Ooty - A pleasant summer weekend at the Nilgiris

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

Happy Birthday Sum.......

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

Castles and Waves

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

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

• 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??

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!

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...

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

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...

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.