Getting up at 6AM....

...on a Sunday for a lecture at 7 is less painful when you are greeted with such an amazing view.

The horizon getting ready for the birth of the fiery ball of light

More here.

Some things I don’t have answers to

Why is my dear Kerala so green?, couldn’t help but wonder this during my short train journey from Trichur to Cochin. Unlike other parts of our country, in Kerala, if you want to see soil, you have to strain your eyes and search for it in between all those greenery. Or maybe even pluck some vegetation. That’s how green this place is!

Why ‘ladies’ flock only to the Ladies compartment, even when the other compartments are relatively empty?
I made the big mistake of traveling in the ‘Ladies compartment’ on my way to Cochin. And to make things worse, there was the morning office-rush too. And this was the only compartment in that entire train that was packed to its full capacity, whereas the other compartments went relatively empty. At each station, ‘ladies’ of all shapes and sizes poured into this compartment without even caring to find out whether there are seats available in other coupes. I got ‘pressed’ royally, while wondering why the mallu mahila junta keep away from the general compartment so religiously. Is it just a psychological thing of accepting a ‘reservation’ or is it because of certain ‘intolerable experiences’ in the general compartment?

Where will I be during the next Onam?
This Onam was eventful for me thanks to the unsuccessful summit, the Guruvayoor trip, Salaam Namaste, Veegaland, the murals and the carvings in the Sani temple in Palghat, the heavenly 4PM rain in Trichur, INDIA by Naipaul, my transformed friend at Tripoonithura, the mini Onam sadya at home and lots more. But the high point of the entire 14 days has to be the half an hour spent floating in the Wave pool in Veegaland. The feel of water splashing all around you and nothing but the endless blue sky above you. Just lie down and drift away. Aaaah heaven!

Why do people keep calling me Priya?
Oh! Once again I forgot that that’s my name. Sometimes it scares me when people call me by my name and it takes me nothing less than 5 seconds to realize that they are calling me and that Priya is my name : (
I hope it’s not the start of Alzheimer’s.
Maybe its just that my parents got the name wrong. Maybe that’s not really my name!

Offtopics

Here’s something to look forward to for all those adventure ride enthusiasts. For me, who didn’t have the guts to try the Space Gun in Veegaland, these are simply out of the question. I am very happy just watching the pics, thank you! And thank god these crazy looking things exist only in someone’s imagination.

Some must-watch censored SUN ads here.

And for all those people toiling in office, while I am enjoying a well-deserved break at home, and still have about 8 months more before I hit the corporate circuit again, here’s something [Rediff-speak on How to work for an idiot] that might come in handy. If you survived in there, I am sure you would have mastered all of this and could even add some tips of your own to this list. But nevertheless, it makes a good read. Enjoy!

Last but not the least, my heartiest Onam wishes to all.

The divine show-act

Imagine its a lazy sunday and you wake up all groggy eyed to see a group of all-dressed-up people bunched around you. They look quite happy. You think it's just another day and try to go back to that dream when you notice these huge vessles lined up nearby. Each of them contain a different stuff. Edible. But gooey. Not a pretty sight in the morning.

And then the worst happens.

One barely-clad-scrwany guy picks up the first vessel and empties the contents over you. Water. And very cold.

You get a minute before he pours the second stuff - oil - from the next vessel. A good measure makes way to your agape mouth. If you've ever tasted oil, you would appreciate the situation better.

Next comes mashed banana, powdered jaggery, milk, curd, rice powder, ghee..........you get the idea?

By the time they finish emptying the 24th vessel, you are desperately looking for a cake of soap and a nice hot shower to chip off all this stuff. All you can think of is the new shah Rukh Khan Lux ad and that oh-so-inviting bathtub.

Ha ha fat chance! All you get is a quick wash with nothing but water. Hmmmmm....maybe some lemon extract too. Of course, you remain all sticky.

Hold your sympathies in case you thought that I was the victim. Thank God for that. Or maybe thank God I am not a Goddess!

It was Prathishta Dinam (something like Foundation Day) in my family temple and this was the main attraction. 24 abhishekams. Solid 2 hours. Being a God aint that easy after all.

I didn't like this one bit. I couldn't find the meaning of such a ritual. I did ask some of the older generation about this, but interestingly nobody had anything more to say about it other than that it was a tradition and an honoured ritual and you just did stuff like this. You don't think too much about it. And then a murmur "Kids these days. They don't have faith.....what is the world coming to?"

Well, ritualism such a this somehow feels nothing more than a show-act to me. A show-act by the haves.

Couldn't stop thinking about this while walking away, especially since I knew that there was this poor family who lived right next to temple in a 10 by 10 feet mud house who didn't even know where their next meal was gonna come from. This ritual would have been a torture for them. Watching all that food being used for a puja different from pet-puja. All that food thrown away......

DeeVeeDee

I went DVD shopping today and the prices were a big revelation.

A Moserbaer DVD-R costs near about 15rs.

A Sony DVD-R costs nothing less than 38rs.

Sony buys the DVDs from Moserbaer, sticks its label and brings them out in the market. Unassuming public buy it over the cheaper stuff believing that
Higher cost = Higher quality = Higher reliability

I guess once you build up such a strong brand name, these are some of the luxuries that come along with it.

A term break….

….is not complete without a visit to the dentist. And this time instead of the regular check-up, the visit had a cosmetic purpose too – to cement off a part of my bunny tooth which had chipped off during a fight a couple of years back.

This time instead of the usual painless dentist I go to, I had to go see another one – this one was painless too, but more like roadrunner – always on the go and he finished the work in flat 90 seconds!!!

And boy! Dentists ARE loquacious! And they don’t give you a choice. They fill your mouth with all sorts of contraptions and then ask you a million questions. You you’re your best to answer using some basic sounds and then later by some weird eye movements.

But today there was something else too. Everything was going fine. I was reclining in his easy chair with my mouth wide open, wondering when the next questions was gonna surface and bang! There it was!

“Looks like you take good care of your teeth. Not much work for me.”

“aaaa haaa” What I meant was - Thank you doctor. I try my best.

“So you studying in +2? Exams over?”



I could hear the Santoor jingle in the background quite distinctly! :)

If only I didn’t have all those pipes gurgling inside my mouth, I would have actually hummed the tune and given one of my special smiles to the doc!

My roommate passed away yesterday

Originally uploaded by GirlWithBigEyes.

All that is left of Chops are his gossamer wings and that bright orange-red tail and the memories.

:(


More about Chops' lineage
In the bug-eat-bug environment of the Adirondacks, a dragonfly turns out to be one of the best little friends a human being can have. Mainly, dragonflies eat flies and mosquitoes. Anything that keeps flies and mosquitoes from feeding on humans in the north woods qualifies as a force for good, and the adult dragonfly is supposed to eat something like 20 flies or mosquitoes an hour :O

They are, in fact, nature's answer to the electric backyard zappers, which bring to the great outdoors all the ambience of a dentist's office.

This guardian insect has a lot of human admirers, including the makers of at least one sci-fi horror movie. Milt Adams, a naturalist with the Adirondack Park Agency, explains that the dragonfly larva inspired makers of the movie "Alien". The larva, which can live for years before hatching into the air, has an extremely ugly mouth, which suddenly zips out and eats some unwary critter in three one-hundredths of a second. If it sounds disgustingly familiar, at least this tiny creature is on our side.

Miss you Chops!

15 months too late!

From NY Times

What would have been the second wireless camera to hit the market after Kodak’s wireless EasyShare, is now the first: the new Nikon P1, due in stores on Sept. 15. It's an iPod-size, eight-megapixel camera dressed in brushed-metal black, with a list price of $550. (A sister model, the P2, is a silver, 5.1-megapixel version that lists for $400. Online prices will be much lower once the cameras actually arrive in stores.)

We are talking about WiFi cameras here. Quick solution to memory problem.

While I was window shopping for digital cameras, this was exactly what I was looking for. When I asked the guy behind the counter whether he had any wireless enabled cams all he gave me was a blank look. It felt strange that though the wireless revolution was very much underway, no one was out with a wireless camera yet. Well…here is it now. Better late than never.

But it's gonna be some time before I think about investing in another camera :|

Offtopic

The author cracks a good PJ when he says

Incredibly, the P1 can't connect to the Internet at all, even when its Wi-Fi signal-strength indicator has more bars than a federal prison.

Exactly my sentiments, when it comes to Airtel connection :))