Din dhal jaaye haye

As the sun sets, its time to bid adieu to 2008 and welcome the year 2009. Hope the coming year is more peaceful, happier and fun!

Pic taken by Josh at BaaDa beach,Kumta.

The day that was

After a long long time, spent an entire day reading a book, from start to finish! :-)
Well, the power-cut from 10.00 to 3.00 in our locality made me do it. Nevertheless, felt really good to do nothing other than read a novel throughout the day. I even caught a quick siesta too! An idyllic Sunday well spent!

Sticky keys.. Sticky keys...

Oh no.. Its not a variation of Phoebe's Smelly Cat! It is the feature which comes to my rescue when I encounter weird behavior with Windows.
I know, i know.. I can already hear all you linux geeks sneering away to glory!

What is the weird behavior you ask? Well, sometimes when I have many Firefox tabs open (>15) for a long time (through multiple hibernations), the keyboard starts acting up. I click on some links, and instead of opening it in a new tab, it starts downloading them! Typing 'b' behaves like ctrl/alt+b.
Happens sometimes with Notepad too. ctrl+c, ctrl+v does not work.

I did discover an awesome solution though! Press the 'Shift' key more than 5 times and you get the Sticky-keys window like this:




Clicking 'Cancel' makes the keyboard normal again!!! :-D And it works every time!!!

My work makes me take loads of snapshots as it involves a 3rd party GUI. Guess it shows huh?!?!

Dekho baarish ho rahi hain...

its raining its raining its raining..

No I am not a fan of Anu Malik's singing. It's just how Bangalore is for the past 2-3 days. Feels awesome most of the times. The only problems being waking up early in the morning to catch the office cab and walking on what must have been a road, but is now a muddy pool.

It's like when we (office gang) visited Coorg/Jog falls sometime ago.(and that is in 2006/2007 :-( ) Cloudy, rainy, DREAMY...So many fond memories..so many lively conversations and fun-time. Sigh!!! It sure will be difficult to work today!

One pic from the Jog trip!

The festival of lights and colors

This was how Deepawali was this time too. Lots of people, fun, food (yeah, yeah! :-p), lights and colors. :-)

Visited the Innovative Film City near Bidadi. General timepass place, very expensive though. Liked the Ripley's Believe it or not Museum the best. Mirror Maze was fun too.

Tried my hands at Rangoli after a long long time too! :-)

After the evening prayers

The Rangoli ( a tad unsymmetrical) :-D

Weekend - The end or the start?

Got a forward in an official mailer list today.
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/91aug/rybczynski-p1.htm

This article is very old (August 91 - the page states), but is relevant even today!
It talks about work, leisure; how the week-end came to exist and how it evolved over time. Makes a very nice read, albeit lengthy.

Josh and I were talking on similar lines last weekend about this whole concept of doing 'something' (read going out, watching movies etc.) during weekends. I was for the cause , of course!

Gidda's artwork!

My nephew has a new-found interest. Doodling!
The end result is a set of lines on a paper or on hands (his or anybody else's around him) or walls even!! The mothers - his and mine, have a great time showing off his skillful art. ;-)

Yesterday, he laboriously removed the cap of each of the 10 odd sketch pens and started 'drawing' on a piece of paper. :-) The person in charge of replacing the caps was of course, your's truly!

This was when he was half-way through the drawing.


(The arc of a circle and a line at the right is his mother's contribution! :-D)

This was when he finally completed. Such brilliant color combination na?




p.s: 'gidda' is how he pronounces his name - skanda!

September of 2008..

..has been (or rather is) one of the strangest months at office.

No Bhuv, no Sudks, no San, all at once! :-(
Well, thankfully one of the above is not permanent.

More words added in the times-a-changing chapter of life perhaps?!?!

lesson 2 - City at Night

This was the title of the poem written by a 4th Standard kid, Ashutosh, on the back of a hand-made card. There were cardboard cutouts of flowers pasted on the card too. Very sweet! :-)

A group of volunteers from our office are helping the security and house-keeping staffs' kids, with their education and other needs. So far they have been provided with monthly rations (rice, dal, etc) and payment of their school fees. Monetary contributions from the employees have ensured this scheme to last for a year!

The kids had come to our office yesterday and the volunteers spent time with them, helping them make greeting cards and interacting/discussing with them about what they need and what we can do to help them. Couldn't attend the same, but I got one of those cards for contributing towards the cause! The card did brighten my Monday morning. :-) Will definitely try to volunteer actively in future activities.

The first page of the card. Will post clear snaps, if possible, later.


This poem was in the last page.

City At Night
-------------
When the night begins to fall
And the sky begins to glow
You look up and see the tall
City of light begin to grow --
In rows and little golden squares
The lights come out. First here, then there
Behind the windowpanes as though
A million billion bees had built
Their golden hives and honeycombs
Above you in the air.
-Mary Britton Miller

Kaale kaale baadal..

..jab bhi chaayenge..
yeh din pyaare pyaare yaad aayenge..


memories.. wonder what we would do without them! Sometimes memories are the only way we get to see and cherish people not there amongst us anymore...

and at other times, even if given the opportunity to relive them, situations don't let you.. and it does lead to a lot of disappointment.. in others and in yourself..

someone gets closer to you than life.. some ppl who are an integral part of life, get farther away..

changing times.. changing life.. finding a balance is hard but definitely not impossible..

life sure is a roller-coaster ride..
with a lot of highs and few lows, surely it is a good ride! (touchwood)

random thoughts on a cloudy dull friday morning (esp. if you are down with a cold!)

Also wishing Sudks the very best of luck in his new venture! and loads of 'happyness'!

Flowers in the park

I seem to be obsessed with macro shots of flowers! I do use the in-built macro function of course. Reminds me, high time I started exploring the manual settings!

Some images of common flowers captured at Nandi Hills.



Bland title I know.. but all I could come up with were lyrics of Hindi songs with phool or rang in it. Somehow decided against using them this time!

MaLe ninthu hodha mele..

Its the awesome-weather-time in Bangalore again. :-) A light drizzle almost the entire day and heavy rains in the late evening/night. The drizzle makes the walks an absolute delight!
But the rains also mean landslides around the Ghats and floods which means going anywhere in South India is not advisable! There goes a long weekend down the drains.

Now, you wonder what is the relation to the title of the post. Actually nothing. I just wanted to post this song (mentioned in the title) from the Kannada movie Milana and the above short documentary on rain just followed!

Ok...back to the song..Pras was talking about this song when the movie was released. I somehow, did not follow up on it. Finally I did get a chance to hear it around Oct/Nov last yr. Am still hooked on to it!

What makes it special?
- Shreya Ghoshal's singing (the feel she puts into it is incredible!).
- The video is very neatly shot (actually makes you watch the movie. I asked San/Sudks and didn't get a good enough review though!)
- Lyrics - Jayant Kaikani strikes again (except the 'dooravaNi' part)
- Add to it reasons which instantly puts me into a flash-back mode! memories... bitter ones...sweet ones..
- and oh.. i have to mention this.. I was listening to songs on my cellphone while traveling back from office yesterday.. It was drizzling and then the rain suddenly stopped. Guess what was the song which started playing at that point?!?! Nice co-incidence na? :-)

For now, just listen to the song here: http://www.kannadaaudio.com/Songs/Moviewise/home/Milana.php (Shreya and Sonu Nigam version)
Video here: http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=WdQ2jB-x4KU

As always the lyrics follow! :-)

Movie: Milana (2007)
Singers: Sonu Nigam, Shreya Ghoshal
Music: Mano Murthy
Lyrics: Jayanth Kaikani

MaLe ninthu hodha mele hani ondhu mooDidhe
maathella mugidha mele dhani ondhu kaaDidhe
heLuvudhu yenu uLidhu hogidhe
heLali hege thiliyadhaagidhe

novinalli jeeva jeeva aritha nanthara
nalivu bere yenidhe preethi anthara
ninna haaDinalli indhu bereva kaathara
ondhe saari nee keLeya ee swara
manasalli chooru jaaga bekidhe
keLali hege thiLiyadhaagidhe

MaLe ninthu hodha mele hani ondhu mooDidhe
maathella mugidha mele dhani ondhu kaaDidhe

kaNNu theredhu kaaNuva kanase jeevana
saNNa haTava maaDidhe hrudaya ee dina
yedheya dooravaNiya kareya ringaNa
keLu jeevave yethakee kampana
hrudayavu ille kaLedhu hogidhe
huDukale beke thiLiyadhaagidhe

MaLe ninthu hodha mele hani ondhu mooDidhe
maathella mugidha mele dhani ondhu kaaDidhe
heLuvudhu yenu uLidhu hogidhe
heLali hege thiliyadhaagidhe

Cauvery theeradhalli

Different outing this one. It was not the usual office gang, but with my new team for the successful (until we get feedback from the customer!) release of our beta product. San was a little apprehensive about joining as she had other engagements, but she finally made it! :-) The remarkable thing was A joined too!!!

I organized an outing for the first time.. thanks to Sudks for that! (being the constant organizer of our previous trips helped in thinking like him :-) and the TT booking) The plan was to go to Jungle Lodges in Bheemeshwari, (also called the Cauvery Fishing Camp) around 100 odd kms from Bangalore, for a day outing. We decided that it should fall on a weekday, and we chose Wednesday! Escaping into the wilderness in the middle of the week is truly fun.

After initial hiccups, things started to look bright - the dumb-charades and antakshari (but of course!) in the TT was good fun. We reached the place around 11 am (a good 1 1/2 hrs behind schedule). After some refreshments, we were frisked off for a 'trek' by the local guide. So we started walking on the forest path for around 15 min and then climbed a small steep mountain for another 15 min. This was a lil tricky. We were not able to get a good grip because of a lot of loose stones lying around.


At the top of the peak, there is a watch tower, which gives a very good view of the surrounding green canopy and the flowing river.





We spent around 30-45 min in that tower and then off we went down for lunch. After that, we just hung around the banks of the river Cauvery (am I the only one who remembers the kannada movie 'Belli moDagaLu' whenever I hear/utter the word Cauvery???). There were swings and hammocks and we had a delightful time swinging and well.. lazing around. A lot of photography sessions happened too.



Around 3.30 pm, the guide asked us if we were ready for a coracle ride - a short 3-4 kms one. The group had no qualified swimmer and even the assurance of a life jacket did not appeal to us. Add to this, a big crocodile resting on a rock in the river! Few of them decided to try it and the enthusiasm gradually spread to the others and we decided to go for it. San and Raji were the motivators, I must say! The ride was nice, but as the coracle made its way through the rapids, it did feel scary.


A refreshing Tea break later, a quick cricket session followed. Then, very reluctantly, we started off towards the city and its madness! A totally fun-filled, much needed refreshing break.
Its a different story that we all needed a day or two to recover from the fatigue!

More pics below.

Khilte hai gul yahaan



Shooting out



Serene?!

Khel khel mein

In the last 2 days I have realized how much fun it is to actually play games - whether it is cricket (my hand-eye coordination is very very poor, so you get the picture :-D) or Scrabble!

The last I played scrabble was when-i-was-a-lil-girl!! So when Josh bought the game board, I was thrilled!

Seeing the rules, seeing the board with its double letter, triple word scores, the cute milk-chocolaty square chunks of letters ;-) was very refreshing. The game was too!
Forming words with the letters that are available, trying to outdo the other with better scoring words, trying to block the opponent from forming better words - very engaging game this one. And oh! i.q. and quo are not valid, even though you get a high score! :-p

Here's the picture of the board after the game finished. Guess what, I won!! :-)

Silence at dusk!

Was browsing through some old folders and came across the snaps of the Hampi trip. Here is one of the snaps - of the Vijaya Vittala temple. Go there during sunset, it is at its best!




One more snap around Hampi at dusk.

Hum saath saath hain..

Teamwork pays..at office and at home!! :-)

Glimpses of Darjeeling

The outskirts of Darjeeling is pretty nice filled with rows and rows of tea gardens. Feels very calm. Wish the same can be said about the city. Lots of litter and chaos everywhere. Roads to get to the city are also not that great.

The bright and not-so-bright spots:
-- Tiger hill view point - Where you get to see a magnificent view of Mt.Kanchenjunga and the entire Eastern Himalayan Range, also Mt.Everest, at sunrise. It does come at a cost though - waking up at 4.15 and enduring the cold. Unluckily, there was mist covering the entire place and we could barely see 10ft ahead of us! To catch a glimpse of the mountain range, best time is after October.

-- Ghoom monastery - well.. i do have a soft-corner for monasteries, so it will be on my must-watch/best enjoyed list any day (yeah..even at 5.30 am!) The rows of hawkers trying to sell their merchandise around the place was not impressive (you would probably find them around all popular tourist centers)


-- Himalayan Mountaineering Institute - One word: Awesome!!! and that also would be an understatement. A visit to this place is a must and is truly a very humbling experience. The Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological park, near this Institute, can be avoided.


-- Japanese Peace Pagoda - Pleasing. The temple's architecture, prayers, instruments (for the lack of a better word) used are quite unique.

-- Tibetian Self-help Center - Nothing much to see except a museum which contains some nice facts about Tibet's rulers and their family; a shop with tibetian clothes, paintings, purses, bags etc. The handloom center was nice, with weaving machines and women actually knitting!




-- Ava art gallery - Quite nondescript gallery of paintings by the late Ava Devi. But after the initial resistance, once you enter the place, its a world of its own! Mind-blowing paintings ( very different styles) and the human profile pictures are just too good.

-- Bhatasia loop - A train track or loop surrounding a War memorial. Best avoided if the crowd is too much. Add to that, the hawkers comfortably settled on the loop itself. Very chaotic.

More snaps:

Khil rahi hai kali kali..

Woh bheege pal

Ta ra ra ra rum..ta ra rum pum..

This song is from the movie 'Ta ra rum pum'. One of the many motivational, never-give-up kinda songs. Shreya Ghoshal's soothing voice. Simple lyrics. Easy on the ears. Gets me going when I feel dull.

Listen to the song here: Ta ra ra ra rum
One peice of advice, if you have not watched this song already, then please refrain from doing so! It sucks bigtime.

Music: Vishal-Shekhar, Lyrics - Jaaved Akhtar

Lyrics:
-------
Ho agar kabhi koi gham to bilkul na tum ghabraana
ta ra ra ra rum.. ta ra rum pum..
Bas rahe yakeen yeh tumko khushiyon ko to hain aana
ta ra ra ra rum.. ta ra rum pum..
raat hain to savera bhi hoga
hain safar toh basera bhi hoga
gham ke aage muskuraake gaaye hum
ta ra ra ra rum.. ta ra rum pum..

Zindagi mein koi bhi kami ho
Palkon pe jo zara bhi nami ho
aansu na bahana tum dukh na uTaana tum
haar na jaana duniya se...
Darna kabhi na tum rehna na gumsum
haske bataana duniya se..
aayenge phir se din khushiyon ke badlega yeh mausam
ta ra ra ra rum.. ta ra rum pum..

koi aandhi jo aaye to aaye
dil mein hain jo diya bhuj na paaye
kaali kaali raatein ho chaahein jaisi baatein ho
humko hain chalte rehna
jo bhi aaye mushkil Dare nahi kabhi dil
apna to hain yeh kehna
lamhe bhar ko chaayi ghaTa to dhoop na ho maddham
ta ra ra ra rum.. ta ra rum pum..

Survival

This is one end of the Rebdantse (ancient capital of Sikkim) ruins. The walk to this place is very nice and the entire area is neat and well-maintained.

Hoovindha hoovige haaruva dhumbi..

Learnings at work!

Mistake 1: Placing a cup full of Tea right next to the laptop
Mistake 2: Not gulping down the tea quickly
Mistake 3: Whacking the tea-cup, which was full of T (Refer Mistake 2)

Result: Laptop not powering on. Spending Monday morning running to the IT help-desk (breathing a sigh of relief to know that the hard disk is safe and sound) and finding a replacement to the laptop.

Moral of the story 1: Make sure you do not spill tea on the side of the laptop where the hard disk is located!

Moral of the story 2: If MOTS-1 does not hold good, take hard-disk back-ups regularly!!

Deja view?!?

As San says 'History repeats!'. :-) Moved to a new cube this week! Instead of writing all the details again, will link this post instead. :-D
It's almost the same as that post, just make it a higher floor and a better view.. but the outside world looks tinted!!

Waqt batayega

As Monica says in one of the F.R.I.E.N.D.S episodes when Rachael moves out of the apartment:
"Its like the end of an era!".

In the past 1 month, one such spectacular era, spanning 18 long years came to an end. A rightful end I must say.

No words to describe the companionship, fights, laughter, tears, troubles, confusions, ideas, ideologies, travel, walks (to name a few) which Bhuv and I shared. Will miss them big time.
Our paths will definitely cross/meet again. It might not be the same as before. At the same time, it might remain just the same! (touchwood)

The new chapter ahead of us promises to be equally interesting. Here's wishing Bhuv a great new beginning of an even more grand and happy life ahead.

BahaLa oLLeyavru nam Missu

:-D
Anybody remembers this song? It used to come on DD many many years back ago(10-15 years probably). Heard this on a radio station (No prizes for guessing which channel this was. :-D ) in the morning has been my Earworm throughout the day. The first stanza goes something like this:

bahaLa oLLeyavru nam Miss-u
Yen keLidhru yes yes-u
Nagtha nagtha maathaaDthaare
Schooligella famous-u!

Office office

Back to work after a month long vacation! :-)
Feels good to be back here..will worry about the work backlog a lil later!

Ting!

Na.. not raising a toast. Nor is my nephew rattling the toys/kitchen utensils - they usually go something like Bang! Clatter! Clatter! Bang!

This is the sound that goes with the sudden re-appearance of my halo! (Yeah, yeah..it had pretty much diminished after this post and its corrections! ;-) )


Thought wouldn't post about it, considering a certain south-canara born, linux-geek's [ an amateur photographer as well..his pictures of the blue sky are really good!! ] reputation is at stake. But certain events in the aft'noon walk made me re-think and finally..for the greater good, I decided to pass on my knowledge. Many people might be benefited by this selfless act of mine, you see!


So without much ado, here goes the enlightening fact:
W660i picture quality rocks!!!

what clarity! The colors, people, their expressions - all captured beautifully. So life-like!!! ;-)

p.s: Credit must also go to the remarkable timing and sensibility of the photographer! :-)
p.s.2: Due to stringent copyright policies, I will not be able to share the picture in question.

Ek Radha Ek Meera

Got the link of a contestant of Star Voice of India, Anwesha, singing this song. I totally love this song and listening to it after a long time truly made my evening. Thanks Bhuv dear! :-)
The different forms of love.. beautifully woven into words.. Check it out here.
The original, sung by Lata Mangeshkar is here.

Lyrics:
-------

Ek Raadha Ek Meera..
Dono ne Shyam ko chaaha
Antar kya dono ki chaah mein bolo
Ek prem deewani Ek daras deewani
Ek Raadha, Ek Meera...

Raadha ne madhuban mein DoonDa
Meera ne man mein paaya
Raadha jise kho baithi woh Govind
Meera haath bhi ..... (*)
Ek Murali Ek Paayal, Ek Pagali, Ek Ghaayal
Antar kya dono ki preet mein bolo
Ek soorat lubhaani, Ek moorat lubhaani
Ek prem deewani Ek daras deewani

Meera ke prabhu giridhar naagar
Radha ke manmohan
Radha nit shringaar kare
Aur Meera ban gayi jogan
Ek raani Ek daasi, dono hari prem ki pyaasi
Antar kya dono ki tripthi mein bolo
Ek jeet na maani, Ek haar na maani
Ek prem deewani Ek daras deewani

Ek Raadha Ek Meera.....

(*) Different sites have different wordings in that line and I couldn't figure it out either.

Kabhi alvida na kehna

Well.. you can't say goodbye to someone who is very much a part of you right?!

Anyway, our office gang went on a trip (probably one which will be cherished by all for many reasons) to Anejhari nature camp near Kollur. The place was pretty nice, but not all that clean. The best part was the fact that the camp, as well as the falls, is completely isolated from civilization, almost amidst a forest!
The trek to the ArshinagunDi falls was awesome, through a jungle, avoiding leeches, admiring the forest, the trees and flowers, the light and shadows...


Most of them almost gave up at one point of the other. Very tiring it was.
The falls was a welcome relief. Not much water, but the pool near the falls was peaceful.





The next day, after a quick visit to Kollur Mookambika devi temple, the gang tried their hands at kayaking on the river Varahi. Needless to say, I made myself busy with Shhande's camera :-)


River Varahi


Sailing through the storms?


YeLe chiguru..


loved the greens in this one.


berry berry!


Mimosa pudica :-D

After lunch, sudks made a quick decision, and as a result we found ourselves climbing the Agumbe ghats (quite a fuss my tummy made over this!) and made it on time to watch the sunset. What a sight that was! Truly awesome. Some pics from Sudks here.
The next decision was to visit Pabba's in Mangalore (but, of course, how could we miss that out of this trip!?!?!) As always, it was almost closing time when we reached there. We quickly made our orders and for the first time I had a non-chocolate ice-cream!! :-) Reached Bangalore on Sunday morning.

The trip had its moments:
- 2 friends waiting for the rest on the banks of Varahi - one reading, the other 'contemplating' ;-)
- Singing happy birthday in the TT, for dkoya.
- The camera experiments in the camp!
- Experiencing nature and seeing it "through my eyes rather than the camera's" (as someone had 'advised' :-) , but this was just because my camera conked up during the trip!)
....missed some more, which were the best..how ironic! will update as and when I recollect.