Bangalore life/Personal

Weekend Getaway – Mysore – Day 2

Posted on by Archana K B / 1 Comment

Day 2: Aug 16th 2008

The plan included Bylakuppe Tibetan Camp, Cauvery Nisargadhama and the Dubbare Elephant Camp. We had breakfast at Hotel Kairali, the Kerala Hotel suggested by Masky and started off at around 8.30 am. We had a helpline to guide us, and then our instincts, along with the innumerous directions given by the road-goers to lead our way. The first milestone itself was more than 80 km on the Mysore – Madikeri stretch. The Mysore – Hunsure road on SH88 was perfect long drive. There was not even a bee on the way and hence, even I got the chance to drive the smooth highway with dividers, and that too at 60-70km/hr. Not bad for me!! There were small towns in between like Periapatna en route Bylakuppe.

The Tibetan camp settlement in Bylakuppe was towards left from the main highway. There was a wide arch welcoming you, but also thronging the anti-Olympic slogans. We went in search of the Golden Temple at the 4th Camp. It was quite a long way deep inside. The green fields, fluttering prayer flags, Tibet scripts and the Tibetan people on the way made us feel that we were not in Mysore, but in Tibet. We actually were. There were not much Indian people around except for one or two. The Golden Temple will not ever be missed as there were clear indications of the way. It was much much bigger tourist spot than we expected, compared to the lonely way leading to the temple. The temple belonged to Nyingmapa Monastery. There were innumerous monks, dressed in their special apparel in shades of dark red and yellow. I was reminded of the Yodha film and the”kunu kune” song was humming on my lips. The place and the temples were very serene. The Tibetan paintings reminded of the wall paintings of the ancient Indian artifacts of both the North and the South. You realize then that, there is a uniqueness in every culture of the world. There was a shopping centre nearby, and hoping to know more about the people and culture, I searched for some antiques or books related to them. We moved on after buying a prayer wheel, rather a hand-held wheel and a prayer bell.

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Bangalore life/Personal

Weekend Getaway – Mysore – Day 1

Posted on by Archana K B / 5 Comments

Mysore being less than 150 km from Bangalore, was the destination of our last weekend getaway.  Combined with the Independence Day holiday, we had 3 days and hence had a 3-day well-calculated plan too. The key highlights include the Opel Corsa long drive, the meet with the TE titans (Masky, Chaos and Sunny) and a surprise, the Tibetan camp visit, and the travel back to the historical ages…

Day 1 – Aug 15th 2008

There was a plan that Masky and Chaos would give us company enroute Mysore, but RK and I were late. (The previous night, it had rained in Bangalore, and the traffic made RK reach home, very very late, at around 11.30pm!) I don’t know how those people sleep late and wake up early as if they are insomniac, but anyhow, they were ahead of us and reached Mysore by 8.15am.

We started as slow as possible, within 6.30 to 6.45 am in his grand Opel Corsa, with 2 backpacks and water bottles in the back seat. The traffic was not that heavy, and once we were on the main highway SH17, the Mysore Road, the drive was really smooth. There were cars initially, but as we went further, there were even none for some time, I guess owing to the early morning timings. We were speeding low as we had to fill up the gas and air too on the way, and also had to look out for the lefts n rights we need to take long ahead. We had Srirangapatnam Temple in mind, and enroute, the green welcome boards notified us of the Silk city (Ram Nagaram), Sugar City (Mandya), and then the Historic City (Srirangapatnam).

The directions to the temple were pretty clear, but we knew of , or rather had the agenda of only the temple and the Dariya Daulat in that town. There were many other places to visit in the Srirangapatnam, but not that we got reminded of at that point. The Ranganatha temple is 1-2km travel from the right turn on the main highway. It reminded me of the Dasavatharam first few scenes and Kamal Hassan’s famous chant of “Om Namo Narayana”. Close to the temple, were the Tipu Sultan’s place of death, and Colonel Bailey’s Dungeon. I hate the reminiscence of wars and battles, and not to mention the dungeon and the pain of the people involved. I didn’t even wanted to visit the Juma Masjid nearby on the way back, as the whole history had started to haunt me.

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Thoughts

Fragrance of the Earth – Mitti ki khusboo…

Posted on by Archana K B / 1 Comment

At times, you do feel proud as Indian, when some new things happen. Not because you did something patriotic. Not because you were part of the Indian victory in any way, and neither because you ever pray for India in your daily prayers. But its there. That sense of spirit shines and sparkles annually twice in your heart, and also occasionally at such happy news.
When in school, you finish singing along the “Jaya Hai” of the national anthem…
When in television, you see the Republic Day parade early in the morning of Jan 26th..
When in newspapers, you see the bright colors of green saffron and white…
When in those, you read the sacrificing stories of Independence and Indian Culture…
When in theatre, you finish watching Chak De and Swades..
When in media, news came that Lagaan went to Oscars…
When in 1996, the TV report showed Leander Paes winning the bronze medal..
When in bike, you see tomorrow’s youth in small children in school uniform travelling ahead…
When in mobile, you hear the “I love my India” song of Pardes…
When in car, you wish to buy the Indian Flag, available at Rs.10 and place it near the wheel..
When two days ago, you celebrated the Independence Day again..
And when now, India has almost won 3 medals at Beijing Olympics..

Vande Mataram!

Stories

Behind the closed doors

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The lighting was perfect. The ambience prodding seductive darkness. They were inches apart from each other. They could sense their breaths in the silence. His fingers were caressing her cheek and his arms enclosed her. A soft tickle was spurting from her spine under the movements of his fingers. She controlled herself. He bended down and kissed her on the cheeks. She closed her eyes responsively…

The flashes of light through the windows reminded her of the bright sun outside. They looked at each other.  She laid her head onto his chest and wrapped herself onto him. It was the awaited moment. The moment of revelation. The moment of acceptance. She raised her head slowly. His eyes bored love and there was the romantic smile in his lips. They touched through their foreheads. And the noses. To feel that they belonged to each other. To reveal that they are one soul and two bodies. Their hearts ached with passion. Their eyes gleamed with feelings and the silence spoke out to each other. And then, they kissed each other on the lips. To establish the right on each other. To water their seeds of relationship beyond the sexual desires. To reveal their sense of belonging. To reveal that they love each other…

In the darkness, she couldn’t realize where all he was laying his lips on her body. She could just sense. And writhe to the sensual movements of his kisses. He was trying to move down to lay his head in her chest. His fingers kept moving, as if to entice her, to gratify her with plethora of emotions and to provide all the worldly pleasures a man could give to a woman.. or rather he could give her. It was his way of showing his love. His way of revelation. She opened her eyes at times when there was no movement. To check whether he is unsatisfied of her responses. She succumbed herself to his arousal of desire, and welcomed him on her. To devour her. To provide him what he sought. To accept his token of love. To establish a new relation. Through the old ways, as always…

The door remained closed… All doors…

Internet/Links

Wings of Love…

Posted on by Archana K B / 1 Comment

There are times in life… When you wished to cry loud, leaning on someone’s shoulder, clinging onto them to your heart tightly… Or to blast onto their ears of your success or achievement… When you just want to smile at the nature’s beauty admiringly and want to cuddle up in someone’s arms… Or to release the impounding pressure of the heart and tension from your mind and to find solace and peace… There are times in life you wished you could just hug someone… without any desire, without any shame, without any name, without any relationship, without any gender bias, seeking love….
I didn’t knew it was possible…

Stumbled across the Free Hugs organization recently, and the video, which reminds you the essential craving in you to hug someone in your life. Quite a good initiative, but I really wonder, whether in the land of conservative people down in the South India, whether this concept would be accepted ever? Food for thought!

Personal

Culinary skills!!

Posted on by Archana K B / 4 Comments

Milkmaid!!! I have loved this small milky thing which comes in tin from my childhood.  remember the times when during my college holidays, I thought of preparing sweet recipes using milkmaid n all. I even used to have it as such in big spoonfuls! As it couldn’t be used anywhere else other than to make sweets, we seldom bought it. After all, who had the time at home, to prepare those goodies. There was the TV show in Kairali TV (Malayalam channel), which had milkmaid recipes shown for 5-10 mins, at certain random times late in the afternoon. The host was Lakshmi Nair famous for Magic Oven show. I remember trying out one of the recipes too at home.

Now being at Bangalore home, I had bought the tin last time we went to the supermarket. As I am vetti (without any work.. Ya I miss the Chennai slang! 🙁 ) at home, I thought of trying them out at sometime. Earlier I was not much into cooking and neither did I searched for them in internet, but now, I found that there is immense support for cooking newbies like me. But like any other housewife, I am not too much into it and neither that much addicted to it as yet. I do try out my favourite dishes of paneer (when there’s luck and time in your hand, why not? ) once in a while, and as RK is very much enthusiastic in cooking, I just help out at times and that’s it.

So coming back to milkmaid, I am now writing this, while crunching sweety-pineapple made of the same: Milkmaid, sugar and chilled pineapple.! mmm… Delicious!!!!

Bonus:: Last weekend had tried out Ice Coffee too.
Just blend in a mixer, frozen milk ( keep milk in fridge just few hours before you make the coffee), sugar, milkmaid, coffee powder and ice cubes and voila! Its done!

And nah, the quantity need not be mentioned in any of these small cocktails or even in the big big dishes, as there lies the creativity of every person to bring out the craft of blending various edible items into the delicious and nutritious thing called food through the art of cooking. Aint it?