Good things...

Few goods things to enjoy while entering motherhood:
First, the most important (for a person like me): PUTTING ON WEIGHT...
Second, Getting pampered and getting all the attention which you will not get later in life...
Third, those kicks inside the womb which can make jump in excitement...
Fourth, amazement at the beauty of nature as to how a tiny life curls up in ones womb which again has so many organs working incessantly and in most cases those functions and connections being formed impeccably...

Well rest all in just pains and aches for nine months...
And i still haven't understood why women yearn to take these pains and aches as something which would make them 'complete'!

Life-not so beautiful

Life isn't so beautiful for some people especially for S right now...
I always thought there is light after darkness but in her case darkness was an indication of a 'black hole' lying further ahead...
I become speechless whenever i speak to her...
Why life is being so unfair for her throughout?
Her 'life' has shown how powerful 'death' could be and is...
I wish i could be with her now...

Kannada Matrimony!

A recent mail which i received about 'finding the right girl' for marriage:

ಹುಡುಗಿ
ಬೇಕಾಗಿದ್ದಾಳೆ
ಇರಬೇಕು ತುಂಬಾ
ಸಿಂಪಲ್ !

ನಕ್ಕರೆ
ಗಲ್ಲದ ಮೇಲೆ
ಬೀಳಬೇಕು
ಡಿಂಪಲ್ !

ಅವಳ
ತಲೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಇರಬೇಕು
ಪುಟ್ಟ ಪ್ರೊಸೆಸರ್
ಇಂಟೆಲ್ !

ಅವಳ
ರೂಪ-ಲಾವಣ್ಯ ಕಂಡು
ಬಾಯಿಬಿಡಬೇಕು
ಪಕ್ಕದ್ಮನೆ ಅಂಕಲ್ !

ಅವಳು
ಸ್ನಾನಕ್ಕೆ ಹಚ್ಚಬೇಕು
ದಿನಾ ಸೋಪು
ಸಿಂಥಾಲ್ !

ಅವಳ
ಅಂದ ಹೊಗಳುತ್ತಾ
ಕವಿಯಾಗಬೇಕು
ಮೆಂಟಲ್ !

ಎತ್ತರದಲ್ಲಿ
ಅವಳಾಗಿರಬೇಕು
ರಾಜಸ್ತಾನದ
ಕ್ಯಾಮೆಲ್ !

ಅವಳ
ಗಲ್ಲ ನೋಡಿ ನೆನಪಾಗಬೇಕು
ಕಾಶ್ಮೀರದ ಸಿಹಿ
ಆಪಲ್ !

ಅವಳು
ಬೀದಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ನಡೆದರೆ
ಕಾಮೆಂಟ್ರಿ ಹೇಳಬೇಕು
ಇಯಾನ್ ಚಾಪೆಲ್ !

ಮುಖದ ಮೇಲೆ
ಇರಲಿ ಒಂದೇ
ಒಂದು ಹರೆಯದ
ಪಿಂಪಲ್ !

ನಮ್ಮ ಪ್ರೀತಿಯೆಂಬ
ಧರ್ಮಕ್ಕೆ ಅವಳಾಗಬೇಕು
ಗೀತಾ-ಕುರಾನ್
ಬೈಬಲ್ !

ಅವಳು ಪ್ರೀತಿ
ಮೆಚ್ಚಿ ನಾ ಕಟ್ಟಬೇಕು
ಇನ್ನೊಂದು
ತಾಜ್ಮಹಲ್ !

ಎಲ್ಲದಕ್ಕೂ ಮೊದಲ
ಅವಶ್ಯಕತೆ
ಅವಳಾಗಿರಬೇಕು
ಸಿಂಗಲ್ !

ಇವಳೇನಾದರು
ನಿಮಗೆ ಸಿಕ್ಕರೆ
ನನ್ನ ಅಡ್ರೆಸ್‌ಗೆ ಮಾಡಿ
ಈ-ಮೇಲ್ !!

Self-Identity v/s Compromise

Thoughts came rushing in after i spoke to A the other day. Her questions, it seemed valid enough: at least in her position they were in place. She said: "I knew i had to make compromises and i did make it but what do i get after those compromises? Ill treatment, fights and some orders to make some compromises? If that is so why do i have to gone on like this? Don't i have my own identity? Before marriage he never uttered a word but now everything has changed"...
Nobody else could understand her situation better than I; but only difference was that she has just got into that relationship and i came out of it long back...
Now, what distinguishes compromise from self- expression?
I think there is a very thin line between the two...
If not drawn properly one or the other person in the relationship suffers...
One should know where self- expression ends and where compromise starts...
One question that always irks me is 'Why always women are expected to make more adjustments than men? Just because they are women? Or to grandiose the idea of women later by saying she suffered so much so she is great?
It's not that men don't make compromises; they do but when they don't nobody asks them any questions whereas if a woman fails to do so hundreds and thousands of questions are asked...
There are of course a category of women who love to compromise to the extent that they lose their own identity and still they are happy about it...There is an advantage with that system: NO FIGHTS between the couple...
But it's not the only category. There are those women who at any cost wouldn't let their self- identity lose and are so not ready make the slightest adjustments...
And there is the third category who can balance between the two...
Education and career, i had thought, would the scene to a greater extent: But how many educated women are able to come out of bad relationships and why can't educated people change their mentality of harassing the woman?
The questions are too many...
I only wish A would find a place and a solution where she could find solace...

ROCK ON!!!

Farhan Akhtar does rock...
Thoroughly enjoyed the movie...
Just like Dil Chahta Hai, it once again brings back the magic moments of one's old friendship and your passion for same interests....
But one thing is still unclear to me is 'why does Farhan always start his film with the flashback rather than the present'...Be it Dil chahta hai, lakshya or Rock on it starts with its past...
Hmmm interesting but never mind unless and until he's giving us good movies...
And ofcourse, it also makes one enjoy and fall in love with the ROCK music...

Ganesh Chaturti with a Difference

Festivals always meant for me spending more time on cooking some extra dishes (of course mouth watering)with a bit of pooja to woo the God...
But this year's Ganesh Chaturti was a bit different though even this included cooking and pooja....
Cooking- to a great extent and pooja- to even more greater extent...Though i was least involved in the cooking process but of course was involved in the pooja process to a large extent (as i think i was)which i never thought i would ever do...
Well, life asks for so many adjustments sometimes and you readily do it for your loved ones and so did i...
And so i think it was a festival with a difference.

Just like that...

I have tried many times to directly type whatever i wanted to convey through my blog but every time i found it difficult to do so...
May be it's old fashioned but i always find it comfortable to first jot down every thought process in a piece of paper before typing it down...
Well ofcourse these three sentences i have typed directly without wrtiting it down.

Whoever said cooking isn't rocket science...

I used to watch a cookery show which said 'cooking isn't rocket science'...
But for people like me it surely is...
Everyday i think optimistically 'OK today i will prepare something i.e more tastier than yesterday; at least with proper proportion of salt, sugar and spice in it'...
But somehow i never seem to get the chemistry right...

I think preparing breakfast and snacks is more easier than preparing dishes for rice...
And one more surprising fact is that when am trying a new recipe it comes out excellent but i do the same thing again there's something missing...

Am lucky that i have a really good hubby who doesn't really comment on my cooking...
But it's really bad when i do expect some comments from him and he doesn't make any...

Chetan Bhagat's New Book

After reading two of Chetan Bhagat's books: 5 point someone and One nite @ the call centre, I was eagerly waiting for his next book...
And it did arrive and i couldn't wait to read..
But at the same time i didn't want to spend on the book right now as i had already spent a lot for books lately...
Nevertheless, i did go to the bookstore to get a glimpse of what the book was all about...
And ofcourse at the end i ended up buying the book as it was priced so less...
May be he and his publishers understood his readers very well...
As with Bhagat's book it was an easy reading, funfilled book yet conveying message in its own way...
Although in the end it did look a little too far fetched (which is usual of Bhagat again and i think that's what fictions are meant for)the book is a good one...

The Birthday Cake Story

The woman had planned for her husband's birthday celebrations: their first birthday together after marriage...
But the husband had to go away on the same day for an emergency...
Naturally all the plans were cancelled...
But eventually they did decide on a date when they could celebrate it...
The celebration began two days earlier by hiding gifts and cards...
Ofcourse the celebration couldn't end without the cutting of cake...
So she was all set to buy the cake from the most delicious cake makers of the city...
She hired an auto to the place and thought: coming back wouldn't be a problem as her friend had promised her to drop...
She finished her shopping and felt happy as she had found her flavour of cake...

She came out holding or rather balancing the big cake box in one hand and another heavy bag in another...
Her friend who was supposed to drop her got an urgent call and couldn't help...
So the woman stood waiting for an auto...
5 minutes passed, none of the autos were empty...
10 minutes passed, autos were empty but none of them were ready to come...
Those who were ready to come were on the other side of the road...
But thewoman couldn't cross the road as it was very busy and courage had left her as she was holding those two bags especially one with the cake...
But the woman couldn't cross the road as she was holding those bags...
20 minutes passed still no sign of an auto...
Her arms started hurting, she felt thirsty as she carried no water thinking she would be back soon...
Her legs ached and her stomach felt sick and hungry...

After these frustrating 20 minutes, came an old watchman from the next building...
Her felt sorry for the woman and asked her where she wanted to go...
He then helped her cross the road by blowing his whistle all along...
Leading her to the other side of the road, he caught hold of an auto and convinced him to come...
The woman thanked the watchman and left..
On her way back she felt thankful and good about the watchman: atleast there were still people who offered help to strangers...
The woman and her husband happily celebrated the birthday next day...

Hotels of Hyderabad

Me being a foodie, have been wanting to write about the hotels of Hyderabad from a very long time...
Especially, my favourite canton soup at 'The Minerva Coffee Shop' and also the real flavor of some chinese food...
Next is my all time favourite rava dosa at the 'Chellam' restaurant...
The king size buffet at 'Ohri's Jiva'...
Very delicious methi paratha at 'Kamath's'...
Hara bhara paneer kabab at 'Angetti'...
And ofcourse last but not the least, my hubby's 'Tuppada dose' though the receipe comes from his Gaga...

There are other hotels where its hard to find some good food but one has to visit those hotels once atleast to have a glimpse at their interiors....
The train model at 'Saheb Singh Sultan'...
The traditional south Indian temple interiors at 'Athithi Inn'...
The dhaba style ambience at 'Angetti'...and so on to go.
But all these places change your mood for good!

Parva

Have been reading Bhyrappa's Parva n it's amazing...
I had never known the story of Mahabharatha so well as i do now 'coz of this book.
It's the magic of Bhyrappa again.

Chaos in Birla Temple

Me and S visited the famous Birla temple yestarday.
Though he had visited it lot many times, for me it was the first time.
I had just read the name of the temple in one of the A.P Tourist guide but didn't know that the whole temple was built in white marble!!!
The temple resembles more or less like the ISKON temple in B'lore but only that its marble built.
It's a marvellous structure with very explicit carvings and spread around a vast area.
But there were certain things which irked us both whlie entering the temple.
Firstly, it was the security- which required us to surrender our mobile phones in the counter.
I had seen temples where they asked people to switch off their mobiles but never had i seen this kind of security anywhere.
And the result of such security was obviously people "loosing" their mobile phones.
As we walked up to the main temple what we got to see was the endless Q of people, and ofcourse it took us more than 45 mins to atlast see the GOD.
Now comes the most interesting part- before we could God's darshan we received 'thirtha' and next stands a 'priest' literally streching his hands and snatching the money from my hands which i was supposed to put in the Hundi.
Me, on the other hand, thinking that there is no hundi royally gave all the money to the pujari.
Only after all this drama were we allowed to have the darshan.
And there was the 'HUNDI' for which i didn't have any money left:)
So the meaning here is simple and needs no explanation.
The preist did not have just one or two notes, there was bundle of it.
S being completely enraged with it, decided to lodge a complaint againt the pujari at the office.
We went to the office and they wanted everything in writing, so we did.
While this was happening, i saw a man enter the office, stand near one of the security personnel, sneake a Rs.50 note, speak to him in Telugu and vanish.
And what was that all about nobody knows.
After we gave the complaint in writing, the priest was called for and enquired for which he tried giving lot many excuses.
Later, even after so many arguments,we felt that it didn't lead us anywhere.
It's just for that time being he would be enquired and left unpunished.
So we decided to leave the matter then and there and were out of the blessed temple.

Sikkim

It' been one month since me and S are back from our Sikkim trip, still i haven't been to able to start writing anything about the place and now i have lost the interest too though it's great and SACRED place as they say it....

So above is a picture of Mt. Kangchenjunga as seen from Pelling...and next is the beautiful Changu lake near Nathula pass... ...

"DOR"

Two women from different parts of India...
One from Rajasthan...
Another from Kashmir...
Both married to the man they love...
Both know what they want from life...
Both have integrity and zest for life...
But the way they express these things is the only difference...
One abides by the society's norms and enjoys what she wants...
Another fights with the world to get what she wants...
And still they are happy in their world....
But that's short lived...
Both of their husbands travel abroad to earn more money...
And eventually one of them gets killed in the hands of the other accidentally...
The killer goes behind the bars to get a death sentence...
The news reaches his wife...
Her husband can escape the death sentence only if the widow of the killed signs a letter stating the incident as an accident...
The wife of the accused travels to Rajasthan in search of the widow...
But she finds her so innocent that she decides to wait for the right moment to tell the truth and get the signature...
In the course of time they become very close friends...
The widow (who had lost all her freedom) starts to enjoy her life again because of her friendship...
Truth unfolds at the end and the widow resents her friend thinking that she deceived her...
But she realises at the same time that her friend's entry was like a second life for her...
And finally as usual with all the movies, its a happy ending where the widow abandons her husband's house and goes with her friend...

As always with Nagesh Kukunoor, DOR is a very touching movie....
The widow played by Ayesha Takia looks as innocent as a child...
Gul Panag as the wife of the accused is equally good...
With very strong music, dialogues and acting from all the actors, this movie proves to be one of the best of Kukunoor's films.

The Witch of Portobello

I bought Paulo Coelho's "The Witch of Portobello" with great xpectations remembering his success with 'The Alchemist'. Ofcourse my xpectations were fed with a great start with the story of Athena or Sherine as the author calls her some times...First hundred n odd pages were very good as so many people try to describe the character of Athena...But as and how i turned rest of the pages everything started going above my head all of a sudden...

Only way i could relate with the character and the story was by drawing similarity with one more book i had read earlier of S.L.Bhyrappa i.e.'Anweshana'.

In both the stories, the life of the protagonist is narrated by someone related to him/ her. Both the protagonists are in constant search of their soul and integrity which is above any normal human understanding.In doing so, they go from one place to another, they try out different things never sticking onto any one thing or any one person. In the course of time they hurt all around them...only difference is that in W.O.B she survives all the difficulties and finds ultimate realisation but whereas in Anweshana he loses his battle...
Like Anweshana, W.O.B also conveys certain hard core truths about the life. So if i look at W.O.B through the eyes of Anweshana i must call it a good book but otherwise not.

First impressions on Hyderabad

-> The cost of living is as high as its summer temperature. I go to buy something,i see the price and keep it neatly on its own place as everything is exactly double priced as compared to my hometown. But still there are certain which i HAVE to buy:( while i curse the city and make the shopkeeper rich.

-> Less of traffic compared to Bangalore (not that B'lore is my hometown but having seen the traffic there thought its the best place to be compared with). But ofcourse the traffic woes here are of a different type- as you find very less people who follow the traffic rules and signals (which seldom work)!

-> Lots and lots of restaurants serving good food yet i have heard people wait for hours infront of these resautants just for a meal.

-> The youngsters doesn't seem to be as spoilt as they are in other big cities. They are much decent and sober. But ofcourse the look in the eyes of majority of men are disgusting; or may be that's the reason why people wear some decent clothes.

-> One thing that's worth mentioning is the sweet that you get here called Kabani ka meetha. Made out of dates it really is a feast for sweet lovers.

-> One more thing i really enjoyed here is the long ride next to the Hussain Sagar lake during the late hours. Watching the glittering lights of the town as you pass by the lake is very beautiful.

My impressions about the architectural and historical places are yet to come as i haven't been to visit those places yet.

The Treehouse Experience

The rushing Kali river stretching far and far across...
The soothing sound of thr same as it calma down and reaches below...
The chilling winds as you stand by the open windows...
The fear that churns your stomach as you look down the same windows during night...
The loud scream of the rafters as they challenge to cross the white water...
The mighty pride of the man for having challenged the nature, yet the pettiness he should feel infront of the magnificant nature visible till the horizon and for having meddled with the nature's beauty and freedom...
The strength and silent suffering of the tree that holds the house just to safeguard the people inside...
The trees nestling the truly amazing Hornbills...
The woods being used for sheer pleasure and entertainment of man...

From Ms. to Mrs.

From childhood to adulthood...
From innocence to maturity...
From mischief to responsibility...
From flirtatious to commitment...
From being an atheist to performing religious ceremonies...
From arrogance to patience...
From adamant to obedient...
From self-centered to sharing...
From being individualized to togetherness...
From S.....i to S.....a
From Dvg to Hyd...
That's the journey travelled from being a Miss to becoming Mrs.

Back after two months...

Back to blogging after two months' gap and much has changed since then in my life...