Nirenjan’s Space

We left at about 12 from the hotel (Hotel B.B. Palace) to go sightseeing. My class girls and some of the guys said that they still had some shopping to complete, so they didn’t turn up for the trip.

First, we went to the Birla Mandir. I don’t know much of it’s history, but it is beautiful anyway. ATM tells me that it has been renovated recently. Then, after that, we left for the Bahai temple. That was totally amazing. The prayer hall is so peaceful and the structure is just breathtaking. After that, we saw the India Gate (again for me!) and then left for the station. We’re now in the train bound for Chennai

I spent the entire day with Bijju & Priyaa Manni at their place. After a wonderful lunch, we went in the evening to see Humayun’s Tomb, India Gate and Rashtrapathi Bhavan and even took some photos. After that, we picked up Bijju at his office and left for the Metropolitan Mall in Gurgaon to see Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. Priyaa Manni had a nice time bullying Amma when she called.

There is a small Vaishno Devi temple on the way from Manali to Kullu. It is carved into the mountainside and one has to crawl through a small tunnel to get to the main shrine. There’s also a shrine dedicated to Shiva above the main shrine. It is a beautiful temple and is a must visit if one happens to go that side.

We’ve just returned from the Hadimba Devi Temple. It was a beautiful wooden pagoda structure situated inside a pine forest. We saw the entire temple and were awed by it.

Last night, we had the campfire in Hotel River West. With a nice collection of Tamil tappaankoothu songs, everybody is jumping around like a monkey on a hot brick. It started at about 11 and went on till about 3 in the morning. I guess I was too tired from the trek and quit at about 1.30.

We have just left Snow Point, and are now on our way back to Manali.

We left Manali at about 1 in the afternoon and travelled for about an hour by bus to the Snow Point. On the way, we stopped at a rental store to rent fur coats and boots. Near the destination, the bus was unable to proceed further because of a large number of vehicles parked. So we stopped a little way away from the parking area and proceeded on foot, after purchasing sticks for support and guidance.

We started initially on the road, that is, ATM & myself. We walked about three stretches on the road, before we saw that some of the gang had cut across the mountain and reduced their walking distance. So we thought we’d proceed in the same way, across the mountain. We climbed for almost an hour with no sign of the road and reached the top. On looking down, we saw a steep descent into a deep valley of snow, then an ascent from the valley to the road on the other side. We were too exhausted with the climb and settled down on the top of the mountain itself.

The climb down wasn’t so bad as the climb up, as we avoided all the snow filled areas which we fell through earlier, but it was still difficult. Finally we reached the road and jumped down a short distance to get our feet back on solid ground. Sushmitha and Nithya chickened out totally when they came to the jump and it took a solid ten minutes to get them back on to the road.

The entire experience was totally amazing. I have to try and come back again sometime.

We arrived at our hotel in Manali at about 7.30, having spent the last 24 hours in the bus journey. We had taken a local bus to the main town from our hotel and had dinner there. Pretty good Punjabi food for just Rs. 45. After that, we walked back to our hotel which took about 45 minutes. I guess that superb dinner would have been digested by now.

We went in the morning to the Agra Fort. From outside, it looks like a military installation, but once you are inside, you are totally awed by the beauty of the structure. It was practically a complete city inside the fort. It even had a palace, durbar and a harem, all made of white marble. If my history is correct, Shah Jahan was imprisoned inside this very fort for the last 8-9 years of his life and was forced to look at the Taj Mahal through a very small hole in the wall. We could see the Taj from the south of the fort. It was an impressive structure, even so far off.

In the afternoon, we went to the Taj. Though it looks superb in photos, the feeling one gets when you are up close in reality is something which cannot be described using mere words. The brightness of the Taj in the afternoon sun was intense and we could hardly keep our eyes open. We even had a group shot of ourselves taken in front of the Taj. I’ll try to scan it and post it as soon as possible.

We finally reached Agra at about 2.30 in the morning, but were delayed at the station over some matter, probably the concession tickets, but that’s been resolved. We spent the two hours till dawn in a hotel dorm room sleeping, because all of us were extremely tired. Then we went to another hotel nearby for freshening up.

Vasanth decided to act like a comedian today. We were at a local dhaba for breakfast and had ordered parathas. The chap was taking quite a while to bring the food. Vasanth got a bit impatient and told the waiter, “Dheere Se” (slowly) instead of “Jaldi Se” (quickly). We were all laughing at this for quite a while.

The GT express, notorious for being late, is right now only 30 minutes behind schedule. Unbelievably, this afternoon, it was 2 and a half hours late.

We’ve finally left Chennai Central at last for what was probably the most postponed tour in the history of the ECE department. The biggest comedy was that the three girls who came for the tour finalised their plans only at 12.30 today!

Well, right now I’m in the college campus celebrating Valentine’s day like any other, by playing Minesweeper. . Anyway, Futuresoft has come to the campus and my guess is that the placement test is going on right now. I can’t find any of my class guys anywhere at the moment. It’s like they’ve all disappeared from the face of the earth. Shiva and his gang must be roaming the campus as usual. I just don’t know where Venky and the other guys are. Even half the girls in class didn’t turn up.

Now, the tour has been postponed. We are going on the 21st and returning on the 1st. I’ve just finished typing the requisition letter for the concession forms. Shiva has to come and sign it and hand it in the office.

Today, we had the bus day. The juniors organized it beautifully, and gave all us final years wonderful plaques. I’m really gonna miss the college life.

The only upsetting point so far today was that I found out that I wasn’t eligible for a prize for doing well academically. I got 92 in control systems. Unfortunately, I’m only tied in 3rd place with Varshini. Durgabala got 98 while Kamal got 93. Just 1 mark.

On the other track, Susmita has just informed me that she has got accepted in Sunny Buffalo. Way to go, Sus! Good luck there!

Today, I went to Hindustan College of Engineering to attend their annual symposium e-Luminate. Somehow, I wasn’t really impressed with the overall style of events. The software program that we were using cut us off halfway and we had to restart from the beginning. Hardware debugging wasn’t so bad, or so I thought. Unfortunately, I didn’t qualify in either. Oh well…

My net is finally back, we having reached a settlement with Hathway. Srikanth of the marketing department settled the amount till last month, and now from this month onwards, I officially own the modem and hence less 400 rupees from my monthly bill.

Anyway, right now I’m blogging from the net lab in college, sitting in a 16 degrees environment, practically hugging myself to stop freezing, waiting for the gang so that we can go to the hostel and watch a few movies…