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Travels Mine

The superfluous, that very necessary thing...... The
secret of being a bore, is to say everything... (Voltaire....from Vikram Seth,
in 'A suitable boy') These are a few of my ultra-long travelogs! So if you are a
travel-buff, travelog writer or just love to read, do read through and post your
comments!

Monday, June 23, 2008

Yatra
with a difference

It was six years ago that I had first heard of Shodh
Yatra and Professor Anil Gupta when my father had gone to Alwar, Rajasthan to
attend the Shodh Yatra (SY) in the December of 2001. But it was much later when
Prof. Gupta had spent a couple of hours at home that I started to appreciate him
as a person. It was an article in Reader's Digest's November 2007 issue about
Jammu's SY that triggered my desire to attend it this time. I got in touch with
Anil uncle and he encouraged me to join especially because the SY was to be held
in Andhra Pradesh this time! I got in touch with Brigadier Ganesham,
co-ordinator of Honey Bee, Andhra Pradesh and got the itinerary. The yatra
between 2 and 8 June 2008 would cover around 30 villages where 50 or more
participants were expected to walk around 100 kms together with minimal phone
and no internet connectivity. After I booked my tickets, mummy decided to join
me and luckily got the tickets as well!

Before I describe the journey itself, I would like to give a bird's
eye-view regarding the organizations involved and their activities. Quoting from
http://www.sristi.org/
'SRISTI (Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and
Institutions) is a non-governmental organisation setup to strengthen the
creativity of grassroots inventors, innovators and ecopreneurs engaged in
conserving biodiversity and developing eco-friendly solutions to local
problems.' SRISTI supports the Honey Bee network that is aptly named after
nature's most organised engineers. The philosophy is that Honey Bees collect
pollen from flowers and help disseminate it to propagate various plant species.
Similarly, the Honey Bee network helps in networking of people to aid the
sharing of knowledge, and using it in a manner that benefits the innovators and
gives them due credit. SRISTI is also partnered by NIF (National Innovation
Foundation) and GIAN (Grassroots Innovations Augmentation Network). Shodh Yatra
that means an 'exploratory journey' is a concept that is inherent to their
cause. This communal walk is defined by the organization as 'a journey for the
search of knowledge, creativity and innovations at grassroots' and is organized
in different parts of India two or three times in a year. There is so much more
to the organizations and the Yatra itself that I would refer the reader to the
websites and continue with
my first hand experience of the Shodh Yatra itself!

The beginning

Equipped with enough clothes, shoes and all kinds of conveniences
including sleeping bags we started off on 31 June for Vishakhapatnam. We spent a
few hours with our relatives there and coordinated with Brigadier Ganesham and
Dr. Nitin from NIF to reach the bus stand where we met some of the other Shodh
Yatris. They included Mr. Alag Natrajan, a businessman who returned from London
recently and is now settled in Delhi; Dr. Kameswari, Associate Professor in
Communications from G.B. Pant University, Pantnagar; Mr. Ramakrishna, a software
engineer from Bangalore; and Mr. Gautam Singhe, the only Veteran Shodh Yatri
amongst us from Vellore who promotes organic products. Together we left for Araku Valley in a bus and then took a jeep
from there to reach Borra Village, our first halt for the SY. We seemed to be
the only Yatris that had reached. While we waited for others to arrive, I hit a
stone and cut my toe. We hadn't even started the walk and I had already scored
my first hit! Gautam uncle gave me some organic haldi that I mixed in some water
and covered the wound with a band aid. Unbelievably I was completely fine the
next day and had no inkling of pain! Soon Brig. Ganesham arrived and I was so
glad to meet him after having spoken to him so often on phone. An extremely
likeable person, he used to make every effort to talk to each and every Shodh
Yatri and make us all comfortable. We also met Vinit and Uday who had come from
USA for the SY. While Vinit is thinking of returning to India and is staying
here to look for options to work for rural development, Uday is also very
interested in the cause and had come from USA on Vinit's suggestion. A
television crew including Phillip Brachet and Elsa Kleinsch Mager from a
Franco-German channel had come along with their equipment too. They left soon
for the hotel at Araku to spend the night. While we were settling down at the
school compound waiting for dinner to get ready, we got to know each other and
had some discussions regarding a host of issues like current agricultural
practices, government policies, innovators etc. We also met volunteers from the
local NGO named Samata whose members were actively involved with Honey Bee
volunteers in pre-SY activities.

Samata activists narrated their story to
us that shocked and inspired us at the same time. Araku valley is part of the Eastern Ghats inhabited by tribal
people, well known for its biodiversity and Borra caves that make it a major
tourist attraction of Andhra Pradesh. This is what most of us know of it. What
we don't know about it is that the tribal population in the area is threatened
by various forces that include huge mining corporations and the government that
abets them. Samata's story starts with how a few friends stumbled upon the issue
of mining of bauxite, mica and other minerals while visiting Borra Caves. The
local people had no say because they did not have papers that proved that the
land rightfully belonged to them. Land that they had inherited from their
ancestors and implicitly called their own was now being exploited for commercial
use. Samata's challenge in the initial years was just bailing out their workers
who were put in jail in the pretext that they were naxalites. After ten years of
relentless struggle the Supreme Court passed a landmark judgment called 'Samata
judgement' that stopped all mining by non-tribals in tribal areas and directed
the authorities to divide pattas of tribal lands. The fifth schedule in
the constitution was highlighted that deems illegal the transfer of immovable
property to a non-tribal. But this schedule is now under threat from the
corporate industry that has filed another petition in the Supreme Court. Samata
however continues to fight with its slogan 'Health of the hills is wealth of the
plains'. After this heavy dose of inspiration, we were ready for dinner when it
started to pour. It was still drizzling when I walked to the toilet nearby and
shone my light at an object near the steps leading to it. That thin rope turned
out to be a snake that caused me to turn right back to where I came from and
just go to sleep!

The first day

On 2 June, we gathered at
the meeting place after breakfast and while we waited for Prof. Gupta and the
teams from Gujarat and West Bengal to arrive, we spoke to Mr. Ram Murthy from
Bhimavaram who has invented a gas plant for home use that uses kitchen trash. I
then met Vivek, who was sitting amidst a herbarium and interviewing a herbal
healer from the Borra Village with the help of interpreters.Vivek holds a PhD in tribal medicine and works for NIF. As days
went by I came to know him as the guy who was constantly taking pictures, making
presentations and interviewing herbal healers while helping to organize the
whole SY. I also met Jayendra, the ever-smiling and helpful volunteer from
SRISTI. Jayendra and Vivek used to keep score of the number of times I used to
trip while walking everyday! I also met Jaydeep, an enthusiastic, young B.Tech
graduate from Kolkata who had organized the last Shodh Yatra in West Bengal. The
groups arrived by buses and Koel was the first person I met amongst them. She is
Jaydeep's classmate and this was her second SY. An amazing singer, she can talk
about things ranging from business promotion of innovations to family matters
for hours. Prof. Gupta, a celebrity in his own right came to the meeting
escorted by the Brigadier and surrounded by Shodh Yatris at every
step.

Not many villagers could turn up for the meeting because the
farmers were taking advantage of rain from the previous night to till their
lands. Samata volunteers spoke passionately about their work that was translated
in English for the benefit of those that didn't understand Telugu.Appala Naidu, the herbal healer/innovator who was interviewed by
Vivek before the meeting was felicitated with a certificate and a shawl.
Prof. Gupta said that Appala Naidu is a walking and talking
library and his knowledge should pass on to the next generation. He asked
teachers at the local school to make him and other such knowledgeable old people
to speak to the children there and learn about plants that have healing
properties, the soils, food items, and all the traditional knowledge that only
elders can teach us. A 'knowledge register' was also given to the 'Sarpanch' to
be filled with this kind of age old wisdom. Knowledge or 'jaankari' he said was
as important as 'jungle, jaanwar aur jameen', the three Js in rural life.This
knowledge needs to be saved, and also disseminated if proven effective after
experimentation. This he stressed would be done only after an informed consent was
taken from those sharing their wisdom. We started the walk after the meeting
ended and reached Sisuguda by early noon. Accompanying us was the truck and a
Tata Sumo with our luggage, utensils and materials required for cooking, a
generator, pamphlets and newsletters etc.A winding road took us to the village
where we honored a 90 year old woman Saraschampa who lives with her husband and
unbelievably has a lot of black hair.We couldn't meet her husband, so we spoke to the neighbours who
told us that some of them take care of the old couple's needs. This 'daadi' was
quite overwhelmed seeing a whole troop of us around her and did not speak much
owing to some amount of hearing impairment as well. I later asked Prof. Gupta
the purpose of honoring old people and he told me that this was a way of showing
our respect and reverence to the knowledge that they have had and shared for
over almost a century. He added that unfortunately our society is not friendly
to old people and that we exploit this in a way by honoring them so that respect
for them amongst youngsters increases. We had walked almost 5 kms by then and
mummy took a ride in one of the cars for the some of the way.

We had
lunch at en route to Mulyaguda where mummy and I were first introduced to the
Gujarati farmer bhais including Kiran Bhai and Gemal Bhai. We were to meet
others and get to know them better later. I also met Arun at lunch time, a
loquacious person who wouldn't talk anything serious when he didn't feel like it
even if he was paid for talking. Arun is into hospitality management with
expertise in food catering and technologies. This is his second SY and by then
it was apparent to me that there was a nice group of youngsters that knew each
other from previous SYs and are working together for bringing innovations into
the market. One of them who I couldn't speak to the previous day was Prakash, a
software professional from Chennai with the best SLR digital camera in the
group. At the lunch halt, we also saw a new type of grinder or 'chakki'.This one was made of two very light-weight wooden, cylindrical
structures placed on top of each other interconnected with a wooden handle. The
lower one was placed in a slanted manner and water was sprinkled on it
intermittently to aid the separation of grain from husk. I then helped Vivek to
interview a herbal healer who walked with us to the next stop Mulyaguda where
the meeting was supposed to take place. Unfortunately not many villagers turned
up here either, so after we felicitated him, we moved to our last halt of
Medaparthi.It was a lot of fun walking with and getting to know so many
different people. Arun turned out to be the 'short-cut' guy who was always
looking for short cuts and while a lot of us usually followed him, he was the
only one that got teased about it!

We had walked 12 kms on that first day
and it was a relief to reach Medaparthi where our first sight was a bunch of
kids looking at us inquisitively and giggling amongst themselves. Mummy switched to her child gear and made them repeat some Hindi
rhymes that they heartily enjoyed and then even obliged us all with some songs
of their own. Most of us settled down after freshening up in a nearby stream,
had our dinner and then moved to attend the village meeting.The nursery rhymes
were on yet again while the LCD projector was being prepared for showing the
videos to villagers. The meeting took place amidst flies and insects of all
shapes and sizes that were attracted to the bulbs we had lighted around. Video
clippings of innovations documented over the years were shown to the villagers
and for us first timer Shodh Yatris also it was a novel experience. The clippings were divided into those involving various innovations
using a cycle, those meant for persons with physical handicap, farming related
innovations and a host of other categories. There are some videos that have been
made with by the Discovery channel such as 'Coconut climber' whose innovator
from Kerala is locally called spiderman, an amphibious cycle that runs on both
land and water, a washing machine that runs using a cycle and has been invented
by a young girl from Kerala, a (bio) pesticide sprayer that runs on a foot
device attached to footwear, and many others. These videos are good fun to watch
because of their peppy music background and an appropriate end where the
innovator says 'My technology'!! The beauty also lies in their simplicity and
the fact that education is no barrier to an innovative idea. Honey Bee's stand
is that an 'idea' is important enough to become an 'innovation' that can then be
brought to the market after significant 'investment' is done on it. For this
purpose the villagers are offered complete support from the network. It was also
stressed that raw products need to be enhanced in their value and then sold in a
manner that ensures the gains to reach persons from whom the knowledge has been
taken. Other than the video show, we also had a recipe competition in
which four women participated. These competitions are held to encourage
traditional recipes that are high in nutritional value and made from locally
available items. We also felicitated a herbal healer, a jolly old man who sang a
lot of Hindi songs that made Prof. Gupta comment that 'Dada ka dil ab bhi jawan
hai'!! Some of us retired that night in a hall while most of the others slept
outside or in the houses. We were six ladies by this time in the group of around
55 including Kameswari, Koel, Kolifta, a young girl from Kolkata and Sulekha, a
Malayali settled in Gujarat. I would later be amazed at the fact that this 25
year old has almost single handedly started an NGO called 'Arzoo' for kids from
riot-affected families near Ahmedabad. She also works with SRISTI and has been
involved with the organization for some time now.

A journey of
lessons

The next day was we registered for the Yatra
with a payment of Rs. 1200/- and got a mild reprimand from Prof. Gupta about our
involvement and enthusiasm. He told us that by the evening that day we had to
report three observations: intriguing, interesting and inspiring!! Mid way
during the walk, we were having a little discussion when I asked Prof. Gupta the purpose of our walk and I joked that the walk itself took
all our interest and intrigue away! He told all of us that walking bridges the
gap between our genuineness and the authenticity of our actions. If we didn't
walk we would not be respected as much as if we came to the villages by some
other means of transport. He then told us a story of Gautam Buddha's disciple
who went to him and asked for 'gyan'! Buddha asked him to come after a few days.
The disciple went once again and was told the same thing the second time too.
After many visits, the disciple finally lost his patience and complained to
Buddha asking him why he was giving 'gyan' to everyone else except him. Buddha
then asked him to get a glass of water, and after he had brought one, Buddha
told him to get another. He then asked the disciple to pour water from one glass
into the next. The disciple was shocked and he asked Buddha how he could fill a
filled glass! Buddha then told him 'You are like this filled glass, how can I
fill a filled mind? You must empty your mind before you come to me'. Prof. Gupta
then told us that the walk is also a means of emptying ourselves of our ego, the
responsibilities and memories that we have accumulated over time.

We
continued our walk and reached Peddabayalu where we interviewed some families
with a lot of enthusiasm. Those that did not know Telugu tagged along with those
of us that did and then we gathered under a nearby tree for the meeting with
villagers. Prof. Gupta spoke to the villagers about saving their knowledge and
making sure it gets transferred to the next generation. He questioned them about
the varieties of grain that have been lost over the years and told them that it
is our responsibility as an older generation to save such knowledge, and to do
so, we need to create a 'knowledge checkdam' or 'gyan ka baandh'. We were about
to leave when someone discovered an innovative 'chulha' devised by a woman named
'Jyoti'. The chulha had a rack on top of it fixed to the wall on one side and
suspended with two strings on the other. Designed in a very-user friendly way,
the rack is used to dry grains using the available steam/smoke before threshing.
We felicitated her and then moved to the next village. On the way, Kameswari and
I were walking with Prof. Gupta when he asked what we were experiencing through
'voluntary suffering' that we had undertaken in the form of SY. We told him that
the Yatra was teaching us about living in difficult, constrained conditions and
we were surprising ourselves by discovering our physical abilities. He added
saying that it also teaches us how meaningless and unimportant everything else
seems to be. When I asked him if he was asking about the so-called material
things, he countered that even non-material things seem meaningless. For
example, we are able live for a week away from people we thought we couldn't
live without! He added that this voluntary suffering was not uncommon, and that
it was practiced in the form of self-flagellation during Moharram, certain
pilgrimages and rituals such as fasts are also a form of the same.

All the way for another two days Phillip and Elsa were with us
shooting our various activities. On the way to the next village, they took a
short walk-the-talk video of Prof. Gupta. This was being recorded by Elsa who
had balanced the camera on her right shoulder while walking backwards and
uphill! Interestingly, Phillip asked the question 'But excuse me, you guys look
like pilgrims!' All of us laughed at the question and Prof. Gupta said that in a
way we are pilgrims to the temples of knowledge that reside at grassroots. I
don't think I can write exactly what he said, but he answered so beautifully
that I was getting more and more awed at the command he has over both Hindi and
English. Another thing that fascinated me was the way he spoke at village
meetings in Hindi. Undeterred by the language barrier, he would speak to the
crowd in Hindi with so much passion, as though they understood every word of
what he was saying. Brigadier Ganesham and if required, Chitti Babu who was our
local facilitator would then translate to the whole crowd.

We reached the next village Pulusumamidi, had our lunch and the
meeting was started with a biodiversity competition amongst the kids. The kids
were asked to bring 5 types of leaves each with their names and uses. To our
surprise, the 'young' Shodh Yatris were also asked to participate. While we
struggled to find even five leaves whose names we knew (forget their uses), the
little ones surpassed us all with the variety of leaves that they brought and
the amount they knew. Prizes were given to those kids that knew more about the
plants they had brought and we city dwellers were taught a lesson!

New
friends, new experiences

We were all slowly getting to know each other in the Yatra and the
ice was breaking. Kameswari and I would generally end up walking together, but
we would each also walk with others. Mr. Alag sometimes joined us, but he
usually walked ahead despite the blisters that he had all over on the soles of
his feet. Gautam uncle named 'Annapurna' by us always had with him chocolates
made of jaggery and coconut to distribute to children on the way, and a host of
other things like groundnuts, ginger-lemon squash and lots of lemons. He always
filled water on the way after straining it and then squeezed a lemon in it, so
as to avoid getting sick by drinking contaminated water. He said this was
something he learnt on a previous SY from a Swamiji.  On the
way to the next village Valasi, I walked with Kiran Bhai and Ram Bhai. While
Kiran Bhai is a retired Government professional and now works for social causes,
Ram Bhai is a teacher and works in a school for the deaf these days. He told me
(in English) that he did not have any formal training in English and I thought
he sounded very cute speaking in his own brand of the language. Always trying to
make others laugh, he is also a self-trained and skilled acupressure therapist!
Kiran Bhai, nicknamed 'heavy weight champion' by us, was the skinniest of the
lot. When I asked him why he wasn't having any breakfast, he told me that he
used to suffer from illnesses until he started following certain food habits
some years ago. The book he read explained that food can be the cause of
diseases and that one needs to follow a routine based on the five elements of
nature. The omnipresent aakaash needs to be taken first, so one should
not eat anything from morning until noon. At lunch time, vaayu and
agni that are represented by green leafy vegetables and fruits
respectively need to be consumed. Cooking is done only once a day i.e.
during dinner when items made from grains (prithvi) and vegetables
(jal) can be taken. Quite fascinated, I asked him how one could really
subsist this way, and he explained that energy is only wasted in digesting the
food that we take rather than getting the food to help us the appropriate way.
Reflecting on that conversation, I find it amazing how much one can learn from
so-called strangers and how easy it can be to remain in your own world and miss
out on so much.

We reached Valasi at around 6 pm and it was already
getting dark when the villagers started gathering for the meeting. Some of them
were asked to sing when a group of girls sang some Christian songs followed by a
boy named Konda Babu who sang a Telugu song about the importance of Science and
technology in our daily lives. We realized that was a village of singers when another boy sang a
song about the paradox in society. About how the very education and technology
can even ruin us. Both songs were beautifully composed by one of the teachers in
the villages whom we could not meet unfortunately. This village I noticed was by
far the most prosperous of the ones we had visited so far evident by the
relatively big, concrete houses and the amount of education the children seemed
to have. An idea competition was held for the kids and it took a while for them
to get the courage to come out with ideas to make things that no one has ever
made before. They were then showed some NIF videos, and the programme was ended
by giving away prizes and felicitating the local herbal healer. It was pretty
dark by the time we started for our last halt Rallavalasa that was 3 km away.
Although we were quite tired by this time, it was a beautiful walk amidst hills
that were lit by thousands of fireflies around us. We were quite exhausted, so
after dinner and a short village meeting that included a recipe competition and
felicitation of their local herbal healer, we prepared to sleep. We had an even
smaller room than the previous night to our use this time. While we spent a
stuffy night inside, most of the men slept outside in the cold. This was
probably the only night I didn't sleep well and kept trying to find the insects
that were making noises around me!

We got ready, packed our bags and
while we were having breakfast, a man wielding a stick suddenly started
screaming at us! He told us that there is only one stop in life, i.e. to go to
God, and that we had no right to stop in their village, on their land, near
their trees, and their hills. Taking him to be a drunk initially, Prof. Gupta
and the Brigadier gestured him to remain quiet, but it soon became apparent that
he was probably mentally disturbed. We came to know later that he was an active
member of Samata in his more so-called lucid days. We continued with our
meeting, tended to our blisters and had an idea competition amongst ourselves.
Prof. Gupta had asked us each to come out with three ideas: something that had
never been heard of, one to enhance the usage of an existing item, and another
to modify an existing idea. After one person started, ideas started tinkling in
all our heads. I went with two ideas and by the time I finished the first one, I
forgot the second. Because I asked the next person to continue and went aside to
remember the second one, I was teased everyday henceforth by Arun who claimed
that I had had something to drink that had made me remember!

A
'trekky' experience

This was the third day of our SY and supposed to
be one of the toughest because it involved going on a trek to two villages, the
last one situated at around 1000ft above sea level.
Since the car couldn't have gone with us, Mummy, some of the other
yatris, the volunteers and cooks came in the car and truck that would take a
longer route to reach the last village. The Brigadier advised us to consider the
mountains our friends and enjoy the bountiful nature including greenery, flowers
and waterfalls on the way! We were also asked by him to follow the buddy system
and be responsible for our buddies during the trek. I walked all the way with my
buddy Ishfaq, a quiet and reserved guy who speaks only when spoken to. He is an
innovator trying to make an accident-free vehicle! Phillip and Elsa also joined
us during the trek and with the help of some hired help; they hauled their
equipment all the way to the top. During a breather when all of us had gathered
under a tree, some of us spoke about why we had come for the SY. I was touched
by Mr. Alag's candid speech and am writing this story with his permission. Mr. Alag or Alagarathnam had only one dream when he was young, that
was to become a millionaire. Without having any illusions about his goal, he
illegally immigrated to Britain when he was 24 years old. He rationalized saying
that since the British had exploited our country for two centuries, he was
justified in what he was doing. Having no qualms about using whatever means he
could, he achieved his dream and led the luxurious life of a successful
businessman for many years. He made a lot of money, but he also lost most of it.
He was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago and due to other family issues, he
decided to return to India with his wife and daughter! He met a 21 year old
American lady recently who told him to attend the SY. He calls her his mentor
and believes that age is no criterion to call someone a guru. I complimented Mr.
Alag on his honesty and he told me that he has a 15 year old daughter and in
order to be a good father and a good example for her, he believed that he had to
be honest. The serious talk did not go on too long when I brought out some dates
that were devoured in minutes! Mr. Alag told me dates are his favorite food and
kept teasing me about not having given him enough.

We reached our first
stop Majjivalsa after a 10 km trek and while Kameswari, Vivek, Ishfaq and I
waited for the others to arrive, the group had already reached by a short-cut!
We saw Prof. Gupta lying down under a tree trying to give his back as much rest
as he could. Suffering from back pain, and blisters on his feet, he refused to
take pain-killers or change his footwear. Vivek, the tireless
herbal-healer-interviewer got to work and with Mr. Ramakrishna, Mr. Srinivas and
I as interpreters. This particular herbal healer was quite drunk so it took us
some time to get clear answers. The meeting was started with explaining the
posters to the villagers. Later, an experienced, knowledgeable and outspoken
lady of the village was asked to come ahead and speak about the people, their
village, traditional remedies and food items. She was also honored along with
two herbal healers, one that we had interviewed and another that had actually
brought some leaves to be rubbed on Prof. Gupta's back to help him with the
pain. At the meeting Prof. Gupta also told the villagers that we did not support
superstition like ghosts and nor did we appreciate men drinking inappropriately.
We then had lunch prepared by the villagers and enjoyed a hearty
feast of jack fruit. Seeing our enthusiasm, they cut another fresh one that we
saved and took along with us for the rest of the journey and as usual Gautam
uncle carried the stuff in his bag.

The journey uphill was quite scenic
and as we kept going higher, we found more and more curiously coloured red rocks
with specks of silver and gold on them. Though we were panting, we were feeling
very nice about having climbed so high. I was amazed at the way Kameswari would
walk without stopping too much or panting while the rest of us so-called
youngsters would require more breathers! We however did stop a couple of times
and on one of them we had a competition of who would chant 'Omkar' for the
longest duration. Vallabh bhai, our 70 year old Gujarati Bhai who has been
practicing organic farming for the last 20 years was the clear winner! Prof.
Gupta even asked Koel, Sulekha and me to sing a song each. During another break,
he asked us to tell him some positive connotations of 'crack'! It took us a
while to even understand the question after which the answers started flowing
such as 'light comes though cracks', 'cracking a joke/ puzzle', 'something can
be held in a crack', 'origin of water and soil in nature' etc.

It felt great to finally reach Burja where even the effort of
going and getting tea for ourselves seemed too much!Mummy told me that they had
an adventure of their own crossing the very uphill and dangerous route when
their car and truck got stuck on the way. After resting for a while we realized
we weren't half as tired as we were the previous day and continued with our
'shodh' for the evening. We stayed in a church that night and were helped around
by a lady called Mani. After freshening up at a well nearby, we had our dinner
and got ready for the village meeting. After the meeting that included a recipe competition and a video
show, the villagers performed a folk dance called Dimsa, a vigorous dance
routine that is done by interlocking arms with each other and moving together.
While the ladies danced together on one end, the men were gathered on the other.
They moved in synchrony and there seemed to be a leader on each end, so when the
group slowly became bigger, the new people invariably joined somewhere in the
middle. They changed their steps once in a while, moved in the same pattern and
encouraged the rest of us to join as well.

Luxuries
redefined

The next morning in Burja made me realize how our luxuries
kept reducing everyday! It was now a joke between Kameswari and I that we did
our real SY in the morning: SY part 1 and SY part 2!! On the first day at Borra,
we actually had toilets and an open-to-sky house with 6 ft high walls as a
bathroom. We had to carry water for ourselves and even that had seemed like a
huge adjustment. We didn't know what else we had in store for us. We never got
any toilets after that first day, but for bath on the second day we had a stream
to our disposal that was thankfully flanked by rocks! On the third day, we
barely managed to avoid a few local boys who were making their best efforts to
have a peek at some pretty ladies from far-off places. In Burja, thanks to Mani
who found a half constructed house with 3 ft high walls, and we got corners for
ourselves that we managed to take bath in! Experts at this 'shodh' by the time
we reached Chompi, the most developed amongst the villages we had visited,
Kameswari and I concluded that habitation was inversely proportional to the ease
of finding the right rock! On some days we were lucky to find a 3 feet high
circular bathroom fashioned out of bamboo with a small opening as an entrance,
and the only time we had a 'room' was a class full of sand in a school we stayed
in the last day.

The adventure continues….

From Burja, it
was now time to walk downhill and the first village we reached after a 3 km walk
was Barringbandar. A biodiversity competition was held where children
participated with a lot of enthusiasm. Some of the elders involved themselves
and helped the children name plants that they didn't know about. Prof. Gupta
reiterated the importance of this activity to bridge the gap of traditional
knowledge between the older and younger generations. We left after spending a good amount of time with the children and
when we were about to leave, some of the women materialized with rice in plates
and garlands made of 'champa'. We were all honored with 'teekas' of wet yellow
and white rice and some of us even got lovely, fragrant garlands.

It was
time to move, and after another long and 'sunny' 7 km walk, we reached
Kindangiguda, the lunch place where mummy was interacting with some of the
Samata volunteers. After lunch, Phillip asked me if he could take my interview
about participation in the SY. With dark clouds looming overhead, my interview
was recorded after which we prepared ourselves for the meeting and then started
off for Chompi, our last halt. Mummy joined us for that last 10 km stretch when
we stopped by another village for a short meeting. The telephones of all those
having BSNL connection started ringing on the way to Chompi and with the help of
Mr. Rajeshwar Rao, even we spoke to papa that night after many days. It was
getting really dark and we were greeted yet again by the plentiful fireflies
that had lighted our path and made the journey more beautiful and memorable! I
walked with the last group that included Mummy, Kameswari, Brigadier, Vasant
Kumar (our local volunteer), Ramakrishna, and Arul. Arul had been walking
barefoot since the previous trekking day and continued to do so until the end of
our journey!! A veteran trekker who goes on treks once in every two or three
weeks, he would always carry his 20 kg backpack along with him. On the way to
Chompi that day, he was carrying mummy's and my bag since he had left his behind
in the truck and wanted to feel some weight on his back. He was really living up
to Kameswari's nickname of 'accha baccha' of the group. Ramakrishna alias Ramki
had become mummy's regular companion, and always admired her ability to shift to
the child gear whenever required. He was also following Arul's example and
walking without shoes! On the way, Brigadier and I were questioning Vasant Kumar
about the traditions of marriage followed by tribal people. We were pleasantly
surprised by the matriarchal bent of culture that included traditions like dowry
given by the boy and property transfer to the girl's parents if she happened to
die in the husband's house. With a few stops in between the informative journey,
we reached our spacious halt at Chompi with a separate room for the ladies for
the first and only time, freshened up and bade goodbye to Phillip and Elsa and
the Samata workers who had joined us. The village meeting was cancelled for some
reason, so Vivek showed the video show to some of the villagers and called it a
day. I spoke to bhaiya that night and kept ranting about how many kilometers we
had been walking and how many we were going to walk in the coming days. I had
completely missed out on the 'real' yatra work and when he commented on that, I
realized that most of my attention was indeed on the walk itself. This was
evident by next day's meeting when Prof. Gupta told us yet again that we needed
to be together and try to do as much as we could. We decided to reach every
village after gathering together nearby with the banner and try to interact as
much as possible with them.

More enthusiasm (or so I
felt)

The first stop of our fifth day was Kothavalsa, where we held a
biodiversity competition and some of us spoke to a few ladies in the village.
When we spoke to them about their food habits; they brought us a fermented dish
called 'ambaali' made out of 'raagi' that tasted like cheese. After the
interaction, we distributed prizes to children and before we left, the ladies
even brought some papaya for us as a parting gift. It was the second time that
we realized how much difference a good interaction can make. Unfortunately, many
people hadn't gathered for the village meeting because of the weekly market in a
nearby village. We walked next to Kodipunjavalsa where we first went to inspect at
what looked like a check dam, but turned out to be a sacred grove, so Prof.
Gupta advised the villagers on how to judiciously use rain water by constructing
check dams. When we were about to leave, I commented to Prof. Gupta about
termites on a dead tree to which he countered that the tree wasn't dead and
termites were keeping it alive. To be able to live in others' hearts even after
death is something special he said, and made an impromptu Hindi poem that he
immediately noted it down in his book. I was awed at discovering the
philosophical and poetic side of this very tech-savvy professor from IIM. While
we were 'check-damming', some of the yatris had joined a game of volley ball
with the villagers and everyone had to be called for the village meeting. At the
meeting, Ramnik Bhai told the villagers about a plant he had found in their
village. This plant called 'jampra' can be used as a natural dye. The meeting
hence began with an idea to the villagers about how they could use their locally
available plants to make products and sell these instead of selling them in
unfinished forms. A biodiversity competition was then held and we were all very
impressed by little Jyoti who had brought 25 plants and knew most of their names
and uses! After distributing prizes to the kids, felicitating the herbal healer,
and also honoring a lady there who was participating with enthusiasm, we all had
a sumptuous lunch.

At the next village of Sirgam, we encountered a small
but very responsive crowd. We spoke to them about Honey Bee's work, offered our
services and then left for Varra, our most memorable and shortest stop! The
sight at reaching the meeting place was so funny I will never forget it all my
life. Our advanced SY party was running for its life with all the paraphernalia
because two drunk herbal healers were fighting amongst themselves and throwing
rocks at each other. With Jaydeep saved from a near crushed foot, we decided to
cancel the meeting and moved ahead. After another three kilometers of scenic
walk, and a few halts where Prof. Gupta spoke to farmers we reached Dumbriguda
after crossing the Dumbriguda waterfall, a famous tourist spot! With
availability of phone and more concrete structures around us, Kameswari and I
realized we were about to have a lot of fun in our little shodh of the next day!
Despite the presence of phone booths, mummy and I didn't even think of making a
phone call home that day or the next. We were so used to being 'out-of-touch'
that we didn't need the connectivity to survive any more!

After having
dinner we moved to the meeting place, and while we waited for the villagers to
arrive, Prof. Gupta, a music lover asked Koel to sing an enthusiastic song.
Mummy and I joined her along with Ramakrishna who was echoing behind us and the
other boys! It suddenly started to pour really hard, so the meeting did not take
place, and we continued sing until it stopped raining. We went back to our
resting place and conducted a part of our feedback meeting because Vinit, Uday
and Nadeem were leaving the next day. It was also decided that we would leave
the next evening i.e. on 7 June instead of 8 June because of a naxalite bandh.

The last day

We got ready, bade farewell to Vinit, Uday
and Nadeem and waited for the press conference to get over. After crossing two streams and walking around two kilometers, we
reached Panasput to a courtyard made under two jackfruit or 'Panas' trees. The
village head was first asked to speak and as we had noticed in all other
villages, he spoke about the problems of water and electricity they faced there.
Prof Gupta told them that we did not have any say about these matters, but we
could convey their problems to the government. He also told them that we could
help them earn more money and were here to look for their traditional knowledge.
He told them that the variety of flora in their village could be used
effectively to make products that could be sold in the market and get them good
returns. We then had a number of activities simultaneously going on including a
biodiversity competition, and an interview of ladies regarding medicinal value
of plants that do not require any effort to grow.

A person named Suraj was helping with interviewing of the
ladies after which he also conjured a beautiful tortoise out of sand nearby!
This village meeting had gone particularly well since most of us were
enthusiastically involved and lots of activities were done together. After
honoring the herbal healers and giving away prizes of recognition to others, we
left for the next village.

A 3 km walk in the hot sun brought us to
Vuyyalaguda where we had our lunch, conveyed our thanks to the cooks and moved
to our last halt, Titingvalsa. Because we were short of time, the meetings in
other villages had to be cancelled and after walking a good 10 kms we reached
the last halt unable to believe the walking was effectively over. Some villagers
were already gathered and after we limped our way into the meeting area, it
started to rain when the meeting began! Although some of the Yatris were quite
sad that we couldn't walk in the rain, I was thankful that while it was
threatening to rain cats and dogs for the last three days, it only rained when
our SY was getting over. After a short meeting and some hip-hip-hurraying, we
got into our bus for a five hour ride to Vizag. Some of us back benchers sang
songs and then started an antakshari that continued for a long time until we
were ready to drop to sleep. We reached Vizag bone tired and hungry while the
dinner was still to get ready. At Vizag, we saw a real bathroom after days, so
we took our time getting ready before dinner and also slept under a fan for the
first time in days.

Feedback to feed forward

The feedback meeting commenced after breakfast the next day in
which we discussed our experiences. We were asked for suggestions and whether
our expectations were met, if we experienced anything unexpected and how we
could contribute to the Honey Bee Network. Most of us spoke about how we found
it a different kind of experience where meeting a wide variety of people from
all age groups and professions. I felt that I had personally gained a lot and
was able to shut away everything unimportant from my thoughts. Nadeem had
commented the previous day about how he found everyone very helpful and did not
face any communal discrimination despite being a Muslim. Vinit and I had
commented that we found it hard to keep our interest alive due to the amount of
walking which we had to do and were not used to. I thought that it may take
another SY to get to know our real potential in helping with the cause because
it took us a while to just understand what the SY was all about even though I
had read a lot about it. Some of our Gujarati Bhais also shared their
experiences about finding certain herbs helpful for curing various ailments and
they said that they couldn't have got them if we hadn't walked. A few youngsters
like Varun made pertinent observations about not seeing any mechanized paddy
threshers like they had seen in the villages of other states in previous SYs.
This prompted Prof. Gupta to tell us that we had been to extremely backward
villages and that it did not make us traditional knowledge-gatherers happy to
see people working with age old methods without innovative use of technology.
There was consensus about enthusing more activism in the areas with follow up
activities of the Honey Bee Network.

Brigadier commented about how some
of our Gujarati Bhais had brought only one set of clothes that they washed in
the morning and wore the same when it dried after they had taken bath. To this
Vallabh Bhai said 'We brought less so that you all could bring more'! This
comment was a lesson to those of us who had brought too many items and little
conveniences that could have been avoided just for a few days! The local
volunteers including Pawan, Srini and Sudhakar who had worked on the logistics
of all arrangements before and during the Yatra tirelessly spoke as well. They
were all disappointed with the kind of response we got in the villages despite
their hard work during the initial scouting. In a lot of villages, meetings were
cancelled because people did not turn up owing to market-days or other reasons.
Their suggestion was that the meetings may be co-ordinated with the market and
conducted there and also that we should target lesser numbers of villages to get
better quality response. Many other suggestions such as planting of trees,
making the knowledge register more user-friendly, bringing about awareness
through songs and dramas were given. Mummy extended her support for this and
also sang a song called 'SRISTI ki paathshaala' in the tune of 'masti ki
pathshaala' from RDB that she had been composing for a while. The group
responded with a thunderous applause and it was decided that this would be
included in the next edition of their magazine in Hindi called 'Soojh-boojh'!
The meeting ended with distributing of certificates after which we bade farewell
to some of our companions and moved for the press conference.

Mummy,
Sulekha and I reached a bit late and missed Prof. Gupta's and Brigadier
Ganesham's interaction with the press. When we reached, Ms. Bhanu, who
spearheads Samata along with her husband Mr. Ravi who had initiated the movement
was answering questions regarding their work in the villages. Apart from what we
already knew about their movement, she said that government has been working in
the garb of development to support mining in the area. They have built roads in
many areas but have provided no public transport. The villagers don't need these
roads to walk on when they have their short cuts in mountains! Jungles are being
cleared not by tribal people that need very little, but by the government to
grow trees like Silver Oak for wood and Jatropha for bio-diesel. Their age old
practices of planting trees that bear fruits and can aid villagers in
sustainable agriculture are not encouraged. I was very impressed by the courage
with which the last question was asked by Bharat, our fellow Shodh Yatri. He
asked her how conversion to Christianity was affecting Samata's work or the
tribal mindset. Ms. Bhanu clarified at the outset that they were a very secular
organization and that they did not go by any religious label. But conversion in
tribal areas she said is a very dangerous trend especially because the tribal
people have their own religion that is intricately linked with their way of life
amidst nature. The conversions happen by luring some of the youth in the village
who then galvanise the rest of the community slowly. Not only that, their tribal
songs are converted into Christian songs and they are asked not to celebrate any
festivals other than Christmas. Not much can be done by Samata she said except
revival of songs and empowering the tribal people socially, and educationally.
The press conference had ended but the seeds of some new thoughts had been sowed
in all of us.

After bidding an affectionate goodbye to Prof. Gupta,
Brigadier Ganesham, and the volunteers, we proceeded for lunch at a nearby
restaurant. All the Honey Bee co-ordinators had another meeting while some of us
went to the beach.

Mr. Alag, Arun, Sulekha, Vinit (who joined us there) and I had
a pleasant time at the beach playing in the water and taking pictures. Koel,
Jaydeep and Nadeem joined us later at a restaurant where we had some ice cream
and juice. Since our trains were leaving at the same time, Sulekha left with us
for the railway station to meet the rest of the Ahmedabad gang. Ramesh Bhai told
us that at the Honey Bee network's meeting, it was had decided that the next
Shodh Yatra would be held at Champaran, Bihar and they had decided to
incorporate many of our suggestions from the feedback meeting.

One
last adventure

After bidding farewell to our new friends, mummy and I
left to board our train. Our tickets in Vishakha express were booked from the
quota of the next station called Anakhapalli, so I enquired with the TTE
regarding whether we needed to buy a general ticket from Vishakhapatnam to
Anakhapalli. He assured us that we didn't one since the ticket showed start of
the journey from Vishakhapatnam itself. Relieved and having another half an hour
to go before the train left, I went to buy us some water. We then decided to get
some food as well and while I was waiting for the waiter to deliver it, I saw
that the train had started. Wondering why it was starting twenty minutes before
scheduled time I rushed outside when it stopped two times before it started
again. I got into the moving train after enquiring whether it was leaving and
rushed to the carriage where mummy was sitting realizing that something had gone
wrong. I was asked by people on the way whether it was me whose mother had
pulled the chain!! Shouting out for her, I reached the hullabaloo finding
everyone talking at the same time, and mummy trying to explain to a policeman
how she did not want her daughter left behind! Only when I produced the ticket
where the scheduled departure showed 1720 hrs and not 1700 hours did the crowd
disperse. The policeman however admonished us and told us that the only
consideration for not fining us was mummy's age and the fact that we looked like
educated ladies! It took mummy and I a while to get over this scenario and I
couldn't help wondering if my travel travails would ever end. I have a notorious
history of unusual circumstances: I have missed a train, a bus, have gotten into
a train sans luggage and unbelievably even a bus has missed me once. Of them
all, only one 'miss' was due to carelessness and we can add this near-miss to
that list as well. While we were careful about asking the TTE about the ticket,
we did not realize that the scheduled departure typed on the ticket was from
Anakapalli even though the ticket was from Vishakhapatnam. Well, just another
lesson in a journey that has taught us a lot!

Posted by Vani at 9:39
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Sunday, March 16, 2008

Coimbatore-Coonoor
trip- March 8 to 15, 2008

March 16, 2008

Writing travelogues
has accustomed me to begin one in my head right after the trip starts off, but
sometimes I am just lazy to type it all down. This time I thought I should
especially because this trip of ours to Coimbatore was being planned for a
month. We kept canceling and re-planning the trip until it finally materialized
for a week from March 8, 2008, Bhaiya’s birthday. Our arrival from Hyderabad was
supposed to be a surprise for him and we planned to meet at Coonoor on March 9
while Bhaiya and Megha were supposed to be there on the 8th itself. Bhaiya and
Megha reached Coimbatore after missing their train on 7th and then taking a
flight! After the blooper of a journey, they left for Coonoor the same day.
Papa, mummy and I left by air for Coimbatore on 8th evening and reached a half
hour earlier than the scheduled arrival time on the same day. We took a taxi and
reached my cousin Deepti’s home by communicating in broken Tamil, supplemented
with Hindi. Jijaji was not at home, so we only met Dhruv (their son) and didi.
Didi hadn’t been keeping well for a week due to severe heartburn, but she seemed
alright when we reached. After the sumptuous dinner, and a lot of chatting
however she began to tire. Unbeknownst to us, she didn’t sleep well that night
and we had almost decided to stay back, but she pushed us out to leave for
Coonoor. Our resident mobile doc Kamal Rupela (mummy) gave her some homoeopathic
medicines, some CDs on meditation that we had brought from home for her and tips
on what to eat and drink. Did had arranged for a driver, so we left in their car
and reached Coonoor after a two-hour scenic and comfortable drive.

Most
hill stations seem alike; at least they do in the southern part of India. They
have similar hubs in the middle of the city where all kinds of shops and tourist
information centres are crammed in a small area. Surrounding the hub are hotels,
restaurants and guest houses for different types of customers, followed by the
tourist spots. We met Bhaiya and Megha in one of those many guest houses called
Wallwood gardens run by the Neemrana group of hotels. As soon as we got off the
car, we realized how cold it was and how inadequately prepared we were for it.
The look of the guest house however compensated for it all. The guest house was
a great place- a compact building made during the British era with six rooms
named after flowering trees, a hall, a well equipped kitchen, a sprawling hall
with a fire place and an elegant sit-out. It was also very nicely decorated with
paintings including some made out of charcoal directly on the walls, and other
colourful ones on canvas aesthetically placed in the different rooms. The guest
house was quite a respite for Bhaiya and Megha after the missing train and their
one-night stint at a very badly kept cottage that they got tricked into taking.
It so happened that the booking of a cottage they had earlier had to be revoked
and they were given another one that was not up to standard. They stumbled on to
Wallwood gardens by chance and were rewarded with the great
ambience.

After setting our stuff there, we went out for lunch and didn’t
eat well enough thanks to the spicy food and thought we would compensate with
the birthday cake that Megha had got made for Bhaiya. The birthday party was fun
and we decided to relax a bit and then head out to see Sim’s Park. Ready with
all my birding gear including the bird book, binoculars, and the bonus of my
dad’s camera, I was very excited to visit the park. I was rewarded with the view
of a beautiful green white-cheeked Barbet as soon as we entered. I also saw a
few birds I had never seen and had to pore over my bird book to figure them out.
Some of those included Blue-capped Rock Thrush, Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher, and
Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher. Bhai and Megha went for a boat ride while Ma, Pa
and I decided to take a walk. Despite having my head stuck at an odd angle
looking for birds on trees, and my ears tuned to bird calls, we didn’t see too
many birds. Considering the crowd however, it was still a good day since I had
quite a few firsts. We then went to visit a tea factory to whose guide I started
to speak in Tamil, but he countered in Hindi assuming correctly that we are
North Indians. He gave us a tour of the various processes by which different
types of tea are made. A shop attached to the factory gave us a free taste of
the various types of tea in what seemed to be a common marketing strategy of the
area. We spent some time sitting, walking around and taking lots of pictures of
the tea gardens. There I also saw two other birds for the first time- Oriental
White Eye and White-browed Fantail!

We went back to the guest house after
the trip and while we waited for dinner to get ready Ma, Megha and I played
‘Uno’; Bhaiya was sick, so he rested and Papa did his favorite job of cutting
fruits and feeding us. They both joined us for couple of games after which we
had our dinner and asked the care takers to start the fire. Enjoying the warmth
by the fire place, we played a game of scrabble and I decided I like the online
version much better. After a good night’s rest, we started the next day with
breakfast, and a game of ‘Pictionary’. Things were funny enough but when Mummy
tried to make ‘Pink Panther’ we just couldn’t stop laughing. At first we
couldn’t figure what she was trying to draw, but when we knew, we were in splits
because the drawing looked like a cross between a cloud, and a crocodile! On a
happy note and still laughing, we started by mid morning to see Lamb’s rock and
Dolphin’s nose views but the condition of the road deterred us enough to halt
mid way, take a walk down some tea gardens and head back.

After having
lunch at Wallwood, we packed up nd started for Coimbatore and braced ourselves
for the two hour cramped ride downhill. Glad to be back home, we found Didi in
good spirits thanks to the medication and meditation. Bhaiya and Megha left
after another funny game of pictionary thanks to Mummy’s presence. Didi, Dhruv
and I decided to play everyday and give mummy some drawing lessons and have fun
in the process. I spent the next day helping Papa with his article and enjoyed
so much I decided it was time I started working. Papa left the same evening
leaving the ladies with Dhruv to have a good time. Dhruv would study for half an
hour for his final practical exams everyday and we would spend the day chatting
with didi during the day and play pictionary in the evening. We also did some
major shopping for clothes one evening and went to visit the Isha Yoga center
the next day.

The Isha Yoga center
is located 150 kilometers away from Coimbatore at the base of Vellangiri hills.
We were guided there by our friend Dr. Thimmaiah and through him we also
contacted Swami Nisarga who gave us appropriate directions. After a one hour
scenic ride, we reached Isha enthralled by the beauty of the place. It is
surrounded by green mountains on three sides and clouds added to the alluring
atmosphere that Thursday morning. At the entrance to the temple complex, one is
greeted by ‘Sarva
dharma stambha’ a pillar portraying symbols of different religions. We were
guided towards ‘Trimurti’,
a granite panel depicting three faces of Lord Shiva. The three faces are said to
signify three chief qualities of every living being-rajas, tamas and sattva
(passion, ignorance, and goodness). Behind the Trimurti is the Dhyanalinga
temple, a pillarless, domed building unadorned by any colouring except for the
red bricks that make the dome, sprinkles of green underneath provided by
nature’s bounty and a small gold dome on the top. On the way to Dhyanalinga is
the Teerthakund
that houses a 2 feet tall Shivalinga made out of mercury immersed in 5 feet of
water. A flight of stairs lead to the kund inviting the onlooker for a dip. It
is said to have enormous healing properties and a dip before entering the temple
is recommended. There are separate timings for ladies; we were a bit late and
also since it was time for Naadaradhana (meditation with sound), we had to
hurry, so we went to Dhyanalinga undipped.

At the entrance we were
warned not to make the slightest noise inside the temple since any little sound
causes an echo and were instructed how to meditate with our legs crossed. We
bought a jyot and headed towards the temple through a pillared stone vault whose
corridors were adorned with panels sculpted in stone, and a sculpture of
Patanjali, the father of Yoga. Mummy went to light the Jyot in a room nearby
while didi and I entered the dome. An almost fourteen feet tall Shiva Linga
surrounded by diyas was placed in the center of it in a rectangular water tank
filled with flowers. At the ground all around the periphery of the dome, square
shaped little rooms were present. I noticed that these were occupied by one
person each, while most of the others sat outside around the Dhyanalinga. Didi
and I sat outside as well and waited for mummy, but since she was taking time,
we closed our eyes and started to meditate. After a while, the Nadaradhana
started with jingle, followed by a lasting, ringing sound made using a queer
musical instrument comprising a metallic object rotating on a metallic bowl.
While the ringing sound went on, a woman’s beautiful voice permeated the temple,
followed by another woman’s until they alternated and started singing together.
I wanted to have a look at what was going on, so I opened my eyes in between to
see who was singing and what instruments were being used. I was surprised to see
that the music was going on live, and while I looked on for a while, somehow,
something compelled me to close my eyes again. The Nadaradhana ended with the
sound of drums that totally took me into a trance; I have never had such a
sensation before. I knew there were thoughts in my head but I didn’t know what
they were. The echo of the drums just blocked everything out of my
mind.

After we opened our eyes, we saw Mummy entering the dome and while
she sat there in meditation for sometime, Didi and I went outside to look at the
decoration wondering why mummy couldn’t make it to the temple earlier. She told
us later that the diya kept going off and she had to go into the room thrice to
light it by which time the Nadaradhana had started and she was not allowed
inside. We felt really bad that she had missed it, but we went ahead to attend
the ‘Aumkar’ meditation. A lady explained the significance of the three sounds
‘a’, ‘u’, and ‘m’ and a gentleman taught the pronunciation of the three sounds
together, not as ‘Om’ as I had thought initially, but as ‘Aaum’ separating the
sounds ‘a’ and ‘u’ instead of joining them together and saying ‘o’. The Isha
foundation claims that Om is not the right way of pronunciation. Sitting almost
at one stretch for both the meditations tired us a little bit, but we went to
Teerthkund, dipped our feet in the water and felt good. We went to meet Swami
Nisarga after that, spoke to him for about half an hour and got to know more
about the beautiful place. We then decided to have lunch in the canteen there,
browsed into the shops there and left for home.

We played Pictionary
again that evening and had fun despite the fact that Mummy’s drawing skills had
improved a lot. We didn’t realize how the time passed and it was time to leave
for Hyderabad the next day. The electronic chart at the railway station
indicated that the train would come at platform no. 3, but the coolie had a
doubt, so he asked me to check at the Information desk. Considering that there
was a huge line at the desk, I decided to trust the chart and told the coolie to
go to platform 3. After he left, I went to buy some water and had another look
at the chart that showed platform 1 right one! It seemed like a mistake on part
of the railway authorities and a few families around were waiting along with us
for the same train whom we informed. Adrenaline rush made both Ma and I hurry
and somehow carry the heavy luggage to platform 1. Panting and tired, but glad
we were there on time, we boarded the train and got ready for the 21 hour
journey. We reached Hyderabad on time the next day and took no chances with the
coolie who dropped us off into the connecting local train-MMTS towards home. It
was a good trip and we are still reminiscing the adventures, lessons learnt, the
long chats, and most of all the pictionary games!!

Posted by Vani at 11:00
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Monday, June 25, 2007

U.S. of
A......here I come!!

A second trip overseas was in store for me
in the summer of 2007, thanks to an email in response to my queries regarding
upcoming conferences. I decided to send in a paper for SRCLD (Symposium on
Research in Child Language Disorders) that awarded travel-grants for students
and was also recommended to me as a ‘good’ conference! Once the grant
materialized, I worked on getting the visa and had completed shopping for the
trip even before my poster was ready. Madison was my destination and with
Kumari’s help, I got accommodation arranged and also planned a short stay in
Chicago with Deepa didi’s family! Luckily Inder was also leaving at around the
same time to France, so we met at the midnight of 5th June in Bangalore airport.
We checked in, breezed through customs, and settled for a wait at the lounge
where we met Ramesh who was also going for the SRCLD to Madison by an earlier
flight. While we were waiting, we heard repeated announcements from Air India
calling for someone who was fast asleep in the lounge. Sleepy ourselves at 1 AM,
we had quite an entertainment when he wouldn't wake up even he was called out
loud and shaken up! It was time for our flights to depart soon, so Inder and I
bade farewell right at the passage to our respective aircrafts and I settled
myself in for the long, lonely flight!

Reaching Chicago via Frankfurt, I
slept through the flight to Madison in a little plane and got up getting a
pretty view of little piers jutting out into a lake during landing. After
collecting baggage at the airport, I called Kumari's friend Sulochana who told
me they (she and her friend Nithya) were on their way. While I was waiting, an
Asian looking gentleman came up to me and asked if I wanted a taxi. I told him I
was waiting for someone but he wasn't satisfied, and asked me yet again. I
repeated what I said adding thanks, but he wouldn't budge, included a concession
in his next offer and then asked me where I wanted to go. Getting annoyed I told
him 'Wherever I want to go, I don't need a taxi, someone is coming'. I was
completely stumped next when he said ‘Are you waiting for Sulochana?’ In
response I just looked at him and shook my head realizing what a fool he had
made of me! We had a good laugh when we met Sulochana outside waiting in the
car. In no time we were conversing in Kannada and I got a better introduction to
my new friends- while Nithya still claimed he drives a taxi for a living, they
both are actually postdoctoral students in Dermatology working on Melanoma (skin
cancer).

Nithya hauled my suitcase up Sulochana's apartment and while
she prepared a quick dinner, I freshened up, made a few phone calls and then hit
the bed. I needed to get a Social Security Number the next day from someone
called Jose Carus from the tax and accounting department to be eligible for the
conference grant. So we went together by bus next morning first to her lab that
has been Nobel laureate Har Gobind Khurana’s working place. I was also
pleasantly surprised to note that her boss-one of the best in their field of
research is an Indian. She informed about going out with me and brought her
friend Salma along since she is more familiar with bus routes. I felt bad
dragging them with me, but they both deemed me incapable of finding my own way
and claimed being happy getting away from the lab! After the meeting, I took a
bus back home and started the inevitable process of battling sleep.

Addicted that I am to the Internet, it was not a big feat considering
that I could chat with a ton of my ‘Amrikan’ friends in the same time zone!! But
it started to get hard after a while and I decided to take a walk even though it
was raining, and did my favorite activity of birding! I wasn’t sure if what I
was looking at were sparrows and American Robins so I went back home and googled
to find some pictures of American birds. I gave in to sleep after a while, but
woke up soon when Sulochana came home with Rajendra, another colleague of hers.
As soon as Rajendra saw me he said ‘Idu sanna magu’ meaning ‘This is a small
child’! A talkative and hilarious person, he told me that they know Dr.
Rajashekhar (a professor in our field) pretty well. Sulochana added that Dr.
Rajashekhar and Rajendra have even taken part in dance performances together. We
went out for a drive that evening and got off to take a walk by Lake Mendota and
Memorial Union. They showed me numerous buildings including Bascom Hall, Science
Hall, and Red gym while they also told me more about University of
Wisconsin-Madison. At least 25 Nobel laureates hail from this university has
where many vitamins including A and D have been discovered. Madison is a city of
lakes with the three main ones being Monona, Mendota and Wingra. Lake Mendota
was buzzing with activity with people sitting by the shore, listening to live
music, or boating and having fun. We then left for Monona Terrace convention
center (MTCC), the venue for SRCLD to make me familiar with the route. While we
were driving I spoke to a few friends utilizing the after-9-free-calls scheme.
Sarath, my classmate from school also stays at Madison, so I called him and we
decided to go for dinner the next day. At home, Rajendra decided to stay over
for dinner that Sulochana had prepared in her usual super-fast style while we
continued our Kannada banter.

Next morning, we got details of the Metro
bus service to MTCC, but Sulochana and Rajendra decided to drop me since it was
‘sanna magu’s’ first day to school. I collected my folder at the reception and
to my astonishment found that two of three talks for the day were replaced with
others because incredibly, the previous speakers were hospitalized! I met Ramesh
at the lecture hall, and after a while Pradyumn, a friend from AIISH now
studying in Arizona State University came in with his gang of friends. It was
pure co-incidence and unbelievable to meet in USA of all places! At break after
the first part of a talk by Coggins and Olswang, Pradyumn and I were catching up
when a lady there suddenly looked at me and said 'Vani! I found you!!’ I
instantly recognized her as Ramya's friend Emily that I was forewarned to look
out for! Emily seemed like a really nice person, but we couldn’t talk much since
it was time for the next talk, during which I also met Megha from Delhi who is
pursuing PhD in Speech Pathology from University of Arizona.

At
lunchtime, Megha joined me along with Ramesh, Pradyumn and his friends
dilly-dallying around the State Street looking for places to eat. Settling down
at Nick’s we ordered food and had a good time talking to each other. It was nice
to see good old Pradyumn entertaining everyone with funny logic or rather lack
of it- his friends actually asked me if he was this way back in India as well!
It was quite late by the time we reached back to the convention center so we
sneaked in from the back entrance for Jon Miller's talk. During the break I saw
other big names in the field including Rhea Paul and Robin Chapman. In fact a
couple of years ago, Dr. Chapman had sent me some articles, so I introduced
myself and asked her if she remembered sending a post to India! I could never
have imagined she would be this sweet old lady, who would one day promise to
have a look at my poster. Emily came over beside me after the break and we
really enjoyed the next talk by Anne van Kleeck. She was one of the speakers
that were requested two days before the conference to give a talk because of the
untimely cancellation. She had included details as to how she checked her mail
when she was out on vacation (bad mistake!!) and found one of Jon Miller’s
requesting her to give a talk at SRCLD. She showed us videos to ‘use the time’
and put in pictures of Miller’s from the 70s in order to 'get back' at him!

At the end of all sessions Dr. Miller informed us about a ‘thunderstorm
warning’ and I was all attention when he mentioned Larry Shriberg’s name.
Excitement must have been evident in my hushed tones asking Emily to point him
out to me! He is the most accomplished researcher in my area of interest
(Apraxia), so I was just bubbling inside to go meet him. Getting a chance at the
reception afterwards, I introduced myself and went so blank when he started
asking me about my thesis that he had to repeat himself! All excited after
meeting ‘God of Apraxia’, I decided to skip the reception so I would be on time
to meet Sarath for dinner. On my way out I saw a Mallard (duck) sitting along
the perimeter of a parking lot. While I was taking pictures of this pretty
green-necked bird, two other participants from SRCLD -Sonia and Chiara stopped
on their way to admire it as well. Realizing I was from Mysore, Sonia asked me
if I knew ‘Dr. Prema’ who had done her post-doctoral research in the same lab as
Sonia’s some time ago. We were both very excited and if it weren’t for the
Mallard, we probably would never have realized how small this world could be!
Promising to meet each other the next day, we parted ways and I took bus 19
followed by bus 80 to reach home in around an hour. In the evening, Sarath and I
went to a place called Hubbard's for dinner and some catching up about old days,
our respective work and friends. We decided that if I could bunk a bit of the
conference the day after (Saturday), we could visit some place close to Madison.
He dropped me home promising to send me some web links so we could decide on
where to go on Saturday.

The next day, I took my buses and reached on
time for the first poster session after which was Helen Tager-Flusberg's lecture
on autism that Emily was really excited about! At lunchtime, we met Emily’s
advisor Tim Brackenbury, the guy who is perennially dressed in shorts and seemed
as informal as his clothing. An ‘Autism speaks’ sponsored three-course luncheon
of salad, a continental chicken dish and yummy strawberry dessert was arranged
for us all. The sumptuous lunch was followed by my poster session that went on
pretty well with the highlights being feedback and suggestions by Dr. Chapman
and Shriberg! Relieved at finishing what I had come for, I attended the next
talk by Carolyn Mervis after which Emily, Ramesh and I decided to take a walk
around Lake Monona and while Ramesh was shocked at our birding enthusiasm, Emily
and I even had an argument about whether a bird in question was a Starling or a
Sparrow! I really enjoyed the walk looking at Seagulls, Barn swallows, Mallards,
Muskrats and even a couple of Rabbits!

We parted ways at my bus stop and
while I was waiting I realized my watch had stopped working and I had no idea
how long I had been waiting before bus 19 came by. I requested the driver to let
me know when my stop would come, but he did not and by the time I figured this,
it was too late. I had to go around the city for over 45 minutes before he
dropped me off, but while he was apologetic, it was his fault because he was
being inattentive and talking on his blue-tooth while driving! It took me two
hours to reach home that evening with more bus-tales yet to unfold! Sulochana
realized that buses ran only every 45 minutes on weekends, and that there was no
bus 19, so next morning after the first bus dropped me mid-way I just walked to
Monona. Already tired, I attended the next poster session half-heartedly looking
for Emily or Pradyumn so I could get out of the hall. I met Tim on our way to
the next lecture and apologized for not having paid attention when he had come
by my poster the previous day since Dr. Shriberg was around. He pulled my leg
instead calling me 'Miss Fancy Pants' and 'Miss Well Connected’; so laughing we
entered the lecture hall to attend the next talk by ‘the’ Leonard I have studied
about as a student! Ramesh left after this session, so Emily and I took a walk
through Farmer's market around the Capitol square filled with vans, and tents of
fresh farmer’s produce including herbs, vegetables, strawberries, bread, honey,
jam, beef, flowers and everything in between. The surroundings were made even
more alive with live music going on all over the streets. After lunch we decided
to bunk the next session, and after listening to my bus snags Emily graciously
offered to drop me home! We wanted to say goodbye to everyone, and I wasn't
leaving without a picture with Dr. Shriberg, so we went back to the conference
venue! While we were browsing through details of the route to Sulochana's house,
I saw him coming alone, so I grabbed the opportunity and much to Emily's
amusement, I left Monona center on the moon with the picture in my pocket!

After she had dropped me off, Sarath and I left for ‘Blue Heron Landing’
at Horicon Marsh for a guided boat tour on birding. I hadn't been birding in
India for the last two months, and here I was compensating for that lull by
birding in USA! One hour from Madison, Horicon Marsh is a 'Wetland of
international importance' with 295-recorded species of birds and also some
mammals. On the way, I wowed at the plentiful ‘Red-winged Blackbirds’ that
looked surreal with vivid red spots on their wings making swirls of red during
flight! We reached Horicon at around 6 pm and hopped on to the boat for a ride.
With not more than twenty people on the boat we started the ride with Marc, our
guide introducing us to the area and giving us instructions. It was an exciting
ride in the serene, lush-green surroundings with everyone doing their bit of
pointing, naming, and hearing birds with Marc as our leader. At one point of
time he predicted that the Muskrat ahead of us would flap its tail- lo and
behold, ‘splat’ it went with our respect for Marc’s knowledge and experience
reaching new heights! More than once, he halted the boat at hearing certain
birdcalls and mimicked some calls so they would peep out of curiosity. He also
had interesting descriptions such as, witchery-witchery-witch for these
birdcalls. Just like cultural variations between (human) Americans and Indians,
these birds too were just variants of the same species I have observed in India.
Some of course were those I had never heard of and are probably not endemic to
our subcontinent. At the end of our journey we ticked off 47 species of birds
from our checklist-a great number for a one-hour boat ride! Before leaving we
spent some time lurking around the pretty little gift shop-just my type with
artsy, and birdie stuff so I picked some up and left feeling great!

At a
mall en route we picked up some cherries, had some on the way, literally grabbed
a ‘bite’ at TGIF and reached Sulochana’s place. With new friends made and old
friendships renewed, my sojourn at Madison was nearing an end. Sarath dropped me
off early next morning to the airport where I met some people from the
conference including Carolyn Mervis who was traveling in the same flight as mine
bound for Chicago. It was time to board our little plane soon, and reaching the
O’Hare airport I followed the baggage claim sign that took me all around one
terminal and out to another where I found Chandan waiting for me. We collected
my suitcase after a long wait while Deepa didi was going round and round the
O’Hare to avoid parking. It was so ironic I was meeting her for the first time
after her wedding eight years ago in Chicago of all places! At home, we met her
husband Deepak, their daughter Ananya, and also Gowda Uncle-Aunty who were
visiting them! They were leaving for a birthday party soon, so I decided to meet
bhaiya’s classmate Ashish who drove me out for lunch to Woodfield Mall and
guided me around so I could buy the stuff I wanted. It had been a while since we
had spoken so we had a lot of catching up to do especially about being ‘Piled
Higher and Deeper’ in PhD and his struggle through it!

After he dropped
me back, Deepa Didi, Deepak, Chandan and I drove to the downtown for a bit of
sight seeing. Deepak, a seasoned Chicago guide having now stayed there for
almost ten years gave me a good tour of the city. He showed me the ‘L’
train-named thus because of its ‘EL’evated status, ‘The Drakes’ hotel, and a set
of four buildings called Presidential towers that houses only Indians working
for certain software companies. He also told me about the Chicago fire of 1871,
more details of which I learnt later-one Mrs. O’Leary’s cow Daisy is believed to
have burned her barn and consequently the whole of Chicago by kicking a lantern
in the middle of the night! Later experts declared Mrs. O’Leary and her cow
innocent because according to them Chicago was just asking to be burned
considering its predominantly wooden buildings made from ‘balloon frame’
technology that could build houses in a jiffy! Moreover the Chicago River was so
polluted, it had a film of oil on it that instead of curtailing the fire only
helped aggravate it and the strong wind of this ‘windy city’ didn’t help either.
Downtown Chicago is now made of ‘new’ buildings famous for their architecture
thanks to this fire that had architects flocking in from all over the world to
do their bit in rebuilding the city! We drove past ‘Water house’-the only
building that survived the fire, Sears Tower-the tallest in North America and
‘magnificent mile-a shopping paradise spanning a mile of tall skyscrapers on
both sides. We took some pictures by the Sears, went past ‘Fazlur Khan’ street
named after one of the architects who designed it and reached ‘Millennium Park’.

A walk inside the park brought us to ‘Crown Fountain’ with two
building-like fountains literally facing each other owing to changing LCD
screens with faces on them. Further ahead was an interesting stoma-like
structure called ‘Cloud gate’ or ‘Kapoor sculpture’ that reflects the sky,
buildings and everything on the ground from various angles. We had a good time
walking beneath its stainless-steel body and trying to locate ourselves at
different points! We then walked past the ‘Jay-Pritzker Pavilion and Great Lawn’
that made picturesque surroundings, dipped our feet in the water for a while,
looked at some perennial herbs in the ‘Luria Garden’ and joined Deepak in the
car. We decided to head home taking the Lake Shore Drive enjoying the view of
beeches, blue water and sea gulls everywhere! On the way back I was feeling a
bit low since I couldn’t really spend time in the different places or go for the
boat ride, but didn’t know how I could ask or even go alone considering the next
day was a working one. I grabbed the opportunity to make my pitch when Deepak
made a passing mention of taking a train to Downtown and using a free-trolley
service to go about different locations. He asked me twice over to make sure and
then encouraged me to go ahead when I told them that I had come half-way across
the world and wasn’t about to leave without some sight-seeing!

The next
morning, Deepa didi woke me up from my deep slumber laughing at my seemingly
drugged state. A reminder of the day ahead and a hot shower snapped me out of it
and I left armed with Chandan’s cell phone and safety instructions from
everyone. Didi dropped me off at the Palatine station where I bought the ticket
and got onto the ‘Metra’ train bound for ‘Ogilvie’ after double-checking whether
it indeed went there. Looking back, I think double-checked on everything
especially after talking to my concerned brother who proclaimed this venturing
out on my own an ‘act of bravery’! I reached Ogilvie in around 45 minutes,
grabbed some handouts with information on trolley buses, train timings etc. and
went out the ‘Union’ station looking for a trolley stop. I waited for the
trolley along with a family of two, we shared some information from our
respective handouts and I decided to take the CTA bus instead of waiting. By the
time I was in the bus, I had figured a plan in my head talking to the friendly
African American driver who gave me some more information including landmarks
from where I could get connecting buses.

Looking forward to the whole
adventure, I got off at Shedd aquarium, the world’s largest aquarium and walked
through various exhibits-Caribbean Reef, Amazon rising, and Waters of the world
unable to do justice to the detailed information available on each of the
creatures including large varieties of fishes, little frogs, sea horses,
turtles, star fishes, Sharks, Rays, endangered lizards including the blue Iguana
and so many others that I don’t even remember anymore! But I spent a long time
at the ‘Oceanarium’ enchanted by a milky-white, melon-headed Beluga whale
swimming with its calf, enjoyed looking at white-sided Pacific Dolphins dive
into water, and then walked into the Oceanarium underneath to see Penguins, and
the Beluga whale through a glass!

Adjacent to Shedd is the Field museum,
so after spending around two hours I walked into the museum at around 11 AM. I
bought my ticket at the entrance whose receipt is a Cleopatra face stamped on
the hand! Walking into a gallery with stuffed caricatures of famous ‘Tsavo’
lions that ate 140-railway workers way back in 1877, that of the ‘Bushman’
gorilla from Lincoln Park zoo, and various other exhibits, I realized that my
camera’s battery had started to die! Cursing my stars and loose connection of
the charger, I started to judiciously use the camera so I could get at least one
picture of places I was yet to visit! Spotting McDonald’s, I decided to eat
before venturing further into this whale of a museum, had some French fries,
mouth-watering apple pie and renewed my journey! Right in the center of Field
Museum is Stanley Field hall, an abode of Sue (Tyrannosaurus Rex)-the most
complete skeleton of a dinosaur in the whole world and a display of two fighting
African Elephants. Spaced over two floors; with entrances from the Stanley-Field
hall are so many galleries that I didn’t know where to go first. Deciding to
visit this summer’s special exhibit-‘Ancient Americas’ I walked into a maze of
exhibits with descriptions, videos and audio guides of everything from clothes,
weapons, household articles of Clovis peoples, Mayas, Incas and other native
Americans. After a while of this brain bombardment, I stopped reading and just
started to walk by most of this gallery, and some others including ‘islands on
the Pacific Ocean’, ‘More about Sue’, labs in the Museum to preserve the
exhibits and fossils and ‘world of plants’! I spent more time in ‘The world of
birds’, ‘Ancient Egypt’ and was truly bedazzled in the ‘Hall of Gems’!! There is
so much knowledge stored in this museum; I don’t think anyone could swallow so
much even in a day- I spent all of three hours there and was completely
exhausted!

Having to visit two more places, I hurried to get the CTA
without realizing I didn’t have any change (they don’t accept anything but exact
change), so I got off the bus, bought myself some juice nearby, got some
‘singles’ ($1 notes) and hopped onto the next bus. Losing half-an-hour in this
process, I reached Adams street-two blocks away from Sears tower at around 3 PM.
I entered into another building following a sign assuming that Sears was ‘that
way’, then got into the wrong side of Sears, so I had to walk around it to find
the ‘Skydeck’. I was directed to an auditorium first where a movie about the
making of Sears tower was shown to us. I learnt that Mr. Sears, the largest
retailer in town wanted a building that could accommodate all his employees
under one roof and while the company started leasing space, they decided to make
it the tallest tower in the world with its design finalized by holding a bunch
of cigarettes together! Built in 1973 and over 1700 feet tall, Petronas towers
in Malaysia surpassed it in 1998 but only by a spire, just a design. This
sparked controversy and Sears tower remained the tallest tower with maximum
usable office space until 2004 when Taipei 101 in Taiwan exceeded both the Sears
in roof height and Petronas in spire height! Not to be outdone, Chicago is still
proud that the antennas of Sears exceed any other building of the world in
height! After the movie, a recorded voice guided us onto a lift that took around
45 seconds to reach Skydeck on the 103rd floor! Feeling on top of the world I
spent some time looking at the beautiful shoreline, different buildings dotting
it including John Hancock tower, and took the first lift back down to try and
catch the 4 PM ‘architecture cruise’ boat ride.

Two blocks away, I
boarded a free-trolley bound for Navy Pier, but missed the boat-ride by minutes.
Wondering whether it would be wise to spend two more hours in downtown
considering I had to wait another 45 minutes for the next ride, spend one hour
on it, reach the Metra station and then go home, I called Sanyu to ask her if
the ride was really worth it! Taking into account my brother’s threat of not
missing the boat ride combined with the advice of my now-architecture-buff
friend Sanyu, I decided to stay on! I passed time grabbing some ice cream and
more apple-pie from McDonald’s and stepped on to the boat for a ride! Our guide
Christine described different styles of architecture including those of
designers with a fetish for squares, or triangles or circles. In her very
hilarious style, she also related incidents and historical backgrounds of
various buildings around the Chicago River pointing to the Wrigley building,
post office, Chicago Tribune, one that has its own pin-code and loads of others.
One hour on the boat passed much too quickly and soon I was out waiting for a
yellow-star-trolley to reach Union Station. A blue circled came by whose driver
told me that the last yellow-star had already left, so I waited for the CTA
instead. While I was waiting, I looked helplessly at a yellow-star go by, but
all I could do was continue waiting and thank my stars that at least I had
change this time around.

I was perplexed at getting into the deserted
station with only tracks, so I asked a lady who directed me to the other side of
the road to get a train to Palatine! Relieved at finding the familiar looking
building, I got in only to find that my train had just left and I had another
hour’s wait before the next one. While trains ran every twenty minutes until
6:30 PM, they were scheduled every one-hour afterwards! Resigned to this fate,
tired to the bone, not to mention hungry, and still on alert with another hurdle
to cross I spent some time talking to friends on phone. When the train arrived,
I confirmed to make sure it was the right one, climbed in and treated myself
this time by sitting on the top floor! I got off at Palatine, waited a while for
Deepak and Chandan to pick me up and reached home in one piece to everyone’s
relief!

After getting enough sleep for once, I spent the next day-my
last in USA relaxing, chatting with aunty, and packing to leave. While I bade
farewell to some of my friends on phone and chat, most of them asked me why I
hadn’t left presuming that I was taking an earlier flight. Confusing all of us
further, Chandan called in a panic looking at my old itinerary that had my
flight scheduled at 3:30 PM and not 6:30 PM! However, Deepa didi brought Ananya
from school at 3:30, we spent ten minutes in Walmart for some last-minute
shopping and reached the airport two hours before the scheduled departure.
Waiting at the lounge I thought I had reached the end of my journey with no
inkling that the real ordeal was still ahead of me! This flight was almost two
hours late-exactly the transit time I had in Frankfurt, so I missed the
connecting flight along with a lot of other passengers. Thankfully though, I met
Govind who had to go to Bangalore too and together with some others from Chennai
and Hyderabad we were re-routed via Delhi. At reaching Delhi at around 1 AM, I
called my concerned brother, and boarded a bus that took a preposterously long
time to reach the domestic airport. Unable to sleep, we spoke all through the
wait until 6 AM before boarding the flight to Bangalore while Govind learnt
heaps about ‘Speech and hearing’. Jet lag exacerbated by the 10-hour delay was
yet to hit me so after reaching home, I decided to stay awake but crashed within
the hour only to wake up hungry for sleep when Bhaiya and Megha arrived from
office. An unforgettable journey with loads of pictures to share, tales to
narrate, and a travelogue to write I knew I would be preoccupied with little
else for some time. Looking forward to bask in the pleasure of the trip some
more…. oh well! Its ten pages already,

Posted by Vani at 6:46
AM 3
comments

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

For the
love of birds

A bird race one weekend in Bangalore was all I needed as a fun activity to
learn more about birds! My brother who stumbled upon this event on the web
informed me and I all but grabbed the opportunity. The rules were clear-all
those interested in Avians could participate and everyone would be placed in
groups of four with an expert birder in each group. The registration was free
and teams would be formed based on their proximity of residences. The organizers
informed us about our team three days before the event-- we were No.20, the
Jungle Fowl team comprising of Anand Menon-our leader, Vineet and Sameer who are
both from the same company that Megha works for and myself!! My first thought
was, 'Oh gosh! I'm the only lady', but I was very excited in spite of the added
confusion about when I would be able to return to Mysore because of a 'bandh'
the day after the bird race, i.e. on Monday.

Bhaiya and Megha were out
for the weekend, so went to Namrata's place on Friday night and left the
following morning for home. I made some lunch, burned some milk in the act of
being a responsible person and went for a meeting of the team that Anand had
called for in the evening. He asked us about our birding experiences and it
seemed that except him, I was the only one who has been birding seriously, if
only a bit. He laid down the action plan and also gave us the HSBC Bangalore
Bird Races t-shirts that we were supposed to wear the next day. We arranged for
some snacks within ourselves, and decided that Vineet would pick me up; we would
go to Sameer's place and then together to Innovative I-Max where we would join
Anand. Wearing the inevitably oversized T-shirt, I left the following morning,
i.e. on 11 February and while we waited for Anand, we started to chat and before
long we found mutual friends! Other than Megha of course, it turned out that my
ex-room mate's father is Vineet's father's friend- small world!!

After a
few false alarms we finally spotted Anand's car coming at us from the wrong
side. He had missed Innovative I-Max and had gone further ahead by mistake. The
smell of cigarettes hit me the moment I entered the car but we settled in soon
when Anand informed us that we could start our observations right then. I told
him that all I saw were crows to which he asked me, 'were those house crows or
jungle crows?’ Well, the trip sure promised to be an education, so we all geared
up as I became the official note-taker, jotting down the names of birds and
referring to Anand's book once in a while. I didn't have much trouble as I own
the same book fondly called 'The Inskipp' in the birding community. While Sameer
started to chime in the names of birds in Marathi and even recognized some of
their calls, both of them picked up pretty fast on bird vocab. By the time we
reached Bannerghatta we had around 10 names on our list!

We stopped by
for tea and (Anand's) smoke and continued on to a path that could hardly be
called a road. It was still cloudy when we stopped by for a little trek, me with
the bird book and pencil, Sameer and Vineet with binoculars and Anand with his
long-lens- camera! We spotted quite a few Rosy Starlings, and Purple
Rumped Sunbirds on beautiful Daddub trees laden with orange flowers! We then
trekked down to an uninhabited area with a quaint temple surrounded by trees and
a pond. The sun had started to peep out of the clouds enabling us to spot
White-Cheeked Barbets on the huge Banyan trees. We saw a few more near
the temple and as we went ahead, some movement caught Anand's eye and lighted up
his face! He had just spotted a Blue-faced Malkoha and we followed him
while he tried unsuccessfully to take its pictures -- the shy-guy kept hiding
away behind the leaves. We marched a bit further and spotted Indian
Silverbills making a nest right next to a path and an Iora I had
never even heard of. When we reached the temple again, we spotted vivid Small
Minivets that were flying from one branch to another delighting us all.
Anand also taught us a bit about bird calls including those of the
Coppersmith Barbet and White-throated Kingfisher! I found it
amazing to relate to the sounds we hear everyday to these beautiful avian
creatures! Accustomed to any small movement and sound by then, Sameer and I
‘aah’ed at the next flying object - a Jungle Crow and burst out laughing!

We then backtracked a bit from the temple area, started to
move westwards towards a lake and on the way Sameer spotted a bright yellow bird
gliding on Coconut trees! Two Greater Flameback Woodpeckers were soon
under the scrutiny of Anand's lens but before they were caught on camera, they
flew away! Vineet and Sameer, experts on the vocab by then saw a 'Blue-horned
Bull' coming our way! After a good laugh and bit of a walk, we reached the
lake only to find very few birds including a couple of pretty Pied
Kingfishers! On our way back Anand took pictures of our woodpecker friends
and in the process witnessed a Rose-ringed Parakeet chasing them away
from their nest! It was just 10:30
AM and with a bird count beyond 50, we were going pretty strong,
except that we were really hungry! I huffed and puffed back to where we had
parked our car and we munched on the snacks on our way to Totaguppe. Although we
were lucky to spot two beautiful Rufous Treepies on some trees near a
field, this bumpy ride to a lake literally devoid of birds did not add much to
our count of the day. We drove back to Bannerghatta with the sun shining down
bright on us and stopped by a ‘dhaba’ to have some lunch.

After lunch, we
started off for Ragihalli, the elephant country and on the way, it was
fruit-time when Vineet offered some Common Indian Chickoo to us and
brought me out of my slumber! The sun was peeping in and out of clouds when
Anand stopped by an empty patch enabling a bird’s eye view expecting to spot
some raptors (birds of prey). It was siesta time for all birds, so
unsuccessfully we started to trek down the road. On the way were warned by
people passing by about a rogue tusker, but Anand seemed unfazed, so we just
followed him inside. We cringed when we saw some elephant dung and soon Anand
started relating some fascinating elephant encounters! Birding seemed to have
hit a dry time with us, but we were lucky to spot a Plain Flowerpecker
before driving away. On the way suddenly, a huge bird of prey caught my eye
and didn’t seem to be the Black Kite we were seeing everywhere. After a
lot of close viewing and Inskipp referring, Anand proclaimed it to be an
Oriental Honey Buzzard, quite possibly a juvenile.

We drove a bit
further but still found the same old birds, nevertheless looking very closely
just in case we were missing a subtle difference that could add to our count.
After halting for some tea, we turned back and had reached almost halfway back
when suddenly; we saw a vision of brown and green flying across the road!! Anand
immediately bounded out the car suspecting it to be Indian Pitta, an
extremely rare bird that he had never seen before! A peep through the binoculars
confirmed this and the rest of us didn't dare move so Anand could get a picture,
but it wasn’t to be. While he felt utterly dismayed, he was also very excited
having seen this rare bird and kept whistling all the way back. With our species
tally at 69, Indian Pitta undoubtedly our catch of the day, our status
was- hungry, so together we prepared cheese vegetable sandwiches and thoroughly
enjoyed them!

We rechecked our count on our way to the final get together
at M.G. Road
hoping to make it 70 by spotting Egyptian Vultures atop Raheja Towers en route. But our account seemed to
have frozen with the Pitta, so we went straight to the Royal Orchid
Central. It was nice to see so many bird lovers under one roof and with a ratio
of men to women at around 1:10; I felt all the more privileged!! While we waited
for the programme to start, Sameer, Vineet and I chatted away getting to know
each other better. But the conversation around us was pervaded with passionate
bird discussions involving the day’s experiences and even cross-referencing
books! It made me wonder what my friends those think that I'm crazy, would have
to say about these ardent birders.

The guests of honour finally arrived and included Mr. Zafar
Ali, a very senior birder who is also legendary Dr. Salim Ali's cousin. After
some hilarious and a few inexorably boring speeches, prizes were announced.
Species tally of the team that got first was a whopping 113 with many other
teams pretty close to this mark! After a sumptuous dinner during which the cute
80-year-old Mr. Zafar Ali made some small talk with us, we left for home. We
chatted all the way back, very comfortable with each other, a far cry from what
I had expected initially being the only lady.
It was definitely a
tiring Sunday with a difference and I slept like a log that night, rested
through Monday ‘bandh’ and left early morning on Tuesday only to meet remnants
of previous day's drama on the road. A ‘dharna’ at Maddur stranded the bus for
two hours and we moved at a snail's pace encountering processions on the way
every so often. It took seven hours-more than double the time to reach
Mysore, but
fortunately I had supporting company and a good book that kept my mind occupied!
Well! I guess birdie love was worth every bit of it and I am happy
to be back safe, but more importantly, better experienced with new
birdie-contacts!

Posted by Vani at 4:28
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Tuesday, October 03, 2006

THE COLOUR
PURPLE

Exactly a year back I had made impromptu plans to
visit my friend Aruna in Munnar to witness the ‘once in twelve years’ Kurinji
bloom assuming that it was in flowering that year in 2005. Aruna told me that
Kurinji was to blossom the next year, so planning a year ahead and trying to
book my tickets two months in advance to make sure I didn’t miss this fantastic
phenomenon, my excitement was definitely palpable. Unable to get my family to
reach my level of enthusiasm or drag any friends with me, I set out from
Mysore alone packed with all my gear including purrrr..ple
clothes on 28 September 2006. My bus from Bangalore to Munnar was to start from near Lal Bagh that is
near my friend Namrata’s house, so I spent some time with her and Chethan, had
my dinner after which they dropped me at the bus stand. Making sure I got the
right bus to Munnar and not elsewhere, they left and the bus started eventually.
My travel partner who seemed to be traveling for the first time in a bus kept
asking me if I was ‘comfortaa’. When we were about to sleep, a couple seated
behind told us ‘You can’t put your seat back, there is a child here’. I thought
them a bit rude but decided to comply and didn’t recline as much as I would have
liked to. In the middle of the night though I realized that if they reclined
their seats completely as well, all of us would be comfortable. When I turned
back to tell them, I saw that they were all fast asleep with their seats
reclined all the way back, so deciding to quit the ‘Gandhigiri’ I pushed my seat
back and finally slept.

The bus reached Palani at
7
AM where the passengers were
split into two smaller buses that were to go their separate ways to Munnar and
Kodaikanal. After a long wait, the bus started off and I dozed immediately
hitting my head on the window bar a few times. After breakfast at a roadside
restaurant in Udamalpet, I put music on and enjoyed the rest of the four-hour
bumpy and meandering ride uphill. We crossed Chinnar national park where all I
saw were posters of langoors and giant squirrels. As altitude increased,
vegetation of dry deciduous forests, rubber and coconut trees in Chinnar gave
way to first of the tea estates making them all the prettier as they were
interspersed with red flowered Daddub trees, and bordered by bright red
Poinsettias. As we went higher, the tea estates started undulating, the number
of Teak, Eucalyptus and Pine trees increased, fresh mountain air became cooler
and while I basked in its scent I also enjoyed the view of waterfalls noting an
inclusion of ferns and mosses in the vegetation. My travel partner however was
having a bad time with travel sickness and I became her official provider of
plastic bags and tissue paper.

I reached Munnar without feeling any of
the exhaustion from the journey and made a call to Aruna’s husband Ganesh who
told me that she had already left home to pick me up. While I waited in the
office, I realized the irony of the situation remembering that she had come to
pick me up the previous day i.e. on 28th Sept only to realize I was
arriving on the 29th! She arrived in a while with her son Aditya,
introduced me as Vani Aunty and I bribed him with a chocolate realizing soon
that he didn’t need one at all. This sunny child (as the proud mama calls him)
became friendly in no time unable to decide whether to call me ‘akka’ or ‘aunty’
and delighted me when he stuck to ‘akka’!! He started to speak non-stop with his
style of chatting being labeling all the items in the vicinity, bringing them to
me if he could and of course leaving them all strewn in the drawing room in the
aftermath. No wonder Aruna’s house is now baby-proofed 4 feet from the ground in
comparison to when I last saw it two years back. If I was worried about finding
a common language to communicate with him, I needn’t have, because he spoke
mostly Konkani, mixing it with Tamil, Malayalam, and English every so often. I
must say, my mere comprehension of Konkani that I owe to my friendship with
Namrata is now evolved into a smattering of baby talk and beyond (I
hope)!

We spent the first day resting for a bit,
yakking and then taking a walk around their house amidst tea estates. I was
impressed when Aruna told me that there isn’t a single electrical pump in Munnar
and that gravity is used to supply water everywhere. Atya baba or baby (as he
calls himself) was very excited all day, he didn’t have lunch and was running so
high on adrenaline that he didn’t sleep well. Early morning the next day, Atya
baba announced ‘Baby Koolinji pua’ ('Baby is going to Koolinji' in Malayalam)
and with me dressed in the same color as Kurinji i.e. lavender or purrrple (as
my brother likes to call it), we left by car with their driver Ramesh to visit
Eravikulam national park in Rajamalai estate. Eravikulam is known as the only
natural home of Nilgiri Thar, an endangered species of mountain goats or
ungulates (two toed animals)! Thank God for the national park, Kurinji’s habitat
has been undisturbed for 12 years and now this is one of the few places where we
can see it. Of all places where the Kurinji is seen including in Ooty and
Kodaikanal, the most gregarious flowering is seen in Eravikulam. I felt all the
more privileged when I saw people lined up outside waiting for the Eravikulam
bus while we were allowed to take our car up the national park owing to the
employee status of my hosts! As soon as we crossed the tea estate area, we
started to see Kurinji bushes with pretty funnel-shaped lavender flowers and
soon witnessed a breathtaking view with mountains covered completely in
lavender! I couldn’t stop wowing and Atya baba who had picked up ‘wow’ from me
the previous day started wowing as well! The celestial hue of divine colour,
call it lavender, blue or even purrrple; made such a fantastic view that it left
me speechless.

We saw quite a few Nilgiri Thar and I
got some really nice shots with a couple on a mountain, one with huge horns and
one up-close and personal. I realized how lucky I was when Aruna told me of a
previous visit of theirs when they didn’t see even one Thar! I also wondered
whether these Thar ate Kurinji flowers-one endangered species feeding on
another! But nature takes care of itself as long as humanity doesn’t interfere
and the very reason why Kurinji blooms once in 12 years is to outnumber it’s
predators-probably even the Thar; and no one dare impose a fine of
Rs. 250/- on this mountain ungulate! In our excitement of taking pictures the
setting of my camera got inadvertently changed turning most of the pictures blue
and no matter how hard I tried to set it right, I wasn’t successful. I kept
clicking nevertheless and when we had our full, we left Kurinji only to
encounter a regal traffic jam right outside the national park. Moving at a
snail’s pace, we finally got out of it when I figured through trial and error
what had gone wrong with the lighting and fixed it! I was quite upset and had
this irresistible urge to go back to Eravikulam but none of us could fathom
braving the traffic jam again!

We then went to Shrishti special school
where Aruna works and visited the vocational training centre with their
strawberry preserve, natural dye and handmade paper units. I was explained the
process for making of each of these and was highly impressed with the kind of
products that were displayed! Unable to resist buying hand made paper, I walked
out with a few charts and then we left for home. We rested in the afternoon and
then went to the Orchidarium where I took lots of pictures and then to the Tata
kiosk to buy some strawberry preserve and tea. In the evening we enjoyed
watching Aditya dance round and round to the tunes of ‘Rang de basanti’ after
which Aruna and I spent some time sharing ideas on creativity. While I went
through her work, we had a difficult time sending Aditya away to spend time with
daddy instead of around ‘playable’ and ‘throwable’ items! We had a bonfire
outside after dinner and roasted ‘bhutta’ (corn) pierced with ‘seekh’ (of seekh
kababs) on the red-hot burning wood. We spent an hour and a half watching the
burning embers while taking turns restraining Aditya from getting too close to
the fire. We slept eventually, got up late the next morning and Atya baba
thrilled me when he heard me come and shouted ‘Akka aile’ (Akka has come);
forget that he was on the pot when he did! We all got ready for ‘Ayudha pooja’
and then went on a photo-session spree with Aruna even changing into a special
purrrple outfit to take our customary Aruna-Vani ‘humshakal’ photographs!

After lunch we went to the high-range
club where all their get-togethers are held and Aruna showed me around different
rooms including the library, common room, and lounge. We then hurried to the bus
stand from there and waited while the bus was being cleaned. Aditya was itching
to get into the ‘kool buch’ (school bus) and played around getting on and off
the seats smiling at everyone whether he knew them or not! When I was about to
leave, Aditya-my-favorite-human-being asked me not to go in the bus but to get
into their car even saying ‘Akka down’ and ‘Akka please’! He finally said
goodbye and I knew I would think of this cute guy for a long time. After
crossing a bottleneck of traffic in town, I thought it would be just music,
nature, and me but didn’t know how wrong I was until I saw streams of vehicles
and people walking in the opposite direction! Thanking my stars that I got done
with visiting well in time, I continued listening to music all the way back and
even saw a few ‘langoors’. We got off at Palani at the travel agency’s office
where I had the food Aruna had packed and waited for the next bus that was 2
hours late! The bus reached Bangalore on time the next day and I then got into a Volvo
bus bound to Mysore. Reflecting back and planning the future at the
same time, I have decided that I will go to Munnar ‘with family’ to witness the
next Kurinji bloom and maybe Aditya will take us around!

Posted by Vani at 5:29
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Thursday, August 24, 2006

Gujarat
trip

Our cousin’s
wedding in Ahmedabad on 30 April prompted the plan for a trip to
Gujarat from 24 April to 1 May 2006. Ignoring the warning of unbearable summer
heat by friends, all of us started from
Hyderabad on 24 April 2006. We realized what was in store for
us when we landed and the heat at the Ahmedabad airport triggered memories of
the blistering North Indian loo. Our cousin Sandeep fit us all with
substantial luggage into his small-sized Wagon-R and we reached Masi’s house as
first of the wedding guests. We met Kaku didi and her sons after a very long
time and spent some time with her and everyone else in the family. The kids
entertained us and Kaku didi’s younger one, Preet fascinated me with his style
of imitating his brothers Parth and Aditya.

We left
for Bhaiyas’ shop in the evening, bought a ‘few’ pairs of shoes and then left
for ‘Law
Garden’, a shopping place for
traditional Gujarati items. The shops forming the outer boundary of ‘Law garden’
are filled with colourful dress materials, purses, show pieces etc. adorned with
beads, mirrors and embroidery. After we had our fill of shopping, we left for
home, had our dinner there and slept under-the-stars after a very long time. The
next day Megha, Bhaiya, Papa and I went site-seeing, and first visited Gandhi
Ashram on the banks of the river Sabarmati. The exhibits were mostly those of
Gandhiji’s photographs, paintings, excerpts from his autobiography ‘My
experiments with truth’, newspaper cuttings etc. The most interesting was a
display of a few images of postcards received by him- some addressed simply as
M. K. Gandhi,
India, and some
even as ludicrously as M. K. Gandhi, Governor of India, Mumbai.

We
then proceeded to Akshardham in a rickety and noisy but thankfully empty bus and
reached to find security arrangements so elaborate that even men’s waist-belts
were checked. None of us could take our cell phones, cameras, water bottles,
food items and purses! These arrangements were non-existent the last time I’d
been here and we were told that they started after the recent terrorist attack
at Akshardham. We proceeded towards the canteen and refreshed ourselves with
water, cold lemon tea, coconut water and weird-looking, coloured lassi that
looked neither like shrikhand nor like lassi. We then went to the temple, a
monument in the centre of the complex made of pink sand-stone that is 10 storeys
high and enshrines the golden murti of Swami Narayan. Bhaiya, Megha and papa
thought that this was all but they had no idea we were about to enter four
exhibitions in the temple complex.

When
we were entering the exhibitions, a strange thing happened- about a year old
child in his father’s arms was crying and spreading his arms gesturing to come
towards me. We realized he was attracted to the water bottle in my hands, so I
took him and papa gave him some water, but he wouldn’t go back. After some
amount of coaxing, the child did go back and we carried on to the walk-through
exhibitions. The first room had a video show of a description of wide-spread
ill-will in the society during the 1800s when Mughals had started plundering the
North Indian cities. The next numerous rooms described how during this time,
Swami Narayan started his yatra all over
India at the age
of 11. He reached a village in Gujarat and preached
society to bring goodwill back amongst everyone. Everything was displayed in a
very interesting way using pictures, models, walk-through caves and jungles with
animals, birds, waterfalls and realistic sound effects. The next few rooms
described the Upanishads with authentic looking scenes from the Mahabharat and
Ramayan. The last one was an audio-animatronics show that displayed sculptures
of musicians playing different instruments at Swami Narayan’s sabha preaching a
few villagers. All movements, including their head and mouth movements and even
those of the hands playing mridangam, sarangi, were synchronized
and looked wonderful.

Extremely
hungry, we went straight to the canteen and had a sumptuous lunch of khamman,
Swami Narayan khichdi, lots of curd and ice-cream. We started
out in the sun again and boarded a bus to the market-Lal darwaza where Bhaiya
and Megha went shopping while Papa and I got down midway to go home. By
7:30 pm, we packed our bags and left
for the railway station to catch our train to Veraval that is 5 kms from
Somnath.

The
train reached Veraval by 6 am the next
morning and we got two auto rickshaws to go to our hotel. On the way, we were
annoyed by the offensive smell of rotting fish whose source was the harbour that
is a plethora of dirty looking boats looking as though they were thrown together
in one place. Our hotel was so full of the stench too as it was situated right
behind the harbour, but once we were in its premises for some time we got used
to the smell. All of us got ready and went to visit the Somnath temple that
enshrines the first of the 12 jyotirlings. The monument is an imposing structure
made of stone and has been built on a sandy hill right beside the ocean. The
presence of detailed security arrangements made us wonder whether they have been
quite the norm in Gujarat in recent times. Mummy was very
excited when she visited the temple since she has imbibed its history and feels
passionate about its repeated destruction by Mughals. Mahmud Ghazni attacked the
temple numerous times achieving success after 17 attacks and set a precedent for
many other iconoclasts who destroyed it and looted its wealth. Each time it was
resurrected only to be destroyed again so giving up, people built another one
beside the original site. The present monument is the result of the efforts of
Sardar Vallabhai Patel who pledged to revive the temple in 1947 and its
construction was completed in 1995.

After
visiting both the old and new temples, we went to visit another
temple of
Jhambavati’s
(Krishna’s wife) near which is located Shankaracharya’s
dwelling in a cave. One could mistake it for a common shop selling books with an
entrance to a green coloured, so-called cave. We then went to another cave that
we were told was the Pandavs hiding place for one year during their
vanvaas. We entered the cave squatting and walking through narrow steps
and reached beneath wondering how Bhim ever entered this place! The steps
led to a small, low-roofed cave that housed on its end murtis of Pandavs’
Kuladevi carved in stone. Just two minutes in the cave and we were
sweating profusely. The cave has been forced to lose its original
form by overindulgent human beings who have ridiculously adorned it with
blue-coloured tiles. Such lack of maintenance and creative thought at places of
historical significance in the area really saddened us.

Our
next visit was to temples made in memory of Krishna and
Balram and this is where their samadhis lie. One of the temples has
eighteen pillars with the chapters of Bhagvad Gita etched each of them. Further
away from the temple at the banks of the river Saraswati is the
samadhi where Krishna was hit by an arrow.
Starting here, we listened to Mummy with rapt attention as she told stories from
Mahabharat; each one so intertwined in the other that one narration led to
another. While we were listening to the stories, Papa kept us all hydrated and
saved from the scorching heat by buying fruits at every opportunity, cutting
them with his usual precision and passing them on until we’d had enough and said
‘Papa, ab bas’!

Completing
the Somnath visit, we booked our tickets to Dwarka for the next day and hired a
taxi to Diu
Island. Around 90 km. from Veraval,
it took us a little more than 2 hours to reach Diu. A
road connecting the mainland surrounded by a nearly dried-up water body took us
to the island. An ancient-looking town, Diu is known for
its Portuguese heritage by virtue of their ruling of Diu
for 15 years after the rest of
India got
independence. Our first halt was Diu fort- a massive
structure surrounded by the ocean on three sides, it was built in 1800s by the
Portuguese. Watermelon-sized canon balls lay scattered in its
premises and a walk uphill took us to the highest point of the fort where the
canons were placed. After walking back we had some tea made by a Portuguese
speaking chai wala and left for St.
Thomas church to spend some time looking at its intricate
wood-work. The driver then took us to INS Khukri ship memorial that is located
on a hill beside the ocean 40 nautical miles from where the INS Khukri sank
during the India-Pakistan war in 1971. While a model of the ship and its anchor
are displayed on one side, numerous steps not unlike those of an amphitheatre
lead to the ocean on the other. Enjoying the cool ocean breeze, we took lots of
pictures and then moved down towards the taxi that took us to Gangeshwar
temple.

The
temple houses 3 Shivlings that enjoy abhishek by waves through an
opening towards the ocean. Surrounding the temple on one side are rocks speckled
with shells and if one watches carefully, one can see thousands of camouflaged
crabs crawling in and out of the rocks near the water. Unaware that we were in
for a nature watching spree our next stop was the sea-shell museum and on our
way we learnt that the peculiar ‘Y’ shaped trees all over the island were not
hybrid palm trees but Hoka trees unique to the Diu islands in India. The
sea-shell museum is a collection of millions of sea-shells creatively displayed
in their natural form and single-handedly collected for over 48 years by Captain
Deoji Bhai from all over Diu and the world. We were
amazed by the myriad beauty of nature and the persistence of this man who has
turned his passion into an ingenious profession.

The
sun was about to set when we moved towards Nagoa beach, lined by Hoka trees
quite full of people playing in the waves. After taking a speed-boat ride, we
plunged into the waves and got hysterical. We would wait for the waves to push
us to the shore and Mummy especially had fun getting toppled over by them. When
we’d had enough, we took bath in the nearby bathrooms that were so sandy, it
didn’t seem like we’d taken a bath at all. Relatively clean and famished, we
started off for Veraval and nearly finished the snacks we’d brought along for
the journey. Papa started the fruits-cutting ritual and our driver said
‘Sahab, Chiku chaalu?’!! Our hysterics continued during the journey when
I started to teach Bhaiya Multani (our mother-tongue i.e. a dialect of
Punjabi) like a true speech pathologist- ‘I ate-I am eating-I will eat’. Bhaiya
confused me sometimes and his efforts made us laugh so much, our stomachs
started to hurt.

We
reached our hotel and had dinner but not before Mummy was satisfied by washing
all the sand-filled clothes. We managed to sleep by midnight and got up early to start off for the Gir forest
safari by 6:15 am. The driver
misunderstood the location and took us to a 15 km radius Gir Interpretation zone
called Devalia instead where lions are kept in an enclosure and
can be viewed from the outside. Disheartened by our reduced chances to view the
lion because of the delay, we reached Sasan Gir and started the safari in an
open jeep by 8:15 am with our guide
Mr. Chetan. He instructed us regarding the dos and don’ts while in the forest
and we bombarded him with questions of our prospects of witnessing lions in
their natural habitat. Our eyes glued to the deciduous forests around us we
learnt some interesting facts- Gir is the only natural home of the Asiatic lion.
Their depleting numbers in the rest of
India and in Gir
have been due to trophy hunting by kings, poaching and proliferation of concrete
jungles. The increase in the population of tribal people called Maldhari
in settlements called Nesses has also endangered the existence of lions
in Gir due to which most of the Maldharis have been relocated. Around 52
Nesses still exist there because they are crucial to the ecosystem of the
area. Initiation of protection started in early 1900s by the then Nawab
of Junagadh and later intervention by the British, especially Jim
Corbett helped in the restoration of lions. Established in 1965, the
numbers of lions at Sasan Gir have increased to 359 from mere 20 back in
the dire times.

Oblivious
of the rising sun, we saw a lot of spotted deer, peacocks, langoors, a
couple of Sambar, one Blue Bull or Neelgai and lots of
birds. Used to looking for birds amidst vegetation like this, I had to put a
conscious effort to bring my eyes level to the ground and not on the top of
trees. But we missed lions twice in our journey when we heard alarm calls of
deer at two different water-holes. The lions were all going deep into the forest
to enjoy their siestas, so losing all hope of being able to view them, we
started to feel the heat and I started to look for birds again. I learnt some
names of birds like Paradise Flycatcher, Little Flycatcher, Hill Myna, Indian
Robin, Great Indian Bustard and we also saw the Egyptian Vulture, Red crested
Bulbul (Bhaiya named it Red-assed bulbul) and White-throated Kingfisher. Papa
was busy asking the guide about some trees and once even requested him to go
back a 100 yards to collect a few twigs of an exotic tree with scented flowers.
We were just about to end our journey when we were stopped by the Regional
Forest Officer (RFO) who enquired whether we had been able to see any lions. He
guided us to a shaded area close by where he’d seen two lions and gave
permission to the guide to let us walk near to where the lions were resting.
Around thirty metres away from us we could see the heads of two huge one-year
old lions alert at our arrival. After watching them for a while, we got back
into the jeep, feeling the heat no more and ecstatic to have completed our
Safari in style! I couldn’t help but wonder how all the events were destined to
take place-our getting late, halts at regular intervals for mine and papa’s
nature watching and the RFO’s blessed arrival!

We
left for Veraval by noon, had our
lunch, took some rest and boarded the bus for Dwarka at 2:30 pm. Having no idea about the buses and mistaking
this bus to be a good one, this bus journey turned out to be the worst we’d ever
encountered in our lives. The bus started one and a half hours after its
scheduled departure i.e. at 4 pm, only
to stop at regular intervals to hoard passengers, drop them off. It also stopped
at two temple towns on the way- at Probandar and another place whose name I had
no energy to remember by then! On the way, the only sight that refreshed us was
that of the vast, beautiful ocean and its untouched beaches. After traveling
double to required time to reach Dwarka in 8 hours, we vowed never ever again to
take a private bus in any North Indian town!

Having
dinner of Marwadi and Gujarati thalis at our hotel in
Dwarka, we fell into a dreamless slumber to get up early yet again to attend the
mangal aarti at 7 am the next
morning. The temple was only 200 metres from the hotel and we walked through
narrow streets filled with unhealthy cows, cow-dung, dogs and bulls! The temple
was sadly surrounded on all sides by houses giving absolutely no view of the
temple from anywhere but from the front! Unaware of the rush at that hour, we
were lost in the sea of pilgrims inside the temple but chants of the Hare
Krishna Mahamantra enchanted us and we persisted in our darshan.
One Maldhari lady standing behind me pushed herself using her paunch to
move two steps greater than required in the already increasing crowd of people.
Relieved from the torture from pushing people we recieved our darshan,
left the temple and reflected on the lack of planning in Indian cities and
the blind faith of people. Papa commented that if Krishna
ever came back, he wouldn’t like to live in Dwarka!

We
hurried up, picked our luggage, had breakfast and moved to Okha from where we
had to take a ferry to Bet Dwarka.and catch our train from Okha to
Ahmedabad in time. On our way we visited the ancient
temple of
Rukmini devi made of
fossilized rocks evident by the embedded sea shells in its perforated structure.
We then commenced our journey again and on our way we saw Flamingoes!!!! I was
so excited, I asked the driver to stop but it was getting late and he told us
that we will find them even in Bet Dwarka. Remembering that Flamingoes
are found in Kachchh, I agreed to move on and we reached Okha on time. We
were very excited in the anticipation of seeing the archeological remains of
Dwarka in the gulf of
Kachchh.

The
ferry stacked people like sheep violating the norm of 80 passengers and hoarding
200! On the way I took pictures of Maldhari men and women in their
beautiful attires and jewelry. We were fascinated by the backless blouses of
Maldhari women covered demurely with dupattas and their huge
earrings and anklets. We reached the temple and made a quick tour of it and
spent some time looking at the throne where Krishna-Sudama Milan had
taken place. We boarded another ferry to go back and Bhaiya got a
Swades photograph taken in the overcrowded ferry amidst people from all
walks of life! Disappointed that no tour existed to view the archaeological
remains, and more so because there were NO Flamingoes, I chanted Flamingoes in a
morose tone every 10 minutes! Bhaiya promised me we’ll see some from the train
and indeed we did, and even though we saw them from far, I saw one magnificent
Flamingo in flight and my morose tone turned into a happy one!

The
journey back to Ahmedabad was quite peaceful and we slept for some time in spite
of the sun beating down on us. We reached on the night of 27 April and greeted
all the relatives who arrived the next day from Jaipur for the wedding. Even the
excitement of seeing them all after a long time couldn’t help us beat the heat
and we decided to go for a movie to sit in an AC hall! About twenty of us
ranging in the ages of 3 to 35 from two generations of our khandaan went
to Fun
Republic, a mall cum theatre complex!
MTV youth icon vote competitions were going on there and our 11 year-old nephew
Abhishek was the first to jump into the fray inspiring others from our group
into participating. It was a series of wins for us and loaded with Pepsi
bottles and six kiddies; we watched Ice Age-2 and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
We reached back to join the DJ night party organized at home and slept very
late. The next day was another one of the unbearably hot days and our minds were
switched off by the time we unwillingly changed into our wedding attires! The
heat abated only after we finished dancing in the baraat and reached the
venue, forming a huge gang after having our dinner. Since we were to leave early
the next day Bhaiya, Megha and I bade farewell to all and didn’t stay back until
early morning the next day to attend the havan (Muhurtam of the
wedding). We couldn’t catch much sleep and were dead on our feet when we boarded
the flight to Bangalore. We slept
all the way back and were relieved to land into a pleasant weather!

We’d
had an interesting journey that blended temple visits, a forest safari and a
wedding function all into one. Traveling in the most comfortable air travel and
the filthiest bus journey of our lives, it turned out to be a colourful journey
that took us in the air and brought us back to earth as creatures of God in
whose eyes we are all alike!

Posted by Vani at 8:48
AM 2
comments

First
phoren trip

It took four
months of planning to make this ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ trip possible to Edmonton,
Canada and it seemed to me that everything fell into place right from the word
go! I got really lucky with funding, accommodation got arranged at a family
friend’s relatives’ place and our director even allowed me to spend a few extra
days and have some fun officially! Now all I had to do was endure my first
international travel and reach there, so bhaiya and papa brought me to the
Bangalore airport on the early
morning of June 12, 2006.
They waited outside for me to check-in and after around 10 minutes of standing
in queue, I saw another long queue of the Economy class counter and realized I
was standing at the Business class one! Appalled at myself, I moved quickly to
the other line and asked bhaiya and papa to head home. They left reluctantly and
I eventually got my turn to collect the boarding passes and filled in a coupon
for the customs check. I was taken aback when I was asked to show the conference
invitation and ID card at the customs. I’d never realized I would require any
other papers after obtaining the visa, so was sent to a higher authority who
asked me what I was doing. When I told him I was in ‘Speech n Hearing’, he
thought I was hearing impaired and asked me whether I could hear him! This
definitely was a first, but I was in no state to appreciate this novelty or
explain to him about the advantages and disadvantages of sign language! Refusing
to get intimidated by his unflinching eye contact I showed the program schedule
that had my name on it and he let me go.

I
then waited for quite a while standing at the cramped lounge before boarding the
flight and contained the butterflies in my stomach unable to believe I was
finally going! I settled in and was almost asleep after the take-off when the
crew started to serve dinner and to my utter disbelief most people were having
food at 2:30 AM! After the odor of
food settled, or rather my olfactory receptors got adapted to the airplane’s
environment, I went back to sleep. The next morning, after a long wait to use
the loo I settled to enjoy the movie ‘Iqbal’ and tried to have the vada-sambhar
for breakfast. Unable to have more than a few morsels, I decided to concentrate
on the movie and soon the landing announcement was made. Thick olive green
patches of pine trees intermingled with other shades of green and brown made a
pretty landing at Frankfurt. I was fully expecting to see
at least one soccer team at the airport, but I guess the airport is so big they
can easily whisk the teams away from the eyes of us lesser mortals. Not too
disappointed though, I enquired about my flight and spent the two hours
loitering around and reading the book I had. Before long I checked in and
boarded the Air Canada flight to
Montreal without any hiccoughs this
time. A sweet French gentleman sat next to me who smiled if I as much as turned
my head 10o towards him and although it was tough, we communicated
effectively in English. His enthusiasm of clicking pictures was infectious so
both of us clicked away when we were over the Atlantic
Ocean.

We
landed at Montreal and to my
surprise I breezed through the customs check and started looking around for the
information desk so as to kill 5 hours and do the sight-seeing I had googled
about. They gave me directions to everywhere possible so I wasn’t able to decide
where to go and I also didn’t know if it was wise to venture out on my own. I
decided to call my hosts at Edmonton to take some advice and Rano Aunty asked me
to stay put, so I just went around some duty-free shops and settled down to read
a book. After spending two hours reading I went around in circles looking for
the terminal cursing the inept directions but I now realize this was due to
fatigue of being in travel for more than 20 hours and not the directions! Trying
hard not to sleep at the waiting lounge, I finally boarded the pretty-much empty
flight and dozed off immediately! When I got up it was 11 PM, an hour later than my arrival time at
Edmonton and I got thoroughly
confused when I saw daylight outside! When I asked the lady beside me, she
explained to me that during summers, the sun sets at around 10 PM there and that there is a 2 hour time-difference
between Montreal and
Edmonton. I breathed a sigh of
relief in more ways than one as we were about to land in another hour!

At
the Edmonton airport I looked
closely at every Indian couple I saw and gave up after a while when suddenly
Jessey Uncle came up to me asked if I was Vani. I got immediately comfortable
talking to them and then I met their daughter Sonia who drove us home. I was
struck by the huge bungalows in the locality called
Royal
Gardens and all the more awed when I
saw their house. We left our footwear in the garage from where we entered the
house and I smiled inwardly when told that leaving footwear outside is a
Canadian custom. Who would have thought Canadian customs are similar to South
Indian ones! The house was even more beautiful inside tastefully decorated with
Chinese vases, candle stands, picture frames of the family and furniture with
upholstery in rich colors of white, black and red! Aunty gave me a quick tour of
the house from the first floor to the basement where she showed me my room. She
also got me familiar with the kitchen so I could fend for myself the next day as
everyone would leave for work early. I then met Harinder (Laddi) Aunty- Rano
aunty’s sister who is a nurse and had come back from work after a
night-shift.

I
got up early the next day, fixed some breakfast and settled down to read a book
and heard noises from a room upstairs after an hour. It was Sonia getting ready
to go to school and before she left I took a walk through
Royal
Gardens. I walked on a road behind
their house and really enjoyed looking at the pretty houses made of wood
including some under construction. Taking a lot of pictures and unable to bear
the cool breeze any longer, I walked back home. I hadn’t slept my
full and was quite tired so unable to read anymore I went to sleep again. Rano
Aunty woke me up and since it was her birthday we went out for dinner to a Thai
restaurant called OPM. We went through a slightly newer part of town where
construction was still going on to reach OPM. I was surprised seeing the two
rickshaws standing on one side outside the restaurant and all the more when we
were greeted by a jolly, high-pitched hello. For a moment I assumed that my
hosts knew the lady at the entrance, but realized that people usually greet each
other this way in shopping places, and restaurants. They had a good laugh when I
told them I wasn’t hungry as I was used to having a late dinner without
realizing that daylight was playing tricks on my mind and it was 9 PM! I guess I never got used to this
phenomenon and my stomach refused to feel hungry until darkness.

The
next day I was home alone again and thanks to Laddi Aunty I watched a DVD by a
Canadian-Indian called Russell Peters. He made the issues faced by immigrants
real funny and didn’t seem care who he made fun of - white, brown, black,
Chinese, Jamaican or Indian! The best part was that people he made fun of
enjoyed themselves! I continued my book-reading until Laddi Aunty came back
early in the evening and took me out for a walk. We had a good time getting to
know each other and I really enjoyed the walk through pine trees and beautiful
houses with gardens adorned with petunias, pansies and other pretty flowers. The
last thing I expected to see there were mosquitoes but they were so huge, they
beat Indian ones by at least 5 milimeters! We then drove to a Mexican restaurant
called Chillis for dinner where everyone was concentrating on the ice hockey
match between Oilers, Edmonton’s
team named so because this province is known for its rich oil reserves and
Carolina’s team Hurricanes. Aunty is
a pure vegetarian and has ways of ordering non-vegetarian dishes to suit her
needs, so we ordered ‘nachos’ with the curry separately. In the midst of dinner,
I got a scare when someone let out a scream as Oilers had made a goal. The
environment everywhere was charged-up and one could see a lot of people wearing
Oilers’ T-shirts, cars having mini Oilers flags and even houses with Oilers
banners.

It
started to rain the next day, the temperature dipped further and everything was
so quiet, I felt like sleeping all day at home but finished the two books I was
reading simultaneously. Aunty and Sonia came back early in the afternoon and
took me to West-Ed (West Edmonton Mall) that is the world’s largest shopping
mall and entertainment centre! Left on our own we would have gotten lost in the
huge place, so Aunty and I followed Sonia everywhere. It was fun to go around
the different shops and since one has so much choice, one can select the best
item from a lot of different places. I was pretty happy with my buy, thanks to
Aunty and Sonia who knew the place well and advised me appropriately. Other than
shops, there also were a lot of food-courts, an ice-skating rink, amusement
park, water-park, a sea-lion show and an I-max. In the centre of the I-max,
surrounded by other caricatures was a dragon a lot of people including us were
waiting for to come alive. Indeed it started to move, blow smoke from its
nostrils and fire from its mouth; the effect enhanced by a lot of special
lighting and sound effects! We bought some popcorn and coke at I-max and I was
surprised yet again at the huge proportions of everything there, especially of
food items! We even saw Flamingoes of two varieties-deep orange and white n pink
ones that were so beautiful I was transfixed for a while. I thoroughly enjoyed
West-ed and could have spent the whole day there but I had to be there at a
get-together of the conference delegates in the evening.

After
dinner Uncle, Aunty and Sonia dropped me off at the get-together to a restaurant
called Earl’s that’s inside the university campus. The University area was
unlike the quiet apartments and gardens where I’d stayed the last 3 days. Sonia
drove us through numerous streets lined with a lot of tall buildings that
included departments and other buildings including restaurants, shops, hospitals
etc. For some reason, the get-together was giving me the jitters, but I bravely
entered Earl’s and asked a lady about the group I was to meet. She had no clue
so I started to look around and spotted Shelley Velleman (Dr. V) but wasn’t too
sure. Before I could approach her, she asked me if I’d come for the child
phonology meeting and if I was Vani! I was totally taken aback when she
recognized me and it felt great to finally meet her after being in touch through
email. She then introduced me to her husband Dan and the organizer of the
conference-Karen Pollock. We were soon joined by Megan Overby, a grand mom and a
sweet lady who is a doctoral student! We waited a while but no one else joined
us probably because it was raining and it was fun talking about the trip to
Edmonton, our families and the
conference. I left in an hour when Uncle, Aunty and Sonia came back to pick me
up and got geared up for the conference that was to start the next day.

Sunny,
their son dropped me off at the Lister centre in the morning where the
conference was to be held and I helped Dr. Pollock carry the folders that were
to be distributed amongst us. We entered the
Aurora room and I was quite
surprised to see the small room with a seating capacity of hardly 50 people.
Doug, a doctoral student from the
University of
Memphis introduced himself and made
me so comfortable by talking about general stuff that I sat beside him the rest
of the day. Soon others including Dr. V and Megan came in and thanks to Doug I
was introduced to his other colleagues from Memphis- Jamie and Kyong who are
also doctoral students. The conference started off with an introduction by Dr.
Pollock who spoke about Edmonton,
the University of
Alberta and “The faculty of
Rehabilitation Medicine” (with a lot of emphasis)-the sponsor of this
conference. Dr. Pollock also invited us for a Canadian dinner at her house on 17
June where the only thing Canadian would be the Oilers vs. Hurricanes match! The
scientific sessions started soon and I was amazed by the way people were having
snacks and drinking tea/coffee/sodas all throughout! Some of the snacks looked
familiar and some of them looked interesting enough to try but I didn’t try too
much on the first day since I was so overwhelmed by the new place and new
people. Most of all I was thrilled to meet people like John Bernthal and Carol
Stoel-Gammon whose books/articles I’ve been reading all my ‘speech n hearing’
life! The sessions were well spaced with frequent breaks in between and the
discussions for all papers were informal and productive at the same time!
Everyone kept acknowledging ‘Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine’ to keep up with
the hilarious introduction by Dr. Pollock.

We
had to forage for ourselves during lunch-time, so we made impromptu groups and I
joined Doug and the rest of the
Memphis gang. Dr. Buder, their
advisor who also joined us was really nice to be around with and told me that
the only place he’d visited in
India way back
in 1984 was Mysore! We were joined
by Dr. Pollock and took a walk in the cool breeze to a Korean restaurant called
Ga Ya. Kyong guided us through the dishes and I had Chicken Teriyaki that was
quite nice! We had a nice time talking and they were amused when I told them we
have a body called ISHA (Indian Speech and Hearing Association) while they have
an ASHA (American Speech and Hearing Association)!

After
the sessions ended, we went to the Jim Corbett Hall for a reception where we
also visited the Department of Speech Pathology. Dr. Pollock’s office was filled
with pictures of her kids and Chinese artifacts. I had known about her research
interests in language development of adopted children from
China but was
surprised to note that she has an adopted daughter of Chinese origin herself!
The reception was nice, with a lot of tasty snacks including Thai rolls made
with rice-noodles and vegetables! Raquel, a linguist from Brazil introduced
herself to me saying that she thought she had traveled the maximum (26 hours)
until someone told her there was a girl from India who’d traveled more than 30
hours! I had a good time talking to everyone and when it was time to leave, I
called from Aunty’s cell-phone so Sunny n Sonia could come to pick me up. I
reached home and we started to see a new Hindi movie called ‘Sauten’ (of all
things) I’d never heard of. It was terrible indeed and halfway through it I
decided to have dinner and sleep. By the time I finished, Sandy, their nephew
and Christine, Sandy’s wife came
over from next door, had dinner and all my sleep vanished when we started to
talk. I really enjoyed Christine’s company, slept after a while and decided to
get up early the next morning so I could practice my presentation. Laddi Aunty
woke me up before she left for work but I went right on sleeping because
curiously enough I wasn’t feeling tensed at all!

Uncle-Aunty
took me on the morning of 17 June to the Lister centre where I met Carrie and
Gabi who are both masters’ students in the
University of
Alberta. Gabi seemed interested about
where in India I
was from and I was quite surprised when she told me she has an Indian boyfriend!
I spoke to them for a while and then decided to be a little more adventurous
snacks-wise and tried some thing sweet that looked interesting, but didn’t like
it, so I stuck to muffins and croissants then on. I also tried ‘Five alive’-a
citrus soda that was so sour, I probably took all of two sips from it and some
chamomile tea, that I liked so much, I bought some on my way back! After the
first few paper presentations, there was a nice discussion led by Dr. V on one
of my favorite subjects-Childhood Apraxia of Speech that went on really well! I
joined Carrie and Gabi for lunch and we walked through numerous streets and a
hospital to reach Organic roots, where one gets everything from organic
vegetables to organic chocolates. I was rather surprised when Carrie who is a
vegetarian told me that she cooks Indian curries and you won’t believe my shock
when she told me she is into organic stuff and homeopathy!!! I had Falafel, a
middle-eastern dish that had a sauce made of yogurt in it and Carrie tried to
explain it as being something like ‘reeta…reta…’ and I realized what she was
trying to say was ‘raita’!!

It
was time for my presentation after the next break that felt too long until Kyong
effectively distracted me by offering to take pictures of me with Dr. Bernthal.
Dr. Pollock introduced me and everyone applauded when she added that it was my
first time out of
India. The
presentation went alright and was well-received, especially because I was
talking about a new language. The curiosity of people was apparent by the
questions that came forth and the funniest part was when I went blank for a
while at a question by Cynthia (Asst. Prof. at
Univ. of
Florida), who asked me for an example
of a multisyllabic word in Kannada! After I was done I happened to meet Dr.
Stoel-Gammon at the snacks table who was just about to leave. She told me she
wasn’t going to stay over for dinner, so I took a picture with her and Dr.
Pollock! Feeling great that I was successful in taking pictures with so many
people and relieved over finishing the paper, I hardly paid attention to the
next presentation! I left for home after the sessions and during the break of
the Oilers-Hurricanes match Uncle-Aunty dropped me off at Dr. Pollock’s
residence. I got to talk to people who I hadn’t spoken to before, more so
because of my presentation. It was interesting the way we found a common ground
to gossip about, namely ‘research’ issues that are quite different in both our
worlds and similar yet in so many ways! We had burgers and four different kinds
of pie with ice cream for dinner. I joined Dr. V, Dr. Buder, Doug and Cynthia as
we discussed everything from Chomsky, Chomsky bashing,
US politics, and
Indian perceptions of the Bush administration to book reading and travel
partners! I had a lot of fun and bade farewell to everyone hoping to meet all
these people again in some other conference some other time!

I
got up really late the next day and found everyone at home for the first time as
it was a Sunday. Aunty and I went for the some left-over shopping in the
afternoon and since I wanted to buy some paints, Sonia suggested a place called
Michaels. The place was full of artsy items and I loved it so much that I didn’t
know what to pick and what to leave. After a lot of looking I finally decided to
stick to some glass paints but couldn’t resist buying some other stuff. I left
with a hefty bill that I felt guilty about then but don’t regret one bit now! I
also enjoyed shopping at ‘Dollarama’ (where the price of anything you pick is
1$) and after getting the bill I almost wanted to go back and pick some more
stuff! Aunty and I also bought a shirt for Uncle from ‘The Bay’ and then we went
to have some South Indian food that Aunty loves. I shouldn’t have been surprised
by the proportions, but I was shocked to find 6 vadas in one plate of
vada-sambhar! We packed most of them and took them home for Laddi aunty who
loves South Indian food too.

I
packed all my loot blessing my mom and brother who had advised me to carry a big
bag! We left for Uncle’s brother’s (Taayaji’s) house for dinner where I realized
that hugging one another shoulder-to-shoulder is a tradition amongst the men of
the Nijjar family! Taayaji pronounced me eligible for permanent immigration in
Canada and
Jessey Uncle even teased me about finding an eligible bachelor for me there! I
told them I couldn’t because firstly,
Canada was too
cold for me in the summer but most importantly because it was never night-time
during dinner! We had a good laugh over dinner and it was quite late when we
left, in fact it was the just the second time I was witnessing a dark night.
Since it was my last day there, we went downtown to see the legislature building
and the city centre despite the late hour. It took us 15 minutes to reach and
the downtown looked like a city by itself, totally different from the rest of
Edmonton. The stretch of high-rise
buildings dotted with lights in different colours was a breathtaking view from
the top. The drive took us through a road that spirals downwards and over the
Saskatchewan River through a pretty metallic bridge with
frill-shaped girders. We reached the legislature building, one of the most
beautiful buildings of Edmonton
where wedding pictures are apparently taken! It was a palatial building with
huge pillars all around and a dome in its centre not unlike the domes of our own
Vidhaan Sabha buildings! It was unfortunate that I hadn’t been able to see it in
the morning, but I was glad they brought me at this time as the lighting all
around in the city centre was alluring in itself! We enjoyed ourselves there
taking pictures and left for home after a while.

We
retired for the night and I woke up early to say goodbye to Rano Aunty, Uncle
and Laddi Aunty who left for work by 6
AM. I swallowed some breakfast, made a few calls and Sunny dropped me
off at the airport. I was helped by an Air Canada employee to collect my
boarding passes from an ATM kind of a machine! After a little wait I boarded the
flight and geared myself up for another 40 hour grueling flight. I decided to
bunk the movie (Pink panther again!) in favor of Robert Ludlum and reached
Toronto on time! I was to meet my
mother’s ex-colleague Padmavathi Aunty and her husband Sudhakar Uncle at
terminal 3 of the Toronto airport,
but since I was in terminal 1 I had to take a shuttle to terminal 3. Unable to
reach Uncle on his phone, I boarded the shuttle and realized how big the airport
was when the shuttle took around 7 minutes to reach the next terminal winding
through the roads of the city. At the terminal 3, we found each other and it
felt great to see them after so long, especially Padma aunty who is also my
Botany teacher. My connecting flight was to start from terminal 1 and uncle took
us all the way back again in their car! We spent some time together munching
some chips and brownies, took some pictures and after a while it was time to
check-in again. I boarded the Lufthansa flight to
Frankfurt where there seemed to be some kind of a
confusion so the flight was delayed by an hour! An expert on airline quality by
this time I declared Air
Canada
rest-rooms much cleaner and better aerated than the Lufthansa ones and airports
of Canada
superior than those of Frankfurt!

At
Frankfurt, I enquired about the terminal of the
connecting flight where I met a girl from
Bangalore and we got chatting soon.
The time passed quickly and we even got seats next to each other on the flight
that was quite empty. Both of us slept through most of the journey and I got up
with a start when the air hostess asked whether I wanted vegetarian or
non-vegetarian food! I was really hungry and had both meals as I hadn’t eaten
anything on the previous flights due to queasiness! We were both up by the time
we were over
Iran and were
quite shocked to see houses amidst the vast desert and mountains that had not a
speck of green! I felt an excitement run through me when the map on TV showed
we’d entered
India through
Gujarat and couldn’t wait to land! I called Bhaiya as
soon as we landed so he could start from home after a while. I cleared customs
quickly and to my shock saw my bag cruising over the conveyer belt as soon as I
reached the counter! Ready in 20 minutes, I had to wait a while for Bhaiya who
had just started from home caught unawares that I was able to check-out so soon.
I blabbered all the way back and for an hour later while he was sacrificing his
sleep over the soccer match. Excitement made me forget sleep but I was exhausted
after a while and snoozed only to wake up disoriented at 7 AM by my mom’s call. I couldn’t sleep after that so I
retold all my stories to Megha until she left for office! I got my train to
Mysore at 3 PM and slept after I forced myself to finish the last
few pages of the Robert Ludlum. I was so zonked in the train that if it hadn’t
been for the Aunty in the lower berth, I would have been back in
Bangalore! I was dreaming about
Canada in my sleep and when I got up I thought ‘Damn! I didn’t even see a Maple
tree!!’

Posted by Vani at 8:42
AM 0
comments

A gleeful
sojourn

They
say, “Laughter is the best medicine” and I had oodles of it on my last trip. Two
weeks before the trip, however the situation was as bleak as ever. I had to
complete a paper for a conference in
Trivandrum, for which I was
encountering snags of the first degree. I had prepared myself for every
eventuality in case I wasn’t able to finish the paper on time but fate had other
plans. I finished my powerpoint an hour before the six of us were supposed to
leave. We took two autos with the guys in one, gals in the other but in mid-way,
we saw the guys’ auto take an about turn, since they had forgotten some
essential items.

We reached the railway
station in a hurry and met our co-passenger, Arvind who is from
“Institute of
Kannada studies”. The other girls
with me were Jayashree and Banu who are my colleagues in PhD; the guys were
Arun, PhD. again, Ram Mohan and Pradyumn being II MSc. students. We sent Banu to
reserve some seats while we were buying tickets but she went and sat in the
general compartment! We didn’t know that then, so we kept searching for her
while she gave us vague instructions as to where she was “straight to where
Mysore is written”. When asked to
repeat the directions again, she kept saying “straight” in different ways. By
the time we realized where she was, the guys had reached and were sitting
elsewhere. The platform was extremely crowded by this time and people were
walking in all directions. Dodging all kinds of people coming my way, and
occasionally catching the whiff of a drunken man’s breath (very common in
Karnataka), I went and fetched Banu while Pradyumn hauled her bag in. The best
seats we could get together were if we sat on the upper berths as well, so
Jayashree, Ramu, Arvind, and I were perched on top. Thankfully Ramu kept Arvind
company because when we started to attempt to be social, he tried to make us
sing folk songs! The very suggestion had Ramu rolling in laughter while Arun was
laughing at me for no reason (he and me are laughing partners since our previous
trip).

We
finally reached Bangalore and left
for a hotel outside the station to have our dinner. Ramu and Pradyumn nicknamed
Arvind “Raavan” since he was paying way too much attention to us girls! We had a
good dinner though, went back to the railway station and boarded the train. To
our surprise, Raavan was now giving his undivided attention to Ramu (much to his
chagrin), so the joke backfired at Ramu now. While Arvind was unaware he’d been
christened Raavan, we started singing the latest Hindi number from Swades
“Ram ko bhulo, ye dekho Raavan aaya hai”-very
appropriate!

When we got
up in the morning, we were already inside “God’s own country” evident by the
expanse of greenery. It was as much a balm to the heart as it was a treat to the
eyes. There were numerous farms with a variety of crops, pepper and vanilla
twirling round Araci nut, Teak trees and many varieties of Banana. These farms
were interspersed with wide stretches of backwaters flanked by coconut trees and
occasionally one could see a long lonesome fishing boat bobbing in the waters or
anchored on to the shore. The constant drizzle made the atmosphere all the more
alluring. We enjoyed our breakfast and got to know each other better by the
minute. The jokes started to increase as well. Ramu and Pradyumn wasted no time
pulling Banu’s leg, not allowing her to read, or sleep or comb her hair. They
even imitated her when she said, “This is too much!” so there was nothing she
could do but call them “Korang” (monkey), but Pradyumn imitated even that in
north Indian style-Korangaa!

We
reached Trivandrum in the afternoon
and were supposed to be met by one of the organizers of the conference and a
friend of mine, Uma. We placed our luggage on the platform and with a couple of
us taking care of it; the rest of us went about making enquiries. I
entered one entrance and came out the other, atleast four times, looking for
Uma, trying to locate her among the very similar looking Mallu ladies, none of
them resembling her. All of them had invariably oiled, long, shiny and curly
hair kept together by two strands of hair taken from either side and tied into a
small plait in between. We waited and looked for forty-five minutes and then
took a taxi to the venue- Thumba. Though we didn’t know it then, our train had
reached an hour before its scheduled arrival, and since our friends had reached
later than us, we missed them. Thumba is 20 kms. from the city and by the time
we reached, the first day’s proceedings were over.

We
got good accommodation and were told that there was a beach close by, so we got
ready and went there. We bought some snacks on the way and attacked them with
zest, snatching each others’ banana chips, with the people on the street gawking
at us. I am told Keralites in small cities are not used to seeing girls in
jeans, imagine us laughing and jumping with the boys! We reached the beach and
were immediately reminded of the dreadful Tsunami, wondering how people could
have survived 10ft tall waves. Shutting away further disturbing thoughts, we
entered the waters. We were idly enjoying the waves washing our feet, when
whoosh came a huge one getting us wet up to our waists. I went running behind at
the sight of the next big one, and had Arun laughing so hard, he had to hold on
to the next guy. There were a number of perfectly circular holes in the sand
everywhere and I screamed at everyone to look when a transparent looking crab
popped out of one. We soon saw numerous crabs of all sizes come out of their
hiding places and crawl towards the water only to be swallowed by the oncoming
waves. It had us wondering what they do in the water, how they survive, do they
ever come back? Nature has such a beautiful cycle, these creatures have
instincts us two-legged animals, the most evolved beings, cannot beat. Pradyumn
was so fascinated by these crabs, he started running them into the water
shouting “Go baby go!!”

We
walked along the beach for a while and since it was getting dark, went back to
the institute and had our dinner. The dinner was stew and chapathis which only
two of us enjoyed, the rest of them swallowed it with a lot of difficulty, as it
was quite bland. Ramu and Pradyumn got some dinner for Mirchi Jayashree
who has a craving for spicy food. To my horror she (who is skinnier than I am)
gobbled up four uttapas after eating the two chapattis she didn’t want to
eat! While she was having her dinner, Ramu and Pradyumn were teasing Princess
Banu. It seems while we were playing in the beach, she was having a photo
session with Ramu who made her pose in front of boats and huts laughing inwardly
all the while. She “Korangofied” him another 100 times for making fun of her.

The
next day were our presentations and Jayashree’s was the first. She presented
well though Banu elicited laughter out of her in the middle of it. The rest of
our presentations were in the afternoon sessions for which we prepared for a
while after lunch of the “fat” rice typical of Kerala. We vowed to have fish fry
for dinner and went for our session. Our papers were in stark contrast to the
other Linguistic papers in terms of both manner of presentation and content. All
of us answered questions from each other’s papers because the discussions were
quite “un-technical”. Our jokes didn’t halt even there. Arun had memory problems
in between his presentation and I reflexively supplied a few words, which were
not heard by him. Pradyumn’s paper was so filled with graphs; Banu had a
terrible time placing them again and again. The chairperson appreciated us for
our “team work”!

We
were so hungry by the end of the day, we set out to look for some fish fry. We
reached a nearby complex and passed one hotel to another in disappointment. No
fish…in Kerala??? It was puzzling. Although we could smell first and see raw
fish being sold on the roadside later, there was no hotel that was serving fish;
I solved the mystery realizing that since fish is more or less the staple diet
in Kerala, few roadside hotels offer fish in their menu. We finally reached one
whose waiter was a most impatient man. A little hesitation from our side and he
would saunter off! So we had another nearly inedible dinner of appam, idiappam
and fish curry (still no fry). On our way back, we had a fit of laughter when
Arun tried to sing a Hindi song completely off tune. This brought us to a point
where we would start laughing by just looking at each other’s faces. We
reluctantly left for our rooms and decided to get up early to go to the
reservation office to book our return tickets.

We
girls were up and ready at 5 early in the morning but the boys had only just
gotten up! The morons had switched their mobiles off as well, so we couldn’t
call them when we’d gotten up at 4. The taxi wala had already arrived, so we
went to knock on their doors. Ramu came out in shorts and a towel on his
shoulders, all sleepy-eyed! We threatened him to wake everyone up and get ready
soon, or we’d get inside! To our disgust, Raavan was the first one to get ready!
We finally left by 6 and one of the previous night’s catch phrases tickled
another bout of laughter early in the morning, a sure sign of a wonderful day
ahead. We indeed were lucky and got our tickets without difficulty. We then went
ahead with our sightseeing, bunking the day’s scientific sessions. First we went
to Padmanabhaswamy temple whose deity is one of Lord Vishnu’s forms-Ranganatha.
I had always wanted to visit a temple in Kerala, they are so different from the
temples in other states, I’d heard. I was not disappointed; it had a different
aura, with the traditional Kutavellakka-lamps, architecture, even a unique way
of giving prasad in a banana leaf and lotus petals.

The unique thing about
it was that no one is allowed inside wearing pajamas or trousers. Everyone has
to wear “Mund”- the traditional “lungi”. Ladies can enter in either sarees or
skirts. We had neither, so all of us wore “Mund”. The funniest amongst us was
Pradyumn who was walking like a duck as he had tied it around too tight! We did
some shopping around the temple and left for the Kovalam beach. It is a
beautiful stretch of sea with very fine black and golden sand on the shore. We
walked along the beach for a while admiring the waves hitting the shore with
black rocks extending into it from one side. There were coast guards looking
very funny in blue shirt and blue shorts blowing their whistles to warn people
away from the more dangerous areas. This was an amazingly clean beach compared
to our beach at Thumba, owing to its world-class status, but not half as
interesting according to Pradyumn (as he couldn’t chase any babies here.)

We
proceeded from there and at our request the driver took us for lunch to a place
we could get fish fry. The hotel was in the city but he took us through numerous
narrow streets leading to “Hotel Mubarak”. As soon as we entered I was hit by
the offensive smell of non-veg. and something else I couldn’t put my finger on.
Before we knew it, they started serving food and we couldn’t figure where to
look or what to eat. Considering the dingy atmosphere, the food was tasty and
the hotel didn’t seem all that bad. Our stomachs were more than full but I
didn’t want to see non-vegetarian food again for a while!

Mission accomplished,
we left for the institute to attend the valedictory function. One of us was
asked to give feedback about our experiences and we pushed Ramu on the stage. At
one point he smiled such a wide smile, I thought he would start laughing. He
claimed that happened when he looked at my face, precisely why I was trying to
duck behind Pradyumn sitting in front of me!! Awards were announced, and to our
surprise we got an award as a team! It seemed so fitting as we had done
everything as a team, presentation, answering, even laughing and having fun. The
program was to end with the national anthem and the cassette of “Sare jahaan se
achcha” started playing instead. I was already amused, so when the national
anthem started, and Ramu sang it wrong at one point, I had the worst half a
minute of my life trying to control my laugh. All happy and excited, we left for
the nearby beach again but we didn’t get into the water since it was a full moon
day. No Pradyumn’s babies, I guess they knew the sea was going to be ferocious-
smart guys! So, we made pyramids and birthday cakes in the sand, ran around like
children and of course laughed a lot. I had started singing the tweety bird song
“Nobody likes me” sometime during the day, everyone was fascinated initially,
but I started to make it more and more sorrowful and irritated everyone. They
were ready to strangle me by the end of the day.

The
next day we started off at 8 and met Uma at the station. The driver took us to a
nice place where we had our breakfast. Uma then guided us to visit a palace
called “Kudira Maliga” which means “Palace of horses”. Indeed, made of typical
Kerala tiles and wooden pillars, the palace comprised of horses close to the
ceiling. After looking around at the stuff museums are usually made of, we went
for some shopping and I bought a saree and salwar kameez, both Onam style. We
gave our laughing disease to Uma too, especially with Ramu and Pradyumn saying
“evide” for everything in different intonation patterns, every few minutes! Our
time passed much too quickly, we left for the station and bade farewell to Uma.

After a while in the
train we were so hungry we got down at every station looking for food. No matter
how far we went from our bogie, all we got were bananas or snacks made in
coconut oil, (much to Ramu’s disgust) which didn’t fill our hunger. In spite of
that our spirit was alive and Ramu decided to hit on a girl sitting on the other
side of the platform. I started laughing and blew it but she started smiling
when she realized she was the object of our attention. We started talking to her
in sign language but soon the train started, Ramu waved goodbye, she waved back,
we howled and the girl enjoyed herself! We could eat properly only at dinnertime
and were relieved to see white rice! After dinner, as usual, I made everyone
collect the waste into one cover, ignoring Pradyumn’s arguments and left it on
the side for some cleaners to take it away. Pradyumn had had enough of me, so
when I didn’t come back for a long time from the toilet (there was a queue), he
decided I had gone to clean the whole train! When I reached back, they were all
laughing and much to their surprise, I started laughing as well. We retired for
the day when some poor soul in our bogie asked us to laugh softly. We reached
Bangalore at 7 in the morning and got our tickets for Mysore. We realized this
was our last step of journey. We didn’t waste a minute and recounted our good
times together- Vanamma-the cleaning woman, Banamma-the princess,
Jayamma-Mirchi, Arunayya-the singer, Praddayya- baby crazy and Ramayya-evide? We
had the whole compartment staring at us, but we were beyond caring. When we
reached back, Pradyumn commented that we had probably increased the quantity of
our blood by a few liters! He could just be right!

Posted by Vani at 8:30
AM 0
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Speech
and hearing camp

The NSS camp this year was arranged on the
three-day weekend I was planning to go home. A bombshell dropped when I was told
that I was to go for the camp, but since I couldn’t do anything about it, I took
it in stride. I had gone for the last three days. Around fifty students and four
staff members left two days before our group did. They conducted a two-day
survey in ten villages of HD Kote taluq. The survey was conducted for around
5000 people from all the villages and over 600 persons were identified. They
were given referrals to come for the three-day camp at “Chakkodanahalli” where
we were providing diagnostic and therapeutic services (DTS) to them. Eight of us
staff members and JRFs (Junior Research Fellows) representing different
departments, had gone later for the three day DTS. HD Kote is around 2 hours
from Mysore, so we had started early
in the morning with all the equipment, accessories and saplings (for tree
plantation) and reached in time for breakfast. Everyone was staying at the
Inspection bungalow (IB) with three rooms provided for the girls and one big
hall for the guys with mattresses, bed sheets and pillows!! Breakfast was idli,
dosa, vada, chutney and sambhar with people serving us!! The first impression
itself was unlike any other camp that we had ever attended. Usually at NSS camps
are used to sleeping on mats and not so much variety in food. It was quite nice
to be comfortable. We were told that this was all thanks to the MLA, Mr.
Venkatesh who had helped organize the camp for us along with MYRADA, the local
NGO there.

We left after breakfast for the campsite at
Chakkodanahalli which was a Government primary school. We arranged all
departments in different rooms-Audiology Evaluation, Hearing Aid Trial, Speech
Pathology and Counseling (where I was), Ear molds and Hearing Aid distribution,
ENT and Psychology. Loads of cases one after the other but since the students
were on rotation in the different departments, it was ok. It was quite a job,
but the end of the day, as it usually happens…. we know we had counseled them
with all our might, even given speech therapy, but we also know that even if 10%
of them come back to us, it would be a miracle!!

At the end of the first day we went back to
the IB and relaxed for a while, had fun singing songs. The next day was holi and
we had a quiet time just putting “tika” to everyone. Again at the end of the day
there was a song session and bonfire very late in the night. Food was great all
along; we even got non-vegetarian food, fruits and sweets. Mr. Venkatesh was
serving us food himself a lot of times. His government ambassador car’s dikkie
held loads of watermelon in it. Every once in a while he would ask us if we
wanted “kallangadi hannu” (watermelon), ask his boys to get them and start
cutting them himself.

Thanks to him a site seeing trip was
organized for us, and we left early in the morning the next day. We first went
to a forest lodge in the Rajiv Gandhi National Park. We were lucky enough to see deer, sambar, stags,
bisons, elephants and langurs on our way. At the forest lodge, we went for short
elephant rides-6 of us on each elephant. After a while our breakfast came all
the way from HD Kote and we the left for a boat ride to the Kabini lake. As soon
as we reached, we could see a lovely lake bordered by shades of green. At the
far end of the lake, there was a breathtaking view of dried trees standing in
the water, with their reflections falling on it. I couldn’t wait to get in the
boat and as soon as we were given our instructions to be careful (including the
threat of crocodiles!!!) I left with the first group of people. We took lots of
pictures from the boat and I was happy to see some birds perched on the branches
of those dead trees. The boat ride ended all too soon and we left for the forest
lodge again to have lunch (brought yet again from HD Kote). None of this
would’ve been possible without a permit by a big-shot, and we had our Mr.
Venkatesh to thank for this trip.

We left after a long wait back to HD
Kote…..the bus ride was getting to our nerves by then because we were 60 of us
jammed into a tiny bus, some of us standing, some of us adjusting in seats for
two. The day was getting hotter and though we were getting more tired and
irritable, we were singing songs, cracking jokes and trying our best to keep our
cool. Suddenly there was a change of plan and Mr.Venkatesh decided we still had
time and we could visit the Kabini dam. There was no water flowing through and
at his request the “dam guys” let the water flow twice just for us!! The water
whooshed out of the floodgates and it was a sight to behold. We finally left for
Kote to the MYRADA building where we were supposed to have our Valedictory
function. There was sometime before the program was to start, so people were
invited to sing. Lots of people sang including our ENT doctor Dr. Mahadevappa,
who himself came up to sing. He sang an old Hindi song and subsequently sang
(with enthu) three more, whenever he got inspiration to sing another
one.

The usual lectures started and the camp
report was given. When the MLA was called, there was spontaneous applause and he
was quite hilarious (though most of us could catch only threads of his Kannada
speech). The characteristic of not leaving the platform was the only fact that
confirmed that he was, afterall…….. a politician!!!

Alas, the speeches got over and we left for
the IB, packed up and loaded the bus. Another one and a half hour journey
started and we were trying our best by exchanging places with those who weren’t
sitting and finally reached at 11 PM. Needless to say, we were all tired and after another
hauling out session of luggage, we treaded back to the hostel. I slept like a
log that night and guess what we had for breakfast the next morning……Uppittu
(Upma) L L…….no wonder I didn’t think of hostel even once out
there!!!!

Posted by Vani at 8:04
AM 1
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Wedding
bells in Kerala

The
“paapu”(baby) Amala of my class was getting married on 21st May 2005. Although I didn’t
believe it, I went for her engagement (7th May). I left for Kottayam
on 6th to reach Ernakulam the next day where I was supposed to meet
up with Ponnu (another classmate) and go with her to Kottayam. I had an amazing
start. Since I had to buy sweets for Ponnu’s family, I asked the auto wala to
stop at a place, left my bag in his auto and when I came back, the auto was
missing!! I looked around for 10 minutes (though it seemed like an hour)
frantically searching for an auto with a blue bag inside it. Almost in tears and
desperate, while I was just complaining to the traffic policeman, I saw the
auto! I ran for it, heedless of the vehicles passing by. The auto guy had to
take a round and come back as it was a no-parking zone. Although I had this
doubt, it gave me a jolt as he had taken quite a lot of time! I reached the bus
stand two minutes before the bus was to arrive. The bus was late and I was
hoping not to sit beside a “vaaynoki” (means face-looker, when literally
translated in Malayalam) Malyali man and my wish came true, as I had both seats
all to myself.

On the way to
Waynad (at the border of Karnataka and Kerala), the bus passes via a national
park. I was enjoying the cool breeze, when suddenly, the bus stopped. There was
a mama elephant and a baby elephant crossing the road!! The bus backtracked a
little, switched off the headlights and stopped for a while. We bade them
goodbye once they reached safely inside the forest again. The bus then
maneuvered its way past the Western Ghats and I was
remembering the time I’d been to Wayanad three years ago with my friends. I
didn’t sleep, as I was engrossed in past memories and other thoughts until
midnight when the bus halted at
Thrissur. I decided to stop thinking and try to sleep a little. Right on cue,
this huge man came up and literally sprawled beside me. He seemed to have no
concept of neutral territory in spite of requesting him (and even pushing his
hand away…. Oh man!). Understandably, sleep eluded me for the rest of the
journey, and I must have slept for around 10 minutes after the guy got down at
some stop in between. We reached Ernakulam at 5 early in the morning and I
called my friend. She implored me to wait at the ladies room while she came with
her dad to pick me up in 20 minutes.

I’d been to
her house three years back when I thought it looked like a museum. It still
does! All thoughts of taking rest vanished from my mind when we started yapping-
recounting old times, remembering old friends and sharing the woes of our
current circumstances. We had breakfast and I took a little nap, got ready and
both of us left in a car for Kottayam (which is two hours away). We kept
chatting all the way and reached the church where the betrothal was to be
performed. The weather was hot and humid and we were sweating like crazy. Amala
finally reached, looking very sweet and not so baby like after all, in her
attire. The bridegroom arrived and the ceremony was conducted in the church with
the priests reciting Biblical Malayalam. We were well taken care of by Amala’s
family, had a sumptuous lunch and I really enjoyed the traditional meal! Ponnu
left from there for Ernakulam and I stayed back at Amala’s place. The couple had
to go shopping as Amala’s in-laws had to buy her a saree. I tagged along and we
reached a grand shopping mall. It took some time (4 hours… phew!!!) to select
the clothes while I was trying hard not to doze off.

Finally, the
shopping got done and all roads in Kottayam seemed to be blocked because of a
political rally. The groom’s side had to leave for Kannur and it took us an hour
to find a clear route for them. We reached home and I was quite well attended by
the family. They had a complete family get-together. Amala has four sisters-one
of them being her twin, and all of them married! The atmosphere was kept alive
by the kids bustling about and intermittently trying to have a conversation with
me in Malayalam! Amala’s dad said I looked like a Mallu, quite a surprise for a
hybrid variety of North Indian like myself! I joined the family in their daily
prayer, spoke for a while with Amala and went off to sleep. We got up late the
next morning and by 10 I had to leave for Ernakulam. It was another 2-hour
scenic journey during which I also tried reading a book I’d gotten along. I
insisted on reaching Ponnu’s house on my own and managed quite well considering
my Malayalam skills. I took some rest at her place, had a late lunch, yapped
some more and started off for the bus stand again. This time I told the
conductor to make sure I got a ladies seat. Thankfully he obliged and I had
quite a pleasant journey back. A firangi
lady was sitting beside me and we had absolutely no conversation at all.
Neither of us initiated, and I was fine as long as there was a lady besides me!
I slept little, reached at 4 early morning, took an auto and reached hostel only
to find the gates locked! I had to disturb a friend to open the gate and luckily
she was just about to sleep owing to the exam time weird schedule. Slept a few
hours on my bed (Ah! What bliss!) and spent the rest of the day completing the
novel I’d started on the journey. I was too tired to concentrate on “research”
work! Another one of my unending excuses!

Posted by Vani at 8:02
AM 1
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More
pleasure, less work

Indore
was the destination for our annual speech and hearing conference this year
(ISHACON-14-16 Jan 2005). We were to leave on 12th Jan from Bangalore
by the Karnataka express. I had left earlier than the others that day to reach
Bhaiya’s house. Bhaiya, Megha and her parents were leaving for Hyderabad the
same day by train, an hour before mine was to leave. Glad that I could spend
some time with them, I saw them off at the railway station waiting for my
friends to arrive. We were 35 of us split up into 3 bogies and 10 of us PhD
scholars (excluding Sai Ram, who is staff) were in the same bogie. We spent our
time singing, reading, pulling each other’s legs… and had a nice time. We
reached Khandwa at 8:30 P.M the next day, which is around 6 hours from Indore. A
bus was arranged for us and on our way, we really started to feel the cold.
Until then, people were only asking, “What happened to the 4 °C?” By the time we halted at a
dhaba, people were shivering. We reached Indore all exhausted at 2 in the
morning. All we could do was groan at the fact that we had to get up early as
the program was starting by 9 A.M. the same day. We just flopped on the bed and
didn’t realize until 8 the next morning where we were. We came to our senses
eventually, and got ready as fast as we could and moved to the venue- “Hotel
Sayyaji”.

The first day of the
conference was basically a get together of old friends and a little scientific
listening! At night we went to a place called “Nakhrali dhani”, a
Rajasthani resort in the lines of “Chokhi dhani-Jaipur” and “Dhola ri dhani-
Hyderabad”. I always had a wish to visit them, but couldn’t inspite of
visiting/living in these places (respectively) for years together. The
traditional Rajasthani hospitality was omnipresent colored with dances, magic
shows, puppet shows and antics by small kids. One could hear ‘Ram Ram sa’,
‘padharo sa’, ‘sethji’, ‘sethaniji’- a very different feeling for everyone. We
were all exhilarated by the atmosphere and food. My long awaited wish of having
“dal-baati churma” was also fulfilled. Towards the end, two guys who were
serving us, started to literally force laddoos into the mouths of us ‘sethjis’
and ‘sethanijis’. I also enjoyed a camel ride and then joined the rest of my
ex-classmates (6 of us) showing their palms to a ‘jyothshi’. We enjoyed the
stories of each other’s fate while he also matched a most unlikely pair- Sandeep
and Ramya. We laughed our heads off! After a very enjoyable evening, we left the
place for our hotel rooms.

The next day was
serious business and we tried our best to attend the scientific papers, although
more attention was given to food, especially the desserts which were in a wide
variety. After the papers finished, we got ready for the banquet. The snacks
reminded me of ICRISAT. There was a discotheque with a DJ arranged and I was
just waiting to dance. It took some time for people to start off, but once we
did (I joined soon), we didn’t stop. I danced like this with my friends after 2
years!!! We danced until our feet were killing us, and once we got some rest, we
would start again. The fact that most of us had our presentations the next day
was just a fleeting thought. We finally decided to have some food and get the
hell out, so we could at least stand the next day.

My
presentation was at 12 noon the next day and it went on well including the
questions, which came later. The other scientific sessions went on well but I
was only waiting for the day to get over. The valedictory function had a lot of
surprises in for us. For the first time ever, the organizers had a slide show
(photos) of the whole conference from the time it started, the events and the
work done by the organizers. There were only 5 people who formed the core
committee. 4 of them were from the same family- the father, son and
daughter-in-law are in the same profession (i.e. speech and hearing). Their
mother is a special educator who also was an instrumental member. There were a
lot of others also who were actively involved in the whole affair including
students who were called in from Mumbai. All in all, it was a flawlessly
conducted affair. It seemed that they didn’t forget the minutest detail.
Some of our very senior lecturers came on stage to appreciate the work
done by them. One of them, Dr. Rajashekhar imitated the other lectures and
senior members as in how each of them found the conference. He imitated Goswami
sir, Dr. Ratna, Mr. Ozha…and what was more, the imitation was expertly done!!!
And finally there was the much-awaited announcement of the awards and our
institute bagged 8 out of 10 awards!! This is our record for the third time!

I
spent the evening speaking to a senior of mine (Sapna) and we had dinner
together. The 35 of us then left for Bhopal at 11 P.M. by cars and reached at
around 3 A.M. half sleepy. But I was still in a ‘high’ and was singing and
talking gibberish. One of my colleagues, Arun who had never seen me so exuberant
started laughing at me and just couldn’t stop and soon, I couldn’t stop either.
(For two days, Arun and me would see each other and just start laughing). We
boarded the train at 5:30 early morning and got up very late only to realize
what a horrible pantry car the train had. We were all morose, after having a
literally inedible lunch. Then, at Nagpur, one of the third year girl’s mom
brought paranthas with aloo sabji for us. She would have made atleast a 100
paranthas…bless her! Our train was supposedly an hour late and we were
apprehensive about reaching in time for the connecting train to Bangalore from
Chennai. We thankfully reached on time and two other students’ mothers arranged
our breakfast at Chennai. We couldn’t even begin to thank them for the wonderful
gesture. We reached in the nick of time to Bangalore to board our train to
Mysore and again the lunch was arranged. What luck!!!

We finally
reached Mysore after 33 hours of journey and carrying luggage from one place to
another. I’m still in the ISHACON mood, guess it will continue for a few days…
am I doing PhD?

Posted by Vani at 7:59
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Spirituality
and nature- a trip with the right ingredients

We are back
from our 10-day trip to places we hadn’t thought we would visit! Our Andaman and
Nicobar trip was not to be; and just two days before we were about to start off,
the plan changed to visiting Pondicherry, Kanyakumari, Kumarakom and Munnar!
Incidentally, my father had just organized a conference at ICRISAT, which was
attended by a “God sent man from God’s own land” - Bibin Jacob. He and another
friend of ours chalked out a plan for us and also helped us in the booking.

We started
off on May 7th and reached Chennai on the morning of 8th.
We freshened up at Hoppers’ (My father’s friends’) place and left for the 3-hour
journey to Pondicherry by bus. We
reached Aurobindo Ashram’s Park guesthouse and got our booking there. The serene
and scenic atmosphere enchanted us. Everywhere we could see pictures of “Mother”
and “Sri Aurobindo”. All of this kindled a desire in us to know more about the
history of the place! The guesthouse on the seaside has a wonderful garden and
aesthetically decorated premises. The day we reached we went for our train
booking to Kanyakumari and also arranged the plan for the next day.

As per plan,
the next morning we visited the Ashram. At its center lies the marble shrine of
“The Mother” and “Sri Aurobindo”. The library and residential area for the
“Ashramites” are also situated there. Adjacent to it is the school run by the
Ashram. The Ashram also has a cottage industry kind of a set up where they make
candles, hand made paper; they have their own farms and gardens. We bought some
books in the library to unfold the mystery surrounding us! We realized the depth
with which things have been thought through, the meticulous organization of the
place and how the Ashram came into being! The Ashram makes sure all their
members can live a healthy and decent life without being bothered about the
necessary evils of daily living! There are no obligatory rituals or practices
required and they are all united in the belief that there exixts a divine
force!

Auroville is
a sister branch of the Ashram, although not as disciplined and organized as the
Ashram. We were invited for lunch to Brooks’ place, the Annapurna Auroville.
Brooks is Mom n Dad’s acquaintance from their visit to Kodaikanal a few years
ago. We took a taxi and on our way we visited Matrimandir! It was nothing like
any “mandir” we could have ever imagined but is a globe shaped structure covered
with golden discs! We learnt later that they are made of real gold!!!! We
couldn’t see the mandir from inside because of the timing and decided to come
back later. The Annapurna farm is around 25 km from
Pondy. Brooks, Shano(his wife), and two other colleagues of theirs welcomed us.
They live an eco-friendly life including organic farming, biogas, solar power,
hardly any electricity and in houses they have built themselves! Shano is a
doctor who visits a clinic 16 km away and also does door to door service!! We
had our lunch there and had a wonderful time talking to them and visiting their
farm. The visit made us appreciate how much dedication and will power one has to
have to stay in such a place. On our way back, we visited Matrimandir in a
hurry, because only the first thousand visitors are allowed to get in at a
stipulated time. The mandir is being made since 1979 and is still not complete.
It is tough work and we heard that there have also been a few casualties making
it. There is a spiraling slope leading to a room at the top of the globe, which
is a meditation room. At its center is a crystal and this room is called
“Peace”. One is not allowed to stay over there for long.

We went back
to the guesthouse and from there to the school playground where they had a
program of group meditation for half an hour. We saw some of the Ashramites
(senior citizens) exercising in the grounds. I was sitting beside a girl who
told me that there are many group programs organized including movies on every
Thursday!! This was not the kind of an ashram we thought it would be. Ashrams
are generally places where people stay away from worldly things and in
seclusion. These people are just a community who live together in harmony and
support each other. It is a diversified community; including foreigners, mostly
French. We were indeed awed by the place and the next morning we left for
Chidambaram (60km from Pondy), which has a huge temple complex, built in the
11th century. The maintenance or rather lack of it was disappointing,
but the temples were nice. On our way back to Pondy we went to “Chunambar”
boating resort, which was closed!!! We forgot to visit the “hand-made paper”
factory at Pondy, but realized only half way to Villupuram railway station,
which is 36 km away!

We boarded
our train to Kanyakumari for a 13-hour journey from there. On the way, at
Nagercoil, we saw a “wind-farm” with thousands and thousands of windmills amidst
coconut trees, farms and hills. It was a lovely sight. Papa met an elderly
Punjabi gentleman Mr. Malik in the train who looked 60 but claimed to be 80
years old! He joined us in our tour to Kanyakumari. We luckily got the
accommodation at Vivekananda Kendra where we had lunch, took some rest and went
in the Kendra bus to the city. We went for the ferry ride to the Vivekananda
Rock memorial. This was the place Swami Vivekananda swam through the shark
infested, stormy ocean waters long long ago. Alongside it is the rock on which a
huge statue of the great poet Thiruvalluvar is mounted. We took a wobbly ferry
ride back to the bus, which took us to the sunset point. We had a nice time
collecting seashells, writing on the sand and taking pictures of the sunset- all
on the southernmost tip of the Indian subcontinent. We left early morning the
next day in time to witness the sunrise and then straight to the railway station
to get our train for Kottayam in Kerala.

We thoroughly
enjoyed our 7-hour scenic journey to Kottayam and spent the day at a hotel,
which has a traditional Kerala ambience. They have a man-made lake,
and places called “Ettukettu” (8 cornered house/courtyard) and “Naalakettu”(4
cornered). We had started to tick off all the Keralite dishes we wanted to taste
and I enjoyed the food immensely. The next day we had our breakfast at Jacobs’
place(remember the God sent man?) and then left for Kumarakom where we took the
houseboat. We enjoyed the backwaters’ ride and the bird watching! The boat
stopped for lunch and we had “karimeen” and “thoran”. Our journey
resumed and then we halted for the day at around 5:30 pm. The mosquitoes had their dinner along with us
but in spite of all that we pretty much enjoyed the whole thing.

We reached
back to mainland the next day and spent the day visiting the bird sanctuary and
the Bay
Island driftwood museum. The museum
comprises of wooden fossils collected by a lady at the Bay Island of Andaman and
Nicobar (AnN) islands!! She has spent almost 25 years collecting these wonders
of nature from the Bay
Island beach. She has displayed them
as different creatures, events and objects. This is one of its kinds in
India and boasts
of brilliant creativity! We were glad we had our peek of AnN!

Our next
destination was Munnar, where we went by a taxi arranged by the Jacobs. The
driver knew only Malayalam and my limited expertise were put to use. My Keralite
friends would’ve have been proud of me! All the way it was raining and we were
concerned about our trip to this lovely place. The first day, we decided to stay
at the hotel because of the chill weather. Aruna, my friend from college stays
at a tea estate in Munnar. Her husband is the Medical Officer at Chundavurrai
tea estate. We couldn’t contact her because the phone lines were down but
enquired and found that her place is on the way to the major places of visit. We
started off with Madupatty dam (17 km from town), Echo point (23 km), Kundala
dam (30 km) and finally to Chundavurrai tea estate (34 km from town).
Unfortunately Aruna had gone to the town to pick up her husband and
parents-in-law. We decided we would try and look around the tea factory at the
estate. We were denied entrance, but were directed to the club there. It is a
hundred years old club with a sprawling golf course and wonderful lawns! We took
some plant saplings from there and the gardener guided us to “Top Station” which
is 4 km away. It is where one can see the planes of Tamil Nadu amidst the hills
on both sides. We spent around an hour and a half for the whole trip and went
back to Aruna’s place hoping to see her. But alas! They hadn’t reached! We were
just about to leave when they arrived! I was so glad to meet her. We had our
lunch there and appreciated Aruna’s creative talents and her garden. They guided
us to four other places of visit: The Orchidareum, Kurinji gift shop, Tata tea
museum and Shrishti. Aruna works for Tata tea hospital as an audiologist which
is associated with Shrishti where Aruna works as a speech therapist. It also has
a vocational training programme for the specially abled wherer they are trained
to make hand made paper, vegetable dyeing and help in making the strawberry
preserve. We bought some of these things at the Kurinji gift shop.

The
Tea
Museum was closed by the time we
reached but we requested the staff and they allowed us to have a look. The
gentleman there explained to us how the different types of tea are made and we
also got an insight to how the Tatas started their tea estates here. The British
had started the first tea plantations in 1879! And Tatas joined in with them and
completely took over by 1950s! Equipped with our GK, we decided to buy some
green tea, organic tea and orthodox tea at the factory outlet called Tata tea
kiosk! We’d had a memorable day driving through the tea estates, visiting new
places and we even saw a few deer and foxes on the way.

We reached
back to Kottayam the next day and visited the Agro Bio tech research lab of the
Jacobs. We went for lunch with them and really enjoyed their company. On our way
to the railway station we bought “appam chatty” (a ‘pan’ to make appam),
churutte and aval-my favorite sweets from Kerala.

We reached
back home after an 8-hour halt at Chennai. It was a 10-day trip and we couldn’t
believe how things had just fallen into place! We were grateful to the many
friends who made our trip possible and indeed very memorable!

Posted by Vani at 7:58
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My
first and last :( trekking expedition

I have never been so indecisive in my life…we had a
3-day weekend and a trek organized during that time. I wanted to go home also,
but then I thought that the trek would be a once in a lifetime chance and
decided against going home. Then another hurdle comes up…I fall sick with
pharyngitis!!! I told my problem to the program officer and he was still
confident that I could make it!! I still had my own doubts…changed my plan a
hundred times and finally decided to go for the trek.

We left at 2200 hrs. on 11 Jan in a dabba bus and
reached a place called Subramanya at around 5:00 in the morning. We washed up…had our breakfast and
started for the trek to Kumara Parvata. We were all so haggard in the morning
itself that we were wondering how we were going to climb the mountain. We had
heavy bags too.

We started off and I had to do an "I can do it" jaapam
every half an hour to move on. Resting and walking in between we reached the
first peak called Girigadde…had our lunch, took some rest and started off again.
The funny part was that in the morning we were traveling through the forest and
when it was sunny we were trekking on dry land with the mighty sun shining over
us!

Well! It was another 7 hrs before we crossed another 3
mountains Siddhi parvat, Shesha Parvat and Battadaraashi. It was evening when we
reached another forest i.e. the base of the mountain Kumara Parvat. We somehow
managed to reach half way and what awaits us? Rock climbing! That was exciting!
Then we finally reached our destination panting and tired to witness beautiful
scenery 6000 ft. below!!! Shocked aren’t u? So was I…. couldn’t believe I could
have climbed that much.

A chilly night was in store for us. In spite of 1
blanket, 1 shawl and 1 bed sheet being shared by my friend and me…we were
feeling damn cold. To top it all the cruel wind was killing us. All our blankets
were flying!! I had washed my hands and couldn’t get them to get warm for an
hour! Phew! We managed a little sleep and started off again downhill the next
morning. That was easy, but more dangerous. I tripped 8 times…my co-trekkers
happily obliging with the counting.

Oooh we couldn’t believe that we had climbed all the
way up and every way we crossed seemed like a way we hadn’t seen before. Some of
my friends were dead tired. Their bags had to be carried by some of the stronger
people (not me). I was glad I could carry my own.

We reached back and guess what! There was a workshop
in our institute which was compulsory for the MScs …the poor us…. so without
rest we had to begin our journey back to Mysore. The worst thing as that 15 of us had to go in 1
jeep, with the driver sitting half outside and one of the guys standing
outside…. the rest of us were inside… with people like me as laptops on the
others. We reached another place to get a bus for
Mysore, of course cursing everyone responsible to put us in
this position!

We had parantha and sambhar!! It was tasty. I’m not
sure now, whether it was the hunger or the food!!

We reached back at 4:30 in the morning and limped back to the hostel. All
said and done all of us were really proud of ourselves and in spite of all the
post trek sequelae ……body pain precisely…….I wouldn’t mind going
again!!

Posted by Vani at 7:49
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Yatra
with a difference

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U.S.
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For
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THE
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Gujarat
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First
phoren trip

A
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Speech
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Wedding
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More
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Spirituality
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My
first and last :( trekking expedition

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