All of us (Nitin, Koel, Ranja, Gauri and myself) were in high spirits now that we were finally on our way to Munnar. That december night was unusually quite but not too cold. The tavera, we had booked, was zooming through the empty roads like the 'Santa Maria' would have sailed the open seas with Columbus on board. Only difference being there were 4 columbuses on board this one, in search of the new world called Munnar.
In no time the city lights were a silent speck behind us as if left behind in a race. The road in front of us was illuminated by the headlights of the car which had overpowered the starry sky and the only sign of habitation was a solitary petrol pump or a dhaba. But these were just distractions till we reached our destination and it seemed there was nothing to stop us.
The excitement was to be experienced than to be told as the cool winter air hit us in the face.(Interesting factoid: Gauri was not amused by this phenomenon so she made air tight arrangements for her hair by wearing a monkey cap and rolling up the windows). The tavera reached mysore in a few hours and continued on without stopping to see the Mysore palace illuminated in a million light bulbs. We were at our chatty best notwithstanding that fact that it was almost 2am in the morning. Mysore became a has been in some time and we made our way further south. Sometime around 4am we reached bandipur National Park. The road leading us there was not as smooth or wide as the one we had come from but the fact was it was nowhere as bad a road we normally see in the city sometimes. Since there was no divider, occasionally a vehicle would blind my eyes coming straight towards us in the opposite direction. Credit goes to Mr. driver who was always alert and an awesome person (more on that later).
It seemed that it would be a boring trip rest of the way. No sooner than I thought the car stopped dead in its tracks. Awaken from the 10-second-away slumber, I became wide awake and peered ahead through the windshield. Something was definitely wrong because there were vehicles parked one behind the other. None of the vehicles was moving or for that matter even trying to move. It seemed as if they had resigned to the fact that its gonna take a while before i get to move.
All vehicles had turned off their headlights and I could see just torches ahead in people's hands in the inky darkness of the forest. When I say darkness it was actually dark! If you are a city slicker don't try to imagine it just read on. For those who know what it means you are with me. In that darkness, theres no moonlight even as its blocked by the forest trees. The eerie silence of the surroundings adds to the freakiness. I couldn't imagine stepping out in that dark considering we were surrounded by tiger habitat.
As it turned out the forest had closed thoroughfare for the night and would be opening in the wee hours of the morning. With the suspense suddenly gone, the 10-second-away slumber returned and those few minutes of sleep are my most cherished as I hadn't slept even a second that day. Early morning was not without its drama. I woke up to the incessant chirping of the bandipur forest. We were surrounded by some serious wildlife. The first light of the morning sun took away my breath I suddenly found us surrounded by the tallest eucalyptus (nilgiri) trees i have seen in my life. The smell of the morning jungle made my lungs fill with life giving fresh air. The road was narrow and winding but it didn't matter much as each incline and every turn was unraveling the beauty that a forest is. Having watched a forest only on discovery or Nat geo, and read amusedly in the books by Jim Corbett, until then, it dawned upon me how beautiful a forest actually is. The never ending green is seldom monotonous and the sights and sounds keep you interested for whatever time you spend.
Most of the traveler's excitement dried once mr. driver confessed he wasn't sure of the route. Thus began a series of are-we-lost and how do we reach munnar kind of questions. Ultimately the known route was agreed to be Bandipur-Ooty-Coimbatore-Pollachi-Munnar. Glad that we knew where we were going the spirits returned to where they were earlier. The next hour was full of light hearted banter and clicks as everyone wanted a piece of the beautiful surroundings captured as a "Kodak" moment!
Thats it for this post. If the night was exciting the day was adventurous. I hope to post it sooner than later.
Showing posts with label bangalore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bangalore. Show all posts
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Day at Chinnaswamy Stadium bangalore - Australia vs India- Part 3
All these drills were supervised by the physio, bowling coach venky and the fielding coach robin singh. Around 8:30 am gautam gambhir strolled towards our stand and placed his gear next to the practise wicket just in front of our stand and joined the others in their game. After few minutes i couldnt believe what i was wirnessing.
The fab four were walking directly towards the practise wickets for a "hit-in". I was going to see all of them from a distance of 10 meters. I wasnt the only one who realised this. The half filled stand rose and went towards the enclosure that seperated the field from the stand and started shooting the players as they took guard and played a few strokes. First it was gautam gambhir and sehwag as they were supposed to open the batting. they had successfully played through the last evenings play and were set to consolidate the innings.
For the first time i felt let down by my trusted mobile. It was a 1.3 Mp camera that it had .. not worthwhile in clicking pictures if you have some distance in between you and the subject. There he was. Saching practising in front of me and i couldnt get a decent shot due to my stupid camera. With the insanely small amount of memory it had, i had to delete stuff even before i could click a picture!
Though i did manage to capture some videos of the master, they was grainy at best.
I saw them all bat. Dravid, Lakshman, Ganguly Dhoni et al. saw zaheer, ishant, amit mishra and kumble bowl. I was so thrilled that the ticket cost was recovered in the first hour itself before even a ball was bowled. Fully satisfied.
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The fab four were walking directly towards the practise wickets for a "hit-in". I was going to see all of them from a distance of 10 meters. I wasnt the only one who realised this. The half filled stand rose and went towards the enclosure that seperated the field from the stand and started shooting the players as they took guard and played a few strokes. First it was gautam gambhir and sehwag as they were supposed to open the batting. they had successfully played through the last evenings play and were set to consolidate the innings.
For the first time i felt let down by my trusted mobile. It was a 1.3 Mp camera that it had .. not worthwhile in clicking pictures if you have some distance in between you and the subject. There he was. Saching practising in front of me and i couldnt get a decent shot due to my stupid camera. With the insanely small amount of memory it had, i had to delete stuff even before i could click a picture!
Though i did manage to capture some videos of the master, they was grainy at best.
I saw them all bat. Dravid, Lakshman, Ganguly Dhoni et al. saw zaheer, ishant, amit mishra and kumble bowl. I was so thrilled that the ticket cost was recovered in the first hour itself before even a ball was bowled. Fully satisfied.
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Day at Chinnaswamy Stadium bangalore - Australia vs India- Part 2
Armed with the ticket for the 3rd Day of 1st Test match between India and Australia, I felt like i had wot the golden ticket to Willy Wonkas Chocolate factory. The day happened to be a saturday which meant i could freak out all i wanted as the next day was going to be a sunday.
Going to the stadium wasnt easy for me to say the least. I had been to the area around the Stadium a few times. But this time i had to be there early morning and that too using some mode of transport as it was pretty far away. My options were limited considering that i didnt have my own vehicle for transportation. That meant i either use an auto or a BMTC bus. Autos may be a convenient options elsewhere, but in bangalore you better be a millionaire to even consider traveling by it. Cos even if you are not, the autowallas assume you are some blue blooded fool ready to part with his money. The rates they quote shall either make your wallet lighter or force you to take the eco-friendly public transport. Hail the autowalla who cares for the environment!
So BMTC was the option for me. My source of truth was http://maps.google.com and http://bmtcinfo.com/ and http://btis.in/bus.htm . Excellent sites if you really want to go around in bangalore. route 138 it was for me then. I left at 7:30 am in the morning hoping to beat the rush. Luckily i got a bus as soon as i arrived at the bus stop and before i knew i had landed near the Chinnaswamy stadium.
The usually deserted road was transformed into a colourful melee of people, policemen, hawkers and blackmarketeers. With the match scheduled to start at 9:30 am, already i could see i was not the early bird at 7:45. large number of people were standing quietly in line waiting for the gates to open. I had got the tickets for the stand B (not to mention the cheapest ones). I had checked out the ground map earlier and had arrived at the conclusion that this was a good bet. and as i found out later, i wasnt wrong!
On figuring out that it was gate no 12 for me, i went upto the gate and started looking where the line ended. Strangely, there was no line at the gate! I wondered whether this really was the correct gate as the adjacent gate had a 100 meter queue already. My doubts were quelled when the guy at the ticket window confirmed that this indeed was the entrace to the stand A. I couldnt believe it. I was the first person to turn up in that particular stand. Not surprisingly though. I had arrived at the ground a 1:45 mins early.
As i stood there patiently thinking about how lucky i was to be the first one to enter the stand, i saw police men frisking away people anxious to get a ticket. The ticket window clearly displayed signes reading tickets were sold out. What an opporutnity for the black marketeers, i thought. I had experienced it myself the previous year during the last day of the test match between India and Pakistan. tickets were being sold at obnoxious prices a few meters away while the ticket windows shamelessly/helplessly/ignorantly displayed "sold out". What a shame. Paying a bribe to watch a sport thats considered a religion by us. In other words some black marketeer decides whether you can follow your religion or not. Utterly blasphemous.
Finally the gates opened and i was let in. There was thorough frisking of me,my bag and the result of which i had to do away with my water bottle. Another way to extort money under the guise of security. But all these thoughts suddenly gave way to great anxiousness instead. I was going to enter a cricket stadium for the first time in my life. What a feeling it was! I literally ran through the maze of high walls and entered the lobby which led to the stand. It was like a hall with a huge entrance at the other. It was here that the refreshmets were served during the breaks.
I didnt even bother to look around. My target was the entrance to the stand. I slowed down enough to allow the security to check my ticket again. Finally i entered the stadium. What a view it was! Lush outfield with a huge expanse. The circular canopy of the stadium supported by great arches looked beautiful. And the four light towers stood stoically as though they had been there since eternity. The thing that struck me instead was the size of the stadium. On tv it looked much bigger. I was awestruck for the initial 10 minutes. then as the feeling sunk in, I thought of calling my brother. As it turned out, that sloth was still in bed maybe dreaming of driving an F1 car alogside Michel Schumacher!
The weather of bangalore as always was perfect. the sun was out but perhaps it was unusually cool. The far side of the stadium was still under the morning shadows. I was still trying to find out the place to sit so that i could get to see the game perfectly. The stand itself was pretty snugly placed. It was directly opposite the players pavilion on the far side. So it meant you couldnt see who was coming in to bat next. But you shouldnt expect all this luxury in the cheapest seat in the house. It wasnt all that bad too. Besides being very close to the playing field, it also was a nice place to watch straight drives from.
Slowly, but surely the crowd was building up. And along with it was the noise. Soon a giant tricolor was unfurled in the stand above me. The horns suddenly stopped for a brief moment, the cheering went quiet and as everyone waited to see what happened, the two teams came out onto the field although in shorts and sweats. It was the morning practise before the match started. But that was enough for the people to start cheering wildly.
As the players went about their drills, people cheered for the player they recognised sometimes successfully and sometimes unsuccessfully. There were shouts of "Saaachinnnnn... Saaaachinnnn", which has become an anthem of sorts in the last decade. And interspersed were shouts and cheers for Sourav "Dada" Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Sehwag, Dhoni, Ishat, Zaheer and of course Kumble. The Australians were playing a game of football whereas the Indians kept themselves busy with a game of rugby. So whenever the ball went close to any of the stands the people cheered wildly forgetting that the game hadnt even started!
Click here for previous post
Click here for next post
Going to the stadium wasnt easy for me to say the least. I had been to the area around the Stadium a few times. But this time i had to be there early morning and that too using some mode of transport as it was pretty far away. My options were limited considering that i didnt have my own vehicle for transportation. That meant i either use an auto or a BMTC bus. Autos may be a convenient options elsewhere, but in bangalore you better be a millionaire to even consider traveling by it. Cos even if you are not, the autowallas assume you are some blue blooded fool ready to part with his money. The rates they quote shall either make your wallet lighter or force you to take the eco-friendly public transport. Hail the autowalla who cares for the environment!
So BMTC was the option for me. My source of truth was http://maps.google.com and http://bmtcinfo.com/ and http://btis.in/bus.htm . Excellent sites if you really want to go around in bangalore. route 138 it was for me then. I left at 7:30 am in the morning hoping to beat the rush. Luckily i got a bus as soon as i arrived at the bus stop and before i knew i had landed near the Chinnaswamy stadium.
The usually deserted road was transformed into a colourful melee of people, policemen, hawkers and blackmarketeers. With the match scheduled to start at 9:30 am, already i could see i was not the early bird at 7:45. large number of people were standing quietly in line waiting for the gates to open. I had got the tickets for the stand B (not to mention the cheapest ones). I had checked out the ground map earlier and had arrived at the conclusion that this was a good bet. and as i found out later, i wasnt wrong!
On figuring out that it was gate no 12 for me, i went upto the gate and started looking where the line ended. Strangely, there was no line at the gate! I wondered whether this really was the correct gate as the adjacent gate had a 100 meter queue already. My doubts were quelled when the guy at the ticket window confirmed that this indeed was the entrace to the stand A. I couldnt believe it. I was the first person to turn up in that particular stand. Not surprisingly though. I had arrived at the ground a 1:45 mins early.
As i stood there patiently thinking about how lucky i was to be the first one to enter the stand, i saw police men frisking away people anxious to get a ticket. The ticket window clearly displayed signes reading tickets were sold out. What an opporutnity for the black marketeers, i thought. I had experienced it myself the previous year during the last day of the test match between India and Pakistan. tickets were being sold at obnoxious prices a few meters away while the ticket windows shamelessly/helplessly/ignorantly displayed "sold out". What a shame. Paying a bribe to watch a sport thats considered a religion by us. In other words some black marketeer decides whether you can follow your religion or not. Utterly blasphemous.
Finally the gates opened and i was let in. There was thorough frisking of me,my bag and the result of which i had to do away with my water bottle. Another way to extort money under the guise of security. But all these thoughts suddenly gave way to great anxiousness instead. I was going to enter a cricket stadium for the first time in my life. What a feeling it was! I literally ran through the maze of high walls and entered the lobby which led to the stand. It was like a hall with a huge entrance at the other. It was here that the refreshmets were served during the breaks.
I didnt even bother to look around. My target was the entrance to the stand. I slowed down enough to allow the security to check my ticket again. Finally i entered the stadium. What a view it was! Lush outfield with a huge expanse. The circular canopy of the stadium supported by great arches looked beautiful. And the four light towers stood stoically as though they had been there since eternity. The thing that struck me instead was the size of the stadium. On tv it looked much bigger. I was awestruck for the initial 10 minutes. then as the feeling sunk in, I thought of calling my brother. As it turned out, that sloth was still in bed maybe dreaming of driving an F1 car alogside Michel Schumacher!
The weather of bangalore as always was perfect. the sun was out but perhaps it was unusually cool. The far side of the stadium was still under the morning shadows. I was still trying to find out the place to sit so that i could get to see the game perfectly. The stand itself was pretty snugly placed. It was directly opposite the players pavilion on the far side. So it meant you couldnt see who was coming in to bat next. But you shouldnt expect all this luxury in the cheapest seat in the house. It wasnt all that bad too. Besides being very close to the playing field, it also was a nice place to watch straight drives from.
Slowly, but surely the crowd was building up. And along with it was the noise. Soon a giant tricolor was unfurled in the stand above me. The horns suddenly stopped for a brief moment, the cheering went quiet and as everyone waited to see what happened, the two teams came out onto the field although in shorts and sweats. It was the morning practise before the match started. But that was enough for the people to start cheering wildly.
As the players went about their drills, people cheered for the player they recognised sometimes successfully and sometimes unsuccessfully. There were shouts of "Saaachinnnnn... Saaaachinnnn", which has become an anthem of sorts in the last decade. And interspersed were shouts and cheers for Sourav "Dada" Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Sehwag, Dhoni, Ishat, Zaheer and of course Kumble. The Australians were playing a game of football whereas the Indians kept themselves busy with a game of rugby. So whenever the ball went close to any of the stands the people cheered wildly forgetting that the game hadnt even started!
Click here for previous post
Click here for next post
Friday, August 15, 2008
Autowallas in Bangalore
If you have been living in bangalore even for a few days, you probably know why i have dedicated an entire post to the autowallas in bangalore. Traveling in an auto is an experience in itself, especially in bangalore. And given the traffic in bangalore the experience becomes unforgettable. But dont take it for granted that this experience is yours for the taking. remember i said something about an unforgettable experience?
Chances are you are new to the place and dont know how to travel in the city transport buses. so your natural recourse is to look for an auto. So you stand beside the road hoping to spot an empty auto coming our way. Spotting an empty auto doesnt tilt the odds in your favor either. what matters is whether the auto slows down taking cognizance of your existence and eventually stops. Lets go through the available scenarios logically. When you see an empty auto, as a wannabe passenger your natural reaction is to flag it down. nows the time for chaos theory to kick in. the following events could happen with equal probability.
All said and done, this is just a small piece of the cake we get to eat everyday. I mean wouldnt it be boring to always get the first auto you stop. Knowledge doesnt always help! its the way we get to meet so many auto wallas who themselves are working, have a famly to feed, are rushing around to get long distance passengers. Since any profession has all kinds of people it would be wrong to stereotype a particular character to one profession. I have had many good experiences with the auto wallas in bangalore and i believe that they are as fallible as we or for that matter all humans are. more about auto wallas in later postings ...:)
Chances are you are new to the place and dont know how to travel in the city transport buses. so your natural recourse is to look for an auto. So you stand beside the road hoping to spot an empty auto coming our way. Spotting an empty auto doesnt tilt the odds in your favor either. what matters is whether the auto slows down taking cognizance of your existence and eventually stops. Lets go through the available scenarios logically. When you see an empty auto, as a wannabe passenger your natural reaction is to flag it down. nows the time for chaos theory to kick in. the following events could happen with equal probability.
- The autowalla couldnt care less to have a passenger at that moment so shoots past you making you think it wouldnt have mattered even if you were standing right in front of his auto. Since this is the 'n'th auto zooming past you wonder whether auto wallas are so fed up of stopping every few hundred feet for a junction or a signal that they dont bother stopping anywhere in between!!!(Since this is none of your concern you get back to the game of spot the empty auto)
- You find another auto with noone in the passenger seat coming from a distance. You suddenly feel its your lucky day. To top it all even the autowalla seems interested in you. Thanking lady luck you ready yourself to end the ordeal. the auto comes and the autowalla has the expressionless question written over his face. Hes just slowing down though, depending on the place he wants to go rather than you want to take him decides whether he stops his tuc-tuc. The next word that you speak is going to be the most important word you would have spoken and would be speaking in the entire day. You sheepishly tell him where you want to go. As you hope atleast this one says "Yes, I do", he does the unthinkable; just drives on without stopping at all or even giving you a glance.The autowallas certainly believe in actions speaking louder than words. For no sooner your cursed destination babbles out of your mouth that guys just plants his foot on the accelerator - maybe ruing the fact that he lost precious seconds slowing down.
- by now you know that yoga was invented to tackle autowallas - since nothing tests the limits of your patience as much. You feel small and helpless as you return to your pass-time of the morning. Suddenly out of nowhere an auto comes and screeches to a halt in front of you. You pinch yourself and just to be sure check whether the autowalla has stopped to talk on his mobile. you find that untrue and backing your luck as well as the new found patience you ask him as politely as your Indian politeness allows. A few excruciatingly long seconds later the answer comes in the form of a longint (long int is a datatype in programming languages used to store variables of big integer values). For the uninitiated, the answer is simply a number that the autowalla shall charge you for the journey. The amount he quotes makes you honestly wish autowallas should also start accepting credit card payments - since no one carries around that much loose cash. And dont you even think that the amount quotes has anything with the distance to be traveled. It becomes a function of unknown variables.( Dont even try to think what the number would be in case you are traveling in the evening - the rates become 1.5 times normal. so better be your lucky day) When you try to protest by some bargaining you also get a free geography lesson on the bangalore traffic problem first hand. "one way street hona bhaiya. aage 3 km jaana padta .. gaadi khali hota utna tak."."traffic hota sir . adha ghanta traffice me waiting hoga ". When you ask for a lesser fare these guys actually remind you of your salary and give a free advice saying " 5 rs me kya hai sir ". And dont even think that these guys are not up to date. The first question i was asked when i was traveling to my office on the first day itself was " Kitna package hai?". Talk about keeping up with times.
So with the geography lesson out of the way the autowalla gives you a beaming smile with accompanied satisfaction of having educated a moron and takes off. - the final possibility occurs when all others have actually happened. You ask the guy and he agrees with / without bargaining. And you are more relieved than happy to end the experience.
All said and done, this is just a small piece of the cake we get to eat everyday. I mean wouldnt it be boring to always get the first auto you stop. Knowledge doesnt always help! its the way we get to meet so many auto wallas who themselves are working, have a famly to feed, are rushing around to get long distance passengers. Since any profession has all kinds of people it would be wrong to stereotype a particular character to one profession. I have had many good experiences with the auto wallas in bangalore and i believe that they are as fallible as we or for that matter all humans are. more about auto wallas in later postings ...:)
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
The Mysore trip - prelude
I am one of those techies who genuinely believe that we are not born just to do coding 24x7. So i support all those sites which help the poor souls by providing (un)tested code. Another thing i believe in is we are not supposed to hack out lines of code day in and day out. A weekend break is just what is needed to get the groove back after a week of missed deadlines, (quality? ;) ) coding, good for nothing colleagues (who dont leave a single girl for u to hit on) and bosses who think they have a moral obligation to make you yearn for the system clock to show its finally friday evening. I love my job :).
Well, with the plesantries out of the way lets come back to the topic. After one such eventful week at work i made my way out of my cubicle thinking what was i doing wrong in life. I went to the lobby and stood in line with similar souls waiting for the lift to take us DOWN. So there we were , perfectly normal people, staring at a led display as if hypnotized. The lift eventually obliged and everyone entered the square box. The curious thing about being in a lift is the effort people make to avoid any eye contact. After a few self conscious moments the girls can breathe easy and the guys can stick out their tummies. I made my way to the cab that drops us at specific places. One by one the cab was filled by individuals too preoccupied by thoughts of code performance, walkthroughs, foosball tips and the cafeteria food. Well, if this is doesn't seem right do a reality check. how much do we bother to think about where our lives are headed? Our immediate target is doing well enough to not be kicked out and bad enough to be called a coder( I call myself precisely that).
So, like any other vehicle in nimma bengaluru our cab too helped in the social networking phenomena on the road called traffic jams. As i sat contemplating what to do with the two days of the week that i own, a condescended to think of becoming more adventurous. i said why not. a trip through the beautiful south india would be just what was required. A first hand glimpse of the culture would go a long way in successfully stereotyping any person south of the vindhyas as a "maadaraasi" authoritatively(kindly use the words naively, insensitively, bluntly, chauvinistically interchangeably). So, i decided then and there to make a jaunt through the parts of karnataka and make some use of the time rather that watching the ceiling fan rotate the whole day. There ended my journey of my thoughts as i made my way out of the cab since my destination had arrived.....
Well, with the plesantries out of the way lets come back to the topic. After one such eventful week at work i made my way out of my cubicle thinking what was i doing wrong in life. I went to the lobby and stood in line with similar souls waiting for the lift to take us DOWN. So there we were , perfectly normal people, staring at a led display as if hypnotized. The lift eventually obliged and everyone entered the square box. The curious thing about being in a lift is the effort people make to avoid any eye contact. After a few self conscious moments the girls can breathe easy and the guys can stick out their tummies. I made my way to the cab that drops us at specific places. One by one the cab was filled by individuals too preoccupied by thoughts of code performance, walkthroughs, foosball tips and the cafeteria food. Well, if this is doesn't seem right do a reality check. how much do we bother to think about where our lives are headed? Our immediate target is doing well enough to not be kicked out and bad enough to be called a coder( I call myself precisely that).
So, like any other vehicle in nimma bengaluru our cab too helped in the social networking phenomena on the road called traffic jams. As i sat contemplating what to do with the two days of the week that i own, a condescended to think of becoming more adventurous. i said why not. a trip through the beautiful south india would be just what was required. A first hand glimpse of the culture would go a long way in successfully stereotyping any person south of the vindhyas as a "maadaraasi" authoritatively(kindly use the words naively, insensitively, bluntly, chauvinistically interchangeably). So, i decided then and there to make a jaunt through the parts of karnataka and make some use of the time rather that watching the ceiling fan rotate the whole day. There ended my journey of my thoughts as i made my way out of the cab since my destination had arrived.....
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