Ye Hai Mumbai Meri Jaan

Hoo boy! Long time since I got a chance to update the blog so I had to make do with publishing super long posts:-

Two rickshaws it took to take us all to the Surathkal railway station, one just for the immense amount of luggage we had- thanks mainly to my 3 bags weighing a total close to 65 Kg. The train, Matsyaganda Express No. 2620, came on time, ie, 1:30 pm on 10-08-2009 and seats 25,26,28 and 29 were ours in AC compartment B-3.

Yet again I see there is a girl sharing our compartment. Now this may surprise quite a few but I can without doubt confirm she was the prettiest girl I had ever seen in person. She was on the other side of the compartment alongside a guy who I earlier thought was her boyfriend but was not at all related to her. No, I don’t even know her name and by the time I got down at Mumbai I was kinda glad for that!

Why can’t beauty and brains co-exist often? This one was selfish AND lazy. Don’t ask, I won’t elucidate: Simply not worth it… Lets just be satisfied that she was a physiotherapist for the National Girls Football Team (We actually have one??) and nothing close to Chak de India. The guy on the other hand was really nice: He was Nithin who was studying Master’s in Medicine in Bangalore and had come to Mangalore to attend a medical conference and was on way to Mumbai for another conference.

The other two sharing the compartment were two Gults who rarely came down from the top berths and spent their time watching whole movies on their Nokia mobiles (See even Gults recognise the superiority of Nokia!).

The only eventful thing during the train journey was the juggling of the luggage between the spaces beneath the seat and otherwise and so it was that at 6:47 am on 11-08-2009 that I stepped onto the soils of the greatest city in India: Mumbai!

Oh sure some may have other opinions on which city is greater but as I spent 4 days here I can understand what my friend Dhole was telling when he called me lucky for having got a job at BPCL, Mumbai just for being able to live here. This is truly the city of dreams- some become true, others are shattered- and amidst all the chaos that was prevailing every time combined with the Swine Flu epidemic and Independence Day/ Ganesh Chathurti celebrations coming up I was convinced this place more than anything else epitomises India: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of it all!

Its funny how people here take time for granted, I stayed at my dad’s bank’s holiday home – Nugget – at Prabhadevi, right opposite the headquarters for the Shiv Sena newspaper Dainik Samna and I had to walk a kilometre in Mumbai to find a decent place to eat.

Dainik Samna Headquarters

I know this is really rare and can happen only to me but I enjoyed the excuse to walk and notice how a vegetable market exists right next to a construction site; how a temple is next to a chicken centre and how a 50 floor skyscraper stands next to a slum colony.

Day 1 and a visit to the famous Siddhi Vinayak Temple nearby showed the fascination people here have with the Lord Ganesha.

Siddhivinayak Temple, Mumbai

Day 2 was a lot more interesting as we had hired a tourist cab to take us around Mumbai…

What the N-95??

I have to admit it: Even now the first thing that pops in my mind when I hear/see the letters “N-95” is a big, bulky Nokia multimedia handset that failed spectacularly in India. However the latest fashion accessory over here is the variety of face masks to “help prevent” contraction of Swine flu. The types of masks available on the street are mind-boggling ranging from a simple piece of cloth attached to a string (Rs 10-40, depending on the vendor and street) to a full head gas mask with nano-charcoal filters (> Rs 5k). But one thing common to all the vendors is that none of them use their own products; infact they have nothing to cover their nasal cavities at all! One has to wonder whether its because they themselves have no confidence in the products they are selling to the public but I was glad to see even the most paranoid ones to be using mostly handkerchiefs/ Dupatta’s whereas the majority of them (Like us) are willing to brave the elements.

Our Driver’s Comments

Hailing from the mighty city of Ranchi, Jharkhand our driver made no efforts to keep his thoughts to himself. We were close to the jail where the terrorist Kasab was held and he begins his monologue about how the govt is spending lakhs for his upcoming and how if it were upto him and his friends, Kasab would never see the light of another day again! Sad to say the feelings are shared by nearly everyone in this majestic city; I cant ever hope to understand given I was safely some 800 Km away on 26-11-2008.

Just as I thought he was against only terrorists, he then went on to generalise Muslims as the cause of everything dirty and evil in the city: No comments from me! I am generally against all this anti-Islam talk but this city is ruled by that old Shiv Sena tiger Bal Thackeray and his fist is everywhere here whether you choose to believe it or not.

He then led us to the Mahalaxmi Temple and delivered another lecture on how the youth of today no longer care for religion: I had a funny feeling he saw straight through me! Just to make his point the next stop was the nearby Iskon Temple where I decided to make up for Mr Goody-Goody and snapped a few pics of the idols with a few guards around me when it was clearly prohibited J

Water Place

Main Idols

Part of a wall collection

While on the way to the Gateway of India, he pointed out the homes of a few bollywood stars (SRK, Salman Khan, Abhishek Bacchan) as well as those of some MP’s, Cabinet Ministers and other VVIP’s and at the same time doling more speeches on what he thought of each of them and their assured high security level leaving the general public in harm’s way. But wait- he was not done yet…

On the way to the Gateway of India, he drove very slowly around Nariman Point and showed all the spots of the attack, then showed the Oberoi Trident and finally somehow got us through a security cordon (albeit very lax) around the Taj International at the Gateway of India to show the destruction still very present. Upon seeing a few French guys taking snaps there, he gave a lecture to everyone present about how we treat the Firangi better than ourselves in our own country- This guy was a fiery patriot!

Taj International (Old)

Oberoi Trident

Pigeons are a constant presence here

But not when they fly off!

Gateway of India

The Wharf at the Gateway

Mumbai’s Splendour?

As a tourist in Mumbai, there is very little you can do. It took about 5 hours to cover everything we wanted to see and it was pretty boring mostly. The world famous Juhu beach was covered with filth when we arrived there (~9 am) and cleaning crews around told us it was a daily routine for them to remove such vast amounts of garbage every morning after it was left behind by the tourists the previous evening/night but it was clear the beach was losing its popularity swiftly.

Family at Juhu Beach

And trash at Juhu Beach

Sure you got your usual temples/places of worship around and there is Crawford Market for the greatest deals if you are into shopping. But despite the lack of rainfall this year in this place, the busiest people around were clearly the municipal cleaners: Mumbai has its posh areas, but the vast majority of the city is dirty L

One funny thing I noticed right next to the Mahalaxmi Temple was an “Ancient Shiva Temple” which had its email id being advertised!

"Ancient Temple" with Email Id

I did manage to have my share of good cuisine- local and otherwise- here, from the never-to-be-missed Vada Pav to the Chicken Sauthe and Crispy Schezwan Masala Dosa that had a Manchurian twist to the Bhaji instead hehe.

But nothing was as majestic as the Sea-Link:-

Entering the Sea-Link

A vision of the supports

Rendering me speechless

I can use the fingers on a single hand to remember the times I have been left truly speechless! Infact I talk so much and often that my friends once took a record of the time I spend talking in an average free hour (48 mins was the record I believe). Day 3 in Mumbai and it was spent visiting friends/colleagues of my dad who had arranged the entire trip for us. One such visit was to a Jain family who had stayed over at our house this March and I was interested to learn their daughter-in-law of 4 months was a fashion designer for SONY entertainment channel with her most famous work being on the set of Comedy Circus. Imagine getting to talk to superbly talented comedians like Shakeel! Anyway we were off to leave and she comes carrying a very expensive book of novels to gift me: I had no idea they were even aware of my reading habits but I was so stunned getting such a great gift from relative strangers that I could only smile for the next 2-3 mins.. The book is titled “The Secret” and I plan to read it during the flight.

Govinda aala re

Krishna Janmashtami is celebrated with pomp all over the nation but there is something so passionate with the way Mumbai-kars celebrate anything! Day 4, and my last day in India for some time, saw the entire place erupt in a humongous roar of music, colours and the lot. Maybe it was because this place was Shiv Sena territory but there was saffron everywhere the naked eye could see. There were also groups in white, green, yellow, blue and all sorts of colours: Mainly these groups went about in hired trucks/vans with their own bands to do the famous Matka Phod while onlookers in flats from above showered them with water as they attempted the human pyramids.

Neighbourhood buildings throbbing with on-lookers

A Van of Participants

A Band Playing

Of course I did not have my phone out in my hands during the actual Matka-Phod, but you get the picture. After the gala was over, it was time for check-out and a half hour cab ride to Chattrapathi Shivaji International Airport where, to my great delight, my old classmates Arun and Preet were there to bid me farewell.

Preet and Arun

Varun + Arun FTW!

Ok Arun sucks at Photography

After they left at about 7:30 pm, it was time to enter the gate which meant farewell to my family (Well except my Dad who had arranged with the bank’s Public Relations Officer to grant him access inside till the Immigration/Emigration desk. Things got senti (Not for me, surprisingly) and I officially stepped out of Indian Shores once I stepped into the airport… Adieu India!

Departure, atlast!

I have been dreading the day I write this post: Mostly because its the fear of the unknown. Now I dont scare easily, but not knowing whats next is pretty intimidating!

I see my dad in front of me taking calls from many a family member who couldnt make it to last night's get-together, and my mom in the next room making sure everything is packed for the 100th time despite atleast 1 item not being packed- My laptop :D

Cutting to the chase, I am leaving home for Rice University today although my flight is on the night of August 14th from Mumbai! Maybe because I spent my days getting a Bachelor degree as a Dayscholar, people seem to think i will have problems adjusting to my new life taking care of myself properly. I have my doubts, and my stint at IISc all alone earned that argument some brownie points. Nevertheless, I need to call up loads of guys and I have about 6 hours for the train so I will have to make this quick!

I dont hesitate a moment to admit I will miss this place I call home:-

I will miss the surroundings and I will miss my family. I will miss talking to my friends through phone (Hurray for the internet!) and I will surely miss the monsoon here:-

I will miss having not to worry about paying the bills or cooking food and I will miss being able to sloth 24x7 if I wish to: End of list!

Many a people shall be expecting a sentimental post here but that was as senti as I can get: I suppose I am making up now for being a cry-baby in my early years but I rarely get emotional so dont blame me. All I can say is I am not nervous, I am not excited and though it may just be the calm before the storm and I will find out for sure the moment I step onto the Runway, I am looking forward to this next chapter of my life. Might as well take it positively for no one forced me to take it up: I gave up a ~8 LPA job for this hehe..

To all my friends and family: Thanks for all the wishes and blessings, please stay in touch. I doubt I will get a chance to update this blog until I am well settled into my apartment with my apartment mate, John Connelly, who happens to be a 2nd year MS (Statistics) student and arrives Aug 22nd making me King of the Manor, ie, Apartment 139 for a week.

My flight leaves Indian shores on the eve of Independence day and coupled with Swine Flu fever (In more ways than one!), there will be some tight security at the airport. If all goes well, I shall arrive at Newark Airport, New Jersey at 5:30 am US eastern time and arrive at Houston at 11:30 am. A senior, Chinmay Hegde, is due to pick me up there to take me to Rice. So until next time, wish me luck and I will see you all soon.

Funny how from places I have no friends in, there are guys online right now reading this post: Shows the power of google and key-words I guess..

Arati also leaves tonight, and arrives in Michigan tomorrow evening. Hope she has a great journey but right now the only words I want to hear are:-

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your captain speaking! We will be landing soon at George Bush International Airport, I hope you have a pleasant stay in Houston...

Going, Going, Gone!

4 Year Anniversary of NITK: Part 2

August 2^nd 2009, 7:55 am in ATB Drawing hall 3-A which was converted into a classroom for Civil and Mining students, saw Darshan, Manoj, Shiva and I take our first class. I remember it was Dr A.C Hegde from the Department of Chemistry talk – No, whisper – to us about being ready to face criticism from many a faculty and fellow student who look down on us as the prodigal section of the college. But my mind was on the branch sliding process to be held in 3 days time on August 5^th and that day saw me getting into Chemical Engineering, a move that shaped my entire life. I also noticed a group of people in the ATB seminar hall, where this was going on, just having a lot of fun while everyone else was pretty tense. I later learnt them to be the DASA students, and prominent among them were two behemoths: Govind and Tariq! While one joined me in Chemical and became a very close friend/fellow mischief-maker, the other: Well those who know shall know!

As the day ended 30 students became part of the 1^st year Chemical engineering section:- Aditya Pai, Alok, Arvind, Christina, Debananda, Deepti, Dipankar, Govind, Hardik, Hitesh Sharma, Indu, Jayanth, Kiran, Manoj, Shiva, Nitin, Prabha, Prajwal N. Bhat, Preet, Rajesh, Ravi, Rohit, Sachin, Sourabh, Sourav, Sindhu, Suhas, Swapna, Varun and Yuvaraj.

The second round of sliding held on August 18^th brought newer faces and assigned roll numbers after Yuvaraj’s 05CH30: Arati, Arun, Manish, Nikhil, Sandeep and Sanjay while 2 left us for Mechanical engineering: Aditya Pai and Prajwal, leaving 05CH01 to receive a customary “Branch slide, Sir!” during attendance rolls. Of course by this time we hadn’t yet been taught the fine art of Proxy’s and the only weapon in our pathetic arsenal was the elusive Mass-Bunk which I believe our class has the dubious record of being the only one to never orchestrate a successful one ever. In fact one trial ended up so bad that we left the ATB hall from one exit only to enter it via another entrance some 25 seconds later upon sight of the faculty concerned!

It was the dreaded Chemistry cycle of courses first up for us and we had bitter experiences a lot…

Rakhi ka Tyohaar

No, its not Rakhi Sawanth :-{

Maybe its because I am leaving Indian shores very soon that I got as many as 18 Rakhee's yesterday and more to arrive via mail today! My all-time record was 24- Count it- 24 in my last year in school at KV, Panambur and that too it was a half day for me.. Needless to say I am "Big Brother" material- Or is it that I am not suiter material??

The thing which erks me most is that even now, guys of my age take it an insult to get a rakhee from a girl who is not an immediate relative, no limits of frustration will take that out! But its not like I condone this "celebration" or anything, I actually dont care for all these Day's (Mother's day, Rakshabandan, Father's Day blah blah): If you care about someone, then show it the entire year around..

I had dinner at a cousin's place the last night (I seem to be out more often than not, and the paunch is evidence) and she showed gleefully the gold ear-rings her younger brother had got her: She is 23, the bro is 21; but the fact remains she was expecting something similar from me. How was I to tell I had spent rs 1.45 lakh the very day for foriegn currency and I had nothing better than a dress-piece? Seems that is as fine as jewellery these days given the squeal of delight she showed. Relief!

Nonetheless, I would rather share my respect for sisters/ mom/ dad etc the whole year round and God forbid the day arrive that I have to dread Valentine's Day! Brrrr...

The Church of Google

I should have realised when Microsoft and Yahoo! joined hands in a partnership to take down Google (Keep trying, sucka's), something like this would happen. Anyway a friend asked me about 2 hours ago my opinion on a new religion: Googlism...

After the initial sarcasm I went to the official site and though its just for fun, believe it or not Googlism is now a recorded religion with its own church even! Check it out here, and feel free to join. It has apart from the church, its set of commandments and 9 proofs of Google being the closest thing to God :-)

It was only time that prevented videos like this being up on the WWW:-

On a side note, Prabha and Deepti leave Indian shores for the first time and I wish them a safe/hassle-free journey!

Rise of the Machines

Now last night (5 am is still night for most of my pals), I was browsing through my favourite entertainment website Cracked when I read something which was too good to not mention here. Now everything there is worth publishing but its way better if you head over there and get lost browsing through the website yourself. Anyway...

The article 5 Superpowers Science will give us in our Lifetime had at No.5 the Iron Man's Battle suit which is being developed in Japan at the HAL 5 suit. HAL stands for Hybrid Assistive Limb but who cares what it stands for when you look like this and have 5 times a normal human's strength:-

Needless to say I was impressed because its something I was contemplating having since the Kodachaadri Debacle and this is actually in our times right now. But wait: It takes a remarkable turn for the worse. If this artificial suit was not strong enough, there are thoughts of including AI as a backup for the aged/physically challenged in times of emergency- Or so they would have us believe!

Just check out the name of the Company behind the suits.. Go on, click on the Official HAL Website and be amazed. Saw it?? Its bloody #$^@$^#&# CYBERDYNE! The company that makes the Terminators remember? Dont let the language fool you though, this is just a humorous article but I would still love to see what happens with this company in April 2011 (Judgement Day as per the Terminator Franchise) and ya, Cracked has this note regarding it:-

"Don't get us wrong, we're not saying this isn't an amazing technology. All we're saying is that you should find your nearest John Conner and sequester him in your local underground robot apocalypse bunker before some dip-shit scientist puts some kind of thinking chip in these things."

I dont blame them for posting this pic, its way too funny:

Did I mention that the HAL suit is now available in the commercial market in Japan for a hefty rent of 220,000 yen? Buy hey: How many of you can lift 200 kg by yourself?

Rakhi's House of Horrors ends :D

Finally the madness has ended: But not before it claimed so many victims that it got a section on the news channels last seen when every single news channel (Including NDTV 24x7.. Sigh) covered the Abhishek-Ash marriage live for the whole bloody day!

The botoxed, buxom, controversial (Oh I can go on and on here) wench known as Rakhi Sawanth finally finished her charade and in the end picked for herself an NRI groom (Old habits die hard for Indians, and she must have thought Canada was a self-respecting, non-recession affected nation :P)

The entire nation went berserk on the internet, right from Twitter to Facebook/Orkut/Gtalk status messages and yes- comics too courtesy of my fav Indian comic FYF:-

Now I suppose I can go on about the Twitter wars but Abhishek has written a great piece and I cant aim to do much better than that so read it here and just for fun, here is a very funny article on the very topic. But wait: there were actually people who liked it! They liked it so much they want another Season of the show Lol.. Like the guys who made this You tube channel where you can watch all you want/can handle of the wench! Hope you survive the madness long enough to return here sooner than later...

4 Year Anniversary of NITK: Part 1

Can’t believe its 4 long years already! Why it seems just yesterday that I entered the hallowed halls of NITK as a student for the first time. In fact it was 4 years to the day that this happened, and I remember it: A most cherished set of memories…

I remember walking into ATB (Additional Teaching Block) class 0.2 at 7:40 am on August 1^st, 2005 with my dad. I remember taking a set of forms and notices from Mr Manohar Karanth, The Watch & Ward officer, and filling them diligently with my dad going through them 3 times atleast! I remember then going into the ATB seminar hall, and immediately getting intimated by the amount of people and all the “important officials” there. I remember handing over the forms along with original mark sheets of Class 10, 12 and AIEEE with a DD for the 1^st semester fees and deposits. I remember shaking hands with the then Registrar Dr Aloysius Henry Sequeira and taking the receipts for them all before meeting an old Zen gym acquaintance who turned out to be working at the Student Cooperative Society. I also remember…

I got lost on the way to SJA (Silver Jubilee Auditorium) and was directed there by a guard whom I know to this day. I met my mom and old school mates Darshan and Manoj who were also admitted into NITK. We waited patiently till 11 am when the inauguration of the academic year finally began and diligently listening to all the long speeches which at this time make me laugh at the very notion. Following this was an orientation trip of our assigned department which at the time for me was the Department of Civil engineering. And so it was that all 3 of us along with some 40 more trudged along grudgingly in the afternoon heat which saw every outsider pouring sweat but we were taking it as a nice break from the rain J

Mr Dwarakish gave a most brilliant trip of the Department of Civil engineering and it was here that I saw Arati chatting to NTR and a few other “bangys” as the term goes. Of course back then I was shy of looking at girls, let alone talk to them: My, how things have changed hehe… But I knew that I was surely getting a branch change soon and so faked a head-ache to get out of the procedure after 1.5 hours much to everyone’s jealousy (I was, and still am, a pretty good actor) and came back home at 4:30 pm to finish my first official day as an NITKian.

SNIST experience Part 3

I still remember the time:- 12:50 am on 2^nd July, 2009 and a knock on the door which in retrospect felt like a buzz in my sleep. A second, louder knock and I was up (Son of forest sleep with one eye open- Old Jungle Saying J) and awake. But getting Sandeep aware enough to open the door took some time and as I sat on the bed in marched 3 POLICE OFFICIALS. One of them was a rank 3 Inspector and he asked us if we knew Hindi/Telugu. Sandeep looked like he was in a coma as he reclined against the far wall and knowing his sleeping habits, he probably was! I then had the once-in-a-lifetime experience of having a most unexpected interrogation by the police as they asked as many as 9 questions including a hilarious Koi Ladki ya Bomb kamre mein hai kya? (Any girl/Bomb in the room?) Clearly they took no chances and I found a new respect for these men in Khakhi. After they seemed satisfied of our innocence they left but not before we snuck a peek out the door long enough to notice simultaneous raids had taken place in all the rooms. It was impossible getting back to sleep – well for me atleast – and when the sun shone out at 5 am I was there to give it company.

Room service later (Lazy bums FTW!) the same procedure of getting to Uppal for the bus ensued but we found instead of Dr Rao, his fellow department faculty who took advantage of us and for the next 1 hour talked on his views about not allowing Abstracts to be the basis for selection of scientific papers to the extent that he had filed a High Court case on the matter! Extreme measures but the talk was interesting.

Now after last afternoon showed us the level of presentations to be expected, we had agreed to leave at 2 pm citing my journey back home as an excuse. The morning saw more guest lectures including one by an alumni of Dept of Chemical Engineering, NITK and then we were about to take out leave from SNIST as Dr Rao came to bid us farewell and presented to us our certificates:

The poor man had taken trouble to get those ready in time for us and if that was not enough, he than arranged for an exclusive SNIST mini-van (Which not even the Profs get to travel in) to drop us to the nearest bus-stop but not before we took the customary pictures with the college as the background:-

Now we were at the bus-stop but sight of a 7-seater brought memories as we chose to go through the whole ordeal again only to see if our old record of 13 people could be bettered. And so it was: with a maximum of 16 people on board at a point, it was all we could talk about for the next 20 mins as we got down in front of our hotel and went straight to a nearby restaurant to have our fill of Hyderabadi Biriyani – We were not letting Hyd get the better of us here! With prior experience in mind, a smacking lunch ensued we weren’t leaving the city disappointed and the afternoon was made all the better by the timely arrival of another friend, Rahul Nesergi, who gave us company and news of many a NITK acquaintance:-

Finally it was time to leave Hyd – One last time before I leave for the USA, and to say I had a great time would be an understatement…

SNIST experience Part 2

Room service was made specifically for lazy bums like us! A quick meal aside (remnants of the biriyani still haunted us), we soon learned the auto drivers of Hyderabad are a much more honest folk than those in Mangalore/Bangalore. We had to take a college bus from SNIST at a place called Uppal which was about 7.5 Kms away from the lodge and it was there that we met Dr. Ramagopal Rao who was responsible for inviting us to participate at the conference and, as a friend of Mr Prasanna, promised to help us in every way possible despite being the coordinator of the entire conference.

From first glance, he seemed a good chap and by the end of the day we were jealous of the SNIST students to have such a good person among them as a professor even! The college itself is in Yamnampet, Ghatkesar- about 28 Kms from the main city and has great facilities. The entire Dept of Biotechnology is air conditioned and the building which houses this dept also houses the School of Management Studies and a certain room titled “English Lab” which has inside a horde of PC’s, LCD Monitors and a humongous 48” CRT TV.

The place itself was undergoing construction work for more facilities and it was interesting to see scaffolds a metre away from the classrooms. The simultaneous inaugurations of 3 workshops being held there began after registration and here we heard first hand from the main protagonists of this event: The Principal of SNIST, The HOD of Biotech dept and the Dean of research who turned out to be a most magnificent speaker:-

After all this we had a chance to finally see our conference paper in hard copy and it was a great delight to say the very least:-

In case you are wondering, VSS stands for Varun-Sachin-Sandeep and if the bacterium was only 4% off the standard strain we would have got the opportunity to name it after ourselves ourselves L

Anyway off we departed to the Electronics Dept Seminar hall which was the venue for our conference and a few guest lectures preceded a lunch after which our seminar was the very first presentation in the conference which went very well despite the computer not having the necessary codecs to play a movie file during the ppt itself! Once our official participation was over we settled down to watch the remaining presentations and soon found our stride as proper NITKians as we proceeded to find fault and make snide remarks of all the mistakes prevalent in the other works - among of course! The proceedings for the day ended at 4:45 pm and we took the same bus back to Uppal. However no bus was in sight and we decided to adventure a 7-seater…

The working mechanism of a 7-seater journey is you sit in a place meant for mice while the driver and his accomplice try to wriggle in more people heading the same way. Although there are supposed to be no more than 7 passengers, this particular trip saw a maximum of 13 people with the accomplice hanging on by fingertips as we sped across roads needing more attention than a village pathway. To say we were shaken up would be an understatement.

On the way back, after a total of ~1.5 hours of calls between us, Kiran, Rahul Nesergi and Swapna Bandi we finalised on meeting the Bandi sisters that evening at Prasad I Max and it was great meeting them after 3 months. The mall had its attractions and a trip through a so-called Hall of Mirrors turned out to more scary than the girls wanted:-

Me with Optimus Prime :P

All four of us in the Hall of Mirrors

The look down the mall from 2nd floor

Interesting Name for a Pastry

We had to leave early after dinner at Mcdonald’s since my uncle and aunt from Secunderabad were coming over to our room to meet us while getting “goodies” to take back. After they left at about 10:15 pm and a quick game of DOTA later, we retired for what we hoped would be a peaceful night’s sleep: We were so wrong…

Much ado about nothing!

Lots of hype was created for the "Total Solar Eclipse" which was also the longest in some time. I knew better than the well-intentional albeit stupid promotional scheme run at the local observatory to have people watch the eclipse for free: This is the middle of the monsoon season and we are in a place that gets 4+ metres of rainfall each season! So instead of being able to see something like this:-

All that was visible here was a lot closer to this:-

Anyway watching the live feed from 3 different internet sources made up until the news from Gulbarga, Karnataka arrived where kids with ailments were buried sometimes upto their necks and then exposed to the eclipse for "treatment"! Its too harsh a sight to post any pics here but you can imagine the situation. This was almost as bad as the recent honour killing in Haryana and the politicians advocating it as "personal views" to save their legislative seats in the upcoming elections there..

Such things I shall not miss when I am in the USA, but what Continental Airlines (My flight carrier) did to Dr APJ Abdul Kalam was astounding! The airline staff argue that Dr Kalam never once informed them about his VVIP status and permitted himself to be frisked - Which is very typical of him might I add - but all the show started when his escorts saw this and created an uproar. I dont blame the airlines for frisking anyone who didnt inform them of his/her privilege and its just one of the recent controversies in parliament; the other being the Indian version of the show "Moment of Truth".

To close off, my classmate Manoj has created his blog which is really a fledgeling right now here

Heights of Recession!

Sreesha Y Rao, the college topper of NITK surathkal (Ranked 3rd in placements in India) who has an SGPA of 10.0 on a scale of 10 and a CGPA of 9.8+ is unemployed! Stupid Alstom has no idea what they are missing...

SNIST experience Part 1

When my major project guide, Mr Prasanna, suggested I present my project results at a National Biotech Conference at Sri Nidhi Institute of Science & Technology, Hyderabad, little did I know this trip was going to be a bang in more ways than one! For starters, it would be the first time I would be on “business” for myself and I also got an excuse to meet some of the guys in Hyderabad. Sadly Sachin didn’t get permission from BPCL to join me but Sandeep certainly was enthusiastic about the entire thing…

So here I was on the evening of 29-0-2009 in the KSRTC Airavat bus bound for Hyderabad and I found myself watching a Telugu movie with no idea whatsoever about the dialogues but could grasp enough to see it was a pretty good movie.

The morning of 30-06-2009 at 8:22 AM and I was in the Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (M.G.B.S) terminal which, as I certainly found out to my chagrin, is the biggest bus station in all of Asia. Sandeep was no different than the last time I saw him (Just 2 months ago) and we checked into the nearby Nandhini Lodge.

If you have been to Hyderabad before then you realise why as a non-vegetarian we crave for their Kebabs and Biriyani and this was on our minds for the past week. Sadly the two most popular biriyani joints (Bawaarchi and Paradise) were too far away from were we resided so we took a chance and went to the Char-Minar area hoping to get a taste of authentic muslim chicken biriyani. It took about 30 mins to get away from the maze of jewellery shops all around but finally we decided to take a risk on a Hotel Shama (which we later learnt was famous for its Irani Chai) and went in…

The décor was pathetic but the food- Only here did we realise that the quantity contemplates the quality of the biriyani as we each ordered 1 plate each to realise its actually a mountain full. After 45 mins and various rest stops with nothing but our egos making us continue, two muslims gave us company in front of us and took great delight in announcing that the local women could have a plate each while the men had a few rotis before having a plate each. With our egos totally destroyed, one of them took the liberty of “advising” us in Kannada no less to just stop and leave it which we gladly did.

We planned to walk back the entire way (5+ Kms) and decided to explore what looked like an old palace which turned out to be the Osmania General Hospital!

After 30 mins of sitting and groaning, we came back to the room and slept our asses off for a few hours before rehearsing for the presentation the following day and, after a few Russell Peter joke segments, retired for the night: The biriyani was omnipresent still now L