Interesting weekend...

The weekend of 24,25 Jan was a long weekend as 26 Jan was a holiday and my parents were out. Decided on Friday morning that I am not going to laze around at home for all the three days. So searched in net to book tickets to some damn place. Finally managed to book an onward ticket to Trichy on Friday night and got a return from Pondicherry on Sunday night.Did some search on wiki on the places and noted down the names of places to visit.

Armed with the print-out of tickets, a print-out of TamilNadu map and Rs 2000 cash, I set out on Friday night to the Bangalore bus-stand. The onward bus to Trichy was crappy, but my enthusiasm kept my spirits up and got to Trichy on Saturday morning 5.30 am. There was a small coffee stall near the bus-stand serving filter coffee for 5 bucks. That was one of the best coffees I have had outside for a long time. (my coffee standards are quite high - thanks to my mom). Checked out a couple of hotels nearby and got a room in one of the hotels near bus-stand for 600 bucks.

Freshened up and set out to visit the places near Trichy. Started with Srirangam, where, when I was debating whether to stand in queue to say 'hi' to God, one of the pujaris convinced me to get in, and gave me a kind of guided tour. The fact that he expected some money from me was a different aspect :-). From there, set out to Thirvanaikaval temple, which was almost empty the time I went. Spent some time the huge temple in the serenity. Reminded me of a temple in my grandma's village.

Got  back to bus-stand, grabbed lunch at Saravana Bhavan and set out to Thanjavur. Thanjavur is a 90-120 minutes travel from Trichy. Found the local bus to go to Brihadeeshwara temple from the Thanjavur bus-stand ( called Periya koil ). Reached the temple at around 4:00 pm. The architecture of the temple, was just amazing. It was quite impossible to imagine that a group of people had built this almost 1000 years back !

Returned back to Trichy at night and caught up on dinner. The next morning, went to Rockfort in Trichy. Wanted to see sunrise from Rockfort, but got a bit late for that, as I reached there by around 7.30 only. The sculptures were great. It was quite interesting to find a Mamallapuram style sculptire in Rockfort temple. Later figured out from net that the particular cave temple I saw was built by Mahendravarma Pallava.

From there, set out to Pondicherry on a local bus. Did not find a direct bus to Pondicherry. So, took a bus to Chennai and got down at Villupuram and from there went to Pondicherry. The map I had printed out helped me here. Reached Pondi by around 2.00 pm, had a cup of tea in 'tea kadai' in motta veyyil. Then went to Arabindo Ashram to soak in the peace for sometime and then hit the beach. Spent a long time at the beach and the Le Cafe near beach reading the book I had taken. Shook a leg at the music fest in the beach later in the evening and then got to the bus-stand for my return journey. It was a fitting relaxing end to my trip.

1. The whole trip costed me somewhere around Rs 1800 including the travel and the stay. The only time I took an auto was when I went to bus-stand on friday night. All the other travel was through buses. 

2. It was a nice feeling to live life very down-to-earth, soaking in the surrounding and enjoying the scenery around. There were a few interesting observations, which I'll add in a follow-up blog.

3. This was my first solo back-pack trip. It was reasonably interesting that, I might do something like this again.

Where is the action?

Srilankan army captures Kilinocchi signalling it's strong intent to root out LTTE.
Isreal pounds Hamas with air strikes killing hundreds as retaliation against Hamas firing rockets killing a few.
After every terror strike in India................ Indian prime minister expresses shock and sympathy.

7.30 pm: A mildly chilly evening after a light rain. The time of the day when the daylight is fading with red streaks in the sky and the moon is visible as a large white ball alongside a far away building. A stroll alongside a small river like water body with tracks on either side and greenery all round. Occasional trots of lone joggers on the slightly wet track. Swans in the lake and flocks of birds flying over the lake making sounds of quacks and chirps. The evening fading into night....Wow... Life is beautiful - Hyde Park, London.

Found out that Hyde Park is just 20 minutes walk from the hotel. London still holding it's charm :-)

Scarcity results in efficiency?

It is when the oil prices are shooting up, that the British government is coming up with plans for improvements towards efficient use of energy. There are talks of building better insulation for houses to reduce winter power bills. (like the rain water storage system implementation at Chennai). Sometimes, scarcity of a commodity seems to be good. It increases efficiency.

Similar observation at a micro level: my laptop power cord was not working at the hotel yesterday and day before. And I managed to check my mails, do some work and catch up with my parents in the 1.5 hrs battery period. But, when I have a working power cord today, all I have done is random browsing (including the post), in the past 3 hours :-(

Bangalore to Denver

Place: Chicago O'Hare airport
Time: 6:40 pm
Mood: Too tired to be angry even.
Reason: I have been out of my home for more than 24 hours now, doing nothing but sitting on cramped seats at airport and more cramped seats inside the flights and I am yet to reach my destination. My checked-in baggage is apparently missing and I'll know the fate of it when I file a complain at my final destination Denver. If I am lucky, I'd get it at Denver either tonight or tomorrow.

I wonder what is it that makes these airlines careless about baggage. Why don't they realize that it could cause great inconvenience to the passenger if the baggage goes missing, esp. given that they could have most of their essentials for living on it. The attitude of the American Airline guy asking me to file the claim at Denver was appaling. Well, I wouldn't blame him either, he just seems to be a small part of a huge inefficient system. What else could he do when a bunch of folks throng him complaining of missing baggage. Now, I feel thankful for my dad's advice to keep a pair of clothes and the cash in the hand-baggage than the check-in bag.

Okay, cribs aside... I am traveling on business to Denver for 3 weeks. Hoping to get in, finish the job and get out. I sound like a contract killer now ;-) The 'job' I refer to, is the same old software business. Knowledge transfer and infrastructure consolidation on a newly acquired business of Versata. ( Wow, I seem to be getting better at using these multi-syllable terms ). From inside the airport, Chicago seems to be a reasonably old city. The weather seemed to be more like Bangalore. My first transit was at London. Man, one cannot just beat the weather of London. I could feel the pleasantness even during the short transit between the terminals. Londoners might disagree with this, but, for a person having spent most of my life in a hot place such as Chennai, and the summers becoming unbearable at even the supposedly better place Bangalore.

PS: Update on the baggage: The lady at the AA baggage claim desk at Denver was sweet and courteous. I felt better after talking to her and she gave me a toothpaste kit as well. The bag arrived the next day.

2001.. a nice cool evening, walking by the road near Besant Nagar beach, a car passes by, with a 'vrrrrrooooom' sound, with music beats that resonates in the stomachs of the people around.. My head turns back and I silently utter 'WOW' !!

2008.. a nice cool evening, walking on the road to home, a similar car passes by, with the similar sound and music.. My head snaps around and I silently utter 'What the @#$&' !!

Signs of changing fashions with time, or signs of me becoming more mature ( that's my politically correct way of putting 'me getting old' ;-) ).

Whatever it is, let's hope the change is for good !

Back in India... and relieved to be home, in the beautiful Bangalore weather. Being back home has kept up the spirits in general in the past few days.
1. Getting up early in the morning ( ok.. 7.30 is way early for me ), and more importantly, having breakfast.
2. Never feeling frustrated, be it work or state of things in general ( such as the canals they have dug in front of my house making it impossible to get my bike out ).
3. Being more tolerant to the haphazard driving and inept drivers ( or should I say 'navigationally challenged' drivers ).

Let's see how long this continues ( maybe till the jet-lag wears out and the 'passionate me' returns back ;-) )

PS:
1. I achieved my second aim - 'reach back without any driving incidents'.
2. Dudette Chitrangada Singh is making a comeback - hurray !