Beautiful Kaas

On Gandhi jayanti we went to Kaas in Satara district. During this time of the year, lots of wild flower blossom in this part of Maharastra. With Koyna dam 100% full, the backwaters of dam make this place awesome. Some pics from amazing one day trip to Kaas, Bamnoli.

Trip to god’s own country!

It all started in May when Vishpala, my wife found some real good deal on a net for an air fare to Kerala. The plan was to visit Kerala in month of August.

We were not sure if it was a good time to visit Kerala as it was still a monsoon season. But still, we decided to continue with our plan, even if it rains. We started on 12th night after logging off from the office, Vishpala came home at around 7:00 PM and we manage to hit the express way to Mumbai at 7:30 PM. It was raining quite heavy in ghat area, but still we manage reach at my parents place in two hours. Had a dinner and went to bed as we had to catch the fligt earl morning 5:45 am.


13th Aug

Phone alarm buzzed aloud at 3:15 am to make sure we don’t miss our flight. Soon after having quick shower, I was ready in next 15 minutes; Vishpala was ready in next 10 minutes. My brother dropped us to Mulund check naka from where we got a taxi for airport. We reach airport on time and despite of all the heavy rains and cracks one of the runway flight was scheduled on time.

After getting the luggage from the conveyer belt inh Kochi air port, we headed towards the exit where Subbi our taxi driver/guide for next five days was standing with a placard mentioning my name in his hand. We were quick to notice him, with a smile he greeted us and we boarded his taxi. Our first destination was Munnar, a Hill station around 150 kms in south east of kochi..In general roads are kerala are narrow but scenic.

Just as we were few kilometers from Munnar, we visited a Spice garden. en had around 100 different spices plantations. From cardamom to clove, ginger to cinnamon.We spent there about an hour, also they had some counters where they had some spices for sale. We bought few.


After four hours of journey we reached Hotel Eastend, which is in the center of the Munnar town. Hotel was pretty good with a very beautiful garden.Munnar is a small town which stands at the confluence of three rivers the Muthirappuzh, Nallathanni and Kundala. Moonu in tamil means "three" and aar "river".It has major tea industry.

After a nice shower and a heavy lunch we decided to roam around instead of resting in the hotel. In the evening, on Subbi’s recommendation, I decided to get a famous Kerala Auvervedic message. Subbi took me to nearby massage center and had good relaxing massage followed by steam for around 2 hours. It was bliss.



14th Augst

The day began with a heavy breakfast in the hotel. Subbi was ready on time, ready to go. Our first stop was beautiful flower garden cum nursery where they also sold those plants. Garden had lots for different types of plants bot big and small, with flowers in all different colors one could imagine. One thing about Munnar is whichever direction you look at, you would always see green color dominating every other color in the nature. Every inch of mountain surfaces is covered with green beds of tea plants. Place were green mountains try to touch the blue sky and sun beams its rays from middle of white clouds, making the tender leaves of tea plants shine like gold petals.

Our next spot was, Mattuppetty dam, a water reservoir for the Munnar town and since the rain was not heavy this year, the water levels in the dam were not too high. The wall of the dam is also used as a bridge. There were many small shops as they are near any sight seeing spot selling food, handicrafts, spices etc, accompanied by horse elephant rides. We crossed the wall and headed towards jetty. We took a 30mins speed boat fairy which cruised in the dam waters. It was great fun, we were lucky to spot couple of wild elephants at the bank of the lake.

Our next spot was echo point, I tried to shouting few times making some wired sounds, but I never heard the echo back. Not sure why it was called echo spot. Vishpala got a new hat and few bangles from the nearby shops there. It was around one hour past noon by now and we headed towards top station. To our next spot was top station was highest point of Munnar. We had to park the taxi couple of kilometers away from the spot as there was road was very narrow. After a 30mins walk we reach the top station point, the view was breath taking. It scared me bit by its sheer magnitude. It was so quite out there, I was able to hear me breathing as clear as crystal. We spent there about 30-40mins.

On the way back we had a lunch in a restaurant located near echo point and headed towards Eravikulam national park. Park was 15km, on the other side of Munnar town. This is a place were one can see Nilgiri tahr (a type of goat); if you are lucky; which were not on that day! We went to base of the park, from were a bus took a very narrow road between the tea plantations and took to base station of the park. From there we were supposed to walk for 3 kilometers as no vehicles are allowed from there onwards. It started raining bit and we took our rain cheaters and umbrella along with us. It was sort of a Mini trek. The experience was fascinating, we walked through the clouds. We walked for around an hour and reached almost at the top, but were unlucky not to find the goat. So we headed back towards the base station. It was nice walk back through curvy roads. Rain cheaters, Umbrella did not help much as we were almost soaked. Anyways that was our last spot of the day, so we headed straight to our hotel and had a good relaxing hot water bath.

15h Aug:
India’s Independence Day. After having a breakfast and settling hotel bills, we said good bye to Munnar, and headed to coastal side of Kerala to a place called Alleppy or Alappuzha a.k.a as Venice of east. Alappuzha means the land between the sea and a network of rivers falling into it. We once again had a chance to see fascinating nature and luxurious houses on the way back. Since it was our independence day, we often saw school children parade having tricolor in their handle shouting various patriotic slogans. In the center of every parade, there was a young girl in white saree, with her hair untied, wearing a golden crown and golden belt at the waist and having a big Indian flag , which she held with her both the hands, which we crossed. The kids paraded while whole of the village/town watched them with a patriotic smile. We were already running late as we were suppose to check-in Into houseboat at noon, Subbi tried his best to make sure we reach there on time by driving fast, sometimes it was scary. Finally we made 200km journey in around four and half hours, with no stop in between.

We reached the jetty around one hour late and called the houseboat contact. In 5 minutes a magnificent House boat with one bedroom arrived and boarded in. The houseboat was a boat, bamboo weaved together. It had all the facility which an hotel room provides including TV, a small dinning area, air conditioners, bar, good clean toilets and place to relax. The houseboat had three staff members, one of them was chef, which cooked the food on the boat and sewhich had a ade of rved us hot. The plan was to stay in a boat for remaining day and night and it would drop us at our next hotel. The engine started and we began our houseboat journey of backwaters. There are small pieces of land or islands in the water were people build small huts or some places they have luxurious houses, surrounded by coconut trees. People commute by private boats of various sizes and shapes as vehicle cannot reach there due to lack of road. But it’s a complete town settle in the water. There are churches, temples, schools, telephone exchanges, public boat stations, small size restaurants etc. Water is integral part of their life. Many places other side of houses there were endless paddy fields. It looked like someone has spread a green color carpet on the group. Our chef Sabu, informed us that Alleppy is the largest producerla. Main occupation of people was farming, fishing and tourism. It was quite a experience, as we moved one side of the Alleppy to another. There were many houseboats in the water; Sabu informed us that there are around seven hundred boats floating in Alleppy town alone. House boats were of different sizes, having two, three up to eight bedrooms. Some also included conference rooms, swimming pool etc. It was truly majestic. Sabu servedwith a hot food which included mainly Rice and fish for me and vegetables along with sambar for my wife. Our boat stopped in between for one hour for staff to have their meals and t us of rice in Keraroof msymbolizing mother India, walked along with other children. This scene wa hen in the night at around 8:00 PM for the night halt.





16th Aug:

It was a very good night sleep and strangely enough there were no mosquitoes (although we had odomos etc. just incase required.). After a good continental and Indian breakfast, the boat began its journey towards Pamba heritage resort. One of my colleagues in my previous company had some contacts in Alleppy as he too had his native nearby. His friend owned a ancient house in Alleppy on the bank of back waters, the house was converted into resort and had few rooms which guest can occupy. Mr. Thomas the head of the house and the owner was very nice and gentle human being. As we got off the boat, he greeted us with a broad smile. The room was big enough, with ancient floor and wood ceiling giving it an ascetic touch. We had our bath and had a very good food made by mrs. Thomas. It included mainly rice, chicken and a fish for me and veggies for Vishpala. After a stroll in the near my places, we decided to go to Kochi for some shopping and sight seeing. Subbi was present at the place were we boarded the houseboat; just fifteen minutes walk from the resort. The first place in the Kochi we went was a ancient Jewish colony, were there was on Jewish place
Of worship and series of shops selling antiques things. As it was Saturday, everything was closed, bit strange. Then we headed towards naval museum. In the museum there was exact 1:50 scale down version of many Indian navy fighter ships were on the display. The museum had many artifacts about the naval system, few ancient maps of Kochi city and photos of sailor’s right from the days of Shivaji, Vasco-de-gamma era or before. One section had all the artifacts from modern naval systems, like torpedoes, radars, compass etc. We spent around one hour in museum and headed towards Kochi beach. Kochi beach was not up to my expectation. It just had a long pavement spread across the beach, there was no beach actually, no sand. One thing to look for in Kochi beach is Chinese fishing nets. It’s really amazing, though I did not see it in operation, but it looked a great machine to me. After spending for around 1 hour on the beach, we went to store to buy some memento of our kerla trip. It was big shops spread across three floors which sold antiques, Carpets, clothes, furniture etc. We bought couple of flower pots made of marble and studded with stones of different color and a pen holder of same material.

After we completed shopping we headed straight to Alleppy, where we stopped in the market place to buy some Kerala special banana chips and fried jackfruit sticks. It was already late around 8:00 PM according to Alleppy standards and had become very dark by then. We had a very light dinner; Mrs. Thomas had prepared a local delicacy idiappam. After settling the bills, we went to bed. Mr. Thomas said he had arranged for a motor boat at 5:15 AM.




17th Aug:
We heard a knock on the door at 5:00 AM, it was Mr. Thomas cook/servant/guide who had knocked the door to make sure we wake up. In next ten minutes he bought a hot cup of tea for us. We got ready at around 5:20 am and boarded the boat. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas were also awake to say us good bye. I thanked Mr. and Mrs. Thomas for their generous hospitality before getting into the boat. Subbi was also ready and awake. In next forty five minutes we were at Kochi airport. We said good bye to Subbi with five hundred note as tips, he smiled and as soon lost in the traffic. That was it. The end of fabulous trip to humble and beautiful land, which is truly gods own country.

India strikes Gold!

Abhinav Bindra, the name which would be getting a permanent place in every Indian’s heart. Thanks Abinav, for bringing the glory to our country. We are proud of you dude!.

India's gold winner Abhinav Bindra with silver medallist Zhu Qinan

of China and bronze winner Henri Hakkinen of Finland on the podium

following the men's 10m air rifle shooting finals for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games

Shantaram, Man of peace!

I always wanted to read this one. I knew it was a good book, but it was too fat and I was bit scared of it. But once I started reading, I found it too difficult to keep it down. Not even a single page out of 900 plus pages, I found book boring or going off the track. Every line of book seems to be very special and I am amazed how one can write with such immaculate clarity of thoughts. This is a gem of a book which I felt should never end.A true reflection of human spirit, emotions, and relationships…life.

The story is about an Australian revolutionary who gets addictive to heroin after is failed marriage and become a armed robber. He escapes from the prison in Australia and somehow lands in Mumbai. He meets Prabhakar a local guide with a big smile, beautiful karala, best friend didler, abdula, and philosopher father figure abdul khader khan. He learns to speak hindi, marathi and falls in love with city, the people and ofcourse Karla. He stays in a remote village in maharastra near jalgoan with prabhaker for six months, where he is give a name Shantaram.He stays in slums of Mumbai where people misunderstand him as a doctor. They call him linbaba, name given by prabhakar. He then joins Mumbai underworld and engages himself in underworld activities like passport counter fittings, gold smugglings, works for friends in bollywood and eventually goes in war in Afghanistan along with his philosopher friend. The story is about a journey of a man who has too much anger within him and how his experiences, people and city transforms him to a different human being, who has lot of love in his heart for everybody.

This is a gem of a book, and is must read. Through 900 pages I accompanied linbaba in his journey of life and enjoyed every bit of it.

Some of the lines from book which mesmerized me are

Every moment in life is a short story with a happy ending.

Every human heartbeat is a universe of possibilities.

When we fall in love with someone our greatest fear is that they wont love us back, what we should fear instead is that we won't stop loving them...

If fate does not make you laugh then you just don't get the joke.

Luck is what happens to people when fate gets tired of waiting.

people always hurt us with their trust....the surest way to hurt someone u like, is to put all ur trust in him...

i love her still so much,so hard with all heart or no heart at all.

...the land where the heart is king – that held me when so many intuitions told me I should leave. And the heart, for me, was the city. Bombay. The city had seduced me. I was in love with her. There was a part of me that she invented, and that only existed because I lived there, within her, as a Mumbaiker, a Bombayite

There are three things no Indian man can resist: a beautiful face, a beautiful song, and an invitation to dance...

Change!

I never had an habit of reading books. Sometimes, I read news headlines on internet or newspapers etc. apart from technical references which I needed in my job, I never read any books from start to end. I was a complete TV buff, a couch potato! I have watched TV for more that five hours a day, some times whole day and night. May be, I am fond of stories, and TV was one easy medium which is full of stories, from news channels to daily soaps, from movies to documentaries. All that at a press of a remote’s button. I don’t remember when and how I got addicted so badly to TV. Addiction increased exponentially with the time. May be I have too less friends, thanks to my recluse, introvert nature; whom I can go out, spend some time. Reading books was always something which I wanted to do, but not sure what stopped me going to store and picking up a book and just reading it. It was as simple as that. I always postponed it to next day, weekend or even next month. May be I became too lazy or I was too much in the comfort zone and was not ready for any change. Some where in my mind, I always knew, I had to get rid of this malady.

One day, me and my wife decided to go out for dinner. In the evening we went to nearby restaurant, it was weekend and as always in Pune, the restaurant was overcrowded and there was waiting. Waiter of the restaurant appended my name in his waiting list and told us it would take 30 min for the table. To kill the time, we went to the next shop named Crossword. I went straight to movies section and started looking for movies. I picked some DVDS and went to next section of Marathi/regional books. I picked up a first book from P.L Desphande aka. Pula named “Vyakti anni Walli”. The book was collection of short stories about various characters which pula met in his life. I had watched old recording of pula’s program on TV, in which Pula himself had read few of the stories. I had loved it, that time. Don’t know, why but I bought the book. I went home and read few pages and began to like it, may be it was pula’s magic which kept me interested, I felt that I was actually living the characters while I was reading the book. I read one character after another till the end and enjoyed thoroughly. The difference between television and books is, with TV you see what other fellow wants you to see, but while reading books, it’s totally depends on your imagination, the way you conceive the book. I read almost all the popular books from pula and also some other books. Currently am accompanying Shantaram in his eternal journey of living. I hardly watch TV these days. Whenever I reach home, when I have spare time, I make sure I give preference to books rather than TV. My love towards stories continues, just the medium has changed.