Definition of Pleasant surprise: Trip to Chikmanglur

How can one create pleasant surprises? Expect the worst... and when those are continuously exceeded... event after event... one gets amazing experiences.... the pleasant surprises.

Behind The Scenes
As the trip was planned three weeks ago, we were expecting a big gathering. As usual, there were a lot of drop-outs, and we were five of us... the darbaris (sumu, manoj, me), Meenu n Dilip.
Personally, for two reasons, I am pretty happy that Dilip joined the trip. First the last trek we (darbaris n dilip) did was almost two years back (to the Himalayas). Second, he needed a break, given all that he has been through off late.
Only at Friday 8pm we got back to the drawing board to freeze the plan. (We had to wait till we get all the confirmations of who are not coming). Then we were discussing two options: a night stay at Chikmanglur or a day trip to Sravana Belagola. We then decided to continue with Chikmanglur as planned, even though it meant a pinch to the pockets. After all we do not get time. We did not have a hotel booking but we have taken note of few hotel ‘prospects’. That’s the only prep we did.

Drive to Chikmanglur:
The next morning we planned to start by 8:30 but got delayed by an hour. The first thing we did was to get the flat tyre done. I had it over the last weekend. We did not want to take a chance on the highway and wanted to have the spare tyre handy. Then followed it with a big cruise to Yeshwantpur which took an hour. Next was a stop for breakfast. We stopped at Agarwal bhavan, near the Jalhalli circle on Tumkur road (a suggestion from Murali). It was awesome. You should taste the ghee filled Dosas and the curd vadas. Yummy!! We also got a few Kachoris and mini-samosas packed for the short-eats in the journey.
We started at 1200pm. The route we took was Peenya-Nelamangala-Kunigal-Chanarayapatna-Hasan-Belur-Chikmanglur. Till Nelamangala it was Tumkur national highway. The road is horrible because of the flyover construction. That’s one reason we did not touch the shimoga-chikmanglur route. From my past experience (with the former route), we preferred it. This is a state highway but is really good. Till Kunigal (80 kms from bangalore) the road is dotted with diversions and speed breakers. After that it is a zip through. There are only a few villages in this route, so not much of pedestrians crossing the highway.
Just after Chanarayapatna, we had a scare. Most of the highways in Karnataka have no indications of humps. We were caught unaware of one such hump, and Sumesh (For a change, this time I drove less. He was behind the steering of A-Star for most part of it.) had to bring the car to a screeching halt. Literally screeching, we also smelt burnt rubber from the tyres, while coming down to 0 from 120. The worst part is that the cars without ABS will start skidding at such great force. You need to experience, to understand how helpless a driver can be when car starts skidding away. Only two things can actually help in those situations: dirver’s skill and luck. And we had both coming to our rescue. We cleared that one off safely.
After crossing Hasan (200kms from Bangalore), we took a break at Kamat Upahaar/CCD at 2pm. We stretched our selves, then had the Kachoris and discarded the idea of having food at Kamat. One advise to those who plan to stop at this Kamat. The wash rooms are at least a one kilometre away from the actual entrance . So suggest you to stop after the CCD or the BP petrol pump, so that you can escape the long walk. We decided to sip some cold coffee from CCD. One interesting thing we found is a pedestal fan. The big fan had a mist blower. So the breeze which it was blowing was cold. I liked the idea of blowing some water mist from a fan. Despite all our efforts we could not figure out the make of the fan.
Anyways, we resumed our journey. We crossed Meenu’s fav windmills just before Belur. (Last time, in our trip to Manipal, we stopped here n took a lot of pics and videos.) By this time we came to know that the Hotel Grendale Stay was completely occupied for the night and had no rooms available. So we wanted to check the next one on our ‘prospect list’: Nature nirvana. Manoj had read a few negative reviews about this and wanted to be sure we are not heading for a wrong one. So he did some more research on web and found out that the approach road to this resort is not good. I then called them to check. The price they quoted was Rs1600 per head. This included the stay, three meals, trek n pickups. We thought it was a good deal given the cost of other hotels. (Grendale was charging 2000). However as a sales guy i cant help haggling and so I asked if they can give it for Rs. 1200. That guy did some calculations and enquiries and finally gave for Rs1200. Probably I should have asked for Rs.1000. :).
Our next scare was somewhere after Belur. We had to get the vehicle to another screeching halt. I do not remember now what happened exactly. Anyways all the way, it was pretty hot in our drive and we never realised we were in Western Ghats. As we neared Chikmanglur, suddenly there were showers. It suddenly dawned to us that we were in the hills. We rolled down the window panes and there was the rain. We have experienced the first rains of 2010. :). We went drenching to an ATM in Chikmanglur n I liked it. After experiencing the Bangalore summer, the nice heavy shower was the first pleasant surprise we had.
The resort was one of the bababudagundi hills.(check the story on wiki about him). So we took the Datta peeta road, in direction of kemmanagundi hills. We religiously followed the route which the hotel manager has sent. The message read “Reach Kaimara 7kms from chikmanglur, take left to Attingundi 16kms, reach Sampige katte 5kms”. Two things which are worth mentioning here: the western ghats are awe inspiring - every visit to them is always new. Next, a blind man telling us the way to Sampinge katte. We reached the village only to find out that there was no jeep waiting for us as promised. And there is also no signal to call the manager. Luckily Dilip’s BSNL number came handy. Remember to take a BSNL mobile if you are hitting Western Ghats next time around. After intimating the manager, it took more than 45 mins for the jeep. We were disappointed with that. But then our usual debates kept us occupied. We had a big discussion on Indian behaviour habits (I just came out from a Belgian delegation conference the previous day), the movie ‘Leader’ ( a new telugu movie) and other things.
Finally the jeep arrived, to take all of us to the resort. We requested for that as the next 7kms was a private road of the estate and is muddy, stone filled and can prove fatal with five people in the car. So except for me and the resort manager everyone went in the jeep. Both of us, cruised the next half an hour over the winding, dusty, stone filled, dangerous road. But I had an interesting conversation with him. Here are the few points which can be useful. A coffee estate would cost Rs. 6 to 10 lakh per acre. The amount to invest for seeds, pesticides and labour are Rs. 30,000 per year per acre. An acre would produce around one ton of coffee. It would fetch Rs. 70,000 per ton in market. So it 60% gross margins, better than IT businesses. :). An optimal business would be to have around 10 acres with around 30 labour. The peak time labour will go up to 90 in that case.

Stay at Nature Nirvana
The first glimpse of “Nature Nivrana” is itself a pleasant surprise. You would not imagine such a nicely made resort in middle of muddy roads, thick forest and plantations. It was quite good. Our welcome coffee was relaxing and rejuvenating. (They brew it for themselves). Then we started with Volley ball. I am playing this almost after a year. I liked the very thought of playing the game which i perfected in my engineering. For next 20mins, everything was going fine in the game until Meenu hit the ball over a fence into the dense plantations. Next ten mins we spent searching in the thick dark plantations, but to no avail. We gave up and started off with basket ball. The first, short, match we (manoj and me) scored two against zero (Sumu n Meenu). For the next match Dilip joined Sumesh and Meenu. Three of them scored better off.
By this time the snacks were ready. Pakodi/bajji. We savoured all of them and ordered for more. There was also a bigger group in the other side of the resort. These people were playing nice, loud music. So we spend sometime over there. Then back to business, we had a long discussion sessions over nice cocktails (vodka with mixed fruit and ice). A few things which I discovered over the conversations:
1. How Dilip avoided ragging in his college days?
2. Why Sumu never been into drugs and Manoj not been to drinking?
3. Meenu’s Engineering days at manipal.
I would leave it for you to find out the secrets from them.
After dinner we had a long session of “Hearts”. It is always fun to play cards. And when it is next to bon-fire it is just a pleasant surprise which you never think off. Sumu smoked for first time. At least i have not seen him do till that day. Gosh!! No wonder, I felt short of cigarettes that night.
Next morning we woke up early for a trek. We climbed through the thick plantations, through the steep slopes, crossing the streams. After a half an hour trek we reached the top sun-set point. From there we got a nice glimpse of the Mullanagiri mountain. We heard different versions, and one version says this is highest peak in Western Ghats. On our climb down we saw a mango tree witha height of more than 200 feet high. And the rest of the journey back was a discussion on can mango wood be used for making furniture.
We played dumb-charades as we waited for breakfast. That is again one game which I mastered in my college days, but now lost touch. We then had a heavy breakfast and set on our next expedition. We wanted to do some boating and get into the water falls. Unfortunately the boating was already occupied by the other group and we decided to go with our trek to waterfall. Though we had an option of a safer route, we preferred wading through the stream. We slowly trotted our way through the slippery rocks until I finally crashed. I was about to climb a big rock and suddenly my left foot slipped and I had a fall into the deep waters. Worst part is that I had a towel hung on my neck which absorbed water and bloated to weigh almost 2.5kgs. It did not allow me to come up and instead kept pulling me into water. After taking the towel from my neck, I could finally manage to come out. Then I realised I hurt my chest badly with the crash. Fortunately, no broken ribs. :). Finally we reached the water fall.
There is always this fear of getting into cold water, until one takes a plunge. That’s what we finally did. And then it was fun. The water, when it falls with a great force on the back, gives a feeling of soothing massage. And we experienced it for the next one hour. One always falls short of time when in water. Here I need to mention about this creep behind the water falls. It was so big and so dark that sumu invented this story of an anaconda hiding in the creep. The water fall experience is our final and big surprise. We never expected the resort to have such a nice and small private water fall.
We dried our selves basking in the sun and then walked our way back to the room. We then had a carom board session. First game, I beat Sumu. I should admit that the way I won the game was just out of the luck. I am never good with the striker. Next game Dilip too had a lucky hand at beating another pro, manoj. Now the final between Dilip and me is still pending. :).

Journey Back
We had a sumptuous lunch session, packed our bags and started on our journey back. We thanked and tipped the manager and the helper. It was because of them we had a very wonderful time. I would advise to stay at the resort to anyone who plan a trip to chikmanglur. On way back, dilip and myself drove back while Manoj, menu and sumu came in the resort jeep. Back on the highway we took a short break. The jeep-takers had to wash of themselves off the red-dust. I should here mention that the whole area is filled with iron-ore and hence has a lot of red dust around. You need to see to believe the dust which Manoj piled up on his hair or his shirt. Since the jeep ground clearance is high, the wheels, throw a lot of dust tangentially into air. This makes a jeep journey always a dirty experience. Literally. :).
I was behind the steering till chikmanglur so that sumesh can have a nap before gearing up. I missed the route somewhere in middle and got on to a road to mullanagiri (remember we saw it in the morning on the trek). Luckily we realised before it was too late and then retraced back. We reached Chikmanglur by 4:00pm (started at 2pm at resort). We wanted to buy coffee at Vijaya coffee traders or Panduranga. But both of these were closed as it was a Sunday. We filled fuel at the Indian oil pump immediately after crossing chikmanglur. It can come handy if you are planning a trip there.
On way back we had a few scares as well. Sumu tried overtaking a vehicle on a curve and he nearly gave heart attack to the Maruti 800 who was in opposite direction. :). We did a marathon driving session to cover the maximum distance before the sun sets. We reached Kunigal (120kms) by 6:20. We took a break at a small tea shop and had our fill. We resumed the last leg at 7 and reached Nelamangala by 8. This is the most difficult part of the journey since the highway was under construction and we had vehicles coming in opposite direction in the same lane. This was aggravated by lack of proper signs to indicate humps or diversions. We then had another scare, after that. There was Toyota corolla before us and he paused for a speed breaker pretty abruptly. This time around I was behind the wheel and had to get it to screeching halt. The wheels skid, but experience and luck again saved us. We took the NICE road to reach bannerughatta road and from there reached BTM. It was around 45kms from there and took 40 mins and a toll tax of Rs.60.
Overall the trip was awesome. The resort was lavish and as usual our conversations made it exciting.

Womenhood - Media mockery

I am surprised to see media celebrating women in power. Even today’s Times of India, Bangalore edition has a full page article on “Women Bouncing Back”. Why is “Women Heading a Company” still a news? Is it not that we already accepted women in main stream. Did we not see many women already make it big? Are the days of “Kiran Bedi – the first IPS officer” not over? Why is “Pratibha Patil – Women president” needed to be a headline when we already accepted Indira Gandhi is one of the best politicians the world ever had? Why does media still make women feel that the world has condescended to help these women come to power. Its not that only few women (as in the headlines) who made it big but there are thousand others around us who are doing amazing effort in every field they are in. So then why this mockery that their are only a coveted or privileged few...we have them all around.
I am also surprised by the context of “World Women’s day”. Are Women not humans? Then why should one celebrate a women’s day? I know of dedicating days for relationships: Mom, Dad, Sister, Valentine. I know of dedicating days to species that are extinct or going to be extinct: World Sparrow day, World Tiger day. Under which category does a women’s day come in?
All through that day they were freebies for women. (yeah ... Meenu got a dessert n mocktail free at Rolls unlimited). There were special programs aired that day. Does that mean to distinguish women from “humans”? Are they not part of it? Does that mean women are to be celebrated and pampered only one day? Rest of the year is as usual “Adam dominating Eve”? Is this not creating a rift for women and encouraging disparity?
I don’t know what in general a lady's take on be, but I was sweetly surprised by two reactions for “World women’s day”. First is a blog article from Preeti who said “I want to be accepted as I am…I want to celebrate the idea that I am a Woman.” ( she has an interesting blog on the same http://preetidutta-onthewingsofadream.blogspot.com/2010/03/on-women-s-day.html). Second is from Madhurima. She writes: "Being special is a right reserved within us and demands chivalry from our end to accept it." (Another interesting blog: http://madhurimadas.blogspot.com/2010/03/from-skeptic-in-me-to-thinking-me.html). I should here accept that I have quoted them without permission, but i believe that should be fine.
Anyways, my two words for media... Stop celebrating a single lady’s success as a success of entire women folk. No they are individuals too (just like men) and each should be credited with their success. We are in a world where every woman is capable of achieving and those who achieved should be rewarded. Don’t ignore individual success in celebration of womanhood.

Bucketlist ....

I had always posted something serious in the blog here. Today I thought I will be more expressive and post something about myself.

Once a friend asked what my fantasies are. And spat came the reply ... "I dont fantasize. I plan". It might be a bit surprising but thats me. I dont imagine but plan my dreams.

So here is the list of 13 things (thats my lucky number remember?) i want to do in next 2 years:

1. Do an all-boyz trip to Singapore for the casino, wine and belly dance. (prob for my bro's bachelor party :P). Of course restricted invitees.
2. Build the business development process at the current company. And in process learn the art of building a business.
3. Publish a couple of more papers.
4. Go on a business trip to US and Europe. Do not want to travel much but short trips.
5. Learn Golf.
6. Do parasailing.
7. Run for the Bangalore marathon this year. (in May). If I get some good company I will also do a car rally with my A-Star.
8. Do a second trek for Himalayas. This time around I want it from Srinagar. I also plan to cross POK and visit the ruins of Sarvajnana peetham (Sarada peetham of Shankaracharya) in Neelum district.
9. The next one year is going to be tough for Dad, so I want to share the major part of the burden for him.
10. Get involved more in managing family property.
11. Invest in a fixed asset
12. Adopt a girl child. (I can dare to father even when I am single). If I really need to help someone I need to donate not just money but time as well.
13. Had enough with girls, plan to marry someone my Mom chooses and become more stable in life. (Of course this has to be the last one on the list. Dont expect anytime soon. :P.)

That's it for now!!

Save Wild life, save environment ... how much?

1411... this number is as popular with Indian public as 26/11 or 9/11. It rings a bell that something is dying and the doomsday is fast approaching. The "World Savers" have created an aura on the activity of saving animals as though they are demi-Gods warding away evil forces. As a kid, I grew up with a strong inclination towards wildlife protection, diversity preservation. In fact even this day I contribute to Greenpeace. I suggest they should be certain social responsibility towards environment. Else even the most responsible guys go waver. The best example is that of the Tatas messing up in Olive Ridler turtle case.

But all the hoopla on saving endangered species is conveying a wrong message. It shows as though Man is responsible for the extinction of all the species till date and we are about do one more. The truth is in the process of evolution there will be many species which die a certain death. Any kind of mitigating methods might not help. Evolution dictates that those creatures which are in the equal harmony with the current eco-system have to live and the others should perish. This is one reason why we cannot have dinosaurs living in this age and why man cannot live in the pre-jurassic era.

How far is man responsible? Man has made several changes to the Mother nature. But we are not the only creatures who made such big changes to natural surroundings many other creatures do. Beavers dig up new trenches and create new water paths, knocking down the flora and fauna in the way. Dinosaurs ate so much greenery on planet earth that even at that time there would have been a big deforestation campaigns every day. So it is not that, Man alone has made all the radical changes and is destroying earth.

Though man is responsible for making many alterations on the nature, it is not he has done a grave mistake. As a part of evolution, we have evolved to such a stage when our deeds are influencing other creatures. This is for the first time that man has done this, but this is not the first that nature has experienced something like this. There were meteors which influenced nature abruptly and suddenly. There were catastrophes which altered the type of species that thrived and lived later on. So this is nothing new to nature. It has its own mechanism to rebound and get back to normalcy. Consider this: Man's deeds can cause extinction of certain species like Tiger or Elephant, but can his deeds wipe out cockroaches, rats, lizards from the planet? No they cannot as they too have evolved alongwith Man to live in this modern ecosystem. If certain species cannot cope up with the changes, then the species are better to left to nature to decide. Probably they might evolve and adapt to human ecosystem, just like dogs have evolved and tempered from Wolves. (Imagine generations from now there will be domesticated tigers which people can nurture at their homes.)

Then what should be Man's responsibility. As a denizen it is the responsibility to strive to protect a species to certain extent. This should be done in the limits of his capacity and by not compromising on his development (Are the advanced countries listening?). He should strive his maximum extent to protect tigers. After all, even I want my future generations to see what a "Panthera Tigris" looks like. But that does not mean that Indian government should stack all the money in the forest department office leaving the defense and social sectors. We are not here for the purpose of charity or chastity but we have a generation to evolve and pretty assured that Mother Nature will catch along soon.

My New Name Is Sekhar And I Got It Over A Saturday Night Bash.

The weekend was crazy for me, starting from Friday night (26th Feb 2010). I (and Murali) had a planned trip to chennai. But unfortunate events triggered the beginning of a memorable weekend:

1. Train tckts to chennai did not get confirmed. Luck was so bad that the waiting list slid down from 168 (three days back) to 8 (on day of travel) swiftly and then froze there.

2. We realised the above state at the 11th hour ... I mean literally at 11 o clock... so we never had a chance to catch any other alternative bus or train.

3. Thanks to gym, I was already getting late and had to rush to Yeshwantpur without dinner. But soon my hunger pangs interrupted my brain from using my gray matter.

Then came to rescue.... my girlfriend... my A-Star. (My definition of gal friend: The one who always accompanies on all trips n treks with no-questions-asked or with no-fear. Who is always there to support n does not ditch come what the situation may be). This time around I planned to ditch my gal friend n catch a train, in spite of all the earnest efforts by Murali to convince we should take her along. At the end Murali prevailed. I was overrun by destiny.

So we ignited the engine n planned to zip thru Golden quadrilateral road to chennai. Our first hurdle was finding fuel at that hour to travel a distance of 360 kms. Luckily the pertol pump next to cauvery talkies was open. Here is the warning about that fuel station, he cheats a lot. It happened before and again on friday (for arnd 200 bucks of petrol). Now with my car all fill n all ready... I have found work-around for first two out of three event changing incidents. The next challenge was to fill me. We had a tough time in listing all the places that open at that hour (good ones... we need to travel the night... n we arent carrying any toilet papers along). Suddenly I remembered the drive thru from mac donalds on kasturba road. we went there.. i imagined it to be just like the ones in California. But this was really bad. It took half an hour waiting in the car queue to get the parcel. Had i known i wud have preferred a dine-in option. Anyways we step on the gas at the stroke of 12 in night.

The next three hours was swift n smooth... we played my new collection "illaya raja hits" ...(illayaraja is considered a stalwart of music in south indian movie world. it was his exit which created a vacuum which the other directors like rehman n manu came to fill). We discussed life in general, issues of national and international importance to keep us awake. By 3am we reached somewhere close to vellore (we did 200 kms) n our eyes were quite heavy.... i cud see murali already sleeping... in fact he was actually falling off from the seat but thanks for the seat belt. So we pulled down the road in some God forsaken country land n switched off the engine. Next two and half hours we slept in the car like a baby.. didnt bother about where or how safe we are. Finally at 5:30, we woke up thanks to all the honking by lorries.

We resumed the second leg of journey. This time we played suprahbatam (devotional song) n discussed hinduism (my last blog article). By 7:30 we reached chennai. Next one hour we waded through the chennai traffic (Why do those guys wake up very early!!) and had to figure out the way to T-Nagar, CIT colony. We finally arrived at raki's place at 8. The next ten mins we spent knocking the doors n calling the inmates of the house.

We started thinking of all possibilities. None of my friends Raki, Saroja, Kushal or Manju had a clue that we were coming. In fact when the train tickets were cancelled, we conveyed them that we were dropping out on the plan. Though we decided on the road trip we did not inform them thinking to give a surprise. Now this effort to give them, a surprise seems to turn out to be a shock for both of us. Did they head for a weekend at Pondicherry, or plan a sun-rise view at the beach. How long do we wait? Then suddenly our knocks (and prayers) were answered. Kushal was our savior. He was lazing around the bed and did not want to see a maid knocking early in morning. But the consistent knocking made us communicate that we were not maid.

After getting in the house, he told us how sloshed they were from previous night. Then it was time to wake up Raki. Kushal knocks on his room and tells him there is some problem in living room. I can imagine his sleep vanishing n he imagine all different permutation of what a problem can be. Finally he comes out to find old buddies and birthday wishes.

The rest of day went relaxing n catching up some lost sleep. In the evening we go for the Besant Nagar beach. It was my sixth visit to that beach. (Gosh!! I hate Chennai). It was a full moon day and the waves were high. We dumped in all sorts of junk food to garner some energy to get into the waters. We gave up the initial plans of going to a pub or a beach side resort and thought of partying at home.

By 8 we reached home. And in next one hour we were all set to go beyond imaginations. I got a bottle of Finlandia Vodka from Bangalore. My plan was to take a few shots of it and then take it back and use it for next couple of months. Neither did I expect the cocktails to be so mesmerizing nor did i expect how thirsty Chennai ppl are when devoid of good drinks.

I did two things through next five hours: Mix the ingredients of cocktails and help people shake it.

So it started off with an Apple juice and vodka. That’s not only the ingredients but also the name of the cocktail too. Three parts of Vodka (around 90ml), chunk of ice (improvised version of ice cubes) and around 300 ml of apple juice are poured in the cocktail shaker and shaken. It was awesome starter to savour the taste buds and let them gear up for the hard tastes that will follow.

Next was Grey Hound. Here mix three parts of vodka, ice cubes and grape juice. The sour grape juice tiltillates senses while the bitter vodka neutralises the taste buds.

The next one was one of a marvellous extemporized mix. I always have a soft corner for coffee. I sometimes add the chocolate sauce with that. But at that point, we did not have the chocolate sauce handy. So Manju came up with this ingenious suggestion of melting a dark chocolate (I think it was Bournville) and adding it. At the start I was sceptical, but finally relented. (I realised one cannot argue with ladies when it comes to kitchen stuff). So here was the improvised Freezing Russians (coffee, cold milk shaken with vodka and topped with vodka). I hear that this has a bad hangover so folks ... be careful... not more than two. I got a feedback next morning that it had its casualties the previous night with people throwing up.

This was followed by a mix fruit cocktail. We got a mix fruit juice (pineapple, peach and mango) and shaken with vodka and ice.

Next one was again an improvised version of exotic cocktail. We wanted to make a screwdriver with pepper rim. But a bachelor’s paradise is anything but a good kitchen. So we could not get hold of even table pepper. Then Kushal came up with this suggestion of trying out with Oregano seasoning. (yes, the one we get from Domino’s). I had a whiff of the seasoning and its till had the strong aroma. Immediately I knew that it would be the best substitute for pepper. So after shaking the orange, ice and vodka and serving in the glasses, I made an oregano rim. I brushed the rim of the glass with a lemon wedge and sprinkled oregano. A sip of it tells that it is not a substitute of pepper but an all together a different cocktail for itself. The orange has a sour taste, oregano adds a salty and spicy flavour to it. The vodka bitterness again pulls down all the extreme tastes. So it is quite soothing on the tongue. So now you know the secret spice behind a wonderful Screwdriver.

A couple of cocktails we missed that day was the lemonade and vodka. Kushal might have been cursed me on this, the next morning when he would have spotted the lemonade in the refrigerator. One of my favourite cocktail is Mango and vodka. (plain no mangoritas or mango martinis).

Now you know why I got the name Sekhar over a Saturday night session of cocktail drinks. By the way the finlandia was done by the first round and thanks for the farsightedness of Kushal and Manju we almost had run through the Smirnoff Red. I was on a such a high that I danced for the first time in two years. :P. The last time I danced was in farewell party while at IISc. One thing I could never improve even after two years are my dance steps. Tough to teach new tricks to old dawgs!! I am not a dog... I am a dawg!!

My mom was right ...

I still remember Jan 13th, 2009 (Previous Blog: The Place, March 28th 2009). It is one of those days which are etched in life and cannot be forgotten. I still remember Mar 8th. When i was forcing my mom to accept, for a girl i like. I still remember the conversation. I was arguing in all possible ways. But every argument stopped at the point my mom made, 'You still don't know much about the girl'. I was irritated, restless and stubborn. But a clear conscious of me always said I should not do something my mom does not like. So I made up my mind that I am not taking a step without convincing my mom. For me it is important.

For her she had a clear reasoning. She told me without mincing words, that she knows me. She knows me so well that she knows what kind of a girl I should have in my life. She told me most girls fool around about the idea of love and marriage. She told me I should not go behind a girl just like that.

From that day to this I am arguing with myself if i should listen to her. After all my mom knows me. A girl can be a anything but clear about life. She makes you drink poison with exceptional ease. In fact she pays to get the most exotic whiskeys from around the world, she pays to make you drink most caffeine. She pays to make you drink all the poison just to sink deep into you that she loves someone else. While I am still groping to decide on what is happening from last one year, thinking how things are... here is the one who is on a fast mode. She probably feels/sees that things cannot happen with me or gets delayed or whatever and decides to move on. (like the fast track ad, "Move-on").

The constraint which force a (an Indian traditional) boy and girl are always constant. Nothing changes with those. Neither the parents like nor the siblings like. Neither the aunts or friends like. It is same in every relation. It is not that a girl succumbs to these and decides that someone else is more acceptable. It is only that she wants to move, probably because she finds a 'better' guy. "Better" is always argumentative and debatable. It is again changing. So no wonder that she finds another "Better" guy tomorrow and she moves on again.

The worst part is that she does not realize that it is on the same day, one year back that both of us argued at home. At that point she had no qualms about what we are talking at home. At that point this was an agreeable (if not pleasing) to talk at home. Then the only reason which hold her back (as well as me) was that none of the family members agree to that relation. Fast forward by one year, even now with the new relation the situation is same. No one agrees to at home for the new relation but she wants to pursue it. How long? I am not a girl to answer this. And only another women can answer this.

I have not known women to such an extent. After all for a boy, a special girl in his life is very special. But for women probably men are a bit more than a contact lens or a pair of jeans, which one uses for a while and discard when you find a better option or when you are bored of using it. But my mom has lived her life and knows girls better. She knows how they behave and what will be acceptable to me. Thanks mom.. You are right.