Tegestology...

.. is the act of collecting Biere Mats! N yea I start my act of 'Tegestology' with this very Biere Mat!

This pic is clicked @ Biere Club, Bangalore which happens to be one of the first places in Blore to brew their own beer.

In pic here you see a array of diff flavours of beer brewed here! N yea this place does get a Thumbs Up from ma hubbs who is indeed a connoisseur of all good things :)

Linking this to ABC Wednesday(T is for Tegestology)

Mitti...

A bottle of Ittar! Imge courtesy Google

One thing I abs luv abt monsoons is the smell tht emantes outa earth when its first hit by rain! Now do you know that there is a ittar(perfume in urdu) thats sold in bylanes of Charminar(n even in Delhi am told) that captures this smell.. Its Christened 'Mitti'(which means mud in Hindi). But makes me wonder if peop would want to walk around smelling like a wet earth :-D  ... should ask ma hubbs abt this, he is one of those who always has this ittar bottle in his dressing room!

Linking this to ABC Wednesday(S is for Smell)!

R is for Resourceful!

N this pic is the epitome of it.... Lemme explain


The steel vessel u c in the pic, is the one that we use to draw water out from our matka. Well it so happened that one fine day the long handle went kaput n I was **this** close to discarding it(my policy of collecting zero junk u c). Thats when my frnd(Sabs) father set his eyes on it n then lo-n-behold ....

The old handle was discarded, a hollow bamboo shoot was then inserted into the nook and then fully cello-taped to hold it all in its place! But not happy with its "Cosmetic' value, disappears into his house and comes out with that black button u c at the end(in case u interested to know what it is ~~ Its the end of one of sabs hair clips..lol)

So there my almost-thrown-away vessel gets a new lease of life and is now drawing out glasses n glasses of water everyday :-D

If this aint resourceful then what is!

Linking this to ABC Wednesday (R is for resourceful)

Q is for Quarell!

                                           
                                               Linking this to ABC Wedsday(Q is for quarell)

N jus so tht its recorded here, 9th May Twenty-Twelve is a "Red Letter" day in my life.. Details to folow......

The Bday Dhamaka!

Haaa am announcing it a wee bit late... But I happened to celebrate my 3 decades on earth a good days back(Don even get me started on how old I feel.. A post on it later).

Now what was spl abt this bday was the day in itself..... I don hv my bday date on FB. So that meant almost no-action on the 'Social Media' but what that does translate to is that the people who took the effort to remember the day are the ones who mean something to me (another way of saying that my real close ones can well be counted on the fingers... doesnt sound impressive huh). Bottles of Champagne n beer, Yummy cake, 'Communal-cooking'(Loads of cooking), Pot luck is what the day was~~ Nothing fancy abt them  but the keyword of the day I guess was "Warm"!

Jus before u think that I hv turned all wise n philosophical as I turn 30, Lemme break the bubble n admit that a part of me was still looking for the 'birthday Gift(s)' (Time I grew up huh :-D). Looking back, I guess it was one b'day where each gift I received was picked up so thoughtfully(Not jus-yet-another-random-gift). Lemme proudly announce what all I was bestowed with on the D-Day:

• Goggles with power lens(courtesy hubbs) - My constant grouse abt wearing specs is that I cant sport a goggles over it which made me 'V.Uncool' (you can roll ur eyes) n so this gift! Now before u can pat ma hubbs, I got this(good 2 day later) post clear-instructrions given a month back to him (So much for being Mr.Thotful!)
• Ma ever thotful sis roams around in the hot harsh sun trying to get me the 'Perfect Gift'(and getting horribly tanned in the process) and 'Perfect Gift' she did find! A swanky new mobile ~~ My old one was almost in pieces you see!
• The 'Tongue-In-cheek' BIL(Soon-to-be) gets me a big huge ripe Jack fruit(yea u read it rt) cause thts ma fav fruit! But the sweetest SIL taht I am, I made him cut it open and remove it slice-by-slice :-D(If u eva cut a jack fruit, you will know what am talking of!)
• The eva-resourceful sabs picks up this beauty of a dress for me in 'Happy Colors' jus cause thts so me :)

Now lemme admit, all these peop mentioned above would hv anyways been(:-P) in the 'Default Gifting List',  but the one that was really a pleasant surp was a 'kindle' that a frnd sent me all the way from abroad jus cause he knows I enjoy reading(Speak of Thotful peop!)

N ho yea there are few more peop who figure in the 'default Gifting' list but hvnt shown up yet.. But yea don yea worry, Am open to 'B'day gifts' for a few more days :-D

Before I sign off, You can look at the yum yum yum 'mocha Cake'

Linking this to ABC Wednesday(P is for 'Presents')

The Summer story!

The two weeks we were in hyd last month seemed almost a nightmare what with the increasing mercury levels and no AC to beat the bloody heat!

Rewind to a few year, na makes it a good 2 decades(man! am getting old) ~~ AC was a unimaginable luxury ~~Even the monstrous water cooler we had was a prized possession then! But but summers is where the best memories of my childhood are ~~ The long summer vacation spent at Kerala was jus the topping on the cake!

The house we were living in hyd then ~~ A "Match-Box" size apartment it was but the one luxury we had was bigger-than-the-bedroom open-air balcony n a huge terrace almost to ourselves. By late afternoons thou the balcony would be as good as live-burning-coals! Remember this was summers which meant water shortage which would mean lugging buckets of water to our first floor house(elevators at homes werent really heard of then!) ~~ Despite that  come evening, the entire balcony is doused with buckets of water . The pleasure of sitting down in the balcony post this "water treatment" and catching up over evening tea as the cold evening air caress our faces ~~ Luxury! I hv quite a few memories of last minute cramming up for my exam siting right on that balcony.....

As night creeps in, there would be more-often-than-not a tussle for the prized-position under the water cooler. So one fine evening it was decided to ditch the cooler and mats were laid down back-back on the balcony with a few pillows popped in! Now imagine, A groups of cousin lying down next to each other, looking up to a sky full of stars n telling stories of far far away places...............

Indeed Old is gold!

Linking this to ABC Wednesday (O is for "Old is Gold")

While I do not have any pics of hyd to share what I could instead show you is a old pic of hubbs from his childhood days(the child on extreme left).. doesnt he look like a sweetheart here or is it a biased wife speaking :)

Happy Vishu!

N heres a glimpse of our 'Vishu Kani'!If you want to know more about 'Vishu Kani' ~~ Jump over to this link ~~ it does describe in detail abt Vishu and what a 'Vishnu Kani' is typically adorned with!

Two interesting observations abt 'Vishu Kani'

>> 'Vishu' is also the 'Harvest Festival' of Kerala ~~ so obviously the 'Vishu Kani' will be brimming with the 'produces' from the fields. So in keeping with the tradition(Thou I live in a concrete Jungle far far away from the fields), the urli even today is filled upto the brim with all kinds of veggies n fruits(K I know oranges n grapes arent really found in kerala!) but jus that instead of picking them from the field one pays thru the nose (Anybody wanna guess how much that half dried up jack fruit costs in B'lore market!)

The Yellow flowers that you will see v. generously scattered around(look around the small mirror to the Right hand side of the pic) is locally called 'Konna'. Now I dono whats the significance of this flower in 'Vishu Kani' ~~ but many hardcore mallus will tell u that 'vishu Kani' is incomplete without a bunch of 'Konna'. I did try googling up to find the reason but dint find any except that its the 'State Flower of Kerala'(!) This again surprises me as I have hardly seen it growing in bunches anywhere in kerala and (beat this) if it werent for the hue-n-cry made on Vishu day, I wouldnt even know that this flower exists! Somebody help me iwth this story plz?

Linking this to abc Wednesday N is for New Year(n Vishu is New Year in Malayalam calendar)

MileStone Alert!

Well am almost a month late in ringing in the 'good news'(:-P) The hubbs finished his project 365 ~~ Indeed a 'Milstone' am glad he achieved! Heres a pic he clicked. N the reason for this particular pick is cause this is what is on top of my mind now-a-days... A lotta childhood memories!


Now back to our milestone, whats with hubbs that he will make me rue abt everything I prod him into! Take this photography hobby for instance ~~ he got into this post some 'not-so-gentle' pushes from yours truly but soon took to it like a 'fish-to-water'. But haaa ~~ jus as ma smirk was getting obvious, he goes a step ahead n devotes all his free-time into 'shoot-process-upload' routine day-in n day-out! N if he is left with any xtra time its devoted to 'Upskilling' these 'Shooting' skills so much so that one day I caught him sneaking in his camera manual into the loo~~ sob sob sob!

Linking this to ABC Wednesday (M is for Milestones)

Best In Travel: Top 10 cities for 2012!

Have you this list from Lonely Planet of top10 cities to visit in 2012? Now this publication is one I had held in good esteem ~~ but this list did disappoint me!

C'mon, you must be kidding when u say B'lore figures in top 3 "Best In Travel" cities of the world. I hv been living in this city for nearly 5 years no n thou that doesnt classify me yet as a "Banglorean", I literally fiddle ma fingers trying to figure where do I take my random guests around in B'lore? Lalbagh, Banergatta National Park, ISKCON Temple? None of this is close to impressive esp for a veteran traveller(even my mom who hasn't stepped out of India refused to be impressed with any of this!).

But again for lonely planet to pick this place, there should be something abt it rt ~~ so am I missing out on something v obvious! So I read and re-read the reason quoted for choosing B'lore.. here is a decko of the same....

"The undisputed Elvis of South Asian megacities, Bengaluru is in a class of its own when it comes to redefining flamboyance. Perpetually drunk on the good life, this South Indian metropolis packs in the best brews, the scrummiest cuisines, and the liveliest arts and music scene, not to mention the hippest population you could hang out with. This year, evenings in the ‘capital of cool’ are poised to get even more intoxicating. And if the maddening traffic has always been your concern, take heart: Bengaluru’s new high-speed Metro network now ensures that your favourite watering hole is easier to reach than ever. There’s only one thing you could say to that: ‘Chill maadi!’"

:-/. Yea all this makes it a nice place to live in or a great place for a transit. But if am a globe trotter will I want to travel half way thru the world to experience jus ‘capital of cool’! Na am jus not impressed!!


PS: This is a post thats been on draft for ages n dono why it dint see the light. Anyways today is as good day as any to publish this esp as it comes with a double bonanza of tagging it to ABC Wednesday(http://abcwednesday-mrsnesbitt.blogspot.in/) - L is for Lalbagh\lonely plannet

No Shave ~~ No Lipstick!

I dono if you seen this ad by Gillete - "No Shave, No Lipstick" ~~ But this rt there in the front page did grab my attention.

"Err" I went! Forget about hubbs shaving, Me using lipstick is like once-in-a-blue-Moon phenomenon! Yea, on a good day I try n dab some lip balm on(if its somewhere handy!) but lipstick! N God-Save-me  but the thot that stuck me is ~~ given this wide spread participation by women  does my not dabbing in lipstick translate to poor grooming! Ha good sense prevailed soon thou.....

Now as for shaving ~~ Yea I think my man looks office (wise) handsome when he is clean shaven but yea nothing like a day old(only!) stubble against ma body to make me go purrrrrr :-p.


So Mr. Gillete, did you take a leaf out of our bollywood heroes who seem to believe that negative publicity is the sure shot route to fame!