Mysooru -pre Dussera

Had a business meet in Namma Mysooru.I looked forward to being there, just before dussera and the city gets all dressed up.
I saw the Palace and all the artisans and pandal decorators busy with getting the place up and running a week hence for the grand event. Bamboos could be seen staked up at strategic places and there were any number of workers, engaged in splicing them, making intricate patters and designs from them. I saw quite a few exhibition stalls being put up. Lorry loads of 'stuff' was being downloaded in every vacant space around the stalls.The air was crying out 'i am getting ready, i am busy, dont disturb now'.If it is wonderful to be in Mysooru during dussera, i found a particular charm to be there, to see her getting dressed up!Had a feeling of a peek preview in the green room before the concert!
Went for a walk on a very salubrious morning. It is a weather to die for!Wide open spaces and leisurely lifestyle of people is very soporific.Went and looked up the krishna temple in ontikoppal and also the railway quarters nearby , where appa was brought up.I tried to recreate all the stories of their childhood that appa and more so athai have been narrating all these years.The road from the colony leads straight to chamundeswari temple and i was told that every friday appa and periappa used to walk up to the temple , a good 5 kilometres away,early in the morning; then come back and later go to their school.
Brindavan garden enchants you in the evening hours just as the sun is setting; never mind that one has seen many a garden with similar attributes both in movie songs or otherwise.Kannambadi dam as athai prefers to call it, is massive and the bone of contention of two neighbouring states. But this year has been bountiful year of rains, hence the acrimonious debates did not trouble me then.
Mysore palace and the leisurely and luxurious lifestyle of those times, the intricate works of all the walls and ceilings; not an inch of space is left untouched by an artist.Employment guaranee scheme, raja's style.
Spotted six elephants doing pradakshanam of the temple inside the palace grounds.They were so graceful, walking side by side, that my colleague ran and captured them on film.
A nostalgic getaway and some business got transacted on the sidelines.

shanti's visit

Shanti is my cousin settled in Kolkatta. It has been quite a while that we met her other than in some weddings.
When she visited appa and amma in May this year, we had some good times. She is fun loving and is ready with a smile and laughs heartily.
I was just then trying out my digicam and clicked a few snaps. Yes, they are not the best, but they did capture the spirit of the moment.
I also needed to recollect my journey in taking photos through my new toy.I am not showing another photo where we had asked appa to smile and he gives a real queer one.Reserved for an appropriate occasion!

Charminar and shilparam

We were bang in the middle of ganesh immersion festival in Hyderabad recently;did some frantic shopping in Charminer just before the shops were closing for the function.But for my colleagues who were quite definite they wanted to shop for pearls and bangles at that place,I would have given it a good miss. I am going to Charminar I think after two decades. I liked the place and the ambience much better now.I remember it was fascinating and forbidding when i went there last.
There are atleast a zillion shops there selling pearls and bangles.We were looking for a particular satyanarayana pearls, and spotted three of them with that name!We were a group of 20, with 5 of them staying away from the shops. There was hardly enough space in the shop for the fifteen of us; but that did not stop us nor faze the shopwallah one bit.
The shopping experience was unique; each of us picked up some item after elaborate shifting and selecting and wanted to catch the attention of the shopkeeper to finalise the purchase. It was like the song 'row row row a boat' sung in kindergarden with each group singing a sentence out of sync with the other groups.The owner was an elderly man and he had naturally more elan and easy manner of dealing with us; we had one of his sons and he was forever wanting to put the pearls aside, lest we pocket it unobtrusively!When he puts one particular strand aside, somebody in the group will develop a fascination for that piece only.So it was good fun and i was enjoying the whole show. Some of my male colleagues from Delhi/Jaipur were keen on purchasing good number of pearls and they wanted assurance from the ladies that their selection is okay.The ladies had to juggle various roles; to pick up some for themselves, to pick up some for their colleagues who stayed away from the melee and for those of them who were showing them stuff that they had selected for their final stamp of approval.
There was a massive bargaining taking place as we were told a bargain for a reduction of 40% is in order.There is definitely tremendous satisfaction in seeing the shopkeeper, weighing the pearls and arrving at a value of 1500 and then slashing it and giving it for 1120.There is pleasure in haggling!
The entire drama was enacted in a marketplace, which did not lack in colour and confusion; vehicles of all sizes and shapes, people in unbelievable number, merchandise of a million stuff in the shop, on the verandah and on the streets, pitter patter of rain and high decibel noise all around.
Hence it was a total change the next day, when we were escorted to the crafts village, shilparam near the hi- tech city.This was the only place unaffected by the festival spirit which swollowed the entire city on that day.
This place was in a vast expanse and each shop was selling something different and were well spaced out.We had lots of place to stroll around leisurely, look and savour the amazing range of stuff that our artisans can churn out.No jostling crowd and no vehicles were allowed inside the complex.I definitely found very interesting and beautiful pieces in there ; i plan to come here again and shop for the terracota range of pottery with tribal motifs. This place is similar to the 'dilli haat' i was told; but as i have not seen dilli haat, i was fascinated by this place.
Charminar and Shilparam gave me totally different shopping experiences.

Life at ASCI

ASCI and Hyderabad always used to evoke very positive images in me. In the early years in LIC, nominations for any training programme was eagerly lapped up. And a nomination to ASCI was equivalent to the Mecca and was high on our aspirational ladder. You should be atleast an ADM, to be so fortunate. We wanted to quickly finish being the menial low level officers if not for anything else atleast for a cabin to call your own, a buzzer, a water jug and crockery and chance for a nomination to ASCI.
Years rolled by and my dream came true not once but twice. But both the times, i could not make it for a variety of reasons; was on orders of transfer from Ajmer to Chennai and the training programme on 'women executives' was bang in the middle of my relocation time. More than the logistical nightmare that attending such a session would entail, it was also a jurisdictional issue. Do i get relieved in Ajmer and on the way to taking up my new post in Chennai, stop by for training at Hyderabad.It was a no no, there were strict rules about stopping over enroute from one location to another on transfer.Do I join at Chennai and then take off for Hyderabad?Again i was flummoxed, as the nomination had come from North Zone personnel dept and it is invalid in the corridors of Chennai region!The bureaucratic imbroglio is still fresh in my mind.
I t is no wonder that now when i got an opportunity to arrange a workshop/review session for my staff i was looking for ASCI, hyderabad. The institute gave us very competitive rates and promised collegial environment for learning and reflecting.Yes, i needed to reflect a lot!
Got off the airport and i was prepared for a long ride to the outskirts as all management institues are located there. But within a few seconds we were in the campus.It is quite efficiently run, as i was looking at all the infrastructure facilies with the keen eyes of an 'ex principal' of a training institute.It is quite imaginatively designed with lots of little corners and nooks which can be spots for informal interactions.The structure also has enough turns and twists to give you pleasant surprises and thrill of getting lost and going round and round.
The room had a very good view of the jubilee hills and the early morning air was nippy and refreshing.Went for a walk and was surprised that the tracks do not circle the campus, but abruptly stop half way through. It is wooded country with rocks perched strategically; friendly neighbourhood dogs which are so contended with life that they have forgotten to bark or follow me around.
Tried the gym today and was looking for the switch to turn it on. But looked and looked in vain. It was then i realised that i had forgotten that there are manual treadmills.But realising the same did not help much, as the damn thing refused to budge! No, no way that i am going to work out on the treadmill today.Tried the bicycle.I did not see any knobs for controlling the tension so I was working at the pedals furiously at 100 rpm a minute!
Classrooms are very comfortable and well laid out. We had an ambitious schedule of 9 am to 9 pm .And we did it, with the same energy levels that we started out with and we did start out with high enthusiasm. While credit has to be given to the teachers and the participants, the room and its 'fenshui' did contribute its bit, i guess.
All the powerpoints worked without a hitch, there were no power outages, nobody spilled the tea on their dresses,handouts were actually handed out before a presentation!While lot of heat was exchanged in the class rooms, there was a heavy dose of cordiality and friendliness outside of it.
I am liking it.It has been worth the 25 year wait.

wah Taj!

It was a pilgrimage of sorts to Taj Mahal.Twenty eight years to the day, I had gone there with my mom and we had a wonderful snap of the two of the us with the customery backdrop of the Taj, couretesy an ubiquitous photographer there.I had the digicam with me this time, but mommie was 1800 kilometres away but emotionally very much next to me.
No, the Taj has remained as I remembered it, as stunning, as beautiful as before,never mind the story of it not being as white as before.With the backdrop of a sky swollen with monsoon clouds, the ethereal beauty of an offwhite Taj was worth more than a visit.
The spectacular scene is when it suddenly appears when you turn into the gateway;you did not half expect it so soon. Is it the power of white which gives it such an arresting look, you wonder; because you see similar structure with domes any number of times all over delhi, agra and other spots. Is it the great expanse of no structure in the vicinity and the really tall domes that give it its uniqueness?Is it the intricate inlay work from red and orange stones, brought in all the way from South Africa, that lends its charm?Is it the immortal love story that tugs at our hearts as we look at it?
For me it has been the quietly flowing Yamuna by its side and the majestic structure in white standing guard;the combination touches something deep and i am still figuring out what it is. Mommy keeps telling me that i sat on the banks of the Yamuna and spent more time looking at the waters and the environment than oozing over the Taj.This time i could not do that, as yamuna is nicely fenced off. But the misty clouds as the backdrop and the rising spire amidst the yamuna did hold me in a trance this time.
I got trigger happy and slightly mad.But no regrets.