madness at mysore!!

Here’s the story of another rocking “weekend at bang’lore”
At Mysore rather, coz dat’s where we went…

After 2 dozen e-mails, about 4 dozen phone calls, 49 cancellations and 50 confirmations, finally a party of 9 set out for Mysore on a cold November morning. Me,Neha,Reena,Deepthi,Anil,Chaitu,Santosh,Gouse and Ezra… Abhiram, Ramana,Amit and Valli couldn’t make it. (we missed u guys!!)

Before I begin, I’d like to acknowledge Neha’s cam n our brilliant photographers, splly Santosh n Chaitu for the pics used in this post.


The madness began at around 5am with a frantic attempt at getting ready in the dark as there was no power. We set out at around 6, in a comfy tempo traveller ,in really high spirits with awesome songs blaring in the background. Everything from dostana to kailash kher. Anil, Gouse n Ez were specially overcome with emotion at the song “teri diwani” , wonder why….. they were singing at the top of their voices n swinging 2 d beat.. was a funny sight!



After a quick breakfast of ‘rock-vadas’ and triangular idlis, the first stop was a scenic spot on the way to Ranganathaswamy temple. Lush green fields, a cool breeze and a heavenly climate. A totally picturesque, rustic, rural atmosphere. I, Neha,Santosh and Chaitu took a short bullock-cart ride while the others walked into a field wading through slushy mud (you can see them posing as scare-crows in the pic ;) )






Next stop was the beautiful Ranganathaswamy temple. Even the serenity of the age-old temple and the tranquil ambience cudn’t make Anil less crazy (see d pic) and the rest of us, less “click-crazy”…every li’l thing had to b photographed. Meanwhile ez n gousie went for horse-rides. Dunno y they felt like it, coz the horses were really smelly! Nyways, after the darshan, we saw the spot where the mighty warrior Tippu Sultan was found dead (in 1799 AD)……thr’s a small memorial built thr.



From there we went to Sangamam, the place where 3 rivers meet. On the way, there was lots of dancing and singing, even Ezra and Gouse(surprisingly!).. According to our very wise Anil, one of the rivers was “Godavari”!!!!! (in Karnataka??) he was kidding of course.. Well, none of us knew which 3 and nyways, who cares? We had a ride in one of those round boats. It was therauptic, floating away on the water.. a wonderful feeling like being detached from the world.. it was a short ride, but was good enough. Reminded me a lot of Hogenekkal!




We then headed to Balmuri waterfalls, which according to me was the highlight of the whole trip. There’s something about the combination of water and rocks, which can turn anybody into completely crazy freaks! The guys were even more excited coz they’d just seen some really cute babes there..lolzz… Water fights, yelling, slipping on the rocks, screaming and mastiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! We splashed about for around 2 hrs.. and there we saw a spectacular display of swimming by our ace-swimmer Reena, who swam for 40 seconds
NON-STOP! ;) ha ha..
As we came out of the water, we were exhausted n cold, hungry, but happy. Had a good lunch at a restaurant whose name I obviously forgot.

Well, for the post-lunch session and a special feature “D-jokes” and more pics, wait for the next post!

Cheerio!

can't think of a title 2 this one..

Well, it’s really been a long time n ppl are clamoring for my updates.
Neha left a comment askin 4 updates.

What she said : ” a blog’s supposed to have updates”
What I interpreted : “ Manasa, we’re really missing ur blogs. Reading them kind of makes my day. Do post some updates. Plzzzzz” ;)

A few days back Ezra said dat too. Don remember what he said but sumhow I made myself believe that ppl r really interested in wat I post!!
Hey by the way, did I give an intro to Ezra in my blog? Well since I’m too lazy 2 go back n read it, I’ll just give it again.

Ezra Raj Bathini, alias raju garu, alias EZ (some funny name he gave himself.. in an attempt 2 sound cool? Dunno ;D) .. is a nice friendly guy with a fantastic sense of humour. No dull moments when he’s around!

3 new characters have entered the life-at-ibm-b. Got trained at Chennai n r here to make this blog more interesting.

Reena! A totally quirky,bindaas character. Whenever I’m with her, I always find her and myself laughing like maniacs, for no apparent reason.

Santosh, an equally fun-loving, quirky guy.. the kind of guy who can call u up in the middle of the night, chat abt this n that for almost 2 HOURS n then say “hey by the way, did I disturb u?”

Anitha- in contrast, is a li’l quiet.


As to how work is gng on at ibm-b, each of us is faring differently. Some are sick of work, some r sick of havin no work, a few are over-worked n a few r getting bored..
Typical software scenario.. deadlines, meetings, goof-ups, reviews…all kinds of
Naansense..

Speakin of work, I’ve an advice 2 give u ppl! Read the book the Dilbert Principle. It’s an awesome, super-funny book by Scott Adams who apparently hates all kinds of work. He criticizes all the jobs possible. Specially management related jobs get the brunt of his comical whip-lashing.

A few glimpses of the buk:



 The Dilbert Principle: The most ineffective workers are systematically moved to the place where they can do the least damage – MANAGEMENT
( hence it isn’t strange that most of us r planning 2 do an MBA..;) )

 Remember the Total Work Equation:
Real Work + Appearance of Work = Total Work
Try to keep your total work at a constant level but do not increase your real work.

 There are three types of employees:
1. Those who work hard regardless of compensation (Idiots)
2. Those who avoid work, thus appearing lazy (Idiots)
3. Those who avoid work while somehow appearing to be productive (Contented Employees)


This book might de-motivate u a lottt.. but what the heck, it sure is a fun read!
Njoy! Cheerio!