Comfortably Dumb

Saarang - 2010

2010-02-01T07:59:00.003+05:30

Saarang usually stands for a few things . Awesome events/shows , Nice stalls, the long drives through the beautiful IIT grounds , hot chicks that show up out of nowhere only to then disappear for the rest of the year and of course for us - super timepass .

This year , the theme for us seemed to be ' Back In our time' . Everything seemed to be better 'back in our time ' . Or maybe we were just able to appreciate them more then . Vayasu aayurichu.

Back in our time , foodstalls were right next to the OAT . Now they make u walk about a km.

Back in our time , Cha was able to watch Decibels and light music without complaining about the quality of the bands. All these pro concerts later , he says they suck

Back in our time , we would go for the rock show without caring who came . This year , I would still have gone if Skid row had come , but they backed out , and - without Ara - no real motivation to go watch Hammerfall . Missed Lone wolf as well .

Signs of the times :
GB actually came and asked Chandler , " Heard ur getting married ? "
Bow liked the 'Maa' song by Shanker, Ehsaan & Loy the most (:-P )
As Gau said : The youth there are ppl that are 7 ( !!) years younger than us .

Still , it was a pretty good 2 days we spent there . Some things haven't changed. OAT is still an amazing place to go watch stuff ( esp if they are free !) . IIT guys still carry around huge backpacks that look like they contain all the world's secrets in them . Shanker Ehsaaan Loy still put on mean show. Bands still sing ' ChandraLekha' . People still do the cell-phone-light-waving thing at concerts - which originated back in our time . Choreo night is still good ( or so I hear ) .

Saarang is still fun.

As usual , I'll close with a couple of mokkai's . As always , embellishments mine.

(On the 1 km walk to the aforementioned food stalls )
Cha : Its amazing how we can still hear the bands playing rock so far away from the OAT
Me : Must be really loud
Adi : Duh ! Thats why its called 'Decibels'

(Examining tickets while standing in the really long queue to get in to watch SEL )
Cha : There's a huge list of items which aren't allowed . Bottles , Bags , Sharp items .......... Pens
Cha : PENS !? Why would they not allow that ?
Me : When they don't allow knives how can they allow this
Cha : ??
Me : The pen is mightier than the sword.

Chennai Open - 2010 !

2010-01-09T15:21:00.003+05:30

Rain delaying start of Q/f play by 3.5 hours : A blessing in disguise

Being able to watch all six matches of the day , sometimes 2 matches simultaneously . 5 great hours of tennis : Awesome

Having a Brown stand ticket , but sitting in Green Stand , 2 rows from the front because seats were empty : Happens only in India

Passion for the sport in Chennai , with more than 500 people staying on till the last match was done, at 1 : 30 AM : Unbelievable

Semifinal Lineup : Salivating Prospect

Me Coming on TV : :-)

Watching Wawrinka's one handed beauty of a backhand from 20 Feet Away : Priceless !

Dedicated to Avi :P

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Update : After an exhilarating , brilliant match between Wawrinka and Sela - Which has to be the second best tennis match I've seen live , next only to this - Catching a ball signed by Tipsarevic and Lu : Icing on the Cake !

Yea

2009-08-25T22:14:00.000+05:30

omgwtfbbq ~!

Diversity - Part Deux ( Or just - Sports , Sports , Sports !! )

2009-03-01T00:39:00.003+05:30

[ Edit / Disclaimer / Warning / Whatever ] : This was supposed to be about lot more than just sports , but one hour and all these paragraphs later , I decided that this topic has earned its own post . Not because its so well written or anything , but because it deserved it.. And also because otherwise this post would be HUGE .
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As Promised in Part 1 , we start with more links :D

Gau and Suprema both write about on a matter very dear to my heart : Sports . I'm not going to elaborate on those topics again ( Go read my Comments on their respective blogs :p ) , but I completely understand where they are coming from .

Following sports passionately is an activity like few other . At its best , it has more drama than any reality show , more grace and beauty than many a movie , more passion than pretty much anything on TV , and can rivet you to your seat more efficiently than any bunch of "dont go anywhere , we 'll be right back " lines . At its worst it can be continually frustrating ( but then its your fault for picking a sucky team/player :P ) and sometimes mind-numbingly boring .

It can make you stay up until 3 or 4 am . It can keep u awake until 12 Pm the morning, after u slept only 2 hours the night before and played tennis for 2 solid hours before that . It can alter your normal sleep schedule. It can make you compromise other aspects of your lives . It can even make you think enough to blog about it for an hour ( Result - This post ) !

It can bring out a vast gamut of emotions in You : From Cheer to Despair , From Exhiliration to devestation , From the " I-was-just-glad-I-watched-this " to the "Oh-No-Dont-believe-i-missed-that " . Because thats the thing about sports . Its unscheduled , Its unscripted , Its uninhibited and no one ever knows whats gonna happen next ( Unless ur talking about match - fixing or the WWE , but lets not go there )

We may follow it because we want to see the human body stretched to amazing limits of perfection . We may follow it just to root for the underdog to pull of a miracle .Watching Federer play that sublime one -handed backhand , watchin Kobe completely take over clutch games , watching Messi weave his magic around the opposition , Watching Tendulkar display why he is the master of his craft , Watching Nadal and Verdasco run around like madmen 5 hours into a gruelling match ( etc,etc) might be all the reason we need to watch it , no justification required . And, of course , we may follow it simply because we love the game .

Of course being the dude that actually plays it at the highest level will be like , the best thing in the world . But we cant all be Federers .
Writing/Commenting about it articulately for millions of readers would probably be the next best thing . Unfortunately we cant all be Bill Simmons'
I guess thats why we are stuck playing matches no one watches and writing articles like these which no one reads . But , In the end , thats all we can do : We play for the fun of it ( never mind if its at a level 1/100th of theirs ) . We write because we want to , not becase we have to ( Prime example being me : Not writtten for Ages ) . When that can bring us satisfaction , job accomplished.

Theres nothing quite like the experience of watching a big game live at the venue itself (the atmosphere , the crowd , the undivided attention we give to the game ) . Among my many goals is to watch a live game at these arenas : Staples Center [ achieved] , Wimbledon , Old Trafford , Any Cricket Stadium in Inda [ achieved ]

That being said , the Internet has changed the way sports is being followed worldwide . There is more in-depth coverage of every event now than ever before , what with video footage (You-Tube) and game breakdowns,expert analysis being the norm (ESPN,Cricinfo etc etc ) . Also , Now, every two - bit expert (like me ) has an opinion on everything from " Kobe vs Lebron " to " Should we play cricket in Pakistan" . It has made sharing stuff more common . It has made viewing live events more common , more global ( might be piracy ,but still - Justin rocks . )

For eg : I discuss Bball regularly with Achu and Adi . We share amazing links such as this and this . It makes following the sport much more cerebral .The next time I'm watchin a rockets game , I can figure out why Battier does what he does or How their D rox (and also how their O sux ) . These help us understand better , analyse better and eventually .. Appreciate better .

For people who need greater control and interactivity than say , just using the remote/mouse , Here too more options have sprung up . There are Fantasy Leagues . There are Forums . There are VideoGames .

I dont usually partake of any of these offerings , but i was playing Nba Live 2001 the other day ( I know , I know its a really old game but its still an awesome game . This was one of the first big [ in those days , anything > 100 MB was big ] files i downloaded off the Internet . It took me many many hours of my dial up modem to get the full game [ Without any Commentary even ] and I dint regret it one bit . I used to play it extensively once upon a time - in school i believe - and have used it numerous times to escape and get way from things when I just need a break . I had to search like a gazillion forums before I could get a patch to make it work in Vista before finally getting it - Yay ! ) and I was struck by how relevant the game still is ( All u need is the latest Roster updates :D ) .

Started a full season ( For the Lakers , obv ) and made it all the way to the playoffs in the matter of a month or so . So im playing playoffs , first round , and i got Minnesota . They sux , so im expecting ez win ... Hour and a half later , I feel like ive been through a battle and survived .. just barely .. Needed maximum number of games to beat em, All of em but one goin down to the final minute , Needed concentration which would have got me a good solid 90% aggregate in college and needed nerves which i dint know existed till then ( all this in a video Game , Imagine the guys that do this for real ! ) . In the end , I won by simply mimicking real life , by putting the game in the hands of Video-Game-Kobe and making it do all the things Real-Life-Kobe does , Injured Pinkie and all .

Yea , Sports rules .

PS : Apologies for all the brackets and the tangential narration style . Been reading David Foster Wallace . That must be it

Di-Versity

2009-02-15T22:18:00.005+05:30

When even the only fellow whos blogs more sporadically than me - Chandler -has 3 posts in 2009 and i have a grand total of 0 , it was time for some serious action ! After rejecting my first and typically lazy thought ( Which was - Even Adi has not blogged in February , Why should i ? ) I decided to buckle down and actually write this

All that remained was to find a topic logical and interesting enough to write on , a commonly recurring problem which I partly blame for this recent lull in activity ( Technical Name - bloggers Block )

So i thought back on all that had happened in my life in 2009 . The only Central Theme was - There was none . So i decided to blog about them all and hence the title of this post

It can also mean im just being lazy to organize my thoughts cohesively but hey its my blog , and no one reads this anyway :( .

Onto the chaos .

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2009 Started with a bang . First week of Jan always means - The Chennai Open !!! Got season tickets this time and even though it started out with a whimper with Nadal not returning here and then the top seed Davydenko Retiring , a certain

Somdev Devvarman rescued the tournament from fading into insignificance for the local crowd .
It was an amazing cinderella story for everyone to follow and it played out all the way to the final day of the tournament . No classics quite like the Nadal - Moya match from last year , but good stuff nevertheless

This was the last year of the Contract for this event and heres hoping the ATP renew it , Chennai deserves it .

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This was immediately followed by the Chennai Sangamam , the Street festival held every year in Chennai around Pongal time . Even though I personally went there every day mainly only for the food ( :D ), this year was bigger than ever before with them even having a night long celebration in VenkatNarayana road , even cordoning off the whole road to traffic and lighting up the street with lights a la those found in Orchard road in Singapore .

Yea , quite unreal . Read this

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It is around this part of the post that you might have noticed i do ( or rather dont ) do a lot of the actual description through external links . If your too lazy to click them , dont complain about the quality of this post :-P .

If you do click them and still say my post sucks , well , then u donno how to appreciate diversity .

U just think its the opposite of University .

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Here , Chandler disrupts my thought process by pinging me on Gtalk and as a result , Im just going to shamelessly paste the convo here in lieu of an actual Paragraph

(11:41:10 PM) Chandler: black star?
(11:41:42 PM) Chandler: have u forgotten stars are all bright and glittery??
(11:41:47 PM) arjunjeyaprakash@: Eh ?
(11:41:56 PM) Chandler: ur status msg was black star
(11:42:17 PM) arjunjeyaprakash: yes it was
(11:42:24 PM) arjunjeyaprakash: song name ..
(11:42:35 PM) arjunjeyaprakash: and besides what do u have against black stars da
(11:42:37 PM) arjunjeyaprakash : racist fellow
(11:42:42 PM) arjunjeyaprakash :)
(11:42:43 PM) Chandler: ROFL

-- Next song comes on --

(11:42:36 PM) Chandler: dei, clark kent is superman da.. not lazlo bane :D
(11:43:10 PM) arjunjeyaprakash this is the song they copied for Scrubs !
(11:43:19 PM) Chandler: copied illa da nonsense
(11:43:34 PM) Chandler: the song was made for scrubs.. have u seen the video? it was shot on scrubs set
(11:43:42 PM) arjunjeyaprakash@: potato p0tato
(11:43:55 PM) Chandler: u'll make a horrible lawyer da
(11:44:03 PM) Chandler: sure ah oru case kuda win pannamata
(11:44:09 PM) arjunjeyaprakash@gmail.com/Home: Of course i will
(11:44:17 PM) arjunjeyaprakash@gmail.com/Home: ill plead temporary insanity :)
(11:44:24 PM) Chandler: rofl

Enough of this insanity .

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Since this is shockingly going to be longer than I expected , Im going to split this into two . ( Yes its a flagrant effort to increase my post count , so what :P )

In Part 2 , I plan to :

Bring some order and somehow relate all this together
Continue to provide more external links for reading :P
Make some earth shattering revelations

Ok , I lied about that last one .

Anyway , stay tuned

Cross - Talk

2008-09-16T22:03:00.006+05:30

I was reading that ^ ^ , there was this knockabout cross - talk act where , and I quote " Its one of those Pat and Mike things. Two birds come on in green breards ..... ".... Actually its too long , go look it up .

The gist is two people .. well .. cross -talking and poking each other with umbrellas. Anyway the below post is loosely inspired by that ( Without the remarks being prefaced with words like "Begorrah " and "Faith and begob" , as in the original, of course :P )

As always this post is mostly the result of an overimaginative mind . Based on that criterion alone I think Calvin would have made a great blogger . But i digress .. Onto the dialogues .

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George Washington : I cannot tell a lie .
Jack Nichoson : You want the truth ? You cant handle the truth !! .

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Marvin: I think you ought to know I'm feeling very depressed.
The Joker : Why So Serious ?

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Damien Hirst : The power of the Gray Skull ..
He - Man : Hey , thats my line !

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< anyone > : < anything >
Wumpus : lol .. ... So ? ..... *Yawn* .... Cool .... lets go there ... Who here has seen < insert random un-interesting thing here > ? .. Blah Blah ...

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( Overheard between the voices in my head )

Q : Why would the coding for Wall -E been really easy ?
A : Because its only one line : System.gc()

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(Shamelessly plagiarized )

CATS : All your base are belong to us
In Soviet Russia all our base are belong to You !!

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And finally ...

Readers of this blog : Whats all this nonsense ?
Me : Its all part of my new slogan : " Humour will save the world . "

(That's loosely based on this )

Readers : Ha !

( Bertie Wooster : "Ha!" is one of those things it's never easy to find the right reply to - it resembles "You!" in that respect )

Me : (Suitably Searching for a comeback ) At least the links were interesting

Readers : So ?

( Bertie Wooster : "So!" is another of those things which it's never easy to find the right answer to. Nothing in the way of a comeback suggested itself to me, so I merely lit a cigarette in what I intended to be a nonchalant manner , though I may have missed it by a considerable margin ... )

Me: ( Assumin nonchalant air as above )

Readers : And this post is supposed to be humorous ?

Me : yes ..

Readers : LOL . Now THATS funny .

Me : :(

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Got Any ?

License to Kill .... ( Or Vice Versa ? )

2008-07-14T00:53:00.005+05:30

James Bond may have a license to kill, but even he would have given up in frustration if he was trying to get a license from an Indian RTO .. Or he would have prolly done the smart thing and hired an agent ( Yea, i know he himself is a secret agent , but this is a diff kind of agent )

Of course the only reason I'm giving that kind of build-up is because I finally got my license to drive a 2 - wheeler recently . And I did it without a middle man . And the fact that I'm proud of that effort shows how tough it is and how much the system sucks ( Conversely it could also show how little it takes to make me proud, but let's not go there )

Of course, driving in India is an experience in itself . A client of mine who had come from UK once said that the only place he's seen driving worse than India is Turkey . Now I'm not sure if thats a insult to India or to Turkey , but I definitely know its not a compliment to either :-P .

A RJ on Mirchi once compared driving in India to a video game . After some analysis, I decided that the only game that could fit was "RoadRash" ;) , sans beating up people with rods and chains of course(well ...... for the most part) .

Road-Rash

Where else can you find suicidal dogs, irate cyclists , confused cows and even more confused pedestrians competing with vehicles for road space ? Where else would traffic be held up just cause a two-bit politican is passing through ? ( See this proves my theory that no smart person who could do something about it would voluntarily drive through the traffic :-P )

Where else could you get illegally cut off by Schumi-Wannabe Auto drivers, and then you end up getting an earful of the choicest local lingo for your trouble , maybe even a "Ootla Soltu Vantiya" comment ? ( Sorry , that defies translation )

Forget sentient beings , when funeral processions for corpses block the roads , you know you've got problems. As Gau would say , its "cadaverous" !

[ Edit : Achu sent me this link on reading this post .. Hilarious ..Watch the pedestrian stoll by nonchalantly , directly in harm's way @ 0:35 and Watch the white car in the top center of screen at about 1:35 ]

In the US you have 4 lane Freeways . In India you would have 2 lane ( 2 under construction , inconvenience caused is regretted ) free-for-all ways .
Are they Safe ? Err ... At least they aren't boring ! Gotta watch out for dogs ,open manholes, random old women crossing the street , speedbreakers that pop up with no warning and that guy in front who just went from 100 kmph to 0 kmph so he can eat at that dhaba that just went by .

Of Course, I'm exaggerating . Things are neither that bad nor that unsafe here . And people are very helpful . If you are lost , you only need to ask the nearest passer-by and he/she will definitely show u the (right ?) way .. In fact, they are soooo helpful that they will do this even if , or in some cases especially if , they have no inkling what place you are asking directions to, or even if such a place exists.

"Go straight, take the fourth left 'cutting' after the signal ( all this while his hand usefully gesticulating to the right !) ... Will only take you 8 minutes saar"

And of course , where else could you see

stuff

like

these ?

So there you have it. That's driving in India for you . I Guess in the end , there's nothing to do but , as this beautiful song from Morcheeba goes - Enjoy The Ride

On a different note , been way too busy of late .Tennis, Work, gym & general ooru suthifying left me no time to be vetti . I started this post on 14th July and am ending it now (hopefully) on 3rd August .. In the interim , I have become slightly better @ tennis , watched a few s0-s0 movies ( Wanted , Sarkar Raj, 21 ) , some good movies ( Dasavatharam ), a great movie (Kung - Fu - Panda ) (twice) , made several failed attempts to watch another great movie ( The Dark Knight) for a second time , had office shifted to siruseri , almost bought a new phone , listened to a whole lot of great music on launchcast , watched a Rajni movie first day ! ( Kuselan - which was seriously very disappointing ) , clocked over 50 km a day on my bike , Got Drenched a few times in the rain :-D , Bored the hell out of everyone everyone reading this , read 4-5 books , also bought a book ( Thud! - Terry Pratchett) , saw two plays , played frisbee and even went for a swim in the sea .

It was while returning from one of those outings that I got pulled over by a cop @ 1 am for routine papers checking .. Ironically, this was the first time in 7 years of driving in Chennai , that i got pulled over & it came not one week after i finally got the license ! License to kill or kill for a license , I'm just glad I din't get killed that night for lack of one :-) .

P.S : If you're wondering about how unusually well - punctuated this post has been , its thanks to this .

The evils of procrastination

2008-06-19T00:23:00.004+05:30

pro·cras·ti·nate /proʊˈkræstəˌneɪt, prə-/

–verb 1. to defer action; delay: procrastinate until an opportunity is lost.
–verb 2. to put off till another day or time; defer; delay.

Now that we know what it means and how it looks lets go to the million dollar questions . Why do Ppl actually procrastinate ?? Why do we keep putting off things we should be doing now ??

Based on my personal experience i would say ................. Meh, Actually no mood , ill finish this later .

More Rime Than Reason

2008-04-02T02:03:00.010+05:30

This was supposed to be a "sarcastic " take on the state of fiction these days , thanks to a novel by Steve Berry that i just finished reading .. But then i read "The elephant Vanishes " By Hirakumi something ( Japanese name , just remembering the first name is accomplishment enuff i would think ) ( assuming thats the right first name that is ) ( but enuff of this ) and "Ice Station" By Matthew Reilly and my faith in Books was restored (sadly , cuz i was quite looking forward to that post ) (btw i really wonder how ppl managed b4 brackets were invented )

Instead the readers of this blog ( all 3 of them ) have to make do with a few more "creative " efforts of mine

I thought up this one while riding to work

Magnificent she stands , Dominating the road
An impetuous wave of her hand

& all the vehicles stop

Its not to stare , she's not so beautiful

She's a Traffic Cop .

This was originally supposed to be purely a "poetic" post , with only poems, about very silly stuff of course . Its amazing how the very mundane can become postable in a blog , as long as u throw in a few rhyming words here and there .Fortunately or Unfortunately though there are no more poems here . But since there is quite a lot of text following , this post becomes slightly less useless

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Since I am Feeling too lazy to collate all of the below into logical posts , here follows some purely random thoughts from the last month

Oh and Yes , i made up the word "postable"
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The past month has been quite sensational for any sports fan , and is in large part why i started this post on the 2nd of April and am finishing it just now :- )

There has been the playoffs of one of the best seasons of the NBA .

IPL . Need i Say More ? Ill let Gau, Sup and Cha elaborate , with the latter even resuming blogging thanks to this

Closing Stages of a fabulous Premier League Season , with Man u winning the title on the Last Day

UEFA Champs Lg , leading to sleepless nights as usual , with three english clubs out of 4 in the semis and Man u making finals of this as well :-)

Even had a discussion on Synchronised Swimming on rebirth ;)

In fact there was one day where i woke up early to watch a Laker game , went to the IPL game in Chennai that evening and then stayed up to watch MAN U play in the Champs Lg .

Ah , Good Times.

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Asphalt is unforgiving .

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The Internet Rox ! Not that this is a new or shattering revelation , but after watching NBA games streaming on the internet , which i would have absoultely no chance of watching otherwise , i just HAVE to mention that here .

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Mokkai Of the month :

Q.) What wud u call Sean Penn's daughter if she was held in Penn State jail ?

A.) a Penn Penn Penn Penn

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" Do I Dare Disturb The Universe ? "

One of my fav quotes of the past month . T.S.Elliot .
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As i look back at all that b.s ^ i cant help but compare it to a bad movie . Its got comedy , tragedy , even a song and a punch dialogue :-)

All thats missing is the climax ........

< Tick Tock >

... Suspense Building ....

< Tick Tock ><>

< Tick Tock >

..................... And i turn 23 .

The Ultimate poem

2008-01-13T01:01:00.000+05:30

Being Exceptionally vetti this past week i decided to wake up the right side of my brain (depicted below) from its long slumber and do some creative thinking .. What results is the following "poem"

Why am i here ?
What is my purpose ?
Why do i fear
The great Russian Circus ?

What is my calling ?
Where lies my goal ?
Am i just falling
into a hole ?

Why do i waste time ?
Why am i Vetti ?
Damn,this aint gonna rhyme
...........d'oh!

Why do people fight ?
Why cant we have peace ?
What is the world's plight ?
And who moved my cheese ?

Will this poem be a hit ?
Despite this dumb idea of mine
Why did i have to make it
Rhyme every alternate line ?

And As i look back at all that baloney
Wonder , is all i can do
Questions so many ,Why doesnt any
fit the answer forty-two ?

Disclaimer : The "Ultimate" in the title refers solely to the last line of the poem and is in no way intended to convey the impression that this poem is any good .

Ten out of Ten(nis)

2008-01-06T01:17:00.000+05:30

The setting : Saturday 6th Jan2008 , Chennai open 08 2nd semifinal

The participants : Rafael Nadal & Carlos Moya - Both Spaniards ,friends and eternal favourites of the adoring Chennai crowds

The result : Magic :)

What a match ! One of the best tennis matches ive seen and definitely the finest exhibition of sport ive seen live.

The excitement started even before entering the stadium as our car found itself stranded next to Nadal's car in the customary traffic jam leaving us literally one glass away from him ..Not like he even turned in our direction but still.....

With the preliminaries ( the other semi :P ) dispatched off , the stage was set for a fantastic match .In that packed stadium ,surprisingly Moya had more number of ( or atleast more vocal ) fans

Moya,to the surprise of many, won the first set courtesy of a tiebreaker . When he capitalised on that and actually had 4 match points in the second people were quite stunned ... i was never a Moya fan but he played some really admirable tennis this match .. I was never really a nadal fan as well but got to admire his tenacity and never say die attitude .. Clawed back from the brink with some amazing plays and won the second set tiebreaker much to the approval of the crowd who did not want this exhilarating display of tennis to end .

The third set provided more thrills and twists with only the tame ending being an anti climax as nadal ran away with the tiebreak

The match as a whole was of very high quality with not too many unforced errors and several plays that brought the audience to its feet .. The atmosphere was electric as expected and just when one thought the match was done , there was a twist in the tale,resulting in 3 very long sets ..The match was the longest three-set match since 1993 where a match also spanned the same amount of time.

Overall a thoroughly enjoyable experience ably aided by the mokkai's of Gau , KB & Ara and the crowd razzing of Charu Sharma :)

Said moya after the match "The crowd reaction was unbelievable, this is one of the things that motivates you to go on at 31 years of age." . which about sums up how much good playing in chennai does him as i dont think he is revered so much anywhere else .

said Nadal "This was one of my best wins ever. It was a very emotional match."

It was called the best match in the history of this tournament and it left Nadal in poor shape for the final which he promptly lost 6-0 6-1 to youzhny in less time than it took for a single set in the previous match

PS : Had tickets for the whole week except the final . Turned out to be a blessing in disguise what with Nadal looking like he needed Steve Bucknor to referee this match to have any chance of winning :)

Blog Things

2007-12-31T16:30:00.000+05:30

As part of my routine vetti activites i was browsing through random webpages and came upon a friend's blog which had this "blog things" quiz result .. Went over and took a few quizzes myself .. Decent timepass .. A few things i got :

You Should Play the Guitar

You're very independent - both in spirit and in the way you learn.
You can teach yourself almost anything, even if it makes your fingers bleed.

You're not really the type to sit patiently through a music lesson - or do things by the book.
It's more your style to master the fundamentals and see where they take you.

Highly creative and a bit eclectic, you need a wide range of music to play.
You could emerge as a sensitive songwriter... or a manic rock star.

Your dominant personality characteristic: being rebellious

Your secondary personality characteristic: tenacity

What Musical Instrument Should You Play?

You Belong in Rome

You're a big city soul with a small town heart
Which is why you're attracted to the romance of Rome
Strolling down picture perfect streets, cappuccino in hand
And gorgeous Italian people - could life get any better?

What City Do You Belong In?

You Are a German Shepherd Puppy

Intelligent, quick witted, and a bit aggressive.
You've got the jaw power to take a bite out of anyone you choose.

What Breed of Puppy Are You?

Your German Name is:

Otto Gustav

What's Your German Name?

Apart from this being the most pointless and easiest blog post ive ever written :) it is also quite a break in tradition .. Just wanted to make sure not to let the year slip by without a quickie post at least and thus this is the first post that ive written before 12 am :-D

( Guess i dont need to take that "Are You a Morning Person or Night Person?" quiz eh ? :P )

Requiem for Vettiness

2007-11-10T00:30:00.001+05:30

I wrote the following 3 weeks back , but never posted it for some reason and found it in my drafts now .. Here it is in full now and even with the benefit of 3 weeks hindsight , i find it needs very little editing

"" The eve of departure is here . Months of unabashed vettiness creep to an end. Gone are the days when the only time i saw "AM" on a clock was when it was dark outside . Suddenly i will be expected to get up , rather than go to bed, in the early hours of the morning . I have been practising . Setting the alarm for previously unheard of hours like 8 am and 9 am . It doesnt help much . I can just press "snooze " 10 times , get up an hour and a half later and still be on time to accomplish all the nothing scheduled for the day . This , like so many others , will soon be a luxury i can ill afford .

i just bid my YM friends goodbye. It is not the only thing i have to give up. I can no longer waltz around with a 2 month old beard and a 6 month old haircut . Nor can i lounge in front of my computer all day . There is a marked difference between staring at a computer all day , at work , and "lounging" in front of one . i cannot stay up to watch US open , UEFA champions league , repeats of "Simpsons" , and the host of other enthralling programs late night TV manages to conjure up , in the belief that i will be able to catch up on sleep the next day . The tranquility found at 3 am when everyone is asleep is something that cannot be experienced anymore .

The only "useful" things i did over the past few months were going to the gym and reading .I never had any pressing engagements to attend to that made me unavailable for any outing/movie/basketball/treat/hanging out. I was able to dedicate hours to writing an account of the Euro trip that was able to do some semblance of justice to the trip itself . In short , the only boss of Me was Me & being the kind and benevolent boss that i am , i gave myself a few months off .

My friends could probably touch upon various other aspects of vettiness that have suddenly vanished from their lives , everything from just hanging out to watchin movies all day . All i can say is im probably goin to be adding a few things to that list in 9 weeks time . ""

Follow up :

The most important additions to that list ive discovered in the past weeks has probably been the lack of music blaring away around me for the majority of the day and the sadly diminishing role that sports is coming to have in my life .

[ Embed theme from "Requiem for a dream " here ] . When i have more free time probably . Sigh .

2(0) Fast 2(0) Furious !

2007-09-25T04:12:00.000+05:30

That's the only way to describe the action at the recently concluded 20 20 World Cup .. fast n furious . This was the inaugural t20 world cup and the authorities could not have asked for a better exhibition of cricket to firmly entrench this new format in every one's mind

They could not have asked for a better start to the tournament as South Africa and the West indies served up a fantastic appetizer to the rest of the tournament ..Chris Gayle made the first (and ironically last ) century of the tournament blasting 10 sixes along the way to get the West Indies to a 200+ score .. Barely had the reverberations of such a pyrotechnic display settled down when the South Africans surpassed it , gettin to the stiff target with consummate ease and 14 balls left . This match set the stage for the rest of the tournament , showcasing stimulating cricket , the innovative dancers , the music , the underlying statistics of the sixes ( the number of them , distance travelled ) and many other novel features

It was the turn of Zimbabwe to steal the spotlight next , when they upset the world champions Australia in a close encounter ..By the time the tournament progressed to the Super 8 stage everyone had come to expect big hitting (as evidenced by sri lanka piling on 260 vs kenya) , close nervy finishes and the possibility of any team being toppled , which the Windies discovered much to their disconcertion as they made a unceremonious round 1 exit .

They very epitome of nervy finishes was provided by The India Pak match in the groups .. The match swung one way , then the next before finally ending in a tie and being resolved India's way by the introduction of crickets equivalent to the penalty shootout :- the bowlout

Come Super 8 time , the action just got more competitive with not too much separating the teams ..The indians stepped it up a notch as well with the fireworks being provided by yuvraj vs england and the bowling doin the job in an excellent match vs the south africans

The semifinals saw pakistan put it past new zealand with ease and india unexpectedly prevailing over the Aussies with a spirited comeback to set up the most electric of matches .. India - Pak , in a world cup final to boot !

The final turned out to be a fitting culmination to the tournament providing a nerve wracking finish and proving that india pakistan games are never done till they are done .. When mizbah choked for the second time in 2 games , after reviving pakistan from the brink, it led to delirious celebrations from indians all over the world

Everyone jumped on the bandwagon announcing ostentatious awards for the cricketers , which were all the more conspicuous by the lack of the same for world champions in other sports , consequently leading to protests by them .

Apart from the fact that India did great in this tournament and won it against all odds , i really loved this tournament for all the entertainment it provided .. i Watched almost all the matches ( having nothing better to do :-P ) and did not really get bored too many times .. A few would even rank right up there with the best ive ever seen , in terms of sheer tension at least .. All the india matches were fantastic and the others dished up some good fun as well... Not too many matches were one-sided , apart from australia stepping it up and totally eviscerating sri lanka when it mattered.

Overall this tournament was one of the most memorable cricket series' i have ever witnessed and it was exactly what was needed after the fiasco that was the 2007 Odi world cup in the West Indies and as a sequitur everyone is talking about 20 20 as the future of this game

PS : I Came up with the title of this post before the issue of India Today was released , juz look @ the date for proof ... which just shows i should be writing for them :-P

PpS : Another good thing that resulted from this tournament was that , although it was heartstopping at times ( or perhaps due to ) , it meant i dont have to cut my nails for a while :-)

Euro Trip - Part 8

2007-09-06T02:49:00.000+05:30

After a long hiatus in posting due to [ insert random reason here ] i decided i should finish the account of the Euro Trip so here goes

Day 13:

Checked out of the hotel and proceeded to Gau de Nord train station where we were to board the Eurostar train to England .. Said goodbye to Alessandro our adroit bus driver over the last 13 days and went into the station .. Hunted for trolleys in vain at the station .. None were to be seen .. Considering that each trolley cost 1 euro to use , you would think that they would be well stocked .. Apparently this was not the case and we had to drag the suitcases by hand except for one guy who paid some dude 10 euros to take his trolley .. Passed through Customs and emigration and got to the terminal where , as we were early , we had to wait for some time

The EuroStar is a high speed train service connecting London with France and Brussels .. It Crosses under the English Channel by means of an undersea tunnel .. We boarded the train ,stowed our luggage in the luggage rack and settled down for the journey ahead

Was really hopin to catch a glimpse of the English Channel .. Was not to be though as we entered the tunnel well ahead of the starting point of the channel

We entered England and disembarked at Waterloo Station and got onto the bus .. Proceeded straight to Lunch where we had the local Meal .. Fish n Chips with salad ..
After lunch we went to Madam Tussauds Wax Museum which is a delightful place for people to get their photographs taken with famous " people " ..They keep shuffling the statues and replacing them with more up to date personalities from time to time... When we went they had the Indian special with statues of Aishwarya Rai , Shahruk & Amitabh

The cool thing about this place was how life-like the statues were and how difficult it was to distinguish flesh from wax ... There was even a statue of a photographer opposite one of the celebrity statues and it was so lifelike that whenever ppl walked in between the 2 statues , they would apologize to the photographer , only to realize ( or not ) later it was all a deception .. There were many rooms in the museum , each containin people from different fields .. There was a room dedicated to the POTC with Johny Depp and co

In some popular rooms such as this one there were professional photographers on hand to take ur pic and sell it to u .. Movie Stars were probably the most prolific category with statues of actors and their props present everywhere ... Even ghost rider and his bike were in attendance

There was Spiderman, Terminator , James bond , even Charlie Chaplin .. We then moved onto sports personalities .. There was Mr and Mrs Beckham ( obviously ) , Owen , Rooney , Tiger Woods ,even a replica of the football world cup .. There were some interactive games in this room like shooting a football onto a projected goal .. Sittin in the tennis umpires chair and testing if u can spot where the ball was in or out .. There was Lance Amstrong and you leading the pack at the Tour De France

The next room was musicians , of which there were surprisingly few ,and politicians .. There was Bush n Blair

Indira Gandhi & even Hitler

We saw the first statue ever made by Madame Tussaud , rode a mini train through a depiction of Britain's history and got thoroughly lost before we could find the exit and get out in time

We then went to the London Eye , which is this Ferris wheel type observation ride , which rotates extremely slowly , constructed by British Airways ..The wheel carries 32 sealed and air-conditioned passenger capsules attached to its external circumference

Got some pretty good photos from the top of the city of London

At the base of the London Eye , we looked at some exhibition phamplets , includin one of Star Wars and also saw a trampoline which had been set up .. We dint have any time to do anything more than look @ these though as it was gettin late and we had to head to the hotel

We had all wanted to explore the Champs Elysee in Paris but were unable to do so due to time constraints .. So to make up for that we wanted to go to Picadilly circus , a similar sort of place with all night activity .. Formed a group of interested people and went and enquired as to whether Thomas Cook would provide transportation .. The answer , sadly, was no .. We decided to take the underground railway , the famous Tube system ..After some map reference we set off to the nearest station , bought a day pass from the machine and boarded the train .. There are many lines that operate the underground .. Central Line, Picadilly line etc each havin its own colour red ,blue , yellow etc and many stations are served

Reached Picadilly Circus in about 20 mins ..The Latin word circus (meaning circle) refers to a "circular open space at a street junction" .. Walked around here for a while , saw the sights , lots of theatres ( both plays and movies ),Restaurants / pubs and other entertainment venues are present here .. Lots of people up and about the town at this time enjoying the night life

Stayed here for about an hour , then caught the tube back to the Hotel .

Day 14 :

Had the London City tour today .. We were joined for this by a local guide , a woman named Sally .. She was relating to us the story of London's past , its current standing,the various building and so on .. We first stopped at the Albert Memorial .. This was a statue commissioned by Queen Victoria in memory of her husband

Right opposite this is the famous Royal Albert Hall .. This very distinctive hall hosts more than 350 performances every year

From here we drove around a bit more , the guide explainin stuff to us on the way .. We passed Hyde Park which is is one of the largest parks in England and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner...Speakers' Corner is an area where public speaking is allowed and speakers are allowed to speak as long as the police consider their speeches do not breach the law .. We crossed Marble Arch

We crossed London Bridge , which thankfully , was not succumbing to gravity as the popular poem goes .. We passed Trafalgar square also .. Around this area , at that time there was a bomb scare so the police were evacuating all the people from the area .. It turned out to be a hoax thankfully .. We were waitin for the passing of the changing horse guards but it was not to be that day

We then passed Prince Charles' house and proceeded to Buckhingam Palace for the acclaimed changing of the guards

This is nearly an hour long spectacle wherein a new batch of guards come in to replace their compatriots going off duty .. First the new group of guards come down the road replete with a band playing music , then proceed into the palace itself .. After this the outgoing guards march out formally again and go back to their barracks

We dint stick around for the entire show but left after the new set of guards were ushered in .. We drove on past Westminster Abbey , which is is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English monarchs , past the well-known Big Ben and went for lunch .. On the way we saw a few typical english institutions .. One was the distinctive London cab , which looks a lot less roomy from afar than it really is . We also saw lots of old English bars .. Some even had floral arrangements , one which had even won an award for it for 4 consecutive years

Apparently during the happy hours these places are packed with people ,some even resigned to standing outside

We next visited the Tower of London , best known for its illustrious residents , The Crown Jewels ..The Tower's primary function was a fortress, a royal palace, and a prison ..It has also served as a place of execution and torture, an armoury, a treasury, a zoo etc .. This was founded in 1078 by William the Conqueror and is now a World Heritage site

There are many buildings that encompass the site ,each serving a different purpose .. Right opposite the tower is the majestic Tower Bridge , which has the ability to rise up any time a ship needs to pass under it

There were entire rooms devoted to showcasing the ancient armour and the guns , horse armour as well

We went around the Jewel tower ,where they had 2 screens of introduction to the Crown Jewels before goin in to see them .. The room where the Crown Jewels themselves are displayed has a moving travellator on which one stands and admires the jewels as we move past the glass cases that contain them .. Apart from the Crown Jewels Themselves , which are fabulous and obviously priceless , there are various other artifacts and royal memorabilia ..The crown jewels stay here under armed guard throughout the year unless they are taken out during the coronation ceremony and at various other state functions

Unfortunately Photography was not allowed in that room so there are no pics:-(

The Tower of London abounds with mystery and conspiracy theories as there are countless stories about it during its time as a torture and execution chamber .. They even found 2 skeletons when they were renovating the tower .. These were allegedly the 2 princes who had disappeared while being held captive in the tower

There was even a voting machine on which visitors could vote for what they thought the most likely scenario was

We strolled outside , saw the beefeaters , who are the official guards of the tower and the ravens .. It had been thought that there have been at least six ravens in residence at the Tower for centuries. .. There is a belief that if the ravens leave , the Tower of London and the entire kingdom would fall .. Thus the wings of the ravens presently there are clipped and they are cared for by the ravenmaster which is one of the beefeaters .

It is possible to spend an entire day at this place , with many attractions like the torture chamber , a guided tour by one of the guards etc , but we were out of time and had to leave to go for lunch .

After lunch we were given some time off to stroll around the shopping area on Oxford Street .. As none of us wanted to shop we walked down to Picadilly Circus ,following the maps , mostly using the bus route maps pasted on the bus stops .. The walk took the best part of 45 minutes which meant that by the time we got there all we had time to do was go to a Japanese bookstore and eat some ice cream before we had to turn back .. On the way back we walked into a huge apple store where they had all the latest ipods, imacs and all the i-what nots possible .. After spendin some time there we went back and joined the rest of the group , got back onto the bus and drove off

To wind up the trip we were taken to the Swami Narayana Temple on the outskirts of London .. This was Europe's first traditional Hindu temple and was funded and built totally by hindus and took 5 years to build

After spending some time here and staying for the evening arti we left and went back to the hotel ...At the dinner , where free drinks were provided , the group signed and presented a card and a memento to the tour manager and sung his praises for the fantastic job that he did .. As this was the last evening of the trip , we spent some time sayin goodbye to all the members of the group , takin group pics , sharing contact details etc before heading to bed

We were woken up in the middle of the night at 2 30 am to board the bus to get us to the airport .. We were also provided with cakes, energy bars to tide us over until we got on the flight .. Went to the airport , checked in , Got the VAT refund for the stuff we had bought ( Some ppl could not do this as it was time for their flight and the guy at the counter was busy with a previous customer ) and boarded the flight to return to India .

And there u have it . The greatest, most unforgettable vacation of our lives had come to an end .. Europe , a continent unlike any we had ever seen .. From a bountiful dose of glorious history ,rich culture, great architecture and art to breathtaking natural beauty coupled with some great modern innovations and attractions , it has it all . Obviously touring 10 countries in 15 days meant that we could not do full justice to the various attractions available, but just get an essence of each country .. To explore all the places of interest in each country itself is the work of a matter of weeks .

Here credit has to be given to Thomas Cook , who planned and executed a remarkable schedule ensuring that we made the best of the time available ..Every half hour of the tour was planned and accounted for and they ensured that all the popular tourist destinations were visited , allocating more number of days for places with more to see and appropriately less where applicable .. The food provided was more often that not of very good quality .. The tour manager did a great job with respect to time management and here the group did their part as well , stickin to the time limits. Also the group as such was a very good mixture of people who got on well with each other and were generally in high spirits throughout... This trip was also a great oppurtunity for us to spend a lot of time as a family .

The posts have gotten bigger as each installment of it arrives , much like the Harry Potter series :P , and yet has many elisions.. All it proves is that words are not merely enough to describe this trip in its entirety .

I had mentioned at the beginning of this series of posts that i was writing these posts to serve as a memory aid in case i forget .. But 2 months on , i can remember vividly most of what transpired during the trip .. This , i believe, is testimony enough of the nature of this trip and the once-in-a-lifetime experiences we had .

So, like they say at the end of Euro Trip .. Best Trip Ever !

Euro Trip - Part 7

2007-08-17T03:53:00.000+05:30

Day 11 :
Left Antwerp in the morning and drove to Paris , pausing on the way for a rest stop . Entered France and drove straight to Paris and to lunch which was the local meal .. chicken , mushrooms and rice . Drove straight from there to the Novotel Hotel Pretty big hotel and we were made to wait a while while the rooms were being prepared .. After goin up to the room , restin for a while and gettin ready , we came down for the city tour of Paris

With over 30 million foreign visitors per year, Paris is the most popular tourist destination in the world. The city hosts numerous iconic landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame cathedral, the Champs-Elysées, the Arc de Triomphe, the Invalides along with world famous institutions such as the Louvre and popular parks like Disneyland Resort Paris.

We were first taken to meet our local guide outside the Louvre museum which we were to go to the followin day , and while waiting took photos of the famous glass pyramid

The local guide turned out to be a Punjabi , called Maninder Singh , who was a professor in one of the colleges there .. Very Knowledgeable man .. but very apt to stray from topic to topic .. Drove around the streets of Paris and he was explaining all the way , stopping whenever there were any interesting sights to allow us to disembark and take photographs .. Drove past the famous Notre Dame Cathedral

Dint go inside as buses are not allowed anywhere near there these days and it was too time consuming to park and walk .. Went past 2-3 kilometres of Old , Beautiful buildings in the centre of the city .. Went past the Golden bridge , Parliament , Jacques Chirac's house etc .. We stopped at a place which had the Grand palace to the left and the Invalides to the right for a photo shot

The next place we stopped at was a square where there was this obelisk , built by the Egpytians 2000 years back , which had been donated to the French some time back .. It was gold tipped as well .. Around this area is the famous elite hotel, The Ritz, where the winner of the Tour de France gets to stay after his win

Surrounding this place were statues of women depicting the states of France .. For example the lady representing Bordeaux was holding a basket of grapes cuz that region was famous for its wines .. After some more pics here we left this place and went to the Champs-Elysées, Saw tons of car showrooms on the way ... Peugot , Ferrari etc and then saw the Arc de Truimphe ... Circled this about 3 times and took pics ... There was a rehearsal of sorts going on there as navy men were preparing for their National day parade on July 14th

Passed the bridge where Diana had her accident after that , they have a bronze flame statue there to commemorate the tragic event and the pillar her car crashed against is still left unrepaired .. From there we went to a vantage point from where one gets a nice open view of the Eiffel Tower .. Saw lots of Africans illegally hawking Eiffel tower replicas here .. While we were there we even saw a cop run after , chase down and arrest one person guilty of that offence .. 5 mins after the cop had left tho , his compatriots were back and resuming their activities .. Took pics of the Eiffel tower from this viewin area after this incident

Saw a guy practisin his skateboard stunts there as well .. After this we left and went to the Eiffel tower itself , passing on the way the Paris Hilton ( The hotel , not the girl :P )

Had to go and wait in line @ the base of the Eiffel tower for some time .. Had some fries while standing in the queue ( i guess the "French " in French fries was rendered redundant there ) .. As i had said in an Earlier post , Europeans take their dogs everywhere from restaurants to shops .. One man was even standing in line with us to go up the tower with a dog in tow :o .. As i had also said in an earlier post , any open space will do as a venue to host a concert there and the huge park near the base of the Eiffel Tower was no exception ,as preparations were underway and speakers were being set up

The black thingys on either side of the lawn were in fact , speaker decks

Craned (Almost sprained ) my neck and took some pics of the Tower from the base up as well

The queue we were waiting in was the Group Queue , where all the tour groups with a size of above 20 people were supposed to wait .. There was this couple behind our group in the queue as well .. When we got to the security check , the guard told them " Sorry Sir , this is queue for groups only " , To which the man retorted , pointing at himself and the woman " One , Two .. Group ! " Needless to say he was refused admittance and had to go and join the general queue :))

We went upto the 2nd level on a 2 level elevator which could hold about 90 people .. From here we had to take a different elevator to reach the 3rd level and had to wait in queue for that as those elevators had a lower capacity .. While waiting in the queue , we managed to get some nice pictures of Paris from that height

After ascendin the next set of elevators we reached Level 3 , which was the highest one was allowed to go up the Eiffel Tower . It was quite a spectacular view of Paris,with the river cutting across it, from up there and we spent most of the time takin pics

Also , from that height we could see the 12 major roads meeting at the Arc de Truimphe and also the exceptionally busy roundabout in which the Arc lies.

At the place where we came back to , to board the elevators to take us down , there were many boards with distances to major cities the world over displayed on them .. They informed us that Chennai was 8047 km from there .. There were lights on the Eiffel tower as well , which we were told would light up every hour for 5 mins starting from 9 Pm .. We had to leave there earlier than that tho

Proceeded from here onto the cruise on the famous Seine river .. Near the dock we saw a statue , which was a smaller replica of the famous Statue of Liberty in New York .. On the boat ,which had been booked exclusively for our group they served dinner and unlimited wine .. They had also arranged for music to be played and turned one part of the boat into a dance floor .. The whole group was up and dancing pretty soon , especially after some wine had been downed

At 10 pm , we were again treated to a fantastic sight as the Eiffel Tower ( which was visible from the part of the river we were in at that time ) lit up and continued to sparkle and twinkle for 5 minutes

After a fun couple of hours ,the people going for the Lido show (a famous dance and music extravaganza ) went below and changed into formal clothes adhering to the shows dress code ..Thereafter we left the boat and got back onto the bus .. The people who had opted and paid for the Lido show were taken to the theater where it was gonna be held .. It was scheduled to start quite late , past midnight and after dropping off those people there , the rest of us were taken back to the hotel .. We dint particularly want to go for the show as we had seen similar one earlier in Thailand and dint think this was a big deal .. We wanted to walk around the Champs-Elysées , where the activity peaks only as the hours grows late and goes on until the early hours of the morning .. This was the place that the French public came out onto in huge numbers to celebrate the 1998 football Wc win and was shown prominently on TV .... But , Some people in our group were not upto it after a long day and wanted to rest , so the plan never came to fruition and we ended up retiring to the hotel .

Day 12 :

As it was quite late by the time the people from the show returned , we had a late morning start .. Asked the others about the show over breakfast .. Responses ranged from "fantastic" to " ok " .. First stop today morning was the Versailles Palace

The king of France at that time , Louis 14 was looking for a site where he could organize and completely control a government of France by absolute personal rule. He settled on the royal hunting lodge at Versailles, and over the following decades had it expanded into the largest palace in the world. Versailles is famous not only as a building, but as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy which Louis XIV espoused.

We went there and met our local guides and proceeded to enter the palace .. The first impression upon seeing the palace was marvel at the level of opulence that must have existed .. Everywhere we looked we could see beautiful paintings , sculptures , decorated ceilings , Huge rooms indicating quite a lavish lifestyle that the kings must have enjoyed at the expense of the peasants

They paid the ultimate price for this luxury though .. When the revolution struck the king Louis 16 and his family were carted away to Paris and executed by guillotine

The guide took us from room to room explaining its purpose and what the paintings and other art in the room symbolized .. First we saw the chapel where there was a balcony from where the king could sit and look down at the commoners .. The next room was a nobleman's reception room , where the important guests of the king would be met

The next room was the ballroom , where there would be dancing .. The king was quite fond of hosting parties with food , drink and dance and would do so at least thrice a week ( instead of ruling his kingdom ) .. This room had a fireplace so huge that people could actually walk into it .. The next room had a sculpture of Louis 14 .. The sculpture ,on orders from the king , falsely portrayed him as slim and muscular, whereas in reality he was neither

The next room was the war room with a ceiling covered in gold coated sculptures and paintings where important discussions were held .. There was an official painting of the king and the queen as well .. In the queen's picture , there was a little dog present as well .. This was supposed to indicate that the queen was faithful to her husband .. The kings portrait on the other hand had no dog ;) .. The next room was the bedroom of the king , where his bed is still there

The bed was so short because in those days people did not sleep fully reclining , but rather sitting up .. This was so because it was believed that if u sleep lying down u may be in danger of death caused by swallowing ur own tongue .. The next room was the waiting room where people would wait to meet the king and tell him their problems .. The room beyond that was the Throne room where the king sat and conducted his daily affairs .. The original throne which was solid gold , was molten down for money long back and now there rests a replica in its place

After this we entered the famous Hall of Mirrors , aptly named as one side of the hall is covered wholly by mirrors and the other side has windows open to the dusk sunlight

In the evenin the light coming in would be reflected back by the mirrors creating a amazing optical phenomenon to the people present , as mirrors were not widely known in those days .. This room was also covered in chandeliers and paintings .. This room was basically used to impress visitors to the palace

From here we proceeded to the next wing , which was the queen's and ladies' quarters
The first room was the queen' bedroom which even had a secret door along the wall through which the king could enter at night .. This was followed by a ladies' waiting room , for the ladies who came to meet the queen .. The next room was covered with paintings of Napoleon , who grabbed power and declared himself akin to a god .. There is a famous painting there depicting the coronation of Napoleon .. This painting is unique cuz unlike other kings who got cornated by the Bishop or some holy authority , Napoleon coronated himslef and then crowned his queen himself

All of Napoleans sisters are also present in this painting , but one of them is dressed in pink and is clutching her belly , whereas all the others are in white .. This was done by the artist to depict his love for her and that she was pregnant with his child .. After this we passed the shop , a room containin sculptures of all kinds and went out onto the palace grounds

The grounds outside are Huge , over 800 acres and there is a beautiful garden just outside the palace with a fountain .. Beyond this lies the massive grand canal ..Even farther into the distance lie the dense woods of the King's hunting grounds.

After takin a few more pics of the palace from outside,

We left the gardens and went to look at the exotic plant garden and storage area from up on a balcony

From the balcony , we could see , beyond the exotic garden , a huge lake .. This lake is actually rectangular but they created an optical illusion to make it look square when seen from a distance .. After this we saw the Changing gardens .. These were so named because these lay just outside the Queen , Marie Antoniette's window and every night the gardeners would remove the pots containing the flowers and replace them with a different set , with different placement .. This was done so that when the queen woke up every morning and peered out the window, she would see a "new" garden .

We left the palace after this tour and went straight to lunch .. After lunch we had the visit to the Louvre museum

The Louvre Museum is the most visited and one of the oldest, largest, and most famous art galleries and museums in the world... It houses many treasures and its popularity soared when it was used as a central setting in the plot of the bestseller , The Da Vinci Code

We entered it right under the famous glass pyramid.. The museum is huge and to see all the exhibits on display would take decades .. We were given a map containing all the important and popular attractions and directions to get around the museum .. It is divided into 3 wings , each of which is further subdivided into various categories

The first thing we saw was the Winged victory of Samothrace , a marble sculpture of the Greek goddess Nike (Victory) .. This is thought to date from the period around 200 BC

We then passed a few corridors draped with beautiful painting on both sides to get to the most famous occupant of The louvre - The Mona Lisa .. This merits an entire wall to itself,even warranting a special protective glass covering .. It looks surprisingly small when seen first hand , maybe accentuated by the whole empty wall behind it .. As expected there was a huge throng of visitors swarming the painting , trying to get their picture taken with it

We went to the next floor and entered the sculptures section ... Saw various famous sculptures such as the Venus De Milo,

a sacrophogus of a married couple , a statue of Caesar , a gladiator .. Entered the Michalangelo room after that .. Here there were famous statues like one of Cupid and The Dying Slave .

We left this wing of the museum and proceeded to another wing , an excerise which in itself took 5 minutes ..After navigating our way to the Mesopotamian quarter we saw some old pottery , some metal sculptures and the famous pillar containing the Code of Hammurabi

This is one of the first written codes of law in recorded history .. It was even written in the common language of Babylon so that any literate person could read it .. It was the first proponent of the famous "Eye for eye, tooth for tooth philosophy"...The code is also one of the earliest examples of the idea of presumption of innocence, and it also suggests that the accused and accuser have the opportunity to provide evidence

After looking around a bit more , we discovered that our alloted time was up and hastened back to join the group and got back onto the bus

The last place we visited that day was a place called Montmarte .. Montmartre is a hill 130 metres high,primarily known for the white-domed Basilica of the Sacré Cœur on its summit

We went upto the top , looked around , went inside the church where they had some pretty impressive paintings .. Walked around the church , rather impressive view of the city of Paris from up on this hill as well .. Came down and saw people makin arrangements for a concert to be held here at the base as well ! Bought some french crepes from a surly old lady and ate them after coming down :D

Returned to the hotel after that , signalling the end of a long day and an even longer post :P

Euro Trip - Part 6

2007-08-12T04:01:00.000+05:30

Day 10 :

Today was the visit to The Netherlands .. The Netherlands or Holland is a very low lying country .. There are lots of dikes and dunes to protect the low lying areas from flooding .. Had we gone before May 21 we would have been taken to see the famous flowers of Holland but this was unfortunately not the season for it

Instead we went to a smallish fishing village on the coast called Volvendham .It was full of fishing boats and picturesque colourful houses

The docks had a power line for every boat's pier .. Somethin i hadn't seen before ... The skies were ominously dark as we began strolling around the city .. The houses here were boxed together tightly so as to maximize the available space

Some of the houses even had a level below the road height .. In The Netherlands , lot of commuting is done by way of bicycles .. So much so that , all the roads have a separate lane for cycles complete with little traffic signals for them .. Some cars are even equipped with overhead racks to carry the cycles

Just as we were completing the tour of the city , it started pouring .. We took shelter in a roadside stall selling , as luck would have it , hot dogs :P .. We had some hot fries and hot dogs while waiting for the rain to abate ... When it showed no sings of doing so , we took the umbrella ( The attentive and regular reader will know it was bought in Germany :P ) and proceeded to look around a bit more

We left this place after about an hour there and drove to a cheese and shoe factory .. Netherlands is famous for its cheese and its wooden shoes .. The wooden shoes used to be worn by farmers when they were workin in the flooded fields .. After some explaining of how cheese is made and some quite delicious sample of the various types of cheese ( This included even non veg cheese ) we were shown a demonstration of how wooden shoes are made.. These days they are bought just for decorative purposes by tourists , and so they even have multi coloured shoes

After buyin some cheese ( which I'm enjoying to this day ) we left the farm and went for a photo stop in front of a huge windmill, which the Netherlands is quite famous for

The windmills were used in the olden days to dry the flooded fields .. These days these huge structures are little more than decorative figures on the landscape.. Quite a few of them still around though

After this we headed into Amsterdam , the capital , and headed straight for lunch .. Was local dutch meal .. Fries and Croquettes .. After this we went on a cruise on some of the many canals of Amsterdam ... The city was founded when the dam on the river Amstel was built , thereby leading to its name as well and it is full of canals and waterways

There were cycles galore on the streets of Amsterdam as well and lots of rails provided to park them next to and lock onto .. Sometimes even that is not enough though as depicted by this photograph

At one point on the cruise , we could see 7 bridges in one straight line , one behind the other .. We also saw the Dutch coat of arms ( The XXX )

After the cruise we were let off at Dam square , the main square of Amsterdam .. Walked around there for a while , saw the palace and generally hung around the area

A magician was starting to perform in the square , but it was just as we had to leave though :/ .. From here we drove to Madhuradam where they had Miniature Holland , models of all the important buildings of Holland on a scale of 1:25

All the models were remarkably detailed and took many years to build .. Even the shrubs surrounding the buildings were miniatures , grown especially for this park .. Some of the buildings even had miniature people in them .. Like, a miniature castle would have tiny soldiers gathered in the field .

We were given a map which had information about each model and its number to go by

Some of the building even had moving mechanical parts to display the working of them .. Some models, on inserting a coin would move around and perform various actions .. Eg : On a model of a fair , the roller coaster would go for a ride around the circuit , the merry go round will move etc etc .. On a model of a bridge , the bridge will rise everytime a boat passes underneath and come back to position once the boat has crossed etc , In a ship repair yard , the ship will come out after the repairs ..... and so on

They had moving automobiles on highways , an extensive railway setup complete with bridges over obstacles that trains would ply on ,mini cable cars and even a model of an airport where planes would move up and down the runway

They also had a mini football field , lookin down on which u would get the feeling that u were up in a blimp flying over the field making the people look like ants

After takin a LOT of pictures here , in the process depleting all the memory as well as draining the battery of the camera , we left Madhuradam and went back to Antwerp and to the hotel .

PS : It was indeed fortunate that we had taken the laptop along as we could transfer photos from the camera when the memory would run out , as it quite frequently did , what with the sheer volume of photos taken ..

PPS: I'm only including one day in this post as this was unnaturally long with lots of pics by itself and also cause the next day is Paris , which will be equally ,if not more , lengthy

Euro Trip - Part 5

2007-08-07T03:58:00.000+05:30

Day 8 :

Went first to the Rhine falls this morning ... The Rhine ( Rhein in German ) river is one of the most important rivers in Europe stretching for 1300 km and is a very important trade facilitator

The Rhein falls as such is not a very steep or big falls .. Juz pretty looking

But the cool thing is that they have viewing points on a rock which splits the falls ( denoted by the flag flying ) and a staircase to get up there .. So we got on a boat and proceeded to that spot .. While we were on the boat it started raining .. Rainfall on Rhein falls :-)

Anyway we got onto that rock and climbed up .. and the view was indeed spectacular .. seing a waterfall from above it was pretty cool

Went to another view point after that from where u can see the falls side - on . .After a few more pics here went back to the main dock and back onto the bus

From here we officially entered Germany and into the Black Forest .. This is so called because the density of trees in the forest is so thick that sunlight cannot penetrate through the tree tops and reach the forest floor .

This is a huge forest and is clearly visible from the air as well , as we noticed while flying over Germany .. Also obviously visible was the Swiss Alps .. But i digress ... We went to the small town of Titisee in the heart of the Black Forest for lunch .. The local meal .. Steak , Salad and potatoes and some local beer .. Germany is well known for its beer .. They have over 1200 breweries in Germany and the regulations for these was laid down way back in the 1500's

After this we went to the Drubba Cuckoo Clock factory ..The black forest is the place of origin of the Cuckoo clock .. In the winter months when it becomes too cold for farming , the farmers of this region resort to making Cuckoo clocks from the wood found in the Black Forest .. We were shown a demonstration of a small part of and an explanation of the making of the Cuckoo clocks .. They had many varieties for sale as well there ranging from simple clocks which emit the cuckoo sound to musical clocks that perform a whole host of actions in tune to the music which cost exhorbitant amounts .. We bought a small clock with just the cuckoo and also an umbrella cuz it was starting to pour

After that we proceeded to the town of Heidelburg .. Heidelburg is known mainly for its famous university renowned for its printing technology and its castle .. Its castle is situated on a hill from where one can get a nice view of the city .. We proceeded to go into the castle and look around

Apparently the castle had a Huge Wine vat which was as big as an entire room .. But it was closed when we went :/ ... Here, inside the castle also, they were making arrangements for a concert to be held :o .. After spending some time here we drove to our hotel .. Travelled by the famous Autobahn ,the highways of Germany, where there is no official speed limit .. The drivers are cautioned to drive around 120 kmph though .. After dinner at the hotel Ramada , we walked around the place a bit and made fun of the long German names :)

Day 9 :

Started off with a cruise on the river Rheine on a huge cruise boat .. Apparently the Rhine is a deep enough river that pretty huge and long cargo ships , which i thought were in operation only in the seas were plying these waters

Also the water of the Rhine was not like the green in Switzerland but more greyish like namma ooru water .. Every 2 mins or so we could come across a castle built on some hill in this region

As there was quite a chilly wind blowing on deck , we went down below and spent the rest of the ride there .. Also saw monument to a legendary lady who used to sit on a hilltop and sing .. The sailors , mesmerized by her beauty and voice would forget everything else and crash into the rocks .. Also saw lots of caravans and trailers on the banks as this was a popular getaway place

Came back to shore and drove to Cologne ... This is the birthplace of the famous ' Eu De Cologne ' .. First we went to the Cathedral in Cologne .. This is built in the Gothic style of architecture with lots of spires n stuff and lot of sculptures on the walls .. Beautiful to look at though it is covered in black grime

Apparently during World War 2 , 14 bombs were dropped on this by The allies and still it survived without any major damage .. My theory on this is that 14 bombs were dropped , but none of them exploded :D

Went inside and saw the huge pillars holding it up built layer upon layer .. Also they had lots of stain glass painted windows inside

The grandeur and size of these old European churches is quite stunning

Bought a bottle of Eu de Cologne in a shop nearby , had lunch and left Cologne and drove to Belgium

We first drove to Brussels , the capital of Belgium and went straight to St Michael's Square , where ,again preparations where on for a concert

Strolled around a bit and saw some of the things Belgium is famous for... Chocolates , especially the Godiva ones .. Lace works and lace tapestry stores ..Also Tintin Snowy and Captain Haddock painted on a wall and at the bottom , the signature of Herge , their creator who hails from Belgium .. And of course saw & ate some Belgian Waffles

They have so many varieties of Waffles and toppings and on a chilly day such as this , it was bliss to eat one of those hot waffles

Also saw the statue of the mannequin Pis - the symbol of the city of Brussels

The story behind this is that one day the young prince went missing .. After searchin for a lot of time , the King said that whenever and wherever the prince was found , he would erect a statue depicting exactly what the prince was doing at that time .. As luck would have it, the prince was found in a street cornet , urinating , and hence the statue

Also saw statue of a famous Army general which it is rumoured ,if u rub , will bring u good luck

Also saw a glass roofed building which kept the entire interior warm and was full of shops

Left brussels after this and drove to our hotel , The Hilton Scandic , with a photo stop at the Atomium along the way

This was built in 1950's to commemorate the Trade fair held in Brussels that year and is obv, in the shape of an atom .

The hotel was in Antwerp , famous for its diamond cutting .. Had local dinner that night ... Soup , Fish , rice and salad .. Went for a walk after dinner and if you thought German names were long ....

Euro Trip - Part 4

2007-08-05T02:45:00.000+05:30

Despite great temptation to write about the Simpson's movie which i saw yesterday and was brilliant , i will persist and continue the account of the euro trip

Day 6 :

The day began with a visit to Trummelbachfalls ie Glacier falls .. The river cuts its natural path through the mountain and they have cut out parts of the rock to allow tourists inside to observe the falls - the only such type of falls in the world . There is a path up the mountain and various view points on the way from where the falls can be observed

This path ^^ was on the outside of the mountain to come down .. While goin up we took a lift to one level and then took the steps cut into the mountain .. The water from the falls was very cold and was flowing with a great force making a deafening noise as well .. With the dark conditions inside the mountain and the constant water splashing onto the path it dint make for very good photographic conditions though

After spendin bout an hour here we left and proceeded to the train station from where we were to take a mountain train upto Jungfrau

Jungfrau is called the top of Europe .. It is a mountain peak at a height of 11,782 feet above sea level .. It was and still is considered one of the harder peaks to climb up ... In fact only a week after we were there 6 mountaineers died trying to scale it .. Keeping this is mind it is quite an engineering marvel that they built a railway line all the way upto the top as far back as the 1920's or so .. So we got onto the first train and went upto a intermediate station from where we had to switch trains .. On the way up of course we were treated to some astounding views of the countryside and i couldn't stop clickin pics

Got out at the inter station and switched trains to get us to the top .. This train stopped for 5 mins at two viewpoints each on the way up so that people could get off and look down the mountain face .. Unfortunately the weather was very bad the day we went and all we could see was fog :(

Reached the top of the Peak .. Here they have a huge indoor complex which contains all the restaurants , shops , train stations etc and there are exits from where people can get out onto the snow itself ... We first proceeded for lunch where we had out local meal with champagne :) .. After that we went around and saw the places of interest .. There s an ice palace , the whole structure being made of ice which has rooms , ice sculptures etc inside it

After this we went out via one of the exits onto the ice shelf ... It was freezing cold , especially with the gusty winds .. Spent about 2 mins there and could not take it anymore and returned to the warmth of the indoor heated complex

On a fine weather day one would get a fantastic view of the neighbouring mountains and the entire mountain range from out on the ice shelf .. But all we saw that day was fog and ice .. The temperature high that day was -0.5 degree centigrade and it was at -1.2 degrees when we were there with winds blowing at speeds of a maximum of 62 kmph

From here we proceeded to the Sphinx View point ... another place where ,as the name suggests , one would get a good view of the mountains .. Also in this place were snow dogs , snow plows and people working to keep the path safe .. Wanted to go for a ride on the sled pulled by the snow huskies but the bad weather did not permit it

Went back , rejoined the group and went down the mountain and back to the bus after this

From there we drove to Interlaken . As the name suggest it is a city situated in between 2 huge lakes and is very picturesque .. It is also a place where a lot of Bollywood films are shot against the backdrop of the mountains .. Strolled around the place for a while and had some Swiss coffee and took some pics .. Officially the currency of Switzerland is the Swiss franc but most shops also accept the Euro

After this we returned to Engelberg and to the hotel .

Day 7 :

Started off the day by going to Mt Titlis .. This was reached via a set of cablecars .. The first one being a steep inclined climb in a 4 person cable car followed by a Rotair Cable car which rotates 360 degrees while moving up so that a person gets a panoramic view of the mountains .. The weather on this day was sunny and afforded good visibility of the magnificent( yes , im running out of superlatives ) view

On reaching the top we were greeted by bright sunshine on the snow .. I had never understood why mountaineers needed sun glasses but appreciated them now as the sun s rays beat down really brightly at that altitude and also off the snow .. took a few more pics from the top

Played around in the snow for some time , which was exactly the right constituency , not too hard nor too soft .. Threw Snowballs , plodded knee deep in snow etc etc ..
After this we took the ice flyer down to an area where they have snow rides .. Kind of like the water slides in amusement parks , but on snow , going downhill .

They even had a ' magic carpet ' built into the snow , kind of like a travellator to bring u back up the hill .. Went on all the various sleds , losing balance and falling off twice as well on a chair like sled :(

Time flew by unheeded here and after a LOT of fun , we proceeded back up to the main mountain via the ice flyer ..The shade that the clouds cast on the snow led to brilliant interplay of their shadows juxtaposed with the pristine white snow below us making for a beautiful view as me moved up

Once back up we took a photo next to a snowman someone had painfully constructed ;) and back in the main complex we took a family photo in the native Swiss clothes and settings and then proceeded back down via the same way we had come , ie the cablecar
The contrast in setting from the snow covered mountains to the verdant valleys could be clearly seen as the descent proceeded .. All in all , a quite beautiful and enjoyable experience

Side Note : After we came back down from the mountain , I realized the sides of my sneakers had lost their brownish hue and had become sparkling white .. The snow must have had quite an effect on them , takin away the dirt and cleaning them for me :-)

From there we drove to Lucerne .. Once there we first visited the Lion statue , One of the symbols of Lucerne .. This was commissioned as a tribute to the soldiers who had laid down their lives in some battle ( forgot which one , this is why i shud have written this earlier :-/ )

Once the sculpture was completed though , the King did not pay the artist the full payment that had been agreed upon .. To show his displeasure the artist made the cavity that the lion is resting in resemble the shape of a Pig .... If u look closely u can clearly see the snout and ears of a pig being carved on the cavity to the left and top of the lion

From there we proceeded to the Wooden bridge , Another one of the symbols of Lucerne .. This bridge was adorned with flowers on the railings and paintings on the ceilings .. Half of them were destroyed in a fire many years back though .. It also contains a huge water tower .. Walked around the town for a bit , went into a chapel , strolled around the lake . As it was a Saturday most shops were closed thought

Another amazing thing about Europe is that people take their dogs everywhere .. Into shops , into restaurants along with them etc .. Saw lots of people walking their dogs around the lake here , some which were growling and snarling and looking to fight the ducks :))

We were then taken for a cruise on the lake of Lucerne

After the cruise , we left Lucerne and drove to the Marriot in Zurich .. That night there was Zurich fest goin on which was a once in two years thing .. With music , dancing and general merriment going on in all the the streets of Zurich .. The city was about 15 mins ride from the hotel we were in .. Badly wanted to go for the fest but no company , so skipped it and spent 2 hours browsing the Internet , watchin you tube clips :-/

Euro Trip - Part 3

2007-07-31T02:09:00.001+05:30

Day 4 :

Got up ,& after the usual morning activities , left for Venice . Got to the quay and got off the bus and onto a boat

Venice , Venezia in Italian , is a city made up of 170 islands and numerous canals .. Transportation is either by foot across the bridges (Venice has 400 bridges ) or by boat . So we got into the boat and entered Venice .. Marvelled at the way the place is constructed as we entered . . As everything here is transported by boat all the houses on the waterfront have landing docks and steps to enter the house from the water .. Some even have water garages .. They have public bus boats , police boats , gondola's etc etc .

Started the tour at the Bridge of Sighs .. This was so named because this was the bridge that the prisoners had to cross when they were about to be executed and they would sigh as they caught a last glimpse of the city

Then we were taken for a Gondola ride .. Nowadays gondola's are hardly used by the locals for transportation , they use motorized boats instead .. So the gondola's are used for ferrying tourists primarily

We were taken past the main waterfront and into the side canals that dot Venice . The gondola boatman was so skillful that all he had was his single long oar and not once did he collide any part of the gondola with a building or another boat .. Sang an Italian song on the way too .. In the narrow canals they even have speed limits .. 5 Kmph .. Tough to go beyond that anyway cuz of all the gondola traffic as its a very popular tourist attraction as seen from this traffic jam

After the gondola ride we went to the Murano glass factory where they showed us a demonstration of how to make glass works of art . Bought a red glass vase there .
After this we went onto St marks Square which contains the cathedral , baptistery and the bell tower .. St marks square is a big open space famous for the number of pigeons that can be perennially found there

For a fee one can ascend the bell tower and while we were waiting in line to do so , we bought one of the famous Venetian masks

Went up the bell tower and had an AmaZing aerial view of Venice .. From up there u can see the shoreline , the neighbouring islands and how densely the buildings are packed together so as to maximize the available space

Right when we were up there it turned 12 pm and the bell started ringing with a deafening noise. After takin lots of photos up there we descended back to St marks square

A great thing about Europe is that , anywhere they find a open public place or square they hold concerts and other events there . St marks square was also being prepared for a concert at that time

Got on the boat back to the quay after strolling around Venice a bit more . On the way back , we were served lunch and had live Italian music in the form of a musician playing an instrument

Got back onto the bus from the quay and had a 5 hour drive into Austria as we bid farewell to Italy .. Passed a few vineyards and as we got closer to Austria the scenery was breathtaking with lush green valleys nestling among the snow topped mountains in the background on either side of the road

Many of the hills had Castles and forts sitting on the top of them , all of them centuries old , used nowadays as private holiday bungalows. Also saw a few ski jump places and ski elevators , not in use presently but very popular in the winter

Reached Innsbruck in Austria at around 6 pm and proceeded for the city tour

Innsbruck is a small , very picturesque city with huge snow capped mountain ranges lying just a few kilometres away and visible from the town itself . Language spoken predominantly is Austria is German . Bruck in German means ' bridge' and the river running through the town is called the Inn and so the town literally means " Bridge on the river Inn "

The center of this city too had cobbled stone roads . As it was almost 7pm when we went for the city tour all shops and museums were closed ..Apparently they all close shop @ around 4 -5 pm itself . Saw the golden roof building so called because when seen against the backdrop of the mountains it shimmers as if made of gold

Also in Innsbruck is the worlds oldest existing restaurant as recognized by the Guinness book of World Records dating back to the 13th Century.. Went for dinner after this and had our local Austrian meal that day .. Soup , Steak and mashed potatoes .. After a nighttime stroll around the area , went back to the hotel and to bed .

Day 5 :

Left Innsbruck and went to the Swarovski Kirstallwelten . The entrance certainly was impressive with the Swarovski demon hanging over the entrance spewing water from its mouth

Inside there are a few displays and exhibits made of crystal for the visitors to look at before proceeding to the main shop. They also have the worlds most expensive wall made up of millions of crystals ... 2 rather boring shopping Hours later, our bags heavier with a few crystal articles we left the Kristallwalten and drove To Liechtenstein and out of Austria passing on the way the third longest mountain tunnel in Europe - 14 kilometres long .

We reached Liechtenstein and were taken for a small tour of the city of Vaduz ,its capital .

The Principality of Liechtenstein is a tiny, doubly landlocked country , bordered by Switzerland to its west and by Austria to its east.
It has no army of its own and is looked after by Switzerland .. For this reason the border checks to enter into Switzerland are done on entering Lichtenstein itself .

The tour of Vaduz was in a mini road train basically taking us to the few places of interest like The 15th century Red House and the vineyards owned by the prince.

Only confusing part abt Liechtenstein was the question of what its population actually was .. Our tour manager said 32,00 , the recorded tour tape on the train said 35,000 and the train driver said 34,000 .. Unless there were 1000 people dying and being born every minute there ( ie 3 % of its population ) there was no way of explaining it :)) .. My dad put it in perspective .. "Whatever its population is its less than that of Adyar "

After the 45 minute tour of Vaduz we left Liechtenstein and crossed into Switzerland

Switzerland's official name is Confederation Helvectia . It has a population of 7 million but gets almost 20 million tourists a year .They speak 4 languages there .. German, French, Italian and the lesser-known Romansh . It is one the few countries in Europe that has its own border controls and visa instead of the Shengen visa which gets u into most countries in the region and has made border checks between countries redundant .

On the way to Engelberg where we were to stay that night we passed the Wellen See (See meaning lake in German ), a huge lake with water the colour of dazzling green emeralds , the likes of which i had never seen before

Reached Engelberg , checked into the Scweizerhof hotel , had dinner and went for a stroll around the city , which , like a lot of Switzerland, is visually stunning .

We even tried blowing one of the traditional Swiss horns , the long Alphorn to no avail .. After trying for a bit we gave up and the professionals took over and gave us a mini concert :)

As it was getting quite chilly , came back to the hotel and went to bed .

Ps : Hope these posts are long enough for Haresh :P

Euro Trip - Part 2

2007-07-27T02:25:00.000+05:30

Day 2 :
After a 2.5 hour wait in the queue we finally entered Vatican city along with a local guide we had been had provided with .. Received these cool audio receivers with headphones .. Sort of like a radio with a few frequencies .. the guide has a mic with a transmitter attached and these signals are picked up by whatever receivers are tuned to that frequency within a few yards ... really useful for hearing what the guide is saying in crowded places

Vatican city as many people know is the smallest country in the world and is enclosed within Rome with huge walls covered with cctvs separating it from the city

Once inside went through the Vatican museum whose walls and ceilings were covered with tapestries and painting and before entering Sistine chapel the guide stopped at one of the many illustrations put up outside the chapel about the works of art inside and explained it to us as it would be too crowded inside to appreciate it

The ceiling and walls of the Sistine Chapel were done by Michelangelo who had not painted anything previous to this assignment .. It took him 2.5 years to do the ceiling alone and most of it was spent atop scaffolding erected by him to reach that height

The fresco behind the altar is The Last Judgement where u can see Jesus in the middle calling all the people unto him .. Above him is heaven where all is peaceful whereas below is Hell where the unworthy fall . The first image at the bottom is Christ , in the second the skin of the person being peeled has a face .. this was Michelangelo's own face .. The third picture shows the various saints who were crucified and the fourth shows the guardian of the underworld with a snake around him and biting his u-know-what ... Some critic had apparently criticized Michelangelo's work and to pay him back Michelangelo drew him as the guardian of the underworld

The ceiling has the fresco of genesis showing the creation of light and dark , of man , woman , of their banishment from paradise , of the floods and Noah etc from bottom to top . Michelangelo was a great believer of beauty being the means to reach god.. His paintings were also full of symbolism's .. On the top right corner of the painting u can see the stage of evolution where god is creating man and giving him wisdom .... If u look closely u can see that the shape behind god is that of a brain .

After this explanation we headed into the chapel to see the real thing and then proceeded to St Peter's Basilica

Saw the pieta sculpture again by Michelangelo which is carved so beautifully u can almost see the delicateness of it all

Went through St peters basilica and exited onto Vatican Square .. The pope had asked Bernini to design this to hold as many people as possible and it is Huge and a place that many would recognize from the numerous TV shots

After leaving Vatican city went to see the Colosseum ... A massive structure , it is truly breathtaking and it is quite amazing that it has stood for so long . At its zenith it was used to hold various activities like gladiator fights for which the whole population turned out . It could seat 55,000 people and the acoustics were so good that the king could speak and the entire audience could hear it without any microphone being used

The floor ( the red railing indicating floor level as it would have been ) of it has long been destroyed and u can see the tunnels and passages that used to snake underneath the arena ... These were used to transport the gladiators , to move the animals etc .

The king and the nobles used to sit in the lower rows , rich people in the next tier , middle class in the next and so on .. The uppermost tier was reserved for women and slaves .

Today , many holes are visible in the walls . Apparently the stones were held together and reinforced by metal joints made of copper , bronze etc .. Many years after the Colosseum ceased to be used for activities , some plunderers removed the metal , melted it down and sold them to make money

Got into the bus and left for the Euro hotel that evening .

PS : Saw the Colosseum before it was voted as one of the new 7 wonders :-/

Day 3 :

Checked out of the hotel in the morning and left for Pisa . i had always thought that the Leaning Tower of Pisa was a stand ( barely standing ) alone thing but it was apparently in this place called the Square of Miracles which also had a cathedral and a baptistery right next to it

Entrance to the Square is free but to go into the cathedral , the baptistery , the crypt or to go up the tower is charged ... Kd buggers ..

Parents bought a ticket to go see cathedral and baptistery and sis and me got ticket to go up the tower for 11 euros .. To kill time until our scheduled time of ascent we walked around and took photographs

Lotsa Ppl around were takin trick photographs like pulling or pushin the tower causing it to lean ... like so

Finally the scheduled time came and we started the ascent up the tower by means of stairs inside the tower .. As u climb up u can really feel the slant .. The angle of tilt is approximately 5 degrees .. There are 3 observation levels along the way from where u get a nice view of the surrounding areas .. Finally u get to the bell tower level .. The leaning tower of Pisa was intended to be a bell tower when it was constructed and was supposed to be 3 times its current height .. But when it started leaning they stopped at that height .. it was closed to tourists for some time ( Poor Bow :P ) but they have poured lots of concrete and made the foundation strong now .. The top layer has a circular walkway and as u walk around it the slant is obvious .. Great view from here too

Came down, went back to the bus and drove to Florence ..Its Italian name is Firenze . Florence was the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance and the heart of the Italian art scene .. From here great artists originated like Michelangelo , Leonardo da Vinci etc .. At its zenith Florence was a great centre for trade , art , finance etc .

We first went to the Michelangelo Plaza from where u can get a bird's eye view of the city of Florence .. Also on this plaza is a replica of the famous statue of David done by Michelangelo .

After this we headed for lunch .. Thomas Cook had this arrangement that in each country we would get one local meal to get the flavour of that country .. so the local meal was provided on this day .. Soup , Chicken , Salad and pasta

After Lunch we continued our tour of Florence on foot as everything worth seeing was close to each other .. We were also provided a local guide for this .. We first proceeded to the Cathedral .. The one here is the 4th largest in the world and is famous for his huge dome and is called
' Duomo ' .. After goin in and coming out of the cathedral we proceed to the baptistery .. These doors were made in the Italian Renaissance style and crafted so beautifully that Michelangelo famously remarked " If paradise had doors , these would be it "

If u look closely u can see how they have managed to acheive the illusion of depth on the surface with some entities looking like they are in the forgeground and some in the background . The doorknobs if u can see are the heads of the people who worked on this .

After this we went onto a famous bridge .. This bridge is unique cause it has shops on both sides of it and all of them are jewelery shops many of them dating from the 1500's .. Interesting story behind this .. goes like this

The medici family ruled much of Florence for 3 or 4 centuries .. After a while they decided to build a new palace across the river from the old one .. The old one was converted into a govt center .. So to travel everyday from the new palace to the govt centre they Erected a private walkway at some height along and above the public bridge .. Now as there was a river, all the shops on the bridge were those that needed lots of water to operate .. Tanners , Dyers etc . So the whole place smelt really bad and the Medici's could not endure the smell on the way to work everyday.
So they increased the taxes on the shops on the bridge to such a level that the lowly industries could not afford it .. The only people who could afford it were ...... Gold Shop owners .. and they persist to this day .. the shops that is , not the extravagant taxes :P

So after taking us to a few more places of interest like an open air sculpture museum , the apartment where da vinci painted the Mona Lisa and a sculpture of a pig who's nose was so shiny cuz it was believed that if u rub it u will one day come back to Florence ,and after some Italian Gelato , the guide bid us farewell and we left Florence and drove to the Point Hotel

Euro Trip - Part 1

2007-07-26T01:46:00.001+05:30

Ok , Here goes the travel(b)log

Disclaimer : The author takes no responsibilites regarding the length of this and any future entries on the same trip .. It is expected that the contents of this will be long and winding so as to preserve the maximum amount of memories before the author forgets them .. In case of boredom it is reccomended that the readers just look at the pretty pictures :P

Day 0 :
Left home and went to airport to catch flight to rome . met an unusaully rude guy at the airport who was pushing past everyone in the queue to get past emigration . Was sure he was a hijacker or atleast a terrorist. saw him waiting at the gate tho .. was apparently waiting for his friend . so all that the pushing earned him was more time in the waiting area than in the queue .. idiots ..

Day 1 :
Flight was lufthansa, bought a universal adapter/usb charger on board, touched down at frankfurt and mom and dad courtesy of dad's star alliance gold card went off into business lounge and brought back snacks for us :-)
Boarded another plane and reached rome in the afternoon .. had local pizza for lunch .. pretty local taste :-/

After checking into the hotel jolly midas went out for the first look @ rome .. What a city ! steeped in history .. infact one of their slogans is " Rome , where the past is always present " . Loved the cobbled roads that they had in the older parts of the city and the old buildings and ruins that dotted the landscape .

Went to the trevi Fountain that evening

Rumour has it that if u throw one coin into the fountain , you will come back to rome .. Throw two in and you will get married .. Throw three in and you will have bad luck .. all these coins have to be thrown backwards over your shoulder with your back to the fountain though .. Which led my cousin to quip " If by mistake i throw in 2 coins ill immediately throw in another one .. id take bad luck over marriage "
:))

Had Gelato ice cream and then went to the Time Elevator after that for a 4d experience that takes u through the history of rome with some thrills thrown in by means of moving chairs , sprinklers etc . Drove past Some nice buildings too like this one called " The wedding cake of Rome " on the way to dinner and back to the hotel to end the day .. Was still bright when we went to bed at around 10 pm

Situational Quote : " While in Rome do as the Romans do " .

D'oh

2007-07-18T02:37:00.000+05:30

After a lot of thinkin i decided to suspend my account of the euro trip and decided to explore the simpsons movie website . Cant wait for the movie to come out and thought ill juz post the trailers here .

Simpsons rock !

There are teaser clips also and u can make ur own simpsons avatar .. Mine looks like this

Oh and one last nugget of information . There was a contest to see which town in Usa wud get to see the premiere showing of The Simpsons Movie ... Towns with the name of springfield from various states were supposed to send in their videos to show that they deserved to be THE springfield and then based on votes the best town would be selected ... Springfield , Vermont won the competition and will thus get to host the premiere

Videos here

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/simpsons-contest.htm

Euro Trip - Part 0

2007-07-08T03:57:00.000+05:30

Ok, this was supposed to be part 1 of the euro trip blog but they have 11 mbps net connection here in switzerland and so i just spent the last 2 hours watching streaming friends videos on youtube thanx to Chandler :-/ ... So ill just post some pics for now

Check back soon for the actual account .

'Au'Some

2007-06-07T04:22:00.000+05:30

Most of the time it is me who passes the exams, but for once the exams have passed me by . Lol , ok i know that was bad mokkai but can u blame me ? i passed 8 sems of AU exams .

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

There are various factors that have contributed to me acheiving this feat and i'd like to acknowledge them here

First of all, Ara . Without doubt the fellow whom i owe the most to for gettin thro . From teachin me stuff from scratch in the bus durin CAT to telling me the important stuff to study for univ exams to discussing previous years papers on the bus ride to even lending me his text books to study after he sleeps the night b4 the exam , he's been a great teacher . Thx da .

Chandler , who i prolly have bugged the most over the fone tryin to get the important questions and patterns from previous years to ensure i dont have to study an iota more than what is required :-). Also a fellow quite capable of givin me company for all night study and vetti discussions late at night the day b4 the exam .

Hayu , the brainiac. Despite studyin juz the day b4 the exam like us mortals , still gets great marks ... has to do with his handwriting i think :-?? . Great online company on Ym during the nights of studying . Usually on whole night as well meaning i can juz ask him to clarify doubts instead of searchin thro the textbook, i even remember him once teachin me the whole of centralized shared memory @ 4 am the night b4 the exam over the phone :o .

Bala, that rarest of rare breeds, a person who prepares less than me for an exam. The one guy i can actually teach stuff b4 the exam . Teachin him the majority of the syllabus in the 1.5 hour gap before the exam helps me revise as well. And , of course the all important "mapping " we do with 15 mins to spare without which we would not know which set of mugged up words and figures to spew for which question .

Also the guy most likely to lift your spirits the day b4 the exam . After some 'padips' depress you by stating much they ve done and thereby exposing how much u really have left to study , a quick phone call to bala is all thats needed to reassure u that u are not the least prepared ;)
In the first few semesters, many were the plans we would make to finish so n so units by so n so time . Of course none of them were ever followed but that dint stop us from planning .If all that plannning time had been used for stuydin we actually might have gotten somewhere but oh , well . Of course,as the semesters wore on we dint even bother planning.

All my other friends who at some time or other have taught me , provided company ,inspired me ,etc etc ( basically , put up with me ) during exam time .I remember an incident , once Juju asked me @ 12 am to wake him up @ 3am so that he could resume studyin . Dutifully , i called him @ 3 but he dint pick up his fone or respond to messages . So i let fly all the audibles possible in Ym and that woke him up :))

Simba, of course for keeping me company late at night when i was studying . if the a/c was on in the other room tho it wud not think twice to desert me and take the luxurious way out :-

i apologize for the long post ..just think of it as the ravings of a habitual page filler as if it were a AU 16 mark question .

& Finally a thought for everyone whos now an engineer :

"Thermometers are not the only things to be graduated and get degrees despite knowing nothing "

The importance of Being Idle ?

2007-05-30T01:08:00.000+05:30

Why is it that i feel vetti enough to blog only when there is something infinitely more important that i should be doing , like studyin for the next day's exam , and never when i got all the time in the world ? ?

Is it that the most enjoyable time to be idle is also when there is the most work to be done ? ?

Absolut Nonsense

2007-05-10T01:43:00.000+05:30

No , the post is not about the content of my TQM answer paper today or even about the vodka ads .

Vilok: dude wtf da
u writin serious shit n all in blog

This was the inspiration for this post to show that i still can/will post absolute nonsense stuff here .

So anyway i post this convo Me and Bhavya had while waitin in ritchie street

B : ....... ? ( Some Question )
J : Curiosity killed the cat
B : What was the cat curious about ?
J : Abt how many lives it had
B : Hmm , so it killed itself to find out how many lives it had
J : Yea,Nice Theory
B : But how did curiosity kill the cat then ?
J : It got curious 9 times .

Lost in Translation

2007-05-06T02:39:00.000+05:30

No , this is not a review for the movie Mozhi( which btw is brilliant and u shud watch ). Its about what it stands for : Language .

Many a time while chatting with non indians ( or even non - tamilians ) i get the response "huh ? " . Its inevitably because of my usage of "common tamil" words in the convo .

Classic example :

Yank : Sup

Me : Nm, Vetti

Yank : Huh ? Vetti ?

Now i can never find words to adequately express what this simple word means in english .

Similarly " chumma " . I suppose it can be roughly translated as " juz like that " but it doesnt have the same feel to it .

Another word is the ubiquitous " da " basically used as at the end of a sentence to denote an informal , friendly conversation which cannot quite be replicated in english . There are a few alternatives like " dude" , " man " etc but they sound kinda forced and unnatural when i use em .

Of course the reverse is not true . any word in english can be made a tanglish one by addin a " o" or a "u" to it ;) .

a classic example wud be Worst being converted into ........ " Worstu " :-)

But , as the melodious song from the above mentioned Mozhi Goes

iyarkeyin mozhigal purinthu vidu

manitharin mozhigal thevai-illai

ithaiyathin mozhigal purinthu vidu

manitharikku mozhiye thevai-illaiiiiiii

Roughly Translated that means ,

Understand the language of nature

The language of men is not needed

Understand the language of the heart

Men dont need language at all .

So , Basically this post is just crap :-? :-|

Worstu

Oh well i was chumma vetti anywayz

Manu Rock !

2007-04-12T01:35:00.000+05:30

Dint think i wud blog again but Manu v Roma was so inspiring and fun that i Juz had to .

First, the scenario :

Manu down 2-1 from the first leg and without paul scholes against a roma team that had only conceded 5 goals all competition & comin off Weekend loss @ portsmouth .United had never previously won a UEFA Champions League tie after trailing from the first leg . Not Quite the perfect scenario u wud imagine .

So , Kataben ?

Some Unbelievable football from Giggs , Ronaldo , Carrick & Rooney Made it 3-0 within 20 minutes .. As if that was not enough Ronaldo added another before halftime .. With the outcome a forgegone conclusion by now and thinkin this cud not possibly get any better i switched over to the simpsons .

So, Kataben ?

Missed another 10 minutes of brilliant play and another ronaldo goal :- . Manu not done yet tho .. Carrick with another brilliant goal to make it 6-0 in 60 minutes ... it was a measure of how fun the game was to watch that the 1 goal that roma did get was stunning as well . And if any further proof were needed that This was Man u ' s night and that everythin they tried was working , that was provided by evra's goal which wud prolly have gone out off the bar on most nights :)

Only dissapointment with the final score of 7-1 was that the average of a goal every 10 minutes was not achieved .

Gotta pity some ppl tho

The roma defence

The roma supporters who travelled all the way to england

But most of all , Ara

Woke him up @ 12 am to tell him match was on .. he said its juz manu match and went back to sleep :P

:o Long post

Dont xpect any more for a few months :D

Theme

2007-02-11T02:19:00.000+05:30

Its been like a week since i "started " blogging and all i have to show for it is one measly post .. ppl have been buggin me abt that so here goes another ..

I wondered what to rite abt ... My Mundane daily schedule ?? Na , living it is Vetti enough without havin to rite abt it .

My Superhuman adventures as Arjun By day J man by night ? ? Na , too boastful .

Powerful Stuff that will Make People Sit up and take notice , invoke emotion, inspire people and such ?? Maybe Later .

in the end all i did was Pick out a theme song for this blog :D

Credit to Vilok For findin this link

http://www.geekhackfilk.com/comfortably.html

Searching for a Reason

2007-02-04T01:22:00.001+05:30

Y ? Oh y did i take i blogging ? The answer is unclear even to me . Probably has somethin to do with the title of this blog .. No, not the comfortably dumb one -- the URL

It could stand for many things .. For lack of a better blog name .. For lack of a better pastime .. and for the reader of this .. For lack of a better blog to read . ;-)

I Dont have much hope that i will update this regularly .. as Aragon Says in Lotr " I Give hope to men , I Keep none for myself " .

Thats prolly juz a fancy way of saying im too lazy to blog regularly .

Anywho watch this space !! ( not too intently tho )