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Mumblings - Fulltu Polambal

2011-08-06T21:01:00.024+05:30

Harsha and I have been fighting, literally tearing each other's hair (and he's got a ponytail, too!).

Why?

You can ask him why he has a ponytail, but I can tell you why we've been fighting.

We have a dream, its a small dream, considering the vastness of the universe, but a dream still... and it was about to be fulfilled when we are facing glitches.

We have a dream to drive all along the borders of India... that means travelling by road from, say, Mumbai, through the ends of Gujarat, to Rajasthan, along the Pakistan border, to Punjab, the Wagah border, to J&K, the mighty Himalayas, along the Chinese border, from Leh to Spiti, the Tibet border, across Himachal, Uttarkhand, then to Uttar Pradesh, along the Nepal border, to Bihar, to West Bengal, to NorthEast, via Sikkim, Assam, Arunachal, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya, along Bangladesh border, to Calcutta, down the east coast of the sub-continent, to the very Southern tip of India, Kanyakumari, then up the west coast, along Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra and back to Mumbai again!

Phew! Yes, that's our small dream... borderline madness, as a friend called it and simply madness, as another put it.

So here we go about talking endlessly to people about this, some said 'great', some said 'wow', some just couldn't comprehend this and some just forgot to shut their mouths in awe!

We put our plans down in paper, on the comp, stuck maps on walls, and did just about everything to come up with a plan. We spoke to friends, friends of friends, from various regions of India, and roughly figured out the roads. It would take us anywhere between 70 to 90 days. And the more we thought about it, the more we got excited.

People keep using the words 'huge, big, all over India', in our day-to-day talk. Do they really, really know or comprehend the meaning of such words, or do they use them just like that? Think about it....

And we could think of a million ideas and a million people who would benefit from our drive... any corporate could use us to collect data, any social cause could use our drive to create awareness across India, anybody could use us to penetrate the corners of India for anything... one can only penetrate the fringe of what we can achieve in all of 3 months.

Just the planning of it is exhilarating and imagine, if we could complete it! Has anyone done it before? We got Googling and figured out that no one has ever done it for any country in the world! That means, hold your breath, we will be the first to attempt something like this and if we are successful, maybe, get into the Guiness Book of World Records TM! Yay!!

It all sounds so good. So, why were Harsha and me fighting?

Its all about money, honey.

Doing something like this should actually be attracting sponsors and the press like bees to honey. But sadly, as we discover, that is not the case. Some sponsors say 'hey, we get applications by the hundreds for sponsoring events', and another in the media says, 'we at the press report events that have happened, not something as a prelude.' What the...?

Dampeners! Discouragement!!

Oh, we are getting that a lot. And let me mention what else we are getting - ideas by the minute, on what we should be doing and how we should be doing it. I think our credibilities are enough to prove that if we do this, we will do it well. So, what is with people who sit at their desk, who haven't driven even a thousand kms in their lives, trying to tell us how to do it?

We ask for help in money or kind, and sigh... this is all that we are getting.

I understand the thought of this drive by itself is exciting, but, ladies and gentlemen, please try to help us by getting us sponsors, by participating (literally, I mean, by accompanying us physically, in a part of our journey), or by getting the press to write about us. Right now, this is what we need.

Oh, by the way, what is the fight about?

Its about who is going to drive; because between Harsha and me, we have a deal - whoever takes the wheel first will drive till the end!

Citrus County

2010-06-25T14:12:00.008+05:30

Because we enjoyed Vijay Singh Mankotia’s knowledge of the off-roads we asked him to suggest the most picteresque road to our 11th Mahindra Homestay location - Citrus County at Hoshiarpur and he chalked out a route via the Maharana Pratap Sagar Dam.

The Siwaliks in this region are soft and friable. These hills are composed mainly of clay sand, sand rocks and poorly bedded sandstones... and unless you go and touch the hard surface you would think they are sand dunes.

Harkreet Singh was among the first hosts to call us confirming our booking (over a month ago... before we left Chennai on this long Mahindra Homestays trip), and was impatiently waiting to recieve us. He was so eager to make sure we got there quickly that he sent his driver with his cell phone to wait on the highway to guide us thru the village roads. But, he forgot that the driver only spoke punjabi and we had no clue what he was saying!

So between the MapMyIndia GPS, calls to his wife Jasveen (who was in Chandigarh having just given birth to their second child) and some intuitive thinking we made it to the lovely citrus farm.

There was a choice to stay in tents in the lawn area or rooms in the main building... we chose the main building, for no particular reason. The tents were equally plush and airconditioned!

Despite the heat - the monsoon not having arrived as yet, the place was pretty cool, thanks to the powerful air conditioners. The home is set in the middle of a Kinnow orange farm and in the evenings it got pretty cool thanks to the large lawn and huge trees.

The kinnow, a hybrid of two citrus cultivated varieties, was introduced from California to the Punjab in the 1940s and is known for its high juice content, special flavour, and as a rich source of vitamin C.

In Punjab, every this in King size... the rooms are big... the air conditioners are over 2tons, the tents are spacious, and the TV in our room was 29 inches... no wonder their IPL team is called Kings XI!

We were joined that evening by Jaideep and Pooja from Chandigarh who had just returned from a trip to Australia and wanted to experience “Punjabi Homestay/farmstay before getting back to full fledged work”.
Jaideep also happens to work with Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) and decided to spend his weekend writing about us and our travels. The article was carried in some 20 newspapers all over the country.

Jaideep, who had been here before, took us around the area and showed us a factory where they made sarson-ka-saag (Curried mustard leaves) and makkai (corn) flour for export to the millions of punjabis who lived in UK.

We got to eat some great tandoori chicken and paneer butter masala - the signature dishes of punjab at the airconditioned little tent called the Citrus cafe.

Harki and his dad were always around to tell us tales of Punjab, the politics, the culture and the religion. Food and cars were the other favourite subjects... and Harki’s dad had a good joke up his sleve all the time.
Rufus, the family pooch, is always around to entertain and eager to play... when he was not sticking his face in to the swimming pool to cool off from the heat.

After 2 days of King size hospitality we all headed to Chandigarh, Harki to see his wife, Jaideep to get back to work and Prabha and I to start the first leg of our long drive back to Chennai.

Om Mahal

2010-06-23T14:10:00.010+05:30

Our 10th Mahindra Homestay was Jaishree & Vijay Mankotia's Om Mahal in Kangra valley near Dharmanshala.

Crossing Shimla is such a pain. The traffic is unbearable and despite helpful cops standing at every turn we took a good one hour to get out of the maze. Since we were 'inside Shimla' now, we decided to pay a visit the dear old Peterhoff Hotel. In 2004 we had come to this heritage hotel to get flagged off on the Raid de Himalaya.

From Shimla the road is pretty straight to Gaggal... just stay on NH 88. We took a couple of detours because of landslides (yes... even in the summer these things happen) and sometimes because we felt the off-road was more picturesque than the highway. We finally reached Gaggal (via Bilaspur, Hamirpur. Jwalamikhi and Kangra).

Om Mahal is pretty easy to navigate to. When you drive from Gaggal town towards the airport (a.k.a. Pathankot road) take the left that points to Masroor monolithic rock-cut temples and keep going for about 5 kms. There are no boards so if you request Jaishree Mankotia she will send someone to the main gate to guide you into the estate.
When we entered the mango estate the trees were full of ripe mangoes, ready for harvest. And hidden between them were some Lychee trees.

So, you ask... were the next 3 days spent eating mangoes and lychees? Yes... and many more nice things... all while we looked at the Dhauladhar range of the Himalayas.

We asked Jaishree to prepare simple dal-chaval type of meals but she would sneak in one of her specialities in to the menu and we ended up over eating - as usual!

Major Vijay Singh Mankotia, is an officer, and gentleman... not to forget his roots in royalty and politics.
Mankotia is a member of one of the princely families of Himachal Pradesh. At the Indian Military Academy he was awarded the coveted "Sword of Honour", and served in the Gorkha Regiment with distinction. After a premature retirement from the army he entered active politics, where he is remembered as one of the most versatile Tourism Ministers of Himachal Pradesh. Unable to fight the deep rooted corruption in the system for long he has today “quit active politics and decided to relax, catch up on my reading and meet interesting people like you...” he says.

The atmosphere at Om Mahal is spiritual - there are pictures of the Dalai Lama and Swami Chinmayananda all over the house - some of the pictures are with the Mankotias... “our family has been associated with all things spiritual for generations and we continue the tradition” says Jaishree.

There are certain advantages of being the guests of the former Tourism minister - you get to know of the off-roads to take and the best places to see, especially if you are short on time.

The next day we took a quick drive to Norbulingka, a school of Tibetian art and craft, dedicated to preserving Tibetan cultural heritage, located in small village Sidhpur near Dharamsala. Mankotia charted us of a “nice forest road” that was really beautiful... especially because the entire dharamsala - McLeodGanj area is crowded with Tibetans and tourists.

The art and craft on sale at the Norbulingka store is prohibitively expensive, but I guess you have to consider the fact that they are trying to support about 1,50,000 refugees and run a government in exile... so we did our part for the cause and picked up a few souvenirs. Incidentally the original town of Norbulingka is in Tibet (now under Chinese rule) and used to be the summer palace of the Dalai Lama.

While the Tibetians are very strict about the teaching of the traditional wood and metal carving techniques, they have given in to the western influences as far as the music their younger generation listens to - the Norbulingka class rooms were echoing with Britney Spears and Shakira.

The 6 o clock aarti and bhajan at the Swami Chinmayananda samadhi was our next stop. Memories of my first school in Kurnool came to mind as I joined in the bhajans, remembering a verse here and a phrase there. Some of the bhajans prayed to the gods to give the parched lands some rains. After the aarti, as we prepared to take the prasaadam it started raining, a fabulous hail storm.

Everyone was overjoyed, some started collecting the large ice cubes and eating them. A few of the devotees stayed back to chat with us and we also had the honour to meet Dr. Kshama Metre, Director of Chinmaya Organisation for Rural Development who was recently awarded the Padma Shri Award for Social Service.

The next day we decided to go to Dharamsala and McLeodGanj to see the Dalai Lama's personal Namgyal Monastery. The main teaching room of the Dalai Lama is located here and because he was out of the county the palace was not crowded.

We had lunch at the small Namgyal cafe which served some tibetian soups and italian pizzas. There were many monks wandering about in their dark maroon robes and shaven heads. Unless you paid close attention to what they were saying you could not tell if they Tibetin, American or Indian.

Thanks to Richerd Gere and the his charm in the western world a lot of Americans and Europians are actively involved in the support of the Tibetans... some of them have even taken to the robes.

The narrow mountain roads all the way from Gaggal to McLeodganj and back were a breeze for the Xylo... drives like a car, climbs like a SUV.

Back at Mankotia's place (or Palace if you like) the rooms were very comfortable and thanks to global warming they had just added their “first set of Air conditioners... just this year... it has never been this hot!” according to Jaishree.

The house is filled with family pictures and memorabilia from Vijay Singh's many travels. The library boasts of books from Archies digest to Enid Blyton to the teachings of the Dalai Lama or the collectors edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica if you like!

Wandering about the estate, we spotted the elusive Yellow billed blue magpie, several bulbuls and treepies all over the place. True bird wathcers paradise.

The silverware is actually made of silver (... not stainless steel), truly royal. The behaviour of the staff and the presentation of the meals, even if it is a simple chai with biscuits, is just as royal. We were the first Mahindra Homestay customers to come here, maybe the first ever guests they have had since they started the homestay so we felt we were treated morel like family than guests.

“If all the guests we get are like you, I would be very happy” said Jaishree as we left the next day on our way to Hoshiarpur to stay at our 11th Mahindra Homestay location - Citrus County.

Krish Rauni

2010-06-20T14:08:00.008+05:30

Our 9th Mahindra Homestay, Krish Rauni at Matiana, is located just off the highway (NH22 - a.k.a. the old Hindustan-Tibet road) and has a beautiful view of the valley.

The first thing Kishore asks us when we call him to ask for directions is “Do you want to climb 100 steps or walk 100 steps on plain ground... from the car park...”. Needless to say, after the exhausted drive from Corbett we opted for the plain ground walk, we were not taking chances at 8000 ft. above sea level. But what thrilled us even more was the fact that we were going to be staying in the middle of an apple orchard.

Krish Rauni was among the busiest homestays that we had been to so far. Kishore and Shobana are great hosts and despite having 3 other rooms booked when we were there took good care of everyone. Everyone got their privacy and everyone got their attention. Kishore is great fun and has a very interesting humorous story to tell every few minutes. Shobana is a great cook and her paneer is among the best that I have tasted... fresh, soft and cooked just right.

We reached Krish Rauni in the middle of the biggest annual event of the little village... the local deity was being escorted back to the temple in the next village after spending the last 24 hrs a temple just outside gate - where we had parked our Xylo. We were lucky enough to get a glimpse of the deiety - “very auspicious” we were told.

The rooms are very comfortable and even had a balcony that overlooked the valley... better than and LCD screen for entertainment I must say. There was a TV in the rec-room but we did not even switch it on... we were too busy playing carom.

Most of the meals were served on the terrace which over looked the apple orchard and was arms length from a nice apricot tree. We got to eat apricots for breakfast lunch and dinner. The terrace was also the centre stage for most of the activity here. We spent most of our time and Kishore and Shobana made it a point to introduce each of their guests to each other and made sure every one was chatting up like one big family.

One excursion we went on was to Hatu peak - the highest peak in that area. at 11152ft it was supposed to “quite a dangerous drive... but for you folks it will be nothing... you have driven all the way from Chennai... and across the Chakrata, Tuni road... this is nothing... “ said Kishore as he explained the sights around the place. Our Xylo took the narrow road in its stride with ample room to help other cars pass too!

He also had a very interesting story to tell of a certain dentist in the nearby town of Theog Padma Shri Dr. Rajinder Singh. Apparently Dr. Singh had been awarded the Padma Shri for his skills in speed typewriting and not in dentisry... “Good thing I got to know of that fact before I opened my mouth to him... my wisdom and wisdom tooth... both are safe today” jokes Kishore.

Matiana is also the place where the various Indian sports teams come for high altitude fitness training before they head off to international competitions. Needless to say the area is also famous for the apples... that keep the doctors away.

With a belly full of a great breakfast and a basket full of fresh apricots we headed off to our 10th Mahindra Homestay, Om Mahal in kangra valley near Dharmanshala.

The hills are alive...

2010-06-17T14:07:00.010+05:30

There are many roads from Uttarakhand to Himachal... and we decided to take the most difficult of the lot to reach our 9th Mahindra Homestay, Krish Rauni at Matiana.

We left Camp Corbett at Kaladhungi after lunch and thanks to a board I saw at the Ramnagar entrance to Corbett National Park we took a road that was on the southern fringe of the park (via kashipura, Afzalgarh, Nagina and Najibabad). We got fleeting glimpses of some birds and wildlife as we drove to Haridwar for the night. After finding that the rooms at Ginger were dirty we stayed at a very decent Hari Heritage.

The next morning we continued on NH 72 to Dehradun, and beyond. In Dehradun we took a break to pick up some wildlife books at The English Book Depot on Rajpur road, and some great hindi MP3 cds in the market near the GPO.

From Dehradun we could have taken the 'plains' road to Chandigarh (via Herbertpura and Narayangarh) and reached Shimla via Parvanoo. But we chose to climb the Himalayas (again) and Herbertpur and head north on NH 123 up to Kalsi and then took the road to Tuni (a small non-descript town near the Uttarakhand-Himachal border on the Tons river) via Chakrata.

A good part of the last leg of the day was done in pitch darkness. Thank goodness for that.. the narrow roads and the cliffs were beginning to scare me... in the dark all I could see was the white marker stones on the cliff side of the hill roads and I felt secure... what you can't see can't scare you... right?

We found a small hotel (3 rooms only) in Tuni, who served us some rajma, roti and chaval for the night and gave us a decent room to rest our backs in... amazing that we actually found that place in the dark.
Uttarakahand has a lot of power problems and sometimes in these remote villages there is no electricity for at least 3 days.

The next day between landslides, dangerous cliffs and lovely birds we took off to Matiana. A few meters after we crossed the Tons river, which is the largest tributary of the Yamuna, we were in Himachal Pradesh.
The roads got better (but still had it's share of landlsides)... so we reached Matiana (via Hatkoti, Jubbaland & Theog).

In Himachal, the best part is that you get to see apple orchard on the road sides and... in season... you can pick as many apples as you want and nobody cares!

We stopped for a breakfast of samosa and chai and one small village... probalby just a few hundred people. Two young boys were staring at our car... the number plate... us... and wondering “where the hell have they come from”. Finally they asked us and when we said Chennai... they had no idea where that was!

We tried to explain, Chennai also known as Madras, samandar (sea), south india... nothing seemed to ring a bell... and then all of a sudden his face lit us - “Chennai Super Kings” he yelled.

Wow! The first real good and useful thing that has come out of the IPL... it has improved the general knowledge of the kids in these remote places.

Because it was not yet apple season we decided to eat apricots - hundreds of them... little did we know that when we reached our 9th Mahindra Homestay, Krish Rauni at Matiana, we would have Apricots for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Camp Corbett

2010-06-15T14:06:00.013+05:30

Driving to 8th Mahindra Homestay destination Camp Corbett at Kaladhungi from Nainital was a mistake... after enjoying the cool weather at an elevation of 2000+ mts... we drove down the hills to Kaladhungi (at just over 400+ mts)... the heat was unbearable. In a way the mistake was from our part... we should not have been there during the hot summer days.

The drive itself was great. These Sivalik Hills are the southernmost mountain chain of the Himalayan System... and probably the youngest. We stopped for some tender 'butta' (corn-on-the-cob) on the way and enjoyed the drive along the ‘long and winding roads’ in the hills passing the many lakes that dot the hills... this one called Khurpa taal really looked like a big emerald!

Ome and Suman's Camp Corbett is located right on the mail road... can’t miss it... there is a nice small board that points to the place. Suman had told us that she would be busy “doing our bit for the community”, by organising a free medical camp for the local villagers at the Corbett museum... so after a quick wash we went to see what that was all about.

At the Corbett Museum, we got a quick history lesson in the man the world knows as the greatest British-Indian hunter, conservationist and naturalist, famous for slaying a large number of man-eating tigers and leopards in India. Fresh from all our reading on Corbett at “The Hive”, we were able to identify the incidents referred to here. Like any good tourist we picked up a lot of Corbett souvenirs... and pickles by the locals.

The Neema doll - made from Saan fibre (a type of hemp) - is the result of a project by Frederike from France who is working with villagers from the nearby Ringora village. This project helps the locat villagers earn money and keeps them away from the forest thereby reducing the man-animal conflict.

The rooms at Camp Corbett are pretty comfortable. The cottages are like a resort... few and far apart giving us the privacy that we need but at the same time the dining area and kitchen are away from the rooms. “We already have so much wild life, we don't want pests to come here too... that is why we prefer not to offer room service”, says Suman.

All the rooms have air-coolers which kept the heat off marginally... but the whole place cooled down tremendously at night... got quiet chill actually.

We spotted the beautiful Crimson Sunbird near the central lobby-hut and several other lovely birds... may the pictures speak for themselves.

The next morning we were booked for a safari at the most famous tiger reserve in the country - Corbett. We spent 4 hours in the park but did not see any tigers - not that we were very disappointed... we got to see a lots of other wildlife - Lapwing, Scaly-bellied green woodpecker, white rumped shama, and hoards of other wildlife... spotted deer, barking deer, sambar, wild boars and lots of monkeys . The highlight however was the beautiful Great Pied Hornbill and Indian Grey hornbill - and my guess was that we saw them because we were staying in the cottage (at Camp Corbett) called Hornbill!,

Back at Camp Corbett we had a full fledged Kumauni lunch with Churkani (a soup like preparation of bhatt pulses), Jambu gaderni mutton (mutton marinated with jambu and Arbi - seppankizhangu in tamil), Alu Gutka (fried Potatoes), Kaapa (spinach leaves crushed into a paste and cooked with other condiments), Jholi (a curry seasoned with curd and curry leaves) and Bhang ki Chutney (roasted Bhang (Hemp) and cumin seeds (Sauf), mixed with Lemon juice).

After the heavy lunch we decided to bid adeiu to the wild life and venture into the Himalayas while we took the back-roads into Himachal to reach our 9th Mahindra Homestay, Krish Rauni at Matiana.

The Hive

2010-06-14T13:21:00.014+05:30

Dr. Ranjit Bhargava's “The Hive” our 7th Mahindra Homestay destination, is a very nice heritage cottage on the Ayarpatta slopes that used to Christopher Corbett's house - father of the world renowned Jim Corbett, hunter, conservationist and naturalist, famous for slaying a large number of man-eating tigers and leopards in India.

Getting here is pretty simple actually, mainly because they have 'one-way-ed' most of the roads in Nainital. Follow the mall road upto Jama Masjid, then ask someone for Mannu Maharani hotel and follow the signs to The Hive (or Silent Trail Luxury Villa) from there.

Our room was on the first floor right next to Shruti and Rajit Bhargava's room from where we got a good view of the Nainital hillside. A short walk from the cottage and we got a birds eye view of the Naini-lake...

Dr. Bhargava is a noted environmentalist who has been very active in lake conservation activity. He was awarded the Padma Shri recently for his activities and we got to see the private side of this public icon.

Though we did not get much time to interact and chat with him on the environmental impact of all the tourist activity in Uttarakhand we saw him walking around the gardens putting bird-feed out for all the pigeons and sparrows. All that free bird-feed was good for us, we go to take pictures of the birds.

Shruti, who was very busy with her son's music class and her INTACH (The Indian National Trust For Art and Cultural Heritage) work was keen to point out that only in the last few years they have been spotting sparrows in Nainital. “this is all a result of climate change... it's getting hotter every year”, she said.

All the deforestation was evident right from our room... making way for modern concrete hotels. We hope that Bhargava and his friends are able to stop this irresponsible growth in the region.

There were over a dozen staff members catering to these guests and close to a dozen cars parked in the driveway... really the busiest homestay we had been to till now.

Though the first floor feels like a home-stay the ground floor rooms and lobby feel more like a hotel. There were atleast 30 walk-in customers every day asking for rooms. Going to show how busy the place was... but apparently in Nainital “every rooms sells” according to Radhika, who “manages the hotel part of the homestay”.

The rooms were very comfortable, with TV, DTH, a modern heater and multi functional shower - the kind of stuff you see in the Kohler ads.

We had WiFi in the lobby area and between bird-watching the pigeons, man-watching the other guests and reading books on Jim Corbett, we caught up on email over cups and cups of nice hot tea while we 'chilled out' for 2 days.

We were ready to go from Corbett’s father’s house to Corbett’s house at Kaladhungi (aka Choti Haldwani) to stay at our 8th Mahindra Homestay, Suman and Ome Anand’s Camp Corbett.

Crossing Delhi

2010-06-12T14:01:00.013+05:30

The road to Nainital (via Delhi) was hot... hotter... hottest.

With 2 days to cover the distance we decided to get an early start, but, the roads were not in favour of this... the road from Bera to Pali was a combination of SH 16 and NH14 - both equally good (or bad).

The road was bad after a while and did not improve till we reached Kishangarh (near Ajmer). The 100kms from Kishangarh to Jaipur was the best on that day. After Jaipur the 6-laning work was in progress and it greatly reduced speeds due to the deep excavations. Between that and the traffic as we neared Manesar & Gurgaon we made it to Delhi exhausted after 14 hours on the road.

But the rasam and curd rice waiting at my cousin Sharmila's place kept the spirits high. Sharmila and Nisudan run Ciocollato, making the best Finnish chocolates we have ever tasted. naturally the dessert that night was a collection of their best.

The next morning we took the road to Nainital and it passes thru the entire city of Delhi before exiting the NCR at Ghaziabad. Driving in Delhi is really 'capital punishment'.

The weather was very, very hot... and being the weekend there were hundreds of people heading to Nainital just as we were... so every hotel and dhaba was packed for lunch. We found Apni Haveli on the outskirts of Moradabad which served us a decent meal and we were on the way.

The road (NH 24) wasn not much of a highway and was bad in some parts, considerably impairing our speed... taking us till 4pm to reach Haldwani - the base of the Himalayas. Haldwani is known as the "Gateway of Kumaon" and the name literally "forest (vana) of Haldu trees".

Haldwani is also the last place that you can attend to any major problems in your vehicle... after this, the entire Himalaya range has only small mechanic shops where they can fix a flat tyre or oil leak. We had been here before, when we had to change some clutch plates on the Swift during our 2007 trip.

We got a call from Radhika (sister of the home owner) at The Hive and she said it would take us 2-3 hours form Haldwani to get to Nainital, because of the heavy rains all over the hills. We stopped over at a Cafe Coffee Day and picked up a hot cup of coffee and headed for the hills.

As we ascended the ghats we found the temperature magically dropping... clearly stated on the bold display in our Xylo’s DDIS... from high 40s to low 20s... in a span of 20kms... we were actually feeling a bit chill. Between enjoying the sunset over the mountains, navigating thru the weekend rush all over Nainital and enjoying the first rain in two weeks we made it to our 7th Mahindra Homestay destination Dr. Ranjit Bhargava's “The Hive”

Castle Bera

2010-06-11T13:21:00.019+05:30

After coming to the four lane Highway near Mount Abu, we cut off to SH 62 at Pindwara. Ask for the road to Binani cement factory and follow it for about 40 kms and you will reach Bera.

Baljeet, the cheerful owner of Castle Bera, and his brother have inherited this ancient heritage property known as “The Rawala”. Baljeet has air conditioned 5 rooms in his part of the castle and invites people “to experience the royal life in rural Rajasthan”.

Castle Bera has been playing host to “royalty, dignitaries from foreign countries and world renowned photographers” for a long time now... and as a homestay for 2-3 years now... but we were the first to come there from Mahindra Homestays.

Baljeet Singh is so detached, by choice, from the world here... he rarely watches the news... he probably reads the newspaper only for the cartoons. His only contact with the outside world is his cell phone.

But, how can one do business like this we ask him... “my son-in-law in Bangalore, reads and replies to my emails... so I get a call every time that there is a booking - works well for me!”

We reached Castle Bera after our drive thru rural Rajastan... filled with goats/sheep and shepherds with their brightly coloured turbans, at about 4pm and after a quick wash and some great chai... were off on our first drive - at that point we did not know it was a wildlife safari.

This safari was not in the middle of a reserve forest or anything... no wildlife warden... no permissions... no red-tape. The entire area is “revenue land - basically, agricultural land that may not be used for industrial or residential purposes".

Castle Bera is near the Jawai bandh (Dam). Built by Maharaja Umaid Singh of Jodhpur the dam covers an area of 500 sq. km and is the biggest dam in western Rajasthan.

This place is really in the middle of nowhere... the nearest town is probably Pali - some 30 kms away.

The safari started off with pleasantries and chatter as we drove thru the village... everyone in the village was getting up from their work... bowing, saluting our dear Baljeet Singh... and because we were in the same jeep with him, made us feel like royalty too!

The safari itself started with a fair amount of dirt-tracking and off-roading... and we got very excited with the few peacocks and peahens we saw flying as they tried to cross the road... Baljeet was not impressed... he was nonchalantly nodding his head... hmmmmm!!!

As we stopped next to a rocky hillock we realised why... the place was infested with peacocks and peahens... hundreds of them... all trying to walk up the hillside... to get to the peak... only to glide down... what a sight - felt like we were watching a scene from Jurassic Park!

The best part of the safari was yet to come... the man who was seated in the back of our jeep pulled out a searchlight and in 5 minutes pointed to a small pair of glowing eyes... a leopard. In the course of the next hour and half we watched open mouthed as the leopard yawned, stretched, walked... straight... towards us... coming close to 10 feet of our jeep!

Baljeet Singh’s regular safaris in this area have prevented poaching to a great extent. “They all know that I drive these roads almost everyday and any hanky-panky will not go un-noticed”, he said.

The next day, morning and evening safaris were just as exciting... flying Peacocks, herds of Nilgai, Pelicans, Crocodile, Geese, Storks, Robins, Cranes... and the usual spotted deer.

Interestingly, the Nilgai (blue-cow in Hindi) is not a cow/bull, but actually an antelope, the biggest in Asia. For some reason the locals believe it is a “distant cousin of the holy cow” and that has helped in conservation. Good for us!

Another interesting feature was the landscape itself - though these hills are a part of the Aravali range we could not help but notice that the smooth shape of the rocks looked like they were ‘carved’ by ocean currents. 15 minutes on Google and I found that there were enough theories and scientific proof that the entire Thar desert was believed to have been under water - during the Jurassic era. We had seen very similar caves near Bhopal, Madhyapradesh on our trip to Bhimbatika a few years ago.

Back at Castle Bera we were treated like royalty all the time... the rooms were plush, comfortable and well air conditioned... our large bathroom even had a fresco painting on the ceiling. Because we were there in the middle of summer when the average afternoon temperature was 49 Deg plus... we left the A/C “on” at all times on Baljeet's advice.

All the rooms were decorated with memorabilia and pictures from all over... of royalty... and everyone is related to everyone. When we stand in front of a picture (among the hundreds that dote the walls) we are introduced to everyone - “His Higness of Somewhere... or His Highness’ brother... or the present His Highness’ father....”.

I truly can’t remember the details of the interlinked family tree but I can tell you one thing... somehow they are all realated to (or decendents from) the one-and-only Maharana Pratap.

The food at Castle Bera was simple and royal... though we decided to have vegetarian food for most of our stay we were cajoled by Baljeet to “taste the local chicken - not the fake broiler chicken that you get in your cities... this is really tasty” - and he was right - it was the non-veg equivalent of organic vegetables!

Armed with precise directions from Baljeet, on how to get to Delhi (en route to our next stay at The Hive, Nainital) we head out to brave the heat of Rajasthan.

The Maha-Guj-Raj

2010-06-10T13:54:00.014+05:30

Driving from Nandan Farms of Sindhudurg in Maharashtra to Castle Bera near Pali in Rajasthan was an interesting journey of 5 days... not that a non-stop drive should take that long.. we planned it that way.

We first drove 380kms to Prabha's sister's place in Pune to do some laundry and relax for 2 days... and the drive on the Amboli Ghats was a delight. Being a part of the Deccan plateau and the western ghats whole area was beautiful and apparently it receives the highest rainfall in the western ghats.

We then drove to Nashik, relatively a short drive of 220kms, to visit the Mahindra Xylo plant - to see the place where our car was born. The road was being four laned in parts and so the drive took us almost 6 hours. The Ghat section just before Sangamner was very beautiful.

The visit to the Mahindra Xylo factory was very enlightening and we learnt that some 600 (colour, specifications and export special) variants of the Xylo and Scorpio are manufactured on the same conveyor belt. One brown Xylo rolls out... and right behind it is a white Scorpio... the precision with which the people work here is amazing.

Also the engineers at Mahindra have modified the software that drives the imported robots making them more efficient and as a result every 4 and half minutes one of these amazing vehicles comes off the conveyor belt.

We had the evening free so we took a trip to the Sula Vineyard. Got a look at the place were some of the best wines in india are made and got to taste a great wine made by their master winemaker Kerry Damskey called RaSa (named after Sula founder Rajeev Samant). Incidentally Rasa in sanskrit means juice or essence.

Sunset on the balcony with a beautiful view of the vineyards and the Gangapur lake in the distance made a great day even more romantic.

The next day we were off to Ahmedabad. The 500km drive took about 9 hours, but the beautiful part was that the roads improved tremendously as soon as we crossed the border from Maharashtra... almost instantly. At Valsad we joined the Golden Quadrilateral and then the road got even better... but the real treat was still to come...

It was too bloody hot to get out of the car and even think of eating lunch - so we decided to get some food from a dhaba parcelled and eat it in the car - hopefully under a tree if we could find one. The dhaba we found was just outside Surat and as I went in to order I noticed that it was run by some Muslims... and interestingly served pure vegetarian food.

I wonder if Chief Minister Narendra Modi had succeeded in converting Muslims to vegetarians or was it just business economics that had determined that the demand for non-veg food was not great in these areas.

When we reached Vadodra (Baroda) my hands started to itch... could not wait to drive on National Express-way #1 - the best road in the country.

We have driven on this road a couple of times before and each time the experience had been really great - total adrenaline rush. On this 100km stretch an average speed of 120+ was easily achievable - average speed... not top speed!

But when we entered Amdavad (Ahmedabad) we were in for a rude shock. The cops stopped us and insisted that to drive in Amdavad, or anywhere in Gujrat for that matter, we should have a 'patti' on our headlight and if we did not have that we should pay a fine of 200 bucks. We tried explaining to them that we were tourists and we would be out of the city the next morning... no luck.

Finally we told him that we would get the great 'patti' (a anti-glare sticker on the right headlight) if he could point us to the closest sticker shop... and the enterprising cop Mr. H R Solanki pulled the 'patti' (sticker) out of a concealed pocket in this shirt and stuck it on our car... not before he collected 200 bucks for it.

Consoling ourselves that the 'speed-money' 200 bucks was worth it, because we hoped that, for the next 24 hrs that we were going the spend in Gujarat, we were not going to waste time arguing with cops.

Getting to Bera from Ahmedabad was a challenge in itself... normal everyday Gujratis would know that the best road to get here (from Ahmedabad) was the Mount Abu Road (via Mehsana-Sidhpur-Palanpur).

But we South Indians like us did not have any idea... we took the GQ (Golden Quadrilateral - NH 8) route and half way (at Himatnagar) had to deviate to the Ambaji road (SH 9) - consequently we got to drive thru a nice bit of rural Gujarat and Rajasthan, via Idar, Ambaji and Abu Road where we hit the nicely 4-laned NH 14.

Ambaji, as the name suggests is a 'holi place' and had all the ingredients of religious town... crowds of devotees, taxis and touts... but this also meant that we got some great food - a full fledged Gujrati Thali... theplas, kadi and kichdi included.

With the sun overhear scorching away at a merry 48+ deg we were headed to our sixth Mahindra Homestays destination, Castle Bera.

Nandan Farms

2010-06-04T13:20:00.005+05:30

Driving to Sindhudurgh, in Sawantwadi district of Maharashtra was a great experience... as you see the commercial-ness of Goa disappear.. you get to see and experience the raw nature of rural Maharashtra!

Thought the place is owned by Amrita Padgaonkar, we never got to meet her. She was apparently holidaying in the Haimalayas... only crazy people like us would holiday in the heart of rural Maharashtra in the middle of the summer heat. Her brother, Madan and Sandeep Sawant who works with Culture Aangan, the same NGO that Amrita is involved with were around and made sure we did not miss her. Culture Aangan supports the arts and crafts of Sindhudurg.

We were glad we had planned for only one night there as the heat was too much - though the nights were very cool... I’ll get to that in a little while.

The drive from Margoa was only a couple of hours...so we reached Our fifth Mahindra Homestays destination Nandan Farms by lunch - and were treated to some great food, cooked from fresh organic veggies picked from the farms all around us.

After a brief siesta we took a drive around the area... in search of cashews, kokum and alphanso mangoes - all local speacialities. Sandeep first took us to a cashew factory where we learn the various ways that cashews are extracted from the fruit... by boiling and roasting... and the most important part - grading. All this work was done by women... some of them were self-help-groups... and some co-operatives. Needless to say we bought some great cashews... and ate a lot of them too.

We then went to a Alphanso pulp extraction factory - unfortnately the ‘season was over’ so all we could do was pick up some bottles of pulp... which we later enjoyed with phulkas (in Pune)... yummy!

Though we could not visit the local toy-factories that were so famous... but we were very dissapointed to see that the local stores only stocked wooden toys these days are ‘painted’... with chemical paints... instead of the traditional lacquered technique. We expected something like the toys of Channapatna...

Sandeep took us to a Vengurla... a very ‘local’ beach... that was really beautiful... natural... untouched... pictures are better than words.

Our cottage at Nandan Farms was a restored outhouse with some ancient solid wood beams supporting the sloping tiled roof, along with a large covered verandah that we used as a sitout. The doors were made of sold wood... and the door stoppers were shaped like fish. In the daytime the heat was quite bad, but the star-lit sky and the cool breeze made the nights a great treat. Thanks to the absence of any lights in the vicinity we were able to look at a quite a few constellations.

We also learnt that the fruit known as mangostein (one of Prabha’s favourites and referred to as the ‘king of fruits’ by Prabha’s late father - an eminent horticuturist) was locally known as kokum. Kokum juice... very popular all the way from Managalore to Mumbai... is ‘cooling’ to the body, and also makes for a great substitute to tamarind in rasam, when it came to cooked dishes.

The Malvani food at Nandan Farms was great - though it is very similar to the konkan cuisine it had the unique taste of kokum, dried kokum (amsul) and dried mango (kairi) in all the dishes. The bread fruit bajji, the bhendi curry, cluster beans curry, and everything with it’s unique taste - ending with the Sol kadi (made from kokum juice and coconut milk) for digestion.

Over the next few days we drive thru Pune, Nashik (to check out the Xylo plant), Amadavad (Ahmedabad) and finally reach Castle Bera near Pali in Rajashtan.

Stain Glass Cottage

2010-06-03T13:19:00.004+05:30

After two days of driving thru Kerala, Karnataka and finally reaching Goa we had to negotiate the way to our fourth Mahindra Homestays destination Maria Vaz's Stain Glass Cottage in Margoa.

The road from Kerala to Goa passes very close to the sea at times and in someplace we had the river on one side and the Arabian sea on the other.

We got (what seemed to be) very precise instructions on our travel voucher... but unfortunately Goa is full of 'foreigners' and tourists that it is almost impossible to ask for directions. One lady took the time to give us such precise directions that we thought she knew what we were talking about... but we ended up in the middle of a coconut field. Damn! We then navigated to the Colva beach on our GPS and worked backwards... with some telephonic help from Maria Vaz.

There is a simple way to get here... and for all those who travel by car here are the instructions.

You have to come by NH17 (either from the north or south) - at the Margoa District Court junction (which has a nice fountain now) take the west road, towards the Colva beach and after passing under the railway line take a right after the Colva Plaza Hotel. This right turn is about 2.5 kms from the fountains. Even if the Colva hotel changes it's name... look out for the BSNL exchange on the opp side.

If you overshoot this right and reach the Our Lady of Merces Church turn back.

Once you are inside the morais colony take the first right and go to the end of the road... Stain Glass Cottage is on the left.

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When we finally go there we were pleasantly surprised to see a modern building designed in a traditional way. All the elements of a traditional Goan house were there... the tiled roof... the large well... the large sit-outs...

Maria Vaz was there to welcome us and she introduced us to the staff and after exchanging a few pleasantries was on her way. She did not stay here... "there is some work going on at my place... just a few streets away" she said.

Every thing about the place was spic and span - the themed rooms- names after the colours in the stain glass windows, the well maintained AC, the WIFI in all rooms, and the staff who knew when to give us privacy... everything was just right... however the one this missing was the host. In our opinion Stain Glass Cottage cannot be called a 'real homestay' as the host lived away from the place... even if it was just a couple of streets away!

Incidentally, Maria had been "a police officer in Dubai" - looks like the gulf between us and the 'gulf returned' people had been bridged again! That probably explained how she was able to manage the place.

Except for the fact that the place was actually owned by Maria's daughter (who is somewhere abroad), and the family is also in the "process of setting up some more properties in the area", which meant that the place was more like a guest house, and less like a homestay... the Stain Glass cottage was very homely in it's decor and comforts.

The next day we got to meet Ashley Gregory - the new Manager, who is also set to manage all the properties owned by the Vaz family. Over the last month or so, since he had moved to Goa from Mumbai, he had brushed up on his konkni and was able to interact with the locals and got a lot of 'inside info'... he was very helpful in suggesting a lot of 'happening places', hangouts and restaurants in the area.

It turns out that Ashley has some tam-bhram (as Tamil Brahmin's are called) genes in him... his grand father had converted to Christianity while all his other grand aunts and uncles had remained Srinivasans and Ramans ... in an alternative universe he might be speaking tamil for all we know!

If only he was staying in the place he would have made the perfect host.

Even though we did not get to savor the Goan specialties at Stain Glass Cottage (we opted to eat-out all the major meals) we had some 'real English breakfast every day' - toast, eggs and lovely jams and marmalades.

Tomorrow we move on the Nandan Farms, Sindhudurgh, Maharashtra.

Driving in Kerala

2010-06-02T13:19:00.002+05:30

The roads and even highways in Kerala are so narrow... it takes ages to overtake even a bike.

There is no 'nature' it is just one town to another village to another hamlet... On and on it goes.

We found milestones (technically kilometer-stones) that were written in fractions... maybe they should be called meter-stones ???!!???

We found hotels and shops that had interesting names... but finally it was time to say goodbye to pretty girls selling hawai chappal... goodbye to macho heroes selling gold... goodbye to bollywood queens selling sarees... goodbye to the colourful hoardings that dot the lush green hillsides... goodbye Kerala.

We now head to Stain Glass Cottage, Margoa, Goa

Olives Homestay

2010-06-01T19:26:00.083+05:30

Driving to Wayanad from Kochi was an experience.

The road till Calicut was pretty much the irritating NH 17 - with hardly space to overtake - sometimes you can't even overtake a bicycle!

Also, Kerala towns, villages never end... they just merge one into the other. The down side is that you never get a moment to park the car on the side of the road and stretch your legs without the fear of being run down by a 'town bus'.

After we hit the ghats (NH 212) and entered the fringes of the 12,000 Acre forest we were pretty safe from the traffic - and the weather became cooler.

Because we were driving one day ahead of the monsoon... we just had to look over our shoulder and we could see the rains coming towards us.

Our third Mahindra Homestays destination - Olives homestay is located in the heart of Wayanad... but just a stones throw from the main Kalpetta town. When you get to Biju and Raji's home you will not believe that you are just 1km or so from the town.... so silent!

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Biju, like any good son-of-the-soil did his stint in 'the gulf' and 'came to India for a holiday and never went back. Just felt I had had enough of that life... wanted to be home!' he says. Raji is a great cook and can dish out veg and non-veg dishes with equal mastery.

The only thing that hindered the meal experience was that she and Biju did not join us at the dining table and insisted they would 'serve now and eat later'. This meant we had to eat in a hurry to keep pace with their overpowering hospitality... something that brought back memories from childhood of grandmothers and aunts 'feeding us during summer holidays'.

That night we sat in the balcony and watched the moon rise... full moon at that.

The next morning Biju suggested a trip to Edakkal caves.

Biju gave us precise driving directions to the caves from his place. But what he did not tell us was that there was going to be a very, very, very, steep climb.

Great advertising on the way to Edakal

There are two stages to the climb at Edakkal... there is a steep jeep ride (costs Rs.70 for a round trip) and the 200-300 step steep climb to the caves. The caves are very beautiful and really worth the effort. With rock carvings that are over 8000 years old, they are a great revelation as to what people were thinking in the 'indus vally civilization times'.

Though there was nobody there to explain how or why the place got it's name as Edakkal - Prabha's logic was that the Eda-kal (literally meaning the middle stone) that got embedded between the other two stones saved these carvings from erosion. Sounds logical.

We were there on a sunday and the crowds enjoying the last weekend before schools re-opened were all jostling for space in the narrow passages and this was more exhausting than the climb itself.

We did not bargain for all that exercise, but the climb helped us digest the breakfast... and we got back to the town hungry... for lunch.

Unfortunately there are very few food options in small town Kerala after 2pm and you have to be very lucky to get good food. We called Biju and he suggested Hotel Haritagiri (where he also works as the GM), where we got some egg curry and rice... but nothing compared to Raji's cooking. Wish we had decided to go back home.

That night Biju suggested we go for a 'night drive to try and see some elephants'. So after dinner we all left, Biju, Raji and the kids joined us... all comfortably seated in the Xylo and off looking for adventure. We spotted a lone tusker... that meant trouble, but we stayed clear of him and just watched... what a sight! We saw lots of deer, wild boar and what not... but the elephant was the best.

As we were heading to Goa over the next couple of days we decided to go to Kuruva Island - an old bird sanctuary, now just a 'nature spot' on the banks of the Kabini river. The place has a good deal of birds (in the nov - feb season) and orchids. Nothing much to say in words... just a great place to see...

Couple of pointers - Wear shorts... lots of wading in the water... wear a good walking chappal (shoes will not do - they get very wet).

Though there is nothing much in terms of wildlife to see there we were able to have a good couple of hours or 'wandering in the wilderness' - with a good guide at hand to tell us about the various trees, orchids and few birds that we encountered.

Tomorrow we move on the Goa - but before that we have another day to drive thru kerala.

Riverside Homestays

2010-05-29T17:04:00.014+05:30

If you are a true blood Malayali you should have spent a considerable time in the 'middle east', also known as 'the gulf', also known as 'foreign', also known as 'the other Kerala'. Almost every second person you meet in Kerala has at some point of time been employed there.

A look at the Kochi riverside skyscrapers.

This is true of Mathew too. After a good 25 years in Etisalat (the telecom giant based out of UAE), he and Mary are back in India and discovered the best way to combine suburban life with 'living on the backwaters'... our second Mahindra Homestay destination - Riverside Homestay is a perfect mix.

When the house was built, its 3 bedrooms were meant for their two daughters who are now 'settled abroad'. So they decided to turn the place into a homestay to 'meet new people'.

Located just a km off the National highway, Riverside Homestay is pretty easy to find... also because of Mathew's precise directions.

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The modern home is well equipped with all the amenities we would want in a city homestay. It is very well connected by public transport and also has some restaurants close-by. The restaurants come in useful as Mathew and Mary offer only 'bed-and-breakfast'... we have to look for places to eat lunch and dinner... the restaurant next door (MJM International) can 'deliver' food sometimes, but that depends on the availability of staff.

Mathew was all praise for the Xylo. They had apparently just returned from a week-long trip to Munnar with some friends and had driven the entire way in a rented Xylo - "good choice to buy this car," he told me!

The telecom background and corporate experience that Mathew has had in the Gulf shows... the place is wi-fi enabled and they have monogrammed bed linen!

Incidentally, M&J stands for the initials of his first 2 grandchildren - now there is a third grandson and they are not sure how to handle this - they are hoping to find a solution "before he starts asking" :)

Mathew takes the effort to attend regular 'contact programs' that the Kerala tourism ministry have for homestay owners to help them handle their guests better. Sometimes the local police also attend these meetings to help them understand signs to identify people who might be potential thieves.

The drive to Fort Kochi and its many heritage places is quite simply 'one straight road' from here and is a great place to catch the sunset - especially near the Dutch Cemetery. After watching best sunset of the season and a sumptous dinner at a Kochi hotel, we rested peacefully that night to continue our journey further into Kerala the next morning.

Next stop Olives Homestay, Kalpetta, Wayanad

Kodianthara

2010-05-28T11:22:00.018+05:30

Thanks to a suggestion by a friend, we drove from Thekkady (Kumily) to Kumarakom via the Vagamon route - usually people take the Kanjirapally route which is a National highway (NH220).

Prabha does a detailed study of the options, marks villages on the way and has our route 'well mapped' before we leave.

The road is very picturesque and the view compensated for the extra hour that it took us to get to our first Mahindra Homestay destination - Crispin and Soni's homestay - Kodianthara.

Green is the color of the day!

Kodianthara is located behind the St. John's Knanaya Church (not the Atamangalam church) and a little tricky to find if you do not follow precise directions. There are no sign boards but our MapMyIndia GPS brought us to the vicinity and with a combination of telephonic directions and intuitive guesswork we made it to the gate of the church.

There are no sign boards because Crispin believes that he does not want walk-in guests - "you can never be sure these days... I prefer people who come by reference, at least you have something to evaluate them by... after all we are letting them into our home... this is not a hotel or a guest house we need to be careful about who comes and goes", he says.

Kumily to Kodianthara at EveryTrail

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Thankfully the all-in-one house help Rahul came up to the main road to guide us through the maze of canals, canal bank homes and bridges (Haliaetus, our Xylo did a brave job of going on these roads and bridges which were just about an inch wider than him). Apparently 'tipper trucks' (used to remove the dredged shells and mud from the canals) navigate these narrow roads quite easily!

The '150 year old traditional Kerala Tharavadu home, that has been in the family for over 5 generations' is one of only 16 homes certified by the local govt. as a 'heritage home'. The Tharavadu house had a unique Kerala style architecture with an inner courtyard enclosed within the several large buildings built in the traditional Kerala style.

Crispin's ancestors are Knanaya Christians - he gives us a detailed history lesson of how 72 Syriac families migrated from the modern-day region near Iraq to the Malabar coast in AD 345, under the leadership of a prominent merchant Thomas of Cana (also known as Knanaya Thommen). They built a town in Kodungalloor with a church and 72 houses and soon spead to other parts of Kerala over the next few decades.

Apparently the community is very well linked with lots of 'inter family marriages - very similar to the Parsis - trying to maintain our unique identity as long as we can' according to Crispin. Soni's father has written/edited a complete history of his branch of the family... the book is so extensive that it covers some 1000 pages and has detailed photos of each member of the family.

Crispin's large family of 10 siblings used to visit the ancestral home till a few years ago - "when my mother was alive, weekends were always spent here - and during that time I felt the need for more space, so we built the extra bedrooms", says Crispin. But after the death of his mother, the brothers and sisters who got busy in their respective lives, hardly visited the Tharavadu and so Crispin opened up the place to a homestay experience - "this way we don't miss meeting people and the house is like a home once again", say Soni.

The old house has been very tastefully restored and extended to accommodate the modern amenities like clean western toilets, air-cons and reading lamps while retaining the traditional sit-outs and central courtyards. There are elements from every era, the ceramic tiles, the earthenware, the brass-ware, the wooden furniture... even the old dining table that has interestingly been decorated with a large coin collection.

With his extensive experience in the Merchant navy, Crispin has many stories to tell - from pirates attacking ships to the experiences of living on an oil tanker, from the politics of Kerala to the culture of his people, from the recipe of the beef fry to the taste of the various types of banana chips, and where to buy them.

The place is a true homestay - we lived in one of the rooms next to the master bedroom, the hosts ate their meals with us. In fact one meal was so authentically traditional we even had it on a fresh plantain leaf (cut from the back yard).

The beautiful part of the stay was the constant 'music in the air' - Soni, her daughter Midhila and all the house help are constantly playing music, either form the radio, the CD player or their mobile phones... melodious music from Kishore Kumar to the latest Malayalam and Tamil hits... a variety of songs!

One morning Midhila was busy cleaning the book shelf so we got to discuss the writings of Enid Blyton, mysteries of Nancy Drew, Christian fiction of Dan Brown and the philosophies of Paulo Coelho... Soni, who is a literature graduate and Midhila, who plans to follow suit, are always ready to read new books and discuss literature.

Crispin also owns a houseboat that he rents out to people who want to be a part of the famous experience that is unique to the backwaters of Kerala. In fact there is a channel of water that flows through the property and Crispin recalls the days when he used to go to school 'in a canoe'... 'you can still use this route and reach the lake' he adds.

Kodianthara to Bird Sanctuary

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Kumarakom island - also known as Vembanad Bird Sanctuary, is just 3kms from Kodianthara.

We should mention here the playful Tipu (Sultan?) - the family's friendly Dachshund, and the many other farm animals that roamed around the three acres of rubber plantation... geese, goats and what not! In fact, watching young goats play around and observing the geese as they traversed the path from the front porchto the backwaters of the house was the only activity we chose to do.

The best part of the stay at Kodianthara was the monsoon. The day we were leaving it poured... and it poured... and it poured... we were really lucky to experience the famous Kerala monsoon on its way in... and my! what a sight!

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With our bellies full from the great 'puttu and kadala curry' breakfast, we took leave of the Crispins and were now on our way to Kochi - to the Riverside Homestay at Vyttila...

India is my Home-Stay

2010-05-25T21:07:00.022+05:30

... a desi drive
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We are off on one huge trip to experience India from the eyes of the 'every-day', local, desi, son-of-the-soil Indian.

We have been driving across India for over 10 years now and we have almost always stayed at resorts or hotels (except in towns where we have had a chance to shack up with friends and family). We have never experienced the Home-Stay hospitality.

The reasons are many... we did not know where to find them... or what to expect in a home-stay... are they clean... will it be like a 'paying guest' thing... will we share a room with others... what will the food be like... and the toilets?... oh so many questions.

It's not like we have always stayed at 5 star hotels... just that we expect a little bit of cleanliness and privacy... especially when you are on the road half the time. We love to experiment with local food... but we also love our thayir-saadam (curd rice).

Lot of the home-stays we Googled have nice websites... but being in the website business ourselves, we know that a good website does not always mean a great product/service... it just means a good web-designer was hired.

We chanced upon the Mahindra Homestays website a while ago... having been Club Mahindra members for a while now, we know that they are 'good' at their job and we could expect a certain quality if we looked at homestays associated with them.

We spoke to some people at Mahindra Homestays and learnt that unlike their 'time share' holiday products (Club Mahindra and Zest) this was not a membership driven venture of the Mahindras... this was purely aimed at introducing a centralised homestay repository of quality 'mom-and-pop' operations.

This trip is dedicated to live that experience.

Also, this was going to be our first really looooong trip in our new Xylo - Haliaetus, christened after the brown-n-white sea eagle that lives in the coastal regions.

Now, our white Xylo with brown interiors lives in Chennai with us and glides like an eagle on the Indian highways. Can't call it a car... feels like one, drives like one... but it is a MUV/SUV hybrid... love the space, love the clearance... just love Haliaetus.

Also love the fact that it is white... we get right of way on most roads... people/cops think that we have some 'political connection'... helps us get to our desination faster... :)

"Blue, red n purple country cottages along a road lined with pretty pink flowers; his powder blue tshirt stands out against the orange n yellow painted store. Didn't think travelling down South in midsummer can be so colorful :) "

Day One... We drove from Chennai to Thekkady. The road upto Trichy is fabulous (NH45) but after that to Dindukal (Pillow Rock town) and beyond needs some work... 4-laning is going on so the road is patchy... good and bad in sectors... more bad than good. Probably have to wait till end of the year to be finished.

Night One... Shacked out at Club Mahindra Tusker Trails, Thekkady. We had to experience the Club Mahindra hospitality before we started on this trip... after all it was Club Mahindra that introduced us to the Homestays concept.

"The heavy sky is grey, overladen with monsoon clouds playing hide and seek and spilling on to the tall, green Vagamon hills. Green is the color of the day. God's own tourist destination is known to have an abundance of green, but in this summer heat... the look is cool, man! Kerala and monsoons, here we come! Gold jewellery, rubber chappals, dhotis and saree hoardings, tea plantations, coconuts, bananas and girls with big eyes and oiled, long, black hair... here we come! "

Tomorrow we move on to our first Mahindra Homestays destination Kodianthara, in Kumarakom, Kerala.

Travelling without our dog!

2010-04-08T23:11:00.014+05:30

When we go out of town, at times we cannot take Yoda with us and we have to send him to a shelter.

There is a great shelter in Chennai - Shekas Dogs - actually in Kalpakkam run by a very enterprising and sweet couple - Kalavati and Senthil. (9884009869 / 9884409869)

The pets are housed in about 20 kennels each 15-20 sq.ft. in size. Our initial fear was that Yoda might not agree with spending time in the kennel as he is not used to closed spaces. But our Vet Dr. JP had a different view, "the dogs fear that they might be attacked when they are all kept in one common room... it is better to be in an enclosed space so they are sure that they are safe"

The pets are groomed everyday... (better than what we do at home)... and taken good care of with a daily dose of exercise thrown in.

The stay there costs about Rs.200-250 per day and is inclusive of food and some tender loving care.

Dr. Jaiprakash (popular as Dr. JP) can be reached at 7 Teacher's Colony Adyar-600020. Phone: 044-24415393

The drive to Shekas is a little complicated if you are not familiar with the place... but you can look at the flying video below to see how to get there... if you want to know only the last mile - forward the video to the 5min marker on the video.

YEA! WE MADE IT!!...

2009-07-20T22:34:00.011+05:30

YEA! WE MADE IT!!...

... made it to the top 100 in The Great Driving Challenge (TGDC). A wonderful idea by the organizers in the home page http://www.greatdrivingchallenge.com/top100 to unveil the top 100.

And guess what.. We (Harsha and I) are in the middle of the word ALL, very apt... TGDC has been ALL that we have been doing for the last 2 weeks :)Being amidst everyone, ALL the contestants gives us this amazing feeling of being in touch with ALL :)We need the support of ALL to get to the top :)

We were very nervous about the number of votes we got... a mere 470 plus... while some others had close to 2000. Now that the jury has been able to weed out the spam cases, we feel better.

We've been having a mixture of feelings since this whole thing started... As we had been travelling, we hadn't heard soon enough about TGDC. When many of our friends/ relatives started calling us and enquiring about our participation, we checked out the site. And we understood why these people were nudging us to
participate... it felt like it was meant for us.

We had participated in many rallies (in the TSD format which have much more to them than just speed); we had been in the organizing team of several car-related events; we had even spent lots of effort, time and money for the smallest excuse related to cars and travel... but in all these years, we have yearned, yes, yearned for an event like this. It was
unbelievable. We have been talking of Indian highways coming of age, earnestly publicising car travel to all kinds of folks we meet, wondering why there isn't more interest, more events based on road travel and here comes TGDC!
We actually went and bought a Reliance NetConnect dongle during our brief stay in Pune so that we could start work. Life came to a standstill in all other aspects... we started completing our application. I was so apprehensive in the beginning when Harsha said "Look at it this way... We've always wanted to fill in the blanks in our travel blog. Now's the time to do it!"

That did it.

All the travel notes from my diary which hadn't yet become full-fledged articles in the blog started to become long
articles... places were re-visited in our memories, words and feelings flowed freely, photographs that were sorted in various folders in the comp were placed in appropriate places...

To touch back base in Chennai meant two days of travel, and for once, we were eager to cut it to one day so that we could spend more time on TGDC. Ironical isn't it? But that also gave us an opportunity to do Pune-Chennai non-stop, something that we have been wanting to do ever since most of the South to West part of the GQ was completed. So we lived our life in the TGDC way.

Now this vote-thingy was getting onto us... friends and foes talking about how good we are is different from actually getting them to write testimonials and vote for us. And between Harsha and me we started off this 'pehle tum, pehle tum' business to start campaigning for votes as both of us are not used to doing that for ourselves, though we setup publicity campaigns for startup companies all the time! (its the barber story, I guess)

But we did send out emails, sms-es and talk to a whole lot of people. In the bargain, we got in touch with many folks we hadn't seen/ met in a long time... Nice. There have been only good things coming out of this ever since we started and that feeling is real good :)

Getting back to Chennai meant getting back to many responsibilities and many in the things-to-do list. But they were attended to very briefly to get back to working on TGDC. With two terminally ill patients at home, this wasn't easy. But its amazing how when one desperately needs something, creativity and efficiency work their best. And that happened to us... we were able to juggle some important things that couldn't wait in between breaks. I was amazed at myself and vowed to remember this...

Like a yoga practitioner, told my mind and body to remember this very seriously :)

One day to go...

...one window on the comp was permanently open in the countdown window of the TGDC site. Both of us hardly slept since we came back; Guns n Roses and Yoda were demanding our attention, one to get his windshield fixed, and one to make up for the 40 days we were travelling without him.

But they could wait.. the countdown wouldn't. So amidst takeouts from restaurants, unpacked luggage, relatives (also
neighbours) giving us wierd looks, unsorted mess at home and office, we furiously trode on the single path in order to make it to the Top100.

Last minute calls to friends who had promised testimonials but hadn't uploaded them yet, feverish attempts at grabbing a bite for the hungry stomach, typing away madly at the keyboard to constantly improve the profile, the pitch, the travelogue...

With just 2 minutes to the zero hour, I was still trying to perfect our travel plan. Harsha dared not interrupt the
perfectionist for fear of getting a screaming reply that was sure to wake up everyone in a one-km radius. He had long
approved of the route saying that by now I was the best 'planner' in the whole world and that I could take any competition in this area head-on. But that was exactly what I was doing!!

Time! Phew! Done!

Now we wait. It was the longest weekend we had ever had... Monday morning just didn't seem to come. We ried doing other things, some office work, some cleaning, some quality time with elderly patients at home... every hour or so, checking the TGDC website. We weren't alone... all the participants were experiencing the same thing in every corner of India.

And then... the results! After a long time in life, I had a mixture of so many feelings at the same time... fear, anxiety, nervousness, thrill, surprise, excitement, irritability, impatience, joy, love... all at the same time... WOW! We had made it!

In a reflection of the 'high' that we are feeling right now, as a tribute to this whole event in our life, we have 'photo mosaic-ed' the 100 finalist couples and the Cedia... and another one of the TGDC logo...

Mush Register - in Metro Plus

2009-07-14T12:58:00.001+05:30

from The Hindu

Harsha
In the 16 years we’ve been married, we must’ve been away from each other for only 16 days.

Prabha
Assisting Revathi in ‘Mitr, My Friend’ took me to the U.S. As he joined me shortly, it turned out to be a brief separation. Considering we work together, it is often assumed that we always share the same wavelength. We are into designing solutions that range from websites to leather bags. He looks at something from the technological point of view. Blame it on his grounding in electronic engineering, he breaks everything down to 0s and 1s.

I look at the aesthetic side of things. We prove the yin yang theory. Whenever we get involved in a project broached by one of us, the other takes care not to be critical.

Harsha
We combine work with vacation. When we bought our first car, we bid goodbye to buses and trains. We decided to drive wherever we went. When we drive to meet a client in Mumbai, we tend to take a scenic route. On the way back, we stop at a few places to refresh our minds.

Prabha
Whether it is a long detour or a serious rally, being on the road gives us the rush. After we bought a Maruti Swift, we formed a club for Swift owners. We’ve now put our names down for The Great Driving Challenge (greatdrivingchallenge.com), an event for couples. If we get enough votes, we shall be one among three lucky couples from around India to drive the Mitsubishi Cedia Sport for 3,000 km in ten days. A correction: he will get to drive the Sport. Because he is always at the wheel; I take over only during emergencies.

Harsha
It’s partly because I am a poor navigator. Another reason is that I can deal with my travel sickness only if I am driving the vehicle.

Prabha
Sounds like an excuse to be in the driving seat always? But, poor thing, he really suffers from motion sickness.

AS TOLD TO PRINCE FREDERICK

Pune - Chennai Non Stop

2009-07-14T07:34:00.009+05:30

In preparation for the Great Driving Challenge we decided to "challenge" ourselves and drive non-stop from Pune to Chennai... a distance of 1250 kms. We were not sure how long it would take... but we wanted to see if we could do it... we have driven 800kms in a single day... but never more!

View Pune - Chennai Non stop in a larger map

We decided to start early - 4 am... but managed to get the key into the ignition only at 4:20 am... (Shree char sou bees... nice timing). With some jhakaas music playing on the system to perk us up, we started our journey.

The first one hour went in getting out of the city... even though it was so early in the morning, the traffic was pretty bad, as we were on the Pune by-pass that connects the Bangalore highway to the Bombay-Pune expressway. This is all part of the Golden Quadrilateral.

First hour - 61 kms.

The second hour was not too bad... we were out of all the jhanjat of city and well and truly on the highway. Pretty uneventful. Daylight was just breaking out.

Second hour - 95 kms. Average till now 78kmph. Total distance 156 kms.

At about 6:30 am, we were just outside Satara and decided to break for breakfast. Even though were carrying some Molagapodi Idlis (rice cakes with Chilli and lentils powder) that Shubha (Prabha's sister) had made for us, we decided to stop at 'Manikandan' Hotel. From the name we concluded it was Tamilian. As we parked, we heard Yesudas blaring away... ok... Mallu place... good enough... we thought some hot vada-dosa-sambhar should be available. (Or should I say sambher, like the way North Indians pronounce this dish and spoil both the animal's name and the dish's!)

Yes... there was Idli (nice ones at that)... but no vada... they had Maharashtrian Batata vada (alu bondas if you please)... so we settled for some idlis and Upma (sheera as it is locally called). By the time we finished eating the staff had 'registered' our car 'registation number' noted that we were from Chennai (Tamilnadu atleast)... and decided to speak to us in a Mallu accented Tamil... nice touch I must say.

What struck me is the huge stuffed tiger that was sitting in front of the array of Lord Manikandan photos. Manikandan, another name for Ayyappa, is usually depicted riding a tigress... owing to a story in mythology where he was asked to bring the milk of tigress to cure an illness that the queen (his adopted mother) was faking... interesting story. Having just returned from a trip to Bandhavgarh, we were amused to see the tiger... a stuffed one sitting amidst tables and shelves!

A smooth ride...

For the next couple of hours we were cruising at about 80-85kmph and we reached the ghats near Belagavi (Belgaum's new name).

The landscape was 'carpeted' green and we could not resist the temptation to stop there awhile. The flowering plants in the median were also in full bloom. Can you imagine...

Even as we stood there, we were 'showered' occasionally with monsoon pitter-patter.... but not serious rain.

...the anti climax...

The Hubli-Dharwad by-pass is a 2-lane section that shows no signs of becoming a 4-lane. So all of a sudden, we are thrown into a 'think-and-drive' mode from the smooth cruising of the last 400 kms. But the Ghat section is very picturesque and the fact that they have 'sliced' some mountains to create this road gave us a geology lesson - complete with the rock formations and layers of colourful sediments.

If you ever travel with 10-year olds, make sure to stop at such places and explain the significance to them... a practical lesson would definitely be more interesting to them than the theory they learn in school.

By the time we crossed Haveri, the road turned from bad to worse and absolutely horrible (the black top on the by-pass was nice but the lane markings were gone). The entire section from Haveri to Chitradurg was 'under construction'. We remembered that the last time we drove on this road (about a year ago) this sector of the GQ was in the same state... nothing much had changed.

It was almost as if 'time had stood still' here... the bridges were still under construction and in some places the exposed steel rods had even rusted.

After Chitradurg, we were able to get back on to some decent tarmac and we were hoping to make up some lost time.

And then, there was this 18-wheeler truck who was chugging away on the side, next to a bullock cart on the service lane... when suddenly the truck driver decided to swerve and come 'literally into' our car! Luckily, Guns n Roses handled this very well and we got away with 'just a shattered windshield', that too only on Prabha's side!

We have heard stories of how the Maruti Swift is a fantastic car when it comes to safety and handling accidents. And we experienced it. After stopping for a couple of minutes by the side of the highway to check if all was ok, we were on the road again!

We did a small 'patch work' job... we put some transparent covers with loads of cello-tape, over the gaping hole in the windscreen... to keep off the rain. We were carrying all these 'raw materials' thanks to a visit to the stationery shop, Staples while in Pune.

Lets go!

After that Prabha covered herself in a dupatta (to protect against the splinters), crouched against the door to get a clear view of the road to help in navigation and we were off on our way to Chennai.

The incident did take us a while to get back into 'highway driving' mode, along with making a number of calls to car dealers in Tumkur, Bangalore to check if we could drive-in, drive-out after taking care of Guns n Roses' windshield.

But we found that the Swift windshield is not a 'fast moving product' and most service stations do not have 'ready stock'. There was no stock in Sira, a 3 week waiting period in Tumkur... and the only guy in Bangalore we could talk to was on their 'weekly off'.

We called our friend, fellow rallyist and veteran racer Vivek (one of our team mates in the Raid-de-Himalaya) in Chennai and he gave us an 'expected' suggestion - "If the car is driveable... come to Chennai... we'll see here". So thats what we did!

As we reached Tumkur we found that the road was getting bad again... bridges were incomplete, one side of the road was un-done! And then all of a sudden we saw a sign that took us on a by-pass all around Bangalore that is supposed to circumnavigate the traffic nightmare called Bengaluru and drop us off at Hosur (at least that is what the sign said), so we took the road!

The road was fantastic, smooth clean, unoccupied. We made-up some lost time and reached Electronics city on the Bangalore-Hosur Road by about 5:30 pm. The road is not complete but of acceptable standards towards the Hosur end. Apparently there is a section that goes right through the Bannergatta National Park that is stuck in litigation between the environmentalists and the Government.

Home stretch

Once we passed Hosur and got to Shoolagiri (just before Krishnagiri) we stopped for a coffee at Cafe Coffee Day (CCD). All over Karnataka there are decent CCD outlets to grab a bite. I'm not a big fan of their hot coffees... (I believe nothing can beat a traditional South Indian filter coffee) but their Cafe Latte is the closest one can get to that. They have some good choco desserts and a bit of 'sugar in the blood' helps while on long drives.

The rest of the drive was uneventful - we have done the Bangalore-Chennai drive dozens of times since this sector of the GQ was completed a while ago. I can practically drive this route blind-folded!

We finally reached Chennai (home) at 12:01... that was just under 20hrs. I'm sure that if we were not handicapped by the small road incident and the time lost due to the associated delays we could have done this journey in 15-17 hrs. If the 200 odd kms of GQ is completed, the journey time can further be reduced to 13-14hrs.

Another day... another time!

p.s: I decided not to take pictures of the car with the shattered glass. Just as I would not like anyone to take photos of me when I'm not looking my best, I'm sure Guns n Roses also has a heart and would not like to remember the incident - memories should be sweet!

Two for the road

2009-07-09T01:05:00.001+05:30

By Liffy Thomas
from The Hindu
The road not taken… Sounds clichéd? Well, the much-loved poem of Robert Frost sums up our life story in more ways that one. Our work, passion and interest have taken us to places far and wide. Be it rugged NCC camps or a sophisticated business trip, our travels have given us rare and interesting insights into myriad forms of culture.
Our travel plan: We are working on a concept of a ‘Freedom Trail’ covering five states and one UT, starting from Mumbai. The last leg of the trip will follow the famous Dandi March route from Sabarmati in Gujarat to Dandi in Maharashtra. During the course of the trip, we aim to celebrate our freedom movement and pay tributes to the scores of inspirational individuals who led from the front.
– Sowmya and Guru
A passion for the roads, curiosity to explore inaccessible places and an undying spirit to travel, to name a few, have brought thousands of couples like Sowmya and Guru to the Mitsubishi Cedia Sports Great Driving Challenge, organised by Hindustan Motors Limited.
If we believe what the organisers have to say, the challenge has so far attracted around 10,000 registrations from across India, with Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi topping the participants’ list.
Vroom…
The Great Driving Challenge (TGDC) is a Web-centric campaign for couples. The challenge is to drive 3,000 km in 10 days and tell the world about your travel in the most interesting way by tweeting and blogging about it. But, for that challenge you need to cross various hurdles (read stages).
Starting from completing the registration form answering questions in the most creative fashion to gathering the maximum votes and writing the best profile of the couple, it’s a long process before three winners are short-listed to vroom on the sports car. So, essentially your passion for driving comes later, before which you need to impress the jury with the best credentials and testimonials.
“You need to be a travel and automobile enthusiast, plus harness the power of technology to win the challenge,” says Rajesh Chokhani of Experience Commerce, the campaign designer. “This is more a Web-based reality show conducted for the first time.”
Write your way
You have to read to believe some of the applications. Like, a 65-year-old Captain describes his 30 years of experience driving in 42 countries treading thousand of kilometres. Another talks about going on a ‘Biriyani Trail’ and yet another couple plan to capture the interiors of Bandipur Tiger Reserve, Mudumalai National Park and Periyar National Park and show to the world how small steps by mankind can save the flora and fauna.
Chennai-based couple Harsha Koda and Prabha are busy mobilising votes by emailing and SMSing friends and relatives. Though the two have taken part in many drives, including The Raid-de-Himalaya and Airtel One India Challenge, they probably for the first time are participating along with other couples.
Their journey: “Prabha and I have driven so many times as driver (me) and navigator (Prabha) that we almost know what the other one is going to say or do. I’m a bad navigator. I can’t read maps.
Most of the time I just follow Prabha’s directions blindly. If we ever reversed the roles, we might get lost! And for someone who travels so much by car, let me tell you a secret. If I’m not driving I get car sick. It’s almost like… I was born to drive.”
The big draw
Another attraction of this challenge is that unlike other rallies, where the route is fixed by the organisers, here the participants get to choose the route he and she would like to trail through. Get-set-go!

Don't have to ask anyone... anymore!

2009-07-08T17:45:00.012+05:30

Here is a really 'cheap' way of getting around the country and most important... esp. for guys like me, who would rather go round and round but never ask a passerby for directions!

Here is what you need...

Google Maps on mobile download at http://m.google.com (free software)

GPRS / NOP - Net on Phone - from Airtel (99 bucks a month - unlimited)

Your Phone (GPRS enabled... most phones today are)

Download the software and install on your phone. Starts working almost immed. (all you need is a gmail account).

The latest version of this software uses 'triangulation techniques from cell phone towers' to place you within 40 metres of your real location... pretty neat I must say.

If you want more accurate information of your location at every moment... get a phone with GPS inbuilt or you could do what we did...

I just got an external Bluetooth GPS receiver. The GPS receiver broadcasts my location via bluetooth to my phone and most of the time we are able to find our position within 4-7 metres. Really awesome!

If you are planning to buy a new phone - get one with GPS receiver inbuilt.

Accurate Maps

The advantage of the Google-Maps-based option is that these maps up to date and user defined. Yes... there are some cases when we have landed at the wrong location because some user did not know how to place the 'marker'... but in most cases the maps are updated to show 'one-way-streets'...very useful when you are driving through cities like Bangalore - city of confusion!

Gettign Directions by Search

Search the address/street/pin-code of the place you want to go ... the software gives you options if there are more than one destination that meets the search requirements and all you have to say is 'get directions' from current location to the destination! It gives you very detailed directions... turn left after 200m, etc.etc..... or you can ask for map view... it will show you a distinct line on the map... as you move!

Latitude with Attitude

The new Google Maps has a function called Latitude... it basically broadcasts your current location to your friends... it is really neat and allows you to set the level of privacy... so your entire details are not seen... but atleast it can be set to show what city you are in right now!

I found this very useful to keep my dad's nerves calm. I have a webpage setup for him so that he can track us day-or-night and see where we are... this is helpful especially during long drives when there may not be mobile network in the resort/lodge.

Other GPS options

I saw some demos (at Staples) for GPS solutions (MapMyIndia and SatGuide) but I was not impressed with the quality of the maps on display. Really need to use the stuff to see if the voice commands are good enough... then the display does not really matter. They are anyway more expensive than the Google Maps solution that I use.

However... the stand-alone GPS solution does have one advantage.... the google maps solution will not work if you do not have GPRS connectivity... it is mobile network dependent!

Trip-of-all-Trips

2007-10-06T07:53:00.044+05:30

The gist of the route - Chennai to Bangalore to Hyderabad to Warangal, across the state of Chattisgarh - our own Niagara (Chitrakote falls) at Jagdalpur, to Marble Rocks at Bhedeghat in Jabalpur, to the industrial town of Raipur, to the state where time stands still - Madhya Pradesh - to Panna to Khajuraho and then to sample the Mughlai khana at Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, climbed the mountains at Uttarakhand, drove all along the Himalayas through Nainital, to Binsar to Karnaprayag to Joshimath, to one of the best ski slopes in the world at Auli, then to Tehri to Mussoorie to Lakhamandal to Shimla in Himachal, down the mountains to Chandigarh, and up again to Manali to Rohtang to Dehradun, then climbed down again to Mathura, visited the Sanchi Stupa and the timeless Bhimbetka caves near Bhopal, went along to Nagpur and back to Chennai .... 40 days! 10,000 kms!!

This was truly the longest trip we have taken till now! (I'm saying this because we already have plans to better this).

We started the trip with a drive from Chennai (Tamilnadu) to Bengaluru (Karnataka) for a fun-family occasion. My cousin Kartik was getting married to Raksha there... we had the usual dance-wance-guppa-shuppa family fun. Most importantly, Kartik was carrying with him (from Seattle USA) my brand new Cannon S3 IS camera... the one that was going to record our entire trip.

Cutting across South India to Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh (to drop off my parents who had accompanied us to the wedding), we then moved onto Warangal (Andhra Pradesh).

Warangal was an apt place to truly 'begin the journey'... I had sort of begun my life here, having spent a good deal of my growing-up-years at this aunt-and-uncle's traditional home... and it felt good to be there after a long time.

We had just bought the new Eicher Road Atlas and Prabha had chalked out a route from Warangal to Jagdalpur (Chattisgarh)... but as fate (or simply bad publishing) would have it... the bridge on the map was not really there! Ground realities differed a lot from book knowledge!

The road had progressively become a single road from a double road... and then....

When we reached Nagaram (Andhra Pradesh), we asked the locals how to cross the Godavari (river)... they pointed to a muddy, slushy path... we waded (navigated) the car through the tall grass, the mud road and reached the river... we looked and looked for 'the bridge across the river Godavari'... all we found were a few boats... ferrying people accross the mighty river. When I asked the farmer who had shown the route "How do I get to the other side in my car?", his prompt reply was, "You never said you wanted to take the car!"

We got our first lessons in practical communication that day!

Apparently the nearest bridge to cross the Godavari was in the pilgrimage town of Bhadrachalam (Andhra Pradesh)... a good 150km detour for us!

Prabha later wrote a detailed complaint to Eicher about this error and the same has been corrected in the latest edition of the Road Atlas - Kudos to the Eicher map-making team!

In our trip... the whole scene changed as we entered Chhattisgarh. We had heard that this 'new' state which was only some 6-7 years old (considering the rest of the states in the country were at least in their 50s) had some good roads.... Yes.... confirmed... great roads!

The roads were taken over by school kids on bicycles, but in an organized way. There weren't too many bikes, cars or buses on the roads... guess the state has a lot of 'developmental projects' pending. Great roads and no traffic... what more could we ask for!

The two things that strike you when you enter Chattisgarh - people and nature... so much in harmony! The slideshow above is only representative of the beauty of the palce.

There are anti-naxalite-guerilla-warfare training camps camouflaged as villages. Be sure to carry all your vehicle documentaion... there are check posts every 100 miles or so.

Our first halt was in the Bastar town of Jagdalpur, Chattisgarh (where we stayed at Hotel Rainbow).

The water in the Tiratgarh and Chitrakote falls just outside Jagdalpur was raw and powerful. Chitrakote looks like the Niagara falls... even better we would say! In fact, the first opportunity we got, we emailed a set of photos to my aunt who stays in Buffalo town (the American side of the Niagara Falls)... and she agreed that the Indian version looked better!

Notably, the area around these waterfalls are not filled with Pepsi/Coke bottles or KurKure packets... the place still loooks clean and un-spoilt.

We picked up some handicrafts at a local co-operative Saathi near Kondagaon (Chattisgarh). We read about their mission to revive the traditional handicrafts of Bastar and generate income for artisans, creating awareness, natural resource and environment management. They looked like they were doing a good job. The entire village looked transformed.

Once we moved out of Chattisgarh (from Raipur - Amit Regency) and entered Madhya Pradesh the roads degressively went from bad to worse. The average speeds dropped from 55 kmph to 32.5 kmph.... almost half! Considering the fact that we were driving along the northern fringe of the Kanha National Park, we hoped the slow speed would help us spot some wildlife... no such luck.

By 7 pm, we were so tired we would have slept on a charpai (portable string cot, “char” meaning 4, and “pai” meaning legs) in a roadside Dhaba (road-side highway restaurant). Just then we saw a Madhya Pradesh Tourism Hotel... lovely place with some basic, clean rooms and simple food... just what we needed at the end of a tiring day.

What was really wonderful was the art on the wall... a truly local flavour.

Driving on the next morning, we reached a road junction. On a regular highway, this would've seemed like as just another big junction to a passing vehicle. But to us, armed with our GPS, gadgets, terrain maps, along with this constant feeling of 'awe' whenever we were out there on an important piece of land or road in India, this was no small crossroad. We were at the crossing of two most important roads in the entire highway network of India - the North-South Corridor and the East-West Corridor (both 4-lane expressways under construction that will ultimately link Kashmir to Kanyakumari and Gujarat to the Northeast). Was it a proud moment for us, just being there!

Marble Rocks, Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh) was ahead and our next pitstop. We had met a number of folks who had been to this 'tourist spot.' A rocking tourist spot, complete with hawkers, kids ready to guide you to the hard-to-access spots for clicking 'futwas in the correct angle', and decked up families stripping their kids and themselves the moment they saw running water to have a 'holy bath.'

We did the usual ropeway to the other end of the rocks, got some good shots of the 'marble' gleaming in the sun and moved onto the world heritage site of Khajuraho (Madhya Pradesh).

A day among the fine-cut stone temples gave us an insight into not only the 11th century culture and life of the people, but also made us realize that the Khajuraho 'image' of sex, sex and more sex in scultpures is oh! so over-hyped! This huge hype overshadows the true, wonderful nature of these best-preserved ancient history on rock. If one carefully follows the pattern of sculpting, one can observe that the four layers/ lines of rock-cut sculptures so beautifully represent various facets of life.

From here, the smell of royal biriyani guided us to Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. Planning lunch there was perfect, but that remained a plan as we stopped here and there by the highway bit by the shutterbug. Our conversation in the car drifted away to history as we watched many 'gol-gumbus' temples. We wondered if the Hindus came there first or the Muslims and decided that it could've as well been the Buddhists who were here before either of them or some nomadic tribes of the Neandrathal times! What a pity that instead of beautifying emerging cultures, man spends his time destroying previous ones.

Mohd Abubad or Senior Idris was not waiting for us for lunch, not at 4pm anyway! Idris Biriyani is world-famous (thanks to CNN IBN Food shows) and located at Pata nala Chowk in Lucknow. After hunting for sometime, we located the tiny 'potti-kadai' (in Tamil, roughly translates to a makeshift huge box converted to a roadside shop). As luck would have it, we were too late for lunch and early for dinner. But, amazed by the fact that we had driven all the way from Chennai and were looking longingly at the empty biriyani barrels, Junior Idris (as I would call Mohd Abubad's son) offered to get something ready for us in an hour while we went to fix the flat tyre in our car. And when we came back, we were really glad that we had waited till 5 pm for our lunch of the day - the galouti kebabs melted just as we put them in our mouths, while the biriyani conjured up images of sitting amidst royalty in our minds!

We smiled at the storks in the fields as we passed by on a full stomach. That also meant stopping overnight in the nearby town of Sitapur (Uttar Pradesh) and continuing our journey towards the Himalayas in the morning.

We noticed an interesting service offered by the dhabas along this Sitapur-Bareilly highway... while we ate a typical dhaba breakfast, Guns n Roses got a massage-and-facial done. Guns n Roses is what we call our dear car, the Maruti Swift... and its to Guns n Roses that the whole credit of bearing us through the Indian tarmac goes.

We got our first view of the King of the Mountains - the Himalayas at noon, just before we reached Haldwani (Uttarkhand).

Nainital Gurney House, the former residence, of Jim Corbett, is located on Ayarpatta Hill. Before leaving for Kenya, Jim and his sister Maggie sold the house... today it belongs to Mr. Dalmia. It is a private residence but is open to visitors as a museum of Corbett memorabilia. It is not one of the main tourist attractions in Nainital... but we went there... naturally!

Just as we got out of the narrow streets we were mis-directed into a narrow hill path and getting the car out of the mess burnt out our clutch plates.

A quick call to our friends in Maruti and a couple of hours later we were back on track after replacing the Clutch plates in Kavisha Motors in Haldwani.

On most trips we do not make reservations at hotels or resorts... it restricts us to a clock... but we do make reservations at strategic places in 'long trips' so that we have a good night's rest and most of the time it is in Club Mahindra's 5 star luxury. This was supposed to one such day!

But we reached Club Mahindra Binsar only at 3am. Traffic on the Nainital Binsar highway after 9pm is not really banned... but scorned upon by the security forces... rightly so.... but we had no other choice... we were delayed and we were on a tight schedule... because of the booking.

Interestingly, the military check post just before Binsar did not understand how we had driven all the way from TamilNadu - he was unable to accept that we were there... he swore that in the 14 years of service he had never seen a 'TN ka gadi'

The next morning we were off to Jageshwar to see the shiva temples. Situated in the heart of the Kumaon region of the Himalays this whole area had a mystical feel about it. Interestingly, Kumaon is believed to have been derived from "Kurmanchal", meaning land of the Kurmavatar (the tortoise incarnation of Lord Vishnu, according to Hindu mythology).

Jageshwar temples, around 60 kms from the Club Mahindra resort, are beautiful in their architecture, and the surrounding trees like Pine, Cypress, Fir, sal add to the beauty.

Looking at the faces of the purohit (priest) there I wondered if the was from another race! The carvings on the walls were 'Mayan'... or whatever... definetly not the kind of stuff we see down south.

The next day we were off to Joshimath.

Still to come.... to Karnaprayag to Joshimath, to one of the best ski slopes in the world at Auli, then to Tehri to Mussoorie to Lakhamandal to Shimla in Himachal, down the mountains to Chandigarh, and up again to Manali to Rohtang to Dehradun, then climbed down again to Mathura, visited the Sanchi Stupa and the timeless Bhimbetka caves near Bhopal, went along to Nagpur and back to Chennai

This post is not complete... its a work-in-progress!

Himalayan Tsunami

2007-01-12T01:21:00.005+05:30

Little did we realise some months back that here we would be sitting and writing about nature's freak nature. Little did we realise that in a span of 4 months we would have been part of her game, be it at 18,000 ft above sea level or at sea level in Chennai's shores.

When we signed up for the Raid-de-Himlaya (India's highest, longest, toughest and most arduous car rally)... we did not know they actually meant that... we always thought the 'jargon' about danger was just to 'scare' people off...

We signed up as we had just had a bunch of personal tragedies (prabha's father passed away in may '04 and my uncle - whom I consider my guru in the creative arts, passed away a few months later)... we wanted to get our minds off these things ... so we decide to go on the Raid.

People who always said we were crazy just confirmed it when we decided to drive up to shimla (where the rally was flagged off) from chennai... a good 2500 kms. We decided to rope in two more crazy people and let the fun start.

Passing through nine states in four days was tiring but an amazing experience of a lifetime. Each region we passed through we could feel the culture differences (and similarities)... be it the language... or be it the clothes which moved on from white dhotis and caps to pyjamas and turbans.

Travelling through the entire length of the country, we were admiring the crops and flowers in the fields, the innocent smiles of the villagers, the rain clouds and sunshine over the hills and the plains, the bird nests hanging on telephone cables, the black topped smooth highways ending in eternity, the dhaba food cooked with grease and love... the list is endless.

We entered a new country when we touched the base of the Himalayas. From Manali upwards, the terrain, the language of the roads, the vegetation, everything changed.

We realised that the rally was just incidental... we were there at the lure of the great mountains and particpating in the rally, calculating at the end of the day our penalty points, checking our vehicle and preparing for the next day were all just part of the act of moving further into the lap of these great mountains.

We got to see the great himalayas as they are today... and it is said... "they are evolving all the time.. so when you get back here next year.. they may not look the same"... they are after all the world youngest mountain range... always forming... everyday there is a landslide... every-day!

Words are too restricting to describe our experience with these very-much-alive-himalayas. Someone who has never been here might ask what is the beauty of stones and rocks which are in fact the only things we found here. But these stones and rocks speak a language no mortal should miss listening to in his lifetime.

From the colours which turn from yellow to pink to purple (and these are just soil and rocks i'm talking about, mind you), to the millions of folds in mountainswhich are never the same from range to range... from the occasional eagle or probably a never-recorded animal that suddenly appears and disappears, to the huge hill that looms up ahead with a crown of snow, so majestic that we felt so miniscule in its presence.

Towards the end of the rally.. the day we were to go over to the Tanglang-la pass (the second highest motorable mountain pass in the world) we were hit by a freak snow-storm... it was freak as the INSAT (India's multipurpose satelite) weather picture did not show any storm ... or any danger.

But, an interesting thing was that the storm was predicted by the locals... they watched the 'chinese crow' ... looks very similar to the crow we see in the cities here. The crow flies in a certain formation and it come to the settlements for shelter when a storm is coming.... a sign that the INSAT picture did not give us.

We were blocked off from the rest of the world for over a week and we had to stay in Army refugee camps for that time... before we were brought back to'civilisation'.

Forced to stay at the mercy of the army camp, we had nothing to do for a few days... nothing except pull on and pull off layers of clothes to do just the basic rituals, nothing except walk through a foot of snow to the next room to have a cup of tea, listen to the experiences of the army officers in the camp who, along with several others had done nothing but put their lives at risk at the coldest, cruelest, highest posts.

To read a newspaper or watch a movie is something else, but to face these men and see the lines in their faces as they recounted their experiences was something else. The jawans in the camp made sure that our tents were always warm. They would bring warm water (fact - water can never get hot in -10 to -25 celsius) in the oddest of hours. They would cook food for us and what they went through to put up with us gave us the meaning of "Athithi devo bhava" (Think of the guest as God)

As we moved from camp to camp, we almost did a research on the different kinds of heating systems we encountered... from plain simple 'bukharas' to kerosene bukharas which worked in a simple way of dripping the kerosene using a medical iv drip onto a stone stove that heated up a tin pipe... to electric heaters and gas heaters.... the heating systems progressively improving as we moved up into permanent camps from transit army camps.

Nature has her way of showing us that we are but guests in her house... all who had come to himalayas during that week were stuck in different settlements along the highway... nobody able to do anything against the avalanches and avalanches of snow that kept blocking the road during the nights, right after they were cleared using expensive snow-cutters and other exclusive machinery meant for the purpose.

So there we were looking up at the milky way, (for those who wonder if milky way is an icecream parlour up there - milky way is the galaxy in which thousands of solar systems - our sun and planets - like ours move around in their respective orbits), wondering where we, as individuals, stood with respect to this millions of years old nature and what were we really, really trying to do in our 80-year old life!

Getting back to civilisation was no problem after some days when the snow falls had subsided and we got back into the maze of our lives, finishing our car rally in the top ten.

Four months later, we were enjoying a great saturday night (moonlight and the Christmas spirit adding to the beauty adding to the spirit) sitting atop the single room in our farmhouse by the sea, we were basking in the pride of having conquered the Himalayas (though the fact remained that the Himalayas had conquered us).

The dogs were barking their heads off from about 3:30 in the morning (we have a black labrador - Yoda and we were baby-sitting another fawn labrador - Jessica) ... we thought they wanted to go for a walk... and prabha took them for a walk about 6:30... on the beach... so she did not even feel the earthquake... i was fast asleep though.

We left the farmhouse about 8:45... just minutes before the Tsunami struck.... and we heard about it...and came back there to see the second one hit the seafront plot and literally shatter the entire wall of my neighbours place... the stones were scattered all over .. like popcorn... nature's fury at it's best.

For the next couple of weeks we were busy trying to help organise things for relief work... talk to contacts... get supplies at discounted rates... get some money from people to buy medical supppies, water and home needs to be shipped to the various relief camps being organied by various friends and organisations that we have come to be associated with for the last 20 years in chennai.

We decided to go and see what was being done in the relief camps .. so we went to the affected town of Nagapattinam last weekend... and we saw the devastation caused by the Tsunami... amazing that 'water' could cause so much damage... but there are a few incredible things about the TSUNAMI...

The villagers do not want to give away the orphaned children to people who want to adopt (the children) from other vilages.... or towns... the reason - they feel that with over 50% of the children dead in the Tsunami... if these children leave the village too... there will be a generation gap in the village... so they are proposing to setup a central 'home' where these children can stay and the entire village will contribute towards their schooling, and emotional needs... great eh?

Another thing we found was that the 'self respect' and 'self esteem' has not gone out of these folks... some of them owned fishing boats that are more expensive than a Honda City... sometimes as expensive as a Merc... :)

They are ready to go back in the sea and start work.... they dont want anything free.. some of them are asking for assistance so that they can start work.. and they dont want it as AID... they just want a loan... they want to repay... just a lower interest rate to help them tide over the crisis...

Almost all of the people we met were saying the Govt. and Non-govt-organisations are doing so much that they can hardly find 'fault' with anyone.... but they are very frustrated with just having to sit around all day doing nothing.

There was an un-official ban on people going out to sea (more like a warning issued by the govt.)... till last weekend.... but now they are all slowly going back... and if people start eating fish the trade will begin to boom and they will be back in business.

There are many stories of bravery... and luck.. we met one child (13 months old) who was thrown into the attic by her mother (just before she died) and was found by rescue workers 3 days later... alive! Another family had a story to tell about the 'family dog' that rescued an infant while the mother was hanging on to another child... this was a mongrel... not a trained rescue dog!

Speaking of animals... it was amazing to know that very few wild animals have been affected by the Tsunami... only city animals (cows, domesticated dogs and cats) have been found dead... they seem to have lost their sixth sense... naturally.. with all the 'plastic covers' and papers we feed them i suppose.

One interesting 'fact' that was pointed out to us was that the Tsunami was predicted in the panchangam (almanac) last year... when we were sitting at the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) office in Nagapattinam... we were shown a copy of the 2004-2005 almanac which said that 'giant killer waves would strike the coast of India near Chennai and Pondicherry as a result of an earthquake in Asia'.

From the chinese crow to the animals and almanacs.... the signals were there, the signs were clear... why did we no see them.. hear them... or atleast 'read' them.

Happy New Year... I do wish to wish aloud... despite freak snowstorms, despite tsunamis, despite personal tragedies.... after all, life is about hope and "in celebration of being alive".

Prabha & Harsha Koda

Blind leaders

2007-01-02T17:17:00.010+05:30

Recently we took part in the Ucal Rally for the Blind. It was truly an 'eye opener' for me.

Every time we help the blind cross the road, they put their 'faith' in us ... I think it was payback time and this rally was designed to ask us to put our blind faith in their 'navigational skills' ... using a braille navigation chart.

The Ucal Rally for the Blind was held on 28 January, 2007, organised by MMSC with the support of the National Association of the Blind. There were 3 people in each car, the driver, the blind navigator, the time keeper and sometimes, one more person who played the role of the writer. The tulip was given in brail which a sighted person could not read. So the blind navigator read out the instructions on the speed, directions, etc which guided the car to a finish.

A very interesting rally which covered about 70 kms in Chennai city and helped several blind people 'see' how we 'sighted' people react when we get lost or clueless as to where we are going. It was their day and we did our small bit to make it happen.

Epilogue: I read somewhere that the main reason most people get 'sick' while traveling is that the mind gets confused by the message (on it's current position) from the eyes and the 'balance' from the inner ear... But that should not be a problem for the blind.. right... but we disproved the theory... my blind navigator was throwing up all the time.... and still reading the braille chart!

I won the first place in the Novice category along with my navigator Sundaramoorthy. Prabha, who has been my navigator for numerous rallies was navigating me based on Sundaramoorthy's 'reading' and Hareesh (from the Swift Club) was the scribe.

Update: 2008 we were judged 2nd in regulars and in 2009 were 4th in experts.

For the last 10 years at least the numebr of blind persons was always more than the number of cars.... We concentrated our efforts in 2009 on gettign the maximum number of participants for the rally and we were overjoyed when we found that each and every blind person who came to participate got a car...

Thanks are in order to my good friend Enidhi for posting on the blog, Airtel for sending out 500,000 SMS in Chennai (Sunil Mittal approved the idea in 10 minutes flat) and ultimately 22 of my friends who took part int he rally because they believed in me... they ended up having great fun in the bargain!

In 2008 we took a time-lapse video of our participation. Seen in the video are... Me onthe left of screen (of course), Prabha on the right and our navigator Sundaramurty inthe back seat! Sometimes you can catch a glimpse of Aneesh and his cousin who helped with the calculations!

Cars in synchrony — a sight to cherish

2006-12-31T01:27:00.008+05:30

RAMYA KANNAN

from The Hindu

If you were up and about, rising and shining last Sunday, it is just possible that you might have

see a long line of cars, proceeding in synchrony, on Chennai’s roads. If you did, you caught a slice of history in action - The Swift Train 2006.

The line of Swift cars were part of "India’s first ever Swift Train", winding through Chennai roads and heading towards the race track at Sriperumbudur. If you ask Harsha and Prabha Koda, proud Swift car owners, the couple behind the Swift Club, it was mostly for ’unlimited fun!’

"Here at the Swift Club we just wanted to put a running train of 50 cars on Chennai roads, for the sheer beauty of the formation…for the wonderful car, for enjoying the long drive, for conveying road safety messages."

"It started as a simple idea two weeks ago. Chennai Swift Club is the baby of a few car enthusiasts, who felt the need for a car club in Chennai (to start with) and eventually create a presence all over India," Prabha said. There is an increasing need among car owners and driving enthusiasts for a forum or a club, where one can discuss topics like tyre rotations, safe driving practices, performance enhancement modifications, service, repair, anything and everything about cars.

Snake game

The ’Swift Train’, started at ’Coffee?’ in R.A. Puram and ended at the Sriperambdur MMSC Race track. The train was flagged off with five cars, with five cars joining in at the next nine starting points and increasing the length of the train. The snake game concept in cell phones best explains the Swift Train. Thirty cars made it to the event on Sunday. "Nearly 30 Swifts as a train is bigger than even the Grand Trunk Express (arguably the longest train) which happens to have only 24 bogies" said Rishikesh Sreedhar, a participant. It chugged along the length of the Adyar Bridge into the Sardar Patel Road, crossed Madhya Kailash Temple, and turned right to the second point at Kotturpuram. The train picked more cars at Cenotaph Road and Mount Road, and was escorted by a Police car till Gemini Flyover, turning into Nungambakkam High Road. Cheered by public on city roads, the train pulled on to the NH 4 and gave the drivers what they believed was a superb experience!

They stepped on the pedal and headed into Sriperambdur Race Track in style and synchronisation.

At the pit stop in Sriperambdur race track, the club was in for a big surprise as the Madras Motor Sports Club invited the train onto the pro-race track. "Mind-blowing, a great experience on the track… It was surreal!!" gushed Ashwini, who drove a black Swift. An experience that would have not been quite the same but for generous support from Zest, a product of Club Mahindra Holidays, JK Tyres, Radio City and MMSC. More power to these enthusiasts then, at least to their cars!

View Swift Train 2006 in a larger map

Safely Swift

2006-12-29T22:46:00.010+05:30

When we came up with the plan of organising India’s first ever ‘Swift Train’, we encountered - “Why are you organizing this event? What is the cause behind such a train? Oh, lots of jobless people having nothing to do; what else? All this only for fun, eh? What a waste of fuel!”

“When I spoke to some people about the event their first reaction was about the cost of petrol and who was going to pay for that” - Suneesh Simon

Most events today have an ‘in aid of’ or ‘proceeds to the cause of’ tag attached, either to get sponsors, to get the crowd or just to be ‘fashionable’. It’s become the norm to do an ‘event’ to raise funds either for a NGO or for a cause. Here at the Swift Club we just wanted to put a running train of fifty cars on Chennai roads, for the sheer beauty of the formation, for the sake of unlimited fun, for the wonderful car, for enjoying the long drive, for conveying road safety, for... Oh no! We’re also getting into the ‘cause’ factor now.

The Swift Club started as an online ‘community’ in Orkut (an Internet social network service run by Google) and slowly grew beyond the internet into an offline network of Swift owners. “I started the community hoping to network with some others who had bought the same car, hoping to understand the car better, I never knew what I had started,” says Aneesh Kumar Deepak.

The Chennai Swift Club is the baby of a few car enthusiasts, who felt the need for a car club in Chennai (to start with) and eventually create a presence all over India. There is an increasing need among car owners and driving enthusiasts for a forum or a club, where one can discuss topics like tyre rotations, safe driving practices, performance enhancement modifications, service, repair, anything and everything about cars.

The response to the Chennai Swift Club was slow and steady. In recent days thanks to the numerous posters that have been splashed all over the city announcing the The Swift Train, membership has skyrocketed.

Train-ing

The idea of the Swift Train started as a small concept two weeks ago and with less than half a dozen people playing an active part in the thought process, ended up as a runaway success with over thirty cars making it on the final day. Over 50 enthusiasts registered for the event, some got hit by the flu, other flew out of town... some just “dei! forgot machan!” Poor chaps have no idea what they missed.

Starting at ‘Coffee?’ in R.A. Puram with about five cars the train was to wind itself across the streets of Chennai and end at the Sriperambdur MMSC Race track with about 30 cars. To ease logistics we decided to stagger the train by adding cars as we went along the route - the snake game on Nokia phones best explains the concept. We thought this would give our club the visibility it needs to sustain momentum of the take off and grow further.

Scheduled for Sunday, 24 Dec at 9 AM, the train was flagged off with 6 Swift cars from ‘Coffee?’ on Greenways Road. We had our stickers in place, grabbed a quick sandwich, took a few pictures for the record books and were on our way... bottles of Coke and Kinley loaded up in every car.

We started at 9:10 AM and it took us some time to ‘get the hang’ of the TRAIN.

It chugged along the length of the Adyar Bridge into the Sardar Patel Road, crossed Madhya Kailash Temple, and turned right to the second point at Kotturpuram. What started off as a fun drive; eventually progressed into a fourteen car train. Itwas beautiful to see one Swift tailing behind another, a real treat to watch. The Train picked more cars near SIET on Mount Road.

By this time the traffic police were so excited with the entire idea that one of them decided to escort us in the new flashy Police cars till Nungambakkam High Road.. sirens blaring and all!

The public were amazed to see this wonderful feast for the eye and cheered the train as it passed through other important city junctions like Sterling Road, Spurtank Road. The train moved down the subway at Egmore, and turned onto Poonamallee High Road, adding more cars, going past the Ega Theatre.

It then turned right, under Anna Arch adding the last set of Swifts and driving into Anna Nagar, then down 2nd Avenue, Thirumangalam, and back up to the Koyambedu Circle. The train did the entire stretch of the reminder on Poonamallee High Road.

When the city roads made space and gave way to the NH4, it was that time of the day, really smooth, wide roads, it curved beautifully, and you had to watch the Swift Train to see how beautiful the Swifts looked. The official event photographer was Arvind and his acrobatic skills. “The poor guy had to take my directions too on what to do... At one place, I looked into the rear view mirror and said..."Take that", and he got a jolt and said...what??”, says Pradeep

We were ‘energised’ by the Red Bull team of girls as soon as we reached the track. An absolutely refreshing feeling.

Long-ivity

Nearly 30 Swifts as a train is bigger than even the Grand Trunk Express (arguably the longest train) which happens to have only 24 bogies” said Rishikesh Sreedhar, a participant.

Rishikesh had hardly used his car before the event. He had done just logged under a 1000 Kms since he bought the car few months ago. The event has bonded him so well with his car that he may even drive all the way to Pune for his wedding in a few weeks from now.

It was truly the most incredible moment of the train. We stepped on the pedal and headed into Sriperambdur Race Track in style and synchronization.

“All the variants, all the colours, Chennai Swift Club Truly, Colourfully rocks!!”, says Divya Kapoor, adding, “but, mine was the lone Mint Frappe... made me feel special.”

What we thought would be an end to the event became the start of the sequel. It was clear to everyone why the train ended here - at the heart of India’s racing - our very own Sriperambdur race track. The participants had quick pit stop and rushed to the viewing tower to cheer the Formula Swifts in the final race of the JK Tyre National Racing Championship The Swift Club was in for a surprise after this. Madras Motor Sports Club (MMSC) were so thrilled with the enthusiasm shown by us that they permitted us to drive the Train on the track.

All of us were so excited - we could hardly wait to get in.

“Before the event...
Have to wake up early on a sunday and be disciplined into falling in line for a slow, torturous drive to a race track to watch someother lucky few race on better wheels and better roads.
After the event...
Actually got a chance to push the car by racing(?) on the track!! Definitely not the least... met some very cool like minded people who know how to have a good time. All in all, I forgive you guys for waking me up early on a sunday. Count me in for future events (ceteris paribus). “
- Govind Bajaj

Tracked!

For most of us, this was the first time on a track. We were nervous, excited and it was indeed a dream come true. We assumed that it was just one lap that we would be allowed, and to our surprise, they asked us to keep going, and our happiness knew no bounds, so the young guns started reving and racing against each other. Just when we thought that we were done at the end of the 2nd lap, they let us do one last lap, we were literally in Heaven. When we got off the track, everyone in those Swifts were the happiest people in Chennai.

“Hey guys. It was just awesome!! The entire day was just super!! Mind-blowing, a great experience on the track… It was surreal!! Thanks for pullin’ me out of my bed. The next time I promise to do more than just turning up!!” said Ashwini, who drove a Black Swift.

“Thanks Pradeep, for driving the car cautiously so I could do my job of capturing those captivating moments!” - Arvind Ram

Organising this event single-handedly is no joke. We had some friends of ours help us to make this a huge success.

Zest, the latest product from Club Mahindra Holidays, sponsored a part of the event and printed the stickers for the cars. JK Tyres, always ever-willing to support such events, sponsored the food and beverage at the track and also gave all the participants T-shirts and caps. Radio City covered the event with their ‘Car Jockey’ Solomon, who hopped from one car to the other. MMSC helped organise the finale at the track, making sure that all the participants get back home with a full stomach!

“It was like attaining Moksha. 48hrs later all of us are still in a state of high ” - Pradeep

We have seen some success already; The Chennai Swift Club has already inspired the Swift owners to drive down from Bangalore and Kerala to be part of the Swift Train and start the Swift Clubs in Pune, Bangalore and Ahmedabad. “Next time, give me just 3 days notice and I will be here,” said Anish Nath from Cochin. The biggest take away for all of us was “Fun can be safe too”... "quod erat demonstrandum" (literally, "which was to be demonstrated, has been") Here we had the cause for the event. The slow Swift Train was a test of patience, meant adhering to rules and co-ordination.

“The captions were captivating!” - Vivek C

The immediate contrasting experience - the adrenaline rush in the race track with the car controlling the driver (rather than the other way around), handling high revs, established the relationship between man and machine. And that’s what The Swift Club is all about.

The most captivating part of all the graphitti on the cars was the safe-driving slogans, customised, individual slogans for each of the cars, thought up by Divya Sriram and other members of the club. They were such a hit that people began to identify with them... some even realised that their personality reflected in their slogans!

The return journey was not a planned Train. But it was amazing to see smooth, controlled euphoria on the highway and just smiles, seatbelts and letting go on the city roads.

The Chennai Swift Club has just begun its work!

Thanks everyone for being there and making this happen!

Aneesh, Prabha, Harsha, Balaji, Divya

Photos from Pradeep

Tops & toys at Channapatna

2006-04-08T00:49:00.013+05:30

In april 2006 Prabha and I took a drive thru Channapatna is a small city located 60 km south-west of Bangalore, India on Bangalore-Mysore state highway.

The city is famous for its wooden toys and lacquerware. Channapatna is also called as "goMbegaLa ooru" in Kannada meaning 'toys town'.

Over 200 ago, Tipu Sultan, then king of Mysore and its surrounding areas, invited wooden toymakers from Persia to teach the art to local artisans. Today these toys are manufactured in traditional small scale industries.

Traditionally, the work involved lacquering the wood of the Wrightia tinctoria tree, colloquially called Aale mara (ivory-wood). Channapatna’s toys are made from wood that is not chemically treated, and the toymakers largely use vegetable dyes to paint them. The toymakers have also learnt to look beyond toys—at home accessories and decorative items.

Most of the toys are made using variations of the 'turning process'.

For those who don't know - Turning is the process whereby a lathe is used to hold a piece of material (wood, metal, plastic even stone) and it is rotated and a cutting tool is traversed along 2 axes of motion to produce precise diameters and depths. Turning can be either on the outside of the cylinder or on the inside (also known as boring) to produce tubular components to various geometries.

We were here on work. We were essentially scoutign for someone to supply 'well rounded' wooden beads for a designer range of leather bags and accessories we were coming up with... so went to a few shops and then a factory owned by Venkatesh. interestingly Venkatesh has a brand Katerpillar and a neat website too.

Here are some pictures take at the factory.

Top (bambaram) making pictures: using the Turning process on the 'Outside'.

The whole process took less than one minute!

Bangle making pictures: using the Turning process on the 'Inside' and 'Outside'

2005-07-25T00:40:00.004+05:30

Who is in the driver's seat?

Courtesy The Hindu

Is driving a guy thing or a girl thing? Two couples, who are rallyists, share their experiences with GEETA PADMANABHAN

Photo: Shaju John

SPEED BRINGS SMILES Harsha Koda and Prabha with Archana and Sanjeev
Car rallyists all. Harsha Koda and Prabha of Adcom bought a car five years ago and have not used another form of transport since. They have been on Himalayan rallies, which are probably easier than driving in Chennai. "Harsha and I were in high school together," says Prabha, the navigator half of the couple. "We were friends before we got married." Harsha qualifies it. "That doesn't mean we are not friends anymore."

Archana (nee Chandok) is sister of racer Vicky, and as a Chandok, was expected to be on racing wheels. A regular at city picnic rallies for almost 20 years, she is also an insurance advisor and a freelance travel agent. Sanjeev has an auto shop, which services his appetite for racing.

Women cannot use a map without turning it to the direction that they are heading. Women know nothing about cars. "Oil stick? Oil doesn't stick." Men think women are bad drivers, even though they have been presented with evidence to the contrary. Even when completely lost, men will not stop for directions. True? False?

Gender, one gene

The couples rev animatedly about TSD (time/speed/distance), TULIP (info card) and their driving experiences before Harsha asks, "Gender is sexist. Gender is just one gene (out of 23). How can you attribute everything to 5 per cent of your genetic structure?" In Harsha's world, descendants of Mars and Venus are only that much different. But the quadrilogue auto pilots itself to exactly those distinctions a few sentences later.

Sanjeev takes the everyone-can-do-it route. "Rally driving is a little bit of skill, a route map and some organisation." But Archana admits, "Sanjeev drives better. Guys are more into the mechanics. They don't push or cut roughly (that's news!), know what's good for the car." For Sanjeev, it's individual style. "For instance, each one turns the corner in their own way — some are spectacular, some do it safely and others do a simple curve." He insists 70-80 per cent of driving is skill. Develop and improve with practice. Then who is a bad driver? Ninety-nine per cent of Chennai drivers, they chorus. Most people don't get the feel of the car, says Archana. Driving schools exist to help get a licence, mourns Harsha. "Car dealers cannot tell you about clearance or wheel size, but will tell you about EMIs." That's because no buyer asks such questions, says Prabha.

How come women navigate and men drive in rallies? Archana steers to her theme. "I do the calculations. I'm not the better driver." Harsha drives because he gets carsick looking down at the book. Sanjeev has no such problem. He just prefers to drive. "The easiest thing to do," chips in Harsha. "We split duties, I can do both," claims Sanjeev. It's difficult to control his driving, complains Archana. Sanjeev protests, "She says `GO SLOW' when I can't!" Aaha, but that's not the way it's said, laughs Harsha. It's all four-letter words, says Prabha. The men admit that calculating TSD is not easy. A change in schedule, all the back-bending work is trashed. (Better leave it to the patient one!)

Technical know-how

Sanjeev comes clean. "If I am not driving, I have to manage the kids." Archana laughs. "He likes to drive and I'm the one to keep peace. That reminds me. Continuous driving is a guy thing. Women drivers want to stop from time to time, enjoy the food." Yeah, says Sanjeev. "She wants a three course meal on the way." Prabha rallies round Archana. "Harsha will just zip through non-stop. Another guy thing is the `thayir sadam' they want."

For all her driving and navigating skills, Prabha has no clue to how the car works. Archana doesn't either. "No need," says Harsha. "Today's car is so advanced that the tool-kit has only a screw driver. Break down? Just call." Ha, says Archana, "I called Sanjeev from Kodi and he screamed, `Why did you venture out on those roads?'" Sanjeev is smiling. "The words were nothing so mild. I called a mechanic." That's the point, says Prabha. "I'll never know if the guy takes me for a ride." Agrees Harsha. "With know-how you can tell the mechanic what to bring."

In his years in the rallying circuit, Sanjeev has seen just one top female speed-rallyist. Harsha counted just five women among the 250 participants in a recent long-distance rally. About 1 per cent may have taken to this sport, thinks Prabha. More like 0.1 per cent, says Archana. "Women don't lack courage. I've seen a woman with a bashed door continue and win the race." Prabha is thinking out of the gearbox. "It has to do with our culture. A boy in high school is allowed to take the two-wheeler out. A girl gets the vehicle keys in college, but by that time, the boy has put in hours of practice." Sanjeev shifts gear. "Have you noticed the way women sit behind the wheel? They hold on to the steering wheel for life!" Harsha thinks it is a hangover from the Ambassador days. Prabha admits that her mom after 40 years of driving clings to the steering wheel. "That's because she is short," says Harsha.

Sanjeev and Archana aren't sure of the culture theory. "We give our kids the same opportunities. But whether it is the mini two wheeler or the go-cart, the son is a natural and the girl is stiff." Harsha has an explanation. "Women are emotional. If a car could talk, women would do excellent driving." "The 5 per cent is dominant in men," insists Archana. "The first word my son said was "vroom"! He could identify formula cars as a kid, something I still can't do." Dead end.

Prejudices

Archana moves into the prejudices highway. "Here was this woman with a U.K. licence. At the end of the rally, the guys said, `Hey, man, a woman beat us!' I've heard comments like, `What did you drive yaar, even Archana overtook you!' Harsha, however, finds himself in a "no-entry".

"They look at the driving and guess it's a woman, or see my hair and think the driving is bad." Prabha's solution. "When I feel low I take the car out and torture everyone on the road." (Hope Harsha keeps her happy.)

They are back at the starting line. "Rallyists are safe drivers. They watch the road. So can everyone else." Harsha has avoided accidents simply by processing the info around. "You aren't on a horse with blinkers on. It's a 40 horse-power machine," he says. Sanjeev hasn't had an accident in 20 years of driving. Probably because Archana is an excellent navigator.

Airtel One India Challenge

2005-05-22T21:30:00.008+05:30

Putting aside our tight schedule for the rest of the week, we decided during a meal at a 24hr coffee shop in Chennai.

Our hunger was made to wait at the side at 2:30 in the night (nearly early morning) when we decided to try our hand at the qualifying session for the Airtel Rally the next day.With groggy eyes we reached the Madras Gymkhana Club the next morning to try out for ‘India’s Largest Car Rally’... the Airtel One India Challenge. The rules were very simple.... TSD... time-speed-distance.... “maintain it and you will win” they said.

25 odd kilometers and about 2 hours later they said we had done very well... with just 1 penalty point... wow!

We had never done so well, so we decided it was a ‘sign from above.’ Easier said than done... Casting aside thoughts of how we were going to take off a week from work, putting to the side decisions of who/how was Yoda (our dog and our only child) going to be taken care of and most importantly, thoughts of finance were asked to ‘wait for side’, as we made our decision to take part in the main event from Chennai to Delhi with 199 other cars from all over the country!

The toughest thing was to call close relatives who were to visit us the next week and tell them to reschedule their visit.

The rally kicked off with a great loooong briefing on sunday, 8th May, with a host of freebies from the sponsors including a mobile phone from Sony Ericsson, with a free sim card from Airtel and a big fat discount on tubeless tyres from Apollo. We had our own sponsor (exclusive to our team) - Aura alloy wheels from Hindalco.

Most of the questions by the teams at the briefing revolved around the GPS data oggers (from Bannari Infotech) that the cars were all going to be fitted with, those that would keep a tab on our every move... every minute and every second of the day.

A rather intimidating thought... but in a rally as competetive as this... and with rally standards geting higher and higher everyday this was the only way they could ‘find a winner’.

When we got flagged off the next day there were atleast 5 non-starters... either they decided the GPS-based-rally was ‘too much’ for them or they thought the free mobile phone was ‘paisa vasool’ and they skooted.

The first leg from Chennai to Vijaywada was pretty ‘easy’. Keeping to the awesome 4-lane tarmac highway - the just completed NH5 - made driving a pleasure.

Some sectors made me ‘sleepy’... keeping a constant speed of around 64.47kmph on this superb road was very ‘difficult’! It was the Red Bull that kept me awake on that day and helped us stay energised during the entire rally.

When we reached Vijaywada it was nice to see that all the cars that had started off had made it... without any major incident. A good night’s rest and wonderful idlis (with peanut chutney for breakfast) later, we were off on the next leg to Hyderabad. Having grown up in Hyderabad and having to constantly do the Chennai - Hyderabad drive at least twice a year, I was very confident.

We regularly drive to Hyderabad to visit my parents. We normally take the Renigunta-Kadapa-Kurnool route to get from Chennai to Hyderabad but I guess we will take the Vijaywada route from next time... the road is ‘just too good’.

As we neared the city I was all excited and yelling out to Prabha - “we are going through Uppal, my old school is right there, just off that junction.... we are near Usha aunty’s place... we just passed Sangeet cinema.... ”

But, Prabha was too busy calculating... for her it was just a series of right turns or left turns... or a ‘landmark’ to watch out for... there was no school, no Sangeet
cinema and definitely no thoughts of Usha aunty on this trip for her!

Her dedication to navigation was also the reason we reached the destination, Hotel Fortune Katriya, on time and in one piece... traffic in Hyderabad can be a nightmare sometimes.

There has not been a single trip to Hyderabad when we have not treated ourselves to ‘Hyderabadi Biryani’... a visit here seems incomplete without it, and we were not going to let the tight schedule of the rally change that. After a couple of hours of lazing in the room, meeting my parents, chatting with the other contestants and organisers, we were off to ‘Hyderabad House’ to grab a bite of the famous Nawabi delicacy... not to forget ‘mirchi ka salan’ and ‘qubani ka meetha’.

A software glitch on my laptop later that night saw us staying up late trying to figure out the calculations for the next day.

When they use the phrase “from the frying pan into the fire”... they must be refering to the drive from Hyderabad to Nagpur.

Starting from a cool 36 degrees celsius in the morning to the scorching 43 degrees by the time we reached Nagpur taught us to believe that proverbs and sayings were the result of a wise man’s ‘experience’.

Though not as good as the 4-lane tarmac we had gotten used to, the road was 'acceptably’ good.

When we reached Nagpur, teams from the other zones - north, west and east - had already checked in. The whole area had a big ‘party’ atmosphere. We met some of the folks who had been on the Raid de Himalaya in October 2004 with us... in 6 months we had all travelled from a freezing 26 degrees below zero at Pang Transit Camp near the Tanglang La (the world’s second highest mountain pass) to a scorching 43 degrees above zero... what a range!!!

With nothing much to do in the heat we decide to pack-up early so we could get a headstart the next day... by now we had mastered the calculations so Prabha was busy the entire evening making precise calculations for the next day based on the flag off time.

Our car was numbered 446 - the 46th car in the 4th (south) zone - this meant that on the Nagpur-Bhopal sector we would be the flagged off almost 2 hours after the first car... so we were getting ready to cook in the hot Nagpur sun till 11am... atleast, that is what we thought!

At about 10:45, just as we were lined up and getting ready to get flagged off, we were told there had been an ‘incident’ on the road (a few kilometres from the venue) and all future flag-offs were suspended till further notice.

This was a last minute thing from the very start... it came down to the ‘last second’ during the entire rally...

The ‘incident’ turned out to be quite serious, a rally vehicle had been involved in a ‘hit-and-run’ accident... apparently he hit a cyclist and skooted fearing the gathering crowds... but the crowds got hold of the next few vehicles and blocked all rally vehicles that passed that way.

The police had to interfere to maintain law and order... till the guilty driver was caught by the organisers and handed over to the authorities. Aparently the ‘victim’ had only a few injuries.... but, as far as the mob was concerned - he was dead... we were all ‘maniac car drivers’... all rally drivers!

This meant we were all cooking in our cars (read ovens) till almost 4pm. I must have doused myself with a full ‘dabba’ of prickly heat powder... and I was still cooking in the car despite the aircon running ‘full blast’. The only guy enjoying all this was the ‘narial pani vala’ (tender coconut vendor) who was doing brisk business.... with over 300 people there he must have sold atleast a 1000 nuts... I was watching as he called for reinforcements and his brother landed up half an hour later with an entire truckload... only to be sold out before the end of the hour!

I’m sure that on the way home that night he went to the temple and prayed that there should be more rallies in Nagpur.

Eventually we were escorted in a convoy to the outskirts of Nagpur and flagged off from there. This new ‘starting point’ meant that we had to recaliberate our odometers and all calculations done the previous night was all a waste... poor Prabha.

This also meant that we would be having a ‘night’ stage... when we were warned about
this at the drivers briefing in Chennai, we did not talke it seriously.... “we are never going

to have to drive in the night, with just 500 kms to do in a day” we had thought... and how wrong we were!

Map reading lamps, torches, ‘Hella’ lamps all were going to be finally put to good use.

The next thing to worry about was that we would hit ‘truckers’ - the ‘kings of the road’!

In the day the Indian lorries are so slow and quiet on the roads.. but come nights and they love it... literally. They really prove their superiority, oh, so often, that a nudge from them was all that even a fully loaded SUV needed to ‘finish’ the
rally then and there! Also with the weather the way it was... I could well understand why these lorry drivers loved the night... only a fool, or a very enthusiastic rallyist would drive in the hot sun.

If there is one state in the Indian union where there are no roads... it is Madhya Pradesh. Not that they ‘forgot’ to lay them... just that the last time they laid the roads, I probably was not born! And they forgot to repair them after that.

Six months ago when we drove from Chennai to Shimla (to get flagged off for the Raid de Himalaya) we had driven through almost the same route... and we found that no matter where you enter MP from... there are no roads. In fact, Prabha could, without
seeing the map, guess whenever we enter MP, just by this!

The approach to Bhopal was the biggest surprise of the entire rally. We had all expected Bhopal to be a ‘village’ after our experience with the roads in MP.
But, to our pleasant surprise, it turned out to be a very beautiful city... atleast the parts of the city we saw. Wide roads, avenue trees, jogging tracks, ‘lake view’ hotels... an ‘upper’ lake and a ‘lower’ lake.

We reached our hotel by midnight and after the customary... “how did you do today?”.... “how much odo error did you get?”.... “I saw the Lancer guys had a flat... in a competetive stage... poor chaps”... “did you see that WB team... they were having lunch at a dhaba during a ‘timed’ section... crazy guys” .... we crashed out, too tired to even think of the calculations for the next day.

The next morning called for an early start, to take the longest leg of the entire rally; Bhopal - Jaipur... almost 600kms. So with our ‘mandatory’ sleep behind us, we were in the line-up ... this time I was also working on the calculations... to save time... not an easy job.

All the math, all the formulae, all the calculations could not help me get
the job done on time...

I was glad I had the easy job of just driving the car... all I had to do was follow Prabha’s instructions... and be at the right place (down to the last few meters) at the right time (down to the last second).

I’ve heard so many things like “women can’t read maps”... and that they are always “back seat driving”... I’m glad they are both not true of Prabha... She can read maps and navigate very well... our 200,000 kms of travel all over India stands testimony for that.

Reaching Jaipur was a relief, it meant the next day would be a short hop to Delhi and the end of this rally... it was getting very tiring... in fact the next morning there were a couple of drop-outs... “my navigator can’t take it anymore”, one of them said.

Tempers were also rising, the organisers were not able to announce the results everyday - too much data from the GPS, and then calculation, evaluation, verification and finally certification... was taking too long.

It is said that only during trying times, birds of a feather flock together. How very true!

At the beginning of the rally, we were almost ‘ignored’ by the ‘all male’ teams who thought we were here to ‘just have fun like a married couple on a vacation’. By the time we reached Nagpur and then towards the end of the rally now.... with language being a barrier for a number of these teams from down south and with Prabha and I being able to communicate with the locals and holding on strong till now... we were being taken seriously. ‘Gangs’ were being formed... everyone in the south zone was a part of the “Madrasi” gang ... they were eating together, hanging out together, helping each other with the vehicle repairs, maintenance.

Interestingly, in the first leg from Chennai to Nagpur, we had ‘Andhra gang’, ‘Tamil gang’, ‘Mallu gang’, and ‘Kannad gang’. Then when things hotted up at Delhi, the entire ‘south’ got together... I have no doubt that if this was an international
event, all us Indians would have ‘ganged-up’ together! Unity in diversity can actually be experienced indeed!

Also, people had mastered the art of eating ‘on-the-move’ or with ‘one hand’. We were given lunch packets (sometimes breakfast also) when we left the hotel each morning and we had to ‘manage’ to eat it. Sometimes we got sandwiches, fruits and frooty... but some other hotels decide to pack us naan with paneer butter masala (india’s ‘world famous’ national dish) with pulao... imagine eating that at 67.81kmph with one hand.

Thank God (and the organisers) for “free zones”... where there were not much calculations to be done and we had time to eat our meals. The rally was so well planned that we invariably got a ‘free zone’ near lunch time.

Every morning we were given a crate of Aquafina, ‘packaged drinking water’ (read
mineral water). While Prabha and I were content with drinking it at room temprature (or car temprature if you please), there were teams that had great ideas... they stopped at the first dhaba in a ‘free zone’ and exchanged their ‘hot Aquafina’ for a ‘cold Aquafina’.

The dhaba guys soon caught onto this and started charging them ‘two rupees, cooling
charge’ for every bottle... smart guys... the ones in the car as well as the ones in the dhaba!

Among the people burning midnight oil were the Apollo tyres staff who inspected the tyres of all the cars (even if we were not running on their tyres) and stuck a ‘status report’ on the windshield. One less thing to worry about when we got the the car the next morning.

Encounters with rural India were a part of the itenary everyday... herds of cows and goats crossing the highway (cloning must be a regular thing for the remote villagers in India who herd about 100 animals - all looking exactly the same), monster buses with milk cans, macho riders on their donkeys and silver Scorpios sharing a national highway... a sight to see.

The last leg, Jaipur-Delhi, was the easiest, the speeds were higher, the road was great, expressway-like conditions.

Higher speeds also meant, more dedicated driving, and caution.

To ‘help’ me stay alert, I had a large black Tata Safari (SUV) on my tail... competetion number 147 who was flagged off 30 seconds behind me decided he was ‘stuck on me’... he was driving 6 inches behind my rear bumper!

It was quite intimidating... seeing him in all my 3 rear view mirrors. At one manual time-control, the navigator of 147 came up to me and said he was glad that he was ‘following me’... “you drive very well, bhayya”... poor fellow did not understand he had to be 30 seconds behind me.. not 6 inches behind!

As we reached our last ‘free zone’ we decided to take a lunch break. Just as we were opening our lunch packets the black giant (No. 147) came up to me and offered me cold water as a gesture of gratitude... “we have a fridge in the back” he said.... cool eh? almost like they came on this rally to enjoy a picnic... way to go guys!

As we neared Delhi things really heated up. People were getting very anxious about the results which were due later that day and with a price money of about rupees1 crore... everyone wanted a piece of the cake.

There is a story in Indian mythology of a certain Shravan Kumar who used to carry his aged parents on his back and walk everywhere. His life was an example of obedience and respect to the elderly. Once, on one of their many travels, they reached Indraprastha (modern Delhi) and he immediately asked his parents to “get off his back” and walk the rest of the way... his old mother assured his elderly father that after they had crossed Indraprastha, things would become normal.... truly, he put them on his back again eventually. That is what Indraprastha can do to you. It has a history of turning the most ‘sadhu’ people into ‘shaitans’.

We saw this effect on some of the participants on the last day as we entered the National stadium near India Gate in Delhi. They protested about the delay in the results. Even as the organisers were trying to explain the reason for the delay, there was ‘trade unionist’ slogan shouting and ‘name calling’. Someone even suggested we ‘share’ the entire 1 crore... they even did the math and came out with a figure... “each finishing team gets 56 thousand bucks... give it to us now” they shouted.

Some others decide they wanted a shot at the limelight and they gave interviews to the press, tv and other media. One guy even boasted to me, “I will be on Aaj tak, India Tv and NDTV tonight, I have ripped apart the organisers”... the poor guy did not realise that the channels would only show the official ‘word’ and analyse the truth in my poor friend’s claims before they would telecast it.

The official line is that the results will be declared only on 24th May as the data from the GPS systems was still being analysed, validated and verified... We decided to give the organisers a chance to get the job done right and left them to handle the ‘rowdy’ crowd.

Despite the delays and the slags, this has by far been the ‘best’ organisational effort motorsport has ever seen in India...Organising India’s longest rally, not withstanding handling 200 teams (almost 600 people) with all their differences, the sponsors, the media and the public! Cheers to all to people who made this happen... keep it going guys... we will see you next year!

We packed a few cans of beer, moved on to Centaur Hotel and hung out with the other teams till late that night. The usual “keep in touch... here is my card”.... “call me when you are in town next time”... and “we will meet next year” were exchanged.

When we first left Chennai, some of the teams walked up to us and said we were ‘very brave’ to drive a rally on alloy wheels... when I tried to educate them on the advantages of alloy wheels they just would not listen. After 6 days on the road, with hardly a few stolen moments of rest, I must say that our car, wheels and tyres all
stood, rather, drove, by us.

The next morning we were back on the road... we had to get back to Chennai in time to celebrate our dog’s birthday... on the 19th may, so we were weaving our way through the traffic... this time via Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Bangalore...

... and the one thing that flashes in front of my eyes, even as I write this, every moment of the day, something I will never forget, is a sign I have been looking at for the last 11 days - Wait for side.

Petrol, diesel or gas

2005-04-08T09:52:00.002+05:30

Every time I meet friends the topic ulimately come down to free advice about what car to buy...

Most of them think that since we do so much travel by car I must be driving a diesel car... but sorry to dissapoint them I drive a petrol car (always have)

My argument is simple.. Diesel cars are sold at about 80-100,000 rupees premium over petrol cars (take the Maruti Swift for example VXI petrol is 4.8L while VDI Diesel is 5.6L)

But we have calculated that the 100,000 you pay as a premium will be recovered only over a span of 3 years (in fual cost savings)... we are not accounting for the higher spare-parts costs in diesel vehicles... the same is true about Gas (LPG/CNG) vehicles.

The DICOR/CDRE/CRDI/DDIS - basically fuel injection Diesel Engines (similar to fuel injection petro cars) are now the rage... they are effieient.. but best only when paired with Premium diesel fuel.

If we compare 2 vehicles in the same class on the basis of pick-up from 0-100kmph - the Swift petrol has better pick up (12.3 secs) as compared to a Swift diesel (13.8 secs)... but, you might ask, what is 1.5 sec going to matter in the long run?

Well... when you are overtaking a "Long" truck on the highway ... you will realise!

Eco-nomic or Eco-logical

Another thing that really irritates me is the attitude of the vehicle manufacturers on the concept of being eco-friendly (using LPG/CNG for cars) or eco-nomical (stripped down versions).

When ever they come out with a LPG version (or dual fuel version.. like the WagonR Duo) they make it a point to release only a 'stripped down' version... LXI... no power windows, etc...

If I'm eco-logically concious and want to use cleaner fuels... then does it mean I have to give up on power windows... not really... why do they assume that those who look at cheaper fuels (cleaner fuels) are cheapskates... do not deserve power windows!

Sound on the road

2004-04-08T15:09:00.000+05:30

We have several different collections for the car stereo... we have a Sony MP3 player that allows us to carry over 10 hours of music per CD

Slow Music - this is used only while driving in cities... some of this stuff is instrumental (hindi and english), world music, karnatic, hindustani etc... helps to keep the nerves calm... considering the traffic!

Fast Music - useful to makeup time on the highways... the body feels pepped up and keeps the mind active. Radio Jhankaar beats from Worldspace... RD Burman, Disco Deewane... Best of ABBA... Best of Kishore Kumar... Remix collections... in this time of fast music, this list is endless.

Talk Show - This CD comes out only after lunch... at a time when we feel sleepy... especially when we have just had Thayirsadam/Perugannam (curd rice) or Lassi (sweet yogurt shake)... we listen to chat shows, BBC's Just a Minute, Russel Peters / Eddie Murphy stage shows and Audio Books... concentrating on the words eats away the miles on a lazy afternoon on the highway.

FM Radio - we avoid the FM radio stations like the plague (or should I say H1N1 virus)... When I last counted they played 4 songs per hour... that was a mere 20% of the air-time... rest of the time it is just talk... they talk too much.. and have too many 'commercials'. Of course, this whole attitude changes when we enter a city and are eager to listen to the local lingo... how else to link to the local flavour other than listening to these local RJs!

Worldspace - we sometimes carry the worldspace reciever with us. Just tie/fix/tape the antenna to the top of the car (facing straight up) and it will work on the highways... take the audio out into the main car amp and we have a decent commercial free music system. When we cannot do that, we carry the 'recorded' version of the kind of music they play on worldspace (especially Radio Jhankaar's Chai Pani show with Supriya)

Wait For Side

2000-04-08T11:27:00.008+05:30

In the year 2000 Prabha and I bought our first car - the Maruti 800 DX AC 5 Gear model. TN 07 L 5818 it was called.

We took delivery on a Friday and accompanied by Prabha's parents did the ritualistic Puja at a 'road-side' temple in Mylapore (Chennai).

By Monday we were ready for the 1st service - we had finished 1000 kms over the weekend.

We decided that day that we will not take public transport - trains, buses or flights, for the next 10 years and 'drive' to every part of India. We have kept to that plan.

Since then we have changed from Goldilocks (Zen) to Chiclet (WagonR) to Guns n Roses (Swift)... our cars :), driven over 300,000 Kms all over India, by ourselves and with friends. We have traversed over mountain passes, through streams, across deserts, on plateaus, along the coast and bypassed cities but our thirst to travel on road in India and the world has not been quenched.

Be it a meeting with a client in Mumbai a wedding in Bangalore, tigers in Bandhavgarh or a gruelling rally like the Raid-de-Himalaya we believe in a 'mantra' by the famous explorer Jacques Cousteau - il faut aller voir - lets go check it out for ourselves.

This blog is a tribute to road travel in India.

NOTE: We have been so busy traveling... not found the time to write about it... will soon start.... however I have written some other stuff (not travel related) at http://harsha.koda.in check that out.