Tour Diaries - Kodaikanal

P.S (Prescript) : Yeah I know guys, my last doodle was posted way back in the pre-historic period of mankind & for all who those missed/didn't miss my "pot of thoughts", my customary "sorry" again for bunking away from the Blog-space.Now, before I start, I really hope my skills are still intact.:P

One year back, it was my dream to be an "Engineer", working for Nortel, seated in my cube, fumbling & blowing up the TCP/IP layered architecture. Now a year later, loads of changes have occurred; I no longer belong to a Networking corporate,dream of being an Engineer is now done & dusted & I  no more vouch for it :P Seemingly, like all experienced Engineers , I keep whining "work-sucks, that too big time..:P".This Wednesday evening, I realized just the same thing again. Pinged all my mates abt the idea of running away & before 3 or 4 message/mail exchange, we were all ready to flee from this Bengalooru stochasticity to a Kalm & Kool -- Kodaikanal.

Come Friday evening, it was time for the take off. We had a 7 seater Qualis booked for us which buzzed pass the Electronic city fly-over to Tamil Nadu. I must confess, Tamil Nadu has one of best Express-ways I have ever seen.Straight as an arrow,it was one heck of an uncoiled drive before we hit the curvy Ghats near Kodai which lasted for about a couple of hours & finally we were there.

Hired a beautiful looking villa at a high altitude which provided us the bonanza view of the town. We took just around 2 hrs to get fresh, broke our fast at a near by place & then we were off to the Kodai lake.The area by the lake was scenic & well conserved. We rented a bicycle for an hour & it was a fine joy lap around the lake. I must confess, I initially fought a little to poise with the cycle which didn't fit into my stature & after that hiccup, it was so soothing with a gentle drizzle falling in the background. This one hr pedal ride was followed by some shopping in the Tibetan shopping stalls by the lake. Soon, some of us decided to join cavalry & I settled for some Navy.:P Had a wonderful pedal-boat ride again around the lake & by the time we were done, it was time for some lunch. But journeying+work-on-Friday had started taking a toll on us by then & we were all fatigued.

Post lunch, in spite of weariness, we settled for a walk around the Bryant Park,a Botanical garden.The haze over the park & the chillness around was simply solacing but this frigidity forced us to get back to our villa & take a nap.After snoozing for a while, around 6 in the evening, we all decided to take a nightfall walk around the town. Shopped for a while & then our hunt for a good North Indian cuisine eatery began. After walking around for miles & quizzing Tamil guys with our broken Tulu mixed plagued Tamil & some gestural/nonverbal actions, we finally found a good place to glut on.Gosh, it was one heck of a dinner & we all ate like pigs as if we were all starving for ages.On our return, it was time for some cards & bluffing..:P  After planning for the following day, it was time to hit the sack. By the time I closed my eyes, I was all numb.The sopor I got that night was just blissfulness.

Come Sunday morning, we all geared up by 6.30 & raring to go. Jumped on to our cab & straight off to "pillar rocks". Apparently, this was the place where legendary movie "Amritavarshini's" final sequence was shot.The cuddling between clouds & the rocky mountain was just divine though the mist filled air crippled our visibility & made us skip many of the view spots around Kodai. Next stop was at the fabled Pine forests of the Nilgiris. After a photo session there followed by a decent breakfast @ Astoria, it was time for some chocolate shopping.

I must concede, Chocolates are one of the main reasons behind my expedition to Kodai.:P  Altogether, we bought choco-bars worth 3k & I myself purchased 500 bucks worth of dark chocolatte!!!
Our next destination was "Coaker's Walk". Supposedly, a fascinating rare phenomenon called "Brocken spectre" can be witnessed, when a person can see his own shadow on the clouds with a rainbow halo! But we were not lucky enough to witness even the sun-rays coming out of the clouds & mist. Our next stop came at "Fairy falls". Sadly, the falls had  no water in it to show off her glamor but near by, there was a place called "Fun world" which had just about enough to keep us interested. After being "Arjunas" & "Ekalavyas" for a while there during our Archery session, it was time for Abinav Bindras while trying our hands in shooting. Got a sniper to snipe at a spot but missed every time I tried my hand:(
"Dolphin Point" was our next terminus. The unreliable downhill walk of 2 km & also the rain made me & a couple of others to skip this walk & take a nap in the cab:P This was followed by another heavy lunch again at Astoria.After gulping all the food & we all decided to terminate our trip & say good-bye to Kodai.

Overall, the trip was great! The place, mist, rain ,games, joy rides added with some instinctual planning & above all, the most important ingredient - "company"  .With all the PJ's involved, all the nostalgic feelings, the laughs, the gags, chorus songs, debates we all definitely had a life time experience. Also we all knew, the next time if we are seen Kodai again, it will not be with friends, it will be with spouses..:P

Now,yet again weekends are all over. Monday arrives & work is calling! Adios..:)

Picasa link: http://picasaweb.google.co.in/bharatrao2305/KodaikanalTrip02?authkey=Gv1sRgCLO52rywnsSK6gE&feat=email#

"Sach-In-tertainment"

I have seen him bat when I was nursing my plastic bat. Ironically my erstwhile bat is gone & I have a  laptop instead,  but I still see him bat. I have transmuted from being a li'l kid to adulthood but that "God" is still the same replica of his own. And never a day I have come across where I have achieved "boredom" watching him play .

Today, the God's own "avatar" farms yet another piece of  "master class" at Gwalior. Kudos to Sachin for cracking a double ton.

As somebody tweeted "Commit all ur crimes when Sachin is batting,they'll go unnoticed coz even God is busy watching him play ".

Mile "Be-sur" Mera Tumhara...

When the Iconic "VW Beetles" was about to be re-launched recently,the hype created around it was enormous and VW were expected to surpass the nimbus of the vintage classic Beetles. But collapsing all the expectations, Beetles failed to stand up to its older cousin.
Same way, when RGV tried to bring back the glory of "Sholay", the bankruptcy he faced was unprecedented.

Now,why am I throwing these instances? Infact my pot was getting voided all these days without my thought feeds.So thought, why not get back with a thought on an anthem meant for national integration and its atrocious remake. Let me get in now. Here is a one-liner..
"Classics are never meant to be re-made. Leave it the way it is".

When ZOOM & TOI(page-3 cousins)were gurgling about the re-make of the iconic "Mile Sur Mera Tumhara" for past some days, I was very much skeptical around the hype, similar to their disastrous "Aman ki Ashes" campaign too. And as expected, TOI/Zoom turned out to be the "Balaatkaari purush". The new version seems to be raped and molested completely.

I still remember the song that had become as iconic as the National anthem in my kid-days.Aired on Doordarshan every Sunday morning during its golden era, iconic "Mile Sur Mera Tumhara was charming and simple .I had learnt the complete song by heard including each phrase of its entire 14 lingual lyrics. I used to even tell exactly which scene came with which “sur”.

And on Jan 26th, came the calamity. Felt like I had more gray hairs grown after I ceased watching the 16 minute long video.Now, what are the ingredients which has led to this havoc?

1. Almost all Bollywood stars - Feel sorry for the stars who couldn't make it to the list(Saifeena + Hrithik etc..) and to add, they can join Pakistani players in their campaign against "The Great snub".

2. Tolly+Kollywood stars without lip-sync - Sandalwood too snubbed!!:P (Karnataka Rakshana Vedike, where are you??? Time for some mayhem in "Namma Bengalooru":P )

3.Musicians- Rahman on his terrace,Sh-Eh-Loy in some desert, Sivamani in some jungle scaring the wild life, Air India's Amjad Ali Khan Khandan,Yesudas family, Bhupen Hazarika et al.

4. Shobana's jugalbandi with Shiamak- Had Shobana had li'l care for Indian classical dance, she wouldn't have performed an item number with Shiamak.

Now what arrested my vision?

- No big names in sports/science/business/Politics(!!). Reason - pricey to afford? Unavailable? or ignored?

- No big star shared the screen space. Come on, this aint any National integration. At least somebody had to perform together and share some space so that the duration could have been minimized.

- India is not after all about Bollywood/Movies. No sincere efforts were made to showcase our tradition/culture. It seemed, only the designer wear did the talking.

I feel, Doordharshan could do a revival of national integration theme by airing the classic song again and who knows, it could pull off some TRP's back in DD's favor.  ha ha :P:P .

Now on an end note -

In our Engineering days, we had a contest for some fests named "Be-surdas" and as per the name ,we were literally invincible over there(:P).
Now if the older version of "Mile Sur.." was close to Surdas' "Sur", the molested version seems to topple us from the podium too.