Finally, a sunday to live

Life has been mundane and hectic here. There is so much to do that it takes all the time at your peril. However, just like a oasis in desert, this sunday brought a ray of hope. It was (albeit surprisingly) a refreshing different sunday... much different from my regular sundays which are more often than not a day to finish whole week's pending errands and to catch with as much sleep as I can get. And the reason?? The college had arranged for us to watch a play based on the famous novel - 'The Alchemist' written by Paulo Coelho. The play was to be performed at 'National Centre for the performing Arts' (NCPA), Nariman point, Mumbai. More than just the play itself, it was the whole idea of 'GOING to watch the play' which was really spurring me on.

Well, what is a sunday evening w'out your dearest frenz? So 6 of us decided to go together and njoy the occasion. We had to reach Churchgate 1st in order to reach Nariman point. And what better way to travel in Mumbai than a local train? Fast, cheap..but ahem..crowded. All of you must have seen mumbai locals in TV and you can very well understand what I mean. We reached Andheri station at 4:20PM and decided to catch the 4:30 fast local to Churchgate. For some of us, it was the 1st experience of travelling in Mumbai local...and I'm pretty sure, they won't forget it. To start it, the train was 15 mins late. Due to this, the platform was very crowded. Combine this with the already jam packed train and you know itz gonna be a 'Halla Bol' when the train arrives.

When the train chugged in to the platform, we braced ourselves for the charge and then...the train stopped. There were two sections of crowd- one who were ready to get into the train(despite the fact that there was no space left in the compartment) and the others who wanted to come out. Simple 'logical thinking' here will tell you that you should allow people to come out of the compartment before you try to barge in...but then this is Mumbai and here, people make a killing by completely relying on their 'non-logical thinking'. As soon as the train stopped, the two sections of crowds collided, hustled n jostled and yeah, pushed each other. Newton's 3rd law of motion states : "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction" but here, clearly the law failed. Here, it was only one-way force. The ferocious outbound crowd(men and women alike) had their fists clenched firmly in front of them(just like the boxers do) and they mercilessly cast aside anybody who dared to venture into their path. The inbound crowd tried to enter the compartment initially but the force coming from other side was simply too overwhelming to respond to. Once the compartment was 'relatively' empty(compared to what it was earlier), we tried to force our way into the compartment and then suddenly in a flash of second, I found myself inside the compartment..I dint knew what really happened in that moment..but nonetheless, I was inside the compartment. I wasn't in a comfortable position as I was standing on my toes and half of my body weight was falling on one of my friends who was standing next to me...not that he really wanted to support my weight but then, he had no choice!!! After some time, I moved to the 'relatively' empty area of the compartment where I could stand on my feet..As stations passed by, lot of passengers got down from the train and it became nearly empty. It was a good opportunity and for the kind of photographer that I am, I clicked some photos of an empty train...well, you rarely find empty trains in Mumbai!!! All of us got seats and we happily chatted our way to Churchgate.

While all this transpired in the general compartment, an interesting story was developing in the ladies compartment. We had sent the gurlz in our group to the ladies compartment as it would be easier for them to travel over there. Apparently, one of them, got hyper-excited on seeing the Mumbai local and insisted that she will travel by just clinging onto the door of the ladies compartment. She anyhow watches far too many movies and I'm sure that she wanted to do a stunt like running over the moving train which she must have seen in countless movies..but thankfully, better sense prevailed among our other frendz and they stopped her from trying out this stunt by pulling her inside the compartment. Phew!!! Anyhow, on reaching Churchgate, all of us quickly headed towards NCPA.

From Churchgate station, NCPA is located at just 15 min walk along the Marine Drive. The sea looked stunning and serene from the Marine Drive. Lot of people were sitting at the seaside, enjoying the beautiful weather and the cool breeze. We also enjoyed the weather for sometime and then headed off to NCPA. The play was held at 'Tata Theatre'. Trust me, this theatre was beyond all my imaginations. I would recommend you to take a virtual tour of the theatre. The theatre had a seating capacity of 1010 people and it was filled to its capacity...and why shouldn't it be, afterall, it was the 1st adaptation of 'The Alchemist' in India. The scale was grand, the setting was huge and the audience were eager. After some time, the lights were dimmed in the theatre and the play started. The play was an absolute pleasure to watch. It was fabulously enacted by the actors...'Twas a musical delight and a visual treat indeed. It is always tough to enact such a philosophical play by means of music but the cast stood to the task...so much so that all the songs were sung LIVE on the stage by the cast. The duration of the play was 1:30 hrs and we were totally spellbound during whole of that time.

Once the play got over, we also interacted with the director, Mahesh Dattani and the other crew members. I spoke to Mahesh and told him that it was the 1st ever theatre show that I had watched and I loved the way it was presented. He seemed to be quite happy to know about this. During the conversation, Mahesh informed us that the whole concept of the play was being worked upon in past 6 months and the actual practice took 4 months. Well, I must say that the hardwork really paid off on the stage.

After this, we headed back towards Churchgate station.. We were quite hungry and hence had our dinner in a restaurant just opposite the station. Finally, we boarded local to Andheri and came back to campus just before 11PM. Fortunately, this train was not very crowded..so all of us could easily enter one compartment and do chitchat on the whole way back. All in all, it was an excellent Sunday..I won't forget it so easily. Thank you all for making it such a wonderful day!!!



Left->Right: Me(Mohit), Sumit, Pankaj, Supriya and Anuradha .




Kaps is missing in this picture and he threatened me that unless his picture is also added, this blog can't be published. He told that he has lot of supari contacts. Considering the khauf of Kaps that all of us live under, I decided to heed to his request and add this photograph of his:


Lagta hai naa poora ka poora Don :)

All for the sake of precious taste buds

Wednesdays are the new saturdays for me. Reason is not hard to guess...we have thursdays off here. So our 'weekend' starts on wednesday. Moreover, mess is off on wednesdays. For people like me, who live to eat, this is a double bonanza..c'mon, who doesn't like going out with frendz on 'Saturday' nights(and givin the taste buds some respite from the mess food). Well, yesterday was one such Saturday and for reasons known only to 'the chosen ones', we decided to give our regular dhaba a miss and try a new restaurant (not that I'm complaining). However, there was only couple of minuscule glitches in the 'plan':
1. Nobody knew where this new restaurant(hereafter referred to as dhaba) was
2. None among us had tried this place before.. So we had no idea about the hole it was going to burn in our pockets
3. And most importantly, none among us had any feedback about the food (Whoa ???)

They say, 'Fortune favour the brave'... and hell yeah, 'the chosen ones' were brave enough to call justdial, ask all the passers by and panwaris and dosa wallahs for directions to the dhaba. Needless to say, these leaders were sometimes so focussed in their strategy that they forgot that they had some followers also who were trying desperately to keep up with their swift 'thought process'. Anyhow, finally, the leaders tasted success (and we smelled food!!!Finally!!!) There it was, 'The Courtyard'.

We were lucky enough to get a prompt entry to the dhaba..for it was quite crowded. The place was definitely big with lot of seating capacity and judging by the number of people that were there, I thought that it looks to be a nice place and food should be good here. We were seated and promptly served water. Since we had undertook an arduous journey(2 traffic junctions..can U believe it???) en route to this place, we missed no time in placing our order, and then.... we waited. As usual, we started doing some TP and started pulling each other's leg..The dhaba wallahs were kind enough to give us some sort of namkeen to chew upon. Hungry as we were, we wasted no time in finish it up..all this time, waiting. Seconds became minutes and minutes started inching towards hour..and what were we doin??? chirping and ofcoz, waiting. And then, in a quick flash of brilliance, I imagined myself going out of this dhaba, crossing the road, eating a wada-pav/sandwich from a roadside seller and then returning back to this dhaba.. and I was quite sure, that our order wouldn't come even by that time... but then, I had a thought about the dhaba owner. If the crowd waiting outside saw me doing that, probably they'll all run away. So I curbed my 'natural instincts' and to avoid such dangerous thoughts from coming to my mind, I dozed off, right then, on the table.

Anyways, after a small wait of 45 mins(and after reminding the dhabawallah just thrice), our order was served. We jumped on it and well, I'll say that food was just okayyyy.. Going by the crowd over there and the prices on the menu(120-140 bucks for each sabzee), I had expected a much better deal. However, we were not complaining. We din't want to wait another 45 mins for the dhabawallahs to serve us more rotis. We quickly finished the food, paid up the money and then quickly came out.. Our taste buds were angry and agitated.. They were howling at their peak. They wanted a better deal.. Their demand was of supreme importance to us. And then, what do we do? We straightaway head off to the Amul ice-cream parlour which is right next to 'The Courtyard'. I must say that the Amul shop owner must be a good entrepreneur... he has indeed chosen a very good location for his shop.. right next to this dhaba. If just 50% of the people coming out of that dhaba eat an icecream at Amul's, this shop owner can make a big fortune. All of us chose our favourite utterly butterly delicious scoops/cones and headed back to campus.

Pigeon eggs in the balcony

2 days ago, my roomie (Kapil aka 'Kaps') observed something unusual in our balcony...there were two pigeon eggs lying in an old flowerpot. White coloured and small in size.
Needless to say, we were happy...Well, who doesn't get happy to see a new life; be it of a human, plant, bird or an animal. One pigeon(whitish in colour) was right there incubating the eggs...I guess it was the mom pigeon (though not too sure).. She initially got scared when we clicked some photographs of her but later on she got used to the camera and lights (It was like a new film star who gets used to paparazzi :) ). She sits there for the whole day while the male pigeon attends to the parenting tasks at the night.
The male pigeon got scared when I tried to click some photographs..so I didn't disturb him but rather clicked some shots from distance. Nowadays, we just sneak peek from a distance so as not to interfere in their parenting tasks!!!
P.S: I had earlier clicked this photograph when the lovebirds were dating in our balcony:


I had also uploaded the pics to my twitpic account for my twitter friends!!!


Note: Did some googling and found that female pigeon incubates at night while male pigeon attends to the eggs during daytime. Looks like I screwed up between mom and dad pigeons. :))

The VIP syndrome...When will we get over it?

India appears to be humiliated and outraged and the reason??? One of our most popular figure of recent times, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam was frisked by Continental Airlines officials before boarding the aircraft. The print media as well as electronic media are up with arms in criticizing the 'incident'. There was ruckus in the parliament over this issue and our govt has lodged FIR against the 'guilty'. Frankly speaking, I am not amused. We have a history of beating around the bush on all the non-trivial issues in the world but will refuse to admit this ostensibly uncovered truth.

Personally speaking, I do not see anything wrong with the frisking of Mr Kalam. Like most of my fellow Indians, I also admire him and have high respect for him. However, considering what has happened in recent past, I think it is high time that we come out of the VIP syndrome. Why do we have to treat a VIP as some sort of God? Afterall, isn't a VIP a human being in the end ? To allow him to fly unchecked is a threat to the security to other fellow passengers. India has seen the Kanishka bombing and IC-814 hijack case...so why to take a risk? Or are we waiting for a VIP to hijack a plane before we accept our mistake and then make up laws stripping VIPs of this privilege. We have often heard of the criminal-politician nexus and a sizable number of our MPs and MLAs have criminal background. Treating them as the privileged ones is like playing with lives of people. Someday, we as a country have to learn to be tough, be proactive and to treat all its citizens at par.

Human life is of paramount importance and once lost, the void in the lives of relatives/friends can't be filled. If I was travelling in a plane, I would want EACH and EVERY passenger checked, whoever he/she may be. I do have a right to care about my own life..don't I...or have the VIPs have snatched away that also?

Getting a feel of Mumbai

After spending last 2.5 yrs in Hyderabad, last month I shifted to Mumbai. Reason: Study!!! There is a stark difference between two cities. Hyderabad is a very laid back city while Mumbai is always in a jiffy. It rains a lot more over here than it used to do in Hyderabad. So much so that it has been raining here everyday since June 25- the day when monsoon reached Mumbai. I love rains and so I'm quite happy.. I haven't seen such an awesome rainy season since my childhood. So, I'm enjoying my bit here. Needless to say, the 1st habit that this city has cultivated in me is to carry an umbrella whenever I venture out of
my hostel room...be it going to campus or to the nearest bazaar, an umbrella is a must.

I have been occupied with one or other thing in past one month..haven't got really any time to explore Mumbai and its surroundings. However, last week, I went to Lonavala along with my complete batch. The place was beautiful. It was raining for all 5 days...the mountains had a green carpet all over them, lot of rivets travelled down the hills forming water pools from which clouds used to form repeating the whole process again and again. It was fascinating experience..a sight to behold. I never knew western ghats were so beautiful!!!

And yeah, yesterday I saw 'Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince' at PVR, Juhu. The movie sucked.. I dunno what David Yates had in his mind when he created this movie.. Probably, he should read the novel again and also watch all 1st five parts just to understand what a Harry Potter movie should be all about. My rating: 2 out of 5 for this movie.

Visited Salarjung, Charminar & Mecca Masjid

An old saying goes like this: 'Ghar ki murgi daal barabar'. This is true in case of historical monuments also. Most of the visitors in any historical place are from outside the city in which the monument is located. The locals generally don't find the place as important since it has always been there for them. This situation has been fully true for me. Having stayed in NCR, I never visited Red Fort or Qutub Minar or Jantar Mantar or Lotus Temple. I have seen these places many times from outside while travelling but never actually went to see them during my stay at NCR. The same situation happened at Hyderabad also. I hadn't visited Salarjung Museum or Mecca Masjid or Charminar since the time I have come here. But this time, I decided to make mends. Today, I went to see all these three places.

I started off with Salarjung Museum. I reached there at 11:30AM and straight away headed for Musical Clock. I had heard a lot about this clock & hence didn't want to miss it. Crowd had already started gathering in the hall to watch the 'event'. Since I had some 15-20 minutes in my hand, I decided to visit Rebecca gallery. Here I must confess that I ain't among those persons who will look at the finer details of each work of art..Mostly, I'll just give a passing glance and move on.. I agree that the craftsman must have made something good and he/she must have got good money for it but what the heck, what is the need to drooool over it. So while in Rebecca Gallery, I just saw some sculptures and passed by..until I reached the statue of Veiled Rebecca.. and then, my heart stopped. Oh God, the statue was awsome. Now I know why people sing praises of it. The sheer beauty of the sculpture hooked me..I spent 4-5 mins just admiring the beauty of the statue . Now 4-5 mins is LOT for me considering that I hardly give couple of seconds to each work of art. I tried to think how Benzoni would have created such a masterpiece but was at loss of ideas.
Since the time was ticking by, I went back to the hall hoping to grab a seat but all the seats were already taken. So I stood by one side near the wall and waited for the 'moment'. At 12:00PM, a timekeeper came out and struck gong 12 times and then went back inside the clock. Whoa... what was that? Agreed that the clock is nicely built and has lot of dials..but still, do hundreds of people wait daily for this dng-dong thing?? It is just a watch folks and there will be thousands like this in people's homes. I didn't find anything special in it.. But seeing that the museum folks are earning lot just by showing a watch, I'm thinking that I should also buy one clock with a cuckoo and ask people to pay for watching it come out of watch at the stroke of every hour.. Well, it sounds like an idea to me. If ppl can go to see the timekeeper doing some ding dong, why they won't come to see a murgaa saying cuckroo-koo.. :)) Long story cut short, I didn't like the watch show. There were a lot of other collections too in the museum.. some egyptian, french, south indian, kashmiri etc etc etc..I sleepwalked thro' most of them. Some collections were really good..like the porcelain stuff and the wooden sculpture having two faces.. even the marble sculptures were good. I didn't like the modern art section though. Actually, it was not a problem with the collections, I should say that I don't understand this form of art. I saw a painting by M F Hussain and I couldn't decipher what it was meant to be. It looked to be some random array of colours.. why would someone keep it in a museum.. or for that matter, why would someone even call it a painting? LOL :)) So overall, this museum was worth mainly for statue of Veiled Rebecca and some other sculptures/crafts. The collection was good and I'm sure that the Salarjungs had loads of money to buy all those costly artefacts but then, I sleepwallked thro' all that stuff.

My take: To evoke interst from junta like me, the owners should allow us to get one souveneir free of cost or better still, they can allow us to take an artefact back home. Atleast, then we'll see everything closely and admire the art (and choose the best artifect for us too). OMG, what an idea sirjee....anybody listening???

Once Salarjung Museum was done, I headed off to Charminar. Charminar is 1.2 kms away from Salarjung and both Museum and Charminar are in old city area of Hyderabad. I went to the upper storey of Charminar and saw the surroundings from there. I could see the Salarjung Museum from there. Another thing I noted was that the autowallahs had taken over the road right below Charminar.. I thought to count the number of autos but then dropped the idea. I have posted a pic which I clicked. If you are reading this blog then probably you have got nothing better to do. So could you please count the autos for me and post in the comment section :) I'm just curious to know.

I spent some time at the top of Charminar and then headed for the Mecca Masjid. It is situated right next to Charminar. It is a big mosque and you'll find lot of pigeons just after the entry gate. I spent some time there. Saw some kids playing with pigeons and running after them. Yeah..seen so many times in movies when lots of pigeons fly...today, I was right there.. It is indeed a wonderful sight!!!

Oh yes, before I finish, wanted to mention the entry fees for each place:
Salarjung Museum: 10 bucks per Indian person.. Foreigners need to shelve INR 150.
PS: Photography not allowed inside Museum.
Charminar: INR 5
Mecca Masjid: No such charges...
Better to keep some change handy to avoid any issues!!!

Chalo I'm done for this post.. C u folks l8r..
Bye

My view: General Elections 2009

Finally, election results are out and it is UPA which has emerged as the biggest coalition with Congress coming out as the single largest party. In many ways, this election was perhaps the most important since 1977. At the time, the country was reeling under the emergency rule and people voted for a change. This time, the country was standing at the crossroads and people had to choose the way forward.

Previous 5 yrs of coalition politics had yielded many situations in which most of the partners were pulling govt in different directions. For example, Insurance bill, pension reforms bill, SEZ issue and most recently, the nuclear agreement. The end result: No clear cut policy framework thus sending confused signals to the world. In today's recessionist scenerio, this translates into even bigger problem because investment is meagre and you have to be ahead of the competition which other countries pose. Another important issue was that of terrorism. Who can forget the deadly Mumbai train blasts or the serial blasts in Bangalore, Ahmedabad & Delhi or the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai. All these issues required a collective & firm response but the govt was too busy in setting its own house in order and in trying to last for the full 5 yrs. It won't be wrong to say that whenever the PM wanted to take some tough decision, he was always pegged back by his partners who were more keen towards their securing their regional goals/aspirations rather than actually do something for the larger good of nation and its people.

Most of these issues came because the 2004-2009 UPA government was made as a result of 'post-poll alliance' and involved far larger proprtion of regional parties. I am not much of a supporter of post-poll alliances. My reasoning is simple. The individual parties ask for people's mandate based on their own manifestos and promises. Once the results are announced, they simply shake hands with other so called 'like minded parties' and come out with a 'Common Mininum Program (CMP)'. Later on, such alliances form the govt and execute policies as per the CMP. But c'mon, to start with, people never voted for the individual parties due to the CMP. People voted for the parties due to each party's manifesto, which, due to post-poll coaltion govt & CMP, is dumped altogether. The CMP is often a much milder version of the mainfesto and as such, no major policy decisions are included in it. This amounts to a treachery towards the people of this nation. Even if one person tries to do something as per his party's manifesto, the allies will cry foul saying that it was not part of CMP. Hence, I strongly believe that if any alliances have to be made, they should be pre-poll only and the common manifestos should be launched for each of such alliances so that people can get information about their policies. This time, UPA has reached close to the majority mark and it appears that no major post-poll alliance will happen. So long, so good....

As far as the regional parties role in national scenerio is concerned, this election has been a watershed moment. Most of the regional parties' leaders don't have any knowledge about the challenges that face our nation. If you ask them any question related to foreign policy or any law, their faces will go blank. However, they play far too bigger role in deciding who gets to be PM. Also, most of these parties always try to bargain their support in parliament in exchange for favours at the state level. Only a few parties (like Left Front) abide and stand by their ideology. This time, before the results were declared, the regional leaders started blow their trumpet and list conditions for their support. Mulayam Singh offered support to ANY party in center if it sacks Mayawati's govt in UP. May I ask why?? Mulayam should understand that it is India, and not UP, which is at stake here. Mayawati offered support to make govt in center only if she is made PM and the justification that she gives is that she is a Dalit and hence, should be made PM. What kind of logic is that? Is this written anywhere in our constitution? Also, will Mayawati tomorrow go to United Nations and ask for the UN secretary general's post based on this reason? Moreover, if we go by Mayawati's logic, then we should be having a PM from each of the thousands of the castes and tribes that India has...Why should Mayawati alone get the post??? I also observed that couple of parties went ahead and formed number of fronts (like 3rd front, 4th front, Grand Alliance etc) but all that is done with only one idea: To get the maximum bargaining power. Fortunately, in these elections, most of the regional parties have lost ground to national parties. This will reduce their interference in the central govt and let it take decisions for the benefit of the country as a whole.

Overall, I feel that this verdict is for stability....the party/alliance doesn't really matter. UPA has triumphed but it could well have been NDA. People have seen too much of political brickbatting over past years and are tired of it. We, the people, are not demanding anything fancy like spacewalks or house on moon etc from the govt. The problems that we face today are the same that we faced 50 yrs ago like jobs, house, water, food, power, roads, transport, safety etc. We want solutions and not excuses from govt. If even now the govt doesn't deliver the goods, people will surely teach them a fitting lesson in the next elections.

Signing off in hope of a better future for all of us...

P.S: Just like most of my fellow Indians, I am not associated with any political party. I only want a govt that delivers the goods.

AC bus stop..literally :))

I couldn't help smiling when I saw the AC bus stop near Chilkur Balaji Temple. The bus stop was 'naturally Air-Conditioned'!!! Didn't get it?? See the adjoining photograph :)) (try to read the small board affixed on the tree trunk!!!)

Visited Chilkur Balaji Temple (Visa Temple)

Thanks to a holiday on May 1st, last weekend was an extended one. Due to soaring temperatures here in Hyderabad, most of my time was spent at home. However, on Sunday (May 3rd), I, along with my roomie, visited 'Chilkur Balaji Temple' on the outskirts of Hyderabad. The temple is dedicated to Sri Balaji Venkateshwara & is situated on the banks of Osmansagar at a distance of 25kms from Hyderabad. It is also famously known as 'Visa Temple'. People hold this temple in high regards. There is generally huge rush of devotees at this temple and chants of 'Govinda' fill the air.

We decided to go there early morning to beat some of the rush and hence woke up at 4:30AM. Phew..I don't remember when I woke up so early last time!!! At 5:30AM, we started from home to Mehandipattnam. Lot of state govt run buses are available from here to the temple. At 6:30AM, we boarded a state govt. AC bus. It took just 45 mins for the bus to reach the temple. Though quite a stretch of the road is being widened on the way, the bus ride was still smooth. On reaching there, we immediately went for the darshan. The whole place was well managed. There was no jumping the queue and the administrators made sure that each and every person follows the rules. Well afterall, everybody is equal in the house of the Almighty. It took us about 1 hr to complete darshan of the Lord. I was also impressed to know that the temple is a hundiless temple i.e you cannot make a donation to the temple by putting money in a designated box (called hundi).

Later on, we went to see Osmansagar. It is at a walkable distance from the temple. I had heard that Hyderabad gets its water supply from this water body..not sure though how true it is. Due to summers, the water had receded and lot of dead fish were seen lying on the shore. We didn't spent much time there and came back to bus stop to board a bus to Hyderabad. Surprisingly, the same AC bus in which we came to this place was waiting at the bus stop. We quickly hopped into the bus and started our journey back home.

Charminar

Last week, I went to old city for some work..It is an enchanting place with Charminar in the backdrop. Clicked this fotu!!!

Of "planned" trips, IPL2 & more

I have lately realized that I make lot of plans but most of them never see the light of day. During past 3 months, I have "agreed and given more than a thought" to visit Hampi (Karnatka), Kanha national park (Madhya Pradesh) and SriSailam (Andhra Pradesh)..but as fate will have it, none of those plans materialized. It would have been wonderful experience to go to all these places..but always, something or other came up at last moment which kept one or other in the group occupied. I love travelling to new places & I reallllly don't mind the effort involved in it, but then there is no fun in going to these places w'out frenz.

But hey, all was not lost. I did sneak to Nagarjunasagar Dam along with frenz. It is 125 sq km long water body in Guntur district(Andhra Pradesh). We also saw Ettipottala Waterfall there. All in all, a good way to spend a holiday!!! And oh yes, I also visited Bangalore recently to catch up with some old dilli wallee junta :))... just to reload some good ol' memories!!!

Nowadays, with the temperatures in most parts of India being above 40 degrees, leisure travelling is off the menu. Most of the people(including yours truly) have been busy killing time by watching IPL2 matches. Sadly, the tournament has been shifted off to South Africa. Last year, I watched a match in the stadium and it was an exhilarating experience...especially those Mexican waves were simply stupendous. I so much wanted matches to happen in India so that I can again go and enjoy the games..but well, nothing bigger than the players' security especially after what happened to Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan.

This year's IPL has been more balanced on-field contest between batters and bowlers. Tough to make any predictions on the winner yet. But off the field, we already have a winner... and it is a blog written 'apparently' by a Kolkata Knight Riders player under the nickname 'Fake IPL Player' and it has become a huge hit. It is a hillarious blog taking lot of jibes at various people involved with game..Don't know how true it is though!!! You can read it here: http://fakeiplplayer.blogspot.com

Apart from IPL, the other important event which is happening nowadays is General Elections. Lot of political parties are slugfesting in these matches...Everybody has got their heavyweights in the ring trying to win maximum seats so as to be in better bargaining position. The polling %age uptil now has been dismal to say the least. I thought that the people must have awakened in past 5 years but alas, it was not to be. A voting %age of less than 50% should ring alarm bells in the minds of powers that be. Questions regarding this need to be asked and answers should be found. Why this happened? Is it that people no longer believe in the democratic system??? I don't think so.. I think that they still believe in the democratic system but they don't believe in the "people" that run this system. However, not casting vote is not a solution. If we all want to change this, we need to tackle the bull by its horns... Each one of us needs to fulfill our responsibility by choosing a better leader.. and just in case you don't like any leader, you can use section 49-O to say you don't want to vote for anybody!!! I think that Election Commission should add another button in EVM for this option. Until that happens, this rule can't be properly utilized.

Adios.

Brightest moon of 2009

This saturday evening, I was going somewhere when my eyes suddenly transfixed upon something bright..it was moon. C'mon, I know that I've seen it many times earlier but something seemed to be different.


Later on, while surfing the web, I came to know that moon was at perigee and its gonna be the brightest moon of the year 2009. So I clicked this photo :) !!!

Vacation in Vizag

I always wanted to go on a trek and when I came to know that some people are going for a 4 day trek in the forests near Vizag, I thought to join them. The plan was to start from Shivalingapuram and then trek for 4 days to reach Borra caves. The leader was an experienced trekker and he took care of all arrangements for complete journey(including all necessary permissions). However, just 2 hrs before startng from Hyderabad, we came to know that due to some reasons, forest dept has cancelled the permission of all treks in the area. We were left high and dry wondering what to do with our plans. We had already applied for day off in our office...train tickets had been booked...backpack was packed with clothes and other necessary stuff...and most importantly, all of us were in holiday mood. We decided not to let go of this opportunity and instead, go and see Vizag and its surroundings. Obviously something is better than nothing and hey, Vizag is actually a holiday destination.

The train was (surprisingly) on time. We reached Vizag on the morning of 25th December(Xmas day). We were thinking of catching another train (Kirandul Express) to go to Araku, which is a hill station. But when we saw that their is no place to even put a foot in train, we decided that we'll stay in Vizag for that day and visit Araku some other day. (Now you know that it was a totally unplanned journey.. we even had no idea in which city we will be going to). Anyways, we quickly found a dorm to put our luggage in and freshened up...had breakfast and then arranged a cab to go to a beach called 'Yarada Beach'.

Until now, I had seen Mumbai beaches and Marina beach(Chennai) and politely speaking, they are dirty. Especially in mumbai where the coastline is actually marked by polythene bags. But this beach(Yerada) was different.. it was clean and not much crowded. Actually, this beach is separated from the main city by a hill called Dolphin Hill (it looks like a dolphin when you see it from far) and this is the reason for a comparitively lesser crowd. We spent couple of good hours there..'twas fun. After this, we went to Kailashgiri. It is another hilltop near the Beach Road. There are big statues of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati at the hilltop. Also, this place has some viewpoints which give you a beautiful view of the sea, hills and city. The place was, albeit, crowded as lot of people had come due to holiday. There was a very long queue for ropeway and a traffic jam on the way to top of the hill. But anyways, the place is worth a visit.

Next day(26th Dec), we went to Borra caves and Araku by an APTDC package tour. Borra caves are naturally formed caves believed to be 150 million years old. The place was beyond my expectation. I was expecting a small cave but this place was big ..and extremely crowded. The rock formations were fascinating. Indeed a marvellous place for geologists and nature lovers alike..One wonders what nature can do!!! After this, we set out to Araku which is a village inhabited by tribal people. Nothing much to see over there. The bus driver took us to a garden and museum.. but I was still captivated by Borra caves :). We were quite late in reaching Araku and hence missed a tribal dance :(. Anyways, after "watching" the village, we headed back to Vizag...reached there at about 9PM, had food and dozed off.

Next morning(27th Dec), we woke up at 5.30AM and headed to RK beach to see sunrise. Seeing the sun rising from the horizon is a beautiful sight indeed. Its reflection in water is a sight to behold. We stayed there for sometime before going back to room. After that, we went to fishing harbour to do a boat ride into the sea. Later on, in the afternoon, we went to Simhachalam temple (Temple of lord NaraSimha Swami), which is about 1 hour journey from Vizag. We were back to city in the evening. We were already weighing our options of what to do next day. We were left with submarine museaum and couple of more beaches. Some people among us were planning to visit their relatives while I, along with couple of guys, had already decided to head back to Hyderabad. We boarded a volvo and reached Hyderabad next morning.. It felt kinda nice to be back among the busy streets and wayward traffic..kinda home.

Thats how this trip, which was never meant to happen, actually happened. Overall, considering the kind of fix we were in at the start of this trip, we did pretty well..and we were back in time also. All in all, a good vacation!!!