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| Memories to me are like stars in the sky. To be able to see stars in the sky, it all depends upon where you look up from. Today I could only see the brightest stars. Where are the other stars? Am I supposed to look up from elsewhere. I do not know. I just made a star. Hopefully one day when I look up .. I will remember. | | |
| I visited/passed Park Street, Parnashree, Behala, Rashbihari, Rabindra Sadan, Jatin Das Park, Maidan, Kalighat, Esplanande, Thakur Pukur, Netaji Bhavan, Victoria Memorial, Kidderpore, Taratala, Joka, Dum Dum, Esplanade, Gariahaat, Alipore and many more places.
May 12 was a day marked in my calendar since first week of April. The Air Dhakkan flight took its time getting cleaned and spruced up for its flight to Kolkata causing much angst in the drowsy crowd which had made it to the airport for the scheduled departure of 5:35 AM.
There is so much to tell, so I'll skip to the first important part of the holiday. The flight landed safely at Dum Dum. The Zen Monk was there to welcome me with a customary broad grin and a warm hug. Imagine alighting from a flying metal bucket made up of millions of parts with hundreds of electronic thingamagics keeping it flying and then taking a cycle rickshaw next. No blaring horns, no taxi meters getting flipped on their business ends. With this simple ride, my experience with Kolkata kicked off.
We reached our destination via an AC bus to Rashbehari -> A rick to Behala Police station -> Another rick to Parnashree. Throughout the journey I was getting bombarded with info about places that we were passing by. This info did come handy over the next few days and also as I write this post. We relaxed till the evening.
The cloudy morning sky was by evening threatening rain. Took a metro from Kalighat to Park Street. Roamed about in Monk's alma mater while we awaited the arrival of Sister Weaver. Then we went off and landed ourselves amidst sin --- lots of sin in Flury's. The heavenly chocolately scent. A chocolate brownie, mousse, tiramisu slice, sweet lime soda, two cups of latte and good live music MADE the evening. Biryani dinner at Rehmaniya's was accompanied by rain and thunderstorms.
The next morning we walked about Parnashree, whetting up a good appetite for mishti doi, sandesh, rosogullas, chamchams, singaras, kachuris and dal. Took a bus till Howrah station and passed the cricket clubs with their beautiful grounds along the way. Most amazing!! Walked the length of Rabindra Setu. Took a wooden bus to Ralli's near Esplanade (I may be wrong here). Lovely sodas they serve. It began raining by the time we got out and had to take shelter for about 20-30 minutes before the rain subsided. We then had a light lunch at Peiping along with Sister Weaver and her colleague. Then went to see Victoria Memorial. Got to see a practical use of an umbrella when its neither raining nor too sunny.
Queen Victoria and her memorial
Picture postcard perfect
Victoria Memorial Dome
I clarified with Monk the meaning of jol, jhol and jhal on way to having the famous jhalmuri. Very nice varient of bhelpuri. Went to Millenium Park to catch a river ferry. Here we were joined by Joby. Had the upper deck of the ferry to ourselves. The dear Sister regaled us all with some beautiful rabindra sangeet. Saw Vidyasagar Setu from the ferry and both sides looked great in the twilight.
Howrah Bridge from Millenium Pier
We then attended Sister's friend's birthday party where we were treated to some great food and a evening full of fun. Everyone missed the absentees who were away from Kolkata at that point.
The next day, the agenda was 'a tram ride' which was the only missing transportation I had not travelled yet in. We then travelled to the IIMC campus by tram. Nice, slow ride.
Tram at Joka
Since there was no appointment to keep I could just sit back and enjoy. A south indian lunch soothed our stomachs after much heavy eating on the previous days. Saw a classic movie which starred Lily, Mona and James.
Went to Someplace Else, the pub in The Park Hotel in the evening to listen to Cassini Division and Crystal Grass.
At Someplace Else
Crystal Grass with a guest drummer (a pro)
Though both bands were poles apart in terms of experience, both bands had excellent vocalists. Cassini Division had a lot of local fans who kept screaming for them to play their original songs which were quite good.
The next morning just flew by quickly and after some fond farewells, it was time to leave. Never have I felt bad in leaving a city, but it really hard for me to leave Kolkata. After some more Air Dhakkan moments I reached Bombay.
I can't say enough to say how much this trip meant to me. Thank You.
Memories like these are made to cherish for a lifetime.
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| Sinhagad .... is the name of a famous Shivaji fort as well as the name of an Company/Institution/University which deals in education. This post deals with the fort bit (click here for its history) . Its a pretty popular fort for trekkers of all types and it allows for a good getaway from the city. A group of people in my company decided to go for a night trek to Sinhagad starting from Katraj to Sinhagad on the coming Friday. On further enquiry, they said that it was a 7-8 hour walk and very popular during the summers because of the obvious reasons. The trek would start at 11 pm and all would reach the fort around 7 am next morning. Have some refreshments on the summit and then head back home by bus was the plan. A close friend after much cajoling got me to sign up for this trek.
It rained quite severely on Thursday and the plan almost got cancelled. Luckily Friday was a bright sunny day and the trek was on.
So on Friday evening, I pack a couple of litres of water, some Parle-G, apples, bananas, one borrowed torch and spare batteries. Assemble at Katraj tunnel around 11:30 pm. After a small lecture of some basic rules of trekking, we start. The full moon helped and we didn't need the torches. A short-cut over a hill gave enough evidence that this was no simple walk. I and a couple of friends were lagging in the back of the pack and hence did not get much rest ime in between stops. It was majorly walking till 1 am in the night. It was here that we first saw the TV/Radio antenna on top of Sinhagad fort. The distance we yet had to cover was a lot.
Then we came a very steep cliff which we had to climb down and its my guess that from here things began to start getting painful. Most of us sat on our haunches and slowly descended. But the time all were down, 13 ppl had already gone up ahead and they stayed ahead for the remainder of the trek. Around 2 am, my feet were beginning to cramp. I was already having water and the odd banana but nothing seemed to relieve the pain. Around 3 am, the strength in my legs almost gone and I was staggering about. As a prevention to any accident, a few of us held each others hands while we did any bit of climbing. Just about that point it started raining. F#ck ... Fortunately the rain stopped in 10 minutes.
Around 4:30 am, six of us trekkers being totally exhausted decided to eat and rest a bit and allow the others to go ahead. The descent was quite slippery now. And it was not easy using torches as the moon was covered by the rainclouds. At 5:30 am, we were quite lost and didn't know how which way to descend and began shouting out for our friends who had gone up ahead. Two came back to help us show the way. It had began raining on and off. The rocks had become slippery. Finally we came out of the mess we were in and met up with a few ppl who waited for us. At 6:30 the sun rose and it was here that I had 3-4 gulps of glucon-C. Wow!! Felt much better and some strength had returned to my legs. All of us finally reached the base point of the Sinhagad fort at 9 am when we should have been there by 6.
The weary sat down for some snacks. The bananas were mashed to a pulp, but the apples were okay. Some others had got fruits too. We had some tea, kanda bhajjiyas, masala kakdi to add to the assorted biscuits, fruits we ate to regain some of our energy.
While a few hardy trekkers decided to head for the summit, others decided to head back home. Some of us were so tired that they hired a jeep to take them back to town. But I and 9 others decided to walk back towards the bottom of the hill to avoid further cramps. Buses are available from the bottom which go into the city. Around 11:30 am we reached the bus stop. I remember even climbing the small steps of the bus was a painful experience. All of us half-slept through the journey back. I reached home around 1 pm.
We had walked for atleast 10.5 hours out of the 12 hours spent which was realy tiring. But it was an excellent experience and I will always remember that on the first trek I ever went on I walked for 10.5 hours with almost no breaks.
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| A trip originally bound for Goa wound up ending at Mount Abu which is the absolute inverse of what Goa stands for. The Goa plan got ditched due to several ppl dropping out. Since it was left to two of us ( me and a roomie) we chose Mount Abu as neither of us have alcohol or sea food.
Medical Note: Alcohol gives me a instant hangover, while seafood expresses itself as a red allergic rash all over my body.
Anyways the leaves were sanctioned and off we go..
Cutting a longish (13 hours) but uneventful train journey short, we arrived at Abu Road. Mount Abu is a good 29 Kms from there through the Aravalli ghats. I have never been to a honeymooning destination and hence was not expecting to see barely-out-of-college just-married gujju couples roaming around Mount Abu.
Apparently the hill station is Gujju summertime haven making up of almost 80% of tourists. Luckily we were there just before the peak season started so were able to get a good hotel room cheap.
In the evening we went to the sunset point which is the premier tourist-spot-atop-a-hill point in and around Mount Abu. The point is pretty large spread across four different levels but by the time the sun had begun its descent under the horizon there wasn't much standing space.
It seemed that the one eating specialty at Mount Abu was dahi-rabri which does sound like a weird combo, so we skipped the dahi bit and got right down to the rabri bit. Add a couple of gulabjamuns to the rabri and I was instantly transported to the overweight section in seventh heaven. Shopping as suggested by the locals was to be avoided as all items are not made locally but are bought from Ajmer or Jaipur.
The next day we took a day long tour bus. The highlight of which was the exquisite marble carvings in the famous Dilwara temple. Since cameras and mobiles are banned inside, I had to leave them outside the temple at a small deposit counter. All that I got in return for the deposit for a digicam and a phone was a small token which did not install much confidence. Throughout the temple tour, my mind as always on the safety of my camera. So much for inner peace while inside a temple. I am not a pray and worship fellow but what i felt was supreme respect for the artistry that was on display inside the temple. Just mind-blowing!
The tour ended and I rushed back to recollect my camera which was safe and sound. Whew! My friend was quite unhappy at the way I didn't stop and stare at the carvings but I had too much of material things on my mind to stroll.
The tour ended with a visit to sunset point. Since we had already visited it a day earlier, we did some exploring and found a road which led us to a secluded point away from the mad rush of tourists. Here we sat in peace with only 5-6 other people. Nice!!!
The next day we checked out of the hotel and took a bus to Ahmedabad -> Bombay -> Pune (22 hours). As we reached entered Pune, we started thinking about work and all the things pending at the office. Made a few calls and informed my senior that I would report in a hours time. That done I realised that the holiday served its purpose beautifully. A break from work pressure, the hot summer and frigging PUNE. Wooooohooooo for small pleasures but memories which last much much longer!!!!! Edit: Mount Abu sunset
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| Planning never makes much sense nowadays. I'm off to Mount Abu. See ya later folks...
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