Whatever......

I have been to the Thalakona falls (near thirupathi) with four of my friends. It was a 3 and a half hour drive from chennai excluding the pit stops. That was my first trip to thirupathi and to reach thalakona you got to divert before climbing up the thirupathi mountains.  There are multiple routes to reach the place from chennai and we preferred chennai -> Redhills->periyapalayam->uthukottai->putthur->thirupathi and returned via thiruvallur instead of the periyapalayam route as the roads were pretty bad. Thalakona falls is a good place to hangout for a day with friends and family. But you can't spend a whole day as you don't have anything to do apart from standing under the gushing water. we reached there at 12 in the noon and got ourselves out by 4.30 evening. For the first time I carried my tripod to capture some locations but I was not able to use it at all owing to the unfriendly environment, yet i captured some shots sans tripod. It was a bright ...

Well, before I write the rest of the contents let me tell you that I am not the sort of person who makes new year resolutions (though there are lot of opportunities for me). This post is just a retrospect on my 2010 experiences. Professionally 2010 had been quiete hectic for me with my late night shifts - though it helped me shed some unwanted fat and reduced my body weight, I caught up with acidity problems due to my irregular eating habits. For those who think that acidity is just a matter of burps and uneasiness, let me warn you that its too dangerous than what you imagine. Personally I started concentrating on my finances and expenses in 2010. I started tracking my monthly expenses in an excel sheet. I am not a spend thrift or a squanderer yet I don’t spend wisely sometimes. One of the key mantras that I learnt by reading finance magazines is that ‘you should always have an emergency fund saved that will take care of your 3 months expense wihout compromising on your life style’, ...

I was to Singapore recently on an adhoc personal agenda. It was a very very short trip of not more than 2 days, still I managed to meet couple of my friends for a 'mini' rendezvous and click few photos. Based on my very short experience, my short description about Singapore would be 'Impeccable'. The reason I say impeccable is because no body faults in keeping the city clean, the city is clean as hound's tooth. Out of my limited globe trotting experience I have never seen any place as clean as this (considering the fact that Singapore has more immigrants, especially from India ;-) ). Some of the clicks!!! Of course, how can I not capture a sky scrapper in Singapore!! :-) Recently constructed Marina bay towers.  The Singapore eye in the night My first tilt shift experimentation. Other Random shots. And finally I bought a tripod and lens filter for my Camera, none of these above were taken using a tripod anyways.

I was on a trip to pondicherry last week. A casual one day trip, and i was hoping to capture some good shots on my DSLR. It’s been a while since i switched on my camera. The trip was good as far as the fun element is considered but did not go well from a photo shoot perspective. This one below was caught on the way, a place 30 km before pondy i guess. The day was dull and cloudy, there was not much of sunlight. The spot was perfect for photography but lighting was a spoiler. As expected it did not come out well when i uploaded it (though i tried different shot with different exposures). Had to play with photoshop to add some effect to it . Photo Shop Effects: Original Picture

At times you wish monday to be part of weekend holiday, you can have fun on saturday and sunday, relax on monday.  There could also have been times where you had nothing to do in the weekends and felt sitting in your office cubicle was better. I had to experience the latter this weekend as literally I didn't have anything to do. I spent the full saturday watchin movies in a row. Rashomon, and Vantage point were among them, though i have already known the story of vantage point I was totally unaware of Rashomon except for the fact  that Akira Kurasowa was a great director. Perspectives Anybody would agree for this page title if they have watched Rashomon or Vantage point. Rashomon - This is my first kurosawa's movie and its definitely a masterpiece. The film is about the murder of a Japanese samurai in a grove while he was travelling with his wife. The opening scene itself sets the mood of the audience for the ...

This is my second book by the author. I was actually mesmerised by her narration in the "Mistress of Spices" . it was some thing magical. So when i saw this one recently on the landmark shelves, there was no second thought about picking this up. Picture Source: Google It's time for epics and myths and bit of spirituality, i guess, after my recent experiences with Lord Shiva in "The Immortals of Melua" It was all about Lord Krishna in the Palace of Illusions. The Palace of Illusions, this is kind of story which i was waiting for - some thing novel and creative.I am fed up with the usual fictions and thrillers and I feel that most of the recent fictions are Dan Brownish, trying to talk historical facts hidden in riddles knotted with murders. To put it in simple words, "The Palace of Illusions" is nothing but Mahabharath narrated by Paanchali; Mahabharath in a new dimension. There was not much of Mahabharath tales that i came across in my child hood d...

Unlike any other management or personality/self development or a motivational book, this is different, its about 20 interesting entrepreneurs without an MBA or a rich background who went on to find their destiny, who have made their living in whatever they are passionate about and who have proved that "attitude matters". From the author of Stay hungry Stay Foolish, (though i have not read it) i have heard lot about it so didn't mind picking this one from the same author. The author has idnetified 20 entrepreneurs who went behind their passion to achieve big things. While each story could have been made a single book, the author has tried to cover the essentials in a 15 page for each of them. It could have been a tough job composing in just 15 pages and making sure you don't miss the ritght points. There's no management techniques or jargons, steps to follow or motivational phrases, its all pure facts about simple people. You'll come to know the raw reality...

(Picture Source: Google) Don’t you think that there’s something in the picture?, I bought the book for the very reason (It may sound weird, but that's me! sometimes i pick the books if i like the title ), it attracted me to pick it up from those landmark shelves, and when i read the plot in the back flap i was convinced that its not going to be unworthy. I am more into Indian authors in recent times. This is the first one in a trilogy on Shiva (Am yet to find out if its actually about Lord Shiva). 1900 BC: The Land of Meluah (We call it the indus vally civilisation) is a near perfect empire created by Lord Rama. The empire ruled by the Suryavanshis face severe perils as their primary river Saraswati is dying to extinction. They are also devastated by surprised terrorist attacks from their enemies the chandravanshis allied with the Nagas. Nagas are deadliest deformed humans with extraordinary powers. The Suryavanshi’s only hope is on a legend: The hero will arise to destroy th...

Though my reading habit is 7 years old, I have never opted the short stories. Short stories, may be short but the experience and thrill is no lesser than what you get out of novels. Of course novels have their own interesting elements. Anyways coming to the point, I happened to choose this collection of 12 short stories ”The Japanese Wife” (- written by Kunal Basu) on the recommendation of my friend. The first story itself is titled the Japanese wife and the rest of the stories doesn’t have any relevance to Japan or its wife and i still can’t decipher why the book has been given the title. Nevertheless, when i finished the first story I knew that the rest of the stories are something not to be missed for sure. The moment I finished one story, I would smile, relish the ending and can’t wait to open the next one. All stories are about the un-expected, the author surprises you at the end no matter how he starts the narration, it may be featurless or spicy in the beginning but you g...

Whilst 2009 has been an year to be remembered for the bitter and sweet experiences in my personal and official life (who would forget the recession), 2010 though not even 2 weeks old has been filled with special moments till this minute as i write this blog.  I welcomed 2010 at the god's own country Kerala with my 4 other friends, I purchased my personal laptop, I used my DSLR to capture few photographic moments and most of all this blog which am gonna publish for the first time. The Trip After quiet an analysis and planning we settled for a trip that would cover Allepey,Adhirapalli and Cochin in Kerala. Starting off from Tiruppur, the travel to Alleppey by car was 7 hours, but our initial guesstimate was to reach by  4 hours. We reached there by 7 pm on the 1st of Jan (friday). Though we had our apprehension of not finding a room owing to the long weekend coupled with new year, fortunately ...

The title would translate to "How is it going?" in Deutsch (German). I have always had the passion towards languages (except for mastering English ;-) ). So taking a step towards realising my passion I joined the German class recently, still a long way to go, but am attracted to this language for some of its special features that I have not found in the other local languages that I knew. And to add on, I have to learn the English grammars to understand the Deutsch language. One of them is the gender identity which am sure you cannot find in English. Though this gender association makes the language special, on the contrary this particular feature makes it a bit complex for the beginners. When i say 'a doctor' It may be a male or a female doctor, like wise a driver could be male or female. This is being handled in german; e.g, "Arzt" in english would be translated to a doctor but in german it would mean a male doctor and "Arztin" would mea...

Well, this is my second attempt to blog! My first attempt failed miserably for no valid reasons that I could quote here, except for the fact that I myself didn't feel to read my first post the second time. It dates back to 2004, and now am here for my second trial with enough knowledge and experience on blogging! :-) Posts to continue ....