Trip to Thailand!-Part 1

I have quite a few travellogues to share. I will start with my Thailand Trip for the next week or so, and then talk about my trip to Elephanta Island off the coast of Mumbai.

Day 1- Images from Thailand


On the Thai Airways flight- Resembled the days of Air Deccan!

When you get a last minute return flight deal for just 13,000 Rs to Thailand, lots of people lap it up. The flight to Thailand resembled the initial mad days of Air Deccan, when people flocked to the flight and had noisy conversations. Guess the Thai airhostesses were quite stunned to silence by the behaviour. Thai Airways also had free alcohol on board, so the 'guests' on board were making merry as the flight strode across the Bay of Bengal, passing North Andaman into the princely state of Bangkok. There was a screen indicating where our flight was on the map from India to Thailand.

Admiring Art or Plain Posing?

Shyam and I came together, while Jyothi came via another flight at around the same time to Bangkok. Before we met Jyothi, Shyam and I were looking at the art around the Suvarnabhoomi airport. While I was posing with damsels in caricature, Shyam decided to concentrate a lot more on the damsels fantasising the women in the caricatures to life.

Baat Baht Baaaht- In a Toyota Corolla Taxi in Bangkok

Conversing with a Thai Taxi is one of the more difficult things in life, if you are from India, and dont know Thai. The Thai taxi drivers have a bunch of pamphlets in their kitty and act as affiliates to travel agents and hotels known to them. Once you have chosen the hotel and they know where you are heading, they will also try and hook you up with a million sex/massage joints. If you say no to sex or alcohol, they will forcibily stop you at a travel agent or a gem stone shop, which makes up for their minimum commission.

Wherever you go, the fare is always 300 or 400 bahts. Make sure you bargain and start at 100 bahts. Price correction would autmatically start. They need people/tourists to earn money and if you arent paying par fare, they would extract money from other affiliate sources

Sample This- Our Taxi driver made 750 bahts from the gem shop, for taking us around from Prathunya to Sukhomvit(wherever MKB Electronics mall is), but actually took only 20 bahts from us. A taxi is better than a Tuk Tuk, as the pleasure of being ripped is better under an AC Corrola car than a naked engine Tuk Tuk

FAQ by Bangkok Taxi drivers

Where u go?

What you do?

Want to Phuk? (Fuck)

Hotel?

Night what you do?

1 shtop at gem shop

1 shtop travel agent

.
Modes of Public Transport- The Free Red Bus for Tourists/Locals.

We were exploring Thailand by the local transport and found that Red Buses are free for transport. Its a little tough to look at the guidebook and figure out where the bus is going, as most people dont understand english, and the other tourists/travellers are as clueless as you. Hopefully Wifi would be a free commodity as common as Roti, Kapda, Makaan and more recently telephone signals.

Thailand is best explored by the Tuk Tuk. Jyothi used it to his advantage to see a few places, but had to endure some time at the gem store and acually ended up buying a ruby/emerald.

Read Part 2 here

Un-Intended Misadventure-2

This continues from here

The guy in khaki took me to the quaint police station, that seemed lost amidst the maze of the railway tracks and workshop buildings. I could see a sarkari babu, who was busy penning some thing on a file with his glass tilted and all concentration on that sheet of paper. As soon as he saw me, he asked me his constable to lead me in. He looked at me, sized me up with a sarcastic look and asked me, how dare I shout at his constable, after doing the mistake of coming inside the railway shed.

I realised that this was by no means an easy situation to get myself out of by talking logic and truth. I felt like telling the policeman, that the board for informing that civilians shouldnt come inside the shed, but it should lie outside the shed, so that the general public doesnt trespass. Sanity prevailed, and I didnt speak my mind to the policeman. I managed to look very sorry for my mistake, and then started to tell him, that I was living in Mumbai only for a month and I didnt know how railways operate et al. He wasn't willing to listen. After glancing at a dirty file, all he managed to do was look up stylishly and say "Bade Saab se ye Sab Bolo"(Go and say this to the big boss).

I was imagining an hairy,elephantine, burly, roguish, foul mouthed 50+ guy to come(when people say Big Boss, this is all I can imagine ). Every moment that I waited, I was sketching various avatars of the Big Boss, while I was standing in the police station.

My thoughts were interrupted by the introduction of 3 kids who were caught 'straying' near the shed. They were asked questions on where they are from and what they do. They were answering in a very unsure manner. In came a bright,young and slim man in his late twenties(The Big Boss) and he thundered with his eyes and asked the 3 kids to move near the door of the jail. I was just then thinking that I was saved of the igominy of facing the jail, that this is what education does to give you a bit more respect when compared with uneducated street kids. My logic was squashed like a lemon under a truck, the next instant, as I was told, to also size up with the kids.

'Tthaana' was the term the policemen were discussing often and cracking jokes, even as we 4 people were forced to wait. Now I didnt know whether the Tthaaana meant the police station or the suburb of Thana, a few kilometres away. I didnt allowe the curiosity to spillover to the policemen.

After fooling around asking questions on what we all do, and why we were here, the Big Boss finally spoke business, when he asked us to pay up a fine of 1000 rs, each according to 'sexsun 6c' of the Railway act. I realised the first guy had 14 rs, 2nd guy had 10 rs and the third guy had four 2 rupee coins. I had 34 rs and was the richest among the 4. I had left my debit card at home, so that my mother and cousin could withdraw cash from the ATM in my complex at Mulund. So had no source for cash, and told the policeman that I have 34 rs in my pocket. He looked at us for a while and showed signs of desperation by telling us, that his daily target was 10 people and the minimum collections had to be 5000 Rs, and who was going to answer his boss? The best politically correct answer was " Mere Paas sirf tees rupay hain. Sorry Saab, Is baar Galti ho gayi, Agli baar nahi hoga". Say it for 5 times, as the police guy is thinking of ways to get money from you, the background effect of the richest guy having 34 rs, worked, in he getting frustrated with us. He stared, in a angry Amitabh Bachan 'Inspector Vijay" pose and told us" Bhaago" (Run).

I didnt exactly run, but was the glad the ordeal was over. The next ordeal was to get into the second class compartment at Kalwa without a ticket, as I just wanted to get to office at the earliest. My railway pass was from Thane to VT and since Kalwa was a station away, I couldnt get into the first class compartment. Once the VT local arrived, and the general pushing and pulling started, I decided to forget what had happened, and jumped with the ferocity of a Mumbaikar at the 2nd class compartment, lunging from the princely 3 inch space on the footboard, till Thane, after which I boarded another local train to Currey Road. So in a matter of few hours I had been to Thana and Tthaaana(Police station in Marathi).

PS: 3 days later, I again boarded a train from Mulund (10 23 T Slow), to Thane. As the train stopped in Thane, I saw everyone get off except 2 people, me and an old guy who was inebriated. I suddenly asked the old guy, whether the train goes to VT in the return direction? He was too drunk to answer, and a kid who heard my question, nonchalantly said, "Arey Suna Nah Kya, Ye Train Car Shed Jaati Hain". Damn, WHY ME AGAIN, and a jump later, I was safely deposited on Thane station, while the old man and the train took of for the carshed. Dont know whether the old man, was financially worth the remunerative targets of the Big Boss, but I saved myself some time, money and went back wiser to never board a Thane local in the greed of getting a seat in the train.

Unintended Mis-Adventure

This morning, as I was preparing to run into the Mulund Railway station, from my auto, I noticed the trains that were coming into Mulund, from the electronic terminal. 10 04 F T caught my attention. This was a fast train to Thane, which would go to Thane and go back in the reverse direction to VT.

I was gleaming that I had strategically chosen the right train, than choosing the direct fast and slow locals to Byculla, which had idiots standing in the trains, hanging on for dear life. Once I got into the train, I called my fiance and was on the phone with her for a while. Thane had arrived, and the buzz and energy of people barging in was missing. I guessed that the energy was less, as the peak hour crowd had already gone in the locals between 8 and 10 am, and which sane corporate guy would take a post 10 am local to South Bombay? Anyway, I stopped thinking about all that, and proceeded to get more involved in the conversation on my mobile, and in a few minutes i noticed new virgin, bucolic landscape, next to a stream. In my 14 months at Mumbai, I had noticed such a landscape en-route work, so when I stared out of the window, I realised something was badly wrong. I kept the phone down and stood at the footboard examining where the train was going.

Thane seemed to be way behind, and the train was gaining speed. Did i misread the fact that it might have been a Kalyan/Ambernath Local? If that was true, I was damned big-time. Thankfully it wasnt. I spotted a couple of kids in the next compartment and found out that these kids were travelling to Kalwa, where the train car-shed was.

Now, the train's door was quite high for me to jump on the adjacent tracks, and jumping on the tracks wasnt an option when you never know, which train is buzzing round the curves on the central railway. Thirdly, I was scared. This daredevilry of jumping even on the grass between the tracks had no adventure written over it, as there was no life to claim, or princess to rescue or even show any bravado, so I decided to wait till the train reaches the card shed. That way I could also see how a car-shed looks. No use worrying about reaching office late. The rains are always there to blame!

As I jumped off the train, when the rickety train stopped in the shed, I met a young policeman, who was noting something down in a sheet. What could he be noting so carefully. There wasnt any consignment load coming in this train, just me and a bunch of kids who were there. Nor was he trying to figure out any complex equation that determined when the train would stop after applying the brakes.

The policeman asked me where I came from, what was I doing here and what I do for a living? I thought the guy was trying to socially network with a very grim face. I answer his questions quickly in 30 seconds, and thought I can find more about him sometime later. Now all that concerns me is the way to the next closest railway station.

Kartik- Station Kahan Hain Bhai, Mujhe wahan Jaldi Jana Hain

Policeman-1 - Station chalo mere saat

Kartik- Haan Haan chalo. Kitna Dur Hain?

Policeman-1 - Stares at me, and points his face towards a small shackish room.

After walking for 15-20 seconds, I realise that this was a police station and I look at him lividly and shout.

Kartik- Arre Bhai, Yahan Thodi Jaana Tha. Mujhe Railway station Jaana Tha...

The next part follows.....................

Need a Break!

Its been 4-5 months since I wrote regularly on my blog. After Twitter came, its made me more lazy and all I care is just to update on Twitter and Facebook. I need to get back to documenting a lot more of my thoughts. When I look back to the years 2002-2009, its a wonderful way of documenting all thoughts/and going back in time to see how life. My time spent on the internet and social applications has been less, and the Mumbaikar life has made me attach the biggest priority to sleep and holidaying.

Have come to Chennai this weekend, for a temple trip to Rameswaram. I suddenly feel , life in the last 1 year, has been fast and I need to catch up on a lot of things, just idle away time like the good old times. Hoping that this trip would go in some direction towards it. My dream would be to go on a laid back hedonistic trip around the world, to recoup from the stress of work, but again right now, nothing seems concrete. I just need a break. Lets hope Rameswaram is the first of those.

Need a Vacation

The last 2-3 months have been mentally and physically stressful. The competitive Mumbaikar life has made me tired. Even a small visit to the market gets me tired, sweaty and bored. I end up sleeping or working, and there hasnt been too much extra activity, apart from meeting known classmates/friends for lunch on weekends. There seems to be some constraint that keeps on putting the brakes on life. House electricity problems, clothes to be washed, kitchen plates to be cleaned, irritable colleagues at work. The list goes on! The constraints are so bad, that I have lost the spirit and energy of exploring and experimentating with things.

I badly need a long 10 day or more vacation. Whatever happened to my plan of chasing the monsoon! Will I ever get to chase it?

Attention Grabbing Tactics for a SIGN-UP on Myspace

Looks like some boss just said " JUST GET ME THE NUMBERS! " and this followed!

Restless

Restlessness is the one thng that has characterised my mood, for the better part of last month. I havent been able to manage time properly and devote to activities that wanted to. My new year resoutions are going nowhere. I need to take the courage to put the pause button in life and examine my goals, my expectations, my environment. I have never thought so seriously in the past 1 year, but am forced to now, because of a few changes in my life, neccisated by the mundanity of corporate life.

Restlessness is a state of mind, that wants to go out and do something, rather than be tied down, by the norms set by someone else. I am learning to be patient, laugh at my misery and silently watch a world that would do anything to get ahead.

So what is the antidote? Stability or some risk to get back adrenalin? Only time will tell. My gut says to go down the risky alley, even though there are cobwebs down the alley, the road it opens to is closer to the road, I had imagined.

Relaxed Weekend!

This was the first long weekend, I was in Mumbai. Have been out on trips every long weekend this year. Since my company also works on alternate saturdays(I know its a yucky feeling! ), even the saturday holiday that I get is a mild long weekend.

Here are a few images from the weekend.

Saw the IPL jersey's at the Reebok store in Mulund. Liked the KKR and RCB shirts. But being a chennai'ite, I decided to go with the yellow Chennai jersey. Somewhere in the back of my mind, KKR and RCB had 'loser' written all over it, but I would buy the jersey, especially the RCB one in a while.

Saw a community newspaper shed in Mulund (East). People can come and read the newspapers like a library. This is for people living in LIC colony. Nice initiative!

A more clearer view of the community newspaper library.

Friday morning, I decided to go visit the health center in my apartment, which I forgot conveniently after paying the cheque a couple of months back.

Thats my apartment health center. There's a cardio and weights section as shown in the image to the left and right. Right above is a billiards and table tennis centre. Flanking on its side is the swimming pool, which is a 4 ft pool, where beginners like me can practise getting drowned with little failure.

Swimming with sun in between the buildings and a view of the Mumbai skyline is a lovely feeling. This was shot very early in the morning, before the sun god spews and spits his rays. With IPL on, I dont have to compete for spaces in the pool in the evening, and in the morning, the kids in the summer break dont want to get up at 6 am. Time to cash in on the lack of crowd!

I was sitting the garden, on the swings reading a book. The fresh smell of wet earth as the gardener was watering the grass was heavenly. I decided to de-addict myself from the IPL to look at other things in life that I have hardly observed in the last few months.

Mad Life of a Madrasi in Mumbai

Every day when the alarm rings, I think its a song playing in the background in my dream. When the same song plays for 3-4 sequences, I realise that its actually my alarm. If its anywhere beween 6 05 am-6 30 am, I decide that its too late to get ready for the gym, as attending the gym, would then make me late to start. So I decide, that having lost out on the gym time, its time to borrow that, and add to the investment called sleep. At 7 am, I know that I cant prolong this further, and head to ablutions and the morning newspaper. I leave at 8 in the morning, and know that I cant delay any further. Here is where the madness starts

If I leave beyond 8 04 am, I may just make it for the 8 16 Thane Fast local, or just miss it by a whisker. The advantage in this train is that I may get a place to sit, if I rush and jump in as the train comes in to Mulund station. The oppurtunity cost of this local is that I miss close to 6-8 locals, and reach only by 9 40 to office as I have to wait for this train to go to Thane and then start towards the opposite direction.Next options are either to take the slow local or the fast local that drectly go towards CST.

Fast locals, come once in 7-8 minutes, and are intensely packed. My probability of getting in is 5%, as I need to compete with people who are overzealous to reduce commute time by a whole 20 minutes. I have to visualise myself jumping in, and incase I do, I do get hurt with some part of the body getting the bruise, but I manage to get the inchspace to stand like a statue for the next 30 minutes, till I reach Dadar. Its not about getting in, but to get in to the space between two seats, so that passerby's entering at other stations dont push you. In this mad rush, I either scratch my phone, wet my shirt with sweat all over, break my lunch box or break my watch, if the crowd after me builds in, and pushes against my back, as I invariably end up in a dead end of big fat arses. Having got in, I have no choice but to be a statue, where the only movement of the body, comes through breathing. My face ends up between the armpits of two sweaty corpulent men, who speak on which stock to invest. First class or 2nd class, doesnt matter. The density of people in the second class compartment is 3-4 times of the first class, which I use.

Sometimes I have no idea, which station is the train stopping in, as I am surrounded by people on all sides, and sunlight never manages to reach me. Sometimes, when I get the courage to reach for my mobile in my pocket, I do check my position via GPS, but otherwise I recognise that Dadar is approaching when the momentum builds in people like a volcano in a mountain. A major tsunami of people get out or get pushed out when Dadar approaches. The train is subjected to intense condensation when Dadar arrives and is similar to 'liberation' for a bunch of tightly bound cattle.

If I took the slow local from Mulund, I would get some space to stand, where movement can be seen in my body parts, and if I can push a few people into submission, I can even open ET or Mint and read the headlines a 100 times over. Not that I dont want to read further, but there is no space for folding or turning pages with your hand. The last time I tried, I knocked out the spectacles of a man, with my elbow. I gave up the quest of erudition, via headlines a while back, after fighting it tooth and nail to turn pages. Now I prefer the mobile version of news, if I manage a slow local.

After getting down at Dadar Central, I have to head to Dadar Western by competing with a million commuters, who are sweating in bucketfuls, after undergoing similar struggles in commuting. I board a local for Lower Parel, and then walk in the sun for about 15 minutes and reach office, exhausted and tired.

I repeat the same process during the evening 'super dense crushed load peak hour' (from 6 pm to 9 pm) and incase I have a bad day at work, the pressure and discomfort adds up and you still think I have a Life?

I dont intend to complain, but the everyday Mumbai Train adventure is taking a toll on my life and energy levels. Need to get some smiles back in life!

Weekend Trip-Part 5- Keri Beach

Weekend Trip-Part 4- Vengurla to Arambol-Keri

At the Sweet Water Lake on the Goan Coast.

GOA??? Wasnt I in Maharashtra during sunset? After we discovered at around 5 30 pm, that food might be a problem at Vengurla, We decided to explore the next beach, so a state transport bus from Vengurla market, took us to a town called Shiroda, and from Shiroda we reached Terekhol(border of Maharashtra). We took an evening(make that twilight) ferry and reached the other side, and had no other option but to take a taxi to civilisation-Arambol

Damage- 400 Rs

Next, we settled into German Bakery(Damage- 300 Rs), a room good enough just to park your electronic luggage. We then headed out for a dinner at "21 Coconuts Inn' for a candle lit dinner, which was briefly interrupted by the romantic tele-prescence of Vinay's boss. By the time we finished, both of us were tired, and we hit the sack by about 12 am, after a brief walk through the arambol market, hunting for medicenes(for my headache).

Next morning, we were up by 5 30 am, and I had a bath in the arabian sea, while I waited for Vinay to get ready. We started to cross arambol and came to the Sweet Water Lake beach. The sweet water lake was dry and it wasnt worth taking a dip there.

We saw a couple of nice portable boats cum tents. Looks like the Russians are all over(Little Zizou ishtyle). Only the Russians can be that adventurous, and after day dreaming about what a beautiful life those people must be having, and bitching about Indian corporate life, we set on to climb a huge hill, to reach Keri

While we were trekking, Vinay decided to take rest at a huge rock, and dozed of for a while, while gazing at the blue sky. It was a lovely feeling, dozing off and then waking up to the blue sky above as vision comes after a period of darkness. Try it some day!

The mountain had a bunch of bushes and thorns that we had to make way through to reach the other part of the mountain. Vinay, then decided that we follow the footsteps of the dogs that were rambling, as they knew the terrain much better than us. Better to rely on dogs than our mutiliated intelligence(thanks to the Corporate world).

Paradise Regained! Thats the view of Kerim beach- More coming in Part 5!

Weekend Trip- Part 3- Vengurla

Birdwatching on the Beach


Found a quiet abandoned hut of a fisherman. Invaded it for siesta purposes


Loved it so much that, Vinay and I were in the shade of the hut from mid-day to sunset on conversations around how evil corporate life is, and normal bickering that fresh B school passouts do in their quest of operating in an utopian scenario.

We had trudge through a jungle in the afternoon searching for people who could serve us lunch. Civilisation is not what strikes you when you hit Vengurla. So the price you pay for virginity in a location is the lack of civilisation for organising food.

Weekend Trip-Part-2- Sawantwadi to Vengurla

We went to the Sawantwadi bus stand to find a sleepy little minitown that was in no hurry to head to the coast. The coastal buses here go to either Vengurla, Kudal or Terekhol. We decided on Vengurla and sat in the bus to find a certain calm that was not present in the big cities.

The bus never had a fixed time of leaving, nor did the conductor seemed to have any fixed target on number of commuters. It was a happy little world that fortunately had no one with a dagger saying DEADLINES! People could stop the bus by just plonking their foot 2 steps on the road and that would be a bus stop. We were asking around a farmer on some observations we had on the fields as to why Hay was kept in stacks all over the fields. We heard from him that, it was food for his horses and animals, who were working on the fields. Nothing super duper, just that corporate life dulls your common sense!


We spotted this cute little wannabe Mexican kid, on the road to Vengurla

One needs to climb a small ascent to get to a ruined stone fort. Shot this from there. Alluring views of the azure waters and the palm/coconut trees.

How much must that be? 20 metres long and walkable in 20 seconds? NO... It was far longer than we expected and the water was close to 6-7 feet deep, during the high tide. Vinay decided to get inside and try out how quickly we could cross, as we had a laptop bag to ferry across. When he came back bleeding from the swim, we realised that the water was deep and had gorges and rocks inside, so we hired a small boat for 50 rs to help us cross to UTOPIA.

While on the boat, during the 10 minute ride, we played the oarsman, learning how to use the oars in the lake, with the fisherman also giving an insight into his life. The fisherman,during the monsoon, also doubles up as a mechanic to supplement the income, which goes on a downward spiral with rough seas and weather conditions. during such impulse trips, converations with the local people reveals a lot about the place, people, their customs, their lives, their motivations and then finally you are able to connect the dots between geography and history that lies dormant in your brain.

Weekend Trip- Part 1- Mumbai to Sawantwadi

There has always been this romance associated with unreserved and unplanned travel in trems of meeting new people, understanding their life story, and exploring lands already explored by well known travellers.. I set off on this trip alone, after office on last friday. At 7 15 pm, I decided to call it a day and head to Dadar Railway station for buying a 'unreserved' ticket from Dadar to Pernem. Now the best train to catch, to head to the konkan coast, would be Train number 6335, from the outskirts of Mumbai. When buying unreserved tickets in Mumbai, for travel north or south, the best place to buy it would be at the bigger railway terminuses like Dadar/VT/Bombay Central/Bandra Terminus/Borivali/Panvel. I tried buyinga a ticket from Lower Parel, but that is seemingly not possible and if you do head to the Dadar, you need to get it only from the counter on Dadar East.

Dadar-Pernem- 137 rs

Now after purchasing my tickets and realising that the 10 pm train at Panvel was a better option than the Konkan Kanya express, I decided to head to Mani's lunch home at Matunga and explore the combo that keeps every Tam guy worth existing- Ghee roast and filter coffee. After a short tiffen, I managed to find a taxi to Wadala Road station and took the local train to Panvel, which eased and ambled to Panvel by 9 30 pm, with the crowd being 1/1000th of what it was when I bullied people to head butt my way at Wadala road.

Once at Panvel, I removed the heavy bag I was carrying and allowed my shoulders to be free. The last 2 day's work out sessions had obviously made every sinew of my shoulder writhe in pain. I was feeling weak all of a sudden, whether I would have the energy to last the night braving the crowd in the unreserved compartment. But Today was Gudi Padwa, Maharashtrian new year, so every Mumbaikar was at home celebrating with family and if he was a travel freak, he would have left on Thursday night and not on Friday night, when I was leaving.

Just when my shoulders were groaning, I came across a short, dark man who seemed to be glancing into reams of paper. I guessed, he must be the TTE, and went and asked him if there was a possibility of getting a reserved seat. Today was my day, and given that quite a few states celebrated new year on Friday, nobody was competing with me on the train to Sawantwadi. The TTE charged me 200 rs extra for accomadating me in a middle berth, for me to lay me shoulders to rest.

Fine to the TTE- 200 Rs

I must have woken up every half an hour after 2 30 am, and finally decided to get up at 5 am, as the train was scheduled to arrive at Sawantwadi at 5 15 am. With everyone sleeping in the compartment, I couldnt rely on 'wisdom of the crowds' to get off, so I decided to take the plaunge of connecting the mobile phone GPS on my N-81, on Roaming(this combo guzzles the charge on your mobile). I was still a few kilometres from my destination, and so I decided to abandon my 2 foot space of the middle birth and stand at the footboard, allowing the morning chill winds to hit my face. After staring aimlessly at darkness, I saw that next to the toilet, there was a charging point and decided to charge my mobile phone. My friend Vinay, was to pick me up at the station. He had arrived the previous night after a sales visit to central Maharashtra. Vinay had brought an auto along and we drove to Sawantwadi town, which was 9 km's from the station. I hear that there is only 1 hotel near the sawant wadi railway station, and if you are caught up at the station, there's atleast a paid home to go to unlike stations in Goa( Pernem/Thivim/Karmali/Cancona).

We had breakfast in an udupi hotel, where the sun's rays had just pierced in at around 7 15 am. We tried to ask the hotel proprietor for breakfast at 6 20 am, but he was least interested in serving us, as words like 'customer', 'dhandha' are alien terms in this slowmoving,bovine and peaceful town.


Its not that you have too many options within a few minutes of the hotel opening. Whatever we asked for resulted in 3 items being suggested/reccomended. Upma,Sheera and Poha. We were in a mood for any thing, as long as it facilitated bowel movement and gave us a pleasant taste to make us feel good, while we saunter around the town.

The plate on the left is mine, which has Sheera(Yellow sweet) and Upma. Vinay is seen having Poha, which has become his favourite dish after he relocated to Mumbai.

The town reminded me of the faint little town of Malgudi, which had a sense of calm written all over it.

People are early to rise and discuss news with other people in the promenade of the lake.

For more updates, watch part 2 of the Blog, to be published soon

Other Images from Mumbai

Spellings get inventive! Spotted at my friend's Prakritish's apartment, when I went over to borrow " Weekend Breaks from Mumbai"



Vinay cramping himself between the 2 toilets of the unreserved compartment, during our Daman Trip


Notice the sign? Per Ass 5 Rs :-) . Found outside Lower Parel Railway station



Space Issues: Dozing between Toilets :-) Over time, this person had to vacate this luxury and further cramp up to catch on his winks in the night, atleast till the time we reached Vapi

Daman Again!

Last Tuesday was a holiday in Mumbai for some reason. Monday evening, I went from Mahalakshmi and met Vinay at Bombay Central and we decided to take the first train going north. We thought about Gholvad, but guess we missed out on the small station, and ended up in Vapi. We sat in the unreserved compartment and had some great conversations. I also got some time to catch up reading on Vagabonding.

This was near Nani Daman, and the ground reminded me of the AMI oval in Christrchurch, hexagonal in shape. Would have loved playing cricket at this old fort in Daman.

Daman has a portugese feel all over, pretty similar to Goa and Pondicherry.


That's the room where we stayed. Quite a plush room at 1000 Rs a Night. We thought it was good value for money.

I am attaching a Trip Cost sheet for people planning a trip to Daman

a) Ticket- 2nd class- unreserved- Bombay Central- Vapi- 50 Rs (192 kms)
b) Vapi- Daman Market (120 rs divided by number of people in the ambassador taxi)
c) Dinner (235 Rs for 2). Beyond 11 pm, the only place open is Ambica Bar where you get Veg and Non Veg food.
d) Travel from Bridge to Jampore Beach- 50 rs by Auto
e) Food at Chinatown Hotel- 250 Rs for 2. Thats the only hotel there
f) 15 sku's of sugarcane juice and coconut water- 200 Rs
g) Return Train to Mumbai- (Valsad - Mumbai passenger) 25 Rs

Simple Life!

I have watched "Baaton Baaton Mein" twice over the week, and I really wish, my life was simple and enjoyable like it was in the movie. The places where the movie was shot seems to be around Bandra,Khar and Santacruz. Sometimes the best places to stay in Mumbai seem to remain the western suburbs near the sea. It shows Tina Munim and Amol Palekar frequenting a lesser crowded bandstand in those days, and the beauty of bandstand(Bandra West) still remains the same. Loved the walks I had in the rains across bandstand, beautiful place to saunter around an evening!

Enjoy the songs, that I keep humming, as I step on the 0816T fast local to Byculla.

Promises!

Sometimes boredom doesnt quite hit you, if you have enough activites to keep yourself busy. Right now, I have quite a few travel books to complete. My Book list is as follows

1) Holy Cow
2) Ladies Coupe
3) Vagabonding

I hear tommorow is holi, and we get a day off at work. I, being a south indian have never experienced holi festival until last year, when at GL, my classmates caught hold of me, changed my face colour, put me in the coloured gutter water and tore my shirt. That was one crazy revelry and I hear in Mumbai, its all the more severe. It will be good to experience it.

Defining Work

 

Is worklife all about climbing such mountains over and over again?

Rewind Time!

Happened to stumble upon an old interview. I guess I miss doing these mobile phone content shows.Time to get some excitement into life.


Interview with Mr S.Ramakrishnan,Indian Cricket Team Computer Analyst, PART-1 from Katchu21 on Vimeo.

Part 2


Interview with Mr S.Ramakrishnan,Indian Cricket Team Computer Analyst, PART-2 from Katchu21 on Vimeo.

Part 3

26 going on 27

Its hard to believe that age as a statistic comes to haunt you. I cant believe I am 26 already..err entering my 27th year of existence. I feel like a teenager(albeit a worn out one!). But a birthday is a good time to reflect back on childhood and the memories assosiated with distributing chocolates at school. There were times I bought 2 sets of chocolate packs. One for the school and one for the apartment folks. But now that tradition has gone. I dont even know who my neighbours are in my Mumbai apartment, nor do I feel like dstributing sweets and chocolates at office. Its become a ritual at work over the years when a cake is cut in celebration and you know that somebody is going to aim at your nose/face. I enjoyed it most during the 2005 and 2006 birthdays, since then the novelty factor has gone away, as I have never cut cakes during my engineering college. At B school, I was saved a mauling, as I was ill for 5 days from 19th to 23rd February. This year, I really dont know. There's been a lot of work, and so I have become numb to react to any kind of situation. just do three things in Mumbai- TRAVEL,WORK,SLEEP. Life is stale and needs some activity post work.

I was looking back at how some of my birthdays went over time

Check it if you have the time(Its a repost from an earlier Blog)


First Quarter Results

Stock Name- Kartik Kannan
Fund Name- February 21
Alternate name- Birthday
Type of business- From cakes and candles to expensive hotel treats

Below is a ledger account of the transactions in the first quarter of my life for the fund called-Birthday

Feb 21 over the years

1983 : Your's truly was born at 4 am in Hyderabad

1988 : I remember celebrating my birthday for the first time,as I wanted the typical conical cap,pink ribbons just like it was in the movies ...and lo! it did happen,thanks to mom and dad with a pineapple cake to boot...and of course a lovely greeting card from my grandfather all the way from Nanganallur to Delhi. The guests for my birthday were only 2 people, My Mom and Dad :-) . I also remember going to Man Mandir in R.K.Puram Delhi for the archanai and puja..that one normally performs .

1989: Spent a 'quiet' birthday not even distributing chocolates as I could'nt eat chocolates during that period,as I had my tooth broken by a punjabi classmate in a mock boxing contest. GRRRRRR.......I shouldnt have watched the boxing contest shown on"The world this week" the previous night.

1990: Again a quiet birthday,but the last one while in school at Delhi, remember being gifted "THE OCTPOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA" by Archana, my dad's colleagues daughter.

1991: This time the birthday happened and so did a small party in my adayar home in Chennai, with all my 2nd floor friends coming into wish me birthday wishes.Life in an apartments was so cool, with me getting to be the centre of attention. After the birthday party got over, I kinda felt bored, so decided to play "Robber and Police" with me taking the self proclaimed privilege of captaining the "Police" team.

1992: Birthday was spent flirting with a cute bengali chick called Swati Bukyalkar ...and creating my own colours in felt pens..in what I felt would be the Indian uniform for the 1992 Cricket World Cup..which was to start the next day.Damn....I behaved as if I never knew tamil and I knew only hindi, just to give her the feeling that we have a similar background, and this helps in "cementing" the bond. But to be frank, I actually know better Hindi than Tamil, even now

1993: After being tired of buying conventional t shirts and shorts, I decide to have an unusual birthday present and decide to paint my own T shirt..with the letters INDIA in front and KARTIK behind..which for the next couple of years made people stare at me.Those were the days when cricket fever was at its max,and I would play cricket with that shiirt, have coloured pads on my leg, apply my mother's fair and lovely cream to resemble the White Zinc cream that cricketers(especially the australian bowlers)used to have when playing cricket.


1994: was in 7th standard... and spent the birthday quietly giving chocolates to my close friends and started a new ritual , the namaskaram to my grandparents which started to be firstsourcce of big time pocket money...of 100 bucks during my birthday.

1995: First time , somebody treated me on my birthday...my mother and I were taken by my mother's sister's folks to a place called Nilgiri's nest for a dinner and I dont seem to really eat so much then..and decide to finish the dinner as early as possible and get back home to have a early snooze as I need to wake up at 2 30 am the next day to watch the India vs Australia one day match to be played at Dundedin in the New Zealand Cricket Centenary

.1996: It was called Cricket's greatest year by Prime sports (now Star Sports)..and it sure was.I remember giving a treat for the first time after my friends at school literally forced me into giving one .... the treat was 60 bucks worth of samosas,pepsi,puffs among 4 people and I felt like I was a millionare giving away Charity.On my birthday which happened to be my nandhee...(a ritual which is done a day before the upanayanam) I sleepily got up and saw water heater warming the water near the bathroom and sleepily felt my hand into the water to see how hot the water was , totally unoblivious of the water heater and lo....got the first electric shock of my life.Those days the Coke,Pepsi cans were the "in -thing" and with the world cup on .... I decided to treat my cousins to some Coke ..and bought three coke cans ...and had a crazy hobby of collecting many empty soft drink cans...to showcase on my cupboard that I had drunk all of these..and treasured them as if they were vignettes meant to be preserved.This birthday was all the more enjoyable as the whole family was at my place , during my upanayanam and nobody moved out to the kalyana mandapam,untill the India -West Indies match at Gwalior was over.


1997 : Again one of those really cool birthday's spent at Besant nagar beach with my close friends and when I was short of cash my friend B.C.Ram pitched in some of his money to pay up the bill...

1998: This was spent just going to the temple and drowning myself in my CBSE text books as the public exams were nearing.

1999: A very quiet birthday, with half the people forgetting in my family as it was overshadowed by my cousin's housewarming ceremony in suburban Madipakkam.


2000: Again another birthday lost in the din of the class 12 Board exams.All I do is take a darshan at a temple before sleeping into my science text book.

2001: 18 till I die !!! This was the song I heard in the morning on my walkman ...as I turned 18 that year and in typical rebelious fashion...I didnt want to go home and go to the temple and have a quiet birthday.I got off my college bus ......simply roamed around alone....walking across the whole of adayar,with my walkman to my ears ... feeling the self glorified fact that I am no more a kid after turning 18.

2002: Birthday treats become more localized and outsourced...as I treat my friends by asking them to come to a symposium at Hindustan engineering college and enjoy the lunch there.

2003: My first major hole in the purse...treat classmates to a huge bill at Pizza corner in Chennai. ( I think it was Achut and Sudhir, who came that day, while watching Sachin and Saurav pummel 100's against hapless Nairobi n the 2003 world cup)

2004:My first birthday spent all alone ..in Pune ... as I Go there for an interview for the MBA program at Symbiosis and treat myself to a Maharshtrian special called SPDP (Sev potato dahi papdi ).First birthday I discover the pain and joy of being alone in a big city.The pain being my health was bad then,and joy being ..Pune was BABE LAND ....

2005: I give three rounds of treats to my college friends, Close friends and then Infy friends at the Dominos outlet in Infosys Chennai and learn how easy it is to get swayed by emotions in giving multiple treats only to see that the bank account is damaged to an extent :- )

2006:Had a blast in office.They give me an impromptu birthday party.Spent the better part of the evening analysing targets and projections for the next month.I was cursing my stars,that the best part of the evening was spent drowning myself in mundane excel sheets.

2007:Damn the whole birthday eve had been spent in deleting the 100 odd spam mails I have recieved requesting for my credit card number to buy VIAGRA and CIALIS at their discounted 4.65$ rate. Thankfully, there's no invitation from a credit card agency to consider me worthy of their next credit card scheme.I was planning an outing, but am reconsidering because all these treats these days for birthdays do not have any outlet for talking and spending a good time remembering the good ol days ...but just a eating fest where people gorge at your expense...and after finishing a heavy meal... they remember to wish me along with all the burps and belches.People and friends start expecting treats in bigger and more posh hotels as the pay cheque increases....but according to me , the star status of a hotel hardly matters.As long as you are able to enjoy the day and are able to feel special on that day with your friends, it hardly matters where you have food at udipi hotel or chola hotel.I realize this , my friends dont .... :- )Ask me and I would love to spend time just sitting on the bench of a railway station or the beach eating groundnuts with masala.Nothing equals the that joy.... and simple arrangement where one is able to converse a lot with his special friends and also enjoy the day.

2008: At home, with fever. Only the messages remind me that its my birthday

2009: An sms, a few orkut wishes and a call later, I am planning to hit the sack. Though I'd like to take time out with friends today, a pile of office work stares at me. If I can leave at 6-7 pm, then I shall decide on some quiet place to spend time with some friends.

Panting for Breath!

I notice whenever I run a little fast for more than 20 seconds, I pant and I struggle to breathe. I feel I just need to rest for a long while to get my breath back. I feel the same happening with corporate life. Right now, even though the running generates a sense of excitement, its the moments when I pant,  that a lot of questions hit me. Do I mutely ignore and start running or do I spend more time waiting for breath to catch up? 

I feel I know where the answers will come from, but I just dont want to face the answers, as the questions itself seem to have made me uncomfortable. 

Conventional life is boring, and when you try and break away from the routine, there's always something at the back of your mind asking you to return back to your convention. 

I guess I will go through such moments as I am slowly getting exposed to the realities of life. The time for pausing life  just got over, time to hit the play button and RUN home.... Byculla-Thane Fast Local chalo chalo!