I am now ready to watch the movie with a gang of friends to enjoy it completely. Since we have some diehard fans of few heroes, scenes and situations spoofed in the movie, it will be extremely entertaining for the rest.

During that fly-by, I happened to glance at a few interesting people and make some friends too. Some became an inspiration to me just during that glance. I will duly credit them when I succeed in my first step.

I have two things that I must do this year. I am starting out with a great determination, I hope to have this all through this year. I will be happy  even if I achieve 80% of these two. One, get in touch with most of my friends. We, well I have been following the same college stlye friendship of guys. We don’t talk much, meet much, call/text much, yet be there when needed, make every hangout, every email, every call as fun as possible. I think all of us have grown a little older and have to keep in touch to avoid the chores of our family lives swallow us. Next, I have keep my vigil on time and welcome everyday of this year. That will get me closer to my productivity bar.

Happy New Year everybody and my best wishes to succeed in all your goals this year.

All I can say is, “Hats off Mr. Cameron. I’m blown away. Wish I could get my space in pandora”. I am not hinting anything about the story. Go, get donned in 3D glasses and let the movie gobble you up. You’ll never regret.

Not just in the world of movies, even in the technology space I esteem Mr. Cameron. If you find time, watch movies my Mr. Cameron and keep the timeline in your mind. This guy has been directing/producing movies that bring technological breakthroughs for the past 2 decades. This movie uses a fusion camera system that he co-developed.

Well no wonder world is too complex…

Recently, I realized…If you don’t know if a person trusts you…most likely they don’t. Just follow your instincts.

It was a warm Saturday evening and we headed out for the concert. After some of my usual clumsiness, we were headed to our seats. The concert started 20 mins late, but it was a jaw dropping start. Never listened to Yaani live before…this was a meticulous mix of music, art and technology. Though I couldn’t understand most of the songs, I just enjoyed the music. His violinists were just unbelievable. I loved their solo stints during at various times during concert. Almost towards the end of the concert, someone from Peru in Yaani’s troop played harp. That was the first time I’ve seen someone play harp, but that brought back some memories of instruments I’ve seen in Poompuhar museum (near Tanjore).

Ancient Tamils represented stringed instruments as Yazh(யாழ்). There were may varieties of Yazh and I remembered seeing something similar to harp. So did some research on internet (this time on bing, not on google) and found that my recollection was indeed correct. Here is some information about Yazh in Tamil culture.

And, the concert ended with a nice piece of music named storm. Yes we were stormed by music for few hours in concert and for a few hours after that.

Thank you so much for all you’ve done Appa…Happy Fathers Day!!!

We were picked up at our resort and taken to the Air Kauai’s Front Office, given our instructions and some kind of belt. It was absolutely amazing, we took off quietly. As we flew over the island, we recognized the places that we went to and recalled their names. It was really good to get an aerial view of the island. We were taken to waterfalls where they shot Jurassic Park and locations were King Kong was filmed. And the best was yet to come. Last on the agenda for the Air Tour was flying over Napali Coast. It was absolutely stunning. The ridges, the thick forests and the multi-hued shades of pristine blue coast were a real sight to watch.

We then flew over Mt. Waialeale, which is the wettest spot on the island (even though they claim its wettest spot on earth). We were surrounded by several waterfalls on all sides. Clouds were lying low and moving fast, little droplets of water covering our helicopter, luscious greenery all over and immaculate flow of silver strands of water kept me pondering on how beautiful Mother Nature is. It was really a sight to remember and cherish. Even though the Air Tour was a bit expensive, we will highly recommend it to everyone. You can take the tour just to fly over Mt. Waialeale. Even if you hike in Napali, I am sure you will never to get see so many falls all at once.

After the gorgeous aerial view of the island, we checked ourselves out at the resort and went for Fern Grotto Tour. It was pretty interesting with the crew entertaining us with their hula moves and their Hawaiian songs. Fern Grotto by itself was pretty with exotic variety of plants grown there. After walking around, we were pretty hungry. We went back to the resort to get ourselves ready for the fight and the only option to have food was at the resort’s Thanksgiving Buffet. Food neither exotic nor bad. We filled our tummy with Corn bread, bread stuffing and beans casserole. Now that we were charged, we headed back to the airport and boarded our flight back home.

If you are looking forward to spend your vacation with less people, an open mind to explore nature, lots of sunshine and plenty of beaches - Kauai is the place to go. With its rustic charm and unperturbed beauty, there’s no better place to relax and rejuvenate your senses. There are lots of places which will be quite similar to Kauai, if you know of any please do let us know.

It was real fun to go deep into the forest and venture into the unknown. We stopped first at a small waterfall, took some pictures, cleaned up a bit before getting messier even more. We drove all through and stopped at a bigger waterfalls for lunch, while Ramesh and others decided to take a plunge in the cold water, I opted to just watch them even though others insisted that its fun. After lunch, we were heading back to the shed and we stopped at an area where several films were shot and most important of them all was “The Jurassic Park”. Our guide had a toy dinosaur and made us all pose as though we were chased by a huge Dino and we enjoyed teasing others on their pose and of course we had our turn too. The guide and the group with whom we drove along was real fun. Never been covered up with so much mud and dirt ever in my life. After a really long shower, we decided to head out and visit Kilaeu Lighthouse.

Kileau Lighthouse is located in a really scenic area of Kauai. I was impressed with the way, they maintained the whole area. After walking around for a bit, we headed to have some hot coffee and visit Opaekaa Falls which was pretty close to our resort. We wandered around the area expecting to see a big entrance sort of stuff to the Falls and alas there was none. We stopped over at a scenic spot, took some pictures and headed back to our resort. We had to pack our things as we were leaving Kauai the next day. We stopped over at Coconut Coast Mall to get souvenirs and some dinner.

Now with Air Tour plan cancelled, we started looking to do other activities in our 100 Fun things to do in Kauai. So cycling it was. With my poor balancing skills and several bruises that I acquired while learning to ride cycle; I managed to talk Ramesh into getting 2 seat tandem bicycle. It was real fun as we drove along the Coconut Coast enjoying the pleasant breeze and of course plenty of sunshine. We were done soon leaving us to wonder what to do next, so we decided to roam around aimlessly with no clear agenda and decided to stop where ever we wanted and exploring the island more. We drove North, stopped at Princeville for some hot coffee for me (Yeh I know I am weird - hot coffee in hot weather) while Ramesh ate ice cream at Lappert’s.

We drove all the way North, stopped at Hanalei Beach and other pretty places that came across. We visited Kilaeu Light House which closed by the time we went, so just walked around the area and drove back to Downtown Kapaa. We walked around and I zeroed in on “Blossoming Lotus” restaurant. I had hearty carrot ginger soup, which absolutely cleared my sore throat. It’s an Asian fusion organic vegan restaurant and the food was pretty good. I was taken aback seeing curry leaves in their dhal and the waitress explained that the chef uses authentic ingredients and minimal spices to bring out the best flavors in their food. I won’t deny that and we absolutely loved the food. And we ended the day by relaxing our muscles in hot spa.