Thank You Series - II

I know it has been quite a lot of time since the first one came out. But as I did tell in the first part, it is an attempt to recall the incidents and post them out. Yes, 2009 to 2011 is quite a gap - and will admit that. Here is one such a recall.

On a nice and sunny afternoon, during the lunch hour, taking a stroll in our rather green and enchanting office campus at Coimbatore, I suddenly decide on the "plan" for the next day, a saturday. "I will visit the Thirumittacode temple near Pattambi, in God's own country (Kerala)", I think to myself.

Alright - what's the big deal about it? Well, here is the deal - first thing, I need to know how to get there by some available train. Next, I have to figure out how to be back in Coimbatore on the same day before afternoon as I "planned" to leave to my native place from there by afternoon. Talk of the wonderfully crunched timelines for travel, surely "Family folks envy, bachelor's pride..!"

I call in the cab for a pickup at around 2:45 AM since the train to Pattambi was at 03:45 AM. Still not having got up fully, I manage to answer the call on my mobile phone from the taxi driver in a sober tone. Quick brush up. Quick bath in the rather freezing cold water. I dress up and rush out of my room, taking my wallet and phone. It was a quick and hurried drive to the Podanur railway station. Lo behold, the train was running late..! 

Never the one with a patience to wait for things, I decide to board the upcoming train which doesn't stop at Pattambi but nevertheless stops at the Shoranur junction - one junction before Pattambi. "Anyways, I can change to the train that stops over at Pattambi whenever it does come to Shoranur... Or, I can always take a bus/auto to the temple from Shoranur itself..." went my thought.

The travel through the Palghat pass takes me around 2 hours or so and I stepped out in Shoranur junction. After waiting for twenty odd minutes, I also manage to get onto the train that would stop at my actual destination, Pattambi.

And here came the highlight of the whole trip. I actually landed up in the temple. It was a very serene and nice place. The Bharatapuzha river was flowing beside the temple without making any noise even as it was rubbing past a rocky bed. It certainly felt as if the clouds have descended from above - such was the level of fog in the morning - with everything looking towards the grace of the Sun to descend on it.

Temples in Kerala are pretty strict in sticking to the tradition. And I have definitely heard that. But what I didn't know was this - you can enter the temple's sanctum sanctorum if and only if you are either wearing a dhoti or towel. No trousers allowed. And there came the hit for me - I never took any towel or dhoti with me. Nevertheless, I did go in and boldly asked for an archana ticket. I was handed one by the person at the counter.

Next came the ultimate thing. Obviously, I was blocked from entering the sanctum sanctorum of the temple premises. There was definitely nothing much I could really do. Purchasing a towel or dhoti anywhere nearby was totally out of question. There was hardly anything around the place which bore a resemblance of  even a tea shop, let alone a clothes store that would sell a dhoti or towel.

Anyways, being at the place itself was very satiating experience. With this thought in mind, I returned to the counter to request the person at the counter to perform the pooja on my behalf whenever he could and I explained to him I need to leave without seeing the inner sanctum sanctorum because I really didn't bring anything other than my wallet and phone with me.

Much to my surprise, he decided to help me, unconditionally and without being requested for it at that..! He quickly guided me to his rather small dwelling and instructed me to pick up a dhoti from there, which I would later wear and enter the temple premises..!

I could ultimately make it in. The only thing is - while I was spending time SEEING the inner precincts of the temple and the presiding deities, I was THINKING totally about this person who could help so unconditionally to a total stranger..!!

Entertainment. Entertainment. Entertainment.

***

Elephant can sense things on its front. Which means, should you have a need to escape from an elephant, always try moving behind it. It would walk an average of 60 km a day and would sleep in the standing position only. Should you encounter an elephant while driving through the forests road, NEVER disturb it in any fashion. Just wait on the road and allow the herd to pass. Remember, single elephants are much more dangerous to handle than a herd. Electric fences are set up in some areas to prevent elephants from infiltrating into the human habitat. However, all voltage levels should be limited to causing only temporary withdrawal response and shouldn't harm the animals in any fashion.

Tigers have a very excellent sense of living. They don't typically live in very deep jungles. They would need shrub forest to survive since their preys would be maximum only in shrub forest area. You could be walking on the jungle road and a tiger could be quite nearby - totally unperturbed by your presence. However, habitat loss is something that would make them lose their space and is the     threatening factor for them at present. Often, when instances of man-animal conflict get reported, the preceding factors responsible for this conflict to exists in the first place aren't probed or go untold. Tiger census is typically taken following the pug marks of the tiger. The path would be traced using elephant movements. A tiger typically survives alone. Female tigers resist any kind of procreation activity until their cubs are at least 5 months old. It has very clearly established territories and would never allow another tiger to enter into it. If there is a compromise on the territory, typically there would be a fight between the two tigers in question and one of them would die for sure. Should someone state that there was a sighting of several tigers together around the same area, it would be an obvious lie..! After quite a lot of efforts that failed in protecting the tiger, the Indian government decided to rope in the tribal community itself into the conservation effort. The area spanning Mudumalai in Tamil Nadu, Wayanad in Kerala and Bandipur/Nagerhole forest in Karnataka actually constitute a single zone for forest purposes and is a reserved region in addition to being a tiger sanctuary.

Hyenas were present in a cave near the Masinagudi area in very large numbers. They are typically nocturnal creatures that help maintain the health of the forests since they eat the dead animals. With diclofenac and other poisoning happening, a lot of hyenas and vulture died in the Nilgiris biosphere reserve.

Leeches are a nightmare to deal with when you walk for something into the forest area. Common salt   is used to battle the problem.

Wild dogs hunt in packs and has the highest success rate - around 95%. It is the only one which probably has the capability to hunt down a bison (the bison is pachydermic in nature..!!).

A sloth bear would have red eyes. Not all bears are herbivorous.

***

That was definitely some wild talk..!!  Well, believe me, all of these were literally pulled out and laid to us neatly by Vinoth, our teammate, right from the top of his mind, as if someone were just asking what is his name..! He has a very deep interest in wildlife conservation and photography, in addition to IT.

When we decided to start touring the Nilgiris, we couldn't have had a better person that Vinoth with us. He joined us despite his ill health and showed us areas of the NBR (Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve) which none of us could've experienced otherwise..!

With Saravanan and Sundeep being present, some form of comedy is going to be guaranteed..! :-) And it did.

Aravind was negotiating a very very deep hairpin bend uphill towards Ooty from Mudumalai. There were a couple of cars which chose not to respect the "uphill vehicles first" rule. Quite peeved at repeated violations on this which gave Aravind a tough time managing to drive, Saravanan decided it was high time someone be taught a lesson or two. He yelled out to one of the cab drivers going downhill - "We are coming up slowly because three hairpin bends down, elephants are present.!"

As for Sundeep, his rather loud, clear and threatening voice to Aravind, "சும்மா இருங்க.. சிங்கம் புலி யானை கரடா" nu... "இங்க இந்த இருடுக்கே பயமா இருக்கு..!" made everyone laugh out loud... Obviously, he was asked if he thought female bears were கரடி and male ones கரடா in Tamil..!

To us Chennaiites accustomed to the "Cinema. Caaram. Coffee", "Food. Forest. Flesh" was definitely a different terrain, thanks to our dear Vinoth..!

***

"As she chirrups 'entertainment. entertainment. entertainment.' the world is at her feet" - so went a write-up in a prominent English daily.

One of my friends quipped in his SMS to me, "Do you realize that even VB (Vidya Balan) might not have seen the movie so many times?" - to my call to have a trip to the DP (Dirty Picture) movie once (oh yeah, it was once more and not once really..!)

Definitely, to her credit, VB has not diminished her acting prowess a wee bit. And being quite verbose with an umpteen one-liner punches, the movie isn't something one could watch without a decent grip of Hindi. "Entertainment. Entertainment. Entertainment." is just one example of a simplistic as well as a catchy and punchy one-liner.  Like NOKJ (No One Killed Jessica), the "reel-real" mixture has been taken care of pretty decently. "Oh la la Oh la la" definitely has a beat that would keep your feet tapping while "Ishq sufiyaana" would be for the ones who crave for a good melody beat. 

Never mind the generous pokes I get from my friends, I do feel that DP is definitely a paisa-wasool. After all, movie is all about "Entertainment. Entertainment. Entertainment".

***

(W)all is well that ends well..!!

Late into the night... hanging around in the office... time for dinner... "Operation coaxing" begins... 

"Hey, why don't we go to pizza corner and munch a piece of their veg kolhapuri?", I ask to two of my friends, who were looking and probably cursing the fact that the official day hadn't still ended for them. 

"Pizza corner?? That's quite far... my office day is still NOT over :-( We should go somewhere nearer" - that was the response from Aravind - our "cab guy", as we love to call him, who neatly flaunts his i10, with its well polished interiors and getting the crowning as our "official tour vehicle"

"Veliya saapida mudiyaade.." This was Saravanan - and oh yeah, he has very many a sobriquets that I would prefer sticking to his original name. 

"Pizza? No way - I need to get home... I would have some chamba rava upma getting ready for me.." - that was our Nagu (a) Nages.

It was definitely evident that "Operation Coaxing" was losing its sheen... but I cannot give up that easily too - and they would know it as well... After the confabulation amongst us coming to an end, we set out to decide on raiding the Dominos outlet nearby... 

We didn't have a need to switch on the air conditioner in the car. The weather was actually pretty cool outside. There were symptoms of a thunderstorm - but we always chose to ignore them if it is good old Chennai.

Next mission - place orders. Grab seats for four of us. Our orders were on predicted lines -some lip smacking garlic bread, some pizzas, a few cups of coke. What wasn't predictable however was our implementation of the S/S/V queuing model at this outlet too (If you are wondering what is it, it is - it is Stare / Stare / vacate). We were within the pizzeria looking for seats - nay, looking at others, as if requesting them to give us seats :-)

It was a full 20 minutes before the orders settled in. So what? We had everything under the sun to talk about - including the sun itself. Another five minutes - everything was almost gone. Time to quit eh? True - so, lets walk out...

The engrossing conversation and merry making amidst all the eating never let us realize that the brewing thunderstorm had broken out for the real in Chennai... Wow... we come out and decide to stand in the front of the shop - under a collapsible sunshade of sorts... (Dum dam dim dum dam.... ) Everyone got rattled and huddled together - each having feared the thunder but making me the obvious scapegoat and fixing an excuse on me - that I am the most scared of lightning and thunder, to move back into the secure premises of the shop.

Discussions continue - oh yeah, didn't I tell you that the next voting for the decision on the world economic crisis is supposed to be based on the discussion we had there? Never mind..! 

Rain stopped - or so we thought and stepped out. Dum Dim Dama dum... Aravind and I rush to the car... Saravanan and Nages started out in their motorbike despite the downpour that began once more. Ensconcing myself into the car seat and picking up the copy of The Hindu, which I had put out in the dashboard, I begin my conversation with Aravind.

"Ravi - romba mazha illa?", said Aravind.

"Amam da... naan intha news paper ah en shirt kulla pottuka poraen... innum rendu article padikala.."

"konjam over ah illa ungalukku?", said Aravind

"Irukalaam... but inikki thoonganumae... paper parkalena mudiyaadthu"

"Seri Ravi... parkalaam... you can get down here and walk quickly home?"

"Yes, I will do that... driving the vehicle in the heavy rain in all the interior roads is something I wouldn't prefer you doing as well..."

"Tata Ravi.."

"Tata.. thank you.."

Normally, I wouldn't mind myself getting drenched in the rain... matter of fact, I would LOVE it. But today was different... my only sole companion for the rest of the night - The Hindu shouldn't be getting drenched. I walk trying to challenge the speed of the lightning that struck the place before a few seconds. And lo behold - the drama unfolded - right in front of my house gate.

The gates  to my apartment were neatly locked up from the inside... With a heavy rain on the outside, a wall of steel about a 8 feet high staring in front of me and a switched off mobile from other dwellers in the unit - I had to make some quick choice... and I had to be real quick since some more time, my companion for the night would be wet and drenched, requiring to lie under the fan for drying - probably hours on end, before the printed letters become sharper and clearer like before.

So, what do I do now? Brave the rain with my companion neatly tucked into my shirt and challenge the roughly eight feet wall of steel to find my way to the portico of my apartment. That is, definitely, jumping into your own house like a thief, to make long things short :-)

Oh yeah, never mind... end of the day - (w)all is well that ends well, I thought to myself, quickly pulling out the newspaper from shirt and heading inside my house. Rest, as they say, is history..!

Ramble - II

Call it the bloggers block or online lock, whatever - one thing I knew that was happening was this -  I have literally kept my space on blogger rest in peace. Well, I wouldn't prefer taking the blame. I would rather talk about the fact that life was teaching me more lessons for a good part of the two years than before and hence it didn't allow me to be online for the most part.

***

"Brocheva vaare..." went the music on my phone, from the famous Shankarabaranam while exiting office along with my friends, in the lobby area. One of my friends promptly sprang up and said, "Hey Ravi, you know what? We have a similar song in Telugu". Even before he could come to terms with his excitement, the rest of the folks in the group stared at each other for a few minutes before bursting out aloud. Guess the initial verses from the song were good enough to make him even forget his own mother tongue - Telugu..!

***

More often that not, common sense seems to be the first casualty of formal education - or so did I understand when my friend and I were trying to fix the washing machine inlet for a little close until 2 AM in the morning on a fine friday night. While both of us might have been through the best of "engineering education" - theory pass, practical fail is what it all came to be..!! After a tough fight (no, I am not the one to give up so easily, even when I am wrong!), I realized that neither of us are getting anywhere closer to fixing the inlet proper and we were wasting quite a lot of water in the process. And what did we decide? My friend dropped out. Not the one to give up, I decide to hold the mouth of the pipe to the tap and finish off with washing my clothes before the crack of dawn. Exhausted, I slept for close until 10 AM into what should have been a nice saturday morning. Later during the day, deciding not to torture myself anymore with this exercise, I called up the plumber. And I was closely observing what he did, trying to find out what is that he is doing right that we were doing wrong. And lo behold, it was just a question of putting the washer in the right position..!! So much for observation..! Hope that I would fix it up the right way, should it break the next time around..! 

Later in the day, my friend asked me if I managed to fix the machine's inlet myself. I replied, "No, I called the plumber". With his ever optimistic smile, he proudly said, "Ravi, we should have probably videographed what we did and had it on youtube. We could have at least found a place in world's funniest videos"

***

Ramblings

***

Armed with my cellphone in hands-free mode, my wallet and office id cards, I leave home triumphantly - the first day I was scheduled to join back after a long period of resting on sick leave, towards the ice house bus terminus in Triplicane, Chennai.

Two years back, all the prime locations in the city, the roads, the bus routes - everything was literally at my fingertips. Not anymore! I enquired with a gentleman if a 25G that was leaving would goto Saidapet. He answered on the affirmative and I rushed to board the bus which stopped there for a few seconds. Thanks to the fact that I don't cross check things too much, I landed comfortably in the bus and announced that I need a ticket to Saidapet. The conductor shot back, "Board ah padichitu vandi era maatiya?" (Would you not read the board and then hop onto the bus?) Wow.. what a start to the day... but heck, who cares?! :-p

***

What is our higher GDP growth rate translating to? I wonder.. Not even one day seems to pass off without seeing the many people who are toiling from the wee hours in the morning until late after dusk, all for paltry daily wages that would do enough for getting them going with food - forget shelter and clothing. Are we missing something in this fast tracked industrialization in India? 

***

Why are we so unfair to the tropical summer??!! Isn't it supposed to be hot anyway?? When else would we get a better time to enjoy nimbu pani, delicious mangoes, juicy water melons and sweet lime? Not to mention the papads and the buttermilk..!!

***

Among the many good things that have happened to me is one, which entirely happened by accident, when I was choosing some music albums to be played during the reception of my sister's wedding. It is laying my hands on Rahul Sharma and Richard Clayderman combo... Wow. amazing and deadly they are.. not sure when I would get a privilege of listening live to them :-(

***

Irony, Rest

"Its like a rain on your wedding day... its a free ride when you have already paid" - Alanis Morisette.

Well... I don't get to experience the ironies of life so much really. Been really very fortunate to keep sailing and stay afloat without hitting an iceberg even when probably navigating myself directionless in the polar regions of the world. Then struck an experience which to be honest, I might probably keep looking back at and laughing out aloud..!

I am a big time car buff. Every other time, I used to keep renting cars and go out driving almost every weekend. Having toured all states in the northeast of the USA except Maine (that would be for the next visit, whenever that is!!), the last thing that I was expecting was a day to come when I would be buying my own car and drive it for less than a 100 miles in a span of 3 weeks time and give it off on grounds of taking more rest..!!

It was a good old manual Subaru Forrester. I cherished its "all-in-one" kind of a build. It was like the Egyptian Sphinx - It had the windows of a convertible (there was no frame), the look of a SUV and the ride of a car.

***

Some people talk of taking rest and doing nothing as the easiest thing. I would ever wonder if that is as simple as it sounds. It was a humbling experience I must admit, when I had to spend close to ten days just taking absolute rest - doing nothing, in a very literal sense! For me, the concept of rest has always been synonymous with probably lying down an reading a book or newspaper, listening to a song, taking a relaxed walk along the lanes in a park etc and never about doing nothing and just lying.

Plan A Plan B

The plan for Saturday was rather neat. Praveen would come over to my place and help me get my broken spectacles fixed (of course, by driving me to the optician..!) Then we would move onto check a car in one of the local dealerships. Then, per his plan, we would proceed to go for the movie - "ஆதவன்", the show timing being 06:50 PM.

My spectacles were fixed. It was lunch time. Lunch time also meant decision times - especially if you are out traveling. "Why not we check out the greek restaurant in Milford?", I suggested. Praveen obliged. We drove all the way up there, only to find that it operates only for dinners..! A complete bummer..! What neither of us realized is - we just started our day.. all is not over yet...!

We would then want to settle with checking out "Liquid Lunch" and "Sammiches". He settles for a Santa Fe and I for a vegetable lentil soup. This is probably the best decision that we could have ever made. The food tasted great. I couldn't leave without a ton of thank you note to the lady who recommended these dishes for us.

Next comes the car dealer part of the day. We land up in Beaconfalls, which looks like a one-road town to us. The keys were given to us and the good old Subaru Forrester was all us for a good 30 minutes. I felt there was more problem with the way I drove than any problem with the car itself. However, Praveen's keen sense of hearing did ensure he got hold of some noise while doing a full-right forward or a full-right reverse turn. He advised to check that with the dealer. The dealer drove the car with both of us. We could "hear the silence" of a pin being dropped..! "Issue not replicable / Root cause unknown", I thought to myself.

We drive along CT-8 North, I-84 East and then onto I-91 North before exiting on CT-178 West. That was a terrific drive, I must say. The fall colors were awesome. While crossing the city of Hartford, I call up my friend to ask if he can join us for the movie. He responded stating he is moving to another apartment but added, "I don't think the show that you guys are trying to go even exists for today"  Do I care to check? Definitely no. We had supposedly done our "research". I tell him, "you are missing this today!". And does my friend stand by what he said? No, he would have me go and get SIX tickets for tomorrow's show..!

We land up in "Bloomfield Cinema 8" to find that the show was on yesterday night and it would come only by next Thursday. Wow..! Another bummer for the day. Oh - but we didn't target the movie, did we? We were out to see the fall colors in the "All American Valley" region and along I-84/I-91. That was supposed to be our initial plan anyways. We are always good at the art of consoling ourselves for something we didn't get.

The next question - where do we go from here. I suggested we eat out and go to the temple in Middletown. Praveen suggested it would be very odd thing to do, coupled with the fact that it isn't too late for dinner yet.  So, temple first - eat next. The spiritually inclined Praveen and Ravi, for God's sake, land up in the temple during Diwali day..! They are now surely good boys in the books of the elderly. They goto temple without fail, keep up traditions and values even when they are far removed from their hometowns ;-) :-) Well.. it wasn't all that bad.. the only thing is - we couldn't make it in a little earlier to grab that nice "rava kesari" at the temple.