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#

BANGALORE-a new show stopper.!

In the midst of all the election melodrama and news feeding in from all our ailing traumatic neighbors , "Namma Bengalooru" too dealt with its own share of limelight from none other than President Obama himself!

Obama's address did Brand Bangalore great deal of justice when he opted to equate Bangalore in India and Buffalo in NY. Brand Bangalore, which until the previous dawn was possibly known to just a billion-plus people,today is known to a billion more than that. Probably Search engines like Google found it rather knotty to manage the influx of the keyword "Bangalore" and the searches may have touched new acmes already!:P Bangalore on the other hand has altered on a day-by-day basis.From being a lazy,laid down city for the retirees and old-age elites where everything died down after the twilight, everything now seems to awake everybody out there as the sun dawns in the US.

Bangalore today pockets a big chunk of the overall IT grocery and IT services exports revenue.A huge clump of the most tech-savvy men in India and a whole bunch of intellects make their living here.Recession,meltdown or boom, Bangalore is just taking colossal leaps in full throttle. A summer is by our sight where our ear drums will be filled with metaphors like "Bangalore of the West" ," Bangalore of Europe", etcetera ;) From a brand standpoint,what Obama has helped for Brand Bangalore is a great piece of marketing,publicizing and selling, all amalgamated in a single cloth! Thank you Mr President.

Fun aside,Does Obama's address meant every company that drove out from the US in the name of outsourcing and grace to India and elsewhere were just willful tax-evaders? Nothing else, no other purpose? What does his speech meant for all the BPO workers worldwide? That's a long debate which moves on with a clock. Best left for another occasion...