Howdy folks? Have nt updated my blog in a long time. Though I've read so many books during this time and watched a ton of movies, nothing was worth writing a review here. ( I take that back, I was a bit lazy :) ). So, how have you been doing? Remember my post in March. I went to Shirdi to visit Baba and could neither find an accomodation nor the darshan. Well, I really felt snubbed by the Lord and badly wanted to go again. Last weekend, I went there along with my friend R. R apparently was a frequent visitor to Shirdi as a child and knows the place in and out. He adviced me to read Baba's biography before the trip to enjoy the trip better. (Believe me, it was an advice worth following). He also pulled some connections to get acco and premium darshan.
So, there we were on Ajanta express on Friday evening. We had packed some delicious meal and journey was fun. We got off the train at Nagarsol and took a cab to Shirdi. Nagarsol is a small village. I mean really really small like say Gunjapadugu. Technically, trains do not stop there. But Railway authorities realized that, it is the nearest train stop to Shirdi for folks coming from Hyderabad and created a stop. So, you can imagine the commotion in such a small place the moment a train arrives. In any civilized place, you would imagine, the bus authorities would tie this train arrival time to send some buses to Shirdi. But this is India. No such luck. So, private taxies like qwalis, maruti vans rightfully cash the opportunity. we squeezed into a Maruti van paying 50/- for 40km journey. 2 of us along with the driver squeezed in the front. God knows how many were there in the back. (something like 6 adults and 3 children..whoa). We arrived in Shirdi had breakfast at a place which was 1 on a scale of 10. Then set out to meet the temple PRO and R got us some clean but nothing fancy kind of accomodation for dirt cheap price. Saturday happened to be "Gudi Padwa" in Maharashtra which was a big day for them. You can imagine the crowd. I was wondering if Baba was again getting ready to show his ire on me. PRO told it was one of the busiest days for them and he was not sure if he could provide a previlege darshan we were hoping for. Anyways, general darshan Q was taking 3-4 hrs. So, we decided to visit 'Dwarakamayi' and 'Chawadi'. The two places where Baba used to sleep for his sixty years of stay in Shirdi. R said, that should nt be a popular place and we can spend some quality time in the masjid(dwarakamayi) where Baba used to stay. We were in for a rude shock. R's knowledge was 10 years out of date. There was a 1.5hrs Q to enter the masjid and we had no choice but stand in the line. While standing in the Q, I finished most of the Baba's bio that I got along. In the masjid you can find places like the 'dhuni' where baba started a fire a 100+ years ago and it is burning non-stop since then. (Ashes from the dhuni is what you see on devotees forehead). There is also a pillar to which baba used to lean and stone on which he used to sit while talking to devotees. It was a great feeling to see those places after reading about them in the book. From there we went to Chawadi. Baba used to alternately sleep in these places. After that were a bit exhausted and had a lunch in some AP tourism place, punnami. I did nt like it at all. R gave an OK rating. Then, we tried to see if we could manage a general darshan but realized its gonna be a long wait in the queue and ditched the idea.
In the afternoon, we visited places in the samsthan like the book stall, gurusthan (the neem tree where baba was first spotted)., lendy baag (a garden which was planted by baba) and were idling the in the temple complex). At around 4, we again contacted the PRO to get a pass for the evening aarati darshan. we were asked to meet at the main entrance at around 5:30 for the evening aarati. We were just biding that time near temple. Finally at around 6 we were let in. and at 6:30 the aarati started. It was GREAT. I was standing just 3 feet away from Baba's Idol and samadhi for good 30-40 minutes. thouroughly enjoyed the whole experience. After that, we went back to our room, after evening ablutions, set out for dinner. Since we were standing for most part of the day (roughly 7-8 hours), we were dead tired and really wanted to sleep. (dinner at woodlands was good. I ordered bisibelebath since it was a kannada place, it was good). After a long day, we slept like deadlogs. The plan was to wake up by 5 and stand in the Q for a general darshan by 6pm. That way we can avoid the crowd that gets accumulated for morning aarati. It was a perfect plan. we had darshan within 40 minutes. It was also peaceful. No pushing and shoving. After spending good 10 minutes infront of baba, we spent some time in mukhdarshan hall. R was meditating, I tried but dozed off :). After breakfast, R wanted to do 108 parikramas around guru samsthan. I was nt sure if I was upto the task, but could nt imagine sitting alone waiting for him. So, joined him. Because of the crowd, it took us 90 minutes for such a small distance. Imagine doing that after spending an entire day standing. But, surprisingly it was nt that bad. we had fun. Then we collected some 'oodi' (ashes from dhuni) which are distributed freely. Bought some posters and books, donated some money to samsthan for poor feeding. It was around 10 by then. We again came back to room and tried to eat at the prasadalaya. But the Q was serpentine and I discouraged the whole idea. Then we went to Khandoba temple. sat there for the aarati. After lunch, we happily came to room for a nap. Boy, we desperately needed that :)) lol.
At around 4pm, we went out to shopping. I bought some toy for Vibhu and some printed kurta for myself with lots of Om symbols on it. The kinds you see on sanyasi's.. lol.
Typical tradition in the Shirdi was to see Baba as soon as you arrive and take leave from him before you leave. R wanted to do the same and we stood once more in the Q for dwarakamai. It was raining and pretty chaotic. The trip was so much fun till that point. I somehow lost my patience got into fight with people were cutting lines. urghh.. how could I not .. lol. In the whole process, we realized, we were getting delayed and had to take a call whether to stand in the line and risk missing the train. Baba finally let us in time. When we came back, we realized R lost his 3000/- worth nike sandals right infront of Baba's humble abode. It was a bit shocking. Urgh..first the fight..then this.. I was like hmm...looks like some one is trying to teach us a lesson. We did nt have much time anyway to contemplate. We rushed to the room, checked out, got dinner packed and were againing bargaining with Maruti Van walahs to transport us back to Nagarsol. Return trip was nt eventless journey. Over all, it was except for the tailpiece. Thanks to R for the company and his aunt whose knowledge abt the place, contacts with samsthan made our trip so memorable.
Oh yea forgot to mention, we also visited Baba's famous devotee houses some of which are still preserved. R's aunt translated many books about baba from marathi to telugu and gave the returns on the books to samsthan. So, all her knowledge about the place added much more meaning to our trip. My advice to future travellers, read Sai's bio before you go. That way you can explore and feel the place better.
My laments, I wish the previleged aarati passes were available for a price like in Tirupati for a price. That would have been fair to everyone. I wanted to give feedback to samsthan but totally forgot abt it.
ufff... what a long post. I will take leave.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
some more movies and books..
Babel : Finally I got to watch the acclaimed movie. And it deserves all the praise in the world. I am a fan of Latino poetry and literature. Now I am slowly loving their movies too. If you have n't seen this yet, put it in your list. As a practice, I wont go in to the details of story and be a kill joy. But this is a great watch. Definitely not one of those feel good movies. So watch if you dont mind going to bed in a sombre mood. Background music, Screenplay and some amazing action are one great thing in the movie. Watch out for that.
Sarkar Raj: After RGV's 'aag' debacle, anyone should have guts to go to theaters. But I for one believe form is temporary and class is permanent. So, I dared watching it. It was nt that bad after all. Few things you like about this movie are it has a good story to tell, not one of those bollywoord flix which make you wonder whats the point after three long hours. It is crisp. There are no stupid songs and you hardly get bored. Casting, technicalities are all signature RGV. Couple of things I don't like is the way Aishwarya's character is underdeveloped and suddenly thurst in to the audience at the end. There is also a joker Industrialists role, which was so filmy.
My recommendation is to watch it on dvd if you have time to kill or if you are an RGV fan (which by the way is a vice now).
Almost Single : Thats the new chic-lit book in the Indian market. After reading some good reviews and also the fact that Harper Collins offered huge chunk of money to debutant author for american edition, I got tempted to read this. While the idea of reading Indian chic-lit (chic literature) sounds novel, this book is a big disappointment. To cut short, replace carrie in Sex and the city with Bridget Jones and you have Almost Single. Nevertheless, you can read in flights where you have absolutely nothing to do. (first one to ask me, will get this book from me.)
Joker in the Pack : Student Lit. is the in thing now. There are books by IITians and IIM grads. This was also received with much applause since an year. Frankly, this reads like a blog of an IIM student. There is hardly any drama or good writing. There are too many cliche characters. If you want to take a peek into life of an IIM student, this probably works for you, otherwise its just another flight book. Offer valid for this book too :) first one to ask me will get it.
Above Average: This is another IITian's book. But this one is good. It is good writing and it has a good story to tell with all the humane drama. I would recommend this to folks, who want to take a peek into new age Indian literature. No offers on this book. you have to get your own copy :-) This is definitely a better book than the pot boilers dished out by Chetan Bhagat.
ciao more later..
Sarkar Raj: After RGV's 'aag' debacle, anyone should have guts to go to theaters. But I for one believe form is temporary and class is permanent. So, I dared watching it. It was nt that bad after all. Few things you like about this movie are it has a good story to tell, not one of those bollywoord flix which make you wonder whats the point after three long hours. It is crisp. There are no stupid songs and you hardly get bored. Casting, technicalities are all signature RGV. Couple of things I don't like is the way Aishwarya's character is underdeveloped and suddenly thurst in to the audience at the end. There is also a joker Industrialists role, which was so filmy.
My recommendation is to watch it on dvd if you have time to kill or if you are an RGV fan (which by the way is a vice now).
Almost Single : Thats the new chic-lit book in the Indian market. After reading some good reviews and also the fact that Harper Collins offered huge chunk of money to debutant author for american edition, I got tempted to read this. While the idea of reading Indian chic-lit (chic literature) sounds novel, this book is a big disappointment. To cut short, replace carrie in Sex and the city with Bridget Jones and you have Almost Single. Nevertheless, you can read in flights where you have absolutely nothing to do. (first one to ask me, will get this book from me.)
Joker in the Pack : Student Lit. is the in thing now. There are books by IITians and IIM grads. This was also received with much applause since an year. Frankly, this reads like a blog of an IIM student. There is hardly any drama or good writing. There are too many cliche characters. If you want to take a peek into life of an IIM student, this probably works for you, otherwise its just another flight book. Offer valid for this book too :) first one to ask me will get it.
Above Average: This is another IITian's book. But this one is good. It is good writing and it has a good story to tell with all the humane drama. I would recommend this to folks, who want to take a peek into new age Indian literature. No offers on this book. you have to get your own copy :-) This is definitely a better book than the pot boilers dished out by Chetan Bhagat.
ciao more later..
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Another book - Three mistakes of my life
Ha ha, I am not talking abt my life. Thats the title of new book by Chetan Bhagat. Chetan Bhagat is a phenomenon in India. In the history of Indian writers, he is highest sold Indian writers. His first two books "Five point some one", "One night at call center" together sold a million yes MILLION copies. His third book was titled as a pun. If you don't knot him, Chetan is alumni of IIT Delhi, IIM Ahmedabad. So, what is it which makes him tick?
First among them is, his writing is very contemporary. His writing includes the many experiences which you can relate to. Growing up in any metro, any small town is more common than you can imagine. Second thing is, he strategically priced the books at 95/- cost of which is less than a movie ticket in IMAX.
And most important is his lucid and readable prose. For those, scoffing at his success he is no Rushdie. I have no comments. Atleast he makes people buy books and make them read.
His first book, Five point some one is a very interesting and funny read. His second book is worth giving a miss. But this one is definitely worthy read. worth each paise of those ninty five rupees :). I wont go much into details but next time u want to read something on the flight or a quick read to take a break from something of Rushdie's this is the book to pick.
I will sign off with a vibhu pic. Have a good day everyone.
First among them is, his writing is very contemporary. His writing includes the many experiences which you can relate to. Growing up in any metro, any small town is more common than you can imagine. Second thing is, he strategically priced the books at 95/- cost of which is less than a movie ticket in IMAX.
And most important is his lucid and readable prose. For those, scoffing at his success he is no Rushdie. I have no comments. Atleast he makes people buy books and make them read.
His first book, Five point some one is a very interesting and funny read. His second book is worth giving a miss. But this one is definitely worthy read. worth each paise of those ninty five rupees :). I wont go much into details but next time u want to read something on the flight or a quick read to take a break from something of Rushdie's this is the book to pick.
I will sign off with a vibhu pic. Have a good day everyone.
Monday, May 26, 2008
howdy
hi all,
its been a long time i came to this forum. There were couple of things worth blogging but I could hardly find time. Vibhu, my 1.5yrs nephew is here. He has a magic wand which makes time run in fast foward mode :) Every available minute spent in his company, it is natural not to log. Ok. ok..let me write the bunch of things that I wanted to write.
Vibhu :) He is such a cutie pie. He is in the mocking bird phase right now. repeats after everything you say. for a 16months old his vocabulary is roughly around 200-250 words. you can imagine how much fun it is to spend time with him. He is a hyper-active busy bee and does n't like eating and sleeping much :) Here is a pic from my collection.
Books : I read two interesting books in the past one month. "Unaccustomed Earth" by Jhumpa Lahiri. She is the queen of melancholy and ofcourse queen of ABCD lifes. If you are looking for some happy read this is not for you. If you dont mind realistic and often depressive narrations, go get your copy. btw, in India, I bought a hard-cover edition for 300/- :-p
Another one I read is "Above Average" by Amitabha Bagchi. This is a debut novel from an IIT prof. At the outset, I thought this is just another IIT book like "five point some one" but this has a story and characters are real. Good time pass book and this is a very easy read.
Movie : Finally, I got to watch "There will be blood". Daniel Day-Louis. Boy, what an actor he is. I was hoping he would get an oscar for "gangs of new york". "der aayi durust aayi" :). This movie is an art flick. So, I wont recommend it to typical Indian movie lover. But, I loved the movie. Notably, the back ground music and cast of the movie. Amaaaaaaaaazing.
There is so much to write, I will wait for another post.
You have fun and take care of near and dears.
its been a long time i came to this forum. There were couple of things worth blogging but I could hardly find time. Vibhu, my 1.5yrs nephew is here. He has a magic wand which makes time run in fast foward mode :) Every available minute spent in his company, it is natural not to log. Ok. ok..let me write the bunch of things that I wanted to write.
Vibhu :) He is such a cutie pie. He is in the mocking bird phase right now. repeats after everything you say. for a 16months old his vocabulary is roughly around 200-250 words. you can imagine how much fun it is to spend time with him. He is a hyper-active busy bee and does n't like eating and sleeping much :) Here is a pic from my collection.
Books : I read two interesting books in the past one month. "Unaccustomed Earth" by Jhumpa Lahiri. She is the queen of melancholy and ofcourse queen of ABCD lifes. If you are looking for some happy read this is not for you. If you dont mind realistic and often depressive narrations, go get your copy. btw, in India, I bought a hard-cover edition for 300/- :-p
Another one I read is "Above Average" by Amitabha Bagchi. This is a debut novel from an IIT prof. At the outset, I thought this is just another IIT book like "five point some one" but this has a story and characters are real. Good time pass book and this is a very easy read.
Movie : Finally, I got to watch "There will be blood". Daniel Day-Louis. Boy, what an actor he is. I was hoping he would get an oscar for "gangs of new york". "der aayi durust aayi" :). This movie is an art flick. So, I wont recommend it to typical Indian movie lover. But, I loved the movie. Notably, the back ground music and cast of the movie. Amaaaaaaaaazing.
There is so much to write, I will wait for another post.
You have fun and take care of near and dears.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Movies movies..
Howdy folks. Past two weeks have been pretty uneventful. So, let me review some books/movies that I was (un)fortunate to view.
1) U, me aur Hum: Whatever.
Thats it. Yup. you have seen world's shortest movie review :) With that review I have not only saved 3 hrs of movie time for you but also 10 mins of junk reading the crap about why that movie is bad. I rarely watch Hindi movies. Somehow they neither have original plots like some hollywood movies nor good comedy like telugu movies. I can literally count the number of Hindi movies I watched in last two years on myt finter tips. However, occasionally I fall prey to a third rate movie reviewer and end up going to movies like that. It was supposed to Ajay Devgans debut directorial venture. Ajay, sorry dude. Your direction is on par with your acting. God bless you.
2) Jalsa : Now a days, every telugu movie gets released with unbelievable hype. This was no exception. Trivikram, known for his good writing skills, donned the directorial cap and tried to do his best. I have n't watched a pavan kalyans movie in theater since Khushi. So, I thought why not give it a shot. Yaar Trivikram, please stop creating these super-human, all encompassing Hero characters. Seriously, audience are really really sick of watching these kind of characters.
There were times when Hero and Heroine used to carry the movie on their shoulders. Rest of the characters did not matter much to the movie. These could have been done by any one. But, because of these super-human hero characters, now a days, main characters are replacable. Whether its chiru, bk, mahesh, ntr, pk all hero characters are same. They are super human. All side-actors are irreplacable. For ex: Characters done by Ali and Brahmanandam in this movie, can be done only by them. My suggestion : 'watch the movie on cassette if you are a telugu movie buff otherwise thank me for saving your three hours.'
3) Gamyam: When I was told by my dear friend S that this movie was good, I had to watch it. About 2-3 years ago, I took couple of my friends to 'Motorcycle diaries' in US where we were the only three audience. It was an awesome movie. Both my friends were happy to watch inspite of it being labelled as art movie. Gamyam is inspired by Motorcycle diaries. But, the debut director cum script writer was adept at adapting it to Telugu commercial movie. This is definitely one of the good movies that I watched in the recent past. I would nt rate it among all time best. But, this is worth the 1:30 hrs you spend watching the movie. I wont talk much about story here as there are lot of sites which do that. My recommendation: "Watch it even if you are not a telugu movie buff".
If I were a reviewer I would give it a 4/5. If I were a critique, I would give it a 2.5/5 (To give you an idea of my scale, many desi movies do not cross 1/5 on my critique scale :-) )
1) U, me aur Hum: Whatever.
Thats it. Yup. you have seen world's shortest movie review :) With that review I have not only saved 3 hrs of movie time for you but also 10 mins of junk reading the crap about why that movie is bad. I rarely watch Hindi movies. Somehow they neither have original plots like some hollywood movies nor good comedy like telugu movies. I can literally count the number of Hindi movies I watched in last two years on myt finter tips. However, occasionally I fall prey to a third rate movie reviewer and end up going to movies like that. It was supposed to Ajay Devgans debut directorial venture. Ajay, sorry dude. Your direction is on par with your acting. God bless you.
2) Jalsa : Now a days, every telugu movie gets released with unbelievable hype. This was no exception. Trivikram, known for his good writing skills, donned the directorial cap and tried to do his best. I have n't watched a pavan kalyans movie in theater since Khushi. So, I thought why not give it a shot. Yaar Trivikram, please stop creating these super-human, all encompassing Hero characters. Seriously, audience are really really sick of watching these kind of characters.
There were times when Hero and Heroine used to carry the movie on their shoulders. Rest of the characters did not matter much to the movie. These could have been done by any one. But, because of these super-human hero characters, now a days, main characters are replacable. Whether its chiru, bk, mahesh, ntr, pk all hero characters are same. They are super human. All side-actors are irreplacable. For ex: Characters done by Ali and Brahmanandam in this movie, can be done only by them. My suggestion : 'watch the movie on cassette if you are a telugu movie buff otherwise thank me for saving your three hours.'
3) Gamyam: When I was told by my dear friend S that this movie was good, I had to watch it. About 2-3 years ago, I took couple of my friends to 'Motorcycle diaries' in US where we were the only three audience. It was an awesome movie. Both my friends were happy to watch inspite of it being labelled as art movie. Gamyam is inspired by Motorcycle diaries. But, the debut director cum script writer was adept at adapting it to Telugu commercial movie. This is definitely one of the good movies that I watched in the recent past. I would nt rate it among all time best. But, this is worth the 1:30 hrs you spend watching the movie. I wont talk much about story here as there are lot of sites which do that. My recommendation: "Watch it even if you are not a telugu movie buff".
If I were a reviewer I would give it a 4/5. If I were a critique, I would give it a 2.5/5 (To give you an idea of my scale, many desi movies do not cross 1/5 on my critique scale :-) )
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
The week that was...
This blog is going to be different from the rest. I am going to share a few snippets instead of writing one big bore essay/rant.
1) Race: When I was a kid, I grew up in a village on the banks of Godavari for few years. After a long play cum bath in the river, we used to hold the hand woven cotton towels on both ends and twist in opposite directions till the last drop of water was squeezed out. Like many silly things boys do, we used to be hyper competitive in making sure we have the driest towel. That, extreme twisting used to spoil the towel is anybody's guess. I could n't help but remember this incident as I was watching hindi movie, Race. The movie is slickly made. Production values in high-budget bollywood flicks have definitely improved. Unlike many Hindi movies, editing is also very crisp. Twenty minutes into the movie, twists in the story start. They never seem to end. They keep introducing a new twist every fifteen minutes. So many that, even after the movie was really over, I was wondering "is this really over? or are they going to come back with a twist?". To give you an example, there are two brothers A and B. C and D are introduced as prospective girlfriends of A. A somehow leases his girlfriend C to B. D is in love with A. then B and C kill A. D says she married A. Then we realize B and D are wife and husband who hatch a plan to kill C and then A comes alive to save C though he is married to B. If you are still clear abt the story, E and F are introduced who in cop and bimbo asst. E exposes B and then colludes with B. In the end, A and E are showns as friends anyways, you get the gist. Overall slickly made time pass. Get a dvd and watch in ff mode if you are hindi movie buff.
2) Ad wars: Remember the time when world cup was held in India and Coke introduced themselves as official drink. Pepsi came out with this new campaign "nothing official about it" and stole the fizz out of Coke. Well, ever since, the fight is on it seems. Deepika Padukone (daughter of erstwhile badminton player, Prakash padukone) and Ranbir Kapoor (son Rishi Kapoor) are hottest stars in India right now. So, pepsi comes with this funny theme.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SI8LzqIdvU
Sprite soon warms upto the idea and spoofs it up. Its quite funny. Check out the videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_N-FVryV1I
3) Pulitzers: Alright, Pulitzers for 2008 are announced. A friend of mine forwarded the winning piece by pulitzer winner Gene Weingarten. Beaufiul article. Take a print out and read in your leisure.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html
1) Race: When I was a kid, I grew up in a village on the banks of Godavari for few years. After a long play cum bath in the river, we used to hold the hand woven cotton towels on both ends and twist in opposite directions till the last drop of water was squeezed out. Like many silly things boys do, we used to be hyper competitive in making sure we have the driest towel. That, extreme twisting used to spoil the towel is anybody's guess. I could n't help but remember this incident as I was watching hindi movie, Race. The movie is slickly made. Production values in high-budget bollywood flicks have definitely improved. Unlike many Hindi movies, editing is also very crisp. Twenty minutes into the movie, twists in the story start. They never seem to end. They keep introducing a new twist every fifteen minutes. So many that, even after the movie was really over, I was wondering "is this really over? or are they going to come back with a twist?". To give you an example, there are two brothers A and B. C and D are introduced as prospective girlfriends of A. A somehow leases his girlfriend C to B. D is in love with A. then B and C kill A. D says she married A. Then we realize B and D are wife and husband who hatch a plan to kill C and then A comes alive to save C though he is married to B. If you are still clear abt the story, E and F are introduced who in cop and bimbo asst. E exposes B and then colludes with B. In the end, A and E are showns as friends anyways, you get the gist. Overall slickly made time pass. Get a dvd and watch in ff mode if you are hindi movie buff.
2) Ad wars: Remember the time when world cup was held in India and Coke introduced themselves as official drink. Pepsi came out with this new campaign "nothing official about it" and stole the fizz out of Coke. Well, ever since, the fight is on it seems. Deepika Padukone (daughter of erstwhile badminton player, Prakash padukone) and Ranbir Kapoor (son Rishi Kapoor) are hottest stars in India right now. So, pepsi comes with this funny theme.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SI8LzqIdvU
Sprite soon warms upto the idea and spoofs it up. Its quite funny. Check out the videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_N-FVryV1I
3) Pulitzers: Alright, Pulitzers for 2008 are announced. A friend of mine forwarded the winning piece by pulitzer winner Gene Weingarten. Beaufiul article. Take a print out and read in your leisure.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html
Monday, April 7, 2008
happy ugadi
Dear Friends, Family and blog readers,
Wish you a very very happy telugu new year.
"Sarvadhaari naama samvatsara Subhakankshalu".
-v
Wish you a very very happy telugu new year.
"Sarvadhaari naama samvatsara Subhakankshalu".
-v
Saturday, April 5, 2008
A day out at stadium
Alright, The story from last post continued for another day. Just at the right moment, when an Indian player is about to play biggest match of his life, DD sports switched to showing beach volleyball between kazakstan and some other stupid team. (I am surprised womens lib has nt spoken out yet about bikin clad women playing games right in the middle of the city. Did the organizers catch culture police sleeping? hehe) On Friday, Chetan Anand beat world no.4 Chen Yu from China in quarters. Saturday was a rare occasion for India. A lowly ranked (no.70) player was in semi-final of a grand prix. For the badminton uninitiated, this is equivalent to an Indian playing in a semi-final of a grand slam :). Competition are being held Gacchibowli. Kashi and I decided to go to stadium all the way to Gacchibowli and watch the match live. Boy, that was worth all the trouble.
We arrived at the stadium around 5pm, all the while doubting if the match was already over. As I mentioned earlier, Organizers are doing a great job. They scheduled Chetan's match at 7pm. Inspite of the big occasion stadium was half-full. The stadium is awesome, built with international standards. We found seats with a good view and settled in. Womens singles semifinals was going on. Chetan was sitting in the arena talking to Jwala Gutta (his wife, India's no.1 doubles player) and other friends. Lot of people think, whats the big deal in going to a stadium when you can watch the match in TV. Folks, believe me, going to stadium is worth every penny. After the women's singles, it was mens doubles semi-finals between 2 teams both of which were ranked top 5 in the world. You get to see what kind of warm-up routine players use before the match. Shadow practice et al. The doubles semi-finals was AWESOME. If you are a keen observer, you can watch all the mind games, strategies so clearly in a stadium. (Somehow, badminton is not covered live in our parts of the world and those who cover show some silly commentary with out adding much value.)
Jwala started distributing inflated sticks just before Chetans match. Chetan started his detailed warm-up routine. Stupid me, I did nt carry my camcorder :(. Crowd started shouting Chetaaaan..Chetan and noise was reaching its highest level. Finally the big moment came. Chetans opponent was Andrew Smith, an English player. He was like a deer in the headlights. Totally out of place, right from the go. Crowd was behind Chetan for every point. Chetan anand won the match in 20 mins with 21-16, 21-9. You really get to know what is home advantage. It was a tame surrender from the brit. Anyways, we were really happy. Crowds, media did not let Chetan do his cool down routine for 30 mins. After everything was over, Chetan walked to the galleries and greeted almost every one. We congratulated him as he was passing us by and took autograph on the half-torn ticket stub. It was really worth every penny. Quality badminton (not in the Chetans match though), gotta see Gopichand and many Indian players, got an autograph. Seriously folks, next time there is a match in your town, go to stadium and watch it live. It is really a worthy experience. More so, if you have a child. They will have a great memory for rest of their lives.
We ended the day with a dinner at chutneys, Himayatnagar. I had to mention this as the food was sooooo good. Folks, next time you are in town, go order a south indian thali in Chutneys. I wont go into details but this thali does not have a match in twin cities :)
ciao.
We arrived at the stadium around 5pm, all the while doubting if the match was already over. As I mentioned earlier, Organizers are doing a great job. They scheduled Chetan's match at 7pm. Inspite of the big occasion stadium was half-full. The stadium is awesome, built with international standards. We found seats with a good view and settled in. Womens singles semifinals was going on. Chetan was sitting in the arena talking to Jwala Gutta (his wife, India's no.1 doubles player) and other friends. Lot of people think, whats the big deal in going to a stadium when you can watch the match in TV. Folks, believe me, going to stadium is worth every penny. After the women's singles, it was mens doubles semi-finals between 2 teams both of which were ranked top 5 in the world. You get to see what kind of warm-up routine players use before the match. Shadow practice et al. The doubles semi-finals was AWESOME. If you are a keen observer, you can watch all the mind games, strategies so clearly in a stadium. (Somehow, badminton is not covered live in our parts of the world and those who cover show some silly commentary with out adding much value.)
Jwala started distributing inflated sticks just before Chetans match. Chetan started his detailed warm-up routine. Stupid me, I did nt carry my camcorder :(. Crowd started shouting Chetaaaan..Chetan and noise was reaching its highest level. Finally the big moment came. Chetans opponent was Andrew Smith, an English player. He was like a deer in the headlights. Totally out of place, right from the go. Crowd was behind Chetan for every point. Chetan anand won the match in 20 mins with 21-16, 21-9. You really get to know what is home advantage. It was a tame surrender from the brit. Anyways, we were really happy. Crowds, media did not let Chetan do his cool down routine for 30 mins. After everything was over, Chetan walked to the galleries and greeted almost every one. We congratulated him as he was passing us by and took autograph on the half-torn ticket stub. It was really worth every penny. Quality badminton (not in the Chetans match though), gotta see Gopichand and many Indian players, got an autograph. Seriously folks, next time there is a match in your town, go to stadium and watch it live. It is really a worthy experience. More so, if you have a child. They will have a great memory for rest of their lives.
We ended the day with a dinner at chutneys, Himayatnagar. I had to mention this as the food was sooooo good. Folks, next time you are in town, go order a south indian thali in Chutneys. I wont go into details but this thali does not have a match in twin cities :)
ciao.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Lords of Doordarshan
First let me present a picture to people who missed it. This is a spoof on rising vegetable prices. Lady in the picture is wife of comedian Jaspal Bhatti. That guy has some sense of humour :)
There is an explosion of television channels in India. Today, bunch of villagers killed a Leopard in a remote village called Matusangam in Nizamabad District. TV9 is presentwith a live camera. So, what is our good old Doordarshan upto? You have to see it to believe it.
So, there is Indian Badminton Open going on in Hyderabad in a swanky stadium. It has a huge prize money and best of the best are here as a warm up to Olympics. It also provides opportunities to lot of upcoming Indian players. Fortunately, organizers are smart and scheduled all the players involving Indian players on court no.1 in a sequence. DD Sports starts telecasting them. Chetan Anand, one of Indian players expected to go deep into the draw is playing, he is one game down and leading 11-7 in second game. Suddenly, an anchor turns up and says, "alright, you watched it enough. Now lets go to Asia beach volleyball tournament Opening ceremony " (by the way, beach volleyball in Hyderabad? Don't get shocked. They put some sand courts by Hussain Sagar. ) OK, I thought, that sounds crazy enough, let me come back and watch the match for a minute. After 15 minutes, I tune into that channel to watch most ghastly opening ceremony I have ever seen. There five people dancing on the stage for tune "Kajra re". I could not detemine the sex of atleast one of them with their dresses and movements and that is telecasted live in DD Sports Channel. What do you say for that?
Guess we need some good "babu"s in DD too. OK I had to vent my frustation somewhere :) you all have a good weekend.
There is an explosion of television channels in India. Today, bunch of villagers killed a Leopard in a remote village called Matusangam in Nizamabad District. TV9 is presentwith a live camera. So, what is our good old Doordarshan upto? You have to see it to believe it.
So, there is Indian Badminton Open going on in Hyderabad in a swanky stadium. It has a huge prize money and best of the best are here as a warm up to Olympics. It also provides opportunities to lot of upcoming Indian players. Fortunately, organizers are smart and scheduled all the players involving Indian players on court no.1 in a sequence. DD Sports starts telecasting them. Chetan Anand, one of Indian players expected to go deep into the draw is playing, he is one game down and leading 11-7 in second game. Suddenly, an anchor turns up and says, "alright, you watched it enough. Now lets go to Asia beach volleyball tournament Opening ceremony " (by the way, beach volleyball in Hyderabad? Don't get shocked. They put some sand courts by Hussain Sagar. ) OK, I thought, that sounds crazy enough, let me come back and watch the match for a minute. After 15 minutes, I tune into that channel to watch most ghastly opening ceremony I have ever seen. There five people dancing on the stage for tune "Kajra re". I could not detemine the sex of atleast one of them with their dresses and movements and that is telecasted live in DD Sports Channel. What do you say for that?
Guess we need some good "babu"s in DD too. OK I had to vent my frustation somewhere :) you all have a good weekend.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Phir bhi dil hai Hindustani
Early in the morning I opened the newspaper to read three news items which evoked varying emotions in me.
1) A mand and his niece were thrown out of the train by inebrieted hooligans near Kanpur. It is shocking really. In the era of cell phones, you expect the hooligans to be reported immediately and caught, but that did not happen. Anyways, this news item only re-asserts what I earlier mentioned in blog. If I am travelling in north India, I am going to use only AC-3 tier. I know, I know. As a citizen, I am supposed to fight for my rights and not choose escapism, but, if I am on vacation, I guess I am allowed some lee way. And the same advice goes to you too. If you are a rule abiding southee simpleton, believe me, you will be more comfy in ac3t.
2) Mumbai and Delhi are rated among the 25 dirtiest cities in the world. That piece of news is not at all surprising to folks who lived or travelled abroad. (Just for the record, I consider Chicago and New York dirty cities too). So today in the ToI editorial, Dipankar Gupta, a socielogy professor (university not listed) writes a big essay saying, meaning of dirt differs in sub-continental perspective to worldly perspective. We, Hindus, gag the heck out of us every morning too keep our sinuses and bronchial stuff clean and take a shower every day at any cost. We are supposed to be the cleanest people. But, we dont mind filth in our surroundings. Whats the genesis of irony? We keep our kitchens clean, rows of steel kitchen wareshining their way to glory but our bathrooms are assaults on senses. I still cant fathom the point of article but the filth that I was complaining about in my tour now gets an official recognition. The main reason, to me, seems to be the way we are raised. We are always told to keep ourselves, our rooms and our house clean. We dish our all the dirt early in the morning and we dont mind throwing all that just beside our compound wall. When we design a process, we dont seem to think through the problem and design a complete solution. For ex: In the above case, we are supposed to take an extra step or two and take the dirt from home all the way to nearest trash collection (finding which in itself is another challenge). Folks, changes like these do not happen in a day or two. I think we should start inculcating the new generation with good habits and hope to see the day when we dont find a place in top-100. To end this, I will tell a short story. Five years ago, I was travelling to Kerala with my extended family in train. Folks in my family were throwing trash right out of window as is the habit in India. Few of us said no to this and met with answers like "this is not your america" bah blah..anyway we took out couple of polythene bags and started collecting trash. When we stopped in a station, I took the trash bag out to dispose in a trash can. Jeez, it was my turn to say "this is not america". I had to run along the length of the station to find a trash can. Finally, when I found one and disposed train started moving. I nearly missed my train and took the nearest coach and found my way to my berth. After all the anxiety subsided, you can imagine how much I was heckled for the adventure. Not that, it has discouraged me to use trash bag. What I am trying to say is, authorities do not necessarily co-operate with us. But, where there is a will, there is way. Lets keep our India clean.
3) That brings me to the third story of the day. When Lalu announced that Railways are going to use green toilets from now onwards, I was really happy. For once, the
railway stations are not going to be filthy and we need not avert our gaze from tracks as if we are looking at a malayali movie poster. So, all the toilets in Pinakini express were converted to green toilets today. Do you know what exactly does that mean? Instead of instant disposal of crap, toilets will hold it and dispose it as soon as train catches a speed of more than 30kmph. Wah Huzoor Wah. I want to strangle the neck of the person whoever designed this system. Considering that every train picks up a speed of 30kmph in the range of 5-10kms away from the station, There will be a cesspool in that range from every station. Why cant they integrate pumping with cleaning of the toilets? Talk about not thinking through the process and coming up with a complete solution. I wonder how the western trains are designed.
ciao..
1) A mand and his niece were thrown out of the train by inebrieted hooligans near Kanpur. It is shocking really. In the era of cell phones, you expect the hooligans to be reported immediately and caught, but that did not happen. Anyways, this news item only re-asserts what I earlier mentioned in blog. If I am travelling in north India, I am going to use only AC-3 tier. I know, I know. As a citizen, I am supposed to fight for my rights and not choose escapism, but, if I am on vacation, I guess I am allowed some lee way. And the same advice goes to you too. If you are a rule abiding southee simpleton, believe me, you will be more comfy in ac3t.
2) Mumbai and Delhi are rated among the 25 dirtiest cities in the world. That piece of news is not at all surprising to folks who lived or travelled abroad. (Just for the record, I consider Chicago and New York dirty cities too). So today in the ToI editorial, Dipankar Gupta, a socielogy professor (university not listed) writes a big essay saying, meaning of dirt differs in sub-continental perspective to worldly perspective. We, Hindus, gag the heck out of us every morning too keep our sinuses and bronchial stuff clean and take a shower every day at any cost. We are supposed to be the cleanest people. But, we dont mind filth in our surroundings. Whats the genesis of irony? We keep our kitchens clean, rows of steel kitchen wareshining their way to glory but our bathrooms are assaults on senses. I still cant fathom the point of article but the filth that I was complaining about in my tour now gets an official recognition. The main reason, to me, seems to be the way we are raised. We are always told to keep ourselves, our rooms and our house clean. We dish our all the dirt early in the morning and we dont mind throwing all that just beside our compound wall. When we design a process, we dont seem to think through the problem and design a complete solution. For ex: In the above case, we are supposed to take an extra step or two and take the dirt from home all the way to nearest trash collection (finding which in itself is another challenge). Folks, changes like these do not happen in a day or two. I think we should start inculcating the new generation with good habits and hope to see the day when we dont find a place in top-100. To end this, I will tell a short story. Five years ago, I was travelling to Kerala with my extended family in train. Folks in my family were throwing trash right out of window as is the habit in India. Few of us said no to this and met with answers like "this is not your america" bah blah..anyway we took out couple of polythene bags and started collecting trash. When we stopped in a station, I took the trash bag out to dispose in a trash can. Jeez, it was my turn to say "this is not america". I had to run along the length of the station to find a trash can. Finally, when I found one and disposed train started moving. I nearly missed my train and took the nearest coach and found my way to my berth. After all the anxiety subsided, you can imagine how much I was heckled for the adventure. Not that, it has discouraged me to use trash bag. What I am trying to say is, authorities do not necessarily co-operate with us. But, where there is a will, there is way. Lets keep our India clean.
3) That brings me to the third story of the day. When Lalu announced that Railways are going to use green toilets from now onwards, I was really happy. For once, the
railway stations are not going to be filthy and we need not avert our gaze from tracks as if we are looking at a malayali movie poster. So, all the toilets in Pinakini express were converted to green toilets today. Do you know what exactly does that mean? Instead of instant disposal of crap, toilets will hold it and dispose it as soon as train catches a speed of more than 30kmph. Wah Huzoor Wah. I want to strangle the neck of the person whoever designed this system. Considering that every train picks up a speed of 30kmph in the range of 5-10kms away from the station, There will be a cesspool in that range from every station. Why cant they integrate pumping with cleaning of the toilets? Talk about not thinking through the process and coming up with a complete solution. I wonder how the western trains are designed.
ciao..
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
few pics from the trip
Alright folks, I am uploading 5 best pix from the trip on to net. Feel free to rate them on a scale of five.
1) Buddha at Saranath Sthupa (10km Varanasi). This is located in a beautiful hall built with a collabaration of 10 buddhist nations. The hall is decorated with the interpretation of buddha's life by a Japanese artist. There was an absolutely beautiful painting of Angulimal coming face to face with Buddha. Sadly, I could nt capture it well on picture.
2) Sun rise in Benarus is absolutely beautiful. You get to stand on west side of Ganga river and wait for Sun to arrive. Beauty of sunrise made someone like me wake up at 5AM everyday and rush to bathing ghats. I have so many pics of it that, I could nt judge which one to put there.
3) Kaushik ~ Kashi. My cousin. That he is a good sport is obvious from the blog. To have him on the trip was an absolute joy. He was standing 30 feet away from me, in front of Madan Malviya statue in Benarus Hindu University, a bit tired after spending a long day in the sun.
4) Bibi Ka Maqbara An imitation of Taj Mahal built by Aurangzeb's son Azam Shah in memory his mother. While Taj Mahal is built with Marbles, this one is built from grind sea shells except for dome (which was built with white marble). This picture is a reflection of BKM in water rotated by 180 degrees.
5) Chand Minar A mute witness of history seen from the dilapidated walls of daulatabad fort. Daulatabad was the capital of India for a brief period of time.
There is one last pic that I want to put here. Let me introduce you to my grandpa. Eighty-five years young. Active, Witty, Fun to hang out with and very independent. This picture was taken before sunrise when he offered a diya to Ganga mai and was performing morning pujas.
Ciao folks, I am going to sign off now. You have a great day.
-v
1) Buddha at Saranath Sthupa (10km Varanasi). This is located in a beautiful hall built with a collabaration of 10 buddhist nations. The hall is decorated with the interpretation of buddha's life by a Japanese artist. There was an absolutely beautiful painting of Angulimal coming face to face with Buddha. Sadly, I could nt capture it well on picture.
2) Sun rise in Benarus is absolutely beautiful. You get to stand on west side of Ganga river and wait for Sun to arrive. Beauty of sunrise made someone like me wake up at 5AM everyday and rush to bathing ghats. I have so many pics of it that, I could nt judge which one to put there.
3) Kaushik ~ Kashi. My cousin. That he is a good sport is obvious from the blog. To have him on the trip was an absolute joy. He was standing 30 feet away from me, in front of Madan Malviya statue in Benarus Hindu University, a bit tired after spending a long day in the sun.
4) Bibi Ka Maqbara An imitation of Taj Mahal built by Aurangzeb's son Azam Shah in memory his mother. While Taj Mahal is built with Marbles, this one is built from grind sea shells except for dome (which was built with white marble). This picture is a reflection of BKM in water rotated by 180 degrees.
5) Chand Minar A mute witness of history seen from the dilapidated walls of daulatabad fort. Daulatabad was the capital of India for a brief period of time.
There is one last pic that I want to put here. Let me introduce you to my grandpa. Eighty-five years young. Active, Witty, Fun to hang out with and very independent. This picture was taken before sunrise when he offered a diya to Ganga mai and was performing morning pujas.
Ciao folks, I am going to sign off now. You have a great day.
-v
Monday, March 24, 2008
Home..sweet home
We are back home today. safe and sound. Wiser by experience and lighter by pocket :). I had to finish last post in a hurry as I had to catch the train. Pune railway station was a delight. There were ATMs of 4-5 banks. 2 competing internet kiosk providers and some very modern food cafe. I wonder how long it would take for rest of the places to catch up. Our train was supposed to stop at 5AM in kopargaon (nearest RS to shirdi). People started making nosie/packing from 3:30AM. yuck..I was planning to catch some good sleep that night but there were too many culprits to blame someone.
The ordeal began the moment we landed in Kopargaon. Kopargaon bus station is 2km away from kopargaon RS. For some wise reasons, authorities decided not to run any busses to RS. Whats the alternative? you have to haggle with greedy autowallahs (they try to place 6 ppl in one auto for 20-30min journey) or greedier 7-seaters (who pack 10 ppl). I was so mad I just wanted to walk those 2km if not for grandpa. Anyways, by then, I was a battle veteren :) We picked the worst day to enter Shirdi. Last weekend was a four day weekend in India and there were people pouring from every nook and corner of India. After 2 hours of frantic searching I could not find a room. I was promised a room after 2 hours if I paid 1500 bucks. It was 8AM by then. No water, No shower, I knew I could nt wait that long. So, I hired a maruti van which supposed to take us to "Shani Singanapur" (a recent development in pilgrimage), provide a clean shower, darshan, followed by darshan at Shirdi, followed by dropping us in Aurangabad(to see ellora, grishneshwar). I thought this whole plan was a stroke of genius considering the rush over there. 2 hrs later, I knew it was the worst day of the trip and lowest of the lows. After standing for 3 hrs in a serpentine queues I was wondering whether I was religious or a sycophant. Yuck, I can vent all my frustation here but I will spare guys. After a big ordeal, we were back in Shirdi. Crowds have nt subsided yet. To get a mandir darshan, one had to stand in another queue for four hours. There was all kind of pushing happening in those cramped, barely able to breath rooms. Taking grandpa in was out of question. After pondering for a while, we called it off. I was extremely disappointed for that fiasco. Two places I was looking forward to in the trip were Benarus and Shirdi. After so much effort, I was leaving Shirdi with out having a darshan. There was a mukhadarshan (watching the idol from 100ftaway but my spects were broken :-( and from that far, I was as good as blind). Being the eternal optimist I am, I took that as a message from GOD saying "dont come here to see God. Find the God in yourself :)". We moved to Aurangabad overnight.
Aurangabad was a delight. It was my second time. I have nt explored Ellora caves well in my earlier trip. So, that was on my agenda apart from grishneshwar jyotirling. First we visited "daulatabad fort". Remember Tuglaq who shifted capital from Delhi to daulatabad. This was the place. This fort had amazing history. It was ruled by Yadavas -> Allauddin Khiljee -> Tuglaq -> bahmani sultans-> Aurangabad->British in that order. Aurangabad is a photographers heaven. So many shots to capture. Daulatabad fort, Ellora caves, Bibi ka maqbara (An imitation of Tajmahal, built by Azam Shah (s/o Aurangazeb, in memory of his mother). We were roaming there all thru the day. We also visited Aurangazeb's tomb. (There is a big story which I will write later). Khwaza Zainuddin's dargah. (My first brush with muslim place. Our driver who was a muslim explained that though non-muslims are not allowed in Masjids,they are allowed in dargah's. Do you know the difference between dargah and masjid? read my PPS). Ellora was too good. Needless to say that. I took some 2-300 hundred pictures. Bought some Aurangabadi special stuff and took the train back home. The trip was lot of fun. Grandpa maintained good health all thru out. Apart from minor hiccups and some firefighting it was an experience worth every minute/penny. Folks who visit Hyderabad, I tell you. Aurangabad is a great weekend get-away. Take a train to Aurangabad, arrive on Saturday morning. Visit Ajanta caves.
Next day, visit Ellora caves and daulatabad fort and some other historic places in city. And dont forget your cameras :).
Thanks for reading my blog along. I will continute to post stuff may be switch this to telugu blog at some point of time. Now, I need to take a good nap.
ciao,
v
PS: One of these days, I will write a tips list travel in India. I have learnt a good travel lesson. "When you go to a new place, look out for what it has to offer. Not what it does not offer." Guess this applies universally, not just in India.
PPS: A masjid is a praying place for mohammad. A dargah is a tomb of saint. If you heard the beautiful sufi song "Khwaza mere Khwaza" from Jodha akbar, that is about a dargah in Ajmer/Nellore. Apparently, few sufi saints spread themselves across the world. Dargahs were built for those who died in India.
The ordeal began the moment we landed in Kopargaon. Kopargaon bus station is 2km away from kopargaon RS. For some wise reasons, authorities decided not to run any busses to RS. Whats the alternative? you have to haggle with greedy autowallahs (they try to place 6 ppl in one auto for 20-30min journey) or greedier 7-seaters (who pack 10 ppl). I was so mad I just wanted to walk those 2km if not for grandpa. Anyways, by then, I was a battle veteren :) We picked the worst day to enter Shirdi. Last weekend was a four day weekend in India and there were people pouring from every nook and corner of India. After 2 hours of frantic searching I could not find a room. I was promised a room after 2 hours if I paid 1500 bucks. It was 8AM by then. No water, No shower, I knew I could nt wait that long. So, I hired a maruti van which supposed to take us to "Shani Singanapur" (a recent development in pilgrimage), provide a clean shower, darshan, followed by darshan at Shirdi, followed by dropping us in Aurangabad(to see ellora, grishneshwar). I thought this whole plan was a stroke of genius considering the rush over there. 2 hrs later, I knew it was the worst day of the trip and lowest of the lows. After standing for 3 hrs in a serpentine queues I was wondering whether I was religious or a sycophant. Yuck, I can vent all my frustation here but I will spare guys. After a big ordeal, we were back in Shirdi. Crowds have nt subsided yet. To get a mandir darshan, one had to stand in another queue for four hours. There was all kind of pushing happening in those cramped, barely able to breath rooms. Taking grandpa in was out of question. After pondering for a while, we called it off. I was extremely disappointed for that fiasco. Two places I was looking forward to in the trip were Benarus and Shirdi. After so much effort, I was leaving Shirdi with out having a darshan. There was a mukhadarshan (watching the idol from 100ftaway but my spects were broken :-( and from that far, I was as good as blind). Being the eternal optimist I am, I took that as a message from GOD saying "dont come here to see God. Find the God in yourself :)". We moved to Aurangabad overnight.
Aurangabad was a delight. It was my second time. I have nt explored Ellora caves well in my earlier trip. So, that was on my agenda apart from grishneshwar jyotirling. First we visited "daulatabad fort". Remember Tuglaq who shifted capital from Delhi to daulatabad. This was the place. This fort had amazing history. It was ruled by Yadavas -> Allauddin Khiljee -> Tuglaq -> bahmani sultans-> Aurangabad->British in that order. Aurangabad is a photographers heaven. So many shots to capture. Daulatabad fort, Ellora caves, Bibi ka maqbara (An imitation of Tajmahal, built by Azam Shah (s/o Aurangazeb, in memory of his mother). We were roaming there all thru the day. We also visited Aurangazeb's tomb. (There is a big story which I will write later). Khwaza Zainuddin's dargah. (My first brush with muslim place. Our driver who was a muslim explained that though non-muslims are not allowed in Masjids,they are allowed in dargah's. Do you know the difference between dargah and masjid? read my PPS). Ellora was too good. Needless to say that. I took some 2-300 hundred pictures. Bought some Aurangabadi special stuff and took the train back home. The trip was lot of fun. Grandpa maintained good health all thru out. Apart from minor hiccups and some firefighting it was an experience worth every minute/penny. Folks who visit Hyderabad, I tell you. Aurangabad is a great weekend get-away. Take a train to Aurangabad, arrive on Saturday morning. Visit Ajanta caves.
Next day, visit Ellora caves and daulatabad fort and some other historic places in city. And dont forget your cameras :).
Thanks for reading my blog along. I will continute to post stuff may be switch this to telugu blog at some point of time. Now, I need to take a good nap.
ciao,
v
PS: One of these days, I will write a tips list travel in India. I have learnt a good travel lesson. "When you go to a new place, look out for what it has to offer. Not what it does not offer." Guess this applies universally, not just in India.
PPS: A masjid is a praying place for mohammad. A dargah is a tomb of saint. If you heard the beautiful sufi song "Khwaza mere Khwaza" from Jodha akbar, that is about a dargah in Ajmer/Nellore. Apparently, few sufi saints spread themselves across the world. Dargahs were built for those who died in India.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Pit stop in Pune
Howdy Folks? Glad to see so many of you reading the blog. Let me continue from where I left off.
So, as was required, I woke up at 3am, wore a dhoti and went to see "Chitabhasma aarati" for Lord Mahakaleswar in Ujjain. I was so irritated with the temple folks for having that aarati at 3am but when I went there, it was quite some sight to see. Till 6am, only folks with dhotis are allowed inside. So, the dhoti was worth wearing too. Anyways, coming to the aarati, First they elaborately wash the huge sivalingam with water,milk,honey,curd etc. Then, they decorate it with turmeric paste, flowers and carve a face with silver eyes and lips stuck to the lingam. Then comes the most curious part. An aghori from local graveyard brings the chitabhasmam (ashes from funeral pyre) which will be spread all over the sivalingam. Then again the huge percussion exercise with breathtaking tempo. Wow, that was quite some sight. Apparently, Ujjain has historically been attracting practitioners of aghori and other tantric practices. So, this is the only place where such exercise is done. I was a bit curious and asked what if there are no deadbodies on a given day. Local folks took pride in mentioning that bhasmam was always available etc..??? I had nothing to say. It was a bit gory.
In Ujjain temple is completely managed by govt. police authorities. Boy, they do such a great job. Kudos. I took pains to ask if there was a feedback box as I wanted to appreciate but unfortunately the guy I asked was not sure. From there, we headed to Omkareswar which is on Narmada river. It was a really really hot day and unfortunately even grandpa had to walk/hike those 2-3kms in hot sun. There was nothing extraordinary about Omkareshwar temple. It was jyotirlinga#7 for me. Omkareswar is located on an island which is shaped in OM. Narmada and another river (sorry, I forgot the river) surrounded it. Since past 1 year, a new dam became operational and all the water is now preserved. So, you can literally see layers of rocks and stale water infront of the temple which makes the experience even more unpleasant. (I will upload the pics once I go home). The guide and locals I spoke to are extremely unhappy about the dam (dam is visible from temple) as it had pretty much dented their livelihood. I was discussing how many people were dislodged from the catchment areas. (Only 4 villages). I was trying to convince them that a DAM is good in long term for the greater good of the district folks. There were some arguments and they did nt seem convinced. Sad thing is, there were 2 historic cave monuments (satmatrika temples, kajal rani caves). Now they are happily submerged in the water. If AP could relocate bouddhik remains in nagarjuna sagar 40 years ago, I could nt see why such thing was not thought about. More details later.
In my earlier blog, I said people in Ujjain were nice. They really were. Except for my hotel manager. He was trying to swindle money out of me which was doubly confirmed by the car driver. On the way back to Ujjain from Omkareswar, humne aisa shadyantr rachaaya, when he will know the details, he wil come hunting for me in hyderabad lol....I had a heated argument with hotel manager infront of the whole staff with threats of calling police etc., Finally he had budged and I stuck there for one more day. Ujjain is famous for its namkeen (not my interest really :) ), mehendi and hing (asafoetida). The shopkeepers who realized we were travellers, were sooooo nice to us. (One surprising thing about hing is, it is not made in India. folks from Kazhakstan, afghanistan etc., bring it to ujjain during their winter migration, a practice which dates from 300AD. Well, if you know my dad, I had no choice but to buy that hing. (God save my clothes). Do you know that a good quality hing (called blue diamond) costs 4800per kg?? second quality called kazhakstan costs 3200/-? hmm I should start investing in Hing and such commodities..lol.
Now, lets come to the history of Ujjain which was our agenda on the third day. As you all know, Ujjain was the capital of Vikramaditya (from the vikram-bhetal stories). There are so many historic spots in the city for ex: caves where bhartrahari did his tapass, gadkalika temple(goddess who blessed kalidas), siddhavat (the famous tree from which vikram picked betaal in his stories)..I was mighty excited in anticipation of watching these. Sadly, due to many fights among Hindu rulers and Mughals, These spots got dismantled and rebuilt over so many times that there is nothing ancient about these. yuck.. Someway to preserve history. It was interesting to see these historic spots and disheartening to see them in modern structures. (atleast the Idols I assume are old enough).
Now lets take a detour to Kashi's story :). Those who know Kashi, know his association with Bhetaal. Guess what, on his 21st birthday, Kashi was right under the same tree that Bhetaal used to hand on and taking the blessings lol. Do you call this a mere coincidence, daiva leela or bhetaala leela..We had a great time. Unfortunately my camera batteries died on me and I could nt take any pics of bhetaal tree. I will upload the video sometime. Jokes apart, the bhetaal tree stands on the banks of shipra (another sad environmental disaster :-( ). It is called siddhavat. Apparently Aurangazeb chopped it off to roots and put iron sheets to prevent it from growing. But, it still stands tall. (So does the local folklore goes).
Then we bid a bye to Ujjain. AC3T was totally booked :-((. It was a horribly hot day and we had a rough journey to Pune via Baroda (what an industrial development :-? ), godhra. At Pune, the plan was simple. We had to visit Bhimasankar jyotirling in western ghats. It was more like a patel shot trip. The only reason was to tick another item off the list. Surprisingly, it is located in beautiful locales and it would have been great if we came before fall. Now, we are boarding the train back to Shirdi on the way Ellora. From there I will be heading to Hyderabad. So, next update will be from home. Pune seems to be a rapidly developing city. I have no comments to offer as I barely saw anything here. Wanted visit agakhan palace etc..but, this was not in our itinerary. May be some other time.
Can't believe this trip is already about to end. It all seems so quick. I want to document a lot of tips/things for future travellers once I reach home. So, do watch out for the column. I hope these things did not deter you from travelling to north India :)
OK, I gotta sign off. apologies for another first draft posting. bear with typos and the blah.. And Sri..tumhaari nazar lagi aur humhe do din se theek ka khana nahi milaa. youuuuuuuuuuu...j/k.
ciao,
bye.
So, as was required, I woke up at 3am, wore a dhoti and went to see "Chitabhasma aarati" for Lord Mahakaleswar in Ujjain. I was so irritated with the temple folks for having that aarati at 3am but when I went there, it was quite some sight to see. Till 6am, only folks with dhotis are allowed inside. So, the dhoti was worth wearing too. Anyways, coming to the aarati, First they elaborately wash the huge sivalingam with water,milk,honey,curd etc. Then, they decorate it with turmeric paste, flowers and carve a face with silver eyes and lips stuck to the lingam. Then comes the most curious part. An aghori from local graveyard brings the chitabhasmam (ashes from funeral pyre) which will be spread all over the sivalingam. Then again the huge percussion exercise with breathtaking tempo. Wow, that was quite some sight. Apparently, Ujjain has historically been attracting practitioners of aghori and other tantric practices. So, this is the only place where such exercise is done. I was a bit curious and asked what if there are no deadbodies on a given day. Local folks took pride in mentioning that bhasmam was always available etc..??? I had nothing to say. It was a bit gory.
In Ujjain temple is completely managed by govt. police authorities. Boy, they do such a great job. Kudos. I took pains to ask if there was a feedback box as I wanted to appreciate but unfortunately the guy I asked was not sure. From there, we headed to Omkareswar which is on Narmada river. It was a really really hot day and unfortunately even grandpa had to walk/hike those 2-3kms in hot sun. There was nothing extraordinary about Omkareshwar temple. It was jyotirlinga#7 for me. Omkareswar is located on an island which is shaped in OM. Narmada and another river (sorry, I forgot the river) surrounded it. Since past 1 year, a new dam became operational and all the water is now preserved. So, you can literally see layers of rocks and stale water infront of the temple which makes the experience even more unpleasant. (I will upload the pics once I go home). The guide and locals I spoke to are extremely unhappy about the dam (dam is visible from temple) as it had pretty much dented their livelihood. I was discussing how many people were dislodged from the catchment areas. (Only 4 villages). I was trying to convince them that a DAM is good in long term for the greater good of the district folks. There were some arguments and they did nt seem convinced. Sad thing is, there were 2 historic cave monuments (satmatrika temples, kajal rani caves). Now they are happily submerged in the water. If AP could relocate bouddhik remains in nagarjuna sagar 40 years ago, I could nt see why such thing was not thought about. More details later.
In my earlier blog, I said people in Ujjain were nice. They really were. Except for my hotel manager. He was trying to swindle money out of me which was doubly confirmed by the car driver. On the way back to Ujjain from Omkareswar, humne aisa shadyantr rachaaya, when he will know the details, he wil come hunting for me in hyderabad lol....I had a heated argument with hotel manager infront of the whole staff with threats of calling police etc., Finally he had budged and I stuck there for one more day. Ujjain is famous for its namkeen (not my interest really :) ), mehendi and hing (asafoetida). The shopkeepers who realized we were travellers, were sooooo nice to us. (One surprising thing about hing is, it is not made in India. folks from Kazhakstan, afghanistan etc., bring it to ujjain during their winter migration, a practice which dates from 300AD. Well, if you know my dad, I had no choice but to buy that hing. (God save my clothes). Do you know that a good quality hing (called blue diamond) costs 4800per kg?? second quality called kazhakstan costs 3200/-? hmm I should start investing in Hing and such commodities..lol.
Now, lets come to the history of Ujjain which was our agenda on the third day. As you all know, Ujjain was the capital of Vikramaditya (from the vikram-bhetal stories). There are so many historic spots in the city for ex: caves where bhartrahari did his tapass, gadkalika temple(goddess who blessed kalidas), siddhavat (the famous tree from which vikram picked betaal in his stories)..I was mighty excited in anticipation of watching these. Sadly, due to many fights among Hindu rulers and Mughals, These spots got dismantled and rebuilt over so many times that there is nothing ancient about these. yuck.. Someway to preserve history. It was interesting to see these historic spots and disheartening to see them in modern structures. (atleast the Idols I assume are old enough).
Now lets take a detour to Kashi's story :). Those who know Kashi, know his association with Bhetaal. Guess what, on his 21st birthday, Kashi was right under the same tree that Bhetaal used to hand on and taking the blessings lol. Do you call this a mere coincidence, daiva leela or bhetaala leela..We had a great time. Unfortunately my camera batteries died on me and I could nt take any pics of bhetaal tree. I will upload the video sometime. Jokes apart, the bhetaal tree stands on the banks of shipra (another sad environmental disaster :-( ). It is called siddhavat. Apparently Aurangazeb chopped it off to roots and put iron sheets to prevent it from growing. But, it still stands tall. (So does the local folklore goes).
Then we bid a bye to Ujjain. AC3T was totally booked :-((. It was a horribly hot day and we had a rough journey to Pune via Baroda (what an industrial development :-? ), godhra. At Pune, the plan was simple. We had to visit Bhimasankar jyotirling in western ghats. It was more like a patel shot trip. The only reason was to tick another item off the list. Surprisingly, it is located in beautiful locales and it would have been great if we came before fall. Now, we are boarding the train back to Shirdi on the way Ellora. From there I will be heading to Hyderabad. So, next update will be from home. Pune seems to be a rapidly developing city. I have no comments to offer as I barely saw anything here. Wanted visit agakhan palace etc..but, this was not in our itinerary. May be some other time.
Can't believe this trip is already about to end. It all seems so quick. I want to document a lot of tips/things for future travellers once I reach home. So, do watch out for the column. I hope these things did not deter you from travelling to north India :)
OK, I gotta sign off. apologies for another first draft posting. bear with typos and the blah.. And Sri..tumhaari nazar lagi aur humhe do din se theek ka khana nahi milaa. youuuuuuuuuuu...j/k.
ciao,
bye.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Out of Benarus and some taata-isms.
Howdy, folks? One comment after writing that long post with such a big story. hmm..you have disappointed me. But, I won't disappoint you guys. We have entered the second leg of our journey. Left Benarus yesterday afternoon and arrived in Ujjain today. Inspite of all the crowd, filthy streets, Benarus is an experience you should not miss. There are four good reasons you should not miss Benarus.
1) Ganga
2) Lord Viswanath Shrine
3) Poori kachodi breakfast followed by jilebi in dahi :)
4) Benarus paan and for ladies Benarus sarees. (I have to apologize folks for not buying even one saree. There were too many things to be done in too little time and I did nt want to bargain in hurry. So, Benarus and your sarees will have to wait :) )
My first post seemed to be too negative and full of gripe :( but after that we had great time. Roaming in benarus gullies is a funny experience. In benarus, they give too much respect to cows. So, they take equal stake in walking those same streets and even crapping. Me and Kashi just missed cow-attacks in two separate instances..lol. The first two days we stayed there, we could nt have banarsi special breakfast as by the time we took bath, visited temple on empty stomach and came back, it was 12 and breakfast was not served. On the final day, we were determind to have a banarsi breakfast(item#3). That day turned out to be a Monday and some special occasion in UP :-(. Its called Rangbhari Ekadasi (ekadasi before holi). Man it took soooooooo long finish darshan. After few parting words with dear lord viswanath, we were hunting for breakfast. After some long searching, we found a remote place, something akin to gokul chat in hyderabad and went in. We were ordered some puri with a gravy potato curry (as if there was anything available :p ). Then as the ritual goes we bought some jilebi. This was some special jilebi and tasted awesome not the one we make in our homes. While eating, I looked at the menu which had three items. Puri , Kachodi & Jilebi. "humne socha why not order the third item."
me: Bhayya, yaha kachodi bhi milti hai kya?
shopkeeper: (Looks at me from top to bottom and goes on to deal with other customer)
me : (louder) bhayya yaha kachodi bhi milti hai kya?
shopkeeper: aap puri ke saath wohi to khaa rahe hai.
(now everyone is staring at me..lol)
me : what??.. lekin kachodi matlab andhar sabzi bhar ke dete hai na?
shopkeeper: banaras me isi ko poori kachodi bolte hai.
me: (paid the bill immediately and rushed out of the shop :)) )
Then we went to a sweet shop in Benarus. I tried Rabdi (awesome), Rasagulla (even more awesome - i am never going to eat canned rasagulla again), kesari lassi. I asked for some rasmalai but it had nt yet arrived. (it was all wow. sweetlovers..Benarus should be on your travel map. Deeps, I cant get any sweets home, as they wont last that long.) After that we boarded the train to Indore fortunately, we managed berths in AC-3tier which was heaven. Got some nice travel company..played lots of Clearance with tata and kashi. Train was late by 4 hours so, we changed plans and got down in Ujjain.
It almost feels like we are back in civilization :) people are really nice in Ujjain. This has a small town feeling to it. We already visited the Ujjain Mahakaleswar jyotirlinga. When we went in, It was aarti time and any week heart would faint with noise of aarti. They use dhamarukam and cymbals with increasing tempo and reaching a devastating crescendo. Unfortunately, cameras are not allowed so i cant show you anything. We are supposed wake up and 3am tomorow to visit another aarti in dhotis. (no pants and shirts :-( ). We are headed for Omkareshwar tomorrow. If I am not too tired by the heat at this place, I will give you guys another update.
taata-isms.
------------
1) This one should join the all time top 5 list.
The train was about to arrive in Ujjain. Kashi was getting ready to disembark the train. He packed all the bags. He wored a red-t with blue&white stripes. A black capri (3/4 in indian lingo) with yellow lining. Tied up his sandals. Put his red wipro baseball cap on the head in reverse. Looked at tataiah. (as if he said, iam ready). Tataiah looks at him from top to bottom and says
"oka gada okkati takkuva unnadi"....lol. oh well, I was lauging till it hury my tummy.
2) We took a city tour in Benarus on second day. It was a long and hot day and grandpa was already tired. We entered a fort where grandpa suddenly realized he has no interest in watching this as it had no spiritual connotation to it. I told "tata, opika lekunte ikkada koorchondi. memu tirigi vastaam".
tataiah: (looking at kashi..very sarcastically) "anni manchiga chooskoraa..mallee mee jayanthganiki appacheppaale.
3) There is another beautiful story about kashi and dhuryodhana kavacham. But its a bit too long and I will share at a later day.
4) We were playing clearance in train. The game was a tense game. I was on 28. Tata on 27 and Kashi on 27. I was to deal the next hand. There was a 10 on the table. In the first round Tataiah takes the 10 with a diamond 10 and seals the game. Kashi, who was next, shows his spade-2 and says.."abbaa..taata choodu"
tataiah: "koora veskoni, aankaku tinduvu gaani"...lol
OK, There were too many to write, so I will stop now. Kashi is already getting angry at me :) Sorry Kashi. But, I know you are a good sport.
Ciao folks, Next report will be anytime between 1-3 days.
-v
Ps: This is a first draft. So, live with the typos and bad grammar.
1) Ganga
2) Lord Viswanath Shrine
3) Poori kachodi breakfast followed by jilebi in dahi :)
4) Benarus paan and for ladies Benarus sarees. (I have to apologize folks for not buying even one saree. There were too many things to be done in too little time and I did nt want to bargain in hurry. So, Benarus and your sarees will have to wait :) )
My first post seemed to be too negative and full of gripe :( but after that we had great time. Roaming in benarus gullies is a funny experience. In benarus, they give too much respect to cows. So, they take equal stake in walking those same streets and even crapping. Me and Kashi just missed cow-attacks in two separate instances..lol. The first two days we stayed there, we could nt have banarsi special breakfast as by the time we took bath, visited temple on empty stomach and came back, it was 12 and breakfast was not served. On the final day, we were determind to have a banarsi breakfast(item#3). That day turned out to be a Monday and some special occasion in UP :-(. Its called Rangbhari Ekadasi (ekadasi before holi). Man it took soooooooo long finish darshan. After few parting words with dear lord viswanath, we were hunting for breakfast. After some long searching, we found a remote place, something akin to gokul chat in hyderabad and went in. We were ordered some puri with a gravy potato curry (as if there was anything available :p ). Then as the ritual goes we bought some jilebi. This was some special jilebi and tasted awesome not the one we make in our homes. While eating, I looked at the menu which had three items. Puri , Kachodi & Jilebi. "humne socha why not order the third item."
me: Bhayya, yaha kachodi bhi milti hai kya?
shopkeeper: (Looks at me from top to bottom and goes on to deal with other customer)
me : (louder) bhayya yaha kachodi bhi milti hai kya?
shopkeeper: aap puri ke saath wohi to khaa rahe hai.
(now everyone is staring at me..lol)
me : what??.. lekin kachodi matlab andhar sabzi bhar ke dete hai na?
shopkeeper: banaras me isi ko poori kachodi bolte hai.
me: (paid the bill immediately and rushed out of the shop :)) )
Then we went to a sweet shop in Benarus. I tried Rabdi (awesome), Rasagulla (even more awesome - i am never going to eat canned rasagulla again), kesari lassi. I asked for some rasmalai but it had nt yet arrived. (it was all wow. sweetlovers..Benarus should be on your travel map. Deeps, I cant get any sweets home, as they wont last that long.) After that we boarded the train to Indore fortunately, we managed berths in AC-3tier which was heaven. Got some nice travel company..played lots of Clearance with tata and kashi. Train was late by 4 hours so, we changed plans and got down in Ujjain.
It almost feels like we are back in civilization :) people are really nice in Ujjain. This has a small town feeling to it. We already visited the Ujjain Mahakaleswar jyotirlinga. When we went in, It was aarti time and any week heart would faint with noise of aarti. They use dhamarukam and cymbals with increasing tempo and reaching a devastating crescendo. Unfortunately, cameras are not allowed so i cant show you anything. We are supposed wake up and 3am tomorow to visit another aarti in dhotis. (no pants and shirts :-( ). We are headed for Omkareshwar tomorrow. If I am not too tired by the heat at this place, I will give you guys another update.
taata-isms.
------------
1) This one should join the all time top 5 list.
The train was about to arrive in Ujjain. Kashi was getting ready to disembark the train. He packed all the bags. He wored a red-t with blue&white stripes. A black capri (3/4 in indian lingo) with yellow lining. Tied up his sandals. Put his red wipro baseball cap on the head in reverse. Looked at tataiah. (as if he said, iam ready). Tataiah looks at him from top to bottom and says
"oka gada okkati takkuva unnadi"....lol. oh well, I was lauging till it hury my tummy.
2) We took a city tour in Benarus on second day. It was a long and hot day and grandpa was already tired. We entered a fort where grandpa suddenly realized he has no interest in watching this as it had no spiritual connotation to it. I told "tata, opika lekunte ikkada koorchondi. memu tirigi vastaam".
tataiah: (looking at kashi..very sarcastically) "anni manchiga chooskoraa..mallee mee jayanthganiki appacheppaale.
3) There is another beautiful story about kashi and dhuryodhana kavacham. But its a bit too long and I will share at a later day.
4) We were playing clearance in train. The game was a tense game. I was on 28. Tata on 27 and Kashi on 27. I was to deal the next hand. There was a 10 on the table. In the first round Tataiah takes the 10 with a diamond 10 and seals the game. Kashi, who was next, shows his spade-2 and says.."abbaa..taata choodu"
tataiah: "koora veskoni, aankaku tinduvu gaani"...lol
OK, There were too many to write, so I will stop now. Kashi is already getting angry at me :) Sorry Kashi. But, I know you are a good sport.
Ciao folks, Next report will be anytime between 1-3 days.
-v
Ps: This is a first draft. So, live with the typos and bad grammar.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Travels and travails
First,apologies for a late update. We could nt find time to come to a net cafe till now.
Wow, there are so many things to share. Dont know where to start from :)
Let me start from beginning. We started in Hyderabad on Wednesday night at 10pm. It was uneventful train journey jostling for space inspite having reserved berths. Let me tell you something, Second class train journey is not quite advisable if you are crossing south India. People have scant respect for rules around this place. Somewhere from Nagpur to Betul, people lose the common/civic sense I guess. It was annoying journey. At that point I decided to upgrade the entire trip from economy to luxury :-). So, trying to upgrade my tix from Second class to AC wherever possible. We took a break in Jabalpur. The station there really needs mention. They maintained it so well. It was welcome break. We also found first decent meal in 24 hours. Kashi thinks it is still the best meal we had so far :-(
Overnight we moved to Allahabad from Jabalpur. That train again was a pain fighting for berths that we righeously owned. Ever since we planned this trip, I was not sure of our accomodation in Allahabad. Dad warned me not to venture out of the station before the dawn breaks. So, I searched a lot on the net and found a contact in net who offered to come and pick us up at station, provide accomodation and do the works. We were quite relieved for such a big help, but what a crook that guy was. He took us to some dirty dingy in Allahabad. Imagine going all the way to Hyderabad and staying in pattarghatti..lol. From there we went to prayag ( the holy confluence of three rivers). That was my first moment of peace. We went in canoe for 6km to reach prayag. It was too good. All that hastle, irritation vaporized and when took a dip in the prayag, It felt like all this was worth it. When we came out of the river, it was back to square one. Seriously, Allahabad is shittiest place I have ever seen. Obviously,they dont seem to know the concept of Muncipality. We planned to visit two destinations in Allahabad. Prayag and Azad park (place where Chandrasekhar Azad took life fighting with British). One was over. After some crappy home cooked food (again a big swindle by Panda), we hired a car and I was glad I was getting out of town after visiting Azad park. Idiot of a driver that was driving, misunderstood our request and safely took us out of city in 15 minutes. The conversation was something like this..
Me: Bhayya, Azad park itna door hai kya?
Driver:
Nahi, city me hi hai.
Me: To hum idhar kyo hai? Aap rukhe kyo nahi?
Driver: Accha, aapko jaana tha kya? ab bhi chal sakte hai.
me: WTF? #%#^#$%?
Anyways, there went our Azad park trip. We could nt afford to go back as we were driving to Ayodhya and we had to reach in time to visit Ram janmabhoomi. It was around 12noon. There was 160km to cover. We had to reach by 5pm. Simple thing you would think. ha ha. it took us exactly 5hours to reach (there was a 30km road strip which took about 90mins :(, at the end of which everybody had every bone shaken in the body). We were late by 5 minutes to Ramjanmabhoomi and it was closed :(
For those who dont know, Ramjanmabhoomi is now guarded by 5000 ARMY (not police). They are very strict and do the business correctly. No amount of pleading, requesting on behalf of grandpa could help. We looked around the place and left to visit Ayodhya. Waise bhi, uske andhar ek tent ke siva kuch nahi hai. Karsevaks demolished the whole place and put up a tent as they were not allowed to build a temple. Then we went to take a look at Sarayu river which was again a delight. We badly wanted to take a dip, but it was late and was getting dark. Visited some temples and saw a baba who was apparently the head honcho who ran the whole Karsevak operation. Some pracharak was requesting (in a demanding tone) for funds. I got irritated and almost got into a fight. Baba asked me if I wanted to know something.
Baba: Kya jaanna chahte hai aap?
me: Nothing babaji. We are happy this way.
Baba: (irked by my response) yeh dekho..kuch nahi jaan na chahta hai.
me :(smiling to myself) thank you
and receded from that place.
Folks here are trying to rip you off all the time. god it was irritating. Finally at 3am on Friday, we arrived in Benarus.Benarus is a delight though. Benarus that we see in crappy bollywood movies, Benarus of Pandas, Benarus of yogis and babas like lahiri mahasay. Wow this city is an amazing place. The lean/mean streets of Benarus is a sight to watch. You can barely stretch yourself across the breadth of the street. Streets are that small. Width of the streets is quite comparable to walkers track in US parks. lol.. After some interesting experiences, which I will write in detail once I reach Hyderabad, We went to visit Kashi Viswanath Place. Once I reached inside, the feeling was amazing. I cant describe it, but it was so overwhelming. You forget the crowds, forget all the troubles that you take to reach there. (remember these are the words coming from not a religious or bhakti kind of person :-) and someone who does not like idol worship). Guess whole trip is worth that one moment. Wow. When I came out Kaushik was telling me about the samething. Then we came back and had a relaxed day.
Ganga in Benarus is too good. We stay nearby some remote ghat where there is not too much crowd. So, Me and Kashi are having great time at the river. Today, we woke up early at 5am to catch one of the most beautiful sunrises. I will post the pictures later. Took a long boat ride along the ghats of river and went for darshan again. Inspite of all the crowds, filth and dirt, I am loving this place. Benarus is a must visit place who like to travel even if you are not a religious person. I am definitely planning to come here again.OK, I guess I need to sign off here. I will post again either tomorrow or from Ujjain on 19th. Till then, cya folks.
PS: For folk waiting for tataiah's jibes, here is one.
On the train from sec'bad to Allahabad, I was using my backpack for a pillow as all
important stuff was in that backpack. Grandpa was having trouble with his bag, so I offered to exchange the bags. Here is the convesation.
Me: Taata, idi jara bhadram.
Grandpa: (pointing at Kashi) "gisuvanti puli undanga manakme bhayam" :))
Those who know Tataiah's timing for comedy can read these two lines well. I could nt control my laughter. (btw, tataiahs is getting irritated with my SLR camera, moment is ripe for his jibe ).
cya I gotta go and try some banarsi special sweets :)
Wow, there are so many things to share. Dont know where to start from :)
Let me start from beginning. We started in Hyderabad on Wednesday night at 10pm. It was uneventful train journey jostling for space inspite having reserved berths. Let me tell you something, Second class train journey is not quite advisable if you are crossing south India. People have scant respect for rules around this place. Somewhere from Nagpur to Betul, people lose the common/civic sense I guess. It was annoying journey. At that point I decided to upgrade the entire trip from economy to luxury :-). So, trying to upgrade my tix from Second class to AC wherever possible. We took a break in Jabalpur. The station there really needs mention. They maintained it so well. It was welcome break. We also found first decent meal in 24 hours. Kashi thinks it is still the best meal we had so far :-(
Overnight we moved to Allahabad from Jabalpur. That train again was a pain fighting for berths that we righeously owned. Ever since we planned this trip, I was not sure of our accomodation in Allahabad. Dad warned me not to venture out of the station before the dawn breaks. So, I searched a lot on the net and found a contact in net who offered to come and pick us up at station, provide accomodation and do the works. We were quite relieved for such a big help, but what a crook that guy was. He took us to some dirty dingy in Allahabad. Imagine going all the way to Hyderabad and staying in pattarghatti..lol. From there we went to prayag ( the holy confluence of three rivers). That was my first moment of peace. We went in canoe for 6km to reach prayag. It was too good. All that hastle, irritation vaporized and when took a dip in the prayag, It felt like all this was worth it. When we came out of the river, it was back to square one. Seriously, Allahabad is shittiest place I have ever seen. Obviously,they dont seem to know the concept of Muncipality. We planned to visit two destinations in Allahabad. Prayag and Azad park (place where Chandrasekhar Azad took life fighting with British). One was over. After some crappy home cooked food (again a big swindle by Panda), we hired a car and I was glad I was getting out of town after visiting Azad park. Idiot of a driver that was driving, misunderstood our request and safely took us out of city in 15 minutes. The conversation was something like this..
Me: Bhayya, Azad park itna door hai kya?
Driver:
Nahi, city me hi hai.
Me: To hum idhar kyo hai? Aap rukhe kyo nahi?
Driver: Accha, aapko jaana tha kya? ab bhi chal sakte hai.
me: WTF? #%#^#$%?
Anyways, there went our Azad park trip. We could nt afford to go back as we were driving to Ayodhya and we had to reach in time to visit Ram janmabhoomi. It was around 12noon. There was 160km to cover. We had to reach by 5pm. Simple thing you would think. ha ha. it took us exactly 5hours to reach (there was a 30km road strip which took about 90mins :(, at the end of which everybody had every bone shaken in the body). We were late by 5 minutes to Ramjanmabhoomi and it was closed :(
For those who dont know, Ramjanmabhoomi is now guarded by 5000 ARMY (not police). They are very strict and do the business correctly. No amount of pleading, requesting on behalf of grandpa could help. We looked around the place and left to visit Ayodhya. Waise bhi, uske andhar ek tent ke siva kuch nahi hai. Karsevaks demolished the whole place and put up a tent as they were not allowed to build a temple. Then we went to take a look at Sarayu river which was again a delight. We badly wanted to take a dip, but it was late and was getting dark. Visited some temples and saw a baba who was apparently the head honcho who ran the whole Karsevak operation. Some pracharak was requesting (in a demanding tone) for funds. I got irritated and almost got into a fight. Baba asked me if I wanted to know something.
Baba: Kya jaanna chahte hai aap?
me: Nothing babaji. We are happy this way.
Baba: (irked by my response) yeh dekho..kuch nahi jaan na chahta hai.
me :(smiling to myself) thank you
and receded from that place.
Folks here are trying to rip you off all the time. god it was irritating. Finally at 3am on Friday, we arrived in Benarus.Benarus is a delight though. Benarus that we see in crappy bollywood movies, Benarus of Pandas, Benarus of yogis and babas like lahiri mahasay. Wow this city is an amazing place. The lean/mean streets of Benarus is a sight to watch. You can barely stretch yourself across the breadth of the street. Streets are that small. Width of the streets is quite comparable to walkers track in US parks. lol.. After some interesting experiences, which I will write in detail once I reach Hyderabad, We went to visit Kashi Viswanath Place. Once I reached inside, the feeling was amazing. I cant describe it, but it was so overwhelming. You forget the crowds, forget all the troubles that you take to reach there. (remember these are the words coming from not a religious or bhakti kind of person :-) and someone who does not like idol worship). Guess whole trip is worth that one moment. Wow. When I came out Kaushik was telling me about the samething. Then we came back and had a relaxed day.
Ganga in Benarus is too good. We stay nearby some remote ghat where there is not too much crowd. So, Me and Kashi are having great time at the river. Today, we woke up early at 5am to catch one of the most beautiful sunrises. I will post the pictures later. Took a long boat ride along the ghats of river and went for darshan again. Inspite of all the crowds, filth and dirt, I am loving this place. Benarus is a must visit place who like to travel even if you are not a religious person. I am definitely planning to come here again.OK, I guess I need to sign off here. I will post again either tomorrow or from Ujjain on 19th. Till then, cya folks.
PS: For folk waiting for tataiah's jibes, here is one.
On the train from sec'bad to Allahabad, I was using my backpack for a pillow as all
important stuff was in that backpack. Grandpa was having trouble with his bag, so I offered to exchange the bags. Here is the convesation.
Me: Taata, idi jara bhadram.
Grandpa: (pointing at Kashi) "gisuvanti puli undanga manakme bhayam" :))
Those who know Tataiah's timing for comedy can read these two lines well. I could nt control my laughter. (btw, tataiahs is getting irritated with my SLR camera, moment is ripe for his jibe ).
cya I gotta go and try some banarsi special sweets :)
Monday, March 10, 2008
Travelling in India
Alright, it is just two days to take off. To give an idea to dear readers, I have marked the route of our trip in India. Though it looks like a small irregular shape, the distance covered is close to 5000kms. It’s going to be busses trains, cars for next 15 days. I wanted to include flight in at least one leg of the journey. But, none of destination points have a direct flight from one place to another. In India, each leg of flight journey roughly equals to 5K per person. So, it sounded like extravagance. Most of the journey is going to be on trains. Sometimes it is sleeper class and some times AC 3Tier if we could manage a reservation. We are going to hire car for most of the point to point travels around one destination.
India, with its booming economy, is taking rapid strides in ecommerce, web portals development. For example, I planned the whole trip sitting in front of my laptop. Two worthy websites that need to mention are www.erail.in and www.ixigo.com. Book mark them. I even wanted to book all my accommodation on net. Unfortunately, there is no good site for hotel reservation. What does a good hotels site need? A streamlined process, searching, leading to detailed rich pages, concluding to booking the accommodation. If you are staying 5-star or 4-star places, yes, there are some sites available. But this trip is going to be “spend where it is necessary” trip. So, no 5-star or 4-star accommodation.
So, we are going to rely mostly on www.justdial.com another great company. These guys are yellow pages that are spread all over India, predominantly in cities worth their salt. How does this work? Say you are in Pune, looking for a car rental. Call 3999 9999 and get some car rental places numbers near railway station. They will give you 2-3 numbers. Negotiate a deal over phone, ask them to pick you up at station. You are set to go. Well, pretty cumbersome process for people used to streamlined processes abroad. But, India is still working on this. Hopefully in another 3-5 years, stories like these will be history. By the way, there are interesting sites like (www.tolmolbol.com, www.mouthshut.com) which offer opinions on what ever it is you want to know. Unfortunately, these are all budding sites. Launched ambitiously but executing not so perfectly. I guess it will be an year or two by the time they are out of teething troubles.
Coming to our trip, most of its going to be on trains. Some contours in the road map are silly if you notice. There is no direct train from Indore to Pune. It has to go through All the way from Gujarat, Bombay to Pune. I can’t see any plausible explanation other than powerful Gujju lobbies twisting resources according their priorities. Now, I am novice to traveling in trains. My first major train journey was a 36 hour trip from Hyderabad-Delhi. Another I took from Hyderabad to Kochi. That should be enough experience. Both the times, I was conveniently left out of responsibilities. Somebody packed remotest thing that would be needed on the journey and I happily took a free raid. This time I really need to plan, considering the fact that I am the decision maker, albeit unwillingly and more importantly, grandpa is accompanying us. He has his own food/bath/medicine needs. More about our planning in next blog. Ciao.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
movies.. movies...
Alright, in the last 10 days, I got to watch 3 movies. Yea, I can see the raised eye brows and hear the surprise gasps. What can I say? It is raining good movies (should I say, big titles) in Hyderabad. After along draught, this was necessary. So, let me give a quick and dirty review.
Jodha Akbar : If you are one of those bollywood fans, who enjoys song and dance routines, who does not mind sitting through 3:30 hour long sagas, who rents cassette of every damn released desi movie for $1 from Indian stores, this movie is for you. If you are one of those who is born with a good taste, who crossed over to better movies after temporary insanity, you can happily pass this off. Believe me, you won’t miss a thing in life. I definitely have high regard for Ashutosh Gowarikar’s directing abilities. All the hard work and research he did can be clearly seen in the movie. But, Jodha Akbar, at the best, can be compared to docudramas that are generally telecast in History channel. After seeing pretty Aishwarya and a handsome Hritik for three hours one comes out of the theater, wondering where is the story? Seriously, for a much touted magnum opus of this scale, you better have a good story and at least some great scenes that will last forever in viewer’s mind. I was expecting something like the chariot race in Ben-hur or parting of the sea in Ten commandments. Nope, all I can remember is, pretty Aishwarya in a Rajput dress, Hritik raging with anger in a scene or two and the best, a sufi song. This movie only goes to show that we can make technically great movies and match Hollywood but we are still miles behind in Story, Screenplay and Editing. Forgot to mention, due credits should be given to Hritik and Aishwarya.
American Gangster: There are some movies you can catch on dvd and some you have to catch only on a big screen. With Denzel Washington and Russel Crowe I was expecting a movie of the second kind. The movie is very well made. The movie runs at such a frantic pace that it is impossible to get bored. Denzel and Russel just scorch the screen with their acting. But this movie just falls short of perfection. Why? I think its more to do with the subject. Cops Vs Drug lords is a topic beaten to death. I don’t think it excites the viewer any more and watching Russel Crowe playing honest cop was like watching LA Confidential all over. Nevertheless, you can watch this movie on DVD with out complain. If you like technical aspects of movie making, this is a must watch.
LionsforLambs: All hail Robert Redford. Here is a guy, in spite of being of the heartthrob of his era, dared to be different, avoided being typecast as a handsome, gun totting hero and became known for his good cinematic skills. When I saw the trailer of this movie, I was bowled by the cast. Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise and Michael Pena. Wow, what an ensemble?
Let me get into story a little bit. There are three threads running in the movie, all happening at the exact time. (1) An upcoming senator (Tom Cruise) is giving an exclusive to a critically acclaimed, probing journalist (Meryl Streep). (2) Two soldiers (Michael Pena and another black guy) are fighting the US battle in Afghanistan. (3) Robert Redford, a professor in a west coast university is trying to talk one of his smart students about his apathy to life.
Redford tries to project anomalies of the contemporary American society in three different threads all bound to one another. I don’t want give any more details but I think this is a great movie. Actors did a great job. Tom Cruise as the preppy senator with lot of empty talk, Meryl Streep as the journalist with conscientious and Redford as a professor with a cause. After a wonderful performance in Crash, I thought Pena was underutilized in the movie. This is must watch movie for serious cinema lovers and all politics interested guys over there. Get the dvd tomorrow.
| Powered by: Chakpak.com | Jodhaa Akbar |
Jodha Akbar : If you are one of those bollywood fans, who enjoys song and dance routines, who does not mind sitting through 3:30 hour long sagas, who rents cassette of every damn released desi movie for $1 from Indian stores, this movie is for you. If you are one of those who is born with a good taste, who crossed over to better movies after temporary insanity, you can happily pass this off. Believe me, you won’t miss a thing in life. I definitely have high regard for Ashutosh Gowarikar’s directing abilities. All the hard work and research he did can be clearly seen in the movie. But, Jodha Akbar, at the best, can be compared to docudramas that are generally telecast in History channel. After seeing pretty Aishwarya and a handsome Hritik for three hours one comes out of the theater, wondering where is the story? Seriously, for a much touted magnum opus of this scale, you better have a good story and at least some great scenes that will last forever in viewer’s mind. I was expecting something like the chariot race in Ben-hur or parting of the sea in Ten commandments. Nope, all I can remember is, pretty Aishwarya in a Rajput dress, Hritik raging with anger in a scene or two and the best, a sufi song. This movie only goes to show that we can make technically great movies and match Hollywood but we are still miles behind in Story, Screenplay and Editing. Forgot to mention, due credits should be given to Hritik and Aishwarya.
American Gangster: There are some movies you can catch on dvd and some you have to catch only on a big screen. With Denzel Washington and Russel Crowe I was expecting a movie of the second kind. The movie is very well made. The movie runs at such a frantic pace that it is impossible to get bored. Denzel and Russel just scorch the screen with their acting. But this movie just falls short of perfection. Why? I think its more to do with the subject. Cops Vs Drug lords is a topic beaten to death. I don’t think it excites the viewer any more and watching Russel Crowe playing honest cop was like watching LA Confidential all over. Nevertheless, you can watch this movie on DVD with out complain. If you like technical aspects of movie making, this is a must watch.
LionsforLambs: All hail Robert Redford. Here is a guy, in spite of being of the heartthrob of his era, dared to be different, avoided being typecast as a handsome, gun totting hero and became known for his good cinematic skills. When I saw the trailer of this movie, I was bowled by the cast. Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise and Michael Pena. Wow, what an ensemble?
Let me get into story a little bit. There are three threads running in the movie, all happening at the exact time. (1) An upcoming senator (Tom Cruise) is giving an exclusive to a critically acclaimed, probing journalist (Meryl Streep). (2) Two soldiers (Michael Pena and another black guy) are fighting the US battle in Afghanistan. (3) Robert Redford, a professor in a west coast university is trying to talk one of his smart students about his apathy to life.
Redford tries to project anomalies of the contemporary American society in three different threads all bound to one another. I don’t want give any more details but I think this is a great movie. Actors did a great job. Tom Cruise as the preppy senator with lot of empty talk, Meryl Streep as the journalist with conscientious and Redford as a professor with a cause. After a wonderful performance in Crash, I thought Pena was underutilized in the movie. This is must watch movie for serious cinema lovers and all politics interested guys over there. Get the dvd tomorrow.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Not a usual bystander day
Almost everyday you read some crime news in newspapers, some one getting robbed, some one getting stabbed and all sorts of things. Some how, it was always some one pretty much statistic for bystander. I was lucky enough to be a bystander till Yesterday. As news flashed on TV that Doctor Srinivas Akkaladevi was stabbed to death in Pennsylvanian town, I was praying seriously that let this guy be not the one I know. Then news added a detail saying this doc was from Korutla. My hopes dwindled further. After searching frantically all over the net for an hour, TV confirmed the sad news by showing his picture.
Srinivas, fondly called as Gundu in the hostel, was my room mate during eigth class. Very driven and no non-sense guy. One immediate thing that comes to my mind when I remember Gundu was the silly game we used to play in Hostel. We used to play this game, where in you have to rotate a rectangular place 1’ x 6” on your middle finger as long as possible. Gundu was the champion. He set a record by controlling the plate on the finger for more than 2 hours. Following year, we got moved to different rooms followed by which, I left the hostel. We got in touch again after he joined Gandhi medical college. Murali used to visit Hyderabad during his sem.holidays. Visiting Gundu, Ibrahim and Kalyan at Gandhi hostel was a must every time. After a little bit of chatter about studies/future plans/comparisons between Engg., medicine, we used depart with the promise of meeting again. I lost contact after I went to US in ’98. Later, I heard Gundu went there too but none in my friends circle could revive the contact.
During our stay at Gandhi house, we had a competition. Each of us planted two pine trees(sarugudu in Telugu). The boy whose tree was tallest at the end of the semester was awarded the prize. By the nature of those trees, if you nip the main stem, the tree would never recover and was rendered out of competition. The trees were easy preys for stray cattle around the hostel. We used to take pains to build fences to avoid all kinds of threats. At the end of the term, Gundu was the only boy who could guard his tree with out getting nipped and took the prize. God, how cruel and ironic you can be - to nip such a promising life just when it is ready to reap all the benefits of hard work.
Dear Srinivas, you will be alive in our memories and our prayers are with your family and beloved.
-vg
PS: In my earlier post, I mentioned third time is the charm but, did nt realize there was ‘avada kedavra’ curse waiting. Anyways, I will try to stick to my promise and like life, this blog will go on too.
Srinivas, fondly called as Gundu in the hostel, was my room mate during eigth class. Very driven and no non-sense guy. One immediate thing that comes to my mind when I remember Gundu was the silly game we used to play in Hostel. We used to play this game, where in you have to rotate a rectangular place 1’ x 6” on your middle finger as long as possible. Gundu was the champion. He set a record by controlling the plate on the finger for more than 2 hours. Following year, we got moved to different rooms followed by which, I left the hostel. We got in touch again after he joined Gandhi medical college. Murali used to visit Hyderabad during his sem.holidays. Visiting Gundu, Ibrahim and Kalyan at Gandhi hostel was a must every time. After a little bit of chatter about studies/future plans/comparisons between Engg., medicine, we used depart with the promise of meeting again. I lost contact after I went to US in ’98. Later, I heard Gundu went there too but none in my friends circle could revive the contact.
During our stay at Gandhi house, we had a competition. Each of us planted two pine trees(sarugudu in Telugu). The boy whose tree was tallest at the end of the semester was awarded the prize. By the nature of those trees, if you nip the main stem, the tree would never recover and was rendered out of competition. The trees were easy preys for stray cattle around the hostel. We used to take pains to build fences to avoid all kinds of threats. At the end of the term, Gundu was the only boy who could guard his tree with out getting nipped and took the prize. God, how cruel and ironic you can be - to nip such a promising life just when it is ready to reap all the benefits of hard work.
Dear Srinivas, you will be alive in our memories and our prayers are with your family and beloved.
-vg
PS: In my earlier post, I mentioned third time is the charm but, did nt realize there was ‘avada kedavra’ curse waiting. Anyways, I will try to stick to my promise and like life, this blog will go on too.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Third time is the charm
Hello, World.
This is my third attempt to maintain a blog. Lets hope third time is the charm :). The first time I started a blog was in telugu. I was a bit excited to see the telugu unicode in explorer and tried my hand at it. Soon I realized, blogging takes too much time and energy, both of which I had very little at that point. The second attempt was 6months ago when I had ample time :) but I realized there are inherent difficulties in blog and had to take a break. I am one of those who vouch for anonymity on net and blog was totally against this principle :( I had to figure out a mid-way. So, what prompted me to start a third time? Well, there are a ton of reasons. Here you go with the first.
Ever since, I came to India I had a desire to travel across the length and breadth of India. Something like what Gandhi did after returning from South Africa :-). But after an 8 year sojourn abroad, believe me its pretty difficult to come back and settle in India and travelling is a whole different gamut. (Ya ya, I know, I was born and brought up here for 20yrs). With so many things happening at once, I kept postponing the travel. A trip to Hampi with P was an exception. Anyways, I decided to do a little bit of travelling now and blog seemed the only way to keep many folks posted at once. So, where am I going?
Top in my list were Kerala, Rajasthan but decided those can wait for a better day and better company :). Next in the list were places like eastern states (had to drop becoz of unrest against non-locals), Ladakh (bad season to go), Temples in Tamilnadu( Southern temples always fascinated me with their grand architecture but called off as its too close to home). Then came Benarus, Amritsir. Towns with rich heritage and history and ofcourse holy shrines. So zeroed in on Benarus. An year ago, when I mentioned my travel plans at home, grandpa asked me if I would take him to jyotirlingas that he missed. So, I clubbed some of them. I had a big enough tour at hand and interesting enough places to visit.
So, there you go. I am travelling to 6 destinations in various states from 12th to 24th March. Trip goes something like Hyderabad -> Allahabad (prayag, Azad park)-> Ayodhya (ramjanmabhoomi)-> Benarus(kasi viswanath, BHU, Saranath) -> Indore (Omkareshwar) -> Ujjain (Mahakaleswar, tansen's tomb, bartrihari's cave etc)-> Pune (Bhimashankar) -> Shirdi -> Aurangabad(ellora, grishneswar). If you have nt figured out yet, there are five jyotirlingas in the itinerary. Travel team includes grandpa, Kaushik and me. If you have nt figured why Kashi? two reasons. He too loves history (Trip to Hampi was a revelation) and he is a great company. A subtler reason is that, 15 days with out Kashi's misadventures is a bit of stretch for tataiah :) (don't u worry..all the digs/jibes will be reported promptly..lol)
Kashi and I realized blog is a great way to share the experience with all you folks. Hopefully, we will find internet kiosks and will be able to upload some pics and blogs on the way.
So Folks, subscribe to this RSS feed, bookmark this URL if you dont know what RSS is and keep yourself posted as I update abt the planning, details and why/how/when/what/where's of the trip.
This is my third attempt to maintain a blog. Lets hope third time is the charm :). The first time I started a blog was in telugu. I was a bit excited to see the telugu unicode in explorer and tried my hand at it. Soon I realized, blogging takes too much time and energy, both of which I had very little at that point. The second attempt was 6months ago when I had ample time :) but I realized there are inherent difficulties in blog and had to take a break. I am one of those who vouch for anonymity on net and blog was totally against this principle :( I had to figure out a mid-way. So, what prompted me to start a third time? Well, there are a ton of reasons. Here you go with the first.
Ever since, I came to India I had a desire to travel across the length and breadth of India. Something like what Gandhi did after returning from South Africa :-). But after an 8 year sojourn abroad, believe me its pretty difficult to come back and settle in India and travelling is a whole different gamut. (Ya ya, I know, I was born and brought up here for 20yrs). With so many things happening at once, I kept postponing the travel. A trip to Hampi with P was an exception. Anyways, I decided to do a little bit of travelling now and blog seemed the only way to keep many folks posted at once. So, where am I going?
Top in my list were Kerala, Rajasthan but decided those can wait for a better day and better company :). Next in the list were places like eastern states (had to drop becoz of unrest against non-locals), Ladakh (bad season to go), Temples in Tamilnadu( Southern temples always fascinated me with their grand architecture but called off as its too close to home). Then came Benarus, Amritsir. Towns with rich heritage and history and ofcourse holy shrines. So zeroed in on Benarus. An year ago, when I mentioned my travel plans at home, grandpa asked me if I would take him to jyotirlingas that he missed. So, I clubbed some of them. I had a big enough tour at hand and interesting enough places to visit.
So, there you go. I am travelling to 6 destinations in various states from 12th to 24th March. Trip goes something like Hyderabad -> Allahabad (prayag, Azad park)-> Ayodhya (ramjanmabhoomi)-> Benarus(kasi viswanath, BHU, Saranath) -> Indore (Omkareshwar) -> Ujjain (Mahakaleswar, tansen's tomb, bartrihari's cave etc)-> Pune (Bhimashankar) -> Shirdi -> Aurangabad(ellora, grishneswar). If you have nt figured out yet, there are five jyotirlingas in the itinerary. Travel team includes grandpa, Kaushik and me. If you have nt figured why Kashi? two reasons. He too loves history (Trip to Hampi was a revelation) and he is a great company. A subtler reason is that, 15 days with out Kashi's misadventures is a bit of stretch for tataiah :) (don't u worry..all the digs/jibes will be reported promptly..lol)
Kashi and I realized blog is a great way to share the experience with all you folks. Hopefully, we will find internet kiosks and will be able to upload some pics and blogs on the way.
So Folks, subscribe to this RSS feed, bookmark this URL if you dont know what RSS is and keep yourself posted as I update abt the planning, details and why/how/when/what/where's of the trip.
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