Atanu Phukan's Homepage

Year 2006

Happenings of Year 2006

1/1/2006: Happy New Year to All of You.

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26/1/2006 - 28/1/2006 : Bike trip to Coorg.

It was one of the most challenging trips we have planned till date. Coorg being ~ 260 kms from Bangalore make this BIKE trip worth thinking twice. Guys were scared, but enthusiastic. We were 4 of them – Me, Sujeet, Deka and Jaiswal – three bikes. All are my B.Tech friends working in Bangalore.

 

When we were back on Saturday night (10:45 pm), we have competed a total of 685 kms. Guys are still very enthusiastic, though tired. Fortunately the trip was smoother then we thought – no bike problems, no injury, and no back pain. “In fact no issues at all – JUST PURE FUN”. We saw all the places we planned to see. Coffee plantation, Abbi falls, TalaCauvery, Bylakuppe (Tibetian Monastry), NisargaDhama, Harangi Dam, Raja Seat (view point), Raja’s Tomb, and of course Coorg cuisines (we tried different restaurants for lunch and dinners we had there. We even tried Tibetian cuisines in Bylakuppe).

 

If you will ask me to rank the top three in this trip:

1 – We did a surprise/unplanned trekking at TalaCauvery to see wind mills (first sight of wind mills in my life for me)

2 – Tibetian Monastry (its awesome)

3 – The bike trip (hovering at 80kmph in hilly roads was for me a dare devil act, courtesy sujeet..).

 

Overall, it was a trip worth talking for long.

Pictures of Trip to Coorg

28/1/2006 : Magh Bihu at Bangalore. Magh Bihu was celebrated by the Assamese community in Bangalore at the St. Aloysius ground. The biggest attraction of this year was musical performance by renowned Assamese singer Jitul Sonowal. I was not there at the function because of the Coorg trip, and was unfortune to miss all the fun.

4/2/2006 : Concert at IIM, Bangalore (Jal & Shivamani). Went to IIM Bangalore to watch the concert of Pakistani Band JAL and Indian maestro drummer SHIVAMANI at the cultural festival "Unmad". For me JAL was kind of boring, probably I have not listened to them much and I am not a fan beyond the songs like "Won Lamhe". But Shivamani was just awesome. The guy is GOD when comes to playing the drums. The best DRUM performance I have seen till date...

5/2/2006 : BRYAN ADAMS rocks Bangalore - AGAIN. Its the second time I am going to Bryan's show, memories still afresh (after 2004 concert). One thing just do not change, this guy really ROCKS. We (Me, Sujeet, Deka and Rohit) started with a damp mood when we saw ourselves staranded 50 mts away from the stage with our Rs 800 tickets. The show started with performances by the winners of Indian Rock Idol's - 2005 followed by a Salsa Dance. But when Bryan entered the stage, all our dissapointed just dissapeared, and we started rocking to the tunes of him. After 2 hours of shouting/singing/rocking, we came back very satisfied, only promising to come back again to his show the next time he comes (only thing, probably go for the tickets closer to the stage.. ha ha)..

25/2/2006 : Family gathering of office colleagues. We went to Club Cabana (http://www.clubcabana.net.in/) for the family gathering of our lab (Energy and Propulsion Technology) of GE Global research. The day was filled with fun, as well as knowing of each others family. All took this opportunity to thank their family. Activities included an innovative way of introducing peoples, Water sports and Bowling.

17/3/2006 : Parikrama @ Radio City Live. This is a surprise plan made on our way back from office to go to the Parikrama live show at Palace grounds, Bangalore. (http://www.parikrama.com/). I am not a avid fan of hard rock, but the night was really ROCKING. This was my first time of their show. They are really good with a huge fan following. We (me and Sourabh, GE colleague) had a great time @ show. Thanks radio city

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22/3/2006 : EPT Offsite @ Manipal County. Our Global Technology Leader (GTL), Sanjay Correa was here in Bangalore. As part of his visit a offsite was organized in Manipal County (http://www.manipalcounty.com/). It was a fun filled day with half day workout and other half spend on a Cricket match.

26/3/2006 : Blood donation. Donated blood (4th time in my life)for one of my Friends Dad at Narayana Hrudayala Hospital, Bangalore.

8/4/2006 - 23/4/2006 :  (HAPPY BIHU to all) Visit family in Assam

Visited home in Assam during the Bihu festival. Can't miss being at home during this festive season. Two week is a long time, but pressure from relatives to visit them made this time short. Its been years I have visited many of them, so the attention was obvious. So visited Duliajan, Sibsagar and Namrup (lot's remained unvisited even after invitation). Also visited a NEEPCO power station at Kothalguri. My B.Tech friend Sandipan stays there. One day went with my younger sister to Dibrugarh to get an desktop computer for her. She being a computer teacher at a local school needed it very badly. The most intresting trip was going by bike from Sibsagar to Namrup with my cousin. His bike had an spoiled back suspension, and the HUGE pot-holes on the roads made our back's soar with pain. But it was fun, we both singing BIHU songs on the way... Nice Bihu this year..

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19/5/2006 - 21/5/2006 : Get-together @ Hyderabad.

A weekend get-together was planned at Hyderabad by some folks in our NERIST (college) gang. Occasion was to celebrate recent marriage of Jaishankar with Anshu-bhabi.

 

Attendees:

– We were 4 from Bangalore - Me, Sujeet, Deka and Pankaj.

– Two families from Hyderabad (Himangshu + Gargi & Dilip + Kanchan).

– The big couple Jai with better-half & Pratyush from Pune.

 

You can feel how big it is - it would have been bigger if few other scheduled friends would have joined. It was just eat + talk + talk + eat. Jai took us out for his Party and Gargi-Bhabi did an EXCEPTIONAL JOB in taking care of all us (hungry-poor-NERISTians). It was lots and lots of fun...

9/7/2006 : EEDP family get-together

After a long time our Batch of EEDP's in GE planned for a get-together (3 married guys and we 3 bachelors). It was our first meet with Murthy's wife. Coincidently Deb was also leaving for his MBA, so it was a farewell for him too. Started with Bowling @ MEGABOWL and followed with a Dinner party @ IndieJoe restaurant. It was real real fun with we guys getting together again after such long time. (Participant: Me, Deb, Sarit + Khyati, Manthram + Anidhi, Murthy + Saraswati. Mohan is the guy who missed the party))

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15/07/2006 - 23/06/2006 : Trip to Punjab to meet my brother

It was time of execution of my long standing plan to visit my brother. I have never been to any of his place of work during his 5 years of service in the Army. Now its time to go to Ferozpur.

 

I had to go via Delhi. So also planned to meet some of my college friends. Pinku my B.Tech rommie called two other college friends to delhi (Manmit and Deka da). So it was a good get together. Also spend a day with my cousin Nitu da. (Liked his intresting work. He is part of a animation company developing video games for X-Box and Playstation). Sunday night caught the train to Ferozpur.

 

Next full week was time spent with my bro and bhabi. The first shocker was the hot weather (we peoples from Bangalore always complain about heat at north, after spending my time in warm clothes even during summer @ Bangalore). Found out time to go to Amritsar to see Jallianwalla Bagh and Golden Temple. Ferozpur borders Pakistan. So went to see the flag down parade in the evening (quite similar to the one in Wagah border). Rest time was spend gossiping and meeting other officer friends of my brother. On way back met my school friends Poonam and Nilanjan in Delhi.

 

Some unique things I saw in Punjab

1 – The water tanks in peoples houses, its not like a simple SINTEX type we have elsewhere. It have unique shapes - like a bird, fighter plane, football, car, even Army tank etc..(See my album)

2 – The autos: It comes with a protuded nose which have the engine. On top of that, the engine is completely open for disdplay without cover (looks like effective air cooling)

3 – The driving habit of people. I must agree there was very less traffic sense in the place I visited. (hope its better elsewhere in Punjab)

Pictures of Trip to Punjab

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02/09/2006 : NERIST get-together @ Bangalore:

The Alumni's of NERIST at Bangalore got together at Patel's Inn (www.patelsinn.com). The meet overcame a last minute hiccup to turn out to be a successful one with ~ 50 participants including family. Thanks for the great effort of Shahjahan, Balakrishna and Parag.

 

Day was a slow starter (as usually happens in India), peoples starting to gather after 11 am. Program kick-started with introduction of all the peoples gathered, starting from senior most – 88’ batch followed until 99’ batch. It followed with “steal the handkerchief” game (well I have given this name :o). The gathering has already started building momentum. A break was given until lunch for peoples to interact and also avail facilities at the resort. Team broke off to play games (badminton, TT, lawn-tennis). Soon the real party started with peoples picking up their own mug of beer, and old tales started following. Some good old stories shared by Arijit da and Nishant da.

 

It was time for lunch. Some serious discussion that started during beer followed until lunch. Peoples were discussing different ways to help students of NERIST to connect to the market world, better exposure and help getting jobs. It was decided to follow-up with the discussion.

 

After lunch, its fun time again with “go-karting” on the menu. The team already pumped up went to the karting tracks in batches of six to fight out for the top honor of being the best driver in the circuit. The fight’s I remember most is between Anupal and Opu da and Khan and Abhijeet. There are other good ones too with Bala fighting hard for the top honors giving a good fight. The team exhausted went for the evening snacks at 5:00 pm. It was the final event in the agenda. The team started departing back to their homes.

It was first of its kind of gathering of NERIST in Bangalore. Team promised to come back with more in the future with better participation. ALL THE NERIST MEMORIES CAME BACK STRONG TO ME AT LEAST, AND I BELIEVE IT CAME BACK TO MANY OTHERS WHO CAME THERE.

08/10/2006 : My BIRTHDAY:

It was too much hiccups few day's before my BirthDay. A strike called by political party kept Bangalore closed on 4th (Wed), making us make-up for that, working overtime on Saturday (yesterday). Friday we lost badly in a football match (7:0 to be precise), followed by a defeat on Sat in cricket match too, Ha ha ha...

 

Anyway day started well (night I would say), with calls started coming from friends at 12:00 night. Ajay was the first to call. There was a batch get-together @ Kolkata they were upto. So ended up receiving wishes from all those were present (Kalyan, Pallab, Kamlesh and Raja). Calls were waiting and Sujeet was next to call with Jaiswal. Pinku my B.Tech rommie called next. He was with Manmit (my B.Tech friend) and Nazia his fiancée. It was now late and time to sleep.

 

Next day Dad called early in the morning and wishes came pouring from Mom and sisters. It was a long line then (Brother, Bhabi, Mili, Sumi, Ani, Hunmoni, Anil, Bappa, Saurabh, Rohit, Nilanjan....). Lots of messages flooding in "Orkut" too.

 

Made plans for dinner in evening with frndz. Weather was a dampener again, drizzling throughout the evening. We went out to CHUNGS a Chinese restaurant, in spite of the rain. This did end up drenching us, but day DID went really WELL..

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14/10/2006 - 29/10/2006 : Trip to RAJASTHAN

It was planned when we were studying together at IIT.K, me and Anil. Always wanted to see Rajasthan, the Desert always facinating me.

 

The first stop was Nashik, to attend the Marriage of Parag, my colleague in GE. We were 3 friends travelling to his marriage (Puneet, Kunal and me). It was a nice party. Also took time to meet Arvind's (my rommie)family. Moved next to Pune, from there starts the trip of Rajasthan with Anil.

 

It was Guptajis birthday that night and we celebrated with a small party. Left Pune for our first stop Mt. Abu. Its a nice small hill station. Visited Nakki lake, sunset point, guru sikhar etc. Next stop was Udaipur, Anils home. Felt gr8 to meet Uncle/Aunty after such long time. Lots of places to see - Palaces (City Palace, Lake Palace), Lakes (Fateh Sagar lake, Pichola lake), Parks (Moti Mangri, Sajjan Udyan), Forts (Kumbalgarh, Sajjangarh), Temples (Nimaj Mata, Ranakpur). Diwali was also celebrated in Udaipur with Anil's family. Time to move on, next to Ranthambore. A 3hr Safari couldn't make us see the Tiger, but saw lots of deers and Birds. Next to Jaipur. Many more forts, Haveli's and the Pink city. Shopped some jaipuri rajai. Next destination was Jaisalmer. Went for the Camel safari. Just awesome.. Saw the Sam sand dunes, and cultural function at night. Also spent time on sight seeing the fort, Chatris and the puppet show. Next moved to the last destination, Jodhpur. More fort and Palaces. Time to take my train back to Bangalore.

 

My Personal Favorites

1 – Jaisalmer - for the sole reason its unique. The desert, my childhood dream. Its a golden city in true sense. All the houses are made from special stones only found there. And Puppet show, gauss, seen it long time after I was a kid in school.

2 – Udaipur: White city. Its ambience of being a garden and lake city. Rajasthan is a place of forts and palaces. And you have the best ones here.

3 – Overall experience. It was just too good to express. Though we were roasted by the hot sun :-)

Pictures of Trip to Rajasthan

02/12/2006 : Bike trip to Nandi Hills:

Jayadeep our old roommate currently a lecturer at NIT, Calicut was visiting us at Bangalore. On Saturday weekend planned a bike trip to Nandi hills. It was a nice 70 kms drive after morning breakfast. Luckily it was not a very crouded day and we had a nice leisurely time. Lots of chit chat and a good lunch with a hilltop view ending with a nice trek was a wonderful end of the trip. It was time to drive back to Bangalore.

08 - 09/12/2006 : Off-site to Bandipur:

This years off-site for our Applied CFD lab in GE happened in Bandipur Safari Lodge at Bandipur National Park. With 2 weeks of intense planning, Friday morning was time to start out trip. It was early morning start (6 am) to beat the Bangalore traffic. Route was already planned and peoples were timely picked from their respective locations. After a brisk stop at "Kamats" for our breakfast reached Bandipur at 1 pm (6 hrs trip) just before lunch. After a good lunch, team sat down for some team building games. The all awaited safari started at 4:30 pm. We are welcomed with a big herd of spotted deers. We also saw Sambars another variety of deers. Then started a beautiful time spend with wild elephants. This was the best wild elephant view I ever had in a safari, with seeing wild elephants playing in water bodies so close to us. The cutest was the small elephant baby. The big master, Tiger tricked us and we didn't had its view. Day ended with a nice warm bonfire and dinner. Next morning was time for a trek. Early morning sunrise and beautiful view from the hilltop, after we climbed it, made a wonderful start for the day. Time for breakfast after we return from trek. Team then packed up for their return journey to Bangalore.

16 -18/12/2006 : Brother in Bangalore:

My sister-in-law has joined a new job, and was sent for a training in Yellagiri, Tamilnadu. Its 3.5 hrs from Bangalore. So it was planned that they will come to Bangalore also. It was a good time spent together with them. We visited WONDERLA a fun park ~ 30 kms from Bangalore on Mysore road. Specially enjoyed the wet rides. The dry rides were too scary for me :-). Also visited one of my brothers college friend for dinner. Nice mini family get-together...

31/12/2006 : Welcome New Year:

Day started with the planning to welcome the new year. Most of our NERIST B.Tech friends got together for that. Work was then distributed accordingly. Shopping for food and beverage was done at the noon itself. It was planned to have barbecue at rooftop, music for dance, drinks and lots of crackers to rock the night. The fish and Chicken was marinated at noon itself to have the best effect. As soon as the sun fall, the party began with music, drinks and barbecue. The crackers came to life as soon as the clock struck midnight. People went crazy dancing to welcome the new year. WELCOME 2007, HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU GUY's..

Year 2002

Year 2003

Year 2004

Year 2005

Year 2007

Year 2008

Courage is what u never loose, as it is that u can always choose.