Cherishable Moments of Ooty

We behaved as children in front of our children as they were sitting silent in toy train and watching us playing dumb charades. We shouted more than them while watching the 5D movie, and can’t forget the way I was afraid to enter the Dinosaur park.

Can I call this as a family trip or a children's summer vacation, or a get together of two families, or an absolute required break for the heavily occupied techies. Well! you are the right person to decide what actually fits in after reading the entire blog.

 

Why are you going to this place in this season?

Why this place? Why can’t you go to Coorg?

Nothing is there in this place!

This is how my friends commented when I informed them about the trip. But we had a wonderful, entertaining, and a good memorable trip to Ooty from Bangalore for two days, and the excitement started from Bandipur forest.

Yes, it was the first time forest entry for the children. They were scared enough to close the car window soon after entering the forest, and excited enough to search for wild animals without blinking their eyes till they reach the Madhumalai forest safari point.

We were in search of tiger and elephant in the Bandipur and Madhumalai forest, but worth enough to catch a leopard in our eyes that was waiting for a hunt around 4.30 in the evening while we were on safari.

From Madhumalai forest, with the talk of leopard, peacock, and deer we started climbing Nilgiri hills through Masinagudi route to feel the cool breeze. Around eight in the night, reached Ooty and rested in a good spacious hotel at the reasonable rate.

First day in Ooty, visited Doddabetta, the highest mountain peak of Nilgiri, and then tasted a good aromatic tea in the tea museum. Later headed towards Coonoor in a local bus just to board the toy train from Coonoor to Ooty.

A good greenery stretch with three tunnels and two high bridges from Coonoor to Ooty. It was a fun filled one hour journey in toy train as we were playing dumb charades of guessing movie names. I wish I would have captured those wonderful expressions given by everyone for movie names.

How can I forget to inform you about Black Thunder where we spent our evening. All credit goes to Ashish and Sushruth as they were forcing Mahesh to take them to Black Thunder Dinosaur park. While watching the 5D movie, we shouted like as we are going to fall and die from the Roller Coaster.
I still do not know why I was afraid of entering the Dinosaur park even when I know the fact that it is man-made park. Oops! Aunty was hugging me tight from back in such a way that even my husband does not do it regularlyJ.

Ah! second day was bright and colourful as we were walking in the Rose garden. Do you believe that there are roses with 100 petals? The beautiful and colourful roses mesmerized us.

Hey wait! I didn't told you about Avalanche experience. On second day, we got up early in the morning to see Avalanche Lake as we had heard about seeing multi-coloured water in the lake early in the morning.

Plan was to leave children and elders in hotel and we four of them to go. But the children got up before us to come with us. We travelled 26 km for 1.5 hours to find out nobody near the lake check point. We were supposed to take entry ticket and walk one km further to see Avalanche Lake. The langoors welcomed us with a weird sound when we got out of the car. Since it was a forest area, we didn't wanted to take risk and hence got into the car. Satish did a small trekking and went near the lake to have some nice photos of Avalanche Lake in his phone.

Now back to Rose garden, from rose garden we started getting down from Nilgiri hills through Gudhalur route. On the way, had a good but costly horse riding near the Nilgiri view point.

Pykara falls, Pykara dam, and Pykara boat house are also the memorable places we visited on the way while returning from Nilgiri. Pykara is a village and has a river, which flows over a series of water falls known as Pykara falls. The Pykara boat house on the reservoir is a good, attractive, and must visit place to go for a boating on the Pykara river.

It's sad that we didn't see tiger even while returning from the forest, but we are happy that we saw four elephants at two instances, because of Satish's eagle eyes.

At nine in the night, we reached Gundlupet and rested the whole night over there. Next day in the morning, headed to Mysore to see the wild animals under the human surveillance. uf! what a summer this time in Bangalore and Mysore, We are facing this much temperature for the first time in our 30 years of life. Children had a list of wild animals to see, and by the time they covered the 4-km zoo, all the checklist items were ticked.

After having a relaxing and delicious lunch on the bank of Kaveri river in the  hotel Mayura Riverview, srirangapatna, we headed to our home sweet home in Bangalore, The Mandya and Bidadi traffic played a huge role in tiring my husband and making us to reach home by 11 in the night.

This trip made we four of us to share a wonderful, memorable, and an entertaining days spent in Ooty. A well known honeymoon place in south India can also be a good summer vacation place when you go along with all your dear and near loved ones.

 

Trip to Munnar

It was an usual day unless Mahesh received a call from his friend, who invited him for his wedding near Munnar. As we both were tired from our regular work and responsibilities, we decided to visit Munnar. The big deal here was a trip to Munnar from Bangalore with our car 'Vista', so that we can attend the wedding and have a trip to Munnar. Friday, early morning 6.A.M, we switched on the navigation and left home with water bottles, fruits, biscuits, and with the complete details of routes and hotels.

We had breakfast @ 8.30 A.M in the Kamat hotel located between Hosur and Krishnagiri highway and reached Salem by 12.30 P.M. We finished lunch in a hotel on the highway, took Avinashi route and reached Udumalpettai by 2.30 P.M.

 
We wished the newly married couple and took the way to Munnar with the intention of reaching the destination by evening. It was a breathtaking experience for me when Mahesh was driving all the way in the hilly region.
One important point is, on the way from udumalpettai to Munnar, there are four checkpost (two from Tamil nadu and two from Kerala), whcih means 20/- each to be paid in every checkpost (no reciept).




 Munnar is a small town where three small rivers meet together and hence it is known as Munnar. We were lucky enough to be in the perfect season. Monsoon was over and was waiting for the seasonal rain. There used to be light drizzling for few minutes and then the sun used to shadow us with his light. It was an awesome experience to touch the clouds at the hill top with the lush green all around. yes, it is true, there could not be any second thought when people say " Kerala is god's own country".


Fine let's come back to our trip information. After reaching Munnar by 6.P.M we were almost like walking in the clouds. The entire town was completely covered with mist and was becoming dark. We were supposed to go 20 km further to the Aruvi resort, which we had booked. Because of the mist and the drizzling rain, we lost our way and we were back to munnar town by 7.30 P.M. With no energy to go further, we booked a room in the Green Ridge hotel. The hotel was descent and good. since it was an off-season we bargained the room tariff from 3600/- to 1800/- for a single night. Got-up early in the morning, had the complementary breakfast and went out for sight seeing.

We hired a guide cum driver for 400 rupees, named Vinayak (phone no - 09447876850), whom we met on the roadside. He was a good person and smart enough to cover all the tourist spots in just four hours. Gained knowledge about black, green and white tea by visiting the TATA tea factory. After visiting all the places and finishing lunch by 3.P.M, we took the Aaruvi resort route that we had missed previous night. Some how with the help of GPS and the resort contact person, reached the resort.

 

The resort is located near a beautiful water fall. It was a very nice place for us to spend that evening.

People were good over there and the food was also tasty. The only drawback is the resort is 20 km far from Munnar town. We were all set early in the morning to travel to Bangalore. We did breakfast and left the resort by 8 A.M. towards Bangalore. Reached Salem by 3.P.M thinking that we will reach Bangalore by 7.30 P.M, but the heavy rainfall from Krishnagiri and the slowing process at the tollgates reduced our speed and finally we reached home by 9.30 P.M.

 

  

Overall I would like to say that our trip to Munnar was physically stressful but mentally relaxing. A very pleasant trip to the glorious, beautiful and romantic place.

The Route Information:

1. Bangalore
2. Hosur
3. Krishnagiri
4. Salem
5. Bhavani
6. Avinashi
7. Palladam
8. Udumalpettai
9. Munnar

 It took nearly 10 hours to cover 514 km.

Note: Avoid keeping an alcohol bottle in your car.

Procedure to prepare Ragi Malt Powder

I recommend the freshers to learn the basics of weighing the grains,


1 Ser = 2 Adher = 4 Pav = 16 Chattank = 80 Tola = 933.1 grams


1 Savaser = 1 Ser + 1 Pav (1¼ Seer)
1Savasher weighed 30 Imperial rupees
In Hindi 1¼ Seer = Sava (1¼) Seer, or Savaser
1 Dhaser = 2 Savaser = 2½ Seer

In Hindi 2½ Seer = Dhai (2½) Seer, or Dhaser

1 Paseri = 2 Adisari = 5 Seer
In Hindi 5 Seer = Panch(5) Seer, or Paseri for short
1 Daseri = 2 Pasri = 10 Seer
In Hindi 10 Seer = Das(10) Seer, or Daseri for short
1 Maund = 4 Daseri = 8 Pasri = 40 Seer

The below ragi malt procedure is for the quantity of one ser (1 seer) Ragi:

1. Wash one ser ragi till it becomes completely clean, allow it for 24 hours to sprout (you can wrap washed ragi in a cloth for it to sprout at a faster rate).

2. Dry it completely under sun and fry it in a pan without oil.

3. Fry one chattank ( may be of your fist size) green gram.

4. Fry one chattank red gram (thoor dhal-not red color ).

5. Fry one chattank black gram.

6. Fry one chattank Bengal gram (channa dhal).

7. Add two teaspoon black pepper, one teaspoon fenugreek seeds (methi), and two teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera) to the fried content.

8. Add dryfruits if required.

Note: The baby should be of minimum 6 months old for dry fruits.


9. Grind to make it a flour.


The mentioned quantity is grinded in a flour mill shop. After grinding, take a thin cotton piece of cloth (bigger size – may be half the size of your duppatta), cover the opening of the vessel and wrap it around the vessel neck. Filter the flour to get the finely grinded flour.

If you are grinding at home for a small quantity then fine grind it. No need to filter it.
The above mentioned quantity can be used for more than a month based on the regular usage.

The Delicious and healthy ragi malt powder is ready!

Me and My Ashi

My dear Ashish,

• You are God's blessing to me and your name depicts that.
• I was waiting to see you on earth, and you made me to see the world in a different way.

• You made me more responsible by making me feel that you are my own.
• You made me angry many times and that developed patience in me.
• You taught me to become more humble to the needy people.

 

• You made me to speak without hesitation and to laugh whole heartedly.
• I feel the real happiness when you hug and surround me with your tiny soft shoulders.

 

I Love You Ashish 

 

My Mother

This year, I consider my mother as my valentine on the valentines day. There are many memorable moments of mine with my mother, which has always motivated me in many ways. Now, I would like to share one instance of my childhood, which I always remember when I think of my responsibility as a mother.

When I was four year old, my parents,we four siblings, and three brothers of my parents were staying in a government quarters, which was located in the city outskirts. My mother was the only female who used to take care of we nine family members and all the house-hold work.

I used to travel with my siblings in a local bus to school. In order to manage her work better she used to make us get ready in school uniform by 6:30 in the morning and send us for tuition class. By the time we finish our tuition class and reach the bus stop, my mother would be present there with the breakfast and tiffin boxes. After having the break fast and boarding the bus, I used to see a sign of relief and also a fear on her face. Relief of feeding us on time and fear of sending us in a local bus at a very small age.

At that time I felt my mother as a caring woman and now, whenever I remember this instance I feel my mother not only as a caring woman, but also as :

M- Motivator

O - Obedient

T - Teacher

H - Honorable

E- Ethical

R - Responsible person

Generation Gap

In this article I have depicted the main differences between Generation X and Generation Y members.

Generation X (Gen X) is named for group of people born from mid 1960's to mid 1970's. Members of this generation, wrought in the shadow of the Baby Boomers, felt alienated and disenfranchised by the cultural icons of the time.



“X” described the lack of identity that members of Generation X felt — they didn’t know where they belonged, but knew for sure that they weren’t a part of the overbearing generation of Baby Boomers.
By the way, Baby Boomers are group of people born from 1946 to 1964.They are known as Baby Boomers becuase they were born after the end of World war II (1945).

Apart from face to face contact, Gen x prefer Posting letters and ringing telephone to communicate with each other. The first generation to grow up with computers and technology woven in to their life. They have the mentality of manufacturing economy.

Gen Xers are Independent, entrepreneurial, culture-oriented, and seek emotional maturity

Generation Y (Gen Y) describes group of people born from mid 1970's - early 2000's. These millenials are also known as Echo boomers due to the increase in birth rates through the 1980's and in to 1990's and because many of them are children of Baby boomers.

  
Apart from telephonic calls, Gen Y prefer e-mail, facebook, twitter, and text messages to communicate with  each other thanface-to-face contact. 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, the Gen Y is armed with BlackBerrys, Laptops, Cellphones and other gadgets. They have the mentality of servicing economy.

They are confident, ambitious and achievement-oriented, seek out new challenges and are not afraid to question authority and mainly they value team work.

Millenials believe in meaningful work and a solid learning curve. They are culturally liberal, emotionally mature and also socially conservative.

Whatever the generation is.... whichever the generation is....however the generation is......  each generation has its own pro's and con's. I strongly feel the current generations pick up the negative points of their previous generation to correct and adapt. But, during the correction and adaption process, they themselves leave other negative points to the future generation to correct and ofcourse, this mistake continues further.

Happiness

Where do you find Happiness?

When do you find Happiness?

In what way you find Happiness?

With whom you find Happiness?

The list of questions never ends if you keep on digging deeply in to the matter.

Happiness lies in avoiding the thought of the unwanted matter or discussion in our life rather than digging them.If we keep on doing the unwanted things, we will be in a miserable condition.

Happiness is a comfortable state of being in love, joy, satisfaction and relaxation with our loved ones,possession,or work.If one person find happiness in his work, the other may find it in his laziness.

Infact, Happiness lies in:
* Everywork you do
* Everything you see
* Everybody you meet
* Every thing you eat
* Everywhere you go

We don't even think of utilizing this precious oppurtunities, and just keep wondering of where the happiness is.

The main purpose of our life is to be happy at each and every stage of our life, we experience many instances of happiness and unhappiness in our life and still we are ignorant of what happiness is.

We think happiness is in life without problems, but the real happiness lies in the strength of facing problems. Happiness exists in you when you are in the state of satisfaction after overcoming the problems and challenges in your life.
ofcourse, we have good memories of our past life and, we plan for a good future. But, the happiness is not in the past life, it exists in your life right now at present, as we face the challenges of our daily life.

True happiness is to be found within you, yourself. How much ever you try, you can never run away from yourself. You will never find happiness if you don't challenge your weakness and change yourself from within.

So, If you want to live a fruitful and a happy life:
* Understand yourself and the people around you.
* Change according to the environment.
* Live for yourself and at some instances sacrifice for your loved ones.
* Have patience, as the temper can never provide you happiness but can always make your life miserable.
* Forget the bad memories of your life ad forgive the people who did wrong to you.
* Believe in yourself and try that your loved ones to have faith in you.'


"Happiness consists of a solid faith, good health, and a bad memory" - INGRID BERGMAN