acquired monk syndrome

Half of 2009 is about to go by and I’ve not written a post here..

This new years has been really awesome so far.. Some highlights ,

I made a resolution to watch 1000 movies this year and I have watched 600+ at the moment.. What a feat..

Had one of the most awesome-est weekend every on Feb 14th and 15th with the Air Show and Iron Maiden gig.. This experience was totalyl unforgettable.. Seeing Kryptos live with Maiden was even better..

I quit Corrode as their Guitarist, on probably the best terms ever.. I was having a bad time everywhere and couldnt put time to it.. At the same time a Certain band called Kryptos recruited me as their Audio Engineer/Guitar Tech/Drum Tech..

Rock Ethos 2 was the first gig where I pretty much did some work for Kryptos.. Working with that setup was just an awesome experience..

I now have a beautiful car to drive thanks to my parents, Its a Fiat Linea and it behaves so beautifully..

Finally work started pouring in but I was able to go to Mysore with Kryptos for a show in SJCE, The trip was unforgettable.. Here It was just Me and the console for the first time ever, I should thank Vikram for standing by and helping me out.. Iron Maiden’s movie Flight 666 was the highlight of May, with the tribute gig at Planet M the previous day of the release..

In between all this, I worked on a project called baware[http://baware.in] with Abhijit and Neeti.. A few protests and lots of noise we did get noticed to an extent we wanted to.. No reports of attacks have been heard recently.. So that went pretty well..

Thru May and June, I’ve been working hard for Stoke Networks where i completed one full year[Successfully] and the results of this are showing in the press world..

The highlight of this quarter was the Endorsement Deal for Kryptos’ drummer Ryan from Vic Firth.. This was an enormous success and this is a lot of support well deserved and needed..

Lots of stuff is planned out for this year, and I hope to update the same time to time..

Fridays usually end with Akash and Me meeting up at some place.. But this time around or rather for the last couple of weeks, we’ve not been hanging out too much.. I’m practically broke and he was in Ahmedabad for sometime.. Then came BarCamp 6 and So something or the other has kept each of us busy..

I ended up watchin IPL with Neha and Zu at Neha’s place, admiring Sangakarra’s Run Fest.. I get this call from One Mr. Kesava Reddy saying, “Hi Jayanth, I wanted to check if you are busy, If not lets make a PLAN”.. In the vocabularic world of Kesava Reddy, “PLAN” means “LONG DRIVE”.. I agreed since my only other plan was to watch cricket.. Though things were still being planned, my Friday habits kind of said I shouldnt go and I should stay back and Drink someplace.. But that didnt happen..

I called up Akash at about 10 P.M. and he was at Rendezvous with Hari.. So I fueled up and I met them there for Dinner.. Soon Kesava and Amit joined us and we were off..

I had this crazy route in my mind to go thru the outer ring road to reach the Tumkur Highway.. Kesava suggested we take the route thru Yeshwanthpur but i said NO.. Well, what do you know, it turned out to be a disaster.. There was a traffic jam of about 4 Km.. So we went around driving inside Matthikere finding our way out.. Finally, we hit the roads and it was going well.. Just about a few km away from Nelamangala Junction, I had a flat.. Not just the tubes, the tyres burst as well.. Having a few experiences in the last two weeks, i changed the Tyre and put in the spare quite quickly.. The Spare was running short of air and eventually got punctured.. So after driving up a little at extremely dangerous speeds(LOW SPEED), We reached the truckers check point and found “Kairali Tyre Works”.. The chap was really sweet and fixed the tyres for us..

Between thoughts of returning or carrying on to our destination, we started off again.. We headed straight towards Tumkur and Reached the Toll Gate.. Kesava got a bit Drowsy and went to the back seat and Akash was my new Navigator.. Listening to music of the likes of U2, DMB, Pink Floyd, Shakti, Simon and Garfunkel, etc we reached Cafe Coffee Day..

Amit decides that he needs sleep more than anything and stays back in the car.. Kesava, Akash and Me go in for a Cuppo.. The conversations start with some Technical stuff as usual and ultimately turned towards “Akash and Women”.. Which was really really an interesting conversation.. We statyed there for quite some time and just decided to start back home..

The journey back was kind of eventless, except of moments where some moronic bus drivers would come really really close to my car and would inkove an Expressing on Akash’s face as if his Heart was in his mouth! We kept singing all through the journey, while Kesava and Amit had spurts of Drowsyness..

We reached the city at about 6.00 and the weather was really really nice.. After the usual Bye Bye at Akash’s place , i headed back home and got some sleep.. I had taken it upon myself not to sleep so that i can drive all the way..

Read Amit’s Version here

Yeah.. Get Jealous…

I’m heading out to Nandi tomorrow with Amogh Hope to get some decent shots there..
I’ve not had the time to write about the previous trip.. Will do that once i get back tomorrow..

I’ll be heading out to Muthodi with Amogh and gang this weekend.. This will be my first trip to the Bhadra Sanctuary.. Hoping to get some good shots this time around!

An Impish Expression of a Rock Agama, captured at Maarigundi during Elephant Census..

A typical sea-side scenario.. Fishermen out in the sea in the scorching sun trying to take home some food.. Yet all this seems very graceful..

I took this snap of Sannath while he was posing for it!

Basically this is his reflection in the water..

Just finished Graduation Day(Though Exams aint over).. Two days later, i was to leave for Elephant Census..

Our man

anushsh

had enroled us with the Madikeri Aranya Bhavan and we(Aakash, Anush, Sannath and Me) were to report there that day(Sunday)..
We started off by getting on to the wrong bus to Mysore.. Then we almost left Sannath behind while taking a bus from Mysore to Madikeri..
I guess we were cursed!

For a few more moments we were fine.. We reached madikeri and got posted at Maarigundi(WHAT?? DIDNT ANUSH PROMISE TO TAKE US TO BANDIPUR???)
Annnnyways.. We thought since this part is quite untouched, there is a good potential for wildlife around here and didnt fuss about it..
Had an annoying experience driving upto Maarigundi with the driver not knowing where to go..

Went up to the camp and met Mr. Ponappa(Sweet chap).. Trekked with him and had some really interesting conversations about life with him.. He’s gonna retire in a couple of years but the mad can trek nonstop with absoutely no fatigue..

The place we went is a reptile paradise.. Saw quite a few lizards(Garden, Draco, One Unknown) and ofcourse My little Viper

We didnt spot any elephants as they had moved on to another place nearby, but we heard on near the camp.. I didnt..

On the third day we were three Trekkers turned Tourists in Mysore.. We went to the Palace Museum and the Palace.. Was good fun..
Moved to Coffee Day and photographed a Thai baby - Shawn (Very very cute one).. And we were waiting for Sannath to get off work and come with us..

After some amount of more confusion(LOL), We ended up at Ranganthittu in an Auto driven by Suresh.. Went for a boat ride.. I’ll put the highlights of that in points(Need Practice for exams)

1. We saw a croc
2. i saw a night heron properly
3. i saw a dead egret
4. We saw Swallow nests with babies
5. We saw a Kingfisher which dives into the water for fish(I forgot its exact name)
6. I saw a purple heron
7. I saw another Night Heron
8. We saw another croc

Well quite satisfied with this we returned, packed and left to the bus stop to find out that there were very few GOOD buses to back home..
After much cribing we got onto an AC COACH(With Broken AC of course)

Well as of now my engineering days can be counted… Four years of total nonsense.. Cant really say it was useful, not even close.. I just wonder what i could have done with all that time, Music or Travel or something.. But those days are gone now.. Che..

Saw this bugger at Ranganthittu.. Was a pretty sight..

Thanks Yathin: For Identification..