A Cause We Don't Have....

I recently re-saw all the episodes of the HBO mini-series Band Of Brothers and am in the middle of reading the book written by Stephen E. Ambrose. Of course everyone acted really well and there were awe-inspiring scenes that are very hard to forget. The book, though being read after having seen the series, continues to engross and move me as if I this is the first time that I am being told the story. But this post is not about the series and it is not about the book. This post is about a Cause that brought a certain group, a rather large group, together and made them fight as one... made them live as one. 

Be it the soldiers fighting in World War II or the Indians in the middle of the freedom struggle before 1947.... They shared a history that you and I cannot even begin to imagine. We can read about it, watch movies about it, participate in well informed discussions about it, but what we can never do is live it or feel it... Only yearn for a similar solidarity.... 

We are talking about a group of people who forgot everything in the face of a singular objective. Everything else faded into the background, and they were united in moving towards their goal, towards achieving something that seemed impossible, but determined to achieve it nonetheless. It did not matter what their personal likes and dislikes were. It did not matter where they came from. It did not matter whether they liked each other or not. The fought together and achieved the unimaginable. 

Thinking about those times and trying to imagine what it must have been like leaves me feeling a little insignificant, inadequate and frankly speaking, a little bored with our current existence. What have we done that could come even close to what history has already achieved? A hundred years from now, what will they teach children in their history lessons at school about the times we are living in? 

My grandmother once said to me, that the problem today probably is that we lack a Cause. They participated in the freedom struggle and lived a life that we can't imagine today because they had a Cause - to be free. The excitement rife in the very air they breathed was because of this Cause. A Cause we don't have today. 

Have all the worthy causes already been fought over? Would we rather sit back and live our sedate little lives and let someone else do the fighting for us? Why should we stand up for something when there are others who will make that stand for us? Is living our daily lives taking up so much of our time and energy that we would rather leave all the fighting to someone else, someone whose profession is to fight for our rights? 

Shopping For Sarees At Ushnakmal

We decided to spend a day shopping for Sarees at the very famous Ushnakmal in Varanasi. It was to be a day out for all of us and we would probably also squeeze in a very delicious lunch of the famous Kachori and Aaloo. I was really looking forward to this day as I had decided it was time to buy myself a contemporary Saree, one for everyday wear if required.

After a rather uneventful journey, we reached the very crowded, and often a very dirty city of Varanasi. As you may all know, Varanasi (also known as Kashi or Banaras) is a rather favourite tourist destination, specially for those not residing in India. It is one of the oldest cities in the world and has a lot to offer to everyone that visits it. It is a city steeped in culture, religion, heritage and throngs of people that hint at what the "real India" is. If you have not been to Varanasi, I strongly recommend a visit, specially into the old city. Walk through the narrow streets, visit the Kashi Vishwanath temple, go for a boat ride on the Ganga and stop over to watch the evening aarti. In contrast to the hustle and bustle of the old city is the very peaceful Sarnath, which is a Buddhist place of pilgrimage. It is another site that you must visit if you are in the city of Varanasi. And when you tire of it all, Varanasi also offers a variety of places to eat and drink in in various price ranges, starting from street food and going onto some lovely high end hotels. 

However, sightseeing was not our objective on this day. Being a set of very goal oriented women (shopping being the goal of course) we headed straight into the old city and to our first stop at the Ushnakmal fabric shop. This shop is a later addition to the very popular markets of Banaras and offers a very wide variety of fabrics and dress materials for sale. From silk to cotton, from embroidery to brocade work, this shop meets almost everyone's taste in traditional shopping. You can purchase material for salwar kameez, cloth for Kurtas and even just Dupattas in a variety of colours and designs. 

This too was not our final destination. After purchasing various fabric pieces from here, we set of walking to the original and most famous Ushnakmal shop - for traditional Indian sarees. This is one of the very old shops in Varanasi, and is famous in many parts of the country for the exquisite sarees they sell. Whether you are looking for traditional sarees or contemporary designs, in Crepe, Georgette, Tusser silk or cotton, this is the place to go to if you want quality work. We managed to spend about three hours just looking at their wares. The people who own this shop are consummate sales people. The lady tending to us could, within a matter of minutes, assess each of our tastes and showed us sarees accordingly. By the end of the trip we had all managed to exceed our budgets and were very proud owners of several beautiful sarees. To add to the entire experience, they treated us to a very sumptuous meal of kachori, aaloo and jalebis. 

Thoroughly stated with all the food and all the shopping we set out to go back home. I was dying to show my family all that I had purchased. I went to bed that night dreaming of what other mouth watering sarees I could have purchased and hoping there would soon be an occasion for me to return to Ushnakmal! 

The Day I Cooked A Meal.....

Cooking is new territory for me. The only reason I started cooking in the first place was because I got tired of the Indian food I was eating daily and craved a variation in cuisine and flavours. Once again, this is a limitation in a small town. I can't opt to go for a pizza or a coffee simply because there is no place to go to ... no "joint to hang out in" so to speak. So the next best thing to do -- make what you want to eat at your own home. 

In the days and the world of Google, looking up recipes is no big deal. I find that you get very easy to make and easy to follow recipes of a very wide variety on http://cooks.ndtv.com/ and http://allrecipes.com/. These are my go to sites for any cuisine that I want to try out, my favourites being Italian and continental. Ofcourse, when I am looking for a specific dish anything that pops up on Google will do as long as it is easy to follow and the ingredients are available in my little town. 

So when I decided to host a party I decided that instead of the usual North Indian fare I would try something different. I decided to serve Chinese! Unbeknownst to my guests, they were going to be the Guinea Pigs in my experimental Chinese cuisine. So after a lot of research on the net, I decided on a menu that included cauliflower manchurian, crispy fried spinach, crispy chilly lamb, chicken in lemon sauce, noodles and rice and finally end with my mother's recipe for hot chocolate fudge (always a big hit at parties thrown previously at my home). It does sound like a rather complete menu doesn't it? Now the task at hand was to actually make these dishes edible! 

So after a long long day of slaving over the stove (yes it took me the entire day and I finally understood what my mum went through every time she had to cater to parties!!!!! I am amazed how people manage to make food in  such short periods of time!) I finally got all the dishes ready just in time to have a quick shower and be ready to welcome the guests.... and for the final moment of truth! 

Well of course, no guest was going to tell me how terribly rotten my food was. I also believe that I can be quite a strong and accurate critic of my own work. In my humble opinion, the dinner was quite a decent success. The lamb was the lowest point of the meal (too tough to chew even though the flavours were okay) and the dessert was the high point of the whole do. Well, I had expected the dessert to do pretty decently. The recipes I got off the net were obviously not be blamed for whatever the meal lacked. I, after all, did not have the experience to pull an entire meal off with complete success. It was a good first attempt though, if I do say so myself. The cauliflower manchurian was pretty good and so was the spinach (not very crispy by the time it was served I do admit!). Everyone was kind enough to praise all of it though. 

At the end of the day, it was quite a high to be able to cook an entire meal and serve it to people outside of family. It does increase confidence levels and left me wanting to try more out. Of course my dad is right in saying that if I keep trying the same dishes I will get better at it. So here is hoping for another chance to try it all again. 

In the meanwhile, there are so many more cuisines to try out when I get bored with the regular hum drum meals that I eat every day. I am thinking Russian next.... just a thought.... 

Re-visiting Asterix And The Likes

I must confess to a certain weakness for comic books and cartoons. It brings back all the childhood memories where a lot of my leisure time involved either reading comic books or watching cartoons on television. Even before I started to read I would go through this collection of Walt Disney comic books with Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse and Goofy and make up stories looking at the pictures. I strongly believe that I read comics before I read the fairy tales (Lady Bird books in my case) and enjoyed every minute of them. Of course the natural progression was Snoopy, Tintin and Asterix. However, belonging to a small town meant that I did not always have access to all the Tintins and the Asterix that I would have liked to have.  When we did go shopping for reading material, my mother ensured I moved on to more "age appropriate books" and hence the introduction to the Five Find-Outers, Famous Fives, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys and the other millions of Enid Blytons and many more authors in later years that have now become an indelible part of my growing up years and continue to accompany me as time goes on. Thanks Mum, for opening up the magical world of books to me. 

Over the years, however, I have not been able to let go of the fascination I have with the cartoon world. As a result I, recently, decided to start collecting and reading some comics that I have always wanted to. It's simple really, everytime I decide to fly from one city to another I make it a point to buy a couple of Asterix or Tintin at the airport. What follows is an hour and a half of complete immersion in the world of the Gauls and the Romans or  "ten thundering typhoons", "billions of bilious blue blistering barnacles" and several other such alliterations sprouting from Captain Haddock. I can't seem to get enough of the insanely named characters in Asterix or the crazy humour in the banter between various characters, whether Roman or Gaulish. Not to mention the crazy adventures and scrapes Tintin gets himself into wherever he goes. It is so easy to lose yourself in their world and wonder what it would be like to actually be present there when they set off on one of their adventures. When I read books, I am usually lost in the plot and feel as if I am part of the world that I am reading about. These may be comic books, but I feel just the same when I am reading these. There is a reason after all, for people wanting to own complete collections of these comic books.

It feels like I now have another advantage of travelling by air... I can buy another comic book, and for the next couple of hours, lose myself in a world I would definitely like to be a part of. 

The Colors Of Coorg, South India

I have recently come back from a fabulous trip to South India in the Coorg district. I visited Madikeri and Chikmaglur and was floored by all that I saw experienced.

The trip started with a long drive from Bangalore to Madikeri. It wouldn't have been such a long drive (11 Hours!!!!!) had it not been for the crazy traffic we encountered on the way owing to the fact that we decided to start the drive on 15th August a national holiday and the beginning of an extended weekend. On account of it being an extended weekend, most of Bangalore and I am sure the surrounding cities, decided to do what we did... take a holiday to the nearby coffee plantations or other tourist destinations in the area. We were advised that under normal circumstances, taking traffic into account it should not take more than 6 hours to reach Madikeri from Bangalore.

The first thing that hits your senses as you travel south are the colours that you see around you. The homes of the area are so brightly colored that it seems a little unusual to our staid North Indian sensibilities, yet look perfectly at home in their surroundings.

The Colours Of Coorg... Just some of the ones we were able to capture along the way. 

En-route to Madikeri, we stopped at a small Tibetan establishment / township by the name of Bylakuppe. They are more or less a self-contained township and use their land mainly for corn farming and have a lovely Monastery, made by His Holiness the Dalai Lama,which displays some beautiful paintings and statues. I was glad that we stopped here on our way. It was very unexpected to come across a Monastery smack bang in the middle of traditional South India.

After another couple of hours on the road we finally made it to the Heritage Resort in Madikeri (http://www.heritageresortcoorg.com). Now this resort is something else entirely. Beautifully located up a largely isolated road, this resort mainly consists of little hut like cottages set in the middle of lush greenery and not a soul in sight other than those running the place and those living in it. It has the most divine infinity swimming pool with deliciously cold water that we itched to get into as soon as we got there! I would definitely recommend this place to anyone who goes there. Though not the cheapest place to stay in, I believe it was really worth the money. The staff is very friendly and helpful and the rooms are quaint and comfortable. 

The weather Gods blessed us with lovely cool weather with rain that made Madikeri (also known as Mercara and situated in the Coorg district) look all the more lush and beautiful. We took a trip to Dhyan's Den (a coffee plantation and home-stay) and got a "personalised" tour of the plants growing in the plantation and some really lovely coffee, all planned out for us by Heritage Resort. We also drove up to Abbey Falls (also spelled Abbi in some places) though due to the crowds we decided not to go up to the actual falls. And then came the much awaited dip in the cold cold waters of the infinity swimming pool which made one feel like we were swimming at the top of the world with nothing but a sheer drop beneath us! It was heavenly! 

The Heritage Resort, Madikeri

Of course, we had to see the town of Madikeri which we did that evening. My travel companions discovered a few jewelry stores with some of the most beautiful Gold Jewelry I have seen in  traditional South Indian designs. It goes without saying that one can buy truck loads of coffee in Madikeri in different blends, and we proceeded to do just that! We also managed to try one of their locally made fruit wines. On the whole, a  most satisfactory evening out on the town and shopping expedition. 

The next day we started our journey to Chikmaglur (located in the Chikmaglur district of Karnataka), another area known for its coffee plantations. But the really interesting part of the journey were the two stops we made in Halebeedu and Bellur (located in the Hassan district of Karnataka) to visit the temples there. They are some of the most exquisitely carved temples that I have ever seen. The details of the work both inside as well as outside the temples keeps you completely spellbound. When our driver told us that we would take an hour in each of the places, I had very serious doubts as to what we would do there for the entire hour. All such thoughts were dispelled once we actually started the tour assisted by the guides. 

Halebeedu (also known as Halebid), constructed by the Hoysala dynasty in 12th Century AD, is a homage to Lord Shiva. This temple took 86 years to be made and is still incomplete in certain places as the city was attacked before all the carvings in the temple could be completed. Amazingly, no two of the thousands of carving in this temple are the same. We had a very interesting guide (Mr. Prem Kumar). He looked a little like a squashed version of Randeep Hooda and threw us a little every time he pointed to particular carving and said "Hundookasi". It was only later that we realised he meant "And you can see"!!!! But hats off to Mr. Prem Kumar, we would not have appreciated half the beauty of the temple had he not told us stories of the carvings and pointed out the details and the delicacy of each carving to us. If you do visit either of these temples, be sure to hire a guide while there. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

                                                                   The Temple at Halibeedu                                                                                             

        A Beautiful And detailed Carving of Deity Guarding One 

Of The Entrances At the Temple

                                        Ornaments carved On One Of The Largest Nandi Bulls In India    
 

                                                                                                         

                                            A Detailed Carving Of Lord Krishna Lifting The Govardhan

                                  Note The Minute details Like A Monkey Climbing a Banana Tree In The Top Right Corner    

Carvings Showing The trinity Of Brahma, Vishnu And Shiva

                                                 Lord Ganesha Dancing On His Vehicle The Mouse                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

We were met by Mr. Manjunath (who preferred us to call him Mr. Manju) at Bellur and we spent another very fruitful hour at the temple. Known more for the carvings inside the temple as opposed to the Halibeedu temples, this temple known for its external carvings, this temple too was made by the Hoysala dynasty in 12th century AD and took 103 years to be completed. This temple is dedicated to one of the Avataras of Lord Vishnu (Lord Vijayanarayana). We were once again floored by the beautiful detailed carvings in this temple. Mr. Manju was just as good in holding our attention throughout the hour that we were there specially as he explained how each carving of the female form depicted a different hairstyles that were now coming back into style, for example the bob cut, the sadhna cut and the boy cut! Oh and did I forget to mention that according to our guide the Vodafone pug too was depicted in one of the carvings????!!!! (Please see image below of the moter with children walking the dog).  

                                                    Statue Of A Dancing Lady Inside The Temple                            

                                   Another Of The 4 Maind Statues On the Roof Of The Temple In Bellur

                                            

             A Statue Depicting A Woman With A Perfectly Proportioned Body That Will Scientifically Please The Eyes                  

                                              Statue Depicting Narsimha Destroying Hiranyakashyap                                                                                                                      

                                  Carving Depicting A Mother Taking Her 2 Children And Their Dog For A Walk                                                                                                                                                        

And we finally reached the Taj Gateway in Chikmaglur. The rooms that we got were big and had large balconies and 2 Queen sized beds each (heaven!!!!). We reached the unanimous decision that since the next day was going to be our last before the drive back to Bangalore, we would relax most of the day by the pool and only venture out in the evening if we felt like it. We had already seen a coffee plantation in Madikeri and after all we were on a holiday were we not? And that is exactly what we did. In addition to spending a cloudy day in the pool, most of us threw in a massage done by the most capable hands of the masseuse employed by Taj Gateway. I came back feeling completely relaxed and wanting more. Thoroughly recommended! 

Well, technically that was the end of our trip except for the journey back to Bangalore. And that too turned out to be a real pleasure. It took us only four and a half hours to get back as the weekend traffic was over. And we got the opportunity to stop at a beautiful Marigold field and have some coconut water. We even managed to make a stop on the way at Hot Chips, a chain of small shops that sell positively yummy South Indian snacks like thattai, tapioca chips, potato chips, banana chips and jackfruit chips among many many others. 

At the end of the day, our journey would not have been complete without the customary stop at Maiya's and Hatti Kappi for Aki Roti and South Indian filter coffee respectively at the airport. 

Some of the things that interested me during this trip apart from all that I have mentioned above? 

1. Pepper creepers climbing up trees in coffee plantations (by the way, raw pepper straight off the creeper tastes really interesting. Try it if you can.)

2. I saw castor seed plants for the first time. Most interesting leaves. 

3. Ginger fields

4. An overabundance of the Lantana bushes in all the colours possible. 

5. The very different concept of gol guppas or pani puri in the Coorg area.... very delicious but very different. 

I have to recommend that you do this trip if only to see the Bellur and Halibeedu temples. 

Spend An Occasional Day With Yourself

All you ladies out there, sitting at home alone.... boyfriend too busy? Friends not free? husband out of town? Taking a day off from work? Or just a holiday? And you are sitting at home all alone? Don't worry. You have your best friend to spend the day with - you!

I did it today and I have to say it was an amazing day! I saw 2 movies today, had some very yummy lunch while at the movies and treated myself to some fun shopping! Doing exactly what you want, when you want and how you want to do it was absolutely liberating. I didn't have to fit my plans with anyone else's. And if I got late doing anything it didn't bother anyone other than me (of course I didn't mind it too much myself!)

For the record, I saw Guardians of The Galaxy and 22 Jump Street, two totally time pass fun movies to watch when you have nothing else to do. What was even better was that, today being a weekday, the movie hall was almost entirely empty and I loved sitting wherever I wanted all by myself and didn't have to worry / bother myself about people sitting next to me! Movie watching heaven in my opinion...

Shopping was a close second too... And not to mention, the absolute joy of finding a parking space easily just because I decided to see the first show of the day. All those living in big cities where finding parking is like seeing a real life miracle will know what I am talking about!

On the whole, I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed myself so much! I thought I would get bored or lonely by the end of the day or in the middle of my outing. Quite the contrary. It has been some time since I enjoyed solitude so much! I would definitely recommend an outing with yourself occasionally. You will be surprised at exactly how relaxed and free you feel....

Footloose and Fancy-free - An introduction......

What does being footloose and fancy-free mean? To me it means -

 I can live the life I want to live... 

I can experience life the way I want to .... 

I can do the small things I want to do and enjoy them the way I want to just because I can.... 

I live in a small city, belong to a typical Indian family and like to believe that I am pretty close to my folks at home. I like spending time with my friends and love trying out new things whenever I get the opportunity. I have worked hard and love to spend all my savings by travelling and seeing as much as I can in trips within India as well as outside. 

Over the last few years, specially the last few months, I have begun to feel like I need to experience more of this thing we call life. I have felt the tedium creep into the day-to-day affairs of working and going back to an empty and listless home. True that a good book is a great companion, but there comes a time when you want to do more than read a book, surf the net or kill a few grey cells by watching television. 

And then a few days ago, inspiration hit! I am single. I am independent. I have no responsibilities. I really am footloose and fancy-free! I can do what I want! Well, to a great extent anyway... 

So I have decided to write about what I experience from now on, be it travelling with family or friends or even alone. What it is like to go and watch a movie all by myself.... just because I can.... How was it when I spent the entire day listening to my latest favourite music reading a book and sipping amazing Jasmine tea... Anything thing that strikes my "Fancy". 

Off to Coorg tomorrow. Next - an update on my trip.....