India Travel Diary

Walking in thin air

2011-09-19T13:05:00.004+05:30

‘How can you really know the joy of being on the summit of the

mountain unless you have first visited the lowest valley?’

Day 2 of trek. My Casio ABT watch recorded an altitude of around 13000+ feet. Being new to trekking and relatively slow walker, some of us had started early that day. Target was a daunting 2500 feet climb in those rarefied mountains. Rains over past couple of days had made tracks disappear at places. At the foot of the first hill, we lost the mule track and took the more visible under construction road by BRO. The road had met a dead end almost halfway to the top. We were left with no option but to find our way to the top of the hill. The exertion and anxiety in trying to find our way to the top made the feeling of breathlessness worse. Occasionally, I even felt mild giddiness. Looking down I even thought what bug had bitten me to do all this. I was out on trekking, looked forward to clicking some memorable photos, and now I was trying climb up the face of a hill clinging dangerously on to rocks. Welcome to high altitude trekking.

Rain, rain and more rain

15th August, 2011. Rain and a cold morning greeted us at Manali. While the nation was getting ready to celebrate Independence Day, we were getting ready for a grueling trek from Darcha (Lahaul Spiti) to Padum (Ladakh) – nearly 100 km over 8 days across Zanskar. Torrential rains had been playing havoc in Himachal this year. Perilously swelling Beas was an indication of things around Manali. In fact the Manali – Leh could be re-opened on the afternoon of 14th after a couple of day’s blockade. As the road was open to traffic, we knew that the trip was on. The team could move out of Manali only by noon because of delay in obtaining permit. Halfway to Rohtang pass, we faced the first hurdle - a long stretch of mud and slush on an upward Z turn. Our vehicles could not find a grip on the slush to move up. I was in a Tata Winger, which probably is the worst vehicle on such road. Many other vehicles were also struggling. For a moment I felt that this was the end of the trip. After half an hour struggle, the experience of the drivers came handy and we could move beyond that deadly 100 meters of slush, only to get stuck in another jam at another slushy stretch. Most bikers on that day could not go beyond this slush. This is quite in contrast to my last visit to Rohtang pass some 10 years back in good season. The Manali – Rohtang road is now a nightmare and is often remains blocked due to landslides. In July and Augsut this year tourists had a harrowing time on this road getting blocked sometimes for days with no food and water.

Rain did not relent even for a minute that day. It was snowing in higher ups. The road at Rohtang pass resembled a long black snake cuddled up on a white sheet. By now, we had fallen well behind schedule and now faced the daunting task of driving at night in unknown hills in bad weather, where nearest aid may be several hours away. You can’t spot falling stones at night. Darcha was too far away now and we had to reach Keylong. Fortunately we had company– around 6 vehicles and a couple of bikers. A landslide at a stream named Pagal Nullah, forced us to take a diversion. If I look back on the events of that night, it gives me chill. It was very dangerous. We were fortunate to come unscathed that night. Braving landslides, falling stone, we had managed to reach Keylong at around 10 in the night. Being a district headquarters, Keylong had about 5 hotels. But all were full. One of the hotel owners was kind enough to let the group spent the night in the carpeted dining hall. My first night in sleeping bag had more twist to it. Late in the night, I was jolted out of slumber by sound of droplets. After 3 days of incessant rain, the roof the dining hall had started leaking. These are rain shadow areas, which rarely receive rain.

By morning rain had reduced to light drizzle. While we had breakfast, the vehicles went to Tandi, which is just 8 km from Keylong, to get fuel. The petrol pump at Tandi has a signboard saying next petrol pump is 365 km away (which is not correct as you will find at least one next day – probably at Pang). Vehicles by default had to tank up here. As the pump was close when we had crossed it previous night, our vehicles went to Tandi in the morning for fuel. While one vehicle managed to come back safely, two other got stuck in a landslide and could come back only around 3pm. We made a sizeable contribution to the economy of Keylong by shopping that day. However, a clear sky and bright sunshine after noon cheered us up. But we were facing the prospect of losing an entire day.

Get, set, go : almost there

Darcha is about 30 km from Keylong. There we found that the Darcha - Padum trek now actually starts at Palamu. A motorable road now exists till Palamu. One of the dhaba owners at Darcha told us to look for the horseman named Norbu at Chikka village. A young fella at Chikka helped us to locate Norbu. The young fella is studying at Bangalore. He will certainly make his remote village proud one day, not Norbu who later ditched us.

Lessons in camping

Most of us were new to long distance trekking. Spending few days of my life in tents sounded interesting experience to me. I had no idea as to what are types of tents; forget about know-how on how they are to be pitched.

My initiation to camping started at 12000 feet in the darkness of a night at Palamu. Moon was yet to rise. Under a starry sky with flashing torchlight all around, I was introduced to basic of pitching tents. By 7:30 pm, we had finished dinner and got cozy in the comfort our sleeping bags. Songs of labourers at a BRO camp in distance wafted in. It died down after some time. The silence and tranquility drifted us into early slumber.

Only when we poked our heads out of tents next morning we could see the beauty of the campsite at Palamu. It lay by the side of a gentle stream, with tents pitched on both side of it. Snow capped mountains stands majestically all around. A small hotel and couple of BRO camps and road construction equipment dotted the scene.

After spending 7 nights in tents and having seen several types of tents during those days, I now can confidently pitch at least 2 types of tents.

An odyssey through wilderness

After a blissful night at Palamu, everyone was cheered up by beautiful weather and surrounding. A group photo together signaled the flag off. Target was Zanskar Sumdo – gentle 1500 feet climb over 8 km. The temporary shelters set up by BRO labourers at Palamu, turned out to be last human habitation for next few days. The humans we met in next few days were trekkers, and occasional locals and horseman. It was absolute wilderness, unspoilt nature.

“We must go beyond textbooks, go out into the bypaths and

untrodden depths of the wilderness and travel and

explore and tell the world the glories of our journey.” – G K Chesterton

Day 2 of the trek continues. We had lost the track and were struggling to find our way to the top of a hill. Half an hour struggle eventually took us to the top. We were relived to found the track. A long break helped to recuperate from the high altitude breathlessness and giddiness.

Tracking resumed through absolute wilderness. Breathtaking landscapes kept unfolding before us as we went deeper and higher into Zanskar. The canvas of nature kept changing with sun playing hide and seek. Soon we were above snow line. Because of torrential rains in last couple of days, snow line was quite lower. The landscape now mostly consists of snow capped mountains and valleys, while an icy cold river with turquoise water flows down below. The footpath was narrow but well defined, generally by the edge of hills. Because of rains, track had given in at many stretches and had ominous appearance. Often I took a deep breath, remembered everyone and went ahead, leaving everything to almighty. Occasionally, I looked back at such stretches to fathom how dangerous it was. Every successful crossing boasted my confidence. Having someone’s company at such stretches ups your confidence. But at times, when you are all alone, the thought of ‘if I slip and fall no one would even know’ tends to send chill down the spine. It is always good to track in close groups. But often it happens that good walkers disappear in distance while slower ones falls half hour behind you. Couple of hours down the line, I found to have fallen behind with no one to be seen either ahead or after me.

Silence of the Mountains

I had fallen back by giving company to an ailing teammate whose condition was detoriating with height. When help arrived in form of experienced teammate, I resumed tracking. Soon I found that those ahead of me had already disappeared in the hills ahead while those behind me were also hidden from my sight. I was left all alone in mountains.

I continued walking enjoying the company of the mountains standing majestically. Whenever I sat down for break, the tranquility of the surroundings engulfed me. Living in crowded cities we had forgotten such calmness. Just 4 days of travelling from Delhi had taken me into such wilderness and tranquility which we thought do not exists anymore. It’s a different world out here.

The eerie silence can also make you uneasy. Beneath the calmness of these mountains lie the powers of nature to be destructive. These are quite young mountains. The moraines and abraded debris on their faces often gave you a feel that heavy rains or a shake of earth can bring many of them down. You can easily understand how the Leh cloud burst catastrophe of 2009 took place. An unknown fear crept into my mind. I suddenly felt that it is not safe to be alone in such absolute wilderness. I often listen to my inner voice. A longer break ensured that couple of guys from trailing team had arrived for company.

Lesson learnt. Day 2 of track continued. In high mountains weather often changes after 2pm and hence while going up one should look to finish around that time. We were running slightly behind schedule. The weather had indeed changed around 3pm and a cloud cover brought icy cold winds. It took us almost 8 hours to reach the campsite. The sight was not very pleasant. Almost 15000 feet and there was snow all around. Tents were pitched clearing snows. It was damp, wet ground and pretty cold out there. Once inside the tent, you never felt like coming out. My appetite had disappeared. Couple of guys had developed fever. Most of us did not have dinner that night. My PS camera had stopped working because of low temperature. I tried to save my DSLR from moisture by keeping it warm. The worst possible experience was getting relieved in the morning. Touching water will make your hand numb. But somehow I managed to do it – at 15000 feet - an experienced I will not forget.

A tiring day had come to an end. The sore point of that day’s event was the sending back of a team member. He had fallen victim to High Altitude Sickness (HAS). He had shown symptom of severe headache from Rohtang and was having mild fever by day 2. The exertion he applied to climb the hill face worsened his condition. Team leaders had decided to send him back as he was in no position to track ahead. Tugging him alone would have jeopardized the entire trip. We all felt bad for him. Most of us had carried Diamox in kit, and had planned to use it at Darcha / Palamu before the climb to the pass. Diamox has 2 days gestation period. But after learning about severe side effects of Diamox, none of us used it.

Day 3 of track. It was critical to success of the expedition as we had to cross the Shingo La pass. We appeared to have lost our luck with weather. Bright sunshine of past two days had gone and a gloomy, cloudy and ominous looking weather greeted us that morning. It was not looking good at all.

We were told about possibility of heavy snow at the pass by locals at Keylong because of incessant rains and had kept our fingers crossed. There had been bright sunshine for 2 days and we hoped that one more days sunshine would melt enough snow to make the passage of Shingo La easy for us. At the Zanskar Sumdo campsite, we met a European group, who had tried for two days in a row to cross the pass, but had to come back because of heavy snow. They decided to wait another day at Zanskar Sumdo.

Keeping our fears aside, we started the upward climb. Target was more daunting than day before – a climb from 15000 to 16700 feet and then come down to 14000 feet. We were in point of no return. The weather kept changing as we climbed. It had even drizzled for few minutes on the way. But when we were close to the pass, sunshine was back. The weather god had smiled at us again. The second good news appeared in the form of a group of locals coming from the other side. They had informed that snow is about 1 foot and they could easily cross it. We met at least two trekking teams coming from the other side on our way up. This had cheered us up. Mules would create a visible track on the snow for trekkers to use.

Climbing up was tough. Altitude was higher and air was lighter than day before. It required lot of exertion and our physical endurance was severely tested. Every step at that height required effort. Often looking up to see how much more to climb would scare you. I found a way to handle it - took 15-20 steps at a time without looking up, take a break to catch your breadth and resume. A good climber would make it to the top in 4-5 hours. But it took most of us almost 6 hours to reach the top. The entire area was covered in a white blanket. Snow was about calf deep, but mule tracks were clearly visible. Negotiating slippery snows, we had finally reached the official Shingo la top.

At 16700 feet, for a first timer is quite an achievement. We congratulated each other. The sense of achievement evaporated the fatigue. The pangs and toils endured were worth the result. Standing at the top, I thanked God, remembered my loved ones – my family. I don’t know whether I will take another such arduous trek and will come to that kind of height again. The moments got captured in our mind for ever and in cameras for others to feel it.

Climbing down to camp took another 5 hours. Descend was also tough because of snow. The side from Lakhang appeared much steeper to me. Most European trekkers cross the pass from Lakhang side, then from Chumik Napo side. For some unknown reasons, our team leaders had decided to set up the camp that at lower Lakhang. This made our trek that day killing. Most people setup camp at upper Lakhang. Lower Lakhang is another hour’s trek from upper Lakhang. We had trekked 11 hours that day, in addition to crossing the pass. Lot of curse was showered on the non-existent leadership that day. Dead tired, I went another night without dinner.

Day 4 of track. It was the most pleasant of all, almost like day 1. Though we had tracked for almost 16 km that day, it was generally through valleys and there was hardly any steep climb. As we were walking through valleys and moraines, it involved crossing many river / streams. It was difficult to keep your feet dry. My investment in Quechua shoes was worth every rupee spent. However I had injured my left thigh while trying to jump across a heavy stream that day. That nagging pain kept troubling me in the coming days, despite pain killers. After 8 hours walk, we had reached Kargyak village, the first human habitation after 5 days. The village has a satellite phone. Some of us called up their homes after 5 days to let families know about their safety. News of rain, landslides and cloud burst around Manali had left the families worried. It was soothing to hear voices of your loved ones after 5 days when you were totally cut off from the rest of the world.

Kargyak is a big village by its remoteness. Villagers cultivate jaw, Potato and Peas. Water is not a problem at those places, but land without stone is at premium. We had talked with couple of villagers who said they grow enough food to last the year. They also get subsidized rice and kerosene from administration. The area is devoid of forestation to provide any firewood. Campsite at Kargyak was about 1 km further from village center by a health centre. It was very windy. We felt as if our tens would get blown away.

Day 5 of track. Bodies were tired, but spirits were not. Every morning we wake up with new vigor. Target for day was Purne – 20 km away, but involves continuous climb and descent. We expected another daunting day in the field. Sun was blazing. The umbrellas that we bought for rain had come very handy in saving us from the sun. You could get serious sunburn in 5 minutes flat. Seeping water regularly was the key to prevent dehydration. Occasionally it was windy and dusty. A shopkeeper at Manali gave a useful piece of advice - to get a scarf and apply Vaseline (petroleum jelly) to nostrils to protect from the fine invisible dust in Zanskar.

We were walking much below snowline. Snow capped mountains got hidden from view. Landscape devoid of any vegetation had started to become monotonous. En-route we had stopped at a village named Teesta. It also has a satellite phone.

Few minutes in a Ladakhi village

Almost around noon we had reached Teesta village and decided to have a brief break. When we arrived, it sported a deserted look. We found the house with satellite dish. But there was no one to talk. We decided to wait.

A typical village 5-10 houses, made of bricks and mud. Kargyak was a much bigger village with more houses. Roof is used to store cow dung cakes and fodder for animals. Villages are surrounded by farm lands where locals cultivate jaw, potato and peas. In the first half of the day, most humanfolk are out in the fields, either attending farm or gathering fodder for cattle. Thus village generally remains deserted. Yak is their main cattle, besides mules, goat and sheep. Yaks serve them even after its productive life is over. Every parts of yak are used. True Yaks can be seen only in these higher altitudes. (Villagers down below had produced an ugly hybrid of cow and yak. What do you call it – Yaow)

After a brief wait at Teesta, a young guy appeared in the scene. He could communicate in Hindi. We asked him about using the village satellite phone. They normally allow for a small payment. He led us to the house having the phone. The dark room was pretty cool and provided welcome succor from the heat outside. Corruption and greed had not touched these people yet. And hence they won’t fleece you for using the phone which is a luxury in such remoteness. I spoke to my family on a satellite phone by paying just 20 rupees.

Soon more people appeared and interacted with us. They spoke about tough life out in these terrains. All these areas will soon be snowed out and links with rest of the world will get cutoff for 5-6 months. Occasional house had got a solar light. Most of them cultivate enough to feed the entire year. They also get highly subsidized rice and kerosene oil. These areas are devoid of any trees, and hence firewood. Cow dung cakes are main source of fuel.

Indian tourist rarely came this way. The kids would generally make a beeline with folded hands asking for toffees whenever they see trekkers. Looking at them made me wonder about their world. No education, no power, no TV. They live in different world, a world way back in time. Standing among them you would fell as if time had come to a standstill.

Day 5 of trek to Purne resumed. Another couple of hours walk and we were on the outskirt of Purne where we had to make a choice. While the trek continues upward, another trek goes down steeply to a bridge on Kargyak River. There was no road sign and no one to ask. A campsite could be seen on hill opposite the river which would tempt you to take the downward path. But the sight of deep descent and the prospect of climbing that up again if you make the wrong choice had made us wait. A volunteer went down and had figured out that we need to go down and cross the river to reach Purne campsite. It is a steep descent and then climb up again about 100 feet. Purne turned out to be the best camp site on the route. Most trekkers stay for two nights and take the side trip to Phuktal monastery. Purne campsite had shops which even sells beer and cold drinks.

Washing off hands and faces at a stream nearby had a soothing effect on the entire body. It felt like ages since we had touched water for more than a few seconds. That night, we sat under a clear night sky and sipped tea at the tea stall of the campsite. The sky resplendent with stars was magnificent at night. I have seen such a clear night with sky full of stars after a long time. After a long time we went to sleep around 10 pm. For the last few days we had been sleeping latest by 8 pm.

Day 6 of track. We were delighted to know that we need not go up the steep path by which we came down previous evening. We had to continue along a new route by the river. Both the treks eventually met somewhere. This trek turned out to be even harder than the Kargyak – Purne one. Climbs were much steeper so do descends. We wondered as to whether we were really going down. Sun was again at its blazing best. By 3 pm we made it to Pipula, a small campsite with a hotel. We had to take a call whether to go further to Ichar which is another 3 hours away. Most of the team had blisters in their foot, because of the hot and tiring trek of previous day. I got 8 in all despite my breathable Quechua. Blisters had got aggravated by another days of strenuous trek. Thus we had decided to halt at Pipula for the night. Then came another twist. Norbu, the horse contractor had decided to not to go any further. He had picked up some fight – a drunken brawl previous night at Purne. One of his friends had a plastered nose. He apparently had some conciliation to attend that night. We were not convinced with his explanation. However no amount of persuasion made him changed his mind. It is difficult to persuade hill tribes. Fortunately, the campsite owner at Pipula had offered to drop us at Ichar with his horses.

We pitched our tent for the night at Pipula. Though a swift flowing Tsarp river next to the camp ground provided some appeal, this campsite was the worst of all. It is devoid of any grass and full of pebbles. Knowing that this would be our last camp, we had arranged for a campfire. It was another very windy night.

Day 7 of track. It took 3 hours for us to reach Ichar. We bid adieu to the wilderness where we had spent last one week. A well built bridge across Tsarp River landed us on a motorable road. The road construction from Radu had reached almost Ichar. One day (some 10 – 15 years from now) this road will reach Zanskar Sumdo, the point where we lost the track on day 2)

Couple of guys decided to go to Radu, some 8-9 km from Ichar to find a vehicle to take us to Padum. Others waited at Ichar with tents and equipments. We had a mini picnic by having lunch on the road itself with all remaining ration. While waiting on the road a BRO mini truck came from Radu. The driver told that he would return in the afternoon. The truck returned around 3 pm. It was going back to Padum. We all got jumped into its back with tents and equipments. A bumpy ride on its back for 30 km landed us at the town of Padum. The track had reached its logical end. Instead of Darcha – Padum, it is now a Palamu – Ichar trek.

Back to a chaotic world

Thomas Jefferson once said “I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it” .

I am used to remain cutoff from world for upto 3 days, but this time it had been much longer.On the way to Padum we had discussed about the fate of Anna’s fast. The last we were in touch with the outside world was at Keylong about a week back. Anna was to start his fast that day and we saw visuals of him arrested before we left for Darcha. We kept searching for mobile signals as we approached Padum. BSNL networks works at Padum, and only postpaid phones are allowed in JK.

It took us another two days to reach Leh via Kargil via Rangdum. En-route we had crossed the Penzila pass (14000 feet) and got to see the breathtaking view of Darung Durang glacier and the peaks of Nun and Kun. Details of Padum – Kargil – Leh leg of the trip is provided on my earlier post. An early morning flight from Leh brought a tired but rejuvenated body back to Delhi. The scale showed that I had lost 5 kilos in last 10 days.

Clay lies still, but blood’s a rover;

Breath’s aware that will not keep.

Up, lad: when the journey’s over

then there’ll be time enough to sleep. - A.E. Housman

For next one week or so, whenever I slept, in my dreams the the mountains kept coming back. I often waked up with scenes like I am climbing a hill and I had a still a long way to go. A journey of a lifetime had come to an end. But I know that I will be back in those mountains.

Darcha – Padum Trek : Information update

2011-09-02T17:19:00.001+05:30

The Darcha – Padum trek through absolute wilderness of Zanskar provides a rare opportunity to see some breathtaking landscape, especially in the upper regions. It generally takes 9-10 days to complete this trek which involves crossing the Shingo La pass (16700 feet). Technically this is called a moderate trek. Unless you are a seasoned trekker or mountaineer, let me assure that, it is not easy to trek in those rarefied mountains and to complete it you will have to go beyond your limits of physical endurance.

This is a very popular trek with European tourist, who generally takes it from Padum side. We had met 2 to 3 large group of Europeans everyday, few couples (with a guide) including a daredevil cyclist couple of Germany and lone trekker Mike from Poland. On enquiry with agents accompanying the groups, we found that we were the only Indian group this year on the trek. Though it is still known as Darcha – Padum trek, it has effectively reduced to Palamu – Ichar trek, cutting down two days of trekking, one each at both ends. Government of India is trying to build an alternate motorable road on this route which will cut the distance between Manali and Kargil. The road on Darcha side has been constructed to a little beyond Zanskar Sumdo. But small vehicles can go only upto Palamu. Only BRO trucks currently can ply between Palamu and Zanskar Sumdo. One can easily get a lift upto Zanskar Sumdo in a truck, which will cut down another day of trekking.

Darcha is on the Manali – Leh road. It is about 30 km from Keylong town, the HQ of Lahaul – Spiti. A little beyond Darcha, you leave the main road and take the diversion to Chika village and Palamu. There is good amount of BRO activity at Palamu which also is the first campsite. It is a picturesque location by a small stream. At around 11000 feet, it is not very cold either.

The second day camp is setup at Zanskar Sumdo. A small stream meets the Zanskar river at a little distance form the campsite. Sumdo means confluence. Real trekking starts from Zanskar Sumdo which is around 12500 feet. Here you leave the valley and start climbing to the base camp site Chumik Napko or (Chumik Napo). On crossing river near campsite one faces two option -- the BRO road on left which look enticing and the mule trek on right ( to be serched carefully). Don't take the BRO road as meets a dead end after some time.

Reaching Chumik Napko involves 6-7 hours trekking. Apparent distance is about 14km. In hills distance is not measured in kilometers but hours. The climb is tough with mostly ascends. You will get a beautiful valley with snow capped mountains all around. Though the claimed altitude of Chumik Napko is 15000 feet, my Casio ABT watch showed a little beyond 14000. I had a general feeling that heights mentioned in most sites are inflated. This is well above snow lines. We had to set up our camp clearing snows (Aug 18, 2011).

The climb to the Shingo La pass from Chumik Napko would take 4-5 hours. To seasoned climbers, this climb may not seem harsh, but for newbie like us it was tough. It involves only ascends, some of which were steep. Snow makes it slippery and dangerous. The higher you go, the more breathlessness you feel. None of us had taken Diamox as we were warned about the serious side effects of it. The pass was covered in around 1 feet snow, but fortunately the trek was visible, courtesy couple of teams which had crossed it earlier on the day. The official height of the pass is 16700 feet. But if I had to believe my watch, it is around 16000 feet. There is no official signpost proclaiming the height as 16700 feet. Around the pass, you get to see small semi frozen lake and the majestic view of a glacier with two rivers originating from it n either side.

The climb to the pass from Lakhang side appeared much steeper to me. The camp at Lakhang can be set either a couple of kilometer once you climbed down from top to a valley or onto a second valley further down below. The valley below where our camp was set is another hour of walk. The trek from Chumik Napko to lower Lakhang was one of the most tiring experience for us as it took almost 10-11 hours. Altitude of Lakhang is around 14000 feet, but it is well below snow line.

Lakhang to Kargyak was the best part of the trek as you walk on the valley most of the time. The apparent distance is about 20 km. It will take about 7-8 hours through lot of river beds and dusty trails under a blazing sun. This was the only stretch where it was difficult to avoid getting your feet wet because of large no of streams. Most of us had got blisters that day. Kargyak is the first human habitation you would meet after 4/5 days of trekking. It is a relatively big village and has a satphone. You can call up your home from here. You need to go upto the village to find the phone. The household with phone can easily be identified from the satellite dish and solar panel. The camp is set about a kilometer beyond the village.

Next stop on the trek is Purne. Enroute you pass a couple of villages and small settlement. The trek is along right bank of the river till you reach a village after a couple of hours where you cross a well built bridge. From thereafter you trek along left side of the river finally crossing it again near Purne. About 4 hours from Kargyak, you would reach Teesta village which also have a satphone. I called up my home from here. The trek involves constant ups and downs and hence is tiring. You would also be walking under a blazing sun which can easily drain you out. When you approach Purne, you need to leave the main trek and go down a steep path to cross the river to reach the campsite.

Purne is a nicely managed campsite. You feel good to camp on a village having humans around after 5/6 days. Many tourists stay here for two nights and take the side trip to Phuktal monastery from here. The round trip takes around 6-7 hours. You always need to add couple of hours to the estimate given by locals simply because you can not move at their speed.

We had our next and last camp at Pipula. This is a small dhaba / hotel with a small campsite. The site is not good because it lacks grass and is full of pebbles. Purne to Pipula is also lots of ups and downs and hence not easy, specially when your legs are tired after 5/6 days of trekking. The distance is about 15-16 km, i.e. 6-7 hours trekking. If you are not tired, then you can camp at Ichar which is another 2-3 hours from Pipula. By this time the landscape become too monotonous. The hills are devoid of vegetation will not make you take out your camera out. The landscape in upper region was stunning, but not here.

On our arrival at Pipula, we were delighted to see BRO vehicles on the hill across the Tsarp river. Construction of road from Padum side has reached this far. Construction was started around 2002. In another 10-15 years you may get a motorable road from Darcha to Padum across Shingo La pass. This will also bring development to these desolate locations. It may also change the face of tourism. Instead of trekking, you may get home stays then. May be road will be built on one side of the river, while the existing trek on other side will remain a trekking route.

On our final morning we had trekked to Ichar. It took 2-3 hours. After a couple of hours wait there, we got into a BRO truck that took us to Padum via Radu. The road from Radu to Padum is metalled. Ichar to Radu is about 8-9 km and Radu – Padum is about 20km. By taking lift, we had killed another day of trekking. There is no point trekking on motorable road. Neither the landscape is that great to inspire you to continue on foot.

Padum is a decent size town with hotels and restaurants. It was the old capital of Zanskar. It is serving as business centre to many remote areas around. There also is a JKTDC facility. Taxis and buses to Kargil are available here. Also all postpaid mobile connections works here. Besides the Padum - Darcha trek, another popular trail - the Padum - La Maruyu trek starts here.

Some of the names of places I had mentioned here may differ from other website. The names mentioned by me here is based on actual experience or names as written on those places. Like, many sites had written as Reru, but it is Radu (pronounce as Ra Ru). Further, many website had mentioned Padum – Leh distance as 138 km. This is ridiculous. To reach Leh, you need to go via Kargil. Distance between Padum to Kargil is almost 250 km and requires 10-11 hours drive. The road is bad, non metalled. You cross the Penzila pass (14000 feet) en-route. You also get to the stunning view of Darung Durang glacier on the way. There is only one place to eat on the route – Rangdum. You do not have option to be choosy. Eat whatever you get. If have started late from either end (Padum or Kargil) it will be a better option to spend the night here. There are couple of facilities including a tented campus here. If you are close to Kargil, then one of the cost effective way of spending the night is a Malla Guest house, located at Lankerchey, 35 km from Kargil or 5 km from Sankoo village. This is a family run home which offers bed @200 rupees. This appeared to be a popular stopover for trekkers on this route.

Finally, Kargil – Leh is another 6-7 hours drive. This road provides some breathtaking landscape besides the famous stretch of Magnetic Road. One should ask the websites claiming Padum – Leh as 138 km as to how they have compressed 400+ kilometers journey of two days into just 138 km?

(Trek done from 16th to 24th August, 2011)

Darcha - Padum Trek : A dream coming true

2011-08-06T11:03:00.000+05:30

Sometimes it becomes difficult to control your emotions and excitement in the build up to a trip. I have been planning a trip to Ladakh for last couple of years. It could not materialize mainly for one reason – I always wanted to do a road trip on the famous Manali – Leh road, at least one way. But that was not possible with family in tow. Other possibility was that of family travelling both ways by air, while I take only one and travel by road for the other. Travelling by road for two days alone would be very boring. Thus one need partner for the road trip. Getting two families to undertake this journey in that way became even harder.

This had drastically changed in last 10 days or so. I got an opportunity to be part of ONGC Himalayan Association’s annual trek for 2011. This is a trek where colleagues from locations all across India take a high altitude trek. The trek will be flagged off on14th August, 2011 at Dehradun, which is celebrated as ONGC Day. I felt extremely lucky to have nominated for this years trek. And what a trek it turned out to be – the Darcha – Padum trek in Zanskar. This means I would actually be walking almost half of the Manali – Leh. It is an eight day trek of about 100 km which will finally end at Leh around 25^th August, 2011.

This is nothing but a dream comes true. I will try to make it a photographic journey. I have never been out trekking with camp stay. The longest trip for me till now is the trip to the Valley of Flowers in 2008. From what I have read in the net, the Darcha - Padum trek would start around 12-13K feet and would be going to a maximum height of 16,700 feet. All camps are likely to be around 13K feet. I have been to 14K feet twice. So it would be quite an experience for me – no lights, minimal food, no toilets, and above all trek around 15-20 km everyday. Going through a fitness routine in last few days, I felt that mental toughness is equally important to undertake such a trek. My dream will keep egging me on.

I would like to thank all who had helped me to come this closer to a dream – my wife and daughter who had agreed to let me go alone and Naved sir for nominating me. I hope to get lot of good photos and memories for all of you. I wish God almighty will help me living through the dream in next 20 days.

Pangot : Driving through clouds

2011-06-03T15:03:00.000+05:30

Hovering clouds and cool breeze greeted us almost halfway on the Kaladhungi – Nainital road. It was a pleasant respite from the shearing Delhi heat. Not much have changed on the Kaladhungi – Nainital road since my last visit about 5 years back except for the entry fee to Nainital has doubled to 100 bucks. This is more than any single toll one pay for the Delhi – Jaipur expressway. Such type of open looting of tourists by government agencies is one reason why I hate Uttarakhand hill stations. Can anyone explain on what authority the Nagar Palika collects money, that too a substantial amount. To me it is penalty for taking pains to visit Uttarakhand. One would be better off visiting Kerala which to me is the most tourist friendly state in India.

My stay for the night was planed for Vinayak. I wanted to avoid Nainital which must be buzzing with tourists in this summer. Therefore, instead of going down to Nainital, we took the left turn immediately after the toll post. This road goes to Kunjakharak via Kilbury, Pangot and Vinayak. I had booked my stay at the Vinayak FRH which is about 22km from Nainital. For most part it was an uphill drive where occasional clouds and rains greeted us. Driving through clouds and desolate hills, we had reached Pangot, a small hamlet located some 16 km from Nainital. My altimeter said that we had reached an altitude of 6350-6400 feet.

With the impending rain in mind, I had enquired at Pangot about the distance to Vinayak. The response was mixed – from 3 to 6 kilometers. I decided to continue as I had at least an hour before dark. Barely a kilometer further my drive was stopped by the sight of a landslide ravaged stretch of about 100 meters. Given the clouds hovering above and the condition of the stretch, it was apparent that a heavy rain would easily block this stretch and we may get stuck next day. Pangot is the last substantial human habitation on the route. As there is not much human habitation or vehicular movement beyond Pangot, a landslide may take some time to be cleared. I had to reach Corbett next day and Corbett was more important to me than Vinayak. So we decided to return to Pangot.

There is a grocery shop at Pangot on the main road which also serves as kind of meeting / waiting point for locals commuting to other places. A road branches out from this point, down to the main village. Pangot is being promoted as a birding paradise. Many private resorts have come up in the area and all of them are located close to the main road. We decided to check the Janardan Resort, located barely 50 meters from the shop. Built out of carving on a hill face, this is a small property with six double room cottages. On climbing up the stairs, the place exuded a mystique charm with a majestic view of greenery and hills around. The manager asked for price of 1500 which was bargained down to 1400. This is quite decent price given the rates of some other resorts on the area which has a net presence. In India, anything available on net is always costlier and hence I almost always travel without prior booking. Besides being cheaper it also gives me the flexibility to check habitability of the place. I had enquired with Jungle Lore Birding Lodge which asked 4500 per night for a couple with all meals. Kafal House asked 3500 for same package. Both asked around 1000 extra for child. Paying 5000 for such remote place sounds ridiculous to me. If you go to Pangot for a day, then you will at most have a dinner and breakfast, not all three meals. Thus it would be advisable to bargain a price without meals.

Pangot turned out to be a very peaceful location. Most of vehicles seen on the main road went down to the Pangot village. Only a handful continued towards Kunjakharak. The resort provided a beautiful view of the hills and jungles of the surrounding hills. Sitting on the verandah of the cottage we watched birds and people that went past in the distance. What kept us engrossed is the tranquility of the place. The greenery all around, which got engulfed in clouds that kept flowing past us from time to time. On occasions the clouds devoured our resort as well making it very cold.

As expected it had rained heavily at night. It got quite cold during the night. We did not carry any warm cloths as we did not expect it to get that cold. Imagine shivering in peak May summer. In the morning we had decided to explore the area around. We went down a British era trek that leads to a village and a temple down. The trek starts right opposite the resort. But because of clouds and accompanying rains / moisture we could not explore much. Contrary to what I read somewhere on net, there were birds. Waking up before sunrise, I saw many varieties. Unfortunately I could hardly recognize any. Most birds disappeared by 7 am.

After a decent breakfast, we decided to head out for Ramnagar en-route to Corbett. The distance between Ramnagar and Pangot is around 70 km. Driving down was a real challenge as visibility was down to barely 50 feet because of dense cloud cover. I was actually scared and stopped at one place for visibility to improve. We had given Nainital town a complete miss despite being very close as we wanted a peaceful outing rather than touristy one. We liked Pangot a lot and we will try to make a comeback to this place for a longer stay.

To end : Janardan Resort turned out to be VFM. Not a luxury property, but it is decent with clean rooms and running hot water and electricity. We were charged only 250 rupees for the dinner and breakfast. You can not expect much of menu option to eat in such remote places, but it was home cooked food served hot by the manager – cum –cook. He also cooked the Maggie we carried with us. I recommend it.

(Journey undertaken on 26th may, 2011)

Go Wild at Kanha and Bandhavgarh

2011-04-29T12:28:00.000+05:30

Back from a fantastic trip to the Mowgli’s country. The twin trip to Kanha and Bnadhavgarh was part of a wildlife photography workshop by Nature Wanderers in association with Canon. Named ‘Canon Go Wild’, the workshop was conducted by ace wildlife photographer and naturalist Kahini Ghosh Mehta, Shivang Mehta and Udai Shringi.

In a long time I had undertaken a trip without having to do any planning. Normally I do the planning and research part for my trips, even for friends who had travelled with me. This time, I just paid the money and got tugged along wherever the group went. I was not even aware of the train I would be coming back till last day. All that was in mind for those 5 /6 days was just jungle and photography.

The trip started with an 18 hr train travel from Delhi to Jabbalpur. The 5 hours travel of 190 km to Mukki gate of Kanha was covered in comfortable AC vehicles. We were put up at the luxurious Infinity Resort at both Kanha and Bandhavgarh. Everything was arranged by Nature Wanderers nicely to let the participants concentrate only about photography and enjoying the trip. The tough part was getting up everyday at 4 am to get ready to leave by 5. Specially when every evening people would sit late discussing about photographs or events of the day or editing photographs. To do that continuously for 4 days was tough.

In all we had six safaris – 3 each at Kanha and Bandhavgarh. On two days we had spent almost the full days inside the jungle, only getting out for lunch breaks. Kanha allows you to be inside for longer duration – morning 5:45am to 11am and evening 3:45pm to 6:45pm. The timings for Bandhavgarh were shorter – morning 5:45am to 9:45am and evening 3:30pm to 6:30pm. Morning safaris at both places had been fantastic, but evening one mostly disappointing. Because of the rising mercury, even birds were hardly sighted in the afternoon safaris. In all 12 tigers were sighted by the group. My count is 6 – three each at Kanha and Bandhavgarh. That made my total sight count 8 in 2011. For three years I tried in vain at Corbett to get sight of the king. Now in just two months I met 8 of those majestic animals.

Kanha is difficult to access. Nearest railhead is Jabbalpur (140-190km depending on entry point you choose). Also because of its huge size of nearly 2000sqm, tiger sighting is lower. We saw wild dogs (dhol), Indian Bisons (Gaud) and Barashingas there apart from the normal spotted deer, sambhars and langurs. Bandhavgarh is easier to access. Nearest railheads are Umaria (34km) and Katni (95km). It probably provides the best opportunity to see wild tigers in India. The 9 tigers spotted by our team in 3 safaris is an indication of it. Not everyone was that lucky, but the worst count was 2. It is also excellent for birding as team was able to capture shots of serpent eagle with kill, king vulture in flight, etc.

The final morning saw everyone taking their best shots. The best being a tiger mating shot. Everyone returned happy from the trip. It was a fantastic learning opportunity for most of the participant. I had upgraded my equipment for the trip. I would sum up the 4 days as under –

Day 1 : I shoot monkeys and deer like most people with a camera do, but may be with better composition

Day 2 : I had stopped shooting monkeys and grazing deer

Day 3 : I had started understanding the importance of capturing moments and making photos like we do for normal photography

Day 4 : I had actually captured moments. I was proud of my shots on final day

To end it this is probably the best moment I had captured:

Sariska : face to face with the king

2011-03-28T17:06:00.007+05:30

Forewarning : Sariska is actually bigger in total area than Rantahmbore NP or Corebtt NP. But it has only 6 tigers. Getting to see a tiger in the wild is always 99% luck. The jungle in the safari area is generally of dry type with very little cover of bigger trees. A safari often means scouting the jungle under a blazing sun and dust. Thus if you do not get to see a tiger, you may feel terrible. You may even feel whether the park has any wildlife!

Location:

The park is located around 38 km from Alwar on the Alwar- Jaipur SH13. The road condition of last 5-6 km to the park is very bad. Not much traffic, but you will get some big trucks plying on the highway.

Driving direction:

Leave the NH8 at Dharuhera. You need to get off the highway just before you get onto the flyover. This is a point where the local bus stand is and you will see lot of crowd. After a couple of hundred meters, you will take another left turn to get away from the crowd and onto the main road, which is NH71B to Bhiwadi. There are no raod signs though. Another couple of kilometers down on this road you need to turn right for SH25 to Alwar. Road directions are virtually non-existent and hence you need to ask people around. The road to Alwar is a mix bag. Widening of highway is on. Wherever the job has been completed, driving is a pleasure. On reaching outskirt of Alwar, you will get a round about with Ashok Leyland logo. Turn left here and continue on SH25. Do not take the road straight which appears to head into the city. If you search in Goggle map for direction, then they will show this straight road. It is actually closed under the railway line for some construction. Turning left at the Ashok Leyland circle; proceed about 4-4.5km where you will have to turn right to get into the city. Keep moving ahead, cross a flyover and then turn left when you reach Bhagat Singh circle. Statue of Bhagat Singh would be visible to you. Turning left at this point keep moving straight till reach a forked road. Fortunately there is a road sign here. The right road of the fork moves upward into a hillock. This is the road to Sariska. This is road MDR27 (major district road). Somewhere ahead it will meet SH13.

Driving from Kaushambi, Ghaziabad, the total distance clocked on my odo was 219km. From Gurgaon it took about 3 hours.

Accomodation:

The RTDC run Hotel Tiger Den is located close to the park gate and next to the safari booking office campus. The only other hotel Sariska Palace is also located close to the booking office. Sariska Palace is a luxury resort. Tiger Den is ideally located and reasonably priced. It provides best value for money for budget travelers. I saw another resort named Sariska Tiger Camp on way from Alwar. This is located quite far away, around 15-20 from the park.

Safari at Sariska:

The best chance of meeting the king is by a jeep safari. Though one is allowed to enter the park in your own vehicle, you are required to stick only to the carpeted main road. Private vehicles are not allowed to go on the kutcha roads or the core areas. It is not that tiger is not seen by the main road, but the possibility of getting to see the tiger in your private car is near to nill. In fact one of my colleagues had seen it close to the main road.

The cost for a jeep safari is as under (as on 19.03.2010):

Rs.1050 -- hiring charges for the jeep (compulsory)

Rs.250 – vehicle entry fee (compulsory)

Rs.150 -- guide charges (compulsory)

Rs.60 – entry fee per head. Max 6 person per jeep.

There are enough jeeps for safari. Each safari consists of 3 hours. Morning safaris start at 7am, which is actually quite late. You will be better of taking a late afternoon safari.

Wildlife at Sariska:

The jungle is mainly dry type. There is not much lush green type vegetation or tall trees around. Most common animal seen are Nilgais and Sambher deer. You will also get to see few spotted deer. But the numbers are not very high to excite you. You will also get lots of peacock.

Tiger ST2

The star attraction is the 6 tigers. These tigers have been relocated from Rantahmbore. The current save tiger furor had all started after the revelation that all of 14 odd tigers that once roamed Sariska had been wiped out either by poachers or locals. There are at least 2 villages we saw well inside park. One of them was not very far from where we spotted tigers. People were seen grazing cattle inside. The human – animal conflict is quite apparent here.

Meeting the King:

We took an afternoon safari. The official at counter said that 2 tigers were spotted that morning and hence possibility of seeing them again this evening is quite high. After scouting the jungle for about an hour we had reached the point where Sambhars gather near a waterhole. While enjoying this fairly large of animal, we saw a couple of Gypsies belonging to the forest deptt appearing at high speed from nowhere and disappeared into the jungle other side of the road. The guide and the driver were quick to realize that the forest vehicle had tracking equipment and have got some message of tigers. All gypsies around that area started a cat and mouse chase of the forest deptt cars. It was scene out of a movie. Our driver was finding direction only from the dust left by vehicles. Soon we had reached the spot where forest vehicles have located a tiger. We were almost covered in dust. But happy to locate the foresters with tracking equipment. Other gypsies had started arriving there. As advised by our guide, we waited patiently. He was sure that if there is a tiger, it will come out at around 5pm when the sun goes down behind the hill. Tiger always walks on sides of open roads when they move. He was dead right. Around 5 pm, the first tiger, a female named ST2 appeared in the scene. Everyone was looking in the direction of the forest deptt car which had actually located a tiger. But this one walked into the scene from opposite direction. Even the gypsies in that end did not notice it. Our guide was the first to see and alerted others. Soon there was a commotion. At this the tiger stopped its majestic walk on the road and took a turn around behind the bushes. Meanwhile the other tiger, a male named ST4 also appeared briefly and started moving in the direction from which ST2 had come. It did not come out onto the road, but continued walking behind the bushes close to the road. ST2 made reappearance, this time at our end, providing us unhindered view and a couple of good photographs. Despite the fading light I could a couple of good shots. It was about 100 feet away from our vehicle. Crossing the road, it started to follow the male tiger. The two tigers had been seen in pairs for past couple of days. We had our moments of lifetime. Actually we were lucky to spot the speeding forest vehicle. Couple of minutes on either side, we would have returned empty handed.

Excursion :

There is an old Hanuman temple at Pandupole. This is 21km from the park gate. Most people go their in their private vehicle. You need to pay the vehicle and per head entry fee. The road is intentionally kept bad so that one can not drive above 30. You will get to see few animals on the way as you drive 21 km into the park. There are lots of Langurs in the temple premises. The trip takes about half a day. This is generally not covered in safari. If you come here for an overnight trip, the choice you will have to make is between a morning safari and this trip. You would not miss much if you give it a skip.

Overall experience:

Fantastic if you get to see a tiger. Otherwise read my forewarning. We were lucky to see not one, but two tigers. Sariska is 866 Sq KM as against Corbett 520 Sq KM and Ranthambore 392 Sq KM. We did not see a tiger in two attempts to Corbett (staying once at Dhikala FRH and then at Gairal FRH). Corbett has 160 tigers, yet we did not see any. Sariska has only 6, yet we got to see two. Overall it is a good weekend trip from Delhi (200km) or Jaipur (100km).

Hawa Mahal at night

2011-02-01T21:28:00.002+05:30

Hawa mahal -1
Originally uploaded by Rups33

It was an unplanned stopover at Jaipur. On the way back from Ajmer we decided to spend one night at Jaipur as spending two night at Ajmer appeared an unacceptable proposition. This gave me an opportunity to have a fresh shot at the Hawa Mahal, one of the celebrated historical buildings of India. It was glowing in decent lighting. Actually I had never seen a photo of the Hawa Mahal at night. Most one time tourists to Jaipur get to see it only during daytime. It is worth visiting the market and area around Hawa Mahal at night.

Just back from Ajmer

2011-01-30T21:59:00.002+05:30

This is a trip I had been planning for some time. But the 400+ km distance from Delhi was one of the reasons holding me back. The Shatabdi from Delhi leaves at 6 am. Given the fact that we see sunlight these days only around 7 am, one has to get up at unearthly hours in this bitter cold to catch this train. Finally I gathered courage to undertake a driving trip. The trip one way was 410 km. It took us 7 hours to make that distance. I had driven almost 400km many times during my earlier posting. My home town Guwahati and my place of posting Nazira was almost 400km apart. But those were days when I was 10 years younger and did not have the slip disc problem. Anyway, my back hold well for 410 km one way and 860 km round trip drive in 3 days.

Encouraged by this successful endeavor, now I am planning to have another 400 plus km trip. This time to the Rantahmbor national park via Alwar, visiting Sariska on the way, and then may be a return via Bharatpur.

Khartoum : My first foreign assignment

2010-12-12T13:49:00.001+05:30

It was barely dawn when I left home on way to the Sudanese capital Khartoum. The name of the war torn African nation Sudan itself may scares many. But I was excited to be on my first foreign trip. I believe every place has something unique to offer. More so if it is off beat. While we were stamped without any query at immigration, one of my colleagues had to face a few question. Seeing the final destination as Sudan, the immigration officer called his boss who asked him why to Sudan. The moment he said that we are from ONGC and on official visit, he was cleared without any further question.

The Emirates flight to Dubai was late by about half an hour. It left us with very little time at the famed Dubai Inttl Airport. We rushed to catch the connecting flight to Khartoum. It was a six hours flight. The 3 ½ hours time difference meant it was still late afternoon when we had arrived at the Khartoum inttl. airport. The airport with only basic facilities required about 1 hour to clear immigration. There were few foreigners in the flight, mostly Chinese. All foreigners, including us, are part of consortium called GNPOC (Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company), lead by Chinese Petroleum (CNPC) and Petronas of Malyasia. ONGC Videsh is 25% stake holder in the consortium. It is the lure of black hold which has made these nations to risk operating in

Sudan

after US and its allies exited the country.

Mr. Khalid, our PRO was waiting for us to receive at the airport. We were led outside to the parking area. The taxis operating appeared disorganized. They were clamoring for the customers like our bus and tempos do. Even in such a place majority of the taxis are Toyota Corolla. Even though the currency is not stable and freely tradable, the valuation of Sudanese Pound (now Guild) is about 19 Indian Rupees. It is the power of black gold.

On Sudan:

The ethnic strife in Sudan is between the oil rich but underdeveloped South and developed North. Most of the trouble is in the north which is controlled by warlord. North Sudan, including Khartoum is fairly safe. Khartoum is the seat of power and hence seen occasional attempts by rebels to take over. The locals from north are fairer and generally Muslims while those from South are darker and are Christians. So you can easily understand which part of the world is supporting whom. The country is currently under UN supervised ceasefire. It is going for a referendum on January, 2011 on whether to divide the country into North and South. If I recall correctly the date of reckoning is 8^th January, 2011.

On Khartoum:

The locality we stayed put is fairly up market. Roads are fairly wide and traffic appreciably disciplined. The Indian made Bajaj autos (three wheelers) are found to be a major and popular mode of local transport. Many LML and Hamara Bajaj were also seen on the roads. India is making good business with Sudan. In fact we were told by one of the local that there are historical examples of trade with

India

were also found.

The stay had been very hectic with mostly stayed put late in office to finish the job for which we were deputed there. Still we found time to explore few things around the city. The Khartoum city is divided into 3 parts – Khartoum South, Khartoum North and Omdurman. We had explored Khartoum south and Omdurman. The city boasts of confluence of the White Nile and the Blue Nile. The two Niles meets right in the heart of the city and then flows from this point into Egypt as the great river Nile. One morning we went to see the confluence. The areas around the Niles are having a fair green cover. But the city in general is generally devoid of greenery. The Nile Avenue on the bank of the river houses almost all government buildings including the palace of the King. We went there once more in the evening to see the sunset. Cruises are available on paper. We also saw few boats parked on the river. But could not found from where they can be booked even after taking to the people on the boat. The main problem we had was the fear of taking photographs. We always asked before doing so. It is a country under military rule. If police arrest you even for taking a photo, you are done.

The next visit was to the local market at Omdurman in search of gold. Gold in Khartoum is generally 21Ct. and price was also compatible to India where it is generally 22Ct. Thus we left this for Dubai. We were in the market in the night. I had some kind of fear stalking me as we were clearly the odd man out in the entire market. Nevertheless it was an unforgettable experience.

Another morning we went to the desert beyond Omdurman. On the way we saw the Libiya market. It is said that goods smuggled from Libiya were sold here while Libiya were under sanction. But now a day most of goods sold comes from

China

. All China maal. Then we had crossed the local animal market. The guest house staff goes to this market to buy goats to ensure that they are getting only mutton. Finally we had reached the desert after travelling for about an hour. Local call it Dar-e-Sallem. Navigating though road less terrain, the driver took us a village named Nifasa. The soil colour was kind orange and red mixture. It was a dreadful landscape. The first that will come to your mind is as to how people can survive here. See the photographs. It in fact was a very large village with sizeable population. We had stopped at an open place which appeared to be a playground. Our Honda CRV was already a cynosure in that landscape. Few locals gathered around us. The driver introduced us as Hindi, which is how they probably refer to as Indians. We had few good moments shaking hands and taking photographs with friendly locals. We even played football with young boys. The suddenly someone appeared in the scene and started raising question about taking photos. Sensing trouble we all got into the car. The driver had some conversation with the self styled leader and then he drove us back.

One evening we landed accidentally at the museum. It happened to be the World Tourism Day. The ministry was organizing some function. It was a nice coincidence. We got to see few performances of local dances and photographed ourselves with them. The museum had few statues brought from the pyramids of Merowe.

Beyond Khartoum:

There are two places which one can visit. The first one is Pyramids of Merowe. These part bordering Egypt has some of the pyramids though inspired by the ones at Egypt, has their own style. Not being a tourist country, these are still fairly untouched. One need permit to visit them. We got the permits, but unfortunately could not visit them because of paucity of time. The place is about 150 km from Khartoum and so would require one full day.

The second one is the Jabel Awliya dam built on the White Nile. We went to the dam located some 80 km from city. The dam holding back the powerful While Nile on one side was worth a site. We spent some time watching local fisherman catching fish on the dam. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed.

The Yellow Fever scare:

We knew that yellow fever vaccination is required for visiting certain African countries including Sudan. But input from colleagues who had visited earlier said it was not mandatory. Further the procedure for getting vaccinated in Delhi is cumbersome. So went there without vaccination. One fine day, we were told that without the vaccination card, we will not be issued boarding card at airport. Shocked. Office arranged vaccination for us. We were taken to the local vaccination center. We waited in queue with local and finally got vaccinated for yellow fever and meningitis. It was one of the unforgettable moments. So be sure to get yourself vaccinated before you leave for Africa. The list includes Egypt as well.

Meeting Abdul:

Abdul was the tall lanky Sudanese guy in my engineering college hostel at Gujarat. Abdel Rehman El-Rasheid was senior to me by couple of years. Towering around 6 ½ feet, he had to innovate to make himself comfortable in the barely six feet hostel bed. Barely a few days before my departure, I found him on facebook. This was a reunion after 18 years. He works with Sudan Airways. When we finally met each other, we turned nostalgic. We talked about old classmates. The world has really become smaller. We were separated before the mobile and email days. But we were able to find many of them through net. He even came to the airport to see me off. I will always remember this meeting with Abdul.

Sleepless at Dubai:

On return we reached Dubai around mid night. The flight to Delhi was early in the morning. For 3 hours so late in the night we just kept hopping from shop to shop in the Dubai Duty Free. By the time the boarding call came, we were almost exhausted. Boarding flight back home after almost two weeks was as exciting as onward trip. I missed my family as it was long trip after a long time. I knew they would be waiting eagerly for me to arrive. Soon sleep overpowered me only to be awaken at Delhi.

Photos from Singapore

2010-11-07T13:09:00.001+05:30

Singapore_9_42-ulu ulu5
Originally uploaded by Rups33

The Thumbuakar or Ulu Ulu show which is part of Night Safari at Singapore Zoo. See the performers spitting kerosene into the flames.

Photos from Singapore

2010-11-07T13:06:00.001+05:30

Owls @ Jurong
Originally uploaded by Rups33

I have uploaded a few photos from the Singapore trip. these are the photos which caught my attention on the first review. More are being uploaded.

Travelling to Singapore

2010-10-14T20:19:00.000+05:30

This was supposed to be my first foreign trip. But in between I had a trip to Khartoum and Dubai. But finally the eagerly awaited d day had arrived. It is a family trip. We will be travelling to Singapore via Kualalumpur tomorrow.

4 nights at Singapore will be followed by 2 nights at Langkawi. The trip will end with a couple of nights at KL. All bookings made except the one at Langkawi. I will post here the sites which I had used after my own bit of research to book hotels.

Feel sad that my mother could not make the trip as her passport had not come even after 8 months after applying. The passport office in many states of India has become a den of corruption. She is really disappointed as she could not make the trip.

Writing from Khartoum (Sudan)

2010-09-20T00:21:00.000+05:30

Writing from Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. Not a place one would have chosen for maiden visit abroad, but I got a chance to visit this place on some official work of my employer ONGC (ONGC Videsh). I believe every place has something to offer. We enquired and told about a pyramid site and the confluence of Blue Nile and White Nile. Lets see what I can get for my readers.

Have been so busy with this assignment that I could not write about the exicitement on the build up leading to my first foreign trip. Arrived here this evening after a rigourous 14 hours of travelling from Delhi with change of flight at Dubai. My first impression of Khartoum was that of an ordinary city, but with wide roads. The landscape is barren - desertlike with very few trees around. An old airport with no organised taxi service which is understndable as no tourist probably comes here. My collegue had to wait at Delhi airport immigration when the immigration officer saw the destination as Khartoum. The officer called his boss who asked my friend where he works. As he received the reply ONGC, he said OK and the passport was stamped.

At the airport, the taxis in the parking area were shouting at the few people who were waiting for their vehicle. Most foreigners had their vehicles pre-arrnaged. We were told by our cab driver that a new and bigger airport is under construction. The current one looks like an ordinary small town airport. The bus that transported us to the terminal from the Emirates flight also did not have AC. The driver also drove fast and applied very sharp brake once, which I had never experiemced in any airport. Anyway, will be staying here for the entire week. Will have a stopover at Dubai for a day on return. Hope to see marvels of Dubai. Will write back in a week's time.

Mangalore, Surathkal and Udipi

2010-07-16T12:09:00.002+05:30

Sometimes you travel to places which were never in your radar. One such place for me is Udupi. This small coastal town on the Western Ghats in South Karnataka is known to most of us for the famous Udupi Restaurants and cuisines. Udupi is equally famous in that part of the world for its temples, specially the centuries old Krishna temple, known as the Udupi Sri Krishna Matha. The educational hub of Manipal is also attached to this town.

It was Nov, 2009 when I got a chance to visit the small costal town of Mangalore in Karnataka. I was on an official trip to the Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) which is a subsidiary of my parent company ONGC. Many of you might not know that MRPL was a Birla Group Company which went sick around year 2000. ONGC acquired this sick company and turned it around in few years. This was unprecedented in Indian corporate history – a PSU acquiring a sick private company and turned it around. It is considered as a masterstroke of the then ONGC Chairman, late Subir Raha.

As there was no direct flight from Delhi, we had an overnight stopover at Mumbai. As options were very limited, we took the early morning Jet Konnect flight from Mumbai. There is a small but international airport at Mangalore, called the Bajpe airport. Located on the Western Ghats, the landscape is full of hillocks. The airport is located on one of the hillocks. We crossed several hillocks on our 16 km journey to the MRPL plant, which again is located on another hillock.

Once the official engagements were over, we had decided to explore the areas around. We had a car at our disposal, but very limited time – at best 4 to 5 hours of the evening. Our colleague at MRPL suggested we should make a trip to the famous Krishna temple at Udupi. They spoke highly of the temple and the beliefs the locals have on this deity. We had in mind a visit to a beach and some local market. We were told that quality cashew is available there. Udupi is some 60 km from Mangalore. If we go there that would consume most of our time. Thus we had to prioritize things.

Beach and sunset came first because living in Delhi, we do not often get to see them. So it was Surathkal beach. Then it would be Udupi and if time permits we were to try cashew shopping next morning, may be on our way to airport to catch the 1130 flight back to Mumbai. These were obvious choices as both Surathkal and Udupi falls on the NH17 while the Mangalore city and the market is on the opposite direction.

We headed out of the MRPL complex to the Surathkal beach for enjoying the sunset. Though I am not able to recall the distance, it was within 10 km. It was about half an hour or so to sunset when we had reached. The beach is located very close to the REC Surathkal (now called NIT) campus. It was a small but peaceful beach. Only a handful of people were there enjoying the sea and the sun, half of which were probably REC hostellites. No hawkers or vendors, because it is not a tourist hangout. The boulders strewn around on the sand added to the beauty of the place. A lighthouse provides an ideal backdrop. We spent the entire afternoon there till the sun went down the horizon. I collected a small dead starfish for my kid. She was delighted to see the starfish.

Udupi Sri Krishna Matha

As evening was falling we set out for Udupi. A major part of the highway was in real bad shape. The craters were so large that cars can not avoid getting scratched on its belly. The effort of the driver was to minimize the damages to the bottom of the car. It was dark when we finally reached Udupi after about 1 ½ hours of drive. There was not much rush in the temple. From our general experiences of a temple visit, we started looking for shops for offering / prasad, but there was none. Language is the biggest barrier in finding things in southern part of India. Later we found that the system of such offerings does not exist there. When we were looking for entrance, the fellows manning the main gate, asked us to hurry as aarti was about to start and gates were being closed. It was such a coincidence that we had reached the temple just in time for the aarti.

We joined the small and manageable crowd inside waiting for the aarti. The process started with subordinate priests initiating the process. Then the head priest entered the scene and formally started the aarti. The complex became abuzz with chants and Karnatic music. Many people wishes to be there to attend the aarti, but that wish remains unfulfilled. And here, me, not vey devout, yet the lord had chosen me to be here to witness the aarti. This overwhelmed me. This made my evening. I will never forget this occasion.

The aarti went on for about half an hour. The darshan of the deity is to be done through a small window called the navagraha kiTiki, the window of nine planets, while doing parikrama of the Sanctum Santorum. This window which is covered with artistically carved silver plates. You will find many materials on it in the net. There are two unique facts about the temple: 1) the deity is not facing the main entrance. In fact it is facing backwards and has to be seen through the 'Kanakana Kindi' or the small window at the back of the temple. And 2) Lord Krishna is worshipped here in his form as a child or small boy. As a child can easily get gratified, the lord here can also be easily gratified. He fulfils wishes very easily. This belief brings large no. of devotees to this temple. The attire of the deity is changed on a daily basis. So every time you get to see him in a new avtar.

We spent some more time in exploring the temple complex. The main building is a wooden structure, well ornate in south Indian style. Statues of various deities / gods adorn the building. Prasad can be bought from a counter, once you complete the parikrama. The temple is managed by a group of eight temples collectively known as Astha Matha. Each of the Ashta Mathas performs temple management activities for two years in a cyclical order. There are few other smaller temples in the complex. There are souvenir shops in the complex from where we bought photo of the lord. While entering the temple we had to leave the footwear outside, just by a wall, unattended. There was no system to deposit shoes. Surprisingly the shoes were there when we returned. It seems lord by his influence had kept bad elements away from his complex.

On our way back, we had stopped at a roadside hotel for tea. We were easily identified as outsiders. Not much tourist type of people comes to that village tea stall. Some of the locals started to get into conversation with us. When they learned that we are from Delhi, one of the boys proudly announced that he had been to Delhi once. He spoke of the wide roads, big cars he had seen and admired in Delhi. Well, most things always look good from distance. We had enjoyed everything we had seen that evening, and that boy enjoyed what he had seen in a concrete jungle.

Next morning, we were informed of an informal breakfast meeting. This left us no time for visiting the local market. While leaving, we were given mementos as parting gift. When we opened the gifts, it had two packets of cashew! This is what we wanted to buy, but could not find time because we had chosen to go to Udupi. Did we gratify the Lord Krishna by preferring to pay a visit to him rather than going shopping? May be. Certain things do not have logical answers.

Got a new car

2010-06-13T23:13:00.002+05:30

Last one month has been busy in deciding my new car. Buying a car ( auto usate milano )is a hard decision. As I had now bought my new car, an Indica Vista Aura ABS QJ, I would like to share of experiences of trying out 3 cars before deciding to buy this car.

I was looking for a hatchback big enough car where 3 people can sit comfortably in the rear seat. Sedans are ruled out for the parking problems in my apartment. In the Maruti Wagon R that I own for last 7 years, it is always a struggle to fit 3 people in the rear seat. Apart from that, the Wagon R has been a fantastic car because of the upright sitting position of the driver and I had enjoyed every bit of driving whenever I took it to the highways. But the new Wagon R looks terrible. Maruti have killed it. Neither had I liked the look of Ritz. Swift’s look is 6 years old. Therefore after owning 2 Maruti cars, I wanted try something else. Further I wanted to try a diesel this time as my petrol bill has gone up considerably in last few months because of the spiraling oil prices. You can’t get out in Delhi’s 40+ heats without the AC on. When I bought the wagon R, petrol was selling for 33 a liter or so. Now it is 50+.

As usual the search started with searches on the net on various websites and forums. Car buy / sell sites have flourished in last few years. It is big market and a source of information. Many a times these forums will make you go made. Honestly most people in the forum are making comments on cars which they had hardly driven. Driving a car for a couple of KM does not make an expert on that car. So most of these so called auto experts writes in the forums borrowing knowledge from auto magazines.

My choices were zeroed in to three new cars in the market. Punto, Fabia or VW Zeta could not be considered because of my transferable job, I need service backup. Thus my choices were the Hyundai i20, Ford Figo and Indica Vista QJ. The first one I tried was the Hyundai i20. I targeted the new Sportz version. The car has killer looks and anyone will fall for it. Driving was also pleasurable with many inbuilt features. The on-road price for me would have been 5.95 lakh. But even at this price for a petrol car which does not have a very good mileage, I was not getting ABS. Only the Asta version of i20 has ABS and it would have cost me 6.3 lakh. The diesel version is beyond reach.

The next vehicle I tried was the Ford Figo. Actually Figo is a small car pitted against cars like Wagon R, 10, etc. I tried the Titanium diesel version. Driving was good as is most new cars. The on road price in Delhi was 5.82. This had a Bluetooth enabled 2 DIN music system. But surprisingly did not have tilt steering. The features were very little as compared to other new cars. The plastic of bumper felt so soft. Cost cutting was apparent. The look is good. But the costs of ownership of Ford cars are high. There was nothing so appealing for me to go for this car.

Then I tried the new Indica Vista. Despite all the negativities about a Tata car, when I sat on the steering wheel for the test drive, it felt a little overwhelmed. I never thought that such a big diesel car would move around so easily. The power steering, though not as smooth as my Wagon R, was smooth. It had a host of features, mostly borrowed from the Fiat Punto. Tata’s has a JV with Fiat and thus has fitted this car with almost every feature of Punto. The engine used for Vista QJ is same as that used in Punto or Swift. Vista had host of features like lumber support for both front seats, Bluetooth enabled 2 DIN music system, driver seat height adjustment, tilt steering, rear wiper and demister, both front and rear fog lamps. I found that at 5.5 on road price Vista is offering what others are offering at around 7 lakh. The car was being offered with 3 years free maintenance package and an assured buyback at 60% price after 3 years. That is 2+2 years warranty with 3 years free maintenance which literally means no cost for maintenance. This was too much for me to drop the idea of i20. The i20 Sportz was costing me 5.95 lakh, that is 45K more, that too without ABS. Vista was diesel whereas i20 was petrol. i20 Diesel at almost 8 lakh was beyond reach. If I discount the cost of alloy wheels, the i20 is still costlier by 25K, which would be enough to buy diesel for 3 years. The mileage of Vista is around 20-21 on highway as against 15-16 of i20.

The Vista has 3 engine variants. The Safire is 1172cc petrol and is an underpowered car at 65PS. The TDI version uses Tata’s indigenous 1405cc 71 PS diesel engine which is the familiar noisy Indica engine. The drivetech version with Fiat’s 1248cc 75PS diesel engine and gearbox had just been launched. There are 5 variants with different features in each engine type. That is lot of variants, typical of Tata cars. It starts with Terra (earth), then Aqua (water) and Aura (air). The top end Aura had 3 variants – Aura, Aura ABS and Aura ABS +Airbag. The engine used for Vista QJ is same as that used in Punto or Swift. The new ad looked impressive (follow the youtube link in my earlier post).

Like most of us I also did not have a very positive view of Tata cars for personal use. This despite my working as a trainee engineer at Tata Motors a decade back at their Pune plant. Tata have been known for generations for making vehicles for commercial use. Almost all commercial vehicles launched by Tata’s has been a success, be it the 407, 207, or the 609. But personal cars was a different story. The Indica has been on the road for now almost 10 years with n number of versions. Tata had even launched a limited edition Vista to mark the 10^th year of Indica launch. Indica has always been perceived as a taxi car. Thus when they launched a car with all new look and features, even size, they named it Indica Vista. This is done while retaining the old Indica the price of which is much lower to kept it attractive for cab / taxi use. But what baffled most is why they retained the word Indica for the Vista. The only similarity may be the back of the car. Even that is different from the old Indica, though not very distinctively different. They why named it as Indica. As most people would write on the net, an Indica is an Indica. They should have removed the name Indica from Vista to make it more appealing.

Thus I made a practical decision. I finalized on model AURA ABS QJ. I had consulted a neighbor who owns a Vista for almost a year. His feedback was positive. By that time one more Vista had arrived in the society. But I had to convince my wife on the Vista who could not forget the look of i20. Once the car was decided, it was about deciding where to buy new car ( vendita auto usate ). The bargaining started with two nearby dealers. I received the car after 20 days of placing the order, despite having no official waiting time. We had our first long drive yesterday around Delhi. The car rode majestically, taking care of potholes very easily. The wagon R being a couple of hundred kg lighter felt flying through air 100+ rather being on the road. Being heavier and with wider tyres, this one felt always remained on the road. My wife is now convinced we made a good choice. When I bought the Wagon R that was the only Wagon R in the colony. Here I have company. While out on the road, I get to see many Vista indicating the increasing acceptability of the car.

Here is some more info in case you want to research about cars : compro auto usate

New Indica Vista Drivetech4 ad

2010-05-16T22:20:00.000+05:30

Vaishno Devi Yatra : जय माता दी

2010-05-05T11:26:00.024+05:30

Staying at Delhi, I have seen the importance of the to Mata Vaishno Devi (lovingly called as Mata Rani) shrine located near Katra in Jammu. Popularized by late Gulashan Kumar of T-Series fame, the chants of जय माता दी (Jai Mata Di - which also is part of T-Series logo) is as popular in Delhi as the Ganpati Bapa Moriya in Mumbai. The Vaishno Devi Yatra is probably the most popular Hindu pilgrimage circuit from Delhi. Everyone living in and around Delhi aspire to visit the shrine. The popular saying goes that one gets a chance to visit only when Mata Rani wishes. Though not superstitious or very religious, I have seen people planning the trip, but had to be cancelled for one or other reason. May be the saying is true. We received our call or माता का बुलावा in Oct 2009.

Travelling from Delhi to Jammu by the Rajdhani was a familiar experience. Barely six months back had we taken this route for our Kashmir trip. The train arrives around 5 in the morning. The yatra starts from Katra, some 40 km from Jammu. We hired a taxi from the stand just outside the Jammu railway station. The taxi service is highly unionized. The rates are fairly high for a 40 km route, but no bargaining. One can hire a taxi only from the stand at the publicized rate of the taxi union. All types of cars are available from hire. We hired an ambassador for 750 rupees that accommodated two families comfortably.

There is no dearth of hotels in Katra. We took help of Kishor, our dependable driver from the Kashmir trip to find a decent accommodation at reasonable rate. We landed at hotel Indraprastha for 500 rupees per room. In Katra you require a hotel only for freshening up and then for a late night sleep when you will be returning dead tired. Thus taking a luxurious hotel makes very little sense unless you have loads of money to spare.

It was almost 10 am when we got ready for the यात्रा. Most hotels provide free dropping / pickup to the यात्रा start point. Being a lean period, the counter where यात्रा पर्ची or token / pass are issued was near empty. We had chosen a good time to be there. During peak seasons, like नवरात्री, there used to be huge lines in the पर्ची counters and it may take hours to get a पर्ची. The hotel car dropped us at the यात्रा start point which is another half km or so from the पर्ची counter.

यात्रा options from Katra:

One has the following options – 1) On foot which 2) Hire Ponies, 3) Hire पिठू (for small kids) and पालकी (for old people) 4) Use the battery operated car which is available between 6 and 12 km part of the track via Bhawan, and finally the easiest one, 5) Use the helicopter service.

90% of people do यात्रा cheerfully on foot. Hiring Ponies needs hard bargaining skill. Being un-regualted and so well organized to form cartails, the rates varies depending on your bargaining skill. If I compare this to my other यात्रा till date to the Hemkund Sahib in Uttaranchal, the pony service was organized and regulated. The rates were fixed and reasonable. The track there also was of 14 km, but not paved as this one and hence climbing was very tiring. The rates quoted by pony owner at Katra will make you shriek. Anyway, most healthy people will like to do the यात्रा on foot. It gives the real feel of a pilgrimage.

The shrine board offers services of battery operated autos between the 6 and 12 km part of the track. On their upward trip, the autos carry old people or ladies with babies. But on their downward trip they probably carry almost everyone. However, this service is available only upto 6pm in the evening. The charges are about 100 rupees per person.

The helicopter services are offered by two operators. The one way cost per person on the day of my visit (Oct 2009) was 1500 rupees. But going there by helicopter you will not be doing a yatra. A यात्रा on foot with friends has a different charm.

Our यात्रा:

Our यात्रा started around 10:30 am. The weather was pleasant. It was a bit hot for climbing up the hill, but was bearable. Even though we had two kids, one 7 1/2 and other 6, we started on foot.

After the first 6 km, there are two routes -- one is 6 km (via Bhawan) and the other 8 km (via Ardhkuwanri). You have to take a call which way you want to proceed. The day we went, the route via Ardhkuwanri was closed for some maintenance. So we had only one option – the shorter one.

The entire track is tiled or paved and the incline is gentle. Therefore the climb is not very tough. Shortcuts with stairs are available at many places which we avoided as additional strength required in climbing stairs will drain you up fast. Almost the entire route upto the halfway diversion point is dotted by shops and eateries. These shops are allowed with hefty annual fees which run into lakhs and are a big source of income for the shrine board. There are a couple of eateries run by the shrine which offers lunch / meal at reasonable rates.

We had walked at leisurely pace. No one was in hurry. Every co-traveler appeared to be in peace occasionally chanting जय माता दी . There were several security posts where you will be frisked. This level of high security is because of the importance of place as a Hindu pilgrimage site and the location being part of the troubled state of JnK. Your bags etc are also scanned in X-ray machines at least twice.

After a long 7 hours of walking with numerous breaks, we had reached the shrine at 5:30 pm. The kids were so happy when they actually made the 12 km climb on foot. People say children have blessing of माता रानी which helps them to make the climb. Once you report at the yatra counter at the shrine, you are assigned a group no for darshan. This is basically done to divide visitors into batches. Even if you miss your batch, you can get in. प्रसाद has to be purchased from the shrine board counter located few meters ahead of the last security scan post.

By the time we got freshen up; the shrine was closed for the evening आरती. The आरती time was from 6pm to 7:45 pm. The two hour break had built up a sizeable queue. While waiting in queue, we had started to feel the bitter cold. Because of the height, the place becomes cold very fast after sunset. The bag where we had kept our warm cloths had been deposited in the locker rooms. The shrine board offers free of cost locker room service with safe boxes to keep your belongings. Nothing is allowed inside the shrine except you as person. One has to be careful to carry light warm cloths even in summer.

Our turn for दर्शन came at around 8:30. Moving in with the crowd and joining the chorus of जय माता दी, we reached the sanctum sanctorum. It was a memorable experience. We had heard so much of it and now we are standing in front of the deities. The दर्शन got over in about 15 minutes. The shrine remains open for दर्शन for almost 24 hours. Piligrims going there in summer often travels at night so that दर्शन can be done early in the morning.

Many people go to the Bhairon Temple located some further 2 km up the hill. Bhairon was a tantric who tormented the devi. He was killed by the devi, but then apparently given him a boon that the darshan of माता रानी would be considered incomplete if a visit to the Bhairon shrine is not done. Our legs were too tired to try that. May be we were not that religious. May be this appeared to be a cooked up story. We went there to pay obeisance to mata rani. Thus our यात्रा has finished. (There is a Bhairon temple in Delhi as well. I have a diferent story to tell about it.)

People were seen getting ready to sleep on whatever covered space available in the complex. Blankets can be hired there. But the idea of sleeping in open in that cold sent down shivers my spine. Other worry was the cleanliness of the blankets as they were both used as mattress as well as to cover up. Thus we had decided to return to Katra. We had our dinner there. Several eateries are available. This time we had skipped the shrine board run one at it was way too crowded. We tried hiring ponies for the kids. But the rates quoted were more than what they asked for coming up. That was ridiculous. They were so shrewd that they try to take advantage of your situation. Thus we decided to continue on foot.

The return trip took about 4 hours. My little girl indeed proved to be brave, in fact very brave. Aged just 7 ½ she completed the entire यात्रा on foot, i.e., a daunting 24 km in 15 hours. She needed some prodding and encouragement for the last 2-3 km. But she made it. I wrote a note to her class teacher about this feat who announced this to her class. When everyone clapped, she felt very proud of her feat.

We were back in Katra by 1:30 or so in the night. We hired an auto to reach hotel and lied dead asleep for the rest of the night.

The Sordid Story of Corbett Resorts

2010-04-22T17:30:00.001+05:30

We had stayed at a small resort at Dhikuli near Ramnagar. A recent article in the TOI had highlighted the sordid state of luxurious private resorts causing irreparable damage to the Corbett National Park. In the night we got a taste of what the article was telling us. The Corbett Inn one of the luxury reports, was located next to pur resort. It was having guests of some TVS group company and was hosting a party. The loud music with booz is not what people should expect in a nture resort. But the residents of the hotel differ with this opinion and so got indulged in a booz party rather than enjoying the tranquilness of the jungle. One of the guys who were drunk got hold of the loudspeaker and was creating a scene which we could hear from our resort. Night is the time for 4 legged animals, not for drunken 2 legged ones making his voice heard over the loudspeakers. If the tiger roars, the jungles shake. But when a man roars with a mike in hand, the jungle shed tears. Hosting parties with loud music at night is a regular feature of these so called nature resorts. These unscrupulous hoteliers are doing irreparable damage to the flora and fauna of the area. 77 private resorts have come up in the area close to the park and it is a booming business.

In the park, we had befriended a forest ranger. He told us another sad story. Some of these resorts are resorting to dirty tactics like throwing meats around edges of the park to draw out carnivores so that their guests can be offered chance to see them without entering the park. Easy food makes these carnivores change their natural instinct of hunting for food. If they change their habit, they will look for easy prey like cattle of the villagers living around the park. Villagers are retaliating by poisoning the animals. This is a serious cocktail cooking right under the nose of the administration. Do you believe that administration is not aware of these? The booming resort business has given a fillip to corruption as well.

Almost all these resorts are located in an area called Dhikuli which is strikingly similar to Dhikala located in the core area of the park. Most tourists get duped by the promise of accommodation at Dhikala and end up staying at Dhikuli. So next time you are going there, make sure where you are going. Dhikala accommodations are all Forest Rest Houses. It can be booked only by directly contacting the CTR office. We were told of another sad tale of corruption. Some corrupted CTR officials have been bribed by these resorts to create artificial shortage of FRH accommodation in the park so that people are forced to stay at these resorts. While so much hullabaloo is made about just 1411 tigers left in India, all these dirty things are happening right at the place which is suppose to have the largest number of tigers in India. Disgusting, isn’t it!

This is how we have read, seen and were told by people who really care but have no ways to make their voices heard. Our ranger friend was so proud to tell that they get a hike of Rs.500/- per month in their salary because Corbett has come first in tiger conservation effort and has recorded the highest tiger population in India. The forest is their livelihood and they really want the forest and tiger to live. And we need the tiger to save the forest and save us from ecological disasters like draught and global warming.

Gairal FRH : Should the tourists be charged at par with Dhikala FRH

2010-04-19T14:09:00.000+05:30

Gairal FRH

Despite reading some good reviews of Gairal FRH, I have a different point of view to offer to my readers. As someone who had stayed at both Dhikala FRH and Gairal FRH, this review will make you think twice about staying at Gairal.

Location :

We had started for Gairal shortly after sunrise. The 3 km part of the road off the main road through wooded forest was fantastic. Fortunately we did not meet any elephant en-route. The 9:30am arrival at Gairal turns out to be a bit early as the parties staying there were yet to vacate rooms. The normal check out time is 11 am. While waiting for rooms we had our breakfast in the canteen. The campus had hill on one side and river on the other. The location was really beautiful. This probably is the only plus point of Gairal. The large campus had the river flowing by on one side. One can go down to almost bank of the river, but onto the river. The campus is protected by solar powered electric fencing.

Canteen at Gairal:

The canteen is a private run one. We were told that the contract for this canteen was auctioned at Rs.6 lakh a year. The contractor has to recover this cost in 6 / 7 months time. Thus everything was offered at a premium. The rates were in fact same as that of the Govt run restaurant at the Dhikala complex. Lunch and dinner are offered at per person rate of Rs.200/- for adult and Rs.150/- for child. Though rates are same, Dhikala had a proper restaurant with trained staff, but this one is a canteen resembling a roadside hotel.

Rooms at Gairal:

There is an old FRH with two big rooms. The new FRH has four rooms. The rates charged for rooms were at par with Dhikala. But the rooms were much inferior to what is there at Dhikala. Services were also were of lower quality. Anyway, you do not expect classy accomodation in FRH in a jungle. Because I had stayed at Dhikala, I feel a tad disappointed that I had to pay the rates of Dhikala for this kind of room. There also is a 20 bed dormitory and 3 huts. Electricity is available only from 6pm to 9 pm. It is generator only power supply. Dhikala has round the clock power supply. Candles are provided in case you want to stay awake beyond 9pm. But getting out of the room after nine is scary. The solar powered fence is porous. Rooms do not have fans. Even if fans were there, there is no electricity to run them. So think n times before accepting accomodation at Gairal.

Tourist facilities :

Gairal turns out to be full of surprises. Contrary to what is advertised at the official website of Corbett, there are no visitor facilities for elephant rides or jeep safari. This means one will have to go the Dhikala complex to hire a jeep safari, unless you have taken one from outside. Stuck with this situation, we headed for Dhikala. Though we had taken 4 cars inside, we used only 2 vehicles by sharing between families. When we were leaving for Dhikala, guides stationed there approached us. The park has put up a kind of rule that tourist can not go out without a guide. This is apparently in good spirit aimed at mainly novices from losing way in the jungle. The guide charges are only Rs.250/-, but we had no space in our cars. We in any case will be hiring safari jeep and hence guide from Dhikala. Thus we had ignored them. However this proved to be costly for us as the so called nature guides which are supposed to be tourist friendly turned out goons by evening when we had returned. The rule is in Good spirit, but the way it is tried to enforce is wrong. One is allowed to travel without a guide from Dhanagiri to Gairal or Dhikala. How one who has made it to Gairal safely could would lose way while travelling from Gairal to Dhikala. Beyond my comprehension. Everybody takes jeep safaris and hires a guide. Why a guide is being forced into a vehicle not on safari.

Day1 : Gairal – Dhikala - Gairal

Our first stop en-route was the Crocodile point, which is on the Gairal – Dhikala road. There were about 7 crocodiles of different sizes. As we were in no position to take a safari from Dhikala at that hour, we had driven slowly reaching Dhikala for lunch. Being noon time there was not even a deer around. A new rule also has been put up which bares safaris from 12 noon to 2 pm.

When we had approached the office for elephant safari we had another surprise. Initially it was a blatant no as we are staying put at Gairal. The reason cited was that safari of 2 hours duration will start at 3:30 and we will have to leave Dhikala by 5pm to be able to reach Gairal before gates are closed. Imagine the scenario – neither there are any facilities at Gairal, nor can you avail the ones available at Dhikala because you are staying at Gairal. We pursued our case and the official relented to allow one of the groups to have a curtailed safari of 1 ½ hour. So the newbies among us went for elephant safari and oldies like us went for a jeep safari.

The group on elephant got delayed by 10 min and so we headed back for Gairal by 5:20pm. Keeping in mind the speed limit and 6pm closure of gates, we had tried our best to reach Gairal. If you can drive at reasonable speed, the 13 km distance from Dhikala to Gairal will take at least 45 min. The road is not that motorable and you have to keep in mind the animals crossing in those late afternoon hours. Finally we had reached Gairal by 6:10 pm, with enough daylight to spare, but 10 min beyond the schedule closure of gates. This where trouble started. The situation was beyond our control. We got delayed by the late arrival of elephant. Then we had followed the guidelines on speed and had arrived with enough daylight. After some arguments and delay, they had opened the gates for us. The ranger though was showing his displeasure, was understanding. But the so called supposed to be tourist friendly nature guides posted there had started to incite the ranger to impose penalty on us. Their grudge was that we did not hire their services and instead hired guides from Dhikala. As I had mentioned earlier, we had no space in our cars to carry the guide as each vehicle had 4 adults and 3 kids. Further we were quite familiar with the routes as we were not first timers. But the heated discussion took an ugly turn because the leader of the guides behaved like a goon. However, a fight was avoided as better sense prevailed with some of the people there. The ranger also fell to their pressure tactics. We had decided to pay a fine of Rs.500/- per vehicle as asked by the ranger. However we had refused to write an apology as worded by those rustic goons. They wanted us to write kind of things like we had knowingly violated rules, had arrived half an hour late. We were clear that we will pay fine if a receipt is issued so that we can take it up with higher authorities if required. But no apology in their terms. They would have easily allowed us in and compensated for this 10 min had we hired a guide from the group. It is a situation which arises solely because we had stayed at that damned place called Gairal. It is not the place if you plan to move around in the park. But if you want a break where you just plan to stay put in a secluded hut, like the ones by wildlife photographers, then Gairal is the ideal place. If you want to stay in Gairal, there are couple of secluded huts where you can relax and wait for animal rather than running after them.

Such botched was our luck that day that a group of 3 guys from Nasik got to see a tiger on their way back. We had met the group day before and assisted them in getting accommodation inside as they had arrived at Ramnagar without any booking. Believe it or not, none of the guys had a camera. All they had was their mobiles where they captured the tiger sitting majestically just 15/20 feet from their jeep. And imagine dozens of people with high end cameras and professional lenses are moving around in the park without any luck. Getting to see the tiger is pure luck.

Day 2:

By morning temper on both sides had cooled down. We spoke to the ranger and also to the moderate ones in the group of the guides. We had made it clear to them that money is not an issue, but it is the space in the cars for which we can not take them. If they wish they can take 500 rupees from us and spare us the trouble of carrying one of them. Despite the previous evening’s incidence, they had no problem in allowing us to leave without a guide.

Even though we started almost at dawn break, it was obvious that we would not be able to take any of the prime time jeep safaris. So we had to make our trip itself a safari. We had started encountering deer, boras etc. almost on the entire route. The difference in time of our trip was clearly visible. We hardly had seen a deer in yesterday’s trip almost at noon. But there were so many animals around on this early morning trip. This is what I meant by prime time jeep safaris from Dhikala which one can not catch by staying at Gairal.

We decided to scout the Kamarpatta road where the group saw the tiger previous evening. We were quite familiar with Dhikala range and hence had no problem in moving around alone. In fact that day we had scoured the Kamarpatta road 3 times without any luck. We are now so familiar with Kamarpatta road that we can get out of it even at night. We spent the entire morning moving around in our own vehicle doing our own safari. Corbett is not only for tigers. Getting to see a tiger is extreme good luck and encountering an angry pachyderm is extreme bad luck. Leaving aside these two extremes, there is so much of unspoiled nature to explore and enjoy.

But sometimes the quota of bad luck exceeds what you normally expect. While returning to Dhikala for breakfast, one of our vehicles was hit by a safari vehicle. Though we had maintained a safe distance, the driver of the safari jeep ahead of us suddenly stopped. We saw him stopping and so had stopped our vehicle some 10 /15 feet behind him. Then the jeep reversed suddenly in high speed without giving us any reaction time. By the time we shouted the stapney had hit our bonnet. It was his fault and so we could confront him. Had we been at fault he would have made our life miserable. He was insisting that he had no money and will get our vehicle repaired at Ramnagar. We knew that we had to settle is on the spot as outside it will be his den where we will be at disadvantage. We also understood that the guy is only a driver and can not afford to pay actual cost of repair. All we should get from him is the money to file an insurance claim. He was even dithering at it. When we had threatened to lodge a written complaint at Dhikala itself, he bulged and paid 500. Misfortune was following us on this trip.

We proceeded on jeep safaris almost immediately after lunch. Every safari makes you see newer areas of the park and revisit the most common areas like the sambher road and the grassland. After moving around the park for some time, we finally came to location, where calls were heard. We also decided to wait. Soon we heard our first call of a sambher deer. The call of the deer becomes frequent. Everyone was certain that the tiger is around and is likely come down to the river. We all now know what a call for tiger is. Clock was ticking and time was running out fast. The guide and driver of our jeep told that if we fail to see the tiger today, we have to blame our stay at Gairal. Had we stayed at Dhikala we could have waited for another hour or so. To our utter disappointment, we had to call of our wait at 4:45pm and proceed for Dhikala. Even while leaving the place we could hear the call of sambher and could see few alert deer around. The tiger was definitely around. It was so close yet so far. All for this damned place called Gairal.

We left Dhikala by 5 pm and had reached Gairal 15 min before time. Probably the guides were unhappy to see us back before time that day. To get over our disappointment we had party that night with the halfties taken from Delhi.

The last day:

The ranger had befriended us by this time. He probably felt bad for the incident where he had to impose a fine on us apparently for no fault of us. He told us stories of his encounters with the Dhola tiger which falls under his jurisdiction. The area for which he has to supervise, there are two tigers and two leopards. He often has to go out on foot and report activities / movements of these animals. As he was concluding his jungle stories and we were about to leave, howling of the tiger was heard from the hill opposite the rest house. The howling started to grow and become frequent. The growling reverberating from hills was majestic. It is different from the ones we hear from caged tigers in zoo. Some tourists, who had just arrived, ran towards the fence on the river hoping to see the tiger. But the ranger told us that tiger will not come to this side of the complex and will follow a route further up the hill. He offered us to take to the watch tower up the hill that may offer us a chance to see the tiger. The ranger sat in my car. Leading the pack of four cars up a stony patch of road, I had wished not to face any wild elephants. There were tell-a-tale signs of wild elephants passing by that area. The ranger told me not to worry and assured me that he can handle wild elephants. Without meeting the misfortune of encountering a herd of pachyderms we had arrived at the watch tower. Though within tourist areas, this watch tower is beyond normal tourist itinerary. Thus we had an excellent view of the river down below and areas around it. By this time the growling of the tiger had also died down. It appeared that the tiger got angry after a failed attempt in hunting. Tired of its effort it probably had laid down somewhere. So we decided to come down. The ranger told that had he been empowered he would have taken us close to the tiger on foot. As that could not happen because neither had he had permission nor we are kith and kin of some forest official to manage one, we thanked him for taking us to the watch tower and got ready for leaving.

This ended an eventful trip. We were so close to the tiger – not once but twice, but could not see it. Three tiger sighting were reported during our stay. But this time we had a feel of what a call for tiger is and also heard the majestic growl of an angry wild tiger. May be, better luck next time. Despite failing to see the tiger in two attempts, we will certainly come back here. The place has such a charm it will make you come back again and again. But this we will certainly stay only at Dhikala as we had learned the dirty tricks of getting confirmed accommodation at Dhikala. May be one last day for a lazy sit and wait for animal day at Gairal as well, rather than running after them.But for a full trip, I will never stay at Gairal.

Corbett a 2nd time : Part-I

2010-04-15T16:02:00.001+05:30

The second visit to Corbett turned out to be as exciting as the first one. We will remember it more for some misadventure than the thrill of being very close to the tiger. Luck was not on our side this time too. Thus our sighting score is 0 out of 2.

This time we had a drive in trip. Last one was a KMVN package with confirmed Dhikala booking. The highway NH24 from Delhi has improved a lot since our last visit, specially the section beyond Gajraula. You can easily drive above 100 in the Gajraula – Moradabad section. Construction activities have shifted to Ghaziabad – Gajraula section. We got stuck in jams at some areas on this section on our return which coincided with the evening rush hour. However on our onward trip there was very little traffic hold up. But I would like to warn you of Simbhaoli and Garhmukteswar. If you can cross these two points without getting stuck you should feel lucky.

We had stopped at Gajraula for breakfast. If one starts early from Delhi, then this is where you have to stop for breakfast. Though there are many eateries located at the point where the flyover starts at Gajraula, most of them are run of the mill. If you looking for decent ones, then you need to cross the flyover. There even is a McDonald at Gajraula on the other side of the flyover, some half km from the end point of the flyover. Around the same location, there is a good restaurant (I forgot the name) which is on the right side of the road if you are travelling from Delhi.

We had arrived at CTR Office in Ramnagar town around noon. Getting the passes took some time as the staff was out for lunch as well. While waiting for our passes, we decided to satiate our lunchtime apetite at the KMVN located next the campus. The KMVN restaurant offers good home like food which is not very spicy or oily. Having the entry permit spared us the trouble of coming back to the town next day and stand in queue for permit. We would save a couple of hours by this. We headed out of the town to look for good accommodation for the night. We had enquired with a couple of resorts at Dhikuli. The ones along the highway are costlier. The bigger the sign board, the more the costlier. The Corbett Inn quoted 5500 per room. These resorts are running on packages booked by various travel agents in big cities like Delhi. The luxury cars in their parking tell the story. Thus they are off the limit of smart traveler.

We spotted a small signboard of a resort named Jungle Paradise, just next to the Corbett Inn. It was pointing to a narrow lane by the wall of its luxurious neighbor. About a 100 meter walk along a paddy field lead us to a scenic campus with natural surroundings. This resort comprised of few cottages nested among a paddy field and forest. The place appeared much better to us than the costlier Corbett Inn which appeared artificially landscaped. We were initially quoted Rs.1200/- per cottage. But then because of our requirement of 4 cottages, we could bargain it down to just 900 rupees. That was a real bargain. All the families liked the place, specially the kids for the lush green lawns. Photos of the resort tell the story. We were offered the services of a local boy who led us to the Koshi river in the evening. It was a small nature walk to refresh us after the days driving. Food served for dinner was decent.

(Contact nos. of Jungle Paradise : 09412035559, 05947-284314, 09927772567)

Hockey World Cup 2010 : India vs Australia

2010-03-03T12:43:00.002+05:30

I was there last night. The atmosphere in the Maj. Dhyan Chand National Stadium hosting the FIH Hockey World Cup was electrifying. The stands were almost full. The sound was deafening. The Astroturf was gleaming in the floodlight. Amidst this the team India lost their way. Once the Aussies were 2-0 up within the first 7 minutes, Indian team was found meandering in the in the middle like a lost lot, desperate to find ways to stop the rampaging Aussies. This desperation helped the Aussies in pumping in 3 more goals, 2 of them were very soft ones. The net result was a 5-2 drubbing received by India.

(Pic1 : the cheering crowd)

(Pic2: India - Australia match in progress)

But the good thing was that India still could score 2 goals and both were field goals. The skill of the Indian players in dribbling was much above the Aussies. But Aussies were more powerful and fast. Indians had no answer to their blitzkrieg. Actually we never had expected Indians to win this match, but did not expect to lose them that badly either.

We also got to see the Pakistan – Spain match and to our delight saw Sohail Abbas taking a penalty corner. The onlt PC Pakistan had managed in the second half and they scored the winning gola of it. Everyone supported Pakistan in that match. The Pakistan team acknowledged this support by doing a lap of honor after the match which they had won 2-1.

(Pic3: Pakistan - Spain match in progress)

(Pic4 : Pakistan team doing a lap of honour for the crowd support)

Overall, it was a wonderful experience being at the stadium supporting our team which will be happy if they can finish 6th in the tournament. But we also get to see some world class hockey. If India can finish around 6th, they will be back in the elite group that gets to play Champions trophy. With a ranking of 12th, India is not getting enough chances to play regularly with top teams.

World Cups do not come to India that often. It is taking place after 28 years. Who knows when it will be next? So we are going back to the stadium next Saturday, this time with families. Lets all be there and egg on our team to finish at least 6th.

Outing with Family ?

Yes, one can go there with families and kids. Toilets in the building are newly laid and are relatively clean. Much better than what you get in cricket stadiums. Several fast food stalls have been put up in the complex. Tickets cost you just 100/- for 3 matches. SRK extracted Rs.140/- for MNIK.

Tickets

For many, it was shocker to find that tickets are sold only at the Ambedkar Stadium which is several kilometers away from the venue. This is ridiculous. So get your tickets beforehand. The best way to get ticket is to buy them online from ticketgenie.in. They have an option in which for 60/- rupees extra, tickets are delivered at your address by Blue Dart courier.

Prohibited Items at the Venue

Delhi police has published a list of items prohibited in the stadium in the TOI dated 28th Feb. Items confiscated are just dumped at the gate. If you are lucky, you may get them back. But to be safe, it is advisable not to carry these items. Some of them are : Bag (may be including large ladies handbags), camera or handycam, pen, flag with poles (however only flags are allowed), coins and eatables from outside including water bottles. Mobile phones and keys are allowed.

Unveiled : Photography exhibition

2010-02-18T13:00:00.002+05:30

Unveiled
Originally uploaded by KaushikMunish

The second photography exhibition by my fraternity at Munish Khanna Academy is being put up from 4th to 8th March 2010 - (10am-8pm) at the Convention Centre Foyer, India Habitat centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi. This photo feast is aimed at treating you with the works of some budding and talented photographers nurtured by ace photographer Munish Khanna. Don't miss this occasion.

Gaffar Market : the mobile bazaar of Delhi

2010-02-14T13:57:00.002+05:30

My Nokia N72 had gone bust in about a year and half. I continued with it till it died about a couple of months ago. Around this time I had landed in the Gaffar Market in Karol Bagh, Delhi. There is a big mobile bazaar there. I was at a loss as to how to buy a mobile there on my first visit. The place was choc-a-bloc with vendors and buyers. However most vendors were selling cheap Chinese duplicate. Once I realized how to proceed, my eyes found an Omnia and an iPhone. Both were Chinese copies, but unless you try to use it, you will not be able to discern it as a lookalike from their look. The market had everything to offer – from Chinese copy of any mobile you name to unlocking and software update services.

Impressed by the variety on display, I bought one. The price I paid was just 4100 for a sleek looking phone. I expected it to last for at least 6 months till I get my second official handset. I paid another 50 bucks for a iPhone case. Other accessories like iPhone dock were also available.

I came back and decided to do some research on iPhones. I gathered information not only from Indian mobile sites, but also from international sites giving good information on iPhone, mainly to know what are the features available and what are missing. The iPhone is actually not sold in India. One of my colleagues had it from USA and then got it unlocked here. Both looked identical, the original one being heavier. But everything just stops there. There is no internal memory in the copy, neither its touch screen is very responsive. But the phone did have some very good feature. However, the problems outweighed the good features. In fact this 4K iPhone impressed everyone.

The phone also passed the IMEI no. test imposed by government few months back. The batteries use to last about 2 days of normal use. Then one fine day it stopped detecting SIM. This is the end of it. It probably last about 4 months. It has now become my daughter’s iPod to play music as except for the SIM detection, everything else still works.

This is my brief encounter with a Chinese mobile. I tried it to know why so many people keep buying them. But it is certain that I will not buy another again. My opinion is that Gaffar Market is good for iPhone accessories, not for mobiles.

Corbett : a second time

2010-02-10T14:41:00.000+05:30

Getting geared up for my second trip to Corbett next weekend. My first trip was in 2008 when I had availed a KMVN package from Delhi. This time it will be a drive in trip. Last time we had stayed at the Dhikala FRH complex. This time we be staying at the Gairal Forest Rest House. Gairal FRH is also supposed to be a self sufficient complex. On my return, my blog will have review of both Dhikala and Gairal complexs.

Wiser from the experiences of last visit, we knew that our second visit will be a drive in one. A drive in trip requires acomodation in any of the FRH which has to be booked directly with Corbett authorities. The net result is that we will be getting full 2 days inside the park and no missing safari trip because of shortages of safari vehicle. You can actually drive around in the park if you have your own vehicle. Of course you have to be familiar with the park. The entry permits are issued for 2 nights which means you have to report back on 3rd day. When we took the KMVN package, we effectively got only 1 full day inside the park as travelling by road from Delhi we could arrive at Ramnagar only by noon and Dhikala by afternoon. Thus day 1 was wasted in reaching Dhikala, day 2 was spent inside and day 3 we had to leave by 10 am. This time we will be leaving Delhi a day prior to our reservation date. After collecting the gate passes for next day, we plan to retire in a private resort that dots the highway from Ramnagar to Dhanagiri gate. As there are 77 resorts in the area and we are a group of 4 families, we can expect a good bargain for a night stay. We can enter the park early next morning. By driving own cars we will not be wasting time in hiring a jeep.

Booking accommodation directly is a painful and laborious process, but worth it. However, if you want to experience the real Corbett, then you have to manage your stay in one of the FRHs deep inside forest. Dhikala is 31 KM and Gairal 18 KM inside from the Dhanagiri gate. These are solar powered complexes with electric fencing for your protection. All packages offered by private tour operators are for resorts outside the park. You are allowed to enter the core zone through the Dhanagiri gate only if have confirmed accommodation in a FRH. If you stay in private resort then your chances of visiting this core zone is almost nil and have to satisfy yourself by visiting smaller tourism zones like Birjani and Zirna. We faxed our accommodation request for Feb 2010 in the last week of December 2009. You need to plan at least a month ahead, better if you can send the request 2 months ahead. We had given many dates like all combination of Fri + Sat, Sat + Sun and Sun + Mon to ensure that we can use the weekend and manage the 4 day trip with 2 days leave. This followed several phone calls to ascertain that the fax has been received. We were informed that the our request no was 120 in queue for February. The accommodation was confirmed in the last week January. On confirmation we had to make a DD in SBI (only bank they accept) for payment which was Rs.1250/- per room per night and then send the DD by Speed Post. We followed up to ascertain that DD has been received which confirms the booking. Room rates have gone up considerably. The rates given in their website are quite outdated. It probably has been revised twice. I will be able to put up complete information on return. But as of now, tentative room rent is Rs.1250 + Rs.250 (Housekeeping charges) = Rs.1500/= per night. Even then it is cheaper than private run packages which quotes a per person rate of about 3000.

If you want to book FRH accommodation, then send a fax addressed to the Director, Corbett Tiger Reserve, Ramnagar – 244715. Fax no. is 05947 – 251012. Booking office telefax is 05947 – 251376 for following up activities. The fax should have your address, contact no and tentative dates. It has to be a range of dates rather than being just two dates.

Hockey World Cup 2010 Delhi Tickets

2010-02-04T15:18:00.007+05:30

The first international sports events for 2010 in Delhi is knocking at the door. The Hockey World Cup 2010 Tickets are now up for sale. Event strats on 28th Feb and ends on 13th March, 2010. India has no chances, but I will be there as a sports fan to cheer the team. Tickets can be purchased online. More info is available on the official website The Hero Honda FIH World Cup 2010.

Ticket price is Rs.100/- for genral stand and Rs.500/- for premium stand. You can watch all 3 matches played for a day with one ticket. Match 1 starts at 16:35, match 2 at 18:35 and match 3 at 20:35. For the Final on 13th March, the ticket prices are Rs.150/- and Rs.750/-. This is the complete match schedule.

For Delhi residents, tickets can also be purchased from following outlets:
Select Cafe Coffee Day, 24x7 Convenience Stores and United Bank of India branches (only from February 12, 2010)

CAFÉ COFFEE DAY outlet list, DELHI - NCR
1 CP - Janpath : SHOP NO-42 JANPATH PEARY LAL & SONS PVT LTD ,
2 Kamla nagar : M/S OPEN HOUSE, 9, UB, BUNGALOW ROAD, JAWAHAR NAGAR,
3 Lajpat nagar : A-10, GROUND FLOOR, LAJPAT NAGAR-2,
4 Panjabi bagh : CCD-FIRST FLOOR, SHOP NO-6,CLUB ROAD, PUNJABI BAGH
5 Saket : NO-13,COMMUNITY CENTRE PVR COMPLEX SAKET
6 NFC : 14-COMMUNITY CENTRE NEW FRIEND COLONEY
7 CP : INNER CIRCLE C.P. B-49,
8 Dwarka sec-12 : DWARKA SEC- 12, SHOP NO. 101,102,109 FIRST FLOOR.,
9 CP : N-11 OUTER CIRCLE CONNAUGHT PLACE
10 M Block-GK1 : SHOP NO-37 G.K-M BLOCK GREATER KAILASH-1
11 Shantiniketan : SHOP NO-1 DDA MARKET SHANTINIKETAN NEW
12 Karol bagh : (422D) SHOP NO-422D-GN, METRO STATION KAROL BAGH
13 Geetanjali Cafe : GEETANJALI HOSPITAL , NEAR ARABINDO COLLEGE,
14 Mayur Vihar : LSC, FIRST FLOOR ,F1,F2,F3,F4,F5, MAYUR VIHAR-2 , NEW DELHI
15 AWWA : OPP- TO TAJ PALACE PALLAVI SHOPPING COMPLEX CHANKYAPURI,

Union Bank of India Branches
1 OKHLA SME ( NODAL BRANCH)
2 CONNAUGHT PLACE
3 ANAND VIHAR
4 SUNDER NAGAR
5 LODI COLONY
6 MOTI BAGH
7 ASAF ALI ROAD
8 KAMALA NAGAR (SUBZI MANDI)
9 SHALIMAR BAGH
10 PASCHIM VIHAR

Other Ticket Retail Outlets
A : 24 X 7 Convenience Stores:
1 Greater Kailash 2 Market
2 Lajpat Nagar 2 Market
3 PVR Anupam Complex, Saket

B : Ticket Counter at Gate 5 of National Stadium
C : Online Booking redemptions at Pragati Maidan Gate 2 / Ambedkar Stadium

Kashmir Part-IV : Pahalgam

2010-02-04T14:39:00.002+05:30

Technorati Tags: Kashmir,Pahalgam

Pahalgam was an optional choice in our original itinerary. However as we could not go to Sonamarg due to excessive snowfall, we decided to head for Pahalgam. Our plan was to spend some time there and then head for Patni top for the night stay.

Travelling from Srinagar, we had passed the town of Anantnag. A picturesque road travelling along the Lidder river took us into an interior area with very little human habitation noticeable along the road. Pahalgam falls on the pilgrim route to the Hindu holy cave of Amarnath. It remains a sleepy hamlet which springs into life during the highly publicized Amarnath Yatra season. It is understood that the road remains heavily congested during the yatra season which normally falls in June. Though we did not find anything disturbing on our travel, the Anantnag town is a known disturbed area. There have been incidences of terror attacks in recent past on this route during Amarnath yatra.

Traffic on this route beyond Anantnag was low. Leaving aside the discomfort of bad roads for few kilometers, the journey was pleasant mainly for the beautiful surroundings. The landscape was dotted with extensive mustard cultivation and cashew nut (akhroot) fields. The carpets of yellow mustards under a blue sky with snow clad mountains on the backdrop made a sight to behold. However on arriving at Pahalgam and then getting out the car to explore the scenes around the town resulted in some disappointment in me. May be the scenes of Gulamrg were still too fresh in our minds. Or may be because I had conjured up a different kind of image of Pahalgam based on the photographs I had seen on the net. When I finally saw Pahalgam, it turned out to be completely different. It had actually made us feel such an ordinary place that we wondered as to why people speak so much about Pahalgam. We later found that the beauty of Pahalgam actually lies up in the hills of Vaisoron.

It was past noon when we had arrived. Satiating our hunger was the first priority. Thus we headed straight for lunch at the Dana Paani restaurant located on the main road. My colleague told me especially about this restaurant and so we decided to give it a try. However I would like to record here that it was no extraordinary eatery that will leave lingering tastes on your buds.

Pony owners started following us right from the moment we got out of the car. They were trying to get hold of the handful of tourist that had arrived there for the day. We had no plan to try a pony ride as we had planned our night halt for the day at Patnitop. So we told them to get off our back and look for customers somewhere else. But they did not give up and waited outside the restaurant for us to finish our lunch. My experiences with pony rides had always been bad, the worst being the one at Kufri in Shimla. The guys made us to believe that the most beautiful place in Pahalgam can be seen only if we take the pony ride. By this time we also had a second thought and felt that we had not come all the way to see this dull town. Therefore we had decided to try it out which were suppose to take about a couple of hours. If time permits we would still proceed for Patnitop which would be some 4 hours drive from here. We deiced to go to Vaisoron which the pony owners touted as mini Switzerland.

The official rates were 500 or so. As we were not very interested, we stick to a rate of 200. Finally they had agreed for 200 for each pony. The ponies made there way up the hill through slushy mule tracks. Though the sun was shining that day, it had rained for past 2 / 3 days. The rain water coming down the hill had made the mule tracks very slushy and dangerous at places. In fact one of our horses slipped while coming down and almost caused a mishap.

When we had reached Vaisoron, there lay before us an extending meadow bordered by pine forests and snow clad hills. Here lies the beauty of Pahalgam. I had never seen such large meadows. Fresh from the rains of past few days, we felt like spending the rest of day in those blissful surrounding. We actually ended up spending more time then what we had planned which later made us to change our plan for night. We also made some purchase of Kesar which appears to be a real stuff. The vendor was bale to convince us by his tests that the Kesar he is selling is not fake or colored. Despite repeated washing in water, the Kesar retained its colour. The price quoted was also much lower than what is quoted at the shops.

While coming down, we had decided that it was too late to go to Patnitop and so decided to stay at Pahalgam for the night. The town had a rustic charm. It was kind of a village on the verge of transforming to a small town. Pahalgam turned out to be the most convenient place for shopping as a tourist. All shops and most hotels are located in about half kilometer stretch on the main road that passes through the town. On one side of the road is the Lidder and on the other side is the town. We went a little further down that road towards Chandanwari. About a kilometer down the road, village area starts. There were some hotels in that area located right on the river bank providing beautiful view. However, being surrounded by village, we had a kind of uneasy feeling and decided against taking a hotel there.

Safety was the utmost concern. So we came back to the town center for the night stay. We did not have any prior booking. Now that we had decided to spend the night, we wanted to explore hotels which will offer a comfortable stay for the night. Though the area had many hotels, most of them were closed. They open only during yatra season. As we could see that there were very little tourist, we were sure to get a good bargain. We stayed at the first hotel we went in. I think we paid 500 rupees per room.

The evening was spent in shopping. As I had mentioned earlier, the place turned out to be safe place for making purchases. The low number of tourists staying back also ensured that prices are reasonable. We were enjoying the last evening in Kashmir. But the biting cold of the evening made us finish the day early.

On our way back next day, we had a brief stop at Patnitop, the famous hill station near Katra. Needless to say, it is only for those who dare not to go to Kashmir. While catching the train back to Delhi, we probably were still visualizing those two days in Gulmarg. The unthinkable had happened. We have actually seen Kashmir. We had dared to do it. Only God knows if we will ever make a comeback.

Pending posts

2010-02-03T21:54:00.003+05:30

I feel bad that I had not find much time to attend my blog. I am not dead my blog almost died last year. During 2009, I had travelled more than I posted. I was too preoccupied with job last year which culminated in our team winning our company's prestigious CMD's awrad presented to us on this Republic Day. I assert myself that it will not be same this year. I plan to finish off my travel stories of last year as soon as possible. So following posts are coming:

1) Pahalgam (the last and concluding part of Kashmir trip)

2) Mysore - Infosys campus

3) Surathkal and Udupi Krishna Temple

4) Vaishno Devi Yatra and Jammu

Further, following are my forthcoming trips:

1) Corbett - a second visit from 20th to 22nd Feb, 2010

2) Kualalampur, Genting, Langkawi and Singapore - 15th Oct to 24th Oct, 2010

By the way, I had booked tickets for Delhi - Kualalampur by the newly introduced Air Asia flight from Delhi. The promotional rate as of now is Rs.3500/- one way. This is cheaper than any of the budget airline rate from Delhi to my hometown Guwahati. The offer is still on in case you want to try. The Delhi - Kualalampur flight will start sometime in Aug. We will be using the rich experience of one of our colleagues who had undertaken a trip without any travel package. So we will go there without any travel package. Booked the tickets, will book the hotels after 3/4 months prior to departure. This is going to be similar to my India travel experiences where I had travelled only once using a package.

Kashmir Part-III : Gulmarg

2009-07-26T22:08:00.011+05:30

Have you seen the 'Kashmir in Winter' ad of JK Tourism? It shows Gulmarg at its best. A la European landscape completely covered in snow with people skiing around is very enticing. Gulmarg is the center of winter sport activities and is specially famous as India's premier ski resort. Set up by British in 1927 as a ski resort, Gulmarg has hosted two National Winter Games. Those were scenes of winter and we were going there in spring. We thought that we would get an altogether different view of Gulmarg. But we were proved wrong. The weather took a turn and proved to be lucky for us. We were welcomed by a white Gulmarg covered in several feet of snow. Then it had snowed for full two days. What more you could have ask for.

We left a bright and sunny Srinagar post lunch after a half day sightseeing. It was a struggle to get out of the city. We went past the famous (and dreaded) Lal Chowk and other sensitive areas of the city. Once we got out of the narrow roads of Srinagar cramped with haphazard traffic, the snow clad hills of Gulmarg appeared in the horizon. It was about 50 km / 2 hrs journey to Gulmarg. Soon after we left Tangmarg, which is at the foothill of Gulmarg, a light drizzle had started. Halfway through our ascend, patches of snows started appearing by the road to our delight. This encouraging signs meant more snows up the hill. We were not disappointed when we had reached Gulmarg. The entire landscape was like a white sheet from which houses were poking their heads here and there. The snow along the road was indicator of thickness of the sheet which was several feet. All activities of Gulmarg are centered around the parking lot. All hotels, except the JKTDC huts, and eateriers are located on this stretch of about half a kilometer.

We had two nights bookings at the JKTDC hut. After reaching the central parking lot, we were kind of lost there for direction. By the time we had reached there it was late afternoon and the place was wearing a deserted look. Most tourists visit Gulmarg as day excursion from Srinagar. Day Tourist had left by then. Though there was a tourist office, even that office was closed, may be because it was a Sunday. After enquiring at the shops, finally someone was able to tell us that we need to go to the JKTDC Club house located at the golf club. The huts were some 1 km off this hustle bustle and are located near the gondola point. The club house was on the opposite side of this area. One has to pay an extra Rs.50/- for taking vehicles into that area. Only vehicles of tourist with confirmed night halt are allowed. Finding the club house was not that difficult. Though it was located somewhere in the white sheet of snow in front of us, it was located along the only motorable road passing through it. The road is a circular road running around the field where winter sports activities takes place. On arriving at the club, we understood that the white sheet in front of us is actually a golf course. This gets converted into a winter sport ground in winter.

Anyway, the guys at the club house were aware of our booking which was good. I was worried that if our booking had not reached this remote corner of India, we may have to face a situation of frantic calling of xyz in search for accommodation. The club provided the services of an attendant to accompany us to the hut which supposed to be another two kilometer further along the radial road. The weather had cleared by this time and a bright sunshine was shooting through cloud. Locals uses a cliché ‘Mumbai ka fashion aur Gulmarg ka mausam, kabhi bhi badal sakta’, i.e, Fashion in Mumbai and weather in Gulmarg can change any time. This labile psyche of weather was clearly visible. It was drizzling when we had reached Gulmarg, but now the sun was shining.

We were thrilled when we had reached the foothill of our hut. The hut was some way up on the mountain face and the entire area was covered in snow. There was no road, only footsteps on the snow to be followed. Fortunately we did not have to carry our stuff up as another attendant from the hut helped the one accompanied us from the club to take our luggage up the hill. The hut was almost covered in snow with only few feet of roof visible. This is what we had dreamt of. When you are in a beach, the ideal place for stay is a beach cottage located right on the beach (which I experienced at Lakshadweep). Then I had spent a night in the Jaisalmer desert resort where wind kept lashing our faces all the night. Now we were getting a chance to spend a night on a secluded cottage on a snowy hill among pine trees, half submerged in snow. I would have definitely not liked to spend the night here on upper floors of a multistory hotel.

Let me tell you few more details about the JKTDC cottages. There are about 9 cottages, each located separately on the face of the hill looking down at the golf course. We had booked a double room cottage. This wooden hut had two bedrooms with attached bath, a kitchen and one hall with sofas, a dining table and a shingri (fire place) at the center of the house to keep you warm. Though devoid of luxury, this probably is the best place to stay in Gulmarg. The double bedroom hut is normally priced @ Rs.2500/- per night which can be shared by two families like we did. Being a shoulder season we got the hut @1800/- per night. The attendant, Bashirbhai, lived in a separate cottage nearby. He would arrange everything for you – of course at a price higher than normal. You would happily pay that premium rather than venturing out in the snow and shivering cold. Else you can walk down about a kilometer to the parking place where there are several eateries. The rooms were well insulated. Electricity was there almost round the clock. But voltage was low and so we had to keep the room heater and geyser on all the time. If you switch off the geyser, the watch gets chilled in no time. Everything outside was under snow and the water flowing to the hut had come travelling through the snow.

On the first night we had our dinner outside at the Bakshi restaurant which was decent enough. The weather was clear enough with moonlight lighting up the snow covered landscape beautifully. We had most meals outside except one when weather was too bad too venture out.

The roar of thunder woke us up next morning. When we looked out through the window, it was snowing outside. We all jumped out of the bed to enjoy the snowfall thinking it may stop anytime. We had seen a brief snowfall once at Shela Pass on the way to Tawang. But nothing likes this. It was as if someone was showering cotton likes flakes on the landscape. Holding those snowflakes coming down the sky was an experience cannot be explained in words. It can only be felt. When we had understood that the snowfall is going to continue for sometime, we got ready for day’s activity. Bashirbhai had arranged for our snow dresses and boots. If you get out without those water proof snow dresses, you would end up getting wet.

We were the first tourists to be out on the winter sports ground for that day. The snowfall had stopped by now and the weather cleared. Sledge pullers were after us like leeches right from the moment we got out of our rooms. You feel pity for those poor fellows, but we wanted to do skiing only. They would tell you to go for 8 point or so sightseeing on the field and start with a price of about 500 bucks. We did not understood what would be that so called sightseeing as everything was under snow. We had taken a detour of the circular road around the field and saw nothing worth visiting other than indulging yourself in some winter sports. When we saw people who were being pulled around in sledges, it looked so cruel and inhuman, something like Kolkata hand rickshaw pullers. You sit on a wooden sledge which is pulled around by some skinny poor fellow. Everyone from sledge puller to the ski operators would quote astronomical prices citing govt. approved rate. We had a hard bargain for skiing. We managed to get it for Rs.250/- per head as against the original quote of Rs.750/-. That probably because we were the only tourist at that time. Tourists from Srinagar normally arrives by 11 am or so. You should book your activity on the spot. If you book at the hotel or you accompany some agent from the hotel, then the final price agreed will also include his commission. Though united to keep prices stable, the Ski operators are actually individuals with their own ski kits. It was our first experience of ski. Most of us picked up the tricks fast. In about half an hours of skiing I had only one fall and was able to do it alone. I was also worried about my fluid back and slip disc. But it was fun. It was tiring and had drained us out. So do not expect to ski for hours when you pay 700 bucks or so. The weather also had taken an ugly turn by then. The entire Gulmarg got covered in a blanket of cloud. Soon it started to rain with small hail. The weather had cleared after some time. Some more tourists had arrived by then. We were shocked to find the prices some of them had paid for sledges to reach there and it was their turn of shock when we had revealed our prices. The ski point was at a walkable distance and we had comfortably walked down.

On our return, we hired a sledge for our daughter, more out of sympathy than need. These guys were following, literally pleading to have a sledge ride. We paid him 50 bucks for a ride back to the cottage. We paid another puller 10 rupees for a photograph. By the time we were back in the hut, the drizzle had stopped and it had started to snow again. The snowfall continued all through the day. As we had hired the dresses for the day, we had several foray outside to enjoy the snowfall. When we were in Dehradun, we saw people flocking to Mussorie to see the often brief spell of snowfalls. But here we had a full day of snowfall. The scenes of flakes coming down as if someone showering cottons from the sky will always remain in our memory. The evening that day was too cold for us to get out and so we had decided to use the services of Bashirbhai. Taking advantage of the situation he also served us roti @15 rupees. He also charged 150 per day to keep the fire on in the hall.

The snowfall continued through the night and also next morning. We had planned to leave by 9 am and proceed for Sonamarg. But our vehicle which was parked outside and was withstanding the bitter cold and snowfall for almost 40 hours had refused to start. The driver used all his experiences, but finally he had to go down to Tangmarg and get a mechanic. We lost a couple of hour in the process. When we finally left Gulmarg at round noon, it was still snowing. Seeing the humps of snow and weather, the driver suspected that Sonamarg may be closed. In his opinion, the landscape there would not be different from Gulmarg. So we had decided to call up the JKTDC Office at Srinagar. We were informed that the route to Sonamarg had been closed due to excessive rainfall over last two days and hence we will not be able to make it to the JKTDC hut. As we had confirmed fully paid booking they offered us alternative accommodation at Srinagar.

The snowfall got converted into rain as we lost height. When we had reached Srinagar, the official at JKTDC was quite helpful in getting our booking converted to Srinagar. But the incessant rain became a nightmare. It was an alternate drizzle and downpour. We had waited for rain to stop and when it finally stopped around 3 pm, we headed for some local sightseeing. The driver had also informed us in the evening that the route to Gulmarg had also been closed that day as the snowfall had not stopped.

The weather had played a spoilsport for the next one and half day. The rain had rarely stopped and with great difficulty we could complete the remaining sightseeing of Srinagar. The temperature had also plummeted prompting most shops to shut down and locals preferred to stay indoors. But we took solace in the fact that had it not rained; it would not have snowed at Gulmarg. The thrill we felt at Gulmarg was much higher than those customary visits to the dull Mughal gardens.

(Events described were for 5th, 6th and 7th April 2009)

Kashmir Part-II : Srinagar

2009-06-07T19:54:00.006+05:30

Srinagar : Day 1
We had covered Srinagar in two parts. Our initial planning for Srinagar was for two ½ days. But eventually it turned out to be of 1 and ½ day. On Day-2 morning, we had covered few locations and then proceeded to Gulmarg in the afternoon. On return from Gulmarg we had covered the remaining locations on Day-4. However day-4 turned out to be an entire day instead of the planned ½ day because our trip to Sonamarg got canceled as a result of road closure due to excessive snowfall.

We started the day with a visit to the Sankaracharya Temple located atop a hill overlooking the city. The hill presents a magnificent panoramic view of the Dal Lake as well as the city. The entry to the hill as well as the temple complex is heavily fortified with heavy presence of paramilitary forces. One has to get down from the vehicle and walk past the check post at the entry point while the vehicle gets a security check. Vehicles are allowed almost to the foot of the temple where one had to undergo actual physical frisking. Once frisking is over, a climb of 242 stairs will take you to the temple. But it is worth the effort.

Our next stop was the Chesmasahi Bagh, which is one of the 3 famous Mughal gardens of Srinagar. As the Raj Bhavan comes on the road to the garden, video cameras are not allowed in the area. One has to deposit it at a security check point and collect it back on return. It is said that Jawaharlal Nehru used to drink water from the natural spring flowing through this garden. He is said to have a system in place to ensure regular availability of water from this spring in Delhi! Whether you believe it or not is upto you.

It is a small garden. My opinion on this is ‘Nothing spectacular’. May be because there were not many varieties of flowers blooming in it. But it was spring time when I went there. As was being done by all tourists, we also had collected water from the natural spring. Anyway, the experience made us to skip the Botanical Garden located next to it. All these places have a parking fee and entry fee in place. Have a look at the parking ticket and note the line ‘No responsibility for blast’! Scarry! Isn't it?

We then headed for the Dal lake for one of the must do activities while in Kashmir – a Shikara ride in the Dal lake. The entire Shikara things runs on commission system. There are numerous boarding point with hundreds of Shikaras, but only a few tourists around. Everyone there rues the golden day’s tourism. Militancy had kicked the people making a livelihood of tourism the hardest. The cab driver will drop you at a point from where he gets some commission. Anyway, we bargained for a trip for 300 bucks. Shikaras are large enough to accommodate two families.

Our shikara set off cutting though the greenish water of the Dal. Barely a few minutes into the ride we were accosted by floating salesman. We successfully fended many of them off. But one got stuck to our boat like a leech sticking to its prey, courtesy the interest shown by our ladies team in their jewelry. You would like to be lost in the serene surroundings and the life on the Dal. But half of your trip will be spoiled by these constant hackling of salesman.

There is a sprawling market on the backsides of the houseboats. It is a big floating market. You will feel like being in a different world. But the prices are exorbitant. The shops are grouped together in such a way that if you land somewhere you can cover only a few shops. You can not hop from boat to boat and see the entire market. The shikara will take only to a group of shops from which he gets commission. These floating markets are totally dependent on shikars to bring customers. On being cajoled by us, the boatman confessed that he gets 20 rupees for every stops he makes irrespective of the fact that customers buy or not. Prices are so high that you will be made to think twice before buying. The same thing is available for much cheaper at Pahalgam or shops en-route.

The shikara ride lasted for about 2 hours. They will tell you that ride is of 3 hours. But of these about an hour will be spent on those shops. We cut it short by deciding not visit any shop after two such stops. We also had to check out and proceed for Gulmarg.

Houseboats : Yes or No ?

Quite a large chunk of the Dal is occupied by Houseboats. There are hundreds of them, but only a few occupied. Houseboats were introduced by the British who were not given rights by the then king to live on the land. Would I like to spend a night a houseboat ? The answer is NO. The reasons are:
1) They are stationary and standing on a stationary pool of water.
2) The water being made available in toilets is being pumped from the water below. Just think that all your excretions have also been disposed off in the same pool of water.
3) You will require the services of a boat for getting ferried to the mainland and back. You are cut-off from the land.

I had experienced a night in houseboat at Allepey, Kerala. The difference there was that the boat halted only for the night. Yet we could not take bath in the greenish water of backwater canals.

What not to do as tourist while in Srinagar?
You will not find many tourists around. May be 100-150 persons could be seen on any day, most of which are Bengalis. As a tourist you should visit only the designated tourist points and not venture out to trouble hotspots like the Lal Chowk. The entire local market is around the Lal Chowk. But your shopping should be limited to the shops located along the Dal. There are many shops and shopping complexes to cater to your need in that area. The security around Dal is also quite good with considerable presence of security personnel. Venturing out to Lal Chowk can put you into trouble. You are easily identified as a tourist there and it certainly is different from other places in India. There are many barricades put up on the roads within the city. In each of them you will find a bunker built in the middle of the road which is manned by policeman with sophisticated weapons. Quite unlike in other places in India where you will often find lathi holding policeman lazing around often unnecessary barricades put on the roads just to convey the message the police exists. But in Kashmir, the message being conveyed was quite different.

Srinagar : Day 2
On arriving at Srinagar from Gulmarg, we were told that road to Sonamarg is closed. As we had prior booking for JKTDC Hut at Sonamarg, the official at JKTDC was good enough to offer alternate accommodation at Srinagar TRC. We had another unseen delay in the morning at Gulmarg as the vehicle which withstood two days snowfall, refused to start. The driver had to go down to Tangmarg and get a mechanic. But that put our plans back by 3 hours.

Anyway, while it was snowing at Gulamarg, areas down below including Srinagar was getting wet in heavy rains. Thus weather played the spoilsport. It was unseasonal rain resulting from depression in the Bay of Bengal. Because of the rain temperature nosedived. When we left Srinagar a couple of days back, the temperature was pleasant. But on return to the city, it was very cold, much colder than Gulmarg. In fact the cold was so biting that most people were off the roads and majority of the shops were closed. The driver also warned us that if rain continues there may be landslides and hence we should change plan for the last night and make Patnitop our night halt. We just prayed to god and kept our fingers crossed. We consoled ourselves with the reason that had it not rained we would not have get two days of snowfall at Gulmarg.

Anyway, braving the rain and biting cold, we had visited the Hazratbal Mosque. This was the first time ever I had visited the Sanctum Santorum of a mosque. Ladies are allowed inside the building but not inside the Sanctum Santorum. It is located on the other side of the Dal. The road leading to it is narrow and the city buses were a menace. The buses are too big for the narrow roads and are undisciplined. The complex is heavily protected. If you recall there was an incident few years back when militants took control of it.

Next was a visit to the Tulip garden. Located on the foothills of the Zabarwan, it is suppose to be the biggest Tulip garden in Asia. Covering the foothills like a colourfull blanket, the tulips were in full bloom and the JKTDC organized weeklong Tulip festival was on. This garden remains open only for 3 months in a year. There is a hefty entry fee of Rs.50/- for adults and Rs.20/- for kids. We rued the opportunity to visit the park when it was shining on day-1. Rain was following the tourist and played havoc to everyone’s plans. It was difficult to take out the camera. When it was not raining heavily, it was drizzling.

We completed the customary Srinagar sightseeing by visiting the Nishat Bagh and the Shalimar Garden. The Shalimar was better than the Nishat. My opinion is that none of these Mughal Gardens were spectacular. The Millenium Park near Nizamuddin Station is Delhi is much better. If someone feels that these gardens are magnificent, I will like to know the criteria, other than the historical value, that made them think so.

For shopping, we had tried out the Govt emporium. But the best place to shop was the National Cottage Emporium. They had fantastic collection of shawls. Their lists of sowrooms in Delhi have addresses at the Hyatt Regency, Le-Meridien and Maurya Sheraton. This tells high quality of products they stocks. Prices are bargainable.

Almost all our food was taken at the JKTDC restaurant at the TRC except for once. We tried out the Mutton Roghan Josh, a Kashmiri specialty, at a local restaurant on the Dal road.

That completed the Srinagar sightseeing.

Relocation : one stop solution

2009-06-07T19:24:00.006+05:30

End of another busy week. Most of the time was devoted to sorting problems of personnel getting transferred during this season. It may sound strange to many, but my company has an Annual Transfer season in which about 2500 personnel gets transferred across 24 locations in India. This comes every year in May – June. It is a Govt. of India organization where everyone is expected to serve in at least three regions in their career. The wisdom of moving 2500 personnel has been questioned many times as it involves substantial cost to the company as well, but is unavoidable. I look after the system related issues during this annual exercise.

A transfer, specially the ones where one has to relocate, is indeed a painful exercise. It not only changes your address, it changes your world upside down at least for three months. I had undergone three such relocations in 10 years – two of which had been long ones across different states. Your headache starts right from the day you are handed over your transfer order. Run around to find a reliable moving company which does at least packing and moving. Then find insurance, getting your car shipped, necessary clearance from local transport authority for shipping your car, search for accommodation and school for your kids at new place, , transfer certificate, surrender phone and gas connection, etc., etc. The list is endless. I remember someone putting a list of at least 70 things to do on transfer on company’s intranet.

It would have been really wonderful had there been an agency offering single source services for all relocation related problems. I had come across a site moveme.com which apparently offers one stop solution to many, if not all, of problems on relocation. The services offered are the absolutely essential ones like packing and moving, insurance, etc. One of the features I liked was the Move Planner and Movement Checklist. Unfortunately, in India we do not have any such moving company offering single source solution to your relocation related issues. You have few which at best offers online removal quotes. Here you have to run around yourself and get the things done yourself. But the headache is tremendous. It takes another few months for you to settle down at the new address. Someone should start a service like moveme.com in India which will reduce some of the pain of relocation.

Anyway, I also have compiled the second part of the Kashmir trip as Kashmir-2 and will be putting it up in next 24 hours.

Kashmir Part-I : Jammu to Srinagar

2009-05-29T21:57:00.006+05:30

Lot of aplogoies to those who had wrote to me to update the blog. Finally I have taken time off to write the first part of the Kashmir trip.

With lot of excitement and some apprehensions, we boarded the Rajdhani Express to Jammu. Though a Rajdhani, the premium train service in India, condition of the coaches of this train were not very pleasing. In fact, all these short distance and overnight Rajdhanis are constructed out of re-cycled coaches of Rajdhanis on popular long distance routes. Anyway, the train had reached Jammu Tawi station before dawn broke. Someone had to wake us up telling that the train is standing on platform.

We had arranged for a vehicle for the entire trip before leaving Delhi. The cab is from Katra and hence the driver could not pick us from station. The taxi union at station will not allow picking passenger for outside cab. So we had to go to a landmark, in this case a particular hotel for the waiting cab. The hotel was less than half kilometer from the station, but autos charged 50 bucks. We had no other options. Cheating of tourists is a big business at popular tourist places. Jammu receives a fair amount of tourist everyday. At least 95% people arriving Jammu daily leaves for Katra en route to the Hindu holy place of Vaishno Devi Temple. Less than 1% probably proceeds for Srinagar.

We got freshen up in a hotel at Jammu by paying Rs.250/- for 2 hours. We set off for the 298 km daylong journey to Srinagar around 8 am. En route we had stopped for breakfast, Lunch at Bannihal and afternoon tea at Gazigund. Do not expect any posh eatery on the road. From Jammu, it was a constant upward journey till the famous Jawahar Tunnel. It is the longest road tunnel in India. The road condition is good. But traffic was heavy and long defence convoys prolonged the journey with unavoidable holdups. The descend to the valley starts from the Jawahar Tunnel onwards. One could feel the heightened security on the highway from few kilometers ahead of the Jawahar Tunnel. Every few hundred meters you could see paramilitary personnel standing on guard along the road. Standing on the road braving the weather without anyone to talk is a real tough job for these defence personnel. But securing the highway that links the region to mainland is of vital importance to the valley. Militants have targeted it several times in the past.

Here I would like to narrate an incident. There is a small police check post barely a km before the Jawahar Tunnel. They stop tourist vehicles selectively. One of us was asked to come and sign the register kept in a room. I went and made the entries. If they are doing this to keep a track of tourist entering the valley, then it is OK. But then the policeman brazenly asked me for money. ‘Pehli bar Kashmir aaye ho, khusi khusi kuch deke jao chai paani ke liye’. I made light of his request by saying let us come back safely and then we will talk. I have travelled to almost every state in India. But this is the first instance where I have found police trying to extort money from tourist. How many people go to Kashmir these days? And then the local police instead of welcoming tourist are indulging in such deplorable act. Anyone from Kashmir is listening?

The journey had been un-eventful and safe, but tiring. We reached Srinagar by around 5 pm. We had booked accommodation for JKTDC facility at the Tourist Reception Center (TRC). Finding the TRC was not difficult as there road signs for TRC were in right places. The rooms we got for 700 were well above our expectations for a Govt run facility. We were told that these are discounted rates for shoulder season. Further, the entire TRC gets converted into temporary offices of J&K Govt during summer. These plush rooms are then given to high ranking Govt. officers. During winter these officers operate from Jammu and during summer from Srinagar. The TRC had been targeted by militants once. Because of that there is good arrangement of security there. In fact a group of CRPF personnel is stationed in the complex and they guards the entry to the center. The complex also houses the Office of JKTDC (J&K Tourism Development Corporation). You can book JKTDC accommodation at this center.

Jammu to Srinagar Travel

I found that following are the ways one can travel from Jammu to Srinagar :

1) Hire a car from Jammu for the entire trip
2) Travel by JKSRTC (Govt) bus which leaves from a designated bus stand and probably leaves very early in the morning. The best bus is what they call as Hi-tech buses. Super Deluxe buses are the most common ones. But these small size buses that run on the hills are slightly above ordinary ones.
3) Travel by a share Taxi / Sumo. These also starts early in the morning from a designated spot. But there is no taxi stand for them; they just wait by the roadside. Though I did not ask, our driver told that they charge about 600 per seat. That may be exaggerated. But the real risk is that these drivers are very rash. They drive fast and often take blind overtake. We saw 2 such vehicle meeting with accident during our trip.

To me the best option is the first one. You can hire a car from Jammu with a good bargain price. We did it for Rs.1800/- per day. Hiring a car at Srinagar is costlier as the operators are highly unionized. You will find the stands full of taxis but they will sit idle, rather than offering you bargains. For going to Gulmarg or Sonamarg, you will have to hire a car. Even for local travelling, you would like to avoid few autos seen on the road. Thus hiring a car for the entire trip will make it available at your disposal all the time. The 3rd option is use by most localites for faster travelling to Srinagar. But you may not want to travel among people who may not be that friendly and comments being passed in an alien language. This is OK for young people in groups, but not advisable for family.

Back from Kashmir

2009-04-14T11:52:00.004+05:30

Glad to be back safely from Kashmir. I can now proudly say that I have seen Kashmir as well.

My first impression on Kashmir : It is beautiful and unique destination in India. But ceratinly not the so called 'Heaven on Earth'. In the seven days of travel we had faced all kind of weather there -- bright sunshine to snowfall to rain. In fact rain had played spoilsport for a day and we had to stay an extra night at Srinagar. It continued to snow incessently for the two days we spent at Gulmarg. Yes it snowed for 2 full days -- that too in April! We went there expecting to see snow, but not snowfall. We had to cancel the trip to Sonamarg because of road blockage from excessive snowfall. The last day was spent at Pahalgam.

Back in Delhi, we got a thermal shock. Temp. had gone up by several degrees since we had left. For the entire week in Kashmir, we had struggled to keep us warm in biting cold. Now back in the power center of India which is feeling the heat of the forthcoming general elections, we are trying to adjust to the rising mercury.

Lots of work pending due to my 10 days break. It will be some time before I pen my trip in details.

Kashmir : Countdown begins

2009-03-31T22:44:00.002+05:30

Just 3 more days to go for my Kashmir trip.

Excited? Yes. But, there also is a sense of fear and apprehension somewhere lurking inside.

Two years back on our trip to the beautiful Lakshadweep, when we were being ferried from our mother ship by a small boat to the turquoise lagoon of our resort, we were all unanimous in exclaiming WOW! This is a heaven on earth. Not many had exclaimed Lakshadweep as heaven, but then not many have been to that place either. But Kashmir is a place exclaimed by many as a heaven on earth. I will be able to see this so called heaven in next one week, and if come back safely, will be able to share my experiences and photos.

The estimated cost of the trip is about 16000 per family. One of my colleagues will be accompanying. Both families are of 3 pax including a kid each. Leaving out the child, the cost will be about 8000 per head ex-Delhi. Now compare this with what is on offer with any travel agent. The cost will be 75-100% more per head, and that too ex-Srinagar. We will be travelling to Jammu by Rajdhani 3AC. Then hire a Sumo / Qualis type vehicle from Jammu and keep it for the entire 7 days of trip till return to Jammu. 4 days of confirmed accommodation booking with JKTDC resorts / hotels. No accommodation booking made for last 2 days to ensure little flexibility so that we can stay the last day either at Srinagar or Pahalgam.

Economic slowdown hits Indian tourism industry

2009-03-16T20:25:00.006+05:30

Temperature in Delhi has been slowly rising in last few days and is currently slightly above comfortable range. February normally sees maximum number of tourist because of the pleasant temperature. But this year number of foreign tourist arrival has seen a negative growth. The global economic slowdown, coupled with the Mumbai terror attack had dealt a back breaking blow to the tourism industry.

Ministry of Tourism compiles monthly estimates of Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) and Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEE) on the basis of data received from major airports. Following are the important highlights as regards these two important indicators of tourism sector.

Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs):
· FTAs during the year 2008 were 5.37 million as compared to FTAs of 5.08 million during the year 2007. Therefore, in spite of global financial meltdown and terrorist activities, number of FTAs has increased in 2008 as compared to 2007. UNWTO has predicted a growth rate of 2-3% for international tourist arrivals in the world during 2008. Therefore, Indian Scenario (growth rate of 5.6%) is much better than world scenario.
· The number of FTAs in December 2008 has risen to 5.22 lakhs as compared to 5.21 lakhs in November 2008.

Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEE) from Tourism in Indian rupee terms and US $ terms :
· FEE during the year 2008 were Rs. 50730 crore as compared to Rs. 44360 crore in 2007.
· FEE in US $ terms during for the year 2008 were US $ 11747 million as compared to FEE of US $ 10729 during 2007. The lower growth rate in 2008 as compared to 2007 may be mainly due to lower growth rate of FTAs in 2008 as compared to 2007 and exchange rate variation.
· FEE from tourism in December 2008 were Rs. 5083 crore as compared to Rs. 4935 crore in November 2008 and Rs. 5079 crore in December 2007.
· FEE in US $ terms during the year 2008 were US $ 1046 million as compared to US $ 1005 million in November 2008 and US $ 1287 million in December 2007. The decline in the FEE in US $ term during December 2008 vis-à-vis December 2007 is mainly due to the foreign exchange variations in these months.

[Source: Ministry of Tourism & TOI]

Kashmir : I am going there

2009-03-05T22:41:00.004+05:30

I am yet to digest the fact that I am actually going to Kashmir! That is happening in next 30 days.

Till last year, I was of the opinion that one has many other choices of places to visit rather than risking going to Kashmir. But somehow my opinion changed after one of my colleague had a trip to Kashmir couple of months back.

Tickets have been booked. The trip will cover Srinagar, Gulmarg, Sonmarg and may be Pahalgam over 7 days. Planning to stay at JKTDC accommodation at all these places. According to my colleague JKTDC facilities provide comfortable stay at very reasonable price. Looking to hire a cab from Jammu for the entire trip.

My last long trip was to the VOF almost 1 ½ year ago. But at times it seems like ages. I had been to Goa, Corbett, Bangaluru and Hampi in 2008. But all these trips had been brief trip of 2-3 days. The exception was Bangaluru where I spent about a month for training. Thus I am looking forward to this trip which I expect to be one more trip of lifetime. We have less than a month to do some serious planning and homework.

Suggestions from experienced fellow travelers to Kashmir are welcome.

NCR Colour code for autos and taxis

2009-02-15T21:04:00.005+05:30

One more news on free movement of autos and taxis between Delhi and NCR areas have come. All commercial vehicle with NCR permit will have a blue, green and white stripes in this order. Sizes of bands will vary depending on type of vehicle.

Permits for these across NCR vehicles will be issued from 16th Feb onwards. Hopefully they become operational by next month. It is now more than two months since the first news of agreement details had been published. (Read the original details of this agreement here)

Hampi : Where time stands still

2009-02-07T22:28:00.008+05:30

It was around noon on Saturday, the 13th Sept, 2008 when I had made the final decision to go to Hampi. We got two days off from the training that we were undergoing at Bangaluru. I had called up few colleagues in the morning to find if anyone is interested. But each of those lethargic fellows had some kind of excuses for not to travel. The very thought of travelling 400km one way, that too by bus was itself sleep inducing. May be I was asking a bit too much out of them. Therefore I decided to give it a try all alone. In fact all my trips till now had been either with a friend or my own family. So this was going to be a new experience – a trip in true back packer style.

The best way to travel to Hampi is to catch the 6592 Hampi Exp in the evening. It leaves Bangaluru at 2230 and will drop you at Hospet at 0745 next morning. Hampi is just 13 km from Hospet. As it was too late for me to get a ticket in the train to Hospet, I decided to try the KSRTC bus service. From their website, I found that KSRTC have a direct bus service between Bangaluru and Hampi. If one cannot find seat in that bus, then there are many buses to Hospet. Seats in KSRTC buses can be booked from agents they have appointed across Bangaluru. I booked ticket at the nearest KSRTC agent at Ballandur. I got a seat in the Bangaluru – Hampi bus for the night of Saturady itself, but could not a get a return ticket by the same bus for Sunday. I booked a return ticket from Hospet. The bus to Hampi is a Rajahamsa category bus. This service is 2x2 non-ac deluxe buses. KSRTC also runs an Airavat class bus service between Bangaluru and Hospet. Airavat is AC Volvo class service. If I recall correctly, the fare I paid was around Rs.350/-.

I just had a small backpack as luggage which had my camera kit, a towel and the toilet kit. By 10pm I was at the inter- state bus terminal at Majestic. Official name of this central bus stand is Kempe Gowda Bus Terminus. Even at that hour it was heavily crowded. I made my way to my designated platform no 2. Soon I encountered my first problem. I found that except for the Airavat class buses, all others had destinations written in Kannada. Stuck with this piquant situation, I started reading the boards around and made a mental map of what Ha and Pi looks like in Kannada. As the clock started approaching 11 pm, the scheduled departure time, and still there was no sign of my bus, I started getting a little worried. I kept asking people around but was of little help. Finally the bus for Hampi appeared in the scene and to my delight it also had destination written in English. Hampi being a tourist spot, someone was thoughtful enough to add destinations in English. The bus was of so-so quality --- not too good, but not that bad either. Most of the Rajahamsa class buses were new, but this was a bit older. As the bus made its way out of the city, I got sucked into slumber.

When I woke up in the morning, the bus was travelling through a real bad patch of road. At around 7:30 am the bus had made it to Hospet. After a reasonably long halt, it started off for Hampi. All I had as co-passenger was a couple. The boy was a foreigner and the girl accompanying him was Indian. I got into conversation with the girl. When I told about my plan to return by that evening she was bit surprised. They had plan to stay there for a night or two. Returning by night would have been hectic, but returning by 3pm of that day was not even I thought plausible. I had very little choice. I could not afford to miss the training on Monday and also I could not let this last opportunity (for some time to come) to see Hampi.

Anyway, the bus arrived at Hampi around 8 am. It was off season in Hampi. So a horde of agents and autowallahs descended on the 3 souls that had arrived by the bus that morning. As the couple was looking for accommodation, they went their way. I had bargained with an auto for half day sightseeing @Rs.450/-. There are 3 ways to sight see at Hampi – on foot, hire a two-wheeler / cycle or hire an auto.

The priority for me was to get freshen. The autowallah took me to the bathing ghat on the Tungabhadra river through narrow gallis. There were no big hotels at Hampi, yet there was no dearth of accommodation on these narrow lanes. These are probably so-so quality accommodation where you need to stay just thinking about one night. There is a public toilet by the ghat which was reasonably clean. But the water was muddy as it is pumped directly from the river below. Thus having a bath was out of question. I had brushed my teeth using the bottle of mineral water I was carrying. After getting fresh, I sat on one of the hotels on the main road to the temple for breakfast.

The sightseeing tour started around 9 am. The landscape of Hampi is unbelievingly beautiful. As if nature had created it specially. Lines and racks of boulders are lying one upon another, as if kept there by hand. In fact, God created Hampi which was discovered by man and settled down in these beautiful surroundings. As the trip progressed I got sucked into the beauty of Hampi. Most of the monuments are in good shape and are well maintained. As if time has come to a standstill. Built between the 13th and 16th century, these ruins remind you of a well planned town. The Krishna bazaar structure with its rows of pavilion on both sides and open ground in between resembles any modern day bazaar or haat. You will find enough literature on Hampi on the net. But just for record, it was the capital of the Vijayanagara empire. It was a wealthy and prosperous Hindu empire which was taken over and destroyed by Muslim rulers around it.

The autowallah took me to all important monuments. I started with the 12 feet high Sasivekalu Ganapati. Then to the Krishna temple, Ugra Narasimha and Badavi Linga, Pataleshwar temple, etc. etc. Many insignificant ruins are seen scattered everywhere. I spent ample time photographic each of them. Occasional drizzle was breaking the trip from time to time. I also visited the museum at Kamalpur which had a good collection of artifacts. In fact none of the temples had any statue. All the statues recovered from the ruins are kept in the museum. The temples like Krishna temple or the Hazaari Rama temple are objects of history rather than being place of worship. I do not know how they have managed to keep people away from reclaiming these places as place of worship. In India you will find people built temples and then put up sign as ‘ancient temple’. If you want to see this go the holy places like Haridwar, Rishikesh, Vrindavan, Mathura, etc.

After about 2 hours, I had reached the most famous monument of Hampi. It is the Vijaya Vittala Temple. The stone chariot of Hampi was waiting there. I could not wait to touch it. This was the biggest reason for me coming to Hampi. In my small old postal stamp collection, I had a 15 paise stamp depicting the stone chariot of Hampi. The chariot is also the structure that represents Hampi in history books. I clicked my picture standing by the chariot by putting the camera in self-timer mode. The Vittala temple complex is truly magnificent. It was built by Krishnadevaraya in 1513. I have seen beautiful shot of the temple with lights on. Therefore I asked the guard on duty about the timing of putting the lights on. He informed me that these are put on only during Hampi festival. That was a dampener.

I was then taken to the point from which you can see the ruins of the ancient bridge. I was a certain prospective customer to the lone boatman who operates couple of Coracle boats there. The boatman offered me to take to the other side of the river for 200 bucks so that I can go to the Hanuman temple perched atop a hill. Going to the other side of the river was OK, but climbing up a hill was not OK for me. So he offered me another proposal for a brief ride for 50 bucks. Despite being not sure about the safety, I also wanted to try it out. But I could not prevent my pants from getting soaked in water. The Coracle ride was really memorable. After that the autowallah took me to the Sugreev’s den. Even though he was a muslim, he showed me places like the Sugreev’s den and Kiskindhya parvat. Locals believe that Kiskindhya of Ramayan was here and the den was used by Sugreev when he was chased away by Bali.

He then urged me to take the pedal road winding up by the side of Tungabhadra from this side and reach the market area. Few monuments on this stretch can only be covered on foot. I agreed to his advice and paid him good bye. It was only around 12:30 pm when I had passed the Kodanda Rama Temple. It was barely noon and I am almost done with the sightseeing of Hampi. Then I met the couple who had started on foot from the opposite direction with map in their hand. They probably had covered 2 or 3 monuments by then. They were surprised to find me coming from opposite direction. They were more surprised when I told them that I had finished sightseeing and was contemplating going back.

Thus Hampi can be covered in 4 hours by riding an auto. In that I also had a Coracle ride and the museum visit. This time frame for someone who loves photography and spend lot of time at each monument. So one can actually cover it in 3 hours. My trip ended at 1 pm. But my return ticket was for a bus at 11pm. I rang up my brother to tell that I am planning to come back. None of us were sure whether I will get some refund for the reservation ticket. In any case I have nothing to do till 11pm, i.e., nearly ten hours to kill. I may probably make it back to Bangaluru by these ten hours.

I had lunch in one of the roadside hotel doting the main street of Hampi bazaar. Being an off-season, not all of them were serving. I found one that was serving lunch. Then I rode a Vikram with locals to Hospet. On enquiring with the KSRTC counter, I found that they would refund me some amount after deducting cancellation charges. I lost about 100 rupees, but was happy to get major part of it back. There is no deluxe bus service during day hours. So I rode a semi deluxe bus which started off at 3 pm. The fare was probably Rs.230/-. The bus stopped at all towns on the route. This bus trip before sunset gave me an opportunity to see what I would have missed by an overnight trip. On seeing the reservoir of Tungabhadra dam (which I found out later), I asked a fellow traveler as to what it is. He replied – samunder (sea). It indeed appeared like a sea. Riding through the rural Karnataka was another unforgettable experience.

Anyway, I reached Bangaluru by 12 midnight. This means I had travelled nearly 800 km in 24 hours, that too by bus. Fortunately I would get 6/7 hours to sleep comfortably and get refreshed for classes next day. I hired an auto at Majestic and the buggers literally looted me. There were two of driving. I handed them a note of 500 rupee. Both of them denied receiving the 500 note and told me that I had given them a 100 rupee note. I got into a brief argument but then wisdom returned. My brother had warned me against quarreling with autowallah in Bangalore . It was dead of night with nobody around. Autowalah in Bangaluru are notorious, worse than in Delhi. I did everything right in the trip except for the auto ride back home. When I look back at the trip, I feel that I should not have taken that risk of riding an auto at such hours. They could have snatched my camera kit! I was thankful to God that I made the trip from Majestic to home safely.

The truth behind Oil PSU salary hike

2009-01-28T21:59:00.005+05:30

I hope this to be the last of my article on Oil PSU Officer's strike. The truth has been out and has been given reasonable publicity on the net. Even some media houses has now come to understand how govt propaganda misled them. Star news has issued an apology and TOI had ran articles giving actual facts of the strike. Here is a fig which tell the actual story of pay hike :

After seeing the chart, you need to ask yourself as to how an entry level executive earn 1 lakh per month salary as was said by those half page ad ran by govt during the strike. You also can see from the above chart that the bureaucrats have willfully scaled down the recommendation of the Justice Rao committee. However in their own case, they got it raised handsomely over and above pay commission recommendation. This is called babudom. Why a second committe consisting of only babus were formed to reconsider Justice Rao Committe's recommendation ? Oil PSUs are not like govt department. They do not eat into tax payers money. Rather they generate enormous revenue for the nation by competing with foreign multi nationals. ONGC is now operating in several countries. These Oil PSUs are not run by babus, but by professionals. The babus could not digest the fact that professionals should get suitably rewarded for their efforts.

Just think : If these oil PSUs become sick or sold out to private parties tomorrow, you will be buying Gas Cylinder @400+, Kerosene @50+, Diesel @40+ or more. These so called private players will not bear subsidy. Reliance closed down its petrol even before crude price peaked at $145+. If the oil PSUs are not there, Reliance will be the happiest and will sell at whatever price they want. Prices will be raise fast, but will come down, if any, very slow. Their policy is not different from Private Banks who raised interest rates at every opportune moment, but has not reduced vene after many rate cuts by RBI. They goes up faster than you blink and comes down at snails fast.

I will be posting here few links to give more insight into the struggle of the Oil PSU workers.
http://wakeupoilsector.blogspot.com

Are we living in a democracy

2009-01-11T22:20:00.013+05:30

55000 plus oil sector officers, an equal no. workers / staffs and their families are wondering this for last few days. If you think you live in democracy and you have many rights then just read on.

In my earlier post I had mentioned about the lose-lose situation out of the conflict between oil PSU officers and the Govt. The impasse had ended in a lose-lose situation for both. The oil PSU officers strike was literally crushed the most undemocratic way using brute force and false propaganda. The govt which could not even get a single terrorist leader sitting in Pakistan arrested till now had different ideas this time. What if they cannot stop Pakistan, they can certainly crush the voices raised from within the country. What govt did to crush the voices of these officers is unprecedented in our history and has made our head hang is shame.

To crush the agitation, a vilification campaign against the officers association in the media was launched. None in media asked the question as to why the strike took place. We know that media is sellable in India. But we never thought that it will stoop down to such an extent. Zee news even ran a programme calling the officers Deshdrohi. Most of these officers are professionals and pass out from top institutes of India including the IITs and IIMs. They became 'deshdrohi' because they had decided to serve the nation by serving a PSU rather than an MNC. 22 of them lost their lives not so long ago serving the nation in Bombay High and many over the years. Even former President Dr Kalam inaugurated a monument in Dehradun in 2004 dedicated to those brave ONGCians who lost lives serving the nation. But now this congress govt got them branded them as deshdrohis through a sellable cheap TV channel like Zee.

The main reason for strike was to get a pay revision as per Justice Rao committee recommendation. It has been 12 years since last pay revision. How can an organisation retain talents without proper remuneration? Media should have understood that these PSUs are not like govt departments. They are public companies where govt is a major shareholder and they are competing with the best in the world. For example, ONGC is the only Indian company listed in Fortune-500. It has been giving the nation thousands of crores of profit every year. It is possible because it has been able to attract some of the best talent from the top institutes of India. If the govt starts treating them like another govt department then the days are not far when such companies will become sick. During these 12 years, other govt departments had got two pay revisions. But oil PSUs had none. When it ome to their own pay revision, the babus got their salaries revised with hikes more than recommendation of pay revision committee. But when it comes to the PSUs which earn money for the nation, it was scaled down from the pay revision committee recommendations. This is the root of the problem. The pay revision proposed is different from the Justice Rao Committee recommendation. It is prepared by some cunning babus in govt. If the babus were suppose to propose the revision, then why a committee was set up? If implemented the pay revision will actually result in recovery rather than arrear for these PSU employees.

The media showed what govt wanted without bothering to verify them. The govt got it published that the entry level salary for these officers is Rs.1 lakh per month. That is a white lie. Every one of these officers is wondering as to how the salaries are one lakh per month. In fact they will be more than happy if they are paid such a hefty salary. It is understood that a number of interviews were given by PSU leaders during the strike, but none of them were shown. Why it was not shown is easily understandable. And yet we tend to believe that the media is impartial. Leaders were booked under multiple false cases. Rather than attending discussions with govt, they were made to run for life. During this time govt kept getting published that the PSU leaders are adamant and do not want discussion. Then they sent police to find employees and took them at gunpoint and made to work. Unbelievable but real. What a common man like me or you can do when govt is out to get you like that. The shocker is that 64 officers in ONGC, 3 in IOC and 3 in GAIL were handed termination order.

The strike was literally crushed. But this set an alarming precedence. The strike suffered because it was apolitical and struggle of some common people. The leaders of OSOA may have their own political inclination, but the apex body OSOA had no political affiliation. So no political party came to support and govt did what it want. It just crushed the agitation. The message was clear : Common man should not dare to protest. Do you still think that you are living in a democracy?

The realisation of the govt action has started to dawn gradually. This has set dangerous precedence. Voices are rising in political circles over the way govt handled the strike. CPI(M) had passed a resolution condemning such undemocratic action of govt. Every one hope that these officers who were dismissed fighting for 55000 people get their jobs back. It is important that common people should raise their voice against such action of govt. Otherwise you will lose your right to raise concerns. It is heartening to see that voices had risen in the net over such action of govt. But such voices should turn into a movement so that we can live without any fear.

Can you trust the Indian Media?

2009-01-07T22:26:00.009+05:30

Oil sector PSU officers are on strike from today demanding an honourable wage revision. Scanning through news channels for strike news, I came across some shocker. Most television news channels are found to be conveying whatever message the govt propoganda wanted to show after garnishing it with their own masala and a bit of crocodile tears for common public. Notable among these are the self proclaimed No.1 channels like Zee news and Aaj Tak. The worst part of it is that most of the channels were actually ignorant of the reasons of the strike.

A situation of conflict got created by the strike between the officers of these premier companies of Govt of India and their controlling ministry. What resulted is a lose-lose situation for both parties. The officers association could not be taken into confidence by the PM by forming a GoM on the eve of the sheduled strike as the petroleum ministry had been making only hollowed promises over last few months. To crush, the agitation the govt unleased a propoganda to villify the oil officers. But these only worsended the situation and this where the govt lost.

The sad part of this story is that for most of us newspaper and news channels are our primary source of information. The worst is that most of us accept or tend to belief as true whatever is written in newspapers. But when you know the facts, you understand the truth behind the news. This makes you think as to how much of all the news you are fed by media for the day are true. This is making many to look for news in the net and independent blogs provides probably one of the most authentic source of information.

The malaise of the Indian media are primarily 1) Unsubstantiated news without any research and 2) Hunger for breaking news for TRP.

Many news items are written according to the handouts handed out by babus and officials holding press conferences in plush hotels. The hospitality decides whether the handouts require editing or not. I had a brief stint at handling outside pressure groups and understood that it was not my cup of tea.

The Breaking News fever of Indian media is still worse. The week after the Mumbai terror attacks, a series on terror was run in national Geographic channel. In one of the shows, they highlighted the case of how terrorists exploiting this hunger for breaking news. Months after the Mumbai attack, it is quite clear now how those breaking news and live coverage of Indian media were actually helping the terrorists. The anchors which were literally shouting to make a point that these pictures are shown live exclusively on his channel, have now gone silent. Some of these news anchors are incompetent but tries to be jack of all trade and runs shows on subject without even having minimum knowledge on the subject. Fortunately we still have a few good news channels and good newspapers which gives relatively better news, if not 100% accurate. Though most of the media are sellable, not all of them are doing yellow journalism.

As I had started with the issue of indefinite strike by all oil sector PSU, I need to let you know a few facts. It is quite obvious that the hardship caused to common man by any strike creates bad feeling for the group indulged in it. But a strike is always a last resort in a democratic country. Gandhiji started this peaceful process of hartal. One should understand that the group had exhausted all its available peaceful means to go for a life crippling strike. By this direct confontation and conflict, some of the officers had put their job at risk. 55000 others had lent their support to it. For the Govt a lot is at stake with election looming just a couple of months away. But who will gain from a lose-lose situation?

Welcome 2009

2008-12-31T19:31:00.003+05:30

I wish a very happy and prosperous new year to all who have stumbled upon my site today.

The year promise to begin on a happy note for me. The first thing I will get to do tomorrow is to take over charge of the promoted post. So no holiday tommorw, but no complaint. I hope that the year brings further good news.

But more importatntly, I hope that in the coming year, we all will be able to get out of our homes on weekends, and during festivals, without any fear. I was out on the street today. The fear after the Mumbai attack is still palpable. May be the world become a safe and better place to live.

Delhi to Bharatpur : a road guide

2008-12-26T20:12:00.010+05:30

I was travelling from Delhi to Dibrugarh when an article caught my attention. The article informed that migratory birds have returned to Bharatpur this year. Thanks to a real good monsoon, the canals in Bharatpur had received good amount of water this year. That was a fantastic piece of news. When I visited the park last year, it was all dry. Park authorities tried to keep the park alive by pumping up water using two bore wells. That was really pathetic. We saw a few birds in that small marshland kept alive by pumping water. The birds we saw could be counted on finger tips. We saw more sambhar deers and nilgais than birds. But a walk through the park could make anyone feel how wonderful this place could have been with water and birds.

I feel lucky that my wish had been fulfilled so fast. So on my return to Delhi, we headed for Bharatpur on the next available weekend for a second trip. Being just 180 km from Delhi, it can be easily covered in a weekend trip. We decided to drive down rather than taking the train (2060 Kota Janashatabdi) as this would involve reaching station by hiring a cab, then wait there and get transported to hotel at Bharatpur. The only enticing part by train is that at 80 rupees tickets are really cheap. However this will be the best option for a couple or small family. On reaching the hotel we were informed that there is enough water in the park this time that even the boat ride is also operational. That was real good news. The park had benefited not only from the huge rainfall this year, but the extra water from the dams nearby was also released to the park.

We headed for the park soon after lunch. As I am familiar with the park, we preferred the cycle as mode of conveyance. We were really delighted to find lot of birds from close range. Hordes of Painted Stork and Black Ibis had nested very close to the road. There were various varieties of heron and ducks. We were lucky to see a pair of famed saras crane in the morning trip next day. We got to see one pair last time as well in an evening trip. But that time the birds were at some distance. This time the pair was close enough to be within the range of my 300mm lens. This was the icing on the cake.

Other than those mentioned above, this is what we saw: a rabbit, couple of jackals bold enough to roam in broad daylight, three different species of owls, cormorants, snake bird, grey heron, purple heron, mud turtles, two different species of kingfisher, moorhen, sambhar deer, spotted deer and nilgais. I left out few common birds which we often see in our backyards like robbin, bulbul, Indian mayna and babler.

We had two trips this time. One on the afternoon of the day of arrival and another early next morning. Both the trips were on cycle. Approx cost incurred was rupees 3000. Summing up the trip: it was really worth the time and money spent.

Driving directions from Delhi to Bharatpur:
I downloaded a driving direction from indiacar.com. It was useful. But need some modification as follows:
1) No comments on the distances till Vrindavan or rather the point at which you need to turn left for Vrindavan. This is because the distances between Delhi-Vrindavan will vary a few kilometers depending on where in Delhi you start. In any case you need to reach Badarpur border, whether you make it by the Mathura road via Ashram / New Friends Colony or by the Mehrauli-Badarpur road.
2) We stopped at Sagar Ratna resort after crossing Hodal for breakfast. This is the costliest place for food on the entire route. Breakfast for 4 people cost nearly 500 rupees. It can be avoided. But it also probably provides the cleanest toilets en-route.
3) Keep moving straight till you reach the overhead sign on the NH-2, indicating left turn for Vrindavan.
4) Vrindavan to Mathura road junction is 8 km. You will get many turns between these two. But the one mentioned in the detail is the one with a right turn for Govardhan.
5) Keep moving straight. The flyover on which the cut for Bharatpur exists is almost 5 KM from this junction. The distance mentioned in the indiacar.com road guide is about 4 km which is a little less. En-route you will cross the Jai Gurudev temple, a big white structure, on right hand side of the road.
6) Cross the flyover. Halfway through you will see the road sign for Bharatpur on the right hand side of the flyover. The U-turn is not far from the end of the flyover. Take U-turn here.
7) Bharatpur is 34 km from here. The outskirt of the park is another 2 km. This is a single way state highway. 50% of the road is in pretty good condition. But other 50% is bumpy and bad. Always drive with reasonable speed as real bad sections crops up suddenly. These are bad enough to break your axle. You need to avoid situations when there is a speeding vehicle from opposite on the good section of the road and you have no option but to land your vehicle at the bad spot.
8) I used the Wikimapia map to have an idea of directions within Bharatpur. Once you have reached the railway overbridge at Bharatpur station, keep moving straight.
9) Use this link to get the map I had created for driving direction from the station to the Park.
10) Most hotels are on the road to the park which is the Agra-Jaipur highway. Few around Saras chowk. I stayed at the Hotel Pratap Palace which is good place to stay. I stayed at this hotel in my last visit and the experience was good. I paid 650 this time for double deluxe room. But food here is costly. However we have decided to explore other accommodation around. The Sunbird Inn turns out to be the costliest in that area. They offered room @900. Few other accommodations we checked were cheap but you will not like spend the night there. There are two more costly options – the ITDC run Hotel Bharatpur Ashok, which is located right inside the park and the RTDC run Hotel Saras.

( Read about my first trip to Bharatpur on this link)

Free movement of Taxis and auto-ricksaws across Delhi and NCR areas

2008-12-18T20:55:00.001+05:30

The days are not far when you will be able to hire a taxi or auto to Noida or Ghaziabad or Gurgaon from Delhi. The much awaited Reciprocal Common Transport Agreement among Governments of Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh for unrestricted movement of taxis and autos in the National capital Region (NCR) has finally been signed and published as gazette notification on 11th December, 2008. It was published in national dailies like the TOI on 13th Dec, 2008. For your reference the gazzette notification no. is PCO(STA)/DTC Cell/06/07/pt.II/482It took almost a year since the news about such an agreement was first published. But anyway, it is better be late than never.

What does it mean?
Take for example I live in Kaushambi, which falls in Ghaziabad district of UP. One side of the road around the Anand Vihar ISBT falls in Delhi and the other in UP. Kaushambi falls on the UP side of the road. Thus taxis and autos available from Delhi airport or railway station will not ply to my residence across the road in UP. I had to hire a taxi or auto to Anand Vihar and then get into a cycle ricksaw to reach my home. While making the trip to airport or railway station, I either have to reach Anand Vihar or hire a taxi from a local operator in this area which charges a hefty premium. Further they use private cars for this business, which is not only illegal but also unsafe.

Of late Easy Cab had started operating to NCR areas. But hey charges about Rs15/- per KM. This is OK for summer as taxis are AC, but much higher than the pre-paid taxis operated by Delhi Traffic Police. In the police operated pre-paid taxi counters at Delhi airport, you might observe a notice saying taxi to Noida not available from here. Fortunately you have Easy Cab now. Earlier you had to use the similar tactics used by me. I am lucky that my house is less than a kilometer from the border. But for places like Noida or Indirapuram, it certainly is tough.

The catch:
The details published in news papers on 13th December, 2008 had few catches as under:
1) It is not free for all situation for autos, i.e., not all autos will ply across border. Only the ones holding special permit for this will ply. However all taxis can ply across border in NCR areas. I had assumed this as there is no mention on no. of taxis being allowed.
2) All such vehicles have to be registered in NCR areas. The definition of NCR encompasses a large area, e.g. it includes even Meerut.
3) No. of autos for this mutual agreement is fixed, e.g., registered in Delhi but allowed to ply to UP NCR areas (like Vaishali, Kaushambi, Indirapuram and Ghaziabad) is 4000. Another 4000 from UP can ply to Delhi. I think 8000 autos altogether is a good number. Same is the no. agreed between Delhi and Haryana.
4) The autos and taxis registered in NCR and plying across border will be given a colour code and logo for easy recognition. There no mention what these indicators it will be. So one need to look out for this.

Anyway, almost a week has passed since gazetisation of this agreement. But no taxis or autos have started to ply yet. It may take few more days, may be months for this to materialize into practical reality.

Bharatpur : good weekend break from Delhi

2008-12-09T20:49:00.000+05:30

First of all apologise for all those who sought advise on travel, specially to Lakshadweep, in the last few months. I have been very busy and could not find time even to moderate the comments.

As a break from the hectic life, I went to Bharatpur (Keoladeo Ghana National Park) last Saturday (06.12.2008). While flying to Dibrugarh some 15 days back, I read a small article mentioning that most water bodies in Bharatpur has been replenished by the good moonsoon this year. This has made many migratory birds to return. When I visited the park last Christmas, it was in real bad shape. Almost no water and very few birds. But being there I could easily imagine had there been water, this would have been a bird lovers paradise. Thus when I got to know that Bharatpur has received water, I was itching to go there a second time.

On arrival at the park this year, it was a different scene altogether. All the water bodies has been replenished naturally. And so there were scores of stroks, ducks, herons and many other birds. One can see the birds nesting from a very close range. The made the trip a worthy one. If are around Delhi, you can give it a try. Bharatpur is some 180 KM by road from Delhi. The Kota Janashatabdi will take you there in 3 hours for just 80 rupees. I will upload some photos later.

Hampi : I finally made it

2008-09-17T12:03:00.000+05:30

(Writing from Bangalore)

This is my 3rd visit to Bangalore and this time I had made it to Hampi. Standing by the famed stone chariot at the Vittala temple complex, I said to me ‘this is why come all the way’. Among all the ruins in Hampi scattered over 25 sq km, what I really wanted to see were the Hampi Chariot. If you have read Indian history (I believe most of us did at least in school), then you probably had seen a photo of the Hampi chariot. There also is an old 5 paise postage stamp issued on this. This is a piece of history. My wish of being able to see it had fulfilled.

It was a real hectic trip. I started at 9 pm on Saturday from Bangalore and reached Hampi at 8 am next day. Hiring an auto, I could complete the sight seeing by 1 pm. I had seen almost all important monuments during this time frame. I also enjoyed a brief coracle boat ride on the Tungavadra. With the sightseeing trip ending well before I had expected, I boarded a bus back to Bangalore by 3 pm of Sunday and was back at Bangalore by 12 midnight. Thus in about 27 hours, I had traveled nearly 800 km by road. Yet the satisfaction of being able to see Hampi took away major part of the tiredness of such an arduous trip.

I will be putting up the details once I am back in Delhi.

The 1 rupee Volvo joyride in Bangalore

2008-09-12T16:18:00.000+05:30

Back in Bangalore for a second time this year.

One of the front page news on Thursday’s TOI newspaper (Bangalore edition) was that take a ride in BMTC’s premium Volvo city bus service for just Rs.1. I was also a bit surprised at this news. The fare I had paid for my Volvo trips the earlier day was Rs.25/- for Domlur – Marathali Bridge section and Rs.15/- for Marathali Bridge – Sarjapur Jn. Section.

When I ride one Thursday morning at Marathali Bridge, I had kept a 1 rupee coin ready. The lady conductor was asking everyone to give one rupee change. Though hard to digest, the 1 rupee fare is a reality. Some of the Volvo regulars, who did not have time to read morning newspaper, was taken by surprise at this huge discount. As the bus progressed, more and more people had started getting into the bus. Soon the bus was full and it started to feel a bit suffocating. This is not what the premium service is meant for. I saw even a guy, who appears to be regular Volvo user, getting off after traveling hardly two stoppages, apparently to travel by other means.

The transport minister had reasoned that this is done to entice the bikers to use this bus service. Such a stupid idea. It is another example of the mental bankruptcy of our administrators. A biker will never trade his bike ride for a bus ride because a bike provides a cheap point to point ride -- right from his doorstep to gate of his office. Thus instead of bikers, it were the people who normally uses other type of cheaper city buses had crowded the buses.

Next morning the same newspaper (TOI) carried an article with photos telling that the 1 rupee fare scheme is a huge success. It also cited a different reason this time for the scheme. Such a crape! The reason for success is that the largesse had made the air-conditioned Volvo city buses the cheapest mode of transport for the day. Therefore only the fools and stupidest would have traveled by normal buses. This is just throwing a free ride for those people who would never ever travel by these once original fare is restored in 4 days. The fare of Volvo buses is too high for them to afford.

With a running cost of Rs.52/- per kilometer, the Volvo service is positioned as a premium service targeted for a certain set of users who are willing to pay the price for a comfortable travel. This stupid scheme of the government had put the regular users into lot of trouble. Instead of providing a feel of comfortable journey, it had made one to get out and travel by a regular bus. Unfortunately they will have to face this music till Sunday, the 14th Sept.

Update on train cancellations to Delhi

2008-09-05T11:01:00.001+05:30

Railways has made available the list of affected trains online. You can access these details at the following links :

1) IRCTC news flash
2) Northern railway news flash

Cancellations / Diversions of trains to New Delhi wef 06.09.2008

2008-08-27T12:03:00.001+05:30

Train services to Delhi, specially to New Delhi station is going to be severely affected between Sept 5 and 15. As I have read in the newspapers, 62 trains will be cancelled, 50 diverted and 126 will be terminated short. Some of these train will be terminated short as far as Kanpur which is another 5 hours journey to Delhi by train. If you are traveling during these dates, then you are in for a shock. What is more troublesome is that information on trains getting affected is not available on any of railway official sites. All one can gather is piecemeal information from various websites. I managed to find the press release on the Northern railway site which is reproduced below :

Quote:
+++++++++
Press Release REMODELING OF NEW DELHI RAILWAY STATION 19/08/2008
In order to enhance train operational facilities at New Delhi railway station, Northern Railway will be carrying re-modeling work involving installation of the New Route Relay Interlocking with 1278 routes . For this purpose, New Delhi Railway Station will remain Non-interlocked from 06.09.2008 to 14.09.2008. The complete remodeling of New Delhi Railway station would involve installation of New Route Relay Interlocking (1278 routes) largest on Indian Railways. This Relay Room will be in place of existing British System (RRI) Route Relay Interlocking (690 routes). There would be additions and alternations of 125 routes in existing Delhi Jn. SIEMENS PANEL and Relay Room. Yard remodeling of triangle area of Delhi yard on New Delhi end, dismantling of 34 turn outs, 2.6 Tkm track 53 masts/posts, and foundation, leading out releases, making & formation earthwork, ballsting, casting of 16 foundations, erection of masts/posts, linking & insertion of 21 turn outs, 1.85 Tkm track and signals telecommunication and OHE works would be done in the remodeling work. There would be 33% increase in platform handling work at New Delhi Railway Station after the remodeling work. The bottleneck in Sadar area would be removed and there will be 6 lines in place of existing 3 at Sadar Bazar end of New Delhi Station making independent corridor for reception and dispatch of trains to and from Delhi Jn./Delhi Kishanganj, Subzi Mandi and Delhi Sarai Rohilla stations. Two additional lines on Tilak Bridge end will be connected with New Delhi Yard. Thus there will be 6 lines between New Delhi & Tilak Bridge in place of 4. There will be 2 Island platforms at New Delhi Railway Station, thus making a total 16 in place of existing 12 Platforms. In view to carry on the remodeling work at New Delhi Railway Station 62 trains will remain cancelled, 126 trains will be terminated short of destination which will originate from there and 50 trains will be diverted to run on alternative route for the period from 5 th Sep. to 15 th Sep. 2008.
+++++++++++++++

Unquote:
What is still bad is that there is no list available on the trains getting affected. You will have to keep a watch on the Northern railway site for further announcement, if any. These are :

NR Home Page and

NR New Press Releases

Apparently all these upgradation is being done keeping in sight the Commonwealth Games in 2010. I had also come across a ministry press release informing that platforms of New Delhi Railway Stations are being made compatible to 24 coaches. Platforms No. 10, 11 and 12 at New Delhi Railway Station are already compatible for 24 coaches trains. Works on seven platforms i.e. platforms No. 3 to 9 have been planned to accommodate 24 coach trains. Twenty four pairs of trains are presently running with 24 coaches.

Searching for this piece of information on train rescheduling, I came across two useful sites, supposedly put up fans of Indian Railway.
1) Indian Railways News
2) Indian Railways Fan Club

The Indian Railway News site had caught my attention. It is a very informative site with links to many railway related sites. Hats of to the person who has took all the pains to put up the site and maintain it.

Costlier air travel : UDF at HIAL and BIAL airports

2008-08-26T17:30:00.001+05:30

More bad news for domestic air travelers. Not only taxes have gone past 3000, you will also have to pay an additional amount as UDF (User Development Fee) on flying out of Hyderabad, and soon from Bangalore as well. The Civil Aviation ministry has given approval for collecting a UDF of Rs.375/- per person for domestic passengers traveling out of the new GMR Hyderabad International Airport (GHIAL). However exact date of collecting UDF from domestic passengers have not been announced, but likely by August end. International passengers have already been paying Rs.1000/-(or USD25) as UDF since 11-June-2008.

Mounting taxes has already made air travel less lucrative then what it was a year ago. In fact airline passenger has registered a negative growth in last one year. Because of this, some airlines have refused to collect UDF as part of ticket cost. This may result in passengers queuing up at GHIAL to pay UDF. Something similar is being planned for BIAL at Bangalore. I had traveled to the BIAL recently. Traveling to the airport 50 km away from city itself is a headache. After traveling for at least an hour and half, one will have to queue twice -- first check in and then may be a second time to pay UDF.

Out of Rs 225 collected currently as passenger service fee (PSF), the airport operator receives Rs 80 for maintaining public amenities at the airport. The UDF is meant to enable the company to bridge the gap between the admissible expenditure and admissible revenue as estimated. This is to be reviewed every two year.

When ATM did not dispense

2008-08-19T16:38:00.001+05:30

Sometimes back State bank of India (SBI) use to run a television commercial which boast of SBI having the largest network of ATMs in India. The corollary to this is that SBI also has the largest number of non-working ATMs in India. My experience says that whenever you are in desperate need of cash, you will find the nearest SBI ATM out of order. This happens at least 7 out of 10 times. We can propose an addition to the Murphy’s law on this.

It was the first week of May when I was frantically trying to withdraw money from my various bank accounts to make advance payment for the flat I was purchasing. One evening I went to the SBI ATM, very close to my office to withdraw money. As few more people were waiting, I decided to withdraw 20K in one go. The machine made few clicks and ticks after I made necessary entries. The sound of counting followed. Then it tried to dispense. To my horror the notes got stuck in the outlet for dispensing money. The guys who were waiting behind me also saw it. In desperation, I tried to pull out whatever amount I can. I had 30 sec to do so before the machine takes it back. The notes I could pull out counted only 8500. The rest of the notes were actually inside the machine and could not be pulled out. 30 sec was over by then and the machine took it back. I could here the sound of counting again when the money was taken back. My first impression was that the notes were old / used notes and therefore got stuck while dispensing.

I was in shock for a moment. I had probably lost 11500. Checking around the cubicle, I found two phone nos. which is to be contacted in case of any problem. After trying a few times, one of the phones answered. I explained him the incident. He told me that SBI ATM machines are not capable of dispensing 20000 at one go. They have put up signs or instructions about this in some ATMs. The same could not be done at all ATMs, one of which is the one I had used. He advised to check whether the money has been debited from my bank account. I had checked and found that 20K has been debited. He then told me to contact the CAC Branch with transaction slips of the ATM.

I went to the CAC Branch located at ITO the next day. CAC stands for Cash Administration Cell. It was a small office with only one person available when I visited. He accepted my application and informed me that the concerned person has gone on outdoor inspection duty. Money will be refunded after reconciliation. He also gave me the branch phone nos. and told me that it may take upto 10 / 15 days for reconciliation.

What followed was a long wait. Several phone calls made to the CAC Branch had the answer that reconciliation could not be done because the concerned is still busy. One day a new fellow picked up the phone and told me that he is not aware of my application. This probably was the guy I was looking for. Then I realized that I should have sent the application by post or courier to produce a proof of submission instead of handing over in person. My impression was that my application which I personally handed over got misplaced (or may be thrown into dust bin, whatever may be). I wrote a reminder seeking an early redrerssal failing which I proposed to approach banking ombudsman. I know about banking ombudsman, but do not know how to approach that authority. I found out only after threatening to take action. Anyway, 5 days after that letter, I had received a phone call which made few enquiries. The gentleman told me that money would be credited back to my account by next day.

The money indeed arrived next day. It took more than two months. But I got back my 11500.

There are few lessons to be learnt from this incident:

1) Never try to withdraw more than 10000 at one go from any ATM.

2) Avoid transaction if the ATM is unable to issue transaction slip. You do not know when you may need the transaction slip.

3) Even if you submit a copy of application / incident reporting by hand or in person, always
send a copy by post / courier so that you can produce a proof of submission.

You can find more information on Banking Ombudsman in India from the RBI site.

My brush with a group of eunuchs

2008-08-13T18:05:00.000+05:30

Have you dealt with a group of eunuchs hell bent on extorting money from you? I had to deal with a group of them few days back. I am narrating my experiences.

Hijda, as they are commonly called in Hindi, move around in groups, looking for victims which they can extort on the pretext of some auspicious occasion, like birth of a child or buying a house. This is very common in North India. I had seen that in Dehradun, but not in Delhi. As soon I had move to my newly acquired flat at Kaushambi, which is just across the Delhi border, I had realized that they have free reign in UP as well.

The group had come in search of me thrice. When they finally met me last Sunday, I first tried to dissuade them. There were three of them, accompanied by two fellows with dholak or drum. Two were quite aged and were well behaved. There was a young one who was threatening to take off cloths every now and then. This frightened my wife and little daughter. I told them to get inside the inner room and not to come out. It becomes clear that they will not go away or creating a ruckus. Thus I had to pay. I sat on the floor, face to face with one of the aged Hijda. They started their bargaining from 11000. I was told that people in the society had cough upto 5001. They think big. I started with 100. The bargaining went on for at least an hour. Many a times I lost temper, specially at the antics of the young Hijda who were threatening to take off cloths. I just stopped sort of saying him to dance naked if he/she wants. Despite that I kept my cool. The demand had come down to 3001 by then. It has almost been an hour. Finally I felt that it had gone too long and got rid of them by paying 2001. One of the aged Hijda told me before leaving that ‘tune mujhse bahut bulwaiya’ (You made me speak for a long time).

Most people pay fearing the curse of Hijdas. I do not believe in the curse. Other pays to avoid the ruckus they create. I paid thinking about safety of my family as I would not be there all the time to defend them. It is a new place and my wife will have to pick the kid when the school bus drops. Thus I become a helpless victim of Hijda extortion.

When confronted later, the guards say they are helpless as the Hijdas would not heed to their words. But what surprises me is that how they can pinpoint the exact flat where a new tenant has come. The most likely informer has to be the guard/s. I will have to take it up when the Residents Welfare Society meets next time. But we had fully understood our entry into a lawless place, though barely 1 KM from Delhi. Living here will be certainly a different experience then in Patparganj.

Wonder La experience : Bangalore weekend outings

2008-07-25T15:48:00.001+05:30

During my stay at Bangalore from 8th to 22nd June, 2008, I had 3 weekend holidays to spare. As I had already done some local sightseeing, e.g., a visit to the famous Lal Baug and had also undertaken a trip to Mysore during my last visit, I could leave out these most common options. I had wanted to see Hampi. But that is too far from Bangalore and also requires time and so discarded. Some of my colleagues went to Mysore & Ooty and another group to Coorg. But both these involved hectic traveling over 48 hours. I was not willing to travel like that., at least not my concept enjoying a trip.

After a bit of Googling, I wanted to go to the Hogennekal falls. Then my old friend, Mr. Murli, whom I had met during the trip to Lakshadweep, suggested me that I should think of going to Sivansamudram falls rather than the Hogennekal falls. He told me that Hogennekal is facing water shortage and is worth visiting only if it raining which means more water is released into it. It is about 170-180 km from Bangalore. I had checked with the KSTDC site and found that they have a bus tour to Sivanasamudram which can be taken on weekend.

Somehow even this trip did not materialise. Therefore my brother decided to take us to one of the happening place near Bangalore -- the Wonder La amusement park.

Wonder La experience:
The park is advertised as the largest amusement park in India. It is also said to have the highest number of imported rides. Located some 28 km on the Bangalore -Mysore highway and then 2km off it. I thought that one needs a vehicle to visit the park. But I found there that one can take the BMTC city bus no. 226 from the Majestic (or the Kempe Gowda Bus Terminal) bus stand near City Railway Station. This bus ply between the majestic and the Wonder La. The park also runs a shuttle service from the highway to the park.

The 600 bucks entry fee (with taxes) for adults and 450 for child (above 90cm) on weekends is certainly not cheap by any means. But there was a good crowd which indicates that the park is a happening place and is doing good business. For your information, they accept cards at the ticket counters.

On entering the park, I found that it is well maintained. Signboard and displays were good and were put up in a thoughtful manner. Take the example of the Cloak room facility. It offers boxes in two size - small for 20 and big for 30 bucks. To help one understand the size of the boxes they have displayed samples at the counter. May be a very small thing, but thoughtful and very useful.

We started as per the map handed out at the entrance. The rides are categorized as normal, moderate or high thrill rides. We had enjoyed almost all the normal rides. After trying few moderate thrill ride, we decided to ride the high thrill ride called Drop Zone. Few seconds into the ride, I thought what bug had bitten me to do this. Thankful that the torture lasted barely 1 min. Drop zone is probably the least torturous of the high thrill rides. We wondered as to how people get into some of the high thrill rides like Twisters, Mixers, Hurricanes, etc. One will get dizzy by just looking at them. Just imagine getting twisted, turned up and down like being in a mixer! Other rides about which I still remember are the Dungeon of Horror- a visit to ghost castle, and Cine Magic - a virtual roller coaster train ride into a mine. There also was a laser cum musical fountain show. We enjoyed the dry rides till lunch so that we do not have to change cloths. Wet cloths are not allowed in some of the rides. Food is very reasonably priced. After the lunch, we changed clothes and headed for the wet rides. My little daughter really enjoyed being in the pool. We had finished the wet rides with the penultimate wave dance of the day. Changing into dry attire, we headed for the Skywheel, a giant rotating wheel stationed atop a 13 storied tower. It was dark by then. Summing it up, we had thoroughly enjoyed a full day.

It was almost 7 when we had started for home. Traveling via the NICE road, we had good measure of what Govt apathy towards development can mean. I was told that the NICE road, a proposed toll road, could not be made operational even after many years because of the might of Devegowda clan who had ruled Karnataka for last five years, apparently for they have not got their share of bribe. The road is complete except for that kilometer or so stretch near Bannerghatta road for which land has not been made available. Maneuvering the one kilometer non existent road in the darkness was a nightmare. Despite our care, we could not avoid hitting a protruded boulder. Fortunately no damage was done to the bottom of the vehicle and we reach home safely on time for dinner.

Bangalore

2008-06-25T15:05:00.000+05:30

The only place one feel comfortable in Delhi is right under the fan. Temperature is just 30 degrees. But humidity is 80%. There was hardly any summer this year by Delhi standard. In fact Delhi had only a few, may be a max of 5 really scorching days this summer. Yet the weather is not pleasant by any means.

I was spared of this torture for last 15 days. These 15 days were spent in the fantastic weather of Bangalore. All my colleagues from Delhi could not stop appreciating the beautiful weather at Bangalore. Even in the peak of summer, one can sleep without fan; forget about ACs. It was cloudy, but rains were sporadic. But the best aspect was that there was no humidity.

This was my second visit to the Silicon Valley of India. The first was in 2004. This time I landed 50 km off the city at the new BIAL airport. It probably is more near to Kollar than Bangalore. The trip back to the city by the AC Volvo Bus service of BMTC, called the Vayu Vajra, was pleasant. One can take this buses to the nearest convenient point. It is comfortable and economical. It cost me only 150 rupees to Sarjapur Junction on the Outer Ring Road. The cabs charge @Rs.15/- per km. A cab ride to the city will cost you at least 700 rupees.

The urbanization in Bangalore has been very rapid. Take for example the areas on the outer ring road. When we visited Bangalore in 2004, the outer ring road was a deserted place. In these 4 years many housing and SEZ projects have come up in that area. This has changed the landscape of the area drastically. This rapid urbanization has also brought massive traffic congestion, even at the reasonably wide enough outer ring road. Same was the condition at the inner ring road and the Bannerghatta road. Bangalore needs flyovers. It fact it needs many of them. Unless something is done on this, it would almost be impossible to drive. There seems to be no traffic planning in Bangalore.

To compound to the woes of traffic, Bangalore do not have a good public transport system. I was fleeced by the autowallah on day 1. The ones standing on the auto stands would straightway ask for 1.5 times of the metered fare. The ones you catch on the running will not charge that much and often go by the meter, rounded upwards to next multiple of 5. It cost me nearly 300 rupees on my to and fro trip between Sun City at Sarjapur junction and Domlur on day 1. But then I became wise and decided to give the BMTC buses a try. In the next 9 days that I had traveled between Suncity and Domlur, the lowest I had spent was 23 rupees. In fact, I found that the BMTC bus service is not as bad as it appears. The bus transport system is complemented by the staff vehicles of IT companies. I had liberally used the staff buses doubling up as city buses on its return journeys. The drivers of these vehicles make quite a lot of money this way. I am told that many companies prohibit this practice as they pose serious security threat to the employees and also the organization.

Anyway, like all good things the pleasant stay at Bangalore has also come to an end. Back in Delhi, it is terribly humid. Even at 30 degrees we had to keep the AC on overnight to cut out the humidity.

Chardham Yatra : useful helpline numbers

2008-05-30T17:58:00.001+05:30

Feeling good to be back in my blog after such a long time. It has been a hectic month. So much was the work pressure that I finally succumbed to a recurrence of spondylosis after a couple of years. I hope that the worst is over.

The month of June always reminds of the first visit to Badrinath. The pilgrimage routes to these shrines was thrown open around mid May. The period till monsoon is the peak season. However, the unprecedented rains this May has certainly hampered the peak yatra season. Travelling in the hills during rains is no fun and is full of potential dangers. One can get stuck anywhere, anytime. Uttaranchal tourism seems to have undertaken few measures to facilitate the yatra season, which is the main source of income to many locals and also to the tourism industry. Here is some of information that may be useful to you :

Emergency medical vans are made available in the entire route. Emergency contact no. is 108.
Disaster management teams in case of mishaps and natural calamities. Emergency contact no. 1070.
In case of any other emergency call the following nos :
Helpline : 0135 – 2722323
Disater management Center : 0135-2710334 / 335
BRO contact nos : Rishikesh – 0135-2430109, Gauchar – 01363-240605,

Pipalkoti – 01372-266518, Joshimath – 01389-222820

Driving holidays

2008-05-06T23:03:00.001+05:30

While returning from office, I was wandering about driving abroad. From what we see in movies or TV, it appears to be pleasant experience. The thought of exploring a state on wheel is something unimaginable here. Everybody jostles for space on the clogged highways. You are caught in a virtual race of autos, two wheelers, bullock and horse carts, thelas and ricksaws.

I had explored the scene of driving holidays abroad. Take for the example of France. The suggestion I came across is to avoid large cars as they can be very unwieldy and it often makes sense to just park and then use public transportation. This indicates that the situation though better is not free from all headache. Priorité à droite - the old French system was to give priority to all traffic coming from the right.We also have the same rule writen at all traffic roundabouts. But who cares here! One travelling on the major roads has priority in France. But not here

We had probably borrowed many of the systems. But do not want to follow them.Roads in France are classified into following three types :

1) Autoroute, also called Motorway / Freeway. These are generally toll roads.

2) National road, which probably is similar to our National Highway (NH)

3) Departmental Road

We do have more type of roads, but fewer real good roads. There are no real Motorway or Freeway. But few expressways have been built around Delhi, e.g. the Delhi-Noida Expressway. But lack of traffic sense and reckless drving results in tragedys every now and then on this expressway. Just think of a road where you can drive without worrying about the stray cattle or cyclist. Just think about driving from Paris to Bordeaux to Toulouse to Merseilles choosing to stay in plenty of accomodation options offered on the way. There is no surprise that Paris is the top tourist destination in the world according to the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO).

Canal Road : Faster access of ITO from East Delhi

2008-04-27T14:56:00.002+05:30

While the South Delhi has been strugling with the botched BRT corridor, it was a pleasant experience for me (and many East Delhites) while going to office on Friday. The newly constructed Canal Raod, constructed parallel to the Vikas Marg, has been finally thrown open to public the previous evening (24th April, 2008) by Delhi CM Smt Shiela Dixit. In fact, this is the second official opening of the road. It first thrown open to the public on February 14, 2007 by the then Delhi PWD Minister Sri A.K. Walia.

This 2.9 kilometre long road, connects the Marginal Bund Road (Pushta Road) near Geeta Colony with Karkari Morh. Constructed for Rs 102 crore, it has come up over an old canal, which now serves as a drain and carries sewage and rainwater. This is a brillinat concept of creating a parallel road over an old canal. However you will have to bear the stench of the sewage while waiting at the traffic light at the karkari Morh on return. If you are travelling from Anand Vihar side, then the cut down is available from the middle point on the Karkari Morh flyover. Therefore, instead of taking the Vikas Marg by turning left at the point where the flyover has started, one should continue on the flyover and then turn left. The cut on the flyover is on the Karkari Morh - Jagatpuri side, i.e., on the Preet Vihar side not on the Karkardoma side. Once the the Yamuna Bridge at Geeta Colony is completed, the time of travel between Karkari Morh to Shanti Van will be reduced to just 20 minutes. This is suppose to provide signal free travelling from Karkari Morh to Kashmere gate ISBT. As of now, for going to ITO, one is required to turn left at Geeta Colony and get lost into traffic at the ITO bridge.

This new road has cut short my brief journey to office by at least half a kilometer. More importantly the time required was cut by about 15 minutes. Ever since the work on metro started on the busy Vikas Marg about a year back, one had to avoid the Vikas Marg becuase of the heavy traffic, specially during office hours. But this road has brought cheer to all of us in the office.

Exploiting power of the net for tourism

2008-04-22T15:35:00.002+05:30

Many a times I am surprised by the amount of information available online today. Just 5 years back, I had to re-plan a trip because I had failed to find information about the place I wanted to visit. But the scenario has changed drastically in these intervening years. The tourism and travel industry had understood the potential of the unimaginable reach of the internet. No one will deny the value of having a website and tap the potential customers.

Take for example of a place named Corfu. I can bet that many of us have not even heard of the place. It is an island in Greece and a popular tourist destination. The 1981 James Bond movie ‘For Your Eyes Only’ was filmed in this Greek island on the Ionian Sea. But I was surprised to find the no. of sites catering exclusively to Corfu, hitherto unknown to many, including me. I picked one of the sites Fantastic Greece and found that Corfu is a popular place with many attractions. Useful information is presented on the page in a simple, clean and uncluttered way. I like such uncluttered WebPages devoid of animations and distractions.

Anyway, this was just to be bemused at the power of the net. Such information helps one choose peaceful destinations that is not on the radar of general tourist. This is one of the reasons why the internet continues to fascinate me.

Jim Corbett : From a hunter to a legend

2008-04-07T17:51:00.004+05:30

Ramnagar, a small town in Uttaranchal, is infatuated with the words Jim and Corbett. Everything from dhaba, to tailor shop, to saloons to costly resorts has to have one of these two words in their name. The town has probably nothing to do with Lord Ram, but with Jim Corbett. It owes its fame to the Corbett National Park which provide livelihood for a sizeable population of the area. Such is the importance of these names that the town should have been named Jimnagar, Jimpur or Corbett nagar.

Anyway, my renewed interest in Jim Corbett after my recent visit to the first national park of India, now named after the famous British hunter turned conservationist, had made me acquire a compilation of his famous books. His hunting stories have been translated into almost all languages in India. I had read few of his stories translated into Assamese as part of our curriculum, probably in class VI or VII, i.e. some 25 years back. Such powerful and engrossing were the stories in that book called Araonyar Moh (Lure of the Jungle) that they are still vivid in my mind, specially the one about the Man Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag, the Man Eater of Mohan and the Prince of Powalgarh. Corbett’s translated stories had left indelible mark in our young minds. 25 years hence, I saw the original books written by the man Corbett himself in the souvenir shops around the park. These books are published by Oxford University Press, India. I wanted to get the one named ‘The Jim Corbett Omnibus Vol-I’ which is a compilation of his 3 famous books viz. Man eaters of Kumaon, Temple Tiger and More Man Eaters of Kumaon, and the Man Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag. However none of the shop were willing to give any discount on the MRP of 555.

On my return to Delhi, I had procured the book through the newly launched site A1Books India. I got the book for Rs.475 (against MRP of 555) with free delivery and delivered in 2 days of placing the order. It was quick service, may be because the vendor was from Darya Ganj, some 10 km from my address. But I was happy with the service. The reading started the night of the books’s arrival.

I was a voracious reader many years back. I was one of those kind who would finish a novel in one go. But that habit had died over the years. More so after getting married and having a kid. Every time I tried to pick up a book, the intervention in the form of my dear wife or kid would nip it in the bud. I had been trying to read Khuswant Singh's Delhi for more than a month without any success. This time I specially told them not to disturb me. My kid was happy to listen the hunting stories at bed time. Despite the occasional protest from my wife, I had finished the book containing 600 pages in about a month’s time. That is a big achievement.

After reading the book few things had dawned on me. The translated version was much easier to comprehend, specially the portions where Corbett tried to give vivid description of a location. It is difficult to conjure an image of the location from the descriptions. I had tried making a sketch on paper on few occasions to have a better understanding. The translator had probably left out those portions for better understanding of the readers.

The second thing that had dawned on me is that despite becoming a conservationist in his later life and calling the tiger a ‘Big Hearted Gentleman’, Corbett had killed many leopards and also the occasional tiger for hunting pleasure. He killed the tiger referred to as the Prince of Powalgarh apparently for no reason. It was not man eater. He had referred to hunting as sports and fellow hunters as sportsman. The skins are called as trophies. It appeared that that the tendency to kill a tiger or snake on sight is inborn in human. This human tendency has led these majestic animals to near extinction. Corbett was also no exception. However, he realised his mistakes and traded the gun for a camera. This change in Corbett was responsible for the efforts towards tiger conservation in India.

The third realisation was that Corbett was an exceptionally brave man. In simple words he was different from others. Man eater hunting on foot was thought to be suicidal. He would go into the jungle in search of a man eater and would come out after a couple of days. When night falls, he would climb a tree and sleep. He often stayed alone at deserted dak bungalows in remote hilly areas and go in search of a man eater alone. But even a brave man like Corbett, who had spent night after night in tree tops in jungle infested all kind of wild animals or sitting in dark with a partly eaten human body, had mentioned about few incidences which to him was not natural. He told that he had no explanations for these supernatural occurrences. Reporting of these incidences was from a man as courageous as Corbett makes one really ponder about supernatural occurrences.

Finally, I was almost in tears reading the story of a young Garhwali soldier who lost his legs in the World War-II in the last chapter of Man Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag. The young man, who could not see the Saheb that killed the infamous leopard because his father could not carry him the long distance from his village to Rudraprayag, was so happy that he could see and speak to that saheb after 18 years. He was happy because he can go back to his village and can tell his father and folks proudly that he had met and speak to that Saheb. Just meeting Corbett had made him forget his misery of losing his legs at war at such a young age. This respect from Indians, specially from the peoples of Kumaon and Garhwal to whom he was a saviour and who believed that he was bestowed with some supernatural power that had enabled him to kill so many notorious man eaters, had made Corbett love this country. This respect had also made him a legend for the people of the hills.

Vanishing open spaces : Tale of a park

2008-04-01T12:15:00.000+05:30

Open space have become a scarcity, even in Delhi. Given my location in Delhi in East across the Yamuna, there is only one such place – a park one can visit for a family leisure break and inhale some fresh air. This palce closer to where I live, is the Millennium Park or the Indraprastha Park or the Nizamuddin Park as we refer to it. I am leaving out the Lutyen’s Delhi area as only place open for public are the India Gate lawns, which remains crowded on weekends.

The Millenium Park or the Indraprastha Park :
My first visit to this park was on a Sunday soon after had I started my second innings in Delhi two year s back. What was pleasing was the vast open space, lush green lawns and very little crowd. More importantly there were very few, so called lovebirds who do not differentiate between love and lust. This was an ideal place for kids. The play area for kids double their joy. But that was two years back. I had visited the park a few times during the last two years.
Last Sunday, I had paid my most recent visit. I got my first shock when parking was full. Inside the park, it resembled a mela. Even though there were vacant spaces for one to sit in the lawn, it was crowded. I had avoided growing to India Gate only to avoid the crowd. But the same crowd had followed me to this place which used to be a happy place with very little crowd. A new structure by the name World Peace Stupa has come up on one side of the park. But the peaceful ambience one used to enjoy here was gone. The so called Lovebirds were seen in all look and corners of the park, many of whom turned a blind eye to the crowd while displaying their lust thereby making it embarrassing for family crowd. 95% of the equipment in children play area had been damaged making it unsafe for use. When it started to become dusk, caretakers of the park were seen blowing whistles and herding the lovebirds out of their cocoons. What surprised most is their announcement that the park is also getting close by 8 pm. Anyway, disappointed at losing a place to visit for some open air, we had already made our way back when some people were seen arguing as to why the park is getting closed so early.

Choosing freedom to travel

2008-03-05T11:41:00.002+05:30

The thought of acquiring a house in Delhi cropped up several times in my mind in last two years. This was looked upon more as an investment rather than acquisition of a house for life. Given the current prices, this is a big financial decision as I have to pool up all my resources. Real estate prices have gone through roof. But this might have stabilized and may not escalate at the same rate as it had done in 2004-06 period. Therefore this may not be a great investment option with a horizon of 3 years. With a small investible amount and without putting any stress on my lifestyle, I had made my money to grow sizeably in the share market in last one year. If you know how to invest, the direction of the market is irrelevant. I made one lakh while the market was going up and had made another lakh while it is going down. Every time the thought of buying a flat in Delhi crops up, my BP (and also my wife’s) gets pumped up and probably takes few moments of our life. But after the latest surge few days back, we have collectively decided to put that plan to rest for ever and enjoy life.

Actually we do not need another property. I had acquired a flat at Guwahati 2 years back. We always have a paternal house to live in a growing city like Guwahati. This paternal house has enough scope of adding two more floors. My only brother is settled in Bangalore. Both of us have one kid each. As such we really do not need another property or should not get our self bogged down under a huge loan and live a life which we do not want to live. It is better to enjoy life.

A huge bank loan would change the way I live. Specially, the amount of travel I undertake – a luxury we can afford every now and then. This situation is avoidable. In fact we might not be traveling at all if we take that plunge, because I will have little money left after paying a hefty emi. I will feel like a caged animal if I have to live at the same without traveling. I have taken three holidays in last six months. Yet keep feeling like planning another one in next few months. This is freedom. We will keep this freedom to ourselves for the time being and will not ever though of acquiring a house at Delhi again. To add to our delight, the LTC policy of my company had been revised to include a foreign trip every four year. The earlier policy allowed us to travel to anywhere within India, including Andamans or Lakshadwwep. The catch was that it has to be within India. Now that rider is removed, one can easily travel to Middle East destinations like Dubai or Abu Dhabi or to South East Asian hotspots like Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur. A better planning may take one even further. So let’s enjoy life.

Accommodation in Europe

2008-03-04T18:04:00.002+05:30

The travel supplement of leading national dailies is something I follow keenly. It is full of packages and deals for outbound tourists, especially to the European countries and hot spots like Mauritius and South East Asian nations. With plethora of options for cheap air ticket, the biggest apprehension is Accommodation. The evolvement of travel sites is a big relief and has helped people in a big way in making travel decisions, tickets and hotel bookings etc. Many of us are not really aware of such Travel sites for traveling abroad. These sites also provide general tourist guidelines as well which is often very helpful.

I had come across one such site for tourists bound for UK and some other European nations. A site named ‘Easy to Book’ offers you the choice of several types of accommodation. In fact the site offers accommodation for a few other places, like Barcelona, London and Rome. Though they offer accommodation in some other cities, may be through some other link partners, they seem to provide value by giving other required information a traveler may want to know for the place. Like this page on EasyToBook provides a detailed info on tourist attractions in New York.

Corbett National Park

2008-02-28T15:30:00.002+05:30

Back from Corbett. It was a wonderful weekend break. Driving inside forests and vast grasslands inhaling the freshness of nature, an adventurous elephant ride through dense sal forest, saw fishing eagle hunting, a crocodile rushing to the safety of water on spotting us --- these sums up the trip. We saw many things, but the king -- the tiger i nthe wild. Yet we were happy.

We had started from Delhi at around 6:30 am. The 240 odd km journey by NH24 to Ramnagar via Moradabad – Kashipur took about 6 hours with one break at Gajraula for breakfast. Lunch was offered at the KMVN’s Tourist Reception Centre at Ramnagar. While we were having lunch, KMVN staff had arranged for our entry permit etc. One has to leave his contact no. while obtaining permit for emergency purpose as you will be cut off from the rest of the world for two days. Permits are issued for a max of 3 days., i.e., you will have to come out of the park by afternoon of day 3. Thus if you travel by train from Delhi, you get a full extra day at your disposal.

Our journey into Corbett continued post lunch. The NH121 to Ranikhet takes you out of the Ramnagar town. You will get the feel of the jungle barely 2 km out of the Ramnagar town. The park is located on one side of the NH121, while the other side is human habitat. This habitation area between the NH121 and the river Ramganaga house almost all the Private Resorts. There are n numbers of them and none of them are cheap. But to me it makes very little sense to stay in those costly resorts. If you are planning a visit, then plan well and try for some FRH accommodation. All last moment travelers lands up in these resorts. About 5 km from the town, we saw the gate for Birjani range. This is a day game view range open to all tourists. If you stay in the private resorts, then you will have to satisfy yourself with a visit to this range. Because of the large no. of tourist that arrive Corbett, this place is pretty crowded. Crowd is what one needs to avoid. Else the animals will give you a miss.

The Dhanagiri gate, which is the entry point for Dhikala and many other FRH like Gairal, Sultan, Sarapdaulli, Khinnauli, etc. is 18 km from Ramnagar town. Entry through this gate is allowed only if you have confirmed accommodation inside. Therefore most visitors to Corbett do not get an opportunity to visit this range. If you are staying at a private resort, then the only possibility of getting into the Dhikala range is to take the day long ride in open mini bus offered by the Forest Deptt. Two buses go there everyday and so seats are limited. I have heard that, it is more like old time ticketing in cinema halls. If you reach the counter early enough, then you might get a seat. The other catch is that they are costly. Most animals will run away at the sound of such a big vehicle. All you will get is a feel of the jungle. Then you see the Dhikala FRH and will feel more disappointed for staying outside.

While making entries at the register at the gate, the ranger apprised us of the rules to be followed inside. We had to buy a jute bag and bring back all plastic waste in it. Making you pay for the bag is an effort in creating awareness on conservation. The driver was well versed with the rules of driving in the park. He drove within the permissible limit inside the park. Blowing of horns is not allowed. No one was observing, but yet he followed that rule. We had stopped at many places to enjoy the wild life roaming close to the main road. Then we had a fairly long unwanted halt. A safari gypsy carrying some youths had its axle broken on a narrow stretch and was waiting right in the middle of the road. It had blocked almost the entire road. Suggestions like to lift it up tone side cropped up. Finally, everyone had to clear stones on one side of the road so that vehicles can cross. By 3:30 pm we had arrived at the Dhikala FRH.

Located in the midst of a vast grass land, the campus overlooks the reservoir of the Ramganga river. There are 31 rooms in all at the campus plus a 20 seat dormitory for students. Bookings for these accommodation, except for 7 rooms which is done by KMVN from Delhi, is done by the Corebett Tiger Reserve office at Ramnagar. The demand is huge and so one has to book well in advance. The campus has solar powered fencing around it. The fencing was erected some 3 years back after an incident of tiger attacking some staffer in the campus. The electrified gates are closed at 6pm. Movement in the jungle after 6pm is not allowed. In fact, no one is allowed outside the campus gate without a guide. Even with the electrified fence, it was scary at night. You are 31 kms inside a jungle with sizeable population of tigers. Even though there was no power cut during our stay of about 40 hours, the campus is not that well illuminated. I just wondered as to how one could dare to stay there before the electrified fencing was erected! The campus also houses some staff quarters for forest staff.

The safaris for the afternoon had departed before we had reach. Thus we had nothing to do but to explore the campus and fix up our safaris. The KMVN package includes a jeep safari and elephant safari. The demand for elephant safari is high as there are only 5 elephants, i.e., about 20 seats per trip as against the full occupancy of about 70 persons in the campus. Thus the first thing one should do on arrival is to book your elephant safari. We managed seats for the afternoon trip of day 2.

There is very little to do after sunset. Wild life documentary film is shown in the campus every evening. We watch a film on day 1. The restaurant at the campus serves buffet meals for fixed price. BF @ 100/-, Lunch @ 150/- and Dinner @150/-. The KMVN package has all meals included. The food was good. We had early dinner and retired into our rooms. For your information : there also is a canteen cum grocery shop in the campus which sells essential items, mainly to cater to the need of the drivers and residing forest staffs. But you get cigarettes, toffees, biscuits and chips there. Smoking and alcohol is not permitted outside your room. No one was seen enforcing the smoking ban and as such you will see smokers in the campus.

Day 2 : We set out on the jeep safari at the crack of the dawn. The charges for a jeep safari is Rs.1000/- ( 800 for the jeep and 200 for the guide). The jeeps dashes off for points where tigers could be spotted while crossing the road. There they will wait for alarm calls. Here you can see a tiger only if it chooses to cross the road. So be practical and do not expect to see tiger this way. I doubt at this attempt at tiger spotting. It appeared more to be a time killing technique. After an hour or so of futile waiting, we were taken inside the dense forest through one of the link road. The roads are well laid out and are easily drivable, at least for a Maruti Gypsy. Driving through the dense sal forest where we spotted all 4 varieties of deer found in the park. Finally we reached a vast grass land. These are hunting grounds for tigers. There we saw a large flock of spotted deer. I had never seen such a big flock of deer. These deer are somewhat used to the safari jeeps. They try to run only if you stop. Else they will ignore your presence. By 8:30 am we were back at the resort.

We had decided to take another safari after breakfast. Otherwise we have nothing to do till afternoon. As we were two families, the cost of the trip was shared. This trip took us to the other flank of the main road. We had seen one side of the forest in the morning trip. So we had asked the guide to show the other half. This time there was no hurry. Neither there was any futile waiting for the tiger. The trip took us to another vast grassland on the other side of the Ramganga river. We could see the FRH from the other side of the reservoir. On the way we spotted a large fishing owl, and then saw a fishing eagle hunting live in front of us. We were waiting on a makeshift bridge watching the mahseer fishes feeding in the clear water of the stream. Then the hunting eagle appeared in the scene and swoop down to pick a large fish in a flash. We were taken to a spot where we saw a large crocodile lazing out in the sun. The crocodile was quick to spot us when we got off the jeep to have a better look. It hurried onto the safety of water. Roaming in the wilderness savoring the moments was the best part of the trip. This is why we have come this far. We had every bit of our time’s and money’s worth. By noon, we were back at the resort.

The two hour elephant safari started at 4 pm. After crossing the grassland around the resort, we were taken into the thick sal forest. We saw tiger pug marks just few hundred meters from the FRH. The thought of spending a night so close to the tiger excited us. The ride was an amazing experience for us. The jeep safari offers you travel only through well constructed roads and you need wait for the tiger hoping it to cross the road. But the elephant do not travel by road. Rather, it makes its way through the sal forest and bushes. We had hard times keeping the bushes and plants away from us to prevent them from hitting our faces. Both I and my wife, who were seated just behind the mahout, had minor bruises on our limbs. But it was real fun and adventure. We had thoroughly enjoyed it. After scouting the jungle for some time, we had reached a spot which had fresh pugmarks of tiger. It was a nullah with clear sign of the tiger going up on the nullah. We continued upward following the pugmarks. There were fresh tiger droppings and also urine marking, which tigers use to define its territory. Then we had reached the spot which was used by the tiger for resting. It appeared that we had missed the tiger not by much. The jungle was so dense that we wondered as to whether we will be able to get out of it before dark. I asked the mahout as to how he finds directions. He replied ‘the same way you find roads in cities’. It is instinct. May be experience. It was almost dark by the time the 2 hour ride finished.

Anyway, we saw everything except the view of the majestic beast roaming in the wild. Yet we were not unhappy. We had traveled at least 100 kms within the park. It was a fantastic experience and we will certainly come back here. This time it will be in summer when the possibility of tiger sighting is more.

The KMVN Package :
I recommended the KMVN package before leaving for Corbett. Because of my pleasant experience, I now highly recommend the KMVN package. It had everything you want. The package currently priced @Rs.5000/- plus taxes @3.09% per person is much cheaper than any other private package on offer. Further it had no catch. I had to spend only for the breakfast on the onward journey and lunch on the return journey.

The package includes transportation, entry fees for visiting the park, all meals, one jeep safari and one elephant safari. The transportation from Delhi is by Toyota Innova or similar car. This is a six seater vehicle. You may have problem if you have children older than 5 years and you have not paid for them. The limited space in such vehicles means that you can not even carry children on lap. KMVN charges for children above 5 years is not 50% of adult, but almost 90% of adult. That too without accommodation! This is a deterrent and KMVN should have a look at this policy. KMVN is allotted 7 rooms in the Dhikala FRH. This is the only accommodation inside Corbett which can be booked from Delhi. For booking any other FRH accommodation, you need to contact the Corbett Tiger Reserve office at Ramnager over phone, get the possible dates by fax and then send the payment by DD. This will be cheaper than KMVN package. But booking your trip like that may turn out to be a headache. Therefore the KMVN package is the best possible option from Delhi.

(For more photos of Corbett, please visit this link : Rupankar's Corbett Photo)

Going to Corbett National Park

2008-02-12T12:39:00.002+05:30

I have booked a trip to the Corbett National Park next weekend. Despite my aversion for package trips, I had opted for a package trip this time. The main reason for taking a package is that the trip ensures confirmed accommodation at the Dhikala Forest Rest House (FRH), which is 35 km inside the park.

The package is offered by KMVN, an agency of Utrranchal Tourism. Being a Govt. agency, they only offer accommodation in the FRHs located deep inside the park. If you have a look at the map of CNP, you will observe that the park is divided into 3 zones : the Core Zone, the Buffer Zone and the Tourist Zone. The packages offered by private operators are for resorts located in the buffer zone, which is actually is on the periphery of the park. Therefore, if you take a private package, you have almost nil chance of getting into Dhikala zone which is part of core zone. All that you will have to satisfy is with trips to smaller ranges in tourist zone like Jhirna and Birjani. But I feel, if you do not get to stay inside the jungle or get a chance to visit the core zone, there is very little adventure.

The 2N/3D package ex-Delhi is all inclusive. The rate is Rs.5000/- plus taxes @3.22% for adult. It includes transportation from Delhi by car / coach, all veg meals, accommodation at Dhikala FRH and safaris. I went to the KMVN Office located at Barakhamba Road, CP, New Delhi, looking to book accommodation only. But when I heard of the details of the package, I had no second thought. The package frees me from many headaches such as booking train tickets, collecting gate passes at Ramnagar and then bargain prices for hiring a jeep for 3 days. One piece of information is that all passes for CNP are issued at the CTR Office located almost opposite the Ramnagar bus stand. The Dhanagiri gate that takes you into the core zone areas is 18 km from the town.

CNP had its own website which was very informative. Unfortunately it had been hacked. However, the KMVN site has some of the information from the old site. You can check out the site. The rates have not been updated. But as of now I highly recommend this package. I will share my experiences on return.

Vacation rental

2008-02-11T16:05:00.000+05:30

February provides the best time to travel. The end February is the period that is neither too cold nor too hot. I had a memorable vacation last year in the desert. This year too I will be holidaying in the last week of Feb. But this time it will be in the wild. What I have in mind is one of the popular National Park in India. The trip is being worked on.

This season also offers opportunity to holiday at some good properties at highly discounted rate. Being shoulder season most vacation rental companies offers good discounts. But unfortunately they have limited options. Only plus point I find in a holiday at a property owned by some vacation rental company is that they have good, often star rated facilities. The competition in this segment is increasing with few new players getting into it in India. Earlier we had only two players of which only one had brand recognition. But I still feel that this is still not a popular concept in India. Reason one for this laggerdness is prohibitive pricing by Indian standard and reason two is limited options or choice of locations. Vacation rental is a popular concept aborad. The scenario may change few years down the line.

Adieu Shaun Pollock

2008-02-04T12:55:00.000+05:30

Watching Shaun Pollock holding back tears while giving his farewell speech last night after the SA-WI 5th ODI brought tears to my eyes as well. He was a gentleman on the field. A realization had occurred that cricketers of our generation are fast disappearing. Pollock had bowled his last ball last night. Gilchrist have another 15 days before hanging up his gloves.

Warne is gone. So is McGrath, Lara & Inzy – all these great revelers of our time had retired in the last 12 months. Only a handful now remains. But even the likes of Jayasurya, Sachin, Dravid and Ganguly are fast approaching their final days.

We had probably failed to realize that it is not only us who had crossed into the late 30s, but the cricketers as well who has been part of our life for last 15 years. It is a fact that most people in our age group no more watch cricket as ardently as they used to do some 15 years back. That was the time when we would hardly move from the television room until the last ball is bowled. The hourly drinks break provided toilet breaks for us. Now we hardly watch a full day’s cricket. In fact I do not remember when I had watched a full days cricket on TV last time. The golden era of cricket has probably been over.

Even though we are not addicted to cricket anymore, we still follow it. These are the bunch of guys whom we love to hate at times and then admire most of the time. New guys are getting inducted into most of the teams to replace these all time greats. But if you look at most teams, there is little promise. Look at the replacements for Pakistan and India. These new generation players may be talented, but not at par with the ones they are replacing. There will never be another Pollock, Gilchrist, Sachin, Lara, Inzamam, McGrath or Warne. We will certainly miss them.

Goa : My brief trip to Colva beach

2008-01-23T17:48:00.000+05:30

19th Jan, 2008. The outside temperature at Delhi airport was 10 degree. The gush of wind at the tarmac made me feel the biting cold. When I boarded the flight at Goa airport that afternoon, the temperature was a warm 31 degrees. I felt good that I could spend 3 pleasant days at Goa, away from the biting cold of Delhi.

Two of my days were spent at Betul in the south playing the role of a faculty. The days were spent delivering training at one of my company’s institute located on the top of a hillock at Betul. Because of the distance from Madgaon, I had opted to stay at the guest located at the Betul campus. This severely limited my evening options. Fortunately, the highlights of the India – Australia test gave me company. The campus provided a beautiful view of the Mobor beach on one side and open sea on another. Though Mobor beach has a resort, there was hardly any crowd. I guessed that it is a good spot if you want to spend a secluded holiday away from the beach crowd. One day I saw a photograph of Baga beach in north in a local daily. The title of the photo was that the beach is so congested that there was hardly any space left for free movement. It resembled a market rather than a beach. I would not like to be at such places to spend few quite moments.

On the final day, I found time to spend a few hours at Colva beach, which is the nearest beach from Madgaon. Even this beach was not crowded. There were enough people, mostly foreign tourist, but nowhere it was crowded. While the foreigners lazed around lying in shacks, Indian tourists were seen trying out water sports. I got a colleague who gave me company. After strolling at the beach for about an hour, we sat at a shack and sipped beer. One of the guy who lured us into a shack told us that they sell beer at 45 rupees a bottle. But when we had finished our bottle, they charged us 55. So confirm the prices at the counter. Do not take the words of the guy standing outside.

The economy runs on tourism. So as a tourist you can afford little mercy from those making a living out of tourism. You should be ready to shell out few bucks. Taxis are prohibitively costly. Though they quote Rs.10/- per kilometer the bargain rate is Rs.8/- per kilometer. But there are many catches, like you will have to pay both way fares and also there are standing charges. Thus you will have to use public transport like bus for moving around in Goa.

I did a search of accommodation around Colva beach. Most hotels are located some 100 – 200 meters from the beach. But few hotels like, Colva Residency, owned by Goa Tourism is located almost on the beach. At least it is beach facing. This is not a bad place to stay. However moving around may be a problem from here. To me there is no point moving around in Goa. The only reason for going to Goa should be to have a holiday by sea. Goa is about beautiful beaches, the clean sea and nice crowd. You will find monuments everywhere, but not such beautiful beaches. Staying close to the sea is important so that you can take a dip whenever you wish. Whether you spend the day at Colva or Palolem or Calangute is almost meaningless. The choice is between a crowded spot and a secluded spot.

Anyway, this was my first visit to Goa. Being a brief one, I have not much to write. I did not carry my SLR, but took only my small P&S. Still I took a couple of good shots. I am planning a holiday with family later this year.

Accomodation in Europe

2008-01-23T17:37:00.000+05:30

Evolution of online accommodation booking sites have made travel planning a lot easier. I keep checking such sites for bargains. I had come across one such site for tourists bound for UK and some other European nations. The site named ‘Cheaper than Hotels’ offers you the choice of several types of accommodation. You can find accomodation in UK, France or Germany through this site. In fact the site offers accommodation for a wide range of places, including India. I had tried the site and was surprised to find hotels for Delhi, India as well. I choose the option of 3 star and below. Names of the hotels that pop up for Delhi are not seen even in Indian travel sites. This is because Indian sites offers only big star hotels which are beyond the budget of most people. But ‘Cheaper than Hotels’ search included some 1 star hotels. Only problem I had observed with the site was that the prices are not in INR. But the site is good and worth giving a try.

Seven Wonders of the World

2008-01-23T16:37:00.000+05:30

What had happened to the Colossus of Rhodes, listed as one of the original seven wonders ? The massive statue, perhaps about 100 feet tall, which also supposes to be an inspiration for the Statue of Liberty, has been an object of mystery, imagination and debate.

In fact, there are several categories to the Seven Wonders of the World list. The earliest documented is that of historian Herodotus (484 BC–ca. 425 BC), and the scholar Callimachus of Cyrene (ca 305–240 BC) at the Museum of Alexandria, made early lists of "Seven wonders" but their writings have not survived, except as references. The Colossus of Rhodes, find mention in that list as one of the seven wonders. The Taj Mahal features in list of modern Seven Wonders.

The colossus is long gone. But because of its rich history, the Rhodes island has grown to be one of the popular tourist attraction in Greece. Rhodes is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, situated in eastern Aegean Sea. In fact all the islands in the Dodecanese group of islands have a rich history.

Off to Goa

2008-01-15T19:05:00.000+05:30

Heading for Betul, Goa on an official assignment for next 3 days. I understand that there is not much to see at Betul. In fact I am told that the ONGC campus at Betul is the most beautiful place there. But, may be, I get a chance to spare some time for Colva. Anyway, this is my first trip to Goa. So I am looking forward to it. Further, it will also help me planning the family trip I am planning later this year.