After infi planning and discussions, we had finally decided our plans for this Saturday. Cubbon Park at 10 am. As usual, by the time all of us gathered it was 11.
At the Cubbon Park, we saw the Aquarium. Saw many varieties of fishes with myriad colours, shapes and sizes. Then we went to the Vishweshwara Industrial Museum. The fun with ccience section and the engine section was interesting.
After grabbing a bite at Subway, we headed for the Ulsoor Lake, did boating again (this was twice in a week) and then sat down on grass and played Mafia. For those who know Mafia, you would know it ought to be fun and for those who don't know, sorry rahega...cant explain d rules to u now :P
After that we returned back to IIM and had an amazing dinner (chana masala and dal makhani) at a nearby Punjabi Dhaba. A fitting end to a tiring day!
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Nilgiris...!
Another weekend at Bangalore and we, the lukkha interns, set out for Ooty!
We reached Ooty Saturday morning at 7 after an awful 8 hour bus ride. Without any woolens and draped in only a half sleeve T-shirt and jeans, I was shivering amidst the cool morning air. We booked the cheapest lodge around and dumped ourselves on d bed wid memories of d bus journey almost luring us to sleep. But the prospect of sight-seeing was more enticing! After freshening up and a light breaker we set out for the Rose Garden on foot.
It was a long walk and not helping at all in reducing my exhaustion..But as I entered the garden the smell and sight of a million roses captivated me. Welcoming us in, there were a chariot and a peacock decorated with roses. It was beautiful. The whole garden had roses planted on either sides of the passageway with weird labels to each of them. Some of them were quite ironical, others humorous and while the rest seemed logic-less! We took a few pics here and there before we set out for the Botanical Garden, again on foot.
Once we reached the famous Botanical Gardens there was a long queue, discouraging us from getting inside. We ditched the plan to see the Garden and retreated, only to move towards Dodabetta peak, the highest peak of the Nilgiris.
After a couple of kilometers of walk and futile attempts at hitch-hiking, we realized that there was no transport to Dodabetta from our present location and we had to go back to the town bus stand for conveyance, which was quite far. Thus, we postponed our plans of Dodabetta to the next day and this time, wisely enuff, booked a Sumo for the 7 of us for the next day which would take us to Pykara as well.
Having nothing better to do we set out for the Ooty lake and boat house expecting to finally find a place to sit on the lakeside. Hence, we started out..again on foot for a 3-4 kilometer walk..Having walked for atleast 10 kilometers from the moment we reached Ooty, we found a place near d lake to sit and relax. We played cards..and it was awesome. The fitting end to a not-so-good beginning. The next 3 hours flew by and were total fun. The weather didnt dissappoint us either. After the amazing evening, we returned to our lodge and I slept like a horse.
Sunday morning we set out for Pykara at 9 on the Sumo we had booked for the day. We saw the Golf course in the passing, and later stopped at Kamraj Sagar Lake. It was a nice lake bordered by pine forest and was below road-level meaning that we had to descend quite a steep slope to reach there. We clicked a few pics and returned to the Sumo.
The next stop was the 9th Mile Wenlock Downs. It was basically an undulating hill covered with grass and very good scenery providing excellent scope for more pics :P
Then we went to the Pykara falls and the Boat house where we did boating. Our return journey took a lot of time coz of heavy traffic. We passed our times singing songs: old songs,new songs, love songs,sad songs, happy songs,arbit songs, bad songs, more songs :D
By the time we reached back Ooty, it was past 5 and we had to skip Dodabetta (was it jinxed!?)
We settled for in a CCD outlet and occupied the corner couches. I had Irish coffee and Choc Fantasy with ice-cream and choc sauce. We stayed put at CCD till 9.30 gossiping and watching the DC innings of the IPL final.
On our way to the bus stand we suddenly realised we had to buy the famous Ooty flavoured tea and home made chocolates. In desparation, and due to shortage of time we grabbed watever was nearest at hand and boarded our bus. How was the journey back? Don't even get me started on that!
Overall it was an awwessuuumm trip!!!
P.S:Thanx to Bajo, Fengshui, Mayhool, Manu, Nandu n Subject (in alphabetical order)!!
P.P.S: i ll post links for the pics in the comments soon..
We reached Ooty Saturday morning at 7 after an awful 8 hour bus ride. Without any woolens and draped in only a half sleeve T-shirt and jeans, I was shivering amidst the cool morning air. We booked the cheapest lodge around and dumped ourselves on d bed wid memories of d bus journey almost luring us to sleep. But the prospect of sight-seeing was more enticing! After freshening up and a light breaker we set out for the Rose Garden on foot.
It was a long walk and not helping at all in reducing my exhaustion..But as I entered the garden the smell and sight of a million roses captivated me. Welcoming us in, there were a chariot and a peacock decorated with roses. It was beautiful. The whole garden had roses planted on either sides of the passageway with weird labels to each of them. Some of them were quite ironical, others humorous and while the rest seemed logic-less! We took a few pics here and there before we set out for the Botanical Garden, again on foot.
Once we reached the famous Botanical Gardens there was a long queue, discouraging us from getting inside. We ditched the plan to see the Garden and retreated, only to move towards Dodabetta peak, the highest peak of the Nilgiris.
After a couple of kilometers of walk and futile attempts at hitch-hiking, we realized that there was no transport to Dodabetta from our present location and we had to go back to the town bus stand for conveyance, which was quite far. Thus, we postponed our plans of Dodabetta to the next day and this time, wisely enuff, booked a Sumo for the 7 of us for the next day which would take us to Pykara as well.
Having nothing better to do we set out for the Ooty lake and boat house expecting to finally find a place to sit on the lakeside. Hence, we started out..again on foot for a 3-4 kilometer walk..Having walked for atleast 10 kilometers from the moment we reached Ooty, we found a place near d lake to sit and relax. We played cards..and it was awesome. The fitting end to a not-so-good beginning. The next 3 hours flew by and were total fun. The weather didnt dissappoint us either. After the amazing evening, we returned to our lodge and I slept like a horse.
Sunday morning we set out for Pykara at 9 on the Sumo we had booked for the day. We saw the Golf course in the passing, and later stopped at Kamraj Sagar Lake. It was a nice lake bordered by pine forest and was below road-level meaning that we had to descend quite a steep slope to reach there. We clicked a few pics and returned to the Sumo.
The next stop was the 9th Mile Wenlock Downs. It was basically an undulating hill covered with grass and very good scenery providing excellent scope for more pics :P
Then we went to the Pykara falls and the Boat house where we did boating. Our return journey took a lot of time coz of heavy traffic. We passed our times singing songs: old songs,new songs, love songs,sad songs, happy songs,arbit songs, bad songs, more songs :D
By the time we reached back Ooty, it was past 5 and we had to skip Dodabetta (was it jinxed!?)
We settled for in a CCD outlet and occupied the corner couches. I had Irish coffee and Choc Fantasy with ice-cream and choc sauce. We stayed put at CCD till 9.30 gossiping and watching the DC innings of the IPL final.
On our way to the bus stand we suddenly realised we had to buy the famous Ooty flavoured tea and home made chocolates. In desparation, and due to shortage of time we grabbed watever was nearest at hand and boarded our bus. How was the journey back? Don't even get me started on that!
Overall it was an awwessuuumm trip!!!
P.S:Thanx to Bajo, Fengshui, Mayhool, Manu, Nandu n Subject (in alphabetical order)!!
P.P.S: i ll post links for the pics in the comments soon..
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Garuda Mall
Last Sunday we went to Garuda Mall on MG Rd, supposedly the busiest road in B'lore. Met wid my batchies who also happened to be doing an internship in B'lore. After a quick lunch at the food court on the 3rd floor and a few photos (all in d same pose!), we headed to the multiplex on d 4th floor. We spent 200 bucks for the tickets and got inside INOX. The hall was nice. The movie was called Something Just Happened. The name sounded promising and even the cast was decent. But the movie was a disaster and we couldn't stand it any longer than Intermission. It was the first time for me to ditch a movie after having paid for the ticket! But as they say, there's always a first time.
Well after the movie having nothing definite to do, we just wandered in the mall, stopping meanwhile to have dessert. I had blackforest slice. More pics followed! As we planned to leave, it started raining and thus we were forced inside the mall for another hour which led to another trip to the food court. (I had Subway's sandwich this time)
This was the longest I ever stayed in a mall...6 hours..and I had an exam the other day! But inspite of all this, it was fun.
Well after the movie having nothing definite to do, we just wandered in the mall, stopping meanwhile to have dessert. I had blackforest slice. More pics followed! As we planned to leave, it started raining and thus we were forced inside the mall for another hour which led to another trip to the food court. (I had Subway's sandwich this time)
This was the longest I ever stayed in a mall...6 hours..and I had an exam the other day! But inspite of all this, it was fun.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Bannerghatta National Park
The name struck me as odd. National? Hadn't heard of it earlier! Anywayz, on a Thursday morning with nothing better to do and hopes of a cheaper entry fee we set out after breaker at around 11 (yea..I know it was quite late..but that's another story). We reached there in about half an hour and I suddenly felt that I preferred sleeping peacefully on my springwell mattress over this. When I confronted my friends (we were 4 in all) that I am getting negative vibes, I was assured we would enjoy the Safari. When we purchased our tickets, we were told May being summer vacations for school children holiday rates would apply. So after purchasing a ticket for Rs 125 each and Rs 20 for the digicam we had, we went it.
The crowd was pretty decent for a Thursday. We stood in the queue for the Grand Safari (that includes tiger, lion, bear and herbivores safari) and waited for another 15 minutes before we boarded the bus occupying corner seats in the hope of getting a nice view and good oppurtunities for clicking pictures. The ride wasn't smooth to say the least and in the beginning we saw nothing excpet a dear and a few cows which the driver said were neel gai but didnt seem to be. Then we entered the bear safari .
This was the best part..actually the only interesting part in the whole ride. We saw lots of bears. I dont remember seeing a bear earlier. Some of the babies looked cute. But the adults were aggressive. One even stood up and held the windows of our bus and one other was frightening the other bears off (I wonder why!)
After this we entered the lion safari and a sleeping lion family was all we saw. The tiger safari wasnt much better, except that I saw 3 white tigers (more than I had seen on that horrible trip to Sundarban back in school)..all sleeping and 2 normal tigers(again, sleeping). The colours of their skin amazed me. It was a bright orange and the black stripes looked quite royal..along with the white patch on the underside.
Anyways, this was the end of the tour. My friends suggested that we can still see the zoo on the same ticket. But when they realized that we were out of the main gate now and the zoo had to be seen before the safari, I was happy. Who wanted to see the zoo anywayz!
The crowd was pretty decent for a Thursday. We stood in the queue for the Grand Safari (that includes tiger, lion, bear and herbivores safari) and waited for another 15 minutes before we boarded the bus occupying corner seats in the hope of getting a nice view and good oppurtunities for clicking pictures. The ride wasn't smooth to say the least and in the beginning we saw nothing excpet a dear and a few cows which the driver said were neel gai but didnt seem to be. Then we entered the bear safari .
This was the best part..actually the only interesting part in the whole ride. We saw lots of bears. I dont remember seeing a bear earlier. Some of the babies looked cute. But the adults were aggressive. One even stood up and held the windows of our bus and one other was frightening the other bears off (I wonder why!)
After this we entered the lion safari and a sleeping lion family was all we saw. The tiger safari wasnt much better, except that I saw 3 white tigers (more than I had seen on that horrible trip to Sundarban back in school)..all sleeping and 2 normal tigers(again, sleeping). The colours of their skin amazed me. It was a bright orange and the black stripes looked quite royal..along with the white patch on the underside.
Anyways, this was the end of the tour. My friends suggested that we can still see the zoo on the same ticket. But when they realized that we were out of the main gate now and the zoo had to be seen before the safari, I was happy. Who wanted to see the zoo anywayz!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Campus!
So here's sumthing about the campus. It isnt as large as IITB for sure. But is atleast as much green.
All roads are curved and have infi branches and you could reach any place through more ways than one..Everything is interconnected by a network of lanes and bylanes. The hostels (A-L) is one big 'block' having 2 storeys above the gorund floor. My room's in A block on the 1st floor. There's a 24 hour canteen Athica's which has relatively few items on the menu but the food is quite decent. Other than this there are a STD-ISD and Xerox facilities which remain closed during vacations. Then there's a volley court, basketball net, and a hockey ground in the hostel area too. The student's mess is closed during vacations but there are 2 canteens - the staff canteen which offers mostly South Indian food and a private canteen with food being ok. But these close at 7 in the evening leaving no options for dinner except to go out to infi restaurant options outside or have a quiet dinner at Athica's. Other than this, we have a proper CCD outlet here, an Amul store, Chai Unchai (Tata Tea) and Lipton's Tea. Then there's a theatre, an amphitheatre, library, bookstore...
In short, the student lifestyle here is quite happening and fun :)
All roads are curved and have infi branches and you could reach any place through more ways than one..Everything is interconnected by a network of lanes and bylanes. The hostels (A-L) is one big 'block' having 2 storeys above the gorund floor. My room's in A block on the 1st floor. There's a 24 hour canteen Athica's which has relatively few items on the menu but the food is quite decent. Other than this there are a STD-ISD and Xerox facilities which remain closed during vacations. Then there's a volley court, basketball net, and a hockey ground in the hostel area too. The student's mess is closed during vacations but there are 2 canteens - the staff canteen which offers mostly South Indian food and a private canteen with food being ok. But these close at 7 in the evening leaving no options for dinner except to go out to infi restaurant options outside or have a quiet dinner at Athica's. Other than this, we have a proper CCD outlet here, an Amul store, Chai Unchai (Tata Tea) and Lipton's Tea. Then there's a theatre, an amphitheatre, library, bookstore...
In short, the student lifestyle here is quite happening and fun :)
Monday, May 4, 2009
Day 2!
It was d perfect Sunday I could have hoped for...My cousin picked me up at the Main Gate and we headed straight to the Forum mall on his bike. Even at 11:30 in d morning the mall wasnt empty. Nice architect. And the PVR over there has 8 screens! Well with no interest in shopping (real or window), we zoomed out of the mall in 15 minutes and were on the bike again. Man! the roads are quite well maintained I thought when my cousin told me its coz of the elections. Anyways..I was enjoying it. Saw the huge offices of Dell and Intel on my way and the ISRO campus as well.
We stopped at The Leela Palace Kempinski. This 5 star hotel is open for visitors. The basements have various shops. There was one cool men's jacket on display at one shop and out of curiosity I checked d price tag. Ouch! It was too expensive - a 5 figure price at the 5 star! There in the middle was a piano and several seats. I was informed that in the evenings people listen to a lady playing beautiful music over here. As we were about to go up, a lady did come and start playing. The whole place smelled of rose. It was amazing. On the ground floor there was an open lounge facing a well maintained lawn. The lawn had artificial fountains and waterfalls and the overall effect along with the soft cool breeze blowing was amazing!
Our next stop was a Shiv Temple. The temple covered a huge area. Inside there was a huge 50 feel high statue of Lord Shiva. The temple also had an exhibit area where models of famous Shiv Temples across India were displayed.
After the temple the heat became unbearable (who says Bangalore doesnt have hot summers!) so we had momos and lichi shake and then retired to the confines of my cousin's home. After lunch we again set out for the ISKCON(International Society for Krishna Consciousness) Temple.
As soon as the temple opened for the evening, devotees sprang in and there was a long queue out of nowhere in less than 5 minutes! Luckily we were among the first in the queue and got in without waiting for long. The main mandir was beautifully built. The interiors made my eyes go wide with amazement. After offering our prayers we returned. We were made to exit through all kinds of shops that I wouldnot usually look at. Commercialization of temples as well, I observed.
Anyways, after another 25 min bike ride we reached back home just in time to see the KKR gaining momentum against Kings'men at IPL T20. But KKR lost and we were sad(both me and my cousin were supporting KKR). This was followed by the MI vs RCB match. I was unsure of whom to support having some roots from both d places. Anywayz it was an exciting watch and Bangalore did it finally with 2 overs and 9 wickets to spare. Slept over at cuz's place and just returned back here.
Long post!
Cya!
We stopped at The Leela Palace Kempinski. This 5 star hotel is open for visitors. The basements have various shops. There was one cool men's jacket on display at one shop and out of curiosity I checked d price tag. Ouch! It was too expensive - a 5 figure price at the 5 star! There in the middle was a piano and several seats. I was informed that in the evenings people listen to a lady playing beautiful music over here. As we were about to go up, a lady did come and start playing. The whole place smelled of rose. It was amazing. On the ground floor there was an open lounge facing a well maintained lawn. The lawn had artificial fountains and waterfalls and the overall effect along with the soft cool breeze blowing was amazing!
Our next stop was a Shiv Temple. The temple covered a huge area. Inside there was a huge 50 feel high statue of Lord Shiva. The temple also had an exhibit area where models of famous Shiv Temples across India were displayed.
After the temple the heat became unbearable (who says Bangalore doesnt have hot summers!) so we had momos and lichi shake and then retired to the confines of my cousin's home. After lunch we again set out for the ISKCON(International Society for Krishna Consciousness) Temple.
As soon as the temple opened for the evening, devotees sprang in and there was a long queue out of nowhere in less than 5 minutes! Luckily we were among the first in the queue and got in without waiting for long. The main mandir was beautifully built. The interiors made my eyes go wide with amazement. After offering our prayers we returned. We were made to exit through all kinds of shops that I wouldnot usually look at. Commercialization of temples as well, I observed.
Anyways, after another 25 min bike ride we reached back home just in time to see the KKR gaining momentum against Kings'men at IPL T20. But KKR lost and we were sad(both me and my cousin were supporting KKR). This was followed by the MI vs RCB match. I was unsure of whom to support having some roots from both d places. Anywayz it was an exciting watch and Bangalore did it finally with 2 overs and 9 wickets to spare. Slept over at cuz's place and just returned back here.
Long post!
Cya!
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Reached bangalore
Reached Bangalore- the Silicon Valley of India after a long day. The flight to Bangalore International Airport was short and uneventful. From the airport got onto a bus to Bannerghata Road (thats where IIMB is) and hired an auto to the IIM. After a few formalities at the Main Gate I was allowed to enter into the campus.
I liked the campus at the instant. Quite green and clean. And all curvy roads. On the way to the hostel saw a State Bank ATM. Thank God, atleast no banking woes. As soon as I reached the hostel block I saw a big board hung on the wall saying THANK YOU IIMB..wen i saw further down it said-The 3 Idiots Team and it was autographed by the whole team. I could atleast make out a few...Raju,Madhavan and there was this familiar one-Aamir's..(I actually have an autograph by Aamir in my room back in d insti)..It felt nice..Knowing that the film was shot here and the cast stayed here for around a month..On enquiring a bit, I was told that Aamir did a shot in his underwear jogging around the Academic Area ;)
After this I actually saw the hostel block..it was a nice architecture..I mean nuthin great..even old..but it was kind of different..and I pretty much liked it...All the hostel blocks (A to L) are in the same area...unlike IITB. After a hungry and exhaustive wait for about one and half hours I finally got the keys to my room A 215.
Had dinner (butter maggi with 7UP) at the 24hr canteen and now here I am..totally exhausted..but excited
Oh..about the room..decent..d single room here is in fact bigger than my twin shared room back in IIT.
Chances are I will be going around and seeing a few places tomorrow..Hoping for a gud summer
Thanks for stopping by..
Sayonara
I liked the campus at the instant. Quite green and clean. And all curvy roads. On the way to the hostel saw a State Bank ATM. Thank God, atleast no banking woes. As soon as I reached the hostel block I saw a big board hung on the wall saying THANK YOU IIMB..wen i saw further down it said-The 3 Idiots Team and it was autographed by the whole team. I could atleast make out a few...Raju,Madhavan and there was this familiar one-Aamir's..(I actually have an autograph by Aamir in my room back in d insti)..It felt nice..Knowing that the film was shot here and the cast stayed here for around a month..On enquiring a bit, I was told that Aamir did a shot in his underwear jogging around the Academic Area ;)
After this I actually saw the hostel block..it was a nice architecture..I mean nuthin great..even old..but it was kind of different..and I pretty much liked it...All the hostel blocks (A to L) are in the same area...unlike IITB. After a hungry and exhaustive wait for about one and half hours I finally got the keys to my room A 215.
Had dinner (butter maggi with 7UP) at the 24hr canteen and now here I am..totally exhausted..but excited
Oh..about the room..decent..d single room here is in fact bigger than my twin shared room back in IIT.
Chances are I will be going around and seeing a few places tomorrow..Hoping for a gud summer
Thanks for stopping by..
Sayonara
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