Diary of a Whacky Girl

Don't get fooled by the title, I was just trying to have an alliterative one. I'm rather tired of starting every birthday post with a " Phew-I-can't-believe-you-are-already-five".  So, I'm putting this one as " what-an-amazing-year-it's-been ". Hands down one of the bestest. I definitely loved all the time I spent with you and cherish them so much, because this shall never repeat. The innocence, the curious questions - why, when, what, how, the joy of living in the present, the pride of being able to do things on your own - both for yourself and for others. The year started off with a Snake Walk weekend - and this time it included a friend from your school, Kavin. After we had him over for your birthday, and he had us over for his (apparently, both of your birthdays are 5 days apart, albeit you are a year younger) - we asked him to join us for this event, and oh boy, you guys had crazy fun running around the paddy fields, spotting touch-me-nots (...

The Jawadhu Hills Ultra (JHU), a trail marathon, comprising of 30km and 60km distance, was organized by the Chennai Trail club (CTC) in Jawadhu this weekend. Being part of CTC, we naturally opted to volunteer for the event and decided to take Athi along. We have been wanting to take him to one of the CTC events for a long time now, but somehow it kept eluding and this time we decided we have got to do it. Because we were taking him along, we opted to volunteer at the start/finish point - that's the one place that has people flowing in and out all the time, unlike the aid stations that are deep in the trails, with very minimal people around other than a few locals and the runners passing by.  Up until now, every time we take him out for trips, we'd always been carrying some quick food, and a couple of his toys. But this time, given he is almost 5 years old and this whole trip was going to be mostly outdoors (the school ground), I took a bold call that we are not carrying food - ...

I am not someone who can write a book or movie reviews - but I want to write down a few things about this movie that I enjoyed. The first scene and the song that followed it, had me in tears. The lyrics, the voice - everything about the song carried so much of emotion! The heaviness you feel when you are forced to give up something that has been your entire life - the song captured that emotion completely. Vijay Narain, the primary singer, had done a brilliant job. But as if, that wasn't enough, the finishing touch in Kamal Hassan's voice definitely left me in goosebumps.  I so loved the scene that showed the hero looking at his erstwhile home, after almost 22 years - it really struck a chord with me, as it's one thing that I was able to relate to myself - a feeling that I have every time I go to Neyveli and catch a glimpse of D63. Watching the movie felt like watching a part of our own life on screen, the scenarios and the emotions were so relatable. The way the characters...

Western Ghats have always been my most favourite. I have only been to Kumara Parvatha and Kodachari until now, and both of them have been really beautiful and challenging. I certainly have a thing for lush greens - the kind that you see right during and immediately after monsoon. So, when the office colleagues decided to plan a trip, I jumped up with glee suggesting Kudremukh as the destination.  I have been wanting to go to Kudremukh for a long time now, ever since I finished the other two K's, but the dream couldn't crystallise into a reality. I went all out and convinced everyone about how beautiful Kudremukh would be and how this was exactly the right time to visit that place, showing all the innumerable photos on the internet. But as with every other trip planning and every other office gumbal, we started off with about 10 people showing interest for the trip, but then when we did finalise the actual date, unfortunately most them backed out due to various reasons. Finally,...

If there is one thing that all the kids in our town awaited with bated breath, it has to the Book Fair. It has about 60-80(?) book stalls of various publishing houses spread across a big ground, and then to finish your evening on a high, there was always joy rides that included giant wheel, tora tora, cup and saucers, dashing cars and once, a water slide and go karting, even! And not to forget the food counter serving Delhi Appalams, Gobi 65, Fried Idlis and what-not! The one thing I'm always guilty of skipping is the auditorium, which used to have speakers/authors from across the State, sharing their views on various topics. I think this again had a separate theme for each year and a sub-theme for each day.  It happens every year around June-July, for a period of 10 days. Starts at about 4:30PM in the evening and ends at 9:30-10:00ish. Every year there used to be a theme for the entrance decor, which kept getting better year on year. They had a daily entry pass or a seasonal pass ...

Dear 2023, You were kind, patient, experimental, fun and happy.! A few things that stood out to me over the course of this year were - Books - I actively started reading a lot of books this year - all sorts of books - trashy romcoms to short stories to satires to self-help. One of the best things that happened this year was the book reading group that I joined in October. It has helped me read self-help books, and most importantly, pushed me to implement my learnings from the book. Looking forward to more disciplined reading and implementation in the years ahead.  Swimming - Swimming has been on my new year resolution every single year for more than the past couple of years. It's not that I don't know swimming, but I have this acute fear of depth waters. I went on a trek last month where there were quite a lot of waterfalls that were pristine and beautiful, but deep. This is probably the fourth time that I'm going on a trek to this place, but every time I go to the waterfal...