Germany - Part 4

We reached Berlin by later afternoon. Finding the hotel with the maps and directions I had, was slightly tough but we managed and checked into Meininger at Senefelderplatz.

Almost a month back, I had booked for a free guided tour of the German Parliament - Reichstag scheduled at 8.30pm for about 90 mins. We put our bags, showered and quickly left. We took a bus numbered 100, apparently the only bus which takes you through all major attractions (other than the hop-on-hop-off). We did one round on that bus and then got off at Reichstag. The tour was well organized and the guide gave us very deep insights and stories about the building, its architecture, and impact from the war.

The next day we had a huge debate rather a fight about whether we should do a free walking tour or not. We decided to do a walking tour. We were told that there would be a pickup at 10am from our hotel. We were ready by 9.30 but apparently that 10am pickup was to just collect people from different hotels and make bring them to the Brandenburg gate. The tour was going to start only at 11am. I realized it was an utter waste of time and we wanted to cover a lot in a single day. The walking tour was just going to be Berlin highlights. So we ditched the tour and started off on our own. We took the train to the Berlin Ostbahnof to see the section of the wall that was still intact. From there we reached the Judisches Museum. This museum had everything about Jews right from history, evolution whatever to concentration camps until 1945. We spent many hours at the Museum and then walked towards Checkpoint Charlie - the crossing between east and west. There was an exhibition about the wall very close to the checkpoint. More about that in the photos. Next destination was the Topography of Terror. This place was a treasure trove of information about the book burning, arrests, holocaust, hatred and the cold war. The day almost got over and we managed to make a quick visit to the Berlin Wall Memorial.

The next day was the highlight of our vacation. The tour of Sachsenhausen concentration camp. This camp was a model camp. SS officers got training in this camp before being deputed elsewhere. The location of the camp was at the end of one of the train lines and the camp was very close to residential areas which meant that everyone living there could see camp prisoners being walked to the camp. If you don't plan to visit Dachau near Munich or Auschwitz near Krakow, then this place is a must. I have enough photos that divulge the details of the camp. On our way back we were talking to our guide on the train about various things - India, culture, yoga, travel etc and then our conversation was interrupted by a lady who was sitting on the other side. We started talking to her and realized that she was very much around when the wall was built. Her family later moved to the US and she started working with the UN. She is now retired and lives in Berlin. Towards the end, she told us that her mother was in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. We were speechless after that.

The rest of the evening was spent repenting not continuing on the train with the lady. But then, there was also this thought that we should not be triggering such sensitive conversations with someone we just met on the train.

There was so much to see and learn in Berlin that just 3 days was absolutely not enough. We vowed to come back here.

Germany - Part 3

I realized that I didn't talk much about the Rhine river cruise. KD is one of the many companies that organizes the river cruise and with these guys you can use the German rail pass as well. They may not have the best of the facilities but its still good. The rive cruise goes through many small yet beautiful cities like Rudesheim, Bacharach, St Goar etc. You can also get off at any town in between and catch the local train to the next station if you wish. The trains also run along the river side. By being on the train you don't miss a lot. You definitely save a lot of time. And it does make a lot of sense to get off and take a train because after the first hour, the cruise does get boring.

With Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Cologne, and Bonn done, it was time to head towards the town where the wedding was happening. The wedding was the primary reason for our Germany visit. Let me warn you ahead of time that this section may not be of great interest to many of you as its not about travel and sightseeing.

Bad Driburg was the town we had to reach. We left Cologne on 9th mid-day, made at least 2 changes on the train and then took a bus to reach the town. We were the only non-germans in many of those sections we traveled. I am sure a lot of locals would have been surprised or even suspicious seeing us backpacking through some truly German locations.

Bad Driburg is a recovery town (popular for thermal spas) for old aged people. From my first line you can see where this would go. The moment we got off the railway station, the first sign I noticed was about a hospital. And the hospital was actually next door to the railway station, which sort of gave us a peek into what we could expect here. Nevertheless, we were here just for the wedding.

We checked-in to our hotel and walked to the other side of town (about 1km) to where the church was. Had a quick look around the area and also met the bride, groom and their family for a few minutes while they were in rehearsal. The same day evening, we had a small dinner with family and friends. The next day was the wedding. It was a Protestant-Catholic wedding and pretty much every word of it was in German. Altogether a different experience - my first church wedding outside India. Very different from our kind of weddings. There were only about 100 guests in all, including family. Every minute of the wedding was carefully planned by the bride and the groom. The after wedding party was at a spa-hotel that was right opposite the church. We just walked, clicked a few pictures and had some wine/juice.

The bride's family had something for us next. They gave us postcards for us to write wishes for the couple. These postcards were then tied to a gas balloon and let off into the air. A balloon would land someday in the garden of someone's house. The recipient if enthusiastic enough, would post the card back to the couple. The couple gets to know how far the balloons traveled. We got to know that in one such wedding, the balloons went as far as Denmark!

It was time for dinner. We got seated in a particular table. Seating was all pre-decided. Dinner was served with a series of presentations/wishes in between. This was exactly where the family and friends put enormous effort to make the event hilarious and interesting. Both families worked extremely hard in their own capacities to put up pictures and events from the past to tell us many stories about couple and their journey until the wedding. Just like the Hollywood movies! They also had small games and quizzes for the couple through which everyone got to know the couple better. Friends groups from work and university also had similar presentations. There was a photo booth to take pictures and these pictures would go into a scrap book. You also had the opportunity to write wishes for the couple on that book. There was a live band and a DJ. When all of this got over, it was roughly 5am in the morning. I didn't stay that long. I took off around three.

Got up that Sunday (the 11th), packed our bags and took the train towards what was going to be the best city of our trip - Berlin!

Germany - Part 2

Like most of Western Europe, Germany is quite easy to get around and people do speak English and don't take offense like the French.

Frankfurt was our first stop. Our hotel was in Sachsenhausen, which was part of the city's old town (by the way, almost every city in Germany has an old town which is called Aldstadt). It was a very vibrant location with many beer gardens and noisy people.

Germans know a few things better than most of their European friends, besides automobiles and engineering I mean - and that's potatoes and beer. We had some of the best potato based food and beers all through the trip.

Textorstrasse in the same part of town has a few restaurants that serve some of the best apple wine (apfelwein). These restaurants are more popular with the locals and hence not many tourists are there, which was good in a way too. Summer festivals were happening all over town and we got a chance to mingle with the locals. We spent a few hours in a suburb called Bornheim (this place survived the war). This side of the city is famous for small cafes and restaurants along the streets with hardly any space for cars to get around.

We did a day trip to Stuttgart - the home of Porsche and Mercedes Benz. We managed to see the Porsche Museum and understand Bernoulli's principle, also walked around the town center a bit.

Our next stop was Mainz. Trains are amazing in Germany - very efficient. All stations have a full timetable printed and made available in every platform indicating all arrivals and departures for the day. Many intercity trains also have the train route printed as a catalogue for the passengers to view. This also lists the connections available at every station the train stopped.

We had to walk a lot from the Mainz Hbf (Hbf is short for Hauptbahnof i.e Main train station) to the departure point for the Rhine river cruise. We walked the wrong way for quite a bit and hence ended up missing the first boat. The next boat was in an hour. We got in and found a nice spot. As the cruise began I noticed that there were hardly any young couples around. Everyone was 60 plus. Looks like river cruises are not popular among the active. Well, who would want to sit in a boat and see castles from the water! We got off at the last stop Boppard and took a train to Koblenz. Then another train to Cologne.

We spent 3 nights in Cologne. The cruise to Cologne almost took a full day. The next day was spent in Bonn visiting the Arithmeum, University, and the House of Beethoven. On the last day, we visited the most famous cathedral, chocolate museum, some of the 12 other cathedrals, the padlock bridge and spent the evening at a local brew house. Cologne is famous for Kolsch beer.

Germany - Part 1

So our 3 week holiday (rather exploration) of Germany started in the first week of August, 2nd to be more precise.

Since our decision to travel was made quite late, the cheapest tickets we could get was around 1550 AUD return with Air China.

So we boarded the flight in Melbourne. The first surprise came when we checked in and they told us that we had to collect our bags in Shanghai (that was our stop-over) and then re-check the bags in for the next leg. That was understandable as we had a stop-over of more than 12 hrs.

Shanghai Pudong was quite an experience. We got there and we got no instructions from the airline staff about what we needed to do. We ended up straight at immigration. My wife decided to request for a transit visa so that we could explore the possibility of getting to the city for the night rather than being stuck at the airport hotel. After some struggle with a limited English speaking officer, we got an authorization. We collected our bags and then walked out.

One tourist agent on the way out offered to help us with hotel accommodation. After looking at a few hotels, we decided to get one for around 50 USD for one night, including airport transfers. We paid the guy and then got out of the airport and were waiting for the cab. One of the guys walked us out and was waiting for the cab with us.

Shanghai is full of smokers. Everyone around us was smoking non-stop. The air around us was horrible and it was a very hot evening. We were just waiting there. We tried speaking to the guy who came with us about the cab. Obviously he spoke only Mandarin and we were still clueless. Finally, a vehicle arrived. It was worse than the Maruti Omni but a larger version.

We got in and the guy drove for about 10 mins. Around the Pudong airport, the roads are all four lane and I noticed a few highways as well. Our van driver was not following any traffic regulations. He was driving in the middle of two lanes and did not stop at many traffic lights. Now that's something I have prior experience for sure.

Just off these massive roadways are small ghettoes, a perfect example of income distribution, and that was where our hotel was. The lane was deserted and no street lights in many sections. It was slightly scary. We checked into the hotel and decided to get some food.

The nearest place was a cross-section with a few street shops. Not a single word of English. There was a lady making stir-fried noodles. Our pictionary and dumb-c skills helped us a bit and we got ourselves a good and cheap dinner for like 30 RMB. Not bad. We walked back, slept well and got back to the airport on time the next day.

On the return is when we decided that we should never fly through China again. Thankfully, our bags were checked-in directly to Melbourne. We got off at Beijing and we had only a 4 hour transit. We had to do a proper immigration  and security check because our next flight to Melbourne was a local flight going through Shanghai. It took a lot of trouble and queuing up. Then in Shanghai, we were asked to leave the aircraft and do another round of security checks and what not. We finally got back on the same aircraft. I was reminded of my super easy connections and efficient transfers in Singapore and KL. So much trouble for deciding to fly low-cost. And let's not even talk about the food. Asian Hindu Vegetarian gets stir fried veggies and rice! Their in-flight food options are so inflexible that even getting an extra piece of bread roll takes atleast 30 minutes. And one of the flight attendants told me that they don't have extra butter!

That's part 1 for you and there is more to come during this week.

The Monday that was

I got into the office quite early. Two trains and then a small ride in the auto I reached the gate. The corporate office is spread over 500 acres (more than 2 times the size of ISB and 1.5 times BITS Pilani). People actually take shuttle buses to go from one building to another. The building numbers are also a little weird. Building 9 is still under construction(I heard) whereas 1-8 and 10-12 are already functional. This company has many businesses in the same place. There is Oil and Gas, Retail, Technology, Life Sciences, Solar, Food Testing Lab, Textiles and what not (I guess I missed a few). But there are hardly 20000 employees here. There is a lot of open space and some of that is being used to maintain the greenery of the place. There is a horticulture department that takes care of the same.

I met the guy from the external consulting team who gave me an overview of the whole project. After that I spent some time reading old artifacts about the program. Then I met an old friend who had joined a similar team. We spent the next hour chatting up about our old job and what was happening here. It was quite a realization after I heard what he had to say. I am quite sure I will have enough opportunities to talk about the same and can add my experience as well. I met a few other people who had also joined the program in various other departments. A lot of people here speak Hindi right royally. A similar Tamil culture was evident in Cognizant as well. No wonder my friend once told me that its Chennai Technology Solutions and not Cognizant. I used to join a few lunch circles or gossip circles in Cognizant and yes, most of them spoke in Tamil. Matter of convenience I guess.

My first induction / training starts tomorrow. I checked out a few houses in Nerul. I decided that I need a furnished house as it did not make sense to buy all the electrical stuff here, because of the only fact that I dont know how many months I would last in this place (I will talk about that in my posts to come).

A new life?

Landing in Bombay one day before the immersion of the Ganapthy idol was not a bad idea but the day of the immersion was a big mess. The whole of Bombay felt like that main road in Triplicane.

Thank God, Madras is not this bad. Sunday evening here was a mess. Crackers bursting everywhere, policemen all the place, people dancing, processions and the icing on the cake was the rain. What a horrible evening it was. But I made most of my evening by choosing to do something more useful. I made a rush to FAME Cinemas in Vashi to watch Thala 50 - Mankatha. Ooooohhhhh!!! Whattay movie!!! I was impressed. The only thing that I didnt like about watching the movie or rather I deeply regret is the crowd. No one is shouting or whistling. Such an indecent and obedient audience. Of course they are all Tamilians. Dont know what Bombay has done to these people.

My Amex co-branded card with Kingfisher was so useful at the Chennai airport. I got a Priority Check-in and Priority Boarding allowance for my Gold Status. Also managed to get free lounge access. I helped myself with some really good food while I was there. Finally realizing the true benefit of using my Amex Card.

Bombay never sleeps. Very true, these guys where pulling the carts with the idol of the God all through the night. My guest house overlooks the main road and its probably the route in this locality that has been allocated for the procession. Every half hour I was woken up by drums. What a huge public nuisance!!! I hope I am not in Bombay for the next such procession.

Trains are always a pain here. For the next two weeks, I need to take two trains to work and its quite a bad experience. Its really disgusting to see someone crush your 60 EURO pure leather bag atleast 50 times during that one journey. Also while you are standing there, a few bald headed idiots would wipe their sweaty foreheads on your shirt while they rush to get down at the next station. No amount of cursing is going to help because these guys do this everyday. I was just one of today's victims. So from tomorrow, no bag.

House hunt has started. I looked at a few apartments today. Nothing great but still charging a bomb for the place. Thankfully this is New Bombay and hance its lesser than original Bombay. And on top of that you need to pay the brokerage as well.. which is sometimes 2 months rent. Ridiculous. What more.. if you renew the contract after one year, you need to pay the brokerage again for the next year. This stuff doesnt even happen in the UK!!!

The Natural State

For the next 8 weeks, I will be stationed in the Natural State. I didnt know that this American state was called the Natural State. When you look around, you'll definitely feel so. Nothing much around other than lots of empty tracts of grassland. And then some buildings just to show that its not a forest reserve or something.

My flight to the US was quite exciting. The chennai to bombay flight took almost 3 hrs. After a point, I was wondering what the pilot was really doing. the next leg to frankfurt was sleeping time. in frankfurt, i met prof rakesh vohra - our ISB Eco prof from Kellogg. it was very nice to talk to him after almost 2 yrs. we were talking about consulting, ISB, the mohali school, the placement scenario, my new client and all sorts of stuff. i got into the flight to chicago and then figured out that my seat was also allocated to another german girl. knowing this, the air hostess gave me a business class seat. it was a pleasant shock. maharajah seats that turn into a bed at the touch of a button, all sorts of controls, special treatment from the staff, amazing food spread - i had a wonderful time.

then the wait in chicago was terrible. my next flight was only after 6 hrs. so i had to literally waste time. one thing i noticed at the domestic terminal 3 in chicago was there is only one payphone that allows you to use a credit card. for everything else, you need to put coins.

the next flight was for 1.5hrs. when the flight reached XNA (the airport in Arkansas), i was really tired. there were less than 20 ppl who came with me. my luggage had already arrived on a previous flight.

my hotel was like a 30mins drive from the airport. on my way, i figured out that walmart, jb hunt and tyson foods are the only big employers in this state. and in bentonville, where i was going to work, its was just walton's world. i noticed a delivery center that was as big as an international airport. there must have been a thousand trucks waiting to load goods.

office is very strange. everyone here comes to work at 7am!!! and then they leave only by 5pm. do they really have that much work to do? also, this place is a real factory. we've heard of factory model in IT, but here i saw it live. there are thousands of people around you working for the same company. everyone walks in a line. when they reach a junction (inside the office), they slow down to see oncoming traffic and then they proceed. especially during the lunch hours, if you tried to jump the line or go on the wrong side, you'll create chaos maybe. it feels as if you are in the middle of programmed employees. Like the ones in i-robot.

on friday, i got a car as well. when i entered the rental car office, they showed me PT Cruiser. I had no intention of taking that. Then they showed me a Chevy HHR which was an extended version of the Cruiser. I was definitely not taking that too. Then I noticed a Pontiac G6 in the garage and I asked them about it. Apparently it was available and they had no idea that it was there in the garage. I signed up and took the car.

so thats the travel update and i hope to write more about the natural state and maybe from the factory as well.

First Impressions

So I was in New York yesterday. I arrived in the US on Saturday. There wasnt too much of a jet lag, so we decided to see some parts of NY.

Our train reached the New York Penn Station and the one thing I was surprised to find out is that no one knew where the tourist information center is. Everyone was guiding us to the tickets and information center which was servicing for the train journeys. anyway, we figured something and got out.

we decided that we'll walk to times square. why? because we were somewhere close to that area. nothing special.

whatever. NY on first impression is such a boring place. its crowded everywhere. all you can find is tall buildings. the sight of just stuctures around you kind of irritates a lot. the only factor that saves is perhaps central park and the rivers that run on either sides. otherwise, NY feels like an over-crowded jungle.

and again, if a city is like that, you cannot expect anyone to be in order. although the vehicles dont jump signals because of strict policing, there are enough number of people who would cross a busy road when the signal is green.

so we walked past all the famous stops - times square, grand central, rockefeller, chrysler, trump, united nations, and all that shit. nothing phenomenal about all of these places. some have shopping malls attached, so people like to just get in and waste time.

i think my opinion of NY would never change. i would prefer a lesser built up city. more open space and less crowding. the place where i live right now - parsippany jersey is actually a nice place. there is lots and lots of space around you and its pleasant to be outdoors.

Back

Oh, its so difficult to get back to something after a very long break. Here I mean work and blogging.

Three weeks of vacation - first my wedding, then a trip to delhi to attend a close friend's wedding, a day trip to agra, back to chennai for the reception, then to perth via singapore; to chrischurch from perth, a week in the south island, back to perth again for about 5 days, stop over at singapore and then back to chennai. Whoooaaah!!

Whattaaey TRIP maan.

After all that, when i came back to work, there was no work. Thankfully, I had come back for something more interesting. Ultimate Frisbee. Yes, the Kodaikanal Fly Baba tournament is coming up during the last weekend of March. And Chennai is going to Bendy Field in Kodi with a 35 member team. This time we got our own bus!!!

Other than ultimate practice, i dont have much to do. the week i landed, i spent one day in office sorting out proofs for tax purposes. the recession is quite bad. bad bonus, no promotion and maybe no hike too. promotion and hike decisions have been postponed till june or july. management is buying time to see what the market reactions will be. haha. last year, around 200 people were made directors in the office. i was like - WHAT is WRONG with the guys in talent management?

Whatever, I still have to write atleast one post about my kiwi land trip. Until, then I am just signing off.

The Persians are waiting for me to lead their army.....

Beautiful Karnataka

So here is a full set of the photos that we took during our trip.. Enjoy and do let me know if you liked them... Mama



Beautiful Karnataka

Sringeri, Horanadu, Belur, Halebid, and Shravanabelagola

So my amazing trip to all these places began on Friday when I took the bus to Bangalore. By the way, never take SHAMA SARDAR Travels to Bangalore. Its horrible. The drivers are totally drunk and very customer unfriendly. They let people sleep on the aisle for half the money and some of them would just walk away with your luggage. Lucky, my luggage was safe.

At around 9am on saturday, we (myself, Abhinav Shankar - my frisbee mate and his mom) left Bangalore on NH4 and took the road to Hassan via Nelamangala, which is NH48. On the way, we made a stop at Chennarayapatna (CR Patna). There is a Kamat Restaurant just after the town on the highway. Next to that is a Cafe Coffee Day as well. After about 3 hrs of driving, this place is perhaps the best place to make a halt.


Our next stop was Belur - an important city of the Hoysala times. We spent about an hour there taking photos. If you have more time to spend, then best take a guide. We hit the road again to this place called Baalehonnur via Mudigere. We took a tea break here and then started again to Sringeri.

Sringeri is a temple town at the banks of the river Tunga. Adi Shankara selected this place to stay and teach his disciples. This place is of great importance for people who follow the Yajur Veda. We reached Sringeri around dinner time. There are very few hotels in Sringeri that provide accomodation. Most people stay with the Mutt's lodge. Very basic accomodation and just enough for one night. Advance booking is always appreciated. Now that a lot of people have taken to religion and belief in God, its better to play it safe. We showered, had food at Hotel Guruprasad and attended the Chandramouleeswarar Puja. The Puja was done by the Acharya himself. After that, we had a quick darshan of him and came back. Next day morning, we visited the Mutt again for a Paadha Puja (Feet Puja). They have a sandal made of silver worn by the Acharya, rather several copies, and the disciples do Puja for the same. Once that was done, we proceeded to Bhikshavandanam, where we get to meet the Acharya and seek his blessings. Remember, for all of this, you have to get tickets at the temple's desk at around 10am in the morning. Next stop was the Thorana Ganapathi (Its a Ganesha on a silver door frame. There is no temple, but its just on a door and frame.), where we did another special puja. Yes, you have to get tickets for this as well.

Next was photo time. We came back and took pictures of the temple and the surrounding areas of the Mutt. At the banks of the river Tunga, the devotees keep feeding the fishes. That's almost customary these days. The fishes were HUGE. Each one should have weighed like atleast 5kgs. Also, on the steps is the place where according to history, Adi Shankara noticed the cobra giving shelter to a frog. Then we had lunch at the Mutt. The Mutt provides free food to all devotees and let me tell you, the lunch is amazing. You should never miss it.

Post lunch, we left Sringeri and took the road towards Horanadu. Horanadu is about 60kms from Sringeri. The road is scenic (you can spot many lakes and waterfalls) but very bad for your car. An SUV is a better choice. Annapurnaeshwari is the main deity at Horanadu. She is made completely out of gold and her smiling face gives you such a blissful feeling.

From Horanadu, we took the road to Kalasa and then drove straight to Chikmagalur. This town is an estate town, dominated by coffee growers. We stayed the sunday night at an awesome place called the Kadur Club. Next day, after English breakfast, we headed towards Halebidu. The route was first to Belur and then 16kms to Halebidu. This city was also part of the Hoysala kingdom. Architecture is very similar to what we saw in Belur. Some of the important statues that we noted here was Krishna carrying Govardhana Giri and Ravana carrying Kailasa mountain.

Shravanabelagola was our next stop. We drove from Halebidu to Hassan and then stopped at the Kamat Hotel before CR Patna for lunch. We parked at the foothills and walked to the temple. A steep walk of about 650 steps leads you to the top for a view of one of the worlds largest monoliths. A view of the town surrounding this hill is brilliant.

From here, it was just back to Bangalore. We took the road to Kunigal and then to Nelamangala.

Trip to Rameswaram - Part 1

On a Friday evening; especially when the saturday is a no-moon day; you definitely don't want to take a train to Rameswaram from Chennai. The average age of the passengers is 50 or even more. All through the train, you get the smell of onion or tomato chutney. Let me not forget to mention the amount of home cooked food as well. These are some routes where the railway catering probably makes no money. And then you have a bunch of people singing songs in the name of God.

And fortunately or unfortunately; a bunch of us, office friends, boarded the Rameswaram Express at 5pm from Chennai Egmore station. 12 hours to reach the temple town. What a painful journey! And guess what, everybody on that train is going to be at the temple in the morning. Thats like a lill more than 1200 people. Dont forget the people who are going to take vans, buses and all other forms to transport to the town. Moreover, this weekend was after the no-moon day when the eclipse was also around. So according to some priests, there is more reason to crowd around Rameswaram.

At 5 in the morning, the typical smell of a fisherman's town woke me up. At that time, the train was just going to enter the Pamban Bridge. In about 25 mins, we reached the station. Our rooms were booked at the Tamilnadu tourism hotel which was near the sea shore. There arent too many hotels here. Only a few good ones. If you plan to be here during a festival or any important weekend like this one, you better book rooms. Otherwise no chance!

Agnitheertham is the point to start your tour of Rameswaram. This is the spot on the sea right opposite the east tower of the temple. You need to take a dip in the sea and then walk to the temple. There are 22 sacred wells inside the temple where you have to shower as well (not really shower, but a guy will pour some water from a bucket on your head). If you take the standard temple queue for this, then the rates are very nominal, around Rs.17 i think. If you use an agent; of course, they will come and find you, then it varies between Rs.50 and 75 a head. Definitely, an agent does a good job. So, dont mind the money at all. Once this is done, you have to get back to your room, change into dry clothes and come back for darshan. Ramanathaswamy (Lord Shiva) is the main deity here.

After darshan, you can go around the hallway of the temple and see the architecture and paintings. There is also a shrine for Parvathy, Lord Rama and Hanuman. This temple is one of the 12 Jyotirlingam temples in India. Some of the other things about this temple is the Palliyarai Darshan you shouldnt miss. At around 8.15pm, the puja for the Lord ends and the lord is brought by the priest to the Palliyarai near the Devi Shrine. The Palliyarai has a golden cradle where the lord and the goddess rest. A special puja happens and then sandalwood paste is given as prasadam to every devotee present. At a Shiva temple, its usually Vibhuti (ash) and never sandalwood paste. So this is also different. Next day morning (5am to 6am) is the Spatika Linga Abhishekam. This is the only time when the Spatika Lingam is taken out and bathed with milk. Just before this happens, you can watch the priest bringing the Lord back from the Palliyarai to the main shrine.

This temple also has a nice legend associated with it. Click here to read about that.

After completing our morning dips, we went back to the lodge. I had my breakfast at a hotel near the temple. The roads on the east and west side of the temple are the only ones that have decent hotels. Don't expect great service. They serve good vegetarian food. Thats all.

Our next trip was to Dhanushkodi. We hired a jeep. A jeep can take 5 people and it will cost you Rs.950. This place is about 20 kms away from Rameswaram and its the point of confluence for the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal. The ride was extremely tiring, but the views we got of the seas was amazing. On this picture, you can see one of the islands. Jump a few of those islands and you are in Ceylon. On the way back, we visited the Kothandaramswamy Temple - the place where Lord Rama crowned Vibhishana.

Holiday round-up

Last few days have been really crazy. On Friday I left to Sree Kalahasti - one of the Pancha Bhoota Shrines of Lord Shiva. The deity here is represented as Vaayu Linga, which is Air. On the way, we visited another temple called Surutapalli, which has got a very special story. My next post would be on that, since I need to upload a photograph too. Saturday morning darshan at the temple was very good. At the same time it was surprising to see that a lot of people now have started visiting temples. 10 years back, the story was different. The people who were going to temples were traditionally going to temples - i mean every year or through generations. But now, there is a lot of belief in the boxes that are part of the horoscope and the planets that reside in the same. People are ready to spend any amount of money as grants to temples or do any kind of puja. Its a totally new phenomenon.

This got over on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning was fun game in the rain. Then the next trip started. To Bangalore. Another ISB wedding. I caught the afternoon bus in great hopes to reach the reception early. But you can never rely on these people. The road was amazing. But the average speed was just over 65kms per hour which sucked big time. Sunday evening was a great day to catch up a lot of friends. Around 20 of them had come down from various other cities. There was food and booze - since it was in the army officers mess. The next day was a traditional Iyengar wedding. I was done with everything by 11am. In between all this I had to attend a few phone calls from my client, answer a few questions and ensure that my project was running on schedule. (These people never leave me alone!)

Caught the afternoon bus back to Madras. On the way stopped at a small eating joint and bought some pirated dvds. I havent checked whether the dvds play but I got 4 latest movies. This place is a few kilometers before Krishnagiri on the highway, when you are coming from Bangalore and the guy has any latest movie you ask for - hindi, english and tamil. If you are a cop reading this blog, then this a tip for you. There is a huge business that is thriving and perhaps a huge network of people are happily earning. Whats the point in catching the ones in the city. India's strength lies definitely in its villages.

Rushed to Courtyard Marriott for a team dinner. The buffet sucked. They served continental food. Some of the items were okay. The starters were extremely bad. No variety at all. Even in the main course, it wasn't anything worth mentioning. For the price that we paid, I felt that Residency Towers was a much better deal. Coming to the desserts, there were six ice cream flavors and JUST ONE SCOOP. On asking, the guy told me that the kitchen has only one scoop. Wow, thats something for a five star hotel! Ambience was good. I liked the live music concept.

Had another day off yesterday - a trip to Coimbatore. It was My Best Friend's Wedding. Still was bombarded with phone calls from office. Now I am back here waiting for the Saturday Game.

Trip to Gingee

So yesterday, we managed to do that trip to Gingee Fort.



Gingee Fort

You can see the photos on this slideshow. All credit goes to Manu for having taken wonderful pics.

Gingee is about 3 hrs drive from Chennai. Take the NH45 to Tindivanam or Dindivanam and then from there take the NH66 that goes to Thiruvannamalai. You will reach Gingee when you drive about 30 kms on that road. You can learn more about Gingee Fort through Google. My post is just to showcase the pictures.

Back again with views about bombay

05/06/2007
Originally uploaded by SuzyMBA

After that last post I did, I made a small trip to Bombay. People in bombay, whom i did not call - please do not get angry. first thing - i did not carry your numbers. i myself had a loaned phone. i was living in a place where the nearest internet cafe could not be located. and i was totally disoriented with the way the city lived.

perhaps bombay is such a nice place for millions of people. not for a person like me who needs some breathing space. in about every place in bombay there are more people per square feet than in any other city in india. you cant to any place soon. if that had to happen then it should be after 12pm and before 5am. a lot of people like the way bombay functions. i personally did not like it at all. everything is so fast. sometimes, the city life can be compared to how it is in New York. Even London is not this fast. although i did not explore the whole city in great depths, i was astonished to see asia's largest slum dharavi, while the aeroplane was descending. its HUGE - in the real sense, its HULK size. from the top i cud see all the small lanes inside the slum. these lanes were just enuff for one person to walk through and houses were placed on the landscape like a collage of matchboxes or maybe just a confetti.

the next funny thing to understand and practice was the suburban train. i stood stationary on the andheri platform for more than 30 minutes to get onto a train. the idea was to get onto the train before someone got off. and to do this, you had to be agile and fast because there were 50 other people trying to do the same thing. nevertheless, the all-ladies compartments were free of any trouble of getting in or out.

public transport as such is quite efficient. the city more or less is totally dependent on the public transport infrastructure. in that way its managed very efficiently. the auto-rickshaws are not allowed in some portions of the city. you can drive only cabs there. this keeps out the rickshaw drivers who keep shifting lanes every 10 mtrs and who do not see the vehicles coming behind before taking a U-Turn.

While I was browsing through some of the other blogs that I visit, I found this interesting picture. Click on it to read what it says

Sicilian hothead(4)

Still a good number of days left till I join work. My trip to see the Lord Venkateshwara in his residence in Tirupati was quite good. It was raining cats and dogs when we were outside his doors waiting to see him.

The VOLVO buses are seriously good. I was quite impressed. After a long time I was sitting in one that had been serviced well and maintained properly. I was happy to see that the seats were designed by the company I had interned with. While I was there, the R&D team was also working on a high tech driver seat and I could see the results of that on that bus too.

Riding on a local transport bus back home from where I got dropped was literally a menace. I got into one of these vestibule buses that have become so famous these days in chennai.



You can imagine how long such a bus would be on the road. Over and above, think of this being driven at speeds more than 50kmph on an extremely busy road from the airport. It was scary. The driver almost killed 10 people on the road. In such buses there is no control from the driver's seat for the part that is attached. And hence, if there is a small mistake in the way the vehicle is controlled, then there is a very good possibility of the bus turning a few degrees away from the desired path. First of all, such buses should never be driven past a speed of 40kmph and overtaking should be strictly prohibited. I can understand that most of these buses are express buses and are meant to save some time. But not at the expense of losing a heartbeat. Saving time in a crowded city means not stopping in the regular bus stops and not reckless driving. I hope there is someone who has the power to take action against all this. The drivers of these buses have no reason whatsoever to run slow. They are given a schedule and they are always rushed to finish their trip because then they can get those extra minutes of sleep in the bus station.