What's in a New Year !!!

For numerous reasons, the concept of a New Year is not that great. Moreover, I don’t like the way it is perceived. Conceptually it is the birth of a new unit of time, but it just adds up to the list of festivals, thereby becoming another occasion for treats, celebration and other extravaganza. Liquor literally flows on new year nights. Purely for entertainment, millions of gallons of liquor and unimaginable amounts of money are thrown away, on just one day. I can’t help but sound like an anti-liquor campaigner, in this regard. Because India simply does not require any other reason to boast that 75 percent of its people are poor. For the past couple of months, Wikipedia is running a fundraiser for itself, and it says something like this: “If all those who read this donate Rs. 100 today, our fundraiser would be closed by today”. It is exactly a similar situation what I am referring to: if all those who spend extravagantly in the name of new year or any other occasion are thoughtful enough to cut short their luxury from extravagant to adequate (God knows if there is anything as adequate luxury!!), then it will be a big leap for mankind. I have seen people sympathizing over their brethren struck by poverty and calamities. But there ends all. Who does anything at all? Surely not those who prefer setting up golf clubs to charity fundraisers.

Everybody nowadays seems to be ardently trying to find some reason or the other to party. Partying and merry-making has become the purpose of life, above everything else. To an extent it is true that get-togethers make life happening. But we forget that such small happenings overshadow other big happenings in life!! Moving ahead like aimless nomads, ticking back every day from life, does this life really make sense? Isn’t it like an inflated balloon that is attractive outside but hollow inside?

Now I have done the easy job of penning down this thought. But how to materialize this? Here is a rough plan. It might be simple at first sight, but becomes more and more difficult the more you actually try to do it. Out of say 100 rupees earned per month, 25 rupees are spent for regular monthly expenses. In the remaining 75, 15 are spent on luxury. It might be more or less, varying from person to person, and thereby leaving 60 rupees as monthly savings. What if in the 15 rupees, 5 be allotted for the sacred cause I am pointing to? Or if not in terms of money, why not in terms of resources? If not now, why not later, but with good planning which starts right from this moment?

There are infinite possibilities, infinite ways to pursue ultimate happiness. Why be a party animal when there are much better ways to be social… At least let this new year make a difference in everybody who believes in it. Give a 10 rupee note to a hungry kid begging before you with his hands on his sunken belly. You may have to skip going in an autorickshaw and walk the way to your home. Or don’t give the kid anything at all, but please don’t give that yucky scornful look that I have seen on hundreds of faces, I hate it! Be human.

Welcome 2012.

Life in a Metro

What would you call an Indian Metro? What kind of people live there? Well, there are some minimum mandatory requirements that a city should have so as to achieve the status of an Indian Metro. Chennai will help me best to explain. It is a city where people from all walks of life commute in front of me. Round the clock. I often wonder where all these people keep going. I do so especially when I am in a sea of vehicles and stuck in traffic. From millionaires through corporate communists through the clichéd middle-class through homeless beggars to streaking mad men, all these people pass in front of my eyes or I travel across them, every now and then. Given below are some trademarks of the different classes of society I listed in the former sentence.

1.    The millionaires are not a majority lot. I don’t see many of them out in the open except in air-conditioned imported cars that never sound to vroom by or in expensive attires in shopping malls and multi-plex cinemas. Wherever they are, they make sure they are in an air-conditioned, aromatic and imaginarily red-carpeted spaces surrounded by big glass walls. They breathe air-conditioned air. KFCs and Baskin and Robbins are for them what road-side chat shops are for me.

2.     The business dons and political magnates – they decide what others can do. In sun-filmed and UV-protected SUVs assisted with security convoys they roam the city and the blocked traffic trails to where they have gone. I don’t know much about what these people do, but at the end of the day, they run the show and the law.

3.    Corporate chaps are easy to spot – they set, follow and do (and rightfully they  have the right to do so) the trend. Work, eat, sleep and party. Now sorry if I omitted family people – they too do a lot of partying sometimes with family or sometimes when they have time after work and attending to family matters.

4.    Corporate communists seem pretty good in camouflaging and others think they change their colour. They might not have been fortunate to be born with silver spoons in their mouths, but they will make sure their kids have spoons of atleast silver. But these people really have an inclination to the society, and most of them really do some good stuff to the society. The rest are turncoats who stand not for the cause, but by the side where victory and justice are apparent. I have felt at times whether I am a corporate communist myself.

5.   Now the most talked about and the most hyped and the always baited bunch – the middle class. They consider them the wealthiest and the most happening in this world, until they see some wealthier people pass by. Even though, they are what we call the man power. People who move the world. Thus constituting the best portion of the working population, they deserve better respect than what I have given in my words. They are into everything man has known, and become real social animals. I claim that I belong here.

6.     The homeless are a big lot, now they keep wandering from road to road, slum to slum, and live at the mercy of the political heavy-weights and hence end up as a loyal resource to the election and other political propaganda.

7.     After the nomad come the mad. These people happen out of weaklings when the world turns too cruel for them to handle, and then their clocks stop ticking.

This financially divided demography will continue to exist and the divide will increase even more, as more and more metros come up, more and more development happens. A metro has to have all seven of the above members intact to sustain it as a metro.  A holistic approach like this will make life in a metro a little less metrosexual. Give it a try!

Shedding a gloomy face

I was the kind of a child who was the teachers' pet at school, but was reserved to the core, especially when it came to matters of mingling with people. I was so very less outgoing. Even now I am not much better.

I used to put up a gloomy face whenever my mood was slightly or entirely off its best. Too much of time I spent on thoughts, and thus I used to be led to skirmishes of capricious threads, one leading to another and ultimately all these would squeal and scratch my skull from inside. Occupy all the pleasant space inside my mind. Over the time as my Innocence Quotient dropped, at the time of an increased reserve, my grey cells turned into a cornucopia of thought. This I welcomed with great relief. I was a refugee who sought something more than existence.

The coarse terrain of life weathered my reserved nature somewhat as I treaded along it, but my fervor for thoughts never died, it overflowed and some of it, words like these, left imprints on paper as well. The gloomy face was as effective as a Guy Fawkes mask in displaying a fabricated intent. It helped at times – at those when I did not want people to know what ran in my mind. But the same became a problem. 

It struck me a big blow when a well-wisher observed and pointed this out recently. I realized how much true his observation was, and how large an impact this had in my life. The gloom was read as an unwelcoming attitude, and thus many knocks passed by without falling on this naïve door.Opportunities are mostly biased to optimists. And I don’t want to lose any more chances in this rat race of a life.

Now I am shedding the gloomy face. I adopted a bright and happy face from then on - as a facade to positive thoughts that lay beneath. I try to think less, never let thoughts go astray, keep unnecessary anxiety at bay. Even without growing tumours of thoughts, it should be possible to spur my way through. I don't give a damn if the universe conspires or not.

The Chetan Bhagat Revolution

Gone are the days when companies used to come to campuses to do a very meticulous and selective recruitment of capable students. Now companies from the IT-services sector swarm into campuses and rope in hundreds at a time. Chetan Bhagat sweeps majority of the Indian audience in this fashion. The books sell at every nook and corner of India in incomparable numbers. Now the fifth of his books, Revolution 2020 are out, and I found it the best among the five.

This, I call, cotemporary writing. Even though the inevitable scenes of affairs and sex are included as in his previous novels, undoubtedly to sell more copies, Chetan has hit the right chords with the evergreen topics of love and greed that run throughout the story like stave in an orchestra composition. When writers spend months to coin phrases that might hold the verbose-liking readers to ponder over non-existent meanings, this IIM-A graduate has tabled his cards in a plain and simple fashion. Now here I might have hurt a few of you, but I don’t care - because bestsellers are not always meant to adorn the shelves of ardent literati fans and amateur wannabe pedants.

From a masala-point-something of a story to millions of books sold, Chetan has so far got the right going in everything. He was in the TIME’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and he is the biggest selling English language novelist in India’s history. Hope he uses this influence as a jig to instill in youth the realization of the need behind the youth to come forward for every common cause, rather than sulking away to comforts. He quit his career as an international banker, to dedicate his full time to writing. The Indian youth needs icons desperately, and this guy might have already proved his candidacy through his influence.

At a time when sins are redefined and erstwhile taboos have come out of sediments to the periphery, that the people (especially youth) have started to view corruption from a third person point of view gives hope. The book spits overt blame on the Indian educational system, but finally gives the reader a chance to choose which was right and which was wrong

Awesome reading, guaranteed.

How to Satisfy Our Daily Appetite

Slurrrrrrp!!!

I just wiped clean with my tongue the last drop of curd that tickled down the side of my right hand's little finger. Waaah! That was a lunch and a half I had just now. The menu was amaaazing! Rice, curd, pickle, 'dosa podi' and salt. I felt each grain of rice, the unique tomato garlic pickle, and amma-made-dosapodi filling my stomach - it was that relishing. Catch up to this line if you are held up in between the previous two lines, trying to read something there. No, there's nothing. That was it, the menu was short and simple but awesome. The best-to-have food, I found, is self-cooked. This would be the case with everybody, we get the most satisfaction out of having some food we have cooked, even if it's a delicacy or not. Objection, anybody?

It has been (just) two years since I started living neither at home nor in a hostel, and from then it has been a search for the best place to eat, to live. Of course, almost the complete later half of this period I stayed at my uncle's place in KK Nagar, Chennai, so during that time I had the best food I could get it Chennai. After that the hunt for the place which gave the next best food started again. I have been to many restaurants, 'messes', caterers and food stalls. The ones among these that managed to hold me as their regular visitor were 'Sridevi's Dosa Corner'* at Camp Road and Arvind Caterers in Muthamizh Nagar. I am not a great connoisseur of tastes, but I got bored everywhere because I found something lacking, in all these places. And each time I did, I would resort to something tedious and time-wasting at my first notion, but worth the toil and time spent in the end - and that act is nothing but cooking! If the end product of what I cook is harmless and eatable, then I find the element which was missing when I ate from outside - satisfaction. 

Eat-outs indeed give us tasty food we cannot prepare at home daily, but fail to lure us to come and eat everyday. The secret ingredient that gives our curd rice a 'five-star rating' is right there with us - our own culinary touch. But did I miss the most important clause - 'cooking works out only if we have time!'?

Now I am signing off for a nap, let me see if I will wake up in time to make an evening tea. 

*There was this 'normal dosa corner' at Camp Road, East Tambaram. GT and I used to frequent this place. Around the corner of the same road there was this restaurant, the name of which was so long and hard to remember, and my friend Sridevi used to eat from this restaurant. Later on, all three of us made this restaurant our official dinner place, and named this as 'Sridevi's Dosa Corner'. Thus the name.

I hate to blame the system to use the failure of the system as a curtain to conceal our unpreparedness. But sometimes the systems in place are so bad and inefficient that they just don't allow me to remain silent. 

Today something of this kind happened. I want to take my bike from my home in Malappuram, Kerala to Pallavaram, Chennai, the place where I live and work.  It's a 15-20 minutes walk from my Chennai home to office, and of late I have been thinking on this idea of getting a bike so that commuting to office and other travel in the city will be easy. The bike, a 100cc TVS make, is in average condition now and is used now only when my brother (he lives in Cochin, doing his B. Tech Mech Engg) or I am home.I don't want to spend too much to buy a new bike either, and this mostly rarely used bike at home is the best option I have. The bike will get a lifeline, its condition will better once I start using it regularly.

Now I need to get an NOC (No Objection Certificate) issued from the RTO (Road Transport Office) or Joint RTO under the sphere of which my locality falls. [As per rules this is not required - NOC is to be produced only if the registration number of the vehicle needs to be changed to another area, especially another state. I have a temporary plan only - I will use the bike in Chennai for another 7-8 months, after which I will send it back to Kerala, as my whereabouts after that time is uncertain!]. But to make myself equipped with all documents in case any traffic police wished to stop me, ask me to pull over to the side and expected cash to cover up any missing document, I thought I will obtain this NOC as well. 

I went to JRTO Perinthalmanna, as my residence is in Perinthalmanna Taluk. Now at the outside the JRTO, which is on the second floor of a yet-to-be-furnished building, there was a man behind a desk that had a small board on it which read 'Help Desk'. I was surprised and happy about this people-friendly arrangement. There was a very small queue in front of the desk - around four people. This was a proof for the efficiency of the man behind the desk, I thought. 

But it was not to be..

When I reached the head of the queue, a person came from behind - he was panting probably after a long walk in the sun. He too had come to get an NOC to use his vehicle in Kannur, and from his conversation with the 'helper' man I found that NOC form was not available in any nearby shops, forget at the JRTO. The 'helper', after learning from me that I wanted an NOC too to use my bike in Chennai, he asked me if I could get a form from a printing press a bit far away. I walked all the way just to find out that the press did not have any NOC forms. So I returned back to the 'helper' and described to him the situation. He then took out from an old file a filled copy of the form, and asked me to get a photocopy of that after hiding all written stuff using white paper. I went downstairs, went to a photocopy shop and got a couple of copies. An important thing was that the cash collection counter inside the JRTO would close at 1 o'clock and if I did not go in time, I would not be able to get the NOC before I start for Chennai tomorrow evening. And tomorrow and the day after are off-days for the JRTO. Finally, at about 12:45, with a lot of confusion the 'helper' finally helped me fill up the form, pasted a Rs. 5 stamp on it, attached the originals of my RC book, Insurance Certificate, Smoke Test Certificate, and asked me to submit it together at a counter inside. And from that counter I understood that the form I used was a wrong one, and that there was a separate form for NOCs outside Kerala. That was called Form 28. Furious, I wet out and asked the help-desk person about this confusion. He acted as if he did not know anything, and as if I was the one who got things wrong by hurrying things up, blah blah blah. And then he said that he had copies of Form 28!!! I shouted at him for not giving the correct information earlier, and then I saw that my watch, which runs 5 minutes fast, showed 1:10 PM. I walked away from the help-desk, showering my anger on the 'helper'. 

Now I cannot take my bike to Chennai tomorrow, for doing so would end me up emptying my purses to the Chennai traffic police. No wonder people make fun of people at government offices working in a sluggish manner.

Rains in Chennai

To an NRK (Non Resident Keralite), the monsoons in Kerala are a blithe longed for. The greenery plus the chill and wet climate give a coziness like nowhere else. Gallons of water flowing by you in the canals and sometimes even on the roads and footpaths is big time exciting even though some people might turn cynical about this. Of course it hinders travel and outing, and that rainy season brings with it a handful of communicable diseases is a scientifically proven fact. But rains are the lifeline as well, as the whole goodness and greenery that makes the God's own country a better place to live in owe a lot to the monsoons. Now we have every chance of experiencing higher torrents of rain, but fortunately or unfortunately we are not in the North East. It's a bit extreme over there because rather than enjoying the rain, people would prefer escaping the floods and havoc.    

And what happens in the other not-so-rainy parts of the country? Here in Chennai where I live now, rains come as an effect of the North-East monsoons mostly in September, October and November. It does not rain everday, thank god! The enjoyable climate that the rains bring is spoilt very soon by the waterlogs that accompanies every formidable rain. And Chennai does not get help from geographical contours either, the whole town is so perfectly flat that there is no place water can run off even though the sea is a couple of blocks away! Whereas in my hometown, Malappuram, which like what its meaning in malayalam suggests, is made of small hillocks - ups and downs everywhere that you cannot see a road that runs flat for more than a hundred ir two metres. Drainage, however bad it is designed, runs out of eyesight and out of town! Civil engineers, you are welcome to Chennai, and I dont know what drainage planning happens here. Every small street gets flooded, and the drains overflow, bringing out every rubbish in them. 

Rains have started a couple of weeks back, and my house in Chennai is so strategically located that every road to every eat-out nearby gets blocked due to waterlogs! Either I buy a boat or I start cooking. The former is too whimsical and the latter is impossible! Hard times ahead I guess.

What to do at the IITs.... and Confessions of a Rustic True Blue

Part Two: Confessions of a Rustic True Blue

Some things never change. (If you wonder ‘things like what’, read along…)

18^th Sept 2011. The get together with friends at IIT Madras had just got over when Pala asked me what next. It was Super Sunday that day. Manchester United was to meet Chelsea at Old Trafford, and a Champions League Victory against Benefica was a good sign to the Cobham blues. It was an year since I watched a Premier League match, and I decided I will stay back for the night at IIT, watch the match and return the next day morning. The TV at my home was busted in a power fluctuation months ago, so there was no way of watching the match at home either.

A couple of years ago on any weekend evening, the most probable place to find me was the hostel common room where the most ardent football fans flocked together. We showed no mercy – we used to kick all the cricket fans out! Apart from the Premier League, there were less frequent Champions League and World Cup matches to keep us busy round the calendar. The packed common rooms provided a feeling equivalent to that of a gallery. People in your side, opposite side and some indifferent fans of some other team whose boos and roars and sighs of despair and taunts that followed livened up the air.

Of all the football clubs across the world, I found Chelsea FC the most liking, due to their unique style, glamour and relentless spirit. For a decade I have been their fan. Saw the flourish, fame and the recent fall, and the unbelievable losses in the previous season which hammered blows over my hopes on Chelsea. It was rather a gradual decline, as after Roman Abramovic sacked Jose Mourinho, no manager was able to pull off stints of success that lasted for more than half a season. Avaram Grant was the luckiest of the lot yet the most defamed.

At the same time to the fall of Chelsea, the Catalans achieved uncomparable class and brilliance, and the Manchester United, now the richest club in the world, rose to unquestionably the next best football club in the world. In this backdrop my emotions for Chelsea started eroding, and of late, a ‘transfer’ to Barca was imminent. The doubt whether I have become a turn-coat was the only worry that kept me from switching my ‘home-ground’.

But……

CHE vs MANU.. or rather MANU vs CHE, to term it in the right sequence – is an event which revs me up to otherwise impossible adrenaline highs. By the time Pala and I reached Krishna hostel common room, match had started, Chelsea was a goal down, 18 minutes into the first half.

In a second, all my hard-feelings for Chelsea melted away, and I was back to the game again! 90 minutes were up in the flicker of an eye. Man Utd defeated Chelsea by a deceiving margin of 3-1. A true football fan never believes the stories that the scores belie. The main highlights of the match was the amazing passing and intercepts by Man Utd lads (the average age of their first eleven was 23 !!!) and the relentless spirit displayed by Chelsea, spearheaded by Torres. He impressed, though he made an early bid to the miss of the season when he fired a ball out of an open post after deceiving De Gea with a precise dribble.

Albeit the loss, there was a lot of promising moments for Chelsea. I returned to Pala's room as much a die-hard fan of Chelsea as I have ever been. Some things like this, never change. Blue blood, I will claim I have!

What to do at the IITs… and Confessions of a Rustic True Blue

Part One: What to do at the IITs.....

The tech-niches of India, and the source of a good percent of the most wanted brains all over the world, the IITs have always been my fascination. I haven't got into one as its student, but I have a bunch of good friends in IIT Madras, and they have made possible many jovial hang-outs at their campus. IIT Madras, a green campus blessed with affluent natural beauty and beautiful meandering boulevards through the forests linked with the Guindy National Park, is a place that showers bliss. It was a similar experience yesterday when I had a get together with friends from college at IITM.

Faeez Basheer was the reason behind this get-together. From the oil rigs of Saudi, he turned up now two years after we passed out of NITC. By the time GT (short form for Asish George Thomas) and I reached the Café Coffee Day at IITM, Faeez had collected a handful of people there – Anoop aka Palakkad, Chitra, Padmanisha and Aruna. It was a happy unison at the happening CCD where we were the only outlandish lot among the unusually crowded pack of students. Our talks and laughter echoed over evey other clatter, and Pala (short for Palakkad) was the centre-point of all, as everyone wanted to know the secret behind his long, curly and kempt hair. To everyone's disappointment, Palakkad somehow managed to parry away the jeers on him and escaped with a silly reason - he was growing his hair to perform a "head-bang" at Saarang 2012, the cultural frenzy hosted by IITM.

The walk through the woods was much more relished, and Aruna's Canon D1000 would have come of better use if the sun had not been so low. At Gurunath stores, the next best hangout place there, Fayaz Habeeb, Murshid, Arun S and Jayajith (all are juniors from NITC, currently doing MTech at IITM) joined. Everyone agreed to meet at the RECCAA (CREC/ NITC Alumni Association) Onam get-together to be held on 25th Sep'11. A short while later we parted ways, as it was already dark and the girls wanted to reach home early.

Dinner was at the ‘Himalaya’, a hi-tec canteen/mess with swipe-cards for all students, and a token-system-based-serving-counter with digital display of the token numbers. Wow! Walked back to Pala’s room after dinner, and GT jumped on to the guitar in the room. We left him there and went to the common room to watch Chelsea- Man Utd match. A tense match left Chelsea at the losing end. But it reinstated many of my notions, which I have written here. Pala and I returned to his room, and there GT was in front of the PC, immersed in the Guitar tuitorials he was watching. GT had almost finished tuning the guitar, and then we helped Pala with his project work. It was like we were back in college again, and a black tea at midnight beckoned. We walked in the drizzle to Tiffany’s. It remains open till 1 AM. We had black tea, reached back in the room, and then learned from Pala that internet connection to hostels was cut off from 12 midnight to 5 AM. What was that?The most elite of institutions in India not providing internet at night? Unbelievable. I slid on to the floor, Pala on to the cot and GT on to the chair. Some chords escaped into the air and a couple of seconds later we were all singing old songs together. Pala, a good rapper, sparred with his ‘Smack that..’ as well. Not much later I was in deep sleep, and woke up the next day early in the morning. I had to reach office by 8 AM and GT had a training to attend at 9. Setting on a reminder to come back soon, we left for the main gate in the institute’s internal bus service.

പ്രഭാതം

ജാലകവാതില്‍ തുറന്നാല്‍, കാണാം
നിലാവറ്റ, നിശ്ചല രാവ്
ജീവിതപാതയില്‍ വെളിച്ചം വിതറുവാന്‍,
നേര്‍വഴി കാട്ടുവാന്‍
താരങ്ങളില്ല, തൂവെള്ള ചന്ദ്രനില്ല.
ചിലക്കുന്ന ചീവീടും,
മാനതിരുന്നു മന്ദഹസിച്ച്
എന്‍ മനത്തെ തലോടിടും ചന്ദനകിണ്ണത്തെ
അമ്പേ മറച്ചൊരാ കാര്‍മേഘവും
കോച്ചുന്ന കൂരിരുട്ടില്‍
കനലായ് കിടക്കുമെ-
ന്നാശ കെടുത്തി മദിച്ചിടുന്നു...
പൊട്ടിയ ജാലകചില്ലിലൂടെയെന്‍ മുഖം
മരതകപ്രഭാപൂര്‍ണമാക്കി
ആ മിന്നാമിനുങ്ങ്‌
എന്‍ മനസ്സിലേക്കിറങ്ങി വന്നു.
അതെ! അല്ലിതൊരന്ത്യം
കാക്കുക ക്ഷമയോടെ
എന്‍ ദുഃഖം മായ്ക്കാന്‍,
എനിക്കാശ നല്‍കാന്‍,
സൂര്യതേജസ്സായ്‌ വരും,
ഒരു പ്രഭാതം......

Hogenakkal - Trichy - Thanjavur: 2nd, 3rd July 2011

So much travel-packed has the previous month been that I need to go on a vacation again, this time just to relax. A trip in a weekend, back to Chennai onMonday morning, slug at work, keep sleeps at bay and push them into the night, write a travelogue, start off for the next trip on Friday night... - the last three weeks went in this fashion. Too much fun in too little time. And what's more, the next trip is in the making!

9:00 PM, 1st July 2011
Chennai Central Railway Station:
The moment Shankar, my colleague at Alstom Grid, had announced about his marriage, we booked tickets to Salem and from Trichy. Gopi and Sridhar were stuck in a queue for Marrybrown burgers when I spotted them in the hulla-balloo of a Friday-night crowd. Aravind and Thiru stood nearby with their parcels too - porotta and chicken curry. Karthik was spotted tapping on his newly-bought Android touch phone. He looked very happy. He might have a lot of Apps. Or perhaps because of the trip to start. Vijaykarthik spoke on phone, walking around and as though lecturing to the person at the other end. Anantha (the tallest among us and hence the rightful owner of the longest name, ie, Jegannathan Ananthapadmanaban) was the eightth person to join, thereby completing the tally. Waking up early in the morning - the train would reach Salem at 5.00 AM - was the only worry.
We headed towards Platform 6, Yercaud Express, coaches S1 and S13 - I was in S1, with Aravind, Thiru and Anantha. I had a nice sleep at night. But Vijay woke up everybody at 5.00, announced arrival at Salem. We got up, packed things and then Aravind found that we were in Bommidi - Salem was still an hour away!! All mumbled a few curses and went back to sleep. Thank god, Vijay was 10 compartments away and he did not hear. Finally we crawled out of the train to Platform No. 4, Salem junction. Drowsy and heads down, we moved to a coffee shop and asked for tea. The man was as bold in saying that there was no tea, as the letters were in the board on top that read "FILTER COFFEE". Karthik had a glass of milk, which he confessed to me later as a bad idea, when he failed twice in emptying his bowels at Vijay's house. The house, just 5 minutes away, took 10 minutes to reach by bus!!! Peaceful area and wonderful neighbours - there was a girl next door who worked in Infosys, Chennai. The eight of us freshed up in the outhouse, said good-bye to Vijay's parents, set off in a Chevrolet Tavera Vijay had arranged. Very friendly driver. His skill plus the smoothness of the Salem - Bengaluru NH kept us in 90's, on an average. Trucks caused nuisance, here and there. Looked like they were on slow-driving races!! Felt pity at the trailer drivers. Now hunger struck - everybody put his head out in search of restaurants. Again Vijay came to aid - he proclaimed that there was an Adyar Ananda Bhavan (A2B, as Chennaiites call with love) near Dharmapuri. Heads pulled in and less bothered then, we all desperately tried to search for some movie song CD. The driver was helpless in this regard - he had only devotional songs. The SONY walkman that I had saved the day - Kadhal Virus and Kadhal Desam songs brought solace. I almost slept romancing over memory remenisces, while the vehicle halted in the parking lot of A2B. Now we jumped out, in no time the orders were taken and breakfast served. Awesome cuisine - infact this A2B served much better food than Chennai A2Bs. Idli and kichadi melted in my mouth. Bought a lot of Kurkure and Lays and Mirinda and 7-UP. The flower garden in front of the restaurant and the hills that stretched on the other side of the road together studioed a good background for photography. A few clicks later we were all inside the cab, huddled up because bags consumed a lot of space, and Lays and Kurkure were not to be crumbled! I love sitting in the luggage space at the back of big vehicles like Sumo, Qualis, Tavera, etc. Lack of ventillation, sometimes, was the only problem. Karthik and I started a discussion on automobiles. I thought I had an advantage being a mechanical engineer, but Karthik was very well equipped with updated info on the automotive sector. Sridhar also joined. We dug up to the level of energy conservation, and eventually it died out when none of us were sure of what we spoke about! Now we were on a diversion from the NH - towards Hogenakkal. On either side, the muddy terrain gradually gave way to a rocky one. Tiny bushes imparted a uniform but dull ornation to the hillsides. There were channels by the roadside which could have been streams once. Wherever we go, the deforestation network follows.

10 AM, 2nd July 2011
Jetty, Hogenakkal:
How frightening is Hogenakkal if read as "hoge na kal", meaning tomorrow wont exist!!! It seemed true - even though Hogenakkal was a tourist hotspot, there was no sign of any measures taken to preserve it. No cleanliness, garbage thrown on the roadsides, I felt pity. Hogenakkal
village charges Rs. 20 for vehicle entry. And there is separate parking fees in TTDC parking lot. After changing to boxers and shorts, we meet the "parisal" employees union to negotiate rates. [Parisals are small circular boats made of bamboo and tarpauliin sheet, using molten tar to fill gaps]. A parisal can carry 6 persons apart from the oarsman. We gave in for Rs. 2800 for 8 of us - 4 each in 2 parisals. In rainy reason when water-level is high, it is difficult to approach the falls in a parisal from downstream. Parisals and their passengers are taken to a place some two kilometres upsream, in a goods carrier [see photo above]. At that place, where the Cauvery shows her majesty - it was where the river was the broadest, the water was less turbulent at the shore, and so it was a relatively good place for the parisal to enter. All of us roared as the oars took us inwards. It took a moment to come out of that delight, the magnificent panorama that a parisal ride offered was breath-taking. [In photo, just after the parisal took off]. We yawed and swayed in the waves, the oarsman manoeuvred across the waves with sturdy reflexes of his arms. Crocodiles were in plenty, he said, and they had not tasted human flesh so far, he claimed. If at all a croc attacked anybody, it was hunted down and killed before it started preying on humans. Frightened on hearing this fact, nobody dared to put their hands in water to splash on others' faces. The flowing river was so beautiful that all of us ignored the hot sun and enjoyed the scenery. I was spell-bound at the oarsman's expertise in navigating through the unpredictable and irregular waves, and cutting across the flow, right through it was no silly task. Wow. Respect.
He took us to a bank where there was a small bridge that ran half way across the river, and offered a close-up view of the falls [see photo below, left]. The falls have a U-shaped edge. Water caved in from this edge into the depth below, and down there, water was milky-white and foamy. From the view point, those who liked taking risks may go to a particular spot on the edge - where a small tree shooted out from a protruding rock. This was the favourite photoshoot destination at Hogenakkal, there was a commotion of people waiting for their turn (to risk their lives), crowdy enough to push a person or two down the cliff. We too clicked many photos at that place. Got wonderful snaps, soon all would change their social networking profile pics. There were intermittent sprays of water that rose from the bottom of the falls, and due to this, it was very difficult to take photos, for fear of the moisture damaging the digi cam lens. Although we took care, there was moisture along the sides of the lens, and it was tough wiping and blotting it out. The oarsman, now our guide, showed us a place where it was possible to take bath and swim. The next moment, I was in, swimming across a small but powerful stream. Most of the others followed, though only after their turns of oil massage that they had booked for. I saw the massuer twisting and folding Vijay's arms behind, and he howled!! Aravind and Thiru enjoyed it
the most, they were the last ones to hit the water. Anantha and I decided not to have massages, so got to remain in water for a longer time. I paid for my over-excitement, when I was washed a dozen feet down the stream while I tried to swim against the flow. I caught hold of a rock, thank god. There was no real danger though, the worst would have been being stranded on a rock farther down the stream. About an hour spent there was gone with the blink of an eye. All the non-vegetarians had fried fish. Tempted, Karthik, Vijay and I bought mangoes! But sweet mangoes they were, pure and fresh, no ripening chemicals injected. You never get such mangoes in Chennai.
Upon the guide's instructions, we got into the parisal again, and he took us to the opposite bank, from where we proceeded to restaurants for lunch. We veggies chose TTDC hotel, while the NVs had arranged somebody to cook for them. It came out very expensive for them - cooking cost Rs. 700, and they bought fish for Rs. 250. I had to be satisfied with one of the last plates of meals served in TTDC hotel that afternoon - meals with no good curry and a very 'cordial' waiter who gave us a snare when we asked for more curd. Ah! But no complaints as we were too hungry. The idea of checking out the smaller falls around seemed ridiculous to a few, but finally all decided to stick as a team and proceeded towards the falls inside the woods where there was a provision to take bath right under the falls, with rows of hand-rails for support and protection. Water came down with such force, it was hard to believe it was water itself. The splashes were rock-hard, and my neck and shoulders became red and ached after I remained under the water for a long time. My shorts were taken all the way down to my feet when I decided I better left hold of the shorts and caught the rail. I got the shorts back though. We came out after sometime, dried our clothes and returned to the car. On the way we captured many videos in Karthik's handycam, most of which have my stupid commentary running.
It was 5 PM when we finally started off from Hogenakkal. Reaching Shankar's reception at Trichy was in doubt. When doubt gave way to impossibility, we decided to take our time. Dropped Vijay near Salem, as he preferred staying home. On the way to Trichy, visited Namakkal Anjaneyar Kovil. The 32 feet tall idol was the biggest one I have seen inside any temple. Had dinner at a restaurant 'Annapurna' at Namakkal, and we were the only ones in that deserted hotel. The hotel must be atleast a decade old. When someone asked a waiter when this hotel was built, the waiter replied "No idea sir, I have joined only a couple of days back". Thank god nobody asked when the idlis served were made!! I would not have been brave enough to receive a similar answer, no, not when I had already swallowed three idlis!! Again, we gave more weightage to belly-filling than to taste, and consoled ourselves. Sleep slowly invaded one by one when back on the road to Trichy, and all except the driver were asleep when one of the rear tyres got puntured. All of us got out of the car, and the driver was at work replacing the puntured tyre with a stepney. We dumbly watched the spectacle from the middle of the road. I was numbed by sleep, I did not even think of offering help. All of a sudden out of nowhere a police squad came and shooed us off the road. It was an accident-prone area, they warned. Trichy was about 10 kms from that place, and it was 11.15 PM when we reached the hotel in which Shankar had arranged our stay. The room allotted to us was an A/C dormitory, spacious enough for 10-15 people to sleep. Through my sleepy eyes and drooped eye-lids, I saw Meni, Guna, Anwar and team playing cards. They invited us to join but we were badly in need of sleep, and in ten minutes, all were in snore-deep sleep.

6:00 AM, 3rd July 2011
Temple Inn, Trichy:
Anantha and I woke up early, had bath and reached Srirangam Ranganathaswamy temple [the gopuram of the temple in photo] by 7:30 AM, but the kovil doors close in front of us for 'sevai' or 'pooja'. It would re-open at 9 o'clock. In the meanwhile visited Thiruvanaikoil Jambukeswarar Akilandeswari temple. The temple premises extended over a vast area, with a towering 'Rajagopuram' and many high outer walls or the 'Prakara's. The largest one, known as the 'Vibhuti Prakara, stretched over a mile. The 'shivalinga' was a couple of feet below the ground, and at during rainy season, it got half submerged by the Cauvery water flowing underground. This temple, representing water, is one of the 'Panchabhuta Sthala's or the five main Shiva temples in Tamil Nadu, each representing one among the five great elements. The idea of having breakfast at the Mandapam was good, since we could meet Shankar, say hi to him, rush back to Srirangam temple, stand in the Rs. 50 special 'darsan' queue, and have a good darsan of Perumal/Vishnu. Still, we just made it in time to the Mandapam for Muhurtham. Wished the newly weds - Shankar and his wife Gandhimati a happy married life and we proceeded for lunch. It was splendid - so many Tamil delicacies, all very tasty. Hats off to the caterers. There was hardly time left to take rest at the hotel, because we packed out things and started off in a Tavera again, this time arranged by the local boy Gopi. But he decided to stay back at his house in Trichy. 'Kallanai' was the next destination.

2:30 PM, 3rd July 2011
Kallanai, Trichy:
Built centuries back by the Chola king Kariakalan, Kallanai or the Grand Anicut still stands as an engineering marvel. This is a place where the joint waters of Cauvery and Bhavani rivers split into two - Kollidam and Cauvery, which engulf between them the Thanjavur delta[in photo, the two regulators across the two rivers are visible. Photo courtesy: Wikipedia]. The king deployed thousands of labourers to regulate the flow to the two daughter rivers thereby diverting the flow to form a third branch. This water was used for irrigational and house-hold purposes. The British, awe-struck at this unbelieveably constructed dam and that too in a plain, however repaired and strengthened the regulator to the way it stand today. Under the leadership of Sir Arthur Cotton, in 19th Century, a dam was built across Kollidam. When I saw a few young boys jumping into the river from atop a concrete shed nearby, I was tempted. Aravind helped me to climb on top of that shed and then without any second thought, I leapt. Then I realized the depth, the flow, the power of the river. It was an absolute thrill!! After coming in terms with reality, I dried my clothes and joined the others who waited for me. Masala mangoes and cool 'nannaari sharbath" quenched my hunger and thirst. The next destination was Thanjavur Brihadeeswarar temple or Peruvadaiyaar Koyil or Rajarajeswaram.

5:00 PM, 3rd July 2011
Brihadeeswarar Temple, Thanjavur:
This Shiva temple was built in the 11th Century by its patron Rajarajachola. [In photo, the main tower of the temple]. Even though three centuries younger when compared to Srirangam temple, the Thanjavur temple exhibited older architecture forms. It was difficult to imagine how 15 - 20 feet tall monolithic pillars were transported and sculptured. Lack of automated assistance infact was a factor for increased manual skill-level of ancient artists. In modern times, all you need is the know-how to operate the interface. The Thanjavur temple has a very well kept lawn around. Right in front, facing the main 'gopura', is a huge 'Nandi'. There was a lot of space left in Karthik's handycam, so we took many videos again of the marvellous architecture around. There was a little bit of shopping to do in the market outside the temple. I bought a lamp - pot which can be hung on a hook, and has a special technique of emptying and re-filling oil. The car took us back to Trichy at 9 PM. The road was not good, the driver was equally bad, and it was a horrible sleepless journey. Sangeetha (with open roof dining) was the most happening hotel in Trichy. We entered the hotel and searched for seats everywhere for about 15 minutes. When it was sure that we will miss the train if we hang around there some more time. Luckily there there was another Sangeetha (closed roof) next door, and we were the first persons to enter the hotel on that evening. The waiters flocked around us to take orders. Food was very good, and we rushed to the railway station, reached there at 10.00 PM.The train started at 10.20 PM. All eight of us had adjacent seats, so we occupied the cabin and chatted about the trip and each one shared his experience, and this session was captured in a video - this was the last clip in the handycam that trip.

5:00 AM, 4th July 2011
Tambaram, Chennai:
The crawl starts again at Tambaram railway station. Gopi, Aravind, Vijay, Sridhar and I board a bus. Gopi fixes himself in a gujaal when as a reply to his "two Pallavaram, anna", the conductor comes up with an early morning PJ - "thambi, there are no two Pallavarams, there is only one."!!! Oh my god. When the conductor came to me he had to nudge me to bring me to senses - I was thinking about the next trip!!! Already.
Here again, I had a wonderful team with me for the trip. Sridhar, Aravind, Thiru, Anantha, Gopi, Vijay and Karthik (as in the photo from left ) - we made a real good team. Vijay was an incredible, his knowledge about temples and history is much above the levels of any tourist guide. Karthik, our tour manager did a good work, with his fool-proof accounting and meticulous organizing. And we already have a plan set and tickets booked for our next outing. I dont disclose it hear, for preserving the element of surprise. :)

Footnote - Tips for travellers:
1. The A2B at Dharmapuri is the best place to eat on the Salem - Bengaluru NH.
2. If you want a parisal ride, visit Hogenakkal on a weekday in the rainy season. On weekends, due to rush of tourists, the parisal fellows might increase the rate and cut down the ride time so as to come back and get the next group. Simple logic - the more rounds they get, the more they earn.
3. There is a Rock-fort temple and another place "Mukkombu" in Trichy which are must see. I missed those.
4. Srirangam temple opens at 6:00 AM, and it is best to be there by that time. You can get darsan and come out by the time the doors close at 7:30 for sevai. After 9:00 AM, on weekends, queues might give you a hard time with more than two hours wait. Thiruvanaikoil does not have such a problem.
5. Visit Kallanai in the evening. A bath in the Cauvery will refresh your body.
6. Spend an evening and sunset at Thanjavur Brihadeeswarar temple. The lawn and the breeze are enough to shed off the day's fatigue.

Ooty trip - 11th, 12th June 2011

1:00 AM, 11th June 2011

Pulleri Illam , Payyanur:
The last few droplets of a heavy evening rain had just sluggishly departed from the edges of the roof-tiles of a century-old abode, when inside, the alarms went on in five mobile handsets. But their owners either unaware of or ignoring this cacophony, tried to find some peaceful sleep, not yet out of the hangover of the previous evening's travel, movie and late night chat. Come on, who would like to wake up after a mere one-hour nap?!
But somebody had to, as there was this promising plan at stake. When we, a group of collective-minded youngsters scattered geographically in South India, planned a trip to Ooty, the Queen of Hills of the Deccan, everybody frowned. It was real clowds that loomed over - the Monsoon was at the top of its fury and the Nilgiris would be bitter-cold and drenched in the rains, making travel across it a difficult experience. But this plan had been cooking for long, and it would be the culmination of bachelor trips for a few among us. Anoop and Srikanth, to name them. There was no chance any of us would miss it, no matter whatever happened.
And here was Anoop's gang of five who slept in Pulleri. [Srikanth's quadruplet gang , had by then started off from their Bangalore hub in no less an exotic vehicle than Tata Safari Dicor.] Anoop did the captain's role of getting ready his pack of men. Armed with very less travel gear and charged with a cup each of hot tea, we turned on the ignition of Tata Indica Quadrajet. Sanal, Unni, Manu and I yelled "Wowwwww!!!!" as Anoop raised the throttle and hit the turbo.
The Payyanur - Thalipparamb - Iritti road was as smooth and deserted to lure and raise the adrenaline of any driver, as dangerous its curves and turns were. And as the crew picked up tempo through hip-hop songs and beats, there was something happening inside my gut. The frequent turns and twists at high speeds had taken toll on my stomach - I was about to vomit - I called for a sudden stop, and the next thing I remember is a loud flushing sound from my mouth and the smell of yucky phlegm that filled my nose! I got back into the car after sometime, shouted "ok, let's go..". But I was failed again, thrice more. Each time I vomited and was over with it, I thought "ok, that was the last one". The fourth one, thankfully was the last one indeed - Anoop helped me with some oranges bought from Mananthavady - I felt much relieved after eating one. And then I looked into my watch to find that I had spent two-and-a-half hours sleeping.
6:00 AM
Sulthan Bathery:
We stopped amidst a tea-plantation in the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border. Rejuvenated with an orange's energy, I was on a high - I jumped on top of every muddy pile I found and posed for pics. Unni captured a few good ones, which are up now in my facebook profile. The real trip for me started then - I took control of the wheels from there. It was a thrilling drive - we had got news that Srikanth, Gokul, Sankar and Sandeep were waiting at Gudalore. The hurry to reach there and join them reflected in my speed very well, even though a couple of narrow escapes from vehicles that leapt out of U-turns brought me to control. Our arrival at Gudalore woke up the sleepy four and soon we found our Indica trailing their Safari - Srikanth was an excellent driver. Then we made an agreement - we took turns in trailing each other's car and the one in front took videos of the other. Got some stylish clips of the two Tatas emerging out of the U-turns with blinking head-lamps.
On the way to Ooty from Gudalore, we stopped at many places - amidst the eucalyptus plantation, at the cine-shooting location, etc. At another place where we ran across a hill, Unni again captured a brilliant snap of us climbing up the hillside - we made a still from some movie - we looked like classic expeditors. Not worth it, still for completion I mention here the dosa puffed up with baking soda and the watery tea that we had from a "Hill View Hotel".













11:00 AM
Ooty
As more and more milestones fell back, our expectation grew - the scene of a rain-clad, misty Ooty flickered in my mind. But it was not to be. A rather sunny noon welcomed us, and the silence on our faces clearly showed disappointment. We wanted to believe that that was not Ooty, no, no way! But as we got out of the vehicles, we smelled earth. It could not have been from new rain. The Monsoon had reached there days before, but the fresh smell lingered the air. Cajoled by that captivating nascent smell, we unloaded our backpacks from the cars and occupied a couple of rooms in a decent hotel. Boating beckoned, and we started off to Ooty Lake. The excitement was visible in everybody's stride. Some were on a high so really high that onlookers would have mistaken it for the effect of fresh home-made red wine. In the lake, we pedalled boats in a cool drizzle which threatened but never came as a downpour until we were in the stall on the shore, sipping hot chocolate tea. All that I wanted came along - it became colder and more foggy though a pleasant light prevailed. Gokul and Sandeep who opted out of boating to sleep on the lawn, disappointed me as they came out not drenched a bit, from a stall they ran into when rain decided to give them a break :)
The question then was 'now what?." Nobody prompted as all were tired from pedalling for almost an hour in the cold waters. But we threw us into the cars and they vroomed!!!
6:30 PM
Dolphin's Nose
Dolphin's nose was where we were an hour and a half later. A place thankfully so deserted for its own good but abundantly rich in flora and gusts of fresh air, it lay lazily, as though never anticipating us. The journey was treacherous - narrow roads which gorgeously embroidered Coonoor hills were as dangerous as they were beautiful. Scary depths were a feet away, and even inside the cars we were on our toes, with crossed the fingers. Half way up, where we got down at a view point, the smell of (hm... fresh, somebody remarked... :) elephant faeces seemed to come from very close that we packed off immediately to the top. After the rocking climb, Dolphin's Nose gifted us the real treat - thousands of feet below, a necklace of yellow and red lights spread - Mettupalayam and Coimbatore would not be so beautiful in any other view. [Sorry, the photo I have attached here is of no clarity, but it just gives you a visual to imagine the reality, beyond the image.] That was at 7 pm, and we felt like camping there overnight. But the chill night to come was not to be taken silly, so we left that plan. After some hot tea, we bought tea-powder from the only shop available there. This tea-powder still makes good mornings to all at my home. They even ask me when I will go to Ooty next!!! Anoop was undoubtedly the best driver among us - he drove all the way back to Ooty - fatigue or sleep did not seem to have any effect on him. Whereas I pushed back my seat and slept off as soon as the car started. I just remember reaching hotel, getting into bed and sleeping off again, with scores of fur-coat worn mosquitoes trumpeting around.
5:45 AM, 12th July 2011
Ooty
There was no alarms set for Sunday morning. But still I woke up early, went out and relished a hot tea. Each time someone woke up, I took them for tea. After 4-5 rounds, I had had enough and returned back to room. Then in that not-so-broad daylight I realized that those creatures with fur were not mosquitoes, instead they were big hairy flies. Oh my god!!! Anyway the woollen cap I wore while I slept came of use - for else I would have had flies and bed-bugs inside my ears! After tea, Sanal's description of 'Kothu Porotta', a Chettinadu delicacy watered everybody's mouth, and we walked on and on for a long time checking for Kothu Porotta in almost every restaurant in Ooty. Nowhere it was available and finally we dropped porotta plans and pacified ourselves with plain dosas.
The next destination was the Botanical Garden - at the each and every spot, we took photos. There was this building 'Raj Bhavan', none of us could guess why that had to be there. Possibly a British leftover. Later learnt that it was built by the Duke of Buckingham in the late 19th century, and now it is the summer residence of the Governor of Tamil Nadu! [Courtesy: Wikipedia] On the meadow inside the garden, we had a funny photo session - we got weird stills of us jumping, lying down in different patterns, and what not. The 2 hours spent in the botanical garden was worth it. It was 1:00 pm, we were running out of time. If we had more time to spend here, we definitely would have kept gaping at a group of stunning girls who breezed past us when we were leaving the garden!!!! We came out and roamed around the Burma Bazaar, had 'molaka bajji', onion pakoda and masala mangoes. Nobody could resist buying a small packet each of home-made chocolates to share at their friends' and home.
2:30 PM
Ooty
After a brisk lunch, it was time to say ''bye'' to the rest of the group. I was the only one to break away from the group - I had to return to Chennai, whereas the others left in the two cars to their respective starting points. Both left via Mudhumalai Wildlife Sanctuary. I heard later from them that they had a jolly good time on the way.
As I travelled downhill from Ooty to Mettupalayam via Coonoor, the Nilgiri railway track was visible along the side. It penetrated the hills and forests alike. Now that gave me a strong desire to come back later to Ooty, just for travelling in that train. As the last hillock was behind me, from inside the bus I glanced back at those mighty mountains I had just descended from - I had fallen in love with Ooty. '' I will come back for you'', I said with determination. A sigh escaped from my mouth, though unknowingly....

Footnote: Evergreen memories like of this trip will stay long, deep inside. But they need to be re-felt at times, and the only sources which make it possible are those wonderful stills permanently captured by the lenses which adorn a photographer, as earnest and skilled as Unni.
Kudos, Unni......... keep going...



And a wonderful pack of friends we were, nine of us.. hope we will make the next trip soon....
The photo here in the left shows the team. From left: Srikanth, Sandeep, Sanal, Manu, Anoop, Sankar, Unni and Gokul. I could not make it into the frame as I and Unni had then exchanged roles.