I returned back early last night to my hotel room. By 7:00, I had soaked myself in a hot tub of water with lemon grass oil sprinkled in and was deep in a slumber by half past seven. I seriously wonder in what right frame of mind was I in, when even in the midst of a deep sleep (or was it a shallow?), I had called up Boston Pizza and ordered for a pizza and Garden green salad with a pop. The guy had apparently knocked on my door 30 mins later which fell into the deaf ears of your highness. He had to actually ring my intercom a coupla of times before he could deliver the pizza. Now that the sleep was disturbed, I sluggishly finished the pizza and called up my friends and family back home, then decided to buy in a movie. And trust me, I bought in a movie at the Hotel that absolutely did not justify the $12.99 I paid for it - Casino Royale. This classifies to be one of the most dumbest James Bond movie I have ever watched. This was the only James Bond movie I hadnt watched and that completed the equation, but I guess I would wanted it to be an exception. It just isnt a Bond movie at all.

Well its been snowing around today and as is my wont, I took a stroll outside in the snow !

Freedom !!!

You take a flight, land in a new place, new country, go over to the counter, rent a cab, take a map, drive down to your destination. Well, easier said than done ! But trust me, theres nothing like it when you are eligible and licensed to do all of it. That surely is freedom ! And when you are coming back to the same place again, well, its as good as coming home !! :-)

Have reported back to work in BellVille, to a warm welcome by everyone around - the place hasnt changed much except for the fact that its snowy all around, with spine chilling and in my case, teeth chilling cold. I took a stroll to a few places that I had promised myself to be back, albeit not alone, but unfortunately all alone ! Cldnt help but wonder things could have been different, should have been different.

Time to hunt for a place to stay and if I'm lucky, I must be getting a Bachelor's acco soon with no worries of pesting roommates ;-) ! Wonder when did I start such an aversion to roommates?

Gone with the Wind !

You know any close relationship has waned, the feelings have hit the bottom, that its time for you to treasure the memories and move ahead(with a faint hope of rediscovering the same at a later point of time, if destiny wills) - when people stop addressing you by name, the familiar nicks no longer are used, mails/letters start with a Hey, Hi, things that were interestingly shared are sent as FYI on a group alias and sometimes after reminders. Well, lifes like that - a string of memories !

On a different note, sometimes people humble me with their love. Like my granny who at her age of 88, made the food i liked even if it was 11:00 in the night or 4:30 in the morning to drive to bangalore - the reason, I might miss my favourite food for quite some time to come and she - not sure of how long she can hold onto her dear life. Well, grandma, thanks for all that you are. I'm what I'm mostly because of you and I absolutely adore you for your strength and character!

On the way ...

Very often, I have ppl tell me that I must be crazy to drive so often to Chennai. Well, I AM crazy about driving, but more than that, I sometimes get very nice moments during the travel that I can treasure, like these!

Started a little late on Friday evening and the almost full moon just took my breath away. It was my guiding moon bathing me with moonlight all through the way. I stopped over at a nice point and watched the moon rise up and above until it was brilliant white. Boy, dont I love my Canon with a 12X Optical zoom. Wonder what add-on lenses can do to this piece !

I usually start very early in the morning from chennai on Mondays, and not so surprisingly, reach office much earlier than if I stay in Bangalore ;-). And these days, the vast fields covered with white layers of morning mist and a rising sun behind, blinding your eyes through the rear view, is an awesome company to drive. Well along with a coffee, its just about perfect.
We need Baristas and CCDs on NH 7. Couldnt resist stopping over, enjoying it and completing my packed breakfast @ sunrise. Pleasant start to the week !

P.S:
I shd be putting these pics on moi travel blog @ http://bim-bam.blogspot.com. I guess I have become lazy having two blogs ;-) ! However, hope to have lotsa updates coming in the travel blog in a months time when I wld be travelling a lot lot more !

Ha !

A whirlwind of a weekend and before I can even write about it, another half of a week is already gone *sigh*....Now that there arent many weekends here at my disposal, and loads of things to be taken care of, all I could ask for is time. Wish a day had 48 hours instead *a vey big sigh* !

I wasnt very keen when my friends wanted to plan for something as I had lotsa pending things, especially a coupla bills to be taken care of, however, when they barged into my house early morning(read it as 5:30 Am) on Friday and packing my things, I couldnt say a No (my problem always). Neither did I imagine, I would have to drive the vehicle for the next 45 hours with just a break for the night @ a friend's coffee estate only to wake upto a beautiful sunrise.

I found myself taking people around as I had already been to the tourist places in Coorg. Every place, I visited, I was reminded of the first trip of mine to this place. Wish those times had stayed and as they say, Every good thing has to come to an end and so it came. Be it the Hilltown hotel / Nisargadhama / Thala cauvery / Buddhist monastery, I found myself reminiscing the past memories more than enjoying the present. Except that this time around , I was driving a new Hyundai getz through the curvy hill roads. We were driving through remote villages to reach the coffee estate in the late night when we switched off the head lights only to feel a bursting peak of adrenalin thru us.

A drive for few more seconds would have resulted in an accident or if there wasnt one, we wld have died of fear. All scary thoughts ran thru all our heads and I suddenly decided to stop the vehicle in the dark on the mountain towards the estate. We switched off even the cell phones to bask in the moon lit estate wilderness.

After 45 hours of travelling, I found myself in home only for a day of pub hopping and treating ourselves to an awesome spread of food.

BTW, visited The Legends last tuesday to catch up with some live music from a band called Altered Spaces for which a cousin of my friend plays guitar for. Hope to upload the video here. Check out in a couple of days.

I wonder, is it because my days here are numbered for a long time to come, that I'm not able to keep up with my schedule. My lifestyle suddenly seems like something straight out of a novel with pubs, food, music and travel one overlapping the other. Well, whateva, I surely am enjoying it !

Adorning beauties !

What do I sport these days especially when I drive?


What adorns my desk these days?

Internet as a battleground ?

It might be too early in my mind to form an opinion and I havent thought to myself yet, analysing what my stand is with regards to such developments, but the following articles did realyl make me sit back and want to spend time thinking how it would be in the future. Will internet be a battle ground?

Crazy Wikileaks

Do u use Google Earth?

And you thought I'm mad @ customer support for no reasons?

The Three of Us

Sometimes you read a book and identify the emotional journey of the characters with yourself. At times during such a read, you stop and think over "Gosh, its so like my thoughts, the emotions that I went through" and you realise theres so much in common with the fiction and real life. Oh well, it is bound to be as fiction, as I believe is just an extension of the real life. I picked up,"The three of us" by Abha Daweswar for the language based on my earlier read of her - "That Summer in Paris". But except that this time, I was in for a different treat. I was left wondering if it was indeed a lady who wrote this book (no offense meant) for the treatment of very intricate emotions of a man trying to identify his own sexuality. It was like the author had magically stepped into the thought process of a man. The novel just breezes through the lifestyle of a young Manhattan investment banker, laden with some hilarious moments and dialogues and sometimes, profound words. I'm looking forward to read "Babyji" which again is an emotional journey of a girl that had won her a literature award.

Whine and Dine !

A wannabe-restaurateur myself - towards which I have already made my clear cut plans, and as a person who likes to wine and dine at all places and all foods (vegetarian) possible in the globe, well, all i can say about this article is, Been-There-Faced-That !

Winding up for the year @ Work !

Nothing feels great than to have a very positive value adding result to the last design meeting of the year. There has to be a logical explanation to everything in software, you just cant wipe your hands off the problems and what else would be a better note to end the year than cracking a serious problem that the team has been sitting over for long time now, that you know for sure is gonna be appreciated. Its time for celebrations every where and the client goes on a vacation starting tomorrow, so its decided to be a party time tomorrow afternoon for the team which has been longing to go out now. And I couldnt be in a better mood than this after what I heard during the lunch.(see my previous post).

BTW, I picked up twobooks from the library this morning - "The three of Us" by Abha Daweswar and "Through Krishna's Eyes" by Sunny Singh. I read "That Summer in Paris" by former author and I liked the language, that I went and picked it up. Hope its interesting too.

Fun @ Las Vegas

Ah, the little bunny is going on a trip with his mom. Infact all of my family except me is travelling this christmas to Las Vegas, Disneyland and Grand Canyon. Wish I was there too.....


On a contemplative note, Why do people talk behind your back and try to justify themselves putting you in the dark? And particularly to a person who is not worth anything between the two of you? Whats the point in opening and staring at the skeletons in the closet?

Want !

No matter whatever your relationship is with your parents - love bound or duty bound or both, you will surely miss them when they are away.

Second Chance.

Today, I wish Life had one second chance except that this time, I know what to change.

To all who have read and commented so far, thanks a lot. You can always reach me at
nchantedmind(at)yahoo(dot)com.

What do you do?

What do you do when you send a SMS to the wrong person. Sometimes, it happens that someone is in your thoughts moments before you are writing the SMS, say for example, you are pre occcupied in your own thoughts in a meeting and suddenly remember that you have to send a SMS and then you send it to the person not intended for? I feel very embarrassed and it has happend quite a few times with me....and it keeps repeating and I have no clue how to prevent it.....

What do you do when someone who means a lot and who's close to you in being ill spoken of in front of you, and particularly by people who's close to them? Do you go and tell your friend? or you dont?

What do you do when your friend does not respond properly, ignores you and tries to avoid you? Do you try all things to seek the reason? or you dont?

A Symbol from my travel.

Am an enthusiast of symbology (No, nothing to do with The Da Vinci Code, this dates back early from my childhood). The symbols of various culture, religion have always captured my interest. Its my personal belief that digging deep into all religions will associate atleast a couple of common symbols like for example, the Star of David. Various manifestations of this symbol can be found in different religions. Who knows, may be thats the path to knowing more about human origin. And every symbol is always symmetrical on a certain axis for sure and symbols I guess are the highest form of understanding of the creation and functioning of the universe. Religions closely related to the Vedic culture like Hinduism, Buddhism - well, I dont have to say anything about their knowledge and abundance of symbols. Every time, I visit a Hindu temple or buddhist monastery, I'm impressed with their colours and architecture. Most of the time, I do not understand anything about it. But I like them. So is the attached snap. It was taken at Buddhist Monastery, Manali town. This symbol was painted on the part of the main door of the Monastery. Look at the symmetry of the figure and I feel that there must be some meaning to this. Can anyone decipher it for me? ;-)

End of a sojourn !

Back from the vacation and yes am in more than a mood to work. Feels so good to be so focussed, thanks to the feel-good vacation. It was a nice trip laden with moments of wonder, moments of joy, moments of enthusiasm, moments of cheer, moments of silence, moments of astonishment, moments of peace and moments of loneliness. Took a lot of notes that I can edit a good travelogue and may be try to weave stories, but am short of time for it right now. In a jist, these are some of the things ....

• Meeting up with a good friend.
• A punjabi get together at my yesteryear idol - KapilDev's restaurant.
• A peaceful sunset high up the hills.
• A calm walk in the gardens of chandigarh followed by an evening tea.
• Mouth watering punjabi special sweets and loads of punjabi food. The best Aloo-pyas Parantha..., one of the best tuty-fruity sundaes I have ever had....
• Cinema, Shopping, shopping and more shopping...
• A ghostly encounter in the wee hours of a cold morning
• Acquintance to the majestic mountains - I'm sure to visit them again soon.
• Feeling of spiritual belonging to the world.
• The touch of the snow high above the hills, sharing stories with a villager who trekked along with his one feet (actually faster than me).
• A trek to catch a glimpse of naturally formed temple and one more crossing a mountain just for the heck of it.
• Tasting the local mountain cuisine and feel the life of a mountain folk.
• A taste of pilgrimage @ manikaran - servicing for a bowl of food (trust me the food tastes heavenly after the service)
• Driving along the river high on the mountain tracks...
• Moments of artistic liking at Roerich Society, long talk with a fellow traveller from France, looking at his notes of a month travel in India.
• Long tiring journey to Amritsar to be greeted by hisorical places, Jalianwala bagh, Golden Temple and Wagah border (border retreat ceremony)
• Driving a local auto rick through the vast lands of punjab's crop fields.
• Moments of sadness in the city of Delhi - the striking poverty and dirt.

Well, these are just the few of many things that happened through the 9 day sojourn. A everyday list of things would take a whole lot of writing to do , but thats for later...

Hurray !

It looks very nice, sexy yet comfortable for a daily outfit. I'm just talking about a pair of jeans and a small t-shirt on a girl. When its killer abs that the girl has, well, I just cant help myself give a second look. And that exactly is the idea of it, giving a sneak peek. Whats the whole point in pulling off the shirt every 2 minutes making sure it covers everything. Cmon, if its so uncomfortable, why wear it in the first place. It is not designed to cover you upto your knees. Thats such a turn off !

Anyways, girls apart, its time for a travel again - but this time to the North of India, meeting up with a friend for a couple of days and then going on my way to the majestic Himalayas. Its a nine day vacation backpacking all alone and I hope to have interesting experiences to share when I come back. I know it wouldnt give me enough of time to explore the Himalayas, but am looking at making myself familiar with the Majestic mountains for my trips to follow in the next couple of years, hopefully. Mes planning to have a skiing lesson for a couple of days and explore the place around Manali and nothing more. No emails , no work and its just about fun time !

Pride of India

The pride of India or so they are called. It is our national animal and this is what we do to them
http://60minutes.yahoo.com/segment/19/tigers
:-(
Its my fav animal. Its such a feast to watch the Big brother of a Cat in all its glory. Its stare is so powerful that it can send shivers down your spine and the roar - so majestic and authoritative.
I still remember vividly the one and only time when we saw a tiger in the wild crossing the road between two jeeps, the headlight on one directly focussed on it. We were so awed and that one instant, the adrenalin that rushed through us giving us that once-in-a-lifetime experience can never be explained. My friend who was holding my arms dug deep into my hand unable to supress the tension and excitement that I felt in my hand for a couple of days. But that moment, that we shared was one of the most memorable ever.

:-( Dull Friday

I'm late, I'm sad, am upset and am feeling amiss.....I dont want to work today and neither am I able to focus...No, not that its a Friday and am going home after a long time, (the days of going home every weekend to meet the special someone are all over) .....Its just that I'm not feeling good about my new friend..... This morning I was waiting for my cereal porridge to cool down and watching TV. I was already late..... Thats when I saw this little friend come in and searching for the biscuit in the usual place. I was amused and went to the kitchen with a biscuit to keep it on the window sill. And he was running arnd the kitchen lofts searching for something. I have all the cardboard covers of microwave, fridge on the lofts.....I thght he probably was trying to find a hide out for himself and I decided to see if he can take the biscuits from my hand today. We have gotten close , but not close enough....And I waited waited and waited and he never turned up.....I left the biscuit in the usual place and until I left, it was not touched....Wonder where the little fellow is....

A new Friendship !

I have been having his/her company for a long time now. I was indeed discussing about it with my friends who had dropped in at home yesterday. For my sake, lets call him a "He".
The first time I saw him was when he was nibbling at a left over biscuit in my kitchen. He belongs to the family of squirrels but I guess hes quite intelligent and found his way to my kitchen to get some easy food. And since then he has been a regular visitor. Since the day I met him, I have been leaving a biscuit for him everyday. However, the little bugger is too cautious when it comes to my presence. However friendly I try to be, he does not want intruders. Oh well, I wanted to tell him, he is the one who actually intruded my kitchen....However, everything is forgivable in a Friendship. Occasionally, he would come and take a peek at my bedroom, when I wld be working on my laptop or reading a book stretched on my bed. Last afternoon, in fact he had a heavy food I guess - my friend had made potato fry and he was nibbling at it more than once as we saw.

I woke up late this morning and went in to brew a cup of coffee. I was just sipping some coffee standing near the window when this new friend actually dropped in and went searching for something to eat. Guess he had become hungry early in the morning. I stood still not wanting to disturb him. I did not want to disappoint him. So, I moved to pick a couple of biscuit and he ran away and peeked from his entrance to my kitchen. I took out a biscuit and placed in the usual place and moved away a little. He gave a couple of nods and then came in and had it oblivious of me standing there. I did not want to miss the chance of making friendship and stood there until he left....It actually takes weeks and sometimes months to gain the trust and confidence of these lovely friends....I dont think humans are any different too !