Moments

Wishing my readers a wonderful, happier new year 2013. I dedicate the year 2012 to Dr. Anoop. My close friend. One of my dearest. Yesterday, on the last day of 2012 was his Phd defense. We became friends during the first day of our MTech. Both of us were from Kerala and we stayed in the same hostel at IIT. Anoop was the motivation behind me joining Phd. I cherished the time spent in the labs, discussions - technical and non-technical, innumerable holiday trips, an excellent 15 day trek and many more. He was the one who kept me going at times of depression. But eventually I got bored of research and joined a job, converting to part-time Phd. Even then Anoop was the motivation for me going to IIT and continuing research. When job became more interesting and rewarding than research, I decided to say good-bye to IIT. I am glad that Anoop continued it with full rigour and came out with flying colors. Three cheers for Dr. Anoop C. Nair!!!

"A trip that many of us wanted but was approved at the last moment, yet turning out to be unique" That's how I would describe this trip in short. My friend and family was visiting us in Bangalore and would be here for a week. But no holidays in the week meant there was only one day - Saturday - for any outing to be planned. My friend's family had just wound up their 10 day pilgrimage and sight seeing trip. A week long break gave them energy and enthusiasm to venture out again for a day's trip. Amritanshu's dad was the most interested in seeing Mysore which was the captial of erstwhile Mysore Maharaja. My mom had also not been to Mysore. So she prompted me to check out the options. Taking up few seats in a one-day sightseeing tour with any tour operator was the first choice. But it was voted out as it meant going to Majestic early in the morning to catch the bus. Also the bus would drop us back at Majestic well past midnight and it would be difficult to r...

Keeping up with my promise of travelogues, here I start the first of the series and most recent one. Coincidentally it is another of "My First" series. Though I had started driving a car almost a year and a half back, I never got a chance to take it for a long drive. Mainly due to reluctance and fear from wife/parents, I was held back in indulging in this pleasure. Earlier I had a Tata Nano which added to the apprehension of being a small car incapable of doing long drives. Coming to Bangalore and owning a Toyota Etios Liva gave me a glimpse of the long drive that I could embark upon. My hometown is 450kms from here and many of my acquaintances have done a road trip from Bangalore to Palakkad. Even my dad has done it many times. Plans for driving down to Palakkad had been on the cards but they were thwarted by fate. So when I got a chance of taking my friend's family to Mysore, I grabbed the opportunity. Saturday morning 6AM was fixed for departure. Driver - only m...