Jog!

Am talking about the jog falls actually - raja, rani, roarer and rocket! :-) Some views of the falls, taken on Aug 15th here. Will post the other snaps and a report sometime later.

Yeh Hum Aagaye Hain Kahan

It was quite sometime I went out of Bangalore with my friends. Friendship Day [Sunday, Aug 5th 2007] was indeed a very good excuse!
The plan was to go to Mysore and loiter around. But as it is with every great plan of ours, it quite didn't work out that-a-way. With a few quick calls and messages to colleagues, we decided on going to Gopalaswami Betta, near Bandipur, approx 230 kms.

We started off at around 9.15. The weather turned out to be tailor-made for a long drive. Dark clouds near the horizon, cool winds, occasionally a drizzle or a downpour. It was lovely.

Enroute

Notice the rain (pouring in streams) way back towards the left in this pic?

We first went to Mysore, where sush had some work. I grabbed this opportunity and coaxed swa and sheetz to visit St.Philomena's Church. :-) Swa did find certain memorials very interesting, but I dare not say anything here! After a quick photo-shoot, we went to re-join 'the gang' and set off to G.BeTTa.

Some diff views of the church this time!

We had to pass NanjanGuD on way, so we made a stop there. There were a lot of people around, and so had to wait for sometime to get a darshan. It was already around 3.00, so quickly packed lunch from the Kamat nearby and set off to the BeTTa.

The temple

The road till GunDlapeT, around 30 kms. [the directions to which, we confirmed and re-confirmed from the localities] was just too good, and from there on, it became a lil jittery. But good nevertheless. Can’t complain when you have such a good weather for company, can ya?

On the way

We passed the famous sunflower gardens on the way, but the cattle/sheep herders started asking money to all who cared to stop and get through the barbed fence. After admiring them and quick snaps, we set off towards the betta, without further distractions. It was almost 4.30 you see, and the entry was to be closed at around 5.00/5.30.

Suryakanti

The view of the mist-covered hillock, the rain, the wind was just too good to be true. It was...well...perfect!

Views

Finally reached the temple on the top at around 5.00. It was pitch-dark inside the temple, so we went almost towards the sanctum sanctorum! [always wanted to tell that :-) ]. The god, Krishna with the flute, was I think covered in turmeric [alankara], and looked radiant! The visibility outside was just a few meters and so we couldn't venture downwards along a path [which I later got to know was the way to a lake where elephants come every morning!].

In front of the mist-covered temple

Misty

The weather, the constant wind had a very dream-like quality, well, almost. What spoiled it was certain group of people, who were drinking and behaving very un-dignified, to say the least!

:-( They totally spoilt the sanctity of the place.

We quickly left the place, had lunch [at 5.30, yes!] and then set off towards Bangalore. After some time, Swa's Ipod battery wore out, so Nar stated singing Kishore kumar songs at first, and then other songs, with Sheetz providing the necessary chorus ;-). She did go wrong at places [which we dutifully corrected!] We reached Bangalore at around 9.45 and I was home by 10.30.

All in all, a wonderful day, it was!

He is now a year old.....

Yep! My nephew turned a year old on Aug10th! Time sure seems to be in a hurry! :-)

He has started walking now and wants to exercise his new-found skill every single minute he is awake. He has grown remarkably tall, which only means a quick re-vamp of the house - blocking drawers/shoe racks he can reach and pull out, moving vessels and other things to upper racks. Keeping his grandparents very active, to say the least!

Still speaks gibberish and tries imitating his chikkamma's naa-na-na-naa-na! :-) Loves going out of the house and calling every person who passes by. If the passer-by does not acknowledge him, well..he sure knows how to make them! A true leo cub in the making. :-) Time is not only fleeting, it also promises fun...loads of fun!
Here is a sweet, simple poem I came across, dedicated to Simba!

It's your first birthday, baby,
One candle on your cake;
Proud parents stare in wonder
At each new move you make.

We join in celebration,
As this special date arrives,
For baby has brought pleasure
Into all our lives.

We look forward now to seeing
How you progress and grow,
From the cute and tiny infant
You were one year ago.

So dig into your icing;
Enjoy your presents, too.
The reason for this day
Is a special person--you!

[Baby's First Birthday - By Joanna Fuchs]

All in a day's work

I am not able to express entirely what’s there on my mind for sometime now. But yesterday I could indeed put a few into words and realized a few. And here they are…

- It's not everyday you get emotionally attached to people you work with. But sometimes it does happen. And when different/separate paths loom ahead, the detachment is what is really painful.

- You just cannot bring yourself to speak when there's that feeling of a knot in your throat, and tears threatening to emerge the moment you even think of opening your mouth.

- You can indeed cry your heart out and laugh your guts out – all within a matter of a few hours!!!

In other things,

Aap Ka Suroor [The Moviee-The Real Luv Story] is hilarious. You just can’t stop laughing at the absurdity. The only thing which I was not amused with – Usage of the Gayatri mantra. Nevertheless, go to the movie with a cheerful and fun-loving gang and be entertained!

Love at first sight

Well..that's the theme of this year's IIFA awards at Yorkshire. It's to describe Yorkshire I suppose. The telecast of which is being aired now on Star Plus.

Hmm..the huge ensemble of actors - yesteryear's and today's, sure make it look interesting. Look's like all the Industry's who's who are in. Rani's absence is profound [considering, she just won the best leading actor-female award, which Karan Johar accepted on her behalf, asserting the fact that he was NOT Rani..Like we doubted that!!!!]. Hrithik won the best Leading Role- Male and the Most Glamorous 2007 or something like that...for Krrish and Dhoom2 respectively. Yippeeee!!!

Aishwarya looked very pretty and happy :-) and she also won the Glamor award for Dhoom2 too. SRK did not turn up too. I surely missed Saif's and SRK's antics as hosts [though irritable sometimes] Instead had to do with a very bland Lara Dutta and enduring Boman Irani as Spiderman [or Superman??], James Bond, Raj Kapoor [singing Jeena yahan and dressed like Raj Kapoor in this song] and believe it or not, wearing the Scottish Skirt [donno the exact name] and trying to dance like one!! Sheesh....

Other than Abhishek's performance [with Amitabh joining in later] and Shilpa Shetty's grooves, I think the others - Saif, Bips, Akshay Kumar were ok-ok. And did I see Aftab and Emraan performing..puh-leez!! who selected them???

It also looked like the actors were busy promoting their new movies:
- Jhoon Barabar Jhoom
Abhishek's performance
- Apne
Dharmendra got an award, something close to life-time achievement I guess, and invited not only Sunny and Bobby [who was crying..yeah...or rather being emotional about his dad being the best!], but also the director Anil Sharma. Oh..the award to Veeru was presented by our very own Original Jai. Clippings of Koffee , feat. Jaya Bachchan [telling she'd loved to have played Basanti instead, coz she thought Dharmendra looked like a Greek-god] was also shown; followed by a lot of Dharmendra's snaps. It was a nice touch! :-)
- A Partner
Sallu bhai dancing to the tunes of Salaam-e-ishq and Govinda joining a lil later [ for songs of Partner I suppose]

The trailer of the film on global warming -Global Cool was shown, which featured Amitabh with Tony Blair, among others!

RDB and Lage Raho took most of the awards, which wasn't unexpected.
And I must confess, Ash and Abhi looked good together.

Update on Play - Mysooru Mallige

The play Mysooru Mallige [which I had written about here] will be on at RangaShankara on June 14th Thursday at 7.30.

Check it out.It's def worth a watch.

GokarNa

From KemmangunDi, we went to Jog and then to Gokarna [Om beach].
Very hot and humid around April-May time-frame. Best to avoid coastal areas at this time of the year.

Landscape on the way

Om beach

KemmangunDi

Couldn't write up an account of this trip for some time now and now I lack the motivation to do so. Will post a few pics instead.

Our goal..to reach the z point



En-route..



View from beyond the z-point

Some abstracts

Dekho karne lagi hoon..mein boondon se baatein

Phew. The hot and oh-my-god-its-so-hot!!! weather of the past many days has mercifully taken a break today. A few of us in office decided to go for a walk inside the campus. The clouds turned from ashen-gray to pitch dark in an instant. Slowly, but steadily, it started to rain..some of them went back to the cozy confines of the office. But we adventurous 6, continued [or rather started] the walk and did it rain!! The company was enjoyable too. The rain, well, I lack the adjectives to describe it...don’t want to ruin it with my lousy description you see...it should be experienced!

It was worth the cold [oh..it was cold too..and my allergy shot up, and I became the victim of a very VERY bad joke!! :-)] stares we got from the people sipping coffee in the enclosures near the entrance, the look of amusement on the people in the reception, the "how come your hair is wet???" queries. :-)

And it's still pouring out there.. :-) the view from my window is truly awesome! :-D

Pal

Hum rahe ya na rahe kal
Kal yaad aayenge yeh pal
Pal, yeh hain pyaar ke pal
Chal, aa mere sang chal
Chal, soche kya
Chhoti si hai zindagi
Kal mil jaaye to hogi khushnaseebi

Hum rahe ya na rahe, yaad aayenge yeh pal