Yipee!!!

Ha Ha!! I am feeling better now after some tensed moments during 1st half of the day.

Few of you know about my trip around Karnataka in the 1st week of April. That was some ride, some amazing memories, some daring stunts but ended up me coming back in one piece. I never got to write about it in here.

Now, guess what, I am doing a Part 2 on that. I want to ride from here (Blr) to Kanyakumari & back through Dindigul & Madurai. Some 1400 kms. But in this trip i am looking at taking friends along instead of doing it all by myself; like Karnataka. So, this is an open invitation to all my friends who are as crazy as i am to join me.

The plan is to leave early morning on the 11 Aug, Friday; & return back to Bangalore on the evening of 15 Aug, Tuesday.

Am so looking forward for this ride; even if i have to go all by myself. I am sure its going to be fun.

Ramu

Its been a lousy week. I was tied up big time. Now, i am sounding pricy.

No, i was tied up. With our brilliant bureaucrats pulling down the entire domain of blogger instead of blocking particular blogs which carried sensitive material, it felt like my hands were tied. Talk about freedom of expression!! What next, Control of Media?

You.

When you remember me,
it means that you have carried something
of who I am with you,
that I have left some mark of
who I am on who you are.

It means that you can summon me
back to your mind even though countless
years and miles may stand between us.

It means that if we meet again,
you will know me.

It means that even after I die,
you can still see my face and
hear my voice and speak to me in your heart.

For as long as you remember me,
I am never entirely lost.
When I'm feeling most ghost-like,
it is your remembering me that helps
remind me that I actually exist.

When I'm feeling sad, it's my consolation.
When I'm feeling happy, it's part of why I feel that way.

If you forget me, one of the ways
I remember who I am will be gone.

If you forget, part of who I am will be gone.
-Anonymous.

26 Days & 5 Marriages.

Its been a crazy month; 4 of my good friends got married. You would be wondering why i wrote 5 in the subject ( no i am not trying your intelligence); lets just say that one of them got slaughtered twice.













This is Bhaskar & Nitya. Arranged Marriage.
Hiriyur is where it happened.













This is Harsha & Aarthi. Love &
Arranged Marriage. Bangalore.



















This is Syed Masroor; a good collegue of mine.
Arranged Marriage. My apologies that Bhabhi's
(Nasreen) photo is not available. Bangalore again.













This is another collegue of mine.Deepak & Neethi.
Love & Arranged Marriage.
Kodava Samaj & Koramangala; Bangalore.













Wow, what a month!!
By the end of it, i have gone nuts attending marriages.
I cant believe i made it through 5 of them in like less
than a month. Anyways, if nothing else, i got
to eat & savour different kinds of food through out.
& i am kind off fed up answering the cliched
questions
time & again.

Regret.

The thing i hate about getting old; apart from the fact that one day my children are going to throw me out of the house or my wife leaves me for someone better, is to sit down & regret.

I have this picture in my mind; its beautiful weather outside, the kinds which make you think, i am sitting in my rocking chair, coffee cup on a table next to me, newspaper in my hand, rocking back & forth, thinking & telling myself that "Oh My God, I should have done that!!". I resent that picture somehow.

Its my constant conscious effort to make sure that i don't get there. I think it is scary for me to think that i am going to get there & tell myself that there is something i should have done.

The other day when i had an off & didnt know what to do, i picked up all my photographs, dumped it in the car & headed off to my old school. I did my 5, 6 & 7th std in New Public English School in Basaveshwaranagar. There was this girl in my class;tall, beautiful & smart(you must be thinking how is this possible) on who i had this big time crush. I always wanted to tell her. We were kids; i am talking about late 1980's; it was this unexplainable goodie goodie feeling within, you didnt know what it was, but was great. There was no definition for it, but when we grow up is when we know what it is, term it, define it & give it a name. Whatever happened to Love. You would have this smile on your face, you would go shy when you are next to her, get goosebumps but still were good friends. Ohh what can i say, it was my first crush.

So, where were we? Ok, i had lost contact of her & anyone studied with. So i went in search of anyone i knew from the school. I was thrilled when i did meet up with my Head Mistress. We shared each others story till date like movie trailers. She promised that she would help me in finding atleast one of my friends & i promised that i would try to convince the school authorities to start a "Old Student's Association".

I am happy atleast that i took that step in the right direction. NO regrets regardless of the consequence. No Regrets.


“People so seldom say I love you And then it's either too late or love goes. So when I tell you I love you, It doesn't mean I know you'll never go, Only that I wish you didn't have to.”

“Many of us crucify ourselves between two thieves - regret for the past and fear of the future.”

“I have no regrets in my life. I think that everything happens to you for a reason. The hard times that you go through build character, making you a much stronger person.”

“Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.”

“If only. Those must be the two saddest words in the world.”

My Earlier Photos.

This is Mom. I guess after marriage. She looks "wow". She disagrees though.


This is the earliest photo i have i guess. Mom again here.









This is a classic photo of both of us. Its impossible to forget this photo cos its imprinted in my mind. We looked cute & he the cutest.

They.

I am told that it was Love. You could have your own definitions for it.

He came into town after he fought with his parents on some issue or it could also be that he wanted to be independent. Got a job as a typist in a reputed Plywood Factory (a town near Mysore) in those days. It was big break for him. Being a smart man that he way, he had this charm in him which made him quite know in the new town & the work place. He made good number of friends, out of whom my uncle became the closest to him.
I think being a quick learner runs in the genes I guess; there is an old story that his dad learnt Tamil in 3 days flat with the help of a book when he got posted to Madurai (which is in Tamilnadu) from his native in Kerala. He picked up Kannada really well & mastered it to perfection; but with close observation you could catch the Malayalam influence behind it.

She was the 3rd child in the family; a very orthodox Brahmin Family should i say. If you knew me i wouldn’t survive a day in there. But that’s where I came from. She was a beautiful looking girl in a huge family of theirs. She went to school, college & did her masters in her 40s. Very talkative & naughty among her friends but well mannered in her house. She had to be; having a strict, ex-military, disciplinarian father like hers, it would be crazy to think that any child of the family could break out of the traditions it bound them. Some say she was a pillar of strength; this smart girl who held the family together, in crisis. She studied music & to play Veena (traditional musical instrument, similar to Sitar); she still plays it. She was in college then.

I do not know when exactly they met. But I do know he used to visit home along with her elder step brother (my uncle). During one of these visits is when I guess it struck to him that he found the woman of his life. Now, that was just half of the journey. Coming from a different background as he is, the major hurdle was to convince the family esp., her father, who was completely against the idea that his daughter getting married to some outsider who is not even of the same cast. They got married against all odds.

That was Mom & Dad.

Love is in the Air.

I have a small story to tell.

This is about my very good friend Guna. He met his wife when they were in 3rd std in school. They were also related to each other in a way. When we met each other in an institute, during which he had confessed to us that he is going to break the news to her on a certain day. He got a big fat "NO" from her. He was persistant. He did not give up. In some time she did agree. I am sure there was no one in the world who was that ecstatic that day; you couldnt catch him, at all. I could understand why, he was going to marry his childhood sweetheart.

Except for a small hitch, that the family was kind off was against it (which they finally took care off) the wedding went off well. To date they still are the cutest couple i have come accross who love each other endlessly. He still has the first set of roses they exchanged; there is hardly much in the rose, but still it is framed..the greeting card he got, the first movie tickets..everything.

Today they are a happy family of 3 with their Son.

Every time i see them, i get moved by the simplicity in them. I get inspired by them. They have this aura of happiness, even if you were blind, you could feel that unbelievable energy around them; you could feel LOVE.

Each time i see them / rather think about them, i have this smile accross my face. They make me believe that LOVE still exsits.