reaaaally, originally uploaded by anita.

So after years and years of planning/promising/contemplating (and combinations thereof) Kiruba is finally coming to Bangalore. Don’t get too excited. It’s for the marathon. But then we’re nice people, so have to understand.

Since many of us know of him through his various exploits - the most famous of which cannot be mentioned in this blog - I am sure we will also be very eager to know his insider tips on topics like:
- How to scare the wits out of fellow bloggers
- How to make a fool of fellow weak hearted bloggers
- How to make a big splash on the blog without using any paint
- And many other such serious and fundamental blog issues

Okay, I’m partly kidding, because we will be discussing some very serious stuff, but you have to be there to be a part of it.

And so, because we are nice people (which I reiterate, in case you forget), we are having a meet after he finishes his marathon on the 15th of May. Time and venue yet to be decided.

This is your chance to meet the star marathoner, blogger and very proud father to be. So folks, take out your forks and knives or best suits - whichever looks sharper on you - and be there at the Bangalore Marathon Bloggers Meet BMBM).

No, no, you don’t need to run the marathon to qualify to meet him, but Kribs says he would love to meet us at the end of his run. He also needs some of us to cheer him as he inches towards the finish line, so if you can spare some precious hours on a Sunday for a brave fellow blogger - just be there.

I am of course, going to be there on the sidelines. Marathon cheering is one of my favourite activities.

If any of you are planning to run, Kiruba would love some company, so drop him a mail. Info about the marathon is available here.

There’s the 42.195 km marathon, the 21.1 km half marathon and the 7 km Celebration Run, that is supposed to start at 7.00 am making its way around, touching key Bangalore landmarks such as Vidhana Soudha, MG Road, Cubbon Park, GPO, High Court and Central Library before culminating at the Kanteerava Stadium. (I’m out of breath already).

And if you can’t run, but can cheer or make it to the BMBM, do leave a comment in the box indicating your availability. Please do not leave messages like, I wish I could be there, but I am traveling to Hawaii. We are totally not interested in Hawaii.

Hope to see you folks on May 15, 2005. Venue and time to be decided.

CONFIRMED SO FAR:

- Prabhu

- Lavannya

- Muthu

- Shubh (will be there for the marathon)

- Adel

- Suman

- Sathish

- Varun

- Shamit

- Arnab

- Sowmya

- Madhu

Please spread the word around, and if you can make it, do leave a comment on this post.

I am heading to Mangalore for a few days and asked for suggestions over at the BSB group as to interesting sights and sounds in and around the city. These are some that came in. The ones in bold are what I don’t want to miss. If you have anything interesting to add, do leave it in the comment space. Or if there’s anything you feel should not be missed let me know.

Beaches:
Maravanthe, Ullal, Panambur, Someshwara, Kaup (and lighthouse), Malpe, Surathkal, Tannirbavi

Tourist attractions:
St. Mary’s Island, Sultana Batthery, Ideal ice cream parlour at Hampanakatte

Temples/Dargas/Churches:
Shree Krisha Mutt Brahma rath (Udupi), Mangaladevi temple, Kadri Manjunath temple, Shri Sharavu Mahaganapathi Temple, Kudroli Gokarnath Temple, Udupi Sri Krishna Temple, Kateel Durga Parameshwari Temple, Dharmasthala Manjunatha Temple, Mudabidri (Jain monument with 1000 pillars), Ullal Durga, St Aloysius College Church

Others:
- Gomateshware/Chatrumukha Basadi at Karkal
- Bekal fort in Kasaragod
- Local food!

Under the full moon, originally uploaded by anitabora.

Under a full moon night, on Kanakpura Road, we were treated to a melange of music and dance - from Hindustani classical, to rock to death metal - everything was on the menu!

The dusk to dawn music concert, Bhoomi Jathre, was held at the Fireflies Ashram, about 20 kilometres from the city on Saturday evening.

We almost didn’t get there. In fact, we were possibly headed towards Tamil Nadu according to one of our vehicle’s occupants. Our navigator, who I shall call VD, nearly missed the non-descript turn to the ashram on Kanakpura Road.

VI, who was driving his brand new sunshine car, finally gave his vehicle some real exercise as we bumped over the bad village roads. Actually, in some places there were no roads and VI went ouch, ouch as if he was physically hurt. The poor thing - new cars do strange things to people.

We reached much after dusk, around 10.30 pm. The line-up included violinists Mysore Nagaraj & Mysore Manjunath, a Yakshagana troupe from Udipi (which we missed) , Shiri Dance Company and G. Ravi Kiran, a Carnatic vocalist. Then there was Konarak Reddy, Roberto Narain (who gave a rather impressive solo drum performance) and Vasundhara Das who joined in for their last number.

The stage was set under a beautiful peepal (or banyan?) tree - quite appropriate as the theme for this year’s Jathre was the Tree God. The stalls around the venue kept us nourished through the night. The momos ran out quickly and we had to resort to other goodies like kebabs and cake.

Bumped into quite a few people including Rocky and Pallavi who were there with their biker gang. Jace apparently was up there near the stage clicking pictures, but I didn’t catch sight of him.

It was a rather beautiful night. The mosquitoes descended upon us with vengeance, but we smart people had gone prepared with mosquito coils and chaddars. Sleeping bags, pillows and cushions are however recommended, since the stone steps do tend to affect all your body parts after prolonged exposure.

We managed to stay awake till 5.00 in the morning.

At about that time, a band called Myndsnare came onto stage. I had no idea what we were in for. Suddenly, the lead vocalist screamed into the mike and such sounds emanated from him, that I swear, I have not been able to sleep ever since. He was amazing, I think I actually watched open mouthed for a while, completely entranced at his performance.

Not having had much exposure to death metal I realised why they call it death metal :) I wonder if the fella’s parents get any sleep at home. In no time, the three member band (including a woman who drummed as furiously as aforementioned death metal singer sang) managed to wake up everyone including the ones who had settled in comfortably for the night.

Myndsnare had done their job. There was another band that was to follow - called Yell-o. But the name itself sounded slightly scary so at about 5.30 am we decided to call it a night (or a morning, to be more exact!).

Some of us at the exhibition, originally uploaded by anitabora.

This is the third exhibition in which the Bangalore Shutterbugs have participated or put up, in the span of about 6 months.

This one is titled “Painting by Light” and has been organised by Art Mantram Foundation, a group that works for the promotion of cultural activities in the city. Quite a few Shutterbuggers were present when the exhibition was inaugurated by Anil Kumble yesterday evening.

There were other guests who graced the occasion including Rani Satish, ex-Culture and Kannada minister, Lata Bhandari, Jija Hari Singh and photographer Helmuth Koenz.

Quite a few photographs were sold during the first day itself, including Kaushik B’s beautiful portait of 3 children, which was bought by Kumble. A few other photographs from the lens of Vivek M, Lavannya Goradia and Shankar S were also bought during the exhibition.

Got a chance to meet a few new members of this now burgeoning group. A young enthusiastic engineering student called Jayant came up to me and said he had joined the group through my blog, and that was really nice.

The exhibition is on till April 30, so if you are in Bangalore, do drop in.

The venue is:
5th Floor, Sona Towers, Miller’s Road.

After a week when not very nice things happened to me, I was pleasantly surprised (actually I was absolutely thrilled) to get an email from Jag saying he was gifting me a Flickr pro account.

Merci Beaucoup, Dhanyavaad. Danke, Grazie, Gracias and Thank You, Jag!

Yoohoo! I am in seventh heaven and doing little jig across the floor right now…

The plan was to set off from Bangalore at 4 .30 am in the morning. When Saturday dawned, we finally left the city at 10.30 am. There were 9 of us (Jaya, Sahastra, Anudeep, Reena, Rohit, Ravi, Bijoy, Ranjita and me) on board a hired Tempo Traveller as we set off for the small village of Kokkre Belur. (Kokkare in Kannada means stork and that’s how the village got its name.) The village is about 2 1/2 hours away by road.

The pictures from the trip.
(more…)

Made a tiring but enjoyable birdwatching trip to Kokkre Belur on Saturday. The village is known for its spot billed pelicans and painted storks, which take residence in and around this village. This is the nesting season, and as soon as you enter KB, you are treated to the shrill cries of these birds and wonderful sights of storks and pelicans flying high in the sky above you. And what a sight it was!

A naturalist association from Mysore is working to conserve these birds in their natural habitat and helping villagers coexist with them – a task that is becoming progressively more difficult because of the increase in the village population. A gentleman called Manu, who was an ornithologist himself (and an engineer prior) has been working with the village people for nearly a decade now and he gave us a little background on the work he has been doing. I will post the pictures and a report of the trip later. But if you are a wildlife enthusiast (which I have slowly turned into after discovering so much of nature after moving here!), then do make a visit to this place.

Related links:
- An article on KB
- Birding in Karnataka

An equally hectic Sunday followed, by the end of which, I got hit by a bad eye infection. It turned out to be more serious than I thought initially (something getting into my eyes). According to the doc, long hours of wearing contact lens has injured my cornea slightly. I have been wearing lenses for about 10 years now, so I guess it has been a long time.

So, today I spent most of the day trying to rest the eyes and wear an eye patch - not a pretty sight as you can see! Kit Kit looked most unimpressed.

The verdict from the doc: no lenses or glasses for a couple of days till the swelling comes down. Then I need a new pair of glasses. I’m thinking Sania Mirza style (if I can’t have her talent, at least I can have her frames :). I did actually wear them for many long years before I got a little tired. Looks like it’s time to rediscover glasses again.

^^^^

I stumbled upon this article today in Telegraph India and was pleasantly surprised.

Two people mailed me saying this blog has been mentioned in the April issue of Dataquest, but I haven’t been able to get hold of a copy as yet.

(This blog made with the eye patch, which is quite an achievement. Possibly, the first blog entry made with an eye patch, I am thinking. Anyway…, I think I need some shut eye now. Without the darned eye patch!).

Jama Masjid, originally uploaded by anitabora.

This time, when passing through Delhi on the way to Uttaranchal, we got some time to roam around the Old Delhi area. I would have loved to spend more time clicking there, but we could only afford a couple of hours. Some snapshots from the city’s street life.

(Inspired by Lavannya’s city life series.)