Travelogue - Langkawi

2010 August 6, 2000 hrs:

Amidst the bustling streets of Little India me and my friend kapil converted 500 SGD to 1160 RM (Malaysian Ringgits) and headed our way to the beach bay looking for bus tickets to Kuala Lampur (KL, Malaysia). Our dreams of Langkawi almost crashed when we found that there are no more tickets available.

Later, we decided to reach Johor Bahru (JB) and find a bus to KL. In the pursuit of happiness, we found a bus and eventually we ended up stepping ourselves in JB and further to Larpin. well, wait a sec… Have I said we need to board bus from JB… well I was wrong. We gotta board a bus from Larpin to KL. This is our first trip to Malaysia and loads more to learn.

The next step in our life is what I call “Awesome… Amazing…” We took a bus to KL from Larpin @ 0000 hrs and within 5 mins a police car stopped the bus :) They escorted our bus royally back to the same Larpin bus stand where we started. Well, the next 30 mins passed with no improvement and there was a sudden change of driver. The passengers are unaware of what’s going on. We started our journey afresh @ 0030 hrs.

We dozed off thinking that it will take only 4 hrs from Larpin to KL. But, we were very wrong. The bus driver covered only half the distance @ 0330 hrs. We are f*****!!!!

Remember, we have a flight to catch in KL LCCT @ 0730 hrs and the bus can go till KL central. The usual distance by any means from KL Central to KL LCCT will take about 1.5 hrs. Then, a guardian angel disguised as a passenger in the bus saved us by instilling the thought of taking a cab from serampan which en routes KL Central.

We got down from the fastest bus and took a cab to KL LCCT @ 0530 hrs. The cab driver was very friendly and took us in a jungle route where he claimed that wild bores are often seen. We didn’t get a chance to encounter that either :P

He reached a top speed of 120 kms which is enough to get ourselves parked in KL LCCT 2 hrs before the journey. We made it at last and the trip is alive!!! We got the boarding pass and started our way towards Marrybrown, which is one of my favourites back in India to much some breakfast.

First camera click @ MarryBrown

2010 August 7, 0800 hrs:

Before the Touch down, I peeped outside the window to find tiny islands scattered along the bay. I felt like watching Jurassic park scene in reality. Awesome!!!

The most interesting part of the journey was that we hired a proton sedan type car for 150 RM (3 days) As you guys know I am a car fanatic, I actually wanted to try the car firsthand when its delivered. But, kapil grabbed the key and took it first. I was a little upset but yea no problem :) A friend in need is a friend in deed.

We had a map and traced our route to  Zackry Guest house where we booked a room online for just 11 SGD. We had difficulty in finding it But, its worth the wait.

Its lame if I don’t mention about the guest house. Its warm, homely and great. They have a communal area where you can watch TV, cook, drink blah blah. The best thing about Zackry’s is their “Honesty system Billing” where you gotta fill the items you used before you check-out. You will be billed accordingly for what you have filled :) I just love it. It gives you a home-like feeling especially when you make your own coffee or breakfast and clean things up for others to use. The price of a two bed room is just 210 RM for 3 days. They do provide wi-fi for free with a decent download speed of 100 KBps… what more i can ask for in a holiday. I am in the Zackry’s communal area when I am typing this. I could see many Europeans having their breakfast @ 1200 hrs and planning for a BBQ on Sunday. We are having plans of going to Snorkelling, Jet skiing, mangrove forest ride, canoy ride, breathtaking 133 feet sea bungee… phew!!! the list is never-ending.

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Part-2

2010 August 7, 1300 hrs:

Fortunately, the time was not moving fast. We had a sense of one whole day passed-by but the clock just ticked 1300. Pretty good!!! We refuelled ourselves in “The Mumbai Palace” apparently run by Pakistanis. It is this time I understood why kasab was closely related to mumbai attacks :P May be, may be not!!!???? whatever, we had great food there especially their north indian delights. Yummmm…

Also I tried my hands in DSLR manual mode for the first time.

 

A wrong turn from the palace took straight to Beach Garden Resort and to the beach behind.

 

We saw tourists involved in paragliding and jet skiing. Kapil negotiated with the person in-charge and finally decided to strap the buckle @ 320 RM for two persons (paragliding and water skiing)

Below are some of the pictures taken in the beach:

Paragliding:

Negotiation – Fair deal

 

Kapil with the gears on…

 

There he goes!!!

A perfect Take off….

But, a bad landing. There are so many parts in the body and he chose this one to land. Ouchh… this would have hurt him.

 

This is my turn to feel the adrenalin pump and excitement.

 

Ready…

I later realized that I had my slippers on :P

Actually believe me I was singing “My dream is to fly over the rainbow so high…” song.

 

 

This is called a “Perfect landing”. Nothing special, Unlike my friend,  I chose my legs to land :p

JET SKIING:

We then decided to jet ski with a whooping 1500 CC engine. This was more exciting and thrilling when you go against the waves and the jet jumps in air and water gets splashed all over you when you touch down. Waaaaooo…

This is our monster.

We are then back to our homely guest house. I had my hair cut done kudos to the hair dresser who spent nearly an hour to turn me back to a human being :)

Its 1900 hrs and kapil is still sleeping and also started snoring :(

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This trip to Langkawi was a special and a memorable one!!! With this I’m ending this travelogue…

Toshiba Recruitment Talk @ NTU

It all started with a mail invitation for the Recruitment Talk by Toshiba Inc , Japan.

As usual, It started from a registration desk and some guides/freebies about Toshiba corporation and Life @ Japan was given and we made our way towards LT19 (LT – Lecture Theatre).

My expectation was high and peppy when I saw too many heads inside the hall and eventually faded with some hilarious, irritating replays of Toshiba’s profile in the main screen that too in Japanese :(

I happened to browse the freebies given in the bag to find a sheet which displayed the salary to be 2,30,000 Yen per month. for the undergrads and a infinitesimally small increase to it for Masters and PhD graduates. It was also mentioned in the sheet about the 60,000 Yen room rent per month and 20% – 30% of the salary will be deducted as Tax by the Japan Government.

I then started with a simple calculation.

Salary in hand per month = 2,30,000

Room rent per month      =    60,000

Tax (assume 30%)           =    35,000

Monthly Expense             =    50,000

   Remaining amount Left    =   80,000 Yen = 40,000 INR = 1100 SGD

Is it really worth going to Japan to work for Toshiba Inc with three years bond? Think and act wisely.

A Dumb Idea!!!???

I sometimes wonder how a nerd’s brain think. How about a computer without a mouse? Do you really think I am going to talk about the touch screen technology? No ways… I am here to propose a new idea… well may be not… But this is new to me at least…

Think of a computer which can be controlled by your hand gesture through your existing webcam? Am i talking about the Gesture Recognition here? Yes, Kind of… But I haven’t seen any existing software available in the world to make your mouse pointer follow your finger tip when you show it to the webcam.

It is absolutely feasible if you are a computer vision engineer. As I did my final UG project in the area of image processing and computer vision. I better ask my brother who is a researcher @ IIT madras about it…

Just wanted to share this with you all. Also, let me know if you find any software which closely resembles the way it works like the above mentioned idea.

Worst Nightmare – Test Ground @ NTU!!!

We struggled hard as me and other friends went through the slides before exam as usual. I finally found that everything was a mere waste of time. we though it’s just a quiz which will constitute 10% of our final CGPA grade, antagonistically the question paper itself ran for 6 pages but the time given to answer the question was a mere 1.25 hrs. OMG!!! It literally ripped my a** off!!!

The paper had no ‘what is what’ question. I’m pretty sure that a paper of such standard cannot be completed even with the help of internet and books. Mind you, to add spice in the savour this test was declared ‘closed-book’ . Well, I can’t take more than this.

I finally scribbled something to match the proximal answer and finished the test. It is no where compared to the Anna University question paper, for that I am damn sure.

I am wondering, if people here can set question papers in such standards for the supposedly easy subject like software analysis, design and development, Is the worst nightmare yet to come for the other toughest subjects ahead???!!!

The boy with the striped pyjamas

 

My friend Prasath and I share common interests in many areas in life and one such is film / cinema. We apparently had a chat yesterday in GTalk and he told me about this new film “The boy with the striped pyjamas” which he saw and weeped for two hours. At first, I thought that this movie is like a yet another teen movie as it sounds like that. But, I was wrong.

 

I started watching this movie and eventually got myself glued to that. OMG… Finally I had the satisfaction of watching another very good movie and yes, it was very poignant movie and kindled my emotions towards the end. I recommend this movie for all movie buffs who shares the same interest of watching movies like ‘A Beautiful Mind’, ‘Life is beautiful’ or ‘Shawshank redemption’ etc. If you like these film then you will add this film also in your most favourite movie. You can’t stop weeping after this… such a wonderful movie.

 

The movie is about a young boy of 8 who was asked to come out of Berlin where he had a good life with his friends around in school. The reason is that his father is a German higher official and he was promoted to another post in a different city in Germany.

The film’s cinematography is awesome and every character has its importance. This boy loves to explore a lot and he finally finds a camp where Jews were imprisioned. He slowly gets acquainted with a Jew young boy of his age and becomes a very good friend. Betrayal, Guilty consciousness and subtle emotions were really taken care off. Watch and feel the movie…. Finally, you will have the satisfaction of watching a good movie.

I’m bored!!!

It’s Saturday and the climate is gloomy. Scratching my ass to make time move faster. It’s not unusual as so many of us would have encountered this kind of boredom :(

 

I started off with singing Pain White T’s 1234 – I love you song. You can listen to this version below.

 

Download DJ VJ - Plain White T's 1234

 

Lyrics can be found in the webpage given above.

Please comment here.

Robotics for Surgery!!!

Robotics has come a long way. The recent technologies help doctors to make surgery remotely.

A pill which the patients swallows can actually swim inside your stomach and reach the destination through proper guided robotic pills. Amazed!!! Even, these pills can be actually made to combine together to form a large robot which can be controlled.

Wait for more, why bothering about your doctor’s absence? Worry not!!! anymore.