Flower Show 2011 @ Lalbagh

If you are a Bangalorean then you ofcourse would be knowing about Lalbagh and for the one who don't know it's a lush green garden spread over an area of 240 acres at the heart of the city.It's one of the biggest gardens in India proudly having 1854 species of plant.

It was my second visit to Lalbagh on this month's 23rd and the occasion was the flower show which is organized biannualy on the occasion of Republic day and Independence day . Here are few pics:

Colors Of Republic

This year on 26th of January India celebrated it’s 62nd Republic Day. There are so many instances associated with this event that I remember it in one way or the other. Foremost being my brother’s birthday on the same day.

It was my brother’s fifth birthday and we didn’t celebrate it that year as I lost my grandfather a few months back. My brother was upset that this year he will be devoid of the entire frolic, gifts and of course the attention! He went to my dad and asked him that why are we not celebrating his birthday and my dad answered that his birthday is being celebrated by the entire nation and not just us. He showed him the parade on TV with our nation’s military prowess, tableaux from various states and of course the performance of school children. My brother of course was on cloud nine seeing this huge celebration on his birthday. It was only after few years that he realized that his birthday coincide with the formation of great republic of our country.

Another memory is of our participation in early morning “Prabhat Pheri” in school. All the children from different schools would participate in parade singing patriotic songs and slogans. The parade will end at a ground where the Mayor of the city will hoist the flag followed by some speeches and cultural .

One day, my brother came home all excited after school and told my mom that he is playing a role of freedom fighter in the play on republic Day and need to get a white “Salwar Kurta” for this. My mom was very happy imagining his son playing a freedom fighter, she bought the brightest of cloth material for stitching and the best tailor was searched to stitch it as per his fit. Every day she would tell my brother the stories of my great grandfather who was a freedom fighter and ask him what role is he playing? Whether it’s of Bhagat Singh, Raj guru or Chandrasekhar. My brother being a seven that time knew none of them that time and replied that he is with Gandhiji. My mother felt more proud thinking his son to be either of Nehru or Sardar Patel. My brother will come home late after “rehearsals” and my mother will shower her adulation upon him.

The day arrived and he was given a flag by my dad, special Prasad from my grandmother and “don’t be afraid, perform well” from my mother. We reached early to the venue and took the firsts of the seat. Finally the play began, the freedom fighters came and went and we couldn’t spot my brother. And finally there he was in “Daandi March” with Gandhiji as one of his follower among 100s of follower and shouting slogans! He came running to us once his part was finished and asked my mom if he performed well? And the answer was “yes, the best”. BTW, I still tease my brother for his role and as for my mother; she still has his photo in that white salwar kurta with the tricolor in his hand, safely in the family album.

Once we were visiting Delhi during Republic day and my grandfather took all of us kids to Raj path to show the republic day parade. It was an experience which we all kids can never forget. We all were sitting in the Raj path with our woolens on and enjoying every moment of the parade right from the tanks to the tableaux.

I remember this day because of my memoirs but with no cultural festivities in school and colleges on this day and we treating it as just another holiday, it’s difficult to say if our children will ever associate themselves with this occasion. I feel good that the Republic Day parade is there to remind them of this :)

There Is Something About Sheila

Yes, there is surely something about Sheila that has bewitched almost everybody right from 5 to 51 years old . " Have you watched Sheila ki Jawani" yet ?" was the question i was getting from all the corners , when the item number was aired for the first time.And from then to till date it's all about " Sheila and her jawani " so much so that :

1. My otherwise Akon loving and Eminem grooving gym have started playing it on popular demand from gym fanatics.

2. My 5 year old nephew ask his father to play " Sheila ji ki jawani" again and again in his car stereo and croons " m tu zexxy fore u " , much to the embarrassment of his dad and confusion for the rest that whom exactly did he mean by " Sheila ji" ;) .

3. The cliched " best" DJ in the city ,especially called from UK for the New Year bash ,end the party by playing the only bollywood number of the evening and that is none other then Saadi " Sheila".

4. My colleague who don't know much of Hindi come and ask me for " Sheila ki jawani " song ;)

5. It's the only song which acts as a pacifier in my office cab for the otherwise fighting co passengers for Hindi , Kannada , English radio channel .

6. Management graduate doing branding analysis of " Sheila ki jawani " Vs. " Munni badnaam hui" :D.

7. And lastly a surge of forward mails on Sheila :P as follows:

Reasons Why Prefer ‘Sheela’ Over ‘Munni’
1. Branding:
Munni is bad-nam But Sheela is jawaan

2. Place Of Performance:
Munni danced In some desi daru ka adda where as Sheela danced In some
metropolitan disco

3. Demand And Supply Concept:
Munni is offering herself easily (Refer Line – Darling Tere Liye) so huge supply
and demand will be limited.Where as Sheela isn’t available easily (Refer Line-
Tere Haath Kabhi Na Aani) So low supply ,huge demand

4. Dance Style:
Munni repeated age old ‘Latka Jhatka’. Where as Sheela dance with Drumbeats


Agar “Sheela” thodey din pehlay jawan hoti.
Toh aaj “Munni” Itni badnam na hoti ;)

And the best , outside a gym :D

Welcome 2011 !

Wish you all a very happy new year!

I was thinking of writing this post from past 10 days and somehow the laziness again crept on me. But no, not again as I have resolved to be more regular at this space this year (Oops! I hope it does not die as my other new resolutions already have ;)).

New Year festivity ends with the same fervor that it had started with. Like you dance and get sloshed on 31st just to get up with a bad hangover on the very first day of the year only to resolve that this year you will try to be more sober.Many other such resolutions are broken as soon as you have started implementing it.

Talking of facts and stats:

1. 8000 + people gathered and celebrated New Year at the famous M.G road of Bangalore and Bangalore got up on the New year finding 6500 + alcohol bottles and thousands of cigarette stubs there , which took 6.5 hrs to clean the stretch !

2. Most of the resolutions die their natural / psychological death within 7 days!

3. The most common top three resolutions are:

Quitting smoking


Reducing weight


Spending more time with family & friends


As for my resolutions I have already broken one and I should better not mention the rest as by the time you all will read it few of them would have already been broken ;)



Let this New Year be free of all the resolution we cannot keep ;) and full of luck, laughter, love and happiness!!! Wish you a very Happy 2011 once again!

Of Santa & Secret Santa

It’s Christmas time again and I can sense it with all of the Christmas decoration around me. Even my team’s cubicle in office is decorated with a nice Christmas tree, balloons and other decorative stuff. And the excitement is evident not just because everybody is celebrating Christmas but because it’s the time for homemade wine and cake from my big boss and also , since this time our team (which has inflated to a good 100 + from last year’s 30s) is celebrating “ Secret Santa” and people are more excited about getting gifts from their respective secret Santa then gifting one to their “ secret child” ( no, no it’s not what you are thinking , it’s supposed to be the person whom you are secret Santa to ;) ). And I was secret Santa to a guy whom I didn’t know. So while rest of the people were playing guessing game by giving different clues to their secret child I was just sitting clueless about what to do and what to give. Finally i bought a coffee mug for the guy along with some mints. BTW this entire exercise was fun for at least some of the people as they get some or the other gift almost every day along with some puzzles to find out who their secret Santa was (except for me :(). So today when everybody reached office they either found some gifts in their desk or some puzzles to solve to get the gifts from their respective Santa and again I got none. I checked my desk, drawer and my mailbox from time to time with no success. And then when I lost hope and about to go home, I finally got my gift :) . It was a cute bunny and I loved it:) . Though I still don’t know who my secret Santa but then that’s the beauty of it!!

P.S: Saw two people (from different teams) dressed up as Santa (with their beard on too) smoking at smoking zone! Be careful Santa ;) .

A tale of two distressed souls

After my daily purchase of vegetables and milk I collected my bags from the guard who manages the baggage counter of Reliance Fresh. He passed a smile to me and i returned it. No, no it is not a love story in making ;) in fact it’s a signature for “sorry” which we give to each other whenever we meet. It all started one fateful day when i was in a very foul mood. I had a terrible day and one of my colleagues was accompanying me after office. We went to Reliance fresh (with me cribbing as usual) when the guard (i think he replaced the other guard the same day) stopped my colleague asking for his laptop bag. He told the guard that his laptop, wallet and everything else is inside and that he don’t find it safe to leave it there. Even after a lot of persuasion from our side the guard was still adamant. Finally my colleague left the bag with him. Now it was my turn. I was just carrying a handbag with my Tiffin, cell phone, money and OTHER stuff inside. He asked me to leave it at the counter and that was it. I bluntly replied that shall i take my money in my hand leaving my bag there. He didn’t say anything and i started to move inside. He shouted that i cannot take it inside as it has Tiffin boxes and i shouted back saying that do i look like a thief. My colleague interrupted saying that if he want he can check my bag once i am leaving the store. I said i won’t give my bag for checking , since no rule says that you cannot take your handbag inside the store. I just barged inside the shop and the guard followed me shouting. I turned back and then i said which i shouldn’t have said at all and which I regret till now “Shut up”in full volume and then he shouted back “ kya boli, phir bol” . My colleague and other guard on duty inside the store acted as pacifiers. My colleague took the guard outside and started pacifying him. And the guard inside the store started pacifying me with both saying the same thing to the guard and myself “He/ She had a terrible day at work today and he/she is in a very foul mood. We are sorry from their side, hope you will understand” . And yes, we understood. So much so that the very next day when i visited the store again (and was actually very embarrassed of my last day’s behaviour) and met each other we just exchanged a warm smile without uttering any word. Till now i don’t have enough courage to go up to him and say “sorry “for my behaviour that day but I know for sure that he has forgiven me and that i can in his smile and perhaps he in mine .

What's cooking : Carrot Halwa ;)

Winters remind me of the only thing which I love most of this weather and that is “Gaajar ka halwa” .Usually I used to be at home during winters and relish the delicacy made by my mom .Though, my mom would only make it if and only if we (i.e. the children) grate the carrots and the reward was the one who will grate the most will get the biggest portion ;). Obviously , no one used to do it apart from me as my siblings believed that their outdoor activities are more worth then that (That’s also one of the reason of my being more on a “ chubbier”(obviously I myself won’t accept my being fat ;)) side.

So, this weekend I tried it for the first time all by myself. BTW, it’s better be called as “carrot halwa” as I made it out of orange carrots instead of the red one , as you rarely get red carrot here in Bangalore(BTW , I never knew that they call it Delhi carrot over here ;)). This recipe is for bachelors like me ;), who can make it with least resources (like processor, oven, proper pans and all) and in least possible time.

So, let’s start cooking ;)

Ingredients:

Carrots, half kg (enough for 4 people if you eat desserts like dessert ;))
2 teaspoon ghee
½ ltrs. Milk
Almonds, Raisins and Cardamom
1\4 can of milkmaid (It’s very difficult to get Khoya here so I used milkmaid instead)
Sugar (“ Swaadanusaar” by that I mean , put some sugar and then taste if it’s fine if not add more and if it’s more then of course sweets are supposed to be “ Sweet”;))

Method:
Grate the carrot (preferably use a processor else you will find yourself with Band-Aids in most of the fingers ;)) and put the milk to boil along with some cardamom. Boil some water and soak almonds and raisin in it. Then, heat the ghee in a thick bottomed pan (preferably a kadhai) and put the grated carrots in it. Stir the mixture until water is dried up, and then add the milk to it. Peel the almonds and slice it and add it along with raisins to the mixture. Cook over medium heat and stir the mixture occasionally to prevent any sticking till 3/4th milk gets dried up. Add sugar and again stir the mixture till milk starts drying up. At this point add milkmaid and stir the mixture to prevent any sticking. Once all the milk has dried up keep it aside, decorate with dry fruits and serve it hot.