Trip to Mahabalipuram ! ! !

"Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey." — Pat Conroy

I am a firm believer of what "Pat Conroy" says in the above mentioned quote. There are so many anecdotes, small conversations, mouth watering dishes, expressions on locals face etc.....which keep on playing in your mind, even after long time. We fondly remember those moments as they happened yesterday. I have traveled a lot across India, from Himalayas to Ganges Planes, from Deccan plateau to Western Ghats, from Desert in west to Hills in east. The one region that is still left unexplored is Southern region. Before I came down to Chennai, I had just visited Goa: if you can call that south. And here I am, living in Chennai for past one year and haven’t traveled anywhere outside the city.

Its not like that there was any lethargy on my part. First yr of job didn’t leave us with any holidays to spare and I didn’t have my camera to move around and capture my travel moments. Anyway now armed with a prosumer digicam, I tried to fix a trip for 3 day weekend of 15th August. As it has to happened, the biggest problem, that I have faced after coming to Chennai for any travel related plan is the lack of active participation from my colleagues and friends. A 3 day weekend means, everyone going to Bangalore again and again for meeting friends, guys give it a break !!! There are so many places, when we can go. In past one year, i have planned two trips and cancelled them cuz of just 1 or 2 members. The same thing happened again this time, Kept on waiting for people to take decision and in the end me and my roomie were left on our own to go to Kodaikanal. Of course going by Qualis (as we had planned) was out of question. I prefer it that way cuz u can stop anywhere, take some great shots, rest a little and you don’t have to depend on others for break or what to and what not to see. Anyway, the next best option was to look out for train or Bus Tickets. But, all tickets were already booked, nothing there saar;sir (as mentioned by travel agent) Don’t know, but it seems like people don’t like traveling out here in Chennai, just 3 semi luxury buses to Kodai, same no. to Ooty, 1 to Munnar....hardly any option. Traveling by state buses is back breaking job cuz of 12-14 hrs ride to these hill stations from here.

Well, not to disappoint myself any more, we thought of going to Mahabalipuram for one day trip. Its quite near to Chennai (60 kms) and road is quite scenic (not like Bombay-pune highway of course) but still beautiful in its own way. So after spending the Saturday at home and watching EPL matches (Thanks god, season has started again and we had a winning start this time-My team as always Manchester Utd.) and watching quite hyped up "Mangal Pandey" for night show from first row, we were ready for our trip on Sunday morning.

10 AM: Bus Stop - Chennai
Armed with our digicams, me and my Roomie (Anubhav) left home around 10 and went to Bus Stop. So many buses but all of them were so crowded that there was no place to even stand out there. Finally found a little less crowded bus and was able to find little space to stand in corner. Though I missed most of the scenic way along the sea on the route cuz nothing was visible from the bus. But, parts of the road are quite beautiful, with a lovely view of the sea lined with coconut trees, casuarinas trees, fishermen’s villages, catamarans neatly arranged along, or just plain beach sand……and nothing else.

Chennai-Mahabalipuram Bus

12 PM: Finally in Mahabalipuram :)
But we were hungry like anything, made me remember Vyom for a while and the way he says "Mom tummy main mouse jumping" (My nephew, might turn into another ABCD). We took an Auto and asked him to drop us to a good restaurant. He took us to a sea side restaurant but somehow it was not that appealing. So, we came walking back to a place called Moonraker's on Otha Vadai Street. The name itself (Bond Movie & British History-Pirates) was quite mystic to attract us out there and from outside it looked quite different. Once you step in, u cant stop yourself from comparing it with Goa, The whole seating arrangement, crowd (mostly foreigners)and setting were so much like Goan restaurants. The only thing different were the walls, which were covered with painted rock figures of popular deities.

Moonraker''s Wall

The Menu was totally continental, which was quite evident from No. of foreigners sitting out there. We ordered for two plate of toasts with honey and butter, One Cheese Onion Omelet, One Mexican Omelet, Two ginger-lemon honey tea. The food was too good and tea was heavenly, totally charged us up for the whole day. All this for 140 bucks (quite cheap). Stepped out in the street and walked up to Main Road. Now this whole street is one big amalgamation of different cultures. You can see a German pastry Shop, Continental Restaurants, Kashmir handicraft shops, Jalebis and Samosas, Book Vendors displaying Books from various languages, a Hidesign Outlet (at top end).

1 PM: Shore Temple
We then walked to Shore Temple on the beach. After taking entry tickets, we entered the complex which marked by wire mesh from everyside. Shore Temples were built on the orders of the Pallava King, Mahendra Verma Pallava. The monuments are mostly rock-cut and monolithic, and constitute the early stages of Dravidian architecture wherein Buddhist elements of design are prominently visible. They are constituted by cave temples, monolithic rathas (chariots), sculpted reliefs and structural temples. The pillars are of the Dravidian order. The sculptures are excellent examples of Pallava art. They are given the listing in World Heritage list.

Shore Temple at Mahabalipuram

Every rock out there seems to tell a story, of either an unfinished ratha in the making, or a rock getting split up indicating quarrying of granite in these areas. The rocks speak of the methods used in the ancient times to carve chariots or architectural forms out of them. Deep grooves are made into the rock surface and then the rock is split up. Either the rock is taken else where to build a structural temple or a sculpture or just left aside incase it’s an extra.

2 PM: Arjuna Penance, Rathas, Krishna Mandapam & Lighthouse
After shooting lots of pics, we had Slice and then moved toward other major attraction, which is Arjuna Penance. : It is the world's largest bas relief measuring 27m X 9m.

Arjuna Penance

Arjuna's Penance is the mythical story of the river Ganges, issuing from its source high in the Himalayas. It also shows deities and other semi-divine creatures and fables from the Panchtantra.

After that we saw the caves, Rathas and Krishna Mandapam and the Light house. Though there is proper paved way to all the places, we tried some adventurous route on our way through the rocks and the view from such height was majestic. The weather was turning out to be quite plesant with lots of clouds in sky, with no sun in sky and cool breeze in air, it was the perfect day to roam around on rocks. We also met a monkey family on our way but they were quite scared to come near us and totally avoided us. It was only the second time i was wathcing a light house (first one in Orissa) and how much i wished of climbing on the top of it, but it was locked.

Lighthouse

Cloud Formation

3 PM: Back to Moonraker's
We sat on the top most point for some time and then moved back to the main road for lunch. We went to two-three restaurants but no one was able to appeal so much to spend sometime out there. Hence, we decided to go back to Moonraker's. Being lunch time, it was too much crowded, but we were able to find a table on first floor. Though, i am not a big fan of sea food ( Moonraker' is famous for its sea food) But, still we opted for Prawns in Ginger-Garlic Tomato Sauce with Steamed Rice and two Beers.

Moonraker's

There we came to know more about the restaurant. Its run by three Indian brothers and known for Western blues music apart from sea food. A tip to everyone, Once u enter it, do not get deceived by the humble exteriors, the smell of the food is out here is intoxicating. Prawns were delicious and hot, very well cooked. We rounded up the lunch with Pancake with filling of Hazelnut Sauce and Chocolate, topped with Vanilla Ice-cream. That was the perfect end. A must for everyone. All this for 340 bucks, totally worth its money.

5 PM: Bus Stand
Came down to Bus stand and started looking for a bus. With no mood to stand and no Empty buses in sight after 30 mins we decided to take an Auto to Kovalam (fisherman's Village). Took an Auto for 150 bucks and came down to Kovalam and from there we took Chennai City MTC bus to our place. Landed up home around 7:30 pm. Had a tiring day but in all totally satisfied with my trip. It was great to go out after a long time.

Total cost of the trip (2 Person in INR):
Bus - Chennai-Mahabalipuram : 32
Breakfast : 140
Shore Temple entry : 20
Mineral Water + Two Slice : 36
Lunch : 370 (including tip)
Auto to Kovalam : 150
Bus - Kovalam - Chennai : 26
Total Cost : Rs 874

Fun, excitement, experience : priceless (i know sounds clichéd)

Must do:
Carry Water
Visit all the places mentioned in tourist book
Visit Moonrakers’s
Wear sports shoes which has good grip

To Avoid
Beach – its dirty
City Buses- if you cant stand for 1-1.5 hrs
Touts and guides

ClIcK HeRe To ViEw PiCs oF ThE tRiP (for bigger pics and greater clarity @ Webshots)

One more link for pics (small size pics @ Yahoo Photos)

Till then, have fun guys.......
Sayonara!!!!

Orkut Delhi Meet II - Collage

Orkut Delhi Meet, originally uploaded by deeps79.

You can use Picassa Collage tool to generate it.

Orkut Delhi Meet - II

How can you like talking and meeting strangers all the time?

One of my friends always put this question in front of me, whenever we talk about networking sites like Ryze and Orkut. My reply is always same; there are so many interesting people in world and this is just one of medium to know them. What’s wrong in knowing more people and really making some good friends in process. Though I agree that these sites have become more or less a friendship site where guys and gals are looking for bf and gf . But still if you want, they can let you find some really interesting people with same hobbies, passion and work area like yours. I am saying this cuz maybe I have been quite lucky and found some really great people on both the sites. With them, I can discuss a lot on photography, stocks, books, music and even the current fav. past time Sudoku.

Two weeks back, I was in Delhi after 6 months. How much I long for being there, only god knows…..anyways one of the high points of this trip was meeting some really good people in “Orkut Delhi Meet II’. Though we have been talking on orkut for a long time, this was the first time; I was meeting them in person. Already one meet has taken place, so few people knew each other. I was excited but not apprehensive about it as most of the people are. I was looking forward to it. In fact, I only initiated the second meet around one month back (Now you can see, why I was so excited about it). Though a lot of people said that they will join in, I was expecting around 10. After lot of deliberation on the meeting place, we decided for CCD (Café Coffee Day) at CP. CP being a central area was easily accessible to everyone and now with Metro reaching it, it was easy for people coming from North and North-West Delhi.

So armed with camera (Can’t go without it, everyone would have killed me) I started from home and went to South Ext first. Checked out Adidas Sale for Shoes but I didn’t liked the one I tried cuz of too much of Red in sole. That made me late for the meet at 4pm. So I had to rush to CP and finally reached CCD at 4:20 pm. Guys park your car at Palika Parking at CP, Its much more safe and organized than on road parking sites there. Being Saturday, CCD was full and with an inquisitive look I was inside the café, looking for some familiar faces (I have seen just face pics of people) For first few seconds, nothing registered me and then I identified Aseem. He was sitting on a sofa at ground floor along with two guys. At the same time, they also identified me (maybe cuz of my big camera bag :) )

So here are

Aseem: Working at a KPO in Gurgaon and staying near CP

Bhaskar: A student of Final year Engg. at NSIT and staying in Rohini.

Akshay: Chennai Dude (temporary) Studying in IIT-Madras and staying at Rohini.

So, just 4 of us and after a initial round of introduction, Aseem gave us a update on Prashant and Nisha. Nisha unfortunately wasn't able to join us cuz of some function at her home. I was looking forward to meet her, specially from whatever I have heard from ODM1 and also cuz she likes Bombay more than Delhi (you wont find many Delhites, who like Bombay, I am one of them) After 10 mins, Prashant joined us, he got late while fixing something in his Car (Radha-Red Palio Sports) at Lajpat Nagar.

We pooled in our money to avoid any confusion and as Prashant says, they made me the munshiji to handle finances for the whole day. I had taken my lunch (my fav. Gobhi Paranthas) so just had my usual Tropical Iceberg. Aseem told us about his experiences with Coffee Bars and I chipped in with my experience of doing a marketing project on Barista at the time of MBA. Soon afterwards Bharti and her friend Rahul Joined her.

So here is the rest of the group

Prashant: Working with IBM (Bharti Project) and staying in Noida

Bharti: Just passed out from SPA and planning to give GRE

Rahul: An MBA and planning to join Indian Army

It was a small group and it was perfect cuz we all could share and talk on various topics without dividing into smaller groups. I took out my digicam and that was what everyone was waiting for (Can u imagine, 7 people- 2 Digicam, 1 SLR and 1 Camera Phone) so, it was obvious that most of the conversation was about cameras and photography. For a long time, everyone was waiting to get a look at my digicam and that’s what happened. Everyone trying their hands on my Panasonic FZ20 and its amazing zoom capabilities and it resulted into more of a photography session. Few experiments and lots of Photographs later talks shifted to some other topics. We discussed on GRE, various fields in Architecture and career in it etc. After a second round of drinks, We thought of moving to a more quiet place and went to Pragati Maidan by Prashant's Radha (Palio). Bharti and Rahul had to go somewhere, so only 5 of us were left. Its been a long time, since I have been to Pragati Maidan, so that was a great idea from Prashant and after parking the car, we sat there and looked at Prashant’s latest Trekking pics. The pics were amazing, and how much I wished that I can come back to delhi and trek in Himalayas regularly. A show by “Euphoria” was going to take place at Pragati Maidan but we decided to come back to CP and have something, so went to Café 100 had some cocktails and mocktails. In between, we had a good discussion on condition of Bangalore, Chennai as IT hubs, Delhi being touted as the rape city and Salman Khan’s case. After spending a good one hour out there over drinks and snacks we decided to move back to our home.

So that was all about the meet. It was a great experience, just in one meet , you meet lots of intresting people. My take on these meetings is to just go out, meet people and enjoy. I am sure more people will join us next time at the time of Diwali.

Here are the pics of the meet

It was fun to meet to meet everyone and these are my feelings after the meet.

Bhaskar & Akshay : Interacted with them for first time here and it was pleasure knowing them. All the best for their placements and guys you both gonna treat me, when you will be placed.

Rahul: One quiet guy, maybe cuz he didn’t knew anyone well. But I really admire him for choosing Army even after doing MBA. You don’t see people joining army after completing MBA.

Aseem : One hell of intresting guy, I believe he is the most frequented guy among various comunity meetings, very jovial and has a good knack of telling stories and experiences, exactly like his pic on orkut.

Bharti: She is talented and knows her area (Architechture) very well, Always smiling and chirpy kind of gal and she is not as mature as she looks from her pic on orkut. I believe I deserve a treat now Ms. :)

Prashant: We share few of the hobbies like photography, traveling, trekking and driving. Infact we both are passionate about all these, so it was great meeting him after exchanging lots of scraps on orkut. Just waiting for the time, when we can go on some trip together. I envy u yar….for all the trip u can make out there :)

Hope to see each of them at the time of Orkut Delhi Meet 3 ..........
Cheers !!!

Back to Blogging........

Long time since I wrote anything on my blog. The primary reason for this is of course loads of work at office but I also accept that I have been little lazy to write anything on my page. Though I have a comp at home and if I wanted I could have written from there but somehow I think the best time to write blog is from office. You see, utilizing your time fully ………

A lot happened in between, went to home (Delhi) for about 10 days in mid July, got a salary hike, made some good friends and met few old and few new in Delhi and I am still looking for a good job outside Chennai. Somehow or the other, all the offers I have been getting till now are from Chennai, Bang and Pune. But, I am looking for Delhi or Bombay only……lets see when the fate decides in my favor. I have no reasons to give………maybe just cuz I am big city man J Delhi is of course home and most of my friend circle is there and Bombay is one city I really like a lot. Though both the cities have their own demons to fight with, in past few days.

What happened on 26/7 was terrible. It proved the fact that how much we progress, we need the blessings of someone above us to survive in this world. Never in my dreams, I thought of Bombay facing floods. The gravity of problem was not so visible initially to us people in other cities but gradually the images being shown on TV portrayed the true situation. The irony was that the whole India knew what’s happening in Bombay but the people of Bombay had no idea about what’s happening in other parts. Everyone was just going on in hope that next area would have been in better shape. My Uncle started from IOC office at 4 on 26th and reached Powai – Hiranandani next day at 11. With no way to contact the family and friends out there, people outside Bombay were as helpless as they can be. A lot has been written on what all happened that day but I wish that the people like us should take equal responsibility along with Civic administration for devastation caused by rains in Bombay. If only we treat our colonies and roads as our home by not polluting and fight for our rights with BMC and other administration agencies, the problem wouldn’t have been so severe. We need to forget the “chalta hai” attitude and made our polticians and govt realize the basic infrastructure needs for the society.

Coming back to NCR (Delhi), Gurgaon was in news for all wrong reasons. Though what happened at Honda factory was atrocious but why are we blaming the Police for that? For more on the story do read blog of a friend at

http://nikhilgurjar.blogspot.com/2005/07/uncomfortable-questions-ii-gurgaon.html

My thoughts are exactly same and don’t have much to add on to it.

Even after this, I still consider both the cities to be the best in India to live. Bombay has a spirit which no other city can match and Delhi has the best infrastructure and city planning in country.

Cheers to both Delhi and Bombay……..