Lip stick ? or lip gloss ?

"Hey, you coming to Trichy this weekend?", asked my mom.
I thought a bit and said ok.

"Can you get me this shade of lipstick from Chambor? (some two shades: I forgot those numbers). Its for my friend whom I am gonna meet this weekend in Trichy."
Reluctantly, I said ok and comfortably forgot it. Five more days were there for my travel anyways.

Two days down the line, bored to the core by lack of work, I set out to Garuda mall. Entering shopper-stop store first, suddenly I felt a little bit odd for it was the first time in cosmetic section.

I spotted two sales girl idly chatting and walked towards them.
" Can you help me with Chambor brand products?"

" Its over there sir:
Hey customer for you",
she was not heard for the first sentence, I understood them. she was heard by every others sales girl for the latter sentence, and all gave a quick glance.

I crossed all the maze and reached the counter only for this answer
" Sorry sir, the shade is not in stock"

" Will any new stock come in the next two days"

" No sir, I think its old shades and got phased out"

I could not ask any more questions and was about to leave...
"Sir, would you like to buy some other shades? "

With a polite NO, I thanked her and left the store.



Ten minutes I wandered the mall before entering westside-shop. This time I was a bit confident and the same procedures ... finally standing there at the Chambor desk, I was asking those shades to a lady who seemed to be the boss of the cosmetic section.

" Are you looking for lip-stick or lip-gloss sir?"

what!!!!?, I gave her a blank look

"I dont know, look in both"

She got a bit surprised, but continued her search

" Hey, by the way what is the difference between both? ", I asked.

She gave that ONE puzzled and annoyed look. A look that gauged me.
Suddenly a sales girl interrupted and explained the difference. " The difference is with the moisture and alcohol content, and the retaining time on the lips"

I gave the satisfied look muttering "thank you".
Meanwhile the shade was fished out and immediately processed for billing.

"Sir, would you like to buy some compacts, .... ,...., ...." asked the lady who billed the purchase

"Errr, No" (Actually, I could not follow what she told after 'compacts')

Collecting the pack from them, I bid good bye. It was returned by a wide grinned smile by the four girls.

By the way, what they were wearing ??
lip-stick or lip-gloss?? :)

So big is the World !!!

The day my sister left for Nurnberg, I checked for a road-route to Nurnberg from Bangalore. I know its crazy, yet wanted to check: and lol -- Google maps suggested me a route spanning ten thousand kilometers and via Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, followed by 4-5 European nations and then to Germany!

Why not get the requisite visa for all countries, hop in a car and drive !!
Anybody game?

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?

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

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…

We are ready with our next mission, Are you game?

A fortnight ago, Friday evening I and my friend KK planned for a long trip to Goa, then shortened it to Mangalore, further shortened it to Nandi hills followed by Hosur... and shortened it further: we spent Saturday at the office... Saturday evening, suddenly an idea flashed while returning home and we got down much ahead of our place...
We dropped into our senior colleague Y's place without any notice. We rang the doorbell and hid ourselves near the stairs and just gave him a surprise when he opened the door. We felt some 10 years younger doing this act...
We still felt younger by forming a trio: I, KK and Y's daughter Ria opposing Y. Munching on the ready-cook popcorn prepared by Ria, the trio strengthened by the tea that Y had prepared.
We helped Ria to finish off some school maths and here began the real action...
We forced Y to join our trio for dinner, and to take his car out on a Saturday evening, made him to eat pizza which he hates to the core. It was all fun that evening...

We are ready for another storming action and creating a trinity with Ria...but when it will happen? Any suggestions Y?

Springing Bangalore...

Fresh violet bud leaves sprung up on bare trees a week ago and now are slowly coloring up a realm that is somewhere above 3 meters from the road level... It is pre-spring season in India and the trees have started to turn green!
It is always a pleasant morning these days, waking up to cool morning wind and the lush green trees.I love those orange colored, brown dotted butterflies, yellow striped butterflies that wish me good morning...

Flaring horizon - witnessing today's dusk ceremony

It was 6.25pm, the sun was almost set. Today the sky was preparing its final ceremony with a hue of greenish yellow at the horizon. Relishing the ceremony, I felt for not having my camera with me. Suddenly remembered that my room mate also had the same model camera, I ran and grabbed it, pushed the batteries in and set the lens for the shot and at 6.28 this is what I could capture…

The trees which were a part of the pink explosion mentioned in my previous blog were bare and along with the dusk sky, it seemed like the horizon was flaring...with a passion that it would again host the dusk ceremony tomorrow.

A pink explosion!

This happened last weekend.
The Saturday was a dull day. The trees lining the streets were all experiencing autumn…Not much of interesting sights though. Sunday morning it was like magic! It was as if a pink explosion had occurred the previous night. Certain breed of trees was a part of this explosion and whole Bangalore was dotted with these pink flowers. Bees rejoiced this explosion by bubbling around these flower bunches as a welcome gesture. That sight out of my window made my day more enriching and enigmatic…

Isn't nature ever inspiring and ever understanding? But do we??

Money, ATM and rumors as well...ArE mAn MaDe

Y’day night 11.00pm

The ICICI bank ATM network was loaded by near infinite requests. Account holders of the bank were panic following a rumor that the bank was bust. All ICICI ATMs were almost dry by midnight. If the ATM had life, it would have cried and would have resolved not to be an ATM machine again! Some scolded the ATM as clumsily designed creature, some noted the bank’s poor policies, some cursed India for their own restlessness, some started by saying “In the US, it is …” and most of them were shouting either to their friends standing nearby or over the phone adding to more chaos.

I was one among the swarm of people carried away by the rumor. But seeing the chaos, I felt it was worth losing my money rather than serving me as a prey to the chaos and the cacophony of IT professionals mixing technical jargons to their blabber.

The ATMs woke up to a good day to find that many of their network brothers were dead for they were broke open by agitated crowds at various places. Does breaking open an ATM gave them their money? Certainly not, but the ATMs would have been more happy dead rather than hearing the cacophony of its illiterate brothers and sisters.

Plastics...

11.58 p.m. 29th May 08

It is close to midnight. There is an eerie silence that has engulfed the city as there is a power cut. A shower of rain had thrown the Bangalore city out of gear few hours ago. The rain water did not find an easy path to drain off…they occupied the roads, flooded them: this is the state of engineering here: there are no channels to drain the water into sewer. The situation in the drain is no good. They have their own enemy… plastics; the drains are heavily clogged by plastic covers. This is the state of any city or town at present.
In the process of reviving ‘Noyyal River’ in Coimbatore, nature enthusiasts submitted a report to the city corporation and have got a rule in place which bans usage of plastic covers at all stages. The point here is, the rule exists day-in and day-out and not just on paper. Moving further, I see a great need in creating the basic awareness of waste disposal and I firmly believe that this can be achieved only if we start it from our own home and our surrounding. Few years ago, the then ruling party in Tamil Nadu state issued an order requesting every household to install rain water harvesting sites in their house. Every other household now has it at least on paper. Even then, after an year, the water table rose to a considerable amount…imagine if every other household did the exercise with whole of their heart…
A small tipping point can change the fate of the world…I think so, Do you?
As engineers, we need to design for future at the least and we get the prophecy only by sharing our thoughts and ideas… Are we?

Bangalore...BURN IT

This is a news clipping from a leading weekly in India...a real thought provoking article I have read in the recent past. Do click on the image above for a readable image :)

21Km...I did it!

I ran the Bangalore marathon last fortnight in the half-marathon category. This being my first stint in running such a long distance every kilometer for the first 10Km was a real thrill. Last 10Km was more pathetic with no water at any refreshing point. Till 17Km mark we were doing well, later we started feeling the stress. I finished in 3hours 1 minute (officially recorded as 2 hours 50 mins).When we finished, we felt as if we had achieved a feat which was just a dream till the previous night. Now I am still recuperating from all the physical stress incurred to my legs. I am able to walk: sometimes the legs start paining crazily for few minutes...enjoying the pain

Right Handed :o)

Being right handed means skilled...but being only right handed practically means you are disabled. I thought of this while dressing up for office yesterday using the right hand alone since I burnt my left hand touching the silencer of Bullet-thunderbird. If my hands would have been modular then I would have just removed and kept it aside. Now I am feeling better.

Kudos Srikanth.D.N...

There are people who do things differently...One such person is D.N.Srikanth about whom, I read in yesterday's newspaper. Financial situations forced him to take up the job of a bus driver in Bangalore City bus corporation (BMTC). Now he makes sure that his six trips a day from the city bus stand to Peenya Industrial Area is an intellectual experience for his passengers. He does so by having a small library in the bus, which comprises daily newspapers and some books. Also he makes sure that the water dispenser is filled every trip, so that his passengers need not worry about thirst parching their throats. I am really out of words in praise of him...All the best Srikanth for your future...

Brilliance...Burning Bright

After my usual visit to the temple last Saturday evening, I went to Jayanagar 4th block shopping complex. Of late I spend my Saturday evenings at this place because I like to see the bustling city life here, I love seeing huge crowds of people enjoying their weekend. I relished on ragi roti (pancakes made of certain variety of cereal), a local delicacy. In the fast food corner, I met my colleague Poornima who had come there accompanied by her husband Shyam Sundar. I proceeded to my favourite coffee shop nearby that served traditional South-Indian coffee. Sipping my coffee, I enjoyed the sight of wide variety of people bustling. Meanwhile I happened to notice two bright young boys enjoying their ice-cream. Later we got introduced…The two boys were amazingly brilliant; their brilliance shone in their eyes. I really like to see such people. Good luck boys Pratap and Santhosh. The return walk was a tiresome one perhaps.