I think that delaying my long impending post on the “mystery” weekend trip would be wrong so here it is.

Last Friday, we were told that we’d be leaving “towards” Mysore by train on Saturday afternoon. This was the first time I was going out of Bangalore by train so I was excited cos I love watching cities from a train. Plus trains are much more comfortable and enjoyable than buses.

But before all this, we all were sent a mail informing us that all of us had been divided into four teams and we all had to participate in a theme-based group dance event. So rehearsals began on Thursday. As you all probably know by now, I hate dancing but am open to choreographed dancing so I happily joined the rehearsals. Now, it sometimes bothers my colleagues (especially Lucio) and me that all of us are divided into teams every time we go out which makes everything competitive and takes the fun away but the truth is that I’ve been on three company outings so far and I’ve always had lots of fun. The reason lies in the fact that I’m extremely over competitive and had it not been for the sake of winning an event, I would have never even talked to half the people on the trip. So I kind of, secretly, like it.

So anyhow, we even had to come early on Saturday for the dance rehearsals. I had to dance on one Punjabi and one Kannada song. Ya, we were going for the clichéd ‘Unity in Diversity’ theme. The train journey was okay. We had one full coach to ourselves and Bangalore did not look too good from the train. Also, there was lots of noise pollution because of numerous people singing at the top of their voices and calling it playing Antakshari. We reached Mysore on time and were directed to exit the station though a side gate and then made to board a bus after some wait. Oh, and Mysore looked much better from the train.

The bus ride lasted for about 20 minutes and we soon found ourselves outside a water-cum-theme park. My first thought was “They brought us so far for this!” but since we were already there, I decided to let it go. The first event after we rested for 15 minutes was Treasure Hunt and since it was already dark and we were new to the place, it was difficult. Our team found five of the eight clues. After everybody was tired after running in the dark, we were told that e had to come back in 20 minutes for the dance competition. My team again did great. I forgot one step in the dance routine but since everybody used to follow me, they all did what I did and so a tragedy was averted.

After the dance competition, dinner and drinks were served and dance floor was thrown open for everyone. This meant that it was my turn to sit and watch all the drunken people make fools of themselves.

The next day in the morning, there was a tug of war in the pool. And guess what, my team won!! But before everyone woke up, Lucio and I went for a walk and I took two snaps with my phone cam. (Not having a digicam sucks!)

The first picture is of few birds sleeping on the pathway:

The second picture is of a fising scene from an embossed mural (if you know a better term, let me know) on the wall:

After that, everyone was free to try out all the slides. The most fun was to make a colleague go on a particular slide she was afraid of. Then we moved to wave pool and spent some time there. After that everyone was invited to the pool for free for all dancing and I thought that fun was over for me. But then something miraculous happened. One of the teams had hired a professional choreographer and then had brought her along on the trip so she was asked to stand out of the pool and give us some great steps and we just had to follow her. A godsend. So I danced to all the latest songs.

After all that, we ate lunch, went on the remaining rides and then we left for the station. We were booked on a passenger train this time and it stopped at almost every station. And then it stopped at a station for 45 minutes because of the supernatural house that Lucio wanted for himself. We finally reached Bangalore more than an hour late.

The aftereffects of the trip were that my body was badly aching on Monday and I am severely suntanned even now.

So what do you think of this “mystery” weekend outing. Not bad, huh?

Update: I forgot to tell you all that my team won the whole thing. We would soon be going out for a victory lunch.

A chance visit to MG Road on Friday evening turned eventful when I saw a tall girl standing near a corn stall. She looked familiar. I thought about it for few seconds and then I realized that it was Deepika Padukone, the upcoming model and actress and daughter of famous Badminton champion, Prakash Padukone. She was with another girl and on old lady. But I wasn’t sure if it really was her. I then walked till Cauvery Emporium and was waiting for my friends to catch up. But Deepika caught up before they could and she stood right next to me near the entrance of Cauvery when the old lady shouted “Deepika” and she looked back so I was sure of who it was. She looked beautiful, I must say.

Even though I’ve always been a movie enthusiast, for the past few years, the number of movies I watched reduced dramatically. But ever since I started living alone, away from family, the number of movies I watch has again gone up.

So 2005 started off well. I saw Swades on 1st Jan 2005 and it was pretty good. I saw 30-35 movies in the year gone by and the best among them were Sin City, Parineeta, Black, My Wife’s Murder, King Kong and Yahaan. The worst were Jo Bole So Nihaal, Cursed and Lucky. The biggest disappointments were Mangal Pandey – The Rising and War of the Worlds.

Lets see how this year’s movies fare.

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The house with the red dot on it is where I used to live till February last year. Since I don’t live there anymore, I think its safe to publish the pic here. What you can’t make out from the pic is that the houses are located on a hill and we had a fabulous view from the balcony. Also, the round white structure that you see is a chimney from World War II which gives this place its name, Chimney Hills.

• I used to think that I’m not a very good friend in that I never stay in touch with old friends. Whenever I move to a new place, I make new friends and forget the old ones but maybe I’ve changed with time. Whatever. These days I often wonder where my school friends might be. In the past two months, I have managed to get in touch with four old friends. I found three of them on Orkut and one found me through NamesDatabase. And it feels good to know how much has happened in their lives. I last met one of them 14 years ago (which means I was only 10 then). And the best part is that she lives close by in Chennai and might visit Bangalore soon.
• I haven’t written anything about Bangalore’s roads recently but that doesn’t mean that nothing’s happening. So first the high court appointed an expert committee that inspected the roads and reached the conclusion that the roads were of poor quality. Well, duh? Even a child can tell you that. Later, BMP (Bangalore Mahanagar Palike) decided to paint the lane marks on the roads with a high quality expensive paint that shines at night, which is good. But then they went ahead and claimed that the paint will last for 2 years. Now! If only they could explain how this could ever be possible given that the roads these are being painted on won’t last even 2 months. What a waste!
• I have finally found a good gym near my home. Its large, has all the modern equipment, it’s new so not too crowded, the rates are reasonable and it even has lockers. In short, it’s perfect. But I haven’t made up my mind yet and I can’t think of an excuse for not joining it. So help me out.
• I think a girl who has recently joined the company likes me. She has given me “the smile” and “the look” several times in the cafeteria. Now I may be wrong. Maybe she smiles and “looks” at everyone. Who knows? I didn’t really like her at first but the fact that she may like me has made me start liking her little bit. Once I was waiting for the elevator to go to the first floor and when its door opened, she was the only one inside it. I thought she’ll get off (cos I work at the topmost floor of the building) and when she didn’t, I tried to ask her the reason by a brow pop (great start!). She said “ahh…actually…” and pointed down with her hand and by this time I was in the elevator, its door had closed and it was obvious that she wanted to go down as well so she just stopped explaining. For the next 20 or so seconds, there was awkwardness and silence and then I got off on the first floor. Heh. So what should I do now? I think I’ll do what I always do. Ignore the signs till they go away.

Note: This post was supposed to be published yesterday but since my boss’s boss has finally figured out that maybe I come to the office to work, I have almost no time left for blogging.

Here are a few pictures I took this weekend.

The Bell

No, I didn’t buy this bell! It came with my room. It was hanging from the drapery rod. On Christmas, I cleaned it, took this picture and put it back up. This is also the first time most of my blog readers can see me. Sure, its just a hand but still.

The Thing hanging from the ceiling

This is the weirdest thing that came with the room. I think one is supposed to place a bulb inside it. I never did. In fact, I’ve never cleaned it. You can see the cobwebs if you look closely.

City Map

I bought a new map of Bangalore on christmas eve. I am a mapfreak. I already have 4 different maps of the city but this is the most detailed and i guess the last.

In other news, a hawker on MG Road asked me if I wanted to exchange money. I was surprised. I stuck around for a while to see if he asks others but he only asked a caucasian couple. It made me wonder if he thought I was a BOF (i.e. opposite of FOB. BOF is an intelligent term coined by me for all the indians who have just returned from a foreign country after a long stay.) I don’t look like a BOF, do I? Not that there’s anything wrong with being a BOF but I don’t want to counted as somebody I’m not.