A www holiday

Simple - along with my wife & son, we set out to Munnar in Kerala and got what very few can get - a holiday with home food. Yes, we happened to stay at our friend's house in Munnar and at the same time enjoy the beauty and nature of Munnar. It was such a huge bungalow and going around it seeing the plants, trees, flowers, mountains and smalls streaks of waterfalls was a separate holiday in itself. The mist covered mountains and the carpet-like tea plantations were a delight to watch. Before getting into the actuals of our holiday, it was really a much-needed break as I had really worked for almost 9 years now without a real long break. Needless to say, I was extremely excited. More so because, I was going to be driving my SX4 all through the kilometres we cover. I compiled a lot of song collections, hindi and tamil, and got them ready on CDs for the travel. Also, this was the first time I was going to drive in the ghats. More tension for my wife, but more excitement for me and it was all safe and fine in the end. Sid was also extremely excited about going to Munnar, though he had no clue of what he was going to see and enjoy - just a new place away from the routine for him. After a very good drive almost throughout the day, we reached my friend's bungalow towards the end of the day and had a good rest after a sumptuous home made dinner.

We spent the next four days at Munnar visiting various places which usual tourists don't get access to, thanks to my friend. We drove to the Kundale Gold Club amidst the picturesque tea-plantations, forests and waterfalls - more importantly away from the crowds. Enjoyed fresh carrots and the best part of the trip was yet to come. It came 2 days later when we drove deep into the forests, beyond Eravikulam National Park, on really very special permission to reach Gravel Banks. The drive was just fabulous - up and down the hills - sunny at times, misty at times, dark & shady at times - overall a superb experience to add to your holiday CV. Absolute solitude for the three of us as you could hardly see anyone. Infact, we came across more leeches and we had one getting onto each one of our legs. A scary place to go to, in terms of leeches, but worth the time and drive as the nature we got to see there was beyond words. Green grass, pristine waters, birds chirping, forests all around - I have seen these in movies and cartoons only before. This time it was all real, in front of our eyes and we couldn't even pinch ourselves as we were sure we weren't dreaming - we had to be alert to keep away from the leeches in the meadows. There was a hanging bridge too, though a small one, it was so nice to walk on it with water flowing below - again something I have seen only in movies until then. We also spent some time in the freezing waters and infact Sid even managed to catch a cold. We were lucky to catch hold of a tea-plantation employee there and got to know that bisons and ibexes can be sighted after late evenings there, even some wild monkeys and may be some elephants. Not a safe place to stay on and on, I had to drive back and I did, but honestly I did not feel like leaving the place at all. It was complete nature wherever we turned around, except for that little Sunlight Copper colored car which took us there. My soul still remains there, but the body is back to the concrete jungles to feed stomachs.

And I also had the privilege to visit the tea factory and saw the entire process of making tea from those green leaves. The shredding, fermenting and the various other processes were very interesting to know, but the overdose of tea smell was something that I didn't cherish much.

After Munnar, we drove through the beautiful landscapes watching more tea-plantations & waterfalls to reach Thekkady and enjoyed the exciting Elephant Ride and the boring boat ride in the lake to supposedly see a few wild animals, but just caught a few deers here and there. The Elephant Ride was worth every rupee spent, though you can argue better rides in Pattaya. Inhouse, this was fabulous and it was all the more exciting to see Sid enjoying thoroughly. We were taken for a ride on a male elephant for about half-an-hour and Sid also got to feed a pregnant elephant and took some photos very close with her. Spent the night at Hotel Ambadi after a delicious buffet at Cardamon County. Woke up for some shopping and
headed to Madurai to visit a cousin for a day, before we got back to routine at Bangalore. After a lot of nature, met some loving people and also went into the Madurai market area just for the heck of it and I was reminded more of my beloved Trichy as I walked through those crowded streets. Spent two nights and then fastened our seat belts for the drive back home - home is home always, wherever it is. The drive back was a pleasure too accompanied by rains for most of the distance. The car looks like a dust-bin inside which would be cleaned only this weekend.

Obviously, I really had to push myself very hard to work on Monday when my mind and heart were refusing to come out of those pleasant green memories, infact still is. Probably for the first time in life, I took a long break and definitely for the first time since 1999, I was away from emails for 9 full days. Life was very different as I was in a www - world without www.

A real shame

In London, my company had a corporate box at the O2 arena and we were invited for a WWE showdown (I consider it a disgrace to link their website from my blog). Though, I completely hate the event, I just decided to go to have a nice evening with my English colleagues and compatriots, outside of the wrestling which cannot be termed sport or entertainment in my dictionary.

We were a group of 16 people and the only part of the evening I enjoyed was over when we reached the O2 arena. It was the boat ride on Thames. We passed below quite a few bridges and it was so nice to see the city of London from being on water - a mixture of the old architectural buildings and the new skyscrapers. It was a cold ride, though I managed to take the fleece off for a few clicks. The London boat ride gets ticked in my London to-dos. After that, the experience I had was a shame. Firstly, I firmly believe that going to a WWE event was a shame in itself. The box had complimentary food, drinks & snacks. I managed to grab little vegetarian dishes and since I don't drink alcohol, I enjoyed more than one round of my Diet Pepsi. After I was done, it was such a tough time for me as I could watch neither WWE nor the drunkards. Some of my compatriots reached a real high and were blabbering with the Brits. I couldn't stand it at all and all I heard from them was rubbish, rubbish and more rubbish. I am not against people who drink as its completely their personal wish, but not knowing one's limits isn't acceptable to me - atleast from those whom I have to go out with. I have been out with friends many times when they drink their alcohol while I feast on the side-dishes and some coke. Never have I felt so embarrassed about my countrymen for behaving in such a clownish way - definitely I am being a bit polite to some of my friends(!!) here. I am sorry, if I am hurting anyone here, but we can't make a fool of ourselves in front of people from another country, especially when you are there on an official trip. I wouldn't want to do injustice to the person who preferred to keep quiet once he realized that he has got a high by drinking more than usual - I appreciate!

I did not repent for opting to go there, as I loved the boat ride and it was nice to visit the O2 arena. More than the WWE, it was the behaviour of my compatriots which disturbed me, more so, infront of the English who also drank as much, but held on to themselves mostly. Everyday is an experience and that's what makes this life a learning curve all the time.

Photographs here and here.

I was there!

I am still extremely excited that I have set foot at Lord's. Thanks to my new job, I am in UK for a few days. This gave me a chance to visit the Lord's cricket ground, which was my first priority here at London, apart from work. I wanted to do a shirt-waving, standing at that corner of the balcony, but unfortunately couldn't get there as a match was going on. OK, here's the proof...


This also means that my Visited Countries map gets updated.

One more...

Bangladesh & New Zealand have had it in common for some years now. In July 2007, the United States of America joined them. Can you guess what is it?


I got this map from here.

And by the way, the answer to the trivia is that all three of them have hosted me (poruma Prabhu).

The Pilgrimage

I was forced to agree to one mottai for my son, though I was against the idea initially. Along with the mottai trip, I had promised to take my wife to as many temples as possible, as she has never travelled much before and hasn't seen places. This year, we decided to dedicate the outing to temples and make it a pilgrimage. Again, I am not a very religious/pious person - infact, I am agnostic. I was completely comfortable with the tag of a glorified driver for the entire trip and I loved to drive my new Maruti Swift all along the 1018 kilometres we travelled to visit many temples, which actually counted up to 34 temples. Many friends & relatives wondered (still wonder), how did Ganesh visit so many temples. I should attribute it to my wife, as I was happy to take her wherever she wanted to go.

Though, I didn't do the real worship as others do in those temples, I enjoyed all those stories in the form of sthala puranams. Almost every priest in each one of these temples seemed to say that their temple was the most sacred of all and you get to wash away all sins by offering prayers there. Oh, what an easy way to wipe off our faux pas. Let there be Gods or not, but I certainly believe that going to many temples and by offering prayers and money, one will not be relieved of their sinful acts.

I should also not forget to tell you that I relished the calm and quiet atmosphere and tranquility of some of those temples along with the ancient architectural beauts.