Visit to my first Baseball Game

BankOne Ball Park Suite & View from the Suite (Click for bigger pics)

On Mar 31st 2005, I got a chance to visit my first baseball game in the US: Arizona Diamondbacks vs Boston Red Sox at the Bank One Ball Park in Downtown Phoenix.

I got suite tickets through my client company APS. You can see the picture of the suite above. The suite was like a hotel room with couch, kitchenette, attached bathroom, and seats with a view whose picture I have posted above. Our suite was right behind the batter, and it came with a bottle of wine, fruit salad, hot dogs, water, Pepsi. It felt and was indeed posh!

We were nine of us in the suite: 5 business analysts (BAs) from my team, their 3 guests and myself. I pestered the BAs with questions about the game. It got interesting once I got the hang of it. The game started at 6:40 PM and went on until 10:30 PM or so. I think there was just one home run in the entire match... may be two. Everyone told me it was a slow, long game. I wondered what they would feel about our cricket matches which go on for a day or 5 days!

Match result: The home team, AZ Diamondbacks, lost 9-7 or something like that.

I thought the most interesting moment of the match was during a special announcement:


(Click for bigger pic)

Just a moment before I took this photo, the bottom right of the announcement board where you see the picture of a player, showed Ruben going down on his knee in front of Diana. Wish I had taken the picture just a little sooner!

Gas Prices in a Phoenix Gas Station!

Gas Prices in a Phoenix Gas Station! (Click for bigger pics)

The pictures show the per gallon price of 3 grades of gas (petrol) on 27th Mar 2005, at a gas station in Phoenix, Arizona.

We have heard that gas prices in Phoenix are going to get very high in the Summer, but I did not think they would get so high, this early in the Spring! Then I realized that someone at the gas station near my home slept through the decimal lessons in school. :-)

"Invitation for my Engagement" - James (Vijay)

Wow! More good news from the gang. This time it is Yaate aka James aka Vijay Kulkarni who is getting engaged. Congrats, maga! Wish you both a long and happy married life together. What does your fiance do? Give us the full story and details, maga.

PS: Check out below the landmarks James has listed around the venue. And he has even attached a map! It would have been better if he had attached a picture of his fiance instead. :D

-----------------------------------------------

-----Original Message-----
From: Vijay N Kulkarni
Sent: Monday, March 21, 2005 5:32 AM
Subject: Invitation for my Engagement

Hi all,
Its my pleasure to invite you all to my engagement ceremony with Chandala

Treat this as my personal invitation.

Date & Time: on April 3rd 2005, Sunday at 11.00 am.

Venue,
Sri Sree Kanteshwara Kalyana Mantapa.
No. 83/3, 3rd Main, Rajajinagar Industrial Town,
West Of Chord Road.
Bangalore-560044.
(Behind Shivaprabha Kalyana mantapa),
(Behind Vyasa Paradise).
(Near National English School)
(Near Giria's Showroom)
Attached is the map to the venue.
Mobile No. [censored]

Regards,Vijay .N. Kulkarni.
Sr. Designer.
Flowserve India Controls Private Limited

"Some Good News" - Rama

We got more good news yesterday. This time from Rama. And it is "good news" in the very traditional sense of that phrase! ;)

Congrats to Gomathi and Rama! I hope you guys have a joyful, fun and easy time welcoming the new baby!

-------------------------------------------------------

-----Original Message-----
From: V, Ramkumar
Sent: Monday, March 07, 2005 5:11 AM
Subject: Some GOOD News

Hello

I’ve some good news to share with you. My wife Gomathi tested +ve on her pregnancy test today. We are very happy for this.

Just thought that I share this with you.

Thx n Rgds
Ram

"Personal Invitation for my Engagement" - Sudhi

Updated on 4/26/2005 05:11:02 AM: Posting the pictures that Madhu (Sudhi's brother) sent me from Sudhi's engagement.


Sudhindra & His Fiance' Deepa (Click for bigger pics)

Original post below:

We had some great news in Feb 2005: Sudhi announced his engagement with Deepa, and emailed to invite us "personally"! With this engagement, I think the number of bachelors in our group can be counted by the fingers on one hand!

Congrats, Sudhi. Wish I could have been there in Bangalore. I hope you guys had a lot of fun. I hope you enjoyed yourself, maga. Did you kiss the bride, like I asked you to?

Send pictures soon! And give us the story, with full details, about how Deepa and you found each other and decided to tie the knot.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Sudhindra Kumar
Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2005 10:23 PM
Subject: Personal Invitation for my Engagement.

Hi All,
It is my pleasure to invite on my engagement with Deepa on Feb 27th between 2:30 to 3:30 pm.Please consider this as my personal invitation. Hope to see you all there.

VENUE:-
Govardana Temple
Udupi Sri Puttige Mata
Near Dodda Ganapathi Temple
Opp. BMS Engineering Coll.
Basavanagudi
B'lore-560019
Ph: [censored]

Regards
Sudhindra Kumar.M

Final Year Class Photos - PCM & PMC/E

Following are the class pictures from our Final Year. We had all but forgotten about these pictures, until Rama found them last year (2004), scanned them and sent them to us all.

The first picture below is of the PCM (Physics, Chemistry, Math) class. The second picture is from the PMC/E (Physics, Math, Computer Science/Electronics) class.

Notice that Rama and I are in both the pictures! ;)

From top to bottom and left to right, I have listed the names (nicknames italicized) I can remember. If someone can let me know the missing names, that would be great. Unfortunately, some great and interesting characters - both students and faculty - are missing from these pictures.



BSc III Yr PCM (Click on pic for bigger size)

Top Row: Hemanth, Gomi aka Srinivas Harshan, Sudhi aka Sudhindra, Tiger aka Digu aka Kumar, Rama aka Ramkumar aka Halogen, Swami aka Aravind

Second Row: Jayateertha, Bheemashankar, forgotten name, Ravi Jamkandi, forgotten name, forgotten name, Karthik

Third Row: Vinay Kumar (Chemistry), Keshava Hiremath(?), forgotten name, forgotten name, forgotten name, forgotten name, Vinutha, forgotten name, forgotten name, Yadahalli (Chemistry), forgotten name (Chemistry)

Bottom Row: forgotten name (Chemistry), Kaamaaji (Chemistry lab), forgotten name (Physics), forgotten name (Dept not known), Rotti (Chemistry), forgotten name (Principal), Raghav Reddy (Math), forgotten name (unrecognized), Rachaiah (Chemistry), forgotten name (unrecognized), forgotten name (Chemistry)



BSc III Yr PMC/E (Click on pic for bigger size)

Top Row: forgotten name, forgotten name, Vikram aka Blade, Jaandu aka Harsha, Rajesh, Keshava, forgotten name, Girimanjesh, Prasad Bijur, forgotten name, forgotten name

Second Row: forgotten name, Janardhan, forgotten name, forgotten name, forgotten name, Prasad Wali, KP aka Krishnaprasad, forgotten name, forgotten name, Rama aka Ramkumar aka Halogen, Swami aka Aravind, forgotten name, forgotten name

Third Row: Santoshi, Shubdha, forgotten name, Anita, forgotten name, Vijaykumari, forgotten name, Rekha, Archana, Smitha, Hamsa aka Chenglu, Veena aka Maalu, Dummi aka Sumi aka Rekha aka Sumirekha

Bottom Row: forgotten name (Computer Science), forgotten name (Computer Science), Borgali (Physics), forgotten name (Dept not known), forgotten name (Physics), forgotten name (Principal), Raghav Reddy (Math), forgotten name (Math), Basavannappa (Math), forgotten name (unrecognized), forgotten name (Electronics)

Welcome to the KLE Friends Blog

Welcome to the group blog of KLE Class of '97 and Friends.

Our core group of friends met in July 1994, when we started the 3-year B Sc course in KLE Society's S Nijalingappa College, Bangalore.

(KLE Nijalingappa College Campus)

Since then, it has been an incredible journey of fun and frolic, pranks and rags, grief and disappointments, fights and friendships, love and laughter. Some of us did not even stay until 1997 to finish the B Sc course. Life had other things in store for us. Yet, we remain friends. I can't believe it has been over 10 years since we first met.

Over the years, other special people joined our lives. Some of them friends, some of them lovers, some of them have become our life partners.

Most of us are still in Bangalore right now, but some of us are in different parts of the world. As we go through our busy lives, the common thread of friendship binds us. However, it is not easy to share the events and thoughts in our lives with everybody else in our friend's circle. Hence, this blog.

This is a group blog for KLE Class of '97 and our special friends. I hope that through this blog, we can share the events and thoughts that pass through our lives, with pictures and words. I request everyone to post regularly and share your special lives with our friends.

Love and luck to all,
Aravind