Thanksgiving holiday

We had a lovely thanksgiving weekend. Here is what we did for the last 3 days:
On the D-day (Nov 22nd) I woke up at 6 am and made aloo and carrot paranthas and spicy coriander chutney, packed some pickle, water, fruits and cereal bars. Woke hubby and my daughter with great difficulty, when one of them was getting ready to wake up the other would go back to sleep and vice versa.

We left Virginia at 10-55 am (scheduled departure was 8 o clock, but 11 is GST (DH standard time). I decided to get behind the wheel for the first 3 hours and then hand the car over to DH. We drove for 2 hours and decided to break for lunch at one of the rest areas at Maryland. The surroundings around the rest area looked so beautiful; there was this constant drizzle of yellow, orange and maroon leaves from the trees which gave a very ethereal effect to that place. We had our lunch and drove some more. We passed Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio. When we reached Ohio, it started to snow badly, that is when DH got behind the wheel as he has lived in Buffalo for 2 years and has driven in really bad weather conditions. We made sure to pack a lot of toys for my daughter and believe me that really helped.

We reached Detroit at 10 p.m, daughter was very excited as she was visiting her friend R’s house. R is a 3 and a half year old boy and he usually goes to bed at 9, he managed to stay awake all along to welcome his pal A (my daughter). The moment we reached our friend’s place, my daughter started running near the door and her friend R was there ready to hug her, I was amazed at this, my daughter and R have never seen each other, they may have chatted over the phone 4-5 times in the last 3 months or so and they were behaving like long lost friends. They also excitedly exchanged their gifts. A got a cute Dora story book, this has voice over capabilities and it comes with 3 cartridges and 4 story books, A was super thrilled. A gifted R a Spider man laptop and he fell in love with that. What is with boys and super heroes??

Our friends V and S welcomed us into their beautiful home. S had made lovely spinach rasam, veggie curry, chapattis, and onion sambhar. We polished our plates in no time as the food was absolutely delicious. Then, we started chatting while the kids got busy playing. By the time we decided to call it a day, it was 12-30 am. The next morning S made lip smacking masala dosas and a special chutney which is famous in Chitradurga. I made sure to get the recipe from her. After hogging to our heart’s content, the boys (hubby and his pal V) went out for a drive to have some guy talk and S and myself had a nice time gossiping about our lives and families and of course the In-laws/Out-laws.

By 2-30 pm, we packed our stuff and were getting ready to leave, when little R started crying; he put on his jacket and shoes and held on to my daughter. He kept saying that he wanted to come with us. It broke my heart to see him cry, my daughter kept asking me “mommy can we take R with us please” with those big pleading saucer like eyes. I had to take her aside and explain to her that we can come some other time and visit R or he could come visit us in summer. She agreed reluctantly. We reached the Canada-US border in 20 mins and immigration formalities were a breeze. By the time we reached Canada it was 3 pm. DH’s uncle and aunt (aunty) welcomed us into their home. Aunty and A instantly took to one another. They were inseparable for the next 3 days or so. Aunty became A’s Santa Claus, she took her to Toys r us and bought her a huge load of toys. She also insisted on feeding my daughter and also told her lots of stories and sang many songs. Uncle is a little more introvert, but A made sure that he also played with her. He sat still while A combed his hair with a teeny weenie Barbie comb. Aunty made so many lovely dishes for us; she didn’t let me enter the kitchen even once. Every time I insisted, she said “I want to give you a break, will your mom let you work when you visit her? Consider this also as your mom’s place (thavaru mane) and just sit by my side and talk to me. They stay in a huge 9 bedroom single family home; it has been beautifully decorated by aunty. Uncle and I watched Chak de India and thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Uncle and I are very much alike, we loved to dissect and critic the movie’s every single scene. We also savored mouth watering samosas, bhel puri and Pani Puri which were delivered by a gujarathi lady who lives very close to their home. Aunty and I had a long chat about our lives, about being away from the family and living abroad, about raising kids here (US and Canada). It felt very good to talk to her. She is a very nice lady who has always been affectionate towards me. Every time we visit them, she begs and pleads me to move to Canada, I know that it is impossible as we are planning on moving back to Bangalore for good in the next 3 years.

We also went to this place called Colasanti’s, this is a nursery farm, plus a mini-zoo all rolled into one. Aunty packed upma, chapattis (50), Obbattus, Chaklis for us to take back home. I even joked with her saying that in olden days, when a girl visited her mom’s place they would send back all these goodies back with her, it felt the same in my case, to which she replied that this was my mom’s place. Aunty also said that she lost her mom at a very young age and she never did experience all this, but she wanted me to enjoy this experience. I was really moved by this. She gifted me a beautiful teal colored saree with zardosi work; DH got an ipod, daughter A got 5 sets of toys. On the day of our departure, my daughter just wouldn’t let go of my aunty’s hand, she kept asking aunty and uncle to put on their jackets and shoes. We had a tough time convincing her that aunty and uncle will come and visit us later, my daughter asked if they will come “tomorrow”, we said yes, after which she calmed down. We bid a tearful goodbye, with promises to visit each other at least once in 4-5 months. We stopped at Pittsburgh temple on our way back and had our dinner of tamarind and yogurt rice with yummy pickle. We reached home at 12 am; I worked from home the next day and went back to work today. All in all this was a very satisfying trip; it was a bit taxing physically, but well worth it.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! We (DH, my daughter and I) are driving down to Canada tomorrow; it is a 9 hour drive. We are keeping our fingers crossed as this is our first long distance drive with our toddler. We have been invited by hubby's uncle and aunt who are settled in Canada for about 35 years, they can't wait to meet their grand daughter. So what are you all doing on thanksgiving? Drop a line or two about your plans.

I have some news about Bhargavi; will share with you all once I get back.

Taking credit for other's work

We have all come across situations wherein somebody takes credit for something that he or she has not done. Infact not just at work, but also within your own home you come across such situations. Here are 2 situations that I came across in the recent months:

Situation 1: The Inlaws/Outlaws house at Bangalore
One of the days when we were vacationing in Bangalore, my MIL asked her loving son as to what he was craving to eat, her son duly said rava idly and sagoo. My MIL said she will ask her daughter (my SIL) to make the sagoo as she makes the best sagoo in the whole world. I pitched in to help, I cut the onions, cut and peeled the potatoes and cooked them in the pressure cooker. I also dry roasted and ground the ingredients. My MIL did the tadka/seasoning and added the ground paste and the potatoes and let it cook for some time, my SIL who had vanished into her room came by then and stirred it a little bit and tasted it and said it tastes great. My MIL asked her son how it tasted and he said S's sagoo is indeed the best (!). To this day I tease hubby every time he asks me to make S's sagoo. I ask him "you mean the sagoo where in I cut the onions, I cooked the potatoes, I roasted and ground the masala and your mom did the tadka, that sagoo right?".

Situation 2: My Company
I am leading the process improvement functions for some of the products within the company and recently I implemented many initiatives within my group, as a result of which the performance of some of the product lines has gone up to a great extent. My Director who also happens to be an indian got very insecure because of the praise I was getting from other business leads. I was supposed to meet with the COO to submit my recommendations on a bunch of initiatives that we were planning to execute in UK and Singapore, my Director scheduled the meeting and conveniently "forgot" to include me in the invite. She went ahead and presented my recommendations. I had a feeling something like this would happen so I "conveniently" forgot to add the data justification slides to the presentation deck. As a result of which she was left in a lurch and she had no choice but call me in the middle of the presentation to answer the questions that the COO had asked. Finally at the end of the meeting my COO was convinced that it was I who had developed the deck and not my Director. I feel bad doing this, but I couldn't think of any other alternative. I am pretty sure now she will be very careful movign forward. The other good thing is that I have been asked to lead another team within the same company so I will no longer be interacting with this mean attention craving Director.

Bhargavi - Where are you????

Bhargavi is a 19 year old pretty cousin of mine studying second year BA at Kolar Government College. She is my grand mother's sister's grand daughter. So we are second or third cousins as you see. Bhargavi's parents are from Kolar and have faced financial problems for quite some time. Bhargavi's mother Manjula aunty studied till 10 standard and was married off when she turned 17 to Ramesh uncle. Ramesh uncle is a kind gentleman who loved Manju aunty and took good care of her. They live in a modest little home in Kolar.

Every time Bhargavi visits my family, my mother makes sure to send her back with lots of goodies, mainly new salwaar kameezes, sarees etc. Today being Monday I was quite busy at work and by the time I had my coffee break, it was 12 noon. I badly wanted to speak to my mom so I placed a call to Bangalore. My sister had done some Naga Prathista pooja and we were talking about that. Suddenly, mom said "Do you know Bhargavi?", I was like "yeah, Manju aunty's daughter right?", mom said "yes, somebody has kidnapped her, Manju called me today and gave me this news". For a second, I was shocked and didn't know how to react. Mom said that Bhargavi was giving her Second BA exams and was returning home on her cycle and some miscreants who were travelling in a car stopped her and took her away in their car. This happenned 4 months ago.

Manju aunty and Ramesh have been running pillar to post trying to find their daughter's whereabouts. They even lodged a complaint with the police, however the policeman was not sympathetic at all I believe, he kept saying that their daughter might have eloped with someone. Manju aunty broke down when she was sharing all this with my mom, she kept saying "Akka, I know Bhargavi, I know my child, she is a very studious kid who wanted to get a job as a teacher and support us, she can never elope with anyone". Of course the neighbors and so called well wishers are painting the town red spreading nauseous rumours that Bhargavi has eloped with one of her class mates, which however is not true.

I just couldn't concentrate on my work after this call, I kept thinking about Bhargavi. I had 2 presentations to make in front of my VPs, I ended up rescheduling my meetings. I discussed this with my husband and he is feeling very bad too. I am planning on sending Bhargavi's details to Crime Story and Crime Diary offices. G and I are also planning on contacting a few detective agencies. I know that it is already too late, however we want to bring back Bhargavi and help her rebuild her life again. Every time I close my eyes I see her smiling at me.

Athithi devo bhava - does that thing still exist??

We all know the term "athithi devo bhava" meaning a guest is like a god and needs to be treated like one. I have grown up in a family wherein guests dropped by every single day, most of them unannounced. I have never seen my mom make a face or get mad. No matter how tired she was after toiling for 10 hrs at the bank, she would still enthusiastically whip up a mean meal with about 10 entrees and a couple of desserts thrown in. My grand mother on the other hand used to live in a joint family with 6 other brother-in-laws and their wifes and their kids and ofcourse her Monster-in-law (read my gread grand mother). She would toil in the kitchen from 4 am to 10 pm feeding everybody who would stop by. She was known as "Annapurneswari" the goddess of food and the name is just apt for her. I on the other hand prefer some advance notice. I need to make sure the house is clean, my china set is nicely polished, the floor is vaccumed and the whole enchilada. But one thing, if I do invite someone I make sure that every thing is in order and I try my best to cook a decent 3 course meal. I also make sure to cook something new and innovative.

I was in Bangalore 6 months ago visiting family and had to face an interesting situation and wanted to blog about this, rather rant about this so here I am.
The hubby wanted to visit his cousins so he started calling them up one by one, they are actually three of them and they are all his mom's sister's sons. G is very close to them as he practically grew up with them as they were neighbours for 15 long years. When you are in India, you need to have an agenda and a list of people of visit. If you visit some one and leave out the others, they are bound to get offended. On top of that, there is this running between your In-laws house and your mother's house which tires you out completely. Any way, I digress, two of the brothers (B1 and B2) invited us for lunch and dinner respectively. We first went to B1's house, we were very warmly received and they showed us their new house which is one of the most famous houses in Bangalore renowned for it's terrace garden and an exquisite architectural plan. Their cook had made some really delicious dishes and the best part was that my daughter immediately took to their kids. They busied themselves by pampering my daughter. We had a great time and came back happy.

B2 wanted us to visit his place for dinner on a Sunday. I had already made plans and had accepted an invite to have dinner at my mom's sister's house. She is like a second mother to me and I call her amma. I was really looking forward to that and here comes this invite. I tried to decline politely, but B2 insisted and said that his wife who is a doctor is not free on any other day. I had to relent as hubby G really wanted to meet his cousin's family. I cancelled my other plans, my aunt was not too happy about this, but I somehow convinced her . Finally we reached B2's place at the appointed hour, we kept ringing the bell, after a good 10 mins B2 comes and opens the door and invites us in. The wife is nowhere to be seen. We were trying to make polite conversation, and at 9 p.m after a good 1 hour or so the wife makes a grand entrance. She says that she was working and was on the phone to discuss something. My kid was getting hungry and she usually has her dinner at 7 p.m and this was well after her regular schedule. This lady just sits and stares at us and then goes off to the kitchen to make coffee for herself, didn't even bother to ask if we wanted something. My daughter followed her to the kitchen and asked her "aunty I am hungry", I felt so bad on seeing this. I just dragged my daughter away and looked at my hubby's face. The look I had was enough to kill someone believe me. Hubby got the point and he got up and said we need to leave, at this point of time this lady says the food is on the table, please help your self and walks back to her room for another hour(!). B2 insisted us to have dinner and I tried to feed my daughter, the curry was spoilt as it had a bad smell, the rasam looked like it was made a century ago. Nobody can fool me with left over food, I am pretty good and spotting them in a quick manner. The chapatis were rock solid. The funny thing was their kids, especially the precorious 5 year old told me "Aunty I like this rasam, we had this yesterday and day before. I love it". This lady who had vanished for another hour came out at 10-30 pm, just when we were getting ready to leave. Her only question was when we were planning on coming back to Bangalore and whether we had invested in a house in US or not. I wanted to tell her that it was none of her bloody business, but kept quiet as hubby was trying to restrain me with his pleading eyes. All in all a total disappointment. When you are not interested in entertaining guests, why go through the pain of inviting them and insulting them? that is my pet peeve.

I had to share this with my MIL mainly because she still seems to hold a grudge that during our wedding, my parents did not do the honours of inviting my inlaws to have the lunch with the bride and groom (this is called bhoomada oota in Kannada). It clearly did not matter to her that my aunts and uncles and scores of other relatives personally waited on them and invited them. She would keep saying that my family does not know the meaning of athithi devo bhava blah blah. I shared this incident with her and waited for a reaction, she just kept quiet and didn't even open her mouth.

Angel: Day 9 update

Angel passed away at 5-45 a.m today. I just got a call from my mom. I tried to talk to my sister, but she was not in a position to talk to me. Please join me in praying for angel to attain a peaceful moksha.

Angel: Day 8 update

Angel had a brain hemorrhage yesterday night. The doctors discovered that she also has a high fever. The hope of her survival is diminishing as every day passes by. I am on the phone for hours every day talking to my sister. I miss her so much, I wish I was right next to her. I come from a family which is very religious, my parents, my sister's inlaws and my aunts every one of them took the horoscope of the baby and my sister and visited 4 different priests who are well known for their astrological predictions. Every one of them has given the same answer, the baby will not survive. They have even given the date and time as to when the end may come. The date is Oct 24th, time is 9-30 a.m.

Thank you all for your prayers.

Angel : Day 6 update

Angel had some internal bleeding in her brain yesterday, it was minimal and it stopped after some time. The doctors gave her medicines to control that. My sister is currently faced with a dilemma. Her husband J visited her at my mom's place and spoke to her in a very nice manner and kept telling her that he loves her and does not want her to sink in to depression. He also mentioned that, doctors have not given guarantee that the baby will be healthy without any birth defects. The following scenarios may happen:
- The baby might have speech and hearing disabilities
- Mental disabilities
- Sight problems

Again, these are just some probabilities that may or may not happen. J said that as parents they are the ones who have to go through the mental trauma of seeing their child suffer. More over this is a girl child, how do we handle it when she attains puberty and is mentally retarded, or has any other disabilities? J firmly said that they both have to take a decision soon. But he didn't really go into details on the so called "decision". He also told my sister that after 2 months when the baby is handed over to them, he will not take any responsibility for bringing up the child. On one hand he was all soft and nice, on the other he is also extremely practical and just doesn't care whether his words will cause hurt to the other person, the other person being his wife and my sister,my best friend. I called her an hour ago, all I could hear was her crying. She said "I see my baby everyday lying in the incubator, how can I bring myself to tell the doctor to remove the life sypport system?? what do you think I should do?". I did not know what to say as I am a mother myself.

Angel - Day 4 update

My little angel is in the incubator and on the ventilator right now. She had a high sodium and potassium content in her body, the doctors treated her and reduced the levels. Yesterday she had some platelet defficiency, so the doctors had to give some blood to her. There is a pipe from her nose, there is another one stuck to her little feet, there is one from her belly button. She weighs 1.2 k.g and not 1 and a half pounds as I mentioned earlier, there was some confusion on my mom's part when she conveyed the news to me.

The doctors tried to remove the ventilator when they observed that the angel was responding well to the treatment, but the baby came down with violent convulsions, so they were forced to put the ventilator back. The doctors still maintain that the baby is in a critical stage, anything may happen at anytime.

May god give the strength to my sister to brave through this. I am at work, but I just can't seem to concentrate on anything. My sister was discharged yesterday, she broke down when she came home. She never thought that she would come empty handed. She became hysterical and violent I believe, my parents notified my aunts who have always been pillars of support for both of us. They immediately came and had to restrain her. Thank you all for your prayers, I will keep you updated on the angel's progress.

Please pray

I haven't been on the blogging scene for quite some time as I was really busy with my demanding job and the constant travel to UK.

My mom just called and told me that my little sister has delivered a baby girl, but I am not jumping with joy, my sister was due in November second week. This baby is just 1 and a half pounds I believe, and really tiny. Her internal organs are also not properly developed! My heart goes out to my sister. She has been through a lot in the last 2 years. Her marriage has been through turbulent waters, to top it all, she had a miscarriage last year.

The doctors have predicted an 70 (+) - 30 (-) chance of survival for the baby. We are praying for the well being of the little one. As I type this my eyes are tearing up. Please pray for her, that is all I ask for now. I am currently imagining my dad praying and my mom crying silently in a corner.

Please pray for the little angel, will you??

Mera Bharat Mahaan

Saw this link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uswp7hrGomo
at another blogger's (Usha's ageless bonding) site and was moved to tears just like she was. Mera Bharat Mahaan! and nothing can change that. I am proud to be an Indian and if I am ever born again, I would like to be born in the same country . My husband and I had been debating on and off on becoming american citizens. Yesterday, we finally decided to forego the american citizenship. The terms Indian Citizen and a person of indian origin are quite different. We opted for the former. Both of us are extremely proud of our decision.

National College Soliloques - I PUC Exams

I still remember my I PUC exams at National College. I hadn't studied anything, I couldn't decipher the formulae nor could I make any sense of the scientific equations and experiments. That was when I seriously regretted taking Science. The exams finally started, the first two exams were English and Sanskrit and I did quite well in both these subjects. The next one was Biology, I managed to answer most of the questions in this subject too, however the worst was yet to come. I had an accident a day before the physics exam, it was a minor head injury still I couldn't study for the paper. Not surprisingly I didn't do well in any of the most important subjects (Physics, Chem and Maths). I was still confident as every body had told me that no matter how badly the students do in the exams, every body get through the exams. So that was one hope I was holding on to.

I took off to Madikeri for 2 weeks to cool my heels and totally forgot about the exam experience. I came back to Bangalore and called my friend B, she mentioned to me that the results were announced. She had passed with a first class and I had got second class. I was happy to note that I didn't fail. My friends M, B and A were discussing about II PUC tuitions, some of them had already finalized the tuitions for PCM with prominent professors like RKJ, GV for Physics and Desikachar for Chem. I started to worry as I hadn't done anything of that sort. My friend Anand mentioned to me that there were still few seats left in one of the tutorials run by Professors NAR and KR. I went to meet with them and they gladly accepted my application and I was enrolled for Physics and Chem classes.

I still hadn't enrolled myself for Mathematics tutorials. My friend Viji recommended Prof. A.K.Manjunath. I found out that he was located very close to my home and was a well known lecturer. I met him and asked if he had any seats left, he said he was completely full and had no seats left. I was disappointed and worried so much so that I was close to tears. I told him "Sir, everywhere else the seats are booked, I am not very good in Maths and need all the help I can get, please accomodate me", he said he didn't like the word "booked" as it seemed like it was a business that was being run for profits. Finally he relented and agreed to take me in. I was in a batch of 6 girls and we met twice a week on evenings. Some of the names of the girls who were in my batch were, Pavani, Sandhya, H.N.S, D.V and Roshni Rajkumar (the one who had appendicitis surgery, I am sure orchid will remember when she reads this :)). I must say, of all the tuitions, I liked Maths the best, because A.K.M was a very good professor and his methodology of teaching was excellent. He was also very strict and quite short tempered. Thankfully we didn't get into trouble with him.

The over all tuition fees came up to Rs. 5000 (!).

Off to London

I am off to London for a week and will be back to blogging once I get back. I have been assigned to a new project which requires some travel to our UK office. So Queen of London, here I come!

Take care y'all!

Visit to Vidyarthi Bhavan

The hubs and myself had prepared a list of restaurants that we wanted to visit during our tenure in Bangalore and one restaurant which figured high on our list was vidyarthi bhavan. Vidyarthi Bhavan was started 63 years ago and has come a long way since then. My dad mentioned to me that this place used to be a regular hang-out for Masti venkatesha Iyengar, T.P. Kailasam, even Sir M.Visweswaraiah used to visit this place frequently I believe. I visited this jaunt for the first time with my dad when I was 6 years old and since then have been addicted to their masala dosas.

My SIL and FIL were conducting some homa in Gandhibazar so we decided to go to vidyarthis for breakfast and head out from there. We reached the place at 9 a.m and it was a sunday. The place was jampacked, on top of that it was very hot (around 40 degrees to be accurate) and we were sweating like hell. This is a very small place, may be around 1000 sq. ft or so I guess. There are around 20 tables, enough to accomodate 50-60 people. There is a narrow passage next to the seating area where dosa lovers like us stand and wait to pounce on any seat that becomes empty. My pouncing skills have weathered down as I haven't been to Bangalore for long and I seem to have forgotten them completely. However my FIL saved the day by finding an empty seat for all of us. Even before we all could sit there was this huge sumo wrestler who plonked herself on the seat. I usually ignore such incidents and try to find another seat, however this was vidyarthi bhavan and I was waiting for 15 minutes in that heat, no way was I ever going to let her do this to me. I immediately told her in a loud voice that we were the ones who reserved that place first and glared at her. All this I said by standing in my professional kick-boxer pose. The look that I gave her must have scared the hell out of her, she immediately got up and mumbled a weak sorry. I heaved a sigh of relief, and sat down with my family. My daughter was really excited and kept saying "Othelle dose elli??", meaning where is the hotel dosa. Immediately we placed our order and after 10 minutes or so our waiter came by carrying 20 plates firmly balanced on his right hand. Now this to me is a skill. You need to balance these many plates and move through the narrow passage and you also have to make sure that you don't get hit by any of the bystanders (read pouncers).

Finally the fragrant dosas were placed on our table and we all mentally said "attack" and finished them off in a jiffy. The dosa was crip and reddish brown in colour and the inside was slightly thick and smeared with red chutney. The coconut chutney and the fiery sambhar were out of this world. My daughter is a fussy eater, and she is about 2 and half years old. She managed to polish off one and a half dosa and was asking for more. A dosa at vidyarthi bhavan is incomplete without coffee so we ended up having that too. The coffee was also very good. In the end we all came out with a very satisfied look on our faces. This visit was well worth the wait and the heat. God bless vidyarthi bhavan!

Bangalore - Gastronomical Delight

I have travelled all over India, but nothing comes close to Bangalore when it comes to good food. Hubby, my daughter and I literally gorged on the restaurant food every single day. Of course nothing can beat the food cooked my mom, she took a lot of pains to cook all my favourite dishes. At G's(hubby)place we would make it a point to order piping hot idlies, spicy sambhar, crispy vadas from Sukh Sagar - Koramangala. Oh my! my mouth waters even now while I type this. My daughter absolutely loved to have Othell Dhossa (hotel masala dosa). Infact I tried to trick her into having the dosas I make here by packaging it just like the way it is done in Bangalore, but she could make out the difference in the taste (!).

Udupi Krishna Bhavan has also opened a branch in Koramangala close to Jyoti Nivas College. The food that they serve is heavenly to say the least. They make the best Open Dosas. This is actually a huge soft dosa smeared with spicy chutney powder and on top of that there is a huge mound of aloo dry curry (palya)and of course a glob of butter.

Another casual eatery that I have to mention is Mast Kalandar. This is a small restaurant started by 3 IIM graduates which got so popular that they have opened 3 more branches in the last 3 years. You get awesome paranthas, khichdis, and ofcourse Aam Ka Panna. The food is very light and not oily at all. G and I would go there at 10 every night to try their paranthas.

We also had lunch at this place called Gramin, they offer a very good Rajasthani menu and food is out of this world. We had the Kaju corn masala, and hara bhara kababs, and some other paneer dish which was very good. Adigas fast food joint is another place that I love going to. I love their lunch thalis, these are priced at 30 rupees per plate and you get a naan/roti, a curry, and a dry palya, rice, rasam, sambhar and yogurt and a sweet dish. How cheap can it get??

I also visited the famous SLV fast food joint of Banashankari II stage, I am sure fellow blogger Deepthi knows this :). I was in for a pleasant surprise as they also serve Dosas now. They always served yummy idlies and vadas.
BTW I used to go there after finishing my 10 std tuition classes with my friend A.

The best part of this trip was that I never had to cook even once. I made anna saru and palya just once, but that doesn't count.

India Trip

We came back from India 2 days ago and are still reeling under withdrawal symptoms
:(. I would like to give a brief update on our trip in 2-3 parts and then get back to blogging on my college life soliloques.

April 21st: Our flight was at 6 P.M and we were flying by Virgin Atlantic. I called the cab to come and pick us up at 3. I was running around trying to finish up the packing. Hubby and daughter were blissfully unaware of my tension and were happily playing with their toys (hubby with his laptop and daughter with her toy car. Hubby finally decided to pack at 11 a.m. I cooked simple anna saru. We always make it a point to make that our meal before we leave on a long flight. By 12 hubby realized that he had forgotten to pack some of the organic shampoos for his mother, he goes to wholefoods at 12-30 and comes back at 2 (!). There is still some packing to be done. I am fuming and hubby calmly ignores me and goes ahead with his packing. By 3 the cabwallah is at the door, we are still running around trying to load the dishwasher and checking on the heater and gas knobs, this and that. We finally get out with our luggage by 3-20.

The cab driver turned out to be a Nepali and we settled down comfortably and started chatting with him in hindi only to realize after a good 10 minutes that we had left the stroller behind. You can manage easily in Bangalore without strollers, however we were planning on spending a week in Paris and Switzerland, there is no way we could manage a 2.6 year old toddler without a stroller. So off we went to get the stroller.

By the time we reached the airport it was 3-50. By the time we checked in and went through the security gates it was 5-00.
We were flying via London and Srilanka to get to Bangalore. This was the best deal we got as we were booking in peak season. The plane took off at 6-15, the flight was smooth, however it was a bit of a problem for my daughter. She is potty trained and pretty independent, however she absolutely refused to use the plane toilets. The moment she saw the teeny weeny toilet she said "Mommy, this is galeeej, not good, I won't do pee pee or kakka here". The filthy smell in the toilet made it all the more worse. So I was forced to put her in diapers. She hated it too, but she didn't change her stand in using the toilet. She managed throughout the flight like this and once we landed in Srilanka she was able to use the toilet. The Srilankan airport is very clean and well maintained.

We reached Bangalore on April 23rd at 9-30 a.m, the customs and immigration process went in smoothly. We collected our luggage and headed out. My family were waiting there with a big smile. My mom didn't notice me first and she was busily chatting with her sister, I went to her side and tapped her shoulder, she was like "ayyo neenu yavag bande?" and hugged me tightly. I got quite a few compliments as I was lighter by 18 pounds. The last time they saw me, I had just had a baby and had piled on weight at all the wrong places (!). My dad, SIL, FIL were there too. After hugging everyone we got into our cab and went to my husband's home. My MIL was waiting at the doorstep with arthi to greet us. We were treated to spongy soft set dosas and mango-ginger-coconut-chilli chutney. It was to die for!

By evening I went to my mom's place with my daughter. Well, you gotta follow certain protocols once you get married and one of them is that everytime you come to Bangalore from abroad you go first to your MIL's house, then you are expected to take permission from her esteemed presence and go to your mom's place. Once I broke this rule and to this day my MIL hasn't forgiven me. I never take permission from her though, I just state that I am leaving to mom's house take it or leave it.

This time it was my mom and sister's turn to do the arthi. My daughter was treated like royalty. She was pampered silly by my mom, dad, sister, my aunt's son, and my grand mother. My daughter absolutely refused to look me in the eye lest I start lecturing her on how to behave.

Off to India!!!

I am leaving to India tomorrow and won't be back until 5/21. Will try to update my blog (provided I get some time, you all get the picture I am sure :))
Ashakka, Deepthi, Supriya and Orchid and anybody else that visits this blog, I will see you all after a month.

Bye Bye! Take care Y'all.

Cultural activities and I PU exams

I was always interested in taking part in cultural activities or co-curricular activities within school and college. I have learnt carnatic music for 7 years. My sister R and I were enrolled in music classes at a very young age.

There was a very talented singer in our class and her name was GS. GS was a pretty girl with curly hair and sparkling eyes. Her voice was very melodious and sweet. The cultural committee has announced group singing competitions in 3 categories (light music - Bhava geethe, Folk - Janapada, and patriotic songs. GS was holding try-outs at the auditorium, she asked me to sing and immediately liked me. I was happy as my other friends A, and DG were there. We had a guy called Janardhan who had reluctantly agreed to play tabla for us. He was a very shy guy and we were 9 girls. We had to bunk some of the classes to practice for the upcoming competitions and I was only too glad to oblige. The lecturers had a certain kind of respect for GS as she was quite well known with the cultural committee members, so we always got attendence even though we missed attending those classes.

We practiced atleast twice a day for 10 days. I liked our group as all of us were able to coordinate our voices in a beautiful manner. Needless to say we got first prize in all the three singing competitions. We became known as GS group. The overall prize money was 450 rupees and we split it equally among ourselves. I went to 4th block Jayanagar and brought a nice cotton salwaar set with that money. It was a big thing for me.

My friend B's cousin was getting married so B invited myself and my friend A for the wedding. B's cousin was getting married to a software engineer who was based in Los Angeles. The wedding was in Belagodu choultry(kalyan mandap). A and I went to the wedding and saw that every body were dressed in really expensive outfits while A and I were in simple cotton salwaars. B was also dressed in this really pretty dress and I asked her how much she paid for that and she said 2000 rupees. I was shocked thinking that the most expensive salwaar that I ever had at that point of time costed 350 rupees! A and I both felt uncomfortable at the wedding, every body were dressed from head to foot in gold, diamonds and what not and were giving us dirty looks. B really tried to make us feel comfortable. A and I gobbled our lunch quickly and immediately left. B had taken 3 days off due to the wedding and returned to school the following week. She told me that her cousin's wedding was annulled as she had eloped with her boyfriend 2 days after the wedding. I was shocked to hear this. B's cousin looked perfectly happy when we saw her at the wedding. She kept blushing every time somebody teased her about her hubby to be. B's uncle had spent 18 lakhs for the wedding and he was devastated. In the end B concluded her story by saying that her cousin's boyfriend is a very rich guy so she did the right thing. I was apalled to hear this from her. Is money that important?? I never knew that B was that materialistic.

B and I were very close to this girl called Nandini and she also knew B's cousin. I casually mentioned this to her about how the wedding got annulled. Nandini promptly went and spilled the beans to B. B was mad at me for sharing this info with Nandini and swore not to talk to me. I was hurt but it didn't let this bother me too much. The first PU exams were nearby and I hadn't even touched my text books. My friend Anand would always tell me that every body passes in first PUC no matter how badly they perform. I was relying on this statement to a great extent. My friends Mayura, Chaitra and Arundathi would always discuss Math problems, syllabus while I was least bit interested in any of this. Our hall tickets were issued. I was quite confident about English, Sanskrit (thanks to professor satish kumar karanth kota) and even Biology to some extent, however, not so confident about Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics.

Happy Ugadi to you all!

I would like to wish you all a very happy Ugadi. Ugadi habbada hardhika shubhashayagalu!

First week at College

When I walked into my class (I PUC A section) I saw that the class was jam packed (about 85 students). As usual there were no takers for the first two benches. I promptly went and sat in the second bench as all the other benches were occupied. After few minutes another girl walked by and sat next to me, her name was Soumya and she was from Vasavi vidyaniketan. We had 3 lectures and it was 2 p.m when we were done for the day. My school would get over at 5 and here the classes were over by 2! I was really thrilled and marvelled at the change :).

I also found out that out of 85 students there were 12 of them who were rank holders. I was getting ready to head out when I spotted my Websters school class mate Harish, I was atlast happy to see one familiar face. His dad was an MP so he had somehow managed to get into PCMB in National college inspite of getting 54% over all. I did meet him and his wife when I went to Bangalore to attend my sister's wedding 2 years ago.

There is this pastry shop called "Butter Sponge" which is right opposite National college and they have yummy cakes and puffs. I simply enjoyed gorging on the goodies whenever I got a chance.

After a week or so I got a notice from National College Jayanagar that there was a seat vacant for II PUC B section and that I could take a transfer if I wanted. I was really happy about this and immediately jumped at the offer. I hated travelling in those crowded buses and had to deal with those "accidental brushes" here and there by fellow commuters (men of course!), so this was a welcome solution.

Hunt for the right college

After I was done celebrating my 10th results, it was time to move on. All my neighbourhood aunties and uncles started interrogating me by asking me "Estu percentage bandide? Namma Sureshange 98% bandide, yava college ge admission hakiddeeya??", I would get really irritated on hearing this. I would say "not sure uncle, I will join whereever I get a seat" and scoot off. I guess this is the Indian mentality to be curious about everything :)

The application process started off with a gusto, I started queing up in lines in front of National college, Vijaya College (Main and PU collkege), BHS, NMKRV and BMS college.

My dad wanted me to join National College, Jayanagar as it was a good college and every body had spoken positively about it. I was fine with it as it was close to my home. I had made up my mind that I would take up PCMB. Now when I think about it, I feel I made a big mistake opting for Science. I guess when you live in a environment where everybody judges you based on the branch you opt for (Science - good, Arts - useless, Commerce - Ok, so -so), the percentage you get, the college you join, one is pressurized to toe the line, and that is what I did. I blindly opted for P - Physics, C - Chemistry, M- Maths and B- Biology.

The admission results (as though the 10th std results were not enough!) were announced in the month of May. I realized that I had got admission for PCMB in National college Basavangudi and BMS college for Women. I opted for National. I realized that my school friends Vasu, Pari and Uma had got admitted to BMS college. I was really disappointed that I couldn't be with them. Now I had to not only get accustomed to a new environment but also make new friends :(

10th standard results - II

I must have calculated my mathematical score atleast a 100 times and was quite confident that I would surely pass. 10th standard ranks were already announced on April 9th itself and a girl from my school had got 12th rank. This was the first rank to our school. I was going crazy with nervousness. Finally the dreaded April 10th was there and I got up in the morning and asked my father if he could go and check my results. He asked me if I wanted to accompany him and I refused with a firm "No". My dad and his cousin Praveen went to my school to check the results. In those days a cell phone didn't even exist, forget a cell phone we didn't have a land line too. I kept chewing my finger nails and kept saying "vakrathunda mahakaaya..." mantra in my mind. After a good one hour my dad and Praveen returned home. The first thing my dad did was shake my hands and pat my back, phew! I was relieved thinking that I must have passed in Maths. Then he started rattling off my score in all the subjects one by one, however, I was all ears only for my Math score, Pappa said "Maths nalli 93", for a second I was too numb and shocked to react, I asked him to repeat and he said "Maths nalli 93 bandide, thombatthu mooru", meaning you have scored 93 out of 100, I asked him to check my register number again, and he repeated that he was sure it was my score. My overall percentage was 83%. I was literally on cloud nine at that moment. Finally I thought god had answered my prayers and my efforts and hardwork had finally paid off.

I went to meet my guru Kaduru Ramaswamy with a pack of goodies. He greeted me and I saw that his house was packed with all the students from my batch. I saw the carmel convent and vijaya high school brat pack too. They were all giving me sympathetic looks thinking that I had either flunked or got a just pass. The first thing I did when I saw my guruji was touch his feet. He blessed me and asked me what my score was. The moment I told him I had scored 93 in Maths and my over all score was 83, the brat pack leader G's eyes popped out, she just couldn't believe her ears. My guruji on the other hand was very happy and he looked at the brat pack and said,"You students were always over confident about your abilities, look at her she has got a better score in Maths than you! Her score in preparatory was 24 now she has got 93". Sandhya who hadn't expected to pass this year had passed with a second class and she was also extremely pleased.

I realized that this was just a stepping stone, I may have to brave through many such challenges in life, the next one being II PUC :(

Exam results

I was done with Maths exam, Phew! I was happy because I had done well. If I said I had done well it always meant that I would get more than 36 and probably less than 50 out of 100. I breezed through my other exams and was finally done with my exams. My sis and I went to our ajji mane (dad's mom, my grand mother) in Madikeri to spend the summer holidays. My ajji mane is not a typical ajji mane, what I actually mean is my ajji is not a typical ajji. Now who is a typical ajji? that gets me wondering. Hmm.. let me think, a typical ajji is one who pampers you silly, indulges you with great mouth watering delicacies, and doesn't say a word for all the mischief you have done. A typical ajji is one who never ever gets angry with you. In one word, she is my ammamma, my mother's mom who is the most lovable creature in this world, I simply adore her !!

Coming back to my "not so typical" ajji, she has never ever hugged me or my sis, never ever planted a kiss, I don't remember her speaking lovingly at all. I remember my mom telling me sometime that, when I was a 6 month old kid I had wet myself and my ajji called my mom who was busy doing some work to come and clean me up. Never once has she held me or my sis when we were babies. However, she was a totally different person with her daughter's kids, especially her eldest daughter Bharathi's kids Archana and Prashantha. For her grand children meant archana and prashantha, it was always archana this archana that, prashantha this prashantha that. This would hurt us a lot, and I used to hate my ajji very much for this.

At the same time she wasn't a monster. She would barely tolerate our visit at a minimum. We were kids then and wouldn't really mind this at all. Our ajji's house is on a hill and you can see a beautiful hill called Suswagath betta, you can also see beautiful rice fields called Kannandamaane. My sis and I were only concerned about the great weather and beautiful scenery and didn't mind our ajji's lack of love or affection. We would go out for long walks in the morning and come back really famished for lunch. Our ajji was a stickler for timeliness. She would serve us food only at 1-30 p.m, immediately after some "ceylonese" program on vividh bharathi (All India Radio). God knows the reasoning behind this. We used to sit on the floor and my ajji used to put these goni cheelas which are nothing but hay stacks on the floor and that was our mats. The moment she would say goni haaki meaning put the goni, it would signal lunch or dinner or breakfast. She was an awesome cook but she didn't really cook many varieties. It was always one sambar (melogara) and one chutney or one rasam and one sambar. We didn't complain as we were famished after long hours of playing with other kids.

I used to call her "Colonel ajji", there used to be a kannada program called "crazy colonel" and I decided to coin the same phrase for my ajji. We had a friend called Venu he always used to hang out with us. After a month's stay at Madikeri we headed off to Bangalore. My results were to be announced on April 10th (once again I don't know why the schools in Bangalore always chose this date). I would pray to god every day to help me get good marks. I guess when we were kids we would rely a lot on god for some miracle regarding our results :).

10th Standard Exam

Time and tide waits for none, the saying is so true. It was already time for me to write the final exam! I did study and burn the midnight candle, I must have answered zillions of question papers from the last 10 years. My scores were improving, my average score from the old question papers was 63, which was a major improvement from 24 :)
Even before I could gloat, my guru Mr. Ramaswamy would bring me down firmly to the ground by saying "Ishtu bandide antha beega bega, meaning don't gloat, you still have a long way to go, 63-65 out of 100 is nothing!". I took it upon myself to do well and prove to everyone that I of all people could get a decent score in Maths.
Our Exams were scheduled to begin in March in Bharath Mata High School which was the venue. For some wierd reason my school (websters) wasn't the venue. My friend's neighbour who was an autorickshaw driver graciously offered to drop us to the exam venue everyday for a nominal fee. My exams began in March 2nd week, my mom and dad visited me for the first two exams. On the third day my mom had to leave on a pilgrimage trip with her sister. My dad had to go to sabarimala, so I was left with my sis and my other aunt. My mom was not very keen on going and I could see it in her eyes, I also gave her a lot of grief and emotionally blackmailed her saying that she needs to be with ME during my exams. Finally she decided to go as my aunt forced her to accompany her. On top of this, I fell sick, thanks to the lack of sleep. On the day of Maths exam, my mom's youngest sister who stayed with us made me drink a glass of mosambi juice an hour before the exam so that I would have some energy and strength to brave through the exam paper. I reached the venue and 15 mins before the exam, I threw up. Out went the mosambi juice and idlies that I had for breakfast. I was so tired and exhausted, I somehow managed to clean up and went and sat at my designated place. At 9 a.m sharp our question papers were handed to us. I looked at the paper and read it and re-read it 3 times. Then I said a silent prayer to god and started answering the questions.

There was a girl from Bharath Mata school who was sitting next to me, she kept pestering me to show my exam paper. I decided to complain to the teacher. When I did complain, that teacher - invigilator(she was from bharath mata school) came up to me and said "So what, it is ok help her out", I was so shocked. I think one of the teachers from my school heard this and she came into the room and threatened to report this to the education inspectors. The matter was settled then and I could calmly answer my paper.

10th standard

Once I moved to 10th standard, every body had the same question to ask me "What will you do after this? Which college will you join? Will you take PCMB??", Gawd!! How I hated those questions!! especially when it came from nosy family friends/relatives whose sons or daughters had scaled through II PUC with flying colors and were in the midst of engineering or medicine.Bah! people never learn!

The pressure to perform well was always there throughout the year. I had a bunch of easy going friends Uma, Parimala and Vasu, and all we discussed was which actor was dating whom, which movie was releasing when, where to shop for good shoes and outfits. My dad and mom like any parents were keen on me doing well in my finals. So I was packed off for tuitions. The tuition class was taught by one Mr. Kaduru Ramaswamy. He was an excellent teacher, very principled and very strict. I would wake up at 6 a.m and my dad used to drop me every day to the tuition class. I used to suffer from a bad case of wheezhing and asthma like attacks during the months of July through September so it was quite a challenge waking up early in the morning,especially when you have spent the previous night gasping for breath and used endless puffs from the nebulizer.

Tuitions were fun, as Ramaswamy sir used to make the lessons very interesting and he used to share some of his experiences at Marimallappa high school - Mysore where he had taught for more than 20 years. I used to be really worried and nervous when he would start asking questions during Maths tuition. I was scared of not being able to answer his questions. There were a bunch of mean girls too let me call them G, AP, K and other carmel convent snooty brats. They used to laugh at my prowess (lack of it) in Maths and make faces. I would be very embarrassed and would cry sometimes. A sweet girl called Sandhya Reddy who used to sit next to me would comfort me. She had failed the previous year and was repeating her 10th. There was another nice girl called Suma Panicker who was very helpful and would offer me tips on solving Mathematical problems.

Ramaswamy sir took special interest in students who were weak in studies, they were supposed to stay back for an additional 30 mins to interact with him and work on previous year's question papers. As you guessed, I was in that group too. Initially I would be ashamed when I saw all the other students scamper away after the class ended and I had to stay back . Eventually I realized that this was for my own good and decided to make the best use of the extra time.

As usual I had managed to obtain passing marks in Maths all throughout the year. It was time for me to take preparatory exams. I did very well in all other subjects, however, got 24 out of 100 in Maths. Now I was really worried, the final exams were in a month's time, here I was with a 24 out of 100! I realized that I would surely fail in my finals and would have to commit suicide unable to bear the embarrassment! Now when I ponder about my past, I think I was really stupid and immature to come up with such thoughts. I guess age makes you more mature and wise :)

Mathematics - Grrrrrr

Gawd!!! how I hated Maths! I know a lot of you may disagree and say that it is the most interesting subject, but you know I never felt so. I remember getting only 36 out of 100 or 20 out of 50 the minimum marks you need to pass through. Things were still not so bad until I came to 7th standard. We had a teacher called Swarna who taught Maths, she was a strict teacher and would be cross with the students who did bad (me!). Our final exams were fast approaching and still my scores hadn't improved (I had got 44 out of 100 in the preparatory exams!) I finally decided enough is enough and had a talk with my parents, they calmly listened to me and decided to meet Swarna miss for further guidance in this issue. All three of us went to her house, she greeted us warmly and her husband had just returned from a temple, he applied the kumkum on my forehead and said chennagi odamma meaning study well. Swarna miss told me that she would coach me and she shared a lot of question papers from previous years. I would work out those problems and she would correct them and guide me on solving them in a better manner. I really did work hard for my 7th finals and was apprehensive when the results were out. I had got 63 out of 100!! this was quite an achievement for someone like me who had always managed to scrap through. Phew I brushed off the sweat from my forehead.

My love-hate relationship with maths continued till I finished my II PUC. I will share my 10th standard experience in the next post.

School life

I had the time of my life at websters. I made some really good friends. Vasundhara was my bestestest friend :). She was such a sweet girl, once when I was in 8th standard we had a teacher called Kamakshi miss, she had asked us to get a 100 pages note book to be used as a monthly test book. I had conveniently forgotten about this. The next day the teacher asked who hasn't got the book and I was getting ready to stand up, Vasu immediately sneaked her book into my hands and stood up. However much I protested she didn't listen. The teacher beat her badly on both her palms, they were swollen so bad. I felt soo guilty and sad and angry about myself. She and I used to spend a lot of time together. During P.T (free) periods she and I would take a walk around the school and she would tell me movie stories. She used to be a telugu movie buff and had a huge collection of Vijayanashanthi's, Venkatesh's and Balakrishna's pictures.

She would tell me the story of the latest movie she had watched at Kamakhya theatre and I would gobble it up with gusto! We would always share our lunch and to this day I can't forget her mom's mango-lime pickle, they tasted heavenly. We had another girl called Manjula who would never get her lunch and would always ask others to share their lunch with her, she was the "Official Buddha" of the class, atleast thats what every body had nick named her. The guys of our class especially this guy called Srinivas would say "Bhavathi bikshaam dehi" when she would start asking us to share our food.

We also had another girl called Swapna and she was this lice distributor of our class, I know this sounds gross, but I noticed that everytime she sat next to us I would go home with a scratchy scalp and calmly pass it on to sis. The moment our mom saw the two of us trying to compete with each other in scratching our scalps, she would know the cause and immediately she would summon us and apply coconut or castor oil and comb our hair and kill those lice that would crawl out of the comb.
I was ok in studies, even though Mathematics was always my big problem as I sucked big time in that. Everything else was fine and I still managed to be within the first 10 ranks as my average was better in other subjects.

Life in Bangalore - II

We changed schools when I was in 7th standard, my pappa felt that we should study in a convent school because one of his cousins had his 2 kids studying there. So off we went to Websters High School. This school has 2 branches, one in Hanumanthanagara, the other in Ittumadu Village (you should see this place now, this is anything but a village, houses here cost you anywhere between 1 to 2 crores!!). So my poor sis and I were separated :(, she was in the Hanumanthanagara branch which had classes till 6th and I was in Ittumadu which had classes from 7th to 10th. We used to travel in the van every morning. My thatha(grandpa) and ammamma (grand mom)would help us get ready everyday. I still remember my ammamma telling me "Paalu thaagu, Paalu thaagu" meaning drink your milk. My grand father used to take us to the van stop and be there till we left. We used to be so happy if the van driver didn't turn up. I remember once my sister and I were waiting for the van to arrive and we waited and waited for 35 minutes, that driver didnt turn up, suddenly this tall dark and charming guy comes to us and says "Makkale nimage schoolu illa, Nazeer saab has died so you have a holiday", Nazeer saab was some minister then. My sis and I were so happy we literally jumped and said abba schoolu illappa and rushed home. I realized that the guy who told this to us was none other than Prakash Rai also known as Prakash Raj in Tamil filmdom. He used to live in our locality when he was a struggling actor.

Life in Bangalore

I was born and brought up in Bangalore in a typical middle class kannada brahmin household. My mom and dad worked for Canara Bank for 32 and 34 years respectively and took voluntary retirement. I used to live in Banashankari II stage, my grand parents and 2 of my aunts were living with us. My sister and I used to go to JSS high school for 6 years. This school was close to our house and the ayah used to come in the morning to take us every day. She was appointed to help us cross the roads :)). My sister and I would follow her dutifully for a few blocks, once we were sure that our parents were not watching us we would speed away, the ayah would come screaming behind us saying "Ayyo enramma idu ee tarha odtheera, osi ninthkalli".
I made some very good friends when I was in JSS, but alas, I have lost touch with every one of them, if any of you read this blog please do get in touch with me.
My good friends there were:
Archana - Her mom was a teacher in the same school and was called SSB those were her initials
Vidya - Her mom was a teacher and her name is Shanthi Miss
Priyanka - she left school when we were in 6th standard
Deepa and Divya - twins
Kavitha - she is a very funny girl and always used to crack jokes, I just found out that she lives behind my mom's house, so I will catch up with her when I go to Bangalore.

welcome!, yet another blog!!!

Hello all,

This is yet another blog. Well, I have been reading so many blogs out there and have liked them all. So decided to embark on developing my own blog. I decided to name my blog as "Malehani" which in kannada means rain drops.

I would like to use this blog as a platform to share my experience in life with you all.


Chickoo