The Life aheadPersonal Blog of Ratish Naroor

Its been sometime I went for a trek .My friend Sriram Sreenivasan and myself decided to trek towards the Karnala Fort .We started at 9 am from Nerul station towards Panvel .From panvel , its about 11 kms to reach the entrance of Karnala Bird Sanctuary .The journey was awesome because first time I was traveling in “TUM TUM”.Its a bit bigger auto rickshaw but I was enjoying the drive .After reaching there we took the tickets for the entry and started the trek .The starting itself was a bit tedious for me .Its been sometime that I have gone for a steep walking like we had today .But I did it at last . We took lots of breaks in between and made a slow move to the top .After some steep and bad route we reached to a clear plane land on top where the grass have grown a bit because of the good rains . The fort was really huge and I was wondering it would have been difficult for Shivaji the great for constructing a fort on top like this .Got a chance to take some wonderful snaps and that can be viewed here .

It was almost 2 months I was missing Kerala. Onam and my cousin Sis Manju’s marriage were both coming in the next week .I decided to take one week leave to visit Kerala . I headed to Kochi as my parents decided to drive to Cannanore in our newly bought Honda City .I spent Onam with my grandmother at my dad’s place .I was much happy that my cousin brother Vinith was also there to celebrate Onam from Chennai .We traveled a bit around our place to get some ‘God’s own country’ shots in my camera and I hope I got some good ones.
Marriage was also a nice point were I was able to meet my relatives in one place. Altogether got a nice break from my work.

Shared some of the snaps here .

I got a pleasant day for a Mumbai city visit .We decided to have a round in his new car around the city covering some prominent and famous hang outs in Mumbai. We visited gateway of India , Marine Drive and Haji Ali .Captured some good snaps and can be viewed here .

I was a bit unhappy of wasting my week ends in the apartment in Mumbai, mainly due to two reasons: it will be raining outside or I am finding it difficult to commute in Mumbai without any guidance .This time I got good company to go around .My colleagues Addy Tas from Holland SDC and Dave from England SDC. We decided to visit the hill station ‘Lonavala’ . We were happy that we got an expert driver who has visited this place many a times .The drive was really cool as we took the Mumbai-Pune express highway. I have only heard of the place but it’s really well maintained highway and a nice view on the whole highway stretch. Got some good snaps of the tunnels and the konkan beauty .The pics can be viewed here .

I decided to make a career move to join the software development division of Fugro NL .The company is into geosurveying and geoscience services.Headquartered at the Netherlands , the development teams are also at Australia,UK and US .
I had to relocate to Navi mumbai as this is the only office setup in India .Really finding a bit difficult to adjust with the fast life here and missing my friends elsewhere .
I will be working on the next generation applications in Fugro and hope I will do my best here .

Its my last day in Philips Innovation Campus Bangalore .The campus showed me how MNC’s work and how much they care about the employees here .It also helped me in getting me some great friends whom I think will surely have contacts in the future .Philips really helped me in learning many new things and showed me how innovative employees should be in their work. I can assure anybody joining Philips will really have a nice time

Radhish does it again .On Friday night when I was working at office , I got his call saying he didn’t get the tickets for going to his native calicut and asking me whether we can go for a trip tonight .I was confused whether to make a plan like this ,At last I came up with a plan to visit chikmagalur .
We started late night driving towards chikmagalur. I managed to get some maps and details on the place we are going to visit. The drive was great .Nobody slept that much but when it was almost 4 am I started feeling sleepy. Slept for some time and when I got up we had reached chikmagalur. Had a black tea and then started of to see the wonderful kemmanagundi hills .The roads started to become bad from there but driving between the forest was nice .Got chance to see some hybrid monkeys , I think Langurs , but none gave me a pose to take a snap.
We got a place to get refreshed, the horticulture guest house .It started raining in the afternoon when we reached there but that gave us some time to take rest after so much driving . We planned to cut short the trip to one day , so had to plan accordingly which places to visit. At last decided to trek the hills and visit the Kallathigiri waterfalls .Due to lack of time we had to miss the famous hebbe falls .
The trek was really nice.It was not that steep so was easy to climb the hills. Reaching the top of the hill was the best part where you will have view of the whole area. The wind was really blowing at us with good speed. Got a chance to shoot some nice snaps .The hill top was worth visiting .After trekking back we started off to the waterfalls. It was a small falls with a temple near it .Lots of tourist also hangout at this point .The temple visit made our trip a religious one too.
The drive back was a bit hectic for me due to lack of sleep. But radhish and myself exchanged the driver seat to make up the whole distance .
Some of the snaps can be viewed here .

Its been sometime I was planning to take my parents for an outing . The Trivandrum trip on the previous weekend gave me a chance to plan something .We decided to visit ‘Ponmudi’ for one day .Got the accommodation at the government guest house with great difficulty. We started on Saturday noon with my cousin Anoop also joining us. Its only 53 kms from our place .The drive was nice as we didn’t find in difficulty to reach the peak .We drove directly to the guest house .Kept the baggage and started off to reach the mountain peak .The climate was simply superb as compared to the climate prevailing in kerala state now .The mountains were really nice to take some snaps .We trekked two mountains and the peaks were really nice place to rest after the trek. Met two Russians too on the peak who were also really amazed the view they had on top.
The next day early morning we started to drive back .We planned to cover the Meenmutti falls also ,which is on the way back to Trivandrum .Meenmutti falls also require a trek of almost 1 km to reach the waterfalls point .My parents found it a bit difficult at first to cross some of the parts of the trek but I know they would have enjoyed it .After the walk we had a swim at the waterfalls .That was really refreshing .
Some of the snaps can be viewed here .

It was a sudden decision to go somewhere for the week end .My friend R S Radhish and myself was planning for some days where to go .At last the place was decided as Coorg. We started in his car and one of his friend Pavithra also showed interest to join us .He is basically from Coorg so we decided to stay in his place .
We started at 7 pm from Bangalore .The drive was simply superb .Once we entered the Mysore road heavy rain started pouring in .Had good south Indian meals from kamat hotel on the way. We reached medikeri at about 3 am in the morning mainly due to the fact we took lots of breaks in between. Took some snaps near the bus stand and on the ways when fog started seeing on the way.

Was really late and tired when we reached pavi’s house .But had a nice sleep .The temperature was really cool at night. In the morning we started to visit the near by places like swimming in the lake, visited a local temple almost 10 kms from the road .That day we decided to stay in his uncles coffee estate .Its almost 15 acres of coffee estate with a small house in middle. It was really nice to be away from the crowded city life. The family was just a middle class family with only the basic necessary amenities in the house with no electricity connection to the house. I just got a feeling how different it is to stay in a house no electricity and without much modern amenities. I was really happy that I got a chance to stay with them for one day. I really felt the joy in their face that they were very happy to treat me with whatever they had. I don’t think whether I will get a day like that in future.
The last was full sight seeing .We visited Raja’s seat, the golden temple and the museum .Reached back safely at night 8 pm. Some of the snaps are uploaded here.

OBL(Outbound Learning Program) is mainly held by Philips innovation Campus for the employees to learn about their team and also to develop personal skills. This time our Healthcare Informatics (HI) department chose a beach resort (Summer Sands) in Mangalore as the venue .It was total fun for two days there .The only issue was the temperature in Mangalore. We were sweating all the time .Got some great snaps .Some of the snaps are uploaded here .