So here we are at final steps of year 2006. Less than three days to go. For me personally it was whirl-winding year.

Initial three months (Jan, Feb & Mar) were comparatively dull. Thats due hectic work schedule. Most of the weekends were spent in my native.

April saw my first long ride to Shivanasamudra with BikeNomads. And a new nomadic life - travel, travel and travel. This made me to start a travel blog payaniga - to jot down my travel tales

May I was trekking in Ooty, June, July & August - a set of scattered one day travels to Shivagange, Acchalu betta, Deepambudhi, Manchanabele, TG Dam.

August saw me becoming an owner of DSLR camera. Bought a Nikon D70s. And its clicking all the way till now.

End of September and October first week was a dream. Went on a long ride to Goa - almost 1500 KMs in 4 days. Riding in a group - group size varied from day to day - from 5 to 13 to 23 and back to 9 - with fellow riders joining from different places. And to add to this I started a daily photoblog - 'Six Mega Pixels' @ aminus3

November, addition of new family member. My syster & BIL (brother-in-law) were blessed with a cute baby girl on 24th. Very cute doll and I'll have to wait for some more time to take her on a long bike ride ;)

December was season of marriages - My college buddies, Indu got married and Abhi got engaged. And meeting new (read it as online/bloggers) friends.

Wish you and your family a very happy and prosperous new year. See you next year.

Neenaanaadre Naaneenena (in Kannada) translates to - "If you are me, then am I you?". Its a Kannada version of William Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors". Scripted by S. Surendranath in Kannada on the same theme with a slight change in characters.

Happened to watch the drama 'Neenaanaadre Naaneenena' in Rangashankara yesterday. A total laughter riot for complete 2 hours - one obsessed to detective novels, other with Shayars, anohter is a deaf, fourth sings a song with every dailogue. Wonderful performance by Srinvas Prabhu, Sihikahi Chandru, Jahangir and others. Would love to wahtc it again.

To add to this was company of taleneted Mukta balaga members - Pransesh Sir, Usha, Veena, Girish, Sundar. And Bellur RK and Vijay just dropped in to meet us before the show.

All in all, it was wonderful evening spent @ Rangashankar.

There was time, when friends circle was limited to neighbours, schoolmates, friends of friends or cousins of same age-group. Now there is no limit for making friends. Internet/blogworld has totally shrunk the world. Now I've a friend working in New Zealand, another one in Hyderabad, one more in Portuguese. Absolutely no boundaries.

Two days back, I met another set of my new friends - blog friends. Many of them are regular readers and commentators in Sanjay's Mukta thread. It was a great experience.

I wanted to write in details about the meet, but Shruthi and Diya beat me (here & here). So I'll just list who all were there for the meet -

Bellur Ramakrishna of Rambling with Bellur,
Vijay of Bangalore Blues,
Ever-optimistic Veena Shivanna,
Shruthi with her Hallucinations,
Srik, the Backbencher,
Praneshachar,
Diya,
Vani,
Usha & Dwaraka - our hosts for the day.

A rough plan is cooking up for another meet next week. Eagerly waiting for that.

Along Bangalore getting changed its name to Bengalooru, thought of modifying the template. From template to updating the blogroll and finaly the name too.

So from now onwards "Scribbles from my yesteryears" becomes - "avalokana" - with the new look.

In sanskrit: avalokana - n. regard; observation, contemplation

PS: Still lot of improvement need to be done. Let me know what you think about present look.

PS: Sorry Kishan was not able make it your wedding. Will come for lunch one day instead, thats for sure :p