Trip to Eggleston

Well..I thought my day would be terrible but thankfully it wasn't. All thanks to Nancy and Garry ( my friendship family in Blacksburg)Palisades, hotel, a tiny restaurant located at Eggleston made my Sunday.

They took me out for brunch and we went to a place called Palisades in Eggleston. It was a General store long back and not a historic building and a lovely country restaurant. A century ago, Eggleston was the hub of Giles country and drew visitors from all over the United States. They arrived by train (which still runs through the village) to enjoy its beauty and hot springs. Occupying what was formerly Pyne's General Store, the palisades Restaurant recaptures the former charm and spirit of Eggleston.

In addition to displaying memorabilia from the village's lively past, the pallisades restaurant retains the unique features of its Historic Landmark building including exposed brick walls, pressed tin ceilings and hardwood floors. Store was a vibrant business in the late 1920's , during one of Eggleston's many heydays and, as part of the New River's rick history (New river is the second oldest river, after river Nile), was featured prominently in the June 1999 issue of National Geographic Magazine.

The driveway was beautiful,the weather was tempting, played with the cat , the dog and the horse in the ranch, heard Americans talk about politics, took a proper American brunch, sipped a glass of champagne for the first time in my life, realized that after a sip my heads spinning like crazy!

And somehow after a long time felt relaxed, came home cooked dinner, thought about the poster, did few edits in the submittable, saw the SRK wala tere mere beech mei..fell in love with him :D , uploaded pics in orkut. In shot sweet lovely day.

D- 921

I was born and brought up in this place, a very special one called Kribhco Township. It was a mini India in itself. There were people from every state in the country. We faced together the 1984 Sikh Riot (though I was still in an embryonic state at that time ), three dreadful floods, the 2001 Earthquake, the Gujarat riots. Although life was full of dramatic events, still I always felt that was the safest place in earth. And my house in the township, it rocks :)

Its hub of fun, frolic and knowledge. On a typical day you'll find a variety of foot wares in front of the house, with Daisy and Kru Kru having their own debate of choosing the Foot-ware of the day (to chew, oh my dogs love doing that activity), a lot of noise of mumma ke students ( now you know the source of those foot-wares) , dad complaining about didi and me :), didi studying in one corner, ma busy with her students and me,well I always have my share of fun!

But today when dad finally retired and moved out of the place, I am going to miss lot of things. But as they, life goes on and that's the best 'present'.

An unexpected holiday.

I visited Gunjan's blog (The Chetant' ka dost) and was quite fascinated about the concept of discovering oneself using the blog. It made me remember my school days, when none of the days would end without me scribbling through my diary. And believe me it was much better than the usual twittering, the orkutting or the facebooking! It had the charm of any old vintage thing has in it, the constant fear of my dark secrets to get discovered, the fun of writing in it under the light of a table lamp.

And then I realized, how much I have stopped talking to myself and just listened to what people had to say. How much I have tried to love somebody and not myself. How much the assignments, the work, the office and profession has started to be important to me than the small share of joy in life. The mere pleasure of playing with snow, sneaking at 1 in the night to watch television, the late night self made Maggie treat. So today when I got an unexpected holiday ( my prof is out for a conference) I decided to share the time with me.

I wook up late (12 in the afternoon) I had big plans of going to the bank, to the bookstore to get my paycheck, library to few books. But I dropped all of them!!

Had my breakfast, listened to radio, talked with ma for like 2 hours (gosh I really adore her.), watched the water in the pool, listened to the twittering of the birds, and most importantly smiled... :)

Poetry.

My name means anthology and so I though why not start writing poems..

I remember my first poem "Why" and from that phase I knew , Chayanika beta..you would love framing questions..answers? Answers ke liye log hai na :)

So this afternoon, when it was freezing outside ( 1 degree C to be precise) and I cuddled in my chair ( yes I can almost fit in that!) I could realize something was missing..may be the usual smell of the place during Deewali, the rush of people, the sunshine, or probably was it you..?

Loneliness

It Kills at times,
It heals at times,
But
It always keep on reminding me one thing..
That
I am away from you
Far off!

Finally Bangalore again...

The moment I stepped down the flight and the cool bangalorian breeze blew my hair off...I knew I was in Bangalore again...:)

I remember how much I hated being here..how much the local language created a sense of irritation about not understanding a word what they were saying...about facing the 8 hours of office each day had become a burden in life..Bangalore auto walas! (grrrrrrrr!)

But this is the same place where I dreamt..I understood various human facets...but still the place where I lived my life to fullest!

As I traveled through the familiar spots...my old house (yes i feel it to be still my house)..searching for Fiddy, Oracle office , Barbecuenation :D (I am sure ..I am expelled from the resturant)..eating Panipuri @ BTM stage 2....it all made me feel more that my dear lovy dovy chayan...You did it! :D

And standing in begining of the new road , I know there can be nothing better than this start........