kirukal

New address in the web

2007-09-07T13:08:00.000+05:30

Its taken quite a while for me to realise that i have not added my new address in the web to the blog. I got some hosting space and domain "viveksekar". So for some time i have been posting in the new link viveksekar blog . I am also getting the main page of the site up and ready and i am sure for the work i do it is going to take sometime before its up and running.

Dandelion

2007-06-11T13:09:00.000+05:30

Took this near my office.

The sun and The sky

2007-05-01T18:05:00.000+05:30

Being here i realize how so many visitors appreciate the sunrises back in the beaches in India or for that fact any other beach resort near the equator. I have been here for two season now (winter and spring) and see that the geography of this place is not conducive enough for sunrises that will rival those you can see in madras (Chennai) or Kanyakumari.
In the middle of spring you have the sun being out for nearly 16 hours of the day, and the remaining 8 hours it looks more like dusk rather than dark night (i am now in a state were i am having to differentiate between light, dark and normal night conditions). And as you go up further north or as summer sets in, it´s a well known fact that the sun stays up for a even longer time. So there arises no case of the sun setting or rising.
I see that the sky here appears to have more hues of blue than i am used to see back home. This varied color of the sky helps in accentuating the clouds also, therefore i feel like the clouds gain a few additional dimensions. In all the photos i have taken i see that the sky and clouds have their own characteristics. All this contributes to some beautiful sunsets (not complete sunset, the sun goes below the horizon but the light still remains) and dusk. I have seen the sky catch fire with not only with the usual palette of yellow or light orange but also colors like dark orange and red, which back home is more of a rarity.
Seeing these posts and the topics i am talk about, i guess you will understand that there is not much work that is going on.

Windows

2007-04-30T15:16:00.000+05:30

Bug and the Bud

2007-04-27T15:20:00.000+05:30

Springs first bud

2007-04-26T14:59:00.000+05:30

From now on i will be posting photos that i have taken. And heres the first.

Rovaniemi Continued

2007-04-17T17:41:00.000+05:30

So we had reached Rovaniemi by noon, got the rooms booked and had lunch.

We hit the road again after some rest in rooms, this time to the santa village outside the town of Rovaniemi. Went on a snow mobile ride, then crossed the arctic circle. The whole crossing the arctic circle thing was nothing but just four or five poles signifying the arctic line and we crossed from one side to the other. Like any other tourist got ourselves certificates that we crossed the circle and blah bla blaaa.. Most of the guys hit the souvenir shop and got busy. me and Bhaskar were not that interested in the usual souvenir, so i got a few stamps and stuff that i collect along with my brother. After spending a good part of the evening we headed back to the town, had dinner, spent time playing pool in a bar and hit the sack.

In all the time the souvenir shopping spree was going on, me and Bhaskar quietly got ourselves interested in the snow mobile safari that would last for an hour and lured into the rally car driving by our interests in the car. So we had blown 260 euros, needing some adrenalin.

We woke up the next day, realizing that we had a good day ahead. We went again to the santa village, got all suited up and ready for the snow mobile ride. And it started we headed through some forests, highways and river beds. In all this action i was happy accelerating behind the guide. The ride through the forest was fun, i was jumping up and down to balance the speeding snow mobile through the bumps and so on. Then we hit the river, for most of the time i was speeding at 100km/h, then we were on top of ice rather than snow on the river bed and by bike gave away and i did my first spin on ice more like a spin in ice skates. I brought the bike into control and headed up the order, again went over some ice in the river and this time started my second spin, spun twice and in an attempt to control the spin i braked and tilted the bike on its side. So again i started after getting the snow bike on its ski's and this time went a small distance and changed the bike with that of Bhaskar's, this time i had a pillion rider in Saravanan. So we started of again and entered the forest. Saravanan was already terrified with Bhaskar's drive and i had to slow down for him to recollect himself. This time again hit the 80km/h mark in the forests i was heading back to the village.

After stopping and Bhaskar informed me that my bike had a non working brake. Wow what i ride i had with a snow bike that had no brakes and another bike that was in full control but a really shaken pillion rider. anyways i was able to match both the guide and Bhaskar with the broken snow bike during the ride. So we were done with the activity for the day and again the rest of the group headed back to the souvenir shops as me and Bhaskar enrolled ourselves into the rally car driving session. We also got ourselves into the reindeer farm thing for the group.

okay i am getting bored writing blogs and i am bringing this post to a quick end.

So the next day me and Bhaskar went for snow boarding while the rest were learning to ski in the cross country track. later we went to the tarmac (actually Ice) for rally car driving. me, Karthick and Bhaskar took up the task of riding the car with the instructor beside us in rounds. Each drove close to an hour in total duration. All did a decent job of it without the idea how much we could push the car. Then after all our stupid driving , the instructor showed us how the rally car is driven. We were frustrated that we were not told about the limits to which the car could be pushed, but still left the track fully satisfied and extremely happy.

Finally Something got going

2007-04-11T18:53:00.000+05:30

Updating on the the previous post. Finally i have been putting some miles under my belt.
As planned i made the 2000km trip to the arctic circle and back (correction the previous post said it was 1700).

We started off from Helsinki after some roaming about in the city without knowing how to head to the Exit we wanted to be on. Finally close to 8:30 pm, we found the way out of the city. Bhaskar was driving the car, and it was quite uneventful after close to 250-300 kms we took a break, filled the car and ourselves.
And it was my turn to take the wheel, it was close to mid night and i started my shift as the driver going by all the landscapes and still having no clue how beautiful it was (i say beautiful cos on the return it was in the evening that i passed the same area to appreciate the landscape). I drove through some snow filled side stretches and headed straight to Oulu and past. Close to 4am we were past Oulu onwards to Kemi (the planned destination to have a look at the Ice castle/hotel). After 5 hours of driving , i parked beside some rest place on the highway, 80km before Kemi. Too tired to go on, we tried to sleep for the next 3 hours in a very cold car. Just before starting off towards Kemi we realized all that chillness inside the car was because the rear windows had been left open. Getting the car's heater in full blast we started off to Kemi.

Karthick drove this stretch towards Kemi, we reached to find the whole town deserted and
feeling more like a ghost town. All were busy celebrating Easter (by celebrating i mean sleeping). We also found out that the restaurants would open only after 10am. So after some driving through the town for some time. We stopped beside some wide expanse of white (this would be the sea i am referring to) . We got out to be greeted by very strong and very cold winds, after trying to appreciate the beauty of the landscape in the shivering cold and after having enough of the weather we headed straight to the comforts of the car. In all this discomfort we were in, there were a couple of guys ice fishing completely oblivious to the cold, this made me feel like a very sensitive moron.
We decided to check out the Ice castle/hotel. Only to find that it was closed, the short Winter here had taken its toll on the Ice castle. The whole setup looked like some badly gone Ice party. So after getting such a cold reception, we decided to hit the highway straight to Rovaniemi.
Bhaskar was the driver this time and we were at Rovaniemi by noon. Booked ourselves 3 rooms under my card.

Rest of the story in the next post.

Wat the hells going on

2007-03-26T15:19:00.000+05:30

Hmm,
Its been a long time i wrote on this blog, i mean all i have doing is picking and scavenging photos from various sites and posting them here. So heres whats going on in my life.

Cutting through all the shit that has happened and focusing on today, i handed my laptop today again for servicing within a month of getting it. The Problem ? There was a lot of resonating nosies that would blur out the audio from my movies or music collection when kept in full volume, and keeping to the high standards of my equipment (;-P) . Hopefully i will get it within this weekend. Till i handed the laptop for servicing i was thinking how big a prick i am, handing over a product for no big problem as such, then after handing it over, i realized that what if the noise was because of some other loosely screwed in hardware? I mean it meant that i would have a very defective product in my hands after a few months of listening in full volume, that all the parts would be loose and ready to fall off.
GOD what a genius i am trying to nip the problem of in the bud itself. But still all this hasnt helped me in anyway i still feel i am in a paid holiday in Helsinki under TCS or should i say Nokia's cost.
So capitalize on this paid holiday i am planning try all those silly stuff you dont get to try back home.
- i am going on a 1700km round trip to Rovaniemi (santa's village, crossing the artic circle), the ice hotel and places around these two places on this easter holiday. Now all the fuss is about getting the right vehicle.
- Then theres a plan to go to Kjerag and Sognefjord in Norway. very famous for the base jumping videos, this place looks greaat in the pics i have seen till now. I am not sure about the BASE jumping thing, but i am expecting a very good journey to these places in Norway. The dates are yet to be finalized and dependent on cheap flights that i can find to these places, but will most probably be within the month of May.

then i also plan to get a canon 400D DSLR this easter. so as to appease my shutterbug ambitions, even though i think i may cut a sorry figure with it.
I guess this is enough crapping about for a day and for the first scribble after long time.
hoping that next time i am scribbling again i would have done the above planned things, unless fate has other plans.

Waves

2007-02-26T20:50:00.000+05:30

Child

2007-02-20T18:00:00.000+05:30

Close

2007-01-01T12:55:00.000+05:30

World

2007-01-01T12:44:00.000+05:30

Environment

2007-01-01T12:42:00.000+05:30

Close I

2007-01-01T12:40:00.000+05:30

Views

2006-12-11T21:26:00.000+05:30

inside out

2006-12-02T10:19:00.000+05:30

Water drop

2006-11-17T08:02:00.000+05:30

sunset

2006-11-17T07:37:00.000+05:30

flickr 2

2006-11-12T22:11:00.000+05:30

flickr 1

2006-11-12T21:39:00.000+05:30

flickr

2006-11-12T21:33:00.000+05:30

One for november?

2006-11-12T18:26:00.000+05:30

Alive

2006-10-21T23:21:00.000+05:30

Long time

2006-09-18T22:26:00.000+05:30

Animals

2006-08-27T15:25:00.000+05:30

Thoughts

2006-08-09T17:49:00.000+05:30

"I'm tired.

Tired of being on the road,
lonely as a sparrow in the rain.

I'm tired of never having me
a buddy to be with...

...to tell me where we's going to,
coming from, or why.

Mostly, I'm tired of people
being ugly to each other.

I'm tired of all the pain
I feel and hear in the world...

...every day.

There's too much of it.

lt's like pieces of glass
in my head...

...all the time.

Can you understand? " - John Cofey (The Green Mile)

i found this to echo my frame of mind i have been for some time now.

New world

2006-08-09T13:11:00.000+05:30

Guilt ?

2006-08-09T13:07:00.000+05:30

Pics

2006-07-28T22:30:00.000+05:30

Perspective

2006-07-06T19:33:00.000+05:30

Close up

2006-06-17T10:38:00.000+05:30

Dawn to Dusk 1

2006-06-17T10:36:00.000+05:30

Dawn to Dusk

2006-06-17T10:28:00.000+05:30

Atmosphere

2006-06-10T09:00:00.000+05:30

Wings of flight

2006-06-08T20:18:00.000+05:30

Tides

2006-05-31T06:51:00.000+05:30

Shades

2006-05-20T15:21:00.000+05:30

12/05/06

2006-05-12T23:00:00.000+05:30

Sun's glory

2006-05-12T22:56:00.000+05:30

Light & Water

2006-05-07T12:53:00.000+05:30

Ways

2006-05-03T20:18:00.000+05:30

01/05/06

2006-05-01T09:22:00.000+05:30

26/04/06

2006-04-26T20:24:00.000+05:30

Assorted

2006-04-22T12:49:00.000+05:30

15/04/06

2006-04-15T11:50:00.000+05:30

06/04/06

2006-04-06T22:58:00.000+05:30

Orion Nebula

2006-04-06T11:40:00.000+05:30

Abstract

2006-03-31T21:26:00.000+05:30

Outdoors

2006-03-31T21:24:00.000+05:30

White

2006-03-31T21:22:00.000+05:30

Misc.

2006-03-31T21:19:00.000+05:30

Stages of bloom

2006-03-31T21:16:00.000+05:30

Life 1

2006-03-31T21:13:00.000+05:30

Nature

2006-03-31T21:11:00.000+05:30

Bloom

2006-03-31T21:09:00.000+05:30

Colors Bloom

2006-03-31T21:07:00.000+05:30

Life

2006-03-31T21:04:00.000+05:30

2006-03-31T20:36:00.000+05:30

Honey?

2006-03-31T20:35:00.001+05:30

Colorless

2006-03-31T20:35:00.000+05:30

Difference

2006-03-31T20:34:00.000+05:30

Clock Work

2006-03-31T20:33:00.000+05:30

Stare

31/03/06

2006-03-31T20:02:00.000+05:30

28/03/06

2006-03-28T09:47:00.000+05:30

04/03/06

2006-03-04T12:28:00.000+05:30

24/02/06

2006-02-24T15:29:00.000+05:30

23/02/06

2006-02-24T15:26:00.000+05:30

22/02/06

2006-02-24T15:24:00.000+05:30

21/02/06

2006-02-24T15:19:00.000+05:30

20/02/06

2006-02-24T15:14:00.000+05:30

19/02/06

2006-02-24T15:12:00.000+05:30

Photos 2

2006-02-20T11:56:00.000+05:30

Photos

2006-02-20T11:49:00.000+05:30

Digipix photos

2006-02-20T11:42:00.000+05:30

Digipix, Megapixel photos 5

2006-02-20T11:40:00.000+05:30

Digipix, Megapixel photos 4

2006-02-20T11:27:00.000+05:30

Digipix, Megapixel photos 3

2006-02-20T10:57:00.000+05:30

Digipix, Megapixel photos 2

2006-02-18T13:11:00.000+05:30

Digipix, Megapixel photos

2006-02-18T12:59:00.000+05:30

Photo set 3

2006-02-17T11:36:00.000+05:30

photo set 2

2006-01-11T16:05:00.000+05:30

photo set 1

2006-01-11T16:02:00.000+05:30

photos

2006-01-11T16:00:00.000+05:30

@ TCS now

2006-01-10T17:16:00.000+05:30

Finally have joined TCS, i am at trivandrum now and finishing my training on the 8th of february. The place of allocation is not yet know and will take its own time. The trainig is going great and the experience daily is like the few days i had when on tour to banglore durig my college days. i am laying down these words from the TCS trainig facility lab. Things are settlig down for me, i guess!
Well now its in TCS for the next 2 years without any words. The training is more team spirit related development and some amount o focus on the technical part of it all. The focus is on software engineering in the non-technical side. With moe emphasis on the custom TCS development models and so on.
it auevoir for now.

So nothing much happening

2005-09-30T18:36:00.000+05:30

Its been quite a while that i posted any of the images i see in various other photoblgos. And the reason for this improptness would be the fact that i dont find the time to do all this and above it all dataone has become paid and his free service is only available in the inhumane time of 2 to 8 in the morning - which would be the time period where my dream plot takes shape and would have come till the climax.
I have just started waking a bit early, not for the reason to come online but to get a few extra muscles to grow up get me to look a bit beefed up. So i nothing much happening in my side. I just have started to shurge of the discomfort i had because most my friends have left to the US and evrybody else including have become so messed to find any free time. I will try to get the new images i have come across in the time since the last post pretty soon (hope it doesnt end up like it normally does).
Well that will basically be it.

2005-07-03T10:18:00.000+05:30

2005-07-03T10:16:00.000+05:30

Fantasy

2005-07-03T10:13:00.000+05:30

Fire?

2005-07-03T10:10:00.000+05:30

Light

2005-07-03T10:09:00.000+05:30

Reflecting

2005-07-03T10:04:00.000+05:30

Last sun

2005-06-24T20:12:00.001+05:30

Edge of space

2005-06-24T20:12:00.000+05:30

Abstract view

2005-06-24T20:11:00.000+05:30

Far away

2005-06-24T20:10:00.001+05:30

Water

2005-06-24T20:10:00.000+05:30

Bee

2005-06-24T20:09:00.000+05:30

Reflections

2005-06-24T20:08:00.000+05:30

Tormented spirit

2005-06-11T13:07:00.000+05:30

Bells