aaj ka paath

aaj ka path (Today's lesson)

ps:
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old wine

Old wine in new bottle. :)

in search...

My new assignment. :)

Fruitshop at Greams Road

This is the service I was talking about. I just love the passion with which the owners are running this place. I know the mail I got may be a auto-reply. But the fact that they have kept such a personalized message, makes me a big fan of this place.

Hi,

Thank you so much for your sun-shine mail ! We are delighted that you enjoyed your visit to our shop at Greams Road.Banglore has been on our mind over the last few years and God willing,we hope to have an outlet open there soon.

Thank you once again for your custom.We do hope you will continue to enjoy our juices as much as we love making them for you !

Warm regards,

Salim & Harris

On 4/27/08, Feedback - Pritesh <the_pritesh@yahoo.co.in> wrote:

Message from: Pritesh


Branch: Greams Road
Quality of Juices & Flavour: Excellent
Cleanliness: Excellent
Service: Excellent
Ambience: Excellent

Note: It was my first visit to Chennai and my host mentioned that the visit can not be complete without a visit at "Fruitshop at Greams Road." I said "Why not, lets go to the place where it all started." And we visited the main outlet on Greams Road. It was a fun-filled experience. I truelly enriching experience. Nice decor and amazing taste. Please keep the good work up. And please come to Bangalore soon.

fruitshop, beach and cricket - 1

A trip to Chennai in mid of April sounds like a dream come true for a mad man. For a jobless soul like me, it sounds like a feast. A mid 40s honeymoon trip of sorts.
And when your hosts are likes of Heda and Sujay, take my words, its going to be a memorable experience in all the positive senses.

Chennai is a city of traditions and values. Today umpteen number of engineering and degree college students give it a fresh outlook. It may not be that metroish as Bangalore or Pune, but still every city has its own culture. And Chennai can boast of one strong cultural thread that every Chennaivasi will be proud of.

Fruitshop at Greams Road was my first interaction with this thread. A nice hangout place for young crowd, it boasts of some of the most delicious juice preparations in town. The nice decor coupled with soothing music gives it a fresh look. Mind you I am saying music is soothing and not loud. And that is one of the big factor that makes them stand out in the crowd of Cafe Coffee Day and Baristas. Lime mint cooler [priced at Rs 15] is one of the most popular drink here. A nice way to beat Chennai heat.

A mall is a common sight in all the towns and cities. And still we visit the mall in every city we visit. In one sense each mall has its own flavor; a flavor that pretty much related to the city which it belong too. City Center in Chennai is one such mall. Malls are western gift to us. The swanky and sporty looks make them the icon of consumerism. Still City Mall with its artistic and historical look is refreshing. It looks like a palace, and no two cents to guess that you will enjoy visiting it in any time of the day.

Marina beach was our next stop. The sea breeze cools down your soul. This beach is a family place, and looking at those smiling faces you can easily recall your childhood picnic trips to nearby beach or waterfalls. Chat, sugar-candies and ice-creams - childhood revisited.

The day ended with lavishing dinner at Heda's place. Actually speaking, we kept munching something or other throughout the day. I surely know now the source of wealth that I have recently acquired. :D

the journey

Some journeys last much longer than what is indicated by the number of hours or distance in miles. The state of perpetual motion does not seem to end for ages. The trees that pass across your windows seem to acquire a regular and repetitive pattern and one wonders if he is going around a circular path. Deja vu of some sort! Still these journeys are not the kind one expects to have in his everyday life. The uneding lists of purpose that we attach to every journey defeats the very spirit of just wandering aimlessly. These two are different entities I feel.

I am in mid of one such journey, I feel. Sometimes I wonder I have imagined myself through this life sometime back. My dreams have given some indications. I am still trying to figure out if the omens are with me. :)

ps: I am back from Chennai. A suuperrrrr trip I must say. :) Will update soon.

dimag ka dahi

Ye reservation ke jhamele ne dimag ka dahi kar diya hai. Peechle saal bhi yahi nautanki hui; is baar bhi kuch badala nahi hai. Meri samajh me nahi aata ki Mananiya Supreme Court ne 10 taarikh hi kyun chuni thi apne nirnay ko sunane ke liye. Ki yaa phir IIM-valon ne shyanpatti ki aur result 11 ko post karne ka decide kiya. Dono hi case me ham unke baap ka kuch nahi ukhad sakte.

Sabse jyada frustrating to ye baat hai ki ab parliament and UPA meetings me decide hoga ki kya directive bheje IIM ko. Aur ek baar vo decide ho gaya to phir kab bheje.

As usual AajTak ne to ye news sabse pahle break kar di. IIM abhi tak bol rahe hai ki unko koi directive nahi mila jabki news channel kal hi ye khabar de chuke the. I hope government directives are sent through fax/mails and not kabootars.
Menaka ji.. kya aap sun rahi hai???

ps: Most raw post I can ever write. I guess I am inspired by Ashutosh of Roadies fame. :)

mera baap ek banker hai

I am a Jain and Jain by default are assumed to be baniya. Luck or no-luck, I have been an exception here too. My dad chose to break the tradition of family business and started work as a banker. Whenever I revisit my childhood, I remember him coming from his work on his cycle. If I recall correctly he started as a cashier in SBIndore. Mom tells me that when I was born Dad's monthly take-home was in three digits. Still I do not recall anything that I missed in my childhood. It was as happy as any other kid's I have known. I really owe my parents for whatever I am today.

When I got my first job offer, incidentally it was to pay me pretty much equal to what my dad earned at that time. The job I ended up joining paid me more than what SBIndore pays me dad after almost 25+ years of service. Yet, I know that I do not come nowhere close to him in satisfaction with job. In SPJain group interview they had thrown open a question for all the candidates. "Tell us who is your role model?" The answers that came up ranged from Mahtma Gandhi to Ratan Tata. I was the last one to answer, and my answer was, "It has to be my father. The satisfaction he gets from serving rural people is inspiring. The fact that he has taken most of his postings in rural area shows his dedication. And I really look upto him when it comes to dedication and commitment."
[The panel then told me that they do not want any relative's name in the answer. And that I could change my answer, so. I did not change it.]

Last 3 years I have been on my own. Earning and then spending it on my freewill. Somewhere I read that in Indian parents teach everything except accounting skills to their kids. I feel bad when I see how bad an account manager I am. Baniya learns every skill from his father. I did not learn anything. If he was a farmer, I would have learnt a trick or two may be. In the end I am the one losing.

Last few days I have been talking to my dad every hour. College admissions and fee is something very big for me to handle. And I know he is the rightful owner of all these decisions. Yesterday I spent the full day in ICICI trying to sort out a Demand Draft issue. The officer there tried his best to help and explain me the procedures. Really helpful indeed. Still it was my dad over phone who guided me through it. I feel there is a golden rule of success. Experience is the key to satisfaction.

In SPJain interview only the panel asked me why do I prefer Sales to Marketing? And my answer was something of this sort "I would like to be in sales in my early years. For the simple reason of knowing the customer. The learning I will do in the field is the best and I do not want to miss on that by sitting and making plans in AC office" I still believe in it. [The panel did not like it much though, I guess. SPJain is my only failure this year so far.]

Anyways, I dedicate this post to my dad. He really is a super dad. I have to learn so much from him. I wish they had provision for allowing banker's son to accompany their dad for work. :)

a few good man

Men of Honor translates very well to Shourya. But somehow the story for the movie by same title is very similar to A Few Good Man.

Bloody spoiler PritS is, isn't he?
Yes I did that again. :)
But then take my word here, Shourya is a good remake/translation/inspiration of the bollywood classic. KayKay is the perfect match for Jack Nicolson, so is Rahul Bose for Tom Cruise. And icing on the cake is a very nice performance by Javed Jafri. Doesn't this guy rocks too? On one side he does Egjectly Jaggu in Salaam Namaste and on the other hand he plays AK in Shourya.
A nice treat to watch.

Just go for it. You have got nothing else, anyways. :P

Earth Song

One more nice one. Listened to it for first time while traveling to Wayanad. Another one of those tune that refuse to leave your head once u hear them.
Nice lyrics too.



I never put any efforts to hear MJ's music. I think after listening to Earth Song and Heal the World, I am going to do it now. :)

the lives of others

the departed

There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship's smoke on, the horizon
You are only coming through in waves
Your lips move, but
I can't hear what you're saying

When I was a child
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now

The child is grown
The dream is gone
And IIIIII… have become
Confortably numb.

I'm Shipping Up To Boston

Listen to this song "I'm Shipping Up To Boston" by Dropkick Murphys. I have been trying to find it from the day I heard it in Advertisement of Lifebuoy soap. The tune seem to be haunting me for a long. I could not recall for a long time where I had heard it first. Then I heard it again in Nivea ad also.
Thanks Sourabh for finding it for me. :)



I had heard it in The Departed. :)

Through My Eyes

I am not very photogenic. And I realized this fact very early. I also realized that I can do better with my eyes behind the lens. Things that I see through my eyes are invisible to many. It's the objective nature. We all see what our eyes want to see.

Sometime I feel good about a certain angle and I try to imagine myself getting portrayed in it. It's not very easy to convey this learning to others and many a times I end up having someone else's face in the picture. I remain behind the camera.

This photo of Harsh is one such case. I so much wanted to be in Harsh's place. But somehow the picture with me in that position did not come that good. Perspective it is. This time someone else was behind the camera.

intejaar

Notice

April 11, 2008

In view of the Supreme Court verdict on the issue of implementation of OBC quota in higher educational institutions, the publication of results concerning admissions to post-graduate programmes (PGDM and PGDCM) of IIM is being withheld for the time being. The Institute is awaiting directives from MHRD in this regard. A follow-up notice will be put up as soon as the order from the Ministry is received and its implications are evaluated.

Chairman (Admissions)
Indian Institute of Management

ps: Everybody sucks... sometime...

sky is the limit

odd one out

I call these trees 'odd one out' coz they are the lone warriors of their kind. Standing amidst the tall bamboo trees, lush green tea gardens and dark green coffee plantations. Saw them on the way to Edekkal Caves. As seen in the photo, this plot belongs to a church. And if you see from close, you will realize it is actually used as a cemetery.

Are they trying to say something about what is buried beneath them? Are the deads are saying something to us?
Who knows!!!

Strange indeed!!!

Feel

I just wanna feel

Real love and the love ever after
There's a hole in my soul
You can see it in my face
It's a real big place

Also check out: Wayanad Top 10

Phantom Rock

Airtel has come up with a cute ad with a kid and his engineer dad. The kid is getting bored in night, so she calls her dad and then they both draw nice pictures in twinkling stars. Imagination!!
We see clouds and each one can be imagined to be taking a shape of certain dream. A really modest way of seeing our dreams come true. In reality, it's just a display of mother nature's creative instincts.

Rocks also play a similar medium for nature to showcase its artistic sense.
Phantom Rock, located close to Ambalavayal town, is named so because of it’s skull head shape, and is locally called Cheengeri Mala. The immediate surroundings offer excellent photo opportunities. Here is my attempt to capture the beauty of the place.

[Click on the panorama view photo to see the enlarged view]

Peace

I don't know if ye tufan ke baad ki shanti hai ya phir uske pahle ki. It is peaceful nonetheless. And that's all it matters to me at this moment.

I finished reading Shantaram. Amazing read. The narrative is so captivating that I did not want to leave it unfinished. Heda gave me two cents about this book before I started reading it. It goes on like this - "every two pages it has a one-liner or a para that will make you think" And I totally agree to him on this regard. Those one-liners are the best quick-wit capsules I have ever read. As I was approaching the end of the book, a sadness started glooming my mood. I did not want it to finish. I wanted it to go on and on. For those one-liner, for that gyan, for Linbaba. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to read. Fiction or non-fiction. Just go for it.

As I write this blog, I am waiting for few important mails. Some confirmations, some links to the forgotten past. Mails, I keep waiting for. I just hate this wait-game. I really do. But there is no escape. Sometimes I curse the person who invented emails. It is most irritating one way communication technique available in this world.

Thanks to Hoganekkal water issues, our Kodaikanal plan have gone for a toss. We are trying our best to make some other plan and get the hell out of this city for a weekend. Let me see how lucky we are this time.

Peace prevails nonetheless.

Moments

This image is going to be permanently stored in my memories. I waited so long for something like it. Two long months, filled with all the known emotions in this world.

If anyone from hostel sees this photo, they will never believe that this is PJ's room [no empty boast here], But alas, let me accept it. It is my room only.

If you ask me, how did I do it? This photo has the answer :)

We may stay on here, but these moments may not...
So hold on to them, coz we have got nothing else...

fooling around

“There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know”

Aren't we fooling ourselves?

Maribetta Trek - part 2

On the way to Maribetta. Maribetta is situated close to Kanakpura on Bangalore-Kanakpura highway. Around 60km ride from Bangalore, on a state highway. It should not take more than an hour to reach there on a normal day.

We parked the vehicle at a farmer's house. He happily agreed for it. In the end he didn't even take any money from us. Trek starts through some small farms and then forest stretch starts.

There are some rocky stretches in initial phase. Small comfortable strides should take you through it easily. As soon as these rocks finish, forest area starts. Long trees followed by thorny plants on rocky hilly terrains.

We started late, so mid way it became total dark. If you are not very sure about the paths, night trek is not advisable. So we took rest at one of the rock stretch. It was a 20 degree slope region. Whole night we kept slipping. :)

Morning are simply awesome. In night you can see mist coming and covering you. Luckily there was no rain in night.

They say it's a stretch of 20-30 hills similar to this. You can see many of them sitting here. All covered in mist. They make it a memorable morning experience.

In morning we started again to finish the final leg of trek. We were at half-n-hour distance from top. Final stretch was bit difficult with steep slippery rocks. Luckily we did not try to do it in dark. It would have been very dangerous.

It's a flat plateau on the top. You can feel the clouds touching you. Visibility is poor; who wants to read newspaper here anyways. :)

Maribetta top looks simply amazing from the plateau. Clouds cover you like a blanket. It's fresh air. And you can smell the mist.

Have breakfast, take some rest and enjoy the nature all the way. Then we start our journey back. Route is more or less the same. So a little more careful strides this time. There is no water resource throughout the trek. So better carry sufficient drinking water with you.

Finally we are back. This is where we were having our breakfast 2 hours ago. It was so nice to be on the top of world.