SRI'S Blog

I have been looking at social media and people have been posting pictures of ten years and then now – Very interesting outcomes indeed as we look back in to the past and then as of now. No—I am not posting any pictures of then and now but what I what I wanted to pen down was the train journeys of the past and now and how technology ( read mobile phones ) have come to play a big part in the journey that we have in the trains. Back then , before the mobiles came in , it was all about making friendship and chatting and hearing and listening and learning and we understood people more and more and also learnt to be inclusive . Sharing was a must including the food that we carried .. We made lot of “Rail Friends “ and I still have contact with a person from Wadi in Maharashtra – We travelled in the Mumbai Chennai express and both had no confirmed seats and became very good friends and connected at Mumbai where we both worked ( this was in 1990 ) Now , the journey of today is total...

Planning for this had to be done pretty early--  Not an easy task—You had to plan at least four months in advance for you to get a good rates with the travel operator – The first thing that we debated on was to whether to go on our own or to get one of those readymade packages that are offered by various travel operators – The choice became easy once we decided not to go alone as we wanted company/ new friends etc. etc.— Do ensure negotiating an all Rupee rate than a mixed bag of Rupee and Euros – this was something that I found out later as I lost on the Rupee depreciating and ended up paying more for the Euro outflow – best to pay entire money at one go and get the best rate- Then the discussion was on which travel package to go for – This was a very tough one – Each operator has a plethora of packages to offer – just to give you more options and make the decision tough. We were specific about places that we wanted to visit and the time that we would spend – There ar...

Over the last weekend , took a trip down to visit some of the DivyaDesam temples( A  Divya Desam  is one of the 108  Vishnu  temples that are mentioned in the works of the  Alvars  (saints). Of the 108 temples, 105 are in  India , one is in  Nepal , and last two are believed to be outside the Earthly realms ) in and around Sirkazi, a town that is close to 250Kms away from Chennai . There are around 12 temples to visit and we hired a guide who could take us around efficiently and get us darshan . You may ask why a guide but we realized what a good decision it was to hire a guide – Yes, the Google maps will guide us to all these temples but they would not help us with the timings that the temple opening and closing . Most of the 12 temples are private and so the priests choose based on that day , the time they wanted to open and close and sometimes they are open for short periods of time . The guide that we had,  not only knew the terra...

One more trip with families –  Five of them this time and with age group starting from Eight years to 77 ! and the visit was to  temples closer to the Mangalore belt. Planning had to be done well in advance for it was the ‘Season “ . I will not dwell in to the temples and their importance – You could easily get details of the temples from “Google Swami” . But I thought of penning down few things that really made the trip , a memorable one— Tickets If I said the  guy  ( one amongst us) who booked the tickets went bonkers  , it would have been an understatement . We wanted to leave on 23 rd evening . So, tickets were booked but we ended up with  Wait listed tickets for 14 of us . Railway Pundits after lot of algorithms  and backend work , concluded  and advised us that we had no chance of getting tickets confirmed . May be three or four of the fourteen will get confirmed but not all was the verdict. So , we had to do Plan B. To our plea...

One holiday company screamed out a banner that laid down 14 instances during the year 2015 , where you could use the holidays with weekends to get away and wanted you to plan in advance . Very impressive – What more can you want – You do not need to take vacations but can still do your holidays. But beware – Looking at my recent experience over the long weekends , I would not plan any holidays during the long week end opportunities. Instead , would take a holiday and go for vacations.  Here are my reasons  : Having done four  around trips using NH 45 and NH 205 during the last six weeks’ time frame , I can tell that I no longer enjoy the drive – Just one reason – traffic --  nearly bumper to bumper  and the traffic eases off only past Tindivanam or Vellore ( that is like 100 Kms away from Chennai ) – In the past these drives  were nice-- I just loved driving on the NH 45—with road getting laid till Dindigul , it was a pleasure to ride these roads....

I went driving to Thekkaddy on vacation last week. It was not a direct drive to Thekkady but went through Karaikudi to visit few temples , then cut across Madurai , to Theni and then to Kumily. What was interesting and amazing was how good the roads are. They are getting better all the time. Just not the highways but also the state roads that pass through small towns and villages. It was a pleasure to drive through without the normal bumps and potholes and getting frustrated having to slow down. The best part of the drive was the drive from Madurai to Theni. One cannot find a better route to enjoy nature – just greenish on either side of the road and with misty mountains guarding the fields on either side. This sector was the slowest in my drive – just enjoyed Mother Nature. Some snippets listed below from the trip that are totally unrelated but worth penning down for a read. Saradha Asharam – This lovely sprawling Campus of the ashram is situated on NH 45 close to Ullundurpet jus...

Over the last weekend , I visited Trichy to go to few temples. I drove in from Chennai starting Mid-day and after a comfortable drive reached Trichy in time to go to the Lovely Srirangam temple. Having driven from Chennai , I did not want to drive from the Central Bus Stand where we were staying to Srirangam which is a 10 Km drive and it would have to be through the narrow roads and some traffic. My wife and I stepped out looking for a three wheeler but there was a private bus ready to go to Srirangam. We hopped in . The bus was not crowded but we could not find seats to sit. We were told it will be a 25 minute journey. There was no time pressure and so it was fine. I noticed that the private bus has two conductors—one to issue tickets in the front aisle and the other at the back. I also noticed that people did not step up to buy the tickets. ( I did step and buy )The conductors has to ask each of the seated passengers to buy the ticket. One person asked for a “Three rupee ticket”. He ...