Tis life..

When you are at office, you feel sleepy. When you are at home, you dont get sleep.

When you have a girl, you wont have a bike. When you have a bike, you wont have the girl.

When you take an umbrella somewhere, it doesn't rain. When you dont take, it pours.

When you love someone, you find it difficult to propose. When you propose, they would have got engaged.

When you study well, you get questions you wouldn't have read. When you havn't studied, its worse..

When you want to meet someone, they are busy. When someone wants to meet you, you are busy.

When you are free, you want to talk to busy guys. When you are busy, they(free guys) want to talk to you.

When you want to take any application form, the counter is closed. When its open, there is a long queue.

When there is milk there is no sugar. When there is sugar, there is no milk.

When you want to watch a new movie, you wont get tickets. If you wait for a month, even then you wont get tickets.

When you are damn hungry, there will not be much to eat at home. When you are full, all eatables will be present at home.

When you really need a bus, it doesn't come in time. When you dont need it, all come at once.

When you want to relax, somebody comes and disturbs. When you are held up with work, nobody comes for your help.

You do something good, nobody cares. You dont do something, everyone asks.
What you think wont happen. What happens make you think.

Completed..

in Infosys !!

Time flies... !

Lets face it..

~! Happy Diwali !~

10 Reasons to Celebrate Diwali!


The Festival of Lights is for All

Why do we celebrate Diwali? It’s not just the festive mood in the air that makes you happy, or just that it's a good time to enjoy before the advent of winter. There are 10 mythical and historical reasons why Diwali is a great time to celebrate. And there are good reasons not just for Hindus but also for all others to celebrate this great Festival of Lights.


1.Goddess Lakshmi’s Birthday: The Goddess of wealth, Lakshmi incarnated on the new moon day (amaavasyaa) of the Kartik month during the churning of the ocean (samudra-manthan), hence the association of Diwali with Lakshmi.

2. Vishnu Rescued Lakshmi: On this very day (Diwali day), Lord Vishnu in his fifth incarnation as Vaman-avtaara rescued Lakshmi from the prison of King Bali and this is another reason of worshipping Ma Lakshmi on Diwali.

3. Krishna Killed Narakaasur: On the day preceding Diwali, Lord Krishna killed the demon king Narakaasur and rescued 16,000 women from his captivity. The celebration of this freedom went on for two days including the Diwali day as a victory festival.

4. The Return of the Pandavas: According to the great epic ‘Mahabharata’, it was ‘Kartik Amavashya’ when the Pandavas appeared from their 12 years of banishment as a result of their defeat in the hands of the Kauravas at the game of dice (gambling). The subjects who loved the Pandavas celebrated the day by lighting the earthen lamps.

5. The Victory of Rama: According to the epic ‘Ramayana’, it was the new moon day of Kartik when Lord Ram, Ma Sita and Lakshman returned to Ayodhya after vanquishing Ravana and conquering Lanka. The citizens of Ayodhya decorated the entire city with the earthen lamps and illuminated it like never before.

6. Coronation of Vikramaditya: One of the greatest Hindu King Vikramaditya was coroneted on the Diwali day, hence Diwali became a historical event as well.

7. Special Day for the Arya Samaj: It was the new moon day of Kartik (Diwali day) when Maharshi Dayananda, one of the greatest reformers of Hinduism and the founder of Arya Samaj attained his nirvana.

8. Special Day for the Jains: Mahavir Tirthankar, considered to be the founder of modern Jainism also attained his nirvana on Diwali day.

9. Special Day for the Sikhs: The third Sikh Guru Amar Das institutionalized Diwali as a Red-Letter Day when all Sikhs would gather to receive the Gurus blessings. In 1577, the foundation stone of the Golden Temple at Amritsar was laid on Diwali. In 1619, the sixth Sikh Guru Hargobind, who was held by the Mughal Emperor Jahengir, was released from the Gwalior fort along with 52 kings.

10. The Pope’s Diwali Speech: In 1999, Pope John Paul II performed a special Eucharist in an Indian church where the altar was decorated with Diwali lamps, the Pope had a ‘tilak’ marked on his forehead and his speech was bristled with references to the festival of light

Have a Safe Diwali!

Source: Mail

Engineering nostalgia

Yesterday, as it was a cold & rainy weather, to keep myself busy I just happened to clean the dust fallen on my engineering day books. And as I cleaned them, just flipped thru its pages. I just went back to my college world for a moment.

Transistor - Diode - Zener diode - Resistor - Capacitor - Inductor - Ohm's laws - Kirchoff's laws - Right/left hand rules - Avalance breakdown - pnp/npn - FETs - JFETs - MOSFETs - FIR/IIR filters - OpAmps - MicroProcessor (8086) - Thermistor - Thermocouple - Strain guage - Peizo electric transducers - Fourier Transforms - FFT - DFT - Laplace transforms - Matrices - Integration/Differentiation - Maxima/Minima - Optical Instrumentation - Biomedical Instrumentation - VLSI design - Sine/Cos Wave - Phase shift - Threshold - PID controller - Microcontroller - Stepper motor - AND/OR/NOR/NOT/XOR gates - Digital shift - 555 Timer - OTDR - Encryption/Decryption - Computer Networks - Ring/Star topology - Process control - Frequency response - Log graphs - MATLAB - Keyboard program - CRO - Multimeter - Measurement - Counters - Signals And Systems - DSP - ADSP2181 on which we did our final year project - Project report - etc etc etc..

Wondering all this we studied only to get a B.E degree ?! These are not atall used today, after nearly 4 years of completing engineering.. Now I'm in a public static void main world !

Kyu aaj kal

Kyu aaj kal neend kam kaam zyada hai
Lagta khuda ka koi bura irada hai
Kal tha shehzada aaj dil fakeer hai
Lagta manager ka koi bura irada hai

Kyu mujhe itna kaam hai ya ..?
Aisa kaam mere upar hi aata hai ya ...?

BooBooBoo

Naguvudo aLuvudo ?

It may so happen that on a given day, with two different sets of close friends (like college-office, office friends-proj mates, etc) with the conditions that these two sets of friends don't know each other,

one may be happy... other may be sad
one may be joyful... other may be sorrowful
one may be proposing... other may be getting rejected
one may be winning... other may be losing
one may be coming... other may be departing
one may be getting engaged... other may be getting divorced
one may be getting married... other's spouse may be dead
one may be having a baby... other may be dying
one may be partying... other may be in a depression
one may be celebrating wedding aniversary... other may be performing death cermony

what would you do..? laugh or cry ? (naguvudo aluvudo ?)

Aint this cool..?

Me first

15 days in Bangalore and i'm already hyper. Hyper because of traffic. Just cant understand why the people of Bangalore have become so restless and apathetic, especially regarding traffic. This is nothing new, it was the same a year back too.

Consider this. A long wait for the signal to turn green. As soon as it becomes yellow, somewhere in the back a guy honks. As if the way is all clear for him. He knows he cant go ! Then I really wonder what pleasure he gets by doing so and disturbing poor chaps like us who will be in the bus after a tired day, sleeping. Not only him for that instance, even our bus driver also follow the suit. Why cant these guys have a little patience ! And the way they drive..ooph..Not even a dog can find a place between two vehicles.

And two wheelers, like me get sandwitched between these vehicles sometimes. We dont honk, as we know nobody's going to listen to us. But ya, we keep our patience, and do sneak haphazardly. Things wont change.

And when I am in the bus, I curse the ricks and cars. When I happen to be in a rick, I curse the busses and cars. When I happen to be in a car, I curse the busses, ricks, two wheelers, bullock carts. And when I am on my own bike, I curse all. (and there will be one person on road for sure who will curse me). Guess this cursing cycle continues...

And everyone wants to be the first to get rid of the traffic. Isn't it..?

Bangalore tring tring

Let me begin...

tak tak tak tak .... fan in the international airport

keeeek kik .. chik.... keeeek kik .. chik .... printer

madam, nimge coolie beka? (madam, do you want a coolie?) .... to a foreign lady

guys meticulously lifting off the luggage on conveyor belt before it reaches the owners (coz the conveyor belt cant hold more than 10 baggages)

ellinda bartiddira sir? (where are you coming from?) ... guy in the stamping desk asking me (he knows flight is from London)

enu customs declare maadake ilva? (nothing to declare in customs?) (as if i would do) ... customs officer & he just gazes my luggage & leaves.. others were going through baggage screenings again.. !

stinking smell ... just outside the door of the airport

jumping signals ... the driver was nephew of schumi

BANG !! an unseen hump... oh... my suitcase... !

a warm welcome ... at home

good home made food ... after 5 months

ETV serials ... same character in 4 roles in 3 serials (1 as duplicate) ... serial names..?

chocs distribution ... should i have got more?

oh bandya.. en tande..? (oh, you came? what did you get?) .... padosans

nim magange maduve maadtira? (i wont translate this) ... padosans again (asking my parents)...!

this is just the beginning... more to come on my way....! work, life, friends...... c u folks... !

3Bs Trip

Epilogue

The 2.5 hr journey back to London was nostalgic. We spoke to Soms for around 45 mins, from the time we left till she reached her place. Then, me & Jay were summarizing the snaps and talking many things and finally reached Victoria coach station at 10 PM. Again, we had to hurry from the coach station to tube station, as on sundays, tube frequencies are less at night and they generally close down by 11 PM. Coach station gu namgu aagode illa !

Yep, reached home sweet home by 11:15 where dinner was ready prepared by my roomies. Had it and crashed to complete my lost sleep.

Overall, this trip was a fantastic one, and to me the most fastest decided trip and a hurried trip (hurry in terms of catching transports). Sometimes think that too much planning doesn't work ;)

...!!!...

3Bs Trip - Part 2

5:30 AM the alarm buzzes and for the first time in my history of weekends, I woke up at that unearthly hour. I woke up Soms too, as it was decided previous night that she would prepare dosas for us for breakfast. By the time we all got ready, it was already close to 7. And, Anita & Shashi had just begun to prepare masala for the dosa. In the meanwhile, I called up a cab and told him to take us to Parkway station at 7:10. Potatoes weren't put for the masala, but still we managed to grab some dosas with half done palya. All in all, we were in a hurry, and the cab driver had already come & waited for 10 mins. we 3 jumped into the cab to go to train station. Luckily, he confirmed we were to go to Parkway station, and suddenly Jay's bell rang and told him to take us to Temple Meads station !

7:38 we arrived at the station and hurriedly bought the tickets and ran like never before to catch the train. Ooph ! we made it ! We were in the train at 7:40 and the train started moving ! Guess for us, stations and running go hand in hand !

It was a 11 minute ride to Bath Spa, and by the time we came to normal, we were off the train. We went enquiring on the place the tour was supposed to start and reached there well before time for the first time :). Our half day tour began sharply at 9 and our tour guide was humourous and fun filled. On way to Stonehenge, he showed the estates of Lord Bath and mentioned that he had a wife and 80+ 'wifelets' and was looking forward to make it a century.

We reached Stonehenge, where lied few pieces of heavy stones mysteriously in an unorderly fashion, supposed to be built in 3000 B.C. ! The radio operated guided tour was mentioning about the several myths and facts associated with this place. It also said that there were more than 700 varieties of small plants which grew on the stones. And being in this place, we got some kind of feeling that we came back in time machine to the age when this was built. And a lot of questions ringing in the mind - who built this, why was this built, what was this used for, how did they get the stones, etc etc ! I'm still searching for the answers. The snap of it, - you all might have seen it in the windows desktop display properties, but here's it again for you..

From there, we proceeded to Lacock National Trust Village. This wonderful village consists of properties which date from 13th and 18th centuries. It was once a prosperous woollen town, but now it seems like a village trapped in time. As we entered the village, we felt as if we were stepping back into history. There was a beautiful flower show organized as well. The Abbey and the house below were also used in the filming of the first two Harry Potter movies.

It also became the town of Meriton in the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice. Have a look at the street, if you have seen this movie, recollect.

This village also has the oldest pub in England, established in 1391.

From here, we went back to Bath and reached the place by 1 PM. To our surprise, there was an Indian cuisine (Jamuna restaurant) right in front of the stop and we had our lunch there. We then went to Roman Baths.

The Roman Baths is supposed to be the most preserved building of Roman empire in UK. They claim to have the best architecture, but when compared to Indian architecure, its nothing. There were 2 baths - main bath and the sacred spring. Of interest was the sacred spring, where hot air bubbles were coming out of water and this was considered to be a holy bath during medeival period.

The radio guide tour mentioned that only preists were allowed into the sacred spring and common man had to go to the other one. And one interesting thing was that, if a person lost anything, he would write it down on a stone or metal and throw it in the bath asking the water God (Aqueus Sulias) to punish the culprit. We also saw those metal pieces and wondered how people lived during that time ! As the tour proceeded, we also got to know that the so called preists were predicting futures also by killing a goat and examining the lever of it. What a crap we thought, as In India also people still sacrifice a goat or any animal. (Whereever it is, its the goat - bakra). How does it differ in any way to the Indian civilization ? And so many crappy mythologies that we couldn't take more of it ! Thats where instantaniously, 3 terms came by us:

Roman civilization - kantri civilization, by Jay

Priest - kuri cutter, by me

We are Romans, coz we are Roaming, by Soms !

After highly dissatisfied with the Roman civilization, we came out of the bath & went to a place where they served water coming from the sacred spring. The taste was yuck, but the lady who served was too pretty ;)

We then went around the small town, saw the Abbey and gardens and left for Bristol at 6 PM. We reached Bristol pretty fast, and as we hadn't covered any part of Bristol, asked Soms to take us to some place which made us feel like we were in Bristol. Hurriedly, she took us to the centre of city where a fountain was the main attraction (unfortunately, it was turned off). Then again, we had a gala time running back to the coach station to catch the 7:20 PM bus back to London. We still made it and were there just 5 mins prior to departure ! We bid our final adieus and boarded the bus.

3Bs Trip - Part 1

You might still be wondering as to what are the 3Bs I'm mentioning. Its Birmingham, Bristol & Bath. The 's' is for Stonehenge.

Well, we reached Digbeth coach station, Birmingham well before the said arrival time, at 11 AM, where we thought Sowmya (henceforth Soms) would be too loaded with food stuffs that she couldn't even shake hands with us. Phew ! All our assumptions were turned down by her as she had got only one small mini bag for herself! Our starvation continued.

Soms had already enquired about going to Balaji temple of Birmingham and we religiously followed the way shown by her. We reached the temple close to mid noon, where it was mediumly drizzling. The temple was located in a serene landscape, far from sky rising buildings and crowded markets. Ganesh and Subramanya temples on either side and the main Balaji temple in centre. No brits around, all devout devotees around, the same rush to see Gods, nobody speaking in English, the temple architecture, ambience, chanting of 'Govinda Govinda' and the Stotras, prasad distributed, laddus, all made me feel that I was actually in India. I felt desis behave more properly in temples abroad rather than at home place.

We came out of the temple and went near the main entrance of the temple just to avoid the rains when suddenly we saw someone carrying a food plate. We enquired people over there and got to know that food was being served in the nearby tent. Sigh ! What a releif for hungry guys ! We went there and had the prasad food - authentic payasa, sambhar-rice, cabbage sabji and pappadum.. what more we wanted ! After having the sumptuous lunch, we were so tired that we couldn't even walk properly. Well, but had to.. We came back to the bus stop and caught a bus to city centre.

We alighted at the city centre, but the rain didn't seem to stop. We were just hanging around the City council, museum, open restaurants, when we came across a funny event being conducted by BBC - simulated beach ball. We took part in that, represented Birmingham and beleive me, it was too much fun ! Didn't mind getting drenched in the rain, for it was too interesting. Then we came back near the water body and took a snap of the city council. Here's what we got to see..

Then went around here and there, and made sure that we reached the coach station before 6:30 PM. We didn't want another round of exercise for the day ! But, the bus got delayed and we only started at 7:10 from Birmingham to Bristol. All along the journey had great laughs and we reached Bristol by 9:30 PM. Took a cab to Soms place where another round of delicious dinner was awaiting us, made by her house mates Amogh & Thiru. Belted it and then me and Soms went for a walk to receive her another set of friends - Anita and Shashi. And after long discussions about plans for the next day, decided that we are getting up early and leaving for Bath at 7 AM, as the only train available was at 7:40 ! By the time we slept, it was already 12:30 !

Good night for now.. More in Part 2. Watch out this space tomorrow !

3Bs Trip

Prologue

Friday 17th Aug, 6:00 PM

Jay calls me and asks about the weekend plan. The plan which we were planning from past 1 week. The trip to Bristol. And as I was completely flooded with work, I still hadn't booked the tickets. Then finally, took out some time from work, worked out the plan, booked one way tickets from London to Birmingham(8:30 AM) and Bristol to London(7:20 PM), called up MadMaxTours, enquired about the tours which they had and booked a half day tour to Stonehenge and Laccock National Heritage village starting from Bath for Sunday(8:45 AM). All these in a span of 35 mins. Then left for home at 7:15 PM after completing the remaining work.

Friday 17th Aug, 9:00 PM

Sowmya (the unseen girl of my previous blog) calls me and asks to book return tickets for her from Bristol to Birmingham. Then suddenly I too remembered that we have to get back to Bristol the next day from Birmingham. So did return bookings for all of us, packed up things and went off to sleep at 12:00. A 6 hour sleep during the weekend is considered to be bad i guess, but couldn't help.

Saturday 18th Aug, 8:24 AM

"Kyu aaj kal neend kam khwab zyaada hai, lagta khuda ka koi"

Dont worry, this is my ringtone and I picked it up before it continued. It was Jay.

Jay: Dude, where are you?

Me: I'm at the station.

Jay: Ok.

Me: Victoria tube station.

Jay: wwaatt?? dude.. come fast ! We will miss the bus!

Me: Ok.. I'm doing my morning exercise after a long time. I'll be there soon.

Finally reached Victoria coach station at 8:29 AM. Boarded the bus and just fell off on the seat. It was cold and I was sweating ! Guess for us, Victoria coach station is not the right place to catch the bus.

More in next blog. Take a break..

The importance of a 'seeti'

Yes, you heard it right. The importance of a seeti, or whistle to be precise. Oops.. dont get me wrong, I'm not talking about the seeti you blow when you see a girl. Neither I'm talking about the seeti when you remember a song (as in DTPH), nor the seeti when you shiver, nor when its used to call someone, nor the seeti you blow when your team wins, nor virtually anything you blow out of your lips. The seeti I'm talking about is beyond your imagination !

Actually, before I get to the point of which kind of seeti I'm going to tell, let me brief you about the seeti. As described in wiki, a seeti is a Persian woodwind instrument which produces sound from a stream of forced air. And there exists many kind of seetis - police, sports, train, steam, bird, industrial etc. My seeti of importance lies with the steam.

Making some sense..? Yes, this seeti is so very used daily that hardly we fail to recognize the importance of this. Pressure cooker ka seeti. Beleive me, without this, nothing would get cooked properly. Its such a tiny thing, but carries with it a lot of significance. Isn't it?

And in London, where cookers are not used at all, imagine the plight of desi guys who have got a cooker from India, depends on it for everything and suddenly one day, they discover that the seeti is lost (Due to misplacement, or cleaning, or whatever. The seeti is no longer available).

But thanks, there is something called a microwave. But, it can never be the substitute for a cooker.

This blog is based on a true story of guys of 322 Perth Road.

No matter

no matter..


where you come from
what you do
what you eat
what you say
what grades you get
what positions you take
what achievements you make
what responsibilities you hold
how many friends you have
how many trips you do
how many games you play
how many blogs you write
how many awards you win
how many acclamations you get
who you love
who you hate
who you like to talk to
who you would like to be with
how much you earn
how much you spend

it is YOU who came to this world
empty handed
and will also leave
empty handed

Unseen girl

an unseen girl

to be received by me and my accomplice

she waves at the arrival

and we are at the departure

thanks to technology and colour of calls

we finally got to meet each other

for the punishment of long waiting

we made her treat at burger king

we get to know she has a sentiment issue

so we gifted her a tissue

we started our london darshan

buckingham & green park in action

we continued on our nataraja service

getting directed on map basis

we reached the westminster area

which is the heart of london centra

showed them the abbey and walked down the bridge

below which passes the thames mori

we were now on other side of thames

where many cartoons played their games

for one she got so scared

she would remember it forever as A-grade

took a pic with london eye on her hand

the photographer was truely manned

then went to charring cross with a bang

to meet at london bridge another huge gang

showed her the bridges - london and tower

where tourism has based their power

amidst the huge rush & the jam

we finally reached east ham

the tube was burning

but she kept on saying

I'm so excited

Oh man.. I'm so damn excited !

after the vada sambar

the 7 of us were still sober

we wanted to have a beat

afterall it was JK's leaving treat

the next day all geared up for going

oh no.. ! not another round of waiting

in between, we three went to holme's museum gallery

didn't buy much, but only for orkut gallery

we were still waiting in the sunshine

we were totally 3+3+3 = nine

we planned for Madame Tussads

but ended up in pizza hut

looking at the que we decided

its not worth going ahead

after a lots of wheres & whichs

finally decided upon Greenwich

we reached Greenwich, not too bad

a small hill which made us tired

atop the hill they hardly knew

london city was at the best from this view

stood, posed, took photos along the GMT line

hardly we remembered about the 7 PM deadline

as soon as she realised she would miss the bus

she put all the onus on us

thru out the journey from greenwich to victoria

we were like - you will miss it, you WILL miss it

but once in victoria and at 6:45 PM

we were like - you have to get it, you HAVE TO get it

we did some jogging and running

and entered coach station happily jumping

with 5 more mins to ring the bell

we thought we reached safe well

the seen girl just left

without inviting us to the party to be held

we were like - hmmm.. okie.. no worries

but finally got to know each other

dont know again when we will meet

but on that day, there will surely be a treat

Goodbye..

Hiding from somewhere, walking slowly
dont know which direction which time
you went forward than me on the way
but you were just here just now
didn't hear anything, since when was this grudge
how did you say goodbye

In between you passed away
it was my life till yesterday
take those arms, and cold shadows
I too told goodbye
goodbye goodbye my direction goodbye
my breath says goodbye
goodbye goodbye, now what to tell
when you have told goodbye

Listen you innocent, why just ignored, today you go away
your eyes will only find us everywhere
nights like these, while rolling on bed, you will remember us
and after losing, if didn't want to say, why you told goodbye
goodbye let someone ask, what did you think and told goodbye
goodbye goodbye, now what to tell
when you have told goodbye

My heart was burnt, still heart told
wish you were there today with me, all directions would have been flower garden
unhappy with you, i'm angry, heart is in trouble
didnt even think or listen, why did you say goodbye
goodbye let someone ask, what did you think and told goodbye
goodbye goodbye, now what to tell
when you have told goodbye

why thought and told goodbye

give those arms, and cold shadows
I too told goodbye.

Goodbyes are painful.
In rememberance of a month. Dedicated to AAru.

(Translate the above to Hindi, or Click here)

Common developers language

It was working y'day, but dont know why its not working today.

Its not working on my system, but its working on his'.

I have never got this kind of exception.

Its out of scope.

If any bug exists from previous release - Production issue (never bothers to solve it. Let it continue).

If any problem with information - data problem.

If server problem - environment issue.

If any co-developer has got a bug to fix & he has asked the developer for help - Let me have a look at it (escape !).

If on personal call & any official call comes in between - I will get back to you soon (after 3 hrs?).

Requirements are not clear.

Who did the component design? It doesn't go with the code !

We need to clarify this issue. (we?).

(If onsite) What are guys doing at offshore (or onsite, if offshore) ?

How come managers will always be in meetings or calls? They dont have any work is it?

I wont attend this meeting (conf call). Its pure waste of time.

When asked about what happened in meeting (if attended) - another time pass meeting man. Kind of a break for 2 hours. Had a good sleep. Dont know what they were talking about.

I'm having a headache now. Will come early tomorrow and solve it. (what did u say..? early..? tomo...? with headache...?).

Beleive me, I composed this blog in office !

Decode this

All you folks would have read about DaVinci Code, Angels & Demons, encryption-decryption, Huffman Coding, and a lot of deciphering(in puzzles - ex. Shakuntala Devi, George Summers etc). Lets see if you can decode this little bit of notice.

Ug tiy biyuvr ygud biyuvrm tiy eukk biyuvr ygsy ygr biyuvr tiy str bivuvubh ud biy eityg biyuvubh,

Put on your thinking caps. Work smart. Not hard.

And, if you get this, please let me know.

Swiss trip - D3

All excited about goint to Schilthorn, I woke up 15 mins earlier than the alarm time I'd set in my cell. As done in Hindi movies, I too slowly opened the curtains and windows to look outside and get a glimpse of the weather. Phew ! It was snowing ! I got all excited about this. I woke up all and took them to my room and suddenly, a feeling came to play again in snow. Hardly I knew that Schilthorn plans were fading away..

Our hotel guy suggested we drop the plan to Schilthorn, as it would be closed, and also pointed us to go to Trumbachfalle, where there were 5 waterfalls meeting. The route was same till Lauterbrunnen, but after that we had to take a cable car. Earlier, we had decided to leave the place by 8:30, but then finally we were out by 10:30. We went to Inter West and took a bus to Wilderswill, only to see that all trains too had been cancelled due to heavy rain and snow ! We got a sense that our day was getting wasted.

Then, Jum came up with an idea of going to Berne, capital of Switzerland. Actually, it wasn't a bad idea. We came back to Interlaken West and boared the double decker train to Berne. FYI.. Interlaken West is the DDLJ station where King Khan and Kajol miss their train.

It was a 1 hour journey to Berne. The boring city. Only buildings here and there. We enquired about the places to see there and the travel info guys told of some historic monuments. We went around city saw Houses of Parliament, Swiss National Bank, Clock tower and some forgettable places. We didn't have enough cash with us, so went to McD's thinking they would accept credit cards. But unfortunately, they didn't accept it & we had to starve big time ! We then decided to go back to Basel to board our flight back to London. At Berne station, we managed to get some croisants & satisfy our stomachs!

We caught the wrong train(or rather, train changed its direction) and landed in some unknown city. There fortunately, there was a train ready for Basel, and we hurriedly caught that. Finally reached Basel at around 5:30 PM, for our 9:45 PM flight!
Just went to airport, checked in our luggages and full 2 hours of chatting. About future, about IT, Infy, and what not ! It was an interesting chat all together! In the meanwhile, I got a view from Basel airport aswell.. one last view of Switzerland..

Our flight was delayed by 15 mins, but reached London Luton safely at 11ish. Got a cab from there which dropped everyone back home. It was 12 when I reached home.

Alltogether, it was one of the best trips covered. Given a chance, I would like to visit Switzerland again, and cover up other places like Zurich, Rhine falls, Mt. Titlis and Geneva.

With this, I end my Swiss trip blog.

Shubham

Swiss trip - D2

After having a good sound sleep and getting rid of the previous days tiredness, we were all set to conquer Jungfrau. While we were having our breakfast, our hotel guy mentioned that Beatenberg was the longest village in Europe. He also gave us a route map to go to Jungfrau. It was - bus from Beatenberg to Interlaken West, another bus from Inter West to Wilderswill, and then trains from Wilderswill - Lauterbrunnen - Klein Scheidigg - Jungfrau. We followed his guidelines religiously. The train journeys from Wilderswill - Jungfrau was quite interesting, with splendid views of Switzerland and the Alps. Here are a few..

After a 2.5 hour journey, we finally touched Jungfrau - Top of Europe at around 11ish. We had earlier brought passes to Jungfrau region at Lauterbrunnen itself. We first went to Ice palace, where beautifully crafted sculputures of ice were placed. These guys are too talented ah..

After being here, we just felt that mouses were running in our stomach(for literal meaning, translate this to hindi ;) ). We went to Bollywood restaurant which was crowded with full - I mean FULL of desis ! We weren't even allowed to enter the restaurant and were chucked out of it ! So, to feed our mouses, we went to a self service restaurant(you know how difficult it is to get veg food here!). And our trays were like this..

Ok, now it was time to have some fun. I just stepped out of the enclosed place and went outside, just to make out that I had gone blind ! I could see nothing around - everything was so covered with snow that I couldn't open my eyes ! Infact, I had sunglasses, but didn't care to wear them. Now I wonder how SnowWhite would look like !

Next, we moved to Sphinx observation centre, where nothing could be observed cos of heavy winds and snow. There, I stepped out with glasses, which made sense ! Something was visible !

Then, we moved to the adventure place - the place where we had been waiting for! Played so much till our hands became numb & it was about to get black! Still, this spirit continued and we enjoyed in the snow for some half an hour !

We made it a point to catch the last but one train back to Interlaken West and succeded in doing so. We caught the 4:45 train from Jungfrau, but this time our return route was Jungfrau - Klein Scheidigg - Grindelwald - Wilderswill - Interlaken West. Here are some exotic scenes on our travel back..

We reached Inter West at around 6PM, walked around the city, did some shopping and went to another Indian restaurant for dinner(Indians, whereever they go - prefer to have Indian food only!). Also, as time was running out, we had to catch the last bus to Beatenberg, and we managed to do so. We reached our hotel at 10PM and it was already misty and slightly raining. Our hotel guy mentioned that Mondays weather was not good enough and to plan our tour. We had initially thought of going to Mt. Schilthorn(just cos of going in cable car), but then we had to work out again. We did some planning and were geared up for Schilthorn and then crashed. More about mondays trip in my next blog..

Swiss trip - D1

"Switzerland.. every Indian's dream destination.. would I ever go there?".. these thoughts finally came true when I stepped on the soil(oops.. of the airport) of Switzerland on 26th May 07 ! Or should I say.. "Switzerland became pavitr once I landed there" ;) I had read in books, saw photos, but I swear - you gotto be there to experience it ! Along with me were Jyo, Avi, Jum & Arya.

On day 1, after filling our peths with some stuff, we went around Lucerne city. This has the oldest bridge - Chapel bridge, as its called. You would have seen this in some of the bollywood movies too. If you dont remember, here it is for you..

The person in the tourist information centre at Lucerne had suggested few places to go around, among them were the clock tower(4 in number). We went upto 3 of them and from there, here's what we saw. An amazing view of Lake Lucerne and the Alps.

And on our way back to Lucerne station, we passed through the crowded market. It was more like shanivar sante!

Then, we had planned to go to Interlaken. The journey from Lucerne to Interlaken Ost was one of the most memorable journey of my life. I was scared of my battery getting drained out, as each moment, each view from the train I captured was so exotic. Here are a few..

Then on reaching Interlaken, first went to Brienzersee Lake - a 1 hour walk from Ost station. It was just magnificient.

After spending quality time here, came back to Ost station, hunted for an Indian restaurant for some 1.5 hours & managed to get into one finally(in Interlaken West), though very late. In the meantime, we had missed our last bus to Beatenberg(where we had booked our bnb). So, came back to Ost again picked our luggages, hired a cab & reached AlpsHotel in Beatenberg close to midnight and crashed !

On day 2, we planned for Jungfrau... more on this in next blog..