2012 - Year of Thanks Giving

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.                                                                                      (Psalm 100:4)

Yesterday, when Pastor asked Ani to thank GOD, for two blessings in 2012, before the whole church, she had a tough time to prioritize it from the extremely big list we had. For a normal person, she might have looked like a crowd fearing lady (Those who know her will not be having this impression anyway). But I was happy to see her confused and, I really knew why. 

That is the reason why I gave this post heading as ‘2012 – Year of Thanks Giving’. Spiritually / personally / financially / Professionally, HE gave us a great year, betterment in all areas of our life. It will be a great wrong part, if I am not glorifying HIS blessings now. 

I’ve been in between a large number of people, who had their own views about life. I had a view about myself. But realized that it’s not our views that makes the life a blessing, but aligning with Jesus views, makes that big difference. Learned that golden fact that I cannot go with the rule of the world, but with the rule of God’s kingdom, which are quite opposite (and strange) what the world has. That was the greatest blessing for me this year.

There happened an interesting instance last week, which helped to realize one of HIS blessings. Now it is the time for proof submissions for tax benefits. We were discussing in office, about different ways to avail tax benefits and I saw one of my colleagues with much happiness on his face when it came to the medical bills. Why because he had a huge medical bill to submit this year (He survived from a major accident). 

I did not have any medical bills. But my heart was so happy to give all the tax to the government, because my LORD protected me & my family from those kind of situations. Is that the tax you save makes you happy or the blessings? For me it’s surely his love & care…

Beautiful fellowships / relationships, promotions, recognition's  cars, international trip, forgiveness, support and for whole lot of other reasons that I cannot even count, I THANK MY LORD JESUS for a wonderful 2012…

A note for my dear ones:

If I have hurt you some way, knowingly or unknowingly, I ask for your forgiveness. God forgave me a lot of times. I would have done the same to my dear ones…

Have a blessed & fantastic year ahead!

- Anoop

The Highway Tea Stall

Yesterday we completed the 7th trip (Bangalore > Kerala, Kerala > Bangalore) in our car. 5 months and it   carried us 10,000+ kilometers. 

It takes 10 hours (if the traffic doesn't come in between) for one side journey. 80-100 kmph is my speed. I cannot go (I don't want to) beyond 100 kmph, as I have a highly efficient speed control system inside the car, which is even better than Meru cabs have implemented till date - that's MY WIFE. Screams badly when the needle goes a bit beyond hundred :)

As I have to drive continuously for hours, it makes me bit sleepy at times, which calls for a 5 minute stop to relax and have a tea. 

This time, the stop was at a small tea shop (somewhere) in Tamil Nadu. There was a good space to park the car safely and a good scenery on the other side of the road, mountains :)

The Tea Shop Owner

There is a specialty which I like about these kind of shops. There will not be any waiting time after placing the order. They are tea making professionals. Just give them the requirements (Ultra strong, medium sugar and burning hot...) and by the time you close the mouth, you will have it. Drink it and jump on to the driving seat and soar to 100 kmph.

Clicked this pic, when I took the cam out to capture the mountain landscape on the other side. His mother was eagerly looking on to the camera, that I clicked this pic and showed to her. Would have seen the happiness on her face. And the boy was with all smiles. 

Was that the reason the tea tasted special? :) 

It was indeed a refreshing stop. Both the tea & the smiles...

Western Ghats - When stories take Life

There is something called an experience along with learning. If you are able to see what you learn from the text books, then there is a larger chance to remember it, with out much pain.

I learned about Western Ghats, when I was in the 6th or 7th standard (If I am not wrong), in Geography class. For me those chain of mountains was only a picture from the school text books. I just learned it. Never believed that it brought rain to Kerala and it runs to a distance of 1600 km, through the coastal line of Kerala, was like a fairy tale chapter. In-fact, I never believed its existence. 

For me, in school days, never got a chance to travel outside Kerala. And so even Palakkad was an American state for me. 

But as the days went on, I started travelling and all those fairy tale chapters started getting its life. Most prominent one is the live knowledge about the Western Ghats.

Now each and every journey with Ani, in car, from Thrissur to Bangalore (NH 47), is like running through my geography text books.

It was interesting fact for me to know that the Palakkad Gap, which I have seen only in text books really exist and we travel through that gap to Coimbatore en-route to Bangalore. Palakkad Gap acts as a corridor between the two States by linking Palakkad District of Kerala with Coimbatore District of Tamil Nadu, and has served as a vital part of the important trade route between the East and West coasts of peninsular India since ancient times.

Even I did not realize the importance of Palakkad Fort until last year. While I was working in Palakkad, I thought, it was built to show the power of the king, who ruled that area. But it was not. Palakkad Fort, stands as a reminder of the strategic importance the gap once had as a gateway to Kerala for would be invaders from the other side of the Ghats.

And rest of the stories, each and every child know - How it brings monsoon and all.

Never captured that mountain chain before. But this time, I decided to get help from Ani this time. And she clicked some snaps and it found a way to my blog below.

Few more clicks of mountains on the way. But am less sure about their geographical existence, but the views were stunning.  

A wonderful design of GOD.

Kodak Six 20 Brownie D

Never noticed this antique piece before. This time Ani took it out and daddy demonstrated how to take a pic in it. The camera film is not (Kodak 620 roll, Box roll film) available now, but daddy has kept a wax paper  on the film mount, which projects the image, when clicked.

Unlike this age cameras, the functionality is very simple. I was amazed by the technological improvement while looking at that camera. A small box will a couple of lens and view finders. And there is an option to adjust the ISO for night and day. That was really amazing. Can take six pics from a roll of film.

The top view finder is to take vertical pictures, while the right side one for horizontal layout. 

Then Ani's grandma told me that grandpa was very much interested in photography. There was even a dark room in that house. He clicks and wash the film. 

There's an album with all the pics he clicked on those days. Must say he is too awesome to be a photographer.

Below are few pics I clicked:

Front View

With the Film Case out

Back View

And when searched for this model in Google, I got some interesting facts about it.

Manual Shot 1

Manual Shot 2

The Cherai Beach

Cherai beach - It is a place of wonderful college memories.

I remember, during college days, visiting this place with my college friends, at 2 in the morning.  In four bikes we travelled from CUSAT campus, and rested on the newly constructed foot path, listening to the voice of the waves. Luckily, the patrolling police did not find us. Other wise we would have been caught for suspicious gathering. Thank God. 

I used to share these college days stories with Ani and she wanted to visit this place. In-fact,  I never taken her to Cochin before. 

We went for the morning service to Corner Stone church, Vytilla. After the service we went to Marin Drive Cochin. Had an ice cream from a shop there and we strolled for sometime through the walkway. Old memories came into my mind like a soft breeze. I shared some with Ani and laughed over those incidents. It was a wonderful moment.

Our next destination was +Seematti Silks. It was one of the places we had in our travel plan. Spent some time in shopping there and started off to Mattanchery and then we realized that our plan will not workout due to heavy traffic. And it's pathetic than Bangalore. Cochi changed a lot.

We shifted our directions to cherai beach then.

Cherai area was flooded with people than we expected. There was some inauguration ceremony going to happen and whole are was occupied by tourists and police. Vehicles were heavily clogged that we couldn't take the main road back home and we were forced to take the Munambam route. But that became a blessing route for us. 

The route was awesome. As we moved on we could find calm and quite place where we could get down and click a couple of snaps.

In between the pine trees

Ani's Hand. A Macro Shot

Munambam has various home stays. For foreigners, that would be a heaven, to indulge in the local culture and delicacies. And few kilometers down the bridge, we could see Chinese fishing nets ready for action. And the view of docked fishing boats were a real visual treat for the eyes.

It is around 5 and half years since I visited Cochin. It has changed a lot, but the memories remains the same...