A trip to Yelagiri

The trip was planned properly (may be for the first time by our group). We were to leave by Saturday early in the morning. Reach there by lunch time. Stay there till Sunday afternoon and start from there and reach back Chennai by Sunday evening.

Day 1 – Saturday

Pre Start

The day started as early as 4 AM for me (Mr. A). I got up, called the crew to wake them up. Took bath and started in my car to pick up my friends since it will be difficult for them to come to the starting point (Tambaram) that early in the morning. I started at 5 AM and reached Velachery at 5 30 AM. Picked up the first one (Ms. P) and went to Tidel Park to pick up Ms. N. When waiting for Ms. N to come, Ms. P remembered that she had forgotten her goggles and told that she would not be able to survive two days without her goggles. So we were thinking what to do about that. At that time Ms. N came and we 3 started off to the next destination, Adyar where we were supposed to pick up the rest 2. Ms. S being the always punctual one of our group came on time. And we picked her up. All the while Ms. P was scolding me for not taking her back to her place to collect her goggles. We were calling Mr. S to check if he is on time. And for every 5 mins he told he will be there in another 5 mins. So we decided to tel him to come to Guindy and in the mean time we would go and get Ms. P’s goggles. All the while Mr. B who arranged the transport was checking with us where we were. So we went all the way to Velachery to get Ms. P’s goggles and by the time we reached Guindy Mr. S was there. So we 5 started from there and in another 20 mins we reached Tambaram. There Mr. B and Ms. A were waiting for us with the cab that we have arranged to go there.

The start

So we were all set to start at 7 AM. And the journey started off in great fashion. All the introductions that were needed was done by Mr. B. Mr. S volunteered to sit in the front and take care of the audio system. (Note: Mr. S is known for his extra ordinary ability to handle the audio system. In 1 hour he would have changed 3 CDs without hearing a song fully). Call it fate or our good luck the audio system was not working properly. So we decided we will talk to kill boredom. Mr. B, Ms. N and Ms. A had bought all the eatables and we started eating them. We decided we will have a proper breakfast at Vellore. We were talking about many topics till we reached Vellore. We found an average place to eat breakfast. After break fast we decided to play some games till we reached Yelagiri. After much discussion we decided we would play dumb charades. (Dumb-C). We decided to form two teams based on our seating arrangements. Me, Ms. N, Ms. P and Ms. A were in one team and Ms. S, Mr. B and Ms. S were in the other team. Our team was not able to get it right almost every time while the other team had it in record time all the times. So we decided to stop the game since we were losing interest after every passing round.

The Journey

Everyone wanted to reach Yelagiri as soon as possible as the sun was beating down hard. After another couple of hours driving we were at the bottom of the Yelagiri hills. We stopped and took a picture of the places of interest at Yelagiri. We were too excited to check out all the places mentioned. The Yelagiri hills was a small one with only 14 hair pin bends. All the bends are named after famous Tamil poets and poetess. We stood at a couple of places to enjoy the view and take a couple of snaps. Since the road was small we could not wait for long since it will be a hindrance for the vehicles coming behind. So after half an hour we were at our first destination – Silent Waters Retreat (the place we were to stay). It was a pretty decent place to stay. We were given a separate building of 2 floors. The place was very good. After refreshing and changing we decided to go and check out the resort. Me Mr. B and Mr. S took the camera and took photos of us at all photogenic places.

Badminton part 1

After around half an hour lunch was served for us. The lunch was below the standard for the amount that we paid for stay and food. During lunch we were planning on what to do during the stay there. We enquired with the resort people about the places to visit and how to go there. There were 2 places that needs to be visited at Yelagiri. One is an artificial lake where we can do boating and another one is Swamimalai temple for trekking. Since it was just past 2, we decided we would take a walk around the neighbourhood. We were talking to the people who stay there and enquired about their living and life styles. After walking for about half an hour we decided we would go back to the resort, freshen up and go for boating. We reached the resort at 3 and we still had one full hour before we started for boating. So me, Mr, B, Mr.S and Ms. N decided we would play a game of badminton. Me and Mr. B were in one team and Mr. S and Ms. N were the other team. After a few rallies the game got pretty serious and we decided to play with points. Me and Mr. B won by 15 points to 6. Mr. S and Ms. N were not ready to accept the defeat and were saying that we cheated. So we decided we will play the game again some time later. Rain started drizzling and we were all sitting and sipping our cups of coffee praying for the rain to stop since we were told that boating will not be possible if it rains like this. It was raining for around half an hour. Once the rain stopped the place was pretty damp to walk. But we decided we will go and give a try at the boating place.

Boating

We reached the boating place at 5 PM. Since we were 7 people we needed two pedalling boats. But only one was available at that time. So we decided we would wait for half an hour and would go only when two boats were available. So we thought we would go and do time pass in the near by park. The park brought out the kids in us and we were all playing in the see saw, swings and all. Everyone was enjoying their time. Soon it was 5 30 and we decided to go and check if the boats were available. Two boats were available and we decided we will split up in two groups, me, Mr. B, Ms. P and Ms. A in one boat and Mr. S, Ms. N and Ms. S in another boat. Ours was a very old boat and the direction lever didnt seem to work. But our guys in the other boat seemed to know all the tricks to drive that boat and were going around the lake and passing comments at our inability to drive the boat. We changed positions to give everyone an equal chance to pedal te boat. At one point we were able to go near the other boat and Mr. B and Ms. S decided to do some stunt show by changing boats. They did it successfully. We took few snaps of the other boat and the setting sun. After half an hour of tiring pedal boating we got out of the boat. Our next destination was supposed to be a nature park where they had a musical fountain, a garden and an aquarium. We went there and almost everyone was tired to walk. We took rest many times and decided to go back to the resort. We reached the resort at 7 PM. Mr. B decided we would prepare paani puri and eat it before dinner. So after much effors from Mr. B, Ms.N and Ms.A we were all eating pani puri. It was good and by the time we finished eating that it was dinner time and we decided to go and check it. Dinner was average and after many discussions with the resort owner we were arranged for a camp fire.

The Slient Camp Fire

Ms. A was very tired to join us in the camp fire. So we started our camp fire without her. And after some time Ms. S was feeling very sleepy and she went back. So we 5 were sitting around the camp fire thinking what to do. It turned out to be a very quiet and enjoyable camp fire. We being IT professionals decided to get the help of Google and soon we were searching for camp fire games. We opened the first link and were checking out the games mentioned. After much discussion we decided we would play story building. Mr. B volunteered to start the story and soon everyone were contributing to the story and half an hour went by and soon we were losing interest in the game. Then we sat in silence for another half an hour enjoying the weather. Mr. S being a popular blogger suggested we play the tag game and we decided we would play the injury tag where everyone would say about any of the injuries that they had and explain how it happened. After everyone’s turn was over the famous silence came back again. But this time the fire was also out and we decided to hit the bed since it was past 12 and we had plans of going for trekking early next morning. After saying our good nights we went to bed at 1 AM planning that we would go for a walk at 5 in the morning.

Day 2 – Sunday

Badminton part 2

Day 2 started at 6 AM. (Yes we were not able to get up at 5. We blame the nice weather for it 😉 ). After much discussion about where to have coffee everyone decided to go out for coffee. So me, Mr. S, Mr. B, Ms. N and Ms. A went out in search of a tea shop. Ms. P and Ms. S were not feeling well. So we decided we would let them take some rest. So after 10 mins walk we found out a tea shop. We ordered our tea’s and coffee’s and biscuits. After having the tea we went back to the resort. It was around 7 when we reached there. So we decided we would start for trekking at 9. So we had two full hours. So me, Mr. B, Mr. S and Ms. N decided we would play a game of badminton but this time at a place outside. We soon found a place to play and to spice things up we decided we would play a bet match. The bet was 100 bucks and we started the game. Having won against them the previous day, me and Mr. B were playing casually. Suddenly we found out that we were 2 points behind them at 5 points to 3. So we decided we would play some serious game and after around half an hour of extreme badminton skill display by me and Mr. B we won. This time the score line was 15 points to 7. This time Mr. S and Ms. N were ready to accept defeat and congratulated us on our wins. (We haven’t got our bet money yet 😦 ). Mr. S and Ms. N – If you are reading this please give our bet money. After the game we decided to go back to the resort and take bath and head out trekking.

The Big Small Trek

Once everyone was ready we had our breakfast. Only the breakfast was good at that place. During breakfast we decided that due to the health conditions of our group members we would not conquer Swamimalai instead some shorter version of it which would be an easy trek. After enquiring the directions we started to this so called small trek place. After much difficulty we were able to locate the trek. The trek was an easy one but since we were going with friends it turned out to be an exciting and fun activity. We climbed some big stones. Took photos like moving the big stones, climbing the trees. After one hour we decided we would go down. And the down journey was pretty much normal since everyone was tired and wanted to reach back home. By the time we came down it was past noon and we decided we would go to Vellore and have lunch. Everyone was too tired to start any interesting conversations. We were taking rest till we reached Vellore. On the way to Vellore we saw an advt board of Saravana Bhavan and everyone was too excited and we decided to have lunch there. Lunch was awesome. By the time we finished our lunch it was 3 PM and we decided not to stop at any more places and reach home as early as possible. It was very hot and we were all sweating. But the gods blessed us with some mild showers and an excellent weather. We reached Chennai by 6 PM and we said our good byes to all and headed home.

Important points about the trip:

1. Later we found out that we did not go to any of the places that was mentioned in the board that we took a picture of.
2. The boating that we went was a smaller one and there was another big one that we missed. (Courtesy: Our afternoon walk where we found out about this boating place. Or else our driver would have enquired and took us to the correct place.)
3. We did not do trekking in Swamimalai which was supposed to be visited in Yelagiri.

All said this was a memorable trip. One to be remembered through out my life !!!!

 

The answer is not always ‘C’

His professor sent him an e-mail the following day:

Dear Michael,

Every year I attempt to boost my students’ final grades by giving them this relatively simple exam consisting of 100 True/False questions from only 3 chapters of material.  For the past 20 years that I have taught Intro Communications 101 at this institution I have never once seen someone score below a 65 on this exam. Consequently, your score of a zero is the first in history and ultimately brought the entire class average down a whole 8 points.

There were two possible answer choices: A (True) and B (False). You chose C for all 100 questions in an obvious attempt to get lucky with a least a quarter of the answers. It’s as if you didn’t look at a single question. Unfortunately, this brings your final grade in this class to failing. See you next year!

May God have mercy on your soul.

Sincerely,
Professor William Turner

P.S. If all else fails, go with B from now on.
B is the new C

 

Best Short Story

There was a contest in SATYAM to write a fictional story for 500 words max which would start with the line”On a dark and foggy night, a small figure lay huddled on the railway tracks leading to the Chennai station”

This is what a guy wrote for the contest…….. And surprisingly, it was adjudged the best short story 🙂

On a dark and foggy night, a small figure lay huddled on the railway tracks leading to the Chennai station. At once I was held back to see someone in that position during midnight with no one around. With curiosity taking the front seat, I went near the body and tried to investigate it. There was blood all over the body which was lying face down. It seemed that a ruthless blow by the last train could have caused the end of this body which seemed to be that of a guy of around my age.
Amidst the gory blood flow, I could see a folded white envelope which was fluttering in the midnight wind. Carefully I took the blood stained envelope and was surprisedto see the phrase”appraisal letter” on it. With curiosity rising every moment, I wasted no time in opening the envelope to see if I can find some details about the dead guy. The tag around the body’s neck and the jazzy appraisal cover gave me the hint that he might be a software engineer. I opened the envelope to find a shining paper on which the appraisal details where typed in flying colors. Thunders broke into my ears and lightening struck my heart when I saw the appraisal amount of the dead guy!!!!! My God, it was not even, as much as the cost of the letter on which the appraisal details were printed…. My heart poured out for the guy and huge calls were heard inside my mind saying “no wonder, this guy died such a miserable death”…  As a fellow worker in the same industry, I thought I should mourn for him for the sake of respect and stood there with a heavy heart thinking of the shock that he would have experienced when his manager had placed the appraisal letter in his hand. I am sure his heart would have stopped and eyes would have gone blank for few seconds looking at the near to nothing increment in his salary.

While I mourned for him, for a second my hands froze to see the employee’s name in the appraisal letter… hey, what a strange co-incidence, this guy’s name is same as mine, including the initials. This was interesting. With some mental strength, I turned the body upside down and found myself fainted for a second. The guy not only had my name, but also looked exactly like me. Same looks, same built, same name…. it was me who was dead there!!!!!!!! While I was lost in that shock, I felt someone patting on my shoulders.

My heart stopped completely, I could not breathe and sprung in fear to see who was behind……… splash!!! Went the glass of water on my laptop screen as I came out of my wild dream to see my manager standing behind my chair patting on my shoulder saying, “wake up man? Come to meeting room number two. I have your appraisal letter ready”.

 

Don’t ask Grandma silly questions

Lawyers should never ask grandma a question if they aren’t prepared for the answer.

In a trial, a small-town prosecuting attorney called his first witness, an elderly grandmother to the stand. He approached her and asked; “Mrs.. Jones, do you know me?” She responded, “Why, yes, I do know you, Mr. Williams. I’ve known you since you were a young boy, and frankly, you’re a big disappointment to me.

You lie, cheat on your wife, manipulate people and talk about them behind their backs. You think you’re a big shot when you haven’t the brains to realize you never will amount to anything more than a two-bit paper pusher. Yes, I know you.”

The lawyer was stunned! Not knowing what else to do, he pointed across the room and asked, “Mrs.. Jones, do you know the defense attorney?” She again replied, “Why, yes, I do. I’ve known Mr. Bradley since he was a youngster. He’s lazy, bigoted, and has a drinking problem. He can’t build a normal relationship with anyone and his law practice is one of the worst in the state. Not to mention he cheated on his wife with three different women. One of them was your wife. Yes I know him.”

The defense attorney almost died.

The judge asked both lawyers to approach the bench and in a quiet voice said: “If either of you idiots asks her if she knows me, I’ll send you to the electric chair.”

 

Engine Failure

Ever heard the story of the giant ship engine that failed?  The ship’s owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine. Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a youngster.

He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work.  He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom. Two of the ship’s owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do.  After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer.

He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life.  He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed.  A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for Rs. 1,00,000/-:

“What?!” the owners exclaimed.  “He hardly did anything!”

So they wrote the old man a note saying, “Please send us an itemized bill”.

The man sent a bill that read:

Tapping with a hammer………………….Rs. 200/-
Knowing where to tap…………………….Rs. 99,800/-

“Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort in your life makes all the difference.”

P.S. This applies to human engine as well.

 

Thy attitude is all thou hast got

A soldier stationed in Afghanistan recently received a letter from his
Girlfriend back home. It read as follows:

Dear Ricky,
I can no longer continue our relationship. The distance between us is
just too great. I’m sorry. Please return the picture of me that I sent to you.

Love, Becky

The soldier, with hurt feelings, asked his fellow soldiers for any
Snapshots they could spare of their girlfriends, sisters or ex-girlfriends.

In addition to the picture of Becky, Ricky included all the other pictures
of the pretty gals he had collected from his buddies. There were 57 photos
In that envelope along with this note:

Dear Becky,
I’m so sorry, but I can’t quite remember who the hell you are.
Please take your picture from the pile, and send the rest back to me.

Take Care,
Ricky

Moral of the story :
 
If you can’t change your fate, change your attitude.

 

Smart Sentences

1.God is real, unless declared  as an integer.

2. Before borrowing money from a friend, decide whether you need more.

3. Death is hereditary.

4. There are three sides to every argument: your side, my side and the rightside.

5. An expert is someone who takes a subject you understand and makes it sound confusing.

6. Many things can be preserved in alcohol. Dignity is not one of them.

7. Never argue with a fool. People might not know the difference.

8. When you’re right, no one remembers. When you’re wrong, no one forgets.

9. Cheer up, the worst is yet to come.

10. Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.

11. Well done is better than well said.

12. Everyone makes mistakes. The trick is to make them when nobody is looking.

13. Always borrow money from a pessimist. He won’t expect it back.

14. If you can’t see the bright side of life, polish the dull side.

15. Where there’s a will there are five hundred relatives.

16. Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.

 

Why do a few men never get girl-friends

Why do a few men never get girl-friends: 🙂

The oft repeated topic. It seems to be a mystery until you really start thinking. One of my personal favorites. Why some men can never fall in love or never get girl friends. Many of us just keep complaining, without thinking on what the inherent problem is.

Thankfully, I did it as a case study and found out some important issues which might concur with a majority of ppl who are rocking the same boat as mine.

1) You always sit in the last bench with the other class comrades who feel that its possible to get marks sitting in last row. In case of workplace, no girls are there in your project and you have like minded ppl like you as colleagues and wherein your entertainment oscillates between the bars and cinema theaters.

2) You obviously cant groove and dance, and dance around in a group in a disc by just shaking your head or grooving your hip. Desi music directors are

your favorites. You cant wait for a bangra number to crop up. Unfortunately, you are too adept at dancing dappankuthu or desi dance, not the americanised western hip hop dance.

3) You perceive discotheque to be a place where you will have a chance to unleash your dancing potential (dappankuthu) and occupy the center stage with 10 other fellow rogues, immediately throwing out the babes from the vicinity of the dance floor. This automatically repels the women from you (they consider you as out of civilization. But, unfortunately we think that we are the only ppl who can really dance)

4) Your Intelliegence quotient mostly can take in just Jackie Chan, Arnold and Stallone flicks. It can take in just action films whose contents can be absorbed. You just can’t take any English Romance films. Desi romance rocks. We invariably are the DDLJ and Hum Aapke Hai Kaun types. Shahrukh, Rajni, Kamal, Mohanlal, Mammotty, Chiranjeevi rock. Tom Cruise is a dud!!! and invariably ***…(obv..its becoz of jealousy)

5) You cant eat Spanish, Chinese foods and your fav restaurant invariably happens to be Saravana Bhavan, Anandha Bhavan, Shanthi-Sagar types. Of coz we cant forget Karpagam Mess, Mami’s kadai and Murugan Idly. We frankly are clueless as to what are Bella Ciao, Wang’s kitchen and things like that, unless we happen to go an a treat organised by the other guyz.

6) You dont see a reason why you have to go to Barristas or Qwiky’s when the local corner “Nair Kadai Chaaya” tastes like nectar and satisfies you more than a Barristas. Lime tea is the best tea to have been invented by an human and you are thankful to nair for providing it to you.

7) Most of the jokes you know are adult jokes which you can discuss only with your other fellow comrades and which again takes the oppurtunity from telling a joke to the girl and impressing her. But when you seriously tell very good jokes, the blondes can’t comprehend. You have to tell some absolutely “Kadi jokes” (terrible bores) to make them laugh, which you try however, will never come close to.

8.) You obviously dont know how to make use of Yahoo Messenger, and you use it to scold your online friends with the best choice of invectives, spread rumours abt other guyz, and ask them to book the latest movie tickets. You unfortunately dont know how to flirt using Yahoo Messenger and are frequently at loss of topics when you want to chat with some girl. Whereas you are deluged with strange topics to discuss with your friend with whom you had lost touch for the past decade or so.

9) While chatting in messenger, you seriously cant start a topic with a member of the oppoisite sex. I have seen guyz chatting with girls purely with emoticons for more than a hour. You can never do that. You will have to crack real dumb jokes to start the conversation or falsely extol them. And bet, you can’t do the following:

Boy : What did you have for breakfast??
Girl : I had idli ….
Boy: Is it??? Same pinch, no back pinch, I too had idli. (he slyly pinches her) and laughs.
Girl : Ouchhh (artificially). It hurts.
Boy: Ohh.. I am sorry and (tries to apologise)………….then says “I had sambhar for idli.”
Girl: (excitedly)..Sambharrrrrrrr………… i had chutney….and giggles…

I swear, I cant tolerate any longer than this……………. And this is not a figment of imagination, by any means. I have seen this…Though I agree there may be exceptions..

10) You cant sing a Bryan Adams, Sting, George Michael’s song. When someone talks about Linking Park, you cannot even imagine who they are and the closest

link you can associate with them is Cubbon Park.

11) You seriously are clueless as to what rock music is.

12) All through college life, you belong to this boyz gang and even in your gang, nobody has a girlfriend. So there is absolutely an absence of the inspirational factor.

With ALL these attributes, it is difficult for guyz like us to fall in love or find a girl. But it is not a sin after all. I guess we are not made for it. We are one among the few in the vanishing tribe. Let us accept that and be proud of that…

 

Don’t copy if you can’t paste

At training program for top management.

A well-known motivational speaker gathering the entire crowd’s attention, said,
“The best years of my life were spent in the arms of a woman who wasn’t my wife !”

The crowd was shocked!

He followed up by saying, “That woman was my mother!”

The crowd burst into laughter and he gave his speech, which was well received.

About a week later, one of the top managers who had the training decided to use that joke at his house. He tried to rehearse the joke in his head. It was a bit foggy to him.

He said loudly, “The greatest years of my life were spent in the arms of a woman who was not my wife!”

Naturally, his wife was shell shocked, murmuring.

After standing there for almost 10 seconds trying to recall the second half of the joke, the manager finally blurted out “… and I can’t remember who she was !”

As expected, he got thrashing of his life time….

Moral of the story: Don’t copy if you can’t paste

 

Never Ending Battle

A wife was making a breakfast of fried eggs for her husband. Suddenly her husband burst into the kitchen. “Careful … CAREFUL! Put in some more butter! Oh my GOD! You’re cooking too many at once. TOO MANY! Turn them! TURN THEM NOW! We need more butter. Oh my GOD! WHERE are we going to get MORE BUTTER? They’re going to STICK! Careful … CAREFUL! I said be CAREFUL! You NEVER listen to me when you’re cooking! Never! Turn them! Hurry up! Are you CRAZY? Have you LOST your mind? Don’t forget to salt them. You know you always forget to salt them. Use the salt. USE THE SALT! THE SALT!”

The wife stared at him. “What in the world is wrong with you? You think I don’t know how to fry a couple of eggs?”

The husband calmly replied, “I wanted to show you what it feels like when I’m driving.”