Travel times are here!

Istanbul's fate is my fate. I am attached to this city because it has made me who I am...

For me it has always been a city of ruins and of end-of-empire melancholy. I've spent my life either battling with this melancholy, or (like all Istanbullus) making it my own.

'Life can't be all that bad', I'd think from time to time. 'Whatever happens, I can always take a walk along the Bosphorus.'

Excerpts from Orhan Pamuk's Istanbul, Memories of a city.

This Saturday I am off to Istanbul, Turkey for two weeks on work. I hope I get to see a glimpse of the city, the people and the Bosphorus whose picture Pamuk has so beautifully painted. Will blog about it once I return!

I can blog from office :D

I didn't realize it until now, this is probably the best thing about switching to beta. Blogger beta is not blocked in office. Hehehehehehehheh! Oops. Somebody is staring at me. I should wipe this stupid grin off my face. :D.

ps: I love the spell checker on beta. It uses gmail's spell checker which highlights the mistakes and not the buggy popup that blogger used.

Reunion, class of 98

The friend finally got married. And thanks to orkut, people I thought I'd never see again turned up. Much has changed since then. Some are married. Some with kids, some expecting. The guy I had a crush on in school is engaged to someone who seems insanely popular. She is very pretty if I may say so. The pesky kid whose rendition of a Kannada song has us in splits is now singer cum guitarist cum artist and is also doing very well at his job. Going by his profile he seems to have gotten hunk status now with girls going ga-ga over him. One, in our group of five turned distant and aloof and made it a point not to keep in touch. Rumours were all we heard about her. I didn't think she would turn up. She did, bright and smiling. But no one dared ask her questions about her disappearance. And then there were people who I have no memories of but who seemed to remember me. Numbers were exchanged. Plans were made. Most of them will only be numbers in my phone book and members in my 'friends list' until we meet again for another wedding.

Eragon

Frodo - Harry - Eragon

Gandalf - Dumbledore - Brom

I could go on, but like a friend pointed out any fantasy written will be inspired by the Lord of The Rings. True.

Benga ...what?

No matter how many boards they change, how many bills they pass, I will always belong to BANGALORE.