The Bangalore Escapade

I have some quirks that might prompt you to cock that double barrel shotgun and fire away at me; examples include my hate for anything that is made out of chocolate(except bars) and my dislike for little kids. I had sensed the risk and taken care of few of them; instances include not throwing away the chicken skin from KFC and finally watching Pulp Fiction. If we're talking about places people have been to, and if we take only resident Indians into consideration and probably every outsider who visits this country, then there is one city that should be in the top 3 of that of list : Bangalore. A list that I failed to satisfy. yep, I had never been to that place despite being a college student just 10 hours away for 4 consecutive years. But you can keep your trigger fingers away, for I finally managed to squeeze a trip to the city into a weekend of my life, which otherwise would have been utterly wasted by me anyway.

Word was that there was an unofficial and unplanned get-together of friends at Bangalore and I was sorely tempted to join. And join, I did. The multi-axle air-conditioned bus was nice enough not to make me remember the details of the 10-hour long journey as I arrived at the capital of Karnataka at 7 in the morning, which by the way was the time for the weather to be freezing cold leaving me shivering all over(learn, Kochi, learn!). Shortly rescued by suthin, we headed to his brother's place which was to be my place of residence for the day. Not long after, the size of the gang increased with the addition of calvin, monisha, merin and jazim...kudos to one of them for the increase in 'size'. Despite that, the 6 of us successfully stuffed ourself into an Alto as jazim chauffeured us around some of the prime spots of Bangalore. First stop was for lunch, and we destroyed our starvation at Cafe Masala on a buffet...an expensive buffet.

Right after that, we headed out to Guzzler's Pub for a game of billiards and a brief meeting with our old buddies zubair and ridhi. Stuffed with food and something else, we decided to retire for the day. Initially annoyed that Bangalore wasn't living upto my expectations, a game of God of War 3 on a Playstation 3 displayed brilliantly by a high definition 32" TV while i was swamped on a huge bean bag made me forget about everything else in life. Sigh...I love that bean bag. That's what souls use in heaven, I'm sure.

Soon, the two smallest people of the group bid their goodbyes as the rest of us joined by the residents of the flat headed to Taco Bell for dinner where I had the best damn slush drink on the planet with some quessadilla, a word that monisha failed to pronounce correctly leading to a class of jokes on her that deviated from the usual 'fat' category. The night ended with the obvious, of course. The tall one had the pleasure of sleeping over the bean bag.

Sunday started late thanks to somebody suffering from an hangover...proof that capacity is not directly proportional to height. The two of us headed out to meet zubair at his place from where he took us to Cafe Thulp where calvin and I enjoyed the biggest beef burger I've ever laid my fingers on. Aptly titled 'Moo's your daddy', it was deliciously and lusciously scrumptious. Bless zubair for his awesome lunch choice. Next, we headed to one of the hotspots in Bangalore : Forum mall. Did nothing except pick up a Batman poster for myself and that paved the way for an evening walk to the place that I had been waiting to go for a long time...Purple Haze. The ambience couldn't be better as it lifted us higher with the help of some classic rock music played in the background. Joined by monisha and suthin, it provided an evening to remember. The highlight was undoubtedly my embarrassing moment when I was forced to sip a drink on fire through a bloody straw because I let it heat up too much. Yes I know...amateur.

There was no choice but to crash at zubair's place for the night...and crash we did. Heavily. The tall one again had the privilege of sleeping all over the bean bag HERE. The hangover on Monday was visibly deeper, but we managed to get our asses to the primary place of residence and my Bangalore trip finally culminated in some heavy duty God-slaying, kudos to the PS3 and the bean bag and the 32" TV. Oh boy, it felt good.

suthin and I returned that night to arrive at a comparatively dull and boring Kochi the next morning, only for us to get together the next sunday with Kochiites susan and irene at Panampally Nagar. I guess this gives testament to the fact that when it comes to friends...maybe the place doesn't matter, only the people do. And of course bean bags and playstations and high definition televisions and gigantic burgers and....well...you get the drift.

This is vysh...signing out.

The Wedding Crashers

2010 has been another explosive year in terms of the 207 get-togethers...and we decided to end it and begin the next year with a bang. and a big bang it was :)

the first trip taken by this gang in rails....it took around 6 to 7 hours for suthin,rohin,ali,susan,merin,irene and myself to reach kannur from ernakulam. it wasnt an eventful ride...half the time was spent trying to get some seats and the other half just hanging on the steps of the train, enjoying the wind. but we wasted no time as we gathered around under the roof that rohin's flat provided.

with only hours left till the curtain fell down on a magnificent and dreadful year that was 2010, we brought all the food and the drinks down on the table and began our celebration. probably the most magnificent aspect of the year was that we were still together, exploiting fun in every way possible. a celebration was mandatory :) the star of the night was arguably the smallest thing in the house : merin (for reasons that can't be divulged here). she and the rest of us paved the way for the new year and hopefully for a lot more confluences.

but the celebrations didnt end there. joined shortly by zubin, jency and the last minute surprise that was sreeja, we proceeded to provide the real big bang to 2011 by heading to jazim's brother's wedding party. and oh boy, a party it was :D

once again, the each of us were dressed to kill and we made sure there were no leftovers in the food department or in the entertainment department. and by entertainment, i mean a lot of singing, and a lot of dancing. We had given the meaning of January 1st a whole new makeover :)

January 2nd marked our railway return to ernakulam and the end of this very special get-together...and a promise that this aint gonna be the last.

this is vysh....signing out.

This jobless phase

Trust me, i was sitting in front of this page for 15 minutes trying to figure out something to write about. don't know why it took so long, but then it clicked me...best thing to write about when u got a moment of inspiration to blog, is whatever you're going through at moment. got just one word for ya in my case....jobless.

it's been 7 months since college officially ended for me. but forget that number for now. a phase of life got over the moment i wrote the last exam in April. and anybody in that position definitely deserves a break. so it's understandable that i spent the month of May doing absolutely nothing. well...not exactly 'nothing'...we did move in to our new place in May, and we used all that time to adjust to the new environment. again...understandable.

Come June, you know that the break cannot be over yet...you had spent 4 years huffing and puffing after all. and what better way to blast your holidays other than a trip to Goa...but sit home and watch the football world cup! the timing just couldn't be better. so i spent the month cheering away for england...but before i could even so much as wave the bloody flag, they got eliminated. ah well...football is football. we all ended up enjoying the one month long tournament anyway....predicting the outcomes, swearing against the brazilians, debating about refereeing decisions, taking part in the million facebook battles....it was all very much fun.

Come July, the world cup is over and we are all exhausted, but still looking for something else new in life to look forward to. and in my case, my folks had come down from uae. ah cmon Mr. Conscience....family comes first right? so there you go, i got something else to do now. no guilt anywhere in my mind yet. spend some quality time with mom, dad and sis. share out the different stories happening in india and in uae. eat mom's food and get well-fed. or rather, get the chevrolet beat in my hands asap and blast off with my mates each time i return to 2k3 with the excuse of attending CAT classes. wohoooo!

August has arrived, and then the mental countdown to my birthday automatically begins. family is still around, so i still got something to do. and then the day comes when i'm finally crowned as an engineer. wohoo again. more reason to keep going in this flow of jobless-ness.

Come September, family returns back to uae. and THEN, the guilt slowly starts creeping in. i suddenly realise...wait a sec, it's been 4 months since college officially ended! and then the fact that i've cleared all my papers brings me no more satisfaction, but only more guilt that i've done absolutely nothing with my life even at this point. i search for more distractions, but i can't find any. there's a limit to how many movie tickets i can purchase. and the damn rabbits have gone to hell. and then, i do the ultimate thing that any man does to make himself feel more like a man and also to get distracted...join the gym :)

September clearly defined the meaning the jobless-ness for me, but i was thankfully deprived from thinking too much about it thanks to my slowly developing biceps and the amount of time i spent on the bed, sleeping away to glory.

October barely starts and bam! i'm bleeding out on the floor thanks to a pop music video, a tv remote control and the obstinacy of 2 idiots fighting over it. few hours later i'm getting a TT shot, local anesthesia and getting plastic surgery done above my right eyebrow. ah cmon, Mr. Conscience...can't you see that i'm injured here??? i need 20 days rest!

So there goes around 20 days without any further guilt or even gym :( but by the time i'm almost fully recovered, the familiar feeling of "what the hell are you doing with your life?" creeps back in. People ask me, " How's your CAT preps going?". and i reply, "huh...what CAT? oh...the thing i spent more than 16000 bucks for? oh yea, that's going fine". or at least that's what the people hear. but inside, my heart had just plummeted down. deep deep down.

Come November, the situation hasn't changed. except now it's indeed been 7 months since college ended. yes, now the statistic is very scary. the only hope i have is the result of a certain interview for a big company that i attended. until that comes out successful(or goes to hell, so that i can do something about CAT or fly off to UAE and rot), i'm still gonna be sitting.....what's that word again....oh yeah.....jobless.

which explains why i have all the time in the world to sit and think about something to blog about, and even more time to write it all down. no tension of meeting deadlines, no hassle of waking up early in the morning, no responsibility of completing projects, no schedules to be made for the next week, no late night cramming...just no fuss and absolutely no brainwork.

"ahhh.....what a life!", some of you might chant. think again.

yours

vysh

Birthday Bash:Part 2 + 2k3 hideout

Yep, we're back in business.

And I'm skipping the preview and heading straight to the point.

Last year, there was a birthday blast that concerned a houseboat and my own house. exactly 365 days later, we repeated the feat...sans the houseboat. nevertheless, we were strengthened by the presence of susan, who was unable to make it last year, and also the newest member of the family....ali. moreover, this time we were also gifted by the holy vessels of transportation....namely zubin's swift and my beat. yes, times have indeed changed.

after zubin had to survive the terrible ordeal of handling all the women by himself at our fav burger/pizza outlet Pik-A-Byte, the entire group of 12 assembled by night and headed out to my turf. the source of fun that night was nothing but the gang itself, which needless to say, sufficed. zubin and ali added a little something by singing away with rohin providing the stringwork.

however, the next day brought us the opportunity to hit marari beach in alleppy. echoes of our previous alleppy trip resonated as we rampaged through the sea and made sure that we didnt leave till we were sapped out of all energy. but with loudmouths like suthin and sreeja onboard, it seemed like we had limitless energy anyway... :)

But the real party was waiting for after nightfall...the big treat at Wyte Fort by the birthday people....namely irene, zubin, jency, jazim, susan and myself. dressed to kill, we couldnt have looked better that night. nor could we be louder in that huge buffet hall. our mouths and our behaviour just weren't matching our formal outfits...not that any of us cared in the first place :D

Joined shortly by dilu and jersen, we had a brilliant round of dinner before heading back home for one last night of fun that included some hilarious games of blindfold(no one were at the risk of drowning this time) and more late night chatting. Early morning brought the departure of the gang members...though only for some time. because we re-united 2 months later....this time, under the very roof of 2k3 itself. and this time, we brought in yet another new member...karthik 'tiger' madhavan.

Being in kochi, we made use of our usual spots....Pik-A-Byte, Wangs and Sand Dunes. and in the case of the christians among us....the church. If you want to know the rest....i'm sorry. you just had to be there :) but i can paint a small picture with the following fleeting images :

1- sreeja in her red nightgown that made her look like a mom

2- zubin singing his own versions of popular songs

3- rohin doing his work on the guitar for the above mentioned songs

4- merin being 'blown away by the wind' at the beach

5- jazim's treachery causing ali to be caught by rohin at blindfold

6- suthin slipping and falling down hard during the above mentioned game

7- susan smacking our tennis ball away and out of the boundary with the cricket bat, losing the ball in the process

8- calvin grabbing the camera off the top of the swift and running away with the lens pointed at him, the timer running and us chasing him trying to get into the frame

9- irene trying to work my beat out on the front yard

10- the number of dirty jokes we made and the scores we kept

11- susan top scoring for the above mentioned point

12- jency and that laugh of hers

13- need i mention sreeja's laugh?

14- ali showing the newbies exactly how to perform the art of taking sheesha

15- merin and her dress that looked like a tablecloth

16- irene and her injured toe that forced suthin and i to go all the way to kollencherry to pick her up

17- jency banging away on karthik as he refused to give up zubin

18- merin laughing her ass out and then whispering the joke in sreeja's ear causing obvious destruction(seriously, what the hell is all that about???)

19- rohin showing his expertise in a field other than music....lame jokes

20- and many many many more....

Where we are concerned, the industry of fun just can't be taken down.

Yours truly

Vysh

207 to 2k7 to 2k3

yes, ladies and gentlemen....we've moved.

i know this post has come a little late, but given the various happenings and the lack of a suitable internet connection, i should be forgiven. and since it's been more almost 3 months since we abandoned 207, i am forced to make this brief.

the end of college for myself, zubin and jazim has marked the end of 207...and it wasn't a pretty end. we had found the ideal location to fill the role of our new home, but 207 gave us an ugly 2 days as the house was flooded thanks to the incessant rain. the packing and the cleaning couldn't have been more hectic. but eventually we were forced to turn our backs to that powerhouse of fun and hardship that we had endured together...truly, a chapter in our lives.

enter 2k7(yes, proof of fleeting perfection) with our new roomie mr. ali....the exact opposite of the previous house. posh, lavish, comfy and super clean. the apartment complex, star homes, may not be the best in town....but the flat was bloody awesome. with AC, fridge, tv, beds, leather sofa sets and a dining table....what more would u want? and we were just getting adjusted and having our fun when the following happened:

due to unforeseen circumstances, we had to move out of 2k7. thus came the moments of hardship yet again. lady luck gave the tiniest of smiles as we found a substitute in the form of 2k3, just 4 floors below. maybe it lacked the comfort of the present home, but we had no other choice. we spent the last nights at 2k7 with the best company possible : the 'weirdos'. it provided the perfect ending to that short stay in paradise.

enter 2k3. thanks to the world cup, we just had no time to even think about adjusting. but soon, it provided the satisfactory comfort plus extra space...we were left with nothing to complain about. and this is where the next chapter began.

we sincerely wish....and we KNOW, that 2k3 proves to be yet another powerhouse of fun. and i raise my glass to that.

vysh

Waaaaazzzzzaaaaaaaa's bday collaboration

207 has returned for the first get-together of the year....and the cause for the occasion couldn't be better....rohin "waaaazzzaaa" rajagopal's birthday. the dude turned 22 on march 27th, and since we hadn't given him a bash last year, a grand one had to be called for this time. and suthin and merin offered to chip in on account of their bdays as well, which occurred in february.

the members of "the weirdos" arrived at the destination at different times, but by evening the entire gang minus me had assembled in our choice of accommodation(i was absent on account of college business, and thus i cannot comment on the events that happened before i arrived, but it couldn't be much since i wasn't there, right?).

by the time i'd made my grand entry into cocoa tree, rohin and his special someone had been off to a special place(a surprise plan for rohin well engineered by the banshee, but spoiled foolishly and unexpectedly by a certain show-off).

the 10 of us finally reunited under one roof in our place of stay. the "serious" gift + the funny gift and the cake were already in place, and it was just the matter of waiting for the right time for the stuff to come out. the right time came and rohin was duly presented with the funny gift....which was a pair of slippers, to be worn inside the house. and by house, we mean 207. the days of waking up from bed to find one pair of OUR slippers missing are finally over.

the "serious" gift was also something that discreetly benefited the 207 members.....a pair of puma sandals. and thus, jazim can finally get his converse shoes back.

the cake was brought forward without further ado. then we resumed our usual business of fooling around...which i don't have to mention here explicitly.

fast forward to the morning after a comfortable night of sleep, and then it was time for the BIG TREAT! the venue was the steak hot-spot named "the attic". that afternoon brought us some good photography, a lot of laugh-out-loud moments, not-so-good food and a surprise incident. maybe the quality of the food didn't meet the requirements of the bill, but hey....we had a wonderful time. :)

the bday bash culminated in a return to the hotel and some finishing touches to our get-together, as we packed our bags to head back home.

never can i foresee how many more meetings are in store for us...not even now, when college life has drawn to a close for some of us. but that's the best thing about us...the sheer unpredictability of how something just somehow pops up and we end up together again. and i attribute all this to the following:

my fellow man utd fan: suthin

my born-enemy: jency

my rockstar roomie: jazim

my tiny little pixie: merin

my personal source of laughing gas: sreeja

my sleeping partner: zubin(woops...too much info?)

my flight partner: susan

my guitar-wielding mate: rohin and

my fan when i'm high: irene.

vysh.....signing out.

The End is Nigh

like my grandfather once told me, there is a reason why we swam across the sea from our home to this place. to get ourselves educated and placed on the right track in life. school was one phase, college the next. and the latter one is drawing to a close....at least from the perspective of the engineers in the group.

tomorrow might be the last class of my university life. and the atmosphere is a little moody, with premeditated farewells and autograph books being thrown into the air at random. myself, i was never a fan of those, but it was always a pleasure for me to fill somebody else's book.

and oh boy, only once you open your heart out and let the pen fly across the paper, do you realize just how far you've come in the matter of 4 years. we've achieved milestones, constructed new friendships, enjoyed new experiences, crossed many boundaries, suffered countless burdens....and most important of all, we've survived. so no matter where we are, even if we aint truly happy, these 4 years gotta count for something.

so i actually cannot recognize my feelings at present...whether it's the happy end of the spectrum or the sad end. but one thing can't be denied as i begin to exit this section of life : it was one hell of a ride down the road. and now we've reached a junction and our next move is to make the right(no pun intended) turn and move on. and keep moving till we find whatever it is that we ultimately desire.

this is vysh....signing out.