Good bye 2009 - Resolution 2010

As i look back, i feel the mixed emotions towards the year which is almost over. The year which got good and bad things for all of us.

Looking forward to year 2010 and here are few resolutions (for the heck of it):

1. I will attempt loosing weight again ( this is continuing from last 2 yrs, so kindly ignore)
2. I will try to call my friends more frequently (again **conditions apply)
3. I will work hard (i guess this will result in me returning home only at 12, currently i am at 10 pm)
4. I will try to be polite with certain* people. (though they dont deserve to be, but no harm in trying)
5. I will try to argue less even if someone is shitting from his mouth..
6. I will try to control my temperament.
7. I will make more trips this year and wont announce it in advance to all.
8. Will eat less outside
9. Will try to get full annual health checkup done.
10. Will watch more movies
11. will listen to less sad songs and try catching up on english ones as forced by some friends
12. will give less cunning smile...(as pointed out by few)
13. lucky number says - will make less/no resolution next year

Team Outing 2009 - Coorg again

This was the third time i visited coorg in my life...i m tired of going there and i dont find it really exciting anymore. I had no choice but to adhere to what was selected by my team for 2009 outing.

The fun part was we had a girls nite out and we stayed at our manager's place. She was alone as her husband was travelling. We had wine and nice spicy food. Late in the night we played a game where in we aimed at getting all the secrets out of individuals. Everyone slept and me & my manager kept talking to each other in the nite. At 5 am in the morning we realised that we were getting late and the bus was waiting for us. We all got ready and reached office at around 6. Thankfully we were not the last ones and that's what saved us.

Trip towards coorg was fun as we played dumb charades and best was when we came up with C grade movies for the other team. Poor them, could not fight back as super boss was in this team. I really pity them ;) ultimate fun was when we gave a movie 2 the creative guy (unsensored) and we till date admire the way he enacted. Wish we could have captured it in a video...

After we reached, we had food in the resort and some teams played. me & my manager shared the same room, so we happily slept off and woke up in the evening for tea & bon fire. Evening was plain with we all singing and some boozing there.

Next morning few of us went for a trek while others chose to sleep. I guess that was the best part of my trip. Post lunch we started back for Bangalore. On our way, we played some games. I tried the game which we had played in one of my old outings in 2006 and i guess i forgot few rules. it became a good mess and they all enjoyed happily pulling my leg.

Two things that people remember from the trip are: one Dumb charades done by the creative guy and my complicated rule oriented game's attemp :D

I would say a decent fun it was :)

I like Twitter

I like twitter because of following reasons:

1. its micro blogging and helps me in posting my current state of mind.

2. My identity is hidden

3. I m still connected to few of my close friends

4. helps me vent out my frustration in anonymous way

5. connected to few strangers and their posts give me a new idea/perspective.

6. gives a plateform to also interact with others through tweets

7. Its quick

8. Mozilla has given an addon called twitterfox which updates you on all the tweets recieved in the bottom of the window. It doesnt not require logging in everytime you want to access. Pretty Handy.

Want to go: Seychelles

I have found a new place that i would like to visit, Seychelles.

I have done quite a bit of R&D on net and from couple of friends and all my data says its pretty expensive but still worth visiting. Looking forward to an exotic trip to Seychelles.

See Seychelles

Movie Review: 8*10 Tasveer

Never thought this movie will disappoint in the end! I had hopes, infact high hopes from Akshay kumar's movie. Thankfully i watched it on a DVD!

One time watch.

Swimming

I used to be so scared of water in my childhood. I always wanted to learn swimming but fear of not breathing inside water always made me nervous.

I dared to push myself for a swimming class this yr and fortunately got a good swimming pool and a good coach. Swimming pool's distance from home/office was not less than 5-6 kms and on top of it i did not get the morning batch. We got evening batch of 8-9 p.m weekdays. We thought of trying these timings and they were pretty hectic.

Reaching back home from office at 6 and then managing to cook dinner in 1 hrs time in between was hard initially. After swimming coming back and then finishing dinner and kitchen related work and hitting bed by 12. Had no time for anything else.

But even when i missed many things, i enjoyed my swimming classes. They helped me in diverting from office related pressure and eased to a great extent! Used to feel fresh all the time and more than freshness it was excitement in me. Did 2 months course and i liked it more because coach used to give me 5 extra minutes in the end for teaching a new style. I like the way in which he instilled confidence in me.

have left swimming because of rainy season. But i still feel that it was the best thing which kept me occupied and diverted from lot of stuff. I can see myself getting irritated these days because of weight gain furstration. I seriously want to join the swimming class again!

Trip to chickmaglur

I witnessed the most beautiful sunset @ chikmaglur. This is the highest peak in karnataka and is called as Mulyangiri hill.

About Chikmaglur -> Chik means younger and maglur means daughter in kannada. This literally translates to the Younger Daughter's Town. According to popular legend, this town was presented as a dowry to the younger daughter of Rukmangada, the famed chief of Sakrepatna.

We started at 7 am in the morning from Bangalore and reached chikmaglur at 2.30 p.m. The roads were nice and weather was little hot. This was the most awaited trip as it had a gap of 4 months, which is a big gap for a travel freak like me. My last trip was sometime in oct to Kerala backwaters & Munnar. In chikmaglur we had booked a homestay. Homestay concept is very popular in Karnataka which I haven’t seen at many places in India. Homestay means a traditional house/ family invites you to stay with them and experience the place in their style. They provide you accommodation as well as local cuisine. This homestay was located in Bhadra wild life Sanctuary. It was a pretty decent accomodation. As we reached, we were served yum chicken and other delicacies (it was also the Ugadi festival which means the start of new year for Karnataka) but it was the first day of navratri and my conscious did not allow to eat. But I had made up my mind to be flexible for rest of the days for non vegetarian food, as that’s the specialty there. The homestay had hammock where we lazed for sometime, played badminton till winds started taking the shuttle far from the court. We carried cards to play in the night. There was TV in the common area but who was interested in it! Honey taught us new game called “UNO”. We enjoyed playing till 1 in the night.

Morning we went for trekking cum coffee plantation tour (chikmaglur is also famous for its coffee plantation). The mgr appointed there explained us the coffee making process, which definitely was a good to add in our knowledge database. Evening we visited Mulyangiri hills to see the sunset. The scariest part was the last stretch to hill. The road was broken and one really had to be careful while driving because the broken part was exactly in the middle of narrow slanted hill road. After we reached the hill parking area we realized it wasn’t the end of journey. There were some 490 stairs to climb to reach the top and no other ways of climbing it. Climbing stairs was quite painful. We had to take rest in between. We knew the aftereffects will be known in the night. Along with us was there a couple with a small cute little daughter who joined from homestay to the hill top trip. It was fun to have them with us. The Mulyangiri had a small temple which was active. At the hill top we realized that the next cliff was better for a sunset view so we decided to comedown and started climbing another cliff which obv. did not have any stair case. We somehow managed to reach before sunset and it was the most amazing experience there. It wasn’t crowed at all as we were just 5 and half people there. (I m counting baby to be half :P). we returned late in the night to homestay. He gave us yummy chicken and awesome food. We were drooling over it before we even could put stuff in our plates. I surely wood recommend this beautiful place to people staying in Bangalore. Worth utilizing a long weekend.

Me in 2009

I am getting so much time these days that i m hating myself for not utilizing it!

To some extent i have started reading again...Thanks to my interest in Jeeves :) I am in love with PG Wodehouse collections. Then i have started playing in stock markets...well honestly i used to shout at my mum when she was investing her money...I used to think that what an illogical thing to do! today i m doing the same illogical thing with passion and do consult mom once in a while. I entered when the markets were crashing so chances of making loss is pretty low...(playing safe u see...after all its my hard earned money...not black)

I have started gymming in office (prefix-once in a while)...so that i m able to digest those yummy homemade chicken that my colleague is pampering me with. I know i cant see myself shedding any further weight! I have puton to the extent that people have stopped giving lectures...advices..suggestions...comments...i have crossed everything...i guess thats called as "d LIMIT". (btw i m being offered a role in bollywood...well yes i do deserve...coz nobody till date has replaced guddi Maruti..yo man i m the one ;) )

Weekend i have started checking the immune system of others...by cooking or i should say trying new dishes...Sometimes these items turn out to be so nice that we happily order pizzas..well jokes apart..i m cooking decent these days...and i have finally learnt the process of making tea..i was such a dork 4 yrs back...not anymore...

My favorite task at home is washing, if i start washing clothes, i end up putting my 3-4 hrs of time. Sometimes when i think it will be little less time consuming, i find more clothes and ensure that time limit is maintained...

whatever time is left on a Sunday, i read newspaper...i m very very choosy abt reading it there...i focus on two things -my favorite is "soul curry" & second is "property"...naah i don't read analysis on property, i just see the ad and every time i see a villa ad...i pester my poor husband and put a written application stating "I am stilling eying on a villa".

that's not the end of it...if i still manage to get sometime, i watch chick flicks...which my husband hates to the core...well how does it matter...first of all i dont understand why ppl hate chick flicks...u get to see what we call real!!! whats there in matrix...or Mission impossible or bourne series? violence & imaginations that's all!!!! my chick flick offers not only the aforesaid but also gives free drama...emotion..romance..story...babes etc etc...so its complete paisa wasool for me...(kidding, i do like chick flicks and to be honest i m not able to differentiate them with regular movies)

My recent favorite is not a chick flick though..my interest area's scope has widened and i m gng back to childhood. I am in love with "Bee Movie". What a cute movie it is...I recommend watching this. 5/5 rating. My favorite dialogue from this movie

"whenever people see mosquitoes they do 'smack..smack...smack" & "I will go to the bottom of this" dont miss the expression & body language of the bee at this dialogue...reminds of the corporate bosses :P

U gotta watch this :) enough of blabbering..its 1.40 am ...time to dream...

P.S - my highly logical stimulating brain is advising me on closing this blog else shifting it...i am still very confused.

Are you blessed?

The New Testament says “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35)

I wanted to Thank God for whatever he has done for me till date. He has taken care of me as his own baby… Series of events, where I faced disappointments made me feel that I wasn’t all that lucky! There were times when I called myself a badluck favored girl and kept comparing myself with others. Whenever I cried in past I questioned myself…What did I do to deserve this? Where was my fault? Later I learnt that, whenever I was denied of certain thing it was for good. I realized pretty late that whatever was given in past looked bad at that particular time but was good for a long run perspective. Sometimes we look at a smaller picture where as god has great plans for future and we seem to keep cribbing & cursing ourselves for such petty stuff.

Something happened recently where in 90% people got affect around me and I was among the few who remained untouched by a particular scenario. It was not that I wasn’t prepared for it but not being touch has helped me on other fronts which were little crucial from other angle. I know why it happened and what the message was to me. I came back home and realized a task which was due for quite some time. I thought of doing it many a times but lack-of-time excuse always managed to get in me. Yesterday when I reached home back at 6 which was pretty early from my standards of returning home, I opened my lappy to work from home but somehow my mind kept wandering.

I opened my system & told myself that its now or never, so I finally took my card and sponsored a Nanhi Kali. Well that means I sponsored a little girl’s education and this would help her study for the current year. I have put a reminder for myself to help every year so that she completes her education and earns herself a better life. The organization would provide the detail of kid in a month’s time who is going to be benefited with updates on her scores and performance. They don’t initially let ou choose for avoiding discrimination based on various factor. I feel better as my first step towards a long goal has been taken! Lot is to be done in the journey towards a dream that I have been cherishing since my childhood.

I will surely share about the Nanhi Kali as and when I get to interact with her :)

Experiencing houseboats, humanity & Unions

While writing the previous post, I just recalled an incident which took place about 4-5 months back. We had planned a trip to Allepey & munnar in Kerala. We got down at the railway station and looked for a Taxi. Kerala is famous for one thing “Worker Unions”. The dominant unions can be felt in almost all the industries out there. We somehow got hold of a guy who agreed to take us to the point where houseboats can be hired. So, he showed us where the taxi was parked and sent a driver for the ride. Now this driver, who was 6 feet tall & into his early forties drove the car for 6 kms and dropped us at a point which he called as a starting point for houseboats. The price that he had charged us was for 10 kms, but anyways at new places you are bound to be cheated. We got down the taxi and we could only see 3 houseboats standing out there.

Generally before going on any trip we read lot of reviews and do lot of googling to gather information. There should have been more than 30-40 houseboats as per what we had read but all we could see was 3 of them standing. When we enquired the price they quoted 3 times of the normal price. We thought we were early for the boats and started waiting for other boats to return from their previous day’s trip. After almost an hour, we saw no movement and we got irritated. When we turned around we saw the cab driver still waiting. We guessed the scenario: he had tied up with houseboat guys for commission. It was such a pathetic feeling and when we enquired from a local tea vendor, we came to know that there is another point where all the houseboats come and this wasn’t the main point. We had specifically asked the guy at railway station to drop us to main point for houseboats and he got us dropped at a seedy corner for some commission. The worst was we could not see any taxi apart from the one in which we had come. But somehow I was too adamant to go back in it and we decided to walk.

The driver who was observing all this started his cab and came to us asking us to drop at the right place. We told him that we don’t require as we were quite pissed waiting in hot sun for almost an hour & half. He had a guilty face and he requested us to get in his taxi. When we refused, he said politely that he is anyways gng back and he will drop at the right place without charging. We weren’t sure but then he seemed to be apologetic and we agreed. When we sat inside the car, suddenly 2 people from nowhere appeared and yelled at him. It was in Malyalam (local language) and we could figure out from the conversation that due to Union thing he was not supposed to take us, it was someone else’s turn. He denied and almost took panga there and drove us and dropped at the right place.

We offered him money but he did not accept. I felt bad for him because, for a tourist he took some problems on himself. He was doing as he was asked to but he wasn’t a bad guy! I then felt that even in a strange city you will find people who are still nice, who still have some humanity left in them and who are not just looking for commissions but the problems caused to other. That did not make me carry any bad memories for that city/state.

I don’t know how it is with other tourist but I felt comfortable with the trip. The houseboat guys had also shown great hospitality and it was overall a memorable trip.

Slumdog Millionaire

Most of us are feeling proud that we (Indians) have won Oscars for the movie. Kudos to A.R Rehman for his great work!

Before watching the movie, I had heard abt Amitabh Bachhan’s statement about the movie and I wasn’t too pleased on his remarks. For me, it was more like…recognition to India and how does it matter if a foreigner has shot the film. I tend to generally admire the work of a person irrespective of the nationality/caste/ creed.

This movie as the name suggest is based on a kid from slum & his story on how he wins the Million Dollars in a contest which looks like a KBC contest. All I could see was the movie with lot of flaws. Two important ones:
1. A slum kid speaking English & hindi at the same time.
2. Showing that every damn Indian was bad in the movie (including Anil Kapoor)!

I hated the way the director has painted a bad image for the country. India is not just about slums, crooks, cheats etc. It has other good things as well which could have been captured. Overall I feel it’s more of hype thing then to anything else.

Bollywood has produced many better films then Slumdog in past and I am sure it will continue to do so. I am happy with the fact that couple of actors got this opportunity to work in the film and show themselves up at red carpet but at the same time, I am very disappointed with the way it has let down our image. I am wondering how the prospective tourist will react to it? How will they trust anyone here after watching this movie? We keep working hard to build that credibility and just couple of things like 26/11 & slumdog tends to take that away from us.

I have nothing against the director or the people who are associated with the movie, but I am just not feeling good about it.

What's in the name!!!

Offlate i have started following news & read articles for about an hour on various sites everyday. I happened to see another Sanjay dutt controversy over his sister's maiden name. Priya Dutt, has not changed her maiden name after marriage and is continuing her identity with the same name. What's wrong in that? I literally hate people when they actually insist females or expect from them to change their maiden names for no logical reason. I can understand a few situation where one has to fly on a visa and complication arises with a kid..but otherwise whats the point if female doesnt want to change!

This topic is really very touchy for me! I remember blasting someone when they called me with my husband's surname. Though the difference is just an alpabet but i dont like to be called by any other name. I love my name. Why should i care for what people think and what their ideologies are. As per law i have the right to retain my maiden name and thats what I am doing! Thats what Priya Dutt and many others have done.

Raising a family issue in public and then commenting on a sensitive issue, shows the maturity level of Sanjay dutt. No wonder he is never out of any controversies. I dont hate him or dislike him but this is not appreciated!

Target 72

Well naah nothing related to work, thankfully i m out of the target game long back...It isnt about my job. The other day i was getting bored and wanted to watch a flick and thought of going for a romantic one...it was difficult for me to choose so i thought of googling! Googling helped me find 75 best romantic movies and i had just seen 8 out of them! Then i made a list of all those movies and finally set a target for myself. I checked with my hubby & simpoo and found that they had seen some 23 flicks...i was way behind them..so i geared myself up and now a days watching one movie every day..sometimes 2...and worst 3 as hubby has gone to Mumbai!

So here the list go for the last few ones i saw in last 2 days:

1. Casabalanca: quite an old one..but yet a classic

2. A lot like love: Man, i like austin guy..he is kewl...he knows what kinda role suits him :)

3. Cruel Intentions: I dont know..mixed feelings...sad...good..filthy...everything...still worth a watch.

4. Jerry Maguire: Tom Cruise...he needs no introduction...the most handsome man!well movie was gud.

5. While you were sleeping: Well dont like Sandra Bullock, but movie was OK.

Currently watching:

• You've Got a mail
• The wedding planner.

few in Wish list are:

1. P.s: I love you: I am so impressed with the synopsis that i actually got my hands on the real book on which the movie is based.

2. Gone with the wind

3. Bridget Jones’s Diary

4. An Affair to Remember

5. Persuasion & many more...

Once I am done with romantic i will start with thriller/Action etc...

Also tomorrow I am going to Delhi..First time in my life i am happy about my visit to delhi...I am excited about the shopping...I will be shopping and shopping and shopping...The real purpose is to attend a wedding & meet couple of relatives & friends...i will be really tied up...

Honestly speaking i am more excited about the trip from my house to New Bangalore Airport..i have heard that its pretty neat & the bus service is cool. I love those Vayu Vajra (AC Volvo) which is running on these routes....i remember how badly i wanted to sit in them when i came to know that the airport has been shifted 40 kms far from city...So i have done my bit of R&D about those buses...routes...tmings etc...its gng to be an adventure as i am the last person in family now to travel...both of them have left..

Why do you visit temple?

Recently a visit to temple reminded me that a long post was due on my experiences in temples here. I don’t want to make it a very long post so would mention just two instances. I visited Chamundeswari temple in Mysore which is on a hill top. We saw maddening crowd which was going in all direction and it was so very difficult to figure out the entrance to the temple. There were thousands of people in queue as if someone was distributing free gold! After enquiring from locals we came to know that there were two types of entry in the temple: One with Rs.20 would give you pleasure of standing in sun for approx 2 hrs, Rs. 100 entry, will perhaps help you come out in 10-15 minutes. Due to time constraint we obviously opted for Rs. 100 entry but it wasn’t less painful with people having no civic sense and pushing each other. Somehow a 10 sec darshan was what Rs. 100 fetched us without any Prasad. For Prasad you have to shell out extra. One ladoo cost Rs. 20 out there, which was of a table tennis ball size. It wasn’t the money which was bothering me; it was about the others who were in queue for 2 hrs. I was wondering about the temple business & its impact on poor! A poor guy who wants to visit a temple with his family will first of all has to pay for bus ticket from the city to hill top and then pay for the darshan & if he wants the eatable blessings then another few bucks!!!! Well this was still decent if I compare my experience to another temple which is more known to people…

Jagannath Puri is a famous temple in Orissa, where Rathyatra is frequently celebrated every year and has been attracting lakhs of devotees & pilgrims since time immemorial. Regardless to say many get killed in stampede every year. I was returning from northeast trip and decided to stay a day with parents and also cover this temple. Dad sent an uncle who belonged to the same place, so that we don’t face any language problem. The temple is really huge with many small temples in the premises. While climbing the stairs one pundit came and asked me something in Oriya & I could not understand a bit of it. I thought he is asking for some donation or some kinda favor and I wanted to avoid all that so told him No. Little I knew that he was asking me, if I had a guide! He started following me and explaining one or two things in temple premises. I told him not required but he did not listen and kept chasing. I had lost uncle in crowd, Me & hubby both were wondering on how to get rid of him and then we spotted uncle & told him how this guy was trying to stick. When uncle asked him to leave, this pundit was almost on the verge of fighting! That was so unbelievable; he said in Oriya that these tourists are the source of our income. I do understand that their livelihoods are based on tourists & donations given to temples but then they are not supposed to force themselves like that. Anyhow uncle managed us to get rid of him after some verbal arguments in Oriya. As we moved to one of the small temple in premises, I did not want to enter for same reasons, so was praying from the door of the small temples. There was one goddess temple & when I was praying from outside the Pujari inside called and said “come & do the prayer inside”. I tried to avoid but then he insisted. We entered inside and I did prayer infront of the idol and after I finished murmuring the Pujari put some assembled stuff in my hands which consisted of sindur, packet of bindi, one or two fruits, pair of red bangles etc. All these are auspicious symbol for a married woman in India. I was happy that not everyone here is as bad as I thought & I was doing a mistake by generalizing them. I wasn’t out of my thoughts that he said “ Rs 500”. I looked at him in dismay…did I hear it right!
He repeated “Rs.500”. Ultimately I gathered the courage to ask him “What for?”
he said – “for puja that you did”. I refused and told him straight that 501 was too much and I started to walk off. He stopped us again and then quoted another price “Rs. 251”
I felt as if I was in a grocery shop negotiating price for an item, I felt like fighting with him for making a sacred place a fish market, but I controlled myself and refused to give. He gave another price of Rs. 101. I hated that moment to core. My long desire of visiting the temple lost its charm & importance. I refused again not because I could not afford but coz I did not want to give the money which to me was looking like a fraud case & will just go in his pocket then to go in charity! As I refused again, he said things which I till date I loath upon – “You are married and you should not do these. If you don’t give money, then you never know what would happen!” That’s the last thing a newly married would like to hear on this earth. Forget newly married, any person on this earth would not like to hear such things in a temple for the sole reason that he/she is not encouraging something which is against your values & ethics. I felt like slapping him but that wouldn’t have help coz all of them there were spoilt. They weren’t looking for the devotees but were looking at their devotee’s pocket! Well I obviously did not give any money to him and heard him cribbing & saying some nasty things, but that was ok. A corrupt & ill mindset person like him can’t curse me…

Why don’t these people let temple be a place to connect with god, & why do they interfere? Why do we still bear their nonsense and keep adjusting in life? Why cant temples be only the place for worship & not for any commercializing purpose! Why do we even encourage such people? I have decided to minimize my visit to such famous & crowded business places(temples).