Ponmudi, a hill station situated at an altitude of 1000 meters from the sea level is a perfect spot for one-day trip if you live around Trivandrum, it’s hardly 75 k.m from here.
This is not only my first ever trip to any hill station in Kerala, it’s also my first ever long trip in my new car. Me being an inexperienced driver added more thrill; we kicked off the journey from Kazhakoottam around 9 a.m. and reached half way within the next hour, but the remaining half took three hours. There were 22 deadly hairpin turns in the final 17 k.m, which thoroughly tested my driving skills, I was lucky enough that there were no KSRTC buses turned my way during uphill. At times I felt that I was not the only driver in the WagonR, there were four others, Dipesh, Peyush, Biju and T.K, one of whom forecasting the forthcoming hairpin, another peeping out anxiously looking for any oncoming vehicles, another one directing me not to go extreme left, another one asking for sound horn. Well, it was all over by 1 p.m when we reached the hilltop, it was time for a small trek in the rocky mountain surrounded by lush green. Leeches did not miss the chance to taste my and Peyush’s blood.

We did’t miss the chance to take a dip in the chilled waters flowing through the hilltop and rocky terrains. Also visited Neyyar Dam on the way back. And finally back home by 9 p.m.

Three cheers to the entire unit! Can’t wait for the next one!!

The never-ending season of outing along the costal Kerala continues as we decided to explore the still backwaters of Poovar. On the 17th of June, an enthusiastic 15-member squad kicked off the journey from the East Fort junction, Trivandrum. Suresh had brought bagful of ‘medhu vada’ to keep up the energy levels. It took less than an hour to reach the ‘Isola di cocco’ resort. Plenty of games; cricket, volleyball, football and boating to name a few and; the swimming pool to keep us cool.

Though it was a nice trip, the beach was not up to our expectations. The seawater and atmosphere around was filthy. I don’t know who to blame, is it that we arrived on a bad day or is it the same all through the year. Neither the backwaters were as good as we thought. Peyush had a narrow escape from being hurt by a broken glass piece. However we had enough fun off the coast.

I would prefer Kovalam than Poovar.
Lessons learned: Web sites can misguide at times.

It’s not just about deadlines, schedules and targets; it’s also about entertainment, outings and fun if you are in our team. Yup, we’ve got a wonderful team which loves to stretch at workplace and beyond.

As usual we were at the mid of a busy week when one of our colleague Greety came up to us to present her brother’s wedding invitation which is to be held at Athirapalli near Cochin. It was a quiet day till the noon till our boss Nixon came up to us to ask if any of us are interested in attending the wedding. It took a while for me to make out his master plans that we could actually visit Veegaland and Angamali falls in the name of attending marriage as it’s on a weekend and is hardly 6 hours journey from Trivandrum.

All set, the master plan is ready and 10 of us decided to go in two cars. It was 13th morning 5 am, Peyush, Geo, Shiju and myself got into Nixon’s car while the rest of the crowd including Deepu, Liju, Nripen and Ajit into Sajosh’s car. We reached the Veegaland, a theme park in Cochin.

Around 11.30 am we all were straight into the action; started off the day with the roller-coaster ride, which tested our blood pressure. The games went on an on until all us were too tired to try out any more. The post lunch session was full of water games including slides and fountains. The highlight of the day was the journey into the dark-deep cave depicting the Malayalam comic characters. Finally we ended the day with a late night blast; with half the crowd joining the party we had a long walk back to the hotel room. Only in the morning we realized that we came walking for more than 3 km J

After attending the marriage next day, we visited Angamali falls. It was one of the best waterfalls I had ever seen. With wonderful scenery around, the brownish water could not stop our enthusiastic gang from having a go at the water for almost an hour. And finally we headed back to Kazhakoottam in the evening.

It was one of those interesting bike trips around the southern Indian state of Kerala. It was 6th May 06, my friend Sundeep was getting engaged to Miss. Jaya. The Engagement ceremony was to be held at the girl’s place at Pattanamtitta. As I am working at Trivandrum which is about 120 Km from Pattanamtitta he wanted me to be present for the occasion at any cost.
I took off from Kazhakoottam at 5.45 pm on 5th evening; my colleague Peyush whose house is on the way accompanied me till Punaloor which is 25 km before Pattanamtitta.
I said it was one of the interesting bike trips because the road to Pattanamtitta was full of deadly curves. Of the 120 kms, I would have come across at least 50 curves of which some were deadly. We reached Punaloor around 9.30 pm in the night, just another 5km and we reached Peyush’s hometown; I didn’t have a clue of the place as it was deep dark. Another 25 Km to go for Pattanamtitta; I do not know the way, but there were signboards all over the way for me to get going. I reached hotel Rose Mount at 10 pm in the night.
The engagement ceremony went well the next day; I got introduced with Sandeep’s friend Shaji. Both of us decided to go around the city before we finally depart. The hotel receptionist advised us to visit “Aaana Koondu” (Elephant cage) which is just 11 km from the hotel. Both of us flew to Koannhi to visit Aaana Koondu. I am sure Shaji had enjoyed the trip to the best; we didn’t miss the opportunity to have a snap on the way as the scenic river stopped us for a while. Aaana Koondu was a special experience as we saw a baby elephant being fed inside a wooden cage; the elephant ride was the best part of the trip; and I found Shaji the happy man.
I had to bid good-bye to Sandeep & family and Shaji soon after we reached the hotel as I don’t want to miss the 120 km ride back home while the sunlight was on.

As usual it’s another political drama in Tamil Nadu having both the leading parties DMK and ADMK throwing impossible and impractical promises. Let’s wait and see if they keep them all.

The opinion poll conducted by Mr. Sam :-) at the work place shows that DMK has 50% chance, while the rest of 50% says that it’ll be a cliffhanger.

The election results are not far away, let’s wait and see.

But whatever happens is not going to change the fate of TN.
Hence I decided not to travel 160 Km to cast my vote.

“God’s Own Country” that’s what they call it; Kerala the southern state of India. It was my first ever trip to Kovalam, one of the best-known tourist spots in Kerala. Kovalam beach, popular for it’s clean waters, surrounded with coconut trees swaying to the jazzy wind and the well maintained beaches around witnessed a team of young and energetic people walking on the shore, playing football and swinging along the high raise waves.

Though Kovalam beach is hardly 45 Km from my hometown, I never visited it in the past 15 years. We a team of 11 started our journey from Techno park in three two-wheelers and a car. In the next 30 minutes we all arrived at one of the viewpoints near to the beach; from there we reached the Samudhra beach resort where we had light refreshments and kicked off the days proceedings with a game of football. With my team leading the game at 4-1 during half time, most of us shifted the gear towards the high raising waves and there started the most amazing part of the trip. Even after receiving warnings from the lifeguard about the high raising waves, we went on to the deep waters and had fun for hours and hours before the sun finally decided to hide from us into the deep sea leaving us to pack the bags.

It’s not over yet, for those enthusiastic young guys the resort had a swimming pool which some of us could not afford to miss. Five of us went on to explore the calm and clean water for the next 30 minutes and finally we all settled for dinner at the resort before we found our way back home in the night around 10 pm.

I sent an e-mail to one of my friends at Delhi that I’ve cleared CSQA exam, CSQA is one of those certifications which I thought I would never be able to clear it with my kind of preparation. Now he’s asking for treat, the reason being he has already cleared CSQA and gave me few tips as how to approach the exam. I had heard about e-greetings e-mail e-business etc., but how can one do an e-treat?

One of the programme I enjoyed the most in NDTV is “India Questions: Sania Mirza”.

Sania Mirza, the teen sensation in Indian tennis, the hard-hitting girl from Hyderabad made her presence felt in international tennis competing with the world no. 1 William sisters. Yea, I am her fan; I wrote about her a while ago when the Sania mania started catching up, I really admire her; she is one of the best personalities Indian women tennis has ever produced. A true inspiration for those young guns in India who are aspiring to fire!!

A perfect example of her fan club is my friend Mr&Mrs Suman Kumar, I was surprised to see these young couple (sorry suman, I mean young Chitra) spending sleepless nights watching Sania’s play.

Sania is smart, I think she has done her homework before appearing for the NDTV interview; she knows very well about these crazy Indians. You know what I mean if you are an Indian cricket fan.

Way to go Sania, I love I am there to back you in any of those upcoming tournaments.

By the way she celebrates her 19th Birthday today.

Happy Birthday Sania!