The Bucket List Chronicles

On a recent trip to Sri Lanka, my wife and I traveled through the misty highlands of Nuwara Eliya to visit the Seetha Amma Temple. It was a rare and moving experience; while we often see Seetha Devi alongside Lord Rama and Hanuman, here she stands in solitary grace. The temple sits on the rugged banks of a river where, according to the Sthala Purana, Seetha was held captive by Ravana. Nearby, etched into the rock, lies a giant footprint, a testament to the moment Hanuman reached her. Before we entered the main shrine, I had to use the washroom, leaving my wife to wait for me by the riverbank. When I stepped back out a few minutes later, I found her weeping, her eyes fixed on Hanuman’s footprint through the pouring rain. Stunned, I asked her what was wrong. What she said next still reverberates in my ears: "In this heavy rain, I didn't feel safe without you for even three minutes. Imagine what Seetha Maatha must have gone through. She didn't know where she was; she didn...

ಹೀಗೆ ಒಮ್ಮೆ ನಮ್ಮ ನಾಟಕದ ತಾಲೀಮು ಮುಗಿಸಿ, ಪಕ್ಕದಲ್ಲೇ ಇದ್ದ ಒಂದು ಸಣ್ಣ ಹೋಟೆಲ್ ನಲ್ಲಿ ರಾತ್ರಿಯ ಡಿನ್ನರ್ ಮುಗಿಸಿ ಆಚೆ ಬಂದು ನಿಂತ ನಾವು, ತಣ್ಣನೆ ಬೀಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದ ಗಾಳಿಯ ಸವಿಯುತ್ತಿದ್ದೆವು.  ಹೋಟೆಲ್ ನ ಆಚೆ ಒಂದು ಚಿಕ್ಕ ಮರವಿತ್ತು, 10-12 ಅಡಿ ಎತ್ತರವಷ್ಟೇ, ಅಲ್ಲಲ್ಲಿ ಬಾರಿ ಪ್ರಮಾಣದ ಹೂವುಗಳು ಅರಳಿದ್ದವು, ಚಿಕ್ಕ ಹಾಗೂ ಬೆಳ್ಳಗೆ ಇದ್ದ ಹೂವುಗಳು ಯಾವ ರೀತಿಯ ವಾಸನೆಯನ್ನು ಬೀರುತ್ತಿರಲಿಲ್ಲ.  "ಯಾವ್ ಹೂವು ಇದು? " ಎಂದು ನನ್ನ ಹೆಂಡತಿ ಕೇಳಿದಳು.  "ನಂದಿ ಬಟ್ಟಲು ಇರಬಹುದು" ಎಂದೆ ನಾನು,  "ಅಲ್ವಾ ಅಮ್ಮ?" ಅಂತ ನನ್ನ ಅಮ್ಮನ ತಿರುಗಿ ಕೇಳಿದೆ  "ಹಾ, ಹೌದು, ನಂದಿ ಬಟ್ಟಲೇ!" ಎಂದಳು ನನ್ನ ಅಮ್ಮ.  ಸುವಾಸನೆ ರಹಿತ ಹೂವುಗಳನ್ನು ಕಂಡರೆ ನನ್ನ ಮಡದಿಗೆ ಎಲ್ಲಿಲ್ಲದ ಒಲವು, ಹೋಗಿ ಒಮ್ಮೆಲೆ ಅದರ ಅಡಿ ನಿಂತು ಅರಳಿದ ಹೂವುಗಳ ಸೌಂದರ್ಯವನ್ನು ಕಣ್ಣುಗಳಲ್ಲೇ ಸವಿಯ ತೊಡಗಿದಳು. ಅವಳ ಪಕ್ಕದಲ್ಲೆ ನನ್ನ ಅಮ್ಮನೂ ನಡೆದು ಹೋಗಿ ನಿಂತಳು, ನಿಂತವಳೇ, " ಈ ಮರಕ್ಕೆ ನಿನ್ನ ಗಂಡನಿಗಿಂತ ವಯಸ್ಸು ಜಾಸ್ತಿ ಗೊತ್ತಾ?" ಅಂತ ಕೇಳಿದಳು. " ಹೌದಾ?"  "ಹೌದು, ನಿಮ್ಮ ಮಾವ ಚಿಕ್ಕವರಾಗಿದ್ದಾಗಲೇ ಇದನ್ನ ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಸುಮ್ಮನೆ ನೆಟ್ಟರು"  ಆ ಮರ ನನ್ನ ಅಜ್ಜಿ ನೆಟ್ಟಿದ್ದು ಅಂತ ನನಗೆ ತಿಳಿದಿದ್ದರೂ ಸಹ ಅದು ನನಗಿಂತ ವಯಸ್ಸಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಹಿರಿಯದ್ದು ಅಂತ ನನಗೆ ತಿಳಿದಿರಲಿಲ್ಲ ...

Namaste people and welcome back to my blog, my favourite season is here and Bengaluru just gets prettier day by day. Nobody asked me to write a blog this time around, guessing you're all fed up with it xD  This story again dates back to 2014, while we were all prepping ourselves for our tenth standard boards, we stayed back in school often to revise what's already been studied or to concentrate better on the vital ones which we were sure would pop up in the question paper.  One such evening, a friend of mine and I stayed back in the school to revise "As You Like it" since our boards were just around the corner. We attended classes as usual and once we were done with the revision, we got out of the classroom and got down the flight of stairs. My friend and I never left school without bidding our byes to the housekeeping staff and the security personnel. While we're doing that, a small girl in a ponytail stood in front of the Ganesha idol we have in our school, and ...

Hello all! Welcome back! A second welcome to all your Monday blues XD  It's been a very long time since I wrote and upon multiple enquires as to when my next blog will come up, that's when I decided to write this one, here I am, giving you another experience I had recently. It was Deepavali, this time around, it's not in my childhood :p this is something that occurred recently. This Deepavali was very different, I spent the festival all by myself, a lonely Deepavali in 24 years, no festivities, no new clothes, no crackers, no festive food and the most impactful of them all, complete absence of sweets. Since I was all by myself this time, I had been invited to celebrate it with another lonely guy and this occurred while I was on the way to his house. I decided to drive to his place, and while I waited at a traffic signal very near to his house, few kids enjoyed bursting loud crackers on the road, right opposite to my vehicle, very close to me. I've been petrified of crac...

Hello folks and welcome back to another blog of mine! I know it's been a long time since I wrote one. I am a moody writer, but I always come back and you all know it! I was in my cousin's place, "I'm bored" I said.  "You write well and it's been so long, write one, I'm pretty sure many are waiting to read" she replies.  So while I'm sleepy, I'm penning another incident that happened in my life, that you might feel was cute. This is my version of the "lunchbox", not the one that involves a lot of romance and cooking but the one that involves a lot of punishment and scolding. It was probably the year of 2008, I was in 4th grade and like I've mentioned in one of my previous stories, I might have been a pretty naughty kid, and I presume that's natural for everyone. I'd judge you right now if you were an innocent kid when young.  As usual, my mom packed my lunch, it was routine back then, which went on for 23 years of my ...

Just when I kept wondering as to when I should be writing my next blog, a dear friend of mine met me during my drama rehearsals and enquired me about it, to which my reply was that I usually write once in two or three months and that he should expect the next blog within a week, and here I am writing it for my dear readers. This blog shall be a prank that we pulled on one of my friends. Hope that you would have at least giggled a little by the end of it. For the purpose of privacy of the people in this story their names will be altered This little incident took place during in my degree days, thanks to cinemas, my friend group consisted of 3 members who always stayed together and did all the crazy things together. Like all 3 member groups, whenever one guy is being pranked, the other two team up, all the time. First things first, the group had Akash, and me; this small story has a special guest appearance by the end of it. We always hung out together, it felt odd even if one among the ...

It was a good birthday this year, but not the best of ones. I turned 24 and my parents persisted on buying me a piece of jewelry, I personally never enjoyed wearing any ornaments since a long time, they just don’t feel comfortable on my skin. However I remember getting my left earlobe pierced after 10th standard, because my sister wanted me to! She was not the only reason though, I was interested too, and I went on to get my left earlobe pierced. 7 years later, my mom tells me that I need to get my other earlobe pierced, frankly speaking, I had the same thoughts for the past few months and we decided to get it done soon. On my birthday, post lunch, my mom calls me and informs me that they are going to the jewelry store and that I should directly visit them, and I did so like an obedient kid. I went straight to the store with a close friend of mine and picked a single ear stud.  I picked one stud and looked at my mom for approval, my mom picks the other one. “But only one ear of min...

Hello all readers and welcome back to my blog where I share few of the exciting incidents that occur in my life, so here we go! Another incident and another blog related to it. A few days ago, I had just finished my dinner and I stepped out of my house to go meet my friend who stays right below my floor, he and I discuss a few things about life before we sleep and that has been a habit for us from the past few weeks, it is now around 10 at night, we took a stroll to the end of the road and my dear friend has an habit of smoking before he is done for the day and so he removed a pack of cigarettes and lit one in front of my eyes and as usual we started having the usual conversation about life. We came across a guy who panicked and walked briskly in the main road which we were facing, we did not pay a heed to him as we assumed he might be in a hurry or must be in a rush.  Whilst the cigarette came to meet its end, a Hoysala (Karnakata police patrolling vehicle) passed in the main road...

When the world seems to be at halt by a disease, I'm pretty sure that we all peeked into our closet of "sick" memories and felt grateful for surviving those gloomy days. Well today I feel like telling you all another funny aftermath of a deadly disease I survived. My name is Eshwar and welcome back to my blog. It was between rainy and summer of 2017 and God alone knows how I fell sick, I've been a constant consumer of street made snacks and savouries, maybe they put me down this time. I was glued to my bed for 3 days straight, unable to lift a finger, time flew in a snap, dad took me to the nearest clinic, he prescribed a blood test and next day morning we found out that I was positive for dengue! We went back to the clinic and he jotted down some pills but they seemed ineffective even after swallowing them for 3 days, that's when we decided to visit the hospital. Upon arrival, they ran some tests and took me in straight to a separate room, I knew my condition was...