Been a while

Its been a while since I updated my blog.why..like the lady at my periodontist's office puts it 'Life gets in the way of plans'.

Life hasn't been exciting lately and I haven't had any experiences that are worth mentioning on the blog.hmmm...maybe that's a lie, maybe I am failing to see the adventure in my mundane boring life.Maybe my perception of fun is whats keeping me from having fun..Ah well...all this confusing thoughts..well anyways i will not fill up this post with my random ramblings...

Some of you might wonder why bother posting something when there isn't anything to post..well, there is. I did finally manage to raise enough money to particapte in the CIBC Run for cure. Well, let me honest, I by myself could raise only $65(thanks to all those who donated!!!) and the remaining was the constant nagging of my co-worker(who is also the team leader for this run!) that my other co-workers had no other go but sponsor me. S(our team leader) realised I was too bad at soliciting any money.I was too embarassed to ask for money, no matter how noble the cause. And after my own contribution I could raise a nice sum of $160 . Ha, the hard task done, now come 4th October, I would be out on the streets with hundreds others supporting a problem that no woman should ever face.I will not be ashamed like I was last year, the woman in me will be proud to be part of something that can change someone's life significantly.

So, let me take this opportunity to let all of you women out there reading this post, to think of yourselves, while busy being a career woman, wife, mother, daughter, sister, it is important to take care of yourselves
A few things to include in your to-do list
- Be active, if not gym, a brisk walk, deep breathing, meditation whichever works for you.
- Be regular with your yearly physical checkups
- Eat healthy, I know when you are tired, its easy to reach for that frozen or processed food.But a few minutes to spare and you can healthy meal without additives and preservatives
- Be informed.Check this out http://www.cancer.ca/Canada-wide/About%20cancer/Types%20of%20cancer/Signs%20and%20symptoms%20of%20breast%20cancer.aspx?sc_lang=en

Let me end my post with a message from my heart to everyone.
Sarve Jana Sukhino Bhavanthu

Run for cure

It was last year when I saw a big crowds of people braving the rain and running/walking on the Yonge Street.As I watched them from my balcony dry and warm while they were out there in cold and rain for a cause they believed in,for a second I was ashamed that I wasn't there.I told myself next year I will be running with those people.Well, I probably can't run but for sure will walk :) . I have been bad at keeping my fitness goals and don't think my body can take the physical exertion of a run.But still I will walk and do my part in finding a cure for a disease no woman should ever get.

Yes I am talking about 'CIBC Run for Cure' . The money raised from this single day event is spent in various activities related to Breast Cancer.Finding a cure, awareness, and support.
Here are more details of this event here.

Fortunately cancer hasn't touched anyone in my family..(knock on wood).But I have seen both my parents undergo major surgeries, and know the pain the family members have to go through first hand. And if I can help several thousand families from that pain I would consider my life worth it.

I had made up my mind, but dint know where to start, where to enrol. At work while having lunch with my regular lunch group I mentioned I wanted to be part of the run this year and there you go they said many groups were formed at work and I could be part of any group. And in a few days, a religious runner from IT was starting a team like he did every year and sent me mail to join his team and voila there I was part of his team.

Now comes the money part. Either I could pay $40 registration or raise $150 . I told him I was gonna pay $40 and register coz I am not very good at soliciting donations. He said, "Give it a try..if you cant raise 150 you can still pay 40 and register".I reluctantly said OK.And another reason I said ok was , a part of $40 registration goes towards administration cost and a part of it goes to the research fund.Whereas any money raised as donation will mostly go towards research.

I have to admit, I suck at these things, cant ask anyone for money for any cause, lest they think of me as someone taking advantage of the friendship/acquaintance.But I still am doing it for a cause that is much above me.So, dear friends, please sponsor me for the run, here is where you can do it
https://www.cibcrunforthecure.com/html/p.asp?t=3401708&l=1

If you are wondering how much, any amount is fine $1 or $10 . Or the money you spend on a coffee, on a muffin or on a doughnut.Any amount is just fine. For what is worth your coffee/muffin/doughnut will probably find a cure for breast cancer, or provide support to someone already suffering or provide awareness that will help women being detected earlier.

Journey of Life - And the birdies flew away!!!!

If you have been reading my blog you already know that a pigeon decided to use a pot in my balcony to lay its eggs and the eggs have hatched too. Here are part 1 and part 2



After almost a week that the eggs hatched, the pigeon that wouldn't leave their side even for a second was gone. I hardly saw it then later realised it was out trying to find food. And I wonder how the pigeon survived for almost 3 weeks without food.It din't leave the eggs and the little ones even for a second.hmmm..I wont know if it went out at night though.Ha, I sometimes think its so hard in the pigeon world, almost every mom is a single-mom. I wonder where the dad of the little birdies is??? Maybe busy with another female pigeon ;o)

The pigeons were growing everyday and the pot was getting small for them.The little hairy birdies were now growing feathers.I have to say the two little pigeons are very different. One is brave, doesn't want to sit in the pot, is very eager to set out and venture the world on its own , while the other one, was cool, never tried to get out of the pot. The adventurous one did somehow jump off the pot and sat behind the pot .



A couple of days later I couldn't see it. I was so worried, wondered if in its strong urge to venture out, did it fell off the balcony, I looked around and peeked into neighbors balcony and lo it was taking a stroll in their balcony.The other one was still in the pot, dint bother to give its sibling company.



We were away for almost a week. First thing when we came back, I rushed to balcony to see how the little birdies were doing. I saw them both out of the pot.Wondered what made the adventurous one change its mind and come back into our balcony.I peeked in to see, the neighbors had removed all the storage boxes they had in their balcony behind which the little pigeon was hiding.For no lack of privacy, looks like it returned back to my balcony.

One thing I did notice is my balcony was now filled with pigeon poop. I have no idea if it was just those two young pigeons or they were having party while we were away!! The little birdies had grown quite a bit and gave me a dirty look every time I went to balcony as if I was walking into their home uninvited. Looks like mother pigeon forgot to tell that we decided to share the balcony, huh the younger generation!!

A few days later I saw the siblings fight, and there would be suddenly sound of chirping, and I rushed out to see, it was fight for food. the mom was there and both the little ones were fighting to getting bigger share of food.I once heard D talking in balcony and wondered if he was on phone.As I closely noticed, he was admonishing the little pigeons and was asking them not to fight with each other. I couldn't help smile. It is so true that if you live with someone long enough you will end up like them. D used to make fun of me every time I spoke to animals or plants , saying a screw in my top floor was a little loose and lo today he was doing just the same :)

I guess the sibling affection is the same in all species, through the fights, the two birdies would cuddle in the pot which is no longer big enough to hold them both.I couldnt help but smile as this reminded of my own siblings :)

A couple of days later, I went out in the balcony and saw 4 pigeons on the balcony partition, looks like the new pigeons did finally learn to fly. And looked like the older pigeons were assisting them in their flight lessons. This was the last pic I took of the pigeons and after this day I havent seen them again.

All that remains is a balcony filled with pigeon poop.At times I miss those fellas, miss talking to them. They must be some where in this big bad world following the unending life cycle. Now I know how our parents feel, when we move out and leave our rooms empty. However hard it is , it is fact of life, kids fly away to live their own life and all parents can do is let them go and wish they will do good for themselves.

And as I stand in the empty balcony I left like a parent whose kids had flew away.It was a short relationship but I missed them nonetheless, wonder what I would do when my own kids(when I have them!!!) will move out after a much longer time.Now I know what my parents must have felt when I argued with them to move out of the city to find my own path, now I feel what they must have gone through when they saw me off the first time I flew out of the country. Am I emotional that those pigeons flew away, maybe not,whats making me emotional is the realization of the fact that I did the same and my kids will do the same.But thats life I guess and it has go on...

Finding my passion...

Currently my quest is to find my passion.If you are wondering why suddenly I am on my new quest, the reason is my husband has his passion and I am left to spend time with TV watching hours and hours of fashion TV and makeover shows. It suddenly dawned to me there is nothing in my life that I want to do with passion. Then I realised I don't have a passion...now this is what it is after more than 3 decades on this earth I do not have a passion.

As I thought a little harder I found the reason I did not have a passion was D. Almost for half a decade, D was my passion, wanting to spend time with him, missing him, pining for him. He had 200% of my attention that everything else was out of my sight and my mind. Now being married to him for over 3.5 yrs and knowing every night that I will see him the first thing in the morning, my mind has now some free time.Which of course I have been spending watching meaningless shows on TV for hours.

It was couple of weekends ago, I was bored and D was locked in with his passion, oh..before you guys assume who/what his passion is,his passion is his music :) . All TV channels in the world were airing infomercials. I slouched on the couch and wondered what I wanted to do that would make me get out off the stupid couch and nothing came to my mind..yes nothing.I'd rather lay there watching mindless shows on TV. It hit me, hit me hard that I had no passion.And hence started my quest. Right now my passion is to find a passion.I hope I will find something I would like to do ...no, I would love to do.

Now with the mention of things I love to do, there are a few things I absolutely love to do.I mean things like Shopping, Spending endless hours in a spa, Sleeping.But I am guessing these probably doesn't qualify as being a passion!or do they?

So I decided to start to find my passion. Something I would enjoy to do. I wanted to try reading. Until almost a few years ago, I was a avid reader.Any book I come through had to be read. But slowly I was getting bored with routine fiction. I moved to philosophical books and then to biographies and then to no books. Decided to rekindle the love for reading and where else to start than my favorite book haunt Chapters. Love the ambiance and the cozy Starbucks coffee shop.Hmm..it was appealing, couldn't wait to go.

On a rainy Saturday I declared to D, I was going out alone to find my passion. He dint even lift his head up to see me. He has seen many declarations like this from me and he was sure I was going to be home even before he would realise I was gone. I braved the winds and the rain and was at Chapters.

Was overwhelmed by what to pick.Fiction, biographies, travel, adventure...I decided to go by my gut feeling. Picked up 'The Night Tourist' by Katherine Marsh , hadn't heard of the author before.Most of the time unknown authors are better than the known ones. Please excuse me if she isn't unknown, it proves how much I have read recently. And then stopped at the Bestseller section, saw 'Angels and Demons' .Haven't read any of Dan Brown's books yet. Picked it up as well. Paid for the books and went to the coffee shop in the store. It was jam packed.Bought a lemon and poppy seed loaf and hot coffee and settled in the corner under the photogrpahy section. It was by the window, the occasional tapping of rain on the window, soft lemon and poppy seed loaf and warm coffee...hmm wonder why I didn't do this before?

Started reading 'The Night Tourist' , just as I getting into the story and loved my cozy corner spot in the bookstore, my cell started to ring. It was D. "Where are you?" ..."I told you I was going to the bookstore"..."But its been more than 20 mins" he sounded surprised I was still at the bookstore. "OK come soon". There you go, I did something that even D noticed, that means I probably am really interested.

As I write this blog, I have nearly finished the book. And am compiling a must read books now, my dear readers please feel free to leave your suggestions for 'do not miss' book list.

Closing this post with a quote from a German poet Hebbel
"Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion."

A story untold!

I think I have lived to see this day to tell this story.The story of my brothers and sisters,story of my race. We have lived on this planet from as long as I can remember, and my father and grandfather say the same.I know we have been here for a very long time, but my mathematical skills aren't good enough to put them in years.

The reason I wanted to speak out today is, I don't know how long I am going to be alive.The humans inhabiting this place seem hell bent in eradicating every one of us from this place.I should add the lady of the house isn't as heartless as the man of the house. He seems to absolutely hate us and the sight of us sends him into frenzy and he runs behind us and kill us with whatever his hand can reach. Well, at this time I need to mention at one of those times, he tried to kill one of my uncles with a glass and the glass broke , somehow my uncle escaped and that night he was given the honorary roach-knight award. The pride got to my uncle's head and next day he went out of our hiding place during broad daylight and the man of the house got him. He did live a brave life I must say!

As a precautionary measure, we have setup camps, to educate the young ones, the golden rules we teach them are

1.Never leave the hiding place during daylight

2.Learn to differentiate between sunlight and the fake sun light.(Well, these humans have come a long way, they have come long after my forefathers roamed this earth, yet in such a short time, they have learnt to create the fake sunlight in their dwellings!)

3.Breed. (I know this has been a taboo with older generations, but there is no other way to save our race than to multiply as fast as we can)

4.Never go into darker corners without a older member present with them.(These humans have come up with variety of ways to kill us and we need to tread with caution)

5.Food can wait, being alive is more important.(At times, the smell of the food drives some of us crazy and we rush out to get it and that's when the humans get us most of the time)

6.No fast food.Always find fruits and vegetables in the garbage(These humans eat such unhealthy food and some our brothers and sisters have reported illness as never before)

Recently I have noticed the lady of the house too getting harsh on us. Before she would just shriek at the sight of us, but now, she is running behind us to chase us out of our house.Yes I did say 'our' house, for some reason the lady thinks its just hers.And I sometimes ponder if she ever heard of the word 'Co-existence'. Really if only we tried, humans and roaches can co-exist peacefully. All we roaches need is a dark corner in the house.But somehow no-one gets it ...huh.

I am not sure, if I will survive long enough. I see black killer boxes all over the place. I cant bear to see how my brothers and sisters are dying just by going close to those.My loved one went venturing near that black box in spite of my warnings, and she is no longer with us. But before I die,I wanted to let the world know of our struggles for existence.We have the right to live just as any other species on this planet. Why are we being massacred in hundreds? But to all those who are listening(or reading) we will not give up, even if one of us survives and gets out of this place, we will outlive humans on this planet.And by the way, we aren't as stupid as humans who are trying to warm up the planet hot enough to drown themselves.

Oh god...I hear the footsteps, I need to rush back to the hiding place...no no, he got me...he got me.....

NOTE: Since we have started the green bin program to collect the kitchen waste, roaches have become a menace. We are trying all possible ways to get rid of them and when I saw a roach running as fast as it can to save its life, weird thought came to my over imaginative head which got translated to this post.

My Honeymoon

Well, it wasnt really the typical 'honeymoon', but techincally this would be our honeymoon. Everytime I and D take a trip somewhere, it has some interesting element to it.Not sure if it happens with everyone or its just us!

We both are from different religions and our wedding was a mixed one with all kinds of traditions and customs bundled together and it also included trips to holy places from both religions(I am pretty sure God thought we were stalking him!!) and 3 weeks after our wedding, after non stop rituals and travel, we needed to get away from it to protect our sanity.And out of the blue, I suggested we should go somewhere really far from our families.(Guys we love you, but it was getting crazy!!)

So as usual , planning of any trip is my responsibility, and after choices of Goa, Kerela and Pondicherry. We decided pondi, less crowded, no rush to see everything and mostly beaches which I totally love. For some reason I really love this place, maybe its the beaches, but cant tell for sure why, but I keep going back to that place ever so often. I am a water person, any moving water body uplifts my spirit. And there is something about this place which draws me towards it ever so often.

Then came the challenge, every single hotel in Pondicherry was booked. After lot of searching we found a guest house, a very very pricey one available.We took it, money was more important than our sanity you see!

Flew to Chennai, went to Pondi from there in a taxi.It took a while to figure out the address,obviously this wasnt one of the popular places! This is run by a couple(strange eh!, we end up in places like this more than often).It was a 3 floors house in a very residential setting. We could see the beach from our bedroom window and could hear the sea.

View from the guest house we stayed

I was excited.It has a rustic antique feel to it.The windows in the main living room were made from stained glass giving it a unique look and feel to the whole place.

And this place wasn't as commerical and artificial as hotel would be. It seemed pretty unoccupied.When we asked the caretaker there, he said some people were in the floor below ours.We dint care, we had the whole floor to ourselves.

It felt good, home like setting with no-one other than "us",the background score of the waves in the sea, and the beautiful artwork in the guest house, the hear each-other's breath silence, it couldnt have gotten more romantic than this.I was so glad we found this place rather than a hotel.

Some of the paintings in the guest house

Nothing is more beautiful than a mother and a child.

We decided to go out and explore the place.After getting fresh, went out to beach, ate nice dinner and came back to rest. We were sleep deprived. We had to get our sleep before we did anything ;). Both of us were so tired that we fell aslepp as we hit the bed. I woke up at the middle of the night with the sound of people talking, I think it was around 2 at night. I wondered who was still up at that uneartly hour and then thought that it must be the guests in the floor below. And then the window we had left open to let the sea breeze come it, started beating.At night, when the whole world is engulfed in darkness, the sound of the sea sounded like the background score of a horror movie. I got up, closed it and went back to bed.But couldnt sleep, the constant sound of people speaking was an annoyance. I just hoped that they could shut their big mouths and get some sleep.

And just when I was going back to sleep I woke up again.This time it was the crows..constanly cawing. That dint sound usual at all.Crows arent supposed to caw at this time of the night, are do they? They just wont shut up.Now all my sleep was gone.I was laying there hoping to see a white figure floating(yeah right,was expecting a ghost to show up).It was the first time I was scared of ghosts.Its not like I dont believe in them, but I never thought they needed to be afraid of.I thought dead people were less dangerous than the live ones!!! But this time, I surely was frightened , I slowly slid under the bedsheet.From a small peephole,I turned around to see D.He was blissfully asleep.Dint feel like waking him up.

There was a big argument going on my head, the brave side of my brain was admonishing the frightened side of my brain.How can you be afraid of something you cant even see,reasoned the brave side.'Oh shut up, if I cant see it doesnt mean it cant see me', replied the frightened side.I mustered some courage, got off the bed, rushed to my purse, and scrambled through stuff until I found the Lord Hanuman's picturecard(there are so many holy things in my purse from all those trips). Got it and slowly stuck it under D's bed.Lay in the bed, waiting for it to be morning and every once in a while, opening my eyes half to see if anything unusual was happening in our room.

I must have fallen asleep around early morning and D dint wake up until the caretaker came in with morning tea. The irony was,I had came running from our families to get some sleep and guess what I was sleep deprived here too!

Now this paining below dint feel scary until I spent a night at the guest house.I should have known when I saw this that it had much deeper meaning to it.


After we had leisurely breakfast, I spoke to the caretaker if someone was in the guest house last night. He said "No". I asked if he slept in the guest house last night(supposedly he was to sleep just in case we needed anything), and he hesitantly said 'No'. Now my palms started to sweat. And I told him about the voices, he said 'Oh that must be neighbours, they are always fighting'...hmm...wonder what kind of neighbors fight at 2am.Well, I was not ready to believe whatever he said.

I told D about my last night ordeal and he said "Come on...I slept well, its new place, maybe thats why you couldn't sleep".But I was not ready to go through it another night.The very thought that I had lay in my bed all night long awake and peeping through the bedsheet to look for a floating white figure was ruining the fun of the trip.So told D, we should go out and explore the town a little bit and while we are there, we could check if there is availability in any of the hotels. I was ready to forego the money we paid for this guest house.D saw I was really upset and agreed. We spent most part of the afternoon roaming around the town, got into rickshaw after a long time, and checked in a few hotels and they were all jam packed.

Looked like the whole decided to come to Pondicherry while we were there!! I knew we had to spend next 2 nights in that haunted guest house. I kept telling myself, nothing would happen, but honestly I was kinda freaked out.I should have known why this place was empty when all other hotels in town were fully booked.But I decided wont let my fear spoil our trip.

Went to the beach in the evening, ate at a very nice restaurant by the beach and later walked by the beach.It gets pretty crowded in the evening, mostly with locals. And came nightfall again.We came back.I asked the caretaker if he can stay for the night and he gave some excuse to go back home. I asked him on his face, if the guest house was haunted.Then he said, no, and gave the excuse that "the neighbours dont like us, because the building blocks their sea view, so they create trouble".No matter how much he assured us it was not haunted, we were officially alone in the big guest house which I believed was haunted.

That night too, I got little sleep.The constant noices was annoying and I was freaking out.I was now convinced this house was for sure haunted.And I had found out from care taker earlier that day that it was a less than 6 years before the building was constructed and there was a very old house before in the same spot.So I kinda figured the residents of the old house still stayed on.

Next day ,Went to Aurobindo ashram.stayed there for a some time.There is a big picture of Mother in the ashram,If I remember it correct in the book store or the main entrance, when you look at it, looks like 'Mother' is looking right into your eyes.On the web you will find a bunch of information about her, some here.

After a quick stop at the ashram, we went to take a boat ride to nearby beach, well it was the 'Paradise Beach', you dont believe me? see the picture below.For the indian middle class, this was paradise.No fancy hotels,a small shack that sold bottled water for 3 times its price.

The beach here was as best as nature had intended, not many tourists and hence not much garbage.

See the crows, wondered if they were following me!!!!!

Later in the day we went the Auroville , saw the universal city, matrimandir .We couldnt go inside the matrimandir, but I had been in that before in one of my previous trips, it is a very serene place. This was my third visit to this place. For some reason I end up visiting some places 3 times, my most recent trip to chicago was the 3rd to that city.

The Banyan tree in the pic below is supposed to be very very old(do not remember how old) and is supposed to be in the center of the Auroville

The matrimandir...It seems to be taking years and years to finish it, the last 3 visits it was still being constructed.

In the evening, it was beach again.I love how the waves splash to the shore and how its water as far as an eye can see. It is amazing how nature contains its energy, it is beautiful waves for the longest time and one day when nature unleashes its fury, the waves gush up to unthinkable heights and wash everything in their path.I love and respect the sea and there is something that keeps taking me to the seas regularly.Well, the fact that I was raised in Coastal area and our family picnic's were mostly at beaches could have a role to play.(Ha...how much I miss those days!!)

The days were wonderful, peaceful, but come nightfall my fears take over and I hardly get any sleep.Next morning, we were going back to Chennai and then flight back to Hyderabad. I felt a little sad leaving this quiet town, but was happy that I dint have to deal with weird noises and crows cawing at night.Well moral of the story is, running away from family doesn't necessarily mean you will get more sleep!!

On the way back to Chennai, the driver stopped us at small beach, beautiful no humans around, no trash, I and D played in the sea waters for a little while before we rushed back to catch our flight.All in all it was a good trip for us to bond as new couple , but the nights were 'nightmare'.

Well Pondicherry is a very nice place to be.If you want some quiet time, not run around to cover all tourist spots.Here is more information. Just make sure you plan ahead and stay in a better place than we did.Not if you fancy staying at a haunted guest house.

I usually close my post with a quote , but the below picture says more than a wise man can say.

However bigger and stronger the sea is, a man's courage can make him ride it in a small boat.Well it clearly shows if you have the determination nothing is impossible.

A Trip to Remember

Duration - 6 days
Destination - Chicago,IL,USA
Kms travelled - 1897
Gas - 165 ltrs
Achieved - A memory for lifetime

This wasn't any ordinary trip, it was trip D was looking forward to. An opportunity he dreamt of for a very long time. We set out in high hopes, with lots of prayers and D with lots of practise. Last few days he sang everywhere, bathroom, kitchen, elevator, in the car. Constantly practising, making every note sound perfect, making every song a treat to listen.

Everyone who knows me says I am lucky coz D would sing for me.No, D hardly sings for me, and he sings for me when I am not around.One time he made a dedication on his audio blog when I was in India.D isnt big on expressing his feelings, he expects me to understand what he doesnt say.

Well, back to the trip, we started on the 30th June, drove past Detroit and stayed at a hotel for the night in Ann Arbor. We could have driven till chicago, but dint want to tire ourselves.It was important D feels fresh and ready to take on the contest in his best form.When we reached chicago, the pressure was mounting. The dates for the competition had moved and the orchestra was not there as their visa's were denied, they had called in the local orchestra.D was scrambling to find karaoke tracks for the songs the orchestra wasnt sure they could play.We did not take laptop.So we bought one, this was important for D and we were going to do everything in our capacity to make it work.

The day the contestants were supposed to have semifinals, all the singers were asked to sing in the banquet.So D had to find a song with a karoke track, something which shouldnt be part of the songs they selected for the competition. Finally he settled for a song and as he was in his mind practising the song I was sitting there with my eyes wide open everytime a celebrity passed. I stared at ever TV,Movie actors, singers, lyricists as they passed. This was the first time I was seeing them in person and wondering how some looked much better on TV and some looked much better in person.

D and his fellow contestants, thronged to meet Mano garu, SiriVennela Sitarama Sastry garu and took pictures, those who know us will see the pics soon :)

Left past midnight from the banquet and I hit the bed as soon as we reached the hotel room.D stayed up much longer practising his songs.

Next day was rushing again. D left around 11 and I joined him just before the semifinals started. As I reached the convention center, my palms started to sweat. I never had been this nervous for anything. If you know someone who had worked hard and was this close to taking another step to be closer to his dream, everything counts.Failure was NOT an option.

D was the last of 13. I have to mention here, D is superstitious about number 13.He had prepared for 'Tholi Sandhya velalo' for this round, but the orchestra wasnt sure they could play it, he had spent time with them practising pallavi and charanam, but when the competition started everyone was asked to sing full song.D was getting tensed as he wasnt sure if the orchestra could pull off the whole song without playing it even once.He kept going back and forth with the song of his choice and another song and finally he decided to go with his second choice as he did not want the music to be an issue.

He began to sing his second choice"Mallelu poosae...",When he started I could sense a little bit of tension in his voice and after a couple of lines, he gained confidence and was in his groove,it was him doing what he loves to do and he did a great job. The judges remarked the same , Mano said he started off softly and just when they were thinking he was an average singer, he wowed them. I shot D's performance and judges comments with my digital camera.We werent thinking of taking camcorder with us, and the focus of our trip was D's singing and we missed details like this.I should say I missed the details, I should have brought a camorder.But anyways something is better than nothing.(I am praying some good samaritan must have recorded it well and will upload in youtube soon!!). Btw, 13 is no longer a bad number in D's books :)

One round finished, 2 more to go before victory can be D's. We rushed back to hotel to see if D can practise a little bit more. Even before we reached the hotel, he got call saying he needed to be there to practise with whatever live orchestra was there. We drove back to the convention center.D went to practise room and I roamed around the stalls to see the latest in diamond jewellery and sarees. I loved diamond jewellery, but couldnt afford it.Maybe when D gets a few offers to sing then I probably can(Music Directors are you listening??)

It was time for the second round of semifinals, I was backstage.D is worried when I am around, he is worried where I will sit, how long I need to stand there.To make things easy I volunteered to go and sit in the auditorium and will watch him sing on stage. It was so crowded that I sat somewhere far right in the end.Thankfully there were big screens all over so I could watch him sing fine.He was the 3rd singer and he sang one of my favorite songs "Vedam la ghoshinche godavari..." and he did an excellent job.First few lines, the orchestra and D were off by a few seconds so the music did not match that well, but after that it was a treat to listen. The judges liked it, Mano pointed out the misco-ordination with the orchestra. All the other judges looked pleased with the job he did.

Then it was the results where the finalists were to be selected. They called D's name second. I let out a big sigh, would be lying if I said my eyes dint well up. He was now closer to winning and it took another 3 minute performance to decide if this trip was worth it.

For the finals, the judges decided it would be without music.You just had to sing pallavi and charanam and the judges wont offer any criticism for each singer.It was getting late,the 3 finalists did an excellent job. And when the winner was announced by Suma,I let it go and let the tears take over.There he was, my man standing on the stage in front of a huge crowd at almost 2:30am claiming his dream.You make my proud Dude.






I have a lot of people congratulating me.Honestly I havent done anything spectacular.I was just a co-traveller in his journey.There are many more miles to go and this is just the beginning.But I humbly accept all the best wishes because as his 'Ardhaangi'(better half) I get half of everything, good or bad ;)

If some of you had read my previous posts, you would know none of trips ends without something interesting happening.So when we reached home Sunday at 11:00pm, we got off the lift in our floor and could hear loud music, as we got closer to our apartment we could hear they were hindi songs, I and D looked at each other, as if saying how rude the people were to play music so loud and closer we got to our apartment we realised it was from our house!!! and there was a note stuck to our door asking us to lower the volume and that our neighbours were having hard time sleeping. I quickly opened the door and found light switched on in bedroom and music playing in computer.Switched off the speaker volume and wondered how the songs started to play automatically.Soon realised that when D was trying to find karaoke's he'd logged into our home computer and mistakenly must have opened iTunes and it went on playing for 3 full days.Looked like the building Superintendent came in,switched on the light and couldnt figure out where the music was coming from, in fear looks like he forgot to switch the light off!!! We lived up to our reputation, no trip without an adventure..huh!!!!

I close this post with a famous quote by Robert Collier, which is apt for D
"Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out."

Journey of Life - 2 - Out of the shell

For part 1 go here.

I was getting impatient why the eggs hadn't hatched yet.Everyday I would check to see if the babies had come.At one point I was worried thinking the eggs wont hatch.

This weekend, as usual went in to check and there I saw something moving under the pigeons, something in dirty mustard color, wanted to come out of mommy's warm protection.


I wanted to see the babies, but mommy wasn't ready to show them to me yet, as I stood there she looked me wondering why I was staring at her.I wanted to take pics of the little ones and was waiting for the opportunity.

I got tired and went back in and was sorting clothes for laundry and heard fluttering sound from balcony, went in, the pigeon was in the corner of the pot, looked like there was an unwanted visitor, as soon as she saw me, she flew away, leaving the little ones alone.

I was so excited that I went close to see the little pigeons, they hadn't opened their eyes yet.They looked nothing like adult pigeons, they were fragile and hairy but very cute.I ran in, got the camera, clicked some pics and waited the pigeon to come back.





5 minutes passed, no sign of her.I was getting worried for the little ones.
Went to D and narrated the whole story.As usual he yelled at me, saying I scared the pigeon away. I closed the balcony door and stood here looking from the window to see if she would come back

15 minutes passed.I was cursing myself now.'Why the hell did I go into balcony'.'Oh what will happen to little pigeons now' and just then she flew back in.And slowly got into the pot.


Huh...thank god and decided not to freak her out anymore.

I finally did it...

There are a few things in life you want to do, but don't do it. The reason could be anything apprehension, hesitation, cultural background. And I am a kind of person who is not afraid to try new things , but this was on pending list from a very very long time. Reason, me and my hesitation, no opportunity and D's outright denial that he is not going to be part of it.But today I got the opportunity and company and I gave it a go. If you are wondering, what it is that I am making so much fuss about.I ate SUSHI...yeah I ate raw fish.

I went out to lunch with co-workers today and it was at a japanese restaurant. When I went in I dint know if I would brave enough to put the raw fish in my mouth. The first round I gave it a pass, stuck to shrimp tempura, vegetarian tempura, cucumber maki and veggie noodles.Here are the pics of some of the dishes I ate, these are from from web just so you know how they look like.I did not have my camera with me, else would have taken pics of the actual food i ate.

Cucumber Maki


Shrimp Tempura


Vegetarian Tempura(ours had sweet potato, eggplant)



Oh by the way if you are thinking I ate one big portion of all of these, you are wrong. In japanese, you have really small eating plate, more like saucer for our tea cup and the food is passed around and you take a piece of two from the serving plate.And by the way there are no forks or knives on the table.I had to ask for a fork, as my chopstick skills are poor.I tried hard to pick food with two narrow sticks, but it kept falling down. I really marvel at the way people eat so nicely with chopsticks and they can sweep off every single morsel of food off the plate using those sticks. Most of my co-workers are of oriental descent so eating with chopsticks was natural to them and for those who werent oriental they had mastered the art too.I and another guy were the ones asking for forks.But seriously this kind of food is best eaten with chopsticks.

And yeah, we ordered vegetarian pizza and salmon pizza and I was wondering why a pizza in japanese restaruant and I was surprised to see what a Sushi pizza was, it was like one of our cutlets, except that it had raw pieces of salmon on it.Here is the pic from the web of Sushi Salmon pizza



Ok, back to my Sushi adventure. My co-workers who were sitting beside me were salivating on the spicy salmon sushi and said I should give it a try and that I would love it.And came the platter of spicy salmon sushi, my ex-boss asked, 'you want one', I said 'yes' trying not to look at it.

I fiddled it with for a couple of minutes, poured wasabi, soya souce and whatever other sauces available at the table on it. But still it looked like raw salmon. I took a small piece in my mouth and tried to feel its texture.hmmm...it felt like soggy cucumber, gave it a bite.It wasnt as chewy as I expected it would be.Ok, next time, I took a bigger piece with the rice it was rolled in and try to chew faster hoping I wont feel anything in my mouth.Well it wasnt that bad.But should say the strong wasabi flavor could mask any flavor. I somehow managed to finish it. By now I was gaining some confidence. When the next platter of sushi came in, I gave it a go for a different kind of salmon sushi, this time it dint linger in my plate for a long time. Even tried a small piece of Salmon pizza.Then came Eel sushi, Salmon Sushi was big enough for me today, maybe some other day when I have opportunity and company, i'll give it a try.Sorry Eel, Salmon wins today.

If you are wondering what Wasabi is , its a paste with mustard like texture, and tastes much much stronger than mustard, if you are trying it for the first time, just try a little bit to make sure you are ok with the spice.For more information on wasabi go here. And this how it looks like


Finished my japanese meal with a nice mango icecream, I had choice of green tea icecream or mango. I stuck to mango, wanted to go back to my comfort zone, where I knew what the food I knew tasted like.I had tried enough new things for a day.

I dont know yet, how my tummy is going to take the raw fish, but hopefully I should be alive tomorrow.

This is the restaurant we went to Maison du Japan , just in case any of you want to try the Sushi adventure.And for those who are vegetarain, there are some veggie choices too, but I should say not too much variety.

Closing my post with this quote
If you are indeed what you eat, then all Sushi eaters will be able to live under water.
-Yours Truly


NOTE:I just googled these images, if they violate any copyright, let me know and I will be pleased to take them off

Journey of Life - 1

Wondering why I am getting all introspective and writing about life, sure it is about journey of life, but not mine, but that of a pigeon. Yeah you read it right,Pigeon

This week, when I was cleaning my balcony, clearing the dirt, to get my pots ready for planting. I had done one side of side and as I turned to do the other side, a pigeon flew from the corner. All the time I was there, I did not even notice it and I wondered it must be a brave pigeon to stay there until I got really close. As I got closer to that corner I saw two cute eggs in one of my pots...oooooohh...yeah I know, I did that too.

It was pigeon mom-to-be and was sitting right there protecting its eggs until I got close.I stood there seeing in amazement and by the way this was the first time in my life, I was seeing pigeon eggs.The poor pigeon was flying nearby and was trying to stay close, it dint know I was a friend.

I rushed inside and got my camera and took some pics of the eggs and just then D came back from work. I dragged him into balcony not letting him to even take off his jacket.He surprised too and told me to stay away from balcony and leave the pigeon and its eggs alone. I couldn't resist myself, stood there, pigeon came back and slowly got back in the pot,

but was still looking at me suspiciously, it was OK as long as I was on the other side of the balcony.



So we made a deal, that half of balcony is for the pigeon and the other half for me :) I cant wait to see the baby pigeons.

B&B Experience 2

The second B&B stay was unplanned . We were in an accident in one of our trips down south in middle of night, middle of nowhere and it was raining like crazy. Lets leave the details of the accident for another day.The cop came in, called in the tow guy and tried to see if there was a motel close by for us to spend the night.There was just a B&B a few miles away and NO hotel around that state highway.

We checked into our second B&B Faircroft at almost midnight and our host was gracious and considerate towards us after he knew what happened. That night, we tried to get some sleep, but both of us were freaked out.

Next morning, it was still raining and all we saw was scattered homes, each on a really big lot and the house just across the B&B we were staying had a barn and a few horses. Well, this place was the rural America. Not the one that we see in movies, really small town, struggling businesses, people trying hard to make ends meet and yet had huge homes and had horses for pets .Yeah, I know, I dont get it too.

Our host Bill was a retired teacher, and he told interesting things about changing education system in the US and the politics associated with it. Described how people were leaving the town to move to big cities.He drove us around the town, showed us other two homes he owned and was renting. And spoke about how he fixed those homes himself.He dropped us in the middle of the town to get some lunch. We got some lunch and after that went around window shopping, looking at our phones ever so often,to hear about the replacement vehicle. The rain still hadnt stopped. Dont have many pictures , but just one shot of the gazebo in the town

After lunch, Bill came by and picked us up.For rest of the afternoon his wife gave me company and had a lot of stories of her own to narrate and I enjoyed listening to them as well.

Finally the call came, and we were on our way back home.Ha, it was one heck of a trip, but the warmth of our hosts at B&B made us feel comfortable.True, they had never ending stories and the least we could do was lend a patient ear.We paid only for the room, but received kind words and warm regards for which we could only pay with gratitude.

If you were to ask me, if I recommend staying in a B&B, I would say yes, just for the experience of it and you would be meeting interesting strangers and also be supporting small businesses esp retired people.

And this quote for our hosts, who made our most uncomfortable day comfortable -God Bless them both

Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. ~ Mark Twain

B&B Experience 1

Here is my first Bed and Breakfast experience.

Our first B&B experience was almost 4 years ago. I had come over to Canada to see my DH(then DB, Dear Boyfriend!!!). It was around his birthday and wanted to spend some time with him.We decided to get away for some quiet 'us' time.

As is always, I had to take the responsibility of finding a place, making reservations, getting the directions and all the secretarial job associated with travel, while his majesty (who else D ofcourse!!) would grace the location with his presence. I quickly got to my job and after hours of googling, decided, B&B would be ideal for us, not a typical hotel setup, much more intimate family home setting.And we had never stayed in a B&B before, so it was exciting.Decided on one that looked good in pictures and also checked the reviews given in their website and looked like everyone who stayed there had a great time!

Well now, it depends on the kind of person you are, if you'd like staying in a B&B. For a person like me, I prefer a hotel better, why here are my reasons. This is not to say that the B&B we stayed was bad or the hosts were not good, but its just not my thing.

Stay in B&B if you
- Like a home like setting, mind you its not yours, its some strangers home, you pay to stay!
- Like wallpaper as opposed to nice clean wall painted in neutral color
- Like talking in low voice not to disturb other guests and the hosts
- Like to watch TV with other guests or hosts and hold the urge not to change the chanel, lest you offend other fellow audience.
- Like company of senior citizens
- Like to pay more than the price of an average hotel in the area.
- Finally last but not the least, like to listen to people who talk forever

We stayed for 3 days. I had to work, so we had planned i'd work from 7-3 and then we'll go around. But guess what, after a day of staying there from 7-3, I said to D, 'screw work, I got to go out.'

Out of 3 days, we went to 2 days to Niagara Falls, saw the falls for a bit and spent lots of time in Casino. One of the casino night, we came back at around 9pm, we had assumed that we could get some dinner in the town we were staying. Well now, we werent used to rural Canada, here people eat at 5pm and sleep at 8pm. By the time we got to the town, everything was closed and we were starving. We somehow found the lounge open in a hotel and rushed in before it closed too. It had very few people and we were probably the last customers.We asked the waiter to get us anything vegetarian to eat. He got us both some sandwiches, and after that I did not eat sandwich for a looong time!!!!!

After that I made a firm decision, no more B&B's for us. We just arent made for them.

Though it wasnt what I was expecting, it was an experience that enriched my life. The people you meet, the tales you listen teach you something, you forget the tales but remember the lessons, you forget their names but remember their faces.
On that note
Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living -Miriam Beard

How I do my part.

I am a believer of going green and recycling.And I try to do everything I can to not use plastic in my daily life and recycle as much as possible.

Things I do
- Try to take reusable grocery bags when I go gorcery shopping. Sometimes the trip is unplanned and end up using plastic bags, but most of the time I do take the reusable ones
- For smaller things, I dont take the plastic bags.I just pop them in my purse.Actually this can give you some weird looks. Like today, I was at a pharmacy and bought few small things, like my cuticle cream and shampoo.And the kid at the cash counter, put them into a plastic bag, I took them out and put in my purse and gave him the bag back and he gave me the "Are you crazy" look and I told "I am trying to save the planet".
- Buying organic as much as possible.I know this is heavier on the pocket, but if there is more demand for organic, then more people will grow organic and eventually the price will come down(hope!!!) . I am trying to shift to organic makeup too.
- Recyle at home. Its so easy to toss everything in one bag and dump it. But believe me, once you get used to it, it just becomes habit.
- I dont buy bottled water, bought a brita water filter at home.There are a few times when I am travelling and have to buy bottled water.And then too, try to put the used bottle in the recyle bin. I f I dont find any recyle bin, they stay in my car until they get home!
- Use natural cleaners, the chemical cleaners we use in bathroom , kitchen, will eventually end up in our water sources, so makes better sense to use the bio degradable ones.
- I live pretty much close to everything, so we walk to the movies, to the grocery(not for heavier stuff ofcourse!) , walk to the restaurants, walk to the dry cleaners, walk to my favorite craft store...that gives us our share of exercise and saves money for parking and gas.
- If we are going anywhere public transit goes, we take it.Especially downtown, saves you from stress of driving and parking in downtown and is green.
- I recycle the batteries and old bulbs and appliances instead of dumping them in regular garbage.

I am glad that our apartment building has started the organic waste collection program, so now I can separate my kitchen waste and this will be processed to create organic compost that will given back to the community(thats a full circle!!)

Please do your part, though inconvinient at times, it is worth it. If not for you, do it for the future generations who deserve a better planet.
This native american saying is so true
We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children

Pics from Tulip Festival

As promised here are the pictures from my weekend day trip.It kept drizzling whole day, it was wet and soggy, but the water droplets on the tulips were beautiful.

I wanted to add a watermark on the pics, but thought, huh, how many people will visit my blog and out of them how many will copy the image and out of those who copied the image will use it as their own or earn money from it.The chances are slim, so will save the effort of adding watermark, when I become a better photographer and my blog becomes world famous. Until then no sweat!

I see purple is the new black in the fashion world, here is a shot of a purple tulip drenched in rain drops.



The yellow ones

These yellow and red tulips dint look so pretty in reality , but the pic turned out pretty good.

These looked prettier in reality than in the pic

The constant rain since morning, made the poor tulips to bend sideways.

Finally, the stop at the parliament building, it was this stop, that our poor guide Monica lost to that curious gentleman.

Signing off on this note
When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other.
Chinese Proverb
Dug out this chinese proverb from www to make it apt for our trip

Tulip Festival - Ottawa

Tickets for 2 - $104
Lunch for 2 - $32
Cruise for 2 - $32
Not having to drive for 10 hours - Priceless

We finally did go to Ottawa for tulip festival. To be honest I was disappointed, I guess in my head I was expecting to see something like tulips in Holland. And my expectations were raised, when I read there would be 300,000 flowers, but believe me, that isnt a big enough number if the tulips are scattered in small patches.

We decided to take the tour bus instead of driving (that was a good decision, otherwise, I would have had to hear earful from D after what we saw). If you guys are in Toronto, you would know the Safeway tours. These are tour bus operated mainly for the chinese community, the tour guide was chinese, our fellow passengers were chinese.

Our tour guide, Monica, was cute little chinese girl and her whole purpose of being on that bus was to prevent people from using the washroom on the bus.Once we got in the bus at chinatown in downtown toronto, she came upto each person and was asking "Did you use the washroom at your home before leaving?" Me and D tried hard not to laugh at her question.

We stopped at Markham and Scarborough to pick up some more passengers. At Markham, she repeated the drill, came to our seats "You ok, can you wait for 2 hours to use washroom?".

All through the trip, she made sure nobody used the washroom, everytime we got down, she would remind us to use the washroom in that place. Even before getting on the boat for the cruise on Rideau Canal, she came to everyone and said "Use the washroom on the boat".Her point was use washroom anywhere but in the bus,but the bummer did not come towards the end of the trip. Bus was stopped for 10mins photo time at the Parliment building. Since we already were there and it was raining, we returned early and guess what, as we entered the bus, a gentleman was coming out of the washroom.



Poor Monica, she couldnt stop this unstoppable gentleman from using the washroom on the bus, he probably just wanted to know how it felt like using the washroom on the bus, could be plain case of curiosity.

Another intersting thing that Monica did was, everything she told us what time to come back, she had a clock made of cardboard with movable hands and she would always show the time on that cardboard clock.Even then people would be late and she somehow managed to spot them and bring them back to bus.

Watched a chinese movie on the way to ottawa, this was like a typical hindi movie, a guy has a modern girlfriend, then meets a simple girl, falls in love with her.Some of the scenes from the movie could very well be passed off as a hindi movie.

On the way back to Toronto, saw 'Marlee and Me'.Cried my heart out when the dog died. I am not a dog person, but still was caught in the emotion.In the movie, Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson go to Ireland and stay in a B&B.That reminded of our B&B experience, am going to post that one of these days.

All in all, it was a fun day out. Will I suggest this, well if you have nothing exciting to do on a spring day and have $80 to spare , then give it a try. If not anything, the tour guide and fellow passengers will keep you entertained.

Pics in the next post.

Every journey teaches you something, I learned something too . I learned that thank you in chinese sounds something similar to "CiCi"(sounded like "see-see").I am not quite sure if it was Mandarin or Cantonese.

As usual, signing off with this quote

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” - St.Augustine

Exercise and Me

Went to gym yesterday after 3 months break and today my muscles are punishing me. My family has history of Diabetes, Thyroid problem, Heart problem. My elder brother hasnt reached 40 yet and already had heart attack.The only way I can be healthy is by preventing them. And as we all know that takes eating well and exercising.

I was pretty well focused before my India trip, oh yeah of course I wanted to look good in my saris. But after my trip, my excuse was "I am homesick...don't feel like working out" and after that "Oh... its too cold" and when the weather started to get better "imm...I don't feel like". I was getting good at finding excuses for not having to go to the gym.

Thanks to my neighbor at work, she pushed me to get to gym and while I was there, I disinterestedly got on the treadmill and got a couple of magazines to keep company during my boring workout. And one of the magazines I picked was about running and I stopped at the article about a breast cancer survivor ,who if I remember correctly ran 21 marathons after she was diagnosed. Well, if she can do it, then anyone can do it. It gave me motivation to finish my 35 min power walk and also did some weights, felt really good.

The reward dint come until this morning, when my muscles were screaming pain. But I'd rather be at the gym than at the hospital, so planning to work out at least 2-3 times a week. Lets see how that goes.

Here's to keep me motivated...a quote by Gautam Buddha
"Every human being is the author of his own health or disease"

On that note....signing off for the day

Pics from NYC trip - Rockefeller Center

Here are some pics of Rockefeller center from my NYC trip last month. As a typical tourist, went to Madame Tussads wax museum, visited the lady of liberty, walked in the fashion district, shopped in Macy's. But visiting Rock was first time and hence am posting its pics. Well maybe if I have nothing to write in the coming few days, will post other pics of the trip.

One thing that fascinated me about this building was the conviction of one man in the face bad economic times. While we were there, we saw a short film about the history of the building and about the man. This building was constructed during the Great Depression . The construction of this building was the demonstration that courage and conviction even in hard times are sure signs of success.

Here you go people, enjoy

The building, that provided livelihood to over 40,000 during its construction.

View from Top of the Rock after sundown.

Another shot from the top.

One of the chandeliers in the plaza.

The beautiful waterfall near the skating rink.

The skating rink, was setup in 1936, still providing recreation to New Yorkers and to visitors

.

Ok people, me signing off for the day on this note, a quote by Tom Krause.
"Courage is the discovery that you may not win, and trying when you know you can lose"

More about Rockefeller center here.

For all of you out there, whom the recession has affected in a negative way, don't give up hope. In the harshest times of our lives is when our true character reveals. Hang in there, you will triumph and will stand tall and proud.

Lazy me...

I was supposed to blog about my travel experience to NYC last month. Well, there hasn't been a thing in my life I have continued to do for a long time. I get tired, bored and move on to something else. My DH is the only person who has kept my interest in him unchanged over almost 9 years now.

Decided to blog regularly, if not for my travel stories, just to vent my frustration, kill my boredom or just plain writing about myself. Talk about blogging and everyone is doing it these days. Wonder how we all want to talk about ourselves, our lives and how much it makes us feel important. Well I am no different, and so you will see as this blog grows (hopefully)

Now the next question, should i leave it as anonymous or should i tell people about my blog...hmm...question to ponder on. Well, for now, will leave it anonymous.

By the way, the trip to NYC I mentioned earlier was fun. This was my third time, one thing I saw for the first time was Rockefeller Center. Now I no longer see any fun climbing insanely tall buildings and looking down on the rest of the world. But this one was ok, to know it houses NBC, and all the shows I see on TV are shot here. We could have done the studio tour, but were late for it. Well, an experience nevertheless, though wont last in my memory for a long time.

Another interesting thing is, I have always been to NYC with family, first time around was with my elder brother, I was in Boston then . Second time was with my parents, when they were visiting US and the third time, this time was with my younger brother. Interesting isn't it?

Talk about traveling, trying to convince DH to go to the Tulip festival in Ottawa this weekend, lets see if we will be able to make it.IF we do , will post some pics here. btw, the DSLR, I am asking my DH to gift me isn't in sights anywhere.

Chalo folks, to all those who stumble upon this blog by accident, or you are regular visitor.Thanks for reading to my incoherent thoughts and hope you are entertained . Keep coming back, coz you never know what my over imaginative and over working mind will spit out.

With the break of dawn, the fears and apprehension were washed by the beautiful warm sunrays. As we came out, saw the place in light, I was happy, after all, I did not screw it up. It was serene, could hear the birds singing, something I hadn’t heard in a long time and the one thing i did not hear was traffic, this was as best as it could have got. This was pure rugged nature, that man did not mess with. D was still no so excited as i was, at least now he was convinced that we weren’t somewhere in middle of amazon like forest.

The owner of the place is a German guy, Mr.Ludwig, as our host Vasu mentioned.(I had scratched my head a few times before I remembered his name). Felt sad that it took a German to help preserve our country’s nature, but on second thought, we must be thankful, if it was one of us, the land would probably be sold to one of big companies and it would have been a tea or a coffee plantation fed with pesticides, like other places around coorg. This was organic plantation, no messing with nature was how farming was done here.

Here are a few pictures of our tour of the plantation

The fireplace that kept us warm for most part of the night



















The cottage where we stayed for first 2 days,pretty basic but comfortable.














The path to our cottage from the small office building,it doesn't look half as scary as it did the previous night.
















The shot of paddy fields down below, the folks down there did notice us .And by the way we could hear them whistling and singling while working, cant imagine any of that in the urban madness.






























Here is Mr.Vasu telling us all about the different trees in the plantation.I do hear a lot of botany students come over here, even from overseas!














Up close at the paddy field, they grew red rice there, from the shadows you can guess what the conversation could be















Vasu explaining how the tea leaves are plucked and how the best tea is made from the first three leaves of the plant.We did buy some green tea from the plantation but i had to throw it all away because of its smell, organic or not, I cant take that smell.