I had previously mentioned about the decline of the tiger in India as this is something that is very close to my heart. Now, the statistics are even more alarming with only about 1400 tigers left in the wild At this rate, our children and grand children might be able to see pictures of the tiger only on the net or on old travel magazines.

WWF India Sanctuary Asia has come up with a novel way to choose a new national animal as the tiger is on the verge of extinction anyway, thanks to the apathy of the Government which seems to be least bothered about the issue at this point. I sometimes feel India should have never had so many tigers to begin with, if she is not able to take care of them properly. Any other country would have gleefully pounced at the opportunity of having the most number of tigers in the wild and protected them at any cost. Project Tiger which started with a big bang and a good intention seems to have mixed results now.

Please participate in the selection process which will hopefully be a wake up call to the bozos in the Government by means of a petition to the PM’s office. All you need to do is to click on an animal and give your name and email address. It is really that simple to hopefully save something as awe inspiring as the tiger. Thanks.

The new national animal

WWF India - Tiger Conservation

I sadly do and as a result of that, have to undergo this mindless, tiring soul searching (if you could call it that) just because my good old friend has all the time in the world to create a tag from an email forward and make me do it. Who knows how many people are made to go through this tortue at the end of a few months from now!

That being said, I’d like to express my gratitude to Roopa for waking this blog up from a deep slumber. I have quite a few trips to blog about including Rangasamy Peak- Kothagri, Pondicherry, Talakkad, Sivanasamudra, BR Hills and Devarayanadurga and I hope I do some justice to my blog this year.

Before that, let me get on to this list:

1. Were you named after anyone?
Isn’t it a bit obvious?

2. When was the last time you cried?
I don’t remember. Ok, that could be a lie

3. Do you like your handwriting?
No

4. What is your favorite lunch?
Anything that is hot and has one of the following items - mushroom, brinjal(eggplant), ladies finger(okra) or eggs

5. Do you have kids?
No

6. If you were another person, would you be friends with you?
Why not?

7. Do you use sarcasm a lot?
I use it rarely when I am really pissed

8. Do you still have your tonsils?
Yes

9. Would you bungee jump?
No

10.What is your favorite cereal?
Cornflakes with fruits/dry fruits

11. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off?
Everytime

13. What is your favorite ice cream?
Dark Chocolate / Chocolate / Chocolate with nuts. Ok, you get the drift now

14. What is the first thing you notice about people?
The way they are dressed

15. Red or pink?
Red

16. What is the least favorite thing about yourself?
Why on earth would I want to publish that?

17. Who do you miss the most ?
Schumi in F1

18. Do you want everyone to send this back to you?
To have another round at this? No thanks

19. What color shoes are you wearing?
Brown which has turned into !@##$% over a period of time

20. What was the last thing you ate?
Chappathi and Eggs

21. What are you listening to right now?
Don’t believe in Love by Dido

22. If you were a crayon, what color would you be?
Red

23. Favorite smells?
Ah ha. I am a sucker for good smells, be it turpentine, eucalyptus, tea which has just been brewed, earth just before the rains, freshly peeled orange and select woody fragnances

24. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone?
The service guy at the Maruti workshop

25. Do you like the person who sent this to you?
Hmm. Why would I otherwise be going thro this?

26. Favorite sports to watch?
WRC

27. Hair colour?
Black

28. Eye color?
Brown

29. Do you wear contacts?
No

30. Favorite food?
Mushroom again

31. Scary movies or happy endings?
Depends on whom I watch it with but mostly happy endings

32. Last movie you watched?
Burn after reading

33. What color shirt are you wearing?
Yellow

34. Summer or winter?
Winter anytime

35. Hugs or kisses?
Hugs

36. Favorite dessert?
Dark Chocolate ice cream

37. Most likely to respond?
To whom?

38. Least likely to respond?
Huh? I still haven’t got the previous question…

39. What book are you reading now?
None as of now. If magazines count, I’d say Topgear

40. What is on your mouse pad?
What is a mouse pad?

41. What did you watch on tv last night?
I don’t watch TV

43. Rolling stones or beatles?
Neither of them

44. What is the farthest you have been from home?
Around 1000km away

45. Do you have a special talent?
Does juggling count?

46. Where were you born?
Madras (that was the name when I was born)

47. Whose answers are you looking forward to getting back?
Hmm. I am wondering if I want to make someone else go through this. Irrespective of that, I would want to brighten up Abe’s day.

Though I’ve tried, I’ve fallen
I have sunk so low
I have messed up
Better I should know
So don’t come round here
And tell me I told you so

We all begin with good intent
Love was raw and young
We believed that we could change ourselves
The past could be undone
But we carry on our backs the burden
Time always reveals
The lonely light of morning
The wound that would not heal
It’s the bitter taste of losing everything
That I have held so dear

I’ve fallen
I have sunk so low
I have messed up
Better I should know
So don’t come round here
And tell me I told you so

Heaven bent to take my hand
Nowhere left to turn
I’m lost to those I thought were friends
To everyone I know
Oh they turned their heads embarassed
Pretend that they don’t see
But it’s one missed step
You’ll slip before you know it
And there doesn’t seem a way to be redeemed

Though I’ve tried, I’ve fallen
I have sunk so low
I have messed up
Better I should know
So don’t come round here
And tell me I told you so

-Sarah McLachlan

Link to the Gabriel and Dresden mix.

It has been more than a month since I saw Juno and the very fact that I am forced to review it so late (on account of my being indolent) only shows how good the movie is.

Juno is a high school sharp-tongued teen who discovers she is pregnant and unlike other teen pregnancies, she doesn’t want to abort it. With the help of her best friend, she narrows down on an affluent suburban couple who are ready to adopt her baby.

The script is the best part of the movie (alongside the casting which is top-notch) and Diablo Cody rightly won the Oscars for the Best Original Screenplay. Picture this:

Vanessa: Your parents are probably wondering where you are.
Juno: Nah… I mean, I’m already pregnant, so what other kind of shenanigans could I get into?

Vanessa : So… How are we going to do this?
Juno : What do you mean? Don’t I just have the thing? Squeeze it on out and hand it over?
Gerta : Mark and Vanessa are willing to negotiate an open adoption…
Mac : What do you mean?
Juno : Wait… No! I mean, can’t we just, like, kick this old school? Like, I have the baby, put it in a basket and send it your way, like, Moses and the reeds?

Ellen Page is terrific as the whip-smart teen and I am a bit surprised that Ellen Page didn’t win one for Best Actress.

All in all, I simply loved this movie and feel this is how good movies should be - relying on a commonplace theme but handling it exceedingly well.

However, there are also these times where you very well know what is going to hit you some day in the future and you brace yourself thinking you are ready to handle it only to find that you are nowhere and no way different from where you were in the earlier scenario, however mentally prepared you might have been.

You can’t blame anyone for this as you knew it was coming and I guess the only sensible thing is to pick up the broken pieces and try to stand up again without forgetting the lesson that was conveyed as a result of it.

George Clooney plays the role of Michael Clayton, an in-house fixer (though he calls himself the janitor) at one of the largest corporate law firms in New York.

When the firm’s top litigator and Clayton’s close friend, Arthur (played by Tom Wilkinson), breaks down in the middle of a deposition involving a class action lawsuit against the firm’s largest client, Clayton is called in to clean up this mess.

He comes to know that Arthur is not happy with the unethical behavior of their client and has stopped taking medication. Things begin to get worse and Arthur allegedly commits suicide. Clayton suspects foul play and the rest of the movie is about how he uncovers the truth and gets his priorities right.

Clooney does a fine act of balancing his emotions and plays his part well. His suits look very sharp too

This is a movie about ethics or its lack thereof. So if you are into John Grisham kinda books, you might very well like this one.

P.S.: It is surprising that this is only the first of the Oscar nominated movies to hit the theaters in India recently after the nominations got announced. I wonder if the other movies would ever get screened here

I do not know how I contacted it as I am usually a bit particular about what and where I eat. Probably it wasn’t caused by what I ate. Looks like the infection is gonna take its own sweet time to part with me & the cold December weather in Bangalore is not making it easy one bit.

For now though, here’s something to pep you up. I have been listening to these 2 songs in a continuous loop - one called Paravayin Kootil from the movie Tamil M.A. (renamed later as Katradhu Tamizh) sung by Ilaiyaraaja & the other one called Minnalgal Koothadum from the movie Polladhavan sung by Karthik and Bombay Jayashree (she rocks!).

Paravayin Kootil
Watch

Minnalgal Koothadum
Watch

Both are absolutely mellifluous to the ear. Even if you do not understand Tamil, you can still give it a shot as you don’t need to know a particular language to appreciate fine music

Yelagiri is a small hill station that is located near Vaniyambadi in TN. It is around 170 kms from Bangalore making it an ideal weekend getaway from here. Abe and I made plans to go there on a Friday night when we were driving aimlessly in Bangalore wondering what to do that weekend. A quick peek at wikitravel made us select Yelagiri.

We left the next day morning around 830 or so towards Hosur. Had a quick stop at Nilgiri’s in Hosur for breakfast consisting of pastries and sandwiches. We proceeded towards Krishnagiri. On reaching Krishnagiri, you have to take the road to Chennai. We made a mistake by missing the sign to Chennai and took the flyover towards Dharmapuri instead of taking a left. We were soon back on track and continued in the road towards Vaniyambadi.The roads are a driver’s delight all the way from Bangalore till Vaniyambadi. We touched 150 on an Alto and you can imagine the speeds you can touch on a bigger sized car.

Just before Vaniyambadi, you’ll have to take a left which actually is an underpass that goes right towards Tirupathur. We missed this as the boards were too close to the deviation and we couldn’t brake that early. Don’t fret if you miss this left. You can go straight ahead take a U-turn and then go left towards Tirupathur. On the way to Tirupathur, you can see the Yelagiri hills on the left having zig zag markings denoting the roads.

We reached Yelagiri around 3 in the afternoon, had lunch at a place called Hotel Hills. They have an elaborate menu card but do not have most of the items in the card. We could have stayed in Hotel Hills but we preferred to do some room hunting as we had time to kill. After scouring 5 to 6 places, we checked in at YMCA, which is around 5 kms from the main town. They had very clean rooms and were real economical too.

Yelagiri is very much a sleepy town and you hardly find it abuzz with activity. This suited us best as we wanted to laze around in a place far from city life. If your idea of a break is a crowded hill station like Ooty, having lots of places to check out, then Yelagiri is not the place for you. There are hardly 10 places to see and a few of them are temples.The major attraction is the Yelagiri lake where you can go boating. There is a circular walkway around the lake which is quite nice to amble. We got back to Hotel Hills for dinner and then wanted to see a movie. As Yelagiri doesn’t have any theaters we had to goto either Vaniyambadi or Jolarpet. We started climbing down the hills when we got to a view point 3/4ths up the hill. What lay before us was something that cannot be described in words. The whole city below was lit up with lights resembling stars and it was a sight to behold. We sat atop the railing and spent around half an hour just looking at the vast expanse. This is one activity that is not mentioned in any site or signboard but worth going all the way just to see the city at night.

The next morning, we wanted to trek to swami malai, the highest peak in Yelagiri. We got ready by 7 and left for the trek. The route goes thro’ the countryside, through fields interspersed with small houses. Soon, you are left all alone and there is no one around to even ask for directions. There was a barrier of some sorts on the way and we had to climb that to continue the trek. The trek was quite arduous for us and took an hour. Do carry at least 2 liters of bottled water as you would be needing them while climbing up. Once you reach the summit, you find a small temple inside a cave where there is a priest waiting for you. We then started exploring the place further and reached a telecom tower which had a crude ladder inside the base. Abe climbed up the tower till the top while I made it only to the half way mark as it was rusty and I was apprehensive it might give way. Trekking down the hill was a bit easy and it took us 30 minutes.

We got back at 10, had a nice breakfast of toast and omelette’s at Hotel Hills (again) and then went to see a place called Nilavoor. We had lunch, packed our bags by 3 and reached Bangalore at 7 in the evening. I felt it was a well deserved break though we didn’t get to do much.

Fact file:
How to get there:
See above

Means:
A private vehicle is preferrable if you are coming from Chennai or Bangalore. If you are coming here by bus or train, you might have to get down at Jolarpet which is the nearest railway station.

What to do in Yelagiri:

Go for a boat ride and a leisure walk around the lake

Just laze around doing nothing

Trek up swami malai

Taste the local honey & jackfruit

Drive down to the view point in the night and watch the city glow in the dark

Observe a few places via the telescope in the observatory just before you reach Yelagiri. You can see the Jolarpet railway station clearly.

Photos from our trip:
Yelagiri

Ratatouille(n) : A vegetable stew usually made with tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, peppers, onion, and seasonings.

Once you get its meaning, you’d probably wonder why Pixar has kept this strange name of a dish as the movie title. It is because the movie is about a rat, Remy who dreams of becoming a chef in Paris against his parents wishes. This would seem really difficult for a rat, of all creatures, but luck favors Remi when he befriends Linguini.

Linguini is a boy who wants to keep his job in the French restaurant that Remy wants to work in despite his lack of culinary skills. One thing leads to another and Linguini with the help of Remy begins preparing gourmet food that takes everyone by surprise. Whether they manage to pull it off forms the rest of the story.

Casting Patton Oswalt as Remy and Lou Romano as Linguini has been outstanding. The animation is top notch and there is a sewer scene where you are made to feel you are actually inside a sewer in France. The story line is great as well. No wonder this has made it to the Top 100 of the Top 250 movies in IMDB.

In short, Brad Bird has given us a masterpiece once again after Incredibles. A highly recommended movie that should be watched in the theater.

By the way, it would do a lot good to get to the theater on time as you would not want to miss the short animation movie ‘Lifted’ that is shown before the main movie just the way it is usually done in all Pixar movies.

This was one movie that had actors I had never heard of till then but I still wanted to watch it as it was supposedly a thriller. It is about a depressed teen who recently having lost his father due to an accident is placed under house arrest for punching his spanish teacher. After getting bored at home playing video games, he starts surveilling his neighbours. What starts of as an innocuous activity takes a serious turn when he suspects his neighbour to be a serial killer. Is his suspicions right or is he imagining things?

I went to the movie without high expectations and it turned to be a pretty decent one. It is not a horror movie nor is it gory but it does has some scary scenes. Shia LaBeouf gives a good performance as the withdrawn teen.

Overall, this is not a must watch movie but you might want to watch it if you are into thrillers.