New York

A trip to New York after a gap of nearly two years. And the opportunity to sit on a trading desk. Despite my previous non-like for the place, I was pretty excited and looking forward to this trip.

So here I am, a week into the trip. Jetlag has been conquered pretty successfully. Actually sleeping by 10 and getting up by 6 does work out pretty well. I am in office by 8 in the morning. As a result, also leave office by 7 latest. The absence of a comp and the IPL makes it seem like I have a lot of time on hand. Hence end up sleeping the entire 8 hours.

This being the onset of summer, days here are really long. The sun does overtime, starts around 5 and sets only around 8. This is a bit disconcerting. And also makes it seem like I leave office too early while I am actually more time than I do in Bangalore. And more focussed too.

Work has been ok. A bit hectic, but a bit frustrating too. But I think I have figured out the reason for the slow progress at work. Looking forward to going and getting cracking on Monday.

I am staying at a place overlooking Union Square. Some googling just now tells me that the "Union" refers to labour unions. Supposedly this is the place where all protest marches start. (if I remember right, equivalent to Chikka Lalbagh somewhere near Majestic in Bangalore). This place is a very happening place. Some organic market and all here. Quite a few restaurants too.

But somehow have had NED to try out different cuisines I have been sticking to Indian stuff at night and Subway during the day. Should ideally be the other way round actually for the sake of my weight. But these issues have been well left for now. Only breakfast has been slisha fight. I have never liked bread and cereal level stuff, which essentially reduces my choices to just having some baked potatoes or some pancakes. These are also tasteless and not eatable daily. And fruits aren't being too filling. And Saravana Bhavan breakfast starts only at 8:30 am. Too late. Need to figure out some way out of this " food crisis".

Speaking of Saravana Bhavan. The place is pretty impressive, the food that is. Any place that serves jaggery along with adai avial is totally stud. Period. Even Pongal back home does not give jaggery. Might become a frequent visitor to the place. The place also goes some way in proving that equidistant from their native places, good South Indian food should be cheaper than good North Indian food, whatever the price of rice.

Despite the fact that I stay alone at home in Bangalore too, somehow this place does seem lonelier. Probably because of the lot of time on hand.

But this trip has been pretty enjoyable so far. Food and more company can take a lot of credit. The other thing is the presence of Fox Soccer channel. Does a pretty comprehensive coverage of European footer. Heck even MLS is more watchable than baseball or basketball. The channel seems to be a fan of Chelsea. Had shown some two hour positive documentary about Chelsea a couple of days back. And tomorrow morning at 10 among the many last round of EPL matches, the one it has chosen is Chelsea-Bolton. Given that this is America, Portsmouth-Fulham would have been a better choice.

But I sort of don't care. There is a channel showing the F1 race that starts at 7:30 tomorrow morning (thanks to Manu for this valuable info) and then at 10, there is the footer. Simultaneously, I should also be able to find some streams to watch IPL. Strong max.

I am looking forward to tomorrow.

Proof that elections are around the corner

The road outside my house gets tarred for the first time since I came in June 2006.

The neighbouring streets too. Elections should be held more frequently.

Monkeygate

Have been wanting to put a post about the Symonds-Monkey affair for some time. But before I could, my namesake Mukul has put a very strong post about it.

Some further comments about entire controversy:

1) If it were proved that Bhajji did call Symonds a monkey, he should have been banned. The reason being that this was an issue already raised by the cry-baby Symonds in India and some supporters were kicked out of stadiums as a result. You cannot have one rule for the supporters and another one for the players. (It is entirely another matter that I believe that if the cry-baby hadn't cribbed in India, there would not have been an issue at all)

2) The threatening to leave the tour part was acceptable. But the condition should have been "if the final verdict were arrived at without any proof" and not "if Bhajji is found guilty". The latter stance clearly amounted to holding a gun to ICC's head.

3) How is Symonds able to get away scot free? Even Marco Materazzi got a ban for having been head-butted. (Actually bad comparison, as FIFA is just marginally more competent than the totally incompetent ICC). But it was Symonds who started the abuse and so should have been punished.

Given the form of the Bhajji and Symonds, a chess level sacrifice, with Symonds also getting banned would also not have been that bad strategically. (Last year's thulping in the CB Series finals and the Chappell-Hadlee trophy happened in Symonds' absence)

4) I am unable to understand why the Aussie media is cribbing over the verdict? There was no proof that Bhajji called Symonds a monkey. Period. And if Bhajji is being punished for "Teri Maaki", then Hogg should have also been punished for "bastard". Hats off to Kumble for showing some restraint in this.

5) BCCI is incompetent. ICC is even more.

Awesome series though. If only we weren't Bucknored and it hadn't rained in Chennai in 2004, we would still be holding the Border-Gavaskar trophy.

Random paragraphs

Saw Bheema on Thursday. For some reason, a lot of stand-alone theatres showing Tam movies don't have night shows. Lavanya in Ulsoor is one of them. (there are theatres like Cauvery and Sri Balaji that do have night shows) The last show was at 7:30, a very convenient time to watch a movie, no compromises over work, dinner or sleep. And money too, just 40 bucks.

The movie is not even worth that much. There was an obvious and strong gay undercurrent to the relationship between Prakash Raj and Vikram. The movie seems to have been highly outsourced. The various parts of the movie like fight scenes, the music, the songs done separately and then pasted together. The duets featuring Trisha (she is hot, along with the music, the only decent part of the movie) could have come in any order. Lingusamy once again proves that he is a highly overrated, but lucky director. (how else can you explain Run and now Bheema becoming hits?)

Went to Chennai last weekend for the Odyssey quiz. Yet another 1-2 point miss from qualifying. My dad supposedly made the comment that I should avoid going to quizzes that I have no chance of winning. If that is the case, I should give up quizzing completely.

I went by Lalbagh on Saturday morning. Though reserved, the compartment resembled an unreserved one. I even had to show my ticket on coming back from a visit to the toilet to get back my seat. Given this crowd and the fact that Jolarpettai-Bangalore is now a double track, it should be feasible to run a train every hour between Chennai and Bangalore on weekends. Laloo-ji there are still lots of such obvious improvements that can happen in the railways.

Came back by a VRL travels bus, ticket booked on the convenient redbus.in. Ended up getting the last but one seat. Despite the stud Golden Quadrilateral road between Chennai and Bangalore, I ended up having one hell of a bouncy ride. Some entertainment park level.

Parking the bike at Majestic is quite convenient. 40 bucks for the weekend makes it much cheaper than an auto (even after taking into account my 35 km/litre bike). And obviously much more convenient given the late/early times when the travel needs to happen.

For the first time in my recollectable memory, I went north of Poonamallee High Road inside Chennai proper. (obviously catching trains at Central is not counted) Went to Abhirami mall to meet a friend. Seemed a highly cluttered place. But it being a Sunday, could not get tickets for any movie though.

Would like to finish off with some food related comments. Pita bread with hummus rocks as does mendhiya kuzhambu (fenugreek sambhar I think) rice with vadAm(vathal/fryums).

Wayanad - 2

It was 3 by the time we finished having lunch. A few of us were of the opinion that we should leave for Bangalore then as only then could we be at home by 10 or 11. But this is where it was disadvantageous to be the 12th man in a 11 member group. Not enough decision making power. And so we ended up going to one place called Kuruva Island.

The milestones and signboards in the area are minimal, but placed at the right place, just before the diversion has to be taken from the main road. But this time, there was a board showing straight to Kuruva island and there was a fork in the road. We took the road that seemed to be more travelled by, but turned out that it was the wrong one. The day just kept getting worse.

Kuruva Island is a pretty useless place, a lot like Nisarga Dhama of Coorg, with the forest being a little more dense and the crossing over done on boats or by foot. The boating had stopped by the time we reached there. Supposedly there were some deer on the island. One of the negatives of an IITM education is that having lived for four years in a deer sanctuary, there is absolutely no fascination to observe deer. So decided that it was not worth the effort to wade across the water to the island. But most of the junta went across and they took their own sweet time to come back. Waiting for people is the worst way to pass time. Deterioration of the day's quality continued exponentially.

It was around 7 by the time we left Kuruva Island. There seemed to be only one positive from this diversion, Mysore was just 90 odd kms away. And the road also seemed decent. This was true till the border was reached. There was an arch indicating Rajiv Gandhi National Park and one milestone erected by Karnataka tourism showing Kabini 52 kms away. But there was no road. The "road" was mostly virgin (never laid) or totally screwed up. And also passed through some dense jungle. The trip had reached its nadir. I was totally pained in life too.

The next 23 kms, till proper road was sighted, were covered in one and a half hours. Only 4-5 vehicles passed on the other side and none that we overtook. Our driver did not lose enthu though. He kept stopping whenever there was a deer on the side of the road, this added to my frustration too. But I was totally helpless. In a way this was a fitting end to the day.

Dinner at Mysore happened between 10 and 11:30 and I finally reached home around 2:30 am on Monday morning. Worst.

Wayanad - 1

I used to think that Wayanad is a town somewhere in Kerala. Turns out that it is a district in Kerala, with the district headquartered at a town called Kalpetta. I think this district was created only for the purposes of tourism. A big thanks to the Western Ghats and the monsoons. At every trip of the foot(thadukki vizhundha) there is a waterfall or a dam. "Full of hills" also means lot of trekking scope. Most importantly, Kalpetta is situated some 260 kms from Bangalore, making it ideal for a weekend trip. Actually there are so many places to see that Wayanad is ideal for a few weekend trips.

Went there this weekend, leaving on Friday night and back on Monday morning at 3 am. Our base was Kalpetta. Saturday early morning and night were spent at a hotel named Chandragiri Inn, costing 440 bucks per room. The rooms were very good, new, with a TV (no remote though), a double cot and a surprisingly neat bathroom with running hot water. Max value for money. Breakfast on both the days was at Woodlands nearby. Did have Kerala Parotta for dinner on Saturday, pretty good stuff. Did put a well left for the bullet rice, preferred to stick to normal rice for lunch.

On, Saturday morning, we first went to Edakkal caves, a group of caves on a hill containing prehistoric designs on their walls. Not too interesting actually, except for clicking pics. The interesting part was climbing the hill and reaching the peak. Somewhere along the way was an almost vertical rock wall with just a rope tied to three fixed points. (some nails level things) I was able to traverse the first stretch of the rope without any difficulty at all. But after that I suddenly panicked, had some trouble covering this second stretch.

I stopped climbing the hill a little after this rope stretch. On the way back, again this rope stretch became a psychological barrier to me. Finally one drunk person (calling people Chetta in Kerala works really well) helped me in coming down this stretch. The pineapple and soda at the foot of the hill were really strong.

The next trip was to Pookode lake, just a scenic lake where some pedalo boating happened. Then to Soochipara waterfall, a small-ish fall where one could bathe. I had not made arrangements for this, so just took photos, dipped my leg in the water and came back.

Sunday morning, the first stop was the Meenmutty waterfall. This is 3.9 kms off motorable road and involves a nearly one hour walk along a forest path (ala Ahobilam). Its advisable to take a guide along. We had gotten lost, but then one guide found us and guided us to the waterfall. Pretty strong waterfall. No scope for getting under the fall. Photo sessions and we came back. Buttermilk near where the forest path starts deserves mention.

It was after this that the trip started going downhill. The cell had been out of range (but Voda-the-fone was surprisingly working) so far, and so I had no clue about the score. By the time I checked the score after coming within range, India had lost. Total devastation happened inside me. Then slowly got to know of the injustices we were subjected to. Just made the situation even more worse. Felt like kicking myself for missing out on the action. All interest in the trip faded.

Vacation

Just came back yesterday to Bangalore after a week long vacation. Like any vacation, this vacation also seemed very short. Went to Hyd and Chennai. Also went to Srisailam (from Hyd with Vamshi) and Kanchipuram (from Chennai, major Divya Desams ticking only). Plan to write detailed posts about those two trips, but I am not sure if I will have the enthu to do that.

The worst part about this vacation was that sleep took a major hit, mainly because of the Melbourne rape that I duly watched almost fully and also because of the traveling and other activities. Could sleep in the afti on only two of the days, Christmas and New Year.

Saw movies in three different languages in theatres.

First was Taare Zameen Par with sis, tickets in black, 50 for 100. Totally worth the money and surely much cheaper than the Inox-es and the PVRs. Impressive movie, moving without being melodramatic. I almost had tears in my eyes towards the end. A must see for every parent and kid in India, in my opinion.

A couple of days later saw this kandravi (worst max) gult movie called Don, starring Nagarjuna. Gult filmdom is in safe hands if such movies can get sold out on working day afternoons. Finally saw Billa on Saturday at Mayajaal in Chennai. Pretty stylish movie and surely exceeded my low expectations.

Traveled by the Chennai Express from Hyd for the first time since it became a super fast express. Superfast is the standard euphemism for increase in ticket price, but in this case it has been speeded up by a couple of hours. As a result one can no longer get samosas at Nalgonda. Dinner is also served at Nalgonda as opposed to Nadikudi previously. The veg biryani was pretty strong, reminded me of my very own vegetable pulav.

Went to my IITM hostel, Alak, after a really long time. I think the last time was Saarang in my first year at IIMB. Not much change there except for some lawn level outer decorations and the absent mess. Also, there were phones in the wings (redundant given the cell phone penetration these days) and mineral water in every wing. It was pretty nostalgic recounting past experiences with a friend, Bharath, sitting on the wing cot watching footer in the quadrangle. A good way to start the new year.

Happy New Year All.