Nagaraholey

Yesterday, I had been to Nagaraholey for doing some real wild life photography. A single day was not long enough and I could not spot anything apart from deers and elephants. I happen to take a few pictures of some amazing flowers though, which can be found at this link.
Click here to see the picturesque of Nagaraholey and Irpu Falls.

The Road to El Dorado

"Abey dude bhees pandra dollars dekey bhachagaya, toh samjho woh miracle hai" a friend of mine said. He was commenting on the probable situation with the Indian Customs looking at the volume of my travel bags. My hand bag itself was weighing some 37 lbs, which excluded my laptop. All those small but heavy weights were inside my hand baggage (It was that 21" upright). The check-in bags put together was touching 100 lb mark.
"Dude tu ham sabko chodke jaa rahe ho" an another friend said.
It was those final moments on the day of my travel back to my home. I finally gave one hard long look at the house. Two of my friends together had to escort the toughest 65+ lb duffel to the car. I helped myself with the rest. Soon we were heading on the I-494 west towards the Lindberg terminal of the St.Paul/Minneapolis Airport. For the past year and a half I had been on this highway on innumerable occasions. It was the oesophagus for us to the outside world.

I had perfectly worked on the weight and balance of my cargo for the past two days. The duffel was showing 69.5 lbs while the other 29" upright showed 51 lbs. The check-in lady said,
"Alrighty, 51 lbs is okey, you got to pay a 25$ fee for the excess baggage for the other".
"That's fine".
It was delightful to see of my first hurdle getting cleared so easily. The bags were through checked in until Bangalore and there I was holding 4 boarding passes.

Afterwards, it was the Starbucks time. I had a lot of time until my first boarding and we (Deepak and Pradeep as well) thought of having something at the Starbucks. I had my final slurp of the Starbucks Cappuciono as I bid my final good bye to them and entered that security check. The officer at the entry of the security check point said,
"Sir, I'm gonna hold your boarding pass for now, you have been selected for a special security check. Go ahead and get it done and come back for your boarding pass!!!!".
He told that the higher level of security check was because my boarding pass to Atlanta had the special characters "SSS3" on the right most corner.
"What the hell!!!?"
Trust me, this is a sick check. I was double cross checked for any armed weapon despite the x-ray machine made no sound!. Every single item was opened from my hand bag and was certified!. I guess I gave that lady a tough job!. Remember, I had almost 20 kgs of gadgets in my hand bag!. Anyways, that manual check was very annoying. The aunty searched my bag thread by thread as though she was sure about the traces of opium or marijuana. She tried her lever best though. The closest one she could find was my sten gun like Canon 100-400mm IS USM lens :)
I was finally allowed to proceed.

I reached the Gate to find out the boarding was 40 minutes afterwards. I plugged in my iPod on to my ears. The boarding was on time. The journey was little haunting. As I flew past from Minneapolis to Atlanta, the memoirs of my good, bad and boring times of my stay at Eagan also flew past my mind.

The flight reached Atlanta in time but by that time I was very hungry. I grabbed some ghaas pooos for my lunch. I had it peacefully and reached the gate. Surprisingly, the gate was completely deserted by that time. There had been a pre-boarding of the flight. There was still about 1 hr for the flight's departure though. I was not at all late to the gate by any chance, I told myself. I boarded the flight and got my seat. The videos on my iPOd kept me busy for the next 2.5 hrs.

My next station was JFK. Soon after landing I realized that my next flight (the Emirates flight!) was on a different terminal.This meant a whole set of new security check!. I took the shuttle and reached the new terminal. As soon as I was near to entry point of the A-series gate to catch my next flight bound to Dubai, I could see only people from India or from Indian origin in the vicinity of atleast 100-200 yards. The atmosphere there was like in a Mumbai airport. I prepared myself for the next security check. I once again took the pain of removing all the accessories I was wearing reassembling it. I did not had to walk much after that as I was right in front of my A2 gate. I was eagerly waiting to get inside of the emirates flight. Everybody who had been on Emirates before had only good things to say about them. You know what they had in their mind ;) I had a lot of time to cover before the boarding. I had to do something. I thought of calling all the pals whom I had forgotten to say good bye :) I accumulated enough quarters from a near by kiosk. I made a few calls and very soon had ran out of quarters. I went again and bought a few more quarters. This time that lady was bit reluctant though. Soon enough the announcement was made for boarding. I finished my final call and returned to the boarding queue.

Boarding people inside Boeing 787 bus Which seemed a daunting task, was never to those guys. It was with full ease and patience they boarded everybody one by one. The ambiance inside the aircraft was very elegant and pleasing completely looked Middle eastern. The air hostesses were in a half Arab and half Western dress code. I made my way to my seat. Not surprisingly enough every seat had personal monitors. The speciality - these were the ones with touch screen!. Though I was half asleep by that time, I started playing around with this fancy panel. I had seen that personal monitors with that complex remote control (that should be pulled from beneath that arm rest). Touch screen was much better. It had a channel which would let you see the flight landing and take off through the live flight cameras!. I tested it, that never worked but the idea was good!. I continued my research further. The second noticeable feature - it had ability to send message to any other passenger sitting seated in the aircraft. That was innovative. The same thing reflected even in games section. The difference - it had the capability to let the passenger play a chess game or snooker or a trivia game not just only with the computer but with the other passengers seated elsewhere.
"Sir, Would you like to have something to drink?" a sexy stewardess interrupted.
"Can I have some white wine... please!!?".
She smiled and gave me a glass and can of Chardonnay white wine :).
So far so goood. I was beginning to like the Emirates flight. The next 11 hrs of my journey - I spent half in sleeping, half browsing and restlessly watching some movies. The 12 and half hour journey seemed to be much longer than it was. But the Sun seemed like doing is daily routines in a hurry as I kept track of him over the horizon. Within those 12 hours there had been a sunset, a sunrise and an other near sunset as I my flight was preparing for landing.

After reaching Dubai, a shuttle bus carried us all the way to the entry of the terminal which was followed by a severe security check. I did not had too much of transit time in Dubai and I had to rush to the gate. Shortly after 30 minutes the boarding onto the Bangalore bound flight had begun. So far so good. I had all admires for the emirates air. Until then all my flights were completely on time. My last and final flight was scheduled to leave at about 11 P.M. local
time and the clock showed 10:14 P.M. I had occupied my seat. I only remembered finding my seat and buckling myself with the seat belt. Very soon, I was in deep deep sleep.
"Did you know that this flight is not going now!!!!!??"
The guy seated next to me woke me up and said.At first I thought it was one of those pranks which we used to make during our college days when we used to travel in bus.
"Is it!!?" "Is there any problem!!??"
"Looks like there some technical problem and they have called for de-boarding!!"
"Oh Shit!!", "Not at this time!!".
I reached for all my hand baggage and moved towards the exit of the aircraft.Yet again, there was a shuttle bus waiting for to take us to the gates.I heard a kannada group in the shuttle expressing their anger on the emirates air and remembering how good was their Air Deccan flight.Not too very surprisingly, the bus carried us back to the entry point of the terminal where we had come from initially. So, again one complete round of painful severe security scan!.There was one Emirates representative standing and guiding particularly the de-boarded passengers from EK518 emirates flight.
"Hopefully, this is the last time???!!!!" I told her.
"I'm sorry Sir, this is the standard airport procedure!!!".
The replacement flight was scheduled to depart at 2 A.M. I did some surfing through my laptop as I waited for the boarding. Finally finally, the new carrier came and with a new set of Crew.My sleep had completely gone by that time. I had all praising for the Emirates air until I landed in Dubai, but within a span of 4-5 hrs I was fed up with
them. I spent my time of the rest of my journey to Bangalore watching this and that on the TV.
Close to 7 A.M it was when I landed at Bangalore. The final and biggest hurdle - Getting away from customs. I wrote "NIL" on that dutiable goods section on
the Immigration form. I dumped all three hand baggage of mine into the stroller of the x-ray scanner. Luckily enough, the guy ahead of me also had some three odd bags. The officer spot that and got busy dealing with him. The other aunty officer was half
asleep. It was the signal for me to pack my bags and escape from there.Next! - the baggage claim. It was a small belt and there were more maroon coloured uniformed guys than the passengers. Everybody wanted to help!.When the perimeter of the baggage claim belt got crowded with the uniformed and non-uniformed guys along with their carts, two guys mean time were busy marking the "cross" marks on the big and the heavier bags. Bigger bag meant something for the customs to watch out for. They were throwing bags like bricks on to the belt. As this went on for about next 15-20 minutes, the bags got juxtaposed horizontally and one over the other, while a few started to pop off of the belt. It was at this time when the belt suddenly showed no motion, when the lever still happened to make a prolonged creaky sound. This was followed by fumes coming from beneath the belt. The smell of rubber was all over place. That was the least thing that was expected!. There were still a lot of passenger waiting for the bags. This was followed by lots of unnecessary shouting, anger, frustration as people started to climb and walk over the belt. I had almost lost hopes of finding my bags in that mess. It was then a blue coloured bag came out of the slider. So it was one down, one to go. It was almost close to
8:15 A.M when I was myself pretty sure that my other bag was missing.
"This is all we have got!!" An official too confirmed.
There were plenty of people like me wondering about their bags. I waited for my turn in the queue to fill up the form for my missing bag. I still had to cross the customs. I had enough items loaded in my bags that I had to catch an average custom's officer's eye. I walked out of the airport with great courage as there were lots of eyes falling on my cart. It was like walking past the green channel just like a smuggler.

Once I came out of the airport there was a sense of accomplishment, a feeling of having found a treasure in the legendary El Dorado city.

I met my bros and my Dad and sat inside the car. We were supposedly heading towards Mysore. The driver interrupted and said,
"Saaar, Mysoorige ivattu hoda hangeney road poorti block aagidey!" (Sir, It will be a miracle if we reach Mysore today. The road has been blocked!).

Hansika

The latest pencil work of mine. She is Hansika Motwani in Desamudrudu. For the first time I was trying on an A1 size sheet and for the first time it was from head to toe. Oh man, I was scratching my pencils on this desk from past three weeks every night trying to make it better and better. Yesterday I put some extra efforts and managed to finish it.

Those five lessons to learn from a humble pencil.
1. It tells you that everything you do will always leave a Mark.
2. You can always try and correct the mistake you make.
3. The important thing in life is what you are from inside and not from out side.
4. In life you will undergo painful sharpening which will make you better in whatever you do.
5. Finally, to be the best you can be, you must allow yourself to be held and guided by the hand that holds you.

The story of a Picture

Somewhere in the last month when it was a rainy weekend, I had plenty of time. I did not knew what to do then. I was thinking of doing something different which could keep me busy for both the days. At that time, I remembered an age old of picture of my friends from skool, which I had committed with them to potray, around hmmm.. three years ago. I had carried this picture all the way to Beijing with the intensions of sketching and those 5 months went in a flash. Even Priya & Venu had followed me to China in pursuit of this sketch and despite after Pri's many pop-up reminders I could only escape by asking for a few more months of time. I had the fears of doing the same thing even in my one and a half year (and still going strong) stay in U.S. But it was not the case when I got into form this time and could complete.

Pri, thanks for waiting for so long :)
I will hand over the original when I'm back home :)

Thanks-giving Mela

It has been a very long time since I have put anything in my blog. Thought would share my experience about thanks giving sale. The holidays were brilliant, I just relaxed at home. Unlike last year, even after almost a week after thanks-giving it is not snowing yet. The weather channel reported that it was the record high temperatures since 1905. Snowing was thus ruled out. Lucky enough were the guys who had camped all night in front of those Best Buys or Circuit Citys. I guess even an earth quake would not have stopped them from attacking the shops as early as it opened to bag those huge Plasma TV's being sold for more than 1000$ less or a 500 GB phantom hard disk being sold for meager 69$ or a gigabyte of thumb drive for just 3$. I had no intensions of camping all night, but had determined to getup early. Weather or getting up early would not have intervened with my addiction to buy a new gadget in anyway. The only factor that was inhibiting me was doing a “second round” of shopping for similar gadgets as my knapsack has already reached high watermark levels. Yet, I had a small list of *to buy items*. I was all set to wake-up at very early morning to start my thanks-giving shopping spree. So were all my roomies.

Somebody had dropped a bagful of advertisements at our door, the previous night. We were badly in need of that. After doing a combined research, our approach, our priorities, the order and time of entering the shops were made.
My manager had told me that he would pick us up and had precisely given a wake-up call at 4.15 A.M. Despite that, I just couldn’t miss the last few minutes of (lazy) sleep until I heard the second wake-up call about 10 minutes later ;-). I could hear my roomie answering the call. Soon after that we were all geared up in proper winter attire from head to toe.

By 4:45 AM we were at Wal-Mart. The parking lot which seemed like a barren land the previous day was completely swamped. People were finding it difficult to find an empty parking space to throw their car. They were rushing towards the tail of the queue from all directions. We were given an additional catalogue for the whereabouts of the items in the shop at site. Sharply at 5 A.M the shop was opened. The queue was long enough and after little bit of struggle to withstand the chilly winds, we could make an entry. It was not as bad and as delightful as getting a seat on a bus going from Mysore to Mandya. After New York visit, it was the first time I saw such a phenomenal crowd in Wal-Mart and in our Eagan Halli. Shoppers were on a rush. Almost all aisles were clogged with people and their carts were overloaded. Amidst all these we were running aimlessly in the shop. I could not find what I wanted though I was so early to the shop. My friends could manage to sneak in a few in their list. By 5.15 A.M all of us were out. We walked past to the adjacent Kohls. Kohls which is famous for marketing gimmicks of putting huge retail prices on tag along with a wide discount margin, this day was showing upto 70% discounts. A price tag for an ordinary 29" luggage bag showed 329$ with a brilliant 65% discount to come down to yet unrealistic price of 115$. I laughed at that and moved to the apparel section. I was looking for few exceptional ones. I was saturated in buying T’s or jeans and was not in anyway thinking of buying them just because it was cheaper. This saturation was not because I had enough but because my cup-board is filled way beyond limits and I’m sure I have to pay for excess baggage on my return to India. I was still wondering whether it was this determination of mine or it was that the shop did not have any good ones that day. I could just find the boots that I was looking for - the last thing which was on my list.

The same scene were followed at Best Buy, Office Max and Old Navy. All of us came out empty ended. I was just wondering that our usual shopping would have been better and happier. It was 10:10 AM and we were completely tired and restless. We decided against going to any other shops on our list. I was cursing myself for ruining my morning sleep. I badly wanted a coffee. I had fabulous brew at Caribou Coffee, reached home and dozed off to mark the end of my fantasy with the thank-giving sale.

Shadows of Light

Taking pictures have become passion for me ever since I bought my Canon A80 about 2 years ago. One of my friends was teasing me that I saw the whole of Newyork only through the view finder.
I have shared some of the photographs that appealed to me in a seperate blog.
Your comments and suggestions are most valuable!.

The Charming Princess

I could do a very little justification for her ravishingly delightful looks. Drawing her sketch was one of my weekend work. For the first time, I have given more prominence in drawing her hairs and eyes. Her pictures used to reside in my chemistry and physics lab records long long ago. I searched for one of those missing pictures on the net, but in vain. The original picture of this sketch was the best one that came close to that rare old collection and here she is.

Parting Gift

23 Hour Sunday!!

I saw my alarm. It was 12:32 PM on a Sunday morning!. The room had become very warm. The sun rays were getting diffused from from the tiny gaps between window shutters. I was sleeeping still. I was very reluctant to get up. I had been playing a "Need for speed" cousin "Mid Night Club 2" with my new cordless gamepad on my PS2 yesterday, oh!!.., rather early morning today, and till what time, I donno!. May be until 5 AM.

I was lazy enough to get up. I tried to simulate some amount of darkness by covering me under my bedspread. It was making me more hot. I was trying to somehow make myself believe that I had some more sleep left for that day. I kept myself under those covers. I could listen to that latest Shakira's song "Hips, don't lie" being played on our TV outside my room. That made me completely awake. I jumped from my bed to reach the hall. Oh man!!.. her "hips" really dont lie.. and I'm just crazy to see her hip dancing!!!... Her song goes like this... "My hips tell me where and when I should move. And my hips don't lie - my hips tell me the truth"....
I joined the party in the hall to see Shakira. Lazily, we continued to watch a few more songs on MTV 2.

Just then, somebody spotted the time on the TV Cable Setup Box. My friend said "Dude, it is 2 PM, we shall have some breakfast!!"... 2PM!!... The LCD was showing 1:56. 25 Mins ago it was 12:32 and that was the time I woke up!. I checked the time with an another watch lieing there. It showed 12:56. Then I realized, it was April 2. No, no.. you are wrong.. nobody was playing April fool games on me. The day light savings had just been applied. It begins on the first Sunday of the April at 2AM. I got this info later from google. So the time was infact 1:30 PM when I had woke up!.

I was cursing the US Energy Commission for having secretly applied the Day Light Savings. This actually meant a 23 hour Sunday to me. Yes, I just had 23 hrs, this Sunday. The shortest Sunday in my life. Frankly, this was not a complete surprise to me, as, 6 months ago, when I had the longest Sunday, (which I never realized then) when the day light savings for the last year was removed. I guess, we humans dont discern until we loose something.

And the positive part of the Day Light Saving for me is - I will be nearer to India by an hour - and for the next six months!!.

I guess just as sunflowers turn their heads to catch every sunbeam, so too these people have discovered a simple way to get more from the sun. They have learnt to save energy and enjoy sunny summer evenings by switching their clocks forward by an hour!!.

Inches away from a collision

It was a Friday night. Nothing seemed to have worked in the office.
I was thinking of coming back to work again on Saturday.
I went down to meet my roommates in the Smoking area outside the office. I took the keys of my car from my friend. I had learnt car driving from scratch here. It is no big deal learning a car here as the transmission is automatic (in most of the cars). If you could steer the car and if you are aware of the traffic rules, then you are done.

I sat inside my car and put on my seat belts. I ignited the engine. I waited a few minutes until the battery got heated up. The battery goes into a kinda comma here because of the severe cold. A couple of times we even had taken help of a jump start!. It seems like the freezing winter wont get over at all. Yet again it had snowed yesterday. After a couple of minutes, I removed the hand breaks, shifted the gear from "Parking" to "Reverse". I started steering the car to its left when the car was getting out from the parking space. Then I thought I have moved as much backwards as I could have and felt that I could drive my way. At that time what was going on in my mind I dont know. My work was tiresome and without any luck. I was not thinking about anything. I was feeling that my limbs had gone numb on a long days work.

I could see outside from the window, some Hexaware guys grouped together to decide on something. It was at this juncture that I shifted the gear from "Reverse" to "Drive". Without even I could realise in the coming moments that what was happening, the car was going at its maximum speed to hit a gorgeous navy blue coloured Ultima. In a nick of a time, I hit the brakes as hard as I could. Sckreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetch...............................................
That sound would scare anybody. It scared the hell out of me. It was audible for the hexaware guys who had gathered meters away. The screeching sound had got their complete attention. My room mates inside the car were dumbstuck. So was I.

The car had just kissed the navy blue Utima! in style!!. There was just an inch of gap!. I just had attempted a wheely in my Nissan Centra!. I still cant believe myself why the hell I had hit the gas so hard. I could not find a justification too.
I guess I survived a major collision and further my future plans of going back to India.