Shyam's Blog

It is 8:30 am and I need to prepare my campaign speech. Election is scheduled for later today and I am representing the “Green house”. There are 4 houses – Red, Blue, Green and Yellow. Oh, forgot to mention the scene! I was in class 7 and was eligible to stand for elections in my school. My parents were off to work and I needed to plan everything relating to elections myself. First and foremost – Election symbol. What did I pick? I wanted to pick something symbolizing color green. Don’t know why I chose, “grapes”. A bunch of green grapes was my election symbol. What next? I had 1 hour to go to school. I had to prepare election pamphlets. It had my symbol in it and a message reading, “Vote for Grapes”. I cut a few pages into small sizes and write myself the above details. After reaching school, first thing I did was gave these to my so-called ‘party workers’ to distribute it. I stood for Captain Post for Green House. There is one Captain post for each House. Finally, there is ONE Comman...

This weekend was a visit to Mysore. It was my first long drive in India! The road from Bangalore to Mysore is good. Only thing which could improve is driving sense. On Saturday afternoon, highway had less traffic compared to Sunday evening's return traffic. Both ways, we had a break at 'Shivalli Restaurant' for Coffee/Tea. We reached my Bhabhi's place in Kuvempu Nagar by 2pm for Lunch. Nephew was all smiling to see so many people around. After good lunch, we had a siesta. By 4:30pm, coffee time! After that, super soft cotton idlies - idlies were so soft that we did not have to chew, just swallowed. After idli, tea :). We headed towards our cousin #1 place in JP Nagar. Our cousin's 4 year old daughter was very enthu-ed to sing and dance for us. It was 9pm and we had to reach cousin #2 for dinner. We had to cut short kid's performance. She was so much disappointed that she started to cry. We had to tell her,"We will have dinner and be back soon." Cousin ...

Happy Sankranti! How did I celebrate Sankranti? I got ready in the morning, took my camera out and visited Lal Baag. Lal Baag is one of the best places in Bangalore to visit. The space is so spread out that it reminded me of parks in the US. I had not visited Lal Baag with my camera before. Now I know where I can find flora in India! Find pictures here .

Who is a friend? One who wishes to interact with you for no gains. I have few people at work who have big smiles when they see me. I will go in the order I meet them daily. 1) My cab driver - I am the only person to talk to him I think. I talk to him right from petrol price to why he puts seat belt when approaching office building. I also discuss how people drive and how we are cheated in petrol bunks. He gives me newspaper to read! Nobody gets that privilege. 2) Security Guy #1 - There are many security personnel, but, this one is special. When I enter the building, I, among the bunch of other people entering, get "Good morning, Sir" greetings. Why is this? That is because - way back (4 months ago) when I first entered our office, I wished him the same! Since then, every day, I get this. And evening too, I get a 'salaam and smile' too. 3) Cafe Coffee day guy - Usually at 10am, I head for coffee to the automatic vending machine in the breakroom. This guy is waiting to...

There was a long discussion in the family about yester games. The word, "shraaaap kho", rang a bell in my mind. Even my wife's grandma played that game! We discussed lots of games played as kids. I don't know if kids of today play any such games!!! 1) "shraaaap kho" - one person runs to catch others. If others sit down while running, they are not permitted to be touched.... game continues to catch the person who is running. I don't know what the first word means! 2) "lagOri" - this was a popular game which many have played. 3) "Eyes spies" - again, a very popular game. 4) "topi aata (game with the cap)" - kids sit forming a circle. One kid has a cap in his had and moves along the circular formation. He/she drops the cap behind one kid. The kid where the cap is dropped has to catch this kid. 5) "hasu huli aata (game of cow and tiger) - Kids form a circle. One kid inside is a called the cow, and the one outside is the tig...

Spider's web near a tube-light (click on the image to enlarge). Spider-mom with babies

I was recollecting all the things we did during our spare time. We had lot of spare time back then. 1) Our earliest time-pass was stamp collection. Our aunt gifted us a stamp album when I was 7. She had put 4 stamps too in that album. Collection which started nearly two decades ago is still ON. Our craze was so much that every few days we used to change the order of stamps. Whoever returned from any foreign country was asked, "do you have any foreign stamps?" In our collection, we have nearly 5000 stamps from all around the world. Favorite stamps include: 1) Round stamp of Kiwi bird from New Zealand 2) Few triangular stamps 3) Collectibles set bought between 1997-2002 2) Music class was always running without much stoppage. It took little bit of our spare time. 3) Skating - I was very much interested in skating. Dad got us wheeler skates when I was 9. My brother and I played a lot, learning ourselves the art of skating. We used to skate by sitting and we pushed ourselves by h...

My Flickr Created my Flickr albums today.

As we were driving in the outskirts of Bengaluru, I found these wild flowers in a vacant land.

Coconut web. I liked the creation of a circular formation.

Music is one type of knowledge which doesn't have shortcuts. One needs to cross all the stages to enjoy singing. I was sitting in my music class listening to my guru teaching a small kid. My guru was teaching one of the basic lessons in Kalyani. Kid's mom was sitting too. I am assuming she brings the kid to class twice a week. This is what I thought.... Mom brings this kid to class so sincerely twice a week. This kid is learning the basics of music now. How do these kids understand the importance of music? Won't these basic lessons bore them to quit? Is there a short cut to learning music? What incentive do these kids who learn music get? Answers to these are found from my own experiences. Firstly, I realize now that music once taken in is as good as nectar. I enjoy it by knowing music. I am not answering the questions of a listener who is a music lover, rather, I am trying to see to find answers to questions based on my learning of music as a child. As a kid, I did sing we...

Cradle Ceremony was done on Dec 27th for our son. Below are some pictures. A stone is first put in the cradle and then the baby! All the ladies gathered sang a few songs for the baby. For the whole evening, our son was sleeping without being disturbed by the people gathered. He woke up once everybody was gone by 9:00pm. Stone in the cradle Lights setup for the cradle Decoration of cradle Baby's official first time sleeping in the cradle

"Name, Place, Animal, Thing" - this was a popular game we played as kids. This game was on air yesterday on Radio City. It is a game of writing items belonging to each of these categories AND all starting with the same alphabet. Eg:"Rahul, Ranchi, Rat, Roses". One more rule, there is a count of 10 within which each player has to fill in the details. Getting an alphabet is done by player on round-robin basis. Player starts from A.... and other player says, "Stop". The counting player announces the alphabet to start filling the items. This is more a general knowledge game and helps kids know various places, animals, things. Also, makes kids to think fast.

It is automatic collage with 5 persons in this picture. Only baby's face is visible clearly.This is taken through the car window when baby and mom were brought home for the first time.

Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) has a history of 220 years! It is said to be the oldest institute in India. It has its history linked to East India Company which set up a center for Astronomy in Madras by 1787. Back then, Astronomy was more connected to navigation to travel from Europe to Asia. Kodaikanal is on the World map for its Solar Observatory. It is again, one of the oldest Solar Observatories in the world. How did I get to know all these? My FIL is a Scientist there :).

Baby's first grip on mom's finger.

Today is our 1st Wedding Anniversary according to Hindu Calendar. We were gifted with a baby boy this morning :). Isn't that the best gift one can get for a wedding anniversary? Indeed!

In here, if you organize a challenge to win Rs.100, 101 people turn up to take it up. That being the case, a pair of brand new Nike shoes is sure to vanish in minutes :( My wife and I went for shopping couple of weeks ago to Forum Mall. I got a pair of Nike shoes as I had discarded all my shoes while returning from the US. I had used it couple of times since I bought it. This week, I had to leave my car for a couple of days at the service center for a small dent. Unfortunately, the shoes was left in the car. This morning, when I wanted to wear that new shoes, its gone! I lost my new shoes :(. Till now, the car repair was thought to be expensive. But now, a pair of shoes was more expensive than the repair. Final bill: car repair+lost shoes = Rs. 15,000.

Song of the day! Click here to listen. Comedy one! Please don't adjust your audio.

Today's special - Chomai It was Chomai special at home today. This is made out of rice flour. With a laborious process lasting for 3 hours, it was worth eating it. I don't know the exact process. In general, it involves steaming rice flour and creating rice dumplings. When the dumplings are ready, they are pressed in a hand rotated presser to get these home-made Indian rice noodles. A chutney is prepared to it with white plain noodles to get the spicy taste. Video has been recorded and will be put online shortly!