wjo's that

“But amma, why can’t I come with you”, Kaushik was pestering his mom.

“We are going to get the groceries, in the scooter, and it will be difficult for all of us to come back on that. Anyway your sister will be at home with you. We will get you hot potato buns. Alright” Mom was convincing Kaushik.

He reluctantly agreed. The Potato buns did the magic.
After 15 mins, he went to his sister’s room. Since it was getting dark, she was closing the windows.

“Why are you closing the windows?” Kaushik asked innocently.
“You don’t want to know. Come lets go out of the room”
“But why did you close it?”
“You will get scared Kaushik, come lets go”
“Why will get scared. I am a big boy now”
“Fine, you won’t listen to me. Will you?”
“Naah. You tell me”
“Ok… do you see that white light out there? That’s Mohini”
“What? Who is Mohini? ”

“You dumbo, last week, do you remember, I was watching a horror movie, a lady was roaming around in white saree, in the dark, with her long hairs open, with no eyeballs”

“Yeah, I was scared and mom scolded you for watching it and switched off the TV”

“Excatly, since we switched it off, she has come here to meet us.” “Look, the white is nearing the window. Can you feel the chill air?”
Kaushik was extremely terrified now.

“Akka, will it come inside and take me away. I don’t want to leave you guys and go with her. She is very scary” Kaushik was on the verge of crying. She couldn’t control and started laughing.
This actually scared Kaushik even more. “Don’t worry idiot. There is nothing called Mohini. That was on TV, just a story. I was just trying to scare you” she said.

“What? now you are lying to me” Kaushik insisted.
“No re baba, see I was closing the windows, so that mosquitoes don’t come in. That was the right opportunity to fool you” she tried convincing him.

“So what’s thing white thing?” he questioned
“Tubelight” she shrugged her shoulders.
“You are calling me a tubelight?” He was angry with her now.

“Come here and see” she opened the window and the tubelight was right in front of the window.“Our window glass is translucent, so you cannot see clearly what’s on the other side. I just made up a story” She was happy that she convinced him.
“Mummy” he started crying.
“Oh my God, if mummy comes to know, I’ll be dead. You are my darling brother no… I will never scare you again. Please don’t tell mummy… Please Please Please” she pleaded him.
“Fine, but if you try to scare me again. I will tell her” He blackmailed her “Ok fine. I won’t”.

As they were about to close the window again, the bell rang and both jumped out of shock.

Trip to Shivanasamudra

Most of the times, we plan a lot, and end up not going anywhere. Last Friday evening, as we were heading back home, I just said “Why don’t we go to Shivanasamudra tomorrow?”, “Not a bad idea” G said. I was already super excited. The last time I visited the place was a decade back. We decided to hit the bed early, but then there was a HP movie on TV, and I dint want to miss it. Anyway, we had decided, if we could wake up by 6 we will go, else cancel the plan.
 
Saturday:
 
5.00 AM: Alarm rang. I woke up G and asked him, if we are going. He said no. I was disappointed and slept again.
5.30 AM: G wakes me up and says, go and get ready. I was super happy. Initially we argued over who would go take bath first, that way other person could get around half an hr extra to sleep. Since, he is the designated driver, I accepted.
7.30 AM: We were out having breakfast in BTM Layout. Then we took the kanakpura road and headed towards the destination
 
Please have your breakfast, before you leave Bangalore. Unlike Mysore Road, there are not many hotels. There are only roadside tea shops, where you get bananas, biscuits, chips. There are no hotels in that road. But road is awesome. Not road bumps/humps, no potholes. It was smooth like butter. G had a gala time, driving on those roads. I am not sure about his average speed, you see I having my nap. But anytime I woke up, found him in 120 or 140. In between he would nudge me, to see the beautiful surroundings. Indeed, a pond and a small hill in the background would make such a pretty sight.
 
At one point there is dead end leaving you with 2 directions, you take right to head to Mysore, so we took the left which would take us to our destination. You will find directions to the place, every few kilometers; it’s a little hard to get lost on this road. Even if you do, the villagers are pretty helpful.
 
There are 2 falls, Gagana Chukki and Bara chukka , around 2 kms apart.
Finally, by 9.30, we reached the viewpoint of the Falls. This is probably a few kms before the falls; from here you get to see a beautiful view of the Gagana Chukki Falls. Since we had reached early, the crowd was less, hence enjoyed the view for quite some time. We sat there on a bench, sipping hot tea. It was such a beauty. Though I wonder, why is this place called Bluff?
 
We then left to go near the falls. It’s around 6kms from the view point. As we headed towards the falls, there is a deviation, one going towards Gagan Chukki and the other BaraChukki. Since we had seen the first one from far, we visited the latter this time. We parked the vehicle, and looked at the falls. The water looked so mesmerizing. In one view you feel, water from all the directions, merging into one waterfall. I like this better than the view of Gagana Chukki.
 
There are steps to go down till the river. After initial fun getting down, the steps become steeper. All along, I was wondering, how much effort would be required to come back up? But the view of the falls on the side, make you forget all this.
 
Once you are down there, there are coracle rides (in kannada: Theppa), which you can take. They take you for a round in the river, close to the falls. We din’t opt for that. There are multiple falls around. There is a point where, you can cross the stream, though it knee deep or more. A lot of people were crossing the stream to go under the falls. We sat there on the banks and were having fun, looking at people trying to cross the stream. A lot of them fell in water, due to the slippery rocks. One good thing which can be observed here, it doesn’t matter, who you are, where you are from, which gender you belong to, you could see people helping each other cross the river. If one was about to slip, you could see another person helping them avoid falling down. As I was sitting one of rocks, with legs in water, was passing mobiles, holding somebody when they were slipping. It’s such a great gesture, we could see there.
 
Just next to this, there was a small pathway. G and I headed there, we had to catch hold of the roots and climb a little bit. From there we could get a beautiful view of the falls. We took a couple of pictures and headed back. Not many people venture there, so there are some thorny plants which have just grown in the wild. We ought to be a little careful.
 
After this, the climb back to the parking began. Every time I was panting for breadth, I would sit on those steps and look at the view, which would probably fill me in with energy to finish the climb. Once we reached the parking lot, we had tender coconut and corn.
 
We headed towards the Darga, which is near Gagana Chukki. It seems people are not allowed near the falls, since its very dangerous. The rocks are too slippery. On that day, there was some kannada movie shooting going on, so we were not stopped from going near the falls. Ofcourse, the shooting area was still not accessible. We took a few pictures, but the fun part was going down those rocks and coming back up. There was too many monkeys in this area. I had given the camera to G, so that monkeys don’t come near me for the camera. They were least bothered anyway. We dint spend as much time here, since you can’t even touch the water here. Also, it was getting really hot in the afternoon.
 
There are 2 temples nearby, one is a famous Ranganatha swamy temple, it’s a part of the 3 Rangas. This is called the Madhya Ranga, other ones are in Sriranga and Srirangapatinam
 
We were thankful that it didn’t rain. We headed back to Bangalore. For a minute we thought we’ll visit Somnathpur. But then thought we’ll leave for another day. On the way we bought biscuits and then non-stop to Bangalore on the kanakpura road. Reached home around 4.30 and had lunch and had a nice satisfying short nap, and in the dreams, saw the falls, yet again.

Long Life!!!

“Rao saab, Mirza sahib is waiting for you”, the driver came and gave a shout at the door. The 70 year old, Gangadhar Rao, got up from the rocking chair. He called his wife, for a cup of coffee for the driver, and went to his room to get his coat, turban and the walking stick. The driver did a namaskar and showed him to the car. He opened the back door as usual, but Rao saab insisted he sit in the front that day. The driver was confused, but it was master’s order, never to disobey Rao saab. He opened the door of the famous “Fiat Padmini” and Rao saab sat, in the front seat, after a decade.
 
The driver started off to Mirza sahib’s house, which was 50kms from Rao’s house. He never understood, the relationship between, Gangadhar Rao and Ali Mirza. He only knew that every 3 months, Mirza sahib would send him to pick up Rao saab. They would spend 2-3 hours at Mirza’s house and then he would be dropped back. This had been the same since 25 years, his dad had done this, and now, he was doing it for the last 10 years.
 
Ali Mirza was one of the greatest script writers in the film industry. Almost all the movies he was a part of were blockbusters. It had made careers of a lot of actors/directors. People would become desperate to work in the film, if they knew it was Mirza’s script, they knew something good was in store for them. For the past 30 years, Mirza had not failed to attend any award function, and his mansion had a room which adored all his awards.
 
Gangadhar Rao, was from a humble background. His father was the temple priest. He never like Gangadhar mingling with Ali. Despite punishments, he always found Gangadhar and Ali playing together. Ali’s father was in the british army, hence gaining the wrath of the villagers. It was not his will to serve the army, some past experiences forced him in. Nobody dared to question him, not even Ali. After independence, Ali’s father decided they would move to Pakistan, and packed their bags to leave. The partition was not kind to them, and due to religious fueds, Ali’s father was no longer there to protect him. Ali was left alone, he dint know what to do, so he ran back to Rao’s house. He was a teenager, scared and shivering. Gangadhar’s eyes did the pleading, and so Ali was then, for the first time, welcomed in the Rao household.
 
Ali was not allowed to continue in school. Even though he was given shelter, he was not given the same status as Gangadhar or other siblings. He had to take care of the farm, while all the kids of the Rao household went ahead to get education. This saddened both the friends deeply, but Ali had no grudge against the old man, afterall, when the country was burning, he gave him shelter and life.
Gangadhar, would hide from his father and teach Ali, anything he learnt in school. Infact, Ali was so good at things that, he would do Gangadhar’s school work and let him have the credit of all the good work too.
 
As they grew, Rao wanted his eldest son to become a doctor, but Gangadhar’s interest was not in medicine, he loved nature, he loved poetry, paintings. There was no way out for him, he had to take up what his father wished for. He was sent off to Delhi to study medicine. Ali was still working at the farms. The friends would write letters to each other. Gangadhar would send his paintings  and poetry to Ali, and the latter would spend lot of time, safeguarding his friend’s possessions. During the final year of medicine, he wrote a story to Ali. It was his love story. How he liked one lady at an orphanage, in Delhi, how he met her, how he had proposed to her. But now, he was scared. How would he communicate this to his father? Ali suggested he just marry her and come to the village, this way his father couldn’t do anything. Gangadhar thought this would be the best solution and got married to her. He then came back to the village with her.
 
That night Gangadhar saw his father’s eyes filled with pride. He was happy that Gangadhar was married. He gave the orphan a life. When both of them bowed, to seek his blessings, he gave her one of the jewels, which his wife had left behind.
“What’s your name child?” he asked.
Scared of what might happen next, Gangadhar said “You know baba, she cooks very well. Come dear, I will show you the kitchen”.
“Chutki, come and help your sister-in-law here”, he called for his younger sister.
 
Days went by, Gangadhar opened his clinic in the village. Everybody was grateful, they had a doctor in their village. Ali was quite busy those days, he had gone to the city for some personal work, nobody knew what it was.
 
One evening Gangadhar picked up the evening paper, Ali stopped him, and gave him a book.
“what’s this? I don’t have time to read books now. You know that” Gangadhar was staring at the bound book.
“I know my friend. Just read this once, and tell me what you feel” Ali forced him to sit with the book.
 
After 2 hours, Gangadhar closed the book, sighed and addressed Ali “How did you know?”
“This is not what I expected. Your reaction is totally different from what I thought it would be” Ali was completely taken aback. “And what did you mean by how did you know? What am I not supposed to know?”
“How did you know she is not a Hindu? I have been trying to hide it from Baba, you know what will happen if he knows she is not a Hindu? Look at yourself, I have seen how my friend is ill-treated, how can I let my wife be treated in the same way” Gangadhar was in tears now.
“I didn’t think it that way, Ganga. Please forgive me” Ali was apologetic. As he was about to leave, Gangadhar stopped him “Baba doesn’t need to know it’s my story. It will make a good movie, you know”.
 
“What? What did you say just now?” Ali was excited.
“Yes, my friend. It’s my story, but the way you have written this, is wonderful” Gangadhar hugged Ali.
“You know what let’s have a deal. I will tell you a story and you make it as beautiful as this.” Gangadhar held his hand. Ali took it in his, and exclaimed “Deal, my friend, It’s a deal”
 
************************************************************************************************************************
“Rao Saab, the house is here” driver opened the door of the car. Rao took out his walking stick and got down the car, looked at the mansion, smiled and went in. the maid, bowed and ran into the study. Mirza sahib was adjusting his spectacles and reading, with a cup of tea on his chair.
 
“Sahib, Rao Saab is here” the maid informed.
 
“Get the old man a cup of tea and something to eat”
“Who is the old man here, you are the one who needs constant monitoring, who needs to see a doctor” Gangadhar entered the study.
 
“Come in my dear story, oops I mean Doctor. Now, I have everything ready, are you ready with the next part of the story” Ali took his laptop to note down what his friend had to tell.
 
“I sat in the front seat today” Gangadhar said with tears in eyes.
Ali was shocked “You did? That’s really brave of you. I am glad you have moved on. Baba would have wanted you to do this. He loved that seat dint he. He even took his last breadth in that seat”
 
“Will you write about him?” Gangadhar looked at Ali. His eyes were filled with tears.
 
“Yes, I will write about Baba. But on 1 condition” Ali smiled. “You will have to take Padmini forever”
 
“Ofcourse, it’s always been mine” both of them laughed their hearts out. For the first time in a decade, the mansion was filled with this laughter.

Gift

“Hey Look look Dravid” they would tell each other, everytime Manju and Kavya went past the corner poster shop. Both the girls loved Rahul Dravid, the cricketer. It was a craze at one time, for some it was Ajay Jadeja, Kumble for some, but for these two inseparables it was Dravid.

“Aww.. he is so cute”

“Yeah, wish I could have life size poster of his. But that costs Rs.100, mom will kill me if I ask her for that”, they would giggle and move on from the shop.

“Amma, the small poster is Rs.15, can I atleast have that” Kavya was trying to strike a deal with her mom.
“No dear, why do you want to spend so much on a poster. Instead get yourself a nice comic book” her mom suggested and left the room.

“Amma, its Kavya’s birthday 2 months later. I want to get her a gift, which she would love. I will collect the money you give me and get her a gift” Manju was discussing with her mom. Her mom nodded her head and said “As long as you can save in your money and get her something, its fine. Don’t ask me for hundreds of rupees”

Kavya’s birthday was nearing, and Manju had bought the life size poster for her. Manju was so excited, about kavya’s birthday.

***********************************************************************************

Years later, Manju was getting ready to attend Kavya’s wedding. Her husband asked her, what was the gift they were planning to give. Manju smiled and took out a roll.

When her husband opened it, he saw, Dravid’s poster. “Have you gone crazy? Will you give this as her wedding gift?” he asked her.

“Yeah. It was her dream once. Before I could give it to her, due to some family emergency, they moved to their village. We couldn’t meet for years after that. With so much of struggle, I met her when she came to invite for her wedding. This is an old gift and I am sure, she will be happy with this”, smiling Manju packed the poster in a golden roll.

*****************************************************************************

Kavya was opening up all her wedding gifts, when her eyes fell on the golden roll. She opened it and was amused to see the poster.
She flipped the poster to see something written in a beautiful handwriting.

“Happy 16th Birthday Kavya” (Year - 2000)
Lots of Love
Manju

Kavya’s eyes filled with tears, she had got her best wedding gift “Friendship”

Best Friend Forever

I got a call from one of my Bestest Friends (well I know that’s not correct English, but can they include it in the directory). This happened a month back, I started writing and then, as usual left it unfinished. But today I think I should continue… This will never get over, since we are still great friends.

What do I say about her… We both joined Infy together. We hadnt met each other earlier, but had a common friend, who had told both of us that her friend is joining Infy. In a way it was good, we dint know each other. We did not have any expectations or any impression about the other person…

We met in the beautiful Campus. We were given a week’s accomodation in the Guest House, and were in adjacent rooms. In a week, we became close to each other. We had similar interests. She was not very talketive, but an awesome listener, so we complimented each other. Late in the night, we just sneak into our balcony, jump over one and sit under the moonlight and talk for hours.

After a week, we moved to an apartment, with 2 other girls. All 4 of us belonged to the same gang of friends in Infy. Since the other 2 were usually busy on phones talking to their boy friends, it left the 2 of us to bond together, even better. We were room mates in the apartment.

We had mutual understanding, so it was always her who would wake up first and let me sleep for an extra half an hour. Once she was done with her bath, she would wake me up, like an elder sis, and then I would rush around and get ready and we would go to office together. As time flew, our bond became stronger.

Funny thing, our birthdays come on consecutive days. First comes her birthday, So the celebrations started from 12:00AM and went on till 11:30 PM, and then she would start cribbing “My birthday will be over and now yours will start off”. We laughed so much, and together waited for her birthday to end and mine to begin. Till date, when I wish her on her Birthday, I tell her, tommorow by this time it will be mine. And she says yeah everytime you steal my thunder…

She would always call me Doll. She was supposed to go to Pune for training for 2 months, she wrote me a letter and a to do list at home. Things like close the balcony door everyday, switch off geyser before leaving. One day a friend and me played a prank on her, calling her and telling that it was late at night and I came alone walking from his house as he refused to drop me home. The amount of scoldings he has got from her is enough for his lifetime. Then she dint speak to us for 2 days for playing the prank on her.

When I told her G proposed to me and I said no. She was the one who first told me that I was crazy to not accept his proposal. And after months, when I finally accepted, she was the first person to know apart from the 2 of us.

Like any other friends, we have had our share of good and not good times. We have gone thru the phase where we have not spoken to each other, due to some misunderstanding. But as we grow older, we mature and we realize, it was so stupid to lose a friend over trivial issues.

Both of us were in different places, I would say continents for years, but when we finally met, it seemed we were never apart. It just took us a few conversations to get back on track about each other. Again we lived in different places, occassional calls, occassional chats and we were still good friends.

Time got us together again in the same campus. We would go for lunch together and then a long walk… We would discuss everything under the sun. But then, this time last year she quit. I surely missed the time we had together. She was to move to Delhi a few months back. We decided to catch up over lunch. We had lunch in Sahib Singh Sultan. We were there for 1.5 hrs, it felt like 15 mins. We had so much to talk to. We sat on the stairs near PVR, wondering why there is no place in the mall to sit and chat. I got her a perfect photoframe, wrote her a card. When we parted ways that day, we could sense that we would miss each other.

I am just hoping she comes to B’lore soon, and I get to meet her again.

Race Race!!!

“Is he getting it married?” My mother-in-law asked me.“He is already married to it amma”, I told her smiling.. She just headed towards the kitchen, nodding her head. This conversation, was right after my husband gave her a test ride, after the modifications on our car.
Modifiactions done to Fiat Palio
- Engine Grooving. Its like an open heart surgery, is what he told me. Free flow blah blah blah….
- Free flow exhaust, air filter change, silencer changed

Result: When he starts the car, it sounds like a race car… When he zooms past other cars, the sound is deafening… He doesn’t have to honk on roads, people just give way. All eyes are on the car. Car lovers kinda smile at it.

I am just loving it, for 2 reasons.
- I have always loved Ferrari in F1, and now I atleast get to feel a teeny weeny bit of it, considering my husband drives as if he is on F1 race.
- I can keep saying “Show Off” to him.

Why Show Off you ask?
Any time he is in stand still, he starts, he loves it when people turn around and look at itAs soon as we enter Infy, he has to accelerate such that the security guards notice… Ofcourse they smileSee a bunch of guys and accelerate and heads turn

Best was today morning, our neighbor was cleaning his car, when we were leaving… My husband started the car and let is on for warming up(he says so). So the neighbor asked… What’s with the silencer?. So my husband told him, and he said – Are you going to participate in a race?My husband said – No just the thrill… He just smiled and said –Enjoy :)
As soon as we left from there, I told my husband “Show Off”… You dint even try to impress me so much ….

Bus rides!!!

Bus rides in the morning can be pretty interesting. And here I am not even talking about the people in the bus. That will make up a pretty long tale. As soon as I get a window seat, I feel the satisfaction same as quenching my thirst. I just open the window wide open to see off the place, where I stood, just before the bus came. As we move in snail’s pace in the (in)famous Bangalore Traffic, we see people running to catch their buses, which for some reason they might have missed, or people who are waiting for their mode of transport to arrive. Sometimes we see people strategically crossing the jam packed roads… The best time to cross roads when there are so many vehicles on road… is when there is a stand still traffic jam.
 
As we move slowly and steadily, the weather also tries to play along. The sky is covered with dark clouds, making us think about the time of the day. Out of nowhere there are droplets of water kissing your face. Instead of wiping it off, or closing the windows, you just push your face a little outside and feel the water on your face. As you go further, and the rain has increased its momentum and you can see a series of water drops falling everywhere. You see colourful umbrellas opening up. Those people who had not anticipated the rain, rush towards any shade available.
 
In the meanwhile, the windows are closed a little, letting in a little bit of air in, considering a fellow passenger’s request since they like stuffy and suffocating environment in the bus. When the expressway stretch was over and you can just look at the roads below from a bird’s view, it seemed so fresh. The road was wet. People were still running towards the bus with umbrellas hitting each other. Autos standing the stand, with all the drivers having a team meeting, with a cup to hot tea. The best thing in this whole journey was listening to soft romantic songs.
 
When I realized what a beautiful day it was, the song playing was “Hume aur jeene ki chahat na hoti.. agar tum na hote”… Bah!!! Just the song when I was coming to office without my husband today :) But these are time times which make me realize, small moments just make a good start for the day ahead…

Independence Day!!!

Shweta, was getting her daughter ready for school. It was the 15th of August. Independence Day celebrations were planned in her daughter’s school. She was present in one of the singing groups. They were to sing a patriotic song that day. Since it was the 25th Independence Day celebration in the school, they had invited the parents to be a part of these celebrations.

The introductions were done, the Mayor of the town was invited to hoist the flag and make a speech. The girls of class V were asked to sing Vande Mataram, and they sang beautifully. Shweta was a proud mother, she had a smile, when she saw her daughter singing. After this, there was a welcome speech and flag hoisting, then started the speech of the Mayor.

What happened after this, Shweta doesn’t really remember, since her thoughts drifted to the independence day celebrations, decades back, when she was in Class Xlll.

Shweta and 4 other friends, were the best of friends, the school had ever seen in that tenure. They loved attending the school functions, except for attending some boring speech, where the chief guests were supposed to give “inspirational” talks. This year, they planned to escape the speech part, of the celebrations. They were ready to sacrifice the usual Laddoos, which were to be distributed in the end. They hatched a plan.

The celebrations were to be held, in the huge school grounds. There was a huge sitting area and on the left was the stage. All the initial excitement had died down when the speech started. The plan was that the girls would try to leave one by one, so that nobody spots them leaving. In the initial 10 mins, the first girl slipped out of the compound. Then in some time the second and third. Just when the fourth one was about to leave, one of the teachers came and stood somewhere nearby. Though the teacher had no clue 3 of them had left. Shweta and the fourth girl waited for the teacher to move away so that they could escape and meet their friends outside the gate.

Just when the teacher moved, and the girls were about to sneak, there was an announcement.

We thank Mr.XXXXX for taking out some time from his busy schedule, to come here and give us some inspiration. Now we requests all the students to form a line, so that they can collect the sweets being distributed near the gate.

Eventually, both the girls went in line and collected their sweets and came out the gate. When they met the other 3 girls behind the school, their mouth was stuffed with Laddoo. They had forgotten to leave some of it for their friends.

After some, stares and laughs, they finally decided to sneak into the post office, which was right next to the school. It was national holiday, so it was empty. The gates were locked, so they actually jumped across the wall. There wasn’t even a security guard. All 5 played in the post office for quite some time. Around lunch time, they parted ways, unless all the parents arrange a search party for them.

Shweta was smiling to herself, when she heard loud applause. The speech from the Mayor, just got over. There was an announcement made. All the parents are requested to enjoy the refreshments, provided in the auditorium. Please make sure you have an eye on your kids… Have a great day all of you.
a
Shweta saw her daughter, stuffed with ladoo in her mouth…

Trip to CHIKKAMAGALUR - Part1

Waynad…
ChikkamagaLur…
It’ll be too hot..
its gonna be raining.
But we’ve both been to Waynad…
I want to go to ChikkamagaLur…
I don’t want to go anywhere…
Let’s go to vythiri in Waynad…
Yeah looks cool…
But isn’t it too expensive?
Yeah… But its our anniversary… So lets go…
But we’ve both been to Waynad… Let’s go to some other place…
After a week of haggling and a day before departure… We thought Vythiri it is… and Waynad is the place…

Calls made to Vythiri… NO VACANCY…

Venue changed to ChikkamagaLur, calls made to 8-10 homestay…, NO VACANCY again.

Finally we thought if nothing, lets take our tent and go anyplace… Place dint matter, time spent together is what is important.

Just then a last attempt. A last call made to Homestay - Mugila Mane. Room available… room booked for 2 nights. All set to leave next day to the coffee place – CHIKKAMAGALUR.

Colourful Paper!!!

Akshata opened the gates and ran towards the door, and rang the bell continuously. Her mom opened the door. Before she could scold her for making the noise, Akshata just barged in, throwing her bag on the sofa, shoes on one side, and lunch bag on a chair. In a moment, the beautiful house turned messy. Her mom realized the gates were wide open, which was an open invitation to stray dogs. She closed the gates and came in closing the door behind her.

One look at the house and she was furious with Akshata. Hands on her hips, giving a stern look, in a normal tone, she asked her daughter.

“What kind of behavior is this, Akshu? Is this what you do when you come back from school”

“Sorry Amma, I am so excited today. I can’t wait to show you, what I learnt in school today”

Her mom wanted to share the joy, but certain things couldn’t be left unattended, so she continued “I am sure, it must be very interesting dear. But, do you think we should go ahead with that, with all this mess around.”

Akshata understood what her mother meant, and promptly got up from the sofa, took her shoes and neatly placed it on the shoe rack, took her lunch bag and kept it in the wash area. She was just about to take the bag and go to her room, when her mom called out.

“Akshu, I have made something special for you today. You freshen up and come to the balcony, with what you want to show me, I will be ready with your surprise”

Her eyes lit up, she hugged her mom and said “You are the best Amma in the world” and ran to her room, to keep the bag in place and to change, but most importantly, she wanted to go and show the amazing thing to her mom.

As she entered the balcony, she could smell freshly baked fruit cake.

“Wow Amma, you made me fruit cake. It’s my favorite. Thank you”

“Well, I had to. You are the best daughter. Isn’t it?”

“Yeah,………….” she said something with a big piece of cake in her mouth, only she could have deciphered what she was saying.

After a piece, her mom reminded Akshata, that she was supposed to show her something.

She got a sheet of white paper. Then she got her Blue Ink Bottle, she got the filler. Akshata first placed a newspaper on the floor. On top of it, kept the white paper. Now carefully, she put drops of ink, on the white paper. It was random, no particular order. Then she folded the paper into half, rubbed over it. She opened the sheet of paper, and a beautiful artwork was on the white paper.

Akshata, beaming with pride showed it to her mom, “See Amma, Radhika taught me this today”

“Wow Akshu, that’s beautiful. Radhika has taught you something very nice”, saying this she hugged Akshata and gave a peck on the cheek and said “Now, let’s keep this aside, so that it dries and we can show it to Appa, when he comes home”

Next day, when Akshata came home, she had another surprise, Amma had got her water colours and told her, she could do the same thing with colours. Both of them had lot of fun that evening. It was one of the most colourful days of the 5 year old. Akshata kept singing all day, my colourful paper.

That night, Akshata’s mom, took out her diary from the trunk and kept the first 2 sheets of Akshata’s creations in the book, and named them – My Akshu’s artwork. She was about to close the diary when a sheet fell from the book.

It was her first colourful paper.

Incentive or Bribe

Heard this line in one of the songs in 3 Idiots – “Rishvat dena to khudd Papa ne sikhaya”… It’s not to demean the parents. Ofcourse what we are today, is because of them, the push, the confidence they have given us… But it’s not entirely false, that we have seen this from our childhood.. Parents.. teachers… everybody….

Recently, I was in conversation with a person(X) I know. We were discussing jewellery. When she said, you must have gone to XXXXX jewellery store, they have got good collection. I said, yeah next time, I will go there and look out.

Just then she said, “we had to get a gift in gold, for the inspector who had come to our college”. I quite dint understand, at first I thought, they had some function and it was a memento, only later I understood, there was an inspection and this “GIFT” was the bribe.

There was another incident, when the college was supposed to have some event, and some permissions from the POLICE had to be taken. So the students told X, “Don’t worry ma’m, We will do some ADJUSTMENT with the police”.. Needless to say, the event was successful.

Now, as a teacher (GURU), isn’t one supposed to imbibe certain qualities in the student. If the Student is going the wrong way, should the teacher encourage the student. In the above mentioned incidents, may be if they hadn’t taken the steps they did, it wouldn’t have happened.

But is this what we are passing on to the next generation…

Not just teachers, parents too are responsible for this.

Lakhs and lakhs of rupees spent on “DONATIONS”
“Dad, I want my DL” – Ok, Lets bribe the RTO.

Why blame government and private agencies…

Its all root level..

“Eat the food baby… I’ll let you watch TV… I’ll give you a chocolate..” What is incentive in the beginning, becomes Bribe in the Long Run…

If you were....

“I like your stories, darling. Why don’t we get this published into a book” Rajesh asked
Priya was very skeptical “I don’t know. Do you think it’s good enough to be published”
“Ofcourse dear. The grammar is right. Your stories are short, simple. The readers can just connect to it.” Rajesh persuaded her.
“If you say so, but how will we do it. Where do we find the publisher. And what about the investment?” Priya was anxious about a lot of things.
“You just churn out good stories, rest you leave it on the supreme one” Rajesh gave a loud laugh.
“Alright, almighty, supreme one… I am so grateful to you” Priya laughed along.
They kept the papers in the file and left to have dinner in their favorite restaurant.

Rajesh and Priya knew each other for 5 years. They were married for 2 years and had a great life. Priya was interested in writing, and started writing short stories as a hobby. Anytime, she saw some incident, which happened around her, or she remembered something from her past, she would weave it into a beautiful story. She had around 50 stories ready.

It took her an year to complete the number of short stories required for the book to be published. Rajesh had contacted a publisher who was eager to publish the book. Rajesh had to do a lot of travelling, for his work, and he did not find time for the publishing. Priya, did not want him to take too much burden, and she herself took up the responsibility of getting the book published. After the initial few stories, Rajesh had not read what she had written. Every time Priya sent him the new story, he wouldn’t read the story citing various reasons. For some time, she started feeling, that her stories were probably not upto the mark and Rajesh dint have a heart to tell it to her. But, her publisher was confident that the stories were great, and she should get it published.

The book got published. Along came the fan following, awards. Success was with her now. She felt aloof, inspite of all the adulation.

Priya couldn’t understand why Rajesh couldn’t be a part of her success. One day, she decided to confront him. She wanted to know if it was her fault and if success had got into her head that she distanced from her loved ones. Rajesh assured her, she was still the same doting wife. It was his work, that was eating up all the time.

She wrote a couple more books, which were again Best Sellers and undoubtedly won her awards and lot of recognition, not just on the national level. Next she decided to write a novel instead of short stories. In a year’s time, she was ready with the book, it was published. The publisher had arranged for a book release.

Rajesh was in town that day. she told him, she would be glad if he could be with her on this big day. Rajesh had agreed to accompany her.

In the evening, Priya was dressed in one of her finest Sarees. Rajesh had got it for her, from one of his trips. She looked so elegant. She looked in the mirror and smiled at herself. Just then, Rajesh called in to say, he would join her at the release location, and that she start from alone. This saddened her, but she was happy that he atleast took some time to come to the location directly. She took the book in her hand – “If only you were” and went downstairs to the car.

The book release location was bustling with people. They were waiting to take a glimpse of this fabulous writer, who had become a rage in a few years. There were photographers, journalists, other prominent writers, waiting to welcome Priya. A volunteer announced, Madam Priya is just in the corner, and she would be reaching the venue in 5 minutes.

Rajesh had just parked his car, and come near the entrance to welcome his Priya. He was happy, as he was going to be with his beloved wife on her big day. At the Road entrance, they spotted her car, taking a turn.

A huge crash. Everybody saw the car go up in the air. Police rushed to the place. The car was smashed all over.

Rajesh rushed to the place. He wanted to rush Priya to the hospital. He could spot the saree in that mess. He went near the body. Priya’s face had a peaceful smile. On one hand, she had the book, which was to be released that evening.

Rajesh couldn’t believe what he was looking at. He took the book from her hand. He opened the last page and read the last few lines.

“Everybody says – Behind every successful man, there is a woman. Some also say – Behind every successful woman there is a man. “
“But all I wanted was my man to be beside me”

~End of Story~

Rajesh took the book with him, and walked across the street. Some journalists claim they saw him teary eyed.

One Night!!!

It was 8.00PM when there was a knock on the door. It was time for Akash to return from work. He was a hard working guy, who worked nearly 15 hrs a day. Nisha, his wife was very understanding, she knew, all this hard work was for their family of 3. Both Akash and Nisha adored their 3 year old daughter, Ragini. Nisha never asked for a thing from Akash, Sunday was the only day, he got an off, and that he spent with his family, the other days, he was buried in work.

Only complaint Nisha had was his smoking habit. Akash was a chain smoker. He needed one in his hand, all day long. Every day, as soon as he came from work, he would sit on the couch, and Nisha would keep the ash-tray on the table. This was a daily routine. Anytime she asked him to quit, he gave work pressure as the reason. Though Nisha was sad about this, she dint pester him much as Akash was great as a person.

Months passed by, with the same routine. Ragini was being fed her favorite dinner that night, when the door bell rang at 8.00 PM. She rushed to the door to open it up for “daddy”. She felt short, as the latch was at the top end of the door, so her mom had to come to the door, to open it up. Akash was happy to see both of them at the door. He hugged Nisha and then picked up Ragini and gave her a peck on the cheek. He showed his cheek, so that she could return it. She first checked if her dad’s cheek was smooth enough and returned the sweet little kiss, on either side. He put her down, and Ragini ran inside, as if she had unfinished work. He laughed at her excitement, kept his bag on the chair, went to the couch and sat there. He saw Ragini, come out with the ash-tray, she kept it on the table. She then, caught hold of all the ruffles in her frock and moved away from the table, as if, otherwise it would catch fire. She went to her mother, to finish her food and then off to sleep.

Akash, couldn’t sleep that night. When Nisha woke up sometime in the middle of the night, she saw him at the balcony, smoking. She could sense some tension. She walked up to him, kept her hand on his shoulder. When he turned, she just smiled at him, indicating, she is with him and the tense moments would just pass away. All of a sudden, she saw tears in his eyes. She had never seen this in 5 years of their marriage. When Akash realized, he changed expression, he couldn’t be silent. He cried like a baby. All Nisha did at time, gave him the shoulder to cry on; no questions asked. After a while, Akash controlled himself and made a statement. “ I will quit smoking Nisha. I don’t want to see my daughter bringing that ash-tray on the table again”. Saying so, he switched off the cigarette he had in his hand.

Bring your kids to Work Day!!!

Malini was excited. She was taking her daughter to office today. Richa, her daughter was 6 years old, and she was super excited, when she got to know, she would accompany her mother to the work place.

Richa was a independent kid, she never wanted her parents to help her to ger ready on any outing. She asked Malini for half an hour to get ready. Since Malini was ready, she had all the time to wait for her daughter. She took her cup of coffee and walked up to her balcony which faced the garden. As she was looking a the beautiful hibiscus which had bloomed that morning, she wandered off to her thoughts, remembering her mom’s garden, which were full of flowers.

Malini was a cute kid herself. Nearly 3 decades back, she remembered, how her mom was helping her to get ready. Malini was supposed to go with her dad to his office. He was the boss of the factory. He was the production manager. Though there weren’t any kids to accompany, she knew she would sit with dad in his cabin, and she would be given all the importance that day, as if she owned the factory.

As soon as they entered the factory, few workers got her some cool drinks to drink, some of them got some chocolates. She felt like a celebrity. Ofcourse at that age, she dint know what it meant. Malini’s mom had packed her colouring books, story books, which she promptly opened up as soon as dad and she were alone in the cabin. Her Dad had arranged a small table and chair for her. But kids, are usually not satisfied, are they? She wanted the big table which dad was using. His table had 3 metal drawers and a glass top, he had so many files on top, along with a couple paper weights, staplers and lot of other stationary.

Malini was left near that table for sometime,since her dad had to go out for some inspection. He told her he would be back in 10 minutes, and that she was not to touch anything on the table. She was a very obedient kid, she dint touch anything on the table. Just a few minutes later, her eyes fell on the drawer. This was the kind where you unlock the top drawer, and open it and the below two get unlocked. She saw the keys dangling on the top one. She promptly closed, the drawer, locked it. Now she dint know where to put it. Since her dad had told her not to disturb anything on the table. She just put the keys in the second drawer, and closed it.

Malini’s dad came and she moved back to her table and chair, and started colouring. In 5 minutes, she saw her dad, franatically searching for something. She realized he had lost something. She dint know though what it was. Two of his assistants came over and all three searched the whole cabin. It was just fluke that Malini’s dad asked her if she saw the keys of the drawer, and that’s when he realized what had happened. They had some important papers in there, and now it was locked up. Just when her dad, and the other 2 were thinking of getting a locksmith, Malini came upto them and said “Daddy, did I do something wrong? I saw the drawer open and thought I should lock it up. And you told me not to disturb anything on the table, so I kept it in safe” and smiled. Her dad couldn’t help but admire her innocence. The other 2 guys also burst out laughing. The locksmith came and finally the lock was opened in half an hour of the incident.

“Mamma, I am ready. Let’s go”, Richa came running to Malini in the balcony. Richa wore a cute jeans skirt and red top, with matching accessories. Malini took her little bag and said “Let’s see what my darling is gonna bring to my office”. They both left in the car to Malini’s workplace. She was telling Richa, dos and donts in her office, mentally making a note to keep an eye on Richa, lest she has to start searching around for stuff, like her dad.

Trip to Mysore - III

It was a hot day, and the moment we reached the palace (South Gate), we wanted to drink something. What better than tender coconuts. We were disappointed with the rates though. They kind of exploit the tourists. Point to be noted: The entrance is the South Gate, where you get tickets, to visit the palace.

After the tender coconut, we headed towards the ticket counter. As soon as you enter the gates of the palace, on the right is the camera counter. Visitors are supposed to deposit their cameras in this place. Photography is not allowed inside the palace (bah!!). Everybody has a camera in their cell phone these days, and nobody stopped them from clicking pictures inside. I still dint get the point, why cameras weren’t used, because we can use flash, may be. Anyway, let’s go a little further.

As we near the entrance of the palace, there is a footwear stand. No footwear allowed inside the palace. It’s not a temple, probably they just want to maintain the cleanliness of that palace, and it’s pretty cool inside, so it’s ok.

Note: Both the camera and footwear stands are for free, so no money making there.

As soon as you enter, there is a counter where they have audio guides, Rs.100 per system. You can also hire, certified guides, but we chose to go with audio guides this time (experience sake). There are 21 parts, the numbers are displayed out there to let you know which part of the guide to listen to. The moment we enter, we first go to the place, where the dolls are kept. This is the place, where the family decorates the palace with dolls during Navarathri/Dussehra.

We then enter the corridor, adorned with beautiful paintings. If you really love paintings, you can spend a lot of time here. The audio guide actually explains a lot of paintings, the details in those paintings, which you might overlook. We enter the centre hall, just look upwards, and you see awesome glass paintings adorning the ceiling. The flooring is so amazing; it’s so colorful, you are thankful that you aren’t stamping these beautiful tiles with the foot wear. It seems weddings and birthdays and other important functions were conducted here.

Next we move to the gallery where the paintings of the Royal family are kept. Sigh!! You wish you were a part of them. Who knows, maybe we were in our previous birth, if such a thing existed. Then you move to a gallery of gifts, given to the kings (Wodeyars), by the places they have visited. There was so much of Sandalwood in that glass chamber, such intricacy in sandalwood, hard to find in our daily life. We then saw some more paintings and then moved to the courtyard. The palace has a mixed architecture. European, moguls, Hindu, and you can see all these in one place. It’s a good example of unity in diversity.

History: It seems there was a wooden palace earlier, and it burned down during one of the weddings which happened in the palace. The queen then made sure, no material which can be burnt would be used in the making of this palace. So the palace is kind of fire proof.

Ok... Now in the first floor, In between, we go through rooms where the furniture and other articles are kept for display. Once we cross these we come to a big Durbar Hall, which is open to the public. (Like Deewan -e- aam).

Again there are paintings, infinite mirrors (mirrors kept in front of each other, you get infinite number of images. The arches in this hall are so identical. It looks so beautiful. From here you can see the vast ground. Just imagining, the king sitting right in the middle, with dignitaries sitting around him, the ministers and important people next to him. The ladies of the palace sitting in one place, and on the ground, you see hundreds of people flocked up just to see the king, and the proceedings. You just get goose bumps. The carvings on the ceilings are definitely worth an observation.

No wonder it took 15 years to build this palace. From here we move forward and find the elevator, which was used in those times. Right after this, there is a passage which leads to an Ivory Door. It seems there is a Ganesha Temple behind this door, and when the fire broke down the whole palace, this temple remained untouched. Even today, the Royal family visits this temple. It's not open for the general public. Then we come across 2 doors which carved ivory. It seems these doors won a prize sometime in early 1900s. Next you go to a smaller Durbar Hall (like deewaan -e- khaas). It is so colorful. Just like those you would have seen in the movies. Aah!! I really wish I could have lived there, the chandeliers, the mirrors, the carvings on the pillars. Slowly, steadily, you move out of the palace.

After living through the history, for a couple of hours, you feel bad that you are out of the magnificent palace. You can go to the rose garden, there are some beautiful flowers. You can go to the gate and collect your cameras. Then you can click as many pictures you wish, outside the palace. There are quite a few temples inside the palace gates; you can visit them if you have time. We had seen these earlier, and since it was lunch time, stomachs were pleading us to give them something. Friends wanted to have pizza, so off we went to kalidasa road and reached Pizza Hut.

We had yummy lunch of pizzas and pasta, and left to Bangalore, but not before another pit stop. We planned to go to Shivana Samudra... But did we actually go there or take a detour, will be for the next post... Time to say Good Bye Mysore... and off I drifted off to dreamland in my sleep.

Trip to Mysore - II

Mysore is hotter, compared to Bangalore, but since Bangalore is also hot these days, we were used to sleeping without AC, so hadn’t booked the AC room. But, I guess we were lucky, due to some confusion in the booking, the hotel agreed to give us AC rooms with no change in the Tariff. We were glad about the AC, now with AC on and spreads to cover us, we had a good night sleep.

Usually on trips, I wake up early, one is don’t want to miss out on the beautiful day sleeping, second, I can anyway sleep in the car while travelling. But this time I slept till 8.00 AM. We were ready by 8.30, finished our breakfast of Idly vada (not so good), but no other option as we were not in the city, and that our next stop was a bird sanctuary.

By 9.30 AM we reached Ranganathittu. We had to pay Rs.50 per person, as entrance fee, and if we wanted the boat ride, it was again Rs.50, and the car parking was Rs.30. So after paying Rs.430 we headed to see the birds. We were lucky that the moment we reached the place of boat ride, we were about to start, so no waiting time. The boats are covered on top, so no worries of getting baked in the sun. We occupied a nice position. It was a ride for 20 – 30 mins. I have never seen so many birds in a natural habitat. There were birds from Siberia, North America, Japan and lot other countries. Actually I don’t really remember the name of the birds… But yes, very well remember the Painted Storks (easy to remember).

According to the boatman, feb- july is the season to visit this sanctuary. After this the eggs hatch, and the birds fly away with young ones, and you hardly see any birds there. One of the visitors asked, “how do you know from which place the birds come from?”. The boatman said, there are trackers tied to the legs of these birds, and when the report comes, that’s how they get to know.

One of the interesting things which we found was the way these birds were protecting their eggs or young ones in the nest. They would spread their wings in a weird fashion, we try to get a pic, couldn’t get it though. But it was as if mom would hold her saree pallu to safeguard you from sunlight (well similar way). Parents I tell you, ever protective.

Well, all this while we have been talking about birds, you might ask no animals at all. Behold, there are crocodiles in the same river. Yes, same river where we are boating. But, they keep to their business. They are usually under the trees, waiting for the eggs/ young birds. It was a treat to watch the crocs in the river, since a couple of them were moving. Anytime we see these creatures in the zoo, they are sleeping as if they are dead… For a while, I stopped watching the birds and was observing the crocs. It’s a little difficult to differentiate them with rocks around. Again some people had questions on, what will happen if it attacks us. The boatman was cool about it and said, they usually don’t attack, unless we are on their way. So we were making fun, what if all the crocs gang up and try to overturn the boat. We knew it wouldn’t happen at that time, but if it happens I wonder how it will be.

Once the boat ride is done, we came out and saw the watch tower, may be around 15 ft or so. We went up there, couldn’t see much, but enjoyed the moments when the birds were inflight. Tried clicking photos, but they are too fast, and we dint have too much time to capture the right moments. After this, we just took a stroll and were out of the sanctuary and headed towards the city…. Next stop was the famous Mysore Palace….

Trip to Mysore

Let’s go somewhere, anywhere.. Just need a break, this was my slogan whole of last week.

Since we were to go with friends, getting everybody on board was not so simple. Timings, locations had to match. Finally, it was decided that we would go to Mysore on Saturday afternoon and return Sunday night. My first reaction was – “Mysore??? Again!!”, to this my husband said, you just wanna go somewhere right, so I reluctantly agreed.

I love Mysore, the place has so much to offer, but I have been to Mysore so many times, we were there for a couple of years, and it was just 2.5 hours from our house, why go there for a whole weekend. But then again, any break was welcome, so we were all set by 12 noon on Saturday.

As it happens in most of the trips, we started a couple of hours late, and we were kinda hungry the moment we had started. But we thought of stopping for lunch in an hours time. NICE Road is a boon, we reached Mysore Road pretty soon, and then the usual scenery, of paddy fields, some shops here and there, Wonder La and Innovative Film City advertisements. There was nothing exciting or new about this stretch. By the time we reached Bidadi, we were hungry and decided to have some chocolates, until we reach a proper lunch place. Around 3.15 we reached Kamat Lokaruchi. The food here is mouth watering. Kamat is on the expensive side, but once in a while it’s still ok. We had the North Karnataka meals (speciality here). After half an hour of eating, we left for Mysore.

By 5.30 PM we reached our hotel, White Orchids (Bombay Tiffanys Franchise). It was nothing great, but 1200 per night with AC was something we did not want to complain. Anyway all we needed was to sleep that night in the hotel.



We freshened up, and were ready to visit the famous Brindavan Gardens. On the way clicked we encountered a beautiful sunset. So we stopped the car and took a few pictures. The road is pretty ok, to KRS Dam(Krishna raja Sagar Dam). Much before KRS, nearly 2 kms, we were stopped by a few people for parking tickets. Once we got this, on the left we could see the beautiful Dam. After parking our car, we walked for 5 mins to the entrance. Since it was a Saturday, there were too many people. One of us went to get the entry tickets and paid for the camera entry fees (Rs.50) I wonder why so much for the camera. Once we entered, it was the usual mela kind of environment. Lots of eatables, chilli Bajji, Gobi Manchurian, noodles, Banana Bajji, Aaloo Bajji, Onion pakoda, popcorn, American sweet corn… we dint eat any of this, coz of hygiene concerns (bah!!). We took a litre of bottled water and went near the bridge which would take us to the north side of the garden.

There is a ferry (Rs.20) one way which will take you to the other side. We took the ride, just for the sake of it. It was fun. Though we have been here multiple times, we never took the ferry, to avoid standing in the queue, this time we thought, whats the hurry… So after 10 mins of waiting, we finally got to travel in the ferry, and it was fun watching hoardes of people walking on the bridge. We reached the other side in 5 mins, and then as we got down, till we reached the place where they had musical fountain, dint I tell earlier, this was the sole reason people flock the north garden J

Anyway, enroute we saw some cute little fountains, we were telling a friend of ours, this was the place, so many movies were shot, with the celebs. Actually it was a lie. All this shooting was done on the south Gardens, which was the other side of the ferry ride, from where we entered. Anyway, we took a couple of hazy pics, and negotiating the fountains spray, we reached the amphitheatre around the musical fountain. They were playing Saare Jahan se accha (the last song the of the fountain performance)



As soon as this got over, people got up and moved outside, we got on to those steps, and caught up with a nice place, with good view of the fountains. In 5 mins, the fountains took off with a famous Kannada Song. It was a nice attempt. As soon as this got over, there were a few hindi songs, and then a instrumental music piece, and finally Sare Jahan Se Accha Hindustan Humara Humara…. It was a nice feeling. There were whisteles and shoutings and lots of excitement.

After this got over, we headed towards a ice cream and had yummy Nutty Chocobars. This time we decided to take the bridge, and since it was nearing 8.30PM, the crowd was not too much. We had a nice walk on the bridge (not the dam), and then went out to have hot bhuttas/JoLA (corn). We then left to Mysore City to have dinner.

After much discussions, we decided to go to Metropole. This was once a palace, and now being used as a Star Hotel. Food is a little expensive, but the ambience is awesome, Food is good too. The restaurant is in the courtyard of the palace, so you are out under the sky full of stars. The highlight this time was the IPL match was on too. So good food, great ambience, a crowd which would react to every wicket and every four or six, made up for a great dinner.

We came back to the hotel, and contemplated if we should hit the bed, or play for a while, and play it was, and so we played cards for an hour and then left to our rooms, for a sound sleep, with plans to going to Ranganathittu Bird Santuary the next day.

Trip to Sravana Belagola

It had been around 6 months, since we went for a trip. It was even more exciting as we were going to travel around 140km on bike. We had a holiday on Maha Shivarathri and we thought any Shiva temple would be overcrowded, so we headed to Sravana Belagola.

G (hubby) and me started from our place at 6.45. We are pretty close to NECE road, so we took that, toll upto Tumkur Road. Other way you can go is via mysore road... But I felt this was better.. Straight nice roads...

We were near Nelmangala and then from there we took the NH-48. It’s a straight forward road after this. Though the construction going on there might result in some narrow lanes, but the condition is really good. Around 8.00 we took a break on the highway. We stretched a little bit, after a 5 min break again continued on NH-48. We reached Mayura Veg Hotel around 9. Stopped there for breakfast. I had plans of taking pics of what we ate... But as soon as our spl.Masala Dosa, vada came we just digged in. I remembered about pics, much later :). We were there for nearly an hour.

We were 32 kms from Sravana Belagola. I was pretty excited, since I had never been to this place. Enroute, we saw so many coconut groves, it can easily be mistaken to be Kerala. By 10.30 we reached the place. After searching for parking, we finally entered the temple.

It’s a pretty huge rock, with some 500+ steps. There, we got to know, we had to leave the footwear below, you can wear socks though.

At the foot of the rock, I just asked God for some strength to climb those steps... I took breaks while climbing on the pretext of taking photographs, and we finally made it to the top. And what do we see there... more steps to see Gomateshwara. These steps were a little steep too, but since it was windy and not too hot, it wasn’t too difficult. Before going for these were saw few inscriptions which were from the 13th century, 16th Century, they were being preserved with Glass covering. since we dint understand much of it, we moved to see the World Famous, Gomateshwara.

As we entered, we saw a 60ft Monolith, we wouldn’t be as tall as the feet. But frankly, i wasn’t awestruck or anything like that.. Ofcourse it seemed huge etc, but dint have my jaw dropping. This is the highest Monolith in the world. And if you see it that way, its really amazing, what they have done with a rock. Anyway, the view outside itself made it worth climbing. We spent a lot of time clicking pics in the temple. Then we came out and again clicked lot of photos of the view from the hilltop.

As we came down from the main temple, on the left was something called Chennanna Basti. There was mantap kind of thing and a long pillar. Spent some time there and then went to the next Basti. We were on the top around 2 hours. We finally got down, freshen up and did a little shopping. Had some tender cocnuts and then saddled up to leave.

Actually, there is another hill, chandragiri, right in front of this, but you again need to climb this, and you can do all this if you have the whole day. We had to come back by 6(prior appointments), hence left the other hills for the next trip.

We had packed our lunch, but then thought we will have it in a hotel enroute.. We missed the Maura hotel which we went to earlier, now there arent many descent hotels on this route. So we then decided to finish off the packed lunch which we had got from home. There are certain farms enroute, else there are lot of empty bus-stands, if you want to have a picnic lunch. We stopped after an hour's ride, in one such place where there was water availability. It was good to have Chapattis and Tomato curry, on a highway, just the 2 of us. It was kind of romantic I must say. After the lunch, our next stop was on the NECE road for a short 5 min break, just to stretch ourselves. By,5.30 PM we were back home.

For those who are thinking if it’s worth going to this place… I would say, definitely, you won’t regret going to this place, just make sure you have the stamina to climb those 500+ steps, and ofcourse if you are going in summer bear the heat. But it’s pretty windy, so it’s still ok.

Go for it.

Reality!!!

Sundar was bored, lying in the hospital bed for a week. Vishal and Sudha entered the room with the doctor. They had good news for Sundar, he would be relieved from the hospital that evening. The doctor advised him that just because he was going home, didn’t mean he could do anything. He had to listen to Vishal and Sudha, he needed atleast a month to recover from the illness.

The couple took care of Sundar like their own. They, spend most of the time in that month, taking care of Sundar. Once in a while, tears filled up his eyes. He wished, if only he had kids of his own, he wouldn’t have had this situation in life. He was so grateful to them.

**

A month passed, Sundar was allowed to take walks twice a day. The early morning walk was something he was waiting for. He reached the park, his friends were waiting for him. He was totally fit. His friends were happy to see him healthy.

Sundar declared “Only becasue Vishal saab and Sudha bibiji took care of me so well, I am in this condition”.

**
At home, Vishal was talking to Sudha “Sundar, had taken care of me since my birth. If only, I could tell him, I am his son, his blood”

Revenge

Bali placed the cube in the warehouse. The cube was so heavy, but he couldn’t complain. It was his job to provide for his family. Every day, he had to go to the place where the huge cubes were, pick up as many cubes possible. He worked in a organized company, they were very strict. He couldn’t jump queues, nor could he overtake, he had to do his work in the time allotted to him, in the sequence he was assigned to.

The work gave his family the security in terms of basic needs, but there was a lot of risk. Everyday his wife, Kyra was worried, if Bali would come back home alive. The path he went on everyday, had lot of dangers. There were huge structures there, one wrong step could be the last one for him. She used to work with him before they had the kids. Now she had to wait until the kids could fend for themselves to help her husband.

********
Suri, Bali’s collegue came to Bali’s wife with a sad face. She had one look at the face and understood. Teary eyed, she mustered some courage and asked him “How?”

Suri said “we were at the garden”, there was nobody at the tea table, there were lot of sugar cubes. Bali was so happy, he mentioned that today would be an important day”
“as we took the cube and started back to the warehouse, a kid screamed looking at the train of ants. His mommy just got a mug of water and poured it on us”

She couldn’t hold her tears anymore. Suri tried to console her. “We are sorry, the impact of water was so hard, we couldn’t save Bali”

********
Two days later, Kyra was in the house where Bali was murdered. She found the mother and bit her on the eye. The lady started screaming. She caught hold of Kyra, and mashed her up. Just before that, Kyra was shouting “Bali dear, I punished your murderer”. The lady threw the dead Kyra in the dustbin. She walked out of the room muttering “Too many ants in this house”

Super powers

Nikhil was supposed to go to his friend’s house, to collect something. Since he had to walk alone for half an hour, he could use his super powers. He would just get his spider powers out and jump from tree to tree or building to building. He would still take the same time, he would if he had walked. It gave him a sense of satisfaction though.

Another day, when he had to walk alone a lonely road, no buildings, no trees, he was disappointed. He decided to try something new. He got out his boat, and started rowing. He had the long oar, so that he could do the rowing both the sides. He loved his new discovery.

One day, Nikhil’s mom asked him to accompany her to the tailor shop. He never liked going with others, he loved his solitary walks. He couldn’t refuse his mom, and went with her. Mom was surprised to see Nikhil not chatting with her, instead, she saw him rowing a boat, or his spiderman actions.

That night she told this incident to her husband. He calmed her down saying “10 year old kids live in such imaginary worlds.. Let him come out of it, when he wants to… Let him enjoy his ‘Super Powers’”

He then turned to Nikhil and winked at him.

You are so beautiful

“You are so beautiful, so damn beautiful” by Akon was playing the car, Ram loved to say these lines out loud to both his girls. Just then Sneha said ”come on, you can’t say this to both of us. You have to decide, whom you are gonna singing this to.” Ram just smiled. Aruna said, “Ofcourse it’s for me dear, I came into his life much before you came, so it has to be me”.

Sneha and Aruna argued as usual, until Ram stopped the car and said, if they dint stop fighting over the song, he would take them back home and the dinner at pizza hut would be cancelled. Both the girls loved pizza, so they just turned their backs towards each other and sat in silence until Ram took them to pizza hut.

They ordered their favorite garlic bread, and veggie supreme pizza. Ram wondered, how both of them liked the same things. As they were about to take the first bite of the food, the song played again. This time Ram decided, he would sing it to them in a proper way.

He took sneha’s hand and said “You are so beautiful” and then he took Aruna’s hand and said “so damn beautiful”, both the girls giggled and gave a peck on Ram’s cheek. They left the place after having a wonderful meal.

Ram had a superb evening, on one side was his princess like daughter, and the other side his beautiful wife.

Names

Today was the day, Neethi Verma would get to know her workplace in the office. She was quite amazed by the cubicles, and the sound of the keyboards. The manager took her along with 2 guys to an empty cubicle. He said “Folks, this is where you will sit until you are allocated a project, please feel comfortable. If you need any help, you can let me know”.

Both the guys opted for seats in the cubicle, Neethi had no option to take up the last place in the cubicle. She switched on her system, the name of the previous user came up on the screen. “Hmm.. Rohit Sharma.. nice name” she thought and then logged in with her new id and password. She was excited as this was her first system in the corporate world. Every new application she tried to login had Rohit’s name flashing on the screen. In the evening she told her friends about this little incident. They finally concluded, he was probably the previous user of the machine and that’s the reason it was coming up.

Days passed by, Neethi got busy with her project. One day she noticed a drawer next to her table. She realized, it was for her use. She felt stupid for not realizing this earlier. She always kept her stuff on the table. She opened up the first drawer, to find a lot of notepads and pens. Just when this happened, a friend of hers came to her place. She saw the stuff and took it out. Neethi stopped her saying it was not hers, so it would be better they don’t touch it. Rekha did not care about it. She read out the name on the notepad. “Rohit Sharma.. hmm.. that’s why you dint want me to touch it”. Neethi dint understand what Rekha was talking about. She snatched the notepad from her and read what was on the Notepad. She felt so embarrassed. She just put it back and told Rekha she had no idea about this. Infact, it was the first time she had even opened the drawer. After Rekha left, Neethi was very curious. She opened the second drawer, this was pretty big, it had a pair of shoes and also a t-shirt. She assumed these also belonged to Rohit. Neethi was now concerned, it was more than a week since she had moved into this place, and this guy Rohit never came up to claim his things. She sent a mail to him, asking him to collect his stuff, from the place.

Two weeks passed, there was no response from Rohit. Neethi was frustrated that she couldn’t use the drawer as it was full. Also, she dint feel it was right to use it when it already had somebody else’s stuff. Few days later she started cribbing about Rohit. Her friends referred to him as RS. Every evening they would ask her if RS came to claim his things. Neethi was now used to this. She dint mind Rohit’s stuff in her place.

A month later, when she logged in, she saw a mail from RS. He apologized for the delay in replying, he was on vacation for a month, and he now had to request for a new drawer to keep his stuff. He had asked Neethi, if she could accommodate the stuff for some more days, until he could get his own drawer. She had just completed reading the mail, she picked up her coffee mug and got up from her seat. As she turned around, she saw a guy standing behind her. She just blurted out “Rohit”. He was quite surprised, “Hi Neethi, I hope I haven’t left any of my pics in here. How did you know it was me?” Neethi just smiled and said it was wild guess. He thanked her for keeping the stuff with her and also allowing him to keep it for a few more days.

A week passed, they would occasionally crash into each other, just a smile or a hi, would be the conversation. All her friends had started building their love story. It seemed more like a movie than what could happen in real life. Every time Neethi heard her friends talk about her and RS, she would just smile. Following Monday, when Neethi came to office, she saw a big dairy milk on her keyboard. She was surprised, since it was not any special day. She dint understand who could have kept the chocolates at her desk. As she opened her mail, she saw there was a mail from RS. He had thanked her for all that she had done. He had to leave to a different location the previous weekend, hence dint get a chance to meet her personally.

Neethi opened the drawer, to keep her stuff in. Everything was taken out there was just an envelope in there. She opened it. After reading it, she just smiled and kept it back with all other stuff.

Four years later, all her friends received her wedding invitation. Neethi Verma weds Rohit Sharma. All her friends came to the wedding, claiming to tell her “we told you this would happen”.

On the stage was Neethi, happily married to Rohit. One of her friends came up on stage to wish her. She introduced her husband to her friend. “Rohit, meet my friend RS. You remember I had told you I have a friend with the same name as yours”

Workload!!! No matter what

Two ladies were having a conversation in the office pantry(where we have aquaguard, coffee machines)

Lady 1 (L1) : I don’t like this location. Workload is too much
Lady 2(L2): Yeah!!! Park5 was much better.

L1: So many people are leaving the company, its making our load even more
L2: 3 people from our team left last week.

L1: But one of them was caught stealing, who asked him to steal.
L2: that’s true…

And they went on for a few minutes regarding their work load, then the house keeping ladies went on with the description.

L1: I am the only one who has Garbage cleaning work this week, I think I will ask for easy mop.
L2: I have hand pain since yesterday, I don’t want easy mop
L1: Ok.. then I will take easy mop, you take the garbage cleaning
L2: No, that’s very boring…

I could have heard further, but my bottle was full and it was time for me to go back to my desk.

I was just trying to compare their conversation with what we have

Person 1(P1): I don’t like this project. Workload is too much.
Person 2 (P2): Yeah!!! My previous project was much better.

P1: The attrition rate in the company is too much.
P2: So many from our team have quit in the last month.

P1: I think one of them was taken off due to disciplinary action taken against him
P2: hmm…

P1: I am just fed up of this maintenance project. I think I’ll ask for a project change
P2: I am bored of testing too. I think I’ll ask for prod support for a few days.

Conversation continues…

I couldn’t help but smile thinking about how similar our way of thinking and environments are even though the kind of work we do is totally different.

Full Circle

“I don’t want to leave my friends mamma”. Anu was telling this to her mother since morning. “We don’t have an option Anu; daddy has to leave to Bangalore. We can’t leave him alone. Can we? ” Radhika tried convincing her daughter. Anu went to her room sulking.

“Daddy, why do we have to leave now? Can’t we atleast leave after my summer vacation?” Anu was asking for the nth time that day. Satish answered very patiently, that they would come back someday just to meet her friends. Anu wasn’t convinced, but she had no option to get into the cab, which would drop them to the airport. Her best friend Ramya, had come with her dad to see off Anu. Both were hoping against hope, that Anu would stay back. Since, that did not happen, they exchanged their address and promised to write to each other.

It was 6 months, since they reached Bangalore. Anu had new friends here. The memories of the old city had started to fade out. Radhika was happy that her daughter had stopped whining about moving to Bangalore. She then realized that life was a full circle. 10 years back, when she got married to Satish, she had to move out of Bangalore. And today life had brought her back to the place where she started. She like Anu, had got new friends in the new city, in the process, she lost touch with her old buddies. And those were the times where communication was not so easy. Today, when she came back to Bangalore, she dint know what her old buddies were upto.

Radhika was busy shopping and she spotted a lady, who looked very familiar. The lady also happened to be staring at her. In a few minutes, she was gone. Radhika was trying to recollect who she was. On the way home, she passed by a coffee shop. That was once a hangout place during her college, she realized all of a sudden, the lady she saw earlier was one of her best buddies. When she got married, they had promised each other that they will stay in touch. Today, when they saw each other it was just a faint familiar face.

At home, Anu was playing with the gift Ramya had given her, Radhika was having tea and thinking about her past. She realized, all her old friends were nothing more than strangers now. She decided she will try to find out the phone number of her friends and try to rekindle the friendship they had. Just when she got up to do something about it, she thought she has to do something else.

She got a notepad and a pen to Anu, she also had an envelope with Ramya’s address on it. She told Anu “Don’t you want to tell Ramya, how much fun you are having with the gift she gave you. I think you should thank her for this”.

Anu smiled and said “Oh yes mamma! I almost forgot to write to her. Can I ask her to come over to Bangalore when she has holidays?”

“Definitely dear” Radhika said and walked towards the phone, to get back to her past.

Huff!! Puff!!

Suresh knew his dad wouldnt be coming back home until 6.00 PM. He had 2 more hours. The offer his friends gave him was good. After all it would take him just a few minutes. "Few minutes, few puffs, your dad wont know" is what one of his friends' said.

They stood in the corner of the road, near the pan shop. All of them had one each in their hand. They were very busy creating circles in the air. Just then, Avinash signaled to Suresh, his dad’s cab was taking a turn. All of them threw their cigarettes down and blew it off. Suresh, was confused, how his dad came home early that day. He was hoping, his dad hadn’t seen him smoking. He went for a round with his friends, reached home after half an hour. His dad was sipping the hot filter coffee and snacks which his mom had prepared.

Suresh tried to escape his dad’s eyes and was about to snoop into his room when his dad called him.

Dad – Suresh, I don’t like you to waste my money. Infact, I don’t like any of the guys wasting their father’s money

Suresh – Sorry Dad

Dad – Here, these are the cigarette buds you guys threw, after spotting me. I have got them back to you.

Suresh (puzzled look)

Dad – When you earn, you can waste your money. This is the money I have given for your books and studies, but if you want to use it for smoking, utilize it correctly. Please don’t waste the cigarette.

Saying this, Dad placed the newspaper with the half burnt cigarette buds on the table and went to his room.

Suresh could see the disappointment in his dad’s eyes. He promised himself, he would never let his dad feel so bad, ever again.

Security!!!

This incident probably happened a month back. I have been so busy these days, no time to blog.

Anyway, we went to see a movie in PVR Gold Class. As we entered, we had to go through the routine securtiy check. Then we made ourselves comfortable, in the lounge, a guy came with our welcome drink. As we were having it, we realized a movie star also entered. The people there were ready with a bouqet. What amazed me was, she was allowed inside without any securtiy check. And the guys who came with her, did not have to go through the security check.

I asked the guy who served us the drink, what if these people had a bomb with them. He just smiled at me, embaressed and with a "What Can I do?" expression.

But isnt this a serious threat. Sometimes people do anything for money. If you are harassing common people for security checks etc, why are the rich and famous not made to go through the same ordeal?

Why these double standards? What kind of security is this?

FMS

This happened during one of my trips during Engineering. We were about to have lunch (lemon rice and curd rice – packed from a caterer). It was in those paper packets, no fancy packing, no spoons.

All of us sat in a group. Since we were tired of playing around, as soon as we got the food, we started digging our hands and filled our mouths and started chewing. One friend of mine, opened the packet and was just staring at the food. I couldn’t help but wonder why he hadn’t even touched it. This was the conversation we had.

Me : Hey S, are you not hungry?
S : Very much
Me: Is something wrong with the food?
S: I don’t know. I haven’t tasted it yet.
Me: You don’t like rice?
S: I like rice, esp curd rice.
Me: Ok. Then what’s stopping you from eating the food.
S: Can I get a spoon?
Me: Emm.. I don’t think we have spoons. We have anyway washed our hands, why don’t you just eat without the spoon.
S: I can’t
Me: Look S, where are we going to find a spoon for you in the middle of the forest. Come on, go ahead and start eating.
S: I know, but I can’t
Me: Why?
S: I don’t know how to eat rice, without a spoon.
Me: You mean you have never had rice using your hand.
S: yup.
Me: You mean, never, ever?
S: yup
Me: Ok.. This is a situation. No problem. I will teach you to eat using FMS.
S: FMS?
Me: Flexible Mobile Spoon :) Our palm and fingers
S: ok.. lets try
Me: See the incentive is you get to eat your favorite – Curd rice.

After a few minutes, S could manage to eat using his FMS and thanked me a ton, for helping him and not letting him starve.

Benadryl!!!

Usually medicines are always taken with a disgusting expression. Medicines are supposed to be bitter. But when we have cough, there is one sweet medicine, which even acts like a sleeping pill and makes it so difficult for you to wake up in the morning. Its as if you have a hangover. I am not a alcoholic person, but then can I say for sure? Am I 100% non-alcoholic.

Ofcourse I don’t drink beer, whiskey or the likes, but that doesn’t rule me out from not having alcohol at all. Its not in the recent times. Since childhood, all of us have had some taste of alcohol, or we have liked it in some or the other way.

When I was kid, it seems when the coughs were unbearable, doctors used to prescribe – “Doctor’s Brandy”. This is supposed to be very good for the cough, and is seemed provided good relief.
And now, its benedryl. It sure is very tasty and effective too. One shot of this, oops I meant one sip of this, and you can be assured of a cough free deep sleep.

Incidents related to bendryl;

We were in mysore, and since I had cough my friend insisted we get benedryl. In a week the whole bottle was over. The reason was, my friend also had a sip of it everyday, inspite of she not being sick. I tease her of being a alcoholic. Till date, we laugh about this. Infact, even yday we discussed on how tasty benedryl is :)

I had come back from US and had jet lag, then got cough here. I started taking benedryl, I used to sleep at 11.30 and till 7 in the morning, I would noteven be conscious (deep sleep you see). I wondered how my jet lag vanished so quickly. After I stopped the medicine, I used to be awake like an owl, or even if I slept, I used to wake up a couple of times. I cursed benedryl for curing my cough.

Few months back, I was suffering from dry cough. We had a bottle of benedryl, I drink my sip and then my husband says, Its been ages since I have had a drink and gulps a little bit. Result is past 1 week, our eyes struggle to open even if its 7.00 AM. Now I have got used to this, and our plans of going for a walk a 6.00 seems like a dream.

Hail Benadryl!!!

Snakes

Our house was next to the GKVK forest in Bangalore. There were lot of eucalyptus trees and the forest was pretty dense. Whenever they cut down these trees, lot of snakes came out of the forest to our area. We could hear lot of snake stories. Infact, when I would come back from college, mom would have a snake story ready. That was one of the reasons, why everybody had a mesh door in front of the usual wooden door, so that they could keep that open for the air circulation.
One day, both the doors were open, and when mom came out, she saw a big, fat snake, resting under the table in our verandah. It seems my parents called the snake catcher, and with great difficulty, they got this out.

One of my neighbors had left the water sump (tank) door open to get something from inside. By the time she came back, there was snake which had fallen inside the sump. When I came back from college mom told me this, and I went to see the snake. That was probably the longest snake I had seen other than snake parks or zoo. Then they had to call people and get the snake out. They also got the whole water sump (tank) cleaned up.

I haven’t seen that many snakes as much my mom or my brother have seen. But I did encounter a snake story once. Let’s say I was just saved.

It was on a weekend, my cousin brothers had come home for lunch. Usually my elder brother is fond of pulling my leg. He kept on teasing how I would believe anything he would say when I was kid. This had gone for a couple of hours, after which I gave him a warning that I would never ever believe whatever he said. As they were about to leave, we all went outside to see them off. My cousin was near the gate and I was near the door. We have a big garden, so he just happened to see something and shouted at me to move. I dint move an inch. He again shouted saying there was a snake, and asked me to move. This time I was determined it was a prank, I dint move. My other cousin saw this and pulled me, and the green snake just jumped. It would have hit my eye, if my cousin hadn’t pulled me. We were in a shock for a few minutes, and later I kept teasing my cousin, that his pranks would have cost me my life, if not for my other cousin. Till date, we remember that incident and laugh about it now, but it was pretty scary when it actually happened.

Even today, I am not scared of seeing snakes, but if its gonna attack me, I can scream like crazy and run around like a mad woman to save myself. By God’s grace, I have never encountered a situation like that except for the instance I mentioned above.

Power Cuts!!!

Summer is associated with many things – Heat, Sweat, Cotton Clothes, Mangoes, Juice, Cold water, Vacation (for kids), First rain and with rain comes power cuts.

It’s so stuffy inside the house during summer. We still manage to watch our favorite TV programs with the help of Fans or for luxurious ones, we have ACs. Sometime around 6.30, when there is either a cartoon or a movie coming up, mom is just done preparing some yummy snack, there is a power cut.
Instantly, people in the house scream “Oh no” or “Che” or “S**T” etc in chorus. Probably if you can listen carefully, this happens in all the houses in the neighborhood simultaneously. Everybody starts fanning themselves with the palms, or they grab the day’s newspaper. After a few minutes when the heat is unbearable, one by one they open the front doors and go out near the gate. Slowly, the kids in the neighborhood come out and start playing; the aunties come out with a cup of coffee in their hands. They start of with the conversation

Lady 1: There is so much of power cut these days
Lady 2: Yeah, it’s too hot and stuffy inside
Lady 3: I haven’t finished my cooking. I needed the mixer, now god knows when the power will be back
Lady 4: (showing off) I thought such a thing would happen, so I finished cooking beforehand
Lady 5: I just came back from office and now there is no power, this is unbearable.

All this while, they don’t realize that they are actually socializing, instead of sitting in front of the TV, which hogs all the attention most of the time.

Give them 5 minutes, and then a different set of conversation starts and this time it’s interesting. They are either talking about the corner house, where new tenants moved in or it is about Savithri’s daughter coming late to the house on a bike with a guy or discussion of a new recipe.

The men folk might just prefer to stand near the gates and watch people walking up and down. Very few actually socialize, when they do, its either politics or sports that they catch up on. Not very juicy to overhear what they are talking about.

The kids get together with their tricycles and bicycles and start going up and down the street as if they are chasing a thief. If there is enough light, they would even gets the bat and ball, to start with the gully cricket.

When this hustle bustle is going on, there is a bulb flickering somewhere, signaling that the time for gossip and time pass is getting over. In a few minutes, the road is lit up again. The houses have their tube lights flashing. Everybody, now comfortable in their chat, start back home, with a content of having a nice time during the Power Cut.

SubWAY

I had been a year since I joined the comapany, when I heard a Lady say, the food in subway is really good. I knew she had been to US, so she was talking about Subway over there.

Background : Subway meant those underground crossings which we have where pedestrians are not allowed to cross the road. Ofcourse in Bangalore they have these hawkers selling pety stuff over there, so I assumed she meant the food she got there was good. I thought, lucky people, they get good food even in subways, all we get here is peanuts/cut guava/ or something which doesn’t look very healthy enough for us to eat.

I never discussed this with anyone to clarify, what subway food was all about. Few months later, I was in US and one of my friends suggested we go to “Subway”. I was thrilled, and wanted to see, what it was all about. Off he drove and stopped in front of a sandwich shop, which was called “SUBWAY”. The conversation was like this:

Me: Here?
Him : Yeah… this is Subway
Me: Oh (laughing at myself)
Him: It’s ok right? Or you want to go to Indian restaurant
Me: Its fine… I can try it out.

The first time I dint know what to order. I couldn’t understand what the fuss was all about. Bread and few veggies, so why go ga-ga over it. I dint go to subway for a long time after that.

Later, on a trip, one of my friends showed me that we could add sauces to it, have it with veggie patty etc etc. I started loving the sweet onion suace, slowly mustard. They even started with a broccoli cheddar soup. I liked that too…

Today when I was ordering in subway, when I asked for sweet onion, southwest, spicy mustard and I saw so many people in the queue (esp new to the corp world).. I wondered, when I was like them, I dint even know what this thing was… How things have changed!!!

Also, now I know Subway is just not the underbridge, but it’s a food chain.

PS: Hey the train system in New York is also called Subway… So if there was a Subway within Subway.. how would you say it?

Great Achievement

The project was due in a week and all his project mates had completed their part. Mayank was the only one, who was to finish his part of the project.
Though all his project mates were his friends, the anxiety if Mayank would finish his part was straining their friendship. He was so engrossed in what he was doing, that his mom was to remind him multiple times, so that he could have his meals on time.

The model would be evaluated by a panel of 3 people.

Mayank had spent days on the design. It had been days since he met his friends. Anytime, his mom came to his room with food, he would drive her away. At times, she would scold him, that his health would be spoilt, if he dint eat properly. He dint understand, how his friends implemented it so easily, while he was struggling to put everything together. The day before the project was to be submitted, Mayank finally completed the project. He informed his friends, and they were relieved too. Finally, Mayank and his friends submitted the project on time. They had to wait till the evening for the evaluation. All the worries which surrounded Mayank for all these days had come to an end. There were smiles of relief in his group. At 5.00 PMthe principal came out with both the science teachers. They were the panel of judges. Mayank and his group had won the science project competition at school.

For Class VII students, it was a great achievement that day

Autowallas

There was a discussion on how autowallas in different metros behave. This just reminded me of a particular incident which happened in Hyderabad. This was more than 2 years back.

On Monday morning, I reach Hyderabad bus stand. As soon as you get down, auto folks start with their bid.
Everytime, just to check, I used ask a few people, how much they would charge. Are you people thinking about meters. Come on 6.30 in the morning, who would use it. Meters don’t start their work until 8.00 AM

Near the bus the rate would be – 200
By the time you reach the entrance of the busstop, the rate would be reduced to as low at 150-120

After a few weekends, I found another way. I would go midway in auto, from there would take a bus to my place. The reason was, I dint know which bus to take from the busstand.

One fine day, when I was looking out for an auto, found another girl who was looking for one, to the same area. So we decided we could share the cost. One guy agreed for Rs.70, we thought Rs.35 is a fair deal and got in. Once we reached the place, we gave him 70 and he started shouting at us, saying its 70 per head. We told him that he never told us this, and since it wouldn’t cost that much using meter, we were not going to pay him 140 total. He threatened us that he wouldn’t let us get down. We were pretty aggressive too, and we asked him to drop us back to the busstand, and we wouldn’t pay him a paise for this wonderful behaviour of his. After much argument, he finally left us after charging us Rs.5 extra per head. Next week onwards I was extra careful and confirmed with the driver much ahead about the cost per head.

PS: I know Hyd has shared auto system, but this was not a part of the shared auto thing. Also, I have had auto problems in most the of the places I have visited… So its nothing to do with one place