Banks of Cauvery

If you are in Mysore, this is one place you should not miss. This is the at Srirangapatna (18km from Mysore), on the banks of river Cauvery... this snap is made of 8 snaps 'stiched' together and you can see that it is not seamless...

@#$%! Blogger is shrinking the image to a thin strip!!

Thanks to zoxcleb's advice I put it up on ImageShack. If your internet connection can handle it, here is a larger version...

Jesse Jaisi Koi Nahi Bhokti....

"Woof woof whine woof woof grrrrrrrrrrowl woof woofwoofwoofwoof whine woof whine woof whine woof woofwoofwoofwoofwoofwoof woofwoof woof woof grrrrrrrrrrowl woof woof woof woof"

Translation: I am Jesse, supposedly the daughter of a Kannada film star's dog. Of course, I do not throw any starry tantrums! When I am hungry, my big soulful eyes look sullen and you know I am upset. Then as soon as my mistress calls out saying that breakfast is ready, I am off in a flash of shiny black fur and then you realise how hungry I was! :-)

Kidding

This kid was sincerely trying to frighten us by saying that he will let loose the dinosaurs that he has back home...

Truly Madly Deeply

I'll be your dream
I'll be your wish
I'll be your fantasy.
I'll be your hope
I'll be your love
Be everything that you need.
I love you more with every breath
Truly madly deeply do...
I will be strong I will be faithful
'Cos I'm counting on a new beginning.
A reason for living.
A deeper meaning.

I want to stand with you on a mountain.
I want to bathe with you in the sea.
I want to lay like this forever.
Until the sky falls down on me...

-Savage Garden

Inside

Tried my hand at photographing interiors.

The Cabin at the Edge of the Universe

...and I bet the Hitchhicker's Guide has overlooked this!

My Castle

Rented a new house. It has a pretty chandelier in the hall!!

Sus Road

On a misty sunday morning...

Art of Sleep

Was travelling in Prashanti express when I met some interesting people. This man was particularly friendly, full of life and enthusiasm. He had a lot of anecdotes to tell us. His good cheer and liveliness was infectious.

The next morning when we woke up to find him sleeping like a baby, without a worry in the whole world.

What I wouldn't give to be able to sleep like this! :-)

Here I Go Again...

This is (one of) my favourite place(s) in the world and I just can't help posting on it now and then...

Woman

8 Point Someone

I've got tagged! Ladies and gentlemen, this is one of those rare moments when we get to see signs of life on this blog!

I have been asked by Everyman to make a list of '8 qualities that I would want in my perfect lover'. Well, I for sure know there is nothing like 'purrrfect' when it comes to humans but what the heck? So, here goes (not in order of importance):

She should be (Yes! It's a SHE!!):

1. having a very good emotional intelligence
2. (preferably) having some inclination to creative arts (if not talent itself!)
3. knowing how to fulfil her 'cuteness potential' ( I mean, she should not be the kind who says, "The only thing I do to look presentable every day is wash my face and comb my hair!")
4. having the guts to be true to be herself and not caring about what people say...
5. having a lot of determination to be happy --a hardcore optimist...
6. having the love for life, overflowing with energy and mischief...
7. having a good sense of humour
8. unhesitant to kick my ass when I act too smart
   

Hmmm... i am already eight! I guess it is so easy to hope to see these in others...

ALIVE!

Live

I guess I will have to live with it...

Angry

Angry with myself...

Summer Storm

A cumulonimbus cloud towers over the outskirts of Mysore city, sometime around 2002.

Mysore and its surrounding areas experience frequent thundershowers from clouds like these, usually during the summer months. Most probably it is these thuderstorms that act like a thermostat keeping Mysore temperatures form rising too much in summer.

As kids we used to curse them for their timing; exactly in the evening ruining our summer fun. These are those rains which brought that warm earthy smell everytime. The mere thought of it makes me feel good!

Dung De Basanti

Yeah! I am so happy about this movie!!! Especially because I never saw it.

The latest victim of this movie was my friend Y. He was outraged by the way the movie makes a mockery of the audience with a plot that is inconsistent and superficial. Unless, it's anything chalega. I heard this first from many friends and then I read it too!

Yes, I know it was stylish, it was cool, bindas and all that sort of thing and of course, and many people are loving it!

This movie would have easily mingled with the other bollywood flicks being churned out except for the tall claims made by the publicity. It would really help if they would not raise our expectations so much with all the hype. The maker should have atleast taken care to see how convincingly he kills the main characters in the end...

My friend Y wished he went to Aksar instead. Atleast he would have seen to it that he left his brain at home before watching it...

I asked another friend D, how he actually found it OK. He said, "Neenu story tho involve avvanu kada!" (I never get involved with the story in the first place!). Yes, the visuals and the fun-stuff in the earlier part of the movie are kinda fun but please leave your brain outside after the first half! This is nothing like Yuva...

Orb2

...and with one last sigh,
freeing the anger with all its might,
it breathed fire into the sky.
With orange photons flooding the air,
it was a silent scream of light…

The Orb

...and the huge, fiery orb lowered itself gently into the backyard of the little cabin by the tree, where it would sulk for the next 12 hrs or so, pondering over what it had seen that day...

In Papa's Lap

The Wait

Silver Sea

After Pooja

The shawl and bag were colorful while the other colors were distracting, so I 'Gimped' them... found this image in one of my folders from last year...

Rising Sun

Short Story

They met in school. They fell in love. They got married.

Men at Lunch

The workers at the construction site beside our flat decided to have lunch...

Kid on Beach

This kid was playing happily all by himself, not caring a damn about what was going on around.

Smiles 2

On the Road

Along the Bangalore-Mysore highway...




Adipampa road, Mysore...



Valmiki road...

TALENT!!!

tal·ent
n

A marked innate ability, as for artistic accomplishment. See Synonyms at ability.
Natural endowment or ability of a superior quality.
A person or group of people having such ability: The company makes good use of its talent.

I realised that 'talent' is wrongly used to refer to the ability to score in exams alone.
No, it isn't only that. If you are good at writing, connecting with people, singing, or anything at all and it comes naturally to you, it is a talent. If you are good at arguing against this, that is a talent too! ;-) If you enjoy it, it's only better.

I stopped enjoying painting and drawing. So I just gave it up. And I am not missing it one bit.

Talent

Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to nurture it in solitude and follow the talent to the dark places where it leads.

-Erica Jong

Vasco 2

Entering the room allotted to us at Lapaz Gardens, we find the AC buzzing. I turn it off and open the window to be greeted by this sight...


The sea is so quiet. We do not know it was there until we are just 2 streets away and we see the sand and feel the breeze. The sand is warm. We spot coconut trees leaning gracefully, tempting us with their cool shadows. We trudge through the sand and then lay sprawled in the shade wondering if a coconut would choose to fall into our faces at this very moment... a heap of engineers we were...




My colleague enjoys the solitude, looking into the strangely silent sea...
Stranger sleeping... blissfully...

Parasailing

Finally, I got my rolls developed. The snaps in the previous Goa post were from borrowed digicams. :-) Here are some.

The under-exposed blob you see on the bottom-right is the boat towing the parasail...

I will post the other snaps later :-)

Wish

Let 2006 bring you growth, happiness and all that sort of thing!

A bit of Vasco and then Goa

On the way to Panaji, we stopped at Vasco Da Gama for breakfast. Since there were two hours before the resort buses would arrive to take us to Panaji, we took a walk down the street in search of the beach and on the way I saw this...



As soon as we landed at the resort, we sat down for lunch, where we were given the welcome drink. Each of the tables had a flower placed in a glass. Beauty in simplicity...



We went to Panjim for shopping. As soon as we got down from the bus, this beautiful building stood there with a pretty palm tree by its side. My Goan colleague tells me it is the Old Medical College...

The sunsets there were quite good too...

I realised that Goa is not at all overrated. It has a charm that very few places can match. This was my first visit but it is certainly not the last! :-)

Different Views

Fardeen Khan marries Natasha
-Times of India

Fardeen, wife stuck in lift for 5 minutes
- Mid Day

Meghalomania

This sprightly damsel, with wit that knows no bounds, makes all other blogs (including this one) look like old farts!! :-))

Swami

"...And yet you are wandering about the house like an unleashed donkey! What preposterous list is this? Do you think rupees, annas and pies drop from the sky?' Swaminathan did not think exactly this, but something quite similar."
-R.K. Narayan's Malgudi Schooldays

Do not know why, but I liked these lines in a warm and fuzzy kind of way. Reading about Swami reminds me of my own childhood. Talking about which reminds me of Mysore... I still remember seeing R.K. Narayan taking a walk among the boulevards of the CFTRI campus. The only reason why we kids knew him was because we had watched Swami and Friends on DD then. Of course, I still remember the episode in which Swami pretends he is on an imaginary horse (or donkey?) which suddenly moves under him and his little topi falls! And I always imagine Swami as a little boy running, never walking... and of course, I still remember the song at the end of each episode which used to go, "Tandaana-tanaa-nanaanaaaaaa..."

Independence

If you are truly experiencing independence, you probably are:

1) Cleaning your own toilet.

2) Cooking your own food.

Time to Crib

1) You are sleeping peacefully. He gets a phone call. The time is 6:30am. He happily starts shouting into the phone and walks all around the house (If it is a mobile, chalte chalte baat karne ke liye haina?), making a point to walk through your room before walking into the balcony. He doesn't bother to close the balcony door and the ice-cold winter air floods the room and invades your blankets! Now, you are NOT sleeping peacefully. AAAAAAAAAARGH!


2) Time is 11pm. He is hungry. He is now the most inspired cook in the world. CLANK CLATTER! CLONK! ...searches for the non-stick frying pan.... heats the oil and adds the onions in one go: HISHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Stir well, or the onions will get burnt!! CLITTER! CLATTER! CLONK! scrape! crape! He scrapes off a lot of the nonstick coating with a hard metal spoon. So what do you have here? Teflon Bhurji! Is it YUM YUM? No...it's EEEOWGGHH!

THE AFTERMATH: You wake up to find that there was either Jackie Chan fighting with someone in the kitchen... or was there a bomb blast? NO! Your room-mate has just cooked. All the plates lay unwashed and he has fled to the office!! @#$%&!!!!

I feel sorry for the girls who will marry such men!

I Have a Dream

I Have a Dream

I have a dream, a song to sing
To help me cope with anything
If you see the wonder of a fairy tale
You can take the future even if you fail
I believe in angels
Something good in everything I see
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me
I’ll cross the stream - I have a dream

I have a dream, a fantasy
To help me through reality
And my destination makes it worth the while
Pushing through the darkness still another mile
I believe in angels
Something good in everything I see
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me
I’ll cross the stream - I have a dream
I’ll cross the stream - I have a dream

I have a dream, a song to sing
To help me cope with anything
If you see the wonder of a fairy tale
You can take the future even if you fail
I believe in angels
Something good in everything I see
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me
I’ll cross the stream - I have a dream
I’ll cross the stream - I have a dream

-ABBA

Burden not Shared

As we returned to Pune, my colleague from abroad remarked that all along the way she observed only women carrying things while men were mostly burdenless. I suddenly realised that was so true... it was always this: either a baby, firewood, or hay... the women would be carrying something or the other while the men walked along hands swaying in the air.

But after travelling for many, many kilometers we did come across a man carrying something and we thought, "Ok, there are exceptions"!

Fond Remembrance

At this hour of sorrow and loss, I stand by your side and share your grief. Let that roll of film rest in peace. And may that roll, which was one of the only witnesses to the amazing time we had, which is all frozen forever on it's undecipherable surface, go to film-heaven and exist among those great slide films which never saw the light of the projector. Amen! (*sniff!* *sob!* *sob!*)

-I dedicate this to my friend who smiled relentlessly to a film suffering from severe amnesia.

Plantain Leaf

A couple if weeks ago, I sat down for a lunch at an Andhra restaurant off Brigade road, Bangalore. The meal was served on plantain leaf. It had been like ages since I had a good meal served on plantain leaf... or three days to be precise ;-) . I just remembered I had such a meal at home for Diwali lunch. And for once, like a good Andhraite, I got to dig into 'mountains' of rice! The flavour that the leaf adds to the hot rice and dal curry is unmatched!

The leaf in the picture is from our garden in Mysore.

It's Either Mysore or Bull

At Mysore, we visited Chamundi Hill and on the way to the top, we saw this interesting sign. It shows the way to Mysore city and the diversion to the Nandi statue. But the English version has more meaning than intended! ;-) I actually agree with that interpretation too. If you're not going to Mysore, you are missing a lot.

Hmmm... I Got Tagged

Well, I thought so few people apparently read my blog that getting tagged would be as likely as finding life on another planet!! But I got tagged by Flickering Flame. So, finally there is only one more thing left to do: find life on another planet.

(I wrote these last week and some have changed)

7 things I plan to do-

1. Watch the movie Hanuman (I did!).
2. Gain a couple of kgs (of muscle!).
3. Buy a Samsonite (I got VIP instead, I mean the suitcase! ).
4. Meet more beautiful minds (Not ignited minds, they are a fire hazard).
5. Travel to Goa (And see the portugese architecture...).
6. Conduct further research on what women want.
7. Kick a few assorted butts.

7 things I can't (or won't) do-

1. Hate Arunima.
2. Not ROTFLMAO after reading Dave Barry.
3. Get my dad to sell his 25 year old (young?) Bajaj Chetak.
4. Get my LG phone to recognise the numbers of friends who call me often (the dumb chunk of silicon and plastic!).
5. Get rid of my LG phone --I am married to it (rather to a service provider famous for their non-'reliability'! <:- (...
6. Remember names of people I am introduced to 2 minutes ago (Yes, that's pathetic).
7. Tag anyone.
   

7 things I say most often (in no particluar order)-

1. Hi!
2. Thank you
3. Sh**!
4. Oh my God!
5. Wowww!
6. Great!
7. Ya!