Know Yourself Better

This is a loong pending post... Amrit had tagged me in... So here I go.. Letting myself off..
I tagging a few of my buddies as well.. Deepthi, Zack, Dad, UL, Nikki.. Guys.. Plz try it out.. Its interesting... :)

My Responses >>>

1. Were you named after anyone?
Guess my previous post would explain that … Wink...!

2. When was the last time you cried?
Excuse me.. Guyz don’t cry… Bet this is passé…. Apparently it was last evening itself. I was watching Taare Zameen Par.. The last scene, where Ishaan gets the award, I didn’t even feel like struggling to hold back the tears. It was a direct hit at the heart !! And I bet, even the most stoic person would shed a tear or two… :)

3. Do you like your handwriting?
Love it.. Except when I am completely bored.. It gets really ugly…

4. What is your favorite lunch meat?
Prawns.

5. Do you have kids?
Nope..

6. If you were another person, would you be friends with you?
If I were another person, I would have definitely been ‘Good Friends’ with me as I am a very buddy buddy kinda guy…

7. Do you use sarcasm?
Yes I do. Use it a loot to tease friends.. No harm intended though !! But its fun...

8. Do you still have your tonsils?
Yes! No idea why this questions figures in here....

9. Would you bungee jump?
Oh yes, Very baaadly! I never got a chance to try it out have been wanting to do it …

10. What is your favorite cereal?
Rice…I guess… …

11. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off?
Always…. I Neva take em off without untying them.. The only reason behind it being the fact that it would be equally difficult to put them back on the next time with the laces still tied!!

12. If you were to pick your own first name, what would it be?
It would definitely be Ashwin , again…

13. What is your favorite ice-cream?
Chocolate. All time hit in my case....

14. What is the first thing you notice about people?
What kind of shoe, and what brand of Watch is he/she wearing.. Believe me it gives a loot of info on the Personality of an individual. The next thing, of course is the way the individual speaks…

15. Red or Pink?
RED.. I hate anything to do with PINK… it’s a personal thing..

16. Whom do you miss the most?
Ma nephew…. Aryan…

17. Do you want everyone to complete the list?
Yes.. I would definitely expect the people I forward the List to complete it…

18. What color clothes are you wearing?
Faded Blue Jean + White Short sleeve Tee .. :)

19. What are you listening to right now?
Illusions and Dreams – Poets of the Fall

20. If you were a crayon what color would you be?
Black…

21. Favorite smells?
Hugo Boss – SOUL and also.. Fuel - Petrol, Fresh Paint, and Fresh Coffee on a rainy day… Whacky choices huh…

22. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone?
Silly question !!!! Anyways it wouldn’t be of any use here…

23. How do you know the person who sent this to you?
Well, he is my Colleague, my buddy the guy who inspired me to restart this blog which I had almost let it go !!! Thanx a lot mate…

24. Favorite sports to watch?
F1 and Moto GP... The only sports which deserve my precious time before the TV... :)

25. Hair Color?
Black

26. Eye Color?
Brown

27. Do you wear contacts?
No…neither glasses

28. Favorite Foods?
Mexican Red Wave Pizza – with extra cheese and a chilled Coke

29. Scary movies or happy endings?
Depends on the mood!

30. Last movie you watched?
The Day the Earth Stood Still

31. What book are you reading right now?
The White Tiger – Want to find out why d hell it won the booker prize.. :)

32. Summer or Winter?
WINTER alwaays !!

33. Hugs or Kisses?
Both are needed but if I have to chose one, I would prefer a “I am there for you, always” Hug over a Kiss… Waiting with my arms wide open.. ;)

35. Describe your pencil cup?
My company’s coffee mug got became my Pen- stand recently… A White cup with a huge Logo of my company all across the mug !!!

36. Favorite Artists?
Darren Hayes, Nickelback, Poets of the fall, Eagles, Linkin Park, Akon …

37. What kind of music are you into?
Rock, trance, and Hip-hop

38. What is on your mouse pad?
I use the touchpad..

39. What did you watch on TV last night?
The making of Departed, Followed by the Lonely Planet on Travel and Living ………..

40. Favorite Sound(s)?
A Yamaha R1 roaring its engines in the First gear, A Mclaren Mercedes F1 car zipping towards the finish line.. Aah !! Heavenly Bliss !!!

41. Do you sing or play an instrument?
I only sing when I am in the Mood.. I used to play the Keyboard.. My mom still abuses me for giving the hobby away half way through !!!

42. What is the farthest you’ve been from home?
I had a chance to visit Taiwan and Hong Kong in the recent past.. Till date the farthest point from my hometown in Trivandrum, Kerala

43. Do you have a special talent?
I have no idea if it’s a special talent or not, but I have this amazing ability in me to go and spend my time and money on things which I actually never wanted !!! Trust me.. I never learned from my mistakes… hehe…

44. Where were you born?
In a small and sleepy city >> Trivandrum, the Capital of Gods own Country…

45. Favorite piece of jewelery?
A simple , Thin Platinum chain

46. How did you meet your spouse/significant other?
Sob sob.. Yet to find the perfect match….

47. Favorite Song?
That’s definitely not a fair question to ask !!!

48. Favorite Musical Movie?
Sound of Music

Phew.. Finally.. Man It was a loong one.. But Worth it.. I tell you.. Some of these questions did really get me thinking...

Cheers...

"What Do You Mean?? "

Before you start wondering what this post is all about, let me clarify, I am making an attempt to find out what does my name mean.. All these years, I beleived that my name had to do something with "Ashwamedham", (A Horse..) Like every one else I too have used my name with pride many times.. Corrected people when they spell it wrong (Man I hate when ppl do that...), but I myself never bothered to dig deeper beyond the "Ashwamedham" concept i had in mind.. What a shame.. I dont exaclty know what my name means.... :(

It all happened recently, when I had to travel to Taiwan for a Business Visit. There I happened to meet our client Mr. Ashin Nuhi... During our introductory session, he so beautifully expalined the meaning behind his "COMPLICATED" name, which means bright sunshine in Taiwanese.. (Read-- Chinese).. During our casual chat he somehow , in his broken English, managed to ask me.. So Mr Ashwin, WHAT DO YOU MEAN?? I was jus startled... Then i realised he wanted to know What my name means... Now this I had never thought... Never in my dreams did I think I will be explaining the meaning to Ashwamedham to a Chinese guy..To make matters worse, I myself was not aware as to explain it in greater detail. Thats when it struck to me that i should come up with a more GENERIC meaning of my name, coz i have never bothered to probe beyond what I already knew..

A bit of googling on my name turned out to be really intersting... It threw up a loot of results... I suggest all of you guys who would want to kill some time should definitely do this activity...
he he... Especially in Office.... what say??
Well this is what the worldwide web thought about me.. (or rather, my name)

Ashwin ,also known as Aswayuja, is the seventh month of the Hindu calendar and the sixth month of the Bengali calendars, and also sixth month in the India's national civil calendar, where it is the second month in Shôrot, (Sharad in Hindi) or Autumn

Ashwin also means light in the Hindi language, and Ashvini is the first star that appears in the evening sky, in Hindu constellation it is the head of Aries, or the first of the 27 Nakshatras.

Ashwin also stands for the Divine twins, the "Ashwins" , considered to be the Hindu Gods of vision, in Hindu mythology.

I was surprised by the kind of relations or meanings that my name had.. The next immediate thing I was trying out is to suit the perfect meaning to my name, which matches my personality.. he he.... So i decided to stick with " Ashvini is the first star that appears in the evening sky, in Hindu constellation it is the head of Aries, or the first of the 27 Nakshatras." So now I mean a Star, nad not jus a Horse... A good discovery..

So the next time some chinese guy asks me WHAT DO YOU MEAN? I can proudly Say that I am a Star.... ha ha..

Oh.. Suddenly I have run out of thoughts.... So hmmm.. I guess thats all 4 now.... This is Ashvini the Star.. signing off !!! ;)

Night Trek @ Skandagiri

Hey Ashwin, I want the analysis reports ready by saturday.. have u run through the application, we need to finish our sanity test and raise alarms with regards unresolved issues. Please ensure tht its done b4 u leave !!!!

" Bloodyhell... u hav to give all the stuff on friday evening itself is it..Ohcrap... Gotta wrk on saturday too..."??"What will I tell Manja... Man I dont wannna miss this trip.. God plzz plzz plzz do something......

"Hey Ravi, The application has crashed. The tech support is not available over the weekend.. We have no option but to push the deadline to Tuesday !!!! (Tht was the engineering team Head,and Ravi is my reporting Boss... )

Oh is it !! thts baad.... I had actually cancelled my plans for the weekend Ravi..... (can u beleive this is whatcame outta my mouth, wen i was actually dying to reach B'lore at any cost......) The next thing i remember is rushing to close my shop for the day... and scooting home to catch the first Volvo to B'lore...

Wat happened earlier in the day .....

Hello.. Hey Manjunath.. (Manja...) Kya hall hai yaar?? Ashwin.. sun... we are off to Skandagiri on Saturday for NightTrekking.... I dont wanna hear anything else, jus that u are joining...

Night Trekking.. Cool yaar.. kaun kaun aa raha hai?? watz the plan??

Our regular gang dude.. Mohit, U, me, Anuj, Abhay, etc etc.. We wil be driving down to the Hills by around 11.30 in the nite from B'lore.... Reach there by around 2 Am.. Start the trek, reach the spot aby around 4.30.. catch the sunrise, and head back to the base. This way we can start off and reach B'lore by sunday mrng 10 am latest...

Wow Manja.. awesome plan.. I am game.. Count me in.. I am booking my tckts to B'lore tonite itslef... c u tomorrow mrng dude... catch u there..chal dude.. c u there..

If u dont make it... Man.. u ll nt c the light ofanother day.. gt it??ha haha.... sure dude... i ll b there.. trust me..

Guess God Did answer my prayers........

And finally I was off... On my way to b'lore.... In the bus i was damn excited.. First of all I was excited abt the fact tht we guys were off on our bikes to Skandagiri.. and from wat I cameto know the roads were jus tooo good !!(We had to take the B'lore international airport highway, which covered a major part of the distance.). The next thing was that we were planning to trek the Hills late in the night.. The eerie feeling itself was a major push factor 4 me.. :)

As planned, all of us gathered at the RMZ Infinity Food court at 11 PM..Had a quick bite at Mac D's and We were off.... By around 12 AM ....All of us had come a loooong way from our initial biking days, esp Manja.. He had graduated from a puny lil 150 CC unicorn to an Ultra macho 500 CC Bullet Machismo... And there was nothing to excite me further.. It was fun riding the two wheelers in a gang.. I had already coined a name for ourselves.. The Night Riders.. he he.. Alryt alryt..this blog is not again going to be on How fast the bikes went, how exciting it was and so on.. Lemme stick on to the night trek itself.. hehe... Bikes anf fast lanes always force me to sway away from the topic... its always a huge effort 4 me to stick to the topic.. Not this time...

Vrrrrooooooooooom.. and we reached Skandagiri.... Easiest way to cutshort the details.. hah !!

It was almost 1.45 Am in the morning wen we reached the base camp. I was surprised to see a lot of bikers and Adventure sport enthusiasts gather up at tht place... and here I wast hinking we were the only ones hu were freaky enough to come out for Night trekking...Silly me..... We were all geared up withTorches, Backpacks, Snacks, Water and all the other stuff needed for our trek..

Guys.. lets follow a common path. We shall not hire a guide?? wat say??This was a unanimous decision though there were minor disagreements .. but finally all of us were game for it... The thought of venturing into the unknown without knowing where the rocky paths would lead us, was in itself exciting. We knew tht even if we get lost in the way, all we had to do was, some how or the other reach the top... :)And we were Off... A half lit muddy trasck lead towards the hills.. Wef ollowed the track..Gradually the street lamps went missing... the small huts and a few vehicles around also vanished, and now it was just us !!!

The Silhouette of the hill we were about to scale under the moonlight was an amazing view... Its majestic hieght and the trecherous path made me doubt my capabilities to scale it !!! But i dint dare say it out coz I didnt wanna be the laughing stock among my friends..... But it was later tht i realised tht everyone felt the same way.. Each one of us at some point in time doubted our own individual ability to scale thehills..

Jus around 20 min into the darkness, the inevitable happned.. We were lost!!! There was no way Up or forward. We looked around and we could see a few torch lights flashing a looong way up, bang opposite to us.. We were on our way to a forest rather than climbing the hill... But somehow we managed ourselves to get back on track..

It was a wonderful Nostalgic feeling for the three of Us.. Mohit, Manja andMe !!! The three of us were immediately taken bak to our college days where we had challeged the Beautiful Chamundi Hills to conquer the Watch Tower.. :)It was like reliving the experience all over again for the three of us,only for the slight difference that we had trekked chamundi with at the mercy of a bright and shiny sun, and here we were trekking in the dead of the night to be the first ones to capture the initial rays of the Sun !! But then as we proceeded the tuff and slippery paths made us realise it is much more than wat we had scaled a few years back...I feelt as if the Skandagiri Hills dint want us to reach the summit and was talking to me in my mind,.. try this rock u freak.. i bet u cant .. U are goingto give up.. This is Skandagiri.. it aint gonna be a cake walk ...remember that.. :) i was lik... alryt... itspersonal now !!!! and put in all my vigour and energy, only to find myself flat on the bushes jus 10 min later..ha ha.

After a continuos climb of almost 45 min, we decided to take a break..Or lemme me put it this way.. We were FORCED to take a break. Big huuge boulders became comfortable double cot beds for us.. All the dudes were flat on theirbacks.. The toughest part is to restart the trekk after the smal break....No body was ready to start off again..Personally it took a loot of effort for me to motivate myself to resume uphill... The way uphill goteven more tougher, with the forests becoming a lot more denser and tracksmore and more slippery....

All of us were walking in a line, with each one of us closely following the one in front of us as the visibility was very poorwith only 4 torches guiding the way for a pack of 10... The best part was no one wanted to be the last one to walk. Guess the hollywood movies are to blame here, where they show the last guyalways being the first one to vanish or to fall into trouble. It was fun to watch the guys racing against each other so tht they are not the last ones inthe pack" :)

And finally .. a gruelling 150 minutes, several " man i cant do it anymore" - Breaks, and multiple Fotography stops later, we finally managed to reach the top!! It was an overwhelming feeling.. We had finally done it.. The first thing I did was, take off my back pack, spot a perfect place to lay at rest my over exhausted body. I was lucky enuf to find out a wonderful place.. It was almost at the edge of the cliff, with chill winds carassing all over. There was a beautiful start studded night sky waiting to be appreciated by us.. It was a fantastic experience... I was in a bedroom higher than the lesser mortals, with Natures' air conditioner bringing the temperatures way down, forcing me to forget it was the last week of March,plus a fantasctic view right above me..I couldnt have asked for more... Oh well except for a Blanket or atleast a Jacket. (It was getting unbearabily cold and all I had was a Roundneck Tee and a Nike tracks to fight the chill winds... )

I was in for a pleasant surprise whrn I saw an Old man, must be in his late sixties, in a blanket inside a small makeshift tent, ready to offer us Tea, Bread omlette and guess what, Maggi!!!! I was shocked when I realised that our Dude 65 (A name i coined for our old man), trekks up the hill every friday, saturday and sunday nights jus to offer these refreshments to people like us !!! Things people do for aliving... Though I enjoyed evey bit of theBread Omlette and the tea, there was a part in me which felt sorry for the Old man !!!......

Ashwin .. Get Up man !!!! The sun is about to rise.. dont u wanna see it.... get up.. get up.. Abe uth be !!!!!

God. Where am I... How come I feel so cold in Chennai... 2 min later. I was back to my senses..Oh yeah.. I am at the top of Skandagiri... I ran with all the excitement to the spot from where we could see the perfect sunrise. The wait was eternal.... And finally we couldspot the Golden Globe slowly rising up.. It was beeeaautiful.. Giri and Anuj had set the mood right by Playing --"Sunrise from the Horizons" on their mobiles. After the sight I thought..Man this was worth the effort !!!

That was it.. Our lil adventure trip ended here... We jus took a break for some time, and decided to head our wayback home...This trip had given me wonderful memories that I will defenitely treasure forthe rest of my life...

I know it has been a really loong post.. hope you are still awake by the time you have reached here.... :)

Me signing Off !!!

This is Me...

U guyz must be wondering, what the hell is wrong with this guy. On one post I talk about Global Warming, the need to protect the earth and so on , and immediately the next one is about the most extravagent sport which burns money like anything....

But what to do, I am helpless.. I am a confused soul !! :) But i love it this way.. This is the way it is...

F1 2009 !! The Game Begins...Again...

The Formula 1 2009 season has begun with a bang on the 28th of March. Every year I anxiously wait for March for the F1 season to begin. As Usual, it had to be the Australian GP (Melbourne)which kick started the 2009 season. At times, I always wonder, Y does Australia always get the chance to kick off the season... But whatever, the excitement levels were at an All time high with the change in rules, the exit of Honda, Hamilton being the Champion, Richard Branson entering into the sport and so on....

Speed, fast cars, glamour and of course babes :), are things which used to excite me right from the time GOD decided to put some senses into me.....F1 was all I needed.. It had it all.What ever I needed culminated at one point in F1... I want to express my gratitude to Mr. Bernie Ecclestone for bringing to life the most exciting sports ever.

Have you ever dreamt, what it would feel like to sit at the Cockpit of an F1 car where more than a 1000 horses are revving at the rear of the car, dying to go wild at the slightest tap of ur feet. Can you imagine the Adrenaline rush at the time when the engine propels both you and your car from a standstill to a 100 MPH in just under 3 secs.This is something which i always wanted to feel, but know for sure, I may never be able to experience it. But hey,no one can stop me from dreaming or even better, sit behind the wheel of my Dad's car and think there is a supercharged engine under the hood !!!

But believe me, the view from the driver's cockpit is absolutely exhilarating. Being at the start Grid along with 19 other cars, all of em waiting to tear the tarmac apart, the moment the Light turns green! Every time and in every race, this manages to give me goosebumps, imagine what the driver would be going through! The head rush would be awesome. It always ends up as a battle filed at the first race corner,as this is what decides who is gonna lead the pack.

For those hu do not enjoy or follow F1, this sport may be just about a few identical looking cars running around in circles. My mum always used to curse me for filing up the living room with loud roaring of engines, and a never ending commentary, add to this sudden spikes of excitement in my voice,which was shrill enough to make the next door neighbour's dog runaway.. :) I have tried over a hundred times to make her understand the sport, but alas..all my attempts failed miserably... For her it still remains a colossal waste of money, coz its just cars which run around in circles.
But for those who love the Sport, there is nothing exciting than a RACE weekend !! as the practice, Qualifiers and the RACE happens on a Friday / Saturday and a Sunday.. What more can I ask for.
My fascination with F1 began when I was in class 10th. I never knew anything particular about the sport, apart from the fact that there was a Micheal Schumacher and there is a blazing Red Ferrari. I too was never able to understand the sport much, but since I was fascinated by the sport, it just used to keep me glued to the TV screen. Here I also have to admit, I also used to feel nice in flaunting the fact that I follow F1 (which for me sounded very classy), rather than be the " I am craaazy abt Cricket" kinda guy. :)

As my interest grew in this sport I started understanding the Nuances behind it. I had begun to realise that its not just a matter of high speed. There is a loot of strategy that goes behind each team. What Tyres to use during Qualifying round, Number of times to head for the Pit Stop, Volume of fuel to be filled into the tanks, the gear shifting ratios, the aerodynamix of the car etc etc.. the list goes on. I began to enjoy the game a loot better after I could understand the nuances much better. And believe me its fun top predict which car will head into the pit lane, How many seconds of fuel will go into the Mclaren, which team is planning to change the tyres and so on.. The involvement of race strategy used to make me feel that this sport is unique..It involved looads of thinking and strategising rather than jus lapping the circuit.

There are different types of Motor Sports, like the World Rally championship, The A1 GP, Motocross etc, but nothing has excited me as much as F1. Probably its the panache and the style plus the involvement of Automobile majors like Ferrari, McLarens, Mercedes, BMW etc made me a die hard fan of F1.

My ultimate dream now is to watch an F1 race live in Monaco, coz thts the second track in the world where the race actually takes place on the streets. No separate tracks are built for it..... will be an experience of a life time.

How much i hope, tht instead of me sitting and writing this blog about F1, Wat if i were a Louis Hamilton, or a Micheal Schumacher, or a Fernando Alonso, and there was some other chap working in a software company wastes his time and writes a blog about me... he he.. But alas.. reality bites !!! :) I know for sure, I might have completely bored all you people hu are least interested in the sport, but hey this is one thing tht i really love.. So expect more on this, later !!

Till then, Drive wild, Drive crazy (4 the females), Drive safe on the roads !!! Let the God of speed lead the way !!! Cheers...