2008 May « uniquely priya

One more rant :) Saturday, May 31 2008

Everyday polambals and Places and Reading Ramana priyaiyer 3:19 am

~ The last two days saw me visiting a relative at Thiruvanmiyur, which turned out to be great fun. That visit, in turn, led to a number of other visits to other relatives’

~ The ride around Adayar was great. It’s a beautiful area, with lots of places I would have loved to explore in detail. We saw Kalashetra foundation, Cancer Institute, Gandhi Mandapa and the Theosophical Society from outside. As the relative pointed out, our visit was a ‘Tatkal visit’. Anyways, it was fun.

~ Besant Nagar Beach was awesome. I just loved the feel of the water, the waves crashing at my feet and the sand slipping away from beneath my feet as I stood in the water. It was a lovely experience, but, unfortunately, time was a constraint. The porcupine-shaped raw mango wedges with chilli powder tasted out of the world.

~ The visit to the Mylapore Kabaleeshwaran Kovil was a fantastic and memorable one. I felt like I had slipped into time-travel mode and gone back a few hundred years.

~ The breakfast at Karpagambal Mess was tooooooooooo good. I had the best Masala dosai and Badam Halwa I have ever tasted there.

~ Shopping at Rangachari’s was followed by a visit to Nungambakkam Landmark. Needless to say, I updated my library. The new additions include:

The three mistakes of my life – Chetan Bhagat
Brida – Paulo Coelho
Siddhartha – Herman Hesse
Purple Hibiscus – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
To kill a mockingbird – Harper Lee

~ A late afternoon snack of Dahi poori at Sangeetha restaurant was damn tasty. Time to begin thinking of a rigid diet and exercise program, maybe?

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Another random rant :) Wednesday, May 28 2008

Everyday polambals and Places priyaiyer 3:03 pm

~ I visited the Saibaba Kovil at Gaurivakkam yesterday. It was a nice, peaceful and transcendental kind of experience. Enjoyed the experience and the prasadam of venn pongal too.

~ The heat in Chennai is unbearable. Attitudes make it bearable sometimes, and even more unbearable some other times.

~ Eating off a banana leaf feels awesome. I sometimes feel the banana leaf adds to the taste of the food.

~ Riding in the city buses will still take some time for me to get used to, but I see the potential for a lot of enjoyment in the same.

~ Plucking guavas and lemons directly off trees is an exciting experience. I wonder how exciting it would have been had the trees belonged to some unknown person instead of a family friend, and had we plucked fruits from them without permission.

~ Eating off ‘computer vazha yelai’ is fun. Very resourceful, I must say!

~ The eat-sleep-talk-read-eat-sleep-talk-go out cycle still continues.

~ Meaningless madi and aajaram used to bug me, still do, and probably will continue to in future as well.

~ Cool sugarcane juice after a hot meal tastes fab.

That’s it for now. Keep tuned for more!

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A random rant from Chennai Monday, May 26 2008

Everyday polambals and Places and Reading Ramana priyaiyer 3:55 pm

~ I reached Chennai yesterday night after an uneventful flight, which I enjoyed as always. Closing your eyes at the time of take-off and just feeling the sensation of going up, up, up – rising gradually – is incredible. Once again, I realised I love the feeling. When the plane has just taken off, opening your eyes and looking out to see millions of lights looking like a huge swarm of multi-colored fireflies in a haphazard pattern, looking out at the moon from your window – it is an even more incredible feeling. The landing feels like a comeback on earth after being on a flying carpet. Yes, I am still a kid at heart!

~ I began reading Swami and friends on the flight, thanks to Sathej. I am happy I found another author whose books are simple and an enjoyable read.

~ The always-busy city of Chennai looks very, very different in the dead of the night. I loved going home without the traffic, for a change.

~ I loved being warmly welcomed by relatives, especially by grandparents. I loved the expressions on their faces.

~ The eat-sleep-talk-read-eat-sleep-talk-go out cycle seems like bliss.

~ Rasam made in ‘iiya sombu’ tastes awesome.

~ Talking to one of the smartest and most talkative 6-year-olds I have ever met made my day. I listened to the stories of atleast 6 assorted films and a reading of ‘The Snow Queen’, at the end of which I was ROFL at her statement wrt a movie – ‘Che! Avanukku love pannave therile!’

~ The Anjeneyar Kovil at Nanganallur is fantabulous. The scent of malli poo assailed my senses. I, however, wished I could have had some private time with God. The prasadam, a donnai full of puli sadam, was yummmmm…

~ Palapazham and malli poo and looking forward to a lot more relaxing and experimenting in the days to come feels like, again, bliss.

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Kuch der… Saturday, May 24 2008

Life and Love and My poems priyaiyer 3:43 pm

Kuch der ke liye

Poonam ka chand

Meri mutthi mein tha;

Kuch samay ke liye

Mukkamal jahan

Meri jholi mein tha;

Kuch dinon ke liye

Aap ka haath

Mere haath mein tha…

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Yay!!! Friday, May 23 2008

Everyday polambals and Places priyaiyer 3:38 am

Yay!!! Very soon, I’ll be off on a 2-week vacation to Chennailand. A much-deserved vacation, which comes after a long and hard period. No specific plans of what to do. Just planning to relax and be refreshed when I return. The usual stuff, reading and blogging, will hopefully continue on the vacation as well.

So Chennai-vaasis, please do drop in a line on the places worth visiting and fun things to do in the city. Thanks.

Yay, yay, yay, yay and yay!!!

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The bridge across forever Wednesday, May 21 2008

Life and Love and Reading Ramana priyaiyer 5:01 pm

Hey, people! I am back on my blog after a short, unplanned hiatus. The last week proved to be a really hectic one at work, (and it’s gonna be that way for a couple more days ) but I managed to squeeze in time for a bit of reading. I finished reading ‘The bridge across forever’ by Richard Bach.

I was not much able to relate to Bach’s writing style in Jonathan Livingston Seagull. So, picking up this book was an attempt to again explore his ideas. I must say I was not disappointed this time. Now, I am beginning to feel maybe I didn’t read JLS in the right frame of mind. Though I feel I still need some more time and a few more Bach books to get used to his concepts, I rather liked The bridge across forever. The theme of the story is beautiful, though I could not relate to certain parts of it. Like all other Bach books, this one also contains a fair amount of descriptions of flying and paranormal experiences.

The bridge across forever is a love story, and a touching one at that. It has been written in a heartfelt way from Richard’s viewpoint. It is the story of Richard in search of his soulmate, who he meets in the form of Leslie. It is about Richard’s doubts, his inhibitions that he would lose his independence and himself if he gets involved. He has wonderfully depicted the part where he erects walls around himself to protect himself from hurt and how he gets ready to walk away from the special kind of love that he and Leslie share for each other. Ultimately, love is successful in breaking down his self-erected barriers. This is the part of the book I liked the most.

It is a nice, romantic book without being overly mushy, a book that leaves behind a good feeling.

PS: Orbis Terrarum Challenge - 2 down, 7 more to go.

PPS: I heard there’s a sequence in which one should read Richard Bach’s books in order to understand them completely. So, all you Bach fans out there, would you please let me know what that order is? Thanks.

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The InspiroMusic Tag Friday, May 16 2008

Music and Tag priyaiyer 1:42 am

I had been tagged by Rambler some time ago with this. The rules of the tag are:

Think of THE song that most inspires you to write, whether it gives you an idea for a story, script or just puts you into a better frame of mind AND/OR peek into the lyrics and find a verse that sums up the theme of whatever project it is you’re working on. If possible, post a video of the song to convey to readers the full context of the song and the mood it puts you into.

Here goes:

Ah, there are so many songs I love and which touch me in different ways. It is rather difficult to point out one song. There are a number of songs that put me in a better mood. Music, in general, puts me in a better mood. Some songs inspire a romantic mood, while some inspire naughtiness or happiness. Some make me contemplative.

When it comes to inspiring creativity, I think beautifully creative songs like ‘Mera kuch samaan tumhare paas pada hai’ or ‘Bol na halke halke’ do the trick. The imagination used in the songs leaves me stupefied. These songs have that poetic feel to them. As of now, I am hooked to ‘Bol na halke halke’.

Some of my favourite lines from Bol na halke halke:

“Dhaage tod laaon chandni se noor ke
Ghoonghat hi bana lo roshni se noor ke”

(the scene is that of two people who are in love talking to each other. the guy asks the girl to steal the moonlight thread by thread and to make a veil out of it)

“Aa neend ka sauda karein, ik khwaab dein ek khwaab lein,
Ek khwaab to aankhon mein hain ek chand ke takiye tale”

(The guy: come, let us give up our sleep and share our dreams, i.e. talk the whole night through. The girl: There is one dream in my eyes, to love you, and another one, to stay with you forever, is hidden beneath the pillow of the moon. The second dream seems very distant to her, as distant as the moon, and has to be stolen from beneath the moon’s pillow after the moon goes to sleep. These lines are followed by the guy saying ‘kitne dinon se ye aasmaan bhi soya nahi hai, isko sula dein’ , meaning ‘the sky has not slept for several days. along with the moon, let us put the sky too to sleep, so that we can talk at leisure.)

WOW!!!

Such songs start me off – they kindle creative thinking in me. They put me in a poetic sort of mood. To get me started on a work project, though, any good music will do.

I tag Sathej and Suchitra. Anyone else who is interested can also take this up!

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Manual labour – II Thursday, May 15 2008

Reading Ramana and Tag priyaiyer 12:31 pm

The question over at Booking Through Thursday this week is an extension of last week’s question:

Scenario: You’ve just bought some complicated gadget home . . . do you read the accompanying documentation? Or not?

Do you ever read manuals?

How-to books?

Self-help guides?

Anything at all?

My answer:

I am way too lazy to read all that fine print. I don’t read the how-to books that accompany gadgets at all. The explanation given by the salesman is enough. I don’t use tooooooooo hi-fundoo gadgets either. I prefer live experimentation with the product. I seek the accompanying documentation only when I have some problem with the gadget.

I have been chided many a time for this habit, but some things just never change.

As for how-to books, the only one I ever bought was ‘How to get from where you are to where you want to be’. I still haven’t touched it, and I bought it about 6 months back.

Coming to self-help books, I have never gone beyond the first few pages of the book. But in case of Robin Sharma, the case was different. I loved reading him. However, I find these books do not tell me anything beyond what I already know. They might kindle a spark of realisation and open a window somewhere in my mind. This is one genre of books I want to experiment in in future.

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