| Friday, July 18, 2008 |
| Tag time |
A tag after a long time... Preeti has tagged me. Hope this tag is going to breathe some life into my poor dead creative cells...
Last movie seen in a theatre?
Tare zameen par. I am not a movie buff and very rarely go out to watch movies.
What book are you reading?
None.The last one I read was The Man-eater of Malgudi
All my books are getting dusty in the cupboard these days.
The bookworm is slowly dying..woaaaa…
Favorite board game:
Scrabble, as long as I am winning ;)
Favorite magazine:
Magazines kept at my office breakout-area: Outlook, Week, India Today
Favorite smells:
Smell of jasmine and tube rose, aroma of food when hungry,
nail polish, paint…
Favorite sound:
Amma’s voice over the phone when I am sick or depressed,
Rumble of waterfall, while trekking.
Worst feeling in the world:
Feeling of being alone, the feeling that nobody is there in this world for you..!!
What is the first thing you think of when you wake up?
Is it Friday yet???
Favorite fast food place:
Brewhaha.That’s our favourite hang out place. We sit on the floor with carpets and lotsa pillows, relax, sip a coffee and play a board game (they provide all that)
Future child’s name:
No clue…Maybe I will outsource this job.
I took 3 months to zero in on a name for my niece!!!
Finish this statement, “If I had a lot of money I’d…”
Travel to exotic places, shop, shop and shop till I drop :D
Do you drive fast?
I dont drive.
Do you sleep with a stuffed animal?
Yep.. my life-size teddy bear gifted by M.
Favourite drink
Hot chocolate
Do you eat the stem of broccoli?
I have never eaten broccoli.
Storms - Cool or Scary?
Cool and romantic. I would love to watch the sea on a stormy day
If you could dye your hair any color, what would be your choice?
Black with burgundy streaks. I tried this on my own once
when I was utterly bored. But it didnt turn out well :(
Name all the different cities/towns you have lived in:
Cochin, Tanjore, Bangalore
Favorite sports to watch:
Table tennis...I impatiently watch it while waiting for my turn to play..
One nice thing about the person who sent this to you:
A genuine & down-to-earth person. And a bit naughty too..
What’s under your bed?
Dust....the maid didn’t clean it properly ;)
Would you like to be born as yourself again?
Yes… a thousand times again.
Morning person or night owl?
Night owl definitely. I rarely sleep before 1 am and never get up before 9am.
Over easy or sunny side up?
Both..I wont mind as long as it’s egg.
Over easy bcoz my mom thinks it has germs if not fully cooked.
Favorite place to relax:
Home sweet home..
Or maybe on a tree house in a dense forest, with brooks & streams running beside...
Favorite pie:
I don’t like pies
Favorite ice cream flavor:
Vanilla & chocolate anytime..
Now, the mere thought of ‘death-by-chocolate’ is making my mouth melt.. mmmm…
You pass this tag to:
Rechit, Ajay, Aths, Minu
Of all the people you tagged this to, who’s most likely to respond first?
Rechit the lime soda guy.
Labels: My Life, Tags |
posted by Flyaway Mind @ 2:21 PM   |
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| Friday, July 11, 2008 |
| To Our Bday Babe |
Dedicated to my niece, Shreya who turned 1 year old on June 14. I missed your first bday chweety pie..I missed it when you dressed up in your pretty pink dress blew the bday candle and cut that yummy bday cake which your aunt had lovingly baked for you..
Well, I remember that one week I spent with you in May, a month ahead of your Bday.I remember how every morning, you used to crawl up on to my bed, talk to me in your baby language, bite on my cheeks and wake me up.. Ohh..What a way to wake up..And your teeth were new and sharp…You never liked anybody sleeping. You used to climb over them again and again , and sometimes even bite them too. You wanted them to be awake & watching your naughtiness always.
And I love the way you used to crawl all over the house, especially the kitchen..You were never tired and endlessly crawled in your territory, sometimes looking behind and going super-fast if you see somebody coming behind to catch you. Kitchen was your favourite place. How you used to take all the vessels and spoons and throw them around or bang them against each other. You absolutely loved the clutter & the noise they made. You were never very interested in the sophisticated toys bought for you. You were only interested in kitchen vessels, mobiles, laptops & spectacles. And you never gave a heck for your poor teddy bear and your pretty doll 'pinky'. They never interested you. Only thing you loved was balls. You used to kick it with your hand, crawl behind it & repeat the whole process until finally it rolled under the cot. You never knew how to take it, nevertheless you used to try all acrobatism to get it.
You were never scared of anything. You danced when you heard the mixie in the kitchen being turned on.. And you used to whisper “sssshhhh shhh” when the pressure cooker whistled away. I love the way you gurgled and happily went behind the spiders & beetles to catch them. You used to catch and squeeze those poor creatures to death. Any moving creature used to excite you, even the mosquitoes which you tried catching once. Your parents never made you to watch tv and I heard how you cried in the restaurant when you saw tv for the first time.. You might have wondered how people could be trapped inside the small tv.
I remember how you used to gurgle and talk in your baby language.. You used to scold the maid-chechi in your language, when she rebukes you for not having your food. Your face used to be so grim and your tone very angry. We used to laugh seeing your expression.
I remember how your face used to light up when we take you out for tata. You wanted to see bow-bow, doves, flowers, moon & the aeroplane. You used to laugh & gurgle when you see them. I remember how you made me once pluck all the flowers from the shrub one after another until nothing was left.And you kept throwing the flowers down & demanding for more…
One week went away so fast..And nowadays, I keep seeing videos of you on my mobile…And I realize the more I see you, the more I am gonna miss you….
HAPPY BDAY DEAR!!!!
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| posted by Flyaway Mind @ 12:41 PM |
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| Friday, April 04, 2008 |
| Hailstones, big mouth & dancing |
Last Sunday was a lazy Sunday. I slept till around 11’0 clock, then got up and fixed myself a quick brunch of upma & tea. The sky was overcast and it was a perfect day to snooze off. I was lying on the bed, propped up against the pillows, trying to read the book “Snow” by Orhan Pamuk , when it started raining heavily. I could hear the faint thud thud against the glass windows.
My roomie was screaming from balcony at the top of her lungs. I rushed out thinking that her clothes might be outside on the lane to dry… ‘Hailstones’, she screamed on seeing me. The ice cubes on her outstretched palm were already melting. I could hardly believe this. It was actually raining hailstones in Bangalore!!! I collected a few hailstones from the balcony and tried catching a few as it pelted down… Many people in our seven storied apartment had come out to their balconies to watch. The kids were excitedly scampering around. And on the ground floor, few people were out drenching in the rain and collecting hailstones in a bucket.
My room mate usually stocks up eatables for the rainy days. She loves preparing hot soup or making banana fritters when it rains.. So we go out to the balcony, sit on the steps, watch the rain and sip the hot soup or munch the fritters. I remember the first time when we bought Knorr instant soup mix. It almost ran out of it’s expiry date because it was summer and it didn’t rain for a long time in Bangalore.
Boca Grande is the newly opened restaurant near my house. Boca Grande is a Spanish word meaning “big mouth”. And I had won their puzzle contest which earned me free-dinner-for-two. I was planning to go along with my friend for a lavish dinner on Friday. But severe hunger pangs propelled us to hit the place on Tuesday itself. The handsome owner welcomed us, showed us around the place & told us that as the sole winner, we are entitled to eat to our hearts content.. kewllll..For once, I could devour all the delicacies without having to worry about the ultimate BILL. We scanned through the menu card and started off right from starters. Smart as we are, we ordered the highest priced items in each category and items referred as ‘BC special’.. heheee ;) Food was yummy but the problem was with our appetite. By the time we had the starters and cake-shake, we were almost stomach full. Half way through our main course we felt we couldn’t hog any more. We decided to take a break, chat a while and then try to finish it off. But it was of no avail.. Thus with a broken heart, we left many of those special items untouched :( And I was disappointed that I couldn’t have those tempting mouth melting desserts. Nevertheless, we packed off scoops of Belgium chocolate ice cream with lotsa nutties for my roomie.
I like dancing away to glory. That is if I am dancing to my own tunes and dancing to my own specially copyrighted dance moves. I joined free style dance classes this week. Yesterday was my first day. Initially I was enjoying every bit of it. The instructor was teaching us random steps and we were following it. Later it turned to aerobics and finally to Bollywood dance. The music was “soni de nakhre sone lagade”. I started imagining myself as Govinda and suddenly I couldn’t dance anymore ;) I found it difficult to get along with the ‘continuation of steps’. Hope it gets better in the coming classes. And to add to the insult, two girls in my class are dancing even better than the instructor. They need to see the steps only once and they can dance like some divas. Well, yours truly is feeling really J :)Labels: Bangalore, General Blah Blah, My Life |
| posted by Flyaway Mind @ 11:27 AM |
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| Tuesday, March 18, 2008 |
| On the Hill top |
It was March 8 th– Women’s day. We were on our way to Yercaud hill station, which is near to Salem town and popularly know as “poor man’s Ootty”. Yercaud is situated in the Servarayan range of hills in the Eastern Ghats.
 We were a pack of seven. Me, Raintree, GG, Pavi, Vj, Maiden, Desai. We were having good time in the vehicle chitchatting, munching snacks, threatening to puke on each other ;) and singing.
Start of the journey was li'l disappointing. When our vehicle started climbing the hair pin curves, I found the place not as exciting as I imagined. It didn’t look that appealing in the mid afternoon heat with the dried up grasses and dull green surroundings. As we bent the 20th hair pin curve things were getting lots better. The place looked green and dense. The weather was pleasantly cool. Around 1 pm, we reached ‘Silver Resort’, where we checked into a luxurious cottage over looking the big Yercaud lake.
 We had lunch at Shevaroy’s hotel and then went on to see Pagoda/ Pyramid point. It’s a windy hilltop point, which gives a good view of the surrounding Shevaroy hills. There is a Rama Temple here, which is surrounded by four pagodas, which are rocks piled into pyramid shapes by the tribal people.
The other attractions of Yercaud are the Ladies seat and Gent’s Seat points. These are view points with natural rock formations that resemble seats. On the way to ladies seat, we stopped at a local tea stall, with mouth-watering bajjis & pakoras. We sat outside and relaxed while tea walla prepared us hot piping tea.
At the ladies seat, we were standing on a tower overlooking the Salem town. Raintree and i found out an an echo point inside the tower, where we stood howling and listening intently to the reverberations. We continued this for a while, until to our embarrassment, we saw some local crowd gathered around us staring blatantly.  We hiked to Gent’s seat point, where we planned to watch the sunset. The evening sun casted long shadows on the ground and soon we were playing puppet dance & tribal dance with our shadows. It was fun trying to stamp on each other’s shadows. We sat on the rocks in tranquility for almost an hour, silently watching the sun sinking down the horizon. The evening sky was misty and the setting sun created multiple halos around it. Did a few photographic acrobats by clicking snaps of “catching the sun in the palm” & "open mouthed and trying to swallow the tiny fiery ball." After sunset we went back to ladies seat, since we heard the point was magnificent at night. From the hill top, as I looked down I was dazed seeing the entire Salem town brilliantly lighted up in the dark. We could see the silhouette of the dark hills and the flood lights of an occasional vehicle passing the ghat roads. It looked as if the star studded sky was down and we were floating far above it. As we stood there watching, suddenly an entire dark area lighted up. To our surprise, it was the street lights turning on. As if a million fireflies have alighted on it suddenly... Night had settled in and it was li'l windy and chilled. We went back to our cottage, wrapped ourself in jackets and proceeded for dinner at Shevaroys. Later, we went out for a night stroll. After hiking for sometime, we reached the Emarald lake. We sat down on it’s banks and started stargazing. Sky was enchanting and we were chitchatting on all possible topics ranging from global warming to childhood stories. Life seems to have come to a standstill. Meanwhile, Pavi and Desai were arguing about the location of pole star in the sky and Raintree helping us find the shape of hunter constellation.....It was fun making out the hunter's belt and pointed arrows in the star spangled sky.
Next day at sharp 6 am, the early bird GG came and knocked at our door.. We girls groaned, turned over and slept for another half an hour ;) By 7, the half sleepy team was ready for the early morning trek to Killiyur waterfalls which was around 3kms from our place. Coffee plantations and silver oak trees grew all over the place. The early morning hike was very refreshing. Raintree was busy adorning her hair with all the wild flowers collected on the way. Maiden with the pretty scarf wrapped around her hair looked like a kashmiri girl. Pavi puffing and panting, with her life-supporting inhaler in one hand had to literally hauled up by heroic VJ ;) As we trekked we could hear the gurgle of the water. It relieved us because we didn't expect much water during summer season.
We splashed each other and got drenched in the falls. The water was icy cold and it actually hurt to have the piercing chill water splashed on you. I climbed up to the possible highest point of the waterfalls along with the guys. Yeahhh..Mission conquered..We clicked snaps and then climbed down to continue with the splashing game..The guys were busy climbing trees and posing for snaps. Later, after energizing ourself with bananas and energy drinks we started our trek back. GG had in fact collected all the plastic bottles and kits thrown around the waterfalls by careless tourists. Kudos to him and his "giving back to nature policy."
The next target was Yercaud lake, where we did pedal boating. We were in two boats, and hence started competing and trying to hit each other’s boats.
Soon it was time to check out of our cottages. Our final destination was Shervarayan cave-temple, which was the highest point on Yercaud hills.. We had to literally crawl inside the dark rocky tunnel for the darshan, where the deities of god Sheravaryan & goddess Kaveri were worshipped. We all sat huddled inside the dark cave, while the pujari narrated us history of the 3000 year old temple. He explained how the original deities were kept further down the tunnel which ultimately lead to Cauvery river 1km ahead..
Thus after two days on the hill top, we started our journey back to Bangalore...Labels: Nature, Travelogue |
| posted by Flyaway Mind @ 3:36 PM |
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| Tuesday, February 19, 2008 |
| My Grandmother's House |
During my growing up years, I used to love going to my grandmother’s house. It was in Vypeen island, a sleepy little town, separated from the mainland of Kochi by a wide expanse of backwaters and Arabian sea.
The boat journey from Kochi to Vypeen island used to instigate my childhood fantasies… The fleet of majestic ship at the Cochin shipyard and the brightly lighted sea-port gave it a magical aura. As the ferryboat move away from the mainland, I used to watch out for those innumerable green islands that dot the Arabian sea and the Chinese fishing-nets yonder in the horizon. It used to look enchantingly beautiful during sunset. Seagulls and cormorants used to hover over the fishing boats, trying to snatch off few fish from the boat’s deck. And an intermittent beacon of light flashing from the light house use to guide the boats and ship in the dark.
My grandma’s house was a ten minute walk from the boat jetty. The backyard of the house directly opened to the backwaters. I have never seen any house so near to such a wide-stretch of water. In those days, I used to wake up early, to watch the sunrise and the backwaters being painted in colorful hues by the rising sun.
My GM had a pet dog and a small flock of ducks at her house. I used to entrust upon myself the job of opening their coop in the mornings, let the ducks out and likewise chase them back to their home in the evenings. Sometimes the notorious dog Titto, used to chase the ducks and the terrified creatures used to jump into the water , paddle away and ultimately lose their way. And in such cases, my poor uncle had to go all the way to the nearby Mulagukadu island, where they ultimately used to land up and bring them safely back home. On special occasions when VIP guests come home, one of those ducks used to be killed and it would eventually reappear as duck roast on the dining table :)
I used to be awed seeing the variety of seafood, she used to serve us for lunch and dinner. The fishing boats harboured at our backyard and the ice-company nextdoor ensured that we got a lot of absolutely-free seafood at our doorsteps. The crabs, shrimps, lobsters, shell fish all seemed to be a part of our ‘ordinary meals’ during those days. Long gone are those days... No longer is anything free and no longer is anything so readily available. And I stopped eating fish many years ago.
Rainy days used to be li’l wild out here, due to the proximity to Arabian sea. I remember those stormy nights when heavy winds blowing out of the sea, uprooted mango trees and breadfruit (kadachakka) trees in our orchard. The mango trees used to be close to the house and hence their branches occasionally bent and fell on the tiled roof. And once it damaged the roof that it started leaking and flooding the room. There are some images that got framed in my mindscape. One such image is the whole family having dinner under the dimly lit oil lamp, while the storms raged outside.
It was on one of those stormy afternoons that, a lost baby turtle found it’s way through the water and landed up on our backyard. I found out this ‘jem of a beauty’ and instantly fell in love with it. But the turtle on the other hand showed utterly no interest and instantly withdrew it’s pretty head into the shell. I cautiously picked up my ‘shy’ turtle and dropped it into a bucket of water. I decided instantly that this turtle and I are gonna be friends forever.Afterall I have learnt in my GK textbook that turtles live for over a 100 years. After a while, Titto found out this intruder in our house and stood near the bucket barking and growling. I bet he was jealous about all the attention directed at this ‘intruder’. But all my hopes of having a pet-turtle was brought to an abrupt end by my GM, who warned me sternly that sea turtles are poisonous. I threw a tantrum, but in vain. Finally, I sadly placed the baby turtle back into the water. And it swam away , to where it ultimately belonged…
Times have changed...Inevitably, the old tiled house has been remodeled into a more sturdy house. There are no quacking ducks flocking the backyard anymore. And now, there is a wall separating the house and the backwater. The wall that separates my nostalgic yesteryears from today....
Labels: Kerala, My Life, Nature, Nostalgia |
| posted by Flyaway Mind @ 3:13 PM |
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