Small Glimpses of Shanghai

A Sneak Peak of the MRI

One of the snaps taken of my left knee..
taken from the NMC Radiology Unit @ Deira.

Its a nice output to see for myself, after being strapped and pushed inside one of those gigantic Philips scanning machines humming at 50 decibels.. and put through 1.25 hours of intense boredom and a equally severe urge to move a muscle, lift the leg or simply scratch my backside to stop the itching. Why was that a problem? I was warned "Dont move a muscle. Even if you move an eyelid, the scan time goes up by 10 minutes". Now thats called Negative Reinforcement.

10 Days in the UAE ..

Us with the Abu Dhabi Corniche as the backdrop..

At the Madinat Jumeirah with the Burj Al Arab behind

On the way to the Jebel Hafeet summit













Tired after the shopping at Ibn Battuta










Neha at the Dubai Marina ..










At the Hult College Campus

In the Church during the Christmas Day mass

Cake cutting before that... .

This is a nice yet one of the pretty low key songs rendered by Jagjit Singh

मैं भूल जाऊं तुम्हे - Jagjit सिंह

मैं भूल जाऊं तुम्हे, अब यही मुनासिब है,

मगर भुलाना भी चाहूं तो किस तरह भूलूं?

मगर मगर भुलाना भी चाहूं तो किस तरह भूलूं ,

के तुम तो फिर भी हकीकत हो कोई ख्वाब नहीं.

यहाँ तो दिल का यह आलम है क्या कहूं ,

(कमबख्त)... भुला सका न यह वो सिलसिला जो था ही नहीं।

भुला सका न यह वो सिलसिला जो था ही नहीं,

वो एक ख़याल जो आवाज़ तक गया ही नहीं।

वो एक बात जो मैं कह कहीं सका तुमसे,

वो एक रब्त जो हम्मे कभी रहा ही नहीं।

मुझे है याद वो सब जो कभी हुआ ही नहीं...

अगर यह हाल है दिल का , तो कोई समझाए

अगर यह हाल है दिल का , तो कोई समझाए,

तुम्हे भुलाना भी चाहूं तो किस तरह भूलूं?

के तुम तो फिर हकीकत हो कोई ख्वाब नहीं..

के तुम तो फिर हकीकत हो कोई ख्वाब नहीं॥

के तुम तो फिर हकीकत हो कोई ख्वाब नहीं॥

* ------- *

A chance revisit of my Cusine-al roots

Venue :
6 Ballygunge Place , Koramangala, Bangalore..

Attendees : 3
Cost : 1235 /- ( excluding tip)..

Entree :

Topshe Maach Bhaja ( Batter Fried Mango Fish)
Aamer Chutney ( Mango Chutney on the table.. small sliced mango marmalade)
Papad ( Poppadums)



Drinks:

Aam Pora Sharbat ( a roasted green mango sherbet )
A blue berry-ish mocktail.. (named 2/6 Biren Roy Road.. after Sourav Ganguly's residence)


Main Course ::

a) The First Round!!

Steam Rice ........ with
Chital Macher Peti Roast ( Clown Knife Fish with gravy)..
Bhanpa Elish ( Steamed Hilsa in Mustard paste) ..
Tomato Chutney ( Tomato chutney with Dates and raisins)..


b) And the Second..

Loochi .... ( Deep fried flatbreads of maida ( fine wheat flour) ... ) .. with
Kosha Mangsho .. ( Dry (gravied) Bengali Lamb )..


Dessert:
Channar Malpoa ( Small pancakes made using reduced milk and cottage cheese dripped with syrup, crunchy at the ends, served hot and topped with dollops of vanilla icecream)..



Savouries:
Some assortment of mitha paan ( sweet betel leaf preparations) , and flavoured supari ( betelnut) , sweet fennel
Timeless pictures of Amitabh Bachhan going out to bat at the Eden, Sunny Gavaskar , Pele at the Salt Lake Stadium in front of a packed crowd, a young Sourav Ganguly, Victoria Memorial, of Satyajit Ray and Mother Teresa..





Bliss!!!!


Period .

Coorg During the Rains...

Dates - 26th to 28th June, 2008..
Venue : Coorg and Mysore..

These are the photos only from my DigiC.. Ashish bhaiiya's camera contains much more..








Tuskers passing through a tribal village in Nagarhole.. ( we found some chained ones further ahead as well)..










Bisecting the predator and its prey (View this image in its full resolution.. and you'll understand why).. .

A couple of deer just shot across the road we were travelling on and disappeared through the bushes.. When we stopped at the location.. (His Majesty) was crouching just at the clearance ( roughly 20 meters .. waiting for us to leave.. so that he could carry on his pursuit.. Pretty surreal 5 minutes..







A herd of deer some distance away from the Tiger spotting location..

We saw a tribal village with a very old lady ( alteast an octogenarian) walking barely 1/2 a km from the tiger's location.. Its amazing how humans and the wild co-exist in the sanctuary..










Freshly plucked coffee.. ( we captured the whole machine line for coffee production.. ) .. will upload the photo when I find it..











Streams on the way to Irpu falls..

( Ankur , Shipra and Ashish )















Mornings at the Chinmayee Home Stay ( close to Madikeri)














Neha and Archan :: Abbey Falls is the backdrop.














At Abbey Falls : the whole Bachha gang except Aditi..


From left to right: Ashish Bhaiyya, Aanchal Bhabhi, Myself, Shipra, Neha and Ankur











Close-up of a recoiling snail, while on the trek back from Abbey...

















Ankur against the panoramic setting of Coorg valley

















Aditi presents a poignant picture alongside the falling mist at Talacauvery, as others join her after the trip to the temple.














Beside one of the gargoyles at Talacauvery, the water body believed to be the source of the Cauvery river..

Wonder why we had the umbrella up?















Feeding the Rabbits at Nisargadhama















The Hanging Bridge walk at NisargaDhama... with Ankur and Shipra having their share of fun...













The Namdroling Monastery at Bylakuppe..
Huge 50 Feet Golden Statues of 3 Budhhas of various eons.















Shipra and me underneath the photos of the current Lamas and Rinpoches..



















Papa outside home stay.. in front of our journey vehicle..

Raga Bhatiyar - Since morning time..

The Bhatiyar Raga, one of the more beautiful yet simple ragas I've heard is on my mind today since morning..

Knowing zilch on the grammar of Hindustani Classical music doesn't help when it comes to understanding the finer points, but so many of the Raga based songs that I discover are some of my all time favorites amongst the popular songs, and linking them to the raga, definitely helps, well atleast for me..


The details just for the more musically learned/inclined, even though there are dozens of epages on the subject.
Thaat ( Major Classification) : Marwa
Time of the Day : Dawn
Aaroha ( Ascending Scale) : S-r-S,S-m,P-G,M-D-S'
Avaroha (Descending scale) : S'-r'-N-D-P,D-P-m,P-G-r-S
Pakad (Generally accepted phrase) : S-D,m-P-G,P-G-r-S



Here is my R&D on the raaga ( Limiting to only the songs Ive heard before)..


Starting with one which any Doordarshan old timer would know.. The Rashtirya Saksharta ( National Literacy) Mission's "Purab Se Surya Uga" rendering of Kavita Krishnamurthy.. I think the raga fits fantastically to the cause and even to its video theme. It has both shades of the early morning freshness, the lively chirping and excitement for the day/future ahead, as well as undercurrent pining for something or the melancholic acknowledgment of some event that has gone by or is yet impending..

Purab Se Surya Uga

Here is Manna Dey's "Eki Apurba Prem" , one of my top favorites of MD songs.. q

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The last is the correct ( classical) representation of the raga by Kankana Banerjee ( which I found on the net)

Bhatiyar by Kankana Banerjee

A few glimpses of Switzerland

One of the long distance trains at Oerlikon Station..









Chess Boards at the Community Area.. It was fun to be able to see 8-10 games being played together.. Most of the people though were regulars .. but you could occasionally catch a father teaching his 6 year old a move or two..








The less said the better... the Adult theater just opposite my hotel..
And it always had a FULL HOUSE board in the evenings when I walked back from office..










Just Outside the Lucerne Art Festival... I couldnt get the tickets for the last show before my train back to Zurich










One of the performance areas at the Zurich Steet Parade.. Its supposedly the biggest walking parade in the world. Pretty nice experience, though I didn't want to venture out much after sunset...










Looming mountains, the bluest skies, cascading clouds, towering trees, tiled rooftops, lush carpet meadows, gurgling brooks, shiny pebbles.. this has it all












On the way to Mt. Titlis , Switzerland. My
excursion on the only weekend I had..













Still a long way to reach the top... There were three different ropeways to reach the destination and the most suprising thing was that.. they had traveller's instructions written in Hindi !!

Not bad.. not to mention that the Indian National Anthem could be played alongside others at the summit.









Office Desk.... Just after office hours... so dont mind the dim lighting..











The bull outside our Office... - The building's aptly named "Toro"













An inspection done before Mallya clinched the deal... The Spyker'07











Another view of the beautiful landscape..