America America..

Its been quite an year and a half here in the US of A. When I came here, it was all but an unknown place with unfamiliarity written all over the place. But time does have a way to get you into the groove. Met some real good people, made some extremely good friends and yes its been a phase I would cherish for a long time. From hostility to hospitality, I seen it all here. I traveled quite a bit seeing new places and trying out new things, adventures over the course of the past year. I will recount here, some of my memorable experiences.

Most memorable was the Sky Diving experience. Considering my fright with heights, it was even more special. It was a long term dream. As one person rightly said One check box ticked off the bucket list.  With Pink Floyd playing in the background, seeing yourself at 14000 ft above the ground amidst the clouds is an absolute sight.

Learning to drive a car is always an exciting experience. But not many people would get to do that in an Audi A4. I was extremely lucky to do that, courtesy my friend and guide Praveen.

Cooking!!!! How can I forget that? I like to cook up things. But for once it was for my taste buds and the hungry demon within.  It was quite exciting to cook the various dishes which I have always savoured, from Ragi Mudde to Kashi Halwa. It would be a grave mistake on my part not to acknowledge the people and the fellow bloggers who have made this experience memorable. Abhi, Sanjay and Vamsi were my mentors. Mother and Aunts are always to guide you through the process. N Sushma of Savi Ruchi and Ramya's Mane Adige were my main sources of information. Thanks a ton people.

I know a lot of die hard Harry Potter fans. But I became one, after the awesome ride at the Harry Potter theme park in Universal Studios at Florida.

Reunion in the US..It was just a couple of years ago, that we were joking about the possibility of a reunion of friends in the US or UK. And how it came true!!

US has been all about new experiences, carefree attitude and some wonderful people. There is more to come.

Prayer - An Attempt to translate Deepavu Ninnade by Dr.K S Narasimhaswamy

My Prayer (Translation)

This life is but a candle in the wind and it’s your gift,

Pray don’t blow out this light, let it glow till I cease to exist.

I am but a cruise in this vast ocean of life, filled with emotions,

Please do not sink me, I am en-route to find my love, my sole destination.

I see all these huge hills, these beautiful valleys encompassing your might,

Let my love blossom through these and brighten up my sight.

 The thundering storms, the clear skies, you have given me all to bear,

In these I adore your splendour, for I know you will lead me through this lair.

I see you through the words of the epics gone by,

I talk to you when I write this prayer of mine,

Your voice beckons me , towards the future,

 I hear them, in all the sounds of the nature.

When the dawn breaks, you remind me of a child’s smile,

The chirping birds bring down the tiredness of all these miles,

Help me find, both in sunshine and the shades, your beauty,

I ask no more, am already under the debt of your generosity.

                                                                                     

Panjarada Gliya Haadu ....

       ಪಂಜರದ ಗಿಳಿಯ ಹಾಡು 


ಯಾರದೋ ಆಸೆಯ ಹೊತ್ತು ತಂದೆನು,
ಯಾರದೋ ಭಾಷೆಯ ಕಲಿತು ನಿಂತೆನು,
ನನ್ನದೆಂಬುದು ಉಳಿದಿಹುದು ಇನ್ನೇನು?
ನನ್ನಲ್ಲಿ ನಾನೇ ಪರಕೀಯನಾದೆನು.

ಆಡಿದ ಮಾತು ವಿವರಣೆಗೆ ಗುರಿಯಾಯ್ತು,
ಆಡದ ಮಾತಿನ ಆಳ ತಿಳಿಯದೇ ಹೋಯ್ತು,
ನಗೆಯ ಅರ್ಥ ಸಂತಸ ಮಾತ್ರವೇ ಏನು?
ಅಳುವು ಬರೀ ದುಃಖದ ದಡವೇನು?

ಮನಸ್ಸು ಏನೋ ಹೇಳುತ್ತಿದೆ,
ಏನೋ ಬೇಡಿಕೆಯ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಿದೆ,
ಅರಿಯದ ಭಾಷೆಯೆನಿಸಿದೆ,
ಇಲ್ಲ, ಮೌನದ ಮಾತು ಇಂದೆನಗೆ ಕೆಳುಸುತ್ತಿದೆ.

ಚಿಂತೆ ಇಲ್ಲದ ಮನಸ್ಸು ಯಾವುದಿದೆ?
ಸಾವಿಲ್ಲದ ಮನೆಯಾವುದಿದೆ?
ಸಾಕು ಬಿಡು ಈ ಸಾಂತ್ವನದ ಮಾತು.
ನನ್ನ ದುಃಖವನ್ನು ನನೆಗೆ ಅನುಭವಿಸಲು ಬಿಡು.

Neenillade - Kannada

             ನೀನಿಲ್ಲದೆ 

ಅದು ಯಾವ ಜನ್ಮದಲ್ಲಿ ನನ್ನೆದೆಯ ಇನಿಯಳಾದೆ,
ಅದು ಯಾವ ಮೈತ್ರ್ಹಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ನನ್ನ ಪ್ರಾಣದ ಹರಣವಾದೆ,
ನನ್ನ ಸುಖದ ಸರಸವಾದೆ,
ನನ್ನ ವಿರಹದ ವಿರಸವಾದೆ.


ಸಾವನಪಿಹುದೋ ನೀನಿತ್ತ ಚುಂಬನಕ್ಕೆ ದುಃಖ,
ಹೊರಬಂದಿಹುದೋ ನನ್ನಾಸೆ, ಕೊಪ ಮಂಡೂಕ,
ಚಿಗುರುತಿಹ ಕನಸು ಅರಳಿ ಹೂವಾಗಿಹುದು,
ಮರಳಿ ಮುರಳಿ ದನಿಯಂತೆ ಮನಸಾಗುತಿಹುದು.


ನಿನ್ನ ಹಾಡಿನಲ್ಲಿ ನನ್ನ ಕಾವ್ಯವ ಕಾಣುವೆ,
ನಿನ್ನ ಕನಸಲಿ ನನ್ನ ಆಸೆಯ ಕಾಣುವೆ,
ನಿನ್ನ ನುಡಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ನನ್ನ ಭಾಷೆಯ ಕಾಣುವೆ,
ನೀನಿಲ್ಲದೆ ನಾ ನನ್ನೇ ಹೇಗೆ ನೋಡುವೆ.

Dasvidaniya....Say good bye to your self imposed restrictions.

Its been a long time since I blogged. Three days more than an year to be precise. The topic of writing today Dasvidaniya.. A very well made movie. It will definitely not bore you but if you are a typical Sharukh fan I am not so sure..No offense meant. I wanted to see this movie because my previous experience with Bheja Fry was very good. And Dasvidaniya did not disappoint, I must say. It somehow gives you the extra impetus to ask yourself "Do I really have to wait till I learn about my last days to do what I want?" I think I could relate to this truly. Even though I do not know about my death I surely, for a fact, know I have not done a lot of things that I would have loved to. It has given an extra push to rethink what I always wanted to do and pursue it with renewed vigour. I think almost everyone is like this. They keep pushing things giving some reasons or the other. Its very rare that a person lives for himself. He always sees a lot of faces with responsibilities glaring at him to make a decision which will let him be himself and enjoy what he wants to do. People who go beyond such trivial matters end up as the best ever. I don't know if I will do everything I wanted to but sure now I have a reason to get started. The reason that Dasvidaniya told me is "You don't need one. If you keep searching for a reason you will see a lot of rationalities and distractions associated with it". So go ahead pursue what you think you can for now. Life can't wait....

Dasvidaniya until next time.. 

Yayati - A tale by two authors

After a long time I started reading and what better way to start than with my favourite author, R K Narayan. I read Ramayana and Gods,Demons and Others. Both are about the mythological stories we used to see on TV and used to hear read through books.Even though I knew most of the stories in the book in one form or another, there was ample enthusiasm in me to go through each and every story as if I was reading it for the very first time. One quality of a reader, according to me, which is very essential while reading a book is to shed preconceived notions about the book or the subject. Only then he can enjoy it thoroughly.
Coming back to the books, I enjoyed them thoroughly. But one story that caught my attention was Yayati. I had read a Kannada drama Yayati written by Girish Karnad. So I was eager to see howR K Narayan would recite the story. But I was taken by surprise how author's can represent characters.This made me put my thinking cap on. Girish Karnad was trying to capture the anguish of Puru and the greed of Yayati in his drama while R K Narayan was trying to just put across the story of Yayati to the common reader without putting too much of a debate in the reader's mind. It did not seem that the author was as excited about the characters of Puru and Yayati as much as Karnad was. While R K Narayan does not dwell into making the reader judge the character of the protagonist Karnad makes people go into a judgmental mode as when the characters are etched deep into the reader's mind. And what an impact it was.

After all this comparison I must say, I am not worthy of being a critic to these two outstanding literary works. I was trying to project my state of mind when I was reading the story of Yayati as written by R K Narayan in Gods, Demons and Others.

The Green Trek- From Donigal to Kukke

The timing could not have been better. The news was in the air that the Bangalore- Mangalore train will start chugging by September end. Even though there was lot of speculation in the air regarding the starting of the passenger train service, we did not want to take a chance. So we decided to have a go for it. And so the journey began from Donigal to Kukke Subramanya. It was a railway trek in the sense that, the trek involved moving along the railway track that ends at Mangalore.

We started off from Bangalore on a Friday night and boarded a bus at around 11.00 pm. Reached Donigal station at around 5 in the morning. Donigal station is a very small station may be some 5 kms from Sakleshpur. The track was mainly used for goods transport. The road after Sakleshpur is very bad. So we had to rest our backs for a while so that we can be ready for the adventure. It was definitely a challenge considering that nobody even gave us a chance when said our aim was Kukke Subramanya. We had set our targets for the two days. 4kms per hour was the aim. 49 kms was the total distance. We saw a small water falls like body which was convenient for us to take a shower. We just hopped in, had a refreshing shower and then started off. As we moved on we took lots of snaps and enjoyed the surroundings, the greenery blessing these eyes which had grown sour of City Lights. This was just the beginning. We encountered a river which was flowing quietly adding to the serenity of the nature. We just took a break, had our breakfast rested ourselves. Since it was a really long time since I had actually trekked the strain was showing on me. But nothing could deter me. It was a challenge that I had taken upon myself.

By the way we carried bread, chapatis, biscuits, fruits and avalakki (beaten rice) to serve as our food. The long bridges which were around 200 - 250ft high, the long tunnels engulfed in a blissful darkness and the gorgeous mountains just took our breath away. We had to cross Yedukumari on the first day itself since we very well knew that the station master over there would not allow us to spend the night. So we stepped up the accelerator just to make sure we reach the next station in time. We stopped at the next station after Yedukumari and decided to spend the night there. The station was under construction and there is no station master deputed there. There were a few workers who were working on the station building. We inquired with them whether we could spend the night over there. The under construction rooms were empty, which facilitated our stay. We ate our chapatis and just slept away to glory. Although I could not gather complete sleep the rest energized me for the next day.

Second day:

We started off after having breakfast our breakfast at around 8am. As we moved we met another water falls where we thought of having a refreshing bath. It was natural massage to our aching bodies. All these tiny water falls were a result of the continuous rain in the region. They were a boon to us. The scenery was breathtaking. We had seen all this and more in movies and thought it was beautiful. But in reality it was much more than that. The beauty of the trek ended as we neared Kukke. After completing our special lunch(heated avalakki + chatnipudi) at Shirivagilu, we started off to what was the last stretch. When it was around 4 kms to Kukke all the remained was a hot afternoon and a dry surroundings. But everything was braved and we reached Kukke station by 5.30 pm. 12-13 hours and 49 kms . Awesome feeling, a sense of achievement. Once we reached the main town of Kukke we visited the Subrmanya temple, had our dinner and made our way back to Namma Bengaluru.

The body was tired but the soul was replenished. A sense of satisfaction filled within. I do not think we can make it again since the train between Bangalore and Mangalore has been flagged off. So until I get another chance the memmories will be cherished and for a long time to come.

If you can read this post completely, thank you.

Until the next post Adios.