Anuradha Sridharan

A lovely cloud cover in the evening followed by thunder and lightning eventually leads to heavy rains lashing the city. Such evenings are perfect to remain inside the cosy comforts of one's home and welcome the monsoons and not to roam around the busy roads. On Friday evening, I got stuck for about 2 hours waiting for the rains to stop, asking every auto driver to take me to my place and finally, with one auto driver agreeing, little did I know the mess is not over yet. There was a huge traffic jam and the auto driver refused to drive further. Thinking it's just another half a km, I started walking. A few steps further, I noticed this waterlog; knee feet deep it was! With no other route to take, I started walking, with my heavy bag lurking on my right shoulder. I managed to cross this pool of water and rushed home. Never make the mistake of hanging out in the shopping malls or multiplexes like me on a rainy night. It's been raining movies as well. In the past week, I've...

I opened my journal last night after a long time and scribbled for 15 minutes. Posting the contents here. How I used to love writing! I always used to be proud of my handwriting, flaunting my neatly written course notes to my friends and teachers. And these days, I hardly write. It's been a long time since I heard the screeching noise of the fountain pen talking to the white paper. I realize that this noise has been completely overshadowed by the crackling keyboard and clicking mouse. This week's Sunday Scribblings topic is Masks. This term brings to my mind the kind of masks superheroes wear all the time. I always wonder why superheroes wear them, what makes them so special. After giving quite a bit of thought, I understood the significance of masks in superhero stories. When the superhero takes off his mask, he is none other than us. He looks exactly like us - his eyes, nose, ears, cheeks and chin are the same. But we fear the super hero in ourselves; the hero who is capable ...

How would you feel when you had taken a 3 week vacation, where all you had to do was to roam around the city, spend the evenings visiting new places, wake up late with no hurry, eat at new restaurants and realize the minutes of the clock moving slowly? Don't you want to experience it often? Don't you love to give a second chance? This topic has brought back those wonderful memories I got to experience in Dubai last May. 3 weeks of a complete vacation! Most importantly, I returned with a fresh mind and took a very important decision in my career. Vacations do help to give clarity in your thoughts, think from a new perspective and provide a break from day-to-day schedules. I wish I could have such a vacation every year, where I'm totally away from workplace and get to see new places and meet new people. I guess this is the best time to share my Dubai travelogue I had written for my office magazine. Dubai - A friendly city for everyone I was really looking forward to my 3 week...

Two places where I love to hang around in Bangalore are Crosswords, the book store and Planet M, the music store. Though Crosswords is not as spacious as Landmark, it's such a peaceful place to browse through books, sit down for a few minutes and read a couple of pages before deciding to buy a good book. It's not very crowded as well. Planet M, though very crowded and a noisy place has a quiet corner for Indian classical music lovers. When I visited last weekend, there were hardly a couple of people in this section. What a pleasant and serene evening it was, listening to my favourite Hariprasad Chaurasia's flute and Zakir Hussain's tabla being played in the background and browsing through a nice collection of Carnatic and Hindustani classical music. The traditional Indian music has such divinity and tranquility in itself that regardless of the kind of raagas, it mesmerizes the listeners' ears. I don't understand the kind of raagas or other intricacies of classic...

I wish I could shout at certain people like this! People who forget to bring a pen when they visit a bank. Yesterday, I had to go to a bank to get a demand draft. It was crowded and I had to finish off this work soon to catch up on some other appointment. I was waiting for my turn after filling the DD form. A guy came near me and was asking for my pen. This is not the first time this is happening to me. Whenever I visit the bank, there would be someone without a pen and would borrow it from me. My turn finally came and I went to my counter. While talking with the banker, a girl patted on my back and was asking for my pen. I got very irritated and replied that I can't lend as I need to sign the form. She had a handbag but not a pen inside. I don't understand how someone can forget and borrow from others with no regret whatsoever. The worst part is that they don't bother to return it back. When will these people ever realize their mistake?

I love to observe the vast expanse of the waters, the distant ships and the roaring waves. I also wonder everytime how it would look from the horizon towards the coast. For boatsmen, it would be the end of their long journey. For cruisers, it would be a pleasant sight to see a new piece of land. The topic "Ocean" reminds me of my first-ever sailing trip in the Pacific Ocean when I visited San Francisco on an official trip. I didn't quite understand the intricacies of a sail boat. I was watching happily when the sail was set and we were ready to go on a 36 hour trip in the Pacific. Crossing the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge, our boat was sailing smoothly, with the coast still within the reach of my eyes. A perfect evening it was, with the sun setting in the background and the sky reflecting different colours of yellow and orange! After a light dinner, I dozed off on the wooden bench inside our boat. A cold weather woke me up early in the morning. I walked up to the...