Over Already? :O

Wow 43 days went by real quick. But no,I should not brood this time

In the last weekend of holidays, I went on a “solo”(that’s a feat by itself 😛 hence the highlight) hiking trip to Sharavati Valley(Western Ghats).When I say solo, I mean me with random bunch of people from all over India.When I decided to go, I read through the details of the trip and in my mind I was thinking,”Ha! Just a stupid trek up a valley.I can complete it like a boss.” I did complete it but after slipping,falling,crawling and holding on to a branch like a baby hoping it would automatically transfer me to my destination.Most of the other people in the trip had done several high altitude treks and I was not just the one with least experience but also the youngest of the lot. Let me share some photos.

Note: These were not taken by me.

Let me also show you how we reached the Dabbe falls (Dora style :P)

1. Walk down this beautiful road – simple

 2. Cross a leaches-filled pathway – No time to take photos there for we were busy picking leaches from our body 

3. Very carefully cross this small water falls – this was fun

4. Cross this ply wood bridge – just that the bridge is broken and half into water

5. Walk down, climb down(or crawl, sit, jump – do something and go down) this clearance – this was challenging as it was raining 24*7.

6. Stand and admire the falls

More photos when I get them and more about the experience later!

There Was A Girl….

There was a girl who never rested her foot on the ground

She was feisty, creative, wonderful

She had big dreams

She conquered them and turned them into reality

She always floated high above everyone else

She was never meant to be on the ground

She knew how to differentiate between the real and the surreal

She knew how to handle them

She was the queen of her life

She lived it beautifully

Her life had everything – joy,grief,surprise,hurt,anger,frustration,success,innocence

Everything

When she won she worked with joy and love

When she lost, she worked with disappointment and love

So at the end of the day,what was constant was love

Love for what she did

Love for people she was with

Love for where she was

Everything around her was not gold though

Everything around her was not perfect

But she ruled every single day

She worked passionately,always lived in the moment

She took a break,stepped out of work

Saw the world

Spoke with people;Met more people

Gave time for everyone that she cared for

She sang,partied and slept

It was mixing everything perfectly that made each piece fall into the right place

She understood that perfection in life meant the path should be curved and not well laid out and straight

Who is she?

Girl from Utopia?

I wish I come across someone like her.

I wish I find her when I look into the mirror!

The Changing Times and Uncle’s Stories

Its holiday time so the most work I do the whole day is sitting in front of the TV and if that becomes boring, I would happily shift to the computer. So an obviously annoyed mother decides to thrust a couple of not very important tasks on me and since my sluggish demeanor did not get me out of the situation I rather grumpily set out to run the errands. It was quite a distance to cover and somehow, I decided to walk it up. Like a person visiting a city for the first time, I walked rather too slowly looking left and right at the line of buildings and shops and people, suddenly overcome by a strong wave of familiarity that I missed terribly when I stayed in the hostel that I bear nothing but pure hatred for.  However, walking down the road I couldn’t help but notice even the tiniest of the changes in the big old buildings. Had these changes taken place in a matter of months? Or was I merely too preoccupied to notice any of them much before? A lot of the places I used to frequent when I was in school were either remodeled or torn down and even though they stood there as new formed fancier landmarks; the old feeling of warmth was missing.

I completed the work, got back home and slipped into my old uncle’s room because as I continued walking, only one thought stayed. How much of his world has changed? Did that not bother him? Where does he go to revive that sense of belonging and familiarity? Is it only the old photographs and memories that he depends on? There has been one too many afternoons I have spent with him, listening to stories of his days of youth. If you are a Madrasi and if you have given an ear to the stories of the 70s or 80s you would definitely be familiar with the Safire, Blue Diamond and Emarald – the big theatres of those days where, with a single ticket one can catch the same movie twice, thrice or even four times; The big glass of falooda in Mount Road, the milk ice cream for 25 paise.Some buildings like the Spencers and the LIC still stand tall and proud. Long afternoons of cricket, goli tournaments and carom tournaments that to them were battles of life; The dramas in the local sabha or the loud and entertaining street plays and more.

They were mere stories to me when I heard them. I read not an inch deeper into the words of aththi and ran away blissfully unaware of his feelings when he was tired from all the talking. But today, I look at him and am surprised to see him comfortable and at peace. He doesn’t look disturbed. In fact, if anyone had a problem with the changing world at that time, that would have had to be me! How could he, who probably willingly left behind so many things in life and who has probably lost so many other things unwillingly stay so calm? Is that what I have to do when I grow older? I thought I had given up a great deal when all I had to do was go to the hostel where I am to spend a very brief portion of my life- a very temporary shift. Well at least I see that now, such a relief. I turned to see aththi analyzing an Eastman coloured photograph of him and his friend sitting in the beach, laughing. I couldn’t hide my smile. Telepathy? I wonder. It was story time, I knew that and this time I was all ears and somehow I heard more than what he actually told me.

Holidays

So my summer vacation has begun and today was day one of the 45 days. We all plan elaborately for our holidays. We think about what we want to do, where we want to go, fantasy road trips, adventure camps and what not. However somehow, when the time comes to convert our thoughts to actions, we fail. Ahaan! Not this time :P(I hope).

The Movie:

I made a list of movies that I want to watch and today I ticked one out of the list! Piku is about a fiercely independant, head strong, doting daughter called Piku and her old,ill,attention seeking father. When I say ill here, I mean suffering from chronic constipation(So look out for the many many poo poo jokes).      It is a movie in which some of the finest actors are put together, well scripted scenes and songs that remain stuck in your head for days because of how beautiful they are. I really like how Deepika Padukone (an Indian actress) has evolved as an actor(well,I am no critic but when I find something good about someone, I feel the need to share it 😛 ).

So on the whole, Piku was time well spent.

The best part of the day however was being seated next to an old couple in the theater.  They thoroughly enjoyed watching the movie, laughing hard and relishing their day out. There seemed to be an air of happiness around them and I was happy to stay within that radius of joy and positivism.

New Hangout Spot Found:

I have read about a particular cafe in Chennai- about its ambiance and how it is set up. I visited the place today and Oh! It was beautiful.

Take a look at it: .                                                                                                .       This place made us feel like we were hibernating from the traffic and the heat. Its ideal for  beating the Chennai soodu.

Summing up, on Joey Tribbiani’s words,

movie-good(well it was better than good :D);

cafe-gooood;

day-goooooooooood

Why Be That When You Can Be This?

Hola! Today is Navroz (just something I got to know from Google) which is the Zoroastrian New Year so Navroz Mubarak people 😀

Anyway, today early in the morning I came across a link to one of A.R.Rahman’s songs and I felt the urge to share it, not because it was his best but merely because of what is conveyed through it. So here it is:

It raised a trail of questions inside me

Why be selfish when you can be helpful?

Why be arrogant when you can be sweet?

Why be angry when you can be well, not angry?

Why sit when you can stand?

Why just stand when you can dance?

Why be sad when you can be happy?

Why lose hope when you have the world and ladies and gentlemen, let me quote what a wise man once said, “The World Is Your Oyster”. So charge towards the infinite possibilities and live,love,laugh! Also, Dance 😛

Wow, I feel like I rendered a sermon- Amen!

A Slice of Happiness

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

I have a brilliant cooking hack to share with you all today. A little this and that before telling you what that is. My college is situated in a small town and not many things are easily available here and by things I mean pizza and garlic bread. Yes, hard to believe right? Also, my experience in cooking is limited to making errr, tea(you can call it cooking right?). Anyway, I should stay here for a year and half more people. Necessity is certainly the mother of inventions(yes, I am very proud of this find that I call it an invention :|) I found a way to make garlic bread that tastes just like the one I get in my hometown. Yay!

Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to share it with you.

Step 1: Take as many slices of bread as you need and toast them.

Step 2: Melt the cake of butter and in it add finely chopped pieces of garlic.

Step 3: Mix the garlic pieces in butter.

Step 4: Apply the spread on the toasted bread slices.

Tada! Your Garlic bread is now ready to serve! aahhaa. easy,isn’t it? Its not just easy, it is tasty too 😀

PS: You can add corn,tomato and other ingredients to make the dish more interesting.