This annoying MT comments spam problem is killing me! So until I can figure out how to install the MT Blacklist program, I’ve closed off my comments. I am available on email (if you look hard enough on the right hand side, you should find it somewhere)… Update: Have installed Jay Allen’s Blacklist and deleted over 300 spam messages. Am hoping it’s going to keep these evil people away…
Don’t you just hate it when you travel a long distance, arrive and then realise you forgot the most important thing you had to bring? It happened to me today. The Kodak Advantix roll that I use for my camera can only be developed at a few photo labs in the city. One of them is in Bandra. Obviously impatient to look at my trip photographs, I made a 45-minute journey there from home today, only to arrive at the shop and realise that I had forgotten to bring the film rolls. Arrrrghhh.
While on the topic of travel, Sulekha is running a holiday contest, if anyone is interested. The last date is February 24, so hurry!
If you’re planning to visit the state in the near future, I’ve put together a few tips and pointers based on my recent trip. If I had the opportunity to spend a few more days, then I could have probably written a book 🙂 But for now, here are a few suggestions. You can use what’s useful, and ignore the rest (as usual)! Unless you are planning to rough it out, plan in advance. Preferably get your hotel bookings beforehand too, since during the peak season, there are a lot of tourists! We found most of the hotels we’d short-listed full when we reached there. Nov-Feb is a nice time to visit. It is warm during the day, but cooler at night. The monsoons are avoidable for sightseeing, but the right time if you’re going for an ayurvedic treatment package. The damp rainy season is apparently the best for ayurveda. Because of the presence of a number of water bodies, mosquitoes abound in the state. Carry an insect repellant if mozzies like your blood! Be …
We were talking last evening about how your mother tongue influences how you speak English, when we came upon another interesting question: What is your mother tongue and how would you determine it? Is it: 1) The language your mother speaks 2) The language you speak with your mother (and what if you speak two languages?) 3) The language you speak most with your family 4) The language you think in (Which might not be your technical mother tongue. For example, Assamese is technically my mother tongue, but I don’t think in the language) 5) The language you’re most comfortable speaking (and this may or may not be the same as the one you use to communicate with your family). Also, what happens if you have parents who speak different languages and use Hindi or English as a common language? Does Hindi/English become your mother tongue, or it is still your mother’s language that is your mother tongue? Hmm… A little complicated I think. I’d be interested in hearing your views especially if you come …
And so we come to the end of our short but enjoyable trip in Kerala. We started from Kumily early morning yesterday and after a nice drive through tea, spice and rubber plantations and Kal Ho Na Ho music (again!), we arrived in Cochin at 1 pm. Spent a pleasant afternoon roaming around the Fort Kochi area. Then we went down to the water and watched the sun going down behind the Chinese fishing nets. There were lots of people trying to get pictures of the setting sun. Quite a beautiful sight. Even spotted a pair of dolphins. A pleasant coincidence found Steph bumping into two of her colleagues from Switzerland on the beach when she was taking photographs. So suddenly there was a bunch of very excited women talking animatedly in French. And of course, I could understand a thing since I still haven’t started those French classes on my agenda this year. In the evening, we met them again, along with their tour guide Sandeep at a restaurant called Tandoor on MG Road. …