I put off writing this for a week now because frankly, it's been so long that I've been dealing with them that I am actually over it!!! But I am determined.. so here I go.

Early October (2012), I ordered a pair of earrings and a pendant from this shopping website called www.yepme.com. They were shipped to me in a week and while the pendant was okay, the earrings were slightly damaged. Since they don't let you open the package at the door, I couldn't send it back right away.


So, I gave them a call within a week's time after which I was directed to write to them instead.

Below are the thread of emails..

After getting no response to my emails at all, I tried contacting them on Twitter.


And my last resort was sending a message to their Facebook page..



And they gave me the silent treatment again.

Needless to say, I am still waiting for them to do something about it. But it seems to me that they just couldn't care less.

I had even posted a status update about it on Facebook and learnt that I could approach the consumer forum about this and I plan to. The reason I am all the more determined to fight them is because their lack of response is hugely disappointing. I would have appreciated it if they had atleast replied to my emails. An apology would have done no harm either.

Bad customer service lowers your faith in a brand. Even if they do send me a replacement now, the faith won't get restored. Not so soon, not so easily. I doubt I'll ever order from them again, however promising their policies might seem. And it goes without saying, I would never recommend buying from them.

Sometimes, we complicate things by thinking with our heads.. And other times, we associate our thoughts with who we are from the inside.

Came across this wonderful line while reading an answer on Quora. 

"If you identify with your mind as your self, you will be a very unhappy self" 

I wish I had found this when I needed it the most.. It would have saved me and someone I was associated with from a lot of pain. 

You are not your brain. And over analysis is useless.

After all, life is for living. 

day by day, as i sleep,
i close my eyes but i am wide awake,
the heavy heart doesn't let  me dream..
a prisoner for no faults of my own,
i carry nothing but love..
and yet i feel burdened..

but not anymore, not anymore..

Every once in a while, it's so important to switch off from life, from all the chatter in your mind..

I got reminded of it when, the other day, mom mentioned how relaxed she feels once she enters Parel.. It also reminded me of Reeti mentioning  a lot of times how all her worries fly away when she steps on the Matunga station platform.. (possibly because that's where some of her best memories were created.)

For me, it's the little loft in my house that shuts down my mind completely of all thought & worry.. I just have to go up there and I feel like I've escaped.. and it's not even like I have many memories there. It's just a small and cosy place which makes me feel so safe that I don't need anything else.

All that noise in my head silences when I go to the chai waala near my college as well.. it is one place we regularly went to everyday in the last few years of college.

Some people can switch off on their own, they don't need a place to go to.. I am still learning! :)

Want to switch off for good? Or atleast for thirty seconds right now? Go to http://www.make-everything-ok.com/ and push the magic button! That's my gift for you :)

Continued from here.

Today, I'll write about Mulki, where I stayed all throughout. Let me warn you- this is going to be a long one!!!

Mulki is a small town about an hour from Mangalore.. Lots of temples, fresh air, clean beaches, narrow lanes, bad roads and warm people.

On the first day, my uncle took me out for playing badminton in a proper court.. I also remember having 'chaat'. It's far different from the 'chaat' you get here but still better than what I used to put up with in Hyderabad!!

We used to go to Hejmadi beach in the evenings sometimes..

I loved coming here.. this reminds me of a really nice conversation I had with my uncle here.. we bonded really well.

And here's my click.. nice, eh? :)


This is my cousin Anagha (on the right) playing with her friend Vandita. I also like the couple sitting in the far end.. Just noticed them!

 Kids love posing for pictures.. :)

The bungalow there is huge and completed 100 years this year. I shot a lot of videos of the house and took many pictures too.



And like I mentioned before... spent loads & loads of time with Anagha.. I love her!





And that's her mom i.e. my aunt



Anagha & Aniruddh on their scouts day:



Food in Mangalore is mostly cooked in coconut oil but surprisingly, tastes better than it does here. Maybe the quality of oil there is better. There is something called "Charmura Upkeri" which I took a liking to. "Charmura" is basically "Kurmura" or "Mamra" :


So, this dish is like "bhel" but made very differently. You won't get the exact recipe or image if you google it. You *have* to go to Mulki/Mangalore to eat it.. or just follow this recipe (I asked how it is prepared): You mix a lot of "Mamra" with pure coconut oil, chilly powder and saambhaar powder. Then add chopped onion, fine pieces of "kairi"/raw mango, chopped tomatoes (but not a lot of them else it'll become soggy) and salt to taste. If any of you do happen to prepare it, let me know how it tasted :) And if you don't know where to get pure coconut oil, go to one of those Ram Dev Baba/Patanjali stores and you'll find it there!

I miss my aunt's cooking there.. she used to come up with new dishes everyday..

One strange thing I found out was that cheese is very difficult to find there. Someone I know loves cheese chilly toast and I had learnt how to make it a long time ago. Each time I make it, it just gets better and better (atleast that's what I think!!) and I wanted to make it for them. But I couldn't find cheese in the whole of Mulki. I didn't think cheese to be so rare.. Finally, when we went to Udipi, I happened to find it in one of the  supermarkets. My cousin Aniruddh loved what I made but I don't know about the others :/

There is also one more thing that I love getting from Mangalore -- and those are sweet potato chips. I am really very fond of those and you don't get it anywhere except for Mangalore. If you ask for sweet potato chips anywhere else, they'll give you tapioca and tell you that sweet potato & tapioca are one and the same. But tapioca and sweet potato are far far different in taste and also in the way they look (sweet potato chips are deeper in colour & have more oil than tapioca). I loooooveee sweet potato chips and each time someone goes to Mangalore, I order packets of those. So if you happen to go there, be sure to look for sweet potato chips or "Kananga Kachri" (Konkani).

There is also a small hotel there that resembles the Malgudi Days hotel.. My uncle and I went for breakfast there once..

This is how it looks from the outside..

Shabby exterior but real good food inside :D



People wondered why I was taking snaps of the place.. :D

There is also a famous dhaba there where you get Punjabi / North Indian cuisine. It's called Bittoo Da Dhaba. We went there on the last day of my trip.

This is my uncle and me:



Coming to the main purpose of this trip..

My mother had asked me to go see her uncle (her only uncle alive) who lives there. Her mother (my 'granny' or 'nani') passed away before she could get married and hence, none of us got to see her. My nani's brothers had all passed away except for this one.

It was real nice meeting him..


Okay I know I looked really tired.. this was my first day there.

I asked my aunt (his daughter-in-law) whether he would remember me. The last time I had been there was when I was only five. To that, she said- he remembers everything. He remembers all the birthdays, all the phone numbers - of all the relatives and friends. 24 hours of a day aren't enough for him, she added. He makes his own tea early in the morning around 5 a.m., goes back to sleep for a couple of hours, wakes up for breakfast, calls people to wish them on their birthdays, passionately follows cricket on TV, naps after lunch, goes out for a walk, talks to everyone in the village.. he is a very busy person, she said.

I took a lot of videos around the house..

Won't put up all of them but this one is a bit special :


(In the video, he is actually singing a Kannada song that tells the story of Krishna & Kanakadas (the one I had narrated in the previous part of this travelogue). And I am telling him in Konkani that I don't follow Kannada.)

Loved my stay in Mulki .. and my grandpa was all the more happy..

Soon after I returned home though, in a couple of weeks, my only grandfather alive collapsed of brain haemorrhage and was in coma for two weeks till he finally breathed his last. :(When he was in a coma, I had asked my mother to call uncle up and tell him to play light music (grandpa's favourite songs) around him. I had read somewhere that music heals people when nothing else does.. but somehow it skipped our minds. Whenever uncle called, we discussed grandpa's health but we forgot to tell him this. I regret not remembering to tell him.. :( I am glad though that I went there. I had written in the first part of my travelogue how I was almost going to change my plans of going there but now I am glad..  May his soul rest in peace.

Continued from here.

Today, I'll write a bit about Udupi. Udupi is a town about an hour from Mangalore.

It is very well known for the Krishna Mutt (Krishna Temple) where my aunt wanted to take me. Shri Madhavacharya (a Vaishnav saint) founded this temple and it is known throughout the world for its rich customs.

It is different from ALL other temples and places of worship. In temples/churches, the idol always faces the entrance of the temple but here, the Krishna idol has its back faced to the entrance. There is a fascinating story associated with this.. My aunt had told me of it before she could take me there. There was a famous poet in Karnataka called Kanakadas. He would compose poems and songs in Kannada. He had written many songs in praise of Lord Krishna but he was never allowed to enter this temple as he belonged to a lower caste. There was a small window at the back of the temple through which you could see Krishna's back. Kanakadas decided to stand near this window and he would sing all those songs here. Touched by his devotion, Krishna turned to see out of the window, thus giving Kanakadas the darshan he longed for.. God does not differentiate.

Lord Krishna still stands facing this window and the window is now called "Kanakana Kindi".

Everyone has to go around the temple to the back to see Krishna from the small window. There is a wonderful aura that resonates throughout the temple and there is this particular Hanuman statue inside that makes wishes come true.. I made a wish there :P

Even though I am not very religious, the story gave me chills and I chose a small Krishna statue from one of the stores outside that my aunt purchased for me:


It resides in our home mandir now, along with the other Gods:



The Krishna Mutt offers meals to all those who come there.. we had lunch here too.

Though we were not allowed to take photographs inside the main temple, I took some in the temple surroundings..

Loved these rangolis.. they are so neatly done!!!



A small lake outside the temple :


Spotted many fish and tortoises inside this lake..

This is one of the chariots ("ratha") that is used during big festivals/processions. The God is carried in these chariots.


There was also a chariot fully made of gold but it was enclosed in such a way that I could not take pictures of it.

We returned to Mulki the same evening.. will write about Mulki next!

sometimes, you have to let people go..
you have to give them space to get away from you,
to be themselves..
even if for a while.

but we still like to cling on to the familiar because the unknown is unfamiliar,
and unfamiliar is scary!

i guess that's where faith comes in the picture.
faith that the unfamiliar is okay, it's what's best for us..

i don't know a lot about how to get that sort of faith.. but being more in the present moment by putting my life into things works for me and i can say i'm seeing some progress :)

right now, i am just realising the importance of letting go..

got reminded of something that Izabela said about a month ago :
"Think of your life as a table with ten chairs around it. There is no place for your true friends to come and sit because these chairs are already occupied by other people."

It makes a lot of sense.. the people who are truly meant for you won't be able to enter your life till the time the old ones don't leave.

it's very difficult to keep generating that sort of power (faith) in you so that you may dare to tread into the future.. but it is certainly not impossible.. (believing so is working at the moment so don't ruin it for me :D)

-- So long from the philosophical me.. will continue with my Mangalore travelogue next!!

i want to keep meeting you,
day after day..

i want to look forward to more conversations,
more smiles, and more love..

i want to grow with you,
and add beauty to the world..

the beauty that we generate
in between the conversations,
in between the laughs,
in between the moments,
when we are unaware..

so much love,
pure intention,
beauty, peace & happiness..

oh what we'll bring to the world!!

it'll truly be magical <3>

Continued from here

Next, we headed to Karkala from Moodabidri to see the second largest Bahubali statue (in Karnataka) which is located there. The tallest Bahubali statue in Karnataka is at Shravanabelagola.

So let me tell  you a little about Lord Bahubali.

Bharat, Bahubali's elder brother, wanted to take over Bahubali's kingdom for its immense wealth so he decided to attack the kingdom. But when the ministers of both the kingdoms gave this a thought, they decided to hold a contest between the two brothers instead of a war between the two kingdoms as the latter suffered the risk of many innocent lives getting killed.

So, the contest began and Bharat was the first one to attack. He hit Bahubali hard and then, when it was Bahubali's turn, he raised his hand to hit Bharat but mid-way, realised that he was going to attack his own brother over materialistic possessions such as wealth and land. So, changing direction, he started pulling out his own hair with the hand and decided to live a life free of all worldly possessions henceforth. Bharat too realised his mistake and after ruling for a few years, joined Lord Rishabdev as a solitary renunciant.

These are the steps leading to the temple/statue:


A short/alternate path (without steps.. it's a direct upwards slope). I am not too much of a risk-taker in these matters yet I decided to take this route ;)


 This statue is carved from a single rock and is 42 feet tall (second largest in Karnataka) while the largest one in Karnataka is 57 feet tall.




The Tīrthaṅkaras.



 
And look what I found on the way back :)


 We stopped at a small lake before finally heading homewards :

Continued from here.

So, like I said, we travelled to a lot of places from Mulki. And the first of them was Moodabidri.

Moodabidri is a Jain populated place and it has a lot of Jain temples, schools and community centres. Saavira Kambada Basadi is one such Jain temple renowned for it's structure.

"Saavira" means 1000 in Kannada, "Kambada" means "pillar" and "Basadi" means "temple". So, it's a temple that has 1000 pillars.

No pillar is similar to the other i.e. all of these pillars are unique and they have been placed with the help of elephants alone.



The fact sheet outside the temple also said there are 1000 pillars but I didn't think there were as many. 

(You may open the image in a new window and zoom to read the entire script.)

Then again, I didn't count but it didn't seem like there were so many!!


If you look closely, you will find that all these pillars are different from one another.

The ceiling was done up very well too..

And that's my sister Anagha :)



Our next destination was also a Jain place of worship in Karkala, a little away from Moodabidri.. Will cover that shortly :)