Dubai (June-July 2010)
Aravind visited Dubai, UAE, in 2010 for his Summer Internship while he was pursuing his post-graduation in management from Asian School of Business, Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala). He was in Dubai for a couple of months and had the opportunity to visit some of the places. As a first-time visitor to the Arab nation, he was thrilled to have visited the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa, and take a very touristy photo standing in front of it. His internship was at the Dubai Gold and Jewellery Group, an organization which acts as a coordinator and facilitator for all the jewelleries and diamond houses in Dubai. He also had the opportunity to visit some of the landmarks in Dubai, such as the world-famous Gold Souk, Dubai Mall, Mall of the Emirates and Deira, which is one of the oldest areas of Dubai and still has trading boats that ply between different local and international ports.
Goa (May 2011)
This has to be THE best trip Aravind and Govind have been on! Govind was done with his graduation and was awaiting his offer of employment in Dubai to start in September of that year. Aravind had completed his post-graduation and was awaiting confirmations on his meetings with potential employers in Dubai in September. What better way to spend some days till then? Drive to Goa and chill!
Though the plan started off as a simple suggestion while Govind and Aravind were driving to Chengannur on a grocery run, it became a reality quite quick. They both realized they had nothing to do for another month or two! The plan was devised, hotels were booked, and the car was serviced and prepped.
On May 1, 2011, they set off for a trip of a lifetime at 3:00 A.M. and reached Thalassery by 2:00 P.M., after a couple of stops. They stayed over in Thalassery and started again the next morning a 4:00, stopped at the outskirts of Mangalore for breakfast, then at Karwar for lunch and by the time it was tea-time, they were in Calangute, Goa! What followed after that was a grand three days of beach hopping, driving around in Goa and real relaxing. They stayed at Chalston Beach Resort in Calangute for the next 3 days and even became friends with Justin, the main man at the beach restaurant there who would reserve a really awesome beach-facing table for the brothers to wind down after a day of driving around. They felt sad at the end of three days when it was time for them to head back home, but surely, they were heading back home with great memories and some not-so-clear photos (pardon the digital cameras of that era!).
Dubai (July 2011)
When the time came for the trip to Dubai to meet potential recruiters, the whole family tagged along this time. Govind, Aravind and their parents, Balachandran & Prema, went to Dubai for a great family time. In between the meetings and greetings, the family found time to explore Dubai. They even took a road trip to Abu Dhabi for a day and met up with some friends. There were a lot of photos taken in that trip, but the hard drive in which they had saved majority of the photos crashed and with it, many memories
Varkala (August 2013)
This was another epic trip, but with friends this time! Swaroop & Sarat are Aravind’s & Govind’s school friends, and Jayan is Aravind’s friend from his post-graduation days and had become quite close to his family during that time.
To give a small background to the trip, Jayan & Govind were working at the same organization in Dubai and shared an apartment with Aravind. Swaroop (settled in Bangalore at the time) and Sarat (working as an Ayurvedic Doctor/Assistant Professor at a medical school) were in town for the first colloquium organized by their school. Aravind and Govind had come down from Dubai for this as well and Jayan joined them after the colloquium. The plan to head to Varkala had been made some days back and Swaroop and Sarat were not even in the picture. The plan was to meet up with Aravind’s college mate (from his graduation days in Delhi) for the latter’s bachelor party. As luck would have it, the groom-to-be was stuck in Cochin with work. He had to back out and the plan to bring in Swaroop and Sarat happened spontaneously as there were two cottages already paid upfront at Clafouti Beach Resort in Varkala.
Now that the background to the trip is out of the way, let’s continue. Plans were made spontaneously, families contacted, approvals taken (Psst…Sarat was married by then and had to get his travel approved by his Boss. He he he!) and bags packed! Off they went to Varkala the next morning for a day full of beach, beer and beef! Jayan had to make it all the way to Varkala from Cochin and he joined the gang by evening. It was one of the craziest nights of their lives and they still cannot recall the night without a smile on their faces. The photos from the trip are sure to give you a feel of what the guys experienced that day and night.
