Animals are beautiful people

I love butterflies though its painful catching them to pose for you. Here's some I got recently in Chennai and Lonavla.

Marriage matters - journey to the altar part 8

I was tensed. For one I could not face 'WHO'. After all a wedding with the groom and his brother alone was not my dream but what went through his mind hurt me more. 'WHO' had cancelled his parents' tickets to Kerala, fearing last minute tampering by them in our new plans. Parents are intuitive they must have sensed it some how because a day after his parents told him they are with him and to let them atleast attend the wedding. This wedding was getting to be the wedding of the millenium. People were already gossiping about the change of venues and that for second, tensed me more (Looking back now though I feel stupid for worrying what people thought) .

But people could not understand why a guy's family would agree for both ceremonies at girl's place; something sure was fishy. I started fretting over my relationship with my future in-laws . 'WHO' was nervous but assured me things would be fine and we both realised we shared the same temprament when it came to tackling crises. We realised there was no turning back and blaming each other for now this life was ours and everything that came along was part of this package called " Journey to the altar".

My sister kept me busy with beauty tips and visits to beautician. Finally we made it to the Wedding day after a lousy engagement where the groom's and bride's people sat apart with no interaction. From the dais it looked like a war to us and disturbed us in between our photo sessions. I did not wear my glasses but could sense the cold war from where we sat. We really enjoyed the pre marital course thereafter partially because we were happy looking at our rings and flaunting around to other couples who were not engaged yet. But maybe getting to talk to each other during the little intervals, without chaperones, made us very excited.

I don't remember much details about the wedding or my engagement. I am sure people who have been here and done this will agree. The mix of anxiety, excitement, pressure and with hundreds of people staring at you and add to that the solemnity of a malu wedding makes it an occassion which you just want to get done with. People told us the food was awesome but we could not eat to our heart's content posing for pics in between lunch. Not that we could have eaten otherwise because our hearts were in our mouths all the time. That's one thing I hate about weddings one never gets to enjoy food from one's own wedding (we are waiting to attend some wedding and enjoy the food).

My dad in law did have a tussle in front of the staging area asking us to pack up and stop photo sessions as he had to reach home at an auspicious time. This did panick my people and all the rituals were performed in fast forward motion.

But highlights of the day were that the people who dressed me forgot to tuck the starting tip of my saree and i kept stumbling on it. My mom saved me from being a laughing stock, standing there saree-less in front of the whole gathering.

But what I would never forget is vommitting in front of an Orthodox church where we were sent to light candles before entering my groom's place. ' WHO' promised to clean the mess which he didn't and next morning we saw someone had cleaned it by throwing some mud over it. They must have taken it for a drunkard rather a catholic travel sick bride and if they knew the truth lord save the next crusade.

And that's how we got married, it began with a mail and ended in vomit. Makes no sense huh? maybe you should read all the parts :)

Animals are beautiful people

Every worm that wriggles by... tells a fascinating news for those who dare to hope....

WHO is going crazy over animal pics . He captured this beautiful shot at Lonavla.

Happy Cockroach hunting

The ads on cockroach hunting for science project and Americas' funniest home video of a child swallowing a cockroach, brought back some memories from my childhood. My sis Asha was a show stealer. She always spoke or did stuff that drew mom's and everyone else's attention to her. I must at this point admit I was never too happy about it. I neglected her in every way possible and remained silent when I could warn her or mom from some danger Asha was in.

One beautiful day, for me, as I was lazing around figuring out what to play (I was 2 yrs old) Asha was crawling around trying to look cute so I would let her join me in play. I never fell for her charms so I kept ignoring her babbling, which sounded like 'chechi' (big sis). She fell silent after some time and I was mature enough a kid to know she had founded something new to amuse herself. I heard noises of her falling on and off and was happy to hear about her self harm games. But to cure my curiosity I decided to check on her, after all I could walk and the poor little soul crawled (Mom says I thought I walked from birth and considered Asha a dumbo for crawling). There I saw her crawling with the speed of a cheetah pouncing towards it prey. She had spotted a cockroach quite big for her and was chasing it like any kid of her age did seeing crawling bugs and beetles.

My database told me that mom forbid cockroaches and scared us that we would die if we put them in the mouth. Asha's courage irritated me but her foolishness made me happy. If she chose her death by a measly looking creature what could I do? But I never bothered calling mom. I erased that part of my mommy advice chips conveniently.

Asha looked like a puppy, scared of the cockroach yet trying to trap it with her dress when it moved and finally she caught it with her baby palms and pressed it tight .

I was having fun when mom came in, moms always have bad timing and nice intuitions, found us quiet and was curious to know what was happening. Now kids and dogs have something in common when they do something forbidden; they act reflexively in front of their masters. Asha perhaps knew mom would confiscate the cockroach so the moment Mom screamed looking at her she popped the cockroach into her mouth. I didn't know Chopin then but something similar must have played in my head in delight while I watched mom screaming NOOOOOOOOOOOO.

The next part of the tussle was mom trying to make Asha open her mouth, to spit the thing out and she stubbornly shutting it tight. But I felt cheated seeing her alive partially because I believed mom's story and never touched a cockroach and partly jealous at Asha's courage, even though out of ignorance, which meant she was ALIVE. Mom finally made Asha spit it out but the essence had reached her tummy.

Well years down I have killed as many cockroaches I could on my dissection table and rehearsed it many times at home to irritate Asha. Asha till date is aversive to cockroaches and I am still alive. As far as cockroaches are concerned, they have outlived the dinosaurs, hopefully will do humans too.

Animals are beautiful people

You would have only heard about mall rats but here we give you a mall cat. Ain't he cute, felt like calling him Tabby, from Thomas Gray's poem "On a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes"
He keeps a watchful eye on the mall rats and is not perturbed by the big bills you draw up.

Look into those wise eyes and you know that it has seen the world. And the only one who ate generous servings of multi grain cracker biscuits from Bhuji.