JHU - 25K

Ever since we finished the JHU’24 volunteering last year, I decided to get back into running more regularly, given I’d taken a break from Ultimate. I’d signed up for a 10k at Vagamon in January 2025, and ended up making my brother and my 5-yr-old son both of them run (a.k.a hike) the entire distance with me. Going to Vagamon together with the CTC gang was one of the best decisions ever. CTC has always been like family - the people, the conversations, the care, everything brings a sense of belonging to anyone who is a part of it. I’m always in awe of this community and the people who make it so. With the last couple of years dedicated predominantly to Ultimate, I didn’t have a chance to connect with these people regularly. But JHU’24 and Vagamon’25 gave me the chance to become an active member of CTC again. 

Also, Vagamon sort of reminded me about my love for trail runs, making me want to hit the trails more often. I started off with 5k runs for two to three days a week, mostly on road. The initial days were quite hard where I had to struggle to push beyond the second kilometer. But gradually the 5K’s became regular and easy. As May approached, the recce (surveying the route) for CTU began. Given I’ve always only volunteered for any of the CTC organised runs, I have never been through the actual trails fully. Joining the guys during the recce seemed to be a good idea to have a peek into the trails. And so, I joined a couple of recces and managed to comfortably cover 15-16km without any injury or fatigue. That gave me some confidence that my endurance game is still going strong. 

Once CTU’25 was over, the team started preparing for the Jawadhu Hills Ultra (JHU), which is a trail run along the scenic villages of the Jawadhu Hills. I wasn’t able to go for any recces to Jawadhu, hence, I signed up for the Simulation Run that happened over the weekend. A Simulation Run is like a pilot before the actual event with a small group of runners, but with almost all the support (aid station, food, timing) that is given during the actual run. In total, there are about 3 categories in the current year’s JHU, 25km, 50km and 85km. The simulation run happened for 2 categories, 25km and 50km. I had opted for the 25km run. We had 10 runners for each category and a handful of volunteers who came by to support these runners - brining the total group size to around 30. The 50km run happened on Saturday with 10 runners, and the rest of us supporting them with food and hydration. They started off at 6:15am in the morning and had to finish off the 50km distance in 10 hours. The goal of the support team was simple - we had to reach the aid station spots on time for the runners to come by and provide water / electrals / food. The group had seasoned runners, a couple of first time 50k runners who had put in their due practice to be able to finish it, and all of them finished the entire course and within the 10-hour cut off, which was the best part! 

the 50K Finishers

Once the run was over, it was time for some food, a dip in the well, more food (dinner) and back to the school (which was our place of stay). There seemed to have been some issue with the power supply at the school, and hence, we didn’t have any lights. The place was pitch dark and you always had to use a torch or headlight to see what is ahead. As I was trying to move around prepping up for the next day’s run, it happened - I slipped a step, and got my left ankle twisted. The pain was initially mild, and I was thinking it was due to impact and not really an ankle twist. I stood up silently, and immediately went to sleep, all the while hoping and praying it isn’t going to cost me my run tomorrow. The whole night, I kept waking up almost every two hours, trying to turn around my feet and see if the pain has reduced, every time hoping against hope that I’d be able to run tomorrow. For the first few hours, it felt very devastating to think that I wouldn’t be able to run - because this has been a run that I’ve been really looking forward to, my first longest run post Malnad 50K (which was 8 years ago!). As the night moved on, and I kept realising that the pain isn’t subsiding, I started to make peace with myself and decided I wouldn’t run the next day, but instead be part of the support team and cheer the ones running.

As the alarm beeped at dawn break, and I woke up to inform the folks about my twisted ankle and my decision to skip the run. People felt sorry for me as I tried my best to stay calm and not break down, because it was really very hard to accept.

Then came Nilesh bro, our Race Director (RD) asking why I wasn’t getting ready for the run. As I narrated him about my ankle twist, he was like - “Oh no! I really wanted all of guys to run, so that it’d help us understand if the cut-off timing would suffice”. Gosh, I felt a fresh wave of guilt rise through me, for not being more careful. But then, he didn’t stop there, and went on to offer if I would like to have my ankle taped up and give a shot at the run. It felt as though everyone was waiting to hear something like this, and the moment he suggested this, all of them pounced on it and urged me to give it a try. Honestly, I was a bit skeptical about this, as I didn’t want to aggravate an injury and make it even more worser. But then, a small part of me, jumped at this option with joy and wanted to try. And so, I agreed. Our BYU Champ a.k.a Bigil Mani was the man to the rescue. He woke up midway through his sleep and very kindly plastered me up, with not just one, but two tapes (I’m still clueless on what these tapes were). His only advice to me was, you can be really strong in uphills, but don’t push too much in downhills. I tried to walk around and jog slowly, the pain had significantly reduced (could feel the tape doing its work perfectly). 

So off we all walked towards the start point, 10 of us, together with 3 pacers (who’d finished 50K yesterday). The run started at 6:10AM, and our cut off was 5 hours for the 25K distance. 

25K Start Line

The initial 2kms were mostly flat and road sections. I stayed at the end of the pack, consciously jogging at about 8:00-8:30 pace per km. The roads slowly opened up to trails along paddy fields, and got a little narrower as we moved from paddy fields to wild bushes, the terrain becoming a little rocky-ish causing you to alternate between jog and walk. And before we knew it, we entered a village, and reached the first aid station, which was at 7.5km mark and spotted our support team cheering for us. This brought a new surge of energy as I gobbled up a few chikkis and oranges and continued to run along. It had taken me almost an hour and 10 minutes to cover this distance and that meant I was still on track to finish the course within the 5-hr cut off. 

Right after the first aid station

Once out of the village, we get back into the trails again - this time treading through some forest cover with gradual uphill climbs, followed by some downhill stretches with an occasional stream crossing. My uphill climbs were surprisingly strong as I managed to maintain a decent slow jog for most part of it, and continued to be cautious in the downhill sections. One of the best things about a trail run is it forces you to be fully aware of your surroundings. It brings your attention to the tiniest of things that you’d otherwise not observe at all - like the sound of crickets chirping, frog croaking, ants huddling together carrying their new found meal (dead insects), lots of fresh cobwebs, mist covered leaves, the smell of earth, the sound of the flowing stream, the gentle breeze and the rustling of leaves - the list never ends. Also, you always have to be mindful and be present in the moment, following the markings / ribbons ensuring you are in the right trail. 

At about 12.5km mark, we reach the next village, Odamangalam, and were warmly welcomed by the locals who very kindly provided us with water and even offered to feed us breakfast. We accepted the water (oh, it tasted absolutely divine) and thanked them for their hospitality and continued to trudge on. The next section was mix of grasslands and paddy fields, with a lot of descents, and I had to slow down the pace and switch to walking a little too often, but the leg didn’t give up on me as yet. It was around this time that I started feeling really grateful to my body - all those gym workouts (special thanks to Ram bro for those periodic check-ins) the Pallavaram hill repeats and the (almost) regular 30 minute runs in the past 4-5 months definitely paid off.

Like I had shared earlier, I was amongst the last in the pack and there were about 4 of us (Riya, Suhashini, Vinodh and me) who were constantly over each other’s toes and often kept pushing each other. All this while, we’d had a lot of descents with mostly minimal uphill climbs. But it was at between the 16-17km that we were faced with one of the steepest uphill climb of the entire course. Since we’d missed our support crew in our 12.5K checkpoint and would be meeting them again only at the 20K-mark, we decided to take a quick 2-min rest before the steep ascent. Thankfully, Vinodh had some Paalgova buns, which we shared amongst us and filled our bottles with some water from the nearby stream.

Though the climb seemed intimidating at first glance, once you started climbing and caught up your own rhythm, it didn’t feel as daunting as it looked. We chanced upon a couple of our biking support folks enroute, who had by this time thought we were lost in the trails. This was a welcoming sight and they came by laden with food and some hydration and we were more than happy to know that we were almost nearing the 20K checkpoint. 

Another 20-30 mins of run and walk finally led us to the last aid station in the village of Gundalathur where we were finally reunited with our ever lovely crew, encouraging and cheering us for all that we’ve been doing. I had some oranges and bananas and a glass of lemonade that felt very soothing to my very dry throat. The time was 10:10 and we had exactly an hour more to cover the last 5km of the course. The last 5km was supposed to be fairly easy with almost 90% of the distance on roads. All this while, we were mostly amidst forest covers and the Sun was playing almost peek-a-boo with a little drizzle here and there. But in the last 5km, because it was fully open roads with the Sun shining almost directly overhead, the exhaustion started to creep in. With 20mins and 2kms done, I switched to brisk walk for the next 2kms. With 20 mins to go and last 1km to finish, I started to jog it up to the finish line. Mani spotted us early on and sprinted over to escort us for the last 300metres. As I entered into the ground, it was heartwarming to the see and hear the sound of applauses from the team. I crossed the finish line by 4 hours 50 minutes, a good 10 minutes within the cut off - yayyyyy!! From almost skipping the run to finishing it within the cut off, it felt surreal. 

The pack of 4 with the RD

The Taped Girls :)

I shall forever be grateful to each one of them present that day, for their support and encouragement, without which I wouldn’t have been able to finish this. Every little thing counts, right from the initial push from Nilesh bro to the constant encouraging words from the fellow runners throughout the run and the unwavering support of the group. This run definitely will be close to my heart for a long long time to come. Lastly, a heartfelt thank you to my very own body for enduring this whole ordeal of finishing the 25KM.

The troop :)

GCF - Girls Chat Forum

From being the only girl in the team, to entering a team that had more women than men, my professional journey has bestowed me with a wide variety of experiences in terms of people and relationships.

This friendship day, I’d like to celebrate my team girls, who are one of the biggest support systems both on and off work. I’m really glad and grateful to have them in my life. Each of them are unique and inspire me in a variety of ways. 

1. Swetha - Well, the first girl I got to interact with when I joined into work. Surprisingly, she also happened to be someone I’d known from my previous stint with the company, but hadn’t interacted much. She’s definitely the most caring soul I’ve ever met. One of the biggest connoisseurs of all things food and kids. I believe she’s the happiest when trying out new foods or talking about her kids, absolutely dotes on them. She’s also a meticulous planner and always thinks of the best things you could gift someone for their special occasions. 

2. Subi - My pillion rider (soon to become my driver - she’s getting her driving license this month, yayyy!!). She’s possibly the gang’s most disciplined and health conscious one - always on the lookout and trying healthy, eco-friendly sustainable alternatives. Our conversations as we ride to and from office are something that I really look forward to. She’s always ready to share all her new learnings together with what’s worked for her. And oh, how can I forget, she never fails to follow up on me when I commit some task / routine to her. Drops a gentle message or quick nudge over the desk to check if I’m progressing with it or not. Accountability partner of sorts.

3. Srinidhi - My buddy at work, the one from whom I took in the role transition. To describe Srinidhi in one word - proactively hard-working. She’s always on the lookout for what might come next on her work table, and ensures she’s already on it. And god, she’s quite meticulous, in the sense that she never shies away from multiple follow ups and collaborating with a multitude of people to get the things done. Side note, the two things that can always lift up Srinidhi’s moods are - Ice creams and movies / series. 

4. Swedha - This is one chutti kozhandhai of the gang. She was possibly the youngest (or rather one of the youngest) of the gang at some point in time. She’s a creative genius. Our self-appointed photographer and reels creator. Always has a ton of ideas up her sleeve, pushes us do the acting and last,  but not the least, produces a perfectly edited masterpiece that’ll forever be beautiful memories for us to look back on. 

5. Madhu - I’m always in awe of Madhu for the way she puts forth her thoughts and opinions. She’s one of the most bold and confident women I have ever seen, quite vocal who never backs away from challenging things. I don’t know if it’s just me or do others also feel this - she’s brings in a completely different perspective to a lot of things that we discuss, given the plethora of topics she reads about, making it all the more interesting. Also, the gang’s the first and best chauffeur (just kidding). The only girl from the team that drives her car to work, and 90% of the time brings along people with her (carpooling) - good job on being socially responsible Madhu. Side note - She makes the best Risotto and Wraps (with some lip-smacking dips!!)

6. Thamil - A mostly quiet but keen observer, Thamil is the best version one could wish for about their health. I truly admire the ‘way of life’ in her family, about how health is given the utmost priority, over anything else. Her meals are always the most nutritious with a variety of vegetables. She’s the gang’s OG in terms of staying away from sweets / desserts. Always happy to skip them, while most of us would go weak on our knees over the mention of a waffle or basundhi.

7. Maha - The most optimistic person in the whole gang. She’s the one person who always looks at the best in everything. I’ve never met someone like her, always bubbling with joy. Even when she’s complaining about something, she never loses the smile on her face. She’s by far the one person in the gang with the widest variety of experiences and that definitely shows in the way she looks at things. Always inquisitive, observing and appreciating little things about all the people she’s interacting with, never failing to share it all with us, she’s someone I look up to. 

8. Sreeja - Mostly to herself, but really sweet when you talk to her. She’s one person that is very disciplined, once committed to something, especially with diet. Most of us don’t bother about hoarding ourselves on some days, but Sreeja is always mindful. 

9. Sowmiya - Another one of my buddies, who’d been away for a while on a sabbatical when I joined, but was back again last year. She’s chatty and witty, and very easy to converse with. Quite an ardent web/OTT series lover, she’s always open to recommendations and provides honest feedback. 

10. Priscilla - The one who always radiates calm and composure. I quite admire the fact that she comes up with really interesting questions in the various meetings. Questions that are usually practical, but never get asked in the forums for the fear of repercussions. 

11. Devi - A fairly new girl to the team, she’s one enthu bundle, always ready to try out new things and is curious about everything. I’m quite sure she holds this whole gang as dear as I do, feeling super grateful to have landed in this role. 

12. Darsini - My very own junior. She’s all that I wish I was when I was younger. She’s quiet but curious, always giving her best to solve any issues or questions that come her way, ever willing to help in any which way she can! Her transition into this role happened in quite a jiffy, but she took it in all too well, and is definitely doing a great job at it Gosh, this is going on like a performance review, sorry Darsh! But yes, she’s super sweet and a die-hard fan of dramas in all languages other than Tamil, lol, just kidding - she adores K-Dramas, watches a bit of J- and C-dramas too I believe (for the uninformed K is for Korean, J Japan and C Chinese)

There also a couple of others, like Keerthana and Vimala, who have very recently joined our team, and slowly getting to know us I hope and wish they enjoy our company. 

And with that, I wrap up my friendship post, forever grateful for having these girls in my life. Here’s to more years of fun and food :) Happy Friendship Day!! 

Happiest Birthday Swetha!

Oh Swe, where do I even start? It’s only fair to start from the very beginning. The first time I ever met you was back in 2015, when you were part of Uma’s wider team. We didn’t get to interact a lot, but I remember your smile, the very-genuine-reaching-up-to-your-eyes kinda smile. There were the occasional hi-byes when we crossed paths during the day but don’t quite remember a lot of conversation happening.

Cut to June 2022, I join back Barclays, but this time into your team. I didn’t know this until I started, and honestly you were the first best thing that happened to me at that time. I used to tell a lot of people that rejoining Barclays felt a lot like Homecoming, because of all the people, and you are definitely in the top of that list. Somehow the conversations right from the beginning felt very natural, as if some old friends reconnecting after a long gap. What with having a lot of things in common, like, sharing birth years, mat leaves (lol), kiddos sharing same birthday months, the mutual love of food - Gosh, all these things that connected us closer. You are such a joy to talk to. Always bustling with enthu, and a warm smile.

The one thing that always stands out about you, the one that always inspires me is - your care! All these 3 years, I have seen you care, for every one of us in the team, the kids, your family, friends and anybody that you know. The amount of care and love you shower to the people around you is something that’s truly admirable. It seems so easy and natural coming from you. You diligently follow up when someone calls in sick or has any issues. I still remember the one time I called in sick, and you had whole list of remedies that I should be looking at, and constantly followed up with me. Thanks for always being there, Swe. No matter what, I’ll also be there for you, always and forever. 

The next thing that probably has us, or rather our whole girls’ gang connected is FOOD. That’s possibly the one topic that we never tire of talking about or experimenting. The ideas that are shared over lunch, tried in the respective kitchens and brought in to taste another day, has got me feeling orey the wow, what did I even do to deserve such a lovely gang of people. I sincerely think we could start a food blog with all the recipes that we’ve shared amongst us and enjoyed savouring. You are our gang’s best man(woman) to pull everyone for a break when we are sulking over long spreadsheets or never-ending meetings. Oh my, those 6-8months when you were on mat leave after the birth of Jaanu, we really felt the vacuum. The breaks were never the same and we couldn’t wait for you to come back. So glad to have you back at work since November. 

Guess I should probably stop here and tell what I’ve been skipping to in the first 20 lines - Happiest Birthday Swetha!! May you light more souls with your care and talk and, let the universe shower you with abundance of joy and happiness for the years to come :) Thank you so much for coming into my life, and I do hold our relationship very dearly. 

Love,

Gayu

CMBT & My bus journeys

Living in Neyveli, and having most of your extended family settled in Chennai, meant you’d be frequently travelling between Neyveli and Chennai. Since Neyveli didn’t have a proper railway station and the closest one was 2 hours away, our travel to Chennai has always been in buses. The buses usually took about 4.5-5hours to cover the 200km distance. Because we had one of our relatives in Tambaram, we usually got down there. Those were the days when the Mofussil buses used to go through the city, and I believe the bus stand was in Broadway, Parrys. 

It was in 2002 (though I had stared at the granite containing the date of opening a zillion times, I couldn’t quite recollect this year and had to google it) that the bus terminus was shifted to Koyambedu, and named as CMBT - Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus. It was humungous to say the least. The local MTC buses were given a good sizeable space in the front, with multiple shelters and behind them was the actual bus terminus with 6 broad platforms housing buses that ran across the length and breadth of the state, including a few to neighbouring states of Kerala, Karnataka and the then Andhra Pradesh. There were primarly two landmarks to identify the CMBT, one it’s own gigantic brownish dome with a digital clock and the second is the multi-storey apartment complex right opposite CMBT that used to be visible from about a kilometre away too. 

I moved to Chennai in 2008, but I believe it wasn’t until 2010-2011 when I started frequenting this bus stand to go visit my parents in Neyveli. I usually reached the bus stand at about 6-6:30PM after my work. There wasn’t an option to book tickets in advance for the bus to Neyveli, so it was always a waiting/guessing game trying to predict the bus’s arrival. I still remember my routine every time I go to this bus stand. As I’d take a bus at 6:30, I’d be reaching Neyveli quite late in the night, at around 11-11:30. So keep my hunger at bay while travelling, I always go to this Aavin booth right near Platform 2, buy one tetra pack of Pista Milkshake, and then walk over to a food kiosk, and buy an overpriced Lays packet. Not sure if anyone remembers, but the shops in the bus stand always charged prices for their products higher than the MRP, and even when you questioned them, they didn’t two hoots about you and would rather you not buy than reduce the price. 

Oh, how can I forget the mad rush during the peak holiday seasons. The day before the festive holidays begin would seem like the bus stand would burst, with so many people, all around, running to catch a bus to their hometowns. You were considered lucky to even get a direct bus to your town, forget about getting a seat. There were times when I’d had to travel the entire 5 hour journey standing, and would sometimes just flop onto the floor out of sheer exhaustion. We’d be lucky to sit on a seat when the bus stopped midway for a 5-10 minute break.

But these bus journeys were one of my best memories of those times. I’d invariably choose either the first seat at the front right next to the door, or the seat right above the wheels, near the ladder. These journeys were special because of the whole lot of people I met. Everyone had a story to share and it felt only right to lend a listening ear to it. You meet people from all walks of life, right from a girl who was preparing for UPSC exams, a math teacher, a working girl, literally all kinds and age groups. I believe there’s an ease and peace in sharing stories with strangers - there’s no fear of judgement, as there’s almost no way you were going to meet them again unless you choose to stay in touch. Most often, we hardly shared names. The conversations were always about places, education, movies, and just life in general. The stories that I shared, helped me figure out a lot about myself - what mattered the most to me, what are the thoughts that shaped me as a person, who/what are the instances that’ve had an impact on me. I strongly feel it is during these times that I slowly moved on from being an introvert to extrovert. I started to enjoy meeting people and talking / listening to them.

These bus journeys were a standard in my life for about 4-5 years until I finished my education and my parents lived in Neyveli. But slowly as they shifted to Chennai, these journeys and the conversations took a break and left me with void that I only felt when I travelled somewhere. But every once in a while when I do travel alone, and encounter people, there’s always a chance to spark up a conversation and share thoughts. 

Now, coming back to CMBT, because it was located almost in the heart of the city, and it became quite hard to manage the population here, the government opened up Kilambakkam Bus Terminus to manage the buses going down south, and the Madhavaram Bus Terminus for the buses going up north mostly to Andhra & Telangana. Whatever else remained was predominantly Vellore, Hosur, Bangalore and a few other places - these seemed to be the only ones that are currently being operated from CMBT. 

It was after almost 4 years that I stepped into the bus stand last week, and I was saddened to see its plight. What was once a bustling place of activity, now looks forlorn. Of the 6 platforms that used to be fully packed with buses and people, only one is currently functional, and that too with very minimal folks. The rest of the terminus looks ominous, deserted and is mostly used as a shelter by the homeless.  I’m sure there’d be plans to renovate and repurpose this place, and wish they act upon those plans soon before the condition of the place deteriorates even further.

People - Food - Places

Do you associate food with people and places? Not asking about eating in restaurants, but rather about food that’s served with love at home. 

I’m an ardent lover of food, and appreciate deeply when someone cooks food for me. I have a notable few foods that always remind me of the place and the person who’d served it to me for the first time. Invariably, every time anyone talks about that food item, instantly that person and the memory springs up in my mind. 

The first ever item on that list is Akki Roti. A Karnataka delicacy where they make rotis out of rice flour instead of wheat. Well, the first ever time I’d a bite of this was at my Mami’s (A) Amma’s house in Bangalore, probably when I was 10 or 12 years, maybe? We’d gone for a visit early noon, and in 10 minutes she cooks it up and serves it with some amazing home-made Nandini ghee. Gosh, the smell of the ghee, the crispness and the taste of the roti, even after all these years, still makes my mouth water. I still remember the numerous other times I’d went over to their place in anticipation of this, and don’t remember being disappointed ever, as this was always served first, without fail. The other day as my friend was talking about Akki Roti, guess what popped up in my mind - A’s amma and her impeccable roti.

The next one on this list are Methi Roti and Sabudana Khichdi. These ones come from Pune, Maharashtra. As for the methi roti, it came from my dad’s maternal aunt. The fresh tender methis together with a bit of ajwain, turmeric, chilli powder, salt mixed with our usual wheat flour results in this amaze max methi rotis. It’s really versatile in the sense that you could either gobble it up plainly, or with a side of raitha or plain curd or pickle - absolute freaking yum! Sabudana Khichdi coming from the same household, from the aunt’s daughter-in-law. My goodness me, this is literally my all time favourite dish in the whole wide world. Making Sabudana Khichdi is an art, for you to be need careful with the sabudana - they tend to get really sticky when subjected to heat, and become a whole mashy mess. The secret ingredient to stop them from getting sticky is to add powdered groundnut. This recipe by MathuSoundar is a keeper, works like magic, every-freaking-time. I could even mildly (proudly) brag that I’m becoming an expert in making this dish now. Thank you Mathu!

Lastly on this series, is something that my friend used to bring for lunch in during our internship. Vegetable or Peas Pulao/fried rice with some Vazhakkai cutlet. Good god, I’ll never get over this dish ever. The fragrance, the taste, the way it looks, everything about this dish is just perfect. We used to literally hijack her entire lunch box and hand over our boring rasam or sambar rice or most often some juice to her, as we hog all of her lunch. It’s been more than 10 years now, but the memory still lingers. I really do have to go to her home once to relish this dish all over again. 

Well, that is all for now, and I’m signing off with a lot of fond foody memories.

Until next,

G!

Athi’s Alapparais

Incident no.:1 

I think invariably each one of us would have atleast on distinct memory of something we did / something that happened to us in our childhood, which we wouldn’t have forgotten even till now. It might be of bravery, forgery, happiness or sadness or anything. I think this incident, that happened to Athi, would probably go down into his memory as one for his bravery and calm! 

So, this is what happened. My amma and Athi were playing with the bedroom door lock. Well, you can never guess the kind of things that’d excite a 5-year-old. It can be very random. This was one such thing. Apparently, he had just found out that the room can be locked from the outside using a key and can still be opened easily through the knob on the inside. No points for guessing who was inside and who was outside. Of course, Athi was in, and amma was out. As the boy was trying to understand this wow of an invention, he gets carried away and pushes another lock in the room, which is strictly an inside-only lock - meaning, you can’t unlock/undo it from the outside. And poor fellow doesn’t know how to undo his actions, a.k.a open the door. My mom tries asking him to unlock a few times, but he shouts back that it’s really hard and he isn’t able to do it. Oh, I completely missed to tell you about this - he’d just got one of his hands completely covered with Marudhaani (the boy is surprisingly quite fond of it and whenever someone brings them home, he’s all the more happy to get his hands adorned with it). So, imagine a little kid trying to unlock (which he is clueless about) a door with just one hand with all his might - perfect recipe for panic! My amma comes rushing to me trying to explain what happened. All of us assemble right outside the door of the room talking to him, asking him to try a little harder to get the door unlocked. Thankfully for him, the room had a bathroom. So, we instruct him to wash the Henna off his hands and then try with both the hands. Still no luck. Outside we were losing our calm, but inside, the boy is still all put together. He doesn’t shed a drop of tear, patiently trying whatever that we ask him to do. By the end of 15 minutes, we surely knew this wasn’t helping. Luckily my father’s phone was inside the room, so we tried to video call him, but gosh, android settings couldn’t find a better time to request for camera permissions to attend the video call. Because he’s barely used mobiles, he isn’t able to figure out why he couldn’t attend the call, and thus goes our last chance of trying to get him out of the door without having to break it. 

Just as we were thinking what can be done, my dad comes to the rescue with his absolute presence of mind - he decides to make a rectangular cut in the door near the lock by drilling holes. We instruct Athi to go and sit on the bed, while we try to unlock the door, and he promptly listens. Meanwhile, V contacts the maintenance folks and get someone from their team to fetch a ladder and try climbing to the window attached to that room. Thankfully, we live in second floor, so it wasn’t too much of a hassle. But Athi is too small to open the window to let him inside. As the maintenance anna tried to talk to him, asking him to stay calm, Athi replied back to him coolly, telling - “Uncle please wait, my thatha is drilling holes into the door and is going to open it for me”. Such calm and clarity, I sure don’t know where from he inherited them - definitely not me. 

After about 25-30 minutes, Appa had managed to cut out a rectangular portion, and the door is unlocked. Oh boy, we were so relieved. As soon as we get in, we ask him how he was trying to open the door, and as he shows it, we realize the poor thing had been trying to push the lock further inside on the same side, inside of pulling it out to unlock. No wonder it was very hard. A little while later, we question him if he was afraid / cried while he was stuck inside, he replies bravely - "first light ah azhuga vara madiri irundhuchu ma, aana aprom ellarum enna suthiteengala la, aprom enaku bayam pochu" (initially tears did well up in his eyes, but then once we were all right outside the door trying to talk to him, he started feeling much better and didn't feel the need to weep).

Quite an adventure it was, especially for my mom - because she felt she was primarily responsible for the whole fiasco, and dad - because he had to the hard work of drilling out the holes on a super strong door. An experience that shall forever be etched in our memories and be talked about for ages to come.

The hole in the door which was finally sealed yesterday with a patch of sheet

Incident No.:2

This is nothing unlike the previous one. This is more on how kids stump you speechless through their actions. We decided to enroll Athi for a Parkour Summer Class. It was the first day of the class and there's this huge slide in there made of wood, quite unlike the normal slides in the parks - this one is super steep at the top. Definitely looked a bit scary to me, at first sight. After a couple of other activities, the boy climbed to the top of this slide (through the ladder sort of thing), and the instructor asked him to slide down. He seemed pretty nervous and scared, and said he didn't want to do it. The instructor tried talking to him slowly, offering to help / hold him as he got down, and I did try to talk to him too, but he was quite unprepared and didn't want to do it. After about 5-7 minutes of trying to talk to him / making him slide, he was just lifted off and put through in the middle of the slide. He didn't protest much but didn't want to do it again, and continued with the rest of the activities for the day. As the day progresses, whenever he had a break, he'd climb up the slide from the bottom (instead of taking the ladder at the top and sliding all the way down) and reach a certain height and slide down from there. He kept doing it again and again, for God knows how many times - trying to get a hang of how the slide felt when he slid. As the class comes to an end for the day, guess what he asks - he walks up to the instructor and tells him he'd want to climb all the way to the top the slide, and get down on his own. I was quite stumped. Just about an hour ago, we were in the same place, pleading with him to slide down and here he was now, wanting to do on his own. Well, quite a transformation in an hour's time. The biggest take away for me in this whole episode was - you can try to push your kids to try the things that they might be scared off at first, but you really do have to give them the time and space to explore it on their own, without too much interference. Keep providing them that opportunity to explore things at their own pace, and don't forget to enjoy the beauty of how they figure out a way around it/through it.

The wooden slide

🚂magaluru (Chikmagaluru)

I have always gone on trips with friends from school / articleship / Ctc, but never with people from work. It started quite on a whim between me and a couple of colleagues, and before we knew it we had a group of 14 people readily agree to join. And thus went the first office trip, to Varkala in 2023. Like every other gang, after a couple of months since that trip we’ve been going around in circles trying to plan something similar once again - in an attempt to make it a yearly ritual. But as it always happens, the trip kept eluding us - time, budget, choice of places - each one of us wanted to do a different destination. The conversations kept happening now and then, but nothing materialised for 1.5 years.

Finally, by the end of February 2025, about 6 of us sat together and finalised the dates and destination for the trip - the Good Friday long weekend - Chikmagaluru. As we opened up the option to rest of folks at work, we arrived at a total of 9 confirmed interests (8 of us from Chennai, and one guy from Bangalore). Accommodations and travel tickets were booked. We were to take a bus from Chennai to Bangalore and then hire a van from Bangalore to Chikmagalur. 

So, Thursday night, 17 April, we take the overnight bus from Koyambedu to Bangalore. The excitement that we are actually doing the trip kept a few of us wide awake for a couple of hours, in which we ended up playing a couple of rounds of Uno and some random Youtube music quizzes. We managed to get about 3-4 hours of sleep, as the bus dropped us off at Majestic at around 5:45AM. Our van was scheduled to arrive at 7:00AM, so we had almost an hour to kill, and decided to find a place to refresh, but couldn’t find a proper place and ended up sitting outside the Metro. As we waited for the van arrive, we explored various reel options for the trip, and finalised on the cross clap transition thing (the final output was definitely worth the effort - the insta savvy trip youngsters definitely did an amazing job at editing)

Sharp at 7 AM, the van arrives, and along with it the last man of our trip, the guy from Bangalore arrives as well. It’s an AC van, having a SmartTV and all - orey luxury only. As we start to move along, the van inches forward really slowly, and guess what could be the reason - the infamous Bangalore traffic, as always. Gosh, even at 7AM on a Friday morning, the roads are jam-packed with vehicles. We stop at this beautiful and serene looking place called “Krishna Kesava” for breakfast. The place was vast and crowded, but we did manage to secure a table quickly and place our orders. To mark that we were in Karnataka, we did go about ordering Benne Dosas and Thattu Idlis. The food was mostly served quickly and turned out to be delicious. The only problem we faced was, the waiter annas never served drinking water - you stop them ‘n’ number of times and ask for normal drinking water, it never came. Sort of forced to use the bottled ones - not really a great thing! And we off continued to trod on.

Krishna Kesava’s entrance

Thankfully, the traffic thinned out a bit, but it continued to peek out at the toll gates. Doesn’t every office trip always have this one guy who’d act as the Music DJ? Well, we definitely had one, and our DJ fellow was so true to his DJing that he’d never play a song for more than one and a half minutes. Any song you request would invariably be played, but before even the charanam starts, the boy skips to the next song. After a while of trying to stop him from skipping songs, we decided we were better off not playing any music and resorted to Mafia and Dumb Charades. Mafia was quite entertaining, sort of brought back memories from our previous trip (to Varkala) when we first played this game. Dumb Charades never loses its charm  ever, right? Googling to come out with the most weirdest movie name ever (e.g. Kekraan Mekraan, Athipatti Muthupandi) it was super fun to see everyone try to act out the words and make their team find out the names.

Phew, thus flew another 4-5hours, and we were close to Chikmagalur. As we settled down to have our lunch, we started to discuss on where we could go that day. Honestly, our itinerary was quite blank. We just had a handful of places to go, and never really planned out much. So, we decide we could go to some view point for the sunset and then go back to our hostel at night. But our driver anna - I’m not really sure if he was helping us out, or was just trying to minimise his time at the wheels, definitely had other plans. He outright denied to take us to a view point for sunset, saying we didn’t have a lot of time, and the places would close their entry by 4:30-5PM, and we had no chance of reaching there by that time. But, he offered to take us to a lake, Hirekolale Lake, which was enroute to our place. Apparently, the weather outside didn’t look really promising - it was rather a bit too sunny. All of us were a bit dejected and worried about what’s the point in going to a lake in Motta Veyyil? We grudgingly agreed to his offer - but in a surprising turn of events, 5 minutes into the drive to the lake, the weather completely changed. It became much cooler and breezy. As we reached the lake, there were mild drizzles. The lake in itself was stunning - pristine waters, surrounded by peaks on either sides, a neat sidewalk - we were floored, atleast, I was. We spent a while there walking around, trying to see who could throw a stone into the water farthest, taking pictures, and not to forget, take that 3 second clip for our transition video (Yes, in continuation of the one we took at the Metro). It felt a little too awkward to request people to take that video for us, but the promise of the final output made us go for it. 

Hirekolale Lake

From the lake, we drove over to our stay, the Hosteller. Well, nestled amidst coffee plantations, this place was definitely a gem of a find - a nice outdoor common area, dorms with cool balconies, an open play zone. We freshened up a bit, and headed to the town for dinner. Dinner was at Town Canteen, another round of Benne Dosas - we were starting to get a bit tired of it. Came back to the hostel, and spent a while playing Uno, Geistes and chatting about and retired for the night. The night was cool with occasional rains.

Hosteller

The next day, we started off at about 7:30AM to go to Z point trail walk and Hebbe Falls. We reached the entry point to Hebbe around 8:30AM after having a breakfast of idlis and pooris enroute. Z point was a little further from here and we were confused for a while trying to decide which one to do first. Ultimately, it was decided that we’d do Z point and then go to Hebbe. Z point trail walk had an entry fee of Rs.118 per person (well, that’s 100 + 18% GST - ingeyuma GST moment). It’s a 3km walk one way with almost 75% flat terrain and about 25% incline. The first half of the walk was inside the forest cover and felt cool. We did encounter a small waterfall even. After this, we were almost at the top of the mountain, and directly out into the sun. And the sun wasn’t kind that day, it did get a little too hot as we ventured forward. After about 20 minutes of walk, we reached the peak. I definitely missed the monsoon greens. The grasses and the forest beneath were quite dark and dry, owing to the winter and the summer that followed it. This place takes its name as Z point trail owing to the trail resembling the shape of the english alphabet Z. The walk down was fairly easy, but quite draining because of the noon sun.

By about 11:30AM, we were back at the entrance of Hebbe Falls. To reach the Hebbe Falls, you had to take a 40-minute jeep ride and then walk down for another 15-20 minutes. The ride costs about Rs.590 per person, and each jeep had a capacity of 13 people. Unless you’ve 13 people, or you agree to pay Rs.7,080 to have a full jeep for yourself, the jeep wouldn’t start. Luckily for us, we were a group of 9 ourselves, so we quickly got another 4 people to join us. This jeep ride was just like every other jeep ride ever, jostling you in all directions, but much better than the one we had to take in Kudremukh. After a while, we reach a spot from where we are to walk down to the falls. There’s this mild drizzle in the air as you get near the falls - that feeling of water spraying in your face is something I’ll always love and never get tired of. The falls is magnificent. It pours down onto a big rock, so you are barred to go really to close it. But as it flows there are multiple little pools that you can get into and enjoy the water flow. We spend a good one hour there and are back at our jeep, for the return ride. It was almost 3:00ish by the time we are back at the entry point. We grab a late lunch enroute back to the hostel. 

We decide to explore the town of Chikmagalur in the evening and walk around the market road, buying some coffee and eating some chaat. The dinner that night was quite an experience - we waited for almost an hour at a hotel only to know that they haven’t even started preparing our orders. Eventually, we were forced to walk out and eat off a quick dinner at Domino’s and reach the hostel at 11! We’d wanted to start off early next day to go Bandekallu Gudda, but the chances of us making it there the next day seemed very unlikely after this whole dinner fiasco. So, we call it off and decide to have a slow morning. 

A slow morning, we did have the next day, strolling about the roads around the hostel. These lavendar blooms that lay strewn on the road right outside the hostel were so beautiful. Of course, some photos were taken. I even posted myself a photograph of that from the Chikmagalur Post Office. 

We bid goodbye to the hosts at the hostel and start our journey back to Bangalore, stopping enroute at the Belur Chennakesava Temple. Though a little blinding and hot, the temple’s carvings and architecture never failed to charm us. Having visited this place earlier, I tried to flaunt around the little knowledge that I’d gained previously. We wind up from the place in less than an hour and continue to trod on towards Bengaluru. During our pitstop for lunch, we were surprised with a kutti spell of rain showers which felt quite refreshing after the day’s heat. As always, as we near Bangalore; we could feel the traffic building on, and the van inching through the maze of vehicles. 

Even the ceilings had intricate carvings

Dinner was had at Bangalore Cafe, a fancy vegetarian (alas!) restaurant. Their menu had some really cool pictures of various food items and we were tempted. The mushroom noodles were really yummy. But the star of the day was the dessert - Tres Leches, and the Rishta Pucca (which was gulab jamun with vanilla icecream with a very generous drizzle of nuts on top). With this dinner, the trip officially came to an end, as we walk along to the bus stand and board our bus home!

The amazemax Tres Leches

It’s definitely a trip to cherish - the people and places, with lovely memories, for which I shall forever be grateful.

How much does Happiness weigh?

On an otherwise dull Friday evening, this impromptu question by a friend got me thinking for a while. Can happiness be measured? My mind immediately, without a second thought, came back with a "YES" and started making quick notes on what all makes me happy? How much of something makes me happy?

So here goes the list -

• 1 medium French Fries (Because its always food first :D)
• An evening spent in Beach.
• An hour long phone call with a dear friend after ages.
• An all-nighter at home with my Girls Gumbal (Remember the night before R's Wedding)
• Solving (read, trying to solve) the Crossword Puzzle in Vaaramalar (its a weekly supplement of a Tamil Daily)
• First sprouts of the seeds sown
• Late night movie watching at home, during weekends
• Meeting up someone I know all of a sudden in a random place. Gosh! Every time I met someone like this, I would be beaming the whole day for no reason.
• A run along the 200ft road stretch!
• One night's peaceful sleep
• Sunrise!
• Crescent & Full moon
• Petrichor - the smell of soil from the first rain
• Balloon shooting at Bessy
• Staring at the horizon from the peak of a mountain / hill after a trek / run.
• Bread Omlette from Metro Juice Park
• A good run with the CTC folks.

This post that stayed in my draft for 2 long years. But even now, most of the above still continue to give me happiness. A few more that I'd add on now -

• The smile of Athiboy
• Vacation trips with a girlfriend
• Harvesting home grown food. 
• Late-night conversations with the brother man. (Remember the nights we'd spent talking about random things when Bul didn't let us sleep)
• Reading while eating
• Gulab Jamun mix
• Daily calls with Appa
• Sleeping baby
• Communicating with Paati through actions and expressions, as she has trouble hearing clearly.

Most of my current list revolves around family, because just like everyone I'm also staying home in this COVID-19 Lockdown. 

This list might need updation over time, but the items mentioned here would surely continue to make me happy anytime. 

5 May 2025 - Made this post see the light of the day by posting it in the blog after 5 (or rather 7, I suppose) long years of being the draft. The list is still very valid. 

My Stint with Baking

Ever since Covid, and the whole baking saga all over the internet, I have been itching to try my hands at them. I have always been a fan of any sort of pastries / baked goods and seeing all the baking videos and pictures of cakes and biscuits, and what not, had me drooling. So, when our good old microwave oven broke down, I convinced the husband man that to get a convection oven to satisfy my baking thirst. Poor fellow fell for my words and tada, a convection oven comes home. Well, this was in 2020. But the moment the oven came, my interest waned off and I kept procrastinating baking. Had tried a banana cake and some sweet-bread once, both of which turned out very okay-ish, causing my interest vanishing off into thin air - poof! I decided that baking wasn’t going to be my cup of tea and stopped dreaming about baking my own cake. 

Fast forward to 2025. As it always happens (is it only me?), I taste some biscuits baked my cousin, and suddenly all my interest (the one that I considered vanished but had apparently been only bottled up) is out all over again. I knew my brain was tricking me again and deliberately procrastinate this time as well. I get the recipe from my cousin, and read it a hundred times, watch another fifty videos in YouTube, think of all the various substitutes I can use instead of the actual ingredients mentioned in the recipe. I even end buying a couple of ingredients, but I’m still a bit skeptical about taking that plunge of actually doing the baking. 

After about a week of staring at the purchased ingredients I decide to do it over the last weekend. Why does baking need so much of crockeries and utensils? A whole set of measuring cups, spatulas, whiskers, sieve, bowls, rolling pins - man, how many stuff to wash. As soon as I started the task, my mind started calculating the amount of time it’d take to wash and clean the powdery mess I’d create all over the floor. But then, I had already started, so I decided to complete it in peace.

I begin by whisking the butter in a bowl. In another bowl (see, already 3 utensils), I sieve in some flour, milk powder, salt and baking soda. Then I combine the ingredients of both the bowl into one, and go for the star ingredient of the dish. Sugar. Now, this is where I was completely flabbergasted - for approximately, 2 cups of flour and butter, I use one full cup of sugar. I know, sweets/biscuits are supposed to have sugar, but seeing the size of my dough and the quantity of sugar I was going to add into it, caught me quite off guard. I go ahead, and mix it all together. Trying to follow the recipe instructions into the T, I gently keep kneading it, but the dough refused to fully bind. So, resorted to some jugaad by adding a few drops of milk to help with binding. I guess it worked, because the dough binded after that - I still wasn’t sure what this would mean / cause to the final product. And next, I commit the biggest mistake of tasting the dough. Oh god, it felt a little too salty and way too sugary. By this time, I had lost all my hopes on how the final product would turnout and started assessing the amount of money I’d wasted on this, and thought I should have left these to experts and simply enjoyed the biscuits straight out of the packets or from bakers. Attempting to make my own biscuit was going to be only a cost in my books, with nil return / revenue. 

With no hopes whatsoever, I pulled out the dough into small balls, and pressed them down into circular shapes. Because I had zero hopes, I didn’t even bother to shape them uniformly and ended up making them in various sizes and thicknesses. The first batch went into the oven. Slowly they started turning golden brown, and rising up. That felt really good to watch, but I was still worried about the taste. In about 10 minutes, I see the biscuits on the edge of the plate starting to burn and decided to take them off the oven. I take them out only to realise the ones in the middle haven’t completely cooked yet, while the edges of the ones in the end were starting to burn. I decided to put it back in for another 4 minutes. Once done, I took them out, and impatiently let them cool for a little while, and tasted one biscuit.

Well! Well! Well!! My efforts were not all in vain. Though the biscuits had a tinge of saltiness, the sugariness had settled well. The sugariness of the baked biscuit wasn’t as bad as the sugariness of the plain dough. But I still wasn’t convinced that people at home would eat them, and decided to take off a bunch to office to distribute and get it over with. It took me another 3 batches of baking to finish off the entire dough. I still didn’t have the patience to shape them out perfectly, so the biscuits ended up being in different sizes and thicknesses. I now had two small boxes full of my homemade biscuits, and went to bed wondering how to get them sold (a.k.a make people eat) 

The real shocker came only the next day when the boy and the husband man tasted them and told it was actually nice. Well, all that butter hadn’t given up on me and actually saved my biscuits making them melt in the mouth. The biscuits had a bite to it, but once bitten melted effortlessly - and before I knew it, one box had vanished off in a day. The aftertaste of the biscuit was its biggest highlight for me - the butteriness combined with a sweetness definitely left me weak and I ended up having a couple more than I should. They felt sinfully good. And thus, ended my baking saga.

Would I bake biscuits again? It depends on two main things. One, I need to find an alternative for sugar - the amount of sugar I put in that mixture got me super scared. Two, I need a foolproof plan to use minimal utensils or have a helping hand washing the utensils. 

That’s all for now, folks. Happy biscuiting! 

My home-made marvel, lol!

Twenty Twenty Four, I LOVE YOU!

Ha ha ha! What a way to name a year end post, but honestly, I absolutely loved 2024. Can't be grateful enough for all that I managed to do this year! It's been a year of experiences, meeting new folks, reconnecting with old ones and balancing the relationships with the existing crowd.

First and foremost, the year started on a foreign land - I was out on a vacation to Srilanka with my articleship gang. It was my first trip with them, and there too many firsts in that trip - my first longest vacation without V & Athi (8 days), first casino experience, first pagoda visit. Srilanka, nature at it’s best, is a beautiful country filled with lush greens and waterbodies all over. The Madu River mangrove boating in the rains was one surreal experience. The snorkelling in Bentota beach, the majestic Ravana Falls, the picturesque Nuwara Elliya with its oldest Post Office, from where we sent out post cards to our dear ones. The train ride from Ella to Kandy, through the myriad mountains and innumerable waterfalls. The Sigriya rockfort - gosh, the kings here really did live their lives king size. The Minneriya National Park elephant safari where we spotted more than 4 dozen elephants. And lastly, the Lotus Tower, Colombo. Such an eventful trip it was.

The next couple of months flew by with the whole family moving into the RPG community. I have always yearned to live in gated communities (thanks to movies like Ramana, the VijayTV famous Shakalaka Boom Boom serial). It still feels a bit surreal that I’m actually living in one now. Foremost thanks to Ranju for finding this gem of a place, and introducing us to this. If there’s one song that could describe this phase of my life, it’s Thirumana Malargal Tharuvaya from Poovellam Unvaasam. 

This year gave me a lot of travel with different groups of people - the Master Nationals in April at Goa was an extended into a vacation with V’s cousins and Bullu tagging along with us. It was quite laid back, and the girls and I bonded really well over movie nights, cooking our meals and random chit-chats. Next was kutti weekend trip to Yearcaud with my GMCS gangmates, the first ever with them, but one that I’d remember for a long time - so much catching up happened in that trip, for it had been more than 4-5 years since we even spoke leisurely. Another international trip came my way in September - this time it was Australia. Man, what a beautiful country, I was floored. Would definitely love to be there again. Next one was the Kudremukh trek, with an office colleague as a part of trekking company. Perfect timing, right after the monsoon. Quite a luxurious trip, if you ask me, who even gives you hot water, beds and blankets on a trek? Nevertheless, the trek and the views were awesome, and the visit to Chennakesava temple (an architectural marvel) on the way back home, came as a pleasant surprise. Lastly, the JHU at Jawadhu Hills, a dream of a trip, where each one of us had our own best times, ever. CTC is always joy. 

Oh, a lot of breaking the self constructed barriers also happened this year. I’m always very conscious and shy of dancing in public - be it on a DJ floor or a practiced sangeet performance, but this year, I went all out. Shunned out all the inhibitions and danced my heart out both on the DJ floor and sangeet performances. It was so much fun with the girls. Definitely looking forward to more in the coming years. I think a tiny portion of the credit needs to be attributed to the Cult Dance Sessions, they have been so much fun and joy. 

Book reading. I think I can say this year has been super good in terms of reading books. I have ventured across different genres and enjoyed reading everything. I haven’t really maintained a proper log of how many books I have read, but I guess I could have surpassed the goal of 12 books a year. The bookclub group at work has also had its influence, and I loved the sessions that were hosted as a part of it. 

Lastly, I’m glad I continued journaling this year and that really helped me be grateful for everything in my life. Looking forward to an amazing year ahead with more people, travel, joy and whatnot! 

Happiest New Year 2025!!