Champions

Our group at LnT infotech had organised a box type cricket tournament. We got our team enrolled at the last moment. We named our team 'Champions', and indeed we became the champions by winning every match of the tournament. Cheers 'CHAMPIONS'!!!!!

Season of weddings - Kuldeep's Wedding

Kuldeep getting ready

Nov 29 - Kuldeep, one is my best friends is getting married. We couldn't attend the wedding but made it for the receiption on 1 Dec. My heartiest congratulations and blessings to Kuldeep....

Mi3 Wedding

Mehandi

Mi3 posing after Haldi :)

We had great time at Maitreyi's wedding...right from our adventurous journey from Mumbai to Ludhiana to the staying at that scary bungalow......was one amazing trip...

Spotted a really big one at Tioman island

Hey i gotta fish :))

We went deep sea fishing at Tioman Island. The Jetty took us deep into the South China Sea...Myself and Pinks managed to catch more than a dozen fishes...we caught promfret too....which we took back to our hotel and got it cooked for dinner :)

All set for the romantic dinner :)

Wedding

The moment of truth

Shall we Dance?

Wedding Bells are ringing

Nov 16 is the D-day. Well we have been running around for quite bit now. We haven't spent an evening at home since the last two weeks. Finalising the deco, getting the shopping done, getting the menu right...man its quite task...wish we had a wedding planner... Finally things seem to be in place. If evrything goes well we shud have a graceful evening as planned. Lets hope for the best :)

Camping@Russian RIver

After a long and prolonged debate about where to go for the long weekend we decided to go for camping at RUssian river. As usual we were late in booking the camp sites and could hardly find any campsites available. Prafulla finally booked some site which we had no idea how would turn out to be.
Friday 4th july - American Independence day. We had so much stuff to take that even the back seats where packed with stuff. Myself and Thiru could hardly squeeze in the back. We reached the campsite at around 2:30. As it always happens with us the campground was in the heart of a town - Sebastopol. And the camp site was next to the road....haha...always happens... Tarun had great expections about the campsite....he had thought it would be in the woods or near the beach far from the citylife...he was zapped looking at the site. But Me and Vinod knew it wud turn out like this only. Neways we decided to make the trip a memorable one. The first thing we did was opened some beer and took a chill. Next was setting up the tent..we had become experts in putting up the tent together and within 20 mins the tent was ready. All of us were feeling soo hungry...thanks to thiru for getting the chicken and Pravin for getting the boiled eggs and Chutney...lunch was yummy.

We decided to hit one of the beaches around the river. Thanks to Bhup's GPS we kept on circling to find Johnsons beach...donno why his GPS gets mad and takes us places bfore actually taking to the right place...The beach was very small and none of us liked it....so we went to one of the beaches on the Pacific. The Russian river flows into the pacific and so the pacific beach was not far. The beach was one of the deadlist in California...around 126 people had lost their lives on this beach. We were strictly advised not to enter the water..it looked dangerous...Bhupesh and company had got the cricket kit along...so time for some beach cricket...the second match was the most interesting...double inings per side...the teams were 1.Vinod, Tarun, Seejoy 2. Pravin, Praful and Thiru. Bhupesh was the common man playing in both teams...No boundaries...only running..run as many as you can...in first innings both the teams made 43 each. The star was Tarun for his amazing catch of Bhupesh....man that was a good catch...Tarun you shud be in the Indian team...In the next inings we made 30. So 31 to win for Prafulla and company. First over - Seejoy to Prafulla...and Prafulla is clean bowled...middle stump goes off the ground..woww...that was nice. In the next over Tarun goes for a few runs but they havent lost any wickets since Prafulla..Third over...Vinod to Pravin...and he too is bowled..hey we still have a chance to win this one...Next Thiru and Bhupesh are at the crease..Thiru goes for a lazy run on an overthrow..he was just walking to the crease instead of running. Vinod sees this and knocks down the stumps...haha...Thiru is out. Last man standing is Bhupesh. Last over...just four runs needed of it..shud be very simple for Bhupesh...we had almost lost hope. Bhupesh took two singles off the first 2 balls..2 of 4 required. I called in the entire field very close to the bat. Next ball..i bowl it a bit fast at waist height..Bhupesh tries to finish it in one shot..the ball skies..Tarun is under it..take it Tarun...take it...thats the match for us...and Tarun makes no mistake..hahaha..we win...an amazing win :). Next we had some snap sessions after which we left the place...

Time for some Barbecue :) Marinated chicken and Prawns were ready and the charcoal was lit. All set to have some booze. Chicken and Prawns along with the potato fries tasted yummy. All of us got a bit drunk and had a blast.

Next day we set out to find out abt Canaoeing along the Russian river. The first place(SOARS) we went said that they were full. The second place wont allow if guys dont know swimming. We had only three swimmers between us :(. We went back to SOAR's and after a lotta debate, booked for canoeing the following day - they comforted us by saying that swimming is not required and even 13 yr old's can make it through...it helped :). With Canoeing planned for the next day we went hiking to Armstrong Woods for the rest of the day. Clicked a lotta snaps...was nice but tiring.

Canoeing - We rchd the place at around 11 in the morning. All a bit scared as the river is as deep as 20 feet at some places. So they put us 2 in 2 boats and 3 in one boat. Seejoy went with Praful, Vinod with Thiru, and Pravin with Bhupesh and Tarun. So we start...the guy in the front has to paddle and the guy behind controls the direction. Praful was the controller of our canoe. And he had no idea what to do. We kept circling at the same spot. Later we switch positions. I somehow found how to get the direction going. Once we had that, it din't seem very difficult...but we were struggling the most out of all the three groups. We hit the trees a lot...got bruised...but kept it going..Vinod and Thiru were doing a good job...seemed like they had a good hang of it. So we switched partners...i went with Vinod and Praful with Thiru..It was long and tiring ride.. even after taking a lot of breaks we were shit tired. Finally we rchd the end point...man it felt so nice..the whole canoeing trip is a very memorable and cherishing for me.. wud love to do it once again...hey but not with Praful ;)

Tejas Birthday

Today is my prodigal roomate's birthday. Tejas has been my roomate for around 4 months now. A great guy with abundance of knowledge about practically evrything in this world. Vinod, Tarun and Dinesh came to our place at around 7. Vinod got cake and some Wine. Time to kick-ass - Birthday bumps. So we started with the honours....Ahhhh....someone kicked his groin...Ohhh....Tejas is screaming..but the kicks go on and on. After that we cut the cake, had some wine and headed to City Pub. City Pub on Broadway(Redwood City) is a great place to have some beer and hang out with friends. It's got a large selection of beer, the food is yummy and the atmosphere is fun. We had a lot of beer, got drunk and enjoyed every bit.

Abhay returns to India

Abhay has been staying with us for around 6 months now. His assignment over here has come to an end and he is returning back to India on July 6. So we all decided to go a dinner to one of the high class Mexican restaurants around. Had been to this place once before. The food is strictly OK but the girls are good looking. That's the only motivation to go there and plus Abhay had never been there. We had our dinner and decided to watch the movie "WANTED" starring Angelina Jolie. If you want to see some insane crappy action, 'Wanted' is the movie. The story is stupid, predictable and the action absurd. Its for those who want to shut off theirs brains and watch nonsense action.

WALL-E

Pixar once again creates a materpiece. One more of the Pixar's great animation creations. The story is about WALL*E (short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) who discovers a new purpose in life when he meets a sleek search robot named EVE. Its about love and lonliness between Robots with a great human touch. WALL-E has adventure, thrills and moments where you can laugh your heart out. Its a treat to watch!!

June 22, 2008 - Muniyandi Vilas

We sacrificed the gr8 Spain Vs Italy Euro cup quater finals to go for lunch. Vinod was getting mad at us for not getting ready on time. I am going to kill Vinod for taking us to this horrible restaurant - 'Muniyandi Vilas'. The food was pathetic, the service horrible and Ambience sucked. I am going to call Vinod "Muniyandi Vinod" for the rest of my life.

June 21,2008 - Day out at Pescadero beach

A very hot day and the temperatures were soring high. We hit one of the beaches on CA1- Pescadero State beach. The water was ice cold. We could hardly be in the water for a couple of minutes. Then we just relaxed on the beach. Laid down under the sun for a while. Was good fun on a very hot day!

Angel Island

Angel Island is a hilly, grass and forest-covered island, the largest in San Francisco Bay, located one mile from the Tiburon Peninsula.

The trip was very relaxing and the scenic beauty around was amazing. I along with Vinod, Tarun and Praful started at around noon. We took a ferry from the Tiburon to reach Angel Island. The
lunch we had at Pizza place in Tiburon was yummy - Thai chicken pizza - one of the best pizza's i have ever eaten. The ferry ride was nice and short and we were clicking away our cameras to
glory. Snaps with cap, without cap, with cap and glares,the list goes on....hahaha....

Once we reached the island we hiked to Mt Livermore point. The point provided spectacular views of Marin County, San Francisco, and the Golden Gate, and the entire Bay Area.

While comming back i was driving - for the first time on Golden gate bridge...had always wanted to do that. Tough not very competent in driving, i think i did a decent job.

Evening Thiru had come to our place. We went for the movie - Incredible HULK. Nice movie, good action and graphics - enjoyed it. It was already 2 am when we returned..and were very tired. In the end was a nice day, had a good outing, enjoyed a lot.

July 16,2006 - Nikko is Nippon

Nikko has been one of the finest trips of my life...Its like the things u dont expect,turn out to better that the ones u expect. We had all decided for a one day trip covering Nikko and Tobu World sqaure. But we were so mesmerised by the beauty of the place that we ended up stayin two days(wearin the same clothes ;-) i shud say)enjoyin every moment of it..

We started off early on Saturday 15 July. As usual we were all late to take off but managed to get the connecting train from Asakusa on time. It took arnd two and half hrs to reach Nikko. Soon we rchd Tobu World sqaure. Fabulous as it looked in the photographs was the place. It had 102 monuments from all around the world mapped to a scale of 1/25. We were all stunned by the beauty and the art work behind the creation of such fantastic replicas. It was as if the entire world was in front of you. We all got busy with our snappy sessions :-). Back from Tobu we rchd Nikko staion were we had nice Indian lunch(was like a oasis in a desert for us). It was around 3.30 and we hadnt even covered main Nikko, n we didnt even have the time to do so. so we decided to head back home :-(...hey but wait a sec...............we just enquired abt gettin rooms for an overnight stay...........n yeppie we got it!!!....all of us were so trilled that we got one more day to explore this beautiful place. so we headed to our hotel,freshened ourselves and moved out to explore the nearing waterfall. Next we explored the view point from where we cud see the beautiful Kegon falls. Stinking as we all were, we got some Deo's that cud save us. To our suprise the hotel housekeeping provided us with Yukata - A Japanese wrap around kinda thing.....we were soooo relived to have it :-)

Next day we started at around 8 in d morning....we took a bus from Nikki station to Chezunji lake. The bus ride was very pleasent...we were slowly rising the mountains taking sharp turns n twists..the scenery around was just amazing. We rchd our stop on top of the mountains and headed for Kirifuri falls. Between the high mountains the falls were a visual treat. Next we covered chezunji lake where we took a speed boat ride. The boat was reeeeeeally fast. had never sat in such a fast one before. Then We took a long walk towards another view pont where we took a rope way ride. altough the ride was small i had never experienced it bfore and evry moment of the it was worth. During the rest of the day we covered the famous Toshogu shrine,Rinnoji temple and Sanbutsudo. Sanbutsudo contains three immense gilded images of Buddha, very impressive, but no photgraps were allowed. Every surface of the shrine is covered in detailed and colourful ornamentation, creating a kind of visual overload.Soon it was time to head back home. We were all pretty tired but the return journey was also fun with lots of Jokes and funny talks.Manny Manny thanks to Ashu san for organising such a wonderful trip and leading us all the way. Kudos Ashu san

My Travellings - Mt Takao, Japan

Mt Takao 3rd June, 2006.

It’s was a cloudy cold morning here in Tokyo. We had plans of going out to an amusement park called the ‘Yokohama Sea Paradise’. Its known to be a place for youngsters with lots n lots of exciting rides. But somehow looking at the foggy climate outside we thought it would be better to go to some nature friendly place. So finally we decided to go for a treck to Mt Takao.

Mt Takao – ‘Takaosan’ as they call it here is a densely wooded mountain and is one of the closest natural recreation areas to central Tokyo, offering beautiful scenery, an interesting temple and attractive hiking opportunities. The peak is 599 meters over sea level and offers views of Tokyo, Mount Fuji and as far as Yokohama. Considered a sacred mountain, Takaosan has been a center of mountain worship for more than 1000 years. The attractive temple Yakuoin stands near the mountain's top. Visitors pray there to Shinto-Buddhist mountain gods (tengu) for good fortune. Statues of the gods, one with a long nose and one with a crow beak, can be found at the temple and all over the mountain.

Hey the treck begins – So all geared up, me and my three friends were on our way to explore Takaosan. It’s was about 2 hrs journey from our place to Takao station. The view that we got as we came out of the station was simply fascinating. The station was surrounded on all sides by dense green mountains. We got all d more excited and just wanted to hit the top of the mountains. It even started drizzling a little adding ferver to our hiking campaign. There were cable cars which we cud take to go to the top. But we all decided to walk with the nature n enjoy every minute of it.. Singing and chitchatting we soon reached the first level of Takaosan. The view simply got better and better and pretty soon we were all in the clouds. It reminded me a lot about the Mahableshwer trip which our LnT batch had last year…..Greeting the jappus ‘konichiwa’ all along the way we soon reached the Yakuion temple and the shrine….The guardian of the mountain is Tengu, a red-faced ogre with a long pointy nose, whose image can be found all over Takao.All of us got busy with our cameras capturing all that we could. Near Yakunoin is a smaller temple surrounded by dozens of little statues of Buddha.For lunch somehow we managed to nibble on some strange looking Jappu items. After lunch it was time to conquer the peak of Takaosan. We chose to go by the narrow and the slippery path all the way to the top. It was steep and rocky, with tree roots eroded wooden steps, as well as mud from this morning’s rain, making it a bit of a challenge to stay upright. Here and there the fluting of the birds echoed through the ravine and the fluting mingled with the chuckle and gurgling of the creek running nearby .We reached in about an hour and the view was simply unbelievable...felt soooo great to be on the top….The mountain was shrouded in mist, which really enhanced the beauty of the forests. It also completely obscured the view, and instead of seeing Mount Fuji on one side and central Tokyo on the other, all we saw was an endless white fog. It was just great!!!We started the descend and took a cable car on our way down. Indeed the trip was very fascinating and we enjoyed every moment of it.