Abimanyu's Pen

Trip to Munnar

2008-08-29T04:16:00.000-07:00

Our gang(Guru, Pradeep, Vel, Saro & me) started from Chennai to attend one of our friend's marriage in Nellai last friday. After the wedding we proceeded to Tiruchendur temple, had a good dharsan of Lord Muruga there. From there we left to Madurai, had dinner at my home and started to Munnar at around 9.30 PM, we had to transit via Theni. We reached Munnar early at 4.00 AM on saturday.

Pradeep had already booked a cottage over there. After a rest of few hours and breakfast, we started for some site seeing. Started off with a place called Rajamalai, which is said to be the highest peak in southern India about 8600 ft. above sea level. Here we saw a special type of goat(called varraadu) which can be found only in Munnar & Australia. And before lunch we went to a water falls & a view point. After lunch visited a very small flower garden, there was nothing special about this garden. Not worth a visit. Then, we went across the Indo-Swiss dairy project where they have cows imported from Swiss which seems to produces 60 liters of milk per day. This dairy is maintaining a 4-5 KM surrounding of fresh grass for feeding the cows. We were lucky enough to see a group of three elephants feeding from the above said grass field. Before winding up our site seeing we saw the mattupatti dam & an echo point.

All the way through we were clicking our camera. The sceneries in Munnar were really a stunning beauty especially the tea estates. The hill was completely covered with tea, tea and only tea. It was such a nice sight to see the very well maintained tea plantation. The climate was not very cold, December seems to be the best month there in terms of climate. Unlike Ooty & Kodai this place is sparsely populated and so there was no much of any hill traffic which could usually annoy you. Certainly a good spot to visit for a couple of days. And regarding the stay and the food, the resort where we stayed was 100% satisfactory. Especially the food there was really excellent I'd give a 10/10 for it. Their hospitality was also good. On the whole it was a wonderful experience in the resort.

Sunday morning we started from munnar and on our way back to Chennai, we visited Pradeep's & Guru's home for lunch and dinner. The week end was really a very eventful and wonderful one. Yet another wonderful trip.

Also Read :
A Trip to Masinangudi
Trip to Parsons Valley
Tada - Raw Nature!!!

Kuselan Official Trailer

2008-07-23T23:19:00.000-07:00

Thalaivar Rockzz!!

Hogenakkal

2008-06-27T05:27:00.000-07:00

This place was in the head lines for all wrong political reasons a couple of months back. I happened to visit this place last week end with my friends. Only after seeing the beauty of Hogenakkal I understood the reason for which the Karnataka government is trying to set their foot here. River Kaveri flows beautifully amidst the hilly banks on both the sides. And there are several water falls from the hills falling right into the river. Each one were a beauty on its own. We went for a boating (parisal) along the river seeing few falls in close proximity. The boat man told us that the water level there was actually low now and during August we will not be able to see the rocky banks on either sides as the water would cover the whole area. At the end of the boat ride we reached a sandy bank where we had a good bath in the river. There were two artificially created falls which was at the top of the hill. We had a good time there too.

The other specialties of this is place is the oil massage & the hot fish fries. Few of my friends had a good massage and also we hired a cook to prepare some chicken and fish. After all the bath and the spending the whole day walking here and there we had a good lunch. The trip was really wonderful, this is one of the must visit tourist places in Tamil Nadu.

Activities not to missed @ Hogenakkal
1. Boating in the river.
2. Bath in the falls.
3. Oil massage.
4. Munching fish curry

A Bitter taste in Dhabba Express

2008-06-09T05:22:00.000-07:00

Guru & myself went for a dinner at the Dhabba express in Chenotaph road. Food there tasted good as usual but the experience was bitter and hurted me for a long time. After the dinner I placed my debit card for the payment and by a mistake the bearer entered a wrong value while swiping the card. He entered Rs. 5250 instead of Rs. 525, and knowing the mistake he has canceled the transaction midway and entered the correct value once again. One of their captains(thats what they call their leads) informed me about this while I signed the bill copy. And he added that the amount will not be debited from account and gave me a mobile number for any assistance if that happens. I was not so worried at that moment, as he clearly said that the transaction was canceled.

The next day when I checked my account summary online I was really annoyed. Both the transactions were successfully processed and a total of Rs. 5775 was debited from my account. So I called them up the next day to the number which they gave me. I told him that both the transactions were processed and Rs. 5775 was debited. He replied that he will look into this and the amount will be credited back to my account in 5 working days. And he also told me there was no need for me to visit them in this regard as this process will definitely be completed in 5 days. As he gave me such an assurance I did not go to their place. I waited for 5 working days but without any use. I had to call them again regarding this after 5 days. The response I got this time was not proper, they just told that the cancellation of the transaction was in progress. The reply this time came in a hesitant manner. So I decided to go there directly to find the proceedings. When I reached their place, there was no one willing to hear my complaint, they were pretty busy with work. I spotted a person who was responsible for the proceedings near the reception. I went up to him and explained him what happened, he just replied that this was a common problem and has happened before while using debit cards. He also told that this will not happen in case of a credit card. He asked me to wait for another 5 days so that the problem will be resolved definitely and the amount will be credited back to my account.

The next time when I called them after two or three days, they were reluctant to reply & did not give me a proper answer. Then I had to call them frequently & visited them two more time. Most of the time when I called them I would not get a good response from them, they'll just keep saying that this under process & you will get back your money. Finally when I visited them for the third time their finance team gave me a copy of their bank statement stating that the problem was from my bank's side and they had nothing to do with it. It took them almost 25 days for them to conclude this. By now I was really very upset & frustrated. Then very same day I launched a complaint in my bank using the phone banking facility. I got back my money in another three to four days. So it took almost a moths time to get back my money. All this happened due to a mistake made by a bearer at the Dhabba Express. Had they told me the actual status early I could have contacted the bank earlier & that would have avoided a lot of frustration. Making such mistakes are common but they should have to take up proper responsibility and act accordingly so that the customer doesn't gets irritated.

So, please be very careful the next time you use your debit card while you pay bills anywhere. Please avoid using debit cards in the cash counters as much as possible. Use credit cards or pay by cash.

A Trip to Masinangudi

2008-06-03T03:29:00.000-07:00

Last week end we went on a trip from our office to Masinangudi, a place near Mudumalai forest range. The trip was really rocking as expected. This was a three days trip. We started from Chennai on thursday & planned to the reach the destination by around 1 PM on friday. The train delayed our plans & subsequently we reached the resort by 5 PM. But the travel to the resort from the coimbatore junction by van was really enjoyable, as the climate was excellent and we were dancing and having fun all the way. The Mudumalai forest region is about 1000 feet above the sea level, whereas Ooty is 2240 feet above the sea level. So we had to go uphill & then down hill to an extent. The weather over there was not so cold.

We booked our stay in Bear Mountain (a jungle resort) over there. The place was really very different one, admist the forest, dark & scary to an extent during the night. They had different type of places to stay there. A Tree house, camp site & some normal kind of executive rooms. We opted for few camp sites & a tree house. I got myself into the tree house. A wooden platform like thing has been built around a tree, and on that platform there were three tents. Each can accommodate two members. It was totally a different experience to stay there. Overall the resort was good. But it was on the costlier side.

The first day, there was not much of any activity. We just planned for a night safari. Saw few Gaurs(Indian bison), deers, wild boar & a baby elephant during the safari. We'll have to be very lucky to get to see a panther it seems & seeing a tiger is almost impossible. We were told that to see a Tiger we may have to stay in the jungle for two days. The next morning we went on a hill trek, it was a pretty easy trek and a very small one compared the one which we went the last year in Parsons valley. Few from our group felt very tired & were not able to walk further. So we had to drop it in the mid way & came down around lunch time. After the lunch and a session of volleyball in the resort we went for the elephant camp in the evening. We went for the night safari the second night also. We had no luck that night either. Were not able to see anything special. Then on the third day we vacated the resort in the morning & had a bath in a stream near masinangudi. On the way to Ooty we stopped at Pykara falls. I had been to Ooty several times but this is the first time I saw the Pykara falls. It was such a nice place to visit. Beautiful flow of water.

The trip was really wonderful, our team is always gelled as a very closed set of friends. We go for a tour once in a year, for some relaxation away from work. This is one such tour and the purpose was really fulfilled.

The H2O - Chennai Poll

2007-07-11T10:53:00.000-07:00

Are you a chennaite?
Do you care for safe drinking water?
Ever wondered where the water you drink comes from?
Ever bothered to enquire about your water can supplier agency?

Take this simple poll to assist us in evaluating public awareness on this simple issue.

"The BOSS" - booked

2007-06-11T04:05:00.000-07:00

Booked tickets for Sivaji "The BOSS" @ Mayajaal. The show details below,

Day : 18th of June
Timings : 7:30 PM

So guys please make yourselves available.

Sivaji - Trailer

2007-05-30T22:22:00.000-07:00

The Trailer of the much awaited Sivaji hit the headlines yesterday in the CNN IBN. They aired the exclusive trailer of "The Boss" (Bachelor of Social Service).

Already the songs have become a super hit, and now Rajni rocks in the trailer. Really awaiting for the Film to hit the silver screen with a bang on the 15th of June.

In the end of the trailer he thunders this punch dialog.

"Per-a kaetavutanae chumma Athiruthula..." - Warae wha!! Thalaivar epothum Thalaivar taan...

Five Point Someone

2007-05-15T03:42:00.000-07:00

Well I kind of started being passionate towards reading now. I finished reading this book in few hours spent over two days. It really feels great to finish a book in two days. While I was reading this book I felt that probably I should have read it during my college times, but alas this book was published in 2004 the year of my graduation. I myself being an under performer in my college days felt that the story resembled my college life to some extent. A quick outline about the story, below.

The life story of three friends Ryan Obroi, Alok Gupta & Hari Kumar in the IIT Delhi which happened around 2000 - 2004.

Ryan Obroi - He is always the dictator who decides whats to be done next. He loved his friends more than his family.
Hari Kumar - The narrator of this story, he always wants to be Ryan. Here he just agrees what ever Ryan says without much thinking. Hari also narrates the way he falls in love with Neha.
Alok Gupta - This boy will be left with no option but to agree with them after some sort of argument with Ryan each time. He always had too much responsibilities of taking care of his family which he loved too much.
Neha Cherian - One other important character, Hari's girl friend.

This story indicates that the education system in the IITs is similar to the system in any other Engineering college. With all the assignments, minors & the majors. All the way through their career they just keep trying to beat the system which just meant a crap to them. They keep trying to find different ways to escape the system. At one stage they realize that they will have to live with this system to come out of the IIT with the graduation, but by that time too much of damage has already been done to them. They were even about to be kicked out of the IIT once. But finally with a bit of luck, and their hard work towards the end and with the help of Prof. Veera they were able to make it. Hari's love with Neha has also been given an equal importance throughout the story but finally the Author didn't want to reveal what actually happened to it.

This is a cool story with no much twists & turns, I loved the way it was presented. A very easy reading. And now I am waiting to read my next book One night @ the call center by the same Author. Hope I carry on this habit of reading throughout my life.

Who Moved My Cheese

2007-05-03T02:40:00.000-07:00

This is the first book which I have read after deciding to cultivate the habit of reading.

"Excellent !!!" That is the word which I will use to explain this book. This book motivated and inspired me a lot in various fronts. The author has put the message which he wanted to convey in a very simple and straight forward manner. At the same time he has taken care that the message will definitely reach the readers. This style of writing suited my taste well. I am happy to have started my reading habit with this book.

I have started to feel its effect on me the very moment I finished reading. I will classify this book as a must read for every individual. Find more details about this book, here.

Trip to Parsons Valley

2007-04-14T02:34:00.000-07:00

This is an official trip arranged by our company for a milestone release. We were 25 in number, and the trip was really great as expected. Parsons valley, this place is quiet interesting because of its loneliness. I really loved to be there for some more time. Loneliness, stunning climate, beauty of nature, lovely landscape and there are many more reasons to be listed for which one should visit this place.

We stayed there for two days. On the day we reached that place we went around for a small trek to a stream near by. The next day there was the long trek around the valley. This is my first long trek, it really inspired me to go on for more treks. This sort of enjoyment has no words to be explained. Roaming around the hilly forest along with friends without any real aim, wow! thats really superb. After this trek I just wanted to visit the top-slip which is considered to be one of the best trekking spots in Tamil Nadu. Few snaps below.

toondoo.com rocks

2007-03-28T09:38:00.000-07:00

A new website toondoo released today. This is meant for creating cartoon strips. This website really rocks. A cool fun site which children will love, and believe me even the adults will love this. It has various different options which allows you to create a toon of your taste. They give you a large set of characters apart from which you can upload images of your choice into it. I just gave it a quick try and resulted with the following, a very simple one in fact.

This is released by the Jambav team of the AdventNet.

SCJP Cleared

2007-03-24T01:48:00.000-07:00

Well, it feels good to have cleared the SCJP after 15 days of preparation. These 15 days were really one of the strangest patch of days I have experienced. I stayed in the office not going home. Did not meet any of my friends. Just talked to couple of my friends over phone. I haven't been like this before.

The work in office during this period was also very high than ever before. So working till 9.30/10.30 pm and then preparing for the exam till mid night was the schedule which I was following. The days passed stressfully. I didn't get the confidence of clearing the exam at any point of time because the I knew 15 days of preparation will definitely not be sufficient. But I wanted to clear the exam at any cost so kept working hard in the available period of time leaving back all other worries.

As a final part of the preparation I just wanted to write some mock tests, which were available in my friends place. So I went there the day before the exam and wrote some three exams all of which I failed, this totally brought down my morale. I was almost sure that I am never going to clear the exam that moment. But, on the day of exam I went to the testing center keeping in mind to do the fundamentals correctly and not to worry about the tough ones. I sticked to this which helped me to get through.

Thanks to all my friends who backed me when ever I was feeling the pressure.

Few Tips (From my experience):

Prepare for the exam for a minimum of 3 month with good concentration.
Revise all the portions at least twice.
Take up mock tests 10 days before appearing for the exam, so that you will be able to find the sections where you are week and you will have time to revising it once more.
Use the study material for the SCJP 5.0 by Kathy Sierra & Bert Bates. Also study the important APIs from Java docs.
Take the test cool head, don't panic.

All the best - for all who take up the exam.

Tada - Raw nature !!!

2007-03-03T22:34:00.000-08:00

This trip was just an unofficial one with few of my colleagues. We were six in number started from Chennai at 6 in the morning in a cab. We halted near Puzhal lake to have a view. This place took all of by surprise. I didn't expect such a big lake any where near Chennai. Later came to know that, this is one of the main source of water for Chennai.

We reached Tada by nearly 11. The cab driver left us at the point beyond which we can move only by walk. The place was really superb. Nature lovers will definitely find this place as a treat for their eyes. A mix of a light forest, cool stream & rocky hill. There was no definite path to reach the falls, just we will have to walk through the stream or in between the trees. We were not able to reach the main falls as we were running out of time. Also we heard from some people that reaching the falls would be challenging & swimming knowledge is a must. Except myself and another guy the others were not good swimmers, so we decided against proceeding towards the falls. But on the way to the falls there are many puddles which will give us enough enjoyment. Few sample snaps have been posted below. So if you are in Chennai and will like to spend a weekend in a totally different way (Without pollution, noise and all the other disturbance the city provides), this would be one of the best choice available.

One good thing about Tada (that I liked) is, it is still a place where the tourist dept. are yet to set their foot. So this place is just a raw nature with no customization.

Adorned in new Robes

2007-03-02T09:14:00.000-08:00

Now the Indian team has some thing different to wear after using the same old patterned Jersy for more than 4 long years. This is a welcome move, the present jersy is really good but I have personally developed a boredom towards it. The color of the new jersy is called as Powder Blue, which is less blue than the present one.

And also there is some innovation in the material used. Nike has patented material which is used, which is claimed to be 15 percent lighter than the previous one. So this will assist the players to perform better.

Hope this change brings change in fortunes for the Indian Team.

Humiliation for Aussies

2007-02-20T01:47:00.000-08:00

A first humiliating white wash for the Aussies in my memory. It was great to watch the Kiwis chasing down the mammoth 346 with 4 balls to spare in the final one dayer. Full credits to the efforts from McMillan & McCullam.

Of course this is a stripped down Australian side but still the Kiwis were also playing without the likes of Bond, Vettori, Oram... So in my opinion this a evenly poised competition in which the Aussies have lost out. This being this the final international series before the world cup due next month, the Aussies will have to sort out too many problems to defend their title successfully.

And with the Proteas, Kiwis, Indians ;) finding form the competition is wide open.

Final 15 for the World Cup.

2007-02-12T06:39:00.000-08:00

The announcement came this morning. And as expected there was little change in the team which is taking up the SriLankan's challenge at home. In my honest opnion this is the best side that could be selected with the resources available. I would have tried to find a place for Powar at the cost of a pacer in my 15. But now the most important thing is which 11 will you go for and what will be the batting order. You cant expect Uthappa or Shewag (who ever opens with Sourav) to find form immediately, in that case will Sachin move up. We cant expect our pacer to rip off the opponents top order every match. They are very inconsistent. Any way interesting times ahead. Lets hope for the best.

The Team : Rahul Dravid (capt), Sourav Ganguly, Robin Uthappa, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Shewag, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik, Irfan Pathan, Ajith Agarkar, Harbajan Singh, Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth, Munaf Patel.

Finally Proud owner of SE K750i

2006-12-14T04:33:00.000-08:00

My very long desire to buy a rich featured Mobile phone finally got satisfied on the 17th of Oct. During my leisure in office my major interest will be looking into the UniverCell site for mobile prices and GSMArena site for mobile reviews. I kept looking for the best in the market like mad from these reviews. Initially the mobiles under my consideration were the

SE K750i
SE W550i
Nokia 6280
Samsung x700

The W550i went out of contention due to the lack of a quality camera. The x700 also lost the race due to the same reasons. But the Nokia 6280 was satisfying all my needs but it was way out of my budget. So finally decided to buy the feature packed K750i which was priced just right.

I had decided the right mobile to be brought but the correct time to purchase it was not yet decided. I fixed the date as Sept 29th, but due to some constraints (I was leaving to Madurai that evening (time constraints)) I was not able to make it on that day. So finally decided that I will get it in the week prior to Diwali. As the purchase of the mobile got delayed once again I started to analyze the web for a model better than this. As a result of this search I shortlisted the new contenders as,

SE K750i (Still on top)
SE W700i

In the final moments I was even tempted to buy a very costly SE W850 which struck my eyes. But I controlled the temptations and decided to buy one of the two listed above, I felt it to be stupidity to spend over 15,000 on a mobile. On the day of purchase when I woke in the morning I had no idea that I will be buying my new mobile that evening (actually it was night when I bought it). While I was in the office I decided that the mobile must be brought before the forthcoming thursday as I will be leaving to Madurai. I had only two evenings time. I called Pradeep (my pal) and confirmed him whether he will be free in the evening so that he will accompany me to WaveTel.

Time was 7.00 PM I was still busy with my work, I called Pradeep and asked him whether the plan can be rescheduled to the next day? But he told to finish this off today as there were other commitments tomorrow. At 9.00 he called me and asked shall we move? I still had some work to be completed but still I decided to leave.

Finally we reached WaveTel at around 9:45. We asked for models from Sony Ericsson which were released after K750i the sales person suggested W700i. I got the sample pieces of both K750i and W700i in my hand and had a final look to decide which one to choose. Pradeep also suggested to go for the W series and the owner of WaveTel also suggested the same. Finally after some pause I decided to go for the Black Beauty, K750i.

I have almost fixed my eyes on the SE K750i when Pradeep purchased it during few months back. Its rich features and the nominal price compared to other nokia mobiles were the main reason for me to turn my attention towards this bar. Now I am happy to own this piece.

In search of a place to live in (in Chennai)

2006-10-11T00:22:00.000-07:00

The search is on again. This time it is getting even more tougher as our requirements has also gone on the high. It has become a habit for us to change a house every 6 months, we are already looking for our fourth house in the last 18 months. This often happens due to some external forces rather than our own decision.

As a known truth the bachelors are never encouraged in the apartments. And also we are seven in number where ever we reveal this we are straight away shown the way out!! if we keep this as a secret during the time of signing the agreement then we are done once the truth is out.

In and around Thiruvanmiyur (Our current location), we are not able to find a single house that suits our requirements so this time we will have to compromise with the distance. The search in the ECR, Kotoorpuram, Velachery, and the OMR began. We were still not able to locate the exact one. I along with Vel suggested a house in the ECR(Palavakam) with the help of a broker which was sacked due to the lack of parking space. Then few more were suggested by Vel in the Kotoorpuram area all of which had some flaws in it, eventually all got rejected. In the meanwhile Pradeep was striving hard in search of the best possible house which we could get. Eventually he(Pradeep) came up with a superb apartment in Perungudi & one more was found in Velachery, both satisfied us almost such that we were almost egear to agree but due to distance constraint these were also rejected.

Finally the day dawned with Guru waking me saying Pradeep is ready to see a house in Palavakam with the reference of a broker. We (Pradeep, Jayan& I) started together and was later joined by Kumar. It was a hard days search with no result till noon. Due to some constraints Jayan, Kumar & I were forced to return home, Pradeep continued the search with the broker and found one in the OMR(Thoraipakkam). All of us except Guru visited the house in the evening and were really exited seeing the facilities and the size of the house. After further discussions within us and with the owner this house is fixed as our next place to live in.

More about the house once we move in (Hope so).

Just the entry

2006-09-28T08:09:00.000-07:00

Whew!! At last I am also here.. Felt like blogging very long ago but finding time just now.. I hope that I visit this place pretty frequently..