Love...

You do not love someone...you share the love of YOUR life with them...

(Felt and penned during my recent holiday vacation in Penang)

The dragon fruit venture @ Penang

Never seen color and never seen shape, I and my mom were drawn by the colorful fruit at the entrance of Penang’s market complex. Curiously my mom turned to our friend’s daughter and asked how the fruit tasted… the answer was that she had never tasted one! We were surprised by her answer as she was born and brought up in Malaysia. Now I and my mom were determined in exploring the pinkish red fruit. Our friend’s daughter helped us as translator between Tamil and Malay language as Malay accented English was difficult to comprehend. It was priced 8RM per kilo and the fruit was weighing close to 650 gms…


Suddenly our friend called…and we set aside this venture and proceeded to the left side row of shops… Fishes with exotic colors, half alive squiggling in the plate were splashing the water in all directions. Next there were silent squids a dozen in a plate, moving in a very slight jerky fashion…next were 3-4 baskets of shellfish, prawns, crabs and some other creatures all snailing their way to the top of the basket. Leaving this there were the normal pomfrets and other sea fishes as well. Our friend ordered the fish and we were out. Next row of shops were all selling eggs…normal chicken eggs were brown in color! Till then I have seen only white eggs. There were smaller light blue colored eggs, even smaller dotted eggs…I gathered from the Chinese vendor that the eggs were of a bird called ‘kaadai’ in tamil, he tried explaining to us in English, later Chinese accented Tamil.


Way back, again the pink dragon tailed fruit caught our attention. This time we enquired the next shop where it was priced less by 2RM and immediately we paid and shoved the fruit into our bags. The shopkeeper lady action was very hasty in selling the fruit… maybe that was her usual way. Though our friend assured that the fruit tastes good we were a little bit cautious and bought only one fruit. The fruit was called as the dragon fruit.


Back home we relished on the tasteless? Less-sweet? fruit along with ice…even then, our friend’s daughter did not want to explore this fruit. The reddish pink flesh with embedded black seeds was so good to see that you would want to relish the entire fruit. It stained our tongue pink and the feeling was so divine and wholesome. I would recommend tasting this fruit given an opportunity.

Googling throws light on the innumerable benefits of this fruit (also called Pitaya) and I was surprised knowing that this fruit belongs to the same family as that of ‘Queen of the bight’ bloom. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitaya

The golden girl...

Recently this ad caught my attention in one of the Tamil magazines. I liked this photo for its composition, lighting, mood and the dark colors. The deep crimson red amidst a yellow lighting, and the dark oily green blouse, all give emphasis to the subject. I liked the model's pose flaunting an immense joy in her smile.

The only better thing that could have been done is the position of the hand bangles...the current position makes her wrist look thinner.

Coffee cravings...

A sudden craving for coffee erupted in me yesterday…the craving happened to be so deep that I could feel the black bitter taste of coffee decoction spreading down my throat. I barged into the office pantry and filled myself a cup of coffee. I felt like a kid satisfied holding a lolly pop. But that satisfaction turned into rage when the coffee tasted insipid: it was mere caffeine washed hot water. The anger turned into a sort of unfulfilled wish. The effect of bad coffee had actually created a void in me.

Post lunch and a project meeting, the craving digging deep inside urged me to walk out of the building. Engulfed in a blanket of moist and warm air post a lash of torrential drizzle, I strolled to the nearby food court. Sipping the coffee, I felt the sugary bitterness spreading down the throat, filling my senses. A gush of fullness shot from the stomach and I could feel goose flesh! Finishing the exciting cup of coffee, with the bitterness still clinging on to the palate, I stood up enthusiastically. Walking down to my office, I remembered my favorite verses from Pablo Neruda’s love sonnet XVII “I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, in secret, between the shadow and the soul”

PS:

The moment I blurted out saying that I am not happy with the coffee, rudeness crept in the voices of the pantry manager as he was defending his premises: the ‘I am OK’ sort of behavior. I felt like laughing loud...and suddenly remembered a saying that you cannot wake someone who is pretending to be asleep!

Pomelo pomelo...

Driving back from Lepakshi to Bangalore, fruit carts with huge canon sized lemon caught our attention at Devanahalli... We stopped...sorry the fruits stopped us :) and bought one for tasting it. The lady who was selling them named them as Chakota. We relished on one and bought two more of that fruit.

The fruit's rind was more than 1/2 inch thick and was spongy spongy pink. The fruit was similiar to orange but it was very dry... some exotic fruit we thought and continued our journey.

After lots of googling I found out the name of the fruit as Pomelo, and is called as Chakotra in Pakistan/Afghanistan. It was excellent one to read about the fruit as well. It has lots of nutritive and medicinal properties as well

A grand fruit in the citrus family with a divine taste perhaps...

With some more googling, my mom found out a recipe: She boiled and blanched the rind and made some sweet candy out of it... a bittery-citrus-sweet candy and that is the way real life is...isn't it?

Lepakshi Temple ...Life in stone

We had been to Lepakshi temple a fortnight ago. Lepakshi temple is a typical 16th century Vijayanagar style architecture known for its stone carvings, statues and ceiling paintings. I witnessed one of the finest carvings on stone. For example, the elephant with a tree in its trunk or the coiled snakes or simple patterns like the ones below

Apart from these life forms, there were many designs carved on stone pillars which were really exhilarating .

The whole temple had much for the artistic eye. Just onto the right after the entrance, I spotted what seemed to be a row of horses pulling the temple as a cart...by the way it seems only two horses are remaining now!

In the periphery, a big statue of Linga and seven hooded snake catches your attention the body of the snake has the mesh like leathery texture carved out! A big in-complete stage floor / hall with pillars around really gives you a feel of a stage performer.

The front hall has some of the finest paintings in the ceiling; most of it is ruined, yet a few are in-tact.

A large Nandi or the 'Bull' stands outside the temple facing the God. This is the one which receives you when you drive into the village...

When we were there, a lot of renovation work was going on inside the temple. I wish this temple and its rich art is preserved for generations to come.

Driving to Lepakshi from Bangalore (120+ Kms)

Take NH7 from Bangalore: You cross Hebbal, Devanahalli (Bangalore Intl Airport) and reach Chikballapur. It is better to grab a cuppa coffee or munch something in Chikballapur. You also get a Bharat Petroleum with a restaurant for some yummy masala dosa. Leaving this ,it is just the barren landscape and4-6 lanes of asphalt that would fill your eyes in the next leg of journey. Crossing the state RTO check post on the state border, you get a place called Bagepally with some human activity. Ask for the route to Hindupur, and you would be directed to turn left into a single lane village road. Continue for 12-15 Kms to reach Lepakshi via a village called Chilamattur. You can also reach the place via Doddaballapur, but it happens to be a state highway. No idea of the road conditions

Slow and steady...is more dangerous in this case!!!

I was a middle-school grader when I started hating medicine. My doctor had prescribed a yellow colored pill that use to take the life out of me every time I took it to my mouth: it smelled like hell. After that time, I never encountered that yellow-colored item in my life.Ten years had passed when I came out of house to start my career. From then on every time when I use to come to Bangalore from Coimbatore, I would exactly wake-up to an exact situation experienced decades ago.This was not in my dreams...

It is reality: I wake up when the bus crosses the Bio-con factory area on the outskirts of Bangalore. The whole atmosphere in the area is filled with pungent medicinal smell that poses a severe health hazard. This seems a very small issue when compared to the recent swine-flu epidemic, but this is slow and lethargic.

Swine flu is nature's adjusting technique, but the health hazard posed by irresponsible discharge of effluents from the pharma industry is whose adjusting technique?

The forest route via Masinagudi...Paradise now, In future??

The route from Bandipur to Ooty via Masinagudi is a must visit for nature lovers...if possible on a less polluting bike or a personal car. You can spot wild elephants, different species of deers, wild buffalos, species of monkeys, peacocks and if you are lucky you can spot a leopard. For the binocular eyes, various bird species also call attention. The route via the forest has something for people who adore nature and this was the reason I stressed on a less polluting vehicle.

Till now, vehicle movement was restricted after six pm. Now with pressure from all traders, bus route and tourism operators, the forest ministry has lifted the ban effective this month. This is really a case of concern for environmetalists, wildlife enthusiasts and also local public as well.

The ban earlier was imposed by the Karnataka state government to protect wildlife and the natual reserves in general. The recent action by the central forest minister will cause ripple in those minds who are really concerned in conserving nature. How much money was presented to the ministry is a question for which answers are known only to ministry high officals and those vehicle operators involved.

Equation churning engine...

My friend just now introduced me to a computational knowledge engine christened 'Wolfram Alpha' (www.wolframalpha.com). Computational... what!!!??? leave it...lets call it as maths engine for short. It can do any mathematical computation for you, be it simple differential/integral or be it complex equation solving or be it any engineering equations (Seeing Butterworth and Chebyshev filters in the help page took me to my college days though I do not remember even a bit of it!)

Based on 'Mathematica' as the back end, this tool is really powerful, though slow. The aesthetics of the web page gives a scientific feel. And by saying this I do not mean it is only for the scientific/engineering community. It can even display the nutrition information of food stuffs, give out medical information of drugs, do a host of financial functions and also provide nutshell information on sports, history and many more.

Now that we have got one more engine in this world that churns out solution for equations, its success lies in our success, our idea engine's success or our mind's success. It is diligent in its part and the ball is always in our court to smash...

69 minutes, 10Km, 26th year :)

I completed the 10Km run in 69 minutes today... This run was a non stop one with a walk of 200 meters after the 6th kilometer. Felt happy by this achievement, that too on a day when I enter the 26th year of my existence in this world

World No Tobacco day and Sunfeast 10Km

Today is ‘World no tobacco day’ and today Sunfeast conducted the 10Km run in Bangalore. Except for two small posters no others sponsors including Sunfeast / ITC had posters emphasizing the tobacco health warnings.

How would Sunfeast do that when its parent company ITC is a leading tobacco company in India? Did it forcefully prevent other sponsors from hoarding No-Tobacco displays?

Spotted the black rumpted flameback

I spotted the black rumped flameback last week in our 'Global Village Tech Park' office campus. I thought it was a normal sparrow from far...but as I approached, I could see its red crest and golden back and black & white breasts.
I postponed my lunch and went in further to enjoy the woodpecker's colors amidst the coconut trees.
It was too awesome sight to express it in words...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-rumped_Flameback

Mella mella ennai thottu...

yuvan shankar has done an excellent remix of his father Ilayaraja's musical piece in the movie 'Sarvam'. The hero of the movie hears this music piece whenever his lover is around.

Today I fished out this song from youtube; the original song starts as ' Mella mella ennai thothu....' where the woman wants her lover to caress her in a staccato...Ilayaraja's prelude is also a staccato of violin chords, joined by the guitar with the flute mellifluously filling in later.

I am always against remixing of old songs...but yuvan has done a great job by keeping the original pace and instruments and improvised the recording.

Golden vines...intertwined with her thoughts

Golden vines intertwined with her thoughts...

I loved this still in the recent Tamil movie 'Sarvam'. I liked the lighting, background, her poise, costumes...amazing.
Kudos to the cameraman and costume designer.
Overall the background music score by Yuvanshankar was good.
Camera at most places was the bokeh type shots where the focus is on the subject with the background fading; this was a little annoying to me. And the next major was silhouette shots mostly with blue or red backgrounds. One shot was with the sun in the horizon...
The sets and lighting of the hospital shots in the first half were too exposed and swallowed the subjects unless the costumes were dark colored. In one shot, the same white color costume in the above picture amidst the hospital white background was too bland.

Rain rain come again

Walking in the rain is one of the activities that bring out the child in you…and yesterday I felt like a six year old boy :)

Returning from office by the 8.15pm cab was really boring with people hooked on to their iPod or cell phone talk or on to their own dream world. Just 10 minutes before my stop, rain lashed with heavy winds and woke the guy who was sitting opposite to me. He woke up angrily and took out an umbrella with a heavy sigh and probably wished that the rain would stop.

The rain sprayed on my face with the wind and I wished that the rain would continue...My wish was fulfilled...

Walking some half a kilometer in rain, slow and steady…enjoying the water drops engulfing my thoughts; I remembered my childhood days in Assam. The monsoon sweeping the town, myself on the front lawn playing like mad in the rain, my mom tired of calling me inside and sitting on the portico with my younger sister, then a three years old baby. From 3.30pm till 5.00pm fully drenched in the rain, I went inside only when my papa came back from work…After having a glass of hot milk I was floating paper boats in the water puddles with my sister looking at them…

Really nostalgic thoughts…thoughts of my childhood suddenly flashing and flooding my thoughts after about twenty years…

Watching the weaver

Weaver
Originally uploaded by Puneeth B C

I was delighted by the sight of a dozen weaver bird nests...They were deserted. Late after few minutes I planned to hide myself and hid nearby amidst tall grass bushes. This is the place where I watched their entire behavior pattern from close quarters...about 5 feet from their nests.
The weavers hopped from branch to branch, each time inching towards their nest and each time surveying their territory. Most of the time they were holding long stalk of grass in their tiny beaks. These yellow crested weavers land straight on top of their nest and with the help of their feet and pointed beaks weave the grass stalk into the existing structure. This was at the end of 15 minutes an now I wanted to call Puneeth so that they can be shot through our lenses.
I and Puneeth scrambled on our knees and positioned ourselves but the weavers sensed some risk...they came closer to their nest and again retreat back. Now we resolved to lying on our chest...he with his camera and I with my friend's binoculars. This time we ended up with some good shots. All the muted conversations and sign languages helped us. This was at the end of sixty minutes.

Watching the weaver, we lost our sense of time...We got to know how many minutes passed only when we were returning back from the small stream near which the weaver's colony were...

Spotting the Bee-Eater

Bee-Eater
Originally uploaded by Puneeth B C

Puneeth called me last Thursday and asked if I can join them for the trip to sight the flock of bee eaters that had arrived somewhere on the outskirts of Mysore adjoining the Kaveri river banks. We started late evening and reached there around 10.30 pm...the whole village was asleep except for few who were returning from the city. Our enquiries about the directions to the river banks arouse suspicion of the villagers...we were noted and tracked... Finally we went to the shores and surveyed the site. The moon was shadowed by the clouds then. With the help of two local villagers we camped on the outskirts of the village. Seeing the starry sky and those flickering fireflies made me feel heaven.
Sighting the flocks of bee eaters perching everywhere...it was a sight that defies expression. The intricate colors on the bee eaters neck and the body was awesome through the binoculars. Along with the flock we spotted a pied kingfisher, brown hornbill, white throated kingfisher and a family of weaverbirds. The weaverbirds caught my attention and it calls for separate attention in my blog as well. See you soon with the post on weaver bird...

This photo was taken by Puneeth...

Who rules over our creativity...?

Last week, a bus conductor handed over a old ten rupee note. I became a little bit confused as nowadays any rupee note comes with MK.Gandhi's smiling photo on it...

I always loved the older pre-Gandhi series of notes for its art work. The ten rupee note which I got has the Indian emblem 'Lion of Sarnath' on its obverse and a picture of two peacocks sitting on a tree, with deers and a horse on the reverse. The currency note actually resembles a piece of art. The greyish blue color of the peacock and the beautiful curved designs of the note left me dazzled until I shuffled it into my wallet where other notes were stuffed with same MK.Gandhi on it...

Michael Crichton...!!!???

It is 5 months already and I am getting the news now!!!

A mail from a community within the company linked to a presentation on global warming by 'LATE' Michael Crichton...I was taken aback by this news. Is Michael Crichton dead? and now I googled it to confirm it. A smoker, he battled throat cancer and died at 66.
If the news is true, then why was I not aware of it? I may very well say that I was busy with my project work...and all other odd reasons for why I did not get the news. I do have a single reason why I should have known it... the author, whose 'Disclosure' made me lost into its storyline; the same author whose 'Airframe' was in line with my own interesting subject; the same author whose 'Prey' made me its prey for a week... Anyways I feel sad by the news of the demise, so late...almost five months and now I am thinking how linked I am with the world and its happenings.