Working Amidst Nature

One thing that I missed writing about is the visit to A's workplace campus. It is a beautiful one, extremely spacious and environment friendly too! The couple of hours that visitors are allowed inside certainly do very little justice to absorbing the place in its entirety. One can easily spend quite a few hours just exploring every nook and crevice in the place. Yes, believe me, even the crevices are green and beautiful! :-)



Considering that the campus spans quite a large area, people can either opt to traverse it on foot or use one of the handy bicycles stationed at regular intervals. I must say I've not had so much fun riding a bicycle, in a very long time! Many of the office buildings also have their own, unique architectural styles. While one is modeled after the Louvre pyramid, many others are also opulent and grand in their own way! The campus boasts among other things, a serene pool, overhung with the branches of trees, as also a lovely bridge that has an old world feel about it. Numerous fountains and other nature inducing knick knacks also dot the place in considerable abundance. Equipped with almost every facility that can be desired, the campus is definitely an added impetus to go to work! Food options aplenty, bountiful nature, and lovely buildings; a real seamless blend of the manmade and the natural!

P for Patience

Patience is a virtue,
Oft have I been told.
Lack in it, I plenty,
And seems I will, till old!

Waits becoming easier,
A dream so sickly sweet!
God, why this injustice,
A big P would’ve been neat!

Let alone a big, capital P,
Don’t even own a small half!
All my prayers for some Ps be,
As I do kneel, resting each calf!

On second thoughts, I’d rather,
You left me as jumpy as ever,
Considering you did make me so,
I’d doubt your intention never!

So, wait I shall, ever restlessly,
And when the time I do see,
Double the joy, will I beget,
All because of the lack of a P!

Good things...

...come to those who wait?

Hello!

My my! It has been a while since my last blog post! Apart from the fact that I've been downright lazy and procrastinating, the increased workload also did its bit to keep me from emerging out of my self-induced writer's block!
Other than being busy with work and our travel plans for the end of the year, I haven't been doing much. The weekend that went by, though, was an awfully good one! A brought a common friend over and we three had the time of our lives! We managed to cram in 2 movies, a super charged NFS game and a healthy, fun bout of dumb charades, into the 2 days! I must say it was the best game of dumb charades I've ever played! Thanks, friend; you know who you are!
I also suddenly remembered that I am yet to post pictures of our new place of abode. I will do that this week. I haven't been following blogs all that regularly too; I need to catch up on them all! I've been reading a lot, though; the current being one of the few Agatha Christie's I haven't read even once! Quite a find, that!
Hopefully, my silent phase is over for a long while and I'll be blogging as often as I was a fortnight back!

Solitary Confinement

One of the things that has me up in arms almost every time I'm led to it, is eating alone. However, I've figured that more than the very act of eating itself, it's the cooking for the just one solitary person (me!) that really irritates me to no end! With A being out of town for another three and a half weeks, I have not much choice anyway! Cooking, although not one of my better known skills, is at least bearable, sometimes, fun even, when there is another mouth in the house to taste it! It's another story that the taste is usually nothing to write home about! At least, it lets me gloat over the fact that I was responsible for the feeding of one hungry mouth! *grin*

Now, all I've been doing for the past few days is to quickly whip up some mess that can barely pass off as edible food, and then hastily stuffing it down my throat! For a teeny tiny moment yesterday, I did feel like having one of those, well, okay, the only cake I've ever made, but that feeling quickly realized that it was at the wrong place at the wrong time, and quickly scuttled off again into the furthest and darkest recesses of my mind!

The little mug of noodles that only pleads for a cup of water to be boiled for the stringy strands to immerse themselves in, has been more than a staple diet for these last few days! I'm sure they don't consume so many of these noodle things even in noodleland! So much so that my excitement at spotting a favourite colour of the noodle packet after a good many days, is to be seen to be believed!

Okay, off with all of you who have company while eating your grub at home, while I go hoard on some more of those lovely red packets! *eyes glinting*

:-D :-D :-D

Guess who's going here, here and here, this Christmas and New Year's Eve!!! I'm way too excited for my own good!

A Nap in Time Saves Eight!

Intermittent conversations at my workplace today brought to mind how fraught with adventures our trip to the jungle home really was! To add to the fun element, we'd decided that we'd cover the journey of more than 5 hours, by travelling in the night. We hired a van and driver for the very purpose. Little did we know that the driver of the van really meant to give us the ride of our lives! After the eight of us had been picked up from our respective points and we were well about an hour and a half into the journey, we realized that the vehicle was not cruising along as smoothly as is expected! A glance in the rearview mirror confirmed our worst fears. The driver was sleepy as hell! After many bouts of insisting conversations, with us asking him to rest a while and him refusing, he finally relented and brought the vehicle to a stop outside a cafe. Leaving him to close his eyes for some time, the rest of us traipsed into the cafe, offering to get him some caffeine too, which he vehemently refused. After a good many quarters of an hour, we set off once again. The same rigmarole was repeated a second time! The spotting of droopy and steadily closing eyes on the rearview mirror, myriad shoves and taps on the driver's shoulders, unending refusals of cups of coffee; all giving the semblance of a déjà vu of sorts, with the man finally agreeing to have a cup of tea when it all happened for the third time!
Narrow misses were the order of the day (night?)! Phew! We missed ramming into that truck by an inch! Woah! Look out! There comes a median! Were we glad or what when the first rays of the sun finally broke through the dimly lit sky! Out we all trooped, bleary eyed and aching all over, all of which was forgotten the minute the misty and cold air hit us right on our faces! We spent a good many hours there, leaving the driver to catch his fill of sleep, wistfully hoping for a safe enough descent down the treacherous mountain pathways! Please don't remind me how we got up the mountainside in the first place, what with us battling hairpin bends, coupled with the man steering being unable to keep his eyes open for even a few seconds at a stretch! As A opined, the charging elephant seems so tame in comparison, nay!?!

Aviary

On our way back, we stopped at Mysore to visit India's largest walk-through aviary. Various birds and small animals had a free run of the place, and they calmly strutted around, not caring two hoots about the many human feet walking around. It sure was a refreshing change to see our less privileged friends not confined to claustrophobia-inducing cages! Karanji lake also affords opportunities to go boating, with the aim of spotting various migratory birds. Ibises and cormorants were aplenty! The entire place spans a massive area, and we walked all around the lake, spotting many birds, butterflies and insects, in the bargain!