Light of the Lamp

Hi all,                  My previous article about my late maternal aunt is 3 months old! Yes, after that I have not posted anything though I keep visiting my space everyday to check on visitors. Forget about other visitors, even my visits here reduced as the vacation bug bit me. Though I planned to write something during the break, as they say, it never happened. Yeah, there were lots of distractions also. The rains, shopping, minor commitments, travel etc kept me away from this space. At the end of each day I just wanted to hit the bed and sleep tight. Due to pleasant weather in Trivandrum, my hometown, sleep was not a problem and everyday was relaxing and so I came back refreshed.                                          During the month of May, this year, Assembly elections were held in 4 States and one union territory to decide who...

Hi all,                A relaxed and a fresh mind paves way for the words to flow from a writer. And what better time one can get to write a planned article other than Saturday night, if one has relaxed the whole day and look forward for a lazy Sunday ahead. If I write something unplanned and out of instinct, I do not need a Saturday night. With all the ugly events in the name of nationalism or anti-nationalism in JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University) and that which took place in the name of caste in Hyderabad University (death of a Dalit student Rohit Venmula), it is natural to wonder where our country is headed. With the words like sedition, jingoism, caste, anti-nationalism looming over us like demons, it is understandable that if we want to voice our opinion, people like me will think twice before putting down in words out of fear that it might offend somebody who may read these lines. Among all these depressing events, one incident which brough...

Hello everybody,                               I am back soon as I promised. I have this so-called 'travel bug' in me, though I am not a frequent traveller. If I travel a lot, in the sense, leisure travel, this blog would have doubled up as a travel blog because I love putting down in words and pictures, the experience a new place gives me. So it is no wonder that somebody like me will always cherish the visit to the first place or a country abroad.                                                    The very first foreign land on which I set my foot was many moons ago. The name of it is not San Fransisco, not London, not Sydney or Melbourne but Isle of Man which belongs to British group of Isles. This island looks like a drop from an aerial view and is perched in the Irish sea betwe...

Hi,          How is the new year, or rather this leap year treating you?? Leap years have fascinated me for reasons not known. Of course, for those uninitiated, the concept behind a February having 29 days is that our earth takes 365 & 1/4 days to complete 1 revolution and so to make up for the lost time, 1 more day is added to February once in 4 years. Every leap year is also the year of Olympics. If one is born on Feb 29, how will he/she celebrate the birthday every year?? Of course, you have no option but to celebrate on March 1st, but the confusion will always persist.                                                    Now, coming to the main topic, shopping is an integral part of life, be it in any form. Shopping is nothing but the activity of purchasing goods from the shops. But the activity of purchasing goods from the s...

Hi,        As the year 2015 whiffed past us, yet another year is ready to make a grand entry with all 'new everything'. All through evolution of mankind, no year has been clean or utopian and no year is going to be like that. Because man or mankind is never perfect and cannot be. Every year is  a cacophony of events, which include political, terrorist, natural disasters, change of Governments, never-ending atrocities on women and their desperate fight to compete with men, deaths or assassination of famous personalities, dirty display of wealth and power not just in our country, but all over the world. It is just pointless to say that then world was much better about 50 or 100 years back and now it has changed for worse. Every period or era has its own problems and the humankind has overcome and still struggles to overcome the challenges through the survival instinct. Why I changed from mankind to humankind is that women ARE included.       ...

Hi,       My long cherished dream to visit Napier museum and art gallery in my hometown finally got realized during my recent stay in Trivandrum. This museum was built during British rule in 19th century and designed by a British architect, Robert Chisholm. The museum, which is one of the star attractions of the city was built in a particular architectural style with Gothic roof and minarets. The ceilings are built in such a way to enable natural ventilation and air flow.                                          But it was not a star attraction for me when I was a child nor for my parents. The adjacent zoological park with lots of flora and fauna, and of course animals and birds, was visited many number of times. The museum is nothing but a building showcasing lifeless objects to drive us to sleep!! I do not have much memory of visiting and 'enjoying' our museum. ...

Friends,                       I always look forward to go to my hometown Trivandrum to be with my parents who are alone. The city of Trivandrum is less polluted, unspoilt (or 'townish' as my husband puts it) compared to the hustle and bustle of big cities like Mumbai and Bengaluru. The everyday life is not fast paced and stressful as in big cities , and so I feel one can lead a better quality of life there.                           As I moved to Bangalore after my wedding, the one thing I found which was conspicuously missing was our neighborhood friend, crow. I used to think that this black beauty is present in every corner waiting to have the scraps of the leftover food items. The nature's scavenger, as we learnt in schools, is not omnipresent in the city of now high-rise buildings, Bangalore.  That was when I realized that crows need trees to survive, bui...

Hi,           I still remember that day in my school when those attractive, yellow, lightweight '2-minute noodles' packets were distributed to each one of us by the sales people  telling us to give the packets to our moms and tell her to  prepare the tasty dish in 'just 2 minutes.' That is how Maggi forged into the Indian market about 30 years back promising the consumers especially children that you don't need to take all the time in the world to please your family with a tasty delicacy. Needless to say, this instant noodles instantly became not just a household name, but a member of every Indian family as it was reasonably priced. The concept then was totally new to the Indians most of them who did not know about the noodles other than the Chinese Egg noodles which was not very popular as it contained 'egg'. Maggi monopolized the Indian market and the name became synonymous with the '2-minute noodles'.             ...

  Hi friends,                              This is the third time I am posting photos of Lalbagh flower show. Every year this mega event is held twice in this huge botanical garden once around Independence day and the other one around the Republic day drawing the gargantuan crowds. These days, it is advisable to book a cab or go by bus to reach there as parking has become a big pain. The multitude of stalls showcasing various handicraft items, eatables, beauty products, herbal products is definitely an added attraction. This time, I wanted to concentrate more on colours and details of those stalls but we were short of time. Hence the few photos of the stalls below look to be captured in a hurry. I have encapsulated those few moments in various collages.                   If you observe the photo on the bottom right hand side (above col...

Hi,              What would be our reaction today if we hear that all famous nursery rhyme 'Rain, rain go away, come again another day' so that some child wants to play......My reaction then and even today is that "oh come on, don't drive away those rains which is nature's bounty!!! Kids can play after the rain stops on the fresh, bathed ground. And of course, today they have lots of options like video games, mobile games to be played endlessly. Will they care for those rains???                                                    Well, I have always been fond of rains from my childhood though scared of lightning & thunder. The summer rains in my hometown have always accompanied by blinding lightning & ear splitting thunders which have sent shivers down my spine and to hide under our cot till those thunder sounds re...

Hi friends,                   This is one area I have not ventured before. I am not an avid movie buff but not a movie hater. My husband is even less interested in movies, and so an occasional movie watch in a multiplex theatre itself is a big event for me. I keep watching a handful of movies that are close to my heart either in tv or in Youtube. But lately, I am inclined to watch more movies (and of course with those that have good reviews) whenever possible.                       We celebrated our wedding anniversary by watching a Tamil movie and dining out. To hear that a movie was named 'Kaaka muttai' (crow's egg) sounded odd!!But this was the one we decided to watch as to put in layman's words, 'running successfully for 4 weeks and a definite value for money'. We went for a show on a week day in a multiplex mall and the snacks we bought there cost us more that the tickets for the ...

Hi my friends,                        'I' am not going to write the review about the Tamil movie 'I' six months after its release. In these days of instant communication, a cat is not killed due to curiosity as it does not have to wait for a long time to know how the just released movie is faring in the box office. On the day of the release itself, a movie is celebrated or obituarised through the social media. If a matrimonial alliance of our friends or relatives is fixed, we do not need to wait till the day of the wedding to see how a groom/bride looks like. I have seen many a prospective boy/girl's in the facebook's friends' list before seeing them on the D-day. The social media and the likes have killed the natural 'curiosity' in us if not the cat. So much for the boon and bane of the current technology. Now, I wanted to write about 'I', but seemed to have deviated a little bit and touched curiosity!       ...