Life away from the hustle and bustle of Bangalore!!!!!!

Hi all,

I know it has been ages since I updated my blog. Was it sheer laziness, lack of things happening or just too much of things, I do not know. I ve been planning blogs and somehow never got the time to complete any.

The last few months have been months loaded with holidays, trips and vacations. End-August was the time for the much anticipated wedding of one of my closest buddies in Chennai. Here was someone, who was always the least interested in teenage stuff like crushes and flirtations and we thought, would be the last to tie the knot. Surprising, that he is one of the first. "Barking dogs, seldom bite" came to mind instantly. I never felt Chennai to be this hot, or maybe getting used to Bangalore weather made me feel so. 4 days in Chennai was sufficient to go visitng places and friends. However, still has little time to meet all as it was spread across two week days and people not being available during that time. That time was spent on meeting cousins.

Just fifteen days down the line, came a visit to Mysore. Another 4 day visit and this time, to take part in a family get together. Things again were getting exciting with two back to back vacations. Training took my Saturdays off, but gave the option of a comp-off on my terms and conditions. I knew it made sense to take maximum toll on this front.

The ultimate in this trail of vacation was rounded off with a trip to my native place, near Udupi. It has been 4 years since I went to my native place and I wanted to go there. I had gone to Mangalore last year, but did not get the time to go to my village.

This trip was for a week and the duration this time, away from work was for 9 days, 4 weekends and the weekdays. That was a pretty long time, away from work, after the 21 day vacation I had taken from work, in my previous company, just weeks before I quit. It was kind of a good experience, serene, green and away from the maddening Bangalore city life. It used to be pretty cloudy all day and would still not a drop of rain would fall on the ground. Pretty weird, and so much unlike Bangalore where we had rains almost on a daily basis, with or without cloudy days and nights. The week was spent with great fun, due to the break from the day-to-day activities back home. Also the lack of connectivity to my Hutch network was a blessing in disguise (Only Reliance and Tata Indicom work there).

It is really exciting to see the amount of development happening in our villages. If Bangalore is growing at an exceptional rate, other places are not far behind. You tend to realise or notice such things if you are away from that place for some time I guess. The fear of snakes and insects were pretty much there even now, but then that is the exciting part that I can go through any time. Walking through the fields after dark is a strict no-no. Never had the opportunity to see too many serpents in earlier visits, but this time was lucky to catch the glimpse of atleast a couple, a cobra and a common water snake. There is a charm in living in the world of the natural. You tend to appreciate life better. It was difficult to leave that place and come back to Bangalore, but then I guess staying there would bore us more. It would be better to frequent villages sometimes, rather than make a living there. Maybe post-retirement should be fun, with not too much to worry about.