Last Weekend

...was a long one for us here too. 26th January is celebrated as Australia Day, hence a National holiday. This day is to commemorate the arrival of the 'first fleet' from England to Australia.

We went in the evening to attend the celebration near the 'Lake Burley Griffin'. There were some boat-races, surfing, rowing, some army-men landing on the lake...Here are some of the pics taken by a friend from his Nikon D50.

All this while music was going on. We sat just beside the lake on the lawn, munching on chips and sipping tea, enjoying the evening. The highlights were spectacular fire-works after dark. Some more pics...

A drive down memory lane

...we decided to take on accepting the invitation from Ritesh's friend, Nikhil in Adelaide.

Ritesh had a complete 8 day shutdown (from 25th Dec to 1st Jan) in his office and we were planning our vacations when his friend called. Adelaide anyway, is very close to Ritesh's heart as he has spent his initial years after coming to Australia for doing his Masters there. Made great friends out of complete strangers, who studied together, struggled together and had fun together.
Air-tickets at this time of the year are extremely costly, moreover we had a lot of time to spare and hence decided to drive all the way to Adelaide. It takes about 15 hours and 1200 km to reach there.

Ritesh, being a very methodical person (unlike me, that's why we make a good couple ;)), searched on net, discussed with his colleagues and came up with the best possible route to take.
2 days journey with a night halt in between was the plan.

We left Canberra on Christmas day at around 11 in the morning and half of our luggage was food. We were adviced to carry lots with us as we were travelling on Christmas and Boxing day when not only the food-joints but many fuel-stations too remain closed which we observed was right. It was a clear, sunny day and our spirits were high, thanks to the methi parathas, cookies, chips, fruit-juice, museli bars etc we carried with us. After a couple of hours, the sun was so bright that I was sitting in the car with my hat and summer coat on, and of-course had applied sunscreen generously.

We forced ourselves to eat a peach & a banana each (to minimise wastage) before entering a 'fruit-free' region. The idea is to save the crops from fruit-flies; nobody is allowed to bring fruits and tomatoes in that region. There are bins kept specially for this purpose. We emptied whatever little amount of fruits left with us. We disposed off the tomatoes, we carried for making veg-sandwitches and were ready to go when we noticed a board with a warning saying- Maximum penalty can be upto Aud 11,000. Oops! We threw our cucumber too (just in case..)

I saw what Australian Outback is like. We were going on a road in between plain grounds with absolutely no surprises...the kind which makes you want to believe that the earth is flat! Have a look...


There was no vehicle in view for more than 1.5 hours, no village, no town, no trace of any living-being(except ofcourse the two of us).

The wait seems longer if you are in urgent need after having consumed a couple of litres of liquids.
Wondering, what we did then...Well, some things are better kept secret!

We finally reached 'Hay', our destination for that day. Had cup-o-noodles for dinner & retired early.

We started at about 8 the next morning and kept taking short breaks after a couple of hours to relax, refill or exchange seats. We entered Adelaide at about 5 in the evening. We were welcomed at Nikhil-Mohini's place with hot poha & tea. I must admit that we were sufficiently refreshed before we planned to visit Glenelg Beach.




Us on the jetty...

Do we look tired here?

The beach

Among several locations for British settlements in 'South Australia', Adelaide was chosen by Governor Hindmarsh in 1836.

The Britishers came on Glenelg Beach, the anchor used then is also preserved here.

(Just observed while writing this post that Glenelg is a Palindrome.)





We waited till the sunset

and it was certainly worth it!









Couldn't stop from clicking this where kids were having a gala-time with small fountains of water randomly coming out of floor...

We spent a day catching up with friends and shopping with a 36 hours sale going on. It starts after the boxing day and the shops remain open continuosly for 36 hours. That was one day when I wondered whether really Australia is the least populous continent on this earth.

Next day we went to the hills surrounding Adelaide. There is a beautiful town, Handorf which was settled by Germans in the early nineteenth century. There were lots of handicraft shops, old cafes on the main-street. We then went to strawberry farm.

I couldn't start collecting strawberries till I had completely filled myself with those fresh, delicious, red and juicy things.

After filling ourselves here, we went for wine tasting! And later in the evening, after missing a couple of EXITs, reached Mt. Lofty-the place which gives a complete view of Adelaide. There we decided to be a bit adventurous and went on a discovery trail, in between the forest.

With Nikhil & Mohini


(Clicked by hubby dear, in auto mode)

Next day,with others working, Ritesh and I drove through Adelaide, saw his university, his old apartment, the shop where he worked, all the places which were part of his life then. I was excited to get a peep into his student life. On the way, Ritesh told me about various 'heritage buildings' of Adelaide and how the owners are not allowed to change the exterior of those, no matter how modern they convert the interior into, to preserve the feel of 'that age'!





And yes, ofcourse we visited this!








That day, being our last in Adelaide, we all were awake till 2 in the morning. Then, we slept not because we had finished chatting but because those poor fellows had to go to work the next day. We woke up late, readied ourselves and all of us were out at 10am- they for office & we for Canberra.

On our way back, we were pleased that it wasn't a bright scorching sunny morning ...







But, rather a rainy & foggy one!

Only to realise that driving in such a weather was more difficult due to fast winds. And when the rain subsided, we were faced with dust storms... I am sure all this was just to make our drive back exciting.

On the next day, I missed a left turn while driving on a highway with speed limit of 110 kmph. Having soon realised my mistake, I stopped outside the left boundary of the road inorder to take a u-turn. Another car had stopped behind me, as I saw in the rear-view mirror. The thought that somebody else has done a similar mistake, lifted my spirits, but only for a few seconds. I saw a police-man coming out of that car towards us and gestured us to wait. Now, I was nervous...would be an understatement. I don't have an Australian license till date. I am legally allowed to drive on my Indian license but for some specified time and within that time it is required for me to procure the Australian license. How much that specified time is, I have no idea...

Standing practically outside a road and taking a u-turn is actually no offence. But, what if that officer was for random check or for some reason asked for my license. It was too late to exchange seat with Ritesh. So, all we could do was wait patiently. He told us that it was a high accident zone and lot of vehicles meet their fatal end by getting crushed. Oops, a very sad start. I was speechless. He then explained the right way to take a u-turn on such high speed zone roads. We thanked him and he went his way... A really nice man.

Praying for no more surprises we continued our journey, again passed through Narrandera, a place near which vast spans of plain lands are streched and nothing else. There's an Australian saying- 'One who passes through Narrandera is a man'! We stopped there to have a look at the World's largest playable guitar...

(Dimensions- 5.82m X 2.019 m)

And, finally we were back in Canberra on the eve of New year. After a great vacation, we decided to spend the first day of the year just relaxing and being together at home.

2009 : Setting the priorities right

As the year on the calender changes, I would not ask for a job, or a career, or better salary, or better opportunity or for that matter some property. All I want and hope for is health and happiness of my loved ones. Because other things come into existence only when this primary is fulfilled.

Year 2008 has changed my life forever. No matter how much I try I can never be that carefree, talkative lil girl of the family again. What troubles me is the fact that I was not able to tell my dad enough about how much I adored and admired him.

I have been reminded of the impermanent nature of our life on earth and hence I have resolved that from now on I will explicitly make my feelings known towards all those who matter to me - my dear family and friends, thank them to be part of my life... so that when I leave they would know that I loved them very much!

Happy New Year All!

Socha hai... Kya ye kabhie?

With time, I have realized, that the world is not as simple as I thought it to be. In my attempt to understand it, I kept asking myself a lot of questions...some trivial, some grave, some serious, some funny. Sharing some of them...

Why is the thought spoken less important than the language in which it is spoken?

Why is somebody else's admiration more important than our own satisfaction?

Why in India, an unreasonable bias towards a religion which is in minority is considered secular while speaking for the one followed by a majority brands you as an extremist?

Why does a successful person gets the right to preach others about anything under the sun?

Why do we fight most with the person we love the most?

Why is it that irrespective of how much (or less) we study, we are always short of a few hours for a perfect preparation for any exam?

Why in a restaurant do the dishes ordered on the table next seem more delicious than ours?

Why do we experience the calmest and sweetest sleep when the alarm has just 10 minutes to go?

Why are whats more important than whys and whens more important than hows? (Now, this can be confusing :))

Any answers to these? or more questions? Please do write in...

I love cricket ... Do I?

Yes. Absolutely...would be my answer till about a few days back.

Ritesh and I had discussed cricket twice...no, thrice in the six months of our courtship. Ritesh says he was fairly impressed by my knowledge on the subject, though I had made it pretty clear that my interest in cricket starts and ends at Sachin Tendulkar.

Yesterday, when we came back from shopping for our home, Ritesh naturally first checked the 'cricinfo' site on his laptop to get the score of the ongoing India-England test-match. I have never entertained myself on something so dull. I mean reading every few seconds updates like- Flintoff to Gambhir (from South end): Played in the off-side, no run. No offence to the web-site. The amount of detail it updates about every single ball played in the game is certainly impressive!

Anyway, we went in the kitchen and our conversation breezing through various subjects moved towards my favourite and we (or I?) started talking about the decor we would have if and when we move to a bigger, better house. About half an hour later, I noticed Ritesh's pensive mood. Has he come up with some big idea? Curious to know his thoughts, I suggested that we sit comfortably in the living room and talk. Very gently, I asked him,"What are you thinking about, dear?" He replies,"Sometimes, I wonder that are all the cricket matches fixed? How come after having completely dominated England in the One day series, we are having such a tough time in the Test-match?"

Ahem, was he thinking about it all this while? Off go my coffee-table, flowers and lamps...

And, do I love cricket? Well, huh, it depends...I am not sure!

Getting up after a long-long time...

It has been a week to Mumbai attacks. Though I was sitting with my laptop all this while, reading news and hoping everytime I logged in that it would be over, I hadn't written anything about it. I couldn't. I was enraged at the whole thing. How can someone enter our country and attack us so brutully? Ofcourse, they are the terrorists and they are supposed to do so. But, our leaders? How can they be so insensitive? Why couldn't the Patils react responsibly? Why wasn't our Prime Minister strong and convincing enough?

Are we, the citizens of India responsible for this situation? I have recently read Dr. Narendra Kohli's 'Yudhh', based on Ram-Katha, which describes the famous Ram-Ravan war. Towards the end, when it became evident that Ravan would be defeated in a matter of few days, a group of common man 'Aam Janta' from Lanka comes to visit Ram. Their leader tells Ram that they are innocent people who are not involved in politics and so it does not matter to them whether their ruler is Ram or Ravan. All they want is peace and the assurance that they wouldn't be harmed or robbed when Ram wins and Lanka's current king is overthrown.

Now, my favourite part is Ram's reply. Very patiently, he tells them that his army is people's army and a disciplined one. So, even after the victory, it would not indulge in looting and troubling people. "But, it is not a matter of pride at all to say that you are not involved or interested in politics. If you cannot differentiate between Ram & Ravan, it is not due to your peacefulness, but due to your cowardice and selfishness".

I feel it is very true and relevant even in today's scenario.

How many times sitting comfortably in our living rooms, have we discussed that we don't care about who is elected as long as our life continues the way it is?

How many times instead of going to cast our vote, we have elected to go for picnic to make use of that holiday?

Who has given these leaders the guts to behave so irresponsibly in a crisis situation like this?

Who has given them the freedom to show inactivity & take our security so lighly?

I believe this attack by Pakistan supported terrorists in the heart of our country's commercial capital was a wake up call for all of us. Even if the international community is showing concern and support, the truth is that all the countries have their own interests and priorities.
This becomes clearer if we analyze the dynamics of our position on the global platform from our independence till date.
Its time we realize that our nation's security is not only our responsibility but our right too. I wish our leaders could take a strong stand in a grave situation like this. What angers me is the urgency with which our PM had assured Pak that we would not attack it. Yes, we wouldn't but why open all our cards? I think we could have used this situation and have opted 'give and take' policy by saying that our decision would depend on the keen-ness (real) Pakistan shows in helping India solve this case.

Having said all this, I know that the time for inactivity is gone. We have to constantly keep our politicians on their toes and make them do some REAL work.

PS: I write this on December 3, the day on which 24 years back, Bhopal Gas Tragedy took place, killing thousands of people and affecting many others due to exposure to toxic gases.

This was the result of the use of poor maintenance and insufficient safety equipments/techniques in the Indian subsidiary of Union Carbide (a US based pesticide company) unlike its plants in the USA.The then chairman and CEO of UC- Warren Anderson was declared fugitive from justice by Indian Courts in 1992 and attempts for his extradition from US have not yet strongly made by our government.

O Lord Ganesha...

Give me the happiness and Auspiciousness...Take the sorrows away!

These were verses we all were singing on this Sunday(7th Sept.) during Ganpati Visarjan.

We were quite excited when we came to know that we could get (had to book it beforehand) 'ganapati's idol, made of clay' from a temple near by and so we could celebrate 'Ganesh Chaturthi' here in Canberra as well.

There's a big enough Hindu community and Ganesh festival is being celebrated since 1995 here. Special permission is granted for Visarjan in a lake on the Sunday after 'Ganesh Chaturthi' every year.

About 50 people had gathered for the pooja and bhojan prasadam. As it was a multi-linguistic, multi-cultural crowd, bhajans were sung in various languages like Marathi, Kannada, Hindi, English etc. There were devotees who had settled in Australia from all parts of India. The lunch was pooled by all of us and was really an eclectic collection of Indian cuisines - from sambar rice to aloo-chhole(chick-peas), from payasam to halwa-barfi.

We were just a bunch of Indians collected to give a warm farewell to Ganapati.

Isn't it an irony that we have to move out of our country's border to come to think of it as a nation without internal boundaries?

So, after lunch, we all started for the lake. The Ganesha's idols in a ute, with a few people in it chanting 'Ganapati Bappa Morya' and about 25 cars following it. Oh, it was fun. We all were driving at a speed of 20 kmph in a 80 kmph zone, ofcourse we all stuck to the leftmost lane, letting the other vehicles pass by.

At the lake, a wooden half-bridge kind of structure let us to the middle of the water-body. Our excited chantings of 'Ganapati bappa Morya, Mangal Murti Morya' had attracted some Aussies, they even called their kids to see the colourful procession :)

As Ritesh stretched his arm to let go the Ganesh-statue in water, I noticed the change of his expression and felt a lump in my throat too.

On our drive back home, we discussed the significance of 'Ganesh -Visarjan', have found this piece on net which explains it pretty well.