No, I dont live here anymore,

If you are a friend..interactive one... you already know where to find me.:)

or , just leave a note, a hi will do..

and I ll get back to you. :)

tata!!

Blank- Mindless chatter!

Right here, Right now..
Absolutely blank..
To a chatterbox like me, blanking off is definitely off the cards.
Well, Have to see what I ll come up with tomorrow.
By the way, It is quite hard to imagine I am at the end of the blog marathon , minus 2 days..and now I am BLANK!! :(
This reminds me of the time, during my university course, when we had a jury( when I say jury, it is a viva where we present our design projects to lecturers or external people who are called 'jurors' :/
Already with the scary sounding viva, Someone had to present the whole project by itself, which I had no problem with as someone had to do it.
All went well, but the moment I came to talk about my work itself, I was tongue tied.
No words came, Nothing!
I stared at my work sheets pinned up, stared real hard, But no! I could not for heaven's sake remember what was to be told! Fortunately, the jurors understood as I tried to stop a tear rolling down my cheeks.
They asked me to relax, go out for sometime and I was allowed to give my jury at the end.
All went well in the end, But still makes me wonder why did I go blank?
did this happen to you?

Secret Tag

I am not sure I am have too many secrets about me.
Even If I do, They are a BIG SECRET!! (Ha,ha Kidding)
1) During my School days, after say std 5, I have never written notes( you know the ones with Q & A) for any subject except Mathematics of course.
I believed that one needs to know more than what s in those questions and answers,So i used to study just from the text books and every answer coming on the answer sheets would be well, On -the -spot.
Helped the creative juices flow ;) but sometimes would be quite a disaster. :)

2) Regarding the same one, I think most of my teachers knew about me not writing any notes, But well, I think they would ignore this trait as I was not doing all that bad in Exams anyway and I could answer any twisted question from the text book, so why complain ?

3) Though I haven't given any formal exam, I have learnt Carnatic music for 8 years. Me along with my mum who used to learn it with me, have sung in quite a few programs and cultural functions. Sad thing is I am out of touch and as I told , Have not formal certificate for this.

4) Even though, I literally quiver like an arrow while facing a crowd or audience, I somehow overcame the stage -fear factor with real efforts and I am quite proud of it!! (now-a days people like me have no modesty- are you saying? well, What to do... sigh!! ;) )

5) I plan every single thing like I have a mental diary. It s another thing whether I follow it word by word, But my mind constantly churns out time table for me!

6) Inspite of being a very talkative person with a very active social life all my life, Still I am known to be a very reserved, silent and a quite person in my work place. I open my mouth only in front of certain people and never speak unless really necessary.
(I shall soon know if by any chance someone reads this from office. )

That s all folks!
Good night and I wont tag anyone , but you are most welcome to take the tag. But do let me know if you have any secrets to go public .Write atleast one in the comment box, will you???

Hail Bollywood!

No, I have not been paid to write things about praising bollywood and anyway, not that it needs any major support.
Today, it is as famous and beyond as tikka masala used in 6" sub ,harbhajan in cricket and Bangalore tech park. Bollywood themes especially the dances and music are getting popular by the day.
But for me, I have been a big fan since the times I know. The first movie I remember watching is Mr.India back in 1988 and the big screen has captured me since. After this came my school days where "Ashiqui ribbons"(forgive my spelling) to "Madhuri's salwar" was soaked in like a sponge.
I cried with Simran as she left London and her love to get married in India, Danced watching Karishma's moves in 'dil to pagal hey' and laughed my heads off at the crazy Govinda movies.
Later during under graduation I appreciated more serious movies , involving with the chronicles of Konkana and Rahul Bose in Mr.& Mrs. Iyer to biting my nails watching Bhuvan win over the firnags in a thrilling match.
No movie, however bad can put me off my love towards Bollywood.
Now living here, so far away from home, I ensure we follow every movie possible.
So much that Aj has become a fan too , So here we are reading every review possible and holding onto the most happening link to our country via a beautiful window called "Bollywood"!!

A cup of joy or misery??

As I mentioned yesterday, Today was Melbourne cup day.And like any English Oriented country, This is a time for Horse race,fashion,food, wine and betting.

As much as as the first four sounds appealing,I feel there needs to be some serious thought about the last one.. betting or in simple words Gambling. As someone I know said, Melbourne Cup isn't just a race stopping the nation,It is also a big gambling addiction spreading its claws further and wider through the people.

I may sound quite rude here, But seeing the importance these people give to horse racing makes me literally puke. As much as the horse races are thrilling , the tremendous amount of money spent around it is absolutely shocking.This very own state which is still coming out of the nature's wrath through Bush-fires not long ago has managed to spend 90 million dollars in betting. if cup day is a tradition, Is this how horrendously expensive this tradition is?

Anyway, All that money 'wasted' as I would say is as good as throwing that in the ocean because all it made was rich more richer and probably showed glimpses of fast wealth to the rest which is as good as melting ice in the poles..It will disappear anyway.

Hope atleast someone will see the light before this rubbish gets bigger sucking in more people and their hard earned money. Tell me what you think, I would love to hear.

And thanks for quick comments I am getting, Will reply tomorrow to each one, once back to routine.

P.S: We had an amazing time at Otway Forests along the Great Ocean road.

More pics and updates in the next travel blog.

Till then,

Chao..

Day 1 - clueless me :(

A blog that began
without the slightest hesitation
had nothing much to pen this time,
Hence this inspiration

Hope this does not sound
oh, too desperate
Something nice , well written is
right way to operate.

Don't now for how long,
seems do hard, but true
Hence this silly poem
to hell with 'writing blues'**

** with due respects to Monday morning blues which attacks poor me, every Mondays..sigh!!!

This is the first of my blogs as a part of November Blogroll in NaBloPoMo .
Wish me luck !!
And ya, I just ranted something off in this first one.But I hope I ll be more productive in the forthecoming blogs.
And also ..Today being November 1 is Kannada Rajyotsava,

"ಉದಯವಾಗಲಿ ನಮ್ಮ ಚೆಲುವ ಕನ್ನಡ ನಡು "

"ಸಿರಿಗನ್ನದಂ ಗೆಲ್ಗೆ "

ಕನ್ನಡ ರಾಜ್ಯೋತ್ಸವದ ಹಾರ್ದಿಕ ಶುಭಾಶಯಗಳು

Ganesh (contd)

As I mentioned in my previous post, our trip home was every moment worth it.And this time I got an opportunity to meet new people (both extended family and otherwise).

Aj’s native place Honnavar is an abode of nature at its best and most affectionate people, that I could not help but fall in love with this small town . Resting along the Arabian sea on one side and huge green mountains bordering it from the other side, this place has still managed to be pollution free and almost calm inspite of NH17 cutting right across. We stayed there for 5 days and I learnt, admired, enjoyed countless tiny moments and knew...My first Ganesh festival with my husband’s family is going to be memorable for my whole life to come.

We went to get our ‘Ganesh’ a very cute one, I must say sitting royally over a ‘shankha’(conch shell) (see the picture above).And while we were there- I, for the first time in my life had a glimpse at the life of people who have dedicated their lives to making these idols year after year. As I entered their house cum studio, there was an enormous sea of Ganesh idols(picture 2).each one different from the other, every expression beautifully drawn and some incomplete with the master himself giving finishing touches and make these idols come alive, well… almost.

Probably no words or pictures can completly appreciate the creative work of these people ,But nevertheless, I am just posting a few frozen moments .Hope you will like it.:)

This post is dedicated to those talented people I am sure, exist in countless un-known town and villages all over our country.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, Another Important thing is Swaram has been kind enought to award me with my very first blog award(s).

I ve added them to my page and Thank you so much for them.

This appreciation means a lot to me. :) :)

Till next time,

Bye.

High on Life!!

And I am again back from The Nth hibernation mood! :)

Just kidding!

and before I write more, Thanks to Swaram,reflections,Bhai and all others who commented on my previous post reminding me that my little blog baby is waiting for me :)

Actually we were on a secret mission ,which is not so secret any more.It started off with Aj getting bugged with work,missing home,hating winter etc etc that one fine morning as I was looking at my watch, computer clock and wall clock in the office for HUNDREDth time *sigh and he rang me to say the golden words "LET s GO HOME! "

I dint think for a split second and said "SURE, WHEN"?

and thus it all began.

We decided we would be going off for Ganesh Chaturti and with such a short notice we managed 2 weeks of leave. And then the mad scampering began for shopping , packing this and that and we went!

Boy! We had a royal time back home surprising family and spent around 5 days at Aj's native place with my new family during ganesh chaturti.Though it was such a short trip,I am sure it was so much more worth than the minuscule of time we spent in India that the 'hangover' s still there.

3 weeks since we are back and not 1 night goes by when either of us don't dream of a scene back home,So much is the intensity of our trip.

This being the background and the foreground story of the "secret mission" in short .

Hope all of you had a great festive season! and to all my friends especially S and Avin(2 of my closest friends), whom we dint meet or dint even manage to call,I am sure you understand.

Sorry about it!

Till the next post,

See you all...Cheers!!

P.S. The picture shows the Ganapati at our native place (Honnavar).
P.P.S: this is the quickest post I ve ever written, Straight 10 minutes including pic load! :D

weird facts - A fact

When a good friend wrote a tag about 7 weird facts,I was quite alarmed..
Not because she had 7 weird traits, but because I am a total weird specimen and How could I possibly choose the best 7?
isn't it totally unjust to the rest of my dearest weird habits?
'well..darlings..much as you are all a part of me..best ones are the best ones..
so just hang around there..u ll get another chance..'

Which brings me to my first WH[weird habit](haven't you realised yet?)
~TALKER:"psst....I talk to myself " yes!! you read it right.Mostly when I am alone or thinking of some situation,I add possible conversations!!interesting eh?
I guess this has eliminated a lot of "sane people" from reading further..Cause this is CRAZY!! and the sane guys wont risk this.. :D

Well.. next one s not too bad actually and I think [atleast hope] many others nod their heads reading this..
~MOVIE MAKER:When I read a book,I see all the characters, the scene exactly like a movie in my head.It s not something I have to try to do.Its just automatic.Read the first line of the first chapter and bang!!the movie in my head begins. Recently have found this to work whenever people tell me incidents,stories,anecdote..just anything..
So now you know,just remember :don't tell me,I repeat "Do- not -tell -me" anything cheesy which you would not want me to imagine cause it happens by itself! ;)
** swathy hears more people disowning her/or anything to do with her at this point.

Hey wait,
I promise next one s not too bad, please.. trust me..
ok..
~HARRY POTTER :I have read each "Harry potter" book atleast 15times completely till date and I know I will read it again and again and again....

That was not too bad right? see, i told you so.
I hope I wont jinx myself writing about this,*fingers crossed!
~GOLD HUNTER :I have till date found lost and found my gold earrings,studs,loops basically all "GOLD" in the weirdest ways possible.
Like when I was 8,I was standing on the swing as usual(yes, I never sat decently on it till I grew up) out in the garden,leaning my face on to the swing chain(* those 4 iron chains which support the wooden swing)absent minded rubbing my ear to it when I saw my sister and cousin racing to reach the swing and whoosh!!Swathy,the swing heroine decides to save her swing from the monsters attacking and decide to swing herself with a big push and thud!! lands on the ground with a bleeding ear and a lost god ring!!
After a nice scolding and ears bleeding[literally] Everyone decided to hunt for the ring, after all it must be right there.
NO one find it and the next evening, the One-ear ringed Swing girl goes to her swing and there it is..
lying on the ground..oh.. as though it dropped from the mango tree that very instant!!

And this happened,just a few months ago when I was playing with my 3rd stud of my left year **yes,I have got 3 on each ear lobe ;)watching Tv,I dropped a stud and again to cut the story short, in-laws and Aj hunted for it day and night while I sat panicking.
Never found.. Next evening I go, sit on the chair and place my hand on the cushion and lo!! there is the culprit!! :P :P
Well.. Just lucky in this matter I guess and hope I will continue to be so for the careless,silly person I am as it is. ..:)

The last one I am going to write is something I told my friend about.. But I am going to repeat it:
~RHYTHM FREAK:I cannot listen to any piece of music/song without tapping my leg/or atleast patting one hand to the rhythm.Even if it is the National Anthem,I have to move atleast a finger to the beat..

**hey wait... where s everyone going?
come back ..please...
No more weird stuff I promise..
:)
And at last I tag you
Swethz
Avi
Ujwal
If you havent done this tag earlier or you have discovered new wierd facts.. go on.. tell me..

is it just me?? :O

Scene 1:
As a kid, when I used to often visit my maternal uncle's place in Kerala.Having a farming background meant lots of people of work in the fields and in the farm.This scene which I am going to mention used to get repeated very often till..er... I grew out of it.. :P
I would be standing in the veranda,my mouth filled with some sweet/goodies my aunt s would have made till a lot of the women [working on the farm] would see me and come to say hello to me! :P
Thus a conversation would be typically like this:
W1: swadi kuttiyallo?[hey,isint this swathy kiddo??] **pinching my cheeks..
me: nan kutti yalla..big girl!!**rubbing my cheeks[u see,I used to speak Malayalam quite okaish as a kid, now its just past glory..hence I remember only these words..shame on me!! :(]
W1 and others would be a bit surprised at this snobbish remark coming from a 4- 6 year old that too mouth full ''eeks and would continue chatting to me anyway..carefull not to mention the "kutti" word!
The point then was I am not a kid..
I am a girl..A [big]GIRL!! :O

Scene 2 :
A 20 s something me go to a kids birthday party[Hey, don't think I am gate crashing,its just the kids parents are friends]
As always..Photo session time when someone announces OK.. All ladies photo!!
A tiny voice in my head: "ladies?" huh... just call us girls OK.. :O
The point now still remains the same:
I am a Girl..A big GIRl!!

Ahem!!
and we say boys will be boys!! :P (which is of course true...)

or...................is it just me???

good, old days

I ll do this tag that she has written about.Here,I tag myself..[*imagine a tag like a suitcase tag getting fixed to my wrist :P] .I have written many a posts about memories of the good old days here .

Still there are so many in the old barrel to be pulled out.

1) Birthdays

The first one i remember was being 5 year old and dressed in deep green silk skirt and blouse, jasmine arranged traditionally on my hair like here..[ya, imagine a 5 year old!! :D]

with loads of relatives around me.That was the last of the birthday s that was celebrated at such a scale.

Then it was just a sweet dish, wishes, blessing and of course cards and calls from my best friends all throughout school ,but the day still thrilled me :) .

College brought out a new dimension with mid night parties, cake smashing on face and head,surprise gifts,special calls[:)] from far away friends from school and not to ever- forget the "budday bumps"!!(For those who don't know what it is.. its just you being held by 6-8-10 people[depending on how heavy you are! ;)] by your hands and legs and hurled up in the air and then left at the mercy of gravity and caught when you are about to hit the floor..)

And at present, I am happy with a quite birthday with just the few close friends wishes..

dining out and no cake please..think about all those calories!! :P

2) Books and reading

As a 6 year old,I was like that enthusiastic puppy[;)] around my neighbour's kids lets call them Y & Z.Both older than me by quite a few years, they used to take me to school and back, play with me..[rather keep a watch on me] and I adored them,followed them,thought them to be my sisters.

Their dad and mum were both into literature,hence both the girls were very good readers for their age and even wrote poetry and short stories.

I was first taken by them to the local government library and helped choose a book and thus began a life time affair for me.

I started with huge lettered picture books and soon within a year graduated to whatever X and Y would pick for me.They moved to another town within a year after that,but by then I was addicted to books.I explored the world of Enid Blyton,graduated to short stories and fables from all around the world, digested lives of famous personalities and basically whatever the library could offer to a a high school student was read by me over and over again by the time I was 12.

Every day of the vacation except Monday-the weekly off for the library began with me running/cycling to the library at sharp 10A.M when the place opened, read a magazine or the latest book there borrow books and then come home for lunch, read a little more,play with friends for an hour,then read again till night.yes, I was that crazy!!

My cousin A who used to come over to stay with us for the holidays hated this habit of mine because he could never imagine why should I be reading over the vacations.. :) :)instead of playing the whole day.

Hmmmmm..back to present! :)

Anyway,though I miss the good old days, I cannot imagine rewinding it.It is much better the way it is now.. for good or worse.. I like this..

Celebrate-25!!

Hi there!! Finally ...huffing and puffing I managed to hit a 25 no blog record!! 25 is such a beautiful number.. * tara rum pum pum... I am 25, my blog s 25... oh,it s so magical!! ok..ok.. Before I begin a weird jingle..let me write a special blog.. This blog is to celebrate and relish the days I spent back home in India!! the 5 weeks were just bliss full!! too beautiful.. A few glimpses as they say pictures speak more than words!!

Navratri- This is such a beautiful part of my Dasara vacations memory since childhood.I used to wait for those nine days of celebrations ;the procession of goddess Sharada is the best past of this. I had the opportunity of enjoying this colourful celebrations.


Folk dances, traditional costumes and music are always an integral part of these celebrations.Some pictures of the same:

Some random snaps of my visit this time to Ajay s native place - Honnavar in North Canara district.

The wonderful atmosphere, the scenic views were breathtaking!!

But the most important time of my trip was deepavali..The lamps,lights,fire-works .... Enjoyed every moment of it..

Can you believe the last picture is actually a fluck picture of fireworks show at Malpe beach in Udupi?

Till I get to write something more..buh bye....

(lets hope I ll get something interesting to write by then...)

Right Direction or is it the Left direction?

I am sitting here self tagging myself:being pretty new to blogging world..I ve read many of them tagging each other..In fact. Bhai had tagged once and I had come up with this in less than 10 minutes after reading..Courtesy:Point 1 .
Well, these are 2 extremely Quirky Facts about me:
1) Directions:I ve this wonderful/weird sense of direction. Take me anywhere, even into the biggest maze of all..I ll take you back to where we started from without fail,majority of times..Most of the times its an instinct or some sort of “another personality”which seems to do the work right..
There has been times when I visit a friend in her home city where she s lived all her life with me visiting for the 1 st time and and I end up safely escort ourselves out of the busy shopping area onto an auto/bus to reach her home.
I know we are (or supposed to be) good at reading maps in the field I am currently in..But I was(am) like this since I remember..All my life..
Read the next point and you ll know Why I wrote this lamba-chauda essay like thingie..
2) While this whole finding right road/track s going on..never ever ask me Left or right!! Cause till then I ll be the blessed one,the leader, the one with directions(blah,blah,blah..) and you ll suddenly find an extremely confused me looking like I ve been stunned by some stuttering spell or probably hit with a “tongue tying”jinx… Cause I ll be looking at both my hands..shaking my head and well.. “to cut the long story short”it takes me a minimum of 10 seconds to figure out which is left and which is right.. I always direct auto drivers with a poke on their back when they have to turn left or right.. I don’t ever utter the “l/r”word while I am directing Ajay as well on the Melbourne roads.He is in fact well trained himself to look (from the corner of his eyes)at my hands waving frantically in air towards the direction he has to turn.
Isn't this weird, that I am these 2 extreme qualities which juxtapose each other??!!!
U tell me If you have any such anti-to-each-other-qualities..
But I am seriously tagging Rakesh/ avin.. (please ah!! Kuch likna..)