Burfi - Movie review

In the recent past, I attended the first year birthday party of my colleague’s adopted son. Magic show was organized for kids. Magician was ace but entertainment turned out to be mediocre since he did not package it well. He could not catch the pulse of the kids and at the same time interaction with audience was poor.

Cut to Barfi, Anurag Basu took the age old triangular love story as the subject but the film is a hit. Why? Narration, Editing, Cinematography, intersperse by comic scenes, deaf and dumb, autism characters. In nutshell, one more love story presented well. Bill Gates says “If something is not good enough, make it look good enough”, In the age of cut throat competition what differentiates is the presentation.

New breed of directors have yet again proved that script is the hero. “Push and Pull” editing is fast catching up in Indian cinema what I mean is the film does not flow in sequence. I do not want to spoil your curiosity by revealing the story of Barfi film but would like to list down the subtle messages I could gather.

               Deaf and Dumb – Ranbeer

               Autism – Priyanka

               Normal - Ileana

1.      Happiness should come from within and should not be tagged to any external event/circumstance –Ranbeer is full of life, he does not cry on his shortcomings.

2.      Parents love their children irrespective of what they are – Father of Priyanka tries to keep away the child to keep his social status intact but finally admits that he truly loves her.

3.      You can never forget your first love –Ileana falls in love with Ranbeer and cannot forget it for rest of the life

4.      When you are in true love you accept the person as is – Ranbeer falls in love with Priyanka and accepts her as is even when he had choice to select Ileana

5.      One needs to count on the blessings – When we look at the challenges faced by disabled children, we should take a moment everyday to thank God for giving healthy body and sound mind

6.      Adversity  makes you do strange things – To save his father, Ranbeer plans for Kidnap and bank robbery due to lack of money for operation

Article: Just for fun 14/7/2012

               I had this idea for long time but busy and lazy to pen down the thoughts. Couple of weeks back, I had escorted chiu to the movie “Chota Bheem and curse of Damyan”. It was real fun to see the children all round with their parents with those innocent chats and laughs. I was thinking adults should not be allowed to children’s film since we do not allow them to view films of our category. Adults enjoy both the world similar to you non-veg guys who can enjoy veg too.

               The gist of the movie was good fights evil and peace prevails at the end. What caught my attention is chota bheem entering time machine, kill the evil and come back to the present. We have always been taught and agree that past is history and cannot be changed. What if we had the chance to go back and alter the history and come back to present to see its impact. There are zillion ways to alter the history, but I chose one just for fun.

               I would go back in time machine and do not allow British to colonize the east and come back to the present. How would India look today?

1.      India is the richest country and the kings are discussing to stop the jobs moving to third world countries in the west. We have increased the VISA fee to US to protect our borders.

2.      Samskritam is national language and west is learning it fast to get the jobs in India. European and US parents send their children for studies to India in Nalanada, Takshashila universities

3.      Western countries would have aped our Indian dressing [dhoti, jubba, salwar-kameez, pagadi/peta] and food habits such as Masal Dosa, Idli-vade sambar, paratha….. India would have allowed the western restaurants to taste the food of west: burgers, hot dogs, pizza

4.      Bill Gates would have been famous to setup a large back office in US similar to Narayana Murthy and would expect 24x7 service from west

5.      West would adore the rich Indian music and dance. India on the other hand would patronize their less known pop and disco.

6.      Indian scientists would have the pristine clout and the world would eagerly wait to get an award similar to Nobel Prize

7.      Indian films would have world as stage where as English films relegated to regional language film status

8.      The birth of Olympics would have been in India and kabbadi, cho-cho…. would have international games

Don’t you think it’s fun to imagine. Let me know what would you do given a chance…..Please share

Travel Memoir - Belur, Dharmastala, Subramanya (BDS) - 24/8/2012

               “Life is what happens when we are busy making other plans”, this adage is more than apt for our Chickmagalur/Hyderabad trip. Seema and Guru did the initial planning, Deepak introduced rain forecast as spoilsport.  Smitha tried to pull everybody at the last minute but did not materialize. One third of James party got pulled to Nanjangud, Srirangapattana, Hima betta and more important Vasudeva Adiga near Maddur. The remainder James party was pulled by Mulki Maye to Subramanya. Slowly the trip got stretched to Dharmastala and Belur which was not in itinerary.

________________________________Day 1_________________________________________________________

               I and Chiu never open our eyes before 7.10 AM everyday but on 8/19 (Sun) dragged out of the bed @ 5.45 AM. Master plan was to leave Bangalore @ 7.30 AM but as per IST (Indian Stretchable Time) left at 8.30 AM. Seema had told mom that they will have breakfast with Sheviye [Konkani dry noodles] and I had to settle only for a cup of coffee. As our wait for TT got prolonged, I emptied some of the dabbas in the kitchen.

This time driver was Velu with sweet tongue who had to be guided in major part of journey by people inside TT and also outside. We requested Mr. Velu to stop for  breakfast and he selected “Shark food court” where food and beverage was served in empty space and many of tourists were enjoying idli and coffee. We ordered for coffee and tea and opened Mahalasa Sheviye from Shin mam. Mavu (Seema’s father) brought down the entire package of Kaju barfi, oondo… to pick nontche for Sheviye. 35 pieces disappeared in matter of 10 minutes and Seema for the first time got pat on the back for planning the good breakfast, usually she gets cornered. We resumed the journey, Seema & Co. were unhappy that Shin mam took Rs.100 in transportation for transportation  without anticipating a time bomb in store. After a while, Smitha broke the bad news that package of  Kaju barfi, oondo… is missing and we had left the place 30 min behind. From Rs. 100 the conversation got diverted to the worth of the package and number came out to be Rs.500+. Shark true to its name had gobbled the package and we paid heavy price for using the open restaurant.

“Success has many fathers but failure is an orphan”, blame game started with Shilpa as scape goat. In the blame game, son-in laws were untouched which is an advantage of being born male. Imagine the same situation with daughter-in-laws, they would have been cornered easily saying “ma baap ne kuch nahi sikaya bas bejadiya”.  To add to this heat, Seema and Smitha had tiff on planning to go to Shirali for cousin’s wedding. Rakesh intervened and made bhat sisters to sit apart before it got physical.

We disembarked for lunch in Sakleshpur at “Osoor restaurant”. There was no space in my stomach and was not interested to input. “Looks are deceptive”, the restaurant looked posh from outside. Menu had lot of items but waiter had only few items to serve. For the first time I saw Mavu and Seema ordered for veg meal , I pinched myself to make sure it is not a dream. Mulki Maye would have recorded the date and time since such instances happen very rare. I ate buns and shared little bit of rice with Seema. Before exit everyone checked if they have left anything but the fact is everything was lost at one shot. Seema took camera from Smitha but soon we realized that it was not charged and our aim of capturing scenic beauty of Sakleshpur went for a toss. Murphy’s law applies to the onward journey "If anything can go wrong, it will".

               After Sakleshpur it was raining in the ghat section and next pit stop was at Gundiya junction for tea. If I remember correctly, reached Kukke Subramanya in the window of 4 to 4.30 PM. Got the Naga darshan at two places, one being the moola stana. In the queue, I continuously ragged Rajat who was not ready to take of his shirt. Outside the temple I observed someone had left the package of prasad and it took me back to Shark. Seema’s window shopping started but luckily she purchased tool to draw Rangoli. I headed the pack to peta pooja at “Neo Mysore”. After lot of discussion during travel and at restaurant, finally we came to agreement that

night’s halt is at Subramanya and will visit Dharmastala and get back. Seema checked with hotel owner and he referred his lodge “Krishna residency”. Plan was to go for 1 room per family but landed with two + additional beds.

               I donned the hat of MJ (Mobile jockey) to play melodious Hindi numbers of the past during onward journey to Dharmastala. There is generation gap between us and kids and testimony  to it is both Rajat and Chiu were fast asleep, today’s generation wants everything fast, loud and dance numbers. Senior citizens enjoyed the music and some of romantic songs would have taken them to their yesteryears. Got down at Dharmastala at 7.30 PM, Children were cranky since they had exhausted all their energy. Mothers took decision to stay back with kids and Senior citizens followed them. 3 Musketeers(Rakesh, Deepak, Shilpa)  took brave move of not selecting special queue and get into general one. In the queue, planning started on the places to visit coorg during return journey and unaware of how much time would take to get darshan. It took 2.5 hours in the queue for 1 minute darshan and small quantity of nimboos in the stomach.

               Folks who had camped outside did not had food and children just wanted to hit the sack. Mothers took advantage and decided to hit Bangalore and skip Coorg. Again MJ played the songs for folks on empty stomach with pit stop at Gundya junction @ 11 PM. Only two choices on road side restaurant, Kerala parata and omlet. Everyone zeroed down on omlet since kerala parata was served with left over gravy. The numbers started with 2, incremented and stopped at 8. The moment we reached Krishna residency, there was pump in chillar party and they became active. Rajat was asked with whom he would like to sleep with on the bed and as usual answer was annu accompanied by chiu. I had to settle on the ground on additional bed. Bhat sisters (Smitha and Shilpa) who are allergic to AC settled in the room with windows open and fan above.

_______________________________________________________________Day 2_____________________________________________________________________________________________________              

               Seema was the first to wake up in our room and take bath since she knew that hot water will stop at 8 AM. She is trained by her father on time sense but he cannot do much with son-in laws who are lethargic. He has still hopes on incoming third one. Mavu, Maye and Shilpa were already out for pooja at the temple early in the morning. I got up 8:01 AM to complain that there is no hot water and will take bath after hitting Bangalore. Took help of Velu and went to Neo Mysore for breakfast. It was self-service in the morning with fixed price Rs.25/- for food and Rs. 10/- for beverage. Poori was so good that two plates went in and others went for variety.

               Rakesh ordered for hot water and I increased the count to 2 and I was informed that it is Rs. 20/- per bucket. I pulled Seema’s leg that we will get discount when finally expenses are divided by 3. When Mavu returned from temple he added Rs.40/- of rickshaw and Seema started laughing at me. After packing our bags with soiled clothes and started return journey to Bangalore. Again I was asked to play songs but this time I shifted to fast and new numbers, Mavu was unhappy and told that yesterday evening songs were pleasant to ears.

               Mulki maye wanted “Pathorde pana” which grows abundantly on the road side. Staggered approach was taken by stopping the TT at multiple places, Velu must have got pissed off. When everyone was hunting for the leaf, Velu inquired what we do with leaf and had to explain about filling the batter and steaming it. Rakesh next started targeting “taikile pana” and again the TT was made to stop near muslim place where it had grown in abundance. Velu looked at me and said no leaf is a waste, you consume everything. I did not what to answer but according to Seema, next time travels will publish “Konkani’s excuse us” since most of time gets wasted on the highway. After a while, Velu got in sync and started showing croton leaves and stop. Mavu had to explain the difference.

               We stopped at a junction to have tea which was also decision point. There were two ways, one to coorg and other to Bangalore. After lot of discussion, consensus was to visit Belur on way to Bangalore. Visited Belur where one can see more foreigners than Indians admiring the architecture of the past. The next stop was at “Vishnu Regency” for afternoon lunch, again I go back to my earlier point “looks are deceptive”, looks posh from outside and poor maintenance. One highlight of this ordering Veg Sizzler to understand its definition in Belur.

               Watched Singham in Tamil which was nowhere in comparison to Hindi remake. May be Mavu got inspired, stopped the TT and went in search of lost package in Shark. During his return, he looked like Singham from far with sword in hand  but as he neared it was small knife recovered. All the food items were distributed, eaten by hotel folks. They had good Iftar party but shameless ones charged for the tea Mavu had.

               Reached Hanumanthnagar at 8.30 PM and hit the sack at 9.15 PM. 3 of us fast asleep when Guru tried to reach us. To be frank got tired of typing and stopped. Thanks to all for memorable trip and if I have not covered any fun moments, please feel free to add.

Why are we giving in for Sensationalism 7/7/2012

Does it ring a bell when I say Urmila and Yashoo? How about Poonam Pandey, Sunny Leone, Nithyananda…

Please read the snippet below:

The ATR 9760 flight lost one of the nose wheels during takeoff from Silchar airport, 235 km from Guwahati on Monday. The technical snag developed moments before the plane became airborne from Khumbirgram Airport in Silchar at 9 am. After the plane gained altitude, its automated alarm cautioned passengers to be prepared for any eventuality. Captain Urmila, however, flew the plane to Guwahati which has better landing facilities and the aircraft landed under emergency conditions at the Lokopriyo Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport. The plane hovered over Guwahati airport for some time to burn the fuel in the tank to reduce the chances of it catching fire during landing under emergency conditions. Even as fear and anxiety gripped the 48 people onboard, the pilot Captain Urmila Yadav and co-pilot Yashu kept their cool and took a couple of crucial decisions that prevented any loss of life.First, they flew the plane to Guwahati, which has better landing facilities, and the aircraft landed under emergency conditions at Lokopriyo Gopinath Bordoloi International (LGBI) Airport. Second, the team kept the plane hovering over the Guwahati skies for more than two hours to exhaust excess fuel and ensure that it did not burst into flames in the event of a crash-landing.

               According to me this act of “Courage and grit” of two women pilots should have made headlines in the newspaper but sad part is that it landed in a small corner of 5^th or 6^th page. If the same flight had crashed snuffing away the human lives on board. TV 9 would have played the video throughout the day and the newspaper would be full of cries of the relatives and friends of deceased.

               “What we ask is What we get”, as audience we are giving in for a new “ism” called sensationalism and media is feeding us the same. Why not? When visual media’s TRP ratings go up, newspaper distribution increases more and more disasters, murder, dacoity, child abuse, infidelity… make it to the headlines. We are the folks who are helping to glorify the crime.

              Lets take  a step back and start appreciating good things in life so that encouraging makes it to the top. Media slowly will start feeding good news during prime time and newspaper first 3 pages will be void of anything that glorifies crime. What do you think?

Travel Memoir: In and around Tumkur 9/6/2012

               Yet another trip with fragmented (1/3) James party. Guru and family had already visited the place but short notice to Pai family. I needed this break very much.

               To everybody’s surprise this time I browsed the net to find the nearby places Tumkur and got a thumbs up from Guru. I had planned it for Friday but Chiu had advance booking to go to More with her cauliflower friend. The two cauliflowers used the new More outlet as playing ground and parents distanced themselves on fear of getting embarassed. I asked Seema to check whether Rakesh and family would like to be party for short trip. This was captured by in house Tv9 (darling Chiu) and she assumed that Rajat will join us and was jumping with joy. This happiness was short lived since Rakesh had to stretch on Friday and not advisable to go for drive on Saturday morning. Hell broke loose and Chiu took decision not to accompany us for the trip since her brother dropped off. Seema had to cajole her and make up her mind for today’s trip.

              

               Chiu and I got up at 6 AM today which we are not used to and Seema unveiled her innovation “Kanchi Idli” on the breakfast table. She first told me to enjoy aroma and then have it. Aroma was good but I felt like eating “Rulama Idli” which is prepared during festivals since Rice Idlis cannot be prepared. Seema’s expectation was that I would eat 6 or 7 idlis but I tried hard and restricted myself to 3. I spoilt the plan of packing the innovation to short trip and carry over to next day. For most part of onward journey, Seema was silent and just staring at me. I repeated dialogue that I had 3 and appreciated the innovation.

               We (including parents) hit the road at 8 AM IST (read as Indian Stretchable Time). On the way we made sure chiu’s school is physically present to send her from Monday (11^th Jun). It is difficult to engage her in summer holidays which has now stretched beyond the limit. As usual, good roads to Tumkur took a toll on my pocket. Folks inside the car pointed at Kamat and before they could decide I had whizzed past. Seema started asking Goravanahalli as we neared Tumkur since she knows I have the habit of getting lost. We took deviation from highway to reach Mahalakshmi temple 34 km away. On the way I had hit and run case with puppy which suddenly made its entry on the road.

               Gorvanahalli temple is at very remote place but enjoyed driving on the stretch which is well maintained, usually villages will have mud roads or roads with craters. We were stopped by a fellow for parking fees well before the entrance when parking was not in sight, good pro-activeness. At the same time, vendor put his hand inside the car and sold the coconut saying it is Rs. 10 cheaper than temple premises, this is overcoming the competition. To break coconuts inside temple (Rs.2), nothing comes free in life. It took us hardly 10 min to complete the ritual and hit the road again.

               Our next destination was “Namada Chilume” and deer park. I would re-name the place as “monkey’s adda”. I bought some biscuits and cool drinks, closed the car windows to eat the stuff even then a small baby monkey got on to the car to peep what is going on inside. Supreme court’s order of removing the sunfilm helped this monkey to see what is going on inside. After pet pooja, we visited the Namada chilume where water springs out of tiny hole. It is said that Rama during one of his vanavasa day’s did not find water to put tilak on his forehead and hit an arrow to get water. After that incident the place became known as “Namada Chilume”.

On our way back we saw lot of deers near the fence since caretaker had placed lot of leaves for afternoon lunch but could not take snap since Seema had not carried camera. There was one more set of deers (Jinke Marina) which I have informed Guru. Guru you missed it J

               Two more temples (Yogalakshmi Narasimha and Bogalakshmi Narasimha). Taking 250 steps to reach the Yogalakshmi Narasimha at the hill top drained our energy and we skipped Bogalakshmi Narasimha. Outside the temple there are eatables and cold drinks you name it sold by road side vendors. Hill top gives picturesque view of surrounding places of Tumkur. Next place was Sidaganga Mutt, after entering mutt we went around in the car and felt the place to be same as Dharmastala. We missed Sidaganga temple.

               It was 1 pm and was badly hungry. Raced the car to Tumkur city and started searching for a good hotel. Autorickshaw driver pointed to us Nanjundeshwara hotel. We had sumptuous lunch (2 Puri thali, 2 jollad roti thali, 1 fried rice). Fried rice was prepared by James and Chiu did not like it. We could not distinguish between Puri and Pappad. After lunch the driver demanded for sweet paan which was given. Seema became furious at the mention of ShivaGanga and PatalaGanga since it is her time for afternoon nap. The driver had to obey the orders and silently hit the road back to Bangalore.

               One thing to appreciate is the roads are good connecting interior parts and good picnic spot. Only thing we need to hire security guards to take care of ragging by Monkeys. Good place for drive amid greenery.

Travel Memoir - Kanchi - Vellore trip 15/4/2012

<I cannot resist to pen down travel memoirs of yesterday’s trip to Kanchi and Vellore even though I have loads of pending work.  Word of caution, the article is quite long and may test your patience. You may be tempted to fast forward by just dragging scroll bar>

               History repeats and only 2/3 of James party could make it to the outing but with different combination of families. We need to plan for James party reunion before kids summer holidays are over. Thanks to RSS [Rakesh, Smitha, Seema] for pulling out this outing at short notice and more important is successful execution. Rakesh easily slipped into bigger shoes of Pranab da [Guru] and executed role of Finance controller. On Friday morning, I learnt from Seema that driver job is outsourced to BVR travels and I can compensate my sleep while travelling. This happiness was short lived when our own TV9 [darling chiu] brought the updates  that I need to get up at 5 AM in morning on a weekend and drive the car down to Indiranagar. I raised my concern but had to shut my mouth and oblige to the home minister. Let’s get down to the events that happened on the trip.

               Target was to leave at 6.30 AM from Bangalore but delayed since we have to comply with IST [Indian Stretchable Time]. 11 member cricket team boarded the private vehicle and Martin Luther King was on wheels with a small table fan on his head to beat the heat where as open windows for customers since we opted for non-A/C, good example of pay by drink. 11 member cricket was diverse in terms of age – 2 chillar party, 2 middle aged couples, 2 senior citizen couples, 1 in early 20s ready for marriage. 1 member was unique who can be counted on both kids and couple category, I am sure you know whom I am pointing to. Let’s call this team Sixers which becomes easy to refer in rest of the article,  since 6 out of 11 people name starts with S [Sreedhar, Sugandhi, Seema, Smitha, Shilpa, Shriyaa]. 6 being majority, Sreedhar Bhat was unanimously chosen as captain seated next to driver.

               Pit stop at Sarvana Bhavan on highway for breakfast. Usual stuff on the menu which come spontaneously like Sa Re Ga Ma [Idli, Vada, Puri, Pongal, Masala Dosa]. Masala Dosa is always accompanied with Vada [not complimentary] similar to software with bug so that we can maintain relation with client in the long run. Good strategy, If Vada is not selling force it down the  customers throat. Sixers after having heavy breakfast started usual complaints that nothing was good but everything was in. For me food was excellent keeping James as benchmark. I dozed off and rest started inquiring the driver one by one, what time will it reach Kanchi and nagging Rajat for She-Potty. Seema saw a chance to be in good books with him and went for defence. The highway managed by private owners took a heavy toll on our pockets but relieved that it was two-way price.

               In the afternoon, tempo traveler took a deviation from highway to Kanchi. Female folks became alert looking at the advertisements of Pachiyappan, Kumar, Komathi silks. After reaching the temple learnt that temple was closed for God’s nap and will reopen at 4 PM. Next thing on mind was again Sarvana Bhavan for lunch. There was no parking place and driver had to give up lunch. The place was very hot and we bee-lined for A/c compartment and found that the prices are double in comparison to non-A/C counterpart. This is an example of Public ko Din dahade lootana. We vanished from the place and appeared in meals area [non-A/C] just like StarTrek serial. After heavy lunch again Sixers called it not good but the plates were empty and to top it there were ice cream, candy. Chillar party dropped  half the water on floor while having candy and place was messy when we left.

               Female folks forgot the afternoon nap with silk saree shopping next. Tempo traveler made inroads into saree street and female folks were waiting to jump out of the windows. My assumption was that no one will accept credit card and we can escape on the purchase but it did not hold good. After heavy toll on highway, pockets were loosened. Sales guys on these street have in-house saree shops and invite the people walking on the road similar to wedding where folks stand at the entrance. Seema quickly calculated the profit which Mani makes in Hanumanthanagar. Smitha was not satisfied with purchase. After shopping, made darshan and had quick road side coffee/tea. I was profusely sweating and could not bear the heat, I gulped lot of cold water, soft drinks but did not quench my thirst.

               We hurried to our next stop, Vellore Golden temple. Rakesh tried his best to play the songs Rajat liked but was a failure. Driver took a deviation into Vellore city to meet his relative which resulted in 15 km more. The shortest route would have been to continue on highway and take deviation at Sripuram. Driver had earful by the captain when we were still on the way at 6.45 PM and entry to Darshan will stop at 7 PM. Slowly Sixers lost the patience and started nagging the driver. Somehow we made it to golden temple in nick of time. The first ritual was to handover the prized possession to chappal stand. Rakesh learnt that senior citizens will not be able to walk in the long free path and went for paid Darshan queue. Sixers were  divided into two Rakesh, Rajat, 2 Senior citizen couples on the paid route and remaining on the free route.

               Deepak along with 4 S [Seema, Smitha, Shilpa, Shriyaa] plunged into free without knowing what was in store. In the first checkpoint, we gave up mobiles/cameras which is hard to do in today’s connected world. We were then placed in a cage for about 20 min to let go on a long journey. After 10 minutes realized that we are going round and round since we did not shell out the money. True to the saying money can buy comfort. One thing that I appreciated is that everyone was void of mobiles/camera enjoyed the beauty of golden temple with eyes. Usually we become busy in taking pictures to upload in the social networking sites and do not enjoy the moment. Smitha’s wish of touching the golden pillar left unfulfilled. The exit was shorter than the entry route and we finally landed up in a marathon of 3km within temple premises. Rajat had lightened himself after seeing yellow color gold and became more active.

               Exhausted Sixers resumed their journey back to Bangalore. Even though eyes were drooping, stomach was giving signals that you cannot sleep without filling me. After long search for hotels, Seema jumped out of her seat to point a motel LandMaark [ it had two a similar to Shriyaa]. The situation was similar to Satta pe Satta movie where brothers pounce on the dining table the moment food is served. This time sixers review was good since non-veg was served along with Veg Biryani, Fried rice, tawa chapathi.

               After having heavy dinner, Sixers boarded the tempo traveler and lost in sleep in no time. Reached Rajat’s house at unearthly hours. Martin passed on the driver baton to me to drive down from Indiranagar to Hanumanthanagar with a stop at Asha kiran apartments.

              

               Guys thanks for reading this pakau article till this point, no prizes.

Thanks,

Deepak

Travel Memoir - Innovative Film city - 25/3/2012

Only 2/3 of the party could make it to Innovative Film city yesterday since Rakesh is occupied and Smitha cannot enzoy without her hubby, we will not be able to answer Rajat’s question “megelo aanu kai aasa”. This break was very much required for both mothers of cauliflowers who have studied for 2^nd standard and were ready to give exam [given a chanceJ].

               There is nothing Innovative about this film city rather it is depleting in the resources and more apt to call it just “Film City”. Below is quick glimpse  of yesterday’s enjoyment where everyone has contributed.

               We left home at 9 AM picked 1/3 James party on the way and reached the place after getting lost [usual if you travel with me]. Only few cars were visible in the parking area and we jumped to conclusion that there is not enough crowd due to children’s exam. But reality was that people started slowly trickling in and significant crowd at end of the day. Guru [our own Pranab da] started his finance activity of purchasing tickets, map and made our way in. We had to walk considerable distance to reach the activities area.

1.      Bow and Arrow: 2 arrows per ticket, Guru has mastered the skill and helped me and cauliflowers to hit the target. As usual, females ran to shopping and came back empty handed by then we had emptied 12 arrows.

2.      Mirror Maze:  A lane is created with entry and exit with mirrors stuck on the walls to confuse. We made an entry started touching mirrors and you know what came out from Entry rather Exit. I pulled folks inside to take it as challenge and come out of Exit. Guru sensed that folks will spend the entire day and got the caretaker in, we tagged along to make a way out of Exit. What a smart way…

3.      Dinosaur area: Dinosaur’s are animated to make noise and our cauliflowers observed each type of dinosaur in silence with fear inside. I have never seen my daughter so silent. I cannot  afford to have dinosaur at home to mend my daughter.

4.      Fossil museum: This was boring since we had to read the write-up against each fossil and came out in a flash.

5.      Fossil Hunt: This is similar to treasure hunt with fossil being the treasure. We did not go for it since we have to dig the soil everywhere to see if fossil is there. If it is not properly maintained then we will end up digging the entire stretch and probably this is what they want at free of cost.

6.      Roller and Coaster: I went weak on knees but mustered courage to sit but somehow with two minds gave up. James party had firmly decided not to except for Roopa.

7.      Go-Karting: This was paid activity over and above the entry fee. There was no single driver car available and I had to influence Seema to tag along on doubles. As usual no safety norms [no helmets] to push the pedal hard and race. 4 laps, Seema became excited and took the last lap and ended hitting the parked car. Rajat would have spent all his day here.

8.      Flying horses: I had the opportunity to do a horse ride in the weekend and want to pick up this as hobby.

9.      Roll around: Roopa and Seema were seated in one compartment and motor did struggle to move this compartment up but left it to gravity to bring down.

10.   Water shoot: We did not know the surprise and got in. During the rotation animals pee on us leaving us wet.

I was very hungry but time was just 11.30 AM so thought of having coke but everywhere the serving machines had dried up which is hard to believe since the coco-cola manufacturing unit is next door or I do not know whether it is a business strategy to sell Mango-sip. Emptied lot of lays packets and Mango sip before resuming the journey.

11.   Wax museum: Some of the wax models were not resembling the personality and took help of the write-up to identify.

12.   Believe It or Not: Apt to the naming some of the incidents in the past.

Took a break for lunch and got good north Indian Thali with normal price rather than the usual hiked ones. Others as usual opted for non-veg. Ice-creams were not available and Guru learnt to be available in McDonalds. Two cauliflowers with much excitement accompanied Guru for the purchase and at last Guru and I had the treat to eat two ice-creams each.

13.   Haunted house: Excellent design and I enjoyed it. Cauliflowers were at the their usual crying all the way and adding to sound effects which were already present.

14.   Rollers and Skaters: I tied the skates with lot of enthusiasm and fell down very hard in the skating area to come out retired hurt. Cauliflowers enjoyed with support of their parents.

15.   Teddy museum: I could see Seema everywhere

16.   4D Cinema: It was a torture and waiting for 10 min to elapse

17.   Aqua kingdom: Jumped into not so deep water pool and enzoyed in ruthless heat. Cauliflowers enjoyed dancing to the music played and one of cauliflower grabbed the prize by hitting the dance floor.

18.   Innovative Junction: Seema had to shell out more than gift voucher and half heartedly purchase something which I was not able to make out.

19.   Miniature City: Lousy place but  good exercise since one has to climb up to visit

20.   Amphitheatre: On our way back from Miniature city saw the theatre from distance as the energy level was almost zero.

Seema at the end of hard day suffered from migraine and I canceled my trip to “Vasudeva Adiga” which was 45 km from there. Somehow other folks convinced that she will be ok and started hitting the road towards Mysore. Had sumptuous, I do not whether to call it evening snacks or dinner. The list includes: Idli, Sambhar, Pava Bhaji, Chana Bhatura, dahi vada, bisibele bath, curd rice [don’t ask the numbers].

On our way back, again we got lost on Nice road and reached Banerghatta to take U turn and come back 14 km stretch. Guru was literally upset since he is not exposed to my usual way of losing the way. To make him more upset, told him that fuel meter is showing the last 3 dots. Guru started imagining going around in Nice road to get fuel and was completely silent till we came out safe from Nice road.

               Memorable trip …………thanks if you have read till here or probably dragged the scroll bar.

Loko Binna Ruchi - 23/3/2012

There is famous saying Sanskrit Loko Binna Ruchi which means people
have different tastes. The best way to understand the importance of this saying is to see if people have the same taste.

            I have purchased a site in tier2 city with the motive that land price will appreciate in the coming years and can make profit out of it by selling. I did not find any development around when I visited the site after a long gap of 5 years. It seems every Bangalorean has purchased the land with same motive and now it is a dead lock situation in which transaction is not possible.

            Only when people start building houses, people like me can sell it and development will start.

            I recently bumped into my friend who has coffee estate in coorg. He is not able to get workers to pluck the coffee seeds during harvest season. Workers are attracted to Bangalore and join as security guards, house keeping etc since they feel the status is elevated after joining urban crowd and they even not mind being under paid.

            Just think if all the farmers develop the same taste and migrate to urban cities?

            Traffic congestion in Bangalore is growing day by day and most of us spend time in traveling with no time left for personal life. Why? Disposable income is more and people feel that they can reach destination fast if they have private vehicle. Result is traffic jam and getting stranded for hours together at signals. Infrastructure development is not catching up with volume of vehicles hitting road.

            Can some of us develop the habit of using company bus/car pooling to give breather to congestion? Best is WFH [expanded as Work For Home]

            Just try throwing a stone in Bangalore, 90% probability it will hit a person working in IT industry. Too much exaggeration but the point I want to make is that it is very difficult to get skilled laborers like plumbers, electricians, sanitary workers…. Even if we are able to get them they come at a premium price, In the last two weeks I have shelled out Rs.1500 for sump cleaning and remove minor block in sewage.

            What will happen if everyone settles for white collar jobs?

           

To conclude, World is sweet because it is
has lot of variations. What do you think? I asked my chiu what she wants to do when she grows up answer was “Please do not disturb and I will play all my life”, to be frank I could not appreciate this different taste. May be after an year I may get different answer, hopefully..

Life comes full circle - 3/10/2012

               I was having good nap after having my favorite Bisibelebath and Curd rice which was disturbed by two females in my life. Do not have pending office work, newspaper to read so thought of disturbing Jame’s party with one long “pakau” article. I used to post my short snippets in my office forum but due to large number of articles it was closed down and also used to share some of them in my training sessions which I am not able to take since they are scheduled on week days. I am now trying my hand at Jame’s forum till you throw me out.

               Coming back to snippet “Life comes full circle”. Nature has designed the systems to move in circles so that you cannot distinguish where did you start and end, continuous journey e.g. Solar System where planets revolve around sun and planets itself rotate to complete the revolution. If you peep into the atoms which are invisible to naked eye, science says electrons move around the nucleus. I have observed the same with human life and want to support with below 5 topics (restrict it and do not bore you with my pitilu). I am sure you guys have also seen changes around you from childhood till date, I will be happy if you share the same.

              

1.      Birth and Sunset years : In the first decade of life we depend on the parents a lot, innocent to the core and after that become furiously independent [ like my father-in-law three daughters, bold and independent] and during twilight years insecurity grips in, crave for love and support, depend on others [sometimes] to move around.

2.      Children: Few decades back, parents never pushed their children too much in the name of education. They enjoyed their childhood with outdoor plays, required reading, not very choosy about the field and happily settled down in various professions. In the early 90’s, parents and students zeroed down only on two professions on earth [Engineering and Medicine], folks who were not good at memory retention tests settled for pure science. Two decades have passed, engineering and medicine colleges have mushroomed as money spinning machines leaving behind the quality education.

The new school of thought is that children should not be pressurized and they need to cash on their strengths. Today’s children have variety of options to choose and

parents have liberal mindset to venture in the less traveled path for their children. Children health and happiness is given priority rather than getting more marks through bywrote learning which does help in the long run. Don’t you think this is where we were several decades back when there was raw intelligence in children rather than trained minds.

3.      Communication: There was a time in India where people used to be hooked to the radio for music, cricket score, plays. In early 80’s television came with Doordarshan as single channel and retired the radio. In 90’s satellite television made inroads and impacted our concentration, people only flipped from one channel to other rather than viewing one complete program. We had completely written off the radio chapter from mankind. If I am not wrong at the start of 21^st century, private radio channels took rebirth and people today cannot stay without 94.3, 91.1……..punarapi jananam punarapi maranam (circles)

During my childhood having phone connection was considered luxury, parents used to keep away from work after they reach home and enjoy the weekends with near and dear ones. Due to fast paced development in technology  we became 24x7 available and always are curious to know what is happening in the outside world, thanks to social networking sites which has made personal touch thing of past. Lately people have realized the bad effects spending long hours in front of gadgets and  consciously keeping away from work by taking planned vacations, switching off mobile when there are with family in the name of “work-life” balance. We have gone back to the same days where the family was given time and work was part of life and not life.

4.      Marriage: Few decades back most of marriages in India were arranged and within same religion and cast. Over a period this was considered old style since two people need to be in love and understand then get married. The rate of love marriages started giving competition to arranged marriages. The scope also widened with interreligion , intercaste, international.  Now dating is a inthing  and if you do not have boyfriend in your teenage then young folks will raise eyebrows.

With increasing cases of playboys, harmful effects of sex before marriage/live-in relation, child birth in teenage. Slowly people are moving towards arranged marriage based on thought process that marriage is union of two families just not two individuals. On the lighter side, In arranged marriage if anything goes wrong you can always blame it on elders where as in love marriage one needs to take responsibility of decisionJ

5.      Food (Seema will read this with concentration):  During my childhood, home food was everything and going out to eat was a rarity. There were few hotels Kamat, Shanbhag, Woodlands this was before birth of Darshini’s in Bangalore. With Software boom in India, multinational companies made inroads with their pizza, hot dogs, burger, French fries, pasta coke……the young with disposable income started binging on the junk food and took it as insult if someone offered the native food.

Few decades have passed people have got bored with international food which is mostly dairy products and adverse impact of junk food on the growing children. One can sense the change in mindset with lot of authentic restaurants  mushrooming at every nook and corner – jolada rotti oota, davangere dosa, rajasthani, gujarati, telugu…..

               We have gone back to the point where we used to respect our own food.