Stranded in the STRAND book festival

Yep I couldn't find Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time Series nor any of Alistair Maclean's books at the annual Strand Book Festival, which was held at the Chinnaswamy Cricket Stadium.When I enquired, they said that they were yet to open the box which contained Robert's books. Oh sigh* will go next weekend. Picked these 2 books .. :)

Avada Kedavra!

So what do you do on a week-night? Sleep? Naaah…lets go for a night show. That’s exactly what I did. Watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of fire, 9.30 pm , on a week-night. If you know who Wormtail,Sirius Black and Tom Riddle are then you will enjoy the film, else I'm afraid you'll be wondering what the Hell is going on . The film has quite a few breathtaking scenes but a movie can never ever replace the book. The director has tried to fit in all the important scenes but still....If you've read the book then you'll remember how Rowling aunty gave us a blow by blow report on how the contestants completed the 3 tasks, these aspects are missing in the film. The scenes where the Dragon chases Harry around Hogwarts is really cool.I don't think I imagined it to be so “dangerous”. It even scared that little girl in the audience. I was watching these 2 characters with interest : Professor Snape and Draco Malfoy..hmm.. and Oh! the little Kid..what was his name.. he keeps looking at Harry as if he's some sort of hero..Nigel ?? he was funny.. You remember the "Ball" ..psst I was taken aback when it ended with a ROCK song !! The final face-off between Harry and "you know who" reminded me of the “Star Wars” light saber duels.. wrooooom wrooooom... The main features of the film were the sound and visual effects. So all you HP fans go watch the movie and be ready to use that magic wand. For the first half of the film all I could think of was “Why don't these guys get a hair-cut?”. Oh Sajjan , Please don't watch the film, no offence- you won't understand it.. Nor will the Yorkshire rippers !!!

For old times sake ..

It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. ~Attributed to Harry S. Truman

Yep our very own BMTC ( Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation ) previously known as BTS has been applauded for its amazing service by a few European countries. I just hope the people who applauded the system never get to travel in one of our buses. It’s a government run agency as compared to other districts in Karnataka, where the bus service has been privatized. Last weekend when I was in Mangalore, we decided to visit the beach and watch the sunset. The sea shore was a mere 20 kms from my cousin's residence and we had to catch the local private bus. The first thing that strikes you when you are in Mangalore is the roads. They are so narrow .I kept pointing this out to my cousin and he just shrugged his shoulders. I doubt if the one way streets in Bangalore are this narrow. ( Vc shakes his head.. these Mangaloreans are crazy). The frequency of these private buses is commendable. As it was a Sunday all the buses were empty and I was glad to have found a window seat. Surprise .. there were no glass panes in the windows. The ticket prices were pretty cheap and I was astonished to know that it costed Rs 4 for a 20 km ride? In Bangalore its Rs 10, sigh* the price we pay for development, which of course is not visible. The competition to pickup passengers is quite fierce in this part of the country .They have their own rules and one of them is “Bus number 1 should immediately move on when bus number 2 approaches the bus-stop “. I also noticed that the buses had weird Christian names some were just plain unpronounceable. All said and done Mangalore has an amazing transport service. We reached the seashore in 20 minutes with just a few stops, Unlike Bangalore where we have a bustop every 2 kms, in Mangalore its like 5 kms.According to my cousin Bro.. people in Mangalore like to walk !! ( When he said this he had this sly smile on his face ... was he making fun of us, Bangaloreans ? Grr) . We were just in time to see the Sun call it a day ..and then the moon immerged from the clouds accompanied by Venus and Mars...The small shipping boats bobbling up and down were a treat to watch. At that magical moment all I wanted was an Alistair MacLean novel and good old Kenny G playing in the background...My cousin on the other hand pointed out that the atmosphere was just right for meditation . Can you believe that !! Continuing with the weird and fascinating Mangalore trip , I should mention that there are 2 types of rice prepared here for dialy consumption. One is the white rice which we all are familiar with ,the second one is called boiled rice , its reddish in color and the grains are much bigger than the white rice. Somehow my relatives never allowed me to eat the boiled rice .It seems it makes you fat and has no taste. We do add this to our idli and dosa batter. As I couldn't visit any hotels I won't be able to comment on them, but I do know that hotels in Mangalore have the best Gadbad's. It’s an ice-cream which has numerous layers of fruits, nuts and icecream.They serve it in tall glasses and give you a loooong spoon. The weather condition in my native is weird , though I loved the cool breeze in the mornings and evenings , the afternoon weather is hot sticky and humid . If you want to lose weight go stay in a coastal town. Oh I almost forgot !!. When we were having a peaceful time on the seashore watching little kids trying to catch red crabs , I casually asked my cousin : Me : Hey Nanda , what is the reason that the priests in your temple insist that we remove our shirts when we enter to offer our prayers? Does it have to do with the caste system ? Are they trying to find out if the devotee is a Brahmin by looking at the sacred thread ? Will he be given special treatment ? He : Where do you come up with these questions? ( He smiled) My answer to your question would be that regardless of what your status ,caste or creed is or whether you are wearing a shirt worth Rs 200 or a Louis Philippe shirt worth Rs 2000, when you stand before God , we are all equal. What are we, but a mere mortal. Me: If we Indians are so secular and embrace all other religions why wasn't Sonia Gandhi allowed to enter the Guruvayur temple ? He : Where did this one come from ? I believe it was politically motivated. Me: Nope not satisfied. But tell me Mangalore has the biggest Mosque in south Karnataka and has the best colleges which are incidentally run by Christian missionaries. Has there ever been any tension or communal violence between the Hindus ,(who I must point out support the Communist party )Muslims and the Christians ? He: (Shakes his head and I think he said : this guy is crazy ) No , we are peace loving people and dislike violence of any kind. All this in just 2 days of traveling ? I think I would have written a book if I had stayed for a month :) .

Haaaaaaaai Ya !! oops I broke the wall...

Wah wah !!

One of my fav songs : A famous romantic song performed by Mohammed Rafi for the movie Junglee. Ehsaan tera ho ga mujh per Dil chahta hai woh kehnay do Mujhay tum se mohabbat ho gai hai Mujhay palkaon ki chaon main rehnay do Tumne mujhko hasna sikhaaya ho Rone kahoge ro lenge ab Aansoo ka hamaare gham na karo Woh behte hai to behne do Mujhe tumse mohabbat ho gayi hai , mujhe palko ki chaav mein rehne do Ehsaan tera hoga mujh par Chaahe banaa do chaahe mitaa do hoo aaaa Mar bhi gaye to denge duvaayen Udd udd ke kahegi khaak sanam Yeh dard-e-mohabbat sehne do Mujhe tumse mohabbat ho gayi hai , mujhe palko ki chaav mein rehne do Ehsaan tera hoga mujh par , dil chahta hai woh kehne do........... PS : I wish to thank this dude for going through my archives and giving me a chance to relive old memories........ sigh*

U want a piece of me ?

Something new everyday !!

Do you guys remember the weird " Nosegays " post .. well guess what! I got an sms from the same lil girl asking me "What a baby kangaroo was called? " Check my thought process....yep its irrational . Question : What is a baby kangaroo called? Me : grrr these girls they think I know everything .... thank god they don’t know that Until last Thursday I didn't know the capital of Syria. yep it is Damascus.. shakes my head .. can hear the cerebral fluid splashing about…. back to the question Aah the marsupial .. Australia, stamps... Pouch ..Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, Ringo.. the ... eh .. so what was the question .. Baby kangaroo . something to do with a comedy serial .. think think .. some person who was dumb but funny.. starts with a J.. joker .... Mera Naam Joker .. Raj kapoor .. Kareena Kapoor.. Haiii .... oops.. ..back to the question.. something to do with Jennifer Aniston ....she was in the sitcom Friends and the other characters were ..Rachael, Ross, Monica ,Chandler Bing and Joey ...... Joey ........Bingo ... that's what it’s called .......Joey . Vc does it again .. yipeeeeeeee Soon I get a response that the dude who asked her the question says its wrong !! I am astounded. I shoot back . "go ask your friend if he knows what a baby swan is called." ( Psst even I didn't know the answer but I found that it’s called a Cygnet .... eew weird name. . )

Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first. ~Ernestine Ulmer

My trip to Mangalore was rejuvenating. The last time I visited Mangalore was in 1997, 8 long years ago. I have highlighted a few memories of the trip. 1. My aunt (Atte in Kannada, Mammi in Tamil ) makes amazing mango pickles. The best in the world.Sluuuuuuuuurp. Something unexplainable always happens when I meet her, One of us is bound to fall sick. This has happened 4 times and when I met her on Sunday, she was ill and we laughed about the coincidence .The last time she visited Bangalore to attend my sister's wedding , I had a high temperature ..... interesting. 2. My Cousin brothers are cool , shy and down to earth chaps. Had some amazing and enlightening conversations with them.Oh did I mention that one of them looks like Hrithik Roshan and has been voted Most Popular lecturer in college ? 3. Though I stayed for 2 days, I couldn't find anyone smoking a cigarette or honking. I must confess I was a tad irritated when we were caught in an unusual traffic jam .An accident on the main road and not a single driver honked. They just sat there talking to their passengers . If it were Bangalore , we would have honked like crazy with a capital C. 4. I found that the people of Mangalore lived in the present, enjoying the moment , unlike Bangaloreans who live for the future .. waiting for that elusive weekend. 5.My cousin wanted to know all about the IT industry .A BPO company had just started its operations near his house and he was explaining how things had changed dramatically. Yep more bars and rising land rates. 6.The visit to the beach and the talk on spiritualism , the Vedas, the Mahabharatha ....... just tooooooo good. Did you know that the Dashavataras depict the evolution of mankind ? From an ocean dweller to a reptile to Half animal Half human.. and so on ..... 7.The countless number of tender coconuts I had to drink . 8.People coming up to me and saying " Don't you remember me ? " I just used to give my 100 dollar smile and lie through my nose " Oh yes, how can I forget that smile. " and then I would look at mom for assistance “ Who is this aunty ??” 9 Mom showing her friend Mohini's house , " and that was where I used to play ". Somehow I just can’t imagine my mom playing . 10.Visiting Kerala , it was just a 20 min drive from my aunt's place. 11.The journey back home where I missed the chance to sit next to " u know who " and the 2 ladies fighting for the window seat.. that was hilarious.

The Akshardham Temple in New Delhi.

The last shot before we made our way back home... More pics from the trip http://bangaloredailyphoto.blogspot.com/

A Panaromic view of the eastern and western ghats.Shot from the BR temple.Can u believe that it was 2 in the afternoon ?

Backseat Boys

The plan was to visit K Gudi resort located in the B R Wildlife Sanctuary which was at an altitude of 3,375 feet above sea level. The 4 of us met at Sajjan's residence at 7am and we set out at 7.30. Armed with a map , we decided to go via Kanakapura,Malavalli and Kollegal.The distance from Bangalore to BR hills was approximately 230kms. Sajjan was the designated driver and RB was the cleaner cum navigator cum DJ for the first couple of hours.I had burnt or as Kirthi says " cut " an mp3 cd for this occassion.The cd contained a mixture of English ,Hindi and Kannada songs.( All my fav songs ) The road leading to Kanakapura was good and once we reached the town, we had a huge breakfast of hot idli's and cold vada's.Oh !! did I mention that we got lost in the town and the Saj was about to enter the Main Bus stand, he was happily following a Government bus. Luckily RB was awake and guided us out of the town. We passed a lot of villages and everywhere we found that the ponds and lakes were on the brink of breaching their banks.The roads now were pathetic and everytime our small maruthi car looked like getting stuck in the mud, Sajjan would guide us out safely.The scenery as always was amazing. We were tired of seeing huge concrete buildings in Bangalore and this trip bought us some respite.The green fields and the coconut grooves were worth photographing. At 12 we made our way to Kollegal, a small town known for Blackmagic.We stopped at a Shanthi Sagar to get our lunch packed.We chitchatted with the owner and he gave us further directions to our final destination, BR hills. He asked us to take a left turn, when we approached the bridge and this route according to him was a short cut. Here’s where the journey got interesting. The short cut turned out to be a drive through a lot of small villages and sugarcane fields. The road slowly turned from bad to worse and thus considerably slowed our progress.The road was so grr grrr... that we had to switch off the mp3 player and let Saj concentrate on driving.He has this habit of singing along with Udit Narayan and this always taxed our nerves.We even did some back seat driving when we encountered pot holes. Take a Left, No No Right ... Steady...... Use the HORN. Yep my favorite line was "use the horn”. Beep Beep. Saj used the horn sparingly as if he had to pay money every time he beeped. We desperately wanted him to use the horn at blind right turns or when we were passing small kids playing on the road. Of course he stopped a couple of times to let the (hold your breath) chicken cross the road. Every time we came upon a fork in the road, we would ask the local farmers for directions and they would happily oblige us by giving directions. At 2 in the afternoon we entered the Forest Reserve and the scenery changed dramatically. The roads were pretty good inside the reserve and after paying Rs 20 to the watchman, we started the long drive uphill. After twisting and turning for 10 kms, we reached BR hills. The main tourist attraction is the Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple.Situated on top of the highest peak, this ancient temple gives Biligirirangana Betta its name( white mountains). The deity in the temple is Venkatesha, popularly known as Ranganatha.We had to climb around 220 steps to reach the main temple and it left us breathless. This is where the famous RB and the monkey incident occured.RB was entrusted with a plastic bag which contained a coconut, few incense sticks, camphor and a couple of bananas. At the 117th step, a couple of monkeys eyed the bananas and one of them made a dive for the bag. RB, who I bet could lift a car with his little finger, threw the bag down and scampered up the nearest tree. His excuse was genuine, he didn’t want to be bitten by a monkey., as you know a bite from a monkey can cause rabies. We finally reached the main temple and the view took our breath away. The serene surrounding, the soft reverberation of the bells and the songs of the birds in the background rejuvenated our souls. The BRT Wildlife Sanctuary is an important link between the Eastern and the Western Ghats. The view was indescribable. We stopped at a place which had a spectacular view of the green forests and decided to have our lunch.We being environmentalists did not throw any plastic bags in the roadside:) . The next stop was supposed to be the jungle lodges of K Gudi , but as we were short of time , we decided to skip it and make our way back to Bangalore. We decided to take the same route via the villages. At a particular intersection , we were informed by the local villagers that the road was unfit for 4 wheelers .A car was stuck in the mud and hence the road was jammed.They asked us to take a different route which would lead to the main highway.One of the villagers offered us tender coconuts each at a cost of Rs 3 .Yep 3 , 1 rupee coins for a tender coconut. As soon as we joined the main road , we noticed the roads were asphalted and in good condition. We soon reached Kollegal and then realized that the route via the villages was in fact the wrong route!!.We had simply wasted an hour roaming through various villages.But no one complained. We made our way back to Bangalore, listening to Saj sing “Kya Tujhe Pata Hai “ and humming to the tunes of the Eagles. On the way we decided to take a quick detour and visit the Gaganachukki falls, as it was just 10 kms from the main highway . We followed the directions and suddenly found ourselves in front of a huge Mosque.The falls were visible but it was not a “view point” but was worth the detour. On our return journey it started raining and driving to avoid the potholes kept Saj busy.When he successfully overtook a couple of trucks laden with sand, we compared Saj to Michael Shoemaker. You should have seen him blush .. ahaha … We reached home late in the night ,exhausted but glad to have made the trip. I had to edit /censor a lot of stuff : like RB and his huge fingers tampering with the mp3 player.When we asked him to increase the volume he invariably pressed the “ next song “ button . Grrr Bowwwwwwwwww… Saj not letting me play Kenny Rogers or Linkin Park. ( Paaapi ) Sri and Anand singing “ Hotel California “ so loudly that passers-by stopped and stared at us. Anand sighing everytime the car went into a pothole and Saj giving him “the look.” Anand not bringing his Sony camera but instead bringing his Handycam. God alone knows what hmm hmm stuff he’s recorded. ( Vc shudders) Oh and at one point RB asking Sajjan if he could drive. You should have seen our faces .. uahahahah…. Sripad and Saj arguing over what constitutes “a patent “? When I asked Saj to use the **** horn for the nth time, he glared at me and said “ Driver kaun hai main ya tuu ?” Thanks RB, Anand and Sri for a cool trip. Last but not the least I would like to thank Sajjan for bringing us back safely. You indeed are a good driver. Vc bows .

We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment. ~Hilaire Belloc

On account of Diwali we had 2 days off and so I decided to go on a short trip. More details and pics in the next post....... Preview : Of course we saw a lot of wild animals but alas no elephants. I and Sajjan thought we saw an elephant drinking water but it turned out to be Mohan taking a leisurely stroll on the bank of the lake. Oh come-on, the sun was setting and I bet even you would have been confused. The 14 year old guide told us stories and anecdotes which made us laugh out loud.