Goodbye 2009 and Welcome 2010

So with yet an another marvellous year rolling behind my back.. its time to recollect the happenings in this great year. A year in which I was happy for much of the time. I realized a lot of things , learnt more about myself and the world around in this year. Importantly, I was able to spend lot of time in pursuing my favourite hobbies.. painting,reading (got back my by-gone habbit of reading stories),travelling,swimming.. and spent lots of time at home with my parents and sis thanks to the extended holidays we got due to the festivals falling on friday and monday :) (Its a great point about 2009). Trips to Coorg,Mysore and Pune would stay forever in my memory.. I really thank god for showering me with happiness in this year and look forward to 2010.

Kal Ho Na Ho - A movie that has stayed in my heart forever

Day before yesterday, as I was switching through the channels on TV, I happened to see a scene from this great movie and for the next 2.5 hours I was glued to the TV completely lost in this movie. I really do not understand why I am sooo very fond of this movie. I remember when I was in hostel I owned 3 CDs containing this movie and I was sooo damn possesive about it .When I lent it to someone, I could not bear to see one of the CDs returned with some scratches :(. So what was in this movie that attracted many (including yours truly) Is it Aman, the cheerful guy with a beautiful heart? Or is it the cute,moody,bubbly Naina? Or is it the jovial,happy-go-lucky Rohit? Or is it the lovely setting of the movie in New York and Canada? Or is it the wonderful melodious and peppy songs? Or is it the great humour in this movie? Or is it because few scenes in the movie brought tears in my eyes? Or is it the fun and frolic of family and excitement potrayed in the movie? Or is it the name and theme of the movie? I dont think it is only one thing has made this movie my "Most Favourite Movie in my life time". I have loved every single bit of the movie.. every second I watched this movie I was totally involved in this. Kudos to Karan Johar for bringing this great movie which invoked the same passion and excitement in me in the watching the film even after 6 years after this movie got released (Nov 2003).

Wake Up Sid - A must watch movie

Last weekend, had an oppurtunity to go for this awesome movie at Garuda Mall. Just the Friday evening, my previous lunch gang at office were discussing for what to do this weekend.. During our Friday evening snacks.. we discussed what movie to watch.. including some Kannada movies in the list.. Finally all three of us hit upon 'Wake Up Sid' at the same time.. :)
And thats it.. plan was on to watch the movie on Saturday.. Though initially there were a few messups regarding the booking of tickets and we even wondered if we would be able to watch the movie due to some mis-communication while booking.. things ended up fine and we were in the hall facing the big screen at around 5:15 PM.. Once the movie started.. we were just totally engrossed in the movie every single second thanks to the wonderful acting by Konkana Sen (this lady rocks I tell you :) ) and Ranbir.
The way Mumbai city is potrayed in the movie really wants you to visit Mumbai especially in the rains :)... The cool college life, working life,true friendship,mom-dad relationship,lovely Mumbai, are really potrayed so well in this movie that take you into the world of Sid and Aisha Banerjee.. If you get a chance.. do watch this movie.. its one of the best experiences you can get :) especially at Garuda mall :).

After the movie as we were coming down.. we could see the live-recording of one of the finals of "Voice of Bangalore" program on Zee TV being done. We had an awesome time listening to the charming participants with best voices in Bangalore with much famed celebrities are judges..

Overall.. it was a weekend to remember forever in my lifetime.. :)

Zindagi Rocks!

I have been upto the following lately.

1) Last Saturday (5/9/2009) had a wonderful evening with our family friends of two decades at Boat Club. It was truly an evening to remember. Driving late at around midnight through the one of the posh localities in Chennai which boasts of some of the costliest houses of big-shots was a great experience all together.

2) Am experiencing hostel life (Phase II) and am having a good time settling into my new room.

3) Am hooked up in reading novels , painting and travelling. I have always enjoyed travelling.. be it the simple journey to majestic or travelling in train which makes me experience the great countryside or going trekking in the hills..

In short, I really love nature and look for every small oppurtunity to be one with it every day of my life. That also tells you the reason why my blog has some shots of nature here and there :) .My most fav nature shots have abundance of greenery in them.

P.S. The header pic in this blog is Kaveri Nisarghadhama in Coorg(Madikeri) which we visited in 2009.

Mysore Trip

Last weekend, got an oppurtunity to visit Mysore with my parents on account of my dad's friend's wedding. I had previously visited this beautiful place exactly 8 years ago. The journey was filled with images of vast lush green fields overlooking the indigo sky as we passed through some of the most fertile land in Karnataka (Mandya, Srirangapatna). These regions are synonymous with Agriculture what with the Kaveri river surrounding them. This is also the rainy season so droplets of water falling from the sky on the green carpet made it even more scenic.
Our train reached Mysore and we were received by our family friend Hema aunty in the station. The wide , non-congested streets of Mysore with greenery on either side left a great first impression of the city. Roads have very very less traffic and are less polluted. We arrived at the calm and green residential locality of Hema aunty and had a warm reception at her beautiful and very well maintained bungalow. Nothing had changed much in her house and I recollected memories of the past. Chatting with her daughter Gowri in the very same room, the cats, the beautiful visiting room, etc. That very evening we made a trip to the famed Brindavan gardens. Enroute we passed through the much famed Infy campus which was spread to a vast area. The gardens provide a good background for photos :) and we took plenty of them there.
The whole garden was lit up in the night and the colourful fountains made the place beautiful. We especially enjoyed the musical fountains which had the water in the fountains swaying to the sound of amazing songs. We had a great dinner at a nice hotel with our hosts. We spent time chatting with aunty and retired for the night. The next morning we had to leave for a typical Kannadiga wedding of a family friend. I was fascinated by the drive through the beautiful roads of Mysore. After the wedding, we proceeded to a beautiful Bonsai garden having a collection of miniature plants which we really enjoyed walking through. Our next place in the list was Chamundi hills. The drive through the Chamundi hills took us through some beautiful viewpoints of Mysore. We had a good darshan and purchased a few local stuff there and made our way to Lalith Mahal (now Hotel Leela Palace). They even had a helipad for helicopters to land. Though converted into a hotel, the ground floor is thrown open to the public. Several films were shot in this famed place including the likes of Chandramukhi. It took us through the ages of the kings and queens and the royal life they led. We also had an oppurtunity to visit the place where the much famed "Raa Raa" song from Chandramukhi was shot. Though the architecture is not as intricate as that of Mysore Palace, it was beautiful and we had a pleasant time there. Our next stop was the famed Mysore Palace. The exteriors are not as attractive. But once you get indoors, the architecture is just mind blowing! The designs right from the tile to the roof are so detailed with the best colour combination you could ever imagine. So if you ever visit Mysore, dont miss this wonderful place. Unfortunately, we needed to cut short our visit due to time constraints. We returned back and our hosts made our stay extremely memorable from the first step into Mysore till the last one outside in many ways than one. Our return train journey throught the horrible Thirupathi Passenger Express needs a seperate post on its own. Though officially the coach is called reserved, its just like any other Unreserved compartment with the crowd entering the train in an adhoc manner and seated on the sleeper berths of reserved people and causing chaos. And to add on to it, the passenger train exactly twice the time of a normal train. However, minus this, we had a lovely trip and it would go down into my memory as some lovely experiences of mine.

A canvas to unleash my creativity

I have been hooked on to painting for the past 6 months or so.
I just recently started a new blog to unleash my creativity!

http://myexperimentswithart.blogspot.com/

I will keep updating the same about my artistic pursuits every now and then!

Life in Bangalore

My office has shifted to the new location and for the last month I spent roughly around 2 hours travelling daily. Luckily for me,Volvo buses are some of the best things in Bangalore and I travel quite a bit through them. They are so frequent and plenty in number and make travelling a great experience :).I also have my FM radio in my mobile as my company through which I got introduced to some really wonderful Kannada songs. Listening to songs travelling in a Volvo bus as the scenary outside the window keeps changing from greenery to lakes to huge glass window buildings is a lovely experience by itself (provided you start at the right time and dont get stuck up in too much traffic :) ) .

One of the Kannada songs really bowled me over. Shreya Goshal's brilliant voice has done the magic again! I am listening to this song as I write this post. Its from the movie Birugaali. Please listen to it and share me your reviews!



P.S. There is one more very melodious song named Madhura Pisumaatige from this movie which is often played in the FM.

Flipping through the pages of my life...

I have been gearing up for shifting my home for quite sometime. Normally, during a cleaning process we uncover a lot of precious little stuff in our life which take us into the world of nostalgia. I happened to unpack three precious hardcover books containing autographs of my college classmates and juniors. I could not resist halting my cleaning process and reading through them late into the night for the next three hours.. It took me back to my college days..the sweet and bitter memories written by my dear friends.. the settings of the classroom (with me coming to the class in half-sleepy mode and continuing sleeping :) while listening to lullabies), me sketching on the notebooks of my benchmates and myself while acting like listening (I still have not given up this habit :) ),those late-night chats with friends sitting on the steps of the stores,leg-pulling chats in the dining hall (with mostly me as the target :) ),the super-fast story listening sessions before semesters and internals,the interactions with the juniors,the misunderstandings with friends,the placement preparations with my friends and the joy of getting placed,conducting various events which made me forge many friendships,my old computer in my room and the hostel with which I shared a strong bonding :),the travel to and fro Madurai to Chennai and lots more... It made me sail back in the race of time to memories of a totally different world of its own and brought me back images of myself in the past... Flipping through these pages definitely refreshes me and gives a light and enjoyable feeling.

Change game...

Yesterday, while I was coming to office along with my mom who wanted to visit a relative in Bangalore a strange thing happened. I decided to take an auto to my office as I was running late for a telecon which was to happen in the next half an hour's time.My experience with auto drivers in most of the cases has been quite a pleasant one until this happened.
An auto driver stopped near us. He asked if I had 500 rupee note and he would give me 5 hundred rupee notes. I checked and said no. My mom checked in her purse too and had a 500 rupee note. She gave it to him. This is where the whole thing started. He gave one 100 rupee note to my mom. Soon, he asked "Where is the 500 rupee note".
My Half-Confused mom started checking in her purse.... Meanwhile all this confusion was taking time and since there was just 20 min for the telecon I had left to board a Volvo bus. However the bus had started. So again I came back to my mom and got some idea about what was happening. I started defending my mom and said that she did give him the 500 rupee note. I tried taking note of the vehicle number but unfortunately it was in Kannada :( and could not make note of it. The auto driver by then had started his vehicle and had disappeared at high speed into a small unpopulated lane at the side. My mom stood there highly surprised at what had happened. She had hardly been cheated on things in front of her own eyes! And that too 400 hundred bucks in one shot! When my mom discussed this with my house owner in bangalore about this incident they said that such things are very very common here.
People come by and ask for change and even after giving them the proper change they distract you in some fashion and confuse you to believe that you have not given the right amount of change. As for my poor mom.. she did her bit in compensating for the loss by taking a long walk to and fro to her relative's place saving around 50 bucks from the 400 hundred she had lost!