Visits to Hampi n Badami

I m back from Hampi.. i will be writing about this trip as well.. to give you glimpse of whats coming up... some images for your attention...

Next visit

Guess what, still i havent finished writing about my vacation, i am visiting Hampi this weekend. Nagesh is here in town and wants to visit places in Karnataka. 

the trips are not stopping...

-Raghu

TheChristian?

Every one know about "The Hindu" and its style of writing. i am taken by surprise by today's news on Magh Mela. The news paper mentions about the feud and not mentions about the action by christian missionaries... may be for them it is right act by christian missionaries... 

Small acts like this when mentioned in the front page, can lead to bigger news and create misunderstandings. Modern day media should either avoid and participate proactively and pass the right message... 

http://www.hindu.com/2009/01/19/stories/2009011957040100.htm

Looking at this, it makes me feel, should we even rename this daily from "The Hindu" to "The Christian"?

Father Movies in Tamil

We know about those mother/sister sentiment movies in Tamil, the two recent movies has introduced new concept of story narration around father. 

I am referring to Soorya Starrer Vaaranam Aayiram by Goutham Menon and Prakash Raj home production Abhiyum Naanum by Radha Mohan.

I have seen them both. 

Vaaranam Aayiram is a good movie but i guess has too much content in its screen play. May be Gowtham started with something and ended with another. Personally i feel he has touch of Manirathnam in screenplays related to romance. This one also doesn't fail on this part. it is worth watching it in theater once...

Abhiyum Naanum is recent movie around father subject. It is better than Vaaranam Aayiram in its subject scope and plot, but will go down among audience as another silent Radha Mohan movie. Remember Azhagiya Theeye! I am sure every lovable father and their daughters will enjoy this movie. 

these movies have opened up section of under screened subjects in tamil film industry. Pls welcome such innovation by watching these in theaters!

Exploring India #8 - Trip to Jaiselmer

dhak! dhak! this was a wake up call by the cleaner boy of our bus around 6 PM. After a day full of travel, good food at Green Park, an hours play of card games, we slept, slept to the core without realizing that Barmer had arrived. It was me who got down to enquire, by the time the bus was empty!! told myself, not all wouldn't have got down for tea!! ;-) woke up Badri and Balaji, who were asking the wake up call question, " where are we?"

The night journey was comfortable despite heavy rains with 2-3 pit stops in the high way, journey was quite comfortable on the highway. Barmer is the biggest city on the high way towards Jaiselmer. we did not get direct bus from Ghandhidham. As soon as we landed in the bus station, rain picked up pace again, we ran for shelter. first inside the railway station and then took an auto to official bus stand. We bought tickets to Jaiselmer and got into one of the stoned buses (i do not know how to describe such a bus, there was water all over the place becz of leaks, holes in the windows and on the top of bus).  the travel was colder. for the first time all our winter clothes are out from the back pack, still it wasn't enough!! with few stops, the bus finally reached Jaiselmer around 10.30 AM...

Thanks to www.wikitravel.org website, we had booked a room in artist hotel. People from that hotel received us in the bus stand, took an auto to the hotel, had tea and were preparing ourselves for a fun filled day in the desert city...

Exploring India #7 - Kutch & Gujarat

As i left Ghandhidham, i carried pleasant thoughts on the visit to this region.

Gujarat is an industrially advanced state.  It is my personal opinion, i have seen many christian institutions in the remotest areas. In Gujarat, there are temples right upto the border. They serve free food for several people every day!! So far we have heard different views on the secular situation inside Gujarat. As i spoke to our cab driver Yukob, in Ahmadabad, he was saying that things are are not secular there. he had some strong opinion on Modi as a secularist. 

The road infrastructure is fantastic through out the kutch region. There are industries right up to the border with Pakistan. It was starting period for Sankrati Sales. In Ahmadabad i noticed several designs of kite, thread for flying kite prepared in the rood. Today is Sankranti, i am sure folks would have had fun this week on their annual kite festival...

The kutch region has grown massively from the last known devastating earth quake. it is thinly populated as well. Forts were damaged, some of the poorest construction were also damaged. You can see the remains of it even now. 

Their people use small jeep, share autos for their local transport. They are seeing money in every sand, brick, water in that region...

In Kavda, SETU was involved in educating students, teachers and localities on computers and its related technology, there are medical sessions every month, evening sessions for teachers, villagers, they also help people to fill all government forms online. As i spoke to Sameer, he was saying SETU's difficultly in requesting people to send their children for school. It gave me rememberance of SWADES.

I will come back to Kutch to see these places once again... 

We were heading to Barmer in Rajasthan. 

Exploring India #6 - Kutch

Our day 2 plan was to go to Narayan Sarovar which is close 200 Kms from Bhadreshwar. It was also our last day in Kutch with our bus being at 8.30. Technically we should see places and be back at around 6 to finish packing, dinner... 

Well we were prepared... started around 8 AM, finished our breakfast, then started for Bhadreshwar. This time we took different route via Mandwi (small town bith picturesque beach) and travelled via barren highway. On the way we saw industrial some of the industrial advancement in Gujarat. We also saw many of those colored lorries... now i know from where they come from..

Narayana Sarovar has a temple for Lord Vishnu. Like those south Indian temples, they had an inner praharam with all avatars of Lord Krishna. Our driver Ali Suggested to finish our lunch with temple prasadam itself as there are no good restaurants on the way. Then we went to Koteswar. A shiva temple on the shores of Gujarat Arabian sea. The sea was very different compared to Bay of Bengal shores. it was silent, had a pale white boundary, i felt as if the boundary was 100 m away unlike in chennai beaches where we feel the boundary is infinite on the sea side. After flurry of photo sessions, we decided to leave to Mandwi. Mandwi beach is like our besant nagar beach. but more silent than ours. It is good place for an evening walk with kids. i had ice gola there, colorful one, it reminds me about my school days...

It was late for our night bus, we reached our lodge around 7 PM, finished packing,  it was time to say good bye to Bhadreswar and our friends there... Partha suggested us to have dinner at Green Park in Ghandhi Dham... had dinner boarded the bus towards Barmer in Rajasthan. it was a sleeper class bus. we had prior arrangements for playing cards during the journey. with our back pack already full, it nicely formed pillow kind of arrangement... 

I left ghandhi dham with a feeling that i saw places which i havent seen in the past, not even something similar... i started having the feeling could have stayed for more time in Gujarat. well i consoled myself with a hope that since Partha is around, i need to disturb in 2009 and hence another trip....

Kutch blog to be concluded...

Margazhi Raagam - The concert, the movie

Guess what, this Sunday, we had been to carnatic movie at Fun Cinemas. It was mouli who was asking for a show as it was slated to be shown only for 3 days by using the ongoing HDFC offer on fun cinemas tickets. i guess they were kind enough to extend, but the offer is not valid for Bangalore Fun Cinemas as the ticket prices are always on the higher side on weekends. I personally had mixed opinion about the movie, finally decided to go this Sunday.

Yes, we saw Margazhi Raagam today, which is carnatic movie performed by Bombay Jayshree and TM Krishna, picturization by PC Sriram and direction by Jayendran Panchapakesan. It is an unique experience for carnatic music lovers for this music season, well thought concept and first of its kind....

In the theater it was mostly thaathas/paatis or uncle/aunty's who were enjoying raagaas... with renga around, we all had extra fun of fakely knowing the raagam/thaalam names apart from enjoying the music from the singers and he himself...

In my opinion, although theater experience is good, you can buy a DVD copy of the same as the money you spent on it is less... 

If you want to know more, here is the official link http://www.margazhiraagam.com/index.html

Exploring India #5 - Kutch

Since we arrived early in the morning, it was decided to take an hours break before to start site seeing... after colder night journey, everyone knew how strictly these time lines will be kept... The accommodation we got inside the temple was way beyond our expectations in bhadreshwar. It was decent accommodation for 3 people to stay and it costs just Rs 120 per day :-)

it was 9.30 AM when we finally left our accommodation.

We met people at SETU Information center, the NGO Partha is associated with. There we Bharat bhai. He is like an elder brother for the folks out there. He helped us in finalizing our 2 days plan, routes, places to see. He also invited us for dinner at SETU with them. For me thanks would be small word to say to the friends we met in SETU, particularly Bharath Bhai, Ali, Vinod, Partha. I decided in my mind to buy some goodies in Bangalore and give it to them through partha during his Pongal visit to Bangalore. 

OK. Our first day plan is to see Rann of Kutch, India Bridge and other places on the way. We took break in the highway of Bhuj for breakfast. Then an another break in Bhuj for Badri's lunch.  Finally it was just past noon we left Bhuj to Kavda. Khavda is a village in Kutch and is located very near to the India Pak border. From Kavda onwards you can see Rann. For some of you who dont know what is Rann, it is basically the sediments of sea from the past. Now there is no water. they all have been converted to salt kind of desert. It is pleasure to see real white salty sand. if you are a photo freak, you will enjoy this place. 

In Kavda, we went to the first site seeing spot in the top of the hill. What i noticed in Kavda, is what i saw every where in Gujarat. The more interior you go, the more number of temples (Jain, Vishnu, Shiva temples). In the view point i am talking here, we saw a shiva temple. It was just before our visit, Rann festival got over. Rann festival occurs every year to introduce tourists about various places in kutch region, to introduce business men about different business prospects and to introduce art/folk/food of kutch region to various people. We also saw the artificial helipad created for CM Modi on the way to the view point.

Our next stop was India Bridge. On the way we passed the junction which leads to the last village in western India "Kuran". Crossing more deeper Rann on both sides we reached the border. It was a physical line a bridge between India and Pakistan. India bridge as it is called, is constructed between the salt sea sediments. Photography was not allowed in that area, Otherwise we would have shown everyone one of the the best viewable places in Gujarat and in India.

With a quick chat with the jawan on guard, he was telling us, that there is similar bridge on the Pak side called Pakistan Bridge. He said few trusted locals are allowed in that area who come to deliver food/milk and other items. Other than that, tourist who know locals there or people from military visit that area. He was also mentioning without local support, it wouldnt be possible to reach that area..... 

We took some snaps on the other side, pit stopped at the kavda junction for a quick tea session and headed back home. On the way we bought mewa sweets. We reached Bhuj, i bought dresses for my sister and niece. Then we left to bhadreshwar for dinner with our SETU friends. Vinod in photo, prepared for us delicious phulkas and spicy subzi... power went off for a while, it was candle light dinner with rain.....

When dinner was over, it was almost midnight... i decided to stay with Partha for that night, Badri and Balaji headed to the place of our stay only to find out, even the street dogs went to sleep... it was colder, rainy day that night... after few energetic shouting, they decided to go back to SETU and stay there... i stayed with partha that night, we spoke until 2PM.... didnt realize time already reached next day and i should take rest before to start another joyful trip... this time it was for the place Koteswar... 

To Continue...

Exploring India #4 - Food we ate in Gujarat

Since i require more time to write in detail about Gujarat trip, i am going to write about meal we had in Gujarat.

It was/is a pleasure to visit Gujarati Hotel in Singarathope and eat (if you can call it like that) few chapatis with Aloo fry, Curd fry, papad. Being in the land of this type of food, most of our meal was with Phulka and subzi. 

Day 1 - Ahmadabad. In Aksardham we had Poori-Bhaaji, Dahi poori. In the night we ate Phulka Subzi.

Day 2 - Bhuj. Our breakfast was Pafda-Gilaebi. Traditional Gujarati or rather Kutch breakfast. it is fried in oil, but u will not see a stint of oil in that. On seeing it only badri decided not to eat anything there. Viduvoma naanga!! A snap taken outside the breakfast shop.

Badri and Balaji went for traditional Gujarati Thaali. They claim that, they had their best meal of their trip in Bhuj. It was in Hotel Neelam. Thanks to our driver Ali who took us there. 

On the way back, we bought Mewa Sweets for dinner. Do you remember Mewa Kulfi Ice cream in Sreeraj Lassi shop? it is the same sweet which is famous in Bhuj.

For dinner, Partha's colleague Vinod who is a good cook, cooked for us Phulka and some delicious spicy subzi. 

Day 3 - 

We were told that jain temple where we stayed has a prasadam stall and breakfast is good there. I asked the person issuing tokens, what are the options available for breakfast, he just looked at me, rather i should say he answered me with his look. It is a temple restaurant, where menu was fixed. Menu was Poha, some papad like dish, tea for Rs 15 /-. 

Day 3 we visited Narayan Sarovar which is around 200 Kms from Bhadreshwar. On the way there is no decent place to eat. Again, another prasadam stall.. this time free food. Roti, Dhaal, Chawal. 

We end our starving day (:-) survived with only prasadam) with a good restaurant in Ghandhi Dham. It is called Green Park. They served Idly, Dosa, Sambhar. Guess how much was our bill?

We saw different variants of bisleri like water during this trip. one such sample photo i added to this blog entry...

Will continue on kutch tomorrow....

Exploring India #3 - Kutch

Thanks to our cold protection preparations, we witnesses glimpse of the northern cold climate in that night journey. it was colder, coldest pherrrrrrrr

Welcome Partha, He is wearing grey shirt in the right image.You can say this entire was originally conceived becz i wanted to meet Partha and see Kutch. The travel spots got expanded just like that:-).  

He works for co-operative NGO in Bhadreshwar. Without his help, and his friends in SETU, it would have been impossible to see the kutch region so comfortably, it is treat to see those places in Gujarat.  

We stayed in a accommodation inside a jain temple premises. It was Rs 120 for a days stay and u cannot imagine how neat and clean it was. You may ask what else you expect inside a jain temple :-). we took some rest and met his friends and started to explore the unseen western borders of India. We stayed in Kutch for 2 days before to leave for Rajasthan. 

Mainly we visited 2 western borders of India. 

Kavda - Located about 150Kms from Bhadreshwar after Bhuj, you can see the last village inside India, see India Bridge which is almost the last land you can go by road and see the Rann of Kutch.

Next day we visited Narayan Sarovar. the closest sea point with Pak border. We saw temples located till the last Indian land.

Due to the on going Indo-Pak tensions, these areas were restrictive and was tensed. In Bhuj we saw some Mig practices in the sky, may be preperation for something from the air force. 

In the coming series, i will write more about our journeys to these 2 places...

Stay tuned.

Exploring India #2 - Ahmedabad

Its day 1 of our trip. 

We started from Chennai to Ahmadabad via the KF flight. Mouli was there to see us off. We had prior reservation done at Hotel Ambassador in Ahmadabad. After landing all we had to do was take a prepaid taxi to the hotel. 

Proposed places of visit in Ahmadabad are Akshardham temple and Sabarmati Ashram. Due to late arrival of flight, we lost valuable time. We took cab to Swaminarayan temple in Ghandhi nagar. Our cab driver was Yukub, a Muslim, old driver. He explained us different landmarks on the way in Ahmadabad and in Ghandhi nagar. Well on return, he took us less money than originally planned as we covered only few kms than planned. These qualities we noticed in all the cab / auto fellows we met during the trip. people who are courteous, helpful, honest. 

The Swaminarayan temple in Gujarat, is a must visit for any one visiting Ahmadabad. It is located in Gandhi Nagar which is around 35 Kms from Ahmadabad. You will get to pass Narmada canal, state assembly and sprawling highway that connects both the cities. We all have heard about the temple in the past. Specific to mention are the museum located inside the temple premises. If you want to take time and see them all, it takes close to around 21/2 to 3 hours to finish the museum visit. The museum was established as a dedication to Sri Swami Narayan whose life history, his services during this life term are explained via dolls, images, stone sculptures, video and audio recorded media. More than life history, it also talks about Indian values, philosophy, spirituality in an interactive way. It was indeed an unique experience. A must visit for kids

When we left the museum time was close to 8PM and incidentally the exit path was via the cafeteria and we were heading directly fill the gap in our stomach :-).

We were late for ashram. we had enough time to get back pack things and reach railway station to catch the train to GhandhiDham in Kutch. it was second class sleeper ticket, we did not realize how cold our journey is going to be phherrr .... 

Exploring India #1

As some of you may know, i recently visited Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, Utranchal, Delhi on a 2 week road trip. Well it was supposedly year end vacation, i wanted it to be semi planned, and also see Partha and visit Rajasthan and Punjab by road. 

I intend to write about my experiences, share some of my thoughts about places, people through this blog. it will be one blog a day, starting with this one. 

To give you some stats about this trip,

No of travellers : 3

Total No of days : 14

Total No of places visited: 12

Total Modes of transport used:- 10

Total Kms travelled:- around 8000 Km

Total photographs + video taken :- around 3000.

No of Religious sites visited:- 5

Since i did not carry my laptop, i did note down my experiences and will share it through this blog.

Some of you could not join the trip, for various reasons, i hope you will enjoy this travelogue. 

Stay tuned.

Raghu