Last weekend I happened to go to Chennai and I quite expected that it would be such a wonderful surprize for me. I had booked a ticket in Mysore Shatbdhi express and was waiting for the train at 4:30 in the evening expecting a boring journey again and had a Harry Potter in my hand to occupy myself.

The first surprize was that, instead of seeign a dabba old azukku moottai train … I was seeing a wonderful new bright silver coloured train approaching towards us. I was quite unsure if I was still imagining things from Harry Potter to come to Bangalore station. It read as 'Mysore Shatabdhi'. I just could not imagine that I would board such a trian. As the train passed by me and I waited for my coach to come, I could see that it was just not me who was awe struck but the complete lot in the platform had a similar expression on their face. As the coaches passed by, I could see bits of the insides of the train already and was quite surprized by it.

Finally I boarded the train and right from the entrance came lot of surprizes. The glass door which leads U into the A/C compartment was no longer a Pull door .. Where it would close every minute and there had to be one person who has to catch it until the whole ot of people gets it. It’s a cool sliding door and its very easy to push it one side and there is a hinge to which it gets attached and later if U release it it goes back to its original place.

The I located my seat and tried to put my luggage on the top where I noticed instead of the rusted 3 steel rods painted in yello colour, the luggage shelf is made up of thick glass.. Wow … I seated myself and the train came to a start and immediately started a low pleasant music in the background.

I started to read my Harry Potter and noticed that I wasn’t getting enough light.. Then noticed the windows where blinds are fixed instead of those ugly looking blue screens.. You could pull the blinds and put it any preferred location depending on the amount of light you require. On top of it.. For every seat there are two reading lights whcich can be switched on or off and the direction can also be changed. Woww….

And finally the utmost pleasant thing…. From the restroom.. U no longer see the ground but it is vaccum operated…..

All these things in Indian Railways….What AAA!!!!!

Hopefully the train remains neat and tidy for ever as it is now….

Excuse me for the bad quality of the pics from my mobile..

A short and sweet weekend trip to the south of Karnataka:

The aim or motto of the trip was to go for a pilgrimage :) . But it was more enjoyable than that. We started off on Friday night from Bangalore to catch the train to Shimoga at 11 in the night.

A hectic week had just then passed and it was a Friday night and we rushed to reach the railway station at 10pm. I was just curious to locate the train to sleep off even an hour before the train could start. But…. The only law that works absolutely correct for me is Murphys law :).
Never in the history of Inidan railways would it have happened that a train could be delayed from the originating station itself :). But miracles happen. No one had any idea (including the enquiry counter) how long the delay is going to be. Just because people were crowding the enquiry counter, they kept on saying 1 hr, 2 hrs and so on… Finally the train showed up at 3 am..with a delay of only 5 hours. With half open eyes we managed to get into the train.

We reached Shimoga at 9 the next day morning refreshed ourselves and started off to Shringeri. It is around 100 kms from Shimoga and the drive was enjoyable. There was lush greenery every where around and the drive on the roads of the mountains (Western Ghats) was great.

Now some Gyan about Shringeri: It is the first math set up by Aadi Shakaracharya. The story behind goes like this: On a heavy raining day, Aadi Shankaracharya was passing through Shringeri. On his way he saw a frog which was pregnant and was suffering in the rain not able find a shelter. Then a cobra passing by saw the frogs suffering and gave shelter to the frog by opening its hood. This made Shankaracharya believe that the place where rivals (frog and snake) help each other is very pious and “Gyaan”( knowledge) would definitely reign the place. So he started a math and established “Sarada Devi Peetam” here. Anna danam is very famous here people who visit the temple are supposed to have lunch in the peetam. The volume at which the danam happens is definitely to be appreciated.

After lunch we started off to “Horanadu” which is around 100 kms form Shringeri. Again the drive was completely in the western ghat section. Too good it was. :)

Horanadu is famous for “Annapoorneshwari temple”. It is a small temple but quite peaceful and good on the top of the hill. As the name speaks, here too Anna danam happens on a daily basis.

By the time we came back to Shringeri it was too dark and we were too tired.

The next day morning Rams mother woke us up at 4.30 in the morning to have pavithra nadi snan in TungaBhadra and then go for the darshan of Sarada Devi. We went to the so called river basin and could see that there was only basin there and no water in the river ;). The water level was too less that we could not even drench our feet completely in it. On top of it there were 1000’s and 1000’s of fishes in it. I guess because it is sacred river one is not allowed to do fishing there. And each fish was as huge as the “Mathsya Avatar” fish. (You can see that in the images). We were taken aback for a moment. After having a nice laugh we decided to go back to the hotel to get ready.:)

After Shringeri, our next destination was “Jog Falls”. It was a 3 hour journey from Shringeri. It seems that the best season for the falls is during the months of july to september. As it was already getting late we did not take a chance of getting down up till the base of the falls. Dreaming of a next trip in the rainy season we came back to the busy Bangalore again leaving behind us the greenery, the woods and the nature. :(

For more pics view my photo album.

Our journey of Mussorie started with Kempty falls which is around 15 kms from Mussorie. We took the Govt. tourist bus that runs from Mussorie to Kempty (The frequency of these buses is to be appreciated). It took us through the valleys and the mountains of Himalayas. One cannot stop awing looking at the huge humungous giant Himalayas. (I can say Mount Alps is nothing before our Himalayas).

The bus takes you up till a point and further down is the Kempty falls.

The falls was ok types and one who had not visited Kutralam

(Tamil Nadu) or Athirapalli falls (Kerala) can only appreciate this. :)

On our way back to Mussorie, we had informed the driver to stop in the middle so that we could get down to “Company Bagh” a nicely maintained garden. We got down from the bus taking the directions and believing the words “paas hei to hai company bagh”. We started walking, walking and were still walking (around 6 to 7 kms I should say) and not a single trace of a garden. Every other person you ask for directions say, “its very near by”. But the walk was too good. It was slightly sunny and a mild cold breeze from the mountains blowing on your face is what made it perfect. And finally we reached... It was a garden maintained by the “Lords” when the East India Company was ruling Mussorie. But even after they have left, it is neatly maintained.

There were some small tea shops within the garden. After our long walk we were too hungry that we ordered almost everything edible in the shop :)

We finally managed to reach Mussorie from Company Bagh. We then took the rope way which would take you to a height of 7000ft from sea level. (Mussorie is 6000 ft above sea level).

As it was already getting dark, we packed up to go home after arranging for a new mode of transport to visit “Laal Tibba” the next day. Want to know what it is?? Wait for some time as I have got some work to complete by today otherwise my manager is going to sit on my head :(

FYI: For more pics you can visit my "Web Album"

Our Trip to Northern India -II
The next day early morning we packed our bags and set out to Mussorie. It was dead cold outside. I have never experienced the winter of Northern India. Now I know how it feels :).

The total time of journey from Roodkee to Mussorie is supposed to be 4 hours. But unknowingly we had booked tickets in a passenger train. Had I walked from Roodkee, I would definitely have reached earlier than the train. We started at 6.30 in the morning train and reached Dehradun( The state capital of Uttaranchal) at 3.30 in the afternoon. Even the railway authorities would not have discovered some stations but our train driver did ;). None of the stations had anything edible to eat except for hot tea in matkas (mud cups) and Kurkure which made us survive the cold and hunger.

From Dehradun, Mussorie is a 30 kms drive up the hill. It was a nice journey up the hill except for the fact that our taxi got punctured in the middle. :) We found our hotel dumped our luggage and were too tired and more than that verrrrrrrrrrrrrrry hungry. When asked for the nearest hotel they said, it’s just a stones throw away. So with some hope of getting good food at 5 in the evening we started walking up the hill to a place called “Mall Road” the centre place in Musoorie (You could imagine this to be the MG Road of Bangalore). Finally after 1.5 to 2 kms(which is a stones throw ;)) walk we could find the road.



The “Mall Road” is a small road of about 1 km in length with small shops and hotels and a nice place to have a view of the “Doon Valley” below. The smell of hot paranthas was inviting us and we plunged upon them. :)

It was only 6 in the evening and the sun had already set and it was too dark that we could barely see anything. All the road side shops were getting closed and the breeze was getting colder and colder giving us signs that we should retire for the day.

It was a 5 day trip and I was eagerly waiting for it from a month back. The sake of the trip was to attend the marriage of our friend but all my interests were on something that would come behind.. a trip to Mussorie :). The trip was as exciting as I imagined it to be with a small disappointment that it did not snow at Mussorie during our stay. :(

We were supposed to take a flight at 7 in the morning to Delhi from Bangalore. So I had to wake up at 4 to make the required preparations and it would take obviously an hour to travel from Hebbal ( a remote place in Bangalore .. Ram would kill me for this ;)) to the airport.

After reaching there we came to know that almost all the flights are delayed because of fog in ‘Chennai’. Lol ;) Initially our flight was delayed by half an hour and later every half an hour there came an announcement that it is delayed by half an hour more. So finally we got into our flight at 11 in the morning (the time we were initially supposed to land in Delhi :))

The flight was quiet pleasant..though a bit late by 3 hours :) and we had to run to catch the connecting train to Roorkee.



This is the first time I am actually seeing a live North Indian wedding leaving alone Karan Johars films like Hum Aaap kai Hein Kaun, DDLJ etc..

By the time we reached the Roorkee station the ‘Baraat’ had already started. So the cab driver drove us directly to the road where the baraat was happening and with our tired faces and unclean dresses, we too participated in the Baraat. While the groom was sitting happily on a Ghoda and later shifted to a ‘Rath’ it was we and the other highly decorated relatives who had to walk (I mean dance) almost all the streets of Roorkee.
The enthusiasm with which even Grandmas were dancing on the road leaving all the intimidation and fear and enjoying every moment of the wedding is really to be encouraged. You can never notice that in South India.

The Muhoorat was at 2 in the night. By the time we completed the baraat, came to the mandap and had food it was 12 in the night and we were too tired that we wanted to fall down dead. We had no energy left in us to wait uptil the Muhoorat. Also it looks like a norm there that ‘Baraat’ is the most important part of the wedding. So everyone who ever had participated in the Baraat came to the mandap had dinner and were leaving the place. Only very important relatives remain uptil they tie the knot.

Among all the friends of Ram who had come for the marriage, it was only Ram who was married. So a concession was that he was booked a room to stay. :) All others had to remain awake all thru the night. So we bade them good bye seeing and enjoying the jealousy in their eyes.

Dreaming of a good stay at Mussorie I fell asleep.