Happy Onam!!!

Today is Uthradam, the 9th day in the month of Chingam(Shravan) and tomorrow is Thiruvonam, a festive day at Kerala. And I wish to wish you all a verrry Happy Onam..


And about my Onam this year, I am not at home but at Bangalore. Had some work to finish and had to stay back here having postponed my vacation by a week. But Onam here will not be all so boring as I imagined, because TV shows are not going to take all my time this year. Instead, we have decided to follow the tradition with a small Sadhya (with Palada pradhaman, of course), wearing Onam saree(mundum neryathum), wishing near and dear ones and being happy, which is what Onam is all about. There will not be any Thiruvathirakali or Thumbithullal, but I don't think that we have all that in Kerala nowadays. So I should definitely not be looking forward to all that being at Bangalore(though you cant cross a street here without coming across a Malayalee). And moreover, am not sure whether Mahabali visits Bangalore ;) From all what I have heard and read, he vistis only Kerala(its only in the Mimics-parade and parady-cassettes that he is at all places, and almost always at the Arab land).

The biggest attraction about Onam is the Onasadya. Its said that you should have a feast this day, howmuchever sacrifices you gotta make for that. And people do not care about this part, coz its the part looked forward to by everyone the most, for this grand festival. Its supposedly the most grand meal prepared by any civilization/cultures in the world. And the feast devoured from banana leaves, is just lip-smackingly delicious, and even more so, coz its preparation is a combined effort of the family.

And as a kid, it was the pookalam part which had always excited me. We used to make a colorful arrangement of flowers in front of our house and pray that Mahabali likes ours the best(though for pookalm competitions at school, I wanted judges to like ours the most, not Mahabali :) And on the day of Thiruvonam, we use make 'maveli' with clay, and that adorns the centre of the pookalam, making it an even more beautiful sight.

Well.. thats how my Onam stories go, and coming back point-blank to my intention of blogging this: "Wish u all a very Happy Onam, and hope that you have a rocking time ahead!!!"

Me and Aircrafts!!!

You must be wondering what is with the title, well, let me explain.. I am trying to describe the various feelings that aircrafts have brought to my life..

Admiration for my creative self:
This was the feeling I used to experience every time I tear old papers and make aeroplanes which zooms around the room :)

Excitement:
As you can very well guess, this was the feeling I experienced the most when I was about to get into a flight from Coimbatore to Hyderabad, my first ever flight, the one which I was looking forward to, as excited as one can be... The scene I had imagined was verrry different from the one I experienced. I had imagined an airport where as soon as I check-in, I would see a lot of pilots and air-hostesses/stewards walking busily and men in suits cluttered all around, buses parked to take the travelers to their respective flights and what not(yes, you are right, just the stuff we see in movies and read about, but then that was my only source of information!). And for those who have not seen the airport at Coimbatore, let me just explain, as soon as you check-in, you need to walk(just like how you walk in Majestic, but not that long a walk), and find your flight. These will be parked on a side(am not sure whether 'park' is the right word, but I do not know of a better one), and you get onto it. N lo, its done, you are boarded. Its as simple as that - no complications at all!!! But I was nevertheless excited and it lasted until I we neared Hyderabad where I could see Buddha's statue from the altitude. That was really great and it soon gave way to another feeling:

Fear:
As the steward announced us to wear seat-belts, we were told of a small delay. At first, I was excited again at the prospect of flying for a few more minutes, but after that bad thoughts started coming in giving way to fear(just like they always do), and I was wondering of what would have happened causing this disturbance. I just wanted to touch the ground then, and ofcourse, I wanted to be touch the ground safely unlike the way the thoughts which were haunting me then were hinting.

Relief:
Well, this was just a matter of few seconds when we descended and the big bird stopped properly, and then someone explained that we were circling the airport owing to congestion(this was at the earlier Begumpet airport). And the airport this time was very much similar to the ones in my imagination with airport buses and everything (only thing was that I wanted to be out!)

Sorrow:
This is an altogether different incident, something most of us would have experienced when people close to us take a flight and we feel that we are left behind, again. When little Sona turned around and said 'tata', I felt that there was no grief greater than that..

Grrrrr feeling:
This was on another trip from Hyderabad. I had my leg plastered then(owing to a Masala Dosa at Google, but that's an altogether different story), and was checking in when the lady at the counter asked me why I had not booked my ticket mentioning "handicapped" since that would have fetched me a discounted rate. I was already very much cross over a Masala Dosa, and this dialogue was too much for me to take in then. It was very much a "grrrrrrrrr" feeling I experienced then(hope you understand what it means :)

And yeah, excitement on someone else missing a flight:
Yeah, that's actually great you know, when a close friend misses his flight and decides to spend the day with you. Not sure how many would have experienced this, but I just lovvvved it(not so sure about him, he paid for it ;)

Anxiety:
And this is the reason for my blogging today. I am anxiously waiting for a flight to arrive, after getting all approvals in place. It's an official trip, but then I definitely don't care :)

Friendship Day

Today is friendship day, the day we used to look forward to, as college students, and celebrate.. the day I used to let my friends know that I totally adore them for what they are(and what thay are not).. This was the day for which we were all prepared with gifts and cards for each other, when we tied friendship bands(which I have saved even now) and fought over ice-cream parties(not real fights, mind you, it was almost always 1 ice-cream and umpteen people ;)

It meant trips to CCD/Barista with friends with cash long-saved for the very purpose,cake cutting at class and a lot more untold stuff. It was all about the colors of life... about how being with friends can change the black and white frame of our life to rainbow colors. Wow, man, those days were lovely(and lively).

And today did not go bad either, I did go out with my friends for a newly released movie, Love Aaj Kal, which was good, and another round of shopping. Only thing that was missing was that I had failed to realize its friendship day. Never thought THIS will happen to me. Things that a professional life can do to you!!! Too much, na? Just hoping that this will never ever happen again. My friends are all special to me, and I would definitely want to let them know of that fact. So let me make a note to my friends, "Love you guys, for all those wonderful times we had, let it be at school, college,or office(and the times we bunked all of these:), and for being there for me, trusting me and above all, being friends. Happy friendship Day!!!"