Juwal Bose Says

This day was supposed to be a vegetarian day. We all were having a heavy stomach after the other day’s chicken bash. First stop was 4D cinema at the Orama 4D theatre in the Atria Mall. It was recommended by Eldhose, but i had say you save the money. Its a 3D film with physical feedback through the chairs and surroundings. We got our ass poked, face sprayed with water and felt air pumped at different points on the body. The cost of the show was Rs240 per person for 15mins. We saw that lots of tour planners have booked the shows and we had to wait till noon for our show. This one was among the default tour plan list for the Mumbai tour trips. After the show we roamed around the Rolls Royce with watering mouths.

From Mumbai Trip 20-26 jun 09

We had some simple doughnuts at the food cafe and no one was feeling particularly hungry. We had a walk about the worli seaface. Here too te water looked damn filthy. Cousins were keeping the distance while small kids were enjoying the sea water sprayed from the sea face.

From Mumbai Trip 20-26 jun 09

It rained heavily on our way back, but then we never minded. There were couples everywhere enjoying their private moments and sharing it with us. Rain didnt matter to them too. We tried vegetarian food by trying pau bhaji, onion oothappam and stuff. Then we went to Juhu beach, the all so famous celebrity residential beach. The beach was crowded like no tomorrow. It was majorly normal people and indian tourists. No celebrity was seem anywhere and we missed foreigners too.

From Mumbai Trip 20-26 jun 09

The beach was huge and there were more than 10 football competitions going on among the local gangs all around the beach. We had a walk along the beach which made us realise how withdrawn the sea really was. Water was supposed to come upto the cocconut groves and it was like 100 mts withdrawn at that time. Tides would have a big effect on this beach.

From Mumbai Trip 20-26 jun 09

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Majority of the city traveling was done in the Honda City with Jubind Driver ‘Mama’, who turned out to be best in the business. Traffic in Mumbai is one of a kind, you just got to see it to understand. First visit was Victoria Terminus or the Chatrapathy Shivaji Terminal. We got it without a ticket and saw metal detectors and policemen/policewomen on alert. Lots of trains having their last stop here and huge crowd was coming out in the morning time. I just could not imagine a better place for those terrorists to chose, no one would miss in such a crowd.

From Mumbai Trip 20-26 jun 09

We went to Manish market and Crawford Market in search of game cds and saw all kinds of electronic, textile and other goods there. Jubin then took us for his treat at a Zafrani hotel. We ate all kinds of chicken – Mughal, Afghani and what not. After this it was time for hanging gardens, which no one should try if on a tight schedule. On the way was Chowpatty beach and Marine Drive.

From Mumbai Trip 20-26 jun 09

We had a relaxation session at the hanging gardens, where there was nothing much to see. Then we went to fashion street near oval maidan which is the famous stadium of sachin tendulkar. We bought lots of cheap dress from the street for low prices as Rs100.

From Mumbai Trip 20-26 jun 09

Then we visited the terror attack places, the famous Leopold cafe which was full of foreigners. At the Taj there was huge Indian crowd who were mostly tourists. We could take a boat to elephante caves from here, but we chose not to as it was already late. The renovation work for Taj was in progress and we could see the floor which was on fire.

From Mumbai Trip 20-26 jun 09

The Gateway of India was just infront of the Taj. The sea water looked real bad and was dark brown in color. Water was sprayed into the roads as the waves smashed to the seaface. We decided to enjoy the night view of Taj with the lights on.

From Mumbai Trip 20-26 jun 09

We went to Bademiyan open air roadside restaurant to eat and had a bash with all kinds of chicken items.

From Mumbai Trip 20-26 jun 09

Thus day 2 ended with out much crowd seeing. We were disappointed but at the quality of the crowd at Mumbai, we expected more colors.

The first post on the trip

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Had a great one week getaway to Mumbai with my brother and cousins. The idea was there always, but i could not find the right time as all my cousins were engineering students and getting a vacations and making it coincide with a week break in my time schedule was near impossible task. But then we got
the break in june and me, my brother jeevan and cousin ashwath were on our way to mumbai. We
had our aunty and cousin jubin, who is now having his training in federal bank after his engineering.
The tickets were booked by ashwath and he was the original tour coordinator. So we took the netravati train from Ernakulam and got on in the general compartment. Although we could fo to the AC as we had booked the same train to mumbai, i was kinda hesitant. The general trip was a killer and we all were mashed up in the heavy crowd till we reached trissur. At trissur we were joined by vijay and ashwath. Vijay was the other cousin and had come to see us. He had this wish to join us but had
classes. The tickets were booked in tatkal and i had my berth in B1-52 and the other 2 had in B2. We
had booked normal tickets too which were always in waiting list and we had to cancel it.  had bought some 3/4ths to wear in Mumbai as they were alien to our regional ‘mundu’. Shaym had chappathy and bread with cheese and tomaro curry which was kinda intuitive from Mani aunty. Chappathy wrapped in tomato was a new thing to us.

From Mumbai Trip 20-26 jun 09

I woke up at 6 when the train was traveling though goa. It was beautiful, it was greenery everywhere.
I never felt that i ever exited kerala. It was my first konkan experience. I had always traveled in
the other routes and exiting kerala was always painful as we had to endure barren wastelands and
rocky mountains with thorny bushes scattered everywhere. THis was a totally new experience, nature in
all its marvel. We saw viaducts and hundreds of tunnels. Passing through tunnels were really fun for
the firsttimers. For once it will be total darkness, then there will be a ray of light, then blast of
light.

From Mumbai Trip 20-26 jun 09

Lots of farmers were working in the fields below and we all enjoyed the beautiful kerala like
sceneries. Then after some times the tunnels started to be a boring sight. As we approached Mumbai it started to rain. It was the first monsoon tain in mumbai and we thought our trip was spoiled. But it
was a welcome sight as it broke all conventions that i had about bombay.We couls see low lying mist, and slow rain. There were no big bldingd or any industrial look to the place. There were mountains
looming above and around the city. I never thought i could see mountains and greenery inside a metro. We were welcomed by a last tunnel as we approached thane station. We saw numerous suburban trains rocketing past us.

From Mumbai Trip 20-26 jun 09

Jubin was there to welcome us and we took off to their flat at Raheja gardens in the honda city. The
day was for resting and we started to see the T20 finals which turned out boring. So we went to Rmall
which was a mall nearby, it was claimed to be the first mall in India. We had a whiskey for Rs10
Getting back we had a great talk with each other catching up and planning for the days ahead.

Now onto day 1.

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This time it was my third visit to kumarakom. The place has some unforgettable memories for me and this time around it was no less. Here is the post on the earlier one. This time it was a houseboat trip arranged by Arun George for his marriage. Class mates from College of Engineering Chengannur were supposed to join up for the trip and visit him for marriage the other day.

From Kumarakom_May_09

I was the first one to reach the boat as timeliness was an asset with all my friends and they were supposed to reach the place at 11.30

From Kumarakom_May_09

I waited for them to join up and had a chat with the people of the boat. Here are the details on the boat if any one want to contact – Alumparanbil, Cheepunkal, Kumarakom North, 0481-2525797 (Soji-9846184654)
It will cost you around 11000Rs for one day trip on the boat. It had 3 bed rooms and sun deck with vcd tv on board. We had natural cocconut drinks on arrival and the food was commendably good.

From Kumarakom_May_09

It was the day of election results and thanks to hightech Jyothis we had live net on blackberry and laptop.

From Kumarakom_May_09

We had smirmoff vodka sponsored by AGT, but there would be no fun without the local Toddy So we came ashore at R-block, which was an artificial island created by Murikkan and taken over by the Govt. He had cultivated cocconut in the whole island and it was the hub for Toddy. We had 5 litres for Rs70/Ltr.

From Kumarakom_May_09

But just before having the drinks we decided to take a bath in the salty waters on vembanad lake. It was really shallow and we had some limited fun in it as the water was real salty.

From Kumarakom_May_09

Now inside the boat too the water supply was salty and i got informed that it was seasonal when the lake water gets salty due to onrush of seawater. Licenses for boat to travel was till 6 pm at night, after which they had to be ashore. So some of our friends were coming to join us at night, it was a tricky place to find as we were inside remote areas of the lake. But we ultimately found each other in the thick of the night.

Heated political discussions were there all through out the night when all the topics under the sun were seriously covered. I found myself sleeping on the sun deck that night as a watchman for the boat. It was fun despite the mosquitoes. Next day we arose to the magnificent sight of migratory birds in the fields near by.

From Kumarakom_May_09

We got ashore near cheepunkal bridge at 9am and were ready for the marriage at kottayam.

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From BarcampKerala 5

Attended bck five point oh aka BCK5 at technopark. This one had lots of specialties to it, we had a new Tshirt being distributed (RS 220) , I was taking a session on Adobe technologies, lots of attendees and we got to travel with SEO guru Mani Karthik from dailyseoblog.com. Check out some photos here

My session slides are shared here

Now it was fun traveling with Mani as he was giving out expensive tips and help. Also being a god driver we reached prior to the organisers. When we reached there we saw Binny already present and after a little bit Anand and Kenney came along. We went to have food together which was kinda fun. We also had with us Binoy who was displaying his all new HP mini lap. The sessions were fun as Binnys session fired up new talks and discussions. Now looking forward to next one.

Some old links here : Barcamp1, Barcamp2

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Me and Anish presented a session on blender 3D game development for FOSSTER -09, an opensource conference at Amrita Engineering College, Vallikkavu. It was a conference organised by the FOSS chapter of students in support of open source activities of the college. It was a 2 day event with simultaneous sessions happening in different halls highlighting many opensource tools and ventures. Our session was a modified version of my blender session at backcamp 3. Our session was in the after noon and the small hall was jampacked with audience. We also had Anand from theAnand.com and Basil from millionclues.com with us. They were taking the session on blogging after our session.

Anish started off with introduction of blender. He introduced the user interface and detailed the initial slides. I was passed the baton when it was time for some serious modeling and artistic development explaination. I had a tough time doing that as the audience were dumbstruck with the capabilities of the tool. I realised that the video session was a bt too much for a novice audience. But anyways they listened through and some even took notes.

After that Anish screened Big buck bunny movie which brought some life back for the audience. Last part was game engine programming using blenders inbuilt game logic blocks. I believe the session did succeed in creating the awareness about blender which was our ultimate aim with the whole thing. Anish tells me that many students liked the session and wanted him to take it again. Well i wont be there and he will be handling some serious programming in future sessions as he is working hard on pygame projects. The good thing is that my video tutorials which i thought would be wasted after barcamp sessions came to good use.

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From Life Snaps

I take this opportunity to thank you for allowing us to conduct the educational tour. I
am pleased to present the following tour report,
As planned we departed from the college at 5:30 pm on 8-8-2000. We stopped at Kumily at
10:00 pm for taking permit. By that time we had dinner and got refreshed.
We reached Pondicherry at 9:00 am on 9-8-2000. We went to Youth Hostel and had breakfast
and refreshment there. From Youth Hostel we went to VDesign Pvt. Ltd. for the technical
visit. We attended a seminar on VHDL (Very high speed integrated circuit Hardware
Description Language). After the seminar, TPC members from S3 B held discussions with the
director of the firm. After the technical visit we had lunch at hotel Ram International. After
lunch, we went to Aurobindo Ghosh Ashram. There we offered prayers at the samadhi of the
great saint. After visiting the ashram, we spent time on the Beach Road. We also found time
for shopping at the Nehru Street, which was nearby. After shopping we had dinner at hotel
Sagar. At 11:00 pm, we left Pondicherry for Yercaud.
We reached Yercaud at 7:00 am on 10-8-2000. After breakfast at hotel Tamil Nadu, we went
for sight -seeing. We went to Lady’s Seat, a viewpoint 3 km from the hotel on foot, as it was
not accessible by bus. On coming back we had lunch from the same hotel. After lunch, we
went for trekking to KilliyurWater falls. But we couldn’t visit the falls as it was about to rain
_and we were forced to return~ After trekking we went for boating at 5:30 pm. Pedal boats
were available for rent till 6:30 pm. At 6:45 pm, we went back to hotel and prepared for our
campfire. Dinner was served at 8:30 pm. We conducted the campfire at 10:00 pm and went to
bed at 11:30 pm. At 6:30 am on 11th, we left Yercaud.
~== On way to Black Thunder, we had our breakfast in a restaurant at Bhavani. There we were
surprised to meet the S3 D batch on tour. We reached Mettupalayam at 12:30. Lunch was
served free of cost inside Black Thunder itself for all the students and staff members. We
enjoyed the water games till 6:00 pm and we left for Coimbatore at 6:00 pm.
–= ~=~
Dinner was arranged at Hotel Annapoorna near the Town Hall. After dinner, we went for
shopping till 10:30 pm. At 11:00 pm we left Coimbatore and reached our college at 5:00 am
on 12-8-2000 as planned.
The technical visit arranged at Pondicherry was very much informative. The tour also helped to
create a better understanding between the students and the staff members. I once again thank
you on behalf of the class for allowingus to conduct our educational tour.
Sd/-
Arun George T
Tour Representative
S3B
CEC

Popularity: 83% [?]

When i was passing out of professional college i wanted to do some kool thing which others think twice or thrice before following. Then this desire died out in time when i wandered around aimless for a couple of years , ultimately landing at my destination. After some hectic time at entrepreneurship at office suddenly boredom was setting in..then suddenly my long lost desire came back!

Now what was too kool with out much trouble..which i can accomplish that others wont follow up. Hmm after long thoughts and brainstorming i found out the original desire which was lying dormant in my mind all these years – get a tattoo!

Tattoo was always a taboo in my society and i never wanted to do stuff against my parents wishes. Everyone is supposed to do social functions with their shirts off in Hindu religion, so i cant get too wierd. So i decided on a black and white twin dragon tattoo which was quite famous. Then all of a sudden 2 of my friends got tattoed and started making fun of me. I was the one who was talking abt getting the tattoo and they overtook me. hmmm no w i have to live upto the reputation by doing something better..lets see. The i booked tickets to blore where these guys got the tattoo and informed my friend Aby , yes the same guy! I didnt tell any one else but got permission from mom, thank god she doesnot care much these days and has given me a grownup status!

So i was there one weekend and we started off to find the studio the next day which was a sunday. We found the studio in commercial street after getting wierd looks from ppl with whom we had to ask the directions. Then i saw there were other studios also and some of them did gunshots! ehmm! It was a small room and the long haired handsome (girly) artist welcomed us. I am very nervous about getting affected by some health problems..even Aids for that matter. The setup didnt look very good. Anyways the guy gave me courage and took out 3 albums of tattoo designs. We started looking thru..meanwhile we asked the rate and all. It was rated per square inch i believe, my memory a little rusty. Normal shoulder tattoos costed around 1000 -2500. Then i saw colored tattoos..well i had to do something better. I decided not to use the dragon design i have brought but rather do a full shoulder colored tattoo. After a great amount of support from aby i decided i will do the rising phoenix!

Now came the pain time. I had to sit for sometime to get the courage to start. He asked if i had had food or it will feel dizzy. Then i removed shirt and sat on the chair. He took the design and started drawing with the pen. Normal pen ok! The design was complete and then he took out the tatoo pen and the needle! oh my God! the needle is gonna prick my skin 1000 times per second ohh..atlast i told him i was ready. It felt like a painfull vibration i had to clench my fists and close my jaws. Seconds were years. He completed the outline and gave me a break. it lookd good at that time and we were both happy and the pain session vanished from memory.
After some time the guy came back and took out the colors. The painting session was about to begin. Now this is something that i wont endeover again in my life, ever! The pen crisscrossed inside the design to fill in the color. It was more painful and took years to complete. Blood was everywhere and he kept on cleaning with cotton and dettol. The end product was never as beautiful as the design i saw on picture but i was very eager to get going. We also made him add flames under the phoenix, which i regret right now. Anyways he told how i was to take care of the skin for one month to come and bandaged the complete stuff.

When we got back to my evening bus from madiwala all friends were there awaiting to see the tattoo. I never let them touch anything as it pained a lot. Aby had informed all and even juniors were there to see. Hmm my friend from school saw me and was making a issue of the whole thing. He made fun of me infront of some relatives..and i still remember how their faces changed when he told why i came to blore!

Anyways the wound healed in 1 and a half weeks and there was not complexities. It looked like a blurred bubblegum tattoo. So many people thought it actually was a bubble gum tattoo..good for me! Right now i am happy with the phoenix but it restricts me from displaying my body around. Only when i go outside kerala do i usually use my sleeveless skin tight shirts.

From Athirappilly Trip

But lifes fun…what shd i do next?

Popularity: 65% [?]

Life was always complicated and it remains so even now. Every thing was different, sometimes i made them so, but usually they were like that in the first place. It took me a lot many years to even decide what i wanted to do with my life. It was not easy as trying a normal life was sometimes a challenge in itself. So when i had found the courage to think of myself and take serious decisions in life i made simple guidelines.

Follow my heart, do what you want to do. Dream realisable dreams, try to get them.

I was not sure what path to follow, what career to pursue. I never wanted to go on studying for ever, even when i was good at it. It never meant anything to me other than readying us to understand the world around us. I wanted to use any talents that i was given and put it to good use. Create something out of it and create a meaning for my life. I told myself that if God decided not t give you something, then you are all the more responsible for what God had given you specially. I think i am successful in that being part of Csharks. I am able to create a dozen jobs and able to drive foreign money into India and that also from scratch.

I was crazy about computer games when i was in my college. It eventually ended me up with Csharks. But my first dream was to buy a computer which made justice to all my gaming needs. I saved some money during my initial days at Csharks to buy the best gaming rig at that time. It cost me 80K and had a 36K dedicated dualcore graphics card in it. My successful dream of owning a gaming machine. It was time for having a good mobile too, my idea was to buy sonyericsson phone. Sony had excellent aesthetics and it always appealed to me as an artist. When Sonys w850 slider came out i went for it for nearly 20k. My savings were completely over by that time as we were not really trying to make profits with our firm back then.

Other than that i wanted to see the world around me. I made traveling a hobby. It was not so to begin with, but i specifically followed friends who liked to travel. I was successful in that too as i was abe to visit the himalayas, trek south indias 3rd highest peak and swim in many exotic waterfalls.

Now there came the idea to settle down and have a lady in my life. Here again i wanted to follow my heart and go for a lady whom i wished to be there in my life. I as always tried my maximum as failure was never something which i could take easily. Now this time around it was failure awaiting me, but then i learned some hard facts. Even though you plan things right and consider the odds in your favour, there arises certain unforeseen complications which screw things up for you. In my case this complication was something that i could never change or correct. It was time for me to accept the defeat as it was and to move on. I still believe that we make our life, i would rather take this incident as an exception.

So dream left now is for me to get a drive. I currently dream of the new Honda City Automatic with paddle shift. Driving dream was something which i killed when i realise how difficult it was for me to get a license. Now it has become all the more important for me to get it. That is the key to my freedom and i need it desperately. Although i am not sure of how to raise the money for the wheel, i am hopeful that it wont be much of a trouble once i get my license.

Now i guess i have to find more dreams to follow, i have my professional dream of making Csharks big. Then it will take time and its more of a long term goal. Anyways i am not building any dreams for my partner again, we dont really make the same mistake twice.

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