aJCfreak - Dan's Blog

Designed by Freepik ​ Written on 9th Nov, 2016 - 10 pm. For my lover - my wife. When all the trials of yesterday Keep me far away from you When all the joys of our tomorrow Are further than you are What have I got to do In time What have we got to lose Right now Is the world far away From us Are we drifting out from shore Go on... Hold me Like the world is falling Every moment that we're Keeping apart Love me Like we're always running To the place we're wanting To be our home That's all we got to do

Our Hero Honda Passion's 'cockpit' After my time aboard the Science Express , I've been trying to get Smitha to ride the bike. The bike is a Hero Honda Passion, with a 100 cc engine - what folks generally term a 'commuter'. I've ridden it over vales and hills, near rocks and lagoons and about 40,000 km in the two-and-a-half years that I've owned it. What I really would love to see, is my darling wife riding it. Confidently. Comfortably. And of course, joyously. As far as the last one is concerned - joy - I am sure she'll find that it comes with the phenomenon of bike-riding. As for the first two, confidence and comfort - I decided to begin building it. One night, I gently coaxed Smitha to ride the bike for about 4.5 km, inside Mysore city. This coaxing took several persuasive words from my part, plus my hands controlling the handlebars from the pillion position behind her. I also acted as her right rearview mirror, and at times, helped her ...

Me, during my years in Bangalore (from L to R): August 2007, May 2009, August 2011 When, like me, one works in a large MNC for 5 years and 9 months, and then decides to move on, the onlookers raise questions. The first question, "Where did you get a job?", is also the most unnecessary question. I haven't got a job elsewhere. And I'm not looking. The second question, "What about money? Survival?" has a pretty unconventional answer ("unconventional" by the standards of this fast-paced, rat-raced world). It is an answer that some have scoffed at, others have considered as part of "Dan's craziness" while still others have been left stunned at hearing it. Nevertheless, the answer is simple: "God will provide." Let me try to explain things a bit more clearly. On 22nd January 2012, during the regular Sunday worship service at my church, Adonai , the Australian worship band, Shalom, was ministering to us when God spoke to me. ...

Bacon Breakfast Sausages à la Dan, with sparkling Cranberry juice - my Valentine's Day breakfast I've been married to my wife, Smitha, for more than two years now. Our "love" relationship preceded our marriage by more than three years. If I search my heart, within its innermost reaches, I find that I'm still deeply in love with my wife. True, life has its ups and downs, and marriage requires focus and dedication. The recent Valentine's Day "celebration" has made me think about couples and how we show our love. I had long-planned a surprise day filled with many acts  of love; with a mysterious line accompanying each act  with the day ending with my "line" for Valentine's Day 2012. A couple of days before Valentine's Day, and all my acts  were lined up. I had bought what was needed to be bought, I had prepared what was needed to be cooked, and (thankfully, in hindsight!) I didn't book tickets that need to be booked (I wante...

My wife and I joined the Gym in the first week of June. I don't see the need for someone who looks like my wife to go to the Gym, but she wanted to have 1 month of working out before that trekking trip to the Himalayas (which is currently on). Me, I just wanted to see if I could lose this tummy that my five-year stint at HP in Bangalore had given me. So I joined up - and made sure that I was performing exercises for reducing my tummy only - none to increase arm/chest muscles as such. The first day we went was a Saturday. It was kinda hard - I've never been to the Gym before in my life. By sheer will and determination, I pulled through the required quota of 1 hour. My body was aching in all places through Sunday (we didn't go on Sunday) and Monday. I missed the Gym on Tuesday due to Men's Fellowship at church. When I returned to the Gym on Wednesday, my body hadn't been aching at all. I spent the whole day trying to find out what happened to all that pain in my arms ...

Yeah, Coonoor is a crazy lil place for me. It's where some of my bestest friends from college, CSI CE , spent most of their weekend time while at college. It's where I've gotten to know some really cool people at Union Church. It's also where I've spent the least time, while I studied in Nilgiris. Putting all that aside, this past weekend was spent in UC, Coonoor, and it was a splendid time. It was refreshing physically, it was invigorating spirit-wise, enriching spiritually, enlightening knowledge-wise and brilliantly endearing. Yeah - a lot of adjectives. I just felt the need to jot down a few thoughts about the whole affair and where each of the Dudes4Christ dudes are in their lives right now. Smitha , my wife, darling and the love of my life, thoroughly enjoyed the time there. She was pretty much at home, mostly :) The dudes all seemed more mature than our college days, albeit they maintained their characteristic streaks that made them stand out during college. ...

Well, it's been donkeys years since I wrote anything here. Can't say it's been cos I've been too busy. I have been busy now and then, but not so much that I couldn't have written here. ;) In the past 14 months or so, since I last updated, these are the major events that have occurred. 1. In March, I purchased a Sony DSC-T700 digicam as a birthday + Valentine's gift for Smitha. 2. On 29th June, 2009, I was engaged to Smitha, the love of my life. This was a pretty decent week, we all went to Mahabalipuram , which is a beach-side town, and had a lovely "Engagement holiday" Photos are up, here . 3. I moved out of my bro's house, and into a really large place on November 1st. 4. The Wedding took place on 28th December, 2009, in Vadodara (Baroda) , Gujarat. A few videos of the event are available: The Wedding - Ceremony Part 01 The Wedding - Ceremony Part 03 The Wedding reception - Wethro speaks The Wedding reception - Dan speaks The Wedding reception...

Yep - that's right - Smithafied!!! To all of those who're wondering - what the heck is that - well, it's not much. It's just a meshing together of two lives that God brought together... More specifically, it's the state that Dan is in since God brought Smitha into his life. He's been Smitha-fied...... JC-fying life has always been a top prerogative. But without realising it, Smithafying my life has also taken a good precedence over the other things in my life. And so, to pay tribute to all some of the good stuff that my darling babe has brought into my life, I registered the www.Smithafied.com domain name with Google. That's a Valentine's Day gift for my sweetheart. It's something that touched her heart, and warmed several others. Made me grin like an idiot. ;) Thank God for all He's given me. Love Him!!!

Early on the morning of the 23rd of December (the day after we met  the parents ),  both my parents, Smitha and I left for Mehsana from Baroda . We had hired an Indica to take us there. The trip was nice. We slept for the most time and mum kept complaining that she couldn't see a single peacock. Smitha made the mistake of mentioning that peacocks were extremely common along the highways in Gujarat (atleast, near Ahmedabad ) and this made my mum desire to see a few. Smitha and I could spot a few, but by the time mum turned 'round, we'd crossed those ever-elusive birds. Finally, though, mum caught sight of a few birds just before we rolled into Mehsana. At Mehsana, I was all set to see my cousin and her two kids, all three of whom I haven't laid eyes on since May 2005. If you think that's bad, I've not set eyes on my cousin's hubby for way way longer - so long that I've forgotten how long it has been! So it was with a bit of surprise that I realised that b...

For the uninformed, the entire trip up north to Gujarat this past Christmas week was so that my parents could meet up with Smitha's parents. None of us were really expecting anything much to happen - it was supposed to be a simple s pend time together  thingy. So after that decent train journey, I landed in Baroda at around 05.15 on Monday, the 22nd of December, 2008. I caught an auto (with the help of RM's dad, since I don't know Hindi o r  Gujarati) to the hotel where my parents were put up. They were waiting up for me and we had a nice lil reunion early in the morning. I then set off to wake up ma sweetie. I entered Smitha's house, and aunty is like "Smitha!!! Wake up, wake up wake up!" while I was like "Nooooooooo!!!! Let her sleep, please!!!!" :) I just simply love  watching her sleep. She looks soooo beautiful and peaceful. Here, take a look. My own sleeping beauty I just sat there for some time, watching her sleep. After she woke up and we h...

Yes, I will be owning one, if all goes well, by the 22nd of August. I thought I might not have enough cash to go out and purchase one, but then I ended up praying to God to send someone who would be willing to gift it to me... and guess whom He sent? Smitha D. Gnanaolivu. We all know that she's awesome and she's the sweetest, but this is like the icing and the cake. She's simply the best. She came forward on her own and said she'd been wanting to surprise me, but couldn't let me agonise over the thought that I might not be able to own one. So there.... I'll be getting it, hopefully. God be praised. He's the rock and our ruler, and He certainly rocks and rules!!!!