Bidding Adieu

As the year comes to an end I am reminded of the good and the not so good moments that passed by in the year 2008. Yes your guess is as good as mine; this is going to be my last post of the year. And I can�t help myself from going down the memory lane��.the good moments that came in the form of a new job which I embraced ever so willingly, the relocation of my bf to Mumbai and the fact that my parents finally gave us the thumbs up was my best personal accomplishment. :) But on the other hand things around me have not been going great. India as a country is becoming more and more unsafe for us to stay. This has been proven by the number of terror attacks that happened at various locations like Jaipur, Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai. It�s a grim reality that we have to face, one has to go through several rounds of security checks wherever we go (read malls, hotels, stations etc). It�s really sad that now we get to hear of something called �Terrorism Insurance�, which was totally unheard of! On the funny side we also have something called as �Terrorism Tourism�, which means people are actually visiting the terror struck places and coming back with pictures in the form of memorabilia.
Despite all this we have some hope in the form of the awakened citizens of India who are now tired of being resilient, and want strict action to be taken against the politicians who have been taking things too lightly till now, and also against those who think that India can be an easy target for terrorists. We want people to know that �We are not going to take things lying down anymore�. Although things are far from becoming normal, it was heartening to see the Taj and the Trident Hotel get back to business (yesterday) after 25 days of the terror attacks. The fact that both the hotels re-opened in such a short time proved that we are indomitable. I hope that this time we don�t forget what happened on 26/11 and keep the fire alive until we get some concrete measures to tackle terrorism. This would be the best gift that we can get on New Year. I plan to have a quiet Christmas and New Year with my family and loved ones. Leaving this space with the hope that 2009 will be a more happier and peaceful year. Wishing all of u a MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR, and on this note I bid farewell to the year 2008!

"Be happy.It's one way of being wise"

Its only Tuesday and i am already thinking about the weekend....This weekend is going to be gr8!! Saturday will be the usual thing of lunch and movie with my guy. But what i am looking forward to is Saturday night. No i am not going to a party, my bro and sis-in-law are coming to India after 6 months. :) Now, lets talk about some lighter things in life since the past few days have been quite tasking for me both mentally and emotionally. So here are some interesting lines which will hopefully bring a smile to your face.

1.Foolish man tells a woman to STOP talking, but a WISE man tells her that she looks extremely BEAUTIFUL when her LIPS are CLOSED.

2. One GOOD way to REDUCE Alcohol consumption:
Before Marriage - Drink whenever you are SAD
After Marriage - Drink whenever you are HAPPY

3. Three FASTEST means of Communication :
a) Tele-Phone
b) Tele-Vision
c) Tell-a-Woman
Still FASTER - Tell her NOT to tell ANY ONE.

4. Love your friends not their sisters. Love your sisters not their friends.

5. A man got 2 wishes from GOD. He asked for the Best wine and Best Woman.
Next moment, he had the Best Wine and Mother Theresa next to him.
Moral : BE SPECIFIC

6. If you do not have a Girl Friend - You are missing SOME thing in your life. If you have a Girl Friend - You are missing every thing in your life.

7. Question: When do you CONGRATULATE someone for their MISTAKE.
Answer: On their MARRIAGE.

8. When your LIFE is in DARKNESS, pray to god and ask him to free you from Darkness. Even after you pray, if you are still in Darkness - Please pay the ELECTRICITY BILL.

9. Why the Government does NOT allow a Man to MARRY 2 Women. Because as per the Constitution, you cannot be punished twice for the same Mistake.

Silence Speak Volumes

This weekend was full of reminiscence of 26/11. That was because i chose to visit the places which now stood in poignant silence telling us the story of those who lost their lives in one of the worst ever terror attacks. I had the usual lunch and movie routine with my guy. But since we were dining at one of the restaurants at Churchgate, we decided to go on a stroll after lunch. And we started walking towards Nariman Point we saw The Trident-Oberoi. Even though there were no signs of attack externally, but it still had an untold story to tell. Its under renovation now, and is expected to open by Christmas. The whole area around it has been cordoned off to keep people away. Hope it reopens soon.......
We then went ahead to see "Rab Ne Bana di Jodi". Don't feel like talking about the movie, not bcoz i dint like, but bcoz i dont want to talk about it now. Its a good movie and SRK fans will like it for sure!! As the movie ended my next aim was to see the Taj Mahal Hotel.
We went to the Gateway of India to catch a glimpse of the legendary hotel that's been the face of Mumbai for decades. But what i saw was saddening.......both the buildings (old and new) had been cordoned off and no cars were allowed on any of the roads surrounding the Hotel. The hotel wore a deserted look and the old bldg bore the marks of the attacks. (look below)



I clicked two pics of the old Taj coz the new one seemed to be fine except for an opaque barricade that could be seen right from the new Taj to the old one. This has been placed in order to stop people from having a look at the ground floor and first floor of the old Taj which were completely destroyed in the encounter between the terrorists and the NSG commandos.



But the most irritating thing that i saw was that people were getting their own photographs clicked with Taj in the background. Just made me feel as if this was a tourist place and people have come on a picnic. It felt as if all these people around me were mocking the Taj Mahal Hotel. For heavens sake! this hotel has gone through so much....how can one click photos of it in the background......this is not a joke, its a reminder of the ghastly attacks, the pain that people who were inside the hotel had gone through. It is this quality of people which i find very apathetic. I couldn't go to Leopold Cafe coz i was running late for an appointment. I'll go their as well, mebbe next weekend.

Touch Down

Here i am back to reality.....not too glad to be back coz i had quite forgotten the life here when i was at Coorg and Ooty. Life was so much more peaceful and calm out there, no fear of being killed in a firing, no fear of being killed in a bomb blast.....I dunno if these places will always remain safe, but they seem to be so at least as of now. I had a great time relaxing and de-stressing, away from the grim life that awaited me at Mumbai. The first few days we were at Coorg (Karnataka), which is famous for its coffee plantations and dreamy weather. Just a few kms from the main city, there's a Tibetian Monastery which is said to be the 2nd largest Monastery in Asia. We went there and i couldn't stop myself from capturing the beautiful monastery on my mobile. Here are a few pics that i took at Coorg.

Ring a Bell

Enter The Dragon

The Golden Temple also known as Namdroling Temple

Lord Buddha Amongst Others

Lady in Red

We also saw Coffee plantations and spice plantations, not to forget we also tried the Coorgie Cuisine which was very hot and spicy. From Coorg we proceeded to Ooty which is another hill station in Tamil Nadu. Even though people had told us that it will be cold at Ooty, we didn't really believe it until we reached there. The min temperature at Ooty was 10 degrees centrigrade. The journey to Ooty was very scenic and i managed to click some really nice pics on my way.....Check them out:

Eucalyptus Forest

Sunlit Pathway

Tea Estates

Although i preferred staying indoors due to the cold weather, we did manage to go to a few places at Ooty like this Botanical Garden, which was huge. We had one whole hour to ourselves and still we couldn't see the whole Garden. This is an interesting pic that dad took from the digicam.

Go Green

And this is how my vacation came to an end! :( With a heavy heart i came back to Mumbai yesterday afternoon. There was a lot of work to do....the worst one being unpacking. Now there's a truckload of clothes waiting to be washed in the washing machine. I went to office today and needless to say there was a lot of work to do. My inbox was full of mails, 550 to be precise! I had a tough time reading them and deleting the unnecessary ones. I had bought some spices for my boss and chocolates for others. I also bought a lot of oils like Saffron Almond Oil and Eucalyptus Oil, which were very reasonably priced.

Anyways, life is back to usual now, i plan to see "Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi" this weekend. And i also want to visit the Taj Hotel and Leopold Cafe which witnessed the terror attacks last week. I want to end on a happy note, so here is a pic i took from a mountain peak and i feel it has turned out really well.

And another pic which i took on my way from Conoor to Ooty is this station which is famous for its interesting name.