All my bags are packed ..

I return to India today.And , I am just back from a 6AM walk that gears me up to face the rest of the day.The ladies setting up the breakfast counter wished me a cheery good morning.I'm going to miss being here.Miss the 6AM hour , when there's a hint of daylight , the sound of those dreadful geese , and the splashing of the water in the fountain.I feel like the world is one giant baby that's slowly waking up .. and guess what? I already did that!



Ok , so moving on..The highlight of the trip was the sister , of course! The only reason I didn't lose my mind given the colleagues I traveled with(calls out for a looong post) and the only reason I never felt homesick.Someone who'd patiently chalk out my travel itinerary for each weekend with the right amount of fun,history(err yes .. I sometimes call her eMonica) and someone who never put on the bored face when she took me out on these outings(given she has seen these places about 30 zillion times already).You know .. bored faces (the one's that read Oh been here , seen it already , gotta see it again 'coz I need to show you around) are SUCH a turn-off for enthusiastic tourists .. well what do you know emo , you definitely were'nt that, thank god!


Of all the places I have been to , I liked the Niagara the best.. I think I will be back each year at a different season to watch the Niagara. I remember the first time the spray hit my face. At that exact instant , nothing mattered , it was just me and the spray and the all pervading sound of the river.. strange .. that something that sounds so forceful should bring out a sense of peace within you..


A close second was the Harper's Ferry ..the Potomac river and the Shenandoah valley .. I remember taking a long walk with Appa that day while Amma and Alty sat on a rock .. reading!! Really!







DC comes third , DC has that air about it.Like New Delhi , Leonine, royal, well-read ..

:) .

So here it is. A salute to the star spangled banner and a cheery wave to the tri-color.

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

The Bachelorette

Its been almost 2 months and a half that I have been in Umrica , and I feel like I've belonged to my hotel room forever!I have loved it so far , the long early morning walks listening to the iPod with the fresh wind on my face , the late evenings , coming home and cooking up whatever catches my fancy , sipping coffee while devouring Ponniyin Selvan. I think its the silence that I like most.The feeling of living with just myself.And I mean it in a non eerie way.There is the space and the silence and there's me and there's me again. :) Who would've thunk !

Some of my favorite spots around my home here..yes , it can indeed be called that :)



My 7:30 Pm cup of coffee








Comfort food .. rice and spinach dal










Just back from office mess .

'Coz some of us need to live by "Because the world is always on" motto..

A trip to Maddur

Some weeks back , I decided I'd take the geriatrics to to Maddur.Why Maddur? 'Coz of the famous Vaidyanatha Temple thats a few kilometres from the town and also the Ambegal Krishna temple at Doddamalur , near Chennapatna.
Now , lets talk our language.
We set out at 7:30AM laden with biscuits , fruits , dates , Filter kaapi flask , hand towel , leg towel, towel towel , newspaper , 3 library books(which were stored carefully in a separate 'book' bag in case they got lost/damaged/lost and damaged),iodex, amritanjan,shampoo hair comb, paddle hair comb, soap,dettol.
Suffice to say , my Mother's previous birth must have been that of an ant.A wary one at that.
Car driving always puts me into a bad mood.The pressure of having to save one's life , one's dependent's lives(which includes Petunia's as well) is a little too much to handle.Especially with Petunia , she's certainly not a morning person.There was a maddening jam at the Mysore road junction , a demented Sumo guy came and hit my bumper and sailed forth after showering abuses on ME!I showed off my vocabulary rather well , only to find two horrified faces looking at me wondering what they had done wrong. Sheesh! Sometimes there's no winning , is there?
Once out of Kengeri , the highway broadens into three and that's when you really start enjoying the drive.At this point , I felt like the girl from the Sumo Victa Ad , any of you remember her?She's the one who drives a Sumo Victa with her entire family dozing behind her.Found it.
An hour later , we stopped at Kamat Lokaruchi(Lok-aa-ruchi as Gee calls it in her Punju accent :)) for breakfast.You have a choice of a breakfast-Buffet versus singal-singal order.Buffet it was!We were served little glasses of fresh pure grape juice , 2 hot idlies , crispa vadas , hot pongal,the kharabath-kesaribath duo, and quarter pieces of hot masala dosa, with chutney and sambar.That's one thing I love about Karnataka.The food.Its a vegetarian's paradise.
We washed down the breakfast with a cup of hot filter kaapi , found ourselves smiling dreamilly(obviously because of the breakfast) and sauntered into Janapada Loka which is right next to Lokaruchi.
Our next stop was to be the Ambegal Krishna temple at DoddaMalur.Ambegaalu in Kannada means "to crawl".Legend has it that it was after visiting this temple that Purandaradasa composed the famous "Jagadhodharana Adisidalu Yashoda".It was my favorite composition during dance practices.Coming to think of it , all songs describing Lord Krishna enthrall me.

What struck me most about the temple were its walls, walls that had probably seen history unfold.
Old.Majestic.Sanctuary , yes , thats the word to describe it best.

It was around 11 when we set off towards the Vaidyanathaswamy temple in Maddur,which is about 20 Kms from Chennapatna.You need to branch off into the Maddur Main road from the highway and take a detour that will lead you to the Vaidyanathapura road.There on , its a straight course.Ask any native the way and they'll go "Straight hogi madam , then swalpa yeda , matthe balagade ondu sethuve sigathhe , alli hoga baradu.. " and so on.For those lost in translation , that meant "keep going straight, turn to the left a *little* , turn to the right and you will find a bridge..that's where you mustn't be going :D.

In any of the Vaidyanatha temples , the pooja involves immersing some jaggery and salt into the Kalyani(to indicate that the disease will vanish just as the salt and jaggery do into the waters).

I watched as my Mom and Dad vanished into the temple before it closed for lunch and stood at the head of the steps.From where I stood , I could see forests, paddy fields and the river.. all at once.Sometimes , you don't really need a temple or an idol to pray to.

Come 1'o clock and we reached Maddur town.I insisted on stopping at the Maddur railway station.It brings back memories of my childhood when my entire family would make a trip to Mysore , our ancestral hometown.And my uncle used to make it a point to stop at the Maddur railway station for the famous Maddur Vadas.The railway station is so much from a scene from Malgudi days.So idyllic and sleepy.

The station guard sauntered up to me while I was clicking away and asked me if I was press-avaru.I told him I'd put it up on the internet , would he like to strike a pose?He blushed a brilliant red and changed the subject.He pointed to a poster of the ' Fairy Queen' and told me very sadly that steam engines were a thing of the past.
As I slowly pulled out of the railway station towards the highway , I could hear familiar voices in my head , that of Patti describing to me how my great grandad had to sell our Mysore home in order to treat a great aunt's illness , how Thatha used to come back to a *rented*(she would sigh at this time) house in Mysore , some more about the mango trees and the jackfruit orchards.Somehow that entire stretch from Bangalore to Mysore is like a cord that connects me to my past , familiar names -Chennapatna , Maddur, Mandya,Srirangapatna , T-Narsipur(we had old barren land there -but catch me calling it that in front of Patti) and then finally Mysore.

A trip to Kerala

Happy New Year deeeer readers :) , here's wishing all your dreams ,hopes, aspirations come true! What did you guys do on 1st night? Me?Well, errm I slept.No, not 12.At 10.There's only so much of Ronit Roy dancing that you can take, no?

A lot has been happening that I haven't updated you on.One of them being a trip to Kerala.Needless to say , it was beautiful.Munnar has no specific place that you need to stop and take pictures of.Every bit of Munnar is breathtakingly beautiful.Now I know why all the mallus I know call themselves Keralites with pride.

Day 1:Munnar.
We had made reservations at the Royal Retreat.The hotel is situated atop the Kannan Devan Hills.The hotel itself is very quaint ,picturesque and extremely clean.There is no specific place in Munnar that you can call scenic , every stop seemed straight out of a picture post card!
But oh! The food .. BIG PROBLEM.I thought I was being smart when I had listed down all the vegetarian joints in Munnar , only to find the Saravana Bhavan there is a fake one , and had nothing to do with the original!And guess what happened at a restaurant the driver forced us to get into!
Seren to Waiter : Ermm can you please clean the table?
Waiter: "It is clean"
Seren:"No , it isn't.. there are rice grains all over the table cloth!"
Waiter: *Promptly takes out the table cloth with a sweeping gesture , dusts everything to the floor and puts it back with an Einstein expression on his face*
Seren: *Stomps to the door*

The drive from Munnar to Thekkady is just breathtakingly beautiful ... endless green mountains , tea plantations , flowers in every possible color in full bloom , fresh air , and little waterfalls and dams tucked away here and there.It is precisely then that you ask yourself a question: What the hell am I doing slogging away my night and day in the 10th most polluted city in India, when all I needed to do was to buy a little cardamom estate right here by that nook, drink bad coffee, sip nice cardamom tea(home grown),have wild rice for lunch and call my Dad Achan.
Ans: The said estate would cost about 20 lacs and that doesn't even include maintenance and the fact that I have just one use for cardamom - In my tea.

Day 2: Thekkady
The Kathakali Centre day,the highlight of the trip.We were called one hour before the act so we could watch the artists dress up.
Altoid:"Whats happening Seren?"
Seren:*Hushes two american kids who dared to laugh at the 'artist'* "Can't you see? *Hushed tones* The artists are dressing up !"

The male artist(MA) finished with his green make-up and started to fervently tie a fat rope around his belly.The ticket issuer guy(TG) started to insert empty cement covers and rice bags under the rope.Ta-dah! This is what flairs are made of.

The artists:

MA : Male Artist

FA(Duh):Female Artist who is actually Male

The story:

This performance revolves around the story of Narakasura, a vicious demon and Jayantha, the valorous son of Indra (King of Devas). Nakrathundi, Narakasura’s sister gets attracted to Jayantha and approaches him in the guise of Lalitha, a beautiful woman. Jayantha rejects her love and the disappointed demoness takes her normal form and attacks him. He injures her and a shocked Narakasura vows to take revenge, only to find himself punished for his wrongs.

The performance commences to a very enthusiastic audience.MA quivers eyebrows , cheeks , nose,eyebrows and every quiver friendly facial part to show that he obviously is Narakasura.Meanwhile , Narakasura’s sister(FA) winks(??),raises eyebrows coyly,winks again,pouts with large orange lips,feigns a kiss and yes , winks again.I had expected Kathakali to be a lot different from Bharatanatyam , but for the life of me , I could'nt imagine even a demon's sister breaking into a majestic-hooligan-going-aie ice ice baby act.

Winking? Really?

Ok, FA was now prancing around the stage lustilly winking, quivering,shaking hips and winking all at once.She was in lowww , mind it.

My gaze shifts to MA , he is eh??? Adjusting his nails and his costume calmly..like oh where am i? Oh right, the stage.If u don't trust me , look at the pic on the extreme left.

I was getting rather bored with all the quivering when a diversion came in the form of a late comer.He calmly walked up to the stage and asked MA where his seat number was.MA stopped quivering , ushered him to the right row , walked back to the stage , put his feet up on the stool(prior to the diversion he had had one leg up on a rock), adjusted his flair and sword and continued quivering.From this angle , one of the aforementioned cement covers screamed out an advertisement for Coramandel Cement.I looked on in disbelief.

At the end of the 'performance' , the stage was thrown open to anybody who wanted a picture with the 'artists'.MA and FA quivered some more as the honeymooners hugged them and each other and said 'Cheese'.

I avoided Alto's smirking eyes on the way out and shushed my Dad rather loudly for wanting to come back for a Kalaripayattu show.

I was quite looking forward to the trip back to the 10th most polluted city.

Day 3:Thekkady

Periyar Wildlife Reserve.Altoid and I rented binoculars which costed about 100 bucks for two hours.The boat took off and I enthusiastically started scouring the lake with my binocs.Just then , a family of about 20 plus who were seated next to us went 'Bete bete kya karen , karna hai kuch kaam ..lallalala .. antakshari leke prabhu ka naam'

I set aside my binocs and concentrated on the yes .. of course!The honeymooners.Needless to say , we spotted no tigers.

Day 4: Allepey

We had rented out a speed boat for about 3 hours.And I must say , this was more soothing than the much touted Ayurvedic Massage that Kerala is well known for.While I'm on this I must tell you about this conversation that my Dad had with the driver who took us around.

Driver:" Seren and Alto , how about going to the ayurvedic massage centre"

Alto whispers to Seren: " Say no , that place looks shady"

Driver to Dad:"Achan(great , now the driver is our brother?), shall we go?"

Achan:"Sure , I've never seen a massage"

Seren:" Achan , you cant see a massage , its not like a museum tour.You need to get one"

Achan to Driver firmly:"Then , no"

Seren:*Makes mental notes to tell Mom about how Achan wanted to see a massage..hmm*

Ok , back to the backwaters.Alto enjoyed it the most , I think.She always has this list of things she wants to do and apparently the backwater tour was one of them.Really , I have no tongue in cheek comments about the cruise.It was the perfect ending to a perfect trip.

A lot of houses are situated either on islands or simply bang in the middle of the backwaters.. the people living there work on the paddy fields nearby and sell coconut water to the boatees(people on the boats:D).The boater(:D the guy who boatfied us around) stopped running the motor and our boat was generally bobbing around aimlessly.I looked around wondering at the life people led here, so different from the crappy things that I did back home ,so different from my world of incessant cribbing.

"Ipdiyum oru olaham irukuma?" (Like this also one world-a?)