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: