chickmangalur, Horanadu, Jog Flals tour

Like any other tortured software engineer would plan for a break, we too planned this one which was pending from a long time. The main place that we planned to visit was jog falls. But due to some miracle, we got 4 days of vacation which made the list grow like anything.

We ensured we had the following things before we started off –

Don’t see the news : every news channels aired the videos showing the heavy rainfall around the places we had planned to go. We ignored them.

Arms : good number of vacation

Ammonution : Money, Health and spirit.

A rough map of the places to be visited was drawn for our reference. As per the map, we were to cover the places in this order – Chickmagalur, kalasa, kudremukh, hornadu, sringeri, shimogga.

22^nd of Aug: we started from Bangalore at 8.15 am in a ordinary bus to chickmagalur. The journey was a bit tiring though the roads are pretty good. We reached the destination around 3PM. We halted in the LIC guest house, took some rest and went walking around the city. Much to our surprise, the city is super clean and people also aid in maintaining the cleanliness by not littering around or spitting. People were very friendly. We loved the coffee served at Mayura restaurant which is the best in the city. Coffee is very famous in this place and is grown extensively in the estates encircling the chickmagalur. We ended up consuming almost 1litre of coffee within 1 and half days that we stayed there.

The next day, the Tata indica taxi came in front of our guest house. The previous day we had went around the city in search of tours n travels agency. When we couldn’t find one, we asked a local traffic cop. He advised us to go near the KSRTC bus stand where the taxi people stand usually. So we went there and striked a deal with one of the taxi guy to take us sight seeing the next day.

Our first stop was mullayangiri – the highest peak in Karnataka 25km from Chickmagalur. Though it was around 10am when we reached the top, it was so cloudy that you can see only the person standing next to you. Even a slight mistake by the taxi driver at the curves can put us in danger. The strong winds will make the mist to wet your face. But unlike getting wet in rain water, the mist will dry even if the wind stops for a second! At the top of the hill there is a small mutt taken care by an aged Archak. The most surprising fact about this mutt is that, only within a small boundary where it is situated, the temperature is a bit warmer. This might be the God’s miracle in order to help the Archak stay in the mutt!!

Ok so after spending about an hour at this place, we started moving down. There is a sub peak called sitayyanagiri at a small distance from the main peak. There is a temple over here where right in the garbha gudi, a source of water is present. Water comes out of it 24/7. Temple is well maintained and was cool unlike the mutt at the peak point.

Once we reached the foot hills, we started towards Kemmangundi which is 55km from Chickmagalur. On the way we visited one place called Devirmanna temple. There is a hill close to this temple where, at the top, the puja for the temple godess will be performed once in a year during Deepavali. The path to climb the hill is too steep and at certain point you will stand parallel to the hill itself. Hence people would climb up the hill only once in a year during the day of puja to fulfill their vows.

There is a miracle associated with this temple which is dedicated to godess Chamundeswari. During diwali, 4 days before the Amavsya day, the Devi idol will be taken to the top of the hill where the grand puja will happen. On the day of Narakachaturdashi there will be spl puja during which people climb up the hill. And on the day of Amavasya, when the devi idol is brought back from the hill, they wont place the idol just like that. They wait near the temple’s Garbha Gudi door for a while and at certain point, the wind would force open the door which is to tell that the Devi has come back to Garbha gudi of the temple. Only then the Devi idol would be taken inside!!

We continued the journey towards Kemmangundi. There is no temple or any other thing at the top of this hill. You will have to enjoy the nature and scenic beauty. There is a garden built at the top where you can rest for a while.

Coming back, at a distance of 10km from the peak, there is Kalhatti falls. The uniqueness of this falls is that the water flows right next to a temple in front of it. You need to cross this water in order to reach the temple.

The day1 of trip thus ended when we reached chickmagalur back at 5.30pm. We thought we came back pretty early. But later we came to know that it is not safe to roam around at the forest area after 6Pm. So we reached at right time. We went around the city again to buy some coffee powder and after the dinner went back to guest house and took rest.

The next day morning we had to get up early. We had planned to cover the following places – Kudremukh, Hornadu, sringeri and halt at shimogga. We were told that there is no direct bus to kudremukh early mrng from Chikmagalur. The only way we can reach there early mrng is to take a bus going towards sringeri, get down at Balehonnur, take a bus going to Kalasa and then to Kudremukh. Since the first bus to Sringer was at 6am, we got up at 4am itself and went to the bus stand around 5.30am. Our plan was to visit Kudremukh where there are couple of waterfalls nearby. But after the tiring journey till Kalasa, where we reached around 9.30 am, we were told by a local shop owner that there is nothing to see in and around Kudremukh as there are not many ppl in that town ever since the Famous KIOCL was shut down. Thankfully we decided to trim our trip plan by removing Kudremukh from the list. Instead we decided to go to Hornad directly which is 8km from Kalasa. We managed to get a shared Auto to reach to Hornad.

Horanadu is a beautiful temple town. The nature here is so beautiful that you will stand for a while after you get down from your vehicle to take a 360degree look of the place. The temple which is dedicated to godess Annapoorneshwari is very famous. There will be Anna dasoha every day from 12.30pm to 2pm. The temple complex is very big and serene. Within a 15km radius from the main temple, there are two more temples – Amruteshwara temple dedicated to Lord Shiva and Ganesha temple. The nature view from Ganesha temple which is slightly at the middle of a hill nearby, is too good. One can see the Main temple from here. Any auto wallah will take you to these two places for 100Rs.

After a sumptuous meal at the sacred temple, we came out of the dining complex and went to a shop within the temple premises. This shop markets the products of SDM rural welfare programme society and are famous for their quality. We buyed the things which are famous in Malnad – The coffee and tea powder, Kashaya, Puliyogare mix etc. We had good 1hr to be spent before the next bus to Sringeri comes. But the time just flew watching the beauty of nature.

The journey to Sringeri was expectedly tiring due to the extra congested Bus, blaring audio, and incessant rains through out the route. Also, I was getting strained due to continuous journey and not-so-good health. 3 hours of journey finally ended when the bus reached another nature-beauty town of Sringeri. Rain had slowed down thankfully when we reached the town.

The huge temple complex of Sringeri is jus magnificient. We reached around 5.30 Pm which meant we had just 1hr till the next bus to Shimogga leaves from the town. So we had to hurry up. As soon as we entered, we were told that the Head swamiji of Sringeri mutt is giving Darshan at the Ashram which is located at the back of the huge temple complex. We walked towards the direction of Ashram. It was spectacular beauty all around. There was a bridge which connects the temple complex with the back side where the Ashram is located. When you look around the river while walking over the bridge, you will understand what the Malnad region beauty is. The rain, sunset rays, water flowing in the river everything looked like as if some award winning painting had taken life all of a sudden and is present in front of you. It was just brilliant.

We spent almost half an hour at the ashram and then next half an hour we rushed to visit the different temples within the complex. After waiting for about 30mins outside, we got a bus to shimogga. I was little disturbed by the fact that we had to waste 30mins simply for the bus instead of spending that in temple. I wondered why ppl didn’t tell us correct timings. Later we came to know that due to heavy rains, the pvt bus operators had cancelled off all their trips to Shimogga. Luckily we had managed to get KSRTC bus and reached Shimogga around 10PM.

I was dead tired when we finally made it to Lic guest house after just-for-survival dinner. If not for the dirtiness-obsessed people, the town is decently clean. I didn’t had much energy to even think and argue more about this with my bro and mom and just slipped to bed.

If our gust house caretaker hadn’t knocked at 6.45Am on the door, we wouldn’t have got up at even 10am I guess. Unwillingly, I had to get up dragging my aching feet to bathroom. We got ready at around 9pm and started toward Jog Falls around 10am. The journey takes 3hrs and hell lot of pvt buses are there.

I have an apprehension before I proceed to describe about the beauty of the falls. Reason being, I know that how much ever I try to explain it, it will not stand up to the level. You need to see the place and enjoy the beauty yourself. From the main place, you can view all the 4 falls – Raja, Rani, Roller and Rocket. But unfortunately thick clouds had covered the place and out wait turned futile as it never showed the signs of either flowing away or evaporating thru rains. But we hired a taxi there to see each of the falls from different points. At the first place where he stopped, we had to walk a few steps down and then we can see the 3 falls (I don’t exactly remember which ones they were). There is the famous Mungaru Male spot here where the shooting of the movie took place. The Spot is indeed very nice where you can see water of the falls flowing down vertically from its origin point. Unfortuanately here again, we couldn’t see the depth properly due to the clouds. But however, as and when the clouds where clearing for a few mins, the sight of the falls appearing at the back was so spectacular. The wait for this breath taking scenery was worth all the strain taken to reach there.

Finally we reached shimogga at evening. I had no energy left in my body now. The 4days trip had come to end. We were discussing about which place we liked more. I voted for Chickmagalur. Don’t know what was the verdict of the poll since I dozed off without my knowledge. The Volvo bus took us back to Bangalore withink 5hrs against the usual 6hrs taken normally by other buses.

It is now BAU life from the next day L. Groan.

=Not(BAU Monday)

Prerequisite before reading:
For this post, if you are not a software engineer you need to go thru the following jargons and concepts being used -
BAU - Business As usual - used to refer to the the things which has not changed.
Shuttle - Company bus.
Bang1 - Code name of my office branch situated in cunningham road.
Meaning of the title - i guess you will make it out. It tells that this story of my experience on monday was not BAU ;)

The night of Sunday 21^st was rocking since it was the bday party of my friend. We enjoyed a lot and naturally tired when we reached home.

Next day being Monday, I had to get up early. Surprisingly, I got up before my annoying alarm could make terrible noise and invite trouble from my elder bro. it was very pleasant to see that the hot water was ready for me to take bath. Not every day you will get up to see that everything roll out so smoothly, hot water-pressed clothes-special breakfast-hot tea. Everything went so smooth that when I stepped out of home I realized that I have good 10 mins to walk to my bus stop. That means I need not run or make a last minute - “I’m there. Please stop the shuttle” call to my friend.

As I reached the stop walking elegantly, there was a pleasant surprise waiting for me. We had got a new shuttle. Instead of usual bone-breaking-age-old Swaraj Mazda cab, we had a brand new AC mini bus. I couldn’t believe myself. I read and re read the route # displayed on the shuttle windscreen. It read B1-16. Yes that is ours I said to myself and fellow colleagues. The bus stopped in front of us. The driver gave full 40watt smile to me to say as if he purchased this vehicle for me. The automatic door opened smoothly allowing us to enter and take seat inside. The ride was so pleasant that within minutes we were in front of Bang1 gate. I was still adjusting the AC ventilator above my head and had to rush down when my friends started laughing.

I was in full Feel-good mood today as I entered the office campus and eventually into the bay. A few Security guards friends of mine were also very happy as they had got brand new uniforms which made them look like Air force soldiers. I exchanged smile with them while going to the bay. Before I could swipe my Access card, I realized that I had still my iPod earphones plugged to my ears!! I had forgotten to deposit it in reception. Before I could rush back to reception I observed something strange near the door. As I was wondering what it was, I noticed that all the warning boards near the door have disappeared!!! I happily moved inside after the guard assured me that the rules are changed. I could hardly believe myself.

There were more surprises in store for me as I entered the bay. I was telling myself that all the surprises will sometimes happen on one single day. Inside the bay I could see that not a single person was in formals. Jeans, T shirts, Floaters!! Man, where am I? I asked myself. When I asked my friend, I found out that the dress code policy has been revoked. I think my Accenture mail box was full because of which this “Very Important” mail had bounced and fallen out of the box. I cursed at myself for having come in Formals which made me look like a alien coming from some unknown planet. Slowly I started feeling the over dosage of surprises. The stone-age old systems were replaced by brand new ones. LCD monitors, ultra speed internet a refreshing-new-look cafeteria with multiple caterers offering mouth watering food and beverages, the reconstructed Rec-room with brand new games, sprawling Gym, phew!!!! I started feeling giddy with host of changes around me. I could take it no more. I badly wanted to share these things with my friend working in a Product development company who I hated because of his never ending –my-company-your-company comparisons. Suddenly I felt a great urge to talk to him. But the fact that I don’t have his number made me to think alternative ways to reach to him. The bulb switched on inside my brain and I thought of chatting with him thru Gtalk since all the restrictions were removed for surfing the net. Excitingly I typed – www.gmail.com on the IE address bar. As I hit the Enter button on my keypad suddenly high beeping voice started coming from nowhere. It was so annoying. I was afraid for a moment thinking that it all started because of me trying to open gmail. I tried my level best to stop this irritating noise. Just then I realized that someone kicked me hardly and at the same time the noise also stopped. It didn’t take me another minute to think that it was BAU. My bro- a die hard Akshay kumar fan, had in his BAU move kicked me and stopped the alarm simultaneously. I Had to rush to bath room to switch on geyser for hot water, press the clothes, get ready hurriedly. No matter how much I try, I will never be able to catch the shuttle in the stop and had to call up my friend to stop it wherever it was at that moment. As I ran to the spot I found out the same old bone breaking vehicle and I’ve-never-smiled-in-my-life driver cursing at me. The bumpy ride made me hold all possible supports available so that I can sit safely at my seat till I reached the office. When I got down, I thanked god for making me reach safely. I deposited my Pod at the reception, smiled at the friendly security guards, exchanged a few words with them and reached the bay door. But before I could swipe the access card, I found something strange at the door. What is it? I kept thinking. Ah got it, there was this notice sticked on the glass door. As I read it, my jaws dropped, heart started working so fast as if Bollywood star Katrina Kaif’s Wallpaper is sticked there. The Notice read “Effective July 1^st, Camera Phones are not allowed inside Kitty Hawk bays”. I prayed to god asking him to make this one also a dream. But no, I had to accept the reality when I pinched myself and found out that I’m very much awake.

Moral of the story – don’t dream on Monday Morning.

A blog post for my dearest sis

This post is dedicated exclusively for my sis and the Sunday trip of 25^th july 2010.

I’ve a new motivation for writing blog now - My dearest sister. She reads all my blog entries. And this she told me after reading all the blogs I’ve written so far. [oops its 10mins to 12am, need to hurry] I know you would be laughing n smiling Nikitha. Go on and read the postJ.

Well the day started little early as we had planned to go on a day long trip visiting near by places. There cannot be a better example than this for coincidence. The previous night ma, me n my bro were sitting in front of comp n discussing where to go for our trip on Sunday. Right at the same time, my cute sister pinged me in FB!! There was no second thought and I asked her to join us tomorrow in our trip. She sought some time to check with her mom for permission. I kept my finger crossed. And then immediately after 5mins she came to give me the good news that she would join us the next day.

If I note down each and every funny moment we had that day, I would end up writing another novel on this topic J. But, let me jott down a few hard-to-forget Kodak moments. Well the whole day experience for my sis, if I’m not wrong, would have been like watching My Autograph movie of Kannada I can say. And she agreed to this that day. The first stop for that day was the middle school in kunigal where I studied good 12years back! Me n bro were too excited. Nikitha ended up hearing to all our prankster-incidences and other histories. After that the next stop was the cool, spiritual and historically famous place called Yediyur. After getting the blessings from god there, we moved straight to Hebbur Lakshmi temple which is on the way to Tumkur frm Kunigal. How can I forget the funniest moment we had here? The whole purpose of writing this blog was to record this moment. My sis was struggling to finish of the rice served to her. Needless to say, she had pushed all the cooked vegetables of sambar to the corner of the leaf. But the place where she sat, the corner of the line, can hardly miss the radar of the temple volunteer. And naturally when the volunteer requested/announced/ordered not to waste the food considering it was Prasad of the divine deity, my cute sis had no other option left but to start eating the vegetable pieces one by one. It was one of the most funniest moment that I would cherish for my life J. My mom paused for a while to complete laughing and then continued having her food. I was looking for this golden moment that day. I used this as key to tease my lovely sis throughout the day even at the time of dropping her home and wishing bye.

After the food, we left to Tumkur where we visited our family friend’s home. Nikitha had pleasant shock of her life there. The uncle and aunt there immediately identified her when we told who she is. “Oh Chik papu iddaga nodidvi ninna. Kunigal ge bandaga. Olledamma” was the common reaction of both. Nikitha gaped at me for a while before I told her how they know her and only then she started digesting the fact. I strongly believe that none of us at home there ever realized how fast the time flew. It was 4.30 PM before we pleaded them to leave us so that we can visit the last two places in our list – Devrayana durga and Namada chilume.

It was 5.45 PM by the time we reached the peak point of DD hills. It was awesome feeling at the top most point. The weather, chilling winds, drizzling rain etc were catalyst for our excitement. We took some memorable snaps and then visited the namada chilume where we spent another half an hour before starting towards Bangalore which was good 70 Km from there. Nikitha – I wont share how much you were afraid when we were passing through the dense jungle of DD till we reached the nearest town J You will scold me.

Well, like any other thing in life, this golden day also came to end when I dropped Nikitha to her home at 9PM. Another wonderful day of my life ended with lots of memorable moments. Thank you Nikitha dear. Be lively always and succeed in whatever you do in life.

A short novel

“ALL is Well…………...” My ipod played one of the recent Hindi movie song stored in it while I was jogging today morning.

5 days earlier - on the day I was supposed to catch a train to Mangalore at night to attend wedding of my cousin - I still didn’t had breakfast even after 11 am. The train was at 8.50 PM. I’m still glued to my system even after 7.30PM trying to close the work and leave for the day. I forcefully closed the work, packed food from nearby restaurant and catched auto. “Flat 40 Rs” he told before boarding. I looked at watch, it was 8.10 PM. Flat 1 hr to deadline. I boarded the auto without saying a word.

“Hey” I said waiving my hand to one of my cousin standing near the door of the hall. I barely remember anything about yesterday after I had food in train and slept. I had successfully made it to Mangalore by catching the train amidst the entire circus. My cousin tried to reply something which I was not able to grasp. My mother shouted at me to go and have breakfast soon as it is going to get over now. I rushed towards the basement of the hall with my uncle and elder bro leading me. As soon as I sat in one of the long long tables set for serving food for guests, I was served a plate of breakfast containing traditional south Indian idly, sambar, chutney , vada and a sweet. I lifted my head to take a look around. Not many ppl were there in the hall that time. As I rotated my neck in different directions I found that I have slight headache due to journey tiredness. Thankfully the train service to Mangalore from Bangalore had just started a couple of years earlier. Train being the best option for night journey, I don’t remember when I traveled to Mangalore last time in bus.

The wedding muhurat was actually at evening 7 PM. But they were completing other traditions now in morning. My Cousin – the Bride was looking weak and dull due to fever. She was given some medicine to be able to go thru the wedding day. It looked as if a broken car has been repaired temporarily in a small country side garage to be able to drive and reach the next city where it can be repaired in big showroom. There were only few people around. Most of them our relatives. The Bridegroom was dressed in traditional silk dhoti tied in a complicated fashion.

Few years earlier – when I was still a kid – I had attended similar function with my mother in Mangalore. We had shifted to Mangalore just a year before since my father got transferred there from Mysore. I sat beside my mom in a hall packed with ppl, all of whom I had never seen till then. The reason why I didn’t know many of our not-so-close relatives is all of them were permanent citizens of Mangalore, whereas I was born and brought up in different parts of Karnataka owing to my father’s transferable Govt job. They come to my mom, ask something related to family, exchange a few words and go. Some of them cared to give a smile to me when my mother mentioned about me. Otherwise I was not counted among the huge guest presence.

“Hey you are son of Shobha rite? Your name??? Ummmm Vishwas correct?” I said Yes. “Ohh nice to see you son. Where are you now??.........” series of questions. This was in today’s wedding function where though I was sitting away from my mom, I was recognised and subjected to sort of mini- potential-bridegroom interview. As they were telling something about me, the thought I mentioned before crossed my mind putting a question mark.

I completed half a round of jogging. My legs were straining. It was quite given the fact that I jog for 4km every day. I took turn now to complete another half…..

As I turned and crossed the road holding umbrella in one hand and mom’s hand in another, a white Toyota Quallis passed by. Mangalore being coastal city witnesses heavy rainfall during rainy season every year. It was one such rainy day when I was going somewhere with my mom. I told my mom that I remember the lady sitting in front row of the car. “Yes, she is related to us like this……” I didn’t give much attention to know the blood relation that my mom explained. But I kept wondering why she didn’t notice us at that moment as she could have helped us by dropping us home.

“Vishwas…. Vishwas…..” it was that same lady shouting my name at top of her voice standing at the stage of wedding hall. I rushed to the stage. “Come to the green room, let’s take group photo”. There was chaos inside the small green room behind the stage. Everyone wanted a prominent position to stand and face the camera flash. As I struggled to find a place for myself, the thought I mentioned above crossed my mind putting another question mark.

I had completed one full round thus covering distance of 1km now. I started another round. An elderly couple sat at a bench giving out a tiring sound.

“I guess we last came to your home on may be a year back right? Sorry Shobha we hardly find time to come to your home. Though we come to chinmaya mission nearby your home every month, we won’t get sufficient time to come to your home. Please don’t mind ok, keep visiting our home whenever you get time.” One of my aunts said in one breath. She was housewife and her husband – my maternal uncle is manager in Corporation bank branch and going to retire this year end.

Exactly some 5 years ago – on a rainy day in Mangalore I was watching TV at noon after having lunch. My mom was just back from some function of one of our far relatives. I couldn’t accompany her owing to my crucial 12^th STD exam preparation. Suddenly somebody knocked the door. As my mom went to open the door, I looked out of the balcony window. It was still raining and the clouds were so dark that one will fear whether there will be cloudburst now. I went back to hall. “Finally I made it Shobha. Every time I come to Mangalore I would hear some or the other person saying that you shifted here last year as your husband got transferred from Mysore. So each time I plan to come but used to cancel at last moment due to some stupid reason. This time also driver told it might rain heavily, but I ignored him. And you know what; it was not difficult to come to your bldg in rain. But after reaching, I read in the board below that your flat is in 3^rd floor and there is not lift!! Just last year only my leg joint got operated for arthritis you know. But now I’m ok. I can slowly climb up the stairs. So managed to come.” She laughed for a while before coming to halt. It was so nice to hear her talking. She was talking very slowly owing to her age. A person close to the door in opposite flat could hear her breathing; she was tired to that extent climbing up the stairs. She was the owner of a very big enterprise in Mysore and their annual turnover was close to some crores. She was my mom’s aunt and loved my mom very much. I guess it was some one hour since she came to our house. As the discussion progressed, she mentioned “see Shobha, you might have so much of money today. But unless you have people whom you can rely upon, think that they can help you any moment you need, life is waste. If you think it is not possible it really becomes impossible. If you say you don’t have time, you would never get time” I was mutely watching her say the golden words of wisdom unaware that it will get etched in my mind even after years.

Today in the wedding hall, after my Aunt completed saying in one breath about her difficulty in finding time, this flashback crossed my mind. I wondered if some people manage to get more than 24 hrs a day.

I hate to carry mobile when I go for jogging. I absolutely hate the distraction it will cause. A guy walking in front of me went for his mobile in pocket and started talking when it started ringing – playing some old Hindi song.

“Hey what ya, why you people wanna disturb me.” One of my cousins yelled at his sister for disturbing him while he was talking on mobile. She wanted to call him to the mantap since he being the cousin brother to the bride, had to complete some tradition. He was just into 9^th STD now and was glued to mobile all the time I saw him in the hall.

I still remember the day when we were in Bellary. I was in 8^th STD then. It was 1 year since we moved to Bellary after my dad got transferred there. That day the guy from BSNL – the state owned Telephone service provider – came to our home to install the Landline. It was for the first time that we were getting the landline connection. Till then, my mother used to go to neighbor’s home for receiving the call from her blood relatives. And for making the calls she used to go to near by booth once in a week. Naturally the guy was treated like a celebrity till he completed the formalities of installation. We were so excited looking at the set and how it rang etc. We joined the esteemed group of a few million people in India owning a landline connection then!! For a few days, it was treated like a GOD. I always fascinated taking up the receiver, making action of dialing the number in air, talking something like the film stars etc. When I saw this cousin of mine so busy in mobile, this thought just came to my mind.

“Hey lets take a family snap. Lets all stand with the newly married couple please. Children will sit on floor. Their parents behind them, grandparent in 2^nd line…” said the Quallis lady I referred above. “Hey, ya nice idea! I don’t get time otherwise to meet every one. Let’s take a snap for memory atleast…” said my time starved aunt. “Ma, I will kill your daughter. She is disturbing me too much whenever I am on mobile talking to friends” said my ever-busy-CEO-in-make cousin. “Looking very cute Nikitha. What are you doing these days?” said my multi-millionaire-yet- down to earth aunt as she sat on the chair. The photographer adjusted our group so that everyone comes under the lens vision and Clicked Lens. A characteristic sound of the camera came followed by the

F-L-A-S-H.

A Flash made me also faint now in the park. Before I could really fall on ground and block the human traffic; I realized the need of the hour. My stomach was urging me to stop going round the park and take care of its need now. I made the exit from the nearest gate and soon reached the kitchen of my house.

crazy mind

Writing a blog has really become a difficult affair for me. I think of writing abt my own life & I say why to recollect the past, I try to write something philosophical & I say who am I to talk about philosophy, I try to write about current lifestyle & I say am also part of this current lifestyle and am living it even if it is gud or bad. The list goes on like this and before I can start writing, I turn off my computer looking at the time.

Well that was the daily affair that happens between the two states of my mind. One which compels me to write something and tries to search for a topic and the other which starts turning down every search result. This doesn’t happen only while writing the blog, but with every other good task that I want to start in my life.

Finally, after having done complaining about my mind,I feel very relieved now. The thing which had haunted me all this while is finally out in front of me in my own blog. I can read and realize about my bad state of mind and can overcome its negative effect frm nxt time.

Human brain is really a wonder piece. It has got tremendous power. And we can never judge its amazing and strange capabilities. The other day I was at office trying to come up with a solution for what seemed like a complex problem. No sooner did I made some break through, I rushed to my juniors desk who are working wid me in my project. I had made crash land on their workstation in order to tell them about the problem and my solution for it. But in the course of explaining it to them, I found out new and simpler way of dealing with the challenge. Not just that, I was able to analyse the scenario more thoroughly and that aided my effort of coming up with more simpler solution. I was elated at my ability. I went to my workstation with lot more excitement , with that smile on my face as if I defeated world champ vishwanathan in a local chess tournament. Really that is your brain for you.

The thumb rule that the brain follows is very simple – if you feel dejected and sad, the brain never gives you a solution to overcome that. It actually thinks more and more in the same direction adding the salt to the wound. You end up crying for the whole day with no solution in the long long way of life. But instead if you stop your crazy mind by applying brakes some way or the other and make it think on some solution (which is very hard I agree) or on totally different matter (some movies, friends etc) you can try to reduce the negative effects.

One of my colleague recently told me that I end my articles very abruptly. This blog is going to meet the same fate I guess. I need to work on the art of ending my blogs/articles/stories with good climax. The thought of writing a short story is also revolving in my mind for quite a few days now. Hope I get a nice idea for that and also I hope my bad state of mind leaves the better state portion alone and let it to do its work of digging into the ideas. Till then ---------!!!!!!!???????????????? I don’t know J

What is meant by Fair?

I started writing something, but now I’m writing something totally different.

Whenever I delete a lot while writing blog, it is very clear that my mind is neutral. I’m trying to hide myself frm some reality of life. Or I’m trying not to think about something. Yes and I feel it is very true.

One of my colleagues was badly hurt by corporate world politics today. “Why nobody is fair here” was the question raised by her. At that moment of time, I dint say anything to prolong the discussion. Since I was in no mood to fall into that thinking mode. But just wanted to find out the meaning of word “fair”. I guess I had discussed about this earlier also. There was one serial called Muktha which used to come in Kannada TV channel couple of years back. A guy develops underworld contacts for the sake of making money and hopes to take out his family from poverty. When his elder sis comes to know about this, tries to convince him to come out of it since they are not good people. The guy asks what is meant by good/fair? It all depends on how you view it. In my view, seeing my family suffer from poverty is not fair, so I do this. There is nothing definitely called as Good/fair in this world.

I don’t want to argue on the boy’s view. But I’ve got instances to support it. The priests at Murdeswar temple, unhappy with the govt decision to handover the temple admin to some swamiji, hatched a plan to tarnish the image of him. They tried to create photo’s / porn videos of swamiji and circulate it in order to bring him down. Who is bad here? Priests can say that it was injustice to snatch the temple from them. Hence they did this. Who is fair here? Take the example of Nityananda swamiji. I read some comment in a newspaper where the writer expressed his support for the swamiji saying that it is nothing bad to have sexual desire for a human being since it is as necessary as air,water & food. Who is fair here? There might be several examples in our own life, among our friends or relatives or family members itself. We might have felt bad at several occasions. But how you will judge who is fair there and who is bad?

Every person will have a different background. Each one of us are born and brought up in different environment. Whatever we learn rite from our childhood, Creates a person inside us who will tell us this is bad or this is good. We call this decision from inner self as conscience. Just to give a simple example, there are some people who use the rest rooms so cleanly that you will never know if it was used by someone before. These people will never like to make it dirty since they feel it is bad to do so. But majority of people never bother about the cleanliness of the rest room once they are done using it. Reason: I’m done with my job, why to worry about anyone coming next. There is nothing wrong the person has done. It is his conscience which feels that it is never bad to do so. Because in his childhood, nobody told him it is wrong. And the person inside him got trained that way. I don’t mean to say that it is entirely parents responsibility to train their kids. There are kids who take wrong path even though their parents are from decent background and vice versa.

We can still train the person inside us. But it is not easy as before. We might not change our conscience decisions until something happens. Emperor Ashoka was always fascinated about expanding his kingdom. Never was he moved by seeing the dead bodies of the slain soldiers. But the deadly battle of Kalinga changed his mind. Suddenly he was shattered seeing the huge loss of human lives because of that war. He was a completely changed man thereafter. So much so that for the rest of his life, his only aim was to improve the living condition of his people by providing better infrastructure and also to propagate peace around the world. Thus it took a deadly war to change the mind of a human being.

"I'm so happy that you all are coming to my marriage" said my friend cum colleague while going to temple in the morning. Today being Ram navami, we decided to visit the hanuman temple near our office. Why I remembered this suddenly now is that the statement is not just name sake one. She really meant it. There was 1000watt glow in her face when she told that.

I got a mail today which explained about how people with different sunshine behave at workplace. After reading each line I was laughing since it was like a mirror to my behavior. The fact being I had myelf so many times thought that I’m like this. So when that mail clearly listed them out, there was no option for me but to laugh while I read that.

Suddenly my love towards my sister is growing like anything. She is just brilliant girl. I want her to get into some excellent software company. I feel like giving her whatever I get as prize for myself. Last time I got a big 20bucks Cadbury choc and my stupid bro gave it away to our neighbour’s kid. I felt like slapping him, I wanted tot give that to my sister. Just yesterday I got a pen from our client in office. I’m just dying to go to her place so that I can give it to her and see smile on her face. I hope I’m not greedy here trying to create an impression that I’m the only guy behind her super success. But whatever it is, she is my sister. And I will do whatever for her to become successful.

Never it is easy to do anything in life. unless it is forced on you. I feel like I will do this, I will do that. But unless I initiate that task, the days just slip out like anything without our notice. I am planning to take up the certification in capital markets, but I’ve not yet got my photo scanned which is the only pending task. I’ve been carrying the photo in my shirt pocket from last 3 days hoping that if I carry it in shirt pocket, I will not forget. But unfortunately I’m not able to do it yet. But my target is this week. And no matter what, I will get this done this weekend.