Road to Dehradun II

Here I'm... back after a short nap!!! The second part of my trip follows...
The first of the two nights in the train towards the Capital of the World's largest democracy went well. As the train was in the neighboring state, we didn't feel the "Cold". We were in II sleeper and very near to the rest room. So Venkatesh and Sachin had no problems in smoking near the rest room. One will guard the other from the railway guards on smoking occasions, failing which they would have been penalized. The food hunt of Sachin started in the early morning with a tea followed by Idly-Vada. Being ready to miss them for a fortnight, I ate well. I got my Mein Kampf with me. Though it served the purpose fully only when I was traveling from Delhi to Jodhpur and back, I read it for a while. After reading the preface and a few pages about the early life from the "so-called dictator" Hitler's auto-biography, I realized that the book is not just for a travel time-pass. We had everything that passed by our cabin, needless to mention - only food stuffs.
When I was young, I used to think about the Northies as rich and royal citizens. I dreamed of people there as Kings and Queens. My ignorance rose to its peak when I imagined north as a heaven having no huts and only palaces and forts. These are due to the true fact that I had never been to north and I know only Taj Mahal and few other forts there. My dream castle began to collapse as the train slowly entered into the northern India. I saw beggars everywhere, it is common in India though. They come in the moving train and ask for money and food.
It was bitter cold as it was winter. Venkatesh, a Southie wanted to enjoy(!!) winter as he too was on his first visit to northern part. He, the Superman (as named by Sachin and me during this trip) wanted to travel in the train without winter wear and whenever asked said he was enjoying the cold and was very comfortable. As he was saying the word "comfortable" we witnessed the word being type-written by his teeth. Sachin and I burst into laughter and will never forget this incident. At last we reached Delhi after a tiring one day and two nights train journey, my longest train journey ever till now. In Delhi, Anjana's brother and sister-in-law came to receive us with breakfast. I was so hungry that I didn't even get introduced to them as my only concentration was on the breakfast. The breakfast didn't disappoint me and was indeed good.
We reached Dehradun in the evening by around eight after a six hours journey in a bus from Delhi. I never experienced such a cold weather in my life till that time. Dehradun, being a valley surrounded by hills, the temperature was slightly above zero degree C. We heard Venkatesh saying "I feel a bit cold". Again everyone burst into laughter.
We reached our accommodation by an auto carrying all of us with our luggage. It was a good hotel where Sachin and I / Venkatesh and Abu / Anjana and Jeyasudha shared rooms. Abu, carrying a camera with him, took snaps of everyone. These snaps will make each of us cherish those beautiful moments we spent whenever we come across them. In fact while I was writing this blog I was searching for that folder in my laptop to see them once :)
My next blog will be on my stay in Sachin's home for two days before I left for Jodhpur. I'll try to post it as soon as possible.

Castle - I

On a sunny day, I was witnessing a boy and a girl in their early teens playing on the silent sea-shore. They seemed to be blessed and vivacious. They were trying hard to build a castle in sand near the shore. They planned as if the castle was their own and was about to be the eight wonder. The castle was built with doorways, obesliscal towers, moats, even aisles and railings.

After an uphill battle for an hour, they succeeded in their mission. They were very happy on seeing their own castle built in sand though. They were in their Cloud Nine. The accomplishment lasted for meager time until the tides washed away their castle leaving behind the heaps of wet sand.

I expected the children to burst into tears, devastated by what had happened to all their hard work. But they surprised me.



They ran up the shore away from the water, laughing and holding hands, and sat down to build another one. I realized that they had taught me an important lesson.


Everything in our lives, all the complicated structures we created spending so much time and energy are merely like sand castles. They will be knocked down by huge tidal waves at any instant. Only our relationships endure. Only those who have somebody's hand to hold will be able to laugh and start the work building from the scratch.

PS : Can you guess who the Chaps are in the last photograph?
Clue : The great Olympians of 1936 Olympics (commonly known as Hitler's Olympics) at Berlin.

Road to Dehradun - I

Dehradun, a beautiful valley located at the foot of the Great Himalayas in the Northern India. I had been there from Chennai, almost the other end of India, the past December. I was accompanied by a few of my friends doing their Masters with me. Though the trip was quite official, it turned out to be a memorable one. In total, there were two girls (Anjana & Jeyasaudha) and four guys (Me, Sachin, Abu & Venkatesh). The trip had a messy start due to the "most responsible" Sachin. He was supposed to make a poster for his presentation at Doon. But till the morning of December 9, the day we had to leave for NewDelhi by TamilNadu express at 22hrs, me & Sachin were very busy in preparing his poster. Everytime after it was done, he would rush to his Supervisors (unfortunately he had two Supervisors) and both of them were making corrections all the time in his poster. Finally, we landed up with the poster which was certainly not the one we started with. It was around 11hrs, we left for Mount road to print the poster, the busiest road in Chennai.

We found a poster printing shop but the guys were out for Namaaz. We were asked to come in 30 minutes. At that point of time, half-an-hour seemed to be a hell lot of time. So we went out in search of other shops. We walked, walked and walked... landed up in shops but ended up in vain. At last back to pavillion...to the first shop after an hour (though we thought 30 minutes was a lot more time to wait) and gave the stuff that we had taken in USB drive for printing. The printing took hardly another 45 minutes. Meanwhile, we went to a hotel near by and had some snacks though having quit the lunch. I got a call from Jeyasudha and Abu saying that two call taxis were booked to pick us up by 1830hrs from our hostels. Sachin grew angry as he had to pack up things still. We collected the printed poster and rushed to the campus in auto as it started drizzling. On the way, Sachin called Venkatesh, who booked the taxis without his & my permission, on his mobile and asked him to cancel one of the booked taxis and to let us come on our own.

Reached the department by 1630hrs and Sachin rushed to his supervisors to show them the poster (hopefully with no more corrections). He came back to the lab with their positive feedback. As soon as he entered the lab, Abu became a scape goat for us. We started asking him as to how can they book a taxi without our consult, though he claimed he was unaware. Venkatesh came to us and said he cancelled a taxi. But he along with Anjana, Jeyasudha and Abu would go in one. Now Sachin and myself started bugging Abu to come with us. He said he would. Sachin left for his room to pack things and promised me to come to my room by 1900hrs. suddenly I got a call from Abu by around 1730hrs saying that he booked a taxi for himself and would reach the station directly. He didn't want to go with either of the teams. It seemed to be ridiculous at that time. I didn't want to sit on his nerves anymore.

I called Abu by around 1830hrs to confirm his position. By then he had turned cool. He agreed to come with us in our taxi. So I cancelled his booked taxi and asked him to come to my room. He and Sachin came to my room by 1900hrs and we started our journey to NewDelhi, my first time journey to North India... my first time very long distant journey in train(ofcourse the one I like the most in all modes of travel). I was also scared inside for one thing... that was for my favourite South Indian idly and sambar... which I would certainly not get for the next 20 days. Still I was dare enough to face North India for the first time especially to face Jodhpur all alone.

When the train started with a jerk, we were over joyous. We were thinking about our journey being started with a jerk. We occupied almost three quarters of that cabin leaving the two side berths for others. Sachin started his work.... calling and buying anything and everything that passed-by our cabin, needless to mention food stuffs. Though blamed, he never stopped buying and never paid too. In fact everyone of us enjoyed eating all those one day & two nights journey but neither stopped blaming Sachin nor eating. The first night(well...its the first of the two nights journey) went peacefully as we didn't cross Andhra border. Let me explain the reason for the previous statement in my forthcoming parts.