* This post was written two days back when I was in Hyderabad. Now back in Bombay.
Date: 28th Jan’06
Another post after another long break but this was a pretty justified break. During December and January, I practically lived in a suitcase. It all started with an official visit to Chennai which lasted for 9 days and ended on 15th Dec. After that I was on leave and visited Delhi, Gwalior and Indore for 2, 6 and 3 days respectively and now writing this post from Hyderabad where I am stuck since 14th Jan! I hope to touch Bombay this Tuesday or Wednesday. All in all, these were interesting two months, which saw me visiting 6 cities and even touching three metros in a single day!
Let me add that although I love traveling and seeing various places, these visits were nowhere near the fun I had with Anurag during all those bike trips! Anurag will be back from Saudi Arabia sometime in March and he has already conveyed his crazy idea of traveling to Pushkar on bike from Bombay, a journey of 2200 Kms to and fro. I know I will be dragged too!
Chennai was an interesting city. My hotel was very close to Marina Beach. Yeah, the same beach where deadly Tsunami struck. The language problem grabbed me as soon as I landed there. Most of the guys understood English but not the Taxi and autowalas and although I knew a few words in Tamil, they were more of “ Naan Unnai kadalikerein “ (I love you) and “ Nee rumba aragha iraka” (You are very beautiful) kinds which I could not use with Autowalas for obvious reasons. If any one is planning to visit Chennai in near future, beware of these autowalas. They are ever ready to charge you an astronomical sum for any diatance greater than 10 meters and they don’t even hesitate to ask you more than the agreed sum as soon as you get down from their aero plane. I had this experience with atleast 4 of them and atleast two of them ended up abusing me for not succumbing to their demand, which I didn’t mind because the language was all Tamil stuff! But it was a different story altogether at my workplace where I met a number of genuinely helpful guys. I didn’t get much time to explore Chennai but I did enjoy my stroll on Marina beach on a lazy Sunday where I managed to click a few snaps too. So, for sight seeing and other stuff, Chennai will have to wait. Till then, it will remain a metro for me just because it was a part of “Chaar mahanagron ka taapmaan” at the end of news on doordarshan when I used to watch it.
And finally I bought “Maximum City” by Suketu Mehta, suggested by RS in one of her comments on this blog ages ago. Bought it after paying a ‘phenomenal’ sum of 600 bucks. ‘Phenomenal’ cause this afternoon I received an SMS from my dear friend Abhay that he got the same book in 200 bucks from the streets of Bombay! (Of course the pirated version) Some people have strange ways of making you feel idiotic and jealous! I just hope his is not a hardbound version!
Cheers…
Date: 28th Jan’06
Another post after another long break but this was a pretty justified break. During December and January, I practically lived in a suitcase. It all started with an official visit to Chennai which lasted for 9 days and ended on 15th Dec. After that I was on leave and visited Delhi, Gwalior and Indore for 2, 6 and 3 days respectively and now writing this post from Hyderabad where I am stuck since 14th Jan! I hope to touch Bombay this Tuesday or Wednesday. All in all, these were interesting two months, which saw me visiting 6 cities and even touching three metros in a single day!
Let me add that although I love traveling and seeing various places, these visits were nowhere near the fun I had with Anurag during all those bike trips! Anurag will be back from Saudi Arabia sometime in March and he has already conveyed his crazy idea of traveling to Pushkar on bike from Bombay, a journey of 2200 Kms to and fro. I know I will be dragged too!
Chennai was an interesting city. My hotel was very close to Marina Beach. Yeah, the same beach where deadly Tsunami struck. The language problem grabbed me as soon as I landed there. Most of the guys understood English but not the Taxi and autowalas and although I knew a few words in Tamil, they were more of “ Naan Unnai kadalikerein “ (I love you) and “ Nee rumba aragha iraka” (You are very beautiful) kinds which I could not use with Autowalas for obvious reasons. If any one is planning to visit Chennai in near future, beware of these autowalas. They are ever ready to charge you an astronomical sum for any diatance greater than 10 meters and they don’t even hesitate to ask you more than the agreed sum as soon as you get down from their aero plane. I had this experience with atleast 4 of them and atleast two of them ended up abusing me for not succumbing to their demand, which I didn’t mind because the language was all Tamil stuff! But it was a different story altogether at my workplace where I met a number of genuinely helpful guys. I didn’t get much time to explore Chennai but I did enjoy my stroll on Marina beach on a lazy Sunday where I managed to click a few snaps too. So, for sight seeing and other stuff, Chennai will have to wait. Till then, it will remain a metro for me just because it was a part of “Chaar mahanagron ka taapmaan” at the end of news on doordarshan when I used to watch it.
And finally I bought “Maximum City” by Suketu Mehta, suggested by RS in one of her comments on this blog ages ago. Bought it after paying a ‘phenomenal’ sum of 600 bucks. ‘Phenomenal’ cause this afternoon I received an SMS from my dear friend Abhay that he got the same book in 200 bucks from the streets of Bombay! (Of course the pirated version) Some people have strange ways of making you feel idiotic and jealous! I just hope his is not a hardbound version!
Cheers…
