Are you financing for your and your loved ones murder?

I got myself into one of the Leadership forum where we have committed ourselves to reading a book and coming back to discuss on this topic every week for an hour. Although it cuts into my physical workout time, I must admit, it is helping me strain my brain cells much more than I would generally do in the areas other than Leadership. It is amazing how our brain starts to think of parallels when you put together many minds to think on same topic, bringing out an altogether different perspective which would have lacked in a singular thinking.

I wrote this preface because what I am going to write next just crossed my mind while we were discussing on the globalization of information, branding, ethics and legality in relationship to responsibilities of Leadership and the success of a company. We discussed on how several companies compromised on moral/ethical  grounds and still are making money even after pushing us and our families to deathbed. Sure, social media and information at hand did make some noise against these companies for a while, but did we completely succeed in curbing their win or even their existence? Did we, with all the technology and information at hand still make them learn a lesson or impart that to any other firms on the other side,  that it is high time they respect and value environment, culture, tradition which are all related in the well being of the human life?

It is the collective mass who can teach a lesson or two to these mass production companies who thrive by affecting the world we live in, yet create the brand for themselves by advertising themselves on things we eat, apply, wear and follow.
It is a complex world and I understand that there is no easy way out of this branded world, but would it be possible for us to:

• dig a bit about their contribution towards the society, their controversial litigation and recalls  (ex: Look up the internet to know about Johnson and Johnson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnson_%26_Johnson#Recalls_and_litigation ) 
• When you do come across a fraudulent company or the company which is ethically compromised, look up to see what other brand names do they go with for other products and do you really want to be the one helping them make profit while they still slowly kill your family with small doses of poison in your food (Ex: Maggie Noodles is found to have traces of lead and they accepted it recently after going on campaigns in between stating it is still safe to eat noodles! Nestle has many other products and do you want to support it after knowing one of your family member got admitted for a serious health issue?https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9#Controversy_and_criticisms )
• We jump on our toes to google and look up the medicines doctor prescribe us and doubt them (sometimes fair enough!), but how much are we doing the same in relation to all the other cosmetic products we buy and use on regular basis. Would you let one of your pet puppy/kitten/rabbit undergo the animal testing done and see them suffer?
• Would you put plastic and all the microfiber into your beautiful aquarium  after using the straws or whatever after you have used it?  That is exactly what is happening to aquatic animals in the open sea and oceans
• Would you cheer on to anyone who eve teases a woman in your life or differentiates one of your friend based on how they look, where they come from or any stereotypes? 

Is your answer is no, then stand in front of the mirror when you get ready and check on all those branded items you are wearing/using and ask yourself if you would really like to campaign and be proud of the brand you are representing through that. 

Ask yourself, if you are slowly and silently paying remotely to one of the above said concerning issues.

These are only few of the many questions and many problems....

This is something which has been on my mind for a very long time but dilly dallied on whether to blog or not, but I went with my gut today. While it is not easy to get away from the lifestyle we have, we still have a choice to make and to reduce the evil one step at a time and give a message to firms like these to really invest in our future. (Most of us work in multinational companies and use products from different firms. looking up those products and asking right questions to your firm on the endorsements they are doing toward any of the wrong doers , go a long way in hurting the business for them!) 

Don't let the brands define you, define your own brand with what you believe in! 

(Sometimes, when I see people all I see is invisible big bubble around them screaming out the  "brands"  top to bottom. Well, quality is important but not the obsession on any of the brands.... )

PS: I used Nestle and Johnson & Johnson reference as this is fresh on people's mind and if you look up many other companies, you see many such occurrences.  

K.G.F : not just a journey from Mumbai to the Kolar Gold Fields

I used to be one of those Kannada girl, who would not enter the theater to watch a Kannada movie and just shrug when anyone spoke of some movie in theater. Yes, I admit it and you would agree too, if you have seen the trend of movies during our teenage days, when we pick up the movie watching hobby. Now don't get me wrong, I have nothing against our language movies because I used to start my weekends sitting at home watching old black and white Kannada movies back to back, laughing and enjoying those movies to myself. Such were the movies and content in it. With some good movies here and there, we had to wait till Mungaru Male to bring us back to theater. However, like everything else, once people start to apply the usual "formula" for success art dies!There had many instances where I had tried taking my parents to theater due to the positive word of mouth and on wasting 3 hours, I would have ended up with parents asking to leave them alone happily at home!!

Fast forward to many years and I moved to US and started to watch some movies online while getting some mundane work completed and realized that were many good movies which were hidden below big banner movies with big stars and no content. There started many experimentation with low budget or no budget in hand (crowd funding of Lucia!) With success of good cinemas, we the NRI Kannadigas started having some hopes about getting a show in theaters and with that, many movies have made good money outside India even with limited budget.

I am setting the stage here to say, it is not just about budget or big stars in the movie or a "formula". Entertainment world is changing and changing at a very fast rate with audience constantly looking for something new. A good movie cannot happen without a good talented and dedicated team, who own the passion for excellence and work in unison. When you have a team of such talents, you get brilliant display of result, success of K.G.F!

My art :) 

The story is about one man and the introduction of that character is something where the director makes you smile! There are many such moments, scenes where you get goosebumps for the combination of the BGM, building up of the hype and strong persona to such a grand scale. Sure, there have been movies made in that manner, but for me, it is my first in Kannada movies. With director himself being the story writer, there has been no cross over or "lost in translation" seen in narrating the story. Be it the young boy who plays the role of young "Rocky" or Yash himself, the attitude they carry, the fire in their eye make you want to recall the "angry young man" look. Though many might write off by saying, it is too much of "build up" but for me, it is sculpting of that character with those very attitude display in relation to his whole journey.
If you have not watched the movie yet, make sure not to waste your time in the line for popcorn and miss the initial part because, the characters introduction is kind of fast and due to the love the director has shown towards beard in this movie, you might think of multiple characters as same (most of the actors are all new). Though I initially thought that there were some places where editing could have been better, after watching the movie for the second time(Make sure to watch it in a good theater for good sound effects!), I believe it to be on purpose and I don't want to speak more on it! Movie seems like a wild journey where you are curious to know what is next and the second half becomes even more gripping. Music director has really done a wonderful job by not sticking to the norm and experimenting, which has paid of well and plays huge role in making each scene grand and deep. While I do love the "jokey" song from the old movie, the movie could do better without it (or should I mention "Gali Gali" hindi version seems much better). The fans who adore Yash have a feast in terms of many dialogues - kudos to dialogue writer but some were cheesy :) Every actor chosen to play their role have done a marvelous job and the cinematographer wasted no angles or shots.
While I am itching to mention some of my favorite scenes from the movie, I do not want to spoil it for you all who have not yet watched the movie. With all being said, Art director has done a tremendous job in terms of building the set to perfection with the Mahakali idol scene being such a stunner, which would not have happened without a generous and confident producer. With a small complaint that the climax didn't last long to savor it, I will sign off saying that this movie didn't disappoint us all who were eagerly waiting for almost 2 years for this movie, celebrated this in a grand scale here in Dallas by holding a small ceremony before releasing it and by wearing the KGF merchandise. True that, "A film is the team's until the point it reaches theaters after which it is the fans who own it!" Now that I have started the journey, I can't wait to watch the Chapter 2!
I have never eagerly looked up the news to see the gross collection of any movie the way I have been for this movie -  This is a proud moment for all of us, not because of the money it is making but for the fact that people are talking and asking about "Kannada"   and not "Kannad". K.G.F did what we all could not! 

While this probably is the last Kannada movie I get to watch in theater this year,  I did watch ,many good ones this year (yes, many in theater!) and have some lined up to watch. My personal favorites of this year are :

• aa karaala raatri  - story!
• Rambo 2 -  comedy
• Sarkari Hiriya Prathamika Paata Shaale  - comedy, innocence and nativity
• Tagaru - action, narration,editing (especially for Dolly!)
• Gultoo (ytw)
• Ambi ninge vayassayto (ytw )
• katheyondu shuruvagide(ytw)
• Raajaratha (ytw)

The girl squad in KGF Tshirt, watching the movie (ehm... before the movie started)

Us in  one of the crazy fan moment

First of it's kind opening for a Kannada movie in Dallas :) 

ಜೊತೆಗಾರ

Bidige chandira - the crescent moon

Translation : Crescent Moon

Be it in happiness or in pain

you are lit - like a Crescent moon

heart is brim with the scars of yesterday

yet you spread that brightness  everywhere...

let behind the  gloominess
spread across the open sky - like a Crescent moon

Darkness was a chapter in yesterday's life
yet I see the sea of sorrow held up in your eyes...

Like those raindrops waiting to pour,
are you hiding behind the clouds - oh my Crescent moon!!

The Good views of the bad lands, the devil and the rush!

We flew down to Denver and rented an RV from Cruise America. Due to lack of sufficient communications, we had to wait till the evening for our RV and so, had to make adjustment to our last destination where we would camp for the night. We wanted to get out of the city as soon as possible and as we drove through Nebraska, we stopped briefly to checkout the Chimney Rock, just because it was not a detour.

It was going to be our first night in RV and we spent it closer to some remote community, right next to a corn crop field, eating whatever leftovers we had from the afternoon (bit of miscalculation about our noon hunger!)

With a briefing from our chotu on our next destination, we got excited. There was this small place called Car Henge(yes, similar to Stone Henge), which was a pretty small museum and a good place for some photography. Learned that people take some of the cars from here to the Burning Man  Festival

We then headed to the bluffs and the badlands, which spread over a wide area. When I was taking a look at these places, I was wondering why anyone would call this place as "Badlands" (unless the human greed to occupy the place was not achieved, as the story goes!)

Many of the ranges had deposits of multiple colors and did remind me of the painted hills, which was on our list to visit during our last year's travel to Oregon, which we could not make it to. There are many small trails to take the view and I would say, pick anything!

We loved this one place, for when I saw it from an angle, it looked like pyramids stacked! Here is a pic I took!

We briefly stopped for the mandatory lovely chai which was needed and why not have a tea with a view!

With the tea session complete and invigorated with new found energy, we set off to Mount Rushmore. Our hope was to reach in time to see the sculpture just in time to park in a campground and then start to next location the next morning. The back up plan was to wake up and see this first thing in the morning - we did not need the backup plan as our driver made sure we were just in time for the viewing and then the show at 8:30. I was amazed at the vision of the artist to have thought about having sculptures in these Black Hills. I mean, who would have the conviction of something like this in the mountains, confidence to ask for funds and to deliver such an amazing end result!

What was more amazing to me was to know about the history of how these 4 Presidents were chosen. At the end of the show, all of the veterans were invited over to the stage and thanked, which filled my heart  and what an amazing way to recognize and thank - not just on the Veteran's Day or the Memorial Day! Every soldier deserves that respect from their fellow citizens!

It was full moon and was brimming with the blood red color as we hurried in search of our camp ground and we were pleased at the location, the calmness. Moon was our only source of light for a while when we decided to take in the beauty of that night, before we slid into the comfort of sleep. Woke up to see that a small stream was peacefully flowing right next to our RV while two deers were crossing over!

Our list had this place called Devil's Tower, which was also the picture on the back of our RV and we went up that place for a hike around this rock tower, which had nice myth about how it grew so big. Except for this huge tower and our chit chats on the rocks, coming up with our own versions of story on the rock as we hiked, there was not too much to take in as a view. However, what was interesting is that, the Native Americans held a spiritual value to this place and was sacred to them. We could see some ceremonial threads and clothes tied around some of the trees, closer to the stone. When I read a bit more about this, learned that a kid as yound as 6 years and grand pas as old as 87 years have made a climb to the top of the tower!!

If you are one of those rock/cliff climbers, make sure to check out on the festival dates as you won't be let near the sacred rock for ceremonial purposes.

Read all about our Cowboy Country Trip

A twist to my long weekend travel plan - Cowboy Country!

So,  it happens that my husband hardly gets time off from his work and we try to club the long weekends and wander off to some new location. As it was time for labor day weekend, my initial plan was to plan on flying somewhere close to Yellowstone and have that national park covered this time. While I was in discussion with a friend at work, she spoke highly of some smaller villages around Grand Teton and when I looked up the images of this place, my heart wanted to skip anything else and go straight up to this place, so was wondering how to fit everything in one long weekend. Fast forward to few days, my husband smiles and says, we are going to do a bigger trip around this place for 2 weeks!! The surprise doesn't end there - he says "we are going to be in an RV with Tarun and Ananya (our friends who apparently were also planning trip towards these locations but a longer one)

Let me tell you, I had never been in an RV (recreational vehicle - for my Indian friends, it is the Caravan which Shah Rukh Khan travels in Swades movie :) ), kind of never been on a 2 week vacation roaming around different places in a stretch and etc etc.... I was honestly not sure what to expect and in times like that, I keep my expectations very very, very low - which has always worked well for me!

Our friend had some RV experience and was not a novice in long hikes and all. He shared the entire plan of what all will be covered each day, what food we plan on consuming, how much clothes to carry and how to be prepared for the RV stay. Usually in our family, I get to plan vacations and here, I kind of was relieved that I had to do nothing! Also, this particular plan looked no less than a project plan. Being agile, I knew and anticipated, it would get changes once we started! (Ok, I will not get into the work lingo anymore!)


So, here is the map of what we intended to cover in our 2 week trip:

Since this involved so many beautiful places, it would be unfair to put everything in one single blog. So, I plan to break it up into multiple of them and share with you all:

PC: our phones and Tarun(aka Chotu's Camera :) )


Continue the journey  to 

The Good views of the bad lands, the devil and the rush!

I dream of rain....!

Water has the power to clean the path where ever it flows and also with it's flow, relax the strained mind. Rain has always has great impact on me. Like a peacock always enjoys the rain, I always yearn for it to bring the freshness along, the lush green and also to inspire me to take action on various thoughts whom I put to sleep in the mundane life. Rain, is that life to me, which I have used in a different context  - something which might take you to some point in your life, where rain had/has an impact.

PS: This poem is being published at the time when the weather where I live is way too hot but believe me, this poem was written months ago :)

Smokey Mountains - perfect summer destination!

You might by now know that I get all excited about the long weekends and would never want to spend it at home. I had been longing to go to the mountains from quiet a long time since my last such weather and vegetation was almost a year ago to Seattle and Oregon. I had two places in mind Smokey Mountains and the Rocky Mountains - both very popular for their own charming beautiful views, landscapes and the fresh and soothing experiences, both almost same distance from home. With our newly developed love towards really long  drives and road trips since the end of last year, we were OK with 11-12 hours of drive to reach either of this place. Any trip is fun when accompanied by good friends and we all agreed on stopping over at their place and then head to the agreed upon Smokey Mountains.

Now that the destination was finalized, we wanted to find a place to stay and enjoy the vacation with less of tourists around us, yet closer to mountain, comfort and peace around to escape everything else we left behind. After couple of hours of searching the internet, we found a place which all of us could agree on, thanks to airbnb. We found the perfect place, which we were a little doubtful of until we reached there.

This was a beautiful place in Sevierville maintained by super awesome host Hannah, who made sure we were comfortable and had everything we needed, at every step. I am for sure advertising this place for, this played a crucial role in making our trip memorable.

It rained almost all the 3 days we were in Smokey Mountains. One of my friend had suggested we take the Sky lift ride and I am in agreement for it gave some of the best view of the super cute Gatlinburg town hustled in those beautiful mountains.
Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge are two small towns which is flocked with tourists and has lots of entertainment to offer, for those looking at family entertainment as well as adventurous coaster rides other than the Sky lift.

After doing the touristy things in Gatlinburg for most of the day, we went on a hike to Grotto Falls, where you can get behind the waterfall and continue your hike, if you have energy for a longer hike.

We ended the day by soaking ourselves in the hot tub and playing some pool to get prepared for the next day.
The next day, we woke up and decided  to go up to the Clingman's Dome and so in the process crossed Tennesse and entered North Carolina to reach to the highest point to view the Smokey Mountain. Was it worth it?  - Every step of it!! It was cold, breezy, raining and yet was inviting. The mountains lived up to their name  "Smokey" and drew curtain to the view :)

Once we were satisfied (could not stand the cold), we make our descent to drive through the Cades cove loop to take more view. However, after evaluating the reality, we agreed that, because of so much rain, the view would not be there and decided to go for one more hike to Lauren Falls and it did not disappoint us as well.
The drive throughout was just so beautiful with the streams running parallel to the road, making its dance through the mountain and pleasing our eyes ensuring we had a good show.
The hike to Lauren Falls was not the hardest but yet was a not so fun hiking as few returning scared me about the snakes they had seen (Thank God, we didn't see any!) The wild flowers on the way released such amazing perfume and these Mountains just offered me everything I was looking for!

The Lauren falls, though didn't have the passage behind the falls, had its own mighty display for which I sat down there, listening to all the  chiming!  Nature teaches so much and if you try to listen respectfully, sings to you the best melody. I love nature and respect it even more and feel ashamed even more for what we are doing to this beautiful world out here. And with that thought and all the beautiful, mesmerizing moments etched in my heart, I bowed in respect to say a thankyou, just before we hiked back to our car.
As many of my family and friends know, given a chance, I would never want to come back, but reality check always wins lol!
This blog doesn't  contain much about detailed info on what to see and what not, because nature seen from any point is beautiful, so just go stop where you want, look at the painting the nature has painted there and move on :)

Oh wait, did I tell you that there was a lovely swing in the cabin we stayed? That was the best to sit with a cup of tea, to listen to the stream flowing down and watch the clouds play right in front of you - over the mountains! :)

And signing off with one of my fav photo of us all from our last hike there :)

But it is moonless night...!

Ever imagined how it would be to daily get out of the house and have a conversation with the nature and how the absence of the moon could probably dull the moment where you all used to have group chat? I here present to you such world where a young girl is missing the moon who slowly vanishes every fortnight from her sight. When I read it again, I felt this could be applied to any one who is in love and have a regular separation written in their fate.... sip it up one word at a time and let me know what you think :)

Freeze the time, now!

There are often moments, which we want to be over as soon as possible and there are some moments which just flash like a falling star and you wish it lasted for some more time. What is your moment, which you want to freeze in time and lock it up? Do the lines in this poem reflect your thoughts? Share with me  in comments :)

In the pic, one of my beautiful friend Akanksha,  who was admiring first super moon of this year! :)