Weekend with my In-laws

As mentioned in my last blog, Rekha and I along with my in-laws and sis-in-law, visited a few places last weekend and was great fun and introspection.

Friday was when they arrived and I returned from work early and we headed to the Sankhamukha beach, a few Kms from my house, a beach within the city. We had fun in the water for nearly an hour. The thing that hit me there was, how much of the each had really eroded, don’t know, whether it is because of the rains and monsoon, or whether thanks to global warming the water level have risen. I clearly remember when I arrived in Trivandrum a good nine months back, we had to walk atleast 50 feet from the road to enter the water and now it’s down to about 20 feet. I also recollect that, the road near the beach was being re-constructed in September, end of the monsoon season due to the effects of the water. Will wait and watch for the reason. The hypothesis doing the rounds is that, there is a mermaid built of stone, which is about a 100 feet away from where the beach begins and it is attracting the water from the sea. Old times say the mermaid was closer to the beach, than where it is now and water had encroached near the mermaid.

Saturday, we left late in the morning, thanks to watching the India T20 game till late the previous night – and we lost as history would remind us. We headed out for Madurai type lunch and then to theTrivandrum zoo. WOW, it was a great experience. I really cant recollect the last time I went to a zoo, may be school, but really do not have an experience of a zoo in my brain. What stood out for me in the Zoo was, the big cats – the Lions, the Tigers and the Leopards. Fantastic is word I would under use to describe the experience. The roar of the tiger sends shiver down your spine, though it is caged the feel of the roar 5 feet away – cant explain, brilliant. The Tiger’s – phew!!!. Great animal, huge, atleast 8 to 9 feet, easily 300 Kgs, amazing.

Only a week ago I had read in an article in the Times of India – ‘The Speaking Tree’ (a daily routine for me to read the article online – great insights), a theory which defies Charles Darwin’s theory that we evolved from apes. Rather the articles talks about how human beings evolved from the souls of animals, like Apes, Lions, Elephants’ etc. And this is profoundly supported by modern psychoanalysis, particularly Carl Gustav Jung's school, because in the collective unconscious of man there are memories that belong to 'animalhood'.

If man is taken deep into hypnosis, first he enters the unconscious mind, which is just the repressed part of this life. If he is hypnotised even more deeply, then he enters into the collective unconscious, which has memories of being animals. People start screaming - in that stage they cannot speak a language. They start moaning or crying, but language is impossible; they can shout, but in an animal way. And in the collective unconscious state, if they are allowed to move or they are told to move, they move on all fours - they don't stand up. Truly revealing thoughts.

Sunday, we visited Neyyar dam, a 35 Km drive south east ofTrivandrum. We reached there to find, we had some good options to spend half a day, though initially I was told by my peers, that there existed nothing. We had an option for a boat ride for a hour and a half, which included a Lion Safari, a visit to the deer parkand a crocodile farm and all for a 140 bucks a head – worth it. We had to wait for more than a hour, as the next boat was available post lunch at 2 p.m., so we decided to have our lunch too and found a dingy restaurant run by KTDC – My suggestion, time your trip appropriately to avoid the restaurant.

The time arrived for us to board the boat and I was really jeered up to have a look at the Lions. I was told there were 2 Lions and 5 Lioness in the safari. We crossed the catchment areas and found a bus waiting for us for the safari. All of us literally ran to the bus to catch the window seats – vantage point you see, as there were others along in the safari. As we entered the park, it was reminiscent of Jurassic park the Movie – a shutter opening to allow the vehicle into the park, high fences, rules written on a board along with the literature about the park, the animals and their feed and of course a pole, where they would tie a goat for the lions to consume.

We drove a few feet and we caught a glimpse of a lion and lioness lazing away near a fence, but we could not a clear picture of them. We need drove up into the park and real feel began – a lioness sitting on a rock, 7 feet away from the bus. WOW – man it was a great experience. All it needed was one pounce and it would reached the bus, but she sat unassumingly in her environment and we clicked a few photos and proceeded. For the next few minutes we were still allowing our eyes to prey around and my heart to relax and allow the experience to settle – a free lioness 7 feet away.

We did not find any more and drove back to the first spot and by now the pair of animals we spotted initially had moved to better place for us to view them. The Lion is truly the king of the jungle, what a sight, what an animal. Trust me when he roars, the roar can be hear a few kilometres on the other side of the embankment.

We then proceeded to the deer park and crocodile farm, which was not even close to the experience of watching the lions. We headed back to Trivandrum and visited the Veli’s tourist village, where we had some snacks, caffeine certainly was the need of the hours, felt the back water and headed home.

A great experience being with the lions, especially when introspected, with the hypothesis that we could have evolved from their soul.

The Month that went By

True to the promise I made myself to Blog everyday and to carry on the Integrity conversation from my last post, am trying to capture the time that went past from ur return from Munnar to the beginning of June.

The week after we returned, it was like a hangover of the good times we had in the trip and loneliness was catching up for Rekha, simply being alone at home during the day and not doing much. We then actioned to get her parents to Trivandrum as planned earlier and her mom and brother arrived in early May. Her brother was with us for a few days and had to return to look at options for his college. The time whisked past us and she enjoyed the company of her mom, good Karnataka food and some company. Guess this is the longest period she has spent with her mom in a few years now. We visited the Padmnabha temple and local beaches for some time of home.

The majority of my time was got occupied watching the idiot box – the IPL. I miss it now for sure. The tournament itself is a great idea and the quality of cricket went up. To add onto the cricket, the season of the English Premier League and Champions league were coming to close along with the tennis as well. In a nut shell – reflecting – probably wasted some quality time, but then one of my core interests is international sort for qualms of the same.

I enjoyed my mom-in-law being here as well, again thanks to some good food and of course upskilling my Kannada. Also that Rekha was kept engaged, took a lot of my shoulders, with respect to keeping her interested in something of her choice. It’s a phase of her life where she has nothing on her table due to some strategic decisions we are working on. As of mine, its an added responsibility to ensure she does not get bored and lose her professional skills.

Work does not take any of my energy as all is fine and smooth. Hoping we get more projects from a strategic and learning perspective. I have begun to read again and pulled out some unread books from my collection, bought a long time ago which were dusting away. I tried to dabble with the stock market and as novice I can be, lost a few bucks on day trading and sold my portfolio days before the election results, only to find they had tripled the week after. Bad luck or lack knowledge you can term it any way. On the topic of luck, I heard a great explanation of the term LUCK – ‘ the appropriate preparation syncing with an opportunity’. Simple isn’t it, you do all the preparation you to wait for the opportunity to come and for others, they feel your lucky – WOW.

As the first week of June appeared, I had my father-in-law and sis-in-law drop in for 3 days and they would then return along with my mom-in-law. The three days were good as we visited a few places (read in my next blog), had loads of fun and enjoyed their company.

That was the month that went by .....

The Week That Was

Its been a few days since I blogged last and it will be a few more before the next one as Rekha and I are off on a road trip across Kerala starting morning to Thekkady, 2 days in Munnar and one day in a houseboat in the backwaters of Kumarkom. All excited are we. Call it our first honey moon for namesake.

So how was the week that just went by. To put it into perspective, boring, interesting, researching and really techno stuff.

So whats boring is my my work life as, at this point of time, thanks to recession there isn't any quality work am doing which does not satisfy my never dying appetite to learn new and fresh things.

Whats interesting, is the way I have taken on to look at better opportunities and plan the trip am looking forward to. Really researched where to go, how to get there, the actual planning of the trip, the logistics, the bookings -- used all the negotiation skills I have to get the best bargains.

For the week I really enjoyed watching the movie NAAN KADUVUL - a must watch for the story line , the screen play and the acting by the Hero and Heroine. I wont be surprised if they got national awards. Bala the director was at his mesmerising best.

A bit on the story -- its about AGHORI's and the Mafia that deals with Beggars -- Truly Awesome.

Check this site for info on Aghori's

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aghori

My wife really liked it. Then for the fun bit we watched Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye -- Again a must watch -- Please follow the chaste Hindi closely. Then the ever watchable KAL HO NA HO -- Kanta Bhai -- what a character.

My living room turned into a near war zone this week, with my wife starting to follow English football and has started to hate Manchester United and has become an ardent follower of Chelsea. Can you beat it, that she saw the entire second half this morning of last night's European champions league game between Chelsea and Liverpool and calls me to inform that Chelsea won 3-1. Man its football fanaticism here. Don't know when its going to be a blood bath. But all losers dislike Manchester United. :)

Waiting to see whether she intends to follow the Bangalore Royal Challengers in the IPL, just for the sake she is from Bangalore or any other team, as my loyalty is certainly with .... you guessed it the Chennai Super Kings.

Don't want to bother you guys with the cooking recipe's as my brother must be flooding your mail boxes with his recipe's. Just want to say that my wife is improving on her cooking daily and created some awesome dishes last week.

To end the blog, I really want to give myself a pat on the back for improving tech skills this week. I installed some google products onto my phone, like You Tube, Search engine etc. and guess what, my phone crashed. Reset my entire phone and installed them again and now am connected to You Tube on the move. Downloaded loads of Russel Peter's stand up comedy, music and movies.

Will let you guys here for the moment and do wait for my pics from the road trip.

Adios and keep watching this space.