Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou

I have read this poem so many times and just love the way it goes....
For the want of putting up a blog, this is a salute to women!

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me!

Avarebele Mela

In Bangalore every year around January, closer to Sankranti (pongal) there is this event that happens in the Vishweshwara Puram, Sajjan Rao circle area which is also called the "Eat Street" of  the city. It is called "Avarebele Mela"- where they prepare different variety of dishes from Avarebele. Like, sambar, vada, dosa, upma, paddu, pulav, biryani, bonda, even desserts like, Jamoon, jalebi, holige (puranpoli) etc.. You name a dish and it is there but only vegetarian!
There is a huge rush of the Bangalore crowd to this place to taste these miuthwatering dishes.
My colleagues in office comprise of a team of non-bangaloreans and they have been wanting to go to this place during this time for over a year now. :-)
So, finally this Friday we decided to go there and I was their guide and translator for the evening. We got stuck with work and left only at 7.15pm. The Friday traffic wasn't that bad and we did the 6.4kms in about 30mns. The place wasn't really crowded for a Friday evening. Some of them had reached early and had ordered Twisters. They said they were having it for the 1st time. :-) really??
Then I took them to the chat store where my favourite is Pav Bhaji. They ate Pav bhaji, Dahi puri, Alu tiki and kachori masala. From there we went to eat Avarebele vada and bonda. This guy was struggling to even pronounce "avarekayi" so, I went and bought it finally ending his struggle. After this, they had goli soda to digest whatever they had eaten till then ;-) Then they had dosa with avarekayi curry, avarekayi dosa, Jamoon, holige. I was asking them for the next dish they wanted but they just threw up their hands and said they had enough. We had a good binge and went our separate ways....

Kirik Party + Rakshit Shetty

In the morning, I told my friends that I would compensate for the 5 days of blogathon and only 2 posts so far....but hardly had any breather at work to do this.
This Kannada movie, Kirik Party released on 30th December. I actually tried to book tickets for the same day but alas! Most theatres around our area was either going almost full or sold out :-(. As I was off on a trip for New Year's Eve, I consoled myself saying I will watch it as soon as I get back to namma Bengalooru...
I got back from the trip on Monday night and started trying to book tickets on book my show but could hardly find tickets for Tuesday evening and the theatres were almost running full in the old Bangalore area comprising majority of Kannadigas. I was really sad and to top it all my daughter watched the movie on friday, my sister on Saturday and my friend on Sunday. But, I didn't let go of my quest for the tickets. Finally on Wednesday morning even before leaving for work, I searched again and finally booked the tickets for Thursday night that was yesterday....
This movie Kirik Party, directed by Rishabh Shetty is an absolutely brilliant "Masterpiece".
Rakshit Shetty is a such a versatile actor. He has been on the screen from 2010 till date. He has acted in 6 movies till now out of which I have watched 5. Now, Ricky has become a must watch for me....
Now coming back to the movie, I was wondering how the movie was going houseful for so many days continuously. The crux of the matter is, that the movie is about college days. So everyone who watches it is glimpsing themselves briefly and going into flashback mode of their own college days.
Two different looks of his-I loved!!!
All his movies have been very differently conceptualised  but somewhere reaches the deep recesses of your heart and you can connect to it on a base level.
That's Rakshit Shetty's Magic! You need to watch out for him in the near future coz I am sure he is going to churn out one super hit after another with that magical act of his!!!
Totally in love with him for his acting!!!

Travel Tryst

I was born bitten by wanderlust and my parents only nurtured it some more with the bi annual trips they took us on to far corners of the country! Thanks to them for putting the world at my feet. Some wise person once said, world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page. It's so true! I realised very early in life that I wasn't the kind to stay put at home for too long. Then the open road, the Tarmac leading away from the concrete jungle either to a beach, a mountain or a real jungle beckoned to me and shout out my name and I would just pack and go.

thankfully, my husband shares my interest of travel. We have done a lot of small trips and 1 trip to Singapore but I keep complaining in good humour that I am always stuck in the 5 states. Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and of course Goa. In the last year itself we did 2 Goa trips 5 months apart. December'15 Goa, April'16 Coorg, May'16 Yelagiri and Goa, July'16 Nilgiris, August'16 Gandikota and Belum Caves, October'16 Goa and Hampi, November'16 Munnar and Kochi and for New Year's Eve Mudigere, Chikkamagaluru.

My friends keep taunting me how I manage to get so many leaves for these trips :-)) but except for Goa in May, Nilgiris in July and Munnar Kochi in October, I have only taken a day off in a long weekend. But, I want to make it clear here that I still have 28 days of leave left. This is all that I had collated over the 5 years that I was in the earlier role at work.

Blogging again!!!

Hello all I came to the blog and I see that the last 2 posts of mine have started with- I just realised its been so long since my last post. The last post was in Nov'16 and one before that was in Jul'15. That's the gap between my last posts. I have almost become extinct in the blog land :-) and I wrote my 1st post 6 years ago. I feel I have always got inspiration at all the  wrong times....where I don't have any means to jot down, topic nor points. I wrote the last 2 blogs of mine with lots of good intention but now you know how it has played out....:-)!                                                                                                                                                   A few days ago, when my long time friend R told me about the blogathon, it set me thinking and I was finally convinced to give it another chance. So, here I am trying all over again. I don't want to disappoint myself this time.
I have a lot many topics to write about out of which I want to list a few of them here:
1. Year end Goa trip of 2015
2. Then 3 uneventful months
3. 8 odd trips I did over 2016
4. Reunion of us four besties
5. Our circle being complete with the arrival of the twin angels
6. All the upheavals in between
7. Our impending Goa trip in 2020- 16 years anniversary from when we did it first time ;-) oh yeah! I love the idea already
Thanks R for pushing me towards blogging again. I hope I do not disappoint.

Diwali destruction!

I just realized it has been more than a year and a half that I came here to pen down a little something.

I have seen so many Diwali festivals in my life... I could count the numbers though... But that would give away my age?? :-)  yeah! Exactly!

When we were younger Diwali was all about taking a head bath, wearing new clothes and bursting a few crackers.... Those days the crackers would be rationed and distributed between my siblings and me.  We would be happy with bursting a few small crackers and some bombs and then in the night,  light a lot of diyas and some sparklers, flowerpots and rockets. Those days that made our Diwali.

As we moved along our chosen path in life and grew up to be responsible adults and lost our childhood, we realized we had to repeat the same Diwali tradition with our kids.
But now the firecrackers had become bigger and better... We could afford to give it to our kids but at what cost? We are polluting the entire atmosphere. We are scaring animals and killing birds.

When will we understand the damage we are causing mother earth. Hope it's already not late!

Life's Little Lessons!!

What with life being hectic, my blogging has definitely taken a back seat. It doesn't mean I haven't been having a great time. It is just that I have not had enough time to just stand and stare at a beautiful scene or  smell the flowers. I have not had the time to take a breather. Not even to post pics of my recent travels on FB!!!! Yeah! Really! :-)
While I am yet formulate the rich experience I had on my first trip out of country, in a faraway foreign land into beautiful words and sentences, there is one experience that I would surely want to share here for the world to read!

Recently in May we went on our first trip abroad. I was all excited running around for the visa, last minute shopping and packing! Oh! But wait! All this is for another blog. I was talking about this experience??

We spent a lot of dollars on taxi fare. On one such taxi ride, we rode in a neat looking Bentley which is a luxury vehicle there. When we flagged it down and sat in it, I saw that the driver was very smartly dressed in a suit and did complete justice to the car! He was a encyclopaedia of information about the local place and was full of knowledge. He said he was 51 but nowhere looked a day over 25. He said he had a son who was 21. I am like really?? Then he showed us the famous landmarks in the 4-5 mile stretch and a mall where we could shop for electronics. He said he had seen a lot of life and the best part he had learnt was to keep his wife like a queen and his daughter like a princess. He said if you take ur wife into your confidence- life would be a super sail.
Happy wife= happy life. He said you need to live life to the fullest otherwise, the life will leave you.

It was a very enriching experience and we never got to know his name even but I am sure i came away from it a lot richer than I was earlier!