Jaisalmer road trip - Part II

Day 4 and 5:

We started off the day four with the complimentary breakfast and took a walk towards Gadisar lake. We spent almost one and half hours, roamed around the lake and took couple of photographs in the lake. We then visited Sawai Singh Haweli near the Fort. Finally, we made it to the main attraction of Jaisalmer (i.e., Fort). We spent almost 2 hours in rejuvenating our eyes with the historic beauty of the golden city. Since it was lunch time when we were out of the Fort, we again visited Riddhi Siddhi for our lunch. We headed back to the hotel and took rest post lunch.

In the evening we just roamed around the bazar street of Jaisalmer, had good tea (infact had 2 cups of tea) in between. Day four was done on having dinner at Rasoi, a hotel nearby Fort.

As planned, we started off day five in reaching Sam sand dunes. We left Jaisalmer at around 10 AM, filled the car fuel tank, collected some bananas & biscuits and headed towards Sam sand dunes which is 40 kms away from Jaisalmer. We were guided by the Registan sand dunes (which we had booked) owner Yogesh to reach sand dunes from Jaisalmer.

On the way we could see military offices,deserted land on either side and people having rides in 4 wheel drive. After about 20 kms, my car brakes were not operating, and as I was driving, I soon realized that I did not released the hand brake which I had applied while filling the fuel tank in Jaisalmer (Not sure how it had moved though I had not released the hand brake in Jaisalmer). I then released the hand brakes immediately but still the car brakes were not functioning. We were totally upset over it and got tensed too. It was right on the middle of the deserted area. We then thought of showing it to some mechanics in Jaisalmer and took a U-turn. After a while it started working, in the mean time we called up Praveen (shahrukh) in Bangalore and seek his guidance on this. As suggested by him, we stopped the car for a while, may be for about 15 minutes and then the car brake was back in condition.

We reached sand dunes by 12 noon. We were the only guests to enter so early as the package/program  starts only in the evening. The hospitality by Haneef is excellent in Registan sand dunes. We managed with biscuits and bananas for lunch. Also, Haneef managed to help us with Papad and peanuts.

Tourists started flowing in after 3 PM and we started off the evening with Camel ride to the dunes. We spent the evening in the dunes until the sunsets. We witnessed a wonderful sunset on that day. We were back to our cottages and the traditional songs and dance were arranged in the premises. We finished our day with the traditional dinner served over there.

Day 6:

Hospitality shown on us by Haneef is excellent, we were given complimentary breakfast before we departed the dunes. We took the route Sam sand dunes -->Jaisalmer --> Pokhran to reach Jodhpur. We reached Jodhpur by 2 PM, booked a room in Uthsav hotel. We got fresh up and made a visit to Mehrangarh Fort. We had a beautiful view of the purple city from the fort. We were bit late in visiting Umaid Palace and hence could not make an entry into it. We roamed a bit around the city and it was all over of our finest trip.

Day 7: Covered 600 kms (Jodhpur -->Pali-->Sirohi-->Palanpur-->Mehsana--> Ahmedabad --> Vadodara -->Ankaleshwar)

It was me who started driving from Jodhpur, left at around 7:30 AM and headed towards Ahmedabad on NH-15. We planned to cover beyond Ahmedabad and to make a halt at Vadodara. We had a breakfast on the way, missed the NH-15 at Sirohi (rather taking the route of Sirohi --> Udaipur --> Abu Road -->Palanpur), we took the Sirohi-->Palanpur state highway. Roads were in good condition though it was a state highway. We had our lunch before Palanpur and started driving on NH-15 towards Ahmedabad. It was around 5:30 in the evening when we reached Ahmedabad. There was no major obstruction on the way except a traffic jam at Mehsana (due to the construction of fly-over) which halted us for an hour.

Sudi then took over the driver seat and left Ahmedabad to reach Vadodara expressway. Our initial plan was to make a halt at Vadodara for that night. Since we could easily reach Vadodara by 8 PM, we thought of making a halt at Surat which is around 150 kms from Vadodara. We managed to get into a hotel at around 10 PM on the highway for our supper. We also enquired about room to stay in the same hotel rather going in search of in the city. But the rooms were not of satisfactory and left the place in search of hotel room for our stay on the highway. Finally, we found one at Ankaleshwari.e., Hotel Sadanand, managed by a Mangalorean.

Day 8: Covered 750 kms (Ankaleshwar-->Surat--> Mumbai --> Thane --> Pune -->Satara--> Kolhapur --> Belgaum)

We had our complimentary breakfast in the hotel before we headed towards Mumbai along NH-8 on day eight. This time we planned to make a halt at Kolhapur. I enjoyed driving on NH-8, crossed Surat by 9:30 AM. At the Gujarat – Maharashtra border, Maharashtra police waved their hands to stop by. We were under the impression that they have stopped us for the documents verification since ours is a KA registration. But it was not the case. One of the constable aged around 52 – 55 yrs came to us, did not even request, with a rude and harsh voice, asked us to drop him till Mumbai. Also, he said that he can waive off the toll fee that we come across on the way till Mumbai. Rama did not support his request. But I and Sudi did not want to take any sort of chances here.  Moreover, we thought he can guide us the right way to cross over Mumbai to reach Pune expressway. This fellow’s duty is at the Gujarat – Maharashtra border and everyday he comes with some passersby on NH-8. A typical Mumbai police in our car blabbered all sort of his opinions about politicians, sports persons, Bollywood celebrities, etc. And yes, we did not let him to waive off the toll fee on the NH-8.

We dropped him in the outskirts of Mumbai and we took the route to reach Pune expressway. At around 2:30, we had our lunch on one of the food courts that is available on the Mumbai – Pune expressway. I still continued driving on the expressway after our lunch. We took a break at McDonald’s, Pune and asked Rama to drive further. We were about to reach Kolhapur by 7:30 PM. Since Belgaum is 110 kms away from Kolhapur, we re-scheduled to make a halt at Belgaum. We reached Belgaum at 9:30 PM, had food at Ramdev hotel before going to bed.

Surprisingly, we had covered three states on this day, having breakfast in Ankaleshwar (Gujarat), lunch near Mumbai (Maharashtra) and dinner in Belgaum (Karnataka).

Day 9: Covered 510 kms (Belgaum -->Hubli-->Chitradurga-->Tumkur--> Bangalore)

On the final day, it was a smooth drive to Bangalore. We left Belgaum at around 9 AM and reached Bangalore by 3:30 PM. We had couple of breaks in between, one for tea near Hubli and other at Chitradurga for lunch.

The amazing journey came to an end on day nine and we all 3 had nice unforgettable memories. The words just describe about our journey but really feel great to experience.

Jaisalmer road trip - Part I

Our most exciting trip of the year 2012 was to Jaisalmer by road. This was planned in the last week of November 2012 and scheduled to leave Bangalore on 21^st December 2012 for about 10 days. I was accompanied by Rama and Sudi in my Ford Fiesta and as planned we left Bangalore on 21^st Dec at 6:40 AM from my home.

Day1: Covered 834 kms (Bangalore –> Tumkur –> Chitradurga –> Davanagere –> Haveri –> Hubli –> Dharwad –> Belgaum –> Kolhapur –> Satara –> Pune)

I took the driver seat and headed via NICE road from my home and entered NH-4. After reaching Davanagere, we started searching for a decent hotel for the breakfast on the highway. Our search ended up in reaching almost Hubli and finally found Kamath for our breakfast at 11:30 AM. We then left the hotel by 12:15 and continued our journey. It was 2:30 when we reached Belgaum and we entered the city for lunch. We had meals in Pai hotel near to Belgaum bus stand. We spent almost an hour in lunch and to reach back to the highway. This time, Sudi took the driver seat and headed towards Pune. We had a short break to fill our car fuel tank in Kolhapur at around 5:30 and continued. We reached Pune  by 8:30 and with the help of Rama and Sudi’s colleagues/friends we could able to find a hotel for our night stay near Swargate area. Once checked into the hotel, we had chats in the chat street near to the hotel and that was our dinner for that day J. Pune city did not impress us as it was hyped and when compared to Mysore.

Day2: Covered 664 kms (Pune –> Thane –> Kalyan –> Bhivandi –> Surat –> Vadodara –> Ahmedabad)

We started off with a complimentary breakfast (sandwich) provided by the hotel and left the place at around 9 AM. I drove along Pune – Mumbai expressway and were able to reach Thane by 10:40 AM. The drive was exciting along the expressway, passed few tunnels and good scenic beauty alongside. We continued on NH-8 towards Thane and Sudi who was in the backseat noticed a signboard written “Ahmedabad – 534 kms”. So , I took a deviation from NH-8 (which is actually not a good route, realised later) and continued via Kalyan and Bhivandi. Since the traffic was bad, we were able to hit the NH-8 at around 1:30 before Rama could take over from me where we had stopped for a small Tea break after Bhivandi.

We finished our lunch at a hotel on the highway and started our journey at 2:30,Sudi took over from Rama and drove towards Surat. We covered around 230 kms in the span of 2 hours, the NH-8 condition is damn good, we just loved it. We stopped after Surat for a Tea break at 5:15 pm for about 15 mins and then I took the driver seat. I had just drove for about 20 – 25 kms, we got stuck up in a huge traffic jam. NH-8 is a 6 lane road and on one side (3 lane) the road was completely jammed. Our Fiesta was surrounded by huge number trucks and when enquired, found that the vehicles got stuck up till 8-10 kms long. We got to know from the truck drivers that it’s a usual one on this road (yeh toh roz ka mamla hai) and this is due to the construction of a bridge. Truck drivers suggested us to be on right side so that once we find a deviation to the right, we can take the wrong side of the road to cross the bridge. Finally, we managed to take the wrong side of the road and crossed the bridge. We got stuck up for about 2 hours in the jam. This bridge is in a place called Bharuch near Surat.

There was an incident happened soon after I drove the car to the wrong side. As soon as I deviated to the wrong side I turned on the wiper with water to wipe off the dust on the glass. Two people on a bike stopped our car, did hungama for about 15 mins, claiming that the water which I used to wipe the dust on glass from the wiper had made their vision effected and made away with Rs 200  from us.

Atlast, we crossed the toll soon after the bridge at around 8 pm and headed towards Ahmedabad which is still 230 kms away. There was no obstruction after that and swiftly reached Vadodara – Ahmedabad expressway (90 kms long) which is again an excellent 4 lane road. We reached Ahmedabad at around 10:30 (covering 230 kms in 2 hours from Bharuch). Since it was closing hours for hotels, we found a decent hotel, soon after we got down from the expressway, for our dinner. We spent more than an hour after dinner in search of a hotel to stay. We managed to check in at around 12 midnight, near to the railway station.

Day3: Covered 534 kms (Ahmedabad –> Mehsana –> Palanpur –> Deesa –> Barmer –> Jaisalmer)

We started off at 7:30 AM where Rama drove us on NH-15. We had breakfast on the outskirts of Ahmedabad and flee the hotel at 9:30 AM and started heading towards Palanpur. There was no obstruction on the way though NH-15 was a four lane till Deesa and the road condition was okay.It was around 12 where we had a small break near Deesa, collected some biscuits and banana. I took over from Rama and started towards Jaisalmer. We had a real good lunch (rotis served with sabjis and jeera rice) in Barmer. Sudi drove the car post lunch from Barmer, though it’s a two lane road, road condition were good. We could see Sudireaching 140kmph on this road. We had a Tea break in the midway (need to mention that Tea was good, not sure if it was made from Camel’s milk ). We reached Jaisalmer by 6:30 in the evening and could make it easily into the hotel (Palace Heights) which we had booked. We had good dinner at Riddhi Siddhi hotel as recommended by the locals, a typical rajasthani food. One has to visit this hotel if you are in Jaisalmer.

The Last Lecture

POINTS ON HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR LIFE

Personality:
1. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

2. Don't have negative thoughts of things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.

3. Don't over do; keep your limits.

4. Don't take yourself so seriously; no one else does.

5. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip.

6. Dream more while you are awake.

7. Forget issues of the past. Don't remind your partner of his/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.

8. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don't hate others.

9. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.

10. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

11. Smile and laugh more.

12. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

Community:
13. Call your family often.

14. Spend time with people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6.

15. Try to make at least three people smile each day.

16. What other people think of you is none of your business.

17. Your job will not take care of you when you are sick. Your family and friends will. Stay ಇನ್ touch.

Life:
18. Put GOD first in anything and everything that you think, say and do.

19. GOD heals everything.

20. Do the right things.

21. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

22. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

23. The best is yet to come.

24. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

25. When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it.

26. If you know GOD you will always be happy. So, be happy.

My Stay at XYZ

First Crush.. First Love.. First Company..
We cherish the good moments of first crush and first love of our life which might have happened at our bachelor stage of life and I believe its true in case of the first company as well, that we have worked for.

I have had wonderful times during my engineering at PESCE (might start in my next blog about it). And in the final year, everyone were in the verge of fulfilling their dreams by getting selected to one or the other company through placements at our campus. But couple of them like me were finding difficult to get placed. At last was the XYZ (current employer) which made my dream come true on June 24th 2005.

Until then, I was not able to realize that it’s a matter of time to get placed but what next after graduation, was the question which was giving nightmares. I joined xyz on Aug 16th 2005 where my first 2 days was in Hotel Goldfinch, B’lore for the induction program. I still remember the day where I had been to Christ College to attend the interview with the IT giant in India started by NRN and others. We (I, Ajith - who was placed along with me to xyz and Praveen) were roaming around dairy circle as the results were not declared yet and we were day dreaming about getting into the 7storied building of xyz, so called the Bang 3 facility. Never thought that I will be spending two years in this facility. It’s a great feeling when I was able to make it to xyz after 2 weeks of this incident.

I personally feel that amongst the xyz facilities, Bang 3 and Bang 1 facilities are the coolest ones which are easily accessible, near to my home, near to malls, good restaurants around, etc.
My initial days with xyz was very tough, coming from E & C background and understanding Classes, Objects, Inheritance and many more, was a tough job during the training period where some of my peers were doing exceptionally good in this. Some how I managed to clear the test in all my training sessions and was on bench for couple of days.

My first project kicked off on Jan 21st 06, with huge expectation on me (in terms of staying at office after office hours, work during weekends, etc). Everyday I used to hear the words like stocks, shares, orders, quotes, etc in my bay as the project was on Stock Exchange, which annoyed me a lot. However, I established a good rapport with my TL and my peers. There was competition amongst our team members and anyone completes their part was awarded with a Champagne (as the client was very good when it comes to budget). As expected, I was the last to complete my task. But still, was given a champagne to celebrateJ . A funny incident happened that night at home, I went with the Champagne where my cousin was eagerly waiting for me (I already informed him). We waited until others at home fell asleep. The worst part was, we did not know how to open it. As soon as I opened the crown, our room got filled with Champagne and got busy cleaning the room until midnight.

My project completed within the schedule time and most of them were released from the project along with me. At the end of the project we had a wonderful party in Leela and Royal Orchid.
My second project was a memorable project for me in which I was sent to onsite for 2 months, made some good friends over the span of 2 years in this project, learnt the processes than the technology which I was trained in xyz. Team members were really good and enjoyed a lot during 1st year of this project. Every now and then we used to have team lunch or dinner (explored several restaurants in south of B’lore), outing to several resorts and hotels (Club Cabana, Golden Palms, Windsor Manor, The Grand Ashok, etc) and outing to Chikmagalur – which was an amazing experience where we had real good time for 2 days. In the course of time people changed due to different reasons, the environment slowly became bitter day by day. I had to voluntarily request my manager to release from the project. In terms of career/personal growth, nothing good happened for me during the period in this long journey. This lasted till Oct 31st, 2008.

My third project was again on shares/stocks, etc, but this time with better roles and responsibilities. I just knew about my arrival time to office but nothing could be assured on my return to home. I celebrated couple of festivals and weekends in front of the stupid box in the officeL . Bad part was my TL and managers were not liberal to allow their subordinates to enjoy the gift of time. I had to be in office by 11 AM everyday in spite of working till 5 AM carried from the previous day. This was our usual routine for about 3 months and rest 3 months were normal when we completed the release activity successfully. In this project, I was more satisfied with my work as compared to my previous projects. Even here I had good times when it comes to party/outing. This project was really helpful in terms of enhancing my skills and making me strong. But then again, my appraisal was not as I expected and swirled my mind to think different. I took a long vacation for about 3 weeks after this engagement, during which I spent my time to prepare for the 1st sem MS exams and fortunately completed it successfully.

My current project is a new one (just 4 months old) and the team is very enthusiastic. Now, I am quite relaxed when compared to my previous project. I also had an opportunity to go to Bheemeshwari in Mandya district as our team outing for the one last time.

As things did not turn up as with XYZ, I decide to move to out of XYZ, started circulating my resume for the better opportunity, for new challenges, for the unseen world of IT. After several attempts I succeeded in conquering the next step of my career ladder. It was not easy for me to quit my first company, my first bread earner initially but time has come to explore the world and accept new challenges. It has been amazing journey with XYZ teaching me some of the lessons of life. I feel little embarrassed for leaving XYZ but at the same time all the very excited to join ABC and see a fruitful career in ABC.

47th Bengaluru Ganesh Utsava

I was just inspired by the way Vidyaranya Yuvaka Sangha organized the event (47th Bengaluru Ganesh Utsava) in APS College grounds, Basvanagudi, and I could not resist myself in sharing some of the finest moments of the event. Here it goes..

I came to know about this event through the ad on Times where they have given the event details which will be held from Aug 23rd till Sep 3rd and infact my friend Karthik described about the event on Saturday 29th Aug (while at our usual gathering at PESCE), where he had witnessed Raghu Dixit’s performance which was on last Friday (28th Aug). Inspired by that Karthik was blabbering that he wants to learn to play some music instrumentsJ.

Then on Sunday (30th Aug), I was alone doing nothing at home in Bangalore. In the meantime I went through the list of contacts in my mobile trying to find someone who can accompany me to the show. I gave a ring to Bongale (college friend) to check with him whether he can accompany me to the Ganesh Utsava. Unfortunately, he didn’t pick up. I decided to go alone to witness the performance by Guru Kiran on that day. Suddenly, I got a call from Karthik that he has left to Bangalore and asked me to join with him to the show. I was pleased that my friend will be accompanying me.

The program was schedule to start from 7:30 PM (until 10:30 PM) and informed Karthik that I will be there at APS College grounds, Basavanagudi, at around 7:45 PM. It was a 5 mins drive from my home to that place and I was there at the said time. I found some place to park my bike and walked briskly towards the stage. I was amazed looking at the crowd (reason could be – more kannadigas in that surroundings and some good looking…J). As usual program started with a song on Lord Ganesh, it was “Jai Ganesha” from Kutumba movie then Sunitha sang ‘Moodala maneya muthina neerina’ and after that one of my fav singer Chaithra came on to the stage with “Huduga Huduga oh nanna muddina huduga…” originally sung by her. Four songs went but Karthik was still on his way and when he reached he took me to the place where we can watch the show with good clarity. Hey, I forgot to mention that this event was sponsored by MTR, Raymonds – Jayanagar, Titan, Fever 104.3 FM, and many more. The first thing Karthik said was “we will have some thing to eat first and then will watch”J. We then went to the MTR counter (was arranged aside) and surprisingly there were many counters (one for Mysore region, one for Mangalore, Belgaum and Hyderabad – Karnataka region) ,we went to Hyderabad – Karnataka counter and had Mirch masala and similar to Bhel Puri (I forgot the name).

The crowd was still gathering and at around 8:15 PM, Guru Kiran came on to the stage along with some co-dancers and sang some beautiful songs which were composed by him. Few of them which I can remember were – Mast mast hudugi bandlu (Upendra), Bandal Badayi Mahadeva (Ekadanta), Kolle Nannanne (Aramane), Kannallu neenene (Pallakki), Ello jogappa nin aramane, Bin Laden, Chuku buku railu (all 3 from Jogi). In between there were couple of songs from Hindi movies too sung by new talent Apoorva and others.

Apart from this there was good entertainment from the crowd as well. The cameraman turned his camera (from his usual capture of stage) towards the crowd where an oldman at the age of around 70’s danced for the song “Kolle nannanne” (we could see this at the screens arranged beside) which was simply superb. And also, the cameraman succeeded in capturing a young lady’s performance which was really brilliant for one of the song. Karthik asked me to make a note of her J (no need to explain why). We also noticed some good performers off stage.

The time was ticking at his rate and when checked it was 10:35 PM, still the show was going on. It was time for me to leave and left the place after watching the “Aithalakadi”, the last which I witnessed for that day. When I came out, I saw the event details for next couple of days and noticed that Kunal Ganajawala’s performance is on Sep 1st. While on my way back home, I was just murmuring some melodiesJ and decided somehow I have to make it on Sep 1st as well (as my working hours is from 11 AM to 8:30 PM and will reach home by 10:00 PM).

On Sep 1st:

At 3:30 PM, I decided to make it to the event by leaving office early as my manager was off sickJ. I left at 6:15 PM and reached home by 8:00 PM and in the meantime, I informed Karthik also (since I was sure that he too will make it) on my attendance. By the time I reached home, it started raining lightly, I waited for sometime but somewhere in the corner of heart, I was just thinking of the event spoiled by the rain. After some time I noticed that the rain has stopped (some drizzling was still there). I started my bike and reached the place at around 8:35 PM and was able to hear the voice of Kunal already at the parking place.

As soon as I entered the ground, he just started with “Onde Ondu sari” and the crowd was just going mad about that, WOW. I called Karthik to inform him (even though it was difficult to make a conversation due to noisy crowd) that I have arrived and asked him to come to the same place where we had watched on the previous day. I noticed that he was nearby and joined him, he then introduced me to his friends. The first thing I asked him was whether he had completed singing “Bheegey Hont” from Murder. I was happy hearing that he has just started and he has not yet sung that song.

You don’t believe that he almost sung around 25 songs continuously in the span of 2 hours without a break in between. Once he completed singing a song he just used to say 1 2 3 and started the next song, amazing. The songs which were sung by him and which I can remember were – after Onde Ondu sari, it was Neene Neene, Aakasha ishte yakideyo, Khushi aagide, Modala Sala, Tere Bin, Dil na Diya, Salaam Namaste, Channa vey, Duppatta tera, O Hum Dum Soniyo re, and many more. But still one of my fav Bheegey Hont didn’t turn up from his voice.

Again the same when it comes to the crowd appearance, the crowd was just enjoying to the fullest. We noticed a peculiar guy who was very lean was dancing as if he was out of this world and the crowd enjoyed his performanceJ. Kunal was accompanied by his band boys named – “BAD BOYS” to support him with their guitars, drums, keyboards, etc. MP Anant Kumar also witnessed this event in the VVIP gallery.

It was already 10:10 PM and there was no clue on Bheegey Hont from Kunal. By that time he had finished 23 songs (if the actual number is considered as 25). I don’t remember the song (23rd one) which he was singing at that time and once it was over there was some weird music started where no one could guess that the next song is Bheegey Hont. The crowd was expecting that song more than me I guessJ. The whole crowd was singing in chorus for this song.

Kunal finished this song and was ready to fly back to Mumbai I believe, seems like he was hurry (seeing that he finished around 25 songs at a single stretch), said good bye to the audiences. But the organizers insisted him to close it with a Kannada song. He pulled Guru Kiran (who was an audience for that show) on to the stage and sang the song composed by Guru Kiran. The song was “Nanagu Ninagu Kannalle Parichaya” (originally sung by Kunal himself) from Aramane movie, Guru Kiran also joined with Kunal and entertained the whole crowd and finished with a very soothing melody.

Personally, I feel that Kunal’s performance was better than that of Guru Kiran’s. But anyways, I enjoyed the two wonderful evenings with them. Prior to this I missed the performances from C Ashwath, Rajesh Krishnan and Raghu Dixit which were on 24th, 26th and 28th of Aug respectively.


This is my first blog and have started with - my passion for “MUSIC”, the 47th Bengaluru Ganesh Utsava. Hence request you to excuse if there are any mistakes.