A Story re-told

I had written this story a few years back, and had published it in my previous blog space. It has been divided into many short parts, and I plan to repost this story with some changes.
Not being a professional writer, there might be many imperfections, and I hope you will bear with me.
I started off this story with something in my mind, but as the story progressed, it changed completely and became something differnt from what I actually had in my mind, The story has parts of me, parts of stories of imaginery people hopefully all tied up together.

I think, as we write and read what we have written, we feel that it is not correct, it has to change, somehow we feel that the story slowly, and subtly,  starts having a character of its own, taking the story telling from our hands and we willingly, and happily become  its slave.
 One thing I have come to realize, is that we keep changing, our thoughts keep evolving, as we keep  reading, writing and re- writing, and the story that come out of all this chaos, is something we like very much,  and remains very close to our hearts, even though we may not be perfect writers.

So see you with the first part of this story, and hope you will keep coming back for more!

A House Full Of Memories !!!

“Home wasn't a set house, or a single town on a map. It was wherever the people who loved you were, whenever you were together. Not a place, but a moment, and then another, building on each other like bricks to create a solid shelter that you take with you for your entire life, wherever you may go.” Sarah Dessen



“There is nothing more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding their enemies and delighting their friends.” ~ Homer The Odyssey







Treasured memories of little ones, now old enough to have their own little ones..

The lovely infinity tile pattern in our son's bathroom

The cars collected over the years are displayed on the grill of a big window in our son's bathroom

I am sure he misses sleeping in the loft



Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be...
Ours is a happy home...filled with happy memories.

“What is home? My favorite definition is "a safe place," a place where one is free from attack, a place where one experiences secure relationships and affirmation. It's a place where people share and understand each other. Its relationships are nurturing. The people in it do not need to be perfect; instead, they need to be honest, loving, supportive, recognizing a common humanity that makes all of us vulnerable.” ~ Gladys Hunt



A beautiful painting by Dali: 'The girl waiting by the window'


The memory of our Dog Toffee resting next to these elephants
Oh ! these lovely elephants have been roaming around our garden for about 12 years


I glance at the photo, and the pilot light of memory flickers in my eyes.



Our daughter when she was just 4 years old, the memory is still so fresh


An old photograph of mine taken at our wedding
Happy are the couple married after they fall in love; however, happier are the couple who fall in love with each after they are married.

All photographs are there to remind us of what we forget. In this - as in other ways - they are the opposite of paintings. Paintings record what the painter remembers. Because each one of us forgets different things, a photo more than a painting may change its meaning according to who is looking at it. ~John Berger
Today, I felt like seeing our house through these pictures, although things change, but still they remain unchanged in so many ways and I think that's the way they are meant to be. Each little corner has some story to tell, some memories to be refreshed,  and one comes out of that, feeling totally rejuvenated.
I think we should all go through photographs and revisit the days gone by and come back refreshed.

Face, Neck Exercises and Ancient Chinese Detox Massage

Some time back I was browsing through the net and came across some very interesting, scientific face and neck exercises that we can follow along. These exercises are specifically designed to set right all the trouble spots. I will not bore you with the details, as you would know what they are, when you watch the videos.
Then I also came across an ancient Chinese Massage of the face and the neck which one should do twice a day, and this is also very easy to follow, and it just takes about 5 minutes, to release all the toxins from our face and neck and give us that youthful face and neck we all yearn for.
This again we can follow along with the person who is demonstrating them.
Maybe, these are some people who would say, they would like to age naturally. well as for me and I know majority of the people would like to age beautifully, without falling prey to wrinkles, flabby skin hanging, double chin etc.
We cannot prevent aging, however we can look ten years younger than our biological age by exercising the various parts of our body to keep ourselves healthy, physically, mentally and spiritually.
So to all those people who think like me, here are the two videos:

These exercises are meant both for men and women, so go along just do it !! When you start seeing results you would be happy you have got something , which you can always  follow.

Our Cute little Lab: Bumbilli

This is a picture video of our cute puppy Bumbilli
Watch as she settles in our house....
The pictures and selection of music was mine, and, everything was put together by my dear friend Mitesh Shah of:
http://realityviews.blogspot.in

Many of you must be knowing him, he is regular blogger, and keeps updating us about Politics and music.
Thank you Mitesh, for putting everything together beautifully.

Aghori : Indian Comic With A Difference

Aghori Launch at the Comic.con Bangalore:











                    With my daughter Mathanki

                      Ram V And Vivek Goel






Today is the second and final day.
The crowd that was seen yesterday was mind blowing.
There are so many stalls, people showcasing so many varieties of Comics/ Art and what not, parents with their children, young adults, college students, grand parents every, body jostling along to have a look at the various display of books, taking part in the quiz, having discussions with the new authors etc.
We are all very happy to see the happy, satisfied faces of the participants.
They are an inspiration to all the youngsters.
They hope to see more sales today, and are a tiny bit worried, that they may not have enough comic books to cater to the demand, but anyway they are a happy lot ( to see such a positive response and demand)

The trailer made by Palash Vaswani got an awesome response.

Here is Ram V: Bangalore Comic Con - Stall B4 - Dark Magic, Bearded Heroes, Robots, Chickens, Zombies, Ninjas and any combination of the above - discussions welcome ( Also - Pirates! ) - All Bangalorians, see you there!!


Drop in at the Koramangala Indoor Stadium to pick up your signed copy;-)

Aghori trailer - Comic from HCE

Written by Ram V ( our son in law)
It is mind blowing, stunning, simply awesome : watch and enjoy.
Hats off to the whole team.

Two Is Better Than One

I am sharing here a blog written by my husband Ananth, I thought, my blogger friends would like it:

 TWO IS BETTER THAN ONE 

Most of my School and college days were spent in the balmy city of Madras in the grandparental home in Mylapore. Balmy because of the close proximity to the Bay of Bengal, the Santhome beach being just a stone’s throw away. As the youngest at home, it fell on me to run little errands for my aunts, uncles, and grandparents, buying household provisions, odds and ends from the Bazaar street round the corner. I loved this Bazaar street with its myriad little shops purveying all kinds of goodies. Their offerings to my various senses was equally pleasant : rhythmic thump thump thump of the motorized pounding machine releasing to the atmosphere pungent odour of red chillies, the heady aroma of roasting coffee beans, the sweet smell of roasting chickpeas from Panchaksharam’s Pattani shop, a sudden draft of cold air while passing by the Manickam Ice candy factory. Ramanathan the ice candy man was also the leg spinner of our underarm street corner cricket team.


Our Lady of Bon Secours school ( upto 5th Std. only) was at the farthest end of the Bazaar street from our home, and this was my daily commute to school, a walk of about 15 minutes each way. I knew each and every shop on this street like the back of my hand and every roadside vendor including the petty vegetable ladies displaying their wares in neat small stacks ( kooru in Tamil ) for retail sale and no bargaining.


Basha Bhai’s roadside stall was the favourite of the little boys, with a small mob always milling around him. For reasons I cannot fathom till today, there were well defined seasons in the year for various games and toys : for marbles, for gilli danda, for the spinning top ( a thumbtack delicately hammered in on its head for perfect balance) for colorful toy kites and special pink and orange manja to go with the kites : and Basha Bhai had the best of these goodies. His catapults made out of seasoned wood from the guava tree was the best, or so he claimed. Although I had no Algebra at that time, I was the first on the buzzer to answer one of his trick questions on this subject and was rewarded with that catty, and a prophecy that one day I would become a great man. Basha Bhai had come to Madras from Tirunelveli in the deep South, and had no family to call his own.


But all this is digressing. Once in a blue moon, I would sally forth to Bazaar street to buy a razor blade for my grandfather for his daily shave. Wilkinson Sword was his brand and the blade had four shaving edges ( two sides x front & back ) the numbers neatly printed on the blade so that one could choose the edge for the day’s shave. My grandfather frugal man that he was, kept a green, translucent whetstone made of glass in the shape of a soap dish, the surface suitably roughed up to hone the edges of the blade by stropping it along the surface with neat small strokes. The blade then would last forever and ever.


Of course, in those days Grandfather had all the time in the world to do the sharpening, pick the correct edge of the blade, unscrew the razor handle, remove the top plate, sandwich the blade in between the two plates, screw it tight again, ready for the shave.


A few decades later, Gillette came with the very handy disposable razor for people on the move. Many more years of serious and sustained research led to the development of the twin Blade razor, the underlying theory being two blades are better than one, and certainly better for the Company’s bottomline. The Gillette Mach 3 was but a natural evolution from the twin blade contraption : How could three be any less than two ? I doubt if even a master marketeer like Gillette would dare to venture beyond three. One cannot fool all the people all the time.


Taking a cue from Gillette ( two is better than one), a simple biological Sewage Treatment Plant in Bangalore ( A truly Hitech city) has been built with two stages of Aeration. Even common barbers have become environmental consultants in the great state of Karnataka, where earlier only plumbing consultants roamed free.

Dr. Ananth S Kodavasal August 23, 2012

RAMNARAYAN VENKATESAN

        A Brief Introduction:

Ramnarayan Venkatesan ( Ram V) became our Son in law when he married our daughter
Puja ( Mathanki) in May of 2009. Ram, a Chemical Engineer by training ( M.S – U Penn, Philadelphia – 2008) on returning home joined his family business of catalysts and
specialty chemicals for use in the petroleum, fertilizer, steel industry etc.

Ram is a person of many parts and talents. He is an artist and does beautiful sketches with
pencil and the brush pen :

Ram is a musician - plays the guitar, plays the tabla and can hold his own with any
good musical band. Ram is an inveterate movie addict, and unlike most of us casual
moviegoers, can dissect the work into its many components – technical, cultural, moral,
artistic and other attributes. A voracious reader, Ram is knowledgeable on subjects that
you and I might think to be obscure and have little time for.

Writing is what Ram is most passionate about. His short stories grip you with an uneasy
sense of fear and foreboding with a hint of the horror yet to unfold, leaving the rest to
your now fully aroused imagination.

Ram got his big opportunity when Holy Cow Entertainment ( HCE) , a premier Indian
Publisher of comic books and graphic novels for readers of today, signed him up to write
for a comic book series - the Aghori

The First volume of the Aghori will be formally released at the Comic Con event in
Bangalore on Sept. 8 & 9 at the Koramangala Indoor stadium.

More about Aghori and where it is available :

at Homeshop 18 here http://tinyurl.com/AGH1H18

@ Flipkart http://tinyurl.com/AGH1FLPKRT

and @ infibeam http://tinyurl.com/AGH1INFBM

So Aghoris spread the word! Share, Tweet, Blog - The Aghori arrives - September ( Launches at the B'lore Comic Con!)

Pencilled by Vivek Goel and Painted by Anirudh Sainath
To know more about the meaning of Aghori, you can go to Wikipedia.