Bewildered

When you have started spending your weeks in one city and your weekends in another. When you know the " week" city has been your home for the last ten years and has shaped you in numerous ways.Yet when its the "weekend" city that starts to feel like home. Bewilderment sets in.

Yercaud

Another long weekend meant another getaway from the city. This time round the destination was Yercaud.Th quaint little town does not have too many touristy spots but is a good place for a weekend break. The best part about Yercaud was its recession friendly eating joints. Two places that we literally lived in were Akka's bajji joint by the lake and Selvams "chetty-nadu" center. Typo ridden hoardings apart, both places served the most awesome food. Till i set foot in Selvams, i never thought pongal and chicken would make a fab combo!

Another must see spot in Yercaud is GRT's Sky Rocca. The food there is no great shakes but their sky walk is. Located at the edge of the valley, the sky walk is literally a glass ramp into the valley. So when you walk onto it. You see the valley looming below you. After the initial "o my god is this glass gona shatter and am I gona plunge to my death" moments - the walk is fun. As usual the weekend seemed too short. We had to console ourselves that the next long weekend is not too far away.God bless long weekends !

Radio Ga-ga

With C and me looking to shift, I decided to take stock of things I should get rid of. My ancient radio was first on the list. Since I barely use it, I was contemplating sending it back home. There have been only two periods in my life when the radio was part of my daily life.

In the days when Doordarshan and AIR were our only sources of entertainment, if the weather permitted, we could get the Sri Lankan channels as well. One of the most popular programs on Radio Ceylon was the birthday special. If you wrote to them and were lucky the RJ woul read out birthday wishes from extended family - thatha, paati, mama, periamma and blah. Every year my grandparents would relgiously write into the program from Colombo and a very eager me would tune in from India. In the late eighties, that was considered the wonder of globalization. Over the years Radio Ceylon was replaced with Star TV and radio greetings were replaced with e-cards.

The only other period when radio ruled, was during my college hostel days. Stella Maris would not have been the same for me , if not for crazy friends and Rainbow FM. Dedicating terribly corny songs with ridiculous messages was a favourite activity in hostel. Rain or shine, exams or assignments - the half hour before dinner was always spent in the common room with the old rickety radio.

Now that I think about it, I probably wont get rid of my old radio :)