Not had enough, have you?

 

more Switzerland

 

Met some old friends from The Bombay Flying Club at Mehul’s marriage today. Amrita was looking wonderful as ever. Manoj was looking the typical married man an excellent best man he made. And after Shiraj and Mehul, me thinks that Ritesh is in line next.

Switzerland!!!

The visit to Switzerland was a pretty rushed affair, got back from Ranchi in the afternoon, collected my passport, visa, money, etc. Packing was total confusion and if it wasn’t for my family, I would have left behind more than just the warm clothes.

This was a wonderful visit, short and sweet. Great countryside, picture postcard settings and a fabulous aircraft to work on. I’ll let my photos do the talking.

My attempt at paragliding was pathetic to say the least; it only revealed how out of shape I am. It made my pocket lighter by a few hundred francs but all I got was a bruised bottom and a damaged ego. Fitness is my top priority now, but I have to go beyond words to prove it. Only time will show if I have something good to write about.

 

Lee, why?

Things moved quite fast after that. Multiple visits to Ranchi for engine change, a trip to Delhi for the ATR approval (finally!) and a hell of a lot of work and travel. Just the way I like it.

At Ranchi, I got the news about Lee……

I did visit Bangalore, but meeting his family was a terrible experience. Wish nobody has to go through such an experience…..ever.

Tirupati with Srikanth

Before leaving Bangalore, I traveled to Tirupati with Srikanth; rare to find an interesting chap like him nowadays. We went by foot from Tirupati to Tirumala, an arduous exercise no doubt, especially since we were not wearing any footwear. Unforgettable moments: picture postcard locales and our shaven torsos. Srikanth was aware of the most economical and practical way to get Darshan (entry to the sanctum sanctorum). Check out the pics on Picasa, the links in the sidebar!

Bangalore is great if you have good friends

But my shift back to Mumbai also meant that I had to leave behind some good friends. Life was sure getting interesting in Bangalore, thanks to my roomie and this bunch of College brats in the neighborhood. We went wandering together; these are some snaps from a place called Talkad. This is by far the best waterspot around Bangalore that I have visited. The river is clean flowing, has a sandy bed and the slope is gradual, but not too shallow. Then there are wonderful excavations of temples long submerged in sand. The main temple reminds me of the Sun Temple in Konark.
 

Janaki

I’ve got no snaps of my freaky outings with Janaki. It started with New Year's night, which was pretty low key in Bangalore thanks to the shootout at the IISc campus. As usual, most of the guys didn’t turn up and we two were the only blokes at a party on the outskirts of Yelahanka. Needless to say it wasn’t that fun anymore even after a few hours of getting completely drunk. Then on a spur, Janaki says, “Let’s go to Mysore”. So off we went on his 100 cc motorbike, in the middle of a cold night with a few warm clothes for comfort in the freezing cold . He drove almost 6 hours in the night with a dozing pillion rider, always at a steady speed with an occasional break for a hot cuppa or a smoke. Mysore was a good experience, with visits to the palaces and I managed to pick up a couple of really beautiful silk sarees from the Maharaja’s trademark collection for my Mom.

The second outing with him was also quite spur of the moment when I landed in Bangalore after a visit to Mumbai. There was a long weekend ahead with nothing planned. One phone call and Janaki lands up with a rented car and some cronies to head for Kabini. Not that we found any accommodation there, and the lake was covered in fog, but the drive through Nagarhole National Park in the early morning was quite an experience. There were packs of wild dogs (they're called dholes in the local lingo), and more wild fowl than I‘ve ever seen in my life. Not to mention, deer, but we narrowly missed sighting elephants. Then we headed for Cauvery fishing camp, where we spent some time fooling in the water.

Made for an altogether satisfying way to spend my weekend.

reasons....

Firstly, Mr. Ong (my manager) decided to quit. That, more or less, meant that all the effort that we had put in under his directions came to naught. Now there was precious little to do, and a hell lot of politics to deal with.

Then Lejohn, my pal, took the problems at work too hard and decided to call it quits from life. An absolute waste of a wonderful life….I still can’t figure out why he did it. He was a good looking guy, an excellent tennis player and had a wonderful family to support him. What else could a man ask for?

I'm back

‘Tis been a really long time since I updated the blog. Many excuses, starting from the fact that I have been rarely at home for the past year or so. After all the upheavals in Bangalore, I have now found peace (at least for the moment!) in Mumbai working most of the time in general aviation rather than in the airline. Sure, airlines mean more money and bigger, more complex aircrafts, but it is far too monotonous. So the best compromise that I could think of was to split time between general aviation and the airline.

My decisions were prompted by a lot of events…..