Tata

I am officially switching to wordpress ,and giving myself a belated bday gift :)

Catch me here

www.moregyan4u.wordpress.com


Happy blogging and commenting !

Why ?

Sample this

I was telling a friend of mine to check out my blog and leave her opinion

Me: yeah, so that is the link
She: Ohh ok,

So, why do you blog?

I was stumped :P

Didn’t really know what to say, I thought of saying this-really dramatic :-)

Do you know why you fall in love? Similarly I do not know why I blog?

But apart from my filmy analogy, Seriously Why do YOU blog?

Do you Blog to

• Describe your current state of mind? Happy? Sad? Dreamy? Blog it.

• Find a network of like minded people?

• Discuss social issues?

• Kill boredom?

• Take a break from boring office schedules?

• Give your opinion on anything under the sun?

• Share info,gyaan on the latest gizmo, cell phone or a movie/book review?

• Get distracted from personal ups and downs?

• Say “Hey I am not a celebrity really but who stops me from being one virtually?” Blog, get noticed and get famous? ;)

• Get more hits to your website by blogging about controversial topics :P ?

• Vent out frustration?

Why Why Why ?

Why do we choose this medium over others? I am not sure about it too.
I think it is a mix of all the listed reasons. We let passion drive us and reason rein us and blogging makes me happy, rarely I feel relieved too :)
Sometimes, I don’t even think before I blog, It’s like this flash of lightning and I say, Hey I would want to blog that!

So why do you blog? Let me know :D

Parting shot:

I blog, therefore I am!

This video below was made by Vineet Rajan ,for one of the Indiblogger meets,describes the spirit of blogging

Choked!

With academic schedules heating up, companies beckoning us, lab exams to be tackled, theory papers to be crammed for, my birthday bash seems the only happy thing to look forward this week ..

I am choked !

Havent caught a movie in ages ! havent posted since loong,feel like yawning every ten min :(sob

i am sinking into the "Himalayan Mode" ..

Current mood: Procrastinating

Current song: Main aisa kyun hoon

Sigh..

Mukthi 8.03 Day2

Day 2

Began with a lot of fiddling around with the projector and Shreyas's macbook,so finally we all sat around his Mac in a small group and he gave us his talk,he spoke about Clutters,he held all of us with interest and answered one basic question that bugs all beginners-"Where do I start from ?"

Noon ,one of the talks that i eagerly awaited-"switching to Linux",presented by Vivek.This was the best talk I could relate to.He gave a crisp talk,citing all the stuff available on Linux making it more than good to switch over.

Amarok,Rhythm Box,VLC -deadly matches to the outdated Windows Media Player :)
Torrents -Deluge
Gnome baker-disc burner vs Nero
Pidgin-IM works well even with windows :)
GIMP,Dreamweaver plenty of options to choose from,this talk charged me up and I have FedCore running on my system and gives me more reasons to use it more regularly :)

The day went on with sessions from Poornima on GCC-lot of gyan but pretty nice,
Archana gave a demo on Greasemonkey,this was also a nice one,she gave us a proper run through and I am using Greasemonkey now ,comes with a million scripts and if you do try it,blink twice ,read and install scripts only that you trust :)

They ended it finally with Laxman speaking about WINE,very interesting again,but I am not sure if I will get to using it finally.
And yes,almost slipped out of my mind,Thoughtworks ,the main sponsor for this event gave a talk on Ruby on Rails,touted the next big thing after Java !

The last part was the quiz that the CS quizzers conducted.WTF ,i wanted to scream out when some seniors who have already passed out and are apparently quizzers themselves walked in and participated in it and walked away with the prize,forget that,where in the hell is the spirit man,We are beginners and we have no bones about accepting that but mocking us that way is unreasonable,...yeah well,we didnt even turn in our answers ,we obv knew we dont stand a chance.

So pls take note,next year,if you have a quiz,make sure you know what kind of crowd you are dealing with and set it at that level,Dont keep it to entertain yourselves(the quizzers)There is no point in doing that ! If you think we stand no where in the race,thank you very much,but you can conduct a separate quiz for those guys ...

That ends Mukthi 8.03 :)

Hope it will be much more liberating next year ...

Mukthi 8.03 Day 1

looong pending post :)
Day 1@Mukthi 8.03

This is an annual FOSS event conducted by the Linux User Group VRLINUG at MSRIT,Bangalore .

They have a nice way of naming it every year, this time it was Mukthi 8.03 signifying year ’08 and month March :) , the previous one was version 7.04 (Hope my memory is right)

This year they gave us barely a day to register and though last year almost 80% of the sessions simply flew over my head, this time I decided to give it another shot since well, I had taken the OS and Unix course in 5^th semester and I felt that I should be able to at least “recognize” some of the geeky terms flying around in the event.

Last year there was a huge turnout; literally, our entire seminar hall was packed to full capacity of 300, this is an intra-college event guys, so considering that I think that is HUGE! But many of us were completely disappointed and frustrated with last year’s event since we didn’t even know what a kernel was :( and many such terms kept popping up repeatedly in the sessions and most of us were at a total loss.

This year though, I was a wee bit more confident of being able to follow some talks. The crowd was a mere 30-40 students ,reason probably being that there was just a day for them to publicize the event or people genuinely didn’t want to sign up ?yet, the event’s target audience is mainly the VRLINUG who organize ,participate and ensure the entire event goes smoothly. So thumbs up for that one though!

Day 1 kicked off with Rahul Sundaram giving us an opening talk about FOSS(Free and Open Source s/w) and its growth et all. He repeatedly stressed the need for us to wake up and realize to this other world of OS :).

Then Peter Thomas gave us a short demo on Java in the world of FOSS, here too, since I am totally alien to Java, most of it flew over this tiny brain :) but I liked his talk somehow. He gave us a demo of his Indian open source project JTrac and spoke about JBoss, JMeter and other development tools. He signed off by giving an interesting list of sites to browse through...I must admit one thing, I never completely decipher what these guys are talking about until I come back home and run a search on it and follow it up, it takes time and that turn offs many participants, especially ones like me who are not really ardent users of Linux, at Mukthi..

Then we had demos by some of our seniors...Sriram Kashyap ran us through Blender, which is an interesting tool that performs a variety of functions on 3-D content and showed us how to create a simple poster.

Shegde spoke about Gedit as an alternative to the painful Vi :) with some fallouts here and there.

Fitting finale to Day1 was the movie screening of “Revolution OS “, a 2001 documentary, I guess the name says most of it :)

Revolution OS Trailer

Need the entire movie ? Watch it here



Still got time to read what happened @Day2,click here

Bucket List

Firstly what is a bucket list; I came to know about it from the movie of the same name that I watched recently….Click here to know more

So here goes mine …

Karma

• Pledge my eyes.
• Teach blind kids dance or make them put up a show/play/anything on stage.
• Do SOMETHING for disabled kids,maybe as simple as spending time with them, teach them something fun and useful.
• Have a pottery or a painting session with kids.
• Have a read aloud session for school kids,which book,I am undecided on which book though.
• Volunteer to lend a helping hand to any organization that works with animal care.
• Make atleast one person smile each day of my life.
• Complain less(This one is tough! )

Material Girl

• Go deep sea diving .
• Try sky diving.
• Visit the best spa in the world and get pampered all day.
• Get tattooed,Color my hair red.
• Have a Christian wedding –white dress,cake,wine et all.
• Watch Hrithik roshan’s moves up close,in reality.
• Listen to heaven-Bryan Adams live on stage.
• Watch Rafa and Maria in action live. :)
• Learn Belly dancing or Ballet. :P
• Watch an f1 race upclose.
• Meet J.K.Rowling ,Robin Cook,Gregory David Roberts,Dan Brown ,ok asking for too much,atleast meet one of them someday. :)
• Buy the most beautiful pair of diamond chandelier earrings with my salary,someday,also take mom on a helicopter ride.

SKYDIVE Wooo hooo

Shantaram

I bought Shantaram a couple of months ago.

As sheepishly mentioned before,I bought it with great enthusiasm hoping that I would read the book and enjoy Deepa Mehta’s movie better .For the uninitiated, read this

Now this idea was almost shelved, after many ifs and buts,I finally decided to give the 933 paged book a try .

The story begins with Roberts escaping from a maximum security prison in Australia and landing up in India,here begins his journey ,a fantastic,almost fictional tale(I would say so since his experiences are narrated superbly -quite hard to believe)

The central characters are strongly highlighted all throughout the book.Prabhaker-the naïve yet smart guide,Karla-the woman who stole Robert’s heart,Khader Bhai-the leader of the Bombay Mafia..All the characters are etched out beautifully and just blend with the backdrop of his tale .

Robert’s tale is inspiring,interesting and makes you look at India both in awe and disgust.With corruption,drugs,mafia and scandals galore it shows you the deep,dark Mumbai,yet the people at the slum,Prabhaker’s zest towards life and several other things bring about a smile to your face.

The book makes you laugh,cry,sympathize,worry,complain--A mixed bag of all emotions !

I was hooked on to the book thoroughly and thanks to Google images,I checked out what Roberts looks like..I was quite taken aback .I also saw the Leopold café that is the backdrop for most of the events occurring throughout the book .

Shantaram is the gripping tale of a man’s journey throughout Mumbai and his vast multitude of experiences. I am so eager to visit some of the places described in his work,that is the power of his narration .Roberts has mastered Hindi after his stay in India and also speaks Marathi !The novel was trashed twice after Roberts wrote it in prison.

I strongly recommend Shantaram to anyone who would be interested in getting a closer look at Mumbai- in its entirety.

Yes,the book can get quite a bit boring in between but it’s an experience in itself to finish the book.I was left craving for more,I wanted to know what happened to Roberts after his stay in Mumbai .Some sites tell me he has plans to write another book on what happened next in his life . Do give this book a try,you wouldn’t want to miss it :)

More recently,Gregory David Roberts was spotted at the LIFW on 30^th March’08

Read more about it here …

These standing babas find a mention in Shantaram :)

Parents

This is a post from my friend Chi's Blog

Click here to see it

I loved its relevance ......

We have something to learn from this story :)

March Off !

The march that just marched away

March was a hectic month...

In the first week, we began rehearsing vigorously for our Departmental Talents Day Show.

In the second week, Mukthi happened. Read my Mukthi post here

It is a two day FOSS event that aims to build greater awareness about open source through talks and demos on the latest trends in Open Source and involves interacting with people from the industry. More on Mukthi in a separate post.

During this period, I took to reading “Shantaram” by Gregory David Roberts, I shall admit the book is about 900 and odd pages and I didn’t want to stop reading it half way due to lack of time .

But soon I was lost in the fantastic, almost fictional tale and I strongly recommend the book to anyone .The Hitch is- in between, the book has a slightly slower pace .this is the point where most readers (whom I have come across) tend to quit reading it. Stay patient and you will enjoy the book.

I did not experience this burst of boredom anywhere while I was reading the book. I will sheepishly tell you that I was imagining Johnny depp as Shantaram all the while and it made my read thoroughly interesting! I am so eager to watch the movie, but with all the rumors flying around I doubt if it will happen soon. Read my post on Shantaram here.

I finished the book and then the internals landed on me, phew! I wrote some amazing pieces of non-technical jargon :-) and managed to get some decent scores in only a couple of subjects. The saddest thing about our university VTU and this course called Engineering is you wake up only when the exams and internals are only a week away and cram like there’s no tomorrow..

On the final day of my internals was our Talent’s Day...it was a beautiful show put up by our voISE Team and a huge success. Will write a post on it soon, no, I am not kidding, promise :-)

In between all this,I managed to catch "The Bucket List" ,I liked the movie,It set me thinking about a lot of things in life,what would you do if you really had only 6 months to live? Read my Bucket List here

In the last week of March we had our annual intra-college fest called Udbhav.

Ok I am repeating this again, but the experience of Udbhav shouldn’t be described in just a line :-) so will blog about it too SOON!

I am so tempted to quote this

“You will find time for things only that you really want to do! “

Adios

PS : I also signed up for Indiblogger this month and I love the experience of interacting with so many new people and checking out their writings too :-)

BSNL aargh!

Top 7 reasons why I hate BSNL !

I have a BSNL data one wi-fi modem internet connection from the past 3-4 months .

1. My wi-fi modem has 3 lights –DSL,Internet,WLAN ,all three are supposed to light up in unison for the internet to work correctly which is an event that occurs only once a month !

2. The net never gets working at supposed “peak hours” namely 6-8 pm grrr and of course, on weekends it is foolish of me to expect it to connect...

3. My favorite words are “Problem Loading page” and “Server not Found “ courtesy the umpteen times I get to see it on my browser thanks to you know who!

4. My conversation, if you mention BSNL will begin with F***ed up BSNL,so they are taking over my vocab and making my BP rise well over the roof.

5. I have lost count of the number of times I mutter “DC” or “SORRY” during an IM conversation with friends on skype,Yahoo Msngr,Gmail or anything else !DC-Disconnected,aargh..

6. I pay 250 per month and end up getting “download limit exceeded” in my duplicate bill every other month, (note duplicate bill since the original bill never arrives on time except for one day before the due date ,phew ! ) so I switch to the 500 plan which makes my blood boil since this net is nothing compared to the peaceful 20 bucks per hour at a cyber café.

7. Lastly, I have shed about 2000 strands of hair simply by tearing it out in frustration cos their connection never stays constant and I always have trouble downloading since hey,the lights stop blinking after 35 sec u know :)

The Junior Engineer at BSNL in my area knows nothing about setting things right. I asked him for a secure connection, he says “illa,adu aagalla” Thank you sir, Do you know anything other than the full form of BSNL ,damn ..

Don’t get a BSNL data one internet connection especially if you stay around M.S.Ramaiah College. The service is so pathetic that you will spend more time working up your temper and swearing at them rather than browsing the net.

What is Fear ..

Is it the fear of heights, shivering while approaching the 16^th floor terrace of your apartment block just to enjoy the occasional breeze?

Is it the fear of scoring 0 in the test even though you knew it was your fault that you partied late last night?

Is it the fear of a lizard, tiny and harmless as it may look!

Is it the fear of getting tetanus shot when you are in dire need of one?

Is it the fear of getting trampled by vehicles when you are crossing the road say, even a one-way?

Is it the fear of injuring yourself while playing rugby that makes you not try it even once?

Lastly, Fear of losing a loved one, or hurting a loved one …Which is your worst fear?

• "The only thing we have to fear is fear it'self - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified, terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."

• "All of us are born with a set of instinctive fears--of falling, of the dark, of lobsters, of falling on lobsters in the dark, or speaking before a Rotary Club, and of the words "Some A ssembly Required."
  ---- Dave Barry

• "Why are we scared to die? Do any of us remember being scared when we were born?"
  ---- Trevor Kay

• "Courage is not the lack of fear but the ability to face it."
  ---- Lt. John B. Putnam Jr. (1921-1944)

Break Free

This is back here on popular demand :P

This is my first post after nearly a month's hiatus and hey first post for the year '08 ... :-)
A friend of mine has recently got his eyebrow pierced and he deemed it a painful experience, I asked him why he got it done...

His answer: “just for kicks, I didn’t wanna grow old and think I didn’t do anything crazy in college”

This remark made me smile but had me thinking the whole day…We all have a rebellious streak in us but how many of us actually listen to it and break free ..

Childhood and teenage—parents make rules
Marriage-spouses and in-laws set limits
Finally in old age-kids have issues !



There are some who want to color their hair a shade red or a garish pink.

There are a few veggies who are rebellious about wanting to try eating a piece of chicken.

While driving a bike at a devilish pace may seem like an instant kick for several guys ,there are others who hang on to their daily puffs like darlings thinking they are in heaven. these puffs could be a mixture of various legal/illegal substances or plain nicotine..

Households where alcohol is a taboo always have the naughty young ones running out to grab a beer when a match is scheduled and returning home late in the night with proper defense mechanisms in place to face family members:--easily achieved by mint/mouth freshners/coffee/chocolates or by simply staying back at a friend’s place ;-)

I have always wanted to have short hair with red streaks in the fringy area..and also wanted a tattoo with something in devanagri script which i haven’t decided would be what !

And of course the navel ring is a subject of immense fascination to me ..

I have never brought up these issues at home else all hell will break loose.
The haircut is an absolute no-no since at all family do-s ,aunties will whisper oh,this girl is too modern ,and those red streaks ,my god,what was her mother doing !

The tattoo is an achievable dream and I think I will go for it once I am old enough to earn and decide independently. The tattoo is regarded as a rebellious display of youth by elders whom I know. And there is even talk of some crazy HR policies that do not take too kindly to a tattoo,though I am not pretty sure of this .but one day,I will take the plunge .until then ,will be content with just giving furtive glances to the existing rebellious species around me . I get to see enough of these at college  lol

Just remembered ,its easier to don a pink/red wig and save the embarrassment to my loved ones !



Finished reading “The Namesake” it’s a very depressing book ….

Love in the air??

It’s past Valentine week and I am getting some really big surprises this year.

Revelations galore this week

People in question are Miss. X and Mr. Y

Miss.X

Quite close to me, we meet at family gatherings often and I thought I pretty much knew her until she told me she is in love and everything looks good...Apparently this is going on from the past one year...I was stunned and could only remember her descriptions of him and her being really happy. Parental approval granted, touché and things r looking rosy at the moment.

Mr.Y

Now, Mr.Y is someone whom I have known really well since the past few years. He would bore me with his technical skill but comfort me in moments of emotional distress .Today he tells me “Time to tell you something” I should have expected it coming .He is head over heels in love with a girl whom he has met on the net, and hasn’t admitted it to me since a really long time. Not that I am angry but isn’t it more than a mere co-incidence that two people whom I have known inside out, (well quite much are in looove J)

And there are the depressed ones

While one is lamenting about no reason to celebrate Valentine’s Day and instead prefers to spend quality time with horses: P

Another is sulking sitting 4,952 miles away from his love and cribbing . how was your Feb 14th this year ?
happy belated Valentine’s Day to all of you .

day 3

day 3 @ chennai --officially was our last day there.

We directly had lunch at 11 am and the previous day our hosts noted our preferences and we were treated to a traditional meal .I loved the vettai columbu and the balekai dishes that were made especially for us. We bid our good-byes to our relatives and the extremely sharp and agile Pati at whose place we stayed these 2 days.

Then we reached the city railway station after a very long drive approximately 2 hours phew!

The journey back by the Bangalore Express was tiring and there were a lot of vendors who kept screaming out their wares .I managed to buy some CD there even in this confusion :- ) Reached Blore by 8:30 and just crashed into bed after a long day .

This Chennai trip has been a very memorable one, thanks to my relatives who were the epitome of hospitality and made sure we enjoyed every minute of our stay there .A big thank you to them.

Also thanks to appa for financing my shopping binges and amma for finally making this trip happen after planning it for about 3 semesters ,lol !

Mystic Mahabalipuram

Day 2

It’s been a long time since I came back from my Chennai trip and gotten into my usual routine of going to college and blah blah.

So it’s going to be a lot of umm’s that set me thinking back here while I write this

We woke up early and left Chrompet by 8 am or so.

Reached Mahabalipuram at around 11 and had some plot visits to complete.

After that moving along the elegant East Coast Road, we reached the Pancha Ratham Rock Carvings there.

Again here, phoren tourists all around us walked dazed looking at the fantastic sculpture of the period of the Pallavas.

The carvings consisted of 5-6 single rocks carved out with pain staking detail to depict elephants and beautiful Pancha rathams. We couldn’t get enough of the place and strolled around and went inside the caves and sat admiring the sculpture.

An interesting sculpt was that of Ardhanareeshwara ,integration of the male and female bodies representing Shiva and Uma.

Meaning Of Ardhanareeshwara (androgynous)

"The Atma is Purusha (Brahman) and the body is Prakriti (Feminine Principle) in human life. So. every human being is androgynous (Ardhareeshwara). The Principle of Shiva (Shiva-twa) teaches the unity of Prakriti and Purusha. This is the true meaning of Shivaratri. Forgetting this principle, man considers this physical body to be made up of merely blood, flesh and fecal matter. No doubt, it has these constituents, but one should not forget the fact that divinity permeates this body." Sai Baba. SS, 3/99, p. 72.

Read on ...

• The religious centre of Mamallapuram (formerly Mahabalipuram) was founded by a 7th-century- Pallava king, Narasimhavarman, also called Mamalla ("great wrestler"), for whom the town was named.

• Pancha Rathas (Five Chariots) - five monolithic pyramidal structures named after the PandavasArjuna, Bhima, Yudhishtra, Nakula and Sahadeva) and Draupadi. An interesting aspect of the rathas is that, despite their sizes they are not assembled — each of these is carved from one single large piece of stone.

• Most of the monuments are of Pallava dynasty except the original Sthalasayana Perumal temple was constructed in Vijaynagar times and the Mandapas belong to Chola days.

We came out of the temples and entered the shopping area. It was filled with shops that stacked the same kind of things, shell jewellery, shell show pieces, intricate mirrors with shells and the like. I was happy since I could finally get to shop !
My loot included bags, gifts for friends’ back home, jewellery and the like. I bought a very intricate mirror with sea-shells stuck all around it. Haven’t yet hung it up anywhere there .Oh yes, Vanity, No apologies :P

Also visited the Temple at Mahabalipuram and Lord Ranganathaswamy was in a very unique manner waving out his hand to the devotees and calling them .he is called STHALASAYANA PERUMAL here.

From there, we left to Pondy bazaar.

A nice jam welcomed us at the entrance, near Krishna Sweets Headquarters and we finally decided to walk the 100 m instead of simply waiting in the car for the traffic to clear out.
The entire stretch of Pondy Bazaar mesmerized me, Of course we have our own Commercial street, Brigade Road and MG Road but it always feels good to step into the shopping hub of any city .I visited T nagar the last time I was at Chennai and I liked that place too.

And for the good one hour we spent at Pondy Bazaar, I gazed at Naidu hall and the other multi branded outlets but didn’t step into them: P
I bought various little things here, a ring holder in plaster of paris, jhumkis in black metal, Bangles, all well bargained.
Finally I bought a joothi –yeah those flat shoes, the ones lucknow is known for.
The price quoted was 275, I heard it as 75 and was overjoyed; I tried them on and was telling amma wat a great deal it is when the guy screamed out “275 sister! “And I came crashing down, no way; I argued .I said 200 and the guy instantly packed it up. I felt foolish and my relative also felt that my bargaining skills were at an all time low that day. Dejected yet happy with my purchases, we went back home.

Now I had to pack up all our huge mass into our tiny 2 kits, I spent a good 45 minutes and carefully packed up everything. The mirror had to be taken care of since it was really fragile and I even managed to bring back my kite in one piece :- )

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Kanchi in a Kaleidoscope

Kanchi in a Kaleidoscope



Day 1 started at 5 am, Woke up, left Chrompet by 7 …



Reached Kanchipuram, entered a 300 year old house right next to the Varadaraja Permual temple. The lady of the house took great pride in telling us how old the house was .Clad in green cotton “madi saar” /Kachche Sari; she stood fiddling with age old vessels in the kitchen, and acknowledged our vannakams. She was going to accompany us to the temple .Being a Friday; the long queues would make our entries late she said. We nodded.



While we spent some time at the ancient house, I observed the ceiling, it was extremely high; about thrice the size of the heights of our normal homes .The entrance door was huge and there were no locks! They didn’t lock their homes those days said the lady; I stepped out and saw a beautiful courtyard so big it could easily accommodate 50 people!

I stood outside soaking in the religious aura that the place had. I could see men clad in pure white panches /dhotis vibudhi smeared all over chanting and marching to the temple.

Saw Ladies with fine jewelry and pakka madi saars draped over them; the tilakam and Shree Charanam neatly drawn on their foreheads buying jasmine flowers and hurrying to the temple. The sight of these saris itself amused me, in the hot weather, how r they so comfortable in such sarees? I find the normal sari itself quiet a test of patience. A friend had even once remarked “why do you walk like a battery operated doll while wearing a sari” to which I couldn’t even answer since I was busy trying to walk!

The street was lined with many sari shops; Kanchi has the tagline “SILK CITY” quite aptly since all the womenfolk of the place are brand ambassadors wearing them 24/7. Jokes apart, Kanchi produces some of the finest silk and is home to many weavers and co-operative societies that market genuine silk saris.



We went to the temple and had the darshan of the Lord. A few curious phirangs were merrily clicking photographs of a function happening there at the temple. They were watching each and every ritual with great interest, their Canons and Nikons zooming in and out every minute.



At this temple, there is also the golden lizard which has a mythical tale to it.



Read more about it :-

The place houses a gold & silver lizard, it is said that they were once son and wife of Ayodya king Sakaranis, due to sin committed by them, they were converted into lizards.A prayer to lord Varadharaja absolved them of the sins.Now these lizards are touched by the devotes to wash off their sinsand start afresh account.

The main temple is reached by climbing 24 steps for the darshan of lord Varadharaja, who in his majestic form with Four arms holds you in captivated.


Source: sulekha.com



I touched it hoping for a friend’s eternal fear of lizards to be absolved soon.

Clue: - she comments regularly on all my posts.



Next stop was the famed Kanchi Kamakshi temple; a short distance away from the first temple. This temple is the hub for most Iyers and Kanchi muth devotees. Huge cutouts of the Kanchi mutt seer welcomed us at the temple; they were the managing committee of the temple I learnt. Kanchi Kamakshi’s darshan was smooth, only a half an hour queue :)





Then it was Saravana special South Indian meals at the Saravana Bhavan at Kanchi, they are a popular chain of restaurants in Chennai and also have branches all around the world.

There again another group of Swiss tourists at the table next to us were crying with glee when their open dosa arrived, they clicked more than they ate: P



We resumed our journey back to Chrompet with me napping off.



In the evening, we went to Marina Beach. It is the second largest---now corrected :P "longest" beach in the world after Miami, Florida I learnt. Still not verified that on wiki.



I flew a kite on the beach ,quite amusing ,considering it was my first try, the kite did manage to fly but only in the direction opposite to I was trying to navigate it each time .



I enjoyed the waves splashing onto me; we spent very little time at the beach :(



From there, we went to the Parathasarathy Temple. This temple just left me speechless; hundreds of women dressed up intricately were standing at the thaiyaar sannidhi while the men recited Vedic verses. Being a Friday, there was a total religious halo around the temple. The Lord at this temple, Lord Krishna in the Gitopadesham Avataaram was the most handsome Lord I have seen till now. He even had a moustache supposedly to disguise himself; I do not know the right story.



We called it a day after having another visit to another Saravan bhavan’s specialty restaurant where I devoured mini idlis and some delicious sweet whose name has slipped out from memory.



Day 2 @ Chennai: - will be posted soon





Chennai is full of hoardings and my god; the roads are so wide that I thought I was dreaming! Traffic moves at a considerably better pace there but hey, no city can beat us: P Chrompet where I was put up is quite far away from the city and to commute to a point it takes a minimum of an hour or more. Every drive felt like Mathikere to Maratahalli @ Chennai …



Till next time then, Vannakam!

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sinful delights

My heart was racing ….

I gazed at the outer cover for a little less than 2 minutes.

A peachish background with a dazzling orange outline was visible.. “Chocolat Aprose” the bold logo stated on it.

“Swiss premium chocolate” was added below it with a sense of regality.

Finally the description “white” was neatly visible.

On the top right of the current object of desire was the Swiss flag added perhaps like a hologram for complete trust and on the bottom 200 g-7 OZ .

I admired the cover for some time but didn’t really read the army of information provided behind the cover about nutrition facts n blah blah.

Not today, I thought to myself .Heart beat still not normal racing faster ….

Then I thought to myself –No harm in taking a quick look at what the bar looks like, creamy white or a pure blinding white..

Tore open the cover delicately and lo, another Silver foil came into picture …

Aah, heart beat back to normal, not again..

Silly circular patterns floated around on the silver cover and I went back to debating whether a peek was necessary, Of course the peek would lead to certain obvious things, probably end up in a disastrous episode of me consuming the whole bar.

So, I left it there and took a walk around the house...All previous visits to the dentist haunted me and Dad’s voice boomed loud in my head –“Eat more Chocolates and buy a set of dentures when u r 30” .The Dentist‘s words were much better or should I say soothing -“This one was not really a serious problem but do take care in the future “with me just nodding and looking down at my knees …

Chocolates are my biggest vice. The passionate affair started very early in life, like many kids, I loved chocolate and loved it more when dad refused to buy a bar for me. I was rewarded with chocolates generously by amma whenever I topped or simply when I sat through a grueling session of some insanely slow and dull ragam lessons .My mother pampered me silly –Sad-Dairy Milk, happy-milky Bar, Grumpy-five Star, Cleaned my room-Kit Kat, Cranky-2 bars of milky bar and Achievements –well It would be a big assortment of all my favorite chocolates .And thus I grew up loving every bite of chocolate I ever tasted.

All my near and dear ones know my love for them and gifted them to me at every special occasion or simply for no special reason at all. Though I shyly refuse, they know really well that I would be devouring them happily the next minute.

With a phoren aunt coming down to India every 2 years, a big bag of “Candy” – (American and Canadian term for good old Indian “chaaklate “as we say it )

was guaranteed.

Once dad was furious that I would eat up the entire bag and sent it to my school. When the teachers asked “Is it your birthday” I would meekly say “No, but please take some” and that was the saddest year of my affair with these sweet little delights.

Now family and friends make sure I get to taste all the existing varieties.

While there was Mars, snickers and Bounty that greatly excited me a couple of years ago,

Temptations-Rum n Raisin-Made India was also sinfully good.

Ferrero Rocher and toblerone stood the top on my list until recently.

It was upstaged by Ferrero Garden-Ferrero Rocher in different flavors which tasted exquisite and for which I must thank the guy who went to Germany and froze and is now sweating it out in Dubai.

These were much more unique than anything else I had ever tasted.

Then Came Oreo Wafer Bars, they gave me the immense satisfaction of not feeling guilty since they had only an outer layer of chocolate and were simply wafer inside .I gobbled them up during all my stressed out phases-Read EXAMS and thank you,Mr Melbourne for that one . Still reeling of these instances, I walked into the room.

Entered --- heart racing though not as fast as earlier.

Damn, Let me just see and have a small bite, wouldn’t really hurt I said to myself.

Tore open to reveal 6 neat divisions of the most inviting white chocolate I had ever seen. 1 piece graduated to 4 and I gobbled it up quickly ,It melted in my mouth as I enjoyed the tingling sensation on my taste buds ,Yummy was so cliché here !

Enough for today I decided and neatly put the wrapper back and tucked it into my drawer.

How many times have I broken my vow, I dunno though I would say “never” to my dentist ;-) Well he has got to make a living too,you see :P

Below –My Chocolate wall hang resting in my room

And The Lucky Chocolate bar described with painstaking detail above :P

Quotes on The wall hang read:-

I call them The Chocolate commandments...

All I need to know about life I learned from eating chocolate

• Some people are semi-sweet; others are just plain nutty
• Don’t cry over spilled milk-unless of course, it’s chocolate milk
• There is a fine line between vice and addiction
• Good looking dates are like chocolate; good while they last, but they never last long enough!
• When life presents you a rocky road, just eat your way out of it
• Money can’t buy you love, but it can buy you chocolate-24 hours a day,7 days a week,365 days a year.
• Don’t poke your nose in other people’s chocolate boxes!
• Mothers-in-law are like chocolate syrup: a little goes a long way.
• Flowers and cards may be the standard norm of courtship, but chocolates are sure to work wonders
• A box of Swiss chocolates is worth two boxes of any other chocolate

• Milk Chocolate ….. for all it’s worth
• Even people of tremendous integrity are subject to yielding before chocolate!
• A kiss is just a kiss, but a chocolate kiss is bliss.
• True love will remain long after the chocolate have gone ….Provided there’s another box
• The best things in life are not fat free.
• Nothing is worth getting sick over, except of course, chocolate
• When everything else fails, Choc it !
  
• And remember life is like a box of chocolates; take a bite out of everything.