Zzzz...ing out of home

Am out of Bangalore for the long weekend :) Drove out to Ooty to beat the heat.

A pleasant drive, good music to keep us company, Bacardi breezers quenching our thirst, laughter & teasing friends and to top it all a weather you could kill for.

It looked like the whole of South India was in Ooty. The town was filled with cars and the narrow roads with zillions of people. All hotels were sold out. We managed to find a nice cottage for both the nites.

The rooms were cosy but I kept telling myself that i am not going to sleep very well. I was missing my own room and most importantly the comfort of my bed. Spent two full nites tossing & turning, draining my Ipod's battery. The TV was not of any help.

This happens everytime I leave home on a trip. It normally takes one sleepless nite for me to get over the uncomfortable phase. Cos on the second nite I am sleep deprived and doze off without much effort. This time around I return to Bangalore as a Zombie :) Hope to catch up on the lost sleep while driving back.

Not to worry. Am not on the wheel ;)

The Valentine's Surprise !

Am not the "Valentine" kind of person. But I do admit living up to the "expectation of the day" for many years !

Feb 14, 2009 was different. There were no expectations and I had no regrets.

Little did I know that my dear friends would thrill me at the dawn of Feb 17 with a surprise gift :) It was the same watch that I laid my eyes on a week back, when I was out window shopping. The very wrist watch which I classified as "classy" yet "too expensive"!!! My consolation for not purchasing it was, "I have an expensive taste".

Well, this time around I got to taste my dream.... and believe me, it was Yummy ! Truly yummy !!!

Have you ever wondered....

You wake up feeling low on energy, low on spirits.... generally feeling low about life ! But all of this happens without a reason !!! No matter how much you ponder over, the reason remains a mystery.

That is exactly how I felt when I woke up today and started to get to work. I did not enjoy my drive to work nor the nice music from my favorite CD. Was irritated with the security guard at work who wanted to do his job of checking the car's boot and my backpack for "stealth weapons". Reaching my desk, I got online and my friend pinged to say 'Hi' and wanted to know how I was doing. I guess my replies did not portray my usual self and she promptly asked me if everything was OK. I told her that I was down and out and did not know why.

It is then I realized that even subtle responses over an instant message can convey my mood like an X-ray. I decided to change my frame of mind and try not to find reasons for my unhappiness. Instead, I chose to hunt for reasons that would make me happy at work. I have a long day at work staring in front of me, and did not want to walk around exposing my "unknown unhappiness". My team is very quick in scanning my every action :-)

Am almost thru with my day and things dint seem so bad afterall. But somewhere in the corner of my mind the thought still lingers..... "But why?"

Slumdog Millionaire @ The Oscars !

A lot of bouquets & brickbats around "Slumdog". I wanted to see what the fuss was about. I read 'Q&A' by Vikas Swarup around 2 years back and enjoyed reading the book. It definitely had a bollywood touch to it and I recommended the book to friends as a fun read.

Booked tickets for the nite show of Slumdog on Feb 1, 2009 @ Lido Fame Cinemas. I was hoping to watch a decent replication of 'Q&A' but was disappointed from the very beginning. The movie did not have anything to keep my attention on the screen. My mind kept wandering and comparing the few stories that were adapted from the book. It made me wonder how this movie made it to the Oscars.

Talking about ARR's music, I think he has composed some classy tunes in zillion other movies and his music for 'Slumdog' can be easily forgotten. Being a die-hard fan of ARR, it makes me sad to see him getting nominated for such mediocre work.

In my mind, the comments made about showcasing Mumbai badly are totally baseless. I think we must accept reality I see no wrong in what was shown of Mumbai. However, I would agree with most critics and especially ace director Priyadarshan who has lashed Slumdog as a mediocre, trashy version of erstwhile bollywood movies.

I feel no sense of pride in 'Slumdog' making it to the Oscars. Well, thats my personal opinion and if you are reading this, its well within your rights to disagree ;)

Here is a small list of my favorite movies that could have represented India for the 'most prestigious award'
- Thanmatra (Malayalam, featuring Mohanlal)
- Anbe Sivam (Tamil, featuring Kamal Hassan)
- Taare Zameen Par (Hindi, featuring Aamir Khan)
- Shwass (Marathi, did get nominated but did not win)

A year of travel....

Been a year of amazing outings and travel. Here is a snapshot....

Sep 2007 Phuket, Bangkok
Oct 2007 Coorg
Nov 2007 Ooty, Coorg
Dec 2007 Kakkabe
Jan 2008 Goa
Feb 2008 Simsha
Mar 2008 Kovalam
Apr 2008 Devarayanadurga, Chikmanglur
May 2008 Coorg, Hogenekkal
Jun 2008 Manila, Cebu, Baugio
Jul 2008 Mysore, Jaipur
Aug 2008 Shimoga
Sep 2008 Belur, Halebid, Kemmangundi
Oct 2008 Hampi
Nov 2008 New Delhi, Manila, Cebu
Dec 2008 Manila, Cebu, Coorg
Jan 2009 Aamchi Mumbai
Feb 2009 Hassan
Mar 2009 Hassan, Mysore
Apr 2009 Trichur
May 2009 Ooty, Kakkabe, Kushalnagar
Jun 2009 Tirumala, Thirupati
Jul 2009 Yercaud
Aug 2009 Agra, DFW

Sep 2009 Minnesota, Wisconsin

Oct 2009 Houston, Austin

Nov 2009 New York, Port St. Lucie, Miami

Dec 2009 New York, Port St. Lucie

Jan 2010 New York, Port St. Lucie

Feb 2010 Port St. Lucie, Fort Lauderdale, Bangalore

Mar 2010 Sakleshpur, Chennai

Apr 2010 San Antonio, Austin

May 2010 Possum Kingdom Lake, Graham

Hope the list continues...... Bon voyage !

Another year... a lot brighter

Its that time of the year again, when I feel 21. And this year am away from home, family and friends. Doc (Darrin) is the only person known to me here in Philippines. We are in Cebu City now and I was at work at the stroke of midnite.

I dont want to blog about how I feel on my birthday.... its just a mirror image of what I wrote last year.

Am on top of the world..... counting my blessings ! And trust me, our Arithmetic system needs to be redone for me to accomplish this task.

This is a great day !!!

All play and no work.....

Yes.... that was the main reason for the outing to Kakkabe in Coorg. The RPM team decided to take a break and we boarded a mini bus at 6 am on 28 Dec 2007. It was a chilly morning and the drive was exciting and fast. There was music, singing, sleeping and of course drinking along the way. Then we changed gears to watching 'Friends' for a while after which it was 'Munnabhai MBBS'.

(The road ahead at 9.02 am !!!)

We took a breakfast break at Maddur Tiffany's but not many wanted to eat. Barring the few who stepped in to eat, the rest of us decided to have coffee and browse around a shop selling curios. I got myself a catapult for the trip !!!

The next stop was at Ranganathittu Sanctuary. It was time for bird watching... and am actually talking about bipedal, warm-blooded, vertebrate animals that lay eggs. If you don't trust me, here is the proof !

We then took a boat ride to spot some crocs and were lucky to spot 4 of them. One big bad boy gave us that 'Nikon' moment (not 'Olympus') that really enthralled all of us.

After Ranganathittu it was time for a nap for most of us, cos we headed out for this trip straight after a night shift. Zzzzzzzzz......

to be continued.......