Saturday, September 25, 2010

Things I miss in IIMB

1. Verdant sylvan ambience
2. Dozens of parrots shrieking early morning in BEFG squre
3. Yellow flowers in full bloom in February in L square
4. Lush green grass carpet by the KL blocks
5. 6 pm MDC yoga classes
6. Shyamal Roy sir’s lectures
7. 2:30 am swinging in the childrens park, amidst heavy rain and thunder
8. Countless walks with numerous great people at all times
9. Viewing Madiwala lake from the water tank top
10. Seeing the parrots sitting on the sunflower and pecking its seeds
11. Reading novels with brown doggy Socks in OAT amidst greenery and flowers
12. Listening to and being with Hazra sir’s parents
13. Being with the small kid Shubha and listening to her stories
14. My very own first tulsi pot
15. Friends and lovely girls in shorts flashing all around; tremendous energy of fellow students
16. Doing pranayam early morning on B terrace with the refreshing fragrance of Panneer Maram/Akash Mallige/Neem Chameli
17. Watching the early morning sunrise from KL terrace
18. Hostel food and fruits most of the times
19. The library along the divine statue of Saraswathi by the steps

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Kolli Hills

It was in the road of Old Mahabalipuram road/ECR Prathiyankara Devi temple, that the poojari used to talk a lot about kula deivam. I used to wonder who was our Kula deivam and learnt it was in Kolli Hills. That was in 2006. From then onwards I had been clamoring to go to Kolli Hills and I got the chance at last only this Sunday. This Sunday was off for mom and she was working other Sundays. So this was the day I had to catch.

I had kept the alarm at 1:45 to board the 2:30 am early morning bus, but could not get out of bed despite waking up. When I kept the alarm for my swimming timings at 4:15, I realized I had forgot to save the alarm, so I woke up lazily at 9:30 am. We boarded the 11:30 bus to Namakkal and boarded the last 2:15 bus to Kolli Hills that took the roundabout route. Am glad it took that route.

70 Hairpin bends
We had our packed idlies and groundnut chutney in the bus, at the base of the Hill, where the bus stopped for 30 minutes. Then started the fairy tale trip. It was simply fantabulous. It was full of lush greenery. There were huge bamboo trees on either sides. So many small monkeys.

In between there was a meat feast going on at a roadside temple where a small rivulet was flowing melodiously. There were guys standing in groups here and there with liquour in their hands on the way. There was one family having its lunch outside the parked car sitting on the small stone walls. Surpassing all that was the breathtaking scenery around 4:30 – 5:00 pm. Sun was making its descent and the dwadashi moon was peeping on one side. There were hazy grey blue hills in the background and in the valley lush fresh green paddy fields with a small stream of water flowing in between the fields. Plantain trees were planted along the border of those paddy fields. That was simply amazing. That image is still so fresh in my inner eye. The sheer exquisite beauty of nature was simple breathtaking. All this with a fresh soothing breeze made it an awesome experience.

Arabaleeshwar Temple
It was small cute, neat temple that had the main deity along with Aram valartha naayagi sanniddhi. Had a peaceful darshan and we returned by the same bus, we took. It was close to 3:00 am when we reached back home. Next time, we will hire some cab and visit the 2 falls as well.

Tiruchendur Again

Train Saga
This time, I had booked train tickets a fortnight in advance. The train was at 1:30 am. So we boarded the last bus at 10:30. The bus did not go to junction, so we alighted at head post office and walked along the straight road till junction, thinking it would reduce the waiting time. It was just a little after 11. We walked and reached the station and found the train was in platform 4. I did not want to use the subway, I thought, I would use the way that the railway electric vehicles use and we walked till the very end of the platform without finding the path, till we reached the overbridge and found that we had come to platform 3 instead of 4. We took 30 mins for this walk, so finally, we had to use the subway. We slept for an hour and till 1:30, Pearl City express did not come, instead there was some kerala bound train in the same platform. After couple of frantic enquires, at last the train came and we clambered onto the train. In the morning, mom showed her swollen right hand, due to mosquitos at night.

It was 7:30 when we reached Tuticorin station. From there we boarded an auto for 40 bucks and we reached the new busstand and thereafter we took another bus to Thiruchendur. In the bus, an old lady boarded the bus after few stops along with a mentally challenged lady dressed in pavadai chatta. She kept on blabbering thanga thangam, she took the saliva from her mouth and kept on applying it to her face. We felt so bad, that I had to close my eyes in prayer.

Temple and Sea
We reached the temple, amidst the familiar sound of roaring waves, after refreshing, in a lodge, it was close to 10, when we reached the sea for a dip. The waves were tumultuous, very strong, not like the Arabian sea, where I could wade deep enough and swim gleefully. So here I sat down and played in the waves, my kurti suffered a tear near my left shoulder as the pinned dupatta struggled with the waves. The waves turned me a whole 180 degrees. The water was cool in spite of 10 am sun. We spent 1 hour in the beach and returned to the hotel, took bath, had food (this time too oops!) and went for darshan around 2 pm. Mom decided to leave the footwear in the lodge itself. It was the most insane thing to do in the 2 pm scorching sun. I was crying due to the burning sensation in my soles and started throwing tantrums by the time I reached the temple entrance shade. To my surprise, small small children were walking around barefoot unmindful of the hot sun.

It was a peaceful darshan, and while mom and A went for buying panchamrutham and other stuff, I sat and after a while, lay down on a stone bench watching the waves. I could see the winds along with the waves as they formed, rose, spread into a straight line, before merging into the turquoise blue sea with a roar. One wave rose, joined several others and it all stretched together into a straight, neat white wave stretching more than 10 metres just for few seconds, before breaking up and dissolving again.

People were taking snaps through the camera guys, by the sea, the print was kind of ok. Some had got married in the temple. Kids in colourful dresses were playing by. While returning, one kid took A for his mother and started following her and we had to send the kid back to his parents.

Valli Guhai
Last time, we had missed this cave. This time, again walking from the main temple till valli guhai entrance in the scorching sun was unbearable. But soon, we got into soothing shade. This side, the sea beach was peppered with black mossy rocks and the waves seemed less ferocious compared to the temple front. After getting the entrance ticket, we went inside crawling to see the devi. It was such a small cramped space with no ventilation. But it seemed adventurous. The porous walls surrounding the Valli Guhai had so many holes, where I could insert my finger and see it come out through the other end.

Back in the lodge
We came back and collapsed for a while. KTV was showing Mounam Pesiyadhe, which I watched in a half drowsy state. Suddenly it was 5:30 and the train in Tuticorin was at 7:30 (so I thought, it was actually at 7:45). My legs started aching suddenly. I had ordered coffee and cauliflower pakoda, which took some time in getting prepared. So mom and A were kind of furious. We reached the old busstand at 7:15 pm. And we had just 15 mins to board the train. We had no time to pack dinner. We took an auto and reached the station just before 7:30 and found the train ready to move.
We slept for a while, while our fellow compartment mates started having their dinner. Only at Sathur, a mallu guy gave us 2 chappathis for 20 bucks, we got 3 parcels and after munching, we collapsed blissfully till 1:25. Akka woke me up just when the train stopped and we dragged our sleepy feet to the busstand. Within 20 minutes the night service bus came and it was 3 am when I collapsed on the bed.

After a few days, I washed my white pants and dried them, and while I flipped it before folding, lots of shells and sand splashed all over. So much of sea sand was still trapped in the pant folds even after 2 washings. This time, unlike the previous time, Thiruchendur trip was less strenuous and the darshan without crowd was peaceful.

1984

George Orwell was born in Bengal during the British reign over India. It is intriguing as to what made him imagine such a dystopian world. Minitrue, miniplenty, minipax, miniluv – nice names for the 4 ministries.

Here goes couple of lines that interested me.
It is deliberate policy to keep even the favoured groups somewhere near the brink of hardship, because a general state of scarcity increases the importance of small privileges and thus magnifies the distinction between one group and another.

The best books, he perceived, are those that tell you what you know already

The aim of the High is to remain where they are. The aim of the Middle is to change places with the High. The aim of the Low, when they have an aim -- for it is an abiding characteristic of the Low that they are too much crushed by drudgery to be more than intermittently conscious of anything outside their daily lives -- is to abolish all distinctions and create a society in which all men shall be equal. Thus throughout history a struggle which is the same in its main outlines recurs over and over again.

Even today, in a period of decline, the average human being is physically better off than he was a few centuries ago. But no advance in wealth, no softening of manners, no reform or revolution has ever brought human equality a millimetre nearer. From the point of view of the Low, no historic change has ever meant much more than a change in the name of their masters. history as a cyclical process and
claimed to show that inequality was the unalterable law of human life.

Wealth and privilege are most easily defended when they are possessed jointly.
Even the names of the four Ministries by which we are governed exhibit a sort of impudence in their deliberate reversal of the facts. The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation. These contradictions are not accidental, nor do they result from ordinary hypocrisy; they are deliberate exercises in doublethink. “‘Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past,’