New Year is coming!!!
And am so excited. Its so amazing how just the change of a year brings so much of positivity around and people are geneuinely in a happy mood.
There are loads of shopping festivals and discounts. Restaurants offering jazzy and entertaining parties. Long vacations with families and trips away from work.
This is also the time to make new resolutions and re-new the old ones. In my case its mostly renewing the old ones as I am quite bad at following my resolutions. So this time am sparing myself and so no resolutions. Just being more disciplined and eating healthy and staying fit. Oh! but that sounds like a new resolution, doesnt it? Aaww, whatever. Whether you call it resolutions or not. We as humans always want to change things in our past and start our life with a 'new begining'. We always wish 'I could change that about myself', or 'change this about my life', or even worse 'change something about someone else'! And yes given a choice , Even I would like to change a lot of things from the past. Cause definitely there are ways I could have done things better. But thats the beauty of life, there are not re-takes. And probably such imperfections of life and its learnings is what makes it a worth while experience.
So although I would have loved to have cooked myself for the small new year party we will have at our house, I am just going to order food from outside. Just have a nice chat with family, watch the jazzy new year functions and the 'Best of 2008' programs, eat the dinner and wait for the midnight.
Wish you all a very happy new year and see you next year.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
nice little weekend journey
Me and my husband were invited for a friend's wedding in Kerela- Thrishur to be precise. We all know about the serene greenery that one gets to see in god's own country -Kerela. So I was quite excited about this trip even though this wasn't really a vacation. Infact we could not even book leaves for this trip so we sort of sacrificed our weekend (the friend whose marriage we attended is definitely going to kill me if he reads that line :)). It was a good time away from the city and the work. We had booked out train tickets much in advance but somehow the tickets did not get confirmed. Well not until just an hour before the journey by which time I got worried and my husband's blood pressure went up as we couldn't find our names in the confirmed seat list. But as it turned out,a first glance judgement when you are already tense can never be trusted. The second time search told us that our names were there , with a different serial number than what was on our ticket. Strange! Laluji, you have done a great job with our railways. And i really appreciate it but there are definitely some areas of improvement.
So we waited there , drank some tea and ate some bhajjis(I was in a to-hell-with-calories mood.). The departure time was nearing and the lights inside the cabins were switched on. We got onto the train and searched for our seats. We had recieved the side berths. "Good for us" I told my husband "We don't have to sit with others". But by then my husband noticed that there were 3 numbers mentioned instead of the usual 2(one more reason to raise the BP levels). I was quite surprised about this. I said " must be some mistake, how can they have 3 levels for the side berth ? ". The passengers in the other cabins also had noticed this and were discussing the same. To add to this confusion there were two sets of numbering in the cabins one was the permanenet painted ones and the other a handwritten one. Everybody was confused as to which one they should follow. The train had started by then and admist our discussion about how clever of laluji to have come up with this idea of space saving and revenue generation more passengers boarded the train in the next station. And that is when the whole confusion finally came to an end when the new set of passengers had tickets issued for the 'third' level of the side berths.
It was still too early to sleep and moreoever I couldnt think of sleeping. The reason: I kept wondering "How the hell does this new berth open up and stay in place? What if it can't take my weight?". To top this the instructions given on the wall below the new berth wasn't helping either. It was too complicated for my understanding. So I asked my husband to see if he can make sense of it. Luckily he was able to understand it and assured me that the concept will work. But I was not completely sure. Just then somebody in the next cabin tried it out. And I saw that the entire thing was actually cleverly done (Its still a little too comlicated for my brain to explain that here, so take an overnight train during holiday seasons and you'll know what it is).
So by now I have appreciated the technique used, but i was still not sure if it could take my weight. So i requested my husband to sleep on that middle birth while I chose the lower berth.
After a broken nights sleep (not blaming the railways here) we reached Trishur just in time for breakfast. Since we had decided to go to Guruvayur (another reason I love Kerela), we took a cab to Guruvayur. I was able to complete part of the balance sleep on that cab ride.
Once we reached Guruvayur we took bath, had our breakfast and went towards the Guruvayur temple. What a luck! Hardly any queue. We finished our entire dharshan in about 45 minutes. We were told if we had come early in the morning or in the evening it would be completely packed. And the queue would extend much outside the temple 'Nada'. So we finished our lucky darshan and thought since we had time at our hand we should visit the must-visit temple-Mammiyoor temple. My husband challenged me to go there by walk since I had quite clearly given up on my diet. But I pretended that i was too tired to walk. We took a auto to the temple and decided to walk back the distance to hotel instead( it was quite a small distance actually). The rest of the day we had no other plans so we got a chance to relax. So we took a good nap after our afternoon meal and decided to just go walking around the place later in the evening. I always tell this to my husband each time we visit guruvayur and its so true. The place has got some peaceful thing about it. More than just being a religious place its so clean. Most kerelites are quite hygenic by nature I think -they boil their drinking water with herbs, take bath twice a day and the government and the local muncipality keeps the area quite clean. The weather can be a spoiler(its quite humid and rains heavily during rainy season) but its still worth it. And not to mention that weather somehow clears up my skin.
After a nice walk in the cool evening weather, we came back to our hotel. Switched on the TV. Almost every news channel were talking about the horrific mumbai terror attack incident. Its so sad to see Mumbai having to take so many blows in a row. It made me wonder if Bangalore is going to be the 'next' Mumbai. It definitely has the crowd and the money to pull the wrong sort of elements into the city. The last serial bomb blasts in Bangalore just proved that.
The next day we got up early as we had to catch an early train back to Thrisur where the marriage function was. We reached the station well on time and in another half an hour we were in Thrissur. The train journey is far better than a cab ride actually- you get to enjoy the green fields and mountains better on a train.
The wedding hall was all decorated in a theme of whites, with offwhite screens and white flowers everywhere. Seemed like a fairy tale setup. The marriage ceremony got over quite sooner than I expected. Somehow as if sensing this,one of our friends who was attending the marriage informed that the actual marriage ceremony got over in another temple. And that this was just a brief procedure. We went and congratulated the newly married couple and stood for the usual group photo.
The lunch was a typical Malyali feast-king size. About 16 dishes in total. How am I expected to keep my calorie count with this? I decided, I am just going to blame it all on the tasty meal in front of me and just dig in. The milk payasam and the pineapple curry was yumm! The rice which is a special fat-looking boiled rice which is supposed to be good for health. Another reason why I did not limit myself on the rice portion ;).
Now, a good heavy meal always ensures that you have a good afternoon nap. So we just followed our instinct and obeyed nature and rested our eyes. By the time we got up it was time to get ready and catch our train back to Bangalore. We had just enough time to buy some famous banana chips and other fried items to take back home. We bought some magazines to read while on the train and some packed dinner.
Our seats were all confirmed luckily this time so no last minute panicking. We sat at our seats and waited for the train to start. And I couldn't help regretting not booking leaves for this trip. Cause I surely wanted to stay back some more time!
So we waited there , drank some tea and ate some bhajjis(I was in a to-hell-with-calories mood.). The departure time was nearing and the lights inside the cabins were switched on. We got onto the train and searched for our seats. We had recieved the side berths. "Good for us" I told my husband "We don't have to sit with others". But by then my husband noticed that there were 3 numbers mentioned instead of the usual 2(one more reason to raise the BP levels). I was quite surprised about this. I said " must be some mistake, how can they have 3 levels for the side berth ? ". The passengers in the other cabins also had noticed this and were discussing the same. To add to this confusion there were two sets of numbering in the cabins one was the permanenet painted ones and the other a handwritten one. Everybody was confused as to which one they should follow. The train had started by then and admist our discussion about how clever of laluji to have come up with this idea of space saving and revenue generation more passengers boarded the train in the next station. And that is when the whole confusion finally came to an end when the new set of passengers had tickets issued for the 'third' level of the side berths.
It was still too early to sleep and moreoever I couldnt think of sleeping. The reason: I kept wondering "How the hell does this new berth open up and stay in place? What if it can't take my weight?". To top this the instructions given on the wall below the new berth wasn't helping either. It was too complicated for my understanding. So I asked my husband to see if he can make sense of it. Luckily he was able to understand it and assured me that the concept will work. But I was not completely sure. Just then somebody in the next cabin tried it out. And I saw that the entire thing was actually cleverly done (Its still a little too comlicated for my brain to explain that here, so take an overnight train during holiday seasons and you'll know what it is).
So by now I have appreciated the technique used, but i was still not sure if it could take my weight. So i requested my husband to sleep on that middle birth while I chose the lower berth.
After a broken nights sleep (not blaming the railways here) we reached Trishur just in time for breakfast. Since we had decided to go to Guruvayur (another reason I love Kerela), we took a cab to Guruvayur. I was able to complete part of the balance sleep on that cab ride.
Once we reached Guruvayur we took bath, had our breakfast and went towards the Guruvayur temple. What a luck! Hardly any queue. We finished our entire dharshan in about 45 minutes. We were told if we had come early in the morning or in the evening it would be completely packed. And the queue would extend much outside the temple 'Nada'. So we finished our lucky darshan and thought since we had time at our hand we should visit the must-visit temple-Mammiyoor temple. My husband challenged me to go there by walk since I had quite clearly given up on my diet. But I pretended that i was too tired to walk. We took a auto to the temple and decided to walk back the distance to hotel instead( it was quite a small distance actually). The rest of the day we had no other plans so we got a chance to relax. So we took a good nap after our afternoon meal and decided to just go walking around the place later in the evening. I always tell this to my husband each time we visit guruvayur and its so true. The place has got some peaceful thing about it. More than just being a religious place its so clean. Most kerelites are quite hygenic by nature I think -they boil their drinking water with herbs, take bath twice a day and the government and the local muncipality keeps the area quite clean. The weather can be a spoiler(its quite humid and rains heavily during rainy season) but its still worth it. And not to mention that weather somehow clears up my skin.
After a nice walk in the cool evening weather, we came back to our hotel. Switched on the TV. Almost every news channel were talking about the horrific mumbai terror attack incident. Its so sad to see Mumbai having to take so many blows in a row. It made me wonder if Bangalore is going to be the 'next' Mumbai. It definitely has the crowd and the money to pull the wrong sort of elements into the city. The last serial bomb blasts in Bangalore just proved that.
The next day we got up early as we had to catch an early train back to Thrisur where the marriage function was. We reached the station well on time and in another half an hour we were in Thrissur. The train journey is far better than a cab ride actually- you get to enjoy the green fields and mountains better on a train.
The wedding hall was all decorated in a theme of whites, with offwhite screens and white flowers everywhere. Seemed like a fairy tale setup. The marriage ceremony got over quite sooner than I expected. Somehow as if sensing this,one of our friends who was attending the marriage informed that the actual marriage ceremony got over in another temple. And that this was just a brief procedure. We went and congratulated the newly married couple and stood for the usual group photo.
The lunch was a typical Malyali feast-king size. About 16 dishes in total. How am I expected to keep my calorie count with this? I decided, I am just going to blame it all on the tasty meal in front of me and just dig in. The milk payasam and the pineapple curry was yumm! The rice which is a special fat-looking boiled rice which is supposed to be good for health. Another reason why I did not limit myself on the rice portion ;).
Now, a good heavy meal always ensures that you have a good afternoon nap. So we just followed our instinct and obeyed nature and rested our eyes. By the time we got up it was time to get ready and catch our train back to Bangalore. We had just enough time to buy some famous banana chips and other fried items to take back home. We bought some magazines to read while on the train and some packed dinner.
Our seats were all confirmed luckily this time so no last minute panicking. We sat at our seats and waited for the train to start. And I couldn't help regretting not booking leaves for this trip. Cause I surely wanted to stay back some more time!
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