I totally fell head over heels in love with this character and the book !! She is absolutely someone that can be looked up to. The way she had her firm beliefs and stood up for them, no matter what the circumstances are, the way she fought without giving up, the way she inspired many, the way she set new trends defying the stereotypes, the way she built the confidence of many, I could go on and on.
There are so many characters that I loved in this book, each one was special and beautiful in their own way. The death of one of the main characters made me think about how the story would unfold later. The book kept me hooked to it and I enjoyed the itch to read it at every possible opportunity and the book gave me many smiles and goosebumps throughout !
I completed the book on Kindle couple of weeks ago. Around two weeks ago, when I visited Crossword bookstore casually and when I spotted this book on the racks, I couldn’t help feeling so excited and happy, holding this book and admiring the protagonist.
A little less than half the time I have spent on this planet so far…
A little more than half the time I have got memories of…
Definitely a number that’s not so small…
In the last twenty years that I have spent with you, I may or may not have expressed multiple things at multiple times but here’s a teeny-tiny attempt to express a little 🙂
Thank you for all that love that makes me wish for nothing more…
Thank you for all those gestures that make me smile from within…
Thank you for all those thoughts that make me look up to you with respect…
Thank you for all those acts that make me feel proud of you…
Thank you for gifting me all those moments that I cherish all the time…
Thank you for being the shoulder that I can lean on all the time…
Thank you for everything 🙂
Happy Anniversary Dearest V !!!
Wishing us loads of love, joy, happiness and contentment !!!
We returned from Panchgani on Saturday, rested nicely at home on Sunday and got ready to go to work on Monday.
We had hardly moved around 100 metres from home in car and something happened suddenly.
It was the unusual sound that made me go dumb, not being able to fathom what had just happened.
Before I was able to get a grip on what was happening, I realised that the passenger glass on my side has shattered into pieces in an instant and I could feel all the pieces falling down, bit by bit.
I asked V what had just happened and he too was trying to connect the dots of what led to this. He concluded that a very dry branch that was hanging low from the tree has come in direct contact with the side mirror and on hitting it has rebounced and hit the glass window with such pointed force that the glass shattered into pieces. It all happened in an instant that we could only guess the reason.
We stopped the car and tried to remove the dangling glass pieces by opening the door and shaking them off. We returned home, explained the situation to everyone, made some temporary arrangements to keep the space covered so that we could safeguard the car from dirt and cats and dogs and whatever. I booked a cab and went to office while V stayed back at home and worked from home to figure out further steps. He kept chasing the service centre guys and started exploring other options to get it fixed at the earliest. Finally he was able to track a nearby shop that had good reviews and that had promised to fix it in a couple of hours for 6000. He went there just before lunch and dropped the car and picked it up after couple of hours and everything was reset properly except for a slight door adjustment which was not under their expertise.
It was an eventful day, one thing happening after the other, leaving me in a state of shock for sometime. A train of thoughts would keep me occupied as to what would have been the situation if something similar had happened on the highway or in the remote city or something else.
The drive from Pandharpur to Panchgani wasn’t a very long one, it started at 9 in the morning and ended at around 1 with a sugarcane juice break.
We drove through Satara and the roads are quite good except for very small strips that can be ignored. The area near Satara is flooded with huge number of big shops selling Kandi Pedha, a specialty of the area. As soon as we started navigating through the ghat roads towards Panchgani, we could feel the temperatures coming down slightly and we could appreciate the escape from scorching temperatures of Pandharpur.
Our stay at Panchgani was a 3 night stay at Miraya and I would rate it as a very fine property with very neatly maintained and spacious rooms that have balconies with great views. The staff was very courteous and the breakfast spread was simply awesome, spanning poha, paranthas, sandwiches, pancakes, waffles, pooris, dosas, semiya and everything was served in a piping hot fashion. I absolutely loved the breakfast time over there. Lunch and dinner are not complementary as expected but are served with the same high standard at very reasonable prices. The only thing I have missed at this property is some more open space to walk around or some seating areas in the open. The room’s balcony was quite spacious and had chairs and I enjoyed my mornings with Kindle and the sunrise and my evenings with Kindle, V playing some music and some chitchat.
Miraya
We have booked a tourist cab for one day to cover the attractions on the way to Mahabaleshwar and in old and new parts of Mahabaleshwar. The other two days, we covered nearby places by ourselves.
The area is filled with strawberries, mulberries and couple of other fruits and everything that could be associated with them. It felt like entering and living in a world of strawberries. Apart from these, chana, chikki and fudge were seen in abundance. We were blown away with the number of flavours that could be associated with these products and the magnitude of quantities that were being sold. Various types of cheeses and honey that are sold by the cheese factory can also be seen here.
The local delicacies !The transformation of strawberry into a fruit from a flower at a local farm and the fresh Mulberry cream that tasted heavenly at the same farm !Mapro Garden !! A paradise for those who love food shopping. You can find jams, jellies, chocolates, candies, marmalades, crush, squash, ketchup, spreads, cookies, khakras, breads and many more. Kids get to play some games and everyone gets to savour their sandwiches and pizzas at their cafe. We loved tasting, shopping and filling our bags to the fullest. Since we didn’t have the appetite to have their pizza at that time and we didn’t want to leave the place without tasting it, we had it for take away and had it as our dinner at room 🙂
Most of the other places that we covered are view points and I kind of got bored after a certain point as all views ended up looking the same for me. Table Land is something that I would recommend as not to be missed but I would leave the other view points to one’s own judgment. We walked across the local markets of Panchgani and shopped Chana, Chikki, had Gujarati thali and in the market of Mahabaleshwar, we visited the very old Elsie bakery, had some snacks and got to experience the local feel in both the places. We also made a small pit stop at Bhilar / Pustakanch Gaav, which is known for a good number of houses of the village hosting books for readers.
View points and Elsie bakery !
We came home on the fifth day our travel, this time through Khandala, covering the entire stretch from Panchgani to Hyderabad in a single shot, starting at 8:30 in the morning and reaching home at 9:30 with a sugarcane juice break, lunch break and tea break.
We wanted to take baby steps and with that thought process, we decided to take a stop over at Pandharpur and have a night stay before reaching our final destination, Panchgani.
We started at around 6:15 in the morning, just a 15 minutes later than we had planned and reached Pandharpur by around 1:30 with just 2 two breaks, one for the breakfast and one for doing justice to the buttermilk packets that we had carried along with us.
Some random points on the trip and the place :
We should have used the ORR to get onto the highway as suggested by many on the Internet but we used the city roads assuming that there wouldn’t be much traffic in the morning hours. We faced the traffic due to inter city buses and college buses and ended up regretting our decision.
The highway roads are pretty good but the difference in the quality of the roads is quite noticeable as soon we exit Karnataka road and enter Maharashtra road, the former being better.
We were so used to the food joints that are available in plenty on the Hyderabad-Vijayawada route and were surprised to see that there are hardly any breakfast joints on this route.
The highway was pretty much unoccupied when compared with the Vijayawada/Bangalore highways.
Diesel rates were less in Karnataka when compared to Telangana and much lesser in Maharashtra and obviously we took advantage of it 🙂
Residential properties near the highway in Maharashtra are situated quite a distance apart from each other making us wonder how their basic needs are managed.
Sugarcane stalls were seen in abundance with big tents and tables and chairs.
Naldurg fort, a very big one, can be seen on the way. We have heard highly about multiple forts in this state.
Shivaji Maharaj is regarded with great respect by everyone and was quite evident as we passed this area.
As we reached close to Pandharpur, almost every building that we saw was adorned with Pandharpur Tilak.
Pandharpur was very very hot and seemed to be a small town.
Tulasi Vrindavan is a small park with lots of Tulasi plants of various kinds, rose plants, statues of sages and a big statue of Lord Panduranga himself. Locals can be seen coming and relaxing here in the evenings.
The main temple is going through renovation and hence is open for worship by public only in the mornings for a limited number of hours. Hence we had our Darshan the next day before heading to Panchgani.
Jasmine flowers are sold in huge quantities in the temple premises and looking at the fragrance and freshness of the flowers, I got so tempted to buy them and asked for hairpin in multiple shops. Alas, I couldn’t find one and ended up admiring them from far.
Radhesh food joint seemed to be a decent and a pretty big place for vegetarian food and it seemed to offer almost everything one can ask for. We had both lunch and dinner at the same place as it was quite close to the place where we stayed, Hotel Marigold Regency.
The first of coming month will mark our 20th marriage anniversary and to celebrate it, V put forth the idea of making a trip for a couple of days to Shimla, the place that we visited first after we got married. It sounded like a plan but we dismissed it soon since we had already visited the place twice and we weren’t sure if the third visit would still hold the charm.
Couple of weeks after discarding the idea, V came up with another plan of making a trip covering Haridwar and Mussoorie. A stated very clearly that she wasn’t in the mood for a vacation and she would rather take small breaks in her own way and asked us to proceed with our plans without her. Since we didn’t want to force her and since we also wanted to have the trip at a time that would cause least amount of inconvenience to her, we started calculating when she would not be having any offline classes. We guessed that she may not be having any offline classes in the peak of summer which would be last week of April or first week of May and we decided to plan our trip during that time as it would be easy for everyone to manage A’s college needs in our absence.
Some more discussions happened about the flight and hotel rates and the huge crowd that might be present in those weeks. As an alternative to this, V proposed another idea, a road trip to Mahabaleshwar. While we were debating about how the weather at Mahabaleshwar would be in those weeks, we were informed by the college that A’s academic activities would be limited to online classes beginning first week of April.
This new information brought in a new dimension and in-laws put forth the idea of advancing the trip to first week of April. So that’s how the trip has happened after changing its form in terms of destination, dates, mode of travel and everything else that could be a factor.
Here’s the gist of our longest road trip together !!!
I have read the book Ikigai exactly an year ago after reading about it on Prachee’s blog. And when Prachee nominated this for the month of March, I didn’t re-read the book and I have decided to repost my thoughts or feelings on this book.
A has been a lover of story books since childhood. We went through the phases that are common in most households, looking at picture books, reading aloud small to big stories, reading alone, reading the same book multiple times, renting from library, buying new and used books, switching to e-books and Kindle and so on.
I still remember the joy on her face when she got most excited for the gift of story books amongst all other gifts on one of her birthdays. She used to treasure all her books and handle them with utmost care.
Years passed and naturally, the books that were part of her very early years of reading have gone to a comfortable unused place and are no longer put to the right use. They are in a very good condition but are not being read by anyone.
Couple of weeks ago, A asked me if she could give away the books to someone who can and will use them. One of my colleagues manages a school for less privileged children and upon insistence by V and A, I gave a try by asking him if we could give some children books to the school. He agreed to take them into the school library if they are in a good condition.
A sorted out the books and picked 45 story books to give away ! Each book had a set of fond memories, each book was loved and treasured, most of them were read multiple times.
The books that were loved…
We passed on the books to the colleague hoping they would be treasured and loved by many more kids.
When I got this message from him couple of days ago, I couldn’t help smiling.
There’s a joy in buying and collecting books. But there’s a greater joy in sharing the books with others. I am glad A got to experience both the joys !!
Last Thursday, I was walking down towards my office block in the morning and I noticed that preparations were going on to put up some stalls. This is a usual sight at workplace wherein multiple stalls are setup spanning couple of days. This keeps happening every couple of months and they include the stuff that you see everywhere, clothing, books, toys, food etc. The stalls get crowded mostly during lunch time when people move around for their post lunch walks.
I can’t recollect of anytime that I have actually bought something from those stalls but I do remember of all the times that I walked around those stalls with people who are my college seniors cum colleagues cum dear friends. Of those two people, one has left the company around an year ago and the other is going on a 5 month break and she isn’t completely sure of what her plans would be post the break. Now that both of them are not here with me, I kept wondering looking at those stalls, if ever I would be able to walk around those stalls again. And the answer came to me as a clear ‘No’.
I talk to everyone in the team. I talk with colleagues that are not part of the team. I talk to colleagues that are not in the same domain. I share lots of things and discuss many topics with these colleagues but I don’t think I would share all the nonsense that I would have shared with the dear friends, with anyone else. I don’t think I would talk without any second thoughts with anyone else in the office. Some places are just irreplaceable. You can do certain things with only certain people.
Since one friend has already left the company and clearly has no plans of returning, all my hopes are on the other friend who is going on a break. I wish her a joyful break and look forward to her being back with renewed enthusiasm.
Apart from walking around the stalls, I do want to share much more nonsense and I do want to do lot more things with you, so come back soon 🙂
Whenever possible, I try not to inform upfront if I am visiting parents for one of the prominent reasons being that Amma ends up making some specialty or the other and Nana ends up getting some stuff or the other. Since I don’t want them to go through this additional work and since I have the luxury of being in the same city and don’t have to necessarily inform them beforehand, I finalise my plans at the last minute and inform them too at the last minute.
This morning too, I called them up just before I was about to start and told them that I would be coming for the day. Just before we were having our lunch, Amma announced that she would be making Bobbatlu post lunch. When I protested, she calmly stated that she had made all the preparatory work as soon as I made the call this morning. Arrrrgh… I should have been smarter !!!
Just bliss and little more! 