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A Kick of Kodai - Days III & IV

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Sun
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07:30 - Rise and Shine! That seemed to be the spirit of this bright day dawning on us. It felt like another hostel, but in Kodai, not IIIT-B. The mood was upbeat, having driven away our previous days' fatigue with a good night of sleep.

10:00 - Breakfast had been as usual, except for the fact that people ended up having Breakfasts! A minimum of 3 courses per head, as far as I remember. Anyways, an army marches on its stomach, so I think we were justified. Back to the hotel, we were all waiting eagerly to start off on a proper tour of Kodai. But then, there were small issues regarding the order of places to cover. More importantly, there was a forest drive, which required approval from the Forest Dept, since we were driving our private vehicle. Govt.al stuff in India.... is governed by touts! And they manage to appear anywhere, such as right in front of our hotel. Jadoo & some others (eager to hold the reins) started the tussle for the permission to be granted. I am myself unaware of what actually transpired (as I was busy in a photographic session), but it took quite some time. Finally, after almost 3/4 an hour, we were all set to go; with 1 problem, we had less than half an hour to get into the forest... before the gates were shut!

12:00 - Hoorah! We just made it through, inspite of weathering some heavy traffic at the forest entrance. But the forest was not as dense as we imagined it to be; maybe it was the sheer number of tourists that day who made it seem like a National Highway!! We had about 6-7 places to see in this forest. Let me recount each of them, one by one...

1. Silent Valley (12:15) - Truly a specacular sight to behold, wherein this huge ravine was enveloped by hills on all sides. But can't take the silent part seriously, considering we were there. I have no count of the # of snaps we took... but lo, tragedy befell! My digicam conked out... and it seemed to be a mech. problem! So much for Sony!!
2. Fire Watch Tower (12:30) - A short distance ahead, it was meant to look out for any forest fires. One crowded place, esp. when 17 of us posed for a snap!
3. Low pressure Valley (12:40) - Don't be misguided by the name! It was another steep valley, wherein the wind flow created a low pressure. Legend said that if we threw a cap (esp. Popli's!) into the valley, it would come flying back!! Pity he did not part with it!!
4. Forest lake (13:00) - The final destination in the forest (road's dead-end). We found ourself surrounded by a beautiful environmental theme park, adjacent to a lake. There was even a bull temple for those who believed in God, not Nature!! An ideal place to relax ourselves, and click some amazing pics! But we also had another important issue to deal with.. hunger. Thankfully, a no. of stalls were lined up for our service, serving soft drinks, chips, chocolates, and almost every kinda junk food!! All 17 of us were on it in no time, for no single item. Since Jadoo held the money, it would only be safe to say that it was a miracle that he didn't enter into a fist-fight with the stall-owner over the billing.. Anyways, anyone would have faced a similar plight if he were keeping track of the expenses!!

14:45 - Famished and fatigued that we were, I was hoping to up my glucose levels with a decent meal back in the city. En route, there was this sudden rush that developed for seeing the Guna Caves, an ancient natural structure carved in the mountains very close to the forest. But the main problem was none of us knew how to get there. Nor were we able to find some able assistance. Arguing over it, we had almost reached the city. (The roads from/to this forest area were one ways, to facilitate smooth movement.)

15:30 - Back to the city, rewarded with a splendid glimpse of the golf course; but lo, some streetmonger comes up to tell us those Guna Caves are less than 2km away! The cave enthusiasts were delighted at their luck, and therefore vetoed for a diversion towards it. Luck, it seems, was on no one's side that day. We ended up driving back to the very same forest, to the very same gate, and then back on the one-way which leads us back to the city!! The caves were situated on the highway, and were mistaken by us for some temple!! Had I been energetic enough, a spectacular fight would have probably been in the making.. However, those few of us who could hardly move a muscle resorted to curses, and vowed not to see the caves.

16:15 - Fate, as I already said, was on no one's side!! Those chosen few who ventured down into the caves came back to swear that it was the most beautiful thing ever seen in this trip! Scary, dangerous; yet beautiful!! Thanks to the natural darkness, photographs didn't help them either in getting the beauty captured for us.

17:30 - Back to the city, AT LAST! Mr. Phanse resembled a mini-volcano about to erupt! There were only 2 ways of stopping this eruption: (a) Take him for his ultimate experience, a Boat-ride on the Kodai Lake (b) Stuff him with Ice-Cream! Unfortunately, the boat ride was ruled out, thanks to a swelling crowd, and thinning timings. Not that the 2nd option was an easy alternative; he was still jetting out some steam!!

18:00 - We found ourselves in a swanky Cafe... Surrounded by pretty foreigners, good books & some really delicious snacks / drinks. Spent a long time there, cooling our brains/bodies (& temper in some cases!)

19:30 - Shopaholics had a field-day (night), buying all sorts of cheap clothes, some crazy Ayurvedic med.s / foodstuffs & sweetmeats!

20:30 - If someone thought the action was far from over.. boy, were they wrong?? Everyone had promised (God knows to whom) that the last dinner in Kodai would be a gala, lavish affair at a much-hyped 3-star joint. Problem was its name, and location. Jadoo took the lead as usual, with Monty & Baba for support. I am still confused what was the name that he found out.. but we all set out looking for it, on foot!! Halfway, some of them turned back, smelling a rat. The rest of us contd, smelling hope.

21:15 - Finally, we stumbled upon a decent-looking restaurant, serving both non-veg & veg. But only a few items on the menu-card were available. A bird in hand is better than 2 in the bush (in this case, make it "zero" in the bush). So, 3 of us stayed put there, and placed our orders. The rest of them (those who had started heading back halfway then, had miraculously re-joined the group!!) continued in their search for their Holy Grail. Pity that what they found was worse than Silas' sudden dead-end at Saint-Sulpice Church!! (Please pick up a copy of Da-Vinci Code now and finish it asap)

21:50 - BURRRP! That was me, after a really satisfying meal. The restaurant had gradually crowded since we came. But the crowd that came now (our noble, failed Grail-seekers!) were the pick of the lot. The waiter there went beserk taking the orders of 10 guys at once! Somehow, they managed to feast on what was left the ever-dwindling menu items. Jadoo & Baba had decided to choose the place they set out to search, and ended up eating there. They joined us much later.

22:45 - Everyone's ready to go.. but what the HECK!! I was in for a rude shock when I discovered that my double-sided jacket was missing :-( To this date, its disappearance is a mystery to me; and I prefer not deliberating on it any more. Enough awaited me at home, was all I knew.

24:00 - ZZZZzzzz.....

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(To be contd. and ended very soon..)

A Kick of Kodai - Days I & II

When you have a looong weekend coming up, and your work-life is getting stressier, what better way to cool yourself than to visit the coolest hill-station around, that too with the coolest set of friends! In the midst of all the holiday-mood, our trip had come to the brink of cancellation, owing to non-availability of accomodation & transport. But thanks to the valiant efforts of the organizers, something came up. So off we went, to Kodaikanal, 17 of us (2 last-minute barge-ins included!), in a Sumo(9) & a Qualis (8) - a Trip never to forget.

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Fri
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21:30- We left our campus, jubilant as always!
(never mind the fact that our 2 drivers were bozos at highway-driving).
En-route, those in the Qualis (which is where I was sitting), it was mostly bakar-time and map-viewing-time (mine was the only map we had). The only stop was at a petrol bunk, where my friends in the Sumo came out with the obscene rendering of a song, I've ever heard.


23:15- Come Krishnagiri, TN, we are still looking for the State-Road-Tax office. Guess what?! We missed it 60 km behind, near Hosur!!

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Sat
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00:30- We've backtracked to the God-Damn tax office (you can imagine what the mood was like, esp against the bozos)! The Qualis got all-clear with its tax payment in minutes. But the Sumo has a case of missing-original-docs!

03:30- Can you imagine a Qualis filled with 15 bags, a sleeping driver, and 17 students in the boot, with nothing to do, but wait for the Sumo to return from Bangalore?? Neither can I!!



05:00- The Sumo returns, except that its a different one now, with a different (relatively slower-driving) bozo! The commosion was not so much about what had caused the delay, as about whether to continue with this expedition! In the end, the organizers prevailed sensibly, by saying that this was a much-needed break, and that we must continue with our travel. What have we lost; maybe one day less of sight-seeing, thats all.
Remember: "Happiness lies along the road, not at the end of the journey"

09:30- Sweltering Salem arrives, as do our pangs of exhaustion & hunger, thanks to a sleepless night on the roads. We feast on a 3-course South-Indian breakfast (dosas, idlis, puris), alongwith beverages & tit-bits that could not be kept count of. And hit the road again.

15:00- Dindigul had been crossed, next stop was Kodai. Excuse me, weren't we supposed to be going to a hill station? But there have been no hills in sight for the past 2 hours! And as for the temperatures, believe me, you don't want me talking here about how we cooled off (without water)! A coconut-water stall turned out to be our savior, from dehydration & fatigue.

16:30- Hills ahoy! We've almost reached the top, but the temperature change is not as dramatic as expected. There were plans of getting into a waterfall, which was supposed to lie on the way. But one look at it (the water), and we realised it wasn't even worth touching! Next task - "Ctrl+F: Hotel Palace" (we'd booked 5 rooms). Its at the lowest point of the city, so almost everything else is uphill. (It was also the pettiest hotel I'd ever been to... but hey, this is peak-season, and a booking made from Blore by some local rookie).

18:00- Bathed and freshened, we set out for a light stroll towards the marketplace. Oh, I forgot Pet-Pooja first!! Our breakfast & lun-tea (lunch+tea, considering the passage of the day) were almost the same. I chose to fast though (partaking fluids only), in anticipation of a hearty dinner (and also a slimmer waistline!).

19:00- Water, they say is the ultimate assuage.
When you see not just water, but a lake (the famous Kodai-Lake, with a perimeter of 5.5 kms, supposedly), you can't be stopped from fraking out, irrespective of the day's happenings! Thus, began a marathon cycling mela, which lasted 2 hours almost!
Single-cycles, double-cycles; all were taken. Tricycles were left out deliberately, as the agenda was to learn to balance life as it comes! (sorry for the philosophy)



21:00- Dinner was beckoning. Six of us are non-vegetarians, and we were interested in satisfying only our palate. The veggies went on a hunting spree all by themselves, and the 6 of us came to this decent-looking Kuvai restaurant. It was the best meal I had during the whole trip. One strange phenomenon: the # of items available from the menu-card drops at a regular rate every passing minute, as all eateries close by 10PM (can you believe that, in a tourist spot like this?). Nevertheless, we loved every chicken dish we managed to lay our hands on.

22:30- Back to Hotel Palace, joined later by the veggies (they'd had a nice meal too, although they found the place a lil' later than us). The plan was to retire early, to start sight-seeing in earnest the following day. But when you are in a group as large and as boisterous as ours, energy seems to diffuse, as well as multiply. So by the time the jokes, pranks & sleeping-arrangements were done with, it was well past midnight.


The hotel management turned out to be worse than the hotel, what with slapping charges on every extra bedding & tea cups. We relented, but not without expressing our dissent. All said and done, this trip was not at a point where we could look for & get better places. So we had to yield to their demands, but refused to pay till check-out.

The night was definitely cool, but I made myself smug in the snug, with a nice little rug! My next moment of consciousness was only when I awoke next morning. (slept like a log, huh? I, for one, slept like the dead!)

To be continued... (days 3, 4)

Riots for the Raj

It had seemed like life had become a whole lot happier, what with no qualms from a month or more. But fate strikes when you least expect it, or so I think. (Whether I believe too much in fate is another issue, and can be debated later.)

It started as a picture-perfect day, with smooth sailing at work and an evening to look forward to, with old friends after a long time. After a rather unusually boring afternoon meeting, we strutted out to discover to our horror that the legendary superstar RK is no more. My sixth sense did not fail in discovering that our company had arranged for premature evacuation for us! So, out we went, on the jam-packed, tension-filled roads of the Silicon Valley, anxious to get home safely. Needless to say, the old-friends-get-together had been washed down the loo for atleast 1 whole week!!

But this is where the agony just began; I left my mobile in the cab, managing to get it recovered in the nick of time. Got home, to discover the mob-fury that had engulfed the city, especially our areas. An extended weekend has been declard alright, but what can one do if the shut down even the TV channels (except the news). And venturing out anywhere is as otoise, as it is a peril.

Technically, this is a Lockdown-@-Home situation!!

My sympathies to the state for losing such a legend, but it was a natural death for Christ's sake! And an expected on too, considering his deteriorating condition. So why are his fans making such an issue out of it? They wanted a State funeral; that's the minimum he deserves. But torching down vehicles and buildings was never included in the package! What irks me the most is this:

"The news channels & sites tom-tom that the city is shutdown to deeply mourn his demise. But the fact remains that people can't work, thanks to the fear of his ferocious, foolhardy and fanatic fan following."

They can't burn the whole city, but certainly can decimate a few shops and vehicles. So who'd take that risk??

Let me conclude by saying that the legend's loss is a great one albeit, but it certainly didn't deserve this kind of emotional and irrational backlash by the public; sorry, by a few sections of them who seem to think that it is the apocalypse. May his soul rest in peace, but not at the cost of losing that of his hometown! AMEN.

Of Voices & Idols.....

I was badly looking for my next qualm, but was hindered by bad health & a busy schedule. Finally, here I am with something that's been in my mind for months...


Last year saw a flurry of Talent shows on Indian television. I was hooked to 2 of them particularly. While one promised to give us the 'Voice of the country', the other still promises to bring out the 'Idol' amongst all. Both these shows shared an extraordinary amount of investment (in terms of money, publicity, time) and boasted of the best talents in India as guides/mentors. They started off very successfully, raking in the moolah with a never-before-seen public involvement and surprising speed! Suitably enough, the talents that these shows honed and managed to bring up can also be categorized as some of the best in the country.
I will mostly talk about the show that gave us India's Voice....

As the last 15 finalists went on, 1 getting eliminated per week; we, at home, waited with bated breath. Being a musical buff myself, alongwith my mom, we used to screen their performances and predict the winners/losers ourselves. At such a level of competition, any loss is mostly very marginal, and we understood that. But as the noose tightened around the show's reducing participants, a strange phenomenon seemed to occur.
Pure talent no longer seemed to be the winnng mantra; instead, people were being swayed by the participants' appearances, their families, their dreams/aspirations etc... It was therefore natural that the most gullible (read the most economically/educationally backward) ought to vote the most frequently. Sadly so, for what followed was the unfair elimination of the significantly better ones first. To add to this, even the guides/mentors resorted to public hoopla of their disciples. Ultimately, it was very clear that the winner of this competition had arrived mainly due to the immense support of those back at his native place. There can be no doubt at all that the last 4 or 5 who went out before him were way, way better!! And those singers are already playing in Bollywood.
Same case with the other show, wherein certain eliminations are shockingly unasked for.

One might say that talent is very subjective to choose from. But the fact is that if you consider the consistencies of their performances throughout, and the kind of accolades they got from other celebrities who visited the show, it was quite plain as to who were the cream among the pie!

But then, this is not the end of their careers; it is onl the beginning! Undoubtedly, time will choose the real Voice and the real Idol (of India); not the Public's Choice and some Mentor's Disciple!!!

Amen.

Why favour Favours?

Just a few days ago, I was sitting late at office, waiting for my bus when a colleague of mine suddenly buzzed me. I was startled to hear that he was asking me to lend him some money! To my luck (or the lack of it?), I had almost no cash that day, and politely apologised to him. But he surprised me even more by asking me if I could arrange for it from some other person!! Again, since it was late and no one was around, I told him this was not possible, and that I am sorry.
Later on, I was told by another colleague of mine that this chap frequently asks for such a favour and never returns the money back!! - LUCKY ME:-)

Even more recently, I've noticed that our Auto-rikshaw drivers are no less at demanding some extra bucks as a favour! Anytime after 8:30 or so, whichever place you are going to, there is always a demand for Rs. 10 or 20 extra; the poor man needs to go back to the auto-stand and find a customer, you see!! And this is assuming that they have agreed to drive you to your area, which only happens after a few futile attempts!

Some people seem to have a habit of making ridiculous request in the name of asking a favour! Hope I don't pop with anger the next time something like this happens!!

Is saffron the only colour?????

This blog is once again inspired by a friend's posting on the same movie...

I saw RDB just yesterday..... must say I was glad to see Aamir Khan back to his comical self!! But on a slightly sombre note, I was not very convinced about the patriotic message given out in the movie. Its like trying to say martyrism is the only way to show one's patriotism!!

I am not a great patriot myself... (or maybe I am!!), but this is what I thought:

We have a tri-coloured flag to symbolize the very fact that our countrymen can boast of different qualities such as: Sacrifice/Bravery, Peace and Economic Prosperity. Clearly, each of these are equally important for our development. But on the silver screen, it is mostly saffron which is glorified.

Of course, there can be no comparison of our martyrs to anyone else in terms of gallantry and unflinched love (for the country)! It is indeed the supreme act of patriotism. However, I don't think the rest of us need to feel that we are letting the country down, by not serving the armed forces, or by not taking to the streets protesting against the Govt's misdeeds.

We can also be patriotic if we are sincere and diligent at our workplace; we can also be patriotic every time we ensure that we are not part of any bribing; we can also be patriotic every time we consciously save a national resource (water, food, paper, fuel etc...); we can also be patriotic every time we cheer for an Indian to win in any match or tournament!! (But definitely not by partying away always, and cribbing eternally...)

This may not be everyday; but if you find yourself doing such things consistently and relentlessly, I'm sure you can call yourself patriotic. Patriotism begins at home - can we say that???!!!

My Hors'doeuvre

Well, in case any one had bothered to view my profile, they might have been dismayed to see an empty Blog-list! The thing is, I came with a silly blog long ago, but never had the time (or inclination) to continue with it. Not so anymore.... (I must thank a lot of other regulars here on inspiring me to start again).

In case the title is unclear yet, use WordWeb!! This is essentially a place for expressing one's voice for/against any other voice!

Will be back...