Ajeeb daastan hain yeh...

A birthday full of highs and lows. Thanks for all the wishes and surprises.

The lows just indicate how life is...

Hmm..philosophical at 25?? God save me! :-)

Las Vegas-2

More snaps!



Vegas in the night!


Musical fountain in front of Bellagio.








The above two pics were taken at 12.00 in the night. Unbelievable right? False ceilings again.. this was inside 'The Venetian'.

A peek into the other side of the Venetian.








Two more theme-based Casino.





And finally, some more pictures :-)


Does it remind you of Gladys (Phoebe's work of art)?


Bizarre!


Disco82???

Las Vegas

Probably the blandest title ever. But that's the exact opposite of what Las Vegas has to offer! The Sin City- full of vivid colors, bright lights, impressive architecture and a perennial flow of money.
The highlights of the trip were the Musical fountain show in front of Bellagio, the Blue-Man Show, and the amazing architecture of the casinos. You can't help but admire the unique experience this city has to offer; it does help if you are lucky and end up not losing money!!

The casinos






New York-New York


Caesar's Palace


Paris


Stratosphere (This has a roller-coaster ride on top of the 108-storied tower!)

Inside the casinos



Colors




Elegant


A closer look at 'Paris'


Not a picture of people gambling in broad-daylight ;-) Look closely, that's a ceiling! Inside 'Paris'!

More pictures of Vegas in the next post. Cya for now!

MeeTi Yaadein…. Savi nenapu..

Jeevan ke safar main raahi

milte hain bichchaD jaane ko

aur de jaate hain yaadein

tanhaayi mein taDapaane ko

One of the guys from our office 'gang' is all set to pursue higher education and has quit officially today!

Strange how friendships just form and stay on like forever! I still remember the chap from companyL who joined dev team and went around introducing himself. :-) That was the first time someone actually broke the official-intro-session-rules@office. The fact that he was a junior whom we could bully around, grew up in some cities, knew a certain language did help him too ;-)

A farewell was planned with the guy treating us to a game of bowling and dinner. It was awesome fun (Wait a minute, weren’t we supposed to give him a sendoff or something first???). The icing on the cake was the Live singing (by a group visiting the restaurant for singing Christmas carols) "I hate to go" especially for him. Brownie points? A certain North Carolina phone number!!

The next day Sudks meticulously created a collage, with all of us giving our own 'smart' comments! ‘Savi Nenapu’ it read, with all our snaps in between. [Rings a bell?? Clue: The title of the post!] The greeting card, the cakes (including the egg less one) and the magic candles did brighten everybody's mood and we were off to treat ourselves to some bajjis! Change of plans and we landed up in V.V.Puram - a place supposedly famous for the amazing variety of food the stalls offer - dosas, chaats, rasmalai, gulkand, golgappa, lime soda ( I also saw a stall making fresh hoLige!) ; and also the amount of calories one will have to invariably consume! Lots of gossip, teasing each other from petty things to major ones, some flash-backs - all made a wonderful evening to remember!

It will definitely feel different, walking to my cube every morning and not greeting him with a "hiiiiiii", the afternoon walks and the crazy ideas/plots we come up with, the endless discussion of how-good-pritam-is ( in-lifting-other-tunes , of course!), bollywood movies/music updates (to name a few), all of which will be dearly missed. Thanks for everything :-)

Have fun dude wherever you go and be as charming, enterprising, enthusiastic, as always!

Kaleidoscope

colors, calmness, chaos, complacency, aggressiveness, rain, sun, home, office... feels good to be back in namma Bengalooru!!

at the same time friends and conversations@SJ will be missed...

Na hain zameen..na aasman..

I visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium last weekend. The aquarium is spread across two floors..and the world inside was truly so different.


So true!!!

And then we went on the 17-mile drive. This drive takes you through million-dollar homes amidst wilderness, with ocean on one side of the drive. The few minutes we could spend in the cold wind and the slight drizzle made my day!
Pics of the aquarium tour below:


The Entrance


Yeah...this was inside the aquarium :-) Oh..there were dolphins hanging too!!


The kelp forest and the fishes




Sea-dollars

Spot the fish!

Jelly-fishes

Asian Green-Viper





Phew! That was one colorful ride!!!! :-)

Finally something..well, not colorful!

Shaky Reflections!

The Legend of Prince Ram

Every Deepawali, Cartoon Network screens the animation movie "Ramayan - The Legend of Prince Ram". This effort is a collaboration of India and Japan and the animation quality is really good. I have been watching it every Deepawali for years now, and am never tired of it.
Needless to say, that's one more thing I really missed this time. But found it on youtube and watched it, a day late though. :-)

And so, the tradition continues!

Deepawali

Festivals celebrated away from home is just not right. Esp. such major ones. Strange as it may sound, I am even missing the sudden frights I used to get when someone lit a cracker outside! [I am still against crackers though; you know, the pollution, noise etc etc]

Also missed is the awesome food mom makes. Although, I did try my hand at sweet-making today, and believe me, it is best left to mothers! :-)
But it did not turn out that bad either. Hmm..lesse what others have to say tomorrow about it! Yes, of course, you think I am going to let my friends go away so easily!!! :-)

Happy Deepawali to you all!

All the right ingredients!

Preparing saaru can be very interesting..

esp. if you misread tamarind as turmeric!

Zaraa haTke...

....from the usual comments/compliments I have received!

"You look like a scientist!"

Kuch Rang aur bhi hain!

Didn't want to overload the previous post. So posting a "few" more pics here. Take a peek!!

Phool Bahar ka..

"fall"en leaves :-)


Saanj Dale...Gagan tale...



On way to Snoqualmie falls, you encounter this stretch of barren land, this is because of the volcanic trail. There are active volcanoes around Seattle. Not sure, but Mt.Rainier might be one of them. [Too lazy to check it up, so don't go by this :-)]



ruth aa rahi hain..ruth jaa rahi hain..


Ek aur ho jaaye!