Folks, this blog has moved to Wordpress. No offense meant to Blogger, I just needed to start over. So those of you who still do visit this page, please redirect your browsers HERE.

I'm sure everyone had a wonderful New Year's Eve bash and here's wishing you a very Happy New Year from my side.

My New Year celebration was good. I was in Pondicherry on the rocky beach with fireworks in the background and drunken dudes and racy Tamil music around me. The first minute into the New Year was pretty scary because everyone on the beach went crazy. While some hugged and kissed others find some peculiar ways of celebrating. A bunch of guys would jump on you out of nowhere screaming and running and only after they pass by do you realize that they were actually wishing you but in their own way (they were pretty scary). We actually planned to ride out to Pondy on our bikes but sadly that wasn't possible so we had the Indian warhorse - Tata Sumo to rely on. Travel tip: Auroville which is about 10kms from the main city is an interesting place to visit more because of what it signifies rather than the place itself. We ended up visiting twice because the first time around we weren't allowed inside. For beach people Pondy is a major disappointment. There are only two beaches of repute - Rocky beach and Auro beach. Rocky beach is exactly that, rocky. I mean it's more of a corniche rather than a beach and it's a place you can walk along not a place where you jump into the water. Auro beach is pretty decent but my only standards for comparison are the beaches in Goa and there Auro beach fails miserably. So if you are actually looking to do beach stuff, Goa is definitely the place to go. What I found nice in Pondy is the relaxed atmosphere and European feel. If the weather had been a little cooler, it would definitely seem like a quaint town in Europe to me.

Coming into the New Year I have realized some things.

I need to work out and soon. Otherwise I am going back to the times of my school days where I set record highs. So one of my resolutions would be to join a gym foremost and then workout at least 4 hours a week to start out with.

I need to realize where I am going in life. I need some more education under my belt but what I can't figure out is what kind. I mean do I want to do an MBA, if so from where? Do I want to pursue something else abroad? Yes, but what I have no clue. I better figure this one out quick.

I need to plan my money because it's the time to start doing the taxes. There are so much of technicalities involved that I will have to dig deep. Hopefully this will be an interesting and informative experience.

I need to get a place of my own. I love staying with friends and stuff but having something of your own is unbeatable.

I also need better office timings. I work from 10:30 am to 8:30 p.m. and this leaves me with no time to do other stuff like say meet friends who are in town or visit people etc. I don't see much happening on this front for the time being though.

Hmm.... it feels nice to list out things you need to accomplish. It's easy to write bulleted list but getting them done is a damn. Let's see what 2007 has in store.

Alert: Jan 7th 2007, is the day of the Macworld Expo in San Francisco and being an Apple Freak this is something I have my eyes glued on. For a taste of what's in store this is what Apple's teaser had to say "The first 30 years were just the beginning. Welcome to 2007."

Jan 7th is also the day of the Indian Bike Expo being held in Delhi. Hopefully there will be some new launches and announcements that I can look forward to.

I have 10 drafts in the last 2 months and I can't think of posting one of them. I was never much of a writer anyways and things have got even more worse.

I might as well shut down this blog. Another two months to think on that huh!

It's not that I have not had the time to blog, its just that I have been way too lazy to put up something. I think it's been almost two weeks since I put up a post. There have been various events and occurrences during this time which this post would surmise.

• My bike has crossed 1000 kms. So now I can ride above 50 kmph and be a little reckless as well with it. But the maximum that I have been able to reach on B'lore's roads is 70kmph.
• We had an office outing last week to celebrate the fact that we are now a 500 strong company. It was a nice event held in a resort on the outskirts. The so called 'team-building' games were a pain in the ass but the employee performances and the DJ which followed more than made up for it. Overall it was a better way of spending Saturday rather than loll around at home.
• My bean bag got delivered last Saturday so my ass has been getting first class treatment for the last week or so. It's very comfortable to sit on and just watch TV the whole day. Basically get as lazy as you can. And it doesn't really cost a fortune. Definitely affordable.
• Last Sunday also marked the coming of age of Kimi Raikonnen. He has just moved from McLaren to Ferrari and probably made the best decision in his life. This means that starting next season, I will have to support the red team and will officially become Tifosi. Something which I will have to get used to.
• Last weekend also marked the first time that I was in the office over the weekend. There were some issues which needed to be handled. My manager was very polite and asked me if I could come for some time on Sunday. I just couldn't say no to him and there I was working at the office on a Sunday. Not all that bad since I didn't have anything planned for the day.
• The previous weekend also marked the first xbhp meet that I had been to. And it was absolutely wonderful. I will dedicate a post to it soon with some pics also. Watch out!
• Plans are being made for the month end. A 4-day weekend is in the offing and GOA seems to be the destination. And a lot of people from a lot of places seem to be coming together. This could be our first reunion after leaving college. I am just hoping and praying that things work out.

New post at The ISM Blog.

My latest post on Bangalore Metblogs.

This post is dedicated to my new bike, the TVS Apache. She's about 500 kms old right now and riding well, very well.

Here are a few pics:

P.S. It was really painful deciding on which bike to buy and I have done a lot of research and in the process discovered some really nice portals on the net which are really awesome. One of them is MouthShut. People write a lot of reviews out here and detail their experiences with various products. Since it's a public forum, you have to be careful about which reviews seem authentic and which are bogus. But its a place you must check out before buying anything.

Another site which totally impressed me was Xbhp.com, a site dedicated to bikers in India. Their forums are very active and any query or trouble that you have get replies within minutes. I trust these guys more than my mechanics. So if you own a bike in India, this is a must visit for you.

The guys from Xbhp are also out on a Great Indian Road Trip which seems like such a wonderful idea. Their blog is updated here and here and makes for good reading.