So, my wish came true and i did travel last weekend not to venice (:() but to mumbai.. This being the first time i visited mumbai I had high expectations of the city which is considered the most happening hub in our country. I must say I wasnt disappointed. The 1 and half days and 2 nights i stayed in mumbai have been the most hectic days i ‘ve had in a long time but u wont hear me complain(at all). Many of my friends who are hard core mumbaikars did warn me abt the fast paced and very crowded life of mumbai but since i am the eternal optimistic bangy(bangalore gal through n through) i thought i could handle the crowd. But the crowded rail ki gaddis which happens to be the most common form of transport to a lot of mumbaikars have humbled me and i’m still nursing my bruised ego. The trains in mumbai are a mini india in their own respect. The 20- 30 minutes i spent travelling by it made me realise that secularism is still active in india and normal folks like us make the fights between the political parties(based on religions) seem unnecessary and quite childish. In such a short span of time u get to see life going on harmoniously without cultures’ divide causing conflict. The most memorable aspect of the train ride was when a hatta khatta sardarji started laughing quite loudly over something a suited(he was wearing a tie n pretty formal clothes) and booted mumbaikar said and everybody joined in. I have travelled in buses in bangalore for quite some time now and i can honestly say that nothing of that sort happens in bangalore (:()unless of course u r with friends and are trying ur hardest to bring the roof down(metaphorically:)). Unfortunately the getting on and getting off the train freaked my mom out so much that we travelled in cabs for the rest of the journey..

Mumbai i noticed seems to have contrasting roads(lives) connected by a bend in the road. Wat i mean is while travelling in the cab i saw a road containing houses of families who looked quite down their luck and next bend brought me to this place with lots of  establishments with posh looking apartments etc.. quite a difference….

Of course I saw all the usual haunts like Gateway of India, Elephanta caves, Marina drive, the beaches and I must say the new bridge connecting bhandra and worli allows for a heavenly ride.

In all, the trip to mumbai was an experience that i would love to repeat but only when i need a pick me up and i’m bored of my comfortable and moderately paced life in good old bangalore..(i still maintain that nothing can compare to bangalore)..

until the next time

regards

joila..

So after a long time i’m finally writing again..

This time, because i’m so ready to get out of this funk i’m in right now.Some ppl who know me will probably exclaim right now saying atasi is using words like funk! (yes yes to these ppl i’m actually gonna try n use some cliched rap words if i can:P).

Anybody who knows me even a little bit will know that i love travelling and i complain when i have to stay in one place for too long. I guess two yrs of NITK suratkal Girls hostel III block is getting to me. And the fact that i’m hearing about how other ppl spent their holidays visiting new places while i worked on a project in same old bangalore doesnt help at all…. So i’ve decided to make a list of all the places that i want to visit atleast once in my lifetime. This way when i make plans to visit these said places I can travel in a virtual manner( internet,love it).

The first place on this list is Venice.

I dont know why but ever since I heard about a city built on a network of bridges and canals with small islands in between and where boats (gondolas) are the basic transportation means I’ve been wanting to go to this place. Venice is often romanticised and some ppl feel that it is highly overrated and to those ppl I say look, Venic is one place that Man can say he has built and can claim that it is as beautiful as nature itself.(donot misunderstand me, nobody can compete with nature but  we can surely agree on the fact that Venice has brought together technology and nature in the most beautiful manner possible.) Its stone canals show us a beauty which is by no means delicate but is as compelling nevertheless. The Venetian buildings are a work of art and have stood steady in these times when minimalistic architecture is the norm.At the same time Venice is in no way backward when it comes to technology and science.

The architecture, the people and the general atmosphere of the place gives you an old world feeling and you feel like you are in the 1800’s again, a time when ppl were just learning about technology and hadn’t yet been completely consumed by it and hence had a much better understanding of nature and hence were at peace with nature, a time when life moved at a slower pace and nobody was in a hurry. (Some might say that life’s been made a lot more easier with technology and hence has to be appreciated but sometimes i feel that technology has made us unappreciative of simple things in life).

So…., going back Venice is called the CITY OF LIGHTS. I saw a pic and i must say the name is justified. I hope i get to see it in its full glory sometime. So tonight when i go to sleep i hope i dream about riding(driving??,boating??) on a gondola traipsing thru the bridges and canals of Venice and slow down a bit and take a breakk from this life which has become too cluttered for my taste. Hopefully by tomorrow morning i’ll have satisfied this itch i’ve got for travelling.

Hoping to become sane…                                                                                                                                                                                                       till i write again……

regards

Joila..

This dark night the 15th of may 2009, I heard a sound that unlike anything else has compelled me to write about it in a very long time.(write about anything actually)
It sounded so much like a wolf calling out to its fellow maates that i am almost convinced that there is a wolf lurking  around here in the concrete jungle called bangalore,atleast in spirit because i refuse to believe that keening soulful and melancholy sound could have come from any city dog..
This takes me back to those times when the world was filled with tree filled jungles and the animals like the great wolf ruled the forests through their fearless manner and a cunning sense of survival that according to me is not even possessed by the supposed king of the jungle, the lion
In those times just as now in few of the remaining forests of the world,the wolves moved in packs consisting of an alpha male and two or at the maximum three females and roamed the wild to their heart’s content and keeping off the territory of other packs.
I have always had a fascination for wolves, them being my favourite animals of the dog species’,(the panther being my favourite in the cat species’) ever since I found out that the dogs i love so much come from such a rich and noble pedigree that has inspired so many legends.And I’ve grown older, my fascination with wolves hasn’t diminished at all.. may be because of those myths fuelled only by the many adaptations of legends on the television, my constant companion through all these years.
Some of these adaptations appealed to me since they dealt with the evolution of human from wolves or transformation of a human being into a wolf (Manga lovers: read former reference to wolf’s rain). All of this obsession wasnt in any way helped by the overlapping over the legends of werewolves and vampires, my other fascination.
Sometimes I’ve wondered whether these legends have some truth in them.. Anyways coming back to the real world, wolves have shown a remarkble adaptability to living with humans be it as hunting companions, as a mode of transport, or plainly as the best friend of humans; please understand that I consider trained dogs as belonging to wolf family even if they have somehow tamed their wild natures for us, because in no way have they lost their fierceness and if not for their loyal natures could be just like their ancestors.
(But some people have for no other reason i can understand other than sheer stupidity tried to change these wonderful creatures into some kind of weird showpieces so that they look like a sideshow at a circus.)
If given a chance and if there are such people as animorphs I would like to borrow their power and turn myself into a wolf and see the world through his/her eyes and it will be an experience that I will always cherish and be grateful for as being a wolf might finally let me understand these mysterious creatures.(so any animorphs out there please contact me..)
Wolves are very free creatures, what I mean is they have freedom to roam around and the fierceness to actually survive in the wild. And I often wonder if my fascination for them has to do with these very qualities. Maybe they closely resemble that part of me which longs to be free of the constraints of a human life and wants to test if I could ever be truly selfsufficient and if I could ever be as fierce.

PS: It would be stupid of me not to mention the growing crisis that number of wolves or for that matter many of the wild animals in the world are steadily growing smaller and smaller. This is happening because of the thoughtlessness of man and the total disregard many of the human race have for fellow creatures. Therefore I send out an honest appeal to everyone to try to bring back a balance to the world’s ecosystem.

Mr Darcy, the most contradicting character i’ve read about in a book.

Isn’t he the most arrogant man i’ve come across in the fictious world?? And isn’t arrogance a quality I totally abhor in a person.. Yet somehow Mr.Darcy has to date been the most interesting person i’ve read about. It might be because i read Pride and Prejudice when I was a kid (read 6th std) that i still have conflicting opinions of him. Meaning that I had already formed an opinion that he might a introverted ,not a people’s person but a good man nevertheless, before i realised that i did not like certain character flaws in people..

Still the fact remains that Mr.Darcy is one of the most memorable characters that Jane Austen ever created(most of my friends would attest to this fact ).

PS: rooma not included in above list.

Jane Austen

A wonderful writer, brings together realism, irony and class in a very simplistic manner.

Prideand Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Sense and Sensibility, Emma: her famous novels

In all the above mentioned books there is a fairy tale like atmosphere with the only exception that the female protagonist is not a simpering idiot but with a mind of her own, has strong opinions and is not afraid to let anyone know them.

Having said that i would like to add that sadly all of her stories tend to be very similar and make the reader feel that if you have read one , you have read them all.

No discussion about Pride and Prejudice is ever complete without mentioning the female lead.

Elizabeth Bennet  (my hero) : the best Jane Austen character according to me though Fanny Price comes a close second    ( hero of Mansfield Park). Her potrayal is the best writing of Jane Austen. The courage, strength, self respect, confidence, belief in oneself, the sense to realise one’s mistakes and the ability to recognise one’s feelings without any doubt or regret  are few of the many qualities i’ve never actually come across in any other character; Elizabeth would never bend to anybody’s wills unless she herself wished to. Even though i’ve turned into a slightly cynical creature, Elizabeth still remains as my hero.

Fanny Price: another character that made an impact on me. She had an insight to the character(as in verb) of all the other characters(as in noun)which impressed me very much.

It has been a pleasure to finally write about one of my favourite books. I hope to be more consistent in my writing.

Until later,

Johila (joi-la).

ok… no clue what i’m doin here…….

just wanted to vent some feelings i guess….

Today i got the biggest disappointment in my life. something that may actually cripple me for life. The one thing I realised is ppl are never who you actually think them to be. There are bound to be a few things you donot happen to know about ppl you think you know and can trust. One other thing is that somebody close to you might, why might they will definitely hurt you at one point or the other……………………..

 

 

 

sometimes i really believe this but i thoought i had gotten over it.. have i ??

 no i guess… will i ever???

no that wud change who i am right now n i donna think i wud ever want to do that….

 

 

nothing in this world is definite, not the earth not the weather not the emotions you feel right the next minute therefore i shouldn’t really be surprised that i am becoming dumber and dumber as i grow older. it is change; not the kind i expected or wanted but it happened. so right now the only thing to do is try and find out what went wrong with me and try and correct it. this is a phase in my life ( i hope) that i  want to outgrow but cannot seem to.

if something of urs doesn’t work for two times continuously does that mean i need to give it up?

try try until u succeed… very brave words uttered by some optimistic fool..

do i need this right now??

how many times do i have to try??

y??

y me??

sometimes life just sucks to the core, doesn’t it????

wat is that …??
it’s my bot
the most idiotic thing in the whole world
why u ask??
coz it has no coordination even wen it fails….