These are a few of my favourite things ...

Well, MM tagged me to do a blog on "Things that make me Happy" and here’s delivering on MM's tag … happily …

· Watching a nice movie at home curled up on the couch
· Getting drenched in the rain … when I’m on my way home, not when I’m going to work.
· A great meal … preferably cooked by my Mom
· Snuggling in bed (preferably below a quilt) with an engrossing book … reading it from start to finish at a go
· The twinkle in S’s eyes when I’ve managed to trick him using one of the tricks from his book
· Teasing & being teased by S
· Traveling to lovely places
· Catching up with old friends
· A girls night out
· Frolicking in the pool
· Shopping & window-shopping with like-minded people
· Walking along College Street (Calcutta)... also known as boi para (book locality) browsing through books
· When the weighing scale tells me that I’ve lost weight
· Having chicken roll in the streets of Calcutta
· The thought of a joke played on a friend or on me that happened a long long time ago

… Ohhh … the list is never-ending. There are soooo many things that make me happy. :-) I’m sure that I’ve forgotten quite a few, so Friends, keep watching this place for updates.
P.S.: The above list is not in any particular order. All these things give me equal happiness, ALWAYS. :-) :-)

Update 1 : Like I said there are loads of things that make me happy & here's my 1st addendum...

• When a friend says that she'll be visiting me
• When I have a good-hair day
• Chocolates & ice-creams ... preferably chocolate flavoured :)

Different strokes for different folks...

The first thing I do every evening when I return home from work, after switching on the lights, is to open the door to the balcony off the hall. So imagine my astonishment & sheer terror when on doing the same last Thursday, I was greeted with the picture of a beehive hanging from the ceiling of our balcony. You might ask … “Why terror?” … well, being born and brought up in the concrete jungle of Kolkata, I am unused to being so close to nature. And, I’m not only scared of things that sting (like these bees) but also scared of the most innocuous insect which buzzes and / or flies, including things as harmless as moths or even butterflies.

To continue where I left … all doors and windows to all balconies were kept closed throughout the evening on Thursday and Friday morning saw us making frantic calls to people asking for help to get rid of these bees. One of these people reassured us that since the bees had been there only for a day so far, they had not really created the hive & would be easy to get rid of. This same good Samaritan suggested that we could get rid of the bees by creating a lot of smoke by burning saambhrani (or sambirani) dhoop over hot coal. So far, I had heard of the saambhrani being put to a totally different use. However, the fragrant saambhrani worked very well for us too and we were able to shift the hive from our balcony to a concrete overhanging slightly removed from it. That’s why I say … different strokes for different folks. :-)

Divine Devbagh ... Kaptivating Karwar

Our trip to Karwar was in the first week of December, 2007. Karwar is a small town in North-coastal Karnataka, about 300 kms from Mangalore & about 100 kms from Goa. To reach Karwar from Bangalore, we travelled by the Rani Chennamma Express and got down at Hubli. From Hubli you can hire a car or take the bus to go to Karwar. We had booked ourselves a place at the Devbagh Island Beach resort (a Jungle Lodges & Resorts property). After reaching Karwar, we reported at the forest office & they took us to the boat jetty from where we were taken to this island resort by a motorboat. On reaching the island we were taken by eco-friendly cars to the reception which is basically a loghut. We had booked a loghut for ourselves at the resort, to which we were taken soon after we checked in.

The view of the place that we got by the time we checked in was just great & our hearts pulled us towards the sea. But we were told that we had to go for lunch soon and then there were some water sports. So we freshened up and after a really sumptuous lunch, I lolled around on the hammock (oh yes, every hut has it’s personal hammock) with a P.J. Wodehouse in hand… read some, dreamed some – with eyes open & closed, while S went for a walk by the sea & played badminton with some other guests at the resort. :-)

3.30 p.m. we went for the water sports. There are quite a few options like kayaking, water-biking, motor boating and then there’s the banana boat. The banana boat looked like a lot of fun & a little scary too. It is basically a huge banana-shaped float on top of which people are made to sit. Then this float is pulled by a motor boat to some way down into the sea & the riders are dumped into the waters … of course, with their safety suits on. They are then helped back onto the float & brought back to shore. No, we didn’t go for a banana-boat ride but we did do some kayaking … which was really tough work, I tell you & then headed to the beach for a swim. We also planned to go snorkeling, along with another couple (A&M) who were also interested in snorkeling, the next morning (provided the sea & weather conditions were good, we were told).

After a dip in the sea, it was time to freshen up & get ready for a barbecue by the beach. It was extremely relaxing to just sit by the sea with a nice cool wind blowing, eating barbecued fish & chatting with A&M. A&M are very interesting people. We came to know that A was getting transferred out of the country. So they packed up at his last posting (which was Delhi), sent the kids ahead to their hometown (somewhere in Kerala) & were taking the road down from Delhi to Kerala & stopping at whichever place took their fancy. S suggested that they should go to Gokarna too & we learnt later from M, by e-mail, that they loved the beach at Gokarna too, though Karwar really was their favourite.

Next morning there was a planned nature walk at 7.00 a.m. It turned out that everyone was tired after the festivities the night before & only S & I turned up for the nature walk. But it was really worth it !!! Our nature guide took us around the island showing us the different flora & some fauna on the island. We also went to the point where the Kali river meets the Arabian Sea. After an hour long walk, we returned for breakfast, and also got to know from A&M that are snorkeling plans had been cancelled since the sea was very choppy. That was really sad but safety first & all that, so… We said goodbye to A&M & after breakfast went for a ride into the sea to see Dolphins. Well, yes it seems that the sea here has Dolphins too !!! And we did get to see a few, albeit fins only.

Now it was time for us to leave Devbagh Island & we did so with a longing to return. However our Karwar trip was hardly over. We went back to Karwar by boat where we visited the famous Rabindranath Tagore beach. It seems that when Tagore visited this place, he was so captivated by it that he wrote a poem dedicated to the place. Well, I would too, if I could … but Alas, I can’t write poetry. Karwar is also famous for its huge naval base & right on the Rabindranath Tagore beach is a War ship museum with a real ship kept on display. Sadly though, it was closed when we visited. So we took the bus back to Hubli from where we were scheduled to catch our train for Bangalore.

I can honestly say that this was my best and most relaxing holiday till date !!! Three cheers to Karwar & Devbagh Island Beach Resort.

Notes

• When hiring a car from Hubli be careful about the rates that the driver is offering you. They just “forget” to mention that they will charge you for the roundtrip although you will be travelling just one-way.
• The route from Hubli to Karwar, till the diversion towards Mangalore is also the route for trucks going towards Mangalore. So the trip takes longer than you might think.