Here I am sitting at the Bangalore International Airport between departure gate nos. 8 and 9 waiting for my flight Indigo 6E-115 to Kolkata scheduled at 11.50. Reading from my laptop there’s still 90 minutes to go. I will have to publish the post later on. Not because there isn’t a Wi-Fi network available but because the password is sent to your mobile and unfortunately my cell has decided not to receive any messages for the moment. By the way, BIA is by far the best airport I have seen (not that I have seen many but still..) Mr. Mallya sure has spent a lot of money on this. The airport premises including the ground area is huge, really huge. But I’ll come to the airport later on.
I was a little anxious as to how will I reach the airport from Arakere which is easily 50 km away. Shared car hiring services like Airlift charge Rs. 338 but I knew about the buses to the airport – the Vayu Vajra Volvo Bus Services or the BIAS (Bangalore International Airport Shuttle) Bus Service. I had read on the internet that the service is pretty decent. But then I didn’t want to miss my flight, and my experiences with Government services have not been that great in the past. So for the 11.50 flight I left at 7 in the morning. Anyone who has been to Bangalore knows how the Auto Rickshaws loot the passengers. For 42.50 on the meter, I had to pay Rs 70. Anyways, atleast he dropped me to one of the BIAS pick up points. BIAS-5 was waiting. I was impressed. For once, I had underestimated the Karnataka Govt. I approached the bus conductor to find out that the bus would depart at 8 and reach the airport at 9.30. Wow! That was quite early for me. I could have easily taken the 9 am bus which would have, taking into account the increased traffic, reached by 11 at max. That way I could've had another hour's sleep. But then, this post might not have come!
By the way, the BIAS service is quite regular. There’s a bus every 20 and 40 min alternatively. I wonder how many people travel to the airport daily! I was impressed when as soon as my bus left at 8 sharp, another BIAS-5 came and took its place waiting for the next set of passengers! Now you would think a Volvo Bus fully AC with such a regular service must be expensive. No way! 150 bucks for my ride! Way cheaper than any other transport available.
Coming back to the airport, the main airport building is quite beautifully built. Bangalore at 10 in the morning is never hot. It is a pleasant day. In fact, awesome breeze was blowing just outside the terminals. I wanted to sit there and enjoy but then it was pretty deserted ..dunno why..Reminds me of the famous lines by Davies: "....we have no time to stand and stare"
BIA doesn’t have a separate X-Ray Baggage Check. Its done at the Check in counter itself. I liked the concept. Saves time and harassment. Also the airport is fully commercialized with big branded stores. The maintenance is great and I have heard the Wi-Fi is really cool. (Mental note to myself: Dont buy or recommend Nokia 3110c ever!)
Its 10.45 now and all seats around me are vacant. Suddenly it dawns upon me that this might be the last of Bangalore for the rest of my life. Yes, my internship in over. IIM is a nice place to spend your PG years. I totally loved the 2 months of my stay in Bangalore. With the great company of the "Hum Pathar" Banglore intern junta (Bajo, Bhanu, Gautam, Julio, Kanchi, Manu, Neel, Nonedone, Onshui,Purr, Subji), the awesome climate of Bangalore, our amazing trips, about which I have already written in detail – this has been the best summer till date and it isn’t over yet. I am going home to family and old school friends. Thank you God!
Also thank You for stopping by here and commenting from time to time.
This is probably the last post on this blog.
Sayyonara! Au Revoir! Adieu! Tchao! Goodbye!!
Will miss you Bangalore!
P.S: I shall continue writing on my other blog Zeitschreift. See you there!
Friday, July 3, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Hogenakkal "Smoking Rocks"
Its been an addiction! One weekend gets over. Next day starts wid senti mails from our group and by the following day or two at most, we are all set and planned for the next weekend...save the finer details. This time it was Hogenakkal. In local language it means Smoking Rocks, named after the smoky appearance of rocks due to the waterfalls of Cauveri.
10 of us on a Tempo sandwiches and lunches along with other titbits packed we left at 7 in the morning. Singing along on our way we made it by 11. The awesome company I had...I didnt realize where did 4 hours fly..We got down..changed into bathing clothes (didnt want to repeat Pondi)
I looked funny but had no choice :P
Well after few "dry pics" from afar, we hired 2 coracle boats for a ride downstream upto the Karnataka border. The ride was too good. There was always this fear of the coracle upturning. The ride through the small waterfalls and water splashing on us along with the rotation of the boats were awesome. We got down at the banks and started wading into the river till it was waist deep (damn! it wudnt go any deeper) We swam, we splashed water on each other, we drowned each other. It was amazing. It was different to bathing in the sea. Calmer and riskless, more fun. Lunch at the beach was really rewarding. On our return ride our good spirited boatman-photographer-guide clicked our very "flimy" poses :P
Mafia and Dumb C on the return to bangalore with chips, biscuits and kit kat was rocking...
Smoking rocks rocked!
10 of us on a Tempo sandwiches and lunches along with other titbits packed we left at 7 in the morning. Singing along on our way we made it by 11. The awesome company I had...I didnt realize where did 4 hours fly..We got down..changed into bathing clothes (didnt want to repeat Pondi)
I looked funny but had no choice :P
Well after few "dry pics" from afar, we hired 2 coracle boats for a ride downstream upto the Karnataka border. The ride was too good. There was always this fear of the coracle upturning. The ride through the small waterfalls and water splashing on us along with the rotation of the boats were awesome. We got down at the banks and started wading into the river till it was waist deep (damn! it wudnt go any deeper) We swam, we splashed water on each other, we drowned each other. It was amazing. It was different to bathing in the sea. Calmer and riskless, more fun. Lunch at the beach was really rewarding. On our return ride our good spirited boatman-photographer-guide clicked our very "flimy" poses :P
Mafia and Dumb C on the return to bangalore with chips, biscuits and kit kat was rocking...
Smoking rocks rocked!
Monday, June 15, 2009
Puducherry
Our weekend lukkha started with McVeggie at McD and Angels and Demons at Rex theatre followed by dinner at Hyderabad Palace. Then commenced our road trip to Puducherry in a Qualis with my other 7 enthu friends at 10.30. We kept singing all sorts of songs till about 1 in d morn. Thn we all fell asleep...or to say tried to do so..
Anyways so we reached the Pondi rock beach in time to catch d sunrise although it was cloudy and we couldnt see it. But the waves were amazing and quite violent. Then we went to the sandy beach where we played volleyball and football for sometime and bathed in d beach without bothering to change into suitable clothes and finally ending up roaming around in the day in pyjamas and tshirt! :D
Went to Aurobindo ashram, a church and Matrimandir meditation centre and finally d boathouse.
The weather was pretty hot but the beach was fun. My first road trip!
More later..
Anyways so we reached the Pondi rock beach in time to catch d sunrise although it was cloudy and we couldnt see it. But the waves were amazing and quite violent. Then we went to the sandy beach where we played volleyball and football for sometime and bathed in d beach without bothering to change into suitable clothes and finally ending up roaming around in the day in pyjamas and tshirt! :D
Went to Aurobindo ashram, a church and Matrimandir meditation centre and finally d boathouse.
The weather was pretty hot but the beach was fun. My first road trip!
More later..
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Managing two square meals a day!
Food has always been a problem over my entire stay at Bangalore. The IIM mess is closed over the vacations, so during my stay in the campus we had to eat South Indian thali all days for lunch which included Sambar, rasam, a wierd mix veg, 3 types of rice and fried puris! It was hard for me to survive on this for a month. No offences meant..anyways, its a personal blog.
Then dinner was not available on campus except if u can live on fried rice. So we had to go food hunting everyday till we narrowed down ourselves onto 3 places. One was Adiga's..it offers a wide variety of dishes both North and South Indian and at affordable prices. Other was a restaurant just opposite IIM, named Potluck which gave discount to its fans on facebook and twitter! Aparently the fans were told a keyword every month which was a password to the discount. Evidently the password was Spiderman for May. I dont know what is the new pass for June. Superman,eh? Well apart form the discount, we used to go there because it was quite nearby and wasnt too bad. Our favorite was the Punjabi Dhaba with the tagline Taste the difference! It was a small place really but awesome food. Finger licking good! The paranthas with raita, the chana masala and the dal makhani..God! m salivating already. Our breaker and snacks was taken care of by our saviour Amul parlour in the campus without which we wouldn't have survived a day in Bangalore. It serves delicious sandwiches and toasts along with all Amul products.
We moved out of campus after May into a small 1 BHK flat shared by 3 of us and now we are on a fresh food hunt. We have found Charcoal but have not fully approved it as of now. Except that there's a small joint called Kerala Heritage which apparently also offers north indian chapatis and vegetables. For dinner Adiga's has become the monopoly. But evenings are that I actually look forward to nowadays because I found a puchka wallah which serves amazing puchkas. For those who don't know puchka, it is the Kolkata equivalent of Bombay's panipuri and Delhi's golgappe. I am glad Bangalore junta likes it the Kolkata way. I hate panipuris and though I havent had gol gappes ever, I know I cant like it better than puchkas :)
Thats it for now...Hoping that we would settle down for some proper eating places at out new residence...
Then dinner was not available on campus except if u can live on fried rice. So we had to go food hunting everyday till we narrowed down ourselves onto 3 places. One was Adiga's..it offers a wide variety of dishes both North and South Indian and at affordable prices. Other was a restaurant just opposite IIM, named Potluck which gave discount to its fans on facebook and twitter! Aparently the fans were told a keyword every month which was a password to the discount. Evidently the password was Spiderman for May. I dont know what is the new pass for June. Superman,eh? Well apart form the discount, we used to go there because it was quite nearby and wasnt too bad. Our favorite was the Punjabi Dhaba with the tagline Taste the difference! It was a small place really but awesome food. Finger licking good! The paranthas with raita, the chana masala and the dal makhani..God! m salivating already. Our breaker and snacks was taken care of by our saviour Amul parlour in the campus without which we wouldn't have survived a day in Bangalore. It serves delicious sandwiches and toasts along with all Amul products.
We moved out of campus after May into a small 1 BHK flat shared by 3 of us and now we are on a fresh food hunt. We have found Charcoal but have not fully approved it as of now. Except that there's a small joint called Kerala Heritage which apparently also offers north indian chapatis and vegetables. For dinner Adiga's has become the monopoly. But evenings are that I actually look forward to nowadays because I found a puchka wallah which serves amazing puchkas. For those who don't know puchka, it is the Kolkata equivalent of Bombay's panipuri and Delhi's golgappe. I am glad Bangalore junta likes it the Kolkata way. I hate panipuris and though I havent had gol gappes ever, I know I cant like it better than puchkas :)
Thats it for now...Hoping that we would settle down for some proper eating places at out new residence...
Sunday, June 7, 2009
and Mysore it is!
Around 3 pm this Saturday afternoon, I was wondering what was I doing staring at this palace turned museum. It was a flop show, atleast for me. Allow me to take you down my memory lane as to how I reached there and what exactly was I doing there!
11 of us (God, the number is rising day by day!) boarded the 11.55pm passenger to Mysore at Bangalore City Rly St on Friday in the hopes of a great Saturday. An old guy from the nearby compartment tried to make our journey hell by forcing us to sleep and not talk. Now, no one could actually make the 11 of us sleep when all of us were so excited except for the fact that he complained the rly police. :(
While 6 of us did fall asleep the rest 5 didnt. We kept our conversations hushed for what was left of our 4 hour train journey. We even played hushed word building for quite a long time and it was gr8 fun. Seems like we can have fun in the worst of circumstances! :D
A little something happened during the night. We heard beeps. The sound wasnt familiar and the beeps were abrupt and arbit. For some time we ignored it. But it continued and sounded close enough. All of us checked our cell phones. Negative! This wasnt good. The train halted at a station and the beeps stopped instantly. All went quiet and then after a minute it happened again. A single isolated beep! We could have yelled bomb anytime now!!
But then we realised it was actually the cell of one of our sleeping friends beeping because the write message application was open and the cursor was blinking and beeping...
So we reached Mysore at 3.40 am the next day. Man, was it cold! It felt like winter had suddenly arrived without the fair warning of an Autumn and I once again had no shield except coffee. Anyways, we decided to wait for the sun at the station itself and sat down on the platform and played cards for about an hour. And guess what! to prevent cards from getting blown away we kept cards in a book and passed along. Jugaad! thats what we are great at :P
We set out for Chamundu hills and reached there at 6 only to find that the temple opens at 7.30
Now with nowhere to sit (and play cards) we started roaming around on our own, took few pics of the beautiful landscape views. The dense fog played spoilsport. The wind was freezening our bones. We finally queued up for the temple at 7.30. The atmo inside was so comforting. Bhajans were playing on stereos at just the right volume and sweet fragrances filled our nostrils. It felt really good.
After breaker, we went to the Karanji lake. This time I decided NOT to go boating. The weather had mildened by then. Walked through an amazing aviary at that place. Even white peacocks exist btw.
Another incident happened there. Few of the tree leaves caught spark and even the electrical wires short circuited. It was quite a blast. Scared us! Thank god it didnt turn into a forest fire. Second accident averted in the day..LOL at that..
The next stop was the zoo. The animals were sprawled across a 3.5 km long walk. Was a nice experience. But a tiring one. Anyways after that we went to the Mysore palace. It was beautifullt built but due to lack of energy we couldn't enjoy it. After the 1st palace we decided to skip the second one and sat down to play cards only to be asked to quit by a security personnel.
Then we had lunch. This was good. The food was quite satisfying, though expensive. Now we desperately needed sleep. It was also raining. So we headed for Srirangapatnam hoping the long drive would give us some rest and the rain would stop as well. Well neither happened. The drive wasnt long enough. And so we were in front of the Tipu Sultan's Summer Palace-turned-museum. As I said earlier, it was a flop show.
After that we retreated to a water shed nearby. This was the best place to be although did not look very attractive at first. Dipping your feet under water after a tiring day and poor weather could be so refreshing! We climbed into the water and onto the rocks and sat there rejuvenating ourselves..
Our last stop for the day were the beautiful Brindavan Gardens. Well maintained trees, shrubs, water fountains, artificial water falls, lightening...it has them all. The musical fountain was also worth seeing. Awesome!!!
Mysore was fun except for Srirangapatnam and we took infinite pics this time...and I mean it when I say infinite...over 300 in a single day!
11 of us (God, the number is rising day by day!) boarded the 11.55pm passenger to Mysore at Bangalore City Rly St on Friday in the hopes of a great Saturday. An old guy from the nearby compartment tried to make our journey hell by forcing us to sleep and not talk. Now, no one could actually make the 11 of us sleep when all of us were so excited except for the fact that he complained the rly police. :(
While 6 of us did fall asleep the rest 5 didnt. We kept our conversations hushed for what was left of our 4 hour train journey. We even played hushed word building for quite a long time and it was gr8 fun. Seems like we can have fun in the worst of circumstances! :D
A little something happened during the night. We heard beeps. The sound wasnt familiar and the beeps were abrupt and arbit. For some time we ignored it. But it continued and sounded close enough. All of us checked our cell phones. Negative! This wasnt good. The train halted at a station and the beeps stopped instantly. All went quiet and then after a minute it happened again. A single isolated beep! We could have yelled bomb anytime now!!
But then we realised it was actually the cell of one of our sleeping friends beeping because the write message application was open and the cursor was blinking and beeping...
So we reached Mysore at 3.40 am the next day. Man, was it cold! It felt like winter had suddenly arrived without the fair warning of an Autumn and I once again had no shield except coffee. Anyways, we decided to wait for the sun at the station itself and sat down on the platform and played cards for about an hour. And guess what! to prevent cards from getting blown away we kept cards in a book and passed along. Jugaad! thats what we are great at :P
We set out for Chamundu hills and reached there at 6 only to find that the temple opens at 7.30
Now with nowhere to sit (and play cards) we started roaming around on our own, took few pics of the beautiful landscape views. The dense fog played spoilsport. The wind was freezening our bones. We finally queued up for the temple at 7.30. The atmo inside was so comforting. Bhajans were playing on stereos at just the right volume and sweet fragrances filled our nostrils. It felt really good.
After breaker, we went to the Karanji lake. This time I decided NOT to go boating. The weather had mildened by then. Walked through an amazing aviary at that place. Even white peacocks exist btw.
Another incident happened there. Few of the tree leaves caught spark and even the electrical wires short circuited. It was quite a blast. Scared us! Thank god it didnt turn into a forest fire. Second accident averted in the day..LOL at that..
The next stop was the zoo. The animals were sprawled across a 3.5 km long walk. Was a nice experience. But a tiring one. Anyways after that we went to the Mysore palace. It was beautifullt built but due to lack of energy we couldn't enjoy it. After the 1st palace we decided to skip the second one and sat down to play cards only to be asked to quit by a security personnel.
Then we had lunch. This was good. The food was quite satisfying, though expensive. Now we desperately needed sleep. It was also raining. So we headed for Srirangapatnam hoping the long drive would give us some rest and the rain would stop as well. Well neither happened. The drive wasnt long enough. And so we were in front of the Tipu Sultan's Summer Palace-turned-museum. As I said earlier, it was a flop show.
After that we retreated to a water shed nearby. This was the best place to be although did not look very attractive at first. Dipping your feet under water after a tiring day and poor weather could be so refreshing! We climbed into the water and onto the rocks and sat there rejuvenating ourselves..
Our last stop for the day were the beautiful Brindavan Gardens. Well maintained trees, shrubs, water fountains, artificial water falls, lightening...it has them all. The musical fountain was also worth seeing. Awesome!!!
Mysore was fun except for Srirangapatnam and we took infinite pics this time...and I mean it when I say infinite...over 300 in a single day!
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Bangalore Bhrahman!
After infi planning and discussions, we had finally decided our plans for this Saturday. Cubbon Park at 10 am. As usual, by the time all of us gathered it was 11.
At the Cubbon Park, we saw the Aquarium. Saw many varieties of fishes with myriad colours, shapes and sizes. Then we went to the Vishweshwara Industrial Museum. The fun with ccience section and the engine section was interesting.
After grabbing a bite at Subway, we headed for the Ulsoor Lake, did boating again (this was twice in a week) and then sat down on grass and played Mafia. For those who know Mafia, you would know it ought to be fun and for those who don't know, sorry rahega...cant explain d rules to u now :P
After that we returned back to IIM and had an amazing dinner (chana masala and dal makhani) at a nearby Punjabi Dhaba. A fitting end to a tiring day!
At the Cubbon Park, we saw the Aquarium. Saw many varieties of fishes with myriad colours, shapes and sizes. Then we went to the Vishweshwara Industrial Museum. The fun with ccience section and the engine section was interesting.
After grabbing a bite at Subway, we headed for the Ulsoor Lake, did boating again (this was twice in a week) and then sat down on grass and played Mafia. For those who know Mafia, you would know it ought to be fun and for those who don't know, sorry rahega...cant explain d rules to u now :P
After that we returned back to IIM and had an amazing dinner (chana masala and dal makhani) at a nearby Punjabi Dhaba. A fitting end to a tiring day!
Monday, May 25, 2009
Nilgiris...!
Another weekend at Bangalore and we, the lukkha interns, set out for Ooty!
We reached Ooty Saturday morning at 7 after an awful 8 hour bus ride. Without any woolens and draped in only a half sleeve T-shirt and jeans, I was shivering amidst the cool morning air. We booked the cheapest lodge around and dumped ourselves on d bed wid memories of d bus journey almost luring us to sleep. But the prospect of sight-seeing was more enticing! After freshening up and a light breaker we set out for the Rose Garden on foot.
It was a long walk and not helping at all in reducing my exhaustion..But as I entered the garden the smell and sight of a million roses captivated me. Welcoming us in, there were a chariot and a peacock decorated with roses. It was beautiful. The whole garden had roses planted on either sides of the passageway with weird labels to each of them. Some of them were quite ironical, others humorous and while the rest seemed logic-less! We took a few pics here and there before we set out for the Botanical Garden, again on foot.
Once we reached the famous Botanical Gardens there was a long queue, discouraging us from getting inside. We ditched the plan to see the Garden and retreated, only to move towards Dodabetta peak, the highest peak of the Nilgiris.
After a couple of kilometers of walk and futile attempts at hitch-hiking, we realized that there was no transport to Dodabetta from our present location and we had to go back to the town bus stand for conveyance, which was quite far. Thus, we postponed our plans of Dodabetta to the next day and this time, wisely enuff, booked a Sumo for the 7 of us for the next day which would take us to Pykara as well.
Having nothing better to do we set out for the Ooty lake and boat house expecting to finally find a place to sit on the lakeside. Hence, we started out..again on foot for a 3-4 kilometer walk..Having walked for atleast 10 kilometers from the moment we reached Ooty, we found a place near d lake to sit and relax. We played cards..and it was awesome. The fitting end to a not-so-good beginning. The next 3 hours flew by and were total fun. The weather didnt dissappoint us either. After the amazing evening, we returned to our lodge and I slept like a horse.
Sunday morning we set out for Pykara at 9 on the Sumo we had booked for the day. We saw the Golf course in the passing, and later stopped at Kamraj Sagar Lake. It was a nice lake bordered by pine forest and was below road-level meaning that we had to descend quite a steep slope to reach there. We clicked a few pics and returned to the Sumo.
The next stop was the 9th Mile Wenlock Downs. It was basically an undulating hill covered with grass and very good scenery providing excellent scope for more pics :P
Then we went to the Pykara falls and the Boat house where we did boating. Our return journey took a lot of time coz of heavy traffic. We passed our times singing songs: old songs,new songs, love songs,sad songs, happy songs,arbit songs, bad songs, more songs :D
By the time we reached back Ooty, it was past 5 and we had to skip Dodabetta (was it jinxed!?)
We settled for in a CCD outlet and occupied the corner couches. I had Irish coffee and Choc Fantasy with ice-cream and choc sauce. We stayed put at CCD till 9.30 gossiping and watching the DC innings of the IPL final.
On our way to the bus stand we suddenly realised we had to buy the famous Ooty flavoured tea and home made chocolates. In desparation, and due to shortage of time we grabbed watever was nearest at hand and boarded our bus. How was the journey back? Don't even get me started on that!
Overall it was an awwessuuumm trip!!!
P.S:Thanx to Bajo, Fengshui, Mayhool, Manu, Nandu n Subject (in alphabetical order)!!
P.P.S: i ll post links for the pics in the comments soon..
We reached Ooty Saturday morning at 7 after an awful 8 hour bus ride. Without any woolens and draped in only a half sleeve T-shirt and jeans, I was shivering amidst the cool morning air. We booked the cheapest lodge around and dumped ourselves on d bed wid memories of d bus journey almost luring us to sleep. But the prospect of sight-seeing was more enticing! After freshening up and a light breaker we set out for the Rose Garden on foot.
It was a long walk and not helping at all in reducing my exhaustion..But as I entered the garden the smell and sight of a million roses captivated me. Welcoming us in, there were a chariot and a peacock decorated with roses. It was beautiful. The whole garden had roses planted on either sides of the passageway with weird labels to each of them. Some of them were quite ironical, others humorous and while the rest seemed logic-less! We took a few pics here and there before we set out for the Botanical Garden, again on foot.
Once we reached the famous Botanical Gardens there was a long queue, discouraging us from getting inside. We ditched the plan to see the Garden and retreated, only to move towards Dodabetta peak, the highest peak of the Nilgiris.
After a couple of kilometers of walk and futile attempts at hitch-hiking, we realized that there was no transport to Dodabetta from our present location and we had to go back to the town bus stand for conveyance, which was quite far. Thus, we postponed our plans of Dodabetta to the next day and this time, wisely enuff, booked a Sumo for the 7 of us for the next day which would take us to Pykara as well.
Having nothing better to do we set out for the Ooty lake and boat house expecting to finally find a place to sit on the lakeside. Hence, we started out..again on foot for a 3-4 kilometer walk..Having walked for atleast 10 kilometers from the moment we reached Ooty, we found a place near d lake to sit and relax. We played cards..and it was awesome. The fitting end to a not-so-good beginning. The next 3 hours flew by and were total fun. The weather didnt dissappoint us either. After the amazing evening, we returned to our lodge and I slept like a horse.
Sunday morning we set out for Pykara at 9 on the Sumo we had booked for the day. We saw the Golf course in the passing, and later stopped at Kamraj Sagar Lake. It was a nice lake bordered by pine forest and was below road-level meaning that we had to descend quite a steep slope to reach there. We clicked a few pics and returned to the Sumo.
The next stop was the 9th Mile Wenlock Downs. It was basically an undulating hill covered with grass and very good scenery providing excellent scope for more pics :P
Then we went to the Pykara falls and the Boat house where we did boating. Our return journey took a lot of time coz of heavy traffic. We passed our times singing songs: old songs,new songs, love songs,sad songs, happy songs,arbit songs, bad songs, more songs :D
By the time we reached back Ooty, it was past 5 and we had to skip Dodabetta (was it jinxed!?)
We settled for in a CCD outlet and occupied the corner couches. I had Irish coffee and Choc Fantasy with ice-cream and choc sauce. We stayed put at CCD till 9.30 gossiping and watching the DC innings of the IPL final.
On our way to the bus stand we suddenly realised we had to buy the famous Ooty flavoured tea and home made chocolates. In desparation, and due to shortage of time we grabbed watever was nearest at hand and boarded our bus. How was the journey back? Don't even get me started on that!
Overall it was an awwessuuumm trip!!!
P.S:Thanx to Bajo, Fengshui, Mayhool, Manu, Nandu n Subject (in alphabetical order)!!
P.P.S: i ll post links for the pics in the comments soon..
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Garuda Mall
Last Sunday we went to Garuda Mall on MG Rd, supposedly the busiest road in B'lore. Met wid my batchies who also happened to be doing an internship in B'lore. After a quick lunch at the food court on the 3rd floor and a few photos (all in d same pose!), we headed to the multiplex on d 4th floor. We spent 200 bucks for the tickets and got inside INOX. The hall was nice. The movie was called Something Just Happened. The name sounded promising and even the cast was decent. But the movie was a disaster and we couldn't stand it any longer than Intermission. It was the first time for me to ditch a movie after having paid for the ticket! But as they say, there's always a first time.
Well after the movie having nothing definite to do, we just wandered in the mall, stopping meanwhile to have dessert. I had blackforest slice. More pics followed! As we planned to leave, it started raining and thus we were forced inside the mall for another hour which led to another trip to the food court. (I had Subway's sandwich this time)
This was the longest I ever stayed in a mall...6 hours..and I had an exam the other day! But inspite of all this, it was fun.
Well after the movie having nothing definite to do, we just wandered in the mall, stopping meanwhile to have dessert. I had blackforest slice. More pics followed! As we planned to leave, it started raining and thus we were forced inside the mall for another hour which led to another trip to the food court. (I had Subway's sandwich this time)
This was the longest I ever stayed in a mall...6 hours..and I had an exam the other day! But inspite of all this, it was fun.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Bannerghatta National Park
The name struck me as odd. National? Hadn't heard of it earlier! Anywayz, on a Thursday morning with nothing better to do and hopes of a cheaper entry fee we set out after breaker at around 11 (yea..I know it was quite late..but that's another story). We reached there in about half an hour and I suddenly felt that I preferred sleeping peacefully on my springwell mattress over this. When I confronted my friends (we were 4 in all) that I am getting negative vibes, I was assured we would enjoy the Safari. When we purchased our tickets, we were told May being summer vacations for school children holiday rates would apply. So after purchasing a ticket for Rs 125 each and Rs 20 for the digicam we had, we went it.
The crowd was pretty decent for a Thursday. We stood in the queue for the Grand Safari (that includes tiger, lion, bear and herbivores safari) and waited for another 15 minutes before we boarded the bus occupying corner seats in the hope of getting a nice view and good oppurtunities for clicking pictures. The ride wasn't smooth to say the least and in the beginning we saw nothing excpet a dear and a few cows which the driver said were neel gai but didnt seem to be. Then we entered the bear safari .
This was the best part..actually the only interesting part in the whole ride. We saw lots of bears. I dont remember seeing a bear earlier. Some of the babies looked cute. But the adults were aggressive. One even stood up and held the windows of our bus and one other was frightening the other bears off (I wonder why!)
After this we entered the lion safari and a sleeping lion family was all we saw. The tiger safari wasnt much better, except that I saw 3 white tigers (more than I had seen on that horrible trip to Sundarban back in school)..all sleeping and 2 normal tigers(again, sleeping). The colours of their skin amazed me. It was a bright orange and the black stripes looked quite royal..along with the white patch on the underside.
Anyways, this was the end of the tour. My friends suggested that we can still see the zoo on the same ticket. But when they realized that we were out of the main gate now and the zoo had to be seen before the safari, I was happy. Who wanted to see the zoo anywayz!
The crowd was pretty decent for a Thursday. We stood in the queue for the Grand Safari (that includes tiger, lion, bear and herbivores safari) and waited for another 15 minutes before we boarded the bus occupying corner seats in the hope of getting a nice view and good oppurtunities for clicking pictures. The ride wasn't smooth to say the least and in the beginning we saw nothing excpet a dear and a few cows which the driver said were neel gai but didnt seem to be. Then we entered the bear safari .
This was the best part..actually the only interesting part in the whole ride. We saw lots of bears. I dont remember seeing a bear earlier. Some of the babies looked cute. But the adults were aggressive. One even stood up and held the windows of our bus and one other was frightening the other bears off (I wonder why!)
After this we entered the lion safari and a sleeping lion family was all we saw. The tiger safari wasnt much better, except that I saw 3 white tigers (more than I had seen on that horrible trip to Sundarban back in school)..all sleeping and 2 normal tigers(again, sleeping). The colours of their skin amazed me. It was a bright orange and the black stripes looked quite royal..along with the white patch on the underside.
Anyways, this was the end of the tour. My friends suggested that we can still see the zoo on the same ticket. But when they realized that we were out of the main gate now and the zoo had to be seen before the safari, I was happy. Who wanted to see the zoo anywayz!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Campus!
So here's sumthing about the campus. It isnt as large as IITB for sure. But is atleast as much green.
All roads are curved and have infi branches and you could reach any place through more ways than one..Everything is interconnected by a network of lanes and bylanes. The hostels (A-L) is one big 'block' having 2 storeys above the gorund floor. My room's in A block on the 1st floor. There's a 24 hour canteen Athica's which has relatively few items on the menu but the food is quite decent. Other than this there are a STD-ISD and Xerox facilities which remain closed during vacations. Then there's a volley court, basketball net, and a hockey ground in the hostel area too. The student's mess is closed during vacations but there are 2 canteens - the staff canteen which offers mostly South Indian food and a private canteen with food being ok. But these close at 7 in the evening leaving no options for dinner except to go out to infi restaurant options outside or have a quiet dinner at Athica's. Other than this, we have a proper CCD outlet here, an Amul store, Chai Unchai (Tata Tea) and Lipton's Tea. Then there's a theatre, an amphitheatre, library, bookstore...
In short, the student lifestyle here is quite happening and fun :)
All roads are curved and have infi branches and you could reach any place through more ways than one..Everything is interconnected by a network of lanes and bylanes. The hostels (A-L) is one big 'block' having 2 storeys above the gorund floor. My room's in A block on the 1st floor. There's a 24 hour canteen Athica's which has relatively few items on the menu but the food is quite decent. Other than this there are a STD-ISD and Xerox facilities which remain closed during vacations. Then there's a volley court, basketball net, and a hockey ground in the hostel area too. The student's mess is closed during vacations but there are 2 canteens - the staff canteen which offers mostly South Indian food and a private canteen with food being ok. But these close at 7 in the evening leaving no options for dinner except to go out to infi restaurant options outside or have a quiet dinner at Athica's. Other than this, we have a proper CCD outlet here, an Amul store, Chai Unchai (Tata Tea) and Lipton's Tea. Then there's a theatre, an amphitheatre, library, bookstore...
In short, the student lifestyle here is quite happening and fun :)
Monday, May 4, 2009
Day 2!
It was d perfect Sunday I could have hoped for...My cousin picked me up at the Main Gate and we headed straight to the Forum mall on his bike. Even at 11:30 in d morning the mall wasnt empty. Nice architect. And the PVR over there has 8 screens! Well with no interest in shopping (real or window), we zoomed out of the mall in 15 minutes and were on the bike again. Man! the roads are quite well maintained I thought when my cousin told me its coz of the elections. Anyways..I was enjoying it. Saw the huge offices of Dell and Intel on my way and the ISRO campus as well.
We stopped at The Leela Palace Kempinski. This 5 star hotel is open for visitors. The basements have various shops. There was one cool men's jacket on display at one shop and out of curiosity I checked d price tag. Ouch! It was too expensive - a 5 figure price at the 5 star! There in the middle was a piano and several seats. I was informed that in the evenings people listen to a lady playing beautiful music over here. As we were about to go up, a lady did come and start playing. The whole place smelled of rose. It was amazing. On the ground floor there was an open lounge facing a well maintained lawn. The lawn had artificial fountains and waterfalls and the overall effect along with the soft cool breeze blowing was amazing!
Our next stop was a Shiv Temple. The temple covered a huge area. Inside there was a huge 50 feel high statue of Lord Shiva. The temple also had an exhibit area where models of famous Shiv Temples across India were displayed.
After the temple the heat became unbearable (who says Bangalore doesnt have hot summers!) so we had momos and lichi shake and then retired to the confines of my cousin's home. After lunch we again set out for the ISKCON(International Society for Krishna Consciousness) Temple.
As soon as the temple opened for the evening, devotees sprang in and there was a long queue out of nowhere in less than 5 minutes! Luckily we were among the first in the queue and got in without waiting for long. The main mandir was beautifully built. The interiors made my eyes go wide with amazement. After offering our prayers we returned. We were made to exit through all kinds of shops that I wouldnot usually look at. Commercialization of temples as well, I observed.
Anyways, after another 25 min bike ride we reached back home just in time to see the KKR gaining momentum against Kings'men at IPL T20. But KKR lost and we were sad(both me and my cousin were supporting KKR). This was followed by the MI vs RCB match. I was unsure of whom to support having some roots from both d places. Anywayz it was an exciting watch and Bangalore did it finally with 2 overs and 9 wickets to spare. Slept over at cuz's place and just returned back here.
Long post!
Cya!
We stopped at The Leela Palace Kempinski. This 5 star hotel is open for visitors. The basements have various shops. There was one cool men's jacket on display at one shop and out of curiosity I checked d price tag. Ouch! It was too expensive - a 5 figure price at the 5 star! There in the middle was a piano and several seats. I was informed that in the evenings people listen to a lady playing beautiful music over here. As we were about to go up, a lady did come and start playing. The whole place smelled of rose. It was amazing. On the ground floor there was an open lounge facing a well maintained lawn. The lawn had artificial fountains and waterfalls and the overall effect along with the soft cool breeze blowing was amazing!
Our next stop was a Shiv Temple. The temple covered a huge area. Inside there was a huge 50 feel high statue of Lord Shiva. The temple also had an exhibit area where models of famous Shiv Temples across India were displayed.
After the temple the heat became unbearable (who says Bangalore doesnt have hot summers!) so we had momos and lichi shake and then retired to the confines of my cousin's home. After lunch we again set out for the ISKCON(International Society for Krishna Consciousness) Temple.
As soon as the temple opened for the evening, devotees sprang in and there was a long queue out of nowhere in less than 5 minutes! Luckily we were among the first in the queue and got in without waiting for long. The main mandir was beautifully built. The interiors made my eyes go wide with amazement. After offering our prayers we returned. We were made to exit through all kinds of shops that I wouldnot usually look at. Commercialization of temples as well, I observed.
Anyways, after another 25 min bike ride we reached back home just in time to see the KKR gaining momentum against Kings'men at IPL T20. But KKR lost and we were sad(both me and my cousin were supporting KKR). This was followed by the MI vs RCB match. I was unsure of whom to support having some roots from both d places. Anywayz it was an exciting watch and Bangalore did it finally with 2 overs and 9 wickets to spare. Slept over at cuz's place and just returned back here.
Long post!
Cya!
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Reached bangalore
Reached Bangalore- the Silicon Valley of India after a long day. The flight to Bangalore International Airport was short and uneventful. From the airport got onto a bus to Bannerghata Road (thats where IIMB is) and hired an auto to the IIM. After a few formalities at the Main Gate I was allowed to enter into the campus.
I liked the campus at the instant. Quite green and clean. And all curvy roads. On the way to the hostel saw a State Bank ATM. Thank God, atleast no banking woes. As soon as I reached the hostel block I saw a big board hung on the wall saying THANK YOU IIMB..wen i saw further down it said-The 3 Idiots Team and it was autographed by the whole team. I could atleast make out a few...Raju,Madhavan and there was this familiar one-Aamir's..(I actually have an autograph by Aamir in my room back in d insti)..It felt nice..Knowing that the film was shot here and the cast stayed here for around a month..On enquiring a bit, I was told that Aamir did a shot in his underwear jogging around the Academic Area ;)
After this I actually saw the hostel block..it was a nice architecture..I mean nuthin great..even old..but it was kind of different..and I pretty much liked it...All the hostel blocks (A to L) are in the same area...unlike IITB. After a hungry and exhaustive wait for about one and half hours I finally got the keys to my room A 215.
Had dinner (butter maggi with 7UP) at the 24hr canteen and now here I am..totally exhausted..but excited
Oh..about the room..decent..d single room here is in fact bigger than my twin shared room back in IIT.
Chances are I will be going around and seeing a few places tomorrow..Hoping for a gud summer
Thanks for stopping by..
Sayonara
I liked the campus at the instant. Quite green and clean. And all curvy roads. On the way to the hostel saw a State Bank ATM. Thank God, atleast no banking woes. As soon as I reached the hostel block I saw a big board hung on the wall saying THANK YOU IIMB..wen i saw further down it said-The 3 Idiots Team and it was autographed by the whole team. I could atleast make out a few...Raju,Madhavan and there was this familiar one-Aamir's..(I actually have an autograph by Aamir in my room back in d insti)..It felt nice..Knowing that the film was shot here and the cast stayed here for around a month..On enquiring a bit, I was told that Aamir did a shot in his underwear jogging around the Academic Area ;)
After this I actually saw the hostel block..it was a nice architecture..I mean nuthin great..even old..but it was kind of different..and I pretty much liked it...All the hostel blocks (A to L) are in the same area...unlike IITB. After a hungry and exhaustive wait for about one and half hours I finally got the keys to my room A 215.
Had dinner (butter maggi with 7UP) at the 24hr canteen and now here I am..totally exhausted..but excited
Oh..about the room..decent..d single room here is in fact bigger than my twin shared room back in IIT.
Chances are I will be going around and seeing a few places tomorrow..Hoping for a gud summer
Thanks for stopping by..
Sayonara
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
Posts
