Author: queenbee (Page 1 of 9)

Palani to Kodaikanal

May 11, 2025 / queenbee / 0 Comments

Day 2:

Mr.Bee and I woke up at 4:30 a.m on the advice of the hotel admin. He informed us that we selected a particularly important day to visit the temple and warned us that the temple crowd would be akin to mini-size Kumbh Mela. He was not wrong! It was Shashti thithi, which is auspicious as Vel Murugan a.k.a Karthikeya was said to be born on that thithi.

I looked out of the windows, (our room 2** had a balcony facing the hill) and saw the most beautiful view.

Mr.Bee and I, discussed among ourselves and decided to wake GBee up first.

GBee was confused about why there was no sunlight outside and thanks to his EVS lesson in grade 2, he knows what an eclipse is! I told him, we just woke up early to visit the Murugan temple.

During bath, I heard peacocks making wailing calls! If you hear a peacock wailing or crowing near by, it is generally assumed as a sign of presence of snakes. That too if you hear them in the premises of a very popular Murugan temple, whose deity Himself is a snake, then what more to add to that? My heart was filled with devotion and fervour.

After both Mr.Bee and KBee were ready, we rushed to the winch queue. We can either climb the 700 odd steps to the temple or go in a winch to the temple which is situated on top of a hill.

The winch and the scenic beauty!

We spent 2 hours in the winch queue and hardly moved 20m from our initial spot. If you are going to popular temples, you should mentally prepare yourself that you will be pushed, shoved, verbally abused, on top of it, physically tired too!

By the time it was 6:30 a.m. , an announcement had been made that devotees need to take a break and return after 6 hours! (That’s was how heavy the flow of devotees had been to Palani)

I felt upset and low, as it seemed we may not return to the temple. We didn’t want to harass our kids by waiting in the hot weather and climbing 700 steps with 2 kids below the age of 8, seemed preposterous! We resigned to our fate and accepted defeat.

We shopped for Velaayudham and I got myself a photo frame of Dhandayudhapani (Murugan). I remembered we had not visited the Vinayagar and Meenakshi Amman temples in the premises. We visited both and returned to the hotel. KBee only ate a couple of biscuits and GBee didn’t even have those.

At the Hotel, the admin saw our disappointment and advised us to visit the other Murugan temple 5 minutes away from our hotel. He informed us that this one was the original Dhandayudhapani Murugan temple, which was later relocated to the top of the hill. We visited the temple by walk and I remember a middle aged gentleman who entered the temple with us, stayed with us, asked me to go to the front and let me pray to Murugan in peace. He was no where to be seen after talking to me. (It felt like divine intervention, an emotionally charged moment for me)

After our breakfast, which was below average, we packed the soveneirs, checked out from the hotel and started for our next stop, Kodaikanal. Woohoo!

In barely 2 hours, we reached Kodaikanal. The driver, N made a brief stop at the outskirts, for his breakfast. He had an omelette. Mr.Bee and I ordered tea, which was ‘one-sorry- excuse-of-a-tea’ and I poured it down the drain! (When travelling, one should adjust to eating mediocre food and drinks or not buy them at all!)

We checked into Pine Borough, Room ££, which was built such that it was half way into the hill and that made it extremely cold to live in! We had to rent a room heater from the hotel, to stay warm!

We ordered food by WhatsApping the reception desk, sat in the afternoon Sun, under the patio umbrellas. KBee and GBee were famished and so was I, it was 2 p.m.

Mr.Bee and GBee engaged in the cell, while KBee and I chatted away.

Even though KBee was hungry and it was well past his lunch time, he suggested that the bugs were hungry and not him!

We had our lunch in the room, rested a little while and then spent a good hour in the garden outside.

As the weather became colder and since we started hearing strange sounds ( like that of a rattle), we returned to our room. The kids played with their dozen Hot Wheel cars, whereas Mr.Bee and I watched Baahubali, dubbed in Hindi!

After having Dadu’s snacks and a late dinner, we called it a day!

P.S:

1. At the entrance to Kodaikanal, one lady officer, bent down inside our car and nabbed our plastic bottles. Plastic is banned in Kodaikanal, just like in Ooty and Tirumala!

2. I had a wild guess that the rattling sound must mean a rattle snake, since we were staying on a hill resort. God knows if I am correct or not.

3. GBee, still in the mood to count the windmills, began counting bikes (since there are no windmills in Kodai) and his total reached to 172!

4. Interestingly, one of the admins at the Kodai resort was named Palani!

5. The recent war atmosphere in India had an effect on me, so I could hardly write. That is the reason for my late post. #IndianArmy, #OperationSindoor.

Till the next post, cheerio!

Kochi to Palani

May 4, 2025 / queenbee / 0 Comments

Mr.Bee and I were celebrating 10 years of married life this April and we craved for a vacation. We had many destinations in our list from heavyweight like Paris to desi islands of Andaman and Nicobar, but chose Kerala because our youngest just turned four and we wanted him to have a safe travel experience along with food for his extremely selective palate. Kerala it is!

Mr.Bee booked our flight tickets to Kochi for the last week of April. Driving a car in Kerala would have been a cheaper, better and scenic option but GBee is not a patient traveller. He warned us early on that he hated travelling more than 2 hours in a car! He likes to reach destinations sooner and get into holiday mood, faster! (After our Maharastra tour fiasco, we were apprehensive about travelling in a car)

As our flights were booked and hotels reserved, Mr.Bee and I planned our travel itinerary, we had a rough idea of what we wanted to see and what not to miss at any costs.

DAY 1:

On the morning of Good Friday, we boarded our flight to Kochi after filling up on the airport Pizza from Jamie Oliver’s Pizzeria, which was superlative, to say the least. We originally planned on checking-in to the executive lounge, but the serpentine line outside it scared us. We bought some snacks too at the Dadu’s counter as a last minute snack option for later in the evening at Kochi.

We said our hellos to the airhostesses and sat in our seats, me on the aisle seat with KBee occupying the window seat and GBee in the middle. Mr.Bee had the aisle seat across us.

I felt very cold in the flight and covered myself up with my scarf, while the kids were happily enjoying the view out of the windows.

Out of India or Outer Space!

For a moment our kids thought we were going out of India. I said no, then they decided we were just travelling to outer space for our vacation! Seriously though, vacation in outer space, who are we, Sunitha Williams and family?

As we were near our destination we had a little bit of turbulence and GBee decided we are going to crash! He was not scared, just excited that we are crashing, whatever that means! Thanks to the turbulence I changed the seats and let Mr.Bee sit with the kids and I had a quick nap.

Meanwhile Mr.Bee ordered Maggi noodles for the kids who were suddenly hungry and once their stomachs filled up, they became more excited, if that was possible! (noodles were too spicy for them, but have you ever heard of kids rejecting junk food?)

We landed at Kochi and KBee was worried that our 2 suitcases were not to be seen and that we only had one hand luggage! At the baggage claim, he found it interesting to get our luggage back on the conveyor belt.

After calling our cab driver, whom we booked for a week, we exited Kochi and were on the way to Palani, going from Kerala to Tamil Nadu.

Mr.Bee and the driver N were the only ones awake. I had a quick nap and the kids slept soundly in the back seat of the white Ertigo. Both had their heads in my lap and I was fresh as a daisy after my nap. Since it was Good Friday, the roads in Kerala were filled up with more than 500 Christians on road. While a few were enacting Jesus’s crucification others were singing songs and praying as they continued their procession, without any traffic interruptions.

We stopped at a snack point, where we had hot chai, which was mediocre and had some freshly made bajji. The mirch bajji was sweet and the plantain bajji was oily but eatable. Since both the kiddos had their heads on my lap, only Mr.Bee could get out of the car. I also asked him to buy us some banana chips and jack fruit chips, which turned out to be the best decision that day.

Jack fruits for sale at ‘Mollywood’ – the snack stop on highway

Our driver drove smoothly and even at high speed the car felt like it was fully under his control. We travelled in small village roads, short cut to Palani, that’s what N said as he took the route. The beautiful Kerala, the clean roads and the village atmosphere caught us off guard and Mr.Bee and I continued praising Kerala and it’s beauty. We already fell in love with Kerala 2 years ago, when we travelled to Wayanad.

After almost 4 hours of our drive, I decided to wake the kids up or they wouldn’t sleep at night! GBee was already complaining as soon as he woke up that we were still in the car and it was dark outside. I fed the kiddos the fresh chips and that shut them up. They began to enjoy the drive even though it was dark outside.

As soon as we entered Tamil Nadu, we found many windmills and counted them. That was the most fun we had that night. Soon, near Pollachi – Palani road, we saw thunder, lightning and rain. Inspite of all that, we kept counting windmills and at one point KBee shouted “I found a wind bill!” and all of us laughed. Then little-little kiddo KBee reprimanded us for laughing at his mistake and shut us all up, effectively!

Just 3.9Km away from our destination Palani, we waited near the railway crossing for the train to pass. As I was looking around, to remember the moment as much as I can, I saw a huge ant hill, enough to hold a family of snakes!

We reached the temple town of Palani at 9:40 p.m, had difficulty finding our hotel Subham. After a good 15 min of confusion, we finally reached the hotel. Kids had plain dosa and I had podi dosa for dinner and managed to drag our feet into bed.

Our day1 of vacation 2025, had come to an end!

P.S:

1. As soon as we reached Shamshabad Airport, Hyderabad, I saw PVP, son of late PM of India, who was travelling with his family.

Even GBee met one of his friends from school at the airport. The said friend was flying to bangalore, while we had earlier flight to Kochi.

2. As the car reached Pollachi – Palani road, GBee observed that the car was just gliding on the road, thanks to the rain. He said there was no need to drive the vehicle in rain! These little conversations bring me immense satisfaction and I try to understand a little about their psychology.

3. In Kerala, I found that people placed 1 foot high brass lights in the middle of the main doorway, probably to scare away any wild animals or reptiles, which are very common in villages.

Lights in Kerala village homes

4. The kids loved windmills and we enjoyed the drive from Kochi to Palani and the kids didn’t even ask me, “Are we there yet?”

Home Alone – The Queen Bee version!

April 5, 2025 / queenbee / 0 Comments

Long ago when I was busy with my job, designing super passages and under tunnels, leading a carefree life, my family had to travel. I excused myself from the trip and stayed back alone at home. I didn’t want to miss out on the fun at my office.

Being in ‘the’ design team in our office was a heaven. It was like being in a girls gang. 6 of us, under the guidance of the most cool headed team leader, our AGM. Those were the days. Since we had the most technical knowledge, due to our area of work, there was always someone who needed our help! We were always busy and had most fun during breaks, being in the same age bracket also helped! We even celebrated each others birthdays with much fan fare, cake cuttings and gift givings. It was the golden period in the technical division.

It is rare to find such camaraderie in civil engineering companies, because, we either have above 65 year old consulting employes or 20 something employees, fresh out of engineering colleges. That is because civil engineering needs experienced people to guide the young blood and thanks to software boom, most people avoid civil, it being a job which also includes site visits. (Personally, I love visiting the construction sites and looking at our designs in their magnitude.)

Anyway, it all comes down to me staying alone at home for 2 days and 2 nights! Thankfully, I spent the days in office, doing the work I love in the company of the team that I admired, so that’s that. But once I returned home, I was all alone, like Kevin McCallister, except there was no imminent danger of rogues and thieves entering the flat, then!

While I planned on watching my favourite TV shows and eating my dinner in a jiffy, the tough part was sleeping alone in the flat!

As soon as Mrs.G saw that I had parked my Mahindra Flyte in the cellar, she gave me probably 5 minutes to fresh up and knocked my door.

She meant well….

Mrs.G asked me if I wanted to eat something. She even asked me what I had in mind. I gave her a vague answer, as I really had no idea what I wanted to make for dinner. I didn’t intend to inconvenience her.

I wanted to eat samosa cutlet chaat, pani puri and even a pizza. But I refrained from telling her all that. I don’t remember what I cooked for myself, but Mrs.G returned to give me a bowl of freshly made potato fry and won my heart and stomach too!

That hit the spot. I slept well, thanks to a full stomach.

Even the clothes hanging from the peg, which made a ghostly shape didn’t scare me, one bit!

Even the rhythmic sound of anklets and whispers around me, could hardly stop my droopy eyes from closing!

“Good night, to you too” , I whispered in response!

P.S:

1. Who doesn’t like a bowl of potato fry!

2. Although I don’t celebrate Christmas, December 25th is not complete without watching the handsome and naughty Kevin McCallister being left home, alone! White Christmas is a dream…

3. Chandler Bing is one of my favourite characters, which inspired the dialogue in my third cartoon.

Till the next post, cheerio!

Pet Parent for a day!

March 26, 2025 / queenbee / 0 Comments

During my childhood, I had been a happy -go-lucky one, who was ignorant about the things going around her. I lived in a world of my own and there had been never a boring moment. (Touchwood!)

One winter night, we, a family of four were having dinner, watching some golden oldie Hindi movie, eating roti for dinner. (For a South Indian family, we ate roti on a daily basis, more than idli sambar) My palette for food was selective in those days and the top billing was given to my preference of food and our daily food menu was based on my whim and fancy. Being the youngest has it’s perks!

Anyway, as we finished our dinner and sat down to watch the rest of the movie, during a brief silent moment in the movie, I heard “meow” and a definite scratch on our door to the verandah. I ignored it.

As the scratches became more frequent and the meowing became more apparent, I alerted my parents. My dad opened the door. I was half expecting a cat fight, turns out it was not! Two tiny kittens rushed inside the hall, through the open door, one was thin while the other looked well fed. (I suspect the fat one never let the thin kitty have his share of food!) Both the kittens were as white as snow.

The winter night air had been too cold for them and that is the reason they became our guests. My parents fed the kitties the left over roti and milk, which they had for their hearts content. For a brief period both of them used our teepoy as their bunk bed, after dinner, to rest. (Teepoy = coffee table!)

Using the teepoy as their bunk bed!

By a mutual agreement, I and my sister decided to adopt one kitten each, for ourselves, the thin and the more active one being mine! Once the kittens had their dinner, they started to play with us, till it was our time for bed.

By the time we woke up early in the morning, the kitty cats were already awake and about. One of them had lept onto my bed too. I was as excited about a pet as George from The Famous Five series by Enid Blyton!

Both me and my sister made our beds and got ready for our school. I didn’t want to leave my kitty home and but went to school with a heavy heart. My sister had named her kitty as snowy. (I am unable to recall what I named my kitten as! I don’t even remember their gender!)

I boasted about my new pet to my friends and eagerly waited for the clock to strike 4! (That’s when the last school bell rang, thanks to Thomas uncle who was always on time! We studied at Christian Missionary school, the best in those days.)

Anyway, as soon as I was home, I couldn’t find any trace of the mischievous kitties and I demanded an explanation from my parents. Turns out the twin kittens were the pets of our neighbour from another apartment. He came searching for them as soon I and my sister went to school. The said owner had left his door open and the naughty kittens ran out of the door, climbed the wall and walked all the way to our house!

The owner asked for his pets in the nearby apartments and found them with us and took them away immediately.

We were heart broken and that is how we became, pet parents for a day! (night, actually!)

P.S:

1. After many years, we had another pet, turns out we have very little luck when it comes to pet animals. That will be post for another day.

2. The chubbier kitten of the two looked like Snowy from Stuart Little, but without the grumpy face. This one looked almost dumb!

3. We always wanted bunk beds in our childhood but nope, we had separate beds and that was fun too!

4. I love how Kramer from Seinfeld comes up with the idea of a coffee table book which converts itself into a coffee table, genius!

5. As you must have guessed, I made the pic with what little editing I know. The kitty cat images and teepoy image is sourced from Google. I just edited them together.

Till the next post, ciao!

The Animal Farm

March 20, 2025 / queenbee / 0 Comments

This particular post is during the time I was heavily pregnant with my first born, GBee. So, it was in 2017.

It all started with me returning to Hyderabad. Living in an apartment in India is not new to me, but finding myself in the company of many animals is!

One fine Sunday afternoon, when our home was filled with guests of all ages, we were immersed in talking about various topics, when all hell broke loose! I heard cries which scared the hell out of me. The cries came from our veradah. Inspite of my present state, I rushed to see what the matter was.

There, standing near the utility area were two monkeys, eating the snacks mom had given our house-help. The monkeys scared off our 60 year old house help like a couple of predators and began munching her hot bajjis. (Mom had prepared bajji for all our guests and gave some to our house help.) Our house help was so scared, she cried in blood curdling scream, ran towards our watchman and that was the scene before our eyes. Both the monkeys were munching away the snacks, like there was no tomorrow!

It is all together another story of how the monkeys were shoo-ed away.

And then, there is the cat!

The stubborn little creature can’t be scared and shoo-ed off easily. Even when we shout or shoo it away, the cat doesn’t bat an eye! It looks on with little respect at our “cat shooing away skills”!

The first time I saw the little monster was when I left the door to the verandah open and the cat found it too tempting not to barge in. I had to hurl a slipper near the cat (taking pains not to hit it. Yes, PETA,I am not cruel to animals, but I don’t like being taken for granted either!) The stupid one, didn’t budge! It took three of us to force it away.

One or two such incidents left me with bad taste for cats! (I had a cat as a pet for one day in my childhood! Did I happen to tell you that story? If not, will do that in the future)

What do you do if the said cat empties the dust bin, yes, every single day!

And I once caught the same cat staring at the coconut tree, what a weirdo! ( on second thought, there is a belief that cats can scare away ghosts, so this stray kitty was probably scaring off a coconut tree ghost! Lol)

Cat staring the coconut tree!

I also took a picture of a tiny little mud structure made by mud wasps, which now reminds me of the cartoon GBee and KBee watch regularly, Ben and Holly, where Ben is an elf and Holly is a winged fairy. (There is a belief in our state that if wasps built a mud structure in your house, it implies good things are on their way to you, in my case, birth of my GBee)

Mud structure made by hardworking wasps

That was when I decided that living in the heart of the city, one can still feel like they are living in a modern ranch with lots of animals for company and there it is, my own Animal Farm!

P.S:

You can hardly control a child these days, let alone shooing away animals, who are less intelligent than a child.
The concept of cats scaring off ghosts was also seen in the movie The Mummy, if anyone cares to recall it!
On totally unrelated note, I love two songs from two sitcoms, “smelly cat” from F.R.I.E.N.D.S and “soft kitty, warm kitty” from The Big Bang Theory.
With industrialization, more and more monkeys come into cities and are creating nuisance on a regular basis. I recently saw a video of monkeys taking a respite in the over head tank of a house. They were having an unorganised pool party! I deleted the video by mistake and it’s not AI generated one, it’s an original.
I always imagined there were fairies in our garden etc and Ben And Holly has similar concept of humans interaction with elves and fairies.

Disclaimer: Come on, Mr.George Orwell (Desi born British novelist), I am just using your highly popular book title, but that’s it. My post is not plagiarized in anyway. Thanks for letting me use the title! 😛

The Unseen Bridegroom!

March 3, 2025 / queenbee / 0 Comments

As I was busy surfing for new books to add to my e-library, I came across The Unseen Bridegroom, an ancient novel by Canadian writer, May Agnes Fleming, I decided to give it a try. The title was interesting and intriguing at first glance.

Let’s just dive into the review.

Novel : The Unseen Bridegroom

Author: May Agnes Fleming

Published in: 1912!

Read on: March 1st 2025!

As I mentioned earlier, the title was interesting enough for me to download it, but it had an alternative title too, Wedded for a Week! If I had seen this other title of the same novel, I would’ve guessed it to be a story about some hot headed couple, marrying and divorcing in a jiffy and would have skipped reading it!

Anyway, the story starts with a millionaire heir, Carl Walraven, returning home to his widowed mother, after 20 long years! He ran away from home at the age of 19 years. I sympathise with the mother, who had to stay strong all along. While Carl Walraven is busy flirting with Blanche Oleander, to get himself a wife, there enters Miriam Dane, a gypsy looking servant lady wearing worn out rags. She threatens to expose Carl Walraven and his deeds, if he doesn’t adopt Mollie Dane, daughter of Mary Dane.

So, off he goes and brings home the 16 year old, golden blonde haired beauty, a stage actress, Mollie Dane. Everyone suspects that she’s Carl Walraven’s illegitimate child and still love her dearly. Carl then marries Blanche inspite of opposition from both his mom and Mollie Dane. (Turns out they were correct about Blanche, women’s intuition indeed!)

As a debutante in the high society, Mollie captures the hearts of most eligible bachelors around her. Mollie is a loving and down-to-earth person, but her only folly is, her flirty nature. She has Hugh Ingelow, Dr.Oleander and Sardonyx competing each other for her affection. She rejects all the three of them brutally, infront of a septuagenarian Baronet, Sir Roger Trajenna, whom she agrees to marry! She is in love with his title, money, social standing and old age too!

On the day of her wedding, she is kidnapped and held captive by a male in black mask, who agrees to free her, if she gets married to him! Within two days of captivity, she agrees to marry him. She is married off by a reverend (who was also forcefully kidnapped) and sent home within a week.

Once home, Mollie decides to find out who her husband is. She is ready to forgive her kidnapper, if he turns out to be Hugh Ingelow! (She comes to the realisation that she is in love with him during her captivity), but if the kidnapper were Dr. Oleander, she plans to kill him off, with Strychnine no less, since she hates and loathes him.

I am not going into details, but Mollie is kidnapped a second time, trying to find her masked husband and held captive again, the kidnapper being Dr.Oleander. She is finally rescued by Hugh Ingelow.

The truth about birth of Mollie Dane is also revealed here, which is a little unexpected.

All is well that ends well and Mollie ends up marrying Hugh Ingelow.

What I liked:

1. The easy language and editing. I didn’t have to skip any boring paragraphs or pages!

2. It tells us about the people in the olden days, their thinking and life before any major technical advances in America.

3. The 17 year old protagonist, Mollie gets a redemption arc. She changes from flirty minx to a matured adult by the end. ( To make her change, the author put her through suffering!)

What I didn’t like:

1. The female lead is kidnapped twice, as if it’s normal! Was the period around 1912 not safe for women in America?

2. Mollie is forced to marry, which is regressive.

3. The description of the lead pair or the other supporting characters is not particularly good. I only know Mollie had golden blonde hair which was curly and that she is beautiful and that the male lead is handsome! With such description it is difficult to picture them while reading the novel.

When I read the Harry Potter series, I could imagine what everyone looked like and felt I was in their world, which is saying something about the author, because there were hundreds of characters in all the books combined!

P.S:

1. Just because I have listed some cons in this novel doesn’t mean it is a bad one. It only shows the evolution of English literature.

Jane Austen books are so big, with flowery language, that it gets boring to read and needs full concentration. But, her books are popular even now because of their ability to explain the people of that era in minute detail! ( Her observations are accurate and clever) Every writer has their strengths and weaknesses.

2. I have few more books of May Agnes Fleming and I can give better insight about her writing style, only after reading the other works.

3. Do you know about Stockholm Syndrome? It is the psychological state of mind, where the victim of crime such as kidnapping or abuse etc begins to sympathise with their kidnapper or abuser! It really does happen! In this novel, Mollie almost forgives the kidnapper, hoping it was Hugh Ingelow!

I have started watching a Chinese limited series and let’s see how this goes.

Till the next post, bubye.

The Good Boy!

February 27, 2025 / queenbee / 0 Comments

Thanks to his brother being a second grader and the BBC kids shows, even before KBee can write alphabets, he has learnt the multiplication tables upto 10. He recites them, even during bath, like a bathroom singer!

He is proud of himself and he likes to test me on a daily basis. He asks me questions and when I answer them, he compliments me, the routine I had with him daily to get him to talk. Now that he is talking and learnt tables, he is teaching the teacher that taught him, at the age of ‘almost 4’!

My most important pass time of the day is doing laundry and folding them. If I am not blogging or watching K drama, I must be busy, make a guess, doing laundry! (My KBee enjoys making mess and playing with colours, poor me!)

Anyway, he keeps testing my multiplication skills….

Even a tea break is quiz time for me….

During one such quiz session, GBee had overheard the compliment I got for answering a question….’Good Boy,Mommy’. Now you can see how my KBee is even mimicking the affirmations he gets from me! Lol.

GBee took it upon himself to enlighten his younger brother, about what and how to give positive affirmations!

Gita Upadesam, by GBee to KBee.

Although Lord Krishna taught important life lessons to Arjuna during the Mahabharata war, He had an attentive disciple Arjuna. In our case, KBee was like, I know mom is a girl, tell me something new!

So, at the drop of a hat, KBee manages to throw in a few ‘Good Boy mommy’ throughout the day and I don’t correct him at all.

Who doesn’t like being called a GOOD BOY!

P.S:

1. I had many posts planned, but KBee has begun his schooling and that is like inviting the viruses and other stuff to come home freely. Both the kids were ill and as usual my blogging had to suffer on the back burner.

2. My new favourite track is Apache Apache by Bruno Mars and Rose.

3. On a different note, I want to visit most temples of India and immerse myself in the colourful architecture. The insta reels are making me say this. They are the best. Let us see…

Till the next post….bubyeee.

Chhaava

February 16, 2025 / queenbee / 0 Comments

We just returned home from the second show of Chhaava and I should say it is not really a Valentine’s day material!

Anyway…

During Christmas 2024, we had visited Maharastra and that was when I decided to start researching a little about Chhatrapathi Shivaji Maharaj. I also found out a little about Chhatrapathi Sambhaji Maharaj. I didn’t know then about the movie, but I found out that a city has been re-named after Chhatrapathi Sambhaji Maharaj and found it fascinating.

The trailer caught my attention in it’s tight grasp and I asked Mr.Bee to take me to this movie, even though I knew the ending of the story, thanks to my online research! (Yup, this movie was our Valentine’s day movie date!)

The Respectful Hindu!

February 4, 2025 / queenbee / 0 Comments

Although the post title seems political, I couldn’t come up with anything better suited for this post!

Anyway, like a true Blue Desi parent, I was teaching KBee about how we, as Hindus, are into praying Nature. Plants, some animals, books, planets and stars are all part of the vast group revered by the Hindus.

This is how my training went….!

Day 1: The idol worshipping…..

Another day, during a visit to the temple: Worshipping the Cow, which is helpful to humans and giver of boons, the Kamadhenu.

And then one day when I was busy talking on the cell with Mr.Bee about some random stuff, I witnessed a funny and memorable incident! (I was at my parents’ place with both the kiddos)

KBee’s heart is in the right place. Animals are revered by us, but I hadn’t specified which all! Technically, he isn’t wrong!

Interestingly, he made me think. If at all any Hindu deity wanted an animal companion, who would choose a dinosaur? Hmm, probably a Goddess as dynamic and as powerful as Durga!

What do you say?

P.S:

1. Lord Ganesh had a Mouse, Lord Karthikeya used a peacock as a mode of transport. Lord Vishnu had Garuda(the king of birds), Goddess Durga was partial to the Indian National Animal, a Tiger!

2. GBee and KBee are fanatics of 🦕 dinosaurs. KBee can watch the same video of Blippi and his dinosaur adventure, N number of times, every single day. No wonder he gave his salutations to the T- Rex. The Triceratops toy that KBee has is his absolute favourite toy.

3. Recently Mr.Bee showed the kiddos the Jurassic World movie. Interestingly, both of them felt that the Earth, does not need any such dangerous dinosaurs after all..!

4. Happy Ratha Saptami to all my readers. I am attaching a Rangoli I made for the occasion.

Cheerio, till the next post…bubye.

Jawan – A Review

January 31, 2025 / queenbee / 0 Comments

Let me start the review by saying that this is the first ever movie I have watched of SRK in a theater! I am not his fan but I did love his Om Shanti Om and Main Hoon Na, in that order. Incidentally both were directed by Farah Khan.

You can hardly blame me. Inspite of only watching movies after a good word of mouth talk, I did end up watching an ek number ka faltu movie like Love Story 2050! (I even heard fellow audience saying out loud, ‘kya bakwas hai‘ in between the dialogues of the hero too!) If you ever have time to kill, try watching Love Story 2050 and you will know how bad some movies can be. It is forever stuck in my personal list of worst movies ever! I pity the hero, Harman Baweja. It was his debut movie and it buried his movie career alive!

Anyway, let us get back to Jawan.

Movie: Jawan

Director: Atlee

Starring: Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Vijay Sethupathi, Nayanathara, Priya Mani, Sanya Malhotra

Released On: September 2023

Watched on: First day, evening show.

Movie starts with a bloody Shah Rukh, (whom we don’t see fully, because he is bandaged fully, like The Mummy), on the verge of death. Thankfully he has enough loyalty in his blood to wake him up from his coma, to help his saviours. The next scene is the powerful hero elevation sequence. I love the scene, when Shah Rukh’s shadow overlaps the tribal God’s statue, the hero has arrived!

The hero elevation sequences are a rare feat in Bollywood, whereas, almost every South Indian movie has high voltage scenes, where heroism is celebrated and the hero is introduced, but only some attract us and this one is one of those. (Mr.Bee was busy howling at the top of his lungs, happy for the hero and his heroism.)

Twenty years pass by, we find a taklu Shah Rukh take over the system, by turning into a Robinhood for the farmers. He is also set on cleaning the Government as a whole. (South movies are always so hopeful, that someday, things are going to change. Sadly, it takes time, not just 5 hours, like they show in the movie.) Wait! Did I say South movie? Ya, this one looks and feels like a South Indian movie, except for the dialogues and the hero, that is!

Later we get to know that the taklu Shah Rukh infact has a head full of dyed hair and is also a Jailer! (I recently watched the Rajni starrer Jailer too. So what is this new fixation about Jailers? Beats me!) His gang of 6 girls are also from his jail. By the way, the music by Anirudh Ravichander for Jawan, also reminded me of Rajnikanth’s Jailer, once again!

We also meet Nayanathara, playing an IPS Narmada Rai, who is a single mother of a cutie pie, ends up marrying none other than the masked Jailer cum Robinhood Shah Rukh! *claps*

First half ends with a bang! (I loved the twist. It is very logical, but I was so immersed in the movie till then, I forgot the major clue!) I am not giving away much details because I want you to enjoy the turn of events in the movie.

Second half has a cameo appearance by Deepika Padukone, who has a small but effective role, tugging at our heart strings, with a mother sentiment. (Mother sentiment works like no other, even Hollywood is following suit, with ‘The Wild Robot’.) Deepika gets a meaty role and steals the spotlight, away from Nayanatara, who gets a one dimensional role.

Vijay Sethupathi needs no introduction and he packs a powerful punch with his character. I loved Shah Rukh in the role of Vikram Rathore, it was a treat! Both Vijay Sethupathi and Shah Rukh have much to solve among themselves, settling the scores, that is.

Heroism is real, Vikram Rathore proves it for us (most noise made by the audience during the movie was in his scenes). He also shows us what muscle memory is! Paisa Vasool kind of movie. Even the kids enjoyed it till the very end.

P.S:

1. I had written this post long ago and it had been gathering dust in the draft folder. So I decided to post it, better late than never.

2. As you must have guessed, I will come back in a couple of days with the review of ‘The Wild Robot’.

Bubyee friends, time to draw the cartoons for the next post. Cheerio!

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