Monsoon season is always on time in Kerala. Mostly it will start on the June 1^st itself.  Another significance of June 1^st is that almost all schools open on the same day. Though I studied as a day scholar till 5^th standard only, before going to boarding school, I still remember those rainy days when the school opens after the long summer vacation. There’s a small stream of water going in front of my house. When the monsoon comes it will overflow and it’s not that easy to cross it. Right now we have a very wide road leading to my home which is at a good height from the paddy fields. Those old days we had to cross the water through the path made of clay through the paddy field. My mom or dad will try not to get us wet and dirty. But we will do our best to stop them from thatJ. And the journey from home to school and return was very funny and enjoyable as we splash water on others and jumps in water flowing in the roadside. By the time we reach home, all my clothes will be wet and dirty. Only mom knows the pain of washing them . In boarding (in JNV) also we used to play in rain even though the trainer tells us not to. And there were times when no water coming in pipe and we just go out of the hostel and take bath in the rain. For that matter girls were not that lucky . We used to go to the MI room where all the “sick” people consult the doctor/nurse and were made to stay there if the condition is that bad to go to the class. Now when it’s monsoon season we always had the excuse of cold/fever to go there and stay. This really helped us when we didn’t do the assignments or projects .

That was about school days in monsoon season. Now in home when it rains, I like this time the best to sleep. During this time, fully covered in bed sheet I can sleep for any long time. When it rains heavily, we need to shout, so that even the person standing near you hear what you are saying. One sad thing about the rains in Kerala which I hate most is the power cut during rains. In Kerala, with its greenery covered with full of plants and trees, a small storm can make these trees fall down to some electric post and the power will be gone for an indefinite time. Nowadays they fix everything very fast. Still you might get frustrated if you are in between some work that needs electricity. There were times when it continuously rained for days. Most of the rivers overflow during that time. There’s a small river at a walkable distance from my home. I like to watch that river flowing wild like a monster roaring and chasing its prey. The water will be very fast, going up and down and nobody dares to swim in the river at this time. Other interesting things that accompany the rains are colors and scents of the nature.  The scent that rises from the earth after the first rains. Oh! Such bliss. My parents used to tell about this and when started noticing about it, I was surprised.

Suddenly all my thoughts were broken when the bus moved into the very long and deep gutter in the road near to the house where I stay in Hyderabad. When I woke up, I could see there was no rain and the sky was almost clearL. After all, it’s Hyderabad and it’s not a place that get’s heavy rain. But the whole night it was raining and there was no electricityL. And I was happy that finally “Monsoon is here too!!!!”

This is about my new passion “swimming”. It’s been a month and a half since I started going for swimming. I still remember my childhood; there was a small river on the way to my school (very near 200 -300 meters). While coming back from my school my friends used to swim in the river and I always look at them very much amazed. Like any other child I also wanted to swim and jump from the bridge into the water like my friends. Almost every day I and my brother used to ask our father to take us to the river and teach us swimming. We used to disturb him like anything. Since he was very busy with work, he couldn’t take us most of the times. Till now I remember him taking us for swimming is hardly 3 or 4 times. Then I went to boarding from 6th class and never got a chance to learn swimming. Meanwhile my brother used to go to the river along with his friends without telling in home. Like that he managed to learn swimming. I came for one vacation and come to know that he learned swimming and got really frustrated. Then I went with my brother and asked him to teach me swimming. He tried to teach me. I was so scared and told him to be near to me whenever I go into the water. During his pre-degree, he used to go to his college swimming pool. When he tells me all these things, my frustration increases. Anyways, by this time I was just able to move my legs and arms in water. It was so difficult and really scary for me to swim. Still whenever I get chance I used to go for swimming. Also me and my friends used to go to one of my best friend’s home and there we used to swim in a small river where they will stop the water at times for irrigation and all. There also what I could see was, everybody, even small kids except me knew swimming. I was really embarrassed by the look given by the small kids when I try to swim. So this was the way in which “swimming” echoed in my past life since I joined the jobJ.

After joining Wells Fargo, whenever there’s a team outing or get a chance to go to a resort, I made sure not to miss any chance to swim in the swimming pool. All these things boost up my desire to learn swimming. At this time, I found out that there’s a swimming pool in the apartment where my colleague stays. I started going to swim along with him and his friends. During this time, I asked these guys why I’m not able to swim in the way you all do. I got some guidance from them and it was really helpful for me. I just followed whatever they said and tried to correct all my mistakes. Now I was able to swim for a few meters. But after that I will get tired very much. Gradually I was improving. By this time I had to leave swimming as they all moved out of the apartment. Still my desire to learn swimming was very strong. At this time I heard another colleague who stays nearby my house is going for swimming everyday in a nearby swimming pool. He was a good friend of mine and I made plan along with him to go for swimming in the morning. This is the time when I started feeling like; finally my dream is getting into shape. It was a big pool where there were a lot of people – some beginners and some experts. The size of the pool is 25X12.5 meters. I know this is not a big pool for the experts. But for me this was very big and awesome. Maximum depth of the pool was 7 feet, which is far above my head. In the very first day itself I swam 3/4th length of the pool. I was so happy. Now I started learning day by day. I wasn’t taught by anybody. But I was learning from everybody. From day one I tried only one style and that’s free style (Like every beginner). Though I was able to do free style, I didn’t try to learn any other style as I thought it’s better to master one and then go for the others. One month has passed by. Initially I used to get tired after 30 mins or 5 rounds. Now I’m able to swim for 1 hour and nearly 12 rounds. Now I started with other styles like under water swimming, back stroke, butterfly stroke, diving etc. The easiest style I felt was back stroke. I never get tired in this. May be because my confidence level is very high in this as I don’t need to try hard to keep my nose and mouth above the water as it would be always above the water and easy to breathe.

When I go back 1.5 months, I was thinking how I’m and how am I now. I used to be so reluctant to do anything. Always lazy and felt tiresome. And I used to think that in my current job, waking up before 7 is like impossible. And the funny thing is that, now I wake up at 5:30 AM every day, even if I sleep at 12 or 2 in the night. All because of my desire, determination, interest and passion. I’m happy that by seeing me one of my friend started coming with me regularly and now he also learned to swim. Two other’s also coming on week-ends. Yeah, I have a few students too . Still I’m not satisfied with my performance. Way more to go.

As a message to everybody I would say, if you really have interest in something you would do anything to achieve it. Any thorn or rock or any barrier can’t stop you. I’m not reiterating the words of some great man, but speaking from my experience. And if you look back to your life, you can see such things you have achieved like this. I will be back with my next post which is another example of interest .

Don’t know what to do. I got the mallu gang in my office as the scape goat. As usual I asked them what plans for the holidays. Answer was also usual one . ‘Come to home, we will do something’ – the usual negative reply. I was so desperate to do something and suggested for an outing to Nagarjuna Sagar Dam, nearly 150 Km from Hyderabad. On the day (Saturday the 16th) we planned to go, I got up around 9 am and waited for Bhupesh’s call. Waited till 1 pm and understood that I will end up waiting for the call, whole day. So I reached Bhanu township at around 2pm where Bhupesh, Denny and Manu stays. Bhupesh was suppose to wake up Denny at around 11 am and give me a call telling that everything is set and we are ready to go .  By seeing the time it was understood that we are not gonna make it for Nagarjuna Sagar Dam. So finally Manu asked his colleague and found Shamirpet to be a good location with a lake to roam around. It was around 5 O’ clock when we began our journey to Shamirpet. A 50 Km journey gave me a lot of expectation. It was not difficult for us to find the lake. Somebody said, “this is it” when he saw a bit of water covered with full of rocks on the left side of the road. Initially I was trying not to believe that this is the place we came for the trip as my expectation was much more than this. Hailing from the “God’s Own Country”, we were not satisfied with the so called “lake”. I felt that it’s a big quarry where, waterlogged after some heavy rain. There wasn’t much to see and it was almost dark. On the way back we planned for a booze party. Here the story starts where I’m the villain .

Me, Bhupesh, Manu and Fejfar started our booze party with Denny (Coke was too much for him ). We drank a toast to the next generation of Manu, Fejfar and Denny – amateur fathers of Anantha Krishnan, Felisha and Johan respectively . The party was almost getting over. Meanwhile Fejfar had his 5th “last” drink and left to his home. Then we thought of going to Barista to have a coffee and then eat something from Subway (total madness ). The idea was not bad until I hit the tap and water started flowing into the kitchen. It’s not appropriate to say I “hit” the tap, because I was just trying to close it since I saw water dripping from it and I knew (especially after the booze) the value of each drop of water . As a responsible person I was trying not to waste even a single drop of water. I never thought that my intention to clean my hands will turn into flooding the house. Slowly the water started spreading from kitchen to other rooms and we were not able to stop it. So we called the security and closed the valve from outside. By this time, it did the ruin to the house. Entire house was in water. On the way back from Shamirpet we talked a lot about swimming that it’s a good exercise in which all our body parts gets exercise. Also we were planning to go for swimming regularly (a usual resolution ). It seems like God has listened to our discussion and by god’s grace all our wishes were happening so fast . We started our mission to remove the water. Me, Manu and Bhupesh enjoyed it since we were drunk . Poor Denny!!!. At least after this incident he might have thought of start boozing.

Most of the room was occupied with Denny’s things. So obviously he can’t enjoy like us. Anyways, we helped him and it took almost an hour for us to move things and remove water. It was around 11:30 Pm. Still we were in a mood to go to Barista. When we reached Barista it was about to close. Thank God!! – They still allowed take away. So we had our order and then it was the time to have something from Subway. It was almost 1 Am morning when they dropped me at my home.

I woke up in the morning by hearing somebody shouting and calling my name to wake up. That was my friend Anoob. I felt like beating him up. Because I always felt like “sleeping” is a wonderful gift given by God to me and I never want anybody to destroy it. When I heard the time from him, I understood that it’s not he who’s destroying my God given gift. But it’s me who’s misusing the gift. It was 10:30 AM when I woke up. Indeed!! an ideal time for a bachelor to wake up…

While brushing the teeth, I saw our cook (we often refer him as the “chef”..hmmm.. – not bad to be royal) and remembered it’s my duty to bring vegetables. So I went out along with Anoob, had breakfast and brought vegetables. After coming back, me and Anoob played Table Tennis for about 2 hrs. wowww.. It was amazing. I’m glad that, through out the game I was one step ahead of him (the sportsman in me is always like this ). After the game I got fresh up and brought chicken. Yeah!! finally Avinash agreed to give us treat . Time was 3:30 PM when I finally realized that I have to reach IMAX by 4:45 to watch the movie “Sherlock Holmes”.  As usual whenever I have to reach somewhere very fast, there wouldn’t be any auto-rickshaw and even if it’s there, they would be willing to go to any damn place other than the one where I want to go . Finally with all my courage and confidence I reached main road and hoped that I will get a direct bus till the multiplex. It was another “lucky” day for me and all the buses that came in the next 10 minutes were all going in a different route!!. Wasting 10 mins over there, I finally decided to catch a shared auto. By watching the speed of the auto, suddenly a comedy scene in some movie came into my mind in which the hero and his co-actor are traveling in a car and the hero’s co-actor finds that even the pedestrians are overtaking them. I was pretty confident that I’m going to miss at least 15 mins of the movie. Somehow I reached Khairatabad at 4:40 PM. From there it was a marathon race for me. When I reached the multiplex at 4:50 PM, I felt like I underestimated myself. Anyways I was happy to see my other friends were also late. But I was surprised that, the movie didn’t start until I finally entered the hall.

It was a plan by Vasu, to go for the movie. When he asked me whether I’m coming for the movie, I didn’t think for a second time and said yes. Finally after the movie I asked him how many people turned up for the movie. He said around 26. I was so surprised and happy. A great job done by Vasu. Around 26 ALPHAS – first of it’s kind in Wells Fargo (like the NS-5 robot series in the movie “I Robot”) turned up for the movie. I couldn’t believe it.

We had a small chat with everybody after the movie. Shared our feelings, emotions (oopss..). It was nice, most of them including me were excited to see others. After the movie we (me, Saurabh, Avinash and Kshitij) reached home and the first thing everybody did was, went to the kitchen and removed the lid of the vessel in which our cook prepared the delicious chicken. As usual everybody had their own comments like oil is more, good smell is coming – seem to be good etc etc..

The meal was so heavy for us since we had rice of excess amount. So we went for a walk to help our own digestive system . It was really nice eating orange (believe it or not – we still had some space to fill in ), and talking crap during our “night walk”. We came back and as usual went to our own Saurabh’s room to “discuss” things happening around us – this happens almost everyday (a big entertainment for all of us). Then the light went and I bade them adieu and left.

Well, hope that there would be so many more days like this in the new year 2010.

I have a friend whom I know from the past 5 years who’s one of my very close friends. He was very font of chocolates/toffees. I’m pretty sure that if he reads this blog, he will come to know that I’m referring to him only . But he wouldn’t mind it because I know him (This is the best way NOT to get beaten up by him ). So I was telling about my friend and chocolates. As I said, he always loved chocolates. Quite often he used to buy them for himself. Also he will be very happy to get chocolates from anybody. I still remember that when we were in college whenever he comes back from home after vacation he used bring a packet of toffees. Then we joined the job in the same company and I remember him ‘collecting’ all the toffees that we used to get during the training and bring to our room. One of his good character is that he would never hesitate to appreciate anything that he likes. I always used to think that how he eats these many toffee. But surprisingly one day, he told me that he stopped eating toffees/chocolates. After hearing this I laughed a lot because I knew that he wouldn’t be able to do it. And to prove this to myself and to him, I started offering toffees and chocolates to him (which I never did when he used to eat them ). But it was really a surprise to me that he never accepted them from me or anybody as far as I know. Then I understood that he’s very serious about this. Now I was curious that why he stopped eating them and asked him about this. His reply made me think a lot. He told me that he used to eat a lot of toffees and chocolates as I know and it was like he’s not able to control this. So he wanted to stop this habit. I thought it’s well and good. Before, I used to give chocolates to him and it was good to watch him eating them by passing a lot of comments on me. That’s the story and now here are my thoughts (yeah.. I do think a lot).

Initially I thought he’s doing the right thing and it’s good for him. Then I was thinking that eating chocolates is not a bad habit. In my interviews I used tell “eating chocolates” as one of my weakness since it’s neither a bad habit nor harmful. There’s no physical, mental, emotional, psychological.. harm in eating chocolates. Rather since he like it a lot, he will be happy. But anything in excess is always a harm which I agree. By stop eating them he’s not controlling that habit. He’s just suppressing his happiness (emotions/feelings) which I don’t think was his actual intention. When you have these kinds of things to enjoy, or relax, or refresh yourself, why don’t you make use of it. By not eating something which you like very much, I would say it’s like you are chopping down a part of you. Liking towards something is a normal feeling that you have. So when you suppress it you are actually removing it completely from you. Why would someone want to do this? Instead you control yourself. I know this is very difficult. But this is the best way so that you don’t need to get rid of those ‘harmless’ habits.

Later this guy stopped eating Non-vegetarian also. hmmm… Only god can make him understand…

Before start writing let me tell this clearly. This is not about how effectively you can say NO to somebody. Also I’m not explaing the ART of saying NO. This article is about how it happens in somebody’s life when it comes to a situation where he/she wants to say NO. Disclaimer – most of the incidents are from my life only.

It’s been a long time since I’m suffering from this disease – finding difficulty in saying that “No, I’m not interested” or “NO” or “No, not now“. I’m going to site and incident here. Recently in my job, I got a new friend who’s really helpful and caring. I was so happy to have a friend like him because, we both were having the same mother tongue, both were bachelors and to some extent both were having the same level of enthusiasm. Now I would be in great worry when this person calls me for a movie or a drink or just go out. Reasons might be I’m not in a good mood or having financial problems.

As I said since he’s a very good friend of mine and a good person, I don’t feel like saying ‘no’ because:
1. I feel that it might hurt him.
2. I feel that if I say I’m not coming, then that person will think that I’m no more interested in going out with him.
3. I feel that the other person would think that I got changed or I’m no more the person I used to be.
4. I feel that he will think, that now I have somebody else to go with and so I don’t want to go along with him.

So how I used to avoid saying NO and still get along with these kind of friends -
1. Mostly lies – which I never like (so do anybody else). Or
2. I would go with them though I actually don’t want to – meaning I cann’t say NO.
3. I would start saying some lies like I want to go to someplace, or to meet somebody. But at the end I will feel bad that I’m lying and I would think it’s better to go rather than lying.

Now the consequences of these are:
1. I wouldn’t enjoy the trip/party/movie.
2. I would start disliking that person though the actual mistake is mine.
3. I would try to run away and start hiding from that person and lies will become a part of my life ruining my character (worst thing that can ever happen to a person).

Recently I got a chance to tell him that I’m preparing for an exam which was a lie initially. But since I felt guilty, I started my preparation. So I’m happy that my friend has become a good cause to me .

I’m pretty sure that I’m NOT the only one who’s suffering from this kind of a disease and not sure what they do to overcome such things. But this is what I did. And I’m trying to avoid such situations.

The subject line here is the famous quote from Christopher Reeve who was an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. He is not a stranger to you if you have watched the movie “Superman”. Well, it’s not about the guy but the quote I’m focusing on. It’s explaining a small 4 letter word “HOPE”. Let me site an incident that happened in my life recently.

This incident happened on 25th of october ’09. I was on my way back to Hyderabad from Bangalore after a small get together with themallus from MNNIT. The train was at 6:30 PM as told by my friends who are travelling with me back to Hyderabad. I started Marathahalli (where we had our get together) at 5:20 PM. I was happy that I got an AC Volvo bus and as told by my friends it should take only one hour at max from Marathahalli to Majestic. Thinking that I will reach majestic not later than 6:15 PM, I was a bit relaxed and was in some deep thoughts (yes I do sometimes ). I always try to reach just in time for meetings, functions etc which I think is a bad habit of mine since sometimes it made people wait for me, miss bus/train, late entry to a function etc .

It was Amrita’s call to inform me that the train is in the 3rd platform that broke my endless thoughts. After sometime Ratnakar (Rat)called me to ask where am I. Then he told me that the train’s departure time is 6:20 PM. I was shocked because I had a plan to reach station at 6:30 and this was a last minute surprise. It was around 5:50 – 6:00 PM, I noticed that the bus is not moving. Looking out through the window, I was shocked again to see the traffic. The road was full of vehicles till my vicinity. I have been to Bangalore a few times and always thought that I never got a chance to see the notorious traffic in Bangalore. I think at last god has listened to my wish and he granted it to me. Bad timing Mr. God . Still I thought I might get the train since the one hour journey was the maximum time told by my friends. Meanwhile I started thinking other options if I miss the train. I reached the Majestic bus station at 6:18 PM. Now I got 2 minutes to catch the train. I did not let it go like that. I started running. I was pretty fast and may be in the fastest race ever in my life. I had to go through one over bridge and a subway to reach the station. The way was too crowdy and it was really difficult to run. In between I was getting calls from Amrita and Rat. I was running as if somebody is chasing me like in a movie. I hit so many people (sorry… no other choice) to make my way and at last I reached the 3rd platform and what I could see is the ‘X’ sign at the last boggy of the train. But still I run after it thinking I could catch it and at least I can get into the last boggy of the train. But unfortunately I couldn’t.

There was a guy standing on the same platform watching me struggling to catch the train. My Good Samaritan!!!!
This guy told me to get a cab from outside and you can catch this train in the next station.

When the world says, “Give up,”
Hope whispers, “Try it one more time.”

I didn’t think for a second time, ran into the rails, crossed it through the train stopped in the 1st platform, got out of the station and went to the first cab ( a maruti omni) and told him I want to go to the next station to catch the train. He understood the situation and asked me whether I want to catch the Kacheguda Express. I  think these guys meet so many LEOs like me everyday. But he charged me Rs. 800. I was ready to give that much without an argument, but I didn’t have that much money. I opened my wallet and showed him I have only 250. He told, then you can catch an Auto Rickshaw and he called one Auto Rickshaw guy. I told him I have Rs. 250 with me and I’m ready to give it all. This guy, I would recommend him as the next Ferrari F1 driver. The way in which he drove, I started thinking “my life or catching that train” – which is more important to me? Though the answer was my life, I kind of believed in this driver and had all hope of catching the train safely. The Auto Rickshaw journey was really adventurous, flying through the humps, taking shortcuts, overtaking buses, cars, SUVs… I still cann’t believe it. Most of the time I closed my eyes. Anyways I reached the next station and the driver showed me the train stading in the platform. The money was ready in my hand. I gave it to him and ran very fast. I got into S-2 in the train and walked toward S-13 where my seat was. The train started 2 minutes after I got into it. I reached S-13 met all my friends Amrita, Rat and Adoni (Thanks a lot guys!!!). So at last I made it with my hope and determination.

In the above incident, there are 3 places where I had hope which drove me to achieve my goal of catching the train. And I’m quite sure if I didn’t have any hope, I wouldn’t have made it to catch the train:
 
1. When I got down at the bus stand, it was 6:18 PM, and I had only two minutes to run through the crowd, cross the overbridge, the subway, and reach the “3rd” platform.

2. When the Good Samaritan told me to get the cab from outside.

3. When the Auto guy asked me for 250 bucks.

And finally I would like to say,

“You’ve gotta have hope.  Without hope life is meaningless.  Without hope life is meaning less and less” – (From an unknown author).

-Leo

Diwali is a significant festival in Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism which is celebrated as the Festival of Lights. The sanskrit meaning of “Diwali or Deepavali” is “a row of lamps”. In hinduism it is the homecoming of Rama after a 14-year exile in the forest and his victory over Ravana. In the legend, the people of Ayodhya (the capital of his kingdom) welcomed Rama by lighting rows (avali) of lamps (dipa), thus its name: dipawali. There is a relationship between Dasara (Dasha-hara in Sanskrit means the “remover of bad fate”) and Diwali. Dasara marks the victory of Lord Rama over Ravana. After his victory Lord Rama had to cross Lanka and entire South India to reach Ayodhya. So it took some time for him to reach Ayodhya and that’s the reason there’s is time difference between Dasara and Diwali.

That’s all about the festival. Now about “my Diwali”, I should say one of the most memorable moment of my life. I dont remember I ever celebrated Diwali like this. It does not matter whether you celebrate a festival or not. For me the meaning of a festival is mingling with friends/family, sharing happiness, telling them how much you miss them, cooking food together, bursting crackers with everybody, trying to hide that you are afraid of crackers , cracking jokes, capturing some memorable moments in a camera etc. All these things can happen irrespective of any religion, or region. So I used to think, then why do we need different festivals?? why don’t we decide some day to meet, and do all these things. But on a second thought, a number of things like getting a day off if you are working, making others understand the need to meet, how lazy people would be if they think this is also just another “normal” day..flashed through my mind.

It started with shalini coming to me and telling that “hey I want to burst crackers on Diwali”. Before that whenever somebody asked me what are you gonna do on diwali, I used to think it will be another normal day for me. Though I was on a “usual” busy working day, suddenly some thoughts like celebration in our house inviting some people, cooking food together and bursting crackers all gone through. I felt that to be a very good idea, since in the name of diwali celebration we friends can have a
get together. So i started plannig for this along with my room mates, and we have planned to buy crackers, tell our cook to prepare some delecious food and some sweets. Initially the plan was to ask our cook to prepare “Gulab jamun”. But later somehow the plan got changed to “payasam”. So on Diwali day, when i got up (ofcourse after 10 AM) I felt like a responsible man thinking there will be guests in the evening for diwali celebration. Yeah, really I was concerned about the cleaning of
house, how/where things are placed, what would a person from outside think if they see our house and so on. When I think about it now, I remember my parents especially my mother used to take care of these things and whenever she ask me to help her, I used to ask her why she’s so worried about these things. But I perfectly understand it now. Then we went for shopping to buy crackers and other stationary items. Then we all got ready and it was something about 7 PM, we started lighting candles and arranging them in and around the house. Arun and Shalini reached at this time and they also joined us in ligting the candles. As soon as we finished lighting it was the time to burst the crackers. We were in a hurry to burst crackers since all the members in the colony already started bursting crackers. In between Prashanth came and we all enjoyed a lot in bursting crackers. This is the first time I have played with a lot of crackers and got to know the names of so many. As soon as we finished bursting crackers Avinash’s friend Chopra (forgot his full name ) came. Then it was the time to start our “payasam” preparation. I should say Saurabh has done a great job in preparing payasam/kheer by overcoming a lot of comments from the audience. Also he managed to get the attention of his audience (as always.. you are great!!!). Hot payasam was served to everybody and we could hear only appreciations to Saurabh for his great preparation. This is when I believe in saying “born talented” . Then Prashanth left us, and after some time Jeethu joined us. Then it was the time for dinner. We had a nice time at dinner with photos taken by our
photographer Kshitij… thanks buddy. Then it was the time to say good by to everybody. Jeethu and Chopra left since they had bikes. We went along with Arun and Shalini to see off them. While returning from the main road after seeing off them, I could hear everybody saying “we had a nice time. It was really good”… Now I’m double happy hearing this, since we did it at last. A small get together, a small celebration though with less people. So like the Indian movies a happy ending and I hope this wouldn’t be the end of happiness…

-Leo