life through rose-tinted glasses

Bond with the best

2011-11-02T16:57:00.004+05:30

I have been a Ruskin Bond fan ever since I read his Himalayan Tales. I was packing books at home when I stumbled upon this poem of his in one of the books I had - it is so beautiful, I couldn't help decorating my blog with it :)

These Simple Things

The simplest things in life are best-
A patch of green,
A small bird's nest,
A drink of water, fresh and cold,
The taste of bread,
A song of old;
These are the things that matter most.
The laughter of a child,
A favorite book,
Flowers growing wild,
A cricket singing in a shady nook.
A ball that bounces high!
A summer shower,
A rainbow in the sky,
The touch of a loving hand,
And time to rest-
These simple things in life are best.

-Ruskin Bond

It does have a warmth to it, doesn't it?

Sighs and sobs

2011-10-24T16:10:00.003+05:30

Last night, I woke up at around 3 in the morning – all sweating and gasping for breath, it was suffocating in the room even though the ceiling fan was on. I don’t know if I dreamt anything but my eyes were wet, so was the pillow and I was panicking. No clue why. I got up, washed my face, drank a little water and went back to bed but couldn’t sleep for a long time – tears flowed involuntarily – for no reason. I have been avoiding thinking about going away and all the change – thinking that thinking about it will make it only worse. So I kept changing the thread whenever worries started – something I had read somewhere – only way to be happy is to replace one worry by another ;) – but it doesn’t work. Suppressing doesn’t work – at all - it just fills and finally suffocates. You need to face things – bring it to the table and talk – or may be if there are no listening ears around, think or write. So, I am doing my part of writing :D ;)

I had freaked out while leaving home and coming to settle in Bangalore, I had freaked out and was too sad when I changed the job- looking back at these things now I feel like laughing out loud – I mean, come on! What was I thinking! :D All I had to leave behind was parents – for just 3 or 4 weeks stretch, home which we had recently changed and I was not attached to- most of my things which I carried with me, friends – almost none (most of them were in Bangalore) and I was getting paid and when I changed job, I was getting paid better.

I don’t know when I will stop being possessive, I mean, when I own a tea cup or a boot lace, I get emotionally attached to it – it’s freaking crazy! I sometimes get a vague idea of what I have to leave behind, friends who were almost necessary for my survival – who have been wonderful, tolerating all my nonsense, parents -I go numb when I think about them, all the unfinished dreams- I gave away my guitar yesterday, threw away a few of my travel plans and TO DO lists which listed places I wanted to visit and things I wanted to do before getting married (yeah, I had one ;)) – seems silly now :P. I used to play the guitar once in a while after coming home from office last week and I gave it away yesterday- didn’t even strum it before giving. I saw the book where I used to write notes and chords, some 2 3 times and shut it away. May be someday I will pick it up again – I mean, who had thought I will pick it up here in Bangalore? :)

I packed most of my stuff away and will be carrying them home this weekend. I packed my clothes, half of my books – wiping them clean, and touching them as if I was touching them for the last time in my life :P

They mean so much to me – I have been a private creature all along, books were the only ones privy to everything hidden from the world. They were the only constant companions – never expecting, never demanding, never complaining, never teasing, always sympathizing, and always being the way I wanted them to be. I packed a few journals and the other few which were just logs, I didn’t know what to do. I asked ‘A’- “shall I throw this away?” (I managed to say this somehow) She was like – “keep it, we’ll find something to do with it” I mean, I had written like 360 odd pages – all the daily updates - accounting, all the “Funny moment of the day”s, “Most beautiful thing I saw today”s (yeah, i used to write them everyday)and all the TO Dos for the next day. I read a few pages and realized how lucky I had been all these days – I had had a funny moment every day, had seen some of the most beautiful things these past years…

We cleaned the house yesterday. I found a few things which I had thought I had lost forever, I also found out how dirty the house was ;) 'A' was like – “Why are you cleaning it so thoroughly? Anyways you are leaving in 2 weeks”. I don’t know why I was. It made no sense. But I wanted to. I wanted it to be as awesome as it always has been – as comfortable for her when I leave – so she never misses me – one bit. One thing that’s there is that if you think anything during night, it gets blown up – I started going flashback – the first time we had cooked – it was a simple sweet dish, the first time we had fought and made up, first time we killed a cockroach – making a big scene, first time I had felt homesick, first time I fell ill and she took care of me, first time we shared pain and secrets with each other – ending up both of us crying, first time we brought a load of stuff to fill up the kitchen (I still have the bill ;)), first time we cleaned the house- which was nowhere near being live-able, first time we talked almost whole night, first time we entertained friends- cooking for them, watching movies and laughing out loud almost entire night, first time we came home late to be scolded by Ajji – jumping from the compound wall since we hadn’t yet got the gate key ;) first time I stayed alone there… first time I realized that this was what I had always dreamt of and came to know that I had been living my dream all along…

… and never knew when I fell asleep :) :)

Wedding Diaries#2

2011-10-18T21:11:00.007+05:30

This post is dedicated to one Nethra – A sales girl who finally managed to sell me (may be the most illiterate and difficult customer she had got in her life) one lipstick and one eyeliner cum kajal in nearly 5 hours.

Special thanks to quirkygirl – for all the education, advice and tolerance of my illiteracy- and to G, for being my guinea pig :D

****************************************************************************************************************
Have you ever woken up on a Sunday morning to realize you have been in the sweet part of the world for too long- singing songs and being happy- and the rest of it has moved way ahead and you are now feeling lost? Last one was one such Sunday for me. Enlightening and educating. Also making me realize that I was living in the dinosaurs’ age (whatever that is called)
On my master list, I had a reference to a child list- COSMETICS. I had no clue what items should go into it, what kind, how many -nothing. Then a few friends helped and I managed to fill in a few things. In the end it looked like this:

1. Lipsticks – 2 (one light shade and one dark shade)
2. 1 Mascara ( FYI for people who are still living in the sweet part and have not yet woken up: it is a liquid applied on the eye lashes with a miniature plastic-bottle washing brush –bristles spirally placed around a long thin stick)
3. 1 Eyeliner - obvious by its name – lines the eye
4. 1 Foundation cream (it should go with the complexion of your face – ask the person who is selling, they will know)
5. 1 Compact powder (that’s the one which come like “water-color cakes” – thanks to 'I' for the expression – since I know you will claim the credit for this)

I was like, “Easy peasy. May be it would take some 15 minutes to pick them up and might cost some 200 bucks altogether” – HAHA! How naïve I was! :P

Since you are now in acquaintance with all the characters of the play, I will write a few dialogues I had in the cosmetic section.

Scene 1: G and I approach the precarious cosmetic section which I used to blissfully ignore whenever I visited any mall. One shiny looking sales girl is smiling at all people who are willingly or unwillingly crossing the counter.

Divya (entering like RajniKanth, full excited): I want 2 lipsticks and one eyeliner :D :D :D
Nethra (the shiny sales girl) - :)What kind?
Divya: (I almost said ‘good kind’ :P) one light lipstick and one dark lipstick
Nethra took my hand a drew a few lines of like 7-8 shades and asked me to choose.
Divya: (What crap? How can I know which is better??!) G, which one?
G (to Nethra): we’ll take 5 minutes, and let you know (and she dragged me away)
We had a ‘walk with the talk’ – which shade is better etc etc etc – which ended in both of us being even more confused, so we went to the next counter.

Scene 2: next counter

Divya: I want 2 lipsticks – one light and one dark and one eyeliner :D
And thicker vertical marks on the back of my palm – more confusion.
This sales girl offered to apply the lipstick on me, so I could decide.
FYI: I had recently visited the dentist to get my cavities filled up and I tell you, the dentist was a Santa Claus in comparison – what with G smirking every two minutes and I feeling like a goat being prepared for butchering- all decorated :P

Since after so many rounds of this, we were still undecided, we hopped on to the eyeliner section

Scene 3: Nethra madam showing some thin brush and one flattened paint bottle kind of a thing, asked me to try it.

G: Is it really smudge-proof and water proof? How long will it stay?
Nethra: YES M’AM, it will stay for 8-10 hours!
Divya (like a pro): Really? It doesn’t look like :P
Nethra: I have applied in the morning and it is still there!
Divya: But you have not cried since morning and I am planning to – cry in buckets! :P
Nethra: :-|
G: Di, control.

So, these arguments went on and on till the savior of a person came- enter quirky girl :D and she was like, why are you buying this? This doesn’t shimmer, this shines (FYI#2 to all people in sweet part: yeah, there is difference b/w shimmer and shine) Why are you going with this? It won’t last that long, how will you take it off? You need a makeup remover! This lip balm stays longer, this is better etc etc!

Divya: (looking like I saw rays coming out of quirkygirl’s eyes – aura all around her): I love you! :D :D

At one point of time, I really argued that the lipstick which goes away first is better than the one which stays longer – I mean, technically I still am right! G was like, “Yeah Di, its Asian paints, you have to use turpentine to remove it” :P

It would have gone on and on if I had not had the sense to check the price. So, I ended up scratching all other items in the list and buying just one lipstick (with lip gloss – mail me to know what it is, I am a pro now :D – if you are sweet, I won’t charge for the info ;)) and one eyeliner cum kajal which will make my eyes look voluminous :D :D Thanks to Nethra if I look gorgeous on the wedding – if I don’t, I am going back to her for a money back :P

PS: quirkygirl, I owe you one :D

PPS: G, since I already owe you a lot many things, put this in the list and throw it away :D

PPPS: Age of dinosaurs is called Mesozoic Era, btw- just to make my blog a little less crappy and a little more informative ;)

Wedding Diaries #1

2011-10-07T15:32:00.004+05:30

I dreamt last night that I had turned into an octopus with one head, multiple arms gliding in the water making gurgling sounds. I have never had such an appropriate dream before :D
I really am feeling like an octopus!

I am shopping like crazy and crazily enough, I am enjoying it to the core! I am making lists, I am running errands, I am fixing bugs at office (ok, minor ones), I am going through all the senti stuff and EAs, I am worrying, I am planning, making more notes, writing more journals, I am learning wearing saree, I am cooking things and I am managing my finance. And surprisingly, I am enjoying doing all this! I sometimes feel I had supernatural abilities all along which I recently discovered.

I shopped for sarees – spent more money than I had ever done in my life and discovered how much fun it is – if you neglect all the headache, hunger and tiredness. The shop keepers are such sweet talkers – they wrap sarees around you and say such nice things – At one point of time I really felt that I could give Aishwarya Rai a run for her money – only when I saw the final bill did I realize what I don’t have which Aishwarya Rai has. :P and then, started feeling guilty. :P but I confess, I feel like getting married right now if I think of my sarees – just so I get to wear them ;)

In the end when we were done shopping, and I felt I was almost dead, my father was still enthusiastic – asking me to try out a few more shades, hand picking sarees for Amma - he had just one masala dosa in the entire day. When shop keepers wrapped sarees around me, I got to see some million dollar emotions in his eyes – they are so precious, I felt I should do more shopping ;) I felt there should have been a way to capture the look and feel in his eyes and take them with me – keep them in the scrap book forever :)

I love making notes and lists. Since wedding is a big thing, I had a plan. I was going to have an object oriented way to make list. I have a parent list – list which tells what lists I have to make. This parent list is extended by child lists which implement different interfaces – oops! -other different kind of lists. I took a lot of time to make these lists, number them and refer and link appropriate ones. When I was finally done, I felt as if I was the most organized and meticulous person in the world :D so I had to brag. I called my Amma and started lecturing her about the importance of lists and describing my complicated list – as if I was the queen of order. Here is what Amma had to say – “I have just two lists – one guest list and one to do list. And I have a brain” :-|
why do I always feel my intelligence is Amma’s common sense? :(

The processes going on in the brain will throw an out-of-memory exception sometime soon. The queen of order that I am, I have even compartmentalized them – One is the happy process, one day dream process, one senti process, one money process, one tension and insecurity process, one deadline process and so on…
Every day before sleeping I try to sort things out and plan for tomorrow – sometimes data overflows and I cry, then I think I am silly to cry and smile and feel good and laugh, wish for nicer things, pray for everything and everybody, make a resolution that I won’t repeat this crazy pattern next day and sleep – and repeat the same loop with different variables every day :D

The whole thing is kind of a roller coaster ride. But sometimes I feel I am living in a dream – everything around me is hazy and blur – I am simply gliding in the water, in my own sweet world and nothing else matters. I dread waking up one day to realize whole thing was nothing but a short lived dream – then I snap myself out of it and start running around again. It is fun – to see my parents doing things with such high energy, to see my father cracking jokes at my expense and then feeling senti, to see Amma grilling me to the core with non stop lectures and lessons and then feeling guilty about it to pity me and asking me to sleep :) It is nice to see friends running errands for me, shopping with me, for me, planning for me, trying to fill in some sense into me. It is nice how they never demand anything but simply accept that I am busy and try to help out. It is nice to realize there are so many people who genuinely care. Nice to hear people talk nice things, nice to realize I am genuinely happy – despite all the worry and tensions :)

PS: why do we realize the worth of something only when we are going away from it? :(

PPS: May be wearing saree fulltime – just for practice (yeah, Amma is making me do it) is filling my brain with all such nonsense :P

PPPS: I will write a technical post someday on how to wear saree and carry it around properly – if you thought it was simple, think again. I almost wish I could write my electrical exam – which I nearly flunked- again instead of this :P

Ring a Bell?

2011-09-29T16:31:00.003+05:30

Divya: Amma, how many sarees do I have to change during the wedding?

Amma: We have to buy 5, among them 3 are for you, those 5 we have to give to them. One you’ll wear during the main ceremony, one before the wedding and hey we have to buy one extra to give to xyz, thinking of which, if we give to xyz, we will have to buy one more for abc, we can buy one normal saree for abc and one nice one for xyz (and she went on and on and on…)

Divya: (after she finished) %^#%^&^*%(@#$%@$%&^%&!

Amma: Why are you shouting? What did I do? You are always like this, shouting at me for no reason. I have to do so much, you don’t even help (again, on and on and on…)

Divya: :-|

PS: How simple was the question?
PPS: Why didn’t I just google instead? :P

Bungee Jumping

2011-09-26T17:17:00.005+05:30

Once in a while I get these weird ideas, not sure if it is the induction coil in brain spewing magnetic spurts or simple wiring problem. I had this weird idea today. If I had a pouch like Hermione and a wand and could cast just two spells. I would wish the spells to be ‘Reducio’ and ‘Engorgio’. So that I could simply say ‘Reducio’ -shrink all my stuff, put them into the velvet pouch and carry them around. Safe and sound. When I want something, I just have to point the wand and say ‘Engorgio’ – to bring it back to normal size. I wish it were that simple. So I was thinking what I would shrink and carry with me.

I would shrink a handful of people – close family and friends and put them into the pouch, carry them around and never bother about being away from them. :) May be, I could also say ‘Reducio’ whenever somebody pestered me ;)

I would shrink all my books and never worry about losing them. Never worry about unknown people reading them. Never worry about Amma disposing a few of them.

I was thinking all this when I was walking towards mini forest. It is the place I go to whenever I am disturbed or lonely or if something is bothering me. I was going there armed with two books, one pencil and a notebook this time :D but when I reached it, I found it to be dark. There was no power but there was enough twilight to work with the book. One thing I notice in mini forest is that it always has a pleasant and soothing influence on me. It was slightly drizzling when I went there, so there were water droplets on the blades of the grass and on the pretty little flowers, reflecting different colors from the VIBGYOR. There were not many people – which suited me well. I worked with the book for some time and was feeling cold already – wearing the jacket I had senselessly burnt yet hadn’t thrown away, it was hard to ward of the cold. After sometime, feeling like going back home, I got up and went a few steps when I walked past him – realized it was him and returned. He was standing there -smiling :)

He confessed that he had thought I had moved out of the area and remarked that last time we met, I was reading Dan Brown’s novel and this time I am reading serious stuff. We exchanged pleasantries, updated each other on what was going on. When I told him I was getting married and going miles and miles away, he showed no sign of surprise. He said, “I knew something good would definitely happen to you, so you found your Darcy finally” (Yeah, I had pestered him about the book too which had made him watch the series and read it again). I could only smile :)

We discussed about going away and homesickness – since he was away from home for 10 long years, he said, there is no need to worry since you’d always have a second opinion, second point of view, better judgment and loads of such pleasant stuff. He looked older this time :( walked wearily and confessed that nowadays he took just five rounds around the mini forest instead of ten. Wished me luck and walked me home under his umbrella. I hate carrying umbrella around and would rather get wet so I protested. He said “the bride-to-be should take care of herself” ;) well, no point in arguing with that. So I let him walk me home. I had a thought right there that I wish I could shrink this person too, along with the whole mini forest (complete with the water droplets) and put them into the pouch :)

PS: Yes, I am getting married and I know I kind- of inserted what should have been the theme in the whole-what-should-have-been- side story. But I am still in a phase where I am alternating between being blissfully happy and totally freaked out, so will take time to adjust and sink the whole thing in and write a post about it :)

PPS: But one thing? It’s a lot like bungee jumping :D

This and That

2011-07-24T09:36:00.009+05:30

I am not really a surprise person. I am more of a control freak. I’d rather have things properly sorted out and planned than do something on an impulse. So much, that I almost always tell my friends what I want for my birthday ;)

Well, anyways they pick out something which they think I’d like and the probability of my liking anything other than books and chocolates is very less (I know from past experience. I’ve always secretly thought – oh, this? Instead of this she could have given me a nice Austen) and if they are giving me books, they’d rather give something that I have on my list than say (god forbid) Chetan Bhagat. It is practical, isn’t it?

‘A’ had ordered ‘A Brief History of Time’ from flipkart (the link to the particular book she had received from me in advance ;)) and I immediately started on it. And I must tell you, it’s a marvelous book – a joy ride. It’s a refreshing change from the classics mode I had lately gotten myself into. There are a lot of delightful sentences like

“Disorder increases with time because we measure time in the direction in which disorder increases.”

“The light that we see from distant galaxies left them millions of years ago, and in the case of the most distant object that we have seen, the light left some eight thousand million years ago. Thus, when we look at the universe, we are seeing it as it was in the past.”

Hawking tells things like there is no absolute time, no definite past or future in such a simple way (he has used just one equation in the entire book) that it glues you to the book. I recommend it to all theists, atheists and those who think they are theists or atheists ;)

‘G’ gave me ‘My India’ by Jim Corbett. I always wanted to read a Corbett! I haven’t yet started on it- Hawking isn’t letting me – but I know patience is a virtue! ;)

Before these I was reading Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. Rand has an institution of philosophy to her credit. Fountainhead is not Paulo Coelho kind of vague and obscure philosophy (with all due respect, of the very few books that I had the patience to read, I could make neither head nor tail of what Mr. Coelho wanted to convey) Rand is curt and precise. I am yet to make up my mind if I like the book, but it was awesome in some parts and very drab and farfetched in some others. As for the philosophy- it is so different that it is radical, or rather was radical :)

I’ve even managed to watch a few movies. ‘A’ was recommending ‘Schindler’s list’ so highly that there was no escaping the movie. I watched it alone and on the night before Harry Potter was planned. The movie is supposedly one of the best movies ever made and I totally agree with this. It is sad but not dramatized; it doesn’t overwhelm you during most of it, but the sadness does flow like an undercurrent throughout.

As for Deathly Hallows, there is more action than there is feeling to the movie when compared to the book and there are a lot of deviations from it, but it is something you should not, cannot and probably will not miss :) the one thing that stayed with me when it ended was just that. That it ended :(

And since I am updating you on how my life has been (even though you haven’t asked for it) how can I not brag about my guitar accomplishments? ;) I bought a new Capo and have started on the second song. But to tell you the truth, I’d ‘like to think’ I am making progress, if only at a snail’s pace. I practice regularly but almost every time I practice I wonder if I am better or worse than the last time :( Seems like, the level of difficulty increases proportionally with time and number of lessons. I think I’ll have grey hairs when finally I am able to play without jerks. Again, I know patience is a virtue! :) And there is no such thing as absolute time ;)

PS: I love the sound of the high pitched chords – using the brand new capo ;) - when I strum them :) This doesn’t mean other people like them as much as me when I am strumming them :( but then, who cares? ;)

PPS: I am throwing in a lot of “there is no now”, “there is no tomorrow” “there is no here” “there is no there” s these days which sometimes makes A look at me as if I was crazy.

PPPS: I am enjoying it. A lot :D

Hums and Strums

2011-06-12T19:24:00.003+05:30

Music is something you can tirelessly muse about. Something you can tirelessly listen to, think about, search for and try your hand at. My father always wanted me to learn an Indian musical instrument – veena was his choice. I had given an attempt when I was a kid, but the strings were too hard on me, too tough, too tense. My choice was flute. It is astonishing how air dancing around a few holes on a stick is capable of producing such melody. I feel flute is the most melodious, soothing and harmonious of all.
I wanted to learn it, but when I found it hard to pipette out a few ml of diluted chemical during the chemistry lab, I discovered that flute was not for me; my lung capacity was limited to breathing. :P

For a long time I was of the opinion that guitar is basically for creating harsh, disturbing, fashionable, hip hop kind of or whatever it is that people call for music that gets on your nerves. Come to think of it, I am really too naïve to appreciate loud music with meaningless/provocative lyrics :P And whenever I thought of guitar, I thought of the booming electric ones. Oh yes I admit, I saw people played it well, their fingers jumped around like magic, they are real fast and are all over the frets, but melody? No. So, not my kind of instrument. I felt it was more of a show off. Sitar was more of my type, or if I can afford it, piano. But not guitar.

But I don’t know how and when exactly this opinion changed, it was very gradual perhaps to be aware of it myself. Movies, books, videos might have contributed a lot. Well, whatever it was, it became an item in my bucket list :)

I learned it for a few months before I came to Bangalore, forgot everything I learnt when I came here and now, have started on the classes again. It is very convenient that the class is a little more than a stone’s throw away from home and that the timings are flexible. I plagued my cousin to death to lend me his guitar (which he wasn’t using anyways) and got hold of it within a week of joining the classes. It was a delight to pluck the strings again – they wouldn’t obey me initially, it was kind of sad to have forgotten most of the things I had learnt only a year or so back and to discover that the fingers hurt when I played. They had stopped complaining! How could they turn against me in such a short while? I had to tame them again, I had to begin all over. But just when I was fumbling between the frets and the strings, my teacher asked me, “Have you learnt playing anytime before? You don’t seem to be a stranger to the chords”. And he did it! I was so happy I wanted to sing! So, I wasn’t all that bad after all! I played for 2 hours continuously, people who came way after me left and still, I was trying to tame the strings. My teacher wrote chords after chords and finally, he came to me and asked, “fingers not paining?” oh yes they were, now that he reminded me of them :P May be he wanted me to leave the place :P

I was jealous of kids who could play better than me! I was jealous of an old lady who was sitting in a corner and was playing closing her eyes.
But I know it is not all play. It is a lot of hard work, lot of patience and lot of practice. It is a lot of technicalities and a hard nut to crack. It is a challenge but a delightful one. The air dances around the strings too, and it dances differently around different strings – it is sharp and quick around the thin strings and it is patient and moody around the thick ones. It changes its form with the distance too; it is a little cranky when you strum the wrong strings but is very obliging when you pluck the right ones.

I have long since realized guitar is not all noise, it is melody. It is soulful and enchanting. The strings when plucked with reverence, do obey you; they make you forget the skin peeling off your fingers and the ache in your back. They make you forget almost everything else except the strums and hums. They are magical. May be what had to be changed was just my opinion, my narrow mindedness. Now that I know exactly what the Pandora box holds inside, it has become irresistible :)

PS: I guess, the neighbors are going to have a tough time for sometime to come ;)

PPS: And god save ‘A’ :D :D

Reading with the rain

2011-05-31T08:40:00.002+05:30

It had been quite some time since I finished a book; I had taken up Villete by Charlotte Bronte, looking forward to a great pleasure in the pages. But I was handicapped by my little (read non existent) knowledge of French. So, I gave up, thinking, “I’ll come back to you when I learn French” :(

But since it was difficult to read Villete, there was very little motivation and I hadn’t been reading at all. ‘A’ remarked one day that unlimited internet at home was the culprit. And I suppose, she was right. Because when the OS crashed, I finished a classic within 3 days ;) and what a delight it was to read!

‘A tree grows in Brooklyn’ is about a poor devoted family in Brooklyn, their struggles, their joys and their determination to rise above the inevitable sorrows of poverty. It is about the strength each shows in times of trouble, the values imbibed in each, their togetherness and little celebrations.
Nothing dramatic ever happens in the book, there are no twists, no violence, no exaggerations or understatements and yet, I found myself crying through out the book. I confess, it takes very little to make me cry, but then it had been a while since I had cried like that – out of happiness!

It is needless to say that the book is moving and I was astonished to find out that it was the first novel by the authoress.
I found out yet again, what a relief it is to be able to cry! A few pages into the book and before I knew it I could feel the tears which were lurking somewhere unnoticed all along, beginning to come out of hiding…

Aren’t tears a lot like rains?
Sometimes they drizzle, a few drops down the cheek, only just wetting it and when there is some humor in the next line of the book or when you realize you were silly, you laugh- even before they are dried – like the sunshine piercing the clouds for a short while, while it is raining. Isn’t that when colorful when rainbows are formed? When there is sunshine in the middle of the rain? When you find something to smile about in the middle of the tears?

And sometimes they pour long and hard like the stubborn evening rains, and you are rendered helpless, you just watch them flowing. Those are the ones which drench you out, hit you on your face, daring you to be brave, challenging you to come out…

Well, however they are, once they stop, there is freshness again, everything once again blooms, the clouds give way to the warmth of a drenched out, mellow and becoming sun, and everything seems prettier than it ever was! It feels as if the sadness is washed away and the troubles have drowned, as if the little remaining droplets dripping from the tip of the leaves or window sills remind you of the downpour that taught you a lesson…

Ok, I know I took a long break and I am now torturing you people with my senti post, but then, I have myself missed writing! Missed musing and rumbling and cribbing…
What could be a better time to come out of the break than just after getting drenched? Yeah, it was pouring today, a fierce downpour accompanied by hailstones and temperatures dropping drastically! I was for the first time in my life scared of getting wet in the rain- it was so violent, and yet it was beautiful. I came home soaking wet, trying hard not to chatter my teeth or to shiver like a leaf, but both were involuntary – the rain seemed angry and revengeful! And how warm and cozy the house felt when I finally reached it, how much I missed amma when I gulped down an ayurvedic tonic which she used to make me swallow whenever I came in from rains – to prevent cold and fever, I had never thought I would drink it on my own…
Well, so much for being busy and being woken up by a crashed OS and rains…
I wanted to write a lot of things but ended up writing something very different altogether, I wanted to give facts and opinions, I ended up being senti and mushy :P anyways, thanks for tolerating! :)

PS: I didn’t exactly drink the tonic on my own, my mother made sure she heard me gulp it down my throat while I was on phone.

PPS: but I did drink the tonic and not water, so its kind of like drinking on my own :P :D

PPPS: even if I had tried to deceive her (which I didn’t, honest!), I suppose she would have been able to differentiate between the gulp of water and the gulp of tonic :P
(No wonder, the gulp of tonic should have a yucky undertone to it :P ;))

PPPPS: this one is just to test the tolerance level of the reader, on how far one would go to read the PP..S’ – also since I have missed these as well ;) ;)

Another weekend flies by

2011-03-20T21:30:00.005+05:30

I was returning from the team outing on Friday with a load of bruises of varying colors (so much for the wicked joy of playing paintball and shooting people) when I got a call from ‘A’ saying she was going to Shimoga for the weekend. It had been a long time since I had stayed at home alone for 2 whole days. I decided against going out roaming the city since I was slightly limping and the colors of the bruises were a little alarming – red, blue and purple aren’t exactly pretty when they show up on your arms and legs ;) So, I decided to sleep the weekend off :) I was already missing ‘A’. It’s like you have gotten used to somebody’s presence at home and when they are not there, you tend to turn cranky for no reason :P

I slept like a log that night- no complaints- since I had worn myself out playing all kinds of games and the body had started complaining only after I came back home :P
I must say, once in a while, you have to be alone - to ponder and to pamper yourself. Normally when ‘A’ is not at home, I survive on curd rice alone. Cooking for self can be tedious :P but this time, I did cook, I cooked a lot of pasta, downloading recipes from the internet and ate it like I was starved for days. The whole house was filled with the smell of the herbs which brought ‘Ajji’ (my house owner) to inquire “whats cooking?” ;)

That night, Ajji saw me gazing at the “super moon” and told me she was planning to get up at 3.30 AM to see it when it would be at its biggest. I stared at her open mouthed! This 76 years old lady was waking up at 3.30 in the morning to see a slightly bigger moon because it was a rare event! And I was like “what?!” She asked me if I would join! I thought for a while, have I ever for any reason woken up at 3.30 in the morning? The answer was a plain no, I might have slept at 3.30 am a few times during exams, but nothing has ever compelled me to wake up and may be nothing ever will. I decided to try it out and said I was in and kept the alarm at 3.15 am.

When I did wake up, it was 9.30 in the morning and there was only the fan on the ceiling that was spinning and no sign of moon whatsoever :P Ajji told she had indeed woken up and the moon had been huge and very “very” beautiful. I was like, ‘Oh yes Ajji, I have already got bruises all over, rub salt on them :P :P :(’ but hey! It was Sunday!

Housekeeping, non stop music, pending novels, a few bad movies and I realize that I hadn’t stepped out of the house for two whole days and incredibly enough, I wasn’t at all lonely or cranky, in fact I was enjoying, it was as if I was taking care of and entertaining myself, for a change :) I went to mini forest and then to crossword spending sometime on the new arrivals and travelogues and came back, resisting the urge to buy them. Then I simply wandered on the streets, which were mostly empty, this is why I love the place I stay! You can be guaranteed of empty streets at 7.30 in the evening on Sundays :) and these streets are carpeted by feathery pink summer flowers (after a little googling, I found out, they were called trumpet tree flowers - Tabebuia rosea) I wandered for a while switching on the radio which was playing the charming song - “Yeh Shaam Mastani” (wondering how do they manage to play the right song at the right time??!) and then I saw the ice cream parlor. Show me delicious looking chocolates and ice creams and I am your slave :P :P I went in and ordered a big (read huge) ice cream, and sat alone, savoring every single mouthful of it melting in my mouth :) when I came back, I was already having the sensation of the weekend melting away just as my ice cream :(

Well, a weekend is never enough, is it? Be it lonely or crowded, relaxing or tiring, we end up wanting more of it :P

PS: good part is that the countdown begins for the next weekend! ;) ;)
PPS: come back A, and I promise to be good ;) :D

misty kodai

2011-02-22T11:45:00.014+05:30

We were searching for a place to go to, which would fit into a weekend. We didn’t want too much travel or too big a city. We didn’t want to go anywhere hot or anywhere obscure- which most backpackers would want. What could suit us better than a hill station?! :) Finally, we settled on Kodaikanal - and what a place!

After researching, we made a list of all the places we wanted to see. I won’t list them here since if you do a little googling, you’ll end up knowing the place may be more than the locals ;) I’ll just highlight a few things about what Kodai was to me :)

1. The mist. I had never seen such dense mist – we called it the white wall. At some places and times, we were technically inside the clouds. Most of the times they will be either above us or below us, but during the trek to dolphin nose, we were literally inside these deceptive cotton balls :)

The mist was so thick; it was as if it was taunting us. We would pray for it to clear and give way to the views downhill. When it did clear, it did so serenely and gracefully, taking all the time in the world, just to show us a glimpse of enchanting ravine so we could appreciate it for all its worth :)

2. I had seen pine trees covered in mist only in the pictures. They had looked heavenly but I found out I was wrong. The pictures, no matter how nicely they are taken, can only capture a part of the actual beauty. I have no adjectives in my vocabulary to describe the moment when a thick layer of white fog descended through the hole in the canopy of pine trees. It was as if somebody was pouring it from above, lighting it up occasionally with streaks of sunshine. It is when I see patterns like this that I feel I have a close brush with something divine. Again, I am feeling incompetent to describe what I saw. I had this desire to gather a handful of mist, put it in a cookie-jar -the transparent, air tight one with old fashioned lid –and take it home for good fortune :)

3. The entire city was engulfed in fog. The buildings, the conical, out-of-the-world trees, the partly covered towers, the calm lake; the colorful people are all hidden most of the times. You never know what lies in those hills, behind the white wall, unless the mist-god (if there is one) has taken a liking to you to reveal the city. The entire township is built on the cut-up mountain, which I feel is so tolerant, majestic and patient.

4. Kodai international school – this is where Arjun Rampal and Zayed Khan supposedly studied. The school to me was mini Hogwarts! With its stone architecture and haunting windows, this resembled Rowling’s famous school of magic!

5. I was able to do almost all the things on my “to-do” list plus those I hadn’t listed which resulted in being more fun.

- Horse riding in pine forest – the horses just trotted- and they were huge!

- Row boating and 2-seater cycling around the serene star shaped Kodai Lake.

- Shopping –got loads of chocolates, an amazing jacket for rock bottom price, a glass pen with ganesha carved on top of it and such silly stuff which are so tempting, you just don’t think while buying.

- Eating at random places – discovered a place- Aby’s kitchen which was exclusively for students. First time the owner thought we were students (we can pass as some, by the noise we make) but the next time, we weren’t allowed inside :(

An icecream cum pastry shop where delicious homemade strawberry and pear ice creams are available for just 10 bucks per scoop- now tell me, doesn’t this place belong to some bygone era?

- Sitting on a rock in the middle of a shallow stream formed by Pambar waterfall – listening to a slow song and simply letting my feet become numb in the chilly water

- Smelling little daisies and such sweet things you usually don’t do while ducking from the smoky traffic on the Bangalorean roads while hurrying to office. I am grateful I have people who click amazing pictures and who sing (some beautifully and some like me) for friends, it adds up to the experience, you know :D ;)

- The thrill of trekking to Dolphin nose and standing on the tip of the rock over the melancholic chasm of 6600 feet, where if you step ahead for one more feet, not even a single bone of yours could ever be found and eating hot pakoras there is something I experienced for the first time.

- Eating fruit cakes and chatting into the night – it gets dark and the city shuts down by 7 pm in Kodai and you have no option but to tuck in early. We had rains and power cut on our night of stay with occasional lightening while we chattered over some homemade fruit cakes :)

While coming back, the view from the ghats below was alone worth the entire trip. The lights in small match box houses looked like little fireflies flickering in the moon shine – it was an almost full moon which provided a spectacular sight.

In short, Kodai was a much needed break from the routine and stress. It was a perfect getaway from the regular concrete jungle which has now become home. At times I wondered how lucky people of Kodai were; they were on a constant holiday :) but then may be, a constant holiday would bore me after a while ;)

PS: Not all grapes are sour ;) this one was misty and fresh :D

La Dolce Vita

2011-02-08T21:03:00.003+05:30

There is a phrase in Italian dolce far niente meaning sweetness of doing nothing. Its only when I go home that I get to experience the true sweetness of niente :)

I have always preferred travelling in a train than in a bus. Trains are much more comfortable, you get to stretch your legs and walk around, observe people, read and even scribble while travelling in a train to break the monotony of travelling alone, if you feel any, that is. There is no comparison to the pleasure of travelling – even more so when you are travelling alone. I had thought it would be boring and I might end up cursing myself for booking the afternoon intercity, but I was wrong. I had a nice book and my xpress music for my company, just in case, but the journey itself was so enchanting that I ended up reading less than a hundred pages of the book during the whole five and a half hours.

I had a window seat – the view from Bangalore to Shimoga itself is not very beautiful, there is not much green, just rocky boulders and stretches of mostly uncultivated land but this means that the clear blue sky gets all the limelight :) its strange how the sky seems suddenly bigger and curved when the acres of land below it is bare and unoccupied. I could see the piercing, intense sun gradually becoming mellow and splashing crimson all over the sky. I could see the crimson then turning into grey. I could feel the heat waves slowly cooling down to caress the skin softly during the twilight and then again becoming fierce and chilly as the night advanced. I could see the trees and the earth and the rocks gradually darkening. It was now that I was interrupted from my reverie by my fellow passengers to close the window so as to keep the cold out.

I turned to stare at the little boy who was creating such mayhem a while ago sleeping peacefully. You could never imagine that such an innocent and beautiful looking kid was jumping around people, throwing banana and orange peels all over and screaming with such high frequency just a few minutes ago. There was such peace and calm in his face you could stare at it forever. I turned away, conscious of the gaze of the parents and started to read. I have been reading “Under the Tuscan Sun” for close to a month now – may be the longest I have ever taken for a book. It is so charming and laid back that I linger on every page.

The next day, since dad had gone to Bangalore (:P) it was just I and my mom at home. We took blankets to the terrace and slept on our backs looking at the mango trees in full bloom and gazing at the constellations. She was telling how every morning she places nuts and lentils outside the window for the squirrels who visit her daily and how the monkeys create nuisance spilling the waste from the bin she places outside for the garbage collector. She was telling of her resolution to never close a particular window in the kitchen so as to make way for a climber which has sneaked up its sills and also to keep a pitcher of water on the terrace for the birds. She told me how once a bird came inside the house. She was sure it was the same bird which used to nest on the custard apple tree we had in our previous house. Supposedly, the bird had come to visit her here. I was astonished that these little things occupy her mind so much. Her life is so simple, I almost envy my mother. Well, it is all the charm, as they say, of la dolce vita! Happy living! :)

Maestro And His Music

2011-01-25T09:08:00.007+05:30

When I was a kid, his voice was a lullaby to me; when I was a teenager I am ashamed to say I used to get bored of his Abhangs, yet conceal the yawn to impress my father and when I grew up, he was irresistible. In short, I grew up listening to and admiring him. My father is an avid fan of his and he has a huge collection of almost everything he has ever sung.

On Sundays, we used to turn off the TV and play his collection whole day, sometimes, same ragas over and over again. Even back then, my father had a music player of the highest quality with two big speakers mounted on the two edges of the wall for better acoustics. It was the most coveted possession at home. I used to snuggle up to my Dad sleeping on the diwan cot and we used to just close our eyes and listen, not moving an inch for the whole day, sometimes, for the whole night, much to the irritation of my mother. My father always says music is entirely different when you listen to it during the night and we have had such marathon of his ragas on so many nights.

I don’t attempt to praise him, since it is impossible for me to do him justice. Yet, in my own small humble way, I want to admire him and may be all I could do is just write this post and keep marvelling at the texture of his voice which is matchless as well as his ability to turn everything he breathes into magic. My favorite ones will always remain to be the Bhajans of Krishna that he has sung. He penetrates to a different level of the consciousness, doesn’t he? Numerous singers have attempted these and I have listened to various versions, and many of them are really good but there is, I feel, only one person who can bring out the essence from these Bhajans and it’s him. Whatever it is that I believe about Krishna and God and Universe, whatever my faiths are, his bhajans have contributed a lot towards forming and sustaining them :)

I was at office when my father called up to say that the legend passed away. I just said “oh” and he didn’t add anything either. There is nothing that could be said. I suppose I have a lot to thank him for and he will always remain my favorite of all times, and it’s not an exaggeration when the newspapers say that he just passed away physically.

Bharat Ratna Pt. Bhimsen Joshi is immortal. Isn’t he?

Beautiful Lalbagh

2011-01-22T23:12:00.007+05:30

The motivation to get up at 6AM on a Saturday morning , that too when the city is under 144 section and hop on an auto rickshaw to reach lalbagh for a walk should be immense. And ample of that was provided by the pictures posted by a friend on Facebook. The pictures looked so out of the world, we had to go there to experience it.

Most of the times it so happens that we search the world for something and in the end we find it to be right under our noses. This is the case of Lalbagh. It’s not the first time that I am seeing it, but I never saw it early in the morning when the sun doesn’t rise so high as to dominate the whole ambience. It shyly peeks through the canopy of the huge, multi-textured trees, as if asking permission to penetrate its rays through them.

Lalbagh, it seems was designed by Hyder Ali and was completed by his son Tipu Sultan. The garden is around 1 km2 in area and boasts giant trees, a large number of them imported from various countries. For me, early in the morning, it was nothing short of wonderland :)

The weather was very fine, though I would have liked it to be a little mistier. It was cool, not very chilly, and a little cloudy with just enough light to make all the elements of the nature seem as perfect as they could ever be. The stillness and the calm of the lake, the trees on little islands casting shadows and the darkening the water surface, the sun kissed petals of colorful flowers and the vibrant shades of green were enough to lift any early morning grogginess I felt.

It was bewitching to watch the winter breeze rumble and jostle the few little fluttering leaves left on the trees. They trembled as if in nervousness that they could be the next ones to sacrifice themselves to the anger of the wind and shed. There is a melancholic beauty in the bare trees, isn’t there? They are the same proud majestic trees, once in full bloom, flaunting beautiful flowers, and being the objects of admiration for an entire year that have shed everything they value and covet, just to survive the harsh winter. They represent strength and they get rewarded by the spring bestowing all the warmth and nourishment the next year :)

It was worth all the sleep, to stand basking in the sun rays, filtered by layers of canopy in the cool crisp winter breeze, to watch the little ducklings, lining up for an early morning tour of the lake, to smell an air pregnant with fragrance of the flowers at the biannual flower show, to marvel at the pendulous branches of the arched trees just touching the water surface, to see squirrels busily running around, to feel the texture of the age old trees and compare them to the hides of an elephant or rhinoceros and to just wonder at the colors, the patterns, the symmetries and the harmony with which all of these co-existed.

The flower show was themed this time on welcoming the metro rail and ironically, I read that a large portion of Lalbagh was stripped down of its flora to accommodate metro. I hope it retains the glory and its age old beauty. I pray it is not a victim to the concrete forest and modernization. I wish we had more Lalbaghs :) What we can actually do is to at least have a potted plant at home or care for and protect the trees which grow on the streets we live :)
Go green!

A classic obsession

2011-01-08T22:22:00.003+05:30

I can classify the books I read into two kinds

1. The feel good types – you read them, feel good, think for a while and forget them. They are like all the comfort food we eat- the junk stuff. We love them but they are not really wholesome or nutritious. (Why do I end up coming back to food from every conceivable topic? :P :P) well, the books I am talking about are single-time light reading types when you just want to stop thinking and relax.

2. The second kind is the one that stay with you long after you’ve finished reading them. They are the ones which you re-read, take notes from, preserve the quotations and read again after a while from a fresh perspective and each time, they provide different insights and enthrall you even though you have almost memorized the conversations. Somehow, they change you a little bit every time you read them.

Most of the Austen’s and Bronte’s books come under the second category for me. I wish I had someone to talk to about these books. There is such food for thought in them, I could go on and on and on analyzing these! I have been obsessed with them of late. There are all these blogs and reviews and challenges and what not in the internet, but they can’t replace the joy of conversation, can they? The thing that works for me in these books is that even though almost all the characters are flawed, they are perfect – I know sounds like a paradox – but they are, in their own way. And oh, the sentiments, the expressions, the analysis, the nature and the portrayal of these are simply overwhelming.

Last year I read all of Austen’s originals and this year, the resolution is to read and watch most of the adaptations and inspirations. I know; some addiction I’ve gotten into. Call me a silly romantic fool, but I cannot resist reading Caption Wentworth’s letter or Lizzie’s observations or Mr. Bennet’s sarcastic humor again and again! I have read a few of them so many times and even then, every time I read Pride and Prejudice, I bite my nails and long for Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth to get together. I feel connected to Marriane and understand her more than Eleanor; I respect and look up to Anne’s calm maturity, Jane Eyre’s principles and Mr. Rochester’s passion. I long get a glimpse of a Captain Wentworth or Mr. Darcy – there seem to be so less of their kind these days, though you can stumble upon Mrs Bennets and Emma s and Mr. Collins every turn of the street. Oh people, I am trying my best to inspire you to read these master pieces if you haven’t read them. If you haven’t, I could easily say you are missing out on so much in your life. Do pick them up and be patient until you get used to the style and language. Do be determined for a first few pages and I assure you, you’ll love these gems and ask for more!

My update: Currently reading Charlotte Bronte’s “Villette” and have picked up Frances Mayes’ “Under the Tuscan sun” for a parallel reading. The later was in my list and I was hunting it for a long time now, so looking forward for all the Italian charm :)

Happy Reading! :)

PS: If you have read or are reading these, please poke me, I really am looking forward to your views :)

Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T15:29:00.001+05:30

I am writing this post sneakily while waiting for the code review comments! It’s a very tense period since I just have to wait for all the “What if this method returns null?” - “How can you possibly do this mistake?!” ;“Incorrect, think of a better logic” - “Who hired you?” -“Where were you hiding when God was distributing brains?” –comments from the review board. All right, exaggeration bug has long bitten me and seems like it has no fix, but you get the idea.

Anyways, this is going to be my last post for the year! So, let me make it “thank you” post. I had a great year, touch wood and there are so many things I am grateful for!

• I moved out of my house to Bangalore, set up my own house, and started earning! I had never thought in my remotest dreams that I would be able to live without my parents for so long! I had never thought I would be able to manage a home, buy groceries, sweep the floor, clean the dishes and do laundry on my own! I had never done any household chores before, except may be, watering the plants! ;) Well, summing it up, I think I grew up to be a tad more responsible! :D

• Professionally, this year was wonderful! Mostly because I got to do some of the greatest and most fulfilling things I had ever done! I got to learn from some of the best people around, managed to successfully undergo 6 grueling rounds of interview (for my limited knowledge, any question they ask at the interview is grueling :P) and change the job – hopefully for the better.

• One of the things that I learnt was managing “my own money” – the term sounds so strange! Earning it, saving it and spending it as I want! I found out, being financially independent increases the confidence so much and boosts up your self esteem! :)

• This is one thing that I am most grateful for, I have a wonderful set of family and friends. I always bump into the nicest people in the world! I don’t usually experience the darker side of the human nature, the treachery, jealousy and the wrongs – I get to listen to all these things, but thank god, I don’t often experience them myself!

• I am grateful that I got to read so many books! May be I have broken all my previous records for reading most number of books a year. This was a year of classics! I used to dream of getting hold of some of the rare books and I this year, I managed to find most of them. One of the advantages of being in one of the most updated cities in India :) accessibility was an issue previously, am not hindered by it now! :D

• Exploring the city- though I have a horrible sense of direction! It is a thrill to be able to wander about on my own, search for eateries –this year was a treat to the taste buds! :) - run around catching buses at untimely hours, relax and binge.

• Travel- most of it with friends! Here is a small regret that I couldn’t travel as much as I wanted to, but then, it’s just one day left for a new year to provide with more opportunities! :D

I am grateful for so many new experiences, for so many opportunities and for so much luck! I am grateful that though I messed up so many times, people always forgave me, I am grateful I could live the life I had been dreaming of, I am grateful I could judge people and situations to my benefit, I am grateful I always had my principles to guide me in rights and wrongs, I am grateful I could lie and not be caught ;) I am grateful I always had a shoulder to cry on, someone who took care of me when I was sick, someone to whom I could confide, someone who was happy for me, though not the same person always and when there was no one, I could take care of myself :)

As for the resolutions, I want to be a lot of things, and still remain myself :)
Happy New Year!

Gastronomic Pleasures

2010-12-19T19:08:00.003+05:30

I think food is my ultimate weakness. I cannot say no to anything that looks/ feels or sounds delicious – except for something which was walking around a day before it was served :D I am utterly undisciplined in my eating habits. I don’t have to worry about weight gains since no matter what I eat, how much I eat or how often I eat, I don’t put on even an ounce of weight :)

Everything about food excites me. I love to cook, I love packaged and processed food, I love home-made food, I love to eat out and I love to think, read and research about food too :) anything that is vegetarian entices me :)

There is this inexplicable pleasure to see vegetables and fruits in the market,
isn’t there? It gives a feeling of us being prosperous and aplenty :)

The aroma of the homely food being cooked or baked; the satisfaction in seeing the cold, creamy curd drowning a helping of simple plain rice or the warmth of a bowl of 2 minute noodles when you are hungry; the tingling sensation in your mouth when a fresh bottle of tamarind pickle is opened are pleasures incomparable to anything else, aren’t they?

Butter and pepper, cheese and strawberries, seductive chocolates and tangy melons, I cannot resist them, can you? ;)

Then there is this background that goes with this. My mother is an awesome cook. I came to know this when I moved out from my home. Until then, I used to think, it was just average. Now, when I myself cook and grasp the intricate details that go into preparing a dish, I can justly appreciate her. I feel nobody in the world can cook authentic south canara cuisine like my mom. Her dish is never undercooked or overcooked. Nothing ever is burnt and yet her recipes are commonplace and uncomplicated – except for a few.
My father is the ultimate food critic. He can actually say if the coriander seeds – just a pinch of them- which my mother fried before grinding- were burnt. I grew up eating the best stuff available always which made me have a keen sense of judgment regarding food :)

Being in a cosmopolitan city like Bangalore has many advantages, being able to hog different cuisines from around the world, experience different ways of cooking and having so many options and places to explore definitely tops the others. There is a thrill in searching for a particular kind of eatery, doing research on it and going to fine dines. The ambience definitely increases the appetite and there is an unparallel joy in being able to experience the ice cream melt or wafer cones crunch in your mouth.

Hats off to the science or rather, the art of cooking, to all the culinary people, the foodies and the critics:)

PS: I am writing this post after coming back from Barbeque Nation, KoramangaLa- a must visit. Plenty of Veg options when we went and all of them amazing! Superb service- staff gives you this genuine smile- not the deliberate fake ones you usually see- and never makes you wait no matter how crowded the place is :)

PPS: Also visit Little Italy – As far as I have been able to explore so far, this place serves the best Italian food in Bangalore :)

Of Catterpillars and Butterflies

2010-12-08T11:13:00.000+05:30

I am a very possessive kind of a person, I cannot let go of things easily. I am a kind of a person who still has alphabets’ and coloring books from my elementary school, who preserves chocolate wrappers, movie tickets and faded old photographs and protects them dearly; numerous scrap books, diaries and journals are an inevitable part of my existence and I still wear my late grandmother’s socks sometimes; so you get the idea. I live in the past and I am nuts :P :P :D

To me, letting go of something means, letting go of a part of myself. I changed my job last week. I let go of everything associated with the old one and I cried like crazy for four whole days. I caught fever, chills, and headaches and now that I am almost over it, I am fine again. But those four days were a torment to ‘A’ who once remarked, “You are crying as if somebody close to you died!” :P
I know the caterpillar needs to and should be a butterfly, I know stagnation is just out fear and will burn me out someday, but that’s how I am – nuts.

Coming to the ever present brighter part, though I miss my old office, my teammates (you guys were great!) and even the half-baked idlis there- too much to do justification to my new one, it’s good here :) It is better than what I am ready to admit at present. First day was very irksome, I didn’t have my workstation, everybody was unfamiliar, they looked like bullies – serious and grumpy and at every step I thought- oh this is different here- it was better there, why should I do this now? I used to do it differently there! Why is the cab taking a right turn? It should go straight! – After a lot of unjust judging and letting go of my preconceived notions, I am starting to like it here. I had a hearty laugh at the pantry today with my teammate which made me realize, may be these people are not as grumpy as they seem :) may be its just the time that needs to wear and patience that needs to bear :)

Comparisons will always be there and I will always have a soft corner for my first job and office but I have enough confidence that I will start liking this new place gradually :) I cannot be cross at the place I live or work, I cannot not like something after a while, I am confident that as usual I will like this place too much someday and will again be possessive enough about it to cling to it :)
And thanks for all your wishes! They meant a lot to me! :)

PS: Aaargh! There is no Bournvita kept here in the pantry :P :P
PPS: There is hot chocolate, though! :) :) :D

Mornings

2010-11-29T08:29:00.000+05:30

I had always been a late riser before coming here. I used to have erratic sleeping habits and used to be groggy early in the mornings, if ever I woke up. It all changed once I had a job. Catching the office bus meant I had to wake up at around 6 AM every day and initially, for a few months, it was nightmare. But of late, I have grown used to being “early to bed, early to rise” It still is a little difficult during these winter months but since I almost always have sufficient eight hours of sleep, I feel fresh in the mornings and raring to go :)

There is a pattern which is followed every morning. It still is a race against the time, freshening up, getting ready, packing lunch, and almost always ending up running till the bus stop which is just a few steps away from home. Most of the times, I have a minute or two before the bus arrives at the stop which is nothing but the shade of a small tree.

There are a few people who share my mornings.
‘A’ who always reminds me of the little but important things I need to take along and mostly forget to - like my jacket or my ID card or sometimes even my lunch!
Two little girls wearing cute pin-o-forms and scarves, waiting for their school bus standing beneath a huge may-flower tree, directly opposite of mine and across the road, carrying bag packs which seem to me to be heavier than they themselves!
A man who takes his five huge pet dogs for a walk - I used to gawk at the size of them and feel slightly intimidated by their approach, and may be he noticed this one day and started smiling at me, and since then he smiles every time he passes by me, and now whole group seems friendly :)
An old woman who sweeps the street - she never seems to look at anything other than the litter and dust on the street. She walks wearily, head down, determined to sweep the pavement, gather the dirt, put it in her bin and move on. She seems indifferent of the weather, of the people and of the regular hustle bustle around her. When she looks up, she is careful not to make an eye contact – like most people.
And then there is this teammate who passes by my desk, arriving right after me – I am usually the first one to reach office in my bay- and who has never once forgotten to wish me, “Hello Divya, Good morning!” and even his line doesn’t change.

These are the people who share my early mornings. I don’t know a few of them, but they are important since they occupy the beginnings of my day :)

I make sure nothing related to office or home enters my head for the few minutes I spend beneath the tree and an hour I spend in the bus. I notice the people, the weather and the pattern. The wind is crisp at this time of the year or sometimes slightly damp. When it is crisp, it rubs off my skin harshly causing goose bumps :) and when it is damp, it drips from the leaves of the tree as moisture. Both times, it is fresh and new, just like my day :)

I love my mornings now. They reassure me that no matter what changes occur in my life, some things will always remain constant. Cute little girls will keep waiting for their school buses, people will keep taking their dogs for a walk, and someone will resolutely keep cleaning up the mess that we made the previous day and at least one person at office will wish me a nice day every morning :)

May be, this post was a way of mentally preparing myself for the change that is to come, to reassure myself and feel comfortable and casual of it and look forward to a new routine and a new pattern. I’ll write on the change itself and its effects in sometime to come, but until then, I am praying for it to be for the better :)

In need of your good wishes,
Divya

The Analysis

2010-11-11T09:07:00.001+05:30

I really don’t know what this post is going to be about. I missed writing and am writing just for the pleasure of it :) There is a lot to share and analyze though, and this blog has become a blessing and a friend of late :)

I had been home for Diwali for 9 days! Yes, and all I did during the vacations was to sleep, eat and do nothing. There is an inexplicable bliss sometimes in doing nothing, isn’t there? The indulgence was fully gratifying and though I was a bit bored and longing to get back here on the 8th day, the moment I departed from home, I was longing to go back soon again :)

Since this time, I was able to stay at home long enough for my family to study me at length; I was on the receiving end of so many of their analysis and opinions though they were not completely aware that they were giving them! I was, as far as I was able to gather from the casual talks, opinioned to have changed and grown up to be more practical and a little heartless! This came as a surprise to me since I have always been accused of feeling more than necessary, and rightly so, since my raptures and my mortifications have always been intense if not extreme.
I have always selfishly blamed this extra helping of heart on my coming from a small town and the kind of upbringing that is usually found there. Even so, even then, I have been classified as being a little too much of a Cancerian :P

Well, I don’t know if this is right or wrong, but have you not felt a little want of delicacy of feelings and a tenderness of heart in people around you? Aren’t people with strict principles, delicate tempers and just actions superior to those with a better intellect or who are more informed?

Isn’t comfortable company slightly more important than the ambience of the place; empathy and understanding weigh slightly over advice and plan, a hug or a warm smile infinitely more welcome than an expensive gift? Though most of these are close contenders :D

Though I am a thorough advocate of enjoying every moment of existence, isn’t the pleasure more when the enjoyment doesn’t overlook the principles, the righteousness and the propriety? Blind bliss has always proved to be expensive. Hasn’t it?
Well, having said so, though I have not yet grown up enough to know my own mind thoroughly, am still in the stage of considering my own views correct and am narrow minded enough to find faults in people, I am positive that “Edmund” and “Marianne”, “Mr. Rochester” and “Elizabeth” do exist even today, if only to be clothed appropriately for the present.

Well, I really wanted to celebrate the conscience and the emotions which sets us apart from all other creatures :) The joy and the grief, the guilt and the complacence, the anger and the love; the need and the satisfaction, the sympathy and the gratitude - These are what make us individuals rather than stereotypes, which give us an identity rather than reputation. Correct? So, Cheers! :)

PS: This has been a rant- very disconnected and random. But what do I do? It’s not every day that I get to talk all these things with someone; so, I guess I have taken advantage of you people to bore you to your bones, thanks for bearing :)

The Sequel

2010-10-18T08:12:00.002+05:30

Warning: there is not much to write about the encounter, though I’ll try my best to make it interesting without being dishonest :)

If you are wondering what this post is all about, it is a sequel to this.
I couldn’t meet him until last Thursday mainly because I found out he worked in night shift at some BPO and the timings couldn’t match and mostly because I had so much in mind about my job and office that I lost track. I intended to collect my purse before this weekend so I called him up on Thursday morning. He told me he would be at his office (which is very near to mine) around 5.15 in the evening and I decided to catch a bus there. I was caught up with something or the other in the office till 4.30 and my teammate remarked casually that it would rain heavily since dark clouds had gathered up. This piece of news was a little alarming, though I am not scared of rains; I sure am, of the traffic jams during the rains. I braced myself and reached his office.
He gave me a call when I was on the way to tell me it had started raining and he was stuck in the jam. He apologized profusely and I again made up my mind for a long wait at the reception of his office :P
I started studying the people at the reception. There were a few waiting – they all appeared to have come in for interviews- they looked nervous and hopeful, avoided eye contact and had folders/ files with them. Every now and then, a HR appeared and called one of them inside. The rest of the people wished the candidate luck and he/ she disappeared only to return a few minutes later looking more nervous and more hopeful. When this pattern repeated my interest shifted to the receptionist who was talking non-stop over the phone. She was smiling frequently and blushing so often that though it was amusing to watch her, it was a trifle embarrassing too!
Mr M was more than half an hour late now, though he had called in the interim to make sure I had reached his office and was comfortable and to tell me about his whereabouts and apologize. I was long done curiously looking at each incomer and expecting it to be him so I picked up a few news papers and borrowed a pen from the cute, smiling receptionist. I was done with 2 sudokus, a scramble, a Hitori -it is an interesting thing! “Almost” as engrossing as Sudoku! - Umpteen number of comic strips and a failed attempt at “the loop in the loop” when he came. I looked up when I saw the HR run towards him grinning widely. He was tall, had a French beard and came directly towards me; I guess he recognized me by my photo in the pan card. He was smiling all the time and told me he was running very late- he was supposed to be inside office an hour back- hurriedly gave my purse and ran inside the office after apologizing again a few times and patiently bearing my words of gratitude. So that’s it!
Oh no, wait. After he went into the office, I had this rare sense to call him up- he was still at the security desk – to give him the “raama raksha stotra” book and tell him that I wanted him to have it, so someday if he loses something, someone would return it back to him. He accepted it, and rushed off.
That’s it people, end of the story. The epilogue is that I had a two hour, tiring journey back home in the Volvo- half way standing- as the bus inched forward, trying to escape the traffic due to rain. Mr. M called one last time to ask if I had got the bus and if I had verified the contents in the purse. I mumbled something and the call got disconnected.

PS: No; the story will not continue, neither do I want it to. It is more beautiful if it ends here! I want him to be this Good Samaritan who appears just to make you feel the world is still good and trust worthy, and then disappear in the crowd never to be seen again :)

All in a day!

2010-10-11T08:13:00.004+05:30

Warning: this is a long post, but I can assure you, you won’t feel bored reading it! :D

Okay I think I do attract the unexpected and the incredible. This is how my Friday went.

I rushed from office. I was tensed and guilty, I had skipped lunch, left the issue unsolved and I was in a hurry. I was basically in a bad mood. I caught a 500c Volvo, went into it and sat worrying some more, checking my watch every 2 minutes. I was the only passenger; I bought the ticket and put my purse inside my bag. I am pretty sure I did this (As you usually are when you lose something later). The bus conductor owed me 5 bucks and I was intent on collecting it before I got down (I have forgotten to do this so often that I keep losing the change).
I was so busy thinking that I didn’t put on the music and when I finally got down from the bus, I hired a Rickshaw immediately and jumped into it. When I reached my destination, I searched the entire bag for my purse, and couldn’t find it.

What do I tell the rickshaw wala? I was still searching when he asked me if I had any card in it. I did and I told yes! He asked me to forget about the money I owed him and to call up the bank and block the card first. Now how many rickshaw-walas do this? See?? It’s not that hard to find a trusting creature these days. To make it worse, he asked me how I would go back home without any money! I had no immediate answer for this so I just threw up my hands and said “I don’t know!” I asked for his address so I could post him the money or something, which sure must have seemed like a stupid thing to do for him, so he just waved me aside and asked if I had any friends in Kormangala and I didn’t but I told him I would manage somehow and he reluctantly left. After a few calls and rising irritation, I managed to have my card blocked.

Now this is what happened 3 hours later. I am sitting in a park at kormangaLa, talking feverishly over phone when I get a call from the bank guy and he tells me this
Him : M’am we just received a call from Mr M who is claiming to have your wallet and he has asked us to inform this to you and has asked you to call him immediately since he is going out of town this night.
I: (speechless)
Him: M’am?! Can you hear me? Will you please note down his number?
I: yes! (And I note down the number)
I call up this ‘M’ guy and this is the conversation we have.

I: hi, errr… is this Mr. ‘M’?
Him: yes, may I know who this is?
I: ummm, errr.. This is Divya, I just got a call from my bank telling me you have found my purse and err… is it possible to err… (:P)
Him: yes, I have found a purse but the problem is right now I am in office and am leaving for my home town tonight. Is it ok if I keep it and the contents with me till I come back on Monday?
I: (as if anyone would say no) yes! Sure!
Him: I want to make sure it’s your purse so can you tell me its contents?
I: It had around 350 rupees
Him: I haven’t even looked at the money.
I: okay, it has a Debit card and possibly also NSR card.
Him: what else?
I: Alright fine. It also has a small book in it which if you can read kannada, says ‘raama raksha stotra’.
Him: (I could almost hear him smiling) ok! That’s correct and it was because of this book that I decided to track you down and return your purse
I: (stupidly) Hahahahaha! Okay!
Him: so, is it okay if I keep it with me and return it to you on Monday?
I: (stupidly again, forming all the wrong sentences) yes! Sure! More than fine! :P :P
Him: okay, and make sure you bring a similar book of raama raksha stotra when you come
I: (there you go, I cant have been more stupid) :D :D ok!
Him: and remember I have spent around 30 rupees making calls to find you, so make sure you bring them along since you owe me!
I: (why don’t I have something witty to say??!) okay! I’ll definitely do that! :P :P
Him: ok then! Bye!

He disconnects the phone and I simply stupidly, idiotically stare at it. :P :P
So what do you think? I had never even dreamt something like this would happen to me and I would go to meet a stranger whom I’ve not seen, carrying a book as a token of identity wearing a blah blah blah colored dress or something stupid like that. :P

whats going on?!

2010-10-04T09:45:00.007+05:30

It has been almost a month since I last wrote something worthwhile. I’ve been scribbling, but not much. I feel it’s difficult to write something if there is too much or too little going on in my mind. In this case, it definitely was former. There has been considerable food for thought, analysis, both in the career and personal fronts. I couldn’t write much about wind and rain when these things have occupied me for entire month ;)

Well, I still wanted to record the month as it was. So, here it goes.
1. Work has been going on as usual, I have nothing to complain about, though there have been hiccups in keeping up with the deadlines and finding out “optimal” solutions, I’ve been able to manage pretty well! There has been a feeling of dissatisfaction which has been brewing since considerable time now, but then, I have learnt and am learning more every passing day and I am thankful! :)

2. Personally, I have been great, great health, not even cold or headache. This has been “the chocolate month”!! Loads of chocolates, I couldn’t help buying and eating sneakily, also, recently got a load of them from my cousin who visited from Singapore and recently from a friend back from France. I’ve been eating them as if I had been starved for years. Friends and my mother have been deeply concerned, ‘A’ especially. She doesn’t bother to scold me much these days but the kind of look she gives me when she finds out I have emptied an entire box in one sitting is so lovely that no words could replace what she wants to say ;) I’ve been telling you, A, that you underestimate my capacity of digesting chocolates and of wanting them :D ;)

3. I’ve managed to read a lot this month! :) :)
• And thereby hangs a tale by Jeffrey archer- typical archer, I was able to guess most of his twists making it laborious to wait till I found out they were correct. :P

• Himalayan Tales by Ruskin bond- I am a fan now. All his stories are delightful to read! His write-ups are exactly my kind! They make you feel so good! They are nostalgic, described in such detail and lovingly told that I’ve brought two more of them!!

• Sudden- Range of Robbers and
• Troubleshooter by Oliver Strange. I have been a fan of the sudden series since I first read them some 6-7 years ago. I have been longing to get hold of these forgotten out of print books since then! I had given up hopes of acquiring them when all of a “sudden” ;), miraculously I got one when the keen eye of my friend, ‘G’ caught it in some book strand! I had pestered her long and hard, during reading them long ago that she still remembered the name. Reading it renewed all the old memories, the cowboy adventures, the admiration for the perfect hero, and the one-liners and the punch lines! I searched the internet with fresh vigor and didn’t fail to get the pdf of the books! I took the printout of the entire novel and finished it within record time! :) This was something I had wanted so long! It felt so good to read it after all this time!

4. Only regret is that I couldn’t travel that much, except for home, though I have managed to explore little more of Bangalore and the eateries. Discoveries this month were
• “Under the mango tree” at the Richmond road. Desserts here are super though didn’t click with me for rest of the courses. Certainly couldn’t top the all time favorite Veekes and Thomas for Italian. :)

• CTR at Malleshwaram- amazing beNNe masala dosa! Best I’ve had at Bangalore! :)

• Movie of the month – Khichdi-the movie!! Super! Worth every single paise you spent on the ticket. I was laughing non stop throughout! I came out of the hall with hoarse voice and tingling stomach! Missed my dad and ‘D’ utterly while watching it! It is very difficult to pen down such punches and such idiotic dialogues and to carry them out with such perfection. Hats off! Why don’t we get to see such movies often?

Wow! I lost myself again! This has been an unintentionally long post! Well, may be, makes up for the month long inactivity! :) Nothing more to add, or may be a little thing more! I met up with my friend again! And the encounter was delightful as always! He recited a poem he had written in Sanskrit and I was spellbound! :)
All in all, a very satisfactory month, very educating and entertaining! I have an amazing life, don’t I? Love it more every passing day! :) And am so thankful! :)

PS: no PS this time ;)

PPS: which made it a PS all the same :P
PPPS: I had almost named this post “status report” :P

friendly stranger

2010-09-06T16:24:00.007+05:30

I met him again last weekend, the elderly cheerful stranger. I was alone at home, ‘A’ having gone to stay at her cousin’s place, I did usual my reading and writing stuff, updating the journal and scribbling in the numerous amazing note books I’ve gathered over these few months. It feels nice to be alone every now and then. Constantly surrounded by people, minding manners and being on the best behavior every day kind of stresses you out, doesn’t it? And then you feel like being alone- to talk to and take care of yourself, to sort out your priorities and troubles, to analyze situations and people at leisure and to make decisions :)

I had had enough time for all this, this weekend and more. In the evening when I was done with all this, I started feeling bored and kind-of wanting company! It had just stopped drizzling, yet there was this amazing freshness in the air, so I took my book and went to mini forest. A few minutes into the book and I found him standing and smiling at me! I couldn’t recognize him at first, he was completely covered up in woolens, but I instantly recognized his heart warming smile! I was, needless to say, delighted!

He began with this- “Am I disturbing you? Because I think you’ve come here to be alone”

I: On the contrary, I’ve come here BECAUSE I was alone!

He invited me to take a walk with him this time, and I came to know a few random things about him. That he is basically from Tamil Nadu, but studied in IISC, had been abroad for 10 long years, and was homesick for most of them, he studies scientific journals- concerning metallurgy- still works, has a daughter whom he says he has spoiled to his heart’s content, his wife is a teacher and he likes Mast Kalandar parathas! Okay, so I think I can consider him no longer a stranger but strange sort of a friend of mine! :)

I was reading Wuthering Heights this time and he seemed impressed that I had read so many classics. He had read almost all of them too- decades back and I had a great time reminding him the stories! We had something in common after all; we were both huge fans of the Bronte sisters! :)

I sat down after a round of walk with him and finally when it was 8.30, he says, I am done, its dark, I guess, we should both be going home! We moved out, and when we were exchanging good byes, he says, be careful while crossing the road! Now, how sweet is that?

I come back home and in no mood to cook, I decide upon curd rice- so set out to buy some curd. On the way my neighbor sees me walking towards the grocery store and starts chatting, finding out I was alone, she bugs me endlessly to have dinner at her place and no amount of protests on my part puts off her firm decision. I end up having super homemade chapathis and rice and curry and butter milk. I come back home with a heart full of warm feelings and stomach full of warm delicious food :)

PS: I still don’t know my strange friend’s name!

PPS: But I know he thinks daughters are “delightful” :) :)

memories and melody

2010-09-03T11:05:00.004+05:30

The tunes and the words woven together do have some magic in them, don’t they? I love all the happy songs, lifts the spirits, my friend likes sad ones and may be the degree attraction a song exerts depends on the mood you have. The peppy numbers simply don’t gel with a melancholic mood. Neither does a sad one with excitement.

Here is the thing about certain songs, I get addicted to them. Single song in the playlist, over and over and over again; and finally when I am done wearing it out, sucking in every molecule of melody that is present in it, I don’t listen to it at all. It remains idle in the player for more than a month and then I throw it away. And when I hear it somewhere after quite a long time, more than the song, the things I was dreaming about or reading or thinking while I used to listen to it comes back to me. It’s like re-living the time when you were marathon-listening the song.

So, I tend to associate every song I got addicted to, to a certain memory, for instance,
1. Twilight and “khudaya ve” from Luck. I read entire Twilight listening to it. They complimented each other so very well!
2. “Jessie” by Joshua Kadison and the final year project! My god! I’ve reached a point where I won’t ever listen to it again!
3. “Ya Ali” and solving problems in mathematics. 2nd semester of engineering, probably. The song, never made me get bored of solving them.
4. “Imaan ka asar” and the boat ride to an island during a trip.
5. “Iktara” and all the day-dreaming pre-job, pre-Bangalore.
And for now, the journey-time from home to office,
6. “Breakaway” by Kelly Clarkson. Simply loving this. Whatever early morning blues I have, they just vanish when Kelly starts the slow notes and every time, I am thrilled at the end of the song. Haven’t grown tired of this one yet!
It’s like song and the memory go hand in hand; you can’t remember one and not recollect the other. Does this happen to you?

If listening is one part, then humming is another. I think myself to have a tolerable voice, so I keep humming while cooking; especially when I am alone. It’s become a habit, kind of you keeping yourself company when no one is there ;) and I can make out improvements in my singing accomplishments too, why, you never know, I might even grab a mic someday ;) ;)

PS: Yuck, Talk about wishful thinking and vain fantasizing and I am always on top of the charts :P

Letting Go

2010-08-17T15:47:00.004+05:30

Letting go has always been difficult for me. Whether it is just a coloring book - with pages worn out and falling apart – that I used during my elementary school days or some person with whom I shared a nice rapport. I feel a part of me goes with it when I lose it. I have improved over time, I am trying to, to let go of what cannot be changed, but then, every time, I have to make a conscious effort.
This time, I have to let go of the house I grew up in; forever. It is more difficult than letting go of anything else. I feel as if every little creek, every nook and corner of the house has some memory associated with it. It cannot get better if I feel bad about this. So let me list out a few things I am going to miss the most about the house where I became what I am today.

1. The garden. The big beautiful garden. I’ll miss collecting fruits from the trees- we had (I hate saying “had” :( ) guava, banana, custard apple and papaya trees. My father used to drop the fruits into the fruit basket poking them with a long stick. During rainy season, the when the tree trembled and shook, it used to drench us completely. Sometimes we used to sit in the garden, wash the fruits and eat them under the trees. We’ve even had dinners in our garden.
I’ll miss the flowers we grew- the roses, jasmine, temple flowers and umpteen numbers of wild varieties we had, which welcomed me every day after school and then college by spewing their sweet fragrance. I’ll miss watching rain drops on the petals, I’ll miss those elegant climbers, I’ll miss the different shades of greens, I’ll miss those yellow roses and li’l rare lilies, I’ll miss the smell of the mud, I’ll miss planting new variety, I’ll miss waiting for the first flowers.

2. I’ll miss my room- where I used to laugh like crazy watching movies or reading books, where I used to hide from the world when I cried myself to sleep. Where I felt I got all the privacy and protection, where I used to contemplate on everything under the sun, whose door I used to close to sing and dance when I was brimming with joy, where I used to study late into nights for the exams, where I really used to pray. This room is dearer to me than most things in that house. It never made me feel lonely. It has been a spectator to all the changes I went through, of all the feelings, desires, heartaches and joys I ever had.

3. Terrace- Hold on, it is getting too difficult to write all this. I am continuing at the risk of breaking down in office :P
Terrace is where I used to play all sorts of games with my cousin and relatives, where I and my mother used to sit and talk over a cup of coffee. Where we walked, where I slept on my back in the cold winter nights gazing at the star studded sky, where I saw so many daylights turning magnificently into dusks, splashing wonderful colors, where I started writing, where I dreamt most of my dreams, where I flew my first kite, and well, the list goes on.

Okay, I give up. It is impossible to list out the things. Words cannot suffice the decade I spent there; neither can they make justice to what I feel towards the house. But, I know we are giving it up for the good. We are giving it up for something better. I have grown up enough to realize we can weave new dreams, spin better memories, cling to something better, and let go of something that seemed impossible. I know we are just giving up the house, not the memories, not anything that made it a home. After all, home is where the heart is :)

PS: sorry for the long senti post.
PSS: Deadlines should always be nearer :P

Of music and meeting strangers

2010-08-13T08:59:00.001+05:30

It was a typical day. After 9 hours of office, I came in to an empty house. ‘A’ is almost always late. So I freshened up, put on some nice music but unlike most days, today I didn’t feel like cooking. It wasn’t that I was tired, I am seldom tired, but I just didn’t feel like eating anything I knew how to cook. I was stretching myself with a book when the power went off. So I geared myself with the book and my music-player cum mobile and off I went to mini forest. It was cold there, even though I was wearing a thick jacket, I was shivering slightly. I was turning the pages of Lost Symbol - Dan Brown was making Robert Langdon run all over Washington D.C – when a chilling breeze made me automatically hug my jacket. I looked up to find an elderly person, about 60 yrs old, walking briskly on the track. He met my eye and I, as a habit, smiled. He smiled back- most people don’t, you know, they either frown or quickly look away :P Then he kept on walking.

The next round, he came up to me and asked which song I was listening to. We conversed for a while about books and music and he asked me to guess the song he was listening to. I said I had no clue, though I was of the opinion that he’d be listening to some old hindi movie melody. He came up with an idea of swapping our music players and we did that. After completing every round of his walk, we swapped our players and commented on the songs we had. His playlist consisted mostly of charming slow English tracks which made me reluctant to swap his Ipod with my player. After a few rounds of this, we returned each others’ players (I felt ‘A’ would be home) and then, he said we could do this again if and when we chance to meet. I replied I’d be only too glad to! Then he went away.

I don’t know why, but this incident made me so very happy. I was feeling low for no reason and somewhat lonely and talking to stranger- especially an elderly stranger who listened to haunting English tracks, who wasn’t shy to smile at random people he met in parks, who had enough enthusiasm and spirits left in him to do something unusual, who seemed interested to know the tastes of people like me- my age; lifted my spirits too :) I was just returning from the park when I got ‘A’s call. I prepared myself for the non-stop chatter I would have with her which would throw the loneliness out of the window :)

PS: We don’t even know each others’ names :)

PSS: I am hoping for a “next time” :)

Irresistibles

2010-08-10T08:43:00.016+05:30

After thinking this over, I have come to the conclusion that nothing tempts me more than books. Books I have read, books I haven’t read, books with pages that smell so fresh and sweet, books bound in leather, books that promise a whole new world inside. These books simply compel me to buy them; More than chocolates- incredibly, yes; More than anything else.

There is a crossword right across the street I live in. It is one of my favorite places. The best thing about crossword is that we get to sit on comfortable couches and browse here. Read a few pages inside and then decide whether to buy it. Even though it does not have as big a collection as landmark may be, whatever options are there, they are very superior. This time when I visited it, I was pleasantly surprised to find a set of classics from Wilco- all leather bound with golden letters on the cover, for rock bottom prices. I couldn’t believe it. I had this very familiar urge to grab them all and put them into my crossword bag. And initially I did that too. But after much reasoning and persuasion from ‘A’, I ended up picking up 3 among them. Here is what I picked.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: this is my all time favorite. I have a personal copy but the leather bound version was simply too hard to put down.
Treasure Island by R.L Stevenson: this I believe is the first classic I read. And I’ve wanted to own a personal copy ever since.
It has got some fond memories.

“Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest-
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil had done for the rest-
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!”
I used to run about house brandishing the remote control of the TV or a long comb like a sword, chanting this (of course, I was a kid) :)

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen: this is the only Jane Austen I haven’t read yet. And I can’t wait to read it, though it has to wait in the queue. :)

Here is what Stevenson had to say to a hesitating purchaser:

“If sailor tales to sailor tunes,
Storm and adventure, heat and cold,
If schooners and islands and maroons,
And buccaneers, and buried gold,
And all the old romance, retold
Exactly in the ancient way,
Can please, as me they pleased of old,
The wiser youngsters of today.

So be it, and fall on! If not,
If the studious youth no longer crave,
His ancient appetites forgot,
Kingston or Ballantyne the brave,
Or Cooper of the wood and wave:
So be it, also! And may I
And all my pirates share the grave
Where all these and their creations lie!”

Now tell me, how could I not buy them?

Into the wild

2010-08-01T13:21:00.004+05:30

There is pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more...
-Lord Byron

home sweet home

2010-07-16T16:26:00.000+05:30

I am tired today. Was feeling like writing something since morning but was struggling to find the words. It never happens like this with me. I think about something and words automatically flow. I am not feeling like working either. It’s Friday and deadlines are far. Eyes are strained, looking at the laptop screen. Everybody is busy at office and is running around. So what do I do? I go flash back :) This is called my “Once upon a time in India” mood. But today I’ll write about something that is not so old.

I so want to go home that I was re-collecting the last trip. Getting to sleep till afternoon, to wake up for nice hair massage – my mom is an expert on this. I and my dad do whatever she says for a nice hot-oil hair massage by my mom! It is making me feel drowsy right now when I day dream about it. By the time I finish having a lazy long shower and come back; the aromas of home-made food hit my nostrils. Have a heavy lunch, eat as if I’ve not had food since a long time and immediately hit the bed for an afternoon nap which stretches till evening ;)

Wakeup late afternoon, call up your best friend, take a long drive to the outskirts of the city - some temple in some village by the riverside where there is quite and peace to enjoy each other’s company in silence. It’s amazing how you seem to enjoy doing nothing with someone you can completely be yourself with- rest assured there will be no judging, no analyzing but simple acceptance :) how nice it was the last time when it started drizzling and we went crazy getting drenched all the way back, running down empty roads, asking random shepherds and farm workers to click our pictures. Putting heater on in the car and drying ourselves -enjoying hot chilly fries and cold coffees at café. Coming back home, to sleep without having to bother about office and a thousand odd things for the next day. Laughing like crazy over some PJs of dad late into nights, my mom hushing us up, telling neighbors will complain. Oh, it’s still 2 weeks before I can do that all once again.

Until then, it’s running around breaking the head against wall, but then this is fun too. I so love my life. Touch wood :)

A Christmas Memory

2010-07-06T08:40:00.001+05:30

I stumbled upon this short story by Truman Capote (author of Breakfast at Tiffany’s) last Saturday and I feel compelled to recommend it to everybody.
It’s not always that I find a book to my complete satisfaction. There is always something “too much” or “too little” in a book and you have to edit it in your imagination to make it perfect (i.e. according to your taste). The exceptions to this rule are a few classics which I consider perfect. But then, most books fall short of my expectations these days. I believe a good story should have spices and flavors, colors and shades, odors and textures and springs and autumns.

A Christmas Memory is one such story. I read it twice and then again. It is very simple story of two unusual friends. A sixty-something woman and a seven year old boy whom she calls “Buddy”. The simplicity of their lives, their innocent pleasures in the silliest of things which include flying kites together, baking fruit cakes, humming songs, tap dancing, telling ghost stories and hand-picking berries from the woods; their little disappointments, simple wants, their brimming happiness in being together, their parting and writing letters is so beautifully conveyed.

The elegant description by the author on the simplest things makes the book rich with liveliness. His cherries and citron, ginger and vanilla, butter and flour made my mouth water, just as his December fig branch grating against the window, almost made me hear the sound and the smoke from his pot bellied great black stove made me cough. He has superbly covered the village life in 15 odd pages; Hats off to Truman Capote :) – Just the book to read on lazy July Saturdays- when the weather outside is cloudy and there is a cold chilling breeze- you are warm- safely tucked inside thick blanket and are reluctant to get up ;)
PS: And if there is a box of Ferrero Rocher (gifted by your housemate on your birthday) beside you, what more could you want in life? ;)

peaceful puducherry

2010-06-11T08:19:00.009+05:30

After so much of stealthily writing in bits at office and deleting I am finally writing this post at a stretch at home :)
It was supposed to be like this: I have finished my work. It is successfully deployed and is ready to go to production market. People all over the world are using what I have done when I am on my much deserved vacation, enjoying the sun, sea and the sand at a remote unreachable place when mails of appreciation are getting dumped in my inbox. Ok. So now the dream ends.

What actually happened was this: some obscure person in some remote corner of the world suddenly realized that there was a dot of a bug in my program and he decided to stop the release of my part. Panic starts all over. I ask my friends to cancel my ticket; resolve to sit at office and slog. Trying very hard, talking to myself that this was worth it etc etc. Actually it was just that the grapes were sour. Suddenly from nowhere, my other manager (I’ll refer to him as OM) comes and says everything is fine and asks me to go home. Needless to say, am thrilled, I run and almost miss my train but finally, unbelievably I am in. The AC compartment of the train soothes my incredibly strong nerves and I heave a sigh of relief. Yay! Am going to PONDICHERRY!
Day1: We have entered the guest house after having typical idli sambar at a nice hotel, puducherry is so welcoming with its humid saline air. Feeling the heat waves and dampness, am about to take a shower, when my phone rings and this is the first sentence I get to hear from OM’s voice. “Divya, how soon can you come back?” -he didn’t know I was in Pondicherry, he had thought all the while that I was in my home town and I was and still am too ashamed of myself to confess the truth :( - The rest, as they say is history. I juggle with phone all through the day, explaining what should be done, how it should be done, visualizing my laptop at office and everything in it. I plan of going back right then, asking for available buses etc etc. I am at the same time, happy to be at Pondicherry, anxious to get back to office, guilty of irritating my friends to an intolerable extent and nervous about what will happen next.

Amidst all this, we go to Auroville, and walk around the place. Next up place was chunnambar/paradise beach. I am kind of happy since I think I won’t get the cell fone network there, but very scared of that coming true. But then, I find out, the network is full on even after getting away from the land by a boat ride of 20 mins. I enjoy the beach. It’s impossible for me not to enjoy sea. I think I’ll smile looking at it even if my neck is on the noose. :P I don’t fail to notice the colors splashed across the sea and the sky and I feel the saline air seeping inside my skin. I remember we got to see a battered old tree house and play swing in the beach :) I have almost pushed office to the back of my mind since I am 90% sure now that the conversations over the expensive roaming cell phone have paid off. I start feeling the excitement; we have amazing dinner at Hot Breads and are shopping and roaming around in an unknown city. It’s as much thrill as it can ever be. I call OM just to make sure everything is ok. He is comforting me saying this is what is happening when I realize something is fishy. I get to know something minute is wrong somewhere when he is explaining to me.
Now this is the most difficult thing to decide. I know something is wrong. I know he doesn’t know it. I know nobody will notice it. I know everything can be fixed later, I know I am supposed to tell him, I know he’ll panic and ask me to comeback if I tell him. I know “if” somebody else notices it we’ll be in a bigger problem. What do I do? I am supposed to have learnt from him now. And I have a conscience and it is shouting loudly for me to confess. And I do. I hear a long pause at the other end and a quite request for me to come back. I postpone my decision and think. Later I tell him the minuteness of the bug, and the difficulty of my coming back. He is as usual his sweet understanding self. Next day he calls me up and tells me he did some magic and everything is fine. I am relieved. I can still enjoy my vacation without anything or anyone bothering. This is when my vacation really began.

Day2: The city is divided into 2 parts just like its name. We were exploring the second part- the French quarter today. The locals call it white area. There is this street in the middle of the city which divides it into two. The bifurcation is so remarkable it is almost insane. The architecture, the language, the people and the streets are so different in the tamil and the French parts that it is hard to believe. The sunrise was elusive to us but the rocky beach by the side of the street itself was awesome. We hire bicycles and roam around marveling the French architecture and the cuisine. Riding bicycles in an unknown city, was so exciting that I had forgotten all about office and bugs. It was all sweet… oops! saline now! The heat wasn’t that much or maybe I didn’t feel it. It even drizzled!!! It was damp and humid but also cloudy. We had breakfast and lunch at these posh French restaurants, Le café and La Club. But neither the service nor the food was noteworthy. But then, they were claimed to be authentic. :) We shopped. I enjoyed shopping. Seriously, ask me how! We shopped riding in bicycles! We had amazing pine apple pizza at an amazingly French-ish place and coming to the best part, we visited this chocolate café- Choco La. And OMG!! That’s it. Hot chocolate was simply amazing. I ate as much as my budget permitted because if I had gone on eating chocolate, I would run the risk of emptying the café ;)

There is always a surprising part to the trip, isn’t there? We developed an acquaintance with a couple who stayed at this amazing 150 year old French house and had a look inside it while they served us juice and welcomed us cozily. :) Old houses make me crazy. Everything that is old and beautiful does that actually, but the house was simply incredible.
This was a great vacation. I did everything I wanted to do, successfully separating the concerns ;) Am back to office, everything went fine, nobody noticed anything they were not supposed to, appreciation mails are still getting dumped in the inbox, newspapers are reporting the release, somewhere, some person is using what I did. I am happy and contented. Whoever it is up above who is planning everything that should happen must be an amazing guy with amazing imagination and managerial skills ;) what I love about him is that he always guarantees happy endings! ;)
PS: I still have that bug to fix now. And going home this weekend is still elusive, but then when I think of some Emily-the housewife with a kid (as OM always puts it) -somewhere using what I did, even though what I did was just a small grain of sand in the beach, I feel, it’s totally worth it :)
PPS: OM still doesn’t know I stole a vacation to Pondicherry. My conscience is still beeping somewhere deep inside, but I guess, I’ll have to teach it to calm down :)

check these out!

2010-06-10T13:54:00.004+05:30

http://www.hpeprintcenter.com

http://h30495.www3.hp.com/?jumpid=in_R11549%2Feprintcenter&cc=us&lang=en

http://mashable.com/2010/06/07/hp-eprint/

Perfect People 2

2010-05-21T09:54:00.008+05:30

I am being proven again and again that I am right about what I believe about perfect people. I stumble upon them so often. I don’t know if this is because I am blind to their faults or because I am luckier than I imagined. I am referring to my manager when I say this; my “other” manager.
I’ve never seen someone like you sir, someone who has a wealth of experience equaling nearly my age, still as humble and simple as a child; someone who is so concerned, so cheerful that just your presence motivates people around you. I have learnt a lot from you sir. I might not be wrong when I say I’ve learnt more in these past few months than ever. Not only work, not only the technical aspects, but life itself. I need to incorporate things you’ve taught me, and I will definitely try very hard to. Your strong sense of right and wrong, and going with what is right always; no matter how cruel it seems, how pressurized you are, yet, grinning, smiling and patting on the back. I am so lucky I got to work under you -alrite, fine- along with you in my first job, my first project. Incredibly, you are someone who made working late nights and during weekends something to look forward to. I had heard a lot of bad things about managers before joining. But you’ve proved we could never ever generalize.

I can go on and on but I won’t be satisfied no matter how profusely I praise you. I think I am moving on. I’ll be moving on to next task for which I won’t be having you alongside; to motivate, to smile (rather grin and a huge one at that) when I come to office every day. I won’t be able to see your comforting eyes and understanding look when I freak out, panic and create scene. I won’t be seeing you jump up and down (literally) when I successfully do something very trivial. You won’t be calling me a kid anymore or hugging me. I won’t be able to ask you “how do you do it sir?” over a fruit bowl at 12.30 in the night and see you simply smile and crack some joke. But then, I am grateful I was among a very few chosen people to be mentored by you. It’s very difficult to be someone like you, but you seem to be genuinely “you”. Your childish enthusiasm, running around, bursting into laughs, your simple living and high thinking, humility, melodramatic expressions are something I’ll always look back and smile. You are among the very few people I consider perfect sir, and I am thankful to you for everything you did. Be it sitting beside me and explaining something so painfully, insultingly simple to you yet, which wasn’t getting inside my dense brain with an interest which only you could summon or dropping me to my friend’s place at one in the night and staying back until you made sure I was safely inside. I am going to miss your “hare raam!”s and “I am going mad”s (clutching your head). I am going to miss trying to please you just so I could see that proud look for me in your eyes. I am going to miss this badly sir, but I know, as you said; you want me to move on and do big, do something important and worthwhile. I won’t let you down Sir; I’ll definitely try my best to make you proud :)

PS: he is coming towards my desk now, grinning! I know I’ll have a busy day today :P :)

Good, Better, Best

2010-05-12T12:26:00.004+05:30

I want to write something today-anything. But all I can think of is try-catch blocks and exceptions. Yesterday, I dreamt that the build was failing over and over again and I was getting mails reporting escalations. I’ve been getting a lot of nightmares lately, thanks to the horror movies and ghost discussions. But then, when compared to these dreams, they are a way lot better :P

Ok, now that the frustration is out, let me come to the good part. There is always a good part, isn’t there? And good part is that I enjoy my work. No, seriously. I do. I feel I am doing something important and which matters :)

Coming to the better part, mom and dad visited me last weekend. I had asked, begged and finally blackmailed them into coming ;) I wanted to show them around. Not that they haven’t seen Bangalore, they’ve been here more than me, my dad also used to work here for a short period of time. But, “I” wanted to show them around. Of course the B’lore darshan was studded by more eateries than anything else. My father is a Taurus and the best food critic I know, so I had to be choosy while planning. I didn’t want him to comment that food we get in Bangalore was “sad” :P here is a list of places we visited.

1. MY HOME & MINI FOREST- they loved it!! I had taken a lot of pain the previous day to sweep, mop, scrub and make my home squeaky clean (I knew my mother would immediately start cleaning it herself if there was even a speck of dirt visible to her) I loved it all the more when my dad said this about the mini forest- I wish there was something like this near “our” home. Satisfied that they were satisfied with where I was living, we moved on to the next place which was

2. E-INN. It is a 4-star hotel and no, it is not expensive. We had lunch buffet there. And surprisingly, both of them tasted almost every option. I had not expected this. They liked some, they dint like some other, but they tried. My mom, though she refrained from all the pasta and the likes, my dad never got tired trying everything out :) :) I was so happy to see them comment on everything.
Desserts are simply amazing at E-inn! And the ambience is so good. English country style complements nicely with the smiles the staff shower on us. :)

3. LALBAGH, MG ROAD, BRIGADE ROAD- these are the mandatory places to visit for a tourist. My dad was a bit reluctant about roaming around aimlessly but I dragged him. I have a reputation for pestering until one succumbs, and I wasn’t going to give up on this one ;) (I had to do some serious book shopping which was pending ;))

4. INDIAN COFFEE HOUSE- my dad totally loved this place. I knew he would. Both of us have this inexplicable love for everything that is old and rusty looking. He loved the old paintings and paper cuttings they’ve put up there. He also said that the coffee there reminded him of the coffee made from freshly powdered beans they used to drink long ago at some place.

5. UB CITY- I wanted to show them the glitz and glamour. After seeing the 4-lakh worth gown there, my dad quipped one of his instant jokes and sighed- what a waste!
My mom was amazed though, she thought it to be beautiful and asked me to buy one of them someday- one for which the neckline was not so deep ;)

6. FORUM, BANGALORE CENTRAL- I have a justification. They had seen the temples and traditional places in Bangalore already. What else is there in Bangalore except for malls? I thought about wonder la but my mom simply said, no, thanks ;)
CCD and McD- my mom thought I had gone crazy to be spending hundred bucks on a coffee but I assured her I not been to CCD even once after moving here. My dad seemed keen to try it out; I could never sleep peacefully if I didn’t let him.

7. GRAMIN- rated the best vegetarian restaurant in B’lore by the times food guide, this was in my list for a long time. It really was super. I recommend everyone to try out their “aam panna” and “kaala khatta”. They were delicious. Everything has a bamboo- bronze look to it and they’ve taken elaborate pains to make the place and food feel “gramin” :)

8. Jaynagar 4th block- shopping. Aaagghhhh!! Why is everybody so interested in shopping?? I can’t stand it! I really annoyed my mom there. My dad was being so cute helping her choose things when I turned cranky. I don’t even remember now what they bought :P

Best part- the day they were supposed to leave for home; I had enough time to sleep hugging them to my heart’s content. This time, they didn’t even shove me away :)

Better than the Best part- I booked a cake for my mom this mother’s day and felt her being ecstatic about it over phone. (She loves cakes, though she denies it :P)

PS: A single amazed blissful look in mom’s eye or a satisfied burp from my father (leading to a series of giggles from me)is worth a thousand nightmares everyday :) am strangely (read as stupidly/crazily) comfortable even with the mails reporting escalations now :)

My Adventure!

2010-04-19T12:26:00.002+05:30

When I had first thought about blogging, I had wondered, what will I write about? My life is not that happening, ok, all I do is sleep, eat, read and sleep more, now I kind of manage to work and roam around the city in between all that… that’s all. Nothing ever happens to me, no earthquakes, no getting struck in floods, no meeting vampires, nothing :P since I wanted to write so badly, I decided I’ll have to write about pretty little flowers, rain drops, stars, spiders building webs and such other things which seem extra beautiful to me but then, may be, mundane to most normal people.

But, can u guess, I had my share of, ahem, adventure last Wednesday. I had blogged about all the beautiful things about rain and had gone back home watching the droplets trickling on the window of my office cab when I experienced the harsher side of the rain.

I reached home around 6 and D was already there, we decided to go to hopcoms- it was still raining. When we reached the gate, D got a call and she decided to stay back. So I went alone, bought whatever was in the list, and was coming back when I saw the transformer in front of me catching fire and within moments, the electric cables just over my head caught fire too, and the sparks were flying. (It was a beautiful sight, though I couldn’t appreciate the beauty just then). I remained rooted on spot. I couldn’t think of moving anywhere, on my left the road was heavy with vehicles, on my right was a high wall and in front of me was the transformer. And to add to all this, the cables overhead were shaking ominously. After my initial panic, I composed my thoughts and started moving towards home. I was desperately trying not to think about what would happen if the wires touched the ground for there was water everywhere (shudder!). When I neared home, D called and asked me not to come home via the usual route, because a tree had fallen, and there was a streetlight hanging there. I took the roundabout route and reached home to hear D’s story. She was apparently standing near the gate when the huge may-flower tree in front of it collapsed without warning! She fled inside, only to see, I had locked the house. Thankfully, the tree slanted and fell on the compound wall instead of the gate. And thankfully again, we both escaped unscathed :)

Later in the night, we were contemplating on asking the owner ajji for hot water in the morning (there was no electricity). But just when we were preparing to hit the bed, the power came, the concerned people had acted amazingly quickly to repair the transformer and restore the electricity :) kudos! And we were woken up in the middle of the night by some sharp noise- as if someone was running an empty mixer grinder. We saw in the morning with some surprise that the tree was chopped and piled neatly into logs! - All within 12 hours of the accident. Kudos to the responsible people again! :)

Well, I agree this incident doesn’t top meeting vampires, but then, it was an adventure anyways and I am going to bask in the glory of being nearly electrocuted (ok ok, it was not that bad) and escaping without so much as a scratch, for a long time to come ;) :)

PS: now that I’ve successfully undergone the trauma of almost being roasted alive (ok, fine, discount by 50% if u want :P) do I qualify meeting vampires?? ;)
PPS: Of course, only the good-Edward-type ones ;) ;)

rim jhim gire saawan

2010-04-14T09:32:00.008+05:30

How can I possibly not write about the first rains of the year? The soaring temperatures are finally resulting in showers. It is my favorite of all seasons and here are a few things I totally love about rains.

1. The fragrance of wet mud. It is so refreshing, I wonder why nobody tries to trap it in bottles and sell as perfumes! ;)

2. The frogs croaking! Back home, there used to be a pond in front of our house and all night during monsoons, the frogs there would croak non-stop. We would be so annoyed after a while. Now, I kind of miss them. :(

3. Greenery. It is marvelous how after just a single rain, everything blooms! The leaf less trees seem to grow green overnight. Everything seems to be wet and green and fresh.

4. The rain drops early in the morning dripping on me from a tree while I wait for my office cab.

5. Mini forest- the streaks of lightening flashing on the canopy with deafening thunder to accompany them, making the trees to shiver and shed their flowers and dried leaves on us.

6. The wind howling in the night!!

7. People moving around under colorful umbrellas and in raincoats – especially children!

8. Power cuts- yes, seriously. This has a bit of a nostalgic background to it. During power cuts, I used to cuddle up to my mom and sleep underneath thick blankets, listening to wind and rain splashing hard against the window panes, as if trying to force them open. She would sometimes light a candle or put on emergency lights and whip up poah or pakoras with coffee… I so miss my home and my mom. :(

9. Pani puris! Come rain and we used to run to Bhatru’s, to gobble up sweet hot pani puris standing under the may flower tree in the drizzle. And of course, while returning, getting completely drenched (we regularly forgot taking umbrellas or raincoats ;))

10. Kites and Paper boats! Kids near home used to go crazy flying kites and floating paper boats in the puddles. I’ve tried my hand at both and I tell you, it is so much fun! What’s up with the kids of Bangalore? I haven’t seen a single kite flying in the sky let alone, the paper boats! :P

11. I remembered when I read this in a friend’s blog. Mangoes! These rains are called mango showers after all! The third spare room at home used to turn into mango-store room! Kind of like warehouse and every time you entered the house, the strong smell of mangoes would hit your nostrils! Mango for breakfast, for lunch, for snack and for dinner. Mango jams, mango gojju, mango upkari, mango this and mango that. Both my mom and my dad are huge fans of mangoes, so, they awaited monsoons almost only for the mango season.
And also, jack fruit! In the traditional Konkani cuisine, jack fruit is like the king. We don’t spare even the seeds! Mmmmm, lip smacking delicacies, how I wish they weren’t so complicated :(

Hope the rains are adequate this time, satisfying the dusty streets and hungry trees, washing away the dirt along with everything bad. Purifying the old and promising the new. Happy monsoon everyone! :)

PS: I so hated the rhyme – rain rain go away little Johnny wants to play. I used feel like strangling little Johnny :P why can’t he play in the rain? :P

South Canara Trip- Part 3

2010-04-01T08:28:00.010+05:30

We moved on to Malpe, to really play in the sea, to feel its crests and troughs and to actually get drenched in the saline water. But when we saw the huge crowd there, we were disheartened. But once again, our driver came to our rescue ;) he said he knew a beach both safe and beautiful where we could play and have all the privacy we wanted. That’s how we came to kadike.

Once in the water, everyone had similes for the waves. Someone said it appeared like a strange sea-creature with tentacles, coming to get us, someone else said it was furious and was throwing us away every time we made a move towards it and challenging us to try again. I felt the sea was coming to me with wide open arms and giving me a huge teddy bear hug! (Blushes, blushes ;) ).
When we were finally ready to move on (a bit reluctantly), we were drenched completely. The salt was everywhere and all our energy was drained out. Either no one could talk or a few ones who could, had hoarse voices. We had a fear we would start feeling the itch but thanks to the merciful sea, we didn’t. Back home my friend’s mother had prepared hot cake which was simply mouth watering and hungry that we were, we gobbled up as much as we could.
The third and the final day had a longing feeling, for more. More of the sea, more of the sun and more of everything we had experienced.

We went to the malpe port first. The smell of the fish was so strong that we had to cover our nostrils with hankies drenched in deos.
While we were waiting for our ferry to arrive we got to see a ship being built. We also saw some 50 boats anchored at the port. I had never seen so many at once.
The 45 minute ride to St. Mary’s was wonderful. I borrowed ipod and sat silent, watching the sea. We were lucky a few times when we got to see fish akin to dolphins jumping out of the water forming unfinished loops….
We also saw a small fish forming acrobatic figures over the surface of the water. The ferry wouldn’t go till the shore so we shifted to a double boat that our ferry had dragged along.

The island is covered completely by sea shells. We spent an hour collecting as much of them as possible and posing for pictures around columnar rocks.
On the drive back to mainland, I again had the company of soothing music in the crowded ferry while watching the tranquil sea.
No trip to Udupi could be complete without a visit to the Krishna temple which was next up. We shopped in the bazaar outside of the mutt before going to Diana for lunch. It is the place where the famous gudbud was originated. After lunch, we went back, packed our luggage and had a 4 hr journey back to Shimoga which put a fitting end to one of the most memorable vacations I ever had.

South Canara Trip- Part 2

2010-03-29T08:22:00.003+05:30

When I got up at 6.45 am the next day, all my tiredness had vanished. A good night’s sleep had done its job. Once again, we were determined to cover best places and cover as many of them as possible.
We started off with hanging bridge over the Suvarna River near Kote road. The hanging bridge reminded me of the Bheemankatte hanging bridge at thirthahaLli but this one was not as strong as that. Standing on the bridge, I felt we were moving along with the bridge in the opposite direction to the flow of the river water. It was a strange feeling (I don’t know which physics phenomenon this is, any idea?).
The view from the bridge was beautiful. We could see country made boats slowly drifting towards the sea to collect sand and fish. We also got to see the silhouette of a jelly fish in the river water.

The next place we visited was kodi-bengre. It’s a delta where two rivers- Suvarna and Seetanadi join the Arabian Sea. I had heard that we wouldn’t be able to distinguish a river when it joins the sea. But that’s not true. We could easily make out. We could see the perpendicular waves. The waves in the farther sea were facing east but those that were formed when the rivers joined the sea were facing north.
The sea itself appeared blue but the delta had a greenish tint to it.
The water towards the horizon appeared blue, but towards the shore, it was invariably green.

Kodi-Bengre became one of my favourite places. When we were returning from Bengre, we noticed many small islands floating nearby. We mentioned to the driver how nice it would be if we got to visit one of those. And guess what? Our driver knew the person who owned or rather, co-owned one of the islands and within 15 minutes we were aboard one of the motor boats heading towards a private island. We reached pharangi kudru some 20 minutes later. We unpacked the hoLige and enjoyed a small picnic on the sandy island. :)

On the way to the kudru, I had this wish - I wanted to spend a night on the boat, a boat, mind you and not a ship and a small one at that, floating on the sea lying on my back and watching the twinkling stars in the sky and slowly drifting off to sleep. How would I feel in that pitch dark, water completely surrounding me? Wow! It would indeed be great!

Sigh, moving on, the next stop from the kudru was manipal end point. I had seen the end point many times before but I couldn’t even recognize it when we reached there. It seems Manipal changes every six months. We had this quick tour of the MAHE campus before we stopped at Woodlands, Udupi for lunch. The waiter there had a familiar face and his mannerisms were typical of that region (Again, a sense of belonging). Post lunch, we visited Pajaka. It was where Madhwacharaya was born and his house has been converted to a temple- more like a mutt. It appeared to me that every corner had a story associated with it when our guide finished narrating a few of them to us.
Our next destination was Kapu light house beach. The places we were visiting were not monotonous. Each one was unique in itself. Kapu has a unique charm to it. The view from the top of the light house is simply amazing.

There is a small hill beside the Light house and on top of it are what appear to be the ruins of an age old fort. We could see the 20-30 km beach on either side which was outlined by pretty boats and coconut trees. We could also see a few boats floating in the sea and in the background was the splendid sun disappearing slowly below the horizon.
I felt certain I could sit there for hours watching the view without getting bored. The light house offers a lot of peace and tranquility for some serious contemplation.

South Canara trip

2010-03-25T11:40:00.004+05:30

I recently visited south canara which brought back some memories. This post is one of my earliest write-ups and is among my favourites. It was supposed to be the first post of my blog, but due to my initial reluctance, I didn’t post it. Now when I was going through it, I felt like sharing it. The trip took place in January 2009 when I was in my 7th semester of college and I’ll be posting it in parts.

Part1
There is something about the sea that draws me to it. All the smell of the fish, the salinity, the heat and the humidity doesn’t turn me off, instead, it beckons me. May be it’s a sense of belonging or may be it’s just a typical Cancerian trait. Whatever it is, I always feel at home whenever I visit South Canara.
Well, I had been looking forward to this trip for a long time and had been day dreaming about it during my exams. When it finally happened, it was a way lot better than what I had anticipated.
The first destination was Campco chocolate factory at Puttur. I was visiting a chocolate factory. Just imagine! It was nothing short of heaven for me. The factory is the largest chocolate factory in Asia and is completely mechanized. I ate chocolate at every stage of its processing; as powder, as liquid, as paste, as bars and in every other form. Everyone else got fed up eating so much chocolate except me. I could never. It was a good thing because I got to eat their share too. ;)
At one place, chocolate was actually flowing (remember Charlie and the chocolate factory here) and at another, it had accumulated as if it had flown from a shower for a long time. I got to eat it. I want to register this here. I actually saw all this. It wasn’t a dream.

No one had appetite after all that chocolate and we were a little ahead of our schedule but a homemade lunch at a friend’s place freshened us up and once again, we were raring to go. We dropped the bekal fort plan due to security reasons and went to the Ananthapadmanabha temple at ananthapur. Before entering the temple, we got to see the famous solitary crocodile which resides there. It is considered lucky if you get to see it. (Now, “I am feeling lucky” :)) One thing which isn’t in the temple brochure is that I noticed the fish there had distinct mouth ;)

After a short session of photography, we realized we were running late for the sunset at Someshwara beach. I remember our driver racing against the sun to get us back within time.

When I first saw the Arabian Sea, I realized I had a very obscure memory of it. It appeared magnificent. I couldn’t take it all in for sometime. The volume of the sea was simply too much. We watched the sunset, awed.
We didn’t jump into the water at Someshwara. We played a little, wet ourselves only till the ankles, okay may be just a bit more, but that’s it. The feeling of watching the sea after long time is inexplicable.
After a while we came back to Mangalore, took away ice-creams and sandwiches at Ideals and caught a bus back to Udupi. We reached at around 10.30, talked a little, lying on the bed and drifted off to sleep.

books

2010-03-19T11:53:00.007+05:30

I don’t exactly remember when my gentle and harmless hobby of reading turned into an addiction. I feel this compulsion to grab a few books whenever I find a book store on the way. I feel like I can’t move ahead without buying the one which caught my eye much to the irritation of my kind and patient companions ( ;) ) who try to fill in some sense into me and drag me out of the stall.

Initially, when I was a kid, it was comics and Children’s magazines. Tinkle, Mickey Mouse, Children’s World, Gokulam- searching for the best and subscribing them, waiting bated breath for every issue, finishing it in a single sitting, rereading until the next one appeared, solving all these petty puzzles and activities religiously used to be the routine. I totally loved Perky’s letters in Children’s world- I read them even to this day! (Of course, I have preserved the battered old copies of the magazine)
Then I evolved from comics to Enid Blyton. Oh, I still love those famous five and adventurous four books. Even now when I visit the old central library, I can’t help picking up one and going through it to check if I remember the story. Recently when I bought one of these as a gift for my little niece, I had this uncontrollable urge to keep it to myself. I know I was supposed to be ashamed and I was, but not until much later ;)
Agatha Christie, Nancy Drew and Sherlock Holmes followed. It was during this that my reading started to irk people at home. I would drown myself into the mysteries and wouldn’t respond to the numerous calls for dinner by my very irritated mom or bug dad, telling him stories that I read, refusing to turn off the lights of my room until eerie hours of the night.

Then when my want turned into need and then greed, I started to read everything I could get hold of or comprehend- Fantasies, Adventures, Comics, Romance, Biographies, History and my favorite, Classics.

Isn’t there a whole new world inside a book? Isn’t it exhilarating to experience the plethora of emotions? I sometimes marvel at the power which each book exerts when it makes me laugh till my stomach aches or bite my finger nails in nervousness or cry my heart out.
I don’t have a sibling. But I have never really felt lonely. I have always had caves to explore, dragons to ride on, mysteries to solve, friends to hug, cultures to understand, countries to travel and history to dig. Who cares if they are only imaginary or surreal? ;)
They let you escape to the wonderland, they change your cranky mood, they don’t let you feel marooned, they are informative, they advice, they teach, they make you laugh and forget the world, they don’t expect and they don’t complain. Books really are people’s best friends. Aren’t they?

Trapped

2010-02-25T10:31:00.001+05:30

Life keeps on moving at a pace. The routine feels so comfortable. Just when you start getting accustomed to the speed, the rush, the hurry and the noise, something happens that makes you pause and think. Yesterday was one of those days.

We had been to Jayanagar 4th block since ‘D’ had some shopping to do. We were roaming around, all excited, what with the dampness in the wind and the fragrance of the wet mud, I was secretly praying for rain. We came to the middle of the complex –I was busy clicking pictures of the flowers and vegetables- when the cage caught my eye. It was a horrible sight. Around 20 birds were kept in a tiny cage, they weren’t even chirping, as if numbed by some drug. We were horrified. We looked around for the shopkeeper, and had to wait for a few minutes before he appeared. We were thinking of the options we had. We thought of reporting in the police station, but then we thought they would just accept a few green bills in exchange of letting the shopkeeper operate :P We thought of buying the whole cage and setting them free, so we asked for the price. He told Rs 500 for a pair. Ok, now that was the limit. I couldn’t control my anger and asked him, if it was not illegal to sell birds, he mumbled something incoherent in response. Just when I was about to burst out shouting, an old lady came there and started looking admiringly at the cage- I felt like slapping everyone around- We couldn’t think of doing anything, so I just shouted that it was illegal and inhuman to buy or sell birds. Nobody seemed to care or listen. We just stormed away, helpless.

We were at cool joint making up for the dinner when a small boy- around 7-8 years of age, came up and started pleading us to buy the flowers he was selling. I know it is a common sight, something that happens every day. We see little children selling stuff in the signals, traffic jams and footpaths, but there was something in the eyes of this little kid that moved me. He looked so innocent. We bought all the flowers he was selling and the kid started fumbling in his pocket for the change. I could see he had just around 10 bucks with him. I quickly paid the money and turned around to attend a phone call. By the time I turned back, he was gone. I felt guilty to even eat the ice cream I was holding. I could have bought him one. That was the least I could have done.

When we got back home and started updating ‘A’ on everything that happened, I couldn’t help shedding a few tears. They don’t make up for anything I could have done but couldn’t do. But, they definitely made me pause and think.
It is possible to make a difference. It is possible to set free, someone who has been trapped; it is possible to make someone smile when there seems to be no hope. It is possible if we pause and think. I couldn’t do at that moment, but the next time, I am determined to do. We could have simply opened the door of the cage and ran away, instead of waiting for the shopkeeper to come. We could have bought the little boy a dinner, instead of just asking him to keep the change. We could have, but now, we have learned :)

And it is infinitely more satisfying when we help the needy than eating all the ice-creams in the world or travelling round the earth. This is something which we all know, but simply don’t pause and think :P

PS: Life may not be all rosy and it may even seem unfair sometimes, but then, what is wonderful about it is that we have this amazing ability to make a difference, am I not right?

Cooking, finally!!

2010-02-11T12:32:00.004+05:30

Cooking is an art and our house literally turns into a museum once we begin cooking for the day- or rather, night. We argue a lot over silly stuff, like whose turn it is to clean, how much spices must go into the curry, why didn’t anyone remember to click a snap of the puLiyogre which looked amazing etc., etc…
Here is a list of things I totally love about cooking
1. The sight of the colorful vegetables evenly cut and neatly piled into small heaps on a large plate.
2. Capturing and going through the pictures of the dinner table- oops, there is no table, there is just the floor- again and again and again
3. The sight of ‘A’ standing on the small stool to reach the stove while cooking
4. The hunt for recipes, calling up home, planning for the dinner and going through everything once in the mind if it is a new recipe.
5. The aroma of the spices filling the entire house- or rather, houselet (no, I won’t call it ‘room’)
6. The discussion on what made the fruits of our labor so delicious! And of course also, sometimes, what went wrong ;)
7. Getting to go to Hopcoms! I totally love shopping vegetables and fruits. Most of the pictures in my cell are of the fruits, vegetables books and flowers arranged in the markets and bookshops in different parts of the city :)
8. When the two of the most-eating gang up against the one who eats the least to shout, threaten or even blackmail – complaining at home- to make them eat more and finish the stuff ;)
9. Clicking random pictures of us in weird poses while we cook :P
10. When all of us pretend to be full and push each other to eat more when sometimes, incredibly, the quantity of food after cooking reduces drastically ;)
11. Bragging at the office during lunch and getting appreciated :)
12. Finally, the 'ta da!' moment! this is when everything gets lined up to pose for pics and we feel like we've conquered the world. :)
There are quite a few annoying things while cooking as well, such as 1. Cleaning 2.cleaning and n. cleaning, but, it is easy to ignore the annoyance when we are chatting non-stop and cheering the one who is toiling ;)
PS: I missed out on one thing.
13. Happiness that is felt while writing the account at the end of the day ;) ;)

My Nest

2010-01-25T10:28:00.002+05:30

I totally love my new home at Bangalore. It is a bit small for the 3 of us, but that means it requires a lot less effort for managing it ;)
It is surrounded by numerous eateries, convenient shopping places, libraries, a series of old and new temples and my favorite – The miniature forest.
I am not much of a shopping person. I’d rather laze away with a book in my hand and music in the background. What could be better than spending afternoons doing exactly that in the shade of huge trees, which shed their velvety leaves on me every now and then?
Mini forest stretches for a km or so, and is constantly occupied by people. Amazingly, it is never crowded. The benches are so well placed, well spaced that they give you enough privacy to hum along with the song playing on your MP3 player.
Quotes are posted and updated every few days – Kannada and English- one on each of the notice boards. On the Kannada one, D.V.G’s Mankutimmana Kagga features regularly.
A few benches are always occupied by elderly people wearing large black rimmed glasses, engaged in chit chat and occasionally bursting out into laughs- oh, I so love elderly people laughing! And there is always a bunch of cute little kids running around, beautifying the place even more :) it starts looking even better as the evening draws nearer and the tall lamp posts light up the whole area and birds start getting back to their nests in the huge old trees.
It always beckons us and we visit it almost everyday after dinner for some fresh air or rather, cool breeze. (No wonder I sleep like a log!)
Well, I guess this is what it means when they say- “you always get what you want the most” :)
Icing on the cake is that I’ve stumbled upon the best housemates ever. ‘A’ literally holds my hand when I am sick and fusses over me like my mom and ‘D’- she is so much like me. We laugh like crazy at some of the silliest things, create scenes, mostly talk non sense and fight like cats and dogs over a small piece of chocolate- much to the annoyance of the ever generous A ;)
With people and places like these around me, I certainly don’t blame myself for not missing my home as much as I ought to! :)
PS: I confess, I so hate the pessimist within me who says- “when everything seems too good to be true, may be it is” :(
PPS: Who cares? ;)

Ooty!!

2010-01-19T12:27:00.006+05:30

I had decided on two things before coming to Bangalore.
1. I will not miss any opportunity I get to travel and see new places.
2. I will make full use of the numerous bookstalls here and no matter what happens, keep reading!

It seems that the opportunity itself was glad to knock on my door just 2 weeks after I came back from the furlough. We somehow planned and dragged along people to come with us to Ooty for the weekend. I know Ooty is not a place to be seen in a day, but we were short of time and permissions from home to stay overnight :( But we were determined to make the most of whatever time we got.
Here are a few things we got to see in Ooty, I won’t write the whole story, I’ll simply write about places and things which I loved the most.
1. The weather. It was the coldest I had ever experienced. Most of the times, I purposefully didn’t put on jackets or sweaters- it was amazing to feel the chill and goose bumps!! Isn’t it the best part of traveling? Getting to experience different weathers?!
2. Home made chocolates!! All the delicious flavours- rum and raisins, figs and honey, dates and nuts and what not!! I envy people living in Ooty; it’s a chocolate lover’s paradise!

3. The drive through the Bandipur and Madhumalai reserve forest areas!! I always wanted to go on a safari; the drive was almost like one. We could spot herds of deer, wild boars, peacocks and even elephants in the night! I was so hoping to come across tigers! Well, may be next time... ;)
4. The scent of the eucalyptus hit as soon as the curves began and the alternate tea estates and huge eucalyptus trees welcomed us to one of the most beautiful places I’d ever been to :)

5. View from the Doddabetta peak- we could literally see a sea of milky clouds at a lower altitude than us! We were standing above them. I have no words to describe the view. What better than a hot cup of nilgiri tea while watching the splendid splash of colours and clouds in the sky?
6. Side Walk Café- the pizzas baked in the firewood oven, the mouthwatering chocolate pastry, amazing ambience- with old coca cola ads for wall plates and tourist books in the stands- getting to watch the pizzas while they are being baked- highly recommends the place.
7. The coniferous trees outlining the pykara waterfall!
8. The whole Nilgiri area is a plastic free zone!! :)
9. The view of a small town – all lighted up- from above the ghat in the night.
10. The sun rays filtering through the canopy, the star studded sky in the night, the melancholy of the forest, the dark empty roads, the mountains appearing to be floating around with mist completely engulfing them, the various shades of blue and turquoise in the sky are a few other random things that I loved!

PS: Don’t make any discounts on my exaggerations this time! Ooty really is like what I’ve tried to describe and more!

Silver Metro

2010-01-11T11:44:00.005+05:30

Disclaimer: I am not very good at writing reviews. I tend to exaggerate and rosi-fy everything. But I’ll certainly try to get better of myself this time. :)

Silver metro is an obscure little restaurant located in the 3rd floor of the MadivaLa Total Mall. The mall is so crowded and unplanned that they should distribute complimentary route maps and anacins! (The escalators are well hidden and you keep bumping into people every 2 seconds)
We had reserved tickets in advance and were supposed to be at the silver metro at 7. We were so lost inside the mall that we had to call the restaurant call center to get directions! :P
Our taste buds were excited already but we were made to wait just for a few minutes before the delicious joy ride of the metro could begin.

The ambience of the place is totally amazing. The cute traffic lights keep spewing yellow, red and green lights all over the place which gives wonderful glitz and glamour to it.
Our table was inside the compartment. The waiter there is called the station master! And I must say he was real efficient! ;) The typical “chuk chuk” sound keeps playing in the background and occasionally there are some announcements for the passengers as well. One of them went like this. “Passengers for the zanzie bar are advised to keep their thirst levels high!”(They seemed to have left no stone unturned to make the place feel like a real metro train :))
Coming to the food! They have a lot of options for someone vegetarian like me, which I heard was rare. The buffet costs Rs. 336 including taxes and I felt it was totally worth! Here is the list of what we managed to eat! The rest, even though we wanted to try, we couldn’t gather up space in our tummy! :(

Soups – tomato cilantro soup – I could taste real fresh tomatoes and felt the artificial flavors, if added, were kept minimal.
Salads- there was pasta and cucumber
Starters – Corn and Onion pakoris, fried okra, veg dimsum with the dimsum sauce and Coriander and zucchini sauce. I totally loved the dimsum and the okra. Pakoris were a bit too oily for my taste.
Chats – dahi poori and bhel poori
Main course- Indian breads – were rubbery and elastic! :P
Gobi mutter- amazing. Both gobi and mutter cooked to perfection.
Dal makhni, veg kadai, paneer chutney- were okay. Nothing special about them.
Corn pulav- my favourite among all. There were no spices added to it. Just the corn and scented rice, which blended with each other so well that I exclaimed an “mmmm” everytime I, had a mouthful! :)
Desserts – coconut halwa- almost burnt, pastries- not so great, assorted fuits, rasgulla- again rubbery and ice cream- great!

Altogether, it was an amazing experience. I loved the place though I am almost sure, that the staff (except the receptionist) and the station master don’t know any language I know. Mutual exclusion! ;)
Good variety, nice food, amazing ambience, I’d love to visit it again! :)
PS: They also give a yummy complimentary kulfi at the exit! :)
PPS: check out the pictures at http://picasaweb.google.co.in/greeshmakb/SilverMetro?feat=email#

change is good

2009-12-23T15:32:00.005+05:30

After what seemed like an eternity, I finally feel I am getting used to this lifestyle. I can now look around the lush-green “eco-friendly” office campus without having something tugging me from the back of my mind. I can now appreciate and enjoy b’lore’s winter, the ever-present blanket of thick clouds beneath which the sun seems to be safely tucked in. It appears to be enjoying a comfy sleep 24X7 when the rest of us are hurrying about.

Oh yes, I do feel like pulling my hair out of frustration once in a while. I have to rush, fend for myself, think about a thousand things at the same time, plan, organize and push myself farther than ever. But then, I guess, this is normal :)

There are times when I feel terribly helpless especially when plans get foiled or things don’t work out (I realized this happens at a higher frequency in Bangalore) but there are also times when the sense of accomplishment, the independence and even the homesickness (which makes me realize the worth of my home and family) simply overflows. And it is during these times that I enjoy myself the most :)

And since I am done paying my dues to the city by loosing my not-even-a-month-old mobile and falling sick within a week of coming here, I guess, the city will calm down a bit on me and may be even make me a part of it :)

Change, though difficult and harsh, always guarantees something better, doesn’t it?

Gazing at Infinity

2009-11-23T23:35:00.002+05:30

I am unfortunate enough to have a street light just round the corner of my house. It always irks me by glaring furiously every time I make an attempt to even get a glimpse of the Hunter or the Bear! Most of the times I control my impulse to throw the stone (lying on the terrace which my mother uses to pin down stuff for sun drying) at it just for the joy of watching the brittle glass shatter into a thousand pieces gloriously! Sigh, so much for getting my frustration out.

Thanks to the regular power cuts, my sky watching hobby has now got a new boost :)

Every time I watch the sky, I feel I am watching it for the first time. :) And I feel sky, in many ways, resembles the sea, they are both endless, both infinite… I feel an inexplicable attraction to both of them, some kind of mysterious connection… (I know I know, strong words, you are thinking I am nuts, again) but it is like that, all the same. :P

I feel I can gaze at them for hours, without getting bored, ignoring the cramp in my neck and stiffness in my back.

It was a typical winter sky today, slightly damp, a translucent blanket of cloud slowly obscuring the faintly twinkling stars for the first half hour. It was as if some invisible hand was painting the clouds. They looked like creamy brush strokes :) and for the next half hour, they melted away, just as slowly, revealing the glittering stellar diamonds :) I had this momentary desire to pluck a few stars out and place them between the pages of a book :)

I hope the power cut continues, handicapping my streetlight at least for an hour everyday… :)

PS: don’t the waves in the sea resemble the clouds in the sky?

perfect people...

2009-11-17T02:01:00.003+05:30

It’s not a myth. Perfect people do exist. The ones with truthful eyes and genuine smile, the ones who you only fantasize or read about every now and then, fictional characters, some imagination of a crazy writer in a touchy book, and every time who make you get carried away wishing for them to appear before you, they are out there. They are a rarity, one in a million, may be, and may be you have to be real lucky to get a glimpse of them in the crowd, but they are for real.
There is no need to be practical every time, you know, to talk yourself out, or to banish the very possibility of existence of such people, just because it sounds surreal.
Trust me; they do exist in flesh and blood, casting a spell, if only for a short while, if only to disappear forever after a mesmerizing encounter.
All you need to do is to tame the cynic inside you and keep your eyes open :)

Noisy streets and Gully Cricket

2009-10-14T20:03:00.002+05:30

Whoever said children are addicted to computer games these days???! Its vacation time! And they tend to transform peaceful streets into annoyingly noisy thoroughfares. What is it that makes these little brats to defy the scorching sun or pouring rain and turn a deaf ear to shouting mothers?! Wherever I go I see gully cricket, ‘kunte bille’, and some version of jootata or I-spy being played, non-stop. For hours together! Throwing tantrums and making scenes if mothers attempt to rope them up and confine them inside houses. :) It surprises me now, even though when we were kids we used to do the exact same thing.

Since practically I have no work to do these days, apart from reading, movies, occasional attempts to hone my culinary skills and whine on my misfortunes, I observed these children. And the report of my observation and analysis is given below for you to pity me on my uselessness or permanently classify me as being a nutcase. ;)

If the play group consists of children below 10 years of age, they, without any exception play games such as ‘teacher aata’ and ‘MaNN aata’ (children of all generations, according to my research are mysteriously mud-o-philic!). They tend to play pretending to be someone else, their parents, teachers, pilots or bus drivers/conductors and show things off. These things need not be pretty; they just have to be peculiar. :P

If the play group consists of children above 10 years of age, outdoor games are played with relentless energy. Girls play kunte bille, (yes, the game is not extinct yet :)) for boys, gully cricket 27X7 tops the list, and since they are almost always short of players, you are welcome to join them, age/caste no bar ;) you are given special privileges if you have the appropriate gear, anything that would better bricks for wickets, Or during worst recession, a writing pad for bat. Be warned, you get to bat and bully others to an extent proportional to your age. ;)

After playing outdoor games (with winners singing any tune they remotely remember, off-key, full volume and breaking out into what seems like a tribal dance to commemorate their victory after each game) for what may seem like ages, the impossible seems to happen! Much to the relief of the neighborhood, at the end of the day, the children get tired! During those times, board games and marbles come to their aid. Since this is the logout time, most of the fights blow up. Though the battles are not bloody, they are tearjerkers, often followed by vows to never play with each other again and are always forgotten the next morning. :)

I could go on but I know, there is a limit to your patience and I sign off with a note that more such posts will follow in the future if my life continues to be stagnant. I firmly believe boredom is a virtue of boring people, and if the boring people are tested, they tend to spread the infection. ;)

Lost in London and eaten up by a crocodile!!

2009-08-30T19:10:00.005+05:30

Dreams!! I always wish for a dream at night because most of the times, my dreams are amazingly fantastic. They often involve adventures and almost always have a happy ending. Here are a few ones I remember which were distinctly clear in their details and they keep amusing me even today.

1. We are just outside the airport. I, Shruthi and Nayana. Shruthi is wearing this weird dress which is appearing to be a cross between a salwar and a frilly frock, the kind that little girls wear ;) I even remember the color of the dress, a horrifying combination of horrible yellow and an even horrible shade of green and on it are huge singular patterns! We are standing in some kind of a queue and I am wondering why Shruthi chose to wear this dress. Finally when we are out, we are on our own. We are supposed to be at a hotel at precisely 11 o clock. We find out that we have one hour to explore the city. We set out marveling at almost everything in front of us, but mostly at the spray paints on the wall :P. After sometime we realize we are hungry and the next frame in my dream is showing that we are eating a big sandwich. We are about to throw something in the dustbin and while we do so, I see that the dustbin has no bottom. The pavement is circularly cut out and we throw stuff into an abyss!! We see no landing! Then we suddenly discover that there are just a few minutes to 11 and we hurry, but none of us know in which direction to head! The bulbs in our heads have been switched off since we are helplessly staring at the crossroads and not asking for directions. We start to run everywhere (realize that the pace of the dream is now increasing) and suddenly we are in an Indian temple. It is a typical south Indian style temple and the priest there is speaking in kannada. Aarthi is going on and we are so mesmerized by the place that we decide to stay there for a few minutes more. The kannadiga priest is of no use to us since whatever we ask him, he tells us about fate and destiny and stuff like that (with that mystical, mysterious, self important air :P) slowly, even the priest starts to scare us and we run. And suddenly, we notice, we are standing outside a large hotel, its name, I don’t remember, but I notice it is written using blazing golden letters and just when we are about to make sure that this is the place we’re ought to be, we hear someone shouting my name, in a high pitched voice, alarmed, disgusted and obviously mad at me, suddenly I start shaking, trembling and I realize its just my mom, making a desperate attempt to wake me up! I mumble something about the dream to her and plead her to let me finish it, she protests that this is an old excuse but mercifully walks away! :) I drift off to sleep and surprisingly, it continues… the first thing I notice after the interval is that Shruthi is also wearing a weird looking huge wrist band.. ;)

2. I am sitting on a rock. Some sacred river is flowing all around me and I am mesmerized by nature, desperately trying not to look at this one place where the rubbish from drainage is being released into the river. I turn around and face the forest across the river. Even then somewhere at the back of my mind, the drainage is irking me. Then I notice it’s getting dark and realize I don’t know how to reach the main road. There is a person on the rock beside the one which I am sitting on, he is facing away from me and he appears to be a foreigner. I call out for him and he turns around. He suddenly, magically turns into Rani Mukherjee!!! She smiles at me and I ask weather the river leads to South Africa or Finland!!!! She thinks for a while, looking all beautiful and I think she must be shiny new ;) she answers that she doesn’t know where the river goes but tells me to be careful of the crocodiles in the river. I get all scary and start to climb down the rock. I notice a crocodile in vile green color, staring at me!! I am rendered dumb and I start climbing a staircase which has somehow appeared in front of me! The catch is, if I manage to climb a few steps, I could leave the croc behind (since crocs have never managed to master the art of climbing ;) ) but soon I realize, this croc is not the regular one, it is climbing up the rocks running parallel to the staircase and for every step I climb, the croc climbs two rocks and is always ahead of me. I suddenly remember vaguely, a puzzle I had come across, something involving climbing one step up and then climbing down two of them. I force myself not to think about it now, since I am on the verge of being eaten up by the monster!! The croc smiles at me and opens its WIDE mouth!!! That’s it. I wake up all sweaty and panting before I could feel the cold jaws or the inside of the croc’s belly ;) :)

life is calling, where are you?

2009-08-24T16:56:00.001+05:30

Simple pleasures of life are often overlooked by us, aren’t they? How often do we hum to ourselves while at work? Do we ever take time while we are waiting at a traffic signal to glance up above and watch the sky turn deeper shades of grey every passing moment in the evening? How often, if at all, do we smile at strangers? Do we ever notice birds in our garden chirping?

Why is it that we don’t we stop complaining when it’s raining hard when all we’ve done during the summer is to crave for it? Can there be anything better than rain? Isn’t it amazing when it’s splashing hard against your window panes, the streaks of silver lightning running zigzag against the pitch black background of an ominous looking sky? When the huge white clouds which formed hundreds of patterns like mammoth cotton balls during afternoons turn blacker, threatening a huge downpour of a thunderstorm? Isn’t it refreshing to listen to the nightingale sing, to watch children in raincoats and under umbrellas, to make paper boats and sail them in the puddles? Isn’t fragrance of wet mud carried by a stormy damp wind alone enough to lift out spirits? Isn’t it the most wonderful thing to get drenched in the heavenly showers while we gobble up sweet hot Pani Puris or drink in the sizzling hot coffee while listening to howling wind accompanying the rain pouring over dusty streets and hungry trees?

Why are we more often than not scared to day dream? Why does the cynic in us always rise up asking practical questions while we occasionally dare to? Why are we so reluctant to smile, to appreciate and simply accept our loved ones as they are?
May be it is inherent in us to think and counter think, to argue and counter argue. To make life more complicated than it deserves. But may be, everything is in the state of mind. Everything is just as we want it to be. :)

my hideout

2009-08-23T23:11:00.001+05:30

The first thing that strikes me whenever I visit Horni is the sound of the forest. The stillness and silence around complements these sounds.
I wonder now, how come I took the serenity of the place for granted all these years! I am surprisingly realizing the worth of the place all of a sudden. Located around 4 miles interior of Thirthahalli, horni is my grandma’s place. It seems that my forefathers cut away a patch of forest to cultivate areca and build a house. Since then, we (they) have been living in peace and harmony with the surrounding forest.
The 100 year old house itself is minimal and is a very typical country house. The core, they say was very small, with time it has been extended a numerous times, but these extensions have done very little to spoil its charm. In front of the house, some 20 pillars stand tall, to support the bamboo roof which serves to dry the areca nuts during season. Bamboo sticks placed crisscross against each other form a beautiful terrace. During the day, the sun sneaks below from the gaps in the roof to form a fine pattern, like checker board on the ground. During the night, if you climb atop, you can see heaven itself. Without a single streetlight or any other artificial obstruction, the pitch black darkness engulfs you and the infinite stars shine down upon you, with the might moon smiling a mysterious smile… :) Start gazing here outruns every joy I’ve ever experienced. The silhouette of the trees and the petty hills with nothing to ruffle the peace except the sounds of forest, its melancholic beauty and its silent haunt can fill you with a sense that you are so small.
Another thing unique to the place is the purity. The five elements are so pure that it takes time to get used to them. Your nose, so accustomed to all the pollution literally dances with joy when the fresh, pure wind hits it. Your lungs greedily expand to take in as much as possible, the sweetness with which the air is pregnant.
A walk around the place is a thrill as much refreshing as it is. If you go a little into the forest (if you are not scared) a variety of flora and fauna can treat you. When we were kids, we used to go for hunting cashew nuts and colorful berries. We even used to climb a small hill and enjoy a picnic atop. Now, the hill has been completely annexed by the forest and has become inaccessible though it doesn’t stop to beckon. Civilization is limited to the extent of electricity, 6 hours a day during summer. But rarely have I seen people crib and complain about this. This is because the necessity is minimal. It is required only to pump up the water or grind spices. The entertainment is so varied and unique, offered by nature that television seems lame and boring.
There is so much space, so much to be explored, and so much new that you never run out of possibilities. You can sit amidst a few trees or climb a small one and simply sit there for hours without getting bored.
This is a perfect place if you want to escape. If you want to escape the stress, the hustle bustles of the crowd, the pollution, those glaring artificial lights, the noise and the burdening responsibilities.
This is my hideout, a hideout from my world, a hideout from myself. :)

alone...

2009-08-23T22:41:00.001+05:30

I was listening to a song on loneliness and it made me wonder. Is it actually possible for us to be alone? What does being alone really mean? Does it just mean that we aren’t physically surrounded people? Is it possible to be completely devoid of anything and detached from everything. Even when there is no one to sit beside you, there is yourself; that self which is sometimes arguing, sometimes sympathizing, and sometimes defiant, sometimes conceding but mostly, just being there. Just being there as if to say it is with you, to share your sorrows, to stop the tear which is adamantly trying to drip down the corner of your eye, to share your joys, to patiently wait for you to run out of your enthusiasm and sigh, to smile at you when you sound silly, to sometimes slap you when you are arrogant. Isn’t it that self which never lets you feel marooned even when everyone turns their back at you? Isn’t it that self which motivates you to go on, no matter what?
And though it sounds like a paradox, that self is not programmable by you. It simply doesn’t obey and I am still wondering…

haunting pingu

2009-04-16T19:14:00.002+05:30

Sometimes, no matter what your intentions are, no matter what good you have in your heart, situations change in such a way that it becomes impossible to imagine the far fetching consequences.
It was just another day at the college. We had just two classes and I was running late for the second one at the lab. In my hurry, I left my sandals below the stand and heard myself shrieking in fear. I had felt something feathery on my feet. Initially, couldn’t make out properly, it looked like a black mass. I looked closer to find out that it was a pigeon. A large number pigeons dwell in our college. The AC compartments, the terrace, Ananya mantapa’s roof all shelter them. I don’t know how, but one of them had been hurt or was aged that it couldn’t fly. It had somehow come to the footwear stand. Vinod lifted it up and we carried it downstairs so that it wouldn’t get trampled by passersby. We left it in the lawn and called for help. We had to go to the class but we feared that a stray dog would do it harm. Finally, after much reluctance, we told a few people to keep an eye on it and went away. When we came back, it was still there and was looking kind of dazed. We didn’t know what to do. We thought of feeding it something, a few grains of rice or channa, but the deaf uncle shop was closed. We didn’t want to leave it wandering in the lawn and decided to move it to the terrace. And we did, we left it beside another pigeon, hoping company would do it some good. When we came back later to see how it was going along, we were in for a shock. Nayana saw it first and she didn’t let me see the horrifying scene she had witnessed. Apparently the pigeon (I had named her pingu) had died and a crow was pecking through her. When we came back, I saw her feathers descending down, carried by the wind. It was all that was left.
Back home, I couldn’t help feeling guilty. May be it was meant to be, but it was us who had carried her to her death. However unintentional it was, it had happened and it will definitely remain haunting me for a long time to come. I try to think that pingu had died before the crow found her. I am sorry for being so dense as to not think about those gliding scavengers. I hope pingu finds a new life, a new destination, a new journey, which is without pain or death. I hope she stops haunting me.