A journey which revoked the past !!!

Journey's are a memorable one. It is, because of the place you are traveling to or the person with whom you are traveling or the mode in which you are traveling or few other factors too. But each and every journey would give you some wonderful memory when recalled later.

Though i had a lot of wonderful journey with my loved one's and special one's, this one particular journey was something kind of different which i never expected. It was the Pongal eve and I had planned to visit my hometown though i never informed my grandparents about the visit so as to give a small surprise to them. Once the plan was phrased, the next was the most difficult stage (i.e) getting a ticket and that too during a festival time. I had always preferred traveling by bus rather than train. Since one of my close friend was accompanying me then i had sought the help of my friends to book a tatkal ticket all for the sake of making the journey comfortable for her. She always preferred traveling by train. But fate played a spoilsport then. Obviously every single Indian who uses the irctc website would obviously know the result of getting a tatkal ticket. So as expected we didn't get the ticket. My friend who was supposed to come with me went ahead and booked a ticket for herself in a private travels. I was left alone now but i already had a backup plan. It was nothing but "You will find a seat for yourself in one of the buses leaving from Koyembedu". Sounds bit crazy right, even my friends said it right in front of my face but i never bothered. I held over to the same plan because CHENNAI has never let me down in any matter. With the josh i left to Koyembedu Bus Terminus, found a comfortable seat in one of the SETC's special bus which was arranged mainly for the festival.

Beleive it or not I never seen transport officials working so perfect which actually helped to ease the crowd. The right number of seats were filled and bus left exactly when it had to. Oh god i was really amazed by looking at the dedication of the SETC employees.

Okay coming back to my journey, the bus was running perfectly with no hurdles on the way. Cool air was hitting my face taking me to the past. When i was a doing class 4 or 5 it was then where mofussil buses had a makeover with colorful lights and sound system in them. As a boy at that age i always fancied them and would love to travel in them. It would be like a dream come true every time i travel by bus. As years passed we found a complete new face of transportation thus hardly getting any small chance of traveling in an ordinary bus. Naturally those good old memories went hidden. After 10+ years it was that particular night which brought back my hidden memories live.

I find it really hard to express the feel which i had it then because words can never express what we actually try to mean. But on an outline that particular journey brought back the sweet hidden memories of mine. And that is how that journey was so special to me. I guess each one would have encountered one such journey.



A change that is most needed !!!

Important signs and instructions only in Tamil seem to get people from other states into hot water.


One of my friends, who has been working in Chennai for a while, was travelling in a MTS bus using a pass. At one stop, he was asked his ticket by officials and he showed it. They checked it and asked why he hadn’t signed it. He said that he was not aware as the instructions were in Tamil, which he didn’t understand, and no one told him. The officials didn’t agree and fined him. He shared this incident with me and I sympathised.

Another time, I went to CMBT to board a bus to Hyderabad. As I entered the terminus, I saw two boards displaying the terminal number, platform number, state transport names and routes. All of it was in Tamil. I had to ask another person to help me find the right platform.

Chennai, so-called metro city and State capital, doesn’t use English to display important instructions. Mostly, it's in Tamil. When I went to Bangalore, I got a bus pass which had instructions in both Kannada and English. Do Chennai’s authorities expect people from other States to read Tamil? This is not the way information is disseminated in a metro.

I am sure that many people are troubled by this issue. People from all over the country come here. There needs be a system where English is also used to display public information.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/nxg/language-blues/article5578287.ece

The above article is one such thing which had always strikked my mind. Its good that somehow it got limelight through media. Obviously as the article mentioned, we do find bilingual displays in every bus stops over Bangalore. I always wished Chennai too had it and i guess the authorities may take some time (i.e. couple of years according to them) to fix this issue. A metropolitan city should be easily accessible to every kind of people.

Hope to find some new change over the city in the future.



Grand Evening !!!

Celebrating Cognizant 2013, the first corporate event that i was attending. Right from Saturday morning i was too excited. Obviously on one side the excitement was for the event and the other was the venue. I had longed every time when i watch "Vijay Awards" on television that somehow i should visit Nehru Indoor stadium. And since that dream was about to fulfilled i was jumping in excitement.

By mid noon, I boarded the bus to the venue. The moment i entered into the stadium, for a minute the scene where Vikram in the film "Anniyan" used to enter the stadium hit my eyes. I felt some kind of excitement rushing within me. Every performance was catchy. The best was the performance of Andrea. What a voice it is, a really gifted one. Of course singer Vijayprakash too did justice to his appearance.

Everything seemed perfect except for one thing. Registration were limited to one entry per registration. Actually the house was only half filled. So if the organizers had allowed two entry per registration, it would have been good.


Not a favourable one to me..

Chennai, the land of love. Hmm, I am sure many will deny it :P Anyway Chennai in person has given me lots which if listed would go too long. There is no such area that i dislike but of course there is one such area which is unlucky to me.

I don't know the exact reason but every time my visit to Nungambakkam ends up in failure. Actually it started off way back in my college 3rd year. I was fresh out of my college hostel which was actually kind of a Jail. A friend of mine tempted me to join with him for Core Java course at NIIT. Since NIIT Nungambakkam was considered the best of all, we had our enrollment there. Believe me or not, the course itself was spanned over just 8 days and out of it we attended only 4. I was with NCC and my friend was with NSS. Both had camps and so we missed the classes. So that was the first failure.

The next was, i had my credit card approved from Standard Chartered Bank. It was more than a month and yet i didn't receive it. So the customer care executive asked me to visit the nearest bank and collect it. I went to the bank but returned empty handed. The staff informed me that credit card processing is no way related to Bank. It is a separate body and asked me to contact them. With nothing to say further, I returned back. This was the second failure.

Recently i planned to get myself a two wheeler. So on enquiring i found a Yamaha showroom on the Nelson Mannikam Road. I visited it and to my disappointment the model which i wished to buy was void. Moreover even the company has stopped the production of that particular model. With a heavy heart i left the showroom and entered Skywalk mall. My friends and I were planning to watch a movie on Christmas day. On reaching the counter the saleswomen of PVR greeted me with a big smile. I inquired her about availability of tickets on Christmas eve. Again with a very big smile she said, "Sorry Sir...Bookings open only for today". I was about to ask again but she just gave me a bigggggg smile indirectly asking me to clear the line.

I can't say it as fate or luck but fact is may be things are not turning out for me over there at that point of time.



A perfect start for the day...

Getting up early in the morning and feeling refreshed about the new day's work gives everyone a new feel. Be it any day, the feel you get every morning is awesome. The mind looks fresh ready to take up any number of task and completing at a wipe of lash.

Even i start the day with the same feel. Everything goes fine till i reach my boarding point. It is barely 20 min of travel to my office from my point but the city bus make my day completely horrible. The bus which i take runs through a very busy area and there are barely countable number of bus present in the fleet of that route. Even though i board the bus from the first point, it is never free a single day. People start boarding the bus right before it arrives at its spot. Getting into such a bus, getting cramped in the crowd, sweat flowing from the body, no air flow, oh god what a day it is...

Finally getting down before office and stretching the body, wish no one else is facing such difficulties during the start of their day.



My first road trip

Road trips, a quite exciting one as experienced reading from novels and books. I never imagined that i would be experiencing one such trip on hand. Last weekend my brother rang me up early in the morning asking me to get ready for an outing. I was doubting where had he planned to go because usually he tells me the place. He came down to Tambaram and picked me up for the road trip to Pondicherry.

Initially the plan was to take up the ECR to reach Pondicherry but later we shifted on our route towards Tindivanam from where we had a bypass to reach it. I, my brother and his friends had no idea about the places to visit there. Having no proper destination in mind we just moved on into the city. Having a wonderful lunch at seashore restaurant with the cool breeze hitting us, we decided to halt up there till evening. So sitting on the sea shore, watching the waves hitting the shore, oh man what a feel it is. By dusk we rolled the streets watching the famous Aurubindo ashram, french settlements, auroville. As the sun made its decend, we hit the gas on the same Tindivanam bypass returning back. Sitting in the car i was just wondering and telling myself that is how a road trip used to be but anyways everyone including me enjoyed it a lot.

Just reading from novels to real time experience, hmmm guess what i myself started planning for more raod trips. A SLR hanging around my neck and a vehicle to roll out, there is nothing to stop me.