…. I did! and it feels awesome!

I never did get a chance to vote all these years, what with working in different cities at different points in time and never having a “permanent address” which I could put down to get into the voters list. But this time I was determined. I was determined to get my voter id card, which I did after chasing the authorities around.

We had to go over to my in-laws place (which, incidentally, is my permanent address) early in the morning so that we wouldn’t have to wait in long queues. We needn’t have worried. The EC has made awesome arrangements this time- voting booths at every half km or so, so voters didnt have to walk/ travel too far and only around 1000 voters per booth.

We just walked in with our voting id cards, “inked” our index fingers, went behind the screen, voted and walked out. As simple as that!

As Hrithik Roshan, says in “Lakshya”, “I dont know why, I always knew but never felt it so strongly before, that I am an Indian” !

Once again, Mumbai has been attacked… our country has been attacked.

I didnt know of it until today morning, when I read the newspapers. I have been in a daze since then, angry, upset, frustrated, aghast. I can’t begin to describe the emotions that are running through me. I have been lashing out at everyone in office, at home. I feel like this is an attack on me, my family.

On one hand, you have people like Raj Thackery who want to divide us, and on the other hand you have these terrorists who want to destroy us. What do these people want? Why are they doing this?

I want to do something about it. What can I do? Where can I go? Whom can I approach? I cant stop thinking about it and feeling totally miserable. I cant seem to be able to do anything beyond calling my friends and family in Mumbai and ensuring they are safe.  Is this all we are capable of doing? Isnt it time we, ordinary citizens of this country, came together to do something about this? To stop these atrocities? To save our nation?

A lot has been said about the (in)famous new Bangalore airport. There have been reports trashing the facilities and their management. I guess a lot of water has flown under the bridge since then and I have made this trip rather late in life and things may have changed for the better. I have to give a thumbs up to the Bangalore International Airport. Frankly I was impressed. During my life as a qualitative market researcher, I used to travel at least 10 days a month and most of it was spent running in and out of airports. I don’t travel much now, but I have to say that the Bangalore Airport is by far the best I have seen in the country, in terms of facilities, in terms of the sheer beauty of it.

I haven’t seen the Hyderabad Airport which people tell me is far better than the one in Bangalore. But since I haven’t seen it, I cant compare and the one I have seen, I know is very good.

There are very clean restrooms everywhere which have been well stocked with soap and tissues. (A big thing for me, since that was severely lacking in the old HAL airport). I am pretty anal about toilets being clean and often didn’t visit them for hours if they were even a bit dirty.

There are many places to eat and you do have a good choice. There are signboards everywhere and its a little difficult to get lost. There is enough seating space and I don’t think anyone would need to stand even during peak time.

The only thing I was pretty disappointed about were the shopping options available. Shoppers Stop has a very small retail space where they sell only expensive brands. There is a food/ sweets shop but I didn’t like the looks of it. There is a bookstore where they keep very very few books of interest. Mostly management stuff, which I am definitely not interested in. Considering it is an international airport, I think shopping options need to be improved a great deal. Oh and one more thing that I am pretty bugged about it is the fact that it is so so so far away from the city. I needed to wake up at 2am and leave at 3am to catch a 6am flight. I was feeling very sleep deprived that day.

The road to the airport from Hebbal is also very nice, with trees lining both sides and has a very international feel. All, in all, I really liked the airport.

Oh and about the rest of my trip, I went to Saharanpur and Haridwar- to attend a wedding and my father’s 60th birthday which we celebrated by doing an “Annadanam” (paying for a special meal for all devotees who come to the temple) at the Aiyappa Temple in Haaridwar.

It was a great trip. We also went to Mussourie, which I wasn’t very impressed by. The Mall road is now dotted by branded showrooms. Whats the point? Why would I want to go and buy a Levis in Mussourie. I would rather buy the local stuff, hand knitted sweaters and other things.

The weather was excellent though, especially after we sweated it out in Delhi, and Saharanpur.

Here are some pictures from the trip

The Gangaji ki aarti at Haridwar

View of Haridwar from the Chandi Devi Cable Car. Awesome!

Mall Road, Mussourie

View from Mussourie- Because of thick fog/ mist I couldnt capture anything else

We also did some Ganga Snan to wash away all our sins:-) Unfortunately I don’t have photographs of that

edited to add: A review of the Airport after it has completed 100 days of operation. http://bangalorebuzz.blogspot.com/2008/09/100-days-but-not-there-yet.html. I cant dispute a lot of things said around the connectivity to the airport but I am not sure about them talking about it being just a “functional airport”.

Yesterday, I was speaking to a close friend of mine, who was my roomie before we both got married and then she shifted to Mumbai. While we were discussing something else, I happened to mention that P had reached home yesterday at 7pm. A totally shocking event for her and me! Reason: He normally never gets home before 9pm.

She asked me if it was a special day, was it our anniversary that she had forgotten about? Then she quickly corrected herself, “oh no! how can I forget your anniversary? You got married just a couple of days after M tried to commit suicide”. I was aghast that she had such wonderful (pun intended) associations with my wedding day.

That’s what got me thinking actually. I clearly remember that day even today. That was the day I was leaving the flat we shared with a couple of other girls, M and G. It was an amazing apartment, spacious, with all amenities, good and friendly neighbors and an amazing landlord (ahem… lord?). I thoroughly enjoyed my one year in that flat. S, my friend and I bonded pretty well. We had our share of spats, but then who doesn’t? Even if you are siblings, you don’t get along all the time.

Anyways, so I was getting married 4 days from that date, and had packed all my stuff and sent it to P’s house before hand. I just had the bags which I needed to carry for the wedding with me, and P had come to pick me up and drop me at the station for the train to Chennai where I was getting married to… P… who else?

M had decided not to go to work that day, and I found it funny, considering she is always the one who is up first and ready before all of us even think of waking up. She was a jolly one, always smiling and generally carefree. Or so we thought! Anyways, we said our goodbyes at the door cheerfully with promises of keeping in touch and then P and I set out for the station where my parents and a couple of family friends had reached from Goa and were waiting for me.

We had reached half way, when I received a call from M’s boyfriend. I forget his name so we shall call him U (as in unknown). He was in Mumbai for a visa interview and sounded very distraught. He told me that M had tried to commit suicide and had slit her wrists, and she called him after she had done the deed to inform him about it. He was crying and asked me whether I could go back and take her to the hospital. I was so shocked at that moment, I wasn’t able to open my mouth. My heart started palpitating, my hands were perspiring and tears were freely flowing down my cheeks. For a moment, I didn’t know what to do, what to say! I composed myself after a few seconds and asked P to turn the car around and take me back. He tried to calm me down and I explained the situation to him. He then tried to drill some sense into me, told me that my train was an hour away and there were people waiting for me and if I went back, the entire plan and schedule would go awry. I then calmed down and called S and told her about the situation. Her office was just 5 minutes away and she said that she would leave for home immediately. I also called our neighbor, SM, and asked her to break open the door and check on M. I then waited for half an hour, when SM called me and told me that M was on her way to the hospital, that she hadn’t lost too much blood and that the wound was superficial. I didn’t know whether to be relieved or angry.

Do you know why M had done all this? It was because she didn’t want U to go abroad. It was a 3 month long assignment and she thought it was too long a separation period for her. That for her was such a big issue that she tried to take her own life. That was how much she valued her life. She didn’t stop to think for a moment, about the grief, her parents who had brought her up, her siblings who loved her and her friends, boyfriend and others who considered her to be part of their lives would go through. There was no thought given to her life ahead which she dreamed about and discussed with U, her budding career, her happiness and that of her parents and other family members. All because she was going to be away from U for 3 months?

Even if she hadn’t meant to “seriously” commit suicide, what about the myriad other people who were affected by it? The emotional trauma that I had to go through before my wedding.  S, who had to be by her side till she was in the hospital, who had to take her to the airport, get her a ticket and put her on the flight to her parents place, the neighbor SM, who was shell shocked that something like this can happen. The landlord, who had to face the many questions that neighbors posed to him about why he was allowing such people to live in his house. S, G and the new roommates who were now branded as “the girls whose friend tried to commit suicide”. And last by not the least, U, who was the “cause” for this attempted suicide.

I am sure if this was an accident or murder, no one would think about inconveniences or labels because that would be a genuine tragedy. But this, this was an attention seeking tactic. And what a tactic it was! Enough to cause a break up between her and U. Enough to ruin the wonderful relationship we shared with our neighbors and enough to have our landlord not trust these girls anymore and have someone keep an eye on them all the time.

One action was enough to ruin so many things! Was it really worth it?

Last week, we decided that enough was enough and that it was time we moved our lazy selves to a movie hall to catch up with at least one of the many movies that were getting released. There was a time, before we were married, when every Saturday meant movie time and we would make it to PVR by hook or by crook and watch whatever movie was on screen at that time. It was perhaps the only time we spent more than a couple of hours together in a day, and it was one of our best ways to recover from the week’s hectic pace. Watching movies is also something I am passionate about, and is a big source of entertainment for P, so it all worked well for us.

But then, things changed, we got married and probably didn’t feel the need to go out for movies so much. Plus, we got ourselves a DVD player, a big screen TV and we were all set to catch up with all the movies at home. PVR at Forum, the movie theatre closest to home also started getting very crowded and suffocating, which put us off movie going altogether. Now, we vowed that we would go for movies at the theatre only during the week and never step into Forum over the weekend.  That wasn’t possible all the time due to weekly work schedules and other tasks that piled up. Anyways, sorry for the major digression.

So, this weekend we made up our minds and booked tickets for Dasavatharam despite having read all the reviews- both positive and negative. When I mentioned it to a couple of colleagues at work, they said that I was a brave one to actually go and watch it after all that I had read about it. Nevertheless, the tickets were booked and there was no turning back.

So we trooped off to the 10pm show on Friday last.  Though we both are Tamilians, we aren’t well versed with the pure form of Tamil given the fact that we were brought up in Goa and didn’t really learn Tamil at school. So the initial few minutes into the movie saw us gaping at the screen and at each other blankly since we didn’t understand a word of the monologue that Kamalahasan was carrying out in the background.

We eventually got a grasp of the storyline by watching the scene unfold and catching a few words here and there that we could understand. Shameful, I know, but what to do? Ofcourse, after the intial storyline the language reverted to “Chennai” Tamil and we happily settled into our seats, glad that we were able to understand what was going on.

Anyways, I thought that the film moved at a very slow pace and a lot of the scenes could have been done away with. When the film took a break at intermission, we were literally shocked that there was still so much of the movie left, we thought it was almost time to get up and go. The movie then stretched on for another hour and a half after interval, and I was ready to jump up and run away from the theatre. Everything about the movie seemed made up and artificial, I couldn’t gauge any real emotions and it didn’t move me a bit. And believe me when i say that, because I cry easy when it comes to emotional scenes. Even a Kuch kuch hota hain moved me, so you can guess how much I cry when I watch a movie… sometimes I watch movies only so I can cry… well… ahem ahem… lets move on. 

Except for Kamalahasan, the other actors did a pretty bad job in terms of playing their roles. It all seemed very over the top and superficial. Asin was okay, but overacted in the second half.  I just couldn’t understand why the japanese girl had to speak in Tamil with that horrible accent!

The make up was good for certain roles- like Fletcher, Naidu, Poovaraagan. The role of the old lady was badly played, and she(he) was badly made up as well. The make up for the other roles was quite bad as well. 

Although I understood that the movie revolved around the chaos theory and butterfly effect, and I truly admire Kamalahasan for creating such a plot, I was not able to appreciate it very much. Was it because of the long winding plot and the choas that resulted subsequently? Was it the innumerable number of characters, some of whom weren’t very relevant according to me? I really don’t know. 

I haven’t been able to appreciate Tamil cinema and Tamil humour all that much over the years, but I do know that Kamal was an exception and that most of his movies were realistic, moving and very enjoyable. I loved his Mahanadi, Nayagan, Apporva Sahodarangal, Michael Madan Kamarajan, and even Chachi420 (cant recall what the Tamil version was called).  However, I was disappointed this time. Very disappointed!

Made me wish, I had waited for another day and booked Jaane Tu… Jaane Na instead. Will definitely go for it though, I am looking forward to it!

Since my mind is preoccupied with too many things and most of them cant be mentioned on this blog, I think I shall resort to completing the tags that 3 fabulous women have sent my way. I’ll begin with the simplest one, the love-link tag sent across by Swati.

Here’s the info about the tag:The love-link tag. The Love-link Tag is another of those Linky Love game where you only have to tag 10 person in one post but still there is no actual limit (you can tag more if you want!). Once tagged, you have to copy paste the link in this post, and make them grow! Do not delete any of the links and be honest to yourself! Copy paste the link in this post, and make them grow!
BennyLiew, RamblingMoo, Mum & Kids In Wonderland, Judelittle, Our mini blogsphere, Rooms in My Heart, http://janiceng.blogspot.com/, ChinNee, Jo-N, LadyJava’s Lounge, Strange but True, Mariuca’s Perfume Gallery, Meet Uncle J-Uncle J, Farah, aNgRiAniWoRLd, How’s Life Bout, The Three Heroes, Ceedy, Veena, Vandita, Cuckoo,~nm,swati, Compulsive Dreamer,

So, I tag some of the bloggers that I know in real life

Floyd Girl

Poo

akamonica

and some others whom I would love to meet…

Tharini

Maggie

Read this, this, this and this to know what we all were upto on Friday. Which was a blast, by the way! and I was maha thrilled to be part of this blog meet! My first one for sure, and so soon since I started blogging only a couple of months ago.

I am high up there in seventh heaven, folks, with all that you had to say about me. Actually Poppin’s mom got me right when she said I was the quiet one. I usually don’t talk much, and am the “listener” in any group that I am a part of. In fact, I wanted to bear the moniker “the silent one” for my blog URL before I realised that this already existed…  It also takes me a pretty long time to warm up to somebody and speak my mind.

However, the ladies made me feel very comfortable, despite the fact that they were meeting me for the first time and most had never read my blog either.  Although I was the only non- mommy in the group, I didn’t feel out of place at all, since despite what these ladies have written in their posts, there weren’t too many conversations around babies.  I have also been very comfortable among babies and baby talk so even if there was any talk around babies, I didn’t really notice it much.We talked about everything under the sun, laughed a lot, and generally had a lot of fun.  I was also quite enamored by kiddo (Aargee’s son), he is such a friendly kid!

We had some wonderful lunch and some heavenly cake brought by Swati. And when I left, it was with a heavy heart and with the hope that we would all meet again and have the same carefree fun that we had for those 3 odd hours.

Weekend was hectic as well, what with my parents here, and our need to visit my in-laws every weekend. We had a huge family get-together where we went out to this restaurant on Mysore Road, near Ramanagaram, called “Lokruchi”. Coming from a Tam-brahm family, we needed to go to some place which was pure vegetarian and traditional as well, since we had some oldies coming with us.

The drive was the most painful part of it and while the food was decent and the ambiance nice, everyone left with the feeling that it was not really worth the effort we made to drive all the way there in peak traffic.  In fact one of the cars got stuck in a major jam and could get out of it only after an hour of being stranded in the same place.

I had taken a couple of days off work, and my parents and I went to Mysore on Monday. P couldn’t make it since his “brands” needed him and so it was just the three of us. We did have a good time, although I wouldn’t recommend this hotel to anyone who wants to find a decent place to stay in Mysore. The rooms were decent but overpriced and the service sucked big time. We had a harrowing time ordering room service as well as when we went to eat in the restaurant.

We hired a taxi and went visiting the various historical and typical “tourist” hangouts in Mysore. The palace as usual was awesome. I love the stained glass paintings as well as the wood carvings on the doors. The only painful part was making us walk barefoot on the roads (from the palace to the museum) especially when it was blazing hot.  We were literally hopping and skipping so that our feet wouldn’t get burnt.  The authorities really need to do something about that.

The next day we visited Srirangapatna. I loved the summer palace which was built by Tipu Sultan. The paintings and carvings there were really beautiful. I am always amazed at the beautiful architecture and workmanship of these monuments in the age when machines weren’t really available. I cant imagine the creativity people had, and the time and effort that they took to create these awesome structures. The daft that I am, I forgot to take my camera along, so no pictures

We got back home yesterday evening and here I am, in office, feeling most depressed and unwilling to do any form of work. I want to be back there amongst all the bloggers, laughing and chatting away  and/or with my parents, chatting about this and that. But like they say, good things have to come to an end, and I have to get back to work, if I want to earn a living.

So ta folks, see you when I see you! 

So, yesterday I was coming back from work in the company cab along with a few other colleagues. As usual, it was during the peak Bangalore traffic and I was going mad with worry since my parents are here and I wanted to be back with them as soon as I could. I was already feeling very guilty about leaving them at home whilst I went off to work for the whole day.

Anyways, whilst we were stuck in the traffic jam, we heard the faint sound of an ambulance trying to weave its way through the traffic. The sound got louder and louder and then I turned behind to see the ambulance two or three vehicles behind ours. We were crawling through the traffic and had no place to pull over to let the ambulance pass by. I was getting uneasy, and praying for the traffic to clear so that the ambulance could pass by us and get to the hospital quickly. There were all kinds of thoughts in my head… about who would be in the ambulance right now, what state would that person be in and the tension that his family would be going through and adding to it was this slow moving traffic.

Then we stopped at a traffic light. The sound of the ambulance was deafening… and I was getting more and more impatient and worried. My colleagues and I were discussing about how to get the cab to pull over to the side so that the ambulance could pass our cab and a few other vehicles and atleast move ahead.

But then we noticed that even after 5 minutes the traffic wasn’t moving. We looked ahead to see that the junction was being manned by a traffic volunteer and we were even more puzzled as to why he wasn’t letting the vehicles pass by given that everyone within a one mile radius could hear the ambulance. Our driver honked a couple of times and then the other vehicles also realised and honked as well. Even then, the volunteer wasnt letting the vehicles in our path move ahead.

I couldn’t hold on anymore and a colleague and I ran out of the cab towards the volunteer to yell some sense into him. Only to see that the poor guy was stuck in the middle of a circular jam with a bunch of vehicles surrounding him and rushing to move ahead before the others could.

We were appalled at this lack of a conscience on the part of these car owners. Did they not hear the ambulance? Did they not feel even a twinge of concern at the plight of the person inside the ambulance? Don’t they even stop to think that one day they could be in the same ambulance trying to get to a hospital? Is there no sense of humanity left in this world at all?

I understand that we are an overpopulated country and probably do not value life as much as the people in developed countries do? But isn’t that the irony? On one hand we talk about how friendly our people are and how we care about our neighbours, how we do not want to get influenced by the so called “western culture” where people apparently are self centered and do not think about others around them. And then, on the other hand, we cant even stop to appreciate the thought that a suffering person needs to be reached to the hospital immediately? All we are concerned about is reaching to our destination as fast as possible without a thought of what we are leaving behind in our trail? Have we now become so ruthless? Is this the path to development and prosperity?

If it is so, then I am afraid, I do not want to be a part of it. I would rather live in a village where people still care for each other, still stop to ask about your well being. They may not be as prosperous as the city inhabitants and maybe a lot more superstitious and narrow minded. But atleast their heart is in the right place.

So anyways, along with a few other people who stepped out of their cars, we managed to clear the traffic and let the ambulance pass by. I only hope that it reached the hospital in time, the patient managed to get the right medical treatment and is on the path to recovery.

Asha tagged me to do this post. Sounds like an easy one, so am going to attempt it rightaway.

Here goes…

Last Movie Seen In A Theatre?
Bucket List (Starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman)

What Book Are You Reading?
Trying to finish Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis

Favourite Board Game?
Scrabble anyday

Favourite Magazine?
Readers Digest, Businessworld, Any filmy magazine

Favourite Smells?
Smell of wet earth after first rains, fresh paint, Niveo fresh Deodorant, Smell of Brut Musk Deodorant

Favourite Sound?
Gush of a waterfall, hearing P’s voice when he is home from office

Worst Feeling In The World?
Nothing going the way I wished it to, and me not being able to do anything about it

What Is The First Thing You Think Of When You Wake?
Is it morning already?

Favourite Fast Food Place?
Subway, McDonalds

Future Child’s Name?
Hmm… not there yet!

Finish This Statement: If I Had A Lot of Money
I would buy a lovely house with a garden, a big car and would go for a holiday on a cruise (yeah! am a very materialistic person)

Do You Drive Fast?
No. I dont drive at all

Do You Sleep With A Stuffed Animal?
Hmm… hee hee… not with an animal for sure!

Storms – cool or scary?
Cool

Do You Eat The Stems on Broccoli?
Yes

If You Could Dye Your Hair Any Colour, What Would Be Your Choice?
Would stick with dark brown or burgundy

Name All The Different Cities/Towns You’ve Lived In:
Panaji (Goa), Mumbai and Bangalore 

Favourite Sports To Watch:
Cricket, Tennis, F1

One Nice Thing About The Person Who Sent This To You
A sweet mommy blogger I am just getting to know who has an adorable son!

What’s Under Your Bed?
Cushions for which i have been trying to find covers for ages

Would You Like To Be Born As Yourself Again?
Nah! that would be boring

Morning Person or Night Owl?
Neither- cant stay up at night and am grouchy in the morning. A day person is more like it

Over Easy or Sunny Side Up?
Dont eat eggs

Favourite Place To Relax?
Home – with a book or simply sleeping it off

Favourite Pie?
Dont like pies. Prefer cakes

Favourite Ice-Cream Flavour?
Rum punch, chocolate chips

You Pass This Tag To
Hmm… Ditty, Good Day Sunshine, Boo

Of All The People You Tagged, Who’s Most Likely To Respond First?

Ditty … hopefully!

Greetings wonderful MTBs!!!

and good work to all of you!

For having solved the riddle before

I give you all this clue.

This time its not a letter

nor is it a number clue

This time its just a good old blank

which means no clue for you!

Booooo! you say with spirit..

Yaaay! we say in throng!

For it is part of the thrill of the chase

which leads to the next little song!

“Recently an aunt; while thrilled, she

Also says pragmatically, “What will be, will be.”

Keeping her company is Kyra the Kat

Now you know just who I’m getting at.”

Solve it and you get your lead

Misguess, and you lose your speed

Solve it slow but solve it now

And before you go, take a little bow

Go to ‘Comments’ and leave me a clue

Tell me which blog you are off to.

Good luck! Good luck! Be on your way.

You have your work, cut out for the day!