Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Being a Left Hander :-)




Being a Left Hander:

I am a left hander or as Rocky would say ‘south paw’…my parents did not force me to change my natural inclination to use the left hand and I am thankful to them because I have met lots of people who are natural lefthanders but write using the right hand because of parental compulsions.

Let me high light some of the hassles faced by us south paws…..

Exams: Teachers think you are sitting and writing in this way just to look at someone’s answer sheet....in one exam the invigilator got convinced that i was writing with left hand just coz i could look into someone else's exam sheet.... ....only when he saw me writing very fast for around 5m did it convince him that i was a leftie!!!

Sitting in the examination hall is also a pain in the a** …During pre-degree we had 3 guys sitting on the same bench and I had a lot of trouble explaining to the teacher that I wanted to sit at the leftmost corner for others comfort and mine.

I use the 2 chair formula whenever possible, but during exams only limited chairs are allotted in the hall, so in the end when i need comfort the most, i lose out.....people see me doing stretching exercises in the exam....

Food: When eating with someone new I always get the question "Left hander, eh? what’s wrong with ur right hand ? " … nowadays though, people are more accepting ......

i have had well meaning waiters/unknown persons/ people over 50, come up to me and ask what happened to my right hand ...some people stare at my right hand to as if scanning for any visible signs of deformity/ surgery...its worse during marriage receptions....you get lot of older generation crowd who cant believe that my parents let me eat with my left hand! Some even ask my parents y didn’t they correct me when I was small...of course I never felt bad...

Also while taking seats in a party/restaurant etc i make sure i sit on the left most corner....

Using Scissors: Difficult.....but now i have mastered it a bit....

To be honest, even when I see a left hander writing/eating, I feel odd for a sec or two and then realize it’s just another leftie :-)

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Munnar Hills


Munnar Hills, originally uploaded by monu joy.

Location : Cemetery , CSI Church (from where, the picture was taken)

This is the view from the cemetery just above our hostel…..my Engg college (CEM) is situated at the middle of the first row of thickly wooded hills. The glistening hillside behind was spectacular that day and I immediately shot it!

The cold mountain air, the crystal clear sky, the shinning tree foliage….ah! Those were the good old days!

Munnar Hill Side


Munnar Hill Side, originally uploaded by monu joy.

Location : Mulakkada, Old Munnar.

I lived near this place for the last 1.5 yrs i spend in Munnar. We used to live in a two roomed row house which had no space after all the beds were placed inside... :-)

The road leads to ' Letchmi Estate ' and is not advisable for travel during the night due to random Elephant sightings!

The villagers’ burn rubbers tires and throw at the elephants so that it sticks to them and burns....sad what man can do to such gentle creatures.

Anyway this road was used for my random ' from today i will begin jogging' mornings jogs....It used to be so cold that the moisture in the air you exhale condenses and wets ur nose....i agree, its not a nice feeling....my friends used to kid that only i could jog at such temperatures.

Munnar hill side after 5 minutes

Location : Mulakkada,Old Munnar

This is the same hill side shown in the post above. The picture was taken after a gap of 5 min and just look how the colour changed !

On another day i saw 4/5 distinct colour changes but i could not take pics as my room mate,Gymman, was helping with a tough Electronic paper the day before the exam...

Old munnar


Old munnar, originally uploaded by monu joy.

Location : Old Munnar

This is the view of the ‘old munnar ’ area taken in front of the CSI church.
This small town was our ‘hangout place’ during weekends.

Fact : there are no theatres in Munnar at present !!!

When I joined my college (College of Engineering Munnar, CEM) there were two theatres. One of them was converted into a hostel to accommodate our juniors (we were the first batch) . The second theatre, Pankajam, was recently broken down . Not sure if a new one is coming up.

Now to a random tourist, I know, this ain’t the matter of life and death ; but that’s not the case of college students living here for 4 years :-).

Luckily, due to lots of trekking / picnicking options in and around Munnar, we never missed the things people take for granted in a metropolitan city.

Leaving munnar


Leaving munnar, originally uploaded by monu joy.

This is the road after the Gap connecting Munnar with Theni.

Munnar rock climbing place


Munnar rock climbing place, originally uploaded by monu joy.

Location : Gap Road,Munnar

This is the rock face i wrote about in the previous post on the way towards 'Gap'

Classic munnar


Classic munnar, originally uploaded by monu joy.

Date : June 11,2004
Location : Gap road near Devikulam.

This picture was taken during a trip to Gap which is a place of great scenic beauty near Munnar. A road was build through the mid section of a huge rock and hence the name ‘Gap’. The steep climb up is of great beauty as on the left side you get the view of the ever rolling tea estates of Munnar. On your left is a large flat rock face frequently used for rock climbing. The road connects Munnar to Theni in Tamil Nadu (90 kms). At the top the road is flanked by the rock face on both sides. After this, the road begins to descend and you get another spectacular view on your right side, this time consisting of large agriculture tracks and semi wooded areas.

During my college days we frequently used to take this route to watch the sunset @ Gap and also to visit Anaerankal Dam (means, the dam where elephants come!)

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Munnar's Beauty


Munnar Tea, originally uploaded by monu joy.

Hi,
With this post i am starting my entry to the ever growing world of blogsphere....initially i had toyed with the idea of starting a text blog.....was in a confusion whether to start a named or an anonymous one as both had their own pros and cons.....in the end decided to start a photo blog since this would be the perfect union of two of my passions: Photography n Connecting with people!

As my first entry, i am posting this picture of the beautiful hill station of Munnar….i have spend around four years of my life here and as the cliché goes, “Life was never the same again ” !

Location : Munnar – Devikulam road, Munnar,Kerala
Date : 25/4/2004

This picture was taken at the end of a great bikers journey through the hills of Munnar…My friends Binu , Naveen , Mahesh were with me. We were merely passing by and the moment I saw the setting sun bathing the ever green sea of Tea Gardens with its golden light , I knew I would be getting great shots here….i took a lot of pictures here with my friends, many of which were so good that people asked whether I retouched / edited them !