Sum's Arena

Updates!

2011-12-19T16:51:00.002+05:30

Ok, some updates before the year ends!

It's been so busy of late that there's hardly some breathing time! Seriously!!

As always, end of October calls for a special tripof the year and this time, it coincided with a birding trip we had planned with BNHS to Point Calimere. And well, since it was our anniversay time, we wanted a couple of days for ourselves too, so planned Pondicherry again. Another post on the place we stayed and such will follow, don't know when!

Oh by then, BIL, N (D's brother) had found his girl after a long search, and it was his engagement shopping followed by the engagement itself the week we returned. From there started our busy busy schedule, with wedding preparations already started, and to add to it, my sis's wedding also got fixed! Another round of shopping and arranging and time for her engagement!! And two weddings to prepare for!!

Meanwhile FIL was pretty ill for two weeks and there was quite a bit of running around hospitals. Thank God, he's better now. This means more wedding work on us now!

Between all these, our home needs a repainting and that is starting today. I'll be taking all the leaves off (that i generally save for trips and more trips) for this... But looking forward to a fresh looking place :)

No year-end trip this time :'((((

And yesterday was D's birthday and I celebrated it with a lot of josh, just the way i wanted to. Last two years were kind of disappointing for various reasons, and this time, i guess i made up for it - a nice home cooked lunch, a candle light dine out, a calendar printed with pics he had shot, and a surprise camera lens he wanted :) Made his day, and mine too :))

Thats it for now!

Navarathri / Dasara doll arrangements!

2011-10-03T12:01:00.004+05:30

Happy Navarathri / Dasara to all of you!

Navarathri, is a festival of Dolls, esp in Southern India. We arrange dolls of Gods, Goddesses and other stuff and pray everyday, for 10 days or nine nights (nava-rathri).

Here's the arrangement we made this year!

If you've seen our arrangements a couple of years ago here, you'll notice some changes. We try to make some additions and deletions and rearrangements every year, and this year, we added this Mount Kailash, abode of Lord Shiva. This is again from my parent's collection.

This is Mahabalipuram, with a beautiful background, which Dee bought as an addition this time.

And this cricket stadium is also an addition to previous years'.

Check the batsman, ready to bat!

And no, here comes our creation for this year! After the park last year, we wanted something different this time. Having visited Khuri, in Jaisalmer last year, we decided to create a Desert Village and here it is!

Though we couldn't create the pattern on the dunes anywhere close to the Creator, we did manage it somewhat decent looking, i guess!

Found these camels with a great difficulty, at the last minute!

And here's some arrangement of flowers and Kundan Rangoli.

Enjoy! Happy Dasara, once again!

Old friends and Unforgotten Gifts!

2011-09-27T12:17:00.002+05:30

Recently I found an old good friend on Facebook. Apparently she had recently joined FB and I had found her with some difficulty. The last we had spoken to each other was about 4-5 years ago, though I’d remember quite often.

So when I pinged her, here was the exchange of messages we had...

Me: Hi Nxxxx! How are you doing?? Hope u remember me...

She: Very happy to see your note Sumxxx... xxxxxxxxxxx... Ofcouse I do remember you... I still use your Bon voyage key chain... Do you recall giving that to me when I left to US?

Me: Xxxxxxxxxxx, xxxxxxxxxxxx, xxxxxxxxxxxx
I don't remember the key chain, but was happy about that! Well, I too am still using the hair clip you had bought for me and Hema in Seoul!

She: I forgot about the hair clip... but happy you are using it... xxxxxxxxxxxxxx... let me know your number... lets talk sometime.

Well, she had bought me and another friend a hair clip each and I still have treasured it. Whenever I use it, I mention it to D about her! And apparently I had bought her a key chain which she too is using! Both of us remembered the gifts we had got, but had forgotten the ones that we had given!

Isn’t it good to count your gifts?

Rainy, Wet and Leechy Wayanad!

2011-09-08T13:47:00.009+05:30

It was a long weekend and we had planned to drive down to Wayanad. Started pretty early in the morning and after a quick meeting with a friend's family for breakfast, set out towards Wayanad. The drive was quite smooth, though the road is quite narrow at some places after Mysore, there was very little traffic and enjoyed it. Loved the picturesque landscapes and stopped at a couple of places, where the villagers were harvesting the crops right on the road!

After Mysore, I had taken over the wheels and let the photographer do his job :). And to our luck we spotted this herd of tuskers including a baby. They were pretty close to the road in fact! We slowed down, took a few shots and started off.

As i always say, wherever we go, the rains follow and this trip was no exception! It started raining as soon as we entered Wayanad area and continued to, for most of the time, but it was pleasant too.

We had booked our stay in Green Magic resort in Vythiri. Vythiri is a beautiful place off the road and there is a high end resort too, by the same name around 3 kms from the main road. The place we had booked in is further up the hill some 4 kms further after the Vythiri resort. We were told to park our car in front of one of the houses off the main road and a jeep was to pick us up to the resort. The roads, or rather the path that lead to the resort was narrow, slippery due to continuous rains, but we felt we could have driven our car itself.

However, after about 3 kms, the road, if at all i can call it that, got too rocky, slippery and narrower. Add to it the up slope! No wonder we were taken by the jeep! There were places where a small bridge like thing was just wide enough for the two pairs of wheels to cross! It was indeed adventurous!

After a couple of heart gripping incidents, we reached the resort.

The resort was a simple looking row of cottages, overlooking a beautiful stream. The rooms were cozy, without electricity for most of the time, built in a rural style, has an open dining area, again off the stream. It is totally secluded from civilization. They do have another resort a km or so further, the other one we were told had more modern amenities, but we were here just for the nature, not for a TV or AC :)

The only sounds heard were that of the roaring stream below, pitter patters of continuous rain drops and some insects! It rained for most part of the two days and there were leeches all around. Well, do not freak out about leeches, all they do is suck some blood, and at max, you'll have some slight itching for some time! See this one on my hand, it's interesting how they get on to you and find a suitable place to suck blood! (Ok, here before it settled, i drew it off my hand, though :D)

The best part of the trip was we were the ONLY guests there on the second day! The other group that had checked in the previous day found it boring since it was raining and checked out earlier. And we had the whole resort to ourselves!! Sitting on the porch and watching the rains and eating some hot snacks prepared by the staff was all we had to do, and it was a total relaxation! Due to rains, there wasn't much of bird/butterfly activity, just watched these snails move around everywhere! (Not sure of the Id)

The bath had a glass wall and overlooked a beautiful little private garden!

There are also a couple of tree houses, which give a wonderful view of the thick canopy and wildlife view from very close.

The staff were good, though we had language problems! food was just ok, with little options, considering we are vegetarians. Also they gave us a good discount over the actual price, may be because it was off-season. Would love to go back there again, in a brighter season!

Note: We made this trip in Oct 2009, and writing it down now, when an acquaintance asked for info on Wayanad resort. Unfortunately we were not much into wildlife as much then, and due to rains we didn't do much other than relaxing!

On our return journey, we stopped at Pookot lake and then at Edakkal caves, both were crowded with people and didn't impress us!

‘Adult’erated!

2011-07-30T22:56:00.000+05:30

This was about a year ago. As soon as we returned home we were told that the main valve from the tank had been closed as a tap had broken outside. There was no water at home and this had to be fixed immediately. When asked as to what happened, nobody seemed to know what had happened. May be some street boys had come over to steal the tap, may be it was too weak and broke itself and so on.

Fine, we had to fix it first, rather than needing to find out how it happened. Went about, got a new tap and D fixed it himself. All this while, Hima, who was watching us fix, came over and said,

“Atte, Hima was playing in the evening with water, she wanted to water the plants. After that Hima tried to close the tap and it came off. Hima’s clothes were all wet. She got scared because she’d get scoldings”.

Yeah, she’d call herself as Hima.

She even gave us a demo of how it had happened!

We both gave her a hug and a peck on her cheek. Told her that it was ok to make mistakes; everybody did. And that she was a ‘good girl’ because she told the truth and admitted it. She was rewarded with a candy.

Why can’t we adults have such honesty? And the ability to admit our flaws? Why are we always thinking of covering up our faults?

'Home'less :(

2011-07-23T18:58:00.000+05:30

Where did it go? I screamed. And D was also shocked to not find it there. The nest that we had been watching for the last two weeks was not there. It had disappeared completely with just a trace of a few strands of straw sticking to the branch, on which has stood this lively nest, bustling with activity till that morning. We had reached home late that day and noticed it only after dinner.

Nobody at home seemed to be aware of it, and we were given some lame justifications that it was there even in the evening, may be the birds took the nest to a different place, may be a cat would have attacked, may be some street boys had come in and stole it, the wind would have blown too hard, and so on. None of it made any sense, and tears started rolling down my cheeks.

It was the nest of a pair of sun birds, hanging from a branch of hibiscus plant, just below the window lintel, and in a walk way. There was a remote chance of a cat reaching there as there was no support for it to climb up there. More over if it were a cat it’d be interested only in the bird and may be eggs, but not the entire nest itself. And the other excuses were totally dopey, not needing any considerations at all. There was no litter below, as if it had been carefully removed from its place and cast away. It sure was a human act, for only humans can be so meticulously destructive.

The female bird had built it all the way, while the male had given her company. And she had laid egg(s) too, for she was incubating them day and night. How joyful had I been when I discovered it right on the first day. We had observed it throughout the nest building and now incubating period, I even took notes everyday, religiously. And were waiting for the chicks to come out, I had clandestinely planned to take a day off to sit and see them... but that day never came.

I wept and wept, while D too was very upset and started searching around for any clues, or for the nest itself, if it was lying around somewhere. But there was none. Somehow, this one was so close to our heart... We were as joyful as if it were our own home, and it were our own babies to be born soon. And now, it was gone without a single clue. We hardly had any sleep and even the little naps were full of dreams.

And in the morning, I had got so used to listening to their chirps even before I got out of my bed. I can now make out various bird calls, even without seeing them. I know exactly which bird starts chirping first and which follows next, every morning, though I’d still be in bed and listening. And as soon as I heard the sunbirds’ call we rushed out and saw the female fret about around the branch that held her nest. And the male was there too. They frantically searched around as if the gone nest would reappear again. It made me sadder and more tears rolled down my cheeks. After a few minutes, the male signaled and they both flew off, out of sight. I just hoped that they forget about this and build a new nest again at a safer place and restart their family.

But I was wrong. They didn’t seem to have given up so soon. Through out the morning, they came about together, every few minutes, to check if there was any hope. How can there be any?!

They searched around in the bushes, sat on my bike, searched in other plants nearby, cried to each other... I guessed that they knew it the previous evening itself, and still came back in the morning, because all these days the female used to spend the nights in the nest.

Every time I heard them or saw them, my heart broke... I could so well understand their pain...

Ohh! Where did it go?!?!?

2011-07-21T12:46:00.006+05:30

Where did it go?! She cried in despair
Soon her partner joined her there
Frantically searching here and there
For there was no clue anywhere

It was their nest, built with love
Hope and passion to raise their chicks there
And also the hard work they had to endure
In building little by little day in and day out

The site was chosen with great care
As they were small little birds
So made it safe from every predator
But entrusted on humans to be guards

Now there were their eggs in it
And she’d sat in day and night
Not even feeding enough for herself
Waiting for the eggs to hatch off

And then on one un-fine day
She came and was aghast
For the branch swayed empty
Without her beautiful nest

Their beautiful home that stood
Full of life and joy till yesterday
Had now vanished completely
As if it never ever existed

There was nothing that they’d find
But still they came on, to look out
Every time bearing more anguish
As they had wrongly trusted mankind

Novel-tears!

2011-06-25T17:30:00.000+05:30

Little Hima: Atte, are you angry with me?

I nod as a ‘no’

Atte, I simply scolded you, for not telling ABC when I was playing teacher-teacher.... it was just for playing, ok?

I nod

Atte, am I a bad girl?

I nod again, trying to smile

Atte, why are you crying? Are you not well?

I nod

Atte, don’t cry.... did thatha-ajji scold you?

I nod

Dee comes in and starts teasing me and laughing at me.

Atte, did mava scold you or fight with you?

She looks at D and scolds him that he is making me cry.

I nod again, tell her that he didn’t do anything, wiping my tears and trying to smile....

Atte, don’t cry ok?

She gets a towel and wipes my cheeks; I give a bigger smile...

She looks at the book in my hands,

Atte, did your boss scold you because you didn’t read the book?

I nod, take her on my lap, hug her and start laughing...

I show her the book in my hand - ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ and tell her that I was crying over the characters in the novel.... she’s all the more confused, she can’t comprehend that someone can cry reading something.... and I just smile at her innocence... Why can't everything be just as innocent in the world?

A Thousand Splendid Suns

2011-06-20T15:53:00.002+05:30

I can say this is one of those books that haunt you for days after reading it. With its characters, the plot, the background. The writer Khaled Hosseini has done an amazing job in bringing in front of us the lives of common people in a war-struck backward country like Afghanistan. How a war between countries and forces, leaves the common man devastated and deprived of everything that they actually deserve.

Afghanistan which had been under war for almost 3 decades - first from Soviets, then the Mujahideen and then Taliban... The story is laid out over the last 4-5 decades of which three decades are of war. How a country which apparently was in a ‘developing’ state is ruined completely by these wars, is beautifully and painfully pictured. Women, during these times were the most affected, I can say - of course men were affected too, but most of the times, they were either killed, or continued to live as before, whereas, women were subjected to all kinds of violence, deprived of even the basic amenities like food, healthcare, etc, forget about education and other things, which were not even imaginable!

The story starts with Mariam, an illegitimate child of a wealthy person, who realizes very early in life that she would have to endure many many more pains in life and that was just the beginning. She loses her mother in her early teens and is married off to Rasheed, thirty years older than her, in far off Kabul. She has a series of miscarriages and along with the losses of her to-be-borns, she also looses whatever little regard Rasheed has for her. She is neglected, ignored and more than that is subjected to his violence, which she silently endures.

Laila on the other hand is a young girl, whose parents are with modern thoughts, who comes with the school of thought that women are equal to men, and that education is as important to women as it is for men, and that a country can progress only if its women are a part of the progress. Unfortunately her life is shattered too, when the bombings take her parents’ lives and her lover’s family flees to Pakistan, leaving her pregnant. With no one to approach and no where to go, she, herself 14, has to agree to marry Rasheed who is now in his mid forties.

She delivers a baby girl and so she too looses the love and regard she initially received from her husband, and eventually there is no difference in how both the wives are treated. The Taliban regime would have started then and there would be a thousand laws forbidding women from doing anything else other than enduring their men’s violence, leaving them no option for anything. The two women develop a unique bond of friendship and love in those hardships, and support each other in whatever way they can.

And finally Mariam decides her own course of her life for the first time in her life and sacrifices herself for Laila to lead a proper life. And she lives on, beyond the war to rebuild hope in Afghanistan, along with her second husband Tariq and her children.

Well, what I liked in the novel is the writer’s way of telling the story. It flows out naturally in a simple way, and yet each line delivers a heavy message. We should be ashamed for what is happening around us in all those war-struck countries, not just this one. People in one part of the world do not have access to food, water or healthcare at a time when we, in many other countries are leading a luxurious life, having whatever we want. Our own contemporaries were subjected to so much of violence when we were busy coding on our high end machines, to solve the Y2K issue! They didn’t have water or food for days together when we were introduced to Pizzas, burgers and KFCs! I wonder what is it that is achieved in a war?

Overall, a wonderful read.... just loved it till the end. Was terribly moved by it... Looking forward to more such books from Khaled Hosseini.

Snakes!

2011-05-18T17:46:00.001+05:30

A conversation with mom on phone
Me: ‘Where was it?’
Mom: In my room, almost about to enter the bathroom
Me: And?
Mom: It must have sensed my footsteps and quickly turned back and climbed out of the window, probably from where it came in.
Me: Did you take a picture of it?
Mom: No, the camera and phone were both in the other room; I didn’t want to shift focus from it, so just stood there, observing and watching it
Me: Ok, good... Did it have any ‘V’ mark on its head? How big was it?
Mom: No it didn’t, it didn’t seem to be a cobra. It was about a meter long, not very big...But I was wondering what if it had got into the heap of clothes near the window, and if I had left it unnoticed for a long time?
Me: Don’t worry... most of the time they are harmless... but make sure you don’t get a shock if you spot one like that... in such cases, just open the door or window slowly and make some noise in the opposite direction, so that it goes out.
Mom: Hmmm... So you are now re-teaching me the lesson that I had taught you!!
Me: Oh yeah... :D

Yes, yes, you guessed it right. We were talking about a snake that had entered her room yesterday. Wondering how we could be so cool about it? Well, it is not the first time that a snake came in... not even the second, third or fourth time. We have in fact lost count of such instances... It keeps happening at least a couple of times a year inside home and many more times around, in the last two and a half decades of staying there. We were literally the first family to build a house in that part of Bangalore about 3 decades ago and for almost a decade ours was the only house, the nearest other building about half a km away. I’m sure mom, being a nature lover would have loved staying in such a place, with plants, trees, birds, animals and of course reptiles around, when dad was off to work during the day. How I wish I was staying in such a place now... well, it’s a tragedy there is no such place in Bangalore now, with every plant and tree being replaced by a high rise apartment or a shopping mall....

Coming to the point on snakes, I have so many experiences with snakes (just spotting the visitor of course, nothing else) not only in my maiden house but also the current one, that I thought of putting up here whatever I remembered. Before that please do remember that not all snakes are venomous, in fact very few are. If they were, then I would not be alive and writing them here!! And note that we, people, have encroached upon their habitats that they have no other place to go to and so show up in our homes at times. It is a sad thing that most of the times, snakes are associated with a lot of myths and just brutally killed. Come to think of it, it is these creatures that put a check on rodents like rats and mice, and maintain a balance in nature.

The world is not created only for man, in fact, if you ask me, he was a misfit here, in this beautiful world, that he is destroying all of it, and finally himself too.

Some good reads with information on snakes and what you should do in case of a snake bite:

http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/blogs/show_entry/2082-venomous-snakes-near-sarjapur-road

http://bangalore.citizenm atters.in/articles/view/2339-snakes-bangalore-safety-firstaid

More snake experiences of mine will soon follow.

People Change, don't they?

2011-05-10T15:39:00.002+05:30

People Change, with time, don't they?

Me, you, he, she, there is no one who doesn't change.

Of course change is an essential and integral part of our lives, but why is it that sometimes it gets so difficult to accept those?

Why is it that we tend to continue to have the same kind of expectations that we had a long long ago.... and when the expectations are not met, we brood over it!

More than change in circumstances, it is the change in people's attitude that ~~hurts~~ bothers me more. How right is it to be goody-goody When you are in need, and to have a 'i don't care' attitude when you don't?

Ok... so there were some posts in draft versions that i had started off in the past few week and left it unfinished just because i didn't feel like completing and posting... Today, when i looked back i felt like posting one of them as it was, rather than just discarding it! I didn't even feel like continuing it as the feeling when i wrote it is no longer applicable now :), but posted it anyways!

Turtle Bay Beach Resort

2011-02-24T17:11:00.000+05:30

Had been on a team outing to Turtle Bay beach resort near Kundapura a couple of weeks ago. It is a beautiful place, located right on the beaches of Arabian Sea, some 100km north of Mangalore. I particularly like the beaches of Arabian Sea rather than the east coast mainly for the amazing sunsets that one can catch here.

There is a small island where they take on a boat and you get to see a lot of sea creatures like sea urchins, different varieties of crabs, fish. Dolphins and turtles are also spotted occasionally. They also have snorkeling and scuba diving but they need a full day for it. Just relaxing on hammocks watching the beach, listening to the waves is an experience in itself.

Needless to say, you can jump into the waters and stay there forever, getting your skin tanned, experiencing the sea and sun and sand. The best part is they have life jackets which you can use if you are thalassophobic (scared of sea). Even if you’re not a phobic, trying floating on top of the waves with life jackets is a nice experience. You have a stretch of the beach all for yourselves. However, beyond that ‘stretch’ the place gets dirty.
You can also visit the place of confluence of Sowparnika river with Arabian sea. And also visit some islands and villages, like Padukone (he he, the guys in our group went there and just missed an encounter with Deepika!!)
Simply watching the sandpipers on the beach is enough too. There is also ample scope for birding - their website boasts of about 55 species in and around the resort. I couldn’t dedicate much time for it, but I can definitely say there is ample opportunity.
The resort is a mid range place, pretty decent for the amount they charge, though the services aren’t that great. Rooms are clean and neat with basic amenities, food is average, they make you wait for a long time after placing your order and it’ll be mostly cold when you get it. The non vegetarians had a better choice, though. However, the place makes up for all of it!

Accessibility - Buses ply from Bangalore to Kundapur overnight. From Kundapur, take another bus to Trasi, and then a rickshaw for a couple of km to reach the resort. Or fly/take train to Mangalore and hire a taxi from there.

The first showers

2011-02-22T11:42:00.001+05:30

It rained last night; the first showers of the year. All the heat that had started accumulating is cooled down now. Everything seemed to have calmed down this morning. The rains had washed away all the dirt, and all the dust had settled down.

The roads looked so clean this morning, and the trees so beautiful and cheerful, in spite of having lost their leaves. Though barren and dry after the fall, the trees now seemed to have got a new hope to grow new leaves. And the birds were cheerfully chirping and seemed to be getting ready to build their nest for breeding this season. There is a fresh look to everything around. Everything seems to have started life afresh, anew.
It was such a pleasure to drive to work this morning.

The wolf and the kid

2011-02-18T15:52:00.003+05:30

There was this kid who lived in a cottage in the woods with her mother. When the baby threw tantrums and cried, the mother warned her that if she cried, she would give her away to the wolf in the woods. The wolf, passing by, heard this and stopped out of the door, waiting. The kid soon stopped crying and the wolf heard the mom and kid happily play inside. It stayed there still waiting, hoping the kid would cry again, and that the mother would give her off to him.

The kid did cry again, the next day making the wolf happy and hopeful for a moment, when he heard the mother say the same words. The wait was again in vain, since the mother and kid yet again started playing joyfully inside.

This went on everyday, with the wolf waiting patiently, hoping and losing hope, rather than finding an alternative to find his food and live, while the kid happily grew up on the other side.

The wolf realized it too late that he had wasted his life being stupid to keep waiting with a false hope, for something that was never going to be.

A meaningless wait!

From scorn to smile

2011-02-08T19:26:00.002+05:30

I wasn’t in a very good mood this morning when I started from home. When in such state my usual norm is to speed off past whoever possible on the road, and honk the horn loud and long at others who are mis-driving - my way of yelling at people when they’re not driving right and when I’m off mood.

So, today there was this small car in front of me, who I was desperate to over take and was following it at the same speed since the road was narrow. At one point the car suddenly shifted from its lane and slowed down without any signal at all. I managed not to hit it, by slowing down my old active too. Got irritated more and honked loud as usual, cribbing about the guy driving.

Oh well, just at that moment, I saw a small cute little puppy, crossing the road, just in front of the car. It had just missed getting run over by the car, thanks to the mis-driven car! Immediately my mood changed, and my scorn changed to a smile. I wanted to acknowledge the driver for having saved a life, just in time.

I sped faster, and came parallel to this car - turned and smiled at the middle aged gentleman on the driving seat. He too got my point and smiled back heartily.
Well, now I no longer wanted to speed past him, though I could, but instead, followed him at his pace. And I was happy rest of the day :)

Silver lines

2011-01-08T10:09:00.000+05:30

Those two lines of silver
Remind me that Time,
For no one does wait
And flies off fast

Those two lines of silver
Urge me to do
All that I want to,
At a faster pace

Those two lines of silver
Tell me that a nice big piece
Of this beautiful life
Is already gone

How I often wish
Those two lines of silver
Never made their presence
At all! But...

Let there be no lines of silver
At least on the mind and heart
For I want to stay
Young at heart, Forever and ever.

Happy New Year 2011! And a peek into 2010...

2011-01-03T15:57:00.002+05:30

Happy New Year 2011!

So, how was 2010?
Well, for me it was quire uneventful, I must say. It was neither too great, nor was it that bad. It was just ok, with nothing much happening.

To keep up the tradition of summarizing the previous year like always, here I go.

Trips and Travel:
There was no travel at all for the first 3-4 months of the year. The first one being in late April to Munnar and Thekkady by drive! It was a wonderful trip, especially loved the drive of 500+km one way on amazingly good roads. Started doing a bit of birding, in a very amateurish way. Receiving a cute little birthday present on a drizzling morning, out of the car on a deserted road from Munnar to Thekkady was the highlight ;)

In July, there was another quick travel to Kodur, Shimoga with inlaws, again by car, and a little more birding!

August, as always is the worst month for me. This year also, it was no different. Too much of work, too many poojas (it being generally Shravana masa), and added to it, some health issues:(. Huh, how I wish there is no August in the calendar!

August and September also had some early morning or evening visits to some nearby places for birding. Learnt some basics of birding from seasoned birders meanwhile.

October, as always is a promising month, with some special trip-of-the-year planned! And this time it was to the west most part of India - Rajasthan, primarily around Jaisalmer.

November had a surprise in store - a naturalist training in JLR, Bannerghatta, got to know some wonderful and inspiring people, and a whole new world of naturalists (and to be) opened up in front of us.

Early December had another short visit to Mandagadde, Shimoga, Bhadravathi, and late December had a marathon trip to Chitradurga, Hampi, Magadi kere, Davangere, etc.
So, this is all about the trips!
Oooh hasn’t this been a birding-year? Yes, it surely was :)

Work - it’s been a great year work wise, with things going smooth for me in spite of some turbulence around.

On the personal front, however, there has been not much of progress, except of course, me growing older by another year and also wiser! None of the few set milestones were met, nothing great happened.
Anyways, it was quite a good year and enjoyed it.

Hoping 2011 will be the year of milestones! Once again a Happy New Year to one and all.

Manvar Desert Camp and Resort

2010-12-07T20:06:00.009+05:30

After Khuri, and some sightseeing in the city of Jaisalmer, our next destination was Manvar camp and resort, near Dechu, located off Jodhpur-Jaisalmer highway - 175 km from Jaisalmer and 110 from Jodhpur. This road is just amazing and we missed driving ourselves on these beautiful roads. Manvar is a luxurious resort, with lot of greenery inside, amidst the shades of brown in the desert. Thanks to Archana Srinivas’ blog - Rang Décor, this was where I learnt about this beautiful place. The tented camps about 7km interior from the resort and is a real treat. This place was greener with much more vegetation. We were on a jeep to the tents during sunset and it was amazing to watch the sunset amidst browns and greens. Peacocks are a common sight here.
A fox, which was supposed to be rare, did stop by our jeep, and poised for a shot.

Spent the night at the camp, enjoyed the lovely evening with campfire and music and dance with some drinks and snacks.
We trekked to a nearby hillock next morning for some birding and sunrise. Here's a view of the camps from the hillock...

Then after a sumptuous breakfast, went on a jeep safari. I was amazed at the number of birds here, and the ease with which they can be spotted, thanks to the scanty vegetation. We did spot some Indian Gazelle(Chinkara), came across some smaller sand dunes, sand slides and some village houses.

A Sand slide

Chinkara
A neelgai.... these were in plenty...And the evening was for ourselves, at a small temple on a hillock near the resort, and again watching the sun go down the horizon. I think I can never get bored of watching sunsets.....

Some glimpses of Manvar....
The pathway into the resort

Some antiques

Tents on sand

Camp restaurant
Pool at the resort
The temple on the neighbouring hillock

Check out the bird pictures here.

It was a wonderful stay at Manvar.

A camel ride into the Desert National Park

2010-11-23T20:29:00.006+05:30

I didn’t know a safari on a camel back was such an exercise for the bones and joints! Our camel was Laal, and there were four more in the gang, with three boys to manage the camels and four foreign tourists along with the two of us. Sitting high on camel back, holding on to it when it sways forward and backward to get up, and riding on it, jumping up and down was fun. Especially when Laal and his friends decided to run a bit to add to the excitement, at one point, I was almost off the camel and screamed! I blamed Dee for the camel running too fast and not taking care of his wife and the boys made fun saying it’d have been a task for them to search me in the desert, had I fallen off!

It was a bigger dune this time than what we had seen the previous day. And we were truly deserted - there was no one else except our gang for as far as we could see! We were to spend the night here, in the open, in the cold! We were excited. We walked around as much as we could till the sun set, not able to take enough of the desert. As it got dark, there was a camp fire for warming as well as cooking. The boys cooked a meal for us, while we all sang and talked to each other, the boys also pulling each other’s legs.
After dinner, while we were for another round of walking on the sands, and warming up, the boys made our beds, and showed us our ‘room’ for the night.
And here was our room and our neighbors’... ;)

It was too cold, in spite of the blankets and thin mattress we had, but it was a memorable experience to open your eyes in the middle of the night to see only sand and sand around you and stars over your head, and the half moon slowly rising in the east! We watched the moon rise for sometime and fell back asleep.
I was the first one to wake up next morning, as I didn’t want to miss seeing the sunrise. A bowl of hot black tea on the cold morning was welcome. We watched the sunrise, went out for a long walk around the scrubs on one side, finding many more birds, experiencing the desert. Well, the birds here woke up much later after the sun rose, may be because of the cold weather.
After breakfast, I had my ‘myself time’ just walking about with Mother Nature when Dee had gone with the boys to find the camels that were wandering off in the night.
When we were back, again on camel backs, I asked the others ‘Aren’t your joints aching?’‘Are you kidding?’ replied one of the girls in the gang, ‘do you have any left? I have no joints any more!’

It was true, but it was worth every bit of the pain.

Khuri - A Desert Village

2010-11-14T22:23:00.009+05:30

After deciding that our next trip would be in the Thar Desert, we started debating on the exact locations. We knew we shouldn’t miss the sand dunes around Jaisalmer, but of the two famous ones - Sam and Khuri, we couldn’t decide which one. After reading reviews and hearing from friends, that Sam is way too crowded when compared to Khuri, we decided Khuri was the place - as both of us like calm rather than crowd!
We reached Jaisalmer by train from Jaipur at around noon, hired a taxi to Khuri - about 40km southwest. We heard from the driver that this year there was a lot of rain due to which the desert was more filled with shrubs and small plants. I was afraid we wouldn’t get to see the actual dunes, and just kept my fingers crossed.
As we reached Khuri, I was amazed to see the number of camp-resorts in that little village, tourism is definitely becoming one of the biggest business there, especially in winter. Most of the buildings are of yellow sandstone, as in Jaisalmer - the reason why Jaisalmer is called the Golden city.
We got into the home stay - Badal House, run by a real gentleman, Badal Singh, about which Dee will write in detail. (Yes, we have a pact and share topics and write, when it comes to travel!) As we freshened up and had a small talk with the owner, the weather suddenly became cloudy and windy. Once wind blows, there will be a few millimeters of fine sand settled over and around you, which we had already experienced in the train. And in a couple of minutes the weather became too chill and there was a small shower of rain! We had to postpone our plans for camel safari and camping for the night that we had planned for the next day.
Had I told you, wherever we go, be it any season, the rains surely follow us! And this we’ve been observing in all our trips throughout last year. We just smiled at ourselves, and set out in the drizzle, to explore and experience the desert ourselves.
I was amazed at the number of birds that we spotted, and Dee started shooting them. A few meters of walk out of the village and there we saw the dunes! Pure, neat and secluded! Wasn’t this what we wanted!! We started walking in that direction and what seemed to be so near took so long to reach. As we neared, there were hordes of people arriving in buses, jeeps, vans and even on camels to the dunes to watch the sunset, and with all the shor-sharaba! Oops, we immediately changed our direction and moved further to a calmer portion, away from all the noise, just to calmly enjoy the beauty of nature and watch the sunset from the clear sand dunes.
How beautiful nature is! It was a treat to walk on the clear sand dunes, watching the sun go down, with chill wind blowing on your face. Just as the sun set, it began to get colder, and we started walking back to the village, happy and satisfied for having chosen this place.

Check out the birds here.

Proud of you, Mom!

2010-10-03T12:19:00.004+05:30

Mom has won the first prize in ‘Masthi Kadambari Puraskara’ for this year for her new novel in Kannada titled “Mane”. Masthi Venkatesh Iyengar is a legendary Kannada writer of the last century whose works in the field of Kannada literature are immense. Now ‘Masthi trust’ recognizes budding writers each year and rewards them for their work.

The felicitation ceremony was held yesterday, on Gandhi Jayanthi, which was presided over by honorable Chief Minister of Karnataka Mr. Yedyurappa, who released the book as well as felicitated the awardees. So Mom was on the same stage with Karnataka CM!

The CM also unveiled two volumes of “Masthi Samagra Samputa Avalokana”, compiled by Sri Mavinakere Ranganathan, President of the trust.

This Kadambari Puraskara is a strict competition, where the panel of five renowned judges are kept unaware of the writers’ names and asked to judge the novels. Only after the decision is made that the authors’ names are revealed.

This time, all the first three prizes have been bagged by female writers!
Details:
1st prize - Mane by Saraswathi Nataraj, Rs.30000/-
2nd prize - Kicchillada bege by Dr. Kamala Hemmige, Rs.25000/-
3rd prize - Kamini thalpa by Usha Narasimhan, Rs.20000/-

Congratulations and proud of you, mom!

P.S.: All above pics are shot by Dee :)

Twosome - Two‘Sum’

2010-08-17T18:12:00.001+05:30

There are always two ‘Sum’s within me.....
One who is happy and another who is sad, a pessimist and an optimist. One wants to forgive and forget and another keeps remembering and wants revenge. One is quite selfish and another utterly selfless. One is calculative of all petty things and another very liberal about even bigger things. One who decides not to do any good to someone and another who, in the next instant offers to help the same someone! One tries to be cheerful all the time, and another gets depressed in a fraction of a second. One loves anyone and anything and another one thinks she hates everyone and everything.
There is a constant combat between these two. This moment it is one Sum and the next, it is the other. Now one rules and at after now, ruled over by the other. Am I bad or am I good?

Why are there two me’s in me?
Are there two you’s in you too?

The God of Small Things

2010-08-06T17:55:00.004+05:30

Just finished reading ‘The God of Small Things’ by Arundhati Roy. Well, it is a very touching novel. Very different. Very real. It’s sure to wet your eyes at least a couple of times. Or more if you’re more emotional.
It’s about a pair of twins - a boy and a girl, whose father would have betrayed his kids and their mother, after which, the well educated mother brings up the twins being both their mother and father.
At the age of eight, the twins are separated from each other due to circumstances. For no real fault of theirs. Well as the author says, for them, there was no each. There was no other. There was no each other. They were one. And a part of them was gone. .

And they’ll be away and incomplete for 23 long years. All their childhood is lost. Their youth is lost. In fact, their life is lost. They lose their mother and their beloved untouchable companion - for having violated a law. A law set by the clean, touchable society. Of who should be loved, how and how much.

The author touches upon all these minute yet strong details in her story.
Untouchability, Communism, Marxism, Religion, Male dominated society, Domestic Violence, Political brutality, Selfishness, Children, Their dreams, Their abuse, Punishments for doing wrong and for not doing wrong, Well Acceptable Men’s Needs, and of course Unacceptable Women’s needs.

Every character in the book has their own story. The narration is quite unique. She takes the readers back and forth in time. She reveals bits and pieces of the history and comes back to the present. Leaves the rest of it for later.
‘Lay Ter’ as she calls it.
The ‘later’ filled with the most unexpected.

Her style of writing is quite different too.
With regular sentences.
With one word sentences.
With two word sentences.
With three word sentences.
With no word sentences. The most important of all. Where there are no words to tell, yet lies a big story there.

One of the lines that touched me: “When you hurt someone with careless words, they begin to love you less”.
Careless words make people love us a little less. How true!

The story is put up very well. Very touching. It is a sad story. But then is that not what most of the stories are, in the real world?

More lessons

2010-07-27T18:08:00.003+05:30

Ok, so after just a couple of days of listing those sad lessons, here are some more, but in contrast to the previous one!
- Family always ranks first when it comes to support during hard times. Though we may crib about family members about petty issues, they surely back you when you most need
- Messing up with a gadget accidentally need not spoil days and nights of yours - these things happen by mistake and can be fixed. There are more important things that should be taken care not to mess up with
- All acquaintances need not be friends. And those who are real friends will remain so forever
- What you give to the world comes back to you in multi-fold. Trying giving a little happiness and you’ll be bounced back with loads of it

I wonder how mind changes from sad to happy, depressed to joyful, frustrated to content in a matter of a couple of days!

Some lessons learnt in the recent past...

2010-07-22T18:48:00.004+05:30

Good things do not happen to you when you’re doing good things for others
When you want to do a favor for someone, keep in mind that you will be hit back. The bigger the favor the harder is the hit back
There is no use in voicing your valuable opinion where people are not ready to consider it.
Do not be too passionate about your work. You don’t actually own it though you’re expected to take ownership of it.
People remember one bad thing that they think you’ve done and forget the nine good things they know you’ve done
Talk only when you are sure people are ready to listen
Most people consider you as their friend only till they are in need of your friendship. They don’t necessarily consider you once they are off to a next level.
Be extra careful when handling expensive objects...
The WGS attitude is not always easy to follow!

Well these are some random things that I’ve learnt recently, but will stop here.... I’m so so depressed today......

Crow and Cuckoo

2010-06-24T10:21:00.006+05:30

The crow built a cozy little nest with her partner, working hard every day. With the nest she built many a dream of herself and her partner, living peacefully and cozily in that little nest. She got in a variety of soft material like pieces of rags, feathers, cotton pieces and so on from here and there, trying to make the place warm and cozy for her little ones. Her kids would be born there, and she would feed them well and teach them to fly. Theirs would then be a perfect little family.

The nest was then built fully; she laid eggs there, her dream getting stronger everyday. Then came in a cuckoo, when the crows were away. The cuckoo slyly pushed aside one of the crow’s eggs and lay her own in place of it and fled. The crow that was totally oblivious of her egg replaced by cuckoo’s, scrupulously continued with her work of hatching the eggs.

The cuckoo’s egg hatched first, way before her own and she was excited. She fed the little one with all her might and saw the little one grow up. By now she realized that it was not her own kid, but she continued to feed the little one, since the little one was born in her own nest, by her own warmth,a nd it was away from its parents. What she failed to notice was that in bringing up her pseudo-kid, she neglected her own eggs and had failed to hatch them.

The little cuckoo grew stronger and faster, feeding on all that was fed by its crow-mother. The crow excitedly gave lessons to the little one on how to fly. In its ambition to fly, the little one had pushed off the other unhatched eggs out of the nest while fluttering its wings. It soon learnt to fly and off it flew, and joined its cuckoo group.
Back at the nest, the crow was left alone with its partner.

Facts:
Cuckoos indeed do find a crows’ nest and lay eggs there. They are cunning enough as the male distracts the crows away from their nest, and the female quickly lays its eggs there. The cuckoo’s egg is hatched first and the little one grows faster. Meanwhile the cunning little one pushes off the crow’s eggs or the baby crows and gobbles most of the food brought in by the parent crows. The crows do realize that it is not their baby, but still feed it. They start hating the young one only when it starts coooo-cooo-ing unlike their kaw-kwas. By then the young one would have grown enough to fly off and join its group. The story repeats again when the little one grows up when it again finds another crow nest to lay eggs.
Facts Courtesy: KP Poornachandra Tejaswi’s MinchuLLi

Hima-Bulbul

2010-06-16T12:37:00.004+05:30

Of late, my morning alarm is of a pair of red whiskered bulbuls, a few feet outside our window. They exactly start chirping a little after six every morning! I don’t know if I should call it ‘chirp’... it’s so distinct from other chirps. They make this sweet musical 3-note or 4-note sound like twee-twi-toooo or twi-ti-tu-toooo.....

As I said previously, my little niece Hima is also fascinated with birds now. Or she is fascinated about being fascinated like her atte! One morning I just walked down the road with her and showed her these bulbuls, and their distinct crest (which I told her was a ‘juttu’). She was, needless to say excited about a bird with a ‘juttu’ on its head.

She ran into the room as soon as we got back home and got a comb and a small rubber band. She made me tie her recently cut, short hair into a ‘juttu’. I could manage to bring together a little hair and tied it up for her. She looked into the mirror, jumped with joy and announced to everybody that she was now ‘Hima-bulbul’!

Birding...

2010-06-14T16:54:00.001+05:30

My interest in birds is gradually increasing! Though I have not yet done any formal ‘bird-watching’ yet, I have just been observing all the birds around office and home. Luckily my house as well as the office is outside the city, in the remote outskirts, where the birds are not yet extinct. There are many parakeets, bulbuls, robins, barbets, cuckoos, etc etc.

I must confess it was only recently that I watched cuckoos closely and could identify them. I had earlier mistaken a Drongo to be cuckoo. And whenever I heard the cuckoo’s ‘koo’ I had not been able to spot one at all. I didn’t know that the female is brown with whitish spots and made shrill ‘kwi-kwi-kwi’ while the male was bluish black with red eyes and sang ‘kooo’ in summer and also made the ‘kwu-kwu-kwu’ sound....

It’s an amazing world of birds, that’ll keep you fascinated once you get hooked on to it... Also, little Hima gives me good company in bird-watching! When she’s woken up early, she accompanies me to walk down the road and find birds; we took her out to a remote layout one evening where she spotted and showed me more birds than I could find myself, and so on. I was elated when her mom said yesterday that she showed her a cuckoo and explained to her that it was a ‘kogile’ and made ‘kooo’ sound. And she was excited about a group of parrots and told her mom ‘Wow! geen color pakshi’ (green bird)!

And this bird watchin fever has spread to my friends at office too! One team mate of mine told me that a little bird is building a nest on her exhaust fan and so she’s stopped using the fan and has been watching them. She has to frequently clean her kitchen slab because the birds are dropping some strands of grass all over! And at tea time my mates show me birds around and say they were never like this before!

Recently bought this book on birds by Poornachandra Tejaswi - ‘MinchuLLi’ meaning Kingfisher. It’s about different birds, facts about them and the author’s personal experience with some of them. Loved reading it and got to know quite a lot about some of them. There is a second book by him, which also we bought which I’ve just started reading. There is quite a bit of information that is presented, along with some interesting facts. It’s more like reading a blog with pictures than reading a book!

So, that’s about it.... but unfortunately I’ve still not been able to go birding with Chandu and his group :(..... not sure when it’s possible....

Indian Robins family - Season 2

2010-04-01T17:10:00.001+05:30

Well, if you’ve been following my Indian Robin series, then you must be waiting for updates on the Season 2 of their story. But I’m afraid it’s not all happy happy ending this time.... :(

To state it in a fair detail, after I said that the birds had returned to their old nest and laid 3 eggs, similar to last year, they almost disappeared for 4-5 days. I was concerned whether they’d return or not, but they did. And the next day one of the eggs had hatched and the little one was of that black mass of flesh.

Both the male and female birds took care of the nest for the next 4-5 days, the mother, I supposed was hatching the other two eggs and the father was feeding the little one. Even after 4-5 days, the other two eggs did not hatch, and the little one grew faster this time than the previous time.

And surprisingly, the little one flew off the nest in less than a week, leaving behind the two un-hatched eggs. Even the parents disappeared..... It’s almost a week since then, and there is no sign of them.... Wonder why......

Birds are back!!

2010-03-12T14:18:00.003+05:30

Yes! All those beautiful birds that had almost vanished in winter are back with the onset of summer! Those friendly Indian robins too had become a rarity for a few months.

And this time we were lucky enough to click a kingfisher, though from a huge distance....

And another one was a ~~woodpecker~~ Hoopoe that came and sat right in front of home, and started singing, nodding its head right and left for a couple of minutes! And lucky enough, it gave us a chance to click one pic.

There are so many other visitors, which I fail to recognize, and couldn’t even take a click...
And guess what?? The Indian robin pair that bred on the terrace is back again! And they are back to the same nest, which had left undisturbed since last year, and today we discovered they’ve again laid a clutch of 3 eggs! Now there’s some inspiration to get home from work early and watch these little beauties..... How I wish I can catch them learning to fly, which I missed last time.....

Will keep you all posted if something special happens....

P.S. Birders, please elaborate on these birds :)

The “Who gives a S***!” attitude

2010-03-05T12:39:00.000+05:30

When this new lead joined our team a few months ago, we were all quite shocked to get used to his way of talking. His talk would be full of ‘French and Latin’, as he calls it! And being in a conservative environment earlier, we’d all feel quite uncomfortable listening to him use words like sh** so many times in every sentence.... his favorite one being “Who gives a Sh**!” And he being our lead, and having no issues with him in any other way, all we could do was to get used to it.

Well, now after all these months, we’ve got so used to it, it’s no longer a weird statement for us. On the contrary, it is one of our ‘well-being mantras’. Yeah, seriously! This “Who gives a Sh**” attitude comes as a savior, at least to me when I’m on the verge of breaking out or breaking down. I just tell myself this mantra, and off I am, back in my safe state.

Of course, it’s not been easy to adopt this attitude, especially for some extra-sensitive people like me, but a little bit of practice is what it takes to change our attitude. Good thing is that I’ve taught Dee also this, and he too is picking up. And at least this way, I mostly avoid going deep into depression and striving hard to get out of it.

Now, this mantra comes to my rescue in many situations like when someone’s trying to put me down, or get me into a verbal war or try to intentionally or unintentionally hurt me, try to demand too much of me or go on complaining endlessly, treat me with no concern and many more. Of course this should be carefully applied and can not be and should not be applied to people who really really are concerned about you! And beware, apply it only when you know you are right.

Shocked and don’t like this new, completely opposite attitude of mine?
Well, who gives a Sh**!

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

2010-02-25T18:23:00.001+05:30

Today is the same as yesterday, tomorrow will be the same as today. Everyday seems just the same, identical to its previous day and next day. The more I look forward to a change, the probability of it gets lesser. The closer I feel I am, the farther it appears to move. There were times when I had dreaded change, but now I’m just longing for one. The more things I do to wade away the monotony, all those things start becoming monotonous.

The hope that a new year is a new beginning or that a new month brings in a change or that a new week would be different from the previous is all just a mere hope. It might take ages in reality. But I’m sure one day things will change, and for good..... dreaming of things that I’m awaiting for everyday makes the wait easier. As long as the dream itself has not become one boring part, there is color in life.......

P.S. - Well, on second thoughts, life has not become that boring too..... but still, it is monotonous enough for me to go ahead and post this :)

A new block buster movie in Bangalore at 50 bucks!

2010-01-29T14:00:00.001+05:30

Yeah... this used to be possible about a decade ago during our college days when we’d occasionally go to theatre to watch movies. And then came the malls and multiplexes, replacing the ordinary single-screen age old theatres. With this, rose the cost of movie-watching too. Watching a movie in Bangalore costs anywhere between 150 to 500+ bucks, depending on the day of the week and the movie.

Also the tickets need to be booked in advance. And driving to any of these ‘multiplexes’ which are at least an hour’s drive from home in heavy weekend traffic is a pain in itself.

For people like us, whose weekends are mostly quite unpredictable, planning out a movie-watching program had quite become a saga. We also missed a movie or two since we got tied up in some priority work though the tickets were booked. Due to all these, our movie watching had terribly reduced in the last year - just one movie in the whole of 2009!

We realized this early this year and were contemplating on some of the latest hit movies - Paa, 3 Idiots and so on, trying to decide upon the date and place, when we came across this ‘Venkateshwara theatre’ very close to home. Of course, we knew we should expect a cinema hall of the 90’s, but nevertheless wanted to give a try. So on a Saturday, quite unplanned, we just went in search of this hall in very narrow lanes. The then-showing movie was ‘Suryakanthi’, a kannada recent release. Though the movie was not so great, the cinema hall was pretty decent - for the 40 bucks that we gave per ticket! It did remind us of our childhood cinema halls, but I should say the sound system was not that bad, and the push-back seats were decent too.

Okay, we thought, we can just drop in here 10 minutes before the evening show, even on weekends, and watch some average movies. And to our surprise, the next week, when we were planning to go for 3 idiots and searching through the newspaper for the show timings in Forum, we saw that our dear Venkateshwara theatre was playing ‘3 idiots’!!!

At 5-30, being very sure that we won’t get the tickets for the 6pm show, that too on day 2 of the movie showing here, we still left home thinking we’ll buy tickets for the next day. And to our surprise, at 5-45, there were still ‘Balcony’ tickets available and for 50 bucks each!! And the hall was half empty! For a movie that is costing about 300 bucks in multiplexes, with all the complications, one sixth the amount was a great fair deal! The movie-count for this year is already 2 now, and I’ve decided to keep a watch on all the movies playing here.

If...

2010-01-09T16:09:00.000+05:30

If only you were here today...

You’d have seen all the things
That you had always longed to;
You’d have had all those things,
And done all those things
That you’d wanted, and beyond.

You could have seen
All your hard work pay off.
You’d be so proud of
Your own self and your dearest ones

If only you were here today,
You’d be turning another year older
And we’d be celebrating it
With you in great joy

Though you are not here with us
I’m sure in every step of ours,
You’re watching and guiding us.....
Whatever be it, the fact is that
It’s not the same as you being here....

If only you were here today...
Our life would have been
So different and pleasant

A flashback into 2009

2010-01-05T18:03:00.004+05:30

It’s another New Year, and strangely this time, I’m not feeing anything new, with the New Year!
Still, would like to come up with a high level report of the year, to look back after a few years!

January was not so good, with Dee meeting with a small accident and having an ankle sprain. Then came some unexpected, shocking uncertainties at his work place. That was followed by some more, shocking uncertainties at my workplace! The economic slowdown had kind of hit our company too.

In spite of these, or rater due to these, we just wanted to take a break, and early February, headed for a trip to the beautiful backwaters of Kerala – Alleppey and Ashtamudi. Had a wonderful break from all the tensions.

March was mostly uneventful, except for Dee confirming his booking for Sarpass trek and me cribbing about it!

April started with some disappointments and continued to be not so great, with hardly any peace of mind. Dee left to Sarpass, and I went to Ooty with mom and sis and had a good time.
Spent early May waiting for his return, and then the rest of the month just flew off, happily.

Went on a driving trip with 2 more cousins to historical places – Belur, Halebidu, Dwarasamudra, Doddagaddavalli – admiring the monuments of Hoysala dynasty.

July was pretty much occupied with some medical treatments, and some poojas – the typical Shravana maasa!

Another short and tiring trip to Dee’s grandma’s place in August, followed by more festivals!

September was quite eventful, with our Dasara preparations, and an unexpected 15 km leechy trek in Bedaguli forest range with Dee’s team. I was so glad that I could trek as I had not been on a single proper trek with Dee so far, due to my repeated ligament injuries.

October was a super busy month, starting with a trip to Wayanad, Dee’s trip to North Karnataka for flood relief work, my preparations for wedding anniversary gifts for him, followed by the trip of the year – a beach resort in Pondicherry to end the month.

November also had another disappointment and a trip with inlaws to Coorg :)

And December too had an unexpected trip in store – a one day visit to Shimoga to attend a wedding. Followed by year end vacation, during which 4 days was spent at mom’s place and another trip to end the year at Agumbe.

Whew! That’s quite a number of trips last year!!! Anyways.... Enjoy life to the fullest, travel as much as possible was the mantra of 2009 :)

Let’s see what’s in store in 2010......

Wish you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year 2010.

A smart reply

2009-12-15T19:53:00.000+05:30

Dee’s friend had come home and he got Hima into a conversation. She started showing off her “ABC” knowledge to him, and beamed when he said “Good girl”. He asked her a couple of questions and then he asked her,

“Hima, do you like atte or do you like maava?”

She did not answer that question. This was apparently the first time she was faced with that question.

He again pressed her, “Hima, whom do you like more – atte or maava?”

“Hmmmmmm......” she replied, “Maa-tte”, and started grinning!!

We all had a hearty laugh!

P.S.: There was no threat or promise of reward to her from either of us :D

Come home sometime....

2009-12-10T17:01:00.001+05:30

There was this aunty who lived in our locality, a little away from our home. Her son was my school mate and Ma and she had met a couple of times at school and had got befriended. In the evenings when I and Ma used to go for a walk, we’d pass by their home. If she’s out at that time, she’d stop us for a chat. The talkative lady that she was, she would not let us leave for a long time, talking this and that. But strangely, she would not welcome us inside so that we could sit and talk.

After a few attempts of trying to end the conversation, finally when we set out to leave from there, she always had this comment, “Please do come home sometime, when you pass by this side”. We’d say “Sure!” and walk off from there and have a hearty laugh! This used to be a regular scene, and I used to make fun with mom, and remind her that “We should go to her house sometime, when we’re passing that way”! And it never happened. Every time we’re there, she’ll never invite us in, and at the end she’d say her usual dialogue. After a few years, she had shifted from that place and heard nothing of her.

I was pleasantly surprised a few days back when I was returning from office, and I see that same aunty, of course a little older now, in front of a house. I stopped by and talked to her, and learnt that she lived here now, very near my new home. And again she never asked me in, and when I set out from there after talking for a while, it was her usual dialogue that made me smile – “Do come home sometime, when you’re passing by this side”!!!

How I wanted to tell her that I do pass by the same road everyday, and yet I do not want to go to her house!!!

Food Tag

2009-11-23T21:40:00.000+05:30

Anu tagged me again, and this time it’s a food tag! Being a foodie that I am, I was glad to take up the tag. The tag is about “listing down five memorable meals that you’ve had - the food, the place, the place you were in your life when you ate, the company, the weather, the ambiance – heck, the guy who served the food!”.

1. The poori-sagu that I had with dad after my CET seat selection got over.
It was my CET seat selection process. After a long time of anxiety, and finger-crossing, I had got a seat in my favorite college. That was the college we had zeroed upon after dad had taken me to some prospective colleges around some days before to get to know more about them. And I was not ready to go out of Bangalore either.
We just wanted to give mom, who was at home, a shock and called her up and said, we did not have any other option but to choose a college in another city. Mom evidently felt bad, but then asked me if Dad was okay, and I just pretended so well, that he too was upset, while dad was standing right next to me and enjoying the prank. Then we went to this hotel called ‘Kalkura’ and ordered for my favorite then – Pooris. And what pooris they were! So crisp, lite and just melting in the mouth. I felt that was the best pooris I had ever had in my life. And seeing dad so proud of his daughter made me so happy......
Well, the next time I wanted to have the same pooris at the same place, I never felt the same joy again.... some joys cannot be re-created!

2. Every meal cooked and served by mom
Yeah, I remember so many wonderful meals that mom has served! All four of us used to sit down and talk and eat, back then. We had fixed places where I would sit in between mom and dad and my sis would sit on the other side of mom. And every item would be so tasty and the meal, accompanied by some talk or some small game would be so interesting. Nowadays, meals are more like filling your stomach while being glued on to the idiot box :(

3. Candle light dinner with piping hot magi prepared by hubby dear
After getting bored of eating out everyday during our rather long honeymoon, we felt we should cook something ourselves in the little kitchenette we had in our room. And that evening Dee offered to cook the dinner while I had a shower. By the time I was done with a shower, the table was all set, with a bunch of flowers that he had picked up himself from the neighborhood, a few candles lit up, a drink and plates with yummy maggi, just out of the microwave..... Wow! That was so impressive.... and BTW, I bet no one can make magi better than Dee J

4. Fried-rice and gravy from my aunt that we cousins could not stop eating
It was summer holidays and we had camped at our aunt’s place. And everyday would be a feast for us kids, with my aunt, a great cook’s preparation. And that day she had prepared an Indianized version of fried rice with onion gravy. It was the first time I had tasted it, and well, it was just superb! All four of us cousins went on hogging and hogging, while my aunt kept on serving us happily. She was smart enough to cook it in a HUGE quantity, to fill our tummies! And we had the same for dinner too that day! What an amazing lunch and dinner it was.....

5. My first birthday after wedding
On my first birthday after wedding, by the time I got home from work, in-laws had cooked a great meal of my favorite Peas Pulav, Badam Puris and more. There was also a cake waiting for me to cut, and I had happily eaten to my heart’s content.

6. Those first eating-out ventures in college days
Where we would freak out from college and have Dutch treats. One particular instance was when we had gone to a North Indian restaurant, and we wanted to try out many side dishes. Since we were a group of 10+ that day, we could afford to, and we got to taste a wide variety of dishes! And another instance was of ‘Jolada rotti oota’ at Kamat. And the unlimited meals there, was a boon for us! We kept hogging and hogging those smooth jowar rotis with ennegai and other side dishes. My friend had commented that day, that it was the first time she had seen me eat so much!!

Well, I now realize that I can go on listing a least a hundred memorable meals!!! I am such a foodie!!!

Ok.. i tag everyone who's interested in taking it up....

Spell a BALL

2009-11-09T11:08:00.005+05:30

Now that my 3 year old niece Hima had learnt all the letters in the English alphabet, and tries to read upper case letters one by one in newspapers and magazines, I thought I should start teaching her spellings of small words that she knows already.

I started with 3 letter words starting from A, B, C... On a sheet of paper, I wrote
A N T
B A T
C A T
D O G
and went on making her read, and telling the pronunciation.
A-N-T – ant, I would say, Ant means ‘iruve’ (kannada synonym)
B-A-T – bat, Bat means? Her response was to show Sachin Tendulkar’s’s bat on TV, where he was playing a match with Aussies.
C-A-T – cat, and she would say ‘meaow meaow’, excitedly
And similarly ‘bow wow’ for dog.

Then suddenly she wanted to write BALL. She wanted me to spell out the word so that she would write.
Okay, I dictated to her, B, A, L, L.
And she had written BAL.
I told her to write another L
But she showed me the already written single L.
Hmm... I thought and told her ‘You should write 2 L’s for BALL’

Immediately she wrote something and showed it to me, gleaming in joy that she could write a word. I couldn’t stop from cuddling her seeing what she had written.....

Navarathri - A festival of dolls

2009-09-30T12:29:00.007+05:30

In school days, apart from 2-3 weeks of mid-term holidays, Dasara was a special season - full of celebration, decoration, nice things to eat, lot of visitors at home....

Dad, mom and we would all arrange the steps, decorate walls and ceilings with color papers, hang silk curtains out of mom’s sarees, get down the big carton of dolls, stored in the attic, arrange them all, put serial lights, help mom with making many varieties of snacks and sweets for guests.....

And this was one time of the year when I would take my friends home, mom and dad would invite their friends, our teachers, relatives, people in the neighborhood, and the house will be full of visitors.....

It had been missing it all from the last few years. This time, I made up my mind to do it all, albeit in a smaller scale, in my house and relive those moments again. I convinced Dee and in-laws on this, got home a part of the packed dolls from mom’s place and started out the venture. Dee, who was reluctant in the beginning, had his creativity coming out of from some hidden corner and got so fully involved and made such good arrangements.

Top view of our park

We started out making a park first time, not sure how much of sand and mud should go in for some ragi to grow, and look green!!! With a lot of phone calls to mom, and suggestions from in-laws, we got it to a decent looking form.

We got little niece Hima on our side, by involving her, and giving her a role to watch out for anyone touching the dolls, and complaining about them to me! This made her feel responsible and engaged, and she never disturbed the set up. She in fact was so delighted that she kept on hugging me and telling me, “Atte, gombe super!!” Ahh... what a moment it was!
And she called this doll in the park, with a dog as "Hima and Bruno"...
Ok, so we arranged everything, in whatever little time we got. I realized how difficult it is to take out time for all these, after a tiring day at work....... We invited some friends, but couldn’t invite many more And managing so many visitors was also a challenge! But after all the efforts, it was rewarding. I felt great pride in saying these are my parents’ collection, most of them over two decades old, when someone asked about them. Overall, it was a good start, and hope we continue with it.....

Note:
Navarathri or Dasara is a festival of dolls in South India. Most of the households have a tradition of decorating and arranging a collection of dolls, during this festival for 10 days. A pair of wooden dolls of bride and groom, which is passed on to the girl during her wedding, is the most important one. In households having constraints of making a full fledged arrangement, at least these two dolls will be kept along with kalasa (kalash) and goddesses are prayed. During this period, friends and relatives, especially kids will be invited and sweets and snacks distributed to them.

A long pending tag

2009-09-24T14:19:00.005+05:30

Anu Russell had tagged me a couple of months back, and I was just procrastinating it till I got ready with my list of annoyances! I was happy I got a chance to articulate the annoyances ;)

Okie.... Here is my list of annoyances...

TV on high volume, especially those stupid saas bahu mega, giga, tera serials - I HATE it; I just hate it.
Borrowing things and messing up with it - I am particularly possessive about my belongings. If I lend something to someone, I expect it back in the same way, and get real annoyed if people don’t respect
When someone gets extra-sensitive and either gets offended for petty things or say ‘sorry’ for a petty
When aunties show extra curiosity about family planning, and start asking embarrassing questions; it gets more annoying when younger aunties do it
When someone dumps their responsibility on you. Also, lazy people who just want to relax when someone else is forced to be working for them
When someone talks age old rules, without thinking rationally for themselves about how apt it is....
Hypocrites
When people try to be extra good by going out of their way to do things beyond their capacity, and end up irritating others around, or expecting them to help in their ‘noble cause’
MCPs or anyone who generalize and talk as if the women folk are incapable of everything and men are
People with lack of personal hygiene - I don’t think I should elaborate this ;)

And the next part, I love people

who have a happy disposition, are cheerful and try to bring smiles to everyone around
who try to uplift my spirits when I’m feeling low, and support me through tough time
when people acknowledge some good thing that I’ve done - be it even a little thing
when they trust
with a good sense of humor
who find solutions, than cribbing about little things

Now i tag the following blog-pals

- Anantha, Preeti, Ricky, Chandu, Kaush, Deep and anyone else interested to take it up.

Cheers,

Sum.

Humane Award!

2009-09-11T09:46:00.007+05:30

Received this award from Anu Russell...... Thanks Anu...... I'm honored....

Googled and found out what it means:

“The Humane Award honours certain bloggers who express kindness, mercy, caring and compassion for others, marked by an emphasis on humanistic values and concerns. Their blogs are also amazing and are tastefully done on a daily basis."

Rules:

Accept and post the award on your blog.
Link to the person from whom you received it.
Pass the award to 5 other blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgment.
Let them know they’ve been chosen for this award.

Ok... so now that i'v got this award, i'm tempted to share another story.... Will try to compose and post it soon.....

Now I award it to the following co-bloggers:

Preeti
Deep
Chandu
Ricky
Madhava
Pradeep (Ok, i'm passing it to 6 instead of 5, but i guess that's ok!)

I'd like to add another rule, enocuraging you guys to write a post on humanity of some kind.....

Cheers!

Indian Robin inside the room

2009-09-02T19:08:00.013+05:30

Ok, so after these Indian robins flew off their nest, they are still seen around home, often. Though they do no even visit their old nest, they hang around on the same electric wire, on bushes in the neighboring vacant plots, on the terrace, etc. And they didnt seem to be too scared of humans, like some other birds.

One evening when i got back home after office, I started closing the window curtains. Our windows are covered by mesh from the inside and the glass pane mostly remains open. The curtains are kept open through the day, and i close them in the evenings. Now while closing the curtains, i saw some small black thing on the window grill. Looked into it closely and realised that it is the same little bird - Indian robin. Couldn't make out much since it was dark outside. Whew! I was wondering if the bird was asleep there, and it did seem it was.

I didnt want to disturb it, so put off the lights, kept silence and started watching it. No, it didnt seem to move at all. And putting on light again, making noise, moving the curtains too didnt have any effect. I went out, to have a look at it from the other, open side of the window, the place there is quite small and i was prety close infront of it. The bird didnt budge from the grill inspite of all these, and spent the night there. And it was gone by morning, by the time i woke up - er.... i wake up pretty late after the birds.

I was careful the next evening, and slowly watched it, and the same thing repeated. But it wasn't found there every night. Analysing the pattern, I guessed the bird spent the night there on rainy nights or when it seemed it might rain. This went on through out the rainy season - the little bird would sleep the rainy nights on my bedroom window, and wake up and fly off in the mornings. Switching ON the lights, pulling the curtains, talking inside the room did not matter to the bird in deep slumber.

The rains stopped, and so did the bird's sleep on the window. It didnt seem to visit its bedroom too. And it kinda faded off my mind too. After a month or so, we took off the mesh for a routine washing and cleaning process, completely oblivion of the bird. The windows were open too, for the whole evening. Late in the evening, i realized that i need to close the windows, lest there be hundreds of mosquitos inside the house. Came in to the room and pulled the windows one by one slowly. Before i pulled this particular window, there was a sudden fluttering and in a second a little bird was inside the room. And it was a female indian robin!

Oops..... I slowly went out of the room, trying not to scare the little one, got in Dee and inlaws to see what can be done to send it out. The bird was apparently confused, trying to search the way out of this unfamiliar interiors of the room. Hmmmmm... we first opened all the windows carefully, tied the curtains up, making the windows more visible and evident. It couldn't make out the way out since it was bright inside due to the lights, and dark outside.

We then thought putting off the lights linside, and turning on the lights outside would help, but it didn't. Once the lights were off inside, the bird became totally inactive, not even attempting to find the way out in the direction of whatever little light was present out of the window.

Hmmm... it became a huge task for us, not to hurt or further scare the already perplexed bird, and yet send it to its comfort zone. It would just fly from one corner to the other - on the ceiling fan, on the tubelight, on the attic, on my dressing table, and on the window pelmet - just above its window, yet not discover the way out. We tried making sounds from opposite direction, leaving it alone in the room, switching the lights on and off for sometime, all in vain.

Finally we gave up, and decided to let the bird spend the night in our room, with the windows open, and probably it would leave at dawn. And luckily after sometime of leaving it alone in the room with the lights on, it had somehow found its way out, and was again back to its deep slumber!!! And we had no choice but to sleep with the windows open, and without even the mesh on, but we were glad that the little avion was peacefully asleep just a few feet away from us :)

And the next morning, it was amazing to see the bird wake up to it's peers' chirping outside, just at dawn. The little bird saw this side and that, and then decided it should fly out... Jumped off a few inches and then off it flew into the open air into a new day.....

An Indian Robin family on the terrace...

2009-08-26T21:40:00.002+05:30

Dee came back from the terrace on a Sunday morning and said there was a birds’ nest in a broken, hollow cement mask (‘drishti gombe,' a mask that's put up so that no one casts an evil eye) on the terrace.

The drishti gombe

I was excited and ran up to check it out. I went and peeped into this mask and out came a dark little bird fluttering its wings in fright. I was as scared as the little bird was! Then, after the bird flew out to a distance, I peeped in, and lo and behold! There was this little nest made of dried grass, and three little eggs in it!

Three little eggs in the nest

And the bird which flew out and sat with its partner on an electric wire started screaming in a rather strange way. I walked back silently and watched them from a distance. The female was dark brown and the male was black. The female sat closer to the nest, while the male was at a distance.

The vantage point

A couple of minutes after I moved away, the female came to the nest, looked around and went inside to hatch the eggs! And it didn’t seem to get out of there. And I too didn’t want to bother the little avians.

About a week after we spotted the nest, two of the eggs had hatched. What were out of the eggs were literally two lumps of black flesh which kind of had a head and a body. (I felt they looked like a zygote shown in pics!). And of course they had reddish beaks, which were always open, hungry for food. After two more days the third one hatched too.

Three new-borns

And now, it was the female’s turn to sit on the vantage point and watch, while the black male with a white streak on wings would fetch something with its beak and feed the little ones.

Daddy with food for hungry li'l ones

This continued, with the female keeping a watch on the nest, and the male feeding the ever hungry little ones, with beaks always open to gulp in whatever their daddy got. Day by day the little ones grew, developing feathers and now looking more like birds.

The li'l ones cuddled

Finally one evening when I went to check out my new little friends, the nest was empty. And along with two birds on the vantage point, there were three more little ones around a nearby bush. They seemed to be highly excited to see the colorful world outside their nest. They were flying and sitting up on a bush, flying down to the ground, picking insects, chirping, playing..... Wow... it was indeed a sight! But I missed seeing the little ones learn to fly.... how the parents got the young ones out of the nest, how long did it take for them to fly.......

These Indian robins, by making their home on my terrace, got a special place in my heart, made me interested in bird watching...... I wish many more birds build their homes around mine....

Indian Robins

2009-08-18T19:00:00.001+05:30

Ok.... so these birds are Indian Robins. And not Pied Bushchats as I had guessed. Thanks to the birder - Chandu who pointed it out, and gave me a detailed explanation about the vent - which is pinkish orange, the white patch on the wings, etc.

More information about the birds here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Robin

Well, i do have a couple of interesting experiences with these little birds, and will share them soon.

Till then, Ciao!

Ooty - A pleasant summer weekend at the Nilgiris

2009-05-06T22:35:00.003+05:30

Had been to Ooty last weekend. The last time I had been there was in monsoon two years ago, and this time around, it was peak summer, summer vacation and to add to it, it was a long weekend! And what a contrast between the two visits! In monsoon, it was raining, and the places were pretty empty, not many tourists, the falls and lakes were full of water. Whereas this time in summer it was so so crowded everywhere..... people everywhere, all rooms in every hotel / resort full. It was indeed raining people!

Anyways, we did have a good time - I’d planned it at this time, just to lessen my missing of Dee, at least for 3-4 days.... and it was kind of successful. (Okay, he’s away for close to two weeks, and I’m having the most boring time of my life. Wanted to write the details here, then decided to keep it private ;) ) Did lots of shopping - is that not what you do when you fear to get into depression? Saw some parks, lakes and gardens which I hadn’t seen last time.

Here are some pics.....

The Nilgiri ranges as seen from 9th Mile

A serene lake at 6th Mile

A few yellow roses in the backdrop of blue sky, white clouds and green grass

Ooty lake - somehow got a view with no people or boats

Pykara lake - boating was fun here

A tree - at 9th mile

An interesting sign board ;)

Happy Birthday, Sum

2009-04-24T13:21:00.004+05:30

Happy Birthday Sum.......

May all your dreams and wishes for this year come true soon ;).........

Castles and Waves

2009-04-01T13:37:00.007+05:30

The weather was beautiful
I started building a sand castle
With a lot of dreams
There was no sign of waves

The castle grew bigger and bigger
I thought the castle was safe
And decorated it more beautifully
There was still no sign of a wave

I sat there and admired it,
Started dreaming of living in it
Thinking how easy it was, to
Get dreams come true

When suddenly a huge wave struck it
And the castle was washed away
With no trace left of it
And I sat there staring at blank

Then there was a flash of this light

Which gave me hope again

And I started rebuilding my castle

Safer and stronger this time.

Some pics from Chickmagalur

2009-03-05T13:00:00.004+05:30

This post was lying as a draft from a long time. Didn't feel like posting as the images were clicked from a very basic camera, and didn't like the quality of them. I was browsing through the post today and thought why not post it anyways... It's better to keep the blog alive rather than inactivity, right?

A small stream...

These are the red leaves/flowers I was talking about in my older post.Well, the one i had planted began to sprout, but for the heat now, I am not too sure it would grow or not....

Loved the reflection in this serene pond.... Wish I had carried a better camera... Anyways!

Cheers,
Sum.

Random Thoughts

2009-02-26T11:30:00.007+05:30

Ambition to do a lot of things
Dreams about every little thing that is pondered in the mind
Anxiety about the success of important plans
Sad about missing Dee for two weeks after two months
Nostalgic about good old days
Melancholy about a friend’s life going haywire
Satisfaction about being able to do things I love to
Longing to read more and more of a favorite writer
Desire to write something worthwhile
Wanting back what was lost a few years ago
Concern about maintaining good health
Glad about the good night’s sleep
Wishing for something new
Happy and content about the choices made
Fantasy about how things could have been
Preparation for even the monotonic petty things
Elated about simple things like sunset and cool breeze
Vexation about the way certain things are and will be
Jolly about the silly things we do and talk
Urge to blog something......

Guru or Shishya??

2009-01-20T15:38:00.004+05:30

These unwanted phone calls at odd hours have been getting on my nerves of late. Some bank guy calls up to offer a personal loan, another one offers a free credit card! Someone from a mobile company offers a new post paid connection, someone from car service station calls up to remind of the next due service! And some wrong numbers in between. And all these when we prefer to be lonesome and don’t just want to hear from anyone.

So, last weekend we were too tired and wanted to take a nap. Just as we were falling asleep, this ‘grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr….. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr’ was heard from under the pillows…. <*Sigh*>

Dee (Sleepily) : Hello?
Xyz : Hello, kaise ho yaar?
Dee : Hello, who’s this?
Xyz : Arreee…. main hoon….. tu kaisa hain?
Dee : Sorry… I’m not getting you?
Xyz (Still very confident) : Mein yaar….. tera classmate, Sanju…..
Me wondering if Dee has forgotten any of his classmate by name Sanju!
Dee : Whom do u actually want?
Sanju : Err… You are Guru, right??
Dee (without much modulation) : No no…. I’m not Guru, I am Shishya!!!
Me : Ha ha ha ha ha ha haa………
Sanju : embarrassed, cut the call!!
Me (Still uncontrollably): Ha ha ha ha ha….

And off had gone our sleep!

Sum's Cuisine : Officially Inaugurated!

2009-01-14T21:52:00.002+05:30

Okay! So after a lot of dilly-dallying and thinking and preparing and cooking and clicking and more dilly-dallying, here I officially inaugurate my new Food blog!
It’s a place where I would want to colorfully portray my food recipes, along with Dee’s latest interest in food photography. Very special thanks to Dee for clicking colorful pics of my cuisine whenever I ask him to :)
So, be there to cheer me! Cook some yummy stuff and post me comments and critiques!
Cheers,
Sum :)

Another year...

2008-12-24T17:01:00.005+05:30

So, today is the last working day for this year! Thanks to this company which has a year-end shutdown for almost 10 days!!! Yayyyyy!!! Having 10days off is really a good break.

Lots of plans for the hols, should see what i do and what i procrastinate! Let me list them down here, so that i have some commitment to it, and then i'll review it in the new year. (Yeah, i dont have any plans to blog in the hols, but may be i'll prepare some things for it).

Okie, these are a few things that i want to do.....

"CLEAN THE ROOM" - Yeah.... every corner of room is screaming and yelling at me, asking me to clean it. I promise Dee every week to clean and revamp it over the weekend, and the weekend just flies off, with so many other stuff. Dee is still having patience and hope that i will do something about it! But somehow i am not getting the mood for it..... Yesterday i was going through some interior decoration blog, and wow! was i so fascinated??? Hmmmmm... it's high time i do something about it.......
Stay and relax at mom's for 4 days?? Now this looks doubtful.... But i have to stay over there to help her as she has injured her hand after a fall last week.
New years celebration - Hmmmmmmm...... Not sure what i do about this one..... But i want to celebrate one New Year's eve like people generally do :P - Like partying the night off :P. For me it's generally been staying at home or celebrating with food with family.
The trip (or pilgrimage;)?? ) wih extended family - Hmmmmmmm...... I wonder how it is going to be..... hope it'll be good. Imagine 4 pairs of elders (read in-laws) and me the only bahoo...... But i'm glad there are some good cousins and of course Dee to give good company too :) Hope it'll be good......
Meet friends - Uff..... this one's also been postponed from quite some time, planning to meet some at least in the hols....
A make over :P - Ha ha... i always dream of getting a makeover but dread about it when it comes to implementation! Have plans to get a new hairstyle at least, let's see if i get the courage to :D
Some rest - Err lots of rest, actually!
A picnic with Dee - Yeah! he's promised me this ;)

Okie... i'll stop here! No point in just noting things down and not being able to do it!

Wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperos New Year 2009!

The red leaved plant

2008-12-04T14:23:00.006+05:30

After many years, I saw this plant in aplenty again on waysides in Yercaud. This plant has flowers with red leaf-like petals. It actually looks like red leaves (I used to think the leaves turn red in some season!). It brought back so many memories from childhood….

In school days, there was one such plant near a friend’s house. I was deeply fascinated by it, and loved to collect these leaves or rather petals. I remember it used to have these red petals only in one season – may be winter when I used to have Dasara holidays. I used to go cycling all the way till that friend’s place only to collect these petals. We’d carefully save these in between pages of my books and let dry. And I and she would flaunt it in front of my other classmates once the school reopened.... We made up stories that this is a kind of red leaf which is found only to lucky people, and it brings luck, etc.... When asked to share a few petals, we would refuse to! Or give it to only those friends who were very good to us!!! And my sis, in an attempt to compete with me, had once filled her favorite book, with petals of some other flower. To her ill luck, that flower was probably too delicate, and it had got stuck to the pages, instead of drying off. And the entire book had gone waste. Yes, she did get scolding from mom and dad for that!

Ahhh... those childhood days were so colorful……

Well, when I saw this plant again last month, I did again become a kid. Dee was probably wondering what was so special with it…… I was bent upon getting one sapling home and having it grow in front of home. We thought we’d take one just before leaving, but due to the rains, we couldn’t :( And yes, I was upset about it.

But guess what??? Last week when I had been to Chickmagalur with my team on another outing, I did find the same plant, and this time I made it a point to get one home. Planted it myself, and watering it regularly.... hoping for it to grow and bear those red leafy flowers….. and remind me of my childhood everyday........

A month of change...

2008-12-01T15:41:00.006+05:30

Ok! I completed one month in this new workplace..... After working for over four and a half years in the previous place, I had got so resistant to change; but completing a month here, I feel the decision to change was not bad, after all!

Though the kind of work or the amount of it that I do is not much different, here are some note worthy changes this change has brought about:

I don’t get an automated mail reminding me that I am late, if I log in to work at 9:00:01 a.m. (ya, late by 1 sec :D) Neither will I get a mail if I work for 8 hrs 59 min 59 sec, instead of 9 hrs! All I need to bother now is about my work being completed.
I don’t need to wake up tense, get ready, gulp something and rush to work and wink at the entrance, only to realize I am late by a few seconds (I’m referring to the Iris recognition system to get into the office)
I don’t need to put my hand bag, lunch bag on a x-ray scanner, mobile with a hologram on a conveyor belt and pass through the metal detector to make the security guards sure that I am not carrying any electronic storage devices into or out of the office (No, no, it wasn’t any rocket-science that I was working on, yet so much of security)
I don’t have to commute 20km one way through the heart of namma Bengaluru city and spend a total of over 3 hours on the road in Bangalore’s traffic; instead, now, I have to ride for 15 min one way on a country-side road, which sometimes I feel is the road only for me, as there is no sign of what traffic is or what a signal is, pass through a couple of hamlets and wonder if it’s actually Bangalore!
I don’t have to trouble Dee to drop me and pick me up everyday, making him drive for almost 4-5 hrs a day :)
I don’t have a chance to crib that I don’t get time to read, as I have all the time now to read even two books in a week!
I don’t have an excuse that I don’t have time for exercise as I do have enough time for it
I don't have to wait till friday to go to office in casuals; he he.... anyday is friday now :)

On the other hand,

I don’t get those tea time gossips and lunch time walks around the campus with my buddies :(
I don’t get a chance to wait for a petty excuse to go to mom’s house directly after work saying that’s so close; now I have to wait only for weekends to go there. Neither can I go there for lunch once in a while, get pampered by mom and get lazy to get back to work :(
I don’t get to drive with Dee to and fro everyday, talking non stop and entertaining him; I have to wait for him to get home before I start jabbering :P

Anyway, the negatives are few, as compared to the positives. And I’m pretty much happy about the decision.

Misty, Rainy, Chill Yercaud

2008-11-25T11:25:00.004+05:30

The last time we decided to go to Yercaud a year and a half ago, there was unexpectedly some bundh called in TN. We did bravely start traveling hoping there will not be any problems, but a little before Hosur the road was jammed – as they were not letting any vehicle from Karnataka to TN at the border. So, we somehow managed to turn back and cancelled our trip to Yercaud, with a heavy heart…..

This time again, I was kind of having some doubts, whether we’ll be able to make it or not! And again, near Hosur there was a big traffic jam! Since it had been raining for the past week, a huge bus has got stuck in the slurry and that had blocked the road almost completely. Uffff…. all we could do was to wait till it was cleared off, as we could not even turn back and take any alternate road. After about half an hour, but seemed to be the longest wait, the vehicles started moving…. And here we were on Salem road!
Well, the roads are very neatly laid, and the drive was good, except that at every village on the way, a flyover is being constructed, and since the work was in progress, there were hitches in driving. There was a slight rain for sometime and it was really nice to drive in rain! But one thing we noticed is that the land looks so barren and dry….. No trees at all and nowhere did we feel like stopping for a rest, though we wanted to as there was absolutely no shade. Unlike when traveling to Mysore or Hassan just after we cross Bangalore, the green fields will be so inviting!

Ok! So we reached Salem by noon, took directions from local people there and headed towards Yercaud through the ghat section, with 20 hairpin bends. Well, the surroundings suddenly changed, with more flora now. As we started ascending, the temperature too fell, and it was good. The lake was big and calm, but I felt the place is quite too commercialized now. Lot of small hotels around the lake and the place is not so clean.
Well, we headed towards CM Lake forest hotel, which is on a road off the lake road. It was formerly a British bungalow, now converted to a resort. They have deliberately kept the interiors, etc unchanged, to give a touch of antiqueness, and we liked it.

Well, it was unbelievably colder, and the chillness increased as the day progressed! Food was good and reasonably priced, and having hot masala chai in such a chill place is one experience!

Ok, the next day, we planned for a drive around Yercaud on the so-called loop road. We took the map and instructions from the resort people and started the drive. The first stop was at Rajarajeshwari temple, where they also sell some herbal oils. After that there is a small deviation to the right, which leads to the Shevaroyan Temple. We got to the viewpoint there, and started exploring the surrounding place. The weather which was bright and clear till now, suddenly got colder and filled with fog. In no time, we were in the middle of thick clouds, with as little as 8-10feet visibility! It was an awesome experience.

We waited there for sometime, seeing bauxite ore mining, which is almost destroying the forest. After the fog cleared a bit, we started our drive. I managed to drive a part of it, first time on ghat section, with very narrow roads! I must admit I did get scared a bit, but managed reasonably well. We passed through some hamlets like Nagalur, Kaveri Peak and Manjakuttai. The 30km drive seemed longer, may be because of the narrow roads, and the limited speed we can drive at, but it was one of the nicest drives!

After crossing these hamlets, we stopped at another viewpoint which again had a nice view of the mountains. We got back, planning to visit the lake in the evening, but there was a downpour by 3pm, which didn’t seem to stop at all till it was dark. So, missed the boating :(. We went out for a night walk around the lake, after it stopped raining. It was still drizzling, and pretty cold, but enjoyable.

The next morning we went for a walk in and around the plantations and then started back to Bangalore after a good breakfast. It again started pouring and we drove back in rain and mist! It was fun!

The Little House Books

2008-11-24T10:54:00.007+05:30

When my friend who was coming back from the US asked me for the umpteenth time what I wanted from there, my usual reply was “Nothing!”. But this time he really pestered me to ask for something, and almost did an emotional blackmail that I do not consider him a good enough friend, etc etc, and hung up!!! I was really confused now, not knowing what to ask him, if at all I should. I am not so crazy about getting things from abroad, and of late I have started feeling that we get almost anything in namma Bengaluru itself. Hmmm......

Suddenly I remembered my favorite book series, which I had been searching for in almost every other book store in Bangalore from many years, but in vain. Yes!! I could ask him to get me a couple of books from that series; I only had the Kannada translations of some of them with me. Anyway he would get me something or the other, though I do not ask him to. Instead, why not ask him to get me my favorite stuff? So the next time he called me, I told him about these books, and sent him the list of the books, in order of my liking, and asked him to get me a couple of them, preferably the ones on top of my list. He again called me up, sounding confused and said “These books look like kids’ books, are these the ones you actually asked for?” Eeeeeeeee, I grinned, yup, that’s what I want! And well, he got me 8 out of 9 books of the series!!
Ok ok, let me tell more about it. Laura Ingalls Wilder was an American author, who lived in the late 19th century and early 20th century. She has written a series of books for children called “The Little House Books” based on her childhood in a pioneer family. There was this old, worn off book at home, “Hullugavalinalli putta mane” by S. Anantha Narayana, a translation of her “Little House on the Prairie”. I remember growing up listening to and reading from this book. Chikki (my aunt) used to read out one chapter for me after in returned from my pre-school, and I would listen to her and imagine all of it, as if it were happening in front of me.

Later on, when I started reading myself, ma gave me the other three old books of the series she had at home. I was so deeply fascinated by them that I had started imagining myself as Laura, and my family as her family she has written about. At times, I’d hallucinate that I am the actually the rebirth of Laura herself!!! Ha ha… I used to enjoy imagining things like that!!!
And recently I did play a prank on Dee saying that I remember about my previous janma, that I was Laura in my last birth, blah blah. I sounded so serious that probably at one point he was kinda perplexed!!! However, I still have this dream of going to the US once, and visit the places that she has mentioned she lived at.

Ok, we hadn’t found the other 4-5 books anywhere, till my college days, when our library had got new re-prints of the entire series. Happily, I had read all of them again, and slowly started buying them one by one whenever I found one. But reading the original books in English had still been a dream. No book store in Bangalore had it, and I had left hope.
But when I googled for it a couple of years ago, found so many links and so much more info about her! And wow!!! The books are still sold in US!!! And now, I have them with me! Yayyyyy!!! I was so delighted last evening when I got them…… wanted to read them all at once!
I surely want my kids also to grow up reading them ;))
PS: my friend has missed the 7th book in the series – “A little town on the Prairie”, one of my favorites. Now, greedy Sum wants that too :D

Updated Later:

Ok! The seventh book, which i thought was missing was in the car itself :). Dee saw it and got it to me the next day. Yayyy!!! I am happy :)))

Bhadra River Tern - water, water and water.

2008-11-20T15:12:00.021+05:30

After a long time, I and Dee set out for another trip. This time it was Bhadra Reservoir, in Chickmagalur district. Chose this place as we were supposed to visit relatives in Chickmagalur town, Kadur and Bhadravathi. Well, we planned to finish off all these for the first two days and have the next three days all for ourselves! And this time, we were going to drive, first time on a long trip (other than a short visit to Mysore).
The route from Bhadravathi to Lakkavalli, where the BRP (Bhadra Reservoir Project) is situated was so refreshing – green fields on either side of the road, no traffic, no pollution..... I was just wishing I could stay there forever.

The JLR's River Tern resort, where we had booked for 2 days, is built on a small island (or rather a peninsula, as it is connected to land on one end!) on the backwaters of Bhadra reservoir. It is surrounded by dense Western Ghats forests, which happen to be Bhadra Tiger Reserve.

Bhadra reservoir happens to be a huge water reservoir in Karnataka, from which drinking water gets supplied to many places up to Davanagere. Sure it is a huuuuuuuuuuuge reservoir, with sweet, potable water everywhere! The reservoir was planned by Sir. M Visvesvaraya, but constructed later on by other engineers.

Like any other dam, even here, many little island villages have submerged under this great reservoir. One such little island is a dwelling of a species of birds by name “River Tern”, the resort thus gets its name. The island is submerged under water most part of the year, when water level is about 185feet; but in summer, when the water level goes down to about 140 feet the island gets exposed, and these birds come here in tens of thousands and occupy the entire island. They breed here, and a couple of months later, go back to where they came from. (They say it’s mostly from Himalayas, not sure of this). Strange part is that these birds come only to that island, and to no other neighboring islands!!! And the River Terns do not allow any other bird or animal to enter that particular island. Sadly, we went there in October, when there was plenty of water, but no sight of these birds. And there is this particular branch of a tree whose roots are on the land 40+ feet below water, but right now, only a small part of it pops out of the water!

Well, this resort built on a hilly island terrain is rather different from most of the other Jungle Lodges’ resorts including Devbagh. Most importantly, my belief that JLR resorts are not maintained well (after seeing Devbagh, where the place is exotic, but the cottages are poorly maintained) just vanished! The service, food and maintenance are all pretty good here, thanks to the Resort Manager. All the cottages/log-huts are placed apart from each other, but ensuring all of them get a good view of water below and mountains in front.

As part of activities, we had canoeing, kayaking, jungle safaris, trekking, mountain biking, bon-fire. The only sad part is that we cannot get into the water by ourselves, due to the depth. We did get in for a small swim with life jackets, so it was fun! Spending evenings watching sunset from a small wooden bridge connecting the neighboring island, is one memorable experience. Overall, it was a great trip, from where I didn’t have any mind to come back at all!!!!!

Link: River Tern Lodge, JLR (http://www.junglelodges.com/V2/Rivertern.htm )

Change..... for Good!

2008-11-18T14:31:00.005+05:30

"Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better."

Well, I'd want to fall into the third category..... or at least the second.......

Welcome here! I just moved here from this age old abode!!!

2005-01-31T15:26:00.000+05:30

Hmmmmmmm.......... i haven't told anything about myself still...... Well, I'm working in a software company from about an year - even before I completed my Bachelors degree!!! I got this job when I was still in the 7th semester of Engineering, in a campus recruitment. I was, infact the first girl in the class to get a job. That was a real big thing for me then! From then, things have been really nice.... nice place to work at, cool seniors, good colleagues, great friends, frequent outings......, and ofcourse, a good pay!
I was particularly happy about this colleague who joined with me, who was also from my college ( but i didn't know her then). We got along pretty well, were in the same projects for a long time, had fun together, along with a few others. And now, she's got an onsite opportunity all of a sudden..... I'm indeed very happy for her - she had been longing for it, for quite some time. But I'm really gonna miss a pal........
This always happens with me! I find it difficult to face sudden changes....... Especially departing from people close to me..... Every time think i should not get that close to anyone, but it's never been possible! Ofcourse, there is a great improvement now! If it were a few years ago, I guess I would have even wept!!!!
Life is full of Surprises!! Some good, and some bad.... And I've realised now, that we can be happy only if we are prepared to accept changes. Change is an integral part of life.... It's unavoidable. Got to accept it!

Have a LOT more to write..... but got work too...... Will write soon.

This is for you, friend....

Have a nice time....

Comments

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Sum @ 03:11 pm | Feb 7th 2005

Okie Dokie........
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chandu @ 02:26 pm | Feb 3rd 2005

and hey didn't I thanked u for linking my blog... cho chweet of u..
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chandu @ 02:25 pm | Feb 3rd 2005

anyway bon voyage to your colleague/pal.. .. guess ur colleague-pal is too buzy... so plz convey my best wishes... and now plz del that thot - ppl whom u get close wud depart u... infact they r giving u a chance to strenghten ur relation .. distances adds miles but brings hearts closer.. :)
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chandu @ 02:21 pm | Feb 3rd 2005

haa. haven't u heard.. change is one thing that never changes!!! and life keeps rolling & changing. if we stumble & stare @ past and feel bad... we wud b stucked up..so v need to move ahead....:)
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Raghu @ 9:01 am | Feb 2nd 2005

U seem to be a good sport ... yeah.. lifes full of suprises!!! Have great day...
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2005-01-28T20:14:00.000+05:30

So, I finally made up my mind to start a blog!!!! Thanks to many of my friends, who inspired me to start one....... Thanks to my dear Mom who suggested a part of the name (which really suits me and my thoughts!!! ).
Well, everytime I see a new post in my friend's blog, i would be inspired to write, i would think of nice topics to write on, form sentences, and leave it there!!!!! I never came up to this stage of writing what I thought / felt and post it....
I am trying to analyse what makes me hesitant to share my thoughts.....
Am I bad at writing / speaking? No.
Am I not clear on topics? No.
Am I scared of something or someone? No.
Am I an introvert? NO.
Am I ............ ? NO!!!!!
Then what makes me hesitant ??

Well, let me not analyse too much on this!!!
Oops....... Have so much of work.....:-(
Hope i'll get back to writing soon........

Comments

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deep @ 10:33 am | Jul 26th 2006

Good Beginning girl, Keep writing.. other thigns will follow :-)

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Sum @ 9:36 am | Feb 7th 2005

Thanks Chandu!!!!!

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chandu @ 02:18 pm | Feb 3rd 2005

ha.. here am I... but grrr i was informed bit late about this!! okey count # 3 here.... hmm every one of us started a blgo with the same feeling.. but once started ... no turning back..vrooooooom.. so al d bestest