Do you know your neighbour?
November 18, 2009 at 3:53 am (Bangalore, General)
Tags: Bangalore, neighbour
Since a week now, I seem to be roaming around Bangalore doing some invitations. Covering various areas and various houses in Bangalore is not easy. So, we end up asking few people here and there in the close by areas about the where about of the address. In a similar search, I got confused in a 3 floored building. Since the address did not have the floor Mr. Srinivas(name changed) lived in, I happened to knock at one gentleman’s door and checked if it was Mr. Srinivas’s house. He politely replied, “No Madam”. As an obvious next question, I checked with him if he was in the 1st, 2nd or 3rd floor? And the gentleman smiled again and said, “I dont know, may be you can check the houses above mine… the owner stays in 2nd floor… hmmm… sorry… I just go to office and come back and have no time to check who stays above… “. He had a very embarrassed face and I immediately thanked him and said that I would check and not to worry.
However, this episode put me into a thought. Do we know our neighbours? At least 3-4 who live in the same apartment or who reside beside our home? Well, Bangalore traditionally is very friendly a place. If I only go back 15 years from today, I still remember all the neighbours we had in Padmanabhanagar. My mom simply has her whole set of friends in her old neighbourhood. And it did not stop with one or two houses… it went for 9 to 10 streets 
We had good get-together, nice games, talent hunts, samosa parties, cookery fests, festive celebrations etc Life was so much more than just office and home. Today, in my apartments itself, I dont know more than 5 to 6 people. Strange na…We are so stuck at office, traffic, bla bla and bla… that we dont even know our neighbours?!!? What a cultural change?
Now, life seems to be running behind achievements, money, fame, etc that we seem to have forgotten friendship, bonding, relationships… etc. What a transformation!!! Man is moving from being a social being to a machine. We indeed lead a very mechanical life. 
I sincerely hope that the old social culture is still ON in few areas of Bangalore.
Well, do you know your neighbour?
Typing over Writing
November 15, 2009 at 4:45 pm (General)
Tags: paper, pen, writing
Today, I was writing 2 letters, one page each, using pen and paper. And when I started writing the second letter, my hand was really paining. I actually had to take a 2 minute break. My wrist and fingers were stuck. To my surprise, I keep typing lot of things all day through and nothing happens. Writing 2 pages made my hand pain…
We are really living in an IT world!!! Now, I need to really do some writing every now and then with pen to keep up the habit. Really, 5 years of the IT world made me so slow with what I was good at before.
Did you not write pages using pen for long now? Try it out…
Tulsi Pooja
October 31, 2009 at 5:43 pm (General)
Tags: Pooja, Tulsi
Tulsi pooja comes 10 days after deepawali. A day, where we seek the blessings of Mother Tulsi and Lord Vishnu.
Traditionally it is done with some sweets and lot of religious offerings to God in the form of Pooja.
Well, stuck at work, the little we could do at home is the picture below… I thought it looked awesome although it is very very small celebration we could do
Little change…
October 29, 2009 at 5:22 pm (General)
Friends,
I have moved all the recipes to another blog. You can read them by clicking here.
Regards,
Samata
Gods best gift!
October 13, 2009 at 6:35 am (General, Photos)
Tags: twins
My friends cute ones
Well, Gods best gift to human is the blessing to raise their families. A family gets complete with the arrival of children.
And some are blessed with 2 joys at one shot… And these two are toooooooooo cute. I could not resist blogging them. Lucky Kannan and Thushara! Wish you both all the very best
Media from bad to worse!
October 7, 2009 at 5:47 am (Bangalore, Media)
Tags: floods in Karnataka, Media
Early in the morning, people on their TV’s to understand the whats in news. Whats really happening around them and bla bla… While the men read news papers, women like me might want to have the news channel ON so that we are updated with news while we are busy in the kitchen.
I made one such attempt today and was very curious to know how is the flood conditions in Karnataka. I kept swapping between NDTV and CNN IBN to just find a one liner – “Floods in North Karnataka receding”. While the news channels are covering the following news in main stream -
- Aamir Khan is going to colleges and advertising his movie 3 idiots ( Wow… what an important thing to know in the morning!)
- Gauri Khan is shy ( Ahhh… oh ya…. ??? Thats interesting)
- Arjun Rampal is in London ( So, what do we do???)
- Katrina Kaif is the brand ambassador for Royal Challengers and she was dancing ( Wow… Is that more important that all who lost homes)
- China is a competitor to us… guess why? People there are learning Hindi and Bharatanatyam ( Ok… I can at least digest this one)
It’s really surprizing, such a huge calamity has hit us and there is not even a proper coverage. Is this is the same media who made a HUGE NEWS of swine flu because around 4-5 ppl lost their life… Open your EYES… more than 170 people have lost their life. More than 4 lakh families have lost their homes…. Is it something that does not bother them?
It’s really very sad state. I want to end this blog with a message for our MEDIA in their style… “WAKE UP #%**%^$@#”
Shankar Ehsaan Loy
October 5, 2009 at 4:15 pm (Bangalore, General)
Tags: Ehsaan, live show, Loy, music, Shankar
Shankar Live in Bangalore
Music that rocked Bangalore
Last Saturday, Hari and I happened to be a part of IIMB campus watching the genius play. I have always admired them making good music for movies. Ofcourse, one thinks that magic can be made due to technology. However, it did not take us long to understand that the magic was in their talent. A complete orchestra with talented people. The best of all was the magical voice of Shankar Mahadevan. More than that, he has a special way of keeping himself in connect with his audience. They made the evening pop, rock, romantic, emotional, party as well as classical. I am still full of smiles when I think of it. If you missed them this time, don’t miss them the next time!
Vijayadashami
September 28, 2009 at 11:55 am (General)
Tags: Festival, navratri, vijayadashami
Vijaya dashami is one of the big festivals of Indians. It’s a festival that is celebrated in complete India in the same grandness however different rituals. This festival name only signifies the reason of the festival. Vijaya = Victory and Dashami = 10th day of Lunar month Ashwini. This festival in other words signifies the victory of the good over the bad.
Our history gives us 3 episodes on the auspiciousness of these 10 days (Navrathri and Vijaya dashami) Let me give a brief on all the 3 stories –
- Ramayana – Lord Rama kills the ten headed demon Ravana and rescues his wife Goddess Sita. Goddess Sita was kidnapped by the demon due to his weakness for women. This day was the tenth day of lunar month Ashwini and hence is celebrated as Vijayadashami. Even today, lots of places in west India celebrate this festival by burning a huge idol of Ravana. In Karnataka, in the district of Mysore, there is a grand Dasera celebrations with a grand marathon on the final day. The palace and the beauty of Mysore is worth visiting during Dasera as the two eyes are not enough to view the same.
- Mahabharata – Pandavas after loosing the game of dice where asked to spend 12 years in forest and 1 year in disguise. Pandavas choose to spend the last year in the kingdom of King Virata in the disguise of various servants of the king and his family. When Kauravas attack the Virata kingdom, Pandavas perform Ayudha Pooja for all their weapons on the 9th day and get to the warfeild on the tenth day (which happened to be the last day of their disguise as well). They happened to win the battle for King Virata. Again marking the victory of the good over the bad. This is celebrated widely in south India.
- Devi purana - Demon Mahishasura spreads lot of terror on earth. He was not scared because he had pleased Lord Brahma due to his penance and got a boon that he would be immortal and could die only because of a woman. He asked for this boon as he considered women far more inferior and thought that he would never be killed by anybody. Once when his torture was intolerable any further, all the Devatas(Gods) prayed to Lord Vishnu for a solution. As per the instructions of the Lord, three Devi’s Goddess Lakshmi, Saraswathi and Parvathi get together as super power in the form of Goddess Durga. Goddess Durga fights with Mahishasura and kills him and returns peace back to the world. This was also on this auspicious day. This is celebrated through out India, especially in East India in a very grand form.
As a part of celebration, people of Karnataka also keep dolls depicting various mythologies at home for ten days. They also call women and give them thambula (a set of coconut, betel leaves, betel nuts, fruits, flowers, glass bangles etc…) An unique and nice tradition.
Well, even today we believe that this good day brings in the victory of good over the bad and hence we pray to the lord for his blessings. I think in today’s world, the biggest fight of good and bad happens within us. Hence, I pray to lord that he shows us the right way of life and the good in us conquers the bad in us always. And we lead a happy and gracious life by being of some good use to the world around us.
Happy Vijayadashami!
Perfect Bride!???!!!!
September 27, 2009 at 5:03 pm (General, Media)
Tags: Perfect bride, reality show, star plus, wedding
What kind of sick reality shows do we come up with? Just happened to watch this for the 2nd time to understand what really goes on in this. Cant believe that people have forgotten the traditional arrange marriage and also the beautiful love marriage styles… What is this arranging a love marriage??? Some kind of short cut???? Humiliating womanhood??? Arey… stop the crap and do something good.
5 guys doing some task and winning it to get to date one lady of their choice. 5 “could be mother in laws” trying to cook and give free gyan to other young prospective brides. The sons miss their mothers who stay just across the road. Girls get to meet their sister or someone once a while and the emotional drama my didi gave me Ganapathi… cry cry cry… But the cry converts to full cheer in 2 minutes when the get a chance to play basket ball??????????????????? Wow! Cant believe that. Is basket ball such an exciting game that helps you choose your groom?
Please dont watch it… Spare yourself of it. Have mercy on self.
