Moments

7.00 PM - Casual talk. What plans for tomorrow? Hmm... Let us go to Nandi Hills.. Seriously? If you are interested we can go.. 10.00 PM - Good night.. 10.01 PM - Let us go to Nandi Hills tomorrow. For sunrise!! So early? That is what people go there for.. 03.15 AM - Alarm goes off. Getting up early is never a problem for us, you know.. when it is for a tour.. :P 05.00 AM - Jet Set Go. The route from Horamavu to Nandi Hills is relatively easy. Take the Outer Ring Road to Hebbal. From under the Hebbal flyover take a right onto the airport road (NH 7 to Hyderabad). After you pass the diversion for the airport, you reach the toll gate. Take a two way pass (Rs 115). Continue on the highway towards Hyderabad. Few kms after you cross Devanahalli junction, you will see a diversion to the left, clearly (if you know where to look for sign boards in Indian roads) marked "Nandi Hills". This is a narrow road but very well maintained. Almost all the early morning traffic is tow...

Election fever in the world's largest democracy. There is euphoria and hysteria in the air. Heated emotions and filthy language. And innumerable BREAKING NEWS. Who said what and who countered it is the tagline on most TV news channels. Most of it is the norm these days. After all, 24 hrs news means every bit (or is it called sound bite) of political activity is tracked by cameras (may be mobile ones too, as shown in "What an Idea Sirji"). What is new this election season is the use of social media. Hordes of staunch supporters, or you can say warring rivals, of BJP and AAP flooding the Facebook News Feed with arguments For and Against. And news material posted left right and center. Mostly unverified. Or simply created by the party loyalists to feed the hunger of the supporters who are in dire need of material proof to win a brownie point. That too with a guy who you have added as "Friend" in FB. It shows the amount of political interest in the middle class...

March 29, 2014 The last weekend of March was a long one with Ugadi holiday on Monday. And its the perfect time for a trip in South India, just before the summer heat gets in. Madikeri, popularly known as Coorg or Kodagu, is the closest long weekend outing destination. And most probably the one to top the list of must-see places around Bangalore. So we decided that let Coorg be the first of our outings with our kid, who just finished 9 months in this world. Many people discouraged us from travelling with the kid as it is never easy to stick to the timings in your itinerary. Also there is fear of kid falling sick due to travel and change of weather. But I should say, we had good confidence in our sweet daughter, who has surely gotten our travel genes. She was the first one wake up and get ready for the trip! We - me, SL, VG, and my in-laws - started from Horamavu, Bangalore at 6AM. Early start is helpful in beating the city traffic at Bangalore and all other small towns that com...

October 25, 2013 3 days before I got an email from my manager in US asking me to travel to California for a week for a meeting. Initially it was good news as I had not visited US for more than 2yrs. So it would be good to see folks in the office and meet my cousin at Los Angeles - that is always on my itinerary to USA. But this time I was little sad too. My daughter is going to come to Bangalore for the first time on Sunday. And I wouldnt be here to receive her. :-( After many rounds of checking possible routes with low airfares, I finally decided on BLR-HKG-SFO and SFO-LAX-HKG-BLR on return. The good part in this itinerary was I have a stop over of 13hrs at Hong Kong on the onward journey. Googled all the must-see places in Hong Kong. Got some info from a friend who had travelled via Hong Kong  many times. Jotted down a possible itinerary (probably the first time I have ever done that). I reached HKG at by Cathay Pacific flight at 11AM. Half an hour delay mea...

Wishing all my readers a very happy and prosperous new year 2014. The year 2013 had started off with a declaration (I can call it a new year resolution too) that I would keep you all engaged with a rejuvenated blog, with many more travelogues. Alas! I managed to write down only 5 of them. But two of them were an accomplishment, if you can give credit to the fact that I wrote about my trips that had happened 7 years before. I could certainly have done better. But what is past is past. Now time again for yet another resolution that 2014 keeps the blog alive with a post at least once in a month. 2013 had been an interesting year for me. I had moved into my own (yes my own) apartment in Bangalore. And we were waiting for a new entrant in our family! Many arguments on whether it is a boy or a girl. Suggesting and discarding lot of baby names. Our bundle of joy was born on 24th June. We named her Varsha Girish. Yes, you guessed it right. Her nickname is also VG. So selfish of me!! ...

July 6, 2006 Khandu's marriage trip coming soon here!! That was a message posted here 5 months back. Phew!! Such a long time since I got a chance to write anything. Today being the last day of 2013, with less than couple of hours remaining, let me try to finish this blog (and another customary one for the year) quickly. Khandu, for those who dont know, was my classmate at IIT Delhi. A year after finishing our MTech, Khandu decided to take the plunge. Surprise for most of us as he was (we too) reasonably YOUNG.. This marriage trip was the second one in the series (first was of another batchmate Sonal). Attendees: Me, Anoop, Sandip Dwivedi (a junior of ours). Source: Delhi (Me and Anoop were doing our Phd and Sandip was enjoying his final days at IIT). Being a hot and humid season, the trip was planned for night travel. We headed to Jaipur House (on Pandara Road, New Delhi) to catch the volvo bus run by the Rajasthan State Transport Corporation. We hadn't booked our ti...

Year 2050 Act 1 - The crowning The FIRST party of India is still controlled by a dynasty. They are true rulers. The family has been controlling the party very well. The Grandma has grown old but her son just couldnt grow up. He kept everybody guessing and never really took the challenge to be the No. 1. He is now nicknamed "Evergreen No. 2". Old age has started showing signs. She had been on too many sick leaves. But she was never ready to sideline her amul baby. The core committee meeting was going on. The next general elections have been declared. The main agenda for today's meeting was to decide who is going to lead the party into the elections. The Grandma was unusually silent today. She seemed to be listening to the arguments but her mind was wandering. Can she hold on for one more election? Will the No. 2 be ready to accept the top position, though he had rejected it this morning at the breakfast table. Suddenly, BANG!!!! It was a thud on the desk. Everybod...