Anand Nataraj

Posts Tagged ‘drive’

Yesterday I drove to office with lot of challenge and one experience was irritating and risky. I was teased by a van who didn’t allow me overtake him.

Also he was carrying loads of PVC pipes, those pipes stretched beyond without a reflector. Also he drove crazy risking people traveling behind him.

Our crazy corrupt cops catch poor two wheeler riders to such van drivers who give a dawn to safety.

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Yesterday evening I was driving to office. It was a hectic day as I was attending calls non-stop. Then when I went to take my car a truck was parked in front of our gate and I had to wait for 10 min until the driver came back.

I drove some 500 meters just to realize that I forgot to take my wallet. Then had to return home to pick my wallet.

Then I realized I had to fill gas and I had to loose 5 min on the bunk.

Then the irony of dealing with mad drivers and unruly pedestrians. Finally reaching office was a big challenge.

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It was a hard and long saturday party at my friends factory in Korattur which lasted till 4 AM. Then i went home and crashed to sleep by 4.30 AM only to get a wakeup call from my freind by 5 PM in the evening to invite me for his engagement party.

Thanks to Lakshmi without her this treat would have been a distant dream. Kuruvi accepted to give us a treat and that too in GRT Temple Bay in Mahabalipuram. I was asked to pickup Kuruvi and reach Vicky’s house by six o clock. I got up immediately after the call, took bath and drove fast and reached kuruvi’s house by 5.40 and he took 15 min to get ready and still we reached Vicky’s house by 6.05 PM.

Then we started to play Nintendo WII Tennis at Vicky’s house until the time Sudhir reaches. Sadly Sudhir reached an hour late and i had to be spectator watching Vicky & Kuruvi playing. Then we left from Vicky’s home by 7.15. It was a happy hours rite to Temple Bay by pulling down each other.

On reaching Temple Bay we immediately jumped on clicking some snaps and as usual i did the job of a photographer. Since there was no one to take a snap of mine my creative mind thought of taking this picture of mine. I think this would be the best creativity of mine.

We wanted to goto sea facing Walf restaurant and en route there was a private party which organized this classical dance event. It was real joy to watch such professional performance which was mind-blowing.

We were disappointed at Walf as it was full and we were said it will take an hour to get a table. Folks were that hungry that they were unable to resist and we decided to goto closed A/C restaurant and settled for a buffet.

It was here we opened the pandora box of Vicky and again it was fun going back to our college days. After an hour and half of filling our stomach and refreshing our mind. We decided to call it a days and returned back. And folks were tried after a heavy dinner and Lakshmi was half sleepy, Vicky preying god as we were leaking many of his secrets :d.

And it was yet another Special Sunday being with my best folks.

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Reached home early in the morning after a boring Saturday party and straight away went to bed. Then I slept till the afternoon and had to wake up for two reasons;

• Firstly it was my father’s birthday and had small party.
• Second is I’ve fixed an appointment for second half of the day.

My sister woke me up to celebrate my father’s birthday. I must thank her for talking all these initiatives as I’m very bad at doing things like these. She has brought a cake as surprise and this is the first time we are celebrating my father’s birthday as he has always stayed away from us and I think this is the birthday where in he has stayed with us and we all as a family were at one place.

Since my father is a person who has very less desire we had nothing to gift him. So we thought of buying him some shares which he trades.

After the birthday party I rushed out to a place called Vedal near Periyapalayam to see a piece of plot. Again it was a finest drive which I longed for. We drove along old traditional roads of Tamil Nadu which were not affected by the expansion of highways. Then we travelled through a stretch of forest and finally came the spot.

I’m not sure if this place develops immediately or not. I’d love to buy a piece of plot as it is within my affordability and its been 3 years since I purchased a land. Also there are small mountains and it would be a perfect place to have a small bamboo house and spend peaceful time or also we can party hard as it doesn’t disturb anyone.

From there we went to the famous PeriyaPalayam Amman temple which is visited almost 15 years back and a lot have changed since then. Since it is a normal day temple was not crowded and we had a nice darshan.

Then while driving back we spent all the money and neither of us had a single penny. After a long time my bank account has gone empty and I’ve been living with credit card for last 10 days.  While returning we didn’t realize that there was a toll. Then we were thinking what to do and one of my friends asked me to get all the old toll tickets in hand. We thought we can elope by the time the toll keeper checks the right ticket.

To our surprise the toll has a barricade where in we can proceed without paying. Also the toll rate was Rs.31 and we didn’t have anything other than credit card. Then with brave face my friend gave all 5 toll tickets to the toll keeper and asked him to check which the right ticket is. Without even checking he opened the gates asking us to leave. We didn’t know if he realized if we were conning him or he didn’t have patience to check all the tickets.

It was a thrilling experience and for long I wanted to explore things without any money on hand. I always thought of putting myself in such a situation and it happened today. I’m thankful to god for creating such an opportunity and I want to be on similar situations even in future.

Over all it has been a very interesting and heart filling day as; 

• I celebrated my father’s birthday.
• Went for site visits to buy land which is one of my hobbies.
• Went to a temple which I use to visit as a kid.
• And for the first time I experienced a situation to manage without money.

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Had to drive to Trichy on Saturday to take my Granny & Mom for a condolence. Again it was an electrifying experience. 

• Started from home by 7:30 AM. Woke up early thought I slept only by 3 AM & had just 3 hours of sleep.
• Reached my uncles house in 4 hours and drove non stop.
• After a short nap had to go back to my granny’s village.
• There was Jallikattu (Bull Taming) which was restricted only to villagers. I’m watching a Jallikattu for the first time. Sadly I forgot to carry my camera to shoot the experience.
• Had good time with tiny tots & I became their favorite as I got them ice-creams and chocolates.
• Had dinner in my granny’s house.
• My granny’s village is on the shores of Kaveri River & spent some time in the river as it had some water.
• Got back to my uncles house in Trichy and went to sleep.
• Again went to village early in the morning for condolence.
• Had breakfast and went back to my uncle’s house.
• Then returned back to Chennai accompanied by 2 more cars and there was race.
• Had lunch in a hotel attached to a petrol pump.
• Reached Chennai and went to my aunt’s house to offload some fruits.
• Then there was an invite from my cousin for dinner and we had dinner and had nice time pulling each other.
• Then returned home by 12 o clock and checked my email and crashed as I was too tired to write a blog.

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A long time plan to visit to Tirumala with my parents, Raghu’s family, Ravi’s family & Prasad’s family got momentum during last week of December. Then after confusions because of Andra volatility things got sloppy and we did know if this trip was on till last moment. Anyways Prasad asked me to make it anyways. Since my parents were unable to make it I came along with my friend. 

So initial plan was to start by 6 o clock from Chennai in Indigo Marina and hand over the car to a driver so that he can pickup raghu and prasad’s family in the morning. Owing to lot of official work we started from office in my Zen by 8.30 and had to fix my puncher wheel. Since the tube was torn we had to replace the tube. I asked Suresh to drop me in my house and asked him to fix the puncher. He returned back by 9:30 and my father parked Indogo Marina in my uncle’s house as some household work was going on. So unable to take Marina out and we had to settle with Zen. 

Then while filling petrol I remembered that I forgot to pick my data-card. Then went back to home collected it and returned and we had dinner at Motel Highway in Poonamallee. Once when we were out it was 11.30 PM. Then got a call from Prasad and he said Tirumala road will be closed between 1 – 4 AM. So we decided to drive slowly. We were driving at 40 Kmph and still we reached Tirupathi by 2.30. We decided to  sleep in the car and we thought we can pick raghu and drive to the hill. 

En route Suresh wanted to know my entrepreneur journey and I was narrating my experience till date. Since I didn’t sleep the previous night I was tired but restrained from sleeping because I didn’t want to make Suresh drive alone. On reaching Tirupathi I slept immediately. We started taking snaps on reaching Andra Border. 

As a surprise Prasad arranged for a VIP darshan by 7 o clock in the morning. We had no time to relax and we all got ready in 30 min and we all went to temple. We had very good darshan where in we were able to see the lord at a distance of 5 – 8 feet. We were blessed to get the arathi & able to see lords feet. Also we had a glimpse of lord for 5+ minutes. It is all a blessing as these opportunities are not easy to come. Also we had a bones of worshiping along with actress Rambha. 

Then we were very tired and we slept for six hours and we missed a visit to goto Tiruchanur and worship Thayar. Again by 6 o clock we had another VIP darshan. Again we got same things what we got in the morning & since we were with Prasad we got some more privilages like getting different varieties of prasadam. Again this time we had the opportunity to prey along with Director Cheran, Actor Dr.Rajashekar, Actress Jeevitha and Actor Tarun. From there we went for dinner and then returned to Guest House. 

On returning we to guest house we changed the costumes, made some calls, checked mails & then myself & Suresh though of going to walk and I usually do this when I go to any place. We started hunting for good photogenic places and we were taking some snaps. On this pursuit we lost the route and we were repeatedly getting lost. After finding the correct route we found the Goa movie team as they were hunting for a hotel for dinner and time was 1.15 AM. We requested them for a snap and they acknowledged. I don’t know if they were lucky to find a good hotel at that time. 

Now reached the room and it is time to sleep and wake up by 6 for next darshan.

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It has been long that I slept like a mad guy. Last week I was enjoying researching about Internet Marketing & Offline marketing and I had to work till late hours. So I was deprived of good sleep the whole week. 

Yesterday I didn’t have any calls from friends to party and after visiting CEO LifeStyle’09 I straight went to my home & after having brief calls with friends I immediately crashed to bed by around 11.30 in the night and got up only by 4.30 evening the next day. Nothing can compensate for a undisturbed sleep and again I must thank my friends for not disturbing me for week end outings. 

Then I got a call from Balaji by 4:30 which was the wakeup call and also I didn’t want to sleep any longer. Also it has been a long time since I’ve been with Balaji. I always enjoyed hanging around with Balaji as we shared common thoughts. But since he is engaged I didn’t want to take much of his time and I stopped calling him out.

Since he called me and asked if we can go out for a movie? I accepted the invitation without thinking a second. So we both were hungry and we drove to mayajaal and booked tickets for Rocket Singh & went for dinner. For the first time I can say I have had a delicious food at mayajaal food court. 

I & Balaji spoke about multiple things that happened in between our previous meeting. So, none of the topic was discussed in detail. 

Then we watched a wonderful movie Rocket Singh and returned back again discussing multiple things. 

Then once reaching our home we bid adieu each other as we enjoyed the day and also went out after a long time.

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Today has been a contending day for many reasons. The day started by preparing a quote for providing Computer education for Andra Pradesh corporation schools. Then there were some official work where in I had to review some contracts, preparing list of things that my new CTO has to take care off and then putting my CTO as the single point contact for all technical help.

Then was engaged with some telephonic conversation with my CFO & Friends. Then I wanted to start my fish breeding which I use to do in my school days and then I located some spots in my house which would be best suited.

Then I got a call from my friend cum customer who said it was diccicult to come and sigh his IT returns and so I had to do the courier work. Thought Bala was hesitant to make me do those works I really enjoyed doing it as I’m not involved in CCS activities and I really enjoy working for CCS as it is a new arena to me. I drove to CCS office to hand over couple of signed IT Saral forms of friend and collected my friend’s Saral form to be signed and returned home as Balaji planned for a drive.

I came back home by 8 o clock and then had to wait for Balaji till 10 o clock to return from a birthday party. Then we handed over the Saral form to the friend and asked him to hand it over to bala tomorrow. Then we thought we can go for a long drive to Mahabalipuran through OMR which we have not explored much.

I was really surprised to see small tea shops and hotels which were kept open till 12 o clock mid night. We reached Perungudi toll by 11.20 PM and had to pay 30 bucks for a two way toll. Then we came across Baskin Robbins ice cream parlor and Pizza Corner. Balaji wanted an Iced Tea which was not available. Then we went to Baskin Robins and ordered for a Mango Tango & Mint Tango (Ice Cream blended with Sprite) and we enjoyed the drink.

Again started to travel towards mahabs and had to cross another toll where we were charged 30 bucks for a two way toll. I handed over a 50 rupee note and we got two 10 rupee coins as balance. That really excited me because I’ve seen that from one of my friend who had only one and he refused to give it to me. So, today I’m a proud owner of a 10 rupee coin which is rare at the moment. Then Balaji took on coin and retained one coin.

Again we thought this route to be expensive compared to ECR as we pay 45 bucks for two ways to mahabs. Then once when we crossed 200 meters the road was very bad as expected and we had a small change in direction. Instead of Thiruporur we went to ECR from Kelambakkam.

En route to ECR from Kelambakkam we had this back waters and good lightning. It was a special gift to my eyes. I’ve never enjoyed nature like this before. I was disappointed for not carrying a camera. Then after 10 min of enjoying the lightning we again proceeded to mahabs.

After reaching mahabs Balaji was telling me how nice a place it was two decades back as it is the home town of his mother and that was the place where he spends his vacation.  Again I’ve never been to mahabs at mid night and watching those carvings at night was a different experience.

It took 2 hours to drive to mahabs and while returning we had good topics to discuss and returned home within an hour. Over all I’m closing the day with a happy note… Thank you Balaji for giving such an experience… Letz explore more in coming weeks.

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One of my friends has got an interview call from a company in Bangalore and the company has promised to reimburse him the petrol charge for driving to Bangalore. So we thought we can club that opportunity for a tour to Mysore or GOA.

So we are driving to Bangalore tonight and will be deciding where we will be up to once his interview gets over. As usual planning for drive his so high and I’m carrying a Red & White WINE bottle.

As usual we will be having our dinner at Khaja Restaurant Ambur. Other than that we have not planning much on how to spend time in Bangalore but for sure it will have a visit to Forum / Garuda Mall and I’ll have a tattoo sprayed for sure.

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Today I’m driving to Bangalore after a long time. Driving to Bangalore has always been a pleasure and I use to travel to Bangalore at least once in a month till a year back.

We are heading to Bangalore to attend an event called Silicon India event where we are giving a presentation of our business plan to a group of VC’s and visitors. Also we have booked a stall to showcase our services.

Will be blogging about the outcome of the event on Saturday before that we (myself, Bala, Boopathi & Ramanan) are discussing about the plans for Friday and Sunday. En route to Bangalore I’m taking them to Khaja Hotel in Ambur which is famous for biriyani for dinner and I’ll be having roti’s in a Dhaba in Vaniyambadi which is my favorite.

Mostly tomorrow we will be heading to Forum mall and do some window -shopping and will be watching a movie. On Sunday we will be doing the same in Garuda Mall and also itz been long I walked on the streets of Brigade road and M.G.Road which I might give a shot if time permits.

Also I wish to go to 13^th Floor Ebony restaurant and would like try some of their Sindhi dishes. Last time I tried only one dish and was amazed. Probably this time I might go there and will try exclusive Sindhi dishes.

Over all I’ll make a blog post about the entire experience of this Bangalore trip once I wrap it on Monday. Tonight I’ll make a post about the experience we had while driving.

Now let me grab the role of driver from Boopathi as I’ve been longing for this moment for long.

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