Chennai to Rameshwaram

After procrastinating for as long as I possibly could, I decided that I should update my blog at once! :D

So I’m back from my vacation in parts of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. It was gooood! We were most of the time beside a beach, and as I loooooooove water, I enjoyed myself immensely!

So first of all, from Hyderabad we went to Chennai. Suffice to say Chennai was as hot as hell! On the first day we went for a day trip to Pondicherry, which was even worse than Chennai, weather-wise that is. We went to the Auroville Visitor’s Centre first and ate cake and did a bit of shopping. How’s that for spiritual?!

My parents refused to walk the 10-15 minutes that it probably takes to go to the still under-construction meditation center. I’d heard, and seen pictures too, of the uniquely shaped dome, and wanted to see it, but well, Lazy Parents prevented me from doing so. According to Lazy Dad, “We won’t be allowed inside anyway, so what’s the use?!” Well, we could have seen it from the outside!!!

Anyway, we then saw Aurobindo Ashram. It was a quiet place maybe because there were notices all over the place urging everyone to be silent! Unfortunately I’m not the most spiritual person in the world, so I really can’t say how the Ashram affected me or didn’t affect me or… whatever!

The hotel that we had lunch in was bang opposite the sea-face promenade. So we posed for pics after having a hearty meal! The colour of the sea was a wonderful blue. My friend Annie could tell us all the exact shade of blue shown in this pic!! Hehe!

So that was Day 1. On Day 2 we went to the V. G. P. Universal Kingdom Park. When we entered a ‘Human Statue’ greeted us. It was a man who looked like he acted as the villain’s third henchman in masala South Indian movies in his spare time! I could just imagine him laughing that fake laugh that villainous henchmen laugh when the hero’s mother, sister, wife/girl friend, third cousin etc. have been kidnapped and are crying for mercy! LOL!

The guy did stand perfectly still, and there were a gaggle of kids and adults cracking jokes and flapping their hands, hell bent on making him move, and in the process making fools of themselves!

But my brother, D, and I noticed that though his body was still, his eyes roved constantly! And so D directed me to take a close up of his roving eyes on the camcorder, and we acted like this was the proof needed in some serious criminal case! :D

After the ‘Human Statue’, we came across a roller coaster. I was very, very, very excited, as I’m crazy about roller coasters. I want to sit in each and every roller coaster ever built on this planet! So D and I clambered in and when the car dipped for the first time I let out a scream and clutched on to D and didn’t let go or stop screaming until the car halted at the end! I loooooooved it!!! And if anyone is wondering, the screaming is not under my control; I can’t help but scream, even when I try not to, my mouth just cannot remain close!

After the ride we learnt that digital cameras are placed at strategic places all over the roller coaster. These pictures were then displayed to us on a computer screen, and in most of them my mouth is wide-open! I look like a cartoon! And in one of the pics I look like I’m digging my nose!!! I really wasn’t though!

We then went to the V. G. P. beach, and nearly burned our soles off on the hot, hot sand! The water here didn’t look all that great.

After V. G. P. we made our way to Mahabalipuram/Mammallapuram. There we saw the Five Rathas and the Shore Temple. We also some caves and a lighthouse. As I had mentioned in my last blog, I’m very interested in ruins and old monuments. I would have liked to spend more time looking at both these monuments, but as usual, my parents are always in a hurry to get from one place to another, so I had to satisfy myself with taking a few quick pics, which are displayed below. The lighthouse pic was taken by D.

After gazing at the temples we returned back to Chennai. Next day we had to catch the train for Rameshwaram from a place called Tambaram, which is about 2-3 hours away from Chennai. So our parents had given us strict instructions to wake up as early as possible, and we were to be on our way by 10 AM. But of course, we weren’t! As it was a Monday we were caught in massive traffic jams and Dad grumbled all the way to Tambaram, “Why couldn’t you people (that is, D and myself) be on time? We are going to miss the train now! When I tell you to be dressed on time, you be dressed on time! Now we’ll have to waste a day in Tambaram, blah, blah…!” It’s really hard to get him to stop once he starts!

As is her wont, my mother grew a tad hysterical when the driver said that it would take us another hour to get there, and our train was supposed to leave in exactly an hour. Now it was Ma’s turn, “One hour?! Humari train ek ghante mein chaley jayegi (Our train will leave in one hour’s time)!!!” she screeched at the driver. The driver then took it on himself to get us there on time and drove in the most incredible manner! I was sure that forget Tambaram, I would straight away reach heaven itself! Ma screeched once more, “Itna fast mut chalaao (Don’t drive so fast!)!!” Aah! Fun times! :D

Of course now I can laugh about it, but at that moment all I wanted to do was to stuff something down both my parents’ throats! I do love them so dearly!

Anyhow, we reached Tambaram station with half an hour to spare thanks to our dare devil of a driver! So we did not miss the train and both my parents cooled down a bit.

We reached Rameshwaram next morning at about 7 AM. All I wanted to do was crash as soon as we got to our hotel. But my parents insisted that we eat breakfast first and then we can all sleep for a while.

After we finished breakfast, our steward told us that we should go boating right there right now as the hotel’s boat guy was free. I wanted to protest, but the boat guy said that it would be only for an hour and that the water comes up to only the waist. I didn’t understand what that had to do with anything and so we all trooped down to the beach.

The water was a beautiful bluish-green! Small, narrow boats were bobbing up and down on the waves. Ma wondered if we too would be riding in these boats and had her fear confirmed! Ma has a morbid fear of boats capsizing with her in them!

We saw some dead starfish on the beach. And D got totally excited. He somehow likes looking at dead things like frogs and such others!

Anyway, we scrambled into the boat and pushed off seawards.

The boatman (BM), who by the way, had the most brilliant white smile, stopped the boat a few km from the shore and got down into the water and fished out a dead crab. So there we were sitting, expecting him to fish out more stuff out of the sea, hopefully not dead! But he produced some snorkeling goggles and asked us to step down from the boat. That was when the “the water comes up to only the waist” comment began to make sense to me. My parents were horrified at the idea of getting off the boat into the water, but D and I couldn't be stopped! We got down and stood on the ocean bottom! The water did come up to only my waist. All we wore were the goggles, no wet-suit nothing! I was dressed in a kurti and pants! :))

Then BM taught us how to fix the goggles and attached the breathing pipe. At first I could keep my face down in the water for only a few seconds as I thought that I would be able to breathe naturally from the pipe. But as I found out, this is not how it works. I had to keep on breathing in and out consciously. After I got the hang of it I stayed submerged for long minutes. We saw all kinds of fish and even live starfish! I even held one in my hand, while D held a live squirming crab. We also saw some sea urchins.

After a while we got back into the boat and BM took us to where the corals were. This time we were told to keep our slippers (hawai chappals) on. This part of the sea bottom was terribly slippery. The water was much higher and the waves stronger. The three of us held on to each other’s hands tightly all the time. BM would sometimes swim ahead and then indicate with his hands to follow him. We saw heaps of corals. Most were pinkish-orange in colour. They were so pretty! I even tried sitting on a big one that was shaped like a stool! But the strong waves wouldn’t let me! :)) I wish that we had had an underwater camera to capture all these delightful sights!

It was D who lost one of his slippers first. He found it floating behind him! Then I too lost my slippers a few times. It was always the right foot one, which kept on slipping off! After a while we got back to the boat. I just didn’t feel like leaving the water, but our hour was up and we went back to our hotel, soaking wet, with sand stuck to our feet! The bathroom in our room resembled a mini indoors beach after we had washed up!

Due to the lost slippers D cut his feet on the corals a couple of times. I too got a cut. Annie was most surprised that there was someone clumsier than me, because I have a great propensity to trip over even flat surfaces!

Then in the evening we went to see the main temple, the Ramananthanswamy temple. The unique thing about this temple is that there are about 22 wells in it and before taking darshan one has to be drenched from head to toe with a bucket of water from all of these wells.

Once we were back at our hotel room, D started fiddling around with the camera and started clicking snaps of who else, but himsef! I forgot to tell you people that D is highly narcissistic! :D

I was reading ‘Shantaram’ by David Gregory Roberts, trying to ignore him, but he insisted that I take a few pics of his! I reluctantly got up and took a few pictures, after which even I got into the mood and both of us began striking silly poses with our hair in front of our faces, and horrible grimaces!

After a while D came up with a silly idea and he wanted me to record him on the camcorder. Our room had a small balcony, and as we were on the ground floor we could easily jump on to the lawn. So my brother began acting out his weird poses on the lawn with me filming him! That sure was a barrel of laughs!

The next day we hired two autorickshaws and went around to visit all the other temples of Rameshwaram. The first one we visited was called Dhanush Kodi (I think!). Apparently, it was here that Ram, Lakshman and Hanuman had plotted on how to get Sita back from Lanka. The stumps of two pillars are all that remains of the original temple, but a new one has been built on the same spot. From this place, Sri Lanka is only an hour of boat ride away. Allegedly many refugees sneak in to India from this point.

I forgot to add that the sand in Rameshwaram is so light that it looks almost white. Bordering the tar road are stretches of this white sand with green shrubs and trees. It was a different but beautiful sight.

We then visited a few more temples. One of them was called the Floating Rock temple. Apparently the rocks displayed here were those that were used to build the bridge to Lanka by the Vanar Sena. These rocks looked like dried up corals and seemed porous. Some were kept in tanks of water, and what do you know? They actually did float! And they were actually quite heavy.

We were then taken to this light blue building and told that this was the ‘House of Kalam’. Did you know that President Kalam’s hometown is Rameshwaram? I didn’t! Attached to the house is a shell factory owned by Kalam’s family.

We did a bit of shopping here too and then were back at our hotel.

The same evening we walked down to the beach and sat on some logs of wood there for a while. The entire scene was just sooooooo gorgeous! Beautiful shades of blue everywhere! And the wind was so strong!

On the way back I took the picture displayed below. I did not see the red streak when I was taking the pic, in fact Dad was grumbling again and telling me not to dawdle, so I had moved the camera just as I had clicked the button. I think D said that it is static electricity.

I will stop here, as this post has gotten quite long. I was hoping to finish everything in one post, but I think another one is in order! :D

So I’ll post the concluding part (hopefully) after a few days

Mini Adventure

My friend Annie and I had a sort of an adventurous time a few days ago. We decided to go to Taramati Baradari, an old ruin a few kilometers away from Hyderabad, in the cantonment area, on my trusty Scooty! :D

Taramati Baradari was where courtesans danced for the kings of Golconda fort. I think it was named after a favoured courtesan, Taramati, but am not sure about that. Anyway, this ruin has recently been developed by the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Board. A restaurant, a sort of arena and, a souvenir shop have been added.

I love ruins! I’m a great ruins buff, if you will. So I just had to check this place out. And who else to take along, but my partner in, well not crime, but silly antics, Annie!

So we started out bright and early in the afternoon (!) at about 12:15 or so. We soon reached Taramati Baradari (TB). We decided to eat first as we were starving. After lunch we set off for TB. We had to climb up a few steps after which I was left quite winded, just showing how out of shape I really am! There were quite a few tourists around too. Annie and I thought about playing a prank on some unsuspecting tourists by posing as tour guides and making up some convoluted history about TB! But we soon abandoned the idea, as I just could not stop laughing. So we just climbed up and took a look around. The view from the top was quite amazing. We could see Golconda fort in the distance, and another Baradari just a few meters away. It was a perfect day for outdoor activity!

We then started clicking pics of the beautiful surroundings as well as ourselves. We struck up silly poses, which had both of us in splits! We both struck up dance poses and spent an hour or so sitting on the lawn just beyond TB. We tried our hand at trick photography; in one of the pics it appears like Annie is hanging off a rock into nothingness!

After a while we decided to go for a short ride. On the way we came across a bunch of army guys sitting by a gate. All of them just got up when they saw us approaching. We wondered what that was all about! Probably hadn’t seen many girls riding around those parts on a Scooty! LOL!

We were a few kilometers away from the Gandipet dam when we decided to turn back and go home. After passing TB we came across another bunch of army guys who were jogging by the side of the road. We hooted and yelled out, “Keep it up!” as I speeded away on my Scooty! We just collapsed with laughter at our juvenile antics!

We then came across the road that leads to Golconda fort, and on the spur of the moment decided to go there too. We raced some RTC buses to the fort! He, he!

At the fort we actually forgot to buy the tickets at the entrance and had to go back and buy them!

There are always many guides hanging around over there, looking to make a quick buck. Some pestered us to hire them. Annie, who is a Tam Bram, doesn’t speak Hindi too well. So she went around saying, “No thank you!” to all of them. This just made them even more persistent! I told Annie that they probably think that she is a firang and that she should just learn to speak in Hindi. So there I was shooing away all the guides in Hindi, assuring them that this was not the first time that we had been to the fort. But one really persistent guide actually launched into his spiel, saying that he would give a free introduction! Man! These guys sure are enterprising!

As a child I had been to the fort quite often, so I donned the role of tour guide and explained a few features of the fort to Annie. We passed through this hall full of extremely noisy bats, with me cowering beside Annie, and covering my ears and almost jogging to get out of there as soon as possible! This hall smells really bad and I have always hated it! An uncle of mine had once commented that it smells like moldy cheese!

Anyway, we then made it to the area where a Sound and Light show is held every evening.

There is a fountain in the center, surrounded by beautifully carved walls. People visiting Hyderabad should not miss the Sound and Light show. It is truly breathtaking! The Hindi version gives the best effect, and is voiced by Amitabh Bachchan himself.

Anyway, there was still a long way to go to get to the apex of the fort, but as Annie was too tired we decided to sit and ogle at a good looking foreigner we spotted! I’m sure he could make out what we were up to! ;-)

After a while we decided to head out and buy some water, as we were dying of thirst! We settled for a Fanta and Limca instead. We then headed for home at last.

Just before you enter the fort area, you have to go through this narrow enclosed passage like road. It is so narrow and curving that there is a signal at each end indicating when you can drive your vehicle through, so vehicles coming from the opposite directions do not collide with one another. Just before this passage was a nasty speed breaker, and I tried going as carefully as possible, but it was really bumpy. Annie bounced on the seat behind me and banged her ankle on the side of the bike and yelled out in pain. I was of course very apologetic, but jokingly said that it is a must to get injured somehow on trips like these! She threatened to do some serious hurting from behind if I did not shut up! :-))

On our way back, I was the first in line waiting to pass through the narrow road. As I was making the first bend, Annie suddenly asked me to stop by the side. She sounded really urgent and I wondered if she was going to throw up or something. I tried telling her that I didn’t think that I could just stop, but she sounded really insistent, so I stopped and tried to park the Scooty as close to the wall as possible. But there was a bus behind me and it could not pass until I was totally out of the way. So I had to leave poor Annie standing by the side while I had to zoom out of the passage. I stopped a bit away and went back to see what the problem was. Turns out that while trying to adjust her pants her leg had cramped up. I then told her that I was only kidding when I said that an injury is a must on such trips, to which she showed my her fist and told me to start the Scooty if I didn’t want a knuckle sandwich! Annie sure does have a way with words! LOL!!

We got back to her home at about 5 o’ clock in the evening and just collapsed on the couch. We were thoroughly drained! But both of us decided that it was a day well spent indeed! We want to go back someday to Golconda fort for an entire day and explore every nook and cranny. But that will be another story for another day.

I’m going off on my tour of Chennai, Pondicherry, Kanyakumari and other places tomorrow, well actually, today if you take the time into consideration (which is 2 AM right now)! I’ll be gone for about 2 weeks, after which I’ll resume my blogging with gusto, hopefully! :D

Democracy? What Democracy?!

The two topics that I am going to talk about have already been done to death, but I cannot help adding my own two cents!

First I want to talk about “The DaVinci Code”. What a hue and cry has been made about this movie! If people are so sure that what has been depicted in the movie is terribly wrong, then why are they so upset? Well, the fact is nobody likes their beliefs to be attacked and to be told that what they have believed in since they were children is completely untrue, and that their truth has been distorted. This could range from a child realizing that there is in fact no Santa Claus to an adult vociferously standing up for his or her religious beliefs.

A few years ago I had told a Christian friend of mine, S, about this article that I had read, which stated that Jesus Christ probably had short hair and not long hair as He is usually depicted. She reacted with a, “What a load of crap!” And this was only about whether Christ had long or short hair!

I could take my own example. About 3-4 years ago a friend, A, came to me with an article she had read in a magazine about Parsis. It stated that contrary to popular belief, the first Parsis had not landed in Sanjaan (Gujarat), but in Diu. Guess what my immediate reaction was? “What a load of crap!” :D I had been told all of my life that when a group of Parsis had first come to India, they had landed at Sanjaan. There is also a fire there in our temple that the first Parsis had ostensibly brought with them. A was quite puzzled by my reaction. When I saw the look on her face I was confused myself. Was I reacting too harshly or too quickly? After thinking it over for a while I conceded that it is indeed possible that the early Parsis had indeed landed in Diu and not Sanjaan as it is popularly believed. I was not present at this historical moment so I would never know what was true.

So that to me is the power of our beliefs. Some like me don’t really care all that much, but others have only their beliefs to fall back on. And one reason that we do not want to question our beliefs is that we feel incredibly uncomfortable when we do. We are so perfectly comfortable with our belief systems that we do not wish to step out of our comfort zone when we are faced with a decision to change them. Instead we react with indignation, violence, and of course bans!

Nowadays every other group or community is seeking a ban against some form of art that is apparently against their beliefs. Some of the bans do make sense, but most of them are quite ridiculous. “The DaVinci Code” was released in Bombay, with a disclaimer at the beginning and end of the movie, stating that it was a complete work of fiction. I just rolled my eyes when I saw that. I think that at the end of the day, people are going to believe whatever they choose to believe, a disclaimer here and there is not going to change that.

Some scholars believe that Christ had been married, while others believe that the very notion is complete hogwash! There are always going to be two sides to any issue, or even three, four, five…! And anyway, if one had a strong faith in one's beliefs then why should one feel threatened by apparently wrong views?

So how about letting the public decide if it wants to watch a movie or not? I know that many of my friends in Hyderabad have been disappointed because the Andhra Pradesh government has banned “The DaVinci Code”. Oh well! They may just have to go to some other state to watch the movie, like three men from Gujarat came to Bombay to watch “Fanaa”!

The ban against “Fanaa” is first of all grossly unconstitutional. We are living in a democracy for God’s sake, not a bloody anarchy! And as far as I can tell, Aamir Khan has not spoken a single word against the Gujarati community, nor has he said that the dam should not be constructed. All he has stated is that the people who would lose their homes as a result of the construction of the dam should be rehabilitated. Is that too much to ask for? Does the Gujarat government not want to rehabilitate its own citizens? This is a prime example of creating a mountain out of a mole hill. Of course this has taken a religious tinge too; as many people say that Aamir Khan is being targeted because he is a Muslim. But it would take a separate post to get into that topic.

It is quite courageous of Aamir Khan to stick to his guns and refuse to apologize. He is refusing to get bullied into submission, and for that kudos to him! A few member of the film industry have stood up for him, but I think that the entire film industry should stand solidly behind Aamir Khan.

On a lighter note, last night I saw this quite comical bit of news. Motilal Kashyap, the fisheries minister of Madhya Pradesh wants to, hold your breath, pass a bill stating that prawns should be considered a vegetarian item!!! I burst into laughter as soon as I heard that! His reason for this bill is that people from various communities eat prawns, so it should be considered vegetarian now (?!?). He is prepared to fight for this bill! Of course there are others who are hell bent on stopping him and have labeled this bill nothing short of blasphemy!

Really! Who said that all our politicians do is throw chairs at each other or snooze when someone else is trying to discuss something? Apart from changing the names of cities and every other gully, they are now investing their energies into changing the food groups! Lucky us!