13th February 2013

Summer Heat, Indian History, Afsal Guru, Interview Blues and the list goes on and it was taking a toll on my peace of mind. I wanted to fly away and listen to the sound of my inner soul, connect to mother nature and feel Bliss.

During my lunch i had this inner call, "Okay Happy take your Shehzaadhi, lets ride to Bonocaud".
Bonocaud...!!! Seriously?
Why am i thinking so much? Is this because of the thing called Maturity? I am or was crazy about Traveling. I never think so much on traveling to a new place and exploring.

Step-Out. Explore. Discover. That is the Mantra.

14:30 Hours
Next thing i know is Shehzaadhi and I are riding towards Boncaud via Nedumangad and Vithura.
After Vithura it was a lonely ride ahead for another 8 kilometers, just saw a few houses and people, then i reached the forest Check-post at Vazhuvanthol. From here on we start climbing the hill through hair-pin curves and Forest cover. The ride was spooky and scary as i was riding alone and the journey reminded me of the movie "The Blair witch project". I could hear the sounds of birds chirping, the rustling of leaves, the thump of my bike and My Heart-beat. From the Check-post to Bonacaud its a 10 km ride which takes around 25-30 minutes to reach. About 2 years back Karthik, Sri and I came to Vazhuvanthol waterfalls and also tried to visit Bonacaud, but because of Mist and Downpour the visibility was poor and we had to return back halfway through.

After a few minutes past 4 i reached the village named Bonacaud. I stopped by the tea-shop which is the first building welcoming us to the village. The Shop looks more or less like an antique museum with those big old fashioned glass-jars, few packets of some unknown snacks, muffins (Looks like that). I spotted a few men inside the tea-shop having idli and sambar, from their costumes i could tell that these guys had come there to trek to Agasthyakoodam. [FYI: Bonacaud is the last stop till which vehicles are allowed; from here on you have to trek all the way to Agasthyakoodam]

And i decided to have a tea, While the Tea was getting prepared i had a casual chat with the guy who was hungrily eating up the idlis as if he hasnt eaten anything for days! He told me about the Old Factory ahead, which is worth photographing. Within 2-3 minutes my tea was served and Oh God! I realized people running the Tea-Shop has no intention of making "Happy Customers". I gulped the tea and set off toward the factory.

On the way to the factory i spotted a few villagers who looked like tamilians, even the man who was running the tea-shop had a slight tamil slang in his malayalam. I also spotted the Bonacaud's very own post-office. As i rode towards the factory, i was expecting an old abandoned, spooky building. When i reached the factory it had all the elements what i had visualized in my head with lots of posters of political parties, flags, slogans. Just another victim of aggressive election campaign. Then i saw a man, in his 40s, listening to a group of people ( i guess the factory employees). I walked around the place and discovered that the Factory has a name, "Mahavir Plantations Limited". I spend a few minutes around the factory, clicked few pictures and returned back to Tea-Shop. I had to collect the balance money of the tea i gulped, later i thought i'll have one more tea. While the man was making Tea, i enquired about the place and for how long he has been running the shop

                         

Bonacaud, is a Tea-Estate established by Britishers. Tea-shop owner's grandfather was the first generation that worked in the tea-estate, the tea-shop owner is more than 60 years old now. His son had moved out in-search of better life and better opportunities. But he is still living in this place which is the only world he knows. There are around 200 people living in Bonacaud now. Most of them older folks, the third generation workers. The younger lot has moved to green leaving behind their older folks. They are still attached to something here. They dont even have basic facilities like clinic, doctor, school, or a proper shop.. By the looks of the ruined buildings, Bonacaud looks like a Ghostly town. Truly Bonacaud is a world disconnect from The world.

                          

Once i finished my second cup of Tea, it was around five and it was getting darker. And it was wise to start off early. Ride back was a pleasant one. My mind was more clear now, though filled with lot of thoughts, but it was more like a canvas with a beautiful painting.

Bonacaud is dying. Once upon a time Young Men and Women came here with dreams and Made the dreams of the Britishers into a reality. Can sense that the souls of these people are still living here embracing the past.

I bid good bye to this estate promising my return one day...

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Today 12 kids from Sree Chitra Home, were taken to write Navodaya's Entrance Examination. For the past few days i have been around and saw the volunteers working so dedicatedly. I can see how much effort has been put in the past months to equip these kids for the exam. These people are truly inspiring.

I went along with the kids to the exam center. One of the kids, Rahul, was writing the exam in English;  the rest in Malayalam. So Rahul had to sit in a different class, away from the rest of the lot. So Rahul and I went to the allotted classroom.

We still had half an hour for the commencement of the exam. All the kids came along with their parents. Some of the parents were still feeding their kids with information, some having casual talks, some consoling the kids. With each movement of the hands of the clock we were going through a turmoil of emotions and thoughts. I couldnt tell what was going through his mind, he was silent. May be this was the first time that he had been left alone with a room full of strangers. His face was blank and My Mind was blank.

Fear, loneliness, Tension what was he feeling?
It was making me weak and flashes of each of the exams and interviews i ha attended alone were appearing in my head. Was he going through the same emotions i had gone through?!
I didnt know how to handle the situation but i made sure that i was with him till the exam started.

Wish i could cry

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It was around 6 in the morning, i was inside my cottage at Kanthaloor, sipping the hot cup of coffee prepared from fresh milk from a near by farm. It was so cold and misty outside, creating a mysterious feeling inside me. I couldnt confine myself in the comforts of the luxurious cottage, my heart was aching to break the shackles and fly into the wild. So that i can be with the nature, smell the scent of newly bloomed flowers, feel the mist, listen to the sounds of nature and become part of the nature. I didnt have a second thought, put on a warm jacket grabbed my camera and i stepped out...

All i needed was one step forward...

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Its been over two years and six months since i last blogged.
Since then a lot has happened in my life!
Even Happy Nuts has undergone changes and has matured.

Writer's block kept me away from blogging initially, though i tried getting back but later i gave up.
Photography may be another reason why i stopped blogging.

This return was totally unexpected and unintentional. Not sure for how long i am going to blog!

But then Happy is BACK in the blogger's world.

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nenjukkulle

omma mudinjirukken

nenjukkulle

omma mudinjirukken

inga yethisaiyil

empozhappu vidinjirukko?

Seriously?! Is this the after effect of listening to the song over and again! Half asleep i was tossing and turning in my bed to get a few more minutes of good sleep. Thanks to Munna for pressuring me to finish up the "MAD Student of The Year" poster which kept me awake till midnight...!!! Giving up i decided to wake-up and have another awesome day ahead!

After the normal morning chores i went on to perform the most important morning duty of a netizen i.e to check FB,Gmail and Twitter! Owing to continuous traveling and lack of sleep, was lacking that drive. Which eventually led to me getting late for the class.

Getting on to main-road, i found the usual peak hour traffic and as usual i drove fast through the empty right-side moving past the vehicles which were slowly moving along the left side of the road (no i wasnt driving in America :P) not expecting any vehicles to come along MY WAY and the unexpected happened! Two ladies in a spark came along and i was definitely blocking their way, breaking the law. They kept making gestures cursing me and one woman was staring at me as if i  had called her out for a cup of coffee ;) I kept staring at her as i slowly sneaked into a gap and joined the normal traffic crowd and carried on my journey.
Getting late means you loose your usual parking lot! Had to park the car in a new place and ran for the statistics class. After the Statistics and Economics class most of the classmates decided not to sit for the afternoon's chemistry class, not because of the subject being boring but because of the heavy load of previous two sessions!!!

Me and a my fellow classmate were walking towards my car and were talking on some global issues and BANG!
My car's wing shield broken...!!!
Well a coconut, gravity and height of the fall is a deadly combination.Glass pieces were scattered inside the car, damn last week only got the interiors cleaned and the exterior waxed!
Let me alone know the rest of the miseries.

"Knowing a wrong information is more dangerous than an unknown information"
Yesterday, I passed on a wrong information to my PR Head, Munna, that Sonia Gandhi was visiting Trivandrum next week and which led to the PR Team (Including me) planning up for a big event- Mrs.Gandhi meeting our MAD kids and we started working out our options to put forward our proposal to Mrs.Gandhi. So we called up one of our old madster, Rahul (who is a big gun in Kerala Congress) to convey our proposal.
Today we came to know that the information was false and by then Rahul had reached the office of some big shot of Kerala Congress. We tried contacting him to let him know the fact, but we couldnt reach him! Damn! Both me and munna were ringing him up! After few minutes he calls back and says that before meeting the big shot he came to know that the information was wrong and a big embarrassment was avoided!
THANK GOD! We didnt inform National Team or JR about the event, else it would have been a total mess!!!

Things Happen for a reason!

So Move ON...
Tomorrow is going to be an Awesome Day :)

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This Love season Happy Nuts is presenting before you a CHAPTER from the love story of Laila & Majnu.

Laila: The most beautiful lady in her Kingdom & was a Damsel. In my words a HOT CHICK. She lived in a fortress surrounded by Berlin wall & to enter the Forbidden fortress one have to cross the Acacia Forest.


Majnu: The prince of SILICON VALLEY and a GEEK. But was in deeply love with our Laila.


Several days before the Season of Love arrived

Majnu was in a dilemma how to express his love towards Laila And Laila on other hand never spared time for him...!!! Finally an idea got decoded in his brain. He bought a parrot from the market for 500 bucks. But Majnu had to travel a lot to find the DESTINED BIRD.

He caged the bird in a GOLDEN CAGE & named it Laila. He cared it like his own baby & fed her tomatoes which were specially handpicked from the VEGETABLE SHOP. One fine day something unbelievable happened the bird talked, but only one word LAILA, this happened beacuse of our Majnu's passion & love. With few more days effort from Majnu's part the bird talked three more extra words I LOVE YOU.

The Season of love arrived

On the V-DAY our Majnu set forth on a journey towards the fortress to gift the birdie to Laila. After crossing the Acacia forest and reaching the Berlin wall, Majnu was stopped by the Knight's who guarded the Forbidden fortress. (No prince is allowed to enter the fortress) But our Majnu got a help from another princess, who lived in fortress and was a friend of Laila, and at 6:30PM she handed over the Birdie in the golden cage to Laila.

The princess' cant leave the Forbidden fortress after 6:30 PM & Majnu knew that the Birdie could at least spent one night inside the Forbidden fortress. But with the help of other princess' Laila got rid of the birdie and the birdie was thrown into the acacia forest. The birdie fell infront of the four legged beasts that inhabited the acacia forest, but luckily the Knight's rescued the birdie before it got barbecued.

The Knights felt pity for the birdie & Hung the cage in front of the Witch's room. The Witch was the Guardian Angel of all the princess' in the Forbidden fortress. Laila and her friends got annoyed on seeing the Birdie Infront of the Witch's room. Laila & her friends met The Witch & explained How and why the Birdie came into the Forbidden Fortress & requested to get rid of the Birdie or else it will be reminding Laila about Majnu.

After listening to all this The Witch said: The Birdie is not going anywhere and she stays here...
Now the Birdie is living happily inside the Forbidden Fortress Singing "Laila I love you... Laila I love you..."
Majnu is still living in a hope that one day Laila will understand his love

Love is always Patient and kind, its never jealous.
It is never boastful or conceited.
It is never rude or selfish.
It does not take offence and is not resentful.
Love is proof that there is an angel in everyone of us...
-A walk to Remember

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6th January, The day "Mozart of Madras" Allah Rakha Rahman, The Lebanese-American artist, poet & writer Khalil Gibran & My dear greatest FRIEND Seriene celebrate their birthday.

This year there was not much planning & programming for the surprise birthday party or any kinda celebration. But he came into class, which was a bit of surprise for me & got enough birthday bumps. By afternoon team ostinato had somehow decided to go out in the evening to celebrate the birthday.

Mr.Richard took charge of organizing everything & we met at PMG, near Richard's hostel. But we were in a "SITUATION" due to his lack of communication. But we resolved it soon & reached our destination "ALL SPICE", our newest hangout place. Again another "SITUATION", "THE BIRTHDAY CAKE", had to wait for one hour to get the cake...

So we decided to fill our tummies till the cake gets ready. After one & half hour the BIRTHDAY CAKE was ready & looked like we cant finish the cake by ourselves so we decided to cut it at "TEMPLE", Seriene's house. So me & Richard went in Activa & Seriene and Ziyad left to take a bus.

8:30 pm, Me & Richard reached PONGAMOODU & a call came from my HOME asking me to get back HOME in 30 minutes, sheesh... spoiling our party. When i called Seriene to know their status, he said they are still walking towards Pattom from "All Spice". So i asked them to wait at PATTOM junction so that i can handover the cake to them.

As we reached PATTOM our plans changed... we decided to cut the cake at "THE PATTOM JUNCTION" itself... sounds crazy... so we plunged into the idea, another "SITUATION" arised there was no knife...!!! ZIyad said he will get it somehow & asked me & Seriene to wait. Richard & Ziyad set-out to fetch a knife, but Richard was so tensed thinking that our CRAZY IDEA will land us into trouble. Finally they came back after five-minutes with a knife... Ziyad came running holding a knife on his hand & an old man got frightened on seeing him. It looked like a PYSHCO running with a knife at the PATTOM junction. He got it from Baskin Robbins on a security of 100 bucks, he just entered the shop & explained the "SITUATION" but the shopkeeper was so reluctant to give, the 100 bucks played the trick & knife was in Ziyad's hand.

No candles & No cameras... The chocolate truffle cake on top of the Post-box... Four engineering students... A knife in hand... "Pattom Junction"... Nine at night... Wish the COPS could have also joined the party...!!!

Occasions like this never comes... So treasure those beautiful moments...

In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed- Khalil Gibran

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SERIENE
This one is dedicated to You...

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I am posting yet another tag just to BREAK THE ICE

A-Z of my life

1. A – Available/Single

Yeah... Very much single and available with experience.

2. B – Best friend?

Yeah a lot of them, but Best of Best are: Richard( My dear Gloria), Ziyad( Osti) & Seriene( Once upon a time PILGRIM but currently ROMEO)

3. C – Cake or Pie?
Cake, especially Black forest & Chocolate truffle


4. D – Drink of choice?
Hot cup of coffee & i prefer it while watching a beautiful rain outside sitting in a big couch.


5. E – Essential item you use every day?
Money...


6. F – Favorite color?
Blue


7. G – Gummy Bears Or Worms?
Gummy bears... better than taking worms


8. H – Hometown?
Ananthapuri

9. I – Indulgence?
Traveling, i love traveling a lot and taking pictures....

10. J – January or February?
February


11. K – Kids & their names?
I am still Single & Virgin.


12. L – Life is incomplete without?
Happiness & Love


13. M – Marriage date?
------------------------------------

14. N – Number of siblings?
One younger brother

15. O – Oranges or Apples?
Apples. When i was a young boy, my mother used to feed me apples daily & used to say " An apple a day keeps the doctor away"


16. P – Phobias/Fears?
Breaking Laws... Is there a phobia like this???


17. Q – Quote for today?
"An idle mind is a devil's workshop" thats why i m blogging right now...

18. R – Reason to smile?
Smile for NO REASON...

19. S – Season?
Spring


20. T – Tag 4 People?
Srivardhan, Dracuz, Drama Queen & Kavi chechi

21. U – Unknown fact about me?
Let them remain as unknown :P

22. V – Vegetable you don't like ?
Peas


23. W - Worst habit

Nail biting


24. X – X-rays you've had?
Only once, when i was in 3std i fractured my leg.


25. Y – Your favorite food?
North Indian & south Indian foods, especially spicy ones.


26. Z – Zodiac sign?
Cancer & I am a typical cancerian.

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All were eager to see the needles in their watches to reach 12:30Pm... Oh god... the tight scheduled seventh semester B.Tech exams came to a much awaited end... Phew...!!!

After a few scheduling, re-scheduling & planning we reached Kabab restaurant at pattom to take our lunch & celebrate the day. Me, Seriene, Richard, Osti , Melvin & Sandy. After the lunch we dropped Melvin at Hostel & had to pick up Noble, who was standing at the PMG Bus-stop after a big THEPP from Richard... lol...

Then we headed towards EASTFORT in Ostinato's very own wagon(My car). Reached EASTFORT & parked the car inside GANDHI-PARK & as we were heading towards the bus-stop... Seriene, Sandy & Richard ran on seeing the Low-floor bus...

Yeah the Newly introduced KSRTC's lowfloor bus, riding on it was our "PLAN OF THE DAY". Those guys ran like small kids running behind ice-cream vans...!!! By the time we managed to reach the bus-stop, there were two buses one going towards Technopark-Kanniyapuram & Other towards kowdiar, even though i wanted to take Kowdiar bus, others insisted to take the other bus. So without much arguments we entered the bus.

Bought tickets to Kanniyapuram, the last stop, for 38 bucks...!!! Me, Noble, Sandy & Osti stick to sit at front section(the low floor section) & Richard & Seriene moved to back seat(The upper section). On the way Mobin boarded from University, even though it was not a stop the conductor stopped the bus for us.

The Bus's worth 80 lakhs for that you can buy a Benz S-class, but you never expect such head-turning. Everybody's eyes are on the bus, from the small kiddies, ladies, motorists, old people each & everyone on the road cant take eyes out of the bus. Yeah the bus has "THE ENVY" factor, no wonder a KSRTC bus tried to hit the bus intentionally(FOR more details read METRO MANORAMA) .

The bus drove through university, GH junction, detoured from pallimukku towards Kannanmoola, through Medical college, ulloor, sreekaryam, Technopark & Finally reached kanniyapuram.

On the way at ulloor, the bus had a narrow escape from getting scratched, but an alto car had to face that brutal faith...!!!

We the reliable engineers on-board were closely examining & evaluating this engineering marvel from VOLVO. Starting from Driver's dashboard, it has almost all the controls of the bus. A camera at the rear, at the entrance, the clarity of the video is simply awesome. Infact it has the features of a luxury car on the dashboard. The seats are very comfortable, audio system, display panel etc... Should give 10/10 for the accessories in the bus. The conductor & bus driver were also friendly, they were sharing their experience in the new bus & was talking about the bus fares & all. For hospitality also 10/10.

From kanniyapuram we bought tickets back to EASTFORT. The bus started after a 10 minutes halt. The return journey was so romantic as it was raining outside. You can feel as if you are traveling in a SUV. The journey from kanniyapuram to Eastfort was 1 hour long. As per the conductor there are enough commuters in the bus all the time & 25% of people are like us who board to experience this new journey. As the bus is air-conditioned you wont feel tired even after a 2 & half hour journey...!!!

Better catch a seat infront, its like the business class with regard to comfort.

USP: Redefining city bus travel...

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The gate was wide open & i was sitting inside the car. Just returned home & was getting out from the car. It was almost 8:15pm. There was no one in the road & KSEB street lights were flickering forming that extra topping to the Night scene.

I saw something moving into my car shed through the wide open gates. It was pitch black in color. I recognized the creature as it slowly came near to me. It was the black stray dog from my neighborhood, which has become a menace. It has already bitten many people & kids in my neighborhood. I slowly ran to backside of the car & searched for something big & heavy, finally my eyes caught a broken piece of brick & i didnt waste much time thinking. I Ran towards the beast, when the beast saw me with a brick in my hand. He realized what is going to happen next & ran away...

I threw the brick with maximum acceleration & BULLS EYE... it hit the beast with great precision...!!! Bingo...!!!

Happy saves the Neighborhood from the beast...!!!

Next day Morning...

When i got out of my house to take the newspaper, i saw that someone has messed up the garden & its evident that it has been done by a dog... The wounded beast has returned...The beast is still alive & has returned for vengeance...

& he has taken revenge on my slippers. One of the slipper is still missing... :(

Will he return???
Anyway his end will be in my hands... muhahahahahahaha...

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