Gurudwara Moti Bagh

Decorations

Priests getting ready to start the wedding ceremony in a beautifully decorated "mantap". Taken around midnight as we were leaving the wedding venue.

Dinning Anyone?

I wonder what they were thinking. With all that sound equipment they were carrying up, maybe they did intend creating a "dinning" experience for guests.

Valentine's Day

This was the spread that I was welcomed to after spending an entire week at my parents'. Thanks S! (Had I caught an earlier flight, this would have been a Feb 14th picture. But it was past midnight when we sat down to dinner!)

Everyday Art

I'm amazed at the murals that I saw all over Bangalore. Everytime I drove past one of these, I wanted to take a picture. I didn't go out much in Madras, or I would have captured some of those there too. These works of art just make the ride that much more enjoyable.

Craze for Cars

The car bug seems to catch boys very young. My friend's 3 year old checking out the all new Manza at a showroom in Bangalore.

The Rising Sun

Taken from the balcony of my apartment in Bangalore.

Shivaratri

The temple across the street from my apartment in Bangalore all decked up for Shivaratri. (Taken from my balcony with a 10x zoom.)

Coffee, Conversations and More

There's a certain comfort in meeting old friends and having conversations over cups of coffee... this is the stuff memories are made of. The Transit Lounge, Forum Mall, Koramangala, Bangalore.

Centre of (Attr)action

Commercial Street, Bangalore on a weekday afternoon.

WIP

I love looking at construction sites, trying to picture how this WIP will ever look like the model they portray. But they always do. Well, almost always.

The Elixir of Life

The authorities are never going to take their own messages about water conservation seriously. A water lorry in Chennai spilling water all over the road.

Pondy Bazaar

The pavement outside Rathna Stores in Pondy Bazaar, T. Nagar, Chennai.

In-flight Reading Material

I hope this book will keep me company on a long flight tomorrow!

Spelling Bee

I couldn't help but stop and take this picture! (Needless to say, I couldn't control my laughter.)

International Relations

I wonder what dear Leo would do if he had as much as an inkling!

Choo Choo Train

The pride of Delhi. The Metro pulling out of a station.

Traffic Signal

You can find just about everything at signals these days. These colourful balloons captured my attention.

The Big Bright Moon

The brightest of 2010!

Book Fair

I spent a wonderful day at the New Delhi Book Fair 2010. I bought some books and I didn't buy some. No regrets with respect to the ones I did buy. Oodles of regret about the ones I didn't buy. But, in all, a day well spent!

Happiness

...comes in every colour and size. The array of sweets at the Adyar Ananda Bhavan. Ananda means happiness and it usually knows no bounds when I enter this store.

Avatar

This bar of Pears soap has been in our guest bathroom for about a month. And it is slowly transforming into another being.

Hide and Seek

The moon and the clouds played hide and seek with us.

Dilemma

Life isn’t always fair or rosy or any of those things we believe it is. It is often a test. I’ve learnt that the same holds for friendship too. Every relationship goes through its share of ups and downs. I have some of the best friends anyone can ever hope to have. We’ve grown up together, giving each other shoulders to cry on, taking calls at the crack of dawn to share good news. Some things will never change. There is comfort in this knowledge.


I’ve found myself change over the years though, from being very judgmental to becoming reflective; from speaking my mind out and expecting them to understand just because they are my closest friends to understanding that we may be friends, but we are individuals first. I realized only today that this was the new me. The new me doesn’t say “I told you so” when things go exactly as she predicted. In fact, the new me has been around for a few years now, I just didn’t realize it.


Life is full of choices. My friends are free to make theirs. If I have reservations about those, I can make a choice to keep my reservations to myself. I got a jolt this morning. I happened to reflect on how differently I might have reacted to the same event about 5 years ago. I thought about why I chose to keep mum, when in another avatar I may have jumped out with bucket loads of unsolicited advice. And then I saw this Facebook status message of someone very close to me:


Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it's all over.


Life has brought me to the cross roads and I made a choice today. What do you do when you are in a fix? If you knew that your friend is about to make the biggest mistake of his/her life, would you watch him/her do it or would you speak your mind? Would you watch them go through the fire and wait for them at the other end? Or would you plead with them to listen to you because you "simply know" better?

Republic Day Parade on TV

We're watching the R-Day Parade on TV. Ten years ago, I was at Rajpath with my parents watching the parade in person. An unforgettable experience.

Happy Republic Day! Happy Birthday Appa!

Splash of Colour

A little rainbow inside the cupboard. The Welhome sale is on and we picked up almost everything the store offered. The colours present a welcome change from our original stash of white and blue.

Look Ma, I can tell the time!

We bought this antique style clock in Mussoorie and S got to work over the weekend and fixed it on the wall. I really love the clock and the fact that we can see it from most parts of the house that we actually use.

Cup of Joy

The sun is out today. I spent a good bit of the afternoon out on the balcony. With a book and a cup of hot peach tea.

Bridge on the River Yamuna

The dense fog over the the DND flyway that connects Delhi and NOIDA over the Yamuna.

Rainbow

I dress as colourfully as I can in the winter. There can be rainbows even without the sun. A random click in the cab to work.

Goodies

Goodies that Amma sent to me through a friend. The package included a couple of lids, a Telugu cookbook by Malathi Chendur, a T-shirt that my friend brought for me from Dubai and 2 kilos of filter coffee. That last item in the list ... Nirvana!

Stairway to Heaven

The heavy fog on a cold winter night. The scene right in front of our building.

Colours on a Dull Day!

I don't see the point of this "mud carrying" exercise.

Five-a-day!

A local fruit and vegetable market. Sector 14, Gurgaon. This was the biggest market when I first moved to Gurgaon in the 90s. Now, it is just one of the many markets.

Zorbing

This experience defined my day! I went Zorbing for the first time in my life. After three years of rock climbing, rappelling, rafting and trekking with folks from work, it was fun to be inside an orb with S.

A welcome sight

on an otherwise lonely road!

Unexpected Visitors

These little fellas dropped by this afternoon just as we were getting ready for our Pongal feast.

Darkness and Light

Heavy fog on Lohri! The view from our balcony.

Monstrosity

This building in red and white is by far the most horrendous building I have seen in recent years.

Gurgaon-Delhi Expressway

The road I take to work everyday.

Beauty and the Beast

In this case, the beast is the garbage!

Winter bounty

Fruits, roasted peanuts, gajak, revdi and chhole kulchey!

Darkness

Light

Kitchen Garden

Curry Leaves and Tulsi.

Dream On...

I'm trying to imagine how my Indian and International "Cousins" will taste! Missed eating at this place in Mussoorie. Well, there's always a next time.

All in a Day's Work

Touch the sky

Serenity

A new sunrise

2010: A new beginning!

Chronicling my year, a picture a day. Project 365.

Assumptions

I am quite irritated with blogger these days. But I am more irritated with google as a whole. Each time I try to go to google.com the browser is directed to google.co.in. What's wrong with that, you ask? Really nothing. It is just that google.co.in has a setting somewhere that displays everything in Hindi. And then I have to translate each page... every time.

Why do they assume that if you're accessing google from India, you must be an Indian? And why assume again that if you're an Indian in India, you'd love to see everything in Hindi?

Yet another aspect of life that is so beyond my comprehension.

In God We Trust

Visiting places of religious interest in India has got me wondering about many things.

• Does God really have only a limited amount of blessings to give out? Why is everyone so keen on making it first? Even if it means pushing other people out of their way.
• Is the quality of the blessing received directly proportional to the amount of time we spend in front of the idol?
• Is God really present only inside the sanctum sanctorum? Is that why people think they can get away with anything as long as they're not "inside" the temple?
• Are we so focused on getting a good "darshan" that we can really afford to forget our manners and bad mouth other pilgrims with the choicest of expletives when they say, "Excuse me"?
• Do the "holiest of places" have to be mean the "filthiest of places"?

As I turn a year older, I add to my list more things that will remain beyond my comprehension. Older, not necessarily wiser.

She will melt your heart

I was so eagerly waiting for my dearly beloved. I read every news article that I came across. I even read the magazines, that I normally stay away from, cover to cover, when they reviewed her. Through all the controversies and the debates, I was proud of what she stood for.

And yet, despite all this and more, I must say that nothing prepared me for what I saw yesterday. As I was riding in the cab back home, I saw her in front of me. In a bright yellow avatar. The cutest little thing I have ever seen. And my heart melted.

Welcome to the world dear Tata Nano!

Love Letter

I once watched a movie on Hallmark. This was almost a decade ago. It touched me like no other movie did. It was a simple romantic movie called The Love Letter.

Last week, in Chennai, my father showed me this "love letter" which he found in a ten rupee bundle. I must admit this letter cracked me up like no other. Juvenile love!