Once upon a time, I lived in a city called Bangalore, which is now renamed as Bengaluru.I was born and brought up in this city of Bangalore.People used to call it by different names, Garden city, pensioners paradise etc. As kids, we played on roads with our friends till it was so dark, that we could not see each other and then come home.The roads were just roads, no underpass, no magic box, no flyovers just plain old fashioned roads.Most of the roads were lined with huge Rain trees which provided shade to the entire road sometimes.Sparrows were  common and would visit us in our courtyards everyday.
By the way, we dint have a single mall in our city back then.We shopped at our neighborhood grocery shop.The shop keeper knew our family as well.So when we want to the shop and asked for coffee powder, he would give us our brand.Every month on the 1st we would make a huge list of groceries and give it to the shop keeper to be delivered at our door step by the day end.We knew almost everybody in the neighborhood.We knew their families, their aunts, uncles practically entire history of the families in our neighborhood.
We had very few theaters and movie watching was probably once or twice in a year affair.In the morning, some of us would go and stand in the queue at about 9am, ticket window would be open by 10.30am, we would buy the tickets and come back home and then go to the movie at 4pm, with entire family in the evening.The movie  would be implanted in our memories for so long, bcoz of all the troubles we took to watch a movie.Now with the age of Internet, multiplexes, tele booking, the fun in watching a movie is gone.We had only DD1 in our T.V, and would wait with baited breath for Superman series, Laurel and Hardy, Vikram Aur Baitaal.I can still sing Vikram Aur Baitaal title song.
Our schools were close by and we would walk to school with our friends.Our teachers knew us personally and going to school was so much fun when fees was nominal, homework minimal, and cultural activities maximal :) .(Just wanted to rhyme).We went to flour mills with our grandparents to help them,get wheat, rice flour.Stood in long queues in Ration shop, to get ration with our parents.Played with maids children, without being scolded by parents.Our parents, dint know, what were traffic jams, stress, tension and had 9 to 5 jobs.
Those were the days my friend.......
I wish,somehow all that comes back again.My daughter and son  get to experience my long last good old city again.

Which role does a woman play better

Contest

When  I  saw this contest about a perspective as which  role is important . I did not get an answer for a very long time. I personally feel a woman plays many roles and each role is equally important and she plays every role  to her best. Women are genetically made as givers and nurtures.It is scientifically proved that a woman forgives and forgets more easily than a man does.
  So coming back to the point , which role does the woman play better. She is born as a daughter. As a daughter she is adorable, vulnerable and lovable. The feelings which are evoked when you hold a newborn daughter is very different  from the feeling you have when you hold a son. She gives life to your forgotten dreams and aspirations. As a sister , she is protective, friend  and  a giver,  and no matter whether she is younger or elder she will look after and stand be her siblings. As a wife she gives everything she has to make the marriage work. She  embraces a man's home and family as it has been ingrained in her from her birth. She makes his life worth living , just by being there for him.As a mother she is the primary care giver to her child. She makes a decision to put her child first the moment she conceives and stands by it through her lifetime.And as a grandmother  she enjoys and revels in the bliss of her grand kid's childhood which as a  mother she missed it out. And last but not the least, as a friend she is the listener, the advisory and the philosopher.

And which role does she play  better.I guess a woman plays all roles to her best. And any role she puts   a teaspoon of common sense, a pinch of love, and  cup of wisdom and her soul in it. The universe exists because there is women who plays many roles.
As the  sanskrit shloka goes,
Karyeshu Mantri, Karaneshu Dasi,Rupeshu Lakshmi, Kshyama Dharitri, Sneheshu Mata
                                              

And I tag ,
 Sangitha 
Sum
Ally
                  

Lesson Learnt

 Every evening at around 7pm, after my husband comes home, settles down , I leave my monsters with him and go for a brisk walk around my complex. It usually takes around 30 mins to complete 6 rounds. These  30 minutes, are very sacred to me, coz i switch on my i pod and sweat it out in the cool breeze.
Yesterday, a lady who looked 9 months pregnant smiled at me. Now I see this lady from my utility window every morning and evening  going for walks. She walks little slow and appears to be totally pissed of with something. So  I assumed , she must be in the last stage of pregnancy, and I totally sympathized with her, coz  during the last few weeks of pregnancy, I was so tired and cranky and in general wanted to get over with it as fast as I can.

Now, coming to the  main part, So I smiled back at her, she asked me, shall I join you. Not wanting to be rude, I told her, see I walk really fast. I don't think you should be walking that fast. It not safe for you at this stage. Yesterday must have been my lucky day, she got super offended, but still she managed to smile and say she is not pregnant. She has a 9 year old son and a 2 year daughter. Though I apologized I felt stupid , to have passed a judgment on somebody. As it turns out that lady was real sweet and  I went for 3 more rounds with her, even though it slowed me down, just to make up for my error.

Moral of the story: Never I say Never , assume a lady is pregnant until you see a baby coming out of her.

Feel like a Failure Sometimes

 I have been feeling like a loser from past few days. Cant blame the PMS , since its not that time of the month. I am 30, with no job and 2 kids. I needn't feel like a failure, bcoz S can and will feed us and take care of us.But deep down I feel inadequate. Men of my age, my own classmates. have moved up in career, have bought homes, have traveled continents, and few are new fathers too. But where here I am, finished engineering, worked for a year, got married, worked for 2 more years, had a baby and quit. And again joined back to work after a year and half  and again quit to have another baby.
Nobody including S did not ask me or even force me to have kids. It was purely my decision to have them, and quit working and be with each of my babies at least for the first year.So it was purely my choice , but still whenever I meet somebody especially a man, of my age, I  feel little envious, of  his job, of  his house, his sense of achievement, and also the respect he commands.
As a woman, I feel nobody acknowledges that bringing up 2kids with almost no help is a big deal. Lot of effort, sweat and even blood goes in raising kids. I feel its easier to work in an office, but  its very very difficult to stay @ home and literally engage both the kids through the day. Whenever we happen to attend a function, S is called a "Complete  Man". just bcoz he carries  our kids, earn well and still takes care of them. But when I was working after my daughter was born, nobody called me a "Complete Woman". In fact  I  was accused of neglecting the child and getting back to work, when I dint have to earn a living. I just hate that nobody acknowledges the work a woman does in the house, let alone appreciate it.

Things Mom said, but I dint realize

Saw this from a nice blog, but I am unable to link her blog here. So here I list some things which my mom told me when I was small but somehow always ignored what she said, but I hope now when I say the same things to  my daughter, she  will follow it.:)

• Always  wear a good pair of  underpants. I have met  with nasty accidents twice in my life where my clothes tore and my underpants showed, thankfully I was wearing  a decent pair both the times.

• Be presentable, i.e Dress well always. I have gone to the  neighboring shops near my parents place and also now near my apartments, wearing clothes which are faded, and met somebody whom I know and felt ashamed about it.
• Oil your Hair. I still do not do it regularly, and my hair has lost the healthy look which it had.
• Cook little extra. I have been time and again embarrassed , when I have cooked just enough and some one asks for a second serving and  I have none to offer.
• Good sleep is the  best remedy. I still do not follow it, its 12 already and I am not in bed, though I have to get up to feed kulla once before 5 am and again be up by 6am to cook.This has given me huge Dark circles.
• Life is too short to hold grudges.I too know this, but somehow cannot bring myself to stop holding grudges against few people.
• Nobody is perfect. This has made me accept friends , colleagues, relatives as they are, and just shrug off , if they hurt me or disappoint me in some way.
• Do not carry Garbage, throw it. She still tells me, forget the past, don't carry your hurt, anger and regrets thorough  your  life, move on. But I cant shake off few things and still spend many nights brooding over and crying over it.

Silent night

Its around 10:30pm , I have cleaned the kitchen, and put my kulla into the cradle, and sit to catch up some news on net, just then i hear my kullli narrating nursery rhymes, alphabets, months of the year, days of the week and so on. in her room. In the other room I can hear S giving a virtual training session to  his team mates who are based in other part of the world. And all of sudden , my kulli stops the rhymes, tells her prayer, the usual " Ramaskandam" and sleeps.All this happened on a span of 10 minutes. Probably S has also finished his session, and the house falls silent. And all that I can hear is the  sound of my laptop keys as I type.

Pai Vinod, Party Hall Review

Been to an engagement party on Sunday to Pai Vinod party hall. I decided to present the facts about the venue.
The hall with a seating capacity of 100, can be adjusted  to accomodate close to 150 people. It has 2 very small rooms with attached bath rooms and a dressing mirror. It has a dining hall which accommodates close to 100 people at one time. And a small pantry which can be used to heat food. It also has backup generator, and a small dais. The dais is provided with a blue screen for background which can be used for decoration.
The Hall is supplied with food from Pai chain of hotels.Lets come to the main point now,the cost. The party hall can be hired for free, but the food would cost 245 INR per plate. And the minimum paltes to be ordered is 150 plates.So minimum cost comes to 37,000INR The venue is generally given to half a day at a time.The Menu includes:

1. Welcome drink, some kind of juice
2. 2 kinds of dry vegetable palya
3. 2 kinds of Kosambri
4. Pickle
5. Payasa
6. Gojju
7. One kind of rice, namely Bisibelebath/pulav/chitranna
8. 2 sweets
9. Puri sagu
10. Boondhi/Bonda
11. Rasam
12. Rice
13. Curd
14. Icecream
15. Beeda
16. Tambula

Quality of Food: Average, not worth 245 Rs.
Service:Good
Cleanliness and Hygiene: Good

The Decoration of the hall based on design starts from 6500 INR.

Overall Rating: Average. The location is good, with easy access to busstop, auto stand. Hence makes it worthwhile.But the big let down is the parking space, as the cars have to be parked on the Gandhi bazaar main road, which is so crowded that unless u reach early at off peak hours, there is no way that you can find a parking space.

The details are as below:

Address:
#196
Gandhi Bazaar Circle
Basavanagudi
Bangalore -560004
Landmark: Opposite Food World

Phone no:

080-26672580, 080-26508078

Click here for  the exact location on Google Maps:

 

Language Problem

Disclaimer: I am a peace loving, law abiding citizen of Democratic India. And I do love all languages.

  All through my life until I got married I lived in Old Bangalore, where all of us spoke Kannada, since that was our Mother tongue and so was it of others who lived around our place. Bangalore expanded, I got married, moved out of core Bangalore and settled in new Bangalore for work and day care reasons. Now though I am a SAHM, the ease of commute to work from home, makes me put in these new areas.
Now the problem is I stay in an apartment complex, which has people from all states, obviously each of us speak a different language @ home.So when I meet ladies outside, in the play area or while dropping my daughter to school, they start talking in Hindi.  I answer them in English. Then they ask me how come u dont talk Hindi, you should learn.This is when my blood boils .I tell them look, you haven't learn t Kannada which is one of the easiest language in spite of staying all these years in Bangalore. And do note Hindi is not Rastrabhasha as you think. And if u do not know English fine with me, but do not ask me to learn a language, when I am not forcing you to learn mine.

 S feels I sound like an activist when I tell these to people, but I feel, come on, how is it alright for some one to point fingers at me, when I don't at them.

Most of the  Kannadigas  are very accommodating, we learn all languages,we converse in the language you want , have made you feel @ home. But our government which is all scam ridden runs on Kannada language, so don't complain, ask for help people will oblige and translate and even do things for you.So you go to any office, you feel handicapped that you do-not know Kannada and everybody speaks in Kannada , do some thing about it than cribbing.If you feel the maids who work for you, and the housekeeping staff speak only Kannada and have difficulty in learning your language, all I want to say is you being educated cannot learn a language, or finding it difficult to follow, then why complain about  illiterate people.

 I guess I have ranted enough for the day.And my dear readers I am not Bal thackreys cousin, or even remotely related to him, I am just a Proud Kannadiga, who cannot be taken for granted all the time.