"Mati pukare tujhe des pukare"
Its just 2 months more to go to India and I was all excited @ it...Talking to my roommate @ what we would to once we got there..i remembered my first trip from India to US...Just thought off putting it down...Mon, dad, bro, granddad and grandma...came to the airport and we reported 2 hours early which meant watching similar students going to US...Seeing each ones anxiety made butterflies fill my stomach...Then the great moment "the security check" started and "lo and behold" my bag weighed 16 kgs extra...Had to remove a lot of eatables, bad for the "hungry me persona" rushing back to parents waiting area from students rush hour area. After lot of frantic efforts, managed to remove a lot from bag and now it weighed 4 kgs less. So I rushed back to get the usual but most important masalas and pickles...By the time I came out of the overweight, underweight dilemma, it was time to bade a final good-bye to parents….Well as first times in international flight, I flew with my friends awed at things around and the daily travelers around us were obviously oblivious of this state of affairs which intrigued us.
The plane took off, the altitude 40000ft..temperature -50degree, crossing of time zones and path the plane took were all depicted on a screen. Flying above clouds was wonderful. This all awe was followed by a light dinner which was indeed very light as is airplane food famous for. The "ingredients" were well written on the food item without any concern of it being tasty. The "usual bread" made me feel very light for other items were absent on my plate. This short meal and cool weather let me catch on some short winks...
This was the first day I saw the sunrise from my seat in the plane...I could see the dark orange ball of fire just across the window. The breakfast again came with sukha bread and some hot coffee which gave us an aftershock for the bitter taste it had..SO the morning coffee was a strict no-no and we lived the day on orange juice and pepsi "yeh dil mange more" company which saved the day...With all this bitter(coffee) an sweet experiences I reached Amsterdam……(continued)
Friday, November 30, 2007
Gatlinbarg (1,2 and 3) --older blog reposted
Gatlinburg ski trip Dec 2006
All set to ski...It just looks warm, the truth is exactly proportional to clothes everyone is wearing...damn cold :) This was the first ski experience. We girls never got off the baby slope, though we had a fun filled snow fight :D The difference between Christmas and halloween Gatlinburg was: Christmas had the magical decoration and feeling while the halloween decoration had a different charm. ALso getting up to both mornings was different experience. Christmas morning had the cabins completely covered in fog and u could not see anything outside the cabin, and with the glass windows you feel as if you are traveling in a cloud. It is a beautiful experience. You got to be there to experience it :)
Me, Richa, Meenakshi, Prashant, Mandar, Shalmalee
Telico Plains 2006
The second trip was with the friends below. We had booked a log house instead of a cabin this time, had a nice warm bonfire on this one :) The most memorable part of this trip was definetly the bonfire, the walk along the creek, the try to cross the cold creek part. I don't know how the guys crossed it on foot, my leg went numb the minute I entered the water. We girls decided to have a ride back in car instead :)
Preeti, Sumit, Me, Richa,
Nitin, Mandar, Shalmalee, Niroop
Smokies-Gatlinburg trip 2005
Radhika, Pushkar, Ritu, Richa, Parag, Anish Sonika, ROhan, Me
Just decided to pen down about our trip to Gatlinburg, till its still fresh in my memory...We (richa, parag, rohan, radhika, pushkar, anish, ritu, sonika and myself) started Friday evening aroung 4PM following the way to pegion forge where we had booked a beautiful cabin for 2 days.The journey was uneventful except for short breaks at the gas station and stop for dinner at an Indian restaurant(obviously amazing for students who have no thikana of eating)--- thanks to google maps (for their long but correct directions). We took exactly 3 hours to come to pegion forge after which we got lost and roamed in the city to find our cabin for @ half an hour. In between petrol tanks refill, wandering and city seeing :), we finally reached our destination : www.sugarmaplecabins.comReaching there at @11:30..we all decided to have tea (courtsey "TATA")... Ritu our tea lover went for it and we all proceeded to decide on "whos room is it anyway", and you guessed it right, for another half an hour between cousion fights we finally were able to get an all girls cozy room for ourselves :). By that time tea was totally forgotten about and we proceeded to play monopoly, when someone remembered about tea and lo and behold the picture of the disaster is posted below...After some effortful cleaning and remaking tea, we went back to playing monopoly...and finally slept at around 3.
Morning was beautiful...with the cabin in the smokie mountains, the patio directly opened to a view of mountains...windy cold morning...sitting on the swing on the patio..with hot tea..aha... Ya by now you must have guessed how much we like tea...sorry to pepsi and coke...After some rounds of pool, we were ready to go around the city by afternnon.
This city is a total party city with miniature golf and go carting everywhere and hotels and cabins,,all with halloween theme. I will put a picture of it soon..We then went for a sky ride, water ride etc. Was fun !! Then the best part of the trip was the "Old time photo house", all of us got dressed in this cowboy and maiden type dresses with guns in hand and clicked our way to the past...You will love the photo below..After this we went to the "Ripleys haunted house"...and it was so scary--I had to do without my voice for the next whole week...
Then we played miniature golf and went for go-carting...but missed on the wish of having icecream at baskin robins..as it closed by the time we reached...Then we reached home at around 3..after a long day...
Below is the beauty of nature we could capture in our camera on the way.
All set to ski...It just looks warm, the truth is exactly proportional to clothes everyone is wearing...damn cold :) This was the first ski experience. We girls never got off the baby slope, though we had a fun filled snow fight :D The difference between Christmas and halloween Gatlinburg was: Christmas had the magical decoration and feeling while the halloween decoration had a different charm. ALso getting up to both mornings was different experience. Christmas morning had the cabins completely covered in fog and u could not see anything outside the cabin, and with the glass windows you feel as if you are traveling in a cloud. It is a beautiful experience. You got to be there to experience it :)
Me, Richa, Meenakshi, Prashant, Mandar, Shalmalee
Telico Plains 2006
The second trip was with the friends below. We had booked a log house instead of a cabin this time, had a nice warm bonfire on this one :) The most memorable part of this trip was definetly the bonfire, the walk along the creek, the try to cross the cold creek part. I don't know how the guys crossed it on foot, my leg went numb the minute I entered the water. We girls decided to have a ride back in car instead :)
Preeti, Sumit, Me, Richa,
Nitin, Mandar, Shalmalee, Niroop
Smokies-Gatlinburg trip 2005
Radhika, Pushkar, Ritu, Richa, Parag, Anish Sonika, ROhan, Me
Just decided to pen down about our trip to Gatlinburg, till its still fresh in my memory...We (richa, parag, rohan, radhika, pushkar, anish, ritu, sonika and myself) started Friday evening aroung 4PM following the way to pegion forge where we had booked a beautiful cabin for 2 days.The journey was uneventful except for short breaks at the gas station and stop for dinner at an Indian restaurant(obviously amazing for students who have no thikana of eating)--- thanks to google maps (for their long but correct directions). We took exactly 3 hours to come to pegion forge after which we got lost and roamed in the city to find our cabin for @ half an hour. In between petrol tanks refill, wandering and city seeing :), we finally reached our destination : www.sugarmaplecabins.comReaching there at @11:30..we all decided to have tea (courtsey "TATA")... Ritu our tea lover went for it and we all proceeded to decide on "whos room is it anyway", and you guessed it right, for another half an hour between cousion fights we finally were able to get an all girls cozy room for ourselves :). By that time tea was totally forgotten about and we proceeded to play monopoly, when someone remembered about tea and lo and behold the picture of the disaster is posted below...After some effortful cleaning and remaking tea, we went back to playing monopoly...and finally slept at around 3.
Morning was beautiful...with the cabin in the smokie mountains, the patio directly opened to a view of mountains...windy cold morning...sitting on the swing on the patio..with hot tea..aha... Ya by now you must have guessed how much we like tea...sorry to pepsi and coke...After some rounds of pool, we were ready to go around the city by afternnon.
This city is a total party city with miniature golf and go carting everywhere and hotels and cabins,,all with halloween theme. I will put a picture of it soon..We then went for a sky ride, water ride etc. Was fun !! Then the best part of the trip was the "Old time photo house", all of us got dressed in this cowboy and maiden type dresses with guns in hand and clicked our way to the past...You will love the photo below..After this we went to the "Ripleys haunted house"...and it was so scary--I had to do without my voice for the next whole week...
Then we played miniature golf and went for go-carting...but missed on the wish of having icecream at baskin robins..as it closed by the time we reached...Then we reached home at around 3..after a long day...
Below is the beauty of nature we could capture in our camera on the way.
Friday, November 23, 2007
SURABHI - Taal bhi S~S~S
Music is my passion. One who can understand the words of music and only understand what that passion is. Very less friends of mine know this part of me, but then what are blogs for ;). and what are friends for...just kidding :D
So friends, this season for Diwali, we all from Birmingham, got a chance to get together and come up with a music program. It was a beautiful journey with a lot to learn and lot to enjoy.
Below is the slideshow of the whole team and more yet to come.
Surabhi team
It was nearly an effort of continuous practice and trials of new things and strings, instruments, voices and noises and juggle of which songs wins over the other over a time of more than a month.
First day started by choice of songs and the variety of themes being discussed from ideas pouring in of an era event or a multiligual event or an all instrumental section. Songs were being scrutinized in every possible direction the idea would give way. Strings pulled, combination of keys pressed and voices tested over and over again to generate the best melody.
During the first few days, I realized the beauty that each instrument carried and the distinct sounds which jelled with others. It felt like I had entered a new genre. I realized it was much easier to sing but more difficult to understand and play an instrument melodiously and play it in harmony with other instruments. I found myself listening to every sound as something unique and paid more attention to what instruments could have been used in a song while it was playing in my car, avoiding the car going off the road a couple of times. The songs obviously sounded all the more melodious.
Here is a link to the music videos. I hope the above was a good dose for you all to enjoy the links below though not in car:)
Aye Hairathe
Deewana huwa badal
Mein chali
Des Mere
So friends, this season for Diwali, we all from Birmingham, got a chance to get together and come up with a music program. It was a beautiful journey with a lot to learn and lot to enjoy.
Below is the slideshow of the whole team and more yet to come.
Surabhi team
It was nearly an effort of continuous practice and trials of new things and strings, instruments, voices and noises and juggle of which songs wins over the other over a time of more than a month.
First day started by choice of songs and the variety of themes being discussed from ideas pouring in of an era event or a multiligual event or an all instrumental section. Songs were being scrutinized in every possible direction the idea would give way. Strings pulled, combination of keys pressed and voices tested over and over again to generate the best melody.
During the first few days, I realized the beauty that each instrument carried and the distinct sounds which jelled with others. It felt like I had entered a new genre. I realized it was much easier to sing but more difficult to understand and play an instrument melodiously and play it in harmony with other instruments. I found myself listening to every sound as something unique and paid more attention to what instruments could have been used in a song while it was playing in my car, avoiding the car going off the road a couple of times. The songs obviously sounded all the more melodious.
Here is a link to the music videos. I hope the above was a good dose for you all to enjoy the links below though not in car:)
Aye Hairathe
Deewana huwa badal
Mein chali
Des Mere
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