Don't Panic!!

Hatiku gembira

2012-01-24T16:32:00.001+05:30

Old indonesian song. Means my heart is happy...exalted!!

Biking

2011-12-28T10:54:00.001+05:30

Biking is my new found hobby. Bought a hardtail mtb and have been regular for the last two weeks. The biggest plus is that i get up at 5 and get to see the sun rise. So far so good. Lets see how long i continue this.

On a different note i bought a kawasaki er6n. Its a 650cc motor bike. Like it.

Being healthy!

2011-08-17T09:38:00.000+05:30

Wise words abt health and wealth in a south sumatran restaurant.

Climbing mount agung in bali!

2011-08-17T09:37:00.000+05:30

Planning to hike mount agungg in bali, anyone game?

Good things in life!

2011-08-17T09:35:00.000+05:30

Ofcourse nothing like a cup of coffee to start the day!

And nothing like the fact that someone is waiting for you back home!

Hang on!

2011-05-07T12:20:00.000+05:30

Kepiting lada hitam

2011-05-01T20:40:00.000+05:30

Kerang saus padang

2011-05-01T20:39:00.000+05:30

Life saviour in lampung.

2011-01-10T13:46:00.000+05:30

Bright knight

2011-01-10T13:37:00.000+05:30

Riding high!

2011-01-10T13:36:00.000+05:30

2010-11-09T19:50:00.002+05:30

what if i had shared my living time with Hitler??? reading about him everyday.... watching him everyday on TV...... the mere knowledge that you are sharing the earth with Hitler!!! hahahah....

interesting thought..... would i have been interested in his political views? would i have been against him or for him??? its a far fetched thought.....

or are there any like him now in this world???

married and happy!!

2010-11-04T18:06:00.002+05:30

a decision that can be irreversible.... i got married.... im officialy not single and cannot mingle!! :(.

got married on july 25th in indonesia and had the second wedding ceremony in india on aug 22nd.

so far so good..... getting to eat idli in indonesia..... not because i got married...but cos of the new maid.....

Racing against time. Background - bali rice fields.

2010-06-25T14:49:00.000+05:30

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2010-06-23T14:30:00.000+05:30

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Sleepy

2010-03-18T00:01:00.001+05:30

In jakarta for a meeting. Its 1 30 in the night. Sleepy.

Regards,
Vijay

bandung trip!!

2010-02-12T19:13:00.001+05:30

photos from Bandung trip!

2010-02-12T16:56:00.005+05:30

to my only fan -siti. here are the photos.

bandung beauty

traffic!

parked in no parking!

local mix of mcd n kfc

2010-01-30T08:28:00.000+05:30

bandung trip - part2!

2010-01-26T12:05:00.002+05:30

......the night.... i can rate as one of my wildest after all those drinking binges in Delhi..... slept till 10... got up had breakfast.... i love the breakfast in these star hotels....thats the best part.....

then we were on our way to ciwidek to do water rafting after a 300,000 taxi ride and numerous putarbaliks we found the place..... "arung jeram" indonesian for river rapids....... we set on for a 2 and a half hour rafting course at 3 after ayam kampung lunch..... it was good.... though this is not my first rafting experience..... 2 passengers and 3 guides... we were given paddles just to make us feel useful...though we didnt do much of paddling... the ciwidek river is rocky and shallow with lots of rapids and a 3 m fall from a dam... thats were i got my red indian scar on my face... the boat just folded when it fell down the dam....and i was thrown over on people..... they had even arranged for a guy who will photograph you from various vantage points.... awesome.... we finished the course at about 6... and were dropped by the good hearted guides in Bandung.....on their bikes..... went straight to the bandung bus terminal...bought tickets to MErak... we were both hungry and the sweet thought of burger king made us take a halt in jakarta.....

after 2 burgers each..... all we wanted to do was get back to lampung on time to work on monday..... went to the bus terminal in jakarta...enquired for a bus to merak....alas!! sudah habis....jam 12 nggak ada lagi!! so took a taxi to merak...caught a ferry to bakauheni and then took an angkutan to lampung....reached home at 5 AM monday....

so we started at 5 PM saturday in lampung and finished ou trip at 5 AM monday in Lampung... in between we did wild partying, river rafting, bike ride in cold weather, burger king, lots of socializing....... thats called TIME MANAGEMENT.

pics in the next post

bandung trip!

2010-01-25T19:21:00.001+05:30

a couple of weeks back I and a colleague of mine took an impromptu decision to do something on the weekend. so we planned to go to Bandung (3 hrs from jakarta)...this planning happened at 11 in the night on the friday and next day morning booked the last flight to jakarta.

this flight to jakarta would be my most horrifying flight experience so far..... one should understand first the way people travel from lampung to jakarta...1. u take a flight for 20 mins to jakarta 0r 2. u drive down to the tip of sumatra, bakauheni and take a ferry to the port in java (merak) for 2 hours and drive down to jakarta... the flight b/w jakarta and lampung is always full of surprises and a few bumps.... the flight takes off attains its maximum elevation and prepares for landing immediately. the flight path is a simple triangle in 2D.

we reached jakarta at about 7 in the night...took a private travel mini van to lampung for 125k per person... and reached bandung by 11.... put our bags in the hotel and immediately took off to celebrate "welcome to bandung on a malam minggu"...went to a place called score where i was allowed entry inspite of me wearing sandals......the place was quite....we finished our welcome glass beer and a pitcher.... left the place as it had no life even at 12....

then enquired about more happening places around and found about this place called amnesia..... took a taxi in search of amnesia....the place was crowded...i was allowed entry and the mean age of the place would have been 20 thanks to me and my friend...otherwise it would have been 19.... booze was flowing freely....none in the crowd seem to be sober....especially the girls..... they were rocking ....rocking real hard.... the place was happening.....

we ordered bacardi or smirnoff... dont remember.... one lead to another and we had already finished 2 bottles... thanks to the crowd which gathered around us owing to my generosity.... we finished partying by 5 in the morning... took a taxi back to the hotel.....

My god!

2010-01-22T17:40:00.000+05:30

Regards,
Vijay

dolphin tour 2010 - part 2!!

2010-01-04T13:50:00.004+05:30

Mr sulaiman! our boatman! with an unfortunate biyawak which had a vague long tailed fish in his hand.

ready for the boat ride

kilauan village beach front

the man who offered a place to sleep

trumpeting 2010!

pics from the dolphin trip!!

dolphin tour - 2010!!!!

2010-01-04T10:08:00.016+05:30

Wanted to spend the new year eve alone with my gal away from the hustle and bustle of a city!!! so as i heard from an acquaintance about this beach place where you can see DOLPHINS!! yes, DOLPHINS! the funny ones which live in water, jump through a loop in aqua world shows areound the world. The friendly cute creatures with a snout for a nose.

So we set off at about 12 in the afternoon, on the way had tongseng kambing (mutton soup) and sate kambing for lunch. stopped on the way in a public beach called KLARA (Kelapa Rapat) for a dip in the sea but settled for a boat ride around a nearby island. we enquired more about this place of DOLPHINS in klara, our boat driver said, yes its about two hrs from here and you have places there to stay for the night. so we set off at about 3 o clock to TELUK KILAUAN.

It was more like a roller coaster ride navigating the roads of Lampung. a 20 km stretch of muddy potholed roads made sure that my car needed a double session at a car wash. We enquired in PASAR BAWANG about the whereabouts of kilauan bay. surprise! surprise! a bawang resident advised us to take an ojek to kilauan rather than driving down. he said even his 4WD toyota hardtop cannot climb to the village. that sounds interesting, where do i park my car if i take an ojek.... so i thought let me atleast drive down to the nearest place to Kilauan. thats what i did, climbing up a hill on a muddy newly laid path with traces of past landslides. ITs turning out to be a crazy adventure. wait! this is not adventure, compared to what lay ahead.

after climbing up this muddy trench along the way negotiating our own heart which was asking us to go back home, we reached a place which probably hardly sees any civilization, there i saw a small board pointing the way to Kilauan - a steep downhill rocky climb intersected by too many streams, and only 3 KM. I drove this entire 3 KM stretch in the first gear and with my heart in my mouth beating loud enough to echo in the mountains!!!

atlast we reached and found out there is no such thing called cottages or resorts or five star hotels or wisma in this place. Hence had to stay in the kind hearted Balinese LURAH (village head man)and was also invited for a fireworks and new year party of a visiting politician. we had dinner at the lurah's house and discussion on religion, india, bollywood, ispektur vijay. I knew that this is going to be a long night.after a long chat with the enthusiastic locals on why I am here (to see the dolphins) we were suggested to stay the night there, watch the dolphins in the morning and leave the next day afternoon. when u are surronded by villagers in a foreign unknown village u have no other choice but listen to them. no electricity, no cell phones...in a way ppl there live cut off from civilization as I know!

and a nagging frightened gal with u is not of any help anyways.

so strolled a bit on the beach, watched the fireworks and then called it a day at 3:30 am on 1/1/10. probably my first time where i stayed awake so late and not had a single drop of liquor!

i was offered a place to sleep in the main hall of the lurah's house. very ind of his family. and my sleep was interrupted at 5 am thanks to the crowd in the house.

Mr sulaiman the man who was going to guide/drive us to the place where we can see dolphins were there at sharp 6 30. surprise! the tiniest boat in the world was to be our ride!!! no! thank you! but cannot go back all the way without seeing the dolphins!! so i thought i will go alone! but women! u know! how illogical they can be!! atleast i think so!! so the three of us sat in the tiny boat negotiated through the waves.... crossed the bay and entered the huge open waters.... could see the famous krakatau volcano island, met a boat coming back to the mainland from the sea, when enquired the guy in the boat was frightened in the waters and wanted to go back to dry land!!! thank you! that was very encouraging!!

now sulaiman breaks the news saying that the boat is probably not fit for sailing as its support structure according to him is not good!! so we turn back, stop on dry land and repair the boat. once again we started of tho see the dolphins! this time changed our direction to join the dolphin chasers from Jakarta.

after sailing for 3 hours on arduous waters and one sighting of a huge sea tortoise we could see the three boats of Jakartans circling around on the ater. once we neared them then we knew that there were 100s of dolphins there. jumping and splashing and somersaulting. It was a sight to watch. lumba lumba! dia suka bercanda!! as the politician told me the previous night. it was euphoria!! no words can describe how i felt then!! managed to click some photos in my new nikon d 90 even though the boat was shaky and it was splashes of water everywhere.

my only loss was my blackberry which got wet during the boat ride. i dont know why i carried it on the boat in the first place.

here are some pics from the trip.

Kelapa Rapat -coconuts!

kelapa rapat! the island!

Kilauan Bay!

Jakarta!

2009-12-23T12:39:00.001+05:30

Erstwhile batavia! Its raining day and night in jakarta now, hence wading through the alrady overcrowded roads even more difficult.

For the untrained jakarta can be a nightmare in terms of traffic. People send hours on road to get to work from home on a normal day.

One in fact gets time to finish a 300 page novel on a single drive!

I'm reading 'the lost symbol' of Dan Brown.

Holiday season in jakarta!

2009-12-21T16:32:00.000+05:30

Just landed at the jakarta airport for a couple of meetings in the next 2 - 3 days here. Unlike my earlier memories of the place it was empty! I could get a blue bird taxi without waiting in a q for some 15 mins.

Then I asked the blue bird guy, 'what's wrong? Kenapa sepi? (Why is it so quite?)'. It looks like all the jakarta dwellers are flying out of jakarta to enjoy the holiday season, hence sepi in the arrivals part of the terminal. Hmm! Interesting, I can have jakarta all for myself for the next two days.

Karaoke!

2009-12-20T19:16:00.001+05:30

Karaoke!

A major concept in Indonesia or probably even in the whole of south east asia. I heard japanese love karaoke. Its second only to massage parlours here. One can become an all round singer in there. Starting from beatles to indonesian dangdut.

I wasn't a great fan of karaokes till last year, but once you have the right company and the right amount of confidence to sing in front of people, you will be hooked to it.

One can install a karaoke system at home and practice his vocal chords! But the fun is in going to the karaoke parlours where you have almost all songs known to man karaokeized. There are two kinds of karaoke parlours, one where u can go with you family and the other where your family is a strict no no.

Right now I'm karaokeing some tamil songs which I would have dared not to sing anywhere!
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durian!!!

2009-12-19T16:21:00.002+05:30

durian! its a fruit....its stinking..... you faint..... then thats Durian!

durian....a fruit must be the singlemost powerful reason for expat population in many south east asian countries remain under a check. I used to wonder in my initial years in Indonesia.... how one can stand the fruit?? i thought i wouldnt eat it even if somebody pays me to eat it....100$ per fruit.... oh my god! what a mistake it was!! 24 years spent without knowing about durian....

its absolutely delicious....and expensive as well... u know, when compared its older cousin Mr. Jack fruit, its definitely expensive..... you will be hooked iam telling you...

The durian — neither Wallace or Darwin agreed on it.
Darwin said "may your worst enemies be forced to feed on it."
Wallace cried "it's delicious."
Darwin replied "I'm suspicious",
For the flavour is scented
Like papaya fermented
After a fruit-eating bat has pee'd on it.

drink bEeR!

2009-12-19T16:08:00.001+05:30

Beer as you might see...is supposed to be one of my favourites. And here is the reason....

A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo, and when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells, but naturally it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. That's why you always feel smarter after a few beers.

2009-12-19T15:45:00.001+05:30

i know, it is crazy, this is going to be my record, some "n" posts in one day!!

save the world!!

2009-12-19T15:44:00.000+05:30

after effects of watching the movie "2012"

We don't have to save the world. The world is big enough to look after itself. What we have to be concerned about is whether or not the world we live in will be capable of sustaining us in it.

another classic DNA!

we are sk(r)ewed

2009-12-19T15:41:00.001+05:30

The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be!!

Its a classic DNA quote!

I just watched 2012!!! real unhappy I am!! im not married yet!

Bekam

2009-12-19T14:55:00.000+05:30

Bekam or blood letting is an ancient technique to cure various illnesses by taking out poisonous blood from the surface of skin. I got it done once on my back. Here is a pic. Scary isn't it? I had to put up with red coloured circles for almost a month after that. It wasn't painful.

Vespas of indonesia

2009-12-19T14:38:00.000+05:30

One thing that you notice in indonesia on a malam minggu(sat'day night) is the extra number of motor bikes on the roads! When I was in palu, it would take me 15 mins to travel the 500 mt stretch of pantai(beach) road. In makassar the same distance used to take 1 hour at times. Thanks to the 100's and 1000's of motorbikes parked on either side of the roads!

there are yamaha clubs, honda clubs, clubs based on the brand, then there are the ones with the white color motorcycles. Then there are the ones with these tiny stars on their motorcycles. Its a no gender discrimination phenomena, though the male domination is about 99.999%.

In lampung I have even seen a weirdo's club where everyone is a proud owner of wierd, non standard motorbike/scooter/whatever it is.

The more pseud ones like the ninja club and harley club do not participate in this malam minggu madness!

I had plans to join one of these pseud clubs! But still looking for an opportune moment.
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I did it!

2009-12-19T14:22:00.001+05:30

Ha ha. I did it! Posted from my mobile phone! Wow! Awesome!

First mobile post!

2009-12-19T14:20:00.001+05:30

Fingers crossed!

This might be my first mobile post from my mobile phone!

rap da da dee da......

2009-12-19T13:48:00.002+05:30

hello,....hellooo..... long time no see....

this entry doesn't mean that I am totally jobless or something.... im totally busy....slogging...but i can always take out some time to write a post, once in a year.... my last post was almost a year back..... about lake toba in north Sumatra...the beautiful scenic volcanic crater lake..... i swam like a dolphin there... and got drunk like a turtle (do they drink?).....

now i am in south Sumatra, Lampung....not very far from Jakarta... infact i just have to take a 2 hour ferry to Jakarta..... there is krakatau on the way... the famous volcano which exploded in 1883..... it must be awesome to be living surrounded by volcanoes... Lampung is famous for its Sumatran elephants....they look like baby Indian elephants.... I even managed to see a Sumatran tiger....

have been travelling a lot... traveled to one Pulau SEram in East Indonesia.... to Bangka island in sumatra.... and to 100 other beautiful places....

Samosir island on Lake Toba!!!

2009-02-05T12:22:00.002+05:30

Beauty at the end of a disaster!! the volcanic eruption that created this crater lake of Toba was supposed to be the largest and the most disastrous eruption in history - happened 25k years ago and wiped out probably the then "homo sapiens". Homo sapiens came into existence some 400,000 years ago....

the lake is in North Sumatra - the homeland of Batak people.

It was quite amazing to read how the lake was formed. My understanding of the lake formation is depicted in the following badly done paint drawing -

Happie nu yr!!!

2009-01-16T08:50:00.000+05:30

Another year gone......another 12 months just passed by.....another 365 days just got spent in complete chaos..... well not always chaos...but yes....most of it....

Spent the new year eve alone in lampung.... went to this place called lembah hijau in lampung.... a picnic spot for kids....what was i doing there??? grilled corn.....had nasi padang and came bak home by 10:30 to sleep by 11:00 clock....

no resolutions made..... anyways dont follow them so why go through the process of making one....

Life in Sumatra!!

2008-12-10T09:29:00.000+05:30

Got transfered to take care of business in Sumatra starting aug 08. So thats my official first transfer in my job. sumatra is probably the largest island in Indonesia. Im based out of the third largest city of Indonesia - Medan (North Sumatra), and travel often to Bandar Lampung (south Sumatra) and Padang (west Sumatra).

Medan has a lot of Indian population (not indians but indonesians) who probably came here as plantation workers or escaped from Andaman islands. So no problem for indian food not being available in indonesia.

After taking over in sumatra - i traveled to ACEH, NIAS and other areas in north and wet Sumatra..... ideally shud have traveled a lot more but had to stay put in Medan cos of season, settling down in new place etc....

two weeks back i traveled to an island called NIAS in the western coast of Sumatra as we found out that this island grows lots of cocoa.. we drove down to the international airort of Medan - Polonia and were awaiting for the flight to take off... after a long wait (which is normal in indonesia, u spend more time in the airport than in the flight itself) we were asked to board a bus which will take us to the flight.... we knew that the flight is a 20 seater and were betting on every small plane that we saw in the airport that this would be our plane..... I have heard of lots of scary stories about these box planes and what with the rainy weather nowadys in Sumatra, but the flight wasn't scary at all.... and the landing was just perfect.....

"an idle mind + a 2mp camera = dark arbit photographs"

the bus ride in the airport was a long one....wait they were not taking us to the normal place....but they took us to a special parking lot of small carriers.... looked like a parking lot which can hold about 50 cars....there were 10 small carriers parked there....we boarded our flight.... all u have to do is...climb one step and u are inside the plane.....

there were two air hostesses...pretty...

Reached Nias in the afternoon....our agenda was to meet one guy and thats it.....no other work..... and our return flight was next day afternoon.... Thot that there will be lots of time to explore gunung Sitoli (capital of Nias)...alas...it was raining the whole day....so we had to stay put in our sea side hotel with a pack of ciggies...thats it...

2008-06-13T18:19:00.000+05:30

yes! its almost two years since i bid goodbye to a life which used to start at 11 in the afternoon and went on till 3 am in the morning. good ol college!! two years since in indonesia...eventfull...learning experience......wiser...dumber....heavier and less creative... have seen things which were a strict no no in india...havent seen things which were a big yes yes in india.....

if i have to list down some of the major changes....

1. getting up atleast by 9 AM except on sundays.
2. my lungs are crying louder than ever..... i can hear them now as im taking the last puff of this last ciggarette of the day.
3. Some of my long distance travels i do are only to buy a cup of curd!! (a big change for a curd hate club member)
4. Can watch Charlie's Angels an extra n times without even trying to understand the movie!
5. Going to a movie hall and watching two indonesian movies back to back without any company!! ( had always considered that watching hindi movies in a movie hall was a big economic waste)
6. a sudden love for finance topics!!
7. not so witty anymore!! (was i witty anyways???)

list of no-changes -

1. Love for sleep.
2. can still play 1 hr of basketball. (not bad! my lungs are still working)
3. no breakfast.
4. Heavy lunch.
5. Still lying to my mom abt the breakfast i had in the morning

Lebaran holidays!!!

2007-10-26T09:48:00.000+05:30

Its exactly a month after my previous come back post.... well...nothing much happened in this one month...except for that i am in Palu, Central Sulawesi and was jobless for about 10 days due to ramzan festivities...took this opportunity to fly down to Manado, North Sulawesi.

The reputation of this place is best explained by the 5 B's - Bubur Manado, Bibir Manado, Bunaken, Boulevard and Bankrupt. Bubur manado is a local breakfast dish made of cereals etc, bibir mando - pls do google search, Bunaken is a famous diving spot, Boulevard is a most happening part of the city and Bankrupt - well u go to mandao once, then u will know. Got to experience everything except for Bunaken. And yes, i had to file bankrupcy when i reached back palu.

Visited Manado to say goodbye to one of my colleagues who is leaving indonesia for good.... drove down to a place called Tondano after lunch..... there is a huge lake in the midst of hills....was quite a view from the lakeside restaurant where we stopped by..... and this palce has natural hot springs all over the place.... thanks to the active/inactive volcanoes spread all over this part of the world.... there are places where they have built bathing pits (ofcourse inside a room) where u can bathe as much as u want to in the natural hot spring water..... these places even serve grilled corn.... the place where i went was pretty decent....but one has to carry his own towel....as DNA says in H2G2G. the Bath costed me 1$. exchanged a couple of cans of beer for a local wine.was quite an experience.

will see if i can upload a few pics....

saya kembali!!

2007-09-26T19:13:00.000+05:30

The title in bahasa indonesia means "i'm back".... yes im back from india and now in indonesia.... and i hope that this time i stay longer before i go into hibernation again!!!

It can be speculated that my combing back can be attributed partly to my new laptop whose battery stays longer than the previous namesake laptop.... or could it be cos i jus got inspired by a girl's blog to restart my own blog.....or could it be cos that i feel jobless as it is offseason....or could it be cos i have lots of time in the nights now unlike two months back when i was busy partyin......or cud it be cos....well there could be some n reasons.... who cares??

hey!! this post is just to say that im back....alive and kicking in the cyberworld....

so long and thanks for all the fish (well i definitely had lots of wish in indonesia in this last one year)!! watch out for my next post!

2007-01-03T10:10:00.000+05:30

A good sense of direction, an eye which can catch all the alien road signs and the knowledge to decode the alien road signs....and ofcourse an SUV....is all what u need to venture out on the roads of Makassar on a rainy night!!!

Makassar is the provincial capital of South Sulawesi....for all practical reasons it can be called the capital of Sulawesi island...

Well coming back to hitting the roads on a rainy night....all the above mentioned do not help!! its the parking guy, becak guy (indonesia rickshaw) and anak jalan (16 yr old kid with a guitar playing assorted kind of music) who helps you!!

So far my experience has been very pleasant given that i get to sit inside an SUV and not inside a pete-pete....Pete-petes are a kind of indonesian public transportation which are roughly equal to Indian share autos...they roughly follow brownian motion and what goes on a pete pete driver's mind can only be guessed by a scientist working on random variables and probability distribution....it is highly improbable that a pete pete on any given day doesnt knock off one of the anak culia (college kid) of his motor bike.....

Another form of famed indonesian road public transportation is Ojek....Ojek's are two wheeled taxis....these two wheelers look like our scooty in india.... these are the most comfortable and the most dangerous kind of transportation available in Indonesia....can take to any nook and corner of your desired destination and are very easy to find as well.....they dont even follow brownian motion....they most probably assume that they live in a world of 4 dimensions or maybe even a n dimensional world...where n is greater than 6...

And yes ofcourse air transportation and water transportation are other forms of favorite transportations here.... what with flights to villages located atop a hill...where the only other available mode of transportation are ponies!!

so much for the transportation systems!!!

first flight!!

2006-12-01T22:09:00.000+05:30

i boarded an aeroplane for the first time in my life with a bandaged left hand, an upset tummy and a badly bruised body....that was a semi sponsored ticket on airsahara from delhi to bombay for my summer project in 2005 summer.... was quite an experience.....

could not figure out how to belt myself to the chair....hmmm...afterall im not an engineer but an IITian.... had to seek help from the old lady who was sitting next to me....

when the air stewardess offered me grub....i politely refused and had asked for some fruits and some more juice....the look on the stewardess's face can be roughly translated as " probably this is the first time this dud is travelling on a plane...and thinks that he will have to pay for the food".....

well that was my first flight....

the second time when i flew was...when i came back to delhi from bombay....i managed to get a ticket in spicejet for 720 bucks....this was even better....as an veteran of one flight I thought it is prudent enough to start to the airport atleast 3 hrs before the schedule... reached the airport in 20 minutes....the airline staff was astonished to see me more than punctual.... i spent the 2 and a half hours making my project report.... on board...it was morelike a route bus ride from salem to erode... with kids jumping around all around me and hawkers selling peanuts (read steward distributing haldiram mini packets...hey! it was supposed to be a no frills flight)...with me changing seats to oblige to the elderly lady or the lady who wanted to sit next to her sister in law so that they can discuss aloo matter recipe.... the taxi ride from the airport to my friend's place in Gurgaon is a story in itself....lesson learnt that day was never land in Delhi airport if you dont have minimum 500 bucks in your wallet or if you dont have anyone waiting in the airport to pick u up.... and also never have pangga with delhi airport's taxi drivers even if u had learnt karate for 9 years and u are a black belt holder or even if you are a singa tamizhan!!

Almost a year later....i got my chance to fly again....this time to singapore...to join my first job....this time on a singapore airlines flight....fully equipped with inflight entertainment system... two course meal...and unlimited supply of booze.... was a totally differeent experience... flying across seas....nothing much happened... no lessons learnt...

my fourth flight was to Jakarta for my origin posting and my home away from home for years to come...singapore airlines again....this time an empty flight..... lesson learnt.....singapore airlines is good!!!

then started my innumerous flight within indonesia......jakarta to Lampung....Lampung to jakarta.....jakarta to Medan...medan to jakarta....jakarta to Makassar....makassar to jakarta....makassar to kendari....kendari to makassar... its a pleasure travelling in indonesia....what with you flying above a volcano or all the green coral island one can see from the plane...or what with the flight stopping midway on the runway to make up for the delay..... or what with the one missing the flight because the flight left earlier than the schedule....

Whenever i travel by air.....i remember what my grandma said once.... sit in the middle of the plane, wear the thickest belt and hold the bar very tight... ya grandma! will do that!!

ok...lemme post this....no more drafts

2006-11-11T11:27:00.000+05:30

this is the nth post im writting after i joined my job...and hopefully i dont save it is as a draft.... i joined Olam intl on the 22nd of May in Singapore as a management trainee....after a 3 day session of classroom lecturing on various businesses and functions I was packed to Indonesia for my training (to be precise on the 26th of may)..... a lot of sight seeing and pick up joint hopping happened between these two days....most of the hopping happened along with two other fellow MTs....one a mallu from the land of tams.....one a seasoned sailor turned manager.... both good chappies with an adventurous heart good enough to venture into the crazy horses of Singapore.....

Yes then after all this hopping i was sent to Jakarta.....no hoppeing here....stayed in a hotel named Sunlake......nice big double bed room....shared with my fellow indo MT....one week plus in Jakarta....lots of welcome to Indo and all the blah blah best mails followed by a visit to one of the hottest discs in Jakarta - CJ's.....so i was informed.....

oops...thats a long time now..

2006-09-16T21:16:00.000+05:30

hey all

oops...long time no blog....reporting from Makassar...my base for probably till i get kicked out of the company....well good things first....i got confirmed as a manager very recently.....now celebrating my confirmation....

its been about 4 months since i joined this agri commodity supply chain manager.... its been fun so far....

my 4 months long jouney in Olam.....

reporting from Lampung!

2006-06-24T12:57:00.000+05:30

hey blog! its been a roller coaster ride so far after joining olam.....started in singapore with a five day induction session...it was more of a intro giving session which i slept thru....then i came down to indonesia for my origin training stint....lucky me! it could have been ivory coast.....i feel as if iam back at home minus the malls and the pubs....spent a week in jakarta learning finance....then a week in lampung where i got ragged and got shit psyched.....here i learnt the basics of the business....then went to medan to learn about betelnut....then to lampung to learn about coffee....today travelling to makassar for a cocoa session...was lucky so far to have my stints in cities....yet to travel upcountry...

picked up some bahasa indonesia....checked out a few pick up joints, few bars, all the restaurans....

reviews after each session had been really bad....and the most recent review was the best...

well enjoyin life....living the company....waking up to a tremor in the morning...

latest update from salem!!

2006-05-04T19:14:00.000+05:30

helloooo!! waiting to join Olam in indonesia....have been inactive all these days due to lack of internet at home and also due t olack of enthu...trying to enjoy my last few days of joblessness....so many things had happened in between....will update....

wildlife and nature photograpy!!

2006-03-28T11:42:00.000+05:30

I was always intrigued by mother nature.....here are some pics i clicked with my nokia 6630 1.3 megapixel.... the first section is the flora section

My friend ujju is the prezy of the VKRV RAo hostel and it seems that he has done a good job with the hostel.....one can see lots of greenery around nowadys...infact its not only green but its also pink, shades of yellow, red and orange....

Phuck!!

2006-03-27T22:17:00.000+05:30

i still havent got my passport....not sure whether i will get it or not....over all this the policeman is taking me for a round in the name of verification and formailities....every tom dick and harry is putting me fundaes on how to get a passport in one week to one day....my bike's clutch wire broke om the way to the policestation....took a rickshaw to the police station, ran 2 storeys only to be informed that whatever documents i have been carrying are irrelevant....your application is already sent to my head office, the policeman said....and i might get your application back because its incomplete, said the policeman....he simply refuses to talk man...

phuck! phuck! phuck! ...this is all i can say abt my current state of mind

My last exams

2006-03-24T14:00:00.000+05:30

As im nearing the end of the rendezvous with academics im feeling more and more sad...and i will definitely feel nostalgic....i wouldnt say that i had an ideal academic life but it was definitely ideal in its own ways.....enough of my musings about passing out....

i m writting my last few exams and i absolutely have no enthu to study for them....even the thought that i may never get one more chance to write any exams is not appealing enough....

basically it has been a week of nightouts be it for boozing or for group mugging....and i have been walking out of exams without completing the paper completely....

"the band of bros" - trying to mug for the exams

2006-03-18T20:27:00.000+05:30

reasons for my continued absence.

1. I had to do my final project.
2. I had to work for my passport.
3. I had to go out and party since it is my last 20 days in FMS.
4. I had to go to places to meet friends...now that i have realized ow important friends are.

In between i have been doing a lot of things...went to Rishikesh for white water rafting....have been boozeing a lot...have been attending wild parties....

will post some pics of hrisikesh...ooo awesome place....had awesome fun.....rafting is fun....

Salem to Olam....

2006-03-05T08:31:00.000+05:30

the past two weeks have been a roller coaster ride for me.....probably the oller coaster hasnt hit its low till now....the high has been when I got a job in Olam international.....the low will be when i get thrashed for my dissertation....

the placement process was a tiring one for many.....thank god i got placed in the afternoon of the first day.....the junior batch tried to make it as simple as possible for us with fewer companies per day....this was a major improvement from wat we had last year.... but this made people more nervous wat with the first day company of last year coming on the second day.....so people had to wait more.....here are some scenes at our seminar room

pic -1 : the pretty babe landed up with a job in P&G
pic -2 : the banker and the consultant. (i was under lots of pressure to perform bcos of these three good friends of mine)

pic -3 : the booze marketer turned out as a paint marketer at the end of the placements. Its all chemicals dood!
pic -4 : Dreaming about his dream job!

pic -5 : sulking as usual!
pic -6 : the F&B girl had too much of F&B!!pic -7 : Waiting for my results!
pic -8 : Happy and content (post results)!

pic -9 : Bear hug!! or is it a 'bear hug'ed me!!
pic -10 : mailing the good news! pic -11 : the happy family! wait who is the firang??
pic -12 : the controls desk which controlled everything!

pic - 13 : Candidates gone for GD!
pic -14 : the jobless ppl!

pic -15 : celebrations (he got his dream job)!
pic -16 : Hug time! A hug in need is a hug indeed!pic -17 : sign out time!
pic - 18 : one more pic!

pic -19 : nap time (after a hard days work)
pic -20 : - ditto-

Placement say is an important day in an MBA..... ppl infact work towards making this day a good day for themselver and for others in their entire two years of MBA...... I am no exception from this.....at the end of it i got what i wanted.....

from Salem to Olam

2006-02-28T03:59:00.000+05:30

This is just a fillup post to tell the readers that I m not inactive after i got placed.....

coz of the placement process there is a huge hole in my wallet and its going to take months for me to stitch the hole....so no money to recharge my broadband connection......that means i can blog only when ujju is sleeping......

oh! by the way i got placed in Olam international....an agri commodities trading company.....

more to come............ about my journey from Salem to Olam....

one fine afty

2006-02-14T16:49:00.000+05:30

got this pic clicked on my way to a 11 o clock class...... lately i see a group of policemen mounted on gorgeous horses walk down to the ridge....it has been a drean since my childhood to own a stable full of horses....

do you think they will stop for me to click a pic!

chai and fan at gwyer hall!!

2006-02-13T10:24:00.000+05:30

continuing with the noble intention of producing gas (for the good of this gas deprieved world), i was filling up two more forms and voila its 6 in the morning.......so wrappping up the gas making process.....went out to see if there is anyother soul who is helping me in my noble endeavour and yeah there were plenty of them......each one churning out loads and loads of gas as if there was a competition between them......

As i was walking down one of the corridors I heard a loud and rapturous sound "sexy".....wanted to know what made the poor soul say that....so entered the rooom only to find one of my old pals smiling like a stuffed toy at his comp.....i asked for the reason for his smile....he said......"sexy! machaa i completed one form"......"lets go for a chai"..... chai! at this time of the morning......he said " machaa! lets just walk down the road, we can find a chai waala"......so then started our quest for chai......as we went out we were surprised to see the gwyer hall canteen open.....so we ordered cahi for two......

in the meanwhile (when we waited for our chai) we discovered that the canteen is a multi brand outlet......every FMCG was rpresented......soaps, detergents, facewash, lipguard, shampoo, chocolates, cold drinks are some of the categories in the canteen....

then we got our chais......ujju took a fan for himself and i took a rusk for myself....then we ended with some biscuit.....all this in Rs 8/-

made amental note to visit this place often.....

Cup of life!!

2006-02-13T05:20:00.000+05:30

got this as a forward....

this is one mail thats going to make a major impact on me..... its time for me to choose among the various cups available! am i going to concentrate on the cup or on the coffee.....only time can answer that.....but will make a conscious effort to select hte best cup that will suit my coffee....

read on fellas!

Group of alumni, highly established in their careers,got together to visit their old university lecturer.Conversation soon turned into complaints about stressin work life Offering his guests coffee, the lecturer went tothe kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffeeand an assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass,some plain looking and some expensive and exquisite,telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, thelecturer said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking,expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plainand cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to wantonly the best for yourselves, that is the source ofyour problems and stress.What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup,but you consciously went for the better cups and areeyeing each other's cups.""Now, if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money andposition in society are the cups. They are just toolsto hold and contain Life, but the quality of Lifedoesn't change." "Sometimes, by concentrating only onthe cup, we failto enjoy the coffee in it."So, don't let the cups drive you...enjoy the coffee instead........

Delhi Marathon!

2006-02-12T15:15:00.000+05:30

took part in the Delhi marathon organized by Hindustan Times.....got a tiranga T shirt.....the event attracted lots of participation from across the demography.....villagers, pseud maxx babes, sportsmen, oldies....saw a couple of veteran athletes....apart from these there was this usual crowd of media, politicians, enthusiastic youth shouting Vande mataram, Hindustan Zindabad and other such slogans.....ran the 7 km stretch in one go.....had to run alone cos I could keep up with my friends pace...they were very slow....

then took a bus to the india gate....grubbed at Andhra Bhavan......now im feeling hazzar sleepy....suddenly got the enthu to do something for my dissertation.....

Dilli haat

2006-02-11T23:54:00.000+05:30

Dilli haat is one good place whic hi should have visited much earlier.....better late than never....i got a chance to cisit Dilli haat when my roomie's friends sister invited my roomie for her birthday treat....since my roomie and me happen to be twin souls I gate crashed into the birthday party....and nobody seemed to have a problem.....

I went at a good time....there was a fest called Times dilli fest or something....there were lots of colourful shops which showcased articrafts of Rajasthan and there were folk dancers who are never shy to pose for your camera....

the birthday girl was born on moharam.....and that was the day choosen by my roomie's cousin to leave to Dubai....so we started from our room to the airport to drop the cousin at the airport and took three and a half hours to traverse through the enoromous mesh called the "Delhi roads" that too on a moharam day when people take to the roads for processions....

here are some pics i shot on that day......
"the tail of a japanese airlines plane"

" a road side siva statue"

"Dilli Haat "

"Birthday girl and her portrait"

The ultimate gas machine!

2006-02-11T23:31:00.000+05:30

As the "D day" or the "P day" is nearing I am becoming better and better in putting lots of GAS...in short im becoming the "Ultimate GAS Machine"....thanks to all the application forms I am filling.....its just the starting of the application filling period and i am already bored of filling them.....Its not just me who is giving lots of GAS but even my potential employers with all their PPT's.....

its funny how some o them make their pitch in campuses....there is this confectionary comapny which positions itself as a "FUN" company and a company that puts a smile on everyones face...it seems that they are not in business to earn money but to make brands that people love....funny still is when the person who was presenting said that "we make brands that people love but not brands that people consume".....maybe i didnt understand the deeper meaning in such statements!

the best part of the ppts is the freebies that one gets during the presentations.....there are companies which give pens, some gives CDs, some give soaps, some give keychains with a blue LED in it....the above mentioned company sprayed the ppt room with chocolate bars.....

apart fro the freebies sometimes it is the presentations that sometimes catches ones attention.....there is this company which uses Comic Sans font and colourful cartoon pictures in its presentations.....there are some companies which run out of the campus because they did not prepare a structured powerpoint presentation....

there are companies which never miss an opportunity to flaunt the group's history and achievements.... it doesnt even matter to them that the audience has been listening to the same ppt for the last two years....

apart from all this i found time to make myself idle....here is a pic created by my idle mind....

Iam a god i can bend light! Diffraction!

a drunkard's view of the galaxy!

2006-02-07T10:00:00.000+05:30

visisted Red fort recently...wanted to post some pics....cool place (literally...very windy as u walk down from the entrance along the shopping lane)...lots of shops inside....and a couple of museums...visited the army museum wherein i saw arms dating back to 16th century and pistols&rifle&guns&machine guns dating back to 1914....amazing stuff....

Red FortPlaque talking abt red fort

a guy in a shop will write ur name in a grain of rice for 20 bucks....

then visited India gate in the night....

Find the gate

have been partying a lot more lately.....partied in a place called "Last Chance" in Sahara mall in Gurgaon....had a little panga at the end of the party..... Sahara mall...stairway to heaven!

then went to a party hosted by one of our prof's...the party was amazing.....had loads of beer and vodka....vodka in the form of "sex on the beach".....my class girls were looking pretty too.....

Pretty they are, isnt it?

so was very happy the whole day until a video shot by me a couple of days back was seen by someone who was not supposed to see.....so got hazzar tensed ....now everything is ok i heard....

to ease my tension went to Noida and walked like a zombie.....and also fagged a lot....then ran down to the college to write a test for my final placements... went to akshardham temple....but didnt go in cos its closed on mondays...will post pics of the temple later...

Bharatuday mission

2006-02-07T00:20:00.000+05:30

some days back i recieved a mail in my college yahoo group which spoke about a political organization by a couple of iitians....today while i was orkuting i got a message asking me to join a community called Baratudaymission.... its a socio political organization founded by a fourth year IITKian...i visited the web site of the organisation and was amazed t osee the magnitude of work the group has done all over the country...they have already opened more than 5 chapters in the country with hyderabad leading with the maximum no of members and activities... i might join the delhi chapter and see what i can do!

India will definitely ecome a super power!

to know more about bharat uday mission http://bharatudaymission.org

galaxy through the eyes of my mobile cam

2006-02-01T19:02:00.000+05:30

the delhi metro railway stations are probably one of the most clicked places in my mobile cam....here are some of them....
Surprised to see this long Q to buy tickets in Rajiv Chowk metro station!!

Thats me in the TV clicking myself...the one in red!(Vishwavidhyalaya metro station)

The next pic is not in a metro station but was shot on my way to metro...

yeah thats right! its the bus between Lahore and Delhi!! The bridge between two nations!

Making a dosa (a south indian dish) is an art....the dough must be properly prepared....swhile pouring the dough in tawa and spreading it on the tawa one should apply the write amount of pressure....only the right amount of oil will give u the perfecr dosa.....we have been trying to master this art in our room.....we buy the dough from a nearby shop....the following is the pic of the crowd which was there at the shop to buy the dosa dough mix.....inspite of waiting for 20 mins i had to return home empty handed.....

Hello where are the ladies? Who makes the dosa at your place?

Learn the "art of Dosa making" from kvk....egg dosa in the pic

Give an idle mind a cam and check out what he does with it!

Sunrise on the republic day morning from my balcony.

Nehru stadium, Delhi.

Been partying a lot lately....partying in my diction means guzzling a lot of beer and fagging a lot of ciggies....

Depressingly psychedelic!

the three musketeers....the only difference was that our musket was loaded with beer and we shot them into our own system!

new look!

2006-02-01T18:37:00.000+05:30

I got bored with the old looks of my blog! so changed the look of the blog....though i lost a lot of customization i had in my old template i'm happy with the outcome of my "change the look of ur blog"....

ensaai the new looks!

Phuck!

2006-02-01T18:28:00.000+05:30

What do you say when you cancel a movie date with a girl whom u like...because you have to attend a ppt at 6:15....and you wont be able to reach on time for the ppt if u go for the 3:30 show.....and then what if u have just discovered that "ur best friend" with whom u do all ur assignments and never do anything withour her had ditched you......and what if you went down to the college to attend the ppt only to find that the ppt got cancelled.....

what will you say if all this happens to you?

i would say....Phuck!!

Photographic Memoirs....

2006-01-29T13:17:00.000+05:30

AD spaces in Delhi Metro station! the two ads are to advertise about the ad space itself....the caption goes like this " its the only way anyone will miss this signboard".....

Republic day parade

2006-01-29T09:49:00.000+05:30

got two passes for the repblic day parade on the 25th night....each pass to allow two persons......so me, my roomie and his girl got ready for the parade....and i started my hunt for someone to fill the fourth slot in our passes....somehow managed to get hold of a friend who was enthu about the parade.....

so we started at 8:00 in the morning.....drove down to ISBT...missed a turn so had to come back almost to where we started.....then drove down towards the indiagate....we were diverted on a number of occassions....making us drive around and around the parade area.....then decided to come back to ISBT park the car there and catc ha metro to cP and walk down to the parade .....so parked our car in ISBT....took a metro to CP....

surprise! surprise!

when we came out of the CP metro station we were surprised to see a free bus awaiting for aam aadmi....the bus took us to the parade grounds.....we were on time (well indian standards)......

surprise! surprise! again....

indians have become punctual.....our passes asked us to be seated befor 9:30....and we reached the place at 9:35.... so we were not allowed to take our seats...

surprise! surprise! again....

a couple 0f armed forces officers in smart blue uniform were not allowed inside...they had to settle for the free entry area......was surprised.....

surprise! surprise! this time for u kvk!!

when we tried to enter through the free entry gates we were stopped for carrying cell phones.....wat an idiot im to carry my mobile in the parade...should have uessed it......so there ended my republic day parade.....i volunteered to carry the mobiles back home and asked the other three to go enjoy the parade.....

so walked back from the India gate to CP metro station....was accompanied by GnR and Queen...thanks to my Nokia 6630.....was hungry but was feeling nice to walk on empty roads of Delhi......

surprise! surprise!

u dont have the key to your room kvk!

enough of surprises!

went to the hostel! played cricket and TT watched a Tamil movie.....

follwed all this up with a eating spree.....started with a hot chocolate fudge....vegetable juice....sips of apple juice and tuuty fruity shake....chicken and egg roll.....then 6 rotis.....a bowl full of lassi and a glass full of flavoured milk with pieces of apple.....then zzzzzzzzzzz

back with a new nokia

2006-01-19T19:49:00.000+05:30

im a proud owner of a nokia 6630 mobile phone......discarded my old samsung R220 which earned me the name :fisherman"...for god knows what reason....

there are more in my kitty this new year......to start with the new minolta 4 mega pixel digi cam from singapore.....my favouite old sports watch with a new metallic strap.....a new pet - a labrador pup called Rambo.....

coming back to what i have been upto all these days..... went home...... celebrated nu yr and pongal.....and yes went to thirupathi, visited namakkal anchanayer temple, and a couple of other temples as well.....

on the day of pongal visited my family temple.... well it might sound as if i went for a religious pilgrimage.....i did enjoy the visits this time.....

thirupathi was damn cold....and the shopkeepers there are damn cool in selling a 125 buck cassette for 250 bucks....

all the pics here are shot using my 1.3 mega pixel camera in my new nokia cell phone.... the gopuram here is that of Thirupathi thirumala temple....

this vacation is a special one as it was an extended vacation extended by more than 10 days till pongal....this was my first pongal with my parents in seven years....did miss my thatha during pongal...this is probalbly my last vacation with my parents before i enter the corporate world.....a time well spent...

being alone

2005-12-17T23:14:00.000+05:30

Life is simple! i wake up at 11 in the morning....bunk classes....eat lunch.....go to college to do some trivial job....hang out in the hostel.....watch some movies in the hostel.....then come back home cook rice and relish it with dal and arbi sabji....

Aha how i wish it will be like this forever.....even after i get a job.....letc...

i love this life...its simple yet beautiful.....

Vicky! I miss you.

2005-12-14T08:13:00.000+05:30

Vicky became a part of our family on my 11th birthday. She was a gift from a friend of my father's for my birthday. She was a beautiful dog. She was the most active puppy when I had gone to pick her up. Her siblings were sleeping while she was happily jumping around. She was 20 days old then. We got her in a small basket to home. Then we were living in a rented house. Vicky used to be the sole watch dog of the entire building (there are four houses in the building). Though she was a cute, adorable little dog some of our neighbor's did not like her when she barked. She used to be the reason for numerous fights between my mom and our neighbor's. She was probably one of the reasons for our moving to an independent house.
She was the reason for many a happy occasion. She used to travel with us to our farm house. She used to walk with her head upright like the queen of the area. Never liked any interruption in her area. She was reason for a number of failed burglary attempts. She was a brave dog. Even at her old age she used to be very active and aggressive.
I will never forget the times when she used to wake me up. Will never forget the daily walks. Will never forget the way she bit me twice. I will never forget how she cried when amma used to beat us.
My sis called me day before yesterday and told me about vicky's ill health. My mom called me yesterday morning to inform me that Vicky died at 7:00 in the morning. I did not shed a tear then. I knew that I will miss a great pet and a good friend. There is no one to steal my socks now. Vicky is not there to lovingly wag her tail and to jump around with joy when I go back home for the vacation. She is not there anymore to bark jealously when I sleep on my amma's lap. She is not there anymore to complain to my appa when he returns back from work. She is not there to play with my sister.
This post is not a mere obituary but a dedication to my family's first pet- Vicky. Vicky we will miss you. You definitely made our life a more enjoyable experience. We will remember you for ever.

This post might be very senti, yes I am actually senti.

I did not shed tears when amma called me. But I am now, as I write this post.

Vicky! I will miss you.

Last day of Fiesta

2005-12-12T19:36:00.000+05:30

though not a part of the fiesta organizing team i hav written a great deal abt fiesta in one of my previous posts.....the post was not exactly critical but just a layman's view of the events.......but one of the FMS patrons did question me about my authority of criticising the event.....i do respect his sentis since he is an organizer of one of the events i criticized badly......

got to go for a party.....a friends birthday party......at IHC.....

Harry Potter 4 and Apaharan

2005-12-10T23:38:00.000+05:30

these are the two latest movies i watched....the first one for free in M2K pitampura....thanx to a localite class mate who also has a car....the second one was in AMBA in ganta ghar......

did enjoy both of them......being a harry potter fan myself......especially Hermione....man she looks awesome!! my enthu for the series has increased a bit more......the movie is well made.....to fit the screen and 2 hrs.....some of the scenes were awe inspiring.....

Apaharan is abt this organized kidnapping mafia thats happening in one of our well known indian states....was irritating in parts but was overall good......Ajay Devgan was definitely not acting his age.....would have believed if the character was played by an younger actor....probably vivek oberoi or someone......was disappointed to see Bips all wrapped up in sarees and salwar kurtas......thats not her core competency.......nana patekar as usual gave his best and was good enough for the movie....

to top this I visited good ol Palika baazar to hunt for some good quality cd.....got a DVD (madagascar and polar express)....my comp gets stuck in between both the movies so gave up......but im desperate to watch madagascar.....

did a lil bit of shopping yesterday with my roomie....he is leaving to B'lore tomorrow and then to chennai to attend a wedding and then will visit his parents in Salem.....so went to the Tibetan market......was amazed at the garments et al that were showcased there......did checked a couple of jackets on me and was looking good...but did not have the dough to buy them..... wanted to shop for my sis in Janpath and also wanted to book for the NCFM exams.....so parked our bikes in the tibetan market parking and then took a metro train to CP from Kashmere gate(ISBT).....saw one of the highest elevators.....probably more than 150 steps........

booked for debt and derivative modules on jan19th in the NSE office.......did not shop in janpath as it was already late.....so postponed the shopping......gotto remember......looked around in palika baazar.....had a chocolate mousse in Wenger's in CP and a coffee milk shake in Keventers......

should check out Wenger's more often!

FMS fiesta

2005-12-10T21:32:00.000+05:30

FMSs first business school fest started today very modestly....infact "modestly" is an understatement....i have seen a couple of b school fests and i know what bschool fests are made of.....as a part of the fest there is a convention as well in which top speakers of the corpoate world come and speak....

as usual im in the infra team.....rumour says that my core competecy is to speak in the wireless microphone.....but did no work today.....took part in all the on the spot events....honestly the standard of the events werent good....but kudos to all the organizers for giving their best...but their best was not good enough.....almost all the on the spot events had preliminary rounds and was more of a normal society event rather than a bschool fest event..... the prelims were mostly of the quiz format.....

the first event was a strategy game called chanakya.....the second round was a computer based simulation game.....the elimination round was no way related to strategy.....was of crossword types with clues from all across the functional areas.....organizers probably went global cos we make global strategies.... my team was waitlisted for the second round....

the second event was a M&A game.....i did not take part in it....so no comments....

the third event of the day was an HR event called influenca.....the elimination round was again in the quiz format..... the quiz master was time and again asking us to think for the obvious answers which i obviously didnt..... the quiz was poorly designed is all that i could say.......got eliminated....

the fourth event was " brand aid" my the marketing society.... prelims again in the quiz format...... dunno why the organizers asked so many biking questions......didnt even care to check for the results....

hopefully our first bschool extravaganza teaches some much needed lessons to the latter batches so that they can make it a real extravaganza....

one new thing a month

2005-12-06T22:57:00.000+05:30

i have decided to do atleast one new thing a month from now on.....got his idea after going through a random blog..... the new thing could be anything from starting to play a unplayed sport or trying to cook a new dish or i dont know.....lets seee

Sleepless nights....

2005-12-04T21:51:00.000+05:30

the past one month has been a month of 3rd sem exams and an international conference....

on an average i slept for 4 hrs a day and spent 12 hrs running around these past 4 days(1st to 4th dec)..... it is funny how i got inside the organizing team of the international conference.....one normal day back in september as i was aimlessly floating around in the corridors of the FMS campus, a hand from the inside of one of the rooms pulled my shirt inside and i happened to be inside the shirt.....before i could recover from such a jolt i ended up in accepting the appointment of me as the logistice incharge of the conference.....there started my sojourn with the conference...

the rest of the team was also formed the same way as i was inducted....at the end of it i had half a dozen juniors at my disposal.....the conference was strategically scheduled for dec 1st to 4th....our third sem exams got over on the 30th of nov......

then started umpteen number of discussions on the matters of brochures and posters.......the team which was assigned the task of designing these two took their own sweet time to tell us that they wont do it......so a couole of enthu guys in the team sat down and made the poster in 2 hrs and got it printed in 2 days......same story with the brochure too.....but it was too late already....we had our brochures and posters ready only in november 1st week....with hardly one month for the conference the team which was involved in calling up corporates was pressed t oorder....they did a decent job by registering 50 odd corporates.....

as the days passed we were left with too many things to do but too less a time....add to it the irritation of having to write 8 3hr examinations....but we somehow managed to do some firefighting.....as i reflect back i would love to share the following incidents that happened during the conference....

1. When i got really pissed of with a team member who was sleeping happily in his room on the inaugral day till 1:00 and when the inaugral was supposed to start at 3:00..... i had to call him up from one of the phones in the MSA room and started to abuse him......never ever in my life have i used all those hindi galis.....this in front of 20 odd sudents.....

2. When i forgot to arrange the lamp for the lamp lighting ceremony in the inaugral function and when we had t orun to the hostel to get the lamp....we did manage to get the lamp on time for its usage.....

3. When i got all those calls requesting for exemption from attending the conference.....some were feigning illnes...some were feigning fiesta work etc......but it was fun exempting them.....

4. When i got up late at 11(i was supposed to be at the conf centre at 9) and ran down to the confernce centre without even taking a bath.....i looked like a street urchin.....then got back home to take bath and appear presentable...

5. I wont forget a delegate from sown south who kept on bothering me for small small work....

6. my first visit to an international airport....i visited IGI in Delhi to recieve our chief guest for the closin ceremony Mr. Minoo Bhandara, Member of national assembly of Pakistan. He turned out to be a cool old chap with a cooling glass too big for his face.....he is the chairman of Muree breweries of Pakistan....

the list will go on.....i did learn a lot from this experience....although we only did firefighting...i.e., trying to solve the sprouting problems the conference was a sucess.....and hopefully the juniors will strive harder to do better next year.....

I had a good sleep after winding up the conference......feeling fresh enough to organize another conference.....looking forward to the start of the fourth semester tomorrow....

exams over...

2005-11-28T13:40:00.000+05:30

exams over....no more exams for another 3 months....

todays exams was quite eventful....what with the prof making quite a stir....first by giving an unexpected question paper with 5 questions to answer and then making an anouncement that its ok to attend any 4 questions....

Mymodus operandi for preparing for an exam is as follows ....

1. take previous year question papers....
2. analyse the trend...
3. make a table of frequency....i.e., questions in one column and then frequency in the other column....
4. find the probabilities...
5. plot the normal distribution curve (try to fit the data for normal distribution)
6. Then choose all the questions which fall in the range of 20% to 80%....
7. In case of the important questions being announced in the class....jus mug 80% of those questions...

so i mugged only 80% of the important questions.....was baffled when my strategy went for a toss when the question paper said attempt any 5 questions......so was the general atmosphere in the exam hall....ppl were silently crying.....

then came the announcement.....one poor soul who couldnt contain himself let out a triumph cry and even gave a flying kiss to the prof.....

so i did the exam well.....

the other event that made the exam eventful was when my cellphone rang and when my stationary went flying when i got up to cut the call.....

im at home now.....every bit of my body is begging me to set them free.....feeling very tired(thanx to the fast bowling 2 days ago) and sleepy(thanx to the sleepless nights during the exams)....

movie spree

2005-11-27T15:07:00.000+05:30

yoohoo....3 days break before the last exam and im keeping myself busy with movies.....watched 5 movies on a trot on friday......before that watched 3 movies...watched one today....may not remember all the movies i watched in these three days......
lemme try and list them....
mean girlschicken runclosuremeet the fockersThe grudgethe 51st date or something like that...latest movies i watched and i dont remember the name.......thats it i cant remember any more.....yet to start mugging for the exam(operations research)....

Rains in salem

2005-11-24T21:38:00.000+05:30

(pic courtesy: www.thatstamil.com)
its raining heavily in salem - my home city.......got a pic from the net.......its almost 10 years since i saw anything like this in salem....

the first response for the previous post

2005-11-24T20:48:00.000+05:30

this was a chat with one of my batch mates....im happy to have made an impact.....but dont know whether it will translate into anything....

siva prasanth: Hmm, at lastyou chose to address this issue..am happy u did..and neone who has roblems with this can def. go to hell as far as I am concerned..
kvk: gr8
kvk: thanx for responding....made an impact
siva prasanth: yeah..i wholeheartedly support you..If I can, i will send this mail to faculty also and see if they r aware of what SHIT passes for exams here in fms

will post msgs if i get anymore responses....jus want to tell the readers abt the attitude of ppl towards this issue!

mail to the batch

2005-11-24T20:32:00.000+05:30

this was a mail written by me to my batch....thought it would be relevant to everyone.....

lets work towards a paperless world....

17 normal sized pine trees gives u 1 ton of paper

one sheet of A5 paper is about 4-5 grams....

one additional sheet = 6 sheets

6 sheets = 30 grams

10 additional sheets + one main sheet = 60+15 = 75

75 sheets = 375 grams

375 grams * 8 exams = 3000 grams = 3kg

3kg * 4 semesters = 12 kg per 2 year course (for examination purpose only)

add to it assignments per course = 10 per semester * 10 A4 sheets = 100 A4 sheets

weight of one A4 sheet = 7-8 gm

Weight of assignments submitted/ 2 yr course = 6*100sheets = 800 grams*4 sems = 3200 grams

add to it class notes+rough work+Cv submissions = another 2 kgs

So consumption of paper in 2 yrs = 3kg+3.2kg+2 kg = 8.2 kg

so consumption in one year - 4kg(approx)

lets take an average consumption of 2kg per person throughout his/her life.

total consumtption of paper per year for a 23 year old = 50 kg (approx)= 0.8 = 1 normal sized pine tree approximately.

the facts and figures given here might be erroneous and exaggerated. but the problem iam trying to address here is important.

People in their quest to get more marks in exams resort to the following methodologies

1. Draw a 1.5 inches margin on both the sides of the paper.

2. Even though you are provided with a ruled sheet, act as if you are writting on an unruled sheet.

3. Increase the font size dramatically atleast by twice the original size.

4. Use double/triple line spacing.

5. Sometimes use sketch pencils to write(instead of a pen) so that the number of words accomodated per page decreases.

6. Write not more than 6 words per line, two of these words being prepositions or articles.

7. elongate the spacing between each word....worse is increasing the space betwween each letter.

By using any of the above methodologies an individual can increase his paper consumption by 50-60%. thats a conservative estimate. the maximum can be sometimes 400% increase.

So all his/her life the person could have lived with 50% of the paper he or she consumed so far. thus saving atleast a pine tree.

To magnify the problem at our hands im putting forth some more facts
one tree absorbs about 13 pounds of co2 per year. (1 pound = 453 gm)
in 23 years one tree absorbs about 300 pounds of co2= 136 kgs of co2.
couldnt google any more ....so lemme put it directly a pine tree in all these years could have saved the earth from lots of adverse effects such as the melting ice caps etc....

lemme give one last fact....every year about 50 million acres of forest is destroyed...about 30% of this is for paper consumption...

though our drastic and sensible change in our consumption of paper wouldnt have made a lot of differnce to the melting polar ice caps, collectively as a community of responsible and educated students we can make a difference.

So in your quest for one or more additional marks do not compromise on quality and be responsible for more deforestation.

dont know whether there will be any impact on te batch....but in my quest to be a good citizen moi trying my level best....

one more to go

2005-11-24T14:02:00.000+05:30

One more exam to go and a gap of three days for that one more.....

visited the india international trade fair....wat crown....lots of stalls.....lots of babes....what marketing?....ppl were selling like mad....had non veg momos....remember nothing else....

the past three four days have been hectic.....hardly slept for more than 4 hrs per day.....will have a power nap today after the press conference.....oh! we have a press conference today at 3 for the international conference......

Called apakistan minister (Mr Bhandara)....was surprised when i was connected directly to the minister.....pakistan surprises me....He is a parsi.....owns the famous murree distilleries....they are into foods and glass aswell....

got to get ready for hte press meet.....high tea after that....planning to thulp lots of grub....

4 more to go

2005-11-21T14:01:00.000+05:30

consumer behavious....obviously am tired after 3 hrs of analysing consumer motivation, perception, personality, attitude and learnings....add to it cultural and family influences on a consumers buying behaviour......

well the exam was ok....couldnt believe i could cross the barrier of 1 additional sheet.....well feeling guilty for unwanted afforestation which i could have avoided by avoiding jabberish writting.....

well ConB is done ....now i have to mug for PP...Project planning....last Fin paper in this sem for me.....

Oh...in between all this i have decided about my future......i.e., im going to do a marketing finance dual......

Filled my electives form yesterday...opted for 2 fin courses and a marketing course...that makes it 4 fin 4 mark.....dual....

Want to watch Harry Paotter 4....after the exams maybe....

Viva voce

2005-11-20T13:28:00.000+05:30

jsu came back from my summer's viva

it was fun.....jus two questions...

wats ur percentage?

ans - 1st sem 67....2nd sem 63....

witty comment of a panelist....so third sem 59?

reply frm my side....no sir trying to reverse the trend....

next question....

What is ur project?

I went on blah...blah...blah....for the nst 2 mins there was absolute silence on the other side of the table.....

comment from the other side ..... sounds like a techy project? (i take it as a complement)

Why did you take this project?

Ans - Im a chemical engg....so that explains it all....

closing statement from the other side - thank you..... u can go now....

thank god they didnt prod me...other wise they might have come to know that all i did in my summer project was drink chai n kappi.....

now i have to mug for tommorow's exam....consumer behaviour....

Karaoke

2005-11-20T02:10:00.000+05:30

My comp has started to make low decibel humming sleep inducing noise.....

downloaded a karoke player so that i can exercise my singing muscles.....

didnt know wat a karaoke player is before chancing upon it in wikipedia....sounded like fun so downloaded a free karaoke player called karafun.....

now i have to download the midi files of the songs which i want to sing.....yes these are the same file format of ur cell phone ring tones..... I learnt that the guy who invented karaoke got ig nobel price for it.....ig nobel is the price given to scientific community who come up with funny inventions/discoveries at the same time the thing makes the public think.....

here are a few ig nobel (pronounced as ig nobell) winning entries

1. Presence of humans arouse ostriches sexually!

2. Black hole satisfies all the specifics for being the hell!

3. Five second rule whic hsays that the dropped food maynot be contaminated if it is picked up within the five seconds of droping!

Ig nobel awards are in stark contrast to Darwin awards(whose aim is only to entertain)...

the comparison made me curious enough to browse about Darwin awards at 2:30 in the morning when i have a hundred mark paper in the nest 8th hr.....

Search for Darwin awards yielded the following result -

A Darwin Award is an honor given to people who supposedly help to improve the human gene pool by "removing themselves from it in a spectacularly stupid manner".

My god i was flabbergasted to know that the awardees mostly recieve posthumous awards...

the site provided the eligibility criteria for the darwin awards -

Inability to reproduce
Excellence
Self selection
maturity (age>17 and of sound mental health)
veracity

If anyone can get himself/herself a darwin awrds he definitely cannot be of sound mental health....

(if u guys are trying for one of these awards n if u have intentions of removing someone else with urself from the genepool then u r not eligible for the awrds)

visit www.darwinawards.com

Now lets come bac to my life....

in the exams front - 2 down 6 more to go.....Have my summer internship viva tommorow(on a sunday - can u believe it!).....

Was going through the report i submitted two months back.....i was able to recall 90% of it....

jkpopy; vd;Dla Kjy; tup.

2005-11-17T16:50:00.000+05:30

i always wanted to write and publish in my mother tongue...tamizh......so i have been working towards it and eureka! i came across a tool which i can use to write in tamil......but alas my first enthusiastic sentence in tamil turned out to be "jkpopy; vd;Dla Kjy; tup.".......yes this is wat i got when i typed "this is my first sentence in tamil"....

Probably should learn a bit more abt the tool before using it....

trying to sleep

2005-11-16T01:44:00.000+05:30

Having coffee before going to sleep is not a very good idea i suppose...that to a glass full of cafeine isnt exactly a sleeping pill.....

my third sem exams are starting tommorow.....these exams will be the most crucial one from the placement point of view.....as we sit for placements before our final semester exams.....so have to put as much fight as possible.....

I have a four hour paper tommorow......thought of getting up early at 7 so that i can rush thru the chapters....

now i know what i have to do to fall asleep....try studying!!!

thats wat im goin to do now....

exams

2005-11-11T22:40:00.000+05:30

my third sem exams are going to start in a few days...on 16th....and im yet to start studying,,,,

diwali and the aftermath - International Conference

2005-11-07T22:27:00.000+05:30

went to college to attend the classes after a week long vacation. proffesors were giving their blessings for us to do well in our exams and in final placements as this is almost the last week in this sem. Did some work for the conference we are oganizing.

Conference - this is the latest happening thing in my life. this is the link to the conference website

http://fmsconferences.org/

Its an international conference on Human capital formation in the 21st century. Its the next big thing FMS is organizing this year. Vice President of the country will inaugrate the proceedings. Its a 3 day affair with a lot of programs like plenary sessions, paper presentations, CEO's discussion forum, decision makers roundtable......fancy names but essentially all these programs will try to address the issues in Human Capital in the current scenario.

Was roped in for the organizing commitee as i was roaming aimlessly in the corridors of FMS. Did some decent work in designing the poster for the conference and also helped in the prnting of the brochure.

Well thats not the final form of the poster...but its almost the final form with a few changes.........its quite a rich affair what with 10000Rs for registration etc....teams have been ste to get participation from the corporate sector and the academia. I was incharge of the logistics when it strted but it seems that im involved in everything...the conf is on dec1st to 4th......

we are in contact with some top names in the politcal circle as well for the conference....

diwali tomorrow

2005-10-31T11:01:00.000+05:30

Diwali tommorow...

gone are the days when i used to get up early in the morning to burst the first crackers of the day.....gone are the days when i used to help mom in cooking murukku and rava laddu.....gone are the days when i had to clean the house of the cobwebs.....gone are the days when i used to get lost in the market while shopping for clothes.....

life has changed so much.....from a kid who used to wet the pillow with his tears because its only a week for diwali and i havent got the crackers i had asked for ......and angry with his father for not buying him crackers....to the present day me who will sleep till 9 in the morning on the day of diwali.....

i particularly remember those years when fireworks were more important than anything else.....me and my sister used to start our ritualistic diwali day with a 1000 lar cracker....... then we will move to green coloured atom bombs which used to make a hell of a noise.....on a perfectly quite day one can probably hear the noise atleast 2 kms away.....then we will move to the lakshmi vedi....high decibel once again......this one used to leave a lot of paper behind.......then kuruvi vedi or pattasu......then to oosi pattasu also referrred to as bijili vedi...small crackers.....a pack of bijili may not cost more than 10 bucks and will have about 200 pieces...so a pack can keep u occupied for more than an hour......with my sis doing the thiri work that is..... u delay the detonation process by removing the paper cover from the tip of the thiri.....and i doing the honour of lighting it....we used to go on foe hours like this......this used to keep as occupied in the afternoon of the diwali.......then as the sun sets...one can see more colourful fireworks in the streets with ppl lighting flowerpots, sangu chakkram and rockets.....mom used to join us now to light the flowerpots.....dad was always apprehensive of danger when we were on the streets playing with flowerpots and sanguchakkaram......

I have heard horror stories of ppl losing their eyes because of a flowerpot explosion....

once i myself was involved in a little accident in the process of which i got a part of my left hand palm and left chest burnt......the way this happened was really funny......that was the year when i got promoted from a kid who can only light flowerpots and mathappu to a boy who can light lakshmi vedi.....it used to rain atleast a little dusring diwali....that diwali too it had rained and the ground was we....i trying to light a sanguchakkaram on the ground picked it up to check what was wrong with it.....drrrrr it went in my left hand burning my palm and the silky shirt i was wearing.....in the next hour i was in Dr Manjamutthu's clinic who was narrating me stories of how kids lost their eyes and how they should not play with crackers.....

this was more than enough for my father to ban any kind of fireworks in the house.....but the ban could not be imposed because the majority of the house was against it...bannin fireworks on the basis of an one off accident was purely illogical...

Now that iam a chemical engineer and have a particular liking to environmental engineering and a proponent of environmental friendly agricultural practices.....supporting fireworks on diwali is obviously against what im trying to preach nowadays...."environmental friendly lifestyle".....but the kid who liked to burst crackers wins the present day preacher....ofcourse we can avoid high decibel really environmental friendly crackers......

return of the god

2005-10-25T21:09:00.000+05:30

"The god has returned"....this was the title of an article in one of the cricket sites. Thats right the article talks about the return of the Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar after 6 months and 8 days of injury lay off. He scored a masterly 93 dotted with such an array of amazing shots.
At one point of time when Irfan Pathan floated past Tendulkar's score with mega sixes.... but that was to be only for seconds....because the next ball was sent over the ropes for a six by Sachin..... his presence makes all the difference to the team....for a team which was trounced by everyone everywhere Sachin's presence will be a great boost....

enuff of sachin story.....

coming to my own life....planning to go to Jaipur with a couple of friends during
Diwali....

i have a test today and have to start mugging.....

jus returned from ahmedabad

2005-10-23T09:12:00.000+05:30

oh..this is a trip that hopefully will be forgotten...did not win both the events....
the case study comptn was ok....ppl from media background had to win it....add to it the mysterious deletion of two of our slides from our presentation....
the biz plan presentation was unexpected...infact we thought that we will win the first prize.... everybody in the hall would have agreed to it.....dont want to talk anymore of it.....

didnot do anything else....was scheduled with lotsa work....couldnt go out of the MICA campus....

have to write a lot about the FMS summer placements 2005....

what am i doing here???

2005-10-14T21:22:00.000+05:30

photographic memoirs from orissa part3

2005-10-13T12:22:00.000+05:30

thats one of the 12 wheels of Sun's chariot......the spokes of the wheel have inscriptions of day to day activities of a woman in those ages....there are eight activities.....the first activity is stretching after waking up.....then grooming takes place for the amjority of the first half of the day......the next half of the day is filled with vatsayanic activities....
as a friend said while going around this place....when did they work???

photographic memoirs from Orissa...contd...

2005-10-13T09:43:00.000+05:30

this is again from the moving train.....as much as i saw the lands of orissa are ver yfertile...or atleast they have plenty of water to grow rice....didnt see any other crop.....

this is from our trip to Konark...the sun temple...beautiful palce....i have never been to kajuraho or ajantha ellora caves where there are sculptures that are very much in sync with the theme of kamasutra....this place was a real eye opener for me regarding the ancestral doings...they did have plenty of time to explore the most explored....the female anatomy......amazing stuff they have got there......i was even more amazed when someone said that there are life size versions of the same sculptures in the other earlier mentioned caves.......
we are standing at the entrance to the temple....it seems that the suns first morning rays fall on a diety..... the three openings (the doorways above us) are to take care of the shifting positions of the sun throughout the year....the pic was clicked by our guide...

this is in konark beach......awesommmmmme place......though i might be biased becos of my beach loving tendancy.....but still its a beach worth a dip.......though i didnt put a foot in the water......thanx to the booze inside me.....our friend sudeep is trying to point at the rising sun....

to be contd....

photographic memoirs from orissa

2005-10-13T09:27:00.000+05:30

this pic was taken in Thalcher(in orissa).....the train we were travelling stopped at a number of places to change its engine.....Thalcher is one such place where the train stopped for more than half an hour.....

this is a pic shot from the inside of the moving train.....its pretty clear...thanx to the 20k digi cam....i was amazed at the vast water expanse of Mahandi.....for someone from a water starved place(read chennai, salem) even a narrow stretch of water would have been awesome.......

got up early in the morning...

2005-10-13T08:31:00.000+05:30

got up at 7:00am in the morning...thanx to the newspaper that hit my face in the morning.....its 8:30 already and no mood to get up....got to make my bplan report....enthu is dying.....

have been doing nothing for the past two days.....got nothing to post

thats me

2005-10-11T14:09:00.000+05:30

connected from home

2005-10-11T10:50:00.000+05:30

got net connection at home.....so i dont have to trot around to college and hostel for accesing he web......

yesterday was one of those days when u have no work and all of a sudden work crops up from nowhere and u r all immersed in the work.....the same happened tome yesterday.......sat down to design poster for the international conference my institute is organizing....and it took a lot of time....

oblivious of the things happening around

2005-10-09T22:43:00.000+05:30

yesterday delhi experienced after tremor shocks at about 8:00 in the morning...i was deep asleep at a friends place......it was said that there were more after quake shocks in the day but i never felt any of them...till now i havent met a person who had felt the tremor.....all i know was a friend of a friend had felt it.....

but the quake seems to be pretty serious and damaging...infact it killed about 25000 people in Pakistan.....majority of the casuality is in POK....wondering what India's reaction will be!!!