Relentless down pour in Chennai

Looks like the rain gods wanted to make a statement to the chennaites who were bashing them for the below average rainfall thus far in the state. The result, incessant downpour for the past 24-48 Hrs. I have not bothered to check with the stats to tell you how many Centimeters of rain was registered in the city, but it is safe to say its way above what I have seen so far.

It was worse to the extent that all the arterial roads were flooded, the next logical thing being traffic jams. I heard some of our guys walking back home in the rain abandoning buses as the traffic came to a stand still in most places due to water logging. We kept shifting times of when we should start from our Office to reach home only to be realizing later that we wouldn’t start at all. Corn-flakes, coffee at the 01:00 AM and then crashed into one of the sofas available at the office reception. Couldn’t make my sleep until 02:30 AM as the splash of rains lashing the building was so high making me restless. Woke up at 07:00 AM braving to start and finally reached home by 08:30 AM wading through some tyre deep (wouldn’t say knee deep as I was travelling by car ) waters all along.

One heck of a rain that… Oh wait, it isn’t over yet.. just that the ferocity has come down..

16 Hours at Bengaluru

I was in Bangalore sorry, Bengaluru the day before yesterday on an official note. Its been 23 months since I had been there and I found no notable change about the IT capital since then. One change is that I touched down at the new Airport at Devanahalli which is about 30 odd kilometers from the City.

The worst part of the journey was the fact that I had to get up at 04:00 AM in the morning to catch my Jet Airways flight at 05:55 AM. Thank god there was no goof up with the flight schedule and I promptly touched down at 06:45 AM at Bengaluru’s new Airport. The newly constructed, is surely a class apart from the Chennai Airport (I cannot compare it with other airports because I have not been to any of them). The morning chill was as usual but it fell short of my expectations, now that the Winter has set in.

The lounge greeted me with a Cafe Coffee Day shop with all those enticing Sandwiches. Without a second thought, grabbed a Spinach,Corn and Cheese Sandwich for my Breakfast. To my surprise, the Bus station appeared just as I stepped out and there were more than a few buses for the early hours. Managed to explain my destination to the Bus driver and got into a Volvo bus which would charge me Rs.125/- for the onward drop into the City. Pretty OK for a 30-35 Kms ride.

Once my official work got over, I had to return back to the airport at about 22:00 Hrs to catch my Chennai bound Jet Airways flight at 22:45 Hrs. Having exhausted calories over and above my limits for the day, made it on time and was back home (Sweet home) at about 00:30 Hrs being gleefully greeted by my Father, Mother and Wife. Good but tiring trip that…

The new age Indian Cricket Team

Ever since Dhoni’s men lifted the inaugural T20 world cup, the Indian Cricket seems to have come to a new age. That followed by IPL has enabled BCCI, unearth talent who have thus been bestowed with the opportunity to play alongside international stalwarts to learn a lesson or Two.

Very few will argue the point that Indian Cricket was ridiculously confined to seeing (at times just hoping and dreaming) some Individuals perform (read Sachin) and there was nothing much left after his dismissal. Compare that time with the current new age Indian cricket and I am left with the following distinguished reasons behind the change.

1. Better bowling attack
The new age Indian seamers perform far better than their predecessors. Our recent Test successes abroad have been mainly due to them.

2. Aggressive batting (and talking )
Today, our expectations are not confined to one player (atleast thats it for me). Gambir, Shewag, Yuvraj and Dhoni are genuine Match winners with the bat. Their batting averages may not be as high as Sachin’s (Dhoni being a exception) but the success rate for India has been better with their performances than Sachin (sachin was probably a little unlucky with a weaker seamer section to backup his efforts).

3. Better fielding
This is highly debatable and it still isn’t perfect. Inconsistency prevails but by and large our T20 and One day team do a better job than before (test team is highly inconsistent and you know why).

4. The Dhoni (coolness) factor
It would be fair to say that Dhoni has been lucky as there is an abundance of talent now in the team and they perform most of the times. There is no doubt though in his leadership skills and the knack with which he manages both the Juniors and Seniors to play well as a team. Ganguly probably had to manage with a lesser talented side and that makes him an admirable Captain.

Overall, the new age Indian Cricketers have given a good hope for the Indian Cricket fans who have been longing to see their men make an impact CONSISTENTLY at the international level.

Its been 8 good years…

… since my father bought me a Suzuki Bike and I parted with it the day before yesterday (13th Nov). It so happened that the bike got billed on the very day back in 2000. It wasn’t planned to happen that way but was just incidental that it changed hands on 13th. It would definitely be a lie to say that I wasn’t emotional on that day but then things just move on in life..

My Father with my son

The bike was a gift from my Father for having earned a Job at AdventNet just a month back then, soon after finishing my Bachelors degree. It definitely was a proud moment for me and my Family. My father himself doesn’t ride bikes but was more than willing to appreciate my achievement with such a gift. So Meticulous and Organized he is, that when I asked him to ready the Original documents of the bike to be presented to the buyer, he came up with a bunch of bills, vouchers and insurance documents a notebook thick that tells the history of the bike.. Right from the sales invoice to the regular service bills, he had them all preserved, ordered and filed.. In a world that is so disorganized (me being no exception) he is definitely a stand out.. This post is in fact a tribute to his act.. Thanks Dad !

I’ll definitely miss my Bike !

My Bike