Lucky Se7en @ Goa

7th Jan 2009 - 12th Jan 2009, Goa.
Friendship isn't a big thing - it's a thousand little things. And if you happen to have friends like mine, it feels like a thousand little things every moment!

Such was our trip to Goa this January. Me, Ashu, Kapil, Laakha, Niru, DJ & Swat decided to rock our souls out at Goa. Here's the video of all of us - High on Spirits (both Adrenaline & Alcohol). If you like the video leave us a comment!

If I have to hand-pick the high points of the entire trip, it'd be: White Water Rafting at Dandeli; Adventure Sports at the beaches of Goa; Partying all night at Mambos; and most importantly winning the maximum bet in Roulette on our very last day in Goa. To explain the sequence of these events, here's the slide-show.

But its not just the high points that always matter. We also had some of the little but beautiful moments that shall always be used to have a good laugh in our future booze sessions. Kapil put these wonderful incidents into these comic strips. Here's one of them. This was a real incident of DJ, at his very best, with the wine shop owner. Enjoy!

Indian Premier League (IPL) - Ready for Opening Ceremony and Match

We (me and my room-mates) were completely infected with the IPL Fever (Thanks to the never-ending Commercials and the News Coverage) when we decided, that we must go for the Opening Match between Bangalore Royal Challengers and Kolkata Knight Riders.

Here's the ticket for which I paid a hefty sum. It just got delivered by courier at my workplace. I had ordered it online from TicketPro.

I thought I should post something w.r.t this. So let me tell you what I expect from this whole IPL hoopla in the next month and half:

• Even more blatant promotion of the teams and their 'stars' with the help of silly songs written and sung by long-ago-discarded lyricists and singers.
• Even more number of cricket fans (fanatics?) storming into the stadiums and queuing up early in the morning for IPL tickets.
  
• Some ferocious cricket from U-19 Players from World Cup winning Indian Team who want to make a mark at the national front.
• At the same time, some sloppy cricket from the seniors, while they realize its high time they hang their boots.
• Lat but not the least, NO beer or any other alcohol drink in the stadium. Not even in Vijay Mallya's Bangalore Royal Challengers home ground Bangalore where even the stands are named as Antiquity Members Stand, Bagpiper Special View, McDowell's Best View and Royal Challenge Pavilion

White Water Rafting @ Bheemeshwari

30th Sep, 2007. Bheemeshwari.

This was the day that me, my room-mate (Akhauri) and a bunch of other friends dared ourselves and went on to experience White Water Rafting at Bheemeshwari (a hundred odd kilometers from Bangalore). Have a look at the slide-show below. I'll let them do the majority of the talking!

The good old days of Super Mario Bros. and Contra

Memories are like gases, they try to occupy all the empty spaces they find, esp. in your head. Until yesterday, my head was filled with lots of stuff; work, house-hunting, committments, deadlines, etc. So much occupied that you can compare it to Eden Garden on the eve of India-Pakistan World Cup Final (pun intended) !!

But yesterday, I got some time to relax. (Some time to release the gas you'd say!) Stayed at home on a Saturday and planned my long-overdue trip to home. My hometown is in Rourkela (Orissa) although I spent eight golden childhood years of mine in Bhilai (Chhattisgarh). One of my nappy-buddies (actually we were a little older than that) Pratyush, is back from US for a month and I hope to meet him when I go back home. Whenever I think of that golden time it reminds me of all the fun we (me, Pratyush, Chinu and a whole bunch of friends) used to have when we were kids.

Summer vacation meant non-stop masti which included comics, cycling, cricket and most-importantly Video Games. It was the early 90s and Quake or Need For Speed inventors were probably still graduating. It was the time of sweet old Cartridge Games played on Samurai Consoles (even Nintendos were luxury at those days). I can bet I have played almost all the games of that era. Just to name a special few, Super Mario Bros., Contra, The Jungle Book, Islander, Spartan, Double Dragon and a xillion others.

But I lost my virginity (of playing video-games) to the ultimate game called Super Mario Bros. The player takes the role of Mario, or in the case of a second player, Mario's brother Luigi. The objective is to race through the Mushroom Kingdom, evade or eliminate Bowser's forces, and save Princess Peach. The Mario Brothers' primary attack is simply jumping on top of ("Stomping") their enemies, which kills the mushroom traitors and sends the turtle soldiers into their shells. Mario and Luigi can then kick these shells into other enemies, which will conveniently dispatch them; but conversely, kicked shells can bounce back off walls or other vertical obstructions and hit them. Some enemies can be killed only by shell impact; stomping them will hurt the Mario Bros. Jumping on enough enemies in succession or kicking a shell into enough enemies in succession (combos) results in double points earned with each enemy killed, eventually (after eight successive times) earning Mario or Luigi a 1-up - an extra life - another chance to pass the level. Mario and Luigi can also obtain 1-ups through finding 1-up mushrooms or even by collecting 100 coins.

If you know this sequence "Up-Up-Down-Down-Left-Right-Left-Right-B-A", you know what game I'm talking about. Yeah, its Contra!! The most deadly and enchanting games of all times. The trick (Konami Code) I mentioned above helps you get 30 lives for you and your partner (there's a different trick for Super Contra though). The Contra series essentially defined the run and gun computer and video game genre. The games, which are a combination of platform and shoot 'em up, consist of a player-controlled human protagonist who employs rapid-fire rifles to destroy enemies. While there is more emphasis put on shooting than jumping, the player must be able to use jump to gain the right angle to destroy certain enemies and avoid getting shot. Avoidance is essential, as it only takes one hit to kill the player.

The majority of the games in the series are presented strictly in a side-view perspective, with some of the levels scrolling vertically; however, different titles have experimented with different replication of the same basic gameplay. Super Contra, however, had overhead levels, similar to titles like Commando; the player could not jump in this perspective but could strafe instead. The Contra series has a reputation for being exceptionally fast-paced and difficult. It is thought to take an extremely skilled player to progress through the game using only the three lives and continues provided.

The other games I thoroughly enjoyed playing were The Jungle Book (extremely adventurous), Spartan (Kung-fu action), Double Dragon (adventure and action), Super Mario Bros. 3 (love it) and many others.
Sometimes I just wish that I could fly back to those old times where I used to have so much of fun! But as they say 'Time Spent on Video Games is not wasted' (I hope my mom is not listening !!). So until next time... :-)

Its all about food...

The one thing that I have tried exceptionally wild here in Seattle, is food. It's not just because of my adventurous attitude or cos I am a food junkie. Its just that it makes more sense to me to try Tacos or Chowder for five bucks than wasting it on one silly Aloo Parantha or Biryani which I anyways will be having in a few days time. Its not about home-food too. Had it been the case I'd have stuffed Ready-to-Eat food packets from India for me while coming. Its the fact that, I won't get all these once I am back home. So why not try them out while I'm here?

I have tried a lot of varieties of food here already. Greek(Pitas) , Mexican(Tacos), Thai(All the funny sounding names), Chinese(Funny again), Russian(Try the drinks, not the salads, specifically no to the Russian White Salad), American(McD, KFC, Fish and Chips, Salmon, blah blah) and Vietnamese(Chicken Bowl was yum)! All have their own style and taste, clearly depicting the culture of their respective lands. But after 3 weeks of experimentation, my taste buds revolted against me and I had to succumb to their pressure.

Moreover, today I went with my team to an "authentic" Chinese Restaurant called Tamarind Tree. Since it was lunch , we had our tables reserved and orders pre-placed, before we left from office. I made my taste-buds go through the ultimate torture test; which in cricketing terms can be compared to facing Brett Lee on a green WACA (Perth) pitch in a cold murky Australian morning. I ordered a Bún tôm nướng (it took me five minutes to Google this dish I ate) and they tasted horrible and I blame it to my choice rather than the chef. They served me rice noodles with grilled prawns and herbs. They also served me a bowl of boiling water and a plate of rice-paper (I swear had somebody not told me that they were edible, I'd have used them as table mats). They were thin transparent rice flakes with beautiful pattern made on it. I was supposed to dip them in the boiling water and put the rice noodles and the prawns along with herbs in it, roll it over, dip in the soya sauce and put straight into my hapless mouth. Believe me, once they are wrapped ,they looked more like garbage stuffed in miniature polythene bags. Tasted like that too!! Eeeks!!

Here's me with my team. Don't misjudge my smile; its more of a relief-smile than the one of satisfaction.

After this trauma, I decided to break-free. I told myself, no matter what happens, I am gonna eat something mouth-sloppering delicious for dinner! So I headed towards the First Avenue where Google Maps pointed me an Indian Restaurant, called 'The Taste of India'. There were mainly Phirangs who were eating there and I feared whether I have come to a wrong place again! However, the guy on the counter was a Punjabi and that gave me a real sense of hope. I ordered a Lamb Biryani and asked him to wrap it up for me, as it was still early for dinner. I had my dinner in the room and believe me, that guy was really generous when he packed that Biryani for me. I can bet a whole American family can eat that amount of stuff (Of course, after eating that spicy Mutton Biryani, they'd be a thing of the past). I truly enjoyed it a lot. In fact I still am, whenever I get to burp now :-P !!

More later...

Silence before the Storm

Its been really long since I had posted anything here. I heard a lot of complaints, especially from my readers (read - one guy from office and another one from college, who was rather more relieved than concerned) of me not publishing the blogs so frequently! Well, I was neither busy nor was I out of town. It was just that I thought I'd reserve my enthu(siasm) for the days ahead of me.

For those who don't know, my days of being an Indian all throughout these twenty-four years, has been finally compensated. I am traveling to the country of dreams, the US of A, this weekend (27th May 2007) for a business trip. At least my company and the team assumes that its a business trip. I have not allowed this lousy feeling to sink in me yet. I am already in a holiday frame of mind and would love to be there in that mood - throughout!

For all those people who are already wondering where am I going, then let me break the suspense (Frankly, I wonder whether there remains anyone, even in the third-degree node of my friend-tree, whom I have not bugged bragging about this trip). Well, just FYI, I am going to be in Seattle, WA for about 3-4 weeks. I have heard loads about this city; first time, when I saw the movie Sleepless In Seattle and then later from my Amriki ex-roommates.


There's a million places to visit in and around this lovely city and I am hoping to see atleast half of them! But inspite of this hectic schedule, I will be regularly blogging about my experiences with Uncle Sam. So keep looking at this space for more.

This is just the Silence before the Storm...

One Day at IIT Madras

On 24th of April '07, I went to the hottest and the most sizzling city (read literally) on Earth - Chennai (formerly Madras). It was an official visit and was planned for just one day.

There are a few friends of mine from college who stay in Chennai. Most of them work there, while a few are doing their post-graduation. Since it was a weekday, I thought it'd be wise to meet Gautam since he is studying M Tech at IIT there. I called him up the previous night and confirmed his availability.

I landed at about 8AM and reached the campus somehow by 9. The driver of my cab couldn't converse in English nor Hindi. I was surprised when he refused to acknowledge a college like IIT but knew Anna University instead. However, with the help of my travel coordinator I managed to reach the campus.

The IIT Madras campus is lush green, unlike any other part of Chennai. It is built on the forest land and you can see a lot of animals roaming around, esp deers. Students inside the campus use their cycles to commute. It reminded me of my college days, although, IIT can never be compared to a college like MVIT. There was only one thing in common - Chicks (if you can dare call them that). I didn't see one good looking chick there, except for a foreigner who was probably there on an exchange program.

I chatted with Gautam in his dorm most of the time. We had breakfast and lunch together in the mess. After that I went off to finish the work what I had come for. In the evening, Gautam had promised me to show some "real" chicks of his college. So we chatted over some coffee in the Cafe Coffee Day there. Later in the evening I hanged out in the hostel terrace and met another friend of mine - Prashant.

To wrap up, it was a pleasant break from the routine work in office. Reminded me of my college days. I hope I get a chance to be in such a place as a student once again sometime.

Pictures speak more than words. Here is a slide-show of my Day at IIT Madras. Make sure you select 'Show Captions' while watching it.

Chabs XLRI Treat @ Lemon Grass

Chabs, one of my good friends from MVIT, got through XLRI, Jamshedpur. To celebrate this occasion, he threw a treat on 21st April 2007 @ Lemon Grass. Here's a video of that.

I would like to wish Chabs, on behalf of every MVITian, a very successful MBA career. :-)