Do we really care for others????

Yesterday evening as many things occupied my mind, I was just flipping channels on tv when I came across a movie "Mussanje Maathu". I had read a review about the movie in my friend's blog so I thought let me watch the movie.

I watched the movie for some 10 mins, where an auto driver tells his story to Sudeep who is a RJ at Radio Mirchi and ‘Mussanje Maathu’ is a show run by him in the evenings where depressed call him up & share their problems. Here the auto driver tells about his life and how his mom had taken care of him throughout his life. One day when he was waiting for customers at the auto stand, one person comes to him and asks for help as some lady is seriously injured cos of an accident. He tells him to take them to some hospital to which the auto driver refuses telling its very far and only if u pay me double the meter il come. To this the person refuses as he does not have that much money. The same evening when the auto driver comes home he gets to know that the lady who was injured is none other than his mother who passed away few mins after he refused to take her to hospital.

This is a lesson to be learnt not only by auto drivers but by every single individual. In many situations we land up thinking about ourselves and not about others who might get affected by us handling the situation in a different way. What will i get if i do this, why should i do this, who has helped me, why should i help others, what benefit do i get, please remove all these questions from mind and help people in need when they need you. Yes, its true that in some cases we need to think about ourselves, our family but not always! There are many situations where a small help from us might help others change their life. Lets start caring for the society also sometimes!

Nam gangu - celebrating 11 yrs of friendship ;-)

I was thinking of writing a blog about Nam-gangu right from the time i started blogging, today finally im giving a try.

Nam gangu is a gang of 7 girls who know each other from 1998. First 4 years we were in much smaller groups limited to 2 or 3, but the gang of 7 was formed mainly cos of Shastri's tutions in 2nd pu :-).

Let me give a brief intro abt each of them :-D

Chatty - Name itself suggests she cant stop talking ;-). Never seen this gal sitting silent always chirpy, excited about everything we plan. First one to send a good morning message how much ever busy she is, organises all our trips, night-outs and wat not!!! Missed u a lot in the kodai trip Chatty :-( and how can i forget to mention she is a very good singer :-)

Webby - This gal can be a kiddo at one time and a techie in the next second :D (techie in the sense OHT ;-)). Pulling her leg is always wat we enjoy, cant mention full forms of how we pull her leg - BMKJ :-D, now nam-gangu can surely decode this ;-). We have had many fights for wat so ever silly reason possible and sorry for that Webby :(. And ya cant forget that she had a crush on PM :-D and her detective work on other's mobiles ;-)

Cammy - Sweety pie of our gang, very good at techie stuff. Always at office :P. Got to know here more during PU and we have spent a lot of good time since then. Cammy and webby can discuss techie stuff even when we are on a trip ;-).

Dimpy - This gal and Chatty make a grt pair in sharing jokes which most of us do not understand :-s. One more great singer of our gang :-). She is stepping into a new phase of her life in a few days and all the very best to her, first one in our gang to get married in a few days :-)

Appy - The most humble and simple gal of our gang. We always tell we have changed a lot in these 11 years but this girl still remains the same :-). Her pj's are the best and she is very good at antyakshari and dumb charades :-D

Ricky - This gal is again a sweet gal of our gang who is not upto many mischiefs :-D. A great singer, mostly silent but always there when we have to pull other's legs :D. And her best character is she is so understanding and adjustable :)

Sally - thats me :-)

We have a great time in these 11 yrs and will have more in many more years to come :-). But few memorable moments according to me would be:

Trip to Balmuri, Bandipur and Gopalaswamy betta: This was the first time all 7 of us could make it and so its a very memorable trip indeed :-). Enjoyed both the days and the best part was the antyakshari while we were travelling mainly cos of Chatty :P and trekking was also too good though Bandipur was a disappointment. But best part was we actually went for a trip before Dimpy's wedding

Trip to Kodai: This was our first 2 day trip and all of us were very excited. Only disappointment was Chatty could not make it :-(. Kodai was a beautiful place and we enjoyed the trip a lot. Cycling around the lake was the best and i think everyone enjoyed it :) and home made chocolates were yum!!

Night out's at Chatty's place - I think none of us have a count of the night out's we have had but we always look forward to having one more :-D. But after we have started working we hardly are awake till 1 or 2a.m. I still remember the first one, we were awake till 4.30 in the morning. Thanks to Chatty for all the night out's :). Truth and Dare, Dancing, Antyakshari all in all we have a great time. Thanks to Aunty and Uncle also for supporting us always :)

Returning after the movie Rab ne bana di jodi - That day all of us were acting crazy is what i feel :-D. We were planning for a night out after the movie so when we were getting back to Chatty's place in an auto i really dono wat happened to us but the way we were talking, laughing made the auto driver think we are mad i suppose :D

There are so many special moments we have, this blog will go on and on if i continue so il stop here.

Cheers to 11 years of our friendship :-)

2 States - By Chetan Bhagat

2 states is a story about Krish and Ananya who are from different states and want to get married to each other. Based on the story of Chetan's marriage, Chetan being a Punjabi and his wife a Tamilian same as the characters of this story.

The book has been dedicated to his in-laws :-D, which obviously means their parents were against the marriage. The book starts with their IIMA college life, their friendship starts with combined studies and continues to be a love story ;-). But unlike what we see usually, they are also good at studies, I dono how they manage that :-D. But Krish being a Punjabi and Ananya being a Tamilian is wat creates probs for them. They are out from college with good jobs in hand.

This is when the real story starts, they try to make their parents meet but every such episode turns out to be the ulta of what they wud think will happen. But still they never give up, the way Krish manages to win his in-laws heart is amazing. The way he proposes to all four of them (Ananya, her bro and her parents) with gold rings is awesome!! :-D. Ananya also tries her best but not as good as Krish is what i felt.

But somehow their parents are never convinced. Ananya's parents feel they can get a guy who is more educated, earns more etc etc. At the same time Krish's mom feels they are not respecting her as the guy's mother. Read the book to know what happens and who convinces whom - thats actually shocking ;-)

I would rate this book next to Five point someone. That is Chetan's best and i think it'l always be. But i dint like the other 2 books. A good book to read but somehow I cant apply it to my real life and so would many who are like me! :-). But ya i have seen couples like this and I was shocked that actually inter state marriages do happen. Yes, it is good for India as a nation but when it comes to us taking the decision it's always difficult. I admire Chetan and all other's who have actually taken this step. All the best to all others who will try it :-)

I have become a teacher!!!!!

Teaching is something which i like from my childhood, have played teacher-teacher will all the tiles in my house when i was a kid, the very thought of that makes me rotfl nowadays the way i used to beat the tiles and ask them questions :P. Couldn't catch hold of any kids to teach so i used to do this.

During college had some good experience teaching in government schools. I realised that these students are much more intelligent than the ones in private school, its just that they are not given importance and not taught in the right way. Also had the experience of a being a student assistant and correcting assignments and test papers, thats the most funny experience I have had. Reading the hilarious answers students write for derivations is fun.

But now got a serious responsibility as a teacher, have to teach my neighbor maths and science for 12th standard, who is not so good at studies and has to pass in both the subjects. Being in the software industry for 2 years i feel i have become a doubt master, when i am teaching im getting 101 doubts for some theory or problems and I have started wondering why I dint get these doubts when I was studying :D. But now google is there for my rescue ;-). Hmm, I wish im successful in making my student understand wat i teach and score well. All the best to me and my student :-).

Smile for a change :-)

Was not in a good mood since morning as I had lot of work and wanted to finish it by 5 and leave office early. I could have finished it by 5 only if i had some 6 hands ;-), but somehow couldn't sit in office after 6 as it was a Friday so left office by the 6.15 bus

Since it was a Friday i knew traffic would be bad and I forgot to take a novel with me today so the only option left was listening to music. Not being in a good mood since morning, i thought at least catching up with some sleep will make me feel better. But for my bad luck i couldn't sleep for more than some 10 mins today which is a very rare scenario :P. I spent irritating 2 hours staring at the road, the malls, people etc with 101 things running on the back of my mind not able to decide about a single thing. I was angry at myself for not deciding wat I want and wat I dont want abt all these things. Nowadays i feel people other than me are more involved at taking decisions as to wat I should do and this was somewhat a cause for my bad mood. Adding to that I was thinking about so many other things like appraisal etc etc.

I finally thought that I want answers for all the questions running in my mind which is when i saw a small cute kid walking on the footpath, I was watching this kid play as there was a traffic signal and my bus was stand still that is when she gave me such a big smile :-). Somehow seeing that smile made me forget all my worries and I smiled back. Had to travel for another half an hr but somehow that went in a good way not worrying about anything and just chilling out.

This blog is to thank that cutie pie for changing my mood :-)

One of my favourite songs :-)

Oooo…..
Baby, come stand by my side
Come and be my guiding light
Oooo… I’ll be what you want me to be
I’ll give all my love in whole of my life

Soniyo, o soniyo
Tumhe dekhta hu to sochta hu bas yahi
Tum jo mera saath do, saare gham bhulake
Jee lu muskuraake zindagi
Tu dede mera saath thaam le haath
Chahe jo bhi ho baat, tu bas de de mera saath
Tu dede mera saath thaam le haath
Chahe jo bhi ho baat, tu bas de de mera saath

I get this feeling now, I cannot wait no longer
I know your love will keep me happy
Will keep me stronger
I get this feeling now, I cannot live without you
I know your love’s the only one so true

Raho me, tanha hu saath le chal yu
Sang tere safar poora karu
Raho me, tanha hu saath le chal yu
Sang tere safar poora karu
Kya kahu ae zindagi
Tu hai meri saans, rehna tu paas har ghadi

Tu dede mera saath thaam le haath
Chahe jo bhi ho baat,
Tu bas de de mera saath,
Tu bas de de mera saath

Tujh ko jo, paaya toh hai yeh lagta kyu
Baho me bas teri mehfooz hoon
Tujkh ko jo, paaya to hai ye lagta kyu
Baho me bas teri mehfooz hoon

Tum bano, saaya mera, zindagi mein aao
Zindagi bitaao bas yahi
Tu dede mera saath thaam le haath
Chahe jo bhi ho baat
Tu bas de de mera saath
Tu bas de de mera saath

Baby, come stand by my side
Come and be my guiding light
Oooo… I’ll be what you want me to be
I’ll give all my love in whole of my life
Baby…. Come and be my guiding light

Interested in social service?

I think many of us want to do something for our society but get many questions in mind, what to do? when shall i do? how shall i do? and then we become silent not getting an answer to any of these questions and simply while away our weekends.

For those of us who want to do something truly i came across a site:
http://www.youthforseva.org/

This site answers almost all of our questions. If you register as a volunteer and also let them know the type of social service that you are interested in, theyl call you and let u know about the opportunities that you have near to your house.
It can be anything from teaching children, sponsoring school kits, sponsoring a child and that too at the time which is convenient for us.
One more thing which i came across was mentoring a child details of which are in the below site:
http://sponsorachild.youthforseva.org/

I found this very interesting, as mentoring children who are facing difficulties helps them a lot in their life. I have known the real experience of this when i had been to teach in government schools.
For those who are interested in social service, please visit the links

Even I havent done anything productive till now, registered for the site today and waiting to see what i can do :-)

Cheers to Youth for Seva :-)

Gently falls the Bakula

I have been a fan of Sudha Murthy since my college days. I admire her a lot for her simplicity and the way she is. Never got an opportunity to see her still even though i work in Infy :-). Had heard a lot about her books but never got to read them until recently when i bought the book Gently falls the Bakula. Its just amazing to read her book cos it relates so much to our day to day life.

Gently falls the bakula is a story about a highly educated gal Srimati who has interest in history unlike most of us who are fond of the IT industry. She is a tough competition for her neighbor Srikanth since her school days. They are neighbors as well as rivals in school. But as they finish their college days they are strangely attracted to each other. Srikant completes his engineering in IIT whereas Srimati pursues her studies in history. She gets many offers to pursure her Ph.D in history but she opts to marry Srikant, much against the wish of both their parents. Srikant gets busy with work and somehow Srimati is not able to pursue her studies due to some reason or the other and becomes a dutiful housewife. But its too late when she realises that she has ruined her career and Srikant is not the same person whom she had liked. Very busy with his work he has lil or no time for Srimati who has sacrificed her whole life for him and always taunts her for her interest in history.She is lost in a world thinking what she should do next and that is when she decides she should go abroad and do her Ph.D, but not many in normal life take this decision.

The name for this book is so very apt, Bakula is just a normal flower. Life of Srimati is same as almost all housewives that we see today. This story was written by Sudha Murthy around 30 years back but holds good to today's world also. I am not a feminist but always keep wondering why are women always made to sacrifice. If a man attains great heights, he is intelligent, smart etc etc. But when a woman tries to balance her life between family and career she is "career oriented". Isnt it right on a gals part to build her career as her parents also would have so much faith in her that shel attain great heights. As far as i have seen, when needed women never neglect their familes, it is their first priority, responsibilty and then comes work so why not let them pursue their interest might not be work can be anything like hobbies, interests etc etc.

But ya have seen many ppl who are very supportive these days, I have many examples and one would be my Pappa who is so supportive to my Amma :-) . World is changing and we will surely see a better tomorrow where everyone is treated equally :-).

Mehandi Designs - One of my hobbies :-)

Hope itl be useful to some of you :-)

Goddess RajaRajeshwari

This photo is of Goddess RajaRajeshwari at the temple in RajaRajeshwari nagar, Bangalore. I think most of the residents in Bangalore would have visited this temple atleast once. I have been going to this temple since last ten years and I think the atmosphere in this temple has made me change a lot.

I visit this temple almost every month with my parents, I just love the peace of mind that i get here. This temple is unlike all other temples in Bangalore. I remember the temples of Mangalore when i visit this temple and thats because its not in a crowded place. Just having an eye to eye contact with the Goddess just makes u forget everything, you start feeling so humble, a small particle of sand in this whole world. The smile on her face is just so beautiful like a small kid innocently smiling even though she is the person who knows everything. When you see her you wont feel like asking anything you just feel she knows everything and she'l do it for you, she'l take care of you like a mother, gives you everything like a father, just her blessings is more tan enuf for you.

Everyone should visit this temple during Navaratri, seeing her with the golden kavachalankara(photo which i have attached) is just enough to feel her presence in the temple with her smile telling that she is liking the seva being offered to her by the devotees. Other time when you must visit the temple is the day after Sankranti, when the Goddess is decorated with flowers and all kind of vegetables given by the farmers during Sankranti, seeing her face you can tell that she is liking it all and blessing all those farmers :-).


When i recently visited the temple druing Mom's birthday I happened to see "Uyyale Seve", again it was such a nice experience seeing her sitting in the uyyale and seeing the pooja being performed just filled tears in my eyes, her smile just makes me forget everything else. I had read once, if you sleep and tell Lalitha Sahasranama, Goddess will sit and listen. If you sit and tell, she'll stand and listen. If you stand and tell, shel be very happy, it is so true i felt. I want to thank her for everything she has given me and want to be lost in another heavenly world just seeing her smile. I love her lots :)

Anyone who has not visited this temple, pls do visit soon :-)

My Bucket List :-D

Well before u read this post let me tell you dont come to a conclusion that i am a crazy girl :D, my bucket list is the list of things which i want to do in my life, few are crazy ideas i agree but few are good also :), few are simple few are difficult :). These are the things which i have in mind now will update it as and when I feel like doing something new

• Bungee Jumping from a helicopter :-)- I am very much scared of heights but i find this very thrilling and will try it for sure. I had tried telling my mom about it but got a reply try it with ur husband after marriage :P



• River Rafting - I am afraid of water more than heights, have even got scared of water in Wonderla imagine :D. Have to try this sometime in the near future :)



• Learn Salsa Dance and also Bharatnatyam - I know i should have started learning Bharatnatyam when I was a kid but somehow went for 6 months and dropped it. I am not at all good at dancing right now so should learn lil bit atleast :). Salsa dance is something i admire esp after seeing a show India's got talent in which the team was simply superb :-)
  


• Para Gliding - Again this is something i want to do to get rid of the fear of heights and fly like a bird in the sky admiring the nature and lost in a different world totally compared to the IT world rather the virtual world that we live in today. Again for this also i think my parents wont allow :P

• Wanna see all the beautiful places in India as well as the world, travel a lot enjoy the beauty of every place. Few places I have in mind as of now are Switzerland, Mauritius, Himalayas, Paris, Coorg, KuluManali and many more :-)

• Adopt a child or run an orphanage - This is something which I have thought on a serious note. But adopting a child I dono how my family wil take it but for sure i will be running/helping to run an orphanage in my late 30's. Want to help those chidren who dont have parents to shape their life and also the old people who are abandoned by their children to live their life happily. I seriously dont understand how can people forget their parents when they get a life partner forget wat their parents did to them, their compromises. But ya want to do my best for these people

• Build my dream house - I wanna build my own independent duplex house in a place which is away from city away from this corporate world. Have many things in mind about that house but one thing for sure is I want a big pooja room had seen one in one of our relatives place want something like that where u can sit and forget the whole world outside :)

• Honda City - This is my dream car :-)
• Wanna go alone for a trek for 2-3 days I really dono how this experience will be but wanna try it :)

• Wanna be treated as a queen for a day :P - Dono who is going to do it but i wanna experience it :)

• Eat the biggest ice cream in the world alone :-D

Enuf for now, I have many more in mind will write it wen I have the mood again :)

Journey to/from office

This is one thing which i have been thinking about since many days. I have to travel around 60kms everyday and I feel 4 hrs of my day is going as a waste everyday but I am not able to do anything about it.
Its been 2 years since I started working and since then its been my daily routine to travel 4 hrs a day on weekdays. Initially it was a good experience as I had never travelled to that part of the city so i was getting to know new places, but this was the case only for the initial 2 weeks. Then I started thinking wat else can I do so the second option was listening to music, downloading new songs and listening to them on the way back and talking to friends over phone was becoming the routine. My company bus is the most boring bus I have ever seen with people not even wanting to talk to each other. So the only thing they do is listen to music, talk to friends over phone or sleep and there is no other option available.

After a few days, I realised I was slowly becoming one of them. I always used to think bus journey can become fun if people started talking to each other, play games like antyakshari. But somehow till now I have not got the courage to talk to anyone about this. One of the reasons behind this is whenever I meet my friend in the bus and keep chatting with her the whole distance,people give such stares. So i realised these are people who belong to a different category :D and gave hopes of playing games and all. A few days back when I was reading a novel I read in that that itl be fun to imagine wat is happening in other's life whom we dont even know. I have started doing this now, I keep peeping out of the bus just to imagine a story about someone in the street who looks interesting, its fun to do this.

Travelling to different places is always something I love but then travelling to the same place is boring. How nice it would be if my office keeps shifting everyday from one city to another and I have to go in search of it ;-) . But thats not reality and I am getting bored with everything in a few days but my journey to office continues and I have to think of new things :-(

My experiments with cooking :-D

This is my first blog so thought il write something which I have been trying since many days but not yet successful and thats cooking :-D. I think all girls of my age and who are working will agree with me that cooking is boring and will not step into the kitchen until and unless its necessary. But since a few days cos my mom has been shouting at me that I dono anything except few basic things like tea,coffee,rice ;-) I thought let me try cooking and since then my view about cooking has been changing :)

Saturday afternoon is the time when i cook if im at home and have no other plans, I take a small nap after lunch and sometime in the late afternoon is when i cook. Thanks to my friend who introduced me to a few sites of cooking, browsing those sites is when i got interest to cook seeing all the delicious recipes posted there :D.

So here are a few things which i tried:
Gobi Manchurian : Thanks to aayisrecipes, my first experiment was quite good. Even though it dint taste as good as the ones in hotels it was not that bad also. It dint turn out to be as crisp as expected and had a lot of tomato sauce :D. Taste was quite good and i ate half of what was prepared as i was the only one at home. Mom and dad also liked it and after that i got gyaan from Mom as to wat was missing and wat was extra :).

Cabbage curry, Capsicum bajji and Shavige kheer: These 3 dishes were my next experiment. When my mom had work on Sunday till afternoon I thought let me give a small surprise by preparing lunch but it turned to be a bad suprise :(. Cabbage was not cooked properly, Capsicum bajji was not fried properly but Shavige payasa was yum :D. Hence we landed up having lunch outside and the desert at home ;-). But then my dad has been supportive telling only if u try ul learn :D. Mom keeps telling "Ur a 23 yr old girl and this is wat u cook" :P

Dates kheer: By this time everyone at home realised im very bad at cooking so I had to change their view somehow so started trying simple dishes first. Dates Kheer was one such dish which was very simple to prepare and had a good taste. But again anything which i cook cant be perfect so it was too thick for a kheer but tasty :)

Oats Kheer: This is yet another simple dish which i tried but turned out to be very good and with high nutritional value and everyone loved it at home.

So now i can tell im preparing dishes which are edible ;). Anyone who wants recipes of the above can contact me :D. Will try to take pics of my new experiments and post them :).