Bungee Jumping.

Did my first Bungee jumping on the last day of the year 2010. What a way to end a great adventurous year (literally!! did skydiving in Aug 2010!!..check out my vdo @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH6SEwZhDJU couldn't get the videographer at bungee jump :()...

My friend and me went for both sides-front and back. Believe me, I enjoyed the hell out of this experience. I simply loved it. My wife was saying that I really enjoyed it...how she knows??...hehe I was screaming like a lion as if I have reached the top of Mount everest (which is in fact in my list of adventures to do)...but all in all it was an out of the world experience to just jump...it was different from skydive which I did tandem...so here in bungee jumping we need to do all by ourself...but my friend doing before me gave me some insight of how to do....GO BIG...thts the way the instructor/owner was saying when he saw my friend taking 2 mins to make his first jump which way over wht the instructors expect...(we are supposed to jump in 1-2 seconds from the time we are on the other side of the rail).

lets see whts next in my list may be hot air ballon ride in Medford, OR soon....will keep u guys posted.

MJ-The Magician!!!

Ever since he died on the Thursday the June 25th 2009, my genuine interest for his music took birth. As the media and the world Proclaimed that MJ attained immortality with his death and commanded the fanfare and adulation from the people world wide for his music more than what he got when he was alive. I was one of those who realized very late that his music was Magic and Simply Mellifluos, energetic, calming, rocking all at one time. If Human natureor we are the world were the epitome of his soothing effect, I would say innumerable ones like Dirty Diana, Man in the Mirror, Dangerous, and many others showed the hard pop/rock nature and yet very much "want-to-listen-all-the-time" kind of music and the ones which probably made him the King of Pop. But of course MJ cannot be complete without a mention of his Masterpiece Thriller Album and all his songs (yeah I mentioned Human nature before from Thriller album) in that album. I like every song in that album literally and bought the 25th anniversay release album (which contained some not-so-great remixes also from Akon and others) within a week of his death and later on became so crazy that bought another two cds (The Essential of Michael Jackson). This was the only time I bought CDs to hear/watch music/vdos ever in my whole life (that was amazing in itself that I never bought and hence was so much missing on good stuff).

Anyways this is my first of many blogs I would write on MJ and his timeless classics as I feel it is a way of paying tribute to the real and only international star to date.

Kate Winslet.

Beautiful, no doubt. But after seeing “The Reader” and especially “Revolutionary Road” I felt really good about her acting and talent in general she possesses and a re-eavaluation that how talented people are in Cinema.

I feel a good cinema happens when two things happen simultaneously -1) A great team of behind the scenes people 2) Actors who can immerse themselves into the roles they are enacting and give perfect 100%. I thought Kate Winslet had achieved something of that sorts in both the movies as “Hanna schmitz” and as “Mrs. Wheeler”. I saw Oscars-2009 and thought that Kate Winslet had over-reacted when she got the Award for Best Actress for “The Reader”. But after watching these movies and how much effort she had put in those roles, I just thought that it was Great!! Simply great….

Hit by H1N1

I think I am well on track with my 3^rd attempt of becoming an active blogger and reviving my writing skills but certainly down metabolically with the Flu of the year—Swine Flu.

Had an absolutely amazing Smokeys trip followed by an amazing 1 week of fever. Never realized that it would have been the swine flu until yesterday when the Doctor had finally discovered I guess…tht was bad that it was diagnoized a lill late. I was upset with the late diagnosis. Again back to work from home to avoid from being the messenger of the flu. Doctor was saying that it is declining and that my body might well take care of fighting it out and avoided giving any antibiotics. Anyways I believe doctor coz that’s the only thing I can do as I did not get the Degree in General Medicine ( nothing against Doctor but my own frustration for having the fever for such a long time and possibly taking steps quicker from my side).

Anyways it is amazing how people get scared away when we say we have some contagious disease, esp in this country. Undoubtedly its good to be cautious and people here are certainly more educated over the contagious diseases, but still it was funny/amazing to experience that first handJ

Btw some facts:

1) Swine flu gets its name due to the virus involved in this flu contains a combination of genes from swine, avian and human influenza viruses…

2) Some common symptoms which please make sure to take a note of early on:

• fever, which is usually high, but unlike seasonal flu, is sometimes absent
• cough
• runny nose or stuffy nose
• sore throat
• body aches
• headache
• chills
• fatigue or tiredness, which can be extreme
• diarrhea and vomiting, sometimes, but more commonly seen than with seasonal flu

And most importantly visit doctor as soon as you have any doubts…do not delay!!!

Great Smoky Mountains....Nov 2009

Gatlinburg...Pigeon Forge....Fall colors....adventure sports...camping...hiking....skiing

Yeah, I think these were the words/phrases that I have been hearing ever since I came to USA whenever there was a discussion about Smokies. Finally got the chance to visit this place along with my wife and a couple of friends. It was a good company and a great trip.

I think I did not mention Rock climbing in my opening line...please add that....coz I think that one experience is what according to me made it a great trip. Yes Rock/Mountain climibing. No this was not easy, that much I can certainly promise, coz there were some people including my sweet wife :) who stopped at the middle of the climb and gave up to venture to the top of the peak. And I do not really blame them, it was certainly a tough one and a small negligence might very well end up disastrous (without any exaggeration). Myself, I had always this awe for mountain/rock climbers...may be the initial fascination would have been due to movies like Cliffhanger or Mi2 where Tom cruise is cruising from one cliff to another (a similar act was dismally shown in a Balakrishna movie:))...anyways so this fascination made me to climb the rocks at my University and I started to increase my liking for hiking esp steep and challenging ones. So this Rock climbing act was the end of the "Chimney Tops" Trail...we had a hell of a time during this whole expedition. And due to our timing, you know what, it was snowing intermittently and it did snow when we were at the top of the climb...it was simply amazing...I would have loved to stay more to enjoy the hard-work and to relish the scenic beauty but my beauty down below attracted me more:))

After this adventure, (I would certainly rank this and Mission peak in bay area as best and second best trails I had ever taken up...But my aim is to go for some kind of expedition in Himalayas as my 2nd BIL did...he says its a very good exp and I can bet it would have been...also another such expedition is to go on foot to shabarimalais in kerala...lets c when they would materialize) we had another different kind of adventure...it was Horse back riding:) it was fun....Stirrups, saddle, reins, horse shoe-- saw them real close:) it was amazing how we forget those terms. Madhavi's horse name was Barney and mine was Scottey...it was 1 hour ride. The horses were walking and we were calmly sitting on them...Barney and Scottey two sweet horses:)

We had also went to "Laurels Falls" Trail between these two adventures. This one was average normal trail with a small falls at the end. It was good.

By this time we were pretty tired and went to Blaine's restaurant..yeah btw had been to NO way Jose's rest the previous night...so yeah we were eating pretty fine outside in this trip...my friend was saying I was turning to be more American way which I want to really change:)

Anyways, next day we started off with food again yeah :) as we got off late, we had a brunch at Pancake pantry and then headed towards Ober Gatlinburg via airtram. That place was fun. We started off with a 3 hr ice skating...and oh my god kids were just skating off but we had to hold onto the rails to avoid embarrasemet until my friend Rakesh reminded the basic principle of life..."Abhi, jitna ghirega utna sekega re, chodd us rail ko aur try kar". I spent last 30 minutes on the ice turf without holding the rail...:) hopefully both Madhavi n myself would do better the next time. After this adventure we went for a skylift and came down thru a slide (it was called alpine slide rightfully I would guess).

We then had subway sub and headed off to the night driving to Jacksonville. Btw between Rakesh n myself we drove almost 22 hrs to and fro both the times being night till dawn:) it was fun driving: having coffee, listening to music, keeping the eyes wide open as 2 other lives were in our hands;)(and eyes..literally:)). And for lodging we went to Cherokee springs cabins where Jacuzzi was the highlight:) next time I think we would prefer to go for the cabins which were supposedly more close to nature due to the absence of the electricity...don't u think...


i bet it would be.....i would go next time for a longer vacation and do more mountain climbing and hiking if I could...


Thanks to the Mother Nature....u r Beautiful!!!!!

Finally Back to blogging.

After a long gap, felt like writing something on my blog website. Actually my friend Sandeep started his and that gave me some push to start mine back.

During this gap(2 years) lots of things have happened, most importantly marriages of my sister (feb 2007) and myself (feb 2008). Yes I got married in feb of this year to a sweet beautiful lady.

Anyways so during this 2 years I have again have been travelling to different places both in India(Delhi, Chandigrah, chennai, tirupathi) and USA(Raleigh, st.louis, Atlanta, Hunt valley, Baltimore, Reston, Mountain view) and now finally in Jackonville FL and have been put up here for the longest duration in a city after my Masters at Starkville.

And during these two years I had different hairdos too. Long hair to bald to long hair to normal hair(for my marriage on the insistence of my father and fiance at tht time) to long hair to pony and finally to Bald today. yes just got a bald look back today.

Already its time to sleep but I am glad that I have finally hit the blog world back....n thnx to sandeep for staring his blog...

Project in St.Louis.

After a break of 8 days I got my next project at St.Louis. It all happened very quick as the requirement was urgent. The interview happened on Tuesday (10th oct 2006) evening and the decision was conveyed to me on wednesday morning and I was to report on Thursday morning. I had to travel 10.5 hrs from Atlanta, GA to St.Louis, MO on wed afternoon. It was all in all good fun to see the things change so fast as I was wondering to go to India until wednesday morning as I was not positive of how things were going. I suppose the patience paid me off. Once again learnt that perseverance is the key here in consultancy world.

And coming to st.louis I was shocked at the cold weather unlike in Atlanta and I fear if I have enough winter clothing with me(I still have left a lot of stuff in ATL). Lets c. And I was made to work like a dog on thursday and fri no wonder why I was recruited so fast(there was an urgent deliverable on Monday). The work is almost complete except for 2 tasks. Hope to get it done by monday evening.

And I had good fun meeting my old pal from my university over here. We had some drinks and shared the sweet old memories.

Guys, one other shocking thing is I am going to end up being a room-mate to my functional lead. I donno how I would take tht(seeing the same man throughout the day, hope he is kewl, which he looks till now:-)) ).

I shall keep updated u ppl with the happenings in my life. I know I almost stopped blogginguntil my last blog.

OK guys c ya!!!