Yelagiri trip photos

Had been to Yelagiri about a month back.

The name Yelagiri comes from the words "Yela(m)" (meaning auction in Tamil) and "Giri" (referring to a movie starring Action King Arjun). Probably.

Here are some pics from the trip. We had a nice 6 km trek at a place called Swami Malai at Yelagiri. Am not satisfied with the number of good clicks I made. But anyway, nice to be foto-blogging after quite some gap!

Lights in the bus

Campfire

Campfire - up close

Campfire again.
Not a perfect pic, someone is visible behind the fire which kinda spoils the effect.
But love this one cos the transience of the fire is visible!

During the trek.
Love this one cos of the various layers in the image,
each more faded than the ones at front, cos of mist.

One more image with layered clarity

Had taken this pic last year at Ooty with my mobile cam. Was a dream-come-true composition, but lack of image quality has always been irking me. (I didn't have a digicam back then)

Got a vaguely similar chance at Yelagiri this time! :)

Cattle grazing!
The scene is not as dramatic as in the other one though :(

Our trek path

Don't even know what this thing is.. And it's in real-life size here!!

View from the top

Some wild flowers

Was reminded of Clouds.bmp as I saw the sky :)

The only wildlife I could capture (apart from cows)

Pitter patter rain drops. On our windshield

Et tu, Brute?

Got a pleasant surprise a month back when I found that Mathi had tagged me. Apologies to her for delaying this one. As any conscientious blogger would clarify, this been lying in the drafts for quite sometime.

Tags are great cos they give us something to write about, which can be a huge relief when one is running a dry patch. But what is greater about them is that they give us a sense of security: if at all the post ends up drab, one can always pass the blame on to the originator of the tag. ("Such a dull tag it was, there was only so much I could do to make it interesting")

Anyway, this tag demands me to put up eight facts about myself. Here goes...

Fact 1: I have lived in 6 different places till date: Tirupattur, Sholinghur, Vellore, Coimbatore, Chennai, Bangalore

Fact 2: I love myself. A lot.

Fact 3: Realization is dawning upon me slowly: 8 is a BIG number, actually

Fact 4: Few of my material desires/targets in life: A BMW for my first car, A huge bungalow with a swimming pool right at the heart of Chennai, a library at home with full collections of PG Wodehouse and Calvin & Hobbes

Fact 5: And I placed fact 4 here so that I don't chicken out in the future :)

Fact 6: I have installed Google's "monetizing tool" on this blog (wink wink. Aint I being subtle?)

Fact 7: My room at home is like an outhouse without an attached bathroom. Everytime I want to relieve myself at nights, I need to encounter and defeat 6 doors

Fact 8: My all time favo movies: Saamy, Lagaan, Azhagiya Theeyae, Alaipayuthey, Sarkar, M Kumaran S/o Mahalakshmi, Anbe Sivam, Phone Booth, Independence Day, Baasha and a few more which I have forgotten now

Passing the tag to Martian Geek, Prabhu Ferrari, Desi and Knittins.

p.s.: The title is not in Latin. "Ettu" is Tamil for "Eight" and "Brute" is English for "Brute".

FC(uked)

I support reservations wholeheartedly.

However it is my sincere belief that we do not have enough quotas for everything as yet. So here is a humble request for bringing in additional quotas.

I am an FC guy. History proves beyond doubt that in the field of sports, people from my community have not performed well. Hmmmm.. Err... rather, people from my community have been discriminated against and have not been given enough opportunities to shine. So, I put forth the following requests to the Sports Ministry of the Government of India:

• In the athletic event of high jump, the bar should be lowered by anywhere from 6 to 12 inches for people from my caste
• In long jump, we should be allowed to run across the landing pit, instead of leaping over it
• We should be given iron balls half the stipulated weight in shotput. Or alternatively, we can be given rubber balls, along with a cannon for additional support
  
• In Javelin throw, our throws should be measured in inches, while those of people from other communities should be measured in miles. And the final result should be calculated from the numerals obtained thus
• We want motor support in running events
• We should be allowed to take diets consisting WHOLLY of performance enhancing drugs
  
• And we want 49.5% reservation in our Olympics squad

So how does that appear? Gross? Ridiculous? Ugly? That's what is happening with higher education in our country.

In principle, I am against ANY form of reservation. But if at all it needs to be there, it damn well not be on the basis of caste/community.

Financial status is a more sensible (to me) parameter.

And even more sensible is a rural-urban location based reservation. Cos the kind of educational opportunities that are available in our cities are far far more robust than those available in our villages. So if we want our truly backward masses to be thrust up, provide them good facilities for Godsake! And the "backward masses" referred to here are our rustic folk, irrespective of their caste and community.

Now don't tell me we don't have enough funds for all that. When we can set aside Rs 60,000 crore for temporary relief for our farmers, this can well be done.