Yappy Budday To Me!

Happy birthday to me! One year older, one year down in the journey of life.

This was my first birthday away from family. Ginger, my dog, is very sick so my parents could not come down as they had planned. I did not want to celebrate this year but then my friends dragged me out.

I did have a good day, but sorely missed my parents. Made me realise how much I am attached to my roots, those yearly rituals. Well, I will not complain today, it is my budday after all!!!

By the way, the above picture was taken near Madikeri, actually on the way to Talacauvery, the birth place of river Cauvery. I loved the contrast of the lone blue house with the green hills. Somehow, felt this was an appropriate picture.

Will be back soon, with more words out of my head.

Dates I Don't Go On

I love my job to death no doubt. But some aspects of it can be very irritating. One, I don't get time to socialise. By this, I don't mean dating people, I have been off that scene for some time now (Am not giving out details!). I mean going out for a movie, shopping, with friends. I have to squeeze in these in between work hours, sadly.

The other thing that leaves me irritated is the kind of men I meet on assignments. Women's lib apart, I must tell you that journalism is one field that is still male dominated. There are very few women journalists around, though the ones who are, are great! (Like me! He he!) Jokes apart, there have been many programmes where I have been the only female in a room of say, a hundred men. I am totally used to it.

But then, there are times when I come across men who just do not get the message when I tell them, 'no thank you, move on buddy!' It is imperative in my profession to hand out visiting cards with personal details like mail id and mobile numbers. In some five months into life as a reporter, I have come across more than a few who invite me for dinner/coffee/lunch/office.

I meet dozens of new people every day. By now, I can fairly judge the intentions of people. Thankfully, none of these men I am talking about here were lewd or made me feel uneasy. These were all charming, polite people, sure. But very persistent. They just don't seem to understand that I am not interested.

Phew! Just this morning, I had a hard time with one such person. He wanted to know when I would be free (I am never free), so that he could invite me to his office for some coffee. Then there are the younger lot, about my age, who flirt shamelessly.

Frankly speaking, I don't mind them much, as long as they are harmless. But when they continue to insist upon keeping in touch, it gets a little too much. And by nature I am not a very patient person. All I can do is grin and bear it.

Whoever said life is easy for a pretty, poor girl!!!! (Wink wink!!) :-)

Breakfast at Koshy's

I usually like to be on time for assignments, in spite of knowing that ministers are going to be late. Yet, I made up my mind to take my time going to a chief minister's programme this morning.

Ok, ok, I am lying here. I overslept, ok! I jumped out of bed and ran out. Again I lie, I took my time, knowing the CM would never come that early anyways. (It was at 8 am and thats VERY early for me!) But as luck would have it, the programme had already begun when I reached the venue about twenty minutes late. To cut the long story short, I did get inputs for my story, so that problem was solved. I shrugged off a very persistant colonel who wanted to have coffee/ lunch with me, went to a book festival, bought P Sainath's 'Everybody Loves a Good Drought' and am in office, blogging, something which I try not to do.

Anyway, what I meant to write here was about my breakfast this morning. M G Road, right next to the venue of this programme was fairly empty this morning. I have always enjoyed walking down that road. You can lose yourself there, though that is not something I continue to like these days. Anyway, I walked the length of the road, hoping Koshy's, my favourite restaurant in town, would be open.

It was open. Koshy's is a lovely place with great food, lovely people. It has a long history that I had written about some time ago. Since then, I have been a regular there whenever I can spare the time and the money. It is usually filled to capacity, is pretty noisy, though it is the nice kind of noise. You get to think in that place with different accents, different colours and sounds in the background.

This morning, I was one of the first persons to step in. It was quite, almost disconcerting, for I always associate Koshy's with noise and a pleasant crowd. But then, it was nice. I sat by the window, with a collection of Busybee's column Round and About in my hands. His columns always crack me up, no matter how many times I read them. Just like F.R.I.E.N.D.S., in spite of the nth number of re-runs.

I sat facing the door and slowly the place started filling up. Many people walked in, a lady with a gaudy Louis Vuitton bag (wonder why people pay through their noses for them, they don't look at all), some leggy lasses, punks, someone who looked like a politician and others. I thought I recognised some famous faces from the Page 3 circuit. But then, I could not place them. Neither do I follow Bangalore Times supplement.

As I ate my sandwiches and drank some coffee (not the best I have had though), people continued to file in. By the time I finished breakfast, Koshy's was full again. Things were back to normal.

How I wish I could say the same about life in general too.....

This I Gave Up

I was on a very quick visit home a week ago. Had some issues to sort out. After a very long time, I and Raksha, someone I have been great friends with for the longest time, went out. For many many years, we have been very close, still are. Just like old times, we went to Raja Seat and sat and talked, just like we used to. Made me realise how good old friends are, made me realise just how much I was missing out on a lot of things. Believe me, nothing can replace the years and experiences you have been through with someone. Both of us have seen each other go through a lot, so much that we can sense what's happening with the other. I must admit, we have never been the kind to shout from the rooftop how close we are. There have been times we haven't kept in touch for days and weeks. But we both know that when we really need a good, hard talk, the other will always be there. I suppose that is friendship, more than anything.

The trip was great this time. Sitting there, talking with her, I got many things in sharper perspective, things that had been eating into my mind and work for some time. Came to conclusions. That reminds me, I read this somewhere recently: A conclusion is what you come to when you are tired of thinking!

Seems so true. Amazing how some people have the talent of putting things in such simple words.

Office

This is my office at night. Like I was saying, my phone does not take very good night pictures.

Well, the building is huge and is bang in the middle of what I would call the heart of the city. It is just a stone's throw from the Press Club, High Court, the Vidhan Soudha (read this on VS) and a lot of other government offices. It is in close proximity to almost all the star hotels (necessary because a lot of programmes are held in these places). This makes our job as reporters a lot easier as it saves us a lot of commuting time.

Anyway, the building is quite old, is three storeys high and also houses an IT company, a bank, Kannada Prabha (Express' sister newspaper in Kannada), advertising and product marketing sections and a very smelly canteen that stinks of stale oil all the time. But we eat there everyday, at least the coffee is good (they make it the way I like it). It is office after all.

Riot of Colours

Much as I love my mobile phone for the wonderful things I can do with it, I must admit it does not work very well for night pictures. But I could not resist taking the above picture.

This was when I went to Madikeri for Dasara last month. This is a shop I have seen a thousand times and every time, it is plain, devoid of colour or even things on sale. But that night, it seemed to have all the magic of a village fair, with the balloons and the lights and the cheap sweets to the marvelous colours. Madikeri simply transforms herself during Dasara.

This is something I shall continue to love about Madikeri. In Bangalore everyday, I see a million lights beside the road, in shops and on buildings. It is a blinding sight often. Yet, when I go to Madikeri, when I look at bright lights and many people, I still gape in wonder.

I suppose some things always remain with you. I suppose I shall always remain a small town girl.

Hell (O)

Hello my dear readers. Life is so so hectic that it has been ages since I even opened a blog to read, let alone update it. It is late even as I write this, but I just had to write today. This is one of those of those days when the words in my heart and mind are in constant conflict to tumble out. This is a time when I just have to write something.....anything....as long as I write.

Since I have not posted anything on the other blog, let me write a post there.

As for life, its been busy. But happily, I am back to the reading habit. Been reading a lot lately, a Kannada play, a critique on liberty by John Stuart Mill and a racy, but very well written novel called `Shantaram' by Gregory Roberts. I did not have much hopes from this one but to my surprise, it is quite well written. His descriptions of India is quite insightful. I suppose it takes an outsider to notice and eulogise what for us is commonplace and prosaic.