Tag Archives: snakes

Love & Romance…. Two faces of the same coin! (9/9)

The splendid Taj Mahal exudes romance; Laila-Majnu & Romeo-Juliet made romance eternal and provided it with unforgettable depth. Majnu (meaning mad) is the nick name given to Qais, yes one becomes practically mad & acts like as though the lovers are the only humans left on earth!

Remember Tom Cruise love struck shenanigans on Oprah’s sofa? (Watch it here if you haven’t)One can blame it all on chemicals in the brain… in that state the whole world seems like you’re the proverbial kid in a candy store! My doctor friend (love marriage) would say you can talk, walk, sleep & eat love. Everything is fair in love (& war). Love is blind & Romance is deaf & both are dumb (clearly, Tom Cruise gets speechless!) It’s something thats so very beautiful & tingling!! Love is intangible, just a feeling that cannot be explained, nor can you make someone else understand or experience through your experience. It is like the scent of musk which cannot be hidden: it’s beyond control & will express itself somehow or the other. The beauty of Love is that it is an unplanned natural process & no one has control over it. It is almost always instantaneous, a random act that cannot be bought or sold like a commodity or force someone to fall in love. There is no age bar for Love/Romance & it goes hand in hand. However, in a human relationship there is no Romance without Love but there can be Love without Romance.

Then the question is what is Love or Romance? Do we have the chicken and egg? Is it the same in totality? I am not sure if Love & Romance are two different things or the same… guess it’s a mindset & varies from circumstances to circumstance & time to time & persons to person. However, all said & done I guess they are interchangeable faces of the same coin! It’s an emotional attachment or involvement between two people. It results in a chemical process triggering the chemicals in your brain to kick in & you feel an emotional high, exhilaration, passion, & elation. Like my colleague put it, “Romance is the expressive & pleasurable feeling from an emotional attachment towards another person associated with Love”

Then is it limited to human beings alone? In general Romance is the name given by us humans for expressing the Love between two sexes. Yet the word is rampantly used in varies forms… Only individual perception differs. It is there all around us from a small bug to the greater beings… for those who want to see & feel, the air is filled with Roooooomance………. in anything you like a beautiful flower, misty morning, gleaming dew drop on the grass, muddy smell from the first shower, a nice fragrance, full moon, the fresh air of the mountain, sound of the ocean, birds, country, etc., etc., which really recharges anyone. So again it comes back to the chemical factor: all that we have to do is open our eyes & ears to see/hear it. That’s why the Romance is in the air… murmuring the sweet nothing.. just look up & smell it… gather it…pull it down.. and bag it! One of colleagues scream there is no such thing as love and romance. Any one says there is I will hit them!!

In an era where the divorces are increasing in an alarming rate a couple could get few tips from certain reptiles… why reptiles.. Well we are not very different from them: they shed their skin like we do. Come-on everybody fill your life with Roorooomance not with neigbour’s partner but with your own. Romance & courtship is the most important thing… it makes the Love strong & bonding… & you will feel good about yourself. Up until 80s, a majority of people had arranged marriages, some even meeting for the first time on the wedding day!! Does that mean love-romance was absent from their life? Love can be gradual too & changing into Romance is a choice, an art where you are the artist. Paint it red, blue whatever your favourite shade is. By the way upto 80s the percentage of happily lived ever after was indeed higher!! Common getup & rekindle it in 2014. Don’t wait for the snakes to knock on your door. It’s the tool which spells the beginning of happily lived ever after!!

I would like to conclude my blog for the YEAR 2013 which saw too much destruction in too many ways with this most beautiful romantic picture… (This picture was supposed to be the concluding part of my coffee series… but 2 more is still pending, but I had to share it!). I found this picture posted a couple of years ago by an unknown source on the kodava.org site… What timing & presence of mind to click such an amazing picture…

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WOW (positively) in case you are wondering what is the red & green spread on the ground? Well its fresh coffee beans of course… don’t worry the beans were not contaminated… both of them were so caught up with each other… & normally they don’t harm you unless they smell danger from you… don’t you think COFFEE is kind of romantic… I find the flowers romantic & the snakes find the beans romantic… (We are cousins!!) what about you? At least have a coffee on me… try full bodied Nespresso Indriya which is the blend of the marriage between Arabica with a touch of Robusta Coffees which probably came from the same yard, the bed of Romance of Mr. & Mrs. Snake!

A big thank you for all of you for reading my blog & encouraging me to write…… I have expressed my opinion on love & romance, but it differs from person to person. I would love to have your comments & thoughts on this.

Wish all my Readers a Very, Very Happy NEW YEAR….. A snaky Romance & a big god bless you… lots of Love… be romantic & get lost in the Love/Romance… high time to recharge and rekindle and bring back the sparkle. This year for the second time in my married life, I will be celebrating my New Year over Skype with my husband even that is kind of romantic… he will sit there blowing fish kisses.. waiting for each other to close the Skype… hum if we can feel it why not you?

An amazing romantic experience……Coffee (1/9)

Since I’m a Kodavati from Kodagu, many people I know around the office or outside ask me a recurring question “Does coffee flower smell like coffee?” I always give them a big smile and say…. Well the answer is a BIG “NO”. It has one of the most amazing smells and an eye catching, beyond comprehensible beauty, and they usually end up listening to me blabbering about the beauty and the heavenly smell of the COFFEE BLOSSOM.

index(From: http://www.deepakg.com/blog/2009/04/yet-another-short-trip-to-coorg/)

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Almost every Kodava has seen and smelt it, but do they all feel the way I do? The feeling one gets can come from only the perfectly conducive setting. Coffee blossom is one of the most beautiful sights in the world and has an amazing, mind shattering smell to it. I have seen it all my life yet my mind craves for the sight and smell. Even now when I see the flowers, I pause… have a second look, smell it, smile, nod and go my way. When we were young, during the blossom season I would go to the coffee estate, and roam around aimlessly with the childhood belief of being able to have the fragrance and essence of the flowers become a part of me. My mother who did not like the idea of me wandering in the estate would scare me by saying snakes would come out for the smell.  I was and am so scared of snakes, and I would hesitate, but still end up heading out for my douse of perfume! The heady intoxication feeling… the nostalgic feeling always brings a smile on my lips and a feeling of intense joy fills me. Just like how the animals eating fermented Marula fruits in Africa and get hooked instantly, making more trips back for more, if possible I would like to go back to it before I kick the bucket!!

Someone I know even made an attempt to extract perfume from it, but the problem is you have to get the extract from the fresh flowers, flower life is fleeting, and if you pluck the flowers then u destroy the plants ability to make coffee… a real catch twenty two situation for a coffee planter yeah?

coffee flower

If rainfall is even, all the plants across Coorg will bloom at the same time. It’s so romantic… the beautiful weather… milky white flowers filling the entire branches and nodes of the stem along with the dark green leaves (even the buds are beautiful – by itself a sight to behold), the strong aroma from the thousands of flowers and equal number of bees on the flower with their ritualistic dance producing so much “bzzzzzz” (with so many bees it sounds more like a “Guieeee” to me) sound has a strange effect on our brain. (Sometimes even Cicadas join the chorus). All the three senses attacked at the same time with so much pleasure have a heady influence on the mind. After a while you will start walking dazed, almost intoxicated!! It may sound little odd but one must really experience it atleast once in their life time as it is close to the experience mentioned about the “valley of flower in Himalayas” in the book Autobiography of a YOGI. When I read the book, coffee blossom is the closest thing which came to my mind. I am not very sure how many have experienced it but I have surely done it many a times as I love Nature. When the flowers start to dry, the sight turns more somber, and the bees will be gone, but the smell is strangely still heady. Unfortunately now the total effect which I used to experience is eroding as unseasonal rains brings flowers at different times (often you can see flowers plus both young and ripe berries at the same time) and there are not enough bees around as pesticides have had bad effect on them.

unseasonal rain

The best thing is we don’t have to worry which coffee flower smells the best in the world… all the flowers looks and smells the same!! If you really want to experience the three sensual effects, I would rather advise you visit Robusta coffee plantation than the Arabica plantation. Arabica plantation is also good but Robusta has that romantic touch!! If you do please think of me… thank you in advance. (Part 1 of 9)

Please note that after the part 9 of 9, I will be posting a picture of real romance on coffee drying yard, a once in life time picture…. It is so unique…. Hair raising picture… you have to see it to believe. Unfortunately I never had the privilege of clicking the picture. It was taken by a Kodava unknown to me and was sent by somebody years ago… and if the real owner of the picture happens to see the picture please mail me.