The comments are back. I must thank Jag, who noticed there was an extra ‘e’ that had got blacklisted in line 602! That was what was causing problems with leaving comments on the blog.

Though I am sorely tempted to remove the comments box, I feel it’s an integral part of the blog and am not really keen to take that extreme step yet. The comments spam seems to be snowballing everyday. Jay Allen’s list is great and he updates it almost everyday. But it’s really becoming quite a pain updating the list and de-spamming the blog everyday.

(UPDATE: Madhu’s been working hard to make my blog spam free and I’m hoping that whatever he’s done to it, works! Thanks Madhu, I do owe you a dinner now :)

My experimentation with backlit photography during the last weekend trip to Bandipur and Ooty.

This was early morning at the guest house in Ooty. With the sun illuminating the flower from the back, it made a really pretty picture.

The ‘getting locked out’ of my own house was the bad thing that happened on Saturday. The good thing that happened was passing my driving test.

The wait for the RTO inspector stretched on for 3 hours. I nearly played hop-scotch on the pavement outside the RTO. To make matters doubly difficult, the driving school brought along its oldest Maruti - the one where you have to use all your force to step on the clutch to change a gear!

‘Drive’, said the inspector. Then, ‘take right’. ‘Now reverse’. ‘Now stop the car’.

That’s it! 3 minutes and it’s all over.

The system never ceases to amaze me :)

…of your own house, can be a frustrating experience.

I’ve been meaning to get duplicates made of my house key, but was procrastinating. Finally, what I was dreading happened. I locked myself out of the house. Getting ready to join Deki and Jil for Saturday lunch, I went downstairs to find out something from the watchman.

When I returned, I realised I had left my keys inside.

Then followed a 3-hour drama. First, trying to find a keymaker in the afternoon (you can’t imagine how tough it is!). Managed to locate one after about 2 hours and bring him back home. He did all kinds of permutation and combinations, but couldn’t manage to open the stubborn lock. Finally, the watchman pounded on the knob with a large hammer and pried it loose. By the time, the drama was over it was 4.00 pm. Cursed everyone and everything, especially myself for being such an idiot.

Missed my lunch date, of course, and rushed to Alliance Francaise, for my first class (already half-way through). Of course, I missed the whole alphabet and the pronounciations and it’s kind of hard to figure out what’s going on when you miss the basics.

Now, I plan to make a set of about 3-4 keys and distribute it amongst a few people so next time something like this happens, at least I won’t have to break open the door!

A pile of study material has arrived for a course I am completing via distance education (I started it years ago and could not finish it because I ran out of money. I am hoping to finish it now). I had kept in touch with one of my professors from the university and he told me I could finish my remaining credit points by doing the course, long distance. I was thrilled, since the possibility of going there to complete it, is pretty remote. So, wish me luck as I pore over tomes of media laws, ethics, communication methods and practice for the next few months.

French classes started this weekend and goes on for 3 months, thus effectively meaning I can’t travel anywhere for a while. Depressing thought as the trek gang is making plans to visit Honnemardu and I probably won’t be able to make it. But on the brighter side, it has taken me two years to make time to learn a language and I figure it’s better now than never.

Am half-way into a 2-week photography course with Anand Sharan this week. It’s a mad dash after work every evening as I have to traverse about 20 kms in peak hours from work (outskirts) to the main city where his studio is located. Learning new things everyday. Whether they will help me improve my clicking skills, time will tell. But as Sharan advises: “Get equipped with the basics. But after that shoot with your instinct and heart and don’t get too carried away by technicalities.”

I wonder if I take on too much sometimes. Why am I doing this? I have no clue, except that I am in this mad hurry, for reasons I have yet to figure out. Or maybe I do it, because I’m a really lazy person, who doesn’t want to give in to her lazy nature. At times, I’d rather just read a book, watch TV, play with Kit Kit and laze around. And then I think, there’s so much to do and so little time…

So if you notice a frazzled woman with dark circles, unkempt hair, dazed eyes, running around in all directions, that’s probably me :)

The latest deluge of MT comments spam is creating havoc. Though I am using Jay Allen’s blacklist, it has to be updated almost everyday.

Today, while cleaning up, a lot of valid comments got wiped out as they were showing up in the blacklist and I didn’t really notice. So in case, you left a comment on the blog, which has since disappeared, my apologies. Not sure what to do with this menace now. I am tempted to remove the MT comment feature and use YACCS instead! Wonder if that is possible with MT…

I could listen to his sexy voice all day long!

Staying home alone on a Friday
Flat on the floor looking back
On old love
Or lack thereof
After all the crushes are faded
And all my wishful thinking was wrong
I’m jaded
I hate it

I’m tired of being alone
So hurry up and get here
So tired of being alone
So hurry up and get here

Searching all my days just to find you
I’m not sure who I’m looking for
I’ll know it
When I see you

Until then, I’ll hide in my bedroom
Staying up all night just to write
A love song for no one
I’m tired of being alone

So hurry up and get here
So tired of being alone
So hurry up and get here

I could have met you in a sandbox
I could have passed you on the sidewalk
Could I have missed my chance
And watched you walk away?
- from the album Room for Squares

As usual, some highlights from the weekend trip.

The route:
Bangalore - Mysore – Bandipur (Day 1)
Bandipur - Gopalswamy Betta – Mudumalai – Ooty (Day 2)
Ooty – Bangalore (Day 3)

• We have breakfast at the beautiful Lalith Mahal Palace hotel in Mysore. It looks new and freshly painted and the gold in the domes glint in the sunlight. The food is okay, but I am hungry, wolfing down the rather large masala dosa in no time. And besides, it’s not everyday that I get a chance to sit and eat where the kings once did.

• Sunflower fields on the way to Bandipur, after we cross Mysore. Yellow expanse against the brilliant blue skies, and the green vegetation – the contrast created a picture perfect sight. I get to take over the wheels a bit, a nice drive with no traffic, which suits me just fine…
• In the evening, we head out on a safari in the Bandipur forest – we spot sambar, cheetal, wild bison, peacocks… lots of beautiful butterflies and birds (still not very familiar with birdie names) but no elephants.
• At the place we stay in Bandipur, we discover Boost (don’t know why it tastes so good!) I think we are hooked :)
• I get photography lessons in the evening – a primer on aperture and shutter speed – and I learn a few things too…
• We drive through Bandipur in the morning, a beautiful peacock preens beside the road, shows off a little. Then strolls across the road to the other side, right in front of the car (while I try and scramble for my camera, but too late!). It disappears into the forest before I get a chance to click. Drat.
• The view from atop Gopalswamy Betta (about 20 kms from Bandipur and the highest point of the park). One side is the forest area, and on the other is a huge expanse of plains. An absolutely amazing view. We park the car and try to walk up a hill with some interesting rock formations, but a forest guard turns us back. Not allowed!
• On the way down from the hill, two little boys on the roadside shout – elephant, elephant! We are skeptical and can’t see a thing in the wide expanse of the forest before us. With the help of a pair of binoculars, we spot a pair of tuskers in the distance. Finally!
• The ride to Ooty, negotiating 36 hairpin bends. The car sounds decidedly unhappy, but we finally make it. At the 36th hair pin bend, we get rewarded with carrots from the nice people who live in a house beside the road.
• The second day comes to an end with vodka and tasty pepper chicken at the guest house we stay for the night.
• Next morning, we do start off early and stop at the Kalatti falls on the way down from Ooty. Not much water, but a scenic place.
• Swarms of blue tiger butterflies that flit along the way with us through the Mudumalai and Bandipur forests.
• A pit stop at a water body beside the road. Different birds loll about in the sunshine including the little commorant, pelican and the painted stork. We get busy clicking. From a bus passing by, a guy shouts, “Welcome to India.”
• Brilliant blue skies (and I haven’t seen that blue in a while) and cotton candy clouds stay with us all the way back on the drive from Ooty till Mysore.
• A lazy lunch at a resort by the river. The noodles would put a Chinese to shame. The hammock was much welcome.
• I sight a rainbow somewhere between Mysore and Bangalore. It’s been a while since I’ve seen one. And then they say it’s lucky…
• The sky looks particularly beautiful on the drive back - bright azure blue with pink tinged clouds. In the distant horizon, between the trees, we catch a glimpse of the sun as paints a corner of the sky in a violent orange. The end of yet another day.
• Kitna pyaara hai yeh pal (from the album Strings) – the theme song that kept playing in our heads (and on the tape).
• Bangalore. 9.00 pm. Sunday evening. And immense relief for the one who drove most of the 600 km plus journey!

I must thank my traveling companions:
a) AB - The one who did most of the driving and put up with all my cribbing. He was surprisingly cheerful I discovered, especially while listening to Kannada songs! But it could have been the Boost. :)
b) PV- The usually chatty one who turned into a silent Devdas, for reasons we could not figure out. The trip obviously didn’t bring out the best in him. We are thinking it was the vodka, but it could have been the fact that we didn’t climb any rocks or scale any mountains…
c) SP – She found us a really cool place to stay in Ooty when we had nearly given up hope. And after making a few rounds of Ooty town! And for the pepper chicken she got the guest house people to specially prepare for dinner.

The film rolls are still lying in my bag. Will hopefully manage to drop it in today or tomorrow. Meanwhile, it’s back to business :)