Musicallying yours...

The harmonious combination of the melodies from different mediums brought together has always captured the attention of man. We have been rendered immobile just to listen to a tantalising tune and if it is one that has caught our fancy then we would go to the earth's end to make it ours for hearing. The passion we have for music is evident in the different ways we have today to store, listen and enjoy our music.

When talking about music I remember an incident that happened when I was in school, the teacher was taking a chapter on music and pulled me up to ask what my favourite genre of music was. I was not that interested in music  so answered that I didn't like it. That was a statement that changed when I got home and told the same to my father who immediately pulled out a few of the cassettes(yes, those rectangular plastic disks with two spools and film) lying around and made me listen to it, it was a few country tracks... listening to the sultry tone of the singer accompanied by the guitar immediately caught my attention and since then been an ardent fan of the genre. 

After that day I have been in the search of the medium that best captures the soul of a song and brings the closest rendition of the song.  During my vacations post that day, staying with my aunts whose husbands were collectors of music,  I was slowly becoming interested in music.  Listening to the crooning of most of my families preferred musician all vacation, come the next academic year,  I had to get to school and get exposed to the genre that youngsters listen to.  Hard Rock,  rock.  This was the time of Walkmans and my classmates were lugging around cassettes of their favourite singers. For a while i liked listening to if but lost interest in it due to the loudness and the  fact that the lyrics seem to be lost with the music. Those were the days when I discovered elvis and micheal jackson. That love still stands and a lot more have been added to the list since. Once the singers were in place then came the time for the medium, what were you going to listen to these singers on? Coming from a family of music lovers the source was not a problem so much as the money needed for buying either cassette or LP's the two available mediums. It was mostly cassettes and the little bug of LP's at the back on my mind. 

Cassettes soon gave way to audio Cds and then it was a mad rush to see how to get my hands on cds and a discman. The wait was long and when I did get a discman the audio cds were slowly giving way to the new kid on the block, mp3. This was a format that compressed the file allowing one to store music by the hundreds on a cd when audio cd was having about 10 to 16 songs maximum. While this was going on my grandmother gifts me with an old hifi music system that was lying around and needed repair.  After plenty of running around I fix it and now was on the lookout for LP's. When kids my age was running behind cd's I was looking of for lp's. This search had me scour several markets in metros for the elusive lp's.  Slowly by slowly I start  building my collection, which since has grown to over 400 odd.
My joining a company in Madras was what got me into a lot of lp's, and still today i grab ones that catch my  fancy.  Starting from that humble player that my grandmother gifted I have over the years acquired several hifi players each an upgrade of the earlier. When i say upgrade i really am not an expert in any way but luckily have some friends who have been very helpful in aiding me get the best there is in the second hand market.
Second hand you may wonder,  well apparently the old player do have a lot to offer and are better built than several latest players and just in case you are wondering hasn't technology gotten better,  yes it has and so has the cost which make almost all the good brands and technology out of reach. Will one day get my hands on or but till then my tryst with music will continue unhindered and hopefully grow to newer genres and lead to discovering good artists. 

A highway saga; Part 2 - Trailblazing to the city of joy

Post arrival in Bangalore and a few days spent with family and friends the day to head out again dawns close. A day prior to starting was spent with giving the car a rundown in terms of checking whether there is anything amiss and also looking at or asking google-ammachi on the best route to take or looking at alternate routes that will reduce the travelling time and the distance by any small number. A lot of permutations and combinations it was decided that we will head to Hyderabad and then make my way to Vijayawada continuing onwards to Vishakapatanam via NH-16. While that was sorted we stocked up on a few necessities like water and snacks and also the next days lunch and retired for the night.

The day of the journey dawned bright and early. Clear skies and a traffic free Bangalore provided a good start but soon after leaving the outskirts of Bangalore we get overcast skies and the highway looms ahead of us dusty and deserted dotted by a few trucks and even fewer cars. As we started early we made good time and our stomachs grumbled for food. It is then that you get hit by a strange thought, Any traveller in the south is spoilt for choice when it comes to roadside eateries and restaurants, we hardly get to see any in the time we have travelled and soon it became a game, similar to the popular Where's Waldo, to spot a good restaurant.

Managing to make do with a small dhaba we carry on and suddenly post Penugonda the road signs turn into a foreign south eastern language and this had us perplexed even further.

Apparently this is around the place where the new Kia Motors is setting up its manufacturing plant and for this the entire region is painted Korean. We carry on with nothing to hinder the journey and soon decide to change the route once we reached Kurnool and as google-ammachi points out a shorter route through a sanctuary we fall for and head that way. Bad call as the rate was single laned through several villages, and deep gutters by the road with motorists happily trying to push you into those while they hog the road. Strenuous and try to keep ones cool negating this stretch is sure to bring one to a breaking point. After a good half a day of this night falls and we are no where near Vijayawada let alone Vishakhpatnam. In the dark we rely solely on google-ammachi's direction and pretty soon the roads narrow down as we go further till a point where we are actually driving thorough the backyards of villages startling a few women as they are washing their utensils. Desperately hoping for a wider road we see that in 2kms we will be hitting NH 16.

As we get on the wet tarmac we heave a sigh of relief and pick up pace trying to hit Vishakhpatnam. Ha high hopes we have just hit Guntur! We speed through the highway and hit Vijayawada deciding to camp for the night and hit the road early next day.

The next day we set off early and head towards Calcutta and determined to cover good ground. That was not the case to be as the weather and the conditions of the roads deteriorated and we had to check our speed so as to avoid any accidents and damage to the car. The weather was so bad that it was pouring cats and dogs and a lot of canals by the road was full to the brim and on the verge of overflowing with cops trying to regulate traffic and our ever present google-ammachi giving us directions. Directions on the highway, hmmmmm, not a wise decision as we were to learn later.

A few hours past Vijayawada as we had google-ammachi on, suddenly we were asked to get off a perfectly good highway to another route to reach Rajahmundry. This new road was in such bad shape that it took us post lunch to get to Vishakhpatnam again loosing out on time due to bad roads. With still a thousand kilometres to Calcutta we stop for a breather and a good stretch at a milestone that said 1000kms to Calcutta.

We blaze our way to Vishakhpatnam once again falling for the whims and fancies of google-ammachi and deviating quite a bit before actually making a rush for Bhubaneswar. We get there at a decent hour and manage to get a good place to stay and spend the night there in the hopes of getting up early and hitting the road again.

Early the next day we make our dash to Calcutta, Enroute encountering the strangest of speed barriers. While the states in the south use metal boards on wheels to check the speed of vehicles the state of Orissa has found an ingenious way of doing the same while making best use of a sacred animal. They use the thousands of wandering gomathas to do the job for them. These beast happily enjoy a very sedate life and treat the road as their pastures in a way ensuring cars, trucks and buses don't exceed the speed limit and the drivers stay alert so as to not hit god forbid a wandering cow. Holy cow! What an idea.

Apart from this little nuisance we are able to hit Calcutta just in time for the office. Trailblazing our way from the southern tip of India to the eastern city of Calcutta, or as they say today Kolkata, the city of joy!

(A note of advice stock up on a lot of water, juice and snacks as there are very few places on the NH 16 post Vijayawada that has a decent place to eat or rest. This is incase you don't mind roughing it out in the wayside dhabas that dot the scenery and drink the local water. Also there are a few cafe coffee days that offer a good loo so in case you see one do stop and refresh yourself cause you never know when you will find another decent loo.)

A highway saga; Part 1 - A narrow escape

The month of August proved to be testament of the people's fate in the small state of Kerala. This small state I call home faced one of its biggest natural calamities in the form of heavy rains and reading of the same only didn't quite put it all into perspective.

On my way to Trivandrum i was happy that i will be returning back to Calcutta driving my humble Ford Figo and the anticipation of the drive had a permanent smile on my face. Leaving Calcutta on a Monday I land in a relatively dry Trivandrum airport and head home nothing unusual about it. On reaching home I chat with family and retired for the day. The next day dawned dark and overcast. It has been raining cats and dogs ever since. As my car was not in use for several month and inspite of having it serviced ten days ago the mechanics failure to disconnect the battery post parking it back home had drained the battery almost fully and the car refused to start. A phone call to my mechanic assured me that he will have someone come and check the battery immediately as i was schedule for a noon start. The continuous pouring ensured that the person coming to me got in only late in the afternoon by which time I had decided to change the battery in foresight of the drive to come. Getting everything set and ready we were geared to head off on the first leg of our journey by road to Calcutta.

In the evening I head to my native place Kanjirapally through Ranny and Erumely, a route that i normally take as its a lot faster and also less traffic due to the winding roads. As we speed through the night and as it was dark and raining we hardly had any concept of what was happening around us as we ford on through our journey. It was only till we read in the next days newspaper about the true devastation that followed only an hour or two post my arrival at Ranny.

The entire town was submerged in water.

We stick to our plan and we leave kanjirapally, and head to Kochi, before continuing on to Bangalore. An uncle of mine, had missed his flight as it got cancelled ( due to the flooding in Cochin International Airport) and he had rebooked his ticket from bangalore, had left earlier that day through the same route I was planning on taking and we were getting a very comfortable report of the route so we decide to start a bit later than planned. 

This proved to be a bad call as all through the journey we cross streams flowing on the road and every now and then not to risk being bogged down in a deep puddle of water we take a detour. These detours offer us a glimpse of the unparalleled Beauty that we miss as we zip through the little villages and head straight for our destinations. The highways cut through the landscape in an effort to save us some time that would be lost negating the traffic of the hamlets and the small towns that make up a district or a place. At times even I am in favour of the highways but it would definitely be worthwhile taking a longer route once in a while to check out what we other miss in our hurried run from point A to point B. Although today was beautiful it also was sad to see that most of the land was submerged in water. Lands that a few days back were paddy field, farm lands and the lively hood of the farmers.

The people of these little villages were out in full swing aiding the motorists in either trying to navigate through a deep puddle or giving the ones who didn't want to risk getting bogged down directions to an alternate route to get to the other side of the puddle / stream that blocked the road.

A lot of twists and turns, through a lot of little Hamlets, we finally got the arterial Highway. From there on it was a smooth ride to Bangalore with little trouble. This was an experience that was truly a test of one's patience and also resolve in finding ways to get to a destination. Also thanks to the umpteen times a stranger offered help and for all the prayers for a safe journey.

Eco friendly 4x4

A pre-requisite 8hr charging leads one to about 1 hour of utter bliss if you are a 4x4 fanatic.

Growing up around farms and jeeps gets you addicted to jeeps and their utilitarian purpose in a very deep sense. In a farm a jeep is a total work-horse, in the city its a style statement. Showing up to a venue is a car thats dirty is considered as a sign of laziness, but show up in a 4x4 is considered as a sign of being macho or as an outdoorsman. 

4x4 is an expensive and adventurous sport. The fact that if you cannot spend too much on getting advised its better you start learning how the mechanisms work and try to do the repairs yourself. Well post that, there is another option for enjoying the fun of 4x4 and not spending a bomb on the repairs if you are careful, the art of RC 4x4!

4x4 as a hobby has become a new fad with a lot of people taking this up and not wanting to burn a hole in their pockets. All said and done this is a inexpensive hobby compared to the actual sport of 4x4 but expensive when it comes to the realm of RC hobbies.

When we are growing up the affluent kids had cars that were radio controlled and the middle class had cars that were remote controlled but attached by a wire from the car to the remote. The allure of getting the former was utmost in every kids mind. Now with the advent of globalisation we are getting a toy that has given rise to a hobby that not only teaches but also lets you enjoy the thrills of going off road.

How you ask? Well the toy works very much like the actual jeep with suspensions and drive motors. The axles and the drive shaft makes you understand the actual working of a jeep which you otherwise won’t be able to look under an actual jeep. A radio controlled car will allow you to do the same stuff that you can do with an actual jeep but in a smaller version. So little pebbles for cars are big boulders for the RC 4x4. This will let you know all the articulation of the suspension for the RC 4x4. 

So getting the RC to climb a heap of stones will give you the feel of actually crawling up a mountain getting the thrill of it but not in danger of any bodily harm.

A tryst with Travancore history - The Legend of De Lannoy

There are a million stories in every place on earth and each unique in its own history and culture. We often need to bypass the beaten track and explore the not so explored avenues to be regaled to tales of heroism, betrayal, determination and success to name a few adjectives. Often we find comfort in looking at destinations that are a million miles away failing to fathom that a fascinating story lies just round the corner to where you stay.

The chance rendezvous with a very old friend put a little idea in my head to find out more about a guy called De'Lannoy. My friend had a different thought on the matter and his one line was, "think of a man imprisoned in a foreign land and later had to fight against the very people he grew up with".  Hmmm. Now this got me thinking on the kind of person this was and what is the story behind the person. Getting a fair estimate as to where this happened I return home with one nagging thought. De'Lannoy! Now like the North Indians like to say, its a Keeda that won't go away.

Sitting up late into the night and reading up on De'Lannoy a lot of new developments come to light. To name a few; he was a Dutch admiral, he fought in the Battle of Colachel, he lost the battle and was taken prisoner by the Travancore army, he joined the Travancore army, thought the Travancore army to think like the Europeans and build counter measures to ward of enemy attack, regrouped the entire Travancore region of the then King Marthanda Varma, loyal to the last and breathed his last in the very soil that he fought for, lost and united. This was the story of the Admiral in a nutshell.

The very next morning being a Sunday provided a perfect opportunity to head out and visit the tomb of this famous Admiral. Stopping and asking for directions at every juncture brought me to the famed Padmanabhapuram Palace. This famous palace is unique in two senses; one its merged with a lot of traditional styled Kerala and European architecture and two its been a place that a lot of us have seen portrayed in a plethora of movies in the late 80's and early 90's. Facing the palace gates I ask the guards to the route to Udayagiri Fort. The guards guide me to a little gully just right for a single car and ask me to go on for about a kilometre and a half and turn left. Taking the directions i head to the fort. This fort is in the State of Tamil Nadu while the more famous palace is under the Govt. of Kerala.

As instructed I reach a the granite walls of an old fort. The walls are maintained well which is encouraging but on entry you realise that its only the wall that remain and most of the rest has been destroyed, plundered and looted over the centuries. Although that was to be expected and decided upon earlier as the previous days plotting and prodding had prepared me for this and the only thing I was interested upon was the tomb of Eustachius De Lannoy.

Why would one who was the most trusted captain in the Travancore army stay away from the main Palace complex? Well we have to remember that the year is 1741 and the cultural practices prevalent at the time was that of caste differentiation and De Lannoy being a Christian was not allowed to stay in the Palace complex. The Captian although did not have a problem staying in the Udayagiri Fort and he constructed for the few Christian people a church in the premises and it was within this church  that the venerated captain was laid to rest.

Starting from the beginning, what brought De Lannoy to India? The Dutch who were the first to come to India enjoyed a very profitable trade relation with the state of Kerala for spices, especially Pepper. Pepper even today known as Black Gold was brought at a pittance in India and sold several times over in Europe. When Marthanda Varma ascended the throne he started making reforms within the state and these reforms effected the areas of Kayamkulam, Alapuzha, Cochin to a large extent. These were the kingdoms that were the trading points for the Dutch. Sensing this the Dutch governor from Sri Lanka had a few meetings with the King asking for changes to these states. This infuriated the king and he annexed the kayamkulam kingdom and asked the Dutch to stay out of the affairs of the state. The Dutch governor went against the Kings advise and instilled the former princess to the throne of Kayamkulam. This was the last straw in the kings patience and he declared war against the Dutch. The dutch Governor sent in an armada led by Admiral De Lannoy to secure their interests in the Kingdom.

De Lannoy landed in Colachel and he was met by the Travancore forces and was ultimately defeated and taken prisoner in what is today known as the Battle of Colachel in 1741. This battle is significant because this was the first battle we won against a European country long before our fight for independence against the British. After this battle to commemorate the victory the Travancore ruler erected a victory pillar that to this day stands on the spot the battle was fought in. Every year on 31st July the Army Comes to the spot and celebrates this victory.

We should have just taken a cue from this battle on what was to come and probably had a better and more developed nation.

Getting back to De Lannoy, after the battle the admiral was imprisoned and the King realising valour of the admiral in battle invited him to join forces with the Travancore army and be free. The admiral accepted and thus began his work with the Travancore army. He led to many reforms in strategies for battle of the Travancore army. teaching them more advanced fighting techniques and also lead to the construction of a wall much like the great wall in present day Cochin. Vestiges of which are probably around. This wall was one of the major factors for deterring the advancement of the army of Tipu Sultan to the south after having conquered the Malabar regions.

De Lannoy also brought about changes in the armaments used in war and also did construct several forts and fortifications around the kingdom at vantage points. All this earned him the trust of Marthanda Varma. De Lannoy fought several wars and it would just make us sit back and wonder exactly what my friend had wondered which brought me to search for the story of a brave admiral Eustachius De Lannoy who came a Foreigner, became a native and fought against foreigners for a foreign king.

Eustachius De Lannoy's Tomb

A fort built by De Lannoy, used as a hospital

Victory Pillar erected after the battle of Colachel

Tryst with history on a Pleasant Sunday

The day started very late due to the exhaustion and early schedule of the previous day. A colleagues marriage and strange as it may seem everyone was going for it, but at odd times and that made everyone fend for themselves.

I decided to drive the engagement and along the way picked up a good friend and set off. Deciding on the route was a bit of a hassle as the main highway to the place was being done up and this lead to innumerable blocks... The other two routes had different problems, the one through Kovalam and Poovar was just to narrow albeit a good stretch of Tarmac and the second option through Neyyatinkara was winding and at places presents huge potholes. 

Well the dilemma solved itself when another colleague who was driving down took that road and asked me to follow saying its a breeze to get to the venue. Ah the venue, well it's a little town on the very border of Kerala and Tamil Nadu called Parasala. So close to the border that the road sometimes acts as the border separation between the two states. Having heard much about this place it was but a matter of time before I found myself hitting this little town. 

The road through Neyyatinkara was indeed a good stretch and provided the much need drive through the little hamlets that dot the entire winding way and much to the delight of my co-passenger who grew up in some of the hamlets and have a lotta friends in the remaining hamlets. Being regaled with anecdotes on every place is just the best way to go on a drive. Little did I know that the day will be one in which I will be walking down the lanes of history with the maharajas of Kerala.

 We are just about to hit the town of Parasala when a signage shows that padmanabapuram Palace is just over 10kms from Parasala. Like we normally collect and store information I too sorted this bit at the back of my mind and focused on getting directions to the engagement. With a little help from my other colleagues it manage to hit the function at just the right time and was immediately rush for an early lunch.

The function got over before you have the thought to blink and in no time found myself sitting comfortably in from of a coconut leaf laid out with a lavish sadhya. For those of you who are not familiar with what a Sadhy constitutes, it's a lavish spread for lunch a signature style of eating in Kerala. It's a typical vegetarian four course meal that initially consists of a plantain leaf served with bananas deep fried, bananas deep fried with jaggery, salt, ginger pickle, mango pickle, a dish made with bottle gourd, one with coconut and peas, a mixed vegetable dish called avial, another one with pulses and pumpkin and a few other dish whose ingredients I can only image but for sure have coconuts in it. 

The first course is where a little rice is eaten with dal and ghee, after this comes the same process but instead of dal it's sambhar, then suddenly they pour payasam into the leaf and this is fooled by poli(besan dough stuffed with coconut) and vermicelli payasam. Just when you thought that you are done out comes the rice and a gravy made with pineapple, this is then followed by rice and rasam. Apparently the saying is that the course followed by dessert is to combat drowsiness. How far that is true is debatable but that's the saying.

It's after lunch that the road sign earlier filed to the back of my head comes forward and the nagging starts, "why not go visit the Padmanabapuram palace?". On asking a few locals they all suggest it's a good idea and worth a visit. That was the much need nudge and off we set for the Padmanabapuram palace.

The roads broaden once you enter Tamil Nadu, yes this palace is in another state but belongs to the archeology department of Kerala and the Kowdiar Palace in Trivandrum. The palace and grounds initially occupied around 186 acres but has substantially reduced after the state boundaries were drawn and is currently down to 6 acres. The Padmanabapuram Palace is actually a palace complex of 11 palaces, each built over a period of time. The oldest would date to the 16th century till in 1795 when the then king Rama Varma, shifted the capital of the Travancore kingdom from Padmanabapuram to present day Thiruvananthapuram. 

Reaching the city of Padmanabapuram you are faced with parking issues as there is no parking within the palace grounds and have to park outside paying a hefty fee of ₹50/-. Then you head into the palace and have to purchase entry tickets of ₹35/- for indian citizens and ₹ 50/- for mobile cameras or cameras. By the time we reached the palace we had to wait another hour for the counter to open as it was lunch time and the complex will only open by 2pm. With nothing to do we hang around the entry grounds doing what everyone one else was doing in the complex, the national past-time of the present generation - selfies. 

You enter the complex to a room that is a welcome relief from the hot sand to the cool flooring of the palace. The flooring is exceptional as it's made of a mixture of limestone powder, egg shell, rice husk powder and dye. With temperatures in the 30's the inside felt like it was in the 20's. The walk across the floor felt like a proper marble floor and the hall felt just right for receiving visitors. From there you go up past a framed Onam invitation. It's so big and bulky made of wood with carving of the deity seen in the Padmanabaswamy Shetram in Trivandrum, lead you to wonder, hmmm, invitation that king size! Just when you think that's the most you are up a steep wooden ladder to the first floor and into the main meeting hall of the king and his ministers. The exquisite wooden chairs and the China seat for the king is just the perfect setting in a room with 11 killivadhals ( small windows that open to let the air in) and ornate wood work.

From the meeting room you go down four steps to a huge hall which has beams running down the centre of the hall in regular intervals. This huge hall and a mirrored one below are the dining halls. It's so long and wide that it can comfortably seat 1000 people at a single time multiply it by two for the hall below and you get to feed over 2000 people in one shot. 

Moving on from the dining hall you proceed to the dance hall where the Kings used to watch the different performers and artists at work. This then leads to the very first palace. It's here you find an entire pillar made of the wood of a jack fruit tree. One that  holds the entire design together... From here on in the palace is one that you can identify with Kerala architecture and the wood work and the intricate designs blend well with each other to satisfy the expression to live king size.

From here to the guest house for visiting dignitaries you find a long corridor/passageway that opens to the street. This was were the accounts were taken and also housed the royal offices. The end of this had a very elaborate jharoka designed to resemble the seat atop an elephant. This is where the king sat to talk to subjects and listen to their problems. This then lead to another cool passageway adorned with paintings and art leading to the guest house for visitors. 

The Kerala kings were considerate enough to make some rooms take on the European design elements for the visiting dignitaries and thus aiding in a very cordial relationship with the foreign merchants and promoting trade getting the moniker, land of spices.  Even today this co-existence is evident as you can find a malayalam speaking gentleman in all parts of the world and of course existing in harmony. 

From the guest houses to the palace of the uncles where you find a massage parlour just above the steps leading to the bathing pond or kolam. You enter where they rest, store money and listen to music why there's even a bedroom all around an open centre courtyard. Ah what glory and bliss.

From the palace of the uncle the trails take you through the royal kitchens, massive in their dimensions giving you a glimpse at what the working kitchen would have been like and yes to wonder how many people it tools to prepare food for over two thousand people.  After the royal kitchen comes an area where the Kings would sit to enjoy a grand dance performance right in front of a quaint little temple. This dance floor is pictured in a very famous malayalam movie since then translated to several languages called manichitrathazhu.  The little bird windows adjacent to the dance floor is meant for the royal ladies to enjoy the performance and still not seen. This is typical all over the country as many a fort and palaces I have been to have latticed windows called jharokas for just the same purposes. 

After this you are back out of the palace through a much smaller but no less grand a gate. Once outside you are exposed to the blare of horns and the cacophony of the modern world and precisely at this moment you want to crawl back into the ancient world and take in the peace and comfort offered. But with a heavy heart and fond memories oh yeah a phone full of pictures i trudge back to life as I know it awaiting a next adventure in a very uncertain world... 

Indore travels

The journey to Indore actually did start from Daman. A good 4 hour drive from the union territory and the relative comfort of the Deltin hotel saw me in Mumbai. A brief stopover at home for a fresh set of clothes and a cup of tea saw me back on the road to Indore. Cutting it just in time to catch the Avantika express to Indore, an overnight journey.

The plush surroundings of the luxurious two tier ac compartment was hardly taken in when a jolt to reality had me chasing the coach attendants. There is no pantry in the train! I had to organise dinner having not eaten since 8 in the morning. (Eves dropping on conversations do help in a way). Getting to know dinner is available only at Surat which is a good 5 hours into the journey and in the middle of the night makes your stomach shout for satisfaction louder.

Throughout my travels in India I have met spoken and interacted with people, people who do a particular route for the longest and most time possible that they have a solution for every problem that bares it's ugly face very now and then. Earlier journeys I was helped by people who gave me numbers to eateries that deliver to travellers at the station and the best person for such a matter is none other than the attendant. In this case he proved more helpful to another passenger. 

Like I said there is a solution for every problem, this time mine came in the form of the World Wide Web. I discovered that there is a web site catering to food on the go. It's called travelkhama.com and has a decent suggestion for hotels within the vicinity. 

It's cash on delivery and yeh definitely an upgrade from the pantry food got in trains. A good dinner later it's snooze time and yup the cacophony of snores is hard to ignore... Very soon I too have joined in the symphony of snores and awakening all the light sleepers around. The day dawns and the train inches into the platform with people queuing up at the door.( I still don't get these people who do that as it's not a competition and the train isn't going anywhere soon for you to be the first one out the door.... There are also people who get out first and then are clueless as to what the next step is and block the exit for all other passengers!) getting into the city from the station is just a pain as with every other station, you have to push your way through a sea of auto drivers. 

Once that process is over you step foot in Indore. Indore was ruled by the holkar dynasty who have left behind some fine buildings with a slew of cafés thanks to the city's ever-burgeoning coffee culture, but Indore Madhya Pradesh's. Business powerhouse is primarily used as a gateway for tourists getting to omkaleshwar, maheshwar or mandu.

North-east saga part 2 - unakoti - etched into history still a mystery

Talking with historians on another possible location for shoot I hear the mention of a very mythical site called unakoti. About 200kms from the state capital of Agartala, deep in the mountains is the site of unakoti. The mysticism of the site is strongly beckoning with each mention of the site. Each person has something to add to the site and each on totally different from the other. One site with so many tales it can't be true.

The route to unakoti takes you through not one but two wildlife sanctuaries, crossing over a dozen military, BSF and CRPF camps, it does make you wonder where am I going to. Today you are allowed to travel freely between 8am and 7pm, but there was a time not too long ago when you had to go in convoys and what is today 5 hour journey was then a days journey provided you timed your travel right. The threats of extremists were high, animals too had their share of terrorism... All this made unakoti earlier a distant dream for many.

The nearest town to unakoti is Kailashar, a town on the very border of India and Bangladesh. Unakoti is situated about 8kms into a thick forest previously trekked but now cleared and with roads laid out till the site. 

First impressions were wow. You stand there bathed in awe as you take in the sheer size of the site and statues. You think Mount Rushmore is amazing well we had this in the 9th century! Unakoti is the biggest bas-relief sculpture in Asia and it's supposedly to spread over a 10km radius. That's what's remaining of it after centuries of earthquakes, plundering and natural calamities.

Who built it, what's are these huge carving doing in the middle of nowhere? Well like you are thinking right now so are the historians. The only answers they are able to come up with are based on the style of the sculptures. The sculptures have a very Buddhist touch to it with longish ears and then there is the mongoloid eyes distinct to the region. The conclusion to that is that  over time when people, tribes from south east Asia were migrating to new grounds they were initially worshippers of nature. The trees, animals, the celestial objects... These slowly turned to figurines, the Indus Valley civilisations show the worship of the bull and also shiva. Shivism slowly became an accepted religion and the idols of shiva increased. Shiva is a god revered by the tribes as they believe he came up from similar roots. Study of shiva and his origins will lends some light to it. The tribes slowly took to shiva and hence the presence of his image throughout the valley. 

Shiva has three forms, out of which the phallic form is the most worshipped, in unakoti it's the anthropomorphic form that was worshipped. 

Well as in everything indian nothing is complete with just facts and findings. Mysticism play a great role and myths have their place in our history just as anything else. The most popular of myths is that lord shiva and a crore of other gods were travelling from Kailash to Varanasi and en route decided to stop at unakoti for the night. The deal was that all would wake up before dawn and resume journey. As the day dawned only shiva got up and resumed journey. He got angry and cursed the rest to turn into stone. Out of the whole crore of gods just one person less - shiva. Hence the name unakoti - One less than a crore.    

If that is to be believed then how is there so many images of shiva???

The second most important legend is that of kallu Kumar. A sculptor extraordinaire who did sculpt image one less that a crore and the final one he wanted to make of himself which angered the gods and he was struck down and turned to stone.

Another off-shoot of the kallu Kumar story is that he was an ardent shiva fan and Parvathi was so impressed with him that she wanted Shiva to turn kallu Kumar immortal. Shiva apprehensive agreed to do so if the sculptor could carve a crore images in Unakoti before the sunrise and the cock crows! Kallu Kumar gets to work and is almost in sight of winning with just one more sculpture when Shiva induces the cock to crow before the usual time and hence leading to Kallu Kumar to loose the bet. 

Unakoti with its stories and mysticism and beauty will remain with you long after you have returned, still urging you to ponder on the wonders of an age gone by...

The north east saga - part 1 - Tripura, a worthwhile past

Ever since my first visit to the northeastern state of Assam and Meghalaya, I have always had that fondness of travelling back there. The second visit provided itself in one of my closest friends birthday but that was a day only. It was not enough, it was just a hop-in hop-out trip.

Well as the saying goes if it's happened twice then definitely it will happen a third time. 

True enough I did get to travel to the northeast again. Although the trip was scheduled for just ten days and meant to be a recce, it soon turned out to be a trip in actual search of places, people and stories.

Gleefully excited at the fact I am going to the north east I even gave up the chance of the Andamans which was the others place in the offering. Many a friend has suggested I go to the Andamans as the scenic beauty is second to none, but my heart just wanted to go to the Northeast. 

The travel day started pretty early and by mid noon I was in the state of Tripura. First impressions of the state and I was baffled as I travelled by auto from the station to the hotel about 15kms away. All or most of the shops were closed. The northeast know for its political instability has many a traveller worried and I was no exception. Upon enquiring my auto driver says that they are shut because the owners are taking a siesta. Whew. Thankfully it wasn't a Hartal or a bandh. The same scene welcomed me when I reached the city and found shops shut. 

I meet up with a few people in the university, historians and enquire about the neer mahal palace in udaipur, Tripura. Yes it's not a typo, neer mahal palace, udaipur. The basic information on the palace is that the maharaja of Tripura was very fond of travelling and was impressed with the neer mahal palace in udaipur Rajasthan that he returned back and commissioned a British company to build him one on a lake in a city he renamed udaipur. The eccentricities of our maharajas!

The next day I travel to see the neer mahal palace and it sure must have been magnificent in its hey day but today lies in neglect and due to global warming the water levels are low. Still u get there by boat and on entry you truly feel like royalty. The white painted walls of the palace glimmers in the sun and gives you the effect of marble the wide arch ways welcomes you to a place once meant only for the king and his guests. 

What was once an opulent resort or vacation spot for the king today lies in ruins and desperate for care. The palace is being renovated by a South Indian company and hence was able to strike up a conversation with the engineer and learn more about the palace. This conversation also gave me a chance to see the cordoned off portion of the palaces royal quarters. The ball room for the king, the ball room for the queen, the royal entry, the royal rooms, the gardens, the servants quarters and also the royal bathroom. The palace was built in the early 20th century afforded the British architect to put in European style bathrooms with marble and inlays of precious stones.

Today all this is in ruins and the engineer responsible for the restoration explained the technology involved to make the palace earthquake proof. Being a water palace the existence of water is vital for the existence of the palace. The reason being the pressure exerted by the water and the pressure exerted by the building join together in being key factors for the building to remain as is. The absence of one pressure is enough to collapse.

Parts of the palace have already collapsed and efforts are being made for restricting further damage by modern technology. The kind of technology used then still amazes me. Every place I visit I always wonder the same question aloud, how? We today find it difficult to make buildings stay intact for 5 years and that too using too many machineries and advanced materials, while the old had just people and stones and the buildings last for ever!

Well I do hope that they are able to implement all the changes proposed and on my next trip to Tripura I am able to fully understand and appreciate the true workmanship and opulence of the erstwhile maharajas of India.

    

Fortified ruins...

Travelling to the parched, bushy outskirts of the kutch district heading to the very western most point of the Indian subcontinent you can't help but notice the change in scenery. 

The city is bustling with activity, business mostly and then there is the farming as you slowly make your way towards the outskirts. As you keep going further the landscape gets a bit wild and the old relics suddenly pop out of nowhere! 

It happens once then twice and well once again! Coincidences are there but most than twice well that's just planned... What are these old remnants of forts temples and fortified villages doing so far from civilisation? 

This reflections make you want to take a trip to the past in search of the answer and also the little excitement you get when you are prying into the life of the thakurs, owners and rajahs.

I head past the few remaining splendours of architecture to the abandoned fortified village of lakhpat. Situated at the very edge of the great rann of kutch, the village lies abandoned within fortified walls...

While reading the asterix comics you read about fortified villages.  The concept in itself is very familiar but none of that would prepare you for the sheer magnitude of an actual fortified village. The huge walls actually encompass a whole village, in today's age it would be like building a wall around any of our cities. Crazy as it may sound it actually is the fact! The intricate designs and ornately designed windows hold you spell bound at first and then a moment late you thank the people who made it such an impossible feat to pry out, hence leaving it to remain for you to glimpse at it. As you walk along the dusty street that was once a bustling market you secretly wish that you were in the period when the town flourished...

Admiring and visualising I make my way to an imposing house, kind of like a billionaires hous of today. This house is massive because it houses five huge houses within it. Again the intricate design on the windows reflect the taste and the opulence of the owner... But leave it be the one that really caught my fancy was the drainage... The drains were just an engineering marvel in itself. You don't actually see the waste flowing out but you instead see an incredibly awesome design in stone that hides the path the waste takes.

Before you start thinking I am a plumber I better move on. There are the government offices that collected tax, the parliament that settled disputes, the guard posts and other administrative building that fight for a perfectly symmetrical stand with the various places of worship.

India has always proved itself as a very religious country and the evidence is everywhere. Be it our folk lore, history or just stories, religion has played a major part. Here too the fortified walls encompass a mosque, a temple and a gurdwara.

As the sun begins its descent I stand on the fort walls looking into the distance and think back on why such a glorious place has fallen to ruins. The religious me look to the heavens and wonder why he had made it possible for the people to build such a magnificent  place only to let it go to ruins and a centuries time....

A hole in the wall

Right in the middle of the capital cit of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram, is located the Thiruvananthapuram fort. The fort houses the wealthiest temple in the world and is also full of stories. 

The wall too tell of a wonderful story, one where the city was saved by the walls. Legend has it that Tipu Sultan the ruler of Mysore wanted to annex Thiruvananthapuram to his expanding empire after conquering the Malabar area. Catching wind of his plans to conquer the city the then ruler of Thiruvananthapuram asked his subjects to abandon the city taking with them all the food supply and water. The soldiers troop into the city and when the last of the soldiers marched in the king ordered the gates to be shut from the outside. 

So strong was the gates and the walls that the soldiers who went in were trapped in the fort with no means of food or water...

As the days go by their supplies dwindle and soon they are weak without having any food. At this opportune moment the ruler of the land make a hole in the wall and storm the enemy from outside. The weak soldiers of the conquering king gave up without a fight and thence the king restored peace in the region...

Today that hole has been made into a grand gate in memory of that victory. The fort walls, which originally had just four entrances today  houses five. 

Two states...

The dawn of Saturday was nothing out of the ordinary and yet it evolved to be an interesting start to an outstanding weekend. A weekend with cousins in coffee county, Coorg. With a normal day at the office and just an interview to go the day looked pretty much empty. After the interview was done, I took to the road, first filling gas and the disaster struck with the driver window not winding down. T a person the hills that's pretty mundane but to one in chennai it's grievous. Hot and dusty I had to cross ventilate the car by opening the rear right window and the front left window to let air.
Once I hit the road and just about crossed Poonamalle the second problem hit. A huge traffic jam. That block took over 2 hours to clear and what irritated the most was that the reason for the traffic jam is still unclear.... After that it was pretty much smooth sailing with the little difficulties cropping up once in a while.
Crossing the little hamlets that dot the smoothly laid out highways that stretch the length and breath of the state. Four hours later I found myself in the state capital of Karnataka, Bangalore. Bypassing Bangalore took about 30 minutes making the travel to Coorg all the more nearer. The usually wonderful drive to Mysore from Bangalore was spoilt with the unusually high number of speed breakers. Nearly all of them unmarked and virtually impossible to see in the dark. The speed reduced helped in watching several cars launching themselves from the speed breakers...  Bypassing Mysore and on the Coorg route the story was the same. The you hit the Hunsur to Gonikuppal route.
On this route you are actually struggling to find where the Tarmac is. Half the time you are driving in the dirt near the road looking at vestiges of what once was a proper road. The state and inter-state buses plying the road were having a field day while the cars that's flashed past them earlier on good road were hardly moving. Rocking from side to side, going into pot holes that is so big that the car is almost engulfed by the hole you wonder if the car will climb out. 30 Kms stretched to over 2 hours of driving. Speeds reduced from 80km/hr to hardly 10km/hr, ie; if you want my our car.
Reaching, Virajpet was a relief and all that remained of the journey was the final stretch to the estate. The road that I had least expected to be the worst turned out to be the best. Smooth as silk and with no traffic it was a fitting end to a hard days drive... Zipping past coffee plants, sleeping cows, the mist low on the wet road, sharp turns and virtually no potholes. Hmmm that last 20 minutes makes you miss driving in the hills...
Reaching home you reflect back on the roads traversed, two states, half a dozen toll booths, over 700kms, speed breakers and potholes, but nothing like reaching home safe. In one state the roads were a delight with straight smooth roads, the other was a horror for both the driver and the car. Testing everything from human endurance to machine tolerance.

Country roads take me home to the place I belong.

A race to beat boredom

Returning back from my native place, kanjirapally, a couple of days back I had this strange encounter.

The roads stretched like a never-ending black serpent, the traffic dotted the tarmac like the spots on a diamond back, the sun beginning it's descent, cast  a spectral glow over the landscape. The setting magnificent and yet the solitude still was ever omnipresent. The speedo read a 100kms an hour and nothing to beat the silence and the hum of the diesel engine than the occasional honk by the insensitive. just another lazy drive on one of the zillion roads stretching across the country. 

The radio was play country music and with no source of other entertainment I decided to play with the other drivers, racing. Not being a professional racer I guess the playing field was equally placed. Now, to find a willing participant is tough as not many want to take you up on it. Finally after 15 minutes I get a willing driver in a much smaller car, a santro.  It zipped, it overtook and kept on moving... Well very soon the whole thing got extremely competitive.  Both of us not willing to compromise and hence the race went on. 

The guttural lyrics of Leonard Cohen was suddenly broken by the wail of an ambulance in the distance. A peek at the rear view mirror showed the ambulance at quite a distance, but being the only vehicle in the country capable of covering vast differences quickly with the co-operation of any and all drivers, it was but moments that the ambulance was right behind me. Being the dutiful citizen and a member of the social strata I move to an empty lane and let the ambulance overtake me. 

The ambulance overtakes and with it a dozen ambulance chasers... These are people with the urge to reach a destination faster using the ambulance as a bulldozer to clear the way.  Along with the dozen cars go the santro I was racing with. 

That's unfair I say to myself and gun my car down the road, eating up kilometers and overtaking other cars with ease and very soon it's the ambulance, the santro and I. Well never one to give Ito cheaters I overtake the santro the ambulance and speed on. Well the roads of Kerala are also littered with cops and speed guns, not wanting to get caught and fined I decide to be an ambulance chaser myself. I did not have to wait long and soon settled into a groove behind the ambulance... The santro behind me. 

Well the pleasure was short lived and the ambulance turned off from the highway to the city and soon it was back to me and the santro jostling for position. I think to myself, god this fellow can be persistent, but the four lane highway soon came to an end and the old single lane started... With the number of car increased the road just wasn't enough and only the most adept have any chance for moving forward...

The santro well although good on the four lane was not as fast on the single lane, showing that it was driven by someone not very familiar to the highways of the old... Well it works to my benefit and well since the driving just got more challenging there was no need to race... I just had to move ahead and reach home before the sun set... Well a distant possibility but hey  no harm in trying and setting goals.... 

Floored by 4x4-ing

Working in the plantations of the winding and densely green environs of Coorg is any jeep enthusiasts dream environment. This dream kingdom do come with its little adventures every once in a while and if you are not very careful the everyday is just another accident waiting to happen.

Being from the city I was pretty confident behind the wheel of any automobile and to boost it pretty cocky about it too... But I must say with a pretty heavy heart that it was disappointing when I heard that I had to undo or unlearn everything I knew about city driving before I got behind the wheel of a jeep.

Stepping into the cockpit of my uncles sturdy yet rugged Mahindra pick-up I felt mighty proud and also felt like there was nothing really that difficult but well that was before I put it in gear. First gear and a little throttle and hey it was like driving bumper cars. The jeep had a mind of its own and thats when realised that what my uncle said was true... I had to learn to drive again!

Follow a few rules and the jeep is your best friend on Tarmac and off it!

1. Drive slowly. This is a torquey engine so the moment you think your feet are peddle friendly back off, ease the vehicle to a decent speed and you really get going.

2. When off the road never ever loose your concentration! Take your eyes off the road and you can guarantee yourself in a ditch! Trust me I know! But the fun part is taking it out of the ditch! Ha ha ha. ( look back and laugh, at that moment you are grabbing for any idea that will help you).

3. Never try to speed your way through slush, always ease your jeep through it. Nurse it and you will come out of it with flying colours. Rush it and again you can guarantee yourself eating dirt, grime and slush!

4. When on four wheel drive alway remember to never ride the clutch! The jeep, like I began has a mind of its own. Just steer and be amazed at the way you overcome obstacles... To know how cross the obstacle and look back at the way you crossed!

5. When carrying its maximum pay load always be sure to drive with care. Slowly and without too much sudden acceleration.

Follow the above simple rules and you will definitely enjoy the joys of going 4x4! Learning from my mistakes and with the patient tutoring from my uncle I must say I was definitely. Floored by 4x4-ing!

Pockets of nostalgia

Being very new to the ever popular city of Chennai everything seems new and well it is also an exercise in getting to know all the umpteen different things that I have heard people harp over and over. To me the city is just another one of those cities that have been extremely popular during the British Raj and yeah the influence has certainly rubbed off on the city, this is quite evident in the architecture… Sadly it’s only the architecture that has the influences of the our European motherland, the people are still the same old same old.

The interesting aspect that I found quite pleasurable is the fact that no matter which locality you are in, in Chennai you always have that one house, shop, building, company, arch etc that seems to have forgotten time. In most cases any of the above said real estate stands in this little pocket of nostalgia, reminding everyone about the days gone by. Each having a story to it and each enriched as the days pass by.

Every day I pass by one of the cities exclusive locales and it’s just lovely to see old house as they jostle for position with sprawling modern bungalows… The modern houses although look fantastic and futuristic it still pales in comparison with the artistic grandeur of the age old bungalows. The intrinsic carvings and the elaborate awnings of the old buildings are unmatchable. The craftsmanship is outstanding. Not that I am biased about the modern way of doing things, but it’s just that the modern has a very artificial feel to it, not being too inviting in execution, not being too warm and comfortable and well very factory-ish if ever there is a term like that.

In a way I can say that we are partly biased to some feelings of nostalgia as it represents a set of memories that we choose to cherish and not let go of. I look at a old hose and think of the grandeur it once had I also stare in admiration at the fact that it is still holding good in these times of change and I applaud the owners for not giving in to greed and helping in maintaining that oasis of memories.