Moments

A trip in Karnataka during monsoon is challenging with incessant rains, minor landslides and damaged roads. Last time we did something like this was a trip to Chikmanglur in 2018. This year we were determined to do it again, despite similar weather predictions. However it turns out completely different this time. Let's jump into the first leg of the trip in this blog - Sakleshpur. Sakleshpur is a hill town in the Western Ghats, famous for numerous coffee plantations. So the choice of stay is invariably inside a plantation. There are tons of choices with wide variety - from homestay to resorts and wide price ranges - from budget friendly to luxurious. Our destination this time was a lovely resort Rosetta by Ferns. It is located midway between Hassan and Sakleshpur. Ah! there is a back story on why we chose this place. Should I talk about it here? Probably a whole blog dedicated to the journey from Bangalore to Rosetta. Read it here . So back to the topic - Rosetta by Ferns Sakleshpu

 Travelling on Indian railways was an annual affair for me during my school days. And that became more frequent during college days before the onset of cheap airfares and proliferation of airports all across India. After relocating to Malaysia, flights became a norm and train journeys were becoming a nostalgic past to cherish. So this year's India vacation was dedicated to train journeys. Apart from Vande Bharat Express, high speed train and the latest fanfare of Indian Railways, we were going to take half a dozen trains this month. One amongst them is a tourist attraction called "Vista dome" coach. Vista dome coach is an Executive chair car with lot of fancy features added to uplift the travel experience. To start with, the chairs can rotate 180 degrees. So you can sit facing the way the train is going, or turn around completely to sit face to face with fellow travellers. Even better is that you can turn half way and sit facing the extra large glass windows and admire th

I was expecting my tenth birthday party to be celebrated hugely and lavishly like my sixth and ninth birthday. Soon I came to know that my birthday was during my … EXAMS. Many people in my school might not come and I couldn’t spend too much time on my birthday, as I had to study. Now in between all of that, my mom, who is currently studying masters, had exams too. That made it even harder to set up a huge birthday party. So I said to myself, “I already had great birthday parties before, It doesn’t matter. I am still having a birthday party regardless of whether it is big or small and birthday parties are not that important anyway.” Still I had my mind set that I wanted a pool party. Soon we arranged a pool party at our apartment, inviting three of my close friends. We ordered some snacks like brownies, tarts, pizzas and garlic bread. We ordered the cake from one of my mom’s friends. My father bought orange and mango juice as the drinks. Finally, in a few days time, came the day I was w

Do you find Jigsaw Puzzles interesting? Do you find it tough to solve? I’ll show you a few ways to make them easier and fun. Now imagine a thousand piece puzzle! Would you do it? Some of you will say yeah I’ll try, but some will say no way, that’s too hard.  This is my experience. When my mom went to classes that day, me and my father had nothing to do at home. That is when we decided to start this 1000 piece Disney Princess Jigsaw Puzzle. You might be thinking that is a crazy decision. I thought that at first too but I gave it a try. At first, I looked at the pieces and thought it was really really tough to solve but then my father taught me a few techniques that we could do. Sort out all the pieces by colour. By doing this later when you are searching for a piece, you can easily search for it in the groups according to the colour. Find the edge pieces and keep them aside Edge pieces are pieces that are on the outer edge of the puzzle. Then start sorting the edge pieces by colour. Sta