Unveil the Other Side

Ours being a travel freak family, the number of road trips we do are plenty. This post brings in the details of a short two day escape from the urban crawl. The destination was Dharmasthala via Coorg. Aah the story begins thus - It was decided that we will be heading to Dharmasthala in start of the year 2014. Making a plain back and forth bus trip to the abode of Lord Manjunatha has been a normal routine so far. In order to spice up the journey and make this event even more cheerful so that it lasts in the memories forever, there were quite a few additions to the list of places we'd cover over the 2 days marked for this cause. Wrapping up work early on a Friday evening with an all excited feeling is something I look forward to in the weekend trips. It was a sturdy Innova this time that carried us along on the Bangalore-Mysore road and through the Ghats of Madikeri.  Raju, our driver for the trip was an experienced fellow who made it to Madikeri Heritage in mere 4.5 hours. An ...

She was fidgeting her saree nervously. Having been through this process many times now and getting rejected every time, made her weak and dejected. Ramprasad was tired of searching a groom for his only daughter. Several men walked out on her for the reason she wasn’t a beauty material. Now that a prospect was sitting across the table sipping the hot coffee served by Vyjayanthi, there was only one thing she was hoping for - A "Yes". Tears rolled down her cheeks as Narayan accepted Vyjayanthi for what she was - a simple, loving and caring human being. Rituals followed!

She crashed down, the receiver still in the proximity of her ear. There was a constant "Hello! Priya you ok?" heard on the phone to which Priya's response was cold. She had not believed her colleagues who spoke ill about her husband. Neither did she bother when she found the torn couple tickets of a current movie that she had longed to go watch with her husband coming weekend. It was 11:45 PM and Dev had not returned home yet. Priya called on his mobile only to hear a lady responding "Mrs. Dev speaking, may I know who is calling?"...

Returning to the Thursday challenge after a long time -  A red fruit and a few red flowers.  To view images on this theme from around the world please visit here . Below two are clicks of Red wild flowers from western ghats. Syzygium samarangense is a plant species in the Myrtaceae, native to an area that includes the Malay Peninsula, and the Andaman and Nicobar islands, but introduced in prehistoric times to a wide area and now widely cultivated in the tropics. English common names include Champoo (a transliteration of the Thai name), Lembu or lian-woo (from the native Taiwanese name), wax apple, love apple, java apple, royal apple, bell fruit, jamaican apple, water apple, mountain apple, cloud apple, wax jambu, and rose apple. In phillippines its commonly known as makopa. Here's a red Anthurium. - A click from a botanical garden in Bangalore.

Communication is a medium of interaction between any two bodies. This is no new science I am talking of. The role it plays is almost vital than necessary in any customer centric operation. You create magic in bringing a lot more business when a positive impact is created with the customer while interacting with them. On the other side you may end up losing a long lasting engagement due to poor communication abilities. Having said all that I recollect a recent dialogue between a wedding bride and her beautician for the day to describe the importance of handling your clients. No matter what quality you deliver, what matters most is the way you handle them. Bride: Aunty, can you please set right this bun to be a little tighter so that I need not meddle with it while attending to the guests this evening.. Beautician: Yes, I know that. It will be taken care of. [She flatly responded]. Bride: I am wondering if the shades of bright red lip gloss applied now is going well with the snuff...

Aaah soon another year is about to end. Its celebration time throughout the world - letting go the year that created so many memories and welcoming the fresh new year that'll carry with it the unkowns. 2013 for me has been good. Travelling to places, meeting new faces, plentiful adventures, amidst crazy people and more. The year has beautiful bag of memories that will be cherished down the years. I had a twist for each of the festival celebrated this year - Be it the cusine or the decoration or dressing up for the occasion , I wanted it to be different in a way by itself still maintaining the authenticity of the festival in the right spirits. So with joy I welcome the new year saying a sweet GoodBye for a wonderful year 2013 has been.

Traffic masti! There were days when people asked about the "weather" when we meet in the mornings maybe at the lounge or while walking up the stairs or say while making hot coffee up there in the pantry. Now the subject seem to have moved to "Bangalore Traffic". I walk into the office premise, the security man asks "madam, aaj itna late.. Traffic zyaada kya?"["Madam, you're late today. Was the traffic so bad?"]. I give him a nod and a sheepish smile sticks to my face. Next a colleague greets with a sweaty hand and says " Oh pathetic roads and damn the growing traffic." Remember, I have the smile still stuck to my face. Hence only exchange of morning greetings continue. I read this somewhere. Man1: Sir , I guess you have a Honda City. Man2: Yes thats right I have the super class car but no roads to drive on. Man1 and Man2 : ***Smiles*** That is so true!!! There have been too many cartoon strips on Bangalore traffic. Each...