2 hrs before take off...

Yan and I tried goofing around Sacramento downtown with some Ski gear... 13 more hrs to take off ...Mom and Dad I can't wait to see you!

I volunteered to teach at a public school at Rocklin near Sacramento today. I went there feeling drowsy ..blame it on the lack of workout today. The moment we started I could feel the energy in the room. The 40 kids I taught for 3 hours were so enthusiastic ..I feel like a battery after a recharge. Some interesting observation...things I felt I never did when i went to 3'rd grade. 1. Kids ask so many questions?? ..I hardly asked any at school except when I fell asleep and the teacher caught me napping 2. The questions are not dumb ...they listen to every single word you say. I was taking about the role of a city planner ..and kept using a masculine gender all through to refer to the subject. Shoot question 1. Is the city planner generally a 'He ' Mr Viv??? 3.They make noise but at the count of 5 its pin drop silence.(Gees How many times at BVB have I been sent out for non stop chattering ...) 4.The teacher students ratio was 1:20 and maybe that contributed a lot to the the ...

Who said I can't climb??? The entire Deloitte team tried some outdoor activity yesterday at the indoor rock climbing gym Rancho Cordova

SFO-->Las Vegas in 5.5 hrs on a V8 Ford Expedition was fun..so was the guys only night at Sapphire in Las Vegas...Meeting a bunch of old friends 5 years after pasing out from college was nostalgic.We did try everything posssible to relive those evergreen days..each one had a story to tell , a few extra pounds of flesh has done no harm ...signs of prosperity i guess! We tried dancing at Grand Canyon al.la Ash in 'Jeans' ....

Had a great time with the Deloitte Team at "Country Club Lanes" ...Enjoyed the match between the Performance Team and Dev team.After a long time i had the thrills of showing some passion for a game ... Am also posting a pic from the Seattle Office..luv the backdrop on this one ..floor 33 4'th Ave downtown Seattle has some great views..

Who sings Devagandhari the best?? I have been listening to Ksheera Sagara Shayana sung by a few greats..I seem to like Balamurali Krishna's the most,T.N Seshagopalan's the next followed by KJY's and Unnikrishnan's ..in that order This Krithi soothens me everytime i go through a taxing day or have a forgetable day.Have to fly back to Seattle tomorrow..its going to be a cold weekend ,lots of laundry ,essay writing ,training ..Action packed

Writes Anand Vasu in Cricinfo " As he walked back to the pavilion, raising the bat to acknowledge the raucous applause of a grateful Nagpur crowd, the Sri Lankans would have heaved a sigh of relief to see the back of that No. 33 jersey. One is not sure why Tendulkar chose that number on his comeback, rather than the customary No. 10, but hey, it hardly matters what number plate you hang on some machines. A Ferrari is still always a Ferrari. " My eyes lit up as i read the write up posted above.We tried to get video streaming link yesterday but it did'nt work well at the Sheraton. Sachinnnnn...Sachinnn...!! the chant will continue at Mohali for sure

Between scheduled Load tests and performance tuning exercises we did manage some stunts ..choreographed by Yan Team CADDIS has also been practicing football throws to add variety to office life . Work can be fun too..have to get ready for a hair cut before the weekly errand to Sunnyvale Laterzz

Caught up with KK at the Mariott Sunnyvale after almost 2 yrs.The Sangamam plan( we call meetings by this name) at Saravana Bhavan turned out to be a reality. Met a stud Rajan and reserved Mabban there.It was good fun having the traditional 'Manga' for 2 full days.The lunch at Madhu's place topped with Chardonnay was worth the 2 hr drive from Sacramento. The next 2 months will be good fun ..hope to make up for the 2 months of solitude in Seattle ,July and August 2005 were like hell

If there was something i wish i could do ,i wish i could render 'Vathapi Ganapathim' like Yesudas (http://www.musicindiaonline.com/l/1/m/artist.12/ ) ..search for Vathapi Ganapathim I am totally at awe,spellbound ..dasettan is divine!!

GMAT quant was a breeze contrary to my expectation.I am satisfied with my score given the time and effort i put in.Wish i had done the OG one more time,but all's well that ends well. A special thanks to Sathish and Siva who came all the way to the Pro Metric testing centre and made sure i was in the best spirits to take the test. The ISB dream is still distant but i can see light at the end of the tunnnel :-)

I managed to get hold of a beautiful jingle in Sahana sung by KS Chitra for Minbinbangal that used to be aired on Doordarshan during my school days.I have listened to it all afternoon ,can't get enough of it. Did some research on Sahana,Neelambari and the effect of gamakas on ragas.It was an amazing 2 hours of browsing .I wish i had done this long back .I used to hate the saturday and sunday errand to Sakthi Apartments in Church Road to go for my 'Pattu ' class. The last 2 monthhs would have been unimaginable without music.It seems to liven me up in testing times .I have tried my best to learn Ksheerasagara Shayana,Jagadhodharana and Vandanamu Raghunandana and am in the process of fine tuning my rendering of these masterpieces. Hope to finish learning them by end of december ,want to sing it to mom and dad whenn i go for mmy holiday! .

Sudharshan got a box of Mysurpa from India..Makes me go Ga-Ga over coimbatore food ..my list of coimbatore must eat's are as follows.... 1.Masala Dosa at Annapoorna 2.Sri Krishna Sweets Mysurpa 3.Water Melons on Thadagam road 4.Veggie Puff at NMB bakery coimbatore 5.Panner Sodas and Vanilla Ice Cream at Iyer & Co RS Puram or SB Colony Some of these are the chief contibutors to my 6 feet n 80 kg plus frame:-) Experiencing a different form of high ..'Sugar High' .I wish i could get most of the my other favourites in Sacramento Cheers!

Clyde my physio has cleared me for regular workout...I am on the moon. Natchi and I ran close to 3 miles today ,feels awesome.... the joy of running,the joy of getting back on the road! Filter coffee to follow that made my day,thanks to Natchi:-)

Gary surprised us by volunteering to get the cans today Yan introduced the team to this new drink called 'BooKoo' (www.bookooenergy.com) .The BooKoo challenge has caught on ,we did a bottoms up today .I could take this for my GMAT which is looming large ,2 more weeks to go. BooKoo Rocks!!

Long Time!! Gosh that was one helluva break ...breaking the humerus can be quite a task and when that happens at a pub over alcohol and 100 odd people hear the bone crack..Yikessss!!! July 16'th 10.58 p.m venue College Inn,Seattle..the victim Mr Manjeri..! All those macho men and wannabe stallones please if you dont have the right technique and like me have the habit of taking to a liquid diet high on Uncle Jack ..remember this sport is not cricket where you have the luxury of pads,gloves,guards or helmets.. Arm Wrestling is not a joke.It Hurts when you break bones,but for the morphine high you get at the hospital the experience sucks:-) I am so relieved i can lift my left arm these days.I have called up every random name i could think of over the past 2 months to have some semblance of human contact. A big 'Thank You' to mom (i miss u sooo much) ,dad,Ash,Sathish,Gaurav,Santhosh ,Santhosh's Mom,the bloke who prayed for me at the hospital,,..Dr Bransford,Sundar ,Jai an...

If you have the right company ,it hardy matters where you are headed..coz time just evaporates leaving behind a great experience to cherish for long.I visited Tahoe,Reno and Napa this weekend ,its become a July 4'th must visit for me ..but this time it was just Jai's presence that made the difference.

I decided to make my next post after watching Vikram in ‘Anniyan’. Before I jot down my observations and comments on this one, I wanted to go down the memory lane to the years 1985-89.My holidays at 83 Palanisamy st KK pudur were spent right in front of our Orson TV watching countless Mallu, Tambi, Hindi and English flicks .Dad used to be a partner at 2 video shops on NSR road.’Audio Videos’ and ‘Sight and Sound’, rather funny names when I try to recollect them in my mind now. We also had this amazing collection of Mallu classics at home. Being the son of PG (Dad’s called that in his circles),I could walk into our shop and pick up loads of videocassettes and return them well after the normal time limit for renting. I grew up watching movies of Padmarajan, MT Vasudevan Nair and Bharathan. This also happened to be the golden era of Malayalam movies and I still believe that some of the mallu movies that came during that period were a class apart. These movies set an extremely high benchma...

Got back from San Diego this evening ..hardly remember my co passengers coz I was dead tired and half asleep listening to 'Yesudas' during the flight journey... 'Rouse ' is the perfect description of what we did at San Diego all weekend... First Jai surprised me at the airport by showing up in bermudas and his new frenchie did add to the confusion..yes my pre KG till high school buddy had changed so much that i almost missed him in the crowd of mexicans...Till i heard his trademark high pitched 'Machiii' ..i was in a dilemma. I did have a fairly adventurous ride to La Jolla (la Hoia….) thanks to Jai’s Driving gimmicks..Every now and then he kept reminding me that his Nissan Maxima was a 260 bhp stud..and that did’nt help the cause either.. We picked up some buttermilk,curd and orange juice to enroute to La Jolla parkway. Dinner happened in a jiffy and before I realized murli had joined us and we were recollecting our high school stories, crushes, fiascos…nostalg...

Come May 30'th I will be completing one year in the US.I remember telling Sundar my best pal at the Meenambakkam airport on the 29'th May last year 'De i will be back in 3 months'.I can only smile ironically at that statement today.From a uncertain 24 year old ..the US experience has made me a independent,open minded and calculative individual. I like recollecting past events,so let me start off with events and dates... Some dates that flash past in no particular order..Aug 10'th,Oct 23'rd,Jan 10'th..Dec 9'th,Nov 2'nd,Nov 19'th .Some were days of sorrow,some days of ecstasy ..some a start of a new journey,some were nights of drunken chivalry(Nov 2'nd..heheheh). I had the great pleasure of listenting to SPB unplugged at the Chabot college ...his 'Ilaya Nila' was truly a masterpiece,met Maddy a few weeks back at San Jose,cudn't break thru the hordes of preety aunties n gals to talk to the dude tho. Now a list surprising rendezvous ....

It's been a laid back friday at office .Had a expresso,a mocha .and a extra sweet lemonade today and yours truly is half asleep by early afternoon. Spent the most of week finishing up pending work to meet the deadline on the 30'th and now i dont have anything to do on a beautiful friday..and that was some motivation to start blogging! Last weekend when i spoke to the San Diego BVB gang comprising of Jai and moorli..i had a pleasant surprise waiting ..an invite to visit the So Cal coast.San Diego i was told is the party place in California and the thought of partying had its effect on the spending pattern last Saturday when i drove to San jose to watch Kana Kanden,120 bucks spent at JC Pennys on clothes phew! Its gonna be 4 years since i last met Jai and murli..I saw the schedule for the next few days lots of beaches and night spots in the list.. Hoping to strike some gold!!