the toppled raft

How i wished to be a part of Commanders team for rafting....i would have loved to go into the water under a toppled raft.....

...well, to bring everyone to the same page, i am talking about our recent offsite to Dandeli, a small wild life sanctuary in the Goa Karnataka border....this was the second time i went to Dandeli with my office colleagues...the first one being an excursion in the second year of my college...and Dandeli awed me every time i went there....the trips secured special corner in my heart on both the occasions, and for entirely different set of reasons....as u all would know...college was 'college'...we had a tremendous time living in tents...going out for night safaris...trying to scare our fellow tent mates...imaginary ghostly encounters....unbelievable ghost stories wrapped with carefully trimmed words during campfire....getting bonded in a wonderful relation with the entire batch including teachers, and attendants which we cherish till date, the local dog which we named 'dhol', and the lunch with 'parshe maach aar bhaat', which we nomenclated as'bon parshe'.....and most importantly, the hobby and a love that i coined for myself- bird watching; which i continue to propagate till date...my husband is my latest disciple in this matter....the list goes on....

..... but our office trip was no less different in terms of the fun we had....there had been differences off course...different age groups, different backgrounds, different stage of life, different socio economic scenario....i realized the difference time made to me from 2005 to 2010....i cut the philosophical thread short....we stayed in a wonderful resort near Kali river....Kali is a small seasonal river controlled by a Dam....in recent times, to attract tourists, an adventure sporting camp got set up....they mostly conduct rafting ( level 2 and 3)...kayaking, fishing, boating, swimming, natural jaccuzi, coracle ride etc etc....i was interested in rafting....this was the first time for me....and i was super excited....we actually had to sign bonds before we took on the sport that we were doing it voluntarily and the camp would not be responsible for any accidents..blah blah blooh blooh...i entered my husbands number in the register to contact him incase of unforseen events...heart of hearts, i was pretty confident that nothing is gonna happen to me....we were all in life jackets and helmets, i knew swimming...even if i get into the water, i would probably float with the current and eventually land in some far away place....people in south India are good and well mannered.....they respect women...i was probably drawing the probability wire too long...except the fear that one of the 3 crocodiles might come and accept me as their lunch, there was really nothing that i could prepare myself with...8 of us got in a raft, myself and Baisakhi were at the end and closest to the guide...6 other fellows from HR took the front seats...guess the seats are allocated based on the weight of a person....the guide confirmed that rivers in Karnataka are mostly infested with crocodiles and Kali was no exception...as i told u earlier, the river had 3 crocs....1 big, measuring 10 feet and 2 small ones, around 5/6 fts...but he assured that they were happy with their piscivorous diet and have never come close to humans with an intention to attack till date...this information was quite relaxing....we pulled the raft to the mid river...it was demo time....what to do if a raft topples? how to stay together...to pull teams back to the raft...how to keep oneself afloat etc etc safety protocols to follow....after the theoritical lecture..it was time for practicals.... i was the braveheart who volunteered to give a live demo.....i plunged into the dark black waters of Kali....Prashanth followed me and dived in....as the name says it all, Kali had real 'kali' water....the black lap of the river was enough to make him jittery....seeing him afraid, i also got scared for some time, and immediately swam away from him to get back my senses...one by one most of our fellow raftmates tasted the scare and fun of being in water... we all swam in groups encircling our raft....i am not capable enough to frame the experience in words...so i leave it to my memory and your imagination....we got back to our raft in our positions...and it was time for THE adventure.....

the entire stretch of rafting was of 9 kms with 8 rapids, the first being of grade 3 and the rest of grade 2 in terms of impact or the plunge in height and depth of the water flow...we cut through the water towards the first rapid...we were in "on your toes" position...the sheet of water below our raft encapsulated a big chunk of a steep rock and took a deep dive, dragging the raft with it in a -45 degree trajectory.... in an equal and opposite reaction to our plunge, another wave leaped on us from the front leaving us wet and dripping....we had crossed the first rapid, the most exciting one in the entire stretch....we all cheered for ourselves for accomplishing this...it was like winning against force, not with force but with strategy...i again say, the experience is to be felt and i feel handicapped that i cannot describe the same...since there was no one to capture it in camera, i fall back on my memory....

...the water flowed on a rough rocky terrain....the guide told us that in past, it was a mine area for digging Zinc and Magnesium ores...the area underwent numerous blasts leaving the river bed daggered...now the water flows on it and is laden with minerals and not only it was potable, but also very good for health...probably that is what we mean by mineral water....the water was very clear and nad no signs of stagnation anywhere...as a result, we could not spot any patch of slippery algae reducing its transparency....we could see through it till the river bed...the journey was dotted with mini rapids followed by stretch of leisurly water circulation....which was very relaxing after bouts of adrenalin bursts at the rapids...we spotted several birds, hornbills, cuckoo and serpent eagles....and proceeded towards the end of the trip.

this was the story of my raft....not that i did not enjoy it, but i guess the experience would have been more peppered if i had gone with Commander....to introduce to all, Commander is the Head of Facility at Wells Fargo India....we all call him Commander coz he is an ex serviceman retiring from the Indian Navy...this is my personal blog and i take the liberty to express my frank opinion...there is a thing about these defence force folks which i really like...i come from a civil background..i got to know the other side of life only after my marriage...my father-in-law is from the Indian Airforce...and when i say that, i say it with a lot of pride...they have lived life in a different way altogether...and i have a lot of respect for all those folks serving the nation in defence...and i instantly gel with them the moment i get to know...and somehow, probably they spend their life away from home, the fellow defence mates are like their relatives..they welcome them with open hearts....my relation with Commander was no different....though our roads hardly cross in terms of work, and we hardly interact in office, i like commander a lot...he and my father-in-law would have loved each others company...but that friendship cant be established now...anyways, coming back to the beds of Kali, i got to know that Commander's raft toppled....they were crossing some rapid when the accident happened....all the 8 raftmates including the guide was in water....they later got together back in the raft...the fact ends in these 2 lines...but try and read between the lines....i close my eyes to imagine, to feel how it would have been if i were there....i would love to meet with an accident like this :)

a lazy saturday afternoon

what do u do when u have nothing to do ??
watch TV??
...hmm... not interested currently...something else please??

....read a book...yaa i can ....but last night only i was reading ...so dont wanna go back...

...go to sleep....a very good option but a hair pack on my head..dont wanna spoil my pillow cover... i can however put a news paper and sleep on it..but i woke up at 12 and i dont wanna sleep now

...then what? chat with husband? he is having exam don wanna disturb....

....call up mom?.. she is over excited about durga puja and my present energy levels wont match with hers...

.... shall i do packing? lot of time left...

...Call Sanchari/Ipsita? soumita to fix up the Ashtami Plan?....just an hour ago i called Sanchari,cudnt talk coz the signal got disrupted, and Ipsita had gone for a bath so luck there also..and may be they are all taking rest now

...then what.... cook something? experiment with a dish? no yaa...need to concentrate to cook...

...some gardening?? all the plants are watered in the morning itself, to dig up the soil needs energy which i dont wanna spend now...

....blog?? not getting any good idea to write about ...

...some beauty treatment? face pack?? ...already henna on my head...

dhoooshhhh......

GM diet:: Follow up

promises are meant to be broken ...and my GM diet plan was no exception.... well i did promise to myself that i will have fruits and only fruits..irrespective of the amount of acid it builds up in my body.... the citrus fruits did manufacture quite a bitof HCl, a dissection of my intestine might have yielded 2/3 bottles of acid useful for cleaning toilets....anyways, Amrita did finally persuade me to break my diet plan ( not that i was totally against it...the headache was getting unbearable, and was signalling a nauseating feeling)..so i munched a muffin, chew some pink chalks with water (gelusil) and gulped a saridon.....it was 45 more minutes to go before my office could get over... sharp at the ending minute of my work schedule i was in my bus, seat reclined and all set for my doze.... i think my kolkata friends had solidified the Ashtami day plan...i recieved a message from Ipsita and a call from Sanchari...but was in no state to answer either... as the wheels rolled out of the office campus, i was unconcious with sleep....now and then i opened my eyes, only to see the bus stuck in traffic...my cab mates were having a feast with chips, samosas and bhajjis....i later got to know that the traffic was so heavy that one of my fellow passengers got down and bought all these ...one of them offered me... i politely refused...not that i dint like it, but i couldnot have afforded the risk of consuming another acid bomb ....2 hours down, i was alive and awake... i was grateful to gelusil and saridon, i was feeling much better,....got another good news from Akash...he finally got his much awaited job .... ...the silly driver again dropped me at Deewan Dhaba instead of my house...though i had taken approvals from my transport manager for dropping me at my home... seeing the late hour of the evening, i empathized with the next drop of my cab, and probably not being in a mood to fight i got down and started walking homewards... ...As i watched the teleserial Subarnalata, i happily ate 4/5 servings of rice with tita korola bhaja, begun chorchori and my favourite machher jhol... ..I promised that I would never attempt a GM diet again, or even if i do, i ll modify it to my fancy, keeping a little space for my cravings.... and hopefully i will stick to this one

Day 1 of GM Diet

my head is throbbing like hell ...but i ll have to pretend that i m working...its 10 more days to go for Durga puja...and yesterday night while going off to sleep this amazing idea hit me... why not try the GM 7 day diet ...once more with total dedication...i had developed a small paunch post marriage which is now in its teens.... the last time, and the first time in my life when i attempted this was before my trip tp Goa...and it did work out...i cant tell in exact figures how much weight i lost, but i was satisfied coz i could enter into my frock with very little trouble...
...since moring, i devoured 3 glasses of mausambi juice and 3 bowls of fruit...papaya and watermelon....ate 1 'Chola' from amrita's tiffin....exectly 2 spoons of maggie (courtesyAmrita)...2 biscuits...but post lunch i realized that my throbbing did not restrict itself in my head but started spreading its territory towards my jaws, cheek...neck...back... my eyelids are seeming heavy...may be with sleep..but probably GM diet is not to be blamed for that ...i am a sleeping Queen with or without that ....all my cab mates have made me famous for this in the whole office ...anyways, i slipped from my diet plans once more, when i comsumed some carbs in form of 'sukha bhel' but promised myself that now onwards, even if i die out of headache, i wont touch anything but a fruit....however, it is not that severe a headache..i have witnessed and survived headaches worse than this...but the problem is that when u know that you can cure it, but intentionally u wont, u have no other option but to stick to u r self imposed misery...
...how much i feel like grabbing a cheese sandwich..or a chocolate muffin.... but now i m sipping coffee as i compose this post...i hope and pray that i ll be able to continue with my self torture for the next 7 days...

grey

This is something really bad about me... something good is happening to my best friend and i am getting sulky...and not that i am just getting a shock from nowhere...i was well aware of the fact and i also prayed to God to grant her what she wants...and now that she got it...i am in no mood to take her along to the id street mela.... amritas got the much awaited job in Bangalore.....

now that means she is gonna give the love letter to HR 2 weeks down the line...and 3 months later...i will have to search for a lunch partner... well it is not lunch which binds us.... how i am gonna miss her.... i donno with whom will i share the story of my throbbing heart after i watch uttom kumar in a black and white frame...with whom do i share the experiences of reading robindronath aar sorotchondro? ...its like a suicide I committed by praying what i prayed... well this is like the evil and good side of me fighting... like the comic strips of Hertz in Tintin..whenever Captain Haddock gulped a few pegs his good and bad side stripped apart and confused the poor fellow.... i am in the same shoe as of now.... depressed... i am unwilling to take her call also...and in my mind cooking up stories of getting loose motion, my urgency and importance of going to Abacus... and what not... all betrayers around me...but this betrayal is a part of life... and this is what is gonna happen... this was meant to happen... she is calling me again .... i see her extension flashing ...

i did not pick it up in the first go....bitten by the moral police, i returned her call... all my thoughts of having a bad stomach paid off...well actually, stuffing biriyani at 1 am at night did do its bit to upset my stomach...but not so much to refrain me from going to the fair... .. I promised her that we will go to the mela tomorrow...and tomorrow i ll have more reasons to celebrate... 1. I will have a whole day training tomorrow ( means no work for me). 2. my boss going on vacation the next day onwards. 3. today was one of the few rare days of the week where I can afford to spend the evenings together...Its his holiday today.....my poor husbad got a ranting from me for a good advice.... time for me to call him and reschedule the evening... bad moods are good... i am gonna have chinese for dinner tonight...

one day in office

a month back, my boss was on vacation for almost 2 weeks.... and i had planned that i would definately consume my lazy hours in office by posting new blogs...... Alas! my dream remained unfulfilled.... happily i completed all the assigned task in 3 days....but something not so important cropped up....and to show off my concern and pretending to be in inline with Wells Fargo culture in 'going above and beyond" customer expectation.... i ended up in shopping in General bazaar on a hot summer day in April....I was attempting to do something with the "personal touch" .... I managed to do what i planned for the team events that was assigned to me ... i was happy that the control was in my hands and i did not have to run helter scelter and wait for approvals and things moved at my pace..... the professional goal was accomplished...but the idea of blogging slipped out of my mind

Well now, today at this point of time, i am absolutely loaded with work.... i am aware of all that needs to addressed in near future... working here is like playing passing the parcel... finish u r task and enjoy till someone reverts ..... i was about to get bcak to work ...but all these people around me and their activities are enough for distracting me.... my bengali community is wells Fargo is on the verge of getting extinct ... people are resigning left right and centre... I am kind of disappointed with Pratiks resignation followed by Madhu mita rouths....well actually the point is that i know that Amrita is gonna go to Bangalore...her wedding is in the offing...so i had placed pratik as the back up for all those tea time gup shups.... and when this chap came to me with this news... i was thinking that he was utilizing the opportunity he missed on April 1 to make me a fool...only when a call came from HR and he mentioned how many days of leave is pending, i had enough proof to believe what he said... and then madhumita routh became the next back up....but all people are in a mood to betray me... so as of now i dont have any back up plan... it seems i ll have to be happy with my intranet KRA ....

i always wanted to attend a south Indian wedding which occurs in the morning.... and today i got an invitation from Praveenya.... i just hope that all the desires in life get invited like this..... anyways... so i am gonna go on Sunday morning to her wedding... will have rasam and rice for lunch ... and come back and sleep like a log... i just had one concern... i dont wanna see one particular person in her wedding .... but i guess i dont have an option.... there are certain things in life that should not be mixed.... work and life... probably i should not have this apparent distinction between the 2...coz its no longer kept apart in my life....

i have enrolled myself for the dance classes starting June onwards... one more long lost desire... but my husband wanted to put me in Indian classical...i ll have to go and learn kuchipudi.... the incident reminded me of my childhood when my father , in a similar fashion had placed me in classical Vocal classes... i wanted to go for rabindrasangeet and modern bengali songs... but my wish remained unheard... and then when i wanted to learn dance, my mother came up with an objection ie when i would eventually leave the practice i will become a football..... and still today she stands by her views...i am helpless...in any ways i am putting on weight...so need to get some exercise, SO i might as well do what i enjoy.... and i dont wanna leave it... i might leave kuchipudi and get in western hip hop style..but ( well i should not sound so confident...but i just pray to saibaba and ma kali that i can maintain it )

Well my break is over... i need to get back to work now... hope to catch you soon..bbye

Ma Durga saw me missing her in Hyderabad, so she send Gonesh for me

and my dear gonesh dada did a wonderful job in replicating the fervour and festivity in hyderabad, very much the same way as it happens in durga puja in kolkata....though durga puja is celebrated in a much grand way with lightings, palacial pandals, people flooding the streets.., nonetheless, the gonesh puja in hyderabad has a different charm and flavour... i am in love with the cute round gonesh's in my apartment and my surroundings...to my surprise, we had some 8 ganesh idols in the 500 meter stretch of the street leading to my house from the main road...

... and this was the first time that i actually did a gonesh pujo at my house...with a sudden decision with all approvals from the head master and mistress of my family, post lunch we started the puja preparation... very different from the traditional way of performing Lakshmi puja or Saraswati puja where we fast till the puja rituals and other proceedings are completed....Gonesh dada and us binged on motichur laddu, luchi, suji, nuts and sweets post puja....

the 10 days of Ganesh puja in hyderabad captivates me completely...after reaching home from office, i collect my camera and off i go pandal hopping and capturing all the idols i see....pandal hopping in hyderabad is like a food gathering exercise...every pandal you go for darshan hands you over a bowl of lemon rice or a coconut shell..after a day or 2 i understood that carrying a tiffin box is the smartest thing.... all that i have for tiffin those days are the left overs of lemon rice i accumulate from my pandal trips....you will also be amused seeing the diversity of sculpture the artisans tried in making different versions of the same Elephant god....i have seen a cuddly baby gonesh sitting on Durga's lap...a round fat gonesh dressed up like baby krishna, with a peacock feather on its crown and a bansuri; i was so fond of this partcular gonesh that i imagined in my mind how nice it would have been had i got a small living gonesh like this in my house ..like a kid or a pet.....another gonesh trying to tame a lion by pulling its mane...and the biggest and tallest gonesh of Hyderabad, the gonesh as tall as a 3 storied building in khairatabad....another gonesh with thickly kajal lined eyes....a gonesh dressed up like a Marwari groom, with a grand jewel embossed headwear or pagdi, richly decorated with ornaments, and henna painted hands in blessing pose....

in my eyes, gonesh is a very cute god... a round rollu mollu figure...which should be placed on ones lap and cuddled and kissed and poked and played to hearts desire....no wonder, gonesh soft toys are widely available in the market....during the 10 days of gonesh festival, my entirebuilding complex are flooded with lights and decoration...the Gonesh is accomodated in the parking lot in C block, which happens to be my block also...and being in 1st floor, i literally experience the festivity all the 10 days... the residents of our complex get together and conduct the event right from raising funds till the immersion.... celebrations are accompanied with puja, a mini cultural event performed by the kids, distribution of lemon rice, suji, payasam, chholey and puri, which takes care of our dinner...however, the immersion day is the most exciting and eventful...after a formal get together and lunch, idol is taken on a possesion, with drums, whistles, crackers, and made to take a round of the complex...the immersion process follows...this year, i missed it since i was in office..the dark building devoid of strings of mini bulbs, and the vacant seat of my gonesh pricked my heart...like all good things, my gonesh dadas trip was also over...but next year, i ll take a day off from office on the immersion day and will go with my folks till the hussain sagar lake to see off my cuty cuddly sweety god.

...by the way, if you want to see a coverage of Gonesh puja of 2010 in hyderabad as captured in my camera, Click https://picasaweb.google.com/mohor03/GaneshChaturthi2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCOTKvaCe8ruUtQE#