Hedonist's habitat

Racing up with the sun along NH4..vrrooommm

Its a delight to be at the right and happening place at the right time. My friends and I were determined to savour all the delightful moments of a peak season at a tourist spot, and chose the "Christmas" @ Goa. Where else would one like to be during Christmas?

The cab from Bangalore moved slowly forward without an accelerating sound. Those missing the vehicle's roar must know that the vehicle moved as we five guys had to push it forward to start it. :) Thus started the eventful journey to our dream holiday destination, Goa.

The thoughts of 'Goa' would flash 'Beaches', 'Europeans', 'Sea food', 'Beer', 'Party', 'Music' and 'revelry' to the mind. My mind started weaving webs of celebration and partying we would have during the 2 days planned.An 18 hour spine breaking journey along the NH4 through karwar took us to Anjuna palm guesthouse at 4.40 am where we had made bookings for our stay. We, the honchos, could manage to get accommodated in a dorm where we shared rooms with some foreigners though we had made advance booking before a month. As bachelors, we did not have any concern in staying in a dorm and what more does one requires for their temporary stay at a tourist spot. Also it did not feel like an alien place as the house owner and family were very warm and friendly and made us feel 'at home'.

Mullu took the role of a navigator and guided all the way thru' Goa with his little knowledge of the place and making use of the sign boards at important junctions. As a result, we often ended up in taking the exactly wrong direction. As usual it didn't require too much effort for me in switching off the senses which take upon much strain on hectic days except for the eyes and ears which have drawn me to this place with advance planning. With sea food available aplenty and an aversion towards those dead, smelly creatures, I had given rest to my tongue too.

Basking Beheaded Bohemians

Anjuna, Vagator and places nearby brought me a feeling of coming to alien land seeing foreigners speeding in bikes without wearing shirts giving a hippie(not hip) look, people speaking English and Hindhi in strange foriegn accent and many other scenes which widened our pupil.

Though the time was less spent it was decided to cover all the important places of North Goa hour by hour. We spent half day strolling along the Calangute beach bathing in the Sun at the same time. Mullu had decided to hide his digicam on hearing from locals about the foreigners becoming aggressive and throwing the cams into the sea when they were being digitally shot without permission. We had an illuminated evening when we were in Baga to spend the Christmas Eve.

Bathing infront of water.

The final evening became memorable having spent sometime in the capital city, Panaji and going around in a cruise at Miramir beach watching the Goan folk dance and dancing on the cruise.

1 Birth isnt enuf :-(

This blog is going to be the longest one comprising of more than many thousand words.......Wait !!before you close this browser!!

For those who are bored reading only text so far there is a relief of course! And how?
This is gonna be a picture blog and a picture is worth thousand words. Ha! Ha!!

The most beautiful picture in my collection. The beauty of the Humayun tomb is amplified by the presence of the charming baby(or babe??) in the front.For my closest friends, suspecting about my real intentions, the truth is "I honestly claim that only the baby was in focus".

This structure was raised to honour the martyrs who died in battles in Afghan, Persia, Panipat.Needless to say it is India Gate, Delhi.

I liked this pic much. No specific reasons, except for my appearance as a local Delhiwala guide.With little practice, I too can become a good guide, I felt.

A Camel and a Lion in the pic. he.. he..
To prove I was in Jaipur, Rajasthan I had to look out for a fully decorated Camel.

These pictures were few snapshots of my family trip to Delhi. For those missing Agra in these photos, there is a note. I did not go to Agra as I reserved that place for a special occasion. Bye Fellas!! Im busy planning for my next trip to Goa in Dil Chatha hai style with Friends!

Band S.i.L.K

Me, Figaru and karadi, the guys in Chennai, for the first time did really a thing worth mentioning last week. We gathered at Music Academy, Royapettah to watch Band SiLK performing. An Indo-Jazz fusion musik troup which had big shots like Shankar Mahadevan, Sivamani, Louis Banks, Karl Peters and Sridhar performing. The captivating three hour programme, kept us guessing which instrument produced the lub dub of a heartbeat, birds chirping, breeze blowing and other acoustical aura. I got to hear Breathless in Live, Varaga Nadi karai Oram from Shankar on his finishing note. The greateesssst percussionist Sivamani entralled and stunned me n rest by his superior performance. A man with jus two hands who cud handle more than 30 instruments around him. He was AWESOME!! Figaru and Karadi were engrossed in Karnatic while I was unable to overcome from jazz spell coming from Karl Peter's instrument. That was a time and money worth spent and worth mentioning it here.

Search never ends...

Have you observed we all keep searching one thing or the other in life?When we get hold of one, we search for the something better. The search parameter differs everytime though the search window remains the same. If at any point in life, we ask ourselves why do we go for it and what happens if I get what Im searching the answer remains the same....'Silence'. No one ever has accomplished his dreams as it grows bigger and bigger till he stumbles upon a small failure which whips harshly to remind, U need to improve. Our Search never ends!

Everything will seem to be funny when you assume yourself to be a third person and watch things happening to you and around you. I have observed it personally.It makes things look at ease when you become the third person instead of first unless you are extremely sympathetic about other people, which rarely one is.This reminds me of a quote I read at a Sify iway.

"Don't tell your worries to others, 70% don't care and 30% are happy that you are worried!"

F.g.R.i.I.r.E.l.N.D.S

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Quite relieved...I m

Quite reLIVEd...

This was one of the gruelling extensions of my study life, Shrinivasan.stu. I had to again dust the books filled with technical details and clear an exam, not to be taken easily, it was a J2EE exam. An exam 'meant' to decide my ratings n hence career. Really? I wonder.

My seniors, in college, used to tell "jollya padira". Does anyone know how to do that? Isn't it an oxymoron? I devoted my four precious weekends entirely preping, quit writing blogs, and stopped thinking about writing, suspended going to gym for a week, paused reading novels for two weeks, spent relatively less time responding to calls, messages, scraps. I found it difficult convincing my friends n relatives saying I couldnt spend time with them becos of this exam.

I abhor, detest, hate, dislike(though all mean the same, stressed to denote my extreme hatred) activities which prevent my free flow, my lazy being, in the sense, preventing from doing activities of my interest at my own pace. I had to run with time, catching up with it at its astronomical speed from getting lost in the crowd.

I frequently thought "Which sadistic mind would have come up with this cruel way of torturing masses?" by coming up with a way of judging/differentiating through exams. When you cannot achieve some target, you start blaming the game is flawed. That was what my mental state was, and no regrets for such thought as it was torturing to the extent uncomparable to any form of pains which I have encountered.

Finally, I cleared off Shrinivasan.stu.

Lesson I learnt : There are many ways of doing things. Do it in a smarter way!

You see its easy guys ;-). ReLaXXXXXXX!

Fiction @ Google

For scientists and innovators it appeared to be an absurd idea. His friends and relatives labeled him as weird. Everyone thought it was not at all practical to implement the phenomena he has come up with. To others he seemed to be dealing with an impossible idea.

His inquisitive mind had been keen on carrying out his experiment for the past 25 years. His confident look showcased that he was not of the kind who could easily give up. Can you imagine how long it would take for others to carryout a similar experiment if it has took 25 years for a person with such a horse sense? His out of box thinking did not require him to don a thinking hat. With his keen observation he had to analyze for years and had come to a solution now. He always seemed to be going in the right direction.

“I know if my idea worked, it would create an impact that would revolutionize the world.” He said to himself. “Eureka! This is no luck”. He laughed mightily with lots of energy while the whole world outside came to a standstill.

Google Wordmasters Challenge

On Sep 30th, it was on a Saturday, early morning 10 O'Clock, when I was present at Loyola college, Nungambakkam. I was fortunate one among the 300 participants from Chennai for Google wordmaster's challenge, first of its kind, non technical contest conducted by Google throughout India. The "any graduate" criteria from the Big Brand GOOGLE had drew attention of even 60 year old contestants. Their spirit definitely deserves commendation. A matured crowd that had congregated for the challenge, it appeared. A guy wearing "I m feeling lucky" on his back, gave away a presentation on Google and answered every question posed by the participants with poise.

The rules got the game were simple. Use 20 preselected words to form a 200 word essay/fiction in 45 minutes. Creativity, grammar and logical string of words were the deciding criteria.

At the end of the contest, I realised that even I too could write a fiction in 45 minutes. It was a fun competition and winning and losing did not matter to me much.

It was a delight to receive Google's goodie bag containing a notepad, pen and a keychain with Google logo printed over it. The results will be out on Oct 30th and 10 chosen people will get a chance to visit Google office at Hyderabad while the first 3 winners have exciting prizes to be won including a chance to do a distant learning course at one of the top foreign universities.

Hell is full! that’s y I’m bck!

Too catchy nah? found over a guy’s T shirt passing by. I had a lot of questions to ask him. Find some of them below(Add in the comments section if you hav any questions to ask):

1. Why the hell did you go, if there’s place on earth for you to return?

2. Did you find more software engineers or master degree students ? ;-)

3. Are you planning to go back sometime later?

4. Is it rebirth or your current birth? If you returned as the same character, you must be a sadist. Why do you want to spoil the happiness of your friends n relatives?

5. If there is an option to return back, I too would like to join you on your next trip as I dont get any other chance.

Previously I had known only philosophers and some great men writing quotes. Nowadays even T-shirt vendors make good quote writers :-)

The one below is too good!

If you find them interesting, there is much more @ www.sloganshirts2you.com to feast.

Breaking nuts in 21st century

A recent funny incident lingered in my mind for a while and this naughty mind found a reason to redecorate this space again, letting off the fumes by the way. This scene happened last weekend when my friend was waiting for me outside Adyar Anand Bhavan while I was getting Pav Bhaji to eat for lunch. Starved poor me :-(

He looked concerned from a distance, talking to someone(I guessed it to be a guy, since their conversation appeared serious) on his mobile. I went close to him and started munching. Then started an unintentional eavesdropping.

Friend: How do you want it single or combined, I mean in two ...?
(A pause from my friends side, listening to the person at the other end)

Friend: The previous one which I suggested didn't work out?
(I assumed that he was getting queries from his sub ordinate or something might have screwed up in his project)

Friend: Let me think of some alternate solution for this. I ll call you back as soon as I get it.

(some bug in the code...I guessed)

I was thinking of advising not to take office work out of office and that too on such weekends and also give him a lecture of work life balance as usual ;-) After he ended the call, I asked him to find out whether it was any serious issue.

He heartily laughed and said it was a call from his colleague cum friend(a girl!) asking him to suggest options for setting up an Email id for her in Gmail.

Iyyo Iyyo...Do you think these ppl will come up in life?

F1 minus Schumacher!

Michael Schumacher retires from F1
Sep 11th, The Hindu

There were concerns raised and debate held across the world on him calling it a day. But there was one reason for this announcement which many were hardly aware of. Now, to the whole world, it is publicized through this document. He had, through grapevine came to know about our team preparing for the Karting championship :) Yes. It’s obvious; a seven time F1 champion wouldn’t like to end his career with a loss. (Well it goes without saying, Schumi's fans are not reading further!!)

It was a thrilling project party everyone had been anticipating for a while. The decision to go for karting was made unanimously, the sole reason being adventure loving enthusiastic racers in the group. Experiences, good and bad in driving were widely discussed amongst ourselves with each one preparing themselves mentally fit for the race. Speed has always fascinated mankind either as a part of audience or as a contestant and was evident from wheel being his one of the first creations. The taste for success in racing has not left anyone uninterested in it which was proved by the 100% participation of the population. Those who have not even participated once in this kind of race are to be seen with pity.

A ten minute quick ride on a perpendicular from Shols junction would take you to Checkpost on ECR. Turning right, within 200m reach is Kart attack, the Go-Karting arena. The race circuit was a relatively smaller one but helped conducting a five minute race. The Kar (pronounced as ‘car’) was built in less aerodynamic style compared to F1 car, missing the basic parts of a car like gears, neck rest etc. on the whole giving a ‘comical’ look to it. The Kar had three main controls, accelerator (on the right), brake (to the left) and the steering wheel(centre). Each racer fell into one of the categories of drivers like leisure drivers, aggressive drivers, and funny drivers. While the aggressive drivers won the game, the funny drivers stole the show by their antics.

Statutory warning: Actions described below are not to be imitated on roads. Accidents guaranteed!

For most of the racers, it was their first attempt at a high speed circuit like this one. Initial research on the track statistics revealed that a skilled driver could complete 12 laps in the circuit in the five minute brakeless drive. The audiences were eagerly awaiting a memorable event ahead, betting on their favorite cars. The contestants donned skull caps and helmet over it to protect the skull and inserted themselves into the open cockpit. Cars 4,5,6,8 were positioned at the start line ready to race. The little monster roared as the engine was ignited. The flag was signaled and the race began.

Partha, one of the finalists, stands by his name demonstrating his driving skills.

Car #8 (the funny driver) was initially taking test drives, checking the acceleration and brakes, hence made a slow start. No sooner the race started, #8 barged into the fence built on the right side of the race track and attracted three attendants for its rescue. As soon as the car was released from the fence, it bumped into the left fence keeping the three car attendants to run behind it most of the time during the race. On finding the cause for these initial hiccups, these accidents were due to the driver wearing the helmet with eyes partly hidden. :-)

At the same time, the contest was heating up due to cars #4 and #5 competing with each other driving aggressively with car #6 following them steadily. The chicanes and corners required dexterity in handling the steering. There was heavy work for the right leg compared to the left which had almost little action to do. At the second corner, driver in the car #4 braked to regulate the speed to get through the most difficult turn of the track making the car turn almost 360 degree with a noise of tyres screeching, leaving the drivers heart come out of mouth for a moment, creating a panic amongst the audience waiting for their race. By this time, car #6 took advantage of this mishap to car #4 and found it competing against car #5 which had completed its first lap successfully. Car #4 regained speed and came rushing to follow the cars ahead of it. The second lap’s first corner almost topsy turved the car #5 throwing the driver unhurt (luckily!) out of it forcefully.

The race appeared fierce in the final laps when car #6 and car #4 competed for the prized moment of winning. The car #4 cleverly gave a little leeway to other cars to overtake it. But car #6 maneuvered skillfully, sliding past car #4 and getting ahead of it to reach ahead of the attendant with a chequered flag marking the end of the race. The audience welcomed the winner by cheering and waving their hands. In the end, car #8 had completed only two full laps in the five minutes, the statistics revealed humorously.

Car 6 driver while interviewed by the local media said:

It was a remarkable day for me and the weather too played a conducive role for the contest to be held up here. It is spirit of winning and achieving that keeps me going. Thanks to the supporters for keeping my gusto alive through continuous encouragement!

The project party ended in style paying tribute to Schumacher, the racing legend. The speedster though retired from F1 has left behind many racers like us inspired.

Uri Adi @ Shols!

The pic on the left could also go as "What happened next??" kindof question in a Quiz round. Uri adi was a part of Onam celebs at Shols, Chn. Ours was the only team which came mentally prepared to attempt this competition. During strategic planning for this game, I was chosen to be on top, considering my physique. Though a bit nervous initially, I gradually recollected my previous attempt of pricking the balloon competition held as a part of farewell party at CECRI (the golden olden days) and felt confident. I swear my focus was only on the pot and not anywhere else(unusually ofcourse!).

On Sep 7th, the brave guys(of course our team mates!!) gathered in the lawns where competition was held. A troup of drum beaters specialised in traditional kerala music were entertaining the audience while audience were tapping feet to its tunes.

The organizer called upon the teams to perform and could find only one team ready for the game and that was ours..hee hee.

Making our trial attempts to win the competition, we all toppled down and one among our guys got a minor injury too. In this trial attempt, I could feel that I was feeling imbalanced at the top and the contest appeared tougher when we were asked to break the pot with a coconut. I was determined to hit the target and said myself "If I would fall I would somehow break the pot and fall". It was a do or die! situation for me.

Then started the real game. Ours was a lotus strategy which was 6+3+1 formula with all members slowly raising up together. The foundation was made concrete and strong with six big boys clustering and clasping their arms over one another. The drummers came closer to us and started playing and the audience too, making me nervous. I had to form the third tier so I was waiting on the ground. The second tier was built and I had to start. I couldn't think of where to keep the coconut in my hand since I was already feeling imbalanced with nothing in my hands when I was on top. No other go! I had to keep it on my right hand and started climbing the first tier and the second. I was balancing with one feet on left guy's shoulder and another feet on the guy at the right, holding the collars of the guy on my left for support. I was pleading them to raise slowly so that I wont topple down. To me, falling down was not at all a problem but falling down without hitting the target mattered most and there were audience too who were concentrated to see the events happening. Thinking not to give them a chance to have a laughter at our fall, I kept low, focussed and looking over my head to check out the reach of the target. But it was too high. These thoughts swept over my mind when I was in the position as shown in the pic. Slowly the second tier guys started rising up and I had to shift my grip from the left guys collars to his head. I thought of holding his hair. Alas! The guy had recently tonsured his head and there was little grip for me to hold. Concurrently I could feel our height rising. The volume of the drums too rose, making the scene scintillating. Anxiety grew among audience and people were agape. I lifted my head, feeling my position comfortable and more balanced and now I could see the pot close to my reach. I lifted my hand and striked the pot once. It shattered to pieces !!!!! hurrah!!!! It was a great relief to me and our team which was overjoyed. I had a sense of thrill after a very long time during this event.

We managed to break the pot in 4 minutes...you might ask did we win?? No :-( our strategy was not rite)...we dint concentrate on timings and hence other teams who worked on a diff strategy managed to break it in less than 4 minutes....thereby pulling us out of competition.....

But this team - me did win the first place in the Kairu pulling competition(Tug-of-war)......

Romancing with the beauty!!

It was a planned one. I said. My friend said It was ad-hoc. I reiterated. He too. I doubted my statement!! My friend too. Then we changed sides. I said it was adhoc. So continued our argument. Hey it’s not about the testing, its about the trip we planned, I was explaining to my inquiring neighbour. The eager beaver Big boss paused drinking Appy and exclaimed Trip a?? Enge?? Few high level meetings were convened to choose the best place for the trip, some coming up with exciting options like Kodai, Munnar, Topslip, Kumarakonam, marketing their choice of place and antimarketing other options. The poor minority had to join the team which had more population. Some of the antimarketing statements for Top slip like It’s a forest area and wild animals may any time pounce on us, there is no power supply ……… so on and so forth were appealing to me(surprisingly!!) and it attracted some adventurous guys too to opt for Topslip. Munnar is a romantic place one must see it atleast once in life time! howled an enthusiastic Munnar supporter. Amidst the quizzlement, there were some bleak voices “Who cares ? where we go yaar?” The ultimate aim is to have fun being together and enjoying the place of visit.

I realized It’s true!

We were not sure on our destination until when we received a mail on “Nelliyampathi Trip Itinerary” which had a detailed list on the schedule of the journey and proved our initial arguments to be false.

Nelliyampathi, Pothundi, Kesavanpara, Malampuzha, the itinerary listed. None of these names I have heard of but sounded funny. Is it in Kerala? Yep. replied the planning committee member. Kerala described as “Gods own Country”- The land of elephants, greenery, cool climate and copious rainfall makes it an ideal destination to go for with a bunch of youngsters so on and so forth reads an official website of Kerala tourism. My mind started comparing the forthcoming trip to our last trip to Kodai this year few months back in February. Will this be a success like the previous one? questioned my neighbour.

Team meets at 8.30 pm at Koyambedu(the central bus stand in Chennai) a mail popped up on my monitor. Thanks to the planning committee, many ppl were thinking that they were going to Top slip even while boarding the bus going towards our real destination(ie Nelliampathi) creating a funny scene.

After a tiring days work, the team didn’t have enuf energy to celebrate the start of a memorable journey ahead. I was dull and lazy occupying the last seat of the bus eagerly awaiting the two days forward.

The bus was approaching Erode when Mokkian asked innocently We are at Erode. When are we reaching F-Road? waking up everyone (with his first mokkai of the day at early morning 7 am) who rushed in to hit him with the weapons they had in their hand. Watch out more for such kinda things for next two days Big boss yelled.

RJ started playing RDB’s Loose control, one more time! Loose control.. apt for the situation in the van as it geared towards the Nelliampathi hills crossing the state borders, with coconut trees grown on either side of the road, appearing as if Kerala was giving a warm welcome to its visitors. The Sun was habitually eager to meet the Chennaiities but shied away soon behind the marching clouds bringing a pleasant atmosphere for us. I was peeping outside the window and saw a board hung on a hut with “Toddy Shop” printed on it. Hey, we are inside kerala!! the moron cried.

Photographers delight:

The Digi cam crew dint want to enjoy the beauty of the nature and have momentary happiness, but they wanted to capture those sceneries screen by screen, bring them home and save those delightful moments for savouring at any time in future. I felt this trip can be rewound at any time by looking at all the photos taken together (totally around 1000+ pics taken) as we unfortunately didn’t have the option of rewind button to visit these places once again with the same group again. These camera men had their arms ready to shoot whatever appealed to them. The viewers of the pics will definitely have a feeling of missed out a chance to be at those places.

Pothundi Dam:

The Dam was a long stretch of about 3 Km at the foot of Nelliampathi hills. The scenic view of Nelliampathi hills was clearly visible from this point. Big Boss was the first to spot the Waterfalls over the mountains which appeared to us as if some one has drawn white streaks on the mountain with help of a massive chalk piece.

Uncharted territory: Road less travelled

Both the vans started moving along the curves of the hill after cleared off by forest department at the checkpost. Most of the road throughout the way to the top of the hill was under construction. It became evident that we were journeying along the less travelled roads as we could hardly see the presence of human beings. I occupied the window seat so that I could appreciate the twist and turns of the Mountains. The hairpin bends added more thrill to the journey. It was convincing to know that our vehicle had sufficient horse power to pull the vehicle loaded with heavy passengers. We kept following the van before us which had our other team mates.

The natural sceneries on the slopes of the mountain kept everyone dumbfounded and an unknown stillness prevailed inside the van which was beaming with activity till few hours back. There was occasional drizzling adding fervour to the glorious sceneries. The passing clouds were taking brief rest on top of the Nelliampathi hills while Mokkian seeing the clouds over the mountains as usual asked Do mountains smoke? and it took some time for us to realise what he meant and there was laughter inside the van while I was appreciated his thoughtful poetic quip and added Hey ! It really appears as if the mountains were having a small puff to escape from the chill weather! The Entertainment committee cheered up the team bringing in solo events, group dances and role reversal games.The whole situation taken in a lighter vein added more glamour to it.

It was a brief stopping at a waterfalls on the curves of Nelliampathi with some posing with waterfalls on it backdrop. Water was flowing happily, unrestrained as it had no one to control it. It followed its own course, embracing the boulders and rocks making them wet. Slowly the mighty men found a way to a natural pond formed at the basement of the waterfalls. It started as a child’s play by the moron sprinkling and splashing water over his buddies when everyone found it an occasion to take bath in the chilled water. The transparency and the purity of the water brought out the naughty child in everyone present in the pond. I started realising the beauty that lay in silence far away from the maddening crowd in the cities.

The vehicle again started pulling us upwards through the hills, when I found a lonely tree hanging on a precipice appearing to be sad. The tree as if had understood my concern replied I m alone, but see I m happy yaar by waving its leaves.What more could it do? I regretted for its handicap. There was occasional activity inside the van and I was lost in thoughts looking outside. The silent and serene mountains in spite of being mighty, allowed man to construct roads through its massive structure, animals and plantations to inhabit, exhibiting its generosity leaving me surprised. Someone shook my shoulder and brought me back to participate in the activity happening inside the vehicle. A “Masala Chai” would make a perfect drink of the moment, RJ claimed. Good taste! I felt and started my search for the perfect drink.

Scary Annelids @ Greenland Resorts:

The most prevalent living beings(hardly human beings were visible) on the top of Nelliampathi hills were leeches. There were many hypotheses surrounding these segmented worms. One version was It would suck all the blood from the body and die. Another version was It would suck impure blood only and hence its bite is good for health. It was difficult to completely believe either of these versions. Google would answer! I thought. We were afraid to keep our feet on the floor on hearing these hypotheses. Even worse it doesn’t let the person feel that he is being bitten by an insect. These creatures had a taste of few of my friend’s blood while giving a sense of eerie to rest of the team. The presence of leech on our leg gave such a horror that the word “leech” started producing irritation all over the body. Thank God! Leeches couldn’t fly I thought.

Fire on the Mountain:

The temperature went down below 15 degree as late evening approched. Soon fresh faces (after a day long journey) congregated around the firewood arranged on the dance floor(supposed to be). Singing, Dancing were prevalent with members cheering up for their team. The participants performed Catwalk show, acted like a Schizophrenic and intelligently retorted to difficult and complicated questions posed to them. Talent was displayed in every form. Everyone gotta chance to see the other side of the people present over there. The firewood lit in the centre of the stage drew us towards it as the temperature further decreased as night approached. The day one ended on a “high” note, Thanks to the beer boy.

Kesavanpara

It was a short trek towards the Rocky Mountains called kesavanpara, a hillock which grew short of height just to allow us to climb over it and enjoy the distant view of dam surrounded by gargantuan mountains.As I was on the top of the para (rock), I took few deep breaths and felt an unparalleled sense of elation. No doubt this beatific nature would turn a moron, a poet. I yearned if I could rival John Keats and the fact that Keats could not be here was comforting me. The return trek on the mountains converted two legged humans to four legged.

Adventurous boat ride at Malampuzha:

The journey was almost coming to an end and we had to move downwards. But still there was vacuum inside me, without filling it would make the journey incomplete. We were heading towards the Malampuzha dam. We chose a boat ride in the reservoir which had few islands, providing a resting place for tired travellers and picturesque locale for photographers. The crew aboard were trying to hide their dreadful faces with an artificial smile.There was a huge row when the miniature titanic deviated even by 5 degree angle. The Digi cam crew and few adventurous ppl stepped on the island to capture the scenery around. Wow! Great place yaar!! shouted Miss.Adventure making an unusual sound (while everyone around was quite), with a delight on her blank face staring at us after getting down on the island. Is it the same feeling which Columbus felt when he discovered America? I asked to my neighbour who burst out in laughter. Not willing to leave any stone unturned, we dint miss to enjoy the aerial view of the Malampuzha garden which had lush green lawns, innumerable flower beds, glittering pools, fountains and avenues through an aerial ropeway clicking pictures of the duo traveling opposite to us, before us and behind us.

Re turn:

The van rocked when it played “Kasu mela…..kasu vandu” from Kadhala kadhala. No one could remain a silent spectator without waving their hands and shaking legs to the koothu songs played by the RJ. To mark the end of the journey, RJ played a string of Illayaraja hits which soothed the mind and body. I wished the time to stop, which was gripping away beyond my control, making me appear foolish.

The interior of the bus was excellent and there was chillness inside the bus too. But it lacked the freshness and liveliness. “Back to the Sham world” Chennai welcomed. I picked up my luggage, walked few steps forward and turned back to see the path we tread, my eyes searching the team with which I travelled. They all had dispersed and soon I became a single lonely tree about which I was concerned yesterday.

“Too often we are so preoccupied with the destination, we forget the journey.” –an anonymous person said. This journey is not to be forgotten. Hence it is imprinted.

For photos visit: http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=4qshbi16.1zxt56ha&Uy=-1zzkeb&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=444399017944_338171890206

Google Answered:
Annelids : leeches

Haemophagic leeches attach to their hosts and remain there until they become full, at which point they fall off to digest. Leeches' bodies are composed of 34 segments. They all have an anterior (oral) sucker formed from the last six segments of their body, which is used to connect to a host for feeding, and are known to release an anaesthetic to remain unnoticed by the host. They use a combination of mucus and suction (caused by concentric muscles in those six segments) to stay attached and secrete an anti-clotting enzyme into the host's blood stream.

If a leech bites, it should be removed and the wound cleaned. Salting a leech is probably the worst thing a person can do to get a leech off.The leech will convulse and regurgitate back into the wound thereby introducing bacteria. Burning a leech to remove it produces the same results. By simply driving the head (the smaller sucker) off the feeding site with a fingernail will safely remove the leech, or by letting it feed until it is full and it willingly drops off on its own. This creates minimal stress to the leech and the human.

There appears to be little evidence of transmission of diseases through leech bites. Leeches have been found to carry parasites, yet the life stage of the parasite while in the digestive tract cannot live in humans, therefore posing no threat. If the wound is cleaned, there is little risk of infection (as with any other small wound).

The most dangerous practice seems to be scratching leech wounds with the fingernails, and hence acquiring other infections. People living in leech infested areas get some bites as a matter of course. Although the bites are painless and generally harmless, many people are squeamish about these creatures, and the prospect of removing blood-soaked socks.

Disclaimer: Not all the characters and incidents reported in this blog is completely true. This article is a figment of imagination interspersed with some reality.