My wonderful IEEE trip

When I signed up to go on my college's IEEE trip to Amritsar, Jaisalmer and Jodhpur in November, I expected something great because this year's committee is filled with people whom I felt were very good at what they do. My classmates, for reasons best known to them, declined to join me on the trip and planned their own trip to Kullu Manali, etc. Finally it was only me, Jinju and Deepu (Project Fridays minus Debu) from BE Electrical who went on the IEEE trip.

The trip to Amritsar from Mumbai was extremely boring chiefly because 6 of us were isolated from most of the people we knew. But from the moment that journey ended, it was fern and excitement all the way.

I was expecting it to be biting cold in Amritsar and when we arrived I was not surprised that everyone of us felt like we were suffering from Parkinson's. It took some time to get used to it but the wonderful hotel rooms made up for the cold. We stayed at S.G. Resorts and the experience was brilliant. And the food - fantastic. Really rich Punjabi food with loads of Paneer and the best part was, it was so cold there that we did not feel really heavy in spite of pigging out all the time.

The first day we went to Jallianwala Bagh. I was pretty depressed by the end of it and the short walk to the Golden Temple was spent in silence. My first glimpse of the Darbar Sahib in the middle of the Sarovar was something that will remain etched in my memories forever. The feeling of peace that I got there despite the rather large crowd seemed like a godsend and lifted the heaviness I felt after visiting the Bagh. A view of the Granth Sahib and a meal in the langar made me feel like a new man.

The next day we gave the Industrial visit to Khanna Paper Mills a wide berth and instead went to the local market which was not too productive either. That afternoon we left for the Wagah Border to view the 'Beating the retreat' Ceremony. The ceremony felt more like a shouting match between the two sets of guards - The Border Security Force on our side and the Pakistani Rangers on the other. It was nevertheless a very different experience and as we kept shouting slogans like Bharat Mata ki Jai and Vande mataram, i realized that the life we have in India despite the corruption and other nonsense, really is worth fighting for.

The next day we set out for a small station called Makkhu where we were supposed to board the Jammu Tawi Express for Jodhpur. The boarding was a near miss as we had assembled on the wrong platform. We boarded from the side which did not actually have a platform and since the coaches did not arrive in order meant a lot of chaos for the next hour or so after everyone got in from everywhere but it was all fine in the end.

We arrived in Jodhpur the next morning and immediately left for our camps at Jaisalmer. The ride was a bit long and a change of plans meant we had lunch at the famous Chandam Shree Hotel and went and saw Gadisar Lake first where we indulged in a spot of boating. We reached the camp late in the evening as the sun was just about to set and watched a wonderful folk dance performance which involved women picking up needles and blades with their eyelids and some major balancing acts.

Of all the things, the wonderful night view of the stars was blocked by dark clouds for the entire time we were there. It was actually drizzling in the desert and it was unfortunate that I had to give star gazing a miss. The tents were pretty warm and the food pretty fine.

The day after we went to Jaisalmer fort and had a beautiful view of the town. We managed to buy a Pagdi for Jinju's surprise birthday which he knew we were going to have and also took in a fun camel ride back to the camp. Jinju's birthday celebration went off pretty well and we expected to have a lot of fun the day after. However the next day was spent in the bus travelling back to Jodhpur and since we arrived at night we could not get anything done.

The hotel at Jodhpur was well worth the wait as the four star rooms seemed straight out of a movie. There was a bathtub and a swimming pool and for people like your's truly who had not bathed for 3 days running it was heaven. There was a bit of dancing involved before dinner and the wonderfully cooked dinner itself which ended the day on a perfect note.

On the 17th, our last day, we went to see Mehrangadh fort and had a beautiful view of the Blue city and visited the famous Chamunda Mata temple. We had precious little time to buy stuff for people back home and the tour guide took us to some emporium where they were selling stuff at Mumbai prices and that was actually the only big disappointment of the trip.

A short visit to the hotel where we had late lunch and loaded our luggage on to the buses and we were on our way to the station. we boarded the Suryanagari express to Mumbai and arrived today just an hour late.

As it was my last college trip I really wanted it to be a special experience. When we realized that on the trip, it would only be the three of us without our class, I felt we would get bored of seeing each other's faces. However I met a lot of people on the trip. My impressions of a few people changed and I gained many new friends. The IEEE committee went out of their way to make this journey good for us and they pulled it off admirably. They completely repaid my trust in them and this was really one of the best trips I have ever been on.

Me and Jinju wanted to make a documentary about the trip but the videos from the Golden temple and Jalianwalla bagh got erased. However we got some good videos and the birthday vids were also covered by Rohit and Ganapati's special channel. Hopefully with a bit of editing we can still make it a cool Project Fridays video.

Many thanks to Pratap, Taha, Gurtej, Badrike, Ronnie, Divya, Anand, Srihari, actually everyone for making this an unforgettable experience.

Matheran Mazaa

Thanks to Mumbai University postponing my Control Systems paper to 14th of Jan, we have a 12 day leave for Signal processing. We decided to make full use of the time by planning a one day trip to Matheran.

Vineet and I were supposed to leave at 4 am from our building to catch the 5.00 am train to Neral from Dadar. i set the alarm for 2.30 in the morning because I wanted to catch the last few minutes of the Arsenal game.

Flash forward to 4 am when I got a call from Vineet. I realized my alarm had not gone off and I was pretty late. I had a bath in water that was freezing because there was no time and to my surprise, exactly 12 minutes later we were taking a rickshaw to the station. It didn't matter that I was late because Matoo and Gaurav came to Dadar even later than us and Chaukya and Kunal had bought tickets to Nerul instead of Neral and had to get it changed.

We reached Neral after a train ride that was laced with stupid electrical engineer jokes which made we wish I had not taken engineering in the first place (but then again so does everything else). A short taxi ride later we were at Matheran where we were charged 25 bucks to just get entry. We walked all the way to Matheran station because cars are mercifully not allowed inside.

We sat down to have breakfast at a seedy looking hotel with surprisingly good kaanda poha and we were soon ordering seconds. While we were leaving, the owner cum waiter cum cook cum accountant presented us with a bill for 350 bucks!!!! A complete rip off because he showed us the menu only after we had finished eating.

We bought a map and decided to walk in a great ellipse covering as many points as we could and saw some amazing scenery. After a really long short cut, we came to points with really weird names like Lord point, Gorilla Point, One Tree Hill, Porcupine Point. The One Tree Hill was a total scam because the tree was nothing more than a shrub. We could hear no echoes at Echo point and we were harassed by touts who wanted to give us rooms in cottages. But the splendid walking trails and the views made up for all the inconvenience.

We had to wait in line to get the tickets for the toy train journey from Matheran back to Neral, something I had not done since I was 2 years old. Below the train is a sheer drop of 3000 feet and we got some nice pics and videos of the view below.

From Neral to Dadar we took a crowded local train. It was in Dadar where the fun began when we found that there was a line fault and some of the local trains had been canceled. There was a huge crowd at dadar and we couldn't even get on an Andheri local. We decided to take a bus home only to be told that the roads were clogged. We decided to walk to Mahim and with Kunal and Gaurav almost on the verge of collapse, we managed to find a relatively empty train and got into it.

We reached home at around 11 at night after walking total of 25 km that day. That's the most I have walked in a day for close to seven years. Well at least its a start to my marathon ambitions :-)

I still have 9 days to kill and so I have started to learn pencil sketching. It seems an uphill task because me and drawing are old adversaries but lets hope I make quick progress. Back to the drawing board....

Ganpatipule - A Trip to Remember

The day after exams got over, we were off to Ganpatipule, a delightful beach resort 350 km from Bombay. We were searching for respite from the Bombay heat, and boy did we find it.

Our train was the rather suggestively named Konkan Kanya, which literally means, "babe from the Konkan". She didn't look very suggestive though. In fact the only suggestion I made when I saw her was to go back home. But we decided to brave the dimly lit interiors and the stinky compartment as it was only an 8 hour journey. We settled down and much to our surprise, the train departed at the said time of 11 pm.

The journey was uneventful, unless you count the part where we removed the supports to the middle berth where Amit was sleeping. I discovered that still photography from a moving train is not exactly my forte. I also discovered that waking Salil up from deep sleep is the easiest way to experience excruciating pain. We arrived at Ratnagiri station at 6. 30 in the morning.

We had hired a car to take us to Ganpatipule, which was 45 kms away. We completed the journey in about an hour and reached the Bank of India credit society's holiday home. Accomodation in this place was achieved by means I'd rather not mention. Let is suffice to say we got 2 terrace flats in this place dirt cheap.

The place was excellent. A kilometer from the beach on a slope and an excellent sea view. Breakfast and a bit of cricket and we were going to the temple.

The temple is a famous one, but not being the tourist season, was pretty much empty. We also walked once around the hill housing the temple. Legend has it the hill is shaped like Lord Ganesha. We were enlightened, on that particular walk, by the 3 Civil engineering students, that most of the rock in that area was shale or limestone or lycra. I forget. Not to be outdone, I spent the best part of half an hour, explaining how difficult it is to supply power to that isolated area.

We had lunch at one of those houses there where the owners serve food for a price. The place was recommended to us by one of the priests at the temple. The food there was pathetic and expensive and judjing by the curses we heaped upon the priest, I am sure we have condemned him to a place where he would find far too hot for his liking.

Evening was spent at the beach, where we engaged in a spirited game of football. Sunset, and we were back at the hotel.

That night was one i would remember well because that was the first time I played poker. Actually the desi version called "teen patti". Half an hour and richer by around ten thousand fake rupees, I was hooked. We played till about 5 in the morning, becoming more and more insane as far as the betting was concerned.

Woke up at about 9, and had breakfast. We had a big day ahead of us. We were supposed to visit a place called Marleshwar. It has a waterfall and we were supposed to bathe in the calming flow of water. We reached there and walked up 500 steps to the temple, only to be told that the Waterfall was off limits because of the monsoons. Good law abiding Indians that we are, three of us jumped the barrier and took pictures anyway.

We reached the hotel in the evening, me sitting in the back of the car which was so uncomfortable, I was soon dreaming of Aushwitz. Another game of poker and we were off to bed at 1. By this time it was raining ass hard outside.

Four of us were sharing the room. Salil and Amit got the bed, while me and Kedar were sleeping sleeping on matresses on the floor. It was about 5.15 in the morning that I woke up to detect a certain wetness on my clothes. I was in the process of contemplating a biological malfunction which had not taken place since when i was 4, when I put my foot on the ground to hear a resounding splash.

Lights on, and I saw the room was an inch and a half under water. It was everywhere. It got our luggage and Kedar's cell (his fourth in as many years). The guys in the other room were lucky. Or so it seemed. The water didnt get to the room where they were sleeping. But it got to the room where they had put their luggage.

It was still raining very heavily and we realized our plans of touring ratnagiri that day were dooomed. So we did the next best thing. We packed our bags and left for Ratnagiri station. We got to know that our train, which was supposed to arrive at 10 that night, was delayed till 3 am. Balls to that we said, and got tickets on a passenger train scheduled to depart a couple of hours later.

We managed to get on and with certain negotiations with the ticket checker, we managed to "upgrage" ourselves to sleeper class. 10 hours later (3 of which were spent in playing an insane game of dumb charades), we reached Mumbai, a bit hungry, but safe and sound.

It was 1 am when I rang the doorbell and stepped inside the warmth of my own home. A warm bath and hot dinner awaited.

Kerala Part 2

After having spent 4 days in Kerala, I have come to the following conclusions:



1. Keralites love their booze.

2. They seem to be awful drivers.

3. Vegetarian fare comes at a premium.



I took to roaming the streets every evening and one thing that struck me was the amount of men standing in queue outside the half a dozen liquor shops in the area. Man some of those lines were longer than the ones you have to stand in to get your exam hall tickets (fellow Bhavanites know what I'm talking about). No lines even at the ration shops. Booze seems to be way too popular there. If this continues, all the other shops will start converting themselves into booze joints as well.

Ernakulam at 10 pm is like Mumbai at 3 am. The roads are empty and the tendency to speed is pretty strong. The drivers seem to forget that they should restrain themselves during the day, but.......... Even truck drivers seem to think they deserve to be rubbing shoulders with Lewis Hamilton and the rest of the F-1 lot. We went for a backwater tour, and we had to get to the place by car. The driver looked rather like Sreesanth. This dude never seemed to come below 4th gear. He was easily doin 100- 120 km, all the time talking on his cell, driving with one hand. A car overtook him once and he told us the guy didn't know how to drive, and he proceeded to demonstrate how exactly one should overtake a car. I was starting to think my minutes were numbered, when we finally came to a halt. That's one dude I wouldnt want to live within 200 miles of.

Well the thing with Keralites is that they do not like eating out. That means a huge dearth of eateries. And the ones which serve vegetarian food are awful. Awful to someone from Mumbai that is. They serve more of fast food than meals. However I did come across this decent place called "Menaka" in Ernakulam. Good paratha and veg curry and even better choley batture. The taste seemed oddly familiar and I asked the owner where he was from and he said, "hum bambai se aaye hain sahib". Ah my saviour. May his eatery prosper and may Ernakulam succumb to his heavenly Choley batture.

PS. I didn't see any Mallu babes yaar. Fathers don't allow them to go out I guess.........(sigh)

PPS. This is one Mallu you girls out there can't resist ( some guys too. Him for example and him)

PPPS. Sorry Deeps, Kushal and Debu.

Kerala Part 1

The night train from Chennai to Ernakulam Town was comfortable enough. The tickets were confirmed thanks to my uncle, who is a cardiologist for Central Railways (not a man to be trifled with). I attempted to sleep, but my efforts were thwarted by a gentleman in the adjoining berth, whose snores closely resembled the sounds made by a Boeing during take-off. Thankfully he got off around 2, cursing the world for not waking him up, as he had missed his station. God he deserved it……

I managed to sleep till around 5.30 when I heard voices below. A ticket checker had arrived and he was a typical Mallu bloke- huge girth, dark curly hair and a mustache to rival Veerappan’s. My Dad was sleeping on the wrong berth, and mistaking him for someone else, the Mallu said something like,“ alaarrererlalartlalrtlartlatl Palakkad arrrrallataladar” which roughly meant,” You were supposed to get off at Palakkad, what the hell are you still doing here?” Having clarified the situation, my Dad and I carefully avoided looking at each other until he went away.

In the early morning light, Kerala looks breathtakingly beautiful. Water bodies abound and the scenery is stunning. But one thing I resent is the overuse of the term ‘God’s own country.’ You see it everywhere. On roadsides, on rickshaws, schoolbags, buses......... you get the point. But I am not so petty as to let that get in my way. The God’s own train arrived and we descended on to God’s own platform to be greeted by the man running God’s own tea-shop and were just in time to drink a steaming cup of God’s own coffee.