Weekend at Chennai

Back in good ol’ cold Bangy… Phew! Chennai wuz HOT, even though its winter! Sheesh… I wonder how people survive out there. I’d a nice weekend there anyhow. Met Naz who’d come down from Pune. With her, Anila, Kolli, Vithal, Vinu and Raj, I went on Saturday to MGM DizzyWorld. Kinda dry place tho’ – no water rides :p Had a few heart-stopping moments in the Twister, Spider Spin and Roller Coaster! The rest was usual stuff.

Bagged a few teddies, with some throws of rings, basketballs and cork balls and banged each other with bumper cars. 🙂 Went afterwards to Kart Attack, where we did two rounds of karting. No prizes for guessing who won, of course. 😀 Had dinner at Chef Express and sat at Tiruvanmiyur beach for a while singing songs. Crashed out at the end of the day …

Hangover on Sunday. Rose only after noon for dinner with Krishnan’s (Arjun’s bro) party. Went for his wedding yesterday, after which I visited IITM for Saarang. Met college folks and sat down at the OAT for the Unity Concert feat. Euphoria and Strings. Caught the bus back here at 10pm, which reached Silk Board Jn. at 6am today… Back in office now 🙂

C.V. Meeting

Ahem! I’m sorry I kept all you fans out there waiting for a whole week. The pain must have been excruciating, eh? Heh heh … Just kidding. Hmm… another kickass weekend is past. Anoop came down on Friday – so did Tahir. We met here and sat outside the office, exchanging experiences. After noon, we went to Brigade Road to meet Anoop’s friend Jovin. On Saturday, we met up with our old school buddies same place. Anand, Avinash, Pankaj, Pinku, Sandeep, Vivek, Anoop and I had a good time swapping pleasantries underground. Yesterday, Anoop and I went there again. We met Sandeep and Avinash and lunched at French Bread Pizza, an expensive ill-equipped place on Residency Road. Trust me – never go to that place! Anoop left by the 5 o’ clock train to Hyderabad. Anand joined us later and he left for home, with Avinash. I returned to BTM with Vineesh and crashed out after seeing off Tahir.

Today I got to office on time for a change. I’ve been trying to make sense out of a Reference Manual. My presentation on the DMA Controller is scheduled for Friday evening, after which I’ve to scoot to Chennai for my next kick-ass weekend! 🙂

NO3D

The wind of change blows straight into the face of time. A prospective project has me in it. 🙂 It involves device drivers for the Nucleus RTOS. Wow! Sounds impressive, doesn’t it?! Lets hope it is as it sounds. This blog will cease to be so oft updated, my friends. I got my corporate AirTel post paid connection today. My number will soon be 919880121249. Signing off for the day…

Bang-ing Weekend

Whew! My best weekend in Bangalore az yet. On Saturday, we, i.e. Vineesh, Vithal and Deepu went to Ghosh’s place to cook dinner. As usual, this takes a lot of time. So they coerced me to go with them to Swagat in Jayanagar to watch Plan. Turned out to be quite an entertaing movie though! 🙂 Sanjay Dutt rocks! We returned home and I entertained them with the guitar and Vineesh did a few Hindi numbers on the keyboard while they waited for the mutton to cook. We had it with rice to conclude an absolutely topping evening! 🙂

Yesterday was just as good. Rout (and Deepu) on his Enticer, Vithal (and Ghosh) on his Pulsar and I on mine… travelled 86 km to Nandi Hills, a cool hill station to the north of Bangalore. With stops in between for food, chai, pee and pics, it was a great experience. I prayed at the temple there, and sat down afterward with the guitar, admiring the pristine beauty of the place. Unlike the other commercialised hill stations, this one was uncrowded, allowing for proper appreciation of nature’s scenic beauty. Idled down the hill on the bikes before dusk, and stopped just once on the way back for lovely hot lemon tea. Got back for dinner at Best Foods at BTM and crashed out for night…

Today is the 142nd birthday of the great son of India, SWAMI VIVEKANANDA. Our whole nation pays homage to him on this day which is celebrated as the National Youth Day.

“The world is the great gymnasium where we come to make ourselves strong. Its time for us, the youth, to arise, awake and achieve. What we want is strength, so believe in yourselves. What we want are muscles of iron and nerves of steel.”
Swami Vivekananda
(12.1.1863-4.7.1902)

GF Laser Review

Whoa! Today’s a great day as well. Deepu got an offer from ITC Infotech in Customer Service! 🙂 Wowie! Hey, yesterday I test-rode Zerin‘s brand-new bike – the Kinetic GF Laser. Here’s my review! 😉

The pros: After Aquila, again Kinetic gives its customers more than their money’s worth. This bike is only about 50k on road! Unbelievable, considering its all of 170cc with 15 PS and generating 15Nm @ 8k rpm! In fact, its a whopping 10k lesser than its competitior, the Bajaj Pulsar 180 DTS-i. The power is palpable, the sound is marvelous and the gears are smooth. Pricol has done a good job with a variety of meters. The gear indicator neat. Quite necessary ‘cuz I found the gears pretty confusing – they’re one down and rest up. The looks are radical, but they’re not up my alley. The front view is COOL though!

The cons: What I hate most about the bike is the static fairing which reminds me of the Adreno. The dashboard-like thing in front of the handlebar looks cheap. The rear brake is badly placed and your foot often fumbles with the crashguard instead. Overall, the bike looks cheap, but it is, right?!

I think I like my Pulsar…

I’m an Electrical & Electronics Engineer!

WOOHOO! Yesterday was the best day of my life yet… The results of my supplementary examinations were declared … and I’ve passed them all! So now I’m a complete B.E. [EEE] from N.I.T. Trichy! Hooboy! I still can’t digest the fact.

Deepu and I went on the bike to Ulsoor Road, where he chatted with an instrument while I showed my injured laptop to the Toshiba Service Center above. The mainboard was corroded by the CMOS battery leak, ‘cuz the laptop wasn’t used for months together. The guy there advised me to ‘thookki vikkal’ it, which means I’ll get what its weight is worth, thats all! :`-(

I did treasure dreams of having it working again. Ah well… c’est la vie. On a day like yesterday, I couldn’t even flinch with such bad news. Next, we went to Ravi’s house and from there to the Taste of Arabia. With Mandhala (my ex-classmate) and Dejice (another), we polished off 1.5kg of grilled chicken! 😉 My treat of course!

Deepu left with Dej and I dropped Mandhala at his place in Koramangala. As usual, he gave me a funda. This time its a James Bond technique with Nokia mobile phones. By shorting the metal contacts on the outside, one can eavesdrop on a conversation by placing the phone thus shorted at a vantage position and calling it, taking care to first set the Auto Answer feature in the Silent profile. 😉

Bang-ing Weekend

What a weekend! Experienced wind-biking on a Pulsar! 🙂 I was with Deepu most of it. We woke up early on Saturday and went to Koramangla for Deepu’s DELL interview. Then to an ex-senior’s place at Domlur. Next stop, an ex-schoolmate’s place at Indira Nagar and then back home. Must’ve done atleast 40 km.

We woke up early on Sunday too. First, I went to the Shakha nearby for the IT Milan. Deepu came along and we had breakfast afterward and went on the Outer Ring Roadto ITPL, a total of 35 km from home! Deepu went in for his AOL interview, while I slept on the grass there under a tree – Dogmatix-ishtyle! 🙂

They have a scenic campus with plush lawns and gardens. There are three beautiful high-rise buildings and an excellent mall too. I called Saurabh, my ex-classmate at college, who lives nearby. He came there and we talked over lunch.

After Deepu’s interview, we went to Ramamurthy Nagar to meet some of my pals who work at call centers, for a few tips which Deepu would find useful. After a long time, we listened to some Floyd on their new speakers.

Returned via the Intermediate Ring Road and stopped at Vineesh’s place. We met Ghosh, an ex-college-senior who lives nearby. With him, we went to K. C. Das for meetha dahi, which was out of this world! Watched a part of The Gods must be crazy on TV at his place afterward, while I sliced vegatables and he cooked chicken. We had it with rice for a sumptuous dinner.

Got back to Vineesh’s house and watched Jogger’s Park on Vithal’s laptop, after which we crashed out for the night …

Nice quality day

Jan 1st was good. I went to Innovative Multiplex in Marthahalli. Ditched movie plans and had lunch with Mathew and the Dudes. Rode the bike back to BTM, which is where Vineesh stays, i.e. 15 km. Touched the 100 kph mark! Felt absolutely great 🙂 Got back home at night on Vithal’s Pulsar and gave it for repair today ‘cuz there was a problem with the gears. The revs weren’t catching. I found out it was cuz of the clutch. Here’s a tip: Make sure the clutch lever adjustment on your bike is right. The way Vithal’s was, riding a mere 60 km would screw the clutch plate for good! Which is what happened. Replacement cost: Rs.500. 😦 Today I exercised with the bullworker, like yesterday. Amma says exercise releases endorphins, which create a sense of well-being. Its true! Try it to believe it.