Off to the woods ...

... with family ... for my birthday weekend. Goodbye chaos; wilderness, here I come!

The Grapes of Wrath

The back cover of the book by John Steinbeck has the writer's quote: " I've done my damndest to rip a reader's nerves to rags, I don't want him satisfied". I found this quote so intriguing that I ended up buying this book instead of the other Steinbeck book (East of Eden) that I had set out to buy that day. I must say The Grapes of Wrath left me with similar feelings that his novella Of Mice and Men had left me with earlier .. sad, dissatisfied and a bit depressed.

The Grapes .. chronicles the journey of the Joads - a farmer family from Oklahoma, who drive hundreds of miles to California in search of greener pastures (in the form of a steady job and food for the family) during the Great Depression. The transformation each person in the family goes through, while battling hunger, deaths and misery; is beautifully captured. The author has also described the principles of demand and supply (availability of farm laborers and their wages) and capitalization (large corporates controlling farm produces and in turn, making small farmers broke) in a very simple way. He even writes the conversations exactly the way an Oklahoma farmer would speak - somepin for something, purty for pretty, ast for ask .. and such like :)

It definitely is a great read if one is not looking for a they-lived-happily-ever-after kind of a story.

Poetry in Stone - Belur & Halebid Temples

Having heard about the magnificent carvings at Belur and Halebid temples from all my friends, I jumped at the opportunity when my team at work decided to head to these places last Saturday. The fact that the place is only about 4 hrs' drive away and this is the perfect season to visit added to the temptation. So all 12 of us started on the journey in a minibus at 6.15 AM. One of the girls from the team, Gisha, even took the pains of preparing & bringing hot sandwiches for all of us (our breakfast-on-the-go)! The drive was very scenic with acres of corn fields on both sides of the road and patches of marigold plantations.

First we reached Belur, which is about 200 kms away from Bangalore and has the famous Chenakeshava temple constructed in 1117 AD by kings of Hoysala dynasty. The construction spanned over 103 years! The carvings on these temples are so intricate that one can even see fine lines on palms and toes of the statues. Apart from religious figures, the chief attraction are the 42 dancing ladies (or madanikas). The expressions on their faces, each hair strand and delicate filigree work of their jewelry looks stunningly real. The earrings, bangles and anklets of some of the figures even rotate! All the carvings are on soapstone (or steatite), which is softer in the beginning and grows hard with time.

After spending about 2 hours at Belur and tucking in a sumptuous lunch, we headed towards Halebid. It is located 16 kms away from Belur and boasts of an equally beautifully embellished temple of Shiva called Hoysaleshwara temple, constructed in 1120 AD. The temple also has a huge statue of Bahubali in its premises and the figures inside the temple and on its outside walls depict social and mythological characters of those times. The Halebid temple had manicured lawns surrounding it giving it a cool serene look.

The last stop of our trip was Gorur dam - built on Hemavathy river and located about 60 kms from Hassan. Two of the dam's gates were opened to release excess water. The sight and sound of water was very relaxing. We started on our journey back to Bangalore soon after that and got home after midnight. Each one of us having cherished the trip. We would all look back fondly at the time we had spent admiring the myriad handiwork of artisans from centuries ago...

Pictures taken by: Senthil, Nikhil & Anbu

The Wedding .. Indian Style

An Indian wedding without a dash of color? The shiny red & gold dresses and glittering jewelry? Naaaah! So, we had Sangeet on the wedding eve - totally Indian style. Loads of color, naach-gaana, Bollywood music .. the works :)

Monsoon Wedding ... in Goa

The much-awaited wedding finally happened on July 11th. A wedding in our family after more than a decade! Vandana and Colin finally decided to say 'I do' in the magificent Basilica of Bom Jesus in Old Goa. Vandana looked resplendent in her bridal finery and Colin a perfect gentleman. It truly amazes me to think that until few years ago my little sister thought that getting married was the stupidest thing a girl can do to herself :). I am glad Colin managed to change her mind.

I wish their honeymoon never ends ....

Weather or not ...

Another reason I love Bangalore .. when I check the weather forecast of this week for Bangalore


... and then for Delhi

I'm glad I live in the former!

Let us all pray for rains (?!?)

So we all know by now that poor rains are expected this monsoon. Karnataka will be badly hit, too. So much so that some of the areas are expected to be draught hit. And what does the chief minister of the state have to say to this? No, I am not kidding, this is exactly what he has to say - I have faith in God. I hope there will be good rains. Let us all pray for rains.

But this doesn't come as a surprise .. especially since we have already heard this.

Like a Zombie

The past couple of weeks at work have been the most stressful in recent times ... with lot of urgent and important work coming together at the same time (and that urgent and important sure sounds like Covey's four-quadrant matrix thing). I lost track of days, dates and time .. so much so that today I was almost convinced that 11th May was yesterday and not a week ago! Missed (and mixed up the dates of) the play I had been so looking forward to for months. My almost regular workout in the gym feels like a distant event in past life. The newspapers are piling up unread. I haven't contributed a thing for an upcoming big family event. I have been looking and feeling like a zombie for a while now.

The good thing is ... hopefully it is over now and tomorrow is another day!

Picture courtesy: www.activerain.com

After The Sunset ...

.. as seen from my room's window.

Drums beating in my head

Yes, that's what I am hearing right now. It is past midnight (1.15 AM to be precise) and there are loud drums being beaten by dozens of people in the adjacent neighborhood. This is the second consecutive day when we (this we is a huge number - about 600 odd families in my apartment complex and few more hundred in the vicinity) have been subjected to these drum beats till late in the night (around 2 AM or later) and it starts again early morning (7 AM or so). Apparently this is a Hindu festival which involves a procession where people dance to these drum beats in front of the temple and adjacent areas. The noise levels are so high that I can hear it loud and clear in spite of closing all doors and windows in my home facing that side. On asking my building security personnel if they could do something about it, I was told that since it is a religious festival they cannot intervene. Also, that this festival will get over only by tomorrow midnight. Should I complain to the police then, I asked? I was told - it won't help, as there are quite a few cops already present to oversee the festival.

This is not the first time I am being exposed to such high levels of noise pollution. During Durga Puja/Navratras, it is at its worst. I looked up the laws in India against noise pollution on websites here and here and found out that as per the Indian law, in residential areas the allowable limit of sound during day time (6 AM to 10 PM) is 55 decibels and that during night time (10 PM to 6 AM) is 45 decibels. I have no means of measuring how many decibels is this noise right now, but I can definitely say that this is a residential area and it is night time. The throbbing ache in my head tells me that the noise is greater than 45 dB. I also have a strong feeling that the Gods and Goddesses whom these people are trying to please are most likely not hearing these drums. So why are we being subjected to this? And more importantly, why religion is considered above law?