A trip to Athirapally and Valsan's home

Last weekend, just after our sessionals, eight of us left for Valsan's home. We reached his home in the evening. Only after reaching there we knew that he had a big German Shepherd at home. As Philip and I like love dogs, we started playing with it. But i guess the dog wasnt too fond of us. :( It bit my hand within a couple of minutes. Luckily i was wearing a full sleeve shirt, with the sleeve folded 4 times; and its teeth fell right on the fold. Though the teeth didnt even touch my skin, it had left good imprints on my hand. We went to a doc there, who said that there was nothing to worry. :D
Early morning next day, Valsan, Bharath, Raja, Jp and I went to Guruvayoor temple. There we had to stand for around one and a half hours before the queue started to move. And once it started to move, you didnt have to do anything; others in the queue would keep pushing you all the way! There was a good rush there. When we came back, Philip, Veepi and Abhilash were still sleeping. We hadnt slept for even three hours, so wasted no time in kicking them out of their beds.
We then quickly had our breakfast and set off for Athirapally and vazhchal water falls in the Innova that we had hired for the day. The water falls were beautiful. At Vazhchal we were able to sight many monkeys and few beautiful birds. There were lot of tourists there too. After spending around 3 hours there, we were all starving! We went to a good hotel from there. By the time we finished, it was 8. From the restaurant we went to a beach near TP's house. And after spending some time there we came back to Valsan's home. We were all out of gas by the time we reached home. All of us went to bed after a shower .The next day we were at home till lunch watching the cricket match and then we came back to hostel.

Big Phil sacked!

Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari has been sacked today! The decision was taken following the draw against Hull city at home this saturday. Some Chelsea fans had also jeered at Scolari saying he didnt know what he was doing.
The former Brazilian coach, Scolari had a great start this season; with Chelsea winning many matches and staying on top of the table for few weeks. But since the team lost against Liverpool at home in the Premier League, Chelsea didnt win many matches. Following the draw against Hull city, Chelsea has slipped to the fourth position below Aston Villa.
Russian coach Guus Hiddink and former manager Avram Grant are believed be the early front runners for the position. Some fans had also held banners calling for Chelsea legends Gianfranco Zola (currently in West Ham) and Roberto Di Matteo to return to Stamford Bridge.
The assistant manager Ray Wilkins will be taking charge of the team in the meantime.
Hope whoever replaces him, will be able to do a good job for the club.

Update: Guus Hiddink has been appointed as the Chelsea boss today (11th feb)!

Links:
Chelsea Official Site- Scolari sacked
Yahoo sports- Hiddink appointed

Flower exhibition- M'lore

Im at home for the weekend, as monday is Republic day and on tuesday I have just one hour class. Today, as always at home, was another lazy day; I woke up quite late and had my breakfast at noon. Reading the newspaper i learnt that there was a flower exhibition in Kadri park here. Nothing to do at home, I drove to the venue at five in the evening. There was a small crowd in Kadri park who had come to witness the huge variety of flowers. The main attraction was the "Pushpa doni" (flower boat) that was erected in the middle of the park. It maily consisted of roses and anthoriums. It had 6000 hibrid roses , of 3 colours: white, red n pink(see pic).
There were few other interesting things to watch there including bonsais (there were grown banyan trees, in pots!), sculptures made using fruits and vegetables. It was totally worth the time.

Happy 2k9!

Hey guys! A very happy new year to all! I guess its a little late to wish you new year; as by now, you must have already started breaking your new year resolutions. ;) I only tried it once. Had a long list of things i wanted do throughout the year; but couldn't take care of them even for a few weeks. For this year there's just one resolution: to enjoy the whole year spending max time with friends and family. Have already gone out with friends twice in the first fortnight this year, and another trip to Wayanad has been planned for the coming weekend too. A class trip to Lakshadweep is also on the cards.
The last sem at college has just begun and i must say i am JOBLESS! With just 12 hours of class in a week, i keep looking for new ways to kill time; searching for new games, new movies, books etc.
Hope you too have a great year ahead. happy bloggin. have fun!
PS: Here are some of my favs from the past fortnight.
Best book: Tristan Betrayal- Robert Ludlum.
Best movie: Slumdog Millionaire.
Best game: World of GOO! :)

Engineering students == Nerds??

Last week I was on my way home. Most of the branches( actually all except Comp Sci) had planned trips for the weekend. As we didn't have any trip, I decided to head home. And this time I was alone, and so I carried a book to read during the journey.
After a few stops and half a bottle of pepsi, three guys, in their 30s, came and sat opposite me. I gave them a smile and continued reading the book. For most of the time, they were discussing something about their work and also about politics, from what I overheard.
About 2 hours passed. And then I heard one of them ask "Are you an engineering student?" I lifted my head to find all three of them looking at me. I told them that I was. He then looked at his friends and gave them a didnt-i-tell-you smile. I wondered how he understood. I wasn't wearing any t-shirt with the college' name on it. So I asked him. He told me that it was because I was studying for such a long time!! I couldnt help laughing. I showed them the cover page. The guy sitting to his right read, "A Thousand Splendid Suns.... Oh! Its a novel!"
LOL.
They too smiled (the friends of the guy who asked me smiled more than him this time) and then we continued with what we were doing earlier.
But what made him think that engineering students studied all the time! This is the first time I am hearing such a comment about engineering students! One visit to our hostel during the exam time would surely change all his misconceptions. It would have made more sense if he had asked if I was a medical student. Or maybe not. Nerds are there in every college. And there are lazy guys too. You can find people of every type in all the colleges; irrespective of the stream. The college or branch has nothing to do with how much time one spends on studies!
And yes, the book is really good. Khaled Hosseini writes about challenges and attrocities faced by Afghani women especially in the late 20th century; written beautifully and in simple english. The author was able to keep me reading until the train stopped at Mangalore station.
PS: Again... Engineers are not nerds!
Any engineering student out there, who would like to comment on this? ;)