TN 01

Few weeks back I tried the facebook app quiz "Are you fit to live in Chennai?" I fared moderately in it (Result: You will do better in coming days!). But only now I realise that reality is more traumatic.

We boarded the train to Chennai on a cool Tuesday evening. The train reached our destination at the unearthly hours of 4:10 AM. A sudden warmth in the air when it's supposed to be the coldest time of the day. Still keeping that aside we had a small nap after reaching home. A friend of mine texted me, "Welcome to singaara chennai" I didn't know it had to be read as "Welcome to sudaana chennai"

Couple during the wedding reception

After breakfast, I started alone to T-Nagar to meet a friend for a quick lunch. Boarded the local bus and I was warned it was going to be a one hour ride into the city. I got the window seat happily and started reading name boards to know which area I'm currently in. It was 12 noon and the heat wave started blowing .Sigh! After getting down in a wrong stop, I ran to a near by shop to get a cold water bottle and quench the thirst. (tip: Never travel across Chennai without a water bottle)


The Wedding. It was a beautiful wedding I should say! They took good care of the guests. A perfect setting for a wedding in Chennai summer. The food was excellent -a full 5/5 for the food. They were co-operative enough to pack the food for some of them who wanted to start early. Full recommendation for this caterer. Then later that night we decided to take a walk to Residency towers for podi dosa and coffee at 2 AM. As usual I understood less on the complex ceremonies in the wedding podium. I was along with Arun for the photo shoot and got some nice clicks. Then had to skip lunch for unforeseen reasons ;) to land at the movie "Pasanga".

Couple during the wedding (Photo credit: Arun)

A visit to Chennai is not fulfilled without a trip to its beaches and tasting the junk food there. So yeah next stop was Marina beach (Still they have not decided to sell it, Madhu). Nice breeze and few clicks here and there! Back to 21 degree Celsius at my friend's home.

It started getting hotter and hotter. We entered the third day of our vacation. The heat had not even reduced a bit. Next destination was Poonamallee for my senior's wedding. Christ it was so hot that I could not find a time when I stopped sweating. A friend of mine who was a resident from Ooty (Thuud!) woke up at 3 AM and decided to take a walk, unable to sleep. I got up at 5 AM and joined him. :)


Interestingly I took the last photo in the wedding hall. It was a idol placed in flowing water. A fat, dark gentleman came to me and started speaking in fast Tamil. I did not follow for few minutes until he asked if I have permission to take photos here. He introduced himself as special police security officer in charge for the wedding. He asked, "What if you keep a bomb and go?Show me your ID card, I'm showing mine right". So I did. I told him that I was a guest of the bridegroom, but he did not listen. Then he asked me to take some photos, telling that it should come in the press the next day. He posed with a Mickey Mouse mascot who was standing in the entrance. Only then I found he was under the influence of alcohol.

This was one interesting part of the trip. Two photographers left with nothing to do, can turn up such interesting stuff. Will write more about in the next post. Also below was an frantic effort to shoot a group of squirrel. Photographing squirrels was quite a challenge. I stripped them in a single collage.


After getting burnt, roasted for 4days and getting sun burns, I was very much unsure of how I'm carry myself again on the 5th day. Also I had plans to visit some of my friends, but then everyone are placed in corners of the city. So I had to skip them all and cut short my vacation by a day and boarded a volvo and reached Bangalore. (Reports said: It has rained heavily in Bangalore for the last 4 days :( ) Back in Bangalore a stranger asked us, "Are you guys back from chennai? Is it raining there, did you bring the umbrella back?". I looked at my friend and burst out laughing.

In simple I'm yet not ready for Chennai Summer!

Unplugged (Karwar Goa Trip)

How does it feel to not think about whats next on the pipeline in the project, How does it feel to not check email, How does it feel to get totally unplugged, that you don even have a backup power. Yes! It was an awesome vacation after a long time. We six of us plugged out from the routine for a most needed vacation. I don know if I would meet the other travelogue :P But I will try to do justice.


How we started:
It all started in 6th floor pantry at Bagmane laurel building. We were sipping our coffee sitting in those long legged chair. I don remember how the converstation started, or it happened to all of us that we needed a vacation (its magic after that thought). Soon, we ran to the desk and looked for free dates for all seven. Being in the picnic committee I made sure that those dates did not clash with our department picnic. Karwar & Goa were the shortlisted route. Soon after the dates where decided, the same evening we blocked tickets for the journey (I learned how important its to remember one's PAN card number). Now the tickets are booked we were all set to go.


How did a US cyclone delay our trip:
But the plans din work out of for few reasons. One of the flight was a delayed from Provo, Utah to Bangalore, India due to a cyclone that crossed. Since it got delayed a transition plan few of them had got extended and we postponed the trips for a week. We had to shift all tickets and resorts for a week. Indian Railways were sure winners with those cancelled tickets. :) After a week and few mails floating we got all things packed and ready. But, I was not ready. With a stiff neck and mild fever, pulling out at the end was even lingering in my mind even till the last minute. But the Friday afternoon rest at home gave me some strength atleast to carry my luggage.


Hubli, Boat ride and Karwar:
Soon we boarded the train and after a few games of Uno we decided to hit bed soon after some early sleepers in the boogie. Shit! only now I remembered that I din bring any pull overs. :) Good. It was a shivering morning with chill air flowing in all directions, I had to pull extra pants and tee's from my bag and made me look fat (lucky others, they had a sound sleep). We reached Hubli and spotted "Welcome Vijesh". Soon after breakfast we hit the road to Karwar town. It was a long 2+ hour journey by car from Hubli to Karwar. We had only time to sleep after the giant story from our grandma. Soon after reaching the Great Outdoors resort and got the papers ready we had some refreshing coconut. Then its a boat ride from the Kali river bridge to the island.


Warm and magical Karwar:
Great Outdoors is a very small resort situated in the island of a tortoise shape. Soon after we reached we refreshed and sat down for the first meal in karwar. The food was awesome. Seafood at its best. We got to taste Chicken, Fish and oysters. It was so delicious. If you had missed it due to a holy month of Hindus (I better advice plan another trip to karwar soon). Then we hit to the small shore at the other end of island for some games. It was good from the resort that they had a send a personal care taker with us to the water. Evening onion pakkoda and tea was great. Soon followed by memory game and barbecue. (dance, fun, fire, cat, dog...) Dolphins, Silence, Swing, Tent, Sunset, water ride and little tortoise that we meet were great. Finally some silent poetry.

How does it feel to get married and have kids:
On a sunny Sunday afternoon after a great meal and a small sleep. I got married, all others who were with me got married and had children too. Kids include Nishanth, Chintu, Pintu, etc. I graduated as a physio and invented a large quantity of radio active material and climbed the mount Everest. After some heavy gambling I ended up second richest. But as John Nash said, this game is flawed, I wanted to re-write the rules. But catching a lion at such young age is heroics from Rokumar. We never stopped laughing after, "Aree, everyone is getting a degree and I'm busy catching the Lion."

Palolem De Ja Vu:
This was my second trip to Palolem after January with my friends. This time too the expectations were meet than expected in the retreating Goan beaches. A 45 mins drive from Karwar got us to Palolem through the interstate border check post. But soon Mr. Charlie (an asshole Manager from Chatai resort) promised to help us. Finally its us who ended up walking up and down the streets for accommodations. (Sorry: If you are reading this, I should have planned better!) We then got hold of Flavia home stay for a night and played Truth or Dare (s/Dare/Truth). Next day soon we shifted to Palolem Beach resort and had a wonderful time playing cards, dumb-C (god! she is a movie name directory) and the gorgeous beach. It was fun and old fellows in the group were the ones who played like they wanted to vent out all the stress. Also I learned how does it make to shop with women. :) Better start liking it, or you be in hot soup.

Photo Shoot & Next Gen Kids:
Oh! Yeah where are the photos, I'm lazy to upload all and share all. :) But I have some interesting shots if you are following my flickr. Soon we bid farewell to Goa and drove to Margo. Those girls proved they are better than filling bugs, fixing them and writing blogs. They sang some of the beautiful number with sweet voice. Then we boarded the train back to Bangalore. Uno again with some tough opponents aged 8 years, 6 years and 4 years. Then some paper magic from one of the talented house wife. :) She made wonderful paper folding for us like Parrot, basket, strawberry and a camera. Oct 2nd, 30 passed 7 we landed in Bangalore.

TNSTC - feedback

Straight to the point. This is about the feedback to the TNSTC its travel and passengers.

TNSTC - This was my first trip in this service. The initial look of the ticket was catchy in bright colors and too many details provided none of them were necessary or useful. Next boarding the bus was pain, where will this bus come and where should the passengers wait. No sign boards in the bus stand nor there was an announcement of the arrival time. This talks about the poor infrastructure in the Coimbatore bus terminals. Two bus terminals within 1km, crap where to wait. There was a old man in the bus stand re-directing and answering queries about the timings. But he does not have an uniform nor look easy to be approached. 9 PM scheduled departure bus came on time and waited until 9:45 few annoying passengers to get in. The timing that was printed in their ticket was 10PM. Mistake on them to print it that way and mistake on bus driver and conductor to wait until someone comes so late. There were passengers in my bus who were to get a train the next day morning at 8 AM. The bus should come 5 minutes before departure time and wait at the max 10 min and leave. The bus has limited leg space for creatures like me, 0 cms vertical movement and 10 cms horizontal movement.

Passengers - Two people I always fear during bug travel is pregnant mothers and newly born baby. In one instance I was traveling in a KPN Volvo. These buses have a terrific ability to accelerate and come back to zero within time. So its not advised to stand when the bus is on move, since there is not safety bar at the top or side to hold (just the slippery seats). There was this pregnant lady got in between in Salem, there was some delay in allotting seat. It was so scary to watch her fighting for her balance.

Another couple with their newly born kid were in the bus. They have placed a pillow between both their seats and made their baby sleep there. Jesus! how mad are they? Please next time such people don make bus travel. Plan early and take a train journey. If you don book tickets early, try to take day train and reach make a safe journey.

Next was this interesting dead lock problem (ah, finally some OS concepts after meeting my prof over the weekend in college). There was a girl travelling from cbe to bng. In between an elderly man got in for the single vacant seat near that girl. The conductor boarded him under the impression that some one would change for the ladies seat and settle for seat. Now the girl started shouting that she cannot allow a male to sit near her. (He was in her fathers age, I din understand what her problem was...) Then the old man was told that he will be given a seat in the bus and got in and now he cant get down for a seat and he's not ready to get down in between also. Other passengers are not ready to shift seats saying they have paid to travel in their alloted seat and they cannot shot (WTF). As the argument elongated passed midnight, some passengers started to show disinterest over the switched on tube light. :) Finally I said I will take the berth in the box (so called cabin) and had a nice sleep. It was like upgrading to sleeper from semi-sleeper. Also was fun talking to the driver and the new conductor to this route. Also took some quick driving lessons before my actual class starts.

A Night at the Train Station

Damm! Fixing bugs until 7:30 is pain when you want to catch your train at 10:00. Finally got a lift from Santy to reach home on time and sent the last mail for the day. I had only minutes to start of for the travel. So I just threw all the things that are to be packed that I *remembered* and stuffed them into a bag. (Now, I realize that I had drew a blank more than what I remembered. :)). Then the phone rings and my friend at the other end saying he was not able to make it to the travel due to his work (everybody seems to take the same road when it comes to work...). So I need to travel alone then :(. Ah I still haven't got back my MP3 player from my friend which I though I can use to fill my loneliness in travel. Or a book!? But then fore casted that it would be less time to read a few pages in my speed before I go to sleep.

I don want to talk about those unmerciful autowala who take every opportunity to make a hole in your wallet. By the time I reached station, I was happy to see the Global warming getting some attention. There was a live CO2 and N2O reading meter at the entrance. I even tripped on a lady's suitcase on watching it. Directly went to the large screen to scan for the train number 1013. Finally there it was Kurla express at 22:05 in Pt #3. Had a little snack and took my seat in a passengers waiting bench. Kanyakumari express set out on time. After a brief dinner was waiting for my train and there came "Chennai mail" on the platform. Err! that was a surprise.

Then came a voice in the announcement speaker "Passengers, your kind attention please! Train Number 1013, Kurla Express, From Kurla, via Bangalore to Coimbatore is expected to arrive at 23 hours 55 minutes". Yes my heart skipped a beat and I concentrated to listen in other languages too, they all meant the same. The train was two hours late. What can I do until then? With the last bit of battery that remained in my mobile I call my home and friends to say that I will be late. Well I decided to take a walk in the station until then. The walk was beguiling.

I saw a diversified on the station. The first group I saw was a gang of three who were sitting inside a immobile train talking about their old days. On hearing the news they started thinking of how to spend the time until then. Finally they decided to go to the nearest bar :). A maintenance worker of the station came and started to switch off the lights in that train and started to close the doors. I needed to get down and start walking again. Few of them were on the phone making their own chit-chat. Some were having their earphone plugged and some even put the music on the loud speaker. Many decided to catch some Z's until the train comes, they caught hold of news papers, carton boxes and bedspread, put them on the floor. A girl with tear filled eyes talking to a nun. Two full walks over across the entire stretch of the platform.

When my bottom of my foot started to ache. I decided to take some rest right below the steel staircase where some workers lockers are kept. As my clock clicked two drunkard came to that place, I sat ignoring them. One was not able to stand soon lied down on one of the metal case to opposite to me. Then other decided to smoke by moving away from light to hide himself. Few minutes passed and both the men took off since some policemen was passing that place. Then again I saw alone with some company in the ground. Rats! :) Yes they were of all sizes and running all over in search of food. In my observation they use both their sight and smell to live those conditions. Now and then they come out and sniff the air for any food and their eyes in constant watch out of any danger. With the slightest movement they sped into the dark.

Then came a old women who with a stick who was unable to walk. I noticed her some time back in the walk who was asking for some penny to people. She was very weak and her look mean so lost. Soon she started the conversation with me asking is the train late? (in kannada) I nodded my head in positive sense. Then she asked when is it coming? I never knew the translation of 12. But managed to tell the same in Tamil and she interpreted that it was 00:00 and responded back the same in kannada. She then asked did you have you dinner(utta)? I said yes. She took out a half pack of Goodday biscuit that someone donated and asked me to have one. I was full with my cup noodles and politely denied it. With the sound/smell of the biscuit packet in her hand the rats below got excited and started to run across more frequently. Taking all the risk to come as much near her feet to sniff for some food. Then one of drunken men returned to the place, the old women asked him too if he had taken his dinner. The guy replied negative. Then she took out a small bag that had some food and gave it to him. Since he was using his seventh sense din know what to do with that pack and let there and went. Out of that half pack she donated a half piece to the rats and a full piece of biscuit to the dog that came across. I realised that not every one who demand money are bad. She was one kind good women. Then she said bye telling that she cannot sleep here since those drunkards would come back.

Finally time was fast approaching Midnight. Again the same voice that came out, "Passengers, your kind attention please! Train Number 1013, Kurla Express, From Kurla, via Bangalore to Coimbatore is expected to arrive at 01 hours 30 minutes". Ahh, its frustrating than ever. Finally when the train arrived at 01:30 I din find my coach S10. So I walked till one end of the train until unreserved and returned back to the other end to find "10" written in 3:1 ratio giving a look of S1. Finally boarded the coach and slept. No TTR came to disturb my sleep, after all they are also humans.

Reached Erode at around 8 in the morning. Went to the lodge to refresh myself before going to the wedding hall. Frustration again to find no water :/ Then finally reached the wedding hall to find everyone taking rest after a nice breakfast. Meet the wedding couple, wished them and clicked few. It was like "In pursuit of Happiness..." that small moment to see - I call it Happiness. Took rest for few minutes, started towards home and reached home at 4pm.

If you have reached this point reading all the above, by now you could have realised that it was as painful as like reading this post. Also if you were on the station on that night reading this post, revert back I will buy you a coffee ;)

Update: When I saw the second image, I only remembered my tester bugzilla attachments who uses rounded red rectangles to point out that the data in the report is wrong. :)

My Best Friends Wedding

I titled this post as "Wedding Planner". But immediate question on looking at that was are you getting married? :) A quick No is always there! So I rephrased this as 'Best Friends Wedding' Since thats what I'm indeed doing. Coming month of June is filled with good muhurtha (an auspicious day to begin things). There are four weddings that I need to attend and I'm the bride's side on all the four weddings. Divya, Revathi, Smitha, Nagu are those. One quick reason of why there are so many weddings are there is an off season when weddings do not happen so, after a long off season now the time has come for them. The days when weddings are planned and appropriate wedding halls are chosen. Now its the other way round.

I need to plan for these weddings! Like...

• Make the bug count to zero on my name in Bugzilla.
  
• File and get my leave approved from my Manager. :(
  
• Book tickets for the journey! (preferably train)
• Canon S3 IS with enough memory and extra set of battery.
  
• Data cable and storages devices if its a long trip.
• Wash and press my clothes.
• Write them all in a paper and make sure I don't miss any of the above.
  

Lately DPS also has been writing many posts on wedding photography! But I guess I should make my own rules to shoot in Indian conditions. Yes they are the other side of the coin. I would say its a tough assignment on track. Also along with the wedding travel will be meeting and traveling to places that I really wanted too.

Advance wishes to all the couples!

Plan your travel

It has now become a routine for me to crib about the annoying things that happen around me. The latest inclusion is the private travels that run across the city. I'm bad at planning or would simply say work occupies my mind most of the time. So tend to miss appointments, dinner notes, mails, msgs, calls and end up getting left & right from all. Thats ok (I dont explain myself.... My friends understand me and the rest wont believe it anyways... - courtesy Karthi).

In my usual style, for traveling for Thursday afternoon I landed in Madiwala at 9pm on Tuesday night. Fortunately I got a ticket, was happy to take that and quickly walk away. Then for the return I asked my Dad to try out something in Coimbatore. Some days back he called me and said he booked one! I was happy again. Then part of the conversation, he said I only got seat number 38. Damm me! Seat No.38. Are you kidding! I never knew that Airbus had so many seats. So I asked him to call and confirm the booking center again. There the ticket booking girl, "Yes sir the bus has that seat number. Infact it comes in the middle so no worry. This is a special bus, it has 52 seats." F$(k! you call that as special bus, a 3+2 seater. On a normal travel itself I fold myself two times, before parking my leg (or the girl in the front seat would turn back giving a killing stare! conveying don shake my seat and disturb me!). Most annoying part of all is that it would take costlier than regular buses. Its was Rs.420 for an Rs.210 ticket. I would still think, if they really have permit for this bus.

Before canceling this special 52 seater. I want to book my seat in some other travels. Many of them turned down the offer with repeated dialog of, "Sunday full sir". Then finally KAVI travels said he had ticket for Bangalore on Sunday afternoon. It was a non-ac sleeper. Funny part is it costs Rs.500. I asked him why, he says like a cool cat, "Its a special bus and we cost every Sunday like this." WTF Even the night sleeper would not cost like this.

The actual thinks that happen within are, the booking agents book the online ticket when the open and show the status in FULL status. Then at the last moment, they hike the ticket at high rates and sell them to all such late comers. I have even spoke to some agents like this, they would say at the moment the ticket opens there would be many agents from other locations trying to book the tickets. So they just type the Name / Sex and rest fill with 1 character by pressing tab and booking the ticket. One other interesting thing would the cancellation charge would be 20%-30% for any time cancellation. When you cancel 4-5 tickets you could have planned another travel with the cancellation money. You can even see a booking guy from KPN get tickets for CONTI & ABT. No government or police would ask them until its been taken to lime light.

Another specific travels to talk about is ABT. ABT would have really entered passenger transport to compete with KPN, Since the ABT parcel service got into a toss when KPN parcel service started growing and sliced good portion of the profit. When they introduced the ticket rates where Rs.360, which was nominal for a non-volvo A/C bus. But they brand it as A/C coaches, really there is a lot of difference in traveling in Volvo A/C and normal A/C bus. As days progressed and he got some good customer base because anyone would accept an A/C travel at a lower cost. But he then hiked his prices to Volvo rates soon (Rs. 415), which is never worth when compared to Volvo experience. But people really take time to differentiate them.

Thought KPN has introduced ID card proof for the online ticket bookings. This would reduce by a small number but still there are hundreds of travels that continue to operate this way. Also its encouraging that SETC get into these routes with good buses, they need to increases the buses many folds to give passenger a good relief from private monopolization.

Conclusion: Finally I planned to cancel the ticket in Kavi too and go to Bangalore on Monday. No harm I can spare a working day.

Moral: Plan your travel days ahead. Dust your calender. Atleast a month ahead, else cancel your traveling appointment. :) Put appointments in your Google calender of when all you need to book tickets for long time.

Good Night.

Goa

It was a fantastic trip to Goa. I loved the entire trip and pen'd down a few moments.

25th Jan:

Myself, San, Vij, Ragu & Dams arrived at KR Puram station by 7 15pm. For me it was a unique experience sitting at the dark station after some directions from Sangeetha. Even the station attendent was reacting strange with sign language.

We boarded the train to Madgoan by 7:45. Sethu & Gops were travelling in the same train from Chennai. The train did not have a pantry. Both Sethu & Gopal who were waiting for thier chicken biryani & Suk Sagar Veg fried rice was missing. We got settled down in our train and finished our dinner in the train. After some confusions to change the seating without any help (Our Navigator getting furious) and we slept of for the night without much hassle.

26th Jan:

We reached Hubli Jn and finished of our breakfast and we were heading towards Madgoan and we were all busy playing UNO cards which kept our time ticking. After few snaps in the tunnel en route to Madgoan and pics of Dhoop Sagar falls was refreshing train journey.

We reached Madgoan Jn by 1 pm and boarded a 7 seater auto towards baga beach (this was after lots of confusion between Sri and san). The loaded auto took us to a resort like hotel “Sea View” few meters away from Baga beach and just beside Tito’s Club.

We check in to the hotel by 3:30pm meanwhile navigator was on my kinectic that he hired for Rs.150 to pick up DK from Panaji who had arrived from Hyd in train.

They both reached the hotel by 4:30 and refreshed and made our late lunch by 5. We were then back to beach to have a refreshing bath.

Baga beach was a more commercial place for tourists with all the pubs, beach shacks etc..

By 7 we returned back to hotel after some bath and we were planning to hit one of resorts there but without any luck. We checked out in T-*-s’s :-) but it was a worst experience for all stags including us waiting outside the resort for almost 2 hrs without any luck.

So we then decided to hit some beach shacks on the baga beach to spent our nite time there. It was indeed some amazing time at the beach shack with nice breakfast and some music to keep us going for the nite. Also Sri making all the fun with his "Arabian Sea" game and Kung Fu gestures to imitate Dk. :-)

The Arabian Sea at the nite was more than amazing.

27th Jan:

Woke up with some tiredness and we had planned to leave the hotel early. By 9 30 we dropped into a hotel and finished our breakfast with sandwiches and coffee.

We check out by 11 (with some words being exchanged with the resort guy for his bad behaviour) and again hit the baga beach for another dip in the ocean. Dams did some adventure sports like Para Sailing and Water Scooter. I guess he had some great fun doing it.

Then by 1pm we left the baga beach with some good memories and we had to go to Panaji to reach to South Goa(Palolem). Took 2 cabs and we were in Panaji bus stop. In a giffy and finished of our lunch by 2:30 in Kamat Hotel in the bus stand, disappointing Dams for his Chicken.

We then took a Fast express Kadamba bus towards Margoa and reached there in an hour or so. We had planned to hire a bike from Margoa towards but without much luck we took a mini bus towards Palolem via Concona town.

We weren’t lucky to see of the sun set, all help to the bus conductor. But all our anger just blew after we entered Dream Catcher. This place really need a mention for the hospitality and as usual Sri had to try his luck with manager who was a malayalee. So he was back to his Malayalam slang and the talked went on and on.

The place was beautiful, well maintained and so calm that we guys have never been being in bengaluruu..

Then after some pics in the restaurant there and some talking we started our beach towards to beach road for some shopping etc..

Reached the hotel back by 10 to start our session 2. We ordered a whole lot of things starters Manchurian ,Paneer, Chicken, Tuna from the restaurant which was maintained by name called Bombay Bob. He was great with nice reception and suggestions on what to have for dinner.

Sri mentions, "This is was my best night." No wonder he would say that :-).

I enjoyed through the night and went late to bed. But some how decided that I should get up for sunrise. I knew that we were on the west coast and sunrise would not be much of a spectaluar. But still marked my alarm for 6am.

By next morning I somehow struggled meself to pull my shiviring body outside in the chilness. I could hear the regular Sri's Moto reminder breaking the silence of the morning. Despite the Dog's that disturb your walk in the beach, I got one of my best Photo shoots with my new Canon. The yellow sunlight was at its best.

Then an unforgatable train journey back to the Benguluru. Got introduced to TTR who did not accect the ticket for not carrying the right ID proof. A checking inspector who directly came to us asking the ticket. (P.S: Before the journey started, I googled for blogs that talk about travelling with ID proof. Finally I ended up reading my next cubicle mate's blog. World is small!)

Cheers all,
Srihari / Vijesh