Aditya - The PAINTER

I received this funny post from Remya this weekend::::
"I am a budding artist

no one gave me a canvas

So I chose my face... "

The picture she sent made me go gaga over my little one's ability to paint the kajal put on his eyes and cheek all over his face. She says it was even better one day earlier when he had painted full strength moustaches out of this black dye.

I am just very eager to see my little one, moreso after his naughty attributes are coming out slowly ;) ;)

Aditya - Darling is BORN

More Pics of Aditya @
http://picasaweb.google.com/sriswami/Aditya
http://picasaweb.google.com/sriswami/NamingCeremony
http://picasaweb.google.com/sriswami/Aditya1Month

Finally, after making his dad wait outside the labour room for 18 hours, my cute, chubby, Aditya Srinivasan has taken birth on Nov 20, 2008 at 22:26 at PRS Hospital, Trivandrum. The delivery was normal and both mom and boy are doing fantastic. He cried soon after birth and we already started celebrating. I brought sweets and distributed to the entire floor folks and also to everyone I see after that.

Aditya if boy, Gayathri if Girl is what myself and Remya had originally planned. Boy it was, and Aditya we decided. Reason being that my favourite God is Sun God, and also if you remember, we got the confirmation of presence of Aditya after getting down a giant wheel (360 degrees)...We are calling him Kunjiraman at home, just a cute name for small kids....dont get surprised if i utter kunji kunji etc. I took him into my arms, it was the moment of a lifetime. You should have touched his feet as a newborn, my goodness, how soft they were. And Remya was complaining he was kicking hard...i will not believe anyone can kick hard with this soft feet :P :P Remya too recovered from the labor pain pretty quickly and we were all at home within 6 days.

I had to return back to Hyderabad after 10 days of spending with Aditya, since my projects were pending. I went again during christmas, for 4 days. He has grown big (within a month) :P and he is now seeing his dad and smiling, wow...i just luvv to take him up into my arms, on whatever pretext, either in the pretext of making him sleep or just for fun....I am planning to bring him back to Hyderabad around first week of Feb, until then, I am just thinking always about him, looking at the pictures and seeing him live on webcam. Thanks to the technology that my grandmom who is very happy to see the 4th generation kid, sees him through webcam and gives him her ashirwad.....

Aditya, We all Love you dear.....

Aishwarya - My Sister's Kid is BORN

Extremely Happy news...My sister, Viji has given birth to a beautiful baby girl, Aishwarya on July 9, 2008. It was such a nice news to hear considering that Viji and Shiva were waiting for the baby's arrival for couple of years now. She was beautiful, fair and cried soon after birth. My mom and dad went to Mumbai during the delivery and when they returned back I zipped through to Mumbai to see Aishu. Love you Aishu - Your Srini Mama and Remya Maami.

Now Remya too is approaching the delivery date. I am just hoping everything goes well with her and we get a beautiful son or daughter who is healthy and chubby :)

We are expecting a BABY....

Remya's parents, her sister and her grandfather have just come to Hyderabad and we all had lots of fun by dropping in at Ramoji Film City and having a roundup of Hyderabad City Tour. At Ramoji, while all of the other folks including my parents and her parents prefferred to sit, myself and Remya sat in the giant wheel and had topsy turvy fun....you know we are kids... Just to ensure things are 'progressing', I took Remya for a doctor checkup and lo, Doc says "We are going to be parents soon".

Immediately I remembered the Bru Coffee ad wherein the wife brings a small cup to tell her husband that she is pregnant. It's such a joy to know that you would have a kid in your arms soon. That also brings an important topic of the necessity for Remya to take extreme care of her health and not work late nights and not strain in particular. It was such a sweet phase of life, wherein I used to give her Protinex, and with Remya hating milk, it used to take so much effort, cajoling and emotional blackmail to make her drink a glass of Protinex. Both of us were on cloud-9 and used to wait eagerly for Tuesday's when the Babycenter post used to drop into my mailbox. Baby Center is extremely good in informing us the foetal status, the care to be taken including pics and nice images. Remya had gone to an extent of writing poems too on the different phases that the baby is taking shape in the womb, first as a groundnut size, then enlarging to cashewnut, then apple, then pineapple :P and finally becoming round shape.

As I saw Remya progressing through her months, its such a sweet experience not explicable by words. In order to ensure that she gets enough care, we travelled together to Trivandrum during August for the wedding of Kuttan (Kumar - her cousin brother) and had Remya stay there itself with her mom. With her mom too taking voluntary retirement, Remya is now getting glassful of milk and no cajoling here, my mother-in-law is strict, and Remya knows that better :P :P

I did see the foetus during 5th month, when he/she was moving around and waving hands etc. It was just a mesmerising feeling internally....We are all waiting eagerly to see whether it would be a boy or a girl, whether he would look like his dad or mom etc etc. Since on work related assignments, I had to travel to US, I had a month of stay at Charlotte and came back for my wife's Seemantham and then travelled back to US for another month, and arrived early November.

Time'z Running Fast...

Good Bye Oracle

It's been 5 years and counting in Oracle. I just came across a consulting opportunity which I think can take my career to new heights. The work here at Oracle has become more of predictable. I decided to take the plunge after hard thought since Oracle is close to my heart. But now that I have decided to move on, I have moved out of Oracle end of April and joined the new consulting firm. It is a startup to say so, and that means lots of challenges, lot of brand building to do, particularly by delivering quality projects. My aim is always to strive hard for the company which I work for, and my attitude wouldn't change if the company were small or big. Now that I have joined this small firm, I am eager to provide my contributions and grow along with it. Wish me luck :)

Good Bye, Oracle, hope to see you soon!!!

Honeymoon Adventure - Season 2 - Goa

More pics available at : http://picasaweb.google.com/sriswami/Goa
How can a honeymoon called so if you dont surf the waters of Goa. We headed directly from Delhi to Goa for another week of fun-filled vacation. Having exposed to the -17 degrees celcius of Manali, I was little scared if we would get sick to the 30's of Goa. However, both of us were in no mood of such health issues coming in our way of fun-filled week ahead. I had planned it with care for Remya so that I celebrate the "Feb 14", the first valentine's day of our life to be grand. I had booked the Grand Hyatt hotel at Goa for 1 night that of Feb 14, and then planned to spend the rest of the week in Club Mahindra. As per plan, we landed in Goa, headed straight to Grand Hyatt. I love the way the reception takes your credit card, and gives them back, I could see most of those working folks were from China or eastern country. It was surprising on one-hand but the hotel was 5 star to the core. The rooms were amazing, the bath tubs were scintillating, the beach was private and to top it, it was Feb 14.

We surfed the beach for sometime in the evening, holding hand-in-hand, and then walking through the specially arranged "rose-flowered" candle light dinner for the guests. We enjoyed every moment of our stay in the hotel and when it was time to pack bags and move on to Club Mahindra, I had a sense of satisfaction of being able to give my valentine the best she deserves on the Valentine's Day. We still remember how we look at the chocolate cake that the hotel guests had in our room, wishing us a happy honeymoon :P :P

Once in club Mahindra, it was back to beaches, surfing, walking on the sand, fun-filled activities, lunch and dinner at your leisure etc. The rooms were just about fine with privacy being allowed. We decided to see the "architectural wonder" of Goa including seeing the churches, village folks, the age-old houses which are still being preserved with all portugese stuff and they were very nice.

We had romantic sunsets almost every day in the beach, wherein the sun turned bright orange and it was so beautiful, I must have taken several pics of the Sun. Overall, the week went past pretty fast but we did get some time to catch up the glimpse of Goa and had some purchases as well as ate some Goan' cuisine (without fish) :P

I had planned the honeymoon perfectly well. Everything was as per plan, and the final leg of our journey was to travel from Goa to Mumbai via the Konkan railways. I have always heard so much about this Railways wherein the trackes just bisect the huge caves and the train experience is supposed to be the best. And so it was...I have videos of these train ride inside caves which spans for 10 mts or so, just consider how it would be to turn from bright sunlight to pitch dark for 10 mts and the back to being in bright sunlight. We had lot of fun there. We landed in Mumbai and went straight to Viji's house. Viji was carrying Aishwarya at that time and hence couldn't travel to my wedding. Hence this plan of taking Remya directly to viji so that she feels happy too. Overall, we had a good night stay and said bye to everyone to be back in Hyderabad. The fortnight long honeymoon was slowly coming to a close and the reality of joining work from the next day was daunting to say the least.

Into Work Mode now buddies....but there are more posts to come, wait and watch..

Honeymoon @ Manali - Adventure Begins NOW

Pics of Manali are at : http://picasaweb.google.com/sriswami/Manali#

After the wedding and settling down in life, per se, myself, amma, appa and remya took the flight back to Hyderabad. Remya's parents couldnt accompany as they have to settle things since wedding requires so much of efforts. We landed at Hyderabad on Feb 4 evening, and the plan to kick off our honeymoon campaign from Feb 6. Remya is seeing my house for the first time. I was nervous if she would like it or not, but in contrast, Remya is such a beautiful girl that she prefers to look for love and care instead of pomp and regal.

We took the auto to Hyderabad airport and our first stop was "Delhi". We had already booked the bus which would start in the night from Delhi and take us to Manali around morning. Since we landed at Delhi around noon, we rode straight to India Gate, there is a "Saravana Bhavan" tamil hotel over there, we had nice lunch and then went to India Gate for closer look of the events and celebrations that happen there everyday. After enjoying that experience, we walked back, we infact walked a lot on that day and then reached the HP Tourism office, from where the bus to Manali was waiting for us. We took the bus, bought some winter clothing like gloves etc and cuddled ourselves into the 2 seats we got, waiting eagerly to see the snow. Neither Remya nor me have seen snow before. So it was more of a child waiting to jump out and play in the snow.

Around midnight the bus did have few stops for tea/coffee etc, and everytime we get down, we observed that the temperature had dropped quite a bit. Good that we had enough cover in terms of winter clothing. We awoke at the noise of the bus conductor telling us that the bus has reached manali, to a lower point and since there is snowfall in the city, he cannot travel further. Look out of the window, and wowwwww, thats such a feeling, fresh snow falling on you. Both of us got out of the bus and our feet were in full snow and it was already chilling you around. Remya was hopping since it was very cold and she had worn those stylish chappals which did not protect her from cold. We looked around and a jeep was ready to carry us till the hotel where we have the reservation. We took that and even there, the jeep could not go till the hotel (Ambassador Resorts) lobby. He had to stop 10-15 steps away and the bellboy was kind enough to carry our luggage till the reception. We are already enjoying the snow all around us like kids. We have never seen both of us in such an enjoyable mood before.

We got adjusted to the room provided to us, to the cold, to the heater, television in the room, and once you open up the curtains, you have to see to believe the beauty of himalayas projecting from the balcony. Snow capped, Fresh, Beautiful, Absolutely spotless, it was a sight which a photographer like me, would yearn for. I started clicking the pics all around and had so much fun in that time.

We stayed in Manali close to 7 days and had planned to venture out every other day so that we g et enough rest in between these trips too. We visited the Hidimba temple (you can see all these pics in the link pasted above), wherein we dressed ourselves with huge fur coat, since it was fresh snow all around. We played snowball with lots of fun near the HP Tourism office, and also we visited several good places around Manali like the Shiv temple, Kullu Shawl Factory, Manikaran Gurudwara, Gayathri mata temple, Manu Aalay (temple), Vaishno devi (not the J&K one, this one is there on the way to Manikaran from Manali) etc etc. This is the first for both of us, in terms of entering Gurudwara, putting up our feet on "cold snow" and then in "hot sulphur springs", in terms of fighting like kids with snow, in terms of slipping down the snow for 20 feet, fortunately we werent hurt. Each moment though would remain etched in our memories forever.

To top it, the Resort provided wonderful food and recreation facilities. We loved the"kya yahiii pyaar hai" music on the background just when we sit for our candle light dinner. We then had a waiter who used to take care of us very sweetly asking us to order more dishes and go for more variety. Sir, do you want "Bada Idly", we thought he might bring us big idly but alas, he brings us Vada and :P, he asks us if you want "Paper Rasam", he meant pepper-rasam, then it was palam, he meant plums......we used to giggle a lot whenever we talk to him and have so much fun having food.

It was very difficult to say bye to Manali, there were several romantic moments and surroundings that it was daunting on us to even think of leaving Manali. However, since there is always a hope in the horizon, we set ourselves to have fun at Goa which is our next destination. Everyone would have thought you planned a "bigg honeymoon" and ofcourse I did. Dont you think me and Remya deserve that??? :P :P

We took the same route as we came in, wherein the bus to Delhi, had tiffin in Saravana Bhavan and then were about to board the flight to Goa.

Manali - Our favourite Honeymoon Spot

Wedding Bells Ring - Day 2

See this link for all pics :
http://picasaweb.google.com/sriswami/MyWedding#

The sun shined on this planet on Feb 3, 2008, waking me up for the most beautiful day of my life. Its my wedding day. In India, most of these auspicious events are done at a particular time. Similarly the muhurtha was fixed for my wedding in the morning of Feb 3. I have seen several Tamil weddings wherein there are huge number of fun filled activities before proceeding to make Remya my wife. They include, Kaasi Yathrai, wherein the groom decides that he doesn't want to marry and instead enter sanyasa (penance) and hence starts off the mandapam with very minimal equipments like umbrella, a devotional book, small moottai of rice and slippers. The father-in-law has to intervene during this situation and he would ask me to not go, and instead take the girl's hands and get married. I would then reconsider my decision and then go to the marriage hall. Sounds funny right, and ofcourse it is. I had no intention to leave to Kaasi, and I have no intention to do penance. I was just nodding my head affirmatively even before my father in law started those dialogues of come back :P Then once in, the maternal uncles have to lift the groom and the girl on their shoulders at which the garlands are exchanged. Obviously to encourage more fun, there is a sequence of going back and forth while exchanging these garlands. Since both of us were "not over-weight", the lifting gang were able to life me and remya up and we had full fun of exchanging garlands in the air :P :P

Finally, the moment had come. After hours of manthropadesam wherein the prayers are chattered and the fire originating from the homagundam has already filled the place, the Vaathiyar took the sacred yellow thread aka Mangalasuthram, and gave it to me to tye it on Remya's neck. Again as per our customs, only 1 knot has to be tied from my end while the other 2 would be put on by the nathanar, here Lakshmi. There is a huge rush to see the moment as it is considered the entering of wedlock scene is the most important of the Tamil Wedding, and I tied the thaali on Remya's neck and made her my wife.

All folks started congratulating my parents and Remya's parents for having completed the wedding formalities. We had to wait for 15-20 mts more due to some more vedic rituals after which we got to receive the congratulations from our close friends. Overall, a huge sigh of relief that the event has passed on beautifully to be etched in our memories. Remya thought for a second that Remya's dad was crying when he was holding Remya on his lap before the thaali tying. You tend to get lot emotional in these situations since it is a life-changing moment. Overall, things cooled down and everyone had a fantastic Kalyana Bhojanam.

Eating food with the better half on your side is always fun. You pass on some laddu to her, she passes on some other sweet to you and all the old ladies standing around making fun of, innum koncham kudu (give him more) :P :P It was a sumptuous meal on offer and all the items tasted very good. We then had a "grihapravesham" function wherein we had to go into Remya's house and also pray to the nearest temple (Shiva) for the longeivity of the marriage. We had to eat lot of "milk+banana" during the wedding celebrations as most of these elders distribute it whenever they get a chance ;) I love both, so had no complaints while Remya doesn't like Milk, she had to compromise :P

Around 3 PM, we had the "Nalangu". This is again a festivity that has its traditions and is aimed at bringing a camaraderie to the newly weds so that they can come out of shell. We never were in a shell, had a good laugh and we were close friends already, so this was more of a fun-filled session as far as we were concerned. I have attended several weddings of my friends and relatives that I know what needs to be done. Poor Remya, she has hardly seen these tamil nalangu and moreover with 10 maamies sitting around giving different instructions, she was terribly confused. On one instance, when the papad was supposed to be crushed on top of my head (at a fair distance above the head), she ended up crashlanding the papad directly on my head. What a scene it was....everyone was laughing, i was laughing my heart out, some maamies started no no apadi ille, etc etc....but we had so much fun that whenever we see that moment in the video, it just makes us laugh again. Meanwhile, Remya did research post wedding of the "original" style of crashlanding the papad and has showed me the dum dum dum movie's song, where Jyothika does the same thing on Madhavan. :P :P Smart indeed, isnt she....

Then as known, she being a "good girl", sang a beautiful devotional song and Kumar (her cousin) sang a nice carnatic vocal. Me being a "bad boy" sand a film song :P (oru maalai from ghajini) and the moment I praised her how she changed my life within a week or 2, everyone were chorusing around, trying to tease me :P

Reception started around 6 PM in the evening, and I had to quickly change my attire to the "formal" coat/suit arrangement. I have been waiting to flaunt my new italian manzoni coat and the suit was so well on me, I loved it. I have hardly worn that since, but it is of high quality fabric and with Remya decked up as beautiful she can be, it was such a nice pair to be right there, on the stage, enjoying the atmosphere and talking to several friends and relatives who poured into the mandapam.

Day has come to a close, and it is my pleasure to be in wedlock. Remya and myself have found a great connection that we became instant friends, sharing our thoughts and learning from each other. I would want all of you folks to wish us a very happy married life and prosperous life ahead of us :P

The next phase would be the "adventure honeymoon" I had planned in the hills of Himalayas....wait for that post :P :P

Wedding Bells Ring - Day 1.....

Its been a long time since blogging. Blame it on the fast moving career and diversions. Anyways, I am here again to let you know how I enjoyed the wedding days and the days after :P. To begin with where I left, the Mappillai Azhaippu happened in the evening of Feb 2, 2008 around 6 PM. Both Remya and me had to adorn traditional attire and we had to take part in the nischayathartham. Ofcourse this is something very similar to our engagement ceremony which happened on Nov 16, 2007. My eyes were fixed on Remya and I was sure both of us were very excited to enter into wedlock :P

Since Viji (my only sis) was pregnant and couldn't make it to my wedding, Lakshmi (my cousin) took over the incharge of "nathanaar" position. She accompanied remya in getting her ready. The flop show in my case was that I had bought all Italian attire for the wedding including Italian Manzoni Suit, Italian Purse, Italian Belt etc etc. The Suit was reserved for the Reception Event the following day, but the Belt was planned to use it on the engagement day, and I tried, lo, it needs extra hole to be punched. On one hand I was excited that my belly has gone under control and hence this requirement of a new hole, and on the other hand, was frantically searching to get this hole done. Someone brought a punching needle, and ultimately Srini was ready. We took the blessings of the Lalithambal Amman in the mandap and reengaged towards a committed life with each other. I have uploaded hundreds of pics in my wedding album (link to be posted in next blog), but here goes one pic of us getting blessings.

Enroute to Trivandrum

I have come back, atlast to put my last 6 months which have undoubtedly been the best moments of my life. I would keep the posts to help you catch up with all the happenings. From the last post, you would have known that I got engaged to Remya from Trivandrum, who works for Infosys. The wedding location has been fixed as "Lalit Mahal Kalyana Mandapam" in Trivandrum and the date was 3-Feb-2008. As I was made the incharge of arranging the train reservations, it was fun doing it for 40 odd folks who were supposed to board at different train junctions. Since, all my mom's relatives planned to board from Trichy on the stroke of midnight, there was a confusion of the date to book. Fortunately, all went well and I did book tickets for my relatives boarding at Chennai and Trichy. It was a big gang. There was a festive look all around. There were plenty of potshots and digs that were targetted on me. Even then, this brave man weathered the storm. Apologies but I like flattering myself :P

At Trichy, we received another gang and made sure they all are accomodated well. JP has to be thanked for his tireless efforts on this front. We were received at Trivandrum Central by Remya's appa and amma and some more relatives. We then had a quick changeover and proceeded towards the Kalyana Mandapam. I was greeted by a plethora of special guests and family friends and after the initial ceremonies, my eyes were looking for just one person in that entire group. And here she comes, and she looked beautiful. Her Mehndi was adding an extra beauty to her and the vekkam (shyness) has already descended upon her. We had a good lunch and all relatives got back into their allocated rooms for a quick nap.

All the traditional activities are to start at 6 PM. Just checked time, its still 4 PM. It feels if there were no 5 PM in since my wedding celebrations are to start in an hour or so Watch out for this space :)

"Committed" to be playful - A Visit to Bangalore

It's a nice feeling to be "committed". The daily talk on phone has now more kick, with lots of pampering and kisses around ;) Remya is just so perfect for me, and she has so much comfort as I perceive, and we are so happy for things going well. I decided, the gap between Nov 16 and Feb 3 seemed like ages. I decided to drop in at Bangalore as it has been quite sometime since I have visited my team members there, and also thought would make use of this trip to have a nice time with Remya talking about our life forward and lots of things.

As my mom and dad wanted to go to Mumbai around the same time, I had planned for a ticket for them to be from Nov 7 - Nov 16 while my own plan was bit more big, in the form of Nov 7 - 17. However, as my Vice President was visiting Hyderabad, and I have to represent my team, had to curtail it as Nov 7 - Nov 12, a very very difficult decision. Anyways, both of us decided to enjoy the time together. Nov 7, I landed around 10 PM, and as my guest house was in the next lane to Remya's PG house, and as she had to work late, she arrived around 11 PM, same time when I reached my guest house and freshed up. We talked for around 15 mts, feeling so happy to have met up finally. We decided to sleep early as the weekend which was going to be very very exciting!!!

I got up at 7 AM (courtesy, the call from Remya, else I sleep till 10 on saturdays :P), and was ready by 8 AM. As per plan, Remya and myself first visited the Pillayar Temple, which she has much reverence and respect. After visiting all the "gods" and thanking them for giving them a meaning to my life, we then headed straight to Forums, the place where we had met first. We decided to slip into PVR Cinemas, and decided to see the movie, "Goal" - How apt, as we have just scored in our lives, isnt it? Movie was bit ok but we had fun and excited. Came out and then moved on to MG Road, Brigade Road, clasping hand in hand, and then sat for a while in Cubbon Park. Then decided to go to Lal Bagh. I had gone once before to Lal Bagh but this one is a special visit!! There was a folk dance festival going on at Lalbagh, and we were just sitting on the slope, green grass below us, sun about to set, bluish orange sky, a perfect setting for ..... some more love talk :P Then we went back to Forums, and then decided to have dinner at Grameen, one of the famous restaurants in that area. We had given our taste buds a treat, and then headed back to our guest house, with lots of dreams.

Sunday morning, got up early with birds chirping, we eagerly waited for day break as the plan was BIG this time. To go to Wonderla, India's Biggest Amusement park around 40 Kms from Bangalore. We quickly had a breakfast and then called up the Call Taxi. We then headed to the amusement park and I was not aware of what was coming!! Having seen the big US amusement parks like Disney, Six Flags, etc., I thought this would be just a normal one. And to my "amusement", this one was even better. It had some rides, which created a chill through the spine, as it was doing a 360 degree turn. However, being a daring and dashing personality :P, both of us, like children, started climbing each of those rides with so much enthusiasm and fun, and Remya was constantly laughing at me, for shouting through my voice whenever it did a 360 turn ;) The laser fountain shows, the water rides, the dry rides and a best companion, - an amazing experience to put in 3 simple words.

We caught up with some food, and covered almost all the attractions of that place before calling up our cab driver to take us back home. We then had some dinner and reached home knowing that the next 3 days though I would be in Bangalore, we might not get more than an hour to speak as both of our work schedules was pretty tight. Having made sure we feel very comfortable with each other, I left Bangalore back to Hyderabad and eagerly waiting for the Big Day of my life, Feb 3 to arrive :P With Lots of dreams and gleams, closing this post!!!!!

Pics: Etched in memory, not for you all :P

November 16 - My Engagement With Remya

Finally, the most beautiful moment of my life, November 16 has arrived. My Engagement with Remya. As planned, we started off early in the day to the Shanti Kalyana Mandapam, where the function was organized. Being Friday, it was auspicious and also we expected all our close relatives to be there. To my surprise, whomever my dad had written postcards and invited them to his only son's engagement ceremony, all turned up and it was such a nice feeling. Remya, with her parents and all relatives too arrived on scheduled time. The ceremony had to start around 12 noon, and hence, once breakfast was over, I was just waiting for an opportunity to meet Remya. As Tamlian customs have lots of dos and dont's, I waited patiently and once the ceremony started, it was such a nice feeling.

Remya came out in a nicely clad blue saree. First, Kutta gave me the new dress to wear, and then Viji (my sister) gave Remya, a specially selected (ofcourse, it was my selection) Silk Saree (of mango yellow color). Both of us went to seperate rooms and changed our dresses and awaited instructions from elders to come to the main hall. The wait was so "much" for me, I thought I should just come out :P However, waited for my turn and came out after 30 mts. By the time, Remya too was beautifully decorated and I was like singing, "Aaankhon mein teriiiii ajab si ajab sii ada haiiii", hey Remya what did you sing yaar???? :P

So the festivities took for an hour and then a fantastic lunch, nice dinner and head back home. Both sides of the families were very happy about the outcome and also the engagement ceremony itself. Overall, November 16, a date etched in my memory for the rest of my life.

Enjoy the pics uploaded here:

Pics taken by Official Photographer:

http://picasaweb.google.com/sriswami/Engagement_Official_Photos

Pics taken by Manikandan:

http://picasaweb.google.com/sriswami/MyEngagementWithRemya

Love at First Sight

Yes. I landed on Indian Soil from US on September 30, 2007. Headed straight to home with lots of chocolates and more sweet memories of Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe, I quickly got the most awaited coffee made by my mom, and then had dinner and quietly slipped into the bed. As usual, this time too, no JET lag!!!

It's been sometime since my dad and mom have been looking for a suitable match for me, and though I was not very serious to begin with, post US, I thought, lets settle down buddy!!! Lookout for the girl who is made for you!!! and just when thinking about the thought ;) my dad showed me "Remya's" profile sent by her dad. I quickly checked her photograph in Tamil Matrimony website, and I should say, "Love at First Sight" and "fell flat" feeling. The pic attached would tell you the reason ;) She was so much homely and good looking and charming and beautiful and .....lots more!!!! I said, OK!! (shouldnt be showing my happiness straightaway right??) and we fixed up a date of October 28 and place as Bangalore, when both families would meet.

Meanwhile, I wore the "famous" 007 cap, and found out Remya's e-mail ID from the saviour, orkut, and contacted her. With a very favourable reply ;) and a phone number in hand, I made full use of the Oct 1 - Oct 27 time frame, wherein we almost spoke for an hour (to the minimum) per day and made sure we feel so much comfortable with each other that, the visit to bangalore only seemed to be made up for the parents to meet, as we felt we are already psychologically much much compliant to each other. I too felt the warmth and care from her voice that I needed in my better half, and with lots of dreams, was waiting for the day that would change my life.

October 28:

Special Special Day. We landed a day earlier at my best family friend, Maniappan's home and then played around with the kid, Varun. Got up early on October 28 and was ready with my pink shirt (ok, dont let you imaginations run, this one definitely looks much better than the one worn by tamil/telugu actors) ;) and blue trousers. Myself, mom and dad quickly got into an Auto, and the meetingplace was supposed to be "Forum" at Koramangla, which is a shopping center. We reached almost 30 mts early and so had time to take my dad and mom around the escalator (had to catch hold of my mom's hand as she was scary about this) ;) and took my dad to a CD shop who quickly purchased lots of devotional one's like Samavedam, Rudram Chamakam et all.

We then established contact on phone and knowing that Remya's mom and dad are coming, waited at the ground floor and with a gleam in my eye was awaiting my princess's arrival. And you guessed right, I was able to quickly identify Remya's mom and dad (as she had once sent me pics by email) and then there was their cousin-brother. Now, where is Remya??????? I was told she is coming in 5 mts!!! Now, just imagine my position there!! ;) Still, I knew my Remya is coming for me!! and lo, she came, she saw, she conquered! We then thought as there is not much place to sit and talk around, we decided to go to Kutta's place and then have a discussion. With the parents bringing about a decision that the kids (yeah thats us) have already decided much during the course of our 28 day phone chat, it was more of a final approval.

With just an hour into talking each other's families, already the dates for engagement (as Nov 16), the venue of Engagement (as Shanti Kalyana mandapam), the wedding date of (Feb 3) and venue of Lalith Mahal at Trivandrum was all finalized. As later remarked by Remya, it seemed like a 20-20 match with things getting set so fast and so nicely :) I should thank JP (Jayaprakash) for single handedly making sure the mandapam for engagement was all booked and ready for the Big Nov 16 day.

As far as my first meeting with Remya is concerned, she is the one who talks with her eyes ;) and I did show some of my antics like being outspoken, fearless and jovial, and was happy to see the girl's parents liked me as much as my parents liked the girl. We all had good lunch and then said bye to each other, as we had to head to back to Hyderabad that night, and Remya's parents to Trivandrum. Meanwhile, I made sure I passed on 3 ear-rings which I specially chose for Remya, secretly :) What a good feeling that was ;) ;) :) - Now read more for the Big Day!!!!

Las Vegas - The SIN City!!!!

Glimpses of Las Vegas started few miles before the actual spot. Suddenly, we found in the midst of densely decorated buildings and dazzling lights all around. At a distance, we were able to make up that Las Vegas, the SIN City is arriving. We had a pit stop during which I got time to quickly change my T-Shirt (need to be trendy, isn't it?), quickly purchased a shade (sunglasses) and went into a trendy srini, not known to myself ;)

We missed the Fountain Show by a whisker, though we did see it from a distance. Then we drove through and parked at Rio, very famous for it's dance shows (dont let your imagination fly) ;) However, even that too was over....was bit disappointing and they said next one would be at 11 AM Monday morning. We decided to move on, and on the way saw replicas of Eiffel Tower, Egypt's Pyramids, Statue of Liberty, one overtaking another in sheer beauty and dazzling lighting!!! We had a reservation at Tropicana Hotel, which is one of the good hotels around. Las Vegas in it's entirety is just a street (also called STRIP, dont ask me why it is called so? ;) ) was just tooooooooooo good!!!!! I got the first glimpse of a casino as soon as we entered the hotel room. It was like around 1000s of machines lined up with different games (777s, Dice Games, and many many slot machines). We said, first lets fresh up, throw our luggage in the room, and then just hit the road by walk. After we hit the road, it was pretty clear, everyone had different intentions ;) places of interest. Some wanted to booze while some wanted to party. So we decided to split up and just roam around as if no tomorrow exists for us.

I was sticking with Gaurav, but soon realized I was all alone!!! I was dropping in one hotel after another (as all entrances are free) and was thrilled by each hotel's offerings (i mean, the architectural offering) :P However, one thing that I noted was that, for BIG hotel's entrance to the shows (not sure what they showed as I never made it in), we had to be formally dressed and should have our passport with us. With me, not looking any more than 23 (though was 28) :P, I had more difficult time, believe me!! So I decided to just move on the road and fortunately caught Gaurav on the way. It was good to have a friend around, else not sure where Mr. Hyde would have taken me (for those of you who didnt know Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, better read the story). We decided not to get lost again, as the city had "lots of distractions" :P We then made in, even without a passport to a pub and hit the dance floor. I danced till I felt it was "great" (there were ofcourse lots of ladies interested, but me, nayyyy, you guess what I would have done :P) and finally popped out of the pub.

Then it was time for some purchases like Vegas Dices, Vegas Shirts (lotsss of them) and plenty of memontoes, Calendars, CDs (i mean calendar CDs) :P and so on. BY the time we reached our hotel room, it was 5 AM. I was not surprised that other folks were snoring!!! Thank God for giving me good stamina to enjoy the lights of Las Vegas and almost covered much of the LV Strip.

Got up in the morning, and we decided on the way back to SFO, there would be 2 pitstops. One at Rio, to see the Dance Show (which we missed last night) and another to the most attracted place in Las Vegas, The Stratosphere. First, the Rio Dance Show. Being there at 11 Am, the crowd was relatively lesser. The speciality of Rio show was that after the end of the show, the chief dancer and others throw Golden Beads to the watching public and whoever, is able to catch up, would sure be blessed with lady luck. With almost $40 dollars lost in my earlier night's gambling exercises, I was determined to make sure I have the lady luck on my side. I took a strategic point and was surprised that the chief dancer pinpointedly picked me up, made me dance few steps (repeating whatever she danced) :P and threw a wonderfully golden laced bead. WoWWWW!!! I made it, while all my other 5 friends were still looking out for them. Santosh, amongst them was luckiest, as he not only got 1 or 2 but 3 different bead chains :)

I immediately tossed another dollar coin into the slot machine, wearing this bead chain, and lo!!! you guessed it right, I made million dollar out of it (ooops, woke up out of that dream) and found my $1 bill too has been nicely gobbled up by the slot machine. That moves up the dollar count to 41. When enquired from others, they said they lost only 2 or 3 dollars!!!! I was however, satisfied that even when I had winning moments, I chose to just enjoy the day than thinking about how much money has been lost or won, and it was such a fun experiencing this!!!!

Stratosphere, the MUST visit in Las Vegas is a 115 storeyed (approx) building. You guessed it wrong (if at all you are a person who guesses what would be the next sentence) :) The lift starts at floor 1, and takes you straight to 112. There's no pit stops in between. We were told by the lift attendee that it travels 3 floors per second, and travels the entire stop in less than 35 seconds. The stop is in 112th floor. When you get out of that lift, you would see the entire Las Vegas, it's hillock boundaries and such a beautiful sight to behold, you believe me.

Now comes the fun part. At that height (112th floor), you have 3 rides. You should have bought tickets right at the ground floor, before you boarded the lift. I chose to play 2 of them as each ride was little costlier. The three rides included, taking you from 112th floor to 115th height level and showing you what gravity drop is :) Nerve racking. Second one was to have you sit on a slanted train like and taking you to the tip of the building and as if it asks, "if I drop you from here, what would happen"? Lungs in our mouth and only could be experienced!!! Last one was a horizontal merrigoround (like sitting on a horse which rotates fast in a circular fashion), except that the entire structure is in free air, means when you see down from whichever angle, you are seeing 112 floors down straight with naked eye. Just imagine, how we would have felt when sitting in those rides. It is such a thrilling experience that if you have to visit Las Vegas, dont go for just the SIN part of it, but go for the SPECIAL STRATOSPHERE effect!!!

Once made sure our entire visit was simply superb, we hit the road and targetted to reach SFO by early morning Tuesday to make ourselves available in the morning. Now, how can I forget the experience while almost we were approaching SFO. In true hollywood style, we saw a police cab vrooom by, and then there was second, and then third, oh my god!!! are we doing something wrong here? Did we miss some traffic rule? To top it, there was a police helicopter right above our vehicle, and we heaved a sigh of relief only when noticing one guy was arrested and was pulled over. The entire freeway (which does not have any traffic signal concept) was stalled for 10 mts in full. Only when we were allowed, did we realize this time, the US experience is simply SUPERB.

All my Las Vegas Photos at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/sriswami/SinCityLV

LA - Universal Studios and road to Vegas...

It was a beautiful Sunday Morning. We immediately freshed up and jumped into the seat for the Universal Studios Experience. As Gaurav's friend, had to cover up some project, he said he wouldnt be able to accompany us. We decided to pack up the luggage and move on, as the plan was to hit the road to Vegas from Universal Studios. As usual, I was the one who had to buy tickets, and got them and went in. With so many nice memories of visiting that place in 2003 with Ravi, Arun R and Arun D, still fresh, I found so amazing that except for few items, things haven't changed A BIT in these 4 years. The shows were still same, the concept was still same, I just thought how things can go unchanged even in a developed country!!!

But now, I was the MOST experienced guy of the batch, having visited this place once, I was showing off places to people. As Gaurav was expecting his sister and bro-in-law, and Sandeep his college friend, we decided to split into groups and just enjoy and with none having mobile phones, it was all out of a decision that we would meet up at a particular spot sharp by 3 PM. I along with Gaurav, revisited most of my favourite spots like the Terminator Bike, Shrek 4D and Mummy experience. Each of them was just adrenalin rushing and fantastic to say the least. As expected, we met almost at 3.30 PM as we were waiting for one or the other person. We knew we were running short of time now. We have to drive a minimum of 4-5 hours and still were confident of reaching Las Vegas right on the showtime :P

Gaurav took the car out and as the GPS "aunty" as we called her, was adamant that she would not help us go to Las Vegas. Multiple attempts to make her speak just failed. What it means is that we have no GPS and were just left in the middle of the road with no inch of how to proceed. My God, in US, life without a GPS is unimaginable. We decided we would call up the Car Rental Agency and find out if we can get a replacement of GPS. Day being Sunday, the only advise they would give (after spending considerable dollars on calls) that come to LA Airport and you could take up the new GPS (thankfully the rent for this cab included GPS fees). We reached the airport, contemplated for a while if we should change the cab and then decided to stick with this machismo as we didnt have better options there, and changed the GPS and hit the road. We definitely lost around 30-45 mts due to this, however, the experience was a "nervous and when will this solve" kind of, a new one to feel :)

Now, leaving back LA as our return trip to SFO was directly from LV, we hit the road to Las Vegas - the SIN CITY!!!!!!!

Pics of our LA trip are at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/sriswami/LA2007

Disney Land - Los Angeles

The people whom I met over week 2 had become close friends by then. Along with Santosh and Sandeep and Gaurav, whom I knew already, I got a chance to catch up with Sameer and Raja. Over a casual talk came the the announcement that week 3 would be a MEGA trip to Los Angeles. People were planning to check if they could fly to LA to avoid the harsh 8 hour drive. However, somehow things didnt go as planned and they finalized that they would drive and instead of just a 2 day (weekend holiday), they would take Monday off and cover Las Vegas as well.

I was skeptical of going on vacation on a Monday after having reached there to do a project. The others were pretty confident that they are going ahead with the plan and made necessary arrangements (like booking a vehicle, booking hotel rooms etc). At 3.15 PM on Friday, I dropped in to my Manager's cabin as we had to chat on a particular action item. During the talk, I told that in another 15 mts, a group of 5 are leaving for LA and LV trip and I do not know what to do this weekend with them gone. He asked why arent you going? I told that we have to take Monday off, and I was not very sure to go with that plan. He gave me a friendly pat, and said you should go and see these places. It's fine if you want a vacation on Monday. As we were talking, I excused myself, immediately called up my friend and asked if an open place was still there for me. With him saying yes (a strong reason could be my good photography skills exhibited as part of Lake Tahoe), I immediately jumped with joy and immediately rushed to the hotel. As obviously I was running against time, I quickly packed up my suitcase and got into the cab just on time. In the hurry, forgot to pack my passport (you would realized how important it would be)...

Gaurav got behind the wheels to begin with, and even when it was bit cramp in space, the company of friends made my backseat the best place (like you were in a BIG limousine and feel like the BOSS). Gaurav right at the beginning, took an Indian Left (instead of turning left on the other side of the road, he drove like Indian signal, and lo, we were facing upcoming traffic, and after controlling ourselves from laughing out of our seats), we managed to turn just on time. We always then made sure we inform Gaurav that take "American Left", :) and had so much fun teasing him on this. Having said that, as we knew that the weather forecast in LA was going to be bit of showers, we expected some rain on the road to LA. Gaurav drove so nicely all the way, all the night that its just cant be said with a thank you. We pulled over a rest area for sometime, before heading straight to LA. It was a drive of less than 8-9 hours, and the first pit stop in LA was to find out Gaurav's college friend whoz working there in LA. We roamed and roamed and roamed and finally figured out. It was around 2 AM.

The plan was that we would spend Saturday and Sunday till noon in LA, and then start off to Las Vegas where we would "dance our heart out on Sunday Night". As per plan, the 5 people had passes to Disney Land which means I have to find a way of funding my $90 bill (those guys got it at half the price due to corporate discount). Anyways, money is not going to stop me from enjoying fully out...and I queued up to pay up $80 (I got a $10 discount due to a torn coupon I got in a magazine) and like a small kid, went into the Disney Land. I have been to LA way back in 2003, but we only had covered Universal Studios, at that time and hence Disney is going to be a fantastic experience. DisneyLand LA, was filled with rides and entertainment quarters that as we moved from 1 place to another to another, it was so much fun. Took most of the rides there and had plenty of fun. In between, there was a slight drizzle (atleast in US, weatherman do know forecast) and we used up that time to grab a bite. I was dying for a mirchi bajji for that kind of weather, but that was too much of an ask, isnt it?

Finally, we came back to Gaurav's friend's room around 11 PM after a fantastic day. We decided to make sure to catch up all sleep as the next night is going to be just AMAZING!!!! Mr. Walt Disney, when are you coming to India????

Pictures speak thousand words. Just see our Disney Experience here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/sriswami/LA2007

Lake Tahoe - Breathtaking Week 2

Yes, bit late if you consider the last post, but just read to my other posts to find out why!!! So, this post is all about the week 2 experience in San Francisco. First, on Saturday, I met up Ashwin, my best friend in US, who was my collegue and he took me to downtown SFO. We caught up an Apple Store, enquired for iPod Touch, which I was very very eager to put my hands on, but as the sales person its coming only on Oct 29, 1 day after I am supposed to leave US shores, and after bit being disappointed, we ended up in an Indian Restaurant and overcame all that, with some fantastic dosa.

When I reached hotel, without being sure how my Sunday would be, (nayyy, I dont like sleepy sunday atleast when I am in US), I met up with couple of friends (Santosh and Sandeep) and Santosh enquired if I am interested to accompany them to Lake Tahoe. Without a doubt, I said yes, because I have heard so much about the lake. All set by 7 AM, and after a hurriedly completed breakfast, I comforted myself in the backseat of the car (now you know why I like chauffer driven cars ;) ;) ) and we said "GOOOOOO". I couldnt miss the experience of my life here. We were going on 101 South towards San Jose, and someone wanted to stop by, for reasons not disclosed ;) We knew it was a freeway with vehicles zoooooming by, and a stop was just impossible. But because we found a spot on the side of the road (which incidentally should be used in case of a breakdown), we halted there. We just felt "good" after couple of minutes, and were posing for some pics (as if we have achieved something great ;) ) and lo, siren siren siren of a police cab. He asked us, "Any Problem Sir???"? We said the reason and he responded with an most amusing look, Sir...you should not stop here! You should drive down 10 miles when you would find the rest area. (He doesnt know the damage is done already" :) We immediately acknowledged the inspector for guiding us ;) and hurried through the road. We had so much of fun over this moment, that that guy was taunted whenever seen ;)

Lake Tahoe's drive is beautiful and scenic. It's a big, i mean VERY BIG lake. It is said, it's water can cover the entire state of california by 3 feet of water. More than it's size, the lake was so crystal clear, that it is said it's base could be seen with naked eye. The plan for us was to head to the south part of the lake, go all the way around, if time permits, jump in at Reno (the junior Las Vegas) and head back. However, when Santosh said he is driving in US for the first time, and also hadnt driven much back home in India, our hearts were almost in our mouth. However, I have to compliment here that he did drive safely and fantastically (it is said US cars are really easy to drive), still a job WELL done!!

Coming back to Lake Tahoe, we just passed through the road adjoining the lake, stopping at every point we found (ourselves as children) and jumped out, and posed pics. I have taken Santosh, so many pics that he would be forever indebted for showing him as a pucca telugu hero :) We then reached some "must-see" shores of the lake, and it was a breathtaking experience. The chillness of the water, the beautiful postcard type images, was just too much for me. It was WOWW like. Also, the mountain which now was not ice-capped, was said to be full of ice when winter sets in. I was just wondering how beautiful that sight would have been and because it was already very late, considering we had plenty of picture poses, we decided to skip Reno and rather target the BIG one (Las Vegas) sometime later, and headed back to hotel.

If you see the pics uploaded here, you would believe, Lake Tahoe is one of the MOST BREATHTAKING lake ever you would see!!!!

Pics uploaded at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/sriswami/LakeTahoe

More adventures (infact BIG one's coming up).....

Second Trip to United States - Week 1

Finally, after 3 Years and 11 Months, my second trip to United States started on Aug 31. My parents, left 1 week earlier than my flight (ofcourse, on my insistence) to their native place, as I am going to be out for a month. I started off, had a touchdown at Seoul for a transit and landed in SFO on Sep 1 noon. It was another satisfying journey, wherein one more time, the jetlag effect was in no vicinity. I am scared that I would never be jetlagged in my life ;) because of my nature of sleeping well past midnight.

Being a Labor Day on Sep 3, it was a looooong weekend. I called up Manoj (my ex-manager and a good friend) and he took me to his house. His kid Tushar, has grown up now, and started speaking native American English. It was bit interesting to hear that. Coming to the point, we all went to couple of places like Half-Moon-Bay, and then the 17 mile drive etc. It was a scenic beachspot, as I had missed the beach last time around. We went to a "Hasya Kavi Sammelan" in Sunnyvale on Sunday Evening, and probably I wouldn't have laughed so much hearing one-liners and comedies performed on the stage. The $20 ticket was really worth it.

On Monday, I called up Ashwin, who was a close friend of mine, who took me to downtown San Francisco, and also showed me some upscale Shopping Malls, wherein I got to try out some funky caps and clothing. We drove to Annapoorna at El-Camino, and wow, I had Sambar Vada, Masala Dosai and all. It was sort of authentic tamil food which I was craving for, and slowly realized the fact that the next 30 days are going to be on 5 pieces of leach fruit, some watermillon pieces, and 2 doughnuts with some strawberry jam. My tongue probably died out and came back to life when I had the idly with coconut chutney that mom prepared on my return back here :)

From Tuesday onwards, it was worktime and I had to meet all those people whom I have heard voices and was able to attach faces to their voices. It was nice meeting people as always I cherish relationships.

All My First Week Pics uploaded at: http://picasaweb.google.com/sriswami/SFOWeek1HalfMoonBay.

Chak De....

It was a usual Saturday Evening, when I had some time to catch up a movie in PVR Cinemas (Movie was a timepass "Heyy Babyy", sort of can watch it once types, but the company of frenz made it a nice experience), and justling through the traffic, I managed to buy few pearls for my dearest mom (a long standing promise) and reached home around 8 PM. I was quickly sipping my favourite tea when the news flashed "Hyderabad Blasts". I was taken aback, to hear that 2 bomb blasts went back to back at Lumbini Park and another at a favourite Chat (Gokul Chat), which is in Koti. Chill ran through my spine as I had been to both these places in the past, and loved them for it's uniqueness. One provides absolute entertainment, while another gives you the mouthwatering dishes.

I was lost in the news for 2 hours, watching the gory bodies mutilated and wailing people. I know for sure, this is not the YOUTH of India wanted. These activities to disturb peace and harmony really makes me wonder, the gain achieved by these unscrupolous elements, who take away a father/mother, a son/daughter for proving nothing!!!!

I decided to get my mind see something fresh, and I saw "Chak De India". Shahrukh Khan has been one of the actors I admire, not for his presence in the screen, but because of the character he gets to represent in the screen. I have always loved the character of "Raj" in DDLJ, "Rahul" of KKHH/K3G. He is fortunate to get such nice lover/son roles, and he did justify those roles as well. I did not like much of him in his late ventures, and hence did not have much hope before the title started rolling in.

I would not write the story here, since its already couple of weeks old and proved itself in the BO. I want to write about my thoughts on how much the message impacted me. It did IMPACT me. Every moment, you feel the tri-color showing up fluttering, every move the team makes to win for the country, every frame which unites souls which are fighting, I simply got bowled over (errr a cricketing term, but couldnt find a matching hockey word dear)....

What a starking contrast from those people still find time to destroy innocent families for no fault of theirs!! The stark reality stings me frankly, but all this is in an individual's hand. If the moral education had been better, if the attitude of revenge is buried, if the politicians work for the people, not for their chair, we can build the country it once was, the symbol of tolerance. It probably is the right time to say Chak De, to oust those barbarians who consume "innocent lives" for their selfish motives.