Jnanappana

No, that was not some jumble that my daughter typed, it is the name of a famous poetry book in Malayalam. More specifically, the obtuse sounding reference to this old book is in the context of the following two verses

Randu nalu dinam kodangoruthane thandilethi nadathunnathum bhavan
Malika mugalileriya mannante tholil marappu kethunnathum bhavan

The translation, again obtained from the above link, reads :

In a matter of day or two You are He, who makes them ride on the royal chair.
On the shoulder of the king who climbs to the top of palace. You are He, who places the tattered heap.

How else can I describe my state ? Till yesterday I was a king. My house was filled with laughter, people, food , action and conversation. Today there is nothing, my family has gone back after their brief vacation

On the positive side, we spent probably the happiest week ever together !!

I will get back to my reading mode again. Among other books, I have the latest collection of short stories from Archer in queue : And Thereby Hangs a Tale.

And here I am

Happy new year to all !!

Holiday season is over and so I am back to Blogger again.

Had a nice Christmas vacation this time. Among other things we went to my Mother's home in Kunnamkulam. We used to go there every summer vacation as kids. I guess I must have gone there after 8-10 years now !! The winds of change are yet to blow across Kunnamkulam so nothing much has changed.

One change though is the old church which had been renovated. I felt it lost a bit of character after the renovation, but then what do I know. Snaps of the church and the old house are below

 

So time for new year resolutions ?? Not really . The only real aim for 2009 is to read more , as usual :)

Saw this quote too today Imagination is more important than knowledge. I am not so sure. Would you feel comfortable if you went to a doctor with an illness and saw this quote on his wall ?? Or say a TV news channel had this as their motto !!! Awful ....

I have some updates on my driving / co-passenger experiences, will write it up soon :)

Monsoon time

For all the keralites out there who are missing the onset of Monsoon, here are couple of videos that I shot from my home during my recent visit. Enjoy the sound and sight of rain !!



On the reading front, I am a bit tired of Devil wears Prada, boringly repetitive.

Got two more acquisitions during my trip home, from a lovely shop called Odyssey in Focus mall, Calicut. Acres of space to browse books in and fully air-conditioned to boot !! Similar to Landmark @ Forum mall Bangalore in layout, minus all the crowd. Books that I picked up are The Liar by Stephen Fry and Bloody River Blues by Jeffrey Deaver.

Suffering from Bus-lag now, so thinking of dozing off. If you are unfamiliar with the expression, it results in being tossed around in your berth while traveling by sleeper bus, partly due to bad roads and partly due to the winding nature of roads. :-)

Relaxing at home

I am set into this eat-drink-sleep-TV routine at home. Feels awesome to sit around and recover back to normalcy, May had been a mad month for me !!. Just spending some time with my family has washed away all my tensions and apprehensions. Glad to report that Pradeep is back to normal and would soon be firing on all cylinders again !! :-)

Monsoons have started in full flow here, as always it is a spectacular sight to watch. But realistically, I do not like the rainy season so much. Whole house has a damp feeling, your clothes never dry on time, you are forever splashing around in wet clothes. And if you stay where I do, you will have to waddle through pools of muddy water just to get home everyday . Yuck !!!

My little one started school yesterday and quite remarkably she has not shed a tear so far. Seems very comfortable in class. I went with my camera to capture the crying and came back disappointed:-) Here is a snap anyway, was taken just before we started for school.

You will notice that I am again sporting this experimental French beard. Started itching badly today evening, so I have gotten rid of it now :-). Good riddance, most people would say. I have had very low acceptance rates for this beard, from friends and family alike.

Planning to get some reading done later this week, apart from that no plans . Just chilling :-)

Ciao .

Now I see the sun , yes now I see it !!

Lay beside me, tell me what I've done
The door is closed, so are your eyes
But now I see the sun, now I see the sun
Yes now I see it!

From Unforgiven-II by Metallica

Finally the day has arrived. I am going home today , will be there in Calicut till 15th June. Two important dates coming up. June 9th being my daughter's first day in school and June 14th being my 5th wedding anniversary. It is amazing how fast the time flies.

I hoping to put a full stop to all the 'emotional disturbance' I have been facing over the past few weeks. I'll be back as a new man, that much I am sure !! As always a few close friends boosted me tremendously during this time, so yet again I have to thank them .

Adios Amigos. Will be back with more news on how the first day in school went. I think I am looking forward to it more than my daughter :-)

Rain time at Calicut

I am at Calicut now for a 4 day Easter weekend. It has been raining like crazy here, I can't recall a March in which it rained so much. Lovely weather for sleeping, not great if you were planning to go out like me :-( My BSNL connection at Bangalore has been erratic, so I have been unable to hook up to blogger for couple of days. Either it runs at blazing speed, or it does not work at all. BSNL is yet to find an intermediate operating point :-) On the reading front, I have started on The Afghan after finishing The tipping point,which was ok, nothing great. As mentioned earlier, the writing style is a bit laborious. Which is curious, because one of the concepts mentioned in Tipping point is the "stickiness" of an idea. Very clearly inspite of knowing about it , Malcolm Gladwell is not able to apply the "stickiness"concept to his writing !! I been lying around, eating , sleeping and playing with my daughter. Nice to lead such a lazy life sometimes..

Off to home again

I am taking a 3 day break from 1st to 3rd Feb. Going home to re-unite with my wife and daughter. Looking forward to this trip. Have been feeling a touch homesick over the past week or two.

Had a hair cut today evening. It was about time too, almost lost my comb inside my hair today morning.

Never ever get a hair cut around the closing time of the saloon. The barber is usually tired and is desperate for some rest and food. Unfortunately due to my work pressure , I could only reach the saloon near closing time.

So I'll put it this way, I have an aero-dynamically efficient hair style now :). Guaranteed to give couple of percentage point improvement in fuel consumption if I were to drive a two wheeler now !!

Yercaud trip

We went to Yercaud towards the end of December . Just a 2 day trip. Weather was beatiful , not too cold, bright and sunny all throughout.

We stayed at Sterling resorts. I would not rate the place very high. The room had a very damp smell and did not look very clean. The place is built on the side of a hill, so it is pretty steep. It is quite an ordeal to go from the your room to the restaurant, you have climb as much as 4-6 stories of stairs to reach there !! Don't bother with the restaurant , they serve AWFUL food. Almost every one had a stomach upset .

Scenery was nice, there is nothing much to do while you are Yercaud though. Ideal for a 2-3 day complete relaxation trip