Taa Naa Naa Ta Na Na Na Naaaa

A tune that could be unmistakenly recogonized.....

A story got to life which still lives in the heart of many of us....

I got to see one quick episode of Malgudi on the flight today... it was really refreshing...

When I was just seeing it.... I could see so much of a mirror reflection of our lives in it.

While RK was the creator of Malgudi and we enjoyed reading the stories..., It was much got to life by Shankar Nag thru the Malgudi episodes relayed on Doordarshan

I did feel depressed to read recently of RK Narayan's erstwhile house being demolished in Mysore... to make way for a stamp of rapid urbanization and modernity ...:-(

Charminar

The charminar in Hyd on 2nd Sept, looked very beautiful to me, with clouds above giving it a very heavenly look...... but when you look at the ground below, it all ramzan left overs strewn all over the place. Got to go to Golkonda as well and understand a bit on the history of the place...

Truely Magnificent . ....

Thought for the day

God Grant me the Serenity
To accept the things I can change
Courage to change the things I can
And the wisdom to Know the difference.

This was on a old wall hanging in my Granny's house that I got hold off...
This is a wall hanging I have been seeing since probably I was a child ....

This thought shall hold good till eternity.

In Peace

Its been like over 2 months that i vanished from my blog.. Got into a hectic workzone . i know it is upto us to prioritize and take control.. and and ...
Well kind of the first phase of this hectic schedule has got over and hence decided to go to kollur to visit the mookambika temple which I have been doing from last year.
We reached there 8 am in the morning and then went to visit the temple. finised the Dharshan and then went to see Sowparnika river and the shankar ashrama. We were then looking around the hills that was covered with fog and commented on the beauty. The auto guy who was taking us around heard us and mentioned of the place kodachaadri that was just 40 kms from there.
I knew of the place but did not know it was so close by. We decided to take the trip as our bus was only in the night. There are jeeps around, who take you to this spot. These jeeps needs a minimum 8 people to make this trip and this being the off season getting 4 more people was looking difficult...atleast the wait was longer. We decided to book the whole jeep and start. George was our driver. The first 25kms was zooming and then came a track which said

Kodachaadri - right------>>> - 15 kms.

We just thought it would be as zoomy and had no clue what was in store for us. The Drive was just amazing... coz simply there was no road.. just rough tracks and in all the years, there is no attempt to even tar it. It is as simple. This zone is the reserved forest area covering 4400 acres of land. Non commercial, no hotels nothing.
The path was muddy with heavy rains and the road looked more like minzed Clay and these jeeps were minsing it better and better.
At one point the back wheel got stuck... but then no worries, we had george... george of that jungle with us , who just did some tricks and we were back again trying to climb up.
One thing I must admit, knowing to drive , who ever drives really needs the nerve to stay steady... its a crazy path believe me.
We then reached a place on top of the hill called mugilupete... Have you seen that movie of Ganesh 'Gaalipata '
It was shot in this place called "Mugilu Pete" means Cloud City... . So people who have seen that movie and that song, I don't need to describe further. He stopped the jeep. silence all around.
clouds touching us, fog, mist and natures best beauty around. i just started walking up the hill further and turned back to see, that i could not even see the jeep 3 feet away from me.
We had not even taken our camera... coz we did not plan for anything other than the temple visit.
Luckily , thanks to technology and savvy mobiles.. managed to capture as much as I could. From there we went another 1.5 kms ahead to the main place , believed to be the place where shankaracharya did his penance. There is a temple Huliraya ( tiger) devasthana ( temple). Tiger God temple and a small hotel run by the priest himself.
Hot hot rice, sambhar and rasam. Awesome taste for that chill weather and then a cup of hot coffee that had the smell of being heated on firewood.
There are just 2 families who live there, the priest and his brother and their spouse. We then started from there and again came down to this spot where we earlier stopped. Just went around and round... wanting to see as much as possible.
Felt awesome being away from that jungle of noise, work, hectic schedules , crazy life to this jungle of just peace and peace and beauty and the most fresh air that I could have ever breathed in my life.
I am hoping nature remains intact here and we dont have the iron ore and other stuff going out... :-)

I m sure going back there shortly.

Reliving Agumbe

Last week, we were off on a impromptu trip to shrinigeri.
We set out in the morning around 8 and went thru the chikamagalur route.
We reached Shringeri by around 5 pm. There was time for Sunset.
This is when we decided to quickly drive down to Agumbe which is around 26 kms only from Shringeri.
Off we went zooming as fast as we can on the ghaty roads. We reached in about 45 minutes.
It was exactly 10 long years since I visited Agumbe.
the place had become crowdy as man vehicles were parked to catch the glimpse of the sunset. Also it was the holiday season.
Just after the checkpost, there stood a man who had a small little cart shop, where he was preparing Coffee, tea and channa dal vadas.
The same man stood 10 years ago too , in the same place unchanged.
He had the same welcoming conversation, except that he had lost all his teeth in the front row. the vadas were amazing and so was the nice hot cup of coffee.
He has been there in that same spot for the last 17 years is what he proudly claims.
We then walked down to the sunset spot. The weather was playing spoilt sport with clouds covering the sky, but then, they can't hide the sun for long. We did catch a glimpse of it.
10 years ago, when we visited during the rainy season, we had see a cobra crossing the road. less traffic, less crowd.

Hrudaya Raaga - Notes from the Heart.

One of my senior colleagues is part of Rotary international and they were organizing a charity show by felicitating Yesudas on his 71st Birthday. The funds of which would go for surgeries of various deserving people.
The program was called Hrudaya Raaga
As a kid for me , there are two people who have had an everlasting impact on my mind and soul in the music world. The great KJ Yesudas and melody king Illaiyaraja. And yesterday I had a lifetime opportunity to see Illaiyaraja felicitating Yesudas just about 50 meters away from me , live.....
It was an all together Trans that I had shifted to. Just mystifying
To felicitate him there were great singers like PB Srinivas, P Susheela, LR Eeshwari, Hamsalekha.
The songs that KJ Sang... including Harivarasanam .... Live...
The experiences each one shared ......
Both Illai and KJ were dressed in White . The few words they spoke. The simplicity and auro they carried.
I suddenly felt.... being shifted to an almost forgotten world of peace ,sanctity
I hope by the Grace of God, I do get another opportunity to see these legends perform.
Its my lifetime dream come true. Infact few years ago , I had blogged on these great people too,,,but that was minuscule.... not even that.

Great Break,

Its now around a month since i went to Manali, Rotang pass, Amritsar, Wagah border and off course Chandigarh,
And i am able to put it on blog only today.
the new year has been really really hectic.
was giving the snaps for print today and that is when i thought i should share.

it was a great experience at the Wagah Border.
All the places were amazing. I saw frozen water falls live for the first time. I just broke a piece of ice and ate it....
below is the link. hope you are able to view.

http://picasaweb.google.com/krupavinayak/RecentSnaps#

Else below are a few moments