Quantum Of Solace....

When I was in US, was exposed to a lot of gadgets and comforts of life. Non interfering people, independence and the ease of getting things done..was really amazing.. Towards the end of my trip had started feeling strong attraction from the giant ..and felt life back home was far far behind...

This Weekend, while coming back from Goa, got a chance to visit my ancestral village Gouthamapura near Sagara. After 13 years visited the place again. The countryside, the nature, the warmth,simplicity,hospitality of people..just awesome!! Could clearly see peace and tranquility in them! felt this has to be the way of life!!!!

In just 2 weeks had felt these in totally contradicting places...mind is wandering in search of bliss!!!! ..looks like time to find paradise in the place I live!!!

Glimpses...

Kukkarahalli kere.........

A Saturday morning with nature....

Terminal C7, SAN JOSE,CA , 6:57 AM

Sitting here trying to put my mixed feelings of departure...

A great memorable trip.. reunion of good old friends, complete strangers becoming great buddies..Italian delicacies ...awesome last minute trips....tremendous work pressure ....few realizations...crushes...shopping...my new camera ..and ya...lot of "precious alone time" !! :)

Larkspur had become my temp home..hosts were too good. Rolly , Hythm and Omar were always there pulling my leg. Watched a lot of movies...am sure now I won't crib when Ravi wants to go to any Engish movies ...[ or u never know the effect of sandalwood !! ]

Workplace was nothing but "Hectic"...tremendous pressure to complete tasks and a lot of unplanned things cropping up every minute...Learnt a lot of professional skills !

F.R.I.E.N.D.S ...catching up with all my good old friends was exciting....my school friends, hostel friends, office buddies...met them all...some are all happy with the US...some in gretest confusion..some desperate to come back.....

Now, heading to meet 2 more friends@Chicago..after that back home !

Bye bye SJ :!@#$%^&*) (

My new toy!!

canon rebel xsi
Towards more picturesque life!! :)

A conversation...

My Frnd : Hey..ನಿಮ್ಮ ಫ್ರೆಂಡ್ ಸಿಕ್ಕಿದ್ರು GB ಲಿ..
Me : ಓಹ್ ಹೇಗಿದ್ದಾಳೆ ?
My Frnd : ಇದ್ಹಾಗೆ ಇದ್ದಾರೆ..ನಿಮ್ಮನ್ನ ಭಾರೀ ಕೇಳ್ತಿದ್ರು..
Me : ನಾನು ಅವ್ಳ್ನ ತುಂಬಾ ಮಿಸ್ ಮಾಡ್ಕೋತಾ ಇದ್ದೀನಿ..
My Frnd : ನಂಗ್ 2 books ಕೊಟ್ಟಿದ್ದಾರೆ ನಿಮಗೆ ಕೊಡೋಕೆ ...
Me : ಓಹ್ ಹೌದಾ..nice..I met her cousin here..he stays rt opposite to my place..
My Frnd : ಹೌದಾ...how is he ?
Me : ಅವ್ನು ಇಲ್ಲಿ ತುಂಬಾ popular...ತುಂಬಾ knowledge ಅವ್ನಿಗೆ...ಯಾವ್ ವಿಷ್ಯ ಕೇಳಿ ಎಲ್ಲಾದ್ರು ಬಗ್ಗೆನೂ ಗೊತ್ತು..ಆದ್ರೆ ಏನಾದ್ರೂ...ನಂಗ್ ಅವಳೇ ಇಷ್ಟ.. :) ನಂಗ್ ಅವಳ simplicity , taste..ಅವ್ಳು ಗುನುಗೋ ಹಾಡ್ಗಳು ಎಲ್ಲ ಇಷ್ಟ...GB ಗೆ ಹೋದಾಗೆಲ್ಲ ಅವಳ್ನ meet ಮಾಡ್ಲಿಲ್ಲ ಅಂದ್ರೆ ಏನೋ ಖಾಲಿ ಖಾಲಿ ಅನ್ಸತ್ತೆ..
My Frnd : ಎಷ್ಟಾದ್ರೂ ನಿಮ್ frnd ಅಲ್ವಾ :))



She = Ankitha book house, GB, Blr ; He = Borders [ books and Music ], Milpitas !

Why do all good things come to an end ?

A good movie, sweet candy, nice drive, great story, interesting book, memorable trip.....and a gang of friends...all come to an end! Was just wondering why all good things have to end...

Had a great team at office..Each of us were unique , Each day was a celebration and each project a passion!
Now, the team is no more, each one is in a different team now ...not sure if I can be part of such a team again..All of us might benefit in long run because of this move...who knows the destiny of the road not taken!
Miss you all bhuv,sudks and Rr!! [ and I miss A.R too :( ]

Thankfully vinu is still with me :) and she says..
" If good things lasted forever, would we realise how precious they are? "

Lost!!!!

Last Sunday evening, myself Raja and Jayanthi went to Mission Peak. It is around 11 miles from my place. This is my first trekking experience in the US. At the beginning it seemed very easy. No hard rocks, no thorns, no slippery stones...it is all just a single mud road...whose elevation gradually increases. But after walking on this road for about half an hour I started to feel the pinch..

I saw a few people walking backwards, I tried it too..it seemd easier than walking in the normal way. After a few pit stops, we reached the peak. The pacific, crimson red sun, the golden brown hay, lonely houses made the evening memorable. On the way back saw a lot of squirrils and a wolf too!

While coming down realised that it is hard to control the speed .....coming down is always fast!!! [ applies everywhere :( ]

We were back at the foot by 9:00 pm..had dinner at Bhima's and back to Larkspur!! to begin another hectic week.

So what did I lose ???...Lost a lot of calories :D

What if Earth had more moons ?

Last night was talking to my friend and topic turned towards earth,moon,sun etc....
We started discussing what would happen if earth had more moons ? ...this is what I could think of ...do add to the list..

1. There would be more number of festivals
2. More number of new moon n full moon days
   
3. More number of " GrahaNa"s
4. Multile calenders based on different moons
5. More number of moon signs
   
6. Lesser number of auspicious days :D
7. more poems inspired by different moons
8. High tides..
   
9. More pictures :)
10. This place would have been more beautiful....!!
    

Younger by a day !!

After a week long shopping and 26 hours of journey, reached the land of liberty!

Mumbai-Shanghai-SFO ...seemed like a never ending one! Thanks to JET for having some good movies in the flight.

Hoping to meet all my old friends here :-)

HAPPY FRIENDSHIP DAY !!

Thanks for being with me !

Land of Amitabh Bachchan!

When I first got the invite to go to Allhabad for campus recruitment I was thrilled. This was my first north India trip :)

The place as such is an average town..I loved the Hindi accent of the people over here. As monsoon has hit the place, it is lush green everywhere :)..great feast for the eyes !

On the way, at Kanpur Airport found a couple of Peacocks,wood peckers and other variety of birds. Am sure M would have identified all these :)

Visited the "Sangam" at Allahabad. This is the place where Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati meet. Could clearly see the Ganga and Yamuna meet..and they say Saraswati is Guptagamini :) ..Yamuna appears brownish, Ganga appears creamish and Ganges is more aggressive. Beware of the Pandits here...they will rip u for money if you show even a bit that you are God fearing!



This has to be lit and floated in water..



Ganges , Yamuna meeting!

Jaane tu....

Remember the Genelia fever in our gang :)....especially sudks and pras were desperate to watch this movie :)

It was movie day y'day. I didn't even know the movie name correctly. I hadn't liked Imran in the TV promos..I felt he looked too girlish!!!..but by the end of the movie..I started feeling that he is cutest person on earth :)

As kartha missed the movie..had to sell the ticket to someone who turned out to be Dam's Genelia ;)...am sure he enjoyed the movie more than all of us ;). Manjn joined us little late....pras had to sacrifice aditi aditi song for the sake of him.

The movie is all about rats,cats,dreams,hallucinations and 3 necessary & sufficient conditions for becoming a rathod :)).Comic timing is the life of movie. Imran khan, Genelia, Naseeruddin Shah just rock!!!.

Hats off to Aamir and Happy Bday Sudks :)

S M A R T goals :)

Its EPM [ Performance review ] time, and there is goal setting happening for the next year. My manager always insists on setting Specific Measurable Attainable Realistic Timely goals.

After knowing this, whenever I pray god 'ದೇವರೆ ಒಳ್ಳೆಯದು ಮಾಡಪ್ಪ ’ I realize it doesn't fit the SMART goal theory and I start being more specific..bottom line is I can't pray like before :(

one more common example - "ದೇವರೆ exam ನಲ್ಲಿ ನಾನು ಚೆನ್ನಾಗಿ ಮಾಡೊ ಹಾಗೆ ಮಾಡಪ್ಪ "....if it has to be specific...then it would be " ದೇವರೆ, ನಾಳೆ ನನ್ನ maths exam ನಲ್ಲಿ ಎಲ್ಲಾ questions ಗು ಸರಿಯಾದ Answer ಬರೆದು, 100/100 marks ನನಗೆ ಬರೋ ಹಾಗೆ ಮಾಡು." :)

ufff....if god was like "manager" life would be really difficult !!! :D

Anejhari

This is one of the most quickly planned and executed trips [sounded like some release…well releases never happen quickly…:D ]

Started on Thursday evening...me and pra were here at the office campus waiting for the tt..we were sitting at the kaTTe outside the office gate..witnessing the traffic of Bannerghatta road…anybody who saw us would have remembered “Jab we met”…me and pra had 2 big bags…and we were all set to run away :D..[ but am sure..even if we get such a chance we will run in opposite directions with different ppl ;)..what say pra ]..Went to VV puram…joined rest of the gang..had all our favorites…and started to Anejari …it’s a nature camp 3 kms away from Kollur. Watched bommarilu on the way[ Genelia is still the hot favorite of the gang, inspite of “sathya in love”]...reached the place at around 10 in the morning.

Started the trek to Arshnadgundi falls by noon. It was hot and sunny…the place was all surrounded by greenery, initial 1 hr was ok…but later everyone started feeling tired. .I swear this was the toughest trek after Skandagiri …Except for shah I don’t think anyone else had enthu for the photos…

Reached the Falls by 3:15…Falls was very refreshing…had food and played in water for some time…and started back by 4:45…by the time we came back it was 6:30…had a stop at Kollur to call up home and inform that we were still safe n rocking :D

While waiting for tea..it was time to take snaps of Dam and Ram [ Ram is the twin brother of dam..who was lost in anejari ] :D…sudks did a fantastic job with his camera..while Manjn took charge of the lighting !...by the time tea arrived it was 9…had dinner later…food was ok….and back to the tents….next thing I remember is Shah giving us the wake up call.

We decided to give a quick visit to Kollur Mukambika temple…pra came up the theory that “ God is very understanding!! “ [courtesy Cold water n laziness ] don’t ask me the details ;)….

Back from temple…we started for the 11 Km long kayaking….I really enjoyed this…bcoz I didn’t do anything…just sat in the kayak..and the instructor took care of everything else…and ya…some had found their soul-mates while kayaking :D ...after a 2.5 hrs of kayaking,had food..and started back…

On the way back went to Agumbe…took a few amazing sun set snaps..and headed to the inevitable place…”PABBAS @ Mangalore “

We just made it in time for the ice-cream...after that back to Bangalore.

Missed –Neer Dose @ Agumbe,Suraj,Kartha,dars,r,sriram and his PJs

Thanks sudks for fighting all the battles and for the wonderful time

River Varahi

Agumbe Sun set

na dheem dheem ta na

Himavad Gopalaswamy Betta !!

My friend had shown pictures of this marvelous place...from then I wanted to go there..even though this place is just 80 Kms from Mysore...hadn't been here.

This Saturday was the day. Me, amma and appa started at around 6:30 in the morning. Since it had rained heavily the previous evening, drive was cool and the onset of Vasantha had the green effect on the drive :)

We reached the Place by 8:45. Place was all covered by mist..it reminded me of Skandagiri. I took a few snaps in my mobile..since i hadn't got my camera :(

The idol of Krishna looked very artistic ...we witnessed Abhisheka and pooja. After mangalarathy the priest expalins the details of the idol in a peculiar manner I loved his voice and style :).....Venu,gopalakaru,honne mara,prabhavaLi,rukmini-sathya bhama, Govu-gopikas and the dancing posture of krishna.

The specialty of this place is ..it is covered by mist the whole of the year..thats why the name Himavad Gopalaswamy Betta.

Also there are 77 koLas [tanks ] in this place. This place also called as Hamsatheertha as there is a belief that once crows which came and bathed in the tanks here got converted to Hamsas. [ They claim that you can't find crows here...I too didn't observe any ]. Symbolic of the fact that...all our bad deeds will be cleared/forgiven by the sanctity of this place.

After puja, had uppittu..which my mother had prepared and carried :) and returned to Nanjangud n then Mysore :)

A great trip with my Parents :)

On the Way...


The Misty trees :)....


The temple entrance :


I loved this one....




Note: Bandipur is around 19 Kms from this place. So a trip to Bandipur-HG betta would make a perfect 2 day trip :)