Author

Kanupriya

Magic of Rain

June 28, 2009
Magic of Rain

Thoughts drifting with drifting clouds
As I sit here & watch the crowd;
Lightning flashes the life so far
Moments of glee & the deep scars.

A drop from eye, a drop from sky
Tears & rain don’t seem to be ally;
I hope the rain wins this affray
And it washes all my tears away.

Rain has always this magic on me
It touches that me hidden within me;
Rain reminds me those golden years
And also helps me hide my tears.
– Kanupriya

Wrote this while lazing in my balcony this weekend- sunset with rain with solitude. Though never wanted to write a sad one but somehow this is what came out. I think it was because even one moment of solitude or time with myself quickly reminds me of how life has changed over years and this rain reminded me of my childhood days when me & my brothers used to just go out in our aangan & get wet like crazy…For all other craziness, I always behaved like an elder sister and stopped them from doing any such things but for being drenched in rain I was always the first one amongst them to run out in our aangan & enjoy the rains…Some changes like absence of Kishu from our lives is really one of the most unacceptable & unbelievable changes till date…

If it has to be a morning in B’lore, it has to be @ Nandi Hills!

June 22, 2009
Yup, I strongly feel so esp. after my recent visit to Nandi Hills. This was not my first visit to this absolutely serene place which is just 60 kms from Bangalore but the difference this time was that I had an overnight stay at the hills there. Thanks to our friends who insisted to stay there at night & then enjoy the quietude of that place. I must say that the difference in experience was startling.

My in-laws side of family is here right now & we wanted to take them to some silent & calm place. Now what better place than Nandi Hills which is so close to Bangalore & yet seems to be so far from the regular hustle-bustle of the city. I’m sure anybody who has lived in Bangalore for even few months would have definitely gone to this place at least once. But I’m not sure how many of them would have done the mistake of doing a day trip like us? Trust me, if you really want to enjoy this place you need to experience the morning of Nandi Hills. I don’t remember when was the last time when I had breathed such fresh air, felt such lovely breeze, seen such picturesque sunrise & played amongst such vivid clouds. The descent of cloud outside our rooms or on the plateau was such that the literal phrase “playing with clouds” seemed to be absolutely real at that moment. Have a look on the following pictures, & you’ll know why I say now – “If it has to be a morning in Bangalore, it has to be @ Nandi Hills”:



To add to this quaint experience, the weather that day was simply awesome. Heavy rains with that typical smell of wet soil all around! Ahhhh :-). If you wanna go for a short & economical break from Bangalore, then in this weather, Nandi Hills is surely one of the perfect options for you.

Other Details of the place:

  • About Nandi Hills: The Nandi Hills or the hills of the Nandi have been named after the bull of Lord Shiva. Also known as Nandidurga, it was the summer retreat of Tipu Sultan in old days.
  • Distance from Bangalore: 60 kms
  • Best mode to travel: By road, route is very simple & driving experience is great.
  • Route: Now with international airport at Devanhalli, one hardly needs to write directions for this place. It’s on the same route, after Devanhalli, you need to take a left (there is a sign board having a left arrow for Nandi Hills at that turn) and keep going straight.
  • Places to Stay: One of our friends had arranged our stay in “Nehru Nilaya”, a govt. guest of indian Horticulture Dept. and it was really-really good considering its price. Room ranges from Rs. 260 – Rs. 1000/- plus taxes, only catch is you can’t book these rooms on phone or online. You’ve to physically go to Lalbaug in Bangalore to get the rooms booked. Apart from these, there were lots of other good accommodation options too on Nandi Hills, both at the foot as well as on top of the hills.
  • Best time to visit: All year, though if you’re one of those who enjoy rain then May-July is the perfect time to go. It’s really scenic at this time.
  • Places to see there: The best thing which you can do at this place is relax in the mid of nature, it really refreshes you after a hectic week of work. But if you want to explore this place further, you can check out Yogi Nandishvara Temple, Suicide Point, remains of Tipu fort, Amrit Sarovar & Brahmashram. This ashram is a small cave with very cool temperature inside and is a good place to sit silently & have a tryst with your own self.

Indian Writing in English

June 10, 2009
I happened to visit a prominent book store recently to buy some books as gift for a friend. After surfing around here & there, I thought of checking about latest addition through the store manager himself.

Me: Hi, can you recommend me some latest light reads?
Store Manager: Sure mam, what kind of language?
Me: English. BTW I always thought you keep only English books, do you’ve books of other languages too? I’m also looking for a very popular hindi title.
Store Manager: Sorry mam, we keep only English.
Me: Oh, so you asked what kind of language?
Store Manager: I meant you want to check out “Actual English” books or “Indian Writing in English”?
“Actual English” or “Indian writing in English”!!!
Me: Anything will do, show me some recent best sellers.

The manager showed me a stack of recent bestsellers & well the shelf consisted of maximum books by Indian authors only. Considering the fact that I’m an ardent fan of Indian writing, at one hand I was happy to listen to a separate categorization like “Indian writing in English” but at the same time this thing of “Actual English” or “Indian Writing in English” sounded nothing less than some sort of label for Indian authors. I think it was the word “actual” which created all the difference in terms of image! I was surprised to listen to it esp. because it was coming from a store manager himself!

Another incident was while chatting with this friend of mine who asked me to recommend her some romantic reads but immediately added – “don’t tell me one by an Indian author, they don’t have variety. And the language is also too desi”! “NO, I don’t agree” was the quick response which came out of my mouth.

Its years now that Indian authors have come of age. In fact as far as writing talent is concerned, India has always been a rich country since centuries. Think of the origin of the likes of Kabir, Tulsidas, Rahim, Mira Bai to the likes of V.S.Naipaul, Upmanyu Chatterjee, Amitav Ghosh & Kiran Desai, hasn’t India been there on the global literati roll forever??? Yes, a noticeable difference is definitely the trend of shifting language, thanks to all globalization & exposure to international culture that more & more Indian writers are writing in English now. Not only they are writing in English, rather they are creating a mark across continents with their stories & presentations. If you ask me as a reader, I think now-a-days every second book which I read is by an Indian author. And I totally enjoy it; I get whole lot of variety, I find the characters to be more relatable, plot to be more enjoyable & language to be absolutely at par with any other international author. To add to that in case the authors use some kind of local languages& phrases in between, then it’s nothing less than a mast tadka on dal, such seasonings give the book an additional flavor all together.

I was under the impression now that gone are the days when it was sort of uncool to read an Indian writing & if you’ve to flaunt a book you have to definitely take any other name apart from Indian one. But labels like “Actual English” and “Indian authors write too desi” leave me wondering once again. Are we still living in the age when Indian writing in English is not considered at par with other international counterparts? Do you still think of “Indian writing” as a separate label??? Well, all I can tell such people who have this opinion is to dive into the ocean of Indian writing seriously & then only you will have an estimate of the real depth of it. Yes, there are some crappy ones too but so are they there in those so called “Actual English” collections too.

Luck has bid its final adieu

June 2, 2009

Hope seems to be fading away,
Optimism is on the verge to betray;
Life is painted all over blue,
Luck has bid its final adieu.

Nothing seems to be going right,
Peaceful days are out of sight;
Problems are many, solutions a few,
Luck has bid its final adieu.

Shattered dreams n grit weakened,
Life seems to have reached a dead-end;
Now I don’t know what to do,
Luck has bid its final adieu.
– Kanupriya

This picture is one of my acrylic paintings done last year & as far as this post is concerned, ummm very unlike of me to write something in this style. Initially I wrote a post about absence of “Mr. Luck” from my life in a general paragraph style but few editing here & there has given it a shape like this. Wondering what could be the reason for the same – maybe I’m into lots of poems these days esp. hindi ones as I am working on typing & editing whole lot of poems of my mom or maybe it’s my gloomy & introspective mood! Hmmm…

Updates from Marketing Chit-Chat: 26th May’09 – 1st June’09

June 1, 2009
Posted this on Marketing Chit-Chat last week, would love to see you there. This post was also selected by “Blogadda for their spicy saturday picks”.
  • Why Marketers should use Twitter?: I had personally joined twitter more than a year & half back but was not an active user of the account then. Initially, I just used to read updates from the people whom I was following & then slowly got into posting my updates too. Read More…

Lost Laugh!

May 29, 2009
29th May – An unforgettable day, a historic day, a day which just left us numb & shaken & blank. It’s exactly one year today since I would have had a:

A laugh,
A hearty laugh,
A carefree laugh,
A true laugh,
A loud laugh,
A wholehearted laugh,
A laugh like this;

A guilt free laugh! Yeah, today even if I laugh there is an immediate guilt, an inner guilt, a guilt of realization that I’m actually laughing without Amitesh Bhaiya & Kishu! It’s exactly one year today when Amitesh Bhaiya left us all shattered & traumatized. But as if that was not enough, God decided to take Kishu also away just after eight months, leaving me, Ma & Kaushik mourning and devastated forever. Can life change like this so much in just 1 year? Yes, it does…kya se kya ho gaya!
Bhaiji (As we used to call Amitesh Bhaiya lovingly): Saying that we miss you will be an understatement, in fact we never have forgotten you even for a moment to miss you. Remembering you today badly on this dreadful day & pray for the peace for your soul…

Note: In the pic from left to right – Amitesh Bhaiya (though not blood relative but far closer to me than my own brothers), Kaushik (my youngest brother) & Kishu (my younger brother who left us this February). This pic was taken last year when we all had met during a festival for the last time “together” at my native place.

The Jane Austen Book Club

May 27, 2009

Well, finally finished reading this book & it was like yawwwnnn! It definitely gets listed in my “drag-gone” category; yeah it was draaaaggggging & finally was gone after lots of effort! Uh the thought of writing about this book itself makes me feel zzzzzzz. But still I will write about it in the interest of those who can pick up this book reading all the good testimonials mentioned on its cover. In fact I had picked up this book with lots of expectations myself esp. because had heard whole lot of good things about the movie based on this book & secondly the cover page of the book really hard sells it to be a great reading. My general assumption is that if it’s a movie based on any book then generally the book is better to read as compared to watching the movie but guess I was wrong in this case. Book was definitely not worth the hype.

As the title suggest, “The Jane Austen Book Club” is a story of six members of a book club who meet & discuss Jane Austen’s novels once a month. The group consists of 5 women – Jocelyn, Sylvia, Prudie, Allegra, Bernadette & 1 man – Grigg. Jocelyn who is the initiator of this book club believes that it is essential to reintroduce Austen into your life regularly & that’s why she starts this book club. Each of their monthly book club meeting unfolds their own stories & some association with Austen’s novels.

Personally speaking I loved Austen’s novels & hence thought I might like a book which is based on a book club of Jane Auten, but then I will say I was disappointed. Mainly because this book lacked the grip to hold my attention, after a few pages itself I lost my interest & found the flow of the book to be very confusing. Till last I could not understand the main point which author was trying to make. I know it was meant to be a light & fun read but somewhere it never served that purpose. So, from my side it’s a thumbs down for this book totally.

Other details of the book:
Author: Karen Joy Fowler
Price: I had bought it a dirt cheap price in a book sale 🙂 but think the original price of the book is Rs. 560/-
Special Note: It took me 7 weeks to drag & finally finish this 243 paged book. Reason – couldn’t read more than 10 pages at one go!

I’m off to “Marrying Anita” now, was supposed to read “Outliers” but guess I need to read a funny book after this Book Club thingy before I go for a serious read 🙂

Updates from Marketing Chit-Chat: 21st April’09 – 25th May’09

May 25, 2009

Posted these on Marketing Chit-Chat in last few weeks, would love to see you there:

  • Kingfisher Holidays – IPL promotion: It was the last commercial break during IPL last night & guess the 1st ad being aired in that break??? Well, it was for a holiday site asking to book tickets for South Africa to catch live IPL match! Read More…
  • Zoozoos popular than celeb endorsers?: Well, it’s Zoozoos & only Zoozoos all over, be it any marketing meeting which I attend or a casual chat amongst group of friends, “zoozoos” is definitely one of the topics which has to crop up in any such marketing discussion these days. Read More…

Introspection

May 16, 2009

And my spine disc problem is back, that too with a big bang. Intense pain along with stiffer back. All the extra work load & hectic schedule for last so many weeks finally took its toll on my health. Week was but naturally full of medicines, injections, traction, IFTs and other physio sessions. 1st half of the week was bed ridden and had to take off from work & 2nd half somehow managed to drag myself to work for few hours. Yeah had to go as it was impossible to neglect work, so much was pending on my head along with a completely new management team to deal with! Every day when I went to work, it reminded me of the expression which doctor had on his face this time, he had his standard suggestion ready on his lips – “madam till the time you won’t change your lifestyle & work habit I really can’t treat you completely. You need to exercise regularly & reduce your work hours otherwise you’ll keep on coming back with same problem & disc prolapse again & again”.

Hmmm, I know & I know it sooo very well, after all this must be the 100th time that he would have suggested me the same. But this time he was grimmer & so was I. The pain was so intense & so sudden that both me & N had got scared. Having experienced this problem lot many times I am very well aware of the repercussions of the same on long term life and I also know that there is no permanent cure to a disc problem apart from having a healthy life style and lesser hours of continuous work. But despite all my intentions to follow a daily fitness regime I always fail to maintain so. Reason? Well, on a normal day I leave for work at 8 am & by the time I come back late night I am dead tired to do any kind of exercises etc. And these days because of so many changes at office it has become worse, there is no time of my work getting finished, it can be anything between 8, 9, 10, 11 pm or many times even more i.e., past mid night. No I don’t work till this late hour happily neither I am workaholic by choice, it’s just that this is the demand of my job & current organization. Working in a start-up has its own challenges. While work wise it’s definitely very exciting & you get to learn whole lot of thing in a short span of time but then it requires some serious amount of commitment as well. I’ve worked in some large companies earlier & have been working in this start-up for last 2.25 years now & all I can say based on my experience is that such role in start-up companies really needs 24x7x365 kind of commitment. For some aspects of life it’s good & some aspects it’s bad too. And now when I’m at a situation of deciding whether it’s more good or more bad then honestly speaking I’m confused. N is upset due to my health situation and so am I; I’m not able to figure out how to handle all this. It’s really not pleasant to go through same pain again & again but at the same time it’s not even easy to decide whether I should re-look at my professional path currently. I know I can’t say no to work load in my current organization but then will I be able to sustain all this considering my frequent visits to hospitals these days? Do I need to re-prioritize certain things in my life right now? Is this hard work of any real worth? Well, I’ve been thinking & thinking & only thinking since last 3 days & have not reached to any conclusion yet…I’m confused, puzzled & totally baffled! I don’t know what to do next…

Oh, how I wish!

May 7, 2009

Phew, life is running like crazy these days, seems to be always on some roller coaster or on curvy path with some huge ups & downs! And work life was never more hectic than this, I get home at all weird hours these days & the 1st thing which I do after reaching home is….well, with one hand I open that jar having potato wafers & with the next I open my freezer which is having 2 big tubs of honey nut crunch kept over there. Ummmm, actually it’s not 2 now, it’s reduced to 1.5 & it’s just 3 days that we had got those 2 big tubs. Yeah, that’s the speed of my consumption of ice-creams if it’s something as heavenly as honey nut crunch from Baskin Robbins 😀 😛 :-). I decided to write a blog post today while enjoying my ice-cream but on second thought I think let me relish my ice-cream right now, I will pick up my laptop again once I am done with every drop of it in my bowl.

I’m back & hahhhh… all my work tiredness gone and the main topic of this blog post is also gone, right now I want to focus ONLY on ice-creams. Why? Because when ice-cream & that too honey nut crunch is in front of me, I can’t focus on anything else. Considering the perpetual right side inclination of the pointer on my weighing scale I know I should not eat this daily but isn’t it N’s fault that he got 2 tubs & kept in fridge when he knows that I simply can NOT resist this flavor of ice-cream? How am I supposed to not eat when this is just kept at arms away distance? Why on earth ice-creams only have all possible calories in it? Ah, life would have been so simpler if only:

  • Ice-creams were like those green veggies with negative calories in themselves. The more you eat, the more left that pointer on weighing scale would have moved. And the best diet chart prescribed by nutritionist to lose weight would have then consisted of 1 “death by chocolate” in morning, 1 “almond fudge” in lunch & 1 “honey nut crunch” at dinner, ummm the thought itself is sooo exciting & yummy!

Now, I am getting some serious thoughts on my ideal diet plan, how about:·

  • Having Maggie every day during lunch time along with “almond fudge”? Oh yes, I love Maggie too & I seriously think Maggie is one of the best gifts to mankind ever. If given a chance I would like to make it the staple food of the country.
  • To satisfy the evening hunger pang, the only thing on which I am allowed to snack on is potato wafers!
  • And in case because of all the dieting I feel weak or my blood sugar goes down, I am supposed to have one full big bar of fruit & nut chocolate!

Oh wowwww! Life would be so cool if ice-creams, Maggie, potato wafers & chocolates become the diet food for us. How I wish they either had only zero or rather negative calories in it and we could eat as much quantity of these as much we want. It would have been so much fun to go on a diet then & I would have been always willingly ready to eat “these” diet foods. Oh how I wish! OK, enough of wishful thinking now, time to get back to reality, while I was into my wishing mode, I think I have already had 2 bowls of it!!! Honey nut crunch is NOT with negative calories and this means some XXX amount of calories has gone inside me yet again. And then I wonder why I don’t lose weight :P!