Back after one year

So, after a long time I started expressing myself. Don’t remember really, when is the last time I wrote something. Anyway, lot of things happened in the previous half-year. I will state those one by one:

1.       Last visit to Chennai (probably): Pb was about to leave qualcomm in a few days. So I thought I should meet him for the last time. I had one holiday on Friday. So, I grabbed the opportunity immediately. As usual I went Chennai by bus. The bus delayed a lot and I reached Pb’s place at around 8 AM which is much late that regular. I remember that day we bought fish and cooked it for lunch. It was delicious. We thought to watch some movie, but that time there was no good movie running in any nearby theatres. We had our dinner at Xtreme Barbeque. It was a quite good experience for me. We watched “Bonkubabu” in youtube together at night. Next day I had to return. We had out dinner at Sea Breeze which was costly but excellent. Specially I liked the ambience. Though we did not do any special activity like going outside or watching movies but it was really a good change for me.

2.       Going Home: At the end of May I went home. Lar time I went on February. This time I went on Friday and came back on next Saturday. Didu came to our house. So it was much fun. She came there on week before I came. On Saturday afternoon masi also came to our house. So it was more fun with Rima, Bonnie and all. There were lots of foods certainly. It was my mother’s summer vacation. So, there was no point to become bored. Everyday there was at least couple of special menus. One day I went for my Puja Shopping. I bought two sets of shirt-pant (with my father’s money ;)). Next Friday I went to my masi’s place. She cooked a lot. And everything was hell lot delicious. So, at last, it was time to leave. With a broken heart (once again) I had to come back to Bangalore. This time my flight timings were little bit odd. I had flight at 8 pm from Kolkata which landed at around 10:30 in Bangalore. Though I reached my apartment safely. Next day I and Nilanjan went to Tommy’s place to his newly shifted apartment. We had our lunch at Decker’s lane. The lunch was more than better if not the best. We came back at evening and prepared us for regular weekly grinding in our respective workplaces.

3.       Celebrating excellency award with the team: So, this was my first experience of getting acknowledged in Synopsys. Though my credit in this process is very less, but who will stop me from celebrate? It was a half day outing with my team. Everything went as per plan. First, we went for bowling in Amoeba, Garuda Mall. We really enjoyed this sports. I scored a good 130 which is a respectable score. Swarupda scored perfect tens in his last five hits. His ability for this sports was worth watching. Next we had some mild snacks. We were not preferring to have much food as we were preserving space for the grand dinner later. After bowling, we went for the movie “Now You See Me 2”. We knew from the beginning that this movie was not upto the mark. But we did not have much choices left. Still, the luxurious cushions in the movie hall gave us comfort and the movie was okay-okay type. In the interval, Joydeepda and Swarupda bought some pop corns in spite of our relucatancy to eat. Needless to say, me and Abirda did not take much of that pop-corn.  As soon as the movie finished we hurried to “The Market” restaurant which I booked beforehand. We reached the restaurant in time. Upon reaching we told the receptionist that we had booking for dinner. But to our utter surprise she told that there was no booking made in my name. There was little confusion between us. However, in the very next moment manager came and resolved the issue by making our seat arranged in one place. The buffet was most awesome among those I have ever visited. It had variety of menu in every course. Prawns in starters was too delicious to describe. Pizza also was excellent. In the main course each and every item was worth to taste. We all liked the ambience also. Seriously, our test buds got recharged in this restaurant. We finished our grand dinner at around 9:30. After that we (Abirda, Neha and me) took one cab and came back home with lots of good memory.

4.       Visiting coorg: Just after my team celebration, I had plan to visit coorg with Pb and his friend Himadri. I met Himadri twice before this. So, he was not total unknown person to me. Pb came to my place in the morning and we had to take bus at night from Mysore Road Satellite Bus Station. We went there by means of metro. We ate a lot in a nearby A2B. When we got into the bus we realized that the situation was horrible. Someone vomited on a seat and unfortunately Pb took the seat. However, he changed his seat but his pants caught the foul smell. However in this circumstance, we reached Mercera bus stand at around 5:30 AM. We booked one hotel beforehand. But the hotel receptionist told that we would be alloed only after 8:00 AM. So, we started to roam here and there. We asked some local cab drivers about the cost of sight-seeing. After eight we occupied the room. The hotel room was upto the mark. 

We booked a cab from the hotel’s contact. That day we plan to visit Thala Cauvery –  the source of river Cauvery, abbey falls and some nearby places. Thala Cauvery was about 100 km from hotel. The road was around the hills. The journey was too good. On the way, we visited one temple. The more we were nearing Thala Cauvery, the weather was getting bad. It was becoming foggy outside the car and visibility was decreasing gradually. Though the driver was very skillful and he drove us safe to Thala Cauvery. We did not see much there as we heard lot of praise of this place. But, the weather made the environment quite amazing. After enjoying Thala Cauvery, we started to climb downhills. We had our lunch in Green Restaurant. There the food quality was quite good and they served a good amount of food in one dish also. We were hungry that time and finished all the foods. After our lunch, we headed for Abbey falls. The way to abbey falls was too muddy. And it started raining then also. We had to walk a few meters to reach at the spot. We avoided the poring with the help of umbrella. The view of abbey falls was mind blowing. In a small area, Cauvery was down pouring in full force. And the roaring of the falls thrilled us. People were taking selfies (as usual) with the falls as background. We had little difficulty while coming back as the rain got heavier, but the pleasure of viewing the falls neutralized the effort. Next we went some park which was not worth visiting and it was raining also. So, we came back to our hotel. At evening we went out for a walk. There was one big spice shop and chocolate shop. We headed for those. Though the chocolate shop was closing at that time as the shop workers were bound to mosque. Spices in the shop was good to smell. But we did not buy anything. Next we had our dinner in a nearby restaurant. We order one curry which was full of tulsi leaves. This was too funny. Overall dinner was not bad. After dinner we came back to hotel and went on sleeping.

Next day we went for Rafting, Dubbare for elephant safari and one Budhist monastery. Water rafting was good. This is my first experience of the same kind. At one point the guide threw every one of us out of the boat. Obviously we all had life jacket. This was also a good experience. For first few seconds it was little bit scary. But when everything settled down, I started to enjoy. After rafting was completed we changed our wet clothes and headed towards Dubbare. In dubbare park there was nothing much to see except some deer. To make the situation worse, it was also raining quite heavily. So, we did not spend much time here and told the driver to take us for lunch. In lunch we ordered one chicken starter and fish meal. In fish meal there was huge amount of fishes. We relished the dishes. Having our lunch, we went for the Budhdhist Shrine. The shrine was situated in a calm place - outskirts of the main city. We liked the place and took some pictures. There we three took one tender coconut water each. Next the driver took us to a spice shop. But we did find very small things to buy. After that our cab driver cropped us near bus stand. That day we bought plenty chocolates. Those chocolates really tasted excellent. At around 8:30 PM we had a light dinner. On 11 PM we boarded on the bus which was bound for return journey. Overall this tour to Coorg stamped a sweet memory in my memory canvas.

5.       Going team lunch with Bogdan: Bogdan Moisa is our team-mate in office who works from Romania. He is very close to us. He visited Bangalore few days back. Whenever I heard the news of his visiting, I was very much ebullient. Not because I got an opportunity to meet him, but because we will have another team lunch. This time we went Shigri Global Grill in Kalyannagar for the lunch. This was my second visit to Shigri. The first one was also with my team-mates on the eve of my welcome lunch. This time, we visited on Eid. With us, we had our PV team also. The restaurant was very much crowded. That day we had an offer which stated like “by giving extra 30 bucks you would get unlimited pepsi”. So we readily availed the offer. I started starters with high energy. As usual I was finishing starters specially the prawns. Abirda and Sourasishda also was eating like anything. Unlike other times, this time I put a bit more emphasis on main course. The main course was quite good. I liked the sweet chicken preparation. I ate too much rotis which was also very good. In desert, rabdi-jalebi was too good. I took many of them. At around 3:30 PM we finished our lunch and came back to office.

6.       Jog falls: On the eve of 15^th August, we got an extended weekend as 15^th August was on Monday this time. We (me, Nilanjan and Tommy) planned to go Shimoga in this long holiday. The primary to go to Shimoga was to visit Jog falls. It is the highest falls in India. On Friday night we saterted our journey from Majestic. This time we booked Airavat club class keeping in mind my previous horrible experience in Rajahamsa. Our bus was at around 11:57 PM from Majestic but it started with a delay of 1 hour. Though it was good for us as the later we would reach Shimoga, the more will be the chance to check into the hotel.

We reached Shimoga, abbreviated from Shivamogga at around 7:00 AM. From Shimoga bus stand we we directly went to hotel and they allowed us to check in. The hotel was value for price. Entering the hotel room, we quickly took bath and got ourselves ready for day’s trip. We asked the hotel receptionist about how to go Jog falls. And he told that he can book a car for us. We agreed him and he readily booked a car in which, after having breakfast, we started a long mesmerizing trip to jog falls. The hilly road to jog falls was one of a kind. There were lots of trees at both sides of the road and that scene was seriously enthralling. There were two cities on the way – Talguppa and Sagar. After completing around 2-hour journey, we reached Jog falls. The view of jog falls was scintillating from far. The clouds were rising above from the point where the falls water was touching the ground. I have never experienced that scene in my life. Though there were stairs to reach at the bottom of the falls, we did not take the risk to go down as the number stairs was around 1150 and if we go down it will be very difficult to climb those stairs. We stayed for couple of hour there and then got back to our cab. We told our driver to stop at good hotel. He took us to one hotel. It was good if we forget the fact that the foods were too spicy. We ate a lot there. After lunch we headed for Ikkiri where Aghoreshwara temple is situated. The temple sculpture was quite similar to Hampi. We were there for around 45 minutes. After this we again headed for Shimoga. We reached there around 5 PM. As there was quite daylight, me and Nilanjan decided to take a stroll around the city by walk. Shimoga is well decorated city. One surprising fact is, there are lots of doctors in Shimoga and also lots of clinics. Don’t know what made the population of doctors so higher there. Anyway, while walking we had coconut water, sweets, sugarcane juice from different shops and all of them were excellent. They gave one huge glass of sugarcane juice in just Rs. 10/-. After one long walk we came back to hotel. We had one light dinner at 9 PM. After coming back, we made next day’s plan.

Next day, we planeed to visit Kelathgiri, Kemmangundi, Mulayangiri and Babubudangiri. Mulaygiri and Babubudangiri is on Chicmagalur district. In Kelathgiri, there was a temple beside a falls. Many people were taking hoky bath in that falls. Kemmangundi is situated somewhat in higher altitude. There, weather was too misty ans it was raining periodically. Basically there was a park and around that there were many viewpoints. But we were unable to view anything because of mist. After Kemmangundi we tried to Mulayangiri and Babubudangiri, but the road was blocked due to heavy rain. So,we had to return from midway. We had our lunch in one roadside hotel. That day, at dinner, we went to royal orchid hotel where they were serving buffet. The buffet was low price and quite good too. I especially liked the fish pakoda and gobbled a handful of them. After filling our tummies, we went back to hotel. That day, Deepa Karmakar’s gold medal vault match of Rio Olympic was there. We watched that very enthusiastically, but to our utter despair she finished in fourth position.

Next day was our last day in Shimoga. That day we had to visit Tayevarekoppa tiger and lion safari which was situated only 9 km away from Shimoga. We took an auto and went there at early morning. Before that we checked out from the hotel. The safari cost was only Rs.70/- per person which is very low. Safari was quite good as we saw tigers and lions. Some were roaming unchained. We also had opportunity to see tigers’ mating. The safari was of one hour. There was also a zoo. We spend another one-hour roaming in the zoo. Next, we had our lunch and headed for Bangalore by another Airavat club class with sweet memoirs in our hearts.