Lonely.. Not any more..

I was little surprise to find that I am just enjoying being alone.. I tried forcing myself calling friend groups and meet them but in vein.. Is something abnormal about it.. I guess not..sometimes..u wanna be alone.. thinking about yourself.. spending time with yourself.. After all we all lead a busy life surrounded by spouse, family friends, colleagues. I am enjoying this break and i call it being selfish..

Stress Buster

After going thru lots of stress management articles, I feel, I have come up with my own stress busting theory. That is, if things are not going your way then instead of shouting and creating chaos just go silent. Advantages are:

1) You will be able to conserve the energy. Hence, compensating the energy consumed by the stress.
2) You may be able to prevent further stress caused by the wrong words which normally comes out of one’s mouth when he/she is irritated.
3) It will give you time to think. You may be able to focus on way to come out of present situation.
4) You will feel good to find that people who initially used to complaint about your high pitch voice have suddenly started missing it

So Sshhhh…….

Game of Poker

Yesterday nite, I read a small story which I found quite interesting; so, thought of sharing it with you. I have just tried narrating it in my own words.

It was a just another regular day. Judge Judy boarded into first class compartment. He often needed to travel to a small village for judging small cases. Its’ long four hour boring journey which he decided to pass by going thru tomorrow’s case’s papers. He wished no one board into same compartment for disturbing him. But the moment wish passed from his mind there entered a sad looking man name Cannor followed by a priest. Judge Judy was in no mood to start conversation, he decided to go thru his papers whereas sad looking man took out old and pretty worn out cards to play solitaire. He was no good in cards. He had nine of heart in his hand when he could easily place on ten of spade. But he decided to unfold second card which came out to be king of spade. Judge Judy had enough! How can one play so bad game, he had to help him with his cards. With this started conversation and once started, three people, long journey, playing cards, thus perfect situation for game of poker. Judge Judy, with a proud feeling of sharp mind, poker experience had won 30$. Sad looking man, not so lucky in cards, had already lost 10$ and priest had won 10$ for charity. Last few minutes, last game, priest ‘son of god’, with those orphan kids’ luck, managed to win. It was then Judge Judy realized that he had lost almost 50$ in poker game but any way that was for charity.
Next day
Normally small courts get simpler cases only. Judge Judy was finding no difficulty until after noon when this case came. A local shop keeper had filed a case of cheating and fraud. Shop keeper was traveling thru the train when he met the ‘accused’ and a farmer. As conversation started, they began playing poker. Shop keeper being good in poker was winning in beginning but lately all of sudden he started losing. It was then his suspicion grew and he called railway police. Accused was none other then sad looking man Cannor ! Cannor wished to defend his own case. First witness was railway police whom shop keeper had contacted. Second one was detective who told how he was sure that cheating was done. He told that all big cards like kings, queens were modified i.e. they were not straight and had little cut at corner. He also told about other small symbols. To this Cannor defended saying that he was innocent and he got those cards from one of the pub. Someone had left those cards there. Then, he took the permission to cross examine the shop keeper. 'Who was the one to start the conversation?' he asked shop keeper. To which shop keeper replied that Cannor was playing solitaire, he was so bad that he had to interrupt. Then Cannor asked who suggested playing poker; to which shop keeper agreed that since it was long journey he did. Cannor next asked who suggested play for money; shop keeper said that he was not sure but may be he did. Then, cheat do not loose money!! do they? this was the final stroke Cannor played by asking 'If he won any thing?'. Shop keeper admitted that Cannor himself lost 8$; it was farmer who won all the money. Case was clear, Cannor was not guilty. Court was adjourned. Judge and shop keeper came out. They saw a black BMW standing outside the court. At wheel was Cannor! Sitting beside was a man wearing black dress.
'Why other person was dressed like that', asked shop keeper. 'Because he is a priest' said Judy. 'He never is' said shop keeper angrily 'he is a farmer!!'.

Link to Rajahmundry snaps

For more :
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/gpritika

Trip to Rajahmundry

From last two years my colleagues were planning for trip to Rajahmundry , Papi Kondalu and Maredumilli.. Difficult names I know. At that time little did we know about the splendor of the place. The only reason why we heard of it is due to a controversy. There is this 100+ feet height dam proposed to be built in the papikondalu range that will engulf most of the villages due to raising levels of water. An estimated 30 odd villages will be endangered due to this however it is being constructed to bring millions of acres of land into cultivation. It can also be the case that by 2010 or so, most of the places that we are going to visit in this trip, are a history! So this was the last chance to enjoy the natural beauty.

We started early on Friday 1st Feb’08. We boarded Godavari express around 5:30 PM, it was supposed to reach destination around 2:00 AM. Train reached station at time and we got accommodation in one of the decent hotel. Next day we had to start at 6:00 AM. Well that was quite opposite to my idea of vacation as my plan means getting up late in the morning. Somehow for change, I enjoyed the sun rise.

Our first stop was Pattiseema. That was the first glimpse of Godavari river… Oh it was beautiful! So vast, so clean and early morning sun was so refreshing..

Our next stop was Polavaram, where we started our fascinating journey in a small motor boat in the river. The journey was expected to take about 8 hours along the downward stream. One of the challenges in the journey was the negotiation with the drifting sand, that makes the path of the boat extremely dynamic. Check the snaps of our team standing in the front of boat to prevent it from getting stuck.


Clean river water with the reflection of lush green hills, gentle breeze flowing across the river, definitely brings your inner photographer out. No wonder we got more than 1000 snaps for our two days trip. Papikondalu range is especially popular due to their co-existence with the river. Except during summer, the river is full of life with people. However, several tribal communities fill the hills with life from ages in search for their livelihood by agriculture, fishing and handicrafts.


One of the interesting things that can happen in the journey is a possibility to camp on the river side in tents. Pity that didn’t happened though. There were only three stops in whole 8 hour journey.

We reached back to shore around 7:00 PM, Attaching beautiful sun set snaps.

Next day, we started for Maredumilli, 75 km from Rajahmundry, is also known as Andhra Ooty. The place is full of scenic beauty. We almost sighed at each and every turn. It was the road with green forest on both sides. We made our first stop at road side canal which with its clean running water was looking quite invited, Next thing we know was we had our shoes off , jeans raised and we jumped into the water. To add to adventure, we started moving toward its origin. Stones were slippery and at some places water was little deep. We could not reach to the origin but still I enjoyed such kind of tracking after so long.

We excited by our first stop again started toward our next destination that was WWF camps. There were around 10-12 camps in mid of the forest. It was next to beautiful river and there were arrangements for camp fire, food and night stay. That all too was quite cheap. We could see some gang of boys enjoying there. Man I was jealous!!


All this tracking and adventure made us hungry and to our pleasure, rather I should say ‘sone pe suhaga’, we were served Bamboo chicken in Bamboo farm. The chicken is cooked in very interesting way. Small marinated chicken are inserted into hollow bamboo, which is then covered and thrown in fire. No extra oil is added to it. So its very healthy chicken with bamboo taste and smell. That is something I never had before.


Finally after all that fun, it was time to take train back home. When I said yes for this trip, I had no expectation. People had warned me against the food problem, accommodation problem and other things. Infact, I had fully packed my bags with noodles and chips. But at end I can say food was delicious, accommodation was decent and natural beauty was mind blowing. How strange we normally tend to go to all commercialized hill stations looking for luxuries, where we get everything except nature touch. I am glad that I made to this trip. This was my second best trip after Kerala.

Experimenting again :)

Learning Car Driving......

As you must have guessed from title..yep, i am trying to learn how to drive a car without bumping it to others... ;) I have taken some 15 days course.. and yesterday for first time i drove my own car.. not alone..with my hubby sitting on my side.. When i used to drove that instructor's car, i used to think that i was doing good.. but yesterday's drive shook all my myths.. It is quite different to drive with a instructor who has full control in his hand..n giving u step by step instruction then when u r driving ur own car .. Till now whenever i used to make mistake my instructor himself used to correct it, even without my knowledge.. He used to guide me gear changes.. but when i was left to my own descretion, i found it little difficult to coordinate b/w gears and speed.. Yesterday after having filmy jump on speed breaker, i realized my mistake.. i thought gear is used to maintain the speed.. but just today morning i came to know its vice versa.. we dont change gears to change the speed but as we have changed the speed, for supporting it, we need to change the gear.. my instructor just told me that on speed breaker change it to second gear... but what was missing was.. if one is at 4th gear and good speed..first apply breaks.. n since it is a hard break, press clutch along( to prevent stoping of engine) .. then since ur speed came down to somewhere 20, u need to change the gear to 2nd..... I know these things come with practise only.. Anyways..till now it has been fun.. m trying to find funda behind each of my instructor's guidelines.. Trying to remember them..

Guys wish me luck.. i just wish that by next month i can drive at my own... both front side n reverse side :D