Tuesday, September 23, 2008

A Way of Life

Every morning I follow a ritual, get up, brush, make myself a cup of coffee and read the newspaper. The newspaper is an integral part of my daily routine. I see the paper, mentally mark the articles I find interesting and then come back and read them again. Some articles merit only the cursory reading of the headline. The rest is to be savored. The whole ritual lasts about 15-20 minutes (reduced
unfortunately) because of lack of time. The only time I get to read the whole newspaper is the weekend. I especially love Sunday supplements. With the book reviews, the pictures and the general information. I remember Sunday was the only day when newspapers were printed in colour. We used to get about three different newspapers on Sunday. The whole family used to sit down after breakfast and read the
newspapers in turn. It used to be good.

The newspapers are not the same quality anymore. With the advent of sensationalism and yellow journalism, good old reporting often takes a backseat. The headlines are in a huge font with limited or repeated information in the body. Well, this can also be blamed on the internet and a vast amount of information available online almost immediately. People tend to log in and read as the event is happening so when the newspapers come in the next morning, we already know half of it. If we've missed the internet news, we have roughly 4584 news channels running news 24X7. That's a lot of news. So by the time the newspaper comes in the morning, we know most it. But why do we still get newspapers. I believe that somewhere I am attuned to trust only the newspaper. Even when the channels announce a school holiday the next day, I will believe it completely only if I read it in the newspapers. It's wired into our systems, I think we inherently do not trust the media which gives us a minute by minute update. It feels like one is just assuming a lot of things and jumping to conclusions. On a newspaper, it is somehow, final and sure. The written word is very powerful. It implores us to think, to react and to act. People still believe in the newspaper. They still want to hold the paper in their hands and get black print on their fingers to believe what they heard on the TV last night is true. Newspaper's word is law.

It will be a long time for the newspapers to go out of the reckoning. By the time they do, I hope that I will be too old to read one anyway. Because newspapers are a way of life. Because that one rare day they
do not print them, I feel like I have been cheated and will never know what's happening with the rest of the world. I feel that my day is incomplete without it. Another day, another newspaper, another cup of
coffee. Life's good. Because newspapers for me is more than just news, they are a way of life.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Of Journeys made and forgotten

I was just speaking to a friend and she reminded me of a trip we took a while back.I think it was August 2003, or later, or earlier. But mostly around that time. The time before I earned enough to get myself a digital camera. It was around this time that we, Deepthi, Archana, Rashmi, Shwetha and I set off to Deepthi's grandmother's house in K R Nagar. It is about an hour away from Mysore. We had the nicest time .Some moments are clear as crystal and some I cannot seem to remember.I will put down what I remember of those 3 days.

  We set off nice and early one morning, before 6, the train was at 6.30 am . Still sleepy and bleary eyed. The train started moving and in a few minutes, the sun started streaming in and we woke up. Well, what happenes when a bunch of girls get together and are awake and are on a journey. They talk. So we did.A lot.We laughed a lot too.loudly.I'm sure we were quite a nuisance. But hey, who cared, I love train journeys and had good company.
    The next hing I remember is that we got down at Mysore and there was a car to pick us up. The next thing we know is the car has broken down a good 20kms from our destination and there is no bus stop or any other mode of transport. We hitched a ride from a old couple who were charming and kind. We reached and the house was a one storied building, it had large rooms and was where extra rooms are added as the family grows. They had a coconut farm and large fields. I remember being fed a lot of breakfast because I was 'thin' and underfed. Well, I'm a lousy eater and I hate eating a lot. They only stopped because I looked like I would cry.
   We then hung around and spoke to her grandparents. Really nice and simple people.She also had a great - grandmother who I remember was really active at 88. We went for long walks, drank coconut water, ate lunch, slept, had dinner, played a game called 'chowkabara' till some wee hours in the morning.
   This cycle repeated for the next day, except we went to the town square and had some more stuff to eat.  I remember eating a lot during this trip. I loved the coconut groves. We hung out there, walked through sugarcane farms, ate fresh sugarcane. The sweetest I have tasted in a while. The trees looked greener, the hibiscus healthier, the air sweeter and cleaner. We walked a lot, spoke a lot (yeah yeah...i know...this is different). Were happier. Had good food. Played some long forgotten games. Tried some home made beauty products. Generally lazed around and had a great time. We visited an old temple. Lovely place, next to Cauvery and heard some legend about how one cannot hear the gusinh water because lord Rama cursed the river because the river was deafening. You really cannot hear the water inside, even if it is like a few feet away. Had a picnic too. We came back in an almost empty train and made even more noise. Found another bunch who were travelling to Bangalore and created enough din for the few remaining passengers to give up trying to sleep.
   Why am I reminiscing, is because I just want to remember the good times we had. Now that all of us have our own lives, work pressures, families. We had a darned good time. We need to remember and not push it to the recesses like a Business Law chapter (man!...THAT used to be boring). 
    

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Janardhan Hotel - Of Dosas and Badam Halwa

I am inspired today. I am going to finally make sense to people who think why there is a picture of Dosa on my blog and no mention of it anywhere. Today I'm going to write about one of our favorite places for masala dosa. Janardhan Hotel.I have always known about this place and have rarely gone there.Cant really explain why though. Then enter Sunitha, a friend since JM Financial days. She loves masala dosas. Actually she loves eating good food. She describes them in a way that makes you want to eat whatever she's describing, even if you just had a full lunch. She's mean :P . We went around to places which served dosas and filter kaapi and eat and drank to our hearts content. Janardhan is one of the places that she re - introduced me to and I'm grateful. Thanks Sunitha... :) , you're a pal .


Location : Kumarakrupa Road, Shivananda circle, across Banjara hotel

Ambiance : It's a really old hotel, large foyer, old style bulky furniture. Old style service.Kannada rules (yay!), clean, airy, spacious enough. Frequented by politician types and an odd assortment of rich looking youth, families and other employees.

Food: Well, since I mostly land there during evening to have dosas, I can only comment on what I've tried. The dosas are perfect. They are the right size, perfectly roasted and with the right amount of palya(curry) with the right amount of chutney. It's perfect because eating one is quite enough. If one's planning to have only dosas then you need to be mighty hungry to have two. Their badam halwa is another delicay I'll probably have only there. Tasty, not too sweet, served in a small packet is how much you can eat, Sweet tooth's like me manage two more. Of course, coffee, it goes without saying. Dosas and coffee are soul sisters. Coffee is great too. Like what my mum makes at home. Oh yeah! try ther maddur vadas, they're really good too. It is a truly satisfying meal. Yes, a meal by itself. The service is prompt. No complaints. They leave you alone to eat your dosas. The prices are really easy on your pockets. 

There is a certain charm to these places that a newer, fancier, pretentious place cannot ever replicate. Try Janardhan once. You'll not be disappointed. 




Scribd

Yup, I know. I do actually mean scribbling. I'm going for the searchability of the keyword here. Anyway, today are random thoughts that I that flit through my mind on a quiet morning. Read Megi's blog today. She's gone from ballistic to buffonery in a rapid blink of an eyelid. This time her phase lasted long enough. What to say..cartoons will be cartoons. So today I travelled from seshadripuram. Need to traverse through the (in) famous MG Road while getting to work (no rambling about good old days...promise) .I saw that people have learnt to adjust.Swalpa adjust maadi. There was no unnecessary honking, no frustrated faces, no flared tempers, no road rage. Might be the early morning factor. Yet, I travelled by these very roads 6-7 months back and the scenario was very different. People lost tempers at even 8.15 in the morning. There used to be a honking match.Mine's louder than yours. One arrived to work after waging a war on the streets. people still do. It's no better. Maybe it was just today, an off day.But I arrived to work feeling fresh, the 45 minute of travel did not leave me feeling homicidal. 

        One does not need chirping birds, bright days and empty streets, a morning without someone cutting you off in the front while driving, or without a maniac who wants to go fast even in bumper to bumper traffic is enough. See, not greedy, just practical. Traffic's the bane of Bangalore. It is the bane of most developing cities. Since Bangalore lacks a good public transport system, traffic woes are more acutely felt. I sincerely hope atleast my grandchildren get to use the Namma Metro (from the looks of it...that's my estimate on how long it may take). So I sat in the auto today and reflected on how nice it'd be in Mysore or Chickmaglur. Hmmm....that's a thought...now if I can convince my office and Texas Instruments to shift to either of the places, I'll be a happy woman.
             

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Tale of two sisters

Ok, we have world movies.Yippeee....Every friday at 11pm they play 50 movies to watch before you die. So we settled down to watch (or rather I settled down to watch and left Prashanth with little choice) Tale of two sisters, a South Korean horror movie. We watched it from almost the beginning. The beginning itself was very interesting, large isolated house, creaky stairs, dark corridors, sinister noises and characters. Engaging, we thought. Settled deeper into the sofa to watch the rest. It is a tale of two sisters whose father remarries and hence beings their tale of woes. Simple enough.
So far so good, we established that the stepmother is evil (now she is, now she is'nt) but hey, we've watched too many hindi movies to know the difference. Mother - always good, Stepmother - mostly evil. So we watch and watch..some more shots of the sisters, the stepmother, the mother, the creaky stairs, the dark corridors, some blood for a good measure. An hour and a half into the movie and we still have no idea who is the ghost and are begining to get confused who are the sisters and who is the mother. They all look alike. They do.Honestly.Promise. Flawless skin, lovely hair and complexion. So we watch to keep track. It's more about who's who than who's ghost now. So we keep watching and voila!!!!...the movie ends....Still no idea who's the ghost, still no idea why the sisters are scared, still no idea who IS the sister or who's the mother, still no idea why we watched.
So if you are planning to watch, please keep track of all the women from the beginning, dont lose track of their differentiating moles, birthmarks etc. Keep looking for the plot and the ghost and please let us know.