Living the dream

The day finally came for travel to US. Not to say, I missed dearly my parents on this day.

My Singapore Airlines flight left Chennai to San Francisco as scheduled around 11PM and had transits through Singapore and South Korea.

Singapore Airlines operate kind of different aircraft on Chennai - SG route compared to the SG - SFO route. Chennai - SG flight was little cramped and with the provided inflight entertainment, it would have been a nightmarish travel experience. But all those fears was due to my limited knowledge of not knowing there would be different flight between Singapore and SFO journey.

Landed in Singapore around 4AM in morning, I was in awe at the Singapore's Changi airport. Amazing and huge. I explored almost all the places in terminal T2 & T3 and what to say other than wow. You cant expect anything more from those people. All is there for you and its upto you to make use of it. Superb. My first alien land experience was beyond what I thought of and it really upped my expectation from dream land US.

Myself @ Singapore Changi Terminal T3


Imposing Changi Terminal T3. Its just huge... Cant walk around all the places..


there are mini trains which ply between Changi terminals


Here comes the South Korean airport... Its certainly not comparable to Singpore Changi but more than 100 times better than Chennai / Delhi airports.. This Koren airport posses in all steel look...


finally it was time to leave South Korea and board to SFO headed flight

In flight experience in SG air was very good... It can indeed keep one engaged even in those long haul flights for 15 hours.. and even if you are bored at content available, at regular interval, you will be given excellent food / snacks.

By chance / luck, I dont know.. but I was given the front row seat in the Economy class, which more or less was like Business class seat with long long leg room and great space before you... Indeed had a very comfortable ride just in the very first travel abroad...


Now let me move to US experience...

My US Consulate VISA Experience

Thought sharing my Chennai US consulate visa experience which may help someone somewhere and adds another perspective to Visa experience / preparation.

Contrary to the perception of very rigid preparation for visa interview, my days ahead of interview was just like any other day and even in the day of interview, it was just another day.

From my company I was told to fill-up the online Visa form. With no prior knowledge of any country visa process / details, I just went straight to the form not knowing the prerequisites. As expected, I was bowled out of online form since I didnt had most of the details they asked. But that said, by going through the wizard I learned what consulate expects from the person. It helped me pull all the details from my resume, company and client.

Having asked to do the fill up the form in fact helped to know few basic things that helped me in turn in interview, which otherwise I would not have known had someone else filled up the details for me.

The second attempt to fill up the form went well in a single shot and the only trouble I had was with making my picture as per the dimension the online form expects. After a couple of failed attempt and some patchup with my picture, things went well here and chose one suitable interview time for my comfort. I heard afterward that some people consider selecting auspicious time for the interview. Hmmm very interesting.

Since I filled up the form, I came to know myself of what documents are mandatory to carry. Even before my company people told me, I was pinging them to give the documents to me.

Then finally came the interview day and only different thing I did before the interview date was shaving. Apart from this(that too 'I guess' applies only for guys), I don't see anyone need to do anything special for interview. Just knowing clearly the purpose of visit with strong reason of travel can help you tide through interview.

My interview with the consulate interviewer lasted for about 10mins. The question were primarily to verify the credentials of myself, company and client. It was casual interaction and went well. Apart from the visa application(which is mandatory anyway), only thing I was asked to show was my client invitation letter. In total, some 3 questions and 10 mins. All done. Visa was granted. Indeed a cloud nine moment. It was after all my dream to visit US.

In short, visa preparation and appearance was a good learning experience.

Anyone who is waiting for the interview or anyone who just starting the process, just be yourself and do it yourself. No worries later. All the best.

Entourage visit to my Grandma Village

Got chance to take my colleagues round around my Grandma village, some 500kms away from Chennai.

Victory for Kattapoman!! Finally!!

It all started as fun, but finally won the first prize in internal event organized for Republic Day in my company.

We were re-creating Kattapomman stunt right in the heart of TIDEL park. Despite the big contradiction of serious play subject on one side and biggest comedian actors on another side, winning first prize in the drama category is sheer achievement. No body still knows what went good where.

An anxious wait for actors before being called for performance... And the Kuttapomman actor, oh sorry the Kattapomman actor is the one wearing the blue jean and kind of sandal color tee...


Must be our opponent team's cheering team I guess... Not much support :)


Some light dance before our serious stuff begins...


There you got the Kattapomman showing thumbs up... Around him is the poor souls who is going to 'stage' around...


And hear what, we won despite lights were full, no judges were asleep.. :)


And here we are... The WINNING TEAM :D.. Me was standing 1st from Left. Played crucial role, you dont like to hear, but I have to say, I was one of the pillars of the show... hear it.. I was replacement for concrete pillar and not kind of key player...

Mahabalipuram '2010

After running out of options of what to do after the parade decide to hit out the outskirts of Chennai. Its Mahabalipuram. Never been to that before. So kind of had good time. The big thing I learned is, I got to know the reason why two stupid minds of Girl and Boy takes a ride to Mahabalipuram. Trust me its not out of jealous, but for sheer recklessness of behavior.

It all started with small beach... My view is, Marina is 1000times better than this beach... probably I guess I visited wrong place since many ppl visit Mahabalipuram for beaches...




A surprisingly empty place...


And here you go, the absolute beauty... my heart goes out for this view... proud to take this view in my mobile cam...


This is the Shoreline temple which is preserved after much fight against nature... There is a sea barricade to prevent sea water entering/nearing, some coat over stones to prevent erosion.... there is theory that much other parts of this temple destroyed/remain under sea...


True to its world famous sculptures... Amazing piece but left unfinished... Who really know what happened then.. 1000 years ago...


A small pit at top of temple... must be some planned piece of work left unfinished... or probably something else... so many questions since my visit... but one thing for sure, they could have create marvel in this place had they completed what was started... mind blowing thinking of molding a rocky mountain...


Another piece of sculpture... for confused ppl who couldn't differentiate between the real and actual, the colored one is me and the brown one is sculpture :)... what else you can expect :)


Yet another piece of unfinished work of >1000 year remain...


tried to make my own kind of design.. but couldn't get time... came back...


before leaving, got to click this my favorite piece of photo... light house on hill top...

Republic Day Parade, Jan 26

Stuffs which happened last Jan 26th Republic Day Parade... I know its month of August and we are now looking for Independence Day Parade.. Blame my time... couldn't get things to put in blog on time...

I got started with thank you note for Classical language - Tamil








Its Kalaigner every where... hmmm blame it on we people... No respite in sight...


I think each department had to do something... and here you got the display from Agri ministry... A women busy planting over top of vehicle.. Glad they didn't made ppl to wait till they grow and get the grain....


And the cost of reading this blog post is proudly shouldered by Google and 1st from Right.. Yes that's me...

Krishnapuram Anjaneyar temple, Kadayanallur

Back to blogging after a brief lull... almost 4/5 months I guess.. I do get time, but not comfortable enough to do blogging. Any case right now life is in big swing state.... big ups/downs... have to catch up lots of things... and definitely the experiences with my first ever abroad trip to United States starting from Chennai Consulate office. Before getting into those English matter stuff, would like to cover up few things that happened since last January.

This is a visit to Anjenayar temple near to Krishnapuram last January 1st. Its a small locality next to Kadayanallur. Wouldn't have agreed to visit the place without going in personal vehicle, either a car or two-wheeler, since the place is very remote and if one has to travel by public transport, need to do long planning and major part of day spend on travel rather than feel the visit.



Here you go, the temple build right in the center of rice crop field.


A great place to spend indeed.. Fantastic fresh breeze and green field around... Not sure how this place would be when crops are cut down...




Now the next view you get once you cross the field is this view across the pond...



There should be some price paid for reading this blog, here you go, its me and the little chap is my little nephew of my cousin bro...



What's is Indian temple without crowd? No crowd means something wrong in marketing(otherwise called as benefits one get from God) or locality(not connected by good transport). And here starts the down pour of crowd... Its down pour if you see the full picture later...


Here you go, the crowd in full scope... Great!!!


Hmmm... So much of belief...




And the deity of Krishnapuram Anjaneyar temple.