Kollur Mookambika: One night, and the next morning

“You have to do upasana daily” – he replied to me in soft voice. Standing on the shores of river Souparnika, I had struck up a conversation with one of the pilgrims who’d come to take a dip in the holy waters. A few minutes earlier, I had seen him float on the river, absolutely …

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Museum of Kerala History

This was one place that, for me, has been so close yet so far. A place I always wanted to visit, but never got around to doing it. Finally, I made time to do so, and it was a couple of hours well spent. Museum of Kerala history – located in Edappally (around 8 kms …

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Li’l John

One Sunday afternoon. He sees his mother recording a script for a game that my company had developed. He hovers around her as she is working. After she’s done, he says: “I want to record my voice too”. “What will you record?”, she asked. “I will record those ‘Li’l John’ stories that you used to …

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That trip to Murudeshwar

It was noon by the time we (wifey, sonny and I) pulled into the parking lot of Naveen Beach resort in Murudeshwar. The 150 km drive from Mangalore had taken us along the coast, offering breathtaking views of clean, white sand beaches (like Marvanthe) and backwaters. The ride, though bumpy in patches due to the …

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An evening in Fort Kochi

“I’ve never been to Fort Kochi“, she mumbled, as she sat staring out of the car window, absorbing the scenes whizzing past. My mother spends most of her time indoors nowadays, and I was taking her out on a drive, that I hoped, would be a welcome change for her. Now aged 72, she had …

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Places to visit in Pondicherry in 2 days

Places to visit in Pondicherry in 2 days: This is an account of my 2-day trip to Pondicherry. The small, charming little town of Pondicherry, located on the coromandel coast of Bay of Bengal, is known for its lovely food and amazing beaches. It was the last French colony in india, and became part of …

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Life’s a beach!

I meant that in the positive sense of the phrase – past couple of weeks have been interesting and fun. It has been travel, travel, and more travel for me – mostly to the same place: Hubli. Driving down instead of taking an overnight bus makes the shutterbug in me happy, for I can stop …

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As the days go by …

Phew! Can’t believe it is mid of August already! It has been such a happening month for me, and I hope it has been a fulfilling month for you as well? To start with, we celebrated our son’s birthday on August 14. We extended that day till beyond midnight so that the celebrations could last …

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Fate, travels and festivities

It is late Thursday night as I write this. That movie I wanted to watch – The Great Gatsby – is playing on TV. I will probably miss a good portion of it while I write this but hey, that’s what re-runs are for. The window of my living room gives me a splendid, 7th …

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10 Commandments for Entrepreneurs

Yesterday, I came across this beautiful blog called sketchplanations – run by Jono Hey where he has used simple sketches to explain concepts. I hadn’t done sketches for a long time (except for the doodles during team meetings), and this blog made me want to sketch again. This post is a result of my sketch-craving …

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My TV woes

[An episode from 3 months back.]

Finally after serving us for close to 10 years, our TV died on us last week.

This one was from the generation that did not require a prefix to identify it – it was just a TV. The regular old, bulky CRT TV.

I didn’t realize I had feelings for it until it died on me – I am surprised at the grief I am feeling. For a TV.

My TV was good. I have never had to take it for repairs.

Of course, it has misbehaved at times. But 2 things have helped us (my TV and me) overcome those troubled times: 1) my being a fully qualified Electronics engineer, and 2) my being handed down the single most important equipment fixing technique from my father.

The former aspect has equipped me with the skills to tell a diode from a transistor (I had successfully demonstrated this to my visiting lab examiner in my eighth semester Viva voce too), and the wisdom that a TV has many more components than just these 2 items. So I have never tried to mess with the internals.

The second, more important aspect, is the one that has fixed the niggles really. And I am going to pass this on to you now. So take a pen and note this down if you need to.

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The dawn will come. That, and some flowers.

“Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up.”
Anne Lamott

I’ve started loving quotes for the power they possess to inspire and motivate us. I have gone through some tough, testing times and these little magical lines have helped me tide over them. I will keep adding some of them here, with the hope that they help you overcome your challenging times.

While on the topic of hope and light, let me show you some more pictures that can bring you joy.

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