Manuscript of a lost era

Last week was a very busy week for me as we were moving in to our new home and were packing up all our stuff to be shifted. I have always believed from my childhood that attic is one place in the house, where we actually have no clue over a period of time as to what we have been storing up there….. so I started my work on earlier Saturday morning to clean up the attic…. As usual and typical to many other houses, there was enough dust….
I began cleaning and started pulling out boxes to explore what was in there….
In one such box I got two photo frames one kept on the other and tightly sealed with a thick thread. I opened it to see that it was a photograph of my father and the other of my uncle… and between this photograph was a thick typewritten booklet sealed in a plastic sheet. I just opened to see what this book was all about …. As I opened to see it …
It was a travel log written by my elder grandfather on his trip around the world during 1945. I was so keen to finish that book then and there that I pushed my cleaning aside to open this book to read…
Just to let you know a little about him, his name was Dr. M B Ramachandra Rao, a
geo physicist by profession and was awarded the padma Bhushan for being an integral part for the discovery of oil in the Cambay alluvial tract. He was lovingly called “kaka “ and my elder grandmother was called “Ayi”. Kaka and ayi means, father and mother in marathi. They did not have children and hence my mother and all her siblings got their complete love and attention.It was one big joint family in the real sense.
He had written many books in his domain expertise. But this manuscript that I got is a raw log book, in which he has put in every granular detail of their journey ( kaka and ayi) around the world thru a ship “ MARINE ADDER” which they boarded on on 27th Jan 1947 till their written back to Guntalkal ( andrapradesh) on 2nd Jan 1948. Their meeting with different people, from the Governor to the refuges ripped by World war II , the places, the impression of India in the other world and how they were treated…. Their familiarization as the “Raos” just like the “Johns” and “Smiths” of the other world. The ship and the storm…. This has the most interesting information of places. I sincerely wonder how did this book land in my attic.....but i think there is a purpose to it and now I am keen to work on this manuscript …. You will hear on this shortly from me.

Escapade again

Well its been sometime that I have really put something up on my blog, I have been wanting to but somehow…. Have not been able to make it….
During the week of Christmas, we planned a weekend getaway,,, just planned instant and set off to chikkamagaluru… the most beautiful place that I have ever been to.
We went to chikka magaluru in flat 5 hours… thanks to my zoomy driving,,, ( all praises to myself) which I will let u know how it was put to test the very next day,,,,
We decided to go to Mulyangiri… ….guys you reading this blog, sure know this place.. we all had been there on 25th june 2003, guess I can never forget it…. Below is a link of one of the blogs that Naresh had written of that place, most explicit, so I will want you to read that….
http://www.jroller.com/njain/entry/trek_to_mullayanagiri_hills

And I was there bang on 27th dec 2008, a good 5 + years, I decided to drive the ghat section, we went to Sitalyangiri the point which comes before mullayangiri, we wanted to halt, then we saw a board that read Mullayangiri 2 Kms, so I told vinayak, lets just drive up… the first one km was cool, good road, though narrow and then came the shock of my life, which I had never expected…. We reached a point where further I could see no road.. there was a narrow mud path and with no protection on the edge, one slip and bang you just go down few thousand feet…. . I could see no place to take reverse, just too narrow for it.,,, two vehicles came behind me, the tougher ones, like trax and sumo’s…. what do I do, like a normal amateur I got all nervous, then vinayak wanted to take over but he could not open the door on the other side as we were just close to the rocks, and neither was I ready to give up,
I just mustered my courage parked my vehicle to the edge and allowed the other vehicle to pass. Saw the way they drove and just began to follow… first gear…. Full throttle , crossed that patch and then another surprise waited . the road ahead was just at a 60 degree inclination…. This time legs began to tremble… but inner voice,,, telling me I could do it .. just went on and crossed that patch to finally reach a small flat surface where these few vehicles were parked … when I got down from the vehicle all the drivers were kind of giving me that look “ hey look, a woman driving on this patch” .. can you imagine what a boost it gave my ego, despite all the shivering and trembling in the leg, which took me some time to feel normal, then we climbed the hill to the temple of lord shiva, 700+ steps which my daughter climbed on her own…
I still remember we had stayed in the temple that rainy , stormy night and we had not taken these easy steps… but we took the famous “Sarpa Daari”,,,,,
I still remember, Naresh, ram, murali, sandeep, pulla, deepa, keshav, mukesh ……what a time that was,…
Probably one of the best treks of my life.. I had also scribbled a poem on that…, will share in my next blog

Really miss you all… and those series of treks we went from DSL….
Kudos to Naresh and Ram for being those fundoo organizers…..

Good Food , Great Place

Kamat in Karnataka has been a household name with regards to chain of restaurants and other line of businesses. They have these three popular joints in and around bangalore, kamat yatri nivas, lokaruchi and nandanavana,
Yatrinivas is in one of the busiest places of bangalore called majestic, lokaruchi is on the way to mysore and is a crazily crowded place with all travelers on this route stopping over…. But talking about Nandanavana, this joint is near BEL township, this is in the heart of the growing city but the place is so quiet and green. There is nothing hi fi about this place at all, yet the scenic beauty of nature in this restaurant is what makes one visit it again and again…
It is in one of the Govt bda complex kind of buildings… but the whole backyard is full of tall trees, shrub which form the fencing,,, some old lamp posts , a fountain , some shaded huts, stone slabs, old chairs…

You have trees right from Apricot to Sampige and jackfruit… awesome place for children to just play around, beside this hotel is a huge park also…
The food is decent and so is the price…. Next time you happen to cross this place do catch up for some good food and lovely set up…..

Mourning on Sheshadri Road

Well for those of you who have not known Bangalore, I am not too sure how much you could relate to my feeling today..
And for those who have crossed this road over the years.. would surely mourn with me .,,
Sheshadri Road is one of the ancient roads if I may say of Bangalore which housed and still houses many of the heritage buildings, be it the fire station, Maharani’s College, the Central Jail ( X) , SJP polytechnic, UVCE,,,,,
This road has gone thru so much of change over the last few years, in the name of modernization and accommodating this new hungry civilization,,,,, which doesn’t stop growing
In this whole exercise of modernization, There have been out right massacres of the many trees, that have long given shelter to so many livings things, including human beings,,,,
First came the flyover on Anand Rao circle , boom went the trees for upto a kilometer…. And now in the name of further road widening,,, the trees are being chopped right upto UVCE….
It was over a week since I had taken that route to office.,,, Today morning while crossing Central Jail sunlight just hit my eyes so hard,,,,, I was wondering how come I had never pulled the shield before while driving on this patch,,, and then I saw that inline all the trees lie by the side of the road… Chopped and dead…. And the road almost looked naked,,,,
There have been many associations and environmentalists fighting for this, we have been vouching for it too, but it does not seem to stop… do I blame myself for not actively being there with others who are trying to stop it…
Will just my mere mourning stop this atrocity,,, I don’t know,,,

Corner House

Near Nehru Circle in Sheshadripuram , there is a Corner House .. ice cream joint that I have been visiting for years. Week after week I have been visiting this place especially when we go on a late night drive to have an icecream. The good thing or the most convenient thing about this place is that there is a guy, Joseph if I am right, who comes over to your car and gets you the order. Over a period of time, we have befriended him and he ensures that we get the due attention, as soon as we dip our light or horn….
But yesterday, night which I thought was very usual, went to Corner house, but to my surprise bang next to corner house , sprang “ Baskin N Robbins” icecream shop…. Wall to Wall…..
My first reaction was , how can two competitors, hit wall to wall like in malls, This is a very silent place with limited , loyal customers….
But my daughters first reaction was “ Ma, I want Baskin Robbins…… only”
Even this joint has the same operating model of serving to your car. Now joseph came as usual and then this new guy also to catch up… And my daughter started yelling for BR … Joseph saw that and he had a look in his eyes, with disappointment… and I felt like as though my loyalty was being put to test….
As a new marketing stunt, this new shop also was offering 1 + 1 free…. We ordered, and I was eating the icecream, looking at both these guys, trying to run and catch their customers,,, ,,, but end of it all, for whatever loyalty I have, I guess I would vouch for dear Corner House,,, which has been there for so many years there, serving my favourite icecream in hot chocolate with nuts,.,,, yum,,,, that’s what I would say…

Now I know my next visit I go, we would have both these guys coming over to serve, coz I would go with CH and my daughter for BR….

PERCEPTIONS

This is a word that I have been hearing most frequently for the last few days
What is perception? “Is perception a fact and fact a reality”. Each one of us lives with our own perceptions… We build around it, we dream it the way we want, design it the way we think it should be and end of it either feel extremely happy or extremely dejected.
What are the ways to break perceptions?, is communication the only way to break it…… I think there has to be a total behavioral change in an individual to tackle perceptions.
Does trying to build in positive perceptions, ever help? Or is it just living again in a hypothetical world?
Ok, now you relax and don’t start perceiving after reading this brainless blog of mine….

Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye

Saturday evening was usual for us to go to the Hanuman temple. Post the visit, we generally would go to Sagar for some chat, since Saturday evening is skipping meal kind of a ritual… to be frank , it is more on the needs of the tongue and the stomach. It was around 8 in the night and all of a sudden, got the bright idea of going to a night show movie. It has been more than 5+ years since I went on a night show, and that too with my daughter was surely an experiment. We went to Garuda mall, and were checking which movie to go to, then in the available night show list we had “oye lucky, lucky oye” for me the first glance was some vague movie and just did no interest me ,,, then I closely read the banner, which said, “ from the director of Khosla ka Ghosla” , have you watched this movie. It was a fine movie and therefore , got tempted to take the risk of having my daughter, and watching the night show of a movie with a vague name.
Well all I can say at this point in the night is, it’s a cool movie. No cheap comedy, no obscenity, no unnecessary songs, just precise, fine comedy and most of them are new faces, and they all look like theatre artists to me, very natural in their acting,. What to say about Abhay Deol, son of Dharmendra… I had seen some of his movies before, but either switched off the tv in 10 min , just don’t recollect him, but this movie, I just fell in love with him, what an awesome, charming guy is he…and then is Paresh Rawal.. my all time favourite... I can write about the story here, but what’s the fun, go watch it….
Thanks to Dibakar Banerjee, for saving the viewers with an assurance that there is still some good cinema left. Movie is brilliant, fast pace, natural , nothing unwanted or unnecessary…..
Go watch it…
It’s helped make me a much required, relaxing Saturday.