Bangalore Darshan...

It all started when we decided to go to Hyderabad for the Oct 2nd long weekend. After much research and analysis on various modes of transport we decided that going by a Volvo bus was probaby the best option. Next step was to identify the Travels to book on. After another round of analysis and consultation with the folks in Hyderabad, we zeroed upon Kesinini Travels as the most convenient option. Here 'convenient' meant that we could board in Madivala(Point 1: In my opinion if you run a travels and dont have a Madivala boarding option then thats a sure shot way to failure :) ) and get down at a walkable distance from our destination. Being a long weekend we decided to book tickets well in advance and fortunately this Travels had an online booking option(Point 2: If you want to do some business in Bangalore and dont have an 'online' option, then beware... :-)). The website said booking opens 30 days in advance. We planned to leave on 1st Oct night, so right on the morning of 1st September I made an attempt at booking. No luck. I did not persue it further. And tried on 2nd then 3rd then 4th September. Apparently for the website it was still not 30 days in advance(Would really like to meet the person who wrote the code for the site. Another fellow IT Guy :)). Anyway an SOS went out to the folks in Hyderabad and they made a visit to the agent office and he was able to book the ticket without any hassles. So it was probably just a internal conspiracy and not a code issue :). So on 1st Oct we reached our sacred boarding point well in time and to our surprise the bus was 15 min early. That was a good sign I thought. Maybe we would reach earlier... How wrong I was...

The bus left Madivala promptly at 7.15 and we were the only people in the bus. My understanding was that it was coming from Indiranagar and would go to Majestic for further pickups and then leave the city. Wrong again... We were just starting our Bangalore Darshan....

From Madivala we took a big round through HSR Layout and Silk Board and ended up in BTM Layout. From there we went to Jayanagar, JP Nagar and then on to Basavangudi, Lalbagh, Kalasipalayam Majestic, Richmond Road, MG Road, Ulsoor, Old Madras Road and finally.... you wont believe it.. Indiranagar, with the bus only 25% full. Here everyone else boarded(Smart People). Here From there again we retraced our route to Cantonement, Mekhri Circle, and Hebbal before finally hitting the Hyderabad Highway.The time was 10.30PM. A full 3 hrs after we boarded. Those who are familiar with Bangalore would now realise that we had done a nice big round of Bangalore City. We went through roads I had never gone before, saw places I had never seen before(Remember: I have been in Bangalore for 6 years and have gone around a lot :)). Only consolation was that it was in a comfortable Volvo bus.

That was about the Bangalore Darshan we went through as part of the Hyderabad Trip... So what about the trip itself? Well, that ended up being even more eventful. So have to leave all that for the next post.... :)

I am back as promised with another post. No 2 year gap this time. This post is a travelogue of our trip to my home town in Kerala from Bangalore. Since we were going for 5 days, decided to drive down. You may wonder whats is so special about a trip to Kerala. Well, here the speciality was the scenic route. Large part of the journey though forests and ghats.

So here goes....

Car: Zen Lxi

People: Me and my wife

Date: 7th Aug 2009

We decided the previous night that we would start of at 5am on 7th.To our great surprise at 5am on 7th I was in the car ready to move. Started off from Sarjapur Road, went through Silk Board and ORR to meet up at Mysore Road by 5.30 am. It was a cool cloudy morning and Mysore Road looked inviting.

Reached Mysore Byepass by 7.30. Since it was early traffic going out was minimal

From the byepass, took the left turn and via the Lalit Mahal palace reached the Gundlepet Road. The stretch of road for 10-12 km was quite bad. After that the surface was quite good and the traffic was minimal.

Some sunflower Gardens on the way

By 9am we were at Gundlepet. There is a new 24hr Cafe Coffee Day outlet opened there. Stopped for a coffee and some snacks. Had travelled around 190km.

Once we left Gundlepet, we hit a very bad stretch of road leading up to the Bandipur wild life santuary. And as the photo below shows, vehicles did not have the right of way


One we overcame that obstacle and after a stretch of non existent roads, we entered the Bandipur forests. Here the roads were excellent, lots of twists and turns and almost non existent traffic along with beautiful views of forests. The santuary is caled Bandipur on the Karnataka side and Mudumalai on the Tamil Nadu side. Following pictures show the drive through the santuary. Not much words are needed.

This deer did not like us disturbing

We exited the forest and stopped for a break amidst bamboo forests before reaching Gudalur(Gudalur is the base from where you climb to OOty)

A great view of the Western ghats just after Gudalur


We crossed Gudalur by 11.15am and then entered Kerala through the Nadugani ghats. Again great roads with almost no traffic.


Crossing this section we reached Nilambur by 12.30pm, the first major town after you enter Kerala. From here another 1.5 hours, We were at my hometown Tirur by 2pm.

Summary:
Total Distance: 387km
Time taken: 9hrs(including 1 hr break)
Roads: Apart from a couple of small stretches absolutely brilliant with plenty of twisties. No potholes. Traffic almost nil most of the way

Overall a very good trip. It was great to drive on good roads through dense forests with no traffic. We switched of AC, and music, Just cruised along listening to the sounds of nature.... Something we miss in the daily bustle of city life....

Paths of Glory...

Here I am, Back after a very very long gap. Wondering where I have been for nearly 2 years?Have i been on a tour in the wilderness of Africa? Or was I on a trek to the south pole? Or maybe climbing Mt Everest? Or was I in a gadget boycott mode? Well, not at all. It was just that I have been plain lazy to open blogger and make a post. Although I spend a great part of the day online, somehow when it came to opening blogger, I turned into a frozen block....

Having said that, after continous application of heat by many people urging me to blog again, I finally melted and here I am.. Back to blogging my 'Random Musings'...

Wondering what the title of the blog has got to all this?Nothing at all till this point. Was just coming to that. Coming back after a long gap, I needed something to write about, and a review of a recent book I read seemed to be a good choice. The book was called 'Paths of Glory' by Jeffery Archer. This was his latest book and is a fictionalized adaptation of a true story.

'Paths of Glory' is the story of the life of George Mallory, a famous English Mountaineer and his attempt to scale the highest mountain on earth. Mount Everest. Today lot of people have climbed Everest, so what is special about George Mallory? Well, it is the fact that Mallory attempted to climb Everest in 1924. That was more than 30 years before Sir Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay did it for the first time. Mallory was last seen 200 feet from the summit of Everest by his team mate in the 1924 expendition. He was not seen since and his body was recovered only in 1999. There have been many theories as to whether Mallory actually reached the summit and went missing and died on the way down. If that is the case can Mallory be considered the first man to scale Everest?

This is what Jeffery Archer attempts to explore in this book. The book traces the life of George Mallory and his family. The narrative flows along expected lines and there are no great surprises, as it would be expected from an true story. The main point that makes you continue to read to the end is to see Jeffery Archer's conclusion as to whether Mallory scaled Everest and how he justifies the conclusion. That is one of the major plus points of the book. Also, in true Archer style, he involves you deeply with the lead characters. You feel Mallory's emotions as your own.

On the negative side, there are no major twists or surprises in the narrative. And as a person who has read all of Jeffery Archer books multiple times, this was not as fast moving and filled with surprises as his earlier books. Maybe you can expect only that much from a true story.

All things said, if you enjoy reading and like the Jeffery Archer style, you will still find this a good read. Yes, it is quite different from his earlier works, but maybe thats what would make you like it....