Back from Heaven!

Just back from Heaven. And this is not about the 11 hours sleep I just woke up from but about the visit to God’s own country with six of my friends!!! It seems very interesting how just a year ago I was almost wiped off the face of earth. And one year hence, here I am back from exploring mom Nature… I still have to come to terms with her splendor and majesty!!! What sights, what grandeur! Every such trip of mine turns into a humbling experience and now I have most definitely decided I need to take time off once in a year to travel with friends around! It is amazing fun definitely!

I was wondering how to start this blog, but with photographs inserted, I decided chronological order would make more sense. Seven of us from office headed towards Wayanad district in Kerala on the morning 22nd December. The journey from Karnataka into Kerala passing the Bandipur forests was eventful, what with the driver having a dangerous auto-rickshaw-driver instinct! A resourceful friend among us had obtained a worthy contact at the place we were headed to and also got a cottage booked for us in the interiors of Kalpetta, a suburb of Wayanad.








Once we got to Kalpetta around noon, we got the complete list of places that we could visit from our ubiquitous and ever-useful contact and we decided we would cover the lake, the waterfall and ‘view-point’ on the first day. The Pookode Lake was a scenic place surrounded by hills and we took two boats to have some great fun for half an hour. Two friends who I would rate good enough to stage a stand-up comedy show made the whole trip a big blast! The view-point was an excellent vantage point from where one could view the splendor of the valley spread out.


The website has to say this about this point – “Entrance to Wayanad from Calicut with Lofty peaks, gurgling streams and luxuriant forests add magic to the journey up the winding roads to this hill station.” Against odds, we made it to the Soochipara falls in time and what a worthy visit it was! An amazing cascade hidden between hillocks with a 2 km trail leading to it made this a perfect start to a memorable trip. All except one of us got ourselves drenched in the waterfall and it had us all wondering how much of a physical exertion the next day’s trek was going to be. We had no clue to what was waiting!


We knew we were about to trek up a 2100mts mountain – Chembara peak and we had to take permission from the local forest dept guys to do so. We also had to take a guide along - Satish, a teacher by profession. He led us through the tortuous path giving insights about the historical and geographical significance of the place. Along the diagonal of the hill we had to take what would be called ‘otthai adi paadai’ in tamizh, covered on all sides by thick mountain flora. The trek was really tiring to say the least. But the effort was definitely worth. And more so because of the ‘dil shape vaali’ lake in the middle of the mountains! What a sight to behold! Everything felt very unreal! We were literally transported into another world… and I almost felt like being inside the CUG of LOTR or something! It was truly an out-of –world experience.

Sachin is GOD, again...!

Passion triggered like nothing else. The master made it to the 35th! And I know it’s a pit stop! WOW! 'Sachin's batting is amazing' is a seriously wanting understatement!!!

And I just went on musing…looking at the Aus-Kiwi match explode, about how the tournaments get named! What with such a gallery of greats in the Indian team now[;)], what will tournaments of the future be named? Like the ones now called Border-Gavaskar trophy… am taking my guesses!

Tendulkar – Waugh trophy

Dravid – Lara trophy

Murali – Warne trophy

Inzamam – Vettori trophy

Flintoff – Kallis trophy

Saurav – Gilchrist trophy

[I suddenly want Saurav to bounce back like hell and score a couple of centuries!!!]

Quirky guesses I know… but just having fun guessing!

Is life fair? Was it meant to be at all?

I have always been regarded lucky, be it among immediate family or friends. At an age where I dint grasp the meaning of luck, I would reassure myself that I was indeed lucky. The time when my mom asked me to go down the road to get vegetables, the hawker would just pass across our house. How darn lucky me! And the next time, when it is my turn to mop the floor [due to prolonged absence of the maid], I sulk and pick up the mop… and out of thin air the maid appears…wow! What luck! Such trivialities were enough to convince me I was luckiest. And not recently but for some good time now, am ruing the ‘luck’ I have. Maybe I have come to terms with reality, but isn’t everyone considered lucky than some others at some point of time? I can immediately count a minimum of four instances I was really unlucky – like wanting to say at that moment ‘only if I were lucky enough ____’. And so could any of us I know! Is it just that bad luck is omnipresent, and the appearance of the Lady in our life is a reprieve from the drudgery?

When should I really consider myself lucky? When I escaped The Tsunami, or on a broader spectrum, when I consider that I am in the safe-mode living of school-engineering-work rather than toiling it out to face uncertainties on a daily basis? Instead I find so many instances to consider myself unlucky, love life for an instance. But in retrospect, I definitely have to admit that God has been kind to me on most counts, providing a cushion to fall back on whenever needed.

Recent events have sent me into a gloom tizzy. The number of obituaries I have heard in the last 2-3 months really exceeds the number I would have heard in years. And I am just talking about the people I know. I don’t want to start about the natural tragedies wreaking havoc around the globe. Why did it all have to happen? Does a father of two girls have to go in a bad car accident? Or does this father have to get smashed up early in the morning when dropping his son home? What about this successful entrepreneur who suffers a sudden hemorrhage to leave a young and bereaved wife with a one year old in hand?! Where is the luck all these people need? I am seriously short of words to say something to these people. And this not to console them, they don’t need any consoling, but just reassurance. But I feel the hollow in my words when I tell them – ‘time will heal it all’ or ‘this will also pass’ etc. My logic that everything happens for a reason just flies out of the window! And still am unsure how all will fall into place? Failure I can come to terms with but death, it still baffles me!

After a long hiatus I would not have preferred this incoherent blog entry, but I could not contain myself! How do I start to believe again? I got no clue!

Oblivion

It is not so very uncharacteristic of me not to be blogging for this long. But it would be real uncharacteristic if it was that I did not have anything to say all these days. I could go on to say that there were so many things I would have wanted to scream about in the past couple of months, but it would not be inappropriate to say I chose not to write anything.

Quoting from another blog – “….not going to make this into a personal blog and describe the trials and tribulations of my life. After all, who does not have troubles? ...” - I am holding onto the above line albeit only temporarily.

Some things happen so fast, and leave you gasping for breath. It would take time for whatever happened to really ‘sink’ in. And when a series of such events bombard you, primal traits come to the fore. And my Cancer traits put me into a shell, hence the scarcity of words on this site for a long time (which might continue for some more time too).

And I guess this entry would have to sit on this site claiming to be one of the few where ‘nothing’ was actaully said or discussed!


PS: I like the title ‘Kabhi al vida Naa Kehna’ :)

finger numbing!

http://www.dontclick.it/



only if u have lotsa time to waste!

I LOVE INDIA

I live in India

I will die in India

The truth

here i go agian... pasting something i read. but i guess i do this not because i cant write it, but because the article puts whatever i want to say so very well. i am only pasting excerpts here...

the reference - http://in.rediff.com/getahead/2005/jul/25rashmi.htm


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

In Nivedita's mind, going to college and having a boyfriend are becoming firmly interconnected. And no, she doesn't mean 'friend who is a boy' (which she has plenty of, already).

This college = boyfriend equation is something picked up from the movies and television she's been exposed to. Not that I don't try to make sure she watches stuff 'appropriate for her age' but hell, even Popeye and Mickey Mouse have girlfriends...

What I want her to internalise is this: It's wonderful if you do happen to meet and vibe with someone in a special way when you join college. And it's perfectly okay if you don't. And that 'everyone has a boyfriend' is not the right reason, at all.

I, for one, know I was in love with the idea of being in love. My first foray into Boyfriendland was an absolute disaster! The bloke was a good looking, crew cut NDA cadet and had a nice bike. But he was an absolute ditz in the IQ and ethics department.

Yet, even when I knew he wasn't quite the guy I should be wasting my time on, it was very hard to break up. Because 'someone' is better than 'no one'.

Which is wrong. 'No one' is better than a relationship that lacks respect.

You might think that this is something everyone knows, but I see many young people stuck in these kind of relationships -- justifying them for this very same reason.

The greatest love of all, as Whitney Houston once sang, is learning to love yourself. And that, dear Nivedita, is what I want for you before you go out and find yourself a boyfriend...

And yes, boys do really want 'only one thing'… I know that statement is going to draw a lot of flak so here's a more scientific explanation.

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

In the beginning

God -- whichever one you believe in -- created a virus in the image of man. And woman. Now the trick to spreading the virus quickly and effectively was to have it replicate on its own.

So He invented sex. Yes, I will refer to God as 'He' because I think our Creator must have been a guy. Had it been a woman, She certainly would've given us periods annually -- not every month!

But you see, God's primary motive in adding the sex angle was not pleasure but reproduction. The fact that it was pleasurable offered the necessary incentive to undertake the activity.

As an added safety feature, God gave man a reproductive organ with a mind of its own. One that did not always and necessarily obey the commands from the High Command.

This hardwiring has complicated life for Modern Day Man. Say you meet a nice girl, and there is a mutual attraction. The High Command says, Wait! Take it easy. Get to know her. Be a gentleman.

But whether he likes it or not, the 'reproduce' circuit is also switched on and it sends really powerful signals...

Doesn't this also happen to women? Well, some believe it did in the Caveman era, but centuries of social conditioning, Mills & Boon novels and mushy films have had their evil effect. It does look, though, that God must have wired us differently to begin with.

First of all, since women were the ones stuck with the unwanted side effect -- "Badhaai ho, aap maa banne waali hain (Congratulations, you are going to become a mother)" -- they were bound to be much more cautious and see a big red STOP sign.

Advances in birth control have partially taken care of that factor, but it goes deeper.

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

'The One Thing'

The point is that a girl needs affection, understanding and emotion -- after which sex may follow.

However, many young women end up having a physical relationship hoping to get their core needs fulfilled later. Only to find that doesn't always happen. And when it doesn't, it's extremely hurtful and demeaning.

Because the guy may actually just be scratching his reproductive itch, and have no emotions for her to begin with.

Now you may argue that sex will lead to an emotional bonding. Possible, but dicey. Guys do have a concept of women who they will sleep around or 'have fun' with, and women who 'mean more'. Women for whom they feel something in their brains and not just in their briefs.

Even in more 'liberated' countries, the casual and meaningless sexual encounter may be common but not necessarily fulfilling for the woman. A recent report from the UK reveals that, despite the fact that both men and women experience their first intercourse at age 16, there remain gender differences in the experience of the event.

Women are twice as likely as men to regret their first experience of intercourse and three times as likely to report being the less willing partner.

Something to keep in mind before you make your decision...

And finally...

Coming back to my original bit of advice for Nivedita: Make sure your boyfriend respects you and loves you for who you are, not just how you look.

And if I ever have a son I will tell him the same, although in a slightly different way: Make sure your girlfriend is someone you would feel proud enough to bring home and introduce to me.

Someone who makes you feel good -- and feels good.

Not that you won't make mistakes, like I did.

But it helps to know what it is you're really looking for … before setting off to find it in the first place.

------

My thoughts ---

and what i think is .... the author is absolutely right when she says... all of us could make mistakes anytime. but knowing that we will... and being concious of it matters!

Why do i think this is true?! Or is it not?!

Why are Indians such hypocrites?

We're Indians. We don't kiss. Kissing is what people outside India do. We just smile shyly at the people we love. Watch our many movies for proof.

We are all heterosexual. Homosexuals live outside our borders. We encourage our media to explore sexuality. We accept alternative sexualities, even though we are all convinced they do not exist.

Few of us undress fully while making love. Undressing is what people outside India do. We are content with a little wiggling and maybe a few post-coital cigarettes. Sex is, after all, a dirty word. We don't think about sex. It's never on our minds. We think pure thoughts at all hours.

We love cricket. It's because we're so good at it. It's because our cricketers pour their hearts into every game. Other sports are not worthy of our attention. Other sportsmen do not pour their hearts out into their games. Other sportsmen are not worthy of endorsing our brands of footwear, aerated drinks or car batteries. Our cricketers alone deserve our adoration. Our cricketers and our movie stars, that is. Our movie stars are intelligent. They study all scripts carefully and are always unwilling to propagate stereotypes. Our movie stars live clean, wholesome lives and are therefore perfectly suited to deliver clean, wholesome messages to the masses that adore them.

We are a patient, tolerant people. We accept all religions and tolerate all kinds of behaviour. We never riot. Rioting, too, happens only outside our borders. We keep the peace at all hours. We do not typecast other religions or provoke sentiments. Watch our many movies for proof.

All Indians are our brothers and sisters. This is why we respect all women. This is why women in our major cities can do as they like and travel, unaccompanied, at all hours. This is why our policemen are highly respected, for the protection they offer all women. We like women to have minds of their own. Women who lead their own lives need not fear humiliation at our hands. We do not brand them whores. Look at our many female film stars for proof. We respect them all. The ones who choose to do as they like on screen, as well as the ones who do not.

We have never felt the need to keep women at home, closeted or covered in any way. Bold women are never a threat to us. The idea of female sexuality is welcomed and holds no threat for our calm countrymen. We do not ask women to wear clothes we choose for them. We respect them irrespective of whether they're dressed in nine-yard saris or nine-inch mini-skirts.

Education is important for us. We respect our teachers. We encourage our sons and daughters to take up teaching as a profession. We pay our teachers well. We pay our teachers on time. We teach our sons that teaching is not just a job for women. We respect our system of education. We encourage our sons and daughters to get an education here, not abroad, because we believe in the system. The few who graduate abroad are encouraged to come back here, to make life even better than it already is for themselves and their countrymen.

We are proud of our culture. We uphold it every week. Our heritage is precious. This is why we protect it well. Our monuments are well cared for. Our museums are well funded. Our curators are literate and well paid. We do not allow people to encroach on sites like the Taj Mahal or the Qutub Minar. Graffiti is not allowed. Vandalism is a myth.

We treat our sons and daughters equally. We allow our daughters to marry when they wish to. We allow our daughters to pick the men they want to spend their lives with. We encourage our daughters to think for themselves. We believe they have the intelligence to make wise decisions. This is also why we encourage them to study further.

We love our country. We don't want to live anywhere else. We don't work towards the idea of leaving it and never coming back. Because we're Indians. Hypocrites, all.



Courtesy: http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/jul/12lp.htm

The ‘Bajji’ tradition

I had ‘bajji’ today after a long time! The taste on my lips brought back tasty memories of college!

Go to any college in Tamilnadu (not the ones in Chennai, ‘cos I don’t know about them) at around 5pm in the evening and the chances that you would find the hostel dwellers in their rooms are meager. And I am not suggesting that these guys would be involved in healthy activities for the evening such as sports or be in the gymnasium, but almost all of them can be found hanging around the 3-4 ‘bajji kadais’ that surround the college. The ones in our college were famously known as ‘Akka kadai’, ‘Priyadarshani’ and ‘Mettu-kadai’. All typical Thamizh names; and the evening time ‘hot bajjis themselves! Slurrrp! All discussions outside hostel invariably happened over these ‘bajji’ sessions. It is a famous 'paarambaryam' (tradition) that is followed in every college goer's life. The taste that lingers on after the bajjis and a ‘lemon’ or tea / coffee is a class apart.

But our bajji sojourn came to an abrupt end. Thanx to a horizontally challenged friend of mine, who came down with ‘typhoid’ in the middle of the year our daily visits dwindled down to monthly visits and we would have had the bajjis twice in our final year, is my guess! And this friend never touched it again after the episode is a point to note – ‘cos he aint the type saying no to victuals!

So when I tasted bajji today, it was a rush of the ‘feel’, the taste! No amount of description can put taste in the readers mind can it?!

Sky is the limit!

Happy B-Day to me!!! :D

Burp - 1

"The airport looks so clean today - maybe because there aren't so many people around!"

To smack or not to smack?

The kid across the street was having a jolly time when I was crossing the road. He was playing in the pile of construction-sand that was in front of his house. Just then I heard his mom shriek from inside, calling him inside. I was already walking up my stairs when she came running out and hoisted the 3/4 old kid onto her hip. (holding just a single slender hand, almost ripping it off!) I turned almost uninterestedly when I heard the ‘SMACK’. Horrified I turned to look and saw the kid get a flurry of slaps on both his cheeks, while the mom bounced up the stairs into her home, always pushing the kid from behind! I was bewildered watching this sudden outburst!

Yes, I don’t know what the kid might have done before, how it behaves usually and I can’t go telling people not to hit their children!! But a 3 year old kid? Did the kid deserve all those smacks right on the face?! I don’t think so! What I was thinking was, yeah all or most of us have at various stages would have ‘got it’ from our parents, for whatever reasons and now on retrospect it might have been deserved too! If the kid is old enough to know what he is doing, and knowing what he is doing is wrong, still keeps continuing doing the same thing a strong rebuke or a smack would help put things right. But the other day when I saw what I saw, I felt pity! I definitely thought the small kid dint deserve such a whacking for just idling in mud for a few minutes. I wanted to run across the street, pull the kid off from the mother, give her a few slaps, console the kid and return back! But I decided I’ll blog it! :(

It’s a state of mind

A revelation of sorts today! Music was always a passion, but my foyer never extended much into the English domain. Ms. V kept persisting it should. Gave her reasons why I dint venture, but the Scorpion she is, sent me few songs over. Love songs at that!

All of it made sense to me; brought me to an awesome state of mind, from the weary one I entered office with! So when music transports one into a totally different realm, it’s the state of mind that changes! And today’s feeling was bliss! Maybe blame it on the lyrics – ‘When love and Hate collide’ Def Leopard, ‘When you love someone’ Bryan (the God) Adams, ‘Say something stupid like I love you’ Robbie Williams with Nicole!!!

Smitten!

Gracias’ Senora’!

Here a blog, there a blog

I need to blog.(Biting nails) I need to blog.(Biting skin off finger tips) I need to blog.(Just got up from a deep sleep after having dreamt that Rehman is a guest at my place and get to spend a day with him!) I need to blog.

So here I blog whatever happened the past week or so... whatever needed to be remembered! It was Chennai trip again, and one worth remembering too! The trip to Tirupathi on 3rd June with the whole family was a grand gala affair! Whether it was someone bellowing their worries straightaway to the Almighty’s ‘silai’ or someone who started choking, having difficulties breathing because they had started laughing so much, all of it was fun! There were the usual harsh moments too, those that occur when more than 10-14 adults go on a trip, but the fun time all of us had surpassed it all making the trip a memorable one.

4th June was mom’s birthday. And this was also the day when I got a precious gift from my sister – a digital camera!!! Wooh! There were lotsa cakes to eat and a lot more snaps taken. Breakfast at the new Saravana Bhavan joint in Ashok Nagar was just great! It was made another day to remember by my bro – both of us skidded off with the bike on West Mambalam road, thanx to his excellent biking skills! Still have abrasions on my leg L $#@%^R^%#

5th June was pack up day. Darn....! Had to come to office for night shift. And it was farewell time to Giri too, ‘cos am yet undecided whether I will go back to Chennai soon enough to see him off to Ahmedabad. Another breakfast session at new Saravan Bhavan with Giri, Swetha, Divya and Aarthi went majorly uneventful.

Though most would find this entry drab, I guess I can excuse myself. Tired of traveling for a whole month – schedule would look like this!!!

Blr-Hyd-Blr-Chn-Blr-Mys-Blr-Chn-Blr-Chn-Tirupathi-Chn –Blr

Poor me!

So need to gather myself to come up with something new. And will do! Adios till then!

Indulgence is heavenly!

Chennai trip

Day – 1

09:00 PM – Chennai touchdown time
10:00 PM – Night show – Woodlands theatre – ‘Kanaa Kandein’, with Giri, J and BK!

Neach! Vaazkaye vaaznthu thallaren po!


Day – 2, 3

Had a blast with my makkal – mama, mami, perimma, perippa, cousins Aarti, Abi and Kartik, my bro (!!!) and parents! Great time! There were ‘sillarai’ errands to run at home, which I did without even a trace of a frown and am now thanking almighty for the same! Other enjoyables were those sketches I helped Aarti with, for her fashion designing paper!Oh...and those choclates......'slurrppp'! Met Swetha just for getting hold of the ‘stupid dog book’ and our Coorg snaps! Have they come out well or what! My ‘ponnu paakara foto’ – perfect. And yeah, shouldn’t forget to mention J’s treat at Raam’s Milky Way – the idli manchurian, the paani poori, Nut-O-Delight was all ecstasy! As I told J, this treat will be remembered. I was actually smiling to myself because I was back at Raam’s within the next hour with Jenni, Prakash, Satya and other friends eating other flavors of ice creams! Worth remembering ain’t it?!

Day – 4

Today was wedding day – my cousin Karthik, who got married in Hyd, was hosting an evening reception in Chennai. Still the errands won’t cease, and I still managed a power-lunch-coffee with Swetha at Java Greens discussing ‘a bus journey and other issues’. ;o)

Then came the celebration of colors, people and great fun! And what color I chose for sweltering Chennai – a black Sherwani! Poor me, I was as drenched as Karthik, the wedding boy, was in his two piece suit when it was all over! The music band that played melodious numbers as entertainment was pretty ok. Little did I know when I invited Giri to the wedding that he is going to slip into their group so easily! He almost knew everyone of the song band, calling them mami and all! Master stroke of the day was when he combined with a mami to sing ‘Konja Neram’ from Chandamukhi for us! Neach! I should definitely mention my cousin Abi’s singing efforts, though Giri had a piece of advice for her. She rendered ‘Kannodu Kaanpathelaam’ from Jeans and the wind-up song of the day - our very own MS’ ‘Kurai onrum illai; Marai moorthi kanna’.

Some serious discussions were happening in between all the fun among my bro, Giri and me. But inevitably I had to be at so many places at the same time. So I decided to continue with it later and headed straight to Giri’s place from the mantapam!! Both of us slept at 3am after discussions that started at 11pm! The discussion put lots into perspective and I am starting to enjoy these ‘sessions’ nowadays!


Day – 5

With all the hulla bulla over and only couple of niggling errands remaining, I was preparing for a full rest day, having made plans for the latter part of the day. But Moore’s law held me today. New errands, some utterly pathetic, kept propping up and had to do them grudgingly. All plans from sleep in the after noon, distance-biking in the evening, watching ‘Bose – the forgotten hero’, all crash-landed for various petty and irritating reasons! Not the best 5th day I could have had in Chennai. Anyways, there was one more day left, and slept peacefully through the night looking forward to day 6.

Day – 6

Having nothing to do but for the last of errands, I dint have any plans actually, which is how I usually function too! And a trip to KK Nagar with Giri set the tone for the day, and a promising one at that! Both of us were literally stunned looking at the ‘Vallavan’ posters – dei Simbhu nee oru ‘yechai payyan' da! Anyways, Giri reminded me that it might actually be the last chance I get to really meet BK before his sojourn! Next thing we were at BK’s place cooling our heels when I just casually asked why the ‘Bose’ plan for yesterday dint work out. And immediately plans were made for all of us to be at Devi theatre at 2pm!! And what time are we doing this – 1 pm!! I rushed back home for a shower and lunch and actually got 10 minutes late for the show, faithful BK waiting for me outside.

I keep getting these comments from so many people these days that I think almost all films are good. I have been maintaining to my roommate that it might actually be that because I keep watching only quality films. And Shyam Benegal’s ‘Bose – the forgotten hero’ is a natural inclusion into my must-see list. This is hugely influenced by the mind blowing music / rerecording of ‘thala’ Rehman! Those who haven’t still listened to the songs / not got the cassette yet, I pity you! As I am writing this, I have listened to ‘Ekla Chalo’ 5 times, ‘Ghoomparani’ 4 times and am listening to Azaadi for the 5th time today! This was the first ever film I have watched in a theatre where the whole credits was rolled till the end. The song Azaadi started playing with the end of the film and lasted till the end of credits roll-up and the very few present in the theatre were all standing on their feet in total rapture, consuming the song and the original snapshots / reels of Netaji that were scrolling on the left of the screen. It was as if the National Anthem was being played, because each and every person stood for all of 5 minutes without batting an eyelid, engrossed by the music! Maybe Giri’s quote would suffice the feeling here for me – ‘Patriotism is a better feeling than Love!’. Every film lover, music lover please do watch this film!!!

Returning from the movie, it was almost time to start back to Bangalore. But another rendezvous made it a definitive evening to remember! I was smiling to myself in the bus, as I am doing right now writing all this up! Here I would repeat what I told my cousin Lakshmi yesterday when she asked how my life is going – ‘naa ennoda vaazkaye vaaznthu thallindu irukken, fully enjoying every moment of it’. Indulgence is heavenly!:o)

A whiff of freshness!

The people who visit this place already know my inclination towards travelogs. And basically being a person who likes to travel, you could expect more and more travelogs from me, just like this one. This happened when I was on my way from Bangalore to Hyderabad to attend my cousin's wedding.


The instance:
This cute looking girl in her teens bubbling with energy, boards the train with her mom after waving 'bye's to couple of male species who accompanied her to the station. That’s when ‘that’ eye contact starts and it goes through the typical I-look-when-u-not-looking routine. But this time I decided I ain’t letting go, and kept looking only towards her!

Anyways, this coy exchange lasted from 6pm, when the train started, till when it was time to sleep! She is on the side-upper berth and me on the upper berth, right angles to her. So still the eye contact doesn't suffer, but for the glances her mom was throwing in my direction from the side lower berth!


The incident:
Some fellow, don’t know who, drops a crumpled visiting card on her seat. She picks it up and doesn't seem to grasp anything. With a quizzical looks in her eyes, she just passes the card to the person just an arm-stretch distance away, looking at her, me! I just shrug and return it back. She simply shreds the whole thing into some 15 pieces and throws them away. This nothing moment sets a rapport between us, and I don’t intend leaving it just with the start. So when some guy just walks across, I jus look at him and then her with a question on my face. She just nods a 'No-i-dont-think-so' look on her face! So now we ain’t no more stealing looks at each other, but proceed to linger on on 'that' look. I top it with a curl of my lip every time I think appropriate! :o)


The charm:
She tries to sleep and she can't which is evident from how many times she sits up, holding the small pillow of hers. So there she is reclining with the pillow on her lap, hair loose on her frail shoulders and I immediately pull out a small paper I had in my bag and put down a sketch of her! From her angle, all she can see is I am incessantly staring at her!! She just asks me 'what is it?' with an upwards tilt of her head. I just silently pass the piece of paper across... which has gotta pen-sketch of a girl reclining on a train seat and a 'you' written below it! Ha...! You should have been there to see her eyes light up at that very moment! Now fully encouraged, I ask her name which she writes on the piece of paper as 'Abhinaya'(Sweet name!) and passes it on to me. We continue this silent 'conversation, she asks me my name, and I give it in writing in the same piece of paper. Then with a killer smile she returned the piece of paper, but I said she can have it! I had a hard time taking eyes off her lips from where she mouthed a silent 'Thank you'. ;o)

Just then I was reminded of the song,

'paarvai rendum pesi kondal, baashai oomai aagiduma?'
(When the eyes talk to each other, does language go speechless?)


The twist:
She had a slimy string running from behind her ear to somewhere inside her collar, because she is partly hearing impaired. And she is also as speech-deprived as Rani Mukharji was in 'Black'!!! So even when language ceases and sound is cut off, I just realized there is so much else to live for!


The other things I found out from her through actions were that she was the third child and she was waving 'bye' to her eldest brother. And she is in her 12th standard. Immediately pulled out my mobile to make a note of it all, for later blogging! Also was reminded of the recent rendezvous Girish ran into. Life is to be remembered by the moments that take your breath away! Ain't it?

Rivertree

The night was young, we sat on a rough-hewn stone bench under a small parijatha tree, this Adept and I, outside a small village shrine. He was a young man, but on whose shoulders rested the wisdom of seers. The night was brilliant with starlight; the small range of mountains loomed dark and quiet in the background. Some distance away shone the light from the village electric street lamp, casting pools of light into a beautiful night. We sat in silence, the Adept in perfect ease, and I, used to city noises, fidgeting in the silence. We took the silence in for a few minutes and heard the sounds of the night coming from the jungle nearby. Then in a quiet voice he asked me, "How are you?" I replied in what I thought was a learned manner, "God's in His Heaven and All's right with this world". He looked at me, smiled and gently asked, "Where is this Heaven of His?" This rattled me and I muttered a vague reply hoping to put him off.

"In the Gita, Lord Krishna tells Arjuna 'I am everything and everything is me'. Meaning that all of the creation is the Lord and the Lord is all of creation. If that be true, doesn't the Lord reside in you, me and the tree above us?" "You mean the Lord is also in a lowly worm like me?" I asked in false modesty. I did not get a reply immediately; he was staring straight ahead into the middle distance lost in the silence around us. "Look at it this way", he suggested, slowly turning towards me, "since the time this whole universe was created, there has been only one version of you. If He had wanted He could have created a million copies of you, yet since the Big Bang to the end, He created only one of you. If that is not a manifestation of the divine, what is?" and fell back into silence.

The enormity of his suggestion did not immediately sink in; slowly I came to notice my breath had become quieter and the silence was enjoyable. As I heard the breeze playing through the fronds of the coconut trees, it slowly came to me - He was part of me and I a part of Him. "It is not egotistic", he said, as if reading my mind, "to say He is part of me. In fact, it is a very humble statement to acknowledge that Iswaran is a part of you. Then you become a part of all creation." I felt so different, I was so special because there was only one of me in several billion years and yet I was that which made up every thing.

"Modern science says 'Matter is energy and energy is matter' and this energy is everywhere and in everything. Isn't that what our ancient seers had been saying?" he added, giving my modern mind something to think about. My mind took a few minutes to digest such radical thinking; I kept watching the stars as a few bats flitted past catching insects.

The stars, the bats, the insects and I were all part of the same thing? My friend sat in his quite reverie, plainly comfortable with himself and the whole world. He gave me a drink of water from his water bottle and said, "You don't take Iswaran from some place else and bring Him in to you. He is already there, you just have to increase your awareness of His presence within you."
The top of the little shrine near us, seems to shine by itself, as I struggled and came to terms with this beautiful idea. I became connected all at once with this universal energy and all of creation. There was a great secure feeling of being one with everything and seeing myself as part of this universe. I have, like most people, worried about the future and feared about past mistakes coming to haunt me. Life seemed to be a big burden, whenever I felt so lonely, so small and lost in this world. In an electric wave of relief, all those nagging worries, fears and doubts fell away (at least for the moment) and there was only sheer bliss; pure delight in realising that I was a part of Iswaran and not apart.

"Now tell me," he said, breaking the silence "Where is His Heaven?" My voice came out in a croak as I barely whispered, "Iswara! You are incredible". The wind rustled through the leaves above and the night fell silent as if all of creation was in agreement.

P. Raghunandan


.......
This is an article from one of the many brilliant 'Folio's that The Hindu brought out between 1998 and 2001. Though there might have been so many other really impressive articles in all of them, i still remember this article from the Folio named 'Faith'. Bringing out such stuff is exactly why i like The Hindu... it is just 'non-pareil'!!

A blog on blogs and bloggers!

How much does a blog resemble the blogger? Very much! Each of the blogs is essentially what n how the blogger wud like the stuff he reads to be! So the blog is the blogger itself!

For instance i know this awesome blogger who pens down moments of life as they happen... concocting great blogs with each incident! A R.K.Laxman cartoon jumps up to one's mind with every blog of his!

Another thinks he is a far realtive to Raja RamMohan Roy... being just one step short of liberating India and the world from social issues! Though i wud have exaggerated here, most of his blogs contain stuff that remind u of the centre page of Hindu!

Yet another interesting blogger has brilliant coherence in his thought line and is a zany thinker who wudn't restrict his writings to the normal. He extravagates and with style... an angry young man with a thinking head on his shoulder is the precise piture that pops up into u'r head!

Ah! the one that blogs on anything at all! All the logs have this i-dont-give-a-damn or u-can-go-to-hell attitude in them, yet making a good reading. Here is an absolute freak who wants to and will have it her way!

The magic about this particular blog is that, to the junta visiting here, the identities wud have just sprung up from the one-line description i have given above! So here's to celebrate blogs and blogging!Hurrah!Blogging rocks!!!

Those left behind... catch up and start blogging else catch u later!

Zoo in the night time?!

Never go to the zoo in the night! Once we all went, we being my mom, me and some other strange characters... strangely resembling some cousins of mine! Its pitch dark and we see the animals, few of them. But there might have been more and they all see us! We all recline on the highest rows of some kind of viewing arena seats and focus our inhibited visions into the dark night. Suddenly the trees above us start spinning or mebbe it the arena seats that are spinning!!! And with every revolution of the arena.. strange animals slip from the darkness above and fall into our laps! I just see something slimy and green fall onto my neighbour's lap! Next is me...and i get a footlong creepy scaly thing with yellow eyes on my lap! yeeeew!!!

This vicious circle seems to blur past and a strong cold wind keeps ruffles my hair, parching my lips! Then with a sudden jolt i wake up to find myself travelling on a bus! Slowly i realise that i had been having this incredible dream on my way back to Bangalore from Chennai! And exactly when that slimy thing hit my lap is when i get up, almost in a state of quasi-conciousness. Then there is this flurry of thouhgts i usually have when am woken up from a good sleep, even if had slept for a few minutes only! Immediately i pull out my Nokia-6800 and start typing away... to the utter astonishment of the fellow sleeping(actually not sleeping) beside me! He just stared at the bright screen in my hand for a few seconds and tried to sleep again.

The thought that struck me was Giri talking about the best way to blog... blog on the go!! "Travel-blogs make the best writes" is what he said! And even i found it to be pretty exciting! But again, writing down one's dreams is another aspect... and the voluminous dreamer that i am i have to admit this is the firt time i tried it! The worst aspect is that the whole dream, so much would have happened in it, would just evaporate within seconds u are fully awake. Guess it will take a little effort and practice to retain them and write it down, but i can assure u it is pretty exciting!!

Also, i was reminded of Vairamuthi's lyrics - 'nooru kanavugal kandaaley, aaru kanavugal palikaatha?!!' (wont 6 dreams out of 100 i dream, come true?!). i know i wouldn't want this one to come true!!

Why our education system needs a fix!

A must read artilcle! Impressed...!

http://in.rediff.com/money/2005/apr/06guest.htm

Well structured piece that set me thinking....what more there IS to life?!

Some quotes from the article -

'He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.' ~ Friedrich Nietzsche


'Money is like sugar, no point in hoarding it, it's usually goes bad, or you have to make quite unnecessary cakes to use it up.' ~ Charles Handy in his book The Empty Raincoat


'Disciplines are habit forming, define boundaries. The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.' -- Prof. O. Reilly


'The perfect form lies in the block of stone; all that is needed to chip away until it is revealed.' -- Michelangelo


'The only kingdom that makes any man a king is the kingdom of his own soul. The only power that has any real meaning is the power to better the world.' -- Gregory David Roberts in his book Shantaram.

Books Vs Movies ... ?

There are movie buffs. There are book buffs. I am both, not with equal fervor though. But there are few people who enjoy just being either one! And the talk/arguement with such a person is what spawned this blog.

From every movie i watch, i would like to take home something. And that stands more so for a book too! And this person happens to be a 'book-ie' who thinks there is no point in people not knowing to read and just existing. According to her, anyone needs to know how to read to live rather than just 'exist'. This was it! And it dint end here too! She went on to suggest that books are more expressive than movies!!! If i was being me, i would have dismissed the whole idea of continuing with a pointless argument. Pointless because someone who is capable of thinking that up will never get the point! Where the argument ended is inconsequential here, because what set me thinking was that content of a book or a movie that gets imprinted in me, changing me forever. And as i just commented on J's blog y'day, when u read a good work again or watch a real good movie a second time, u see it in different light. Some part of it stands out this time that just passed notice the first time, or rather failed to make an impression then. My point on his blog was whether this happens due to the mood we are when we go through a book or a movie? Or is it what we call the attention-to-detail of the creator of that piece that we are appreciating, one of details drawing our attention everyother time.

Now back to that argument, where this person insisted a book can be more expressive because the reader is free to visualize the scene rather than a movie where things are shown and u have to see it that way only! But again, she failed to understand that a book doesn't have light/sound in it! It is an interesting point of contention because even with movies I would prefer those that are subtle in thier content leaving a little bit for the viewer to elaborate. So would a book or a movie tell a story better?

Now we can take numerous examples to explore this tiff. But the one i chose that day was Jurassic Park. Anyone who read the book would have had a great experience thinking it out, what with Crichton getting techie too! But the sheer brilliance of the spectacle that Spielberg brought in front of eyes takes the cake according to me! Another great effort from this director is Minority Report. Making that movie from a book, actually a fiction novel aint easy at all, but he did and i liked it! Countering this point would be efforts like, mebbe Sphere (took some time to think that up!) to some extent, where the read gives you a better feel of what the author intended to say than how the movie portrays it. But me being more 'movie-guy' than a book one, i liked Sphere too anyways ;0)! And me being more a movie guy might be due to the fact that i have watched more movies than read books. Also the books i have read are not diverse enough to rate myself a buff!

Alright, even if i read more books than watch movies, no one can convince me otherwise. A scene is always better described as an audio-visual than mere words!


PS:
the latest movie i saw was 'Million Dollar Baby'
the latest book i am still reading is 'Black Holes and Baby Universes' - Stephen Hawking

both have been revelations!

'YES' and 'NO'

1) Do i like to work in night shift?

Darn 'No'!


2)Do i want to be born as someone else in next life?

Mebbe Kamal Hassan ('aduththa jenmathulayaavathu oru Kamal-a porakkanum'), if not i would be happy being me!


3)Do i think Giri 'n' J will get into IIM's?

Darn 'YES'


4)Do i think life sucks?

Not anymore! Never will...actually! Its jus that sometimes we suck n some-other-times we dont!


5)'She loves me'...'She loves me not'

I love her, i donno about her! ;0)


6)What do i think about the coupla new gals that joined y'day...sitting across the aisle?

Mmmm.....no comments!


7)Do i like the new blue car my father's bought?

Need to test-drive n say!


8)Do i know why i still keep writing in this blog ?

not even a vague idea!

9)Do i still believe 'Nothing lasts forever'?

(long answer...)

as i was explaining to someone the other day - my fav quote is 'A thing of beauty is a joy forever' by Keats....but again when we say nothing lasts forever, my fav quote gets negated!
So, my 'forever' will be as long as i live to see and all that will last forever can only be 'thoughts'!
So the answer is 'Yes' n 'No' !

The way she says...."Hey Mahesh"

Every other time i call her up its the same cheerful "Hey Mahesh" i hear from her...! and the telephonic conversation goes on for hours that seem to pass like seconds!

Or the other times, the way she spawns innumerable chats with the charactarastic 'Hi porikki' and the chat meanders through heaven n hell, lasting for as long as i see light in a day! Can't yet seem to get enough of these sessions !

And again, those other occasions that start with a simple smiley and leads on to a full fledged flirt fiesta ; mind goes numb...time coagulates...! ha!

But then, those spitfire banters starting with the very proverbial 'hey duffer' or the very characteristic 'hey watsup?!' are the ones that last for seeming eternity without ever making as hard a mark as a shortlived bee-sting might leave! these will be there....always!

Ah! yeah....the ones that start with an innocuous SMS sayin....' What News?', triggering a flurry of SMS-s back and forth across states .... and usually ending in a call that goes on like a Rapid-fire Q&A session in a quiz, loaded with 'neach' one-liners and total crap too!



This was an attemt at cataloguing the various conversations i cherish having with my frends-femme ...! Have fun guessing who's who!



PS:
Courtesy - (Title and idea - Mr.Nettai)

Downright crazy.....n it works !!!

>Here is a small gimmick to increase the size limit of your hotmail account
>from 2MB to 25MB subsequently to 250 MB.
>
>Login to your account
>Go to Options
>Click on Personal
>Go to My Profile
>Change Country to United States
>Wait for browser to Load US Settings
>Change state to Florida and Zip Code to 33332
>Click Update
>Click Continue
>Go to Language and Make sure it is English

>Paste this link in Same Browser :
>http://by17fd.bay17.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/AccountClose
>Wait until the screen says Your Hotmail account is closed and ready to be deleted.
>Click Close Account.
>Go Back to Login and relogin to ur Account immediately. (Else there is a chance of someone stealing your account, so login immediately)
>No email will be deleted from ur account and now ur account size limit
>increase to 25MB.
>After few days this will become 250 MB.

Flavor of all seasons.... **Enraged**

When i came across this article on rediff, a thought jus passed my mind. Why does sensationalism hold sway these days? Or was it like this forever? Mebbe freinds with the fourth estate could explain this....

my question here is, why does every other issue have to be sensationalized, blurring the space between the worst n unwanted news, the mediocre and the really sensational news?!

i dont give a damn if Jen Aniston and Pitt split....but i do care a bit on how the Acharya case is progressing and i would defenitely want to know wat happened to Federer-Agassi clash! Ya now as i do the typing, i realise that priorities vary with peaople....mebbe it varies for the same person over a period of time...but i definitely remember i din't use to hate news as i do it now!

Accepted that if not for reporting of events, i wudn't have a clue of where n wats happening....but am irked at those news pieces that clinch the first-page for all the wrong reasons with the ones that might-a been actually useful going into a box in the 10-11th page!

Someone's gonnu watch Page-3 as i'm typin this.....so hope to get fitting replies to my outburst or atleast, if i think the film is as good as its rated, gimme ideas from the movie!!!


PS:
I hate Page-3.....n its not the movie am talkin abt.....i hate ToI's Page-3! (*puking* badly)....mebbe 'cos am a 'Hindu' man.....dont give a damn though!

A Class act...!

The name u give to a 'Nayagan' portrayal of Kamal Hassan or a Perfect-10 by Nadia.C in the famous olympics

Here's the links to coupla articles by the irreplaceable Harsha ... a class act that he is!

http://www.espnstar.com/studio/studio_coldetail_1396421.html

http://www.espnstar.com/studio/studio_coldetail_1381153.html


reading his atrticles is an experience in itself! So that explains y am posting his views on my blog again.....n it wudn't be surprising if i do it again too!

Hail Harsha!

Admonition works...

....if the person it is given to takes it in the right sense, or atleast tries to think on lines why he was admonished at all!

I found that out recently.

And this is among other things i found out recently too! The likes being

--> why a blog exists
--> why a man and a woman should live together
--> why it is absolutely necessary to write proper English in u'r blog, if u'r writing in English

et cetera ...

Am not going to address everything here, but the reason i had to write is the constructive admonition i got from my big bro! Emphasising why it is oft important to write sense and how correct grammer and good English can go a long way in it were put across to me in the usual harsh way by him. But again, habits die hard and i go on to give my own reasons. I state that all the blogging i have done here till now is when i am at office. So the max spare time i get is half an hour, within which i have to group all my thoughts, not curb but control my adrenaline rush that i get when i write and put in whatever i needed to blog! So i tell myself, people shouldn't actulally expect more than what they get here.

But as i said in the first line, being the person who ponders, i tried taking whatever was said in the right way and have gone beyond boundaries to make sure this entry is at the least spell-error free!

The other reasons for this blog, i daresay trivial, were a few
. Ms.V asked me to blog!
. Random Access threatened me into writing one, and if otherwise would have posted most of his songs here!
. My brother said - 'none of u'r blogs merit a comment from me yet'

Donno, to me blogging ain't a habit which is to be followed. i write when i feel like writing! and i can tell u it is near impossible to force oneself to write...![i tried and failed ;0( ]


Now, beacause i told soemone this blog will be about me and only me(like the others arn't!), here are somethings have been doing recently...

--> done with reading all 5 Harry Potter books at a stretch (J K R rocks!)
Have to....
--> start my spiritual sojourn with The Gita and follow it up with the Bible and Qoran..!
and the really most important one...
Live life!!!

and ya.............BLOG!!!