Today morning I had a panic attack. I was done with packing for the last leg of the journey, and suddenly realized that my id-card (in this case, the PAN card), was not where it should be, that is, with the return ticket. I looked around trying to rack my brain as to where it could be hidden That is the one problem with people who are well organised (like me, of course). You are so much in the habit of putting things away exactly where they ought to be that when anything goes missing you are baffled and clueless as to where to look for the missing object.
My first impulse was to walk over to my gracious hostess, who is also a much admired fellow blogger, and share my panic with her. But I rightly realized that would do no good at all. How would she know where my PAN card could be?! So instead, I racked my brain some more, when it came upon me in a flash. Of course it would be with the ticket that started this whole journey. Sure enough it was.
Now, wait a minute!
Why am I talking about the ‘last leg’ of the trip and ‘return’ tickets? That’s not how travel stories go, or blogs about them for that matter. They usually start right at the beginning and move towards the end. But then let me ask the question I am famous notorious for. “Says who??” I mean, why the heck should everything start at the beginning and move towards the end? Catch Shail doing what everybody else does anyways. So, as of now, the end is what you get first with the beginning coming later or wherever.
Today morning, I bid adieu to my gracious hostess cum blogger friend, and her wonderful children, after having spent a lovely week with them. Can you guess who this blogger friend is? Many of you already know who I am talking about. If not, this picture of myself with Gabbar Singh and Miss Mutt should reveal all.
Here is one of Sher Khan all by himself; he refused to pose with me. Now, that I must say is a cat with an attitude!
Thank you dear blogger friend for the warmth with which I was received and looked after, the fine food and the affection showered. I enjoyed every minute of my stay with you, your children and of course your cho chweet pets! It made my day (or should that be week?) to have met you and spent time with you.
I have now flown back home achoo-ing all the way. Yup, I have a severe cold and infected throat. But what does that matter when Luci received me thus?!
So see you all on the other side of the achoo-s and sore throat (and also a mild temperature) which is when I shall relate the rest of the story of a bloggers meet with a difference.
IHM (in her phototblog) had tagged me some time back to write about the photographic equipment I use. It all started with a Facebook conversation with Hrishi, who by the way has already done his post (link). So, yes I am pretty late coming up with mine. These days all I can think of is A, B, C, D and so on. I have reached the letter L (link). Nope; I am not back in nursery revising alphabets all over again. I am a participant in the A to Z challenge April 2013, or rather my photo blog Shots and Captures is. When I signed up, what I was actually looking for was an easy way out. Thoughts of writing a post a day sounded quite a difficult proposition, April being a busy month, but how difficult could it be to post a picture daily, was my reckoning. I hadn’t factored in the visiting/commenting on other participants’ posts I had to do, plus the surge in visitors to my own blog and the resultant catering to the comments on home base as well. I have been running around doing my duties diligently and so have been inadvertently neglecting my main blog due to lack of time. But I certainly am not complaining any. The photo blog which did not have many visitors other than a few regulars has picked up and has a wider audience as of now.
Getting back to the tag, here goes.
My first digital camera was a point-and-shoot one, Sony Cybershot W-150, a gift from the First Born It has been my constant companion, going with me wherever I went. In fact seeing the many pictures that made it to the Facebook wall, mostly of kittens and also of the Most Photographed Dog in the World aka Luci, quite a few have asked me if I walked around with camera in hand all the time. Well, maybe not in hand, but it was always kept handy, where I could reach it at short notice. One never knows when the dog or kitten decides to strike funny poses, does one?
I had almost decided this was it; this was going to be my camera till the end of time (mine, I mean). I was not getting any younger. My already bad eyes were deteriorating. Probably my hands were not going to be steady either. Hence, though I longed to have a DSLR, I never gave it serious thought. It was just a wish, a dream, and we all have a few of those in our lives, dreams that remain just dreams and are somehow never meant to change their status quo. The DSLR was firmly ensconced among those sort of dreams.
What changed? I don’t know. Perhaps I felt reckless. What the hell, why am I not doing something I like/want? I have never been one to spend money on jewellery or gold. What a colossal waste. I don’t remember when I last bought something of the sort. I wouldn’t even accept any blings if you gave it to me free of cost. But here was one thing I longed to have, a DSLR. So why ever not? Once decided, I let it be known to the L & M that I was in the market for a DSLR. After extensive research (by me and a lot of chitchat back and forth with IHM), and also taking into consideration such things as the strength of my arms (tennis elbow!) as also the amount I had stashed away in the coffers (yes I bought it with my savings), I homed in on Nikon D5100, an entry level DSLR. Well, as far as I am concerned it is entry and exit level too. Anyways…
Along with the Nikon D5100, which I got via Flipkart (I love Flipkart), came the AF-S 18-55mm VR Kit Lens. I knew I could not do any zooming with it, so no bird photography or anything of the sort could with this one. I needed new telephoto lens. I am not someone who hesitates in cleaning the coffers out if she has set her mind on getting something. But all decisions at our home are discussed with each other. Hence I put the matter up to the L & M and he (in a surprise move) very magnanimously offered to get me the new lens I had decided upon. So I gently shut the doors of my personal treasury close, for use some other day, for an equally exciting project. Back I went to Flipkart and got myself the Nikon AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor 55-200 mm f/4-5.6G IF-ED Lens. The weight was a factor for choosing it. With it in hand I feel complete (like the Raymond Man).
Well, it is impossible to lug around the DSLR everywhere. So my Sony Cybershot W-150 still gets to go around with me in my smaller handbag/clutch purse. Other things I use to take pictures include my iPod for the ease with which I can post it to FB. The same goes for my android phone, Samsung Ace. Well, that sums up the tools of photography that I use. I don’t intend buying any more lens right now. But I have my eyes set on some prime lens. But that is for the future when spring returns to the money tree in the backyard, I can harvest its fruits and fill the coffers to capacity once again. I am in no hurry right now. If you are an amateur photographer (even of your aren’t) and would like to tag yourself, please do so. You don’t have to write Ramayan or Mahabharat like I’ve done, and can stick to posting just the pictures of your camera, lens and stuff with the names and all. I have a request to Ramprasad of Ram’s Photo Blog, to be kind enough to please take up the tag.
If you have been in Bali for even a few days and have been asking people their names, there is something curious you will notice. The names Wayang, Made, Nyoman and Ketut seem to be repeating themselves endlessly. The mystery was cleared up when someone was kind enough to explain to us the intricacies of Balinese naming. Well it is quite simple actually: all Balinese name their first child Wayang, the second as Made (pronounced Ma-dey), the third as Nyoman and the fourth as Ketut.
Smart people, I say. With their unique way they have simplified the issue of naming children. Imagine the hours parents of newborns spend trying to decide on a name for their offspring. With grandparents, friends and sundry relatives, sometimes strangers too, trying to be unhelpful with suggestions, homing in on a single accepted name turns into a totally difficult proposition. MILs use the opportunity for power games, wanting to show DILs who the real boss is. But no such calamity arises in a Balinese household. The accident of birth order decides what a child’s name will be. (Read about what else plays a role in Balinese naming here)
Now that naturally brought up the question of what happens when there is a fifth child, and a sixth, a seventh…. It seems the Balinese simply start all over again. So the fifth child becomes Wayan, the sixth Made and so on. Imagine a huge family of a dozen or so children?! There will be up to three children with the same name in that household, not to mention Uncles, Aunts, Father, Mother, Grandparents, neighbours, friends who will all be, a Wayan, a Made, a Nyoman or a Ketut too. Cool, huh? Oh, by the way, according to the Balinese way of naming I am Wayan. What about you all? What’s YOUR Balinese name? Do tell me in your comments.
The last day of our holiday started as usual with a sumptuous breakfast at Batu Kali. Our destination for the day was Tanjung (Cape) Benoa. Before tourism took over, Benoa used to be just a fishing village. Now it is a place for all sorts of water sports: water-skiing, banana-boat rides, fishing, snorkeling paragliding, scuba diving, you name it, they have it. None of us oldies were fit enough for the water sports. So we gave it all a go by and decided on a boat trip to the nearby Turtle Island.
Waiting for the BIL and sis to make an appearance after keeping away valuables in a locker, strike me pink if I did not hear someone humming, “Tum paas aaye” from the Shahrukh Khan-starrer Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. It was the supervisor in charge of the place. Of course, he said in answer to my query, who in Bali does not know the song?! In the hours to come this was once again brought home to us pretty forcefully.
Anyways, off we went in a glass bottom boat to the Turtle Island. There weren’t too many fish to see. And frankly, the Turtle Farm was nothing to write home about either. They had a few turtles in a pen which the tourists could feed and hold for pictures. There were a few other animals and birds, not too happy ones at that I felt. But what made up for all this was the young man who acted as our guide. He was an authority on, you guessed it, Bollywood movies and, especially the blockbuster, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.
“Kajol!” he called out to me, walking ahead. “Come here, Kajol!” Excuse me. WHAT was that? Surely he was not addressing me, was he? “Yes, you, Kajol, come here. Hold this turtle!” he ordered with a straight face. Cheeky, if you please and funny, and also a chatterbox to boot, that’s what our guide was. For the duration of our visit, he insisted on addressing me as Kajol and my sis as Preity Zinta. Not that we resembled the actors in any way. It was just his way of having some fun at our expense. He made us laugh quite a lot with his cheeky humor the whole time we were on the island.
He tried to persuade me to hold a turtle. I had watched my sis and BIL hold one in turns and even clicked their pictures. That was enough for me. But now all of them insisted that I hold a turtle as well. Can you believe it, when I took the very same one in my hands, it started flapping its legs and beating me! I almost expected it to turn around and bite me, so annoyed did it seem as it frantically waved its legs. Why me?What did I do? I wanted to wail to the turtle. After having a good laugh at my expense, Wayan (yeah, he being a first born and all) came and rescued the turtle before I dropped it on the ground and posed for a photo.
There was iguana, snake, bat etc at the place that tourists could handle if they so wished. Catch me going anywhere near an iguana or snake. The brave BIL held an iguana and the sis a bat. All I chose to do was to go into the hornbill’s enclosure and say hello from a reasonably safe distance. That was it. There were some sad looking lovebirds. There was nothing more to Turtle Farm. But the view of the sea and sky on your ride to and from Benoa and the beach itself made up for all else.
We had given ourselves over to Arjun, our driver, to decide where to go. We found ourselves next in a place where there were two churches (Catholic and Protestant), a mosque, Buddhist and Hindu temples in a row. Five places of worship of different faiths. It seemed incredible. I know there are a lot of places where temple and mosque or church exist cheek by jowl and that is probably by accident. But here all the places of worship seem to have been built with the objective of having them together, side by side, in a row. The architecture was also interesting, especially that of the mosque, so different from what you normally expect.
Here are the pictures of the day made into a video on youtube.
It was a really warm day. The sun was too bright and hot. We longed to get back indoors. Since it was lunch time, we made for Sri Gangga restaurant near Jimbaran bay, famous for its seafood, the place we had given the go by the first day of our visit because we weren’t hungry enough. In the video posted above, you will find pictures of the drinks we had, the soup even, but none of the main course. It was too yummy that it made its way into our tummies before thoughts of clicking it could enter the head.
Just as we finished our lunch, the three men band arrived and sang a song for us. Then they asked us where we were from. Oh India? Yeah, yeah! India! And guess what followed? They started singing the all time Bali favourite, Tum paas aaye from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. Thankfully, I remembered my camera then and recorded it. That’s my sister you will see dancing and if you hear someone singing off-key towards the end that would be yours truly.
Our evening was spent walking the streets and soaking up the feel of the place for the last time. We also watched a fire dance performance at a restaurant and had dinner at a small place nearby. All good things have to come to an end. So did our holiday. The next morning we took the Air Asia flight out of Bali.
Do I wish to go back to Bali? The answer is an emphatic YES. It is a beautiful place. There is much more to see and enjoy. I’d definitely like to go back some day and soak in more of its ambiance.
The average Keralite’s lunch is never complete without rice, fish curry and some vegetable or other prepared with spices and scraped coconut that goes by the name of ‘thoran.’
