Maama my hero!

         Off late, I have been viewing a number of petty crimes in our locality. Last year, the economic crisis could have been held responsible for such crimes. But, it is surprising to see them happen now. Or probably, I could be observing more of them these days. Few days back, on afternoon I saw 3 police cars near our apartment complex, and four to five cops were interrogating two people. This reminded me of something that happened last month when on a bright sunny day in the last week of August, I was all set to attend the orientation at my graduate school.

           We were four of us who had decided to meet at the bus-stop near my apartment. I happened to be at the bus-stop 20 minutes ahead of other girls. I am used to waiting for the buses on the otherwise busy, lively, safe El Camino Real (which I have previously referred to as Gandhi-Bazaar in one of my posts). Well, I saw two buses arrive and depart. At some point, I was the only one waiting for a bus. I have had such experiences in the past where I have stood alone waiting for a bus without any fear. But on that day, suddenly a short-lean guy wearing a red T-shirt, and carrying bag-pack, came to the bus-stop. He looked drunk from every angle. Seeing me waiting alone, he tried to begin a conversation. "Hey youuuuuu, are u going by bus?"... "I am going by a bus"... "Coming with me??"... etc...

           I didn't panic unlike how I had when I had taken my in-laws to visit my grad school at San Jose downtown. On that day, a well built, drunk guy almost attacked us. My little-cute mother-in-law's fair face had almost gone tomatoes on seeing him. I had even dialed 911 to report. The connection failed though :(.

          It wasn't the scenario in this case. It was more like an Indian film hero trying to save the heroine. Now, I don't mean, my husband came on a bike like a hero to save me from the red-shirt attacker. I started walking towards the other end of the road, immediately when I saw a maama appearing in front of me from nowhere in his bike.

           He had already slowed down his bike. Well, now, I panicked a bit. He saw me. I saw mama, the red-shirt guy and stopped in front of him. He parked his bike, started questioning the drunk guy. It looked like, he was behind the guy for some reason and he just found him and everything happened in front of me... In two minutes, there were 2 more police-cars and the interrogation became intense. My batchmates slowly arrived and I had to narrate the entire story to three of them one after the other. In the next two minutes, one of the cops kept his bag in the trunk of the car and the guy was handcuffed at his back, our bus arrived, we entered the bus, the guy entered the police-car and all of us left the scene.

          A weird incident on the day I was to embark my graduate studies. A day to remember indeed :-)

Happy Dasara

               Happy Dasara to all the viewers of my blog :-)

            This is one of my favorite festivals since my childhood days. I always liked Dasara(Navaratri) more than Deepavali. The very idea of arranging dolls fascinated me. "Bombe pradarshana" in kannada means - displaying the dolls. As a kid, I arranged all the dolls, souvenirs and some attractive flower vases on a small table in my house and invited my friends from my dance class to have a glimpse of the arrangement. 

            This year too, I arranged the dolls in my house. I was afraid, that my school commitments could come in the way of Dasara celebration. Thankfully, it didn't. Unlike my childhood days, when arranging the dolls was just fun, I now feel, I have grown up to be a more matured individual. I see "bombe pradarshana" more as a passion combined with responsibility.

             I have posted a few pictures of the arrangement.

Unforgettable Dosa Experience

            Few days back, my husband and I went to an Indian restaurant to eat dosa. The place boasts of varieties of dosas. Unlike SLV dosa camps in Bangalore, dosa places here lack the aroma of butter or dosa batter, unlike Vidyarthi bhavan, the dosas lacks the taste, unlike MTR, the chutney-sambhar isn't spicy. But, being lucky enough to atleast have something than nothing, we decided to munch the dosas.

            My husband was placing orders while I took sometime to do my hair in the ladies restroom. The restroom was a single room with sink, toilet, everything at the same place. Well, now, I double-checked as always to ensure that, the rest-room was locked. A minute later, a lady opens and bumps in!!! I was horrified. To avoid the embarassment, I was combing my hair. Both of us were shocked for a moment. I couldn't blame her as well, since the mistake was with the locking system in the restroom... After exchanging apology messages, she went on to complain the waiter regarding the non-working locks...

           Then I came out and joined my husband at the table. My husband had ordered Rava-onion masala dosa, mysore masala dosa, and cream of tomato soup. To our dismay, the soup smelled rotten and tasted bad. After the ghastly restroom experience, I was determined to return the soup. The waiter, was indeed friendly. He apologized and  served us with another bowl of soup which didn't taste great but was at least fresh. He did admit that, the cream used was old. Ironically, the tomato soup we ordered as an appetizer served as a dessert :-).

           We had our "dessert". The waiter was happy. We were happy to at least get something for our money. Happys Endings :-)
  

Sports and I

                 I have always had a terrible experience playing any sport. My sole achievement in sports till date is winning a First Prize in Slow-cycling competition when I was a 12-year-old girl. I have always wondered what it takes for one to excel in sports. My relation with sports has always been worse. As a kid, I used to follow the tennis matches on DD-1, the only source of entertainment

                Sometime back, I tried my hand in bowling again. To my dismay, I scored the least in all four games. Last year, I tried to play tennis with my tennis-maniac husband and ended up injuring my shoulder. After series of failures, I am not a player, just a sports-watcher is what I have surmised. Though my records have always been low, I enjoy watching so much that, my heroes have always been sports-persons. All my teenage crushes were cricketers and not film stars ;) I have been a huge fan of Sachin Tendulkar and tennis star Roger Federer. Few years ago, I used to be an aficionado of F1 too.

              I used to wonder that I might be lucky at least in playing indoor games. To my chagrin, I am bad in that either. I am probably one of the worst carrom players. I can't hold a cue properly in snooker let alone striking a cue-ball :P...

              

              With this terrible history of my connection with sports, I almost gave up playing anything. But now, I have finally decided to start afresh by learning tennis from none other than my husband ;). After my first session, I feel, I should wrap his mouth with a piece of cloth, while we are playing. I have heard from many that, husbands are the worst teachers. Let me see... how long I remain hooked to tennis!

Musical magic

The old and young, rich and the not so rich, lovers and non-lovers of music, were all compelled to shed their egos, inhibitions, become speechless and let their hands and legs talk for one evening. It was a magical "musical" beginning to the week-ahead. To all those who wanted to reminisce those days of pre-Mungaaru Male era, it was a perfectly made occasion, thanks to the Kannada Koota of Northern Calfiornia who took painstaking efforts in what was considered one of the best programmes ever arranged. Once again Padmashri Dr. SP Balasubramanyam and his troupe proved that there are only two kinds of people in this world - lovers and non-lovers of music. If there are non-lovers of music, then yesterday had been the day of enlightenment for them.

    As always, the Indian organizers in the Pacific time zone proved their strict adherance to Indian Standard Timings. The fabulous evening kick-started at 4:50p.m. which was 25 minutes beyond SPB's plan. But, there was absolutely no sign of impatience or anger given his preference to begin a program atleast five minutes before the start of Raahu Kala. A true patriot, SPB started his concert with Vande Mataram, joined by his singer-sister SP Shailaja, Kalpana, a talented singer from Tamil Nadu and Sri Krishna,music based reality show winner from Andhra Pradesh. The sleep-deprived team after having performed in North Carolina, the previous night, travelled to California over night, and with less than two hours of good sleep, they were back on the stage for an excellent performance.

    SPB and his troupe went on deliver some of the best songs ever made in the Kannada film industry. Some of the old unforgotten songs like Maamaravello Kogileyello, Jeeva Veene, Madikeri sipayi were a tribute to the recently departed Kannada super-star Dr. Vishnuvardhan. The artists on the instruments performed brilliantly with the co-singers doing more than justice to the original singers, though SPB stole the thunder. If one thought, he or she was blessed to watch the God of Indian music perform, the God himself surrendered to the ultimate supernatural power, when he removed his sandals while singing Pavadisu Paramaatma Sri Venkatesha from Sreenivasa Kalyana. The concert also included some of his ever-green hits from the movies Geeta, Bandhana, Nammora Mandara Hoove, recent hit Nenapirali. The ardent fans unfastened their seatbelts to dance for the song from Nenapirali.

    The singing troupe had less than three songs of the post Mungaru Male era. The budding singer from Andhra Pradesh Sri Krishna got an opportunity to realize his potential when he sang what is apparently considered the second Kannada Anthem Anisuthide from Mungaaru male as a token of appreciation for the "AmeriKannadigas" who boast of the renowned Bay-area based music director Mano Murthy. Kalpana, another budding singer from Tamil Nadu, sang on the Kannada stage for the first time. She proved her prowess singing some of the best hits of the South Indian singer Chitra. Her solo performance of the song Nadheem Dheem Tana from the recent Kannada flick Gaalipata was mind-blowing. SP Shailaja, undoubtedly did justice to S. Janaki by co-singing with SPB and singing a few solo songs.

    At the age of 65, the living legend cast a magical spell on the insatiable music lovers not just by his wonderful rendition, but also by his mild and timely sense of humor. The mesmerized house-full audience had nothing in return other than ovation, and saying "once more", "awesome", "excellent", "superb" and "come back again". The audience seemed relentless to even let the organizers share stage and wanted only SPB and his group to make maximum use of the three hours. This short, beautiful, triumphatic musical evening came to an end with the much awaited song "Santhoshakke haadu santhoshakke" from the movie Geeta.

One life - live it

            Few months back, I read "Last Lecture". Yes, I know, I should have listened to the lecture. I prefer reading than listening or watching. So, I chose the former. A lot of professors are invited to give Last Lectures. A professor has to keep in mind that, his death is imminent. So, what does he want to impart to others in his last lecture before leaving this world forever? With regard to Randy Pausch, former professor at CMU, this was indeed his ultimate lecture since he was suffering from pancreatic cancer then. But surprisingly, the last lecture from a 45-year-old man nearing his death was more filled with life than a person who had breathed 80 years without living completely.

          One thing, I realized from Randy's lecture is that, you must implement whatever you plan and should never regret about not doing so. Only by executing all plans will you really live life to the fullest. His last lecture was more rejuvenating than actually it should have been given his deteriorating health. No wonder, there is always a paucity of time, energy, resources etc. But overcoming all odds is the only solution. I feel, we are all crazy about several things in our life. After reading the inspirational book, I started noting down all those crazy or whatever it be things I wanted to accomplish in my life. My list seems to be endless. His words resonate in my mind so much that, whenever I think about something impossible, the gut-feeling I got after reading his lecture, makes me take up the task seriously.

          This book, undoubtedly was an eye-opener to me. It  gave an insight into how you should lead your life, do whatever you wish, etc. Trust me, if you happen to read the book or listen to his lecture or if you have already done either or both, then you should start applying it in your lives. You will surely realize how worthy you could be. You will not just breathe but you will live your life. After all it is one life - live it.

Hello Again

           After a short hiatus, I am back on blogging arena.  I recently enrolled in 2 part time courses in a near-by community college. I had to accustom myself to the new change in my daily chores which explains why my "blogosphere" went to a hibernate mode. I have taken up a course in Marketing and the other in Journalism, both of which I was keen on learning from a tutor to make my skills more professional.


          The marketing course I am currently studying gives an insight on how a company should view the market place, understand the needs, wants of customers, marketing environment that can affect the business, buying behavior of the customers etc. Well, I don't want to go more technical into the subject. All I can say at this stage is am lovin' it. So, if you or your organization needs a marketing manager, here I am :-).
 
         In journalism, I am pursuing a feature writing course. I could say, I have to start from learning the alphabet in journalism. I am happy that, I have a wonderful instructor who makes learning, writing more passionate. I am learning a lot from this course. The very first lesson I learnt was, the job of a reporter is to get the news right, keeping it objective, targeting the news and not the news-makers(who-so-ever it could be). Unfortunately this principle is hardly followed these days. When you read a movie review, you see the reviewer saying a word or two about the actor. An actor plays a great role in making a movie good. But an actor is not responsible if the movie turns out a box-office disaster.

       From now on, I have decided to post my feature stories. I wish you guys could highlight my positives, mistakes and help me take corrective measures.

2 States in Marriage

I recently completed reading Chetan Bhagat's newest book "2 States". One thing I feel like appreciating about this guy is that, no matter whatever he writes, he duly admits that he sticks to his protocol.

All his books are titled with a number. 5 point someone to 2 states.

The male protagonist in the book bears one of the several names of Lord Krishna.

His books are always priced 95 bucks which provides an access to a large section of the society.

It begins with 2 students from 2 different states in India, (one of the several factors considered in Indian marriages), falling in love. I feel, it is a must read for people in love and their families, especially applicable to the ones, belonging to different states, caste, etc... The story goes about their attempts in converting their love to a fruitful marriage. Easier said than done, the Tam Brahm girl and the Punjabi boy realize it is no incing on the cake convincing both sides.

When a guy proposes to his girl-friend for marriage, he must ask her - "Do you speak my language? Are you from my state? If yes, will you marry me?"

I wonder how many Ananyas and Krishs in our country have to face a similar situation everyday! However, not all undergo this. But their percentage is far less compared to the former. In the era of globalization when different cultures, economies, societies are integrating, and denationalization is becoming a trend, why should Ananyas and Krishs have to suffer in the process of the marriage.

Mile Sur Mera Tumhara To Sur Bane Hamaara!

Nearly all Indians during the early 1990s who had access to televisions at home must have listened to this wonderful "National Integration" song at least once. Moreover with limited or no access to Cable TV, and DD1 the only source of entertainment, one would hardly want to miss this program. Agar mera sur aur tumhara sur nahi milega to hamaara sur kaise banega??

I feel, the multiple language system in India is more of a bane than a boon. It is high time we became less chauvinistic about region, language etc and developed the feeling of Indian-ness. The book "2 States" is more of an educative than an entertaining one, thanks to Mr. Bhagat!

Pursuit of Dreams

After 24 years of my life, I wonder how many years have I spent leading my life the way I wished!

Dil hai chhota sa chhoti si aasha :-)

Undoubtedly, this is one of the most meaningful songs I have ever heard. Nearly twenty years old, I find this number so fresh and everytime I listen, it reverberates in me - What are you doing to chase your dreams? Our lives are so heavily filled with desires. But I wonder, how many of us dare to fulfill them.

I feel most of us are trapped in the boundaries laid by our ancestors, society that is constantly watching us, fear that, we may see ourselves in the extreme left of a success measuring scale in the pursuit of our dreams. We fail to understand that, we are forgoing our happiness making our lives more miserable in not crossing the red-boundaries. We are letting our dreams wither away in leading the monotonous lives.

I was trying to find answers to a maelstrom of questions continuously bothering me
- what you wanted your life to be?
- how far have you reached from your dreams?
- have you reached a stage where is no looking back?
- given a chance, will you start living your dreams? etc. etc...

If only, for once, we listened to our hearts without giving a damn about the external factors which have been so harsh on us, trying to dictate our lives, making ourselves lose our identities!

Crisis Management

It is common for anybody to face a crisis. But dealing with the crisis, conquering it is a big challenge. Any crisis be it finance, family, health, or education is bound to hit your confidence levels. By dealing the crisis courageously, you can come out it. Easier said than done, for a person whose confidence levels have nose-dived with the crisis , how really is it possible to face something courageously. More than dealing with the crisis, I guess you should try to boost your confidence levels which could help overcome any barrier. Few things like, remembering one's past, being in the company of people who admire you for what you are can offer a great help.

I strongly feel your past plays a vital role in boosting the confidence levels. When you think about some events in your life, be it childhood, school days, college life etc, which made you feel proud about yourself, or others appreciate/notice you, it makes you realize that, you still have those qualities in you which you have forgotten or not realized so far that they are few of the highlighting points in you, and incorporating them in your life will rejuvenate you. Those positives in you for which you were known will definitely help you become the person you were. This kind of self-realization will re-assure you that, you are still the same person, which for some reasons like current circumstances, situation you are in, and people around you to a certain extent might have made you feel low and not be yourself.

When you are doing low in your life, people around you can either be a back-bone or a hindrance to you. At these times, the ones around you mostly de-moralize you by to high-lighting only the negatives in you. One way to deal with them is by giving a deaf ear to what they blurt though it is difficult to do. Instead, if you have somebody who can admire you and can provide you some emotional support, highlight the positives in you, and help you deal with the phase you are in, you can be indebted to them for being your biggest source of strength. Emotional support can conquer any everest-like crisis. If only you had someone like that!!!

A Healthy-cook?

It is another new year again. I wish all my blog readers and non-readers a Happy New Year. I wish all your dreams come true :)

A new year signals some new resolutions to be made nevertheless, keeping up is difficult. I had never resolved to take up any task sincerely till last year. It was only in 2009 that, I resolved to be organized in life. I guess, to a certain extent I was. It is quite difficult to be highly organized. However, when considered my previous years of life, I was more organized in 2009. So, this boosted some confidence in me that, I could keep up to my resolution.

Now that, we entered 2010, I had been thinking deeply about making a resolution for this year since yesterday morning. Given my passion for cooking, I decided to become an expert in healthy-vegetarian cooking. I wish I could accomplish my target for this year successfully.