Life is to Enjoy

Good breakfast made everyone fresh except me and Vijay. After taking a heavy breakfast, I was feeling very tired and sleepy. The original plan was to go to Suseendram, where a temple for lord Hanumanji is there. Most of you know that Hanumanji is my favourite God and would in fact scold me by reading this. Yes, I missed going there and went directly to room and slept nicely. In the mean while the rest 7 went to Susendram and had a nice darshan. It seems that they also went to a Thennai mara pannai (a place where plenty of coconut trees are grown) and had a feast of cocunut water (Ilanir). Once they were back, we all went to Vivekanda Rock and Tiruvalluvar Statue. It costs Rs. 20 for each to cover these 2 places by boat. There is no other route. We have to reach there only by boat. It was an exciting trip in boat. It is quite a big boat ridden by motor and can carry about 200 people in a ride. Even standing is allowed. Naturally, as you expect, I was standing when I boarded the boat. We...

But in my room we 3 had already planned to see the Argentina VS Ivory Coast first round Football (for US fellas Soccer) match. The match was at 12:30 AM but the time in the clock only showed 11:00 PM. So we went out for a walk. The breeze from the sea shore flowed all over the place and it was a pleasent walk. The whole day's story flew in my mind and believe me, I would have blogged at that time had I been provided with an opportunity. Well, it wasnt there. So we can forget that. After returning back, the match was on. But my 2 team mates Amjath and Vijay were off by 12:30 and 12:45 respectively. I alone watched the game till halftime and was out by 1:15. Sudden sound of an alarm was all I could hear when Amjath called "Thalai, ezhunthurunga... mani 5:00 aayiduchu. Seekram". Thats it. The sleep was over. But my body pulled me down again and again. With great grit and determination, I managed to pull out from bed and get ready to see the sunrise. Five of us Vijay, Ashok, ...

The leisure zone was supposed to be a good 1.5 to 2 KM walk along the hilly (or mountainy?) area filled with some statues in the way. They gave a paper which directed us and had 20 different statues. At last this turned out to be a walking for us after some mediocre lunch. Everyone was exhausted by then. Not a happy place we visited, but still no missing with enjoyment and fun. At last we directed back to the cottage where we had the luggage, packed it back and pointed the van to go directly to Kanya Kumari. By that time mostly all were exhausted but little conversations/arguments were going on side by side and we had all planned to get Halwa in Tinrunelveli which was en-route to Kanyakumari. Especially all were interested to buy IRUTTU KADAI halwa which is very famous. Once that was done, a huge baggage of halwa also joined our trip's luggage. The ride then started with a trigger of ANTAKSHARI. It went on and on and on until every throat was out of water (thonda thanni vathi pogut...

If you are planning for going to Kuttralam, there are ample number of places to visit and take bath. Some of the key places are Old falls, Main falls, Five falls, Palaruvi (in Kuttralam) and Palaruvi (In Kerala). If you go there in peak season, there are several other sub-falls where you get good falling water to bath. Moreover one important point to note is that if you take a public vehicle that doest have right to go into Kerala, you can register in the near by RTO office and get the paper ready for one time visit which has a fee of Rs. 300. Also the entry into the Palaruvi region is not free. It costs Rs. 10 per head and Rs. 100 for the Van. Always ensure that you have sufficient funds to make yourself enjoyable. At last the Palaruvi in Kerala was reached and we didnt expect too much of water there. But to our surprise the water was falling with a great force and the crowd was also very less relatively. I also heard that this is the mother of all falls that come to Kuttralam but I a...

The freshness of the hot drink in early morning remained with us when we got back to the van and started to travel towards Kuttralam. I am not sure how many of my team mates enjoyed the morning drive but I certainly did. The fresh natural air that blew fast from the window near me was truly great feeling. The songs of early to middle 90s by Illayaraja was also played which suited the mood very well. Just as I was enjoying the drive a lot, I saw a signboard saying Kuttralam was just 5 KMs away. So we were almost there not knowing where to go for lodging. At last we found a cottage to put our luggages and get ourselves ready for the dip in water. When I just went to a shop nearby and enquired about the water levels, the news was not encouraging one. Clearly the message was "No water in any of the falls as you may expect. Only Five Falls (Aintharuvi) has some water falling". That was very disappointing, but it didnt dampen our spirits too much. We had enquired about other possib...

As a part of my onsite trip treat (vera vazhiye illa treat kudukkalanna my team will not work properly when I go onsite), we as a team went to Kuttralam and Kanyakumari. I dont say that the whole expense of the trip was borne by me (kaasu avvlo irunthaa naan yen vela senji pozhakkanum). Hence dont come back to me asking that you have given a big treat to your team and why dont you give me at least a small treat. Ethuvaa irunthaalum phone pannunga, illa mail adinga... thayavu seithu comment eluthi treat kettu maanatha vaangathinga. Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeee Friday 9th June was the date when we started to Tirunelveli by Kanyakumari express. 5:30 PM was the time it starts at Egmore. Half of the team was boarding in Egmore and half at Tambaram. I was in the later half. Its time to introduce my team members in this blog as some of the experiences will involve them also. There are totally 11 people and only 9 of us made it to the trip. I will list them. Here we go... 1. Balasubramaniam (Bala) - The...

I will be going to Pittsburgh, PA, USA for an onsite assignment thru my office on 7th July. Its a sort of happy as well as sad news for me. Happy because its a long term assignment and sad because I will lose living happy life with parents and friends... vaazhkai la onna vittu thaan innonna pudikkanum... One happy thing is that most (in fact all) of you who read this already know it hence I dont have a problem from people reading my blog asking treat ;-)

On popular demand (Sathyama oruthar kettanga pa, nambunga), the "My special friends" series is back from my side. My (not my own) Tea shop master - Nair Greetings and wishes is what I (infact we friends) get from Mr. Nair whenever we enter and leave the Tea shop. He is always behind us asking whatever we might need which is available in the shop. We used to have very long conversations in the tea shop and we rarely get complaints from him urging us to leave. We have taken special and important decisions in the Tea shop and after our conversation Nair will have the final smile. It is almost 4 years now with Nair being introduced to me. He doesnt know me by name but would certainly recognize me any time I peep in. There are days where I would start a day with him, with a tea at about 6:00 AM and end the day with a tea at about 1:00 AM. He would have changed shifts by then but would certainly enquire, "Enna ya nethi night vanthiyame? chinna vayasula olunga thoonganum. Evvo ...