Uniquely Singapore!

On my way to begin my second innings of college life at College Station, Texas, I had decided junket Singapore as I haven’t explored other parts of Asia…After completing my visit, I would say its a pretty good decision that I made…Singapore is unique, in many ways…

First, the good things…though smaller in size, Singapore must be an excellently planned city…the transportation facilities are superb…you can spot malls everywhere…especially the Orchard road, which has giant malls which house all international brands…if you are a shopping freak, you must definitely have to visit Singapore once in your lifetime…it has everything…Chinese, Indian, Italian, French, US, Japanese, name a product and you will get it here…It has a district named China Town which reflects the culture of Chinese and their shops…There’s Little India too which is the only place where you can find garbage on the roads (as it is little India)…

Veera Maakaali Temple, Little India

you have Sentosa Island which is a resort & theme park where you can spend one full day exploring different stuffs…there’s a butterfly park inside Sentosa which houses around 250 species of butterflies which come and sit on you when you enter..and the 4D theater they have makes you feel like the crabs are rallyticklig your legs when you are watching Pirates…for kids, it will be a really nice experience (I am not saying that the grown-ups cannot enjoy)…

I had a great time here exploring different things…and for the adventure part, I held a living snake on my shoulders and taken a reverse bungi jump (going about 60 meters from the ground at 200 kph)…

And the bad part comes here…As everyone say, Singapore is a fine city…I mean, you will have to pay a hefty fine for even a petty misdeed…thats what keeps Singapore clean and going…the rules here are very strict unlike other countries…and the people are not at all happy about that…they feel they lack freedom, and YES, they do…you cannot comment on any government official in public or the media…if you do, you will be royally screwed…even in elections its a monopoly and a dynasty and the people are afraid to vote against the candidates…the politicians are paid a huge sum (which is completely tax-free which you can never imagine) to avoid corruption but a taxi-driver has to pay a road tax of S$3500 for 6 months…thats how the life here is…

Sorgame endraalum, adhu nammoora pola varumaa? (Even if it is heaven, can it match our mother land?)….

PS: And my journey continues from here…I have a 24.5 hours flight tonight which surely will make me tired…will catch up with you guys once I get settled down…

This is how a trip shouldn’t be – Part 2

You can reach the first part of this post by clicking here

When we landed in Florence station it was almost 10PM. I had the route map to reach our hotel from the station. Florence is almost like any Indian city. So many lanes and damn dirty streets. It was not an easy task for us to find the hotel even after having the exact route map. It was not a separate building. The hotel was running on a part of the 2nd floor of a building. Some how we have managed to find it. We grabbed some water bottles on the way and reached our room as we were feeling very thirsty…after opening the bottle only we realised that our clever friend has bought Sparkling water (namma oor soda) instead of Still water (Florence vandha udane ellam sari aayidumnu nenachom…continue aagudhe Sivagami)…without any options, we had to drink it somehow and sleep…we were having a hectic plan for the remaining 3 days…

The next day morning we woke up on time. We had the breakfast in the hotel itself as it was free. Since the coffee was unlimited, tasty and most importantly free, I had 3 cups…we had actually booked a different hotel and paid the advance…but on the day of our travel we got a mail from the hotel that they had to cancel the booking due to some technical reasons…they also told us that we can collect the advance (25 Euros) in person when we reach Florence…we decided to spend 3 hours in Florence and catch the 10:45 train to Rome…2.5 hours for sight seeing and 30 minutes for finding our old hotel and getting back the money…we completed the sight seeing on time but couldn’t succeed in locating the hotel in 30 minutes in messy Florence…it added to the delay and when we reached the station it was 11:15…already all kinds of sounds were coming from my bowels as the 3 cups of coffee was doing its job perfectly…

We bought a ticket for the 11:45 train and were waiting for the train with all due expectation…all the announcements made in the station were in Italian making us yelling ‘what the hell is going on here?’…we finally got to know from a person that our train is delayed by 45 minutes (kadavule)…it has taken a toll on all our Rome plans…when we reached Rome it was 3 and when we reached Vatican it was 4’O clock…but the most important Sistine Chappell and the Vatican Basilica were closed …so we just roamed around the Vatican city (smallest city) and went on in search of our hotel in Rome…

The transport facilities in Rome deserve a special mention here…one of the best I have seen…but our fate never left us…we got down at a wrong stop and walked for nearly an hour to find our hotel…I was totally drained off when we reached the hotel…my clever friend was pestering us to go to Vatican again the next day to see Sistine Chappell and the Basilica…finally everyone agreed that we will roam around Rome for the whole night and go to Vatican the next day (DAMN!!!!)…without having dinner, with a Rome city map and a Coke tin in hand, I started walking with the guys…we started off with Colosseum and walked through Roman Forum (nothing but dilapidated pillars), Trevi fountain (what a fountain man…marvelous), Piazza Nuvona and Spanish steps…when we returned back to our room it was 3:30…we had already decided to go to Colosseum by 7:30 to avoid crowd and reach Vatican soon…

When we woke up the next day, nobody was there in the hotel which means no breakfast…imagine rambling for the whole night without dinner and waking up by 6 and without breakfast starting to do the same thing again…one of the most terrible days in my life…we completed seeing Colosseum on time and had a look at the Museum and the tomb of unknown soldier and headed to Vatican…when we reached Vatican we realized that we had just missed Pope’s Easter speech (who cares)…we also realized that Sistine Chappell is closed on Easter’s day…Enna koduma sir idhu?…we just had a look at the Basilica and rushed to the Roma Termini station to catch the next available train to Venice…

We bought a ticket for 1:30 train and realized we had enough time for lunch…we just entered the McD opposite to the station…there were no Veg options…only myself and one of the guys were Veggies…all others were omnivorous…the guy somehow managed to convey in English that Veggie burger is available…without asking anything further, we ordered for it…when it came, we both hesitated to bite it as we both were skeptical on what was inside…finally, my friend has done it…he has got his first byte , oh sorry bite of the so-called Veggie burger…he grinned and told me, it is Veg only…habbaaa…Sighs…curiously, I had taken out the bun and looked into it…my God!!!nothing was there between the buns…only cucumber, lettuce, tomato and onions…where the hell is burger?…I immediately called the waiter and asked the same question…he told ‘this is what Veggie burger is sir’ (‘adhaanga idhu’ style)…for the voracious appetite we had, we were not in a mood to have an altercation…we just had that burger-sandwich and left the place on time to catch the train to Venice…

That ends the worst part of our Italy trip…the best part of our Italy trip, Venice, will be discussed in a separate post…

This is how a trip shouldn’t be – Part 2

You can reach the first part of this post by clicking here

When we landed in Florence station it was almost 10PM. I had the route map to reach our hotel from the station. Florence is almost like any Indian city. So many lanes and damn dirty streets. It was not an easy task for us to find the hotel even after having the exact route map. It was not a separate building. The hotel was running on a part of the 2nd floor of a building. Some how we have managed to find it. We grabbed some water bottles on the way and reached our room as we were feeling very thirsty…after opening the bottle only we realised that our clever friend has bought Sparkling water (namma oor soda) instead of Still water (Florence vandha udane ellam sari aayidumnu nenachom…continue aagudhe Sivagami)…without any options, we had to drink it somehow and sleep…we were having a hectic plan for the remaining 3 days…

The next day morning we woke up on time. We had the breakfast in the hotel itself as it was free. Since the coffee was unlimited, tasty and most importantly free, I had 3 cups…we had actually booked a different hotel and paid the advance…but on the day of our travel we got a mail from the hotel that they had to cancel the booking due to some technical reasons…they also told us that we can collect the advance (25 Euros) in person when we reach Florence…we decided to spend 3 hours in Florence and catch the 10:45 train to Rome…2.5 hours for sight seeing and 30 minutes for finding our old hotel and getting back the money…we completed the sight seeing on time but couldn’t succeed in locating the hotel in 30 minutes in messy Florence…it added to the delay and when we reached the station it was 11:15…already all kinds of sounds were coming from my bowels as the 3 cups of coffee was doing its job perfectly…

We bought a ticket for the 11:45 train and were waiting for the train with all due expectation…all the announcements made in the station were in Italian making us yelling ‘what the hell is going on here?’…we finally got to know from a person that our train is delayed by 45 minutes (kadavule)…it has taken a toll on all our Rome plans…when we reached Rome it was 3 and when we reached Vatican it was 4’O clock…but the most important Sistine Chappell and the Vatican Basilica were closed …so we just roamed around the Vatican city (smallest city) and went on in search of our hotel in Rome…

The transport facilities in Rome deserve a special mention here…one of the best I have seen…but our fate never left us…we got down at a wrong stop and walked for nearly an hour to find our hotel…I was totally drained off when we reached the hotel…my clever friend was pestering us to go to Vatican again the next day to see Sistine Chappell and the Basilica…finally everyone agreed that we will roam around Rome for the whole night and go to Vatican the next day (DAMN!!!!)…without having dinner, with a Rome city map and a Coke tin in hand, I started walking with the guys…we started off with Colosseum and walked through Roman Forum (nothing but dilapidated pillars), Trevi fountain (what a fountain man…marvelous), Piazza Nuvona and Spanish steps…when we returned back to our room it was 3:30…we had already decided to go to Colosseum by 7:30 to avoid crowd and reach Vatican soon…

When we woke up the next day, nobody was there in the hotel which means no breakfast…imagine rambling for the whole night without dinner and waking up by 6 and without breakfast starting to do the same thing again…one of the most terrible days in my life…we completed seeing Colosseum on time and had a look at the Museum and the tomb of unknown soldier and headed to Vatican…when we reached Vatican we realized that we had just missed Pope’s Easter speech (who cares)…we also realized that Sistine Chappell is closed on Easter’s day…Enna koduma sir idhu?…we just had a look at the Basilica and rushed to the Roma Termini station to catch the next available train to Venice…

We bought a ticket for 1:30 train and realized we had enough time for lunch…we just entered the McD opposite to the station…there were no Veg options…only myself and one of the guys were Veggies…all others were omnivorous…the guy somehow managed to convey in English that Veggie burger is available…without asking anything further, we ordered for it…when it came, we both hesitated to bite it as we both were skeptical on what was inside…finally, my friend has done it…he has got his first byte , oh sorry bite of the so-called Veggie burger…he grinned and told me, it is Veg only…habbaaa…Sighs…curiously, I had taken out the bun and looked into it…my God!!!nothing was there between the buns…only cucumber, lettuce, tomato and onions…where the hell is burger?…I immediately called the waiter and asked the same question…he told ‘this is what Veggie burger is sir’ (‘adhaanga idhu’ style)…for the voracious appetite we had, we were not in a mood to have an altercation…we just had that burger-sandwich and left the place on time to catch the train to Venice…

That ends the worst part of our Italy trip…the best part of our Italy trip, Venice, will be discussed in a separate post…

This is how a trip shouldn’t be – Part I

For a change, a lighter topic. This is about our Italy Trip. We have visited Italy during the Easter holidays of 2007 from UK.

My Italy trip photos

I always draft a plan for any trip that I make (never made a plan for my work in office till date )…before Italy, we made a trip to Paris for which I made a plan which had the complete list of activities for all 4 days listing even the train and station details and maps…but for Italy some how I missed out on the planning part…might be because I was not very sure of making it to Italy as my Onsite tenure was at the verge of being over…I left the task of booking the flight tickets from London to Italy to one of my friends…thats one of the biggest mistakes I have committed for which I still regret…Italy had quite a few places to see unlike France where we visited only Paris…some of the places were at the north end of Italy and some were at the south most…my clever friend, for saving few pounds has booked both the to and fro tickets from Milan which was at the northern part of Italy…the most beautiful thing is before booking the tickets we never had Milan in the itinerary as there are no interesting places to see in Milan …

So, our journey started from London’s Luton airport through Ryan Air, one of the cheapest operators in Europe…The flight reached Milan on time but we found that the Milan airport is more than 45 minutes of travel from the city from where we were supposed to take a train to Pisa…we were able to get the bus ticket but then when we reached Milan station, we were astonished by the crowd waiting for the train tickets (mostly desis out on holidays)…we cursed ourselves for not booking the tickets through Internet and started standing in the queue…Did I tell that we didn’t book the train tickets through Internet in order to save some Euros…but our ultimate objective was not met as we got only the EuroStar Italia tickets which are the costliest amongst all…after getting into the train only we realized that the tickets for only for the journey and do not assure any seat…but luckily, Italian trains are pretty neat unlike Indian trains…so, somehow we were able to manage near the Toilet

We had to get down at one of the stations to catch another train which will take us to Pisa…this time we got seats but we ended up paying penalty of 25 Euros for not punching our tickets on the station before getting into the train (as they were open trains)…we tried to explain to the TTR (whatever be his designation), but went in vain as he doesn’t understand English…he should have told us in the beginning itself…he quietly watched us explaining the reasons for 10 minutes and told that he doesn’t know English (Italy Kusumbu)…some how we managed to reach Pisa by 4′O clock in the evening (out of 4 days one full day almost over without seeing anything)…Since I had already taken print-outs of the bus names and train timings we were able to locate the bus which will take us to Pisa tower…

After spending 2 hours at the leaning tower of Pisa, Cathedral and the Museum we felt hungry…I suggested my friends that we can have Pizza (my fault) as Italy is the origin of Pizza…we entered a shop where it was written as ‘Pizzeria’…but to confirm we asked the shopwala ‘Pizza’, he told ‘Yeah…Pizza’…so we were confident that we will get Pizza there and ordered for Margherita (the only Veggie pizza that we were able to make out from the names)…we ordered for 3 Margheritas and 3 Latte Cafes (Italy is famous for coffee as well)…when one of our friends (who was very hungry) immediately got into action and tried to bite the Pizza…’taka taka taka tatttt’..sound of his tooth getting broken…it was very late when we realized that Italian Pizzerias are not the Pizzas that we get in Pizza Hut and Domino’s…whatever we eat is the customized version made by Americans…but we were not having any
options left but to eat them…it was very late and the last train from Pisa to Florence was at 7:30 PM…

we finished the Pizzerias, had the coffee (wow…awesome taste…even my mom’s filter coffee cannot compete with this) and went to the bus stop…no bus came for 15 minutes…we were trembled and clueless on what to do…no Taxis were there…we were already under big confusion on the traffic system as it is totally opposite to Indian and UK and similar to what is there in US…so we didn’t want to take the risk of walking to the train station as within 1 days time we escaped from 3 accidents while crossing the roads as we were unable to figure out from which side the vehicles will come…we held our breath and prayed the almighty for sending some special bus…there it was, an empty bus with destination written in ‘Italian’…who bothers about where it is going, we immediately got into the bus and asked the driver ‘Train station’…we wanted him to say yes and indeed he said ‘yes’…we had a sigh of relief…just on time we got into the station and caught the train to Florence, our next destination on the plan….

Our adventures and unforgettable experiences in Florence and Rome will be shared in Part II soon…

This is how a trip shouldn’t be – Part I

For a change, a lighter topic. This is about our Italy Trip. We have visited Italy during the Easter holidays of 2007 from UK.

My Italy trip photos

I always draft a plan for any trip that I make (never made a plan for my work in office till date )…before Italy, we made a trip to Paris for which I made a plan which had the complete list of activities for all 4 days listing even the train and station details and maps…but for Italy some how I missed out on the planning part…might be because I was not very sure of making it to Italy as my Onsite tenure was at the verge of being over…I left the task of booking the flight tickets from London to Italy to one of my friends…thats one of the biggest mistakes I have committed for which I still regret…Italy had quite a few places to see unlike France where we visited only Paris…some of the places were at the north end of Italy and some were at the south most…my clever friend, for saving few pounds has booked both the to and fro tickets from Milan which was at the northern part of Italy…the most beautiful thing is before booking the tickets we never had Milan in the itinerary as there are no interesting places to see in Milan …

So, our journey started from London’s Luton airport through Ryan Air, one of the cheapest operators in Europe…The flight reached Milan on time but we found that the Milan airport is more than 45 minutes of travel from the city from where we were supposed to take a train to Pisa…we were able to get the bus ticket but then when we reached Milan station, we were astonished by the crowd waiting for the train tickets (mostly desis out on holidays)…we cursed ourselves for not booking the tickets through Internet and started standing in the queue…Did I tell that we didn’t book the train tickets through Internet in order to save some Euros…but our ultimate objective was not met as we got only the EuroStar Italia tickets which are the costliest amongst all…after getting into the train only we realized that the tickets for only for the journey and do not assure any seat…but luckily, Italian trains are pretty neat unlike Indian trains…so, somehow we were able to manage near the Toilet

We had to get down at one of the stations to catch another train which will take us to Pisa…this time we got seats but we ended up paying penalty of 25 Euros for not punching our tickets on the station before getting into the train (as they were open trains)…we tried to explain to the TTR (whatever be his designation), but went in vain as he doesn’t understand English…he should have told us in the beginning itself…he quietly watched us explaining the reasons for 10 minutes and told that he doesn’t know English (Italy Kusumbu)…some how we managed to reach Pisa by 4′O clock in the evening (out of 4 days one full day almost over without seeing anything)…Since I had already taken print-outs of the bus names and train timings we were able to locate the bus which will take us to Pisa tower…

After spending 2 hours at the leaning tower of Pisa, Cathedral and the Museum we felt hungry…I suggested my friends that we can have Pizza (my fault) as Italy is the origin of Pizza…we entered a shop where it was written as ‘Pizzeria’…but to confirm we asked the shopwala ‘Pizza’, he told ‘Yeah…Pizza’…so we were confident that we will get Pizza there and ordered for Margherita (the only Veggie pizza that we were able to make out from the names)…we ordered for 3 Margheritas and 3 Latte Cafes (Italy is famous for coffee as well)…when one of our friends (who was very hungry) immediately got into action and tried to bite the Pizza…’taka taka taka tatttt’..sound of his tooth getting broken…it was very late when we realized that Italian Pizzerias are not the Pizzas that we get in Pizza Hut and Domino’s…whatever we eat is the customized version made by Americans…but we were not having any
options left but to eat them…it was very late and the last train from Pisa to Florence was at 7:30 PM…

we finished the Pizzerias, had the coffee (wow…awesome taste…even my mom’s filter coffee cannot compete with this) and went to the bus stop…no bus came for 15 minutes…we were trembled and clueless on what to do…no Taxis were there…we were already under big confusion on the traffic system as it is totally opposite to Indian and UK and similar to what is there in US…so we didn’t want to take the risk of walking to the train station as within 1 days time we escaped from 3 accidents while crossing the roads as we were unable to figure out from which side the vehicles will come…we held our breath and prayed the almighty for sending some special bus…there it was, an empty bus with destination written in ‘Italian’…who bothers about where it is going, we immediately got into the bus and asked the driver ‘Train station’…we wanted him to say yes and indeed he said ‘yes’…we had a sigh of relief…just on time we got into the station and caught the train to Florence, our next destination on the plan….

Our adventures and unforgettable experiences in Florence and Rome will be shared in Part II soon…

My Lovely London Life

After 6 months of travail at Cardiff, UK as a production support person for a mission critical system, there was a welcome change in my life. As my tenure was over, the management had decided to transfer me to London for a development work there by extending my stay at Onsite. I was very excited about staying and working in London but at the same lamented about missing Cardiff and Cardiff friends. I was very apprehensive about my accommodation in London as nothing was confirmed. Except for one of my friends who was already in London, I did not know anybody that time. As the project belonged to Kolkata TCS all my colleagues were from West Bengal. With all these dreads surrounding me, I headed my way to London.

All my colleagues were staying in a Paying Guest run by a Gujarati. Its not a proper PG. Most of the Gujjus in London rent a house with 3 or 4 bed room, they stay in 1 and leave remaining 3 for PG. I decided to stay there for time being till I find a better accommodation. But I could not become adapted to that milieu as a small room was shared by 4 persons and 2 rest rooms were shared by 12 people! Though the food provided was good and more importantly pure Vegetarian, some how I felt very uncomfortable staying there and decided to move out immediately.

During my previous junkets to London, I had visited East Ham for having food. East Ham is a Tamilian enclave. You can find the shop names written in Tamil. You can find Saravana Bhavan, Vasantha Bhavan and all hotels of that genre. After few months of eating only rice and North Indian food at Cardiff, having Idli,Dosa with coconut chatni at East Ham was a treat for my gustatory glands. My friend told that I can find the list of available accommodations in front of all the shops near East Ham tube station. One fine evening I rushed there and noted down all single room accommodations and finally got settled with one in East Ham itself there by ensuring good food

Oh! sorry…some how we have digressed from the actual subject. Lets come back to my lovely London life. My office was not at all in London. It was in Brentwood which was on the way from London to Ipswich. There was a train starting from Liverpool station which I can catch at Manor Park (the near by station from my place) which will take me straight to Brentwood, but I have to shell out 60 Pounds a week. Alternatively, I have to go by bus from my place to Manor Park, catch the same train, get down at Romford instead of Brentwood, catch another bus from there to Brentwood which would cost me only 22 Pounds a week. I chose the later like most of the other desis. Problem with UK is, be it a train or a bus, it comes on time. But we Indians are never used to such kind of strict punctuality. I had to wake up by 6′O clock every day, rush to the station to catch the 7:45 train, reach bus stop on time to catch the 8:30 bus to reach office by 9. It was a 1.5 hrs of journey from my place.

My customer manager was a Scottish born whose accent most of the times makes you scratch your head and tell him ‘Pardon me’. My colleagues were Bengalis who never discussed about anything in Hindi or English. So I was clueless for the first few days about what was going on…if that was the case, why the hell I am calling my London life as ‘Lovely’? It is because of the fun filled weekends I had in London.

Through my friend, I was introduced to a BIG group of TCS guys from Chennai. Most of them were of my age and were working in a different office which was at the center of London. All the guys were down to earth and fun loving. We formed a group and started playing cricket every weekend at the near by park. If we start by 12 PM after having a heavy lunch at Suvai Chettinad Restaurant, it went on till 8 PM in the evening (Sun light was there till 10!). It was the time when World Cup was going on…if there was any Indian team match, we promptly assemble at one of our guy’s room and make as much as noise as possible…If there was no cricket, then people can spot us at Central London…There was no place left in London without our foot prints. If every thing is boring and nobody gives company, I used to go to Piccadilli Circus and do shopping or window shopping (mostly) in the shops in and around Oxford Street and Oxford Circus. Such a lovely ambience in the shops…a nice way to pass time is shopping, at least window shopping if you are bothered about your budget crippling you

During the weekends, the tube, especially the Central line is always overcrowded…u can see people of all ethnicities in London…a true cosmopolitan city…girls at London are a treat to watch…but I feel a desi in a saree titillates more than a blonde in a décolleté frock…don’t know whether this is the case only with me or all the desi guys out there abroad…Paki gals in London deserve a special mention here…at times, our group use to curse Gandhi for accepting Jinnah’s proposal of 2 separate nations…

I never felt like staying away from home because of the new friends I got at London…I was there in London only for two months and a few more days… but the fantastic time we had will never be forgotten…

Yethapur – Unforgettable reminiscences

I was out of my blog for 3 days, not because of I was out of topic but because I have got some other higher priority things to be completed (he he he…i m not completely vetti )…this is one post which has been in the queue since I started blogging…a post everyone would love to share with others…a topic which makes me feel light whenever I discuss about it…I am gonna write about my native place…

I born in a small village called Yethapur in Salem district, Tamilnadu…I did my schooling till my SSLC there and then moved to Madurai…but even today I ruminate over the reminiscences of that beautiful village…

In last week of January, I happened to go to Salem to attend my cousin’s marriage…so, I had a well etched plan of going to my village to see whether there had been any changes…its been more than 4 years since I visited…there was hardly any changes except I could see a conspicuous reduction in the population…younger generations have compelled and made their family move to bigger towns just like how we did 10 years back…

I should dilate more about the village…it is 36 kms from Salem…the Village is on the banks of a small river called ‘Vashishta nadhi’…though its a small village with less than 10K population, it is self contained…it has schools upto 12th standard, it has a govt hospital and a police station…above all, it has a very nice ‘agraharam’ where I lived…the ‘agraharam’ has a Siva temple on one end and a Vishnu temple on other end…there is a Bajan Matt amidst of them…so, just try to imagine how beautiful it wud be…though the temples are relatively smaller than what we have in cities, they are very special and have unparalleled reasons to be unique…the Siva temple is one of the rarest of its kind in Taminadu…during the Tamil month ‘margazhi’ (between December-January), during early morning, the Sun light directly falls on the Lingam…there is no window…there is no holes on the wall…the ray of light enters the temple straight, goes between the antlers of Nandhi and falls on Siva to form an aura…only very few temples in India have this unique architecture…

Siva Temple

Vishnu Temple – on the other end of the road

I spent a whole day there visiting my old neighbors’ families and of course the temples…it was disheartening to see the house where I stayed in a wrecked condition due to natural calamities and lack of overhaul…

The house where I born and lived for 16 years

I had been a very naughty boy in my childhood…my mom use to say I always teased others and thrown stones at them…i use to pull the necklaces of maamis (aunties) who lifted me…now they all raised their eye brows wondering how fast the time has past…when I turn back and see my childhood, now it looks like a dream…all the juvenile activities that I have done, fishing in the river, taking bath in pump sets, playing gully cricket on the shores of the river, throwing stones at the tamarind tree, climbing up guava trees, etc…i miss all those…

Vashishta Nadhi

though I cannot get back those days, the most cherished moments will never be forgotten…