Nice Saying

No One EVER says it is after all a game when their team is winning :)

Canteen food or home food ??

There was a time when ladies used to be home & cook good food. As a lady the major responsibility was to take care of the household things, cook well & feed everybody. I have heard some of the older ladies giving tips to young ladies "if you can give good, tasty & variety of food to your husband, be rest assured he will love you forever:)"

These days ladies are so busy in the hectic, routine schedule that they don't get time to cook...forget cooking, I know couples don't even spend time together. So serving good, tasty & variety of food at home, as per old ladies tip is a dream these days... :)
A typical day starts with cereals or oats as breakfast starts with & lunch is canteen food at office. Only proper meal for the day is dinner.

Over the lunch table, we discuss variety of topics. One fine day we discussed about the food. Irrespective of what food & variety of food they provide at canteen, none of us in our lunch group feel food is good. We always feel "Home made food is the best". Rather I should say food made by Amma, Mother is the best food on earth. When we all agree on this, a thought went through my mind...Will our kids (next generation) ever say What ever Amma makes is the best food? I definitely have 200% doubt on this. For all we know, generation next might say "Nothing beats the canteen food", if we young ladies continue this way. Only taste for breakfast ever they will know is probably cereals or maggie. I have to make all the efforts to make sure that my little ones also feel the same as I do now. "Amma, my Mother, prepares the best food ever on earth". Will it be dream come true?

Accident in Kadabeesanahalli

Day before yesterday, 19th August 20009, when we were driving to office, I got a SMS from our office Transport group that there is an accident near our office & that our office shuttles/buses might reach late to office campus. While I got that SMS, we were hoping that the accident was not a major one and that people involved in the accident were safe.

But as we approached mmy work place, we realised that the accident must have been a major one since there was a huge traffic jam. People were stuck in traffic for a long time, that who ever didn't have their own traffic started walking after getting down from the vehicle they were moving in.

Road was so jammed that it took 2hrs to travel 200 mts. I was still hoping that there was no loss for any body's life inspite of this traffic jam. People seemed to be more bothered about the traffic jam & reaching their offices on time. I am not saying people didn't worry about what happened to the people in the accident, but definitely, people were worried about reaching office in time etc.
As soon as I entered the office campus, I overheard some one saying a lorry has toggled down. I was still hoping that nobody is seriously injured. Over the lunch, one of my colleague told us that on the way to office he saw the accident and that there were dead bodies lying on the road. Since the time I heard that I have not been feeling good about anything

Yesterday, a local newspaper articled this accident with the head line, Accident, traffic jam for 5 hours. It mentioned that the loaded auto, which was carrying milk & the lorry had an accident near Kadabeesanahalli. Auto driver was Kiran kumar & he is spot dead in the accident. He was the resident of Kariammana Agrahara & he supported his family by running a shop supplying milk. He was married only 3 months back. Lorry driver is absconding since the accident. It mentioned that the people were stuck in traffic for 5 hours... It really looked like it was emphasizing the traffic condition. Has the life lost its meaning?

I am praying God to give all the strength to the family to face this situation and that Kiran Kumar's soul rest in peace...

Childhood Memories

Yesterday, since I was working from another office of mine (different location than where I usually work), I had asked my sister to come over for lunch to my office, since she works in next campus. After lunch, when she was getting back to her work place after lunch, she called me as I was entering back my office. When I went back she huged & kissed me!!!!! It was the best feeling for the day.

This triggered me my child hood memories. All of my dear ones say I have pictorial memory & I remember a lot of stuff which is not actually required. I don't know what is required and what is not. But for sure my childhood memories that I spent in my native is something I will relish through out my life.

For us sibblings summer holidays meant, heading to native, since we always stayed in Bangalore. As soon as we received our progress report for the academic year typically on April 10th, we would head to my parents native. It is in North Kanara district in Karnataka & we would spend rest of the summer vacations till the school re-opens. All our school re-admission process, getting books, etc daddy would take care while we were away.

Our vacations we mostly spent in Kadekodi, which is my maternal grandmom's house. The most fascinating thing about Kadekodi is it has a beach which is 10 mins walk from the house. We would spend most of the time in "SAMUDRA". My cousin used to come to kadekodi too for her vacations as well from Bellary. Our youngest uncle stayed in Kadekodi till his BE & he used to get there during our vacations during BE times from Hubli where he studied.

Once we all were together, a typical day goes with waking up together. All of us used to get up together. My Grandmom's place is a very nature rich place. There is a bigggggg garden in front of the house & a mountain at the back side. 10 mins walk would lead us to beach. For us it was like a paradise. We would spend most of the time in beach. Our grandpa was extremely careful about kids and always worried about the fact that we went near water. He would not let us go till evening & afternoon he made sure we slept so that we have enough stamina when we went there. Since he would let us to beach till evening, we have a different plan for afternoon. We had a dark in my grandma's place and my uncle would put a white screen in that dark room, keep the mirror outside in sunlight & made sure the light entered in to the dark room & it reflected on the white screen he had put. Then he would take a bulb, remove all the tungsten element from there meticulously, fill it up water & then hold chocolate papers in front of it, just where the sunlight is entering the dark room. Alas!!! we could see pictures on the screen :) We were so thrilled by that technique :)

On the way to Beach we would walk through gadde, field as it is known in english, where the peanuts were grown. It has a beauty of its own & no words can explain its beauty. It is like the taste of salt, unless you taste it, no one can explain you the taste :) We would pick few plants from the field & eat it on the way. We would walk through Chitte (field at a elevated region) & enjoyed every bit of walking. On the way back, when it used to be dark after sunset, we would run back home with fear especially while crossing that chitte :) After the entire peanuts are plucked after the peanut season, there would be few inside the clay. It gets roasted naturally. So on the way to beach, we would meticulously look for those burried in the clay, pick it, divide the nuts equally & all 4 of us would eat. Nothing can beat this taste.

Early mornings we used to climb the mountain which is at back of the house & return only in the afternoon. We used to pick lot of fruits on the way to up mountain, (like Garjalahannu, Kusumaale hannu, maavinahaanu, murugaluhannu etc) eat them & return. Evenings went in beach. Sometimes, we also used to go to Gore, a temple which on a high hill. More than visiting temple to us at that age, it was the trekking which we liked.

Unfortunately, we didn't have digital camera's at that age & we hardly have any photos of those times. Nevertheless, this time when I went to native, I had taken a photo on the beach. This beach still remains the best beach ever in my life & it is so close to our heart.

Time has changed, priorities have changed. All of us now busy in our own schedule. But nevertheless, I am very sure, each one of us still have the same feeling for my grandma's place & the beach like I do....

I miss those childhood days of mine :(

Challenges of a working Mother

I had heard lot of women saying it is very tough to manage both work, home & children. Time has now given me a chance to handle it.

Today my baby turns 8 and 1/2 months. She understands a lot of things now. Morning as soon as I get ready she gets upset & starts crying. She understands that I am about to leave her back at home. Rest of her day goes in crying mostly as I hear it from my mother.

That way I am very lucky. I have my parents to support me & to take care of my kid. But still the very thought of having put my small baby under stress kills me. Looking baby cry most of the time, my parents get worked up too. I am also putting them under stress.

Being in Bangalore, lot of time goes in travelling. Close to 3 hours will be spent on road just travelling to office. Some days this travelling itself is so stressful that by the time I reach office, I get drained out...

One of my friend rightly asked...Are you doing all this ONLY for money. Well, the honest answer is NO. I always aspired to be some one recognisable in the society. I aspired for a good career. But slowly I am realising my career is taking a back priority & personal life is gaining un explainable importance. I know it is me who has to guide my daugther through lot of stuff in life. If more than 12 hours go in office/travel etc & 8 hours for sleep, I just have 4 hours to spend with my daugther. Ahewwwwwwww.....that's misserable.

Added to all this, if there are calls in the evening after reaching home, it will make life more misserable. Yeah, Kudos, recognition mails, awards etc for all the good work at office, does put a smile on my face. But it is short lived. Smile vacats my face, as soon as I remember my little one back at home, waiting for me. Eagerness with which she waits outside with my mom to receive me in the evening after 6.30 is something unexplainable.

In short, I have realised that working mother should be emotionally very strong, which I am failing misserably on...

What to Blog

For a long time, I have been thinking of blogging. But my biggest problem was I did not really know what to blog. I always thought I need a lot of information to blog before I start blogging.
But I have realised that people just blog. People just blog about anything in this world. I have seen blogs which has details of what they eat, how they spend their vacation, planning for vacation, about day to day life, about parents, life, kid, work, place, managers, team ...list is endless.

So here is my attempt to start blogging. I always wanted to cultivate the habit of blogging. So here is my first blog starting with what to blog.

Let me start with the signing up for blogspot. I realised I can use my gmail account to start blogging in Blogspot. So I started signing up... I wanted to give a unique name to my blogspot. I tried various names, including oxymorons. I tried various oxymorons like "same difference, open secret, almost exactly, even odds, freezer burn & alone together. But for some reason finally I decided to have the blogspot with my name itself, as it is easier for all my known ones to access my blogspot with just my name, so that I don't put extra space in their memory cell to remember my blogspot. Well, yes, they can add this blogspot to their favorites...But again there is a problem...as long as someone access my blogspot from same machine, adding to favorites helps. But if they want to access my blogspot from some other system, then it is easier for them to remember my blogspot which has my name rather than oxymorons. So my blogspot URL is http://www.shubharbhat.blogspot.com/ for now. I might change it later on, if I get a better name than my own name, which I doubt :)

Then when I started blogging, I had to take a decision on which font to use :) Sounds funny, but reality is that we read what we like. And most of the time, it is not what we present, it is how we present. So font does matter. After thinking for a while, I thought Verdana is a better font as it is what we are used to seeing in most of the websites. Personally, for anything unofficial I would prefer Comic Scans, as it reminds us of our childhood.

I have decided to blog atleast once a month. As long the work pressure is not too much, I should be able to match this.

What to blog...That is something that is not yet decided. But as of now I think, I will blog randomly.
Looking at what I have written in this blog, I think I can definitely blog & I can do good job blogging.
It feels good to see my 1st blog getting published :)