Cart procession

Click on the photo for a larger pic.

Took this in Belgaum last month. Photo doesn't capture it all. The real procession looked, and sounded, real good. After years of watching motorised vehicles, it was a novelty to see the road captured by a single file of Bullock carts !

Years Meme

Wow ! I have been tagged after a long time. By Becky @ pith, marrow and coffee spoons. I am going to break the two of them into 3 memes.

10 YEARS AGO
I had newly met my hubby and was walking in the clouds with a perpetual silly smile, followed by wild checking if anyone saw me. Mutual declaration was to follow, in 5 more days.

FIVE YEARS AGO
I was soaking in the lovely place called IISc. Beautiful place to work. I clearly remember all those walks in the campus. Halogen-lit rain-soaked Gulmohar & Jacaranda avenues. << deep breath >>

ONE YEAR AGO
That doesn't seem like long time. I am sure I was doing the same thing I did today. Hmm. This is dull.
Also, maybe constantly cross-checking the 9th anniversary surprise gift I hide, from my hubby.

YESTERDAY
Was Wednesday and I drove. Via treacherous terrain of rain-soaked Banshankari VI Stage and perpetually-in-repair Mysore Road. To my parents home, for their Grihapravesh (house-warming) ceremony. They finally moved to their new house. (And I have no immediate plans of returning their TV. Tsh Tsh, I am a TV-Addict, what can I say?)

And let me pass on this baton to

Thomas - Haribol!

KhelNayak

Sugar

SonSon

Kumar Sanu's Aise Na Dekho Mujhe

Its a good thing Kumar Sanu is back. Latest thing going on is:

Dil nashe mein chur hain
pass aa kyun door hain |
Do dilon ki doooooriya
Ab nahin manjur hain ...

No exceptional lyrics. Music from the Nadeem-Sharavan gharana. Which is just fine. Just when I was missing my staple food, he is back with an album, Aise Na Dekho Mujhe . Ah, I am so relived. It is so soothing to hear his voice amid all the orchestra & chorus.

Shivgange

We went treking up Shivgange, this Saturday. Shivgange is about 70 kms from Bangalore.

I am not much of an outdoor person, but this was great ! The view got progressively better as we moved up. This was not mountain climbing or walking through a forest. It was about climbing steps. Now the word 'steps' is very misleading. Because it was not easy as it sounds. Climbing up required effort, and we were all giggling at how much effort. We kept climbing with many stops at stone structures on the way, for chips & bhelpuri and drinking water, buttermilk & sugarcane juice.

We didn't make it to the top, because monkeys attacked us near that point. They wanted our chips packet. Anyway it was 2 pm and we needed lunch.

Climb down was a different adventure altogether. Steep portion were a bit scary. The huge green expanse seemed to spread out from the next step. Very deceptively inviting. And knees got all wobbly from climbing down so many steps.

I thought I would be really really tired and had planned to spend rest of the day & Sunday in bed. But surprisingly I was very active on both the days. But exhaustion did catch up with me on Monday :D !

Water

Nature is at its furious worst this year. Especially Water.

Begining with the Tsunami in Dec. Then floods in the most unlikelest places like Gujrat, Maharashtra, North Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh. Even Switzerland - I didnt know mountains are susceptible to floods. And Hurricane Katrina. Updates on upcoming Hurricane Rita are disturbing. And now cyclone in Andhra.

Andhra, washed away
The coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh were battered by torrential rains following a tropical cyclone that hit the area. It claimed 58 lives in two days. Heavy downpours also saw rivers overflowing their embankments, forcing the evacuation of thousands.

City planning

Tavleen Singh squarely blames the bureaucrats for hindering India, on its way to becoming an economic success. She feels administrative reforms will help here.

The Govt is a dead elephant
By Tavleen Singh
The Indian bureaucrat does not want India to become a rich country, he does not want free markets and he does not want a truly free society because when these things happen, his powers diminish immediately
.....
Let us go further. India has the worst roads, water and electricity supply, public (government) schools, hospitals and cities in the world. This affects us directly but too few of us ask any questions. If we did we would discover that the obstacles officials put in the way of our ordinary needs get multiplied a thousand times as we go higher up the echelons of bureaucratic power. So even when you have a Chief Minister who genuinely wants to make a difference, even when he comes up with plans to improve schools, housing or healthcare, when these plans reach the hands of his officials they stop. The bureaucrats he is forced to deal with allow nothing to happen, nothing to go forward and soon his five years are up and he loses his election because he has succeeded in doing nothing and the same bureaucrats remain in important jobs to ensure that the next chief minister does nothing either.
...

Is this what is stopping Dharam Singh from achieving anything so far ? Possible factor. But, he also has power over them. So he can, if he wants to.

Is this the reason behind Bangalore infrastructure woes and failure in Mumbai in July ? Venkat Krishnan suggests more power to local governance as a solution. Well that idea did come up during the Mumbai deluge, esp when you compare the city's tax revenue vs returns in administration, city planning and infrastructure.

How about city govts?
By Venkat Krishnan
The only way to get cities some attention would be to get local governments, for which autonomy and representation are both important.

Travel & Being a grandparent

I read this interesting middle one night.

Grandma's tale
By Maya Jayapal

Being a grandparent is getting a second chance at atoning for and amending mistakes one had made

....We have got a second chance to atone for the mistakes we made as parents, young parents sans the wisdom and the experience we possess now...

I have been reading Maya Jayapal's articles, from like what, from the time I was in school. She is a regular contributer, mostly traveloges from across the world. I think I got my want-to-travel bug, from reading her regularly.

Happy Birthday Mom

Watched Home Alone 2: Lost in New York tonight.

Some nuggets like 'I thought being alone will be fun. But it's not. Now I dont want to be alone. Even if it is with somebody who bugs me. Even Bus'. My thoughts !

I love this movie for the Kevin's pranks, his slow torture of the burglers, snow and the fairy-lights lit streets, and the scene of all cousins asleep, sprawled across one room. But most importantly, what stuck me in both these movies, even the first time I saw it like 10-12 years ago - is Kevin's mother. Her despair at having left him behind at home and then at the airport. I dont have many words to describe, what I felt and still feel. But its just stuck on my mind.

Happy Birthday Mom !

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi

Tubelight Gyan

Questions:

Before 18, you are considered not intelligent, if you don't ask questions.

After 18, you are considered not intelligent, if you ask questions, without providing answers for them.

Sarcasm is the worst form of communication. Nobody gets the point. And its not funny. Also, the satisfaction of giving a biting reply often leaves a bitter aftertaste.

Art form, maybe. But definitely not for communication.

Accusatory tone

Anything said in accusatory tone need not be so.

Repsonse in accusatory tone, does not imply you are guilty. Its just their attack mechanism.

Example:

You are being defensive - Ofcourse I am, since you are being offensive.

Oh his English is simply a translation from vernacular. - Big deal. As long as you talk confidently and communicate your idea, its good enough. Wait for 20, or even 5 years, and your phrases will find a mention in the Oxford dictionary.