Mulling over Club Mahindra

For the past 2 months, the sales team at Club Mahindra has patiently asked me for appointments and I somehow was not in a frame of mind to talk numbers and sign a cheque for them. They called me again last week, and we agreed meeting on saturday evening. The guy who came to meet me, forgot his laptop charger, so we decided to just talk over some sheets and pictures. In a way that was good, as he could have easily made me melt with his pictures and Club Mahindra does look attractive for famly holidaying over the years, but the only thing holding me back is the guilt list of places, that I have built over time collecting travel magazines. Club Mahindra has expanded to 23 locations in India and have some of the best properties, but still there are so many more hotels that are there waiting to be explored all over the world.

Its a tough choice to make. Club Mahindra does have RCI affilation, which allowes members to get to other hotels at a much lower cost than if one were to go on our own. Right now, I really dont care about facilities at places where I stay. I would gladly sleep near the toilet in an unreserved compartment, stay at a lonely beach shack for 50 bucks, walk mountains with luggage on...but once marriage/family comes in, it could be a different ball game.

I would use the better part of the fortnight to talk to members, and people who have used this to understand the actual money spent on holidays as a member( includes EMI, Maintenance cost, travel, food etc). Some more careful back of the envelope calculations would reveal whether I sign a cheque for them, or invest my money in "Impulse" holidays (the way I generally holiday).

Being a hardcore fan of a move like THE BEACH,signing up for a holiday timeshare is a little hard to digest!

Chidambaram Reunion

Driving in the Tamil Nadu Monsoon enroute Chidambaram

I seem to be making some gesture to Madhanagopal, Aanand, Ananthavenkat. Probably complaining about the mosquitos.

Aanand making a point on the bad quality of water in the hotel that we stayed.

Sakthi staring and wondering after he tied the knot! "Was it three or 4 knots that I tied in the melee and the noise"?

Andamans Travel- Part 3

This was at Ross Island, a British army/naval base which was abandoned. Now a tourist attraction and a lovely place for some peaceful jay walking. You have one canteen here, but incase you are here on the weekend, god save your tummy, these andamanese prefer their siesta at home than conducting business selling eatables. If you walk left towards the entrance, you would find one small tea shop, which when persuaded would make some omlettes and pakoras at premium pricing.

The spotted deer at Ross Island right next to the place where I had tea.

Phoenix Jetty.... when the sky starts to cry. We just made it in time to Portblair when the heavens opened up. It gave us enough time to put our bags in a safe place and enjoy the rains.

When we were caught in the rains, we had a nice conversation with the locaks and also had some Jhal Mudi( Bong for Bhelpuri). It was a lovely sight seeing the islands dissapear undler the influence of the rain and the mist that had descended that evening, even as Kolkata Night Riders were razed to the ground by the Chennai Super Kings.

The Goa PhotoBlog-Part 10

Thats our room, as basic as it gets for 500 bucks between three guys. Actually We found it largely satisfying, as our criteria for a room was
a) shack on the beach
b) Decent food
c) Basic rooms with a properly working toilet and a bed that you could rest your back on for a few hours.
d) Room that had decent locks, especially when you have Laptops and Digicams inside
e) Room with a plug point to charge the mobiles and Laptops. Nothing More Nothing less..

This worked like a dream. The food is pretty good here(I am a vegetarian, so options are anyway limited) This is called 21 coconuts inn, nearing the end of Arambol Market and on the beach, near where all the Honda Activa's are parked.

Room with a View! Thats the view outside our grilled windows. A great place to see Goan sunsets!

The place below the restaurant where he had food. Even though it was warm in the afternoon, thanks to some trees in the vicinity, the chill breeze was good enough to bask lazily in the afternoon.

Here I am working hard at my core competency! with music in the ears on a sleepy afternoon in Arambol Beach.

The Goa PhotoBlog- Part 7

This was the SIOLIM bridge over the chapora river when we had to drive from Anjuna to Arambol. Great roads to drive!

Some natural canyons are present in the route to Arambol, which makes it a great drive especially at night, with the breeze hitting you in the face.

This is the Mandrem-Aswem-Morjim stretch before you reach Arambol Beach. This features in the Movie Lage Raho Munnabhai in the song "aaane Chaar Aanne".

There is this big church in Arambol, which has a playground, that ws featured in Munnabhai-2 as the ground where Sanjay dutt plays football and wins a match for the "second innings" team in the song "aane chaar aaane", which was shot in Goa. Felt Great to see a location in a movie and to relate it in real life. Arambol is one of the most peaceful beaches in Goa that I have seen.

A Year Off?

Check this news. I'd ideally love to take off for sometime before settling into a job. Once I get to know where I would be employed, I would be in a better position to plan my travel. After thumbing through Railway Time tables and Outlook Traveller guides, I had a brief route plan in mind.

Chennai> Renigunta> Vijayawada>Puri>Howrah>Guwahati- explore East by Road. Arunachal Pradesh,Sikkim are some of the places in mind.

then from Howrah>Dhanbad>Gaya> Lalooland(Patna)>Varanasi>Rae Bareilly>Ayodhya>Lucknow>Dehradun>Ambala>Jalandhar>Amritsar>Jammu Tawi -Vaishno Devi Temple and explore Kashmir

Then follow the route through West Rajasthan,Gujarat,Maharashtra,Goa,Kerala Karnataka and back to Chennai.

Seems a long journey with atleast 20+ days required, but it should be fun travelling alone across the length and breadth of India. Atleast If I cant take a year off, I should be able to sneak in 15-20 days of travelling before I join the corporate world back again. Most of the journey should be reserved, especially in the regions of UP,Bihar and MP, which are largely dangerous states to travel in unreserved. It should be great fun updating a travellogue while on the move. Lets see how things pan out!

Om Shanti Om at Karur!

Karur, a sleepy industrial town near Tiruchi, would be an unlikely place to get a decent theatre. As I was walking down the roads, my eyes glanced upon a screaming Shahrukh Khan poster that said "OM SHANTI OM". I went in the evening to see the movie. they were selling at a premium price in the box. 30 rs ticket for a 25 rs printed one. I was only too glad to pay for it as in Bangalore, the minimum cost of a movie was Rs 130 if one chose the economy mode of watching at PVR. The theatre (Amudha) wasnt bad at all, it had decent dts sound, which didnt put me off and more than that, fans which didnt make me sweat. No frills cinema, if I could say, Amudha was the air deccan of the filming industry. After a long time, I didnt have to be tense about getting tickets for a movie, getting worried about striking a black ticket deal with a tout and getting a seat with a proper angle. In a place like Karur, there's hardly any competition for places and tickets, so I led a charmed life pre-OSO.

The Movie was an expected Shahrukh Farah movie that showed that the duo have really enjoyed making the movie. The script is barely there, but it was a funny joyride all the way and is definetely worth a trip to theatre. They have shown the 70's era very well and the humour in the movie is entrenched and not as attachable bits and pieces. I liked the last part where they showed a video of every person who contributed to the movie, including cameramen,lightmen and make up artistes. Shahrukhs previous movies like PBDHH and MHN bombed despite some excellent songs, the reason being weak script and improper marketing. This film's script is slightly better though the genre of movie making is still the same and given the excellent marketing Shahrukh has done, this movie was a certified money spinner, even before it released.

I would be leaving to Chennai only tommorow as no tickets are available for today. It would be good to get back to classes after nearly one and a half months. I was hoping to go on a holiday on the diwali weekend from Bangalore, but all my friends were busy at work and some on social obligations at home. The trip stays postponed for a while, as I cant make any plans unless I see the schedule at college. But 99% getting break in between terms 5 and 8, looks tough, probably in term 6, I might sneak in a day or 2, after placements as classes would not be scheduled then.

Right now, nothing to do, just glancing through papers, sipping hot rasam,watching TV and sleeping at Karur, with Parents giving loads of advice- do this-do- that.......

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz



PS: Karur is closer to Trichy and Yercaud. Click here to see my album on Karur. I had been there in FEBRUARY earlier this year and sometime in August for a friends's marriage