I am a tough nut to crack, a silent n reserved types- dats d first impression i leave on people i think. Plus im a daddy's girl - which means i think that he is the most loving and strong person in the whole world. he is my hero. but there is a special someone in everyone's life apart from our parents.ive wrote about a lot of things till now...vacations..places, things i saw, friends, family...but its never complete without d this one person. so today i write about him - and me too.
I am a mix of all things. a terrible mix at that. sometimes im an introvert and sometimes extremely opposite.very moody- one day i feel im the queen of the world and the next day - there i crash -its worse than the stock markets :)
there are times when im the bubbliestt,chirpiest...days when i love to yap yap n yap...and then there are times when i love to listen and only listen...i close the doors for the world and go into a lonely slumber. noone is allowed in that world of depressing thoughts- Noone.
I love permanency in people in my life, friends, relations- but there is no permanency within me- like i hve a multiple personal order/disorder. :) sometimes i myself am surprised with the kind of person i am/be. everyday i learn something new about me. but there are things that are permanent in all these personalities of mine - like i cant live without my vastttt set of friends. i cant live without art- music,dance and painting. since i love to talk i love to write as well.
i am flexible...like gold. you put me anywhere...i will survive adapting to that. if im surrounded by “hep” people then i become "hep". if its the conservative bunch- im again there too. so who am i?? mixed identities :) it has its good and bad sides cause its both easy and tough to make me happy. easy because i get happy with simple things. tough because im content with anything-so that simple thing should be special. hope it makes sense!!! :D
Inspite of all these, there is someone who understands me, lives with me and most importantly LOVES me :). He compliments me. when im chirpy he listens. when im quiet, he takes on to talking. he puts up with my crazy ideas, logics and likes. he is quite my opposite in thoughts , likes, views, actions. but i guess that makes him my special man. he is my strongest encouragement, defender and support.
i read somewhere that we all look for people who are like our parents- like girls look for people who resemble their fathers in their character. guys looks for mommy-like characters in their partners. mebbe its true- i see a lot of my dad in him, his words.. :) it was half luck and half our actions that make our life. im thankful to god to have given me the change and impresed with myself to have made use of it.
its impossible to express all what you feel for your closest friends, family and things. What rajiv is to me- i can never pen my toughts clearly and completely to paper- this is the closest and best i can bring out :)
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
Rajyotsava...
Nov 1st is supposed to be special – for me being a mallu. Its kerala piravi …In college days it was the day of the year all the girls used to get dressed in traditional kerala saree- like that song goes – ‘Kulichu kuriyittu kuppivala ittu…”. the fashion parade to classes was followed by some talks/ cultural programs scheduled for the day at the auditorium. Gone are those days. It is just an sms day now when I wish ppl back home a happy kerala piravi- whatever and however they celebrate it. Infact do they?? :)
But nov 1st still remained a special day ; for the state which adopted me, the state where I earn my living, own a house, the place I live now- Karnataka ; was also born the same day. Its celebrated as Karnataka rajyotsava. Back in 2005, it was a grand function. I remember it so well because radio city aired a song which goes like “ya manashantiya …” , composed and sung by raghu dixit. I had woken up to that song being played on the radio and was humming “namma naaadu karunaadu” the whole day !! hmm…
Last two years memories ares not so pleasant ones, it was more torture. People putting up speakers and stage on the road, blocking traffic, playing extremely loud music – so loud that the windows panes resonate to the beats of the song! funniest thing is – the songs played all day and night have no significant “kannada” impact. Its all those “love madi love madi love madi” type of songs. No amount of cotton or ear plugs can save you from the irritating music. I used to sit and pity homes wid infants. Poor lil things would listen to the hippy hoppy “love madi” beats all day and wail into the mothers ears. Mebbe some years later the first words they speak would be that too!! J What sort of pleasure does it bring to the organizers to create a mess of everyone’s life and peace? I call them public nuisance. I hope Mr. Vatal Natraj wont start something in the line of MNS chief and come and beat me up for making anti-kannada remarks and ask me to go where I came from! So, no I dint say I don’t like the song – its only that music when played in extremely louddd sounds becomes something called NOISE and no longer has any soothing effect on humans. Loud music is fine- limit it to open grounds, places where people can gather – not on the roads! much as i love kannada,karnataka and its culture - im irked by the so called language "activists".
In effect, last 2 years of rajyotsava celebrations I witnessed was a total waste, neither did I learn anything nor do I have any pleasant memories.
This year rajyotsava we decided that we will leave the house and go somewhere the minute we see a stage getting built. So every half and hour there I was on the balcony, checking checking …and checking. No signs. Were they trying to fool me or something? Building it in another place? So I went for a walk around the house in all lanes and still found no signs. Even after 7.30 in the evening there was no sign on any illumination/ stage shows. Either the organisors fought among themselves over last years collections / this year there were no fund allotment itself. Anyways we have a peacefull, non event full rajyotsava. Just when I concluded so, I heard that at Infosys we have celebrations coming up.
Yesterday at around 6 pm I went to amphitheatre. It was almost fully packed. It was the first time in history sorts…Rajyotsava has never been celebrated in Bangalore dc . so it was special. The function started of with very own shruthi –classical music group within infy- performing a jugalbandhi. It was good – to be fair enough. Then came one the masters of music – layatharanga band. They presented fusion songs. It was amazingly done and by the end of it, they got a standing ovation from all of us.
Then came a troup which called themselves shristi. Their contemporary dance was based on the theme- WOMEN of Karnataka. Through their dance I got to know the danseuse and queen –SHANTALA, the braveness of –OBAVVA, the fighter in –CHENNAMMA. Who are these women?
Shanthala - Apparently was the queen of King vishnuvardhana of HOYSALA kingdom. Her dance steps and performances are seen in the sculptures of belur, halebid etc.
Obavva- she was wife of a guard of the fort at chitradurga. The fort had a big gate, but Hyder Ali ( the invader) could not afford to come by that way..so he come to know about this Kalla Kindi(in kannada) - which i guess is thurangam in malayalam, this was kept in the fort as an escape route in case of emergency.Only few of that kingdom knew about it..... Obavva’s husband had been guarding it. Once when he was at lunch, when the lady went to take water from the well she noticed intruders crawling in through that hole. Instead of disturbing her husband who was at lunch, the lady took a heavy stick ( its called “ulakka” in Malayalam – I don’t know the translation in English) and stood by the side of the hole. Whenever the enemy used to crawl in, she beat him the stick and dragged him to the side and waited again. By the time her husband finished his lunch , noticed the developments and alerted the army, she was killed by the enemies.
Chennamma- a queen of kittur, who dared to refuse giving money to british. She challenged them to fight her. She got killed in the battle, but her braveness lives on.
The event continued with a few more other programs. But my mind was stuck there in this dance. They had also depicted IT lady in the modern world. Taking care of home,husband and kids in the morning, Running to the btm bus stop with her kid ; Leave the child in crèche here and come to work . at the strike of 6 , its again a rush back home and kitchen work.
Each one of us might not be a chennamma/obbavva/shantala/
I boarded the 9 pm bus, happy having learnt so much, singing – “namma naadu karunaadu..”!
Mr. Natraj are you listening?:)
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Another Onam to remember-2008
This year Thiruonam fell on sep 12th – a Friday. Every year by the time of December I am already checking the new year’s calendar to find if I can make it a long vacation. The company’s list of holidays is eagerly awaited to check if it’s a holiday; there is bunch of “marunadan malayalis” working out of this DC! Thanks to the strong bus lobby out here, there are still only 2 inconvenient trains to Kerala. And I have a long journey to reach the capital city. It is irritating, tiring and boring! This year’s journey was a little different. Due to the last minute commitments for an onam program at the DC, I had to cancel my train tickets and book it in bus for another day.
I started off from Bangalore after a very busy week on Friday evening. This time around I had booked in a sleeper bus, and I discovered that sleeper bus means u have to lie down all the time. You have no option to sit at all! :D esp. if you are on the upper birth!. Else you have to sit in the bus like an inverted “C”!!! anyways, I ignored this fact and was sleeping away to glory when …THUD…clink …clash and scream of a girl woke me up in the middle of the night…errr morning rather. It was close to 3 am when a lorry driver came on the wrong side and hit our bus on the right. One whole window glass broke and fell on the lady passenger at the window side. Her scream was what woke me up. Luckily nothing more serious happened than a broken window and a problematic engine. Ac in the bus wouldn’t work after that. After 2 hours of argument / compromise ( in between I slipped back into a quick nap again!) the bus started moving. When I woke up at around 8 am I was somewhere near angamali. There was apparently some problem with the “pick up” of the bus after the accident. Somehow they dragged it till EKM and asked us to wait till the next bus they arranged comes there. Time was already 9.30. Like murphy’s law, when things go wrong, your phone battery is also totally out! I managed to call dad and ask for some expert advice on which trains to tvm I could catch from there. Quickly decided and got into an auto with a family who also decided enough is enough of the bus journey. As soon as we got into the auto, it started raining. Man…Mr Murphy really had some very bad experiences himself to write those rules!. I was half drenched by the time I was taking tickets at the railway counter. In the half an hour that I had to wait there for kerala express, I got talking to my new friends. Anjana and govind got married 6 months back. Infact, they have had some really amusing bus journeys as track record! For their engagement last year during onam time, they reached around 3.30 pm. Their engagement was planned at 5 pm!! Gosh…close…!! If I knew they are regular latecomers by bus, I’d have taken another travels! :P
Kerala express- a train that connects the capital city of the country to capital city of gods own country! This Saturday it was more than just crowded. There was absolutely no place. We three managed to get into the train and then lot of push and pull…my bag falls of my shoulder into an elderly ammachi’s leg. She scolds me for being irresponsible. “ithokke evidunnu vannu kayarunnu” enna look! The laptop on my other shoulder gives her an idea that im a software engineer! She understands where I came from and gives me an even colder stare. I ignore and try to find some place for my left foot which has not yet touched the compartments floor! Finally I managed to get to the upper side birth which was stuffed with some bags. I pile them up to a corner and find some place to sit there and watch the scene below. Anjana and govind have been washed away in the push and pull to the end of the compartment by now.
As I sit there and the scene below sinks in, I realized that the train population is dominated by ” fouji bhais” who have been at the borders, army offices and medical camps in the north and workers who have earned their bread at Delhi. Some of them were coming back after more than a year. Some others, are military mahabalis who and come visit their home towns in kerala once a year during onam. A lot of them are young, mebbe in their early 20’s. They have boarded the train from Delhi almost 2 days back. All of them look tired and worn out in those military cargos and T-shirt. But I notice that as their destinations come close, they go and freshen up. The cargos and T are replaced by kasavu mundu and a well ironed shirt. Some go for the formal look. With the well polished shoes, crew cut, full sleeves and black trousers, I see the smart faces of the Indian army! In their eyes, I see the joy of ONAM. There is a Thomachan, a Kuttikrishan and an abdul in them, but it doesn’t matter. The festival is homecoming! Friends parting at stations, calling out ..”milte hein bhai…” in a typical mallu hindi! I smile to myself. It makes me happy. The spirit of onam has sunk in. Once the train crossed kayamkulam, I land down as its less crowded now. I reached home at 3.30pm , the military effect still in the bank of mind, im quick to narrate them to my dad. The rest of the weekend is spent in eating and sleeping mostly
Worked from Trivandrum dc for three days. There was nothing much to remember there , all friends had left the ground for me to play. Either they went onsite/were on leave. But inspite of it, I liked the change. On Thursday, uthradam day, I put the first athapoo of the season. Last year I was accompanied by rajiv and bhagya too for athapoo designing. This year, both of them were busy. Bhagya landed only on tiruonam day. Rajiv got too busy with work, so it was an onam without close friends and hubby jaan for me. The rest of Thursday went in helping mom in making chips, sharkara varatti, diamond cuts etc etc. All onam special. Chummathalla mahabalikku ithrayum kudavayar! Ithellam koode thinnal pinne aaranu balloon avathe! After a long time, tvm city celebrated onam in style; most of the main roads were beautifully illuminated. The star attraction of the evening was a nice thattu dosa Its my favourite food after kappa. He he.
Its been raining ever since I landed in kerala, but the rains are beautiful here. The sound and smell of the rain is pure, musical. enikku vattayilla…. He he
Here I wake up to the most awaited day….tiruonam. we learn that bhagya’s train is delayed for 2 hours. So I start putting the tiruonam-athapoo. With my best efforts with the flowers I had, I managed one. After a light breakfast and little bit of helping mom in kitchen, I sit back to enjoy the special programs on different mallu channels. One program I remember is an interview with adoor bhavani, a veteran actress of Malayalam films. She is retired now and is not quite healthy, but still managed to give a decent interview. Admired her energy to do so at 85 years of age. She laughed, cried, mocked….but was still very lively.
Lunch –sadya : mind blowing and heavy! I can describe that best by only those two words. Upperi ,achar thottu pachadi payasam vare...More is not required!
In the evening we went to our family hangout place on tiruonam day- the kanakakunnu palace. It’s the hub of all cultural events in city as part of tourism week. I got to see glimpses of mohiniyattom, ottamthullal ,tiruvathira and bharatnatyam. Then I learn that the next day, shobhana is going to perform her contemporary dance movie- maya ravan. I was elated. Yipeee …finally I get to see her perform and there are no hurdles here. It was like a dream about to come true… I had missed her performance in Bangalore, but like I told rajiv, she usually gives a performance during onam at tvm- and yes here it was going to happen. from there on, the only thing I remember is the long wait till Saturday evening.
Just as I was about to leave the house with dad to watch the show, a few relatives arrive on a surprise visit. I crash landed from my dreams of watching one of my favourite performers on stage live! I compromised and consoled myself and promised that next time, I shall not give myself in to such silly matters and will definitely go and watch her. I was sad for a lil while, but forgot about it slowly as I sat and chatted with my cousins.
Come Sunday and it was bye bye time. With my ticket getting confirmed at the last moment, my hopes of spending some more time at tvm and catching up on friends too ended. Island express was on time and I settled down to my seat in no time. As the train crossed Varkala , it started to drizzle. A small drizzle on the beautiful backwaters makes it look even more inviting and stunning. It is so green everywhere. Tiny drops of water dripping down the coconut leaves…a small kingfisher bird sitting on the electric lines…semi flooded paddy fields which are cleared off after harvest….the tiny thumba poo which sways to the wind as the train passes by ….I have crossed these routes …seen these sights n number of times...but each time its beauty strikes me with a new freshness…and I thought ….until next year it is….
Love,
Dhan
I started off from Bangalore after a very busy week on Friday evening. This time around I had booked in a sleeper bus, and I discovered that sleeper bus means u have to lie down all the time. You have no option to sit at all! :D esp. if you are on the upper birth!. Else you have to sit in the bus like an inverted “C”!!! anyways, I ignored this fact and was sleeping away to glory when …THUD…clink …clash and scream of a girl woke me up in the middle of the night…errr morning rather. It was close to 3 am when a lorry driver came on the wrong side and hit our bus on the right. One whole window glass broke and fell on the lady passenger at the window side. Her scream was what woke me up. Luckily nothing more serious happened than a broken window and a problematic engine. Ac in the bus wouldn’t work after that. After 2 hours of argument / compromise ( in between I slipped back into a quick nap again!) the bus started moving. When I woke up at around 8 am I was somewhere near angamali. There was apparently some problem with the “pick up” of the bus after the accident. Somehow they dragged it till EKM and asked us to wait till the next bus they arranged comes there. Time was already 9.30. Like murphy’s law, when things go wrong, your phone battery is also totally out! I managed to call dad and ask for some expert advice on which trains to tvm I could catch from there. Quickly decided and got into an auto with a family who also decided enough is enough of the bus journey. As soon as we got into the auto, it started raining. Man…Mr Murphy really had some very bad experiences himself to write those rules!. I was half drenched by the time I was taking tickets at the railway counter. In the half an hour that I had to wait there for kerala express, I got talking to my new friends. Anjana and govind got married 6 months back. Infact, they have had some really amusing bus journeys as track record! For their engagement last year during onam time, they reached around 3.30 pm. Their engagement was planned at 5 pm!! Gosh…close…!! If I knew they are regular latecomers by bus, I’d have taken another travels! :P
Kerala express- a train that connects the capital city of the country to capital city of gods own country! This Saturday it was more than just crowded. There was absolutely no place. We three managed to get into the train and then lot of push and pull…my bag falls of my shoulder into an elderly ammachi’s leg. She scolds me for being irresponsible. “ithokke evidunnu vannu kayarunnu” enna look! The laptop on my other shoulder gives her an idea that im a software engineer! She understands where I came from and gives me an even colder stare. I ignore and try to find some place for my left foot which has not yet touched the compartments floor! Finally I managed to get to the upper side birth which was stuffed with some bags. I pile them up to a corner and find some place to sit there and watch the scene below. Anjana and govind have been washed away in the push and pull to the end of the compartment by now.
As I sit there and the scene below sinks in, I realized that the train population is dominated by ” fouji bhais” who have been at the borders, army offices and medical camps in the north and workers who have earned their bread at Delhi. Some of them were coming back after more than a year. Some others, are military mahabalis who and come visit their home towns in kerala once a year during onam. A lot of them are young, mebbe in their early 20’s. They have boarded the train from Delhi almost 2 days back. All of them look tired and worn out in those military cargos and T-shirt. But I notice that as their destinations come close, they go and freshen up. The cargos and T are replaced by kasavu mundu and a well ironed shirt. Some go for the formal look. With the well polished shoes, crew cut, full sleeves and black trousers, I see the smart faces of the Indian army! In their eyes, I see the joy of ONAM. There is a Thomachan, a Kuttikrishan and an abdul in them, but it doesn’t matter. The festival is homecoming! Friends parting at stations, calling out ..”milte hein bhai…” in a typical mallu hindi! I smile to myself. It makes me happy. The spirit of onam has sunk in. Once the train crossed kayamkulam, I land down as its less crowded now. I reached home at 3.30pm , the military effect still in the bank of mind, im quick to narrate them to my dad. The rest of the weekend is spent in eating and sleeping mostly
Worked from Trivandrum dc for three days. There was nothing much to remember there , all friends had left the ground for me to play. Either they went onsite/were on leave. But inspite of it, I liked the change. On Thursday, uthradam day, I put the first athapoo of the season. Last year I was accompanied by rajiv and bhagya too for athapoo designing. This year, both of them were busy. Bhagya landed only on tiruonam day. Rajiv got too busy with work, so it was an onam without close friends and hubby jaan for me. The rest of Thursday went in helping mom in making chips, sharkara varatti, diamond cuts etc etc. All onam special. Chummathalla mahabalikku ithrayum kudavayar! Ithellam koode thinnal pinne aaranu balloon avathe! After a long time, tvm city celebrated onam in style; most of the main roads were beautifully illuminated. The star attraction of the evening was a nice thattu dosa Its my favourite food after kappa. He he.
Its been raining ever since I landed in kerala, but the rains are beautiful here. The sound and smell of the rain is pure, musical. enikku vattayilla…. He he
Here I wake up to the most awaited day….tiruonam. we learn that bhagya’s train is delayed for 2 hours. So I start putting the tiruonam-athapoo. With my best efforts with the flowers I had, I managed one. After a light breakfast and little bit of helping mom in kitchen, I sit back to enjoy the special programs on different mallu channels. One program I remember is an interview with adoor bhavani, a veteran actress of Malayalam films. She is retired now and is not quite healthy, but still managed to give a decent interview. Admired her energy to do so at 85 years of age. She laughed, cried, mocked….but was still very lively.
Lunch –sadya : mind blowing and heavy! I can describe that best by only those two words. Upperi ,achar thottu pachadi payasam vare...More is not required!
In the evening we went to our family hangout place on tiruonam day- the kanakakunnu palace. It’s the hub of all cultural events in city as part of tourism week. I got to see glimpses of mohiniyattom, ottamthullal ,tiruvathira and bharatnatyam. Then I learn that the next day, shobhana is going to perform her contemporary dance movie- maya ravan. I was elated. Yipeee …finally I get to see her perform and there are no hurdles here. It was like a dream about to come true… I had missed her performance in Bangalore, but like I told rajiv, she usually gives a performance during onam at tvm- and yes here it was going to happen. from there on, the only thing I remember is the long wait till Saturday evening.
Just as I was about to leave the house with dad to watch the show, a few relatives arrive on a surprise visit. I crash landed from my dreams of watching one of my favourite performers on stage live! I compromised and consoled myself and promised that next time, I shall not give myself in to such silly matters and will definitely go and watch her. I was sad for a lil while, but forgot about it slowly as I sat and chatted with my cousins.
Come Sunday and it was bye bye time. With my ticket getting confirmed at the last moment, my hopes of spending some more time at tvm and catching up on friends too ended. Island express was on time and I settled down to my seat in no time. As the train crossed Varkala , it started to drizzle. A small drizzle on the beautiful backwaters makes it look even more inviting and stunning. It is so green everywhere. Tiny drops of water dripping down the coconut leaves…a small kingfisher bird sitting on the electric lines…semi flooded paddy fields which are cleared off after harvest….the tiny thumba poo which sways to the wind as the train passes by ….I have crossed these routes …seen these sights n number of times...but each time its beauty strikes me with a new freshness…and I thought ….until next year it is….
Love,
Dhan
diwali- 2008
I have never seen them single. They always stand in groups…as I n hundreds or thousands. Dressed in a striking yellow and brown attire they stand under blazing hot sun ;bright and vibrant. And when they sway with grace to the sudden rush of the wind when my car passes by, they bring a smile to my face too. even when the scorching rays of the sun dig through their gentle skin and eventually dry them up, they stand with their head dropped –together. Sunflowers -In my opinion it’s one of gods most beautiful creations. To me they show the beauty of standing united. What a sight it is when you see the group with dark green leaves, light green stems and bright yellow flowers with a dark brown pollens…!
There was nothing strikingly memorable about this trip other than the flowers- ofcourse there were lottt of sweets and good food. :)
There was nothing strikingly memorable about this trip other than the flowers- ofcourse there were lottt of sweets and good food. :)
My engagement....
Sep 10th 2006…
The world might remember it as the day before the 9/11 attack on the twin towers. But to me it remains special in quite a different way…
On Sep 10th 2006 I got engaged to Rajiv. J
About a year of being a just an acquaintance…to a long period of an uncertain and unnamed relation we shared…to the sudden decision to stand up for ourselves and announcing it to both our parents…to months of awaiting their approval...it’s been a long way we traveled to this point. Long…but special! Tough…but cherished!
Rajiv, as most of you would already know, is my trainee batch mate in Infosys. We both are in the same unit here, FINACLE, but in different teams. He works in the implementation team (yeah yeah…lucky fellow is a globe trotter) and me in testing. Raj is from Coimbatore, but soon his parents would be shifting to Bangalore.
He has an elder sister who is married and is settled in Salem. My in laws used to work in PWD but are retired now.
So…coming back to track…the engagement…it was at Coimbatore. I am skipping the packing part…as it was more or less a mess..as usual!! J J Luckily I dint forget to take anything!
On 9th morning around 10 am I started my onward journey to CBE wid good friends bala, Rakesh and my roommate Anju in bala’s car. It was a superb drive (I hope our “driver” bala enjoyed it the most as he dint have a backup!!! ) Raj had left for CBE earlier in the morning around 8 am with his cousin and a friend. As it seems the boy n the girl to be betrothed cannot travel together we had to go separately!!! L
Wonder who made that rule!!!!! My dad n mom with some close family members came in a temp traveler. Bhags was the first to reach CBE though from Chennai.
Wah….kya family hein…all four landing from different places!!! J J
Initially it dint feel as though am going for my own engagement! It was like some fun trip we went…but later on slowly it started sinking in…Hosur road had a pathetic traffic jam even on that lovely Saturday. We were forced to take a deviation (which made the total travel time almost an hour n a hlf more than d actual). But the country roads and beautiful scenery all through the deviation was altogether a good experience. J J FOR THE DRIVER i.e he he. We stopped over for lunch @ dharmapuri…sun flower fields…paddy fields...hills….it was an amazzzing and funfilled drive wid rakesh anju n bala even finding names for our kids!!!! It took us almost an hour again from the Coimbatore by-pass to reach rajs house in the city …thanks again to the pathetic traffic and heavy rains!!
Rajs parents had arranged a dinner at a nearby hotel for all of us. It was the first time when close relatives of both families met eachother. And it was the first time I met rajs granny. God…she is sweet. Blew me a kiss!! He he I was so damn nervous that I could really feel my knees shake. No joking here…it’s really true! I thought my heart was beating so loud that anyone standing close to me would hear it! Interactions between both family members were interesting as it was across borders…where most of them faced language barriers. But still it was good. J Thanks god we have so many common words in mallu n tamil!! J J We were there for about an hour and then it was time to catch some sleep.
Next day morning woke up at 5.30…got ready and was @ d mandap by 7.30 or 8 where my beautician (pheww…….) was waiting for me. the beautician looked quite different from all the beauticians ive met till date…and yeah …she really was quite different. All through the “make up” session I was being reassured by bhagya and anju that its still fine…but when I finally saw myself in the mirror I cld hardly recognize myself. Was a bit upset initially….but paid off the item lady and slowly started clearing up the mess she had turned me into. I realised that no matter how well the girl plans to dress up during her wedding and engagement day its inevitably altered by relatives, beauticians and I family friends and all the “andans and adagodans…”!!!!! L L L I think its sad that the boy mostly has to identify the girl with much effort wid all that make over!!! In my case I was very sure Raj would run away….i jus got lucky…or mebbe he was jus too shocked to run!! J J all that jewellery , the extra lonnng hair and make up and all…that too when I heard that Raj was dressed in a simple shirt n trousers!! L SAAADD!!!!!
The function…as I saw it…
It must have started with my brother, deepu Chetan giving raj his shervani, the ring and a garland. I dint see that part. When my turn came…I did a namaskaram to rajs parents and on stage again to …I assume the guests…!! Rajs sister gave me my saree. It was time for a quick changing into the new saree again and then rushing back on stage…then she gave me the ring and a garland. The Garland was HEAVY!!!!! Some puja …some more namaskarams and it was photo session. That was the ceremony in my words. I wonder what all actually happened in my absence!
Lots and lots of photos taken with relatives from both sides and friends…it was then time for lunch. Absolutely wonderful food (may be it tasted so divine as I was starving since morning). After this bala anju nibu n all went for a drive till the Kerala border…came back and picked me up. We went to my cousin’s place inside amritha college so that I could change and then it was time for return.
It was almost 12 when we reached Bangalore…had a good looong sleep and took an off on Monday to take some rest. On Tuesday I was back in office…nothing much had changed (well I jus joined a new project but still handling the same old module…)…but it felt nice…and as I sent out the customary “sweets @ my desk” mail I thanked god for being wid us all thru our tough times and making it happen…
The chennai trip...
The weekend of 15th may2005- was yet another wonderful weekend in my life! Was simply awesome fun! And with me to share all the fun was anju ( my roommate) and ganesh ( one of my oldest friends) plus as a bonus..some friend of gany’s!
Anju n I started our trip on Friday night with deepa. We caught the Chennai special from cantonment station….well…it had been a long tiring day at office so we jus dozed off right away. Man …its so comfy to travel in train. I wish a hundred times that the tvm train timings from Bangalore was to the passengers convenience!
Day 1: reached Chennai at 4.30 in the morning. Deepa’s father came to pick us up in the morning. Went to her place and slept ( he he …) till 8.30. The plan was to meet ganesh by 9.00 in d mrng…and since we girls got up so early…we definitely were almost 2 hrs behind the scheduled time for meeting. J sweet girls aint we?
Had breakfast from deeps place n pushed off at 10. WELCOME TO IIT…we met ganesh at the main gates…n went straight to the guest house he had booked for us. The rest of the gang were waiting for the “Esteemed Guests from Bangalore”!! J Infact we were the ones tensed meeting them. Had a feeling tht they wld b slightly high fi from the prior intro pomy had given me. BTW…..POMY == ganesh for beginners! Don ask me the reason y I call him so..i jus do ..
Coming back to the point…so we ask the iit gang what our plans were for the day and finally me and anju gets to know whats was in store for the rest of the weekend and yup….it did give anju a heart attack…n sigh…a lil to me too! J
They had arranged a mini bus to travel till pondicheri booked stay at a hotel there…almost everything was planned ! Jus that the bus came 3 hrs late than the starting time they told the driver! J
The initial “breaking the ice” was a lil tough for me…and harder for anju..but once it was done we did gel well wid the gang. Its an awesome n fun loving gang (which includes 2 girls and 8 boys!) totally enjoying their life in college. Ok..back to story..
Finally the 12 member gang get going at 12 noon sharp. The route to pondi is ECR( east coast road) which is simply one of the best roads in India now ( excluding the Bombay pune highway..n cmbtre-palakkad highway ofcourse! ) we stopped for lunch somewhere in the middle of the journey. And then again stopped over at some place to see ruins of a fort – The Alampara fort and backwaters. These places were hit by tsunami I believe as quite a lot of rehabilitation construction happening there. There is nothing much to see of the fort but the view of the sea from the walls of the fort was simply terrific. 20 minutes of roaming around and then back to the van…n off to our main destination.
We reached the beautiful union territory at 5 pm ..roamed around the small city..walked through the beach road in the main city..the French style buildings + the concrete roads makes the place look really difft. By 8 we had our dinner and since it was too late to explore more of the city we decided to call it a day and went back to our rooms. A good shower and dinner…a lil chat n a small party for the guys in their room…end of day 1.
Day 2: Five of us had decided that we would watch the sunrise. So we woke up early according to the plan ( sigh….it was a big task to drag myself off the bed!!) we were at the beach road by 6…but alas…it was a cloudy morning and we were jus one among the many disappointed tourists there. But finally at 6.15 the sun emerged from the clouds which itself was a total delight to watch. A small morning walk around the city and back to hotel. Woke up the others and we left for a private resort ( it was a backwater + beach). Went boating in the backwaters…reached the beach. A portion of the partition between the backwaters n the beach is not destroyed by the strong tsunami waves….so its like the sea meeting the backwaters there. We spent some time playing football and volleyball on the beach and in then it was time for water sports! J some super time we had.
By noon we were out of the resort, had lunch and back to Chennai by 5 pm. Roamed around the IIT campus…awesome awesome place. 640 acres!!! Gosh…huge! The inmates includes human species with high intellectual levels + 8 black bucks + countless ordinary deers + peacocks + monkeys n god knows wht more….its a total jungle! J swamps…lakes…canteens…cricket grounds…indoor theatres….sigh ….i wish I was back in campus!!!
We left the campus at around 8 to catch our train back to Bangalore with slightly heavier luggage ( cause of the tones of sand we exported from the beach) and loads n loads of good memories….bye bye to IIT …bye bye to the super gang of friends…bye bye to Chennai…il be back soon!! J
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