No chicken @ KFC, Matty is still happy

It was a usual day till 6pm with usual Software Engineering works with lots of discussions and little conclusions (but thankfully we had some decision today). Around 6, I got a call from one of my friends, Shashi (name changed to suit the situation) asking for a movie. But I was not in a mood, so we compromised with KFC. I got back to work and when I was about to leave at 7, Matty(name changed) pinged me and to check my dinner plan. If I mention about Matty, he is the laziest man among my friends circle, who is happy to spend all his weekends sleeping at room, who wont go for a treat at best restaurant which is even 1km away just because he has to travel. Matty readily decided to join us.

From the time we reached KFC, Shashi and I found something fishy, Matty who always dies for chicken, doesnot want chicken today!! Then why did he come to KFC!!! to have some veg!! no way!! With our buckets we started off with usual stuffs before Matty started revealing. Though he is just 25, he has an active account in a Matrimonial Site for 4 months or so. He has got a couple of proposals as well. Then he started details of each proposal. One was from my hometown and other from his home town. He gave a brief about both of them like both having fathers abroad, completed engineering and so on.

The moment he started describing about the girl from his home town, Santro(I dont know her actual name, bt my guess is very close), he was getting pale, shy and a mix of many other emotions. Then he started to focus too much on the Santro, I just shot a random question - "Did u know know her before?". After initial denial he gave up. Now story is getting more closer, her bro is his long time friend, Matty has sent a request in matrimonial site to Santro and her brother has contacted him through Facebook. But Santro dint want a guy from IT field. After 4-6weeks, Matty and Santro met near St.Thomas' statue after Sunday Mass, but dint even talk. Before lunch of same day, his request in matrimonial site was accepted. Matty is more and more interested in narrating.

Its was Shashi's turn now, "You liked her before, right?". Matty was not able to withstand. Whoa!! Stories are getting even fascinating. I just had a spontaneous "for how long?". Matty was straight forward, "for last 10 years or so"!! Holy c***!!! Ten years back means, he is of 15 and she is of 12 - she is in 7th standard!! I dont even remember any of my junior girls even at college, which is less than 3 years history. Then why did he propose Emy(again name changed) 2 years back, if he loved someone for last 8 years??

Matty went on with narration, Santro's family has enquired about him a lot among his friends, and ultimate level of workplace from his Product Manager. Santro bro told Matty, all his family is family is up with a green flag, but Dad has to confirm. And her dad will be coming in July for 35 days leave. It was Matty's indirect message, "Kids, be prepared for my engagement next month".

Shashi and me, we have something common among us in last May. Shashi was interested in a girl but she flew back to her native town in May. During the same month, I got rejected by a girl on proposing. Now this friend, who has made us believe us he was in our league after he too had lost Emy, is getting married to a girl whom he loved from the time he knew what is love.

The guy who was getting now emotion was Shashi. I have never seen him that desp. According to Shashi, Matty had started planning his life from the age of 15, he found  a girl 3 years younger to him.. nearby but 2kms apart.. once she registered in matrimonial site, he paid 3k and registered himself and send interest to her. Unlike most arranged marriage where parents find the girl, he has done everything. Why werent I interest in my super-juniors while I was in school. I could not answer to Shashi.

All I can say now is, "Matty, we will meet for your engagement. Best wishes!!"

(PS: All characters are 100% existing, so please dont reveal identity of anyone while commenting)

A normal day at the age of 9, 16 and 25

Yesterday, while returning from native to Bangalore, I came across a thought – “How much did I change in years? What changes did came across in my day-to-day life?”. I found something really fascinating, I am still living my old life!!

I don’t remember much about myself during the period I could enter my age in single digit column. I was shyest person around. I still remember the day, when I was 4-5, while all kids around me were involved in playing the game of picking the chocolates from the floor, I was happy to hold my mom’s sari tip.

Let me share my daily life schedule of my life after that age from where memories flows easily.

Day’s Start

Whatever my age me, I woke always between 6:00-7:00. When I was of 9 years, I woke up at 6:15, went to church and will go through all the home works for the day in less than 30 minutes before starting to school at 8:45. During my +1, at the age of 16, day was almost same – wake by 6:15, go for tuition at 6:45, and to classes. But after tagging myself as “Software Engineer”, I have the flexibility to sleep till 8-30 or even 9, but I am not so(atleast not on weekdays). After half an hour of alarm at 6:30, I will wake by 7:00. Just like in my school days, I will just go through some pending tasks of last day before starting to office at 8:45. I found it more or less I am still following same routine and decided to go ahead.

Working Hours

For any reason, I hate people waiting for me or myself waiting for others. So be at school or at office I will reach in time. Till this day of life, my working hours starts before 9:30. And always I had a break at 11 for a tea with even hotter rumors. Best part of at school or workplace is always lunch time. The sports- break is something I still enjoy, though the sports evolved from Football in open-ground at 9 years, to Volleyball in classroom at 16 years, to Table-Tennis at terrace 25. I am bit scared about is my next playground, as it has always moved up from ground to Terrace!!

But the working hours is something which always stretched - From 4PM(during schools) to 4.45PM(during +2) to “UNKNOWN”. “UNKNOWN” is again the privilege you get as a Software Engineer, which I won’t miss even if I want to.

Back home

When you are staying with parent the best part is when you return from school – SNACKS. I badly miss those days. But after evening snacks, it’s time for entertainments. It was cricket with brother when I was young, then with kids around and even now it’s the same old cricket – and my teammates are of still of the age 10 . If second option for relaxation came up, it was TV before teenage replaced with Laptop and FaceBook are for later part of my life.

Dishearten hours comes now – homework time. It doesn’t matter when I returned from school or office; I am supposed to spend some time at home. To make it simple, I will sleep 30minutes after completing my home works. During school days, I could finish my work in 1 hour, so slept at 7pm (trust me, it’s true). I rarely saw 10pm even during my 10^th standard. Scene changed finally in recent past, the bed-time has now has shifted to 12-1am on weekdays. Atlast, end of my day has changed in years

Yeah, my life has changed in years. But I am still living my old routine only to labelled as “Boring Programmer” by a colleague of mine!!

Bheemshwari, no more Bheema for me

This is my first post on a blog. So am very excited to write especially as its a about a wonderful trip I had with my friends.

To give a small intro abt our frnds, we were a small group of 5 classmates who reached Bangalore during July to Nov 2008. In the initial days it was shopping malls, like Forum, Total were our common meeting points. Then we started with going out for trips starting from Skandagiri trek (in Feb 2009) thru Chennai Trip in (March 2010) to Waynad (April 2011) (I dont remember dates of other trips to Shivasamudram, Mekadathu, SankiTank, Mysore etc.). Meanwhile our gang got more strength from the day Aliyan(means bro-in-law) got engaged to Treesa.

The usual puzzles before the trip like where to go, when to go(problem with job-shifts), who all will go etc. got solved after 2weeks of discussion. Bheemeshwari was lucky this time to be blessed with our visit.Unfortunately, one of us - Saleesh - who was in Indonesia with onsite visit, could not join us.

Let me come to describe about our trip now. Each were assigned tasks of arranging items like snacks, first-aid, break-fast, water and other items on the day before itself. And on the D-day, everyone has to wake every other person by giving ZipDials, (Oh sorry!! I mean missed call ).

We started from Madivala by 5am with myself in the cab first. Then we picked Treesa and her husband, Arun from MarthaHalli. Then Bhavani and Ria(she is one of the colleagues of Treesa but a frnd to all us by now) joined us from Domlur. Then we were back to Madivala, from where Manu completed the team. As he was 5 mins late, we all had a tea and started as Manu reached(late-comers punishment - no tea for Manu). By 6:15 we all were in Qualis and our trip was ON.

Then next 2 hours were hectic. Usual rumours like Manu has started meeting girls and will be married in next 6months, Aliyan's(Arun) horrible life after marrying Treesa, Bhanu horoscopic prediction of finding her soul mate in June etc. filled the cab all the way. Of course, there were fun made about me, but i wont be sharing it myself. Our throat started paining after shouting, making fun of each other. By 7, all were feeling hungry, and finally had our breakfast - Bread, Butter, Jam - on the move. During the travel we had seen the foxes, peococks, mongooses, pig, fresh elephant dung and posters saying "Beware of tigers". The road had some sharp turns, hair-pins and amazing green forests on either side. Apart from last 20km, the road was good, after which we could not literally find a single person to ask the even for the route.

Once we reached Bheemeshwair, we first went to JLR resort who does only packages. Then we entered very next gate we found, which was BSF camp which never does such entrainment packages for world. And finally, we found the Govt. Forest Dept office who came to rescue us. The people arranged for permission to enter the forest area, a guide and lunch. Trek is beginning from here.

The first one hour of trek was bit tiring. It was very steep and climbing up. After every 5 minutes we, to be more specific Ria, will stop somewhere. It was always guide, Bhanu and me who walked fast and always got time to rest before others caught up with us. It was not a dense forest, but it was fully green around us with mainly grass which was a man-height tall around us. The soil had no grip at all and the grass had saved me atleast a couple of times. We reached the peak in almost 1 hour, even with all the halts we had taken. And we then sat for a while at the view-point. It was then I had my first sip of water for the day. We had some snacks, and full rest at the peak. Every 2 mins, I would ask shall we move, only to hear Ria saying 5 more minutes.


Then came the downhill. It was easier, no more steep or loose soil. Once we came downhill, we were on the bank of river. It was still the summer with not much water flowing, but good enough if someone wanted to play in water. It was mostly swampy on the bank, with rock-filled spots too. It was nice to walk thru the rocks with 2-3 of us fell at some point or another. Also I did something stupid by trying to climb a 10feet tall rock. I was stuck half-way the rock for 2 minutes or so, neither able to climb up further nor ego allowed me to climb down, and Manu had to push me from below to rescue me. We had multiple photo-sessions. No more we were tired which helped us to enjoy the beauty of the river and the flowing water. The banks were atleast 10meters wider on each side as it was summer.

Once we were back at the camp, we just sad down analysing the trek. For most of us, except Ria it was too light. We all wanted it to be either tougher or lengthier if not both. Our lunch was not ready yet, so had to rest for some more time with music and some professional talks about personal career goals, appraisals, change of jobs etc, after all we all are Computer Engineers..!!

Now the best part of the trip came. The FOOOOOOD... It was the best food I ever had in such a tourist spot. It was unlimited Thali with Poori, White rice and Phulav ending with sweet. Only unhappy man when the food came was Manu -"NO CHICKEN!!". As we completed our food, we had our genetic ancestors around us. The monkeys were harmless and just looked so pathetic at us. We had benches for siesta. So we all were satisfied.

Now we wanted to go for Kayak and Burma-rope at JLR and if possible for boating too. But JLR allow us for the events unless we take up the entire package. So we had to decline. We went to Muthathatti for boating. But the crowd was too local and water was not good either. So we decided to stay back.

On our return trip we had stopped at a tree with red flowers. It was just awesome.
The sky was cloudy and was all set for rain. It was the superb spot. And we continued the return journey and by 5:30 all of us were back home. As we approached Bangalore, the usual Bangalore Traffic with no greenery welcomed up.

We had missed a few things on the trip. A bit of drizzle in that cloudy atmosphere would be the best you could ever ask for. Only animal we saw when we were out of the cab was a wild-ox, I expected some deer or something on the way. We dint play in the water either. But the trip was amazing.

And I dint tell u the best part yet. In the entire place we were the only people around. No more Bangalore crowd unlike Skandagiri or Nandi Hills or anywhere.

I would recommend anyone to go to this place. You will certainly enjoy this place.