Etched in time and memory !

( Click on the picture to get a clearer and bigger view )

There are a lot of pictures that you capture that stay in your minds for ever.

They say a picture can create a whole story. I love this picture for this one fact. This picture is a picture of my cousin in kitchen of a traditional Mangalore Home.

There are a lot of things I love this picture for -

I love the picture for the heart felt, unabashed smile of my cousin. Have you ever noticed how simple people in the village are? Go to a village, and you will feel the love that the villagers bestow on you - pure, unconditional love that is filled with awe for people coming in from the cities. For them I guess people from the city symbolize someone who has gone out there, struggled through the hardships of life and stabilized himself for the benefit of the people back home. Their joy of preparing the village delicacies and feeding you is unparalleled.

I love the picture for the candid display of a typical mangalorian village kitchen. Notice the logs of wood that is used to make the fire to cook food. Among the various tasks that a mangalorian village home has, one of the tasks is to collect wood from the forests near by to light the stove. Lighting the woods and keeping it alive is a skill in itself. Every male and female in a village home has typically mastered this task. Also if you see carefully you will see that my cousin is sitting on a bigger log of wood. Notice the big round utensil on which the food is made. Typically rice is cooked in this village. People in a village are typically subjected to hard physical work – mostly related to some task in the farm, or taking the cows in the cowshed out to graze. Huge quantity of rice is usually used to feed the tired and hungry villagers for both the meals of the day.

I love this picture for the way in which my cousin is holding the cat. Cats and Dogs are an integral part of any mangalorian home. Cats litter and so do dogs - which mean that any house will not only have cats and dogs - but also kittens and puppies as part of the family. The kittens and puppies form a delightful companion for any young kid in the family. Dogs stay outside the house and Cats run about freely inside. As kids, we would love to run after the kittens, lift them pinching the skin of its neck (that’s the way the mother cat holds them - is what my mom had told me then), keep it in our lap and cuddle and pat it. This cousin of mine, used to sleep with the cat she is holding.

One picture and so many memories - Ancestral homes are such beautiful places to be!

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Slaying my moat - Sudha Pillai

I cannot slay my twin
...who is my own
but kill i must
to live i must

I cannot slay my twin
'cause she is my moat
but kill i must
to live i must

I cannot slay my twin
keeper of my secrets
but kill i must
to live i must

I cannot slay my twin
my companion in lonely cliffs
but kill i must
to live i must

I cannot slay my twin
my army against the world
but kill i must
to live i must

I cannot slay my twin
'cause it makes the pores of my skin weep blood
but kill i must
to live i must

To live I must
Kill I must
for she is EGO

And when she is slayed
I'll stand tall
I'll stand beautiful
I'll stand calm
I'll stand precious
I'll stand
on my own
without the I.

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I found this poem written by Sudha Pillai and quite loved it. Thought I will share with all of you .
Thank you Sudha for letting me share this poem.

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Can you tell me...

I was walking down to my office around 10 years back. I had just completed college and it was in the early days of my career. As I was enjoying the morning walk to my office, I was looking at various people doing various activities and getting ready to start their work. There was a construction site near by our office and I could see laborers doing manual labour. In India the ones doing menial, hard, physical jobs are considered to have lower strata in the society. The kind of jobs they do, earn them lesser too. Amongst those laborers was a hardworking, older looking man, whose dedication to work caught my eye. I paused to watch him for some time.

A lot of times, there are thoughts that come, hit you and go - all in a micro second and you know you will never ever be the same again. I remember thinking - what is the difference between him and any employee in my software industry? He does the same work that anyone in my office does, perhaps harder. He feels happy when good things happen to him and feels sad when he is hurt. He gets angry at things, when they do not work. Why the hell does he not enjoy the privileges that I or any one in my community does!

And then I remember thinking – Arent all human beings the same ? Who am I to differentiate between them ?

A small thought, a very common thought - but my life changed for ever. Never again in my life, could I ever command any one to do a menial job for me. This made life very difficult for me, because whether I met a carpenter, a labourer or a multi millionaire - I could no longer see any great difference in any one of them. They all looked the same to me. And it would leave them confused too - coz a man with high social position wouldn’t understand why I did not get awed by him - and a labourer would get confused as to why was I not maintaining a distance from him.

I did not know how to react to the levels and strata of society. And honestly speaking, I did not know where I stood in strata with respect to the different, unique, beautiful people in the society. Some were poor, some were rich. Some were highly accomplished, and some were not. But each one of them was beautiful and unique.

When we built our house - I personally took charge of the wood work in my house. There was a team of carpenters who came to work in our house and among them was an elderly carpenter. The other carpenters called him chacha ( uncle ). This man had a godly look on his face and I would just melt out of respect looking at his honest, hardworking face. And then one fine day, my Dad had come to visit me when the carpenters were at work. I looked at my dad and I looked at the old uncle - and I wondered, what is the difference between him and this old carpenter uncle?

I could not see any difference– thinking back, I still am not able to see any difference.
Can you tell me – what is the difference between the ones who have special status in the society and the ones who end up serving them?

How do you handle this social differentiation?

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Birds !

Six am , sunday, a Bangalore Morning . How could we have let this morning go waste. So Hubby and I decided to go out on a drive to the Bannergatta National Park to click some pictures. Enjoying the morning chill brushing on our faces, watching the early risers, small time shops that were just opening, and the beautiful trees on some portions of the Bannergatta Road, we drove through the 10 kms distance that separated our house and the national park.


After a twenty min drive, we reached the park. I was looking forward to getting into the park , specifically to go to the birds section , so that I could click some pictures of the colourful birds . But unfortunately on reaching there, we realized that the park opened only at ten thirty.


Brushing aside this little disappointed, we sat in a road side cafe outside the park, to have some tea, before we embarked on our journey back.


When , unbelievably I saw this sight ! !







One portion of the birds section, overlooked the road. And in this section, I got to see some beautiful tiny yellow coloured birds .


Sorry guys, I cant tell you the species or name of the bird - but I do hope you enjoy these beautiful sights.


On a side note, have you ever noticed that the best of things in life happen when it is least expected ! :)

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Wassup !! :)

It was a sunny sunday afternoon and both me and hubby were getting bored. We were debating on how to have a fun filled sunday - when hubby comes up with the bright – na brilliant idea to go to the Sony exhibition that was on at the local Kanteerva stadium! Ya ! Sure! - Well! have you ever noticed that a guy’s idea of having fun or spending leisure time is going to a newly opened electronics shop or a cars showroom !

For the dearth of nothing else do, I agreed to his idea, albeit, a little reluctantly.

After a while, we landed up at the Sony exhibition. The exhibition was huuuggeeeee and there were three or four spacious rooms displaying the latest Sony products. Hubby loved the various gadgets and was very curious of the newest of the new technologies displayed there. And me.. well, I too was.... no, I tried hard to be excited :) I went to the various stalls - Tried to be very seriously interested in the new products ( but beats me- what is the need for a higher end version of a camera, or a mobile - when the one currently in circulation is great ! ) and triiiieed hard to match the spirits of the various stall keepers by asking intelligent questions. :)

The exhibition by now had completely attracted my hubby’s attention and he was pulled to the various stalls, the way that a magnet attracts all iron around it.

Not wanting to tag myself along with hubby and disturb him on his very intense pursuit, I continued making my rounds –alone. When the technology did not interest me, I amused myself with watching the people around. After half an hour of aimless roaming on the stalls, and watching all that could leave me amused, I went to a stall that seemed to attract a lot of crowd. After a while of listening to the sales guy, to my pleasant surprise, I saw my husband's hand next to me.

Finally !! I thought. Thoroughly relieved and extremely happy that hubby had completed his rounds, I held my hubby on his elbow. I had held it for about 5 seconds, when I realized that hubby had not acknowledged my gesture. Realizing that he was very intensely listening to the sales guy, I held his elbow a little tighter and moved my grip a little higher. The sales guy must have been extremely interesting, coz hubby just didn’t seem to notice my hold ! Hmm.. !

Determined to get him of his reverie, I moved my gaze up from the elbow, to the shoulder, and up - till I saw the face that owned the elbow. Something looked different at the end of the neck! Imagine my plight – The face that I was staring at was that of a good looking, amused guy in his early thirties , with mischievous twinkle on his eyes and a smile on his face –who was staring at my hand , twitching his eyebrows, and gesturing a questioning 'wassup ! " with his other hand :) Much to the amusement of this guy and my embarrassment – I realized I was holding the elbow of a complete stranger !!!

Needless, to say, I turned beet-red, and started apologizing profusely - telling him that I thought that it was my husband standing next to me. He knew that it was a goof up, gave a nice smile and brushed aside my apology and went about his own shopping.

But I had had my lesson! :)

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