J&K Trip Day 1 Part 2:

Now we were walking on Residency road towards Raghunath Mandir.It was like a mini commercial Street there with good stores like Wills Lifestyle and Coffee day and also small stores of sweets and even stores of ARMS AND AMMUNITION!!!(No wonder terrorists find arms so easily here).Then we enter Raghunath mandir after depositing our cameras and mobiles in the cloak room. This temple is nothing less than a cheap exhibition which comes in Palace grounds.Atleast people in the exhibition are selling something but here in the temple they are selling god only and his blessings too. Only if u keep money will the priest give u the blessings and Prasad. This temple is also very beautiful but the greediness of the priest puts u off so much that spiritualism does not come at all. And if u are a person like me who is very superstitious then be ready to spend some money at every doorstep.Anyways I think whatever I make is all god’s blessings so giving something back to him or people who take me to him is not bad at all. I also saw Saligram stones over there. These are basically 1000’s of small black stones which are worshipped.Saligram is Abhi’s native place and he says that there is only one Saligram stone and it’s so holy that no one can touch it. But anyways I was very happy to touch the fake saligram’s and seek real blessings for my family and friends.
After this the next stop was a palace called Amar Mahal Palace which was the last place of residence of Dogra Raja’s. This palace looks awesome and it looks like we were in a completely different country. It was very neatly maintained and it had a lot of paintings. Through this I learnt about Nala and Damayanti.Also there are large life size portraits of all the Raja’s and Rani’s which we did take pictures so that I can get something like this done for my palace J,Outside the greenery was awesome and I knew it was picture time. Lots of snaps with different poses and styles and then it was time for us to leave but not before checking out the Raja’s throne made of 50kg pure gold. It was a delight for the eyes. Once we were done with this it was finally the end of our sight seeing of Jammu and we were on our way to Katra.
Routine security checkups were happening on the way but we were enjoying the drive. Good roads and great scenery somewhat reminded me of Coorg.Before I knew I was fast asleep only to be woken up for a treat of ice cream (Kwality mango duet) and mineral water. Once done with the eating time for my sleep again. However pit stop happened again and this time for tea. The place looked really dingy but the tea was good. Now I feel bad that I don’t know the name of the hotel nor did we click any snaps there.30 mins from that hotel and we finally reached our destination our 5 start hotel named “White Orchid”. It’s a superb hotel with all the 5 star amenities and the best part were the toiletries my fav biotique (hehehe I know Ur also like that naah). Anyways after we freshened up I realized something is wrong with our door.Inspite of having a carpenter they could not fix the problem so we changed our room from 426 to 424 (Yeah sexy number according to numerology).First they get our luggage late and now this. Somehow dint get a good start L.By the time we settled down it was already time for our dinner. Our travel agent Nishant came to collect the cash and explained the itenary of the entire trip. It sounds interesting but u know me Ill always have some negative thoughts atleast sometimes.Anyways since our dinner was MAP plan (That’s modified American plan for people who don’t know what that means) we ordered to the fullest and ate till we burped really hard. Not to forget we also went for quiet walks outside the garden and clicked few pictures in the dark and beautiful lit up hilltop. For now day 1 seems really nice and im waiting for day 2 now!!!!Until I write this is Pallavi saying barla!!!!

J&K Trip Day 1 Part 1

So finally my dream trip of Jammu and Kashmir happened.Early morning at 7 was my flight from Bangalore to Delhi.And this time yet another airline.It was jey lite.After bidding adieu to all the family members and friends it was time for us to leave Bangalore.We reached Delhi @ 9:50 and then boarded the flight to Jammu and finally reached here at 11:30.I thought the weather will be either warm or cool but its just like Bangalore.Its really hot and the temp is 31 degrees.Anyways the journey started off on a bad note coz of the vehicle.We wanted a AC Qualis with good seats but then we landed up with a pretty ok Tavera.Now Dolly is stuck with the bad back seats.Our driver Praveen resembles a hindi movie villain.Somehow this entire place is scaring me.Maybe it’s the influence of all the hindi war movies that I have seen. Anyways we have started our journey with the sight seeing of jammu.We came now to Bahu fort.It has a very nice Kali mandir.This reminds me of a temple in Bali.The fort looks really bad and small.Security is always there and is very strict.So we could not take any mobiles and cameras in.Somehow I could not trust these people will all my stuff so I dint give anything at the cloak room.We sent the couple in first and then Me Anil and Dolly went in.We could not see anything there because everything was prohibited there for entry.But the temple was pretty good.Then we went to see a garden called Bagh-E-Bahu.We first spoke to the ticket guy and asked him if there was anything worthy there to see.He conned us by saying that there was musical fountain.but for our bad luck all that we found there was just hot sun and some shade under the trees.We also saw some localites over there who were enjoying some quiet time for themselves there.Anyways we were already very tired of heat we decided not to see anything else there.Also there was a aquarium shaped like a giant fish which we decided to skip.The view was great with the Tawi river flowing beside the fort.Next when we walked out we saw the local transport.Its the same minivans as in Bangalore.We picked up a bottle of mineral water outside.But thanx to Slumdog Millionaire I was thinking twice before having to pay for the bottle.We just picked one bottle and then headed towards one more temple.
We reached Char Dham.Also in this Chardham temple is Ganga Ghat.The river Tawi was flowing pretty fast here.With just 2 girls who know how to swim in the entire group we just decided to sit around for 5 minutes and then saw the temple.It had 3 giant sculptures.One of Kari Ganesha,One hanuman and the other is Vasudeva carrying Balkrishna on his head in the basket.The temple deities again are very sweet looking.One more interesting thing is that all the deities are smiling.Thats when Ani made a point.Gods here are always ever smiling but people are not and its vice versa down south.Also the deities are very big and nice.There is also Amar Jyothi here.This deepa is always lite and its in front of huge lingam.All different avatars of Krishna was there which made me get back to spiritualism.By the time we finished it was already 2 and our stomachs were making noises for food.I just bought a lonely planet thanx to which I came to know about restaurants.
Then we went to Falak which is a roof top restaurant in a nice hotel called K.C.Residency.I was really happy to have found a really good and neat restaurant.But I was in a bigger surprise.This hotel was on the roof top and it was built kind off like outside the building.When we sat I thought the floor was shaking then I was told that the hotel was revolving.So as we sat for our lunch we could see the entire city of Jammu.WOW!!!What a beautiful place.Good food and an excellent view .Awesome selection!!!We saw the Tawi river banks,Raghunath Mandir and even a parrot sitting on a branch while having lunch.With just 1225 all the 5 of us had food till our throats.Thats how full we were.After that it was time for a walk on a busy street called Residency road.What happens after that ill tell u in the next part!!!!

1st movie of 2009 Vaaranam Ayiram

First of all HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
May this year u get all the fame,money and happiness that u want!!!!
Now my first movie in 2009....Im very glad that my movie partner abhi is back on his own feet(yeah he had an accident and injured his toe)and to celebrate his wellness we decided to watch a movie.Now we always watch a bad movie with bad reviews so that we can have a nice laugh but i think time had different plans for us!!!
Yeah first we had our respective partners accompany us to the movie.So Shilpa and Somni also came along!!!I was thrilled becoz for me more the people more the fun!!!!
Okie now the second thing is suddenly yesterday PVR online booking just did not take any bookings which forced abhi and shilpa to go to PVR early and buy tickets from the counter for the movie Haage summane...but it was all SOLD OUT ( It was very astonishing coz its supposed to be a crappy movie according to all the reviews ) and then we finally decided to watch Vaaranam Ayiram!!!(Which by the way had also got some really bad reviews)
Abhi agreed coz there was Ramya in the movie and i wanted to watch coz Suriya was in the movie...somni and shilpa just wanted to watch some movie for timepass!!So we went to Europa (First time ) and started off with the movie [The best part i watched the promos for the very first time coz i was not late this time heheheh :-) ]
It started off with Surya (sorry suriya) as a old man...i was surprised it was him but then it was REALLY HIM!!!Thats when i knew i was in for a good movie....It was a long movie in the first part..atleast thats how it felt like....i really liked it coz the movie had a lot of Suriya in the first part and the story was gripping every moment...After the interval Ramya was introduced and thats when i realised that she was a mere second lead in the movie with a song and some 10 scenes....Man she was completely wasted in the movie (Though abhi would not agree im sure of that...hehehehehe..she has completely become boyzone material now!!!!)...anyways as usual im not gonna tell u the story!!!But its one movie that no one should miss...if u dont understand the language please take a translator with u and watch it!!!Its one superb movie with great acting!!!Its about a dad and son..and how fathers are an inspiration to children and what children might become if their parents will trust them!!!
The things to watch out in the movie :
1.Suriya's double acting - One surya is great so u can think wat can happen with two two surya's :-).Its like a double bonanza
2.The small details that they have taken care.It has a lot of retro stuff and flashback.And everything is done absolutely right.Including the marks of hand on the cheek of Surya after he got slapped by a goonda.
3.The costumes that all the actors have worn just to show the time.Its simply amazing and it brings back all the old memories trust me!!!
4.The beautiful way that they have potrayed love and romance and lust (Yeah yeah this is just for the girls!!!)
5.The clothes that Sameera Reddy has worn....she looks really good wearing both Indian and western clothes.
6.Beautiful locales and very nice music (also keeping in ming whether its in the present or the past)
7.The effects of smoking drinking and drugs (which is the most important message in the movie)
8.And finally how actors should cry in the movie.Surya can make anyone cry(including me)-Some actors overact and it makes them look so bad on screen....but trust me surya does it so well it can give all the good actors in our country a run for their tissues...sorry their money :-)
Okie the bad things :
1.Ramya is a complete waste in the movie.She has absolutely no role to play.OK ok thats kinda bad...coz i was expecting her as a herione of the movie.
2.Simran's acting was so good and agian i was expecting a little bit more (A little selfish i know).
3.The editing in the second half is really really really bad!!!They just cut so abruptly....its very sad.
Thats all the bad points i can think about.I know a lot of fanatics will start writing bad comments because its a Tamil movie...so let me tell something to all those people...my writing is not for people like u who differentiate languages so dont even think about commenting on this!!!!
And all my friends...please feel free to write anything u want!!!
In a way i was very very glad that i did not get tickets for Haage sumanne...Thanx PVR for having a bad online booking website!!!!
Until my next movie this is Pallavi saying Barla!!!!