Appa.

I never imagined that you would leave us so sudden, without even saying goodbye and a tight hug like how you wished my birthday last year. APPA , I'm sitting here in my room , reminiscing all the good and bad times growing up in your home. Last one year, it's truly "our time". I'm happy that I've spent most of my time with you, hearing you talking so much of past glorious stories about Brickfields and Kuala Lumpur. You are an ocean of knowledge , this I admit. Though you are not with us physically, there's isnt a day goes by without thinking of you. I miss you so much.

Happy Birthday Appa!

Wherever you are, I hope you know that I've loved you so much dear APPA. Right from the time when you held me in your arms to the day when you saw me off for my first day in school, I am holding on the beautiful memories that have made me the person I am today. I miss you dad. Happy birthday Appa. 

How God is favoring what I've always wanted to do. We visited Nageshwari temple today and prayed, I really hope dad , you are peaceful and happy wherever you are. Be with us , I need your blessings and love, always. 

I wish I can see you just once to let you know that I loved you....more than mom 
😄😍😘. Alright, I love you both equally. Whether it is the empty spot in a chair next to mom’s or the eerily silent living room, you are missed in every way dad. I love you. I love you. I love you.

Interviews and interviews of November

Being back in Malaysia, it's about time I think of connecting back into my career. It was a wave of interview calls, the November calls.... RW , Fragomen and Infovalley, hey of all I now chose GHB :) Wish me luck!

Home sweet home

Woooshaaa..... after the long years of hardwork, stress and tensions taken to make our home into a shape, we finally rushed out of India on 17th June for our next day grihapravesham. The challenge was running around getting the things done and our last minute cute stove purchase in the Giant Nilai. What a relief, it was almost 3 am!

Seremban Immigration

It was the last  minute plan of B to drop the spouse visa - after a stretch of stressful walks to Jalan Duta and Putrajaya immigration dept. I was only a bit upset that the letters stamped was paid for is going to be wasted. Oh my smart cookie!

All I did was the extreme last minute call to Putrajaya and then to Seremban Immigration. A positive yes for application came and we thought of giving it a one last try. Hey.....! We did it, B's application was finally taken!

Trekking Mount Batur, Kintamani Volcano

Set my alarm at 3 a.m. , I was sleepless and restless. All I could think is that I don't want to miss out the trekking plan. I finally decided to wake up and get ready. The weather was freaking cold and thank god I carried an extra pair of  sports wear!

B and I are all set ready, waiting for the guide from The Association of  Mt. Batur to take us up to the starting point, at the base of the mountain. Finally, we started at 4.30 a.m. The ascent is completed in total darkness and guided only by flashlight (given by our guide). The first 30 minutes of hike is fairly flat but then it's a steep climb from there. This is my ever first experience in life, walking out alone with my partner, inside a forest, with lots of excitement and fear - I was looking out for animals! It wasn't much of a problem to hike initially as we did stop twice to take a break and drink water.


Powerful orange glow.The beautiful early morning sunrise.





 

The first part of trekking wasn't bad , but the second part of Mt Batur is tougher! It's uphill and some steps really require you to stretch hard. We got really tired and we had to stop for breaks a few times.The worse was yet to come and the final ascent was the toughest of all. It's steep, rocky and you you really have to take each step carefully.  

 

B got really tired and was in the verge of giving up, at that point completing the task and getting over it was all on my mind. I was surprised to see B struggling to climb up since I am weaker and I was suffering sinus headache that morning. As my body got warmer, the headache reduced and I felt better. 

 

I literally had tears in my eyes as I was wondering will I be back home safe, ha ha! This hike taught me a lot of things, positive thinking and mental strength to overcome come what may. We are not professionals hikers yet we managed climbing up to the peak, the only complaint was, we did not get the right guide to take us to the programme we've paid for. We are supposed to watch the sunset, have breakfast at the craters and see the hot springs and come downhill. Our guide left us alone and went up to the peak. We didn't know we were reaching the peak until we saw the hut. We finished up all our water bottles and no breakfast. However the feeling on top of the mountain is undescribable! I never thought I could accomplish this just one day before my birthday! B was tired and he took a short nap in the hut whilst I was taking photos :) Now the challenge is getting down hill.

 

I cried halfway as my toes were hurting so bad. The rocks were so ashy and slippery that I was even afraid to step forward, at some corners of the rock, I just sat and stepped down. B's reebok shoes are gone into pieces. We finally reached middle of the mountain and discovered two stalls. We were so tired, hungry and thirsty. We had a cup of  tea and a piece of  biscuit. We then started our journey back. After a while, you begin the long descent. It’s a slippery slope down (the volcano rock is very coarse and sandy at some points).  Funny thing, now that you can see where you’re going, the descent feels much, much longer than the ascent.  Your tired legs don’t help at all. I finally sat on a rock to check my painful toe, I felt the blisters are hurting so bad. I decided to take off my shoes and walk with socks. Aaah... I was right, that felt lot more better than walking in pain, though it was hot and rocky, my socks was full of sand and ashes. At a point, I was dying in thirst, I just thank god for giving us the strength to come back home safely , hey it rained! Guess what, I drank that rain water, ha ha! That rain was sent by god to save us, thank you god! We finally reached our hotel and our sweet receptionist girl was freaking out that she didn't hear from us, she thought we went missing! Glad that they actually provided us with the full breakfast that we missed out early in the morning. We're really exhausted and hey, I climbed up the freaking tough Batur volcano!

 

 

 

Bali !

Magical and spiritual is the most accurate word to describe Bali. We are now set for our long awaited break to Bali. Air Asia sucks big time, as usual the flight is delayed. We just had to kill one hour delay by walking around duty free shops. It was almost 11pm we reached the Ngurah Rai Airport and just headed to Legian for a night stay.

The long walk to board the flight.

Vennamuddu Krishna

The kondaveedu fort

Temple planned by ISKCON



Venna muddukrishna

 

 

After all these years growing up in a metro city of  Kuala Lumpur, life seems to be very fast and stressful. I never knew that there is a complete silent life existing in India. Today we decided to visit the family village, our origins and our family temple given by the King of Kondaveedu centuries ago! I was all so excited and my imagination was totally different than what I saw throughout my journey starting from Guntur. The family temple is not taken care as of now though we're having few priest in the village to conduct the daily puja. Our temple is called Vennamuddu Krishna and Baby Krishna holding butter is the main deity. He is an absolute beauty and has beautiful eyes.

We've given the temple to ISKCON to develop and conduct pujas so that everyone can benefit. Here are some pics and I saw this 2 cute kids near the temple who was so curious to know who am I. They were so polite and refused to take my 10 rupee note , how adorable are they. Certainly a trip to remember through my life as I saw the reality of farming and huge farms producing jasmines!

Amaravati's Amaralingeshwara temple.



Watched these cuties so nearby :)

The bungalow/hotel.

Now that we must sleep one night out , i.e. since we have to travel to Malaysia  to my parents home , we had an alternative way of staying a day out at any Shiva temple. Therefore , we chose the Amaravati temple for a day out.  It was like an hour drive from Guntur to Amaravati and we took a van to get there. 

This is my ever first experience on seeing a village , silent and dark night. The rain season started and thank god it wasn't that bad. By 7.30 pm we reached the hotel which is 5 minutes walking distance to the temple. Truly it was more like horror movie scene, B and I never expected such scary hotel room ! :) Nothing much to blame as the people who maintain ( I mean the employees appear very poor ). It's called AndhraPradheshTourism something.... we didn't get to see any restaurant and there was not electricity in the hotel. It was really scary and lots of mosquitoes! Finally we ended up sending the working boy to get us some chapatti and curry. Now....we've been counting minutes to pass by so that next morning we could visit the temple and go home.





Beautiful village scene , so peaceful.

 

 

 

 

 

The next morning,  Monday July 8 2013 , we had good darshan of Amaralingeshwara , a unique shivalinga which kept growing so tall ! We then proceeded to the local nearby Hanuman and Shirdi baba temple before visiting the Museum and Buddha stupa which was visited by Dalai Lama. The Buddha statue is still under construction and finally after getting burnt under the scorching hot sun , we returned home at 2.30 pm. Such tiring day!

Gow dhaanam

My dear Ammakutty and Ammukutty.



Cows are considered to be purely sacred in Hinduism , thus the worship of  Kamadhenu is normal for hindu families. Cows play an important role in our itihasas and mythological stories as they are seen as mother who provides milk , thus they have lots of significance in hindu rituals. On our Amma's name , we chose to donate the cow and calf to a temple and this ritual is called Gow dhaanam. For the ever first time in my life , I witnessed and touched the cow and calf ! I was afraid of them but finally I learnt that they are so friendly. I called them Ammakutty and Ammukutty and later on we came to know that Ammakutty was pregnant! The grass and food was never enough for her. I was wondering why is she eating so much and we could never satisfy her hunger , but looks like the babykutty inside her tummy caused all moodswings for Ammakutty. Too many things to learn in India , It is INCREDIBLE INDIA !

Applying turmeric and kumkuma for Ammakutty!

That's me standing so near to the cow, I was excited of course!