Monica's Musing

The secret of Pinkish brown rice kheer.

2021-01-25T04:45:00.002-08:00

Ours is a love marriage. In India, marriages are usually arranged by elders of the family mostly by parents, hence it is called arranged marriage. Ours was NOT an arranged marriage. We both belong to different states and hence had different cuisines to conquer along with differences due to different upbringings.

Food being the major hurdle in our lives, I decided to conquer it first, by trying to learn the easy delicacies and daily comfort food from his state. I managed to learn a few dishes and was able to master them, thanks to a few cooks we employed in our household.

My mother-in-law is an excellent cook, which is was an additional stress for me because whatever I make will be measured and rated against Mom-in-laws 10/10. One thing which many cannot beat my mother-in-law is rice kheer. Her rice kheer is just divine. My husband drools with just the memory of it. When I ask my mother in law to share the recipe, she underplays the whole things saying its just milk sugar rice and cardamom powder. She would never let me in the kitchen when she is making it and would send me on some errand or the other. Her rice kheer, in addition to being so yummy would look great too with a pinkish brown hue. So naturally, I tried my hand at making rice kheer, by looking up recipes in internet. But how much so ever I tried, though I could get the taste, I was never able to get the color. I tried boiling the milk for a long time till the milk thickens, but would get only creamy yellowish color but never the pinkish brown. When I mention this to her during our visits, she would just give a smile, which seem to taunt me that I can never get at par with her in her culinary skills.

I always used to come back from the visits disheartened and with no enhanced knowledge of the pinkish brown rice kheer. One day while looking at some baking videos, I stumbled upon the process of caramalising sugar and the color it gives. Lo and behold!! I got my answer. I just need to caramalise sugar and add it to the kheer to get the color. From then, my kheer also started getting close to full marks(though not 10//10 yet :-() in taste and also in color. Thanks to internet, my husband is able to enjoy his favourite kheer whenever he likes.

The year that slipped by

2020-12-31T07:53:00.000-08:00

Today is 31st Dec 2020 - the new years eve. What can be said of 2020 - It is the year which whoever is alive on the planet earth will not forget, a year that almost slipped by, for most of the people stayed at home. It is a year which brought out different perspective in people, which brought out new meanings of life, new ways of living, new avenues were explored, new normal was defined.

It is a year missed.

A year where we missed physically meeting people, and when met, was at a distance and with a half covered face(masks on!). Children missed school, friends missed hanging out, no meetings outside family, no dinner invitations, no eating out and the list goes on.. many people lost lives, many lost dear ones, many are battling for their lives, and many recovered. And many like me stayed at home for major part of the year. It was like sand slipping through the fingers.

It was a year of unpredictability

A year which made us realise that whatever you have planned for the year can go terribly wrong, your goals unachievable and everything can become topsy-turvy. It was a year where the meaning of saying that man proposes and God disposes got reinforced. It was year where organizations relooked at options to work remotely and work from home became the new norm. Many people lost jobs, many had salary-cuts. Many so called strong organisations and entities shut shop or just striving through.

It was a year of blessing!

For me personally, despite the world suffering and the restrictions, this was a blessing in disguise. Let me explain : I discovered I was pregnant with my second child on 27th January 2020. The lockdown started end of March and since then, my husband has been mostly working from home till and after the birth of my daughter in August. My elder daughter's school was closed from March and she was at home and has been taking classes online since then. I don't know how I would have managed my pregnancy if I had to drop and pick my daughter to school and my husband had to go to office.

It was a year of panic, of desperation ,of helplessness!

My in-laws tested positive mid of september 2020. I could witness the helplessness, the anguish, the turmoil that my husband faced, since both his parents, who have comorbidities, were suffering far away from him and he could not be physically present there with them. He was in dilemma whether he should go there to help them, or stay back, since if he gets infected, there would not be anyone there at my in-laws place to take care of him, and if he were to return back, he would be exposing the new born and us to infection. It was tough, a very tough call to take. Thankfully, they recovered.

It was a year of gratitude

Grateful that we are able to sustain, that we have food at our table and roof over our heads. Grateful to have a family, for friends, for well wishers, for friends who are like family. Grateful to be able to afford good medical care and other comforts. Grateful for life overall.

It was a year of self reliance, aatmanirbharata.

I finally understood my strengths, that I could go on even with physical constraints. We stopped our domestic help and our cook from end of March. I was managing the house, cooking three times, taking care of my 3 year old, managing all the housework inspite of being pregnant, which I managed to do till the eve of my admission to the hospital. I got admitted on 21st August morning, after having contractions most of the previous night. And we were back from the hospital on the day 3 of admission, with the baby. After 15 days downtime, I was able to manage the house again, with a lot of help from my family. I did not visit a beauty parlor and my husband did not visit a salon even for a haircut. I started giving him hair cuts at home and with practice, now I can say that I do a decent job. I also realized, I can be emotionally strong and can think with my head during stressful situations.

It was a year of extended family time

With work from home and online classes, the line between school/office and home has become thinner resulting in great family time. We had great fun during festivals, dressed up, had home cooked delicacies, many of which were made for the first time by me, had balcony dinners, overall had a great family time.

This was the year when my little munchkin grew-up overnight

From being the one and only apple of our eyes, she became a elder sister overnight. I feel proud to see how she has coped up with the situation and the divided and reduced attention which she started getting after the baby. She has showed that she is a storehouse of love by being the loving elder sister. She was expected to understand, help and share, which she is doing Proud of her.

It was a year where I rediscovered my creative side

Though I had started my YouTube channel somewhere in 2019, I was not very active and was sporadic in posting videos. With the lockdown and self-imposed stay at home and with husband working from home, I was able to shoot and post videos fairly regularly, in spite of being pregnant and with the housework. This came with the realization, that I enjoyed doing this, which I intend to continue in the coming year.

It was a year where I did zero shopping for myself.

I was a impulsive shopper. I am not a shopaholic, but I have occasions where I splurge without thinking, I shop when I am bored. This year, with restricted stepping out of the house and due to pregnancy, I did not buy any clothes at all. I managed with my old nighties and oversized t-shirts. I recollect, during my first pregnancy, I wanted everything new during pregnancy and after the baby. But this time, I reused my elder daughters clothes which I had kept as keepsakes for my younger one. I also did the bare minimum shopping(online) for the new baby. All the experience gained during the first baby came in handy and I was glad that I am able to maintain the minimalism which I had wanted to in beginning of the year.

It was a year where we ate very less of outside food

Except for the past two months, we have had not ordered in or dined out at all in this year. I tried out different dishes at home and all of us enjoyed it.

It was a year that we realized that we need very less to sustain

Our tenant vacated the flat we had rented out by end of October and we started living in the flat with bare minimum just to enjoy our flat, in which we had never lived. We rented in basic furniture, carried most essential utensils and a gas stove and a few pairs of clothes to the flat. And we are doing just great. We are totally in love with the minimalistic life. I am cleaning utensils by hand, hand washing clothes and are continuing having great home cooked food. This has made us realize how much of material things we have accumulated over years, which we don't need. We realized that less is enough, that less is more and that less is easy maintenance. One of my goals of 2021 would be to declutter and donate many of the things which we can do away with.

It was a year where I made peace with negativity around me.

I am a very emotional person. Someone else's behavior affects me adversely and I show the effect on my loved ones by being, moody, angry, sad or sulky. This year, I have realized how I am negatively affecting my daughter and husband because of my behavior. Now I have learnt to ignore the negativity around me and get on with life.

So with a very positive outlook, I look forward to the new year. I hope and wish that year 2021 brings in good tidings along with the vaccine and we shall continue the good lessons learnt this year.

Wish you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous new year 2021!

How to be Atmanirbhar(self reliant) at home

2020-06-07T08:08:00.000-07:00

Finally the lockdown is coming to an end, though not the increase in new covid cases. Many of you would have to return to office to work and have to forego the safety of working from home.

Many of you would have to start to re-employ your domestic helps to help in your household chores and in cooking. But do we really have enough trust in doing so? Are we exposing our loved ones unnecessarily - especially for people who have aged parents, young children, pregnant women, or people with existing ailments who are supposedly in the high risk category? We still have the lingering doubts in our minds to think of opening our doors to infections. (Please note I am not discussing nannies and care givers here.

These I presume are usually trained well enough to maintain highest degree of hygiene.)

But if we have to go back to office, not getting help from domestic helps is not an option for many of us. Given the situation, how can we avoid that- how can we become “Atmanirbhar” – self reliant and self sufficient at home. Is it even possible?

Thankfully, it is – with some planning and smart working.

All of us have our basic necessities which need to be met whatever the situation is – food, clothing,and shelter, our roti, kapda aur makhan. If any one of them has to be compromised, our lives get jeopardized. In this post, I am going to discuss about two of the necessities – the food and shelter. Clothing – I am going by the presumption that we don’t require to acquire immediately and in near future(at least for next couple of months).

Even if we do, I guess those can be ordered online and can be quarantined for couple of days before actual usage.

Now let us talk about food :

To have a meal on our table involves three aspects – acquiring raw material, preparation and cleaning up.

Let’s address one by one – we usually don’t take help in step 1 – we generally buy our raw materials like vegetables, fruits and grocery either from shops or order online.

By now, I presume many of us have already mastered the art of correctly cleaning and storing the vegetables and fruits. For the benefit of those of you who don’t – for perishables like fruits and vegetables, wash them in water with baking soda/salt to disinfect them. The outer packaging of groceries should be discarded immediately after transferring the contents to the containers at home. Ensure you wash your hands and clean the surface where the packages were places after transferring them

For step 2, some of us employ cooks – to prep (by this I mean cleaning,chopping,soaking, grinding) and prepare food. How can we become self reliant on that – all it requires is a little planning and the right tools and equipment.

1. Make a meal plan for the week and acquire the required materials for the same.

2. Clean, chop and store the vegetables in the refrigerator in separate packs. You can invest in a good food processor to ease up the process. My food processor helps me to knead atta, chop and shred vegetables, make idli-dosa batter, make juices, grind masala etc. It saves time and I can process them in bulk and store them in refrigerator for couple of days. For example, I make idli dosa batter , shred and store coconut, knead atta once a week. I also peel garlic(sometimes I buy already peeled garlic, when I am making garlic heavy recipes), separate mint leaves and other regular greens like fenugreek and spinach once a week and use them throughout the week.

3. Have a few easy days where you can have simple breakfast like oatmeal, cornflakes with milk, sandwich, sprouts or just fruits which require very little preparation. Other days you can choose to have simple breakfast like idli, dosa, upma, pongal, poha , Poori/parata etc.

4. Plan simple lunch menu which requires less time. My every day lunch would include rice, one vegetable side dish and papad/fryums. If it is not some kind of variety rice(like puligore, pulav, biryani, fried rice, mint rice, tomato rice, lemon rice), I have one of dal, sambhar, rasam,dalma to mix with rice.For side dish I have one vegetable dish like okhra, broad beans, potato,any variety of gourd, carrots, beans etc. I ensure to have at least two varieties of greens every week(usually fenugreek and spinach)

5. If you are not very much particular on variety, you can have go easy on elaborate dinner preparations as well. My weekly dinner would be idli/ dosa for 3 days, roti for 2 days , 1 day wheat dosa, 1 day besan chilla, along with sambhar different types of lentil/gram curries, vegetable curries or paneer.

6. Store some ready to eat stuff to cater to hunger pangs like pop corn, Makhana, cheese, rusk etc.

Now coming to the most difficult part(at least for me) - cleaning up. Invest in a dishwasher – believe me, it makes your life so much easier, even if you have domestic help. There will be no breakages of crockery and glassware with your dishwasher, you can get squeaky clean and dry utensils and you would take away your dependency on your domestic help. It is an investment which I don’t regret.

Coming to the cleaning of counter top and stove after cooking – for this you have to ensure that you exercise caution to not mess it up much in the first place. Like for example placing the peels and vegetable remains in a separate bin immediately after chopping, using a spoon rest and ensuring lesser accidental spills.Just a wipe after cooking, should clean up the space if you are careful.

Now let us see how to manage the shelter part of necessities - by which I mean dusting, cleaning and mopping.

Dusting – I don’t see an alternative, other than to manually dust. I know some of you might suggest a hand held vacuum cleaner – I find it cumbersome. I prefer the old fashioned duster and dusting cloth, may be with some cleaning solution. For this step, I apply the divide and conquer phenomenon, to dust and clean one part of the house each day, so that the whole chore will not look daunting. Having a clutter free home helps expedite the process. I don’t prefer to have too many decor objects at home in order to complete dusting faster. Have decor which you can maintain. Others, pack it up and put it away for better times( like when you can safely have your help back). Have pools/stations, where you can place similar items on a tray, which can ease -up wiping and dusting. For example, place your center table decor on a tray, TV remotes and mobile chargers in a box/tray, Oils and seasonings in the kitchen in a tray, so that it becomes easy to move one tray instead of many smaller objects while cleaning.Using washable table cloth and place-mats on dining table helps avoid dusting of the same. After use , you just need throw it in the washing machine to clean it.

Cleaning and mopping : I can almost hear many of you whispering vacuum cleaner again. But from my experience, vacuuming is more cumbersome than actual manual sweeping. You have to cover every inch of the space with your vacuum cleaner to clean. Moreover, it does not mop. Thankfully, we live in times of the robot cleaners, which go about sweeping and mopping all by themselves. The good and funny part is, unlike vacuum cleaners, they go and plug themselves in the charging point to charge themselves after their juice runs out. So my next investment suggestion to be self reliant at home is – robot cleaner.

A good food processor, dishwasher and robot cleaner- these three gifts of technology shall help us to stay atmanirbhar (self reliant)

Please share your views in comments what else good be done to atmanirbhar at home.

How to keep kids engaged - during lock down

2020-03-20T06:19:00.003-07:00

These are testing times indeed - testing our endurance, our patience, our adaptability, our compassion and our human values.

With the out break of the novel corona virus and the threat it poses to the world and to our country, it has become advisable not to venture out unless there is a dire need to do so. With online shopping for groceries, work from home option for many and schools shut down, this does not seem to be difficult.

But after a week or so being at home with the complete family - kids who want to play all day, spouse who has telecons and is working from home and in many instances the domestic help and cook being absent, it becomes daunting - especially to manage kids,with restrictions on usage of play area, the pool and other common amenities.

If you have a kid who still not in the able to read by self stage, these tips are for you :

1. Read from story books : This is the time to inculcate the joy of books to the kid. Order some picture story books which the kid can look at when you are reading the story to him/her. Be as dramatic and as expressive as you can be. Use voice modulation, facial expression and hand gestures to make them understand and visualise the character. If there is an older sibling(s), next time when the child wants the story they can try to imitate the way you told the story. Ask the child to repeat the story the next day. And when he/she does it, applaud and praise them.

2.Coloring books and white paper : Get some coloring books and crayons/color pencils. Make the child color the book. Let them make a mess on the books and get as creative as only they can be on the white paper. It is ok as long as they have fun. To ensure they donot scribble/color on the walls or furniture, place a mat/carpet/rug in the middle of the room Tell them we are on pretend play and we are on a boat - what ever falls off the mat/carpet/rug is into the water and cannot be retrieved. Play along with them

3. Hide and seek : Play hide and seek at home. Before start, educate them of no go places, like near to the electrical appliances like fridge, washing machine computer, into the kitchen, wet bathroom(s), open balconies etc. Identify the unsafe places to hide and restrict those places as no go.

4. Play dressing up : It is not necessary to wear your best clothes only if you have a party to attend or during festivals. Bring out the party wear/festival wear and dress up the kid (and yourself if you like). Get the full party/festive looks - do the hair, wear appropriate jewellery and make up. And take plenty of photographs. Pose as silly as possible. Play these photos on TV and giggle along with your kid(s). If you have some particular costumes for your kid(s) you can use them too.Be as imaginative as possible.

5.Make them do small house hold work : Kids, especially the young ones, love to do what the grown-ups do. Take advantage of this - ask them to help you in shelling peas, separating the leaves from leafy vegetables like fenugreek/amaranthus, sweep the floor, dust the table, arranging the cushions on sofa,sort and pick their clothes from the washed clothes pile, etc. Donot expect the job to be completed by them Remember, our intention is to keep them engaged, not to get the work them, Engage them in converstion when they are doing it and praise them when they attempt to do it right.

6. Shoe lace and beads : Get a shoe lace and some big beads and ask them to create a string of beads . It is easier to string on the hard end of the shoelace. Make a bracelet/necklace for dolls from them and make a big show off of their achievement by showing the finished product to everyone in the family.

7. Increase screen time : I completely understand how finicky most of us are in allowing more screen time to kids. But these are difficult times. It is ok if kids watch an hour more of TV. Just be sure that what they watch is age appropiate. My daughter is 3.5 years old and I play animated movies for her, which I watch along with her explaining scene by scene, so that she understands and enjoys the same.

8. Plant something and make them watch it grow :I think money plants are a life saver here - get a clear glass bottle, pour water and put a money plant in it. Show the kids how the roots and leaves grow. Make it a ritual to see the growth every day morning.

9. Make them talk and listen to them : Ask them to recollect past instances like some trip, or a visit to a friends place, or to a restaurant, supermarket etc and listen to them, ask questions as appropriate - many times we will be pleasantly surprised to see the world from their perspective. This improves their ability to recollect and elaborate and explain things.

10. Make plans for future : Discuss and ask them to make plans for immediate future, like what we will do when we can go out to the mall/supermarket/pool etc. Make them list down all the steps we need to follow For example, my daughter's version to go out on a saturday, she needs to wake up, brush her teeth, use the bathroom, take bath ,wash her hair(I wash her hair on saturdays), dry her hair, have milk, eat breakfast, pack her shopping bag(she has a small backpack in which she carries water bottle, change of clothes, hankies and diapers), ask ma and papa to get ready, wear shoes and then go to the car. After going to the mall, she will want to have icecream/pizza/chicken popcorn, visit toy store, ride in shopping cart etc.. she will list down that as well.

For older kids :

11. Teach them crafts : This is a good time to make them learn a new craft, be it sewing, embroidery, painting, knitting, anything which they are interested in

12. Sudoku/Puzzles/board games : They can do sudoku, solve puzzles or play board games like chess, snake and ladders, carroms etc. Many of these can be done online. Just be sure you monitor what they are doing.

13. Reading fiction/Non-fiction : If there is no stress on upcoming examinations, make them read fiction/non-fiction to enhance their vocabulary and knowledge.

14 : Cooking and other basic survival needs: Make them learn basic cooking like making tea, boiling eggs, making a sandwich, set a cooker, make small meals etc. Ensure safety when in kitchen. Make them keep the home clean, run a washing machine, fold clothers, organise their books, and be presentable always. This will help you in the lonjg run when you need a break from the every day chores.

With the scare of pandemic all around, let us try to create a positive environment at home and stay safe.

My new year day over the years

2020-01-01T02:45:00.001-08:00

Today is 1st of Jan 2020. Most of the people of the world are celebrating the New years day - Last night, many of my friends partied hard, some of my friends are on their vacation to exotic places, some of the folks threw lavish dinners. For a few like me we stayed at home, life going on as usual. Yes, I did make a few calls to the people I value most in my life wishing them the best in the year to come. But other than that, when I introspect and after seeing all facebook posts and instagram updates, do I have FOMO(the millenial word for fear of missing out)? Thankfully, no. I am happy to be where I am with what I have.

I was chatting with my husband how New year day used be when we were younger - when we were in school, college, beginning of employment and were musing over how New years day celebration has changed over years.

When I was in school, New years day used to fall during winter vacation. Most of the first 10 years of my life, my parents took me to our native place, in remote Tamil Nadu, where I would have the best of holidays with my cousins. It used to be the get together time for the entire family. I don't recall wishing anyone happy new year in the first 10-12 years of my life(please ignore my first 6 years- I was too young to remember them).

Next phase is when I entered my teens. That was the time,when I had started reading a lot of books and my awareness of the outside world began to widen - thanks to Enid Blyton books and various comics and magazines. That was also the time when greeting cards started appearing in the small town I grew up in. Some well off kids used to give the teachers New year greeting cards after the vacation at school. For those like me who do not know where to acquire them, in order to feel not left out, I started painting beautiful pictures and turned them to greeting cards to give them to teachers. That was new year for me - no celebrations, not at home , not in the town. I do not know if my other classmates celebrated New year. For all I know, everyone celebration Ugadi- the Telugu New year, not the Calendar New year. During 9th- 10th standard, I knew where to buy the greeting cards and bought them depending on the spare pocket money left. Else, the painted cards continued for the New year and most of the Indian festivals like Sankranti, Deepavali etc. Being south Indian,we did not celebrate Holi.

After school, during my intermediate college, graduation days, the New year was a time when greeting cards were purchased in advance with fervor, addressed and posted. I used to receive a few from my friends and cousins too, some of which I still am holding on to. On New years day, we meet up in someones' house , chit chat and hand exchange greeting cards. That was the celebration.

Then after graduation, I moved to Chennai - the circle of friends grew; new friends with new ideas got added. Night show movie plans, mid night beach plans were made. But since I was staying in a hostel which had a cut-off time of 9.30 p.m, I just used to listen to the stories of what my friends did on New years eve.

After taking up employment, in the initial few years, every day was fun,every weekend was a celebration - be it with friends or alone. If with friends, used to go on drives, try different restaurents. If alone, binge watch movies or read books with pizza, coke , potato chips and many other junk food. Did not really miss celebrating New year.

After marriage, New year became a time to make new resolutions, have a scoreboard of last years resolutions and evaluate how many of them were achieved, catch up with friends, binge on good food.

Past few years - New years day became just one more day in life. And I am absolutely fine with that.

Now coming to my husbands New years celebration - during his school and college days, it was the day of picnic - when family and friends get together to catch-up on happening of others life. Since most of them were in public sector, the public holidays were the time when they look forward to meet the family and friends. Being the time when landline phones where limited and public transport was not that great, catching up could happen only on those days. They used to go to some place closer to jungle with a good water source with all the equipment and ingredients required for cooking. It was a communal cooking, serving and eating. All good anecdotes are shared, games played, playful teasing done - everyone had a good time and everyone used to look forward to it. He misses those picnics in Bangalore.

New year day nowadays has become a big market. It has become a big event with event managers being engaged, party costumes designed, venues being selected, fat entrance fee being paid and big lavish parties with food , dance and booze being organised in various places in the city.In our own society, the community hall is decorated with innumerable balloons, glitter paper, lights, and all the other party decoration, There is ban on use of plastic and everyone is advised to use reusable cutlery, cups and plates. I dont know why balloons and other plastic based decorations are not banned. I feel they do cause an equal damage to the environment.

Over the years, I feel the idea of having a good time has changed. It has become more of a social pressure than actually have a good time. But if you cut out the FOMO, the basics good things in life still persist - tasty food, meeting/chatting with friends, good books, good movies, playing a game, listening to music, visiting interesting places, praying to God. So what is your pick?

Things which I wish I had not done

2019-12-31T08:46:00.000-08:00

As the year 2019 comes to an end, I thought of sharing with everyone few things/expenses( I am refraining from calling them mistakes intentionally) which I could have avoided in my life so far.

I will first start with my marriage. Mine was not an arranged marriage and my spouse and I were a little pleased with ourselves for having organised our wedding completely by ourselves. But on further thinking all these years, I regret a few of the things which we could have avoided.

1. Buying too many clothes :

We had a wrong notion that after marriage we should wear only new clothes and we will be getting too many invitations where we should go dressed our best. With this incorrect notion in mind, we ended up buying expensive clothes - many silk saris which cost a arm and a leg, expensive kurtas and silk shirts for my husband. As of now, I have so many silk saris which I hardly get to wear - some of them, I have worn only once and some of them not even once. All of them are so expensive and so rich that, I don't get an occasion to wear them at all. Even if I manage to wear on some festival, it becomes a pain, since I have to look out to manage them from getting soiled.

If I could turn back the clock, I would have loved not to have purchased so many saris which I hardly wear - now I just hoard them, since I cant give them away due to their cost.

I have not worn my wedding sari or my reception sari even once after my wedding and reception. And for the record, I am married for more than 8 years. I had spent thousands of my hard earned money on them just for a day of my life.

2.Buying heavy gold jewellery :

One more mistake I did before marriage(for marriage) is to buy heavy gold jewellery. I have not worn my wedding jewellery even once after my wedding day. So much money blocked for one day.

If I could turn back the clock, I would have advised my younger self not buy such heavy ones which can not be worn ever again - rather, invest the money, or, if interested in buying gold, buy smaller pieces, which could have been worn in day to day life.

3. Buying too many clothes for an infant :

I am blessed with a beautiful daughter - she is three and half years old now. I was on cloud nine to be holding my own bundle of joy and wanted the very best for her. In such a process, I bought her too many of cute looking clothes, tutu dresses, baby blankets, baby shoes, socks, hair bands, sweaters, thermals, jackets etc..In my mind I was giving her the best. These things did not fit her after 2 months, her sweater, jackets etc., were smaller in size by the time her first winter came in. I learnt the hard way that babies grow up fast.

All the cute little things, which I had hardly made her wear became smaller and not usable in just couple of months. Did I learn my lesson - yes, but after good two years later. I realise now, that kids grow very fast. It is not necessary to by so many expensive clothes for them. It is better to get them comfortable, reasonably priced clothing which will last a few of months. Believe me, they will outgrow them soon and you will again have to shop. Instead of clothes, invest in good educative toys and books

Now you may wonder what did I do to all those cute little things - I kept a few as keepsakes and donated the rest. Now it has become a routine - I donate her clothes and footwear, every couple of months.

4. Footwear :

How many pairs of footwear does one need? If you were anyone like how I was, you would say, you would need at least one in each color of your outfits. I liked the idea of matching my footwear with my outfit and ended up with more than a dozen pairs of footwear, which continued growing over the years. This collection was excluding the walking sandals, walking shoes, gym shoes and sneakers. Not all of my footwear were comfortable - but I wore them anyway.

But once I became pregnant with my daughter, I wanted to wear comfortable footwear, since my ankles used to get swollen and I had the fear of slipping and falling. So, we went to most of the premium footwear shops and I ended up buying one pair of black sandals and one pair of boat shoes in neutral color, which cost a bomb. These I purchased when I was 4 months pregnant. Now my daughter is three and half years old. I have not worn any other footwear since then. Now I realize what it means in investing in one good pair of footwear.

I still have my 20 odd pair of footwear from my pre-pregnant days. I am hoarding them for the rainy day, pun intended.

5. Hand Bags :

Just like footwear, I was a collector of handbags and wallets. Most of my hand bags were of PU leather, and matched with some of my outfits. Being a working woman then, I did not get as many chances as I would have loved to flaunt my handbags back then, since five days of the week I was lugging the laptop bag and a lunch bag to office. Only during weekends, I got a chance to use my handbags. Howerver, on many weekends we dont go out and the usage got further restricted. But that did not stop me from buying more hand bags. Every abroad trip, I bought more hand bags. I started running out of space to store them in my wardrobe. I started putting smaller ones inside the bigger ones. It became a chore to maintain them. Then one day I noticed that the skin on one of the handles of my yet to use bag started peeling off. I was devastated. I got down all my stock of bags and examined them, only to realise that most of them have started to peel off/ started to get worn off.

With a heavy heart I sorted and donated all the used ones. I made a point to use the unused ones for some time before I donated them too.My domestic help was one happy lady that day when I gave her so many hand bags.

Now I have a few handbags which I am sure will stand the test of time. And yes, I dont intend to buy anymore handbags in the near future. The ones I have, will last a lifetime if taken care properly.

6. Scissors :

How many pairs of scissors does a household need? 2..3 or 4? My husband is obsessed with buying scissors of all sizes. His favorite pick up item in departmental store or euro store as the situation may be will be scissors. We have 2 scissors in kitchen, 2 in each of the bathroom, 2 in my dresser, 1 in each of the cars glove compartments, 1 in medical kit, 1 in toiletries kit, one in manicure kit, one in sewing kit,2 with stationery supplies. I think you can find a pair of scissors at my home if you open any storage compartment.

But when we actually need to use one, everyone goes to the kitchen and use that one. So why hoard so many. I dont know.

7. Spectacles :

I am a spectacles wearer. I have impaired vision and was advised to wear glasses at all times. I am very regular on my yearly check-ups and change my glasses if there is a fluctuation in the power of my eyesight. in this process, over the years, I ended up with many frames with lenses which donot suit me anymore. Then sometime two-three years ago, I got this wise idea to replace just the lens and continue using the frame. Till date this seems to be a good idea. Now I have two pairs of spectacles and one pair of sun shades.Well done pat for me.

8. Watches :

Between my husband and me, we have more than 15 watches. But we use only 3 or 4 out of them. Others are just lying around. In the age of mobile phones, wearing a watch is more a fashion accessory than a time watch. Do we really need so many watches? One statement piece should do. So, I do not intend to invest in one more watch ever.

9. Trading in shares and involvement in Futures and options:

Trading in shares, and plunging in Futures and Options requires dedicated hours during market time. This feat cannot be managed when you are in a demanding full time employment. Learnt this lesson the hard way after burning our fingers badly.

10. Investment in a home/flat :

It is a dream for many to own a home. People put in all their life's savings in getting a home. However, in todays world, nothing is permanent. We had to move to multiple places within the city depending on the work location, since it was not feasible to travel for almost 3 hours everyday for work. Our own flat remained vacant most of the time. Lesson learnt : it is not a good idea to own a flat, when your job requires you to be some place else and you have EMIs to pay on the flat. One might argue that the flat could be rented out- believe me, the after tax income from rent will not even cover half the EMI. In addition to that you will have to bear with your tenant's tantrums.

In todays employment world and traffic woes, it is best to have a tension free life - rent a home close to your place of work and have more time on your hand. The bonus point- you will be spending less than half of the EMI which you would have paid if you have purchased a flat.

These are the ten things which I wish I could have done differently. From 2020, I wish to intentionally start on a minimalistic life. That does not mean I am going to throw away/dispose/give away things I have already collected - I am going to use them wisely till they last. What I intend to do is not add on more.

Wishing you a happy, healthy and prosperous New year 2020.

The Smudged Nail Polish

2019-06-27T07:59:00.000-07:00

It was 11 O'clock in the night. My toddler had finally fallen asleep. I slowly sneaked out of the bedroom so that I donot wake my daughter or my husband. With an active toddler, I hardly get any time for myself, to read a book or to relax. I switched on the light in the living room and snuggle in the sofa. I was not in a mood to read anything. So I just relax - doing nothing.. I was just reminiscing the day when I noticed that my nail polish that I was currently wearing had chipped off.

I decided to change my nail polish color and apply a new shade - a vibrant orangy rose. So equipped with cotton balls,nail polish remover and the new nail color, I head out to the balcony with headphones. I play a relaxing music on my mobile and with careful dabbing of the nail polish remover, I remove the old nail color from both the hands.

Then I soaked my fingers in lukewarm water with a few drops of almond oil and baby shampoo for 5 minutes. Then I washed my hands and pat dried them. This seemed to be a luxury that I was enjoying and I was very pleased with myself.

And then, with loving care, started applying my favorite nail polish. After one coat, I applied one more coat. My fingers looked beautiful - I admired them when I let them dry. Then I thought, let me apply the clear nail polish as top coat. I applied the clear coat and was very pleased with the effect. And.. I started to wait.. for the clear coat to dry..it seemed ages that it took to dry. When I thought the paint was dry, I went to bed and slept-off.

Next day morning, to my display and disappointment, what do I see, my beautiful nails have creases in the paint and also hair marks.. I seemed to have slept off without totally drying up the paint.

Now, the chances of me finding same amount of time to redo my nails in next couple of days seems next to impossible. Then I realise my nails actually look like modern art, like an abstract painting. My thoughts of spoilt nails was replaced by admiration for the new look.

Life is also like that. Sometimes, in spite of all the efforts, the result is not the same as what you expect. That does not mean the result is bad - it may be better.

And as they say - when life gives you lemons, make lemonade :-)

Will you kill if you will not get caught

2018-02-07T09:32:00.000-08:00

Will you kill if you will not get caught.

This is was a poster hoarding I saw the other day across the road. May be it was a new Netflix story or a new amazon prime series – I don’t remember.

But it is an interesting question. Would I kill someone, if I know I will not get caught for doing the crime. On deliberation, let us see who are all the people who actually kill people :

1. All our soldiers kill, without the killing getting on to their conscience. They do since it is their duty – towards the motherland and towards their other fellow human beings. They have a justification for killing.

2. Criminals kill- But not many of them get caught. They still lead a free life

3. Lunatics Kill – But they are not sane and do not understand what they are doing

4. Politicians /Bureaucrats kill – though not directly, through henchmen, or through police/soldiers whom they authorise to kill.

5. Doctors Kill – not intentionally, but sometimes their treatment goes wrong and they have death on their hands

Which brings us to an interesting juncture – Do these people carry the killing of people on their conscience. Will it weigh heavy on their heart that they have been instrumental in getting someone most. Do they sleep peacefully. Well, this is a question I cannot answer.

On the question of would I kill someone, If I know I will not get caught – the answer is NO. I cannot and will not kill anyone. I don’t hate anyone so much that I would even entertain the thought of killing. Even if I hate someone, I would leave it to Karma to do the job. That is not my job.

There are instances, when I had wished I had a super big boxer hands that I thrash someone off senseless. There were instances where I have imagined me thrashing and stamping people who have angered me. But that was only in my imagination. That was my own anger let-out therapy – helps me to keep cool and control my emotions.

I don’t know what I would do if it is a question is killing for protecting my loved ones – Like in a movie like situation where, I have to kill someone to ensure the life of a loved one. I cannot bring myself to think that I would kill even then. May be I will look at disabling the threat in any other manner other than killing, if there is a possibility.

I believe that life is very short to entertain feelings of hate, anger, frustration for long. It unnecessarily clogs the mind and eats way time – which I consider is the most precious thing of all. If someone is devoting time for you unconditionally, you should truly appreciate that person.

Rather than entertaining negative feelings in mind, it is better to use the time to introspect and think as an outsider and come up with ideas to deal with such situations.

The journey so far...

2017-07-01T11:00:00.000-07:00

I was reflecting on my different phases of career, how I had moved from a wide eyed, full of awe, youngster in my first job as a trainee, to a mid management professional I am now

In the initial stages of my career, I was supposed to be on learning spree – however, I recollect, I was yearning more for gateways to shun away from responsibility and was basking in the newly found complete independence. I was enjoying myself immensely on the power, my position as an auditor gave me, and the respect I could command at the client’s place, in spite of me being a trainee. Evenings were filled with chitchat with friends, trips to various malls in the city, strolling in the beach with friends. The time after dinner time, used to be a long affair. There were times when we chitchatted through the night and till the wee hours of morning.

The most enjoyable part was during study leave. We used to study through the night, with thermo- flasks filled with hot tea and instant maggi to satiate the mid-night hunger pangs. The whiff in the air of maggi cooking in someone’s room used to pull us to that room for a group attack on maggi.

I was always happy then, with not a worry to bother me. My friends used to tease me that I always wake up with a smile on and my stride used to be hop, skip and run. And my roomies and friends would vouch for me, of what a great chatterbox I was. After completing articles-ship, the trouble started - for I had to get into serious employment. And the great hunt for job began.

My other two co-hunters for jobs at the same time, could recollect these moments. Our modus operandi was the same every day. We used to meet in one of their homes. Our weapons, if I could call it, which we carried everyday was the same. Each of us carried a file, which contained copies of our certificates and copies of resumes+ one bag with one umbrella (after a shiver to the bone drenching experience!), a water bottle, mobile phone and some snacks. In addition to these, I used to carry a city map, which I would unfold on the hood of any parked car, to check for directions. The smart phones were still a long way off then. We used to visit consultant offices, and any office where we heard there is a vacancy, go to any and all walk-ins which we could hear upon, and then come back exhausted in the evening. Next day, repeat. This is was on till I landed on my first real job.

The next phase is joining as an employee in an MNC as a fresher, with lots of hopes and aspirations. I am glad that I made some instant friends on my first day, during induction, which I am glad to say, continues till now. I enjoyed the respect which I was able to get from my peers and superiors on account of my professional qualification. But being a fresher, I did not have a lot of responsibility on my shoulders, though, I was ready to take on more. I did not change my hostel, though my workplace was 20Km away and I had to travel for 2 hours every day. I enjoyed the din of bus/train travel and used to listen to music, read books, on the way. Some days, I napped and made up for my shortage of sleep. My working hours were long – used to work till 12 mid night every day and used to return by company provided cab. This job was the first serious step I took towards focusing on my career. I was very serious on the work I did and would be hell bent to finish all the tasks I had scheduled myself for the day. Hence, the long hours. I craved for recognition and kudos for my work, which I occasionally received. The result was, I was too exhausted by the time I reached hostel and did not have time for fun, which I noticed, my hostel gang was having. Sometimes, I used to feel left out.

My next jobs were my steps to improve professionally and when I look back at the journey so far, I don’t regret having taken these steps. Of course, I had a few stumbles on the way. But, as they say, it is the destination that matters; not the path, though it would not hurt, if the path was fun and enriching. I intend and try to choose the path which will be enriching me to groom myself further as a professional, which would be fun-filled and end-of-day, would leave me with a smile on the lips. I have encountered with some good, some not so good and a few irksome bosses and colleagues. I am thankful for all my bosses – the good ones inspired me as how to be; the bad ones, how not to be. Same goes with colleagues. Many of the colleagues have become lifetime friends. Am happy that I have not made any enemies out of any of my colleagues.

The changes in me from then to now, I talk less(some of my friends still carry my chatterbox image, which I guess I lost somewhere along the way), I listen more, read more and try to work less, have become more analytical, have put on weight, wear spectacles, and am no more a youngster J.

And then life goes on…

Water, water everywhere...

2015-01-13T08:47:00.000-08:00

Pitch dark-chilly and eerie night..and you are surrounded by water..you cant hear anything else except the sound of the paddle in the water. There was no sound of waves too. The lake was surprisingly seemed still.

It was as if the surrounding silence was weighing down upon us. The kids seemed to have sensed something different and were surprisingly quiet. After a while, we could not even discern which side is the shore. And to add all to this, it started drizzling lightly. Good that all were dressed in warm clothes and were ready for the cold.

That’s how our trip to Chilika started.

15 minutes before

We had reached Satapada around 7 O’clock. Had tea and packed hot pakoda to have on the way to the guesthouse. We took the row boat at night. There was a power failure in Satapada when we commenced our journey – the reason for dark night. We expected a modern motor boat with generator for light and power, to Ferry us to the Guest house which was in an island in the middle of Chilika. We were in for a surprise when we saw that it was a normal fisherman’s boat, with a feeble motor attached, for navigation. But then, not every day you get to experience Ram Gopal Varma’s movie kind of scenes in real life. We embarked on the boat and set to the island where the guest house is, in the dark, even though I had doubts as to how the boat men will navigate to the destination in the dark. The short sail started and we enjoyed the hot pakoda on the boat using the light from our mobiles.

We reached the island after being on the still waters for the longest half an hour(or was it an hour – I am not sure). The rooms were in a gated boundary and were not of a great quality. There was a deer roaming in the garden, which came in a sweet surprise. The guest house was very low staffed and they changed the bed-sheets in the rooms , only after we reached. We understood that there was no electricity to the island and the lights were powered by Solar energy. And then we were in for a second surprise! There was no one to cook dinner and if we need food, it meant return trip to Satapada in the chill of the night in the boat and buy food from there. We had taken with us the ingredients required to cook food, expecting that we will give it to the cook and have a simple dinner. Since cook was not available, we decided to cook ourselves on makeshift stove made with 3 bricks and firewood. We borrowed the vessels from kitchen before they closed it for the day. It was a terrific and enjoyable experience, cooking roti and Dalma on fire wood. The food infused with the smoke from wood made it even more tastier and we had delicious dinner. The kids had milk which we boiled in the same make shift stove.

We doused the fire with water, so that the deer would not get burnt feet, if it accidentally steps on it. Then we retired for the night.

Next day :

Woke up at around 7ish and discovered that water was freezing cold. My fingers became numb when I washed up after brushing my teeth. Went out to the bank of the lake after having tea and savored in the morning scenery - calm lake, with birds chirping and foggy mist.

Came back and started on the boat to Kali Jai. En route, if we are lucky, we expected to see the dolphins.

We understood from the boat men that food could be arranged on the boat. I thought they would have bought the food earlier which they intended to serve us with . Breakfast was cold idli, vada and potato chops, which they had purchased from Satapada in the morning, before picking us up.

It was quite a ride – it was warm and sunny accompanied by cool breeze. For lunch, we were in for a surprise. One of the boat guys, made a make shift choolah(stove) with an old oil tin and firewood, kept on top of algae from the lake, on one side of the boat and started cooking. The heat from the fire in the boat was very soothing for the cold. He made Rice, dal and Gobi aloo baingan Kasa(Cauli flower, brinjal and Potato in tomoto and ginger gravy). He had 2 utensils and a Kadai(Wok) and a ladle. He managed to cook yummy food with only these.

The boat stopped at a place where the dolphins were expected. We were blessed with a few sightings of Dolphins – a few of them jumped a couple of metres away from our boat. It was more of a glimpse.We enjoyed the sight and did not bother to capture them in photograph (we would have failed even if we had tried).

We also managed to see the migrated birds from Siberia and clicked a few pictures.

We reached Kali Jai around 1.00 P.M. I had expected to see a temple on a hill top. I was in for a surprise, to see a ill managed and dirty temple where it was disgusting to go barefoot - for the ground(concrete floor) was so dirty and sticky. Still we managed to walk in that and took some photo graphs.

Came back to the boat, had lunch and then started off the return journey.

It started raining, when we were half an hour away from the guest house. We managed to get back to that guest house without getting too much drenched, picked our bags and left to Satapada again in the boat, when we were blessed with another sighting of dolphins in the rain.

We started from Satapada to Bhubaneshwar – tired but well satisfied with the trip.

My encounter with.. the Dentist

2013-04-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

My mind was recollecting the words from the poem, by Ogden Nash - This going to hurt just a little bit..I knew since a month ago that this had to be done - I should not postpone it further..

I had 29 teeth - 15 on top and 14 below. Unfortunately the 15th walla tooth on top was biting into the empty gum below and I was developing a nasty cheek bite. I was ok to live with it. I was living so, till I had a complete health check up done. I was glad to know that nothing was wrong with my health, and a little perturbed when, the doctor said, I would be even better, if I could lose a few kilograms.Well, I thought, I too wish for that..it would be a dream come true. All was well except the revelation that I had 29 teeth, and the odd man tooth, which was causing the cheek bite was decaying. The dentist who checked my teeth, suggested to go for extraction, or root canal, depending on the comfort of the dentist who would work on it, since it was the last tooth and was quite far from reach of tooth brush.

So started the regime of mine to try to peep at the decaying extra fellow at the far end of the mouth, with the help of two mirrors, whenever I could, much to the amusement of my husband, at my trying to juggle the mirrors to get a better view and at my funny facial expressions.

I had something or the other coming up - be it, guests coming up,interviews to attend or shopping to be done that a month passed by without me doing anything for my teeth. Wait a minute, I had my teeth cleaned up a fortnight ago and that was where I was told to get my teeth xrayed(OPG).The dentist(she was very patient to my queries) wanted to be sure that i did not have any ''wisdom'' tooth coming up on my lower jaw corresponding to the decaying one above. I got the xray done a week ago.


The rings on the sides are my earrings which I said would not want to take off

The dentist got the copy of OPG in mail.So she called up and got an appointment fixed. I had may apprehensions like would the shape of my face alter after extraction, whether I would be able to chew normally, whether, I would be able to speak normally, if it would be too painful, how long would the local anesthesia last, what I would do if I have unbearable pain after the anesthesia wears off, how long would it take before I could speak, would it bleed very much, would not food particles get stuck into the gum, from where the tooth would be extracted. I got satisfactory answers for all.

My appointment was at 11.30 a.m. My husband came to the dentists' after i reached there. I was scared, I started sweating in the air-conditioned waiting room. I told my husband that I dont want to get the tooth extracted, and that I would live with the cheek bite. Unfortunately, I was called before I could run away. I was given a few injections of anesthesia in the gums. The dentist told me one of the injections would be painful and asked me not to get stressed, since, if I get stressed, the anesthesia would wear off faster and that he would have to give me one more injection. Alas, if I controlling stress was in my control. I was shivering and shaking just after getting the injection. I felt my inner wall of the mouth, on the side of problem tooth swell. But I did not feel the sensation. That area had gone numb. In no time, the dentist pulled the tooth and it was done. They stuffed cotton in my mouth and I was asked to bite on that area. I got scared unnecessarily. I was asked to eat loads of ice-cream, much to my joy. I chose different flavours of family packs. I was not able to speak for nearly 2 hours. After that, I enjoyed my ice-cream, and I am good to go, except for the sore in the mouth where the tooth was, which I am sure will heal soon. As of now, I don't have much pain. Its 6.30p.m now. Need to wait and see after the anesthesia wears off.

Here is the poem by Ogden Nash, which I had enjoyed very much..Hope you enjoy it too.

This Is Going To Hurt Just A Little Bit
One thing I like less than most things is sitting in a dentist chair with my mouth wide open.
And that I will never have to do it again is a hope that I am against hope hopen.
Because some tortures are physical and some are mental,
But the one that is both is dental.
It is hard to be self-possessed
With your jaw digging into your chest.
So hard to retain your calm
When your fingernails are making serious alterations in your life line or love line or some other important line in your palm;
So hard to give your usual effect of cheery benignity
When you know your position is one of the two or three in life most lacking in dignity.
And your mouth is like a section of road that is being worked on.
And it is all cluttered up with stone crushers and concrete mixers and drills and steam rollers and there isn't a nerve in your head thatyou aren't being irked on.
Oh, some people are unfortunate enough to be strung up by thumbs.
And others have things done to their gums,
And your teeth are supposed to be being polished,
But you have reason to believe they are being demolished.
And the circumstance that adds most to your terror
Is that it's all done with a mirror,
Because the dentist may be a bear, or as the Romans used to say, only they were referring to a feminine bear when they said it, an ursa,
But all the same how can you be sure when he takes his crowbar in one hand and mirror in the other he won't get mixed up, the way you do when you try to tie a bow tie with the aid of a mirror, and forget that left is right and vice versa?
And then at last he says That will be all; but it isn't because he then coats your mouth from cellar to roof
With something that I suspect is generally used to put a shine on a horse's hoof.
And you totter to your feet and think. Well it's all over now and after all it was only this once.
And he says come back in three monce.
And this, O Fate, is I think the most vicious circle that thou ever sentest,
That Man has to go continually to the dentist to keep his teeth in good condition
when the chief reason he wants his teeth in good condition
is so that he won't have to go to the dentist.

Civic Sense

2013-04-04T07:40:00.002-07:00

I am typing this out, out of disgust and irritation at the degrading civic sense in the so called civilised society. It is a common to sight people making the roadside public urinals, having little affliction to the moving traffic and passers-by. Guess, these people close their eyes while doing the job and lose themselves into the oblivion. You get to see the red graffiti created by people spitting on public walls, bus stops. While we feel it is our birthright to litter whereever we please.

Today I was travelling in the blue bus to work. A north east Indian lady, who I guess would be in her early thirties got into the bus. She was intantly noticeable, since she was very stylish and carried herself with attitude. Not to mention, her red streaked hai, cobalt blue nail color, purple eyeliner. I got a seat which was facing the backside of the bus, which gave me full viewof the bus. She sat in a sit 3 rows away from me. Let me tell you, though this is not a Volvo, it was an AC bus. SHe took out a polythene cover, in which she had cut water melon. She started eating them, only to spit out the seeds all over, inside the bus. No one took notice. I was disgusted to see such behaviour. She noticed me giving irritated looks, but still carried on with her eating(and spitting).I dont understand how people from a civilised society could behave like this.

I dont know if I should have stopped her when she spit for the first time. I dont know if I could have taken to moral policing, if I have the right. Well readers, I require your inputs regarding this..How do we handle situations like these.I feel that - This is my country, my world, I need to take care of it, by helping maintaining it clean and making it a good place to live in. How do we imbibe the same thoughts in our fellow human beings?

Interview Phobia

2013-03-16T01:04:00.000-07:00

Folks, a word of caution.. I am in a bad mood as I am typing this - as,(out of my own stupidity), I have re-lived, yes you heard it correct RE LIVED, as in lived again(in my thoughts), one of the pathetic interviews I had attended. When I say ONE of the pathetic, well you can guess - I have many in the list.

A promise I made to myself while I am typing this out is - I will not post this, till I am employed - so if you are reading this, it means I have landed in a job recently.

I have an interview phobia - on the day of the interview, I feel feverish, get chills, have sweaty palms and feet, my mouth becomes dry, feel my legs would give away and I would fall down,have constant fear that I would not be able to recollect the things I know - well these are some of the symptoms. There are many symptoms, that I cannot even describe. Fortunately, all these are not visible on the outside(I presume), since, I felt, that the interviewers viewed me as a confidant and intelligent person.

Well this was an US based company, recently set up its office in India, though has been doing business in India for quite some time.

I had already done a telephonic round of interview(well, thats is what it is called these days), and this was my face-to-face round.The office is was in one of the largest IT parks in Bangalore, and it was huffing and puffing, long walk in the afternoon humid climate, from the main gate.

I reached the place on time. The security was doing the receptionist job. I called the HR on his mobile. He came with a big smile on his face and said that the CFO had not yet come back from lunch and hence asked me to wait. @#%!, it was 3.30 p.m. Alright, I waited till 4.00 p.m and the great man came in. He noticed me sitting in the reception and asked - ''Monica??!'', I jumped up and acknowledged. He asked me to follow him and took me to a meeting room.

Well I am not going to go into the details of all the questions he asked.Most were related to the position, and very few were related to my past experience.They wanted someone who could handle the whole gamut of Finance(accounts, audit, MIS, tax, compliances payroll, and what not). I said, though I did not have experience in handling most of the things, I would take this up as a challenge and give it a try. Nope..they did not want any trials,they want some one who could right away handle everything. Then why in the sweet hell did they call me for an interview. They pretty much could deduce what my strengths are and what my previous experience and expertise is from my 45 minute telephonic interview.

''Monica, you know this?no, well we are looking for someone who could handle that. You know that? no, well we need expertise on that''.

I was pissed off. I felt as if I was called for an interview just to me intimidated.

Now, comes the BAAP of all the pissing offs - ''Tell me, are you trustworthy?''.

When I answered yes, ''Prove it''.

How the hell would anyone prove trustworthiness? I still controlled my temper, and in an even tone, said that trust is something which gets built over time and that had not done any untrustworthy acts in my past.

''Give me an instance, where you proved you are trustworthy''

Seriously reader, I don't know others lives, but I have not been given an opportunity in my professional life where in I could prove my trustworthiness.I am very bad at telling lies and that too, if I had to concat it instantly, I fail miserably. So, I stuck to truth and said, that I do not have any instance

I was given a sarcastic smile and was urged to think. I stuck to my stance.

One more question where I find myself tongue-tied is - ''What are you as a person?''

I would love to hear from you reader, what your answer would have been in similar situation.

Date : 07/02/2013 5.21p.m.

The Day after rain

2012-05-15T00:35:00.000-07:00

Little Chintoo, woke up early. He slid down from his cot on to his tiny legs. There was no trace of sleep in his eager wide eyes. The moment his chubby feet touched the floor, ''Ma, the floor is so cold; what happened when I was asleep? Did you wash it? Is it just like my skin feels cold after bath''.

Radha, his mother, smiled, listening to her son's start of his day long chatter. She hugged him and said, ''it rained yesterday, after you slept, chintoo baba; thats why the floor is cold.''

''Ma, why does it rain? How does it rain?'', Radha, considering that, Chintoo is too young to be explained the scientific reason behind the rain said ''God sends rains to wash the earth, the trees, which we could not wash, he takes the water from the oceans, invisibly, stores it in his overhead tank which he hides in the clouds and whenever required, he sends rain from a giant shower in the sky.It is so far away in the sky, that we cannot see it''

'' Ma, why dint you wake me when it rained. I would have liked to watch it'', so saying Chintoo, ran to look outside from his balcony. "Ma, look!! All the plants in the balcony have taken bath; the buildings are washed too.God has also washed our car. Everything looks so clean.Ma, why does not God wash everyday; just like you bathe me everyday.''

Radha was surprised by Chintoo's question; she did not know what to say. She said ''Çhintoo, there is no enough water even in the oceans, to wash everything on earth everyday.So, when God feels that earth needs a wash, he sends rains.'' Chintoo did not look satisfied with Radha's answer. ''Ma, why dont we give some water to God from our tap, so that, he would be able to send rains everyday?''Chintoo, water from our tap is also provided by God, he gives preference to little boys like you''.

Chintoo, stood watching from his balcony for a while, and said '' ma, from now on I shall never cry for taking a bath. All the colors, the green trees, the grass, the pavement, the buildings, our car, look brighter, after the rain. I like the frsh smell too; Ma, from now on, my favorite day is not my birthday; it is the day after rain.''

Radha realised the beauty after the rain, after looking through her son's eyes. Sometimes, a little soul stirring is required, to be able to enjoy the little joys of nature, which otherwise, people fail to notice, caught up in the hectic schedules of life. Radha was thankful to her son for that.She also felt proud, that her son is able to appreciate the beauty of nature, instead of being inclined to material things.

Showcase TV

2012-04-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

Just a thought.. Actually, I dreamt of it... How would it be if our TV is a showcase when it is switched off and is a TV when on.. Well.. I dreamt that I could see all my curios and collectibles inside my TV, on display. The glass-was transparent when the TV is off and the objects behind the screen were visible. Once the TV is switched on, the glass became TV display.

I am not sure if this kind of invention is on it way, or is already invented. But just thought it is cool..No need to allocate space separately for displaying your curios and for TV. Both can be done at the same place. Hope something like this comes in future..Cheerios :-)

Hampi (Vijayanagara) - The forgotton empire(Day 2)

2012-03-01T09:30:00.000-08:00

The second day at Hampi started well, with Ganesh picking us at the Hotel at around 9.00 a.m. We had breakfast at a small hotel near the Kamalapuram Bus stand. The quality of the food was fine, the taste - ok, the price- reasonable. We bought water bottles there at MRP( they were sold at a premium in the Mayura Bhuvaneshwari Hotel). From there, we headed to the Vitthala temple. Vittala is a form of Lord Vishnu, and there is a cult worship of Vishnu in this form. This temple was originally built in 15th century and later additions and enhancements were made.

Since this temple lies, not on the main roads of Hampi, and is sort of tucked away, one can ensure some peace and quiet here, as opposed to the other attrations in Hampi. We took a shuttle to reach the temple. Th path of sceneic beauty with boulders strewn on either side.We sat at the back with our backs to the driver, so that we could enjoy the ride. The shuttles are driven - mostly by women.

Path to the Vittala temple-taken from the shuttle

View on the side of the path

Shop constructions - on the side of path

All along the path, we found some constructions, which were probably shops, in those days. We were dropped at the entrance of the Vittala temple, where we purchased a entrance ticket. We also learnt that the same entrance ticket could be used for gaining entrance to the elephant stables and the lotus temple - which were in the same compound.

The entrance view of Vittala temple

Vittala Temple is the most extravagant architectural showpiece of Hampi. The temple is built in the form of a sprawling campus with compound wall and gateway towers. There are many halls, pavilions and temples located inside this campus.

View from the entrance

There is a kitchen, where the food for theceity(prasad) is prepared, there is a Tulasi mattam( Platform for Holy basil - which is worshipped in India). The highlight of Vittala temple is the stone chariot, which is almost used as iconic representation of Hampi.

The stone chariot

The Tulasi Mattam

The stone chariot

As mentioned earlier, the campus also houses huge pillared walls. The pillars are made of stone and are unique, as it seems when tapped correctly, produce music - the sapthaswara. However, now they are not open to public, since restoration work is being carried out and is it is a protected national monument.

Musical Pillars

It seems in the pillared hall opposite to the stone chariot one of the queens of King Krishnadevaraya, used to do a dance performance, solely for the eyes of the king. The King, who is a patron of fine arts, was her only audience. This was ensured by securing the hall with curtains, held in place, by securing them in the specially made stone rings in the roof as well as the platform of the pillared hall. Privacy was created in the same manner for important official meetings too, It seems during monsoon, when it is raining, the water flowing through the design created an illusionary cascade.

Holes made in the platform as part of design to secure curtains

Holes in the platform as part of design

Ring in the roof corner to secure curtains

Ring - close up

Though many sculptures were ornamental, like the yalis at each entrance of the hall, sometimes with a rider on them, there were many sculptures that told us a piece of history. Our guide explained that, Yaali is a mythological creature, which was usually built at the entrance of temples. It has the body of a cat, head of a lion, ears of a rabbit, tail of a serpent and tusks of an elephant, making it all the more powerful.

Yali

Since, it is known that, King Krishnadevaraya was a connoisseur of fine arts, we found many dancing poses, accompanied by musicians playing various musical instruments. There were scenes from Ramayana, Mahabharata, Krishna leela, and from various other Indian epics.

Gopala with cattle enchanted with music from flute

Lord Narasimha killing Hiranyakashyap with His finger nails

Hanuman presenting the choodamani of Sita to Sriram, Laxman at side

Krishna playing flute

Krishna holding the Govardanagiri

Krishna with his consorts

Krishna stealing the clothes of Gopis

Not sure who this sculpture represents - May be Mandara from Ramayan, who is said to be a hunchback

We noticed stone carving to show trade of horses with Arabs, taming of elephants, elephant trade.

Horses purchased from Arabs - note the distinct Arab features

Horses being purchased

Taming and training of Horses

Unique sculpture - Bull from one side and elephant from the other

Train of elephants

We were also pointed to a more than 500 year old tree, by our guide with in the campus.

The old tree trunk

The ''Old'' tree

The remains of the township called Vittalapura can be noticed around this temple complex.

Market place outside the temple

part of the a temple in ruins

The remains of the township

Chinese??

From the Vittala temple we walked along the Tungabhadra river passing many monuments.One of them was the Kings balance. It seems, during auspicious occasions, the king used to weigh himself in this balance - placing himself on one side and on the other - gold, grains,or other valuables which he used to donate.

Kings Balance

The weather was, thankfully, pleasant-not sunny, slightly cloudy,with cool breeze. The tour on foot from the Vittala temple to Virupaksha temple..well.. in part two.

Hampi (Vijayanagara) - The forgotton empire(Day 1)

2012-01-20T18:49:00.000-08:00

The place where diamonds and other precious stones were sold on streets, the place which had an organised market are when the western world was starting to walk, the place which is fortified by nature, with a river and hills surrounding it...that is the present day Hampi, the village, which was once in the middle of the flourishing Vijayanagara empire.

My husband and I love travelling and are always on the lookout for a chance to explore new places. We had three days in hand and wanted to use it effectively. Hampi had been on top of our ''places to visit'' list for quite sometime.So after our visit to Hyderabad, we headed to Hospet - the town near Hampi connected by Indian railways. We reached Hospet around 10.00 a.m. We had come to know from internet that the autofare from Hospet to Hampi is around one hundred and fifty rupees. When an auto fellow offered to take us to Hampi for the same amount, instead of quoting an exorbitant price and also looked sincere, we hired him to show around Hampi for three days. The auto took us from Hospet to our Hotel in Kamalapuram - the KTDC hotel Mayura Bhuvaneswari.

Kamalapuram is a village adjacent to Hampi. We had read good reviews of the Hotel in the internet. Hence, we had booked it. May be, once upon a time it was a great Hotel. But now..neither the rooms are good, nor the service. The food is also not that good. Our auto guy - Ganesh(that is his name), informed us that, all the people who come on daily tours( as arranged by KTDC) have food there, and it is one of the decent places in Hampi to sit and have food. The other being - ''Mango Tree''. I will explain about mango tree in my next post. May be because of the huge and exuberant crowd, the quality of food has deteriorated. The amount they charge for the food is high though.

Our Auto driver - Ganesh

We reached around 12 noon, and checked in. Upon enquiry, we were told that food would be ready in half an hours time. We did not eat since morning and were hungry. We took bath and came to the restaurent around 1.30, to find it crowded. We had to stand in a long queue to have the not-so-good food. After lunch, we were so tired, we decided to take a short nap and then explore Hampi. But we woke up only at 6.00 p.m. When we called Ganesh, he said, its best, if we see one temple today. So he took us to the Virupaksha temple.

Before I start describing the Virupaksha temple, let me tell you how I felt at a ceratin point on the way. Imagine taking small round pepples and making a heap of them, to form a miniature hill. Now imagine how that would look ten thousand times bigger, and that there are tens of hills of such kind surrounding you. Wherever you look, its hills of heaps of stone and rock. It was mesmerizing. Intimidating.Astonishing.I dont have words to describe.

The official entrance to the Vijayanagara city - Hampi

By the time we reached Virupaksha temple, it had started to become dark. We walked through the Hampi Bazaar, which was right opposite to the temple, to reach the temple. Virupaksha temple, is one of the oldest temples,where Pooja is still done - since it is still intact.

Virupaksha Temple

We saw an elephant in the temple and giving a rupee coin, got its blessings :-). Virupaksha is a form of Shiva, whose consort was Devi Pampa - an avatar of Parvathi Devi. It seems she did penance to get married to Shiva. They got married at the place where this temple stands now. The serenity and silence of the temple was disturbed by a big crowd of school children, who raced to enter the temple, took a round, around it, and raced back outside. I feel, if students are being taken to some historical places, they should be educated of the historical importance of the place, the history behind it, so that they can better appreciate it. Better still, wait for some years, when they can really understand the beauty in the sculptures and not just look at them as rocks. No point taking them to a place, where they can neither understand and appreciate, nor enjoy.

You might be wondering why I have not posted any photographs of inside the temple. Photography is not allowed there. After the darshan, we walked out and climbed up the nearby hill to look at sunset. But being a cloudy day, we could not see the sunset. There were some rock mandapas on the hill and the view of Virupaksha temple from there was beautiful.

Virupaksha Temple at the background

Two storeyed structure at the background

Mantapas at background

One more mantapa

Small Temple like structure

Virupaksha temple

There were many more mantapas and temple like structures on the hill, which we could not see as it had become dark and also because we were shooed away by the security. We were surprised to see more foreigners as compared to locals in Hampi. If not for the huge mob of school children, they would have outnumbered us. We roamed in the Hampi bazaar for some more time, had idli and tea at a roadside hotel there and returned back to the auto.

The way back was very eerie. There are no street lights on the road connecting Hampi and Kamalapuram, and the huge structures, boulders and hills are intimidating. The only light to show the way was the auto's head lights. On the way for a minute, those also went off and we were enveloped in complete darkness. Anything could have happened. All panicking stories, which I read in newspapers passed through my mind in that minute. I felt safe only after we reached the hotel. So, we decided, we will not venture out of the hotel after 6.00p.m and, we will reach the hotel back before 6.00 p.m.

We had dinner at the hotel (no other option). But the dinner was not so bad. May be only buffet was bad, Ala carte was ok. Off to sleep. Look out for ''Day 2 shortly''.

P.S. - we had tried to book an auto before we started to Hampi, but could not find any in internet. People who wish to do so may contact Ganesh at his number 7829642384

Dosa County - accidental dinner

2012-01-20T03:01:00.000-08:00

I should have named this post " Oops!! it happened again''. Read on to know what happened again.

Let me first tell you the second incident because -a) it made me write this post. b) it is recent.

Yesterday, my husband and I decided to check out some furniture. We are about to move to a new house shortly, so thought we should decide upon some suitable furniture. My husband returned from office around 7.00 p.m. and not his usual 6.00 p.m.- the reason being - there was some trouble with our Honda Activa- which he had taken to office. He had it repaired at some mechanic shop near his office and hence was late.

We started around 7.15 p.m. and went to Total Mall at old airport road in our Activa. All was well then. After checking out some furniture, we started to Marathalli @home. We reached there - saw and checked the furniture, and were confused as to we were unable to decide upon which one to choose. It was 9.30p.m. and the shop's closing time. So, we came out of the shop. When we started the vehicle, it refused to pick up. We tried taking turns to start the bike, but no luck. It was very cold and we were stranded on a isolated road. My husband called one of his friends who stays near our home - to check if any mechanic was available. He called back saying no one was available and if need be he will get a mini truck so that we can put our bike on it and get it home. My husband called one more friend, whose house was, thankfully, nearby. That friend was still in his office and said it would take an hour for him to reach, and he would reach in an hour. So we had one hour waiting time on a cold and isolated road. We notcied a restaurant next to the Damro furniture show room (Marathahalli outer ringroad). We decided, we will have our dinner there, to while away the one hour wait.

Thats how we landed ourselved in ''The Dosa County''. The interior was good - red colored walls with reg colored hanging ball lights.Going by the name, we decided it must be a south Indian restaurant. When we got the menu, we noticed that it mainly served south Indian tiffin items. So we ordered a mysore masla dosa each. Since, we had to while away an hour, we decided, we will order one item at a time. My husband and I are great fans of chinese food. I very much wanted to have a Gobi-manchurian.Unfortunately, it was not on the menu. Neither were any north Indian items. When we got our Dosas, the bearer took the menu away. But my husband noticed a few people having rotis and something resembling paneer manchurian. When we got our Dosas, the bearer had taken the menu away. So, we thought may be there were serving dished which were not on the menu too. All confusing. We requested for the menu again after our Dosa. We were pleasantly surprised to see north Indian and chinese items included in the menu handed over to us. What had happened in the previous menu card was - two pages pertaining to chinese and north Indian dishes were torn off and were missing, putting us in the confusion. We ordered a hot and sour soup and Gobi manchrian. Both were good. The soup tasted heavenly. Try it out sometime guys.

When we were at the verge of finishing our meal, my husband's friend called up to say that he has started from office. We settled the bill and came out - waited for ten more minutes - shivering in the cold. My husband's friend gave his bike and asked us to go home, as it was very late and he shall walk our bike and park it in his house, which was nearby. My husband was to go and return the bike the next morning and collect our Activa from him.

That is the end of the incident no. 2, which resulted in accidental dinner in Dosa county.

The first incident happened in Chennai, a few months back - when I was serving my notice period in Shell. I usually go to office in the local train till Guindy, and from Guindy to office in Shell cab, if I reach on time to catch it, else I take an auto rickshaw to office. One day, I had to reach office early- I had some urgent work to be completed by afternoon.So I decided to go in my two wheeler - Honda Activa, to save time. All was well, since I had got over-hauling done only the previous weekend. I felt trouble brewing when, the bike stopped near saidapet bus stop. I started it somehow and went on..but I felt some strange 'jatkas' while driving. Something was wrong.I was in the middle of heavy traffic road when the engine stopped. I was scared that I would be hit from behind as so many vehicles where in high speed. I managed to get the vehicle to a side of the road. I tried to start it, but there was no pick up. I was near the turn after the Saidapet bus stop - which one way goes to Guindy Railway station, and the other to the Madhyakailash. Decided to take the Guindy way, as I knew there were no mechanic shops on the Madhyakailash - tidel route. Huffed and puffed and walked the two wheeler till the Velachey main road - where I noticed a mechanic shop, on the other side of the road. I parked the Activa this side and went and told the guy there, the problem. The guy there said, he is a bullet specialist and that he does not repair any other vehicle. I was close to tears, since I was already late to office, tired from pulling and pushing, walking such long distance in the hot sunny chennai weather, and to find another Mechanic shop there which could repair my Activa seemed next to impossible. I pleaded him saying that I had got the vehicle serviced just a week ago, that I dont understand what went wrong. He said, may be should check the engine oil. He checked and found that it was clean dry- not a drop of engine oil was there. One way I was glad that we found the reason , on the other way scared- thinking if this was not the only reason what would happen. He refilled the engine oil, and thankfully the bike started. I paid and thanked him and went on praying till I reached office that the bike should not stop.

Lesson to be learnt - always check engine oil. Keep your vehicle in good condition always.

Golkonda fort - an architectural marvel

2012-01-04T05:34:00.000-08:00

I am happy to introduce you to the architecture marvel in Hyderabad - the Golkonda fort.If you are the kind of person who is attracted to historical monuments, to ancient technology and luxury, which surpasses todays inventions, then, Golkonda fort is a must-visit for you.I feel it would take at least 4 complete hours to do complete justice to see everything that is there to offer. And I suggest you wear comfortable footwear(avoid high heels, ladies), since it is a long walk uphill and down.

If you are visiting in summer, God help you. Be ready for huffing and puffing till all the way up and down.We visited in the end of December and it was a little stuffy walking all the way up.Our guide informed us that summers would be scorching there.We were thankful that we visited during winter, when our dear sun was in a cooler mood.

Golkonda gets its name from Golla Konda, Golla referring to the shepherd community and Konda meaning hill in Telugu. Another theory is that it got its name as Gol - meaning round in Hindi/Urdu and Konda meaning hill in Telugu.Personally, I go with the first theory, as the second one seems to combine two languages, which seems to be uncommon. You get the entrance tickets a little away from the foot of the hill. The ticket price is very nominal for us, Indians. The foreign nationals are charged an atrociously higher price - I donot understand this parity of Indian Government, just because they are foreigners, it is unfair to charge a higher amount. Well, thats a topic for another discussion, at another time. Coming back to Golconda, from the ticket area, you walk to the entrance of the fort.The entrance of the fort if concealed behind a wall curtain.The guide mentioned the name of the space between the wall and the main entrance, something to mean a curtain.

The wall curtain facing the main entrance

Recollect, how in historical movies- the main gate/entrance is brought down using elephants, big logs. Big logs are used to hit the gate and break it. Elephants were made to run towards the entrance gate and made to hit it with force, to finally break it. Well, that would not have been possible in Golkonda fort. As mentioned earlier, the main entrance gate has a wall curtain to it, so that the main entrance is not visible from outside. Also, it would not be possible to exert pressure using logs and elephants on the main gate, as there is not sufficient place between the wall curtain and the main gate. To reach the main gate you have to walk through the side of the wall curtain. And if elephants are made to come from the side of the wall curtain, they would not be able to exert as much presurre on the gate as they could, if come running from a distance. In addition to that, the guards would be ready to pour cauldrons of hot oil from the compartment above the main entrance on them.

The main entrance(note the hole; from which hot oil could be poured on anyone making a force entry)

The portico, which you reach from the main entrance is called the Balahisar. One more marvel of this portico is the acoustics - if you clap from a particular point here, it can be heard from a place on the hill top - very clearly. This was humorously called by our guide, the ancient telephone system. This system was used to communicate and alert the guards above on the hill of any danger, or the arrival of any VIP. I believe, they would have coded claps to convey different messages. Now, this is just one more amusement to the visitors.

A clap from the marked portico is heard in this point.

Remember the fort is on a hill top, making it difficult to get water on the hill. But the architects of this fort had a solution for this too. While walking up the hill via the common man way(the aam raastha as our guide called it), you are bound to notice clay pipes running along the way. These are connected to the various water tanks( I think there are some four to five water tanks through out the way to the top). The tanks get the water drawn via persian wheels and is distributed to various mahals in the fort via these clay pipes. Our Guide informed us that there are different pipes to carry cold water, hot water, rose water and other scented water(for queens bath).

Clay pipes to carry hot, cold, rose and other scented water fitted in the wall

Clay pipe to carry water in the wall

One of the tank to store water

Golconda was also famous for its precious stones and its immense wealth. It seems each of its walls had innumerable assorted precious stones like rubies, saphires, emeralds embedded in them that there used to be rainbow colors reflections from these stones dazzling the walls. Within the fort, near the main entrance,there was a market, where precious stones were sold. It is called the nagina bazaar. The traders used to be mainly persian, afghans and turks.

The nagina bazaar

Diamonds were the speciality of Golkonda during the Kakatiya reign. The famous Darya-e-noor(sea of light) diamond is said to have been found here. During that period, the diamond mines in India were the only known diamond mines in the whole world. Golkonda used to get its diamonds from the nearby Kollur mines and the Paritala mines. The world famous Kohi-noor diamond is also believed to be extracted from the mines of Golkonda.

The royalty who inhabited the Golkanda fort, had built a mortury bath house to the right of the main entrance of the fort, where the dead body of the royal harem is bathed as per the rituals before sending for burial. Water is fed from clay pipes into the cisterns, where the bathing is done.

The mortury bath is the elevated room like structure on the right

One more interesting thing I noticed here is a iron weight lying near the portico. I took I video of it instead of a still photo by mistake. It seems that to be employable in the fort, as a guard, one had to lift this 250 kg weight. It was a test of strength.

When you start walking up, you will come across corridors, which when enclosed with curtains, acted as offices of the ministers. The walls had holes to hold the light. Cotton cloth is wound tightly to the end of a stick and soaked in oil, which is lit. This acted as light during night. These sticks are placed in the holes made to hold the sticks to light up the room. It seems, the holes in the walls also were used to tie curtains to divide the room for privacy, secret meetings. These so called offices had huge places to keep books/records.

Notice the hole to hold light and to tie curtains

Corridors/offices which would be separated by curtains

Compartments to keep records

One more attraction within the fort is the Ramdas jail.According to the legend, Kancharla Gopanna was the appointed as tahsildar(revenue collector) for Bhadrachalam by his uncle Akkanna, who was a minister to the Qutb shahi king Hassan. Gopanna, who was an ardent devotee of Lord Rama, noticing the pitiful state of the temple in Bhadrachalam, used six lakh rupees collected as revenue to rebuild the temple, without taking the permission of the Sultan. When the Sultan came to know about this, he imprisoned Gopanna for misappropiation of public funds, for a period of twelve long years. During his imprisonment, Gopanna, who is popularly called Bhaktha Ramdas, composed and sung many poems in praise of Lord Ram. He carved the sculpture of Lord Ram, Sita, Lakshmana and Hanuman in his jail and worshiped them by singing emotional songs, praying to be released from imprisonment. At the end of may be the twelfth year of imprisonment, legend has it that, the Sultan was visited by two young princes in the middle of the night, who gave him six lakh rupees, and demanded the release of Gopanna. They got Gopanna released on the same night by showing the receipt to the jailor. It is believed that, the young princes were none other than Lord Rama and his brother Lakshman. Sultan, on realising that Lord Rama had visited him, returned the entire money received from Lord Rama to Bhadrachalam. It had become a practice that the Hyderabad state, used to send gifts during Ramnavami every year to Bhadrachalam temple.

The opening in the ceiling was used to provide food to Ramdas

Ramdas carving of Lord Rama,Sita, Lakshman and Hanuman

When you move up from the corridors/galleries, you reach a open pavilion which houses - the ambhar khana, or the store house of grains. Unfortunately this is closed for visitors now. There is a rock edict in green granite at the entrance written in urdu (which I was unable to read). The fort seems to be self sufficient in all the means. It has system to get water stored and supplied to various mahals, kitchens etc, it has the granary in house..amazing isn't it.

Rock edict near the Ambhar Khana

The Ambhar Khana

There is a high wall adjoining one of the water tanks. The wall is thick at the bottom and thin at the top. Our guide explained that, if some one tries to climb up the wall to poison the water in the tank, the wall would break as it is thin at the top.

Thick base, thin at the top

There is a small replica of the charminar, but with only two minars. It seems that this was the model, the blue print(test) made before the charminar was built. We can see the charminar and the Qutub shahi tombs from this point.

On the top of the hill, there is a hindu temple, probably built by the kakatiyas. Atop the place of worship are two giant rocks which our guide informed resembled the legendary Nandi - the bull. He said they are natural formations. But I could clearly see the clean cut in one of the rocks.

The top of the hill has the baradari, which is a two storied building with an open terrace and open audience hall. It has small meeting rooms inside the building as well. It is believed that this is where the sultan used to address the general public in the open audience hall, and for matters involving the digantories of the state, he used the inner meeting rooms. The open terrace was used to have a view of the surrounding.

View from the top

The baradari overlooking the audience hall

It is also believed that there is a secret passage from the audience hall to the Goshamahal( where the queens live) 8 kilometres away, which the sultan used to visit the queens inconspicuously. The department of archaeological survey of India, had it closed due to security reasons.

From the baradari, it is walk down. We walked up to the baradari via the aam rastha- the way the common man was supposed to go to visit the sultan. But while walking down, we go by the royal way, via a staircase.It is faster and is a shorter distance. It seems that the sultan and his queens were carried in palanquins in this staircase. The palanquin's bearers were chosen such that two were short and two were tall. While climbing up, the shorter ones,held the front of palanquin while the taller ones held the rear side - managing the position of palanquin. Amazing.

The royal way

When we climb down, we reach the queens' body guards quarters. The queens body guards were eunuchs, who were physically strong to protect the royal harem, and at the same time did not have any danger to the harem from them selves.Once we cross the body guards quarters, we come to the queens palace, queens make up room, etc. Unfortunately,I have not taken the photographs of these. After the queens rooms, we come to audience hall of some kind, where the sound and music show is organised.

After crossing the hall, we pass through some corridors and galleries. In one of the galleries, something spoken in one corner of the room, was clearly heard at another corner of the room, as if spoken next to you. And in one of the corridors, I forgot the name - it was the place where a culprit is brought to have an audience with the Sultan. The sultan/or the royal ladies, sat at a tower above the corridor, and would not be visible to the culprit. The place where the culprit stood, is remarkable, as even rustling of cloth is heard as a echo. So any tricks played by the culprit to bring out any hidden weapon is usually caught in time. So Golkonda's acoustics are a marvel unto themselves.

Towards the end of the visit, there is the armory, were all the ammunition was stored. Also found is a room like compartment, which is connected to the top of the main entrance, where oil is heated in cauldrons to be poured on the enemy.

In the evening, we attended the sound and music show. It was lovely - the history of Golkonda was explained with music,dialogues and light.

Below are few more photographs of the architectural wonder.

Now lets see the history of Golkonda: It seems that a shepherd boy accidentally found an idol on a hill, which was then called mangalavaram.When this was communicated to the then ruling Kakatiya King, he built a mud fort around the idol. So the original architects of the fort were the Kakatiya's of Warangal.This is testified by the over - door carvings and work in stucco consisting of lions, peacocks, yali, and lotus at the entrance of Balahisar.In AD1363 it came under the Bahmani dynasty.After their downfall, it came under the rule of Qutub shahi dynasty, who made it their capital(AD 1518-1687).The fort was extended and substantially strengthened by these kings with massive fortification walls having bastions and battlements. The pride of beautification of the fort goes to Sultan Quli Qutub Shah, who made it drawing inspiration from the Turk cities. Later, it came under the rule of Aurangazeb, who annexed it to the Mughal Empire (AD 1687) during the reign of Abul Hassan Tana Shan, the last ruler of the Qutb Shahi dynasty and appointed Asaf Jah as the Zubedar of the Deccan province. Asaf Jah declared independence in AD1713 as Nizam-ul-Mulk and the Nizams held sway over Hyderabad until AD 1948.

Now lets see the structure :Golkonda fort, is one of the most famous and the biggest forts in the Deccan plateau, was built on a 400 ft. high hill. It has three lines of massive fortification walls one within the other and rise to a height of over 12 m. The outer most wall was provided with a deep moat all around covering a vast area of the town with a circumference of 7 km. It has 8 imposing gateways and is buttressed with 87 bastions rising to a height of 15 to 18 meters. Each of these bastions was surmounted by cannons of varying caliber rendering the fort impregnable and strong among the forts of the medieval Deccan.

After the outer wall it has also a double wall that runs around the foot of the hill on which the citadel stands. Within the double wall, winding further up the hill, connecting the natural boulders with masonry walls is a third wall. An extension of the outer wall was made to enclose a small area on the northeast of the town in 1724 AD, which is now known as Naya Qila.

Well, all those who visit Hyderabad - donot restrict yourselves to the Charminar, Hussain sagar and necklace road. Do make time and visit Golconda fort.

P.S. It is very eerie to look at it at night, after the lights are off. Gives you creeps.

Chungs Chinese corner - dinner experience

2011-12-12T05:50:00.000-08:00

You know the value of home cooked food, if you had been out of home at least for a month. And for a person who had been out of home for nearly ten years, you can judge the value of home cooked food.

So, instances, or situations where you get a little of that home cooked food, or the love associated with it, leaves you overwhelmed with joy. One such situation arose, recently, when I dined with my husband in a chinese restaurent in Bangalore. We had been to attend the CA award giving ceremony in Bangalore palace. I got so hungry around 7 o clock, and since dinner would not be served before 9, we decided to have dinner some where outside. We took an auto to M.G. Road metro around 8.00 P.M. Took the metro to indira nagar. I was so hungry, that if I dint have something immedietly, I felt I would faint. Very next to Indira nagar metro, we saw a decent looking chinese restaurent, and we rushed in. We ordered veg manchow soup and asked the bearer to get it immedietly, while we decide on the remaining menu. The soup was good, decent. Only after having the soup, I felt my energy returning. We ordered a veg schezwan fried rice, paneer manchurian for myself and some chicken dry item and chicken momos for my husband. I finished the paneer manchurian first and my husband had the momos first. My husband was very much satisfied with the taste of the momos and said they tasted heavenly. He liked the chilly ginger chutney served along with it too, Then, we were served the fried rice. It was authentic and good. But I had had better schezwan fried rice in Chennai- in Mainland china. The service was good. The bearer was prompt in refilling the water and waited upon us to see to our next order.Since, I already had the paneer manchurian, I was feeling full. I ate the fried rice with difficulty. My husband also felt the same, as he had momos and chicken. There was some rice still left in the bowl. Since, we felt we could eact no more, we left it and asked for the bill. The bearer, started serving the remaining rice to me. I said no, leave it. Surprisingly, just as a mother does, he coaxed and cajoled me, saying - " Just one more spoon madam, you can eat it..just one more''. So saying, he put , one spoon rice on my spoon and made me have it. He did the same to my husband, and and by doing that he emptied the bowl. I was so surprised with his behaviour, and did not want to hurt such a sweet smiling face, that, I had the food. I felt happy too. I was reminded of how my mother used to make me and my brothers have food coaxing in for each morsel.

The restaurant that we went is ''Chungs Chinese corner''. That north east guy made a impression on me for life. The unknown bearer of Chungs chinese corner -A big thank you to you. And also to all those people who are like you.

Black is beautiful

2011-11-30T05:31:00.000-08:00

Anita was frustrated after a long day at work. How could Pratap behave like this? She had done everything in her capacity to make the client get the best comfort. The client had clearly mentioned that he wanted coffee with milk.But when Pratap came he changed his stand and told him that he was not treated well- he had requested black tea, and he was being served milk coffee. And he raised hue and cry over this small trivial issue. This was not the first time he had behaved liked that and Pratap knew that .If he is not satisfied, in spite of all her efforts, she could not be blamed for it. But Pratap had done just that. He had yelled at her in front of the entire office staff. She had not expected this kind of behaviour from Pratap. Though he was her boss at office, he was also her childhood friend. And what had he said-"don't think that even if you don't do what is expected out of your designation, you can escape, just so that, I know you from a long time. I cant stand this 'Chaltha hai' attitude.''. Her eyes started welling up with tears when she remembered his words. Despite everything she did to the company, to Pratap, those long working hours, the days she sacrificed her personal life for office, everything seems to have just evaporated, just because an insane client is not satisfied. She recollected how she had spent her school days, coaching Pratap, so that he could pass in the examinations, doing the projects on behalf of Pratap, so that he can get good marks in college, making him sit and study, at the cost of her own studies. If she had just concentrated in her studies, she would have stood first.

Wiping her tears, she noticed that she was near the Chowpatty beach. She did not realise how she drove all the way from office till there. She decided, she wanted some time to pull herself together, and she realised, she was hungry too. She parked her car, and walked towards the beach. She bought a Bhelpuri and sat down, facing the sea. It had started to get dark. The Bhelpuri satiated her hunger, and the cool breeze improved her mood. She decided she will talk to Pratap, and if he is not happy with her work, then she would resign. She would do all the things she enjoyed doing, which she had not been able to do due to work.She would start painting.She would go on a holiday with her parents.She would visit the orphanage and play with the kids there. She remembered how much she loved being with kids.These thoughts brought a smile to her face and she sat there enjoying the sea breeze.

Chinki was a pampered child. All of three years, she knew how to make her parents dance to her tune. She just had to start crying, that her parents would be on their knees to please her, get her what she wanted.Today, her wish was balloons. She waited for her papa to return from work. The moment he stepped in she ran to him and declared - "Papa, I want Pink coloured balloon". Her papa, though was very tired, was very happy that his little princess could differentiate colours. So he said, '' My angel wants pink coloured balloon?, sure, papa will get it while coming from work tomorrow. Now where did angel see the pink coloured balloon''?. For which Chinki replied ''Bunty from the next door has a pink coloured balloon, and he refused to play with me. So I want two pink coloured balloons, so that I can show him and play by myself tomorrow morning. So I want the balloons NOW''. Her papa and mama tried a lot to persuade her saying, they shall get her many other coloured balloons, tomorrow evening. But Chinki was adamant and started to cry. With no other way, her papa and mama took her to Chowpatty beach, with the hope to get pink coloured balloons.

Chotu counted his balloons. Three more- two pink and one black. He loved the pink ones. He always wanted a balloon to play with, not to sell. But he knew, that in his fate, he could only sell. With his father paralysed, and mother suffering from that awful disease, where she spat out blood every time she coughed, he knew the value of each and every rupee.He also knew that the twenty rupees that the Seth gave him for selling the balloons, along with few rupees earned by his elder brother by doing odd jobs were not at all sufficient to run his family. Many days they had to go without food.He had been to school for an year, when his father was well, and was working in the factory. That seemed long ago now. But that one year of schooling had taught him to count and that is all it mattered in selling balloons now. The Seth was happy with the business young Chotu did.Six years of age,and he could sell more balloons than his other older boys, and he had to pay him only twenty rupees, while the older boys took fifty.

Chotu was happy if the day was pleasant and breezy. It was during those days that parents would bring their children to beach. Children meant business. His balloons would get sold quicker - though there were times, when teenage girls also wanted balloons, when accompanied by a guy. The guys used to buy the balloons for the girls. But that was rare. His usual customers were children.

Chinki, along with her mama and papa, reached the beach. It had become dark and there were no balloon-wallas to be seen. Chinki's papa became worried, as Chinki had started to cry. He got her a Kulfi, and asked her to sit with her mama, while he went looking for a balloon-walla. He was over joyed when he saw Chotu with, thankfully two pink balloons. Chotu, was equally happy to have found a customer who bought two balloons. Now he had to sell only one.Chinki was happy to have got her desired two pink balloons, and she wished to have one more kulfi before going home. Meanwhile, she declared she will play a while with her balloons. Her father, relieved,went to buy her kulfi.

Meanwhile, Chotu, started to go to each and every person on the beach, requesting them to buy the last balloon. But no one seemed interested. Chotu, became sad and started to cry, silent tears. If this balloon is not sold, he would not get his twenty rupees, and mother would not be able to buy medicine for father. He had not eaten anything since morning too.He noticed Chinki, playing happily with the balloons. He felt very sad, thinking of his fate. What was his mistake that he had to work so hard, he cant even play with the balloons, he sells everyday. And who would buy this black balloon today.No child would like black balloon. With tears streaming down his cheeks, he started towards the sea. He was so blinded by tears and also, since, it was dark, he did not notice Anita, sitting on the beach,stumbled against her and fell down. Anita, raised him up, and noticing his tears,asked him if he had hurt himself. He apologised for falling on her, and told her that he was not hurt. Then, she asked why he was crying. He told her that he had to sell his last balloon, to get his daily wage and no one is buying his balloon, since, it was black.Anita smiled, at the recollection of ''Black'' in the morning. She wiped Chotu's tears and offered him hundred rupees. She was sweetly surprised, when Chotu refused and said, that he was not a beggar. So she bought the black balloon for the usual price of ten rupees. Chotu thanked her profusely and started to walk away. She called him and gave him the black balloon, saying this is a gift to him. Chotu was so much over-joyed, on getting a balloon to play - what if it is black, it was a balloon still. He gave her his sweet smile and thanked her.

On second thoughts, Anita, called him back, rummaged through her bag, brought out few items of her cosmetics,and made a colourful glittery graffiti on the black balloon. She used her nail paints and glitters. Now the once boring black balloon became a master piece and glittered against the dark sky. She smiled on having made someones day and started walking to her car.

Chotu, very happy to have got a balloon, started walking towards the road. Chinki, who had finished her second kulfi, was walking with her parents, when she noticed the colourful black balloon, and as is usual with Chinki, immediately demanded that balloon be bought for her. Her dutiful papa, approached Chotu to buy the balloon, and he was impressed with the graffiti on the balloon. He realised that few minutes ago, the balloon was plain. He asked Chotu, who had made the graffiti. Chotu pointed Anita to him, who was walking towards her car. Chinki's papa, asked Chotu, to wait for a few minutes and he ran to Anita. He appreciated and congratulated her on her Art on the balloon, offered her a job as graffiti Artist in his office. He explained to her that he was an art collector, exhibitor and he is also runs a studio and he had not seen such fine graffiti as the one she had done on the balloon. He gave her his visiting card and asked her to come to his studio tomorrow.Anita, who always loved painting, said she would visit his studio. She was also happy to have found a job, when she had decided to leave her previous one.She thanked Chinki's father and took his leave.

When Chinki's father came to Chotu, and requested him to sell the black balloon, Chotu, refused saying that, it is not for sale. He told him that he got his long time wish to play with a balloon fulfilled only today and he cannot part with that now. Chinki's wails started increasing in volume when she noticed that her father is being unsuccessful in getting the balloon. She started crying that she wanted only the balloon which was with Chotu, and she does not want the pink balloons. Chotu, seeing Chinki cry, said, he is glad to exchange the black balloon for a pink one. So that was settled. Chotu, went home happy with a pink balloon and Chinki, with a colorful black balloon and a pink balloon. Chinki's parents were happy as their daughter was happy. Chinki's father was glad that he had found great talent in Anita. Anita had gone home, with satisfaction that she had got a job that she loved.

So, all is well that ends well. And one good deed begets another.

Cuttack -The Silver City

2011-11-19T08:32:00.000-08:00

Cuttack - The Silver City. Some of my Odiya friends might know that a Odiya movie is released on this name, as I found from the big movie hoardings in cuttack and Bhubaneshwar. I was able to read the English tag - ''The Silver City'', and got to know the name of the movie, which was in Odiya, from my husband.But I am not going to explain about the movie- for I understand Odiya only sparsely.Even if I manage to watch the movie, without sub-titles, I am not sure, if I could be able to make much of it.

Cuttack is the home city of my husband and hence, we had been to visit my in-laws. I like the city, with its historic and rustic combo look. Its seems to be a perfect blend of the urban and rustic virtues. People seem to still retain the traditional human values, at the same time adopting the urban culture. The roads are wide sans heavy traffic, though many roads are dusty, they are bordered by greenery. The city is an island, though is connected to Bhubaneshwer by roads and bridges. So anywhere you go, you end up crossing at least one water-body, which makes it all more beautiful. It has two main rivers - the Mahanadi and the Kathjodi.

Almost every alternate evening, my husband took me out to roam about the city. We had mouth watering Dahi vada, aloo dum and aloo chop. My husband informed me that Cuttack is famous for dahi vada, aloo dum, especially Raghu's dahi vada aloo dum. It seems that Raghu has been selling it for more that four decades. He was around since the time my father-in-law was a boy. Now he is a old man, who sits in a corner overlooking the business, while his sons handle the shop. Many a time we failed to get dahi vada aloo dum, for we had reached a little late and the whole stock was sold off. If that be the case, we used to have paani poori in the market place. Then there is this very tasty Narula Kulfi. I had it whenever I did not have cold. May be due to change in climate, I caught cold every alternate day. The dahi vada aloo dum is so filling that, if I had it in the evening, I had to skip dinner. I liked the aloo chop as well.

Sunset from the naraj

Note the barrage in the middle

Kathjodi - view from the bridge

As I mentioned earlier, there are two main rivers flowing in Cuttack. One day my husband took me to the "naraj''. It is the place where there is a barrage. The view of sunset from there is breath taking. Since, it is a secluded place and is not safe, we did not spend much time there. Rather, we went on a ride on the adjoining bridge. The bridge is bulit over the Kathjodi. We stopped mid way on the bridge and enjoyed the view from there.

Cuttack is called the Silver City, for a reason. It is famous for a fine art work, whose main raw material is silver.Heard of filigree work? - it is an craft where thin wire of silver is used to create motifs, which are made to delicate jewellery, show pieces etc. There is a wide choice of jewellery made with the white metal to choose from - ranging from ear hangings, neck laces, anklets, toe rings, rings etc. Statues( I am not sure if I can call them statues - since they are made with wire), of Gods and Goddesses are also available. I was really fascinated by the Kalpa- Vruksh made with silver, and decorated with precious stones and enamel. The price you pay will include the price of silver in weight and the making charges. The making charges, for some exquisite and intricate work, sometimes would be so high that, the price of silver would look peanuts. But it seems worthwhile, looking at the craftsmanship. Due to lack of patronage, this craft is slowly fading out. So I made my contribution, by purchasing a pair of anklets. In my previous visit to Cuttack, I had purchased ear hangings. I got few other pieces of jewellery as gifts.

Anklets

Ear-hangings

Ear-hangings(notice the thin wire, which is interlaced)

Kada(bangle)

Toe rings

I bought a beautiful handloom cotton saree from the Orissa Art Emporium. Since it involved so much manual skill to make that saree, it was expensive, the price almost comparable to a pure silk saree. The shop had good collection of ethnic wear - sarees and salwar sets, in cotton and silk. Silk is called paatu here. Though there were many exclusive sarees, which seemed to be one of a kind, I could not buy them due to the high price.

May be, next time, I will buy one more saree, one more craft work in silver, manage to look around the Barbati palace, visit the place of birth of Subhash chandra bose, watch a match in the Barbati stadium. Looking forward to the next visit.

Konark ,Pipli and Dhauli

2011-11-16T01:00:00.000-08:00

The next day was equally refreshing as the last one. We woke up early and went to the beach to enjoy the sunrise. The sunrise was enchanting - with clear waters, clean sands. To add to it, we had instant made tea on the beach. I liked the idea - the man carried a bucket full of water, a custom made bag, which could hold a vessel of milk, tea leaves, cups, sugar and a short stool to hold the stove. On getting the order, he instantly lit the kerosene stove and prepared the tea. We came back to the hotel at around 7.00 a.m, took some photographs of the hotel,got ready, had breakfast(which was included in the tariff of room rent) and checked out of the hotel. From there we went to Konark.

Konark - The road which links Puri and Konark is called the marine drive and is by the sea. We enjoyed the cool breeze from the sea throughout.We stopped at the Chandrabhaga beach. It was as beautiful and as clean as the puri beach. But we reached there at noon and it was so sunny and glaring that, it hurt the eye. So we did decided not to spend more time there and made to the sun temple. The sun temple is also known as the black pagoda and is a UN world heritage site. The temple is built in the form of the chariot of the sun God Surya, drawn by seven horses and twelve wheels or chakras. Only one of the horses remain today. The entrance is guarded by two gigantic lions, crushing two elephants. The elephant in turn seems to be crushing a human.Opposite to the temple is the Natya mandir, where the dev dasis used to dance for the sun God.The carvings are very intricate and detailed, mostly of human forms. Floral,geometric patterns are also found all over the temple and in the Natya mandir. Remains of the dining hall and the chaya devi mandir(consort of God surya) can also be found on the site.Konark is famous for stone/rock sculpture. I shopped and bought a miniature temple and the Konark chakra.

Konark sun temple

The dining hall

The Natya Mandir for Devdaasis

Note the Giraffe on right hand side

In one of the sculptures, we noticed a giraffe. All of us know that Giraffes are not of Indian origin. This sculpture, signifies, probably trade relations with South Africa.

From Konark, we started our way back. I was not hungry, due to having had a heavy breakfast, hence skipped lunch. My husband and the driver had typical Odiya food in a hotel on the way back. Around two O clock, we reached Pipli.

Pipli: I was wondering if this is the same village as in Amir Khan's movie "Peepli Live". I was informed it was not :-). Of course, the spelling is also different. Pipli, is a small village on the Puri-Bhubaneshwar road. It is famous for a craft called "Äpplique work''. It is a process of cutting coloured cloth into shapes of animals, birds, flowers,gods,and other decorative motifs and stitching them over a piece of cloth. The products vary from lamp shades, umbrellas, hand bags, bed spreads, cushion covers,wall hanging etc. I bought a wall hanging.I shall post the picture of the same after I mouth it on the wall.

From Pipli, we moved to Dhauli.

Buddha statue at the Stupa

Translation of the Rock Edicts

The Daya River

Dhauli is the site, where the Kalinga war was fought by Emperor Ashoka. It is next to river Daya- whose water is said to have turned red after the battle, from the blood of the soldiers. The sight of the red river melted the heart of Chanda Ashoka, made him repent and embrace Buddhism. Dhauli also houses the rock edicts of Ashoka's doctrine of Dharma. They are written in Prakrit - so I was not able to make head or tail out of them. There was a translation in English, thankfully. There is a Stupa - called the Shanti stupa, constructed by Japanese. It seems to be a recent construction.

That is it. Back to Bhubaneshwar. I heard that there are many interesting places in Bhubaneshwar as well. Due to shortage of time, we could not visit those. May be, I shall - in my next visit to Orissa.

Puri and Raghurajpur

2011-11-14T09:41:00.000-08:00

My first visit to Odisha(then Orissa) was after marriage in july 2011. I did not get a chance to explore or roam about the area much. I stayed confined to the house, as was expected of newly-wed daughter-in-law- I donot have regrets, for I got to spend time with the new family.My second trip was more fruitful. My husband took me out to almost every other day during evenings. We also went on a trip to Puri, Konark and Dhauli. On the way to Puri, we went to Raghurajpur, which is famous for "Talpata chitra'' and "pata chitra'' or paintings on palm leaves and paintings on cloth. Drawing is made by carving on the palm leaves and is painted. I will get to the details in a short while.

We started from Bhubaneshwar at approximately 8.00 a.m. The scenic beauty after crossing Bhubaneswar is just awesome. It is a feast to the eyes. We had break fast at Pipli, which falls on the way to Puri. I can vouch for one thing - you can get amazing food at mind boggling low prices in Odisha, that keeps one wondering how the people manage to survive by selling their food products at such low prices. We had Poori and dalma, accompanied by Raabdi, at a roadside hotel. Food is abundantly available in Orissa, that you feel that the people live to eat and not the other way round. You find food items heaped to form small hills in the roadside shops. After breakfast, we took a detour to Raghurajpur, which I mentioned earlier. I was of the opinion that my trip to Puri was a religious one. But surprisingly, it turned out to be art tour.

Raghurajpur - is a very small but beautiful village, with a lake(it might be a canal too; I am not sure) on the way, bordered with coconut trees and lush greenary all around. It is developed as a heritage crafts village by INTACH. It is famous for patta chitra. The pattachitra paintings are made over a piece of cloth known as Patta or a dried palm leaf, which is first painted with a mixture of chalk and gum. On that drawing of gods and goddesses, scenes from Indian epics, of animals etc are made. The outline of the drawing is distinct and is made in black. Bright naturally derived colors are used in the painting. The paintings are available for sale and exhibition .They are usually sold to foreigners at a price which is double the price quoted to Indians. After a little bargaining, we can strike a deal. Apart from these main products, we can also find other crafts like, toys made out of coconut fibre, stone carving, face masks made out of paper, paintings on glass bottles, shaven coconuts etc.

We spent a lot more of time than we planned in Raghurajpur and so reached Puri around one o clock. Since the Puri Jagannath temple closes by 2.00 p.m, we straightaway went there, instead of going to the hotel.

Puri- Puri Jagannath temple is considered as one of the four "dhams", besides Badrinath, Dwaraka, and Rameswaram. It is felt that these four places have to be visited at least once in ones life time.The main deities are Jagannath, his sister Subhadra and brother Balabadra. The road opposite to the temple is nearly 200 meters wide, to accomodate the Ratha(chariot) yatra of the main deities. It is called the bada dhanda. The temple was crowded, mostly by widows, who were easy to spot in white sarees. The time I visited the temple was during the Karthika month and a little before the panchuka. It seems that this is the favorite time of the year when most widows travel to puri to pray to Lord Jagannath. I need to find out the story behind this from my mother-in-law.One thing that I noticed in this beatiful place( I mean Orissa), which also disappoints me is that nothing is organised here. The people do not follow the required etiquette and you will find no wall without the stains of paan spit. And in the temple people almost would walk over you. No queue system is followed. There is a lot of pushing and pulling in the main temple, that you always need to keep your vigil over your purse and jewellery. The temple prohibits carrying any kind of leather products inside the temple. Waist belts, bags, mobile phones, etc are to be handed over at a counter at the entrance of the temple. My husband was aware of this. So we had left ours in the car. We waited for some ten minutes in the main temple, for darshan. Some kind of pooja was going on with doors closed, and hence we waited patiently for the main deity darshan. And when the doors did open, people pushed over each other to get darshan and almost everyone lifted up their hands praising Jagannath, thereby, seizing any little chance left to get the darshan.I started feeling suffocated in the crowd, so we managed to walk out from there. From there, we went to the anand bazaar. This is the place in the temple where you get the Prasad. Prasad is not one item, but one square meals, complete with sweets. And may be due to the crowd, cleanliness seemed to have been compromised. Since, my husband and I were not very hungry from the heavy breakfast, we did not have the meals, instead, we had Raabdi and some milk peda.

Mayfair hotel, Puri

We checked into the Mayfair hotel around 3.00 p.m. After a quick wash, we had late lunch at the hotel. The ambience of the hotel was awesome. We had the view of the sea and the beach from the hotel and the beach was just outside the hotel. After lunch, we strolled the beach. Puri beach is the cleanest beach that I have ever seen. The sand was soft, and I loved walking bare foot on it and also tried to do some sand art :-).We were lucky to experience the sand art in making by Mr. Sudharshan Pattnaik, to bring awareness to save the endangered olive ridley turtles. The water is so clean and transparent, unlike in other beaches that you can see the sand beneath. We enjoyed the sunset lounging on the beach. After the sunset, we walked back into the hotel and spent a lovely breezy evening at the poolside.We enjoyed our tea, viewing the beach and listening the waves from our room balcony. We decided then that, we will be early birds to catch the warmth from the first ray of the sun, on the beach. It seems ages since, we woke up to see the sunrise.

Sunset at puri beach

My sand art at the Puri beach

La Tomatina

2011-10-24T11:22:00.000-07:00

Yes.. You guessed it right. It was a little "La Tomatina" in my kitchen. I was preparing the tomato pickle, for which, I had to blend the tomatoes to a pulp. May be, I had over loaded the mixer. The moment, i tried to turn, after switching on the mixer, the lid of the mixer went flying, i was splashed with tomato sauce and the entire kitchen, got a " La tomatina'' decoration. I started to clean away the mess. When I was half way through, I got the idea, as to why not photo graph the same. This this was the result. Alas, I did not think of photographing myself. I would have made a good specimen of the tomato festival - though, at home.