Indeed it was a long driving day with almost 600 KM from the morning.
Rameshwaram
A small nano but long wait
- Nano - Pros Price Cons - no power steering and many more as listed by others.
- Alto - Pros A complete car compared to Nano Cons Price difference almost 1.5 L to 1.8L different between different trims.
- Reva - Pros Alternative fuel Cons - Long running cost with Battery replacement, niche car in itself, Price is quite high 4.25L with AC model.
Munnar in Monsoon
A quick post
Reading old newspaper clipping fascinate me; an article which earns a good amount space on that day and most likely people read and forgot. and here I am reading it after days with a fresh eye. And most times it turns out to be a great story to read with eagerness.
This one was bit special which caught my eyes today was "Chaturanan Mishra passed away"; now there are few things which made me to write this quick post. First the surname which is very similar of mine, but the name is really catcher. I am quite sure no parent of 21st century is going to keep this name for their boys due to many reasons.
The real meaning of this name is a person with four face and that is Brahma the creator of universe.
It should not be confused with "Chatur" a quick English translation will be a "Smart person" but somehow over years the base word "chatur" is used with dark side of smartness like mischievous act which may result in trap for not so "chatur" person. The last reason is off course if you seen the blockbuster movie from Amir khan - "3 Idiots" the memory it bring back is enough to skip this name as there zillions of name to choose from.
A humble tribute to Chaturanan Misra -- he was a freedom fighter from Bihar's Madhuvan ; was imprisoned by British. Post independence he served in both state and national legislatives and worked for agriculture reform and farmers. Madhuvan northern part of Bihar is famous for it natural color painting with unique style. Some considers Mathali ( the local dialect) as a very soft and poetic .
Page Speed - Web site broken
Father Day - Thank you Aarush
We watched 'taare zameen par' one weekend though he loves the song 'Bum Bum Bole' the whole school system, punishment, separation from family made him sad he did not like the whole thing about Ishan. Looks like it was not a good idea to watch it with him.
Madurai
Chikmagalur
This resort is more of a tone down motel rather than homestay as it is managed by people rather than owner directly. The food was average and cooked by a North Indian chef and nothing extra ordinary it taste just like any other common restaurant. That way a touch of local cuisine or a real host was missing. Standard of room were very basic. Only thing that was positive for us was since all estate owners were there (it was coffee picking season) we had nice time. And jeep trip and lunch at the bottom of their estate was free for us as we asked for it.
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Sleeper Class
Indian railway ferries millions of passenger each day. The network is vast and somewhat efficient. But it is no way near to world class even though it was one of the best luxury trains in its flight. For most Indian travelling in train means a sleeper class more and more prefer AC one now days. With ticket price of Airlines going up more and more people are going back to train as it is still easy on pocket. The only drawback is it is extremely slow in modern context. A 1000 KM journey takes 24 hours to complete, where as TGV cross whole France in couple of hours.
Coming back to the personal part I had to travel to Mumbai on a personal trip and opted for train over the last weekend. I started from Bangalore on Thursday at 20:30 and reached Mumbai around 20:00. The journey was quite peaceful not that crowded general sleeper class. And had catch-up of lots of sleep during that journey. Reaching CSTM (former VT) bought a 1st class ticket for the local and reached Kharghar.
Saturday woke up early, cleaned up the old belongings from my brother apartment and ensured our one is also in proper condition. Settled with old tenant and signed a new lease with the new one. By midday it was all done and I was quite relaxed that all these long pending to-do list ultimately got shortened.
In the evening hired a cab to reach Dadar for the return train. Unfortunately I did not bought my ticket using TATKAL(immediate) and was on wait list which was in RAC(Reservation against Cancellation) state. Now with RAC you can bored the train but have to share a seat with someone else.
The train was packed and there was no way to move up the chart to get a berth of my own. At Pune a family boarded who had 7 or 8 confirmed seats. They wanted all their seat nearby and agreed to give up 2 seat in return of one. This felt like a gift from God to me and my co-passenger. This kind of luck never happened to me before to be honest. So had a good sleep during the night. Afternoon I was feeling sleepy so went to sleep again but the rain started to pack-up with normal pessengers. This is quite common in Sleeper class where people without reservation( at day time) gets in as the general coaches are so much packed that flies can not squeeze in. Well it almost lasted till Bangalore and train somehow got delayed by an hour.
So as whole it was a OK journey comparing to my college days. Where it used to take me almost 3 to 4 days to reach home. But definitely cannot do this journey with Aarush at this age, he needs to wait for few more years.
Well this journey is not about any fancy experience but I am sure every common Indian has stories to share on their train journeys. Here is the expense I did …
Train ( Bangalore to Mumbai ) – INR 468
Train ( within Mumbai) INR 115
Cab (Mumbai) – 500 INR
Cab(Bnagalore) – 370 INR
Looks like I spent more on local travel within the city than the train ticket … a more thought on the same……..
Halebid-Belur:living with past
P.S. As mentioned by Mr.Bhat the worship continues in Halebid temple.
With elephants @ Dubare
One thing I would like to add is that as said that visitor can give bath to elephants ; its definatley something to experience but elephants do potty as they get into water so it was bit unygenic feeling which didn’t allow me to give them bath with same enthu.