A weekend in Chikmagalur

Two months before while we were having tea in our food court, we discussed about family trip and decided to go Chikkamagalur. One of my colleague Rajeshwari’s (Raji) husband went to a Resort named Eagle eye. By looking in to the pictures we were tempted to visit the same resort. We started reading from the internet about some places near Chikkamagalur - the top on our list was Muthodi (Bhadra) – a wildlife sanctuary

Finally we decided to go on 14th and 15th of May which was weekend with 5 families.

On 13^th May, our Tempo Traveler started from Rajeev’s house by 9:45pm. Later Siva > then me > Vinutha and Raji (we all work for same company called SonicWALL). By the time we left Bangalore Mahanagari it was 11:45pm. Me and my hubby (Vadiraj) bought few English VCD’s so that everyone in the Tempo could understand. Movie started in the tempo, few people watched the full movie. Most people slept instead.

There comes a huge speed breaker. I rubbed my eyes to see where we are. I could see Rajeev and Siva in front who are speaking about the road. It was 4:30am, we have already reached Chikkamagalur. As we have reached very early, we went to Rajeev’s home. We made Rajeev’s parents to wake up by 4:30am every one got fresh one by one. Aunty served bisi bisi Chikkamagalur coffee to everyone. From 4:30am to 6:00am the one who entertained us was Mickey. Mickey is a Labrador, who stays with Rajeev’s Family. He is very active and very friendly. He showed all his talents in front of us. He will also help aunty in removing fiber from endocarp of coconut. (I doubt even Rajeev have ever helped aunty in doing this ;-) ) And ‘Yes’ Mickey is damn cute :-)

We left his home by around 6:30am to Mullayanagiri peak which is 20km from Chikkamagalur. We parceled Mangalore buns from the kaka shop in front of his home. It was very tasteful. By the time we reached Mullayanagiri peak it was 7:45am. It stands at 1930 meters and is the tallest peak in Karnataka. We need to walk to that peak which has some around 500-600 steps. Top of the peak had a very nice view. We took nice pictures.

We opened the buns which we had parceled. We stood under a huge tree where we had a pleasant breeze and had buns. On the way back we stooped near a small falls, madam Vinutha filled a bottle of water to taste, along with that she bought a leech into the Tempo.

We had booked a day in Eagle eye resort which is 40km from Chikkamagalur (Crazy right! Yes I know). By the time we checked in it was 12:45pm. There was a Strawberry juice for welcome drink. We had booked cottages which cost 1500/- per person for a night. We discussed in front of the cottages to get together for lunch by 1:30pm. Everyone went to their rooms, got fresh and assembled in front of the lawn. We had lunch. Note: People who are food lovers don’t enjoy this food which is provided by Resort. After lunch we took 30 mins rest and once again got ready for Coracle ride.
We all walked for 15mins to reach the pond. They gave life jackets for safety and 4 person per ride. After finishing the ride we did fishing. Only Mythri was the one who caught a small fish.

We left the pond and started walking to resort. Me and Vadi started first, behind us were Rajeev and Mythri and then followed the line. On the way we saw a big Rat snake crossing the way in front of us. That was the first time I watched a Big Huge Rat Snake just 6-7 foot steps away from us. I was dumb stuck there and our wildlife guy Mr. Rajeev is searching for that snake “Hey where did it go?” Oh Man! “My heart is in my mouth” and he wants to take a look of that creature. I remember I saw one more snake near the water tank in the resort, but it was a small one. We reached resort by 4:30pm and went for tea and snacks. Rajeev started saying stories about the wildlife and his experience being in the wildlife camp. (Rajeev….even we too want to join your wildlife crew onceJ). Resort guys informed us that campfire will start by 7:30pm. After hearing all the stories from Rajeev, we went to the main area of the resort where campfire is held by 7:30pm. Many families assembled there. All of us started dancing, whistling, eating and drinking. It was all fun. As we were really tired we had dinner and was about to sleep, Rajeev informed us that we will be going to Muthodi forest early morning. We should get ready by 5:30am.

Even we were tired soo much, all of us got up in time and got ready for the Wildlife safari. We left resort by 5:45am, as we need to wait for the driver Murthy to come (He was till snoring and he might be thinking these IT guys cant get up in the weekend by 5:30am). We could see the dawn of the Sun in that dense forest (I cant really express the nature beauty here as this can only be experiencedJ) We were not knowing the way to Muthodi forest from resort as per information we got it was just 20km. On the way our Driver Murthy started saying that “Sir, there is no much diesel in the tempo, its only 1/4^th the tank” (Our Murthy assumed that we wont be going anywhere from resort). Whatever the diesel we have in the tank is also not sufficient to go and come back) all were bit tensed coz of this. Finally by asking the people in the village (people here don’t know the exact kms as they hardly use vehicles, they say in guess they started with 5kms) we finally reached Muthodi which is nearly 25kms from resort.

There was a Travera where only 8 people can get in. So me and Vadi were left behind for another trip and remaining 8 members got inside the Car. We both spoke to that forest department guy (I forgot his name) he was narrating stories for us. It was good to hear about our nature...u never get bored. Behind the forest department there was Somavahini River flowing. We both went there and heard the pleasant sound of it. The place is very silent ...we can hear only flies making some noise. But even that was pleasant to hear. Our Driver Murthy was very happy to see the river and he jumped into the water to take bath. After 1 hour a gypsy car came back which had gone for forest Safari. There was one more family and Murthy accompanied us. We all sat behind, Murthy and Safari driver sat in front. Murthy had some itching in his legs. He got down to see wazat. He was wearing light color jeans we can see red...red patches in his jeans. Forest Safari driver told him that its leech which has sucked his blood. Poor Murthy donated blood to leech in forest! We started our journey into the forest. We saw many animals like Giant squirrels, Deer, Sambar, lots of peacock, mongoose, and forest cock. By that time, our gypsy suddenly stopped. Driver told us that petrol is over in the vehicle and we are in the middle of the forest. I don’t know about others but for me it was my first Forest Safari, that too ours was a open gypsy. The lady beside me who had a year old kid started saying “Hey don’t we get tigers and cheetahs here that too we are sitting in a open gypsy”. I had no reply, but I started convincing her “We are not in a Mid forest….I don’t think we get tigers and cheetahs here”. But our driver Murthy started walking in that forest road after seeing a Deer to feed grass. Safari driver and all of us are asking him not to go. (I was very angry at that time, its not enough for him with that leech he needs some other wild animal in that forest to come and bit him). Our Safari driver started saying us that “I saw a dark leopard in this way a week ago”. Mobiles are not reachable and mobiles which are reachable have people who are not lifting the call. Finally from walky-talky he could reach them. After 1 hour a guy came in a bike with petrol (he was our life saver). We started our gypsy and saw a big monitor lizard which was lying on the way. We came back to Forest department. (Huh! I was relaxed, specially that 1 hour, open gypsy).

We left Muthodi and our Murthy informs us that our vehicle can go up to 10Kms. Once again tension. We started asking all the villagers where we can get Diesel. (If I say that in Rajeev’s words it is like, we searched for diesel just like a mad Dog ;-) and Sridhar started saying that we might have left Bangalore in Rahu Kala ...Might be true, as even the Gaadi condition was also bad). We travelled some far and Rajeev’s dad called Rajeev saying that there some Mutt where they have stock of diesel. By the time we saw outside of our window it was that mutt and we took 1 can of diesel and reached the resort by 12:00pm. We requested in reception that we will checkout within half an hour, they agreed. But as we all were damn hungry, we asked that we missed our morning breakfast so we need something in return. They dint agree L we finally had some biscuits and some murku, mixture, benne biscuit (bought by Vinutha, Thanks mam …if that was not there we definitely would have starved like anything). Finally we reached a place I don’t remember a village where had a small hotel. We asked them for 11 lunch plates, they told they don’t have that much as it was already 2:30pm. They told they have dosa. We were soo hungry as we dint had our breakfast also, we told them bring us 2 plates of lunch till we get Dosa. 5 people per one table. Finally we got our Dosa’s. We dint bother about taste …quality or anything but it was just our hunger and stomach.

We reached Chikkamagalur by 4:45pm. We had a plan to go for a water ride in the back waters of Bhadra. We filled our tempo’s (Tempo traveler) stomach. While coming back we played dumb shards, it was full fun (specially Siva’s dance for the right answerJ). We reached the backwater by 5:00pm. It was raining already. But we don’t want to skip this amusement. Me, Raji, Keerthi, Sridhar, Rajeev were ready for Banana ride. Vinutha and Sreekanth enjoyed the kayaking. Banana ride is really adventurous. Guys you should try that once. Over all it was real FUN!!.

Once again VCD was played and people started watching movie. But Rajeev told we continue dumb shards. Few said yes and few said no. Vadi told we will play tom dick harry. We stopped near Kamath hotel in the BC Road. We had dinner. My nose are blocking, I was not able to breath properly, I opened by eyes, we were in the Bangalore traffic signal. By the time we reached Bangalore it was 11:45pm. By the time I reached home it was 12:15pm and Oh God its Monday again. Weekends move very fast right?

Resort where we stayed: http://eagleeyeholidays.com/

A little piece of heaven on Earth

I returned from office on Friday evening. We had to travel to Coimbatore this night as my hubby’s friend house ceremony was there on Sunday. I was like quite fed up with traveling to places for attending functions. But …. This time it was quite interesting, because my hubby told me that we are going for a small trip to Ooty. As Ooty was a place where I have already visited, even though I think it was a good break from work, Bangalore traffic and horrible summer. Soo I was very excited.
We reached Coimbatore in the early morning got fresh and booked a car to ooty. As we had already visited ooty, my hubby’s friend told us to visit Kotagiri. As expected it was a quite moderate climate in ooty. We just visited few places in ooty and later extended our journey to Kotagiri.
Kotagiri is a little village which is about 29km from ooty. Kotagiri is the oldest one of the three hill stations in the Nilgiris. It is not as popular as the other two, Ooty and Coonoor, yet I heard that it probably has the most pleasant weather among the three of them.

It was a beautiful woody path, freshly rain kissed with the smell of pine wafting through. A couple of wild monkeys pranced around. Click click clicky click I went with my camera. Drive from Ooty to Kotagiri, a tonic for eyes, scenic ride. It was drizzling, so we stopped our car to take pictures of the breathtaking beauty. As we dint expect rain in ooty we dint carried any raincoats or umbrella. It was fun getting wet in the fresh, cold rain. I rain danced and my hubby pulled me way back to the car. :0) It was raining soo heavily that even the driver was not able to view the roads. By the time we reached our guest house it was around 7:30pm. I just got out from the car and I guess it was below 15degrees. There was a nip in the air and clean, fresh, oxygen going through my lungs. What bliss that we miss in our crowded and polluted dirty cities. I already felt my skin glow, mind alert and senses at their best! ;-).

We entered the guest house and they invited us with a hot green tea. I sipped the tea, it was aromatic and soothing and I couldn’t help imagine that it must have been freshly plucked and dried from the vast nilgiri gardens outside. Highfield Estate is where we stayed, in the midst of tea gardens, inter-spaced with graceful silver oak trees. After a home cooked hearty lunch made and served lovingly by our guesthouse cook.
I heard some bird sounds, opened my eyes and went to the window to slide the screens. Wow this is amazing, blue mountains and full of tea estate surrounding us. Got fresh and got ready to take a walk in the tea estate. The tea plantation had tea as far as the eye could see!!! There were hills and hills of tea. If we would walk to the top of one hill, we would look out and see more hills of tea. It was one of the most beautiful views. It is surely an experience to behold!

Resort which we stayed in kotagiri. Website: http://www.grimmsvillaresorts.com/

Gufaa Restaurant @ Jayanagar

Planning for a nice dinner in a not so common ambience??? Then, welcome to Gufaa. Placed in a nicely lit building at Jayanagar. But be ready to give out a shriek, the moment you plan to get out of the lift. There are special people ready to welcome you, a caveman holding a lantern & a snake hanging from the roof top. :-P All the lights you saw so far are gone, all that is in front of you is a cave like structure!!! Scared!!!??? You will also see some roots of trees.

Think of having dinner amidst hanging snakes, spiders, webs, creaking birds... Belive me, its going to be an interesting experience & worry not, all this setup is artificial :-)

The moment you enter this cave, you find waiters in the uniform of forest officials dressed like 'Shikari Shambu' (people who read Tinkle know him) and the means they follow to move around this cave brings out lots of childhood memories, yes they use fireworks :o) The menu has a good variety of North Indian cuisine & they are quite good too. Though its at the higher end when it comes to price, I was surprised to see the hotel always housefull. You need to plan atleast a day before and get the booking confirmation.

Another interesting thing to watch here are the kids, I had thought, kids might get frightened, but they were very happy looking at the spiders, small artificial falls & other stuff... A Bangalore bred kid really misses the real ones. They were happily running around the entire cave & a few hotel crew happily joined the kids

The major let down for me was, there is no distinction beween the smoking/non-smoking regions or the drinking & non-drinking regions. So you need to be a bit tolerant to ignore what your next table guy is doing & enjoy the evening.

Be sure to take the chooze (if you are a non vegeterian), stuffed full mushrroms, some stuffed pomgranate starter and the dry fruit rotis. Be sure to savour the evening slowly & peacefully. Don't worry, the curries won't loose their heat, as they put little burners on your table to keep the curries hot till you finish. :o)

The location is Jayanagar 3rd Block, near the ICICI Bank.

Side Effects of being in IT

It was a weekend and I was in my home enjoying with my family. My mom was preparing some delicious food for her kids (no more we are kids but for her we are), mean time I was just sharing my thoughts with her about my company, my feelings, the people I see there. Mean while she cooked some sweets and said me to taste, I just tasted it and gave her compliments for what she has done and washed my hands. She gave me napkin to wipe up my hands; I cleaned my hands and threw that napkin to dustbin. My mom was shock to see me doing this and said hey u threw the napkin to dustbin, then I realized “Ohh its not tissue…… its napkin and I am not in office …. I am in my home”.


Funny but we face this in our daily aspect of life being in IT. While I work in my home everything will be dispersed in rack along with my mobile at the right, when I need to move something in desktop using my mouse I use my mobile. Later I realize ohhh it’s not my mouse it’s my mobile. In office, normally I have my mouse to my right and which is properly set.

It was late night when I reached my home and I was tired with the hectic work which I was doing from morning till night on that day (not every day ;-) ). My cab reached my home by 10:30 pm, my cab driver asked me to sign for the book ( its not a check book anyway) which we need to after every pickup and drop. I drop down from my cab, as I went to my home door was trying to flash my ID card to open the lock. Mom who was waiting for me got to knew some sort of noise and opened our home door. Only after few secs, I realised what i'm trying to do ;-).

The other day one of my brother’s friend (yep...IT Guy) came to our home, as a broker (real estate agent) who knows us was waiting for him to come. I was hearing to that guy talking of a "Standalone" house. When he was actually intending an independent house… Poor broker should have tuff time trying to find an "Alone house standing in a huge empty area…" don't know what interpretations the guy must have made


Once all of my graduate friends thought of getting together and spend some time with each others. We started with mail and ended with SMS. I rarely do send SMS, typing in mobile is the worst job for me. When ever I am forced to reply to the SMS for my friends I always felt why don’t we have Cntrl+C/Cntrl+V OR Cntrl+Alt+Del facilities??? Even in times I search for deleted items in the mobile ;-) ( anyway I don’t find recycle bin in my mobile). Even I tried to call my friends from my landline in home by pressing 9 first.
After talking to one of my friend. I ended the conversation saying ...” Ok bye...in case of any issues will call u back” …. Crap what I am saying.
Later we buddies decided to gather near Forum. My friends already booked ticket, as I went to a movie theatre from office directly.. I showed the guy at the entrance my ID card and walked in…he had to call me back asking the ticket…(Hilarious!)
We returned from the movie theatre and stopped our way to have juice at the local juice vendor and innocuously asked him whether he had a plain 'version' of nimbu pani

Vendor might be thinking which version they need ha ha!!! Later we started our way back to home, where few of our friends started there bikes and scooties, one of our friend’s scooty stopped in the mid of the road as the petrol came to reserve. My friend who was riding said “ I need to restart my scooty” Oops RESTART!!!!

Mission Muskan

She was smiling at me. She was just around 6 years old I guess. I smiled at her back. Seeing her smile, I realized at least I have done one good thing in my life. I have done something for my people in my society. The little girl was one of many children who spend their life in orphanages.

During December 2008, I came up with idea of celebrating my Birthday with orphanages. In midst of our daily schedules, lets do something that would make us feel we are doing something for the society. I know everybody will be busy with their office work, mail checking (:)), Con calls, meeting friends and girlfriends, watching movies, etc. But in spite of these genuine reasons (?), let’s do something for the orphans.

I planned to have my friends and my colleagues (most of them are software engineers) along with me to contribute to orphanages and spend their precious time with orphanages.
I am very much fond of children. So when I had this thought, it really touched, moved and inspired me. So I started to collect the orphanage information from my friends. One of my friends, Mr. Pavan Savalgi helped me in getting some 5 to 6 addresses. Thanks to him once again. That was my first step towards my Orphanage project.

I then went to one of orphanages “Belaku Shishu Nivasa” near Bull Temple Road and talked to caretaker Mr.Mohan. I told him that we are interested to spend some time in service of orphans. We discussed around half an hour on how we can serve orphans and the options we have. We are allowed to help in the form of toys, uniforms, books, medicines, donations, etc. There were 2 options which looked suitable for me.
* We can donate the necessary things (food, play things, books, blankets, etc) to them and one weekend we can go and play with them/ we will serve food for children in their own orphanage.
* Second one requires more budget. i.e. taking orphans to a resort to spend their whole day with us. Transportation and food are supposed to be provided by us.

As I finished talking with him and was on the way outside, same girl of 6 years was sitting in front of me. Then I just went to her and lifted her hand was asking her name. There itself I decided I will complete my project irrespective of circumstances.

There were around 22 children overall in this orphanage. I then enrolled almost all my friends anyway none of colleagues had time to come for this project. Some couple of weeks got passed without any results due to some reasons like hectic work, deadlines, critical issues, conference calls, going to native places, etc

Finally we decided to start on Dec 7^th 2008 to celebrate my Birthday with the orphanage children. Pavan savalgi, Rohith, Priyadarshini, Rashmi Surve, Nagaraj NJ, Kiran Medlery, my cousin brother Mr. Santosh Udupa and my mom along with me went to the orphanage. We decided to sponsor food for one day. And also, we had plans to serve the food in our own hands to children during their lunch and spend some time with them after lunch. We even had plans to distribute stationary good to childrens from our hand. Hence, we decided to meet in front of Orphanage at 12:00 PM afternoon since their lunch time is at 1.30PM. When almost all\everybody assembled near the gate, it was almost 1.30PM and lunch was started for them. There were children of various ages from 6 years to 20 Year old where 60% of them were girls.

All children were sitting in a line and were reciting prayers loudly before lunch. Before starting lunch they told “Annadata Sukhibhava” which really touched my heart by their innocence and cuteness. The little orphanage where they lived looked like a place where heaven touched earth. After there lunch we distributed fruits and stationary goods to all childrens. Later one among those gals showed us fantastic paintings she has done. It was really awesome. After that one after the other the kids became close. I was kidding a little gal to dance, initially she shyed to but after getting pushed by all she danced for Song "Mera naam Chin chin".

We were with children for around 2 hours and then we decided to leave. We get receipt for what ever we donate from caretaker. Then we left the place, had our lunch at Kamat Bugal Rock Hotel nearby and left to our respective houses.

Wish You Happy Deepavali

One of the most popular festivals in the country, Diwali or the festival of lights is a much-awaited festival in the country, and is celebrated with much pomp and splendor. Asklaila gives you the low-down on how the city gears itself up for the upcoming celebrations.
Significant Legends:
As per legend, Diwali is celebrated as the return of the victorious Ram after defeating Ravan, and to signify the end of evil, rows of lamps were lit to welcome Ram and Sita after being in exile for 14 years. Besides this, other significant legends include the end of Narakasura by Satyabhama (Lord Krishna’s wife).
Traditions:
Diwali is usually a five-day festivity. The first and second day is known as Dhanteras and mini Diwali respectively. During these two days, gold, silver and utensils are purchased as well as prayers are done. The third day sees a day of new clothes, sweets, gift-giving, and bursting of fire crackers, while houses and colonies bask in the warm glow of diyas. This continues for the next two days, and is celebrated all over the country, albeit in different ways.
Shopping:
Treat yourself, and your kins to the festive occasion, and pick up traditional apparel from Mysore Silks, Nalli , and Prasiddhi to name a few. Or if you happen to have deep pockets, then pick up designer apparel or two from Ritu Kumar’s or Priya Simran amongst others. Compliment this with jewellery from Tanishq , Krishnaiah Chetty , Ganjam and Orra. That’s not all, pick up some funky footwear from popular stores like Metro , Inc 5 and Soles besides others. With the festive season on in full swing, head on over, and avail of the many discounts and special offers happening in the city. For more details, click here. Besides this, malls too will be bustling with special festive offers.
Head to Cracker Bazaar and Sri Lakshmi Bazaar to purchase your favourite fireworks, or check you local neighborhood playgrounds where many cracker stalls are set-up.
Sweets & Savouries:
What is a festival without sweets? Head to popular sweet shops like KC Das , Anand Sweets , Bhagatrams and Haldirams , and sweeten the deal. Dry-fruits are equally popular, too, and they can be easily purchased from any sweet shops and departmental stores like Spencer’s , All Saints and Food World to name a few.
Have a safe and happy Diwali!

Chandrayaan lifts off! Congratulations!

Congratulations to all team members involve in Successful launch of Chandrayaan-1. Congratulations to all Indians. We are in the list of Elite Lunar Club. I am taking proud to be an Indian. Congrats! Congrats! Congrats! Congrats!

Incredible achievement for our country which could not manufacture paper clips before 61 years!
On the surface it looks like ISRO’s achievement but every one of us has contributed.
There are taxpayers who have paid for our space programme. There are primary teachers who have taught these scientists when they were kids. There are bus drivers who have carried them in time. There are policeman who have kept their homes safe. There are doctors who have kept them healthy.

Aaj puraanee janzeeron-ko toD chuke hain
Kyaa dekhen us manzeel ko jo chhoD chuke hain
Chaand-ke dar par jaa pahoonchaa hai aaj zamaanaa
Naye jagat-se ham bhee naataa joD chuke hain

Nayaa umanga-hai, nayee tarangen, ab hai nayee jawanee,
Ham hindustaanee!

Today we’ve broken old chains. Why should we look back to the achievements of the past? At the doorstep of the Moon is the world. And we are with it.This is the new spirit, new imagination and new youth. We are Indians!

India launched its first unmanned moon mission on Wednesday following in the footsteps of rival China, as the emerging Asian power celebrated its space ambitions and scientific prowess.
Chandrayaan-1 (Moon vehicle), a cuboid spacecraft built by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) blasted off from a southern Indian space center shortly after dawn in a boost for the country's ambitions to gain more global space business.
Chinese astronauts were feted as national heroes last month after their country's first space walk, and India did not want to be left behind.
"What we have started is a remarkable journey," G. Madhavan Nair, chairman of ISRO, told reporters.
India's national television channels broadcast the event live. Some scientists thumped their chests, hugged each other and clapped as the rocket shot up into space.
“The launch was perfect and precise. The satellite has been placed in the earth orbit. With this, we have completed the first leg of the mission and it will take 15 days to reach the lunar orbit,” "Even rain god is very kind on us" Nair announced in the mission control centre.