3 day trip to Quebec

We finally managed to plan and visit Quebec, the snow capital of the world in freezing winters. And all the pain was worth it. Our earler trip to Quebec was in summers and even then Quebec was a treat for the eyes. It's a completely different look in the winters. Witnessing the magnificence of the frozen Montmorency falls, which are even higher than Niagara Falls was once in a life time experience. Where else can u see people walking over a river or climbing a frozen waterfall. Ice-hotel is also splendid. Having a complete hotel made of ice...walls, pillars, chandeliers, rooms, beds, stairs, balconies, chairs, chapel, rides, bar and even the drinking glasses made of ice. WAO! We missed the dog-sledding due to extremely bad weather, but is on our list. Hopefully, the next album will have pix for it :)



Here are the others:

Niagara on Valentine's Day

Went to our most fav location to celebrate V-Day this year. Frozen Niagara was fabulous as expected, and the charm of the day, made it look even more romantic.

We had an Italian dinner at Mama Mia's with Manicotti and Cafe Diane.




Here's what we did on last V-Day

Skiing..

We finally managed to go for skiing. We had to keep postponing the programme since several weeks now. Even today, we initially canceled it, when the temperature was minus 30 degrees celsius and predicted to reach -35. However, thanks to Priya's Tea-on-balcony boasting, we all were motivated again to make our long held wish a reality. Still, Priya is going to take the burden of getting many villages of chickens killed today. As Nipun and BD are on a prowl.

We also went to Bheeshma's b'day party immediately after coming back and had a nice time and an even nicer dinner (The pix of those are at Picasa).

New Year's Celebrations at TDC

After a successful Christmas Party, our spirits were high for another party. New Year was a perfect opportunity, and the first friday of 2009 was a nice excuse to kick start our Friday Fun events. We organized a Turncoat competition and asked the participants to speak both for and against a given topic.

Abhijeet agreed to start the event and was given the topic, "Casual Wear should be allowed in Office" and stated that Casual wear brings a refreshing ambiance, reduces protocols, increases productivity and also the colorful atmosphere has a positive effect on subconscious human mind. Switching to the cons, he brought to attention that Formal wear helps in imbibing the sense of equality and conveys professionalism. It also posts a decent picture in front of our clients.

Vidhya got a very interesting topic, "24 hrs News channels - Boon or Bane" and said its a boon because we can get minute to minute updates of our world but a bane because showing news whole day will be boring and a wastage of money and energy.

Rohan got a contemporary topic of whether to choose IT or not, if entering the job market today. He said that joining other industries will give a chance to explore more creativity and possibly better working hours, whereas IT industry is still India's hub and we can contribute to it.

Premjith got a topic, which even US congress is debating, "Should the Auto Industry be bailed out". He pointed out that saving Auto industry is necessary to save millions of jobs and also to save the already faltering economy. They also need a bailout to keep their eco-friendly researches going on. On the other hand, the industry had earned billions since many years and did not make good use of it. Also, failure to curb this tendency may set a bad example for others.

I, Ankush, was asked to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of working in a very large organization and I highlighted the advantages being the brand name, wider options in choosing projects, technologies, businesses and even location to work; while the disadvantages being not a fast career growth, difficult to reach top management and not many options to choose, while leaving the company.

There were also some remarkable discussions on Work-from-home policy, Life without Google.com, and many such interesting topics. Ravikumar Vavilla and Jayaraman Keerthi, who also were the judges for the event, must have brainstormed a lot to find such interesting and yet debatable topics. The event culminated with the distribution of prizes where Abhijeet bagged a well deserved first prize, Nipun - 2nd Prize, Premjith, Vidhya and myself the consolation prizes.

Hence, we celebrated the new year, not only having fun, but also pushing ourselves to think from all the perspectives for a point. Even the audience enjoyed the discussion and learned a lot from it.

Hoping, we'll be able to remember the lessons learnt from this event whole year, and also wishing everyone a very happy 2009, I close.

What an experience

Though I wish, I don't ever get this experience, but still.....what an experience must have this been:

My First Poem

This is the first poem I wrote...some consider it stupid, some funny, some classic, and some even dirty...i consider it interesting. Most of the people miss a very serious poetry in this..but that's what the Poet's art is :). There are many memories associated with this one, so to refresh them, blogging it today:

भारतीय रेल

भारतीय रेल की बोगी,
आपने भी होगी भोगी!

एक बार हम भी कर रहे थे यात्रा,
पर देख कर सवारियों की मात्रा;
छूट गया हमारा तो पसीना,
पर फिर भी, तान कर सीना

घुसने का करने लगे प्रयास,
पर औरों को यह बात न आई रास।

पहले दरवाज़े से घुसे, तो दूसरे से निकाल दिया,
साथ ही चटका हमारा कंकाल दिया।

ख़ुद को घुसाने के लिए भी,
कुली का लेना पड़ा सहारा;
हम तो अन्दर घुस गए,
पर सामान; बाहर ही रहा हमारा।

अन्दर का दृश्य तो, बड़ा ही घमासान था,
वह तो अपने आप में, कुरुक्षेत्र का मैदान था।

खैर, बर्थ न मिली, तो रेल के earth पर ही लेट लिए,
श्वान की भाँती, ख़ुद के शरीर को समेट लिए।

इधर हमारी आँखें झपकीं,
उधर हमारे चेहरे पर, दो बूँद जल सी टपकीं

.......टप टप ....

ऊपर देखा, तो एक शिशु लीक कर रहा था,
और वह भी, काफ़ी quick कर रहा था
फिर उसकी मातेश्वरी की जो देखी काया,
याद टुनटुन का शरीर हो आया,

प्रथम स्मरण हमने सारे देवन को किया,
फिर हाथ जोड़ कर, उनसे, विनम्र निवेदन किया,

"बच्चे को रोक लीजिये प्लीज ! "
इसपर वह बोलीं खीज,

"बच्चा क्या मेरे कहने से रुक जायेगा?
विधाता का बनाया विधान, यूँ ही झुक जाएगा?"

मैंने कहा कि, "कहीं मुसीबत न हो जाए,
नींद में सुसु भी, शरबत न हो जाए।"

उन्होंने कहा, "ठीक ही है, इसने कृत किया,
एक कवि को, उसकी योग्यता के अनुसार ही पुरुस्कृत किया।"

मैंने पुछा, "कवि हूँ मैं;
ये आपने कैसे जान लिया?"
जवाब मिला, "बेहाल हाल,
से पहचान लिया।"

मैंने कहा, "मैडम! मैं कवि हास्य व्यंग का हूँ।
नवरंग था कभी, अब बदरंग हूँ।
फिलहाल तो गुस्से से लाल पीला हूँ,
रंगीला था पहले, अब सिर्फ़ गीला हूँ। "

mad मैडम ने नेहले पे देहला दिया,
उत्तर क्या दिया, मेरा दिल दहला दिया,
बोलीं, "बच्चे का क्या भरोसा........
अगली बार कुछ और ही परोसा?"

दूसरों को हंसाते हो,
कहीं ख़ुद मखौल न हो जाओ;
चले जाओ दूर कहीं,
dettol से burnol न हो जाओ।"

सूझा न हमको कोई जवाब,
इसलिए निकल लिए, वहां से जनाब ।
तब से कर ली, हमने है तौबा,
पैदल सफर कर लेंगे,
पर भारतीय रेल -
न बाबा !!!

Satyam Nursery Rhymes

Raju Raju sat on the wall

Raju Raju had a great fall

Balance sheet died

Shareholders cried

Raju Raju made a fraud

---------------------------------

Raju Raju

Yes papa

Cheating us

No papa

Telling Lies

No papa

Open the balance sheet

HA HA HA

-----------------------------------

Ramalinga Raju,

Went up the hill

To fool his company's investors !

He fell down,

And lost his Crown,

His company came tumbling after.!!