Busy Days!

The month went by with lot of events, lot of work; finished the Office sports magazine. The last edition covered the thoughts of all the writers and I am happy the way it came out.

We went to Mangalore during the end of November to attend some functions, one of which was Bhoota Kola (Holy Spirit worship). I got to watch the art of Kola very closely, how everything is still made using naturally available items such as tender coconut leaves, banana sap as threads. I wish to return back to this art form with great detail again and will record them extensively in the future. In this visit I closely observed them make those ornaments of the leaves, the process of getting possessed and the patri’s discussing about gold ornaments that they had just ordered, other performance booked for the year and recent visit to putaparthi to present their art form.

Even though Kola is more than just an art form and involves a belief that the patri is possessed by the Holy Spirit who has the capability to answer your queries being a voice of the Holy Spirit, I still saw it just as an art form that I wished would never get extinct.

Back at work the days were extremely busy with work and late night meetings that kept me away from the blog world. But during that was happening another interesting event took place – The midnight marathon. A few of us at office got together and started to practice for the marathon, we ran around 5Kms daily by 32 Mins. The team spirit and company was the most exciting of all and on the final day (Dec-11) it was great participation from many of us. I ran for the fun marathon and completed it within half an hour. We were there all night till the other events happened. In the morning, some of us drove to Chikamagalur for a friend’s engagement.

Pictures from Midnight Marathon

Deepavali!

We had a weeklong vacation for Kannada Rajyothava and Deepavali. After returning from Sira, rest of the days was spent at home relaxing. I painted this peacock for a friend who expressed a desire to have one of my paintings.

My bush beans have yielded several pods and the Sevanthige flowers have blossomed all together.

After playing shuttle badminton all day Wednesday (3rd) at a friend’s township indoor stadium, I set off on a long drive to Coimbatore on Thursday morning. It was surprising to find the roads so well (4 lane) from Bangalore to almost near Avinashi. The roads are very good and it reminded me of my drives in the US, I covered the 350KMs in 6 hours with only two stops, one for breakfast and other for fuel.

Captured some fireworks from the terrace.


Malampuzha dam (near palghat) is a nice place with some spectacular view of the Western Ghats.

Sira Taluk (Tumkur Again)

A year back friend Mak, requested all of us in the office to collect some Kannada books that he would then give it to a NGO that was supposed to visit a Government school in a small village of Kaggaladu in Sira Taluk of Tumkur. Subbu and I picked few books for the kids but unfortunately we could not make it for the visit and all the books remained with us. So after one year, taking advantage of the week long holiday we had for Deepavali, we decided to drive down there on Saturday the30th Of October.

We started at around 9:00 AM and reached Kaggaladu at around 12:00 PM. The school was closed but the nursery was open for some preparations for the Rajyothsava. So we handed over the books to the teachers there and then walked to the two lakes which from Jan to June houses several Painted storks and grey Heron. Unfortunately for us none of the birds had yet arrived. We walked by the fields and the villagers were nice enough to give us some fresh groundnuts that they were harvesting.

We were lucky to spot one Grey Heron before leaving.

At Sira, we had lunch at a dabha. Tasty egg burji, Dal and Baingan dish with roti made up a good and heavy lunch. Next we decided to explore Sira…

History – Sira Town was one of south India's strategically important places prior to the British Raj. It was ruled by the Bijapur Kings from 1638 to 1687. It was the capital of the erstwhile Suba or Province of Sira of the Mughal Empire that lasted from 1687 to 1757. The Marathas wrested the province from Mughals and held it from 1757 to 1759, when the Mughals regained it. Haidar Ali declared himself the Nawab of the province in 1761 only to loose to it to the Marathas from 1766 until 1774 when his son Tipu Sultan, captured it for him.

We drove to the Sira Kasturi Rangappa Nayaka Fort which remains in ruins today. Lot of reconstruction work is going on though.

Our next stop was eighteenth century mosque – Jumma Masjid built in the 18th century. The mosque has a beautiful architect. The interiors have granite walls with pictures of text from the holy book and clocks showing time at important places such as Mecca etc. Mak, performed his Afternoon Namaz here.

We drove to wrong places in search of some Khan garden and sone kalash ka makaan after which we drove to Malik Rehan durgah. This is mausoleum over the erstwhile Sira province's governor Mallik Rehan's grave. Mallik Rehan was the Subahdar or Governor of Sira from 1638 to 1650. Some locals revere Mallik Rehan as a pious man and call him Hazrath Mallik Rehan Rahmatullah Alai.


On our way back at Sebbi we stopped at a nice and famous Narasimha temple with murals painted on the inner walls of the main shrine.

Shivagange

It’s been a long time since a good hike, so I planned this one along with family…My wife P and cousin N. We left Bangalore at around 7:00 AM with the car loaded with water and food. We took the NICE road till Tumkur road and then the New expressway past Nelamangala. After a few kilometers from the Nelmangala junction just before Dabaspet junction is the left diversion to Shivagange (6KMS). We stopped on this route finding a nice place for breakfast. After filling the stomach we reached the base of Shivagange, a mighty rock with several attractions at every stage of climb.

After an hour’s climb you reach Pathala gange, with a small cave temple with natural spring. Another half an hour climb you reach a small place with Shiva idols. Devotees are requested to take bricks to this point for a construction work in progress, so we thought of carrying some on the way up.

The last stretch of the climb is very steep with steps cut on a huge rock. As this was a Sunday, there were several people doing this hike. Most of them were villagers and even old men and women around 60’s.

At the top of the rock s a Nandi statue and two temples of Gangadeshwara. After relaxing at the summit for a while and headed back. The view from the top was nice and we spotted a nice construction resembling a Kerala style temple, so we decided to drive there once down.


We got down earlier than the climb with help of amazingly tasty lemon juice, cool butter milk and spicy cucumber chat sold at various points in the trail by villagers.

Cousin N enjoying the view.

At the base is a Shiva temple. The specialty of this temple is that when the ghee is smeared on the Shiva Linga, it turns into butter something we know is an irreversible process. As we watched the priest smeared some ghee on to the Shiva Linga and it turned white but as when tasted it dint taste 100% like butter, at least for me.

We decided to drive to the Kerala style temple and took some bumpy mud roads to reach there and find out that it was a farmhouse and not a temple. We stopped at the same spot where we had had breakfast and had lunch before driving back to Bangalore.

Kunigal

After what seems like a long time, I finally decided to get back on traveling. On a nice Saturday morning (16th Oct) After Ayuda Pooja at home, I decided to take my car on a ride! My friend T joined me on this trip to Kunigal. As talked about earlier, I have this ambition of covering the length and breadth of every district in the State and compile my extensive research of tourist attraction. Having finished Kolar, it’s now time for another nearby district, so I picked Tumkur and Kunigal taluk seemed the easiest to complete. So on this day I set out on the expedition to complete the Taluk.

We left Bangalore at around 9:45 AM and reached Yediyur at around 12:15 PM after driving wrongly towards Tumkur and then returning to Nelamangla on the newly constructed toll way. Yediyur Sadhalingeshwara Temple is very known pilgrimage. The temple was crowded with people and vehicles as it was Ayooda Pooja. Villagers drove their bikes, cars, tractors, bull dozers to the temple and worshipped the machines that help them survive. In olden days Ayuda poojas where done to worship all the weapons used during war and now people continue this tradition to all the machineries used these days. I feel that the tractors and tillers suit best for this worship than cars and bikes as they help us in agriculture and support us in growing food and not just comfort like a car or bike does.

The temple mutt offers free food to devotees and the simple rice, sambhar, buttermilk and kheer was a perfect meal for us. After food we drove 5kms towards Markonahalli Dam. The dam is constructed on Simsha River and supports agriculture for villages around. It was built by Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV, the king of Mysore under the guidance of his Diwan, Sir M Visweswaraiah.


From here we drove to Kunigal town where we wanted to visit the Stud farm, initial built by Hyder Ali but now owned by Vijay Mallya. Unfortunately we were not allowed to enter the farm unless we had some permission from UB city but the security guard said during the month of Shravan, villagers are allowed to worship at the temple inside the farm, so we planned to return back next year during the month of Shravan.


We drove to the Village Lake called Dodda Kere and by its side Someshwara Temple.


We spoke to a villager regarding the prices of land around Kunigal and he was quite informative. After a walk around the lake and watching the villagers fishing, we drove back to Bangalore.

Children Of Heaven!

Children of heaven (Bachehaye Aseman) is a 1997 Persian movie with a simple but very complex drive into kids mind. Brother (Ali) loses his sisters (Zahra) shoes in a market place. The family is poor and hence they are unable to reveal this to their parents, instead the siblings decide that they will manage the future days with just one pair of shoes (that of Ali's). Luckily for them their schools start at different times, while Zahra finishes the school, Ali’s class’s start and they exchange the shoe somewhere midway to school. The movie captures the complicated minds of the kids that are tangled with thoughts and realizations that cannot be always expressed with words. The performances are brilliant.

Nobody Knows!

Nobody knows (Dare mo shiranai) is based on a true story and a very very sad story about four kids being abandoned by their mother and are allowed to survive on their own without anyone knowing that they exist.

The movie begins with a mother and son shifting to a new apartment, happily introducing them to the neighborhood. But what no one knows is that their baggage hides two kids and a third is to arrive later that night without being noticed. Four kids, all from a different father are not registered and live secretly with their mother in a apartment. They never get to go out except for the eldest son, who brings food and cooks for the others and one day, the mother disappears out of their life along with her new boy friend. The kids are forced to continue living alone in the apartment secretly.

"Nobody knows" is a sad story; it’s difficult to watch the kids suffer without shedding one drop of tear; they face life as it comes and learn to cope with the situation without even knowing to complain. The story is based on true events that happened in Tokyo in late 1980's. This 2004 movie captures the sorrow and silence of the kids in a brilliant manner.

The performance by every kid is amazing and heartwarming.

The Way Home!

The way home (Jibeuro) is a 2002 Korean film about a small boy being left alone in a village for few days with his old grandmother who cannot speak. The story follows few days of the boy’s life, until his mother finds a job in town during which they (grandmother & he) break the barriers between them such as urban-rural culture, generation gaps, communication and most importantly the attitude towards life.


The way home is a very interesting movie to watch with direction as though everything is happening right in front of you. Scenes where the grandmother gives him a haircut and where she provides him boiled chicken when asked for Kentucky fried chicken is simply fantastic.

The 78-year-old villager and non-actress 'Eul-boon Kim' had not only never performed in a movie before 'Jibeuro', but she had never before *seen* a film. She was found during an extensive talent search among real rural village people by director Lee Jeong-hyang to play the lead role of the stoic, heroic mute grandmother.

The fun of watching foreign language film for me is to be able to virtually take a tour to their beautiful country and get to know their culture. Some beautiful rural glimpses from south Korea makes up the background for this story.

Both the grandmother and the boy are simply outstanding in their performance.

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Not One Less!

It all began when I watched Children of Heaven; my cousin who shares the common taste in movies like me, suggested that I watch this Persian movie on children. One of her relatives later sent her a pack of four cd’s with all movies on kids, from various Asian countries. Last week, I finished watching all the movies. In the coming posts I would like to review the movies one by one as these are great movies.

Not One Less (Chinese, 1999)

Not one less (yíge dōu bùnéng shao), is a beautiful 1999 Chinese movie about a small school in a remote village of China. The movie opens with the mayor of the village and a 13 year old girl, wei walking towards the village school where she will substitute teacher Gao for a month as he needs to visit his ill mother. Though Gao is not convinced that wei can handle the school, he has no other choice but to leave after some instructions. Wei is promised 50 Yen for her job but she realizes the school is very poor to afford the price and runs behind the teacher to ask for it to which he says – I will pay you the money if mayor does not, but there should not be one less student than there are now.

Not one less, is a movie of a small girl Wei, trying to teach a bunch of kids in a remote village and how when one of her students due to poverty moves to city, she with the help of the kids, manages to travel to city and her struggles hard to find the boy.

Director Zhang Yimou has used amateur actors whose real life profession is the characters they play in movie and hence the movie seems so natural. The performance from everyone is amazing and makes the movie a treat to watch.

The movie silently through its events captures the disconnect between the rural and urban cities of China and the poverty and affect of it on education in rural China.

Eventful So Far!

Returning back to have been slow; It took me a week to get rid of my jet lag and all the uneasiness that long distance travel does. Mother cooked delicious sambhar out of the first harvest of Malabar spinach.

The best part of the week was arrival of my sister and her four students came from Mumbai for a science exhibition. Preparing for the exhibit, bicycle rides and movie Dabang made up the three evenings. The kids are very talkative and the girls kept pulling boys leg and the boys kept complaining about it to me. It was fun! The boys were over thrilled to see my bicycle and tried wheeling on it and they assured me that they would buy one as soon as they get a job. :-) One of them would carry a small pouch with him that contains basic tools and cards. He has it belted around his waist where ever he goes; I think that’s a very good thought and his exhibit is a survey valence camera fit car that can capture images from disaster areas and non accessible regions. The other kid was very impressive in his narration of any event, he could make any simple event very attractive to be heard, and he has an art in him. The girls were very hardworking too in preparing for their exhibit that displayed the working of cell phones.

To get the first servicing done on my new car, I had to run 1000 kms at least on it before two months, my travels and learning had not allowed me to do it so had to drive the car daily to office and it was fun, taught me many driving lessons that India needs and is different from two wheelers. :-)

Yesterday was day of shuttle badminton. In between the completions (Our sports day) we played and it was great fun. Sometimes there were four people on each side of the court. :-)

Summarizing Colorado!

When I first came to Colorado Springs in Aug-2004, I knew no one here and no one knew me! Peggy was the in charge of all the administrations related to us. From apartment, to food supplies at home, to transportation to office or grocery to driving classes, it was she who helped me and other Indian colleagues with absolutely full dedication. We had no issues and only one name occurred to us for any question or help. From that day to today, things have changed, she is no more with the company, her husband Mike, died in a car crash but I am glad that there is something that is in our control- our friendship!

So I made sure I meet her during my visit. I met Peggy at her house on a Sunday and I rode with her on her BMW that speeded from stop to freeway speed in absolutely no time! After a nice burrito lunch at Chipotle we drove to her newly bought house, where two of her friends are renovating it for her in return for allowing them to live there.

We visited Mike at the church. I am glad she allowed me to drive the BMW and it was a cool experience. Her dog Sarah is a sweet little bego.

Every evening, I would visit new hotel for dinner – Ethiopian restaurant was really ice. I tried injera and veg platter. The owner was nice enough to give me a sweet called catiaf for free. I went to the hobby store and went crazy! I bought a painting kit with several paints, brushes, pencils, canvas and much more all in a box that converts as an aisle. That followed with many more things like two wooden puppets, wood for carving, wood carving tool set, gardening book, vegetable seeds!

One of the days, a colleague J arranged for a Barbeque lunch for me. He also invited couple of other employees. J’s wife Kat cooked amazing vegetarian options for me such as stuffed capsicum, zucchini, bean burrito and carrot cake. It was fun time discussing gardening, food, and cultures and playing with the pet Opy.

I met my ex-Boss Alan; he is interested in writing and is currently working on some creative writing assignments on web. We had good discussion on writing, work and India.

Peggy is currently studying and one of the classes she has to take every semester should be out of the usual curriculum and she has chosen sculpture class. I was excited and when I showed interest to join her for the class, she quickly go the permission from the instructor and I was there one evening. The class is between 4:30 to 7:oo and in that we took a walk outside, collected fossils and other things for making impressions on the clay, formed the mold, prepared plaster, poured them on to mold and allowed it to dry so to form the final shape. It was amazing and I was full admiration for the style in which the class was held, much laid back and allowing students to be themselves. It was fun.

Rest of my free time was spent trying various cuisines. That is one of the best things in the US; you can try food from all over the world. This time, I mainly tried my favorite Mexican at chipotle and 3 Margaritas; Thai food at Thai Basil; Vietnamese at Saigon, Ethiopian at Uchenna and noodle & company.

In Colorado!

36 hours of travel, boring transit airport hours (Dubai, Paris & Minneapolis) brought me to Colorado Springs. I felt good to be back! I have lived here more than a year before and so once I got on to my rented Chevy HHR, I realized how well I know this place. But of course driving to Hotel did not feel like before but by the time I was there, I had got over the uncomfortable feeling about interstate speeds and driving on the wrong side of road. :-)

Rented Retro styled Chevy HHR

Hyatt Summerfield is where I stay and it is a very nice place and my room overlooks a railway track and a hill beyond it. And just coming out of the hotel, is this beautiful view of the mighty Pikes Peak.

Being back after 3 long years makes me love the US all over again and I begin to notice how beautifully this country is built to make everything so comfortable for living. You have wide roads, Interstates, rules that all follow; directions to almost anywhere, easy access to anything; so much of thought has gone into everything here.

Being back in Colorado Springs is like visiting Himachal or Sikkim again and again. I can never get bored of the mountains and the beautiful weather. Meeting friends I know here is a treat.
On Friday, after two days of busy meetings, I got a break and an Indian friend S and I went out for dinner at the Noodles & company where one gets great noodles and pastas from around the world. After which we drove to my favorite night drive spot - Garden of the Gods. There is a place in the park where two rocks divide the road. I have always driven there during night and climbed up a small rock to get a beautiful view of the city. We sat there for a while discussing about life, India, the US and generally everything.

Saturday, I drove to Manitou Springs where the Pikes Peak Ascent was on. My manager’s wife was participating in the event for the 5th year. It is a comptetion to run up the Pikes Peak mountain on Barr trail which is 13 miles long (21kms). I have hiked up the mountain in 2005 and it was an eventful experience. So to watch these enthusiasts was fun. After the marathon began, my manager and I drove up the mountain (14115 ft high). We had to park midway and several vans took people up to summit from there.

There was a crowd to encourage the runners and the winner completed the race by 2 Hours and 9 Minutes. It was amazing up there. People from UK, Germany, Australia and Mexico had particpated. This is what i love about the US, any hobby that you have has a lot of encouragement and platform to showcase them on.

Later on Saturday I met a good friend J at Pikes perk coffee/tea shop by Vickers- Academy. She was a professor at a college teaching World mythology but has now quit the job to join something called an art community, where she will be provided kind of a cottage in which the artist can live for however long to complete their work. Wow! That is really cool. I wish I had lived in one of those. J is planning to write poetry and she would live in Fort Collins and can choose to write in the cottage or a studio in downtown or anywhere around the place. It is amazing!

We spoke close to three hours about literature, art forms, family and life styles around the world. It is always great to meet likeminded people. The coffee shop we were in had two guitar players singing folk/country music and I had Indian chai which surprisingly did not taste bad at all. Of course it was little watery and more sweet but something that I needed badly at that moment.

Kuppalli & Kundadri Hills

My office team is a very interesting group. There could be two reasons for this, one - A bunch of likeminded people have been carefully picked in this team or maybe we all have influenced one another so much. Most of us have joined during the same time and are of almost the same age, so we get along well and our team is great when it comes to hobbies – Photography, sports, writing, trekking, creative art, paintings and many more. So it’s always fun to have team outings with this group. This time we choose – Kuppalli.

Subbu and I had been here in February this year and we decided that this place would be a good destination during the rains for our official team-outing.

We left Bangalore at around 8:00 PM on Aug5th. The bus journey was fun, with us ragging the new joiners for fun eventually making them feel comfortable with our group.

At around 5:30 AM we reached Kuppalli and checked into the rooms available at the centenary hall. Three cottages and a dormitory were booked and these are very less expensive and very well maintained. We walked to the Kavishaila and sat there for a while looking at the mesmerizing view. On my journal, I noted down few thoughts.

After breakfast, we went to the poet’s house and then to Kundadri hills (30Km from Theerthahalli). Cars and small vehicles can drive up to the top but our bus had to stop around 3.5 kms before summit. The trek was very nice with light drizzles. Once at the summit, we relaxed watching the awesome view. Clouds covered the view below, but with one blow of wind the clouds, like a curtain in a drama, uncovered and then covered back the view.

This One Almost Bit Me!

After relaxing there for a while, we returned back to the Bus, had lunch at theerthhalli and then drove back to the lodge. Rest of the evening, we relaxed chatting and laughing at things such as stories from US trips, old funny office events which we have repeated thousands of times, but still makes us laugh at it in a same way like we did at the first time. A good dinner summarized the day.

Next morning, we woke up to a very bad news. One of our colleagues lost his brother in a fatal accident. I accompanied him back to Bangalore while the others sadly moved ahead to Jog falls before they would return to Bangalore. I left to Bangalore with my friend at 8:00 Am and reached by 2:00 PM. It was a trip filled with waves of emotions – nostalgia dominated all of them. By end of this trip, like all others, there was a good internal change.

Thanks to my friends for the lovely pictures!

Age!

With several writing assignments, I am slightly ignoring my blog; which I do not like, as this blog has rendered me so many learning’s through my interactions with fellow bloggers and the satisfaction that it provides me while putting away my thoughts. So I am making my best efforts to keep the blog updated.

Here is a short post on what has kept me busy so far –

Bangalore Platter – Buddy Subbu and I turn Rocky and Mayur (From “Highway On My plate”, NDTV goodtimes) to explore cool restaurants in town and review it on our office Monthly magazine. It’s been lot of good eating so far. :-) This month we ate at “The Egg factory” which offers most of many dishes possible to be cooked by egg. It is off st Marks road, opposite the SBI head office.

Silhouette – An article I write for the Weekly (Once in a while), which brings to focus one employee beyond the world of cubicles.

Fourth Umpire – A sports magazine, to begin rolling soon that covers the Annual sports event held at our company.

That’s a lot of writing already, apart from a new project at work, coming up for me. :-)

But anyways, as always I enjoy writing, anything and how much ever. I like the way how words can inspire, how it can influence. I wish to be always faithful to them.

Apart from writing, I am reading a book too….”Vamshavriskha” – Written by SL Bhyrappa, my favorite author. I never repent more for not having studied Kannada as i do when I see a Bhyrappa book, so I pick a translated version to suffice my curiosity. His latest book – Kavalu has gone out for 6th re-print in just two months of release. So I picked this one (Vamshavriksha – The Family tree) of his earliest novels which in a unique way deals with the social and cultural issue faced by a Brahmin family in mid 40’s; a very unique perspective towards widow re-marriage.

A couple of days back, I was at a hotel, having dinner with few friends and as always, I did notice people around me, in the very next table, five friends where having their get-together. One was well built, wore a tight T-shirt, blue jeans, other had a long pony tail, an earring and so on. They drank, they smoked and enjoyed and in the end, they brought a cake to celebrate one of the guys 39th birthday. It seemed like an emotional moment. I realized how quickly time flies, and how much they wanted to look younger in their dressing. How attached we get to our young age and how little we want to grow old. Well their behaviors and dressing definitely pointed that they wanted to look younger than their actual age. If not for the cake, I would have never known that they are all nearing 40. Time flies, and we mentally want to stay back.

Today I turn 30. :-)

The Blind Side

A few days back I watched this incredible movie called – The Blind Side. What I liked the most in this movie is the character of Sandra Bullock (For which she won Oscars this year); A human with immense strength to take decisions that she believes in, yet being very thoughtful and rightful of it; to control all the emotions that may make her seem weak yet be righteous in all her duty.

The Blind Side is a story, a true story of an American family adopting an African-American homeless boy and providing him a home that he would otherwise never have experienced.

There are few scenes that are truly amazing. Reaction of Sandra when she hears the Boy say – I have never ever had a bed for myself. She gives a thoughtful pause and then says – Well; now, you have one. She walks into her room, shuts the door and sits in a chair looking at the wall, silently thinking. I think that one scene defines the character of that woman, strong and how she wants to control the sentiments yet cannot stop ponder upon the cruel reality of life.

Another scene - after she has invited the boy to stay at her place, she wonders if she did the right thing, would the boy steal? Did she make the proper decision? I think everyone take impulsive decisions and then wonder whether the decision is correct or not.

A scene where she teaches Michael how to protect the team as he would protect the family is an amazing one and another where she collects opinions from her daughter on adopting Michael is very thoughtful and righteous thing she does.

The movie keeps American football as its center point and how the family encourages and influences the boy in the game.

The supporting cast is amazing too, the youngest in the family, SJ who supports Michael's training is sweet; truly a worth watching, inspiring film, not to be missed.

Gardening!

The most noteworthy thing about gardeners is that they are always optimistic,always enterprising, and never satisfied. They always look forward to doing something better than they have ever done before. - Vita Sackville-West

Gardening as I said is an addiction. I went riding to the nursery looking for some flowers in white and blue (Two colours missing from my collection) But did not really like any they had. Any suggestions for me?

The Malabar Spinach (Basale) creeper is growing well and so it needed an arrangement to display itself. During my previous trip to Mangalore I got some Bamboo from home, to construct a platform as support for the creeper.

The grass that I got with my sprout watch is happy to find some soil and good nutrition; it is overflowing from the pot with joy in my dining room. :-)

Painted a small card; its silver spray paint with a gear blocking some region of the paper and poster colour to bring nature into it. :-) I plan to gift this to a friend.


When gardeners garden, it is not just plants that grow, but the gardeners themselves. - Ken Druse

Flight!

Being on a break is wonderful; just wanting to stop all the monotonous and just think of none. During my break from Blog world, I watched several movies, bought a new mini lathe for wood crafting, posted on facebook, met relatives and friends; but most enjoyable of all, I spent most of the time gardening and it gave me the best relaxation I could have ever asked. Gardening becomes an addiction; as you see the plants flower, you want to add one more to the group and then one more and so on. Apart from some flowering plants, I started growing some vegetables – Tomato, green chilies, coriander and Basale (Malabar spinach). Now if these are a success I am going to be a full time farmer at my house I guess. :-)

Flight!

I have heard that one’s life should be like flow of a river or wind; it should never stop at a point. But if one needs to keep flowing, one always tends to be more selfish and once in a while takes a pause. Pause makes one more and more rooted; rooted to thoughts that circle around a tree imagining that one is holding the time still, but the time never stops, it keeps moving and one realizes that only thing that was stagnant was him alone. And so one moves on again to follow the path but every attractive place has a stop sign that one does not want to ignore. The challenge is to overcome those attachments towards smallest of smallest things or habits that we tend to build along the path; habits that root us more and more to the ground. It’s not the lack of wings but the roots that stop us from flying.

I am beginning to understand clearly the importance of all my hobbies in my life. I know they save me from being rooted into something that stops my river or wind like flow. It allows me to think less about people and what they say or do, and takes me towards something more satisfying; something that my soul enjoys and cherishes. I realize that being selfish; not in a way to be demanding and self centric but in a way to spend some time with self is definitely a good thing.

Because when people have failed me, it is these hobbies that bring me closer to my soul and shuts everything and everyone else away. So no; I am not having hobbies so that I can do something creative, something so satisfying that it can be called a master piece by someone or nor am I making deliberate effort to cash on them, but instead they are my gateway to freedom, where I can fly with unseen wings towards a horizon that contains no boundary.

This piece of write-up gave me the exact same pleasure and has taken me away from everything or everyone I know and along with it the sadness related to it or them.

Surathkal - 2 Trips!

Two trips to Mangalore in last two weekends was not tiring but exhilarating.

The first, to attend a function at home, meet relatives, watching a Yakshagana Thalamadale program and quite observations at the Beach. Watched a very inspiring movie called – The Blind Side.

Second trip was to attend few functions. Buddy Subbu had few weddings to attend too, so he came over on Saturday as well. Watched Iron Man -2 (Interesting and entertaining without comparisons); Ate ice creams at Pubbas; Went to the Surathkal beach to have egg-Maggie and bread omelet at my friend Vasu and Mine usual stop – Guddu Angadi; Sat by the beach till almost 8:30Pm observing the Colours fade, people move, waves rise and fall and ships sail. One can enjoy silence at its best at a Beach.