Desserts or sweets?

Picture: Barbeque Nation, Koramangala, Bangalore

Somebody quickly prompted, it's “dessert” and has its origin from the French word “desservir”, which means "to clear the table" and "to serve", but then desserts or sweets? didn't make any differences, all I know it was 'YUMMY' :)

Weekend Sunshine

I woke up not earlier than usual but witnessed the weekend sunshine that reminded me that I have yet another day to cheer for nothing less than what it is :) A full new day is smiling at me through the window of happiness …

The happiness I seek is all within …

In my work, In my life, In the place where I live and In the people who love me, who keep the faith in me in spite of every odd. There are many more things that I am yet to discover and may be it’s beyond the purview of something outside but then the continuity with in or out has many more things to cheers for!

It requires the minimum effort to understand that we are a mix of some simple and not so simple traits of life. And finally ... "happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but by recognizing and appreciating what we have."

Weekend in pics

So here comes the weekend, rather a long weekend. It’s much more than a break for me, knowing that it is the best thing that I can gift to myself right now, a so called quality time. I am in no hurry to finish whatsoever work realizing the ultimate truth behind the hyper laziness, and also to see life passing by me ever so slowly. It’s like living one more life together but yet differently, even though you are not in the supreme state of consciousness you can still smell the unknown earth, taste the storming drops of rain, breathe the wild air, feel the pinch of chilliness of the dark night and then quickly switch over to discover the warmth of the sunshine. The interesting thing is that you are going to count all of them. And here I go with some of my encounters and some other random pictures of the day ...

Sipping slowly, to get over with the day ahead. Like someone has already said - a morning without coffee is like sleep.

A flowery decoration was done inside the Garuda Mall to celebrate “Ugadi”. The festival marks the New Year day in Karnataka, and the reason for the bonus holiday :)

Tandoori gobi in brunch

Shopping spree at 5th Avenue, Brigade Road, I grabbed my most favorite rock band’s tee shirt.

Sunday Breakfast

A lazy weekend!!! and what more a perfect weather and you just want your share of sleep. So a breakfast is not just for morning …. You need more to sustain the whole day :P

The Dosa lover I am!!!...

healthy Idiyappam

My favorite Puri!

When you are in Cheenai, Saravanan Bhavan is always a better choice for a perfect southie breakfast. I don’t know if this breakfast can be called as King Size but surely this quote goes well with it :) “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper”

Time machine!

All you need a time machine to trace the path of the life you are on. Some of them take you back to a moment, called the memories and there are some which take you forward called the dreams.

Picture: Voyaging on The ECR Road, Chennai

I believe the only thing that can be considered available as "free" is that TIME but then it is absolutely “priceless” when counted the variegated moments of the life it offers to you. Neither you own it nor you can keep it with you but you use it and spend it the way your life can... It is impossible that you can waste the time but you can waste your life. Once you lost the time, you lost it forever, and so as the life.

An uncalculated and unreserved moment that life is ...! still alive.

P.S: The post is inspired by a quote & a real life incident.

Ulsoor Lake, Bangalore

I took some snaps in and around Ulsoor Lake just to remind myself that I had a wonderful walk early morning on a weekend. It was relaxing and I can say a perfect start of the day.

A quite and nice place at morning, need to start your day with right kind of freshness - Vivekananda Park. But hey don't dare to enter into this place in the evening time.

If you feel you don't want to walk in the overly crowded roads around and also you find there is not enough space then here is one place you need to think about ...

I am still wondering about it, a little place is more then enough to survive.

I wish this greenery will spread all over ...

Sailing through the world that somebody can imagine for thy self.

Weekend ways, movie mania !!!

I am back here again after a gap. Needless mentioning I am held up with tons of work and working long hours in office is what I find the only way to make myself free. How I wish, I have four hands :) and two brains with 2 GHz dual core inbuilt processors to finish my work quickly whenever I wanted to...

Somehow I managed to watch a movie this week by taking off some free time. And I can’t believe the way I found this movie to watch and finally finishing it without taking a break or skipping a single sense. The movie was Serendipity, overall it was a great movie to watch. A perfect love story, I enjoyed it the way I did after watching the movie “A lot like love”. This was little older movie than the later but still I was never missed to watch this version of the love story. Now the interesting thing was that I picked this movie accidently and the story of the movie also talks about things happened accidently and how everything in our life happens for a reason. I must say it’s a well crafted movie and worth the time spent watching it.

The tagline of the movie is really appealing “Can Once In A Lifetime Happen Twice?” I could only able to realize how this movie coincidently put across all those untold things of life that somehow somewhere cross the path of most of us. And the best quote I picked from this movie - "Life is not merely a series of meaningless accidents or coincidences. Uh-uh. But rather, its a tapestry of events that culminate in an exquisite, sublime plan. And how do you figure out that something is going to happen or not in the very next moment, "Maybe the absence of signs is a sign."

I also watched another movie I guess sometime last week and surprisingly it’s neither English nor Hindi but Telugu. Actually I was counting it for the second time, in the first occasion I watched it all in first forward (FF) mode and I liked the movie very much. The fact remained the same for the second time also that I don’t understand Telugu but thanks to the English sub-titles for making it easy for me. I know most of you must have heard about this movie called “Bomarillu” (english meaning: A toy-house). A blockbuster movie which gave a different angle to the thoughts that not all movies with love story are the same. And yeah, you are right, though the story revolves around the hero and majority of it goes to Siddarth, I bet Genelia D'Souza performed exceptionally well in this movie. Now if you say, I am watching lots of Romantic/Family movies now a day, then well! I had enough with action and si-fi series and giving them a break from this hyper-active brain :D

Now, before I go and wait for the next weekend to pop up here and you guys switch from my blog to some other url, make sure you listen to this song of Bomarillu because that's my favorite. Hey, then possibly don't forget to find your DVD to watch it completely, if you were not already watched.

Weekend Movie Mania

Another weekend and I am back with some great movies. I am really glad to get hold of these movies, they were inspired so much from the real life and presented superbly on the screen. After all the purpose of a movie is not just to do pass time or have some fun instead this time, it is to learn & take away the important messages of life.

The first movie in the list was “An American Crime”, one of the hard hitting real life stories that I have seen ever. In short the movie has everything that will blow you out from your feet. The director Tommy O'Have has done a great job, absolutely superb direction & screen play and Ellen Page, yet again proved she is one of the most talent actress.

A terrible crime, cruelty, inhuman treatment, fear, frustration, anger, madness, lies and death everything bundled in 112 mins. When the movie finished I was not able to believe that something could have happened ever like this, shocked but accept the fact that there are people who are involved so much so with their own life that for them another person's life is just so damn. It was not an easy going movie, the story's lead character Sylvia had only one thing to say "every situation God always has a plan. I guess I'm still trying to figure out what that plan was ...".

The most touching line that came from Sylvia which says it all - “She sacrifices me to protect her children then sacrifice them to protect herself.”

I am not writing anything more about this movie because I want you to watch this movie and allow your blood to rush into your head and find out whether it can burst ? If it didn’t you have still a little life left with you.

The other movie that I watched over this weekend was “The Man Who Cried” which is again a beautifully crafted movie. The story of the movie was simple but presented in a very classy manner. No need to mention that Christina Ricci had fully justified the lead role in the movie. Now you guys go and grab the copy of the movie to have some quality time watching it … The movie have had its chance to say much more than the audience expected - Suzie's struggle as life had its own twist and turns, she had to decide between the loving relation she just fallen into recently or the loving father ..

HAL Aerospace Museum

After couple of failed attempts to visit this place finally I made it on the 3rd week of May. The HAL Heritage Centre and Aerospace Museum is the first of its kind in the country.

It was really fun exploring some of the aspects of Aerospace and one of the most sophisticated sciences. And a visit to this place is a most spectacular thing for the eyes. HAL has given Bangalore an unique status as the City of Aeronautics.

The museum was opened to public in way back Aug 2001. In News; you can find more information about HAL Heritage Centre and Aerospace Museum here and also some more information at War Birds of India.

Dove (Devon), designed & developed by DE HAVILAND, UK.

The Light Combact Aircraft (LCA).

LAKSHYA, Pilot less Target Aircraft can be reusable for 10 missions.

A view from the back side garden ...

There Center is divided into 2 halls, Hall 1 : exhibits various models of aero engines, highlighting various functions and features of the engines. It has its own part of history holding way back from the 2nd World War. Hall 2 : again sails through the history of and milestones of the Indian aviation industry with good no. of photographs all around the place.

Inside the Hall 1. the aircraft - BASANT.

The history ...

Air traffic Control Radar & Antenna; RADAR – Stands for Radio Detection & Ranging. It provides positional information of aircraft.

The heat-shield of PSLV, and how it looks like from the inside :)

I spent good 3 hrs inside the museum; a first kind of experience for me and looking forward to another round of visit to this beautifully organized place.

Sunday happenings!

It was on of those rare Sunday; I was completely relaxing at my pad and had good naps all over the day. As I am still new to the present locality, in the evening it was the time to explore the neighborhood …

If I go on describing the Sunday for me in short and straight it went like this … late wake up alarm, Himanshu, brunch at 1 P.M., An American Crime (great story & direction), Anj, hitting the techie bug, Anand Bhawan, Soundar, laughing lound, long evening walk, 10000 B.C (a superb movie, must watch) and the song Zara Sa (K.K.) rocks the entire day …

And one of those funny moments in the day with one of my buddy …
me : hey buddy ! whats up ? long time …
buddy : haan yaar ! really long time. sorry man, I was not able to call you up in between .. I am just overloaded with so much of office work …
me : oh ! that happens; no worry and you don’t be sorry for that … aur sab kaisa chaal raha hai ?
buddy : yaar, kya bataon … so much of pressure, don’t find time for myself… how do people handle such pressure ?
me : come on ! pressure hai tu saarke upar lekar nahi ghoomna cahiye, ushko nichese khali kardo :D
buddy : what ? gone mad … laughing loud.

Update: fisnished wathing the movie called ‘A lot like love’ (again 2nd time, the first time was in FF mode). The best thing about the movie is, its wonderful story line … and the songs makes it more beautiful (need to mention about it, which requires another post :) ). Never mind if somebody says it echoes "When Harry Met Sally".

The Flower Power

On a pleasantly lazy afternoon these beautiful flowers dragged all the way from obscurity to a sate of mind where things shaped up to the best. It's so true "If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change". Whatever it maybe but flowers with their unique characteristic make things change the way it suppose to be ... and this little creation of God's has so big impact on it.

Walking down the stairs of the guest house at Nandi Hills reminded me about the world of colors that I am looking for in this life can be found nowhere but here and only here - on this earth. The colors that describes the joyful moments, the fragrances that brings back the breath, the tenderness that hold the nerves loosen up, the passions that run through the blood and every bit of life born thereafter.

Here goes few of the photographs that filled the long ride with its bits & pieces of colors :)

I wish I could know the names of all these flowers. . .

Puri - Rediscovering life

Every journey has its purpose, every time has its value and every place has its identity. It was a great experience for me exploring this religious town Puri, Orissa; which is particularly famous for the ‘Sri Jagannath Temple’.

I had been to Puri many times before also but don’t able to recall when was the first time. One reason being in Orissa, especially in oriya families you have N number of occasions or reasons for that matters to visit Puri, apart from the dharsan of 'lord Jagannath’. It is always a great feeling to be here - to associate yourself in whatever little ways to this holy place, to stretch your legs and offer your helping hands to people you hardly know, to remind to do all those small things that you forget, to acknowledge & rediscover this life, to walk along with the beach, to see Sun climbing the sky, to feel the silent rays penetrating the body, to smell the fragrance of purity, to breathe the fresh air, to taste the flavor of maha-prasads and last but not the least to bring back the peace of mind.

The wide view of outside of the main entrance of the temple. ‘Puri Jagannath Temple’ is one of the biggest temples in India and absolutely a treat to the eyes.

The idols, from left - Balabhadra, Shubhadra & Jagganath and again ...

A variety of maha-prasad (dry sweets), the flavored and colored ones.

The way people look at us is not the same way we look at them and it is so difficult to understand the wealth of knowledge this person is having. Speechless !!!

At Puri beach, where life never stops … it finds the hidden soul …

The gifts from the nature...

Now that’s what people say a tasty treat to your mouth. You should try these sweets at least once; popularly known as ‘gajja’.

*All the Photographs Copyright Hello World - Alok, 2008

Welcome rains :)