Weekend Getaway...

I had written in one of my earlier posts about the thrill that one gets in being the creature of the moment..not being shackled by routines and flying on the wings of your fancy...well...after a long time...I did something like that...

It was just another Friday evening with another potentially boring weekend in sight. We were munching down on our so called "Special" Friday snacks. Conversation was going on about something or the other till someone mentioned the word Pondycherry. I don't know whether it was sheer abandon or the craving to leave everything behind that prompted me to ask whether we were up for a weekend visit to Pondy. A phone call was made and the decision was taken...we were going to Pondycherry for the weekend.Planning to decision in under 2 minutes. Now that's what I call dynamic decision making. We didn't know anything about Pondy. Where to stay, what all to see...everything were just question marks. But there were no second thoughts...

Nearly by Friday midnight, we caught a bus to Pondy from Koyambedu Bus stand. After trying in vain to sleep on the bus, three sleepy headed young men disembarked at the Pondycherry bus stand at around 3.30 in the morning. The plan to go see the sunrise was pushed back to the next day in favour of grabbing some shut eye. We found a hotel room which was just big enough to hold a double bed and was charged at 300 bucks per night. The operative words for us being "double bed". We were asleep within no time and got up at around 9.30.

Plans were discussed over breakfast. Where to go? First idea was to visit Auroville- The universal village. But as Her excellency The President of India chose the same day to visit Auroville, we had to postpone our plans to the next day. Then from among the other places to see, a place called Raj Niwas looked good. It was where the French Governer used to stay. We caught an auto and he took us promptly to Yatri Niwas, which is a government guest house. On further discussion with the auto driver, we came to know that noone recognizes the name Raj Niwas. That building is called Governer House. (Lesson Learnt: Don't trust the info on the net to be be all and end all).

We asked some of the locals as to what all we could see around that area. The prominent sights were the Aurobindo Ashram, Vinayakar temple, park etc. The catch was that entry to most of the places like the Park, beach etc would be open only from 2 PM. We visited the Aurobindo Ashram and the Vinayakar Temple.

It was still 11.30 only when we finished these places and we were at a loss as to what to do next. We wandered around, trying to get more information about any other places worth seeing. Finally we decided to rent some bicycles and continue our expedition on wheels. So after lunch, put this plan into action. First pit stop was the botanical garden. Next was the war memorial on the beach and after a 15 min nap on the beach, it was time to check out the rest of the sights. 2 churches (Sacred Hearts Cathedral and church of our lady of immaculate conception) were visited and we had to search a bit for the Joan of Arc square (Those who don't know who this lady is, check her story out on wikipedia. It's worth knowing) which finally turned out to be just in front of one of the churches. After paying our respects to St.Joan, it was time to call it a day and chart out the course for the next day.

First action item of the day. Watch Sunrise at the beach. Result: Failure. Reason: Heavy Mist.

We just walked along the beach for some time and returned to the hotel. We checked out from the hotel and started to our next destination- Auroville. Auroville is a universal village where people of any nationality can come and stay. It's a nice concept. First shock of the day- Autofare to Auroville Rs. 150. Second shock of the day: There is no transportation to return from Auroville which is 8km from the main road. We had to ask the Auto driver to wait for us and he charged us Rs. 100 extra for the return trip to Auro beach.

Auroville is pretty good place. Very calm and quiet and a really nice place if you want to retreat from the helter skelter of the daily life. The whole Auroville township is in the shape of a spiral galaxy. At the centre, we have a structure called the Matrumandir.

It's a quite awe inspiring structure. We spent about 1.5 hrs in Auroville and had our lunch and proceeded to Auro Beach. There I found a starfish.

We had a fun time cavorting in the sea and soon it was time to head home. It was a really fun 2 days. We had been planning to visit pondycherry for the past 6-8 months. I would have never thought that it would come to fruition in such a way.

A Homecoming...

You know how it feels when you have travelled the whole world and finally return back home? Well that's how I felt when I started my Malayalam blog. I did'nt want to have the malayalam posts in this blog because this blog has readers for whom malayalam, greek, latin etc fall under the same category. So any malayalees who happen to come across this blog, check out my brand new malayalam blog at www.kathiyadi.blogspot.com. Lots more to come there....and here too...so keep checking this space...and the other one too...

Aping the West...Way to go....

Date: April 2oth 1999

Place: Columbine High School, Jefferson County, Colorado

Two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, embarked on a shooting rampage, killing 12 students and a teacher, as well as wounding 23 others, before committing suicide. It is the fourth-deadliest school killing in United States history.

Date: December 11th 2007

Place: Euro International School, Gurgaon, Haryana

A 14 year old Student, Abhishek Tyagi was shot dead by his classmates. He was shot 5 times including one on his temple and two on his chest from close range.

Well...overall it seems like we are about 8 years behind the western civilization. Whom do we blame for this? For the blaming game on the former incident, watch Micheal Moore's "Bowling for Columbine". He blames everyone (and most of them rightly so) from Lockheed and Martin to Kmart for what happened in the Columbine High School.

A bit more details on the incident in our own backyard. The 2 murderers (Yeah I know they are minors. But what they did was murder. So don't expect me to take their age into account) are sons of a prominent real estate developer. They had a fight with the dead boy. They are in the eighth standard. Who has not fought with their classmates in eighth standard? Now it gets interesting...Their father had a licensed revolver which that dumb witted idiotic son of a bitch used to leave on,of all the places, the TV Trolley and that too with live ammunition. The kids having enough exposure to our Prime time television to know what a gun does and how to pull the trigger, saw an easy way to settle the fight. They smuggled the revolver into the school by hiding it in their socks. Remember how cool the hero looks when he pulls out a pistol out of his ankle holster? No wonder they wanted to do it too. Then they hid the pistol in the bath room and waited for the school to end. Once the school left, they got the gun out and it was bang bang time. The first boy shot the victim 4 times and handed the gun to his brother who shot him once more for good measure.

What really shocked me was all the planning that went into the act. Sure we have settled fights when we were kids. We have gone to the extent of letting the air out of our antagonist's cycle tire. But the cyber age kids are a really different breed I guess. Having grown up on a healthy diet of violent television and FPS(first person shooter) video games, pulling a trigger didnt seem like a big deal to them. Eighth standard is not a time when you have full grasp of the concept of life and death. For all I know, they thought that if they shot him enough times, he would turn to dust like the enemies do in their video games. But still, the thought that went into the action was apalling.

So tell me, whom do we blame? Do we blame the kids? I don't know. I am not able to even grasp at their mind set when they thought of doing such a thing. Do we blame the school for not keeping a closer eye on their students? Well who would ever have thought of finding a gun in an eighth standard student's bag? The worst they could have imagined would have been an issue of debonair/chastity or a pack of cigarettes. But a gun? No way. There is one person whom I can blame without a shadow of doubt. The moron of a father that these kids have. You have 2 kids studying in 8th standard who have just begun experiencing life and are willing to try anything. You have a loaded gun. Leave it on the TV trolley where the kids watch their television every day. Good call Stupid. Guns and 8th standard kids don't mix well together.

This post might seem a little different than my usual posts. That is because this was a venting out of rage or frustration whatever you would like to call it. I somehow cannot digest the fact that two kids planned to this extent to take the life of their classmate. I really feel sorry for all the parents. What assurance do they have that their kids are safe at school? The world is getting less safer by the minute. In another 5-6 years, when I would want to have kids of my own, will I be brave enough?

Mangalore Madrigal....

A pleasantly cold night......An open terrace.....Stars above and friends with you....chatting the night out....THE best way to spend a saturday night if you ask me. This is exactly what I did last saturday night.

After our fantabulously succesful Tada trip, our plans for other trips were dying an early death. We planned several trips only to have them postponed indefenitely due to some reason or the other. That is why this Mangalore trip deserves a special mention. The plan was born on Nov 19th and by Nov 30th, we were on our way. Planning to conceivement in 11 days....

When the idea was born, it was a company of three which had decided to go to Mangalore on a weekend to meet a friend and visit the much-heard-about St.Mary's Island. When it finally happened, it was a gang of 8 travelling to Mangalore with 3 more people to join from there. Don't you love it when things work out in a really big way?

We started from Chennai on Nov 30th at 5 PM. Had lotsa fun during the trip including a hilarious round of Dumbcharades.....We reached Mangalore at around 9.30 in the morning and after a quick round of freshening up, were on our way to St.Mary's Island.

Legend has it that Vasco da Gama had landed on this island in 1498 on his way to India. He was the one who named it 'El Padron de Santa Maria'. A unique feature of this Island is the hexagonal volcanic rock formations on one side.

Warning: Trying to climb those rocks...however low they may seem can be dangerous for your leg. You may have to wear a crepe bandage and buy a new pair of sandals to suit your swollen feet.

On the other part of the island, the beach is made solely of shells....with enough patience and time, you can collect all sorts of rare specimens there.

As they say in Titanic, we were "Unable to stay, unwilling to leave" from this piece of paradise. But the call of the boatmen had to be heeded to. Back we went to the other side.

Seeing how this weekend was turning so much differently from our usual ones, we decided to take it a step further. Have dessert and then the main course dinner. This took us to Pabbas ice cream parlour where the injured members of our raiding party were taken care of. Once the hurt were safely taken to shelter, off we went into the night of Mangalore to hunt....for a place to eat...about a 2km walk at night...was a lovely experience.

This was when the plans for the next day were made. Majority said Bakel fort and being a democracy, the voice of majority was to be upheld. So the where was resolved. Now came the how and the when. This brought about some interesting results which led to our night out on the terrace.

Bakel for could not withstand an assault from us the next day morning and it fell. We underlined our victory with a re shooting of the famous song from the movie "Bombay".

All in all it was a really memorable trip. There is just one regret when I look back on the whole thing...Try as we might, we couldnt get the sun to rise in the west.... But then that is another story for maybe another time.....