Hide my face...please!

What I got myself through along with others around me today, was the most avoidable of the situations and was brought about by my utter thoughtlessness.

Today morning I was woken by a phone ring. The unusual aspect was that it was from office. The first thought that came to my mind was, “People already at office! WTF is the time like???”

The watch read 10:46 am.

My first reaction was panic.

I silenced the ring.

Mind you I didn’t reject the call. I silenced the ring. So, the caller still hears the phone ringing while I do not hear the ring.

I sprang out off the bed. Ran to the bathroom. Brushed in no time. There was no time for a bath. Wore a deodorant liberally. Slipped into presentable clothes and just ran to office. In the process I do not know how many calls from office did I “silence”.

I got a pretty nasty feedback as soon as I got there. I then realized how stupid I had been. All I had to do was pick up the phone and tell them that I had woken up late. Getting up late happens once in a while to all of us.
They were worried for my safety and as I had not been picking their call and had tried to trace me. They had gone to the office services to get a trace of where I was.

When I look back at the morning, I feel not only embarrassed but extremely sick. I wish I can just shred these hours off just like dirty clothes. What a mess!


I have been near situations earlier. But there was always some one around who helped me avoid such situations. There were of course people at home and then my room mate. I have always been used to a support system to rely on.

These are lessons one learns only when one lives alone and is devoid of any kind of support system that a person like me establishes within no time and teaches oneself to rely on them.

Whether I have learnt my lesson, only the future can testify.
I just hope I have!

|||Ganapati Bappa! …Moraya!|||

It is Ganesh Chaturthi!

I wish I was home today!

I wish I was in Mumbai!

I can imagine the city and all its house holds at their festive best.
I can almost hear the chants of "Ganapati Bappa! …Moraya!" in my ears!

For some reason unknown to me, I feel like talking about this extraordinary significance that not only Ganesh Chaturthi, but Lord Ganesh has on my life. This is one of the lesser known facts about me.

Do you know what Amit means? I am sure not many do.
Amit stands for “The Incomparable Lord.”

An even lesser known fact is that Amit is one of the 108 names of Lord Ganesh!

Most of you are aware that my birthday is on the 2nd of September. But very few know that Ganesh Chaturthi is my birthday going by the Hindu calendar.
Yes, 2nd September 1981 was Ganesh Chaturthi!

This is the very reason that I am Lord Ganesh’s namesake.

Ganapati Bappa! …Moraya!

Its Friday ... again???

I must be the only living soul on this earth who does not suffer from Monday Blues.
I often wonder what is the matter with me?

On second thoughts, why would I be worried if I do not suffer from a disorder that is the most abundant amongst the working population???

I should! The reason being the discovery of a fairly unique disorder found in yours truly ALONE, Friday Blues.

As Friday dawns, there is just one thought that creeps into my mind and doesn’t leave until it’s no longer relevant.

The big question, “What to do over the weekend???”

Yes, I do get to play on Saturday! But that’s just three hours! The remaining 45 hours are either spent sleeping, window shopping, or simply eating.

What worries me is how these three activities take up the remaining 45 hours. However hard I try to spend my time doing something else, I end up doing nothing much different from the three activities mentioned. L

Reading is good. I truly enjoy it. But once I read for a while, I fall asleep.

We think of going out for a meal. Most restaurants are located in the vicinity of a mall, or still worse, in a mall.

So, after stuffing ourselves, the most logical expedition that follows is window shopping!

Sometimes we do set out to actually buy something. It is interesting to note that during these “purposeful” trips, one doesn’t find anything worth picking up.

As most shops are located in a mall, after checking out stuff for a couple of hours with no fruitful outcome, the activity that follows is hogging in junk food.

Think about watching a movie? Most theatres are located again, in a mall! We seldom plan in advance for it and so never manage to get the tickets. No prizes to guess what we do after that…

I must be gifted to be able to set out doing all that I want and ending up doing just the same things!

How I wish the resultant activities were a bit more fruitful…sigh

Kitchen Blues...

My latest trip back home as most are aware already was unusual. The doctors in Bangalore were literally "practicing" their proficiency in medical science on yours truly, striving hard to successfully diagnose typhoid for a sure case of jaundice.

I rushed home. Recovered and returned with a heavy heart after almost three weeks of stay at home. On my return my only concern was my food. I was advised to consume only home cooked food for the two months. In the kitchen I am as lost as a Yankee on a cricket field. In short I am challenged on this front as well.

The first day at the kitchen. I planned to cook rice, dal and potatoes. I had received some guidance from Mom while at home, based on which I loaded all the food articles in the cooker and placed it on the burner.

I do not know why now-a-days they make match sticks that are half as small as the routine ones. By the time you light the match, turn on the supply to the burner and take the match close to the burner to ignite it, the match has exhausted its length and your fingers are burning. In case you are quick enough and get the match to the burner in time, you have to get the blaced tiny match so close to the burner that the ignited burner flame burns your fingers.
Finally, I somehow managed to ignite the burner with a candle.

I placed the loaded cooker on the burner. I was beginning to get so proud of myself. I waited patiently for the pressure whistle to blow. Fifteen minutes passed and there was no sign of it. I noticed that steam escaped at a scary pace from a small hole on the lid of the cooker which I now know is called the valve. I began imagining the cooker taking off the ground propelled by the steam. I seemed scary. I turned the burner off before anything like what I had imagined actually happened. I waited for the cooker to cool. When I checked the contents, all the enthusiasm disappeared. All the steam has escaped through a damaged valve, all the water had evaporated and the rice had burnt.

I gave up all my plans of cooking a meal that day, prepared a Maggi soup and ate it with bread.

That was my first day at the kitchen. Life had started looking un-livable. I literally didn’t know from where my next meal was to come from.

The next day was much better. I got the cooker valve replaced and went through the same routine again. The cooker whistle blew. I cannot describe the feeling as anything except blissful. I managed to cook dal and rice. Felt really good. Surprisingly, it was edible. My room mate had the typical “May GOD bless you” expression on his face as he saw me consuming the food I had cooked. It probably did seem a big risk to him. For me, I had no choice.
Then there were days when I forgot to add salt to the food and discovered it only after taking the first bite. I do not know why I do not check the taste of the food while cooking it.

I was determined to consume fruits. I bought some sweet lime and tried to cut it. Struggled. After quite a bit of struggle I got the hang of how should I go about cutting the fruit. I kept cutting one slice. Went on and on. Was enjoying the improvement in my skills until the time I felt a burning sensation in my finger. I realized that I was through cutting the fruit and was now slicing my finger. A cut finger with citrus juice on it. What a nightmare!

These were the major incidents that stand out.
They were periodically punctuated with small incidences. While trying to remove the vessel of cooked pulses from the cooker, the vessel slips out of the clamp and a major chunk of the food falls into the cooker. There is not enough time to cook some pulses again.
You get up early, cook a vegetable and pack it with a loaf of bread for lunch. What happens if you forget to carry the loaf? Ask me. You have to eat the vegetables all by themselves. Its worse when others around get an impression that you are following some strict diet regime.

This entire episode has been at times hilarious, at times painful to say the least but the outcome has been satisfying which has made it worth the struggle.

Amidst river terns, kingfishers, kayaks and bikes

This weekend was one of the very special ones for me. This was one more first time in my life. For the first time that I went for a holiday to an adventure resort, The River Tern Resort, Shimoga, one of the many Jungle Resorts in Karnataka.

I always have believed that I am not an adventure person, but this trip surely helped change my mind. We started for the weekend trip on Friday night. We met at a team mate’s home as he required help to carry the numerous beer crates that had been purchased. For most of the seven hour journey not many slept. Drinks overflowed and so did the energy. I have this theory for people who do not drink. Man… you will enjoy at the cost of the people who do. This theory was validated yet again. The highlight of the onward journey for me was the condition of one of our otherwise docile team mate’s boisterous behavior. Reason: he drank for the first time and drank a lot.

Man… it was a sight. The person on his neighboring seat who is a seasoned pleasure drinker complained, ”isko koi chup karao…chad hee nahin rahi hai”

We reached the resort early on Saturday morning. After freshening up, we were all set for our first of the scheduled events – kayaking and water trampoline. We clicked the customary snaps with the rowing paddles and life jackets. We tried some acrobatic activities on the water trampoline. No prizes to guess how a group of software professionals fared at that. ;)

After everyone had a shot at the trampoline, we dived back into the waters and then proceeded for kayaking. Abhijit and I went a fair distance… The greater challenge wasn’t to row, but to row in such way that the kayak moves straight. It seemed to havea mind of its own and a crazy sense of direction.

On completing with the water sports we headed for a lunch. After lunch we got some time enough for a very brief afternoon siesta after which we proceeded for the tiger safari at the Bhadra Tiger Reserve on the banks of the Bhadra river.

When you visit the sanctuaries of Karnataka you realize how much they do to preserve them. The first sight of wildlife was a beautiful peacock. Then a langoor. We saw quite a few birds viz: a couple of kingfishers (everyone was thrilled to see them thanks Malaya), a woodpecker, a paradise fly catcher whose tail has a very hypnotic motion. We saw quite a few deer. There are four varieties of deer found in Karnataka, the samber, spotted, barking and the mouse. We saw all of them except the mouse variety. We also saw lots and lots of trees uprooted by the elephants. Then we proceeded to the lake where we saw some more animals.

At night we had a camp fire which was rightly supplemented with lots and lots of booze.

The next morning was the one I was looking forward to. We were to go mountain-biking. I was absolutely thrilled and couldn’t wait.

We woke up at 6:15, Rishi, Abhijit, Surya and myself. I was amazed at seeing the bikes. They were imported bikes with 24 gears. The experience was the most enjoyable for me. We first climbed up a small hillock using a muddy road. From the top, we got a great view of the surrounding landscape. We saw a few river tern birds. It is amazing the way they graze over the water surface and dive inside in search of fish. I was surprised by the amount of time they spend underwater. They come out after about five minutes to breathe and then dive back again. Abhijit in the mean while had found a snake skin and has brought it back as a souvenir for our trip. We climbed down and cycled along the canal towards the village. It was simply great. We waited for a while and sat at the canal immersing our feet in the flowing water. Simply refreshing. We returned back to the resort for breakfast.

After breakfast we moved for another round of water sports, this time it was canoeing. We set aboard a canoe and went to the island which was approximately two and half kilometers from the resort. It was very tiring as we found it difficult to get the canoe to move straight as well just like the kayak. While we were approaching the island we saw a few deer grazing. We then realized that the island was nothing but a part of the animal reserve. The noise we made while we approached sadly drove the deer away.

This was the last event at the resort. We proceeded for a quiet lunch and then on our way back to Bangalore.

The bus ride was a lot of fun too. There was a lots of singing and dancing. Some people were experiencing were on a flight of a different kind thanks to the beer that had been consumed. Some began dancing and didn’t stop until they dropped…literally. Some kept talking. The others, I must say laughed, laughed and laughed.

It was indeed a memorable trip. I recommend this adventure resort to all at least once. I hope you all enjoyed reading about the trip as much as I enjoyed being there.