TIME OUT!

 Mummy brought home a bit of spring today. Tomorrow is Holi - a festival of colours which people celebrate by playing with powders that come is various shades of the rainbow and more.
So in addition to the colours all around us, we are going to wake up to a bit of our own spring out on the balcony. And oh!On the utility room shelf too which now has a strawberry plant in a planter. I thought strawberries only grew in colder climes but this planter proves me wrong.
Let's see if I can get it to give us fruits.

Sorry we haven't been around much. Have been trying to catch up on our reading a bit. Didn't someone say, 'Knowledge is everything'?

Well, I say ...

Well, must go sleep now. I'm too tired from taking care of Mummy and Buddy and all that reading and stuff. Both have the allergy sickies. 

Whenever Mummy falls sick, Ginger just cuddles up to her and stays put while Daddy gets totally burned out from taking care of us, the house and work. So it's always I who have to take charge around here - chase away the birds, scare off the noisy creatures outside, get the door, the telephone and generally keep everyone's spirits up and try get them to play and laugh a bit. It certainly a tiring job. 

So, for today, it's

Good night, Everypuppy. Or Good day - whichever is applicable in your corner of the world.

Shadow

CHANGE…

Hello Friends,
We have been dying to get back to blogging and were almost ready to post this two days back. But Mummy got urgently busy with this.

 

Yes, those are her student’s answer sheets that supposedly needed to be evaluated and submitted by today. Is it our fault that she had been slacking?
Well, at last they are all done and submitted. So here we are…
 
YIPPEEE…Yaaay…
Daddy’s Back! Daddy’s back! Daddy’s back!....Wag..wag…wag…wag….
After being away for 324516 centuries, he finally came back late on Christmas evening. In our eagerness to get him home back as soon as possible, we reached the airport way too early. They don’t let you wait there, so Mummy drove us around at 0.00000012 kilometres per hour and clicked some photographs as we counted the seconds.

 

Now, we aren’t very sure if we like or dislike this place. We love the drive, the greenery and the wide spaces around but whenever we come here either Mummy or Daddy disappears into it and is gone for days. Then again, it is here that they re-appear.
This time, this place had sent off Daddy to Delhi.
 
Aah Delhi! Our favouritest most city in the whole wide world. And guess what? We are finally shifting back there soon.
Yes! It is final. We can tell you now. We are going to Delhi – bag, bones and baggage!
YIPEEEEE…!
Ok. Sorry. We are getting ahead of the story.
We must try and tell it properly.
 
When Mummy and Daddy had come here to Hyderabad, they promised themselves they would be back in Delhi within the next 6 months. And that was 5 years ago!...BOL…BOL…!
So you can imagine how ecstatic they feel now about being able to finally move back.
For Daddy, Delhi is home. It is the city he was born in, grew up in and learned his life lessons in. It is definitely the place that lights up his face.
For Mummy though, Delhi holds a different meaning. She doesn’t just love the city, she is entirely and totally in love with it! She loves what she calls ‘the Delhi-ness’ of Delhi, something that is unique and cannot be found in any other place in our vast country.
The city never fails to inspire creativity. There is always something waiting to be captured in a painting, words or a photograph…joy, vibrancy, colours and life.
She loves the anonymity that is a part of large cities...the way you can just walk around with your coffee or ice-cream or sit quietly somewhere and lose yourself amidst all the busy hustle-bustle. She loves to watch the world pass by, different people, different lives, the faces of strangers - the joy, regret, anger, love, contempt, acts of compassion, camaraderie they portray, something that touches you everyday and something that you can take back with you to be remembered fondly.
It is something you can never ever do in Hyderabad. Like weeds that grow in a beautiful garden, everything around is just un-planned and has an air of disturbed restlessness. You just want to get back home to your own abode of peace and quiet. But we don’t want to talk about that now and spoil our mood.
We mustn’t forget to tell you about another aspect that makes us love Delhi- the legendary Delhi-Food.
The city isn’t called the ‘Food capital’ of our country for nothing. You name it, you get it. And you don’t really need to find restaurants that serve tasty food. The fact is, they serve absolutely scrumptious food just about everywhere and anywhere. You just got to go and start eating!
And of course the markets, the shopping experiences…they are just too exciting!
 
Well, we can go on and on. But what we want to tell you is that we are just too glad to be going back there.
It will still be sometime before we actually move, maybe next April. Mummy and Daddy have resigned and are in the notice period. The hospital isn’t very forthcoming with letting them go and there is bound to be some serious struggle to get that very important relieving order. But we are hoping everything will work out soon.
There are just heaps and heaps of things to be done before we leave. We cannot even begin to imagine how mummy is going to go through all the cupboards and stuff and get everything packed. She plans to sell off almost everything possible and donate the rest.
Selling off things is bound to be much more difficult than just shipping off everything to Delhi. But we have a sneaking suspicion she is not about to let this chance to get new stuff- right from the cooking stove to cutlery- pass by!
This moving business is going to entirely change our lives. Though it will mean a lot of new adjustments, we are just too eager to go ahead with it. Mummy says no adjustment is too great because we are going some place that makes us happy. And that is the main thing in life…to be just happy.
Now you know what had taken Daddy away from us for so long. He had gone to check on a few things and according to what he tells us; there will be many more of these trips before we actually leave.
We hate it when Daddy is gone and miss him very much.

 

And so does Mummy.
Poor Mummy! Not only is there no one to listen to her incessant chatter (tee hee heee…) but also it is a monumental task for her managing everything alone – the shopping, home, cooking, work and not to forget us Pups. We were, of course, on our pawfect behaviour all throughout and never troubled her one bit.
Even our little puppy brother seems to have matured over the last few days. But then, we are very energetic and active pups, and all the activity totally took up all her days.
 
We decided it would be sensible to take up a few projects to utilise our time alone wisely and make the days pass by faster.
I, Ginger, had gained some weight after my last estrus cycle and Buddy definitely is heftier post his Diwali binging spree. Of course, the lesser said about Mummy’s measurements, the better!!!!
We decided it was time to get back in shape. The weather is cooler and you can easily run for miles now. So every morning all of us jogged and played and walked till we were sweating out of every pore of our skin…err…tongue. The result is I and Buddy are in the ‘Ideal weight’ category again! I need to work out a little more for that lean look but Buddy looks just pawfect.

 

Mummy has a horrible sun-burned skin now- she is very prone to it- but she says she doesn’t mind getting burnt to a cinder if it means getting us Pups back in shape!
There is however one fact that compensates for the tan…Mummy fits into her old denims again!
 
With our baby brother Shadow, however, it is another story.
Mummy has been stuffing him with three majorly major meals ( we get just two, and only major!) and larger portions of in-between snacks hoping to fatten him up into a cuddly, soft puppy toy. We don’t think her dream is ever going to come true because all that morning and evening exercise is making him grow into a sturdy, lean boy. Cuddly and ever so adorable he still is, but fat and soft, he will never be at this rate! Poor Mummy!
 
Anyway, it felt wonderful to have Daddy back after ages. And of course, he brought back loads of goodies too.
 

Scarves that Mummy has been longing for. She loves them so much, we are surprised she isn’t wearing them to bed…Tee heee hee!
 

..Ahh.ha..don’t you just love this bag! Large enough for Mummy to carry our treats in!

 

Those boxes are full of heaps of delectable goodies. Trust us, they are the Best in the country! We sampled them.
All three of us eagerly offered to help Mummy finish those but she very rudely said ‘No, Thanks’.
Hrrmmphhh!
Fine. We were only worried she would outgrow her jeans again.
 
Anyway, we got our own new harnesses and a huge treasure chest of bones. Look!

 

Yes! Those are exclusively ours. Look what the bag says.

 

They are right indeed! We ARE very Happy Dogs at the moment.

 

Wags,

Buddy, Ginger and Shadow.

 

Pee ess:
Thank you very much for all your Christmas wishes. We are trying our best to visit you and reply to all your mails. Mummy has been terrible about taking care of our mails lately. But it is still holiday season and the New Year is in the offing. And we hope to be able to send off our wishes to all our friends soon. And we also hope to be able to get back to blogging properly. We miss everyone…

The COMMONWEALTH GAMES 2010

Finally they are on!
Today was Day 3 of the XIX Commonwealth Games being held in New Delhi and by the looks of it, the events are off to a great start.
It is no small feat for India.
It was a moment of great National pride when India won the bid to hold the games in 2010.
Between that day four years ago, and now, the games have seen remarkable concerted efforts by thousands to make it the greatest Commonwealth games in the history of the event.
With the entire world watching and speculating about India’s capability to pull off a sporting event of this magnitude, there was tremendous pressure.
The greatest pressure of all was, however, the fight against the inevitable unconstructive elements right at home. Corrupt politicians, in-efficient officials, large scale money re-routing, apathy, terror threats- you name and you could see it intricately connected to the games preparations.
Even with the deadline for the games looming large, politicians were busy highlighting the corruption of the opposite camp, conveniently choosing to ignore the much pending work. There were moments of national shame when the media high-lighted the collapsed bridges, unhygienic living quarters at the newly constructed games village and unacceptable audacious comments by high officials of the organising committee. The heaviest monsoon rains in decades that New Delhi received added to the woes.
The common tax-paying Indian was shocked and terrified. Will the games bring us International shame? Will India stand out as an inefficient, corrupt and un-professional country after all?
This country, which has only last month been declared the third most powerful country after the US and China; and this country which is now the second most rapidly growing economy in the world?
Such distinctions would, in no way be justified if the country, which now houses almost one- fifth of humanity, fails to successfully host these games after four years of preparations, endless owes due to traffic-diversions and widespread constructions, and an exorbitant expenditure of Rs.70 000 crores of tax-payer’s money.
Everyone waited with bated breath for the Opening ceremony on the 3^rd of October.

 

Opening ceremonies have been said to make or mar events.
It must have been the largest sigh of relief ever heaved when, together with the World, 800 billion Indians witnessed the spectacular extravaganza that unfolded in the evening of the 3^rd of October in the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi.
How we wished we could be there!
But the pride we felt wasn’t in any lessened by the fact that we were watching the event on television.
 
Everything went off without a glitch. And the world experienced 5000 years of Indian culture showcased in a magnificent show.

The aerostat with the floating screen was the largest helium balloon ever showcased and it was this overhead floating screen that made the show a great success.

 

The highlight of the show was the Bodhi-tree or ‘The Tree of Wisdom’ which was formed beautifully right at the centre. Surrounding it, thousands of graceful, colourful dancers emerged effortlessly from the under-ground stage that opened up in the centre of the massive stadium.

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Another interesting aspect was the united beat of the drummers from different parts of the country, playing their indigenous drums.

 
The atmosphere turned solemn as Gandhi ji was remembered.
The larger than life mannequin that rose from under the centre-stage of the stadium took everyone’s breath away even as artists depicted the famous photograph of ‘the Dandi March’ in sand-art over a well-lit, glass-topped table.
A.R. Rahman’s CWG anthem, which marked the end of the show, was well received.

The real games are on and all is well at the very colourful village.
The pictures now are of happy athletes enjoying India, of professional competition and of the tireless security officials forever vigilant against terror threats of nuclear and biological weapons.
New Delhi is almost a fortress with 300 sniffer-dogs, 1.5 lakh Security personnel, 15 Bomb Disposal Squads and IAF Helicopters with snipers constantly on watch.

 

The success of the games is a triumph for India.

Thousands of volunteers from both students and the working class have battled and worked against the deep rooted corruption in many quarters. Successful cleanliness and tree-plantation drives they had undertaken only goes to show what the new young India can achieve against all odds.
It is time some people are held directly answerable to the citizens. After all it is our money and reputation that is at stake.
Mr. Kalmadi, the Organising chief was booed as he read out his speech at the opening ceremony and rightly so.
The success of the games doesn’t wipe away the days of shame the country had to face in front of the entire world due to his in-efficiency and corruption. It is high time Indian politics saw some change.
For now, let us just enjoy the games.
We have our paws crossed for our country. As of today, we are at No. 2 with Australia leading the medals tally.
May the best country win.
Wags,
,


Pee Ess: Thankyou very much for all your comments, dear Friends. We will get back to you soon. Last few days have been crazy and we have a lot of things happening on the pawsonal front too. Will tell you all about it soon. Please be with us, OKies? Please?



Mummy’s Experiments: Random Shots

It is exam-time in Mummy’s Medical college, which is the reason she is working overtime. Poor Mummy, she hardly seems to find time to even get a good sleep, she is so worried about having to get up early and leave. We hate it and so does she.
We wish these days will just hurry up and pass.

Our posts have been few and far apart and now you know why. Not to mention how far behind we are in visiting and commenting on all our friend’s blogs. Mummy just about manages to check her facebook and mail messages in case something important turns up and that’s it.
Of course, we always hopefully glance through our blog comment box!!!

Oh! To return to normalcy! We want so much to catch up.

Mummy says heaps of THANKS for all your wishes, care and concern. She is fine now (apart from walking around zombie eyed from not getting her usual quota of 8 hours sleep!)
We did give her a lot of gooey-nose-kisses, Bookerman and Asa style which she says helped a lot.

For now, we have put together a compilation of pictures from different times in the last year. These are Mummy’s attempts to capture the various faces of our country, during our cross-country road trips.

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A family, in a tractor, carrying home the day’s harvest. This was taken while passing through a village in Rajasthan.







 

This Oil-Tanker had 44 tyres!! We slowed down alongside it to count! How do they manuover these things through the hills, we wonder…

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An ingenious way of roasting peanuts…the earthen pot filled with burning coals roasts the nuts closest and keeps them warm. A roadside vendor’s stall photograhed in Gwalior, Madhya pradesh 

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An old farmer tending to his bullocks, clicked somewhere in Madhya Pradesh








A dash of colour on the dry, arid highway as we passed through Maharastra.

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A  Hotel by night, in the middle of a Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh. No, we did not see any tigers though we did prick up our ears at some distant growls.

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A temple by night, on the outskirts of Delhi.









 
The following are pictures from a resort Mummy and Daddy had gone to. The eating arrangements in the middle of the pool made Mummy miss us very much. How we would have loved to make a splash!! The garden was designed to resemble a tropical forest.

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And finally, US! 

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Hope you liked our pictures today.
With love, wags and promises to get back to you soon,

,