To the most beautiful woman in the world...

Everyone needs a person in their life who is their pillar of strength, someone so rich in experience that they can solve your biggest problem in a jiffy, someone helpful who would be by your side whenever you need them. This is a dedication to such a woman who has not only touched a lot of lives, but in her own way made the world a better place for her loved ones to live in :)


Born on 3rd January, 1930 as A. Raju, she is the eldest of 12 siblings. Would've gone on to become an adept Doctor, if only her father had let her go to Mysore to study. She came to be known as Vasantha Rama Rao, as her in-laws thought that would be fancier than Raju ;) According to stories we've heard, life wasn't a bed of roses for her. But this is about the nicer parts of her life, so we'll not touch that bit :)

I had always been closer to the male members of my immediate family. I always was a Daddy's girl, I was closer to Thatha as he was the one who used to drop me to school, even pick up a classmate of mine on the way ;) Slowly, as I grew up, I could see how the women ran the house. Although I didn't understand it then, I've come to realize how difficult a job that is! (Not that I'm RUNNING a house, but still :P)


When we moved out of Thatha-Ajji's place, I used to visit them pretty frequently. And it was then that I could see how much Ajji needed to cope with. For one, Thatha's health was deteriorating. Apart from having to take care of his food, medicines, etc. she also had to take care of the hired help who used to look after Thatha. And boy, was that a herculean task! From nurses who just left without informing to people who would steal, or even sneak away some of Thatha's food, she has dealt with all of them in a way none of us could've!


The best part of having Ajji at home is the unlimited number of stories we get to hear, most starting with 'nam kaaladalli'(during our times) ;) More than me it was Pavan who gets to hear most of her stories, thanks to my not being home most of the time and now having moved out of Mysore. There was an added advantage of them being roomies! From stories of how her big family grew up in a small house, to how she adjusted to her new life(and name) after marriage, there were lots of stories! And the best part is she remembers all of them down to their minutest detail! And it's just not family stories. There are stories about neighbors, Thatha's friends and their friends and their friends :P


I remember Chikki telling me once: if you're feeling sad, angry, confused, frustrated, irritated, anything you think you cannot handle, just go talk to Ajji. She may not always understand exactly what you're going through, but she'll certainly talk you out of your dilemmas! I've never tried it till now, but I've seen it work pretty well for a lot of people :)


One of her favorite things to do: watch Cricket! Any important or not-so-important match and you'll find her glued to the TV, even updating Pavan from time to time when he's studying or in the hospital attending to sick people ;) She gives me company when I'm watching tennis too but somehow Cricket has always been her favorite, much to Amma's annoyance :P She'd probably even beat Amma at who can be more tech savvy :D


I crave all those yummy dishes she specializes in, starting from the simple yet delicious fruit salad to her famous biscuit cake and Cold Delight :) I even remember coughing a little more so that she would fry some extra badams for me ;) (yeah now my secret is out!). As soon as it nears November, she starts preparing the eLLu for Sankranti. The perfection with which she cuts the bella and kobbari is commendable!


She's been a devoted daughter, a loving sister, a dedicated wife, a warm aunt, a caring mother, a respected mother-in-law and a doting grandmother. And she has more then excelled at all those positions!


Raju atthe/doDDamma, Vasantha atthe/doDDamma, Raju ajji as Hanki calls her, Azzzzzzzi as Pavan calls her.. We love you a lot!


Wish you a very happy birthday :) May you stay as young and lively forever!




P.S: Happy birthday to Michael Schumacher too ;)

Journeys..

Couldn't come up with a better title ;)

This blog comes more out of frustration than anything else. It comes at a time when I realize you need more than just a good book and some food when you’re travelling overnight just by yourself! I’ve had some really amazing train journeys till date. One of my earliest blogs would’ve been about how you can make the most of a train journey, how you meet people of different tastes and kinds. But that got stopped somewhere in between and was never completed.

My first journey today was from the Hi-Tec city MMTS station to the Kacheguda Railway Station, from where my train to Bangalore was supposed to leave at 19:05. A very cautious me (very rarely am I that ;)) reached the MMTS station well in time, confirmed the PNR status of my ticket (I was at RAC 3 even when I left from office) at this new machine I discovered exists and got into an overcrowded train! My destination was 13 stations away, but I had no complaints standing. Had a couple of cute little babies around who are always a delight to watch, as long as they don’t start wailing! I got a seat when I was 6 stations away. This was like a lot of journeys I’ve had while I was travelling between Mysore and Bangalore. You don’t really know anyone on the train, but yet a polite smile or decency of offering your seat for an elderly person or someone carrying a kid always offers you some brownie points :) Here even though I didn’t understand the language most of the people around me spoke, the basics still helped me out.

I reached Kacheguda at the scheduled time and not knowing what to do bought 2 STATES, a book I vowed never to read after reading the second and third books by the author! And till now it’s going pretty good :) And then I was the perfect stereotypical example of someone sitting in a coffee shop with a book in hand, sipping on coffee and with a laptop lying around!

At 18:20 I moved towards my train, still having to confirm my seat after checking the charts. After that was done, I thought the journey would be a smooth one, and boy was I wrong! (I dunno the exact word for the section containing your seat and the 7 seats with yours, so for now we’ll call it the base :P) So the first co-occupants of the base turned out to be this couple with an annoying ‘healthy’ kid (that's what most North Indians call FAT kids :P), probably 7 years old. And then started the unstoppable series of stupid songs and rhymes learnt I dunno in which school! The obviously tired mom was just trying to get some sleep. After a while the dad used a rather insolent means to shut the kid up, and then started the crying! The kid wouldn’t stop even after everyone else went to sleep! (I immediately felt the need to call my parents and apologize for being a brat who used to cry at the smallest nudge just to get things done my way :P I know now how annoying it is!) Then there was this group of overly enthusiastic old ‘South Indian’ people (yeah I am one too, but I just had to stress!) along with some vexatiously loud youngsters in the next base who just wouldn’t stop singing Hindi songs in a heavily South Indian accent! (Yes I do realize I would’ve created more ruckus if I were in that big a group. This time I was on the receiving end of it, which just added to my misery.)

Finally after eating what was decent tasting curd rice, I was more glad than ever to get to sleep! I was under the impression that SLEEP was something that would get me away from the not-so-memorable journey that I was having. In between this, I got some news that cheered me up for a while :) I WON the Really Tough Movie Quiz on CNN IBN’s Now Showing :D (Yes I do find the need to show off a little ;) My name was on National TV for God’s sake!) I FINALLY finished watching ‘The Prestige’ (oooohhh Hugh Jackman!) and decided it was time to retire to bed. What I was about to encounter was worse than what had happened till now: THREE men in the base snoring and sounding like bears grunting! I tried making all possible signals, the usual chucks to put my message across, but absolutely nothing worked! I just went to sleep, hoping for a better tomorrow and praying for a better journey back….

P.S: The return journey WAS amazing :) no crying kids, no screeching songs!


Written: 21st November, 2009. Published: 2nd December, 2009.

Daddy's home!

Yeah he is! The return of Barney 'legendary' Stinson :)

One week later...

This one is for Mr. Rajan Patel, who discovered my writing 'talent' and promised to pay me a thousand bucks for writing this :P


It's been a whole week since we went on this fabulous journey, but I'm pretty sure its memories are still fresh in the minds of the 19 people who got together as a group, became fast friends and hopefully will remain so :)

It started off at the Secunderabad Railway station on a Friday night. I reached way ahead of time, since I left for the place directly from office. I was ditched by my +1 just that morning (Nitin you have no idea what you missed!). One by one the trekkers started coming in, some familiar faces and most new ones. The train was conveniently late for those strictly following INDIAN Standard Time (:P), but nevertheless that gave us some extra time for introductions. After getting acquainted with one another we got on the train to Guntur.

When you put a group of fun loving people together in the bogie of a train, you should learn never to put a crappy, almost insane TC in the same one! (Lots of respect to those guys, but seriously the kids just wanted to have some fun!) We survived through that, caught a little sleep and reached Guntur a little ahead of schedule.

Our next stop was Phirangipuram, whose streets are lined up with churches. The place is apparently the earliest centre of Roman Catholicism in Andhra (Wiki rocks :D). The breakfast we had there was absolutely indescribable! I don't think any of us will ever forget those delicious dosas and idlis :) Most of us would probably walk back for some more of those! The organizers had some talks with the local Police and finally got permission for us to stay back at the fort for the night. We then headed over to Narsaraopeta, our starting point of the trek.

The trek itself was comparatively less tiring. We got to the top in what I estimate is 2 hours, clicking LOTS of pics on our way up ;) The base camp set up was in an amazing place, ruins below and an open roof above (Perfect setting for a candlelight dinner maybe, if you wanna carry a table up there ;)). The most noticeable thing on the trek: the monkey menace!  We set out to explore the rest of the peaks, food and water in hand. In all our excitement to climb up one of the difficult terrains, we didn't consider the safety of the food too seriously. And by the time we got back, half the stuff was stolen by those less evolved ancestors of ours!

After all of us climbed down was the first moment of panic of the trek. We could see the base camp and noticed a couple of people heading towards it. Half of us ran back to protect our oh-so-precious belongings! Then it was decided that some of us would stay back while the rest could explore the other places. But it turned out that everyone opted to (some were forced to ;)) stay back and rest. And the sleep I had that afternoon was one of the best ever, even though I had to sleep on that rocky ground with just one flimsy bedspread between the floor and me ;)

At around 4 PM the group was split into three. One group went down the fort to Narsaraopeta and consequently to Phirangipuram to make arrangements for our dinner and some life-saving water! (Eternally grateful to this group :)). Another team of two stayed back at base camp to watch over the belongings. The third (lucky) group got to explore one of the peaks :) The climb up was great as usual, more pics and an amazing view of the sunset! We reached base camp around half an hour before group one, had an early dinner around 7 PM and got to the roof after a round of some AWESOME jokes (pun intended!) by a certain Doc on the trek :P

Then came our second moment of panic. The area surrounding the fort is supposed to be famous for Naxalite activities. Lots of talking was heard. We were totally helpless, as we had no idea whether it was the good guys or the bad ones approaching us, and we would probably have been in trouble either way! After that cooled down started the heart-to-heart session as some would call it :) It's stupefying to see how people start relating to each other's life by just listening to their stories! One of the best things of meeting new people is to know that you're not the only ones going through rough patches, and talking about it to someone, anyone for that matter, makes you feel better :)

The next morning started out great! An early morning alarm to wake up and start that day's plan was paused by this amazing event that we experienced. Just out of nowhere a huge cloud arose and started moving towards us! The feeling is incredible. See it for yourself!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qAgHGbFJy8

After we got down, we had our first meal for the day and headed back to Phirangipuram. From there we made our way to Macharla. We were lucky enough to meet a man on the bus who turned out was from the ashram at the Guthikonda caves. At Macharla we picked up some vegetables for our noon's meal and headed up to the caves in what I can describe as one of the most awesome rides I've had! An open top auto, one of those in which furniture and goats are transported :D

Once we got there we put all our luggages in a room and headed for the caves. And this experience I guess I'll never have again, unless I go back to the same place! The caves were breathtaking (literally too, with meager amount of Oxygen :P). The mini lakes in there had stunningly clear water, holy dips in which gave all of us super powers :P (Guess mine is writing excruciatingly long blogs :D). After getting back was another round of deep, refreshing sleep for most of us! We then started back to Guntur, refueled on the way and finally headed back to Hyderabad, carrying with us two whole days of absolutely awesome memories :)

STAR cast :)

Diyanat - rightly the Chief organizer :)
Rajan - the self proclaimed non-typical Gujju :D
Padmaja - the bundle of energy :)
Dr. Prasad - the youngest person on the trek ;)
Aamer - the nawab of the land of shaayari :)
Sandeep - the guy who almost always reaches the peak first!
Kiran - the less talking, helpful guy with an awesome camera :)
Srinivas - our Telugu speaking savior :)
Vamshi - the expert photographer :)
Chandrakiran - Vamshi's partner in crime ;)
Vineet - the guy who I think spoke the least throughout!
Anupam - same as above, if you'd like to believe me :P
Praveen - as soon as he graduates, the most useful person to have on treks :)
Sudhansu - The guy who kept smiling all through ;)
Anshuk and Akanksha - the cute couple :)
Prashali - the person whom I connected with on a native-place basis :)
Anup - the know-it-all-in-relationships guy :P
Yours truly - the person who is to be paid for writing this blog :D (I'm just reminding again!)

The monotony of work life....

It was pretty much a normal day. I woke up in the morning, cranky as usual :P Dragged myself through the usual routine of getting ready and looking decent enough and 'professional'. The rest of the day crawled by like every other day.

Work makes you lose patience and interest, and gain weight ;) If I think of how I was a few months ago and how I am now, I realize I've started talking way too much! (not that I used to talk too little before :D) I go around talking to people just so that I don't die of disgruntlement! Thankfully I have good friends around who bare with all my madness :)

After I got home I was looking for something to do, something until sleep takes over me. This brings us to another thing 'work' does to you, it makes you procrastinate. I finally got my ass off the bed and went out to make a few calls (I need to go to the balcony to make a phone call! Vodafone has absolutely no service in my room :-X ).

And this is what made me blog after such a long time: the news that there was something so close to my heart happening in Mysore, and I wasn't there for it! I dunno how many people would understand this, but I know the 9 others certainly would. DoLLu kuNita! It all happened over a period of 3 weeks in February. Sure a few of us had done it before, but it was kind of a new beginning for all of us. We learnt it all over again. And calling it a grand success is corroding the actual appreciation it should get!

Watch the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qS5Z6B3xPY

(The most awesome DoLLu team ever: Maithra, Sahana, Sharan, Shobitha, Madhav, Bob, Ranga, Roshan, Karthik and myself. I love you guys!)

It's happening again. The whole team, except Karthik and myself, is still there in Mysore, preparing themselves for the next performance. I heard that and for the first time since I came to Hyderabad, I cried! It took me exactly 4 months to get here. I still don't think I'm homesick, but I sure wish I was even now a part of that bloody awesome place called SJCE :( The place where I'll always be the 'Hoyya' girl!!

And now I'm waiting for my alarm to ring at 7 AM so that I can make that call and listen to the familiar sound of the DoLLus beating again :)

Update: Something that very well describes what I'm feeling now:

I woke the other day
And saw my world has changed
The past is over but tomorrow's wishful thinking
I can't hold on what's been done

I can't grab on what's to come

And I'm just wishing I could stop, but

Life goes on
Come of age
Can't hold on
Turn the page

Time rolls on
Wipe these eyes
Yesterday laughs
Tomorrow cries


Memories are bittersweet
The good times we can't repeat
Those days are gone and we can never get them back
Now we must move ahead
Despite our fear and dread
We're all just wishing we could stop, but

Life goes on
Come of age
Can't hold on
Turn the page

Time rolls on
Wipe your eyes
Yesterday laughs
Tomorrow cries

With all our joys and fears
Wrapped in forgotten years
The past is laughing as today just slips away
Time tears down what we've made
And sets another stage
And I'm just wishing we could stop

Life goes on
Come of age
Can't hold on
Turn the page

Time rolls on
Wipe these eyes
Yesterday laughs
Tomorrow cries

Time rolls on :)

Life!

Disclaimer: Not one of my usual posts! Something special dedicated to someone very special :)

People reading the title might think this is one of those philosophical stories about what I've learnt in life and what  I'd like to preach to others. The good news is this has nothing to do with that :P This is about me thanking life for giving me someone without whom I would never be the person I am today.

While I'm eternally grateful to my parents for giving me the life I'm leading right now, thankful to my friends for being with me, for me, loving me so much, this is dedicated to that one person who has made life worth living. It might sound sleazy, but there would be no life for me without him!

All those people who know me closely would agree in a moment that I'm blunt, sometimes arrogant, ill-tempered (I can add a lot of negative qualities ;) ), etc. I've always been like that, and sometimes I myself term it as being 'spoilt' ;) As a teenager I had a picture of the 'guy' I'd end up with some day: tall, FAIR (my mom still teases me saying I have a crush on every other fair guy I see :P), handsome, someone who'll listen to everything I say, do everything I ask him to do. That was all I really wanted then. Now that I think about it, and I've told this time and again to a couple of my friends, I was wrong. That was not all I wanted.

Then in a very meticulously planned situation (thanks Abhi!), I met this guy. Initially I had absolutely no 'feelings' for him. Then as I got to know him better I started to have a 'tingling' feeling ;) And as usual I assumed it to be a passing crush! Little did I know that was not what was meant to be :) After the usual rounds of 'flirting' (he still claims he didn't flirt ;) ), he 'expressed' what he felt, and I'd always thought I'd have to take the initiative ;) The feeling I got at that moment, I'm never gonna forget in my life! I don't think I've ever been that happy, and I don't think I'll experience it for quite some time.

He fit my initial 'idea' perfectly: tall, fair, handsome (although he thinks he's not), plus so many qualities I hadn't even thought of. That's why now I realize he's more than what I could've asked for. He gives me advice when I need it the most, he guides me whenever I'm stuck in any situation, he knows when I'm upset and how to calm me down, basically he's the only one who can 'handle' me ;) And most of the times I don't even have to say a word! He has an amazing ear for music. He can actually sing pretty well too, but never sings out loud ;) Our 'qualities' are almost exactly opposite to each other. I guess that's why we complement each other so well :) I agree there are tiffs sometimes, but then it's all part of the game!

Sometimes the blunt me says to him 'oh stop being so boring!'. I bet any other person would've got offended easily, but he says 'I know' and keeps quiet. I just want him to know that no matter how boring I feel he is sometimes, there is no other person in the world I'd rather spend every boring moment with! (Most people might find it cheesy, but it's the truth :))

We have been 'WE' for almost two and a half years now, and it's been an amazing journey. I've learnt so much from him, and apparently he's also changed quite a bit (I've HEARD for the good ;)). And I'm extremely excited about the journey ahead of us, and I'm sure we'll stick by each other no matter what :)

I've always been bummed about how boring both of our names are ;) And although half the world already knows, now I declare: You are what LIFE is to me, and it's only gonna get better from here on :)

P.S: I love this pic! :)

He came, he conquered

It was the beginning of my second semester. A bunch of us regular Chamu fans (:P) decided to go back to his tuition. To my surprise, I found quite a few guys from my class on the first day there. Not all of them were my 'friends' but it kinda felt nice to have familiar faces around.

Among all of them was this goofy, crazy guy with a wacky sense of humour, who used to make stupid jokes and make sure at least most of us laughed at it (and that 'most of us' almost always included me :P). The times we spent together used to be filled with laughter, laughter and more laughter! Not once had the situation been serious with him around.

This is how his self-description goes:

Once upon a time in a far far away land there lived a person(wether the person is a guy or gal is upto whoever is reading this) and he\she was called X.Now X learnt of a new thing called internet and set to explore a world of possibilities.Mid-way X came across some writing whcih he\she simply could not make out the purpose of its existence but still carried on reading it until X reached a point in the script with the word "screw"......SCREW....if u didn't understand what this whole story was about then now u know me very well.I almost always have as much sense and purpose as the above story!Cheers!(if u wanna know real thins abt me then ask me and i'll tell....or at least try to control myself long enough to tell u in a way u will understand...)

Get it? ;)

I learned to ride the bike from him, a pulsar 180. The first time I got on it was in Premier, after a game of pool. After that there were frequent rides inside the college campus, and it used to be exhilarating!

Within a span of two to three months, he'd become one of my best friends :)

I dreaded the end of the second sem, since we were gonna be split up into our respective branches. But with the power of the cellphone, nothing could keep any of us away from each other :) I used to wait in class for him to start off some nutty conversation, and the rest of my day used to go super smooth :) I know that was what prevented him from sleeping in class as well ;)

That one trip to Waynad, I will never forget. He along with Shakeeb were the ones who made me feel that it was OK to feel the way I was feeling (let's not get into details). And that was the only time we got some photos of both of us together, since we had never taken any. Some of the best ones that I have!

Just 4 days after that I called him up, made plans for the next day to go to the Maddur Cafe Coffee Day. He got super excited as usual.... another biking trip! At 1 a.m, I got a call, and it froze me. I was never gonna speak again to the guy whom I'd spoken to a couple of hours ago. It took me a while to realize what exactly had happened. I didn't know whom to talk to, I didn't know who could console me. That was the most awful night of my life.

SHARAN.. I miss you. I've missed you the last two and a half years in college, I've missed you every time we went to CCD. I've missed you every time I got bugged in class, I've missed you every time I saw a girl riding a bike with a friend sitting behind her. I've missed sitting in Nescafe and watching you walk out of the class with that bag on your shoulder, that knowing smile you used to give as you walked towards me. And you know what I do when I'm bored? I go through your Orkut profile. Makes me laugh every single time! :)

Wherever you are, I just want you to know that you've left a mark on every single person you met here, whether they were your friends or not. And I can bet, every single one of us loved you, and we always will!