Will Minnie follow Jasmine!

Jasmine...was the pet we had before Minnie came in. She was beautiful and understood my husband really well..had the magic in her to cure his cough by sleeping on his chest when he was unwell...But we lost her too early. To forget Jasmine's loss we got Minnie.


Minnie has been with us for the last 8 yrs now. Notorious & highly greedy for food as any other labrador you would know. She's veggie Dog, not that she hasnt tasted Non-veg. But being brought up in a house where only Veg food is cooked, she has adjusted well to our cooking & tastes. Her normal day would otherwise be with 3 day meal(rotis, rice & milk, Dosa, idli, Bread, Pedigree) with Biscuits in the evening and any other snack that anyone else would have in the house. Her favourites Mango, Papaya, Carrots & Banana. No one in the house is supposed to eat Mango/ Papaya without giving it to her, else we are sure to go deaf. Friends visiting our house would often say that she's huge, all we would do is talk about her.

She has been one member of the family who kept my mum-in-law busy and away from loneliness from the beginning. She is one key member, who gets attention at all times. She wants to be treated equal in the house, but behaves like a child all the time, playful, hungry for outings.

Last 2 months she has been getting her outings...Car tatas...for a wrong reason. She has been taking rounds with her Vet every 15 days. About 2 months back we detected a lump, got to know that it was a Mammory tumour, which was growing at a fast pace. We decided to get her operated and found that it was a malignant tumour. Chemotherapy was started, but she went through it quite well, without any side effects. The wound also healed well without trouble. But by this time we started noticing another new lump, this turned out to be Lymph node tumour. Minnie very bravely and successfully underwent another surgery. She recovered. We were glad that it was over. Just 3 weeks back, we noticed one more new lump. Took her to the vet. He noticed there were two. But surgery would be the solution is what he said, as removing both the lumps would not be possible and removing one tumour would lead to increase in the size of the other :-(. She was put on Chemotherapy again. She has to go through 3 rounds. One round of chemptherapy was given 2 weeks back. First day she didnt eat much, hesitated to go near her meal. But by day 2 she was back to eating, not huge quantities, but she was eating. Now for the past four days she has been keeping unwell. She has lost her appetite completely. Anything she eats comes out. She's living on water, Glucose water & 2-3 biscuits a day. Tried Ice-cream, she atleast ate it, but then within an hour, everything was vomited out. We have been asked to give her Glucose water and Liv52 to increase her appetite. Wonder what she will eat even if her appetite increases. She hates the sight of Rice & milk which was her normal diet. She loved bread, thats also out of her list for now. For the last two days she has been crying in pain(thats my guess), must be the cramps that she is getting because of no solid food and may be acidity. If she's gonna eat Ice-creams atleast, am going to buy her a huge stock of it. She's looking for all the cozy places and soft bedding she can get. May be its the pain that she is unable to go through. The Vet says, its all normal, but we see her losing weight & hair massively. For someone who has been looked after like any other family member, this should not be happening. I call her my mum-in-law's daughter..thats how she has been looked after. The vet says that if we had spayed her, she wouldnt have had this problem, but why arent these things told to a pet owner when the pet is taken for its vaccinations!! Is the owner of the pet supposed to know everything? We have read so many Pet care books, I dont remember having read about compulsary spaying! Wish we had known about this, may be we could have avoided the trouble & pain that Minnie is going through now. We have to find out a solution to her pain & suffering. What is it that will help her....I hope we are able to help her..and find a way out for her.

Update: Thursday- November 06, 2008 was the D-Day for Minnie. Dr.Bhat, her vet visited our place to give her the freedom from her sufferings.

Pondicherry- The French Colony

We & a friend of my husband, had a complimentary offer from Zest- Mahindra holidays for a 2 night/ 3 days trip to any of their locations. Although this would have been our third trip, we chose Pondicherry.

We started from home at 8.00A.M. on Saturday morning. The road till Hosur was bad, because of the flyover work. After that it was a breeze. We were mostly driving at 100/120, because of the good roads from Krishnagiri. Since the start was late, we were already hungry by the time we came close to Krishnagiri. And we were lucky to stop at a BP Bunk at Chinnar for fuelling up our Car. Why lucky?? Coz there was A2B, Adyar Anand Bhavan. We rushed inside and ordered for Pongal, vada, masala dosa and 2 cups of Coffee. All of it at Rs.98/-, and the food was yum. Those travelling on this road, can safely stop over at A2B. Rest of the restaurants/ hotels you would find on this road would only be dhabas, and one would think twice before stopping over for some grub there. After this was our non-stop journey towards Pondicherry. Although the roads are good throughout, speeding became difficult at times, because of the villages that come on the way. there is always a fear of someone/ some animal crossing the roads suddenly. Then there are are cyclists & motor cyclists, who love to drive in the middle of the road. The other part was, we did not have many boards which showed the directions towards Pondicherry. Reached Tiruvannamalai, and then got lost by taking the wrong turn. We must have deviated about 15-20 kms, through all the villages possible..and then joined back the main road with the help of some people who gave us the right direction to reach the by-pass road.

Our booking was at Big Beach- Cuddalore Road- Pondicherry. Reached the place at around 3.00P.M. Lunch was at a place close to the resort. We were happy to see the resort, beautifully done. Welcome drink made of Kokum, I think, was refreshing after the journey.
At the reception

The Lounge

Restaurant Area

The Bar

The reception area

Walk to the beach

The Beach

The Natural Pond

The Rooms

Everything about the place was good, the lobby with huge cane basket chairs...looked like Coracle with cushion, these were single seaters, then came the sofas and the restaurant area and then then coracle chairs again, which could seat 3-4 people. Not much spent on the walls of the place, but enough spent on doing up the interiors, the lightings, the fans, the rooms, the bathrooms.
The Inside of the Room

Room had been done up really well, with comfortable bed & LCD TV, perfect lighting & A/C. The bathroom had an open shower, which was closed for others, but open till a pebble area. It was obvious that a lot of care had been taken to make the visitors comfortable. Evening was by the pool(open till 9.00P.M.), with a bar attached, perfectly lit. Around 8.30, it started to rain heavily, and we were stuck at the pool without an umbrella. Called up the reception and asked them to send across two umbrellas. That didnt really help, coz by the time we reached the restaurant, we were half wet. The menu for Buffet- dinner was awesome. Infact it was lovely on all three days. If I was a Non-veggie, then i would have had even more choice :-). Anyways the veggie food was more than enough to let me rest for the night. Got to taste the finest of the desserts during the stay. Breakfasts again were heavy with lots of variety, with made to order Dosa's, omlettes or even scrambled egg. Fruit juice, aerated drinks, Milk, Tea/ Coffee, Cornflakes with 3 different varities, Vada, sambar, Boiled beans, Mashed potato, Idlies, Bread toast, boiled egg, Cut fruits, Poori on one day with Alu bhaji, Upma...and some more that I dont remember now.
Saturday we just chilled out near the pool and dining area. Sunday morning, we walked to the beach. The sea was rough, and daughter was too scared to enter the water. We just sat by watching the waves and the crawling crabs. After the beach session, we had our breakdast and daughter, husband & his friend decided to go to the pool again, I decided to stay back in the room and relax. They came back after 3 hours fully tanned! Freshened up and headed straight for lunch. Post lunch we decided to go to Pondy city to do some shopping. We visited the Aurobindo Ashram at 3.30P.M. and walked over to the Sri Manakula Vinayagar devasthanam. There was a huge rush, but we managed to get a good darshan of Lord Ganesha. When we came out, we saw "Lakshmi", the temple elephant standing outside with her Mahout. She had nice silver anklets on, and was blessing those who offered her coins. The last time I visited this temple, I had picked up small stone carved Ganesha for all my team members, but this time, I did not find the carving done well, so skipped it.

Then we drove towards M.G Road & Nehru street to start with our shopping. We walked into Casablanca to take a look at the new arrivals. Opposite that was Auroville store, spent almost 1 hr shopping for all the incense sticks, T-shirts, Spa soaps & salts. The place was loaded with all kinds of personalised gifting items. Then we walked into the Hidesign factory outlet and picked up 3 handbags, one for self, one for my mum and another for my mum-in-law. Good designs at a good price. This time although we had decided to pick up a leather jacket for my husband, he didnt really like any of the designs. Last time we had managed to get a good Tan color jacket for Rs.3500/-. By now we had spent so much time shopping that it was time for us to go back to the resort. We cancelled our plans to visit Auroville. We had visited it last time..and this time I was not in a position to walk too much. Did little bit of street shopping for my daughter and walked back to our Car. Dinner was at the resort.

Next morning husband took a walk at the beach alone...and after freshning up we moved to have our breakfast. At 11.00 or so, we started back from Pondy to Bangalore and reached Bangalore at 6.00P.M. The drive was tiring this time, coz there were no sign boards from Pondy to Bangalore, or even to Tiruvannamalali. Even fork on the road we came to, we had to stop and ask the passerby for the route. Somewhere near Gingy Fort, I had seen a milestone which read Bangalore...but again after that the next milestone we saw was only at Krishnagiri.
So people, travelling on this road, better be open to asking your route every time you are in doubt, else carry a proper roadmap, else you will end up driving extra kilometers. This was our third trip to Pondy, even then we were in doubt all the time...so you can imagine :-)

Overall a good trip...a good break from our daily chores...the water, the resort, the shopping, it was all so relaxing.

Malpe beach/ Mookambika temple/ Charmadi Ghat

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It was my cousins wedding in May…a peak summer time in Mangalore. We went via Shiradi Ghat….the worst roads one could face. We were lucky not to have a flat tyre.

The wedding was to take place at Indrali Temple(Goddess Panchadurgaparameshwari) in Udupi. Since there was no venue available for the wedding to take place, my uncle decided to have his daughter’s wedding at this temple which is walkable distance from his house. The thought of being in a Silk saree & all the jewellery got me sweating!

But to our surprise, since the temple is built at a height, the cool breeze kept us cool. No one felt the need for a fan too. After the wedding was through, we decided to go to Malpe Beach.

Evening was beautiful, and beach was fun. Daughter was happy to be at the beach..and husband was thrilled to see Water Scooter ride. He went into the sea for a round with a trained water scooter driver for Rs.200/-(for single ride, for a doubles ride, he would have charged Rs.300/-). He had a eeee ah haha look on his face when he came back from the ride J. After absorbing the peace we got out of watching the lovely sunset, we started back to our room at Udupi.

Next day, we had another wedding to attend. And after the wedding, we decided to visit Kollur Mookambika temple.

Approximately 80kms drive was a long one. Throughout the way we could see cashew and Jackfruit trees. The temple is built in midst of a forest and most visitors to the temple were Keralites, men dressed in Mundu and women in their traditional cream color with golden border Sarees. The rush was manageable and we got a good darshan of the goddess and the surrounding Lingas & Ganapati idols. At Lord Ganesha’s gudi, daughters favourite God, the priest there gave her flowers..dont know what made him do it, but it was just to her and asked her if she will return to the temple again…and she said Yes.

After the darshan, my mum-in-law & I had Goli Soda..and the rest had Tea at a near by stall and we started back to Mangalore.

Next day we were to drive back to Bangalore. Since Shiradi Ghat wasn’t ready yet, we decided to try the Charmadi Ghat. The road was not so great, but was manageable.

Narrow roads, with beautiful view of the mountains & ghat roads. We stopped over on a three-cross road, (the left to Horanadu/ Kalasa and straight to Bangalore) after smelling hot Bajjis. We bought few plates of Hot masala vadas and Chilli Bajji’s. It tasted yummy. Anyone traveling on this road, must try the hot masala vadas. After the vadas, we drained down all the oil J with a cup of hot tea. We took nine long hours to touch Bangalore and another hour or so to reach our home. Tiring yet, enjoyable journey.