Full Meals

Don...Don...Don....

2011-12-22T12:55:00.018-05:00

As quoted by a world-famous common man who gives motivational speech standing next to a lamp-post near Malleshwaram grounds- “time barbeku saar time-u” (translated: what ees the right time, sir, please?), this blog-post too was waiting for the right time. Whatte beautiful wisdom. Profound.

Teehee okay I’ll stop my out of context talks. So as I was saying, this post has been waiting to get published for more than a year now. Yes yes I know it isn't surprising, I have a master degree in procrastination. But like Mr.world-famous-lamp-post-man says, time saar time-u.

Last year, when fellow-blogger-singer Vimmuuu, and I were generally chatting about songs, singers and AR Rahman (not in that order), he suddenly suggested -"aye why don’t we record a duet?" It got me very excited as I have always wished to record a duet number. Thus, we immediately started hunting for songs and finally, aaj ki raat (movie: Don) seemed like the right choice (I hope you people agree :)). I first sang the female vocalist's lines and mailed it to him. He later recorded his lines and tadah! the song was ready. Well, not quite. Vimmuuu then worked on the post-recording/mixing bit, all techie stuff, and made it sound all professional. Both of us agreed to post the song simultaneously and hence had to wait for the 'right time'.

So finally the auspicious day has arrived heehee.. Also, Don-2 is all set to release tomorrow. By re-visiting this song, I hope Shankar-Ehsan-Loy (some how land on our blogs) reminisce their Don-1 days and help us live peacefully by not scoring atrocious music (such as Don-2 tracks). Yep now you understand the context.

Presenting aaj ki raat, for the first time (simultaneously) on two blogs. I hope you have as much fun listening to the track as we did singing it.

Please do let us know your feedback; brickbats and bouquets are welcome!

And thank you Vimzy boy :) Hope to sing more such duets with you :)

Aaj Ki Raat by Full_Meals

p.s. Contact us for birthday parties, ladies kitty parties, anniversaries, naming ceremonies, wedding reception.. what? Really. heehee nah. Just kidding. On the other hand, if your party budget is high then we may re-think *wink wink*

p.p.s. You can read Vimmuuu's post here

Kapaki

2011-10-24T15:44:00.009-04:00

My 1 year 7 months old niece (aka Puttudu on Full Meals) and I were busy arranging building blocks (our favorite game) today. While building a particularly difficult tower we heard crackers being burst. Her eyes widened when she heard 'dham dham'

Me: (sounding excited) Yenadu? (translated: What is it?)
Puttudu: grins and says "dham dham dhamaar"
Me: yes correct. Thats pataaki. say 'pa'
Puttudu: 'pa'
Me: 'taa'
Puttudu: 'taaaaaa'
Me: 'ki'
Puttudu: ki
Me: Pataaki
Puttudu: Kapaki

and thus began the Kapaki chant.
This is just the beginning of my deepavali celebration with Puttudu. I am loving it!

All you lovely people have fun. I wish you a very Happy Deepavali :)

Kilimanjaro

2011-01-27T13:29:00.010-05:00

All characters/properties mentioned in this post are NOT fictional; they live and breed among us. If you raise your hand and yell “I know!” while reading this post, then you, my friend, are a victim of corporate drudgery; you have no place but your workspace/desk/2X2 cubicle to rot.

1. Receptionists/front office ladies:
Re-cep-tion-ist
noun

Traits- Age: 23-ish
Appearance: Maroon lipstick. Dark blue eyeliner. Straight hair. Purple lens. Sits next to another receptionist. Traits-30-ish. Appearance: Maroon lipstick. Dark blue eyeliner. Straight hair. Purple lens.

The spinal cord of any organization.
Nah! They are the ‘acting’ owners of your organization. They ‘act’ as though they own the whole dam(n) place. They also own the employees who work there and so naturally own their time as well.
Scene 1: Unfortunately you are in a situation where you need to contact your HR *tut tut*. Say, for example, the company’s internal attendance tool was *cough* under maintenance *cough* and now you don’t have the stipulated number of working hours in your kitty *giggle* Oh alright sorry. No giggling. But it is funny ha ha ha..

For reasons known only to the HR folks, mortals like us are not allowed to enter their workplace. You have no choice but to seek help from the kind reception lady. You say -“Hi. I need to see the HR-chick-who-wears-the-shortest-of-the-short-skirts-and-is-seen-posing-for-pictures-on- Family-Day-next-to-the-COO”. And the reception lady gives you a “can’t you see I’m busy playing solitaire” look and says ‘please wait’ with a sigh. But then she forgets to inform the HR-chick-who-wears-the-shortest-of-the-short skirts-and-is-seen-posing-for-pictures-on- Family-Day-next-to-the-COO or so you think. Big mistake. You wait for 5-6 minutes. Remind her. She nods or just stares at you. You read Economic Times (spot errors and silently laugh at their editorial team). You remind her, again. She ignores you. You read Bangalore Mirror. 25 minutes and you have had it. You say “I have been waiting for 25 minutes!”. Receptionist lady replies - “I told you no, she is on leave today” and spits (I added the last bit. Too crass no? teehee). And you just look back at her mika-mika blinking your eyes. Well I have a theory, you probably fell asleep while waiting and she came and whispered in your ears or something.
“After all a noun in the English dictionary” you might say, but the noun rules your life my friend.

2. Stationery folks:
Sta-tion-er-y
noun
Not to be confused with stationary (adj): Not capable of being moved
It’s a tad ironical. Really. These folks are perpetually on the move. You don’t find them at the stationery counter when you need them. Yes yes I’m talking about the Chitraguptas’ of our organizations. They keep a tab on our every move. In short they know our life history. We cannot run away without signing that little book of theirs. If we do forget to sign *evil laughter*remember, he/she is THE Chitragupta. We’ll be sent to hell, mark.my.words.

Sample this-
Employee number 007 –12th August - 1 Notepad (signed-by 007)
Employee number 007 - 12th August - 1 red marker (signed-by 007)
Employee number 007 - 1st September – 1 Notepad (signed by 007)

Look look, in less than a month you have already taken two notepads *gasp*. The stationery bhaiyya will scowl if you go past the counter. Of course you can hardly blame the guy if YOU scribble so much on those flimsy notepads. Scrawl on post-its and stick it on your forehead. DO NOT take another notepad for rest of the fiscal year.

3. Room Fresheners:
Freshen-er
noun
Side effects: Claustrophobia. Migraine attack. Slight drowsiness

Now, what’s the deal, do tell me housekeeping ladies? Do you and the makers of the awful smelling fresheners (normally rose or jasmine scented) get combined sadistic pleasure by spraying the fragrance all around the floor? Can you imagine the amount of stress we go through while you spray the dreadful substance *shudder*. The thought itself makes my migraine crawl all over my head.

4. Jargon:
Jar-gon
noun
Speech or writing having unusual or pretentious vocabulary
(I so agree with the ‘pretentious’ bit)

Jargon is the key to your survival in any organisation. Years ago, as an innocent fresher, even before I could say ‘sodexo coupon’, I was thrown into a meeting room full of people who looked extremely angry and worried about some client feedback. 40 people kept throwing jargons at each other and all I could think was – “so, err..come again? What was that? Touch base-aa?” *giggle* “Why is it so cold inside this room?” “Why isn’t anyone sitting on the chair?” “And the guy in blue shirt isn’t all that cute, is he?”

5. Tea/Coffee at office:
Enough said!

All you experienced corporate slaves go ahead and add to this list I say.

Let me explain...

2010-10-07T15:05:00.008-04:00

So, THIS is a blog. THIS is how people type. THIS is how people delete the opening sentence and type again. So this is .. err what was I saying? OK have patience. Time please. Hmmm ... err …. Oh yeah, right, blogging. So after my epic 56th post, I lost my memory. (Anxious readers can relax. I cured myself. I hit my head against an ancient tree next to my house and tadah! here I am, this is me. True story). This is a valid reason for not having blogged, no? Yes yes of course it is. You folks can snort. It’s tough, coming up with reasons and all. People need professional qualification to list valid reasons. But not many people have it, now, do they? *evil laughter*. So all you bloggers out there who find it difficult to come up with reasons, don’t fret, coz The Great (non) blogger Shruthi is here to the rescue.*drum rolls* Presenting *trumpets* Top 5 Deadly reasons for not updating your blog *drum rolls*. The mundane- too much work, need to feed fish, facebook-ing, tweeting, Ikebana classes are passé. Without further ado, here goes the list:

Reason #1: Amnesia. Also known as “Main kaun hoon? main kahan hoon? syndrome”- a syndrome, due to which a blogger forgets everything- right from computers, internet, log in id’s to bluetooth, android, google and thus blogging.

Reason #2: Dog ate my blogpost. This is not my kinda reason, but there are dogs that gobble blogposts. Let me explain, blogger Pulakesi overhears his colleagues gossiping next to the coffee vending machine. Excitement! Harman Baweja! Himesh Reshamiyya! Shashi Tharoor (but of course his life is bollywood-ishly entertaining)! Pulakesi notes it down on a tissue paper. He comes back home. Gunda, his pet dog, finds a tissue paper lying next to Pulakesi’s blackberry. Pulakesi hates Gunda’s drool on his Blackberry. And for poor Gunda it’s a moment of ethical dilemma. Blackberry or tissue paper. tissue paper or blackberry. Gunda decides to keep the flag of his clan high, and eats the blogpost.

Reason #3: Blog Rehab. So says a blogger- “oh it’s a long story. My shrink thought I was addicted to blogging” *gasp* “hard to believe isn’t it? And he said I needed a break from blogging. *double gasp* I had to get my pocket knife out. Well the scene after that got pretty ugly and I was put in a blog rehab. Now you know why I went missing” *aww*

Reason #4: Zandu balm. Blogger comes home after a very tiring day at work. Switches on the idiot box to catch Priyanka Chopra (PC) in hot-pants (only if it’s a male blogger. A female blogger on the other hand might watch it to LOL. Everything about Khatron ke khiladi is hilarious- the way PC sways while anchoring (she THINKS its cool), PC’s perfectly manicured nails, milind soman's beard, tattoed anchor guy, PC looking terrified of snakes/roaches/spiders/ropes). Sorry I digress. So blogger switches on TV and lands on “le zandu balm hui darling tere liye.. Cinema hall hui, darling tere liye” whaaa? Who writes such stuff? Blogger is excited. He *thud*... falls unconscious. 5 weeks. no blogging.

Reason #5: Miscellaneous- Traffic jam, bank holiday, Lehman collapse, Bangalore rains, dinosaurs and of course CWG.

56

2010-07-24T15:29:00.008-04:00

Firstly, thank you all for your suggestions. Helped me, really. My sleep pattern is 'new and improved' *clap clap clap*. Now I feel like those infomercial folks. You know those Sauna belt teleshopping programmes which are dubbed in hindi/kannada/telegu/tamil/gujarati? You have seen them right, how they have a 'before and after' expression? Same to same my expression. Jokes apart, thanks people :)

And about the whole profoundness that bothered me (yeah yeah - selfish/selfless) was due to a weird phase that I was going through. Thanks for being so kind and answering my directionless question.

Moving on, this is my 56th post! whoopeee (1030 odd days & 56 posts? err FINE laugh laugh.. pppffttt). So as I was saying , you can send in gifts, chocolates, pastries, dinner coupons.. oh wait on second thoughts send cornflakes, apples, low cal gajar ka halwa, cucumber, and other such low-fat edible items *snff*

and this song is dedicated to all you lovelies. Hope you like it :D

blah

2010-06-29T11:32:00.022-04:00

I’m not in my best of moods today. So you may exit this page if you feel bored.

and no, I'm not PMSing

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My insomnia has reached new heights – I have started taking tips from my friends who are doctors. One of them, still doing her specialisation (sweetest doctor she’ll make), suggested that I drink warm milk and read a book (for 10 minutes) before I go to bed. She also talked about some acids and chemicals which would result in me dozing, I lost her and became a Wrackspurt victim. Anyway my ignorance about chemicals did not discourage me, I did exactly what she asked me to do; but I ended up sleeping only after finishing the book. Then she said – “read work related books”. I did that and got so bored that I had to read another book to get rid of my boredom. And drinking milk didn’t help either, guess I got more energy to stay awake. I don’t know. Tan ki shakti .. mann ki shakti and all

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People in Bangalore have suddenly become very health conscious. I don’t like it much, the awareness I mean.

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I am confused. The other day I was talking to a dear friend of mine and when we were about to say our “goodbyes/take cares/lets meet and wolf down some steak at Millers 46/return my book/dvd you moron”, my friend all of a sudden made a discerning statement -

Friend: “Shruthi, you are not selfish” me: “err…” friend: “you are a selfless fool. bye”

No, I’m not bragging. The label of being selfless is disturbing. It’s not right. I feel like a total dumbass.

Is it good or is it bad to be selfless? If I do a cause and effect analysis will I get a clear picture of all those painful circumstances I have been through because of my dumbassness? Maybe I should do that. Draw a chart and see how it fits.

Let me open this up for some debate. Which one screws you the most - selfishness or selflessness?

Love in Shimla - Final

2010-06-01T07:44:00.019-04:00

Love isshtory

Cut to Shimla.
Oh before that you need to know what happened in Kulu. Well nothing really happened. We saw a plank with 'welcome to Kulu' or suchlike printed and our bus proceeded towards Shimla. Our itinerary read – ‘Reach Kulu’. So we did and left immediately.

As there was no possibility of finding snow in Shimla, our enthusiasm level was low. We reached Shimla sometime in the evening. I was missing River Beas. Shimla looked nice with lights and all but I just couldn’t get over Beas. This made me sulk. We reached hotel and began shifting our luggage. I was about to lift one of the heaviest bags when I had a YashRaj movie moment. A tall guy was walking towards our bus. It was hard to ignore him. He had a charismatic presence. Certain people have that effect. I kept a tight hold on my bag coz, who knows, he could have mugged us. He reached our bus, and a song played inside my head (trivia: I CAN be romantic). He was undeniably the best looking guy I had ever seen, I think (I don’t remember his face now). He looked at us and smiled. You know, one of those lopsided ones; like Milind Soman nah I’m just exaggerating. But he did smile, I remember.
Lesson number 10: I think its time we stopped obsessing over Milind Soman. He is old. He looks very old. Passé.

Nineteen year olds’ who are fed on Jane Austen and Mills and Boons can be unreasonably romantic in such occasions. A friend of mine giggled.
He said “hmm hi. Do you need help?”
I said nothing and pretended to lift my heavy bag. Few of my friends agreed. He picked our bags and walked back to the hotel. We all looked at each other and had only one thought running on our minds. “Is he staying in this hotel?” My friend broke the silence with - “Do you think he is a porter?”. We thought of using the non-existent knife on her for getting us back to reality. He disappeared into the darkness after dumping our luggage in the lobby. Yes. He was gone! Just like that. We couldn’t even thank him. I sulked some more.

Next morning our breakfast table hardly saw us eat and mostly heard us talk about the cute guy. So where was he hiding? What was he doing here in Shimla? Did he own the hotel? Or was he a porter? We didn’t see him that morning. We visited mall road, shopped and decided to return to our hotel. The sun had set several minutes ago coz it was surprisingly dark outside. The place looked very nice and you'd think nothing could go wrong. Well well to our luck there was no public transport. We had no choice but to walk. Locals were confident that we would reach our hotel in 20 minutes flat. But they were so wrong. It took us an hour to reach, not without some adventure.

There was no proper route to our hotel and we had to ask people for directions, which was not easy as there weren’t many people found on streets. We walked on the main road and saw a board with our hotel's name and directions. Happiness came. Then we had strange men in jeep follow us which made us take a diversion where we met an old lady who volunteered to take us to our hotel. We had to trust her coz we were tourists. Tourists don’t have choice. Stupid tourists.

Got back to our hotel, thanked lord of seven hills and the kind old lady. Of course we discussed about the cutie while we walked. By next day we had no hopes of finding him. Probably he was just another tourist. Or he was a figment of our imagination. Our tour operator had arranged a camp fire for us that evening. We all danced (I just moved from left to right). Other tourists were caught looking through their windows with a packet of popcorn. It must have been entertaining.

My friends and I unsurprisingly got tired of dancing and decided to click pictures as it was our last day in Shimla. We found a scenic place, a garden with lot of pretty flowers and were posing joyfully when we finally saw him. He looked better than we thought he did and was wearing an exquisite jacket (a big fan of jackets, that’s me). He noticed us and volunteered to click pictures. I just shrugged and looked around for support from swooning; well he was talking to me after all!
Lesson Number 11: My experiences with cute guys have been pitiable. I shrug or look away when they talk to me. Sample this. Don’t come to me for advice.

We all sat next to the garden and smiled goofily while he clicked our picture. We thanked him and he asked if we were having fun in Shimla. We replied something incoherent. He then enquired about our stay, my friend’s suspicion about him being a porter was growing stronger. And then he left with a wave. We giggled until Sr. S (our lecturer) spotted us and rolled her eyes. We reached our room and discussed whether his eyes were grayish blue with a tinge of brown or just gray or just blue. I lost track of shades after a while. I liked his eyes, yes, but I liked his corduroy jacket better. I should have asked where he got it from.

The following morning we narrated this incident to another friend of ours. Apparently she and her roomies were as romantically stricken by him as we were. With nothing else to do, we spent 15 minutes discussing the possibility of finding him in Bangalore. Whatever. My silent wish of a romantic encounter (a la Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge) almost came true; only mine ended before it could even begin.

Love in Shimla - Part II

2010-05-11T16:13:00.017-04:00

A tale of back-breaking bus journey, parathas and snow

A couple of months back I was cleaning my room (a very rare sight) and found a picture that made me nostalgic and I immediately called my friend. The two of us spent an hour reliving our Shimla/Manali moments and agreed that we couldn’t have asked for a better holiday. During the course of our call we remembered an insignificant incident and tadah! that’s how I got the title for my post. Err this was just to give you a background which I now feel is pointless.

Agra was our first destination and our stay was uneventful.
Lesson number 6: Do not buy miniature Taj Mahal you find on the streets of Agra. It’s extremely tacky and easily breakable.

After Agra, it was time for us to head to Manali. The moment I got off the bus, I was in love. In love with Manali. For those who haven’t visited this place, please do. It’s a b.e.a.u.t.i.f.u.l place. River Beas, clear blue sky, narrow trails, mountains, street food, and tall trees will leave you enthralled.

We reached Manali after a horrible bus journey. Couldn’t believe our luck or the lack of it when we were made to sit in the last row. And it didn’t help when my friend, who has a spine that’s bendable in all directions and needs constant support while travelling, sat next to me. I am sure all of us have one such friend. These earthly beings invariably find your shoulder to sleep the moment they get inside a car or a bus, eventually occupy a lot space and almost chuck you off your own seat.
Lesson number 7: Sit next to the driver; you can at least enjoy hindi film songs of 90’s. Anuradha Paudwal and Kumar Sanu singing “jaanam jaane jaa.. janam jaane jahaan..” or if you are lucky you get to listen to some of the rare ones too, which have mindboggling lyrics- “kaisa yeh ladka hai.. baatein hi karta hai.. liar hai liar hai”.

Few of us who were awake chatted for sometime and I then fell asleep, not because I was tired but it became extremely difficult for me to laugh while the earthly being slept on my then bony shoulder. Sometime in the morning at round 6 our bus stopped near an old dhabha in Haryana. Our tour operator had arranged caterers who began the job of preparing breakfast for us - bread/butter/jam. Only a loser would have eaten bread when there were hot parathas in sight. We gorged on 10 bucks aloo da paratha with a big dollop of home-made butter.
Lesson Number 8: Never share your paratha.

I don’t think I can ever forget the taste. That was the only time I genuinely liked potatoes (exceptions - yummy French fries served in Infinitea and chips bought from local Hot Chips). Finally after a very long journey we reached Manali. Cold wind greeted us and we Bangaloreans were thrilled to get our jackets, sweaters, shawls out. We generally feel happy when we see wool. I could not sleep that night; I lay awake thinking about snow. The next day we left to Rohtang Pass.
Trivia: You may notice, I used to and continue to have irregular sleep pattern. Insomnia is my middle name.

The organisers took advantage of our good nature (read: too lazy to protest) and made us permanently sit in the last row for the rest of the tour. The journey to Rohtang pass was scenic; Beas flowed peacefully and I sat next to the window. Sheer bliss. The blue-green river made my heart skip several beats... err no, in reality the sleepy bus driver kept going tad too close to the milestone. I couldn’t take my eyes off those lovely mountains and the milestone. We reached Rohtang pass.

Oh! we were ecstatic. It was feet-numbingly and teeth-chatteringly cold. But of course I just had one thing on my mind- snow. We were asked to climb the hill to reach THE place. And so we did. Did we get to see snow? Yes and no. All we saw was dirty brown patch of snow coated here and there. 200 angry college goers were all set to turn murderers. The tour operator’s promise of “snowww.. veryyy slippery also.. you will enjoy” was still ringing in our ears. Dejected we all got back, tried finding a knife in vain and sat in the bus feeling terribly hungry.

Later we hit the streets of Manali and ate mind blowing junk food.

Next post: Part III (the final one, I promise) *grin*

Glowing insults

2010-04-20T00:24:00.015-04:00

I hopped over to Health & Glow on Sunday. Yes, I do that sometimes. It’s good to go there once in a while to get insulted. The salesgirls in H&G are taught to be offensive. Like, really offensive. Me thinks they have a section in their training programme that’s called “how to be an efficient rude salesgirl”.

So, I was scanning some random shelf, when a tiny girl came from nowhere and asked politely, in a nasal tone -“can I help you madam?” to which I replied my standard ~~eff off~~ “No. Thank you”. But as expected she was right there fearing I might nick things and run. I then had a moment of flashback about an incident which had taken place few months ago in the very same outlet; here goes my flashback:

Salesgirl: “Madam, you can try this madam. It improves dryer”.

A flabbergasted me thought “oh poor H&G! It has started repairing hair dryers?”

But turned out she meant “dry hair” and thrust a shampoo under my nose.

Salesgirl: Your hair is very dry madam. this is good madam..

“Are you jealous?” I wanted to ask her, instead went home and sulked. I vowed not to get insulted again.

But I never learn, do I? So here I was, once again, giving H&G more business. So the nasal voiced salesgirl went on and on about everything I picked from shelf. “Madam (nasal tone) this is verrrry nice product madam. We have 0.08% off madam”.

I was done buying things and was about to leave when she tried one last time:

Salesgirl: Madam those circles around your eyes madam.. we have this special dark circle remover cream madam.

That did it! I tuned into a monster and ate her alive (I mean, I mentally pictured this act).

I merely glared at her and walked away. I CAN snub (it’s tough, however). I grinned while walking towards the billing counter as my eyes caught a bar of chocolate and thought “you little *beep* do you have any idea how hard I work to get these circles around my eyes? Do you work till 3 in the night? and wake up at 7 in the morning? Do you? Eh eh eh?”

I bought a couple of Bournville chocolate bars thinking, “I know I have earned it”.

Love in Shimla - Part I

2010-03-14T16:01:00.015-04:00

En Route

“Did you pack two pairs of socks?”

“I am not going to carry cold cream. Ami, you do that no?”

“Whoa! Are those Crocin tablets? Plan to set up a shop there?”

“snowwwwwww (giggle)”

These were some random sentences uttered (sometimes even in our dreams) before leaving to Manali and Shimla. The excitement was sky high and the packing list endless. My mom and sister forced me to come up with a list of things to pack, which was a task by itself.

Lesson No.1: Remember a twine rope, safety pins, mosquito repellent and a torch can complete any list.

So I added all these and much more, packed two bags and set out. My college had organized a trip to Kulu, Manali, Shimla and other must-see-places-if-you-have-gotten-off-at-Delhi-railway-station. I was with my group of friends and other college mates. How many? umm..around 200. Fun aye!

The train in which we traveled (Karnataka Express) had to accommodate 180 manic teenagers and some tweenagers along with some lecturers (yup lecturers. We had to take them along. Rules I believe). Our fellow passengers looked very nervous. They looked intimidated by the sheer racket we all created when we got in. 3 days? No way, they all must have thought. One of them was seen crying next to a stinky wash basin muttering “death.. death.. take me” (note: you know how I love to exaggerate). We found our ‘berths’ and I got a last minute do’s and don’ts from Dad. The train was about to move. I impatiently looked around for my sister. She was stuck in a traffic jam and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to see her for another 20 days. But she made it. Wheeeeeeeeee I said and exchanged hugs and some cash (working sibling=ATM. We younger one’s are so nasty *evil laughter*). After saying our goodbyes we got back to our seats and wondered how to sort the crisis that needed our immediate attention. Few of our friends were in another compartment and we had to move them. So we went around asking our co-passengers:

“err escuse Mister large man with a frown can you please shift to berth number 43, pliss?” Lesson No. 2: Never mess with such people. just smile and offer a packet of Frooti.

“um sorry, kind lady with a badly behaved child, can you take that fabulous seat number 50 and let our friend sit with us” -so on and so forth.

Even after all our pleadings and drama two of our friends ended up in a different compartment. We didn’t bother much as we had other important issues to tackle. Like dinner, for instance. So we sat down and gobbled yummy curd rice and chutney puDi with chapaatti. We failed to notice that there was a man sitting on the edge of our reserved berth and shouting very loud in a voice that could give Rajdeep Sardesai a run for his money. “Train ko kharida hai kya?” he yelled. We all took a couple of minutes to look away from our food.

Lesson No. 3: Know your priorities while traveling. Food should be your first priority. Always.

We looked up and gave one of our get-the-hell-out-of-here looks. He was upset that most of the seats were booked before he could. Our world famous get-the-hell-out-of-here look didn’t work; he kept other passengers entertained with his sulk-sulk-blah-blah. We kept ourselves entertained with curd rice and pickle. He left after sometime. We had already decided that none of us would sleep during the journey and planned to stay up the whole night. Yes, stupid teenagers. We kept ourselves awake by talking non-stop (read: bitch*ng session). But I noticed most of my friends were yawning after 11PM. I for one can never sleep while traveling so I didn’t want them to sleep. I asked them to be strong and keep themselves awake.

They left and slept peacefully.

I kept waking up from time to time, trying my best to read the names of all stations. I was on the middle berth, a difficult spot I would say, but I managed to read 'em all. Or so I thought (they were written in Hindi and my hindi reading capabilities from a distance is err how do I put it, questionable). The train was too slow for my liking and it was ~5 AM. As it was the first time that I had woken up so early in my life I thought of making the best use of it by brushing my teeth and eating some plum cake that we had packed. Hey! you feel hungry while traveling.

The whole freakin train was asleep. How can they all sleep so peacefully I wondered? With nothing much to do after eating plum cake I went back to sleep only to be rudely woken up by eunuchs at around 6 AM. Four or five of them were all around the place - *clap clap clap* “aye hero utho..” *clap clap* “haan ..haan good morning” they wished us. I needed coffee. But they kept clapping. It hurt my head. Somebody please give me coffee, I pleaded silently. For us Bangaloreans waking up to find no coffee is like going to Tirupati and not hearing MS’s Suprabhatam or going to Tirupati and not standing in queue. More claps followed forcing me to peep through my shawl. One of them caught sight of me peeping, thinking I was a guy (don’t ask me why) tried to wake me up. After s/he found I’m in fact a girl, asked me to go back to sleep. Sweet, no? I murmured ‘coffee?’ sleepily (threw in some sympathy angle muhahahaa. clever me!). “coffee?” s/he asked me with a frown and *clap clap* called the coffee chap (who had just walked into our compartment) and moved ahead to harass a cute guy who was sleeping on the ‘passage-wali’ seat (ahem.. a cute medical student. more on this later)

Lesson number 4: Don’t infuriate eunuchs. Stay calm and smile or act sleepy. They’ll help you. Really.

I thanked the kind eunuch, which went unnoticed, paid Rs.5 to the coffee chap and had my first sip of “Brooo instant coffee”. I immediately felt dizzy. I will never be able to describe the taste of Broooooo. But my fellow coffee lovers may I request you to join me in requesting Indian Railways to ban this dreadful blend of warm water, three spoons of sugar and coffee powder tin’s lid thrown in for the effect. I vowed to drink only Tea for the next 20 days, any day better than Br-ewww.
Lesson 5: You might have already guessed, yes, say NO to coffee while traveling. It.should.be.banned.

Rest of the journey was uneventful. Oh yes the cute medical student (no, he is not the protagonist of this story). To be honest I didn’t find him cute, in fact none of us did. Much to our amusement he slept throughout the journey and kept throwing furious glances at us. Well I dont blame him, coz our chatter matched the decibel levels of the train’s engine.

And thus we reached our destination.

Now, let me skip the rest of the places we visited and head to Shimla, alright. Or on second thoughts...

to be continued....

His youngest fan

2010-03-05T13:13:00.017-05:00

Children I am back. How is the world treating y’all? You must be wondering what’s going on in my life (err say yes ok)? Apart from my work, my niece keeps me busy. A two month old bijli paTaaki is my family’s sole source of entertainment. We are yet to name her. Much to her annoyance we continue to call her by different inane names. For all you know she might be thinking “aiyo you folks! get a life and leave me alone. And switch on the fan before you leave.” Ceiling fan is her current obsession.
Anyway for the sake of blogging I have decided to name her Puttudu (meaning ‘little one’ in Kannada). That’s what we call her at home too :).

Talking about fans, guess who else likes AR Rahman? yes-yes it's my niece. This happened when she was not even a month old and I had to keep a watchful eye while Putttudu slept. [But you know in reality, my role is redundant. My niece wakes up even if I flip a piece of paper; when our dear old BMTC screeches to halt, I get all jumpy and panicky but do nothing]. It was during one such screech-startle-wake-up time, that I discovered she loved music. Yeah I know! I played Aye hairathe ashiqui from Guru and my happiness knew no boundaries when I saw her listening to it with an intense expression. That was not all, we also figured that she listened only to songs composed by AR Rahman. Wheeeee… Can you imagine the kind of joy I felt?

Now, the first thing we all do when we wake up is worship ARR. There is an empty photo frame, which I plan to fill with a scanned picture of Rahman's right foot, so everyday we assume there is a picture of his right foot and do "jota" (fold hands and pray). And if you happen to pass Malleshwaram at 6.30 in the morning you can hear groggy voices singing aye hairathe ashiqui jagaa math. I normally sing Jaage hai der tak hamein kuch der sone do (to the background music of my alarm clock- rrrrrrrriiiing *snooze* rrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnggg *snooze* rrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiingggggggggggg. Dang!).

Thanks to ARR and two of his tracks, my niece promptly stops wailing and/or screaming as soon as she recognizes the prelude. For instance, she drinks her dreadfully bitter syrup, without making a fuss, while listening to this song and drifts off to la la land when we play this. She refuses to listen to other music directors. yeyeyey. More power to ARR!
When people ask- “oh-ho just like Chikki (short for Chikkamma meaning aunt, meaning me) she will also learn music-aa?” I feel like hugging them but then they add “hope she does not turn out as lazy as her chikki teehee” pffffttt grrr.

Give her a keyboard someone :p

Tag, Tagger, Taggest!

2010-02-02T10:22:00.021-05:00

Lostworld, my blogger-twin (seriously, we sometimes think alike), has passed on the Honest Scrap Award to me. Thanks a ton girl. Dunno about the ‘honest’ part but I am sure I have loads of s'crap’ to write *wink*.

So now, the rules to claim this award are-
1.I must thank the person who gave me the award and list their blog and link it (check)
2.I must list 10 honest things about myself (err)
3.I must put a copy of Honest Scrap logo on my blog (check)
4.I must select atleast 7/ 8 other worthy bloggers and list their links (hmm)
5.I must notify the bloggers of the award and hopefully they will follow the above three requirements also (OK boss)

10 honest things about myself. Hmm..10. ten. T-E-N! hmm.. Lets see how this goes. Aah ok raiyyyyah (Bus conductor style):

1). I had a troubled childhood (hard hitting sentence that is! Brilliant start.. bhesh). So as a child I was never able to celebrate my birthday in school. Being born in the month of May (yup summer holidays), I had to go through terrible mental stress. I could never distribute Lacto King or Eclairs to my class mates. I never wore “color dress” to school. Never had my classmates sing “happy birdday dooo you”. Never did I take my ‘best friend’ around classrooms to distribute chocolates. Never! Sniff… This wish of mine remains unfulfilled.

2). As a child (Yes I want to talk about my childhood. This is my only chance okay). I was saying, as a child I was ultra silent and reserved. My then new neighbor thought my sister was the only daughter to my parents. So much for being a cute, silent and an ‘untroublesome’ kid (pssst my parents wonder if I am the same daughter of theirs. Now they just can’t make me shut up).

3). I am not fussy about food. I eat anything that is vegetarian. Junk food is preferable.

4). I love my job. No, I am not being sarcastic. I truly love my job. People think I am crazy to work for a start up. Having worked in two big organizations I have come to realize that size of a firm does not really matter. And... well I want to continue but will stop here heehee :P

5). I am not much of a shopping person. My sister dreads shopping with me coz I stress her out. I roll my eyes constantly, tap my left foot, sit in one corner and sulk, you get the drift. Having said that I lose track of time when in a book store. I never use ‘shopping’ and ‘books’ in the same sentence.

6). Music to me is like breathing. Besides, music heals me and keeps me going. It could be anything- stress, stupid fights with family/friends, depression, PMS, heartbreaks...

7). I’ll like any place that has a lake and is filled with trees. I can just sit there and do nothing. I might get bored after an hour, but once in a while my mind needs serenity.

8). I sometimes laugh for no reason. And most of the time I can’t control my silly laugh. I all of a sudden remember a funny story or an amusing incident or a silly joke in the middle of a presentation or a meeting and almost die controlling my laughter. I cough to hide it. Pretentious coughs are so obvious.

9). I can finish a Bourbon biscuit packet in flat 4 minutes.

10). Life they say needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, well I take it with a slice of lime and Tequila ..muhahahha (honestly I don't know what I am talking about. I guess I'm sleepy. but I am sure that added some flavor to my otherwise boring list)

Lost, thanks for tagging me I say. Totally enjoyed writing this post.

Tra la la la now I tag:
Maanasi – Coz I have to tag her if not an ant somewhere will commit suicide.
Vimmuuu – Coz I am sure he’ll have something funny to share.
Ani – Coz even though I know him I feel I don’t. hee confusing no. So let’s hope he’ll clear the confusion

Kanagu – Coz it’d be nice to know more about him :)

Poornima - Coz I love what she writes. Hopefully this'll inspire her to write more :)

Meet my darling

2010-01-06T04:20:00.014-05:00

The best moment in my life was when I saw you. Little arms outstretched; eyes wide open. Your little feet pink and soft. I will never be able to describe the joy I felt when I saw you smile. Words fail me. Your smile made my day. I had to pinch myself to believe that you were here at last.

Our sweetheart. My niece- welcome to the world.

I have waited for so long to hold you. The ultrasound image of yours was not enough you see :P Yes, I’m greedy that way.
Now, I eagerly await moments which seem even more exciting. I am eager to take you out for a walk (show you off, in other words), dress you up, re-learn things I have forgotten, eat Cerelac (err I just wanna give some company) and yeah, spoil you like all aunts do (like all bratty aunts do)!

I love you.

year we go again...

2009-12-30T08:34:00.005-05:00

This happens to me every year. I’m not kidding.

Sometime in November-
Friend 1: What ya? What plans for new years eve?
Me: Not decided. Will go out probably *grin*
Friend 1: *smirks*
Me: pppffftttt

End of November-
Friend 2: We are all planning to go to Goa. Wanna join?
Me: Sure! But hey wait .. hmm err I dunno. I have deadlines to meet at work.. blah blah blah.. *friend 2 rolls her eyes*.. I’ll let you know.
Friend 2: you’ll never come I know! *snorts*

Sometime in December-
Friend 1: *still smirking* so, where are you going? The Club-aa? Or some farm house-aa? Or Pub-aa?
Me: arrrghhhh! go away
Friend 1: *laughing* I know what you'll do on 31st, you'll watch DD1
Me: *throws water bottle at him. feels better*

Nearing 31st December-
People have nohing else to talk about for the rest of the week. They all ask the same dam(n) question. Cousins, friends, neighbors, the kid who just got out of school, all of them have plans. All, but me! I sulk.

Not that I am sulking now. Or am I? My folks avoid talking to me, exchange sly glances and about-to-laugh expressions.
On 31st night after dinner (I tend have dinner earlier than ever) you find me with a book in my left hand and a big bar of chocolate in my right. Seriously, thanks to the great wo/man who invented chocolate. You'd think a person ever lived without it! Bah.. Reminds me of a quote from Peanuts- Lucy Van Pelt says “All you really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt”

So people who sail in the same boat as mine, bwahahahahah.. have a blast watching Titanic on star movies or Gurdasmann on DD or reading a nice book or watching a ~~chick flick~~ feel good movie. Relax. You shall be relaxed throughout the year *guffaws* .Like how we used to study on 31st to maintain that intensity for the rest of the year. hahah silliness I say.
Anyway rest of you, well, you guys have a blast too. Just make sure you are back before the clock strikes 1 if you are a Bangalorean. As if...

Happy New Year! Have a great year ahead :)

Heppy Heppy Budday

2009-12-08T12:12:00.000-05:00

This is for someone very special to me.
Someone with whom I have had mindless arguments, senseless pillow fights and silly “I will never talk to you again” moments
Someone with whom I have sung songs all day, climbed trees and inherited few atrocious clothes
Someone who has been my idol since I can remember
Someone who makes me laugh till I beg for mercy
Someone who is with me always
Someone who loves me unconditionally
Someone I am possessive of
Someone who is beautiful, intelligent, caring, emotional and a cleanfreak

This post is for my sister.
Happy birthday ‘chinnaaaa’ heh heh :D (sorry that's our family joke, might not be funny at all)
lou you ya..

Of course there is a song dedication. This one is for you bebbiee. For all those sleepless nights you (we) spent practicing this track. Those were the days no? ;)

Random Thoughts - 3

2009-11-21T02:01:00.000-05:00

He sat next to an old bedside lamp and spoke in a low tone. Abruptly, he put the receiver back in its place. Banged it, in fact. He tried to recollect his thoughts. What were they about? Something random said a bored voice (a voice that often spoke to him). Random stupid thoughts he said aloud and chuckled. Always nice to dwell on random thoughts isn’t it he asked the voice. The voice grunted.

Teehee.. That felt good. Right, the whole paragraph is no way connected to what I am about to post. I just happen to like typing such stuff. So I am back and I thought I’ll just make your lives err.. bright by publishing my thoughts. So, I was thinking -

- Is it really November? No seriously! What’s happening to Bangalore? November means a slight chill in the air that makes us grab our jackets, sweaters and socks out of our closets (socks yes, only people from Malleshwaram and Cox Town would do that). Not umbrellas. If it wasn’t for Crucie, a cute dog near my office, I wouldn’t even know the current season. The dog promptly wears a sweater during winter you see. Anyway after the initial November-sweater-days the dog now has stopped wearing it and looks gloomy. Climate change is catching up people. Look at poor Crucie.

-Is it me or is Biggggg Bosssss (I dunno how many g’s and s’s are to be added) the funniest show on earth? Did you see how they now have a romantic angle to the show? That phirang and that who-on-earth-is-he?-oh-a-loser-model guy throw vegetables at each other. hahahahah so funny. And KRK was so amusing. He got thrown out sadly. And have you seen Baccchhaan? hahahaha funny again. OK there’s nothing funny about the show. It’s downright boring. But why do people watch it? Why do I (sometimes) watch it? And if there was a “worlds No.1 cry baby” contest, who do you think would win – Bhaktiyar or a new born baby next to your building?

-All these years, the two of us successfully ignored each others existence- me and the lizard. But unfortunately (I have to come to terms with it) the creepiest living thing to have ever walked this planet has found its way to my room. Two days back I saw you-know-what crawling towards one and the only painting I have. The very next moment I was out to wake my dad up but he was fast asleep. I had no other choice but to go back. Bravo! said my Mom. The thing is she doesn't know that now I live in terror and fear of its return. I feel that it is hiding somewhere in my room. Should I call the armed forces? I don’t know…

- Have you noticed, suddenly Rahul Bhatt is famous. Poor soul was unseen thanks to the overwhelming presence of his dad and sister. Now he can savor some limelight (though it’s for all the wrong reasons).

- Since a month or so I have stopped smirking at driving school cars. I was a heartless two wheeler rider who always looked down upon the “learners”. But since the time I started taking driving lessons, I have newfound respect for these folks. But Bangalore traffic is cruel people. I protest!

-These days I dream about clutch/break/accelerator/indicator and seat adjuster.

-Before I leave, I want you all to listen to this song composed by a maestro. Ilayaraja! I think you will all agree when I say that he is an amazing musician. Listen to this track from an unknown movie called Shiva. I can’t stop listening to it. And I think this was originally composed in Tamil or Telugu; I’m not sure (whoever has heard the original please please can you let me know the movie?). Hope you like the song :)

So what have you been thinking?

Namma Park

2009-10-19T07:01:00.002-04:00

Disclaimer: 30% of the post is in Kannada, so kindly adjusht. I have translated in English (literally) for non-kannadigas, aint me sweet?

There is a park very close to where I stay. Exactly six and a half (6 ½) steps away from my place. Or maybe seven (7). It’s an old one. When I say old, I mean O-L-D. It has always been called “the Park” by all of us. As you can see we aren’t a creative bunch of people. Our lives, I mean the lives of everyone (almost everyone) living in our area, are somehow connected to The Park. You could say that if, God forbid, BBMP decides to demolish the park, the officials are bound to face some angry saree clad aunties/ajjis* and panche** clad thathas*** protesting in front of the park with a flask filled with strong coffee right next to them.

I can demonstrate how important The Park is -

“Park tarkaari-yammana hatra hogi kottambri soppu togonD baa”

(Go to that park vegetable seller (female) and get off coriander leaves)

“chapli holskobekaa? Banni, ille park hatra obba idaane"

(you wanting hawai chappal fixing? Lets go to our park cobbler)

“accident-aa? Park yedrugaa?”

(all accidents tend to happen near/next to/in front of The Park)

“Lo Mahesha, park hatra hogi Bajji tinnoNa baaro”

(Hi there Mahesha, come lets have hot hot potato bajji’s next to the park).

So on and so forth. You get the picture.

No? I can explain. The above examples don’t really give you a picture of what’s inside the park isn’t it? My bad. Will try again.

A couple of year’s back this park was not-so-world-famous-in-Malleshwaram. Many people didn’t know about its existence, except of course for the residents of our area. Till recently, my previous firm’s cab drivers wondered if I had visions when I’d ask them to wait near The Park. “Park-aa? Yellide madam?” (you say park? Are you out of your mind?). Once in the cab I would glower at the cab driver thinking how the hell he can miss this lovely park. One day, after thinking exactly for one and half minutes (1 ½ minutes), I knew the answer.

The Park was maintained just like any other BBMP parks. No maintenance what so ever.

As a little adorable kid I remember coming to the park with my Mom and sister (note: fuzzy memory). Mom would let us play for sometime inside the park, tell us stories and then we’d leave before 6 PM. The Park, after 6 PM would be filled with drunkards and shady men smoking beedis & cigarettes. So like all good kids we would follow mom and once back at home the two of us played war games. Not really. My sister would do her homework and I’d just watch her (I was a toddler and a toddler has a choice not to study).

After few years the park was given a make over. Workers cleared congress giDa**** , shrubs and weeds; put more stone benches and built a path. We were very happy to find a path to walk. By then I was a big girl (around 11 years old). Along with my neighbors, I would walk for sometime and exercise (err OK you may laugh. pffftt) and leave before 6 (coz of the said reason). The Park was looked after by a man whose name was prefixed with ‘Lazy bugga’. He moved around the park like a zombie.

Our beloved Park started deteriorating all over again.

The next stage came in early 2000 when they once again cleared gida etc and appointed a new gardner. Well it looked alright. We never really bothered going inside. After a couple of years the authorities realized this was going no where (or was it election time?) and came up with an idea to give it a face-lift. They constructed a platform, put up nice bright benches (the stone benches were retained of course, along with crow / pigeon sh*t). The path was widened. No shady men were found loitering around. Most importantly they hired a good gardener.

OK stop! Where am I heading with all this nonsense you might wanna know? Yes, I shall come to that. After the entire make-over (over the years), we now have a very chic park. Aunties, uncles, Ajjis and thathas have a laughing club. Kids are back! Bless them. They play inside the park. There is one all woman’s group. These women sit and talk about yoga, diabetes, weddings, Obama, Amerikaaa -you can hear conversations such as “My son working in US no, so will go there next month to look after grandchildren and this time Subba***** has promised a visit to Niagra falls.. teehee” or “Moole mane Radhamma avra magaLa madve gottaaitante? Ade ri same-u, louv marriage-u” (heard corner house Radhamma’s daughter has found handy husband at pInfy matrimonial service?) -and other serious stuff.

The latest addition to this wonderful park is a fountain! Yes *punching air*.. Those of you who wanna visit this tourist destination can contact me. Please take a look at our new ‘amusement’ park. I know the photography isn't praise worthy, ahem, still...

(picture courtesy: my sister's Nokia phone).

*old ladies

** white colored sarong worn by men

***old men

**** Parthenium weed

*****I am not going to explain

Book = friend

2009-10-06T15:42:00.002-04:00

You know what they say about books - “A good book on your shelf is a friend that turns its back on you and remains a friend”. And this year I got to read some great ‘friends’. I am an absolute fiction buff. I have read some Biographies/Autobiographies/Self help kinda books but not all of them keep me entertained sadly. Someday I plan to have a marathon non-fiction book reading session. Will keep you posted.

For today, I thought of sharing a couple of books that I have read this year. Do bear with me as I am not here to review books, just a few lines about them. I know we still have three months to go before 2010 but it seems like a nice idea to list them now.

Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien: Alright I know I deserve a kick for not having read this before. F-i-n-e, I’ll wait for one. *kick* ..err ok Thanksverymuch! So on the eve of 2009 I found myself drawn into the world of Hobbits. The little people held my attention and there I was travelling through the forest and falling in love with the mysterious Strider. I still have the last part to finish. (I took a long break from LOTR. Time to get back).

The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh: I had a choice of picking either Sea of Poppies or this and I chose latter. Amitav Ghosh writes bout the tide country, Sunderbans, which is known for Bengal tigers, snakes, crocs and floods. The story takes us through the lives of three central characters, which change along with a tide. I liked reading this.

Collection of stories by Saki : The book has some of Saki’s best work. They are witty, dark and entertaining. Saki’s sardonic observations about life are delightful to read. A must buy.

The Alphabet Sisters by Monica McInerney: my first Chick Lit! A relationship tale involving three sisters and their grandmother, Alphabet Sisters is funny and entertaining. At times the pages refuse to move but nonetheless the book has its moments.

Amulet of Samarkhand by Jonathan Stroud: This is the first book in the Bartimaeous Trilogy. AoS is witty, gripping and exciting (in that order). It’s about Bartimaeous, a sarcastic Djinni and his master Nathaniel, eleven year old Magician, and how their lives collide when Nathaniel decides to seek revenge on the powerful Magician Simon Lovelace. Read to enjoy this roller coaster ride.

My friend Sancho by Amit Verma: The only new book (i.e., 2009 published) that I have read this year, My Friend Sancho makes for a good read and has some very funny one liners written by Amit Verma (he blogs at India Uncut). Do look out for a jealous lizard and it's wisecracks. Nice weekend read.

Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer: Not impressive at all. Twilight is your regular Mills & Boons with a horror twist. 17 year old Bella falls for Edward, a drop dead (literally) dazzling Vampire. Edward is an odd Vampire. He can read people’s mind, play piano and control his thirst. This means he cannot bring himself to drink Bella’s blood. So we don’t get to see any gory stuff. But this is only in the first book (it is a set of four books. yaaawwwnnn); the books which follow have loads of it. When you believe everything is going great in the happy vampire family, there enters another man and so we have a love triangle. When Edward leaves Bella, she falls for another guy who is, hold your breath, a werewolf. You sigh and yell- ‘get a grip girl’. Well I skipped most of the pages.

Edited to add: also read Gone with the wind and Great works of O. Henry (yes, again)

Here are a few other books that I often read to cheer myself up –
The Little Nugget, Carry on Jeeves and Piccadilly Jim by PG Wodehouse
Yukon Ho, There's Treasure Everywhere – Calvin and Hobbes by Bill-please-give-xerox-copy-of-your-right-foot-Watterson
The Best of Roald Dahl
Potter by JK Rowling (I re-visit my favorite chapters/one liners/scenes. My sister finds this very amusing).

Hope you enjoyed going through my book shelf. Please do leave a comment on the book/s you liked reading. I’ll pick it up if I haven’t read :)

pa-pa-pa-paaaaaaaaaa (that's the sound of a trumpet by the way)

2009-10-06T15:16:00.000-04:00

Award time!!!!!!! 'my favorite time'. its so nice to get pampered with all these awards and you lovely bloggies deserve a huge candy store for massaging my blogger-ego :) :)
Thank you Aryan’s mom and Swaram, I am so so so happy. Big hug to you both (extra big hug to Aryan :D)

by Aryan's mom:

by Swaram:

I pass these two awards to Gazal and Prax :)

Feeling hot hot hot

2009-09-17T08:45:00.000-04:00

I haven’t traveled for a while now. I only dream about traveling. I watch shows on Travel & Living and sulk. My travel plans flop the minute I get excited about it . For this reason I have stopped planning my vacations. But the future does look bright and hope my travel plans don’t bomb like Harry Baweja’s next movie. I h.o.p.e!

The last I traveled was to Chennai on an official assignment, that too for a day. I couldn’t really look around the place as there was no time at all. But the good part was I got to eat some yummy food at Saravanaa Bhavan. What a fine place! I thought of getting a Xerox copy of the cook’s feet but they didn’t let me inside the kitchen. Can you believe that? Apart from this minor regret the trip was fun, thanks to my colleagues who were with me.

*note: dare you say- “official trip but traveling by train-aa?” hmph. I work for a start up. This justification should suffice, no?*

The train journey turned out to be uneventful, for us. Our fellow passengers felt otherwise. They almost threatened to throw us out as, they thought, we were talking too much. One man after tossing and turning for hours lost his sleep (poor chap, you’d think) and with nothing better to do he kept scowling at us. What nonsense. Another guy threw dirty looks at us every time we burst out laughing (which by the way happened every 2.67 minutes once). We did not feel guilty though. It was only 11 PM; tell me who sleeps so early?

Talking about sleep it is necessary to tell you that I normally can’t sleep while traveling. And so when everyone went to sleep, I put on my headphones to listen to music. I got bored listening to my own playlist and let my thoughts wander. I remembered the time when I had first traveled to Chennai. That was eons ago.

As kids we never had a choice. We had no decision making power (unlike today’s kids). We were happy with any kinda outing. “Trip-aa?” we’d ask our folks eagerly. The place didn’t matter to us as long as we had company.

That’s how the first Chennai holiday took place. I remember going to the beach and walking down the street feeling clammy. I remember having tough time sitting inside the van coz there hardly was any place to stretch my leg. I remember going to VGP from Chennai. I remember waiting to come back to Bangalore, coz I couldn’t take the heat.

Technically it was not a vacation. My uncle had some official duty there and with nothing much to do after finishing his work he thought he might as well throw few stupid kids into the water. No, he didn’t do that. He very sweetly asked us (meaning my entire crazy family) to accompany him on his trip. Amidst all the excitement we forgot it was the month of April. Need I say more? We realized it would be extremely hot and for us Bangaloreans any place above 25 degrees Celsius is considered hot. But none of us kids wanted to back out. Well obviously, how can you say no to a sponsored trip? Besides summer holidays were meant for fun. So the thought of beach in Chennai/VGP got us very excited.

I don’t recall the rest of the tour, except for the humid climate and as a result the urgency to get back to Bangalore.

While we are on the subject of hot places let me also narrate to you about our other expedition to another hot destination. During one such summer vacation we (my family and another friend’s family) traveled to Bijapur, Aihole, Badami and Pattadkal. Summer in North of Karnataka is hot. To put it mildly, we thought of cooking hot BeNNe dosey (Butter dosa) on top of our car. As we didn’t find butter on the highway we decided against it. But seriously, it was burning hot. Coming back to our trip, despite the heat and dad’s friend falling sick we had loads of fun. We all traveled in our Premier Padmini. All of us (eight people including four sweet 'little' kids) were squashed inside the car and we didn’t really mind (more so coz there was no choice). The heat didn’t prevent us from having fun. Between our journey, there was an unexpected stop over at Koodalasangama and with no hotels around we took refuge in a small dormitory. I still remember we slept on the floor and found everything exciting -the spookiness of the night, the dim lit room, the whole idea of an adventurous trip and the constant “ssshhh sumne malkoLI” (shut up you crazy little monsters) uttered by our elders. We even made up a song on Kudalasangama. Boy! What fun.

Now when I look back I don’t understand why most of our summer vacations were spent in places such as these- hot, dry, sultry and humid. Well who cares as long as it made us happy.

This post, my friends, was a leaf out of my travel journal. I do hope to write some more some other time.

Coming up next: Love in Shimla

Gracias

2009-09-10T15:45:00.000-04:00

Shraddha and April (two lovely bloggers who run a great show here) have been extremely sweet and have passed this award to me :)
I think this will help me get out of my so called writers block :P

Thank you ladies, this did make my day :D

I pass this on to:
Aniruddha
Maanasi
Poornima

p.s. I hope by now you would have noticed my new super cool signature.

Cheers,

Paayaliya

2009-08-20T03:03:00.000-04:00

My friend Maanasi, after listening to my rendition here, decided to come up with a video, on YouTube. She worked on it for few hours and voila! here is the first look. She says this is her first attempt, but I don't believe her. Coz it looks very artistic with all the right pictures, matching the mood of this composition.
The pictures shared in this video are by Megi and Deepak (excellent photographers, both of them. Probably it runs in the family :)) Thank you folks! :)

And thank you Maans. You are the best :)

Attuned

2009-08-19T01:40:00.000-04:00

Almost four years ago I stepped inside a recording studio to come up with a demo CD. I was actually threatened by a friend of mine with dire consequences if I had not done this, so to save my life I decided to sing few solo tracks.

One of them was a classical bandish in Raag Puriya Dhanasri.

I recently got in touch with Chandra from Wiredbeats who volunteered to come up with a mix (of this bandish). I readily agreed coz this was something new and I was very excited about it.

I wanted to share it with you folks. And so here I am with the link (use headphones please).

He has done an amazing job and I am sure you’ll agree.

Thank you so much, Chandra :)

http://www.wiredbeats.com/2009/08/18/puriya-dhanashree-by-shruthi-krishnamurthy/#more-311

Hope you like it. I look forward to your feedback :)

S for? Silly

2009-08-13T12:30:00.000-04:00

Swaram has asked me to do this short and sweet tag. In her own words - "It takes very less time and its fun". I so agree with you. Thanks Swaram :)

I am glad to be doing something different after a long time. Something that does not involve reading/writing reports and filling complex templates. sigh!

Okay the rule is that you gotto answer all the questions with the first letter of your name. Ok? ready? Alright here I go:

1. What is your name: Sensational Shruthi. Corny eh?

2. A four Letter Word: Swim

3. A boy’s Name: Shikari Shambu

4. A girl’s Name: Samantha Fox

5. An occupation: Sound recordist/music arranger. That would be fun :D

6. A colour: Scarlett (o' Hara?)

7. Something you wear: T ‘S’hirt

8. Food: Saaru (also known as Rasam (for non-kannaDigas). Tastes heaven when cooked by Mom.

9. Something found in the bathroom: Surf Excel. Of course it is not for me!

10. A place: South Malleshwaram (I mean southern part of Malleshwaram. huh ok Thanksu)

11. A reason for being late: Sleep

12. Something you shout: SHUT UP! Only to myself

13. A movie title: SP Sangliana (I couldn’t think of any other movie) Btw SP Sangliana is a Kannada movie which I haven't watched unfortunately.

Edit : Schindler's List. I thought I should include atleast one sane answer.

14. Something you drink: Sea Breeze. Yes, sometimes I can be sophisticated.

15. A musical group: Strings. err actually I don’t like them.

16. An animal: Stag

17. A street name: Seventeenth Cross Malleshwaram

18. A type of car: ‘S’McLaren

19. Something scary: Soap opera actresses without make up

(are you still reading this list? I 'salute')

20. Ice cream flavour: Sundae. Hot chocolate fudge at Corner house yummmmmmmmmmmm…

Didn't the title warn you?

Time for some abuse. Kutte... Kaminey...

2009-07-29T05:42:00.000-04:00

It's raining as I type these words. And I am loving it :D
and I find myself humming - Abke sajan saawan mein

Ok thought I'll give my readers (?) an update on what 's happening in my life. I promise to keep it short.
Most of the time (Day/night) I am working. Yes people can see me online for about 18 hours (I expect you to pity me as you read this sentence) on any given day.

Currently, I am addicted to Kaminey. Vishal Bharadwaj has given us yet another off-beat musical treat. Listen to the title song and I am sure you'll fall in love with it. I am also sure you'll blink and wonder- "How does Vishal make the word 'kaminey' sound so beautiful?"

Apart from this there is nothing else happening in my life.

I will leave you with a famous auto raja quote:

Love maaDidre romance
ildidre nimhans

(Translation - If you do love romance, if not no, NIMHANS)

Oh so weird!

2009-07-08T05:00:00.000-04:00

I have decided to be the greatest weirdo ever to have walked this planet. How? Well with nothing interesting to write (no surprises there) I have decided to come up with 7 weird facts about me-myself-I. Didn't have to think too much.
Why 7, you ask? Simply. I like this number.
Anyway, let me present to you the degree of my weirdness:

(1) This might not be just me, bet there are many others with me. First thing I notice when I meet someone is his/her hand. I have a fixation of looking at other people’s hand. I like people with well maintained hand. Long, dirty nails make me barf. Guy with long nails, you please stay away from me. A guy with long painted nails? Forget it.

(2) I don’t like being in crowded places. Too many people around make me cranky. I get claustrophobic. I sometimes go inside my shell or become very defensive. I pick up an argument, feel grumpy. I mean, do anything to get out of that place. Incidentally my sister has always been targeted in such situations. Poor you ~A, sorry bout it eh. Ok? Ok.

(3) People who write with their left hand get my attention immediately. I just can’t stop looking at them “left-ies” writing. It is so nice to watch them write with their hand tilted a bit, pen kept in some-what position. I feel very sad when they stop writing.

(4) I can’t relax if I see a girl/woman’s dupatta/scarf hanging very close to the wheel of a two-wheeler. Many a times I have followed such vehicles to utter these powerful words -“hello hello your duppatta”.

(5) My source of entertainment while travelling to/fro office is stuff written behind autorickshaws. I find them intriguing. They are thought provoking and inspiring. They all come with a social message mind you. In fact I suggest all you love sick boys go take lessons from our auto rajas’. Sample this:
Ammaninde odre anna
UDugi hinde odre suNNa*
Profound, don’t you think? There are many such famous quotes. Maybe my friend Adi can add some popular quotes.
*plis let me know if you wanting translation.

(6) I am petrified of ceiling fans. I am scared to sit or sleep underneath a fan coz I feel it might just fall on me and cut me into pieces. Are you grossed out? Jesht you imagine my plight. Even a slightest noise from it freaks me out.

(7) I couldn’t come up with the seventh one. I ran out of thoughts.

I will now shut up. But not bounce bwahahaha..

You know what, I'll make this one a tag. heeeeeeheeeeee.. I love tagging people.

I tag:
Maanasi : 7 might not be enough for her :P Maanu, increase the number if required.
Swaram: Yey! first time tagging her. You'll take it up no? :P
Gazal: Tagging Gazal for the first time and I am sure she'll come up with something interesting :)
Adi: New names for him - London huccha, thames-nan-maga etc. Share your thoughts with us Dubai babu.
Meg: ;) Nice nice things she'll write about her weirdness.

Lame Post

2009-07-06T02:43:00.000-04:00

Most of them find gtalk conversation blog posts ridiculous. But you know me, I like such stuff. Anything weird, lame, not so lame, avoidable, unnecessary things get my attention, and I, in turn write about them and entertain you (who is disagreeing I say?). Look, that’s called public service.

I think it’s high time I did one real-conversation-copy-paste-post.

I present to you The Cartoons. This conversation happened between three beautiful girls.
Yes. We call ourselves beautiful, pretty, pulchritudinous, gorgeous and other similar adjectives.
Now that I have your attention I can proceed with the copy-paste job.

And by the way you can skip if you have decided to watch that godforsaken saif-deepika padukone movie.

Warning: Spoilers ahead

Cartoon 3: C2 u there?
cartoon 1: You've been invited to this chat room!
now?
cartoon 2: yes
cartoon 1: i was telling C2 love aaj kal story
cartoon 2: ya tell ya
Cartoon 3: Tell tell
cartoon 1: saif ali khan and deepika padukone are brothers and sisters in kal
in aaj..they are lovers
that love yesterday was different....
brother sister love
story today's different - lovers
cartoon 1: saif loves his sistaaar so much that he does not want to be separated
cartoon 2: not twins??
cartoon 1: so god tells..beta..jao...usse shaadi karo
Cartoon 3: what bout that other girl?
cartoon 2: chi
cartoon 1: atleast few minutes you will not be separate
the other girl is saif's mum in aaj
Cartoon 3: ok.. what will she be in Kal?
sister?
cartoon 1: kal..she's evil sorceress
Cartoon 3: who tries to kill deepika and saif?
cartoon 1: no no...
she doesn’t try to kill them
she tries to be born as their child
Cartoon 3: but how come there is no homo angle to this?
cartoon 1: arre...not everything has homo angle
Cartoon 3: che
cartoon 1: ok..ok..
Cartoon 3: C2 is asleep i think
cartoon 1: it was supposed to be a surprise
but since you are asking so nicely
i'll tell
Cartoon 3: twist that was no?
cartoon 1: yes yes
totaaaly
saif ali khan is actually a homo
Cartoon 3: how i guessed it off no?
muhahahha
cartoon 1: god also laughed like that..muhahahahahahah
but since he has promised god he'll be together, he's married to her
cartoon 2: holy crap
Cartoon 3: heheh
hmm this is another path breaking movie
cartoon 2: wait now i will attempt
Saif ali Khan is a surd
from Punjab.. that is his Kal..
Deepika padukone is his neighbor
Cartoon 3: ohho.. then there is a murder
cartoon 2: C1 u wnat to add?
cartoon 1: what?
Cartoon 3: C1
add ya
next is what
cartoon 1: murder??
Cartoon 3: you were sleeping aa?
cartoon 1: sorry sorry
eh
i like my brather sistaar story better
:P
atleast it has incest twist to it
Cartoon 3: teehee
cartoon 2: k C3 lets make a nice story
Cartoon 1: yes
do it that
cartoon 2: not the brother sister tale
Cartoon 3: ok ya..
I have one good twist for that
GHost
cartoon 1: tell ya
hahahahahah
C2 is well versed with ghosts
she can add
Cartoon 3: hahah yes :)
(This is a private joke. I understand if you would like to ignore this)
Cartoon 2: wait
(connection lost)

Cartoon 3: what happened?
Cartoon 1: Cartoon 2 said nimajji
i said make bajji
Cartoon 3: sreeshant
Cartoon 1: appam *&%^$?
what's he doing?
Cartoon 3: no u said bajji (Bhajji)
so i said sreeshant
Cartoon 2: hehehe
Again we lose connection. BSNL I tell you.. lousiness personified.

(after sometime. C2 comes up with another version)

Cartoon 2: Saif is in love with Deepika.But she is taller than him and she likes men who are her height or more and so to reach her height he ties a turban on his head.. deepika thinks saif is cute but she hates the turban..now the whole movie revolves around how deepika persuades him to take off the turban and what happens when she realises that Saif is shorter than her????U want to know if she will accept him with the turban or minus the few inches.. u must watch love aaj kal
Cartoon 3: hehehe this is turban aaj kal
:D
Cartoon 2: its more like.. aaj turban.. kal??
Cartoon 1: is unavailable for comments

well now you all know the story. So don’t waste your money by watching this movie when it releases.

p.s. the music of this movie sucks.

Walk on

2009-06-28T09:57:00.000-04:00

I walked. Yes. Those of you who know me will be surprised. For the rest of you, I’ll tell you why. The only walk I take is the one from my office to the place where my carpool stops. That's my exercise. But seriously I did walk, for about 4 kms. SO WHAT you may ask. Well, you see this was different. I took a guided tour. A whaa? Yep, a tour in our very own Bangy town. I, along with my friends took one of the walks conducted by Bangalore Walks. It was indeed an experience I’ll always cherish. A tour that helped me re-discover Bangalore.

We walked through places which were familiar. It seemed familiar and yet new. I went through a series of - “WoW I never knew that!” moments. Savita, our ‘guide’ clearly knew the place like the back of her hand and her enthusiasm was extremely infectious. We had good fun interacting and walking through the streets of Bangalore.

I will refrain from saying anything more about the walk. Take it and discover for yourself. Highly recommended, folks.

p.s. This walk has totally inspired me to find out more about Bangalore. I will get back with a complete North Bangalore (read Malleshwaram) tour guide. Promise.

p.p.s had breakfast at my favorite – ‘Brahmins coffee bar’ :) yummy VaDaa and chutney.. slurp slurp. Darn! I am hungry now :(

p.p.p.s I had written this post three weeks back and was waiting for my friend to send across some pictures, which I thought would beautify this blog. Now I have them, as you can see, yeyy!. err this was avoidable but of course you know how I like giving pointless information.

Now for some pictures (courtesy: my friend :))

Fruit Bats in Bugle Rock park. You got to look closer :)

KannaDa KaTTe (near Brahmin's coffee bar). This kaTTe (KaTTe means a place where you can sit and talk talk and talk. There’s a kaTTe in my compound as well, are you surprised?) has pictures of various luminaries of our state. This is just one part of the kaTTe.

My friend found this very amusing :p

Gavigangadhareshwara temple:

Castle in the air

2009-06-11T04:29:00.000-04:00

When a cute guy (really cute, mind you) stops his car and asks for directions and you have no clue what he is talking about, don’t just stare at him and say “I dunno”. You are doomed if you do. Think hard. Pretend you know the place. It doesn’t matter if you give him wrong directions. Just make sure he is there in front of you.
Got that?

Don’t be like me (and two of my other friends) and say idiotically “hmm nope. no clue” and then squeal “wasn’t he cute?”

Looks interesting

2009-06-10T11:44:00.000-04:00

Watch it. (with headphones).

I know I know few of you might be shaking your head and saying, "pah! Harry potter anthe. yappaa.. Kid only you are". I don't care what you say. I will watch it (release date: July 17). Anybody want to join-aa?

But books are any day better. In fact they are the best. With one exception, I believe. I have read the book but haven't yet watched LOTR movies. From what my friends tell me, the movie it seems, is as good as the book. Somebody please lend me LOTR dvd's. please please pretty please. You will get puNya, really.

Anyway coming back to Potter movies, till now, they have been very disappointing. Lets hope Half blood prince is better.

World Environment Day

2009-06-05T00:12:00.000-04:00

“Geez! Not another ‘world something-or-the-other day’”. “Not another publicity-gimmick-day”. “Another “change the world by switching off television sets and computers day" you’d think.
But I prefer to claim this as a commitment day. Can I request you all to take some time off and think about climate change? No no I am not asking you to become an environmental activist or go around the city, shout slogans and hold “stop polluting start protecting” kinda demonstration. All I am asking is to do your bit. Commit yourself for your future. *too heavy eh?*

Well let me start again. Why can’t we commit ourselves to the environment? We could start by committing ourselves at home or office or when shopping. I am sure we can do little things such as using coffee mugs instead of disposable plastic cups or printing less or switching off the ignition while waiting for the lights to turn green or switching off fans/lights when you know you wouldn’t need them. You know things such as these (though not grand) do matter.
I don’t want to sound preachy but I do think we can bring about change in our lives by doing such simple stuff.

Just a thought. So what do you say? Can we start a movement? :)

Please send in your suggestions and share your thoughts about it. Do make use of the comments section. Maybe we can come up with better ways to tackle this issue.

Here is an excellent way to begin (an initiative by UNEP).

Honey-soaked voice

2009-06-02T07:04:00.000-04:00

At the beginning of this millennium, when hindi film-music industry was falling apart due to lack of good female singers (wokay I think I am exaggerating a bit) and when most of us were deafened by Alka ji’s, sadhna ji’s, Kavita ji’s, Sunidhi’s monotonous vocal torment and not to forget, once amazing, unbeatable sisters asha tai’s and lata ji’s shaky vocal torment, there entered a voice that left us all enthralled; a voice that charmed us; a voice that captivated our hearts; a voice that sometimes felt like a cool breeze and sometimes like a deep ocean. When we heard her for the first time, we all exclaimed at once- "ah! whatay"

Okay, I am talking about Shreya Ghoshal.
Twenty something Shreya has a voice that’s difficult to replace. I don’t think any of her contemporaries can sound as good as her. Maybe few, but not all. And please let's not talk about few singers whom I am not too “fond of”. Can Alisha howtospellherastname sing a note without going flat? Or can Sunidhi-falsetto specialist-Chauhan for once sing without murdering a tune? I do feel Sunidhi, Kavitha, Alka and Sadhna sargam are better than most of the talent show winners; like that moaning-groaning singer and that other aggh sounding singer. These girls are better off doing moaning-groaning numbers (alright alright I know it sounds errmm.. somewhat crude, but don’t they sound horrible with their ooh’s, ahh’s and mmh’s?).
Anyway in my opinion Shreya is a fabulous singer. Period.

I thought of sharing two of her songs today:

Bhor Bhaye (Delhi 6): I haven’t stopped listening to this wonderful album (Delhi 6) since its release. And thanks to ARR this thumri in Raag Gujari Todi is neither remixed (like what Imsail darbar did to Albela sajan in Hum dil de chuke sanam) nor murdered. It is kept as it is. And mind you it's not easy to sing this fabulous thumri, what with it's complicated sargam and taans, you'll go crazy. Shreya does a commendable job. Well, few of them might compare this to the original piece, sung by Ustad Bade Ghulam ali, which is unfair I tell you. Coz this man is God. Nobody can sing like him.
Enjoy the song.

Tere Naina (Chandni Chowk to China): With a movie name such as this, one can hardly expect a nice soothing number. But Shankar, Ehsan & Loy give us a sweet romantic number with Tere Naina. Not their best though. Shreya matches Shankar Mahadevan with ease. Not only that, she also out-performs him this time. A sweet cute SEL-ish song.

Here are a few other songs by Shreya I recommend listening to:
Dheemi Dheemi si (Shiva), O Saathi re (Omkara), Silsila yeh chahat (Devdas), Chalo tumko lekar (Jism), Tumhe jo maine dekha (Main hoon na), Barso re (Guru), Naam ada (Yahaan), Wada raha (Khakhee), Ishq hua (Aaja Nachle), Mere Dholna (Bhulbhulaiya), Thode Badmash (saawariya) and Teri ore (Singh is King).

Let me know how you liked these songs :)

I have my speech ready

2009-05-26T14:07:00.000-04:00

Yeyyeyy!! I am totally yeksited. I have received an award! Not one, but two two awards :D
Thanks Swaram, for passing these two awards :)

Though, I feel I should start blogging something that's rational and meaningful. I never do that, do I? I mean look at all my posts. They make little or no sense. They are all opinionated but do not create a Rang-De-Basanti-effect. People don't read them and think "haan, hum honge kaamyaab..ek din". So will I not continue writing them? err well old habits die hard you see. So I'll try my best, to not sound sensible.

Another thing that got me thinking was last year February, when I started blogging, I never imagined having blogger friends. Now that I do, I feel good about it. Happy that there are people whom I haven't met (in person) but can share almost any dam(n) thing. Great to know people through blogs innit? And of course all my other friends who diligently read my posts and leave comments :))

Thanks folks!

and I pass these awards to all my friends within and outside blogosphere

Thanks again Swaram.

Ek do Teen...

2009-04-23T00:15:00.000-04:00

Swaram has tagged me to do this number tag. Boy! This tag really got me thinking. Thanks Swaram :D
Here’s my take.

1: No of years - since I started blogging (actually a lil more than a year)

2: No of Bands I have been a part of- I wish I could go NOW and perform on stage.

3: No of schools I have changed - I initially studied in Stella Maris (Bangalore), then moved to Hubli and studied in Rotary School and then joined HJKP (go figure what it stands for) in Bangalore once we were back (I think the details were unnecessary, however I thought I'll include ;))

4: Hours (max) that I have spoken over the phone- One fateful day I had two back to back calls and it lasted 4 hours. Phew.

5: pairs of jeans I have - all blue in color :p but different shades of course

6: Teams I have worked with – in three different firms. I particularly enjoyed those initial days of my career. Some people were inexplicable and few others got on my nerves. But I had fun. My current team rocks *grin*

7: years old when I recorded songs on our tape-recorder– I used to sing prior to that as well I believe, but this is my earliest memory. I’d sing songs from Qayamat se Qayamat Taq non stop (Side A then Side B). I can still do that!

8: I can’t do without – Music, my family, my friends, books, food, water, Internet and phone (not in that order).

9: No of traffic signals- I come across while driving back home. Signals are no fun at all. You’ll have people just staring at nothing. People who talk loud on their cell phones; there are other creeps who stare at girls- its so annoying; couples’ who make out (seriously. get a room); beggar mafia, eunuchs, people who sell stuff and many more. Maybe I can write a separate post on it :P

10: April 10th – was never fond of it when in school. Exam result time you see ;)

Yayy I did it .. Now, I tag:
Maanasi: Coz I want to
Prax : Coz he has been very lazy of late
Poornima: To make her write more :)

New and Improved!

2009-04-15T07:00:00.000-04:00

Alright people, I need feedback. What do you think of my blogs’ new look?
Do I keep it or get back to my simple sweet old template?
Opinion/feedback/suggestion/gift/iPod/Merc needed ASAP..
No, I just thought asap will make you look up and take notice. Some people might not even notice. But some do. Wondering what am I blithering about? Don't. You do your work.
Vote Yes or No.

Rahman - Unseen

2009-03-20T05:11:00.000-04:00

To list out songs which I think are A R Rahman’s best is a tough job. [Though Maanasi beat me to it ;)] I would still like to go ahead and list few of his compositions. Let me rephrase it, will list out few of his not-so-popular compositions. Tracks which have not made it as chart busters but are as good, if not better than the best. My take on the maestro’s compositions:

Noor-un-Ala-Noor (Meenaxi): A movie that made no sense to most of us has some amazing set of songs. Noor-un-ala is one of them. It starts off with alaap accompanied by bass and chimes. Then it transcends into, ARR’s favorite genre, sufi. The composition has shades of Raag Jog. Murtuza Khan and Qadir Khan sing well and improvise this haunting Qawwali with sargam and alaap. Great track.

Do kadam (Meenaxi): One more from Meenaxi. In fact I like the entire album. There are no words to describe this album. Anyway, coming back to this song- give me chimes, bells and other tinkling stuff as background music and I can listen to it forever on a lazy afternoon.. It also has the melody of guitar. As some kinda bonus we have Sonu Nigam (aka feeling Raja) singing for us. Do kadam? Bah! I don’t mind taking two million steps with Sonu ;) I love the way he sings “Aao chale hum wahi, Do kadam aur sahi”… So romantic..

Main Albeli (Zubeida): Three things I love about this track- Percussion: can’t get enough of it. Accordion: I go crazy whenever ARR uses accordion. It sounds divine. and Kavitha: those who know me will be surprised but yes I think she has sung it well. Sukhwinder Singh does a good job too. The other songs I like from Zubeidaa are Chhodo More (by Richa Sharma), So Gaye and Pyara sa gaon (both sung by Lata Mangeshkar).

Dheemi Dheemi (1947 Earth): Rahman brings in the silent killer- Hariharan, for Dheemi Dheemi. It’s packed with romance and poetry. Rahman sticks to the melody and plays around with mild chords. He is a master when it comes to that. I feel the song could have had some nice harmony. Just a thought.

Manmohini (Yuvraaj): This classical fusion is my favorite from Yuvraaj. The film’s a dud, who cares, we have Vijay Prakash (the guy who sang Cheeni Kum). Yayy! The Mysore boy steals the show. A great east meets west track.

Tu Bole Main Boloon (Jaane Tu ya Jaane na): And all that jazz! Rahman gives us a jazz number with drums, trumpet and clarinet. He proves himself to be the only musician who dares to explore a genre such as jazz.

Piya Ho (Water) : Piya ho which is based on Raag Lalit is slow and reminds you of a calm river, with lot of emotions underneath. The song starts off with mild chords and vocals. Apparently ARR missed out on Oscars in 2006. I feel this to be a better album when compared to Slumdog.

Sarfaroshi ki tamanna (The lengend of Bhagat Singh) : I get goosbumps whenever I listen to it. Sonu and Hariharan get together to sing this masterpiece… Composed in Raag Des (not pure form of Des ) it starts off with no percussions; just flute, Sitar and santoor. A Fantabulous number.

Shauk Hai (Guru): The soft piano in Shauk hai is enhanced by Sowmya rao’s evocative singing. Rahman and Gulzar create a wishful world. love this line - “Neend ki goliyon ka, khwab ki loriyon ka.. Bezubaan aus ki boliyon ka .. shauk hai”.

Pyar yeh jaane kaisa (Rangeela): Violins ..violins.. Love the violins used here. ARR, you are the best.

Paigham laaya saawan (Lakeer): Based on Raag Darbari, Paigham is a sweet romantic track. But what was ARR thinking when he made Shaan sing? But the composition is so beautiful you forgive him. Next time Rahman, please don't make this guy sing...

Rasiya (Mangal Pandey - the Rising): Richa sharma sings “o chaliya o rasiya” effortlessly. And the GUITAR! Love the guitar chords played. Spanish mixed Indian tune is just B-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l and so is its haunting chorus.

Door na jaa mujhse (Sapnay): The groovy beat and shifty notes make this an extremely enjoyable number. SPB, who IMHO is the best playback singer we have, sings it with lot of passion (his accent forgiven). The best part of this composition is its antara which is just perfect. Can’t be improvised further. It sounds better in Tamil though..

Ada: Title song of this album is the best, sung by Parul Mishra. The track has subtle back vocals and guitar but it completely belongs to the vocalist. Other tracks that I like are Milo Wahaan (classy number which has cello, Violin and just a dafli beat in the background) and Mehrabaan (sung by ARR). Fabulous is the word. If you haven’t bought this album go grab it child!

Aahista Aahista (Swades): Thanks to a friend of mine who made me listen to this song, I got introduced to Raag Charukeshi. The lullaby is intoxicating. When ARR brings in Santoor you just glide in reverie. This hundred stringed instrument, is my current favorite, apart from accordion that is.

There. I did it. Needless to say I have thoroughly enjoyed myself writing this post.

So fraands go ahead and add songs which you think went unnoticed.

p.s. I have intentionally not included his Tamil, telugu, non-filmi and international albums. I think the list would be endless :)

Ah! I remember you

2009-03-10T06:56:00.000-04:00

I am thrilled. My music teacher still remembers me! I mean my very first guru whom I haven’t met since 15 years or so, still remembers me as a good student. Yay! She recognized me when I went to meet her last week. Wooohooo.. I rock!

I started learning music at a tender age of *ahem* … err ok will start again.. –
When my Dad got transferred to Hubli, many years ago, I was extremely unhappy to leave Bangalore. I threw tantrums and cried for a month. After a couple of months dad and mom (who couldn’t take my “I want to go back to Bangalore” whine any longer) made me join some music class (vocal. I can’t play no instrument) very close to our house. And Mrs Shirodkar was my first music teacher who taught Hindustani classical music. Initially I never liked going to class coz there were no friends to learn along with. But as the classes progressed I came to love music (I still do). I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I say it’s from here that I started my journey of music which, by the way, has been very eventful.
This time when I visited Hubli, I thought of saying ‘hi’ to my guru and was delighted when she said she still talks to her family about me. Well that’s something for me to feel elated about isn’t it?

What a day ..

2009-02-20T01:14:00.000-05:00

OKAY I give up. I cannot change this world. I have to accept the fact that people have forgotten the word “sorry” and people are &$#*@ insensitive. Come on how difficult is to say sorry and accept your mistake? There has been a delay in my realization apparently coz Maanu was not too surprised when I narrated an incident to her.
This happened yesterday, while going to office. I was muttering and singing (at the same time, yes) while riding and suddenly this guy takes a U turn without any indication. I halt just an inch away from his bike; I balance quite well. *clap clap clap*.. I send a silent thank you to God. Obviously I am annoyed and ask him
Me: Oye, what the F.. err heck?
Insensitive Bike guy: what?
Me: Cant you apologise?”
Insensitive Bike guy: what?
And moves
Me: WTF? Cant you accept its your mistake? *loud* .. He zooms taking another turn.
Why are people so insensitive?
Am I taking this a bit too far? Yes? Ok ok maybe I am.. So what? I can say whatever I wanna say. Take it wherever I want to. It’s a democratic country.

My day ended well though :) watched EVAM's Hamlet - the original spoof.. The play was hilarious. Karthik, TMK and Sunil were hilarious. We all loghed and loghed and loghed ....

Random Thoughts - 2

2009-02-13T00:29:00.000-05:00

I go pffttt grrr %$#*@ when....

-When autorikshaw drivers/vegetable vendors/bus conductors speak in hindi instead of KannaDa. “kahaan jaana hai madam?” We all must sing the famous song from Prema Loka - "KannaDa barodilvaa...?"

-When people (non Bangaloreans, yes) pronouns KannaDa as “Kannad”.. *sigh* Just have to live with it I suppose.

-When women in bus (boo hoo had to travel in BTS for a week) talk loud and walk all over my feet and dont even apologise after that. *eyes watering* "that's alright, I like the pain. Sweet agony" .

-When people raise their eyebrows and say - "ooohh you are from that college-aaa?" as though we are outcasts. Yes smarty pants. We drink, dope and dance naked?? Any problem?

-When my married colleagues (ex-colleagues actually, the present one's mind their own business, sweet) show concern over my future (unknown) married life. They ask- “you STILL haven’t learnt how to cook?” *gasp* oh Lord! it’s a crime isn't it under IPC section -fill number-? They'll put me behind bars isn't it? Noooooooooooo....

-When people (read Non Veggies) ask me “Are you a veggie?” .. I say yes, they continue - “ you are missing something in life” or “how can you not eat meat?” or *with a smirk* “you really don’t wanna taste this chicken/fish/crab/octopus/other slimy stuff”.. For the 900,689,455th time, NO. I have no wish to eat fish/chicken/crab/other creepy crawly slimy stuff which might have had other animals'/humans'/ birds' shit/waste/litter. *YUCK*

-When people ask me to sing and then talk some random stuff - "andhaage, nim maga Mahesha innu alle kelsa maaDtidaana"? Madve yaavaaga?" Ugh!! And I have to sit and wait for them to finish. After a while- “ohhoo sorry pa.. sorry, shuru maaDu".. What do I do? RUN of course .. Nah I just smile and say "parvagilla aunty/uncle"

-When people chat during concerts. I mean, why come there and talk? I once sat next to two ladies who went on and on and on about their neighbor’s daughter who had delivered a baby -"oooo what a fat baby she delivered! healthy veryy healthy" (in tamil). I couldn’t change my seat as the place was packed. My tolerance level peaked when one of them said “I hope this boy (artist, yes) finishes his Hindustani sangeetham soon. It is so boring”. Huh? "This is not Carnatic music concert Maami... Remember you were given an invite? Did you use it while frying appalam? (for KannaDigas, its HappaLa). Ah thought as much." I was fuming ...

-Mirakul ad on Etv Kannada channel. Whatever..

-Atif Aslam. His flat and tuneless singing will kill us all someday. Somebody just shoot him. This World needs peace.. Shoot him. please please pretty please...

-Reality show hosts get on my nerves. Why do they scream so much? "AAJ HAMAARE SAATH HAI THE ONE AND ONLY, SUPER HOT..." Yapppaaa...IRRITATING..

-A pothole near my office. Nothing, just felt like including it here.

That's all...

Year year!

2009-02-05T23:20:00.000-05:00

“Yayy it’s my birthday” says my blog. “It’s been a tough ride my friends, with only few readers. But heyyy *in SRK style* I am not complaining about readership. It’s the journey that counts. So what if nothing meaningful has been written here? *sees someone smirking” Don’t you smirk! *regains composure* . Happy birthday to me” my blog concludes, smiling.

Friends’, family and others thanks a lot for reading all my posts and hope you will continue to do so :-D

Sene mein dum(b)...

2009-02-05T01:58:00.000-05:00

Ravana Sene News Services

Reporter to Ravana Sene member: "Saar Saar.. please quote on Ravana Sene’s Valentines day plan?"

Sene Activist1 (SA1)- “The public will definitely thank us, for we now have the best way to beat recession. Low cost marriage anyone? *laughs* Sene is very happy to announce..”

(Another activist, SA2 comes running towards SA1 (uff! No, they are not a couple) to give some gossip)

SA1: “What!” *gasp* “Renuka Chowdry, with her proper make-up and Cotton silk saree, is unavailable for her comments? Now how do we get our publicity? *winks* You see she always helps us with her retorts. *laughs*

Reporter: "Saar please quote saar.."

SA1: huh yes where was I.. hmm yes.. You see there are people like, well let’s not name those rich men, who get high profile weddings arranged for their sons and daughters *laughs again* and who don’t think about poor people, specially in such circumstances…..

(SA2 almost breaks SA1’s ribs and says-“ thuu nimmajji, talk about culture, morals, values, etc that make our Sene run. This is not election campaign” *gives a dirty look*.

SA1: “Yes yes *rubbing his almost broken rib*, as I was saying, in order to curb economic recession and to protect our Indian culture we are organizing this mass wedding on Valentines Day. On this occasion I would like to thank Archies and Hallmark. If not for them we wouldn’t have noticed this auspicious day. You see we don’t want to copy weshtern culture for the sake of copying. There has to be some Indian-ness in it no?”

Reporter: "Thank you saar".

Later the reporter had to bear the torture of listening to Sene activists theme song – Taalibaan alla alla.. bin laDen alwe alllaa.. avn hoDdidd building ge naan hoDdidd hrudayakke misunderstanding beDa.. la la la la la …

If you are wondering what the hell am I blabbering about, read this:

So all you couples’ who have been planning for a wedding and are worried about global recession, go out on 14th Feb and get free video coverage. Coz according to Sene on 14th:

‘It has formed five teams. They will roam around Bangalore with a video camera and turmeric stub. If they find young couples dating, they will force them to wed on the spot. The couples will be taken to a sub-registrar’s office to solemnise the marriage’

So kindly ask your family members to hide behind a tree; once the Ravana Sene members spot you and give you turmeric stub (!) you can call your folks - “pssssssssssstt psssssssssssstt.. bega banni muhurtha meer hogtide”.

Diary Speaks

2009-01-23T07:08:00.001-05:00

I have this brilliant idea my friends, err well it’s not surprising that it comes from me coz I have always been a brilliant kid ha!. Why do I get this feeling that no one believes me? Anyway that’s not the point. I have this idea to start a new series on my blog - “Dear Diary”. I plan to enter random stuff that nobody wants to read or care about. You can contribute as well- in the comments section, please. This is going to be very boring if you haven’t already guessed. You see I have always wondered how it would be to have an online diary (you say Twitter?), so here I am with my “Dear Diary series”.

1/23/09, Friday, 11.15 AM

Dear Diary,

Happy Friday! But I feel it isn’t as happy as I thought it would be. Coz I am bored. I wanna go home. I am done with a meeting which seemed like it would never end and cancelled another one. Its Friday and I wanna go home early.. But I don’t see that coming as I have work.. lots of work…
I think I have lost it, to have started something as stupid as “Dear Diary series”. This is good enough for me to join “Get a life you moron” club.

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1/23/09, Friday, 11.40 AM

Dear Diary,

I have never really liked having diaries. Writing secrets in a diary and then keeping an eye on it (you see I have such wonderful friends who are way too inquisitive) is too much of a trouble .. But I do remember as a child I had a black diary (how typical!) and for three days I wrote about things which were insignificant , such as - “Today I fought with XYZ as he stole my rubber (yeah yeah its an eraser, bleddy convent kids) and threw my book out of the window” .. “Mrs V made our entire class stand on the bench because we were throwing paper balls at each other”... "We always thought Miss M was one sweet little forgetful loony hag. But how did she remember that I had to re-do my essay on “Hindi bhaasha aur uske mahtva?”
Fourth day, I was too lazy to write.

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*I am surprised that you are still reading this post*

1/22/08, Wednesday, 11.52 AM

Dear Diary,

I am just trying to fool you.. ha ha. Its 1/23/09, Friday, 1.46 PM muhahahha,…. stupid diary.

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1/23/09, Friday, 03.45 PM

Dear Diary,

I find you very boring. You don’t even realise that I am typing with one hand.. I tend to type faster with coffee in one hand. Maybe it’s the Caffeine that gives me energy.

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1/23/09, Friday, 5.35 PM

Dear Diary,
I will stop this nonsense.

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1/23/09, Friday, 7.35 PM

Dear Diary,

Are you still expecting me to write something?
ah! well here you go "s-o-m-e-t-h-i-n-g"

Hosa varusha tarali namage harusha :)

2009-01-01T14:55:00.000-05:00

Happy new year everyone!!
May the year 2009 be filled with peace, happiness and prosperity..
May the stock markets flourish..may there be less traffic .. may the petrol prices come down.. may everyone get a good raise..
I know I know I am very materialistic :D what to do we are like this only!

Yelliruve Beedle the Bard

2008-12-28T14:38:00.000-05:00

Yes, I am sulking.. I have ordered the book- "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" on Indiaplaza.in but I still haven't received it.. boo hoo.. am all upset ..

Comb and the Chinese girl

2008-12-22T06:11:00.001-05:00

“UTv World movies” channel is very entertaining I tell you. My dad and I watch it for fun but sometimes we do get to watch some good German, Spanish and French films.
But what about Chinese/Mandarin movies? As an ardent fan of Chinese films I am disappointed that they don’t feature movies of Bruce Lee. For that matter they don’t air any movie which has fights (I mean Chinese martial arts). Or maybe I have missed them. Oh no.. have I missed them?? damn! Ok Ok never mind.. But the Chinese movies they feature have oriental music and depressing people who just talk about tea, pregnancy and marriage (in that order). One such movie that I watched was very weird.. I don’t remember the name of the movie. At the end of the movie I was as confused as I was when it had begun. We spent two hours watching it with no idea of what was happening but it was nevertheless entertaining, thanks to my Grandma who (disappointed that she couldn’t watch a Kannada movie) gave her most valuable comments on each and every scene.
The movie, with only background music (oriental, of course), had no dialogues.. The dialogues were written (whenever uttered I mean, which was very rare) and the Mandarin script was fascinating to view.
Review below:

The leading lady sits on a small bench in a colorful oriental dress. She plays a weird instrument (which, in our opinion, was out of tune. Totally out of tune). She does nothing but sing and smile at random people who come home; we have no idea what work she does. Our leading man comes and goes as he pleases and wears a brooding look throughout the movie. The heroine combs his hair (!), serves him tea, sings with her instrument, closes mirrors with silk cloth (??) and talks about some girl called Aeh Mei.

My Grandma, though, liked the hair combing scene a lot.
Few of her comments follow-
(1) Aiyo yeshTu muddaagi jaDe baachiskoLtaane noDu (Oh! Look how sweetly he is getting his hair combed)
(2) Appahh! Apaswardalli haaDtidaaLe (Oh Lord! She is singing out of tune)
(3) Tea na adu? Bari neer thara kaaNatte!! Visha haaktaaLo eno? (Is that Tea? But it looks like water to me. Maybe she’ll mix poison in it?) My grandma loves such scenes.. Poisoning, kidnapping, killing, chase sequences etc are the main ingredients of a good movie.
(4) NoDtiru avLanna madve maaDkoLde hogbiDtaane (keep watching, he’ll leave her without marrying). Grandma’s sole aim while watching a movie is to see if the protagonists get married. So when the guy leaves her and goes, that means he is “keTTavnu” (bad guy- without any morals).
(5) Allaaaa.. kannaDi na yaake baTTe li mucHbeku? (why does a mirror need to be covered with a cloth?) Valid question I say..

Coming back to the film, after 90 minutes, our leading lady (tired, I am sure, of combing his hair and serving tea) pops the question about his plans for the future.. She is blushing and looking at him in “Eno ondtHara” manner.. So we figure out that she is asking something that’s dreaded by any man who enjoys drinking tea and getting his hair combed – about commitment/marriage. But he simply looks at his tea. Goes on sipping it. She cries. Poor thing. And oh! Yes, I forgot to mention, she always carries a silk handkerchief. She carries it around as though it’s some life saving device. Or maybe it was. Who knows, well who cares! Our man writes long letters to her after he leaves her. Something about reaching Shanghai and shedding tears after visiting some building and what not. Very vague but she understands it. So she sings (of course with the weird instrument).
The movie ends after the song.

Two hours of Chinese dose without kung fu :(

We have had Enough..

2008-11-28T16:00:00.000-05:00

I have got nothing to say about the recent events.. Coz lot of things have been said.. I wish and hope there is some action taken after all these attacks..

May the families and friends who have lost their near-dear one's find strength to lead life without them.
Abhaa I have come to hate the words which the media has been using since three days -killed, shot dead, explosions, terror ..I don't know where to begin...

Wah Ustad Wah!

2008-11-27T01:57:00.000-05:00

I have never liked Pritam. Yeah yeah the same music director who looks like he badly needs to be introduced to a barber.. I still don't understand how he gets to compose for so many films. I mean his compositions are mostly flicked from some Bengali song or the other. And so I used to wonder how he could come up with such a nice composition in the movie Jab we met. I am talking about the song Aago jab tum o saajana. I recently got to know that this one track from the movie is by Sandesh Shandilya.. That guy is talented I tell you. He is the same guy who has composed songs such as-Suraj hua madham (Kabhi khushi kabhi (chewing) gum), Bole re man mora dole re (Some godforsaken movie), Bhaage re man kahin (Chameli) etc..
Coming back to this track, sandesh has used some simple instruments- Flute especially is very soothing. The whole flow of the song is simple, yet different. I loved the fact that he has made Ustad Rashid Khan sing this track. I couldn't have imagined Ustad-ji singing a film song. But I must say he has done full justice to the composition. His sargam and aalaap is just perfect..
This is in Raag Tilak Kamod. One of my favourite raags.. I do not want to say anything more, you just have to listen to it. Here is the link.
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=zbF9bU4XPRE

On a completely different note here is another link- Ustad-ji singing my (another) favourite Raag-Basant ., (No no not Annie Besant.. raag Basant).
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=NK5M_WNMrJA&feature=related

My My Mighty!

2008-11-19T09:56:00.000-05:00

Remember my jungle lodges trip post?? Our trip to K Gudi? Remember? Ah good good.. this is in continuation of that post.. You have to read this I don't care. Anyway the first day, as I had mentioned in this post, we went on a Jungle safari. We settled ourselves in a jeep, open jeep mind you, and took time to get used to another bumpy ride. Its jungle for Pete's sake and what did you expect? F1 track? You guys are so not wild I tell you ;) So we set off.. we were all excited obviously, standing and balancing ourselves throughout the ride.. Well, initially we saw a bunch of Spotted Deer.. again some three or four of them.. then some more deer and then an occasional Sambar.. more deer.. we were losing patience. Then our driver took a turn, away from the others who had left along with us. After driving for 3 or 4 minutes, we saw a Scorpio parked in the middle of the track with a man standing out of the car, with a tripod and on it was a super duper camera.. we were very impressed (ahem ;)) The guy was rather sweet and gave us a chance to look through the lens. We saw an Owl that he and his friends had found. The Owl was auburn with bright yellow eyes. I loved him. The Owl silly, what did you think? Anyway we had to move coz the Scorpio guys moved ;( we followed them, now hoping to find something interesting, but alas they took a different route, leaving us alone boo hoo ;). Our driver had super sharp eyes and found a herd of elephants! Yeah yeah I hear you say -"Come on even we can a spot an elephant".. But wait there was a Tusker with the rest of them. We clicked pictures, talked in hushed voices (coz elephants don't like to be disturbed you see) and someone popped a question "sir, Tusker yaavaagaadru attack maaDidyaa?" (has the tusker attacked anyone before?) The man replied a cool "Yeah" . We were at loss for words.. more pictures and hushed voices followed.. Those elephants were chilling out. Taking their own sweet time- eating grass, shrubs and walking slowly, I mean completely at home.. Our driver, through his walky-talky told someone that he has found a Tusker and so asked that someone to come to that spot. Apparently it had been 15 days since they had seen a Tusker. So we were a little proud of ourselves to have found him hehe.. We moved closer to the herd.. They did not notice us.. They ate.. looked at nothing in particular.. We were waiting for them to move. We were bored of watching them gaze. But we didn't see one thing coming though. A sight that is unforgettable. The Tusker pushed a whole damn tree right in front of us. Just a light push and voila! the tree was on the ground.. We were awed at its strength .. And the only thing we regretted later was that we couldn't take a video of this whole tusker-making-the-tree-fall episode.. I guess I'll crib all my life. It pushed the tree and started walking forward. Chased a Deer which I guess had just popped in to eat some grass.. We went forward as he did and just watched him.. But this tusker made a lasting impression on me and ever since this trip, I have read a lot about tuskers'. Poor things are getting killed these days.. either because of their violent nature or because they get electrocuted while straying too close to an area where human beings live.
Hmm so that was my safari story. nothing great.. Not too adventurous,,.. We hoped to find leopards etc but did not.. Though this Tusker was as good as any other wild animal. Isn't he cute? (picture below).

We the Junglees

2008-11-01T12:12:00.000-04:00

The plan for the trip began a month before the actual date.. err yeah, this was the first time I guess there was planning involved in our trip *applause and some drum rolls please ;)* My friend Nihal, the initiator, got us so excited about the trip that we were actually counting days, very much like kids who look forward to visit their favorite uncle's farm house. After a lot of behind-the-scenes-"yes/No/Maybe" to the trip (that always happens when you plan so much.. hmph), after getting to know that Nihal would have to drop out (we missed our in house Schumi during the trip :(), after a lot of downs and a bit of up's we set out to Biligiri Rangana Betta or B R Hills. Asifa, Rohini and I parked ourselves in Kiran's car, clicking pictures occasionally and chatting non-stop. Shasank, Vishu and Aanch were in a cab, sleeping throughout the journey no doubt. We got to see some lovely country side I tell you, good for our health and our camera. But but but the road that we took was terrible. Actually it was just a path.. it was muddy, rocky and bumpy! Kiran's car was pleading us to get down and carry it :p.. Finally, after a terrible journey we reached BR Hills. Yayy! Now we have a Kahaani mein twist ;) we were not staying at BR hills but were driving up the hill to K Gudi (Kyathadevarayana Gudi) - to Jungle Lodges. The road to K Gudi was good, we were back on track, as in all excited and cursing Zilla Panchayat for the pathetic condition of the roads. We reached K Gudi at 2 PM I think.. Right time for lunch. Even before we could think of food, the Jungle lodges representative gave us "instructions". Sounded very organized and everything planned (sigh! not again. We are not a group of disciplined individuals' you see :p). The place had a charming view -it was raining and the whole place looked lovely. Green and beautiful. I loved the place instantaneously. We got into our "tents" and had a reasonably good lunch. Then we all set out for "the jungle safari". (The Safari story will be covered in detail soon, in a separate post :D) BTW we got to see loads of spotted deer during the safari.
Next day all of us woke up early.. ah! that made us wise (remember the saying??? hehe). It was a lovely sight. The mist and the green, together formed a great combination. We enjoyed sitting outside our tents sipping coffee and occasionally shooing a monkey away. By the way the place is full of monkeys, apart from us that is. Later at round 10 or 11, I don't really remember, we went to Biligiri Ranganathaswamy Temple. We got to see some beautiful plants and trees on the way to the temple (picture above). After lunch we all just lazed around doing nothing. Extremely relaxed. Asifa and Rohini tried their hands on Table Tennis. I read a wildlife magazine.. had coffee.. . Also watched a wildlife documentary movie (something about tigers I think) did nothing in particular.. We couldn't resist the tree houses and rope nets and so climbed/rolled.. There were hammocks to relax.. Sometime in the evening Kiran, Shasank and I went on a drive to a nearby town and on our way back we saw some good wildlife - a turtle (??), Bison, Wild dogs and some more spotted deer (not again!!). Spotted Deer apparently are like dogs you find in Bangalore, they are so common you see. Overall a superb lazy (except for our unexpected night safari), day at Jungle Lodges. loved it... Next day we went trekking into the jungle.. Oh Boy was it tiring or what! We huffed and puffed our way into the forest.. Spotted a root legged spider.. yeah an itchy weed. And another Elephant! Trekking is fun but is very tiring ..Tires you like crazy without getting to see much. Except for a "cute" flower here and a thorny itchy weed there, our trek wasn't eventful. But it was fun… It's the state of mind you see; if you want to have fun you can have fun in every sense I say!

All in all it was fun.. Of course the Jungle Lodges people would have been definitely happy to see us leave hehe... We the junglees loved the jungle...

Few facts about the place follow:

Distance: 226 Kms from Bangalore

Best time to visit: Feb - June

K Gudi Wilderness Camp Area: 540 sq kms

Cost (incl Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner): 2250 per night.

Few Wild facts:

There are 600 Elephants (Tuskers' included :p), 75 leopards (we did not come across even one of them), innumerable monkeys, wild boars, wild dogs, Bisons', Birds and Deer.

Would suggest everybody to visit this place :)

Random thoughts- 1

2008-09-20T16:51:00.000-04:00

I was going through some of my old cassettes (yes, they used to be very popular) and came across one that caught my attention and stayed with me throughout the day… It brought back all those bitter-sweet memories of a show which I was a part of. The concert was held long ago at Gayana Samaja, an old and famous hall situated on KR road (don’t ask me for directions. I often get lost when I go to South Bangalore). The programme was conceptualized in a big manner. I was asked to be a part of it by my “then” Music teacher. My Guruji said it was a very big event with more than 15 musicians on a huge stage. I guess I was the youngest of the lot. I was some 15- 16 years of age (sigh… sigh… sigh… I don’t understand why we have to grow up!). Okay, I know you must be wondering why in the hells' name am I going on and on about my teenage woes! Well, what I am going to say next has had a great influence on me. You will find out why and how shortly :)

So the practice sessions started. I was thrilled to be a part of such a great group which had few great musicians, very very senior to me. Some of them were up and coming musicians, who were given a lot of attention by the way. The rest were (and still are) professional Hindustani classical musicians. We were putting up a two and a half hour mega Meera Bhajan show. My Guruji -a perfectionist, if I can say so, was extremely strict. As in, even a slightest mistake wouldn’t go unnoticed and he would make us sing the entire bandish again! After three or four practice sessions I realized that I would just be there to support the rest of the singers. Like.. umm.. well .. chorus.. I did not have a major role so to speak, but I was hoping to get a solo piece (which I did, a 30 second aalaap.. you can snicker if you like.. pffftt). These sessions were very educative; however I envied those “up-coming stars” who got a chance to sing some brilliant compositions by my Guruji. Some people have all the luck I say!!!

The day of the concert is unforgettable. A lady (neither do I remember her name nor do I know how she got into the group) came up to me and said – “You know, Shruthi.. umm… there is a slight problem. We will not be able to provide a mic to you, cos there is a shortage of microphones'. As I believe you wouldn’t be singing anything important (!!) I guess its ok with you? Yes? I have discussed this with so-and-so and she says its fine”-*with a pretentious smile on her face*. The so-and-so happened to be one of the “up and coming singers”. I was furious. By the time I could respond she was gone. I gaped and let the whole one-sided dialogue sink in.
My ego was immensely hurt. I went to my mom and sister (who else) and furiously ranted about it; furious about the fact that I wouldn’t be of any use on stage. My sister was furious as well. She was like -“Don’t tell me they have mics for 15 odd people and not one extra for you? A very nice way to treat an artist I must say (?? Hehe). Shall I go speak to her?” She is a darling I tell you :). I imagined myself on stage without a microphone!! How hideous would that look I thought! Meanwhile my mom, a very patient and a calm lady, asked me to relax and sing anyway as nothing was important for me than to sing in front of an audience. I wasn’t convinced. I walked out of the room to witness another dialogue between the “up-and-coming singer” and one of our senior artists, he said “look so-and-so, arrange for another mic. We still have another hour before we can start. Shruthi should be heard”.
That’s when I realized it’s not a big deal to be recognized as a good singer and feel proud about it. Greatness lies in humility, the respect we show towards people who are junior to us. And that’s what this great man did by showing his concern over the fact that I could not be heard without a mike/mic and respecting me as an artist. An observation which has influenced me in many ways. Thank you Sir.
I haven’t heard or seen either of those ladies after the show got over. By now, I hope they would have realized what it takes to achieve greatness…

Reflexion

2008-05-15T01:03:00.001-04:00

Yayy!!! Birthdays' always are so special ain't it! Every year you wait for it... At least I wait for my Birthday! Wait for the wishes.. Gifts... money.. muhahahah! I can throw tantrums.. *wink* This time its no different people. I'll get gifts (whoever is reading this, you better give me something nice, iPod for instance), some money ;)), clothes... I get to eat loads of sweets. Mum, I am sure, will make Paaysa and some of my other favourite sweet dishes.. Ah! Bliss... bliss!Hopefully my sis will bake a cake just for me :P... Whoa! Makes me wanna celebrate my birthday now!!!!!!!!!!

*grinning* *feeling greedy* Oh Oh Oh wait a minute.............. I am growing old :(

I felt Glad today!

2008-04-11T15:47:00.000-04:00

This morning my Mom and I were generally conversing about a girl who sells flowers to us everyday. She is about 19 years old (I think) and has been selling flowers since the time I can remember. I was very curious to know about the girl and whether she was still continuing her studies. You see, I have this annoying habit of asking my maid’s kids or the slum dwellers' kids if he/she goes to school. If you must know I have been snubbed many a times and sometimes have been given the dirtiest look possible for asking few kids “School hogtiyaa neenu?” (Do you go to school?). But I never give up do I. I will continue to do so my friends muhahahaha….

Anyway, I asked Mom about this Girl and I was so glad to hear that this girl has been studying and doing well for herself. My Mom further elaborated saying that the girl, pursuing BA at a reasonably good college, manages to study, as well as sell flowers to help her mother. Apparently the girl seemed extremely confident about getting a job, thanks to the campus recruitments happening at her college. I was kind of surprised to hear that and went through a mild self pity thinking, “Sheesh! We never had this before” :p *almost banging the nearest table*

The major reason for me being happy about the whole issue is that the motivator for this girl and her siblings is her Mother. Usually an average Indian, lower class house wife hardly gets any chance to think about literacy and long term employment. This being the case here is a woman who is doing all she can to help her daughters study and become financially independent at some point of time. I guess this may not be the case every where, but at least there is some hope left. This post is dedicated to all such unheard and unseen women of our country.

1.50 AM and My thoughts

2008-03-15T17:21:00.000-04:00

- Its 1.50 AM, and for some unknown reason I am not able to sleep. (twist; turn; pillow over my head) Still not sleepy! Gosh! Why why why.....
- Okay, I'll switch on the fan, stare at it for a loooooong time.
- Why am I feeling hungry? Let me search for some chocolates. Nothing found (&#^^*&***##) *sigh* I'll drink some water.
- Darn! I have to go to the loo now.
- Tick tick one... Hmmm... What was that noise? (check; recheck). Hmph! Stupid cat.
- Come aaawwwwn.... tick tick 3...
- I say, why the hell does this Sony play Mohabbatein every Saturday? Who in the right mind would watch it? Who in the first place directed it?
- Tick tick 11... I mean why was Uday Chopra launched? What were the Chopras thinking when they decided to put that make up on his face?
- Never mind...
- Tick tick 22.....
- *With sickening feeling* Tomorrow, no no, today is Sunday. Why do weekends pass so quick? - *Lights on* Let me read a book.
- Where is that book given by my colleague, A. Yusss got it
- Alrightee where was I.. hmmm.... page 56, "Regulation of Mutual fund: State level regulation..."
yawwwwnnnnnn... zzzzzzzz

Something to look forward to

2008-03-08T15:06:00.000-05:00

Formula 1 is round the corner and I am all set ;) All set for it to begin from March 16 '08.

Okay so, whom would I be supporting this season? As always its gonna be Mclaren. Just wait and watch all you Ferrari freaks muhahahah... Its goin to be McLaren this season ripping all the way to the chequered flag. Hope there are no blunders this time (seriously this could be the common chant for all us Mc fans this year :().

Of course, the Drivers' Championship should go to Kimi! I am so very biased when it comes to Kimi. He is the best and so cute *sigh*

So, cheers to all the teams participating this season! Let the show begin....

A Stroll

2008-03-06T14:20:00.001-05:00

I don't think you'll believe me, I don't think anybody will believe me when I narrate this incident. But of course that will not stop me from saying what I am going to say.

This happened on Saturday, 3 rd February. I think I'll remember this date forever. That night, I was going home after finishing my work. I (used to) work in a Garment factory. My sahib asked me to clean his cabin. He said it would take at least 4 hours to finish it. Which meant I could go home only after 10 PM. The place was full of old papers and dust. As expected he left after 6 PM asking me to complete the dirty job. By the time I finished the godforsaken work it was almost 11 PM. Okay, let me come back to the incident that happened on that night. Oh by the way I forgot to mention my name – people call me Ram. I was found in a Chawl 19 years back, in front of a film poster -"Ram ka Bhai Lakhan". I think that's how I got my name. On Saturday, I was on my way to my chawl. A walk at this time works out to be uneventful but very satisfying. You know, I like the city’s weather in February. The mild chillness in the air, trees swaying lightly, stars winking down at earth, dogs howling somewhere near a park, all these things make me feel happy. Sorry, I digress.

Well, after passing the bus stop, I took another gulli, (which has only garbage thrown here and there). I usually don't take this route, but that night I just felt like meeting an old friend of mine. Moti. He is a stray dog. He has big brown eyes and eats whatever I feed him. I wanted to take a stroll with him. I had just reached the first pile of garbage when I saw people running towards me. I think they were all hiding behind a pillar. They were four of them. One guy had a knife. It shone bright. Then suddenly the guy with the knife growled- "Give me all the money you have. Watch, Chain, everything. NOW". I tried telling them – "I have no money, no watch, no chain. I am a poor guy who serves coffee and chai in that big factory. Please let me go". I pleaded. They refused to hear me out. I wriggled and tried to run away. They hit me hard and punched me on my stomach. I thought, like in movies, I can fight them. I tried kicking that goon who had the knife. He looked furious and swiped his knife on my neck.

That is all I can remember. I saw darkness after that. I could hear nothing. I seemed to have regained my conscious after a long time. Sometime back I tried crying and shouting. Looks like nobody can hear me. Right now I can see my body lying across the street where the garbage is still not cleared. On the other side of the gulli, I am sitting next to Moti. He somehow managed to find me here. All these years I thought Spirits and, forgive me for using this word, Ghosts were found in books and movies. Now I know and believe.

Get Addicted

2008-03-01T14:26:00.000-05:00

These research companies have no better work I'll tell you. I came across this article yesterday and thought of sharing it on Attuned. Its kinda bizarre. You'll know what I mean when you read the article. You can find it here .

Sing a Song...Ding Dong!

2008-02-27T15:02:00.000-05:00

I recently got to know that Kajra re kajra re, the (in)famous song featuring the Bachans' (except Jaya Bachan ;)) which has mindless music and has been sung by "I-never-sing-in-the-right-tune-but(wow)-still-get-an-award, Ruk Ruk queen Alisha chinaoy (or whatever, I can't spell her name) is written by Gulzar! I used to wonder who could have written something which goes like –"Aankhen bhi kamaal kartey hai, personal se sawaal karte hain" … personal se sawaal? Okay come on Gulzar's lyrics are usually so difficult to understand (or is it only me?) but this one just made me so happy. No doubt he is very creative. But this is good news, at least now his songs can be understood by people like me. Yay!

The trend of including English words or phrases in our Indian film songs is there since ages. I shall be listing out few :) Only the "best" ;) *Ahem* Here we go -

- Aaja meri gaadi mein baith jaa.. long drive jaayenge full speed jaayenge... so on and so forth– Baba Saigal's rap song (or so he calls it) was extensively used by the eve-teasers at that time. No prizes for guessing who made 'Baba' popular.

- Most of those early 90's songs - almost all of 'em composed by Anu Malik (Me thinks he used to beat up the lyricists to implement his ideas) which have words like darling, come here why fear, baby, sexy sexy (yes it has to be repeated), number 1, louve etc etc…

- Some song which goes – "dil mera bole hello how are you" – hehe felt like including this. Time pass I say...

- "Tere sang ek simple si coffee bhi kick deti hai" – I first thought the song featured Emran Hashmi, well don’t ask me ‘why’. Heck No, it has Jr.Bachan dancing next to, what looks like, a cricket stadium's fence. Seriously.

- How can I not include Himes bhai? "Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo… Dil se poochle jaan se pooche…. (something something) I love you oh sayyoni koi shaq? Wats up?" It's an extremely irritating song, just like him. Ugh!

- I don’t know what made Vishal –Shekhar compose this song, which goes “Aye chori, zara nach ke dikha” next you hear – “Du Du Dum Dum Dum” Excuse me! Whats that???

- "Mujhe kuch kuch hogaya.. yede chuccho chucho vishya"… This song has Kannada, Hindi and English words.. Its Unbelievable. Udit narayan at his worst I must say.

*Sigh* I have used up my energy in listing out these songs! Probably you can send in your list of Hinglish and Kanglish songs to me!

An Emperor’s Tune

2008-02-08T16:16:00.000-05:00

I was watching the trailer of Jodha Akbar and all of a sudden I thought of one common factor that could link two men from two different centuries- Music. Tansen the greatest musician ever, and AR Rahman (ARR) India’s most creative composer and a living legend linked to Akbar! Hmm what do you say? But yes, there is a small difference though- Real life and Reel Life. Akbar the real emperor had Tansen to sing for him in his court. And here is our reel life Akbar (role played by Hrithik Roshan) who has ARR, well not really singing in front of him but his brand of course lingers in the movie Jodha Akbar. Ashutosh Gowarikar, after Lagaan and Swades, has come back with ARR and we have got high hopes from both of them.

One thing that can’t go unnoticed is that ARR has this knack of composing great tracks for period films. Lagaan, 1947 Earth, Mangal Pandey, Zubeida, The Legend of Bhagat Singh and Guru have some superb numbers. Songs such as Sarforishi Ki Tamanna (The Legend of Bhagat Singh), So Gaye Hai (Zubeida), Dheemi Dheemi (Earth) and Shuak hai (Guru) still give me goose bumps when I listen to them. None of us can deny the fact that he is one of the best musicians we have in our country.

I wouldn’t call this post as a music review of Jodha Akbar, but an opinion about few tracks from the movie. I am right now listening to ‘In lamhon ke daaman mein’ (5th time to be precise), sung by Sonu and Madhushree, the best track of the lot I must say. Sonu coulsud’ve been the only choice for this song. He sings each note with such passion and patience that can only be achieved through riyaz. Madhushree joins him somewhere in the middle of the song with her mesmerizing voice. I feel she is the most under utilized and under rated singer in Bollywood. Even after proving herself I see fewer musicians making her sing. Or maybe she prefers singing only for ARR. Possible. I don’t blame her then ;)

'Azeem-o-shaan' has got some powerful vocals by Mohd. Aslam, Bonny Chakravarti and also the back vocals sound nice. The rhythm of the song makes you look up and notice. If you are a sucker for songs which have an anthem feel to it and with some great rhythmic drums this is the song for you.

‘Mannmohana’ is next sung by Bela Shinde. Bela, a winner in a TV reality show in 90’s (Sa re ga ma) has come a long way. The composition is neat and she handles it well. She keeps up the emotion needed with maturity in her voice till the end of the bhajan.

'Kehne ko Jashn-e-bahara hai' is easy on your ears and is sung by Javed Ali. ARR has given him few intricate jumping notes which he sings effortlessly. Other than that the track is quite ordinary. But we do get a deserving change from all the Shans’, Ganjawalas’, Atifs’ and Mikas’. From an unheard Beti No. 1 to 'Nagada Nagada' to this, Ali has had quite a journey I must say.

'Khwaja mere Khwaja' is a typical ARR number with nice harmony. It has some amazing back vocals and of course Rahman’s voice in it. Music arrangement is commendable (the Tabla beat especially is very catchy). It starts really well and the Mukhda is beautiful. But seriously I can’t make out what the song is all about. Lyrics I mean. Its just that few words are too difficult to follow :p

As always you need to listen to Rahman’s music again and again to appreciate its beauty. Rahman definitely is an Emperor in his own way. From one Emperor to another, you expect grandeur and you get it to some extent. I would give 3 and a half stars for this album.

Hmmm...

2008-02-08T16:11:00.001-05:00

Disclaimer: All the characters and incidents are fictional and are no way linked to the real life. My first attempt in writing fiction. Hope you like it.
Can you suggest a title for this? I couldn't come up with one… heee

He looked at his watch and cursed his Boss. He hated working on weekends’ and the Troll (that's what he called his boss. The name was apt), wanted some godforsaken presentation to be prepared ASAP. Bah! That means he would need it after two or three days. But come on ASAP is a horrible thing to say. It must be listed under "Top 10 offensive words used at work place" he thought.

He wanted to finish his work and get out of that place. He was happy today and didn't want the silly work to spoil everything. He was meeting her after a long time. Three months…. It was three months since he had last spoken to her. Their platonic relationship was going great. But all of a sudden she had stopped talking to him. She had ignored his calls and messages. Women can be so weird at times. He was confused, at the same time extremely annoyed. But that lasted only till he heard her soft voice over the phone asking if he was free to join her for coffee. Sigh... Man! Being in love makes a sane guy go insane he thought and smiled to himself.

He was not sure about how it had all started. It was during the New Year party, probably it was because of the wine or the sea or just her which made him realize he was in love with her. He wanted to ask her so many things. Tell her so many things, propose as well, said a small voice in his head. He was pathetic. The moment he saw her he knew he would get all tongue tied like a moron and just look at her pretty face. He tried to imagine how she looked the last time they met. She had worn a white Salwar Kameez and looked beautiful with her kohl filled eyes. So simple yet elegant! There he goes. Lost in her thoughts. He jolted back to his senses when he got an SMS. It was from her and read that she would be reaching the coffee house in sometime. He saved and closed the PPT that he was working on and headed towards the revolving door.

After half an hour or so he parked his car and started looking out for her. He saw her. Waiting for him. He tried waving but there were too many people around. Damn! The place was crowded. It was perpetually crowded. Weekends, weekdays, year end, mid year any-damn-time. Phew! Where do these people come from, he thought. The crowd was too young for him. Most of them were in school or just out of school he noticed. Was he growing old? Get married ASAP said the same small voice in his head. He almost hit himself for using the corp slang. He reached the table where she sat reading a book; as usual the table was cluttered with tissues, coffee mug, her bag and a book that read Afghan - Frederick Forsyth. But something else caught his attention. Something in red and cream. What was that? Wedding cards?
He could not believe this. Had she called him to distribute her wedding card? This was so unexpected that he just stood there, perplexed.

He almost decided to leave when she looked up from the book, smiled at him and said "glad you came. I have so many things to tell you. But before that let me invite you to my brother's wedding. It's on…."
"WHAT?" he exclaimed and started laughing uncontrollably. She looked flustered and at last asked him "what happened?" for which he could only say "tell you later"….

Eine!

2008-02-06T13:13:00.000-05:00

Ok firstly, I am not a German language specialist. I just wanted a title for my first post.

'nextly'-

This blog is dedicated to all my friends (cant fit in all your names, sorry) and my family (A, A, A and A)

Ok now what are you people waiting for? Pay me for dedicating one whole blog to you guys :p