Nishita's Nonsensical Ramblings

Blog Moved

2008-11-03T02:46:00.001-08:00

Have moved my blog to a new location ...

http://nishitak.wordpress.com/

Although I love Blogger, there were a few additional features in Wordpress that I thought would be fun to use. In addition, there were some issues accessing Blogger through the firewall, making it very painful to publish posts. Therefore, bye bye blogger, hello Wordpress.

All my blog posts have been moved to Wordpress. So, henceforth please use this new location for my postings. I am still adding widgets and I have yet to update my blogroll with all my fave blogs. Will be doing that soon ...

Fun astro site

2008-11-02T23:13:00.001-08:00

Has anyone visited this astrology site created by Suzanne White ?

http://www.suzannewhite.com/new-astrology/new-astrology.html

This is a site that merges your western sun signs and your Chinese astrological sign to give a more in-depth picture of your personality.

Most of the stuff is for charge, but you can get a quick profile done on yourself and others. I did it for myself and my folks, and some of it did hit the mark, some of it was also nonsense...but there you go, that's the whole fun of astrology.

Strange Times

2008-11-02T23:07:00.000-08:00

Does it seem strange that my daughter recognizes Shah Rukh and Kareena on TV correctly, but is still unable to understand that I am her mother, not her sister? She keeps calling me "akka", even though I have corrected her numerous times. And that Kalyan is her dad? She keeps calling Kalyan "amma".

Book quote -1

2008-11-02T22:05:00.000-08:00

If I come across something really nice in any book I am reading, I tend to write it down and save it somewhere. It always feels nice to go back once in a while and look at what moved / interested me at a particular point in time. Now, I am just going to go ahead and add these lines directly to my blog. So here it goes...

If the government is inefficient, topheavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than that people worry over it…Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of ‘facts’ they feel stuffed, but absolutely ‘brilliant’ with information. Then they’ll feel they’re thinking, they’ll get a sense of motion without moving. And they’ll be happy, because facts of that sort don’t change. Dont give them any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy.

The above para is from a science-fiction novel that was published in the 1950s. Scary that it seems to ring so true nowadays.

Any guesses which novel this is from?

Brunch at Royal Orchid

2008-10-13T10:41:00.000-07:00

This weekend a bunch of us decided to meet up over a long brunch at the Royal Orchid. Located next to the Golf links- it is unofficially known as "Bangalore's only hotel with a golf course".

Their coffee shop - Limelight is located beside the lawns and has a pretty great ambience. Things did get off to a rocky start though.

We had booked a table for 14 outdoors (this would allow us to relax as well as watch over the kids playing on the lawn). When we got there, we found that our table was allotted to some body else, and we were pushed right inside next to the buffet - a disaster for us all. All the kids would have had a field day throwing food at each other.

After almost 1/2 an hour of standing about and arguing, we finally got things sorted out, and a table was placed for us in the patio.

And then the fun times rolled...

The brunch buffet is from 11:30 - 4:00. We were all there by 12:30 and we stayed on till almost five, when we were politely asked to pay the bill and leave :).

The kids had great fun playing on the bouncy castle, going on the merry-go-round, as well as playing with some stray puppies that had somehow wandered into the lawns.

Some pics below (courtesy the Sat man) :

Here we go around the mulberry bush...
Too busy digging -in to even look up and smile
Future Target of Maneka Gandhi / PETA

Group Shot

The food was okay. The thing is, when the price is 900 bucks, I tend to expect something stupendous and this buffet was not that. I have eaten at better restaurants at half the price. However, the ambience is great, the place is accessible, and it really helps to have a lot of open space when there are kids around. Not sure that I would really appreciate this place otherwise.

Waiting for the weekend - really nice article

2008-10-12T22:02:00.000-07:00

Someone forwarded me this article about the origins of the weekend. I enjoyed reading it so much that I thought I'd post a link to it here...

http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/91aug/rybczynski-p1.htm

Enjoy ...

Boating in Bheemeshwari

2008-09-30T01:07:00.000-07:00

A couple of months back, us and a couple of our friends made a short weekend trip to Bheemeshwari. We stayed at the Jungle Lodges resort there. Bheemeshwari is roughly 2.5 hours from Bangalore. The road (Kanakapura Road) is fairly decent all the way upto Muthathi, after which the road is a bit bumpy.

I have heard a lot of positive feedback on Jungle Lodges and my experience was no different. They offer two stay options - log cabins and tents. We opted for the log cabins, as I was a bit wary about insects. The log cabin was huge, and very tastefully done up (in a rustic manner). I would recommend the log cabins if you are travelling with elders or children.

The food in Bheeemeshwari is decent fare. I did not try the non-veg options, but my friends say that it was excellent. They also offered some beer with the food, so everybody was generally very happy.

Since, we were travelling in a big group with lot of children, options for adventure sport were limited. However, we had a very nice time playing on the beach, enjoying the coracle ride, as well as lounging on the huge net strung up between trees.

Jahnavi lolling around in the giant net

Coracle rideWe were quite inspired to go fishing after seeing photos of folks carrying huge mahseer fish, which they had caught. We were a bit disappointed to learn that this was not the season for fishing !

There are also some trek options. Some enthusiastic friends went ahead on an early-morning trek, but we opted to just chill out, relax, and enjoy the beautiful sunshine from the patio of our log cabin :)

All in all, it was a welcome break from the monotony of our day-to-day life and I highly recommend it for anyone wanting a quick getaway from Bangalore, without all the stress of travelling.

Bachna ae haseeno - movie review

2008-09-24T11:38:00.000-07:00

Recently saw Bachna ae haseeno on DVD....this being a hit movie, I am sure everyone has either

seen the movie
heard enough about it, that they don't need to read about it again

In this post, I just want to share the impressions that I took away from this movie. I really liked Ranbir Kapoor in this role. He played the casanova to the T. The heroines all look pretty fetching and did their job.

I did find some inconsistencies / improbabilities in certain aspects of the movie (particularly Bipasha's characterization). One prime example, is that Bipasha who is living - in with Ranbir just assumes that he will marry her and take her to Australia, when he tells her that he has a job transfer. This seems highly improbable to me. Nowhere during their earlier scenes, does he mention anything about marriage. So where did this assumption come from ? Even their wedding day scene, where he has ditched her looks very unrealistic.

I did like Minissha Lamba's section, especially the part where Ranbir returns to beg forgiveness from her. This section was pretty realistic and I could relate to her feelings, and the way she might have been impacted by his bad behavior. Her surd hubby (Kunal Kapoor) and twin boys are pretty darn cute too :)

Deepika looks extremely pretty and did her role fine. Her role is actually the most ill-defined one, and to me, looked extremely short. She has just the one song, while Minissha and Bipasha have two each. The ending when Deepika and Ranbir get together seems to have been edited too much.

The music is pretty nice. The locales for the songs are lovely especially the "Khuda jaane" one.

All-in-all, I did enjoy the movie. It is what I call decent timepass !

Bloggers new feature - Following

2008-09-24T11:25:00.000-07:00

Blogger has recently introduced a new feature called "following". This feature helps bloggers know who is reading their blogs regularly. It is in the form of a widget. If you have read this blog, and like it, click the "Follow this blog" link on the left column (below my profile) to let me know.

I have started using this feature with other blogs that I read regularly too !

Nishita Kumar's New Avatar - Yogini

2008-09-24T10:36:00.000-07:00

I have done the aerobics, and I have done the weights, and I have done dancing, and swimming...I have practically tried every fitness trend there is on the planet. The one similarity amongst all the workouts that I did was the focus on two singular aspects - burning calories, and fitting into jeans I have outgrown.

Well, this time, I decided to do something different... I am on to yoga - hatha yoga to be precise.

What is hatha yoga ? I don't think I can explain it better than this link below:

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-hatha-yoga.htm

Note: This form of yoga is not the famous Bharat Thakur's form of yoga, which is credited to have helped Kareena get her size 0 figure.

I have been practising hatha yoga for the past three weeks now, and I just cannot believe the differences I see in my posture and flexibility. I always used to be extremely stiff, even though I could climb up and down a step a million times or even cycle like mad for half an hour, I could never be able to do some basic stuff like touching toes without bending your knees. Now, I can do that for almost a minute... for me, that is a huge improvement.

I also cannot believe that I am enjoying the sessions so much. Earlier, I used to drag myself to the exercise room for aerobics, but here, I look forward to the hour when I can go for yoga class.

I still love swimming, and it is something that I could do everyday. However, the uncertain weather really throws a spanner in the works, and I am never able to get into the groove of things. Yoga has no such issues. The even better part, this is being conducted within our organization, so I don't even have any commute issues.

This time, if I quit exercising, I really have no excuses :)

Chick-lit Zindabad !

2008-08-26T04:16:00.001-07:00

Do you have some days when you don't want to read anything that you cannot finish within a couple of hours?

Well, whenever I am in that mood, I generally turn to my favorite mystery /suspense novelists to give me my CTs (cheap thrills).

However, one of my friends is a big fan of the chick-lit genre and she recommended a couple of books for me:

Almost Single by Advaita Kala
The Zoya Factor by Anuja Chauhan

I finished reading both the books and below are some things that I liked and disliked about them.

Almost Single
==========
Things I like
1. Very easy reading - ideal for any kind of short journeys
2. The heroine (I can only think of her like that. The term protagonist does not really work in this context :D ) works as a Guest Relations Officer in a hotel. This was very interesting for me because once upon a time, I used to perform the same function. A lot of the description about the day-to-day functioning and the kind of issues she faces ring very truly and bought a lot of nostalgic memories to me.

Things I dislike
1. The character build-up of the heroine and her friends is extremely cliched and one-sided. They come out looking very artificial, and it is difficult to empathize with anything they are going through.
2. The hero is nothing but a cardboard cut-out of a typical Mills n Boon hero. There is nothing in the novel that brings out his thoughts, feelings, or even basic tastes. It is extremely difficult to understand how this paragon of handsomeness and all other virtues falls for this rather dumb, not-so-attractive heroine.
3. The ending is very abrupt and unsatisfying, and it looks like the author has written it with a view to writing a sequel in the future. It also looks like the book has been over-edited and probably some kind of continuity between chapters is missing. Each chapter starts very abruptly.

The Zoya Factor
============
Things I like
1. Hero and heroine are very adorable. In fact, each character in the book comes out quite sweetly (even the nasty characters). In addition, the chemistry between the hero and heroine is really nice. You can understand why the hero (who is the captain of the Indian cricket team) falls for the heroine (who is neither an actress or a model).
2. The book is loosely based on cricket and since I like cricket, this was an easy-sell for me.
3. The book and the characters are based on existing personalities in cricket so it is great fun mapping the characters to their real-life avatars (for example, the hero Nikhil Khoda is very obviously based on Dhoni).
4. The sense of humor in the book appeals to me.

Things I dislike

Not much anything

My friend has now lent me one more chick-lit book "You are here" by Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan. But, I think I am totally overdosed on this genre. This book is sitting on my shelf gathering dust, while I am revisiting my tried and tested mystery / suspense novel.

Up next, re-reading The Bourne Identity :)

Dinner with my much-missed ex-colleagues

2008-08-20T22:12:00.000-07:00

Last month, Shobha (one of my colleagues from our HP days) came to visit Bangalore. Our whole gang met up for dinner and we all had a total and complete blast.
I am not going to blog about it as Shobha has already written it up in detail in her blog. Here is the link...
http://gugiinsingapore.blogspot.com/2008/07/still-in-bangalore.html

Recent photos of Jahnavi

2008-08-20T03:27:00.000-07:00

We have finally stopped trimming her hair and now it is long enough to put into a small pony-tail...(we call it juttu in tamil). Here are some photos:

Literature preferences between the genders

2008-07-24T21:41:00.000-07:00

Very interesting article that talks about the differences in reading preferences between men and women !
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/apr/06/books.booksnews
Apparently, men liked novels about alienation and women like emotional/passionate novels. Nothing very surprising about that !
However, the actual book lists were pretty surprising. Albert Camus's "The Outsider" was no.1 on the men's list. I somehow did not expect that. I was expecting something more macho authors somehow, maybe Tom Clancy? He did not figure anywhere.
Jane Eyre was predictably the no.1 women's book. No surprises there !
There was practically no book / author in common between the women's and men's lists. I did not think that there would be such a divergence in tastes. The only books in common were"To kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee and "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad.
Another shock for me. Almost all the books mentioned in the men's favorites list were my personal favorites. Very few of the women's lit section moved me at all.
I wonder what that says about me :(

How come "Lord of the Flies" is nowhere here !!! Nooooo....

Below is the full list according to the Guardian:

Men's list
1 Albert Camus The Outsider
2 JD Salinger Catcher in the Rye
3 Kurt Vonnegut Slaughterhouse Five
4 Gabriel Garcia Marquez A Hundred Years of Solitude
5 JRR Tolkien The Hobbit
6 Joseph Heller Catch-22
7 George Orwell 1984
8 F Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby
9 Milan Kundera The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
10 Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird
11 Vlamidir Nabokov Lolita
12 JRR Tolkien The Lord of the Rings
13 Fyodor Dostoevsky Crime and Punishment
14 Graham Greene Brighton Rock
15 Nick Hornby High Fidelity
16 James Joyce Ulysses
17 Mark Twain The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
18 Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness
19 Franz Kafka Metamorphosis
20 John Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath
Women's list
1 Charlotte Bronte Jane Eyre
2 Emily Bronte Wuthering Heights
3 Margaret Atwood The Handmaid's Tale
4 George Eliot Middlemarch
5 Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice
6 Toni Morrison Beloved
7 Doris Lessing The Golden Notebook
8 Joseph Heller Catch-22
9 Marcel Proust Remembrance of Things Past
10 Jane Austen Persuasion
11 Mary Shelley Frankenstein
12 Jeanette Winterson Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
13 Gabriel Garcia Marquez One Hundred Years of Solitude
14 George Eliot The Mill on the Floss
15 Louisa May Alcott Little Women
16 Gustave Flaubert Madame Bovary
17 CS Lewis The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
18 Margaret Mitchell Gone With the Wind
19 Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness
20 Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird

Sale at the Body Shop

2008-07-24T02:19:00.000-07:00

This week there was a sale at the Body Shop - upto 50% off. This being my favorite cosmetic store, I went to have a look.
It's so crazy ! I browsed through all the products, and it looked like there were only a couple of products that were 50% off. Such a huge disappointment. :(
I just walked out empty-handed.

Singh is Kinng - I object

2008-07-21T09:13:00.000-07:00

Been seeing the promos of Singh is Kinng ad nauseum on the telly. The promos look good, and there seems to be a lot of interest in the movie. This statement is made on the basis of an extremely unscientific poll conducted amongst my pals !
I am however not too kicked about it. I object in principle to the title of the movie. Bollywood in general is very Punjab-centric. A lot of the song lyrics, dialogues, and even stories are woven around Punjab / Punjabis. Very rarely, does any other community get represented in mainstream Bollywood cinema. And with this movie, it seems to be Punjabiness to the hilt. If Singh is king, what does that make the rest of us Indians - his subjects??
I don't have anything against Punjab but please how about movie storylines based on other communities as well. How about Gujaratis, Biharis, Marwaris, Bengalis??
To add insult to injury, it appears that Punjabis are not happy with their portrayal in the movie. Apparently, Akshay is wearing a too-small turban and his beard is not long enough! They have taken out a morcha and made the director of the movie re-do certain portions of the movie according to their demands.
I think I should take a morcha to make them change the title of the movie- may be stand at the corner of M.G. Road :)

Tips to reduce fuel consumption and save money

2008-07-21T03:26:00.000-07:00

In these days of escalating petrol prices, we all need a little help to extract a little more mileage out of our money. Of course, one way not to do this, is to go and accept a new job, which is roughly twice the distance that I used to travel earlier. I have gone from refuelling my car once a month to once a week :(

So, I have been thinking how I can economize and here are some few common-sense tips I follow:

Plan travel logistics ahead of time and group all my errands together
Drive without any sudden increase / decrease in speed (very difficult for me)
Switch off my car engine while waiting at signals or stuck in traffic jams
Chucked out all unnecessary stuff from my car (lighter vehicle burns less fuel- something I realized from all the newspaper articles about airlines lightening their loads)
Get my car's tyre pressure checked once a week
Go to the petrol bunk in the morning when it's cooler. Petrol is less dense in the morning

Hoping some of these tactics will help my budget a bit more...

Jaane tu...ya jaane na

2008-07-20T23:46:00.000-07:00

Went to watch this movie with my friends to my fave theatre - Fame Lido. Favorite because of the following reasons:

Closest to my house
Parking is only Rs. 20 regardless of the time spent
Food court is decent

Now on to the movie. Typical teenage love story, but with a slight twist. There is no parental opposition, no dramatic villains, and no sob stories. So what does this movie have to offer? It is a light halka-phulka love story, not too deep and quite funny in places. You have a hero that is easy on the eyes (Imran Khan), and a bubbly vivacious heroine (Genelia d' Souza). Have to say though that her freshness, innocence and charm that she displayed in "Boys" is not seen as much here. She is a lot more subdued than I expected. But overall, still nice. There is the standard gang of school mates and loads of good teenage-style fun.

Nice things about the movie:

The chemistry between the lead pair and the group of friends
The performances of Naseeruddin Shah (in a special appearance) and Ratna Pathak Shah (one of my favorites who appears in far too few movies), and Paresh Rawal
Very hummable music
The opening credits (very innovatively done and probably copied from a Hollywood movie) but very nice all the same. Sets the tone for the rest of the movie.

Not so nice things:

Predictable story-line
Slightly dragging second-half

Generally, a good timepass movie, which you can enjoy once watching with friends.

Truth in Writing

2008-07-20T22:41:00.000-07:00

I have been reading some really great books lately, and there are some amazing lines that really made me step back and go WOW....
For example, consider the following writing by Ernest Hemingway in "A Moveable Feast":
Sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get it going, I would sit in front of the fire and squeeze the peel of the little oranges into the edge of the flame and watch the splutter of blue that they made. I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, "Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.
Really, makes writing look so simple....and something we should all consider when writing our blogs. There are some really convoluted ones out there, which I don't want to name here :)
If anyone wants to know more about "A Moveable Feast", here are some links:

I highly recommend this book !

Networking site for getting househeld help

2008-07-18T03:48:00.000-07:00

It has been very difficult getting household help for the past few months. Although, I have a resident cook, she is only working with us temporarily until she sets up her own business.
So, I have been looking around for servants and happened to stumble across this site:
http://www.babajob.com/
This is a really cool site that you can use to browse through various profiles and check them out. Very similar to any other jobseekers site such as naukri and monster.com. I was really impressed with this site, and did a little more research. The New York Times has commented on this site, and this is what they have to say: "Seeking to bring the social-networking revolution to the world's poor."
I have yet to actually hire out anyone from this site, but I am planning to try it out. Will post my actual experiences later.

Sri Lanka Highlights - Day 2

2008-07-02T09:01:00.000-07:00

OK, OK... I know this trip to Sri Lanka happened a lifetime ago (Feb this year)...but I have yet to complete blogging about it. I have been a bit lazy of late, just spending more time reading other people's blogs rather than posting on my own.

However, since I believe in "better late than never", here are some more updates on Sri Lanka.

After spending the first day chilling out in Colombo, we took a drive up to Kandy. Kandy is a hill station that is approximatey about 6 hours from Colombo. The roads are only so-so, and it took a lot longer than we thought it should.

Just before Kandy, there is an elephant orphanage at Pinewala. Now, I am not very keen on elephants having seen them all my life during various temple festivals, and I was just not that into this scene. Plus, I was pretty tired from the long drive to get there. However, our tour guide took us to a nice restaurant which overlooks the river where the elephants came to take a bath.

So, basically, me and Jahnavi sat comfortably in the restaurant, and Kalyan got an opportunity to go bathe an elephant. All happy :). I love it when things work themselves out so smoothly like that.

Here are a couple of photos of us at the Pinewala elephant orphanage:

Kalyan bathing the elephant

And being chased away by the jealous, possessive baby elephant :D

A nervous Jahnavi

After the lunch at the Elephant orphanage, we continued on to Kandy. Kandy,the last capital of the Sinhalese kingdom prior to British occupation, is one beautiful town. As mentioned, it is in the hill country, and sits at about 1800 feet above sea level, so the constant sweating that had been with us since we landed in Sri Lanka, was tempered a bit from the cooler atmosphere. The town is surrounded by green fields and jungle, and in the center sits Kandy Lake (very beautiful and very clean).

As soon as we entered Kandy, we went to see a local dance show, which was pretty amazing. The male dancers were extremely athlectic and vigorous, however, the female dancers were a bit too anaemic and they brought down the quality of the show. The best part of the dance show was the firewalking (something that I have seen only in movies). I am not posting the pictures, because they all came out too blurry.

After the dance performance, we made our way to the world famous Temple of the Sacred Tooth of Buddha. This temple houses the country’s most important Buddhist relic – the tooth of the Buddha. The story goes that the tooth was taken from the Buddha’s funeral pyre in 543 BC and was smuggled into Sri Lanka hidden in the hair of a princess !

This temple is absolutely fabulous, very neat and clean. And although, it is a world-famous tourist destination, there was very little crowd. We took our own sweet time walking around the temple, looking at the various depictions of Buddha done by sculptors from different countries.

Here are a couple of photos:

A shot of one of the idols of Buddha

An external shot of the temple

After the temple, we checked into our hotel for the night. Whew ! what a tiring day it was.

Travel Map Application

2008-05-28T21:07:00.000-07:00

Decided to port this application from Facebook to this blog and see if it travels well :D

Anyway, this map application points out all the places in the world that I have been to. Gave me quite a nice feeling when I looked at it. But still, a lot more places to go....

Create your own travel map or travel blog

Visit TripAdvisor.com

Shopping Splurge

2008-03-17T05:40:00.001-07:00

Recently been on a shopping splurge. This seems to be the season for sales in Bangalore, and unlike the usual frugal me, I really went out on the town. Partly, I was packing for our upcoming trip to Sri Lanka when I realized that I have no clothes :), or at least, none that were suitable for vacationing in posh hotels and resorts in a foreign country.

Anyway, I picked up some really nice stuff (some from pretty upmarket boutiques)- which were going at almost 60-80% off - a real bargain. Earlier, I never used to even venture to such places thinking that:

I am not posh enough
I am not thin enough
I am not rich enough

What a shock to realize that none of this was true. These shops had clothes for all sizes and all prices. You just need to ensure that you go on their sale days, and be willing to experiment with things.

From now on, I am going to be more adventurous and try to visit new shops, restaurants, and be open to all kinds of new opportunities. Yessir, that is my new year resolution. All this gyan from a simple shopping trip :)... but again you never know where you learn what...

Farewell Dinner

2008-03-17T05:33:00.000-07:00

Recently gave a farewell dinner for one of my colleagues who was leaving the company...Although we had given an official farewell party, we had another more personal one from all the folks who are close to her.

We went to Nanking- a chinese restaurant in Sigma Mall on Cunningham Road (one of our old haunts :)), and had pretty much a blast- laughing and joking. The only regret is that none of us took any pictures that evening. Otherwise, I would have posted it on this blog.

After dinner, I dropped her off home. We had a sooper-looong conversation in the car, just before dropping her off. Were talking almost till one in the morning (something of a rarity in my life these days)....

Really, missing her big time :(... and already started planning the next reunion :)

Sri Lanka Trip Highlights

2008-03-16T02:07:00.000-07:00

lIt's been a long time since I blogged on this site. Been extremely busy with my project release. I finally submitted all my deliverables last week phew !!

Last december, we had won 2 tickets for a trip to Colombo from Radio 1. Thanks a lot Radio 1. We had an awesome time. Because of project deliverables, we could only manage a short trip (4 days) but it was action-packed all the same.

So, here are some highlights of the trip. We went to Colombo, Kandy, and Wadduwa ( a seaside town just south of Colombo).

Our first stop was at Colombo, where we stayed in the hotel Taj Samudra. This hotel has an awesome view of the beach. Here is a shot of Kalyan and Jahnavi in our hotel room balcony...
That day was a religious holiday in Colombo. It appears that every full moon is a holiday. That sounds like a lot of holidays to me :) .

Since, there was nothing much to do, we spent some time exploring the hotel and the beach. Here are some more photos...

Jahnavi exploring our wardrobe

Sunset at the beach Next up...out trip to the elephant orphanage and Kandy :)

Lunch at Friend's

2008-01-22T04:15:00.000-08:00

A colleague of Kalyan's invited us to a lunch at her place to celebrate her 1st Wedding Anniversary. Went to her place and had a really nice time. The food was really good, and the crowd was a family crowd (Jahnavi had some friends to play with).

Anyway, we all had a really nice time. Her neighbours own a cycle and a tricycle and all the kids had fun taking turns on the cycle. However, if you look at the photos below, you can make out that Jahnavi was pretty much holding the controls all the time :)

Passport Panic

2008-01-19T03:52:00.000-08:00

Have been pretty busy lately to blog anything of note. There was a sudden requirement for me to travel to US for work, and looks like I was caught napping :(. My passport expires in April and to get a US visa, your passport need to have 6 months validity. So, I have been running around trying to get a passport issued on Tatkaal. Turns out it is a pretty straigh-forward process. You land up early morning at the Regional Passport Officer's office in Koramangala with your passport, three copies of an address-proof (I took my driving license, PAN card, and Voter ID card) and the visa fee (1500/-). You also need to get Annexure F and Annexure I. Annexure I is a basic document that you get printed on stamp paper and notarized. Annexure F is a bit more complicated. You need some one from the magistrate's office, the GM of a Government Corporation, or an AG or Police Commissioner (or any other Commissioner) of a Government institution (such as excise). Thankfully, my father-in-law is from HAL, and he knows the GM of HAL (Helicopter division), and he wrote out this letter for us.

The passport was despatched to me within 3 working days through speedpost. I definitely did noy expect to get it so fast. Now I have started the procedure to get the US visa. Fingers crossed that it will come through!

Below are some links that are useful in case you need to get a Tatkaal passport:
http://nitpu2.kar.nic.in/passport/whats_new.htm

Format of the annexures:
http://passport.gov.in/cpv/ANNEXUREF_vc_tatkaal.htm
http://passport.gov.in/cpv/ANNEXUREI_std.htm

Day Trip to Nandi Hills

2007-12-24T02:17:00.000-08:00

We decided to spend a Sunday going to Nandi Hills with some of our friends. We all huddled in their Innova and buzzed off. Had a so..so time at the place. The charm of a picnic was lost partly due to the huge holiday turn-out and partly due to the number of intrusive monkeys and stray dogs. Jahnavi was also a little car-sick due to the twists and turns while going up the hill.

Our picnic was truncated because of some very menacing monkeys, and we quickly packed up and went to a friend's place. We ordered yummy kaati-rolls and generally chilled out while all the kids played together.

Ended up having a pretty decent time finally, if not quite in the way we had planned.

Fun at the Movies

2007-12-24T01:59:00.000-08:00

Went with my colleagues for lunch and a movie to celebrate my manager's promotion - her treat :). Had a really fun time. The restaurant Sikandhar located in Garuda Mall specializes in north Indian food and is really nice. Although the buffet spread isn't huge, each and every dish was super. We all then went to watch the movie - Dhana Dhan Goal. The movie is so bad, that we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly :). It is good to watch because of the football action, but the story is really sad, and the editing is poor. However, we had fun as we were all in a group and had fun cracking jokes and heckling the actors in the film.

Pink Floyd - Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun

2007-12-14T15:25:00.001-08:00

Was recently intoriduced to this video by a friend of mine and it has quickly become one of my all-time favorite videos...

Awesome literary link

2007-12-04T04:35:00.001-08:00

http://www.betweenthecovers.com/btc

Nice link...especially the games :)

Mahjong Madness

2007-12-02T23:54:00.000-08:00

One of my (extremely glamorous) colleagues has introduced the team to the game Mahjong, and it has caught on like wildfire. Everybody in the team has been playing it repetitively.

I have been pretty obsessed with it lately, playing the game anytime when I have a couple of minutes. It is pretty addictive. The game is freely available to play online. I play mahjong using the following location:

http://www.freegames.ws/games/boardgames/mahjong/mahjong.htm

Below is a photo of the extremely glamorous culprit who has reduced team efficiency :)

Mom's visit

2007-12-01T03:56:00.000-08:00

We've been having servant problems for the past couple of weeks. My mom has been helping us find someone from Chennai. She finalized someone this week, and she came over to help us train the new lady.

Kalyan is not quite sure what to call this new servant who's name is Rajathi (meaning darling). But apart from the issue of her name, she seems to be settling down nicely. Keeping my fingers crossed. It seems to me that servants come here, get nicely trained, settle down well, and then leave for better-paying jobs. Somewhat like the IT workers in Bangalore, I guess :)

Anyway, my mom thinks Jahnavi has grown a lot taller and become a lot more mature (meaning easier to take care of ).

Here is a photo of Jahnavi wearing a sweater-dress that my mom knitted for her:

Farmhouse Friends

2007-12-01T03:13:00.000-08:00

Last weekend was spent relaxing at a friend's farmhouse out in Sarjapur. The drive was a pretty long one, and towards the end extremely bumpy. However, the place is extremely peaceful and ideallic. The farmhouse looks very prettily rustic, and they actually have about five acres of cultivated land with crops such as maize, and toor dal, as well as a whole host of fruit trees as well as some magnificent teak trees. They even have a couple of cows, which Jahnavi found pretty fascinating. She has been mooing like a cow ever since :)

Here are a few pics of Jahnavi and friends having fun at the farmhouse:

On the terrace

On the slide

Sharing the swing with friends

Trodding the road less travelled

Playing ball

Playing catch

Birthday Party Fun

2007-11-21T10:13:00.000-08:00

Last weekend was a fun one. Jahnavi was invited to a birthday party on Sunday. So, the whole weekend was spent either preparing for the party or partying :)

On Saturday, we went to our favorite store in Bangalore, Sanctuary to get the birthday girl some clothes for her birthday. Ended up buying tons of stuff for Jahnavi as well. Got the sad news that the store is planning to discontinue their line of children's clothing :(. Too bad, now I will have to search for another store that stocks really cute (and reasonable) children's clothing. A rather tall order. Sanctuary is also one of those few stores where Jahnavi really has a lot of fun. The sales people all love her, and she has a ball getting pampered by all the staff, while we can shop in peace.

We saw some amazing silk quilts in the store as well. Kalyan was quite interested in looking at some pieces. However, by then Jahnavi had quite exhausted herself and it was time to leave. Picked up some dinner from Subway and then proceeded home.

Earlier, we had gone to Cauvery to get the birthday girl's parents a gift. They recently celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary. We picked up some really nice rosewood elephant bookends for them. I hope they liked it. Cauvery has very traditional stuff which is nice. But, I wish they would also update their collections. It is a bit boring to see the same sort of thing every time you visit the store. Soon, I think it will be only a store for tourists.

On sunday, we went to the party which was taking place in Palm Meadows, Whitefield. I've heard a lot about Palm Meadows, but this was the 1st time I actually visited the place. It is an amazing township, world-class, one of the best I have ever seen. The villas look absolutely magnificent (if a bit cookie-cutter).

The party was good fun, and Jahnavi really freaked out at the bouncy castle. This was the 1st time that she has seen one, and she took to it like a duck to water. She was the smallest child in the castle, but she didn't let that faze her one bit.

Jahnavi in the white dress on the bouncy castle

On the way back home from the party, Kalyan asked me if I would have liked to live in Palm Meadows. I hesitated for a bit, and then thinking about the daily commute to work decided that Palm Meadows is definitely not for us. It is way too far from anything. And, however great the township, I always prefer to be near Indra Nagar, which is I think one of the nicest places in Bangalore.

View from Vandalur

2007-11-18T23:36:00.001-08:00

It's been almost two weeks since our Chennai trip when we visited Vandalur zoo. My daughter Jahnavi has been seeing pictures of animals in her story-books. We thought it would be a fun idea for her to see them in actuality.

We went there one afternoon and it was a very long drive from home to the zoo (partly due to the bad Old Mahabalipuram Road). When we eventually got there (around 4:00 pm), we found out that the train ride around the zoo was over for the day. We just about managed to get a ride on the lion safari (only after paying some extra cash to the driver).

Paying the money was well worth it. The guide got really enthusiastic and decided to get some beef to feed to the lions, so that we could see them up-close. Here is a snap that shows just how close they were :)

My daughter who was chirpy all the while got extremely quiet after seeing the lions. I think she was a bit shocked that they were not all cute like she has seen in her story-books :). I am so thankful that she didn't cry and scare away the lions.

Shocked and worried Jahnavi

After the lion safari, we went walking around the zoo to see the rest of the animals. Some of the highlights were :

White tiger

Hippo

Giraffe

Zebra

Some photos below:

My parents, myself, and Jahnavi in front of the tiger cage

Hippos

It was a very long walk and very hot as well. My mom started to get very tired, and so we tried to to make it to the exit as quickly as possible. There was a cafe near the exit where we all settled down to have ice-creams and cool drinks.

All in all, a very nice day :)

A walk down memory lane

2007-11-14T10:31:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Juhi Chawla's birthday, and Radiocity played a lot of her songs on radio. I didn't realize that her movies have really nice music. Listening to those songs really made my day, especially my favorite one " Gunghat ke aad se dil bharka". Was humming it all day :)

Day trip to Pondicherry

2007-11-14T03:51:00.000-08:00

I am from Chennai but living in B'lore...so as usual we went to Chennai to celebrate the festival. Man...was it a blast ! My daughter is a handful who always insists that we go out. She literally pushes us out of the door. To satisfy her, we ended up having day trips to Pondicherry and the zoos. We ended up having as much if not more fun than she did :).

I have been to Pondicherry before and I have never been impressed with the place. Too hot, and slow, and nothing to do. But, I must say that this time we really enjoyed ourselves. We started off a bit late from Chennai, and I was concerned that we would have barely enough time to do anything. But the East Coast Road is truly amazing, and you can just zip by at a very decent speed. Reached Pondicherry by lunchtime, and went to this really nice Continental restaurant called Rendezvous. At first, I was a bit disappointed that the place wasn't air-conditioned (Pondicherry was extremely sultry), but later on settled in and was feeling quite comfortable. They have really nice food and a really pleasant and laid-back ambience.

After lunch, we did some antiquing at a store close by called Geetanjali. They had some beautiful olf furniture, including some lovely antique doors. Kalyan was very interested in the doors and got talking to the owner. The doors seem quite expensive (about 65000), and I am not sure how practical it would be, but they sure are beautiful. It turned out that the owner is opening a store in Bangalore (Indra Nagar), and he gave us an invitation for the opening.

Kalyan's friends had told him that there are plenty of stores that sell foreign-reject clothes. So, off we went to have a look. There are plenty of such stores and Kalyan scored a few really nice shirts and t-shirts. Not much stuff available for women though. They have really cute children's clothes, but Jahnavi was quite restless and we had to leave without getting her anything.

We also went to a store called Casablanca (this was more a shopping and eating trip rather than sight-seeing). This store is like a department store but fashioned to look like a sophisticated middle-eastern market. Really a beautiful shop to hang out. They also had some really nice stuff and a coffee shop. Hidesign (the leather store) has an outpost there, and I ended up buying a really nice red leather bag, as well as some agarbathis for my grandma who was unable to come.

Janhavi and Kalyan navigating the stairs at Casablanca

After that, we went to Auroville. Only, we got lost and by the time we reached, they had closed for the day. Got a nice shot of the Matri Mandir though. It looks really beautiful from the outside. But, I think it's good that it was closed. It is supposed to be a meditation center, and I don't think people would have done much meditating with my daughter wreaking havoc everywhere :)

Shot of Matri Mandir

On the way back, we had this impulsive idea of having dinner in Fisherman's Cove (a beach resort). They had a nice buffet and we all indulged. The price was pretty reasonable too, I was quite surprised. Anyway, we had such a nice time at Fish Cove that it is definitely on our to-visit list the next time we come to Chennai. Only, then we will spend the day here... All in all a wonderful day. Next up will be our trip to the Vandalur zoo

Dinner at Fisherman's Cove

Janhavi Playing Cricket in my Parents Living Room

Good literature

2007-11-13T04:58:00.000-08:00

I am an avid bibliophile...and so I guess it is natural that when a close friend of mine introduced me to Shelfari, I took to it like a duck to water....I loved the site, and loved interacting with a lot of other book-lovers like me. Actually prefer it to other networking sites, since here there are a lot of like-minded people like me...I used their widgeting feature (which is really quite simple to use) to add my bookshelf to this site.

Good Intentions

2007-11-13T02:39:00.000-08:00

Been reading a lot of blogs by my friends lately, and am really inspired to start one of my own. Primarily planning to focus on stuff happening on a day-to-day basis....Let's see how it goes and for how long my enthu takes me. I am the sort of person who has always bought a diary every New Year but never maintained it for more than a month. I have always claimed that my life is so full that I don't have time to write about it. This time, I am trying electronic. I type faster than I write :)

So, a little info about me. I am married and am celebrating my anniversary today. My husband Kalyan and me live in Bangalore after moving from the States 4 years ago. We have a beautiful 1.8 year old daughter Jahnavi.

More info about us in the upcoming posts