves with small-small things which we love to do and which gives us happiness like blowing in a glass full of juice through straw and creating bubbles, dancing in the rain, playing a silly prank which can make others laugh, hop on a swing and sway till we have forgotten all our worries, licking a cone icecream, hog on to chocolates. We deprive ourselves of hapiness because we know that we are mature and we are not supposed to act in such a way in front of others but there is no need to deprive ourselves with such happiness in front of our friends. I ask in this fast-forward life when we have no time for anything, when emotions and happiness have no place in life, when the life is just limited to home-office-home, if we find little happiness by being a kid or doing what you feel like in front of your close friends, what is wrong in it? I act in front of others but don't want to do the same when I am with friends.I don't know about others but I don't want to grow up at the cost of happiness. I value happiness more than anything else and thus in front of my pals I refuse to grow up.

I Love You Jaanu....

No, no people please don’t get me wrong. I am perfectly normal, have not fallen in love or anything worthless like that. It’s just that these days I am seeing certain things which I feel are very awkward/farcical/nonsensical and which prompted me to write about it.

I happened to waste my time on a certain book which was full of such nonsensical stuffs.
In that book two people were deeply and madly in love with each other and they call each other lovingly by names- not the normal ones but the absurd ones like “jaanu”, “coochie-pie”, “sweetie-pie” and lots of other pies along with “darling”, “baby”. Also, they never happen to talk in a normal way. They used things like “Is my baby awake”, “My coochie-pie; have you finished your lunch/dinner?”, “Mera baby kya kar raha hai”, “I miss you jaanu” followed by “I love you jaanu” in their normal conversations. Now who the hell in the world talk like this????

Its ok you are in love but I can’t understand the fun of calling him/her “my baby, coochie-pie” etc. Can’t they just talk in a normal way?? I then thought it’s just that psycho writer who wrote all this crap until I came across those couples who actually talk in this fashion. It so happened that one of my friends was very happy one day. I asked him the reason- he said “today my gf had called me shona”. I asked him what it means to which he replied that it’s just a fun way of calling your beloved. It’s not that I don’t like love stories-I am a big movie buff, but still I just can’t digest the idea behind “sweetie-pie and coochie-pie”.

I was discussing this with one of my friends and he said it is pretty normal for people to do such stuffs when they are in love and he backed his statement with the messages in his Inbox. Those were from his gf. (Hope you all understand what types of messages were those)
He went on to the extent by saying that one day I will also do all such things when I will be actually in love or when I will get engaged. (How dare he!!)
I can never imaging myself getting indulged in such things. Yuck,yuck,yuck!!!!

An idle mind is devils workshop!

This week I had no work in office; the code is being pushed into production so it’s kind of cool this week. (This means I will have to slog next week when I will get production issues :(:( )
So since I had nothing to do in office I was simply spending my time browsing, watching movies and thinking weird things. I have a few questions whose answers I don’t know.

1) Why do PETA volunteers generally have to pose nude to save animals?
I have seen in newspapers, various ad campaigns that they strip down for the cause. I just can’t understand the need to do so.

2) Why Dracula always craves for the blood of young and pretty girls?
All the movies I have seen, all the novels I have read about Dracula, this one thing is common in all. Everywhere Dracula was craving for the blood of young and pretty girls. I just can’t understand what is wrong in the blood of guys that he is not at all fond of it.

3) Why is money everything in this world?
Why do we begin our day with an urge to earn money and end our day with an urge to earn more money? Why is it above all relations, above everything?


Look what happens when imagination goes wild. It gives birth to such weird questions which finally takes the form of a post. That's why it is said "An idle mind is devils workshop"

BTW I will be glad if anyone answers to my questions.

Disclaimer: The author has nothing against PETA. It's just a weird thought that popped up in my mind.