Rajaon ka Sthan

I've been listening to a wonderful song since the past week- Mark Knopfler's -Me and the Wanderlust. It's fitting because the wanderlust bug has bitten really hard now. Packing up my bags for a 2 week tour of Rajasthan-The land of the Kings.

Home to one of the oldest people in India-The Bhils, somewhere there is a tiger if you are lucky enough to spot one, and someplace else the desert can swallow you in as you gaze mesmerised at the sifting sand dunes, the women who really know about colour all the more because of the bare and barren landscape, where the men dress in pristine white and turbans of varied hues adorn their heads, where the palaces in all their grandeur tell stories of centuries gone by, where the killas repeat tales of glory and sing praises venerating their heroes... and then the legends of the Rajputs...

Rajasthan seems to have offer all that a traveler craves for- Romance in Udaipur, Adventure with the wild-life, tempting cuisine to tickle the taste-buds, shopping for the love of art, royalty everywhere and brazen toughness also everywhere.

On previous occasions I have thought Rajasthan to be a dull, drab and boring state with nothing in it except sand and IIT classes. Hovever, since the time I have started reading about it I have been floating at higher heights, dumb-founded at the richness it offers. So spectacular, so splendid.

Our Rajasthan expedition starts with Jodhpur-the Blue City and then Jaisalmer, Bikaner, Jaipur, Abhaneri, Bharatpur, Ranthambore, Ajmer, Pushkar and ends with Udaipur-the Venice of the East. My scrapbook is ready, my bags are packed and I just have to get on that bus.

Bidding an au revoir with Knopfler's Wanderlust :-

Big black cloud
On a yellow plain
Sure enough it
Looks like rain
Packin' up all our
Faith and trust
Me and the wanderlust

Open window
Empty bed and chair
Who's that callin'
Ain't nobody there
I look behind me
And I see there's just
Me and the wanderlust

Dead of night
I had a dream
Sky was bright yes and the
Fields were green
I was down the road
In a cloud of dust
Me and the wanderlust

And I'm on the edge
Of an endless fall
Sure enough
He's come to call
Got to go now
Get on that bus
Me and the wanderlust

Roacher Pics

Click here to see Roacher and the cockroach.

P.S. It's not for the fainthearted. I couldn't eat my fish for dinner after I clicked these pictures.

Roacher the Roach Ranger!!!!

Well I have one smart and hungry lizard to write about. It's the same lizard that woke me up a couple of days back from my slumber. Today it invited me for tea and snacks!!

I was trying to bang my head against my books in the evening at 4.30 when again the mysterious thudding started. It didn't occur to me that the same lizard was at play. At first I ignored the sound and tried to study but the sound persisted. I had to spring into action. I shifted the wardrobe and Roacher was at work again. (I've named the lizard Roacher) It had just caught a cockroach and this time I was prepared. I lunged for my camera and I photographed the lizard patiently eating the cockroach while the cockroach made desperate bids to escape but to no avail. The jaws of the lizard are really strong. Roacher took 45 minutes to consume the cockroach and now as I write this it is resting benignly at the side of my wardrobe. 

Will upload the entire sequence of pictures tomorrow :)

Lizard's Breakfast!

The morning got off to an interesting start today. I opened my eyes from deep slumber to a sound that seemed as if a bird was trapped and was fluttering it's wings in desperation in a bid to escape. I thought that I was dreaming but when the sound persisted I had to get up and play detective.

I first checked my window to make sure that no bird was trapped there. Pigeons usually visit my window as it gives them a good perch. While I was checking I felt that the sound was coming from inside my wardrobe. I thought that to be very very strange. No bird could land up inside the wardrobe. And curiously enough, the sound seemed to be emanating from way inside the wardrobe. "Ghost bird"- I muttered.

Then I heard loud thuds from the wardrobe. I really thought at this time that the bird is going to die. Then some intelligence visited me and I shifted the wardrobe a little. I was expecting to see a tiny bird there but lo! behold! what a sight awaited me!!

I was shocked and being drowsy, initially I thought it was a snake. After my eyes adjusted to the darkness this is what I made out.

A house-lizard facing vertically downwards with a cockroach halfway into it's mouth!! The lizard banged itself against the wardrobe to push the cockroach into it's mouth. The eyes of the lizard glowed eerily black and then red. I scrambled to get my camera but couldn't capture the sight. After 10 minutes the lizard turned itself vertically upwards and incessantly opened and closed it's mouth. I could see a part of the cockroach coming out and going in.

Anyways my camera started working later and I got a potshot of the lizard now digesting the cockroach.

The lizard is on the back of the wardrobe, the white part is the wall.

New Orkut Vs Old Orkut and Facebook.

Well well well..Orkut finally has gone for a huge makeover. It had to do  no option with even the Orkut loyalists moving to Facebook. The spice out of Orkut had fizzled out so what did Orkut do? It has re-invented itself. And it is cleverly trying to maintain an exclusivity about the new version-meaning allowing only people with invitations to access the new version. Nice aura. I personally was going loony, bleating about desperately for an invitation until a helpful friend took pity on me and sent it :)

The good points first. It's never been easy to look for your friends in the friend's list. One just needs to scroll to find the friend and the same for the communities too. One can now comment on the updates, à la Facebook. Loading hardly takes up any time now and yes it is faster and more jazzed up. And the best thing is that Orkut has left the option to revert back to the old version if need be.

The bad points- It's too too cluttered now.

The hype about the new Orkut will probably stem the flow from Orkut to Facebook but steadfast devotees of  Facebook are most likely to give the new Orkut a pass. One tends to think about the old Orkut with nostalgia. It was new then, there was excitement about using it, one never knew which old friend one would meet, there was the delight of reading the scraps, the sleepless nights thinking who will scrap you next et al.

 Let's see now whether revamping creates the same buzz for Orkut again.

Steve Jobs. Radical!!!!

wow

Why Tunkie Sleeps So Much

No I haven't yet woken up since I went to sleep what seems like aeons ago or was it just yesterday or was it an hour ago. I am not too sure about that. I tried all that I knew, but it's tough to tread the fine line between emotions and cold practicability. But gloom nostalgia seeps in like the grey swirling mist through every pore of my skin and the weight which I'm lugging around becomes much more entrenched than ever. No I don't hurt no more. I'm just numb because the iron grip becomes stronger than ever. There is a sadistic pleasure in this numbness. And I have lost all desire to wake up.

Wrote this a long time ago. And it doesn't hold true anymore!!! :) But I still sleep a lotttt!!!!!

Examination Woes

After three long years I will be giving exams for a fortnight. Biotechnology was pretty chilled out about exams. Three days, 80 marks papers and we would  be free. Now it's 5 papers, 50 marks each spread out over 10 days. It's a real bore. The breaks in between are the worst though this time around they seem welcome since my books still continue to be in a state of permanent rest. And I will be doing the honour of opening them only before each paper.

 

M.Sc has made me even more lazy.  I am not sure if it is because of the horrendous number of assignments that we are besotted with or is it due to the fact that we end up doing them only a night before the submission. I wonder where the time flies. The professors made us slog by giving us a schedule of 9 to 6 and before we knew it exams were bolting towards us faster that Usain Bolt.

Tomorrow are the practical exams and I have just skimmed through reluctantly. The laziness lingers. Here's hoping that I won't have any serious repercussions tomorrow.