gifts

ScienceWoman has promised that she will send a gift for me. I'm pretty fascinated about this; with the idea that someone I haven't even met is going to send a gift for me all the way from the US.

You can get a gift too. here's is how:

Within 3 months, I will send a tangible, physical gift to each of the first five people to comment here. The catch? Each person must make the same offer on her/his blog.

I feel this is very interesting chain. Hope you find it interesting too.

small things

Great things come in small packages, they say. I do agree with that when I see bonsai plants. They look very cute; I feel they are one of the best craft works.

I'm in love with these tiny beauties for quite sometime now. They even figure in my dream-home. When I read about a bonsai garden in some ashram in Mysore while searching for info and planning Mysore tour, I insisted we go there. We did go there, and I loved it.

Here are few pictures.

Can you see sapota fruits in this tree?

Big banyan tree :)

What's more beautiful? Flowers or the tree?

going to kailash

I am going to Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar on a trek/trip. Leaving tomorrow, and will be back on 12th May. This has been one of my dreams for quite long; I'm happy it's getting fulfilled.

Wish me luck.

value of money

While the entire older generation is bragging about how the younger generation doesn't realise the value of money, here is one small guy who knows the value of money.

This is so much unlike Calvin!

car car car..

I saw a BMW yesterday while getting back from work. I was thoroughly fascinated to see it, as BMWs are rare sight in Bangalore. I don’t even get to see Mercs too often.

This invoked my memories of Iran; we used to count the number of BMWs and Mercs we got to see during our trips to-n-fro office. I am bit of a car-freak, so I liked Iran’s roads where ample variety of cars was seen everyday. They have all the good models of European market. The main attraction was Toyota’s Land Cruiser model, which is called Prado. It seems only few celebrities in Mumbai have Land Cruisers.

They also have BMW bikes in Iran; they look simply awesome! One of the items in my to-do list there was to get a ride in BWM bike. It didn’t get fulfilled; because only police are authorized to use those bikes, aam junta can’t have high-end bikes there for some law-n-order issues.


* * * *

I'd read somewhere that one of our movie actors (I think it’s sunil shetty) gifted a BMW car to his girlfriend while proposing marriage, and said that BMW meant ‘be my wife’. Now, that’s a decent proposal. Can anyone reject such proposals? ;-)

'later'..

.. that's what I think whenever I got to do something. Procrastination is in my blood. I am a piscean, and we are known to be lazy and procrastinating.

It's taking over my life from me. I don't seem to be doing anything other than drinking coffee.

Just when i realised this and thought about getting things done out of me, I read this post titled 'I'll just get the file out'. Pretty impressive, inspiring, and simple technic to follow.

I did my Toastmasters speech last week after ages. It was nice to break the break and get in to some act. Oh, I don't believe I haven't written about Toastmasters here yet!!!

ps: I found out that there is an orkut community called 'Procrastination'. Anyways, I don't think much posting happens there, all the members of that community will be thinking 'later' when it comes to posting :-)

pps: ವಿಚಿತ್ರಾನ್ನದಲ್ಲಿ ಜೋಶಿಯವರು procrastination ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಬಹಳ ಹಿಂದೆಯೇ ಬರೆದಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಲಿಂಕ್ ಇಲ್ಲಿದೆ.

the 'croc hunter' died

Steve Irwin, who used to run famous TV program 'Crocodile Hunter', died yesterday. I've been his great fan. His knowledge about reptiles was amazing. I am interested in knowing about snakes, and Steve's programs about snakes used to be my favorites. I can still picture him explaining about poisonous frogs in Amazon rainforests.

Quoting a report on a website 'he died the way he lived'!! I'll miss him.

back in business*

I’m back in Tehran after vacation in India. Ah!! It was good time back at home. Coffees n conversations, hangouts in koramangala, PVR, countless walks in CMH road, lunches n dinners out, kannada book shopping, toastmaster meetings, looooong mobile phone conversations, office gupshup… all that in Bangalore.

Rain, rain n more rain, mouthwatering jackfruit dishes & pathrode, trip thru whole of south canara (thanks to my sisters who r living in each n every corner of SK), lovable nieces n nephews… all that back home.

Now set for another stint; ‘bring it on’ should be the slogan this time. Need to do things which I kept postponing last time around. Last time I had the self-comforting justification that I am coming back, but now all I’ve got is 3 months time. Have to go places, do things. And be good at work.

* The title sounds loaded for a person like me who hardly does any work, but somehow liked it. Even monkey business is some business, they say.

interesting career!

Right now i am in my office which is at 6th floor of the building, n looking at the window-glass cleaners at work outside. They fascinated me to the core, n i took their pictures too. I guess it's very interesting n adventurous work. Those guys who were attached to harnesses which were hung from up, were at ease; hanging, swaying, n yet doing good job. We have clean window glasses now.

They looked like real men, who cud take on the pressure of real tough job. The guys who are sitting in n busy hitting their keyboards look like lambs when compared to them.. jus thoughts.. :-)

flower of gods' garden

Paarijaatha - a delicate, fragrant, cute little flower..

Paarijaatha is my most favorite flower I guess (though I like colorful carnations a lot). Fragrance of paarijaatha is something out-of-the-world. Moreover, paarijaatha brings lots of memories of my childhood. We have a paarijaatha tree at home. Throughout the year this tree is decorated with fresh-looking paarijaatha flowers early in the morning, which is a treat to the eyes! Paarijaatha flower blossoms at evenings, filling fragrance in the air … I am getting reminded of those good ol’ days during deepavali n uththaana dwaadashi evenings when my father used to do tulasi-pooja for which me n my sis used to collect these just-blossomed paarijaatha flowers. Voice of my father chanting “suvarNa pushpam samarpayaami…” still fresh in my mind.

I am also getting reminded of a song my sister used to sing often - “munjaavinali hasiru hullu makamallinali paarijaatha hoova haasidanthe…” I don’t remember the lyrics further n name of the poet, it’s a beautiful song but (will ask my sis abt it when I get back home).

I know mythological stories about paarijaatha too; like why paarijaatha blossoms only in the evenings. Here the story goes…

Paarijaatha was in ‘nandanavana’, Indra’s garden, it was truly flower of gods’ garden, n was not available on earth. Once when Lord Krishna visited devaloka with his family, Rukmini sees it n she wants it in her garden too. True to his reputation of being mischievous thief, Krishna steals the paarijaatha plant n gets it for Rukmini (I don’t know why he chose to steal it; he could’ve asked Indra for it). Anyways, Rukmini is happy with it. But her happiness doesn’t last long, as the tree grows in slanted position n gets inclined on Sathyabhama’s compound which was adjacent to Rukmini’s; causing all the flowers to fall on Sathyabhama’s compound. Rukmini gets angry with the tree n cursed paarijaatha that it will blossom only at evenings.

That’s an interesting story, but it’s true that paarijaatha tree is always in a slanted position; I don’t know why. Also people (in south canara) believe that they have to steal the plant from others’ place (as Krishna did) if they want one for them. They believe that if they get it with the consent of the owner, the plant doesn’t survive in their garden.

In south canara, almost all homes have paarijaatha trees at the end of their courtyards. I have seen few trees in Indiranagar area though they are rare in Bangalore. I enter into a kinda time-machine every time the breeze filled with fragrance of paarijaatha flower blows on me when I take evening walks in Indiranagar, the time-machine in which I go 15 years back n relive my childhood!!

ps: pictures are not mine, got them from net.

the song on friday morning

Another Friday morning here in Tehran (now don't think that morning means 8 am, no.. for me morning is 11.30 am on holidays). Sipping hot cup of coffee while admiring my own coffee-making skills, I was getting mentally prepared for the extensive cleaning job I was about to do. The house was dirty n needed some labour & attention.

As I started my work, it struck to me that I need some entertainment. I can't rely on TV for entertainment here, I can only watch BBC news in TV. So I plugged in my laptop thinking that I cud play some songs. Feeling lazy to take the cable off the telephone n connect it to laptop to connect to the net, I thought of managing without Kavitha, my favorite singer. So I searched for music in my hard-disk. One of my colleagues had copied some songs in my hard-disk, but I had never bothered to play those songs all these days.

I pressed Ctrl+A and clicked play button, increased the volume to max (so that I cud listen to the music in all the rooms) and went ahead with the cleaning work.

The first song started.. and I was... I don't know what i felt at that very moment. It was Rajkumar chanting "Poojyaaya Raghavendraaya". Rajkumar, who had been laid to rest just the previous evening back in Bangalore.

Whoever said he died? He was fully alive in my flat with that Raghavendra Bhakthigeethe that morning. In fact, artists worth remembering never die.

If only 'abhimaani devarugaLu' in Bangalore who turned the whole situation so violent the previous evening knew this truth...

bangalore to bangalore

I was more-than excited about my maiden flight experience. It was December 23rd, 2005. The flight was at 16.00 hrs; Jet Airways, flight no. 9W-816; Bangalore to Delhi.

That afternoon I said big-time bye to people at office, as I was going on a loooooong holiday! They were having Christmas celebrations at office that day, I was going to miss it, by I didn't mind, all I was thinking about was my first-flight!!

I was supposed to meet some people over lunch that afternoon, so I left office by 1.15 pm. with all my baggage, since the meeting was at a restaurant in Airport Road I had thought of going to airport directly after that lunch n meeting.

As I was finishing lunch I got a call on mobile phone, it was from Jet Airways office. My flight was delayed by 4 hours!! The flight was now scheduled at 20.10 hrs. So, I went back to office. Though I was sad that flight got delayed I was lil' happy that I could take part in Xmas celebrations at office! (Seeing the glass half-full u see)...

At 6.45 pm I left for the airport again, this time little conscious that the flight may get delayed again. On the way I called the Jet Airways help-desk, and yes, the flight was further delayed. It was to depart at 9.45 pm. I called my cousin at Delhi, who was to receive me. I was concerned about her that she had to come late at night to receive me.

Finally, at 9.30 we were called in for security check. I messaged my cousin that I am going in for security check. The flight started moving by 10 pm. I was very fascinated and enjoying everything!! There...the aircraft left the earth & plunged into the sky!! My heart stopped for a moment when it took off!!

Then the usual things: the welcome drink, dinner, etc etc... but one thing here, they were serving buttermilk, orange juice & only one soft-drink! And most of the passengers were opting for buttermilk. Healthy practices on the go...

By 12.30 we were almost over Delhi city. Then came the captain's announcement: Due to fog, the aircraft is having problems landing at Delhi airport; anyways he’s going to try n wait for some more time.

After 20 minutes of hollering around, the fog was still not cleared. Captain announced that we were flying back to Bangalore. They couldn't even land in nearby airport as all the airports were full. That day was major trouble for airline companies!

Two and a half hours of journey back, and we were in our very own Bangalore at 3.00 AM in the morning. Jet Airways was nice enough to give discount vouchers worth Rs. 1500 (which I encashed & got hard cash :-)) and residence drop for the localite passengers, and hotel accommodation to non-localites.

Thus my first-flight was eventful & memorable. All I got was a free air-ride for 5 hrs. Courtesy: foggy Delhi, co-sponsor: Jet Airways.

ps: I went to Delhi the next day.

pps: Why I went to Delhi? Watch this space...

jesus is coming Soon

I was on my way to Chennai a few days back. The train was running a little slow, thanks to heavy rains. I was enjoying the journey though, sitting in a window-seat and watching the picture outside which was lush-green, thanks to rains again.

Soon I saw a rocky hill outside. It was very nice view.. a medium size hill (I guess the right word is hillock), it was looking as if someone has put all those rocks there, one on the other. I silently praised that piece of beauty and told myself "Look, you atheist.. this is what God can do"!!

Then.. there.. someone disturbed me. No, it wasn't TC, it was Jesus!! Ok ok, let me explain. The beautiful rocky things I was watching had turned into hoardings which read "Jesus is coming soon". There were Jesus' pictures painted on them too.

I myself am a big fan of Jesus, but I don't like him indulging on this kind of cheap publicity and spoiling those nice-looking rocks.. :-(

are you going home?

"Are you going home this weekend?” my colleague asked me.

"No", I answered and went back to whatever I was doing.

But, I am going home this weekend. I go home everyday.

Yeah, I know. She was asking whether I am going to my hometown. But then, why only that home in my hometown is my home? What is the place I am living here in Bangalore called?

According to a good friend of mine, a home is a place where people living in it care for each other. And I couldn’t have agreed with that statement more.

Now it's time for me to go home..

another world

It's another working day (no, am not going to rant about Monday blues and all that here). I got ready & headed towards office..only to get stuck in the traffic jam.

I got restless as vehicles moved in snail's speed. I consoled myself by thinking that it's God's way to teach me 'patience' (that's why i don't like God, he should find out better ways of teaching me). Then, I saw a boy.. selling magazines & stuff. Seeing him, I got enlightened!!

That traffic jam is actually helping that boy earn his living! (positive thinking and all that). Then I saw many of them - selling pens, sunglasses, handsfrees, earbuds, toys, laundry bags & what not..

They all must be really thanking whatever caused that traffic jam.

I also saw another category - beggars. Since I travel in that route everyday, I have studied them so much that I can write a Ph.D. thesis on them! Small boys who are 'acting' lame, women wearing oh-so-misearable look on their faces, babies they carry, the feeding bottle(essentially empty) they show to you, the bandage on the babies foreheads & the blood spot on it(suprisingly all the babies get hurt only on head).. I wonder what they are trying to do...act smart? fool people? earn a living? what?

All these people also must be thanking whatever caused that traffic jam!!

Then, the rickshaw I was in slowly moved out & I got freed from that world..

small is silly?

"Think Big". That's what we all have been taught..all thru the years. Think big, dream big, see big..then only you will become BIG SHOT. Bada socho, bada aadmi bano. Good, I couldn't have agreed with you more.

But..wait. I have something else to tell you too. About small things. Small things in life bring us joy, small things hurt us too. Isn't it?

Well, In this space Iam going to write about all these small things which I feel like writing about.

So, here I am, with the slogan "Small is beautiful". Is it silly? Is it stupid? Let's see..