Out on the open terrace ...

I guess this is one of the best part of my student life that I can ever remember.... sleeping on the hostel terrace. Somewhere in the beginning of the academic year, a couple of our batch mates got together to paint the floor of the terrace with a special white powder which would help reflect most of the merciless heat of the scorching summers. The terrace is a wide expanse of open floor with no impediments save a few dividing mounds of water pipes hidden in cemented dividers.

We go to the terrace (some of us) to trick the stuffiness of our rooms. Once there on the terrace underneath the open sky it is a world apart. There would be the brilliant canopy of dazzling stars studded against the backdrop of the ink black mysterious night. Often they would seem like sparkling diamonds strewn across the sea shore just waiting for us to walk up and pick them up. And there would be those sudden bouts of unpredictably naught breeze that would hid behind the dark green branches of the silent trees waiting for the moment when you could be best taken by surprise, when they would blow across making the most gentle of caresses and ruffling of the neatly combed hair.

We would lay our beds out in the open, and sit chatting for hours together.... late into the night. We would talk anything and everything that managed to hold our interest. When the night breeze blew cold, we would get into our sleeping bags and lay there continuing to chat. Somewhere well past midnight ... stomachs start grumbling and we would decide to sneak down into the kitchen to find something to eat. When we don't find much, we would wake up one of the guys who have the keys to the hostel general stores and buy a few packets of noodles, some cream biscuits and a couple of soup or juice sachets. Then for the next half-an-hour or so we would busy ourselves making a fine second dinner. Oh... we really loved those eats.

By the time we are through it would be around 4:30 in the morning and we would begin to feel the exhaustion of another eventful night. And so would quietly get into our beds and slip into a child's slumber. It would be around 7:30 when we are woken up for the day ... by the crisp morning air and warm golden rays made more beautiful by the accompanying bright bird twitters. Wow what a way to live life!

Cold Coffee Delight

It was a beautiful star filled night sky above us, on that cool winter night. We were three of us, Shibu, Venkat and myself. We used to sleep on the hostel terrace every night. Normally we chat till 2 in the morning and then fall asleep. If in the course of our chatting, we get to feel hungry, we would run down to another class mate of our, who is incharge of the hostel stores and wake him up from his sleep and drag him to the stores and buy a few packets of noodles and some cream biscuits. We would then run about to produce a quick and delightful dinner, spiced with the month's most favoured drink.

The month's drink was cold coffee. So we got the milk cold and the coffee powder. Now we needed sugar and that would have to be stolen from the hostel kitchen. So .... sneeking quitely we went into the kitchen store room and found the sugar box and filled our cup.

Noodles cooked, biscuits opened, we began mixing our cold coffee .... all on the terrace, out in the open, pitch darkness, save for the faint light of the fading moon. I was to take the first sip and pass my comments.

However, with the fist sip .... came no comments, but a streaming jet of what went in (just couldn't call it a normal cold coffee). I had burnt my tounge to bloody red boils over a sip of cold coffee..... I stared in disbelif. The other two watched me with googly eyes with horror writ on their faces.

Reproaching me for wasting precious resources and paying no head to my warnings Venkat took hold of his cup and gulped a big mouthful of the sinful fluid. And what followed was an hyperbolated version of my reaction (a gulp is, I guess, a wee bit more than a decent sip).

When we did find out, what turned a delightful cup of sweeted cold caffined lactose product into an acrid brown poison, we were rolling on the floor holding our stomachs with are side splitting with laughter. We had added baking soda instead of suggar!!!

Paradise discovered ... Tada Falls

I must have written much earlier … when the memory of it all was still fresh and vivid in my mind. Often as I read big fat novels describing soulful escapes into thick green unsullied jungles …. I have found myself dreaming of a gurgling brook of crystal water running through a canopy of dancing shadows of heavy branches … with the sunlit patches of the forest floor forming a thousand kaleidoscopic images … with the noisy birds and omnipresent deafening silence … all just waiting with their arms thrown out to wrap you up in an embrace of a lifetime.

Phew! … well I saw that and much more … in an office trip to a place named Tada Falls. Somewhere on the border of Andhra Pradesh and that of Tamil Nadu, there is this magical Eden hidden beyond huge hills and long hours of rugged walks up and down the dales. We started out early in the day, taking a Tempo Traveller. Stopping en route on NH5 for breakfast … we headed straight out of TN. We reached the place in about one and half hours. But the journey actually began from that point onwards. We were told that beyond that point we had to rely on God given means of locomotive structure, our very own legs. So we began … at first chirpy and full of fun …. After climbing up and down a hill and stopping to realize that we came the wrong way … some of us began to show signs of agony, anguish and simple raw red pain.



Retracing our steps to the place where our cab stood waiting … we took ample pictures of both the right and the wrong directions to pass on as valuable legacy to any future generations of extra adventurous group from our office who decided to make it to Tada falls to enjoy a peaceful holiday! Then we walked …. Walked …. Walked ….. and walked …. Hey wait …there seemed no damn end to it ….. but the only thing that kept us going was the distant rubble of a laughing stream …. Both our bodies and minds were aching to lever ourselves in to the cool depths of that running water.

After a short span of endless eternity we came to the foot of another ominous looking hill where there stood a temple of sorts. There were a couple of elderly looking villagers who readily offered us advice, direction and “if willing” paid assistance. Politely refusing their guidance offer …. We proceeded towards thicker foliage admits rockier terrain. Finally, along the way we spotted the brook … that grew into a stream … and then led us to a steadily flowing glass like mass of water. …. GOD!!! We couldn’t have asked for anything better after the inhumane torture that we put ourselves through. The sight of water rejuvenated us to go further and try to reach the base of the famed water fall. But that was a long way off …. soon realizing that … we settled for a beautiful clearing, where the water was flowing faster and clearer with multi colored fishes swimming in and out. Skirting the banks of the stream there were tall trees held in place by huge rocks and kept alive by a group of wild monkeys. It was simply as if we had run away from reality … somewhere out of the world through a window of beauty.


Stripping bare we jumped into the welcoming water. Ahhhhhhh….. I can feel the cool water over my chest … hitting me on my back …. Splashing and diving we washed the weariness off our sore limbs. Imagine … lost in the middle of a serene forest … neck deep in see through clear water …. No one to call you out of the fun!!! Bet we had a whale of a time … Infact, we had our lunch standing in the water waist deep. After we had had enough we walked out dripping wet with shriveled skin. Wiping dry we reluctantly got dressed and bid adieu to that pool of paradise.
And then began the return stroll … ah! an after lunch stroll …. After walking a rough two and a half kilometer distance under a bright golden sun, who somehow found it merrier on that particular day …. We found ourselves kissing the floor of the cab in thanks for the air conditioner that it had …. We then drove back home, well reclined in our seats … watching some crap movie. And before we knew, another day of great adventure had come to a fitting close …. We were earlier in our home than we would have been on a normal working day!!!!

A weekend by the sea ...

After a long week of rebellious planning and last minute hitches and change in schedules, we managed to find ourselves on a bus that took us to our weekend adventure spot - Mahabalipuram. Before I could talk of all the fun we had, I must.... shall we say ...pause in awe to gape at the grandeur and mystery that shrouds the place.
No one knows for sure when or how or even for what Mahabalipuram came into existence. Oh! It slipped my mind to tell you what you would find in Mahabalipuram. It is a rough green sea lashing ceaselessly against black rocks and sun colored sandy shores. Along the coast are excavated temples and cave temples which stand as timeless testimonies to the superiority of the ancient Pallava dynasty's architectural consummacy. With a shift in the sea lines and perhaps an unforeseen catastrophe, a large part of these monuments got entirely submerged, not in the sea but in the sand! Because of this a major part of the intricate carvings and sculptures are eroded and what is left behind is a hazy clue of what they must have set out to depict.
You don't need to know about the smoky history that adds to the magical flavor of Mahabalipuram to enjoy it. However, when I came back from my trip to blog about it... I decided I must know a little more about Mahabalipuram. So I did some web research (not much though) to rediscover the enigma that Mahabalipuram is. It was then that I felt ... that had I done this internet look up prior to my trip, I could have better appreciated it (not that I didn't enjoy it).
OK! That cursory salute to all my high school history teachers would have made all their stuffed souls happy. Now to the trip! It was in the early hours of a cool and crisp morning that we set out. As soon as we landed at Mahabalipuram we had a light breakfast to keep our minds off such mundane things as the rumblings of a grouchy acidic stomach. We then headed straight to the biggest of the excavated temples. It is a huge temple made out of a single rock, standing solemnly in a large and deep pit cut out to better reveal the long sculpted treasure. Like a seashell singing the secret depths of the soul of the ocean, the walls and the stones were almost humming the tune of a long forgotten tale colored by the pangs of pain in waiting for someone ... someone who would listen to them. It was as if the whole temple was desperate to tell you something ... if you would only listen. Oh my God! What an experience. There were three shrines and each held an idol of a God in the most unusual posture ... all of them like clues in a treasure hunt or pieces in a bigger puzzle. I could have sat there all day long, had it not been for the boisterous sea calling out to the kid in me. Oh! I simply cannot keep from the waves...
All around the temple, in the direction of the sea ... a long stretch of mighty black boulders were thrown in to keep the sea at bay (an attempt to save the findings from further future damage). We decided that we would climb high on the boulders and sit there for a while looking far into the green sea ... chatting and cracking jokes and of course ponder upon the meaning of life ;-) Salted by the peppery sea breeze and made crisp by the warm sun we recollected all our student days. When I could hold myself no longer ... we got down and went into the waters. Or rather I went in and the rest, preferring to stay dry sat on a lower rock to continue chit-chatting. I had a whale of a time. It’s a totally unexplainable feeling when your body rocks with the waves. It’s like you're a part of it and at the same time you're not. Only when I had enough and had a call from home (some how parents have the instinct that tells them when they need to panic, even when their children are miles away on a supposedly safe outing near the beach. Mind you it was not long before we had the tsunami here.) with my mother checking in on me did I walk out of the waters to lay on the rock to get myself dry. She knows too well how irresistible the sea is to me.
After changing into a new pair of clothes we moved over to the cave temples, not far from the sea. You have got to be there to see what I am talking of. There are numerous caves amidst a cluster of small rocky hills. On each one of these hills was a temple beckoning you to climb up to them. Most of them have no humanly mitigable path that leads to them. We felt like a bunch of explorers who for the first time are treading fresh grounds, discovering never before seen wonders. Puffing, panting and laughing we went up and down the mountainous hills looking into every cave we came across and stopping before every shrine we passed. Finally we climbed the highest hill and lay there roasting in the sun (just to catch all the lost breath) for quite some time.
I guess it must have been the primitive urgings of the base growls from the bottom most pits of our stomachs that pushed us down to the lower realms of earth in search of organic edible substance made fit to eat. And so we drove back home from there dreaming of good food!

Weekend at the Blogcamp

Sitting in my office cafeteria and flipping through the day’s Hindu, I came upon a small snippet of a write up on a blogger’s meet here in Chennai. Hmmm… blogging has always held my fancy, but I never did justice to it. But oh! … hold it … it was on the following weekend … and that too a few blocks away from my workplace. The thought of a much awaited weekend slipping through your fingers and a dreadful journey to this uncivilized, God-forsaken, outer-space of beautiful Chennai was more than I could battle. But there it was … like a freshly pulled out luscious plump carrot dangling in front of a worn out Bugs Bunny. So … to cut the long story short, I went to the Blogcamp 2006.

It was held at Tidel Park. (God! … at least it was held in a comfortable place with decent air-conditioning!)Down at the auditorium in front of a large banner bill board flanked on both sides by white screens, semi circularly skewed rows of tables and chairs were laid with a good number of power terminals for the attendees’ laptops. The atmosphere was very cool and casual (its got to be that way … it’s a blogger’s meet … not a UNESCO conference!) Boy! that really made me feel at home. Since I was on the confirmed “extra” attendee list I had to take a modest position among the back benchers. That suited me well to study the happenings better. There was a very unofficial introduction to the camp by Kiruba followed by some others. They explained that the program schedule was purposely not fixed, in order to allow it to be dynamically determined based on the interest flows and expertise of the attendees.

Half-an-hour into the event, I began to feel out of place. Everyone around me was a veteran blogger, blogging for the past 4 to 5 years minimum. Almost everyone had a cloud of blog sphere popularity built around them. And … none of them was a techie or a geek … (ofcourse there were quite a few of them … but all somewhere in the front and none sitting any where in my vicinity.) Looking around I made friends with a fellow blogger. A few more minutes followed by a short what-is-coming-up-next break, I turned around to make friends with the lady sitting next to me. And what do u know?… she is a die hard blogger with a celebrity profile at multiple blogging platforms. As time sped by we got to know each other more … I had quite a lot to learn.

Over the weekend (sat & sun) I managed to find sessions of my interest (as the majority there termed it … the geekier happenings of an otherwise sane and normal event). There were seasoned techies talking about Wordpress and Blogger Beta, SEOs (Search Engine Optimizations), Technorati, science blogging, podcasting, and a whole lot of amazingly cool stuff. To me the whole event was quite interesting as I hoped it would be. And oh! … As part of the give away freebies, there was a shoulder bag from Yahoo! Inida, a solid ceramic mug, a book of humorous articles from Peguin, a scribbling pad and pen from ZOHO. And the food … everybody liked it unanimously. On the whole it was a well spent weekend. As I walked away from the Blogcamp back home, I promised myself to log more regularly and try and contribute in some way to the next Blogcamp event. So here I am full of promises and soda pop enthusiasm.