Freedom of expression!!

The title here may be a wee too bit heavy....but then offlate I have been witness to a certain incident of prejudice and intolerance!!
I have lived all my life in Bangalore. I take pride in being called a B'lorean. I can speak the local lingo and have imbibed it in d way I speak English also :)....Coz being a Mallu, u kinda fear adding the Mallu accent to English ...but a B'lore upbringing has added its effects to my English....so the 1st thing u will hear me utter to most of my female counterparts is "What ya" :)

On the 31st of December, 2010, I went to attend a new year party in Ramanagaram, located around 50 kms away from B'lore. There were party games organized for children and parents with the MC anchoring the programme in English. What happened a while later was that we had Kannada activists or so they called themselves hijack the stage, kick the MC offstage and then actually stage a performance on some chakravarthi, making complete fools outta themselves and sadly of tat historical character as well. That they wanted a stage was pretty evident, but to torture the audience to such a performance and that too when the performer is not even in his senses!! They later went on to abuse the MC for his English baashe and delivered a lecture on y we shud not forget who we are and as proud Kannadigas, we should not allow any non-Kannada programme.

They then played Kannada songs and were dancing to tat on stage in their drunken stupor...one of them even had the audacity to get down from the stage and hug and kiss an eight year old gal, standing close to the stage.

The programme was off for most people, who were in a hurry to leave, forgetting the time and money spent, rather than having to witness such hooliganism or further trouble.

Love for your region is not a bad thing, but its also important to be tolerant to other regions or languages. Its a sad state when u have to be a silent witness to such fanaticism!!

Traffic

This blog post is meant for all the people out there who kept complaining tat I havent been writing offlate:)...To be honest I never expected such an existance of ppl in d 1st place n secondly Im sure they wont make the mistake of asking me this question a second time after seeing so many blog postings the last couple of days. Its almost like this gal is waiting for some topic or the other to start the blah blah blah.....

At home, we havent watched a movie in a theatre for ages!!...So, most of the theatre going business was with friends and that was also beginning to become a rare event....

So, everytime I go to the theatre, it is a very big event for me :)

Yesterday, after I think close to 20 years I was watching a Malayalam movie in a B'lore theatre!!
The movie's name is "Traffic" and I must admit a very fine movie indeed!!

Im reading a book called "The Tipping Point"...I personally dislike reading self-help or any of those "do this n then ur life will improve" wallah books...But this one makes for a good read....giving a new meaning and ascertaining a few thoughts that have crossed my life and my thinking styles..I picked it up out of compulsion to earn some points in our company's mandatory learning programme..But now I have no regrets:)

Now, if you are wondering y I brought up the topic abt the book...then it was also to tell you that he points to a "word of mouth" publicity technique...which the author says is not only ancient ...but till this date ....is the most widespread form of recommendation anybody ...for tat matter anybody wud just heed to...

So, this movie "Traffic" apparently happened to be one of the biggest runaway hits(heheheh..picked up this term from the movie ads :)) of 2010 in Mallu cinema by word of mouth.

Now u know y I referred to the book :)

This movie had the audience hooked and guessing from the start to the finish!! It is a wonderfully woven plot connecting 4 or more parallel stories and bringing out the commanality between them beautifully...b4 I go on n on waxing eloquent :) (high school English classes ka prabhava :))..I will get onto the plot...

The movie starts off at a traffic signal with the very 1st scene being tat of a young gal driving a car being chased by local ruffians on bikes...she jumps the red traffic signal and hits another vehicle.....and then the movie moves back in time to the main characters...n slowly the interconnecting elements begin to unravel....Its amazing how convincingly the movie does this connecting business again and again and tat is definitely an appealing factor in the movie!!

The movie does have its share of yeah rite...these r stuff that can happen only at the movies...but the point is tat it does have it in u to keep u hooked...

The story has Siddharth, a famous movie star whose daughter requires a heart transplant to stay alive...then Vineeth who turns out to be the victim who loses his life in the accident after the 1st scene and whose heart has to reach the dying gal within 2 hours!! The irony here being that Vineeth was actually supposed to be on his way to shoot an interview with the star when tragedy strikes!!

The movie has the ever-talented Srinivasan at his best playing the red faced traffic cop who is under suspension for accepting a bribe to fund his daughter's education and who takes up a massive almost impossible challenge of delivering the heart to its destination to prove his mettle.
It has its moments and is so fast paced that by the time u wonder tat ..haah...this happened coz of that n that coz of this....U already have the story moving to another level!!

The movie later unfolds with details on all the characters who come together in the mission to get to the destination hospital and who in some way or the other contribute to the progression of the story!!

I will stop here....n wud recommend this movie to anybody....not only is it different...it also makes for a fresh break for ppl who are used to seeing the usual stuff at the movies otherwise!!

Nagerhole :)

Our team outing plans had a second name to it....Jinxed...till Nagerhole trip happened :)

Getting everyone's availability and dates for a 2-day trip was always going to be a difficult...especially when one of the days would invariably end up being either a weekend or a general holiday...But we had other non-team related issues as well.....ya ya.....d dates we had planned for had to coincide with tensions awaited in the city due to Ayodhya court verdicts and what not!!!

So, this trip plan has been ON since September last year and finally we ended up going on Jan 26th, this year!!
D trip made me realize a few things I was strangely getting to be unaware of...tat no matter wat ...d songs Sheila ki Jawani and Munni badhnaam huyee are the most popular songs ...when it comes to dance or anthakshari...
Nagerhole is close to 250 kms away from Bangalore. It takes a good 5-6 hours to reach the place. We were staying at a place called "Holiday Homestay". Now this place was suggested to me by my friends who had been to the same place before.

I had only spoken to Mr.Narendra, the owner of this homestay place regarding details on the place..and I was happily looking forward to seeing Mr.Narendra in village folk avatar .complete with dhothi/panche....blah blah blah...

We were greeted at the homestay place by a man in jeans and a cool T-shirt, sporting a goti..n when he called me "Seema Madam"....I knew at once tat Mr.Narendra had just arrived!!..hehehehe..
Holiday Homestay is actually a coffee estate located in close proximity to Nagerhole's Rajiv Gandhi National Wild life park, Irpu waterfalls in South Kodagu district and Wayanad district.

It is a beautiful place with good accommodation and outdoor games facilities. After lunch, it was a basketball session in one corner, cricket, the hot fav as usual, badminton in another corner doing the rounds.
We then left to see the wildlife in Nagerhole National Park in a 1-hour safari ride that takes you into the jungle only to catch sight of some deer and peacocks!! Our drivers who had parked the bus near the main road entrance got to see some leopards atleast :)

We were told that during general holidays, it would be very difficult to spot wildlife as they venture further deep into the jungles...far far away from mankind...
We returned back to the homestay only to be greeted to an amazing experience of "star gazing"
All credit to Subhankar who got his telescope and lenses and who set it up to let us see some of the starry wonders of the skies:)

It was not long before there was a huge queue piling up to view the sky thru Subhankar's lenses :)
It is amazing the amount of knowledge the man has when it comes to stars and also his patience in setting it up multiple times for close to 25 people...
Simply coz u had a Saturn, which was viewed at 5am early the next morning and which kept vanishing from view ...so just when u think to get to see it at the telescope...Saturn wud time its vanishing act ..right then..n then v wud cast a helpless "Want to C Saturn @ any cost wallah look" at Subhankar who kindly obliged ...
I wud call Saturn, with its rings the most beautiful celestial body in the sky closely followed by Jupiter and its 4 moons.....I remember viewing Mars or Venus, Pleiades/seven sisters-the question mark wallah constellation, Andromeda galaxy and the Milky Way....n for the very 1st time gotto c some of those shooting stars they show in the Karan Johar movies..n I didnt miss the opportunity to make two instant wishes ...I dunno if those 2 wishes wud get fulfilled or not...But no harm in making them..right :D
After all tat star gazing n some dinner..it was time for a campfire and some leg pulling n almost close to 20% pole dancing!!

The next day unfolded in us taking a stroll around the estate and then heading to Irpu waterfalls. What I liked about this place is tat u dont have to do any high fundu or even normal trekking to get to the waterfalls...thr r steps leading all the way...d water was clean n it was pretty easy to play in the water...

The highlight of our trip was little Vandya, our colleague Somya's two year old daughter who undertook the trip journey with us...and kudos to Sanjay who took such good care of her all through the trip....it was also amazing to see our teammates take turns to babysit dear old Vandya while her mother got to attend to other things...

V had a Naresh who clicked photos at each n every moment ..n a Subhankar who had ll of us flocking together or in singles posing for his camera..not only coz he has an amazing camera...but his sense of photography can make anyone look beautiful :P...right, Subhankar?


Our last stop was in Ranganathittu, a bird's sanctuary located pretty close to Mysore...tat it made me wonder so many times tat inspite of having lived in B'lore all my life..I had never visited such a beautiful place before!!

This place was infested with all kinds of birds...lemme try n show off..tat I can actually name some of the most exotic birds inhabiting our skies...so here goes:...painted stork, black heron, white pelican...n ya..I shud have written this blog right after the trip..coz I have happily forgotten the names now!!


We were taken on a boat ride to view the habitats of these birds...n v got to pass by as many as 5 crocodiles...it made me wonder at times..ki wat if it attacks or something...But they were tamer n lazier than I had ever imagined!!


All in all...the trip was a good break and a lovely getaway amidst the wild with fresh air and loadsa greenery for company!

Kids, who dont want to be kids ....

Last weekend, after cooking up an uneventful sambar ...when I was drying clothes in the balcony...I was amused to see a young gal, aged around 8 watch me dry the clothes from the terrace on the house facing our balcony ....

A younger boy,Im assuming her bro... comes running and "hopping" :) onto the terrace and asks the gal to play with him....she looks at the lil fella, turns his request down and then continues to watch me ....

I was reminded of my childhood,when I used to yearn to be a grown up....one of the reasons for tat was simply coz ppl used to ask me if I studied in high school...when I was still in primary school...all this n more....only coz I was a lil tall for my age n tat was y I just cudnt wait to get to high school...

I used to think tat its only when u get older u get to do lotsa cool stuff like cooking and maintaining a kitchen .....Thr was this game I used to thoroughly enjoy...n tat was the "house game"....I used to pretend to be a grown up who had to cook and keep the house neat and tidy...I used to spend my time in using candles to heat onions+chilli powder+salt smuggled from the "real" kitchen and in setting the tiny kitchen set neatly and in trying to be full responsible and all :)

Its a different story that adolescence changed all of it and not many ppl wud believe me..if I were to tell them that it was only in the past 1 week that I have actually washed, cut and prepared dishes with cabbage, ladies finger, beetroot and pudina for the 1st time in my life :P

My sister was 7 years older and I used to always wish I'd grow up really fast to wear all the cool clothes that she used to wear....

I dunno if tat gal watching me ..was having the same thought as what I think she had....But ya if she did...I want her to know tat thr is nothing more beautiful in life than being a kid ...Growing up and running errands is not as cool as it may seem :)....n like they say ...the grass is always greener on the other side :)

1st time out!!

After marriage, I now stay in an apartment in JP Nagar. Its been close to 3 months since we moved to our new home. I have never seen my neighbours , forget about people within the same locality. Our apartment overlooks a residential colony with houses piled up one after the other like matchboxes....

Last Saturday, there was a fight that was on in one of the houses within our locality and for the 1st time, I was amazed at how much all of us are curious to know about what is cooking in someone else's house :P...the entire neighbourhood was out with curious onlookers forming their own group discussions on the fight going on in somebody else's house...

With our office hours being long and the actual social networking among people who stay close to you narrowing down big time, a sight such as this definitely needs a mention ....