This was again something we should have done long time back. I guess it was my laziness combined with utter ignorance of a place like this so close to our home in Bangalore. Dad was even more reluctant for some apparent reason. Anyway Mom and Aditi made us silly men realize what an amazing place Bannerghatta National Park actually is.
This one actually came and stood on a kind of pedestal close to the bus we were all in. Really amazing and beautiful creature.
On the way we go through a bear/lion/tiger reserve and finally come back to the zoo. We got to see a baby hippo at the zoo, which was quite interesting. This shot was when the care taker dumped a whole bunch of leaves right onto the little one.
We were thinking of hitting some conventional restaurant,like TGIF for dinner. But we soon realized that Mom would find it quite hard to get something she could enjoy at a place like that and so wanted to try something a bit more Indian. So during the day we were at Forum Mall and spotted a pretty exclusive looking entrance to a restaurant and were curious. Aditi told me that this was a part of BJN group so we decided to try it out. We were a bit worried but anything thought of giving it a try. Fortunately we weren’t disappointed at all.
The place had an amazing ambience and the food was just excellent. We tried the lamb Raan which I think is a must try for any non-vegetarian. The place is done pretty much like an old train station with all the sign boards and even the rail sleepers. Check here for more reviews.
This was the best barbecue I’ve had with whiskey marinated Lamb and a freshly caught fish from the river. We didn’t manage to catch anything ourselves besides stones so we got some professionals to help with the fishing. Utsu managed to take over as the butcher this time.
I also tried Tongba (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongba), millet based alcoholic beverage, for the first time. It’s drunk warm and refilled with warm water to make a heterogeneous millet mixture. It’s one hell of a nice drink and a sweet high. We didn’t manage to get the actual bamboo container in which it is actually supposed to be had, so managed with something that we managed to find around Kaka’s farm house. The straw has a special valve, kind of perforated, which filters the millet out. We got one from the nice villagers around there.
Next day we went over to Salami and this was the view of the farm house we stayed last night. I thought the fan was running the whole night and turns out it was actually the sound from the river.
Whoever thought of leaving a cone on a a vent near The Mud volcano in Yellowstone.
And who by fire, who by water,
Who in the sunshine, who in the night time,
Who by high ordeal, who by common trial,
Who in your merry merry month of may,
Who by very slow decay,
And who shall I say is calling?
And who in her lonely slip, who by barbiturate,
Who in these realms of love, who by something blunt,
And who by avalanche, who by powder,
Who for his greed, who for his hunger,
And who shall I say is calling?
And who by brave assent, who by accident,
Who in solitude, who in this mirror,
Who by his lady’s command, who by his own hand,
Who in mortal chains, who in power,
And who shall I say is calling?
Leonard Cohen
Your picture smiles as first it smiled,
The ring you gave is still the same,
Your letter tells, O changing child,
No tidings since it came.
Give me an amulet
That keeps intelligence with you,
Red when you love, and rosier red,
And when you love not, pale and blue.
Alas, that neither bonds nor vows
Can certify possession;
Torments me still the fear that love
Died in its last expression.
The reason I like this is that the colors are totally left to imagination. If you have been here you know what I mean.
I promised Adi that we would go to the aquarium and for some reason we just postponed it over and over again. But it finally happened this weekend. I love fish tanks, but this one is in a different league. The dome is quite an attraction.
If you do get to go, I'm quite sure you'll see the otter rubbing his cheeks. Its quite tempting to say that they are so human but then again it could be the other way around you know.
A bridge, sign of hope people say. On the other hand there are some that you never want to cross because there is no turning back. I have often wondered about the value that we live by. Is it a conditioned sense of obligation or a façade filled with lies? The world is cruel and it makes you cruel as well and people most often want to believe they aren’t. At least that seems like a comforting fact, but still hypocritical in nature don’t you think. This makes even that little comfort vain. You feel as if there is no surface to reflect upon and you look up into the blackness and feel the endless void in life. The fact that a simple thing like a bridge can spark so much sorrow leaves us to question, how many things in life actually make you happy.
It’s not a sad day but I wanted to take a moment to write this down. As I want to remember “You never see what is in front and you never see what you leave behind!”. I wonder what truth is it that I look for and yearn for; I wonder if it is ever worth the fight.