Rewind 2014

Coming from 2013, this has been a fast year...a very fast one indeed :)

2014 has been exciting in more than one ways for me and I personally am ending it on a high and very well looking forward to 2015.

January - A start to the year with a visit to my personally favorite destination, Dandeli. A solo trip and a nice meet up with some wonderful travel bloggers. Another trip back our favorite jaunt, this time with the group and the year starts with a bang with a much cherished sighting of the Great Hornbill, something that I was waiting for years.

February - A special day when your blog is recognized as the 'best travel blog' by BlogAdda here. Bird survey at Melagiris and a much awaited visit to the Seethanadi camp kept be busy through the month.

March - Awed by the sight of congregation of more than 5000 Bar headed Geese at Magadi lake, Gadag... a conservation success story indeed. Bird estimate in Nilgiris (around Mukurthi) and some fine birding there at Ooty.

April - June - dry months for the year... probably a first time witnessed such a lean period due to hectic work schedules.

July - A long pending trip to the heaven, Kashmir/Ladakh, courtesy Amith, the traveler and a wish fulfilled and a dream accomplished... way to go!
After the Adda award, a quick weekend to Goa to test drive the new Tata Zest as a top blogger, an event where I met a lot of awesome bloggers from different worlds.

Aug-Sep - 2nd set of dry months for the year... well...!

Oct-Nov - the volunteering work started in full force... volunteering for crowd/traffic management at Bandipur during Dasara/Deepawali and jaathre (temple fair) times, lots of appreciation and new learnings.

Dec - Closing the year with yet again a trip to our favorite jaunt, the Old Magazine House at Ganeshgudi.

Been a hectic and a fast paced year that had a lot of challenges for me and ending the year on a high with an apt change in the professional life and looking forward to 2015 with a lot of plans and hopes.

Being true to self, blogging took a backseat and I appreciate all the readers/followers who have steadfast been with me, trust and hope will be posting more content on regularity henceforth :)

Three Cheers!

A Spooked tale... SoakNoMore

SoakNoMore

The day I got an email stating registrations are open for the SoakNoMore Surf Excel Matic Indimeet in Bengaluru. I was waiting for this for long and without a second thought I registered myself to attend the event. I was skeptical about attending but nevertheless didn’t want to miss the opportunity to be part of such a huge gathering.

Excitement was the order of the day and nightfall arrived rapidly as if saying ‘enough of your excitement, let’s end the day’! My mind was still occupied with the thoughts of SoakNoMore Indimeet. I was amazed to see so many people with me seated in a corner trying to hide from the MC and the camera flash lights… the person seated in front of me turned around and I could see a monstrous hideous face staring at me! Shivering, I forced myself away to see a green, creepy, slimy thing making its way towards me from the side. The shivering increased and now sweating profusely, I stood up and waved to the MC, all that I could see was a bug like thing with long antennae and spiny skin coming towards me! All that I could hear were them yelling “SkNmr” at me…! I shrieked at the top of my voice and woke up alarmed with a noise! Panting heavily, I was relieved when I realized it was a dream… a scary one!

Next night, the same events recurred and the monstrous, hideous things coming towards me yelling “SkNmr”, “SkNmr” and I capsized in the place where I was seated. I shouted at the top of my voice till a hand fell on my shoulder – I turned around gripping in fear only to realize it was my mom inquiring about me. Pretending a bad dream, I went back to sleep.

Days were moving faster and the nightmares were recurring more often and I could see all sorts of creatures yelling at me and I was losing sleep everyday. I still remember that afternoon at office, after a heavy lunch and with ‘want-of-sleep’ eyes, I just dozed off while sitting in my workplace.

I sensed some movement through the corner of my eyes; I turned slowly in that direction to see a slimy, horrific creature peeping out from my back! As our eyes met, “SkNmr”, “SkNmr” was the only thing it yelled at me as if in protest. I gave it a whack to dislodge it from my shoulder and send it hurtling far away. Relieved just for a second, I saw another one peeping from my trouser pocket and yelling “SkNmr”, “SkNmr” at me! I punched it hard till if fell of my trousers and squashed it under my boots. With a tired evil grin, I looked around in disgust to see a huge, filthy, spiky creature on the collar of my colleague seated beside me yelling “SkNmr”, “SkNmr” at me! Feeling dizzy, I woke up and with a loud shriek gave a hard slap with my book on to his neck. Taken aback by violent shaking, I opened my eyes to see quizzical faces around me asking ‘What was the reason for that hard slap’! Somehow, I survived that day!

The d-day arrived; I finally took part in the SoakNoMore Surf Excel Matic Indimeet in Bengaluru. Had a good time interacting with lot of bloggers, playing games and talking about our writing! I saw lot of large posters of the SoakNoMore and the new product on it. The representative from Surf spoke in length about the new product of Surf Excel Matic where in you need not soak the clothes prior to washing with the use of the new detergent powder. I rode back home satisfied and happy to have been part of the meet with my gift hamper.

A slight movement on my arms woke me and I just spanked on it thinking to be a mosquito. Continuous movements kept me disturbed and finally made me open my sore, sleepy eyes. With my eyeballs popping out in horror, the creature was crawling up on me. I looked in disgust to see multiples of them on my legs, knees, bed, my jacket hung on the door, the dump of clothes kept aside for washing, my bag on the table, on the window and door curtains, literally everywhere in the room! I could hear all of them mumbling “SkNmr”, “SkNmr” and advancing menacingly towards me. Holding my head, I was about to yell at the top of my voice but I sensed a pat on my back. Surprised, I turned to find the MC telling me “SoakNoMore – no more soaking before washing”. It stuck me that all these days what I was hearing to was the same – “SkNmr – SoakNoMore”. I turned around to find no creepies or crawlies around and everything looked normal as always. Then, I realized what were those creatures trying to tell me all these days from the time I registered for the event – “No more soaking”. I laughed hysterically as my eyes fell on the new box of SurfExcel Matic with Vibarting Molecules sitting in the corner. Murmuring SoakNoMore, I went to sleep – a happy and relieved man!

This article has been written for the contest 'Soak No More' on IndiBlogger.