The Trip to Kashmir

And here we are ! It's been a long time since I posted here. Much has happened in my life since then.. I got married to a wonderful girl. I'm actually learning cooking now! ( Credit goes to my wife for the patient teaching. ) Not quite experienced enough to start a cooking blog though( I'd run out of content in no time if I did ;)

I've gotten way more disciplined, focused and have a set morning ritual that I do every single day. ( Here's a secret I'm letting out for free : Please start a morning ritual if you don't already have one.. Mine includes Meditation, Journaling and a bunch of other things. It works best and will do wonders to your sense of living with purpose, if you do it consistently over a period of time, and eventually make it a part of your life ). Other tips will be made available on demand, for a nominal fee ;)

There's been no shortage of travel either.. I've been wanting to travel to Kashmir with my wife. The situation there has been volatile for years now. I checked with some locals, and we did travel anyway early this April, and it turned out to be absolutely fantastic ! Seeing the Tulip Gardens in full bloom ( They are in full bloom for about 2-4 weeks each year starting early April) will remain an unforgettable memory...

The pictures aren't quite bright since the weather was cloudy much of the time. The actual scenery is spectacular... Our infamous pony-ride ( of which there are no pics here ) will be featured in an exclusive post at a later date..

Tulip Gardens, Srinagar

Sonmarg

Aru Valley

Betaab Valley

Betaab Valley

Gulmarg

The trip to Kerala

I decided to do a solo trip. I've always travelled with friends so far, but this time, I thought it would be nice to head out on my own. I decided to head to the village of Kumarakom in the Kottayam district of Kerala. July is considered an off-season time to visit Kerala since the heavy rains can disrupt one's travel plans. On the other hand, it is during the monsoons that Kerala is supposedly most green and rejuvenating, and so, I decided to take a chance. I got lucky :-) Some memories from the trip -

 

The View from my room

 

Boating in the Vembnad Lake 

 

Kids get to this school by boat !

 

View from the awesome Jetty ride mid-way to Allepey that cost me Rs 10 and offered a cruise like experience

 The backwaters of Allepey

The day of departure - I woke up at six to the sound of my mobile alarm. I reached for the phone charger on the table only to find that half the charger cable was cut off and nowhere to be found. Further investigation revealed that the banana kept on the table had also been eaten. All those years of reading Holmes had not gone in vain after all, for, I smelt a rat, pun intended ;) I have no objections to rats eating my bananas provided they vacate the room soon after, but I do have serious objections to them chewing up my charger cable. The prospect of tracing the rat, and asking it to fix my charger seemed rather uninviting, so I postponed the rat worries, and went on the 4 Km trail in the Bird sanctuary.

All in all, it was fantastic trip, and reminded me once again of the incredible diversity in India !

By the Rainbow bridge

Tokyo at night - by the Rainbow bridge - a sight to behold. An unforgettable experience. 

Memories from the Japan trip

There is a principle in biology that loosely states that selfishness benefits individuals, and altruism benefits groups. The Japanese appear to have applied the latter idea repeatedly over several decades to result in society that lives with grace in the face of repeated natural disasters like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and hurricanes.. I've travalled to other countries, including one that is a far more popular destination, but Japan impressed me a lot more for a variety of reasons. Some memories that stand out -

• I was a little apprehensive about finding food ( and in hindsight, justifiably so:-), and the language barrier - Very few people speak English in Japan. I carried a Japanese phrase book with me and was able to manage pretty easily. With the phrasebook in hand, and with the Japanese's patience and eagerness to help, language turned out to be much less of a problem that I had originally anticipated.
• One statistic claims that there is one vending machine for every 23 people in Japan. That is incredible in itself, what is even more impressive( atleast when travelling from India ) is that there is no evidence of litter on the roads to indicate their presence.
• There are markings in Braille adjacent to elevator buttons so that the blind can independently operate the elevators.
• The Japanese are naturally very humble - Along with about 200 others, I entered an auditorium where a senior person was to give a presentation. It so turned out that there were no chairs in the auditorium. With absolutely no hesitation, all of them, including very senior managers, sat down on the floor cross legged, and patiently sat through the lecture. You won't find this in a corporate environment perhaps anywhere else. 'Sitting down on the floor' in my opinion is one of those great levellers in life ;-) 

Almost everywhere I went, I found that people are sincere and dedicated to whatever work they are assigned, and are eager to offer help or assistance. This was a refreshing change from the apathy that we often see in India. My guess is that sarcasm isn't common in Japan ( I'm far from being a fan of sarcasm) In fact, I think excessive street-smartness is in a way, the opposite of sincerity.

There might be aspects to Japanese culture that we can't understand, and perhaps even some that we might find hard to accept, but in all my interactions with the Japanese, I came away with a deep sense of respect for their attitude and outlook towards life..

Memories from the Chennai trip

Some memories from my recent trip to Chennai .. My brother-in-law and sister put together a fantastic plan to make it great fun !!

1) Cholamandal artists' village  - There wasn't much happening in the village when we arrived, but there was an interesting paintings-gallery to explore, with a good deal of 'modern art' .. Another delightful discovery from this trip was that my sister has taken her painting skills to a whole new level ! :-)

1) Dakshina Chitra was definitely the highlight of this trip ! Founded by Deborah Thiagarajan, it recreates  various architectural styles in South Indian traditional homes with painstaking attention to detail - the kind of houses your grandparents might have lived in if you hail from a traditional family. I was blown away by the extent to which they've committed themselves to this venture, and the rustic charm is truly authentic ! My parents would've loved  Dakshina chitra, and I will revisit this place with them at some point. Exploring this place fully would take atleast four hours ! ...A few clicks, including that of a person weaving a silk sari, and a shadow puppet performance.

Last year I had returned with the Melodica. True to tradition, this time my sis got me an instrument called 'tic tac'. Tic -tac is meant to be operated somewhat like a yo-yo, except that you've got to keep swinging it in a circular fashion, an act that will induce it to sound like frog with a sore throat earnestly crooning away to glory...:-) My bro-in-law and I took turns in operating this not-so-melodious instrument with much enthusiasm, causing much embarrassment to my sister :P

3) Cholayil Sanjeevanam  - We stopped here for lunch. Before I describe this is more detail, I've got a confession to make- I am a person who skips all the food related descriptions when I'm reading a book..:-) I enjoy good food (though I'm not really a foodie), but I operate on a simple principle - If you're going to talk about a certain recipe, I am willing to listen patiently, but only if you're going to give me some of that to taste once you're done with the descrition :P  Not surprisingly, I have no patience for cookery shows .. :-)

The meal begins with a few juices in varying colours, presumably Getafix's handiwork, after which follow several courses. That you end the heavy meal without feeling particularly sleepy is a testimony to their methods of food preparation involving naturopathic methods. I would recommend trying this place if you're into health-food; actually even if you're not ..:-)

4) No trip to Chennai is complete without a visit to the beach .. An image of the Kovalam beach ..the one aspect in which Chennai beats Bangalore .. :P

In all, it was a fantastic trip with a different kind of 'Chennai-experience' ... :-)  

More memories from Ladakh

A couple of years ago, I teamed up with two guys from Pune, and we met up at Manali. After spending a couple of days there, we hired a Tavera, and we had a person drive us to Leh ! I've travelled quite widely in India, but what I saw then was something breathtakingly fresh and beautiful ! I think everyone should travel from Manali to Leh on road once in their lives.

Along the way, all three of us suffered from pretty serious altitude sickness, slept in a tent right in the middle of the mountains shivering through the night despite multiple layers of clothing, drove over small streams that flow right over the road along a few stretches, and across several bridges that creaked and threatened to give way as we drove over them, and ended up spending a few days at an army camp, as these companions of mine had a friend posted there! I might post some details of those adventures some other time, but for now, I'll just put up some pictures from that wonderful trip !

1) The long winding road....

2) Miss this sign, and you are doomed :-)

3) "Zingzingbar" is a road building camp en-route to Leh. For some reason, I fell in love with the name, and spent the next ten minutes of my life having a Zingzingbar - pronounciation- contest with those guys:-) Try pronouncing it repeatedly yourself, and you'll see what I mean !:-)

4) Picture perfect ....

5) Pangong Lake - Otherworldly ....

The Chennai Chronicles

I spent about a week in Chennai starting from the new years eve. Here are some random memories from that trip..

1)Since its supposed to be winter, the weather in Chennai was quite pleasant. I was pleasantly surprised, for, having visited Chennai in the past only in the months of summer, I had come to the conclusion that it featured  three seasons - hot, very hot, and very very hot; or if you like silly pjs - sum, summer, and summest:-)  The IIT campus seems to have come up right in the middle of a forest, and is very beautiful, with spotted deer and black-bucks sharing the space with students ! The animals seem utterly unperturbed by the presence of humans, which is amazing !

2) In the month of December, there are concerts featuring some very good singers. The event is broadly called Margali Utsavam. I unfortunately reached Chennai just as the festival was coming to an end, but fortunately, the dance festival begins immediately after! I had the opportunity to witness a couple of spectacular dance performances ! I also spent some time at the digital archives, which boasts of some rare recordings that anyone can listen to at a console, by paying a very modest amount. The collection seemed good, though I hope they have the audio digitally restored at some point.

3)No visit to Chennai, I am told,  is complete without a trip to the Pondy Bazaar. A long array of tiny shops, stocking all kinds of accessories.. In one such stall, I spotted an exotic instrument in the shape of a mini Nadaswaram (think of it as a trumpet if you haven't come across it before), but having piano keys in place of the customary holes. You had to blow into it of course, but it would produce a sound only if you also played the keys. The novel playing mechanism, and the sound won me over, but it was painted in lurid yellow, a colour that, mildly put, does not appeal to my aesthetic sense. After giving the stall owner a lengthy discourse on financial and cultural benefits in stocking that noble instrument in more refined shades, I half closed my eyes, and bought the instrument for 110 rupees ! After getting home, and experimenting a bit, I discovered that it doesn't have all the 12 notes in an octave, and infact not even the standard 7 notes in the major scale! So, it allows me to play a variety of songs, each a little out of tune:-)

4) On the way from my sister's place to the station, the uncommonly amiable auto driver was in a talkative mood, and subjected me to a range of questions. He asked if I drank, smoked or had non-vegetarian food. He seemed diasppointed at my answers and declared me to be 'full waste' ! He then asked me how much money I had in my bank account. I replied saying I had just about enough for the auto fare. He then laughed heartily for about thirty seconds, and then declared me to be 'jolly personality'!:-)

5) My sister passed me an Agatha Christie book, apparently written in parts in the style of Wodehouse ! Thats next in line, once I am done with 'Rosy is my relative' which looks very promising !

A memory from Ladakh

I had been to Ladakh last year. It was an unforgettable experience! I have travelled quite a bit within India, but it is unlike any other place I have been to. This is one of the best pictures I took there. Unfortunately, it shows the wrong date( I tool the pic in Sep 2009, and I'm trying to remove the date from the image)

The very morning I was to fly from Leh to Delhi, the Dalai Lama arrived in Leh. Hundreds of people came to the airport to pay their respects to him. Among them were these two- a young boy of about seven, who along with his father, had brought flowers for the Dalai Lama. This picture as taken just outside the Leh airport ! The mountains in the background are not fake ! The whole of Ladakh is unreal !



The trip to Ranganathittu and Mysore !

On thursday, some of us met might up, and right then and there, decided that we'd go on a trip to Ranghanathittu on Sat, that's yesterday. And amazingly, we actually did go.

Five of us - Sudhir, Suman, Parin, Shriganesh aka Garry, and I. Sudhir had arranged a Tata sumo. Garry came to my place at 6, and we left for Sudhir's place. We didn't know the way beyond City market, asked some folks for directions, and were managing just fine. Soon we got to a pretty remote place, with no soul in sight for over a kilometer's distance. Just then we noticed 2 chaps (C1, and C2), and delighted with this sudden abundance of humans, stopped to ask for directions. I went over to C1, while Garry handled C2. C1 apparently knew the way, and was supplyling me with the info. He paused midway to overhear C2, hurled some abuses at him, and continued where he left off and was soon done. I got back to watch Garry and C2 in conversation. They were yet to settle on a common language for communication. Garry later told me, that not knowing Kannada, he'd tried his luck with Hindi and English, and as a last resort, tried Tamil. C2 at that point, had turned deep red, and was about to get physical. Not aware of this, having arrived on the scene at a pivotal point, I tried Kannada with C2, and met with instant approval, and success. The man was earnestly talking nonsense - 'You go straight, and then you go straight and then you go straight and then you take right, and ' - He patted me encouragingly on my shoulder at this point, as if to say' Dar math beta, tu yeh kar sakta hai', and said triumphantly 'and then you take left !' The man was drunk. Garry and I took an unanimous decision to implement C1's ideas.

We were soon lost again. This time , we met C3, who cleverly asked us to take the bus route. He said it would lead us straight to our destination. I pointed out that there were no buses we could follow. 'No no ! you still take the bus route' , he insisted. Another chap said ' Take right at the next circle'. I'm now highly suspicious of the word 'circle'. I think we should have a standardised, and well accepted definition for the term. Some folks treat just about any crossroad to be a circle, while a few others expect some clearly circular edifice to be present there. Certain others expect an architectural wonder at the center for a crossroad to be elevated to the status of a 'circle'. The word 'circle' was to haunt us for the rest of the day. Finally we met a noble soul, who gave us clear directions, and we managed to reach Sudhir's place at about 7. We were soon off in a Tata Sumo.

We stopped at Kamat Lokaruchi for breakfast. We reached Ranganathittu at about 9:45. We'd originally hoped to be there by 8:30Since it was a weekend, we hoped the birds themselves would be up late, and would greet us enthusiastically. Suman captured an amazing video of a weaver bird at work. We were soon in a boat that we'd engaged for the five of us. Some birds chirped away to glory, while some seemed be engaging in raucous laughter, and a few others appeared to be groaning. All seemed busy. We mostly saw black-and white birds. To our delight, a painted stork family turned up on a small island, perhaps 30sq metres in size. They seemed to be busy washing their feet. We asked the boatman to get closer to the rock-island, captured a few snaps, and continued on our way. I was disappointed at not having seen any crocodiles. I'd been hoping for some safe(?) adventure, thought not quite along the lines of crocodile-driving. Our ride was done in about 30 min, and we lazed around for while. We left for Srirangapatna.

We got to Dariya Daulat, Tipu's summer place that's now been converted to a museum. There are some beautiful murals on the ouside walls. We soaked in some history, relaxed in the lawns for while, and were off to Sangam. Sangam's the meeting point of three rivers - cauvery, and two others whose names I forget. We went on a Theppa ride, worth experiencing for its instability (provided it doesn't overturn). By then, it was almost 1:30PM, and we decided to head to Mysore for lunch.

The hotel was crowded and poorly managed. We had to get lunch coupons, and then find ourselves a place to sit . The technique, as I've described in a earlier blog-post, was all about stalking and pouncing. You stand embarassing close to a chap who's eating and as soon as he's done, or almost done, you grab his place. This technique didn't appeal to our tastes , and we were soon off in search of another hotel. We walked for a about a km, and got to another place, and incredibly, this one too required you to use the same technique. Thankfully there was an AC section , where they took down your names, and the ' First cum first serve' law prevailed. After about 45 minutes of waiting, we got in, placed an order, and were promptly rewarded with further 25 minutes of waiting. Lots of practise waiting. Dunno why they call them waiters. We are the ones who end up doing all the waiting . We had lunch.

It was almost 4 when we finished lunch. It was starting to rain. We had to choose between Mysore palace, and Talkad. We chose the latter, and wisely so. The wind hitting our faces, the weather - almost raining but not quite , coupled with Parin's enthusiatic redering of Kishore da, and Mohammad Rafi, caused us to almost not notice the terribly bumpy road. We reached talkad at about 5:15. After some just-a-little-tiresome sand-walking, we got to the water. We'd unwittingly forgotten our shorts. We did some timepass in knee deep water anyway. We decided to try out another theppa ride. The cool breeze, calm waters, the setting sun, the endearingly unstable theppa, - all made for a very soothing time. We'd been out together for less than 12 others, but it seemed like we'd been together much longer than that,

By seven, we were back in the sumo, and were on our way back to Bangalore. At some point we had to get off at and push the Sumo. We stopped at Kamat again for dinner. To make things lively, we had a flat tire at about 10:30 pm. The stepney was thankfully functional, and we got to Sudhir's place at about 11:30. Garry drooped me off at my place, and was off to his own .

All in all, a very satisfyingly tiring trip!

6 places I want to visit

1)Himalayas - Have been to Nepal before, but that was loooong back; can do with a memory-refresh !
2)Valley of the Kings, and the pyramids - Egypt in general
3)Machu Picchu - The Lost city of the Incas, Peru
4)New Zealand - If I remember right, 'Lord of the rings' was shot here !
5)Venice - Game for a gondola ride !
6)Jaiselmer - Sitting atop a beautifully caparisoned camel, galumphing past the vastness of the desert landscape !

Would me many more, but these are must-see for me.

The trip to Coorg !

Just last week, I went on a trip to Coorg along with my colleagues. Yes, you guessed it - It wasn't an official trip :) It had been quite a while since I'd last been on a trip like that. Ofcourse i'd been to other cities in the last few years, but to a hill station - must've been sometime in 2000, (ya AD) I guess. So I was naturally very excited.

The first thing that struck me was that the place was sooooooo green !!! There was a lot of fog of mist ! And there were people who spent their whole life living in a place like that. Probably they won't appreciate the beauty as much as we did, coming from the miserable traffic - filled roads.

We reached the place about 3 in the afternoon. We were all put up in a resort. I shared my room with NR, a splendid guy. the same evening, we went to a place called Raja's seat; basically a view-point. A stunning one at that ! I won't try to describe how the view is from the place; would be a futile attempt given my meagre vocabulary.

The resort is basically in the middle of the jungle.There are beautiful waking trails that you can explore, and lose yourself in. So the next morning, NR and I set out on one such trail. Despite my best efforts, we managed to not get lost, thanks largely to NR's uncanny sense of direction. We realized soon that we were getting pretty late. The whole group was supposed to assemble in a common area by 7:30 , have breakfast, and leave for an elephant park. We rushed to the room , and NR went for a bath first. He was out in a minute, with a leech on his toe. It didn't seem big, so apparently he hadn't lost much blood. Having got the leech of his toe, we decided to drop it outside the balcony. They say - 'slippery as an eel'. Since I have not had the opportunity to study eels from close quarters, I will say ' slippery as a leech' . After about 15 minutes of strategizing, we came up with an innovative solution to trasport the leech to the balcony, and to drop it amidst the bushes. The leech had a safe, though not quite comfortable journey.By the time we were ready, it was already 8, and we rushed to the common room. Along the way, we saw RJ on his way too. We were thrilled that we weren't the only ones who would end up missing the bus. Indeed, when we reached the common room, there were just 5 of us in there. The other 25 were late:)

The morning was spent in a elephant sanctuary kind of place. I didn't really enjoy that. Basically the challenge was avoid elephant -dung wherever you went. You would see an elephant a mile away (though the dung was all around you) and then everyone would clap . Not particcularly thrilling. There was also an elephant ride arranged for those who were game for it. I thought for a moment that I'd try it out, and then immediately changed my mind. I was even more convinced when I actually saw the elephant - a depressed look on its face, while there were about 8 people sitting on its back, laughing and making strange noises. I believe that we should probably consider banning such rides, having so called 'fun' at the expense of the poor animal.
The latter half of the day was spent in a coffee planataion, a far better place I felt. SM asked the guide enough questions on the financial aspects of coffee to convince us that he'd be getting into the coffee bussiness soon.

The evening was spent in the common room, playing dumb charades. Was great fun, enacting and guessing the Hindi/English movies, in many ways the best event in the whole trip !

On day 3, I went on a walk while NR went swimming. I was soon back and ready. Yes, I managed to find my way back inspite of my best efforts to get lost. I guess I got lost in trying to lose myself, and thus found my way back. 'Utterly flawgical', you say ? Nevermind. I quikly got ready and waited for NR. NR was back, with no animal/insect attached to any part of his body and went for a bath. This time I was determined to not be late, as we had all decided last night that we would meet exactly at 8 this morning. NR wasn't out even after 15 min. I gently knocked on the door, and asked him to rush . NR said he was almost done. NR seemed to be really enjoying his bath. He was out after another 15 min. We made it to the common room at 8:10. This time there were 12 of us. A huge improvement. We all had breakfast, went to a stunning Tibetan Monastery on the way, and were then back in Blore.

All in all an amazing trip. I had loads of fun, and had a great time with NR. I think I should go on such trips a lot more often. Travel somehow widens your perspective.