What was intended and planned as a job seeking visit, has turned to be a sight seeing visit for my wife Beena. She has accompanied me from chennai to trivandrum and is currently here in trivandrum.
We had planned to shift her base to trivandrum, but due to some unavoidable circumstances, the plan had to be changed. Since her train reservations were made earlier for a week's visit to trivandrum, we didnt want to cancel it. Now she is presently here in trivandrum with me. We both are staying in one of my close friend's house. The last 4 days were spent in seeing places in trivandrum. Not much of a tourist spot, but yes there are the normal stuff like beaches, zoos, museum and temples here in trivandrum.
Beena was mesmerised once she landed here. She thoroughly loved my place here. Since she is very religious, i did take her to the famous Attukal temple, which is also known as Women's sabirimala. This temple also holds the Guiness record for having witnessed the largest congregation of women at any single place, for the Pongala festival in the year 1997. The number of women attendees were recorded as 1.5 million i.e. 15 lakh women. This year too i had a peek view of this festival from the outer fringes of the city. What a crowd they make of staggering numbers, full of women. A Devi or goddess is the idol at Attukal temple. Women frequent this temple from all over kerala for the Pongala festival. I could see this year, women in pristine white and offwhite Set-Sarees lined across both sides of roads kilometres away from the actual temple. The movement of vehicles were such a big challenge during that day. There were huge road blocks too during the festival. Guiness record was really not a big deal after seeing the swelling crowds on a single day.
Today we with our host here named Subhash and his wife and child went to Veli tourist village which is just 4 kms distance from our home. Did some peddle boating, had lots of snacks, ice cream, coconut drinks, juices and finished the trip with dinner at an in-house restaurant. In the afternoon I and Beena plan to visit the famous Kovalam Beach.
In a day or two we also plan to visit Kanyakumari too. May be if time permits will try to include Neyyar Dam into our itinerary. Not a single day we are planning to leave for free. I want her one week of holidays in kerala to be memorable for a long time to come. Shall keep updating more in the coming days. Kindly leave some comments, so that i will love to read ur reactions to my blog. Best wishes to all my friends. Take care.
Thursday, 16 April 2009
Saturday, 28 March 2009
Outing to MGM
The past 5 days were spent in chennai in my wife's home. One day was utilised to go to MGM along with my wife Beena and her 2 close friends. Though we had enough fun, it was limited because of the small group. The original plan was to include atleast 4 to 5 more friends of hers, but due to their schedules, they couldnt make it.
MGM wasnt as exciting as i had expected it to be. The rides arent well maintained anymore. Its one of the oldest theme parks of chennai. The maintenance isnt up to the mark, and i was told by my friends that some unfortunate accidents had taken place, due to their maintenance problem. This was evident from the loss of crowd that we encountered. It could be partly also because of the time of the year. Everybody is having exams, who are in school, and that should be one factor for the lessened crowd there.
On the way to MGM, I and Beena went to Nithya Kalyaneswari temple, which is just a stone's throw from MGM. She had been to the temple before marriage, to seek blessings of god to find a groom. It did materialise as prayed for, and she wanted to pay her obeisance to the god and also thank from the heart. Also there was one garland, which had already dried beyong recognition, which was to the re-placed at one of the tree's in the temple complex. This garland was originally worn by Beena, while she had earlier made the trip to the temple before marriage. Strong belief in the efficacy of this temple, could be gauged by the large number of young and not so young unmarried people visiting this particular temple.
Though I am not a regular temple going person, to give my wife company i had to go. She says we have another thanks giving visit to be completed soon, to another temple which is 4 hours drive from chennai. For now that trip is kept hanging fire. Today i returned to bangalore in the afternoon. Since my elder sister and her child are currently in bangalore, i am having a jolly good time. My neice is just 15 months old, and there is not a moment boring at home. She is quite outdoor a person like me. Always points her hand towards the verandah of our home and asks us to take her out for a walk, ofcourse she likes being carried while we walk.
While in Chennai, i watched a movie named Arundhathi. Its only 10 days back that i knew that the lead role of that movie was played by one of my friend's younger sister anushka. I wanted to check her mettle, and i should say she did a wonderful work in the movie. I did recomment this movie to some of my friends, whom i met. Though re-incarnation is the main plot of the movie, the screen play was done well, and worth the time i spent watching the movie. So much for now, i shall come back soon with more musings.
MGM wasnt as exciting as i had expected it to be. The rides arent well maintained anymore. Its one of the oldest theme parks of chennai. The maintenance isnt up to the mark, and i was told by my friends that some unfortunate accidents had taken place, due to their maintenance problem. This was evident from the loss of crowd that we encountered. It could be partly also because of the time of the year. Everybody is having exams, who are in school, and that should be one factor for the lessened crowd there.
On the way to MGM, I and Beena went to Nithya Kalyaneswari temple, which is just a stone's throw from MGM. She had been to the temple before marriage, to seek blessings of god to find a groom. It did materialise as prayed for, and she wanted to pay her obeisance to the god and also thank from the heart. Also there was one garland, which had already dried beyong recognition, which was to the re-placed at one of the tree's in the temple complex. This garland was originally worn by Beena, while she had earlier made the trip to the temple before marriage. Strong belief in the efficacy of this temple, could be gauged by the large number of young and not so young unmarried people visiting this particular temple.
Though I am not a regular temple going person, to give my wife company i had to go. She says we have another thanks giving visit to be completed soon, to another temple which is 4 hours drive from chennai. For now that trip is kept hanging fire. Today i returned to bangalore in the afternoon. Since my elder sister and her child are currently in bangalore, i am having a jolly good time. My neice is just 15 months old, and there is not a moment boring at home. She is quite outdoor a person like me. Always points her hand towards the verandah of our home and asks us to take her out for a walk, ofcourse she likes being carried while we walk.
While in Chennai, i watched a movie named Arundhathi. Its only 10 days back that i knew that the lead role of that movie was played by one of my friend's younger sister anushka. I wanted to check her mettle, and i should say she did a wonderful work in the movie. I did recomment this movie to some of my friends, whom i met. Though re-incarnation is the main plot of the movie, the screen play was done well, and worth the time i spent watching the movie. So much for now, i shall come back soon with more musings.
Thursday, 12 March 2009
My strong little sister
My younger sister who is almost 5 years my junior, we call her sumi. Her full name is sumitha, but she hates being called by her full name by close people. She was my play mate all through my childhood notwithstanding the age difference. For her age, she was little taller during her studying years. That ofcourse gave her more physical strength in comparison to her peers.
During our school days, our friends had got interested in checking who had the strongest arm. The only way to do this was by arranging an amateur arm wrestling competition. For my age, i think i had beat my juniors, but that was on the expected lines. Among same age peers, two guys namely mani and thyagaraj emerged the strongest. My sister who was 2 to 3 years younger to these guys challenged them. Thyagaraj who was the eldest came forward to defeat my sister. After the bout, he didnt know where to hide his face, because sumi had conclusively defeated him. All the kids in the block started hooting and teasing him for failing to a girl in the matter of strength. Sumi was beaming from ear to ear and had a great story to share with my parents.
She also learnt cycling at a young age and even trained another of our friends 2 years elder to her. While she was in 10th standard, i tried to teach her riding a scooter which my dad owned. It was the heaviest scooter during those times i.e. lamby. Within few minutes of training she had almost got everything right, and then i decided to give it to her for a solo ride. She didnt go very far and the school children were approaching in hordes from the opposite side, and to avoid them, she careened to her left and fell. That was the end for her riding for the next two years.
When she was in 12th standard, i wanted her to try riding once again. This time on yezdi. My parents were shaking their heads a big NO emphasisingly. I was not the one to listen. Within 2 hrs i should say, she learned to tame the meanest beast among the bikes of that day. As years passed, she became less assertive and mellow over the years. The killer instinct is alive in her, but she lets it lie low these days, i guess.
During our school days, our friends had got interested in checking who had the strongest arm. The only way to do this was by arranging an amateur arm wrestling competition. For my age, i think i had beat my juniors, but that was on the expected lines. Among same age peers, two guys namely mani and thyagaraj emerged the strongest. My sister who was 2 to 3 years younger to these guys challenged them. Thyagaraj who was the eldest came forward to defeat my sister. After the bout, he didnt know where to hide his face, because sumi had conclusively defeated him. All the kids in the block started hooting and teasing him for failing to a girl in the matter of strength. Sumi was beaming from ear to ear and had a great story to share with my parents.
She also learnt cycling at a young age and even trained another of our friends 2 years elder to her. While she was in 10th standard, i tried to teach her riding a scooter which my dad owned. It was the heaviest scooter during those times i.e. lamby. Within few minutes of training she had almost got everything right, and then i decided to give it to her for a solo ride. She didnt go very far and the school children were approaching in hordes from the opposite side, and to avoid them, she careened to her left and fell. That was the end for her riding for the next two years.
When she was in 12th standard, i wanted her to try riding once again. This time on yezdi. My parents were shaking their heads a big NO emphasisingly. I was not the one to listen. Within 2 hrs i should say, she learned to tame the meanest beast among the bikes of that day. As years passed, she became less assertive and mellow over the years. The killer instinct is alive in her, but she lets it lie low these days, i guess.
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
Time Management
I have fought many times with my wife over the issue of time management. She does extremely well in her office and everyone is satisfied. But when it comes to deal with me, she finds me a hard task master. May be it’s because of my 15 years of lifestyle in the Indian air force. I just believe in achieving things. There sure will be many obstacles, and anyone can give any number of reasons for not finishing the things in schedule. The other set of people just conquer their goals offsetting every obstacle that’s in their way.
In the services, the boss is god. If he desires something, it gets achieved. Sometimes he doesn’t even ask if there was any difficulty in the process. Only the person who carried out his command knows the difficulty. When there are serious problems, the boss excepts you to achieve his goal, and thereafter tell that these were the issues. May be in future he will clear the way for you, when a similar task is designated.
My friend from Bangalore once called me and said if I knew anyone in pune. I asked why he needed to know. He told me that he needed to get admission in to a business school and there was only 3-4 days left for the last date of submission of application form. I understood the seriousness of it. In my knowledge, I had a chatfriend from pune. I called her up and asked me to do a favour. She was in her office already. Once everything was explained she said she will do the needful. She went to the institute, bought the application form and couriered it to my friend, whom she never knew. My friend got the form in 2 days and he submitted it. The mission was accomplished.
In hindsight, I could have told, I don’t have a reliable friend in pune. The fact of the matter is I never even paid my friend in pune before hand. I asked her account number and the money got deposited in her account by my friend in Bangalore. Will plays a big role in managing our affairs, and that’s all there is to it.
In the services, the boss is god. If he desires something, it gets achieved. Sometimes he doesn’t even ask if there was any difficulty in the process. Only the person who carried out his command knows the difficulty. When there are serious problems, the boss excepts you to achieve his goal, and thereafter tell that these were the issues. May be in future he will clear the way for you, when a similar task is designated.
My friend from Bangalore once called me and said if I knew anyone in pune. I asked why he needed to know. He told me that he needed to get admission in to a business school and there was only 3-4 days left for the last date of submission of application form. I understood the seriousness of it. In my knowledge, I had a chatfriend from pune. I called her up and asked me to do a favour. She was in her office already. Once everything was explained she said she will do the needful. She went to the institute, bought the application form and couriered it to my friend, whom she never knew. My friend got the form in 2 days and he submitted it. The mission was accomplished.
In hindsight, I could have told, I don’t have a reliable friend in pune. The fact of the matter is I never even paid my friend in pune before hand. I asked her account number and the money got deposited in her account by my friend in Bangalore. Will plays a big role in managing our affairs, and that’s all there is to it.
Saturday, 7 March 2009
Can you define Friendship?
I read on a guy's T-shirt today, something written about friendship. These were the first two sentences. "Friendship is like war. Its easy to start but difficult to end..............". Before I could read fully, the guy had walked across and had his back showing towards me.
The word "Friendship", I believe, is the most abused by most of us. I would define Friendship in just one word, i.e. COMMITMENT and that too in capital letters. Many words can be prefixed to this word and one example could be the word UNCONDITIONAL. Yet how many of us can feel proud to have real friends or be one.
One not so fine day, some years back, I found myself in deep trouble; and the condition prevailed for few days. Only one friend turned up and stood with me. I felt absolutely unbelievable that so many of my friends could just turn the other side. I still didn't lose hope on this magnanimous word "Freindship", the reason I shall give in the next paragraph, though I lost hope on many of my so called friends.
I knew a guy named Suresh, who always struggled alongwith his younger brother to make ends meet. In his family, he had his mother & younger sister who needed constant medical attention. One fateful day, his younger sister passed away. The body was waiting to be cremated. Help wasn't coming from any quarter. I got to know about this few hours later. I immediately went and met Suresh, who was crying unconsolably and had got drunk heavily, as he didnt know what to do with his sister's body. I quickly arranged for a Hearse van, and gave him little sum of money to finish the last rites and also stayed with the bereaved family till everything was taken care of.
Few years back I met Suresh. I knew he was well settled by then. He had a job and also ran a business. He had got married too. He had cleared all his debt except one. He told me, "Joshi, I have enough money now and a flourishing business, and have cleared all my debt except one. And that's yours. I will not clear it, because, with money it cant be cleared". The words that enamanated straight from his heart almost brought tears to my eyes.
As long as these kind of thoughts are possible in the minds of people, the meaning of friendship will never change.
Thursday, 5 March 2009
The teenage butterflies
There are so many wonderful things that happened in our younger days. i too have one to share here, about my first feeling of love.
One day in the year 1991, a childhood friend who was also my neighbour told me that there's one beautiful girl who has joined work in our neighbourhood firm. I told him i have already had a cursory look, but havent had any close call to appreciate her beauty.
Next day or so, i kept a watch to see when she was leaving office. When i saw her leaving office, i too casually walked in the path and stealed a glance. My friend was right, she was beautiful, had feminine elegance in her gait and walk. Also she was well endowed, and didnt have any arrogance or attitude writ on her face. I felt like i liked her and wanted to become her friend.
Striking up a conversation was the biggest challenge. In my whole school life i never initiated a talk with any of the girls in my class. I kept watching this beautiful girl everyday both morning and evening. You will not believe, i just couldnt muster enough courage to even talk to her and already one year had passed and my love for her kept growing day after day.
During the holi festival, i was never short in having fun. On the day of the holi festival in 1992 i was already on the roads with my colony friends colouring anyone or everyone on the road. Suddenly i saw this girl walking towards us from the opposite side, going to her office. I told my friends to lay seige to her but not to put any colours. They just needed my approval and once she neared us she was mobbed. I politely asked my guys to spare this girl and they did. Some kind of a conversation got started with her by me. I could already feel the butterflies churning in my stomach.
Later i got many opportunities to talk to her, either while she was arriving to or leaving her office. We became good friends. It took more than 2 years for me to propose to her, and she was already working in a 5 star hotel by then. Though she remained a splendid friend during those 2 years, she never accepted my proposal. I had to accept her decision and move on with my life.
Those were wonderful memories and can never get erased.
One day in the year 1991, a childhood friend who was also my neighbour told me that there's one beautiful girl who has joined work in our neighbourhood firm. I told him i have already had a cursory look, but havent had any close call to appreciate her beauty.
Next day or so, i kept a watch to see when she was leaving office. When i saw her leaving office, i too casually walked in the path and stealed a glance. My friend was right, she was beautiful, had feminine elegance in her gait and walk. Also she was well endowed, and didnt have any arrogance or attitude writ on her face. I felt like i liked her and wanted to become her friend.
Striking up a conversation was the biggest challenge. In my whole school life i never initiated a talk with any of the girls in my class. I kept watching this beautiful girl everyday both morning and evening. You will not believe, i just couldnt muster enough courage to even talk to her and already one year had passed and my love for her kept growing day after day.
During the holi festival, i was never short in having fun. On the day of the holi festival in 1992 i was already on the roads with my colony friends colouring anyone or everyone on the road. Suddenly i saw this girl walking towards us from the opposite side, going to her office. I told my friends to lay seige to her but not to put any colours. They just needed my approval and once she neared us she was mobbed. I politely asked my guys to spare this girl and they did. Some kind of a conversation got started with her by me. I could already feel the butterflies churning in my stomach.
Later i got many opportunities to talk to her, either while she was arriving to or leaving her office. We became good friends. It took more than 2 years for me to propose to her, and she was already working in a 5 star hotel by then. Though she remained a splendid friend during those 2 years, she never accepted my proposal. I had to accept her decision and move on with my life.
Those were wonderful memories and can never get erased.
Friday, 27 February 2009
Adventures Galore
Working in my job has its own adventures and perils. You never know whats up for you the next moment. It doesnt happen everyday, but when it happens it makes u strong and lets u have a story for posterity.
More than a month its been since i have typed anything here. The place i was attached to was untouched by internet and other luxuries. I even got the opportunity to walk 5 kms just to receive a parcel from post office. Walking i had forgotten altogether i must say. The days in tamilnadu was similar to an expeirnece i had while posted in rajasthan. Right after the parliament attack, there was some troop built-up along the border. I was sent to the designated place along with 2 other seniors. We were told things will be arranged by the time we reach there.
We did reach the place to find ourselves in the midst of no-man's land. Presence of civilians wasnt visible and army's presence was located and we contacted them. We told them that we were instructed to contact them for all admin support. Our comfort levels that surged after seeing the army, deflated quickly enough, when the subedar on duty there said he had news about our arrival. There was some major communication gap and the vehicle that dropped us simply returned back to base. Till our tents, cots and communication equipment arrived we were to utilise facilities of the army. Now our hopes dashed after hearing the army subedar.
Not the ones to lose hope, we asked the subedar the directions to his boss's office. He directed us to the top of another mound at a distance of 2kms. It was already 3.30pm and we hadnt had our lunch. After a tiresome walk over the steep mound, we entered into his office; ofcourse inside a tent too. We briefed the Major about our predicament. Without enquiring anything more, he ordered lunch to be served to us by his orderly. He quickly called his subedar and asked him to accommodate us and look after us until airforce support arrived.
It wasnt before 3 chilling nights that we spent with the army sleeping on the sand floor of the rajasthan desert, that our vehicle arrived with our tents and equipments. The first thing we did was to erect the communication antenna and establish contact with our base through radio telephony. We made our unhappiness quite clear to the authorities over the other end for such a cluttery job. They tried to pacify us. After that within hours we got fully operational.
It was an altogether different experience working with army. They utilise anything and everything thats available in their surrounds to suit their needs. Wild donkeys were caught using ropes and trained hard till they became adept at carrying big jerry cans filled with water up the mound. It took 3 days to train the undomesticated donkey, but after that the job of lugging water was just pushed onto its back. My stay in tamilnadu somehow brought back those memories.
More than a month its been since i have typed anything here. The place i was attached to was untouched by internet and other luxuries. I even got the opportunity to walk 5 kms just to receive a parcel from post office. Walking i had forgotten altogether i must say. The days in tamilnadu was similar to an expeirnece i had while posted in rajasthan. Right after the parliament attack, there was some troop built-up along the border. I was sent to the designated place along with 2 other seniors. We were told things will be arranged by the time we reach there.
We did reach the place to find ourselves in the midst of no-man's land. Presence of civilians wasnt visible and army's presence was located and we contacted them. We told them that we were instructed to contact them for all admin support. Our comfort levels that surged after seeing the army, deflated quickly enough, when the subedar on duty there said he had news about our arrival. There was some major communication gap and the vehicle that dropped us simply returned back to base. Till our tents, cots and communication equipment arrived we were to utilise facilities of the army. Now our hopes dashed after hearing the army subedar.
Not the ones to lose hope, we asked the subedar the directions to his boss's office. He directed us to the top of another mound at a distance of 2kms. It was already 3.30pm and we hadnt had our lunch. After a tiresome walk over the steep mound, we entered into his office; ofcourse inside a tent too. We briefed the Major about our predicament. Without enquiring anything more, he ordered lunch to be served to us by his orderly. He quickly called his subedar and asked him to accommodate us and look after us until airforce support arrived.
It wasnt before 3 chilling nights that we spent with the army sleeping on the sand floor of the rajasthan desert, that our vehicle arrived with our tents and equipments. The first thing we did was to erect the communication antenna and establish contact with our base through radio telephony. We made our unhappiness quite clear to the authorities over the other end for such a cluttery job. They tried to pacify us. After that within hours we got fully operational.
It was an altogether different experience working with army. They utilise anything and everything thats available in their surrounds to suit their needs. Wild donkeys were caught using ropes and trained hard till they became adept at carrying big jerry cans filled with water up the mound. It took 3 days to train the undomesticated donkey, but after that the job of lugging water was just pushed onto its back. My stay in tamilnadu somehow brought back those memories.
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