Ciao Venezia

We finally visited Venice on Saturday after a long deliberation on whether to go or not to go. We even almost missed the train to Venice, barely got in two minutes before it started. The place is so full of beautiful age old architecture that we kept taking snaps. Tastefully done buildings. One thing I like a lot about this place is that lovely flowers dot every balcony.
From the train station, we took a vaporetto to one of the islands called Murano. This island is famous for glass blowing. We saw some beautiful creations made in coloured glass. I will upload some pics when I get them.
Next stop was the San Marco Island. This has the famous St. Marks Square. We first visited the Palace Ducale (Doge's palace), paid an awful lot to see this (13Euro!!) This palace had gorgeous expensive paintings on the walls. The Armoury had a variety of weapons on display, some swords even reaching my height. Those warriors must have been very tall to hold them! Such weapons are seen in Indian forts too.
We walked on the Bridge of Sighs and took pics in front of it. This is a bridge that leads from the palace to the other end of a canal. Apparently, the prisoners, after being sentenced, used to be taken through this bridge to their prisons. The prisoners used to look out of this bridge at their last rays of freedom and sigh, and hence it is called the Bridge of Sighs. This reminded me of Count of Monte Cristo, in which Edmond Dantes, fights for his freedom when he is taken to the dungeon. That book is a masterpiece, in which every passage made an impression.
The St. Marks square was full of thousands of pigeons. We fed these pigeons and took snaps with them.
The basilica in the square was closed by the time we reached, so we couldn't see that. Thats a big regret as we were told that it is a must-see, and now I might not get another opportunity like this.
We then went in search of the Rialto bridge. Apparently, this is also very famous. We just did not know where to find it. So we reached these streets, which are basically waterways, and gondolas were passing through these. We were told that gondola rides are very expensive, and are meant for honeymooners and those others who have time and money to kill. So we didnt take one. In one of the gondolas, a man was singing "Ciao Venezia" to the tune of an instrument. Thats when the beauty of Venice sank in. So far, it was nice architecture etc etc. But we experienced the charm on listening to that song. Those 5 minutes were very beautiful. Venice has to be lived in, to experience it completely. We saw the Rialto Bridge when we took the vaporetto back to the station.
Venice was truly an experience of a lifetime.
Another thing I like here is the music. I will learn to play an instrument sometime in my life.
I wish we had more time to explore. We caught the last train back, which takes a longer route. Halfway through, the next coach caught fire. It was controlled immediately though. Happening trip :)
Yesterday, we took a boat ride to the downtown city. Roamed around, ate genuine pizza with tuna fish toppings (I love Tuna fish now) and icecream (Yummmmm).
Lovely weekend. :-)

Magical fortnight ahead :)

Hi all, here I am in a new country and enjoying it thoroughly. The place is gorgeous and the food (especially the sea food) is delicious. On our way here, we stopped over in Dubai. The airport was posh and the guys handsome. Woww what great looks. It was also like a home away from home, with many Indians employed there as service staff. I plan to shop a bit on my way back.

The guesthouse in which I have been put up here faces the sea. Its my dream stay. We leave the doors open at nights. People play soft music here at the sea side at night and we fall asleep to the sounds of that. Guess what! Day before, they even played a hindi song. I couldnt believe my ears. My roommate is an African Muslim girl and is very gorgeous. She says India is very famous in her country as people there often watch Shahrukh Khan movies. I was amazed (and thrilled) at the outreach SRK has.. She speaks good french and bad english. My french doesnt go beyond Bonjour. But we manage well :-D I am learning a bit of Italian too. As far as the conference is concerned, it is all nice and good, but I have this thing that I cannot apply for post doc yet and that slightly gets me down. I mean I feel whats the use of all this for me :-D So I am maintaining a low profile here.

Ok so here full and final is my advertisement for a cheerful, educated, liberated Muslim guy who will let me live my life as I wish :-D Most desirable if he is 6'2" :-D ;-) Btw lots of handsome Muslim guys in the campus here too, mostly from west asia.. Umm but my mom objects to (even) north Indians, I dont think she ll like the idea of a foreigner :-D

Jokes apart, nice place, nice people and I plan to enjoy myself the rest of this magical fortnight.

Ciao to you and have fun :)
(wow i posted this post with italian instructions)

Notes from Bangalore

I spent this weekend at Bangalore. This was my first visit to the city. Visited my relatives. Met old college friends. I must say I seem to be the only one who has not changed at all in appearance. Everyone else has put on weight.
My impressions of the city! There are always goods and bads in a city and so its not even a good thing to compare. But then one does end up comparing.
The autowallahs are much much better there than in Chennai. I was surprised to find them following the meter rate to a rupee. The meter can be used in a negative way also as we found out in one case where this guy was taking us through narrow lanes and byways instead of the main roads just to increase the rate. We promptly got down 10 mins after getting in ( I was suspicious also as this guy covered up his face in the petrol pump, and avoided the main roads. Who knows if he is a terrorist. He he my imagination was on full drive. I digress.)
The bus service is lousy, Ill say. And the commuters are more lecherous (in my experience). I felt travelling there is difficult unless one has a personal vehicle.
It was so pleasantly cool there. After the sultriest few days in Chennai, this was very welcome. As it happened, it rained in Chennai too this weekend. Not fair. We missed 4 days of chennai rains :-(
We roamed around Garuda Mall. One can buy stuff in Spencers but not in Garuda Mall. Its indecently overpriced. I think Spencers caters to all sections. Anyway, we entered the Scary House there and got mighty scared. My cousins tell me that I apparently told one "bhoot" to not do what he was doing- scare me :-D He he I am jumpy by nature and I am scared of darkness too. So I got my money's worth of getting scared :-D Enjoyed max in all. I would love to return to Bangalore :)

There is big hype surrounding the movie Sivaji down south. Apparently people are even paying 1k to watch this movie! Its a crazy little world.

Trichy Diary

I was in Trichy for the past two days. Let me start by saying that everything about this trip was unique for me. Ill start at the very beginning.
When I started, lots of tensions were up. My uncle fell ill, my parents were worried, I was worried that I should be able to get back in time if god forbid something happens, and my parents didn't know I was going to Trichy ( I just didn't have the energy to justify my visit and fight it out). So, I was very tense and keyed up.
My train starts from Egmore. I have never been to this station before, and I was charmed by the ambience. Chennai Central sees people from all over India, but Egmore mostly gets the TamilNadu passengers. So, this station gives a real feel of TN, you see mamis in the 9yards sarees and diamond nose studs, laced with easy smiles and soft words, then thathas in lungis. Even the train was nicely scented- sharp cinnamon - clove tinge in the air. This station is also much much more cleaner than Central.
I couldnt sleep all night as I was worried Ill miss the station. My train- Rockfort express, goes to Kumbakonam via Trichy. It starts at 1030pm from egmore and reaches Trichy at 515am. It turned out I need not have worried. By 430am, everyone was up and about. Lights were on and people were talking. I was feeling sorry for the Kumbakonam passengers. It turned out I need not have done that either. Apparently, a lot of people get down at Trichy. So, Trichy passengers are alloted separate coaches. At trichy, these coaches are detached from the rest of the train and the train proceeds to its destination. Efficient. No wonder Indian Railways is minting money. They use common sense.

I was put up in a hotel. I was sceptical about this as I have never stayed in a hotel before, but it was a good hotel - nice people and close to the station.

Trichy is a small city. Here, the general people are not overly friendly but they are not rude either. Chennai is rude. Also, in Trichy, everyone is curious about everyone else. Like I was asked by so many people if I had come to give examinations (I look younger than what I am, its a disadvantage also as sometimes Im not taken seriously, many students even asked if I am in my first year of PhD!)

The university I was visiting is some 17kms away from the station and is reached by taking a mofussil bus. One of my friends there, VM, picked me up on the first day. Beautiful countryside, though it predominantly has dry vegetation. Also smooth roads and frequent buses. I met very friendly people at the university and my my!! Their motivation levels have to be seen to be believed. Before lunch, I had discussed more physics/research than I had ever discussed in one whole week. My talk in the afternoon went well. I was asked to make it accessible to the Msc students as well. I tried but I dont think I succeeded. I got positive feedback from the graduate students.

Anyway, I came back to the hotel on my own. I enjoyed those bus journeys :-) I slept very early after an early dinner and woke up 12 hours later.

Next day, I went to the university by myself. I can read Tamil though I'm painfully slow at it. This helped me this time in reaching the university without mishaps.

After a few discussion sessions that day, I was invited for lunch to the girls' hostel mess. Now here I must compare it with our mess. They pay 20pd, we pay 43pd. They have to bring their own utensils,we dont have to. They even wash their plates, we dont even bother to clean the plates of the mess. Their food is served very hot and its very tasty and unlimited. Believe me. They even get unlimited ghee! Our food is supposed to be hot and tasty, but something happens to it.

In the afternoon, VM and her friend TM, took me around to show places around Trichy. We first headed to Srirangam. On our way there, they pointed out Prez APJK's alma mater. TM had even met the Prez once and has a photo with him. Quite an experience for her!! We parted ways with TM after a while.

VM took me to SriRanganathaswamy temple in Srirangam. Very impressive place. The entrance was very majestic and very tall. I think thats what is called the Rajagopuram. Like a fort, there were townships in and outside the entrances. It has three entrances and apparently totally 26 gopurams of all sizes. We could count only 16. It seems the fourth side also has some gopurams and that is allocated for the harijans (as told to us by a person working in that place). Many were also hidden by trees. The picture here shows the Rajagopuram (from wiki, I unfortunately did not take my camera on this trip :-( I did not think Ill actually go for sight-seeing).Beautiful architecture in stone from the days of the Cholas. Markets and houses surround this temple and so sitting there, one can almost imagine how the township looked like some 700 hundred years ago.
I also saw the temple elephant up close, sort of came upon it suddenly and jumped out of my skin :-D
After this, we travelled back towards the city and went to the Rockfort temple.
This is, as the name suggests, on a mountain. If I counted right, we climbed 330 steps to reach the top. We looked like the old man climbing the stairs in the Chawanprash advertisement :-D And I saw a guy who was climbing these steps on his knees with a ghee lamp in his hand!! No words at all.
The view from the top was beautiful. We could see Srirangam temple from here. Also we could see a very dry Cauvery bed from the top. It is waiting for either Karnataka to release waters or for the rains in July.
This wiki picture shows the river, I saw only the riverbed :-)

There were many temples inside the rock mountain too. In one place, I saw a carving with a pregnant woman in it and wondered what it could be for. Maybe this wiki entry answers it. I saw another temple elephant here which again took me by surprise.

We then came back to the city and after a tasty dinner, I headed back for Chennai.
India-Srilanka match was up. So everywhere I went, cricket was being closely followed. Even in the station, the platform was empty as everyone had gathered in the arrival lounge to watch the match on the TV. At one point, a loud cheer went up and the platform emptied some more. One guy came to the station just as the train arrived ( You see I like to be at the platform 1 hr before the train arrives!). And he calls up his home asks what the score is! :-D Today early morning, before we reached Egmore. the passengers were wondering what was the outcome. One guy even said that we must have lost and in case we win, the match must have been fixed. :-D
I took a bus from the station (at 515am!! wow I'm impressed by the bus service). Chennai looked beautiful that early in the morning. I love visiting new places but finally I belong to Chennai :-) Or maybe its just that I love returning home :-)
A memorable trip, one that will linger at the back of my mind for many days to come.
Chennai does not give a complete picture of Tamil Nadu. The real TamilNadu lives in these cities.
I was asked many times if I was a north-Indian, to which I said no I'm a Tamizhian :-)

I have a similar opportunity to visit Banaras via Delhi, but I guess Ill have to forego that. Im sure there will be stiff opposition at home and I dont want to do things chori chupe. Inspite of having worked hard for the major part of this trip, there has been a nagging feeling at the back of mind that my parents do not know about this, and I think they deserve this much honesty from me.
A pity. I would love to see Banaras too :-)

Western ghats

My brother (F) and his friends trekked through this abandoned railway track in Saklespura in the western ghats. He will probably add a travel account of this trip. Ill edit this post if and when that happens. This whole area is so gorgeous!! See you keep humans out of the picture and the place retains its beauty.


See there's just this wooden railway track and nothing else. F tells me one could see the valley through the gaps in the track. They also came across a waterfall where they all refreshed themselves.

(You can even spot F here in the pic if you know him.)

Now you see why Im jealous. I have never been to a place like this. OK if not dangerous treks like this, I should atleast be able to see places like Munnar, Coorg, Humpy rt! My friend once told me about her trip to the point where Cauvery originates. All this sometime in my life :-)

Taj

( This pic is borrowed from Mohib's Aks:Reflection )

I saw Taj when I was 9 years old - hardly the age to appreciate it. Going there now is also in my wishlist :-)

My brother tells me about his wonderful trek through an abandoned railway track in Saklespura. I am so jealous of him ! Ill upload those pics soon. I am telling myself that Ill get to do these things someday :-D

Yet to start work. There is something listless about a Monday morning.

Greek colonies in Pakistan

Bumborate, Chitral, Pakistan

If you have read my GoWH-I post, you might remember that I had mentioned the existence of ethnic greek colonies in Pakistan and I had promised to get back with more info. These tribes are called the Kalash people. They live in the Chitral valley in Northwest Pakistan. These tribes claim to be the direct descendants of Alexander's army. They have their own religion and culture. More about them here.

You can find really colourful pictures of these people and their beautiful valley here. Pakistan has some really gorgeous valleys in the HinduKush range.

But my first ambition is to tour all the gorgeous locales in India and then venture abroad if ever :-( Lets see if this ever gets fulfilled :-D
Kehte hain na girgit ki daud baadh tak :-D

A nature trek in the backyard

A few of my colleagues and me went to the Guindy National Park (GNP) for a nature walk today early in the morning. I could still see the moon in the sky. It was that early !

It was a lovely experience. We took the nature trails that the forest offcials had already laid out. This is a longer trail and passes through the dense forest. GNP is a harmless forest. Atleast thats what I felt there today. I mean the fauna is mainly deers (spotted deers and black bucks), jackals and snakes, mongoose etc and a vast variety of birds. We didnt spot any of the dangerous animals on that list :-D
It has many varieties of flora though. The place was so untouched by humans that one could smell the greenery - you know when a tree is cut, it gives out a distinct kind of smell - that kind. Plus, we could smell the fragrance of the different flowers blooming there. Imagine no pollution, no odious deodorants, no orcs. Just pure nature. This must have been the way it was when Adam and Eve came here. God's way of compensation for chucking them out of heaven. But then, Adam carried the grudge on his mind anyway and destroyed this place as well. I'm digressing.

Back to this, there was this picture-book area which had tall trees and small and very green shrubs/ plants ( My zoology+botany sense is almost zilch). Colourful flowers were blooming on the plants. And sunlight was filtering through the leaves. I have seen such pictures on desktops and Natgeos. This was my first-hand experience of such beauty.

While returning, we went a little off-trail. There was this little valley-like area behind the bushes. This led to a very small pond with some water in it. The whole place had the leaf-laden tree branches as the roof. It was very peaceful there. One could sit there for hours just listening to the bird-calls. To complete the picture, a very blue kingfisher flew in and perched on a branch hanging above this pond. From there, instead of getting back on trail, my friends lead us through the denser forest. I was very sceptical but followed anyway (Im a ninny when it comes to adventures. I just dream of them). We saw some bones of deers too. We were joking that we would also be there if we cant find our way back :-D

Finally, we came out through a gate into the children's park (a mini zoo here) which officially opens to public at 9. We were in there at 8.30 :-D Anyway, we had special permission so that was ok. Many of the animals like spotted deers, blackbucks, monkeys and birds which were free to roam in GNP were in cages here. What's the purpose of zoos ? In this day and age, kids can very well see these animals online. Atleast the enclosures should be larger than what they are at present. A wild-life sanctuary makes more sense. He he I think, we being denizens of few square meter labs, are in a similar situation.

I don't have any pictures of this trip but I think this will stay in my memory - a beautiful trek in the backyard.

We were in Delhi when I was a kid. And I used to look forward to Chennai-Delhi trips in the summer. This route has awesome sceneries. But then, I think you travel anywhere in India, you get to see beautiful sceneries - every region with its own unique beauty. This particular route has mountains and very deep valleys (near Itarsi) , rivers, a very green Andhra.. So I used to (and I still) dream about
roaming around in those areas where no humans have gone before. Imagine a trek from the source of a river to its destination..
That would be lovely ...