aa a appam ayyyaaa i-pod

hey....ennappa ennoda promise kaapathalannu ellarum enna vaayyaRadhu kekkudhu.....!
ok....here i go with the post of last week...konjam delay...adjust pannikkonga...! ;)

sundal, appam,kozhukattai ellam endha pilayar chathurthi'kku saaputu iruppenga'nnu nenaikuren...sari..sari.....vetta vittu irukkara makkal kovichukadheenga....neenga ellam edho neengalave saiya try panni iruppenga'nu nenaikuren... try pannalainalum parava illai....

nethu vandha chathurthi'dhan...naan, ennoda husband'um first first oru function avaanga amma/appa kooda koNdaadi irukkom....was really nice... :)

chathurthi anikku ennoda purushan'oda friend veetula grahapraveesham function irundhudhu...adhunalla naangalam seekirama ezhudhuruchu poojai mudhichu kiLambi poga veeNdi irundhudhu...

naan seekiramave ezhundhu'ttenu sollalama.....;) !! aamam thinam 7 maani'kku ezhudhureekura ennakku 5 mani seekiram 'dhane...aaana avaanga amma 3:30 mani 'kke ezhundhiruchuttanga'karadha naan sollithan aaganum...paavam romba seekirame ezhundhiruchu velai pannikittu irundhanga...

sari.seekirama poi koolichuttu ...konjam help pannalam'nu kitchen ponnen.....vadai maavu appuram aaaaga...appam maavu seenchu vachi irundhanga amma....

edha rendayum porichudhu 'nu sonnannga...konjam relatively easy velai than!!
naan vadai veetula seenchu irundhalum....naan engr paadichu irukkenu kattura madhiri.....ennoda vadai wud be of different geometric shapes....:))

konjam try panni....vadai edho thattinen....!
appuram 'dhan vaandhudhu..big challenge for me!!! aaaa..appam!!!
appam...enga amma eppadi paanu vaanga'nnnu naan pathathe illai!!! (felt the pinch of it now!!!)
adhukku appakaral'nu edho irukku pola....adhu vaachu easy'a seeyilama..shape uzhunga varummam....!! endha general knowledge ennakku theriyadhu!!! new good info from his mom.....thanks to her patience in explaining me things on how to be done and accepting the blunders i make.....with a smile always.... .:)

andha instrument' illa inga...so had to use a small spoon to do it!!
finally i managed to use the spoon for appam and got very crispy, oily appam...!
which was only kept for poojai for pilayar.....paavam pilayar....avarukku ennoda kai vaanam 'dhan!!! sorry pilayar enna maanichukkonga !! endha alavukku than ennakku varudhu!!!

appuram....i and his mom tried to taste it for the sake of i making it!!!! finally my great appam went to our servant maid only!!!!!

thats a big funny story on my experience on making appam...!

appuram...vera enna news......ayya.....i am getting a i-pod in office on wednesday... for my company getting CMMi L5 certification .....

more about my ...ipod..next week post....

weeyar viruppam

as the title goes..its mainly on the request of my friend(bhhhhhhhu) ... mee writing this article....
don't ask if she was desperate to read a post of mine.... GOD only knows ...!! ;)

anyways.. jokes apart.....

its really really been quite a long time since i wrote a post....!!
trying to remember back when was my last post....(my memory is very poor)...(let me check my page myself (after a long time) to see the date of my last post ) ;)

ohh...man...its may 18,2006!!!! exactly 3 months before i had written a post!!! thats a very long time!

apppa....i have almost filled quite some lines of my post..without any purpose...

first let me thank my friend for making to write a post!!!

ok..let me try to share some of my happiest memories that happened in the past 3 months....
my parent's visit to my place....my friend's visit and our wonderla trip with them....trip to srirangam and kumbakonam....my birthday.....visit to puttaparthi...

thinking back again on why i didn't write for a long time..... !!!
self-analysis :-
am I so busy that i don't have time to write a post.... konjam aaamam neeraya vetti.. !
am I bored of writing..konjam aamam neeraya illai...!
am I searching of topic to write...neeraya aamam ...konjam illai.....!
am I lacking commitment....neeraya aamam..konjam illai...!

ok....too much of analysis or rather looks like our project status reports to justify why we didn't do certain tasks or why we didn't find certain issues...etc.....

seri..let me try to give or put a commitment to myself...!(makkale...note pannikonga...)
i will atleast try to write once in 2 weeks...why not once in a week'nu ..neengalam kekuradhu puriyudhu.....!!!
don't want to give the same commitment(or rather copy) my friends commitment on writing atleast one post in a week...;)
(endha prestige'kku unnum kooraichal illai ennakku'nu neenga neenaikuradhu theriyudhu!!)

expect to scribble more....

F1

I was one person who had absolutely zero knowledge about this game!!
I have only listened stories from my friend(lachu) about how crazy, her husband and her in-laws family are for this game!! I guess now she has also started to like the sport...

As my husband patiently explained the rules of this game and the drivers/constructors in the same... I got a liking to this game thru him.

I wanted to write about this game in my blog and hence tried to explore further on all the rules of this game through F1 official website.

For people who are as ignorant as I was and if you feel you would like to develop interest in this game..... you can know from http://www.formula1.com

Mr. Lonely

I used to listen to this song(which is one of my husband's favourities)... I also developed a liking for this song for its music....its a very nice song which would be more like a kindergarden rhyme.. I am generally a person very interested to listen to tamil songs and would appreciate the song for both the wordings and music. I was curious to know the wordings of this song as well... Tried to google to get the lyrics of the song....

got them from http://lyrics.duble.com/lyrics/A/akon-lyrics

Lonely im still lonely,
I have nobody,
For my owwnnnIm so lonely,
im mr. LonelyI have nobody,
For my owwnnnIm so lonely,

Yo this one here goes out to all my playas out there man ya know
got to have one good girl whose always been there like ya
Know took all the bullshit then one day she cant take it no more and decides to leave

I woke up in the middle of the night and I noticed my girl wasn'tby my side, coulda sworn I was dreamin, for her I wasFeenin, so I hadda take a little ride, back tracking ova these few years, tryna figure out wat I do to make it go bad, cuzEver since my girl left me, my whole life came crashin and


Im so lonely (so lonely),
Im mr. Lonely (mr. Lonely)
I have nobody (I have nobody)
For my own (to call my own) girl

Im so lonely (so lonely)
Im mr. Lonely (mr. Lonely)
I have nobody (I have nobody)
For my own (to call my own) girl


Cant belive I hadda girl like you and I just let you walk right
outta my life, after all I put u thru u still stuck
Around and stayed by my side, what really hurt me is I broke
ur heart, baby you were a good girl and I had no right, I
Really wanna make things right, cuz without u in my life girl


Im so lonely (so lonely)
Im mr. Lonely (mr. Lonely)
I have nobody (I have nobody to call my own)
For my own (to call my own) girl

Im so lonely (so lonely)
Im mr. Lonely (mr. Lonely)
I have nobody (I have nobody)
For my own (to call my own) girl

Been all about the world ain't neva met a girl that can take the
things that you been through
Never thought the day would come where you would get up and run
and I would be out chasing u
Cuz aint nowhere in the globe id rather be, aint noone in the
globe id rather see then the girl of my dreams that made me
Be so happy but now so lonely


So lonely (so lonely)
Im mr. Lonely (mr. Lonely)
I have nobody (I have nobody)For my own (to call my own)
Im so lonely (so lonely)
Im mr. Lonely (mr. Lonely)I have nobody (I have nobody)
For my own (to call my own) girrl
Never thought that id be alone, I didnt hope you'd be gone this long, I jus want u to call my phone, so stop playing girl and
Come on home (come on home), baby girl I didn't mean to shout, I want me and you to work it
out, I never wished Id everHurt my baby, and its drivin me crazy cuz...

Im so lonely (so lonely)
Im mr. Lonely (mr. Lonely)
I have nobody (I have nobody)
FOr my own (to call my own)

Im so lonely (so lonely)Im mr. Lonely (mr. Lonely)
I have nobody (I have nobody)
For my own (to call my own) girl

Lonely, so lonely
So lonely, (so lonely),Mr. Lonely, so lonely
So lonely, so lonely, (so lonely), Mr. Lonely

A religious trip to kalahasti

Myself and my husband went to kalahasti to perform raghukala pooja. Kalahasti is around 2 hours drive from chennai. We travelled by a non-AC car(!!) on a scorching heat of 42 degree C. (!!(felt tooo hot...!!!........namalam royal family'lla....;) )

On the way, we found an uniquely shaped building nearing completion....It was named as "ONENESS UNIVERSITY"...We thought its a deemed university which would be run by some spiritual group.

As I wanted to write(or bore!!! ) about the trip in this post, I tried to gather some more information on the net on this. "ONENESS UNIVERSITY" is a prayer hall which can accomodate around 8000 people. It would be the Asia's largest hall without pillars.

Some more info about the history behind the temple. "Srikalahasti" .Sri Kalahasti is one of the most sacred Siva kshetras. SriKalahasti is named after the staunch devotees of Lord Shiva. They were the Spider(Sri), the Serpent(Kala) and the Elephant(Hasti). As Lord Shiva was pleased with the devotion of them, HE gave them a boon that their names would be merged to vayulinga and named as "Srikalahasteeswara". There are some more history attached with this temple. I guess you people know the story of "kannappa nayanar" .

Some uur vambu now.....

A north indian family of 5 people came and sat opposite to us in the hall were "raghukala pooja" was to be performed... There were one elderly couple and 2 young guys and 1 girl(lady!). The girl looked very young and to our surprise we found out that she is married(through her metti!what a discovery!!) ...Myself and my husband were very inquistive to know who was the girl's husband among the 2 guys. Then from the way they behaved, we concluded that she is the sister of the 2 guys. What a kaNdupudippu!!!!
Also, we found a married lady who was very seriously lost in thought....
Also, we found one more unmarried girl, who had come along with her parents. I guess she has been brought there out of compulsion , to perform the pooja and didn't even speak a word with her parents....

Romba vambu! engka reNdu peerukkum!! ;)

ok..thats about the trip to kalahasti...

time is jus flying....

feel that time is just flying...

• 4 months have completed since 2006 started....!
• more than 6 months since I had long kadhai with my friend loga in the bus......
• 2 months since i had a sip of Tea in my previous company pantry(cursing lloyd for the suthappal TEA he prepares) and chatting with subha,bhu,nirai, shanthi...
• 50 days of married life on april 29th.. :) . (need to get something for this from my husband....) Wish he reads this blog soooooooooon......... :)

ilavasa iNaippu

You will understand the meaning of this post as you read through this...

1.Grab the book nearest to you, turn on page 18 and find line 4.

The book I found next to me was a telephone dairy! The line 4 in page 18 is the telephone number of Gopal(Sanker Chithappa!! – to be frank ,don’t know who they are! I think they should be a relative of my in-laws! )

2.Stretch your left arm out as far as you can.
I am sitting in the sofa and tried to stretch my left arm as much as I can. Had I been able to stretch it further high ,I could reach to the fan in the ceiling!!

3. What is the last thing you watched on TV?
I am sitting in living room only! Some movie is going on in K TV(SUN MOVIE Channel)

4.Without looking, guess what time it is?
9:05pm

5. Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?
9:04pm!! Aaa..what a level of accuracy.

6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
Sound of the fan and Rajini’s voice in TV.

7. When did you last step outside? What were you doing?
I was just back from office half hour before. While I was on my way back from office , I paid the electricity bill for our house and also tried to check the availability of Nokia 7610 pink model for my friend Shanthi.

8. Before you started this survey, what did you look at?
I looked into the blog of Shanthi and read “4 her” article of hers and as per the directions of hers I am writing this…so this title “ilavasa iNaippu”.

9. What are you wearing?
nightie

10. Did you dream last night?
Don’t remember!

11. When did you last laugh?
Just now. Laughed looking into my friend(shanthi's) blog post-"Vandhutaaya Vandhutaa".

12. What is on the walls of the room you are in? walls!!??
Plural 'a keettu irukkangala??!! This room is quite big! What all should I say!?? There are some calendars on the wall, wall-unit showcase etc…

13. Seen anything weird lately? Theriyalai?!

14. What do you think of this quiz?
konjcam ennoda muuLai yosikka vaikkudhu!!!

15. What is the last film you saw?
Can’t remember the name
my husband reply for me!!! :-( I slept half way during the movie CASABLANCA and my husband was very upset that I did not give him company!)

16. If you became a multimillionaire overnight, what would you buy?
Lots of dresses, slippers, hand-bags, a beautiful house and a Toyota Innova
my husband reply for me!!!—I would put away all the money – because easy money never stays !

17. Tell me something about you that I dunno.
I guess I am an open book…I don’t hide much..!! I guess you know more about me..

18. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
To give reservations to people based on their economic status


19. Do you like to dance?
Yeah, but depends on the people around me.

20. George Bush.
Don’t know what to write

21. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?
Not yet thought!!! May be harsha, shubashree

22. Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?
Not yet thought!!!


23. Would you ever consider living abroad?
May be for short visits and visit places.

24.What do you want GOD to say to you when you reach the pearly gates?would want to welcome me happily..


25. 5 people who must also do this meme in their journal.
I guess my friend’s circle who write blogs are all done with this exercise!! So, people who read my blog can try this…

A trip to Hogenakal

This is about my weekend trip to a tourist place around 180km,drive from Bangalore.

We actually planned to go to a different place called "Muthathi", cauvery river bank area, which is around 100km drive from Bangalore.

Finally we went to this place with 2 other friends of my husband and their families.

We started around 5:45am today morning. To be frank, I didn't know much about the place when we started. I just knew that it had a falls and was happy that I can take bath in the falls!

I wanted to write in the blog with more information and hence did a search in google to know more about the place.

The name "Hogenakal" means "Smoking Rock" in Kannada. The "peyar kaaraNam" for the same is Cauvery water enters the rocks in this place and the gushing flow of the waters makes it look like "smoke emanating from the rocks".

The parisal "Dinghies"(I didn't know that the name of parisal in english is this before!!-pronounced as dinggee) ride was too good. There were lots of such Dinghies and lots of crowd there. Many of the guys there were enjoying their beer and smoking happily during their ride in the parisal. Though, they were polluting the nature's beauty with the cigar's spell!

We were around 9 of us who went for this trip, with a 5 months baby also in our group! The baby was feeling so hot as the noon came in.We were also very much drained during the parisal ride because of the heat! Can imagine the state of the kid, which doesn't even know to express its feelings. But, was very happy and stunned to see Srihari's(the cute baby name) parents, taking the baby to such places at the very initial stages! (Kudos to Varsha! -the cute mom of the baby)

One more sweety in the group was "Avanti"(I hope I got her spelling right?!). She was all excited about the car drive-with her father overtaking the other vehicles , bumpy road jerks and was also enjoying the dinghies ride nicely.

We had a discussion on what are the differences between ox and bull, rat and mouse etc..during our drive seeing the animals in the road.Though I am yet to find out the differences on the same. Would surely look into it and write about that.

We started back from there by around 1pm. Our return journey was also nice. I was sitting next to the my driver(u all know who my driver is! ;) and was all excited about my driver driving at around 100km speed. I felt that I should also get to learn to drive better and join my driver, in the driving in the highways. Hope this thinking of mine becomes true soon. :)

(Un!)Known! face in walking trial

I go on and off for walking here. For the past two days , I have been going to a new park for walking. The park is very big and neatly maintained. There are lot of people mostly elderly patti’s and thatha’s walking briskly with walking shoes . I was reminded of the quote “Enthusiasm can’t be taught, rather needs to be caught”. A girl with a fluorescent green top and pant waived hands at me. I couldn’t recognize the face. She introduced herself as “Sirija”(till not sure of her name) and we had met before in an other park near to my house, in which I used to go for walk. I was now able to recognize her. She is a MCA graduate and has done her SAP course. She is staying as a PG(paying guest) near to my house. I guess you people most be wondering that I know quite a lot about her and still referring her as “UNKNOWN”. These pieces of information was given to me by her the very first day we saw each other! The best part about our first introduction was she started her conversation by complementing me that I look pretty(fact pa!! J No kadhai or masala added) (I was a bit stunned to hear that from a stranger) and she introduced herself and asked about me as well. As I was quite new to the place, I was not really comfortable in talking to her. I didn’t give much information about me and tried to escape from her!

I believe, she goes regularly to the new parking trial around 6:15am. She asked how regularly I go for walk and ordered (!)(That’s how I felt) me, to come early around 6:15 am and join her for walk.

Lots of thoughts are running through my mind. I felt I am suspecting her too much, though she might be trying to be friendly. On the contrary, felt I need to be this way as I am quite new to the place, language and the people.

I am still wondering if I should talk to this (UN)Known person!!

Put the glass down

Got this article also from my father..... Its meant for all of us. Here it is ... ---A professor began his class by holding up a glass with some water in it. He held it up for all to see & asked the students, "How much do you think this glass weighs?" "50gms!" ... "100gms!" ......"125gms" .......the students answered. "I really don't know unless I weigh it," said the professor, "but, my question is: What would happen if I held it up like this for a few minutes?" "Nothing" the students said. "Ok what would happen if I held it up like this for an hour?", the professor asked. "Your arm would begin to ache" said one of the students. "You're right, now what would happen if I held it for a day?" "Your arm could go numb, you might have severe muscle stress & paralysis & have to go to hospital for sure!", ventured another student & all the students laughed. "Very good. But during all this, did the weight of the glass change?", asked the professor. "No".answered the students. "Then what caused the arm ache & the muscle stress, and how can I get rid of it?" Now, the students were puzzled. "Put the glass down!" said one of the students. "Exactly!" said the professor. " Life's problems are something like this. Hold it for a few minutes in your head & they seem OK. Think of them for a long time & they begin to ache. Hold it even longer & they begin to paralyze you. You will not be able to do anything. It's important to think of the challenges (problems) in your life, but EVEN MORE IMPORTANT is to 'put them down' at the end of every day before you go to sleep. That way, you are not stressed, you wake up every day fresh & strong & can handle any issue, any challenge that comes your way!" Remember friends: YOU MUST 'PUT THE GLASS DOWN'

Death of Dr.Rajkumar

Dr.Rajkumar , Kannada actor , aged 77 died due to cardiac arrest. He has been a renowned actor and has raised voice for Kannada people …

A two day mourning has been declared by the Karnataka government.

You might be wondering why am I giving data, which is already there in the news. I do feel about the death of an elderly, well-known actor. The reason behind me writing this post is to express my view on the way this has affected the lives of common people. All major private IT , BPO companies have also declared holiday for their employees. All shops and hotels also remain closed since yesterday evening.

My feeling for the announcement of this holiday is that, the private companies is only to satisfy the Karnataka government and also fearing safety related problems for their employees!
The closure of shops would greatly affect the lives of daily-wage people! As the shops and hotels remain closed, I am afraid how do people who are dependent on the hotels/shops for the foods would be able to manage.

Since morning, we get only Kannada and news channels in cable TV! I guess there are a lot of fan followers of Dr, who would have dictated the cable TV operators to do so and compulsorily make the people in the city to watch the proceedings in the Kanteerva Stadium.

A Real Story

Got this article from my father..my father keeps sending mee lots of inspiring articles...typical HR father :)

As it would be useful for others who are aspiring to get into IIMs,I felt it would have been good if Sarath had mentioned about how he managed to get into IIM, inspite of their tough selection procedures and with their exorbidant fee.

Thought its worth sharing with all..

mudhal kiRukkal...

enna ezhudha...eppadi ezhudha..... :)
sari..sari.....kaiyaaladhaan.....muLai ubayoogachuthaan solluRathu theriyudhu ....jokes apart...
I would like to share the experience of my first 2 weeks in Bengalooru...as a housewife....

its kinda of comparison on how things have improved for today's women who are married and who are moving out to a different place ..or rather we can compare this to anyone who moves out of the family and is staying alone either for studies or work.......

I guess during the time our patti's got married ......it would have been really difficult in terms of totally new place and no one to comfort them and totally disconnected from their families and friends..I guess for them weddings of relatives and other family functions would have been the time they would have been able to spend time with their families.....I guess it would have been kinda better with our mother's period....

our time..I guess things have really changed..for the better..thanks to the technology.....which helps to stay in touch with our kith and kin....:) Iguess I feel i am able to spend more time talking with my parents and sister :) over the net though not in person (which I ofcourse miss) :( ......and chatting with my friends now than before..I think I have lot of free time ...... the best thing I liked was when I had a voice chat with my parents in chennai and at the same time...appa got a call from my chithi in chennai in his mobile ....and I was still able to talk to my chithi, patti and everybody at their place over voice chat and they using their telefone.......it was pretty much clear...felt really happy about technology which is keeping ppl connected....

thats about the technology part...

My husband spends most part of his day in office...(I know I would get nicely ;) from him for writing this!!but thats the fact!! He is quite held up with his office work!!!) You know wht...I was so happy as he came quite early sterday....guess wht the time was.....it was 7:30pm...but the reason behind that is..sterday was a holiday for their office for "UGADI"-Telugu new year!!! ......I guess net is the one which is keeping mee going in spending time alone(!) at home ..other than moving around outside...and doing window-shopping ( I know ppl who knew wht I did in the malls....would definitely jump at me!!Its not jus window shopping shubs!! I did pick up some things for mee too!!!more on the malls I visited written below!) and also job search by attending some interviews here....


I always like to cook and try new things....but only when it comes to be away from home and try things we realize that its difficult to make things fully on your own.....I wanted to make poori the other day...and had many doubts on what maavu has to be put and what consistency to make and all!!!! though I have seen amma making it many times!! we will always make fun of amma at home saying that "the joy of her living.... is joy of serving"...I guess I have also become like that....I have also started to like to prepare and serve ppl rather than mee tasting that..!! I am generally a person who has to have food on time!! now..I am like a bit bored to cook and eat on my own! that too alone! most of the times manage with bread for breakfast and just curd rice for lunch!

other than that...not much of a change in mee!! I don't think I have become responsible!! as usual uuru suththu'fyings!!

about shopping .....
close to my house-"food days" -a small and neat outlet for groceries.. and our chennai's famous "subhiksha" outlet for vegetables and fruits has been opened here recently ..!
"Shopper's Stop"....picked up some dresses for me........actually went there..... as I had a gift voucher given as a wedding gift.....but ended getting more than the voucher!!!! thanks to our credit card..which doesn't make us feel guilty about spending !! as no money is physically exchanged at the time of purchase!!! :)) though need to pay later!! ;)
"Sigma Mall" .. went to this place in the break I got between 2 rounds of interviews with a company!! ....!!( romba anniyayam'la! ;) ) .....the mall is good..all major brand stores have come up! mall has not been fully occupied! ...didn't get anything here...! I had just been to "coffee day" to have something to eat.....
"forum"...lot of window shopping here also!

..in the pipeline to visit.........."lifestyle" and "commercial street" ....!

thats about my shopping experience

One best thing I liked about Bengalooru..."metered auto"....which is the one which has helped me to move around a lot of places..absolutely without knowing the places!

One thing I miss the most in Bengalooru is "my mom's food"! :)

more kiRukkalgaL to follow...

Travelogue-Columbo, Srilanka

I am trying to recap all my past travels before it fads away from my memory….

This travel goes way back in 2006. We headed to Columbo, Srilanka from Bangalore, India. It was a 1.5 hrs flight journey. The visa to Srilanka is on arrival, which is good for last minute travel planners. I understand now there are many more low-cost carriers to suit our budgets. We headed from Columbo airport to a place called Ranweli Beach Resorts in Waikkal close to Nigombo. It’s surrounded by backwaters on all three sides and we had to use a small ferry to enter the resort! That being my first beach resort holiday, I just loved it! We got a nice cottage and it had a spectacular view of the sea (or should I say simply sea-view cottage). We were very impressed with the resort’s commitment to being eco-friendly. The buffet breakfast was typical continental food and I liked it for the variety for breads you get and different types of jam. Back then, I was not so conscious about sugary foods and use to load my plate with lots of jam for a single bread sandwich set. I was not too happy with the lunch options we had as Indian vegetarians. We typically had a bland vegetable with steamed rice(trying to spice it up with pepper/salt). I used to hog their deserts for the lunch. That would be like my main course! (Absolutely I had no control over food those days!). I had my first alcoholic based beverage there! I used to sip a very small glass of wine for like more than an hour or so. My initial taste for alcohol was not so good. I understand as you drink for a while, you develop a taste. But, to be frank, I have never felt a lift in my spirits (or call it maabu(tamil) feeling) after having them . In and around the Columbo, we visited the Pinnawala Elephant orphanage, Botanical Gardens of Peradeniya and Kandy-Buddha tooth relic temple. Pinnawala Elephant orphanage is the home to some 60 or more elephant orphans. It’s a place where baby jumbos are bottle fed and bathed by their human foster fathers. It’s about 90Km from Colombo towards Kandy. The botanical garden is a must to watch and you can spend a whole day there, provided you carry your own food and drink to go with it. As it was a little off-season, could mostly see lot of young love birds (school-going pairs) having a good time in the garden. We had been for a bird watching trip along with a german couple in the backwaters surrounding the ranweli resort. There are lots of indoor activities available in the resort like table-tennis, chess, carom and other outdoor activities like beach volleyball, tennis, cycling, canoeing. The resort offers a romantic ferry cruise with a personalized butler and boatman and good five-course dinner served on a beautifully decorated ferry, as the ferry glides along the backwaters. We were pleasantly surprised by a very personalized Indian dinner served by them in the ferry and a different dessert arrangement (with a whole pineapple kept in front of us, which had an ice-cream nicely arranged inside the pineapple removing the pulp!). Before I finish this post, this was my honeymoon trip and Ranweli resort made it very memorable. I am happy to recommend this resort to all.