Time Travel

History invokes various emotions in me. As a kid, with exams to write, I dreaded the subject because I could not understand the difference between Mahmood Gazni and Mahmood Ghaznavi. Years later, thanks to Wikipedia, I got to know they are the same, just called differently in different history text books. Without the phenomena called internet on my fingertips, it was all too much for my small brain to process.

Also, this particular emperor loved looting temples. He was the income tax officer of India in 11th century. Of course, we being Indians, as we are, whenever he would strike and loot a temple, we would always assume that this is the last time he's invaded and looted. But no, like the wild card entries in Bigg Boss house, he kept coming back and kept looting. Among many temples he looted, one was the Sun Temple at Modhera. The Wikipedia link to the temple is here. And other antics and conquests of the emperor could be found here.

Last week I had a chance to visit the Sun Temple and the moment I saw the temple (which is still standing tall and beautiful after all these years of torture), I knew I was a queen in my previous janam. I mean, I had to be a queen who lived in such awesome structures.
Just look at this ceiling, such architecture.. such intricate carvings.. so so so pretty! Such a perfect circle! And if it looks so pretty after a thousand years, I cant imagine how pretty it must have looked when it was newly constructed.

I was lost in thoughts wondering that at this very place, a crazy mughal emperor must've barged in, sitting on his animals and looted the place off its solid gold statues! Well, at least he had the sense to not to destroy the structure.


It was fascinating to see the step tank.. and the perfectly chiseled steps, which are perfect even today, after all these years! This structure has stood the test of time.. and passed it with flying colours! :p


Enlarge and read - it's in Hindi - a little history about the temple.. (or you could wikipedia it too.. :P And also read hte personal appeal by Jimmy Wales)

The structure is crumbling now.. after almost 1000 years.. though it is very much there, and makes me wonder, how will it be to visit the same place after a thousand years? :D

Perhaps, a thousand years hence, I will be a queen again. Till then, I will just hope a prince somewhere comes and sweeps me off my feet. (ok, no sweeping off the feet jokes)

The Decade That Was

It just dawned upon me that the first decade of the century is coming to an end. It was quite an eventful decade. Not bad, not good, just eventful.

So this was the decade where I wrote my first board exams, and then, the exams never stopped, hell, even after all these years, i am still taking them. well, at least the good thing is, i don't get nervous about exams now - not a bead of sweat on my forehead before i appear for the first of the many papers. Damn, i remember my 10th board exams in march.. 12th march if i am not mistaken I had my English paper and I was wearing a pink lucknowi salwar kameez for that test. and that was in 2001. see my tez memory? faster than a computer!

Then my first day in new school.. when we had to change schools after 10th, and not knowing anyone there.. making new friends... and those adolescence crushes.. and receiving first ever 'proposal' which was refused in the most sincere way possible.. :) (dude, i was 16!!)

My first trip abroad, and travelling all alone from ahmedabad.. again at 16.. without any clue about a lot of things.. :) which was fun in its own way! :) that was the first stamp on my passport and will never be forgotten.. :) (though the passport is now cancelled after i got a new one after turning 18)

The first day at college.. where I was all excited but eventually all excitement fizzled out and I ended up cursing karan johar for creating a rosy picture of college in my mind when college is exactly the opposite! no cute guys in the class and they were all so lame! no cute seniors either! sigh, sad life at HLCC indeed.

Getting my driving licence. :)

Death of my grandmother. That's when i realised how important it is to tell people you love to let them know that you love them. It may be too late. She had a peculiar sandalwood smell on her.. she would do the pooja and do sandalwood tikas on statues of gods, and wipe off her hands on her saree.. so the smell would always remain with her.. even today, after almost 6 years also, i can still smell the sandalwood randomly.. at nights.. when i am watching tv.. it just comes and goes as if to remind me she's still around, guarding us.. watching us.. :)

The first time i voted. It felt good to be a responsible citizen and fulfilling the duty of casting the vote, though i wish that in general elections, advani was not the representative from my constituency, i don't like him! i knew i should've voted for the candidate with ice cream as a chunavchinha.. :)

My first day at Deloitte. Oh, god! How I was an object of everyone's curiosity, where people will pass by me, look at me from a distance, but not approach me and say hi or ask me for lunch! Such weird attitude they had.. but then, since i felt so awful on my first day at work (where I didn't pee for the whole day since i bloody didnt know where the friggin loo is), i made it a point to be friendly to all the newbies.. :) 20th June, 2007 will never be forgotten.. :)

My first audit assignment.. the first time we stayed up past midnight at work.. the first time i reached home at 3 am from office.. the first time we were stopped by policemen at 2 am and bags were checked for explosives (in their defence, there were blasts in ahmedabad just a week before) the first time i met with an accident on the way from office to home (at again 1:30 am) where my immediate boss was driving the car to drop us home.. the feeling that you could've been -><- this close to death! (though no injury happened to either of us, we were quite shaken up) the first outstation audit assignment.. :) it was all good fun.. :) of course, with that, i also remember my last day at deloitte.. :)

Of course, one cannot forget (and in my case, even forgive) all the heart breaks.. :) I am the wrong guy magnet.. always attracting the ones who are totally wrong for me. But i guess deep within i always knew that neither of them was The One. As I say, I think I am the female version of Ted Mosby from How I Met Your Mother. :) I still hope to find Mr Darcy.. somewhere.. :) (yea, so am obsessed with pride and prejudice - kill me!)

And then buying my own car (well, not completely, paid for it partly with the measly stipend i got.. rest was paid was dad.. but hey, i still contributed for it and it gives me immense pride in that.. :) )

And at the end of it, it has been a decade of meeting new people, forming new friends, losing some, but gaining a lot of love in return.. despite what people might say, i have made some very, very good friends through internet, and I love them dearly, and would wish to meet htem someday.. :) I know, in next decade, I will.. :)

Maybe, my next post should be what I want in the next decade.. what say.. ? :)

Year End Balance Sheet

So the year 2010 is coming to an end. Why? WHY is it getting over so early? It just started like little over 11 months ago! This is unfair! And it's so weird that I don't even remember how the year just flew by! I mean, other than writing a zillion exams, I hardly did anything significant this year!

Well, actually, i did! I did the awesome trip to Phuket and Bali with family which was like so awesome because it was first family trip in god-knows-how-many-years! And then, my association with Deloitte also came to an end.. after three painfully long years. I had these mixed feelings when I left because I was suddenly jobless with a depleting bank balance and nothing much to do. But i chose to use the time wisely by watching all episodes of How I Met Your Mother and Criminal Minds and so many romantic comedy movies. Oh and of course, repeats of Pride and Prejudice. I am so obsessed with Darcy that I try to find Darcy in every guy i meet, but most of them turn out to be jerks. Ah, well, but that's a different story.

In less than 2 months, I will complete 25 years of my existence and I am suddenly having my quarter life crisis where I dont see my career going anywhere and I feel tied down by so many things around and how i wish i could get a lottery for a zillion dollars and i can travel all around the world.. go to italy or spain.. or meet salman khan and express my undying love for him.. or go on a cross country road trip, all alone, driving all by myself and taking stops whenever i like and meeting interesting people, and then maybe write a book on my experiences.

somehow this has been a rather depressing year.. a year of heartbreaks and sad life that you get to know of your close friends' life through facebook status updates when the friend changes relationship status to "engaged" and to "married" and they dont even bother to tell you! Ah, well, those friends are then removed from the friends' list and phone numbers deleted from phonebook.

and then there were times when all i wanted to do was go to my favourite barista outlet and sit there for hours reading book and sipping coffee and observing people around and guessing whether they are friends or online-friend-meeting-for-first-time or a matrimonial set up (yea, that happens in barista here, i've seen it :D)

there are times when i feel that i am putting up an act of how happy things are.. but then, so are most people.. we rarely let our emotions known.. i think the more the person knows about me the more vulnerable i will be.. and the more he gets into my personal space, the more reasons he'll have to hurt me. at times, for the fear of being hurt, i don't let someone come very close to me.. but then, so are a lot of other people.. but at times, the way in which i hide emotions kind of scares me.. it makes me feel that i am not even true to myself.. maybe i am playing this dual role where i am in denial of a lot of things.. or like if i don't think about certain issues, they will just go away on their own, but now, i don't even know if they have gone away, because i have stopped addressing them, and i am too scared to address them now, i mean, what if they are still around? am i making sense?

so lets have an attendance call here, how many are still reading this incoherent monologue?

so as the year comes to an end, i want to just let go of a lot of things and start afresh.

gosh, this sounds all so cliched! argh!

no, i think i want to bring in the new year by doing something really awesome.. like doing something i've NEVER done before! :D let 2011 be a fun year! anyone has any ideas?

Bengaluru-Coorg-Bengaluru

I don't remember the last time I visited a hill station. It's as if I had almost forgotten how a hill station looks like.

Last week we visited Coorg, Karnataka. It was also the first time I saw coffee and pepper plantations. And it was lovely. For a change, the drive was as much pleasant as the destination.

/rant begins

Drive reminds me, whats up with the drivers on the karnataka highway? I mean, they seem to be unaware of the thing called rules. Under normal circumstances, on the Gujarat highway, you'd see slow moving/heavy vehicles drive religiously on the left lane and the vehicles overtake only from teh right side. Well, in most cases at least. But in Karnataka, the slow moving/heavy vehicles "choose" a lane where they'll drive at a chosen speed limit too. So those who want to overtake, must zigzag their way around these monuments which seem to be racing amongst themselves at the speed of 2 kmph.

/rant ends

I can write a lot about the pretty, pretty, Abbey Falls (the walk up and down the pathway to the falls can test anyone's shaaririk kshamata) or the super awesome plantations where I thought I could spend days, but then decided I'll get bored of it pretty soon, or the elephant park, which I personally think is cruelty towards animals. I mean, I love elephants.. elephants are my favourite animal and I have a pillow in shape of an elephant too.. i find them incredibly cute and innocent. But elephants are essentially wild animals, and they belong in forests. Not in some random camp where they are "trained" to perform tricks like putting a garland in visitors' neck or playing football. Or even an elephant ride for that matter. I mean, its just cruelty to use animals for entertainment purposes like these. Of course, when you look around the farm and see the giant potty cakes of elephants, you thank god that elephants don't fly. Anyhoo, so to complete the sentence, I could write a lot about these things and sound like a tourism website or I can just say its a place worth visiting and talk about other stuff. :P

But then, I don't have much to say, except for the fact that a co passenger on my ahmedabad to bangalore flight got talking to me and man, he was weird. He was so so so so weird, but seemingly harmless guy. When i casually mentioned this to a friend, she reminded of the movie Taken and dammit, it scared me. It scared me a LOT. Sigh.

Anyway, today is my first day of complete joblessness. No exams to study for (at least at the moment), no office to go to, and basically, nothing much to do. Oh, and there is some kind of weird cold wave condition in ahmedabad and I am freeeeeeeezing. Dammit, its even colder then the hill station we visited. It is VERY cold here, really.

On the other hand, I am thinking I should start looking for a job. Wonder who will hire me.

Snap, Snap, Snap!

So today I decided I should look more human. I had been putting off a haircut for sometime only because, "i am home only, whats the point in getting a haircut" or "I'll get a haircut when I get a new job". But then, till I get myself a new job, I can't start looking like I have broom stuck on my head. Or ostrich feathers, for that matter.

So I went to this salon where I usually get my haircut. The lady at the reception asked me if I had anyone particular who I'd trust with my precious hair? I said, no one in particular, and hoped the woman who gave me particularly crooked haircut sometime back doesn't come. :P

So the guy who was the show off his talent on my hair was, well, had pierced ears, pierced eyebrows, hair coloured to a shade of copper, and very, very, very goodlooking. If only he didn't have those disgusting piercings and the peroxide shaded hair. And he started the most difficult conversation.

He : So what would you like to have?
Me : (chai, coffee?) Haircut.
He : Any particular style?
Me : No.
He : So what would you like to have?
Me : Umm, not too short.
He : Layers?
Me : No, just evenly trim the hair, but not too short.
He : When was the last time you got a haircut?
Me : 6 months back. (In my defense, DUDE, I was busy, busy doing nothing. :P)
He : You should get a haircut every 6 weeks.
Me : Yes. I know. (pointing to a guy in the corner) He told me the same thing last time.
He : What shampoo do you use?
Me : Pantene.
He : Use l'oreal. (no prizes for guessing I went to a l'oreal affiliated salon)
Me : Sure.

So today, the guy cutting my hair was very scissor-happy person. He must've helped me shed at least 100 grams weight. And every time his hands came near my nose/cheeks, there was a very peculiar smell. It was a good smell. :D Not the nicotine/gutkha smell. :P

So while I was there, I looked around, other women/men getting haircuts and other treatments. Some were having their hair straightened, while others were getting them coloured. Now, I dont understand the straight hair bit. They look so poker straight and don't have any kind of natural flow, don't go wild when wind gushes, how do women like these hair? I like my wavy hair, though I do complain a lot, but I still like my hair - at least they don't appear lifeless. (except on days when I haven't shampooed for like 4 days, like today morning)

And have you seen how they straighten their hair? It's like putting them on some aluminum foil and all - you have to hate your hair to undergo that!

And damn, all these things are so expensive! 6-10k for hair straightening, which last for like 6 months. So when your naturally curly hair grow back, you look like Veena Mallik in her just-woken-up look. Who has so much spare money for all this?

The other day, I went with my sister for a haircut, and the salon people tried to coax us into one such treatment. Hair bonding or something. So, out of curiosity, we took a package "menu" and left.

On our way home, I looked at it, it said,

Hair Rebonding : Rs. 8000
blah-blah-blah.
Bridal Package : Rs. 6000.

So, I said something to my sister which she believes is the funniest thing I said that day.

"wtf, 8k for hair rebonding and 6k for bridal package, i'd rather become a bride then."

Now, the incoherency level in the post is going up, so I will go now. I have to pack my bags as I leave for Bangalore tomorrow early morning. My mom is getting panic attacks that I have not yet started packing. I tell her I will do it after bigg boss ends at 10 pm, she had a mild heart attack at that. So I will go put some clothes on the bed so she feels I am packing :D I could have kept the packing for tomorrow morning also, but Mom would've sleep walked into my room and packed my bags herself, and put in my worst clothes. Hmph.

So, folks, see you guys later :D