I served air force from 5th april 1965 to 30 th august 1989, nearly 24 and half years. i left M. Tech studies in Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore to join military. My father was ispiration for me to join air force. He was a freedom fighter. During Quit India moment , he was imprisoned. He was president of Andhra students congress, a student wing of Indian National Congress.
I do not remember when i started admiring Adolf Hitler, but it was at an young age of 10 years or so. Those days, in schools, Auxillary Cadet Corps ( ACC) was introduced, while in colleges, National Cadet Corps (NCC) was introduced. I am talking about 1956. my father, who was also my head master, enrolled me as the first candidate in ACC in our high school. Till trained instructors were available, he used to teach us the military drill and conduct our parades. Those days , the words of commands used to be in English. Like, '' ATTENTION, STAND AT EASE, STAND EASY, '' etc. Subsequently, while I was in engineering college, I was in NCC. Thus, for me wearing uniform of a force started at an young age. Discipline , punctuality, hard work, integrity became second nature to me.
Apart from these factors, the real impetus for joining military came during 1962 China war. Every young man"s blood boiled those days due to the thrashing we recieved by Chinese.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Sardar vallabhbhai patel
Sardar vallabhbhai patel
Maker of post independent India
By : Wg Cdr CG Krishna (Retd)
1. Sardar Patel, as he is widely known, Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel, was born in a peasant’s family in Karamsad in Gujarat on 31 Oct 1875. Unlike many stalwarts and freedom fighters on his age, he had to struggle to get his education and subsequently to become a Vakil. It is sheer through his hard work he made a mark as a successful Vakil. He lost his wife early in his life; at the age of 32. for his two young and small children: Dayabhai and Maniben; he became their mother. He refused to marry again. He not only took care of his two young children, he also took care of his elder brothers family: family of Vithalbhai Patel. He started his Vakil profession from Godhra.
2. After earning sufficient money, he wished to go to England to become a barrister. When the time came up, his elder brother expressed his desire to go to England for legal studies. Vallabhbhai immediately came to the help of his elder brother, Vithalbhai. He not only funded his brothers studies in England but also took care of his elder brothers family during this period. Such was the sacrifice and selflessness!
3. Later, after some more years, he saved enough to make his trip to England to become a barrister. As his funds were just bare minimum, he lived a very frugal life. He used to walk 12 miles to his college from his room daily. He used to save some money and send it home for his children’s brothers requirement. He completed his law and returned to India as barrister. He set up law practice in Ahmedabad.
4. He came in contact with some leading congress leaders during 1910-1915. He was influenced by Tilak. Gandhiji’s non-cooperation movement brought him totally into political field. He successfully launched no-tax campaign in Bardoli. This satyagraha brought him into national live light. He earned the title of ‘Sardas’ from Mahatma Gandhi. His devotion to Gandhiji was total. Due to this, he obeyed Mahatma implicitly and could not contest for congress president ship twice, though he was senior and he proved his mettle as a leader of masses and mass movements. He was more wronged then he wronged.
5. Sardar Patel was a man of few words. He was a believer in action then words. His English was simple, brief and has clarity. He was a simple, unostentatious person with frugal habits. He was magnanimous and enemies also. He was a no-nonsense man and used to call a spade a spade. Due to this, he made many enemies in congress and outside. He was brutally frank in expressing his views and dissent. But once he accepted a position, he used to whole heartedly work in achieving the objective.
6. Gandhiji chose Jawaharlal Nehru as his political successor instead of Sardar Patel This cluld be due to the fact that Nehru was younger by 14 years and he was internationally known. So, when India attained independence, Nehru became Prime Minister and Sardar Patel his deputy. Such historic wrong proved very costly to India!
7. Soon after partition and refugee problem, Pakistan attacked J and K in 1948. It was Sardar Patel who took a decision to send Indian troops to arrest the on sleuth of Pakistani army and tribal. Infect it was Sardar Patel, who with the able assistance of his Secretary Shri VP Menon, convinced Maharaja Hari Singh, Maharaja of J&K, to go for accession with India. The Indian Air Force and Civil Aircrafts of India carried Indian soldiers from Palam to Shri Nagar continuously on a marathon, non-stop basis for days together. This enabled our army to attack and repulse tribals and Pakistani army from Srinagar and go after them further. Meanwhile, Pakistan raised a hue and cry and approached UNO for ceasefire, as it already occupied nearly half of J&K. Nehru, agreed to take up the issued with UNO and halted our army’s advance, much against the advice of Sardar Patel. Had Nehru not intervened and had Sardar Patel his say; in another two weeks, Pakistan army would have been driven out of whole J&K. Alas! It was not to be!! For such folly of Nehru, we have been paying the price in terms of money and men in J&K !!!
8. When Britishers left India on 14 Aug 1947, they left nearly 360 princely states; some as big as France and some as tiny as 8,000 population with a choice of joining India or Pakistan or remain Independent! This divide and rule policy left India with indepence of only 60% of its area and population free and remaining 40% people and land distributed all over like Pockmarks with Kings, Nawabs and Zamindars acting as they feel like!! If these princely states were not to be amalgamated in India. Sardar Patel realized this much earlier and decided that these princely states must become part of independent India, if India were to survive as a Nation!!
9. Sardar patel was 73 years old and his health was fragile due to frequent imprisonments during British rule. He already had an attack (heart attack). Inspite of his precarious health, he swing into action of convincing the rules of 360 odd princely states to accede to India. In this Herculean task, he was ably assisted by VP Menon, ICS, Secretary to the Deputy P.M. Both of them worked incessantly; sometimes cajoling, sometimes appealing and some times even threatening the Rajas and Nwabs to accede to India, as all of them were contiguous to India geographically, except J&K. It took one year of strenuous and hard work to yield results. Rajas of states like Mysore, Bikaner, Udaipur, Baroda etc were patriotic and they acceded to India. But there were Nawabs like Bhopal, Hyderabad and Junagadh wo did not want to accede to India. Sardar Patel managed nawab of Bhopal to accede to India. Nizam of Hyderabad toyed with the idea of joining Pakistan or remaining independent. Same was the case with nawab of Junagadh. It was Sardar Patel, who forced Nehru to send Army into Hyderabad state to annex it. He sent central police to Junagadh and made the Nawab fled to Pakistan. Thus, Sardar Patel gave his life, literally, to make India as one entity. Due to these strenuous and hectic months, his health deteriorated very badly. He became a sick man and had a second attack in 1950.
10. Maniben Patel, the daughter of Sardar Patel, did not marry and remained a spinster to serve her widowed father. She tended her father, as he was precious to the nation. During his convalescence, Sardar Patel wrote many letters to Chief Ministers and political friends. Most of these letters dealt with as to how India should get over the teething troubles and become strong! Such was his devotion to his mothers land!! During this period, he worte a lengthy letter to Nehru on China’s attitude towards Tibet and India. This letter was a prophecy as to what would happen in 1962, when China attacked India brutally. During 1940’s and 1950’s Nehru and his fellow socialists used to sing songs in praise of China and friendship of both countries. “Hindi-chinee bhai-bhai” was the slogan coined by Nehru. Sardar Patel’s last letter to Nehru warned him about the folly he was committing; to be friend China, at the cost of Tibet and Indian security. Patel wanted Nehru to take steps to strengthen our borders, our Armed forces and face China squarely!! Nehru did nothing on this letter, written by his colleague, a patriot, an old man in deathbed !!! India paid the prize in Oct 1962 heavily for such negligence by Nehru on Sardar Patel’s last letter.
11. Sardas Patel breathed his last on 15 Dec 1950. Till his last breath, he was working and thinking towards making India strong! He gave his life towards achieving this!! He was a true BHARAT RATNA of par Excellence!. Many of us do not remember him. But his services to Bharat and its people are ever shining, like the pole star.
Maker of post independent India
By : Wg Cdr CG Krishna (Retd)
1. Sardar Patel, as he is widely known, Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel, was born in a peasant’s family in Karamsad in Gujarat on 31 Oct 1875. Unlike many stalwarts and freedom fighters on his age, he had to struggle to get his education and subsequently to become a Vakil. It is sheer through his hard work he made a mark as a successful Vakil. He lost his wife early in his life; at the age of 32. for his two young and small children: Dayabhai and Maniben; he became their mother. He refused to marry again. He not only took care of his two young children, he also took care of his elder brothers family: family of Vithalbhai Patel. He started his Vakil profession from Godhra.
2. After earning sufficient money, he wished to go to England to become a barrister. When the time came up, his elder brother expressed his desire to go to England for legal studies. Vallabhbhai immediately came to the help of his elder brother, Vithalbhai. He not only funded his brothers studies in England but also took care of his elder brothers family during this period. Such was the sacrifice and selflessness!
3. Later, after some more years, he saved enough to make his trip to England to become a barrister. As his funds were just bare minimum, he lived a very frugal life. He used to walk 12 miles to his college from his room daily. He used to save some money and send it home for his children’s brothers requirement. He completed his law and returned to India as barrister. He set up law practice in Ahmedabad.
4. He came in contact with some leading congress leaders during 1910-1915. He was influenced by Tilak. Gandhiji’s non-cooperation movement brought him totally into political field. He successfully launched no-tax campaign in Bardoli. This satyagraha brought him into national live light. He earned the title of ‘Sardas’ from Mahatma Gandhi. His devotion to Gandhiji was total. Due to this, he obeyed Mahatma implicitly and could not contest for congress president ship twice, though he was senior and he proved his mettle as a leader of masses and mass movements. He was more wronged then he wronged.
5. Sardar Patel was a man of few words. He was a believer in action then words. His English was simple, brief and has clarity. He was a simple, unostentatious person with frugal habits. He was magnanimous and enemies also. He was a no-nonsense man and used to call a spade a spade. Due to this, he made many enemies in congress and outside. He was brutally frank in expressing his views and dissent. But once he accepted a position, he used to whole heartedly work in achieving the objective.
6. Gandhiji chose Jawaharlal Nehru as his political successor instead of Sardar Patel This cluld be due to the fact that Nehru was younger by 14 years and he was internationally known. So, when India attained independence, Nehru became Prime Minister and Sardar Patel his deputy. Such historic wrong proved very costly to India!
7. Soon after partition and refugee problem, Pakistan attacked J and K in 1948. It was Sardar Patel who took a decision to send Indian troops to arrest the on sleuth of Pakistani army and tribal. Infect it was Sardar Patel, who with the able assistance of his Secretary Shri VP Menon, convinced Maharaja Hari Singh, Maharaja of J&K, to go for accession with India. The Indian Air Force and Civil Aircrafts of India carried Indian soldiers from Palam to Shri Nagar continuously on a marathon, non-stop basis for days together. This enabled our army to attack and repulse tribals and Pakistani army from Srinagar and go after them further. Meanwhile, Pakistan raised a hue and cry and approached UNO for ceasefire, as it already occupied nearly half of J&K. Nehru, agreed to take up the issued with UNO and halted our army’s advance, much against the advice of Sardar Patel. Had Nehru not intervened and had Sardar Patel his say; in another two weeks, Pakistan army would have been driven out of whole J&K. Alas! It was not to be!! For such folly of Nehru, we have been paying the price in terms of money and men in J&K !!!
8. When Britishers left India on 14 Aug 1947, they left nearly 360 princely states; some as big as France and some as tiny as 8,000 population with a choice of joining India or Pakistan or remain Independent! This divide and rule policy left India with indepence of only 60% of its area and population free and remaining 40% people and land distributed all over like Pockmarks with Kings, Nawabs and Zamindars acting as they feel like!! If these princely states were not to be amalgamated in India. Sardar Patel realized this much earlier and decided that these princely states must become part of independent India, if India were to survive as a Nation!!
9. Sardar patel was 73 years old and his health was fragile due to frequent imprisonments during British rule. He already had an attack (heart attack). Inspite of his precarious health, he swing into action of convincing the rules of 360 odd princely states to accede to India. In this Herculean task, he was ably assisted by VP Menon, ICS, Secretary to the Deputy P.M. Both of them worked incessantly; sometimes cajoling, sometimes appealing and some times even threatening the Rajas and Nwabs to accede to India, as all of them were contiguous to India geographically, except J&K. It took one year of strenuous and hard work to yield results. Rajas of states like Mysore, Bikaner, Udaipur, Baroda etc were patriotic and they acceded to India. But there were Nawabs like Bhopal, Hyderabad and Junagadh wo did not want to accede to India. Sardar Patel managed nawab of Bhopal to accede to India. Nizam of Hyderabad toyed with the idea of joining Pakistan or remaining independent. Same was the case with nawab of Junagadh. It was Sardar Patel, who forced Nehru to send Army into Hyderabad state to annex it. He sent central police to Junagadh and made the Nawab fled to Pakistan. Thus, Sardar Patel gave his life, literally, to make India as one entity. Due to these strenuous and hectic months, his health deteriorated very badly. He became a sick man and had a second attack in 1950.
10. Maniben Patel, the daughter of Sardar Patel, did not marry and remained a spinster to serve her widowed father. She tended her father, as he was precious to the nation. During his convalescence, Sardar Patel wrote many letters to Chief Ministers and political friends. Most of these letters dealt with as to how India should get over the teething troubles and become strong! Such was his devotion to his mothers land!! During this period, he worte a lengthy letter to Nehru on China’s attitude towards Tibet and India. This letter was a prophecy as to what would happen in 1962, when China attacked India brutally. During 1940’s and 1950’s Nehru and his fellow socialists used to sing songs in praise of China and friendship of both countries. “Hindi-chinee bhai-bhai” was the slogan coined by Nehru. Sardar Patel’s last letter to Nehru warned him about the folly he was committing; to be friend China, at the cost of Tibet and Indian security. Patel wanted Nehru to take steps to strengthen our borders, our Armed forces and face China squarely!! Nehru did nothing on this letter, written by his colleague, a patriot, an old man in deathbed !!! India paid the prize in Oct 1962 heavily for such negligence by Nehru on Sardar Patel’s last letter.
11. Sardas Patel breathed his last on 15 Dec 1950. Till his last breath, he was working and thinking towards making India strong! He gave his life towards achieving this!! He was a true BHARAT RATNA of par Excellence!. Many of us do not remember him. But his services to Bharat and its people are ever shining, like the pole star.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
usa trip
26 May
We started at home by 1630 hrs and reached airport at 1700 hrs. Immediately, I booked my baggage, said bye bye to Radha & Puja. I went inside at 1730 hrs and got immigration check done at that counter; then the custom clearance. I went into security check at 1930 hrs.
Purchased, for kavi stardust, woman’s era, India Today & Arthur Haily’s Money Exchangers..
Dubai flight took off at 9 pm (I ST )
Reached Dubai 10 PM (local time)
Took Amsterdam flight at 1 am midnight( local time)
Reached Amsterdam at 6 am (local time)
Dubai airport is beautiful and most modern; most of the airport staff are Indians.
27th May 2004
KLM started desceding to land at Dulles International airport at 1350 hrs. I could see Washington DC from about 3000ft for about 4 minutes, as the pilot made a circuit & landing.
Customs clearance was fast. finger printing of index fingers of both hands and photos of straight face and right side were taken. Luggage came all together after a wait of 20 minutes. No checking of luggage was done by customs !! amazing .
Nalin and Kavita were waiting for me. It was a nice feeling to see them in Washington DC! It was about 1430 hrs (local time) We came home by 1515 hrs. after talking for about an hour, I took bath. By 1630 hrs, I was feeling so sleepy (jetlag). with lot of difficulty, I held on till 1830 hrs. I then had dinner and slept before 7 pm. Except for going to toilet at midnight, I slept till 7 am next day; it was a solid 12 hrs of sleep. What a fatigue ! I know now what is jet lag! I had a light nagging left side head ache.I applied zandu Balm.
28th May 2004
Sudhakar and Kalyan rang up, Krishnakumari akkayya rang up, Laxmi and Vadinagaru rang up from Las Angeles. Chinni also rang up. In the evening, he came with his parents. He presented me with Chivas Regal (18) !! Wow !!! Nice to meet him and his parents. In the night Neelini and shyam dropped in to see me. The feeling that I am in USA is slowly sinking in !.
In the morning kavitha took me to a walk to a store behind their house. In the evening they took me to a giant dept store…., What a big store it is!! It was a window shopping trip. Had two pegs of Chivas Regal along with Nalin. Slept at 10 PM.Had good sleep.
Jet log disappeared totally with tonight’s sleep
One thing I noticed in DC sun sets only after 8 pm and afternoon sun is pier imply hot, as if skin is pierced by needles.
29th May 2004
At 7 am in the morning, Nalin took me to the Potomac river and park! it was fantastic!! Pristine wild life like forest and ambience. Excellent spot to spend time!! We came back at 10 am to home.
Today is a memorable day in my life! I was lucky to see and meet WWII veterns on this day of dedication of WWII monument in Washington DC to the nation by president George W Bush. President Clinton was also present. Nalin and I went by metro to this function at 12 afternoon. The function started at 2 pm. Long speeches by all those who are responsible for making this monument to come up. Tom Hanks was also one of them and he was there too!! It was a memorable occasion. I could see WWII veterans, aged between 79 to 95 years; some walking with difficulty; some with support of others and some being taken on wheel chairs. All of them were wearing full medals, rank insignias, caps with regimental emblems etc. It was a dream come true! How they fought in Atlantic, Europe and pacific!! I met few of them and took photos with them.ultimately, with president Bush speech, the function was over. A 4 aircraft formation fly past was the grand finale. We started back at 1545 hrs and reached home by 1630 hr.
30th May 2004
Got up late at 0900 hrs. I had b’fast at 1030 am. we started for Getty sberg. Kavi also came. It was a 2 hrs drive. We reached Military National park main centre (which is 1 mile short of town) at 1300 hrs. It took two hours to see the museum, which is of two stories. At 1500 hrs we walked down to main highway and had lunch at Mc Donald’s. We came back by 1530 hrs, in time for an electric lamp show of Gettysburg battle (on 1,2, and 3 July 1863). It was of half an hour duration. It was good. It could have been better. We started going round the open field with monuments showing the posititions of union and confederate armies. What a vast field and lovely monuments! The meadows were sprawling and so flush green !! Probably we walked 4 to 5 miles. My bones in legs were aching badly. Even kavi was exhausted. We could only see half of the monuments. I made a mistake in wearing the newly purchased heavy shoes. The long walk with these heavy shoes added to my misery. We reached the place where president Abraham Lincon gave his famous Gettysburg speech on 19th oct 1863. It was a satisfying moment fore me, as I wanted to see this since 1969!.
We started back at 1915 hrs and reached home at 2100 hrs and had dinner and slept at 10 pm. My body was aching because of long walk.
31st May 2004
.I got up at 7 am. Nalin made tea. Weather is inclement. So, Baltimore programme is postponed, Kavi made upma for b’fast, we had it at 0930 and packed some for my lunch . At 1020, Nalim dropped me at Metro by purchasing ticket. On my own, I went by Metro to Smithsonian National Museum. It was drizzling.
The Museum is in 3 stories, each storie with 3 wings; east,west and north. It depicts USA history is settlements from 1700 AD. The Black’s history was well shown and same is the case of Pueblos of New Mexico. The gallery of First ladies was imressive. The film shown here is really good. I finished seeing museum at 1430 hrs. I could have spent an hour more seeing more in detail, but due to yesterday’s long walk, my legs were paining.
I came out and had packed upma outside along the mall on a bench. It was raining. I reached home by Metro at 1530 hrs. we had early dinner. Kavi made Dondakaya Koora and Mudda Pappu. We went to Borders (book store).what a book store ! I purchased WWII pictorial book and civil war book. we came home by 10 pm and slept at 1030 pm.
1st June 2004
Today is a rest day. It has been very hectic. Had tasty break fast and lunch. Slept in the morning from 10am to 12 in the noon. Called Radha to wish her on her birthday. Pujita and Ashwin were also at home. They were going to Vidyanagar for a party arranged by her sister.
In the afternoon, all of us slept. Kavi went for vegetables at 4 pm. She came back at 6 PM.we all went to temple. It is an excellent Lord Shiva and Vishnu temple with all deities in clean and serene environment. On the way, kavi got dropped at Mrs Padma’s place. Then IKEA was about to close, so, came to another great book store, via Bethesda. Here Nalin stayed for 5 years before moving into Rockville. Very good ambience. Kavi wants to have a house there. Good neighbourhood.Bethesda downtown is good. Kavita showed me cinema halls and metro station of Bethesda. Tomorrow I can come on my own to see a movie here.
In the morning Nalin took me to FEDEX, US post office and a cloth store to purchase my underwear’s. I have seen a 3 tier (store) parking lot, as one sees in Hollywood movies. WOW!! We also went to a Big stationary shop. It was fabulous !
Came home by 10 pm, had dinner at 11 pm and had a small walk with Nalin. Slept by 1140 pm
2nd June 2004.
Today, I went on my own to see foreign movies in Bethesda Cinema complex. I took Metro and got down at Bethesda. To come out, it is a steep and high escalator. walked to cinema complex (10 mts)
purchased ticket for “Fal, Spring, Winter, Summer, Fall” which is a Korean movie. The ticket was$5.50. This is a mini theatre, with max 150 people capacity. It was 2 pm show. We were only 9 persons seeing the movie. It was a movie par excellence; in theme, photography presentation exquisite !! The movie was over at 1610 hrs. The next movie (French) “After Otter Left” starts at 1645 pm. so I went to bookstore next and spent time till 1640 pm. Then went to cinema complex and purchased ticket ($ 7) and saw this French Movie. We were only 10 people. I had coffee in the cafeteria,paid $ 2.50. This is also a good movie. The 90 years actress acted very well. How much we miss such classical movies in India? I would say that some of our regional movies in Bengali, Assameese, Malayalam may be of such standard and we in India do not have opportunity to see such fine movies !! It is ironical.
3rd June 2004
Nalin took me to IKEA furniture shop in the evening. What a shop it is ! Different settings of Drg Rooms, Bed rooms and Kitchens with layouts, each looking better than the other!!. Interior design, layout and decorations sounded some meaning to me. He purchased a clock for his room.
4th June 2004
Today Kavita and I went to National Institute of Health (NIH) in Medical Centre. From metro, it is so close. We went by metro from Grosvoner station at 0930 hrs. We were taken inside by Dr Vijayanti Gupta, an young girl, who was doing post doctoral research there. She patiently showed us important places and her place of work. She offered us coffee in her canteen. We noticed that two good lecture programmes on 9.6.04 and 16.6.04. I told her that I would like to attend them, both with noble laureates presiding. She welcomed my suggestion.
After the trip to National Institute of Health ( N I H ) in the morning, . kavi , Nalin and I went to woodlands hotel for lunch. It was buffet and I had good Indian food; idlis, Dosa, Rice Bagara Baigan and sambar. We also went to a neighbouring shop (dollar tree) where things are for one dollar or maximum 3$. We purchased a few items
In the evening Nalin and I went at 7pm to university of Maryland. In the physics dept (of which an Indian Dr is head. A talk was given by Dr Rajendra Singh and importance of water and its harvesting in India. He,along with the NGO….. had done yoeman service in Rajastan wrt bringng water to 5 districts by water harvesting. The talk was good. Dr Vijayanti Gupta came in the fag end.
Kavita went to pottery class. She made Lord Ganesha. It was very good. We were invited by Neelima and Shyam for dinner in their house. It was a pleasant evening. We came home at 1130 pm and slept.
5th June 2004
We drove to Raeding town airport, where mid west air museum is located. It was nearly four hours drive Via Baltimore, York and Lancashire. weather was totally inclement. It was raining and chilly. We reached the place at 1310 hrs. It was occasion of 60 yrs world war II. The theme was display of aircraft and ambience with people dressed accordingly. As we entered, one Liberator a/c was landing. What a preparation without any flaw! “Enola Gay”,the B-29 Bomber which dropped Atomic bomb on Hiroshima was there and the navigator,a Dutch was also there!! I could not believe it. Mustang, Spitfire, Lancaster a/c were also there. Also the work horse, B-45 of Berlin airlift was also there. There was the mock battle of US Army and German Army. Since the weather was very chilly and raining, we started back at 1500 hrs this time via Gettysburg. Nalin took 12 photos of mine against different back drops. Some of them with the participants. It is an excellent opportunity and dream come true for me.
On the way to home, we went to Black buster (video shop) and brought two video tapes. I purchase bread from Giant shop .
06.06.04 Sunday
I watched two video movies No mains land (French Movie) and Whale rider (newzeland movie). Both won Oscar awards and both are very good movies
In the afternoon I and Nalim went to Poww American fair. The drive was one hour. The show was good. Had achance to see the Red Indians and their dance.
In the morning, we all above to mount Vernon, where #George Washington lived! On the way, we saw old Alexandra town, Reagon Airport and river Potomac (very wide like sea). In the afternoon went to POWWOW, a native Indian event it was a very good programme
7th June 2004
I started at home after breakfast at 10 am by Metro to Mall to see Museums. First I went to the fort like looking Smithsonian Information Centre. spent an hour there and from there walked (near capitol hill ) to Air and Aerospace Museum. What information ! mind boggling!! It requires at least 3 days to see and assimilate. At 3 pm I saw a 45 minutes documentary on Helicopters in I-max theatre there. Had Bun sandwich in Mc Donald cafeteria. In the museum, each section has its own 10 minute films and at different places, the computer speaks with visuals. Everything is full of details. V-2 rocket, perishing II ICBM, Lunar Module. Apollo-11 to 17, Venus, Mars Vehicle…. There is no end!!
In the evening, we all went to Mrs Tulika’s house. Met her husband. Amber and his parents. His son is cute (4 months old). Arjun, Tulika has a WW II Battle of Britain, Veteran as neighbour. She said she would fix a rendezvous with him for me! What an opportunity.
8th June 2004
We talked to Radha at 8am local time (5 pm ist). since it was not card call, I talked to her briefly. I heard cupid barking and siren of water tanker. No eventful news from either side.
Nalin was busy with his office work. He said he did not sleep last night. We had early lunch at 1300 hrs and left to Baltimore. We had tickets for aquarium. When I saw Baltimore from highway road, it looked like USA city with harbour and ships and high rise buildings.
What an aquarium! Mind Boggling!! we were lucky to watch a live show with Dolphins. What wonderful and intelligent creatures are these? They imitate and do what the trainers tell them to do. Incredible!! Rest of the marine species and Tropical rain forest… oh! Impossible to describe in words!!!
We had beer in style like in Hollywood movies on the sea shore in a restaurant waw!. Then we went to Elliot town, (on the way to Washington) to Mrs Suryas house (husband Vijay) for dinner. Both are nice and informal couple. She is from Alwal (Malayalee). The dinner was very good.
We came home by 1015 pm .
9th June 2004
At 1215 hrs I went to Natural Institutes of Health (NIH) where I attended lectures by 3 eminent scientists who got awards from GM foundation. Their achievements were really great. It is research on cancer cure and medicines. One of them is a doctorate in chemical engineering and he switched over to Biotechnology research there after! It is not possible in India to do such switch over.
To day, late president Ronald Reagan’s body was brought from California at 5pm to Air Force Andrews Base. His body was then taken in Horse Carriage with full military honours on independence avenue to capitol hill for public view. I and Nalin left home at 1630hrs and reached mall in time. We positioned well to have a good glimpse of the funeral procession. The carriage passedour point at 1840hrs. how many visitors would come all the way and attend an ex-presidents funeral? And that too when it happened after 30 years.
10th June 2004
Nalin took me to his CITI Bank in Bethesda. He showed me a military store with whole lot of military items. I liked a belt. But it was costly, did not purchased it.
In the evening at 1630 hrs Nalin drove me to Hoodvar -Hazey Air Aerospace museum in Dulles airport. We reached at 1730. It was drizzling! John F Glenn, the WWII Air force Veteran pilot and the first American to go round the earth in space was to give inaugural speech. He was in space again in 1997 as a senator, when he was 77 years old. his wife introduced him and he spoke for an hour! He was 82 years old . it was a life time opportunity. We watched a short movie and his first space flight. This museum has CONCORD & ENOLA GAY aircrafts! Wow!! Come home by 1030 pm. Had dinner and slept at mid night.
11th June 2004
Kavita took me to meet the British WWII, Battle of Brittan Veteran near Toolikas house. He was not at home. We left for home. I then went to American Natural History Museum in Mall. It is so well equipped and laid that any anthropologist would be proud of it. I saw kids of ages from 3 to 10 yrs going round with parents and learning. I learnt a lot! Since I reached there late (12.20 pm) I could only cover ground floor. Then I went to 3D movie in Johnson I Max theatre. I saw T-Rex. Very good movie I met a WWII veteran of Navy, his wife and daughter at my food table. He is about 86 yrs old they are from a place near Buffalo. It was nice to converse with them.
In the evening Chimmy came home at 1720 to pick up me. We went by Metro to Kennedy Art Centre to watch Ludwig Van Beethovan ’s life history and his 5th symphony. It is an excellent opera house and I enjoyed the two hours from 7.15 pm to 9.30 pm. By luck, I also watched a Ballet performance given by a wheal chaired female artist along with his male partner. What a spirit these people display. The famous water gate hotel of Nixes down fall is next to this art centre.
We came home at 2245 hrs and had dinner. Chimmy left at 0045 hrs slept at 1 am.
12th June 2004
We are going today to Philadelphia. It took us 3 hrs plus to reach it viz a tunnel road under the ocean in Baltimore! It is like Bombay. An old city founded in 1606 AD. Here, the first capital of USA was there, with congress and supreme court. George Washington completed his two terms and John Adams his one term, of presidency here. Then the capital was shifted to Washington DC.we have seen all these places and the museum of Baltimore and birds of Benjamin Franklin! We had lunch and we rushed back to Maryland, as our famous meeting of AID people was there at 7 pm in Miss Vijayanti Gupta’s home. First we came home at 1630 and refreshed. Kavi made some Rajma Dal. Then we went to Vijayanti’s place at 1930pm We met Dr Bhagat and others. There were 14 people. I gave an autobiographical talk, mainly emphasizing Air Force Secular look, Social activities etc,. Gave details of construction of temple, mosque and church and also pulleti korru college. Then the example of Sri C Sudarsan ,our principal in 1959.
It was nice pot luck. All items tasted good. I enjoyed it. We came home by 12 mid night. I spoke to Puji. She is ok. kavi spoke to puji for nearly on hour . slept at 1 am.
13th June 2004
Today we got up late. Got ready by only 11am. Then kavi made a subjee and Dal with rice. I and Nalin had brunch and moved at 1230 hrs to National Zoo park by metro. It is the heart of Washington DC. such a lovely, rain forest type ambience with a very big Zoo located! You can’t imagine.I saw gaint Ponda, Orrungtons, Gorillas, Sea Lions, Birds etc,. Sea lions are like Dolphins, so intelligent!! They obey like dogs and do intelligently things, as ordered by trainer.
We came home by 5pm. Kavi came home at 6 pm. I and Nalin were hungry, so we had some sweet dishes and fruits. I took a nap of one hour and then got up. After freshening we all went to Padma and Balakrishna’s place, near temple.
What a lovely and warm couple? . Padma reminded me of Chitra sen in looks and behaviour. Kavi is lucky to have such couple to love her as their daughter. They gave some presents to Kavi, self and Radha while leaving them after dinner.
We came home at 12 midnight . Spoke to Radha for 10 minutes slept at 1 am.
14th June 2004
Again I got up late at 9 am. Had breakfast at 10 am spoke to Chy Kalyan, Sri Laxmi Pinnamma, Krishnakumari Akkaiah and Los Angles. I spoke to both laxmi and vadinagaru. I have to speak to Aswhin’s aunty, in a day or two. similarely, to Janaki. I had a light lunch at 1230 hrs. I left by metro to American Natural History Museum, which I have not covered fully last time. This time, I spent lot of time with Bears, Vertebrates, reptiles and germs sector. I saw I-Max 3D movie “Bugs” It was excellent. Then I walked to Air and space Museum and saw at 5pm in I-Max a 3d Movie SPACE STATION”. It was also excellent!! It was over by 6 pm. The museum is closed at 6 pm and hence I walked back to Metro and came home at 7 pm.
Mr Vasu, Nalin’s friend is coming for dinner at 8 pm .Hence got freshened and was ready by 7 45 pm. He came by 8.20pm. A quiet and soft person! He started Calling me uncle!! Unassuming;!Nalin and he had wine. I had scotch (thanks to chimmys Chivas Regal 18). We had generally and friendly discussion. It was a revelation to me that he was “VASUKI” who wrote the only one interview of Dawood Ibrahim in 1985 in India Today. I remember vividly!! WOW. We had dinner early and he left at 1045. we slept after one hour.
15th June 2004
I am attending a lecture by a Noble laureate …………….. in NIH tomorrow, ie 16.6.04, Wednesday. I am eagerly waiting for it.
To day Nalin accompanied me at 1310 hrs by Metro to go to National Geographic Society Building! He also showed me his office from distance. What a lovely & lively place he worked! He also showed me his first UST office where he incorporated it. It is just a telephone area in the (4 Star like) hotel “May Flower “next to NGS. He told me that he used to spend lot of time here. He then took me to White house (just walking distance). it is not at all impressive. Looks so ordinary
There after I on my own went by metro to Holocaust Museum at 1440 hrs. I went around the Museum non stop. Lot of Mini Computer & 16 MM Movies of short duration were on. What a tragedy. How could Hitler do this. Except this blot, he was such a great man & leader! I came home by 7 pm.
Tulika & her in-laws came for dinner.
we went around driving after dinner at 1045PM. We parked on the banks of potomac. Walked to Lincoln Memorial. fantastic memorial! In the lights, it was such a memorable sight!! Who ever sculpted Abraham Lincoln, he made is appear like real living Lincoln. From there straight ahead is Washington memorial ( pillar ) and ahead is capitol building. The view is exquisitic! Nalin took couple of photos of mine . we came home at 1240 AM through a jungle (right in the heart of Washington ) and slept at1.30 AM
16th June 2004.
We took rest the whole day. I saw some of the VCDS kavi got. Classic movies indeed!! I completed reading NYT and Washington post new papers; each 80 pages or more. In the evening we started at 6 PM & went round in car to Georgetown & Georgetown University. What an ambience! It looks like 16 the Century old palatial buildings. the town also was old. We walked to Potomac via street. we saw the house where Clinton stayed as a student. We met HARE RAMA HARE KRISHNA disciples of ISKON. They gave us Prasad. from this side of Potomac shore Kennedy Art Centre and water gate hotel are very close. Nalin look few photos. During the walk we crossed on payment Bob wood ward, the great journalist! What a luck!! He was walking with a friend on this busy street.
We had dinner in Ethiopian restaurant called Zed. Mrs Hillary Clinton comes offen here. it was like Indian (Andhra) food with two types of Mudda Pappu & curries. It was fabulous. I enjoyed it thoroughly. The bill with tip came to 90 dollars. Too costly. We saw all embassies & Vice President House. This is more impressive than white House.
17th June 2004
We went to ANTIETAM, where Civil War was fought between 15.9.1862 to 17.9.1862. This was the bitter battle in which on a single day, 2600 soldiers (from both sides) were killed. It was a drive around the 12 important sites. What a poignant battle filed. The sunken line (called also bloody line) is still maintained!! Here nearly half of soldiers from both sides (out of total 2600) were killed in 3 hours! This battle also turned the tide of War favourable to Unionists for the first time in the Civil War.
Nalin took few photos in the cemetery.
18th June 2004
I cooked today. Nalin & Kavi went to Gym. I was alone at home. I made kandi Pappu podi, kandi pachadi, potato curry, tomoto Pappu & annam. I relaxed till 2 PM. Nalin and kavi came around 1430 hrs. we had lunch together. Nalin appreciated my culinary skills. To my surprise. I made tasty preparations!!
Again I spent to day 4 hours reading NYT and Washington post new papers. What a task it is!! The presidential campaign news is very good.
19th June 2004.
We planned to visit New york today. in the morning kavi left for dance practice in temple. After breakfast, we started at 1030 am at home. Nalin went to SSV temple to find out the way to Murugan temple and brought packed sambar and curd rice. We picked kavi at 1145 hrs and went to Trenton at 1515 hrs. it is a small and deserted town. The monument here is an imposing tall pillar of 150’ height with a round platform on top. On top of it is the statue of George Washington. There is a black American, who took me and kavi in a vintage 5 person lift to this round platform. It is a lovely sight of Trenton from this height! But it is Scary too!! We came down and drove to the state HQ building with a Golden Coloured dome! The street is deserted. We decided to drive down to Princeton, very near to Trenton . What a lovely town! We went to Washington ferry crossing 8 miles west of Trenton. It is a lovely place. here, George Washington for the first time won a battle against British in 1776. We then went around the campus of Princeton university. It is huge. We also saw the house where scientist Einstien stayed. In the university book store. I purchased a note book! The town is centred around the university. We had dinner in a restaurant established in 1885. then, we drove down to a motel owned by a Gujarati, which is 35 miles away. The room rent is 65$. The room and facilities are very good. We reached hotel at 1145 pm. We have to leave early morning for New York by train.
We got up at 6 am and set course to railway junction by our car to catch 0814 train. We parked the car at Rly stn. The train is not full. It took us 1 hr 15 mts to reach New York. By 0945 hrs we were in Penn, the New York Rly Station. On our way out we crossed “New York Station”. The upper levels of station were like shopping malls! We had breakfast in waiting room and came out on to New York!!! Every where sky scrapers!! Even on a Sunday, it is so vibrant !! Young, children, couples, old; every one is on the streets.
We walked to Time square, wall street, Washington’s first presidency hall, WTC demolition site. all in the south Manhattan. We walked along river Hudson upto Ferry point. We took ferry to Staten Island. We ferried by the side of statue of Liberty. We returned to Ferry point at 2 pm. Then we took a taxi and went to Grand Central, which was once upon a time New York Central Rly Stn. What a grand place it is !! it is like palace. Marvellous structure with interior design!! We had Indian Lunch. Very tasty. Then went around central park! Such lovely place!! New York is a lovely and lively place brimming with energy, While DC is laid back .
We caught 1815 hrs train, came to princeton Jn Rly Stn at 8 pm and took the car. Came home at 1220 midnight.
20th June 2004
We all are tired. We decided to take rest. Poor Nalin ! He had to get up at 6 am to go for bird watching classes at 8 am. He did not have enough sleep. But the irony is that the class had limited seats and he had to come back at 1130 am. sad!!.
I cooked today dosakaya pappu, Vankaya, Aloo Kura. It is so so !! Kavi and I went to US Post Office to collect “GREEN CARD” sent by Rupa. From there, We went to Dollar store. Purchased 20$ items for gifts. Night at 6.30 pm, we went around DC monuments. Saw Jefferson and FDR and WWII monuments. Walked around . It was 8 km . We came home via book store “Politics and Prose” where lot of people were buying coupons for Bill Clinton’s book “My Life” release. It was being televised. We came home at 1030 pm. I cooked beerakaya Kura. We had dinner by 1130 pm. I finished Chivas Regal given by Chimmi.
I spoke to Hari in LA. Tried Radha. no one was picking up (9.30 am on 22/6 IST) Pujas phone was continuesly engaged. I gave it up as it was late 1 am early morning locat.
Jefforson’s movement is grand, FDR’s is not impressive at all. WW 11 memorial is ok. With lights on,Washington memorial looks grand.
Tuesday 21st June 2004
Today, we started for Norfolk to see the museum of Douglus Mc Arthur, Pacific WWII Hero, a five star general.
We started at 0800 hrs and drove via Richmond Town. It took 5 hours. It is a lovely town with tunnel road and 2 mile long bridge over bay. The Mac Arthur memorial and museum are good and upto the mark. The 15 minute film shown was good. He and his wife’s tombs are majestically placed. The 8 sector (galleries) depicted his life well.. The statue at the entrance is magnificient. What a great soldier he was! And what a ptriot!!. One of my life’s ambitions was fulfilled. I purchased a biography, a T-shirt, a spoon and other documents as memoroblia. We saw the car used by him! We talked to the librarian. He is knowledgable. I requested him for correspandance between Gen Mac Arthur and Eisenhower as well as president Truman. He got two folders for me. I saw the letters and one was on original letter from president Truman. Nalin took photograph of this. I also talked to an elderly gentleman aged 80, who met and knew Gen Mac Arthur. He said the General was regal, aloof and dignified. He did not know how to play politics and hence could not make it up for presidency.
Later, we drove to Virginia Beach. It was a private one. Kavi and I took sea bath in Atlantic Ocean! I can’t believe it !! on the return trip;we got into traffic jam. Reached home at 12 midnight.
22nd June 2004
I went alone to National Archives, Art Musuem and Asia Art museum in the Mall. I left home at 1050 hrs and reached Archives at 12 noon. I had lunch in Mcdonalds in Air and Space museum. Archives buildings and interior are really good very classy! Good sculptures and paintings!!. The archives had original letters of Declaration of Independence, Consitution and Bill of Rights!! WOW!!.
The Asia Art museum is one man’s collection! It has collections from Japan, China, Korea, Egypt, Iran’s scrolls and sculptures and few paintings. I came home by 6 pm. We went again at 7 .15 pm to Mexican restaurant to have dinner. It was tasty. at 10pm Neelini and shyam came and gave some gifts! Nice of them. I received to day the reply to my letter to Bill Clinton..
Thursday 23rd June 2004
Chimmi brought and gave me a scotch bottle and said bye bye,as he was going to Santiago! Nalin and kavi drove me in Mercedez Benz to a park and asked me to drive the Mercedez. What a lovely feeling while handling it!.
Kavi and I went to China Town to see the Building Museum. Neelini brought lunch to both of us from a Thai restaurant. Later on, she took us to the newly opened Science museum. We all came home by 5 pm. Both museums were informative and excellant!.
Friday 24th June 2004
Kavi went to Dance practice to Baltimore. She came at 2pm.We went tp camping and wild life walk to OHIOPYLE (4 ½ hrs journey) we camped at wood bridge road No60. it was raining whole night. The tent was wet. We had a briefing about bears and a film also was shown. It was quite informative.With difficulty we slept in jungle at1am . I was subconsciously worried about sudden attack by bear. .
Saturday 25th June 2004
Got up at 0630 am. Had bath etc. finished breakfast at 9am. Wished kavita and Nalin a very happy wedding Anniversary. I wish I Were in India. . Packed all the belongings in the two suitcases. Kavi purchased my swim trunk and a T-Shirt for Bhagawati. Spoke to chy Sudhakar and got Chy Ranjan’s number in Dubai. Called Ranjan and talked to him..
From Los Angles, vadinagaru also called and said Bonvoyage. From Ohio pyle, we went to Pittsburg, via fort… where George Washington fought and lost his battle, his only battle lost during the 12 years independence war he fought against Britain. In the morning we went with a guide to wild flower trek. Kavita knows lot about flowers and birds. She even impressed the guide.
At Pittsburgh we had lunch at Udipi Hotel and we went to Sri Venkateswara Temple. Temple is very big and Idol is powerful.
We started back at 3.45 pm and reached home at 9 pm
Sunday 26th June 2004
To day I am leaving USA for India. I had a hectic, racy and jam Packed 28 days stay. Nalin and Kavi made sure that I saw what I wanted to see. It was a very satisfied and contented trip. With a heavy heart I am leaving Nalin and Kavi. They drove me to Dulles Airport at 1400 hrs. I bade farewell to them. I boarded the flight at 1630 hrs.
My Impressions of the Trip
1. dubai and Amsterdam airports have impressed me. When does any of our airports come to that standard. Dulles airport in USA is like Dum Dum airport in Kolkata, just normal, nothing to speak of.
2. Traffic is very orderly. I have not seen any policeman or I have not heard anyone honking during my 28 days stay and travel in USA.
3. Rest Rooms along with cafetarias is an unique phenomenon. It serves both purposes.( Loading and unloading.)
4. While walking, one wishes you “Hello” and when talking “Have a Good Day”.
5. In Annapolis, I saw many couples of different colours. A white and a black either wife or a husband .
6. Americans know how to respect their leaders. Their monuments and museums are well maintained. I am impressed with General Douglas Mc Arthur museum in Norfolk.
7. I was fortunate to be in USA and that too in its capital, during 28 May 04 to 26 Jun 04. During these 28 days, many events took place and I was lucky to witness them. These are:-
(a) Funeral of the President Ronald Reagon
(b) Inauguration of II world war memorial by president George W Bush
(c) I saw and heard Mr John Glenn, first American to orbit around the Earth. He is a Veteran of WWII. He was also a senator
(d) I saw and touched aircraft (bomber) ENOLA GAY which dropped Atom Bomb on Hiroshima on 6.8.1945. I also saw the Dutch navigator, who was on this flight.
(e) I met two Medical Noble lauriates in MIN and also heard their lectures.
(f) I met, shook hands and took pictures with WWII veterans.
(g) I attended the fifth symphony of Beethoven in Kennedy Art Centre.
(h) I visited Getteys Berg and Antietam battle fields of Civil War.
(i) I visited Trenton and Trenton crossing. Here George Washington won the first battle against British army during American war of Independence .
(j) I saw the house where Einstein stayed as well as his office and department in princeton University.
(k) I attended POWOW, a cultural dance programme of native Indians.
(l) I happened to cross on the road while walking, Mr Bob Wood Ward, the famous Journalist of Watergate fame!.
(m) Smith sonian Museums on Mall in DC are simply fabulous.
(n) I visited Gen Duglous MC Arthur Museum in Norfork. Here I saw orginals of letters written by Gen Eisenhower and president Truman to the General.
We started at home by 1630 hrs and reached airport at 1700 hrs. Immediately, I booked my baggage, said bye bye to Radha & Puja. I went inside at 1730 hrs and got immigration check done at that counter; then the custom clearance. I went into security check at 1930 hrs.
Purchased, for kavi stardust, woman’s era, India Today & Arthur Haily’s Money Exchangers..
Dubai flight took off at 9 pm (I ST )
Reached Dubai 10 PM (local time)
Took Amsterdam flight at 1 am midnight( local time)
Reached Amsterdam at 6 am (local time)
Dubai airport is beautiful and most modern; most of the airport staff are Indians.
27th May 2004
KLM started desceding to land at Dulles International airport at 1350 hrs. I could see Washington DC from about 3000ft for about 4 minutes, as the pilot made a circuit & landing.
Customs clearance was fast. finger printing of index fingers of both hands and photos of straight face and right side were taken. Luggage came all together after a wait of 20 minutes. No checking of luggage was done by customs !! amazing .
Nalin and Kavita were waiting for me. It was a nice feeling to see them in Washington DC! It was about 1430 hrs (local time) We came home by 1515 hrs. after talking for about an hour, I took bath. By 1630 hrs, I was feeling so sleepy (jetlag). with lot of difficulty, I held on till 1830 hrs. I then had dinner and slept before 7 pm. Except for going to toilet at midnight, I slept till 7 am next day; it was a solid 12 hrs of sleep. What a fatigue ! I know now what is jet lag! I had a light nagging left side head ache.I applied zandu Balm.
28th May 2004
Sudhakar and Kalyan rang up, Krishnakumari akkayya rang up, Laxmi and Vadinagaru rang up from Las Angeles. Chinni also rang up. In the evening, he came with his parents. He presented me with Chivas Regal (18) !! Wow !!! Nice to meet him and his parents. In the night Neelini and shyam dropped in to see me. The feeling that I am in USA is slowly sinking in !.
In the morning kavitha took me to a walk to a store behind their house. In the evening they took me to a giant dept store…., What a big store it is!! It was a window shopping trip. Had two pegs of Chivas Regal along with Nalin. Slept at 10 PM.Had good sleep.
Jet log disappeared totally with tonight’s sleep
One thing I noticed in DC sun sets only after 8 pm and afternoon sun is pier imply hot, as if skin is pierced by needles.
29th May 2004
At 7 am in the morning, Nalin took me to the Potomac river and park! it was fantastic!! Pristine wild life like forest and ambience. Excellent spot to spend time!! We came back at 10 am to home.
Today is a memorable day in my life! I was lucky to see and meet WWII veterns on this day of dedication of WWII monument in Washington DC to the nation by president George W Bush. President Clinton was also present. Nalin and I went by metro to this function at 12 afternoon. The function started at 2 pm. Long speeches by all those who are responsible for making this monument to come up. Tom Hanks was also one of them and he was there too!! It was a memorable occasion. I could see WWII veterans, aged between 79 to 95 years; some walking with difficulty; some with support of others and some being taken on wheel chairs. All of them were wearing full medals, rank insignias, caps with regimental emblems etc. It was a dream come true! How they fought in Atlantic, Europe and pacific!! I met few of them and took photos with them.ultimately, with president Bush speech, the function was over. A 4 aircraft formation fly past was the grand finale. We started back at 1545 hrs and reached home by 1630 hr.
30th May 2004
Got up late at 0900 hrs. I had b’fast at 1030 am. we started for Getty sberg. Kavi also came. It was a 2 hrs drive. We reached Military National park main centre (which is 1 mile short of town) at 1300 hrs. It took two hours to see the museum, which is of two stories. At 1500 hrs we walked down to main highway and had lunch at Mc Donald’s. We came back by 1530 hrs, in time for an electric lamp show of Gettysburg battle (on 1,2, and 3 July 1863). It was of half an hour duration. It was good. It could have been better. We started going round the open field with monuments showing the posititions of union and confederate armies. What a vast field and lovely monuments! The meadows were sprawling and so flush green !! Probably we walked 4 to 5 miles. My bones in legs were aching badly. Even kavi was exhausted. We could only see half of the monuments. I made a mistake in wearing the newly purchased heavy shoes. The long walk with these heavy shoes added to my misery. We reached the place where president Abraham Lincon gave his famous Gettysburg speech on 19th oct 1863. It was a satisfying moment fore me, as I wanted to see this since 1969!.
We started back at 1915 hrs and reached home at 2100 hrs and had dinner and slept at 10 pm. My body was aching because of long walk.
31st May 2004
.I got up at 7 am. Nalin made tea. Weather is inclement. So, Baltimore programme is postponed, Kavi made upma for b’fast, we had it at 0930 and packed some for my lunch . At 1020, Nalim dropped me at Metro by purchasing ticket. On my own, I went by Metro to Smithsonian National Museum. It was drizzling.
The Museum is in 3 stories, each storie with 3 wings; east,west and north. It depicts USA history is settlements from 1700 AD. The Black’s history was well shown and same is the case of Pueblos of New Mexico. The gallery of First ladies was imressive. The film shown here is really good. I finished seeing museum at 1430 hrs. I could have spent an hour more seeing more in detail, but due to yesterday’s long walk, my legs were paining.
I came out and had packed upma outside along the mall on a bench. It was raining. I reached home by Metro at 1530 hrs. we had early dinner. Kavi made Dondakaya Koora and Mudda Pappu. We went to Borders (book store).what a book store ! I purchased WWII pictorial book and civil war book. we came home by 10 pm and slept at 1030 pm.
1st June 2004
Today is a rest day. It has been very hectic. Had tasty break fast and lunch. Slept in the morning from 10am to 12 in the noon. Called Radha to wish her on her birthday. Pujita and Ashwin were also at home. They were going to Vidyanagar for a party arranged by her sister.
In the afternoon, all of us slept. Kavi went for vegetables at 4 pm. She came back at 6 PM.we all went to temple. It is an excellent Lord Shiva and Vishnu temple with all deities in clean and serene environment. On the way, kavi got dropped at Mrs Padma’s place. Then IKEA was about to close, so, came to another great book store, via Bethesda. Here Nalin stayed for 5 years before moving into Rockville. Very good ambience. Kavi wants to have a house there. Good neighbourhood.Bethesda downtown is good. Kavita showed me cinema halls and metro station of Bethesda. Tomorrow I can come on my own to see a movie here.
In the morning Nalin took me to FEDEX, US post office and a cloth store to purchase my underwear’s. I have seen a 3 tier (store) parking lot, as one sees in Hollywood movies. WOW!! We also went to a Big stationary shop. It was fabulous !
Came home by 10 pm, had dinner at 11 pm and had a small walk with Nalin. Slept by 1140 pm
2nd June 2004.
Today, I went on my own to see foreign movies in Bethesda Cinema complex. I took Metro and got down at Bethesda. To come out, it is a steep and high escalator. walked to cinema complex (10 mts)
purchased ticket for “Fal, Spring, Winter, Summer, Fall” which is a Korean movie. The ticket was$5.50. This is a mini theatre, with max 150 people capacity. It was 2 pm show. We were only 9 persons seeing the movie. It was a movie par excellence; in theme, photography presentation exquisite !! The movie was over at 1610 hrs. The next movie (French) “After Otter Left” starts at 1645 pm. so I went to bookstore next and spent time till 1640 pm. Then went to cinema complex and purchased ticket ($ 7) and saw this French Movie. We were only 10 people. I had coffee in the cafeteria,paid $ 2.50. This is also a good movie. The 90 years actress acted very well. How much we miss such classical movies in India? I would say that some of our regional movies in Bengali, Assameese, Malayalam may be of such standard and we in India do not have opportunity to see such fine movies !! It is ironical.
3rd June 2004
Nalin took me to IKEA furniture shop in the evening. What a shop it is ! Different settings of Drg Rooms, Bed rooms and Kitchens with layouts, each looking better than the other!!. Interior design, layout and decorations sounded some meaning to me. He purchased a clock for his room.
4th June 2004
Today Kavita and I went to National Institute of Health (NIH) in Medical Centre. From metro, it is so close. We went by metro from Grosvoner station at 0930 hrs. We were taken inside by Dr Vijayanti Gupta, an young girl, who was doing post doctoral research there. She patiently showed us important places and her place of work. She offered us coffee in her canteen. We noticed that two good lecture programmes on 9.6.04 and 16.6.04. I told her that I would like to attend them, both with noble laureates presiding. She welcomed my suggestion.
After the trip to National Institute of Health ( N I H ) in the morning, . kavi , Nalin and I went to woodlands hotel for lunch. It was buffet and I had good Indian food; idlis, Dosa, Rice Bagara Baigan and sambar. We also went to a neighbouring shop (dollar tree) where things are for one dollar or maximum 3$. We purchased a few items
In the evening Nalin and I went at 7pm to university of Maryland. In the physics dept (of which an Indian Dr is head. A talk was given by Dr Rajendra Singh and importance of water and its harvesting in India. He,along with the NGO….. had done yoeman service in Rajastan wrt bringng water to 5 districts by water harvesting. The talk was good. Dr Vijayanti Gupta came in the fag end.
Kavita went to pottery class. She made Lord Ganesha. It was very good. We were invited by Neelima and Shyam for dinner in their house. It was a pleasant evening. We came home at 1130 pm and slept.
5th June 2004
We drove to Raeding town airport, where mid west air museum is located. It was nearly four hours drive Via Baltimore, York and Lancashire. weather was totally inclement. It was raining and chilly. We reached the place at 1310 hrs. It was occasion of 60 yrs world war II. The theme was display of aircraft and ambience with people dressed accordingly. As we entered, one Liberator a/c was landing. What a preparation without any flaw! “Enola Gay”,the B-29 Bomber which dropped Atomic bomb on Hiroshima was there and the navigator,a Dutch was also there!! I could not believe it. Mustang, Spitfire, Lancaster a/c were also there. Also the work horse, B-45 of Berlin airlift was also there. There was the mock battle of US Army and German Army. Since the weather was very chilly and raining, we started back at 1500 hrs this time via Gettysburg. Nalin took 12 photos of mine against different back drops. Some of them with the participants. It is an excellent opportunity and dream come true for me.
On the way to home, we went to Black buster (video shop) and brought two video tapes. I purchase bread from Giant shop .
06.06.04 Sunday
I watched two video movies No mains land (French Movie) and Whale rider (newzeland movie). Both won Oscar awards and both are very good movies
In the afternoon I and Nalim went to Poww American fair. The drive was one hour. The show was good. Had achance to see the Red Indians and their dance.
In the morning, we all above to mount Vernon, where #George Washington lived! On the way, we saw old Alexandra town, Reagon Airport and river Potomac (very wide like sea). In the afternoon went to POWWOW, a native Indian event it was a very good programme
7th June 2004
I started at home after breakfast at 10 am by Metro to Mall to see Museums. First I went to the fort like looking Smithsonian Information Centre. spent an hour there and from there walked (near capitol hill ) to Air and Aerospace Museum. What information ! mind boggling!! It requires at least 3 days to see and assimilate. At 3 pm I saw a 45 minutes documentary on Helicopters in I-max theatre there. Had Bun sandwich in Mc Donald cafeteria. In the museum, each section has its own 10 minute films and at different places, the computer speaks with visuals. Everything is full of details. V-2 rocket, perishing II ICBM, Lunar Module. Apollo-11 to 17, Venus, Mars Vehicle…. There is no end!!
In the evening, we all went to Mrs Tulika’s house. Met her husband. Amber and his parents. His son is cute (4 months old). Arjun, Tulika has a WW II Battle of Britain, Veteran as neighbour. She said she would fix a rendezvous with him for me! What an opportunity.
8th June 2004
We talked to Radha at 8am local time (5 pm ist). since it was not card call, I talked to her briefly. I heard cupid barking and siren of water tanker. No eventful news from either side.
Nalin was busy with his office work. He said he did not sleep last night. We had early lunch at 1300 hrs and left to Baltimore. We had tickets for aquarium. When I saw Baltimore from highway road, it looked like USA city with harbour and ships and high rise buildings.
What an aquarium! Mind Boggling!! we were lucky to watch a live show with Dolphins. What wonderful and intelligent creatures are these? They imitate and do what the trainers tell them to do. Incredible!! Rest of the marine species and Tropical rain forest… oh! Impossible to describe in words!!!
We had beer in style like in Hollywood movies on the sea shore in a restaurant waw!. Then we went to Elliot town, (on the way to Washington) to Mrs Suryas house (husband Vijay) for dinner. Both are nice and informal couple. She is from Alwal (Malayalee). The dinner was very good.
We came home by 1015 pm .
9th June 2004
At 1215 hrs I went to Natural Institutes of Health (NIH) where I attended lectures by 3 eminent scientists who got awards from GM foundation. Their achievements were really great. It is research on cancer cure and medicines. One of them is a doctorate in chemical engineering and he switched over to Biotechnology research there after! It is not possible in India to do such switch over.
To day, late president Ronald Reagan’s body was brought from California at 5pm to Air Force Andrews Base. His body was then taken in Horse Carriage with full military honours on independence avenue to capitol hill for public view. I and Nalin left home at 1630hrs and reached mall in time. We positioned well to have a good glimpse of the funeral procession. The carriage passedour point at 1840hrs. how many visitors would come all the way and attend an ex-presidents funeral? And that too when it happened after 30 years.
10th June 2004
Nalin took me to his CITI Bank in Bethesda. He showed me a military store with whole lot of military items. I liked a belt. But it was costly, did not purchased it.
In the evening at 1630 hrs Nalin drove me to Hoodvar -Hazey Air Aerospace museum in Dulles airport. We reached at 1730. It was drizzling! John F Glenn, the WWII Air force Veteran pilot and the first American to go round the earth in space was to give inaugural speech. He was in space again in 1997 as a senator, when he was 77 years old. his wife introduced him and he spoke for an hour! He was 82 years old . it was a life time opportunity. We watched a short movie and his first space flight. This museum has CONCORD & ENOLA GAY aircrafts! Wow!! Come home by 1030 pm. Had dinner and slept at mid night.
11th June 2004
Kavita took me to meet the British WWII, Battle of Brittan Veteran near Toolikas house. He was not at home. We left for home. I then went to American Natural History Museum in Mall. It is so well equipped and laid that any anthropologist would be proud of it. I saw kids of ages from 3 to 10 yrs going round with parents and learning. I learnt a lot! Since I reached there late (12.20 pm) I could only cover ground floor. Then I went to 3D movie in Johnson I Max theatre. I saw T-Rex. Very good movie I met a WWII veteran of Navy, his wife and daughter at my food table. He is about 86 yrs old they are from a place near Buffalo. It was nice to converse with them.
In the evening Chimmy came home at 1720 to pick up me. We went by Metro to Kennedy Art Centre to watch Ludwig Van Beethovan ’s life history and his 5th symphony. It is an excellent opera house and I enjoyed the two hours from 7.15 pm to 9.30 pm. By luck, I also watched a Ballet performance given by a wheal chaired female artist along with his male partner. What a spirit these people display. The famous water gate hotel of Nixes down fall is next to this art centre.
We came home at 2245 hrs and had dinner. Chimmy left at 0045 hrs slept at 1 am.
12th June 2004
We are going today to Philadelphia. It took us 3 hrs plus to reach it viz a tunnel road under the ocean in Baltimore! It is like Bombay. An old city founded in 1606 AD. Here, the first capital of USA was there, with congress and supreme court. George Washington completed his two terms and John Adams his one term, of presidency here. Then the capital was shifted to Washington DC.we have seen all these places and the museum of Baltimore and birds of Benjamin Franklin! We had lunch and we rushed back to Maryland, as our famous meeting of AID people was there at 7 pm in Miss Vijayanti Gupta’s home. First we came home at 1630 and refreshed. Kavi made some Rajma Dal. Then we went to Vijayanti’s place at 1930pm We met Dr Bhagat and others. There were 14 people. I gave an autobiographical talk, mainly emphasizing Air Force Secular look, Social activities etc,. Gave details of construction of temple, mosque and church and also pulleti korru college. Then the example of Sri C Sudarsan ,our principal in 1959.
It was nice pot luck. All items tasted good. I enjoyed it. We came home by 12 mid night. I spoke to Puji. She is ok. kavi spoke to puji for nearly on hour . slept at 1 am.
13th June 2004
Today we got up late. Got ready by only 11am. Then kavi made a subjee and Dal with rice. I and Nalin had brunch and moved at 1230 hrs to National Zoo park by metro. It is the heart of Washington DC. such a lovely, rain forest type ambience with a very big Zoo located! You can’t imagine.I saw gaint Ponda, Orrungtons, Gorillas, Sea Lions, Birds etc,. Sea lions are like Dolphins, so intelligent!! They obey like dogs and do intelligently things, as ordered by trainer.
We came home by 5pm. Kavi came home at 6 pm. I and Nalin were hungry, so we had some sweet dishes and fruits. I took a nap of one hour and then got up. After freshening we all went to Padma and Balakrishna’s place, near temple.
What a lovely and warm couple? . Padma reminded me of Chitra sen in looks and behaviour. Kavi is lucky to have such couple to love her as their daughter. They gave some presents to Kavi, self and Radha while leaving them after dinner.
We came home at 12 midnight . Spoke to Radha for 10 minutes slept at 1 am.
14th June 2004
Again I got up late at 9 am. Had breakfast at 10 am spoke to Chy Kalyan, Sri Laxmi Pinnamma, Krishnakumari Akkaiah and Los Angles. I spoke to both laxmi and vadinagaru. I have to speak to Aswhin’s aunty, in a day or two. similarely, to Janaki. I had a light lunch at 1230 hrs. I left by metro to American Natural History Museum, which I have not covered fully last time. This time, I spent lot of time with Bears, Vertebrates, reptiles and germs sector. I saw I-Max 3D movie “Bugs” It was excellent. Then I walked to Air and space Museum and saw at 5pm in I-Max a 3d Movie SPACE STATION”. It was also excellent!! It was over by 6 pm. The museum is closed at 6 pm and hence I walked back to Metro and came home at 7 pm.
Mr Vasu, Nalin’s friend is coming for dinner at 8 pm .Hence got freshened and was ready by 7 45 pm. He came by 8.20pm. A quiet and soft person! He started Calling me uncle!! Unassuming;!Nalin and he had wine. I had scotch (thanks to chimmys Chivas Regal 18). We had generally and friendly discussion. It was a revelation to me that he was “VASUKI” who wrote the only one interview of Dawood Ibrahim in 1985 in India Today. I remember vividly!! WOW. We had dinner early and he left at 1045. we slept after one hour.
15th June 2004
I am attending a lecture by a Noble laureate …………….. in NIH tomorrow, ie 16.6.04, Wednesday. I am eagerly waiting for it.
To day Nalin accompanied me at 1310 hrs by Metro to go to National Geographic Society Building! He also showed me his office from distance. What a lovely & lively place he worked! He also showed me his first UST office where he incorporated it. It is just a telephone area in the (4 Star like) hotel “May Flower “next to NGS. He told me that he used to spend lot of time here. He then took me to White house (just walking distance). it is not at all impressive. Looks so ordinary
There after I on my own went by metro to Holocaust Museum at 1440 hrs. I went around the Museum non stop. Lot of Mini Computer & 16 MM Movies of short duration were on. What a tragedy. How could Hitler do this. Except this blot, he was such a great man & leader! I came home by 7 pm.
Tulika & her in-laws came for dinner.
we went around driving after dinner at 1045PM. We parked on the banks of potomac. Walked to Lincoln Memorial. fantastic memorial! In the lights, it was such a memorable sight!! Who ever sculpted Abraham Lincoln, he made is appear like real living Lincoln. From there straight ahead is Washington memorial ( pillar ) and ahead is capitol building. The view is exquisitic! Nalin took couple of photos of mine . we came home at 1240 AM through a jungle (right in the heart of Washington ) and slept at1.30 AM
16th June 2004.
We took rest the whole day. I saw some of the VCDS kavi got. Classic movies indeed!! I completed reading NYT and Washington post new papers; each 80 pages or more. In the evening we started at 6 PM & went round in car to Georgetown & Georgetown University. What an ambience! It looks like 16 the Century old palatial buildings. the town also was old. We walked to Potomac via street. we saw the house where Clinton stayed as a student. We met HARE RAMA HARE KRISHNA disciples of ISKON. They gave us Prasad. from this side of Potomac shore Kennedy Art Centre and water gate hotel are very close. Nalin look few photos. During the walk we crossed on payment Bob wood ward, the great journalist! What a luck!! He was walking with a friend on this busy street.
We had dinner in Ethiopian restaurant called Zed. Mrs Hillary Clinton comes offen here. it was like Indian (Andhra) food with two types of Mudda Pappu & curries. It was fabulous. I enjoyed it thoroughly. The bill with tip came to 90 dollars. Too costly. We saw all embassies & Vice President House. This is more impressive than white House.
17th June 2004
We went to ANTIETAM, where Civil War was fought between 15.9.1862 to 17.9.1862. This was the bitter battle in which on a single day, 2600 soldiers (from both sides) were killed. It was a drive around the 12 important sites. What a poignant battle filed. The sunken line (called also bloody line) is still maintained!! Here nearly half of soldiers from both sides (out of total 2600) were killed in 3 hours! This battle also turned the tide of War favourable to Unionists for the first time in the Civil War.
Nalin took few photos in the cemetery.
18th June 2004
I cooked today. Nalin & Kavi went to Gym. I was alone at home. I made kandi Pappu podi, kandi pachadi, potato curry, tomoto Pappu & annam. I relaxed till 2 PM. Nalin and kavi came around 1430 hrs. we had lunch together. Nalin appreciated my culinary skills. To my surprise. I made tasty preparations!!
Again I spent to day 4 hours reading NYT and Washington post new papers. What a task it is!! The presidential campaign news is very good.
19th June 2004.
We planned to visit New york today. in the morning kavi left for dance practice in temple. After breakfast, we started at 1030 am at home. Nalin went to SSV temple to find out the way to Murugan temple and brought packed sambar and curd rice. We picked kavi at 1145 hrs and went to Trenton at 1515 hrs. it is a small and deserted town. The monument here is an imposing tall pillar of 150’ height with a round platform on top. On top of it is the statue of George Washington. There is a black American, who took me and kavi in a vintage 5 person lift to this round platform. It is a lovely sight of Trenton from this height! But it is Scary too!! We came down and drove to the state HQ building with a Golden Coloured dome! The street is deserted. We decided to drive down to Princeton, very near to Trenton . What a lovely town! We went to Washington ferry crossing 8 miles west of Trenton. It is a lovely place. here, George Washington for the first time won a battle against British in 1776. We then went around the campus of Princeton university. It is huge. We also saw the house where scientist Einstien stayed. In the university book store. I purchased a note book! The town is centred around the university. We had dinner in a restaurant established in 1885. then, we drove down to a motel owned by a Gujarati, which is 35 miles away. The room rent is 65$. The room and facilities are very good. We reached hotel at 1145 pm. We have to leave early morning for New York by train.
We got up at 6 am and set course to railway junction by our car to catch 0814 train. We parked the car at Rly stn. The train is not full. It took us 1 hr 15 mts to reach New York. By 0945 hrs we were in Penn, the New York Rly Station. On our way out we crossed “New York Station”. The upper levels of station were like shopping malls! We had breakfast in waiting room and came out on to New York!!! Every where sky scrapers!! Even on a Sunday, it is so vibrant !! Young, children, couples, old; every one is on the streets.
We walked to Time square, wall street, Washington’s first presidency hall, WTC demolition site. all in the south Manhattan. We walked along river Hudson upto Ferry point. We took ferry to Staten Island. We ferried by the side of statue of Liberty. We returned to Ferry point at 2 pm. Then we took a taxi and went to Grand Central, which was once upon a time New York Central Rly Stn. What a grand place it is !! it is like palace. Marvellous structure with interior design!! We had Indian Lunch. Very tasty. Then went around central park! Such lovely place!! New York is a lovely and lively place brimming with energy, While DC is laid back .
We caught 1815 hrs train, came to princeton Jn Rly Stn at 8 pm and took the car. Came home at 1220 midnight.
20th June 2004
We all are tired. We decided to take rest. Poor Nalin ! He had to get up at 6 am to go for bird watching classes at 8 am. He did not have enough sleep. But the irony is that the class had limited seats and he had to come back at 1130 am. sad!!.
I cooked today dosakaya pappu, Vankaya, Aloo Kura. It is so so !! Kavi and I went to US Post Office to collect “GREEN CARD” sent by Rupa. From there, We went to Dollar store. Purchased 20$ items for gifts. Night at 6.30 pm, we went around DC monuments. Saw Jefferson and FDR and WWII monuments. Walked around . It was 8 km . We came home via book store “Politics and Prose” where lot of people were buying coupons for Bill Clinton’s book “My Life” release. It was being televised. We came home at 1030 pm. I cooked beerakaya Kura. We had dinner by 1130 pm. I finished Chivas Regal given by Chimmi.
I spoke to Hari in LA. Tried Radha. no one was picking up (9.30 am on 22/6 IST) Pujas phone was continuesly engaged. I gave it up as it was late 1 am early morning locat.
Jefforson’s movement is grand, FDR’s is not impressive at all. WW 11 memorial is ok. With lights on,Washington memorial looks grand.
Tuesday 21st June 2004
Today, we started for Norfolk to see the museum of Douglus Mc Arthur, Pacific WWII Hero, a five star general.
We started at 0800 hrs and drove via Richmond Town. It took 5 hours. It is a lovely town with tunnel road and 2 mile long bridge over bay. The Mac Arthur memorial and museum are good and upto the mark. The 15 minute film shown was good. He and his wife’s tombs are majestically placed. The 8 sector (galleries) depicted his life well.. The statue at the entrance is magnificient. What a great soldier he was! And what a ptriot!!. One of my life’s ambitions was fulfilled. I purchased a biography, a T-shirt, a spoon and other documents as memoroblia. We saw the car used by him! We talked to the librarian. He is knowledgable. I requested him for correspandance between Gen Mac Arthur and Eisenhower as well as president Truman. He got two folders for me. I saw the letters and one was on original letter from president Truman. Nalin took photograph of this. I also talked to an elderly gentleman aged 80, who met and knew Gen Mac Arthur. He said the General was regal, aloof and dignified. He did not know how to play politics and hence could not make it up for presidency.
Later, we drove to Virginia Beach. It was a private one. Kavi and I took sea bath in Atlantic Ocean! I can’t believe it !! on the return trip;we got into traffic jam. Reached home at 12 midnight.
22nd June 2004
I went alone to National Archives, Art Musuem and Asia Art museum in the Mall. I left home at 1050 hrs and reached Archives at 12 noon. I had lunch in Mcdonalds in Air and Space museum. Archives buildings and interior are really good very classy! Good sculptures and paintings!!. The archives had original letters of Declaration of Independence, Consitution and Bill of Rights!! WOW!!.
The Asia Art museum is one man’s collection! It has collections from Japan, China, Korea, Egypt, Iran’s scrolls and sculptures and few paintings. I came home by 6 pm. We went again at 7 .15 pm to Mexican restaurant to have dinner. It was tasty. at 10pm Neelini and shyam came and gave some gifts! Nice of them. I received to day the reply to my letter to Bill Clinton..
Thursday 23rd June 2004
Chimmi brought and gave me a scotch bottle and said bye bye,as he was going to Santiago! Nalin and kavi drove me in Mercedez Benz to a park and asked me to drive the Mercedez. What a lovely feeling while handling it!.
Kavi and I went to China Town to see the Building Museum. Neelini brought lunch to both of us from a Thai restaurant. Later on, she took us to the newly opened Science museum. We all came home by 5 pm. Both museums were informative and excellant!.
Friday 24th June 2004
Kavi went to Dance practice to Baltimore. She came at 2pm.We went tp camping and wild life walk to OHIOPYLE (4 ½ hrs journey) we camped at wood bridge road No60. it was raining whole night. The tent was wet. We had a briefing about bears and a film also was shown. It was quite informative.With difficulty we slept in jungle at1am . I was subconsciously worried about sudden attack by bear. .
Saturday 25th June 2004
Got up at 0630 am. Had bath etc. finished breakfast at 9am. Wished kavita and Nalin a very happy wedding Anniversary. I wish I Were in India. . Packed all the belongings in the two suitcases. Kavi purchased my swim trunk and a T-Shirt for Bhagawati. Spoke to chy Sudhakar and got Chy Ranjan’s number in Dubai. Called Ranjan and talked to him..
From Los Angles, vadinagaru also called and said Bonvoyage. From Ohio pyle, we went to Pittsburg, via fort… where George Washington fought and lost his battle, his only battle lost during the 12 years independence war he fought against Britain. In the morning we went with a guide to wild flower trek. Kavita knows lot about flowers and birds. She even impressed the guide.
At Pittsburgh we had lunch at Udipi Hotel and we went to Sri Venkateswara Temple. Temple is very big and Idol is powerful.
We started back at 3.45 pm and reached home at 9 pm
Sunday 26th June 2004
To day I am leaving USA for India. I had a hectic, racy and jam Packed 28 days stay. Nalin and Kavi made sure that I saw what I wanted to see. It was a very satisfied and contented trip. With a heavy heart I am leaving Nalin and Kavi. They drove me to Dulles Airport at 1400 hrs. I bade farewell to them. I boarded the flight at 1630 hrs.
My Impressions of the Trip
1. dubai and Amsterdam airports have impressed me. When does any of our airports come to that standard. Dulles airport in USA is like Dum Dum airport in Kolkata, just normal, nothing to speak of.
2. Traffic is very orderly. I have not seen any policeman or I have not heard anyone honking during my 28 days stay and travel in USA.
3. Rest Rooms along with cafetarias is an unique phenomenon. It serves both purposes.( Loading and unloading.)
4. While walking, one wishes you “Hello” and when talking “Have a Good Day”.
5. In Annapolis, I saw many couples of different colours. A white and a black either wife or a husband .
6. Americans know how to respect their leaders. Their monuments and museums are well maintained. I am impressed with General Douglas Mc Arthur museum in Norfolk.
7. I was fortunate to be in USA and that too in its capital, during 28 May 04 to 26 Jun 04. During these 28 days, many events took place and I was lucky to witness them. These are:-
(a) Funeral of the President Ronald Reagon
(b) Inauguration of II world war memorial by president George W Bush
(c) I saw and heard Mr John Glenn, first American to orbit around the Earth. He is a Veteran of WWII. He was also a senator
(d) I saw and touched aircraft (bomber) ENOLA GAY which dropped Atom Bomb on Hiroshima on 6.8.1945. I also saw the Dutch navigator, who was on this flight.
(e) I met two Medical Noble lauriates in MIN and also heard their lectures.
(f) I met, shook hands and took pictures with WWII veterans.
(g) I attended the fifth symphony of Beethoven in Kennedy Art Centre.
(h) I visited Getteys Berg and Antietam battle fields of Civil War.
(i) I visited Trenton and Trenton crossing. Here George Washington won the first battle against British army during American war of Independence .
(j) I saw the house where Einstein stayed as well as his office and department in princeton University.
(k) I attended POWOW, a cultural dance programme of native Indians.
(l) I happened to cross on the road while walking, Mr Bob Wood Ward, the famous Journalist of Watergate fame!.
(m) Smith sonian Museums on Mall in DC are simply fabulous.
(n) I visited Gen Duglous MC Arthur Museum in Norfork. Here I saw orginals of letters written by Gen Eisenhower and president Truman to the General.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
DETAILS OF TRIPS TO SRILANKA AND CHARDHAM
DETAILS OF TRIP
TO SRILANKA FROM 24 DEC 05 TO 02 JAN 06
WITH KAVITA AND NALINI
24-12-2005 SATURDAY
We took Sri Lankan Airlines Flight No. UL176 from Hyderabad. We reported to Airport at 1820 Hrs.
Immigration checks were over within 15 minutes. Security checks were stringent. There were three checks at different points. Baggage identification check was also carried.
Radha met an old acquaintance, an young lady who did computer course in A S Rao Nagar in 2002. She joined duty in Sri Lankan Airlines as ground staff. Today is her first day.
Radha used her cell phone to call Subbu and tell him to lock puja room and keep the key. I also requested him to watch the cook. I gave him the reason for it.
Since the call time was increasing, we gave back the cell phone to the young lady. We went to the inside STD booth. I spoke to Subbu again in detail. Radha spoke to Ashwin.
We boarded the plane at 2020Hrs. The plane was half full only. I and Kavitha got window seats. The dinner served was very tasty, specially the brinjal curry. On enquiring it was found that it was Sri Lankan Airlines catering, Excellent! We took off at 2055Hrs.
We landed at Colombo at 2245HRS(Local time 2315 Hrs). It is a lovely airport, much bigger and better than I imagined. It was drizzling.
Immigration took 15 minutes. We then went to duty free shopping area. It is like a huge Mall! What a range of products!! Liquor complex is huge with a variety of items. Nalin purchased whatever Akka asked him plus we purchased a Red Label Johny Walker. The shop gave him a half bottle SMIRNOFF as compliment.
When we came out of airport, Akka was waiting! It was nearly midnight. We wished her a very happy birthday. The driver, Mr Kumara also was excited to receive us. He is a young man of mid thirties. He served in Army for about 12 years.
The drive took more than one hour. Because, it is Christmas evening lot of shops were open and streets were with some people here and there. All along the 50kms route, there was no patch where there were no shops and houses. Amazing! The roads were very good! The drive was pleasant. At two places, we had seen people coming out of churches after midnight mass.
We landed at house at 0120 Hrs early in the morning. The house of Akka is very beautiful. It is small and yet, very well planned and maintained. The driver kumara is an ex-servicemen who was wounded. He took discharge after 12 ½ years in Army. He is good driver who take cares of his vehicle well. I slept at about 0135 Hrs.
25-12-05 SUNDAY
Today is Christmas day and Akka’s birthday too! I got up at 1720AM. Akka was already up and got neatly dressed up and ready for breakfast. I wished her on her 70th birthday and gave her a greeting card. Radha got up and wished her also on her birthday. She gave the present she brought from Hyderabad.
After sometime, Nalini and Kavitha also got up. We chitchatted for a while. By 0900 Hrs. I was ready and dressed up Radha took a while. We had Sinhalese breakfast with read, butter and boiled rice (red in colour). It was very tasty. The first one tasted like onion chutney.
We all moved out of the house at 1020 Hrs. It was a lunch programme in a Hotel. The name of which was kept as a surprise! We were driven around Colombo and shown:-
Ø Old Parliament
Ø Colombo University
Ø Prime Minister House
Ø Colombo Port
Ø Colombo Radio Station
Ø Important hotels like Galadari , Taj and beach.
We walked along the beach past hotel “ Galle Face” and landed in Hotel “Mount Lavinea” we saw in hotel Galle Face where Akka was married in 1958. Hotel “Mount Lavinea” grand was established in 1806, nearly 200 years old. It is a majestic hotel. Some of the shots of film “ Bridge on the River Kwai” were shot here standing on the hotel at different points gives excellent view of a part of Colombo’s beach line. The following were some of the important dignitaries who stayed in the hotel:-
Ø Jawaharlal Nehru
Ø Indira Gandhi
Ø Alec Guiness
Ø Emperor HiroHito
Ø King of Denmark
Ø Gregorypeck
Ø Bo Derek
Ø Maharaja of Baroda
I rang up Hyderabad and spoke to Subbu. Apparently Cupid is OK! It is a good news. I am still worried about it.
We had very good Sinhalese lunch at hotel “Green Cabin” . The food tasted very well. Radha paid the bill. In the way back home, I purchased liquid boot polish (black) and Radha purchased pretty cock and her hen with egg in basket(3ps) and two foldable hand fans. Kavita bought this dairy and gave it to me for writing the memories of our trip to Sri Lanka! This is the same!!!!
We came home at 1530Hrs. I took rest for two hours. Meanwhile, Nalin’s aunty, Mrs Nirmilee, affectionately called “ “ was there. She came early to help Akka in arranging the house for party in the evening. In the morning, some labourers came and executed a small time shed in front of the house.
As the guests were to come, the caters came and arranged plates, food etc. Akka’s following close relatives come with families:-
1) Lowniama (Eldest Uncle Bachelor)
2) Parakrama mama ( brother of akka)
Priyani -----his wife
Ashani----- his daughter
3) Adrian mama (brother of Akka)
Nirmaliee----Wife
Dinen----Son
Roshan---Son
Erandhi—Daughter
4) Visakka Aunty (Sister akka)
5) Aatchi(Renee)----(Akka’s mamas wife)
Dilky(her daughter)
6) Irmaganie (akka’s mother’s sister
Mr. M B Ratnyaka her husband
7) Mr. Pali Wikama Singhe
8) Brig (Retd) Laxma Rasaputra
Shanti Mala --- his wife
Aparna----his daughter
9) Mr Chandra Basanayake (neighbour) with his wife, sister-in-law and daughter.
10) Mr Sarath Ilangoan and his daughters, Dulhare and Ashwin.
As the evening wore out Mr.Sarath Mangokvan(10) played casio and daughter sang. The mood picked up. Including Akka, Nalini all youngsters started dancing. I also joined the crowd. Song after song….! What a mood it was!! The young girls are so sportive and talented! I loved it. Radha also came to dance “ Raghupati Raghava Rajaram” was also sung.
I had opted for “Arrack” of Colombo. The taste was slightly akin to rum. I enjoyed the drink as well as the party.
We had dinner at 2230 Hrs people were social and nice to talk to. By 2300 Hrs, most of the guests departed. I also retired to bed tat 2330 Hrs.
Aatchi, even at this age of 80 years is so beautiful and gracefully. Some regal!!
26-12-2005 (Monday)
After a good night sleep, got up at 0730 Hrs. It was chilly in the morning unlike yesterday when it was warm and humid. We were ready and had breakfast by 10AM. Bread, Butter were there.
We started at 1105 Hrs to Puttalam. After coming for about 40minutes , akka realized she forgot medicines. So, we went back and picked up medicines. So, again we were on road at 1215Hrs. On the airport road, police stopped our car for over speeding and kumara driving licence was confiscated. On the way, we were trying to get into restaurant for lunch. Probably, due to Christmas yesterday, all eat outs were closed. Luckily, we managed to get some burn and tea at one place.
From there, we proceeded to chilaw and went 1km off the road to Munneswaram Shiva Temple. It is a great temple and ancient too! Like, an of the old temples in Tamil Nadu. It was open thought it was 2:30 pm. Then nearby we went to Kali Temple. The peepal tree here look like 1000 years old. But it was closed. But satellite temples were open. The whole complex is impressive!
After Puttalam, about 8 Kms away, a police check post checked us. Then, we proceeded to shamilce estate, another 12Kms or so. We reached the estate at 1630Hrs Lokmama, Nirmilee and Dinen were there wondering as to what happened to us!
The estate is 50 acres. The house is around 300 meters drive from the entrance gate on the road. Lot of mango and coconut trees along the kuteha path to the house. There is a well with a pump and over head tank about 100 meters infornt of the house. One bull and two cows were tied near the well. One brown dog and two black dongs were there, I had taken bath at well! Nice, warm water. Barking up at us furiously! One Nissan SUV type car(big) and a tractor are there in the garage adjoining the house. The house is big with all amenities. A toilet, Indian type is about 30 meters away. In the house, a twin toilet and bathroom(combined) was close to the Dinning room. Cooking is done on gas, but Kerosene stoves are used as Gas stove was sent for repair.
Nalini, Kavith and Radha went around the estate with Dinen. I stayed back with Loku mama. Later on, with Akka and Nirmilee went upto the main gate and met Nalin and party returning after the tour of the estate.
We had sapotas and Mangoes grown in estate. By the time, it is dark, at 1830 Hrs. Heinken Tin beer was served with snacks. The house is lit by tractor battery through an inverter with energy saving bulbs. No fans are there. The tractor battery gets charged during day twice through solar photoelectric cells! Nice arrangements!!
We had Sri Lankan dinner. It was tasty. By 2130 Hrs, I retired to bed. We had two cots in our room. Kavitha and Nalin slept at one; I and Radha on the other. Radha and others slept at 2230Hrs. All had good sleep.
27-12-2005 (Tuesday)
I got up at 0600 Hrs. went to the outside toilet. I had bath at the well again. Everyone got ready by 0645Hrs and we bade goodbye to all. By 0700 Hrs, we were on the road to Kandy. We had to get back to Puttalam first and then take the road to Kandy. Puttalam has muslim and Tamil population. The lagoon is just touching the town. There are salt pans on the shore!
For breakfast we stopped at Nikeweretiya a hotel called “Moosa Hotel”. It was neat, chapati and vada is available. Apparently, the muslim owner is of either Tamil or Malayalam stock. The service was very good and fast! Everyone enjoyed the breakfast. Nalin and I purchased a pair of Hawaii sandals in the shop next to the hotel. The owner spoke Tamil to one of the helpers. Apparently he is Tamil.
We then stopped at Kurunegala to go to Akkas sister, Visakha’s house to ease and freshen ourselves. The key was taken from the neighbours house. Very pleasant people! After about 10 minutes we left for Kandy. Kurunegal is big town and once Visakhais husband was a magistrate there.
The road to Kandy is very good and we could race the way. After some distance the road was getting repaired at places. The road winds up and it is a lovely scene all the way to Kandy.
Akka was a boarder in Hill wood School in Kandy since she was 4 years old. So is the case with all her brothers, but they were in Kingswood school. There is a big lake in the centre of city. On the banks of the lake, one side is “ Dalda Maligawa”, a buddist temple of Budda’s tooth. It is very serene and large. There is a museum inside the complex. As one comes out of this temple complex, there is a Durga temple called “Deva Pattin” we went and prayed there also. Mean while Kavita took photo of Lord Buddha at top of hill. Nalin also did the same.
Akka’s school is on the slope of hill, overlooking the lake. How lucky she and her brothers were in Kandy during their school years! She used to come from Veyangoda to Kandy by train a two hours journey those days.
We had lunch at government rest house in Paradamiya with local taxes, per plate it was 450/- definitely costly! But it is some status! On the way to Colombo from Kandy, Radha purchased some earthen hangings from road side. We stopped at 1630 Hrs at Nalin’s grandmothers estate in Veyangoda. Parakrama mama and his daughters Aashani were there. It is a lovely 8 acre estate. The house is big and old. Tea was served to us. We saw served to us. We saw Beetle leaf plant there. I had tasted one leaf. It was so pungent and strong. This place is Nalin’s most favourite place! He spent lot of his childhood here and also one year before he left USA in 1987. He is very nostalgic about it. Probably like I am about Manchala.
We started for Colombo at 1730Hrs. We reached home in Colombo by 1945 Hrs. We all hurried up and by 2015 Hrs started to go to Mr. Palis house for dinner. Slightly later, we were joined by his brother, his wife, his son and his Chinese wife. Mr Pali Wikramasinghe gave me 12 old II war books for retention as gift, as he made a promise to me that effect in 2003 when he visited our house in KG. I have not read these books. So I was happy to receive them.
I had scotch and after two large, we had dinner. It was prepared by himself. It was tasty. The curd was served in an eastern pot. It was very tasty. He poured some honey on curd and it was a sweet dish! We all enjoyed dinner and came home by 2230 Hrs. I hit the bed immediately and slept.
28-12-2005 (Wednesday)
Today is a rest day and earmarked for sight seeing Colombo and do shopping. Akka, Radha and Kavitha left at 1030 Hrs after breakfast for shopping. We had idlies for breakfast with coconut chutney. I had 8 idlis and was full. Kumara brought newspaper. I read the paper leisurely and got connected to the world for a change! Then I slept around 1130 AM. Nalin woke me up at 1300 Hrs. It was a nice, deep sleep. I was refreshed well. Akka and party came back. Nalin asked me to come with them minus Akka for further shopping and showing me city. So, Akka remained at home, we all left.
First we went to a mall called “ ARPICO”. It was on the model of GAINT bazaar. We purchased some items. Form there we went to “ODEL” another Mall. But this are fabulous, ethnic and classy. Prices ofcourse are very high!! From here we went to “Lakpahana” where Sri Lanka handicraft items sold. Here also, prices are high. We had no choice. We purchased few items for giving gifts and some decorative items for our house.
We then proceeded to “ Nugenegoda” junction. There is a big shopping complex. Here things are of nominal price. But it was already 4:30 PM. So, we collected some items to eat and decided to visit it again on 01-01-06 for crockery and other purchases.
We rang up Subbu. He told us that cook Laxmi was not sleeping in house during nights. She was making rotis and giving them to feed Cupid. Subbu told cupid is crying at nights. I tired to contact Ashwin on his cell but could not get him. Again I requested Subbu to contact Ashwin and ask him to come in the night and spend some time with cupid. He said he would do so. Later Radha spoke to Puji. She is ok. She will return on 01-01-06 to Hyderabad. I am feeling sorry for cupid fellow.
We came home at 5:30 Pm and had dinner. Akka made some rice with sinisembol and bread rice, parupu (dal), curd it was more than enough but very late to have lunch.
We relaxed for about an hour. We got ready to leave for Maj Gen Ananda’s house. We had sudden visitors.
Ø Visakkha aunty
Ø Ranjith Wikramasinghe (younger brother of Mr Pal)
Ø His wife (first cousin of Akka)
They sat for half an hour. We reached Gen Anande’s house late, as we went at 2015 Hrs. We had half hour for a small scotch. His son and daughter-in-law were to join us at hotel for dinner. We reached hotel “Raja Bojun” opposite hotel “ Cuinamon” (earlier it was Oberio) near port area. We had buffet dinner. Appam, parupu, rice, buttermilksambar and curd. A bit of potato curry and mixed curry were added to attraction. For starters, “bitter lemon” was there. It was tasty I really wonder why India does not have “ginger beer” and “bitter lemon” drinks. They are so tasty!
We bade farewell to Gen Anande & family and reached home at 11 PM. We slept immediately.
29-12-2005 (Thursday)
We got up at 4 AM, we have to start by 5 AM on long journey to south for 3 days. Kumara came at 5 AM. This man is full of energy. He is a good human being apart from being a good driver. There is no wonder that he is like a member of our family, like by one and all! I also like him immensely.
We proceeded at 0545 Hrs via the coast “Galle” road saw the Tsunami damage all along. Many places are being rebuilt with Japanese of NGO’s help. The place where the train track was uprooted vertically and thrown was kept intact. The train in which people took shelter hoping they would be safer, was removed. One railway bridge is already rebuilt. Many of the coastal houses(private) are already remade/ partly built by owners. Still the portions which were damaged houses are left as such. Probably not worth refurbishing! It is really sad! Nearly 30,000 people were killed! Nalin came in Feburary in Sri Lankan airline and saw first land the tsunami damage and video filmed it. We saw that in India in Oct 05. I could make out the areas. As Nalin was explaining all along!
Kumar’s wife and son were waiting at “ Galle” bus stand. We had all breakfast at a hotel in Bus stand. We passed by the “Galle” fort, which was built by Dutch. Tsunami by passed the fort and caused damage to the town. Here also, some of the damaged houses are left unattended and some are being reconstructed. While we were going to Matara, Our car was hit from behind by a local bus. In fact. I was sitting in the dicky of the car at that time. I could see the driver of the bus making to effort to stop the bus, as kumara pulled our car to the side for stopping it. The bus was straight heading on to me I thought I would be rammed inside. In voluntarily, I took a defencsive position, bracing against the back side of the back rest of the back seat. And then came the bus at to me!! During those second I shouted thrice in Telugu. The car was pushed after the bus has rammed and again pushed after a second or two. The car was damaged on the left side dicky bumper. We stopped and got out. Kumara was unhappy and visibly upset. He took the driver of the bus with him to the police station in Weligama. Meanwhile we called on cell Brig Rasaa mame (Retd) who was working in near by place in solidire tyre factory. He came to our place immediately in a police station in Weligama. He and I left for the police station in his car to check what was happening to kumara and the other driver. Brig went inside police station and came out saying that kumara and bus driver left. He told that since no one was injured in the accident, there was no necessity for registering the accident. The insurance people only are to he informed for getting the compensation. Kumara already informed the insurance person and he asked kumara to bring the vehicle to Matara. Brig Raasa invited all of us to go to his place at Weligama. So, we went to his place and we had tea in his office. We took leave of him and reached Matara by 12 noon. The insurance chap came after 15mins and he took some details. We left Matara at 1230 PM. On the way, we had lunch at a road side small dhaba at 3Pm. The name of the dhaba is …….and the owners name is ……we had buffet lunch. Such a small joint! She made Onion chutney as well as coconut grating on the spot. The food was very tasty. I purchased beetel leaf and nut. I had taken them. As we were approaching Hanamtota, we saw many road side stalls selling curd in pots. We stopped at one of them and had two pots! I enjoyed the tasty, thick curd with three helpings. Soon after, we stopped at a sea shore as the road would go away from shore then as, and had a symbolic sea bath, wetting parts of the body with sea water. The beach is pristine, clean and the current of waves is strong!
We reached Tissarea Maharama town at 1645 Hrs. Lo! What a lovely and exquisite reservoir! Such a huge & lovely one, with a small island in the centre. The main road is by the side of the tank on the southern side. On the other side of the road is 2300 years old. Buddha Vihara(called Tissa Vihara)! This was build by the King Veena Tissa in 251 BC!!
On the banks of this lake, we stayed in a tourist rest hotel, by Ceylon Corporation Ltd., Room No. 54 and 55. This has good open parking lot with a spacious entry lounge, aesthetically done. There is a bar on the side with a T.V nearby and a swimming pool on the other side. A little away, is the reservoir abutting the hotel. What a lovely setting the rooms are in Annexe in 3 levels. Or rooms are in second level. The drivers rest rooms were away a few meters to the north.
After a quick bath, we all started to “Kathargama” and by 2045 Hrs we reached Kathargama. We parked our car and walked along the Banks of river Maneik Ganga and crossed the bridge on the river. We saw a “Sivan Temple” and a Muslim Dargha on the right side. We proceeded to Lord Shanmuga’s (Subramanya’s) temple beyond it is “Kirivihara” an ancient Buddha Vihara. We prayed there by pouring oil in 7 lamps and lighting them. After a few minutes, we went to Lord Subramanya temple. There are two temples at tanden, one is Vinyaka and the other for Subramanaya. After prayers, we did some shopping…..1/2 kg Jaggery (Palm tree) Dharmachakra with Lord Buddha etc.
I had king coconut water. It is so we had herbal tea. Then, on the way to Trissara Maharama, we stopped at a road side hotel, “ Sisila “ for dinner. We ordered Vegetarian food. After a wait of 45 minutes, we were served dinner. It was homely and tasty dinner. People there were hospitable. After such tasty dinner. We set course to our tourist hotel in Tissasa Maharama. At Tissa, arrangement were made to hire land rover, packed breakfast and packed lunch for the next days trip to “Yala Natural Park. We slept at 2200Hrs.
30-12-2005(Friday)
We got up at 4 AM. Quickly, we got ready by 5 AM. We were served Tea in the lounge. Packed breakfast was ready by 5:30AM. We were getting late, since the driver of land rover was still getting the packed lunch ready. Atlast, we set course to Yala natural park at 0545 Hrs, it is 35 minutes drive. We reached the park at 0620 Hrs. the ticket for Sri Lankan is Rs.28/- where as for a foreigner it is Rs.1500/-. Nalin paid Rs 5100/- for all of us.
There was a shortage of tourist guides. Hence, five vehicles were given one guide. we went with another four vehicles inside the park. Our driver, Sarath was very helpful and he has ample knowledge of the park and birds. He drove us around the park showing us many of its habitat.
Ø Birds – Kingfisher
Ø Painted stork
Ø Pelican
Ø Spoon Bill
Ø Ibis
Ø Cormorant
Ø Open bill stork
Ø Crocodiles
Ø Mangoose
Ø King Mangoose (huge one)
Ø Iguana
Ø Spotted deer
Ø Stag
Ø Sambar
Ø Wild boars
Ø Peacocks
Ø Jungle foul
Ø Elephants, calves
Ø Wild buffaloes
Even after 3 or 4 rounds, we could not see Leopards or black bears.
At 0900 AM, we went to seashore and saw the Tsunami effected restaurant where 40 tourists were down to death. A memorial to there has come up. It is sad recollection of events of Tsunami day last year. We had breakfast here. By 11AM we reached the Maneik Ganga (down stream of Katharagama). Plenty of shade is available as it shore. The water is calf deep only. At a place or two it was knee deep. But the current is strong.
Radha, Akka, Kavitha and I took bath. Nalin was taking photos. There was only one Norwegian lady, apart from us. She was walking on the shore or at the edges of the river. She came to Sri Lanka via India. In India, she visited Banaras, Rajasthan and Mumbai.
After an hour or so, we came out of the river. A British family of a wife, husband, a daughter and son came. The son was working for daily mirror in Colombo. His mother and sister are teachers in London.
Then at 1300 Hrs, we had lunch around this time came a bus load of tourist and the river side became crowded. So we left the river at 1330 Hrs, instead of 1430 Hrs, as planned. Since it was hot and afternoon, we could not find Leopard or bear any where. We where disappointed. By 4 PM, we returned to the office and set course to Kirinda. Here, we saw again Tsunami effected village with many houses and shops damaged. The ultimate was a naval vessel which was aground in sand. Behind it is a big sand dune formed due to Tsunami. At Kirinda bus stand we had tea. Then we, climbed a rock to visit Buddha temple. Lo! What a sight from here!! An excellent panoramic sea view!! The sea shore is like a Bow turning around the rock. A vast expanse of sea…sea and….sea …Everyone took pictures of it. One should spend an hour or so here. The image of Lord Buddha is so beautiful that we were wondering who could have sculpted it. It is the best statue interms of beauty, we have seen so far. There are also statutes of Lord Ganesh and Goddess Laxmi around there.
We then, came back to the tourist hotel in Tissa Maharama. We had bath and freshened ourselves. We then proceeded to Buddha Vihara, Tissara. Here, as I was getting out of the rear seat, I was hold up the front doors top matching body part to get leverage out of car, Akka closed the front door. All my four fingers tips (other than thumb) of right hand got Jammed. Akka immediately opened the door. The pain is awful and excruciating. I put the fingers in the mouth and kept sucking them. It did not help. The level of pain was increasing. Meanwhile, Nalin and Kavita ran to an ice cream vendor opposite the street to fetch ice from him. He had no ice. So, the got two ice cream cone and Nalin forced me to put my fingers into the ice cream. The pain increased multifold and I was writing. Nalin forcibly took my palm and forced it an to one cone and place the other cone on to top of my fingers. Sand witching my injured fingers between two ice creams! Mean while, a vegetable vendor came and she left 3 packets of vegetable with us and ran for ice, little away. What a concern she has for a fellow human being! She came back running holding two pieces of ice in her bare palm!! Incredible I placed the ice on my injured fingers. By now, the ice in the ice cream cone started melting and with the result, my fingers could go into the hollow cone. By rotation, each finger was inserted and held for some time. During the whole process, I had gone through hell! The pain’s definition was new. The Zenith of it is indescribable. I just could not bear it. But for Nalin’s insistence and force. I would not have gone through this treatment. Good! He forced it one me. After about half an hour, the pain slowly reduced, but not fully gone. I started the massaging the fingers with the left hand continuously.
We visited the Buddha Vihara and prayed. Its circumference is 552 feet and maximum height is 180 feet. The scared left hand tooth and a bone from forehead are scared relies here. There is a Neem tree with one side leaves tasting sweet and the other side bitter. We, then went for APPAM to Katharagama all the way. We had APPA here in small joint. I had nearly 10 and Kavitha had 10. They are so tasty, it is difficult to stop eating them. After dinner we came to the rest house hotel and slept by 11 PM.
Nalin went to the lobby and settled the bill. It was Rs.13,300/- including next day’s morning tea. One tea is Rs 100/-. So costly, is the hotel. Nalin paid earlier to sarath, the land rover driver Rs 5000/- for the vehicle used for safari. It has been costly trip for Nalin! We owe him a lot for all this!!
31-12-2005(Saturday)
We got up early in the morning at 0500 HRS and got ready by 0600 Hrs. we had morning tea and started back at 0630 Hrs. we are coming Colombo by different route ie., via Ratnapura. We stopped at “Udawalaew” reservoir for taking photos. It is a huge lake, so scenic. We then drove to Undawalan tours and had breakfast in a road side restaurant. It is neat and tidy. After a sumptuous breakfast. We headed towards Ratnapura.
On the way, we stopped to eat boiled maize. It is tasty, Kavitha purchased some wooden ladles. All long the right side of the road. We found a fencing to prevent wild elephants coming into villages on the other side of the road. We saw an elephant or two enroute.
We stopped at another road side joint to have tea, as Kumara is tired and sleepy. Here we saw rubber plantations. Before it, near and around Ratnapura, we saw tea gardens
We proceeded further and took the road to Colombo via Nugegoda. At….... from Prasanna hotel on road side. We picked up packed lunch. It is small restaurant but clean and neat. Behind are the lovely lush green paddy fields. How exotic is Sri Lanka and its green!! Fabulous!!! It is a land of plenty. It is God’s own land. No doubt about it.
We came home by 1300 Hrs and had the lunch. By 1500 Hrs, all of us slept. We got up by 1730 Hrs and got ready by 1945 Hrs to go to dinner in hotel “Madura”, for Dosa and idli. It is small south Indian hotel. (Madras woodlands). Each of us ordered a different type of Dosa and total 4 idlis. we had gulabjamoon for dessert. It was a tasty dinner Kavitha purchased new shoes for her new year dance party at Hotel. “Mount Laviniya” on the beach. Nalin and Kavitha purchased two dance tickets for the new year party. We dropped both of them near the hotel at 2230 Hrs.
We rang up Ashwin and Pujitha. Pujitha came today from Viayanagaram. We suggested to them to go to RSI for new year party. Ashwin did not visit KG and looked at cupid as per Pujitha. I did not want to ring up Subbu. If cupid is not doing well, I would feel bad and sad the next two days. Hence, I did not ring up him
We came home and slept at 1130 Hrs Pm. Today is the last day of the year 2005.
01-01-06 (Sunday)
Today is New years day. We got up at 0830 Hrs. Akka was already up. We wished each other “ Happy New Year”. Akka told us that Nalin and Kavita came home only at 0530 Hrs, early in the morning from the New year party.
Nalin got up at 0900 Hrs. we had breakfast at 0930 Hrs. we chit chatted leisurely for the first time since a week!! It has been a very hectic week….getting up early in the morning and going around to a place! Leisure was not in our vocabulary last week. How relaxed are we now.
Today is etched in our memory as the best New Year dawn! What a satisfying and lively week before the year 2005 ended!! And how New Year 2006 dawned peacefully and leisurely!! Peak to Normal.
Kumara came at 11 AM Radha and Kavitha went around 1130 AM for shopping in Nugegoda shopping complex. They returned around 1400 Hrs after purchasing crockery, suit case, clapping chick, chime wind, cereal bowls, tea, chappals, appa pan. We all had lunch then. Before they returned, Akka gave me cold beer can “Heinken”. It was chilled beer. The lunch is of 5 course plus curd. Vegetarian ice cream was the dessert. The lunch was very tasty.
We then slept till 5 PM. we had guests. Akka’s first cousin (her mother’s sister daughter) from Anuradhapura came with her son, daughter and son-in-law.
Ø Daisy
Ø Martin (son)
Ø Malathi- (Daughter)
Ø Laith(son- in - law)
They invited us to Anuradhapura. We promised to go over there during our next visit to Sri Lanka. They left around 1730 Hrs.
Akka did some watering of plants. Kavitha tried her hand. By 1800 Hrs, Kumara came. We left the house at 1830 Hrs to Nawala, Buddha Vihara very near to this temple, Akka used to stay earlier till 2000. She purchased Nugegoda house then and moved in the temple area is on the main road side bit has a rural look Once one enters the complex. An old Peepal tree is there at one end and at the other end, is the idol of Lord Buddha, so serene!
Akka introduced us to one of the monks here. We had a photo with him. After a while, we moved out to Parakrama mamas house. It is an upstairs portion. They served three types of sweets. All were tasty. We had then ice coffee! We were given some gifts by them. From here, we moved to Aldian mamas house. Here, Visakha aunty was also there. We had again some sweets and papaya juice. Practically we are full and there is no place for dinner.
We came home at 2100 Hrs Akka, Kavitha and Nalin had dinner. I and Radha skipped dinner Nalin, Akka and I had Johny walker red label. I went to bed at 2200 hrs. Kavitha and Radha spent some more time before going to bed.
Today is the penultimate day in Sri Lanka. How time has passed! It was like yesterday we came here!! It was so hectic and racy, it is difficult to digest all we went through these 8 days!!! Probably, during the next 10days or so, the whole thing will sink in like a slow motion movie.
New Year started very well! I hope we have such nice day all along 365 days this year!!
02-0106 (Monday)
I got up at 0700 Hrs. it is cloudy. I saw the birds coming and taking the food Akka gives them daily. They had then taken water in the other bowl. If it is a daily routine for Akka feeding the birds early in the morning! Akka is a such a full personality, I admire her! We don’t come across such people normally. We are lucky that we know her and are related to her.
We had a relaxed morning! There was a call from Gen. Anande Surya Bandara saying that he would be coming over by 0830 by walk to bid farewell to us. It is nice of him to do so! We dropped him at Nugegoda shopping complex.
We purchased one CD and two cassettes (Bailas). We then went to Dr Nalin’s dispensary. Dr. Nalin is an young middled aged handsome man.. He is into Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Naturopathy, Acupuncture apart from being an Allopatheic doctor. He is erudite and well mannered. It is good to have met him.
We came home and had lunch at 12 Noon. BY 1230 PM. we set course to Airport. On the way, we dropped in at Pranits house. It is located in scenic surroundings. His mother and sister, who reside in the adjacent house also came. After about half an hour, we left for airport.
We bade farewell to Akka. She was so hospitable, she came along with us everywhere though she had been to these places ad nauseum. She made our trip to Sri Lanka memorable. We also bade farewell to Kumara.
We got into the flight at 1830Hrs, took off at 1845 Hrs and landed in Hyderabad at 2015 Hrs. we took a taxi and came home by 2200 Hrs.
My Impressions of SRI LANKA
I observed the following all the 8 days I spent in Sri Lanka crisscrossing the country. These are not the expectations, but are normal, probably, in comparison with Indian at subconscious level.
1) There is an orderly traffic.
2) Most of the cars (99%) are mid size or large size, (1.6 L to 2.5 L) and are of Japanese make i.e, Nissan, Toyoto.
3) Public Transport is not much visible. But the vehicles are of Ashok Leyland or TATA make
4) There is no gender bias or discrimination. Girls and women move freely. They dress as they like.
5) Women are beautiful. Traditional girls dress; Lungi and shirt is elegant.
6) People are simple, courteous. I have not seen any shouting or quarrel or affray.
7) There are no beggers in Sri Lank, even at places of worship. Only two beggers were seen in Colombo ! during my 8 days.
8) Colombo is like any European capital! Its beach is so clean and neat! Young boys and girls and couples cuddle and sit all along the beach. No indecency or obscenity. So natural it is.
9) Policemen are absent on the streets. Hardly one sees a policeman anywhere! It is as if there is no job for them anywhere except in police stations!!
10) Even in road side eat outs the people are friendly, caring and courteous.
11) The cost of living is high. I don’t know how common man lives! But they seem to live happily. Amazing I must spend at least a month to know the secret!!
12) Most of the companies here are Pvt Ltd or proprietory.
13) All the Buddha temples have Vishnu or Laxmi or Shamugha satellite temple inside the complex.
14) The roads are meant for traffic, not for humans crisscrossing or walking on them. Cattle is not seen on the roads, most unlike India. Driving in Sri Lanka is pure delight.
15) The family ties are like in India. They are well knit and bonded.
16) People, generally, like India.
17) I would love to go to Sri Lanka, if not every year atleast once in two years and enjoy its natural beauty, simplicity and multiethnic culture!
18) Indians need to learn a lot from Sri Lanka.
TRIP TO CHAR DHAM ( YATRA) FROM 12-5-07 TO 26-5-07
12-05-07
Radha and I packed & left home at13:35Hrs to Sri Laxmi pinnammas house to pick her up enroute to Airport. In Apollo dispensary, I purchased medicines for 15 days.(DILZEM & BETALOC). I took auto near Apollo pharmacy and reached Pinnamma house at 14:10Hrs. In the same auto I and pinnamma reached Air port at 15:05Hrs We were the first to reach Airport Bhamu & Meenakshi reached at 15:20Hrs and other members of party reached 10minutes later. The flight was on Scheduled. Sure it is a cheaper rate of travel, the coffee, food etc are to be purchased. I paid Rs100/- . We reached Bhubaneshwar after 1Hr 10minutes.
Bhubaneshwar is a small airport. About 60 people got down & about 40 boarded here for Delhi. We reached Palam at 20:40hrs. Mr. Srinivas Rao’s son came to receive us at Palam Airport. He took us to his house in Dwarka. It is nice of him to accommodate all of us.
We had Upma & Dosas for dinner ! They were tasty. We had Coffee too . Their two Children were also awake we slept around 12 mid night.
13-05-07 ( Sunday )
We all got up at 0330 AM. With two bathrooms, One by one, we could be ready by 0500 Hrs. Nice& hot coffee was given twice by the house lady. It is very nice of them to host all of us.
The vehicle came at 0510Hrs. We all reached New Delhi Railway station before half hour of ETD . We settled down in our seats & had a comfortable journey up to Haridwar. It was Shatabdi Express
From Hardwar Railway station we engaged to 7 seater autos. They dumped us. They took us upto 3kms outskirts of Hardwaravi and told us to get down, as they could not ply upto Rikshikesh ! What a cheating !Luckily we managed to get an auto ( 7 seater). We squeezed and reached Rishikesh ( 24 kms) away.
As we had arranged much earlier, the accommodation was immediately
provided by Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam ( GMVN). (Uttaranchal Tourism Deptartment). The Accommodation was good and the food in the restaurant also was good.
We Visited Andhra Aashram Venkateshwara temple and Chandrasekharaswamy temple.
14.02.2007 (Monday)
We got two Ambassador Cars. We started after taking coffee and breakfast. We took the journey starting from Dehradun. Dhalwala is 18Kms. This is on hill side. Tall trees (30’ High) are on both sides of the road. The road is wide and in good condition. Shivalic hills are continuous and of low height.
Joligrant – 15 km from Rishikesh. Here
new airport for whole Uttaranchal State is coming up here.
Dehrudun
Raipur road -town (big enough)
Doon school ,secretariat, CM’s house and Raj Bhavan are on this road. We had breakfast after Dehradoon (21Kms) at Dharmender..Tasty parathas and coffee were ordered. The road to Mussourie is like an easy ride without many hair pin bends. The road is wide and well laid from a distance, Mussorie looks like a wide spread town, which it is !! Kempty falls is about 20 Km away. Kempty falls is very picturousque. There is a rope way down to 3 swimming pools, where people take bath and do swimming. We saw plenty of them. Bhanu took few photos.
Yamuna bridge is a link between two hills. Yamuna is joined by the two rivers at Nayanbagh. It is a small town with 100 houses.
All people wear caps, yamuna flows next to it by 100 ft down. We stopped at Damta, Uttarkashi District at 1310 Hrs. Everyone had two stuffed parathas each. Pinnamma did not have lunch as she was full of breakfast. The route from Mussorie is good, but for about 10 kms patch before Damta. At two places there were traces of heavy land slides. In fact, this road is following yamuna river upstream. We finished light lunch at 1340 Hrs and started again.Bhanu brought bananas. I had one, it was more raw.
Reached Naogoan at 1435 Hrs. There is a petrol pump. We put Diesel in the car, before Naogoan, there is a small water fall. Collected water (very cold) in empty bottles. The vehicles battery was over charging. The driver stopped the vehicle at Barkot, a fairly big town, for repair of alternator and cut out. From 1500 to 1610 Hrs, we spent here near the car. We had tea and pinnamma had coffee. We started at 1610 for Syanchatti, our night halt point which is 32Kms away. The rooms are new and good.
We found pure ghee for using along with chutnies and rice. The food was very good. Curd was very tasty. After a little chit chat, we had dinner at 2030 Hrs. we retired to bed at 2100 Hrs and slept well. It was chilly and cold. We had to cover ourselves with woolen blankets.
It is from Barkot the road to Yamunotri starts winding its way along the banks of Yamuna. Barkot is an important town of this area.
15-05-2007 (Tuesday)
We got up at 0500 Hrs and had hot water for bath. Water, otherwise was very cold (icy). So, excuse shaving for these 10days! I don’t think so!!Old habbits die hard.
I had Aloo paratha for breakfast and started for the first leg of the Yatra, YAMUNOTRI. The whole village, Sayanchatti was full of vehicles; come for yamunotri. At least 4000 people must have halted for the night. Our car driver suggested that at Hanumanchalti we may not get jeeps due to excessive number of pilgrims. Hence, he got us a jeep from here only. We reached Hanuman chatti by 9 AM. From here we proceeded to Janaki chatti. We engaged Dolis for all of us. All the carriers of dolies were Nepalis.
The 5 Kms stretch to Yamunotri is very steep at points, mainly steep all along. The road is 8’ wide mostly, but at some stretches it is 6 feet wide only. On the side of the valley, arresters (wide iron grills) were constucted at most places. At few places these arresters were missing. It is really dangerous at these points.
Its amazing how on this stretch of road, these is two way traffic compromising of ponies, dolies, pittu (a single man carrying basket on his back with rope supported by forehead like in Tea gardens) and humans by walk. It is really amazing how this small narrow path can accommodate such to and fro traffic? Any American/westerner will be shocked and it will be introduced as a subject/case study in MITs or premium Management Colleges like Wharton,Harvard etc. Like Dabbawalas of Bombay who were appreciated by Prince Charles! It is definitely a case of study worth to be studied by our IITs and IIMs.
Suryakund is the most important hot water spring. Rice and potatoes, tied loosely in a cloth, if dipped in it , after few minutes, they are cooked.
Though it is only 5 Kms distance, it is very strenuous and what an ugly sight to watch a fat, well to do man like me being carried by four poor fellows for their living!! It is really shameful. All through the uphill journey I was feeling so! Even Bhanu and pinnamma felt the same! When will India give its people honourable, decent work life so that people can live with dignify and not like animals.
The ponies are 99.9% female. . I don’t know the reason. There must be a reason. It is a food for thought!
The entire administration of Yamunotri is with pandas from village kharsali, on the banks of yamuna, near jankibaichatti.
The mountains are snow filled. I could see them upto 12000ft hight. The snow was there upto 10,000ft..
Near the temple, there are hot water springs. Men and women have different bath points, but we preferred to take bath in flowing yamuna. Pinnamma took 5 minutes bath, where as Bhanu and I hardly could take 2 minutes bath, as water was icy cold. Later we had Goddess yamuna darshan at the temple, next door.
We had lunch in a hotel there. Because of the heigh altitude (10400ft), rice and dal cannot be cooked properly. We had Jilebi also. Meenakshi was not feeling well. Hence, she took only Jilebi and a bit of rice and dal. (so called rice and dal,were semi cooked.).
While coming down the doli fellows brought us down in an hour, where as it took . 21/2 Hrs while going up. Otherwise it will take 4 to 5 Hrs, if one walks.
We reached Sayanchatti at 1630 Hrs. we were all tired. I felt I had sun stroke! Bhanu gave me paracetamol forcibly!! We had early dinner at 7PM. Bhanu and pinnamma carried podis, gongura, vusirikaya and tomoto chutnies.With ghee and rice ordered, it was a good meal! Bhanu went and rang up Radha and told everything was ok.
The small village of Gangotri is full of giant deodars and conifers. Temple of Ganga is on the banks of Bhagiradhi. This temple was constructed by Gorkha General, Amar singh Thapa. He appointed pandas of Mukhwa as pujaris and donated the entire forest land between Mukhwa and Gangotri to the temple.
16-05-2007 (Wednesday)
We started at 0630Hrs. Before that I had paratha with curd. We had breakfast at kharadi. We reached Uttarkashi at 1145 Hrs. It is like a city so big!! It is district HQ.
We reached jhala t 1545 Hrs where we had lunch. The scenic beauty enroute is really enthralling. One hydroelectric dam is coming up near Gangotri. Hence,lot of material and road work was right on the road.. Patel Engg Co & L & T equipments and personnel were seen. Even GREFF people are seen.
The snow clad mountains are simply too mesmerising! Many cliffs were snow clad .. Bhanu had taken photos. We reached Bhaironghatti at 1700 Hrs. There was a bit of drizzle and rain enroute.
The travel to Gangotri was more sceneric and lovely than of yamunatri. The curves were sharp at may places. Since road is being widened , blasting was also there.Due to this, rubble was lying on road; there by narrowing the place for movement.
It is believed that a holy dip in Ganga at Gangotri cleanses all sins.
Tomorrow, we have to start early in the morning and go to Gangotri.
Bhaironghati has no electric supply and telephone facility. It is at a height of 9000ft. Due to rain that afternoon,the night was very cold. DG supply was given upto 10 PM and thereafter hurricane lanterens were kept, one for each room. Even at this remote place, the food was made as per order and it was very tasty. The staff were very courteous! Since we had only one room with closet, it was used by all in the night!
The lawn of the guest house was well maintained. The staff promised to wake us at 0530 next day along with bed tea. Hot water also was promised by 0600AM. We slept by 10 PM.
Gangotri
Temple is administered by 5 members; Tehsildar of area, grampradhan of Makhwa and Dharali villages and two leading sanyasis of Gangotri.
17-05-2007 (Thursday)
We started at 0700 Hrs to Gangotri. Since it is only 8 Kms, we could reach before 0745 Hrs. Enroute the scenary is fabulous. Snow covered peaks of Himalayas were visible throughout the journey. At one point, the snow covered peak had a black triangular place, looking like a shiva lingam. Bhanu took many photos..
The vehicle could go upto 11 Kms and had to be parked ¾ Km before the temple and bathing ghat. Like old days in Tirumala, shops are on both sides of 6’ to 7’ road. Every thing is systematic and orderly. Restaurants are clean and neat. Even there is dosa and idli Restaurtant. Pinnamma and meenakshi had dosas. Dosas were tasty. They are double the size of Hyderbad variety, only for rs 30/- each. I had Alu paratha and tea.
There were 3 STD/ISD telephone booths. Bhanu, Meenakshi spoke to Suma (at 8AM). Pinnam,ma spoke to Krishna Mohan. My house telephone was unanswered, probably Radha could be in bathroom or out of house.
We went to bathing ghat which is well constructed. The water is colder than in yamuanotri. Pinnamma had 5 minutes bath; where as, Bhanu, self and meenakshi managed to wet ourselves. The flow was fast indeed!. We had to take bath with the help of a mug, as the current was very strong.
While returning, we visited temples of Gowri Shanker, Ganesh and Ganga..
I again tired for Radha at K.G. since the phone is not being picked up, I tried her cell number. Radha told me she came to Pujis place as puji was still not well. Niece, Dr Phani ,suspected Janudice. Treatmentwas started. Poor puji! She has been suffering since 08.05.07!!
We had come back to Bhairangghatti by 1030 Hrs. we finished lunch at 12 mid day and started for uttarkashi for night halt. The journey was non eventful. We reached uttarkashi by 4:30 PM. The accomadation was very good. It is a suite with two rooms.
We went by walk to Sri Kashi Vishwanath temple. It is old and spacious. While returing, we rang up the helicopter service near Gupta Kshi. The fare is Rs 7,500/- per head (to and fro). We booked for it. The helipad is at Falta, 14 Kms from Gupta Kashi. It is a private service, from New Delhi. We were also told that at Agastyamuni, 27 Kms before Guptakashi, Pawan hans also has helicopter service. So we decided to touch Agastyanumi and find about the service, tomorrow on our way.
We had rice only for dinner. With that we mixed podis and chutnies and had curd in the end.
For the first time in 4 days, I had seen T.V. It was so peaceful without T.V and newspaper all these fourdays!
18-05-2007(Friday)
Got wake up call at 0400 HrsAM. I gave Bhanu Rs 5000/- towards helicopter fare .We started at 0610 Hrs to Gupta Kashi. We had breakfast at a small town.. we saw the Tehri Dam on the way to Sri Nagar. The road is very good. We reached Sri Nagar at 1300 Hrs, but proceeded to Rudraprayag for lunch. But at 1420 Hrs, 3 Kms short of Rudraprayag. We had lunch in a way side Dhabha. Curd was very good here.
In Sri Nagar, we passed Gharwal university. This seems to be a bigger town than Uttarkashi. At Rudra prayag, rivers Mandakini and Alaknanda merge and flows down as one river, ALAKNANDA. So there are two roads from here; one road following river Alaknanda upstream and reaches Badrinath .The second road follows Mandakini upstream upto Kedarnath. We took this road as we have to go to Kedarnath tomorrow. Short of Gupta Kashi, at Agastyamuni we enquired about Helicopter services to Kedarnath. We were informed that on 18.05.07, only one BELL helicopter they have is an 100 Hrs servicing and hence there would not be any services an 18.05.07 and an 19.05.07. All the flights for further days are booked.
So we proceeded to Guptakashi where we have the accommodation for 17.05.07 and 18.05.07. Immediately we proceeded to Phata to book tickets from the PRABHATAM helicopter service (14Kms) for tomorrow’s trip.
Since we booked for 6 persons, air reservation was confirmed for the first flight at 0630 Hrs. we were to report to helipad at 0545 Hrs. we got the two ladies.Mrs Srinivasa Rao and Mrs Eashwarudu manifested with four of us. The names of Mr. Srinivasa Rao and Mr Eashwarudu were included in the waiting list.
We came back to the guest house. We had shared the hot water for bath, as the manager could not provide hot water to all of us. Then Bhanu and I went to town(Guest House is ½ km away ) and rang up Suma and Radha. I tried pujita’s cell number but the connection was not made… I tried Radha’s cell, the same problem. Lastly, I got KG number and spoke to Radha. Puji was in KG. She had Jaundice. She was sleeping . so Radha did not wake her up.
The guest house was overflowing with visitors. The two workmen could not cope up with the rush, but somehow managed to give us rice, dal and curd. We took our meals by 9 PM and retired to bed. There are two ranges of mountains that can be clearly seen from guest house, which are snow clad. It is a beautiful sight to watch!
From Phata, by helicopter,we can see dense green forests and waterfalls from Gaurikund to Rambara. From Rambara,, the sceneray changes dramatically. The mountains are steep, stark and generally bare. Small plants with different colours can be seen. The sight of kedarnath is an enchanting.. The temple is set in rich grassy land with towering snoh clad mountains all around..
19.05.2007(Saturday)
He woke up by 3 AM.. There was no hot water available. So, we had cold water bath. We all were ready by 0430AM. We started at 0450 Hrs and reached helipad in PHATA at 0515 Hrs. The office was not open. By 0545 Hrs, the office staff came and we finished all formalities i.e., writing our full names and addresses, telephone numbers and each ones weight was also checked.
We had tea from a way side stall next to the office. At 0610 Hrs, we took off from chetak helicopter. The pilot is an ex- airforce guy. He was pleasant. We exchanged nice pleasantries. He asked my permission for take off! With me pinnamma and Meenakshi came in the same chopper. The ride was pleasant. As we flew in valley, we could see Gaurikund and Rambara and the 14 Km trek road to Kedarnath. Since it was flying low we could see the ponies, dolies, men walking on the road clearly. We reached Kedarnath in 15 minutes!! Otherwise, by walk it would take 4 Hrs by Dollie.
Pinnamma and Meenakshi used pittu (a man carrying a basket on his back) to reach the temple (3/4 km from helipad). Rs100/- was paid per person.
Kedarnath is a magnificent place, surrounded by snow covered mountains with Mandakini river flowing next to it. The temple is impressive and ancient too. Meanwhile, Bhanu and other came in the Bell helicopter. In my helicopter, there was an young father of 4 years son and an year old daughter with an young wife. His name is Chowdhary. He is from Jaipur. He was scared of flying; he was tensed up. He had high B.P. I advised him to do deep breathing. He was seated next to the pilot. I sat in the last seat. So, I took his hand into mine and kept reassuring him that everything would be alright. I also told him to close his eyes if he was scared. After landing, he profusely thanked me. He touched my feet and made his son to do so . I invited him to Hyderabad and be my guest.
All our group engaged pandits to do abhishekam in temple. Rs 760/- is the cost of puja and material per head. There was lot of rush. Since we came by helicopter, we had VIP entrance, but it was jostling all the way into sanctum Sanctorum. Ghee is poured on the lingam. Pinnamma and I were in one batch. Pandit recited 3 or 4 slokas and lo! the abhishekam was over!!
The lingam is in the shape of hump of a bull. We could touch and feel it. It is worth all the travel! I managed to recite Shiv panchakshari and Mrutyunjaya japam.
Immediately after the puja, we went to Adishankara charyas Samadhi, behind the temple. There was only a caretaker taking care of the Samadhi. Next to Samadhi, statue of Adishankara is there. We prayed there.How
could a man in a short life span of 32 years travel across India innumerable number of times and preach Advaita philosophy!! He must be a God incarnate.
We then came back to helipad by 0900 Hrs. There were lot of people waiting to get back Phata. Our turn came at 1050 Hrs. I and other 4 ladies of our party got into chetak and came back to Phata by 1110 Hrs. Bhanu and others came by 1130 Hrs.
We were told by our car drivers that from Sonmarg to Gowrikund there was traffic jam and hence we better not go to Gowrikund. So, we came back to our guest house in Guptakashi by 1210 Hrs. we ordered simple lunch. There were no one in the guest house. Apparently all would have gone to Kedarnath!
We had lunch by 1310 Hrs and retired to our rooms for a few hours rest. I hardly could sleep, as I had severe cold. Others slept upto 1630 Hrs. It was drizzling and hence we waitied.
We took the cas and went out to the town and prayed in Kashi Vishwanath temple. It is an ancient temple. Arthanareshwara temple also is there in this temple complex. Pinnamma managed to climb so many steep steps.
On the way down, I rang up Radha and spoke to Puji. She sounded very weak. . She has been running fever since 08.05.07. Radha assured me that Dr Phani (niece) was prescribing medicines.
We came back to guest house and had a very tasty simple dinner. Ladies finger vegetable was very tasty. We cleared the bills at 9 PM and watched national DD for news.
20-05-07(Sunday)
We started at 0610 to Badrinath. We took a shorter route than longer Rudraprayag route . The sceneric beauty is enchanting. This route is not widely used! Hence, it is prestine and has a total forest look. From Kund, we took diversion,to a place called Chapta (9200). What a view it is from here.! Valley is so deep and covered with clouds. It is like old Patni top!! We had breakfast here. There is a cute white little pup with an young dog giving company. I gave the pup biscuits. It could not take it. I then, made biscuit powder. It took a bit. The bigger one kept eating biscuit after biscuit and meanwhile two more dogs came. I also fed them. Meanwhile , pleanty of crows flocked and landed near us. So far, we did not see a single crow in these mountains all these days!.so many of them came from no where. I wanted to feed them too. When asked, the dhaba man said that they would love to eat kurkure and biscuits! Amazing!! So I purchased a kurkure packet and left the kurkure in open. Same in the case with biscuits. All the crows fluttered and picked them up in no time. Amazing!!. Meanwhile, the two big dogs also joined the feast. It is a sight to watch at 9200ft.
We crossed Gopeswar, a big town. After 10 more kms we touched Chameli, the district HQ of Chameli district. Badrinath is in Chameli district. Here our road joins main highway coming from Rudraprayag.
We reached Joshimath at 1300 Hrs, well in time for the gate opening time at 1400 Hrs. we had so called lunch in a shack! The whole place was full of vehicles and people. All restaurants were full!
We started at 1400 Hrs sharp and were stopped at Pandukeshwar. There is a gate here. This gate was opened at 1520 Hrs. After short climb, we reached Govind ghat from where the road to Hemkunad goes. Throughout the remaining road journey, we could see massive ice blocks on mountain sides and next to the road.
We reached Badrinath at 1700 Hrs. Since we were provided prive accommodation, we were put up in Paramarthlok! The rooms were so cold! We were shivering. I have nasty cold , cough and running nose. We immediately went for darshan. There was lot of rush and lot of jostling. We had darshan of the flower decorated diety! We enquired for special puja. In the morning there was Veda pathanam at 6 AM. By paying Rs 1000/-, three persons are allowed near the diety for 15 minutes.
We purchased 3 tickets. Bhanu and others went and arranged for the Brahmin for tomorrows pinda danam programme.
We had dinner the restaurant in the same complex. It was so cold! Meenakshi was not well. She had head ringing problem. Bhanu was upset. I got an Ayurvedic doctor. He came with another one. They said it would be alright, if she had good sleep.
I could not sleep whole night due to intense cold(4 to 5º C) and my nose running and cough. May be I had an hours sleep!
Though it was May, I felt the cold as intense as in September. I came here in September 1996. I am fortunate to make the second trip to Badrinath and be blessed by God and my fore fathers. . The town and temple sit in a small plateau surrounded by snow clad mountains, specially, Nar-Narayan range, with Alkananada following at 80 Kms speed, it is a lovely sight! Gods are really here. The great Adi Shankara did yoeman service to Hinduism. He is really God incarnate; otherwise, where is Kaladi and where are Badrinath and Kedarnath!!
The gopuram of sanctum sanctorum of Badrinath temple glitters with gold covering and is surrounded by the snow covered peaks of Himalayas. Alaknanda river passes by the temple.
21.05.2007 (Monday)
Since I could not sleep the whole night, I started my morning ablutions right from 0330 Hrs.. Since, the geyser was not to be put on due to low voltage, I could not shave. The water for brushing teeth as well as for toilet was so cold, I could finish both jobs with great difficulty. It took me an hour.
By 0500 AM, hot water bucket was brought and I had hot water bath.( RS 15/- per bucket). I and pinnamma stayed in one room. Till now, Bhanu was sharing a room with me all along, though I used to insist that he and his wife should share a room and I and pinnamma would share a room. Till Badrinath, he did not listen to me. In Badrinath, he agreed to share with his wife.
I was so weak due to my cold and intense cold outside and lack of sleep. Probably I had fever also. Seldom I felt so drained out as yesterday and today morning. But I was determined to have the special darshan at 0600 AM and perform obsequies to my fore fathers.
The way to temple from our guest house was too steep.
And hence I got drained out, going to and fro.
The hot water spring, taptakund, is the boon of the nature. Other hot springs are : Naradkund and suryakund.
One trip up and down drained out my energies. After 6 AM darshan we had to wait till 9:30 AM for the pandit to come and perform obsequies. There after, we came back to guest house at 0730 Hrs. Ladies came to temple and back by pittus.
We went again at 9 AM to temple. Temple prasadam was given at 0945 Hrs and immediately we started the pindapradanam process .. Before that, we had bath in hot water spring. We finished by 1110 Hrs and by 1130 Hrs. The Brahmin who conducted was young, handsome and very good in pronunciation and movements. Each of us paid Rs 400/- for this. After all, we had redeemed ourselves for this birth and prosperity given to us by our forefathers! This is the least we could do to them!! This is the second time, I am doing. In 1996 September, when I came to Badrinath, I performed then also.
The idol of Lord Badrinath (Badri vishal) is made of black stone shaligram. The Lord is seated in a Padmasanam posture. The temple is divided into 3 parts.
Garbhagriha, the darshan mantap and the Sabha Mandap. The idol of badrinath is seated in the innermost part- Garbhagriha. The canopy of temple is covered with a sheet of Gold. This offering was made by queen Ahalya Bai, quen of Indore. In darshan mandap, pujas are performed. Sabha mandap is a outer hall where the devotees stand for darshan.
. It is a privilege of life to visit all four dhams. One’s life is satisfied and attains bliss.
We had lunch in a real shack. Lunch programme was a fiasco. Yesterday when Bhanu and others went to Jiyyar swamy ashram, they were asked to come for lunch next day ie today. So we wasted ½ hr in locating the ashram after trekking up and down. When we came to ashram at 1305 Hrs, there were 250 people waiting for lunch!! So we abandoned the idea.
We had ultimately so called lunch is a real shack, horrible food! It was the worst food I had taken during this trip. Slightly better than this (a shade) was at Joshimatt.
We started at 1400 Hrs as the gate was promptly opened. At Pnadukeshwar we were held up for 25 minutes. We saw a restaurant at Pipalkot offering Dosa, Idli. so, we stopped here at 0530 PM and had idli and masala dosa. The items are good. Chutney is good. But sambar was not upto the mark.
We ultimately, reached Kaldourbagh at 1955 Hrs. This guest house is newly built and is located on the banks of Alaknanda. It is a very picturousque with the river flowing just 20 feet away from rooms.
The rooms were well furnished with T.V and coolers. In the bathroom, geyser was there. The dinning hall was very neat and clean. The service was prompt and courteous. Our AP tourism department should learn many things from this Garhwal mandal.
We did not take any dinner. We slept early at 9:30 PM. we watched Aaj Tak news at 9PM. It was our last day in mountains and the last day of prepaid and pre arranged accommodation. I wish I could come here with my family and spend a week or so leisurely on the banks of Alaknanda, enjoying every bit of it! Such a lovely spot.
22.05.2007 (Tuesday)
I got up at 5 AM. Finished bathroom activities by 6 AM. Pinnamma got ready by 0715 AM. We both slept well last night. Initially,it was warm but after cooler was on for an hour or two, the room was cool and we could sleep well.
We had breakfast in the restaurant below. Very good preparations!! How could these people manage such good food at such remote places !! Hats off to them.
We started at 0830 Hrs. we crossed Karnaprayag after 5 Kms only. Then crossed Rudraprayag (35 kms) and Srinagar (65 Kms). We reached Deva prayag at 1230 Hrs and from view point took good clear photos of the confluence of rivers Bhagiradhi and Alaknanda. Bhaghiradhi’s water were clear and green in appearance, where as Alaknanda water were muddy and sandy in colour. Atlast Alaknanda lost its name after sangam with Bhagiradhi here. From now onwards it flows as river Ganga only till it flows into Bay of Bengal.
We stopped 30 kms short of Rishikesh at 1330 Hrs for lunch. Food was so so. Luckily, we got curd. It was so hot from Rudraprayag. By the time we started the last leg of journey to Rishikesh after lunch, it was unbearably hot! We reached the Garwal Mandal Vikas Nigam Ltd.(GMVN) main information centre at the bypass road to Haridwar at 1530 Hrs. we tipped the drivers. We managed to get accommodation in Dormetry with 6 beds in each. But these were on top floor (II floor). It was so hot!! The fans were spewing the heat of the terrace into the rooms.
Bhanu and others went to see Rishikesh (Laksham Jhula, Geeta Bhavan etc) at 1745 Hrs. I did not go as I have seen them a number of times earlier. Also, I was too tired and drained out. I took bath at 6:30 PM and washed some clothes. I went for a ½ Km walk outside. I had 10 glasses of cold water and lassy. It became pleasant only at 8:30 PM.
Bhanu and party came back at 9 PM and we immediately went to restaurant below and had buffet dinner. I and pinnamma had curd extra. Curd was very good. After dinner, we spent some time on the terrace.( Self, pinnamma and Meenakshi.). Bhanu and his friends discussed tomorrows Delhi and Agra programme sitting in the lawn.
We came to the room at 10 PM. Meenakshi rang up Buyyay in JNU, Delhi informing our programme. Buyyay instantly recognized me and welcomed to his house. So, we four will be received at New Delhi railway station by Buyyay on 24.05.07 afternoon and take us to his house.
We all slept at 1030 pm. We opened all windows. Tomorrow I have to wash some undergarments, towel and a night suit for Delhi stay.
23-05-07(Wednesday)
We got up at 0530 Hrs. Bhanu and others were leaving at 0730 Hrs to Haridwar for sight seeing. I spent leisurely my time, as I remained in the room. I washed all my clothes as planned with Rin and dried them.
I had corn flakes and toast, jam and butter for breakfast. I paid only Rs 50/-. I paid Rs.90/- for yesterdays 3 Coffee, 1 tea and todays morning 2 coffee and 3 teas!
I read Times of India paper sitting in the visitors lounge. Same old stories of violence, conflicts etc. I went to STD booth next door and rang up Radha. She said Pujis fever had come down and yesterday she did not have any fever. Thank God! My prayers were heard! Poor girl, she had been suffering from 08.05.07, for a fortnight!! Any case , it is a matter of 3 more days. I will see her on 26/05/2007.
It was very hot! I had buffet lunch. It was good. I had taken extra curd and it was creamy and tasty. I collected dried clothing of Pinnamma and Meenakshi and folded them neatly. By 1400 Hrs, Bhanu and party came back from Haridwar. It was extremely hot, as ours was top floor! We some how managed to have a nap till 5 PM.
In the evening, we met an old gentleman, Mr Vyas, a Maharastrain. He was spending a month here. He already visited Chardham. We became friends.
Dinner was also a buffet. Again we ordered extra curd. It was sumptuous. We all slept by 1030 PM.
24.5.2007 (Thursday)
We got up at 0400 AM. By 0510 Hrs, we started in two autos to Haridwar Railway station. Train came on time,at 0625 Hrs. The Journey to New Delhi was uneventful. Buyyay came with his 15 year old son, Santosh to receive us in railway station. I saw him after 40 long years. The last time I saw him was in Janaki’s marriage in 1965. He is good and his son is a live wire. We both became good friends in no time. When we reached Buyyay’s house in JNU Campus, his wife took care of us so well. She is a reader in Botony in Dayal Singh College,in Lodhi Road. She was pleasant. Santhosh drew my caricature and presented to me. I promised him to send him E-mail regularly.
25.05.2007 (Friday)
Bhanu and party left to see Agra. I was dropped in Wg Cdr Babus house by Buyyay. Padma was nice. Babu came for lunch. I had beer and slept. Babu gave me scotch in the evening. We slept at about 11 PM.
26.05.2007 (Saturday)
Babu dropped me in the Airport. I met Bhanu and others. The flight took off late by an hour due to traffic congestion. We landed at Bhubaneshwar at 1020 hrs and took off again at 1100 hrs. We reached Hyderabad at 1210 hrs. I took an auto and came home by 1330 hrs. I was too eager to see Puji.
TO SRILANKA FROM 24 DEC 05 TO 02 JAN 06
WITH KAVITA AND NALINI
24-12-2005 SATURDAY
We took Sri Lankan Airlines Flight No. UL176 from Hyderabad. We reported to Airport at 1820 Hrs.
Immigration checks were over within 15 minutes. Security checks were stringent. There were three checks at different points. Baggage identification check was also carried.
Radha met an old acquaintance, an young lady who did computer course in A S Rao Nagar in 2002. She joined duty in Sri Lankan Airlines as ground staff. Today is her first day.
Radha used her cell phone to call Subbu and tell him to lock puja room and keep the key. I also requested him to watch the cook. I gave him the reason for it.
Since the call time was increasing, we gave back the cell phone to the young lady. We went to the inside STD booth. I spoke to Subbu again in detail. Radha spoke to Ashwin.
We boarded the plane at 2020Hrs. The plane was half full only. I and Kavitha got window seats. The dinner served was very tasty, specially the brinjal curry. On enquiring it was found that it was Sri Lankan Airlines catering, Excellent! We took off at 2055Hrs.
We landed at Colombo at 2245HRS(Local time 2315 Hrs). It is a lovely airport, much bigger and better than I imagined. It was drizzling.
Immigration took 15 minutes. We then went to duty free shopping area. It is like a huge Mall! What a range of products!! Liquor complex is huge with a variety of items. Nalin purchased whatever Akka asked him plus we purchased a Red Label Johny Walker. The shop gave him a half bottle SMIRNOFF as compliment.
When we came out of airport, Akka was waiting! It was nearly midnight. We wished her a very happy birthday. The driver, Mr Kumara also was excited to receive us. He is a young man of mid thirties. He served in Army for about 12 years.
The drive took more than one hour. Because, it is Christmas evening lot of shops were open and streets were with some people here and there. All along the 50kms route, there was no patch where there were no shops and houses. Amazing! The roads were very good! The drive was pleasant. At two places, we had seen people coming out of churches after midnight mass.
We landed at house at 0120 Hrs early in the morning. The house of Akka is very beautiful. It is small and yet, very well planned and maintained. The driver kumara is an ex-servicemen who was wounded. He took discharge after 12 ½ years in Army. He is good driver who take cares of his vehicle well. I slept at about 0135 Hrs.
25-12-05 SUNDAY
Today is Christmas day and Akka’s birthday too! I got up at 1720AM. Akka was already up and got neatly dressed up and ready for breakfast. I wished her on her 70th birthday and gave her a greeting card. Radha got up and wished her also on her birthday. She gave the present she brought from Hyderabad.
After sometime, Nalini and Kavitha also got up. We chitchatted for a while. By 0900 Hrs. I was ready and dressed up Radha took a while. We had Sinhalese breakfast with read, butter and boiled rice (red in colour). It was very tasty. The first one tasted like onion chutney.
We all moved out of the house at 1020 Hrs. It was a lunch programme in a Hotel. The name of which was kept as a surprise! We were driven around Colombo and shown:-
Ø Old Parliament
Ø Colombo University
Ø Prime Minister House
Ø Colombo Port
Ø Colombo Radio Station
Ø Important hotels like Galadari , Taj and beach.
We walked along the beach past hotel “ Galle Face” and landed in Hotel “Mount Lavinea” we saw in hotel Galle Face where Akka was married in 1958. Hotel “Mount Lavinea” grand was established in 1806, nearly 200 years old. It is a majestic hotel. Some of the shots of film “ Bridge on the River Kwai” were shot here standing on the hotel at different points gives excellent view of a part of Colombo’s beach line. The following were some of the important dignitaries who stayed in the hotel:-
Ø Jawaharlal Nehru
Ø Indira Gandhi
Ø Alec Guiness
Ø Emperor HiroHito
Ø King of Denmark
Ø Gregorypeck
Ø Bo Derek
Ø Maharaja of Baroda
I rang up Hyderabad and spoke to Subbu. Apparently Cupid is OK! It is a good news. I am still worried about it.
We had very good Sinhalese lunch at hotel “Green Cabin” . The food tasted very well. Radha paid the bill. In the way back home, I purchased liquid boot polish (black) and Radha purchased pretty cock and her hen with egg in basket(3ps) and two foldable hand fans. Kavita bought this dairy and gave it to me for writing the memories of our trip to Sri Lanka! This is the same!!!!
We came home at 1530Hrs. I took rest for two hours. Meanwhile, Nalin’s aunty, Mrs Nirmilee, affectionately called “ “ was there. She came early to help Akka in arranging the house for party in the evening. In the morning, some labourers came and executed a small time shed in front of the house.
As the guests were to come, the caters came and arranged plates, food etc. Akka’s following close relatives come with families:-
1) Lowniama (Eldest Uncle Bachelor)
2) Parakrama mama ( brother of akka)
Priyani -----his wife
Ashani----- his daughter
3) Adrian mama (brother of Akka)
Nirmaliee----Wife
Dinen----Son
Roshan---Son
Erandhi—Daughter
4) Visakka Aunty (Sister akka)
5) Aatchi(Renee)----(Akka’s mamas wife)
Dilky(her daughter)
6) Irmaganie (akka’s mother’s sister
Mr. M B Ratnyaka her husband
7) Mr. Pali Wikama Singhe
8) Brig (Retd) Laxma Rasaputra
Shanti Mala --- his wife
Aparna----his daughter
9) Mr Chandra Basanayake (neighbour) with his wife, sister-in-law and daughter.
10) Mr Sarath Ilangoan and his daughters, Dulhare and Ashwin.
As the evening wore out Mr.Sarath Mangokvan(10) played casio and daughter sang. The mood picked up. Including Akka, Nalini all youngsters started dancing. I also joined the crowd. Song after song….! What a mood it was!! The young girls are so sportive and talented! I loved it. Radha also came to dance “ Raghupati Raghava Rajaram” was also sung.
I had opted for “Arrack” of Colombo. The taste was slightly akin to rum. I enjoyed the drink as well as the party.
We had dinner at 2230 Hrs people were social and nice to talk to. By 2300 Hrs, most of the guests departed. I also retired to bed tat 2330 Hrs.
Aatchi, even at this age of 80 years is so beautiful and gracefully. Some regal!!
26-12-2005 (Monday)
After a good night sleep, got up at 0730 Hrs. It was chilly in the morning unlike yesterday when it was warm and humid. We were ready and had breakfast by 10AM. Bread, Butter were there.
We started at 1105 Hrs to Puttalam. After coming for about 40minutes , akka realized she forgot medicines. So, we went back and picked up medicines. So, again we were on road at 1215Hrs. On the airport road, police stopped our car for over speeding and kumara driving licence was confiscated. On the way, we were trying to get into restaurant for lunch. Probably, due to Christmas yesterday, all eat outs were closed. Luckily, we managed to get some burn and tea at one place.
From there, we proceeded to chilaw and went 1km off the road to Munneswaram Shiva Temple. It is a great temple and ancient too! Like, an of the old temples in Tamil Nadu. It was open thought it was 2:30 pm. Then nearby we went to Kali Temple. The peepal tree here look like 1000 years old. But it was closed. But satellite temples were open. The whole complex is impressive!
After Puttalam, about 8 Kms away, a police check post checked us. Then, we proceeded to shamilce estate, another 12Kms or so. We reached the estate at 1630Hrs Lokmama, Nirmilee and Dinen were there wondering as to what happened to us!
The estate is 50 acres. The house is around 300 meters drive from the entrance gate on the road. Lot of mango and coconut trees along the kuteha path to the house. There is a well with a pump and over head tank about 100 meters infornt of the house. One bull and two cows were tied near the well. One brown dog and two black dongs were there, I had taken bath at well! Nice, warm water. Barking up at us furiously! One Nissan SUV type car(big) and a tractor are there in the garage adjoining the house. The house is big with all amenities. A toilet, Indian type is about 30 meters away. In the house, a twin toilet and bathroom(combined) was close to the Dinning room. Cooking is done on gas, but Kerosene stoves are used as Gas stove was sent for repair.
Nalini, Kavith and Radha went around the estate with Dinen. I stayed back with Loku mama. Later on, with Akka and Nirmilee went upto the main gate and met Nalin and party returning after the tour of the estate.
We had sapotas and Mangoes grown in estate. By the time, it is dark, at 1830 Hrs. Heinken Tin beer was served with snacks. The house is lit by tractor battery through an inverter with energy saving bulbs. No fans are there. The tractor battery gets charged during day twice through solar photoelectric cells! Nice arrangements!!
We had Sri Lankan dinner. It was tasty. By 2130 Hrs, I retired to bed. We had two cots in our room. Kavitha and Nalin slept at one; I and Radha on the other. Radha and others slept at 2230Hrs. All had good sleep.
27-12-2005 (Tuesday)
I got up at 0600 Hrs. went to the outside toilet. I had bath at the well again. Everyone got ready by 0645Hrs and we bade goodbye to all. By 0700 Hrs, we were on the road to Kandy. We had to get back to Puttalam first and then take the road to Kandy. Puttalam has muslim and Tamil population. The lagoon is just touching the town. There are salt pans on the shore!
For breakfast we stopped at Nikeweretiya a hotel called “Moosa Hotel”. It was neat, chapati and vada is available. Apparently, the muslim owner is of either Tamil or Malayalam stock. The service was very good and fast! Everyone enjoyed the breakfast. Nalin and I purchased a pair of Hawaii sandals in the shop next to the hotel. The owner spoke Tamil to one of the helpers. Apparently he is Tamil.
We then stopped at Kurunegala to go to Akkas sister, Visakha’s house to ease and freshen ourselves. The key was taken from the neighbours house. Very pleasant people! After about 10 minutes we left for Kandy. Kurunegal is big town and once Visakhais husband was a magistrate there.
The road to Kandy is very good and we could race the way. After some distance the road was getting repaired at places. The road winds up and it is a lovely scene all the way to Kandy.
Akka was a boarder in Hill wood School in Kandy since she was 4 years old. So is the case with all her brothers, but they were in Kingswood school. There is a big lake in the centre of city. On the banks of the lake, one side is “ Dalda Maligawa”, a buddist temple of Budda’s tooth. It is very serene and large. There is a museum inside the complex. As one comes out of this temple complex, there is a Durga temple called “Deva Pattin” we went and prayed there also. Mean while Kavita took photo of Lord Buddha at top of hill. Nalin also did the same.
Akka’s school is on the slope of hill, overlooking the lake. How lucky she and her brothers were in Kandy during their school years! She used to come from Veyangoda to Kandy by train a two hours journey those days.
We had lunch at government rest house in Paradamiya with local taxes, per plate it was 450/- definitely costly! But it is some status! On the way to Colombo from Kandy, Radha purchased some earthen hangings from road side. We stopped at 1630 Hrs at Nalin’s grandmothers estate in Veyangoda. Parakrama mama and his daughters Aashani were there. It is a lovely 8 acre estate. The house is big and old. Tea was served to us. We saw served to us. We saw Beetle leaf plant there. I had tasted one leaf. It was so pungent and strong. This place is Nalin’s most favourite place! He spent lot of his childhood here and also one year before he left USA in 1987. He is very nostalgic about it. Probably like I am about Manchala.
We started for Colombo at 1730Hrs. We reached home in Colombo by 1945 Hrs. We all hurried up and by 2015 Hrs started to go to Mr. Palis house for dinner. Slightly later, we were joined by his brother, his wife, his son and his Chinese wife. Mr Pali Wikramasinghe gave me 12 old II war books for retention as gift, as he made a promise to me that effect in 2003 when he visited our house in KG. I have not read these books. So I was happy to receive them.
I had scotch and after two large, we had dinner. It was prepared by himself. It was tasty. The curd was served in an eastern pot. It was very tasty. He poured some honey on curd and it was a sweet dish! We all enjoyed dinner and came home by 2230 Hrs. I hit the bed immediately and slept.
28-12-2005 (Wednesday)
Today is a rest day and earmarked for sight seeing Colombo and do shopping. Akka, Radha and Kavitha left at 1030 Hrs after breakfast for shopping. We had idlies for breakfast with coconut chutney. I had 8 idlis and was full. Kumara brought newspaper. I read the paper leisurely and got connected to the world for a change! Then I slept around 1130 AM. Nalin woke me up at 1300 Hrs. It was a nice, deep sleep. I was refreshed well. Akka and party came back. Nalin asked me to come with them minus Akka for further shopping and showing me city. So, Akka remained at home, we all left.
First we went to a mall called “ ARPICO”. It was on the model of GAINT bazaar. We purchased some items. Form there we went to “ODEL” another Mall. But this are fabulous, ethnic and classy. Prices ofcourse are very high!! From here we went to “Lakpahana” where Sri Lanka handicraft items sold. Here also, prices are high. We had no choice. We purchased few items for giving gifts and some decorative items for our house.
We then proceeded to “ Nugenegoda” junction. There is a big shopping complex. Here things are of nominal price. But it was already 4:30 PM. So, we collected some items to eat and decided to visit it again on 01-01-06 for crockery and other purchases.
We rang up Subbu. He told us that cook Laxmi was not sleeping in house during nights. She was making rotis and giving them to feed Cupid. Subbu told cupid is crying at nights. I tired to contact Ashwin on his cell but could not get him. Again I requested Subbu to contact Ashwin and ask him to come in the night and spend some time with cupid. He said he would do so. Later Radha spoke to Puji. She is ok. She will return on 01-01-06 to Hyderabad. I am feeling sorry for cupid fellow.
We came home at 5:30 Pm and had dinner. Akka made some rice with sinisembol and bread rice, parupu (dal), curd it was more than enough but very late to have lunch.
We relaxed for about an hour. We got ready to leave for Maj Gen Ananda’s house. We had sudden visitors.
Ø Visakkha aunty
Ø Ranjith Wikramasinghe (younger brother of Mr Pal)
Ø His wife (first cousin of Akka)
They sat for half an hour. We reached Gen Anande’s house late, as we went at 2015 Hrs. We had half hour for a small scotch. His son and daughter-in-law were to join us at hotel for dinner. We reached hotel “Raja Bojun” opposite hotel “ Cuinamon” (earlier it was Oberio) near port area. We had buffet dinner. Appam, parupu, rice, buttermilksambar and curd. A bit of potato curry and mixed curry were added to attraction. For starters, “bitter lemon” was there. It was tasty I really wonder why India does not have “ginger beer” and “bitter lemon” drinks. They are so tasty!
We bade farewell to Gen Anande & family and reached home at 11 PM. We slept immediately.
29-12-2005 (Thursday)
We got up at 4 AM, we have to start by 5 AM on long journey to south for 3 days. Kumara came at 5 AM. This man is full of energy. He is a good human being apart from being a good driver. There is no wonder that he is like a member of our family, like by one and all! I also like him immensely.
We proceeded at 0545 Hrs via the coast “Galle” road saw the Tsunami damage all along. Many places are being rebuilt with Japanese of NGO’s help. The place where the train track was uprooted vertically and thrown was kept intact. The train in which people took shelter hoping they would be safer, was removed. One railway bridge is already rebuilt. Many of the coastal houses(private) are already remade/ partly built by owners. Still the portions which were damaged houses are left as such. Probably not worth refurbishing! It is really sad! Nearly 30,000 people were killed! Nalin came in Feburary in Sri Lankan airline and saw first land the tsunami damage and video filmed it. We saw that in India in Oct 05. I could make out the areas. As Nalin was explaining all along!
Kumar’s wife and son were waiting at “ Galle” bus stand. We had all breakfast at a hotel in Bus stand. We passed by the “Galle” fort, which was built by Dutch. Tsunami by passed the fort and caused damage to the town. Here also, some of the damaged houses are left unattended and some are being reconstructed. While we were going to Matara, Our car was hit from behind by a local bus. In fact. I was sitting in the dicky of the car at that time. I could see the driver of the bus making to effort to stop the bus, as kumara pulled our car to the side for stopping it. The bus was straight heading on to me I thought I would be rammed inside. In voluntarily, I took a defencsive position, bracing against the back side of the back rest of the back seat. And then came the bus at to me!! During those second I shouted thrice in Telugu. The car was pushed after the bus has rammed and again pushed after a second or two. The car was damaged on the left side dicky bumper. We stopped and got out. Kumara was unhappy and visibly upset. He took the driver of the bus with him to the police station in Weligama. Meanwhile we called on cell Brig Rasaa mame (Retd) who was working in near by place in solidire tyre factory. He came to our place immediately in a police station in Weligama. He and I left for the police station in his car to check what was happening to kumara and the other driver. Brig went inside police station and came out saying that kumara and bus driver left. He told that since no one was injured in the accident, there was no necessity for registering the accident. The insurance people only are to he informed for getting the compensation. Kumara already informed the insurance person and he asked kumara to bring the vehicle to Matara. Brig Raasa invited all of us to go to his place at Weligama. So, we went to his place and we had tea in his office. We took leave of him and reached Matara by 12 noon. The insurance chap came after 15mins and he took some details. We left Matara at 1230 PM. On the way, we had lunch at a road side small dhaba at 3Pm. The name of the dhaba is …….and the owners name is ……we had buffet lunch. Such a small joint! She made Onion chutney as well as coconut grating on the spot. The food was very tasty. I purchased beetel leaf and nut. I had taken them. As we were approaching Hanamtota, we saw many road side stalls selling curd in pots. We stopped at one of them and had two pots! I enjoyed the tasty, thick curd with three helpings. Soon after, we stopped at a sea shore as the road would go away from shore then as, and had a symbolic sea bath, wetting parts of the body with sea water. The beach is pristine, clean and the current of waves is strong!
We reached Tissarea Maharama town at 1645 Hrs. Lo! What a lovely and exquisite reservoir! Such a huge & lovely one, with a small island in the centre. The main road is by the side of the tank on the southern side. On the other side of the road is 2300 years old. Buddha Vihara(called Tissa Vihara)! This was build by the King Veena Tissa in 251 BC!!
On the banks of this lake, we stayed in a tourist rest hotel, by Ceylon Corporation Ltd., Room No. 54 and 55. This has good open parking lot with a spacious entry lounge, aesthetically done. There is a bar on the side with a T.V nearby and a swimming pool on the other side. A little away, is the reservoir abutting the hotel. What a lovely setting the rooms are in Annexe in 3 levels. Or rooms are in second level. The drivers rest rooms were away a few meters to the north.
After a quick bath, we all started to “Kathargama” and by 2045 Hrs we reached Kathargama. We parked our car and walked along the Banks of river Maneik Ganga and crossed the bridge on the river. We saw a “Sivan Temple” and a Muslim Dargha on the right side. We proceeded to Lord Shanmuga’s (Subramanya’s) temple beyond it is “Kirivihara” an ancient Buddha Vihara. We prayed there by pouring oil in 7 lamps and lighting them. After a few minutes, we went to Lord Subramanya temple. There are two temples at tanden, one is Vinyaka and the other for Subramanaya. After prayers, we did some shopping…..1/2 kg Jaggery (Palm tree) Dharmachakra with Lord Buddha etc.
I had king coconut water. It is so we had herbal tea. Then, on the way to Trissara Maharama, we stopped at a road side hotel, “ Sisila “ for dinner. We ordered Vegetarian food. After a wait of 45 minutes, we were served dinner. It was homely and tasty dinner. People there were hospitable. After such tasty dinner. We set course to our tourist hotel in Tissasa Maharama. At Tissa, arrangement were made to hire land rover, packed breakfast and packed lunch for the next days trip to “Yala Natural Park. We slept at 2200Hrs.
30-12-2005(Friday)
We got up at 4 AM. Quickly, we got ready by 5 AM. We were served Tea in the lounge. Packed breakfast was ready by 5:30AM. We were getting late, since the driver of land rover was still getting the packed lunch ready. Atlast, we set course to Yala natural park at 0545 Hrs, it is 35 minutes drive. We reached the park at 0620 Hrs. the ticket for Sri Lankan is Rs.28/- where as for a foreigner it is Rs.1500/-. Nalin paid Rs 5100/- for all of us.
There was a shortage of tourist guides. Hence, five vehicles were given one guide. we went with another four vehicles inside the park. Our driver, Sarath was very helpful and he has ample knowledge of the park and birds. He drove us around the park showing us many of its habitat.
Ø Birds – Kingfisher
Ø Painted stork
Ø Pelican
Ø Spoon Bill
Ø Ibis
Ø Cormorant
Ø Open bill stork
Ø Crocodiles
Ø Mangoose
Ø King Mangoose (huge one)
Ø Iguana
Ø Spotted deer
Ø Stag
Ø Sambar
Ø Wild boars
Ø Peacocks
Ø Jungle foul
Ø Elephants, calves
Ø Wild buffaloes
Even after 3 or 4 rounds, we could not see Leopards or black bears.
At 0900 AM, we went to seashore and saw the Tsunami effected restaurant where 40 tourists were down to death. A memorial to there has come up. It is sad recollection of events of Tsunami day last year. We had breakfast here. By 11AM we reached the Maneik Ganga (down stream of Katharagama). Plenty of shade is available as it shore. The water is calf deep only. At a place or two it was knee deep. But the current is strong.
Radha, Akka, Kavitha and I took bath. Nalin was taking photos. There was only one Norwegian lady, apart from us. She was walking on the shore or at the edges of the river. She came to Sri Lanka via India. In India, she visited Banaras, Rajasthan and Mumbai.
After an hour or so, we came out of the river. A British family of a wife, husband, a daughter and son came. The son was working for daily mirror in Colombo. His mother and sister are teachers in London.
Then at 1300 Hrs, we had lunch around this time came a bus load of tourist and the river side became crowded. So we left the river at 1330 Hrs, instead of 1430 Hrs, as planned. Since it was hot and afternoon, we could not find Leopard or bear any where. We where disappointed. By 4 PM, we returned to the office and set course to Kirinda. Here, we saw again Tsunami effected village with many houses and shops damaged. The ultimate was a naval vessel which was aground in sand. Behind it is a big sand dune formed due to Tsunami. At Kirinda bus stand we had tea. Then we, climbed a rock to visit Buddha temple. Lo! What a sight from here!! An excellent panoramic sea view!! The sea shore is like a Bow turning around the rock. A vast expanse of sea…sea and….sea …Everyone took pictures of it. One should spend an hour or so here. The image of Lord Buddha is so beautiful that we were wondering who could have sculpted it. It is the best statue interms of beauty, we have seen so far. There are also statutes of Lord Ganesh and Goddess Laxmi around there.
We then, came back to the tourist hotel in Tissa Maharama. We had bath and freshened ourselves. We then proceeded to Buddha Vihara, Tissara. Here, as I was getting out of the rear seat, I was hold up the front doors top matching body part to get leverage out of car, Akka closed the front door. All my four fingers tips (other than thumb) of right hand got Jammed. Akka immediately opened the door. The pain is awful and excruciating. I put the fingers in the mouth and kept sucking them. It did not help. The level of pain was increasing. Meanwhile, Nalin and Kavita ran to an ice cream vendor opposite the street to fetch ice from him. He had no ice. So, the got two ice cream cone and Nalin forced me to put my fingers into the ice cream. The pain increased multifold and I was writing. Nalin forcibly took my palm and forced it an to one cone and place the other cone on to top of my fingers. Sand witching my injured fingers between two ice creams! Mean while, a vegetable vendor came and she left 3 packets of vegetable with us and ran for ice, little away. What a concern she has for a fellow human being! She came back running holding two pieces of ice in her bare palm!! Incredible I placed the ice on my injured fingers. By now, the ice in the ice cream cone started melting and with the result, my fingers could go into the hollow cone. By rotation, each finger was inserted and held for some time. During the whole process, I had gone through hell! The pain’s definition was new. The Zenith of it is indescribable. I just could not bear it. But for Nalin’s insistence and force. I would not have gone through this treatment. Good! He forced it one me. After about half an hour, the pain slowly reduced, but not fully gone. I started the massaging the fingers with the left hand continuously.
We visited the Buddha Vihara and prayed. Its circumference is 552 feet and maximum height is 180 feet. The scared left hand tooth and a bone from forehead are scared relies here. There is a Neem tree with one side leaves tasting sweet and the other side bitter. We, then went for APPAM to Katharagama all the way. We had APPA here in small joint. I had nearly 10 and Kavitha had 10. They are so tasty, it is difficult to stop eating them. After dinner we came to the rest house hotel and slept by 11 PM.
Nalin went to the lobby and settled the bill. It was Rs.13,300/- including next day’s morning tea. One tea is Rs 100/-. So costly, is the hotel. Nalin paid earlier to sarath, the land rover driver Rs 5000/- for the vehicle used for safari. It has been costly trip for Nalin! We owe him a lot for all this!!
31-12-2005(Saturday)
We got up early in the morning at 0500 HRS and got ready by 0600 Hrs. we had morning tea and started back at 0630 Hrs. we are coming Colombo by different route ie., via Ratnapura. We stopped at “Udawalaew” reservoir for taking photos. It is a huge lake, so scenic. We then drove to Undawalan tours and had breakfast in a road side restaurant. It is neat and tidy. After a sumptuous breakfast. We headed towards Ratnapura.
On the way, we stopped to eat boiled maize. It is tasty, Kavitha purchased some wooden ladles. All long the right side of the road. We found a fencing to prevent wild elephants coming into villages on the other side of the road. We saw an elephant or two enroute.
We stopped at another road side joint to have tea, as Kumara is tired and sleepy. Here we saw rubber plantations. Before it, near and around Ratnapura, we saw tea gardens
We proceeded further and took the road to Colombo via Nugegoda. At….... from Prasanna hotel on road side. We picked up packed lunch. It is small restaurant but clean and neat. Behind are the lovely lush green paddy fields. How exotic is Sri Lanka and its green!! Fabulous!!! It is a land of plenty. It is God’s own land. No doubt about it.
We came home by 1300 Hrs and had the lunch. By 1500 Hrs, all of us slept. We got up by 1730 Hrs and got ready by 1945 Hrs to go to dinner in hotel “Madura”, for Dosa and idli. It is small south Indian hotel. (Madras woodlands). Each of us ordered a different type of Dosa and total 4 idlis. we had gulabjamoon for dessert. It was a tasty dinner Kavitha purchased new shoes for her new year dance party at Hotel. “Mount Laviniya” on the beach. Nalin and Kavitha purchased two dance tickets for the new year party. We dropped both of them near the hotel at 2230 Hrs.
We rang up Ashwin and Pujitha. Pujitha came today from Viayanagaram. We suggested to them to go to RSI for new year party. Ashwin did not visit KG and looked at cupid as per Pujitha. I did not want to ring up Subbu. If cupid is not doing well, I would feel bad and sad the next two days. Hence, I did not ring up him
We came home and slept at 1130 Hrs Pm. Today is the last day of the year 2005.
01-01-06 (Sunday)
Today is New years day. We got up at 0830 Hrs. Akka was already up. We wished each other “ Happy New Year”. Akka told us that Nalin and Kavita came home only at 0530 Hrs, early in the morning from the New year party.
Nalin got up at 0900 Hrs. we had breakfast at 0930 Hrs. we chit chatted leisurely for the first time since a week!! It has been a very hectic week….getting up early in the morning and going around to a place! Leisure was not in our vocabulary last week. How relaxed are we now.
Today is etched in our memory as the best New Year dawn! What a satisfying and lively week before the year 2005 ended!! And how New Year 2006 dawned peacefully and leisurely!! Peak to Normal.
Kumara came at 11 AM Radha and Kavitha went around 1130 AM for shopping in Nugegoda shopping complex. They returned around 1400 Hrs after purchasing crockery, suit case, clapping chick, chime wind, cereal bowls, tea, chappals, appa pan. We all had lunch then. Before they returned, Akka gave me cold beer can “Heinken”. It was chilled beer. The lunch is of 5 course plus curd. Vegetarian ice cream was the dessert. The lunch was very tasty.
We then slept till 5 PM. we had guests. Akka’s first cousin (her mother’s sister daughter) from Anuradhapura came with her son, daughter and son-in-law.
Ø Daisy
Ø Martin (son)
Ø Malathi- (Daughter)
Ø Laith(son- in - law)
They invited us to Anuradhapura. We promised to go over there during our next visit to Sri Lanka. They left around 1730 Hrs.
Akka did some watering of plants. Kavitha tried her hand. By 1800 Hrs, Kumara came. We left the house at 1830 Hrs to Nawala, Buddha Vihara very near to this temple, Akka used to stay earlier till 2000. She purchased Nugegoda house then and moved in the temple area is on the main road side bit has a rural look Once one enters the complex. An old Peepal tree is there at one end and at the other end, is the idol of Lord Buddha, so serene!
Akka introduced us to one of the monks here. We had a photo with him. After a while, we moved out to Parakrama mamas house. It is an upstairs portion. They served three types of sweets. All were tasty. We had then ice coffee! We were given some gifts by them. From here, we moved to Aldian mamas house. Here, Visakha aunty was also there. We had again some sweets and papaya juice. Practically we are full and there is no place for dinner.
We came home at 2100 Hrs Akka, Kavitha and Nalin had dinner. I and Radha skipped dinner Nalin, Akka and I had Johny walker red label. I went to bed at 2200 hrs. Kavitha and Radha spent some more time before going to bed.
Today is the penultimate day in Sri Lanka. How time has passed! It was like yesterday we came here!! It was so hectic and racy, it is difficult to digest all we went through these 8 days!!! Probably, during the next 10days or so, the whole thing will sink in like a slow motion movie.
New Year started very well! I hope we have such nice day all along 365 days this year!!
02-0106 (Monday)
I got up at 0700 Hrs. it is cloudy. I saw the birds coming and taking the food Akka gives them daily. They had then taken water in the other bowl. If it is a daily routine for Akka feeding the birds early in the morning! Akka is a such a full personality, I admire her! We don’t come across such people normally. We are lucky that we know her and are related to her.
We had a relaxed morning! There was a call from Gen. Anande Surya Bandara saying that he would be coming over by 0830 by walk to bid farewell to us. It is nice of him to do so! We dropped him at Nugegoda shopping complex.
We purchased one CD and two cassettes (Bailas). We then went to Dr Nalin’s dispensary. Dr. Nalin is an young middled aged handsome man.. He is into Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Naturopathy, Acupuncture apart from being an Allopatheic doctor. He is erudite and well mannered. It is good to have met him.
We came home and had lunch at 12 Noon. BY 1230 PM. we set course to Airport. On the way, we dropped in at Pranits house. It is located in scenic surroundings. His mother and sister, who reside in the adjacent house also came. After about half an hour, we left for airport.
We bade farewell to Akka. She was so hospitable, she came along with us everywhere though she had been to these places ad nauseum. She made our trip to Sri Lanka memorable. We also bade farewell to Kumara.
We got into the flight at 1830Hrs, took off at 1845 Hrs and landed in Hyderabad at 2015 Hrs. we took a taxi and came home by 2200 Hrs.
My Impressions of SRI LANKA
I observed the following all the 8 days I spent in Sri Lanka crisscrossing the country. These are not the expectations, but are normal, probably, in comparison with Indian at subconscious level.
1) There is an orderly traffic.
2) Most of the cars (99%) are mid size or large size, (1.6 L to 2.5 L) and are of Japanese make i.e, Nissan, Toyoto.
3) Public Transport is not much visible. But the vehicles are of Ashok Leyland or TATA make
4) There is no gender bias or discrimination. Girls and women move freely. They dress as they like.
5) Women are beautiful. Traditional girls dress; Lungi and shirt is elegant.
6) People are simple, courteous. I have not seen any shouting or quarrel or affray.
7) There are no beggers in Sri Lank, even at places of worship. Only two beggers were seen in Colombo ! during my 8 days.
8) Colombo is like any European capital! Its beach is so clean and neat! Young boys and girls and couples cuddle and sit all along the beach. No indecency or obscenity. So natural it is.
9) Policemen are absent on the streets. Hardly one sees a policeman anywhere! It is as if there is no job for them anywhere except in police stations!!
10) Even in road side eat outs the people are friendly, caring and courteous.
11) The cost of living is high. I don’t know how common man lives! But they seem to live happily. Amazing I must spend at least a month to know the secret!!
12) Most of the companies here are Pvt Ltd or proprietory.
13) All the Buddha temples have Vishnu or Laxmi or Shamugha satellite temple inside the complex.
14) The roads are meant for traffic, not for humans crisscrossing or walking on them. Cattle is not seen on the roads, most unlike India. Driving in Sri Lanka is pure delight.
15) The family ties are like in India. They are well knit and bonded.
16) People, generally, like India.
17) I would love to go to Sri Lanka, if not every year atleast once in two years and enjoy its natural beauty, simplicity and multiethnic culture!
18) Indians need to learn a lot from Sri Lanka.
TRIP TO CHAR DHAM ( YATRA) FROM 12-5-07 TO 26-5-07
12-05-07
Radha and I packed & left home at13:35Hrs to Sri Laxmi pinnammas house to pick her up enroute to Airport. In Apollo dispensary, I purchased medicines for 15 days.(DILZEM & BETALOC). I took auto near Apollo pharmacy and reached Pinnamma house at 14:10Hrs. In the same auto I and pinnamma reached Air port at 15:05Hrs We were the first to reach Airport Bhamu & Meenakshi reached at 15:20Hrs and other members of party reached 10minutes later. The flight was on Scheduled. Sure it is a cheaper rate of travel, the coffee, food etc are to be purchased. I paid Rs100/- . We reached Bhubaneshwar after 1Hr 10minutes.
Bhubaneshwar is a small airport. About 60 people got down & about 40 boarded here for Delhi. We reached Palam at 20:40hrs. Mr. Srinivas Rao’s son came to receive us at Palam Airport. He took us to his house in Dwarka. It is nice of him to accommodate all of us.
We had Upma & Dosas for dinner ! They were tasty. We had Coffee too . Their two Children were also awake we slept around 12 mid night.
13-05-07 ( Sunday )
We all got up at 0330 AM. With two bathrooms, One by one, we could be ready by 0500 Hrs. Nice& hot coffee was given twice by the house lady. It is very nice of them to host all of us.
The vehicle came at 0510Hrs. We all reached New Delhi Railway station before half hour of ETD . We settled down in our seats & had a comfortable journey up to Haridwar. It was Shatabdi Express
From Hardwar Railway station we engaged to 7 seater autos. They dumped us. They took us upto 3kms outskirts of Hardwaravi and told us to get down, as they could not ply upto Rikshikesh ! What a cheating !Luckily we managed to get an auto ( 7 seater). We squeezed and reached Rishikesh ( 24 kms) away.
As we had arranged much earlier, the accommodation was immediately
provided by Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam ( GMVN). (Uttaranchal Tourism Deptartment). The Accommodation was good and the food in the restaurant also was good.
We Visited Andhra Aashram Venkateshwara temple and Chandrasekharaswamy temple.
14.02.2007 (Monday)
We got two Ambassador Cars. We started after taking coffee and breakfast. We took the journey starting from Dehradun. Dhalwala is 18Kms. This is on hill side. Tall trees (30’ High) are on both sides of the road. The road is wide and in good condition. Shivalic hills are continuous and of low height.
Joligrant – 15 km from Rishikesh. Here
new airport for whole Uttaranchal State is coming up here.
Dehrudun
Raipur road -town (big enough)
Doon school ,secretariat, CM’s house and Raj Bhavan are on this road. We had breakfast after Dehradoon (21Kms) at Dharmender..Tasty parathas and coffee were ordered. The road to Mussourie is like an easy ride without many hair pin bends. The road is wide and well laid from a distance, Mussorie looks like a wide spread town, which it is !! Kempty falls is about 20 Km away. Kempty falls is very picturousque. There is a rope way down to 3 swimming pools, where people take bath and do swimming. We saw plenty of them. Bhanu took few photos.
Yamuna bridge is a link between two hills. Yamuna is joined by the two rivers at Nayanbagh. It is a small town with 100 houses.
All people wear caps, yamuna flows next to it by 100 ft down. We stopped at Damta, Uttarkashi District at 1310 Hrs. Everyone had two stuffed parathas each. Pinnamma did not have lunch as she was full of breakfast. The route from Mussorie is good, but for about 10 kms patch before Damta. At two places there were traces of heavy land slides. In fact, this road is following yamuna river upstream. We finished light lunch at 1340 Hrs and started again.Bhanu brought bananas. I had one, it was more raw.
Reached Naogoan at 1435 Hrs. There is a petrol pump. We put Diesel in the car, before Naogoan, there is a small water fall. Collected water (very cold) in empty bottles. The vehicles battery was over charging. The driver stopped the vehicle at Barkot, a fairly big town, for repair of alternator and cut out. From 1500 to 1610 Hrs, we spent here near the car. We had tea and pinnamma had coffee. We started at 1610 for Syanchatti, our night halt point which is 32Kms away. The rooms are new and good.
We found pure ghee for using along with chutnies and rice. The food was very good. Curd was very tasty. After a little chit chat, we had dinner at 2030 Hrs. we retired to bed at 2100 Hrs and slept well. It was chilly and cold. We had to cover ourselves with woolen blankets.
It is from Barkot the road to Yamunotri starts winding its way along the banks of Yamuna. Barkot is an important town of this area.
15-05-2007 (Tuesday)
We got up at 0500 Hrs and had hot water for bath. Water, otherwise was very cold (icy). So, excuse shaving for these 10days! I don’t think so!!Old habbits die hard.
I had Aloo paratha for breakfast and started for the first leg of the Yatra, YAMUNOTRI. The whole village, Sayanchatti was full of vehicles; come for yamunotri. At least 4000 people must have halted for the night. Our car driver suggested that at Hanumanchalti we may not get jeeps due to excessive number of pilgrims. Hence, he got us a jeep from here only. We reached Hanuman chatti by 9 AM. From here we proceeded to Janaki chatti. We engaged Dolis for all of us. All the carriers of dolies were Nepalis.
The 5 Kms stretch to Yamunotri is very steep at points, mainly steep all along. The road is 8’ wide mostly, but at some stretches it is 6 feet wide only. On the side of the valley, arresters (wide iron grills) were constucted at most places. At few places these arresters were missing. It is really dangerous at these points.
Its amazing how on this stretch of road, these is two way traffic compromising of ponies, dolies, pittu (a single man carrying basket on his back with rope supported by forehead like in Tea gardens) and humans by walk. It is really amazing how this small narrow path can accommodate such to and fro traffic? Any American/westerner will be shocked and it will be introduced as a subject/case study in MITs or premium Management Colleges like Wharton,Harvard etc. Like Dabbawalas of Bombay who were appreciated by Prince Charles! It is definitely a case of study worth to be studied by our IITs and IIMs.
Suryakund is the most important hot water spring. Rice and potatoes, tied loosely in a cloth, if dipped in it , after few minutes, they are cooked.
Though it is only 5 Kms distance, it is very strenuous and what an ugly sight to watch a fat, well to do man like me being carried by four poor fellows for their living!! It is really shameful. All through the uphill journey I was feeling so! Even Bhanu and pinnamma felt the same! When will India give its people honourable, decent work life so that people can live with dignify and not like animals.
The ponies are 99.9% female. . I don’t know the reason. There must be a reason. It is a food for thought!
The entire administration of Yamunotri is with pandas from village kharsali, on the banks of yamuna, near jankibaichatti.
The mountains are snow filled. I could see them upto 12000ft hight. The snow was there upto 10,000ft..
Near the temple, there are hot water springs. Men and women have different bath points, but we preferred to take bath in flowing yamuna. Pinnamma took 5 minutes bath, where as Bhanu and I hardly could take 2 minutes bath, as water was icy cold. Later we had Goddess yamuna darshan at the temple, next door.
We had lunch in a hotel there. Because of the heigh altitude (10400ft), rice and dal cannot be cooked properly. We had Jilebi also. Meenakshi was not feeling well. Hence, she took only Jilebi and a bit of rice and dal. (so called rice and dal,were semi cooked.).
While coming down the doli fellows brought us down in an hour, where as it took . 21/2 Hrs while going up. Otherwise it will take 4 to 5 Hrs, if one walks.
We reached Sayanchatti at 1630 Hrs. we were all tired. I felt I had sun stroke! Bhanu gave me paracetamol forcibly!! We had early dinner at 7PM. Bhanu and pinnamma carried podis, gongura, vusirikaya and tomoto chutnies.With ghee and rice ordered, it was a good meal! Bhanu went and rang up Radha and told everything was ok.
The small village of Gangotri is full of giant deodars and conifers. Temple of Ganga is on the banks of Bhagiradhi. This temple was constructed by Gorkha General, Amar singh Thapa. He appointed pandas of Mukhwa as pujaris and donated the entire forest land between Mukhwa and Gangotri to the temple.
16-05-2007 (Wednesday)
We started at 0630Hrs. Before that I had paratha with curd. We had breakfast at kharadi. We reached Uttarkashi at 1145 Hrs. It is like a city so big!! It is district HQ.
We reached jhala t 1545 Hrs where we had lunch. The scenic beauty enroute is really enthralling. One hydroelectric dam is coming up near Gangotri. Hence,lot of material and road work was right on the road.. Patel Engg Co & L & T equipments and personnel were seen. Even GREFF people are seen.
The snow clad mountains are simply too mesmerising! Many cliffs were snow clad .. Bhanu had taken photos. We reached Bhaironghatti at 1700 Hrs. There was a bit of drizzle and rain enroute.
The travel to Gangotri was more sceneric and lovely than of yamunatri. The curves were sharp at may places. Since road is being widened , blasting was also there.Due to this, rubble was lying on road; there by narrowing the place for movement.
It is believed that a holy dip in Ganga at Gangotri cleanses all sins.
Tomorrow, we have to start early in the morning and go to Gangotri.
Bhaironghati has no electric supply and telephone facility. It is at a height of 9000ft. Due to rain that afternoon,the night was very cold. DG supply was given upto 10 PM and thereafter hurricane lanterens were kept, one for each room. Even at this remote place, the food was made as per order and it was very tasty. The staff were very courteous! Since we had only one room with closet, it was used by all in the night!
The lawn of the guest house was well maintained. The staff promised to wake us at 0530 next day along with bed tea. Hot water also was promised by 0600AM. We slept by 10 PM.
Gangotri
Temple is administered by 5 members; Tehsildar of area, grampradhan of Makhwa and Dharali villages and two leading sanyasis of Gangotri.
17-05-2007 (Thursday)
We started at 0700 Hrs to Gangotri. Since it is only 8 Kms, we could reach before 0745 Hrs. Enroute the scenary is fabulous. Snow covered peaks of Himalayas were visible throughout the journey. At one point, the snow covered peak had a black triangular place, looking like a shiva lingam. Bhanu took many photos..
The vehicle could go upto 11 Kms and had to be parked ¾ Km before the temple and bathing ghat. Like old days in Tirumala, shops are on both sides of 6’ to 7’ road. Every thing is systematic and orderly. Restaurants are clean and neat. Even there is dosa and idli Restaurtant. Pinnamma and meenakshi had dosas. Dosas were tasty. They are double the size of Hyderbad variety, only for rs 30/- each. I had Alu paratha and tea.
There were 3 STD/ISD telephone booths. Bhanu, Meenakshi spoke to Suma (at 8AM). Pinnam,ma spoke to Krishna Mohan. My house telephone was unanswered, probably Radha could be in bathroom or out of house.
We went to bathing ghat which is well constructed. The water is colder than in yamuanotri. Pinnamma had 5 minutes bath; where as, Bhanu, self and meenakshi managed to wet ourselves. The flow was fast indeed!. We had to take bath with the help of a mug, as the current was very strong.
While returning, we visited temples of Gowri Shanker, Ganesh and Ganga..
I again tired for Radha at K.G. since the phone is not being picked up, I tried her cell number. Radha told me she came to Pujis place as puji was still not well. Niece, Dr Phani ,suspected Janudice. Treatmentwas started. Poor puji! She has been suffering since 08.05.07!!
We had come back to Bhairangghatti by 1030 Hrs. we finished lunch at 12 mid day and started for uttarkashi for night halt. The journey was non eventful. We reached uttarkashi by 4:30 PM. The accomadation was very good. It is a suite with two rooms.
We went by walk to Sri Kashi Vishwanath temple. It is old and spacious. While returing, we rang up the helicopter service near Gupta Kshi. The fare is Rs 7,500/- per head (to and fro). We booked for it. The helipad is at Falta, 14 Kms from Gupta Kashi. It is a private service, from New Delhi. We were also told that at Agastyamuni, 27 Kms before Guptakashi, Pawan hans also has helicopter service. So we decided to touch Agastyanumi and find about the service, tomorrow on our way.
We had rice only for dinner. With that we mixed podis and chutnies and had curd in the end.
For the first time in 4 days, I had seen T.V. It was so peaceful without T.V and newspaper all these fourdays!
18-05-2007(Friday)
Got wake up call at 0400 HrsAM. I gave Bhanu Rs 5000/- towards helicopter fare .We started at 0610 Hrs to Gupta Kashi. We had breakfast at a small town.. we saw the Tehri Dam on the way to Sri Nagar. The road is very good. We reached Sri Nagar at 1300 Hrs, but proceeded to Rudraprayag for lunch. But at 1420 Hrs, 3 Kms short of Rudraprayag. We had lunch in a way side Dhabha. Curd was very good here.
In Sri Nagar, we passed Gharwal university. This seems to be a bigger town than Uttarkashi. At Rudra prayag, rivers Mandakini and Alaknanda merge and flows down as one river, ALAKNANDA. So there are two roads from here; one road following river Alaknanda upstream and reaches Badrinath .The second road follows Mandakini upstream upto Kedarnath. We took this road as we have to go to Kedarnath tomorrow. Short of Gupta Kashi, at Agastyamuni we enquired about Helicopter services to Kedarnath. We were informed that on 18.05.07, only one BELL helicopter they have is an 100 Hrs servicing and hence there would not be any services an 18.05.07 and an 19.05.07. All the flights for further days are booked.
So we proceeded to Guptakashi where we have the accommodation for 17.05.07 and 18.05.07. Immediately we proceeded to Phata to book tickets from the PRABHATAM helicopter service (14Kms) for tomorrow’s trip.
Since we booked for 6 persons, air reservation was confirmed for the first flight at 0630 Hrs. we were to report to helipad at 0545 Hrs. we got the two ladies.Mrs Srinivasa Rao and Mrs Eashwarudu manifested with four of us. The names of Mr. Srinivasa Rao and Mr Eashwarudu were included in the waiting list.
We came back to the guest house. We had shared the hot water for bath, as the manager could not provide hot water to all of us. Then Bhanu and I went to town(Guest House is ½ km away ) and rang up Suma and Radha. I tried pujita’s cell number but the connection was not made… I tried Radha’s cell, the same problem. Lastly, I got KG number and spoke to Radha. Puji was in KG. She had Jaundice. She was sleeping . so Radha did not wake her up.
The guest house was overflowing with visitors. The two workmen could not cope up with the rush, but somehow managed to give us rice, dal and curd. We took our meals by 9 PM and retired to bed. There are two ranges of mountains that can be clearly seen from guest house, which are snow clad. It is a beautiful sight to watch!
From Phata, by helicopter,we can see dense green forests and waterfalls from Gaurikund to Rambara. From Rambara,, the sceneray changes dramatically. The mountains are steep, stark and generally bare. Small plants with different colours can be seen. The sight of kedarnath is an enchanting.. The temple is set in rich grassy land with towering snoh clad mountains all around..
19.05.2007(Saturday)
He woke up by 3 AM.. There was no hot water available. So, we had cold water bath. We all were ready by 0430AM. We started at 0450 Hrs and reached helipad in PHATA at 0515 Hrs. The office was not open. By 0545 Hrs, the office staff came and we finished all formalities i.e., writing our full names and addresses, telephone numbers and each ones weight was also checked.
We had tea from a way side stall next to the office. At 0610 Hrs, we took off from chetak helicopter. The pilot is an ex- airforce guy. He was pleasant. We exchanged nice pleasantries. He asked my permission for take off! With me pinnamma and Meenakshi came in the same chopper. The ride was pleasant. As we flew in valley, we could see Gaurikund and Rambara and the 14 Km trek road to Kedarnath. Since it was flying low we could see the ponies, dolies, men walking on the road clearly. We reached Kedarnath in 15 minutes!! Otherwise, by walk it would take 4 Hrs by Dollie.
Pinnamma and Meenakshi used pittu (a man carrying a basket on his back) to reach the temple (3/4 km from helipad). Rs100/- was paid per person.
Kedarnath is a magnificent place, surrounded by snow covered mountains with Mandakini river flowing next to it. The temple is impressive and ancient too. Meanwhile, Bhanu and other came in the Bell helicopter. In my helicopter, there was an young father of 4 years son and an year old daughter with an young wife. His name is Chowdhary. He is from Jaipur. He was scared of flying; he was tensed up. He had high B.P. I advised him to do deep breathing. He was seated next to the pilot. I sat in the last seat. So, I took his hand into mine and kept reassuring him that everything would be alright. I also told him to close his eyes if he was scared. After landing, he profusely thanked me. He touched my feet and made his son to do so . I invited him to Hyderabad and be my guest.
All our group engaged pandits to do abhishekam in temple. Rs 760/- is the cost of puja and material per head. There was lot of rush. Since we came by helicopter, we had VIP entrance, but it was jostling all the way into sanctum Sanctorum. Ghee is poured on the lingam. Pinnamma and I were in one batch. Pandit recited 3 or 4 slokas and lo! the abhishekam was over!!
The lingam is in the shape of hump of a bull. We could touch and feel it. It is worth all the travel! I managed to recite Shiv panchakshari and Mrutyunjaya japam.
Immediately after the puja, we went to Adishankara charyas Samadhi, behind the temple. There was only a caretaker taking care of the Samadhi. Next to Samadhi, statue of Adishankara is there. We prayed there.How
could a man in a short life span of 32 years travel across India innumerable number of times and preach Advaita philosophy!! He must be a God incarnate.
We then came back to helipad by 0900 Hrs. There were lot of people waiting to get back Phata. Our turn came at 1050 Hrs. I and other 4 ladies of our party got into chetak and came back to Phata by 1110 Hrs. Bhanu and others came by 1130 Hrs.
We were told by our car drivers that from Sonmarg to Gowrikund there was traffic jam and hence we better not go to Gowrikund. So, we came back to our guest house in Guptakashi by 1210 Hrs. we ordered simple lunch. There were no one in the guest house. Apparently all would have gone to Kedarnath!
We had lunch by 1310 Hrs and retired to our rooms for a few hours rest. I hardly could sleep, as I had severe cold. Others slept upto 1630 Hrs. It was drizzling and hence we waitied.
We took the cas and went out to the town and prayed in Kashi Vishwanath temple. It is an ancient temple. Arthanareshwara temple also is there in this temple complex. Pinnamma managed to climb so many steep steps.
On the way down, I rang up Radha and spoke to Puji. She sounded very weak. . She has been running fever since 08.05.07. Radha assured me that Dr Phani (niece) was prescribing medicines.
We came back to guest house and had a very tasty simple dinner. Ladies finger vegetable was very tasty. We cleared the bills at 9 PM and watched national DD for news.
20-05-07(Sunday)
We started at 0610 to Badrinath. We took a shorter route than longer Rudraprayag route . The sceneric beauty is enchanting. This route is not widely used! Hence, it is prestine and has a total forest look. From Kund, we took diversion,to a place called Chapta (9200). What a view it is from here.! Valley is so deep and covered with clouds. It is like old Patni top!! We had breakfast here. There is a cute white little pup with an young dog giving company. I gave the pup biscuits. It could not take it. I then, made biscuit powder. It took a bit. The bigger one kept eating biscuit after biscuit and meanwhile two more dogs came. I also fed them. Meanwhile , pleanty of crows flocked and landed near us. So far, we did not see a single crow in these mountains all these days!.so many of them came from no where. I wanted to feed them too. When asked, the dhaba man said that they would love to eat kurkure and biscuits! Amazing!! So I purchased a kurkure packet and left the kurkure in open. Same in the case with biscuits. All the crows fluttered and picked them up in no time. Amazing!!. Meanwhile, the two big dogs also joined the feast. It is a sight to watch at 9200ft.
We crossed Gopeswar, a big town. After 10 more kms we touched Chameli, the district HQ of Chameli district. Badrinath is in Chameli district. Here our road joins main highway coming from Rudraprayag.
We reached Joshimath at 1300 Hrs, well in time for the gate opening time at 1400 Hrs. we had so called lunch in a shack! The whole place was full of vehicles and people. All restaurants were full!
We started at 1400 Hrs sharp and were stopped at Pandukeshwar. There is a gate here. This gate was opened at 1520 Hrs. After short climb, we reached Govind ghat from where the road to Hemkunad goes. Throughout the remaining road journey, we could see massive ice blocks on mountain sides and next to the road.
We reached Badrinath at 1700 Hrs. Since we were provided prive accommodation, we were put up in Paramarthlok! The rooms were so cold! We were shivering. I have nasty cold , cough and running nose. We immediately went for darshan. There was lot of rush and lot of jostling. We had darshan of the flower decorated diety! We enquired for special puja. In the morning there was Veda pathanam at 6 AM. By paying Rs 1000/-, three persons are allowed near the diety for 15 minutes.
We purchased 3 tickets. Bhanu and others went and arranged for the Brahmin for tomorrows pinda danam programme.
We had dinner the restaurant in the same complex. It was so cold! Meenakshi was not well. She had head ringing problem. Bhanu was upset. I got an Ayurvedic doctor. He came with another one. They said it would be alright, if she had good sleep.
I could not sleep whole night due to intense cold(4 to 5º C) and my nose running and cough. May be I had an hours sleep!
Though it was May, I felt the cold as intense as in September. I came here in September 1996. I am fortunate to make the second trip to Badrinath and be blessed by God and my fore fathers. . The town and temple sit in a small plateau surrounded by snow clad mountains, specially, Nar-Narayan range, with Alkananada following at 80 Kms speed, it is a lovely sight! Gods are really here. The great Adi Shankara did yoeman service to Hinduism. He is really God incarnate; otherwise, where is Kaladi and where are Badrinath and Kedarnath!!
The gopuram of sanctum sanctorum of Badrinath temple glitters with gold covering and is surrounded by the snow covered peaks of Himalayas. Alaknanda river passes by the temple.
21.05.2007 (Monday)
Since I could not sleep the whole night, I started my morning ablutions right from 0330 Hrs.. Since, the geyser was not to be put on due to low voltage, I could not shave. The water for brushing teeth as well as for toilet was so cold, I could finish both jobs with great difficulty. It took me an hour.
By 0500 AM, hot water bucket was brought and I had hot water bath.( RS 15/- per bucket). I and pinnamma stayed in one room. Till now, Bhanu was sharing a room with me all along, though I used to insist that he and his wife should share a room and I and pinnamma would share a room. Till Badrinath, he did not listen to me. In Badrinath, he agreed to share with his wife.
I was so weak due to my cold and intense cold outside and lack of sleep. Probably I had fever also. Seldom I felt so drained out as yesterday and today morning. But I was determined to have the special darshan at 0600 AM and perform obsequies to my fore fathers.
The way to temple from our guest house was too steep.
And hence I got drained out, going to and fro.
The hot water spring, taptakund, is the boon of the nature. Other hot springs are : Naradkund and suryakund.
One trip up and down drained out my energies. After 6 AM darshan we had to wait till 9:30 AM for the pandit to come and perform obsequies. There after, we came back to guest house at 0730 Hrs. Ladies came to temple and back by pittus.
We went again at 9 AM to temple. Temple prasadam was given at 0945 Hrs and immediately we started the pindapradanam process .. Before that, we had bath in hot water spring. We finished by 1110 Hrs and by 1130 Hrs. The Brahmin who conducted was young, handsome and very good in pronunciation and movements. Each of us paid Rs 400/- for this. After all, we had redeemed ourselves for this birth and prosperity given to us by our forefathers! This is the least we could do to them!! This is the second time, I am doing. In 1996 September, when I came to Badrinath, I performed then also.
The idol of Lord Badrinath (Badri vishal) is made of black stone shaligram. The Lord is seated in a Padmasanam posture. The temple is divided into 3 parts.
Garbhagriha, the darshan mantap and the Sabha Mandap. The idol of badrinath is seated in the innermost part- Garbhagriha. The canopy of temple is covered with a sheet of Gold. This offering was made by queen Ahalya Bai, quen of Indore. In darshan mandap, pujas are performed. Sabha mandap is a outer hall where the devotees stand for darshan.
. It is a privilege of life to visit all four dhams. One’s life is satisfied and attains bliss.
We had lunch in a real shack. Lunch programme was a fiasco. Yesterday when Bhanu and others went to Jiyyar swamy ashram, they were asked to come for lunch next day ie today. So we wasted ½ hr in locating the ashram after trekking up and down. When we came to ashram at 1305 Hrs, there were 250 people waiting for lunch!! So we abandoned the idea.
We had ultimately so called lunch is a real shack, horrible food! It was the worst food I had taken during this trip. Slightly better than this (a shade) was at Joshimatt.
We started at 1400 Hrs as the gate was promptly opened. At Pnadukeshwar we were held up for 25 minutes. We saw a restaurant at Pipalkot offering Dosa, Idli. so, we stopped here at 0530 PM and had idli and masala dosa. The items are good. Chutney is good. But sambar was not upto the mark.
We ultimately, reached Kaldourbagh at 1955 Hrs. This guest house is newly built and is located on the banks of Alaknanda. It is a very picturousque with the river flowing just 20 feet away from rooms.
The rooms were well furnished with T.V and coolers. In the bathroom, geyser was there. The dinning hall was very neat and clean. The service was prompt and courteous. Our AP tourism department should learn many things from this Garhwal mandal.
We did not take any dinner. We slept early at 9:30 PM. we watched Aaj Tak news at 9PM. It was our last day in mountains and the last day of prepaid and pre arranged accommodation. I wish I could come here with my family and spend a week or so leisurely on the banks of Alaknanda, enjoying every bit of it! Such a lovely spot.
22.05.2007 (Tuesday)
I got up at 5 AM. Finished bathroom activities by 6 AM. Pinnamma got ready by 0715 AM. We both slept well last night. Initially,it was warm but after cooler was on for an hour or two, the room was cool and we could sleep well.
We had breakfast in the restaurant below. Very good preparations!! How could these people manage such good food at such remote places !! Hats off to them.
We started at 0830 Hrs. we crossed Karnaprayag after 5 Kms only. Then crossed Rudraprayag (35 kms) and Srinagar (65 Kms). We reached Deva prayag at 1230 Hrs and from view point took good clear photos of the confluence of rivers Bhagiradhi and Alaknanda. Bhaghiradhi’s water were clear and green in appearance, where as Alaknanda water were muddy and sandy in colour. Atlast Alaknanda lost its name after sangam with Bhagiradhi here. From now onwards it flows as river Ganga only till it flows into Bay of Bengal.
We stopped 30 kms short of Rishikesh at 1330 Hrs for lunch. Food was so so. Luckily, we got curd. It was so hot from Rudraprayag. By the time we started the last leg of journey to Rishikesh after lunch, it was unbearably hot! We reached the Garwal Mandal Vikas Nigam Ltd.(GMVN) main information centre at the bypass road to Haridwar at 1530 Hrs. we tipped the drivers. We managed to get accommodation in Dormetry with 6 beds in each. But these were on top floor (II floor). It was so hot!! The fans were spewing the heat of the terrace into the rooms.
Bhanu and others went to see Rishikesh (Laksham Jhula, Geeta Bhavan etc) at 1745 Hrs. I did not go as I have seen them a number of times earlier. Also, I was too tired and drained out. I took bath at 6:30 PM and washed some clothes. I went for a ½ Km walk outside. I had 10 glasses of cold water and lassy. It became pleasant only at 8:30 PM.
Bhanu and party came back at 9 PM and we immediately went to restaurant below and had buffet dinner. I and pinnamma had curd extra. Curd was very good. After dinner, we spent some time on the terrace.( Self, pinnamma and Meenakshi.). Bhanu and his friends discussed tomorrows Delhi and Agra programme sitting in the lawn.
We came to the room at 10 PM. Meenakshi rang up Buyyay in JNU, Delhi informing our programme. Buyyay instantly recognized me and welcomed to his house. So, we four will be received at New Delhi railway station by Buyyay on 24.05.07 afternoon and take us to his house.
We all slept at 1030 pm. We opened all windows. Tomorrow I have to wash some undergarments, towel and a night suit for Delhi stay.
23-05-07(Wednesday)
We got up at 0530 Hrs. Bhanu and others were leaving at 0730 Hrs to Haridwar for sight seeing. I spent leisurely my time, as I remained in the room. I washed all my clothes as planned with Rin and dried them.
I had corn flakes and toast, jam and butter for breakfast. I paid only Rs 50/-. I paid Rs.90/- for yesterdays 3 Coffee, 1 tea and todays morning 2 coffee and 3 teas!
I read Times of India paper sitting in the visitors lounge. Same old stories of violence, conflicts etc. I went to STD booth next door and rang up Radha. She said Pujis fever had come down and yesterday she did not have any fever. Thank God! My prayers were heard! Poor girl, she had been suffering from 08.05.07, for a fortnight!! Any case , it is a matter of 3 more days. I will see her on 26/05/2007.
It was very hot! I had buffet lunch. It was good. I had taken extra curd and it was creamy and tasty. I collected dried clothing of Pinnamma and Meenakshi and folded them neatly. By 1400 Hrs, Bhanu and party came back from Haridwar. It was extremely hot, as ours was top floor! We some how managed to have a nap till 5 PM.
In the evening, we met an old gentleman, Mr Vyas, a Maharastrain. He was spending a month here. He already visited Chardham. We became friends.
Dinner was also a buffet. Again we ordered extra curd. It was sumptuous. We all slept by 1030 PM.
24.5.2007 (Thursday)
We got up at 0400 AM. By 0510 Hrs, we started in two autos to Haridwar Railway station. Train came on time,at 0625 Hrs. The Journey to New Delhi was uneventful. Buyyay came with his 15 year old son, Santosh to receive us in railway station. I saw him after 40 long years. The last time I saw him was in Janaki’s marriage in 1965. He is good and his son is a live wire. We both became good friends in no time. When we reached Buyyay’s house in JNU Campus, his wife took care of us so well. She is a reader in Botony in Dayal Singh College,in Lodhi Road. She was pleasant. Santhosh drew my caricature and presented to me. I promised him to send him E-mail regularly.
25.05.2007 (Friday)
Bhanu and party left to see Agra. I was dropped in Wg Cdr Babus house by Buyyay. Padma was nice. Babu came for lunch. I had beer and slept. Babu gave me scotch in the evening. We slept at about 11 PM.
26.05.2007 (Saturday)
Babu dropped me in the Airport. I met Bhanu and others. The flight took off late by an hour due to traffic congestion. We landed at Bhubaneshwar at 1020 hrs and took off again at 1100 hrs. We reached Hyderabad at 1210 hrs. I took an auto and came home by 1330 hrs. I was too eager to see Puji.
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