road trip to nagarjunasagar

It was a nice trip [Nagarjunasagar, Saturday 25th March, 2006] and the details in prashanth's words(of course, censored).....

Hey bokes,
We had a wonderful road trip to Nagarjuna Sagar on Saturday. It
was fun except for some untoward incidents/accidents. We started at around
6:00 AM from the campus with 3 bikes(SB/Jags, Banthi/DP n me/Pondy) and a
car (Bolero/Nalli/Bavs/Jenny). We filled out fuel tanks to the brim n
raced out of the city. We had a break at LB nagar cross roads for
breakfast at a chai bandi. Bondas were awesome. We started from there
towards Sagar after 30 min n zoomed/dhoomed for another 45 minutes.
We came across a beautiful place with lake on the right side of
the road n lush green fields on the other. It was picturesque(Look at the
snaps ). We parked our vehicles on the roadside n spent there around
30-45 mins before resuming the journey. The highway was just perfect for a
bike ride. I clocked 90 kmph with my bike ;) n SB n Jaya crossed 100 kmph
mark frequently. Jayram n DP got involved in a discussion (probably jaya
was knitting stories on F1 n stuff n Dp as usual was innocent enough to
believe them) and went ahead without looking behind. SB/Jags, me/Pondy n
the car travelled together for quite some time before taking a break at a
road side shop. SB wanted to have 'milk' at the highway-side. SB,
Jenny, Pondy had some and we hit the road again after that. Jags took over
SB's bike n Pondy drove mine. All this while Jayram/DP were nowhere in
sight.
Jags/SB n Bolero(with his car) zoomed on the highway at 100 kmph
and we (Pondy/me) lost sight of them. After a few kms, we saw a group of
ppl on a kachara road. We slowed down a bit out of curiosity n we saw Jags
waving at us with injuries on his elbow n legs. Jags/SB met with an
accident (bike slipped at a turning on a rough road). There was some
construction going on n the workers over there helped us with water.
Luckily, the nearest town was just 2 kms away. SB's bike dome was damaged
on the right side. But, we were able to start it (everything was working
ok). So we(pondy n me) took both the injured fellas to a clinic in
mallepally(???). It was a small town n there was no signal to our mobiles.
We called up Jayaram from a STD booth n luckily we got hold of him. He was
some 12 kms ahead of us. Apparently, they waited for us in mallepally for
30 mins before continuing with the journey (we were at that
time, some 15 kms behind mallepally).
The doctor did the first aid n gave antiboitics. Jayaram met
Bolero's car while returning to Mallepally n both the vehicles(car n bike)
came back for us. After the first aid, we werent sure whether to continue
our journey or not. But, SB n Jags showed a lot of enthu to continue the
trip. They got into the car n Bavs n Jenny onto the bikes. Jayram drove
the damaged pulsar n Pondy rode Jayaram's Fiero n me, my bike itself. We
reached Sagar at around 2:30 PM. We searched for Punnami(APTDC restaurant)
and had our lunch there.
By this time, it was very hot in the afternoon n all of us were
very tired. We had some rest over there at the guest house cum restaurant
before heading towards the main dam. Personally, though Sagar is just 45
kms from MLG (dont ask me what mlg is !! I'll kick ur butt), I've never
been to Sagar. The sight of the dam n the power station at the bottom was
really good. Poor fellows, car wasnt allowed on the dam n some of us had
to walk for a little while. We were obviously tired, but we were hell bent
upon completing the trip we planned. So we started out to Ethipothala
waterfalls. Its a ghat road n most of it is just a single lane road. The
decision to goto Ethipothala falls turned out to be a good one. The
waterfalls were awesome n the cool breeze flowing there boosted our
energy levels. The evening was quite enjoyable n there were some skirt
babes too. We took some good snaps over there.
Slowly but steadily it got a bit dark. Just when we thought to
start our return journey, the artificial lighting was switched on over the
waterfalls n it easily was the best moment of the entire trip. All our
faces lit up with awe looking at the lighting over the waterfalls. It got
dark very fast n by the time we turned on the ignition keys of our
vehicles, we couldnt see anything without the help of headlights. I think
it was around 7:30 by the time we started our return journey.
We agreed that we should all move synchronously (3 bikes in the
front n the car following us). Since SB's bike's headlight was partly
damaged (Jayaram was riding it), it will follow the other two bikes. So,
we started from Ethipothala waterfalls with Pondy(on Jaya's bike) leading
n the rest of us following him. We climbed up to Nagarjuna Sagar n took a
break. We decided to stop after 45 min drive for dinner. I took the lead n
the rest of the gang followed to what turned out to be the best ride
ever(seriously the sight of 3 bikes n a car following was awesome). In
between , we stopped at a gas station for petrol.
At around 9:45 PM, we stopped at a dhaba for dinner. The 'anna'
over there served us with pulkas, dal n aalu curry. It was good. We hit
the road after a breif while. This time there were lots of Hitech/Volvo
buses coming at us at around 80 kmph in the middle of the road. They were
pretty rash. And Pondy/DP (on Jaya's bike) maitained an average speed of
70 kmph (sometimes touching 80-85 in the middle of the night). Me/Nalli
followed Pondy/DP n at one point of time, Pondy went down the main road
cos of a oncoming vehicle. Apparently, Jaya also had some close calls. We
stopped at a small village n decided to maintain a speed of 60 kmph from
there on. City was still 60 kms away. We reached outskirts of the city at
around 1:30 AM I guess. The ride was fun. Though it was night, there
were many vehicles in the middle part of the ride.
We dropped Nalli at his home in nallakunta and Jenny at RTC-X
roads n headed towards IIIT. By the time we came to IIIT, it was 2:15 AM.
Jayaram left to his house immediately after reaching IIIT. We all were
very very tired by the time we reached the hostel. I had a 5mm thick black
coat of dust on my body at the end of the journey.
I had a good bath in the middle of the night n though my body was
aching like hell, there was one small thought at the back of my mind "We
should do this again with a larger group n to a better place". Next
day I woke up at 2:00 PM in the afternoon n thanked God that it was sunday
n I can sleep more.
There were a few funny incidents too, like the ppl in the car mistaking a
guy with long hair as a sexy chick n later telling the rest of the guys
that they saw a sexy chick on a bullet ('she' was actually a 'he' n nalli,
bavs, jenny mistook that 'guy' with a long hair as 'a sexy chick') :D

---johnny

It was fun driving for 424km in a single day and almost half of it in the dark. Driving on highway at night was worse than I thought, courtesy the Volvo buses. On the contrary, truck drivers were driving extremely well. They never cross 50 and as soon as you dip the light, they take to left and put out their hand indicating you to cross over.
I slept that night in k's room at obh and went home the following morning.

holi

This year I missed all those wonderful colors of holi. I didnt get a chance to play holi this year. I was neither in iiit nor in warangal, where I used to have loads of colors, water and fun. But the main culprit was my laziness, which didnt allow me to get out my house in the morning. And I didnt see any activity going on in our appartments or in the places around...I wonder why no one in this place plays holi...or atleast I couldnt spot one on the road in front of my house.
Late in the afternoon, I went to sanghi temple with family. It was after a really long time that all 5 of us went together somewhere. It was a long drive but not tiring. The temple was 'ok' but the best part was the drive. Driving on wide roads at full speed is fun for anyone, specially for those who have just learnt it.
On the way back home, we went to meet my grandma in old city. It was after a pretty long time, I met her. And I got to meet a lot of my relatives too. Most of them noticed my long hair and my grandma thought that I was having a 'mokku'(it means I keep growing my hair in the name of god till some wish is fullfilled and then shave it of). I said a big 'NO' to her. I dont want to part with my hair. The last time I went to tirupati also I didnt have my head shaved. Now when my belief in god is diminishing, I cant afford to lose my hair for god.
Driving in old city is nightmare, specially if you are not sure of the way and have to ask for directions at every turn. The good thing is that the people there are very friendly and stop their work to help you find your way. There was this guy who came out from his pan-shop and took the role of traffic constable to help me take a U turn in that thin alley. I could have turned the car on my own after shouting at 2/3 people but his help really made me feel good.
Late in the evening, at around 8pm when we were about to start from my uncle's house, the thing I missed all day finally came. One of my cousins put a streak of color on my face and wished me holi...at the end of the day I had to satisfy myself with that...'yes!! I didnt miss the color(s) this year'. But the water, friends and fun part of this festival was still missing. Next year I'll make sure I plan on time and go to warangal.

alive again - with ubuntu

wrote this last night....
At last the good things are back in my life. my mobile and system are fucntional again. the best thing is that I have finally convinced my sister to use linux. I've been trying this for a pretty long time and finally I gave up and removed FC3 from my system and used that extra space to copy some movies that I borrowed from jenny. And just 2 days after I did this my sister suddenly wanted to be comfortable with linux, due to some professional requirements.
It was hard to get those cds suddenly. At iiit I used to install from network and now as there was no such option I started searching for those FC3 cds. Finally I got FC4 from vamsee and when I went home and tried, it said first cd is corrupted, you cannot continue installation. After cursing vamsee till my heart felt light, I asked nalli to get me ubuntu cds which people have been getting for free by post. This marketing must have really helped ubuntu a lot. I finally got those free cds and after trying out the live-cd version, I intalled ubuntu. Now I had to wait for another 2 days as I didnt have net connection yet. The airtel guy said that he is not sure if net works in linux as there could be drivers problem if I use a modem. Now I wasnt sure if I could get it working properly in linux. Inspite of working with broadband related products for more than half a year, I didnt know what kind of problems I could possibly face. The last time I used sify with FC3, there were no issues at all as the guy assured me that it would work. I felt lucky for having installed a boot loader and not removed the other OS directly.
After searching in net for a while I finally found out how to use airtel/bharati/touchnet broadband from linux. All I had to do was
$pppoeconf
and after a series of 'next'and 'ok', it asked for the login and password. the next thing I did was open the browser and "htpp://www.google.co.in" and it worked!!. I got used to check if the net is working by going to google as many ppl normally do. I didnt expect it to work for the first time and it did. to login/logoff I have to use pon dsl-provider/poff. I then searched for mp3 in ubuntu :) My sister would kill me if it didnt play mp3 in an hour.
Now all I had to do was
$apt-get install gstreamer0.8-mad
and the rhythm box started playing mp3.

I'm not one of those who belive OS is a religion, actually it hardly makes any difference to me what distribution of linux I am using. I'm happy that after wearing a T-shirt that says "Geek by nature, Linux by choice" for almost 2 years, I've now moved back to linux. "Better late than never".

Things to do:
-> go for gnome 2.14 this weekend and wait for the next kde(3.4/4) release.
-> remove the 'other' OS and make space for more multimedia
-> Upgrade the system to a 64-bit, though I'm not sure what difference it's gonna make apart from creating problems.
-> the first thing to do is to go online and get back to orkut, blog and friends.

cut off from life

no mobile, no postal address, no net at home which means no messenger, no orkut, no gmail and now even my system at home doesnt work..monitor screwed up, my discman broke, no calls from some friends for long...where can they call? I dont have a phone...
life sux...

a bit of relief...had a great time in vizag last weekend with friends..assy, nalli, jenny, pammy.
Saw rang de basanti last night...nice movie...but the popcorn was stale..threw it away and got some sweet corn
life isnt that bad after all

[fwd by jenny]gyaan on shaadi

When a man steals your wife, there is no better revenge than to let
him keep her.
- Sacha Guitry
=========================================================
After marriage, husband and wife become two sides of a coin; they just
can't face each other, but still they stay together.
=========================================================
By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you
get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.

- Socrates
=========================================================

A happy marriage is a matter of giving and taking; the husband gives
and the wife takes.
=========================================================

Woman inspires us to great things, and prevents us from achieving
them.

- Dumas
=========================================================

I had some words with my wife, and she had some paragraphs with me.
=========================================================

"Some people ask the secret of our long marriage. We take time to go
to a restaurant two times a week. A little candlelight, dinner, soft
music and dancing. She goes Tuesdays, I go Fridays."
- Henny Youngman
=========================================================
"I don't worry about terrorism. I was married for two years."
- Sam Kinison
=========================================================

"There's a way of transferring funds that is even faster than
electronic banking. It's called marriage."
- James Holt McGavran
=========================================================

"I've had bad luck with both my wives. The first one left me and the
second one didn't."
- Patrick Murray
=========================================================
It's true that all men are born free and equal, but some of them get
married!
=========================================================
Marriage is the process of finding out what kind of man your wife
would have preferred.
=========================================================
Marry not a tennis player. For love means nothing to them.
=========================================================
Two secrets to keep your marriage brimming
1. Whenever you're wrong, admit it,
2. Whenever you're right, shut up.
- Nash
=========================================================
My wife only has 2 complaints. Nothing to wear and not enough closet
space.
=========================================================
You know what I did before I married? Anything I wanted to.
- Henny Youngman
=========================================================
My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we met.
- Rodney Dangerfield
=========================================================
A good wife always forgives her husband when she's wrong.
- Milton Berle
=========================================================
Marriage is the only war where one sleeps with the enemy.
- Anonymous
=========================================================
"I haven't spoken to my wife in years. I didn't want to interrupt
her."
- Rodney Dangerfield
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