A date with nature @ Coorg

A signboard in Coorg said "Take away nothing but memories". And Coorg has been very generous to give us such fabulous memories. For me I had a sense of deja vu as the greenery and the climate of Coorg reminded me of North east

After planning for this trip for almost a year ,we started off for Coorg from Bangalore on 19th June Friday night at about 1. We reached Nagarhole National Park at abt 5.30 after a nice journey . Since the park was not open till 6 we passed time clicking snaps. At 6 the park opened and we drivved through it and the drive was an eventful one. We saw herds of deer and elephants and ocasionally we spotted peacocks but since they were a bit camera shy we couldnt shoot them. Our most interesting encounter was with a bear as a result of taking a wrong turn on the road. We saw him basking in the early light of dawn taking a morning walk. And leaving him on his own took a hasty retreat.

Nagarhole National Park

We then had our breakfast and left for Irupu falls. We reached Iruppu falls at about 8. After a nice half a kilometer climb we reached the point where the falls have started. It had a splendid view and we spent sometime enjoying the serne beauty of the falls.

Iruppu Falls
After that we left for Madikeri town and reached there at about 1.30 pm. after checking into a hotel and having lunch we left for Fort. It had a small museum with various sculpture and painting. Our nest stop was Omkareshwar Temle which is a shiv temple inside the city. And then we left for Raja Seat. There we got a misty view of the town that was simply amazing .

Raja Seat

In the evening we tried some Coorg cuisine that included rice noodles, rotis made from rice flour, chicken curry and bamboo shoot. Coorg is famous for its pork but me being a non eater had to mis it

Abbey Falls

The next morning after having a good nights rest we left for Abby falls en route to Bangalore at abt 10.30 . These falls were also v beautiful but were not very well mantained.

Duubare Elephant Camp

Our next destination was the Dubare Elephant Camp where we reached at about 12.30. There many activities that can be done there like elephant ride, boat ride, rafting , elephant bathing etc but since we reached a bit late we could only go for boat ride and elephant bath. It was a nice and unique experience bathing the elephant though initially i was a bit apprehensive.

A Rabbit in Cauvery Nisargandha

At about 2.00 our next spot which was Cauvery Nisargandha. This was actually an island surrounded by river Cauvery. There were bamboo groves in this island and we happend to pass by a group of monkey who were showing their gymnastic skills to us After that we left for Bylakope Tibetan Monstery post lunch and reached there at 4.00. The tibetan monastery was inside a tibbetan colony entering which we felt we have reached a diffrent p;lace becasue everyone there was tibetan. The monastery had a very peaceful ambience with the dedicated lamas dedicately doing their own work.

Bylakope Tibetan Monstery

And then at 6.30 we left for Bangalore. Even the journey with 4 tired people and beautiful old songs playing in background was a memorable one and finally we were back home at about 12.30.

To say this trip was an enjoyable one would be an understatement.I would just say that I was lucky to spend two daus in the lush green hills of coorg and if you are staying close to Bangalore or Mysore , do plan a trip. You will enjoy a lot......

The 'I wanna be Chetan Bhagat' Syndrome

While walking through Crossword i saw a plethora of books such as Trust Me,Anything for u Maam, Missed IIT Kissed Russia...etc . Nothing extraordinary(as dats wat we expect in a bookshop).
But while browisng through them there I noticed sum things ..first thing they were Indian Fiction written by authors who r mainly in their 20s. Secondly the book always revolve around the profession or around the school the author is ( From s/ware to films to IIMS) Thirdly the story is pretty much the same..An average guy or gal(I was wondering y hot guys n gals dnt write :)) has bad days @school/clg ofc wid teachers/bosses harrasing dem nevertheless surviving the big bad world wid d help of one or more trustwothy buddies. n den dere will b a hottie who can b a celebrity also(like a film Hero) and this hottie falls 4 d avg guy/gal ...pehle takraar phir ikraar n finally aals well..

Without gettin into d imperfections of these books, i have foolish enuf to try reading more than one of these. But what i got was only a sense of deja vu. Similar climax,similar characters et al.However, these books inspired in a way that if he/she can write then i also can. And that where the 'Chetan Bhagat syndrome' comes' I think i dont have to elaborate on Chetan Bhagat bt the way his simple rendition of the antics of 3 engineering students have touched the ways of people more than apparent. As a result authors grossly inspired by him thought that if one could write a cult novel just by penning down the experiences almost all engineering students go thro but ahve been till now too lazy to pen down then we can also do so...Bt while doing so they tend to forget that there s only one Chetan Bhagat exist jst like other things . Nevertheless some of these books can be good companion if u r goin on a long journey and hv 2 pass time somehow.
As proved 'India is as good at adopting fads as discarding them' So I hope that 'I wanna B Chetan Bhagat fad will disappear soon and people will start writing something meaninginstead of writing abt der horrible bosses

Changing times...

Last week i was in Guwahati. And it has been my habbit, whenever i am home i always take a walk down the MC road to my Alma mater , St marys Convent.
I love to visit my school and take a trip down memory lane. But this time I was in for a shock. The Assam type houses that stood in front with the circular garden with the statue of mother mary inside it was gone. To be replaced by a two storied building. It gave our school a elite look but i felty disspointed. Coz when i saw those small green roofed classrooms with tiny blue desks and abcuses and alphabets charts al around I felt my childhood comingh alive. I could almost here Miss Lobo standing there teaching us benovalently...But now thats gone. I felt someone has tried to erase those memories........
As i walked out of school somewhat dejectedly, i begin to feel tha changes that had been quiete around me bt i have taken no notice of....The Changing face of guwahati.....


The guwahati of my childhood and adolesence seem to be a different place altogether. THere were no big malls or showrooms like they have now. But also there were no traffic jams also, no flash floods also. I remember the houses lined up in rows in Lamb Road. But now i can see high rise apartment building not only replacing many of those houses but also eating upo every open space. As teenagers we had no CCDS or Barista instead we had Feeds, Beatrix and Picadily. I remeber going to the CCD near dighalipukhuri the other day and hearing two young boys beseechings the waiter with a WTF. Such impact of chganging times. ALso one of the most prominent example of change is the GS Road which as per as my memory goes was once an open space mainly housing godowns now turned into the most happening place with the Cinemax, Fun cinemas , Pizza Hut etc.

Some great man has said "All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves". So seeing these changes in my beloved Guwahati leaves a trail of nostalgia of what was there but then someone has also said "Just because everything is different doesn't mean anything has changed" For i still can feel the sublime bliss Guwhati offers when my flight lands at LGB airport and that has remain unchanged over the years..:)

On life.......

The wayfarer returns ..with fond memories of mumbai...:)

One certain thing about life is that..Life is uncertain. Chang ebeing the key essnce of liife. Jst 4 months ago i could not contemplating myself writing this blog sittin @ bangalore. And as my blogging name suggest i have become a true wayfarrer Guwahati..rayagada..Bhubaneswar ..mumbai ..bangalore...
SO back to my real topic for me its no more aamchi mumbai its namma bengaluru now.....But dil se i m a mumbai chi mulgi.. Sometimes in odd times i miss mumbai...its nty dat i dnt like it here ..i love bangalore..its a coool place and have made some real cool friends here...but sometimes when u see a movie like Wake up Sid or watch olds pics thet feelin of being dere doin dat returns.
The thing that i miss the most is the sea beach.. Coz that was the best place in Mumbai. I miss the tea i hd at Nariman Point, the chaats of juhu beach, Sitting with my friends @ marine drive.....Walkin on the slippery sand at Aksa n most of all i miss the moonlight lit Manori .
Also i miss shopping @ mumbai in fashion steet, dadar,bandra n even at goregaon bargaining for junkies. Even the weekends @ mall where we spent more time windowshopping while waiting for any sale .I miss the jostle n bustle of local train, taking it to going to Siddhivinayak,Haji Ali etc.
I miss my home @ Vanrai and the friends @ office..... That is i miss mumbai ...But the irony is that i realised it only when i moved away from it.

But as ..a new beginning in Bangalore ..with new memories waitinn 2 b recreated...

Theirs but to do and die....The heroes and the cowards

Major Unnikrishnan ,Hemant Karkare, DIG Kamte and Vijay Salaskar.... and 14 others . The heroes who laid down their lives fighting the terrorists . And as we bid them adieu , we salute them. We salute their spirit and their sacfrice they had done for us. We can not even imagine the pain of their spouses or their parents, still we offer our condolence to the families.
And now speaking about the cowards..... the first category is the so called 'netas' people whom we can do without with, people who are a great liability to a country . Cowards who can only sit at their partys office and give meaningless and shameful statement like' Aise chote baatein to hote rehte hain' or asking for vote through a TV channel. And not to mention the famous MArathi Manoos who cowered away in his den while his Maharastra was being attackedThis shameless people are no less than the terrorists. They are the ones who needed to be evicted if we want to fight terrorism.
And then comes the people who have been turned into demi god by this city of dreams. The screen gods and godesses. And no we dont want all those filmstars to do a 'Krish ' or a 'Die Hard' . We want them to come forward and show sympathy and support to the affected people..

Mumbai meri jaan

What a terrible week it has been.. Who could have imagined that a humdrum wednesday night would be the last night for about 200 innocent people.. Who would have thought that mindless demons would come and create havoc in this economic hub of this country.?And as Mumbaikars sat in their homes petrified by the 60 hours of terriors. People were..........
Sad and devastated to see bodies of people lying amidst pool o0f blood...to see helpless families grieving for their dear ones...gone forever. Poignant tales filled the newspaper of how parents lost a son or a daughter from whom they have dremed colourful dreams, of how families were shattered by death and tears flowed in everyones eyes
Angry to see the city being terrorized by those demons who were killing innocent peolple in large numbers Angry to see the terrorist seiging the important landmarks and turning them to be monuments of death and destruction. Anger bubbled up to see headless yellow livered poltician starting the blame game.to see those so called 'representatives of people' making lofty or ambigous statements while holed up in the safety of their homes.
Helpless and unsafe to see their beloved mumbai being captured. To see how only about 25 terrorist were able to hold up a fight for 60 hours against a counttrys most elite forces. To see how terrorsist could raom about freely with guns and open fire .
Terror is not over yet. It only seems to be the tip of iceberg . There is a gut feeling that danger is still lurking .
And as we pay homage to the departed let us the whole of Mumbai be united and be strength to each other in this time of crisis