Travel & Musings

Dream to purchase land

2011-07-23T03:04:00.000-07:00

Like every moderately settled person the dream of purchasing agriculture land has started appearing and days and nights.

What should one be looking for:

1. What is the area of land and what is its shape?

- Area could be in Acres. 1 Acre equals 44,000 sqft.

- Shape would be rectangular mostly but it could be L shaped as well.

2. What is the rate per square feet or Acre?

3. How much is the water table?

- This is the height at which water could be stuck in a well. This should be reasonable 20-30 feet cause o/w expense of drilling a well could increase.

4. Is there already a tube well or irrigation system in place?

5. What is the type of soil?

- The type of soil would lead to what could be grown. Generally it would be similar to adjoining land. Whether it is alluvial, black or laterite soil?

6. What could be grown on the land?

- Generally we can easily discern from the adjoining land what could be grown. Mostly it is cash crops as people do it for living. However, ask around for any exotic crop could be grown. Any fruit or vegetables should be good enough.

7. Does the farmer from which you are trying to purchase has 7/12 of the land?

- 7/12 or "Saat-Bara" is the document mentioning that land belongs to the person.

8. Which Gram Panchayat does it come under?

- All the land is within some Gram Panchayat or the other. One need to obtain No Objection from GP.

9. Whose plots are adjoining?

- It is important to find out adjoining plots. There might be some understanding one has to come up with so important to find out.

10. Do the people do their own ploughing or people could be hired for it? What is the rate of hiring in these parts?

11. How is the village (Gram)? Are the school, medical facility and connectivity to the road?

12. Where is the registry supposed to be done for the land sale deed?

13. How does one pay the money to seller?

14. What is the connectivity with road?

- The closer the road, more is the cost.

15. Is there any project proposed nearby? Like canal, power station, any other project.

- This would have a bearing on the cost of the land and its appreciation etc.

16. What papers one should look at while purchasing the land?

Glossary

NA - Non Agriculture

TP - Town Planning

Generally an Agriculture Land is converted to Non-Agriculture and then Town Planning is done.

Gram Panchayat or Nagar Parishad would be there.

500 meters around Gram Panchayat does not require NA-TP.

Without TP we cannot do construction.

For construction of anything on Agriculture land, one requires permission of Gram Panchayat. However, nothing would be available in terms of pipeline, sewage etc.

Vidarbha Sojourn

2011-05-29T09:51:00.000-07:00

Shakuntala Railway is set of two narrow gauge lines radiating south and north from Murtizapur in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. The southern line is 113 km long going up to Yavatmal. The northern line is 89 km long going up to Achalpur which is close to Paratwada town. Murtizapur is located on Mumbai-Kolkata mainline. The lines were laid by British to transport cotton from hinterland to the mainline. The lines were steam hauled till 1994 when it was converted to diesel. Now days there is one train only per line. Both the trains leave Murtizapur a little after 7 AM and come back to Murtizapur by late night. Recently the speed was clamped to 20 km/h because of which the Yavatmal train comes back only by midnight. Another interesting fact about these lines is that they are privately held by a British company called Killicks-Nixon and leased to Indian Railways which operate them. These lines have lost their economic importance and are run simply for local political compulsions. The train fares are very cheap and anyways there would be lot of ticketless travel. The roads are much faster and takes one in one-third the time. Still these lines run and remain the symbol of bygone era.

I harbored a longtime wish to travel on these lines to witness how is the life and operations in this part of the world. To finish been there done that. I got that chance this year in March when I was visiting Nagpur. I made a circular route plan which included traveling on these lines, visiting Chikhaldara, then traveling back to Nagpur via Morshi, Warud, Katol which is the region in the foothills of Satpura range. I termed this entire trip as Vidarbha sojourn.

Chikhaldara is a small town close to Achalpur/Paratwada, near Amaravati. It is the only hill station in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. Vidarbha is one of the hottest region of India and Chikhaldara being a hill station, I was always to curious to see how it is. Though it was not the best time to visit it but went with thinking that if it turned out well, it would much better at other times. I am even contemplating living there later in life so just wanted to see it myself. It is situated at 1115 mts above sea level, supposed to be cooler than plains, amidst forests etc.

I started from Nagpur one morning for Yavatmal. I took an state transport bus to Yavatmal at 9AM to catch return train from Yavatmal to Murtizapur at 1PM. However, when I reached Yavatmal, I came to know that the train arrives only by 3PM and returns back by 4PM. I tried to strike a conversation with personnel in Station Master's office who became conscious on my queries. The person asked me whether I was a journalist or some official who is asking such questions. I allayed their fears by telling them that I was just a simple railfan who is interested in rail heritage. Since there was quite some time I thought of going back to town and have meal and come back. After a decent lunch I even spent an hour in a cyber cafe just passing time. I came back to station by 2:30 PM. Now I got to speak to the real Station Master who showed some interest. Before I could ask for his permission to take photographs, he himself asked me whether I was carrying a camera in the pouch dangling from my shoulder. I said in affirmative to which he requested whether I could take some pictures for him? I was delighted. He said that I could go ahead and click in the station premises.

The station was unlike the stations we know. Though the railway land where it is located is quite big and barren, the station is diminutive. How could it be big which receives only one train in the entire day that too a slow, decrepit narrow gauge train. The passengers over period have shunned it and have taken to buses. The only saving grace for this station is passenger reservation system (PRS) which receives some footfalls during the day and something for the station staff to manage. After the permission I took a stroll around. I was more interested in capturing some historical facts, emblems etc. from British period and steam era. There was a huge old style metal water tower with canopy like roof resting on structure made of old rails.

There was water in that tower still probably to provide to station. I circled it and after careful examination spotted a rail with marking of year "1864". Wow that was a discovery. Earlier the foundries which manufactured metal equipments used to etch the year of manufacture on the rails and other structures.

Apart from that a separate line coming near the water tower was present with a pit. On this line, the steam engines used to come to fill water and even to drop ashes. The blackish soil around the pit was evidence of that. Further towards the end of line there were masts with hollow lamp like structures. These must have been oil lamps used to signal during night operations. I sat there thinking and imagining how the scene would have been? Steam wafting from engines over these lamps in a wintery night with full moon creating a surreal moment. There were hardly any people in the station waiting for the train. At around 3PM the train finally arrived snaking among the line side bushes. I was clicking it till it came to a halt.

I briefly met the driver which was a character unto itself. More about him later. I clicked the stationary train from all angles and came back to the station master. He wanted to send these photographs to Central Railways headquarter for their magazine. Though this place has no importance in terms of traffic but makes a good topic of heritage and trivia. Now the problem arose of how to transfer these photographs. I said I could email it to them in few days when I return or transfer to any PC but neither was feasible as there was no PC around nor he could wait for long. He came up with idea that we could go to town and copy it in a cyber cafe. When I asked wouldn't the train leave by then to which he jokingly said that I was with Station Master and train would not leave without his order. He assured me that they are not holding the train back and it anyways stops for an hour for drivers to relax and nobody's in a hurry. So I jumped pillion to the Station Master on his bike and rode up to a cyber cafe and quickly transfer photos. While coming back he offered to have some drink. We had a glass of lassi each for which he insisted on paying. So I had a glass of lassi on Railway's expense. We came back then station master made a paper authority which is a procedure to give permission for train to leave. He introduced me to driver, guard who were friendly.

I kept my bag with the guard and boarded in one of the coaches. The train trotted out of station by 4PM and passed through some filthy suburbs before coming in the open.

I was surprised to see the residents of these suburbs standing alongside and enthusiastically watching the train and children waving and running along it. The train though has no significance outside is still a welcome visitor in their lives.

Now about the driver. How it happens that one encounters most interesting people at unexpected juncture. When train stopped at the first station, I walked towards the engine where the driver invited me to join him which is what I was looking for. I climbed atop and driver gave his seat to me and himself sat on the space in front of instruments. When I first saw him at Yavatmal, he turned out to be an untidy though dutiful person, a muslim as due to his skull cap. He wore his uniform over an inner clothing with his ID card neatly hanging from the pocket and mobile phone hanging form the neck. He had worn skull cap, a deliberately kept beard which was black, brown and white making his persona of that of a Muslim. First he enquired about myself like where I was from, what do I do, married or not etc. After satisfying himself he started his story. He told me that he has four wives at different locations which kind of confirmed that he was a Muslim. He explained about his wives how he happened to marry them. It was only happenstance that he took over hapless women as their wives. During childhood he was a rowdy and everybody disliked him. His parents and relatives would taunt him, how would somebody give his daughter to him to marry to which he would reply that he would show them by keeping four wives. So even though his marriages were not pre-planned but destiny turned out to be that way. Two of his wives are sisters, one an abandoned woman and another through some circumstance. His children from his first wife are of my age and do their own business. He stays with his first wife at Murtizapur. After only some time I come to know that he is a devout Hindu. He turned out be a benevolent candyman who distributed candies to children around this line. He was not just a candyman to children but to adults too.

He would give sugar candies to children and tobacco candies aka various pan masala/guthkha pouches to adults. He said that he spend Rs. 50/- everyday towards this and showed me his stock for today. I picked a couple which were locally made candies. This largesse and benevolence came from his contentment. He looked really content with his life in his conversation. He was earlier a driver of broad gauge trains at Bhusawal. Then he took a salary cut in terms of perks he would receive on mainline and came back on this line to live a peaceful life. He himself is a vegetarian, tee-totaler, non-smoker and even does not chew tobacco which he merrily distributes to people. He eats only home-cooked food that too with a little salt and spice. At one station children gathered around the engine and he gave them candies.

One of his so called wives, a widow with a child from earlier husband lives in a village on the route. She came up to the engine and handed him over his tiffin for that night. Every other day he would take the train out from Murtizapur either going south or north and returned the same day. He was a quack of acupuncture as well where he would put pressure on pressure points in hands and shoulders. He gave me a demo of it by working on my hands. I was so intrigued hearing his story that it gave me goosebumps. His life could be made into a movie.

While he narrated his story we passed few stations. All the stations seemed like they are in middle of nowhere. The stations themselves were nothing, just a board and an abandoned stone house. None of these stations had any staff since very long. The guard doubled up as ticket clerk and sold tickets to passengers from his coach window. The sun set while we were on the move. We stopped at a station called Darwah Motibagh which had some staff. It was a tea break station.

From here a new driver joined who would take the train all the way to Murtizapur. This arrangement of another driver was put as it would be really tiring for one person to bring the train all the way from Murtizapur and take it back. Now my driver friend went back to guard coach to rest. The new driver was equally friendly and showered warmth. We now strutted along the countryside in complete darkness. There were hardly any settlement or any road or any other activity. The engines headlight beam was piercing the dark as knife. The stars were out and expectedly denser than what we see in cities. At around 9PM I got off the train at a station called Karanja which is a town. I decided not to travel up to Mutizapur which would be quite late and I may not find a lodging and then I wanted to catch next day's train. I wanted a night's rest before that and I also wanted to eat. I bade goodbye to both the drivers. They informed me that they would be on the north train day after and invited me to join them. According to my plan, I was supposed to return back day after from Chikhaldara so hoped that I would meet them and come back with them from Achalpur. After getting down, I walked through the town which was closing down looking for a lodging. I walked for 20 mins all the way to bus-stop but there was nothing. Then I asked a cycle rickshaw to take me to a decent hotel. He took me to the most decent hotel where I was reminded of CWG saga of our standard of hygiene could be different than theirs. The rooms were filthy though cheap. After looking at few rooms, I settled for least filthy. For dinner I had veg biryani at their restaurant which was spicy. I went to sleep to wake up early for next day's travel. I woke up in time thankfully getting some sleep. After taking a bath quickly left the lodge and went to the bus stand. I was promised that there would be buses going to Murtizapur but there was none and earliest was expected at 6:30 AM which could have been late considering that north train leaves Murtizapur by 7:15 AM and it takes at least 30 minutes to cover the distance. There was a private vehicle which languishingly started a little before 6:30 after loading passengers. I was glad when I reached Murtizapur that train is yet to leave. Infact, both south and north trains were there and drivers and guards were doing final preparation. This was late spring so at this time, there was a nip in the air and sunlight filtered through the haze. The light was great for photography and I took several pictures.

The drivers of north train were not that welcoming even after narrating my stint yesterday with their colleagues. Finding that I wouldn't be lucky this time, I reluctantly settled in one of the coaches at the door. The train lazily started and continued at same slow pace. I was feeling nice, sitting at the door, nice weather and fields passing before my eyes.

We stopped at a station where I hoped that we would find something to eat, at least a cup of tea but found only a small vendor. I had biscuits to satiate my stomach. After some time we reached Banosa aka Daryapur which is a significant town. I was told that train would stop for some time for breakfast etc. The station is adjacent to bus stand which has lot of activity and hence some eateries. I quickly ruches to an eatery and had decent breakfast. There were lot of passengers who got down and embarked on the train. My foot board was taken and had to share with a old, drunken farmer.

Folks in the train were amused at me taking photographs. At one station I saw some folk sitting at the rooftop. I decided to go upstairs myself to enjoy unhindered view and space. Since the train would go maximum to 20 km/h there not much danger of falling off. Though I was very cautious my companions at the rooftop were sleeping! The line went dead straight for most time surrounded by fields at both side which were empty at this time of the year. Here one sows only when there is rain as ground water is limited and irrigation too is not there. After some time we reached Anjangaon which is again a significant town. I decided to detrain here and take bus for onward journey to Paratwada which is the gateway to Chikhaldara.

At Anjangaon I took a auto-rick to bus stand. While I was waiting there I was just taking a stock of where I am? I was hopping from town to town all alone in this part of Vidarbha which is my home. I was not worried here and I thought I would make it through without any trouble. A little a bus came destined to Paratwada coming from Akot. Akot reminded me of my sojourn to Indore in Meter gauge train from Akola. Akot was first major station there. I was in the same territory. The road to Paratwada was a state highway depicting Baitul as one of the destinations 100 km away. Baitul is a station in the heart of Satpura on Delhi-Chennai route very well know to train travelers. I have a wish to visit that town as well but that was for some other time. At Paratwada bus stand there was a bus ready to go to Chikhaldara. I quickly boarded it but it left only 40 minutes later. I was happy to find a window seat as it gets very crowded. After some time we started climbing the hills.There were a couple of wind turbine which are visible from very far away.

It wasn't really cool in the afternoon but town was quaint. When I got down I was thinking where should I stay. I could see there were some lodges around. One guy approached me regarding a hotel and cab to go around. I accompanied him and got a room for Rs. 400/- per night which was decent. The person told me that this being off season, the rooms are available otherwise in season like monsoon and winters, there is lot of rush. After lunch I took a stroll around in the market and found that it is quite laid back.

The place reminded me of Matheran. In the evening I visited a couple of points like Bhimtal and couple of other points. There is a huge garden in the town which had coffee plants. I have been to coffee growing regions like Chikmagloor in Karnataka and found that the atmosphere here is equally salubrious. Next morning I thought of waking up early and visiting the sunrise points which was couple of kms away. While I was still walking up to the point, the sun rose from within the tree leaves.

It wasn't cold just perfect atmosphere. There was no hustle-bustle, in fact not many people could be seen around. I just took a long walk along a circuitous route and came back.

Then I went for breakfast in the eateries near main station. After freshening up I decided to leave the place and head back. Whatever exploration I wanted I had done that and it was enough for me. I got a picture of the place. I decided to come back in season with family to properly explore the place. There is no major towns beyond here as it is mostly forest and very sparsely populated. Most of the people are tribals because of which any commercial activity is anyway discouraged. There is a Project Tiger site close by - Melghat which has significant tiger population. To visit that one has to go to a point called Semadoh from where one could enter it. The entire area must be turning into a heaven in Monsoon but one should have their own sturdy vehicle to visit around.

The return bus was the same I traveled in while coming. The bus got crowded just like while coming up. The settlements on the way have only these buses to their rescue. There did not seem any auto/tempo services probably due to poverty and not much economic activities around. When I reached Paratwada, I was thinking of options. Should I take the train with friendly drivers or should I simply catch a bus to Nagpur but that too via which route? After waiting some time I realized it is time for the train to arrive at Achalpur station. As I had not seen the end of line at Achalpur so I decided to receive the train at Achalpur station and then think of returning. The Achalpur station was surprisingly within 15 minutes walking distance from Paratwada bus stand. I went to another dream again. What if we could extend the narrow gauge line from Achalpur to Chikhaldara? It would be another mountain rail in India. However, my dream was shattered looking at state of Achalpur station. Such dreams require visionaries which sorely are lacking in this part of the world, that is why the region is anyway backward. Probably they are happy in the bare essential existence. The station again like Yavatmal had a passenger reservation system which brought in some footfalls. There was some business activity like ice-cream seller and a nicknack seller. I went around the station and it was similar to Yavatmal, a water tank, a separate line close to water tank with a pit with blackish soil. All signs of steam operation which stopped long back. I went up to the end of line which was just before the road with bushes covering the ground. The train arrived soon and the friendly drivers were happy to see me. The benevolent driver immediately gave me an acu-pressure therapy to my hands and shoulders. I clicked pictures of the train and other artifacts around like levers.

Just like Yavatmal I found a sign of British era with a point lever where "Worcester, England" was etched.

The folks suggested that there is an old bridge just 10 minutes from the station which could be a good subject but I did not have energy to walk that much in heat. The friendly drivers went for their refreshment and I bade them goodbye. My objective of traveling on this line was fulfilled and handsomely covering the two terminals.

I soon came back to Paratwada station where luckily a bus was ready to depart to Nagpur via the route I wanted. The bus started soon and went via Morshi, Warud, Katol. There is a new railway line being laid from Amravati to Narkher which would be a direct short route. We crossed the line at many places but regular operations are yet to start on it. This region is a little blessed in terms of productive soil, water. This region is the Orange county whose produce is traded at Nagpur which gives it the name of Orange city. I saw several orange fields on the route. There is a huge Nal-Damayanti sagar in this region and we skirted around it. The Satpura hills were visible at a distance. How I wish I would be able to visit this region in my own vehicle someday without any plan and savoring this entire region. At Katol, we crossed the main Delhi-Chennai line while sun was setting. After that it was run to Nagpur. The road was dotted with lot of farmhouses. Lucky folks.

That brought down an end to my Vidarbha sojourn.

One step by Anna Hazare; Giant leap for Indians

2011-04-08T11:27:00.000-07:00

I am 32 years old and apart from street protests which are politically motivated and/or for some direct benefit of one community or the other, I hadn't seen any mass uprising for a cause which is higher than the petty gains of either protestors or unscruplous powers to be. There have been uprising for Babri Masjid or against Mandal commission but they are either politically motivated or are due to fear of losing out. However, the current uprising to pass Jan Lokpal Bill has been unprecedented. The politicians have been carefully kept away not to hijack the movement nor it for gains like jobs and reservations. As a contrast recently there was protest by Gujjars to demand quota in government jobs which now seems selfish and people at large were only irritated.

The protest by Anna Hazare has united people like never before. I can now boast that I had laid my eyes on India Against Corruption (IAC) movement few months back by virtue of following Kiran Bedi on twitter and had downloaded and tried to make sense of it but soon gave up. However, I did take part in show of strength rally on 30th Jan 2011 in Pune just like today (9 April 2011). I was cynical at that time that people would not wake up from their slumber. But I am happy to admit that I was wrong. There have been unprecedent number of people who have come out in several cities and towns across India in support of the bill and Anna Hazare and his crusade against corruption. The people of this country were so frustrated that they could not vent out their feelings and this crusade gave them a chance.

Though there are some misgivings and cynicism against the bill and the method taken up by Anna Hazare which I would like to rebut here. Earlier the counter argument was that enacting laws was job of parliament and people cannot participate in it though they can give their suggestions. This was a technical argument and who proposed it missed the spirit of the demand. The demand was to setup a joint committee and draft it jointly after which it will take its usual course in parliament. In any case, constitution is not handed down to us by GOD that we cannot modify it. Even if there is no scope for such a body in constitution then amend the constitution, as simple as that and create a provision for such bodies. Surely the constitution provides provision to amend itself. The other argument is that the bill is not enough and already have plenty. What people don't understand is none of the people heading the movement has said that this bill is panacea for everything. This would be one of the ingredients in the recipe to tackle corruption. Secondly, this bill is not brainchild of Anna Hazare and the coterie. This bill was drafted by govt in 1968 and successive govt have tried to pass it but haven't been able to do so. Anna Hazare and company has only reminded them to do their job which they embarked and do it well. Other argument is that this movement will soon fizzle out and would leave people high and dry. I don't think so that would be the case. The people at the helm of movement have specified a clear cut goal for this particular uprising. They are not fighting for ambiguous goal like rooting out corruption totally. That would take years and generations and several such movements but yes this movement would be one step towards that. Other argument is that it is because of media hype etc. It is true that media has played their role but it is not just print or electronic media. It is the social media too. And if we put all media together they themselves make a sizable mass. Also media does not create stories like this. They wait & watch and just like any business put their mouth where the money is. Ofcourse after that it multiplies. Anna Hazare and co are like enterprenuers who smelled opportunity, setup the shop, got the venture funding and now established players want to join the bandwagon. Other argument is that it will lead us to nowhere and there should be systematic changes etc. But we have to start somewhere. This is not the last battle but the first one. Anyway how long we are going to brood for some super law or mechanism and someone to do it? Now is the time for action. Also, see the collateraly benefit of the movement. It has brought Indians together like never before. There is no divide, rich or poor, color, caste anything. Which other event has done it till today except cricket which is a fickle goal? By keeping the first achievement to be fairly easy the Anna Hazare and co have shown their smartness. If we achieve this, it will bolster the confidence of people to achieve larger thing. It is like encouraging the student easy sum like adding 2+2 and still applauding it. Now that student would be confient of tackling 6+7. Another great thing which came out was large participation by youngsters. It was hard to digest that today's smart, fashionable, tech savvy and hep youngsters were rallying behind a man who doesn't have any style or uncool.

The fast was well-timed I must say. It was immediately after would cup where India won and their is renewed enery in the people. Secondly which also could be the trigger after so many scams in the country and nothing seemed to have moved. Thirdly the timing in the week i.e. wednesday which would culminate into a grand show of strength on weekend i.e. the support would only seem to grow. Goverment was smart to give in on Friday o/w weekend could have metamorphically toppled the government due to inaction. Other thing good was not letting politicians interfering in it. I liked the child like rendition of Anna Hazare instructing anticipating politicians of what to do. Come but on stage, sit in public and listen but don't speak.

Twin encounters

2011-03-05T08:54:00.000-08:00

I have been extra zealous to deal with governmental procedures for last few months that I have been going around to offices doing things myself. In last week I had two encounters which were stark reality of status of affairs.

First one was with PMC office at one of its Regional offices where I had to go to take birth certificate of my child. When I went there to collect it was inefficiency at its best. The chap could not locate my form and printed certificates. Then when it was re-printed there was a mistake with my name being spelt "RUPESH" rather than "ROOPESH" despite me correctly entering that in the form. This was glaring mistake and the chap was restless when I pointed out this mistake. He asked who was the one who entered. I told him it was him. He gave me a look as if I publicly berated him. Didn't he make the mistake in the first place? Though he was quick in calling up central processing unit and get the correction done. Meanwhile the lady sitting at the back, supposedly the treasurer lamented that 4 extra prints would be additional cost of Rs. 50 which they have to account. I told her it is not my concern. She thankfully agreed that I don't need to pay. The chap then made out new prints and handed over the correction and mumbled something that it caused a great trouble to him. I just walked out. There was one more hapless person standing alongside who narrated his incidence of how he has been running pillar to post to get death certificate of his father and even after spoon feeding the name & address still these people managing to make mistakes. I thought about this that just like we have core competencies in IT for employees, their competency is being diligent about entering the data correctly and how they are lousy in that. The wrongly entered data is such a concern, it could stop a passport application or a ration card or even pension to be regulated. When I look at motorists scurrying on the roads I felt as if many of them must be going to get their name corrected in the records.

Second one was with a traffic police who had taken up a vantage point after a turn in our locality. I was merrily riding on my two-wheeler and took that turn and was asked to stop. Then they asked me for license and PUC. I gave both to him. PUC was expired by over a month. Then the drama started. The cop explained that how it is expired and I have to pay fine and had it been 4-5 days he would have let me go. I told to his surprise that I accept my fault and I would pay the fine. I asked him how much is the fine? He belched back asking whether I don't know while he was busy checking another fellow? I said I don't know. He said thousand rupees. To his utter despair I said I would pay and I meant it. Most would just settle for a small amount and move on. He mumbled to himself how people can so much of fine etc. I stood firm and after taking a stroll expecting me to change my mind he said just give hundred rupees and you can go. I said I want the receipt. This was another surprise and out came all sorts of excuses like receipt book is not there and it is with officer who has gone to some wedding. I politely refused that without receipt I am not going to pay up. I think he got irritated by then and let me go saying that get the PUC and come and show him. I came back triumphantly but inside felt defeated. What is the state of affairs in our country? Traffice police rather than stopping polluting vehicles or rash drivers concentrate on seat-belts and PUC certificates of new vehicles. I wonder whether they even know what is the spirit of having PUC and do they expect anyone to be hurt in this crawling traffic? On the other hand helmets are not mandatory due to political dimensions. What convoluted logic!

Meter Gauge Travel in Central India

2011-02-22T10:14:00.000-08:00

Trains in India are ubiquitous which everyone can relate to it and mostly would have traveled in it. However very few people look at it more than as a utility. The railways were one of the path breaking invention and brought in Industrial Revolution. Steel wheels on steel rails reduced friction and provided great way of transporting men and material. Very few people would know much about history of railways in India. It started on 16th April 1853 by running between Bombay VT (now Mumbai CST) and Thane. British rulers for their own sake of administration and trade built railways across length & breadth of India. Earlier Railways were in private hands and each princely state would cater to only their needs. Along with the whims the variation in terrain also led to variation in gauges suitable for train operation.

India became a country with four various gauges, Broad Gauge, Meter Gauge, Narrow Gauge (2 feet 6 inches) & Narrow Gauge (2 feet). Note that we never had Standard gauge in India which is so common in European countries. After independence Railways were nationalized. With growth in economy movement of men and material increased and transferring things from one gauge to another (trans-shipment) became inefficient. To remove this bottleneck railways adopted project Unigauge i.e. converting all gauges narrower than Broad Gauge into Broad. Meter Gauge has been quite common in India with dense networks in North, North-East and South. However, there was no North-South link at the time of independence. Then a line was constructed from Purna to Akola in the 60s decade which connected these two islands. Now it was possible to travel all the way from Rameshwaram to New Delhi on Meter Gauge. However, with project Unigauge the meter gauge is slowly getting converted to broad gauge. The link between North and South was again broken when Akola – Purna section was converted to Broad Gauge. Earlier there used to be passenger trains all the way from Kacheguda (Hyderabad) to Jaipur traversing the heart of India. The line further from Ratlam is already converted to broad gauge. So now there is a section of meter gauge which is left out there isolated from Akola to Ratlam and a spur to Ujjain. This is one of the longest section left with meter gauge in India. For all rail enthusiast who are witnessing sad demise of meter gauge in India, traveling on this section is like experiencing something which will never be like that and there would only be memories to relish. The section passes through one of the remote or not in mainstream areas of this country. There are no major towns once we leave Akola all the way till Indore. The line crosses over Gavilgarh range of hills and then Choral valley which has its namesake river and thick forest. There is one unique thing on this line which is nowhere in India. There is a spiral on this line i.e. the line curves around and goes over itself to gain height (around 80 meters). The loops in Darjeeling are a different thing. There the line doesn’t go over itself.

I along with one friend from Bangalore decided to do this line and date decided was 1st January. The train leaves at 6:00 AM in the morning from Akola. So I had to be at Akola station before that. I booked myself in a bus going to Nagpur which reaches Akola by 4-5 AM. It was a semi-sleeper Volvo bus so slept comfortably. Akola is on the main line from Mumbai to Howrah. The station was abuzz with activity due to constant train traffic. After freshening up at station, we decided to move to the platform which had our train. We had reservations in same coach but different seats. We asked TTE to shift our seats closer. The TTE obliged heartily after hearing that we have come all the way from Bangalore and Pune to travel on this line. It was still dark at 6:00 AM. We left on time and train chugged its way out of Akola.

Akola station in the morning

We kept the window shade open even as it was cold so that we could look outside. The headlight piercing the dark was cool. After 7AM there was some twilight and slowly out of haze and cloud on horizon we witnessed the first sunrise of 2011. Our new year started on good note. The warmth of sun was welcoming in this cold weather.

First Sunrise of 2011

The seat on which we were sitting had an emergency window. These windows are meant for evacuation in case of emergency, so does not have fixed grills on the outside. There is a grill which could be pulled up. This was fortune for us as we could stick our neck out as much as we can and take photographs. A similar window was there on the other side. The train was going at steady pace of around 30 kmph as my companion showed me in his GPS.

Akola - Ratlam Fast passenger

At Akot, we had hot samosas for breakfast which were great in this weather. After Akot at Adgaon Buzurg, a family joined in the same cabin going to Indore. They obliged by giving us the berth with emergency window and went off to sleep. We shifted back and forth from this window to that window and door. The train initially passed through fields of cotton, jowar, wheat which were still under haze due to early morning and crop was glowing in morning sunshine.

Fields along the tracks

We were going parallel to the Gavilgarh Hill range (part of Satpura range) but later took it head on and climbed over it. There were gradients up to 1 in 100 and few tunnels which we passed. The vegetation became thick and train was making tight curves gaining height. We were in fourth coach from rear and could hardly see the engine.

Window to the world

Train passing through thick vegetation

We came to station called Wan Road after which the spiral would come up. The station scene was simple. Rural folks hurrying up & down the platform to get into the coaches exacerbated due to some reserved coaches in the middle. Elderly, men and women carrying kids, sacks, wicker basket and potlis. It was a typical small town chaos but still quite peaceful as compared to cities.

Wan Road station

After Wan Road we were ready with our cameras in anticipation of the spiral. On this way first we pass over the line on a bridge and then come down to pass underneath. We were able to capture the signs of spiral very well.

The line underneath

Board depicting the spiral

After that it was leisurely pace all the way to Khandwa. The train was a “Fast” passenger but stopped at every station. The villages on the route were so small & quaint that it seemed that this train was their only lifeline. The train had significant people traveling, alighting or embarking. I noticed that villages are just a settlement of few houses, not very big, no signs of commercialization like shops, STD/PCO or market. These villages were living in a different reference of time or probably we city dwellers have moved onto another planet. These people may not have seen a computer or an ATM may be only heard about it. The stations had hardly anything to eat, no biscuits, chips or mineral water. Everyone would be out of their homes and watching the train as that is the only visitor in their still life. The weather remained perfect being bright sunny day but chill was in the air.

For some time we passed gingerly through a thickly wooded forest of Sal trees and crossed Tapti river which drains the southern slope of Satpura range.

Semaphore signals

Passing through forest

Tapti river

We passed through stations which make some of the 7 Lakh plus villages and small towns which are there in India. All different but still alike. There is nothing alike in sight but all the same at superficial level. At one such station Tukaithad witnessed sibling brotherhood of three puppies, clinging together to remain warm in cold breeze.

Puppies keeping warmth

Noticed that even though there have been few months since monsoon ended still there was water in streams, rivers and ponds. This was evident in some lush green plantations which we witnessed.

Banana plantation

green

We soon reached Khandwa which is a major junction in MP. The train stopped here for a long time possibly for a crossing. We searched around for some decent lunch but could not get any packed lunch even on the Broad Gauge side and this being lunch time. We settled for some puri subzi which was ok. Our companions had offered us their food which we refused as an etiquette but now I regretted it. They had plenty and it was home cooked food. After Khandwa the speed increased considerably and train started doing 75 kmph which is a normal speed on Meter Gauge. One of the station enroute is Omkareshwar road where the line crosses Narmada river. The bridge is immediately after the station. We readied ourselves and clicked. The river had green-blue water and an old-style road bridge. The river was really wide and shallow. From here onwards we could see people going up on the coaches to sit there.

Narmada River near Omkareshwar

Rooftop traveling

Now we waited for the climax of the day which is Kalakund-Patalpani section which is a ghat section with 1 in 30 gradient. Here a banker engine gets attached at the rear which pushes the train up the gradient.

Train with Banker attached

This region is valley of Choral river. There is a quaint temple on the other side of Choral river at Kalakund station to which drivers at this section pray for safe journey up the ghat.

Temple at Kalakund

Apart from the train phenomena Kalakund is also famous in a small way for its Kalakand which are milk cakes. Not sure whether the name of the place came first or the sweet. It was being sold on the station and we had a taste of it. There were two varieties one too sweet and one mild.

This was evening time and valley was glowing with orange sunlight. The valley was really wonderful with trees, fields and river. We were sticking to the edge of mountain and passed through many twists and turns and tunnels and witnessed the choral valley.

Choral river valley

Train trudging along the section

There is a point from where famous Patalpani falls are visible. The point comes in a flash and goes away. I could not get a good view of that though water too was very less. However, I saw that there was a mela like situation at the top of the falls and many people had walked across the railway line to get a good view of the falls. Soon we reached Patalpani station where all the Sunday revelers who might have come to visit the falls attacked the train. The train was jam packed now. The banker engine was detached and we proceeded to Mau.

Train packed leaving Patalpani

Mau is a small town important because of its cantonment. In English it is spelled as MHOW which translates to Military Headquarters of War. It is also a major Meter Gauge station and has regular services to Indore, Ujjain, Ratlam. It has shed for maintenance of meter gauge locos and other rolling stock. We were tired by now and hoped that train reaches Indore on time. However, it took its time to reach Indore just like a river when it meets the sea. My companion decided to go up to Mau and catch the train back all the way to Akola as he had to reach Hyderabad next day. I decided to stay over in Indore for the night and start next day. I inquired about the retiring room. The lady and gent attendant doubly made sure that I was alone and there is no one with me and I was not in a hanky-panky business. There were only double rooms over there for price of 300 with 24-hours checkout. I asked at the enquiry and to the caretaker about hot water for a bath but did not give any clear answer. The housekeeper who opened the room said that there is a 24-hrs hot water supply. Once I checked into the room I was delighted. The room was huge with high ceiling, clean room and linen and bathrooms and yes there was really hot running water. Where else do you get all this for 300?

Retiring room at Indore MG station

After freshening up I went to bus-stand to checkout bus timings. There was a wedding reception of one of my colleague which I could attend on Sunday the next day at Aurangabad where people from our office were expected. I thought it would be very easy to reach Aurangabad it being a big town. There were not many buses in the day still I made a mental plan to take a bus and go upto Dhule and from there to Aurangabad and reach there by 6-7 PM. In the morning I took a round of the station. The housekeeper came to provide tea and newspaper. What a royal service!

After leisurely checking out I went to bus-stand. The MP Road Transport seem to be compromised. There were only private buses visible and agents hawking to the passengers and there was even a report in local newspaper about how govt is unable to control transport mafia. I steered clear of them and walked towards Maharashtra buses which I thought would be familiar and faster. As I was walking towards it, a person came to me and said the MP transport bus is leaving early. I guessed that since its a state transport bus so it would go swiftly to Dhule but it did not turn out that way. As soon as bus started moving I regretted the decision. The crew was collecting passengers like local bus and stuffing them inside. My companion too turned out to be a student heading for Pune coming from Kota. I just grinded my teeth and kept humoring myself that such misadventures happen and one has to take such things in stride. The bus soon came to NH-3 Agra – Mumbai highway. The road is a pleasure and bus also did not disappoint and kept good speed. After some 70 odd km it got off and went inside a town called Dhamnod. I soon realized that Dhamnod, Sendhwa and Shirpur are towns enroute where it is going to stop. I just gave into it and focussed on the terrain and passengers. The passengers were from rural background. The towns were crowded and filthy. Even Indore did not impress me much. The place where I had dinner had a number of restaurants. There was crowd but no management. The road was cobbled stones and passing vehicles had to manouvere through the street, no policeman in sight to control. The bus-stand itself was shabby and did not look like serving a big city. We stopped at all three towns but did not get time enough to have food. I thought of having food at Dhule if we reach in reasonable time. The road as it was good earlier turned out to be bad later on. The construction or maintenance work was going on and mostly it was blocked to be made a single lane. This led to reduction in speed and jams. This was the situation all the way to Dhule. Once we reached Dhule I enquired about bus to Aurangabad. There was one ready coming from Nandurbar. It already had people sitting. The next bus was an hour away so without wasting time and skipping having any food I decided to take the bus. Till Chalisgaon we proceeded well and was hoping to reach Aurangabad by 8:15 PM. However at Chalisgaon there was huge crowd waiting for the bus. As the bus came to halt there were handkerchiefs, bags, shawls being put in from the window to occupy the seats. I managed to get a seat in front. The bus got jampacked. Soon it left and while passing through the town was intercepted by a procession. Intially it looked like a marriage procession but turned out to be a religious one. Our bus was simply stuck and the procession refused to subside. After half and hour the driver reversed the bus and took it through another route. With my plan evaporating in thin air I turned caustic and cursed the state of affairs in our country. Anyways, after the town there was a big ghat road which was full with trucks and it took lot of time to cross that. After becoming numb from constant travel and losing hope of making it to some comfort of the wedding reception I just sat still. We finally reached Aurangabad bus station at 9:15 PM which was too late. I called up a colleague who had come to reception and consulted with him and agreed that I will not come now and it was too late. So, first thing I did was have dinner at a hotel. Since I was hungry since morning I treated myself to local delicacy of Mutton thali which tasted amazing. After filling my stomach I enquired about buses to Pune. There was one semi-delux bus ready to leave at 10:30PM. I simply got into it for another 5 hour journey. I managed some sleep in the bus and woke up only near Pune and was comfortably dropped on the highway point near by house which is 10 minutes walking distance. I considered this to be fortune as getting an auto at 3 in the morning would not have been easy. I walked back home, had hot water bath and crashed in the bed. I had started from Indore at 9 in the morning and reached only at 3 AM to Pune traveling in three different buses for 18 hours. What a journey it had been.

Around Pune - Bhuleshwar, Narayanpur and Baneshwar

2010-11-17T01:56:00.000-08:00

Buleshwar, Narayanpur and Baneshwar are three religious locations around Pune. Since my parents are in town I thought of covering these three in a day as a pilgrimage.

Bhuleshwar is famous for a 13th century temple of Lord Shiva on top of a hill. The temple is unique because of its architecture. From outside it appears to more as a mosque than a temple due to its resemblance to Islamic architecture like circular tomb and minarets.

Legend says that it was done so that temple is not destroyed by invaders. However, the carvings inside are stupendous and comparable to one finds in Ajanta and Ellora but alas many of them are broken. There are depictions of scenes from Ramayan and Mahabharata on either side of temple like "Sita-haran", "Bharat-Milap" etc.

Bhuleshwar is 8 km inside Pune-Solapur highway from a point just before Yavat town around 60 km from Pune. This area is not very populated so there was hardly any rush at the temple. It was one of the unique sites I have seen.

From Bhuleshwar we went to Saswad on internal road and from there to Narayanpur. It is famous for Lord "Dattatreya" and "Narayaneshwar" temple and this being hindu "Karthik" month there were lot of pilgrims. We had darshan at both the temples. After that we proceeded to Balaji temple, replica of Tirupati, built by Venky's group a little away from Narayanpur. However, due to paucity of time and having visited it earlier we skipped this one and went to Baneshwar which is a couple of kms inside Mumbai-Bangalore highway around 40 kms from Pune. The temple is situated in a protected forest area. It was quite and serene over there. The temple complex has two tanks which has fish and turtles who are dearly fed by devotees. There is a shivling dipped in water where devotees immerse coins. It is said that if the coin lands on top of shivling then it is a good sign. Beyond temple is the park area with nursery, sitouts etc. where families can relax and make merry. There is also a small bio-diversity education center which was well crafted. There is a small waterfall as well where one can go through a trail and dip their legs in running water. The whole place is great picnis spot for families. We bought 3 plants for Rs. 15 each from the nursery. After spending some time we returned back to Pune. It took us total 8 hours from door to door for this trip which was well worth the effort.

Koyna and Konkan

2010-10-10T12:08:00.000-07:00

During 15th Aug weekend, we planned a trip to Koyna region. Koyna is a region nestled in the Sahaydri mountains (western ghats) of Maharashtra whose claim to fame is Koyna Dam. Koyna Dam forms a lake in Sahayadri mountains which goes 70 km all the way up to Mahabaleswar (Tapola). It is one of the largest Hydroelectric dam projects of independent India and even Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru paid a visit here during its construction post-independence. It generates 560 MW of electricity.

Beautiful Koyna Dam

There is a small town called Koyna Nagar close to the dam which forms the base of this region. The town is around equidistant from two major towns Karad & Chiplun on west and east side on either side of western ghats. The route from Pune was to go south on NH-4 till Umbraj just before Karad and from there turn right on state highway to Chiplun via Patan. Once we are onto state highway the traffic becomes minial and greenery all around. Soon one can see mountains awashed with nubile grass on slopes and rugged green plains. There is a river which accompanies on the left which is full and clean. We stopped at several places to take in the surroundings.

There is a gentle ascend to reach Koyna Nagar. We stayed at the MTDC resort there which is around 1-2 km above the town on hill slope. It was an ordinary place though it was fully occupied due to holidays. The dam and its lake behind is the main attraction visible from various viewpoints. There is a Nehru Garden which is a nice place to relax and also to view a short documentary about the dam and its construction.

Koyna dam from distance

Koyna dam with background

Next day we went to a fall known as Ozarda which I had never heard of before. But it didn’t disappoint and was in full force. The waterfall is inside a protected park and one has to trek for 20 minutes to reach the base of falls though it is visible from far. The water was in such a force that it created a mist around and one could get wet evening being far from falling water. No one can dare stand under it anyways. The curved hill created a performance like an amphitheater.

small water streams around main Ozarda fall

Main Ozarda waterfall

Closeup of pointed rock taking pounding from the fall

Here we saw a huge boulder covered with moss and small flowers epitomizing the saying that ‘even rocks can breed flowers’.

Even rocks can breed flowers

This was peak monsoon time so territory around was splendidly green in all its hues and waterfalls every now and then.

One of many waterfalls

Back side of dam lake

Our red car in the midst of green

Next day our destination was Guhagar, a town at seashore going through the town of Chiplun. This was going to be a foray into Konkan region of Maharashtra which is famous for Alphonso mangoes. It was a nostalgic journey for me having come to this area some 18 years back with my cousin and sisters. We had come from Solapur, stationed at Chiplun and went to Guhagar and Velneshwar, another small town on the coast. All these years I remembered names of these towns. As soon as we rounded the bend at ‘Ghat Matha‘ which is the mountain pass to the other side of western ghats I knew I have seen this before. I have a faint memory of that time getting scared looking at the valley below with a small river while the ST bus swerved at every bend. This is ‘Kumbharli ghat‘ towards Chiplun. There is a hotel at the pass which is a view point to the valley below. Due to hills coming up in such a configuration that there is always wind at this point with clouds rising from the valley below. The Kumbharli ghat was so beautiful that morning that we stopped several times at various vantage points looking at the green hills covered with white clouds. The clouds were moving at fast pace presenting a fresh view at every blink. The road and mountain slope was misty.

Misty road at Ghat Matha

Clouds rising up in the valley

Taking a break on the ghat

Clouds clinging to hill tops like they are on fire

Seat to heaven

The hills here had lot of power transmission lines due to Koyna Dam. Sometimes I feel that though western ghats are very less in height compared to Himalayas but still they are as mysterious and unexplored as they are dense.

Transmission lines coming from Koyna Dam

Kids at roadside village

Slowly we got down the ghat and reached Chiplun. Again I tried to recall if I remember anything from 18 year trip back. However, the town did not give opportunity as it was congested and difficult to maneuver.

Chiplun to Guhagar was low lying hill drive with dense forest around.

Enroute Guhagar from Chiplun

Guhagar had few tourists who might have come due to it being Sunday. We went out to the sea shore. I remember this was my first ever sighting of sea in my lifetime when I came here when I was you young. The name Guhagar is forever etched in my memory. We walked around in the town. and had our lunch.

Beach at Guhagar

Later we headed to Velneshwar where we had even spent a day at my cousin’s acquaintance but couldn’t recall which house it was? The drive as it was till now scenic with undulating hills with densest greenery.

Just before Velneshwar town

We paid visit to the main temple in town which seemed to have been recently painted.I must have been to this temple but couldn’t recall.

Temple at Velneshwar

The beach seemed familiar with hump like hill at the background. The sea was rough but lot of catamarans were out there in the sea. It was mostly secluded as I could remember from my memory. How these places are stuck in a time warp.

Beach at Velneshwar visiting after 18 years

Catamarans out in the sea

After sometime we drove to Hedvi another coastal town famous for its Lord Ganesha temple. The temple was well-built and calm. The seafront was rocky though.

Seashore at Hedvi looking south

Soon we headed back as we wanted to cross the ghat till sunlight lasts. The drive up the ghat was fine. We stopped at the hotel at Ghat Matha to have tea & pakoras. They tasted divine in this setting. It was quite chilly in the evening there due to cool wind.

Shredded clouds in the evening in the valley

The hotel at Ghat Matha from distance

Next day we drove back to Pune via same route as we came.

Lakes, Dams & Hills around Pune

2010-07-13T02:01:00.000-07:00

This Sunday we ventured out for the first time during this monsoon season for a round trip of lakes, dams & hills around Pune. After a little research found that there is a circuitous route of around 130 kms which takes us through Temghar, Lavasa, Varasgaon, Panshet and Khadakvasla and then back to Pune. Temghar, Varasgaon, Panshet, Khadakvasla are known for dams and lakes formed behind them which supply water to Pune city. They all are situated in Sahayadri range of mountains as this part of Western Ghats is called in Maharashtra. This season rains have been very scarce till now in and around Pune. I could feel that by noticing that I have not been caught in rains since it started a month back while walking to & fro from the office. Newspaper carry reports of how there has been very less rains in catchment areas of these dams & lakes and there could be paucity of water if it doesn't rain properly. We saw that first hand on this trip.

We started from home at around 9AM and had quick breakfast of Poha and Tea in an eatery close to our house. After that it was driving through Pune city for 20 odd kms to go to the other end of city to a place called "Chandni Chowk" from where roads criss-cross going to Bangalore, Mumbai, Mulsi (our direction) and back to Pune. The name is similar to "Chandni Chowk" in Delhi but similarity ends there. While on the road to "Mulshi" which is the biggest dam & lake around Pune, saw lot of youngsters on bikes going towards Mulshi / Tamhini ghat which are well known execursions. Tamhini ghat is end of Deccan plateau or Western ghats, gateway to Konkan region from Pune side. When monsoon is in its glory, there are waterfalls created in every crevice of the mountains where people bathe and make merry. We were going to skip that and go towards Temghar/Lavasa. Lavasa is a new township coming up on the hills around and on shore of Varasgaon lake which has elite residences, landscaping, educational and office space and is being highly promoted to attract investors. We decided to check it out as a side-effect to this trip. However, we were disappointed to see the township from a vantage point and later going around it. It seemed an eyesore from a distance with lot of finished and unfinished apartments, construction paraphernalia etc. I sometime wonder how clumsily we out this activity called "construction" even it is for a world class elite township. Having been just back from Seattle where entire city is developed around lakes, I had another picture in mind. Hopefully after finishing the township will live up to its hype.

For coming to Lavasa we had taken a left turn on Mulshi road to ride on "Temghar-Lavasa road". It was a nice drive thanks to good road which approaches this elite township. There were a couple of small ghats on this road which were full of great views. Best was clouds & mist shrouding the long & high and of hills like an amphitheatre then a gentle slope covered with trees into the valley with neat rectangular fields which are bare brown or sown with paddy. Then a temple cone rising above the houses. It was a sight to behold.

We stopped at Temghar dam but found it to be virtually empty. There was only a "chullu bhar paani" if I could use that metaphor for a dam. Though it was cloudy and inclement weather but rain was only spotty.

After Lavasa we took the road which very few people take to go to Panshet via Varasgaon. We asked a group of bikers about condition of road which they described as not good. We anyways went on it just to complete our circle and take things as they come. The road was indeed bad but there was virtually nobody on the road only occasional bike or car. There were sparse villages with no business on the road. The road hugs the lake formed by Varasgaon dam. However again there was not much water in the lake. One could clearly make out the green line up to which dam must be getting full. The water was more like a small river.

The greenery around more than made up for it. We stopped on many occasions to admire the beauty around.

At one point we stopped for a small "Tila" which was carpeted by grass and there were some white flowers on it. We hiked up and it turned into a small plateau like "Bugyal" as it is called in Garhwal. It was as if we discovered a hidden treasure. The moist breeze, surrounded by hills and mood made us revel at this place.

Due to remoteness of this route, there was no eatery and we were left hungry nibbling at whatever snack we carried from home.

We reached Panshet where we noticed people who have come down to visit Panshet and around from Pune. Panshet dam and lake shore was not accessible due to a recent accident of couple of youngsters drowning while boating. So we hurried from there. The river which was coming out of Panshet dam was now meandering along with the road. At one place, one of the resorts around this place had cleared some space on the banks of river and created a small park with benches where one could sit and admire the river and hills beyond. It was nice to sit around leisurely over there.

After that we proceeded to Khadakvasla. This place is the outskirts of Pune and is famous for home to NDA (National Defence Academy). We reached there at around 5 PM and it was heavily crowded. All the Sunday evening rush had gathered there. Because of lack of proper parking facility had to painfully look for a parking place. Sweet corn vendors were doing brisk business. Thankfully, this lake was quite full with water and there were waves due to breeze. We stood in water for sometime but left soon without waiting for the sunset.

After Khadakvasla it was just a monotonous drive back home cutting across Pune city. Pune city is blessed in the sense there are plenty of places with natural beauty around it which are in their full glory in monsoon. You go 20 kms out and you have green carpeted hills and mist and you are in the midst of nature. Hopefully the rains would improve and make the scenes around rich and fill up dams & lakes to see us through next year.

Vaishno Devi trip

2010-04-27T07:55:00.000-07:00

This was one of the most rail intensive trips done in recent times. 5 trains, 4 nights in trains out of 6 days of travel.

Pune - Hazrat Nizamuddin by Karnataka Sampark Kranti
New Delhi - Jammu by Uttar Sampark Kranti
Jammu - Ambala Cantt by Uttar Sampark Kranti
Ambala - Chandigarh by bus
Chandigarh - New Delhi by Kalka Shatabdi
Hazrat Nizamuddin - Pune by Duronto Express

The trip was became possible on short notice thanks to Vaishno Devi tour package of IRCTC. The reservations are full during this time of the year for almost all trains. Same was the case with trains to Jammu which are anyway overflowing. However, there was a package available for Vaishno Devi including return tickets to Jammu. Once got a go ahead from office, immediately booked it. The package was mere 1300/- for a person on double occupancy basis including return ticket to Jammu by Sleeper accommodation in train, to and fro bus transfer to Katra, hotel in Katra and drop up to Banganga. This was value for money, no frills but less hassles as well. The booking to and from from Pune was thanks to VIP quota in trains.

Pune to Hazrat Nizamuddin was slow due to single line route from Pune via Daund, Manmad, Bhusawal etc. The train reached late in Nizamuddin by two hours. We had packed all meals of the day breakfast, lunch, dinner and drinks, so did not have to order from outside. So, journey was comfortable in AC three tier. For New Delhi to Jammu travel, we arrived an hour early to collect the train tickets and itinerary from IRCTC representatives. They were very helpful but probably they can do a bit more clinical by putting a temporary booth on platform and more professional attitude. However, there was no hassles. There we ate the "Janta Khana" which is 6 "pooris" and "aloo subzi" for Rs. 10/- along with "masala" corn and juice. IRCTC has really put catering on stations. The coach got crowded with all sorts of unreserved passengers including army men inconveniencing the reserved people. They all congregated around gate, toilet and slept even on the vestibule. Anyways, since the journey was only overnight, so it was OK. I pointed this to one of the patrolling policeman, who replied with a helplessness citing that reserved passengers don't utter anything. I am not sure how can reserved passengers without authority ask unreserved passengers to push over. Anyways, the train was really fast and kept time throughout.

At Jammu station, we were asked to come to bus-stand outside where local buses were ready to go to Katra. IRCTC probably chooses any one bus on time and ask passengers to board. The bus was manned by an irritating conductor who was out to ensure that he is not shortchanged. He argued with almost all the groups in the bus including us. Not sure why was he so pissed. I was having pity on him and was a sour start of the tour. Anyways, our spirits were brightened when we checked into the hotel. It was a decent double occupancy room with running hot water and working TV etc. We were expecting some dormitory or shabby accommodation thinking how would IRCTC make money but room was above expectation. After freshening up and gorging on "paranthas", we set out for the visit. We had befriended one family from Delhi and we had common "Yatra" ticket. They were veterans of Vaishno Devi trip visiting it every year so they guided us very well and we did not have to ask around much.

We were dropped up to Ban Ganga by hotel which was also included in the package. We then started on foot. First few kilometers had all the shops like eateries, drinkeries, selling prasad and other paraphernalia. The sun was out full but heat was not intense and we walked without much discomfort. After few kilometers newly built plain road started where ponies are not allowed. This stretch was leisurely walk without much incline. We took regular breaks. For food we had staple diet of this region, "Rajma-Chawal". It was tasty and economical for Rs. 25/per plate. Soon we reached the "Bhavan". There was enough facilities of bathing and locker. Soon we were in the queue for "Darshan". To relief of our aching soles, we did not have to stand in queue for long and Bhavan was almost empty. We walked up to the coveted tunnel in the sanctum-sanctorum and had good 10 seconds in front of the deity. There was no rush or pushing. We had probably the best Darshan according to out companions who come here every year. After that we sat in the precincts outside for full 5 minutes savoring the peaks around. It was a beautiful sight alas we could not capture it on camera. It is said that the peaks around Bhavan get snow in winters. The policemen there shoved us away after that. We collected our "prasad" and coconut and came out. Now it was time to visit "Bhairon Ghati" without whose "Darshan" the trip is not complete. Though the route is just 1.8 kms but it is quite steep. We took stairs to save time and walk. We were exhausted after climbing up to Mandir. Just in front of Mandir, there is platform built for devotees to rest. Due to rush in the Mandir, we decided to rest a bit. This platform was a vantage point for valley beneath hosting Katra and villages beyond. It was an emerald carpet of lights and cool breeze blowing at this height made it a chilly spiritual spot. It would have been a lovely romantic spot had it not been overwhelmed by spirituality.

After Darshan of mandir it was time to retreat back via Adhkuwari where there is a tunnel from which people have to crawal out. The downhill was little better to sore legs. We took break for dinner where there was no chole bhature but Rice, "daal", "rajma" and "kadhi". This time we tried "daal" and "kadhi". At Adhkuwari, it was very crowded with pilgrims coming up and those taking rest or waiting to go into tunnel ("gufa"). For "gufa" entry one has to take a token which for would have taken next day, so we skipped and just had darshan of the mandir. It was around 12AM in the night. After this we decided to return back to hotel. We walked and walked which seemed to be endless walk due to aching legs. We finally came to Ban Ganga where the vehicle was there to receive us. We gladly packed in and reached hotel and crashed into bed. We walked almost 25 kms on foot which was a feat for both me and my wife. Though I have walked this much before but for her it was a lifetime record.

Next day woke up at around 10 AM and lazily did the chores and got ready for 2:30 PM departure to Jammu. The journey was uneventful though it became hot by the time we came to Jammu station. Since, there was 2-3 hours of time for our train, so we decided to wait in the station. The station was teeming with people like I have never seen before. There were devotees, army and other security personnel and security sensitive area made the atmosphere of the station tensed. We managed in the waiting room which was on big hall with people spread out the floor. We got into the train which left on time and was quick. We de-boarded in Ambala Cantt to visit one of our acquaintance in Chandigarh. We reached there at 4:30 AM and slept. In the evening we had booked our journey by Shatabdi. My wife was traveling for the first time in Shatabdi so was pleasantly surprised to see the ambiance and service in the train. We had nice comfortable journey till we reached outskirts of New Delhi. It being a hotbed of train traffic, we crawled from signal to signal for more than 30 minutes to finally reach New Delhi station. We had booked ourselved in Ginger Rail Yatri Niwas hotel, double occupancy for 999/- which was worth. The room was modern with AC, TV and clean interiors though slightly compact. Anyways, the easy walk to hotel from station and quick check-in is what was required. After a warm bath we went to sleep. This hotel was worth value for money being close to station in the heart of Delhi with such amenities and easy booking over internet.

Next morning it was time to head back to Pune by Duronto express which leaves from Nizamuddin. We started early but everything was quick, checking out, getting an auto and drive to station. We reach an hour early. Our reservation was not confirmed but found that it is confirmed. So, heaved relief with this and considering that it would be a Rajdhani-style hourney with less journey time and catering on board. The train food is all so predictable and taste alike be it loaded in Chandigarh, Delhi or Ratlam. We got a paneer subzi, daal, two paranthas, curd and rice on all three occasions. The train however didn't disappoint and was getting green signal throughout. It was speedy throughout and reached all the stations like Kota, Ratlam, Vadodara on time and eventually Pune 10 minutes early. The route was unexpected for me as I did not find out about route. It went through Vasai Road, Kalyan and over Bhor ghats to Pune. The last hour run from Lonavala to Pune was spectacular. We had slept tight in the night so we were not stiff in the morning.

After a quick auto-ride with metered fare we were home well before 8 AM.

Around Pune

2009-09-06T06:45:00.000-07:00

Morachi Chincholi

“Morachi chincholi” literally means village of Tamarind trees (chinch) & Peacocks (mor). It’s a small village around 40-50 kms from Pune away from the main highway. There is an entrepreneurial trust called “Jai Malhar” has realized the potential and built a small ethnic village of sorts spread over 25 acres. For Rs. 200/- one has entire day to relax in the surroundings including lunch and evening refreshments. The place has farm fields, nursery of roses, agriculture school, small zoo, tree house and models depicting rural life of Maharashtra and of course tamarind trees. Tamarind trees are quite beautiful with black trunk and branches and million light green compound leaves which spread over a huge canopy. They are dense and provide lot of shade. The place also has an Astronomy science room giving lot of information for kids. Peacocks were slightly difficult to spot as they remain mostly on trees during the day, visible through the branches of the tree. Only in the evening did they come down and go around. We also had a bullock cart ride and tractor trailer ride on the bumpy rural road. The lunch was amazing with Bhakri, Pithla, Bharli vangi and four types of chutneys. I could go there only for having that meal again :) The trust is a great example of rural sustainable model where you make the best of the locally available resources.

Shivneri

Shivneri fort is birthplace of great Maratha leader Shivaji. His early days of life were also spent on this fort where he got initial training on warfare and politics. The fort as most of the forts is situated on a hilltop close to Junnar town. This was an easy fort to climb and go around. The fort was clean, green and serene with lot of varieties of plants having been planted. The day was beautiful with gentle rain playing hide and seek but sun out and slight wind. The stone building where Jijabai gave birth to Shivaji was a rectangular stone building with windows at one side looking at the valley where Junnar town is now located. There were many viewpoints around the fort where one could look out to valley and distant mountains, fields and villages and admire them.

Purandar

Purandar fort is another of Shivaji fort but which saw lot of action. It is situated near Narayanpur village, close to Saswad on Pune-Pandharpur road. There is a cantonment inside the fort but the motorable road to fort is very bad and goes around a bit. There is a trek route which is difficult but doable in 1-2 hours. When I reached there it was raining profusely but with breaks. I decided to climb the usual route but got lost a bit. After some deliberations and inquiry from retreating folks, got the correct direction and climbed. Due to rain, the mud had become slippery and the trek route was steep at some places, so it was quite a feat. The hills on which Purandar fort stands and adjacent hills on which stands a sister fort Vajragad creates an amphitheatre of sorts. It was mesmerizing to see these rocky hills covered with green carpet and grey clouds shrouding the top of the hills. On reaching the top I was quite drenched and surrounding were foggy and spooky so I did not venture much. There was a small canteen shop which was doling out hot tea and biscuits to whoever was coming there. On return I decided to go down the road just to enjoy rain and surroundings. Soon I took shortcut trails in the mountain slope, went around a little here and there but eventually managed to come down without much trouble.

Bhimashankar

Bhimashankar is one of the 12 jyotirlingas. It is nestled deep in the Sahayadri mountains road to which itself is dramatic climbing the hills and going through a forest. Just like any other trip, the journey was destination and we enjoyed quite a lot of scenic vistas around. At one point on the ascent to the hill, we saw a valley with muddy, winding river disappearing into valley further and a small village nestled at the loop. The scene was right out of picture postcard and we envied the people who were living in that village. The temple had a mile long queue of devotees thronging due to Saturday being holiday and it being month of “Shravan”. We couldn’t manage to go around much except Bombay Point which is edge of the hill range from where if we look straight we are looking towards Bombay. That day being overcast, there was no chance of even looking at valley down below clearly however changing views due to clouds shifting was a great entertainment. On return we went upto Babu Genu dam which is over an unknown river visible while ascending towards Bhimashankar from the road.

Koyna

Koyna Nagar is a small town nestled in the Sahaydri mountains whose claim to fame is Koyna Dam. Koyna dam is quite famous due to its scale. It forms a lake in Sahayadri mountains which goes upto 70 km all the way upto Mahabaleswar (Tapola). It was one of the largest dam projects of independent India and even Jawaharlal Nehru paid a visit here during its construction. It generates 560 MW of hydroelectric power. The dam and its lake behind is the main centre of attraction visible from various viewpoints. There is a Nehru Garden which is a nice place to relax and also to view a short documentary about the dam. The town is around equidistant from two major towns Karad & Chiplun on west and east side. There is a famous fall known as Ozarda which I had never heard of before. But it didn’t disappoint and was in full force. The waterfall is inside a protected park and one has to trek for 20 minutes to reach the base of falls though it is visible from far. The water was in such a force that it created a mist around and one could get wet evening being far from falling water. No one can dare stand under it anyways. Next day our destination was Guhagar, a town at seashore going through the town of Chiplun. It was a nostalgic journey for me having come to this area some 18 years back with my cousin and sisters. We had come from Solapur, stationed at Chiplun and went to Guhagar and Velneshwar. As soon as we rounded the bend at Ghat Matha which is the mountain pass to the other side of Sahayadri mountain I knew I have seen this before. I have a faint memory of that time getting scared looking at the valley below with a small river. This is Kumbharli ghat towards Chiplun. There is a hotel at the pass which is a view point to the valley below. Due to location of hills there is always wind at this point with clouds rising from the valley below. The Kumbharli ghat was so beautiful that we stopped around 5 times at various vantage points looking at the green hills covered with white clouds. Chiplun to Guhagar was low lying hill drive with dense trees around. Guhagar had few tourists who might have come due to it being Sunday. We then headed to Velneshwar where I had even spent a day but I didn’t recall at whose house it was? After Velneshwar, we went to Hedvi and paid visit to Ganesh temple there.

Jejuri

Jejuri is a small town around 50 km from Pune on Pune-Pandharpur road. It is famous for temple of lord “Khandoba” who was a warrior and killed demons. I have heard of Jejuri many times as being a station on Kolhapur line, people with surname Jejurikar and even a Marathi song “Chala Jejuri la jau”. We covered the distance in hour and a half going through Saswad. The temple is situated on a small hill top but well constructed like a stone fort with steep stair climb. There is a peculiar ritual here is to anoint the deity and several other small points spread around the temple with turmeric which makes the surroundings yellow. Even devotees get anointed with turmeric, the more you put the more devoted you are.

All the photos around Pune are here.

Oregon/Portland/Columbia River

2009-02-01T02:02:00.000-08:00

During these recession time, just two days before Obama taking oath as 44th president of USA, I landed into USA in Bellevue, Washington state near Seattle. On very first weekend break, a close friend (Samrat) planned a trip down south in Oregon state to visit waterfalls in Columbia River Gorge. It is one of the many natural beauty sites which have been declared as National Scenic area by US govt. I had no involvement in planning of this trip as I hardly researched anything this time before coming. Samrat being his enthusiastic self and shouldering responsibility of taking entourage of 16 folks including his and two other families hired one of the biggest personal passenger vehicle in US, a Ford 16 seater. It was test of his cheerfulness as he drove 200 miles without any help and simultaneously cheering up rest of the crowd. The weather turned out to not the way we expected. It turned cloudy and started snowing as soon as we crossed Columbia river into the state of Oregon. Other than its natural beauty and liberal city of Portland, Oregon is also know as state with no Sales tax on commodities. This fact was on every one's mind and even on a recreation trip, we shopped at soon to close CircuitCity chain. But before that we first went to see what we came here for, the waterfalls. The mountain slope along Columbia River highway is home to many scenic vistas and watefalls. There would have had many waterfall streams otherwise had it not been chilly winters. This was the first time I saw frozen waterfalls, white patches on otherwise green slopes. Still there was water on the bigger ones. One of them, the biggest, is known as Multnomah waterfall which is the second largest drop in height of water after famous Niagra. Even in the bone chilling weather, the waterfall felt beautiful. There was frozen water around but a huge stream of water still dropping from height. The waterfall is in two stages. There is a beautiful arch bridge built in front of the falls which when looked from a distant casts a spell. Before Multnomah, we went to one more fall called Bridal Veil for which we had to walk a little as it was hidden in forest. The drop was not much but flow was powerful. By the time we were done with these, everyone had enough of chilly weather. So, we headed back to our hotel, Holiday Inn, which we had booked for us in Gresham, adjacent area to Portland. It snowed a little overnight and our plans of going to Mt. Hood were dashed. The reason for that was that in snow, vehicles are supposed to put chains on tyres so that they don't skid. We with rented vehicle did not opt for this. So, soon plan was made to visit the Portland city and have brunch at an India restaurant called "Swagat". The restaurant as if to our convenience starts lunch buffet at 11:30 AM. As we reached there, we were one of the first customers of the day. A bunch of 16 desis getting down from a vehicle which barely fit them would have been quite a sight for the people around. Nevertheless, we had a sumptuous lunch at the buffet though it was only palatable. We were done by 1 PM and we had to start heading back, so we were left with only 2 hours. After lot of deliberations, we decided to park at riverfront of Hood river and everybody goes his way and comes back in time. I chose to stick to riverfront promenade cum park. The confluence of Hood & Columbia river is near by. Portland is also known for Mt. Hood which looms large are visible from most part of the city on clear day. This was Sunday morning and a few Portland residents were out there exercising or just bathing in the precious sunlight though it was cold enough. Portland is know as heaven for gay folks and known for its weirdness. I read that some of local businessmen even pasted stickers all over the city to help keep city weirdness!! The city though did not seem to so busy had a tramway of its own which ran on vehicular roads though I did not try to step into it. After lot of wait for others, we finally headed back to Bellevue. The journey was quick given to beautiful road and day light still remaining. All in all an enjoyable trip.

All the photos can be seen here.

Three Mistakes of My Life by Chetan Bhagat

2008-09-19T23:24:00.000-07:00

Read this book by Chetan Bhagat after reading Five Point Someone. Like his first book, there are three young male characters with different idiosyncrasies and how they keep up with each other. The story is based on the backdrop of Gujarat earthquake and riots immediately after that. Its a fictional story woven around real life situations. This is a new trend of storytelling which is emerging where the acts of characters are aligned to real events. For example, the movie "Yun Hota Toh Kya Hota" by Naseeruddin Shah ended where protagonists were sitting next to folks who flew plane into WTC causing 9/11.

I am neutral about this book as it left with me many unanswered questions. How come the duo go away with killing so many people? Did they have any guilt in their hearts after that incident as many of them could be from their neighborhood? How could the duo live in the same neighbourhood, work in the same shop but not speak for so long? It wasn't clear whether Ish did not speak to Govind due to his affair with his sister?

Still, the brilliance is the ease of language and captivating narration which keeps the reader going and either finish the book in couple of days or can pick up from where he left without regression.

Coffee, hills, foliage and beaches

2007-08-30T11:54:00.000-07:00

[ Please look at here for pictures from this trip ]
Coffee, hills, foliage and beaches were themes of my journey driving a car through Karnataka recently (August 2007) along with couple of friends. We cut through central Karnataka horizontally towards west and hit the coast. Then we went North hugging the coast throughout and finally went north-east to finish our journey where we started, that is, Hyderabad. The trip came into being when my friend Nitin booked his tickets to Hyderabad in the middle of August some four months back. I wasn't sure of where to go because its monsoon times and wherever we go rains could hamper any plans. There was not much of common interest around Hyderabad to keep us occupied for 3-4 days. So, after consulting a friend of mine, reluctantly I chose Chikmagalur. I could not research much before leaving but could gather that I could visit Hoysalan temples of Belur, Halebid and Jain pilgrimage of Shravanbelgola.

The D-day came when we had to leave and it turned out to be a Monday morning. When everyone was rushing to the office on the road, we were getting away from it. Hyderabad to Banaglore I had done before but during night time some 3 months back. I was trying to figure out various pit stops we took. I identified the place we had tea, had dinner and even where we refuelled which drove Nitin nuts and was asking whether a plaque has been installed here to commemorate my visit? Our first stop was on a bridge over swollen Krishna river with muddy water before Kurnool. There was an island a little distance away in between the river with a fort on top!! Nitin considers himself as someone whom Schumacher looks upto, he didn't disappoint and touched 130 kmph readily on a dual lane road without divider and moderate incoming traffic. We stopped again close to a level crossing skirting a sunflower field. It was unguarded and we took a walk that sunflower park. Even with cloudy weather, sunflowers were in bloom. A large portion of landscape looked yellow remidning me of mustard fields in North. There were few fruit sellers whom we provided a good business. After that we rushed towards Bangalore with few stops for lunch, tea and snaps. The landscape throughout the drive was uneven, boulder-strewn or sometimes with hills made of boulders. Because of monsoon, the landscape wore a green look. The drive to Nitin's brother's house in evening Bangalore traffic was expectedly hellish.

We started a bit lazily for Chikmaglur in the morning and had to grind through Bangalore traffic. Once we turned towards Hassan from Nelmangala, the road and landscape improved drastically and we were cruising towards Hassan with occassional photo opporunity. There were frequent signs announcing proximity to Belur, Halebid but we decided to visit them while coming back. We occasionally saw Bangalore - Hassan railway line which took long time to convert from Meter gauge and runs upto Mangalore, one of the most scenic ones in India. Hassan was a non-descript town with messed up roads. Once we hit the road to Chikmaglur, the roads improved again. The road was one of the better tarmac I have seen and I am sure many of the ads with speeding cars might have been filmed on this road. We curved through fields, hills and water bodies. We stopped at one unguarded field full of marigold flowers. The flowers were in full bloom and planted in rows. We walked among them, folndled them and clicked lot of snaps. Yagachi dam is a small dam on some river whose name I don't remember on the way and worth visiting. We were expecting Chikmaglur to be hilly but it turned out to be plain. Nevertheless, the hill range of Baba Budangiri and western ghats were not very far. We stayed in a concrete hotel in the town called Planter's court. One could stay at any of the coffee estates but then your agenda should be only to enjoy the estate and not venture out much. Moreover, these estates are a little distance away from the town, so you have to know where to go. Once we checked into hotel, we asked receptionist whether she could suggest an itinerary for attractions nearby. Once we had that, we head off to a Cafe Coffee Day outlet nearby. We were surprised to find one in such a small town but the real reason was displayed inside the Cafe. Chikmaglur is the HQ of CCD's parent company Amalgamated Bean Company Limited and they procure their coffee from region around Chikmaglur so they have opened this outlet as an honorary outlet. The parent company called "ABC" for convenience was on the oppposite side of the road. By this time, the idea of going to coastal Karnataka was hatched and we called up couple of people in the "civilisation" to help us with distances to various destinations. We decided upon going to Udupi from Chikmaglur, from there to Karwar just south of Goa and then return to Hyderabad via Hubli.

We wanted to trek the highest peak in Karnataka called Mullaiyangiri. Even though there is a road which winds up and goes upto the peak but we wanted to trek. The trek starts from a place called Sarpadari which is on the road to Kemmangudi. It is one of the recognized trek in this region. Other one is to go to Baba Budangiri peak via Galikere. Once we entered the gate through which trek starts, we were unaware of what lies ahead for us. With morning sun, mild breeze and oozing confidence, the setting was perfect for trekking. The trail was clear most of the time but mountain slope was all covered with overgrown grass and different plants and shrubs and occassional trees. Climbing was a little tricky at some points due to wetness and there was possibility of slipping. The trail most of the time was steep and we were gaining height rapidly. We got worried, how will we come down with slippery surface? But that worry was for later as we enjoyed the mist covered mountain upwards and valley beneath. The peak has a Shiva temple. Interestingly, the Nandi statue is located a little away from the temple in open. I have seen such a practice for the first time. The view from peak were so stunning that for first 15 minutes we just sat silent admiring the views and only later thought of praying inside the temple. We were now looking for options to go back by hitch-hiking or simply walking on the road. But we met a local young man who made going back down look like a cake walk. We reluctantly agreed and started getting the same way we came. It turned out to be easier but I slipped multiple times due to sllippery surface to laughter of my buddies.

Once we came down, we headed for Kemmangudi, also known as KR Hills (Krishna Rajapuram Hills). The road was bad but it is okay considering its location. There was a waterfall in every cervice of the mountain slope. Sometimes we saw the white water and sometimes we only heard it. Soon we reached Kemmangudi which is protected area and is devloped with lawns, canteen and some other paraphernilia. Hebbe falls was next on our agenda. I had been to Chhattisgarh recently famous for its giant waterfalls, so I wasn't so keen to watch it. The falls are inside some private coffee plantation and access is very difficult. One can go there in only a 4WD Mahindra jeep or similar such vehicle. The first view of falls was unimpressive thought it turned out to be only its first stage. From where jeeps cannot go further one has to walk down a little bit over rocky and slushy path along the river on which falls lie. One has to cross the river itself thrice which could be knee deep with stones at the bottom. Only once you curve into the valley where waterfall is, does one realize its enormity. The white water was gushing with so much force that water droplets were clouding the entire area, so even if you are away from the falls, you will get wet. There was a pool created beneath which was very deep and no one dared to venture inside. Most of the people who wanted to have a bath stayed at the periphery of pool using rocks as support. We also ventured like this and bruised ourselves while negotiating slippery rock surfaces and stones at bottom. Because of force of water, the wind was also blowing very fast. After being there in water for some time and competing among ourselves who can stay for more time inside water, we came out. In between I has a nasty slip when from standing upright, slipped and landed on my buttocks on a hard rock. Anyways I survived that. While on the ride back upto Kemmangudi, I befriended few locals who worked in the coffee estate and with broken hindi, english tried to converse which was very entertaining. I like such interactions. They were asking me to write a letter to tourism minister of state to build a road to this place which will end their woes. Once we were back to Kemmangudi, it was already dark and had to do away with plans to visit Kallati waterfalls and drove back to Chikmaglur via Kallatipura. Driving in the night through winding roads is such a thrill. Anyways, a mountain trek and bathing in huge waterfall is enough entertainment for one day.

Next day we started early and went to Dattapeetha on Baba Budangiri hill. There is a "Hindu-Muslim temple" as locals call the shrine dedicated to Baba Budangiri. Baba Budangiri is attributed to have brought coffee plant from Arab and there quite a few legends about him. From here, one could climb the peak and road ends at Manekydhara waterfall. The waterfall is again a muslim shrine and it was developed with areas to bathe etc. It was not very inviting so we concentrated our attention to deep valley beneath. The valley was so very gorgeous with lot of greenery and houses in between, stretching endlessly, only haze terminating the view. There were couple of lakes formed beside the road due to rains. The water was still and green and with green meadow of mountain casting its shadow on the water, the scene looked straight out of some foreign locale. We kept on stopping at all such occassions for pictures. We were confused. How many should we click? Everywhere we look it was equally beautiful and we really missed having a better camera to do justice to this locale. We again came back to Chikmaglur town because road to Udupi was opposite direction. While going down the same path of CCD, we stopped for a while to visit CCD's parent company. I was apprehensive that we would be entertained but staff there was cordial. The receptionist guided us to Asstt. Manager who gave answers to our questions and served us a coffee brewed mechanically in one of CCD's vending machine. The coffee harvest season is suppossed to be in Jan to April when green coffee berries which we saw in so much adundance turn red. The coffee planats needs to be protected from direct sunlight because of which lot of trees like Cardamom, pepper and Silver Oak are also planted along with them to give them shade. There are two basic varieties of coffee: Arabica and Robusta. On asking how does one distinguish between two varieties and which variety is popular brands nescafe and bru made of, he was clueless. Anyways, after some twenty minutes we left, him promising us to entertain us again during season.

Now we headed to Udupi via Balehonnur, Sringeri and Agumbe. The lush-green views refused to subside and we were continuously treated with great views of fields and foliage. Sringeri is famous for a "mutt" built by Adi Shankaracharya in 12AD. The mutt was closed for afternoon siesta so we could only visit the main temple premises and missed the wonderful meal that is supposed to be served everyday for lunch. Anyways, we took a round of premises, clicked pictures and saw big fishes diving for alms from visitors in Tunga river. We left the place and headed towards Agumbe which is famous for its sunset point from where on a clear day one could witness sun setting in Arabian Sea which is around 50 km from there by road. We climed to that sunset point and we could really see a portion of sea through hazy atmosphere. The valley beneath was all rolling hills with forest, clouds hugging them and a couple of distant waterfalls as specks of white on green background. From here we hurried to reach Udupi as soon as possible to catch sunset but eventually could not. The road from Agumbe down was all hairpin bends through Someshwar wildlife sanctuary. Before Udupi we crossed Manipal which is famous for lot of technical institutes and we could see lot of student community. It truly is a academic town. Once we reached Udupi, we rushed to Malpe beach which was 8 kms inside from the town. By the time we reached, sun has already set but enough light was remaining to give cloudy sky an orange hue. We could not resist ourselves and went straigh into the water. It was so refreshing walking on sand with waves slashing on your feet. We checked into Karavali hotel right on NH-17. Now was to time to hunt for hotel Mitro Samaj which somebody recommended for good food. We searched for it but it was closed, so had to settle for Woodland's the same one as in Chennai.

Next day we started early and headed for Kaup beach which is some 12 kms from Udupi. Once we were there, we could not locate where is the entry or open space where through which people enter the beach. After going back and forth once, we parked at one place and walked through the village to get to the beach. There was a light house perched on a rock to our left and beach was further left. To get to that we had to cross one stream. As soon as we crossed it, we landed into the crab colony. There were hundreds of crab infants running helter-skelter on slight disturbance. We circumvented it and came to the main beach. There were a few fisherman, unnetting the crabs they had caught. We spoke to them and held couple of crabs in out hands and did some other antics. We walked on the beach but it was not that great. First there was lot of drift wood or burnt wood floating in the water and lot of seashells which were making it difficult to walk. After spending an hour, we came back.

Our next destination was Karwar, some 210 km away. We started from Udupi on NH-17 and were expecting smooth ride but road was broken at many places which hampered our progress but the visual treat more than made up for it. Close to Maravanthe, the road comes right next to the sea shore. That 1 km stretch was amazing. We stopped and had coconut water just to elongate our stay there. Murudeshwar announced its presernce from a distance when we saw gopuram of the temple coming up there and lord Shiva statue from a distance. Since I had seen this vista previously in some magazine I easily recognized it. The statue is part of temple complex which is coming up in Murudeshwar. Murudeshwar seem to be dominated by some Mr. R N Shetty. His initials RNS could be seen on lot of buildings including a gorgeous RNS residency hotel. There is one Naveen restaurant which is built on water and there are few sea-facing seats which we readily occupied. The lunch was sumptuous moreover by the views we got. Next stop was Gokarn which I had heard about earlier. There is a Hindu temple here whose significance I wansn't aware of. Anyways, we headed straight to the beach but at that time of the day, it wasn't that inviting. So, we pushed off quickly and headed to Karwar. We wanted to reach Karwar comfortably before Sunset which we did. The Karwar coast has a Naval base and a port where a huge ship was berthed. We could see granite cargo being transported there. We headed straight to the beach here, undressed and jumped into the sea. The slope was very gentle here so we could go deep inside but the waves were equally gentle so we were not exhilirated. Karwar has few islands off its coast, one of them being famous for snorkelling and other water sports but they are not run in monsoons. The islands were clearly visible from the beach and one could make that it was raining on those islands. The clouds were engulfing the sun time and again and we were not sure of watching a clear sunset. But otherwise, sky was beautiful, grey clouds in orange sky and rain lashing the islands was very dramatic. Lot of people had gathered by that time and were watching the sun set peacefully in sea. We checked into Navaratna Lodge in the town which was the most reasonable one. We dined in Amrut restaurant which was famous for seafood preparation. We had Tandoori fish of Anjal type. We siphoned it off to our stomachs in no time. prawn fried rice was equally good.

Next morning we woke up really early and started for Palolem beach in Goa. The Goa border is some 20 km from Karwar and Palolem is a famous beach of South Goa. Till now, I haven't been to Goa and not even researched about it because it is so very well known and appeals more to people looking for party and clubbing experience. So, honestly I didn't know much about Goa. I had taken a vow that whenever I go there, I will go for a week or so and finish it off in one go. Anyways, that vow broke when we entered Goa. Probably it had rained last night because of which the terrain was all wet and sky cloudy. The greenery in form of trees, seasonal plants/shrubs and even algae was everywhere. House walls, bridge railings, rock faces and just about anything which has potential was draped with moss. After an hour or so around 7:00 AM we hit the beach. The beach was deserted except lot of fishermen activity towards north of the beach and few locals angling in choppy sea. We were in no mood to waste and immediately hit the waters. We splashed, we jogged, we sat and admired the natural beauty around. Soon, foreign tourists start trickling in but nowhere the number it must be during the season. The sky was mostly overcast with occassional rain but very mild and welcome. Here the waves were stornger and we let waves carry us away and we just gave in. After having enough we headed to a restaurant in a shack. It was buzzing with lot of foreign tourists, the decor and presentation to match the international needs and menu had lot of continental dishes. After gorging on them, we were all set for a long day ahead. We left the place and headed back to Karwar. In between we stopped to purchase the local drink, cashew fenny. The shop owner told us about Galgibagh beach which he claimed is very good. Since we had lot of time, so we headed for it. It was a beautiful 9 km drive inside NH-17 and we came to beautiful Galgibagh beach. By this time, sky had cleared and it was nice and sunny with mild breeze. There was no tourist except us and miles of white sand. The beach itself was tree lined. We had to literally tear away from such a wonderful place and head back. From Karwar we went to Hubli to drop off Nitin's brother in a Bangalore bus. In between, we took a detour to Magod waterfalls. It is not possible to go upto the falls but only oggle at it from a distance. But still it was worth going there. Hubli was one nightmarish town to drive around due to lot of one ways, traffic and bad roads. Somehow we managed within it and headed towards Gadag, Koppal and Bellary. The roads after Koppal turned a nightmare and with no signs of directions we lost way in between and instead of Kurnool ended up at Guntakal. We thought of playing safe and reached NH-7 Hyderabad-Bangalore road at Gooty. After that it was just a monotonous drive to Hyderabad.

An year has passed

2007-08-04T10:45:00.000-07:00

Since I started my journey on my bike to Ladakh. I remember I started on 30th July 2006 from Hyderabad. Now when I recall that trip of mine, it just gives me goose bumps that I actually accomplished it. Mmm... Let me recall where was I on 4th of August, yeah today I had reached Keylong, capital of Lahaul Spiti. Oh yes, I have preserved my entire itinerary somewhere. Let me pull it out... Here it is -

30th July - Flew from Hyderabad to Delhi
31st July - Delhi -> Chandigarh
1st Aug - Chandigarh -> Narkanda
2nd Aug - Narkanda -> Manali
3rd Aug - Rest at Manali
4th Aug - Manali -> Keylong
5th Aug - Rest at Keylong
6th Aug - Keylong -> Sarchu
7th Aug - Sarchu -> Leh
8th Aug - Rest at Leh
9th Aug - Rest at Leh
10th Aug - Leh -> Diskit
11th Aug - Diskit -> Hunder -> Panamik
12th Aug - Panamik -> Alchi
13th Aug - Alchi. Visited Indus/Zanskar confluence, Basgo, Likir andAlchi Monastery
14th Aug - Alchi. Visited Lamayuru monastery
15th Aug - Alchi -> Drass
16th Aug - Drass -> Srinagar
17th Aug - Srinagar -> Jammu
18th Aug - Jammu -> Delhi by bus
19th Aug - Delhi
20th Aug - Flew to Hyderabad

It was uforgettable, life changing journey (may be bit exaggerated but definitely a milestone in my life) which I am fortunate I undertook. I was maintaining notes of the trip, very religiously initially and later cumbersomely but I still have them. When I came back I tried to write a travelogue out of them but it proved to be a hearculean task for my temperament. Just like you require special preparation to undertake such a journey through that moonscape, you require skill to articulate it in writing. Anyways, I am closing my eyes and trying to recall some golden anecdotes from that trip.

Higher the risk, higher the reward, thats what I can call the first memorable incident on the initial part of my trip from Shimla to Manali. Just before Jalori pass though not that high but supposed to be test of man and his machine, front type of bike got stuck between stones and slush, what the road was left after a stream decided to run over it due to incessant rain. The bike wouldn't move whatever method we tried. Then came a godsend saviour, a Ladakhi guy called "Motep" who was veteran of such roads and was driving alone to Leh. May be his experience or his strength or both, he lifted the front portion of bike and brought it out of slush. What a relief it was. Once we crossed over the pass, in that wet atmosphere, we got to see some of the best views of the trip. Clouds swept over valleys, rising higher through cervices of hills as if hills are on fire. A small village was nestled midway on the mountain, its blue house and triangle capony sourrounded by mist. Amazing. My partner rightly said, we've stuck goldmine.

At Keylong, met an interesting guy who hailed from Jammu, a pea trader whose job was to load peas being grown in the region, do some accounting and then send them to Azadpur mandi in Delhi. Suprisingly he was an MCA but did not find a desk job interesting. Now he travles around this region to fields, meets farmers and spreads this trade throughout Lahaul Spiti, his brother being posted in Kaza. He told us about a ritual specific to Lahaul spiti. Around 15th August, there is a fair held in Keylong where young boys and girls of marrigeable age are asked to come in the middle of a ground. Boy is free to pick any girl he chooses but girl is free to resist and run away. If there is competition among boys, then a boy has to face it and win over. If he captures the girl and keeps her for the night, then they are married the next day. Doesn't look like it is fair to the girl but there might be specifics which probably could be understood only if we go that fair !!

Baralachala pass (16000 ft) got us a couple of companions who stayed with us upto very close to end of this trip. Two very affable sardars on bullets from Chandigarh who were trying to push their bikes up the mountain slope due to landslide. We helped each other and got through with it. I still haven't sent them the CD containing pictures of this trip. I will send that on this anniversary. One more guy joined us, a British, thrice than my size and riding a 500cc bullet, an explosive engineer on an year long vacation through many countries in the world, going solo to Ladakh! Whoosh! I once took him as a pillion rider on my bike. I wish I could see how this scene looked, a monster sitting on a puny bike with equally puny rider.

A dutch gang of oldies out to do some adventure met us at Narkanda on their consecutively numbered bullet bikes. They kept playing hide and seek with us till Ladakh. The leader was gritty lady who never spoke to us just smiled. We overtook them just before Leh.

Advantage of taking bike to these regions as against bigger vehicles is that you can get away with any kind of blockages like slush and rubble, climbing mountain slope and narrow passage. That is what happened when we cleared through probably 2 km of truck jam, a feet deep muddy slush, standing at the head of breach that Gya river has caused just before Upushi, 50 kms from Leh. Fourtunately, a bulldozer was working to clear a part of mountain slope for atleast smaller vechicles to go through. We were the first one to pass.

On the way to Khardungla, we learnt what an army convoy is. 40-50 trucks going in a line, squealing on every throttle or break application, dooming this world by spewing fumes through their chimneys. But the men inside were humane. They kept on giving us sides, not the snobbish behavior that we witness everyday in the city. The K-top as Khardungla pass is called has a sourvneir shop selling t-shirts, key chains, caps announcing the glory of the pass and exalting the one wears it screaming "I was there". Come on, 18,380 feet is not a mean feat. Earlier, there used to be free tea served here by army canteen to whoever comes here just as a gesture to his/her accomplishment but alas that practice was discontinued for some time now.

"How far is Siachen from here?" Where can you ask this question in India?
"These folks have come from India?" Where do you get to hear this in India?
Probably only place is Nubra Valley beyond Khardungla pass, close to Pakistan and Chinese border, much beyond consciousness of mainstream India, a warm and beautiful valley, a world apart from real world. Only thing is one can stay here for only 6 months a year only. To stay for rest of the year comfortably, you should probably need to transform into an eskimo.

I haven't been to Rajasthan but I have now seen sand dunes. Where? In Nubra Valley at Hunder. You have real sand there as you find in Rajasthan; this is what I am told. Only difference is in Rajasthan the sand gets baked at 45 deg, whereas here it freezes to -45 deg in winters. One more stark similarity is camels. They are known as Bactrian camels who have two humps as against their counterparts in Rajasthan with single hump. But they are elusive and very small in numbers. We could find them only after lot of hunting around.

Driving in night is not advisable but that is what we did when we got stuck in a situation when we started for our destination with wrong estimation of distance. We were to reach Lamayuru but much before, night fell and we four riders were left alone riding along with only a single beam of light piercing the dark. It was moonless night and stars were not visible. Scary...

Allahabad is considered the holiest confluence but confluence of Indus with Zanskar river at Nimoo is magical. Two rivers full of water and character, with different shade of muddy water. Indus light brown and Zanskar a deep brown both coming out of gorge in the open. You get to witness this from main road quite high up in the mountain where you can appreciate the symmtery in their meeting. They converge like a perfect V and you can distinguish their waters due to a line getting formed in the middle.

Who can forget Kargil and Drass which became household names in 2001 when last skirmish with Pakistan happened. We too were excited to pass through the locale which come closest to the LOC. There is a sign on that road which says "You are in the eyes of enemy" depicting how close we to the LOC. This part was tense with heavy presence of military all of whom had nothing else but oggle at us and we going along sheepishly.

First view of Kashmir valley coming from Drass after days of rugged, brown mountains without vegetation, watching trees on mountain slopes was most welcome. When trees finish, a greet carpet of grass is spread all over. Here starts one of the most dangerous areas in the world in one of the most beautiful settings. I pitied all those soldiers who were posted every hundred meters on the road sitting all aloof. We had an idea and started waving to them as we passed them. Wow, they were equally enthusiastic to wave back at us. Then I started looking for them on road, behind the bushes and trees, sitting on a cliff higher up. Everytime we got an equally enthusiastic wave back. It was sheer bonhomie all the way.

Srinagar, though considered fortified but we were not stopped even once. Dal lake is more than a lake, its an ecosystem, a flourishing town with a unique character never to found anywhere else in the world. It was sad to hear that it will soon be uprooted, if only the residents had been a little proactive in maintaing it upto the mark.

How I wish I could go on and on but just like this trip I will have to stop somewhere. Now let me go to sleep with these beautiful dreams. BTW, photographs from this trip are here.

Bastar, Chhattisgarh

2007-07-18T14:18:00.000-07:00

Ever since I and my friends went to Bhadrachalam in Andhra Pradesh for our trip to coastal Andhra, we resolved to come back once to Bhadrachalam and visit Bastar in state of Chhattisgarh from there. The area though pristine is affected by Naxalite movement because of which the state remains underdeveloped and not many tourists visit it. Our main aim was to drive through this hitherto unknown region and visit beautiful waterfalls around it and take things as they come. We decided upon itinerary like this - Hyderabad -> Bhadrachalam -> Jagdalpur -> Bhopalpatnam -> Warangal -> Hyderabad spread over three and a half day with trips to Chitrakote falls, Tirathgarh falls and Ramappa temple near Warangal.

First day we drove to Bhadrachalam late in the night, in between checked by Greyhounds of AP police which were specially out to keep watch on infiltration of naxalites/maoists around Andhra Pradesh-Chhattisgarh border due to a recent battle between naxals and police in Chhattisgarh with heavy casualties on both sides. We stayed overnight in beautiful and plush AP tourism's Punnami hotel at Bhadrachalam. Next day we visited the Ramadoss temple for which Bhadrachalam is famous. Immediately after breakfast we started for Jagdalpur, district headquarter of Bastar district. It was only around 250 km from Bhadrachalam and we were expecting leisurely drive and plenty of time to cover the distance. But our hopes were dashed a bit as we got a taste of the road ahead. It was single lane, bumpy, pot-holed and slushy because of which our average speed reduced drastically. There were numerous streams which were swelling with water and forest around. One stream had interesting bank of rocks which were carved by flowing water. There were very few people we saw and we were jittery about that.

We passed through Konta, Sukma which are small towns in Chhattisgarh and couple of militia camps where tribals have been kept to protect them from naxals by police and Salwa-Judum combine. At one post we were stopped and searched by a boy carrying a gun, wearing a military like shirt and colored half pant. When asked whether he is from Salwa-Judum, he said "police" in a way which proved contrary. The terrain was all green with different hues, ground all carpeted with grass, misty hills in distance, cloudy throughout but luckily not raining. The houses were all built with wood, dried leaves and sometimes having tiled roofs. We did not spot many "pucca" houses built of bricks.

Around 40 kms before Jagdalpur Tirathgarh fall is situated. Tirathgarh fall was amazing to look at. The river on which these falls are, originates from a small lake (called "phool" in local parlance) a small distance away. The falls look as if water is rushing through a very steep staircase. The falls create a valley and there are lot of vantage points from where falls could be looked at. The water was white clean and tasted sweet.

Due to lack of time we had to start back for our destination at Chitrakote falls where we had booked log huts for stay. The road from Jagdalpur towards Chitrakote is excellent and terminates at the falls.

We had a misadventure there as we approached the log huts through slushy ground when our car got stuck. Only after lot of pushing and hard work did it come out and we breathed easy. The stay was comfortable with our caretaker and his helpers taking good care of us. The falls are illuminated with bright lights at night fall for few hours. We trooped towards it and caretaker specially switched on lights for us when he saw two tripod totting photographers. Dinner was basic but caretaker included one local dish of a mushroom like vegetable which grows only under "Saal" trees. He also got us local drink "Mahua" which is made of mahua flowers. It is distilled at different concentration levels. Ours was strong so we had to dilute with water but I did not like its smell and taste. There is another drink "Sulfi" which is available only during summers.

Next day we woke up to see the brilliant Chitrakote falls. There are no words to describe size, volume and magnanimity of falls. It seemed as if all water on earth is getting channelized gushing through these falls. The water enveloped the entire vegetation in the valley down below. The falling water was creating a magnificent cloud of mist around it but sky being overcast, we could not witness the rainbow.

Our enthusiastic guide was eager to take us to a sandy beach along the river in valley down below and one more smaller waterfall. We climbed down upto river's edge through thick foliage on a small sandy beach which was lovely.

After sometime we came back but due to fatigue decided not to go for another walk to the smaller falls. After sometime we were back again to river edge in valley below this time facing the chitrakote waterfall. It was clicks galore from then onwards trying to find every possible angle to shoot, finding subjects in or out of falls to shoot, capturing every facet of the falls. After an hour and half we stopped and sat silent to sink in the enormity of the falls.

We were visited by a gentleman in the morning who talked about other tourists spots in and around Bastar. He wanted us to visit Barsur where there are two monolithic Ganesh idols. He also gave us each a set of brochures including a couple of CDs about Chattisgarh tourism. Later I realized that the CDs were about a documentary about tourist places in Chhattisgarh which is sometimes seen on channels like Discovery etc. That set is one of my prized possessions. We reluctantly packed up and headed for Jagdalpur after tipping our caretaker-cum-guide heavily who insisted that its not needed. Small town innocence creating goodwill.

While going towards Jagdalpur we took a small detour to visit another small waterfall called "Chitradhara". It was nothing compared to Tirathgarh or Chitrakote but terrain around it was beautiful. It was on a plateu so we could see the green fields around.

Jagdalpur was a chatoic small town with nothing much to boast of. The Anthropological museum was closed due to day being sunday and so were all workshops too where we wanted our vehicle to be checked. The town seem to have significant presence of Punjabis who are involved in transport, spare parts, workshop and eatery business. We had a delicious Chole-Bhatura at one such eatery. The Chhattisgarh state does not seem to have a state transport corporation as we did not see any govt bus, only private buses. Incidentally, the main transport company in Chhattisgarh is "Kanker Roadways" which is headed by a Sikh duo. We paid our homage to Railway station in town which is on KK line from Vishakapatnam upto Bailadila iron ore mines. The line has only iron ore freight traffic except one passenger train in day. We were banking on visiting a "haat" (local name for tribal market) in town but we are told there is no such market in town. Generally "haats" are organized in villages in the coutryside and a big one occurs in Narayanpur a long way from Jagdalpur, so we decided to miss this experience. Our wish of eating "Red Ant chutney" were crushed :)

Next day we started early as planned towards Hyderabad via Gidam, Bhopalpatnam, Warangal a 500+ km drive. The excellent road from Jagdalpur towards Gidam for some distance raised our hope of comfortable journey but again they were dashed by a long stretch of bad road before Gidam. We simply continued on road towards Bhopalpatnam which was playing bad and worse. However we spotted some real life of these parts.

Sometimes it was tricky to drive through slushy road and at few places car lost traction and we swerved like hovercraft much to the amusement of passers by. It is a different experience altogether to drive through Chhattisgarh. People are very obedient, as soon as we honked they would jump off the road clearing more than enough space for us to go through but cattle (cows and goats) were equally stubborn and would not budge for long time. We were cynosure of all eyes, four outsiders wearing modern clothing going around in a car out of which two being 6+ feet tall roaming around in this region of short and lanky people! The road was really giving us tough time but we were cracking jokes about it. One of us suggested that naxalites are probably all those disgruntled vehicle owners who had to suffer such bad roads. Because of govt apathy towards roads they have taken up arms :) At one place, there was a sign board annoncing shelter for flood affected people. We thought soon there will be a shelter for "road affected" people like us who don't seem to reach anywhere :) Anyways, 10 kms before Bhopalpatnam we enquired a motocyclist about how much more is left. He asked us where are we headed. We casually said, Warangal and Hyderabad. He said, "but sir there is no road ahead". We looked at each other with utter shock. Once we got our senses after few seconds, we asked why? Apparently, there is no bridge on the road towards Warangal on NH 202 over a local river and similarly no bridge over Indravati river towards Nizamabad which is NH 16. Since the rives were all swelling with water, there was no way we could cross it with vehicle and other interior roads are also blocked. We were told to go back to Gidam and then go to Dantewara and stay overnight there and return via Bhadrachalam. We had no option but to backtrack 120 km through that arduous road. This is the only time we got a little worried as our vehicle got stuck in slush 2-3 times and we had to push it to get it out and with evening approaching and this being heart of naxal territory. We reached Dantewara safely and stayed overnight there.

Next day we woke up early again and went to Danteshwari temple which is famous in this region. The temple was not open at 6:30 AM so we prayed from outside and started. We joined our onward road to Jagdalpur at Sukma and returned to Bhadrachalam without anymore hiccup. At our last moments of trips, we all agreed that it was a really worthy trip and we learnt a lot about rural and backward India and how hollow our urban development is.

If Cricket is Religion, I am an atheist

2007-03-11T10:03:00.000-07:00

Today I am amused that how I am totally cut-off from the cricket scene on the eve of biggest event in Cricket, the world-cup. There was a time when I was a big fan of cricket and used to eat, sleep and drink cricket. I would feel elated when India won and dejected when India lost. I would wake up in the middle of the night to watch matches and there was constant contention between me and rest of the family for television. But today I am indifferent to cricket. Leave aside watching, I don't even know which series is going and what was the result even for general knowledge or to gain some sound bytes with friends and colleagues. This transformation has been parallel to gain in my liking for garlic and drumsticks! The transformation came when whole controversy of match-fixing came into light and I felt dejected. Cricketers and their administrators, though not all of them, making fool of gullible cricket lovers. I stopped following cicket and till now I haven't rgeretted it. I am more than happy nowdays that I have lot of time to spare. Don't get me wrong, I love playing the game but don't like the whole conundrum around it.

The cricket scene has also seen a sea change. The money and commercialization has increased manifold. Now, a cricketer has to just make a few successes and he is put on such a pedestal with so much of cash that he doesn't need to bother about his future performances. How could he anyway keep up when he is surrounded by adulating crowd wherever he goes and suddenly shot into limelight. Irfan Pathan, M S Dhoni are examples. The skew in commercialization is also baffling. Not all in the team are making moolah. On one hand, a member is signing multi-million deals and on the other hand, there is one who is left out probably because he lacks charisma.

Nowdays, rather than cricket being played on field, it is played off field. Who said what about whom becomes a big issue. Why a particular player is being dropped for a particular tour on whose behest is debated nationally. Selectors and coach openly give their opinion about players and why certain player chosen and dropped. Reams of papers and digital megabytes are consumed on discussing. Then, performance and prospects are discussed by "experts" on television channels. They discuss this for hours together still without any conclusive answers. Did anyone go back and figured out how did the predictions fare subsequently? No. Past performances are just forgotten. The latest win or loss is only the one remembered. The amount of cricket played too has increased a lot. Earlier there used to be seasons for cricket but now it is played all year around. Ofcourse, there is money to be made all the time by its telecast and accoampanied commerce of advertisements.

Recently, Prasar Bharti gave evidence of jingoism it is capable of in the context of cricket. It recently won a case against Nimbus to telecast cricket match through its terrestrial network by taking feed from Nimbus on the pretext that watching cricket is "birth right" of every India and in the meantime make moolah as well by inserting their own advertisements! Didn't BCCI should have consulted Prasar Bharti before selling these rights to external company?

The commercials are also so pathetic with cricketers in them that you don't want to watch them. Why don't advertisers understand that they are athletes and not entertainers? A few of them will be huddled together and some over the top sequence will be shot on them, barely fitting in the mood and setting of the commercial, mostly making fool of cricketers. Remember earlier ads of Kapil Dev and Gavaskar, "Palmolive da jawab nahin" and "Dinesh Suitings" where they are shown as dignified gentlemen rather than puppets.

Before the world cup started, there is already a controversy people asking about inclusion of amateur teams like Scotland. These are minnows and could be defeated by college level teams in seasoned countries like India and Australia. The inclusion looks like an attempt to picture a competitive tournament at best to the world. 16 teams look better than having 9.

The grudge I have against cricket is that due to its immense popularity, the other sports are getting sidelined. Where cricket is bursting with money, there is no mention of hockey, athletics, football etc. I don't know whom to blame. Advertisers for their lean towards cricket or government to being blinded by glare of cricket? Tell me, which other sport has seen even a single athlete being made a model except Sania Mirza for tennis? Have you seen any of Bhaichung Bhutia, Anju Bobby George or Dhanraj Pillay or any Asian Games medal winner in any commercial? But then adverstisers are not philanthropist. I just wish that someday cricketers show a little more genrosity and start supporting their fellow athletes in other sports. How about Sachin talking about how he loves watching hockey and cheer for Indian hockey team?

The cricket lovers I doubt are really in the love of game cause o/w how do you explain empty stadium in first class level games like Ranji and Deodhar trophy? Nobody has watched the matches in these tournaments, neither are they telecast on television nor are their results displayed on television. Basically nobody is bothered about these games. If you really love the game, then you would watch it other levels as well?

Huhhh. Anyways, I am done with my rant. Thanks.

"Solace" find in KG Basin

2006-12-30T06:13:00.000-08:00

A visit to Coastal Andhra was due for a long time and I was waiting for right time, weather and company. Last week (Dec 2006 end) got the chance to go Kosta which is the local name for coastal Andhra Pradesh region. It has a few smaller regions namely Konaseema (Godavari river delta), Diviseema (Krishna river delta), Circar (region from Vishakhatnam to Rajahmundry) etc. We (me along with four other friends) deliberated on the itinerary and kept it flexible and kept revising the plans to maximize the opportunities. One of our friends was to join from Chennai at Rajahmundry. The plan was multi-purpose, to ride in a ferry over sacred Godavari river, travel on branch railway lines in the region, eat local cuisine and generally explore the area. We did not consult much on the internet because there is not much documented.

We chose to go to Rajahmundry via Bhadrachalam by ferry on river Godavari. We reached Bhadrachalam by overnight train from Hyderabad. The ferries run from a place called Kunavaram and Sreeramgiri around 60+ km from Bhadrachalam due to lack of depth in the river here . We couldn’t make it due to lack of time as boats supposedly leave on time at 8 AM. The ferry service does not cater much to tourists, so information is difficult to come by and not reliable. However we still went upto Kunavaram in an Ambassador which took its sweet little time dropping off newspaper to various points and murdering a dog by running over it. At Kunavaram we decided to take a bus to Rajahmundry but this too was a disappointment. First the bus was an ordinary, rickety bus and did not take the route through “Agency forests” so a distance of 190 km took 6 hours to complete. “Agency forests” are tribal regions, have forest covers and no outsider could buy property in the region to protect tribal lifestyle. This is the naxalite zone in AP. Anyways the journey took us through places which I otherwise would have never visited.

Rajahmundry is an important town in AP and lies on south-east corridor between Chennai and Kolkata. It is also famous for being constituency of late former PM of India, Narasimha Rao. At Rajahmundry we visited Pushkar "revu" which is close to legendary but now defunct "Havelock" railway bridge. "Revu" in telugu means bank of river or "ghat" in North India. There is a new bridge built alongside Havelock for trains. There is also a distant rail-cum-road bridge.

We decided to take a boat across Godavari to Kovvur and catch our connecting train to Kakinada from there. To our utter disbelief entire boat which could seat around 50 people was ready to take us across for INR 300 only.

The Godavari river is quite wide at Rajahmundry which can be gauged by considering that bridges are around 3 km over the river. During monsoon, the river swells like anything and almost looks like sea. It was an enjoyable ride with cool breeze on the roof of the boat with no other passengers, watching sunset and trains passing over the new Godavari Bridge. From Kovvur we caught our train to Kakinada.
Kakinada is an important town in Andhra but hardly anybody would know about it outside. Our intention of coming to Kakinada was to travel on Kakinada – Kotipalle branch line. But to our disappointment the train did not run on time (or did not run at all) and officials at the station had no clue!! Rather than wasting time at station we caught a bus to Kotipalle which is on the banks of one arm of Godavari. Godavari splits into three branches after Rajahmundry namely Gautami, Vashisti and Vynatheyam. From Kotipalle we decided to cross the river by boat and have a holy dip in Godavari as well. A boatman was ready to take s across. Ahhh, it was really amazing feeling to take a dip with water just about chilly with slight wind in the air. Actually we had to take two boats as the river is so wide that there is an island in between where we bathed. The boatman played lifeguard to us while we bathed in the river. After the dip we got a glimpse and indulged with local fisherman to pull up fishing net from the water.The boat to cross the second leg was typical country boat with men, women, paddy, bikes etc. all piled up a la "Swades" style.

We crossed the second leg, caught an auto to Amalapuram which was around 15km. Amalapuram is a town made famous by popular telugu song Aa ante amalapuram… Though the town did not have anything to write about but had a lot of STD boothes and greeting card shops. May be the urban culture is bit late in spreading to countryside. We went to a local mess and had rice and fish. Later we caught a bus to Pallakolu. From there we caught a passenger train to Narsapur. Narsapur is again on the banks of the Godavari which is the main arm after its trifurcation. Morning we decided to visit Antarvedi where main portion of Godavari meets the sea. Apart from that Antarvedi hosts a lighthouse and a temple dedicated to river Godavari. We had other option to visit Kolleru lake which is spread out in a large area and plays host to migratory birds including Siberian crane. To reach Antarvedi we had to again cross Godavari from Narsapur side to reach Sakenathpalli and catch an auto from there. Antarvedi is around 15 kms from there. Since we headed early the whole atmosphere was very nice. It being morning so there was slight chill in the air. The sun was mild peeking through haze and palm leaves and us riding along the narrow country road flanked by palm trees and paddy fields made the entire ride highly enjoyable.

Once we reached Antarvedi, we headed straight to the lighthouse. We managed to climb it by charming one of the staff members with a fee of Rs 5 per head for entrance. The view from lighthouse is out of the world alas it would have been gorgeous had there been no haze. We could clearly see Godavari meeting the Bay of Bengal, small villages, banana plantations, small ferries in the sea and further away a glimpse of some oil/gas well structure. This region is rich in oil/gas and Reliance has explored them at many locations in KG basin.

I managed a feat of sort visiting both the origin and end of river Godavari. I had been to origin, Triambakeshwar near Nasik some 10 years back. After visiting the temple and a breakfast of Ulattoo which is like Dosa/Uttapam but not exactly, we headed back to Narsapur.

We decided to go to Vijayawada instead of Machilipatnam directly so that we have better options to stay and catch some train action at the station. We stayed at AC dormitory at the station which was decent for the asking price. Next day we caught a bus to Machilipatnam. It is 70 km from Vijayawada. I expected it to be a tourist town unlike the places we visited till now but it wasn’t. I could not spot any touristy stuff there. This town had lot of importance at the time of British and it was headquarter of Guntur but slowly it lost its importance. It is famous for “Kalamkari” art form and “Bandar Ladoo” which is nothing but “Besan ka Ladoo” of north India. We went to Manginapudi beach about which I had heard a lot. It is around 12 km from the town through scenic road but beach did not have much going on except that it was secluded. Neither were there any shops/shacks nor any people but it was pristine. Actually the timing was wrong, 10 AM on a working day, what could you expect?

We came back immediately and caught a bus to Avanigadda enroute Repalle. This was Diviseema region in Krishna delta. There is a road bridge over Krishna river just before Avanigadda which is 3 km long. From there we caught an auto to reach Repalle. The intention of coming to Repalle was to travel on Repalle – Tenali branch line. Tenali is on main Delhi-Chennai trunk route. Repalle too was a chaotic and non-descript town like any other town we visited till now. We came to Tenali by passenger train and immediately caught another one to Vijayawada. This was my second visit to Vijayawada but I had not visited anything except station and bus-stand so decided to do some sight-seeing. I along with one more companion Tejender, who became my guide and had lived in the city, decided to venture out. We straight away caught a bus to Kanaka-Durga temple which thankfully had very less rush. Then we came to Prakasam barrage built over river Krishna and from here two canals originate to irrigate regions nearby. Then we caught a bus to travel on Bandar road which is one of the two arterial roads in Vijayawada, other being Eluru road. We also visited Ilapuram and Modern Café hotels there which are the good places to have food in Vijayawada. In the night we caught Narsapur express to come back to Hyderabad.

Overall it was a nice and hectic trip which I could have never performed the way we did, hopping from one place to another, visiting ordinary towns through rice-bowl of Andhra with miles and miles of fields, water bodies and palm trees. The trip could have not been possible without my four friends all of whom belonging to Andhra and so could speak to local folks. Still they told me that the dialect in these parts of Andhra is very different from Hyderabad. The coastal region of Andhra in my opinion is quite beautiful and is similar to Kerala to some extent but with almost nil tourist infrastructures. There are no good hotels or restaurants, information is very little and hard to come by and some good spots are not well-developed and language being a problem. But the advantage is that region is not spoilt and if you are a purist, then you could enjoy things as they are. The coastal cuisine is though renowned but we couldn't try much as there were no good eateries in any of the towns which are either advertised or cater to the tastes of urban tourists. It is mostly “river-food” as against “sea-food” that is available because fishing and Sericulture is done in rivers or fresh water respectively. The entire economy of this region is due to these twin rivers. They provide irrigation to rice-fields which are ubiquitous. Farmers here produce three crops per year and in prosperity they are comparable to farmers in Punjab. River is also source of fishing and sericulture. We crossed the river Godavari about ten times and Krishna about five times by boat, bus and train.

Lake 'n' Fall

2006-12-04T13:51:00.000-08:00

I and Amit, my friend decided to visit Nagarjuna Sagar on a sunday few weeks back. Due to previous night’s heavy dinner and late rising, we got delayed a lot to start for Nagarjuna Sagar. It is a reservoir formed by building a dam over river Krishna in Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh. The place is 160 km from Hyderabad on the state highway to Srisailam, Guntur, Nellore etc. It is the largest masonary dam in the world. Don’t ask me what does that mean :-) When we reached there, the road over the dam which is drivable was not open due to security. So, we crossed over the river on a bridge to the other side and reached the “developed” area of Nagarjuna sagar by AP tourism. The bridge is a great vantage point to see the dam and river Kirshna meandering away. The bridge itself is a great sculpture, resting on slender pillars quite above the water level. Imagine, standing on the bridge and then suddenly the gates of the dam let open to pass water. You’ll be blown away just by seeing that water gushing towards you. In the river bed down below close to the dam, one could see vestiges of old broken bridge. May be once a gate was opened a little too much :-) The “developed” area has boating launch center used to ferry people to an island of Nagarjuna konda where artifacts found during excavation from this site way back in 50-60’s are kept. Anyhow we missed that being criminally late. But as a solace, we floated on a coracle in the sagar for 15 minutes for Rs. 20 per head. The ride was adventurous because of its small size and round figure and wobbly nature when it passed over ripples caused by a passing boat. The coracle-man created a special effect by rotating the boat in good speed. We non-swimmers, scared from inside stopped the fellow immediately. He kept on muttering something about the places nearby but we couldn’t understand anything, language being the barrier. Later we went to Ethipothla falls which is further 10 kms from this site. There was sizable gathering there. The falls are around 150 feet deep with plenty of water and 2-3 streams falling over. This water then later meets 3km downstream with Krishna. There were some tribal folks performing their folk dance much to the indifference of crowd present there. They distinctly looked like nomads from Rajasthan and not A.P. but I had no intentions to confirm. As soon as sun set, the area around falls and fall itself was illuminated with fancy lights of various hues. It was magical and the lights kept on changing their colors. We sat there looking at waters which were looking more like illusion. Due to time constraint we had to leave early.

On truck driver's AID...s

2006-12-03T10:48:00.000-08:00

1st of December every year is World AIDS day and we in India are facing grave danger in terms of AIDS becoming an epidemic. Just now I finished watching a program on television about life of truck drivers in India specially screened to lay emphasis on the fact that they are the most prominent carriers of the virus and playing the role of pollen grain in our society. But have we ever thought of how have they come to get this "coveted" distinction? Carriers of HIV is not the only blemish they have. Drugs, drunken driving, accidents, foul language, dirty are some other blemishes they are associated with. What general public doesn’t know is the kind of hardships that these drivers have to face in executing their duties. They are given very little time to deliver the goods, their trucks are overloaded, highway robbery, separation from home, beating and abuses from policemen and no help in case of breakdown. On top of that an average person be it a villager or urban, looks down upon their profession. They lose their self-respect and their work leave them with little time for them to introspect their situation and try to improve it. But people forget that it is because of these people, we never faced a situation (except few truckers strike in which they have no role) where commodities are not available in shops. Consider this, apart from food grain, petroleum, coal, cement and few other industrial items which are carried by trains, trucks are the main freight carries. 60% of entire freight in India is carried by trucks. Why has Indian society not given any dignity to job of these people? Why isn’t there anyone to raise their voice? Only because they dwell in dark and are kept away from society by restricting their movement in the cities and towns? Sometimes I feel that this HIV may harm the society at large but do a lot of good to this community by bring to light their plight and make everyone ponder.

Guntakal & Gooty

2006-09-11T06:25:00.000-07:00

On 9th September, 13 railfans from three cities landed in Guntakal and surrounding areas for railfanning. We all started on 8th evening from respective cities namely, Hyderabad, Pune & Bangalore and met in Guntakal in wee hours of 9th Spet. I along with other members from Hyderabad caught Kacheguda - Yeshwantpur (7603) from Kacheguda.

Guntakal station was awake even at this ungodly hour with trains coming and going. That is what happens at stations between two major cities, majority of trains arrive in the night and station is abuzz with action. While we waited for Pune gang to arrive, we got to see antics of a crazy platform-dwelling women who looked like perfoming some gesticulation on arrival and departure of trains.

Morning 7 AM we took Guntakal - Pakala MG train and went upto a place called Garladinne. The ride in SLR with early morning freshness and rocky terrain and such a large group was very very pleasing. Then we took a BG passenger from Hindupur - Guntakal and got down at Gooty. Gooty has a diesel shed which we visited after obtaining permission from Senior DME. Later we went to have lunch at "Ravi Teja" restaurant in Gooty town and took a bus back to Guntakal. Spent some time at FOB a bit away from the station. All 13 of us standing over FOB in a sleepy little railway town must be quite amusing for the passers-by. Anyways, in the evening we bid good byes to each other a caught trains to our respective destinations.

Ladakh Odyssey

2006-08-15T10:23:00.000-07:00

I was always fascinated by high mountains and especially this region called Ladakh in J&K. I had seen some visuals, documentaries and adventure tales from this land mostly about riding the long highway to Leh. I myself had a wish to go on a long biking trip and I shared this thought with couple of adventure seeking friends. After some deliberation one of them agreed to join and we were started preparing for it. It looked silly that both me and my companion didn't go for this trip while we were in Delhi and now both of us out of Delhi, I being in Hyderabad, and him being in Pune, the logistical difficulties were one notch up. First of all it would involve transporting the bikes to Delhi, till Delhi leading to extra cost and leaves etc. Anyways, the project was so huge that these were minor hiccups. We fixed up the period of days in which we would travel keeping some buffer, I started preparing for the trip. A major preparation was learning about the bike and fix minor to major problems like tyre puncture, changing clutch and brake wires, spark plug etc. For this I consulted a private mechanic who overhauled my bike and him and his assistant taught me about various aspects. They also helped me purchase some extra tools, spark plug, tyre tubes, headlight bulbs etc. I practiced changing the tyre i.e. getting the tyre and putting it back. I did not deflate and inflate the tyre as I did not have the pump. Anyways, this much was enough for now. Then changing/tightening clutch /brake wire and spark plug. I was getting confident by the day. We also decided to do a small (in comparison to what we were up to) ride up to Sholapur which was approx mid-way between Hyderabad and Pune. For me it was 300 kms. This was meant to gauge our stamina whether we face any issues in long rides and just to get a feel. On one Saturday I started from Hyderabad and it took me around 6.5 hours to reach Sholapur. My companion also came and we spent that day roaming around, visiting Siddheshwar temple and having a drink and nice dinner in the hotel. Next day after lunch we bade good bye to each other and left for our homes. I came back to Hyderabad in 6.5 hours averaging just below 50. Anyways it was not about how fast we rode but how well and effortlessly we rode. We read a lot on the internet and forums about route, medicines, clothing, weather etc. We deliberated on how to send our bikes to Delhi. The private cargo transport companies charged a lot so we finally settled on sending bikes by train. I made a trip to the station to know the timings and other formalities which are to be done etc. The petrol tank has to be emptied, the bike to be protected by stuffing etc. and papers in order. There are guys right outside the parcel area who do the bike packing for some charge. I booked my flight tickets up to Delhi and did some shopping like raincoat, woolens (hand gloves, balaclava). Specially for this trip I ordered a Saddle bag and Tank bag from Cramster. The saddle bag fits across rear seat of the bike and can be used to carry stuff. The tank bag has magnates which stick to petrol tank of the bike. Apart from this I took one regular traveling bag which I kept on the rear seat, all tied up using bungee cord which are ropes with elasticity and hooks at both ends to tie to any part of the bike. The arrangement worked out well for me.

29th July (Hyderabad)

It was a long and hard day for me. My sister and her kids were staying with me before they moving to Chennai where my brother-in-law was searching for a home on rent. I got their ticket to Chennai and dropped them at Kacheguda station in Secunderabad. After that I went to make sure that bike is loaded at Hyderabad station. Even though my bike was marked for loading next morning, still it was not loaded in the parcel van when I reached the station. I had to bribe overall 120/- to two people to ensure that bike is loaded in the morning Andhra Pradesh (AP) Express. The need was mine so I did not mind as railways don't promise delivery on specific dates and they do their own prioritization. I had to catch a flight to Delhi @ 3:40 in the morning so packed everything and slept for 2 hours from 11:00 PM to 1:00 AM. I had already booked a cab for airport which came on time at 1:30 AM and reached Begumpet airport @ 2:00 AM. Had to pay Rs. 500/- for the cab!! Since I had not slept for last two nights well enough, so slept throughout in the flight. Got down at airport at 5:30 AM and straight went to family friend's residence in Sarojini Nagar and slept.

30th July (New Delhi)

My companion lost his mobile phone on his way to Delhi so there was no way to contact him. After waiting for his call went to station to at least get my bike. As I reached Parcel office, touts caught hold of me. Since I was not carrying the RC, which I thought might not be required, I let the tout be with me. Bike was on platform and it needed to be brought to the parcel office. After visiting Parcel office of Hyderabad and New Delhi, I think how openly the bribe things work. Everyone has a cut from the bribe. After 120/- and 1.5 hours, my bike was out. After that went to Karol Bagh to meet my companion who was getting his bike fixed from a mechanic shop named Gurdayal. Karol Bagh's bike market is quite an interesting place. It is Mecca for all the bikers in the world. Apart from mechanics, all sorts of modifications, accessories are available here. There were lot of vintage bikes in shops eating dust. I could see lot of foreigners who were looking for a bike to ride on a trip similar to us. One way of renting the bike is also to purchase the bike from here and sell it back over here. We met couple of foreigner guys who were planning to go to Spiti on bike and were getting their bike ready. The mechanic profession here is passed over to next generation. The shop that we were sitting in was there for past several years initially run by the father of the mechanic who was also there in the shop. Rather than going by the book, these people fix up things by experience. Here I saw a rare bullet which runs on diesel. By evening the mechanic fixed up my companion's bike and we were hopeful of riding the next day.

31st July (Delhi - Chandigarh)

We had decided to meet at Gurdayal in Karol Bagh at 12:30 PM. I had arranged everything on the bike while starting from home. After some more adjustments I was ready to hit the road.

After getting some more consultation from the mechanic we left the place @ 2:30 PM, quite late. Getting out of Delhi was a task due to all the traffic and it was killing hot. We drove and took our first break for lunch at a roadside dhaba. After that thanks to good road (NH-1) we covered distance steadily and reached Chandigarh at 8:30 PM. We went to my acquaintance's house in Chandigarh and had home cooked dinner and slept early to rise early in the morning.

1st August (Chandigarh - Narkanda)

We left home early at 5:30 AM to gain good ground. We passed through Kalka town which was crowded. From there we got first view of hills and bade goodbye to plains.

Soon we reached Dharampur. The place is famous for its station on Kalka-Shimla narrow gauge line. I went up to this quaint station and refreshed some memories. After Dharampur due to a bifurcation we got parted. There was a board stating Barog 6 ^ and Solan 15->. I took the Barog route and waited for my companion for 15 minutes. When he didn't turn up, I went as far back as 10 km only to realize this confusion. Then I rushed towards Shimla with full speed but my companion had already reached outskirts of Shimla. In between I admired the beauty of Shivalik hills. There was a temple at top of some hill or a colonial style bunglow. The hills of course were green and gentle.

When we joined back my companion went away looking for 2T oil for his bike which we found very close to where we met. I also had first damage in bike. The speedometer wire had come out of front wheel due to which both speedometer and odometer did not work for some time. I got it fixed with the shop where we got the 2T oil. After that we decided not to enter Shimla town lest we get stuck in the traffic. There was already a jam in progress at the entrance to Shimla. We took the bypass and joined the road to Kufri after Shimla town. We witnessed what is called a chotta (small) Shimla from a distance.

We reduced our target of reaching Shoja and settled for Ani. After Kufri weather changed suddenly. Clouds came all over and mist was formed. There we took a break and clicked each other all geared up on our bike among fog and mist.

I felt like we are just going to get lost in mist but rain obliged. Rain was pelting but we still drove but had to break in between as it was unbearable. The rain drops felt like needles. With helmet on head it was difficult to drive as neither can you keep the visor open as rain drops would hit your face and nor can you keep the visor closed as you wouldn't see anything. We inquired with some locals as what is the pattern of rain. Would it stop after some time? On their advice that rain may not be there ahead, we proceeded but rain & clouds played hide and seek with us. However, we were rewarded with stunning views in between.
While we were going through this we decided to keep moving by calling to each other keep moving. After rainy ordeal and passing through slush of a fresh landslide we reached Narkanda and straight went to hotel Hatu. It was nice and comfortable Himachal Tourism hotel and thankfully had rooms available. We booked a Deluxe Room for Rs. 1000/- and it was quite comfortable. Just before Narkanda rain stopped and we got some stunning views of hills draped with clouds with deep green valleys below.

There was this dutch group of 8-10 people who were riding bullets from Manali to Leh and further to Lamayuru on an organized tour staying in the same hotel. One of the guys from this group was quite friendly and talked to us. There were two assistants with the group, one of them mechanic and there was one Qualis vehicle following the group carrying their luggage etc. The mechanic guy was fed up with the group as complained that they banged their bikes every now and then and he had to repair them. We kept on meeting them at different locations up to Leh. The leader of the group was a lady who also drove a bullet.

2nd August (Narkanda - Manali)

Our start from hotel was on time but got delayed when I couldn't find my wallet but found it later in my bag itself. Anyways we started while it was still drizzling as we did not know when it may stop. We broke for a quick fill of stomach by gulping down bananas, milk, chocolates etc. School education seemed to be quite a high on agenda of government and parents as every village enroute had kids in school uniform going to school. Even in that morning chill and rain, kids were lined up to catch their bus to school at a remote village further from Narkanda. After sometime whole atmosphere changed and it was bright sunshine. We descended a lot of height up to 1500 mts to cross Sutlej river.

We easily reached Khanag which is the base of Jalori Pass with lots of photo-op in between. As we reached Khanag it started raining heavily. It rained so heavy that we were thinking of options.

Then a news came that there is a khud around 1 km up from Khanag crossing which is a difficult task. My companion went and surveyed it and found that we can try to cross it. At Khanag there was nothing much and had to do with just tea, milk and boiled eggs. The khud was actually a patches of stream which brought lot of slush from the mountain.
We decided to try in turn and my companion maneuvered it fine but I got stuck in one of the pits. The front tyre got stuck in a pit with huge stone in front. I tried a lot by racing the bike but it did not budge. Luckily there was one solo biker on bullet who was trying to cross the Khud at the same time. After seeing our predicament he got down to help us. He lifted the front tyre and placed it in such a way that I could take bike forward. I thanked the guy profusely. His name was Motep and he was from Leh. As profession he used to do rafting, trekking etc. in Ganges and was heading towards Leh for the season of rafting in Indus & Zanskar. I think without him it would have been really difficult. After that we reached Jalori pass at 3185 mts. It was first major pass and there were many more to surmount. There is a temple at the top known as Jalori Jot. I bowed to the deity and thanked for helping me out. The descent also was really bad with hardly any road, all stones and rubble with mud slush and streams of water.

Clouds were everywhere on the mountains, some going up and creating a feeling that mountains are on fire. At one such point we saw a small set of houses up in the mountain slope shrouded in mist. My companion very well mentioned that we have struck gold by witnessing such scenes.

Once we reached Aut and joined to main Chandigarh - Manali highway the road felt like velvet as it was well paved. The entire stretch from Narkanda till Aut was wilderness with thick and wet forest and being an internal road there was hardly any traffic. The Beas river running alongside was in full flow with water droplets creating a haze over the water.

After some struggle we reached Manali by 8:30 PM covering 220 km that day. We checked into hotel Beas view, room #401 which according to my companion had view of Rohtang as he had stayed in this hotel before.

3rd August (Manali)

Today was the rest day for us so we woke up late at around 10:30. Entire sky was cloudy, so could not get a view of Rohtang from the hotel room. Anyways, after getting fresh we went to search for a mechanic. After some search we found one each for our bikes. My guy changed the oil, cleaned air filter, spark plug, loosened the chain for 170/-. He did not see any requirement for changing clutch plate which would have been difficult considering the only Bajaj service center close by was at Bhuntar, some 50 kms away. I heaved a sigh of relief when another guy who checked the clutch said it was alright. We went to Mission hospital as my companion was not feeling well. Later we had lunch at Chopstick which is a Tibetan restaurant. We ordered roasted chicken. Food was average but quantity was huge. After wasting half of the chicken and having Tibetan herbal tea which is nothing but warm water with some herbs we left. Later we shopped a bit for my companion like gloves, cap etc. in local market. Due to all these occupations we did not venture out much in Manali.

4th Aug (Manali - Keylong)

We started from Manali @ 7 AM in rain and fog as we didn't have much choice. Entire stretch was slushy with some small good patches. The fog/cloud/mist was very dense and our clothing was getting wet. We reached Marhi which is 36 km from Manali.

We had our breakfast at one of the restaurant which was just waking up and started for Rohtang. Entire stretch up to Rohtang was having dense fog and at Rohtang it was quite chilly and windy. Somehow while shivering I took photo of the BRO mark for Rohtang pass.

After Rohtang skies opened up a bit and it was down several kms through loops to Koksar.

It is at the bank of Bhaga river which comes from Spiti Valley and meets Chandra river at Tandi. From Koksar to Sissu, weather was fine and we drove leisurely with lots of tea & photo breaks. Twice or thrice we had to cross streams but nowhere close to difficulty of Jalori pass.

After Sissu it started raining again and lasted till Keylong. What the hell, this is our fourth day of rain. We were fed up of rain with wet luggage and clothing. Our hotel rooms till now were just spread out with wet clothes to dry. We reached Tandi and filled up at the only petrol station on this route. There is a board claiming that next petrol pump is only at Leh some mere 385 kms away.
I was averaging around 30 kmpl and with 18 lts petrol tank it was enough for me to last till Leh. We met up with the same group of foreigners whom we had met at Narkanda again at Tandi petrol pump. The guy who talked to me at Narkanda was very excited to see us. At Keylong, we stayed at hotel Valley view the road to which itself is not short of adventure.

Due to some pipes getting laid, the whole road was dug up in the market. The room rent for Valley View was 500/-. It did had some nice view of mountains around. There was another stay option at Jispa ahead of Keylong as there is a nice hotel called Ibex over there but we did not go that far.

5th August (Keylong)

Due to snag in my companion's we had to stay for one more day in Keylong. Having nothing to do I decided to go to confluence of Chandra and Bhaga rivers at Tandi. Bhaga river is the one which follows the road from Koksar and Chandra is the one which comes down from Jispa side to meet at Tandi and becomes Chenab which flows into Kashmir and further to Pakistan. The confluence was grand with both rivers full of water and carving an edge where they meet due to different shades of muddy water. I crossed over the Tandi bridge and went up to the Ghoshal village which came out to be the biggest village of the Lahaul - Spiti district. Around the confluence there was some construction going on and there were some kids who posed for picture from me.

As I came down to Tandi it started raining and had to take shelter in a tea shop at Tandi bridge. There I met one interesting character in the form of a young Punjabi guy named Manoj Sharma. He is basically from Jullunder and does business of transporting peas from the various areas in Spiti and Lahaul to Delhi. He was fairly educated had done MCA and did some software jobs but left to the lure of peas business which brings him much more money. He is the youngest son in the family. His family is well educated and very prosperous. He visits all the nearby villages where peas are grown and bought by local traders. He then loads them in his trucks and take them to Delhi where these local traders again sell the peas to them. For whatever amount the peas are sold, he gets a 7 percent commission. So, if a truck gets sold for 1 lakh, he makes cool 7000/-. There are several trucks like this everyday. He kept on rattling his views on life in general and description of his family, life in field, life in software, his girlfriend and even a local NGO Pragya. He is a teetotaler but drinks sometimes and smokes as well though it is a taboo in his family. He then took me to his room and showed his educational certificates which were very impressive. He told us about a tradition in Keylong. There is a festival in Lahaul - Spiti which happens every year on 15th Aug. People from all over the district congregates, then there are cultural programs and at around 12 midnight boys pick any girl they want to marry. There is a circle in the ground in which girls are asked to assemble. Once it is announced to pick boys rush to pick the girl of their choice. If the boy manages to keep the girl for one night, next morning their marriage is solemnized. Girl is free to resist and if there are many suitors for a single girl then they have to struggle among themselves. He told us that there are times when girls approached him to pick them up. But he says that a girl from Keylong wont last in the heat of Punjab. After a few drinks in the hotel with us he left not before exchanging the contact info. He does all the traveling between villages on his own bike. This guy had already done 28 thousand kilometers since Feb this year and his bike lasts only for one season. In between he drives all the way to his brother in Kaza who does the same business there or to his home in Jullunder and Chandigarh.

6th Aug (Keylong - Sarchu)

We started early at 6:15 AM while it was still drizzling. We rode up to Jispa some 30 km from Keylong before stopping for breakfast. It was very cold today and due to rain it was chilly. After some overtaking of trucks which were generous to give us side, we reached Zing Zing bar. Not sure how the name came out to be. There was a small placid lake there whose name is Deepak Tal.

From there the ascent to Baralachala pass started. The mountains around were barren with lots of erosion due to rain and snow probably. Sometimes it seemed that at any point, the mud and stones could come down and cause a landslide. The road was already damaged by rain and the landslides. Midway to the ascent to Baralachala, we faced our first hurdle. One of the loop of the ascent was closed due to landslide and water had breached the road. So to reach the other end of the loop somehow the vehicle had to be pushed up the mountain slope. When we reached vehicles like Qualis, small trucks and even bus was in the process of being pushed up.

We did not have any choice as it was not clear when the debris of landslide will be removed. That day being a Sunday someone was saying that BRO will be on leave. So we decided to push our bike through that path. I tried without luggage but got stuck at one point. There I was helped by a couple of Road Survivors from Chandigarh who were also trying to do the same. They had bullets. They pushed my bike and I pushed theirs. Eventually we all managed to reach the top. The way we pushed the bike was by not riding it but keeping it in first gear and racing and running alongside. My bike belched out such sounds which I never heard before. I was afraid that it may cause some damage to the bike but thankfully nothing serious happened. Once we crossed this hurdle I was slightly relaxed oblivious to havoc that weather is going to play. As we started ascending weather got worse, clouds enveloped the hills dropping visibility and then it started raining with cold winds and road was deteriorating. It was hellish experience going through slush in such biting cold with fog and nobody there to reassure. Throughout some 10 km to the ascent I did not find anyone and I was really scared. But as soon as I reached the Baralachala top others joined me and sky also opened up a bit.

There was also a guy on a Honda high end bike all packed up. At the hurdle I talked to a lady whom I kept meeting on the road till Leh. Our destination for the day was Pang but due to the hurdle we lost close to two hours and settled for Sarchu. As we came down from Baralachala terrain started becoming mysterious. There were odd shaped mountains and valleys.

Some 8 km before Sarchu, we took a bend and came to a valley very wide with grassland on one side and road running in between. The mountains on both sides were gorgeous. There we met the French lady again and while talking to her it came out from my mouth that this is heaven. It was not an exaggeration at that point because for last few days we never saw sunlight in a nice background and without tension on our mind about reaching the destination.

Sarchu was just a group of some 10-15 self-sufficient tents. The tent we chose was run by a Nepali guy. They cook and clean utensils in the tent only. A tent has dormitory style accomodation with beds in a circular embankment.
We settles in the tent and were later joined by Road Survivors on bullets. Their names were Sandy & Vicky. As there was nothing much to do we slept early. In between were joined by two girls who were wife and sis-in-law of the man on exotic Honda bike. The guy had burnt his clutch plates on the hurdle while ascending. The two girls were from Holland and nice to talk. Actually the husband-wife couple had left Holland an year back and traveled through Europe, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan etc. and now were in Ladakh. Since the wife's sister had joined her and three people couldn't ride on the bike, that is why they were traveling on state transport bus to Pang. Here I saw a state transport ordinary bus from Delhi - Leh. That is 1000 km journey through most arduous terrain taking 3 days at least would be lot of fun to do. Unlike expected Sarchu was not that cold even when I woke up at 2:30 AM to take a leak. Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) was on my mind so as precautionary measure I popped a Diamox tablet.

7th Aug (Sarchu - Leh)

This was the most ambitious day of the trip till now. We decided to do the stretch upto Leh which is like 270 km in a single day through two passes Lachungala and Tanglangla. It seemed possible due to two easy stretches in between, 45 km of Morey plains and 50 km from Upushi to Leh which is very good road. The morning was sunny though we had to shit in the open. We were now 5 people, two of us, two road survivors and one British guy David who became friendly with Sandy and Vicky and decided to ride with us. We all started at around 7:15AM and rode in tandem till Lachungla pass. Infact there is one more Pass before Lachangla called Nakeela but never heard of probably because it gets shadowed by big brother Lachangla. While ascending Nakeela, there are 21 loops called Gata Loops.

We came down from Lachungla and hit Pang which had tents exactly like Sarchu. Before Pang we crossed a major stream of water and curved into a valley with weird rock & mud formations like ant holes and needle hole. Some private tents were also there. There were lot of Israeli groups in Pang. Ladakh is favorite destination for them to relax after their grueling compulsory military training. After having breakfast, we left Pang and came to Moray plains.

Due to riding on bullets Sandy, Vicky and David went away pretty fast on level road. Me and my companion got split due to different judgment of road ahead. The road paving people had closed a section of the road due to breach by rainwater so we had to drive on the ground which was loose mud and gravel. Driving on this stretch was problem due to rear tyre wagging every now and then. I saw an army truck on the right. I thought that was the alternate way and followed it. It was not proper road but tyre marks said that it was used. The army truck turned back and went away leaving me all alone. I was again scared as I was alone may be on wrong path and clouds started gathering. After some time I saw some trucks come from the opposite side and I confirmed that this "kuccha" path also connect the road to Tanglangla. After some time I joined the main road. I rode alone for some time. The bikers from dutch group overtook me which assured me that I was on a correct path. After sometime my companion also joined who had taken a different path. What is the characteristics of Moray plains? The easiest stretch didn't come out that easy after all.

Just before ascent to Tanglangla we met Vicky and Sandy who had gone ahead of us but taking rest. It was reassuring to speak to some known faces in the vast expanse. My companion wanted to rest his bike for some time and also to take out his store of petrol that he had filled up in my tank. As there was clear sign of rain, Sandy, Vicky and David left. What a bad luck! As soon as we started ascending, it started raining heavily. As there was no place to stop and road being bad, we just c0ntinued. In a rush to reach early, I went considerably ahead of my companion. There was no point stopping for him as I could not have done anything. I just rode, maneuvering my bike from potholes, gravel, mud etc. overtaking few trucks as well. All this while visibility was very low and it was chillingly cold. Thankfully, I had worn inner wear for the first and only time in this trip and gloves which saved me. My companion was riding without gloves and weather was so bad and cold that I was thinking whether I would see him again. I thought probably he would leave his bike and hitch hike on a truck. It was biting cold and even after wearing gloves how would be manage without them. The sight of Tanglangla pass was welcome just like it was for Baralachala. The top had lots of snow and hills around it were snow-capped.

After some time my companion also appeared whose sight was pleasing. We left the pass after some time and reached Rumtse which was 25 km of down slope from the top. There again in a tent we met Vicky, Sandy and David. Vicky was not well as he was feeling really cold. They had to face snow as against rain in our case while ascending. After a cup of tea and maggi we two decided to move first as bulleteers would catch us soon. The road here till Upushi was fine though rain and flood water had breached the road at many places. Now we felt the ease of two wheelers as how easy it is to push them through landslides and mud-water slush as against the four wheelers. A truck had jammed the road but enough space was left for two-wheelers so we rode on. But just before Upushi, the Gya river which was flowing beside the road had washed away a portion of road and any vehicular movement was not possible. But fortunately GREF bulldozer was already on the job cleaning up some portion of the hill to make way.
Here we were joined by Vicky. We were the first ones to go over the cleared patch. After that there was no looking back and we zoomed all the way to Leh thankfully without much hiccup. Just before Leh we met the leading lady of dutch group whom we first met at Narkanda and was waiting for other group members to catch up. We simply smiled and entered Leh at arond 7:00 PM. After calling up home and letting the folks know that we are fine, it was time to look for accommodation. We based ourselves at Fort Road which was abuzz with activity and lot of tourists were floating around. We all went like emissaries to various directions looking for hotel but most of them had no rooms. We wanted to stay together but after not finding any hotel with enough accommodation, we decided to split. David went to a high class Mogol hotel, Vicky and Sandy to Padamling and me & my companion to some guesthouse (name don't remember) away from city center. It was a small but well carved out room for Rs. 800/- which I thought was expensive.

8th Aug (Leh)

Today was rest day after two days of continuous rides from Keylong to Sarchu and Leh. Especially the last day was mind blowing with three passes, climbing Tanglangla in rain and breach @ Upushi all thrown in one one day. Waking up was a bit late. We had decided to meet Vicky and Sandy @ Padamling hotel by 11 AM. But they too were late to rise. After some chat, gossip and humor we went to find Tibetan Kitchen, the famed restaurant according to Vicky. The food was good and cheap. After that it was time to get our bikes checked. My companion had invited David as well to come and get his bike's footrest fixed. We went to Mohan mistry mechanic shop on the road to Chogmalsar. After some checks, loosening of chain and tightening of brakes, we came back David riding as pillion on my bike. Dinner was at La Pizzeria which was ordinary. Since they didn't have license so they were serving beer in a teapot. I was feeling a bit cold, so came back to hotel early and slept. I asked few travel agents who arrange Inner line permits but they said permission to Nubra is not being given for last four days due to closure of road. Our plans to Nubra seemed in jeopardy and were thinking of what else to do. My companion was insisting on trek to Stok Kangri peak which is 6000+ meters and is the highest non-technical peak. Non-technical meant not taking permission from Mountaineering Association. Rafting on Indus is what I came up with.

9th Aug (Leh)

Today was again a lazy start to the day. I identified a bakery close to Vicky and Sandy's hotel where I would take my breakfast, plain croissant and Apricot juice. That would be sufficient for the morning. We had decided on the last day to go to Tourist Reception center and the DC office to get decisive information on Nubra. Since my companion was not around and so many people going to office would be an overkill, I and Sandy went to the TRC first. A middle aged lady the only occupant at the office, told us that the road to Nubra has opened and it was announced on the radio. We felt elated on hearing this and rushed to the District Magistrate's office which was close to Polo ground. The office was a typical of govt. offices you find in Delhi. You don't know whom to ask. An intern lady told us to write an application to Addl. Distt. Magistrate with details of persons etc. with subject Inner Line Permit(ILP) then get it approved by person sitting in the office titles Addl. Deputy Collector". He approved it without checking any credentials probably because we looked Indian easily. We took the application to Agrarian section where they have a form with format for ILP printed. We just need to fill up the names and address. The guy there asked me to come at 4PM to collect the permit which I promptly did. We also had to pay wildlife fee which is newly imposed for Inner line areas @ Rs. 20/- per day per person. So, for three days and 4 people we paid 240/-. Lunch was at La Pizzeria again. I had Thupka which was just noodles with some vegetables and chicken. I did not like it much. After lunch it was time to visit Shanti Stupa where I went alone. It is beyond Changspa on top of a hill from where you get a good view of entire Leh town. I need to talk something about the Leh town here after experiencing two days of stay. The town looks a foreign land with so many foreigners from all parts of the world and all the services are geared towards catering to them. You will find people from England, Germany, Holland, France, Israel and what not. In two days I was hard pressed to find Indian holidaymakers except few bikers like us. The town is full of STD/PCO and Internet cafes, money exchange counters, bakeries, roof top restaurants with all restaurants having menus for different cuisines like Italian and even Israeli. Even in Indian food, there is less spice and salt so we did not try a lot of Indian food. In the evening we went to original German bakery run by a Sikh since some 30+ years. This is actually the original German Bakery but now you would find lot of imitations in Leh town.
Anyways, Vicky was trying to forge a relationship with the owner but could not. The Sikh owner told us about a punjabi dhaba to have food which we were craving for so many days. The food was good close to punjabi style. After packing for next day we slept to get up and leave early. A small fiasco happened. My companion left his bike keys at an STD shop which got closed and he had to collect it next morning of course after some delay. During the day I visited Ladakh ecological Center. I was expecting a big array of shops and a fair like atmosphere but not to be. There was a shop of handicrafts where I bought a decorative wall hanging, a T-shirt and dried apricots. There was a library as well but just looked at the books and came back.

10th Aug (Leh - Diskit)

We start behind schedule for Nubra Valley. While I was waiting for others to fill up their petrol tanks, I made a visit to prayer wheels close by and rotated them to wish best of journey for Nubra.
From the word go, we started ascending towards Khardungla Pass also known as K-TOP which is 40 km from Leh town. Eventually it turns out that Leh town is almost visible from K-TOP. The road went up to Ganglas and then South Pullu where we had to submit a copy of ILP. From here we got involved in an army convoy which was taking fuel to border area camps.

The road from 15 km before K-TOP was very bad with potholes with water, gravel, loose mud and stones all thrown in at random. Our progress was slow due to army convoy trucks as well. Finally after 2.5 hours from start we reached the K-TOP.
It has a souvenir shop, temple and a canteen apart from various structures declaring the height and might of K-TOP. There was snow at K-TOP because of which it was chilly out there. I bought a hat and 5 key chains. After some coffee and smoke, we started down. Again the road was bad till North Pullu. The story of S&N Pullu is that earlier Yaks and caravan and now even army convoy cross over from North to South or vice-versa across K-TOP in a single day and rest for night after. From North Pullu, good road started but no respite from army trucks. Most of them were generous enough to give sides and we used to wave them to say thanks using left hand. In between we saw some yaks grazing in whatever green patches they could find.

Soon we reached Khardung village and settled in a tea shop. After laborious and lousy way of ordering we almost spent 2 hours there. I was insisting on leaving for Diskit but others were just passing time with nonsensical talks. We left Khardung village and continued from Khalsar village towards Diskit. After Khardung, the terrain started changing. We were loosing height in a great amount and soon saw Shyok river and its basin. The Shyok river is not one monolithic stream but several streams within its basin. It was quite below and we eventually had to come to its level. The river basin is basically the entire valley between two parallel mountain range. There were some green patches with trees, field and few houses among them.

The patch was actually around a tributary stream coming from high up from the mountain and meeting the Shyok river. We continued on the left bank of Shyok river which meets Nubra river coming from Siachen glacier. The confluence is not clear due to huge basin of both rivers meeting. Its hard to make out where the rivers meet. The basin otherwise is full of many streams, sand, stones and occasional greenery. After some driving close to Diskit we came to a location where we had to cross a flat patch of valley full of sand. When seen from top the road is just a think black strip among the field of sand. That stretch itself would be 2-3 kms. If we take out the mountains the road will look like coming directly from Jaisalmer in Thar desert.

We eventually reached Diskit and after seeing 2-3 hotel checked into Sand Dunes guest house. The guest house was quite comfortable with gorgeous flowers in full bloom and nice spread of food.
Diskit town itself was quite impressive. It has a Gompa high up in the mountain visible from everywhere but we did not visit it.
Apart from that Diskit had a road dotted with shops selling clothes, groceries, tailor, AV center and restaurants as well. There were cars and two-wheelers and lady drivers. It had school, hospital and even internet connection though it was not working. Surprisingly the shop-keepers were from plains a Rajasthani and Haryanvi. Prosperity of town could be attributed to presence of army as well. Due to army the roads to these towns are good and mostly accessible. Sometimes army adopts these border towns and villages which bolster the prosperity of town. Also these town are the only place for army personnel to come in contact with non-serviceman people. After a good nice dinner in the open, it was time to sleep.

11th Aug (Diskit to Panamik)

We got up late as we knew that ride is going to be short one to either Panamik or Leh. Due to some snag in bikes and general laziness and urge to fill up our tummies we left the hotel only at 12:30PM. First we decided to see Yak farm but road to it was broken and one local told us that there are no Yaks at this time. All of them are at high mountain Pasteur lands like the one we found close to North Pullu. So we decided to go to Hunder and check out the double-humped Bactrian camels. These camels were used by caravans to carry men and material. After some going up and down the army camp in Hunder, we were directed towards Sand dunes and shrub growth where we could spot camels loittering around. But when we got there, there were no camels to be seen. After asking a shepherd, he told that some 7-8 camels are owned by a guy who has gone to mosque for namaz but where has he tied up the camels is not known. We looked around a bit but could not find any. After some time, the camel guy appeared and asked for Rs. 50/- to show the camels. Since we did not want to waste our visit to Hunder specially for camels, we decided to pay. The guy took us to a growth of thorny shrubs where some 7-8 camels were sitting inside. After some clicking we came out and camel guy brought one camel out side.

Soon we left Hunder and came to Diskit. Here, there is a hand lever operated petrol pump of Indian oil though there is no building or any other paraphernalia.
Others filled up from there and soon we were on the way to Panamik. From Khalsar, we took a left to go over the bridge on the way to Panamik via Sumur. It was 35 kms from there. Panamik is a village with few guest house and 2-3 shops unlike Diskit. We stayed in the Pamaral guest house with a slightly mad host. Along with his wife he had two lovely kids. Whole family was our host.

At the dinner in Sezer restaurant we met a couple from Italy who were also staying in the same guesthouse. We talked a bit about India, Rajasthan and Ladakh region. The host was calling us people from India which I didn't like as if they are not Indians. They also have a term from down for people coming from plains. After waiting for others for sometime, I decided to visit the hot springs myself. It was some 1/2 km down and some 100 mts up the hill. There were few concrete rooms and barricades. But neither was there anybody and the whole place was dirty, uninspiring and water was flowing everywhere. There was brown-green algae or sulphur deposits that I didn't know. The water was around 60-70 deg Celsius.

12th Aug (Panamik - Alchi)

We woke up early as we had decided to go up to Lamayuru today which makes it like 150+70 km more. But due to laziness of others, we left at around 9:30 AM. But before leaving I had glorious view of high mountains shrouded in clouds and flowers in full bloom in the courtyard.

In the morning, I was contemplating going to hot spring and taking bath there. But as it came out the host was getting hot water for our bath from one of the channels out of hot spring itself. Then I changed my mind and decided to have my bath at guest house only. I did accompany the host to the place from where he was fetching warm water. There I met a guy from Varanasi whose accent was more bihari. He was employed in ITBP in intelligence section. He was telling stories of how they feel glad on meeting people from down. He also came to the guesthouse and met others. He says the temp in winter drops to -35% C and how they sill feel cold. Some people suffer from HAPO (High Altitude Pulmonary Odeama) and they are sent back. When he heard that I came from Hyderabad he got interested as his brother was studying in CCMB (Center for Cellular Microbiology). He was asking how were the prospects & my opinion whether he should send the brother abroad. He told us that Panamik is on the road to Siachen base camp which is some 50 km away.

We reached Khalsar among mountains with ominous looking clouds and mild rain.

And from there to Khardung, the same teashop where had tea while coming. From Khardung up to North Pullu, road was good but from there onwards road was bad also bolstered by army convoy. We reached K-TOP around 2PM. Descent from there was uneventful and generally easy. We went straight to Padmaling hotel where Vicky and Sandy had to settle bills. The host had promised to keep a room vacant for them on coming back from Nubra and that is why he did not take money when they left for Nubra. This stop delayed things. We further got delayed due to my companion went to make STD calls. By the time we left for Lamayuru, it was getting dark. We made a stop at Pathar Sahib Gurudwara hoping to get to eat in langar but it happens only on Sundays and today was Saturday. We left after getting darshan and prasad. It was really dark and driving was getting difficult. It was pitch dark except occasional vehicle from other side and only headlights from our bikes piercing the dark. Once or twice we had to come back in search of each other. There was a problem in chain getting lose in my companion's bike so we decided to take halt for night. We were at Saspol where there was no hotel. A shopkeeper directed us to go to Alchi which was just 6-7 kms. We heeded his advice and settled in a guesthouse in Alchi with a plan that we will start early and go all the way to Srinagar. There was a caveat that Zojila can be passed only up to 1 PM and is closed on Monday. The host of the guest house was nice as he woke up the cook who cooked a meal of fried rice which we gulped down and went to sleep. We did not spot the magnetic strip on the Leh-Kargil road where vehicles are known to go up against gravity as it was dark.

13th Aug (Alchi)

Vicky & Sandy came to our room @ 5:00 AM to wake us up and start for Drass / Zojila. Previous night I could not sleep for a long time thinking whether I should go with the rest or stay at Alchi for some time as my holiday was not yet over. It was decided that Vicky and Sandy would proceed as they did not have much leaves. Only in the morning I could make out our gorgeous guesthouse Choskor.

I decided to not waste any time and make full use of stay at Alchi. I first headed straight to Nimu to have a glimpse of confluence of Indus and Zanskar. We must have passed Nimu the previous night but ofcourse could not spot anything in the dark. The confluence was really grand with rivers adorning different shades of brown. The Indus river goes through a deep gorge before the confluence. I was mesmerized by the sight which also formed like three spokes all equiangular.

I clicked the confluence from every possible location on the main highway high above. I saw a road leading up to the base of confluence where some foreigners were taking dip and decided to go there myself. The road was actually under construction road from Nimu to Darcha via Padum. It was not clear how long the road has been constructed. The road to Padum is actually from Kargil. This will be an alternate road. Anyways, I climbed down from the road up to confluence. The foreigner group left by then and I was only one at the confluence. I dipped my feet into the water and sprinkled some water on myself as an act of bathing. The time spent at the confluence was truly magical. Two big, historical and grand rivers meeting in front of my eyes. Just imagine the origins of the two rivers. Indus, traversing whole of Himalayas and Zanskar coming from the most treacherous valley in Ladakh.

After spending an hour I came back to to village called Basgo which had a monastery and some boards were depicting it as Ancient Citadel. The broken down monastery was there but citadel was completely ruined with two walls still standing. Actually all the structures in Ladakh region are built of mud which gets eroded over time. The monastery was protected and one of the few world heritage sites. On entering the main temple, there were some people working on the paintings to restore them probably. There was no other visitor at that time. After looking at the paintings and huge status of Buddha, I came back.

Then I went to Likir monastery which is 5 km spur from the main road. Like all monasteries in the region, it was also situated on the hilltop. The view of the monastery from distance was magnificent. There were lot of foreign tourists at the monastery at this time. Today was some special day as there was lot of activity. There was some ritual going on the sides with probably lead Lama in full robe doing some kind of havans. I visited few temples which were all had religious objects like deities, thankas & all the walls were painted. I know Buddhist rituals and terms in bits and pieces but could not related much. Then there was a congrgation of all the lamas and students in a prayer hall where they chanted mantras and played musical instruments. Tea was also served. All the foreign tourists and I witnessed the ritual. The buddhists are very accomodating probaly due to Tibet factor. It is their endeavor to spread Buddhism and bring recognition to Tibet in international eye. After this ritual while I was preparing to leave, there was a procession of all the interns on the road.

I could not understand much so I left and came back to Alchi and visit the monastery there. This was not on a hilltop. It had 4 temples again having idols and pictures of deities with religious objects and wall were all painted. All this was not making sense to me. After clicking some customary pictures from outside, inside its not allowed I came back. There were lot of shops outside selling curio items from this region.

There is no STD booth in Alchi but a cyber cafe which suprisingly worked. It has enormous charge of Rs 3 per minute. In Leh, it was Rs 2 per minute. After checking mails I came back to guest house to pay attention to my disc brake as it was giving sounds of plates touching disc even when brake is not pressed. I took out the wheel, cleaned the plates but no use. The plates were still touching the disc. It may be due to malfunctioning of hydraulic system of break. I decided to live with it.

14th Aug (Alchi)

Today I decided to visit Lamayuru monastery which was some 50 km towards Srinagar. There is a village called Khaltse which has a petrol pump where I wanted to fill in for the onward journey. Also I hoped to find a mechanic. I filled the petrol but could not find a mechanic, so continued towards monastery. The monastery is the oldest in the Ladakh region and witnesses lot of foreign tourists. Also its location is dramatic, on a hilltop with moonscape hills around. Hills with lot of mud.

Lamayuru is midway between ascent to Fotu La, the highest pass on Leh-Srinagar road. The road passes through a narrow valley carved by a tributary to Indus. The monastery was similar to what I had seen at Likir with prayer rooms etc. But there were lot of foreign tourists here. Because of no directions probably I missed the main temple of Vairocarna but I was not very keen. I read some portion of the book Amazing Land Ladakh and trying to relate to what I saw in monastery. Soon gave up and decided to come back. The one thing I didn't like about all these monasteries was the smell which enmates in the rooms and they being dingy. It is a bit claustrophobic or asphyxiating. But I do respct their sentiments. I could identify few things like Tangyar, Kangyar, scripts, thankas and female deity Tara. This much was enough for me.
I had planned to visit Ri-dzong monastery as well but left it for next day if I had to stay at Alchi on 15th as well. Ri-dzong is supposed to be situated in more dramatic place which was evident from the spur that you see taking off from the national highway from Lamayuru. I came back to Khaltse and made few phone calls to fix up certain things at Jammu and at office.

There was a helper boy in the guesthouse. He was basically from Uttaranchal and working here. Whenever I asked him for water, he would ask back whether mineral water or local pani. 'It is what they use and probably get from a stream. At the guest house there was a French family as well with whom I talked a bit at dinner table. They were very gentle but poor in english. I had some conversation with the head of the family about EU etc. He told me that it was only for economic reasons o/w each country follow their own culture. He explained all this to me very laboriously. His daughter was charming and always smiled at me. His son was bit interested in talking to me. They were on adventurous family as they were traveling in local buses and walking even though they didn't know proper english forget about hindi. They had walked 4 kms to the guest house from the main highway. Later it didn't come as surprise as I saw many foreigners walking enroute to Alchi. Probably roughing out is their idea of holiday.

15th Aug (Alchi - Drass)

Today we decided to go upto Drass on the advice of guest house owner and few taxi drivers and locals. The drive was approx 230 km and with kind of road it looked easy. So, we got up at 8 AM and left by 10:30 AM. The drive upto Lamayuru was enjoyable with no traffic, good road and sunny weather. After Lamayuru it was ascent to Fotula pass the highest pass on Leh-Srinagar road. We stopped at many places for photo op. Lazily we came upto another pass Namik La & climbed down to Mulbek. We decided to have lunch here. The landspace till was more or less moonscape but frequency of green patches and habitation increased.

Here we met a group of foreigners going to Kargil. There were 4 boys and 2 girls on 4 bikes all bullets. The lunch was shady and I hoped it doesn't upset my stomach. From there we rode non-stop to Kargil. In a narrow passage of road there were two hens who ran helter-skelter on hearing the bikes. One of the hen probably came under my front tyre. Since we were at speed so could not look back at what happened. I hoped she is fine. I felt very bad @ this accident and was thinking all sorts of bad things that may happen to me as punishment. It was a bad omen. Soon we reached Kargil. From a distance Kargil looked beautiful set around the bend in Indus river which was sweeping lot of ground.

There were curious onlookers on the road soldiers as well as normal public. We went inside a market in Kargil to have tea. From Kargil the road became treacherous with lots of truck traffic from the opposite side. This could be due to release of traffic from Srinagar side of Zojila pass. This leg of highway passes closest to the LOC. There was a board on the roadside announcing in hindi Aap dushman ki nazar mein hain.

I wanted to stop and click some photographs but due to visibly high presence of soldiers did not want to attract attention. Eventually we reached Drass and checked into HillView hotel. The place is known as Siberia of India, the second coldest inhabited place on earth. That reputation reflected as it was getting cold as we closed in on Drass. On the road many kids want to do hand touch with bikers by extending their hand. I avoided most of them lest it may cause some imbalance. We have to be careful as well as some overzealous kid may cause accident. Many times they utter some comments which could neither hear so understanding is out of question. I hope they were not abusing us.

16th Aug (Drass - Srinagar)

In the morning I surveyed the scene around the guesthouse. There high rocky (rather than mud) mountains around with famous Tiger Hill behind the hotel. The day was sunny so it didn't felt much cold. There was a bomb shell in the hotel with a flower potted in it.

We started from Drass at around 9:30. Our destination today was only Srinagar. First few kilometers were fine but soon bad road started with loose stones and gravel. We were not going beyond 2nd gear on 20 kmph. In the valley below there were some groups of nomads we saw who were doing cattle grazing and making ropes. These people are the glimpses of the traders on the old silk route and Zojila pass one of the passes on the route. We were checked once by J&K police checkpost by just noting down our names and vehicle number. Before entering Zojila pass we were checked once again by Army guys who had a sniffer dog as well. There was not very serious checking only few questions and then let go. The soldier there was anyway from Vizag so became friendly on hearing that I came from Hyderabad. Just before Zojila pass, we were stopped due to some blasting that was going on for road widening. A bulldozer came and cleared the path in 15 minutes. Soon we crossed Zojila pass.
Zojila is not that trecherous or ascending from Drass except the bad roads but the descent into Kashmir valley is huge due to relatively lower altitude there. As soon as we got the first glimpse of Kashmir valley, it was splendid with trees and grass on the slopes with cute little stream flowing. This was complete contrast from the barren landscape on the other side frm which we came. Sight of trees and greenery was really soothing to eyes after almost 10 days.

We continued towards Sonmarg via Baltal. There was a convoy of army trucks descending along with us and just like previously we thanked them for for giving us side by waiving to them. There were soldiers posted at every 100 mts or so and we waived to them as well. They responded with equal enthusiasm. I had never been to Kashmir before except watching it in movies and I understood why it is called heaven on earth. It is ironical that such a place which should be celebrated is in dispute. We rode all the way to Srinagar and reached Dal lake late in the afternoon. Till then though we crossed many check posts but nobody stopped us. We wanted to stay in a houseboat but due to bikes decided to stay in hotel beside the Dal lake. After having lunch I did not waste time and proceeded to Dal lake. I hired a Shikara and asked him to take me around interesting locations. What I saw I had not expected. There is entire village thriving in this lake with houses, shops, schools etc. I recalled the old Doordarshan serial Gul, Gulshan, Gulpham which depicted life around Dal lake. Small kids and women were using the boats. I went to a Kashmir emporium and bought some stuff like bedsheet, kurta payjama and wooden decorative pieces.

17th Aug (Srinagar - Jammu)

Today I started for Jammu which is around 300 kms from Srinagar. I wanted to reach there by evening so that I could book my bike in the evening Jhelum express to Pune. Since it was longish distance to cover so rode continuously with only short brakes passing through Qazigund, Banihal, Ramban, Jawahar tunnel, Patnitop, Udhampur. At Jawahar tunnel before entering I was stopped by the police. They asked me curiously, "Are you an Indian?". When I said yes, they let me go. The tunnel was dark and dingy and I had to be really careful for 5-10 it took me to cross it. As I descended the weather became hotter and in Jammu I was sweating. I reached Jammu station at around 5 PM but the parcel office was closed and I could not book my bike. After few calls I managed favor from a friend in Jammu who promised to take care of my bike and parcel it later. After refreshing myself at his home and home cooked dinner I boarded a a Delux Volvo bus to Delhi. After staying in Delhi for couple of days with a friend I flew back to Hyderabad.

The trip was a life changing experience for me facing harships, elation, fear, joy and finally a sense of achievement. I rode around 2600 kms in 18 days.

Delhi Metro - Inaugural Day (25-Dec-2002)

2002-12-25T10:00:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,

Today is one of the most memorable day of my life as I have just come after experiencing the Delhi Metro. It may also be one big day for Delhi and may be for many more cities in India. I feel rejuvenated and there is a feeling of achievement for me as a citizen of Delhi and India though I may not have contributed anything. Who says big projects can't be executed in India? I hope this project becomes a model for every other infrastructure project in India. Amen! So now onto the reality. Yesterday in the office I saw all the newspaper splattered with Metro advertisements though I don't know about electronic media as I have not seen television for one last three days. Earlier I had thought that I will go in the afternoon to catch the action but changed my mind to catch the very first train. The way it is said in Bollywood lingo "First Day First Show". So I slept yesterday with alarm set at 4:00 AM. From day before yesterday cold wave and rain has swept the whole Delhi and adjoining area. I thought getting out of quilts at such an hour will be difficult for most people so it would be cakewalk at metro but I was going to be proved wrong. I got up at 4:30 AM, left home at 5:00 AM. It was pitch dark, fog and very cold throughout the 18km drive to Shahadara from Noida. I reached Shahadara station at 5:35AM. In between I gave lift to a "Metro Sahayak(Helper)" who had his duty at Welcome station next to Shahadara. Shahadara station has elaborate parking, square shaped compounds, one for each type of vehicle. When I reached there, 50 people were already there, though station was closed. It has normal shop like shutters to close the entrance. Slowly the number grew as people dropped in. Everybody was talking about how far they have come like me to experience the metro. Few DMRC employees came and went inside through quarter open shutter and some passengers also stormed the station. Zee news camera and some reporters also came. AajTak was conspicuous by its absence. Shutter was finally open at 5:45AM and lo, people ran to queue up at the counters. They were on both sides 8 on each side though only three on one side and one on other side opened. The personnel at the counters were sleek handsome young men, wearing brownish-cream suit and smile on their face. After this here was the low point of whole experience. Though there was a queue, some uncooperative elements mobbed the counters to get the tickets first. There were some shouting among people. Few women came and made a "Ladies line" like many places in India. Though there was some information about tickets on station walls but none was depicting the entire process of traveling either using tokens or smart cards. Each person was taking some time which is acceptable as this was the first time. My turn came and I bought smart card of 100 Rs. denomination, valid for one year, for which I had to pay 200 Rs., 100 more for security which can be refunded. The tourist travel card, which is valid for one day, somebody said is only for tourist like foreigners. By the time I got the card, first train had left around 6:10 AM. Sigh!!! Now station was bustling, just like any suburban station in Mumbai. There were many DMRC people on duty who were manning the Fare machines at entry-exit meticulously helping each passenger. Many security personnel were there from Group4, Delhi Police and Metro's own. Most of the people there seemed to be from middle class who had very little chance to hi-tech equipments like ATM, credit cards, computers or security access system. This was evident through their body language, over enthusiasm or trouble with fare machines. Somebody would over-step or start walking before machines resets. The station walls had very few informative boards as compared to wall area. The ticket counters and other empty space was at ground level whereas platforms were elevated, some two building floors up. So finally, I also went inside showing my card to the machine. There was a Dong! There were stairs as well as escalators, which were working. I went to platform number, 1 or 2 I don't remember. Platform was already full of people, some 500 to 1000. There was even a Santa Claus to cheer up the metro passengers on Christmas. Equivalent number of people must have left in the first train. There is no place to sit anywhere in the whole station which is true for all other stations signifying the fast paced metro culture. There are yellow lines across all the platforms in all stations for people to stand behind them lest they collide with train. Finally, the train started shunting. Wow, what a beauty, its two orange lights glowing, LED display showing 001 and its horn so loud and sharp.

As it made its way into the platform, people started shouting slogans, "Bharat Mata ki Jai!". Then some people started "Jai shree Ram"! God..., this saffronisation will never be away. I thought somebody would "DMRC ki Jai!" or "Engineers ki Jai" but none did. It was clicks galore at platform as many people took photographs. I also clicked away in this free for all frenzy. As soon as the doors opened there was huge uproar and clapping. People jumped and ran like some dog is behind them, to find to their surprise that whole train is connected, one big tube in which you could drift anywhere. I also boarded from one of the doors. After a minute or two, doors closed automatically and we left again with huge uproar inside. Then I started inspecting the train from inside.

It was spacious and well-lit by white light. All the holding bars vertical or horizontal were stainless steel, infact seats are also of stainless steel but color is light silvery grey. The walls were off-white with huge windows. There was a running, multi-colored LED display which showed information both in Hindi and English like "Delhi Metro Welcomes You", "Next station is so and so" etc. There were frequent announcement about keeping away from doors, next station is this and doors will open on this side. There was a map of metro including unfinished corridor above the door, just like locals in Mumbai, though neat and bigger. The floor was non-slippery, black in color. The overhead handles were flexible, attached to the bar using a spring, red in color. The warning signs were in green. There was a plate about manufacturer, "Rotem and Mitsubishi", in every coach.

Each coach had a number which was displayed inside. It might be used when some passengers complains about any problem in his coach, he can talk to driver and tell him his coach number. Example coach number is M108. About dynamics of train. The acceleration is good , though you may need to hold on if you are not attentive. There are no joints in rails so you never hear any "clickety-clat". The train speed after RDSO tests has been clipped to max of 50 kmph. Stopping is also smooth, far from normal IR trains. The doors opened in two jerks, first jerk would like releasing the tension and second like pulling it apart. The level of coach floor is same as that of platform and distance between coach and platform is very less even for a foot to go in. Don't know for other stations. The vestibule in coaches is as wide as the coach. There is a floating platform placed on top the joint which is easy to step on and travel. The tacks on surface corridor are similar to normal IR tracks except that they are mush cleaner. On the elevated corridor, the tracks are joint to the concrete hollow bed i.e. there is a ground level of concrete structure over which two vertical, 2 feet or so slabs slightly wider that rails, on top of which the rails are joint. There is no ballast on elevated corridor. The place where surface and elevated corridor meets will be interesting to see. The whole metro tracks are fenced with concrete slabs up to 10 feet high with barbed circular wire on top of it, so any trespassing by any element is ruled out. At some places on surface corridor, the embankment is too high, still, fence has been kept at the ground level, i.e. the fence will not obstruct view of train from a distance. The normal IR line to Saharanpur via Shahdara is parallel to metro. Sometimes they come as close as 20 meters. The overhead structures like masts, catenary and turnouts are identical to normal IR structures. At one point when IR and metro tracks were close by and I at a distance could not make out which mast belong to which track. Only with closer observation could I make out. Though there must be some difference but would require closer inspection. The atmosphere inside the train was electric. Everybody was going here and there, sitting, standing, changing seats, leaning against bars and doing what not. There were and 2-3 camera crew. Young boys were asking them to take their video and they were obliging. Somebody had brought sweets too. The kids and aunties having time of their life, always used to congested buses and trains. At each station large crowd was gathered to cheer each train. People were waving both inside and outside the train to each other. Due to dark and dense fog at certain places, much could not be seen outside the train. Finally in ~15 min we reached the Tis Hazari station. There was a "mela" sort of atmosphere there. Huge crowd. I got down from train, took stair and came down to level of ticket counters which is still elevated for this station. I stayed there for few minutes watching the scene. The people with tokens at the exit were asked to submit the tokens. Though they are supposed to be collected in machines, but because of huge crowd, tokens were also being collected in "buckets"! There are two ramps on Tis Hazari court side from this station. One goes bang inside the court premises and other ends just in front of a stinking garbage bin cum open urinal near to St. Stephen's hospital. Aaaargh! MCD doesn't even have a sense of shame to cleanup the mess just outside the station. Still sun had not risen and fog was there. Visibility was there but due to rains last day, whole atmosphere was damp. I took a stroll and came to a Tea Shop which was just beside the road below elevated metro structure. I could see the corridor taking curve towards ISBT. I decided to stay there and click any incoming train. But it took one hour(!) before the next train arrived. I was just standing there hoping that it will be there any moment. Atlast it came, clicked and away it went into the station. So now I decided to go back to Shahadara. I went up to station. The Group4 security person stopped me for bag checking which surprised me as today seemed to be free for all day. Then he found camera inside and said it is not allowed. I said, I won't be clicking inside to which he said, let me check and asked me to wait. I waited there as I was not at all worried as this cannot be enforced. You can not photograph, nor can you eat inside, that does not mean we can't carry any photography equipment or any eatable! He asked his senior who said no problem. So I went upstairs, again huge rush at Fare machines. There were few foreigners visible who were watching this operation. I think BBC correspondent was also there. Anyways. So I went ahead in one machine and lo, the machine refused to accept the card. The metro Sahayak also tried many times but no success. Then he gave it to his colleague on other side for "exit". Now "exit" means that when you get off at any station, you must sense your card to the Fare machine, so that appropriate fare is deducted from the balance. He also tried to "exit" but nothing happened. So I became a unique case of a person having a card but card is not working. Now ten metro people were suggesting different things which I don't remember. One of them took me to a special counter. I told the person that I have come from Shahadara 1.5 hours ago and now this is not working. He told me that there is a time limit before which you must "exit" your card otherwise, it becomes defunct and you need to specially reactivate again paying some penalty. Here I would like to point out that though there were so many ads in print and TV (I can't say definitely) but none of them explained how to undertake whole journey. If DMRC could present a graphical/animated sequence in media then it would have been helpful. This procedure was not depicted even in stations. May be this is not required as people get used to the procedure, everything will be alright. The fellow then reactivated my card without penalty and now the machine accepted my card. I went to platform, again huge crowd, whole families with Grandfather/mother, kids, infants and all. Whole family traveling to experience the metro. I must say, DMRC's revenue has started on an auspicious value! A train came from Shahadara side, people disembarked, it just went 50-100 m ahead and crossed over to down line towards Shahadara and reversed, so simple! This time also journey was smooth. Though at Kashmere Gate there was a pungent smell which other people also felt and concluded to be from brakes. I didn't have any idea of metro rolling stock technology so I did not comment. Again in 15 min we reached Shahadara. This time I went and "exit"ed my card. The frequency seemed to had risen by 8:30AM as we crossed two trains in Tis hazari direction. Then I came out of Shahadara station, saw a board for restaurant, went there but guard said, it is not open, somebody said it is not even ready. Same with toilet outside station premise, sever pipe line has still not been laid. Clicked an incoming train entering Shahdara station.

Now I had to decide what to do next. I had earlier decided that I will go to each station en route but that would have taken a lot of time so decided not to. Then I thought of going back to Tis hazari on my scooter to see how long does it take to cover distance equivalent to metro distance. It took me only 15 minutes to reach Tis hazari as this being a holiday, so less traffic, less jams. Though road is certainly very bad. Otherwise it takes 30+ minutes to go by own vehicle and 45 by bus. So I covered the distance watching 2-3 metro trains and all its station buildings.
At Tis Hazari, I again thought of atleast going to Kashmere Gate station and check out ISBT. Metro goes right through the ISBT premises. This time I boarded without any hiccups and got down at Kashmere Gate. Went down the stairs and one of the exit takes you to the mouth of ISBT's formal entrance. I came out of ISBT and climbed a flyover parallel to metro elevated structure about of same height. Here I clicked few pics, though because of haze and wrong direction of sun the photos are not supposed to come out good.
Then I came back to Tis Hazari and decided to go back to Noida. The parkings at all metro stations is spacious as long as non-passengers don't start parking their vehicles which I think is wishful thinking. Such safe, clean parking for free is a free hotcake. While I was riding back to my office in Noida to report my experience I clicked few pics. Infact I stopped at Shastri Park station which is in the middle of huge empty space.

The land around the station I think has been acquired by DMRC but nothing has come up there. The station is a bit far from the main road but ample amount of parking space. From this station, the Rail-Road bridge over Yamuna was also visible. Two-three trains passed over it which I clicked but too far to identify the trains. The station building was under finishing stage. Though I did not go inside. Here while going back one person asked me for a lift. He was a untidy guy complaining about how far the premises is from main road. He had also traveled in metro but said he did not like it even a bit. When I asked he could not give any plausible reason. I dropped him and went on my way. In between I clicked two more pics, one of train and other of Welcome station. Then I had to take a turn towards Noida and bid goodbye to metro. I have the travel card left with 82 Rs. left. I may use it over an year but refunding it, no way! I am going to keep the card with me forever as a souvenir.
Thanks for reading till here and hope you liked it :-) The pics, there may not be any dearth of them on the net but will try to post as soon as I am able to scan them. You know I have cut short my camera roll and developed and printed the photographs. They were in my hands today 1:30PM! regards, Roopesh

Bhopal Railfanning Trip

2001-08-09T19:30:00.000-07:00

Hi All!

This report is about the trip which I and Vaibhav Sarin made on the weekend of 28th July. The prime motive of the trip was to travel in one of the Shatabdis as I haven't been on any one of them and experience sustained high speed. So initially we thought of going to Gwalior which was not very far yet could give good experience of Shatabdi. But later on I proposed to go to Bhopal to which Vaibhav agreed readily. So we did reservation for Bhopal by Shatabdi(2002) Chair car for 28th July and return by Bhopal Express(2155) 3A on 29th July. We were looking for a branch line travel in Bhopal other than mainline Delhi-Chennai. Only other line that goes from Bhopal is towards Indore which comes under Western railway to our surprise. On morning of 28th 5.30 am we were on pf no. 1 of NDLS. The rake was already put in place when I came. The first generator was of Rajdhani and making loud noise. Loco was WAP-5 30000. We then came back and settled in our seats. The coach was dull. Color was pink tinge in coffee color. The lights were not bright enough. Outside rain made the interior very damp. Our seats were the last in coach 67,68 near the door. Other coaches were better with good lighting, wall paintings and color. The number of foreign tourists seemed to outnumber the number of local travelers in train. The windows were having double glass with white moth balls inside them which looked odd. Train
started slow and stopped just outside the pf. The Bareilly Shatabdi also took off with us and ran
parallel for some time. Again on Hazrat Nizamuddin (NZM) we stopped for 2 minutes. The run was slow till Tughlakabad (TKD), then it suddenly gained speed. We passed Faridabad (FBD) at good speed (100+). We chatted for some time with catering staff. He told us that though train belongs to NR but everything is looked after by CR people, even the drivers are from CR. He did justify by saying that it runs mostly in CR territory. The run mostly was good around 100 but it did not excite me as I used to dream that it will run at sustained speed of 120. Why shouldn't I be as till some time ago it was the fastest train on IR! It hardly touched 120, I am not sure. We were delighted to see 2952(Mumbai Raj) on its way to NDLS just outside Mathura on Mumbai tracks. We reached Agra, 30 minutes late. That was a disappointment as I thought that if it reaches Agra at 7.55 am, average of 100, then it must run sustainably at 100+ for it to makeup slow run till Faridabad and slow runs due to other reasons. Vaibhav was totally unexcited as he told me that he has seen higher speeds in Howrah Raj which has reportedly been cleared for
140. We reached Gwalior 29 minutes late. Most of the foreign tourists alighted at Agra and Gwalior. Now strength in the train was very meager. We went through whole train. Coaches were empty. The passengers too were mostly sleeping. The low occupancy plus most of the passengers sleeping made the atmosphere dull. Bhopal Shatabdi seemed to have very low patronage. We sat on different seats of different coaches. The executive class too was empty. It hardly had 10-12 passengers when we saw it. We went to attendant with cassette of "Lagaan" to play it. The speakers of our coaches were poor. Very little sound was coming overwhelmed by clickety-clat and rumblings of train. We could hardly enjoy the music. Though it was better
in other coaches. We reached Jhansi (JHS) 20 minutes late.There we were surprised to see Hazrat Nizamuddi-Trivandrum Raj. We could not see any reason except that there maybe some problem in Konkan railway. We bought CR timetable at Jhansi. At Jhansi lunch was loaded.
Vaibhav was delighted to know that lunch will be served. The Jhansi to Bhopal run was good with average mostly above 90. Train did not stop anywhere in between. At one time it looked as if train is going to reach before time. But it reached on time 14.10. The rake is cleaned at the platform itself for return journey which is at 14.50. That is why in the announcements the announcer urged passengers to carry mineral water bottle with them so that they save on time to clean. Very few passengers alighted from train. At Bhopal train was virtually empty. I think
catering staff were more in number than the actual passengers. The rake was quite old and return of coach in which we travelled was due in coming October. Overall satisfactory journey but no feeling of high speed and glamor of Shatabdi. One thing is that I have traveled to Bhopal many times while going to other places but this was effortless travel and never felt like I am 705 kms away from home when alighted.

Same day we went to Habibganj station to find out about Indore line trains and trainspotting. The station is very neat and clean with 3 pfs. 3-4 trains originate and only 5-6 trains stop there. The tracks adjacent to were so clean like we had never seen. Photographed station from over bridge and NDLS bound Dakshin Exp. Next day at 5.30 am we were at Bhopal Jn. to catch
8234 Narmada Exp to Ujjain. It was already there. We sat in the SLR coach next to loco WDM2. It was 19 coach all maroon. It left 10 minutes late at 6.00 am. It is passenger from Bhopal till Indore though from Bilaspur it is exp till Bhopal. So it stopped at all the stations except one station "Panchwan" if I remember correctly. There are a LOT of stations in between. A station used to come at every two minutes. But still train ran on time and stopped for hardly a
minute at most stations. Bhopal till Ujjain is electrified but double only in few sections. The route
was very beautiful. Green and green and green but not dense forest like. Also not much human population to be seen. Traffic on route also seem to be very less with only one passenger and 2-3 freights crossed us in opposite direction and none crossed us in our direction. Journey was therefore uneventful but we still enjoyed. We reached Ujjain at 11.00 am. We roamed a bit at Ujjain station. Vaibhav was delighted to see MG train. Pf 3 was for MG and a train to Mahu
was ready to leave. We shot 2-3 photos with one that of new WAP4 of BRC with new livery of small yellow band and grey bottom.

After sighseeing again came back to station at 14.00 to catch Malwa 9367 scheduled to depart at
14.50. It came at 1520 but the announcement of it coming started at 14.45 itself. We were quite
frustrated with this wrong announcements as we were to catch train to Nizamuddin at 2115 too from Habibganj. There was quite a rush in general coaches but we did manage to sit. There was a passenger train to Ratlam at pf 2. It came from Bina hauled by WDM but without taking
away its loco a spank new BRC WAP4 was attached in front of that 6-coach rake and departed in fromt of us. What a waste of power! Territory is that of WR. From Indore Malwa came hauled by WDM Ratlam but at Ujjain WAM4 was attached. Train reversed direction. This time we were at the last coach. It was 19 coach rake. It ran at good speed till may be 95 as I clocked it whenever it ran at good speed. It stopped only at few stations like Maksi etc.(forgot others). We sat on
the door alternately for most of the journey. Felt really good sitting there and whole long train
negotiating a curve. Satisfying moments. We reached Bhopal 1900 pm 15 minutes late but train covered up 15 minutes. Our faith in IR rose. Vaibhav fell on platform while alighting but is was not serious. He was alighting wrong way opposite to train movement.

We collected our stuff from our staying place after having dinner. We were again at Habibganj at 2100 to catch Hbb-HZN exp 2155. There was peace at platform, no hawkers,no beggars and no hustle bustle. We were in 3A. Both the rakes of this train are new. This one was definitely. I have never such neat and clean coach even in Raj. Toilet was clean. Washbasin area was good and a door mat kind of carpet provided near toilets. A mug was provided in toilet below the tap. Bed roll was spotless. Everything was good. At Bhopal we ran to see the loco. It was WAP-4 most probably Jhansi. We had to rush back as it stops only for 8 minutes there. As we were quite tired after to and from journey to Ujjain we slept immediately after train left Bhopal. This was for the first time that I slept so long at stretch in train and never got down before destination station if
I ignore Bhopal. I slept at about 2200 some distance after Bhopal and woke up only at Kosi Kalan at 0650 or so. Almost 9 hours. It made unscheduled stop at Ballabhgarh where Vaibhav alighted. It reached right time at 0755 at HZN. Comfortable journey.

Overall we travelled 705(NDLS-BPL)+184(BPL-Ujjain)+184(Ujjain-BPL)+ 701(Habibganj-HZN) = 1774 kms costing 850+26+52+676 = 1604 Rs. in four different trains all of which were new to us. From the luxury of Shatabdi to drudgery of Narmada and Malwa to 3A comfort of Bhopal Exp. Vaibhav had made AC coach travel debut in non-Raj train.

Rewari Trip

2001-02-21T07:32:00.000-08:00

This is about my trip to Rewari on Meter Gauge (MG). Few days ago there was a trip report to Jaipur where I realized that there is a MG track in Delhi too. Actually I never gave it a thought. I used to live near Delhi Cantt railway station some 12-13 yrs. back and our house was near the track. I had never traveled on this route. So on reading this mail, I made up my mind to do this "railfanning" trip. Firstly I decided to go up to Alwar and come back. I researched TAAG (Trains at a glance) which did not give information whether the train is an MG or BG. I also visited www.inidanrail.gov.in and found out the timings, though it also did not give info whether the train is MG or BG. So I decided to go station and find out there. So, on Saturday(03-02-2001) I reached Delhi Cantt station at 12.45 (I had to go to office in the morning for some work). There I saw the time table and enquired about train to Alwar. I was told that there is no train before Ashram Express at 3.05pm which was quite late. Then I thought to cut short my trip to Rewari for which a weekly train runs on Saturdays only at 1.50pm. So I bought ticket for Rewari which was just 15 Rs. and confirmed that it is on MG.

Delhi Cantt. station is a small one with platform no. 1&2 for MG and 3&4 for BG. Between 1&2 were 2 other MG tracks. And no overhead wires made the station so open. I tried to look for Palace on wheels rake, but it was not there. Two Fairy queen coaches were there, with Fariy Queen engine locked inside a compound. With bright sun, no activity and cold atmosphere made it perfect and I enjoyed standing on station. Then I saw Delhi Sarai Rohilla - Udaipur Chetak exp from Udaipur. It was hauled by YDM4 and was 15 coach train with two AC coaches. I wondered how the AC coaches, which are smaller than BG coaches, look from inside. It came on platform 2 and departed after 2 minutes. I took a quick lunch near station and came back on platform and waited for train to arrive. The crowd increased every minute. I was little bit worried how are so many people going to come into the train. Then I thought may be they were waiting for other
trains. Mostly the passengers were daily passengers or milk vendors with their milk cotainers. All the crowd looked rural. People were standing both side of the track i.e. on platform and on the ground to embark on train from both sides.

Train arrived I don't know at what time as this was one of the few days when I forgot to tie my watch so I don't remember any timings. People tried to get into it haphazardly. I was also standing on the ground on other side of track. I had already decided to doorplate, so I did not try to get into the train. Milk containers were clunged to window bars. I also got into one of the coaches standing at the door. Train started moving. It was crowded but not packed. It went upto 60kmph and after few minutes came Palam station whose view I could see from distance as train
curved into it. It was so crowded that I thought, are they all going to borad this train? I have seen this station many times but only deserted. Soon Palam station came but nobody get off, only to embark. I got down to let people get in. The train now was packed. Then I saw few people going on roof from the space between coaches. Trains hardly stopped for one minute. The coach in which I was travelling was so packed, people leaning out of the door that I had to find a
different coach. I could get hold to one of the door bars and space to keep my foot. Train started, I was completely out of door, holding on to bar and door. 2-3 other people were like that. Same condition of other coaches. People were leaning out with their bags on their shoulders, completely out of train. When train attained some speed I was a bit scared that I should not fall off or bang on some pole of tree branch as I have not travelled like this anytime, but nothing happened. There were few people more out of the coach than me. It was so amusing, people were carrying wooden table and chair and other heavy luggage with them in such a crowded train. The cool breeze and scene of "yellow mustard fields" made me a bit happy. I decided that I will get off the train, take a bus and go home as I found it a bit dangerous. Then came Shahbad Mohammad Pur station which was not that crowded. Here also people only embarked. I remained in that coach. Again I was leaning out of coach. At Bijwasan also, people only embarked, in coaches and on roof. I again decided to get off the train but persisted. Train was usually doing around 40-50 kmph. My palms were aching holding the vertical bar and bars of window in door. At some curve, I had a view of the roof. It was completely full, I could see people walking on roof while train is moving and one of the gentleman sleeping with his blanket, his legs
coming upto side face of the coach. Few women were also on the roof. With people on roof, milk containers on every window, and people leaning out of doors, I remembered the picture of a crowded train in which people leaning out, on roof, on engine etc. Only difference was that here nobody was on engine. Then we reached Gurgaon. It was also crowded but there were few people to get off. After a minute, train departed with a man running after it on platform with few
others yelling "baccha rah gaya" (child left on the train). I don't know where the man was looking, on the roof or in the coach. After few seconds, he stopped, may be some of his relative was also travelling on the train with whom remained the child. There were few chain pulling cases but resolved within 3-4 minutes. The single MG track was always on the right of BG and I was on the right side of the coach i.e. I could not see BG track and any activity on that. Changing side was not possible. But I never a heard a train passing only except a freight. After some time came "Garhi Harsaru Jn.". I wondered what other route goes from this station. Then I saw an MG track going on the right and disappearing into the field with an MG train "Delhi Sarai Rohilla - Farukh Nagar" waiting on the platform with live YDM4 with only 6 coaches. Farukh Nagar line is the oldest MG line in the whole world laid in year 1883. Many stations passed where now people started getting off and milk containers also getting off. I changed side so that I could see BG track. Now the train emptied a bit. But people on roof did not try to get down and crowd the coaches. I expected some train on BG track but could not see any. I also forgot time table of trains on this route so that I could logically expect some train. Standing on the door with mud blowing, all my face filled with mud and clothes got dirty. But I could see open green field, cool breeze, bright sun, and most importantly very few people in the open except the train. I had never been to villages of Haryana but this trip was a cover up. Then came one station called "Kumbhawas Mundhalia Dabri" which can also qualify for longest station name. Reached Rewari junction after "Khalilpur", I don't know at what time as I did not have a watch. I
could sense approach of Rewari as there were consistent mile stones on ever kilometer indicating
distance from Delhi. I knew, Rewari was 83 kilometer which came out to be. The train was really a rural train. Even a goat travelled with us. I don't think most of the people had bought any tickets.

Rewari was a big station with many parallel track, both MG and BG. Also saw one MG freight and 1-2 empty MG rakes. I did not know how to get back to Delhi i.e. go by train or bus. Till now I did not see any BG train. One BG train I saw on one of the platform was Rewari-Bhiwani passenger. I knew, Ashram express will be coming as it was to leave at 3.00 pm from Delhi. So
I waited on the overbridge for it. The tracks come straight into Rewari station so you can view train coming from quite a distance. I thought it would be quite a scene to watch long express train crawling into the station. When I reached Rewari, there were people already ready for this MG train. Also the loco got detached immediately, so I sensed that it will be going back soon. Instead of Ashram, I saw "Chetak exp" from Delhi. It stopped very oddly. It came on middle
track and crossed over to track beside platform and stopped. Out of 15, 5-6 coaches remained on middle track including the 2 AC coaches. After waiting for 1/2 hour, and no sign of any BG train from any side, I decided to go back to Delhi by bus. I was also looking forward to travel on Delhi-Jaipur National Highway no. 8 on which I had never travelled. I came to bus stand by rickshaw. It took 33 Rs. for ticket to Delhi as compared to Rs. 15 for train. So train travel was much
cheaper. Rewari was a small town, crowded in market area. From there I took bus to Delhi and came back home at 7.30 pm.