I'm back and here to stay.. :)

Writing after a long time. A lot has changed since my last post. I have moved back to Delhi, my hometown, from Hyderabad; Has been engulfed in lots of work and most evidently has not been able to blog.

Thanks to Emo, Arun, Kote and Chir, who asked me about my next post, I am writing it now.

I wrote the above lines around 2 months back and left it in the middle. So thought of completing it today. Well a lot has changed since then as well. I am in Brussels, Belgium for last 1 month. Deeply immersed in work or pretending to be...

This is not the first time I am away from home, but this time its different. Its the first time I am staying alone.. Alone in my studio apartment on 4th floor with a nice view of the city. Well you may think "nice view from 4th floor?? this guy is taking us for a ride..." Nahin guys seriously, not many high rises in this area. Will post some pics to prove my point.

What it means is that from cleaning to cooking, its all going to be done by me. As services here are very very expensive.. Enjoying it till now. Let's see how many days..

But I am sure, this blog is gonna be my medium of writing down all those Random Thoughts that come to my mind. I am sure there will be many.. Now to consider this as information or a warning is upto you...

So till my next post, here is a pic of the first thing I cooked here in Belgium.. Enjoy!!!



Take Care and do Comment

Y.A.

Go Goa.... Part 2

Continuation of my previous post...

Now with Introductions already done, lets move onto the real trip.

The trip dates were well suited to all of us, but the problem was it well suited a lot many people like us. So the end result, for people like me who believe in making reservations at the 11th hour, it was not easy. Hyderabad to Goa.. huh? What is there? Just an over night journey. I will get train tickets easily.. I am comfortable in Volvo as well.. but it was too late already.. So ultimately my 14 hrs journey converted into a two day break journey. Hyderabad to Mumbai to Goa. It was not that bad an option considering that I saved 4K, by not going by flight. It costed my company another day of WFH :). So It was all settled, Nigga booked my ticket for onward journey from Mumbai to Goa is the same Volvo as his. So my journey started a day before everyone else.

I was cursing myself for the lazy bum that I am, but that was only till we reached Goa. I and Nigga were the first ones to reach Goa. Shivering the whole night for the simple reason that there was no blanket provided in the Volvo. Recession has not spared any one, cost cutting u see.. Damn, I had Nigga with me, kisi aur ko hona chahiye tha ;)

So we reached hotel (paying 200 bucks for 10kms journey from bus stop to hotel), dropped our luggage and headed direct to Calangute. Boy, what a view it was, nothing can beat an early morning stroll at a nice, clean white sand beach.. Spent sometime there and Nigga clicked a few for his Calender ;-)

Well, well enough about me and Nigga for now.. So where are rest of the gang members? Yeah, they are coming.. A couple in train and others at airport.. Yo maan, Paapi managed to board a flight though he was told that it has been cancelled.. He narrated this story atleast 8 times during the trip though we were only 7 in all ;-) Expecting flights to be on time from Delhi in January is like expecting Mohan Bagan to beat Manchester United in EPL. His flight following the tradition was delayed by 4-5 hrs. He had a good time sitting in plane and waiting for take off. Good air hostesses are a must for any airline.. :) He finally made it to Goa around 2:00 PM..


Emo and Sane were somewhere in Maharashtra, enjoying their train journey for an additional 4 Hrs :) and guess what, they were not charged a penny extra for this extended ride.. Nigga and I were getting constant updates of their movement sitting at Calangute beach, thanks to Emo.. boy she was in bad mood, I could tell by listening to Nigga's replies to a rapid fire from the other side ;). Girl equipped with freshly learnt abuses and not in good mood, too dangerous ;-) Their arrival time in Goa, around 4-4:30PM

Where are Monchi and Rathi, yes this was the question everybody had.. BTW, Rathi comes from a class of select few who can go to an airport anytime, point at the aircraft and say "Mujhe Ismain Jaana Hai" :).. No kidding guys, his Dad is in IA and hence he is the privileged one. The last news from Monchi was that his flight is delayed by 3-4 hours. Nothing after that... Nothing till around 6:00PM, when we finally heard from Rathi. He was at Goa airport, finally in Goa... And he waited at the airport for another hour and a half for Monchi to land. I am sure he must have got 5 star treatment at the airport as well ;)

With everyone in Goa now, I will stop here for this post. Next post will have day 1 and day 2 highlights :) Till then have fun and happy reading.

Cheers
Yogi

Go Goa.... Part 1

After a couple of postings and a lot of drafts, here I am, back with a bang. I think there are few things for which you don't have to write and delete and write again. Words and thoughts come automatically. Writing about my trip to Goa is definitely one of those.

Wow man, where to start from... Just the beginning of a new year, with all the new year resolutions already down the drain, I was desperately looking for a change...

It was the end of 2009 when I came back from Jak.. Yet another grueling trip with a lot of work and timelines almost impossible to meet. Only consolation, that I was with my family and friends to celebrate the new year. This is when I first got to know from one of my close buddies, Nigga, about this Goa trip. The trip was well timed to leverage the holiday on 26th Jan which happened to be on Tuesday. So most of us took off on Monday and some like me were on WFH :). To be honest, I was not very excited the first time I heard about it.. Now how hard I may try to reason it, I don't know why I was reluctant to say yes at that time. Probably this is how I am..

I must say that had it not been due to constant bugging by Nigga, I would have not gone for this trip. Once I made my mind to go for it, the next logical step was to check who all were coming for this trip. Well it was refreshing to hear that it is going to be a different set of people all together.. In a group of 7, I knew 5(including me :-)) from my college days. Other two were strangers. But I have heard on and off about both of them from Nigga.

This trip was coordinated almost completely by Nigga. From hotel reservation in Goa to purchase of tickets for some of the travelers, everything done by him and quite efficiently I must say.. So before I proceed, let me introduce to you the whole gang.. As I told you we were 7 in all. you already know me, or if you don't then its not required.. I will name myself Yogi for this post.

Starting from Nigga, well he is one of my close buddies whom i know for almost 10 yrs now.. Haven't seen anyone like him in my whole life. He always has a different point of view to everything along with a very logical reasoning to back his PoV. He started his journey from Mumbai and was closest to Goa in terms of distance.

Next is Paapi.. yeah he actually lived up to his name through out the trip. Just kidding, but I am sure Nigga will second, third and fourth me on this statement. More on this later :) He started from Delhi for this trip. Though we have graduated in the same year from the same college, but we really got to know each other during our trip to Nainital in the year 2007.

Next is Monchi.. Again from my college and we both knew each other since our college days. Well not the nappy buddies but certainly good friends.. Monchi was the only person who had been to Goa before, in fact twice. This was his third trip and he also came from Delhi. His prior experience was certainly a big add-on.

Emo.. I have heard about her on few occasions from Nigga, but not sure if I was known to her. She came to Goa from Bangalore. Well nothing much that I knew about her at start of the trip except for the fact that she had learnt some fresh abuses :):).. Was not sure if it was in preparation for this trip ;).. jokes apart but she came across as a very nice person.. more on Emo in coming sections...

Sane.. Again someone I had never met or interacted before.. Another of Nigga's friends coming from Bangalore. A nice fun loving person.. The only one in our group who can swim :). As expected both Emo and Sane were coming together from Bangalore. More on her in coming sections...

Last but not the least our very own Rathi.. Another one from my college, knew him since then but just casual chit chats. Got to know him better in this trip and it was a great experience.. Poor chap, he was teased a lot for his engaged status and his every action was scrutinized and ultimately linked to her fiancee :) :).. Travelling from Delhi, he and Monchi were the last ones to join us in Goa..

And of course, I started my journey from Hyderabad, but there was a twist here.. more on this later..

Well enough for the introductions.. I will conclude this part here.. Next part will have everyone's story of reaching Goa.. Believe me it was incredible how we all somehow managed to reach there just in time to make the most of our trip...

So till the next post, happy reading and enjoy!!!

Cheers
Yogi

Monday Blues

Its Monday. The first Monday, first working working day of the year 2010. Can't get worse, coming back to work after a good one week vacation.. Oh boy, I never thought it would be this difficult. All new year resolutions which were already postponed to be effective from 1st working day, as if exercising and jogging are prohibited on weekends, are going down the drain..

But as they say in Hindi..

Ki umeed per toh duniya kayam hai

I will keep my hopes alive. After all transition takes sometime, so I will be modest with my demands and start working on my new year resolutions from 2nd week onwards :-)