And the culprit was caught!

Follow-up to my previous post. It always helps to have a corporate account, be it your bank acc, medical insurance, or the PF acc. On submiting the complaint to bank officals, we saw quick action on their part. To add, our security chief at office followed up with them too. We received regular updates about their investigation and within days we got few details about the bike the culprit used, names he registered at purchasing the new mobiles, his present mobile number noted in the form, IMEI num of the new mobile etc. Also they had got hold of CCTV footage from the ATM where my friend had forgotten his card.

CCTV footage did the job. The scene on the footage was something like, my friend withdrawing some money and forgetting to take back the card from the machine and within minutes the person waiting behind comes to use the ATM, sees the card left unattended, silently pockets it and vanishes from the scene. Then he goes on a shopping spree with the card. The culprit was easily identifiable and was caught within few days. He was caught and taken to the police station. My friend got his hard earned money back and the humane side of him requested the police to let go the culprit. we are pretty sure he got some proper bashing before let gone... All ended fine with we paying price of some time wastage for the negligence. It was an expericence;) and the lesson learnt would not be easily forgotten.

First visit to a Police station....

Yes belive it or not, I realised that this was my first entry into a police station since my 24yrs of birth:P One of my close friend lost his debit card and I happened to accompy him to register a complaint for the same. Sadly, he realised that the card had been lost only 2 days later on getting a call from the banks cust care. OOsh, nearly [xx]k was swiped out by some merciless shopaholic. Petrol, shoes, dinner, mobiles etc....you name it, he had spent on it untill he cursed to know the card was blocked.

On letting pple around know about the debit card losing episode, my poor friend received only pessimistic advices of forgetting about getting back any cash from the lucky spendthrift who found his card. But yes, I did try and convince him that w'll try our best to get back whatever we can. We did realise thats theres been slight negligent behaviour on our end which has already cost us dearer. But we could point some lapses on part of the bank too. On my friend reporting to the bank, he was asked to get a complaint registered at the police station and they be given a copy of the same. He had already approached a police station in his residence limits, but was directed to find a station in vicinity of the place where the card was lost.

I accompanied him to the police station few kms away from office. We were greeted by some kind lessons on our lax attitude towards money in life;). The same old stories of you software engineers earn so much money and this makes you so careless abt it...blah blah stories continued.... We were told there's no use of getting any complaint registered as the money is from debit card and its long gone. But we did insist on getting a complaint in written and we would try our best to push the bank folks to do some investigation. We wrote a complaint in our own handwriting and managed to get a seal and signature on it from the PS.

My friend has submitted the same to the bank and they have asked for some time to carry out some investigation. Lets see how it goes.....

A visit to the "Gods own country"

I have always wanted to visit this wonderful state in south-western most part of India.Hafis (my colleague at cisco) created this opportunity for me, by way of fixing his marriage right in time;). Given the popularity of rail transport in India, we booked the tickets well in advance of 2 months. Our boarding point was at 7.10 from Banglore(K.R.Puram) to Ernakulam on 5/6 Friday night. Had to WFH as I had to catch the evening train. As is the usual case, train arrived late of about 30 mins to K.R. Puram station.

We six ( Sanu, Sourabh, Venkat, Sunil, Ajith and myself) had reached the station well in time. TO train journey was not that great as our berths were split among different coaches. Reached Ernakulam by around 7am. We had lodging in Karthika Residency. Freshened up in about an Hour and got a scorpio booked to take us to Allepey backwaters. This place was around 80 Kms from our hotel. Reached here at around 11am and straight away got into the houseboat that we had booked in advance. We spent around 5 hours in the boat. The climate, the place its been, the ambience, the beverages, the company, were just ideal setting for a perfect weekend chillout. Intermittent drizzles are characteristic of this place and that just adds to the pleasant climate. After having savoured the aura of backwaters for more than 5 hours,we headed straight to cochin beach. Here the cleanliness was not upto mark. Nevertheless, the roaring water bringing with them enormous energy was a pleasant view. Spent sometime here and headed to marine drive at the Naval zone of Cochin. Got into a mini boat which took us around to view the ships of Indian Navy. The ride was dissapointing as it was raining heavily outside and the sun had already set, leaving us very less chance to enjoy the outside view of ships and ocean.Headed straight back to our hotel by about 8pm. Freshend up and left to Grooms house for dinner. Once back, enjoyed watching Ind/Bang T20 worldcup match in the hotel with the gang.Thus ended our first day of Kerala visit.

Had to wake up early as the bus to Kollam(place of marriage) would leave at 7.30 am from Hafis's place. The journey to Kollam was around 3-4 hrs. Raingods were showering all through the route. Reached the marriage choultry by around 11.30 am. It was a nice experience to attend marriage of other religion. Enjoyed the typical Kerala food. Got our train back to Bangalore from kollam at 2.00 pm. Spent the FRO journey playing cards, dumb charades and with some friendly badinages. The visit to as they say "Gods own country" remains one to cherish.

Snaps:

Gods own country

Random Thoughts....

* Got my camera(Canon Powershot SX110IS) delivered yesterday. Dont want to be a professional in this regard, but surely would like to capture all beautiful memories in life. I'm usually not an elec-savy guy and dont spend money on electronic gadgets. First major spend on elec item was my w810i(13.6k) mobile. Got this one mainly for the 2MP camera in it.After around 1.5 yrs of usage, it became a victim of the skills of some unknown pick pocketting veteran in Bangalore BMTC bus:(

* Tagged along with the G-gang ( T.S,Sharma & Naveen) to attend Rakshits engagement at Mudbidri (50 kms from Mangalore). Would cherish the journey, ambience, Mangalore's special ice-creams, beach and company of buddies from college days.

* Rafa loses to Soderling...Sigh! I have always detested domination.

* IPL ended last week. For yours truly, IPL has turned out to be very predictive.Infact won bets both times (no money business here:)) Wanted RR to win last year and DC this year!.... what was common among these?? Take a guess..

* First session of Lok Sabha begins.
New health minister's comments on on-screen smoking ban was shocking.He considers indian viewers are sensible enough and its impractical to ban on-screen smoking. Common, whom are you kidding when you have surveys which say 32% youth follow onscreen divas religiously. When you have seen so many innocnet children jumping of building expecting Shaktiman will come and save, when you have crazy fans worshiping idols of khushboo and namitha....
Discriminatory politics has already kicked off with allegations against our new railway minister making some chages in trains routers plying via Bihar. 2 trains have already been burnt.

* Air France flight 447 goes missing. No clue about whereabouts of 228 passengers. Lifes so unpredictable. So many lives, their dreams ,aspirations, all washed away in matters of minutes....:(( --- "Live life as if there's no tommorow"

* Its appraisal time. Have done lot more quality work than expected. Hoping not to be greeted by dissapointment this time around.

A visit to the city of Nizams...

Been to Hyderabad this week. It was a sojourn for approx 2 days. Left Bangalore on Thursday the 19th with 3 other friends. Reason for the visit was to attend Naveen's bros wedding, meet some `longtime no see` frnds and at the sametime know the place better.

Having been in Bangalore for the past 20 odd years, I didnot find much difference b/w Bangalore and Hydb.Both places looked the same concrete jungles. The segregation of IT Hub from the rest of city, the congregation of apartments surrounding the Hub, very high traffic at specific parts in the city, JNTU like our BU in city center, made them look all the same. But relatively I felt Hydb has less traffic than Bangalore. Hybd roads looked well planned and simple to keep track of, on the other hand I've always felt its a confusing labyrinth in Bangalore. Also I did find the rickshawalas more accommodating than their Bangalore counterparts. With just 2 days in Hydb, the place looks so familiar.

Charminar

Being in Hydb was a wonderful experience. Was amazed to see the celebration of custom called marriage in this part of the country. Meeting some very close frnds, ambience shown by them(nice to have frnds in new places and much nicer if they have time for u:) ), the lavish wedding, visting Charminar and surrounding places, Hussain Sagar, IMAX (watched "Straight" here), shopping at Hydb Central, Biryani at Hotel Paradise, pesarattu at Chutneys, were moments to cherish.

Feels nice to take a break from routine chores, travel, meet frnds, know places and bringing back sweet memories. And also yess, to add, a small blogpost to make sure it remains in memory for ever :)

And it didnot snow!:(

This was my first National Level Trek...At first I declined the idea of goin on this trek, which would take 11 full days as per our schedule. But then succumbed to the temptation of covering most of the places in North-Western India. More than everything, the very idea of getting to meet new pple from different cultures n making new frnds was quite an inviting idea...

[Bangalore-->Delhi--->Amritsar--->Pathankot--->Dalhousie-->
-->Kalatop--->Khajjiar--->Chamba--->Dalhousie--->Pathankot-->
-->Delhi-->Bangalore]

The trek was well planned by Abhinav n folks... The complete schedule can be found in my previous post..The schedule was followed most of the days, except some delays in train departures and arrival timings due to foggy conditions around Delhi and Amritsar places...

Our Janta for Trek

Things that deserves a mention....

The fun of journey (approx 6 days in bus and trains, and then trekking...wasnt that journey too;) ), the chilling temperatures, 6-7 layers of dressing, spirit shown by Indians at Wagah Border, Long Break from hooking onto lappy, exploring Delhi,Amritsar and places in HP, meeting some passionate trekkers who have been there and done it since ages, disciple wrt time exhibited at YHAI hostels, Fog at D & A, Zorbing at Khajjiar, Delhi Metro, the Mafia Game and our crazy logics, life on the edge throughout the trek, Rajdhani, photography, Josh filled Dances, Washing plates in frezing water, No-bath-for-3days Saga, The New year Celebs, The "Horse is red, horse is brown and cat is dead" episode, Harsh's photography, Viral's accent, Kiran's imitation of the same, The lasting wait for snow....And overall the EXPERIENCE.

Briefly Phrasing how the days slipped...

Left bang on 24th night.....reached Delhi on 26th morning at 11.30. am..had got a feel of the cold and Fog by then...Moved straight to YHAI hostel in Chanakyapuri, Freshened up...roamed at Cannaught place for the evening...then headed towards Nizzamudin to catch our train to Amritsar....Reached Amritsar next morning....had booked a hotel beforehand....stayed there, roamed around Golden temple, Jalianwallah bag, Wagah Border...Rested for the night at Amritsar...Left on next(28th dec) morning to on Bus to Pathankot from Amritsar...Hopped onto another Bus to reach Dalhousie( the base camp of YHAI) by evening 7....

Had to head straight for dinner (with our never forgetteble plate and cup;)). Thus started, the bond with out plates and cups, remained untill the last day of trek....then there was cultural evening of songs, shayaris, poems ...this was followed by cake cutting and bournvita...Then there was our own mafia game at bed.... Thus ended our first day at Trek....

Next day was reserved for Acclamatisation.....so as to implement the subject, we were woken up early in the morning at 5....and taken to Subash Chowk.....this was followed by some exercises which looked quite grilling in that stiff cold...

Day3 of trek, Dec30th, we walked for 11 kms from Dalhousie to Kalatop. Apparently Kalatop is the highest point we reched during our trek. Its 8k+ feet above sea level.."1942 love story" is said to be have some scenes shot here...Sunset point was main attraction here...The evening passed with funfilled competitive antyakshari...Night was fun too, with Kiran's heroics...

DW-10 Batch

Day4 of trek, Dec31st,...we trekked from Kalatop to Khajjiar. This route was comparitively the toughest of the trek involving long steep trails of climbing the hills...Khajjiar is referred to as mini Swiss because of the grassland vegetation here...Enjoyed Zorbing here...Missed the paragliding due to time constraints....Fellow friends had some nice plans for new year...New year cake was colourful to mark the occasion too..The euphoria of new year celebrations took a backseat due to some extra josh of localites....Anyway, didnot miss the chance to wish all our fellow frnds a very happy year to come....This was followed by some sound sleep..

Day5...was the usual trek.. Took time off to move around chamba and do some shopping...Also visited the Lakshmi Narayan and Chamundi temples, palace(which is now transformed into a college).....Evening passed with some dancing and mafia games....Some part of "Taal" is said to have been shot at Chamba....

The next morning a private bus was booked to take the entire Gang of 50+ to Dalhousie....Reached Dalhousie...After collecting our luggage, headed directly to catch a bus to Pathankot.....Took a train from Pathankot to Delhi.....Thanks to Fog at Pathankot....our train arrived 3 hrs late which gave us some shopping time here...Jammu mail was the train we boarded....worst ambience...train reached Delhi 5 hrs late...thus spoling our planned 1 day Delhi Dekho trip.....We headed to YHAI hostel....left for some lunch to Cannaught place.....We non-veggies went to Kake De Dabha for lunch....whereas veggies preffered Saravana Bhavan...Boarded metro...switched at some points...ended up in some market...did some sweets shopping....came back by metro too...Was very impressed by the way things are planned at Delhi metro.....Thanks to metro,places where we need min 1 1/2 hrs...we were able to reach in just under 10 mins....Eagerly waiting for the Bangalore metro to kickoff.....

Then boarded Rajdhani to Bangalore....good experience it was for 40hrs in Rajdhani.....Reached home by 11am on Jan 5th. From that point started our usual Bangalore routine starting with WFH......Next day newspapers read...."One of the coaches of Rajdhani caught fire when it was moved to some cleaning place"...that was the same Rajdhani we had travelled in.......Also there was photos of fresh snow in Dalhousie flashed in almost all the newspapers....It had just snowed after we left:(

Snaps:

Himalayan Trek

All set to hit the snow!

Its Recession time and as part of cost cutting measures, cisco has asked us to go on mandatory PTOs from 25th Dec to Jan 5th.

Thanks to our visionary Abhinav, who had forseen[;)] this and planned for Winter Trekking at Dalhousie. Am quite excited to see new places, meet new pple and experience nature at its best!. The pic below gives our schedule (courtesy Abhinav)

Merry X'mas and a very Happy New Year for all folks who stumbled upon this post. Cya soon!