Nu-clear thoughts

It's a New Year!

2010-01-03T22:40:00.000-08:00

New Year is an excuse for starting something new. it's a fresh start, a new beginning. A reason to leave behind the past and look forward for a better tomorrow. it gives you a chance to rectify mistakes, call old friends, forgive some one, correct ourselves.

we make resolutions. Go on a diet, lose weight, do Yoga, start music classes. we give ourselves chance on the first of Jan. Probably psychologically it gives us a feeling of us having left behind the year that has gone by and probably re-write the things we had thought or dreamt of but were unable to do so for some reason. Here's another chance of doing all those things that were on my list but made it to reality.

all of us want one more chance. one chance to say sorry. one chance to say "i love you". one chance to appreciate somebody. one chance of altering a decision. one chance to follow our heart. one chance to do good for society. just one more chance. A New Year gives us that. It doesn't exactly alter our past or influence the decisions that we've made. Some how it gives us the strength to look back at the one year that we have lived and retrospect our choices we made. Helps us take a closer look within us and try to figure out what actually has happened and what should be done.

it gives us another chance to retrospect and rectify.

Any day can be the start of a New Year. It's within us. if we want to start or change something within us, any day is the right day.

Today is the right day.

Start a new day today. A Fresh beginning. don't look back and try and rectify what has happened. take a sheet of paper and make 12 things that you would want to do, or change about yourself or the world. Gives yourself 12 months. Listen your heart and follow it! It could be a simple thing like "wash the car twice a month" or "watch a play a month" or "adopt a plant and watch it grow". Just purely what your heart desires and has ever wanted.

let this be the first step to find out what we honestly, purely want.

Let this year bring all of us good health, happiness and the strength to do what's right!

Cheers!

Emotion..

2009-08-27T23:31:00.000-07:00

Emotion is more intense when reciprocated.

Love...

2009-08-16T10:58:00.001-07:00

Love, in it's purest form, is illogical.

Long distance..

2009-07-27T06:16:00.000-07:00

I was in conversation with a collegue of mine and he asked me how I'm holding up to a long distance relationship. This line of thought lead to various other related topics.

The worst thing about an LDR is the distance. Obviously. What does a distance do to a human being? The distance brings distance between people. probably because there is communication gap, there is no time, there is work, there are different people to talk and mingle with etc etc.. basically you have your own world over there to handle.

one thing why humans have survived so many thousands of years and still growing strong is of the fact that we adapt ourselves to our environment. When the world around us changes, we quickly adjust ourselves, and keep moving.

When we are in a long distance relationship (whether it's your partner, mother, father, friend etc), we adapt ourselves to the absence of a person. we learn how to live life without them being around us physically. we learn how to laugh, cry, talk to people around us. I'm not saying that we forget them. but we adapt ourselves and our lives without that person. it's sort of a defence mechanism which we resort to.

there is a thin line between adapting ourselves and getting used to it. we should never "get used" to their absence. that's when a relationship falls apart.

We are the Fishtankers!

2009-07-09T11:31:00.000-07:00

Somethings are impossible to forget. And that's what probably they call memories. They may not be something historic or big. It's just with the people who mean a lot to you, every small joy is amplified. Some of my best moments at the Fishtank and people connected with that..

1. Amblee - Manoj's dance and Abhay's "Santoshakke"
2. Dandeli - River rafting; Bhanu's "Roop tera mastana" and Abhay's red chaddis.
3. Chikmaglur - Me smashed; Drive with Daga and Geek; Ram's spontaneity at the river.
4. Take5 - Bhanu, Abhay and i.
5. Retro - Usha, Sudhi, Bhanu and i; one of the best drinks- never laughed like this in a long time.
6. Bhanu's house - Anu Sr., Abhay, Bhanu, Neeti and i - Conversation about us being professional.
7. Bhanu's Blue Gypsy story.
8. "Yif you come today, yit's too yerly"- Geek's best till date.
9. Parthi's orgasmic snake picture.
10. Masinagudi - Leopard jokes, throwball and conversations till 3 in the morning.
11. Jesika Dalal Meeting - "Premier Padmini"

A reason..

2009-06-10T01:48:00.000-07:00

To be able to live, you must find a reason to die for.

My first date with the birds

2009-06-01T10:06:00.000-07:00

I had been dreaming about this for three days. And the wait seemed longer than normal. And to worsen it, my friday night was looking a little too long at work.

But the next morning was worth the excitement. This "birding" trip with Mr. Menon was special for two reasons. One because I have always wanted to go birding with him, and second and more important reason was my new camera! And to add spice was the fact that we were travelling in Anand's jeep!

The day began at 5 am when they (Anand Menon and Anoop Ancil) picked me up. First we went to a lake near by. My gk in birds is almost zero. I can count the number of birds i know on my fingertips. But when we reached the lake, the number of birds i saw amazed me. And to add to my amazement, Mr Menon could identify the birds by their call! The passion in his eyes was apparent. Just on Saturday, i saw more birds than what I had seen in my entire life and realized that after all, every black bird is not a crow and every bird in water is not a duck!

First we went to this lake near-by saw sopme birds. From there we headed towards Tippe Gowdana Halli. We saw some more birds over there. After that, we went to Savana Durga. I had never been there before and didnt know that the entire place was one single rock. Then we drove to the Manchinabele Dam and back to Blore.

Realized that it requires us to open up our senses a little bit to enjoy the beauty of nature. Like there are so many unique and special things just around you. we are so content with out routine way of life that a lot of small special things miss our sight.

When we were at the lake, i could hear no noise but a lot of sounds. Sounds of birds, and varieties of them. Sounds of insects, different note, different pitch. Sound of the wind, through the trees. I could see water sparkling. See butterflies fluttering by, different colours, different sizes.

i wish..

2009-05-17T07:31:00.000-07:00

i wish
i could live my life without any strings

i wish
there were no attachments or boundaries to adhere to

i wish
i was born to travel

i wish
i could be like the wind

i wish
i could fly and be free

i wish
we were all not puppets

i wish
there were no disciplines to follow

i wish.

Long distance relationship

2009-05-16T11:43:00.001-07:00

A Long distance relationship is successful only to people who are self content.

Parents and children

2009-05-16T11:13:00.000-07:00

I was watching an interview which featured Javed Akhthar and Shabana Azmi on Zoom. And Javed Akhthar said a beautiful quote, which is stuck in my head. "Maa-baap kamaan ki tarah hote hai aur bachche teer ki tarah. Jab tak kamaan teer ko chodta nahi hai, teer apne nishaane pe lagta nahi hai".

So simply said, but great depth.

A lot of families i see don't want to let go of their children, even when their children are actually adults, office-going and worst even married. Parents think that their child is living their unfulfilled dream and hence want to give them everything that they didnt receive in their childhood- shower them with love, pamper them with things, educate them in a best possible way. i don't blame them for their behavior, but they need to realize that their children are not children anymore. a different point of view or an independent step is not betrayal of emotions.

The best about life

2009-05-16T10:58:00.001-07:00

The best thing about life is that you never know what would have happened if you had taken a different route.

25 things about me

2009-04-09T00:28:00.000-07:00

I was reading some of the posts on Facebook. There were people who had written a list of facts/fiction about themselves. I had never attempted to write anything about myself, because i really don't know if i really do know so many things about myself. Hence this is an on-going attempt to discover 25 things about me. So here i go.

1. I'm scared of darkness and of heights.
2. I love pop corn, pani puri, french fries, trekking.
3. I suck at keeping in touch. But I'm always a phone call away.
4. I used to be so diplomatic that at one point in life that I had forgotten how to tell truth on people's face.
5. I don't cry often but I cry easily. Though it's contradictory, each of them is true.
6. I don't like to complain. And neither appreciate people who do. I don't like a hue and cry about something trivial.
7. I believe that we should be happy and surround ourselves with people who make us happy. There is no point in doing anything if you are not entirely happy about it. There is nothing called "for the sake of others" if you primarily is not happy about it.
8. I enjoy company as much as i enjoy solitude. I feel that sometimes we have to spend time with ourselves, just to be comfortable with the person who we actually are.
9. There is nothing unconditional in life. Everything has terms and conditions attached to it.
10. I get bored of people and things very fast. If there is nothing exciting happening, i lose interest.
11. I don't get bored in places where a lot of people are involved. ie bus-stands, railway station, market. i like observing people.
12. I have found myself wonder what life would look like through eyes of an animal or a bird. How would we all look? Does a cow really get agitated with the colour red?
13. I like the mixed smell of fresh fruits, vegetables, flowers, masalas, wet mud when we walk through a market place.
14. I love rain. I love dancing. I love photography. I love nature.
15. My first love is Aladdin. My dream is to go flying with him on the magic carpet.
16. Balloons make me go euphoric. I love biiig round balloons.
17. I am impressed by people who can write or paint. I love those who have blogs, who write and express themselves articulately.
18. Im not good with handling emotions. So try to be far away from it.

Taare Zameen Par

2008-12-28T22:07:00.000-08:00

To watch a movie, I always go along with two people- one, the bollywood buff in me, other, the hardcore critic in me. The bollywood buff ends up liking every movie she watches, and the critic finds harsh loopholes in the same. I watched taare zameen par today. The buff in me had moist eyes, goosebumps and was absolutely bowled.. The critic in me, gave a standing ovation. This movie is brilliant. Beyond brilliant. Personally, its the first movie which i thought was near to flawless.

Aamir Kahan has showed his brilliance and competence even as a director. Every shot, every frame, every scene is very well calculated, and importantly very necessary at that point. The screen play is fantastic and the use of colours is marvelous. The child artist Ishaan has also done an outstanding acting and does justice to his role.

The movie is honest, innocent and a very heart felt attempt to translate the director’s thought into something tangible. And this honesty is seen throughout the film.

Very few bollywood movies stir you from within. This is one of them.

This piece of “review” does no justice to the movie. Just go and watch it.

Golden days..

2008-12-28T22:02:00.000-08:00

JNC 2004-2007

Bus rides, countless teas at udupi, hanging out at our favorite ADDA at forum, (loo being our first destination!), decking up for parties, photocopying notes, juice at JJ, the very weird uncle at the shop next door, the spicy but expensive chats at gangotree, the pretty but again expensive tops at BLUE, the expressos, the bhel puri, the rolls, the coffee, innumerable frappechinos, the quiche, cribbing about the useless system of attendance and timetable, giving relationship advices to one another like we had some kinda PhD in that!, clicking photos photos and more photos,the mad ads, the etnic days, cramming before exams, window shopping, documentaries, discussing about everybody under the sun except ourselves yet discovering ourselves day after day, Purple Haze, the car park, the fights, the arguements, the Air show, PVR cinemas, Nick Nish, endless strolling at the Landmark, wishing and hoping that we didnt have to attend so many classes, anuya’s home, Brew haha, the loud laughters and the suppressed giggles, the ragging sessions, making up for attendance at the library, crying, laughing, talking, reading…finally THE GRADUATION… everything!!!

i could write a book on everything we did except for the reason we were sent to college- studies! three years at JNC is truly makes me wonder how time swooshed in front of us.. it just feels so recent in past that we were introducing ourselves to the class; now we are discussing what masters to apply. it seems like it was yesterday when i had asked for their phone numbers; now, we are making promises to keep in touch. it seems like it was just yesterday that we were roaming aimlessly around the colege, not knowing where what was. we still roam aimlessly at college, only because we want to assimilate the maximum of JNC before we pass out, and somewhere deep down, not wanting to pass out and freeze these moments for eternity…

Where NOT to dine

2008-08-28T05:45:00.000-07:00

Everybody writes about what restaurants to visit in Bangalore, what to eat and what to do. Here is a post which tells you what NOT to do, and where NOT to dine. And the winner in my list of hopeless hotels is Anjeer.

It was my b'day, and four of us decided to go have dinner at this place called "Anjeer" at Vijaynagar. None of us had been there before so we thought we will give it a shot. It looks posh from outside, and has a veerappan-moustached guy who opens the door for you. When we went inside, we scanned the hall and we were the only ones in the hotel. We all pass each other glances, ans still proceed to the table. We opted for a corner table for 4. And ordered for food.

So settled down, and were generally discussing how my day had been so far. They served the soup first, with masala papad. Th masala papad had very little masala and lots of just raw onions! And the soup tasted like it was minimum of two days old.

We let that pass and talk about school and college stuff. Suddenly there is a power cut and the hotel doesnt have an electricity back up! So we were lurched to have dinner in the dark. Finally after they see our condition and bring a candle to our desk.

And we all sit startled for a second and feel a slight movement under our seats. We dismiss it, in case its just our imagination. Two seconds later, the movement gets stronger and now we hear squeaks!!! Yes, you guessed it right... there were rats under the seats!!!!

That pulled the last straw and we walked out of that place.

Parsons valley - Paradise on Earth

2008-08-26T02:16:00.000-07:00

We had been planning for over two weeks for this trek. So obviously, all of us (Bharat, Satish, Madhu, Shreyas, Vibha, Ekta, Deepthi and myself) were very excited about it. We left Bangalore by 4AM Saturday and headed towards our destination. Danced like crazy in van! The route which we were supposed to take was Bangalore-Mysore-Bandipur-Kalati Ghats- Ooty-Parsons Valley. Its about 7hrs drive from Bangalore. The driver was drowsy and nodding off to sleep in between, Bharat, drove the vehicle for about 100kms!

While driving through Bandipur we saw some elephants, sambar deers, monkeys and some wild boars.

We reached Ooty and had to hunt the place for a bit, because its about 30kms from Ooty. We finally reached there by 3 in the afternoon. But the place was worth every single second we had waited, every single km we had travelled extra and definitely worth its weight in platinum!! I was amazed at the nature even during the drive- it was so pleasant to see so much of greenery, fresh air and NO pollution of any kind! But the place which we stayed in, Parsons valley, was breathtaking. The first glance makes you wonder if you are really in Ooty or are you walking in one of those paintings or postcards you would have received, which is just picture perfect. It was exactly like that. The best part about Parsons valley is that the vegetation present there is Australian and British. You will find common plants, but along with that, you will find a variety of flora which is present only in Australia. So its a beautiful sight.

We stayed at a place which was right in middle of the jungle, and it has small stream flow through it. The water was biting cold!!! :-) you put your feet into it, and your feet will start to turn white! haha.. and obviously, I had to slip and fall right into the water.. for one second i thought i am going to die of first bite or something!

After a sumptuous lunch, we set out for a short trek in the evening. I have to mention - it was the BEST veg food i have ever eaten!!! it was absolutely amazing!!! It was just about a half hour trek into the jungle, where we sat by one more stream.. waited for the sun set and headed back. we reached our rooms back by 7. a camp fire was lit and the booze was out! We danced till we could not feel out feet and we drank till we could feel our head! :-)

We were supposed to leave at 6 the next morning for our trek. But since our previous night was very eventful, we ended up leaving for the trek only by 10! We crossed the stream and headed towards the jungle. it was one of the most brilliant treks and most certainly a walk to remember. we trekked for about 9 kms totally- through pine trees, through valleys, through grasslands, uphill, across streams, through dry trees, crawled under them, hopped across them! We saw mushrooms which we would have seen in cartoons and never expected them to be real!

Our guide was a skinny old man, Dore Raju, who was very experienced and extremely patient as well. We were all wearing sports shoes and tracks and cap etc, all geared for the trek and still finding it difficult to keep pace with him, who was wearing a normal chappal!

We reached this place called Mukruti dam. The speciality of this dam is that it has waves even though its not an ocean or a sea!! And the view was fantastic.. you will NOT believe that you are in India and its just 7 hrs from bangalore!! It started to rain when we were on our way back; and no words can explain how beautiful the entire landscape looked!!

Now when i think of Parsons Valley, i can feel the breeze through my hair, dew in the air, and the moist under my feet on the grass... It was a journey which i never wanted to return from.

We finally left Parsons valley by 6 in the evening (not wanting to).. we headed to Ooty and shopped some Ooty chocolates and tea powder for home..