Saturday, November 28, 2009
Smart City-Bangalore
It was raining, raining and raining; heavily, slowly, non stop, all day long. Our life in CSR became fully boring and gloomy. We didn’t really need to take a bath. If we went from bedroom to kitchen, we took a bath, we went from dorm to office and we took a bath; even for going to toilet we needed to use a raincoat or an umbrella……. horrible!!! As a result is we started planning to escape Auroville for a weekend and we did so.
On 30th October, Friday night our boss Satprem was leaving for Tanzania for two months. Saturday is half. So we decided to go somewhere and Bangalore was the first choice we all had. Priyadi, Satprem’s secretary, also wanted to join us and it was good as she arranged a cheaper accommodation in Ashram guest house.
This time we didn’t go for any adventure. We booked our ticket in advanced and we booked it for both way. We had chosen a private bus service so it was 740rps per head.
At 10:30 we entered the bus….. I have never seen a bus like that. It has comfortable chairs and above the chairs there were sleeping berths. One row of berth is single and one is double. The weird thing is, Couples was staying at those double berths and they were maintaining privacy by curtains. I must say India is far fast than Bangladesh….. I don’t know anything More about the journey; I slept the all the way.
Now let me tell you what I was wearing….a white cotton shirt and a tree quarter trouser. We reached Bangalore at 5 in the morning. Still it was dark. I stepped out of the bus and I felt thousands of niddles pierced me……..it was a little bit cold!!!!
Thanks to Allah, He is so kind that there was a lot of Autos waiting and we got one for 150rps. So we reached the guest house we checked in and we slept. At about 7:30 the manager wake us up from sleep and informed that Priyadi and Me (as I am an Indian!!!) can stay there but Celine and Camille can’t. We said we will arrange something but we need time.
But the truth is we were not at all thinking about accommodation but about Koshy’s and K.C. Das. Koshy’s is a famous restaurant, especially famous for breakfast and K.C. Das is famous Bengali sweet shop. But honestly, the whole Bangalore city is too lazy to wake up early. No restaurant is open before 9:30. What to do now? We took tea from a footpath shop, walked around nearby places and finally it was 9:30 and we came back to Koshy’s. It seemed like we had never seen good food before and we were very rich. Just for a breakfast we paid 800rps! After that no space for K.C. Das… later.
“pet puja” done! So we called Varun (one of our friend from Earth Institute). He heard about the guest house and he is so sweet that he invited us to stay at his place. So Chandrima (Varun’s friend) would come to take us to Varun’s place by her car. But she will come at 5, so we have a lot of tome in between. We again started walking from one street to another we the whole commercial street, mission street, cubbon road….we eat, we shopped, we visited …..wow. After two months I am visiting a real city. So classy, so smart, so modern. … superb. For lunch we went to a restaurant- Coconut Grove. Very expensive again and very good too. I felt life is expensive here. People earn a lot and they spend a lot. I really liked it… speciall the girl ;-)….. very smart.
But still there is a problem that we were ignoring from the morning- we all are gonna stay at Varun’s place, but all our staffs are in the Ashram Guest House and we don’t want to pay. So at 4 we went there and the great Priya di manage not to pay and we just left..hahahaha…
Varun recently built a new house for him and his parents. He designed it himself and managed to build it simultaneously while working at Auroville. Bravo! In South India people do their house warming party and prayer before the finishing work is done. Varun’s house warming party was done but a lot finishing work was remained. So they were living in another house nearby. We went there just after sunset. It was almost dark and so we rushed to see his house. It is a 10 minutes walk through green. Most of the plots were yet to be built on. So Varun’s house was standing in the middle of a green sea!
I can imagine how lucky Varun’s parents will be in a house like this. Its fantastic! Its calm, its quiet and when its night….. I have no word to describe…
The ground floor is for his parents and younger brother and the first floor is his bedroom and studio. I would say the relation of space he designed, the light and air circulation path he created is really very logical and perfect. I don’t know Varun is gonna read my blog or not. But I want to say, Varun, you just did it. Congratulations.
Now I want to say to you what I experienced that night. Light in the dark!! The people who have been to Chittagong Neval Academy, at night have you ever seen the light of CAFCO on the other bank of Karnafully? Even in a moonless night have you ever noticed a very clear sky full of stars? Did you feel something………. I already said that Varun’s house is in the middle of almost nothing. At night the green becomes black, just black. And then ….. you will find small bright light sources one after another.at every 1 minute at least one plane crosses Varun’s house to land at nearby International Airport. Sometimes long trains with hundred of lit windows appears…. And twinkle twinkle little stars.. they are always with you…….. no guys I could not describe anything. One has to feel that, there is no other option.
I think I am a little excited about the house Anyway, we had nice dinner that night and we decided where to go next day.
Next Day early in the morning w again went to see Varun’s house…. Don’t be scared people; I will not start describing again. But it was wow… Varun Dropped us at the bus stand and we took a local bus to go back to the main city. In the bus I realized the most posh, smart and modern people are mainly leaving in the center of the city. At outskirt it’s like other parts of South India…. I mean they are Indians, not westernized Indians.
We reached Majestic Bus Junction and took another bus for Lalbagh Botanical Garden. The whole day we visited the Botanical Garden, cubbon Park, we ate Hydrabadi Biriyani, we shopped and at night we went to the pub. Priya di was very interested to go to the pubs as she went with her husband 14 years ago. So we went to the same pub, Nasa…. Nice. We tried to go to Hard Rock Café, but its so expensive that we had to come out. Not only Nasa, before we went to the bus stand we visited others pubs… that was a pub night. Actually it was true for other people too. As it was Sunday night the whole Bangalore city was in party mood and so were the pubs.
We were enjoying so much, but time was limited. So we went back to the bus stand and started for Auroville again.
If anyone asks me what we did in Bangalore, first thing I would say is “eating”. We really ate a lot, Celine and Camille shopped a lot (o, you can get very good silk there), we walked a lot and so, we saw a lot. What else we could do! Wow we had done everything, na? good…..!!
Rush to Kerala
Long time ago, I read a book named “Around the world in eighty days”. A guy travels the whole world by balloon in 80 days only!!! Even I often heard people going for world tour for 2 months or like that. I used to be surprised how this is possible! How can people see everything of the world in such short time! Later I came to know that they don’t really visit everything they just touch places!
Our Kerala trip was almost like this. 28th September, 2009, in a Monday Morning Meeting, we came to know that we are gonna have a Government holiday on Friday. Saturday is half; so we asked Satprem for a leave and he agreed. Uuuu… we had three days of holiday; we can make a long trip!!
We know that we are going but we didn’t know where. At the eleventh hour we decided to go to Kerala. Frankly speaking before going to Kerala I didn’t know that it’s a state, not a city. Anyways, it was a little bit (!!!) tight schedule. On 1st October we were suppose to shift from Mitra Youth Camp to Revelation and at the same day we had to leave Auroville for Kerala.
Nothing was planned or decided. We just arrive at Pondy bus terminal. We didn’t have any idea that it will be so crowded. As there was holiday ahead, everybody was moving. So all the buses were full, full means full. People were traveling on the floor. In fact it is not a big deal here. In Bangladesh I have seen people traveling on roof of the buses and trains. But here people sit on the floor and later when the bus starts running, they lie down and sleep!
Anyway, we didn’t get any bus. Somebody suggested us to go to Villupuram bus junction, only two hours from Pondy and there we will obviously get a bus. Okay! We took a local bus from Pondy to Villupuram and we reached there at 12:30 am. Then started the main problem…..
Oh! Very important!! We were making plans from a guide book, “Inde du Sud” (south india). Buy something like this before you start your trip. It’s really very helpful. It would be impossible for us to see India without that.
Every minute buses were coming for Trichy, Madurai, Salem, Coimbatore and sometimes for Trivandrum. Now comes where to go! Yet we only knew that we were going to Trivandrum first but didn’t know the route. We wanted to talk to the information office but the guy was sleeping. Station masters were passing us from one to another. A lot of people arrived to help us and as you know, ways are as much as opinions. So some people were sending us to Madurai, some to Trichy some to Coimbatore ….. uff! Within one hour we travelled the whole Kerala!!
Fine, it’s too much, we took our own decision; we started looking for bus for Madurai. But again there is a problem. Everything is written in Tamil. Buses are coming and people are rushing into that. So before we understand where the bus is going that was full. Finally we jumped into a bus without knowing where it was going and good God, it was going to Trichy.
We were happy to see the bus, the seats are comfortable enough for a 4 hours journey….but wait…where is our seat? There was no seat. We have to sit on the floor. “bisshash hoina” and you know how much was the tickect? 192rps!
5 in the morning we arrived at Trichy. Now again we need to look for Madurai bus. We started looking from one platform to another and asking “Anna, Madurai?” Anna means brother in Tamil. At last we got the bus and it will start at 7:45.
Restaurants and toilets-two good things of the Indian bus stands. You don’t have to know the location; extreme strong smell of open urinal zone will inform you that you are in a bus stand!! But there are pay toilets in every bus stand. You can pay 2-3 rupees and use them. As they are taking money at least they try to clean it, so it’s usable. Not so much… but what to do… Prokritir Dak Bole Kotha! But my boy friends, I heard in spite of paying the boys’ toilet is horrible. Do you want a description... Aw! leave it.
The bus came on time and we found there were only two seats. One at the first row and another at the last. Antoine and Camille sat there and me and Celine sat on the entrance stair. And actually that journey was not bad at all. When the bus was running it felt like I was driving the bus myself. The road was going through horizontal landscape with fields and trees, only green on either side….. it was good.
Whatever, we reached Madurai and then from Madurai to Trivandrum. Though it was almost three o’clock, we didn’t have time for lunch. We had to go to Kuthiramalika Palace Museum which closes at 5 and we had to buy train tickets for Verkala. So we ran to Palace museum….. literally running on foot. But honestly speaking, I was not so impressed. I mean, yes, it was nice and interesting, but I felt so familiar with this type of architectural details that I was not very amazed. This is all my university’s fault they teach us in a way that everything becomes seen to us ;-) but this is not true for all. There were a lot of tourist and they were very amazed too. Why not! It is a typical Kerala Architecture made of wood and highly detailed. You can visit!
After the Palace Museum we went to drink juice. Because it was written in the guide book that in Kerala, one should not miss the pineapple juice and pink banana. It is weird to see banana of pink color. Ithink Allah created it especially for me.
Verkala is one of the nicest place we visited in Kerala. We reached Verkala at almost 8 in the evening, we find out a cheap hotel near the sea. All the hotel, restaurants and even trains schedules we found from the guide. After 24 hrs of journey, no sleeping and without proper food, we were completely tired. So first thing we wanted to do is taking shower and then eat.
Verkala is 3-5m high fom the sea level and it has a very linear sea beach. We went to the beach and it was amazing. I am not talking about the sea; we couldn’t see it at night. But I really liked the place. It is full of nice restaurants and guest houses facing the sea and the roars are always with you. We had chosen a very nice restaurant and ordered our food. Here for the first time I drank Mojito- it’s a drink with white ram, lemon and mint…. Awesome.
Next day we had our breakfast in the same place, we enjoyed the sea for sometime and we started for Aleppey by train. It was a very short journey and Allepey is a very small town. Within 2 hours we walked through the whole town and we reached our destination- the boat yard. The guide book also suggested not to miss the back water journey from Allepey. We took a public boat for kottayam at 2 o’clock. It was like a public bus, stopping in different villages, ringing bells and passengers were coming out to board. For this 3hrs journey we paid 10rps per head. You have far better options. There are some house boats that you can hire to travel. Those looks like heaven, but only 200rps per hour per head. Now its your choice. I would say I didn’t miss anything. It was more than awesome.
We reached Kottayam and took a bus for Kochi, our last destiny in Kerala.
Kochi is a big city. It’s different from any part of Kerala. Its busy, its more modern even people look different. It is basically a city with three islands. We wanted to go to the malls, to the restaurants and to visit all the islands, but we didn’t have time we need to reach Auroville by Sunday night. So we went to train station to see if there is any train for tomorrow. Yes they had, but at night, at 10:30 and at 7 in the morning. So I suggested skipping Kochi for this time and taking the train that day. But who cares... no one. Finally we bought ticket for the morning and stayed in very expensive (for us) hotel for the night!!!!! Wow. The next day we woke up early in the morning before sunrise and we started walking through the city to visit as much as we can. Ok, it’s nice, but what can we see at 5 o’clock? Almost nothing. We came to the rail station and started for Auroville.
Kerala was our first trip outside Tamil Nadu. We were too much in hurry and at the end it was tiring too. But after coming back I realized I saw a lot, I know a lot. But still there’s a lot to visit there. I surely need to come back…
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Moon Walk
No, I am not Michael Jackson, neither the others. But thousands of people are doing moon walk every month.
Tiruvannamalay is two hours bus journey from Pondy. In every full moon night thousands of people go there and walk bare foot for 14 km. The path is surrounding a hill with a temple on the top. After the walk people visit the temple and pray.
But mistakenly me and my small group of six more people went to the place day before the full moon. It was in a sense very good as it was not crowded. But still there were people walking with us. As far as I know at full moon night, the moon does not stay for a long time in the sky. But as it was not a full moon, the moon was with us for the whole night.
Sometimes it was dark roads with trees on either side; sometimes yellow street lights were making the roads mysterious. The moon was playing hide and seek with us and we were walking.
Me, Camille, Jeremie, Varun, Antoine, Andy and Tomas. We walked, walked and walked. It was so nice and especially nicer for me. In general I like late and quiet night. But I think it was one of the nights I will not forget easily.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
My First Month At Auroville
Sunday, November 8, 2009
ON My Way To Auroville
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Wonderful Diwali!!!!
Please note that we do not accept any responsibility for your behaviour / safety during your internship (i.e. driving around in the night, driving without licence or without vehicle insurance, swimming at the beach, any misconduct in public spaces, etc.). We will decline any responsibility if you don’t behave well and we will inform your parents and your school if something wrong happens.
-From my appointment letter for Auroville Erath Institute
This is the paragraph at which I laughed the most, the most. What problem can I create? Getting drunk? I think this is the extreme that could happen. But no chance for that too. I belief I am “Jate matal tale thik”. So forget it, everything’s gonna be fine.
But trust me, I was completely wrong. 15th October, 2009, we were going for dinner at koilapalayam. Me an Camille, we share one moped. Few minutes from our house the moped got stop-no more petrol. We parked it beside the road near Upasana. Next morning Lakshman, the owner of the moped came, repair the moped and left it at the same place. Its ok for us, we can take it at any time, just we need some petrol to buy.
17th October was Diwali. So Bharat Nivas arranged fireworks and traditional Kathakali dance. Solar Kitchen arranged free dinner. Who would miss it? We will not! So we bought petrol and walked to the moped. But……. Wait! Where is the moped?
Its not there, someone stolen our moped and now we have to pay 16000 rupees to Lakshman. Nice Diwali eve. Okay, whatever happened, leave it. We went for Kathakali dance.
Friends, trust me, it is the most horrific classical dance. I doubt if there is any particular note for these dance or they just shout and jump out of nothing. In short after this performance I am not really interested for another one.
Don’t miss the “Free Dinner” at Solar Kitchen if you are here in Diwali. It’s awesome. But when you are going there don’t wear new shoes, it will be stolen. Celine lost her shoes. You have to keep your shoes outside to enter the restaurant and for free dinner people from nearby villages rush there. After dinner some of them take new shoes as Diwali gift!!
No, yet it is not the end. We came back home, at Reveletion. It was only 10 pm and we were not at all sleepy. So five of us sat outside our room and Juliet played some music on her mobile. The music was nice enough that we started dancing. Can you tell me how loud a mobile phone can be? Let me tell you. It was soooooooooo loud (!!!!!!!) that Natali, the owner of Reveletion came and started shouting on us, “Out, tomorrow morning all of you are out.”……… so, out! That was the worst that can happen in one day… actually one night.
Next day 7 o’clock we went to CSR, asked Satprem for accommodation and shifted there………. Happy Diwali!!!!! *photos are at Picasa