Snapshots From North India

Dec 1998, 5AM
"Pair of cotswool, Shirt n Trouser, One or Two sweaters, One thick jacket with deep pockets, One multipurpose striped muffler and Pair of woolen hand gloves. All topped up with a long cap flaunting a woolen star ball at the end."

Yes, I used to be this multilayered onion back in 1998 while riding my bicycle to maths tuition classes on those chilly winter mornings. With fog limiting the sight to just a few feet around, I never gave up the hope for meeting that someone special on the way. The romance of those mistful mornings is still a class apart. I relived those special memories during my recent trip to North India this Christmas. Here m sharing some of those interesting moments that I captured during my winter trip.

8 Degree Celsius

Remember your first smoke in childhood? Well I smoked that for long and even loved that to bits. Yes, I am talking about those harmless winter puffs that nature makes available to anyone who tries it at the right time and at the right place. Free and without any warning label or harmful side effects. It was winter and I was in North, so here I am, all set to try one at the railway station. Even though the camera failed to capture it, you can see the dense fog around me. And yes, its not 6 or 7 AM, its 10 in the watch!!

Idli in North

The way North Indian food used to be a special cuisine in South India a few years back, it was the same in North India for South Indian food (Specially Idli and Dosa). Both sides of the country used to tweak the original recipe to suit the palette of their native customers (just like pizza hut indianized its pizza in India). Over the time, I witnessed a considerable increase in authentic North Indian food down south. Same way, I discovered authentic south indian delicacies in north but the thing that surprised me most was that, North, while excelling in its punjabi cuisines even surpassed in its quality of southern delicacies. For example, this mouth watering plate of Idli was served with TN style Sambhar, thick white Coconut chutney (little sweet), green chutney with a flair of mint and spicy brown chutney with a twist of tamarind. Hmm south speciality restaurants do have a point to ponder here.

My Toy Shop

While searching for presents for my young nephews, nieces and little Cousins, I chanced upon this familiar little shop in a corner of the crowded old market. 'Yes, This is my toy shop' I yelled with joy as I jumped in to check it out. From supplying my first 'Ping Pong' bats to 'Business Board' game, this shop formed an integral part of my childhood. Its been years I'd been here but the memories are still afresh.



Though the shop board bore the brunt of time, the variety and quality of toys was still intact. The familiar key-run toys were now replaced with push button and battery operated ones. Soft toy section was dominated by 'Made in China' labels while flashy hi-tech gadgets made their way to the showcase. As usual, I didn't return empty handed from it and continued my relationship through gen next.

Til ka Taad

Til or sesame is believed to have warming properties. So as soon as winter kicks in the North, til makes it way to all the sweet shops round the city. It comes in the form of Gajak, Revadi, Til laddoo, Til biscuit and the list goes on.



The only classification it used to have earlier was 'sugar based' and 'jaggery based' but now I discovered some 40+ varieties with names like 'Chini Agra Biscuit', 'Gur Agra Biscuit', 'Chini Roll', 'Gur Roll' etc etc.

Jingle all the way

When I touched down in Bangalore, Christmas was just over but one can clearly make out the festive mood that had set in. Santa Caps, Christmas trees, Chinese lanterns (China again!!) and Hanging stars were everywhere to be seen. Here's one well decorated Christmas tree that I found in Pizza Hut.



Even though I missed out on the melodious carols of the season but I did manage to get hold of this snowman as soon as he came out of his igloo.



So here's wishing you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year 2007. Have fun, drive safely and hey, don't forget to make those sweet smileys on back of those dew drenched cars.

Merry Christmas

Jingle bells, jingle bells

Jingle all the way

Oh, what fun it is to ride

In a one horse open sleigh

Jingle bells, jingle bells

Jingle all the way

Oh, what fun it is to ride

In a one horse open sleigh

Dear Readers,
Its Christmas time again and Santa is busy loading his sleigh. So don't forget to hang your Christmas Stockings beside your bed. I'm going on vacation tomorrow and will be back by 26th. So here's wishing you all a very Merry Christmas. May all your wishes come true.
Love, Divs

PS:
Picture Courtesy: Christmas traditions
Jingle: Carols

Freshbreeze on Vijay Times

Date: Nov 30, 2006

Dear Divs,
We carried your latest blog post today.
Please see page 13 of Vijay Times.
Cheers, Subhash

Wow!! Nothing but just a plain 'Wow'!!
That was my first reaction when I found these words waiting for me in my mailbox. So far I used to enjoy the position of playing the surprise guy but this time they really beat me to dust. And man, what a pleasure to see this post up there on Vijay Times, One of the best and most versatile newspaper in Karnataka. It was not less than an honor for a person like me who's quite new to the world of blogging. My sincere thanks to Subhash (The Deputy Editor) and his team. Here's a little story especially dedicated to them.

Its so wonderful how broken links slowly join together to make a chain of memories. It traces back to my college days back in 2001-02 when I was an engineering student in Belgaum, Karnataka. One sunny morning while I was mentally preparing myself to sustain another scolding by professor for being late to class, someone faintly knocked at my door. Still in my Towel, I hesitantly opened the door to find a man with a pile of newspaper in his hand. With a charming smile, he said "Sir, We have started a new newspaper 'Vijay Times' and here's a free complementary copy of the same. Hope you'll like it. Call me at this number to subscribe it (pointing towards the blue stamp on it)". For college students, anything that sounds 'free' is quite dear to heart, so I thanked him and quickly grabbed it. As I can recall clearly, later in the day when I went past a few pages, I realised even though the daily was quite new but the length and breadth of topics it covered was really praiseworthy. Quite impressed, I followed it later intermittently in college library whenever used to find it there.

A month later, I took VRL (Vijayananda travels) bus to some destination and was surprised again to find VRL guys distributing free copies of Vijay Times to its passengers. 'Ahaa we met again', I said as I enjoyed my familiar versatile paper back in my hands. Two years later, I moved to down Bangalore for Job hunt. Short on time, I switched to online mediums like Google News, NDTV and all, rarely getting time to go past the headlines.

2006 Journey: Come October and I started on with freshbreeze. Come November and my long gone friend is back with me again on page 13. Come December and its my time to share my happiness with it as freshbreeze hitcount crossed past the 1000 mark. Yes, Thanks to my dear readers, freshbreeze is now on a new milestone.

While I was trying to collect more information on VijayTimes, apart from its huge success story in Karnataka, I came to know about its two other popular daily viz. Vijay Karnataka (Kannada) and Usha Kiran (Kannada) apart from the news of acquisition of Vijayananda Printers by Times Group in mid 2006. According to Subhash, "The 4-year-history of Vijay Times has been a roller-coaster ride. After initial hiccups, it picked up circulation all over Karnataka, thanks to the dynamic transport group which launched it, Vijayanand Roadways, led by Vijay Sankeshwar (that's where the Vijay comes from). And the Times takeover has been a smooth transition, so far. Recently we crossed the one lakh mark in city."

So here's wishing Vijay Times success and circulation, in Karnataka and beyond. They have started a new column titled "Bloggers Park" in which they publish interesting posts by various bloggers around. So if u have a blog and wanna share it, you know where to head for.

PS:

To visit that column online, follow these steps:
1) Visit http://vijaytimesepaper.com/
2) Click on 'Free epaper access' tab.
3) Click on 'Listings' link on left pane.
4) The column will be there on page 13 (on right side).

To access my published post:
Select date as Nov 30, 2006 (top right side box) and browse to page 13 as directed above.

Ouch, that hurts!!

Professor: Why are you so late today?
Student: I slipped sir.

Professor: Well, I can't see your clothes soiled though?
Student: Amm Arr actually I slipped in the bathroom sir.

Ever used that lame excuse? If yes, then u better not going forward. I just slipped in my bathroom last night and ouch, it hurts man!!


Picture Courtesy: Boundary Bathrooms

Thank God, I was lucky to get up this morning with just a swollen elbow to tell u the tale. Even I used to laugh at these innocent accidents but hey its not that funny at all. I can imagine the agony of those poor souls whom I used to grin at on giving this excuse but now I can empathize with them (even though i still believe 80% of them were plain fake, forgive me God if I'm wrong). So coming back to my brave fall in bathroom, I'd let you take a sneak peek at one of my most private rituals, "The Friday Night Bath".

Friday night, wow.. no other time of the week is as dear to me as the lovely Friday night. I leave early from office and reach home completely relaxed and waiting for a thrilling weekend ahead (is it? always?). So I make a couple of calls before going to sleep and take a full 1 hour bath compared to my 5 min hush hush affairs every morning before office. So while I was enjoying that steaming shower yesterday with all the frothing shampoo on my head, some drops of it trickled down to my right eye. Unable to wash it down quickly, my visiblity was now limited to one eye only. As I was struggling to relieve myself from that pain, I really adored the "No More Tears Baby Shampoo" by J&J. Man, why the hell m not a baby today?

Phiss.. and the soap slipped out of my hand. What am I supposed to do then? In sane senses, I'm supposed to wash my hands/ face and then look for it rather than playing hide and seek with it. But my grey cells responded, hey lets see how brilliant u are to locate it with your limited power of sight. Use your intuition and find it. So I started my supercop search around but hey I forgot bout the concealed slipperiness of those shining bathroom tiles. And to top it all, I forgot bout my lather soaked feet.

Zapp... and the right leg slipped... the left one followed to balance it... m stil on the way to floor but adamant not to give up without a fight.. so i tried to grab on whatever was on the way but got nothing except thin air.. finally, after pushing against the bathroom door and brushing past the side wall, I finally landed on the ground in not so graceful way.

Phew, I lost but I lost after a brave fight with a reddish-blue elbow as the trophy. As I got up after a short blackout, I discovered how saintly you become after a fall. With a star studded halo above your head, you feel really good to be alive. Thank God for saving me. If I'd have landed on other side of wall with bathroom fittings, the results could've been different.

So here are some words of caution from the expert:
1) Use Non-Slip Mats on the inside of bathtubs and shower stalls.
2) Avoid using oil in tiled bathrooms.
3) Use a plastic/steel non slippery stool while applying soap to your feet and all (u know).
4) Do not use any electrical appliances like dryer etc in bathroom.

And finally, from personal experience, don't test your senses or intuition by searching for a slipped out soap (especially when you have a slippery surface beneath). Keep that thing in mind and Happy Bathing :-)