Archive for Friends

May 20th 2008

Mangalore And A Prayer

Attended Naveen’s wedding at Mangalore. It was great. But more on that later. This post is about me and how I prayed at St. Aloysius Chapel in Mangalore. Ok…not much of a but a picture really.

Hehehe…I know. Sacrilege.

But fun apart, the chapel was amazing with beautiful murals all over the walls including on the ceiling. It was like walking into a dark ages catholic “cult” chapel. Only the priests in robes were missing. But in my imagination I could see.

Before visiting the chapel we had also visited a temple, but the name eludes me. All I know is it was in Kadri and goes something like Manjunateswara temple of something. We were told to visit the caves which were supposedly awesome. I am really not sure if we were at the right place, but you can see Renie inside one “cave”. Hehehehe.

The huge Hanuman in the temple apparently trained along with Arnie (Arnold Schwarzenegger).

The temple was also quite interesting. My whole point in visiting these places was to know a bit of Mangalore history. The monuments hold a lot of history and culture in their walls and sculptures. Quite interesting.

And then, of course, one picture of Nafisa and I to close the post.

Oops. No. One more pic please.

“Jesus Loves you all”

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May 14th 2008

Tickets In Dustbin

This Monday I got the tickets to Mangalore for attending Naveen’s wedding. In the evening I gave the tickets to Nafisa for safe-keeping. And immediately she said, “Thank God, you gave it to me. Don’t ever think of giving it to Karthik or you will find it in a dust bin”.

To read about that episode you have to read (Un)Lucky in Mumbai.

March 25th 2008

Anoop The Expert On Indian Cricket And Hockey

I got this from one of Anoop‘s comments on my post long time back. I just can’t imagine now that Anoop can write a long comment like this. Hehehe… So here it is:

well..I dont know if the Indian team is being selfish these days..their attitude seems a lot different…I just think a lot of players in Indian sport lack fitness and that affects their concentration..I dont believe there is lack of talent..

Imagine school….there is no emphasis on fitness and even young ppl who are serious in their efforts to be professional athletes have fitness sessions only on the weekends. It is only after a certain age (prob 15 or 16 if lucky), that they concentrate on improving fitness on a day to day basis. This is not enough….

Even in Indian hockey..in this world cup..india always took the lead but lost four matches in the last five or ten minutes… This is a serious problem and in cricket you really cannot tell if the player is tired..because if he is, he can still defend the ball and be happy..If he was fit..it would be another story. In kaula Lumpur..the poor boys in blue could not take the heat there and it was very evident… standing even in an hour of soaring temperatures can sap the life out of you..If you are not fit..no point!!!

The pitch there played the same during both innings..but there was a distinct difference in batting after the indians had fielded all day and then went to bat during the second innings!!!..why?? Pressure? i dont think so!

During the Chappel-Ganguly wars..just read some of the articles..Ganguly opposed Chappel cuz he could not take some of the tough training sessions..Chappel was bemused cuz he thought those training sessions were elementary..! Now you know why the Aussies are kicking serious ass!

Some Indian players look like they need Liposuction!..well cant blame them man…some of them probably had parents like some of us..he he..go to school..read books..do homework..what play??????? be a scientist!!!!! excercise?? who are you??? jakie Chan>????

Well as far as indian mentality is concerned..If parents did push their kids to fitness at an early age..chances are that the kid would bunk it anyway in typical rebellious fashion and go to CSI hostel ground and drink beer on the sly..Catch 22!

Original post and don’t forget to read the comments.

February 27th 2008

The Bangalore Chows Go To Chennai

All great things start from a small idea. I think something like that is a saying or a maxim or whatever. But we, the Chows, believe that all fun things stem from a whim or a trip that is unplanned.

So Anoop, Karthik, S, Nafisa and I got into Anoop’s trusted Knight Rider at about 4:30 in the morning and we were off. It all started a couple of days before that when Renie asked if we would like to drive down to Chennai. And of course, Anoop said yes and then informed me. Hehehehe. That’s how it works you see.

We were all so happy and excited that we forgot about the turn at Krishnagiri and went straight towards Salem. We realized the mistake after 45 kms and then we had to turn back. About an hour or so was lost. We felt a little bad since we were actually making very good time at a steady speed, thanks to Shell’s Super Petrol.

Once we reached Chennai and Renie’s house, the sea, we relaxed (you know what) and contemplated what to do in the evening. We, the chows, and Nafisa were ready for anything. But apparently S had come down with some grand plans of clubbing and night life of Chennai. So she wanted to go to Temple Bay. No amount of coaxing for a relaxed evening convinced her. Since she was the new one in the group (at least for Renie), we decided to go. After a brief sleep and rest we took off in the evening towards East Coast Road.

Temple bay was seriously good though. It was a peaceful environment by the beach with subdued lightning. I am sure we got cursed by all and sundry for making a lot of noise. One sample pic below.

Temple bay, Chennai

Then we went back to Renie’s place for some quiet time of “memory game”. I won’t go into details too much except for the facts that S got conned into not sleeping early (as usual of course, we are really good at this) and that I started snoring in the wee hours that everyone went to sleep.

The next day we went to Kafeoke, a Karaoke coffee bar, by the beach side. We had loads of fun there singing to a lot of memorable songs. Anoop started off with Call Me, by Blondie. We literally scared a lot of people who were there. Then I sang Cocaine by Eric Clapton and got the highest point for the evening – fifty something. My bro, Edin, did a couple of songs – Crazy from Aerosmith and Light my fire from Doors. The girls did an awesome song from some Hindi movie which was quite entertaining. Below pic is when we finished with a song on the house, with a photoshoot by a photographer for a local weekly newspaper.
Karaoke from the Chows And then, I bombed trying to sing Creep by Radiohead. It was so bad that Nafisa

  • tried to pull the mic from my hand
  • then hesitated because I refused
  • then she laughed at me
  • then she hid her face from me
  • and then she pretended to sleep and not hear me sing

The whole sequence can be found at the below gif. The pictures where taken by the damned fellow Renie and me being good humored created a animated gif out of them.
Anwin doing a karaoke

And then it was time for all of us to leave. So we were back Sunday night at our respective places. Thanks Renie for a wonderful time! Remember, that was not an invasion but the start of a series of raids. Hehehehe!

February 6th 2008

(un) Lucky In Mumbai

My tryst with luck or fate or whatever you call it runs true to form, as always. And I hate trains. People are always amazed that I travel long distances by bus rather than train. And there is a reason to it too. I am always unlucky because I always miss the obvious when traveling by train.

Read about my Chennai trip and Mumbai trip to know how I get caught in something or the other while traveling.
Anoop, Karthik, Sanjeeb, N and I went by bus to Mumbai for the Iron Maiden concert. My bro joined us at Mumbai by flight from Chennai. We had an awesome journey by bus. Really! No jokes! So we reached Dadar and we were shown a cold shoulder regarding rooms. But finally we got the rooms. And we started to the concert area – MMRDA grounds in the Bandra-Kurla complex in two taxis. And our taxi which started earlier, of course, was the last to reach the area.

And at the concert area we all got mauled, hehehe. Especially Anoop, my bro and N. Except for my bro and Anoop, we escaped from the mosh pit area and came to the sides. But apparently, Anoop and Edin got caught right in the ‘twirl’. But man, that was real fun, at the end of the day. And, of course, Iron Maiden on stage helped a lot in keeping our moods soaring to new heights.

While coming back, we had to walk so many kilometers looking for a taxi. In the end we got an auto to Sion. As usual we three started earlier and got down at Sion. And I, with my zest for trying out new things, asked if we can take the metro to Dadar. Everyone agreed and we got onto the train. And yes, we were caught by the Ticket Checker for getting on to first class when we had tickets for second class. I mean, we just saw that it was empty and we got on to the first class compartment. No amount of begging and pleading could help us. It was late at night and we did not have the energy or patience to go on. So we paid 500 bucks and walked off. Oh man!!! And yes, we reached much much later again even though we started off first :(

And then when we were coming back we went early to Sion for a small refreshment. Our bus was scheduled for 3:00 PM. At 3:40 PM we realize that we did not have our tickets. On thinking back we realized that Karthik had given the ticket at the restaurant to Edin to call and confirm the place of pickup. The two buggers happily left the tickets at the restaurant. Talk about carelessness or something else. And then they both ran to find the tickets. And we were losing time. They came back right on time before the bus came in with a soiled and wet ticket. Apparently, they had to dig it from the trash bin. Yes, my friends, we came back on a soiled ticket. God knows, what Edin and Karthik did inside the trash bin. Hehehehe.

At last, we boarded the bus and reached Bangalore safely. Even in Bangalore, we three reached home last even after getting an auto first. That’s the way  it works for me I guess! Apparently, the auto driver was trying to con us and took a wrong turn.

But in the end, we enjoyed the whole trip and the concert. It was immensely satisfying!!!