Suramya's Blog : Welcome to my crazy life…

Last week me, Gaurang and Kunal went for a trip to Shimla with Kunal’s Mausa (Mom’s sister’s husband). We had planned on leaving by 6 – 6:30 am on Thursday so I left from Noida at 5:20 am and drove to Gurgoan in my trusty on Maruti 800. (For those of you who don’t know, this car is about 25 years old with no AC). Got there in about an hour and we left from there at 6:35 am.

The road out of Delhi was thankfully not very crowded and even though we all were not really sure where to go but rather had a general idea of the route we made good time and made it past Karnal in about 3 hours. We stopped at a dhabba (Roadside Restaurant) a few miles past that and had breakfast. This set the trend for the rest of the trip which was more of a ‘Foods of India’ than a road trip. By this I mean that we ate and ate ate throughout the trip.

The trip to Shimla took us 10 hours because of the Traffic after Chandigarh and the curvy roads near Shimla so we finally reached there at 4:30 pm. After we got there we rested for a while at Mausa’s place (They stay in Shimla) and then drove back to main Shimla (They stay in New Shimla) and spent a couple of hours walking around on Mall Road. Most of the shops there closed up at 9pm so we were back home by 10 and were off to bed by 11pm.

The next day we got up by 7 and lazed around for a while, then came down for a huge breakfast. After which we relaxed till Mahak (Mausa’s Daughter) came back from School and then went back to Mall Road. Spent pretty much the entire day there and enjoyed the view, food and crowds.

On Sat we decided to drive to Kufri with Mausi and Mahak. On the way there we changed our minds to go to the Hot water springs instead. However when we came to the junction where we had to turn for the springs we saw that the springs were 58 Kms from that point so we went to Kufri instead which was only 7 kms. There wasn’t a lot to see there except the view and horses. Oh, and we also saw a Himalayan Yak there near the parking area. Since there wasn’t a lot to see there we decided that we would make the trip to the hot water springs to check them out.

If you think hilly roads are painful, try traveling on them with three people who get motion sick; one of whom is a 5 year old girl. We were pretty much stopping about every 15 mins because someone or other felt like they were about to throw up. We made it half-way to the springs before we gave up and stopped at Naldhera instead. Spent about an hour over there drinking tea and relaxing in the sun before we drove back.

Once we got back to Shimla we went back to Mall Road again and spent the rest of the day relaxing/walking about over there (plus all the streets/area’s above and below the mall road)

Got back home and crashed, then left home on Sunday morning at 10:30 am after a huge breakfast and got back to Delhi in 8 1/2 hours. Had dinner and Gaurang’s place and crashed. Drove back to Noida on Monday at 6 am so as to avoid the traffic.

In all it was a great trip, very relaxing and very filling. Both Mausi and Mausa fed us like anything but I enjoyed a lot. Hope to do something like this again soon.

Edit (30th Aug 2009): The photos from the trip have been uploaded to Photogallery under Trips -> Shimla Trip (Aug 2009)

– Suramya

Last Saturday we went for a trip to the Sultanpur Bird sanctuary from work. The trip started at 6 am for me as thats when I left home to pick up Ashwani, Harish O, Harish T and Ram Awadh from the office. On the way to the office I inaugurated the birdwatching by spotting a chicken on the road.

Surprisingly everyone was on time and we made it to Nehru Place which was our meeting point for the rest of the group at 7:15am there we hot tea while we waited for the rest of the group (Dhiraj, Shobhna and Angad) to join us in Angad’s car. After a quick snack we left for the bird sanctuary picking Sanjay and his wife and son on the the way.

The drive there was a long one. Unfortunately there were no road sign’s anywhere telling us how to get to the place so we kept having to ask people for directions. For some weird reason people kept pointing us to the long route to the place. About 3/4th of the way there we found out that the route we were following was impassable because a bridge was being constructed on it. So we had to turn back and drive 15 kms back on the way we came and take an alternate route.

On the way we stopped at a field and took pics there. Once we made it to the Sanctuary we had a great time. We saw a lot of the birds and no I don’t know their species. All I can remember now is that we saw Peacocks, Parrots, A few kinds of white birds and a couple of black birds.

I had taken a boomerang with me and we all tried to get it to come back to us. Harish T was the only one that managed to do that. Thankfully it didn’t get stuck in the tree’s.

I had also taken my Remote Controlled place with me, but unfortunately the built in battery in the plane was almost dead so we couldn’t really fly it. So we decided to go with the old faithful and had a cricket match.

On the way back we found a direct road to Gudguan. Though calling it a road is a bit of a stretch as it was more like driving on a dirt trail than an actual road. There was a lot of construction going on so that probably was the reason why this road was so broken. Hopefully the fly-overs will be completed soon and the road will get a bit better.

This post was delayed for so long as I was procrastinating putting up the photos on the photogallery but luckily Shobhna is less lazy than I am so she has put up the photos from the trip here: http://picasaweb.google.co.in/shobhna.sharma/SultanpurOfficeTrip2009

In the near future I will probably also post the photos on my site. In the mean time enjoy.

– Suramya

Day 2 was a very uneventful day. Spent most of it sleeping to recover from the lack of sleep the day before. Surabhi and Vinit had gone to China for work and Manjesh was at work. So me and Sakshi were at home and we slept a lot. 🙂

Then in the evening me and Sakshi went for a walk down HK and did a bit of window shopping. Ended up buying some jewelry for friends/cousins at a really good price.

Came back home and watched a movie. Overall a very relaxing day. Tomorrow is going to be a lot more busy.

– Suramya

Hey everyone. After a long time I have taken some time off and traveled to Hong Kong for a week long vacation. I will be here till the 4th of Jan.

The trip started off on the 27th with my departure for the Airport at 6:15pm for a 10:15 pm flight. The traffic was bad as usual so it took us almost one hour to get to the airport. Once I got there I found out that the checkin for my flight hadn’t started yet but the guy at the counter was nice enough to check me in. Then I wanted to convert some currency to Hongkong dollars so that when I get to HK I could use the facilities and purchase items if required but I was told that they didn’t have any HK dollars so I ended up buying US dollars.

The flight departed on time but overall the experience was bad. It wasn’t the worst flight I have flown but it was up there in the top three.

It arrived in HK on time and I got to convert my money to HK dollars without issues. I didn’t have the address or directions to get to Sakshi’s place (I am staying at their place) so I had to call them up to get the address and directions. Sakshi was nice enough to come pick me up from the station after I took the airport express to the HK city.

Once we got home we talked for a while and then relaxed for a couple of hours, had breakfast and basically just chilled. At 3 pm we left to visit the casino’s in Macao. The trip to Macao was nice. We took a ferry to the place and the one hour journey are very comfortable. Initially the sea was a bit choppy but later on the ride was very smooth.

Over there we went to the Venetian which is this huge Casino. Inside the Casino they had a show of “Zaia” which is a dream of a young girl who journeys into space on a strange, yet familiar voyage of self-discovery. As she travels, she encounters the beauty of humanity and eventually brings it back with her to share with the inhabitants of earth. So me, Vinit and Surabhi went for it.

Basically the story is not the important part, infact while I was watching it I had no idea of what the story was. Its an amazing display of acrobatics/performances. Think of a circus in a musical setting.

It was a great experience and we all enjoyed it a lot. After the show all of us along with Sakshi and Manjesh spent a few hours at the casino playing Blackjack. (Actually they all played while I watched as I am not that big a fan of casino’s/gambling)

We then took the ferry back to HK and got back home. Had a late snack of Maggi noodles and everyone crashed. (I will do so once I finish this entry).

Tomorrow is going to be a fun/busy day. Planning on roaming around the city. Should be fun.

Well this is all for now. Will write more tomorrow (Hopefully)

– Suramya

This weekend I flew down to Bangalore to fly a Microlight plane and celebrate Vinit’s birthday (but that’s another post). It was an awesome trip and I had a lot of fun.

On Friday I left the office at about 1 am and my flight was at 6:45am and I had to get there by latest 5:45 which meant that I had to leave home at 5am as the airport is about 45 mins from my place (depending on traffic). Obviously I hadn’t packed the night before so I had to get up at 4 to pack which meant I had about 2 1/2 hours of sleep. I flew Kingfisher so the flight was comfortable and the food was decent. I got there at 9:30 am and Surabhi and Vinit picked me up from the airport and we went straight to the airport for the flying lessons.

Vinit, Surabhi, Vinitha (The pilot) and me with our plane

Surabhi and Vinit had both already done one session of 1/2 hour each before I got there. When I first went up the weather had cleared so the instructor let us stay up there for an hour instead of 1/2 hour as initially planned. The visibility was very good and although the air was a bit turbulent it was good weather to fly.

The plane we were flying can stay up for ~3-4 hours and go to a max height of 10,000 feet. We only went up to 1,500 feet though and were traveling at 80 – 90 km/hr for the most part. The plane is very light as you can see in the photo below where the pilot (Vinitha) is pushing it out of the hanger to prepare for launch.

Vinitha pushing the plane out of the hanger to prepare for flying

I got to control the plane for a while and learnt how to turn the plane, go up/down etc. The control stick was super sensitive and most of the time we were moving the stick a couple of mm’s to control the direction. I even did 2 takeoff’s and one landing. The controls were very basic and minimalistic (see photo below)

Control Panel of the Microlight

After the hour of flying we went back to vinit’s place and I crashed for a few hours. Then we drove back to the airport for another round of flying. My flight was the last flight of the day as no flying is allowed after the sun sets. I got to see the sun set from an altitude of ~1000 ft. It was an amazing view. The best part was that this time we took out the doors of the plane (which were made of pexi-glass anyways) and so we were at ~1,000 – 1,500 feet with no door between me and a free fall back to earth. Then we did a couple of sharp turns and believe me when you are up there at a 60 degree angle looking at the earth below through an open door it gives you a thrill like few other things can. The view of Bangalore from up there was superb as you can see from the pic below.

Bangalore from the air

We finished our flying sessions with a last round of flying the next day. I was a bit worried that we would have to postpone the flight as it was raining earlier but by the time we got to the airport it had stopped. This time we flew through and above clouds which was also fun. Though I prefer to fly with a high visibility as its a lot more fun.

View of a Quarry from the air

I have about a gig of photos from the trip and I am in the process of sorting through them so expect to see some more pics in the photogallery sometime over the weekend.

This is all for now. Will post more later.

– Suramya

I was in Bangalore right after new years and was there for 5 days. Was there for work and to meet Surabhi and Vinit. It was a fun trip. The traffic was bad, work was ok, meeting friends/relatives was awesome.

In the 5 days I was there, we ate out every day at a different restaurant, it was a filling experience. Especially liked the IndeJoes place. It is the first place in India where I have had good Mexican food. Their portions were big enough that we had to get most of Surabhi & Vinit’s dinner packed (We were full from the appetizers). I loved the music they played which was mostly late 80’s and early 90’s. Don;t really remember the name of the other places but the food there was also very good. I am sad that they don’t have a branch in Delhi 🙁

On Sunday Me, Vinit and Surabhi went to Wonder La which is an amusement park. Spent all day over there having a blast. Since schools were about to open and everyone was busy finishing their holiday homework the park was pretty empty. The water rides were fun but the best were the remaining rides like “Insanity”, “Twister”, “The mixer”.

On my flight back I was supposed to be on a King Fisher flight but the travel agent couldn’t get me tickets so they put me on an Indian Airlines flight. At first I was pretty mad but then I saw that I was seated next to the emergency exit and had plenty of leg room so I lazed about and enjoyed the flight. Plus the flight was mostly empty so I could have chosen any seat. Got to Delhi pretty late at night and Mom and Dad picked me up from the Airport.

Over all it was a good trip. I had fun.

– Suramya

This weekend was great fun, I went for a Rafting trip to Rishikesh. It was a rather sudden trip, I had known about it for a little while but wasn’t thinking about going for it because of work and stuff. On Thursday morning I found out that I would be free over the weekend so my Dad suggested that I should go for the trip (I had mentioned it to him earlier in the week). So at about 8 am I emailed Mitali who was the organizer for the trip and asked if there were places available, she said yes and after a couple of phone calls I had confirmed my place at the camp.

Then I booked my train tickets so that I could reach Haridwar at the same time as the rest of the group. We left Delhi at 11:15 pm on Friday and I had a nice journey just chatting with some of the other passengers. I did manage to sleep for about an hour but not much more than that. We got to Haridwar at 4 am and there I got to meet everyone else in the group for the first time. We then got on the car that had been rented for us and drove down to the camp which took almost 2 hours. It was a nice bumpy journey as they are widening the roads over there in the area. The route we took was a very scenic one and the moon light made everything appear to be magical.

We got to the camp at about 6am and after meeting the camp director Ajay everyone decided to take a quick nap before breakfast. I couldn’t sleep so I walked around the camp just enjoying the peace and quite. The sun rose at ~6:45 am after which the mist was burnt away and I could see the valley in its whole glory.

The Camp

The Campsite just after the sun rose

After a few hours the rest of the group woke up and we had breakfast (the food was great). We headed off into the water at about 10 am for rafting. The water was extremely cold (~10 Deg C If I remember it correctly) which made swimming in it a lot more interesting and fun. We went through a couple of class 3 rapids and even body surfed through a few rapids which was fun.

Getting ready for Rafting

We rafted about 10 kms down the river and called it a day. We left the raft over there at the beach and drove back to the camp. Once we got back we had lunch (every one was starving by the time we got back) and then spent a few hours just lazing around the camp. After Tea Advait (I hope I have the spelling correct) and I played a little Beach Vollyball. After the sun set we lazed around the campfire and talked about everything under the sun from astrology to politics.

Me, Mitali and Chirag in the water with Sanjay

Advait, Tom, Mitali, Chirag and Me at the end of the first day of Rafting

The next day we drove down to the beach where we had left the raft the previous day and rafted down to Rishikesh (~18 kms). This time we went through a few class 4 rapids in addition to the class 3 rapids. The water felt a bit less cold than the day before which could be because the day was clear and the sun was very bright.

Advait, Tom, Me, Mitali and Chirag in the raft

There was a place on the way where you could jump in the water for a rock 6 mtrs above the water. Only Chirag and me had the courage to jump and it was a lot of fun. It didn’t look that high from the river but when you saw it from up there it felt a lot higher.

After we arrived at Rishikesh we spent a few hours over there sightseeing. We had lunch at the famous Choti wala restaurant where all of us had the Royal thali which had about 6 different vegetables and other assorted foods. Then we walked around for a little while and then drove back to camp.

Lunch at Choti Wala’s

Back at the camp we lazed around a bit more, then Advait, Chirag, Navraj and me played a game of badminton. Then we had Tea and soon after the campfire was lit again and we spent a few hours talking and having fun.

The next day we left the camp at 8 am (had gotten up at 6 am) because our train was at 10:30 am. We got there about 1/2 an hour early so we walked about a bit in Haridwar and had tea. Tom was spending the next few days in Haridwar so there were only four of us who were coming back to Delhi. Ajay mama had some work at Delhi so he also was taking the same train to Delhi. Ajay and me had tickets in the AC 3 tier while Mitali, Chirag and Advait had tickets in the AC 2 tier. However they had originally booked tickets for 5 people but two of them had dropped out at the last minute so the two of us just switched seats and we all traveled together to Delhi. The train was supposed to be in Delhi at 2:30 pm but it got there at 4 pm. Mitali and Advait had a flight to Bombay at 6 pm so they had to rush to the airport.

I drove back home with Mom and dad and spent the next few hours resting. Over all the trip was awesome and I had a great time. Special thanks to Mitali for organizing the trip and inviting me.

Took a lot of photos (~160) so will be posting some of them in the photogallery within the next few days. Will keep you posted.

Well this is all for now. Will post more later.

– Suramya

This Sunday Mom, Dad, Me and Richa (My cousin) made a trip to see Garh Mukteshwar which is located on the banks of Ganga and has a lot of religious significance. In-fact it used to be a suburb of Hastinnapur in ancient times. There is a temple of Mukteshwar Shiva here. Close to the temple is the ancient Jharkhandeshwar Shiva-ling. A fair is held here on Kartik Purnima which is almost as popular as the Kumbh Mela held in Allahabad.

We left at 4:15 am so that we would find empty roads and could reach there before the crowds started arriving. We got there at 5:45 am just as the Sun was rising. It looked beautiful. Once there we rented a boat and crossed the river to get to an area that didn’t have any people/shops and just relaxed over there for a while. Dad took a dip in the river to get rid of his ‘sins’ (According to Hindu belief bathing in Ganges washes off your sins). I washed my feet in it. Rest of the sins I am keeping with me.

At about 8:30 am we left from there and started the drive back. On the way back we stopped for breakfast as a road side restaurant where I had Onion Paratha’s. They were pretty good. We got home at about 11 am. Then I read a book and after that I fell asleep.

This is all for now. Will post more later.

– Suramya

Got back from a five day vacation in the hills and it was an amazing experience. Its so pretty and peaceful over there that its unbelievable. We left from Noida at 5 am to pick up Deepa Aunty from her place and then drove to DhanaChuli which is near Nanital. It was a great drive and we talk about everything and anything with discussions ranging from; politics to religion to philosophy to current affairs. It took us almost 10 hours to reach there because of traffic and some detours.

Once we got there we stayed at a cottage in the hills that overlooked our land. Spent the day relaxing and talking with people. There were 9 of us over there so there were some interesting discussions. It had rained earlier in the day so the place looked clean and washed. Went to bed early because I had had only ~2 hours of sleep in the past 24 hours but we got up early the next day, had a nice breakfast sitting outside in the sun (I almost got sunburnt) and I played with the dogs (There were 3 of them: Annie, Nancy and Goldie)

The next day was the same; relaxed and enjoyed the sun. I flew my RC plane but I think the batteries I was using in the remote were weak so the plane didn’t fly that well, it was nose diving after flying for a little distance, so we decided to adjust the flaps but we did it the wrong way so the plane was nose diving almost immediately after the adjustment. Realized the mistake after a couple of hours (We had packed up the plane after a couple of crashes. ) but didn’t get a chance to try it again.

We walked around the property and I took a lot of pics. Will post them up shortly. We also drove to a few places which were really nice but I can’t recall their names or spell them correctly so I won’t try…

We left from there on Wednesday morning at 9:30 am and got back in Delhi at 7 pm. Its really hot over here compared to there. On Tuesday we actually had a hailstorm over there which was nice (I wasn’t driving, so I could enjoy the view) and the entire time we were there we had to wear jackets as it was cold.

Well this is all for now. Will post pics later. Now its back to the rat race for me..

– Suramya

Went for a trip to Bangalore for the past few days for work. Left here on Thursday morning via Jet Airways and arrived in Bangalore in the afternoon. The flight was nice and I liked the service. Vinit’s mom picked me up from the airport and dropped me off at the office where I met the guys/girl for the first time. It was an interesting experience.

Spent a lot of the day installing Visual Studio 2005 on my system along with other assorted junk. VS took up almost 2.5 GB of my disk space no idea how much SQL server has taken up. Will be doing a lot of .NET programming now and I have already started missing Unix/Linux programming. However thankfully I will also be working on PHP and MySQL so thats a saving grace for me. 😉

There were a lot of power cuts during the day and the UPS kept us running for a while but then even it gave up and we had to sit and wait for the power to come back for almost an hour. At night it we had a thunderstorm and it was the first time I saw so much lightning at a time (Probably because usually I spend thunderstorms inside). This time I spent some time talking with Aunty while enjoying the cool breeze and the lightning.

Friday and Sat were also pretty much the same; spent some time programming, waiting for power and more programming.

Flew back on Sat night with Indigo Airlines and it was an OK flight. The service was good but for some reason they don’t serve any food during the flight. The only stuff they sell are cookies and cashews plus juice and softdrinks. My flight was Via pune so only got to Delhi at 11:35 pm. Then had to drive back to Noida so got home almost at 1 am.

Overall it was a fun trip. Met some interesting people.

Well this is all for now. Will post more later.

– Suramya