An Internal Conflict

I had a interesting conversation with minticetea, and it made me think on one particular aspect which she said. This is something which her husband happened to tell her in a conversation ..." .. that understanding is one thing… at this point you are giving logical reasons to yourself..but that won’t help your heart". 


And this is entirely what I agree with.. its a feeling where you know the situation, and you also know what is the right in such a situation, but when you are faced with the decision to make, you end up always making the wrong one. Why is that? Each time you also tell yourself that you should ensure that this same mistake is not repeated. In my case, this situation is more of a conflict with myself, which I am trying to resolve. A problem which I know is not a real problem at all, if I just make my heart understand that what I feel is not entirely acceptable... its just a purely heart felt emotion, but not a logical one, and also one which I can not really shove down someone's throat! I tell myself, and I seem to see the logic and also know that what I am saying is right, but when the situation arises again, there is a debate ongoing in my head as to whether I should be doing this or that, and my heart rules. I have been wokrking on this for sometime, and I see an improvement though I must say its is more so as I wish to see it! Or maybe not, thats just the pessimistic me speaking... :) 


Have you ever come across something like this?

Formations

Here is an image which I came across on the web and having had whisky with me for 2 years... I can totally relate to how they tend to curl and get themselves into the weirdest of poses! 


You should check out the many snaps which I have put on the blog of her... just click on the pet tag and that should get you there :) 

Chickie Birdie

Here is something which I came across.. and oh man its classic! 

2 Ds

Driving... yes I am back to it, and with renewed vigour post marriage, so that I can get around to as many places close by on my own. And, also that in case of any emergency, I need to be sure that I am confident enough to drive through any kind of traffic. I have been driving in regular traffic, not the peak hours though, but it has certaiinly been an improvement over the way I drove before. And, the most important thing, I do not cringe every time a vehicle overtakes my car, or they honk for me to clear the lane for them to speed away. I just stay put if I feel that I can not do anything, and wait for them to realize that I am a new driver and hence they should be slightly accommodating.


Dieting.. I am starting today on it again, in fact I feel ashamed to be saying this, but I have been very irregular with my diet regime. But, one thing I do know is that I need to feel good about myself... which would also translate into I want to feel that I look good. There are times when that doesn't happen and then the diet and gym starts off on full rigor. I understand that these two are not going to give me any instant gratification, but it is a start to a healthy living. In my current lifestyle, I know that I do intake more calories than that is required for my body. This is the reason I try to track all my food and physical activities using www.dailyplate.com. I think it proved very useful for me as seeing the rich food which I was eating helped me cut down and also strive to include more physical activities so that I can eat a little bit more of more liked stuff !!  Yes... I know..I am dieting but there are some foods, read chips and fried stuff, which is impossible for me to avoid completely from my diet. Anyone I guess would agree that eventually you do live to have the small joys of life... and my small joys would be contained in a packet with fried potato slices laden with spices!

Yellow and Green Pasta

There are days when we wanna have a very quick meal... meaning we are famished and we are ready to scream at each other if there is nothing on the table in less than 15 mins. One of those days was recently, and we decided we shall have a Green and Yellow pasta :) I had some Arabiatta sauce and penne pasta at home. B rummaged through the fridge and came up with capsicum, american corn, peas and baby corn. So we christened what we are gonna attempt, as the Yellow and Green pasta.. 


What did he do?
Chucked the penne into boiling water, chopped finely the capsicum and baby corn, and poured a cup of hot water into the bowl containing peas and american corn to thaw it. Took a pan, poured olive oil, tossed the capsicum, then when they were there for a minute or two maybe, he put in the baby corn. Both were browned a little, then came the sauce, which was generously added, along with a little remaining tomato puree which was also found in the fridge. Check whether the pasta is done, then add a little oil, mix and strain. Let the sauce with the veggies warm a little, then add the american corn and peas and bring it to a slight boil. Now he just shoved in the pasta little by little mixing it continuously, and voila we had food to eat in less than 15 mins!

It was yummy and every single bite was eaten sitting peacefully in front of the Idiot box. That is an example of a very satisfying dinner which was served to me !

Hampi - A roll back in time

Hampi is one of those places which have been on my list of places to be seen before I leave Bangalore. The  others being Bandipur Forest Reserve, Wayanad ( in spite of being a Malayali I have not been here), Coorg etc. These are the places where everyone I know has been to, so finding a group to go to such places is also a task in itself. Considering this, we decided to go to Hampi ourselves, just the two of us... maybe like a honeymoon in India too :)


We took the Hampi Express late at night, and drank all the way into the night, as we had a First class cabin.. and moreover the one which has just 2 berths !!What luck ! So drunk as we were, we decided it was time to sleep around 2 in the morning, and we slept quite well too, the only problem being that when we woke up we realized, we had already passed Hospete and now we were at least 2 stop after. We rushed to the TT and explained that we overslept, trying our level best to ensure we were not smelling of alcohol! So he asked us to alight at the next station and take a general train back to Hospete, and that is what we did. But, just that the general train was worse that Bombay locals... I never knew such locals existed in Karnataka, but now I now.. they do in the north of Karnatala.


Anyhow, we reached Hospete finally around 10 as compared to 8 in the morning, and we chose to take the bus out to Hampi rather than a 100 rupee auto ride. The buses are not over crowded, they are clean and they run every 20 mins from the Hospete Bus station which is a km from the railway station. On reaching Hampi... we can looked up Shanti Guest House and heard good reviews about it too. It was on the other side of the river, so we took the ferry out, and Shanti Guest House is almost at the end of the road on the opposite side of the river where many shacks and guest houses exist. On seeing the rooms and the rates,we were not too pleased as we were sure that there would be many cheaper places with the same kind of rooms. Anyhow we stayed here, at the river facing room for 1200 a night, and then the next morning, took a walk and found a room at a much cheaper place called Gauthami Guest House. This place had amazing food and a very relaxed lounge like seating arrangement. Their restaurant is called World Peace Cafe, which served amazing pancakes and thupka!!


So after all the acco related issues were resolved, we got out and got ourselves a tourist guide book, and set about reaidng it and planning our next day! We were there for 3 days so we had the time and energy to readand know the history before heading out to each place. i have heard people tell me they have completely fallen in love with the place, and would be able to go back to it how many ever times you say. Frankly speaking, I was not that fascinated with it as it was made to sound. It is a place where you would go to see and absorb history once, but it certainly would not feature on my repeat visit places. Or, maybe I am of a different kind of person, hence the difference in preference.


Here are some photos of the places we did go to, and my camera does no justice to the true beauty of rocks, but nevertheless, whats a travelogue without pics!

Tungabhadra River

Sunset at Hampi

Shanti Guest House

Temples at Hemakuta Hills

Virupaksha Temple

Remnants of the old bridge across the river

Step Tank

And the ever famous, Stone Chariot at Vittala Temple.

What happens...

It is very sad when friends who were once close to you start to drift away. You wonder whether is it knowingly, or is it the toll of fast paced lives, wherein they have no time for any mode of contact? But, can you really be that busy not to have time for any form of contact? I have friends who fall in the category of 'able to keep in contact' and ' not able to..' and I think how much ever you say you are busy and completely swarmed with work, there does come a time when you are free to breathe and get your life back into your hands. And, I believe this is the time when you can get back in touch with all those who you missed in the weeks behind you. Work and pressure of so many things today make one become so self involved, you forget you need family and friends to keep sanity! 

The thought which scares me with my one such ' not able to...' category friend is that, what shall happen when I do get more busy with my life? Then there shall be no more efforts from my end in the form of unanswered calls or unanswered smses.. and obviously no effort to call when time permits from their end. More importantly, I wonder whether there shall be time for me to call someone who chooses not to answer calls, or would I rather call and speak to those who would be there to talk to... Maybe this is the angry me speaking, so a more calm and subdued me says that.... I am the kind of person who would call and try to keep in touch with those who are closest to me inspite of however crazily busy they are. But, till when can I just keep calling and wanting to be a part of their life?