Trip To Kerala

It took me more than a year to find some time to go to my home place. The wait was worth it. I managed to enjoy the Monsoons to the fullest extend, spend quality time with my Mom and Dad, visit Kumarakom with Friends and meet up some NITC batchmates. At the end, 2 weeks was not enough time.

The next time around I will go for more than 3 weeks. :)

Long Break

March 10th was the last day I blogged. It has been a month now. Mostly because of the roaming around that I do and partially because of the work. I managed to convince my manager that I had to go home even though I had no leaves. Ravindra was lenient enough to give me some leaves. I went home on the 27th of March. As usual the visit was mainly concentrated on meeting family members and relatives. I also managed to celebrate the retirement of a close family friend. The weather in Kerala was trying. Very humid and dry. I managed to play some badminton with some elderly guys but was pathetic at it. We celebrated Surbhi's birthday with style after reaching the office. It was a smooth month anyway !!!

A Brief Breather

This whole month was a busy month. Work was there as usual. I also managed to go to Rajasthan and Kerala for short vacations. And now is the time that I find to write something. A breather after some amount of work to be finished has been done.

Gitesh had his hose warming ceremony two weeks before and thats why we went to Rajasthan. Bikaner to be specific. Man, was it hot there. Atleast 45-46 degree Celsius . We went on a sleeper bus and reached there after 8 hours of journey. The house was great and the ceremonies were very different from what I have seen. We tried giving a minor present, but they refused saying that they don't accept presents from younger people. The rituals lasted for about 4 hours and then the party started. There was music and lots of food. The food was excellent to tell the least. Gulab jamuns and roti curry. Mouth watering stuff. It was great to see those old houses / buildings on both the sides of the market we went. Kids were flying kites over the now bright blue skies. It was also wonderful to see the old fort where all those antiques were stacked for public viewing. I consider myself to be very fortunate that I get to see these places. Thanks Gitesh.

The previous week I took off. Went home and had a great time. The major thing I achieved is that I got to meet a lot of people. Contacted a lot of them. Prasanth, my Uncle's son, with whom I spent a lot of my childhood, was in town from Dubai. I got to spend a ot of time with him. I also went for Joy's wedding on a bike, riding from my place to Chalakudi which is like 40+ kilometers. I also got to meet Ettan and got to apologize for not being able to come for his forth coming wedding on the 22nd.

This time I managed to mature from a mere stubble to a full functional beard. It was a ong time ambition of mine to have a good beard and finally I managed to have one. I also managed to get those transition looks, beard -> spanish mustache -> mustache with raised ends -> clean shave with major whiskers. Pics are attached.

The Return

I had a 10 day vacation. Off to my home place. Its been 4 months since I went home and this time I had to attend 2 weddings. Stoney AKA Achayan got married on the 12th of January and Vineesh got married on the 20th. I flew to Chennai for the first time by Deccan. This lousy flight had all things that an average flight must not have. The engines gave so much sound that I thought I was inside a car. The stewardess were not what I call 'GREAT'. The pilot was a foreigner and therefore did a good job in handling the plane. Unni was waiting at the airport to receive and to lead me to his flat. The weather in Chennai was okay. It was after I reached the flat that I understood that Ranjith was to leave for Australia again the next day( the day on which we were supposed to start to Kottayam). After having some chit chat with Balu, Unni and Ranjith we went to sleep.

The next day after having a late lunch ?(at 4:30 courtesy Ranjith) we left to Kottayam on a train after me and my good friend Sajith had a beer. In the morning we reached Kottayam and then started our onward journey to Achayans. At about 11 am we reached the place only to be received by Anish and Mithlesh. Jayasurian and Pradeep were also there. After spending some time with Achayan, going to Pala with him I had a sleep. I was awakened by Bimal who with his uncanny tone of voice and deeply theoretical dialogs amazed me. Man .. was this guy messed up. After arguing about pre marital activities and co habitation we went on to have some good time talking about normal stuff. In the night we had 8PM Dry and went to sleep.

The next day after buying the present we went to the church to see our batch mate get married. After the wedding the rest of the gang came. The lunch was extravagant. Lots of stuff to eat. I have been only to those Christian weddings a few times and I tend to like the non vegetarian items served. After the lunch and very hour of chit chat we started our journey. This time the guys were intent on going to Kumarakom. Kumarakom, a famous tourist attraction, was quite far away and we took about 3 to 4 hours to reach our destination. The boat hiring prices were high and we felt that the guys offered much less for that amount of money. We then left the place and went back to Cherthala were we slept on just 4 mattresses.

Early the next morning I felt to my Sis's were Mom and Dad came. After watching the mallu movie 'Kadha Parayumbol' and after enduring the riots that my baby niece made inside the theater, I slept at my Sis's. We even witnessed a minor accident. A bus, without any provocation, crashed into a Maruti denting it's side seat.

The next week was silent for me. Just home cooked food, nice TV programs, movies on the mallu channels. Lots of fun, the 'Everybody loves Raymond' style. I had my return flight from Cochin to Delhi via Bangalore.

Earlier when ever I went to the bus stand, I would see someone I knew. Even when getting on a train I would find some one or the other. But now times have changed. I managed to see 3 people I knew when I was waiting at the terminal lounge. I even saw Meera Jasmine, the famous south Indian actress. To say the least I did not expect a plump woman with full of make up. She was better looking on screen. I also heard that Mohanlal was also there. I reached home after taking a cab at about 1 in the night. And now I am back to work (or rather back to blogging).