Epilogue

[Continued from my last post]

We did manage to catch the first bus the next day, despite a drizzle being our steady companion on our walk from the hotel to the bus stand. Our return journey proved to be a much better visual treat. The curves and bends in the roads and the way the roads snaked up and down the hills had a soothing effect on us, which served to dispel much of the previous day's misery (which Seal preferred to refer to as "Kett(a) Kanas(u)" - Kannada for nightmare). At one point during our journey, a fellow seated in the same row as us, got up and gave me some change, leaving me nonplussed. Then he explained that a temple would be there on the roadside and I would have to throw the dakshina into it (I was occupying the window seat). There were other people who were doing the same and I managed to ensure that the coins landed safely inside the temple. We finally landed up in Pune at around 11.30 A.M.

The evening saw us at a mall called E-Square where Figure treated us to a show of X-Men : The Last Stand. Thusly I managed to maintain my long standing habit of watching the sequels before the prequels themselves. Nevertheless I enjoyed the movie (I had actually seen the preview on TV in Mahabaleshwar. What's more, I had TD beside me).

Later in the evening, we bade goodbye to dear Figya and set out for our pickup point near Swar Gate. Obtaining the bus tickets had been a challenge too. We had neglected to book them early on. On our return from Mahabaleshwar, we found them to be at a premium. Backup plans had been quickly made - bus to Mangalore for a visit to our alma mater, bus to Belgaum, bus to Hyderabad (TD's plan). In the end, thankfully, we didn't have to resort to these plans.

After a comfortable bus ride (saw the laugh riot, Hulchul and the predictable 'thriller' Aksar), we reached Bangalore in the afternoon. As we got down, wating auto drivers offered to get us lodging in the "cheap-n-best" hotels. I waved one away with a "no thanks" in Hindi, before remembering that I could get back to using Kannada for my quotidian transactions. I smiled at my absent-mindedness and as the camera zoomed out, I slung my backpack over my shoulder and began the long walk home, with the wind ruffling my hair and some vague instrumental music playing in the background. We proceeded to 'thumb' a passing auto for a ride back home.

[Concluded]

Tags : Travel

Posted by Rajat @ 10:44 PM   |  Comments

Asses in Alibaug

[Continued from my last post]

The next morning we (Figya included) boarded the Sinhagad Express (Pune to Mumbai) at 6.30. Our plan (rather Seal's) was to reach Karjat, catch a local train to Neral and take the toy train from there to our ultimate destination, Matheran. Seal had also assured us that the journey from Pune to Karjat would be a feast for the eyes and that getting up early would be worth it and for that matter, even a night out would be justified. As luck would have it, ultimately, we were left searching for reasons to justify the jaunt itself.

Firstly, the Sinhagad Express turned out to be supremely crowded. We jostled for leg room with the coffee/tea vendors scurrying around dispensing their wares, not to mention other vendors selling vada pav and chikki. And the view or whatever we managed to glimpse over the heads of the crowd wasn't exactly picturesque.

At Karjat, we took a local to Neral. Aboard the train, we learnt that the toy train had been cancelled a year ago, after heavy rains had washed away the tracks. We got down at Neral & debated our next move, eventually deciding to proceed to Alibaug, for which we would need to catch a bus from Karjat. So another local back to Karjat. (Figya suggested not buying the tickets - luckily we didn't listen to him - at Karjat we were asked to produce the tickets to go out of the station).

A panoramic view of the Karjat bus stand

The bus itself!

We boarded the bus to Alibaug only to find that it went only till a place called Pen (pronounced 'pane', with a hard 'n'). After having had our first 'meal' of the day in Pen, we managed to hire an auto to Alibaug. In Alibaug, a room at Hotel Shreyas left us 800 odd bucks poorer. Once we were settled, heavy cursing ensued, with the mantle of Chief Scapegoat being passed around.

In the evening we set out for the bus stand to enquire about the first bus to Pune the next morning. We found a bakery nearby which was run by some people from Hubli and we ended up contributing our mite to their day's collections. We went to the beach next. Whatever meagre hopes of redemption we had were promptly dashed on the rocks on the beach and buried under its dirty brown sands. There was a fort which was on an island by itself, making it more or less inaccessible. Perfectly safe from any kind of intruders!

The fort in Alibaug

Sunset in Alibaug

As the sun set on a long day, we trudged back to the room to spend an equally long night. As we braved the bloodsuckers and creepy-crawlies in the room, our only prayer was for a safe passage away from "Ali's garden".

Next : Epilogue

Tags : Travel

Posted by Rajat @ 10:41 PM   |  Comments

Morons in Mahabaleshwar

[Continued from my last post]

We reached the Shivajinagar bus stand at around 8.30 A.M., only to find out that a bus had left for Mahabaleshwar at 7.45 A.M. and the next one would start out only at 10 o'clock. A private bus seemed to be the only recourse and so, we took an auto to the Swar Gate bus stand.

We boarded a private bus which would take us to Mahabaleshwar Phata. The fellow who sold us the tickets had assured us that we would find a constant stream of buses and jeeps waiting at the Phata to transport us to the hill station. Alas! At the Phata, the few buses which we saw didn't even stop for us. We ended up catching a shared rickshaw to a place called Vayi, 12 kms from the Phata and around 30 odd kms from our destination. TD found a fairly comfortable seat at the front. Seal and myself found seats at the back. Along with 9 other people. With one of them sitting on a battery. And another on a small stool. Next to me was an old man who kept nodding his head incessantly at nobody in particular. Resigned smiles were exchanged as the auto sped towards Vayi.

Subject to TD's persuasive arguments, we gave up the Vayi bus stand as a hopeless case and hailed a taxi to Mahabaleshwar. Our taxi driver, a loquacious Rajput gave us tips on what to do at the hill station and finally deposited us at an expensive hotel. He agreed to send his brother, also a taxi driver, the next day to take us around Mahabaleshwar. Starving as we were, we feasted at a place called Rasoi - The Family Restaurant at Hotel The Kalpana Excellency (sic).

In the afternoon, it started raining heavily - the first rains of May. In the evening, the rains subsided somewhat and we set out on foot to explore the tourist trap where we had landed. We managed to cajole TD to accompany us to the pièce de résistance of Mahabaleshwar, the Venna Lake.

Venna Lake

Fortunately for us, we encountered the aforementioned taxi driver who obligingly took us to the lake. Along the way, he revealed that he had spent nine years in the docks of Mumbai, arguably, dangerous environs to reside in. He seemed to have moved here for a 'quieter life'. He also found it amusing that 3 singles had landed in a haven for families and honeymooning couples. As night settled in, the weather turned pretty cold with mists swirling about us. The whole of Mahabaleshwar doesn't receive TEN Sports - so we had to sleep without watching the India-West Indies one dayer.

The next day we took a taxi trip to most of the major tourist spots in Mahabaleshwar - Kate's point, Echo point, Lodwick's point, Elephant's Head and Sunset point.

Elephant's Head

After having had our fill of these spots, we hurried back to the bus stand to catch the earliest direct bus out of the place.

Next : Asses in Alibaug

Tags : Travel

Posted by Rajat @ 3:28 PM   |  Comments

Pinheads in Pune

Here's a quick question for you to answer :

If you checked out flights to Delhi, with your final destination being Shimla, googled for tourist spots in Kerala and considered the merits of a taxi trip through the Western Ghats in Karnataka, where would you finally end up?

1. Shimla
2. Some place in Kerala
3. Some place in Karnataka
4. None of the above

Well, this objective question seems to be a bit subjective. In our case (myself, TD and Seal), the correct answer turned out to be 4 - we ended up going to Pune in Maharashtra.

On our journey to Pune on a Sunday night in a KSRTC bus, we were treated to Run - a movie which I had already seen on TV (not exactly watchable, except for the cute Bhumika Chawla). The next day had No Entry (a "no brains necessary" comedy, and a huge hit at that), following which a trailer for Veer-Zaara flashed past the screen. TD had just about stopped cribbing about it when out came a familiar and ominous vrooming followed by, what else, but Dhoom. Thankfully the "cult classic" couldn't continue for long as we had reached the Pune bus stand by then. From there we hailed an autorickshaw and proceeded to meet our local benefactor, Ananth (popularly known as Figure). (In Pune, the autorickshaws display the distance you have travelled, which when multiplied by 6 and summed up with 2 yields the actual fare. I prefer the Bangalore method, a no-brainer - just dish out the amount displayed, provided it is within reasonable limits)

In the evening, we roamed around the "happening" areas of Pune - Fergusson College Road (FC Road) named after Fergusson College and the Junglee Maharaj Road. While we loafed around, we noticed one strange thing - a large number of people, especially females had scarves wound around their faces, presumably to counter the deleterious effects of the heavily polluted air of Pune. Hell, I even spotted some talking through their scarves!!!

The staple diet of Maharashtra seems to be Vada Pav. Seal, the erstwhile Mumbai cha Mulga (Marathi for "son of Mumbai") displayed a marked inclination to drool over the omnipresent "delicacy" and could hardly stop chanting its name. Naturally, we got fed up of this whole pav business.

We retired for the night with plans to proceed to Mahabaleshwar the next morning.

Next : Morons in Mahabaleshwar

Tags : Travel

Posted by Rajat @ 10:30 PM   |  Comments

Percentage Problem

The SSLC (Secondary School Leaving Certificate) examination results were declared today. Radio Mirchi 93.3 FM, the new private radio channel in Bangalore tried to cash in on the accompanying frenzy by announcing that those who have scored 93.3% in the exam would get special gifts, provided they were among the first 'n' to call in or leave a message (I forgot the value of 'n'. Was it 3? Or 5? Uh, never mind). Of course, the claimants would need to produce the appropriate proof to collect the gifts. Good thinking I would say.

However, I am not sure whether the percentage had to be exactly 93.3 or whether anything between 93.3 & 93.4 was fair enough. I am also unsure whether rounding off was allowed - would 92.9999 qualify? So agonizingly close! If rounding off was indeed permitted, then would 93.99 be acceptable? Seeing these grey areas, I am inclined to believe that the folks at Radio Mirchi would be better off by demanding exactitude. But that would in turn mean that a student needs to have scored 583.125 marks (out of the grand total of 625) which is impossible. So what did Radio Mirchi do? I presume they settled for 583 (93.28%). Anyway, I didn't bother following this till the end - so no concrete answers there.

Come to think of it, Radio City 91 FM, the first private radio channel in Bangalore could also have put forward a similar scheme. They wouldn't need it though. Poor AIR (All India Radio) - the public radio station could do no such thing as the frequency at which they broadcast is 101.3 FM :-). Not that it would have helped, for the quality of their content (vis-à-vis the private channels) is pathetic.

Tags : Bangalore, Humour

Posted by Rajat @ 10:28 PM   |  Comments