Happy New Year 2010

Dear friends, this has been a wonderful year, both in and out of Bloggerville. Life will never be the same in 2010. Yes, life is not going to be the same. I got engaged to Sravanthi and the marriage is scheduled to take place in April, 2010. I'll share more on this in the coming posts. For now, I am writing this post just to wish you all a very happy new year.

Let's hope for the below in the new year:

1. All(if not, a few) of our wishes come true.
2. There will no be any more disasters natural calamities like floods, tsunamis, hurricanes etc.
3. The terrorists change themselves and let others live peacefully.
4. India will stay on top of the world(in cricket, though).
5. We look at some more technically brilliant movies like "Avatar" and feel-good movies like "3 Idiots".
6. May Telangana issue be solved in Andhra Pradesh.
7. Last but not the least, let us all pray that my salary increases at least 25%.

Simply speaking, I hope All iz well in 2009 and All will be well in 2010.

My return to Bloggerville on a wonderful day

Folks, first of all, I regret being away from such a wonderful place, Bloggerville. The reasons for my long absence(more than two months) from here are:

1. There was a fund-raiser organized by TKS in the third week of November. Thank God, all iz well.
2. I was on vacation to India for about a month, right after the above said fund raiser. Here too, all iz well.

I've been waiting for some proper time to return back to Bloggerville and there it was yesterday. Actually, I started this post yesterday but couldn't finish it off then. Anyways, yesterday has been an awesome day for me for the below reasons:

1. It was sister's b'day yesterday. All iz well.
2. India won the tournament against Sri Lanka yesterday. All iz well.
3. It was raining out here in Bahrain yesterday. Loved the climate. All iz well.
4. I was awarded a certificate of appreciation and a Gold coin by my company here for assisting in the successful completion of a major project. All iz well indeed.
5. The day ended fittingly well, when I went for the late night show of the highly anticipated "3 Idiots". Believe me, the movie was simply awesome. Just like most of the sites reviewed the movie, all iz very, very, very, very well indeed.

With this, I end this post and promise you that I'll be back soon with a lot of news as there are many things happening around me right now and I need to tell you all those.

A couple of feel-good movies

Folks, sorry for being away for quite a few days. I was a bit busy with work both in & out of office(TKS). My vacation is due in about 4 weeks for now and still I have some departmental objectives to be finished before year end. The only time pass that's keeping me in senses is a few movies here n there.

Recently, I saw a couple of movies which are worth mentioning. One is "Wake Up Sid"(WUS). I was not interested to watch this one until my adamant friend, Deepak, wanted to watch it. I went into the theater with half mind expecting the worst. The movie opened well with an interesting scene of how our protagonist, Sid, is preparing for his boards. From then on, there was no looking back. As soon as the movie finished, I was thinking of watching it again.

WUS is a perfect example of how to keep things simple and achieve the desired result. The director did a good job in that aspect. The sentimental scenes are handled well, the comic timing was perfect, the emotions are up to the mark. There are some scenes which I liked well:

1. The scene in which Ranbir makes fun of Konkana by pouring water on her and then he asks her in an innocent way, whether she felt bad.
2. The confused look on Konkana's face when Ranbir asks her out for a walk on their first meeting.
3. The scene where they both sit at the beach and Ranbir explains to Konkana about how the ocean looks at the times of monsoon(felt like I was standing in rain after this scene).

The above are only a few scenes out of a whole set. If I write all those that I liked and why I liked them, this post will be as big as a novel. As a whole WUS is a wonderful feel-good movie which reminds us of our college life(if you are not one of those nerdy types). Ranbir is now the new addition to my list of actors to watch out for.

The other movie I liked is the "The Proposal". I picked this one from the DVD store just because I can't find anything interesting there. In fact, I kept even this one pending for a few days before watching it. But when I saw it, I was really impressed. It's been quite a few days since I watched a decent romantic comedy and this one perfectly filled the bill.

The story is simple. An immigrant, yet sort-of-nuts boss, perfectly portrayed by Sandra Bullock, has been issued notice that she'll be deported after her work-visa is not renewed. She immediately puts up an act that she's going to marry her sub-ordinate, a wonderful Ryan Reynolds, and hence can stay in the US of A. Both of mutually agree to help each other provided that he'll marry her(and then divorce her), while she promotes him to a higher position in office. But before that she had to spend a week at his parents house. Everything seems to go well inline with the plan, until they both really start falling in love with each other.

Both these movies are worth a watch over the weekend and gives you a break from the usual pot-boiler masala movies. Happy weekend, folks.

Happiness

I was under a lot of stress yesterday(in fact, throughout the week). The various reasons are:
1. Am suffering form a very bad headache from the past 50 hours or so.
2. We had an unexpected server crash yesterday and nobody has a clue of why it happened.
3. One guy called me over for a snack last evening and I ended up paying for that.
4. Last evening was my fifth straight evening at the TKS office.

Well, I was in a pretty bad shape because of all the above crap n a lot more. But, while walking back to my flat from TKS, there was this lovely little breeze that changed all my moods. It was normally a walk of just above 10 minutes from my house to TKS, but last night my heart wanted to enjoy the walk and it took me more than 25 minutes to cover the distance. Suddenly I felt like a child and did some weird things which included:
1. I was trying to balance myself on the edge of the pavement while walking. This went on for quite a distance.
2. I saw a hump on the road which resembled a landmine in the PlayStation game "Black". I couldn't take my eyes off it and in front of a heavy traffic, I lifted my hands and positioned myself like the protagonist in the game(a soldier) and tried to shoot that hump. Everybody waiting at that signal was shell shocked. I literally looked at them and laughed n went away.

All this made my heart lighter and I was in a cheerful mood for the rest of the night. But today, struggles have started yet again.

Random Ramblings

Folks, had a lot to post but very less free time to do so. So am putting up a brief notes of what's going on these days.

1. Today's the much-awaited India-Pakistan cricket match. Our cricket brothers of the neighboring country are giving too many statements to the press and our guys are calm n composed as usual. So let's see who wins the battle, which's going to kick-off in a few more hours. All the best, Team India.

2. The great slogger whom International cricket has ever produced, Mr Shahid Afridi was telling to the press the other day that the GOD(read as Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar) was no longer a threat. Brother Afridi, do you know that he's back into his prowess(mind it, he was never out of it) and made his way back into the ICC top-10 even after missing from the International ODI cricket for quite some time? Did you read in the newspapers a few days back about what happened to the Lankans in the tri-series finals?

3. Well, looks like my parents are feeling bad that they are not able to find a bride for me, even though they are trying hard to do so. Will write a post about that in the next few days.

4. About a month back, the PR manager of Coca-Cola Bahrain, Mrs Leila Rajkumar was kind enough to induct us(me n my friend Deepak) into their elite group, Thirst Quenchers. You all know how hot it gets in summer in this part of the world. So Coke will provide us with water and some soft-drinks. We(the Thirst Quenchers) are supposed to carry these around the island and give them free-of-cost to the laborers toiling out in the hot sun.
It was a very good example of what-a-little-help-can-do. I still remember the thank-filled eyes of those hard-working guys when we told them that we are there to give them free water n drinks. Some locals were curious enough to know why we are distributing them free-of-cost. Long live the human spirit. Find below the certificate that Coca-Cola has given me for doing whatever little I can. It was so kind of them.

We are OUT

Well, it's not a great news to share, but the verdict is out. We are out of the cricket tournament with a loss in the last night's match. The saddest part is - we lost the match by 3 runs. In the tournament, we had 12 groups with 5 teams each. Each team in the group has to play one match with each other and the top 2 teams in a group will go to the next round. Before yesterday's last match, we played 3 and won 2. Our opponent last night were the hosts. So ultimately, they had the home advantage.

One good thing for me from yesterday's match was - my batting. I was surprised with the way I hit some shots. Wait wait, don't think that I'm a good batsman. I'm a below-average cricketer and for a person like me, every single run is like a boundary. And if you play well, when others fail, it boosts our confidence. Right?

Well, looking forward to continue the same form in the coming Friday's match. This one doesn't belong to any tournament, but something that we play among friends. Professionally, though.

Note: I'll post some pictures of yesterday's match as soon my friend hand them over to me.

Cricket n SRK

Being from India, we love cricket and worship cricketers. And sometimes, we like to play too. So, we are participating in a 7-a-side soft-ball tournament here in Bahrain. A total of 60 teams are participating in the tourney and we played our first match last night. We lost it successfully, but at least we did give a tough fight to the opponents(my favs for the title). Batting first, they made a not-so-tough 52 runs in their allotted 6 overs while our side managed a convincing 45 runs in the same number of overs. Well, the nest match is on 28th of this month and wish us all the best.

And now, let's go to a strange issue that raging in some hearts in India. One Mr Shah Rukh Khan(in short SRK) was frisked at an airport in the US of A. Ok, the airport authorities did detain him for a couple of hours and checked his credentials blah blah. The only problem is this SRK guy is a super-star or a Badshah of Bollywood(naah, I'm an Aamir Khan fan). Fans started protesting this act and started burning effigies of the govt of US of A. TV channels started flashing the news of this footage in "exclusive bulletins". Bollywood bigwigs are interviewed, politicians were asked questions and people are made idiots.

But what's the big deal in the airport authorities doing so? Clearly, not everyone knows what Bollywood is or who SRK is. He's just one of those guys traveling through their airport. Is there any point in this whole incident for the entire nation to stand up(or rather sit n watch those stupid news channels broadcasting this)? Aren't there more issues that are bothering the nation?

Just in the past one month, more than 22 farmers committed suicide in the state of Andhra Pradesh courtesy poor rainfall and increasing debts. I saw in a regional news channel yesterday that a farmer set fire to his crop after a very less output(I don't exactly know the term). No one cares about issues like this. All we care is when a celebrity is detained in an airport or a famous cricketer scores a duck or when a politician is making useless comments etc. God save India.

My Idol is back for me to worship

Well folks, first of all, belated Friendship Day wishes to you all. I know that I'm late, as usual, but as long as something comes from your heart, you are never late.

This post is for the return of my idol, known as Micheal Schumacher. Me(in fact none in the world) didn't even think of this dramatic return, even in our wildest dreams. If it was not for Felipe Massa's unfortunate accident at the qualifying session of the Hungary Grand Prix, I would not be writing this post.

This man, Micheal Schumacher(fondly called as Schumi) is not just a human for me. Something beyond that. I don't exactly remember how I came to know about this guy or his hunting ground(F1 races), but since 2001 or so, I've been following up with his races. My heart used to jump with joy when I read about his wins in the newspaper(that time, I was doing my engineering in a rural area). I used to plan my trips to home accordingly, so as to watch the F1 race on Sundays.

Ah, all this is making me feel nostalgic of those beautiful days. None of my friends used to watch F1(as you know, cricket rules an average Indian's brain), and I used to try hard to get into the love of watching this sport. Some used to argue with me that F1 is the most stupidest sport ever, as the same guy(Schumi) wins every race in the same car(Ferrari). That was his impact on the sport. I can vaguely remember that the F1 bosses even changed the rules of the game in 2004, to make it more interesting for viewers(naah, just to end Schumi's supremacy, if I'm not wrong).

It was my dream then to witness at least one F1 race with Schumi in it, but he retired at the end of the 2006 season. I saw my first F1 race in 2008, sadly and his absense is obvious. It's not the same as before. I started confining myself to newspapers and website reports about F1 races, rather than sitting in a couch and watching it tensely on TV. But everything is going to change, if all goes well on August 23.

PS: God, please help me in getting out of the office in time to watch all the races that Schumi is participating.

Love Aaj Kal - Loss of sleep kal night

First of all, I apologize for not being here for the past few weeks. Life seems to be f@#&ed up big time, like never before. But now, I wanted to enjoy life as much as I can and hence I assure you that you are going to read a lot of crap here from now on.

Last night, we had late dinner as one of friend is going to India on vacation and we had to do some shopping. On the way to the restaurent, we saw that there's a premier show of the much awaited "Love Aaj Kal" at midnight(here in Middle East, Bollywood movies release one day before, but this is much before the Indian release as I'm talking abt Wednesday night and the movie is going to release on Friday in India). Anyways, me and the friend who's going for vacation thought of giving it a try, even though I have to get up as early as 5 30AM to get to the office today.

And there it is, a premier show with only 25% of the theatre filled. We can sit wherever we want, put legs on whatever front seat you want - what else do we want? Coming to the movie, it's a matured love story, so matured that the hero first makes love to a girl and then loves her(at least, he thinks he's loving her... yawwwnnnn).

The story is simple: The movie starts when a boy(errr.... man) meets a girl at a party and wins her with a not-so-convincing manner. They end up living together for some days(n weeks and months) and then they decide that they are going to break up. The boy(errr again, the man) is a happy-go-lucky guy(who tries to be super cool) who suggests that they throw a party to celebrate their break-up. Everybody is surprised(except me n the other audience) and there goes a lavish party. The next morning, the owner of the hotel tries to question this man(I got it right this time) about his relationship with the girl(arey yaar, they celebrated their break-up in your restaurent and you are questioning their relationship now) and gives him some tips. He narrates his love story to the hero. The rest of the story is supposed to be a comparision between the Aaj ka love story and Kal ka love story(beleive me, I can't compare even a single instance of both those stories).

The plus points of the movie are:
* Both the lead actors played their roles very well(even though I felt occasionally that Deepika has only two emotions in the movie: Amusement and Sadness).
* The songs of the movie are superb. One of the best in recent times.
* The photography was excellent. The locations(supposed to be UK) were too good.
* The comedy was good in bits n pieces.
* The biggest plus point for me is the duration of the movie, a good 130 or 135 minutes, which is apt.

However, there are a lot of minus points too:
* The narration was too fast paced in the starting few minutes and after that, it lags drastically.
* The movie reminds you of a lot of other movies(which is not good for a movie).
* Felt that the Kal ka love story was more interesting than the Aaj ka love story.
* Also, I strongly felt that there's no need for the Kal ka love story at all. The movie would have been the same without it too.
* The climax gets too predictable.

I rate this movie 3 out of 5 and I would prefer to see this movie when I'm free and really don't have any other movie to watch.

Before coming to a conclusion about this movie, please note that the above expressed views are entirely my own and you may actually like the movie. Different persons have different mindsets and one more important thing is that I saw the movie at 12 midnight.

Some sort of celebrations

Everybody says that it's the big day for me. But not many friends have called to wish me. So, the celebrations have been dull.

Yes folks, it's the 4th of July. Another year passed by in my life and I've turned one more year older and it's just 73 years more to complete the century for me(the only big ambition in my life these days). As one of my blogger friend wrote in her blog, it's not important how old you become, but what matters is how wiser you've become. I hope I did some justice to those words.

Well, I've cut a cake arranged my friends, last night. It was yummy. And right after a couple of hours, Indian cricket team won a tense match against West Indies. What a start for the day!!!! But the rest of the day(till now), has not been so good. All my close friends here have work these days. So I was all alone from morning: chatting, reading news etc.

A few close friends called till now, but none of my best friends called me. Seems that they forgot the occasion. So just like every year, I'll wait till the night and remind them on my own. Till then, let me indulge myself in the fantasy world of gaming.

And hey, wish me all the best on the occasion. All you Blogger friends gave a new dimension for my life and altered my thinking capabilities. Thanks a lot for that. Life is not the same since I entered the Bloggerville.

This is the cake I've cut last night.

The strip on the cake reads: Happy birthday fun Sathi.
The reason: I try to be funny always.... :(

A very late post

Dear friends, as you read this, I know that you'll feel that this news is outdated. But what can 'poor me' do? Even though the news is old, the hard-work and dedication behind that is ever-green.

I am talking about Pakisthan's vistory in the T20 World Cup 2009. Everybody thought that India and South Africa are strong contenders for the title(I thought no one can stop SA) and no one ever thought Pakisthan will be the ultimate winner. Coming back from back-to-back losses in the practice games, to win the title is not an easy task. On the other hand, our Indians never looked like champion stuff, even in the matches in the league stage.

However, Pakisthan cricket team knew that they should win the title to regain the charisma they lost in the International Cricket. And that was how they won it. In a country ravaged by numerous terror strikes and boycott by other cricketing nations, the only thing that keeps the spirit alive is cricket.

Many of us think that Pakisthan is supporting terrorism in India, but how many of us know about their internal turmoil. Check this link for some pictures of the children effected by the ongoing military operations in the SWAT valley of Pakisthan. Let's all pray for their well-being.

Also, please find below a truly remarkable picture of a historic event that almost went unnoticed(at least by me). It's the picture of Iraqi security forces celebrating the event of US troops leaving Iraqi cities:


Also, my condolances to all the fans of Micheal Jackson. Even though I'm not a great fan of him, I always knew the importance he's holding in some hearts. I read yesterday on some website that a total of 16 suicides are reported world-wide following Jacko's death. In Australia, they even set up a help-line for fans who went under depression after this. Folks, I know how hard it is for us to digest the death of Jacko, but isn't there a family waiting for you to return back home? Please don't resort to such things.

Pictures Courtesy: Boston

After all, who are we?

A couple of weeks back, there was a fire accident in Bahrain. A gas cylinder blew up in a building where more than 40 people are staying. Most of them are from my state, Andhra Pradesh in India. As soon as they heard the blast, they ran for their lives without taking care of their belongings. They lost their passports, money, mobiles and other valuables in the fire(this proves that we are humans and we care for nothing other than our lives).

All the people in the building are poor and all of them are dialy labourers. Most of them are run-away employees or people who came on visit visas and over stayed here. Almost all of them have large fines pending with the ministries.

As soon as we(TKS) got the news about this accident, our people rushed to the place and brought all of them to TKS premises(as they don't have any other shelter). Food was sponsored by some other NGO for them and our people took the responsibility of delivering the food. We collected clothes, blankets etc on war foot and distributed them to these 40 people immediatly. Thanks to many donors, we were able to fulfill the basic needs of those people(this proves that we are humans and we care about others too). It was heartening to see them scrambling for old clothes so that they have something decent to wear for work.



The first day was OK and then we asked them their details so that we can arrange for duplicates of passports, resident permits etc. But not many are willing to reveal these details as they are staying illegally here. Then we informed them of the possible difficulties they are going to face in the future because of their illegal stay and not a single one was interested to listen to those words. We also informed them that if they can leave Bahrain as soon as possible, we can try to nullify their pending fines, but still the response is the same(this proves that we are humans and we tend to take things lightly). They wanted to live like rats but don't want to go back to India. We don't know what problems they have in their home towns, but still it's better to leave than live such a miserly life here.

At first, they are manageable but after one day, they started demanding(kind of) instead of requesting. I was shocked by the following incident: We were distributing them some T-shirts sponsored by some other NGO and a couple of guys adamantly asked me to change the size as L size "may be" loose for them!!!!! Man, this proves that we are humans and always ye dil maange more.

Anyways, it's been two weeks since this happened and no one was ready to leave Bahrain till now. But the good part is they are back in to their normal lives and got into some other new accommodation. Long live, mankind.

A pictorial post

The lonely traveller. On my way to Hyderabad from Visakhapatnam.


A dead jelly fish. Felt bad that it had to die a lonely death. Who knows how our death may come?


A view of a rainy morning through a car window.


The third lady from left is a Raman Megasis award winner. OMG, she's so humble, so adorable. Her name is Mrs Shanta Sinha. She is an anti-child labour activist



I know that some of you like this picture.


Villagio shopping mall in Doha, Qatar. Image courtesy Zenoed. The blue sky you see on top is actually a poster which's pasted throught the mall giving it a street llok.

Titbits

Somebody asked me "Are you really busy?". My answer was "Can you believe that after going home from office yesterday, I removed my shoes n just slept off without even changing my attire. Forget about the dressm I didn't even remove the mobile from my pocket?". Well, this is a fact. I was so stressed at that moment. And thanks to some management changes, my life is going to be f@#$ed up this month end. I want to tell my superiors the story of a donkey which died after it's master put too much load on it.

Anyways, my trip to Qatar was pretty small(just 3 days), but eventful. I visited some shopping malls and I loved the way the Villagio mall was built. It was simple awesome. I'll keep a picture of it in my next post. And almost after an year, I rode a quad bike and that too in real desert. That was one hell of an experience. But, the temperatures were soaring out there. Even though Qatar is just a few kilometers from Bahrain, the climate looked completely different.

Coming to other issues, my life has changed quite a lot:
1. My good old Sony Ericsson K750i moved aside and made way for the Nokia 5800 XPress Music.
2. My long time companion, Casio calculator watch(it was with me for the past 12 years without a complaint) didn't move aside but gave some space to a new Casio Chronograph watch.
3. I was addicted to video games when I was a kid. After all these years, I thought I need a break and bought Play Station 2 last week. OMG, I'm already addicted. Right now, I'm playing Price of Persia(Two Thrones) in it.
4. I am back into enjoying my fav dish of the world, ice creams. Every week, I'm making sure that I have a week's supply of them.

That's all for now. I'll be back pretty soon with a pictorial post. Till then, cheers and Hakuna matata

"Temper"ary

Folks, days are too hectic for me these days. That was the reason why am not updating any nonsense in my blog. However, one good news is that I'm taking a small break this week and going to Qatar to meet my cousins. I hope this provides me with the necessary energy re-fueling.

Coming to the tile of this post, I hope some of you caught the reason behind it. Yes mates, these days I'm too angry on every little thing. In short, I am seeing myself in short temper most of the days. If I see something I don't like, then am simply shouting at others, be it at work or outside. I don't know the real reason for this sudden change in my behavior but I suspect that my hectic work is making me feel so.

About a couple of weeks back, I was going to TKS with my friends. We saw that our car was blocking another car in the narrow lane. First, we couldn't understand whether the person driving the other car wants to go front or back as there was no signal from that car. So we decided to go back and give the other car way to come out. Me and another friend of mine got down and started crossing the lane on foot while my other friends wait for us in the car.

Suddenly, the two ladies who are in the front car started abusing us(in Arabic) and that too, as if we're going to rape them. On any other day, I would've just laughed in myself and moved away from that place. But, that day, I stopped on my track and yelled at them to shut up and mind their business(but never abused them). I know that it's some mad rage in me that made me talk like that. Prior to this incident, I can't recall even a single incident in which I shouted at females.

This is one of those silly incidents in which I'm losing my cool and the HULK in me comes out. I hope to get rid of this alter-ego of mine and be my usual self soon.

BTW, I am getting a new Internet connection at my flat next week which gives me more access to Bloggerville and hence, I'll be back to my usual Blogger life. Till then, take care and have a wonderful week.

May Day Celebrations

Last weekend, we got three day holidays(thanks to the Labor Day). I hope you all remember that I'm a member of the Executive Committee of Telugu Kala Samithi(TKS) for the year 2009. We, being representatives of TKS, organize a picnic sort of event, every year on Labor Day to entertain the blue collar workers. As most of you know, this Middle East region is full of blue collar workers from India, particularly South India.

This year was the first one when I was giving my full support for this event. I was entitled with job of transporting all the materials to the venue and making sure that they all reach back properly. The event was organized on a beach front and more than 100 workers are supposed to participate in the event. So we went to that place the previous night itself with all the items needed for the event and put up some tents(to protect people from the hot sun while the event was going on). What we missed that night was some sort of flash lights, whose absence made our work more tough. We, somehow, fixed the make-shift tents and it was around 2 AM, by the time we finished our work and then we retired to sleep. It was nice to sleep at the beach front on mats. That was one wonderful experience.

Next morning(May Day), after waking up, we saw that some tents were loose(it was pitch black the previous night) and started fixing all those. By the time we finished, people started coming and we don't even have time to change to some decent clothes.

Many games were conducted for the workers(which they sincerely enjoyed) and the participants were duly awarded. Breakfast and lunch were served for the attendees. It was a nice feeling to interact with the lower class people and trying to make them forget their miseries for at least a few minutes. The joy we saw in their eyes, while receiving their prizes, was something that made us forget all the hard work put in by us the previous night.

I'll put up some photos from the event soon. Maybe tomorrow. Until then, adios amigos n senorita.


Participants getting ready for the three-legged race


Kabaddi.. kabaddi..


Winners and the Committee

Am back

Hello folks, am back. In fact, I came back to Bahrain almost three weeks back, but was busy, both in and outside office.

Well, coming to my vacation, it lasted just 16 days in total, but was good enough to leave all those sweet, lingering memories for quite sometime. In fact, am still homesick!!!

The main reason for going on vacation this time, was to attend my best buddy's marriage. Boy, it was too good to be him after quite some time. This guy is a US citizen and we rarely meet, as our trips to have to coincide with each other. But we meet, somehow, at least once a year. This time, I think we spent about 4 quality days together with another good buddy of ours. Of course, this was before his marriage.

We stayed at his native village, which was so remote that no bus comes there and people have to depend on auto-rickshaws to move to some other places. Also, there's a minimum mandatory power-cut for 6 hours a day, irrespective of the season. Still, I felt as if it was the best place to live in, thanks to the plush greenish fields, pure air and some untouched hills. It was simply awesome.

The marriage went on well, except that it started raining just before the marriage(the ceremony was outdoor). Luckily, they had an empty mandap in the indoors.

Other than this, rest of my stay was at house. Who doesn't like sitting idle at home and eat food cooked my mom? I was awesome. My sister and brother-in-law came from my Bangalore during my stay and we had quite a bit of fun. Coming to my marriage, my parents asked me for my requirements(ya ya, I know that "requirements" is not a good word to use, but I'm compelled) in the girl like education etc. In fact, they pressed on me to reveal my intentions when I tried to postpone the matter. So, the official lookout has begun!!! But can I satisfy the girl's requirements? Time has to decide this.

I spent the final day in Hyderabad, meeting friends and relatives. I met one of my close friend there, whom I didn't meet in the past 3 years or so. It's good to spend some time with him and chat just as we used to do so in our engineering days.

Below are a few pics of my stay with my best buddies, Rajesh(the groom) and Hema Srinivas.

A beautiful lake near Rajesh's native place


B&W photos always makes us nostalgic. But this was a recent one


The best of friends


Dancing one the village roads during a public orchestra


Ready to roll at the marriage (did u notice that me n Hema are wearing the same shirts?)


The bride n the groom


End of the trip

On vacation

Friends, I'll be going to my homeland, India, for a small vacation of two weeks. My bestest friend's marriage is on 20th of March. Got to attend that and file a lot of memories. My number in India is 9701838249. It'll be active from tomorrow till 28th of this month. Feel free to contact me anytime.

I'll be away from Bloggerville during this period, starting tomorrow. Until then, all of you take care and enjoy this cherished life as much as you can.

Photo Post

Hi folks, hope u r all fine. I don't have much updates except for a visit to a Mexican restaurant and a couple of events at Telugu Kala Samithi(TKS). So I added some pics from them and then gave some nasty comments on those. Enjoy.


Life used to be good with friends(who doesn't like sitting on national highway n taking pics)



Sometimes, had enough friends to fit in a picture



Sometimes, I was alone like the building in the background but standing tall



But always dreaming of that one special girl



Then came my first official speech(vote of thanks) at Telugu Kala Samithi(TKS)



My friends saw me working hard to entertain people with some groovy songs at the Valentine's Day celebrations in TKS(I was wearing a tie for the first time after school)



Then, they tried to make fun of me as much as they can



Soon after, there came a time to 'part'y. Is there anybody who doesn't know what's in the glass?



The guy sitting in the center(Pavan) was leaving Bahrain for good.



A Mexican restaurant, a Mexican hat, a couple of Mexican drinks... But couldn't find a mexican gun.... :(



Then came Sangrea



Drank it with eagerness



Liked it



Had some more of it



Found that it's not enough. So had the whole thing



Main talli... main talli ho gaya



Hum talli... hum talli ho gaye

There were a lot of pics of "being talli" but I decided against them as the Google people will rate my blog as 18+..... ;) So folks, this is all for this post.

Am I busy?????

I don't really know whether to call myself busy or I'm wasting my valuable free time. Before going into the details, one "good" news to you all. I've been elected as the Executive Committee member for Telugu Kala Samithi(TKS) for the current year. TKS is some sort of a group of Telugu people living here in Bahrain. They conduct various get-together for Telugu speaking people in Bahrain etc. and most importantly, they do a lot of Social Welfare works(mostly pertaining to house maids and labor).

I've been entrusted with the position of the Membership Secretary and set with some goals to be reached by the end of my tenure. I was also included in the team for the Social Welfare. So far, everything sounds good and rosy.

Here starts the thorny part. Every week for two days, each member of the Executive Committee is supposed to stay at TKS premises for various reasons. And we have to meet regularly before any major event/festival. And we have weekly meetings too. This way, each member has to go to the TKS premises at least thrice a week.

So my daily routine is something as follows: Get up at 5 30 AM and reach office by 7 AM. Again reach my flat from office by 4 30 PM or so. Then immediately have to go to gym and work out till 6 30 PM. Then go to TKS by 7 PM and stay there till around 9 30 PM. By the time I finish my dinner and call it a day, the time is at least 11 PM. This routine repeats at least 3 times a week..

And these days, work in office has increased to a great extent and sometimes, I feel like quitting this job. But thanks to the world-wide recession, I am forced to stay back at least until the situation is normal. On top of that, my server stopped responding for no apparent reason this morning. We were able to recover it back just now and still we don't know the cause for this failure.

That's it folks. I may not be able to post for some more days, until I become comfortable with TKS and office issues. But I promise and assure that I'll keep reading all your posts and leave my stupid comments there.

Mangalore Massacre

I hope most of you read or heard about the Mangalore pub incident. For those who didn’t know about that, let me tell you what was reported in the news about that. A group of people, all members of a religious outfit called Sri Ram Sena, stormed a pub in Mangalore and beat up the persons who were partying inside, irrespective of the gender. And some unknown sources also reported that some of the girls were molested too. The reason for the attack as told by the Shri Ram Sena outfit was, these people (who are partying) were violating the rich Indian Culture.

Now, here is a small piece on interview of Pramod Muthalik, the founder of the Shri Ram Sena.

How can you continue to justify the Mangalore incident?
I will always stand by my statement that the intention behind the Mangalore attack was correct and we did nothing wrong in raising this issue.
What is wrong in opposing the pub, drug and club culture? Someone had to raise this issue. We decided to do so as no one else seemed to be bothered about it. We have a responsibility towards society and we need to safeguard Indian culture. Pub culture is Western and we don't need it.

Who has appointed you a moral policeman?
Nobody needs to appoint me. This is a democracy and we have the right to raise our voice if we think something is wrong.

Why do you resort to violence? You have no right to hit anyone, especially women.
I am saddened by the fact that the incident turned violent. There was never an intention to resort to violence. But the reports of attacking women and molesting them are wrong -- they have been created by the media.

Why do you have a problem with people who want to have some fun in a pub?
As I mentioned earlier, pub culture is not Indian and we do not need to ape the West. Girls are resorting to all sorts of rubbish due to lack of guidance. We will continue to raise our voice and will also take the help of law enforcement agencies to ensure that students do not tread the wrong path.

Your answers indicate that there will be more trouble in Karnataka.
There will be no violence, but we will raise our voice. We will not allow Valentine's Day celebration as it is not part of our culture. We will take the help of the police and college students to ensure that nobody celebrates Valentine's Day.

Now, anybody who saw the clippings of the attacks will strongly disagree the way the attack was carried out. The way the girls were bashed made me rethink whether this is India(where females are highly respected) or some other alien nation. In one clipping, a running girl was beaten hard on her face with such a force that she literally flew down.

In my childhood, I used to hear that in Muslim countries, women are beaten up for indecent acts and men are castrated. Now I work in one of those Muslim countries and I never hear about incidents like this here. This makes me wonder whether our “rich Indian Culture” permits these insane acts.

If you see the revered Mr. Muthalik’s interview, you’ll notice the phrase “This is a democracy and we have the right to raise our voice if we think something is wrong”. Now Sir, we too live in the same democracy and we too have our share of rights. Also, why the hell are you voicing your opinion about girls resorting to taking drugs, boozing, wearing mini-skirts? Are the males OK to do this?

Do the following with perfection before carrying out any more indecent acts like this:
• Ask your followers to stop wearing western dresses like jeans, tees.
• Tell them to stop boozing and smoking.
• Tell them to get up early in the morning and do puja to all the sacred Indian Gods.
• Restrain them from celebrating the New Year Eve, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day etc.
• Tell them not to work in MNC’s (as management expect the employees to respect the client traditions).
• Advice them to stop eating noodles(Chinese), pizzas and burgers(western) etc.

These are only a few of the things you should do before questioning others and please note that there are a lot of other issues and methods to protest in our country. Please let us live the way we want.

Also, it’s sad to see that all the 27 accused got bails instantly and they are roaming freely among us.

All my friends out here, please join me in saying “Get well soon, Mr. Muthalik”.

Click here for the news report.
Video Courtesy --> NDTV
Interview Courtesy --> Rediff

Neighbor woes(not mine, mayb my neighbor's)

Last week, while removing my shoes after coming from a stroll, I noticed that my neighbors have left their key bunch in the key hole itself. Coming to these neighbors, they are a Mallu family, one guy with a wife, mother and two kids. I never saw his wife or the second kid. I give some chocolates to the elder son(who's around 3 years old), when he's playing in the corridor with his granny. However, there's no more relation between me n them except a casual smile or a "hi".

So, after looking at the key bunch, being a good neighbor, I knocked on their door. After a moment, the wife opened the door with the door latch ON and was looking at me with a scowl on her face. She was looking at me as if I entered some restricted territory. I just told her that they left their key bunch in the keyhole, which she pulled with some mighty force and slammed the door shut without even looking at me. Poor me, was expecting a thank you from them, if not a lunch invitation in the weekend(these are termed as Bachelor Woes). I was ashamed by this lady's behavior and then being free for some time, I started analyzing what might have went wrong.

1. Maybe her husband didn't cook lunch well(too much salt or no salt).
2. Maybe the chocolates I give to her kid are expired or they have worms in them(I hope you remember the Cadbury Dairy Milk case).
3. Maybe her elder son, who started going to nursery, brought home his girlfriend.
4. Maybe my shoes, which I keep in a shelf next to their door, stink a lot.
5. Maybe she felt bad about me knocking the door, when they had their new calling bell installed that very day.
6. Maybe she's a victim of the sound coming from my home theater(most likely).

Well friends, did anyone of you face some embarrassing situation like mine?

Missing family

Well, this is my first post of 2009. 2008 ended on a high note and there are some wonderful highlights in 2008, as per my last post. It doesn’t matter that we didn’t have fun on the New Year Eve as the celebrations are canceled in the whole Middle East due to the ongoing rampage of Israel on Palestine. It’s also nice to see that some of the wonderful bloggers chose to come back to the Bloggerville just at the brink of the end of 2008.
2009 has been hectic in office (I know that it doesn’t sound to be reasonable to say so, just after a couple of weeks into the new year). Personal life seems to be OK, thanks to the fact that I’m single. But it seems that my parents don’t want me to spend the next New Year Eve single. Marriage proposals are being put in front of me and poor me still isn’t able to decide whether to go ahead or not. Let’s hope for the best.
Last weekend, I saw one great movie, Mumbai Meri Jaan. I don’t know what’s so good about that movie, but I loved every part of it. Something different in this times of mass masala. Did anyone of you see that movie and felt the same?
Been missing family and friends today, as it’s Pongal(Sankranthi) time in India. It used to be so good in my childhood and now, when I’ve everything, I am missing human relations. So this New Year resolution will be a family get-together for the next Pongal. I wish all of you a very happy Sankranthi.

Right now, being busy with work, I may not post much in my blog for some more time but will keep an eye on your blogs. Happy holidays(if you have them).