Jaunt to Udupi

Finally I was able to press the pause button and venture into the unknown terrain of west Karnataka with J, R and T and it turned out to be great fun. Not to mention the unexpected 45 minutes delay of our KSRTC bus at the starting point itself, and the anti-clockwise spontaneous unintentional jumping by all four of us in a circle around T's bag owing a rat [lesson: encounter with rat is a good omen :P], the trip was actually awesome. The exuberant beaches of Murudeshwara, Marwanthe, Malpe, St Mary's Island and Kapu will ever remain fresh in memories. Me and T exceptionally enjoyed the water scooter ride in Arabian sea braving the waves and the deep waters while J was in divided mind whether to go for a scooter ride on sea or not! The clean beach of Marwanthe is praiseworthy. We walked on the beach and kept on walking and still kept on walking till the sun set.
[Above pic: courtesy T]
The second day started with us going to the famous Shri Krishna Temple of Udupi and hopelessly running an hour behind our pre-planned schedule, thereby ended up waiting in a long queue for darshan. But as they say 'every cloud has a silver lining'... had we not waited in the queue, we would have missed the delicious dosas and idlis of Mitra Samaj, because it opens only at 8:30 am. After the taste of Udupi was relished by each one of us with eminent satisfaction, we headed for Malpe beach, about 6 km away. A red mini Titanic Trico Sabre greeted us, we were as happy as kids to get ourselves clicked with the ship in the background (Sometimes you are so busy that you miss the small joys in life)
While we waited for 20 min for 30 people to arrive for the steamer to leave Malpe beach for St Mary's island, the ticket issuer must have lost count of the number of tickets he issued, because as we settled in our seats, there could be heard 'swalpa adjust madi' ('adjust a little bit' in Kannada) from everywhere. The steamer was rather overcrowded and one seat was virtually shared by two people. No sooner did the journey start than the boarders were on their feet merrily gazing at the corals the dolphins the water the distant island! Here you see Bruno in the steamer.
We dangled our feet in the clear water, had delicious Bangra fish (1 for Rs 25) and took photos, lots of them, completely ignoring the melanin formation on our skin! It is believed that Vasco Da Gama landed on one of these islands in 1498. Who knows? nothing is apparent from the island!
With the island being far away from land, we had to spend around 2 hours in the to and fro journey to the island. Nevertheless we saw Manipal and spent the rest of the day at Kapu. Incidentally I met Savithri. She is the lone bread-earner of the family which comprises of her mother-in-law Sundari, her daughters Monisha and Anusha, and her son. She runs a bidi business. Her husband died of heart-attack 2 yrs ago. Theirs is the only hut near the Kapu beach, so they remain indoors once the sun sets. Luckily Savithri knew Hindi, otherwise given my negligible Kannada knowledge, I would have ended up using sign language. Amazingly Monisha studies Commerce and can write and read English, but she can neither speak English nor could she understand what I spoke! The family has no knowledge of Panchayat or any other government body for help but people do come for asking votes. This is our country! I could give Savithri only Rs 100 since I was carrying limited cash at that time.
Though the return journey was not smooth but what good is it to remember only the bad roads of return voyage and not the fun-filled experience we had! Thanks to J R and T for the marvellous company :)

Do you know Selvum?

The one I am talking about, is a vegetable seller in a small town in Tamil Nadu. For the last 5 years he has been experiencing joy and has been trying to impart joy to others in his small way. Everyday morning he writes a line from Swami Vivekananda's preachings on a white board outside his stall and requests his customers to read the board before buying vegetables from him. He started this activity 5 years ago when an unknown man had given him an 80-page booklet on Swamiji's life. Swami Bodhamayanandaji of Ramakrishna Math, Chennai, touched by this 41-yr old ordinary man, called him up and promised to give him copies of Swami Vivekananda's books to distribute to his customers.

Today is Swami Vivekananda's birthday, also celebrated as National Youth Day but unfortunately not many youths are aware of it. Are you one of them? I was really touched by whatever I heard regarding Swamiji's life for the last 2 hours from Swami Bodhamayanandaji. There is a lot to learn from Swamiji's life. There are not many people who would cry for India, glorify India and really do the needful for India. The movie 'Slumdog Millionaire' shows a real face of India - poverty, we saw and enjoyed the movie, but could we do something for people like these, perhaps we dont care, but Swamiji did. Do we have someone among us to love the helpless like this. Can we do something better than be part of India where incidents like this keep happening every single day?

Isnt it a shame that even after 60 years of Independence, the rich is becoming richer and the poor is becoming poorer?
I wish we, the capable, help the helpless in whatever way we can, in whatever way we think is good.
Rise India rise.
Help India shine.

Would really appreciate if you tell me how you helped(even once) someone needy

Twists and turns of life...

S is a simple Banglorean girl, had simple dreams, was mama's daughter. She got married to an unknown person (ie the one chosen by her parents) last year. This year, S is divorced, reason being her husband's beating her up. S is definitely sad, so am I. Where is India heading to? Every other marriage culminates to a broken relationship. S is suffering terribly now, added to this is the trauma of losing her father first, and then her mother, in the last few months. I cannot believe misery strikes someone so badly. Though I still believe "whatever happens, happens for good", but its definitely hard to realize that in cases like S. I do not know S, she is a friend's friend, but her sufferings make me ponder - what if life all about!

Merry Christmas !

This is quite a belated post, but I wanted to share this incident that had happened on 16th December 2007.


Did you receive the Gift of Love from God? Its free, its your choice to take it or keep it aside.

It was an unusual day. R had been going for gospels and prayers to "in-touch fellowship" and she has experienced the positive effect of prayers in her life. I came to know from R that they are having Christmas celebration today. It has been 10 yrs since I had heard live choir singing. I used to love the carols sung during the Christmas celebration in our school. The story of birth of Jesus was enacted by the school children and perfectly conveyed by the Christmas carols. Today that experience was relived.

I went for the first time in this city to this holy gathering. There were boys and girls neatly dressed in red and black, performing worship songs about Jesus Christ. They started with "Joy to the world" and I right away started singing along, the words are simply unforgettable even after a decade! I was glad.

Have you ever met anyone from Iceland? There were ten of them - ladies, gentlemen and kids, ready to be a part of Christmas celebration in India. They sang some carols as well, two in Icelandic language, followed by a lovely skit enacted by Gunna and others. "When you are stuck in the web of sin, pray to Lord and he will help you to be free" - this was the message conveyed in a lovely manner through the skit. Consider 'sin' a tempting box and you will be lured towards it at first but once you step into it, you will be stuck in it, and you will find none to help you other than the Saviour. "Takk fyrir"(thank you in Icelandic) to the Icelandic ladies and gentleman for their nice gesture.

And who comes at the end? - none other than the Santa Claus. The Santa, claded in his traditional red and white attire, dispensing gifts to one and all, made his way dancing to the tune of "Jingle Bells". Lastly, each and everyone sang "Silent night, holy night", with lighted candles in our hands and it was simply a great feeling. The show did not end there. An Icelandic gentleman started conversation with me and perhaps wanted to help me be more peaceful. His wife, a very sweet lady, with even sweeter daughter, came up to me and told me she wanted to pray for me. She prayed and I followed her words, she hugged me. Why did they choose me out of 60 odd people? May be they sensed that I was in need the most, may be she is an angel for me. That was the first time she has ever seen me on earth, why did she want me to be happier? Yes, because there are selfless people in this world too, who spread the word of love - the love of the Supreme. No matter what name you call HIM, you never know where he does wonders for you in your life. Amen.

Do you mind your p's and q's?

If you do not know what that means, look up here. I have often heard "excuse me" when someone wants to politely convey "please get out of the way" !! but today evening the fair lady in the fast food shop exclaimed "excuse me please" and when I politely stood aside, she told me "thank you". Have you ever thanked anyone verbally for letting you go ahead? I think thats the first time I have ever heard someone so courteous as her. I realized that there lies clear demarcation between campus life and life after campus. Matured people are usually polite unless they are exceptionally impertinent.

Now that I have stayed in three different places for varying lengths of time and interacted with various races, I realize that there is a typical lingo associated with every place. During my undergraduation I was pretty much influenced by my undergrad college lingo and I remember how my mom had put a verbal restriction at home when I uttered dhoper chop for the first time infront of her. Those reformed or seemingly new-formed words of our batch were an inseparable part of our daily vocabulary.

I remember some of the may-not-be-found-anywhere phrases which was common among us
dhoper chop - totally nonsense
byapok - wonderful (to aprreciate somebody/something)
pari na, pari na - beyond imagination (applause)
bojho - too simple to understand, yet difficult to comprehend
jio - great work, keep going
chaap nis na - dont take tension
loote gechi - gone case, no hope
uttal - beyond imagination
sentu - a big sentimental fool
gnatu - too studious
lyad - to be lazy
chaata - to bore someone
case khawa - deep-water trouble
bhaat - enjoyable nonsense talk


My post-graduation days were no different. There I found another set of not-so-frequently-found-anywhere-else phrases
junta - people in general
fight marna - to try your best
sahii - job well accomplished
hadd sahi - too good (beyond words)
koi nahi - no problem, carry on, it happens
lag gayi - big problem
banda/bandi - guy/gal
load mat le - dont panic
watt lagi hui hai - difficult situation
stud/phodu - brilliant
nightout marna - spend the whole night in finishing the task-in-hand


But these college linguistics are never carried over to the next stage of life ie in corporate life where we ought to mind our p's and q's. Everyone uses well polished language. Typical conversations often sound like these -

A:Hi B
B;Hi A, how are you
A:I am fine, Can you come to the discussion room
B:sure
A:thanks


A:How are you
B:I am fine, thank you
A:can you tell me the path to file ...
B:yes ..... is the path
A:thanks
B:no problem


A:Hi B
B:(no response)
B:sorry I was in a meeting
A:no problem


And now these conversations are my part of my vocabulary :)