The year that was

Another year gone by…wheels of time continue spinning…
It’s been a very eventful year personally and otherwise. (Eventful doesn’t really describe if the events made you happy, ecstatic, disappointed, sad or angry. It just says a lot has happened!)

I stumbled on this terrific photojournalism site which featured a 3-part series on the year 2008. It’s a must-see. (The site is also part of my Blogroll now)
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Here’s to my career which I hope will turn out the way I’ve envisioned it for 2009; to my family who I’m crazy about…I love you all to bits; to our house that’s nearing completion…I can’t wait to start living there; to our travelling, where I hope to explore more new places; to my books, which are my escape, my partner in solitude ;to Bangalore, my beloved city which I hope will see better things and more trees and restored lakes in 2009; and last but most importantly, to my mad bunch of friends who keep me sane through thick and thin. Muaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.
Oh and world peace of course if such a thing exists in these violence-obsessed times. (No, I’m not being sarcastic, it amazes me to see how our world has become and how all that one can talk about is of atrocities committed by people towards other people)

I just can’t remember who said this or who wrote this and I’m going to end this post by saying it: May you live in interesting times! Best wishes for a wonderful new year ahead!

p.s. I will find out who said it.

The green cover and infrastructure

In the name of infrastruture, Bangalore’s green cover is mercilessly getting plundered. And all of us have to watch this spectacle in silence. ‘We will plant saplings for each tree we uproot’ declares the development authority. I guess there needs to be another ‘authority’ to actually find out if they are planting saplings. Even if they do, those saplings will take years to grow into the wonderfully comforting big trees that have been uprooted. I’m not against infrastructure development, I know how desperately Bangalore needs it. The roads are choked and yes we definitely need the wider roads, the flyovers, the ring roads, the peripheral roads, the satellite towns, the metro, the monorail etc. I’m just worried about the price we will have to pay for changing Bangalore’s landscape…literally. I wish there was a better and a different way to do this. I wish there was a way to control this dizzying amount of growth this used-to-be-laidback city is experiencing…

p.s. One road I’m going to miss terribly once the Metro work will start is the seemingly endless green stretch from South End Circle junction to Jayanagar Sangam circle. The large, wide road flanked by some fantastic trees on either side and the parks that line the entire stretch of the road is a visual delight which I know most people who take that road regularly experience. All in the name of development eh?

Skipping a day

How do you make a day disappear? Move from today to day after tomorrow…Wish the day away…Wishful thinking eh?

A wedding feast

I’ve finally attended a wedding reception at Palace Grounds. Growing up in Bangalore, it was a known thing that if anyone gott married there, they must be very well off and it was definitely going to be a big affair! A friend of ours got married earlier this week and the reception was held there. We entered the humungous sheltered stall they had made for the reception party. It was decorated with flowers and colourful ribbons. The 3 sides of this makeshift hall were lined with food. The one side in the front was of course the dias for the bride n groom. There were very comfortable chairs put up right in front of the dias for guests to sit. Behind the few rows of this seating, were a lots of dining table and chairs. The table had one accessory:a nice, big white candle in a glass container. (Though I couldn’t understand why that was needed since none of the candle flames were burning due to the fans which on at full speed!). Right next to the dias in one corner was a smaller dias on which a music band were singing all the old and new popular numbers from Hindi and Kannada cinema. The only thing missing was a dance floor (and I think this was due to the fact that the reception was hosted by a south indian family, dances are not so  big here)

Being in a crowd

Has it ever happened that you are in a house full of people and yet you feel entirely alone? Where you see people all around that you are aquainted with, but don’t want to go up to even a single person and make conversation…the more you are with all of them, the more you want to stay away from them…you just don’t relate to any ideas being exchanged there. All you can think of is solitude. And maybe a book for company. Rather let the book talk to you…

I W & F

Irresponsible, Wild and Footloose. My conversation with my girls (we are 6 of us and living in different places, but keep in touch very regularly thru’ the wonderful medium of e-mail and telephone) today was around this. A very interesting and lively exchange of email on the I W & F phase(s) of our lives. We were recounting a few incidents when we were I W & F. Some of them were funny, some were profound, some were sad, some were plain stupid. Great for a laugh and a superb conversation point in a pajama party…After downing a few cocktails, imagine the ‘damaging’ anecdotes that can spill out!!

   Recounting the incidents when you were like that can really open up a Pandora’s box of memories…Memories of when you were stupid enough to fall headlong for a guy who had ‘I’m trouble’ written all over him, or when you were so drunk that you passed out, or when you flirted with some strange men and enjoyed it thoroughly…there are a million things that can come under I W &F. A common thread among all of them, I’m sure, is the feeling of being free…absolutely and completely. No boundaries and no questions. . .

General catch up…

I know I have been away for a while…though I’ve religiously updated my travel blog. You know how life has a way making you busy…with work, friends and family. It’s actually a nice thing to have packed days, but sometimes you do need those empty hours where you have time to blog and read others’ blogs!

 A very close friend of mine visited us after a gap of over 10 months. It’s so reassuring when you meet people after a long time and realize nothing’s changed and you can pick up the thread right where you left off. I know I might have said this earlier, but everytime it happens, it gladdens me like nothing else.

[The below is unrelated to the above...in fact, all the paras in this post are all unrelated to each other!]

 It struck me that faith can actually make people do a lot of things, especially here in India where faith runs deep. I was having this conversation with someone about how people aged 50+ years can trek in snow or slush in dizzying altitudes only to get a glimpse of their God’s idol. Take for example Amarnath, Vaishno Devi, Mt Kailash (manasa sarovara). Or even climb hundreds of steps to reach a temple on top of a hill (take Tirumala for example). People who wouldn’t have done any training to do such things. In a way it’s amazing how they get the sheer willpower to do this. Faith can drive things, no? I have utter admiration for such people…if I had to do any of these (though I’ve climbed the Tirumala hill long back and treked the 15 odd kms to Vaishno Devi, these were done when I was in my early college years, so my fitness levels weren’t much of a concern…but I still remember when climbing the steps to Tirumala peak, I had to stop at one point because of breathlessness, it was so steep) Now, I would take a few weeks off, train and then go. I saw some pictures and videos of Mt Kailash and it blew my mind. I need to go there someday. For sure. Not beacuse I have religious inclinations, but beacuse I see God in nature and what He (or the ‘power’) has created there is absolutley breathtaking.

Lost…

I think I am lost…

I am going to find myself.

If I return before I get back, please ask me to wait and tell me that I will be back soon.

Social conciousness anyone?

Woah…big phrase, isn’t it? Being socially aware according to me is not just talking about problems plaguing the society (like what I’m doing now!), but it also consists of doing something about it. I was talking to our family physician a couple of weeks back and she was going over some anecdotes with us. It made me realise how awfully blind we are about things around us. She is a social worker in the true sense. She treats needy people for free, she gives away medicine to them as well (what’s the point of diagnosing the problem, when they can’t afford the medicine is her take on it), she feeds anyone who comes to her doorstep, she collects clothes, stationery from her well-to-do patients and gives them to her needy patients, she buys bus charge for some of them (again, her point here is that if they can’t come to her, then she can’t help them), she visits villages regualry to treat people, she’s almost adopted 2 women in her own house and has given them education and a life (she even got one married). And her fees to the rest of the people is painfully mninmal. In these days where doctors charge a mninmum of 200 Rs (or more) for a mere consultation, she doesn’t charge first time consultations at all!! Oh well, she IS one of a kind.

Taking one’s life

is not easy from what I’ve heard or read. I personally did not know anyone. Until a few days back, when a photograph stared at me from the newspaper. A very familiar face. It was one of my school classmates, a very bright girl, she was the school captain as well (or vice captain). Very shocking indeed. And quite disturbing. She did this to herself? That sounded impossible. Questions that will remain questions.  Maybe we should have tried to still keep in touch (I do know some friends tried it for a while after school and during college days, but I think they were snubbed). No one knows what could have saved her. It’s hard to digest that someone you’ve actually seen growing up ending up this way (even though you weren’t close or anything, but just the fact that you know the person and have had a fair amount of years together).  I hope she has found the happiness and freedom now that she did not find here in this world. May her soul rest in peace.