At home At Hullimakki.....

A sweet voice said "I am waiting to run away, are you coming" and thus began this trip. Rushed to office immediately, a good chit-chat for half an hour then headed to V.V.Puram Food street. Hungry stomach and eclectic dishes always gel well. Reached Hullimakki at around 5 AM. Half an hour nap and then for the first time in my life i had bed coffee and bed tea, and it was awesommmmm. Cold climate, speciallll coffee (as Genelia puts it!!) and badminton made my morning.

A 2 hour trek later with some great snaps. Was just too hungry when i spotted a Ginnu (Pudding cooked with colostrum) look-a-like, it was too yummy. Aunty's cooking was an epicurean's delight, lunch was just lip smacking with akki rotis, cocunut chatni, bamboo shoot pickle, dry chicken etc. Then we had a wonderful time at their private waterfall. Sitting below the fall of water was quite a relief from body aches and felt supreme. We had a magnificient time there. Reached back and had juice, pineapple juice was never so tasty. Then badminton time again followed by play time with Rangi(A calf) and then 2 cups of tea and a cup of coffee( I think that states how pleasing they were). Of course we had to let out some quality time for UNO, this time with lots of 'open' cheating tricks. Later betal leaf wine + campfire + pic time. Then we invented some new badminton concepts.
Me and Vinz-Lazy Badminton- Absolute no leg movement.
Me Vinz and Shubra- Trio Badminton-This didn't work out well.
Me,San,Vinz,Sameer,Kartha+refreees- The all-opponent badminton- Even your teammates can function as your opponent. This was just a flabbergast ride.

We kicked off next morning with taTTe idli and headed off to a trek. Sudks and gang went ahead for about 4 hills, while me and San had some quality time experimenting her new SLR (Ond sala nan pic, Ond sala aval pic) after 2 hills. Climbing down we found a pond, lots of big fishes there, they seemed to love puffed rice. Back home, me, sudks, Damodar and Kartha went ahead for bath at a small stream and returned for a great lunch again. Then had great fun with the puppies minchu and shiny, will miss them a lot. Everyone of us had a sad time saying good bye to aunt ant uncle. Thanks to them again for such a great weekend.

As a kid i believed.....

I was just recalling the other day, some crazy things that i believed as a kid. Check those out, just for a fun read. Please don't judge me by those, most of those must be around 10-15 years old and are just presumptuous as of today.

-WWE star undertaker's life was in a bottle. I used to always think and worry how much care he should take about it, just in case somebody should open it and he would end up dead.

-Our digestive system is a complex machine with lots of screws and gears n stuff, basically lot of machinery. Don't laugh!!!! Give me a break, every kid would have thought this atleast once in his life.

-South Africa's ace fielder Jhonty Rhodes does not have skin and his entire body is plastic surgerised, thought so only he can field so well as plastic is too tough to break. I still don't know how i believed it. But i remember one my cousin saying that to me.

-Our drawing teacher in around 3rd standard stopped coming to school suddenly. There was a rumour her head suddenly broke open and I could not help wondering, what must have been the situation here, Brains split wide open!!!. Hope she is very much well today.

-A flash game "Kaun Banega Crorepathi", i thought was the most complex game to run on a computer. It used to take almost 15-20min (practically!!!) to open the game's console on my cousin's computer. Today i think i can't quantify its RAM.

-Around seven tractors of gold can be found if we read an old script in Kannada, carved on a stone in one of the temples in my mother's natives. My relatives had explained it to me very convincingly. It was like a giant snake protecting the gold underneath and as soon as the script was read, earth would open itself with a huge crevice and gold would pop up. There was a mark on that script , it was told that a guy in search of gold tried reading it but could not hence he shot it with a pistol.

Welcome To Sajjanpur...

Relief!!!!Relief!!!! Relief!!! Relief from movies which depict bungalows so spacious difficult to imagine even in a fairy land, innumerable wooden actors and actresses, baseless designer clothing's which are to be just worn all the time, pathos running into hours, meaningless jokes and pathetic songs combined with the worst choreography even when they are least required (I can only think of SRK's 'dream sequence' excuse here). Nowadays movies don't even have the concept of mother and father as it is no more trendy i guess. Thanks to Sajjanpur which defied all such must be rules of the modern bollywood and brought the village back on the big screen. And kudos to Shyam Benegal who dared such an attempt.

Shreyas talpade's acting is just getting better with each movie. Here too he does an excellent job. Most importantly you connect with his character Mahadev instantly. Amrita Rao looks fantabulous as always, and has carried Kamala's gaon ki gori character gracefully. I particularly liked her when she reasons why she abandoned school The director gives ample screen space for each of his characters and defines them aptly. The plot is simple yet is pervasive filled with loads of hidden social messages. The mousi who cries through her nose, her hot-headed daughter, all the letters, the villian defending his wife, are all humourous. The songs are refreshing paticularly Seetaram and Bheene bheene although you feel some of the others were not necessary.

In all, a good movie. Enjoy :)

MegaMergers........We Suck

This is the company me, Ragz,PK,SR and Kaddi conceptualised. Actually to be precise I am the CEO. There can't be a better choice however, Ragz is a part of board of directors. SR, well to be precise logistics department (Think who else can go to a mall at 10 in the morning, positive side to it... dedication!!!). PK, the security committee and kaddi fitness department.I had come up with the logo and Ragz had come up with an impressive punchline. "We Suck" yup that was perfect!!!.

The company took its birth in (2,2) . Gradually the company began to expand and had major offices at (2,5) and (3,5). We had hired people which we thought they are capable of and gave them jobs suitable to their profiles. Some of which i'd like to put down here.
1]CSN, Layman and the guy who used to ask "Praveen, is there food in mess today" for our Mars exploration wing. Let them dissent over each other and fight, just let them be away with their esoteric thoughts.
2]And the girl who almost all the guys had crush over, was to be incharge of our esteemed lab facility( What say praveen and Ragz, you guys know better??)
3]PK's girl was fit for R&D. And more funda, the walls of that building were made of books books and books!!!!.
4]The receptionist was that girl..Man how to put it....Disc brakes would be the clue!!!
5]For our fashion supplement we had "bigdi huwi bacchi" and Co.
6]Man in woman's voice would be a speaker for the company announcements.
7]Fitness segment which was handled by kaddi, also had Scorpion king, and Scorpion queen(this name i made up just now) as deputies.
8]The handkerchief guy was fit for nothing, actually yes for one thing, yes medical research....its easy to guess what field.
9]And our relationship with our enemies was handled by JRLB. (Whats her CET rank SR??)
10]Many obvious guys, sorry first bencher's for R&D.
11]HR would be from the Happy Family group.
12]Kaddi had other jobs too, "The Devout & Ekaadashi Group" and "The No light absolutely group" and "The Ghante group", probably he would start blogging after reading this and post against me. Remember the golden words "Nan presentation heega maadthiyaa, ninduu yella slides kitt haakthini"
13] CSN's girl would be for new hires training and syllabus setting committee.
14]"The Salesman" was more than apt for his responsibilities.
Most of the our company resources have been put down here. Have fun reading the reminisces. All rights reserved.

Ganapathi Bappa moryaa............

Mom said to me and vishwa "Get ready soon, aunt's car will be here soon, else we are going to be late". We both were still counting our crackers, arranging them till we are pleased. Finally, the car arrives. Its always a part of plan of our cousins to get into Sujatha aunt's car as she the only one who can be one among us and be a part of our anthakshari group. However aunts are ok, but no uncles in whatever case. Not Basu kaka as we know, will get only education related lectures the entire journey. Not prabhu kaka , because everyone fears him. Not others because they dont understand what we are doing. Tej kaka was fine anyway. The fun part of anthakshari was pooja and krupa always wanted to team up with vijakka( they used to imitate her in a million ways otherwise also actually), but it was true vijakka's team was always the winner, even my cheating tricks couldn't save our team :( . It would be the most awaited journey for all of us as it will be unlimited fun. The competition between differnet cars as to who will reach first, the jokes cracked are all just.......!!!. Finally we will reach Gandigawad.

Now is the most interesting task, to construct the mantapa. Usually all cousins, suresh kaka, shankara kaka, Tej kaka will be at the job. But the design always remains the same. The outer framework of a cot, inside which a table will be placed. Two threads hanging vertically from the roof upto the all the edges of the table, this is were we could stick the colored papers, a product of our creative designs. A table cloth , and lots of dust ridden play toys(because this will be the only time they will be opened) which need immediate cleaning to be placed in front the idol. This total process usually takes 5-6 hours. By the way, in the kitchen, aunts will be on their gossip and bursts of laughter's. We join them periodically as we should complete the task of mantapa also. After all this, now its the uncles task to make us all get to bed. But no one will be ever interested. The number of cousins almost number to a dozen, and the energy levels are only soaring as the time passes. Finally time to go to bed, all cousins lay one beside another, as it gives chance a trouble one another thoroughly. And i wish, there will be only one blanket as the tug of war can keep going. And how did i miss that table fan? ya, its only one of its kind. It vibrates so much that it almost crawls to the bed from where ever it is. To prevent the damage my dad usually used to tie it with the rope.

Its morning, vijakka, me, ash, pooja, vishwa, kiran, krupa, abhay, tushar, vikas, chintu, even rakshita had joined in the very important job, collection of crackers. All uncles are pestered, until we will have a handful. All set with our incense sticks, match boxes, crackers, we start the most auspicious journey. Towards shetter's shop, a left turn, then straight, until that jain temple , then a right, go further and then a left, the second house is the one where we get the idol from. The soil we be damp and we are walking without any footwear, which are thought of as violating the sanctity. Shankar kaka is the one who carries Lord Ganesha all the time. As soon as he comes out carrying the Lord, we are ready with our crackers. Cautioning each other about some stray crackers, flicking other's crackers, ya we do all that, and all that is fun. We reach home back, A puja is performed to welcome the Lord. And devotional songs follow. My mom and dad usually sing that "Jyothi belaguthidee..." Its kind of a trademark song. The best time will be when pooja and krupa are made to sing a song. Those gals sing at the top of their voice, and me and ashvini cant stop laughing. All uncles and aunt busy appreciating the girls singing, cant stop giving an angry look at us both.

Its time for more crackers and crackers and crackers. Then food , just an awesome delicacy always. After that we have time to chat, crack jokes, and then i forgot going into that small room to burn those snake tablets, and some other crackers with all the funny names. Finally a call from uncles and aunts..time to leave. This would be the most hated part, but yet forced to do. As we bid adieu to Gandigawad , in the car all are so tired that no one will have enough enthusiasm to even talk, but hoping for next year we will meet up the same day again desperately.

Today is one such day. Now a days Gandigawad is abandoned, we welcome Lord Ganesh in our home in Hubli. Some aunts and uncles turn up. My sister and jiju cant make it up this time, as they are in US. Abhay cant make it because he is busy with his engineering. Pooja and vikas, oh please forget them, they are in PU II. Only some four cousins are having fun together and trying to relive the moments. And my self, I'm very busy with that scalablility issue and that customer issue and that new hire mentoring and that too I took a long leave recently. Ya, see I justified myself. And in the same way others too do it. Ya life has changed a lot. May be this is the truth. May be as we started moving away from the wilderness to the concrete jungle, we also started moving away from what we love to the things that are necessary.

A sweet relevant poem(Thank san for this):
The innocence is gone-
It has fled from them and me.
It has vanished,Never to return.
In this lifetime

It is gone from us,
Those who have it, cherish it,
It goes quickly and quietly
And we never know that it is gone,
Until it's too late.

Very much hope someday in the future, all cousins go to Gandigawad back again to celebrate this festival in the way it was meant to be celebrated. And we get to relive those cherished moments.

A fun-filled day......

The day began as usual, reached office at 11. A immediate call for a meeting!! This is what v all probably hate. Completed it in a hurry as San had already cald me twice( A hidden note 4 u kartha). Yes, it was Bhu's farewell treat . The restaurant was already decided. "Little Italy", name sounded interesting to me as i had never tasted authentic Italian before.

San took complete advantage of the fact, me in the same car. Pulled my leg to the core. Since a week 'My pleasure', 'Happening', 'Sharing','Kitth hogidda brown coat' are The topics of discussion, and this continued in the drive tooo. Bhu was in her own thoughts. Its obvious...No..No dont get me wrong here..She was lost coz No SLR n sum1 didn talk to her properly, or probably i wud assume, no material gifts 4m US, this makes more sense actually.

Reached the place, sudks was describing his Wonder ride. V were happy to c them alive. No prizes 4 guessing ,it was manjn's car. The restaurant looked cool. Ppl were desperate to change my place, but thanks it nvr happened. Thanks to the hump beside me. The JVM story took new twists here ....n it was a happy ending i guess as it worked pretty much on my side ( wat say san??), but the fight betn me n kartha went on... (Let sum1 go out of nation CL sure with san) ...Sudks was desperately missing k2, as he passed by it, but cudn talk. Also i think he missed his "Thangi"..ooo sorry "Thangigalu". Sudks ,Ram,Bhu,dars,vinz all were very happy to trouble me. Thanks shas was also thr, diverted thr attention.

Food was jus gr8...bhu was concerned abt the xtra cheese as always. I dont think vinz had ny food. But me sudks n san kno this wont go on for long as she ll soon realise "Yaarige madhta iddini na idannau antha" :)

Reached bac, a quiet drive. Suddenly i realise i had a team meeting, But it was already late, so decided to bunk it. But however i cudn avoid the gyan session. Bac to cube, cell is ringing..its chub...Game 4 a movie..? I said yes.. Chubs used all his parallellism methods to reach forum on time. ya v made it. The movie Indiana Jones was good. Infact i loved it a lot, probably my standards too hav declined after a series of bad bad movies...The best part of the movie was the continued pace, although it was not completely realistic, i like such movies as wat v c daily it real ,the same stuff again n again.. sumthing different is always fun. Then v had sum gr8 burgers at KFC. It is heaven...Bac home bugged gangu a lot lot...It was fun..Infact the entire day was fun...Cooool....