Baretto Villa

I Love You Dad

2009-11-22T06:49:00.003-05:00

Of many things that amazes me about India is the bonding within the family. Unlike most of the western countries where children leave their parents on their own and head out to face the world, in India, in most cases, children prefer to stay with their parents for a long time. Meanwhile it happens that when you lose somebody in the family, it leaves an indelible mark and mostly you find difficult to come through.

When I was a kid growing up in the city of Bangalore, Dad was there to guide me at every step that I took. He tried his best to provide all the things that I would need. He trained me to become an independent man. He believed in educating which he was very good at. Be it plumbing, electrical wiring, masonry, climbing trees, carpentry, cooking, electronic repairing etc. - he was there to train me. We have a house in Bantwal and incredibly enough he has built it in his own hands, quite literally. He used to take me and my sister every summer vacation and made us work. I still remember the days when we made those bricks and arranged the tiles on the roof. Though he was from the Arts background he had managed to learn all these skills out of his own interest. He was a great learner and never hesitated in experimenting new things. He was very well known for his intelligence and passion for work among the family and friends which he tried his best to pass on to his children. He was an early riser and strongly believed in the practice if one had to taste success.

Of many things - he took me to number of places in India everytime he had a conference to attend. He believed that one has to travel to different places, meet more people, see how people lived and learn the lessons of life. I now know that I was among the luckiest to have been brought up in such a wonderful family and environment. With it I developed a passion for travel. I managed to travel on my own to Rajasthan, Gujarat and Orissa.

He sent me to the best school in Bangalore and he was extremely happy I did well. He was on top of the world when I landed up in US sometime back for my PhD - for I am the first one in our family to go for doctoral studies. It seems he even treated his friends on the occasion and was really proud of that. He went to his relatives' place and showed all the pics that I had sent from here.

On 30th October, 2009, I lost him. It was a heart-attack. Death is so hard to grasp especially when it is so unexpected, when we feel nothing to hold on to and feels like nothing worse could have happened. I miss you Dad!!!

Weekend Trips

2009-10-26T21:46:00.015-04:00

Last few weekends have been veryr eventful. From football game to apple orchard to hiking. It was an opportunity to meet new people, visit new places and become a part of a new tradition. I am grateful to all my friends who took me to these places. It has started getting cold and with it the tree leaves are changing colors. Starting from yellow to orange and then to red. It is a sight worth seeing.

Anyways.. It was my first football (read American Football) game at the horse-shoe stadium. I volunteered at a stall which aimed at helping in the development of India, through an organization called AID. It was exhilarating experience especially when you know - that at the end of day's work all your earnings are going to be utilized in many developmental projects across India. You may want to visit the website to learn more about it.

The next weekend was the Apple plucking session. Randy and Christine were kind enough to take us to the Apple Orchard for the annual Apple plucking session. It was my second experience at the Apple orchards. But on my first visit, at Shimla in India, it wasn't the harvest season yet and the trees had just started flowering. This time it was the prime season of harvesting where we could find the apple trees pregnant with loads of apples waiting to be plucked. It was an enriching experience to taste the fresh apples - specially hand-plucked.

Lastly, it was the Hocking Hills hiking experience. It is a state park located in the south-east of Columbus OH. It is at about 65 miles from the OSU campus. We were picked up by the IFI volunteers who were really friendly and so kind that they dropped us at the park, took us around and actually dropped back to our place. Hocking hills is a beautiful place especially if you are visiting in the Fall season. You can see the beautiful landscape reaching the mountains on the border of West Virginia. We can also visit the natural caves and water falls around the place. It can be a beautiful camping place if you wish to stay overnight. Make sure you carry your food with you as it can get really expensive to buy it there. You have a horse riding facility too.

My exams are round the corner. Since I am taking up exams after a gap of 3 years, it is going to be a nice challenge. It will take time to get into the groove but eventually it should be all set. Wish me luck friends!

The football game pics

The Apple orchard pics

Hocking Hill pics

Cold

2009-10-19T09:28:00.002-04:00

Of many things that I have observed in the US during my two month stay is that - you cannot survive without a car. Unlike other countries, say England - where you pay heavily for public transport they still take you places. You do not have to depend on anybody. Today I went to drop my car at a service station and it was big deal to get back to college using a public transport. On top of that, it was freezing cold!

I started early morning (read as 7 30 am) when it was still dark. I tried cleaning my rear window but of no help. Ice frost. I turned on the heater and some relief. Using my GPS managed to reach the right place on time. I dropped the car off for the service and walked to the nearest bus stop. I asked somebody and he told me that the next bus is in 30 mins. It was like 1 deg C and I had only my sweat shirt on with a hoody. I could see cars all around and not a single person in the bus stand. Finally after the looong wait I got into the COTA bus and reached the school.

Welcome to the US!

Some More Cribs

2009-10-07T08:29:00.002-04:00

Often it happens that before you meet the actual person you tend to get the feedback from others. Sometimes it can be very helpful - you know what are the expectations beforehand. But sometimes, it can be disastrous. Especially if it about your teacher.

While I was school, my teacher once told that - 'You need to love your teacher if you want to really learn the subject'. It didn't make any sense then, but over the course of time the seeds that were sowed went on to become a big tree. I firmly believed since then that you need to like the teacher if you want to get something useful out of the class. When you say you love your teacher - it also implies that you work hard to earn his love too, eventually mastering the subject.

Recently there was a Potluck organized at my friend's place. Amongst other things that were discussed, topic of teachers was one of them. Most of them gave bad opinion about the teachers. It might be true in their case but for someone who has just arrived with a fresh mindset to learn new things, this piece of 'advice' can prove fatal. He/She would not pay any attention in class, would not trust his teacher and eventually end up not learning anything.

Harvest Party

2009-10-01T08:54:00.010-04:00

I met this friend the other day at the Swing Dance Class, whom I invited to my home for an Indian Dinner. At the end of it he invited me to his place for an annual harvest party. It was at Michigan and more importantly in the countryside. I was quick to say yes.

We started early in the morning and a 5 hour drive from my place. It was my first trip outside my base. I was hoping to see the farms and meet people from the village - yeah the American village. We reached around 12 or so. The weather was cool and nice. Already many relatives of his had starting coming in. The house was really pretty, like the ones we see in movies. It seems the family has stayed in the same house for six generations. That was something now. I introduced myself to all the family members and almost immediately I was the center of attention. I was answering their questions that I was from India - we have farms and trees too and it does 'rain' there. This reminded me of my grandmother when I had called her up sometime ago telling that it was raining here. She said 'Does it rain there too?'

We had the typical American lunch whose menu included - Bread with beef 'curry' and salads. I happily ate only the salads. After lunch I helped others in setting up the stage for the evening party and several other things. Of many things, there was this huge Swing where kids used to jump off to an airbag. That was so much fun.

In the afternoon people started pouring in large numbers. There was this hayride where the head of the family took us around the farms in his old tractor narrating stories from his childhood days. It was an experience of sorts even for the Americans who had grown up in cities.

It had already started getting chillier and I totally forgot to get some warm clothes. Luckily there was this guy who offered me his jacket and I survived. In the evening there was this singing thing on stage and then the typical country dance. Four girls and four boys pair up and we dance to the music. Remember the movie - Titanic, where Kate and Leonardo dance on the ship? Similar one. Though it was freezing cold outside, the dance steps had made us sweat.

After the dance was the bonfire. We sat around it, while guys and girls playing musing on guitar, I enjoyed cooking and eating marshmallows. This was my first such experience! We sat till late in the night we hitting the sack.

Next morning was the typical American breakfast - Bagels and cheese with curd. Had fun while eating. I was trying to explain how my name is pronounced. I made up this easy thing where Jeevan is pronounced as G1, then one guy was quick to reply - Hope you don't have brothers by name H1 and N1!!

With my friend

The soyabean farms

Marshmallows and bonfire

Horseshoe game

The music

The crowd

The hayride

Bonfire

"When I was a boy growing up in the farm..."

Football??

The Barn - est. 1938!

During the hayride

The swing

The lawn

The dream house :-)

Getting Acquainted To The New Place

2009-09-11T16:16:00.003-04:00

It will be two weeks today since I landed in this country. So far the experience has been good and people have been really nice. I could visit several places around the city and did most of the shopping one can do for his/her first month. Now even the shopkeepers know me by face :)

The football season has started and tomorrow will be the OSU vs USC match. I could see many students sweating who were part of the marching band. I could learn from my senior friends that the OSU team is indeed a strong one and is a clear favorite for the tomorrow's match. The band and the marching rehearsal was impressive - tears rolled out of my moist eyes. I am really happy that I am here: where the whole city is cheering for their team, be the public transport or the local restaurant, everywhere you see the message GO BUCKEYES! The allegiance to the home team by the people here is commendable. I doubt if a similar kind of reception can be expected back home when RCB or DC is playing in their IPL match.

Current Read: Imprisoned Apart - The world war 2 correspondence of a Issei couple by Louis Fiset

Munnar Experience

2009-09-04T07:39:00.002-04:00

Finally found time to post the pics that I took during my visit to Munnar. It is no doubt a beautiful place. I used the Lonely Planet travel guide and trust me they have some really useful information.

We started from Ernakulam, which is a fairly big town. It is about 4 hours drive by road if you take a bus and about 3 hours if you take a car. En route to this place you have several locations where you can stop by to see the water falls and enjoy the scenic beauty. The major attraction is the tea gardens, of the British time and still continuing.

The weather was very pleasant when I went - that is sometime in mid-August. Here are some of the pictures that I could take.

The Mattupetti Lake where people go for a boat ride.

On our way to the Top Station

Tea Gardens up close

The Nilgiri Mountains

Weekend Experience

2009-08-30T08:14:00.001-04:00

Today was the first weekend for me here. We, I mean me and my roomie, decided to visit more places inside the campus and to the downtown area. We took the help of campus map and the GPS to drive around the campus. The traffic rules here are totally different from what we have in India. People are very courteous and friendly – they stop to let you go first and wait till the pedestrian crosses over. Also the names of the streets/roads coming up will be displayed well ahead of the signal so that you can select the lane accordingly – which makes life so simple.

The campus is really huge and I had not seen such a beautiful place before. The building, the lawn, the lake - everything was well maintained. The Recreation and Physical Activity Center was something I wanted to visit. The main library looked like a palace with superb ambience and space.

Downtown area is something where people go to hangout. It is similar to the Brigade road, MG road of Bangalore. You can find all well lit buildings, bars and crazy people around. At least I find them crazy. Today I saw this group of girls having fun. They had taken this Limousine service and one the girls was wearing the “Bachelor” strip over her clothes. Just like these Miss World participants when they wear those Miss India, Miss Mexico kind of thing. While the to-be married girl was getting herself photographed at weirdest of places in weirdest of poses, the other girls were asking guys around if they had condoms with them. I guess they were trying to make fun of that bachelor girl. When they asked me I didn’t know what to answer!! Though I come from a city – this kind of a thing was totally new for me.

Earlier in the day I read somewhere in online forums that they got some furniture, TV from dumpsters. I thought they are some stores where they sell used stuff. Only later I came to know that they are actually dust-bins. I couldn’t imagine myself looking around the dust-bins to see if I can carry home any stuff which others have thrown/left.

Some of the things that I observed over this weekend are:

* People like to chew gum a lot. Just like the cows and buffalos in India.

* Almost all of them smile and talk to you nicely, at least pretends that.

* You have to fill the gas yourself in gas stations, unlike India where pretty girls help you fill one.

* Bank ATM can be anywhere - even right in the middle of the lawn.

* Squirrels are not scared of people and are big in size. In fact there are many of them right next to our apartment.

More later.

Reporting from Columbus

2009-08-28T11:05:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I landed up in the US and till now it has been a great experience. Everything here is BIG - people, their pets, cars, buildings. Guess what Mahesh had told me about this before I left Mumbai, and he was right. Have found the apartment and pretty much settled.

Since I was traveling alone and it was a direct flight it was very boring. To add to that, the flight attendants seldom understood what I spoke. Once I asked for a tissue paper, and she gave me the sugar. I asked again and she yells back 'I can't give what ever you ask!!' I had to actually point it and use sign language to make her understand. huh?

You can easily get lost in the campus and being the largest university in US, it is no surprise. I took help from a Chinese student to locate my department. I soon found a map and currently I am walking around holding one.

Now coming to cooking: I am lucky till now as the guy who is moving out of the apt. is doing the job for me and I need to slowly take over from him. I still have doubts about my culinary skills and have to wait till another week or so to implement.

Running thing - oh yeah people here are pretty much fond of work outs and I should have some good company soon.

Alright, let me move off this computer and explore things. Signing off :)

Trust Our Postal Service

2009-08-04T23:49:00.003-04:00

Recently I used the Registered Post from our Indian Posts dept. to send all my university applications which is way cheaper than the courier. It costs Rs. 40/- as against to Rs. 500 to Rs. 1000 otherwise by courier. And still majority (99%) of my friends went for the courier option. People deem Regd. post as unreliable and inefficient. In my case all the applications reached on time and I could save thousands of rupees.

Another instance - when my sister wanted to file her annual IT returns. She was late as usual and on the last day of filing she was looking for the address where you can file it. In spite of constant advertisement by the IT dept. on various TV channels, that one can file it online as well - it seems less than 10% people actually did it online. Reason - the papers need to be sent later by Ordinary post only. She did it online finally.. :)

Why don't we trust our Indian Posts dept.?

Photo: IITB campus

Weekend and Waterfalls

2009-07-28T02:47:00.012-04:00

There is this famous Kannada Film song where Dr. Rajkumar sings,

"Manav Naagi huttid mele en en kandi
Saayo thanka samsar dolge ganda gundi
Heri kondu hogo dilla sathaag bandi
Irodrolage Omme nodu Jogad Gundi!"

Which essential means - You have umpteen problems in life and are not going to carry your money/car with you when you die. Only the memories remain and hence he says one has to visit Jog Falls at least once in your life time.

I totally agree with those words now. I visited Jog Falls. I am short of words explaining the beauty and grandeur with which river Sharavati, which is overflowing, falls from a distant height. It splits it self into different regimes which has been aptly named Raja, Roarer, Rocket and Lady. The water which appears like a white blanket covering the hill is simply brilliant. Though the entire area is often covered with the clouds making the visibility at times poor. You need to wait, sometimes for hours, before you can get a good view of the water falls. But it has its own glamour - for you see the real beauty only when you reveal it for a short period of time.

It is a favorite location for the school kids for their annual picnic. Unfortunately I had missed out on mine. So this sunday early morning, when I was at Jog, the weather was romantic with slight drizzle on and off - with the whole surrounding covered with the clouds and in the background you have this splendid waterfalls. Taking photos was the last thing that was on my mind for I could not get my eyes out of that beautiful setting.

Clouds covering the view which is the usual sight

When the cloud clears up

Now we decided to go closer to the falls - the place where the actual show starts. In quest of this place, we set out on road trekking our way through green plantations, meeting locals and such - the whole scene which looked very much familiar to my native place Mangalore. Tiny rivulets combined to form a tank kind of thing which you cannot imagine that it would ultimately fall to give that spectacular view - of so much power and energy.

Road towards the other end

Local villager covering himself with the rag

One of the close-up view of Raja

Rocket and Lady!

It was being a weekend, the whole place was crowded with people from different places and background - Children, Parents, Adults, Newly-wed couples, Oldies, School teachers, IT professionals etc. :) It was a sight to see.

Visitors throng the place

For all those interested:
You can take the bus (KSRTC or KSTDC) from Bangalore, which is around 8 hours from Jog Falls. You need to book your rooms in advance as the amenities near the waterfalls is very minimal. You have two PWD guest houses and several other govt. run guest houses. It can be a good one day trip with the nearest town being Sagar which is around 30 kms far.

Of Drilling Machines, Crowbars, Probes and Pain!

2009-07-24T02:56:00.001-04:00

I had an appointment with the dentist yesterday. It was in the major and minor surgery dept.
I didn't have any problems to report, for I went there for a routine medical check-up. The doctor on-duty suggested that the last tooth (the wisdom tooth) had protruded itself in an awkward position. Its axis was horizontal and can create problems in the future. Agreed, I decided to go ahead with the extraction process.

The appointment was at 9 in the morning, the time when I usually have my breakfast with the radio on. I reached the hospital on time and yet was made to wait. It is 9 45 and the guy in white coat and spectacles calls out my name. While inside the operation theatre (so called), he briefs me about the process - that he would cut the tooth into half and then pluck the other half.

The main doctor, say Mr. A, asks his friends/colleages who were also present in the room to get ready with the tools. The best part of Mr. A was that he used to think aloud. Starting from injecting the anasthesia to starting of the drilling machine - he was talking continuously. May be he was communicating with the other guys who were mopping the bled area. At one point he started using the hammer along with the crow bar and probes. While others were holding my cheek to keep my mouth open. By now some 20 students were around me peeping to have the tiniest glance of my tooth. It went on for say 30 minutes or so. Mr. A declares that he is done with the extraction. Now the sutures time. The other guy comes up with the sutures and the needle. He starts stitching and immediately Mr. A suggests that it was a wrong method.. so this guy says 'Okay, I 'll remove them and do it all over again!!'. By this time the anasthesia effect had subsided and the sensation started coming back.

While entering the room I had my chest out open with pride. Now while coming out - I was like a rabbit with its tail hiding between its legs. My cheeks had already started swelling. Couldn't speak a word, forget eating anything.

Day two - my face is distorted. Left cheek is completely swollen. Period.

Couple

2009-07-20T12:54:00.003-04:00

One fine morning in Powai Lake!

Coffee or Tea? You must be joking!

2009-07-18T03:13:00.003-04:00

Okay. Let me accept that I take neither Tea or Coffee and prefer to drink only Milk. I visit my friend's place, relatives' place and the first thing they ask - "Coffee or Tea?". I reply, "Sorry just Milk!".

After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world. For most of them, whom I know, it is the first thing that they need to drink every morning. Not just that - many more sips during the day.

Some interesting statistics that I got from WolframAlpha about Tea:

Typical word frequency

written | 1/13000 (rank: 1362nd)
100% noun
spoken | 1/5800 (rank: 438th)
100% noun
(based on the 100-million-word British National Corpus)

Narrower terms

black tea  |  cambric tea  |  cuppa  |  cupper  |  green tea  |  herbal  | 
herbal tea  |  herb tea  |  iced tea  |  ice tea  |  oolong  |  sun tea  |  tea bag

Broader terms

beverage  |  bush  |  drink  |  drinkable  |  herb  |  meal  |  potable  |
reception  |  repast  |  shrub

Similarly you can find for good amount of statistical figures for Coffee also.

Lady's Finger Curry

2009-07-17T01:25:00.003-04:00

So I learnt this cooking recipe yesterday from my granny. It is to make 'lady's finger' curry. I thought I'd better post it here so that I can refer to it later if I forget something. So here it goes.

First cut the vegetable, chillies and onions. Also keep good amount of grated/shredded coconut, and some tamarind soaked in water ready.

Making the masala:

Put the grated coconut, small amount of jeera, chillies, tamarind, mustard, coriander seeds onto the mixer. Allow it to make a fine paste kind of a thing. Keep this aside for now.

Making the main curry:

Take some oil in a medium sized copper bottomed vessel. Start the flame. Put some mustard. Wait till it makes all that sound (pat pat pat). Add small quantities of chana dal, adad dal, curry leaves, red chilli and garlic. Wait till it turns golden brown. After that add the vegetable. Add the tamarind water and salt. Keep mixing it for a while. Now add the masala which you had prepared earlier and add water. Allow the whole mixture to boil and taste if the salt is ok.

So this is it. I got my first cooking lesson. More to come.

PS: This is a typical Mangalorean style of cooking. And we use lots of coconut. Sometimes I wonder, is it practical to follow this recipe everywhere - 'cos availability of coconuts is an issue.

Chopper Ride

2009-07-10T01:29:00.003-04:00

They say that all good things come to an end, and so did my stay at IIT. It was a friday afternoon when even the clouds starting crying while I was busy packing my stuff.

Anyways I have left Mumbai and have reached home, via Vaishno Devi shrine. It was my second visit to the holy shrine. Last time I went - we walked all the way up, waited for 2 hours in the queue before we could have the darshan. This time it was quite simple. I hopped on to a helicopter which took me to the top in just 4 mins. With the special priority entry scheme, managed to have darshan in flat 10 mins :)

While boarding the chopper, I was asked if I wanted to sit on the co-pilot's seat. Who would refuse that offer. Now you can imagine the view that I got from that seat. No words to describe it. It was a once in a life-time experience and of course complete paisa wasool. Unfortunately couldn't take any photos. It seems no camera or leather goods are allowed inside the shrine and that is why I thought of not taking thing. I regret that decision now!

At home now and having loads of free time. More than what I did at IIT :D Will write more often now. (sounds cliched.. err)

June Showers

2009-06-26T08:53:00.003-04:00

June has been another eventful month for me. The weather has been very disappointing for it was quite hot until today when it rained cats and dogs. It is also the month where most of the students leave for home, either on vacation or after finishing their course. I am leaving for home too. Next week. Will be seeing most of them for the last time here. Also got my US visa issued :)

Kenny who has shifted to Chennai for an year had come today for some work. We could meet up, went around the campus discussing various things - from rains to schools to her child to her husband to work and finally she took me out for a coffee. She gave me some good tips about life at grad school. I miss all those days when we used to work together, run early in the morning, preparing for mumbai marathon, researching and of course chatting and messaging :)

M took me out for lunch yesterday. He is another guy in our running group apart from Kenny and KVV. This guy is one man who means what ever he says. He is very much dedicated into his work. Had a long chat with him the other day discussing about my prospective advisor at grad schools. Though these guys (M, Kenny, KVV) are 10+ years older than me and are faculties, I have always treated them as friends. We crack jokes, discuss serious academic matters, play games (badminton and basketball) and run. We were a bunch of crazy guys who wake up really early, that is at 5:15 or so, meet up at Ananta and go out for running. And all the while chatting about issues under the sun. It was great being in the group.

Seven more days remaining in the campus. Got some vaccinations (MMR, Hepatitis) done today. Have to run around for the no-dues certificate in the coming days.

Music

2009-06-18T12:45:00.002-04:00

I was listening to this song 'Teri Or' from the movie Singh is King. I couldn't resist but to hear it on the loop. The video was also impressive. Shreya Ghoshal has a sweet voice and of course Katrina has done her job well.

Recently I was reading the biography of singer Lata Mangeshkar and it seems during her time, the Mangeshkar sisters (Lata and Usha) had maintained a monopoly in the playback singing arena for the film industry. Even singers like Kavita Krishnamurthy were given the chance of singing only the retake songs and not the final ones. Such was the demand for great voice - not that Kavita was bad, she is still one of my favorite. Remember Mr. India?

I strongly believe it is the voice which takes the song to a different world altogether.

Swarna - Design Show

2009-06-14T00:21:00.003-04:00

It was an eventful saturday afternoon. Took the train to Mahalakshmi station and then to Nehru center, Worli. It was the annual exhibition time from the passing out students of IDC, IIT Bombay. It showcased a wonderful display of their creative design as a part of their projects taken up during their course of MDes. As told by a design professional, it was the right blend of interaction between the 'form' and the 'function'.

The event was called Swarna:: Design Degree Show. The exhibits are differentiated into four different categories - Industrial Design, Visual Communication, Animation and Interaction Design. The exhibits were from a wide range of themes starting from Energy conservation to Design of Display font to Bikes for Youth to Indian Toys for International Market.

The event also served as their annual placement session, where the prospective recruiters visit the show and have a direct interaction with the students.

The exhibition is open from 11 am to 7 pm on 13th and 14th June.

Orange Chairs

2009-06-08T06:38:00.002-04:00

Orange chairs on the Mall road - Shimla

Lessons of Defeat

2009-06-04T13:40:00.003-04:00

"... You cannot collapse, either because you've won a match or because you've lost it. This is sport, you have victories or defeats. No one remembers defeats in the long run. People remember victories. Defeats never make you grow, but you also realize how difficult what I achieved up until today was, and this is something you need sometimes. You need a defeat to give a value to your victories...."

This is what Rafael Nadal had to say after he lost to Soderling in his fourth round match at the Roland Garros.

The young spaniard seems to have learnt a lot from his sport. In times where the losing team's player 'slaps' the other team player, Rafael has shown what it is to accept the defeat. What is that you learn from every defeat.

He's 23 and already achieved so many things. I am sure by the time he is finishing his career he'd have managed to leave an indelible mark in the books of tennis history.

Mehendi

2009-06-03T22:26:00.002-04:00

This one was captured while in Shimla. Some tourist was getting her hand colored. I was reluctant to ask her for a photo so asked my female friend to do the needful and she gracefully obliged :)

PS: They say a picture can speak thousand words. So this will compensate for me not writing more.

Man vs Nature

2009-05-26T08:55:00.003-04:00

It is ironical to see that lakhs of people from one part of the country are struggling to get back to normal life after the devastation caused by the storm while the others are busy destroying the public property creating inconvenience to thousands of travelers across Punjab and other northern states.

Shimla - II

2009-05-25T09:17:00.002-04:00

Tatta Pani and Chhaba: Here you can go rafting on the waters of river Sutlej. It is around 70 kms from Shimla. Obviously when you climb down the hill it starts getting hot there. We could book the raft for ourselves some two hours before we reached the place. It takes some time for them to prepare the raft. Once the raft was ready we were given the safety jackets and helmets to wear and some instructions as what to do when a particular command is given.

The water wasn’t as rough as expected. I had an experience of rafting earlier in Pahalgam during my Kashmir trip where the cold and rough waters had got my heart in hand. So this time also I was expecting the water to be rough. They said it was a 12 km stretch along which we were to go rafting. We were all excited.

The ride was super fun and somewhere mid way we all jumped into the water. Since we had the jackets on, we were floating and there was no need to swim. This was an amazing experience. Never in my life had I imagined that I would jump into deep water flowing with so much energy. S, who didn’t know to swim couldn’t control herself and leaped only to hold the raft from outside all the while. All of us enjoyed it.

It was around 1 hour ride before we all got down. That place is called as Tatta Pani as you have this Sulfur springs near the place. The water is boiling hot and it seems all the pilgrims throng the place during some festival.

The whole rafting thing cost us Rs. 850/- per head.

Shimla - I

2009-05-07T12:08:00.002-04:00

Happened to visit Shimla last week. It was a much awaited break from the sweltering and sweaty mumbai. Spent 7 complete days there.

So let me put down in points, the places where we went. Some on cab and many on foot. It is great to trek through the lush green pine and deodhar forests. No wonder they say that these trees never go dry - considering the maximum temperature of the year reaching only 25 deg C or so.

1. The Mall Road - There is no 'Mall' in that mall road. The urban junta usually associate the mall with a multi-storied, well-lit, glass structure. But here you have this road where the tourists from all over the place along with the local crowd love to stroll in the evenings. You have shops on either side of the road displaying items of interest, be it food or handicrafts or items of daily need.

We went to several eateries, had pastries and momos. Went to some book shops and had strange experiences. One of the bookshops housing old books caught my interest and I decided to have a look. I picked up one and asked for the price. It was titled 'Italian History' or so. Guess what the price was - only Rs. 19,000/- yeah I got the zeros right.

2. The Indian Institute of Advanced Studies - This monument houses the famous table on which the initial draft about dividing India into two different states was exchanged between the then Viceroy of India - Lord Mountbatten and Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru. A beautiful structure, now converted into an institute of excellence and research. Formerly it was the Viceregal lodge during the British times.

3. Hotel PeterHoff - It is a grand hotel converted from a Viceroy lodge. It has a large banquet and still houses grand weddings and other important functions.

4. Narkhanda and the Haatu hill - You should not miss place if you happen to visit Shimla. It is around two and half hour drive from main Shimla. First we reach Narkhanda which is the base for the hill top. From there you have a single drive road towards the top which is around 7 kms long. We got down from the cab after 4 kms and then went trekking to the top. Believe it is worth everything that you see once you reach the top.

to be continued......