God’s Own Country

God’s Own Country, is a phrase that is used to refer to several places such as the Australia, United States, New Zealand, Kerala (India) and Yorkshire.[source: Wikipedia]. We have been to Kerala recently. We visited Kochi, Kovalam, Komarukam, Alleppey and Kottayam. When I looked out of the window from the car, on either side of the road, it was so green and very difficult to tell that there is infact a house behind it. They left so much place around their houses and planted so many trees. 

Kerala has a lot of coconut trees. It is not a hyperbole to say that there is no house without a coconut tree there. We stopped by the roadside to have some coconut water. We were shocked to know that the price of one coconut is Rs.35/-, which is more than twice that in AP where u hardly find any coconut trees. In the hotel, the menu price of coconut is 99/- Out of curiously, I asked my cab driver, when u have so many coconut trees all around why is the price so high? He said the person who climbs over the tree and fetches them charges a lot and hence the coconuts are costly. 

We have been to Poovar village where we saw the merging of river into the sea. It was a very different experience. The beach is called golden sand beach because the sand was really golden brown in color. We were there in the afternoon and the waves hit us so strongly that I hardly managed to stand inspite of holding onto Vijay. I have been to many beaches in India. But this one is unlike any other. You cannot go to this beach and come back without getting wet. I think the speciality is not because it is huge, but because it is a merger point. 

Anantha Padmanabha Swamy temple was very good, couldn't take a look at any gold though :P. I went into the temple with lungi on top of jeans :D. Women could choose either a saree or lungi.. I chose the later ;) 

Though the literacy rate is very high in Kerala, managing around without Malayalam was very tough. At the end of one week, we started talking to each other like - 'we eat, then we go', 'we no eat here. not good. we go hotel and eat', thanks to our cab driver. 

Alleppey houseboat

I was always fascinated by the idea of travelling in boats locally.. as in having boats as a day to day medium of transportation. Alleppey in Kerala, is just the place in India to satisfy what I wanted. We set out on a houseboat at around 11:45 AM in the backwaters. To begin with, we were equally excited and a bit worried to know that it is a single bedroom houseboat, meaning there will be only us along with a captain, driver and a chef for the next 24 hours inside the boat. As the boat started, we were too busy looking around enjoying in the cool breeze. It was a very pleasant day with the weather favoring us in its true sense.

In the evening we were transferred into a small motor boat which took us into the small canals peeking into the lifestyle of the local people. I was excited at pretty much everything during the 1 hour drive in the boat. There were school boats like we have school buses and boat stops like we have bus stops. Fishing seemed to be the favorite hobby of most of the people. All they had to do was to take one step out of their houses and just start fishing. There were small boats parked outside their houses in the water with sheds on top of few of them, like we have bikes/cars parked before our houses. Backwaters have become an integral part of their lifestyle. There were coconut trees everywhere.. But for the fear that some coconut might drop on us, it was awesome! 

Time for the sunset.. lying down in the boat on your back, staring at the beautiful sky, gentle swinging of the boat now and then like a cradle, with nothing else visible in the line of sight to distract us from the beauty of the nature, just the right breeze, with water below us and a few trees far away, we were in the middle of no where.. my baby sleeping... and my better half next to me... At that minute, I couldn't have asked for more from life. I cannot describe how peaceful it was. After sunset, we were served a candle light dinner which was the best I had so far.. Totally an amazing experience. Loved every bit of it!

Gadgets.. Killers!!

Gone are those days when people interact more with people. Here are the days when a human being in the mask of being a social being is actually getting closer to being in his/her own self. To get the reviews about something, we used to talk to people who have been there or get in touch with people who know about what we are seeking reviews on and thus be in touch with our friends or make new friends as the case may be. But now, all we have to do is open a damn site and check the reviews. I have once seen people meeting over a coffee to chit chat when bored. Now, its all through WhatsApp or some other chat engines. What are we being? social?? Really??

Technology to some extent has done a great deal to humanity. Cell phones for instance have revolutionized communications. If we had been satisfied by that, we wouldn't be in smart phone era where we can open maps and navigate easily to required destination at places we are not acquainted with.. Neither would planning a trip have been so easier through various applications on the phones. But, how many of us are using the smart phones, ipads, touch pads, notepads or God knows what ever gadgets to just getting our work done? Earlier when people sit before a desktop, we know they are working or busy or occupied with something. But now, the killers are being carried everywhere.. while eating, watching tv, conversing, playing, working out.. where not! just literally everywhere and at all times.. With one of those in our hands, its tough for someone else physically before you, talking to you to know whether u are actually listening to them or lost in your world. 

How much ever I appreciate the convenience they bring in, I am beginning to hate them for what we are turning into. I am afraid, we will soon lose ourselves to them.. 

Choice!

Life is mostly about choice. We have to make various choices at each and every phase of life. There are a few we can make quite easily, while a few others require a lot of thought processing. Most of the choices in my childhood were taken care of by my parents. I really did not realize how much work gets into each of those that were spoon fed to me. It was only after I stepped into my engineering that I started making my own choices, of course after discussing with my parents. 

Now that I am a parent, I see every choice that we make for the kids is life making to them. It starts right from naming the kid. That is something they will carry for the rest of their life. They will have a choice to change it later on, but we don't consider that possibility while naming them. Picking a school for the kid has become an even more tough task. Each of us have our own set of criteria as to what kind of school we want our kids to study in. Nothing is perfect. Nothing can ever be exactly like how you want it to be. We can only get the one that is closest to what we want. But again, how much ever we choose and pick the best of the available options to us, there are a whole bunch of variables which can turn our choice into a good one or a bad one. Like for instance we pick a school that is best in the interest of our kid, there are various sections for a particular class and the allotment into the section is totally random. How do we know whether we are going to like the teacher who teaches them? I don't want to say the best teacher, especially today being teachers day, because every teacher is good. It is just that we feel better with some of them around due to matching ideologies. How do we know about the classmates? Certain things which we cannot choose, have to be left to destiny! 

I wish there were CC cameras in every class and we can get to see them at their office room after taking appointment. That way we can stay with our children during the time we are away from them. We can know exactly what they are going through. I know I am being a little too apprehensive here. Every parent has to go through this phase and hope the child learns only the good stuff irrespective of the company she is in. Its time to let the bird begin to fly.. and watch its back!

Back to being my own self!!

I used to feel something missing in my life, something that I couldn't really figure out until recently. At the end of the day, I was not able to sleep happily due to this missing something. Days are seeming to be normal these days. And now I am thinking what has changed over the past 10 days. I have become more independent. I gave a long break to the cook in our house. The maid who otherwise comes twice daily is hardly coming once in a day. My mother in law is on a vacation and I have the entire kitchen and a whole bunch of responsibilities to handle, completely on my own. I have a two year old to occasionally irritate me exactly when peace is one thing I need the most. I thought patience is something that cannot be learnt. It has to be within us. But I think I am getting well trained in being patient. I am not shouting at her as often as I used to. Additionally I am working in the office for 4 hours a day, though not contributing anything much yet, but having my time away from home for those few hours a day experiencing the life of a semi working mom. 

Satisfaction is something that has been added into my life. I am satisfied with my performance as of now. I am happy being busy. Busy life has become a part of my life for a very long time that it can be said to be an integral part of myself. What have I been missing all this while? I have been missing the responsibilities that I love, control over things managing time and resources, using some brain to solve issues if any, making my presence felt (missed it the most), being independent, being active (become very lazy these days) and so on.. I will close this by recollecting what my physics sir in +2 Mr. Lakshmana Rao said, "If u don't believe the life u live in, then u have to live the life u believe in".  

Ignorance is a bliss

I once thought that blessed are the ones who can judge people better with a conversation or two. They can be careful in their terms with the cunning individuals and save themselves from a lot of trouble. But little did I realize that this blessing can turn into a curse. Sometimes it feels much more comfortable to be in false hope rather than to face the reality, especially when the reality is very bitter. True, reality is bitter. The reality that everyone lives for his/her own selfish needs with very few people thinking otherwise, is hard to accept. It gets even more harder to withstand and live among such people. You tend to move away from them. Far away that you end up wondering what the hell did I gain by knowing them for who they actually are? Weren't things much simpler when I was thinking that the world is ideal?

No wonder, we all realize at some point or the other that childhood days are the sweetest. You are ignorant of so many things. You think that everyone is good and everyone belongs to you and love people unconditionally. All the parents will agree to me that it is practically impossible to bring up a child without being hard on them at times. I kind of have a higher limit on how hard I can be, due to my low patience levels. However, sometimes I feel ashamed at how she craves to make me happy when I am not in a good mood. If you have mistaken me already, I am not claiming here that I am the only perfect soul. I have my own set of negatives to work on. I have a lot to learn from a 2 year old. But too tough to implement it for us, because we know what the world is unlike her. How I wish things are as easy to implement, as they are to talk about. If I feel like this, I cannot imagine what He must be going through to see his characters perform the drama in such a disturbing way! Definitely, ignorance is a bliss!!!