Archive for Friends

September 21st 2010

Ayden’s Greatest Gift From The Chows

by Anwin in Chows, Cool Stuff, Friends, Personal, Pics tags: Ayden, birthday, Chivas Regal, Chows, scotch whiskey 6 Comments

Last week some of The Chows were in Bangalore to visit Ayden, our 3 week old baby. And what did Ayden get? A great gift, any set of uncles (hahahahaha, uncles) around the world could give a nephew – a bottle of whiskey to be opened on his 18th birthday. Brilliant!!!

Although, the date mentioned on the package is wrong, we will still open it on the actual 18th birthday – August 27th, 2028. Neat!!!

The captions read:

Manu (I mix a mean Rum)
Renie (Probably late)
Anoopzombie (Took ur dad out 4 a smoke when you were born) – a blatant lie
Gerald (He He)
Karthik (If you find me married at least get me this drink)
B G (aka Balu Mama)
Anand (I prob look like Stephen Hawking right now)

Wow, it is a Chivas Regal Aged 12 Years. The theory behind is that by the time Ayden turns 18 it will be 30 years old. I know purists will argue that it is the number of years in the original barrel is what counts. But hey, who cares ?

Thanks guys! It was a most thoughtful gift.

P.S:- Interested readers can search for more posts about The Chows here (not all of you would want to see personal posts and pictures I am sure )

December 29th 2009

Christmas In Nagercoil – Part 1

by Anwin in Chows, Friends, Holidays, India, Nagercoil, Personal, Pics, Trip tags: kalikesam, kanyakumari, keeriparai, Nagercoil, reservoir, thirparappu, thottipalam, water falls 4 Comments

Normally we all meet up in Nagercoil during Christmas – we, the chows, friends from school. We do this reverently every year. Of course, it is very difficult for all 7 of us to be present every Christmas. We do, however, make up to 5 of us most times. And this time was not different. Anyways, I am going too fast. Back to the picnic J.

After spending a couple of days with Dad and Mom, Nafisa and I decided (it was kinda pre-planned too) to go on a trip to Keeripparai, a place by the Western Ghats. I had even promised some friends in IAH that I would come back with some native Indian fishes from the wild for some enthusiasts in Bangalore. So, one of our friends Joel hired a Toyota Innova for all of us – that was Manu, Karthik, Edin, Joel, Nafisa and me.

A view of the river from the river banks

When we reached Keeriparai we saw some signs stating we were reaching the forest reserve. We were quite happy that the place is finally getting its protection it deserved for a long time. So we reached a convenient spot, parked the car and climbed down in to the river.

And then we proceeded to drink in the nature and get out feet wet. And then we took our teeny tiny fishing nets hoping to catch some fish. We could see a lot of barbs and loaches in the river. But catching them was a different ball game altogether. Hahahaha! It was fun trying to catch them. We did manage to catch 3 fishes when all came tumbling down.

What came tumbling down? The cops, the damned forest cops. They informed that we were in a protected area (signs people signs, they were everywhere) and that we had to leave. We gladly did after letting the fish go free. We did feel good to be ticked off though. We were pleasantly surprised that the Government was taking care of the forest reserves.

From there, we decided to stop at Thirparappu falls, a popular tourist spot. We had been there quite a few times before (hey, it’s my native town) except for Nafisa and Karthik. I remember a time when one of our school mates almost drowned in the reservoir above the water falls.

Some random dudes (ok, sneaky one, they were with us) enjoying a natural shower

Before getting wet, we took a half hour boating trip in the reservoir. It was as beautiful as I remembered it from my childhood. However, there were more tourists.

And Nafisa clicked some pictures of a stork on the marsh and a blue backed Kingfisher on a line. Lovely! Below, the Kingfisher.

Then, after eating some customary Mulaga Bajjis or Capsicum bajjis, we moved on. On the way to lunch our driver suggested visiting Thottipalam, one of Asia’s longest and highest bridges. Even though we were very hungry we decided to take a look.

The bridge is about 384 Meters (1240 feet) long and has a pathway for people to walk along side a canal carrying water from one side to the other. Wow. Even though I have visited this place before, it still was an amazing experience, not to say scary. At least, my brother was real scared.

A view of the bridge from the bridge.

And I will leave you with a picture of our gang, taken on the bridge.

November 16th 2009

Diwali 2009 Pictures

by Anwin in Bangalore, Cool Stuff, Entertainment, Friends, Holidays, India, Personal, Pics tags: Anwin, crackers, diwali, diwali pics, firecrackers, fireworks, karthik, Nafisa 4 Comments

A little late I know, but the pics were just lying around and so…

There were showers of blessing that day, and badly ringing ears. We could hear firecrackers going boom all day and night.

Some crazy settings with my camera I suppose, and hence the light delay in the photograph. Cool effect.

A picture of one of our rockets taking off…

And some lights . UFO?

April 10th 2009

Delhi Indiblogger Meet, A Review And Train Adventures

by Anwin in Blogging, Events, Friends, Humor, India, Indiblogger, Personal tags: Anwin, blogger meet, Delhi, Indiblogger, indiblogger meet 5 Comments

Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2009: 1:30 PM

Anoop and I were at Yeshwantpur railway station and we boarded the Sampark Kranti Express 2629. We were off to the Delhi NCR IndiBlogger Meet 2009. Ah, only if life was so simple.

Unfortunately for us, only at the station did we know that we were still on the waiting list and our names weren’t on the confirmed list. Oops. Anwin’s list of unlucky escapades with trains continue. Earlier incidents here, here and here.

And, after a lit bit of deliberation and a lot of phone calls to and from Renie, and after consulting two contradictary TTEs, we boarded the train onto 3rd A/C with a computer printout for a ticket. All went well until after about an hour when the TTE comes and asks for the tickets. We somehow managed to elicit a bit of sympathy and understanding from the TTE (along with a couple of other passengers in the same compartment) and we were given berths. Ah, only if life was that simple again (sigh!). Unfortunately, the TTE could only give us berths until Pune after which we will be at the mercy of the next TTE. Damn!!!

Friday, April 3rd, 2009: 11:00 AM

The next day we all got a bit apprehensive and decided to consult the next TTE. And, believe it or not, we showed our faulty ticket to the ONE person we really shouldn’t. He he he he he. If you haven’t guessed it yet, it was the Head TTE. He was very nice to us and asked us to pay a reasonable amount which was the fine plus the ticket fare to Nizammuddin Station. Fair enough. Except, we have already learnt that life is not that simple. Right? So, as usual there was a slight problem to the solution. We could only get seats in 2nd class sleeper and no A/C. Ha ha ha ha ha. But, the upside was that it wasn’t too bad a journey at all. We slept well and reached Delhi and then our hotel peacefully. And Renie joined us at the hotel.

Saturday, April 4th, 2009: After 2:00 PM – The Delhi NCR IndiBlogger Meet

When we reached the Microsoft office at DLF, Gurgaon, we had a pleasant surprise. The meeting hall was quite roomy and had a very nice ambience. We could see the blogger meet unfolding before our eyes as we took in the room.

With all things setup we found bloggers strickling in one by one and in groups. There was this blogger called Ankit who had come quite early, in fact, he entered the hall with us. We did meet 4-5 bloggers from the previous Delhi meet, like Kinshuk from OSSCamp and Desperado. And the Delhi Bloggers Bloc was represented, including twilightfairy.

Pic – Anoop flagging off the meet

After a few tweaks we had the Delhi NCR IndiBlogger meet going. This was the first time that the IndiBlogger team had put up an IndiBlogger presentation to start the meet. Renie, for IndiBlogger.in, talked about our inspirations and how the open source community and the bloggers have been the most supportive of our endeavor.

Pic – Renie talking about IndiBlogger

The next was the ever popular ’1 minute to fame’. Every blogger had time to talk about her blog and what they were passionate about and blog about. There were quite a few laughs. But the big prize for humor went to Mr. D Ravindran who had quite a few jokes and funny anecdotes to share with the Delhi blogging crowd. He had the whole hall of bloggers begging him to stop. Yes, he was that funny.

Pic- D Ravindran talking about his blog

And then we started the ‘Live and Let Comment’ thing where everyone had to hang a chart paper over their backs so that people can come and comment on the physical ‘blog’. This was also an IndiFirst for the IndiBlogger team. We wanted to try this novel way of getting the bloggers introduced between themselves, network, learn about other blogs, etc. And boy we enjoyed it. I speak here as a blogger rather than and IndiBlogger. I loved speaking to and commenting on the ‘blogs’. After which we gave away some T-Shirts as prizes. Mr. D. Ravindran got one for being the funniest blogger, and some others for quite a few incidental reasons like the person who could find the first spelling mistake in their blog posts.

And then the session on IE8 by MS started. This was a very refreshing session with a lot of feedback, criticizm, apprecation, skepticism and understanding. I now check that there even has been a couple of reviews on the meet and IE8 as well. Nice.

pic – Abhishek from MS

After the IE8 session, Twilight Fairy – a blogger from Delhi and a founding member of Delhi Bloggers Bloc, started the Social media & its copyright aspect session. This was an eye opener for a lot of bloggers at the meet. Twilightfairy and a few others were very vocal about the fact that not everything on the internet is free. The discussion went on to discuss what is legal in using other people’s views, pictures, videos and other material from the internet.

And then, we broke up for some pizzas and lots and lots of soft drinks and coffee. And the networking.

Pic – Kinshuk

To wind up Kinshuk from OSSCamp spearheaded a discussion on how ‘blogging and social media can be effectively used for internal communications and encouraging an open environment for all types of organizations – startups, hospitals, corporates, etc. This was another kickass session with all the bloggers joining in and discussion their views. Finally, it was concluded that blogging and other social media could be a very efficient channel for encouraging open communications within an organization.

Pic – The last photo at the meet

Find reviews on the meet at IndiBlogger

And then the IndiBlogger team met with the Delhi Bloggers Bloc at Cafe Moccha. Hmmm… nice place, especially since they had so many books lying around. I managed to read Asterix in Britain there.

Then we went back to our hotel where we kinda started another one of our ‘inspirational’ sessions that lasted until 5 in the morning. After which we left for the railway station. And we traveled another 40 hours to reach Bangalore. Damn, that train is a bit slow.

And, it was good to be back in Bangalore after 5 days of traveling and a Delhi Blogger Meet. Until next time, it is goodbye from Anwin.

Another pic:

December 1st 2008

Some Photos

by Anwin in Chows, Friends, Personal, Pics 5 Comments

Here are some photos from a few weeks ago. These were things I wanted to post and I did not for lack of time (read laziness).

The above picture was taken at Anoop’s house at Diana’s ‘surprise’ birthday party. This was our very first ‘surprise’ party where we all hid inside and shouted, yes you guessed it right, SURPRISE!