The December!

Seconds, minutes, hours and days were passed by me just like that and now when I look back I have already completed living one more year of my life. A year filled with the little pains which helped me to understand what it takes to be alive?, the failures that made me a stronger person than before, the successes that encouraged me keep on moving, and last but not the least a bucket full of memories that reminds me of this journey. So far so good, oh! maybe I don’t have anything to regret for the roads I have travelled, the places I stumbled up on, the paths I crossed, the people I met on my way, for the life I learned to live and appreciate whatever happens is for some reasons in our lives and only then we able to identify what actually we are & then the dreams are not too far from the reality.

The reality I live, I have always told myself that the world is nothing more or less than the image that you can create for yourself out of it. It’s my own world and I cherish every moment spent here. Looking at the retiring calendar hanging on the right hand side of my room’s wall, year after year, I have learned that each one of them has a purpose in it for us, to accomplish certain things that will determine where we are heading for … There was one such day for everyone of us to recognize that we have done something not just to prove anybody else then ourselves, followed by a quick realization that still a long way to go but you have taken the much needed step for it. Possibly, I can recall one such day of this year. I maybe blessed on many occasions but certainly the beginning of this year unveiled me a darker side of the life where I struggled to fight back for quite sometime before I could accept the impossible truth that there exists no life beyond your own imagination. Nevertheless, the beauty of life is that it demands from you only the strength you posses. A flash moment in life and then happened a series of good things here and there which eventually became part of the rollercoaster ride I am on.

Personally, I would like to count the year 2008 for everything that can come to my mind, a mixed bag. And with the countdown for the New Year 2009 is already started, amidst the global economic meltdown and around the chaos of terror attacks, finally found some reasons to cheer up and we at workplace celebrated this December together.

So I am hoping & wishing you all Merry Christmas and a very happy & prosperous New Year in advance.

P.S : I am back to business & gradually recovering from the bloody cold.

Admad - Nokia Connection

Nokia together with the Indian Music Legend A.R. Rahman is coming up with its much awaited music album "Nokia Connections" featuring the heart stirring compositions of A.R. Rahman for the Nokia Xpress Music devices and 5800 Xpress Music. This is one of its kind promotions form the Nokia to launch their new products in the market. The album contains nine original compositions from A.R.

I found this video “Jiya se Jiya” from the album is very interesting and the tune indeed catchy. The message given in the song too is ultimate, a free hug for everyone irrespective of their region, religion or language. Play it, watch it and I am sure you too will like it.

P. S: The songs will be preloaded on Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia 5220 XpressMusic and Nokia 5320 XpressMusic from January, 2009.

You Compare?

I don't know if something right or everything wrong with this world but you compare. In the whole world there is nothing like comparing something with everything else and more precisely there is no good or bad or ugly. You compare that exists, or that doesn’t but that is not the end, you find questions and seek answers for there is always a better you, a better me, a better we and a better world.

Life is like that you never know there is a better life in store. You see there is always something missing that you can never compare. So what’s more, now you are asking me for a better comparison?

Murudeshwar - The more I see ...

Murudeshwar is a small town in Uttara Kannada district that is situated around 465 kms away from Bangalore the state capital of Karnataka, India. This place is closely bounded with the Arabian Sea and hills of Western Ghats which makes it an attractive tourist spot.

My travel experience to this place is totally different in many ways, starting from the travel plan till returning back to my pad, everything. I may have surprised myself when I planned it less than in an hour and the mode of communication was the State run local buses, I switched 5 buses to reach at that place. Frankly, the people out there wouldn’t have appreciated so much for a person holding a camera, writing pad and asking them so many questions not in the language that they can easily understand, but they did and everything according to me was part of the memorable trip :)

"Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen."

One of the main attractions of Murudeshwar is the Lord Shiva idol which is visible from a long distance from the Arabian Sea. The length of the idol is 123 feet into the sky and considered as the tallest Shiva idol in the world.

You can visit Murudeshwar any time in the year and it is well connected by Roads, and trains (Konkan Railways). There are many places of tourist interests near murudeshwar, some of them are Jog Falls (90 Kms), Udupi (100 Kms), Gokarna (65 Kms) and Karwar (120 Kms).

A day that was never before!...

Almost three years that I have spent at this place, at the very same building and before I can say BEY! to this place I wanted to go back to the past and collect some of my pictorial memories associated with it. With mist covered surrounding and the chilliness in the waves …. things were turning out much prettier than before. For a moment I couldn’t believe that this is the place where I spend almost time of a day and sometimes night.

So here you go, the pictures (re-posting with this blog) that I have taken a year back or so, of the much remembered beautiful day ...

The untold story of a misty morning …

There are so many pictures that I have taken on several occasions in and around this place but these pictures are attached to some of my virtually unforgettable memories! maybe it is not as mysterious as I would think.

Happy weekend

We the People!!!

- There are those who plan days & months to kill innocent people and give up their ashamed lives; we call them as terrorist.

- There are those who give their own life without even thinking for a second for saving those innocent lives; we call them as army jawans (men).

- There are those people in our neighbor countries who are mindless, hopeless, insensitive, they don’t believe on their own lives and they are a threat to everyone; we call them enemies.

- There are those who promise & bring more changes but more things remain the same; we call them as the dirty politicians.

- There are people who are anger, insecure, demanding actions to be taken and who are part of an unfinished movement because they are those who pay the price and their innocent lives; we call them as the citizens.

Let us promise to ourselves that we will not remain salient spectator anymore, it is our responsibility too to ensure our leaders/and ministers in power doing their work. And issues like terrorism and saftey of the people/nation as a whole, we just can't be indifferent. We are fighting a battle today that has some known faces and many unknown faces, we have to raise our voice and be part of this unfinished movement to identify the right political leadership.

The anger is quite obvious, but why are we scare and underestimating the power of a ‘vote’? Don’t forget that ‘the vote’ we are giving today will determine our future tomorrow. If we don't give the 'vote'? perhaps then more and more corrupt and insensitive people will enjoy the power. Also, we must not forget when we vote for something that means we are not allowing certain people to find their ways. As said, we have a role to play and for that we are sensible and not a silent viewer of the system, we have every rights to bring the changes that we wanted to see... Just imagine, if we can blog/write a review for movies/songs/products that we like/dislike, can express our feelings/thoughts in the form of poems/stories and for that matters anything then why can’t we write and raise our voices against those corrupt, insensitive and highly irresponsible politicians with the same medium. Certainly, we can’t bring back the innocent lives but then it can be as pure as lighting a candle, the light may go off after sometime but the scar of words will remain and remind us until we complete the last action against terrorism.

We have lot more things to do at our end but this maybe just a step towards to let our politicians and people who are in power (ofcourse! bureaucrats are included) know that we are watching them closely than before and we are not going to compromise lives for any of their negligences.

P.S : Thanks Divya for sharing the link with us, Mumbai under attack - some of the pictures are horrifying.

Yet again!

We do tend to forget things, we tend to take things easy and we do take things for granted but this time its enough… ‘enough is enough’. One after another, it’s hard to believe the mindless acts. What everybody has seen in the last few days is not just a terror attack on the city of ‘Mumbai’ but on whole of the nation. This is not happened for the first time but for many times. It’s not difficult to understand that terror strikes are unpredictable, but at the same time what hurts in such situations is that the ad-hoc response from the leaders of the country to tackle with it. In a way, it shows that a country, world's largest democracy of more than 1 billion people never prepared to respond for what called as the un-predictable situations in the form of terrorist attacks. Jaipur, Delhi, Guwahati and so many other cities are also affected in the past and things are repeating intermittently but nothing has really changed in the due course. How many more such attacks, how many innocent lives and brave soldiers need to be scarified that will help waking up the politicians/leaders of this country to take some concrete actions? Just think over it, are we the citizens of the nation so resilient? Whatever it takes, the city, the people will definitely bounce back but this time to fight and not to forget what happened yesterday.

I hate to name any of those politician’s name here because they are not worth of their names. Perhaps they are in the news and get the publicity for no good reasons. Politicians, think beyond your vote bank, think beyond your own region and stop making mockery of people's lives. It’s the high time that you should come and stand together to sacrifice your own selfish motives and focus on putting words into actions. Perhaps, the citizens of this country are watching you more closely than before; you! politicians and bureaucrats, mustn’t forget that they have given you the power to make decisions on behalf of the nation, so that you can protect its interest from all odds and for that if you enjoy the Z-Security around you then why can’t you have given a thought for the people who died just because of negligence, or I say an utterly irresponsible attitude you bear while doing something on the ground level. You have answered enough for the questions, now its time for you to take sensible action against terrorism, and as a whole it's time to do something for the country.

The only people who are responsible and accountable for these mishaps in the country are non-other than some of our own politicians and bureaucrats. Their highly indifferent attitude, negligence of duty, lack of knowledge on critical situations and above all the inability to take decisions for what we see could have prevented these kind of situations at first hand. For example, the top ministers of the state are like hopeless jerks; they even don’t know how disgustingly they handle media & pass information, totally out of focus. And citizens, now have a bigger challenge to face in terms of identifying the right political leadership. For that, we (the citizens) should stand together and must not let down exercising the power of 'vote'.

Even though I am far away and don’t know the people who died, I can feel the numbness. I can’t put it in words the pain, the sorrow, the anger that the families hold for the people who were killed for no reasons. I owe to the brave men of Indian army, the NSG, the police personal and everyone who have shown the courage and always put their life in front of Nation by saving thousands of innocent lives, and as always sent a strong and determinate message to all those involved terrorist organization that they just can’t get away with it.

The terrorists, may not have a face to show to the world that who they are? but if they have built the skills to attack innocent people, has the strong determination & motivation to accomplish their task then so do we the people of this nation are stand together to fight against them!!!! No body can divide us; the example is already set in the 3 days operation in ‘Mumbai’.

You say I am Hindu, I am Muslim, I am Christian, I am Buddhist and you think of any religions that exists but I say “I am an Indian”.

A daY ShOrt cUt !!!

A very important software application, intermittently crash , an important customer, one critical issue, multiple memory violations, 6 engineers, 180 days, thousands & thousands lines of code, 150 e-mails, uncountable no. of discussions, failed attempts, attitude, superiority, seniority, credibility, silence, concerns, questions, frustration, patience … but it remained all the same that as an issue.

And finally one day a silly me, gave one stupid solution! and smiles on everybody's faces back again. Wow! and for me an appreciation mail.

Life goes one with everything that we have and everything that we don’t have, e.g. stupidity and intelligence. :P

You say - "woes of a software programmer" or whatever, life is like that :)

Dostana - No tags!

Yesterday evening, I watched the movie called Dostana, and no surprise it’s an utterly disappointment for me. Ok! I agree – Priynaka Chopra, probably have shown many of us the path in this economy slowdown (not that you just eat less food but wear less cloths :P), and ofcourse! it’s a time pass movie with no sense of direction, but hello! I have a better collection of movies for doing time pass :)

Seriously don’t know why I chose to watch this movie?, ah! maybe because of that "one” nice song ‘Khabar Nahi’.

On the other hand, I can’t believe that people can think and write such disastrous stories and we will pay them for watching it in the movie. That’s really bad, I thought of putting something about that beautiful song and the music but after watching that movie all blah… blah… I can’t help them. But whatever you don’t miss to play that song.

The butterfly Award - Something to remember

Divya, I am so flattered to see this nice gesture from your side. The pleasure is mine :)

I know that on many occasions I am lazy to put up these awards here and people please … please forgive me for that..

Now it’s not a bad idea to show off things some times :) in fact you know; there are multiple reasons why should I thank you :) And since I have to continue passing this nice thing back to you people …. here is my favorite blogs (believe me its difficult for me to pick only 5 blogs, because all the blogs which are there in the ‘Blog-roll’/’Blogs I follow’ are undoubtedly my favorite).

1. Lakshmi – The best travel blog I have ever come across. I don’t know how many times I switch to her blog in a day but I surely wish she updates her blog more than once in a day :)

2. Vagabond – You need to focus on to her name, she is truly a vagabond and an amazing photographer, and I guess she has many hidden talents to show up on her blog :)

3. GMG – I marvel at his blog, he has so many things to share with every one of us here, just so amazing. Never ending experiences from the small world, you need to go to his blog to understand what I am saying …

4. Priyanka – A thinker, a dreamer in her own terms, her blog makes me nostalgic.

5. Himanshu – The blog which talks about technology, entrepreneurs & business. And on many occasions, gave me the foods for thought.

They are rockers, and I am so glad to have them around me.

Keep blogging :)

Dhauli - There was never a good war or a bad peace.

Dhauligiri is located on the banks of the river Daya, around 10 km away from the city of Bhubaneswar. One of the quietest place I have ever visited so far. It helped me knowing many hidden things from the past and a quick scan through the pages from the history is just good enough to learn the importance of this place. I was surprised by the reasons behind the beginning, the end and there after the transformation of a war to a lead ways to peace, that untimely changed the views of King Ashoka as he renounced his sword after the Kalinga war probably in 261 BC.

A sign board indicating the way to Dhauli, from Bhubaneswar - Puri Highway you need to take a right turn and travel around 3.2 K.Ms on the hills to reach near the Shanti Stupa. For more detail information do click here.

Vishwa Shanti Stupa, the Peace Pagoda at the top of Dhauli Hill was built by Indo Japanese collaboration in 1972. The shining white structure is built in the form of a massive dome with lotus petals as its crown. The five chhatris (umbrellas) placed on its flattened top represent the five important aspects of Buddhism.

The War memorial. Not exactly what was written on there, Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without. - Buddha

Rock edicts of Asoka

It was a bright sunny day, and I decided to walk alone, never did I realize that I would be witnessing one of the amazing trekking experiences, in a peaceful and serene environment, and yet again a different kind of exploration for me. It wasn't the first time I was there but perhaps the first time holding the clock all by myself and identifying that life can't be an empty promise. Every war made an entry to the history has shown people many paths, what is called searching for the life and in the end the peace without any terms & conditions. So does that mean somewhere a war’s ultimate destination is peace? Sometimes its better not to understand things, however, rather easy to forget them while trying to simplify it with many unknown questions of life, and as said there is no way to peace, but peace is the way. I believe it has the power of a miracle transformation.

Saturday Rainbow

It was a very eventful Saturday for me and I was able to finish most of the things that was awaiting my attention for quite a long time, and to top that there were something more in the store that reminded me I have yet another reason to thank mom. And also it was the rainbow who visited Bangalore last evening to say “Hello, beautiful life” …

"Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue, and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true"

Oh! did I tell you that there were in fact two rainbows, or it was just a reflection of the one? :) :)

"We may run, walk, stumble, drive, or fly, but let us never lost sight of the reason for the journey, or miss a chance to see a rainbow on the way.”

P.S : The pictures were taken with Nokia N78 Mobile Phone

S a v e y o u r a s s !

6) ज़िक्र करो या न करो, मेल ज़रोर लिखो;
और मेल लिखो या न लिखो, उशका रिपोर्ट जरुर बनाओ !!!

Update: Himanshu, added few more lines to the above mentioned points and I wanted it to continue with the flow .... wah! wah!

P.S: This was a forwarded mail that I received today, couldn't stop laughing.

Ananta Vasudeva Temple, Bhubaneswar

A vaishnava temple of 13th century which enshrines lord Balarama (Ananta), Krishna (Vasudeva), and Subhadra.

a side view of the main temple ...

The temple is very popular, like many others in this region for its profusely carved exterior and finished appearance. But now unfortunately much of the carvings are faded due to the softness of the stones. Going back to history, it was erected by Chandradevi, the daughter of Anangabhima III during the rule of Bhanudeva in 1278 AD.

The interesting thing someone could notice between this temple and the Sri Jagannath temple in Puri, there is one similarity the way prasad (holy food) are sold/offered to to the deities. The place where the food is sold/served is called as Anand Bazaar.

The temple is located very closely to the eastern corner of the Bindu Sagar lake, which offers a magnificent view and another highlight of the visit. And if you walk still further for few minutes, on your right hand side you will find Lingaraj temple, the famous temple of lord Shiva (more on this on a new post).

Due to lack of time, I didn’t able to spend my share of time with the camera but nevertheless these few pictures will serve as a reminder to me that I have to visit that place once again.

In my head ...

The line that was ticking my head all the day …

“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared”.

… it so happened again with me and to my realization the size & price of the candle doesn’t matter, what matters is that whether it is having the light?

Grand Canyon Skywalk!

Yesterday, Sethu Sir sent me this wonderful information of a awesome tourist place in Arizon, US. Somewhere, somehow I can relate these amazing places with an invisible source of energy that help you to identify you in this world :). As soon as I finished reading the mail by the time I was so charged up and excited to face any challenges, so Sethu Sir, please don't forget to send me the sponsored-return tickets ;)

The hors-shoe shaped Glass Bridge, otherwise known as the “Sky Walk” is one of the aspiring and magnificent civil engineering project which shows the unmatched thinking of engineer skills. The construction of this glass bridge started in March 2004 and opened to the general public on March 28, 2007.

Glass Bridge is suspended a height of 4,000 feet above the Colorado River on the very edge of the Grand Canyon.

In 2005, it was tested for its structural ability and the results were really very good. It passed all its engineering requirements by 400 percent and therefore the total load which this glass bridge is able to withstand is equal to the weight of 71 fully loaded Boeing 747 airplanes which is more that 71 million pounds. The bridge will be able to sustain winds in excess of 100 miles per hour from 8 different directions, as well as an 8.0 magnitude earthquake within 50 miles. It is said that more than one million pounds of steel was used in the construction of the Grand Canyon sky walk.

This is what I found while searching in Wikipedia click here for more information. And the official website. In the end don't miss to watch the amazing video :)

This place is in one of my dream destinations list, so what's your ?

P.S : the images and video source is Internet.

The Bug’s life

In the recent past, I have faced many issues while using blogger services but nevertheless the fixes/solutions for the issues followed it (if not in a timely manner). The latest in the list of bugs that I am facing is with the newly introduced “Embedded below post” comment option. If you have chosen ‘in your setting options’ to use ‘embedded comment form’ then you wouldn’t be able to post any comments due to some reasons. Also, you will notice there that the drop down menu which should allow you to choose you Google username will be empty.

Check here: Discussions > Something Is Broken > Embedded Comments Not Working Options

The only work around, I found to overcome this issue for now, is to choose either of the older options available in the setting, i.e Full Post or Pop-up Window to let your blog readers to post comments. For advanced users, there is always a work around options to tweak the code and customise it :)

P.S : You may like to follow the official Blogger Help Group for any issues, they are really helpful.

An unseen revelation, Orissa!

People talk about everything; they have their own views, they have their own things to prove and they have their fears to overcome. They politicsed every issues and nothing has spared then how will you escape when it comes to which state you belong? Which language you speak? etc.. Even after 61 years of independence we are fettered to make ourselves free from the fighting to prove an identity. When we will learn to be Indian and respect each other as Indian. Why are we so divided with every bit of things, by language, by region, by dressing, and you name it whatever, next you will find a division for it? If money and power are the two factors that influence hundreds of other factors for things to find other way? The same people have their many different opinions for things. For them there are so many unidentified problems to solve but with no clue what they are doing. 'Unity in diversity' is a thing of past and maybe we forget about it since eon, don't know where are we heading?

Many times, I wonder even with open eyes we can’t see what is happening in front of us. And the next moment we close our eyes to discover a new world, a world where we can see everything the way they are without even bothering about the closed eyes.

I have had one such exploration in the recent past trip to Orissa. There were places that I visited for the first time; I got a different (I would say learning) experience that otherwise completely unknown in many aspects to me. It was a village and not a university that taught me about a kind act to keep humanity alive and also about the amazing people out there. They don’t know how to read but they know how to respect, they don’t know how to talk but they know how to show their love, they don’t have money to buy gifts but they have the unselfish helping hand to offer. I was so wrong that they are the poorest people, now I say they have everything that makes this life happy and to live in peace. I was glad to see that Govt. has taken some significant steps to improve the lives of villages. On my return path, I smiled back to those villagers and thanked them for they welcomed me not as a stranger. You say it god’s gift or nature’s gift both sounds same to me. A trip to there, always come as gift for me. But this time it also surprised me whatever was happening at the other corner of the state.

An early morning endless walk, reminded me that I have lots of things to catch up with ...

I am still wondering, how things change and time just passes by us telling nothing, nothing at all about things we don’t want to know. There are still so many things to explorer and most of the time I find myself as a little drop in the ocean. I have learned one thing - there are no secrets, if you respect yourself, your own identity then it’s never a difficult task for you to acknowledge the same in the other person.

Diwali Sparks!

In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't. ~Blaise Pascal

Many hands make the light work which seems to be amazing :)...

Banana chips!!!

The pictures were taken inside a Hot Chips Shop in Palakkad town, Kerela. I happened to visit this town more than once and while coming back I had this delicious pack of chips.

Banana chips, very popular in Kerala and locally known as upperi, is fried in coconut oil.

It's cripsy, salty and tasty :)

There are many varieties of banana chips; even you can find sweet deep fried chips. But my focus was on the plain n salty chips which are more popular in terms of its taste.

The reflection of an eye!

Today morning while browsing through my favorite blogs, I found some really wonderful sunset pictures on vagabond’s blog. An amazing color composition that was captured so beautifully! I liked it so much that I pulled one of the pictures for my desktop wallpaper.

Now, you can tell me how it looks ? All credit goes to her and ah! this is not the first time that I am using a picture taken by her for the very same purpose :).

The Rail Trail

Here are few random pictures from the never ending experience of Indian Railways. Some good, some bad and some ugly but all it matters now is the curiosity of navigating the past moments spent standing behind the lens.

The power runs through these thin nerves …

A WAG 7 engine, known for its speed and one of the successful class of goods engine.

On a voyage of discovery ... unfinished ...

A WDM-2 Engine, reminds me about the old yet the long existence of it on the tracks. WDM Stands for Broad gauge (W) Diesel (D) Mixed traffic (M) engine, if you are not already known about it.

The bridge over Godavari River. You praise the bridge when you learn that it carry you over a tough path.

Ad-Mad! - Dreams

These days I am suffering with something called as ‘Ad-Mad fever’ :) and my favorite ad these days is this ad of ‘Union Bank of India’ …. A very beautifully presented ad, and the lil gal in it, is what make a whole difference while putting forward the message of this ad. Simple, yet a powerful message that make you think over it again.

“because your dreams are not yours alone…”

Life and death

Life and death are the two simple words that have myriad of meanings in it, and someone can easily relate these words with so many things or course of events happen around him/her. One is antonym to the other but both are part of the ultimate truths we are guided with. Wait! I am not trying to find a new definition for them but it is the topic of this month at Cuckoo’s Photo Gallery and so I am back here again with one such pic …


The picture was taken inside one of the pandals created on the occasion of Durga puja. There was this centere place inside the pandal for people to light up the lamp and offer their prayer to the goddess Durga, when my turn came on that evening I was quite amazed by seeing the faith that people were showing for these lights. The lamps burns until the last drop of ghee and spreads the warmth, to live with a hope. But if you don’t light it properly; no matter how much ghee is inside the lamp, it will extinguish quickly like a spark in the clouds.

People light their lamps to see it burning, they see their life gathering an invisible power from it, and they feel blessed. They move on with this light but they tend to forget which lamp had given them it.

The lamp (like a body) is matter to the soul, and light is an act or form (like the soul) to the potentiality of the body. The body may demise after certain duration but the soul will remain as the principle account the cause of existence of the life. They both represent the cycle of life, and death being the final completion of a transforming process.

Left, right & Life!

You are different, your world is different and so your life is different. Every one of us here has something more to say about life and the lessons learnt from it. Maybe we already know some of them or maybe we are yet to know about everything that might happen in the life. So knowing others perspective on life is as important as your own. Whether it’s good, bad, ugly or beautiful you will identify only if you go on with the ones, having a bit of you in it :) See the difference; see a new world around you and explore it.

My search begins with me ... Well! Life is like a WINDOWS operating system where you can find an 'EXPLORER' key to identify what is there inside the folders that every time you made some changes to it. So keep checking in it. It’s your life and it’s your search. And In the end, …

In the very beginning of my life, I wanted to have answers for everything. But now I respect the fact that I can’t have answer for everything … - Paulo Coelho

Happy ! Dashera :)

The vacation is ON and days are running by me as if minutes or seconds but that can no way stopping me to have some great time out here on the festival season. To top that I am having a gala time with some wonderful home made foods and some favorite sweets. It’s time to meet some lost friend and relatives, they are all together once again to celebrate untold things, to catch the breath once again … it’s the togetherness that brought many memories re-fresh and above all the harmony of life. Not surprisingly, all of them are tied in a single thread called ... love. Every sweet shared with each other is now put forward as a token of blessing from the Maa, the goddess. They all know they are nothing without the blessings of Maa. And all these days are a good learning for most of them to identify the meanings of words like - 'respect', 'considerate', 'appreciate', patience, 'polite' and 'courteous'. It’s a bonding of so many known yet un-known people. How I wish to thank all of them and thank god more than once for helping me identifying so many things at a single place :)

For last few days it was kind of restless in the evening, though I wasn’t able to dedicate the required amount of time for photography but I still managed to click couple of pictures while roaming around different parts of this small town in Orissa. I wanted to share the pictures of some of the pandals, that is magnificently decorated and inside you will find the most amazing art work on the idol of Goddess Durga. So here you go with few of the pictures …

Also today is Maha Navami, an auspicious day and I take this opportunity to wish all of you a very Happy Dashera :). May god bless all of us!

OOO … Holiday Time :)

Yipppee! I am on vacation now, its almost 7 months or so by now since I am part of such a long holidays. There are lots of things that I am looking forward from this trip, needless mentioning I will be travelling like a mad. So if I think 3 eastern coastal cities in three different states are not long enough to tired me then I am always open to make some changes and add couple of more places to the list :). The other thing is that to witness one of the most exciting and beautiful festival in this part of the country which is popularly known as Dashera or Durga Puja.

Sometime, I wonder how things appear to be changed over the years and on the other hand this realization that as if nothing has changed at all. It keeps on reminding me that I am the same traveler who starts his journey with a renewed pair of eyes with every day passing by... And then it remains the same for you whether you associate some people with a place or some places with a group of people but time is one of thing that change without unveiling much about itself to a traveler ... Ah! do I need to say now that there is no such time called as the best time that someone can really think or wait to go on and meet the people who love you the most. Perhaps you don't know the speed of the time and don't mind anything :)

I was watching one of documentary video all through my train journey which is quite inspiring and reverencing. Honestly, its one of the best real-life video that I have watched in the recent past (I will write more about it in a separate post).

Now, here you go … that describes the theme of the video with few extracted lines from it …

Our nature’s beauty is something that the soul wants it. Whenever you see that a man is in contact with his soul then he enjoys a beautiful sky, a beautiful tree, a beautiful bird and suddenly you hear a piece of music, Oh! and then you lose your self. Everything seems to open up in a different way !!!

P.S: The picture above is taken by me ... I considered it as a beautiful gift for working late on a day ;)

Into the dimming sunlight ...

... he looks up at the sky. And a voice says: My dear, everyone makes mistake. You're forgiven, but I can not force that forgiveness on you. It's your choice.

The warrior of light has learned that it is best to follow the light.

An idea ! What do you think?

There was an discussion on something with couple of friends and then this topic of creative ideas appeared in front of us. Santy was quick to point about one ad which he thinks a very creative idea. On similar track can be used to address a larger audience to convey a message about the product.

I didn’t react to his shout but quickly recalled a conversation about this ad with another friend … Later I asked santy, do we really need such an idea??

It’s not a difficult task for anybody to understand an ad, the sole purpose of it to sell a product and never an idea. They merely influence the real life but some people think they are smart enough to ply the emotional concept of advertising and gain the popularity. Needless mentioning, we hold the craze for celebs way too much ...

You see, now the focus is on something called a ‘Brand and that is known as Idea’ and never on some actual idea. Forget about the welfare of those old children and villages shown in the ads but to advertise the brand on their name. I wonder if they can ever spend a little amount of money to educate the poor children then simply paying it off on an ad, to a star who is already so rich.

Some people are carried away with such ads, what do you think what should be an idea to bring education to poorer and the poorest people? Now shifting the focus from product to people.

A blooming cactus

Life is sometimes so simple to go with and some other times really hard to realize … “I have learned the difference between a cactus and a caucus. On a cactus, the pricks are on the outside”.