Sunday Sentiment: Smelling the past

Since my childhood I am inquisitive  abut the stars and the universe. I still remember vividly, I used to spend hours looking at the stars in dark nights. Like many other things, my father is responsible for this as well. He provided all the ingredients to ignite the imagination in a child’s mind. In this case he provided  few books on space - mostly Russian books translated into Bengali. Anyway I have absolutely no intention to irritate you on sharing my knowledge on space science. Yes it is in true sense rocket science to me and I understand as little as any other common modern day sophisticated clerk- a software engineer does. But I still spend some time in the evening looking at stars mostly during power cut and when no power backup provided in our apartment. I still like the philosophy behind it. Yes the philosophy. When you look at the stars you do a time travel. When you are seeing a star today. Actually you are seeing the stars at the state of it thousand and millions years ago. May be it does not even exist today. These all things excite me.

Let me introduce to the main topic. It is all about time travel. As I have already given you an example of it. But is this the only way?

Lavelle Road in the morning

Now I have to walk through Lavelle road in Bangalore to reach office. It is one of the best roads in Bangalore where for the sake of development everything is not broken and trees are not chopped of.  You can still get a feel of old Bangalore; how it used to be, along with a co-existence of Microsoft office building and High-end ultra luxury ITC hotel. Few days back when I was rambling fast though this road I got to see the pathway surfaced with yellow flowers, Radhachura flower. Just for reference, the English name of the tree is Peltophorum pterocarpum. I am definitely not going to claim this is the best flower I have ever seen and that is the smell I like most. But I have my own childhood memory associated with it. We used to have the same tree infront of my house. I have so many childhood attachments with it. Yes, this summer season is their blossoming season. Post an afternoon nap in hot Bengal summer, I used to find our balcony is completely covered with those yellow flowers. I have seen so many birds building their nest in it. All those memory immediately flashed back with that sight of these yellow fallen flowers even before looking at that tree. So who says you can only travel time looking at the star. Don’t you think this is also a time travel for your mind! Sometime some perfume makes you remember someone special, some smells of room fresheners refreshed back the memory some hotel on vacation. These all are time travel. You just have to pay little attention to observe your mind.

Peltophorum pterocarpum. Picture taken from internet. All copyright  reserve to original source

Anyways today I can't get out of the hangover of Radhachura. All on a sudden, one day that tree fell down during a mild storm. I have seen tree standing strong against so many of those storms before. But there was some vested interest. Our neighbours wanted that trees to be chopped off as it was preventing them from extending their house. I saw my mom crying that day when they were cutting that tree to clear it of. This was pre “One tree one life slogan” era. Now it has just became a slogan and popularity stance. Companies only ask you to think about environment when you are taking print out. In line they are more concerned about the opex cost. Just observe how many unnecessary print out they are taking for the sake of process, not making the process paper free. Anyway, back to the story - I saw my mom crying and I am pretty sure she was not crying thinking about polar bear and how they will suffer with one more tree gone and the increase of global warming. She was crying for that attachment. That we really do have. After so many years, I moved to Kolaghat  Engineer college . Away from home for first time. Somehow I never enjoyed my stay  away from home in Kolaghat and I always used to be little depressed and thinking about home. During my second year, infront of our hostel we used have the same tree. Somehow I think that tree was closest friend of mine during that time. I used to feel that is the lost thing I have from my home. After that I have crossed so many radhchura trees. But that day again walking down Lavelle road refreshed all my memories.  It taught me a great lesson. Sometime just give little attention to small things and you may feel as they say as tag line of add campaign “Life is just awesome”

Rome Travelouge

Our Tren italia carrier entered into Roma Termini (Station) around 10:00 in the morning. We had a huge task in hand, having just around 48 hours to see Rome. As they say - Rome is not build in a day. So we assumed that it is not possible to see Rome in a single day. But let me tell you, 48 hours are enough. You must have already come across many travelogue, where it mentioned that you must need 3-5 days to see Rome alone. But people who travel from Asia and around, it is very hard to give that much time in a first world country. On the contrary, if you want to speak with the each stone in Rome, you might need 3-5 months and this article is not for you.

Let me start with how we covered Rome in just little less than 48 hours with spending adequate time where ever necessary.

Our hotel was near to Termini station. We reached hotel sometime around 10:30 AM after spending little time searching the route. Thanks to my wife, we had started pretty early for Rome. First things first. We decided to see Colosseum first and that itself is surrounded by some many other important tourist destinations.

Day:1

Roman Colosseum

You should always expect a queue in Roman Colosseum, but it is fast moving. There is a combined ticket for Colosseum+Roman Forum+ Palantine Hill which costs you 12 Euro. We waited for our turn and entered Colosseum. Rome reminds me many times about my history book. It is something like I am seeing my history book starts speaking. It is an amazing feeling.

Anyway, let me tell you, it is pretty simple inside. It is not Louvre museum, that you need a vast research before entering. You have to live much upon your imagination. Rome is all about that. We have to give kudos to those who had built this 2000 years ago with very limited infrastructure. There is enough video guide and text description available which will help to stimulate your imagination. It is 5 storied building. 3 floors above the ground and 2 floors under ground. Basically first under ground floor was for gladiator and second one for the animal. They used to be brought into the stage using elevator. You have enough evidence of that, elevator still exists. You just need to research that much before entering. It makes things more interesting. But what I found amazing, when you try to feel where you are roaming carelessly today, some has fought for his life against a wildest beast here and 50k people were shouting and cheering around. What you see today is not the earliest Colosseum. There had been enough alterations on that and many emperors used it for multiple reason. We have spent around 2.5 hours inside. I should say my wife is enough tolerate that she allowed me to read all the descriptions and spending so much time there. You can finish it off within an hour also.

Palantine Hill + Roman Forum

Again we came back to the Colosseum entrance . Just opposite side of the road within few meters you will see the entry for palatine hill. Word of caution. Before entering this you should have some food. Again you have to play a stretch of 2-3 hours. With empty stomach those ancient stones will also stop speaking with you. These are basically ruins of ancient Rome. It requires a minimum study to get feel of the place before entering, which I am living up to you. This is the origin of Rome and trace goes back up to BC. There is hardly few places on earth where you can witness such old evidence of human civilization. Every stone depicts the the new height roman civilization had achieved once. Most importantly, you should not miss 2 view points. 1. View of circus maximus 2. View of modern Rome from palatine hill. It is amazing in all sense. From the ruins of ancient Rome seeing the view new modern Rome. Time moves on :) .

 Now Roman Forum is not a different entity. It is attached to Palatine Hill. From Palantine Hill when you move further away to Colosseum end, you will end up in roman forum. Your history book must have the picture of this place in roman emperor chapter. This place has much has concrete evidence and few interesting monuments. Moving forward I will suggest you a much better way of seeing this place, in later part of the story.

Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II

Now we end our Roman Forum tour from Campidiglo end. Here you will be on Via del flori imperiali. One of most important road for the tourists. One side this road ends at Colosseum. We took the other side. We had two immediate tourist attractions, Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II and Campidiglo. We went to Rome on June. you have bright sun till 9:00 PM and it was only 4-5 PM . So we skipped Campidiglo for now, as we wanted to see the place in evening. Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II is on the main road itself. The Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II  is a monument to honour Victor Emmanuel, the first king of a unified Italy. It is a controversial monument in Rome. As it built much latter destroying certain part of medieval Rome.This monument is in the connection of Piazza Venezia, Central part of Rome.



Piazza Venezia
Pizza Venezia is one of the busiest part of Italy. we roamed around here to get the feel of the city. It's full with crowds and lots of shops and restaurants. Even that was the road to Pantheon also. We have taken the another important road on Rome Via Del corso. This the road leads towards Pantheon but you have to take left once leaving the via del corso.It was a amazing walk trail and once of the best place to get the feel of the city and give a break to your eyes from ancient ruins.


Pantheon and Fontana del Pantheon

 Pantheon is one of the oldest and best preserved roman monument. It was built in 126AD. Inside it you have tomb of artist Raphael. This monument is basically a Temple dedicated to all the God. But during 17th century some alteration was made to give christian touch. Most amazing part is the dome. Even today I think it is one of the largest radius dome and central part is open which allows direst sunlight to come. But let me add one myth bluster. As per the myth sunlight enter into the temple but not the rain water, which is a mere myth. In old days they used to have fire below the hole which used to prevent the rain water. So if it is raining don't experiment, having unconditinal faith to the ageold engineering wonder.

By now we were extremely happy with today's performance. We have mostly covered what we targeted for and well deserved a rest here. It's on of the central place in Rome. Local people exhibit their art and always crowded with tourist. I have no phobia with crowd and love to be a part of it. We spent some time here. One more important info here. If you want to refill your water bottle to save couple of euros, you can do it here. I have seen people were drinking from the tap. Even I found in Internet people are claiming these are perfectly safe.


Closing the Day 1
Now the most important part of the days starts which I love most. Roaming  around the city without having any proper destination, spending some time quality time with my wife cracking few useless jokes and laughing unnecessary. We started roaming around. By now we were far away from hotel and we decided to head back. We have seen few other tourist attractions also on the same day . Like Sant'Ignazio: a very old church. We came back to hotel around 10PM and it was just evening by then.



Day : 2


We have started our day pretty early on the next day also and prime focus was Vatican City. From any part of the roam tube rail connects Vatican city very well and we have also chosen tube rail as commute. Compared to few other cities in Europe, Rome is distinctively different. Tube rail was  heavily crowded, mostly reminded me of my hometown kolkata and always be careful about pickpocket.


Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel

Once you come out of the Vatican station, there would be many touts surrounded by you who will warn you about the very long queue in Vatican museum and they have a "skip the queue" pass which will allow you to enter without any queue. Now it is up to you and it is true that some time it takes more than hour to enter. People's frustration are well posted in Vatican wall. But somehow it took just about 30 mins for us to reach ticket counter. Entry fee was 15 Euro.

Vatican museum is quite huge. Mainly you have four important sections. 1. Painting 2. Greece and Italian Sculpture 3. Raphael Rooms 4. Egyptian Gallery. After seeing Louvre and Vatican museum I have serious doubt in mind . Is there anything left in Egypt ? What I liked most about Vatican museum is .. it is very hard to get lost there.

Sistine chapel is attached to Vatican museum. It is very hard to get the real feel of Sistine Chapel in crowded day, so be prepared about what you should not miss. Spend some time. It is one of the artistic marvels I have ever witnessed . Must be one of the best works of Michelangelo. But there is no guide text to help you which picture is where and what it's about. It is more like collage on a large canvas. This place has other importance. This is the place where Pope selection takes place.

St Peter's



Add caption

 This is the holiest place for catholic. You have dress code and violating that will result in throwing you away from the queue. I have seen real example and it is pointless to argue. Dress code is simple - off shoulder and open knees are not allowed. I have seen people are just wearing a jacket or slacks to avoid the hassle and removing after visiting the basilica. Only God can help their desperation to wear shorts.

Being a non catholic I was mostly interested in artistic part. You have many intresting artifacts to see inside. But once I enter , the size and innumerable artistic marvels automatically gained my respect. Few of the art works you should not miss like

1. The Pietà sculpted by Michelangelo

2. The tomb painted by Michelangelo

3. The bronze statue of Saint Peter and seriously there are many others...

Trevi fountain

We had our lunch at vatican city itself and when we left vatican it was almost 2 PM. We were not much bothered about the time also as you could see we have covered almost all must see. In the morning we had brought the transport pass for the entire day. So now the euqation was very easy. Again we took tube rail and came back to main city. Our first destination was Trevi fountain. When we reached there it was almost 3-4 PM . Let me tell you it was a narrow place and it looks much beatiful in wall paper than with nacked eyes.

"A traditional legend holds that if visitors throw a coin into the fountain, they are ensured a return to Rome. Among those who are unaware that the "three coins" of Three Coins in the Fountain were thrown by three different individuals, a reported current interpretation is that two coins will lead to a new romance and three will ensure either a marriage or divorce. Another reported version of this legend is that it is lucky to throw three coins with one's right hand over one's left shoulder into the Trevi Fountain.

An estimated 3,000 euros are thrown into the fountain each day. The money has been used to subsidize a supermarket for Rome's needy. However, there are regular attempts to steal coins from the fountain"... Wiki

Piazza del Popolo

Piazza del popolo was next in the list. Among many squares this one is most famous. An Egyptian obelisk of Ramesses II from Heliopolis stands in the centre of the Piazza. By this we were almost at the bottom of the the TO DO list.

Remember I promised you , we will cover Rome in less than 48 hours and it was just 5 PM by then. Next day we had our flight from Ciampino airport whcih is far away from main city. We need to find some airport transfer before the day ends. We knew Terravision is one of the most realiable option but needed to find the starting point. Let me tell you Rome is not a easy city to travel. People are diffrent from rest of the europian city. Definitely they are helpful but there is exception. Mostly it is hard to find a local people among the crowd of tourists. Rome is "famous" for unprcidented incident. Might be not because of the localaite but diverese immigrants. We came back to Roma Termini Station and seriously had to spend good amount of the time before finding the terravision counter. It is almost at the other end of the station. and costs you around 4 euro to tranfer you to Ciampino airport. First we make sure about our next days flight ararngement and went back to hotel for quick refreshment and then start preparing for our grand closing ceremony.

Closing Ceremony

I have always seen a quick refreshement works very well. Even if it is as less as 15 mins. Just quickly change you dress, have a quickbath, have some quick snacks it always brings you additional energy. Those 30 mins break are worth spending.

We have started with Colosseum again. We roamed carelessly around it and then chose the way to circus maximus. In ancient rome it was one of the central place for crowd gathering. It was famous for charoit race. Todays nothing is left except a large ground . Some extravagation is going on. What I found most interesting was few guys were playing cricket. Though it is the primitive form of the game still I left them on their own for normal process of evolution.

Then we started walking keeping palantine hill at the left. But soon we found the road is too much empty and it was foolish to roam around in those road in Rome. Luckily we got the bus stop and took a bus without knowing where it was going. We just wanted to avoid that place. Soon we found it was crossing Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II. I have one more promise to keep. I told you we will cover campidiglo at evening time and it was the right time. Campidoglio or Capiltone hill is one of the seven hills in rome. It is just opposite to Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II. It also has a museum or some other important monument but my intention was completely something else. This is the best place get the view of Roman Forum and in the evening there is mild light very aesthetically placed in important ruines of roman forum. It was mystic and breath taking. We had a good number company who also came for the similar reason.

 You should see roman forum once at time. Those stones literally tell their history in that mystic light. We were extremely contained and almost ready to drop curtain to our rome tour. We came via Colosseum again. Colosseum also looks amazing at night. We returned to our hotel around 11 PM .

  

Jamaican Farewell

It started with a personal letter to my friend. I was in Stockholm that time and it was almost end of my first (May be last) abroad stays. In childhood days my parents used to travel a lot. At least twice a year. That time while coming back I used to feel heavy hearted with almost having no intention to come back. In those days Kolkata meant school, studies and what I hate most (even today) ; daily routine. Then there was a long gap. Lately I started traveling again- this time with my wife. Now that feeling of coming back has changed. It is almost like a fun to come back also. A weekend trip, change of mood and then come back and start work, plan for next trip again.

But Stockholm was different. I never felt like coming back. I wish I could stay forever. I can echo what my US manager told while attending a call from Stockholm.”Chhandak, enjoy tour trip and I wish each second in your trip you spend like a hour. Have most out of it”. Anyways, that time passed so quickly and almost at the end day of travel I got my childhood feelings back. That time I wrote a letter to one of my very few close friends and still waiting for a reply. So this time it is for much bigger audience.

Have you ever listened to "Jamaica farewell" by Hary Bella Fonte. If not, just listen to it now. You have missed something great in your life. It is very simple song. Someone went to Kingston, Jamaica and now he is coming back to Mexico. But he doesn’t want to come back and is still missing someone in Jamaica. No big deal.. no dictionary cracking words. A simple song -

"But I'm sad to say, I'm on my way
Won't be back for many a day
My heart is down, my head is turning around
I had to leave a little girl in Kingston town"



Now we have a Bengali version of it by Ranjan Prasad. You must have listened that couple of times. It is also a beautiful song. "KON SUDUR SE SWAPNOPUR". But the funny part is, though it is just a Bengali adaptation of original Jamaica Farewell, still the main essence of the song got changed. Here it is more like someone is missing his hometown and someone is waiting eagerly there for him. I always found it very funny. No hard feelings both are equally good and each has full right to have his own interpretation. But I always hunted by the question why he changed the essence. This lyrics is something like

"KON SUDUR SE SWAPNOPUR
MOR MON JE GAI GHARE PHERAR SUR
MOR PATH CHEYE AJO SEI MEYE
SWAPNO JAL BONE GAAN GEYE"



I have grown up with Mujtaba ALi's writing. Later on found some answer there. As per Ali Saheb, Rabindranath has seen snow fall at least 600 times in his life. But never wrote a single song or poem on Snowfall, whereas his songs are dominated by rain. Might be he didn't want to write something which common Bengali people have never witnessed. As per Ali Shaheb it is a calculative move. Now don’t chase me on this. Entire responsibility should be taken by Ali Saheb. Bengalis often feel less secure when someone brings slightest criticism about "Thakur". Though I feel it is not a criticism at all - A sheer observation. And I am the last person to talk about Rabindranath as I know him mostly through by School book or by Ali Saheb. But we have much bigger question here. Did Ranjan Prasad also chose the same line???? He put the song in way common Bengali people would like to appreciate???


Now already you should be enough offended and almost thinking of stop reading it (If not already stopped). What is the point I am trying to bring in ??

I have seen tons of movies where people are desperate to come back to their own nations. Most bollywood flims shot in abroad but never fail to add a hint of "deshprem" sentiment to it. Just remember Kajol’s character in "KKKG". I don't know how close to reality those are. I never had been to abroad for so long.

But this write-up is all about what I have seen when I was there in Stockholm. I have seen a good number of African populations, mostly came from Somalia. I think Sweden has a refugee law or something which allows people to come from those war devasted countries. One afternoon, while walking with my wife we have seen a family on the footpath. It definitely is a very rare picture in Stockholm. They had lots of baggage around. One aged lady was sitting in traditional African dress and young women arranging their stuffs, must be immigrated from some other place recently..just waiting to move local residence. There I have seen 2-3 kids were playing around. How happy they were. Their eyes were glowing. It was an awesome scene. I always believe, when you see other people happy their happiness gets transferred to you. I pray to god a happy peaceful bright future for them.

This is the story all about. If the movie Swadesh is just made on reality then this is the other part of it. Over the centuries people have crossed the boundary just for a better life. I am very weak in history but what I could remember thousands of people broke a wall for a better standard of living. Yes, the great Berlin Wall. You can’t stop people with boundaries. I believe one in every 5 Indian will leave their current obligations for a H1B . That is the hard reality. EU is skeptical about adding Turkey to Schengen VISA because they expect a huge number of migrations from there. Immigration is the biggest problem US and UK, both admit. But in 3% of world land how you can restrict 18% of world population (INDIA) to live. People will try to spread in.

Now-a-days more and more Bengalis are adding in Bangalore. Most of them are construction worker. I met one of them in bus. I just curiously asked “from Bengal ?” A minute of silence and then replied Bangladesh and stopped talking to me realizing he told something unofficial. But before talking to me he has happily chatting with someone over phone.

This write up is all about this happiness. The Happiness I have seen in the face of that African child and this Bangladeshi friend. Can someone translate the “Jamaican farewell” song in Bengali once again, keeping this happiness in mind.

Sunday Sentiment: Sunset

As I spent my early years in Kolkata, during my childhood I hardy got time and opportunity to witness sunset. Sun used to set behind some concrete unknowingly while I was busy in playing. But if I look back my life today there are few sunsets I remember when I spent quality time. Why sunset is special to me? Even I don’t know. Might be because of freedom, it always a come with sense of relief. So when I seriously started appreciating Sunset? I guess it is during my 11-12. I use to go for walk alone in evening. Might that be the time when I first started appreciating it. But in that time hardly I witnessed sunset. I use to walk around a lake alone and that lake was east facing. Thosewere crazy days. Alone walking by the lake had some hidden expectation of seeing someone special walking. So I truly can’t declare that as my first admiration for sunset.

I moved to Bangalore in mid 2008. It was a complete new city. I started living alone for the first time in my life. Fortunately I got a room at top of a building which has extremely good view of west side. From that you clearly can witness all activities happening in Bangalore Old Airport. I can bet it has one the best sunset view. Even after I got married we have stayed there almost a year. Amenity wise that house was no way equipped for married couple but my wife never complained. With few amazing sunsets in background my girlfriend for 10 years turned into my wife. Again I got into my comfort zone, I was no longer alone and she started taking care of everything. Which she complained me about sometime after 2 years of marriage but still handling it.

When I was changing my house and searching for new one, my wife used to check all amenities to match requirements, mine responsibility was to check the terrace and top of the of the building. Somehow we managed house which has reasonably well view of sunset and a amazing view of sunrise which I have hardly ever witnessed

Somewhere I read and I never forget that the day might be as cloudy as possible but before sunset sun always uses to come behind those clouds, may be for few minutes only on top of some buildings sunlight uses to fall for first and last in that day. Believe me , I have observed this multiple times and that gives me a enormous joy inside. For me that is the hope for new day whatever may have happened today. Sun again will rise tomorrow may be I am in bed but normally what I heard it use to be ontime, like most of the cinema hall. If it is written 3 -0 clock mostly it is 3-0 clock.

I think I have crossed half of the sunsets of life . If not very close to that. Even today I spend some time alone during sunset. I feel an urge from inside to come as better person for next day. Often few faces come to my mind whom I lost by life or by my mistake. For all the wrong things I have done and all the wrong words I have uttered I silently pray to God/Nature to forgive and give me strength to come as better person tomorrow, whenever I get up that should not matter.

Mr Vir Sanghvi I am confused

I have written this article in mid of night almost out of desperation. After coming back home seeing everything around just to burst out frustration. But never posted this and almost forgot about it. Now I am again back to Bangalore sitting a comfortable weather and those frustration almost gone.

So why I am posting it now? There is small story.

In our office canteen. among many other I have seen one person serving us. From the first day, I am seeing he is the odd man out there. From his face anyone can make out that he is very disturbed. When he finally served, you will find you are highly obliged by him. Seeing this all, I used to think this guy should born in Kolkata not in Bangalore. Mainly here all canteen guys are localite. Might be seeing my ID card today, he started speaking in bengali today. It is just 2+2 for me now and reminds me of posting this.

Few years back, Vir Sanghvi has written an article on Puja and Bengali in The Hindustan Times. As many other Bengali I have read the same many times and finished with complacent. Now after one year when I came back somehow found this article bit out dated.

"But if you want a city with a soul: come to Calcutta." ..Vir Sanghvi

I am confused. Does this still hold true. I no way found a touch of soul in this city. Not arguing about what other Indian or global city have. What I pathetically observed, day by day Kolkata has grown up with a mentality where people likes other to suffer. Every other public service you avail, you get a treatment like you are being obliged. Other day I was traveling in a bus. Seeing a Puja pandal one small child wanted to see that pandal which was originally not in their itinerary. So that father was left with no choice but to request that conductor to stop the bus. Now the entire crowd started shouting that bus should stop only at regular stoppage. If you ever been in Kolkata you know here is nothing called bus stop . Where ever you stop that is a bus stop. In a city like this where value of time is almost zero, those shouting only represent their frustration, frustration about everything. This is only one small example. Day to day commuter here can put the same with much better picture.

Each shop you go here with almost ready to buy mentality, first you will be treated with humility. What makes me wonder how people are well seasoned with this, not even react to same and almost accept it as greeting. One of my Ex- colleague put the same in an excellent way. As per him " In Bangalore when you go to purchase some thing that salesman is desperate enough to make you buy from that shop. So he is ready to do anything for customer. Here in kolkata that shop keepers has a unique strategy. They will start insulting you, reminding you about the cost and many other thing. You will buy the product from his humiliation. " I am not sure which IIM is going accept this idea and request this shop keepers for a presentation in their campus. Anyway MR Sanghvi this is not touch of soul!!

"Because, finally, a city is more than bricks and mortars, street lights and tarred roads. A city is the sum of its people. " .....Vir Sanghvi

Kolkata has many problems and as Bengali I know many person to blame for this misery. But what all we have, just because we deserve the same. This city is sum of our common mentality. Here if some one wants to earn few thousands more, others will discourage him saying too much money minded. Eventually you will be admired when you wasting the same in gossip and glorifying it saying Adda the only benchmark which makes you Bangali. This apathy towards your jobs reflects everywhere in Kolkata this makes Kolkata special. Here everyone wants to be something else than what he is doing.

"In Bombay, a man with a relatively low income will salt some of it away for the day when he gets a stock market tip. In Calcutta, a man with exactly the same income will not know the difference between a debenture and a dividend. But he will spend his money on the things that matter. Each morning, he will read at least two newspapers and develop sharply etched views on the state of the world. Each evening, there will be fresh (ideally, fresh-water or river) fish on his table. His children will be encouraged to learn to dance or sing. His family will appreciate the power of poetry. And for him, religion and culture will be in inextricably bound together."..Vir Sanghvi

Exactly MR Sanghvi. I know how true each line is, unfortunately how dangerous it could be also. One popular joke about Bengali. Two elderly personal was discussing about there personal life. After few words one asked,
How are your daughters and how their husbands are doing?

One son in law is in job, nothing to worry about him. My all tension is about the other one. You know he just have only one factory. He is owner of that.

So where your other son in law is working?

He is working in the factory which my other son in law owns.

This story represents us very well. Once your Flight touch Netaji International Airport you are in land of Miracle. Here every one is proud about their culture. How less educated he is, never leaves a single opportunity to proud on the culture. Doing business is always considered of less educated status. Only you will be admitted to elite class when you start speaking about Drama Music Cinema. Everyone has sharp opinion on the same, how wrong it could be.

We only agreed to throw away communism when our so called intellectual class took the stand of other side. I am sincerely thankful to Sourav. At least he has given a different identity for us.

In Bengal everything end with sweets. So as bengali I am proud of many things. I am proud of Sourav Ganguly like any other Indian. I am proud of Pranab Mukherjee our finance minster. I am proud of durga puja. I do not know which other festival we can compare with this. The spirit of it is completely unmatchable. Again from where I started, the enthusiasm of that small child to see each beatuful pandal in hot humid hostile atmosphere gives me a sense of relief. I still see ray of hope. We will be able to maintain this great carnival with highest spirit.

So Mr Sanghvi, why don't you come this city once again?

Agumbe Travelogue

It is always special when you get your childhood memories back with a sweet experience. This is all about our Agumbe trip. Only a weekend, that’s all it needed for a cherishing memory to carry forever.

Let’s come to the point. Agumbe is especially famous for its sunset. You can see a wide view of Western Ghats from this place. But I am really not sure how many lucky people got chance to see a splendid sunset from there. Because Agumbe receives highest amount of rainfall in south India and second highest in India. Here I go. I have no doubt that it would be a unforgettable experience to see sunset from there but my interest was something else. Due to the year-long heavy rainfall it is a Rain Forest. I had already included “Visit Amazon” in my things to do before I die list. Without any extremely foolish comparison I was excited to see a rain forest in my own eyes for first time.

Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want something badly enough. They are there to keep out the other people.
- Randy Pausch

I also had Brick walls infront of me.

1. It is rainy season and yes, I forgot to mention Agumbe is also the Kingdom of King Cobra.
2. This place is well known for leeches and we planned to travel in the season when they are in pick form.
3. It's not a fun to go rain forest in rainy season
4. Agumbe is recently witnessing some naxalite activity

With these all in mind it is not at all advisable to go Agumbe in the month of August with your newly married wife. Thanks to her, ultimately we manage dto grab our sit in KSRCTC night bus service which goes directly upto Agumbe, via shimoga.

We reached Shimoga around 5 in morning, from there Tirthahalli and after that final laps towards Agumbe. If you watched “Malgudi Days”- the famous serial adopted from R.K.Narayan book, you can easily expect Swami will come with his big umbrella from anyone of this lane. Entire serial was filmed here and believe me, the place is hardly changed. After a night long journey in the bus, it was refreshing experience to walk along those misty rain drenched roads.

We reached Agumbe around 7 in morning. There is nothing called bus stop. Simply in the field, bus will stop and that same bus will start from there in 8 clock in the night to back in Bangalore. Regarding accommodation, if you are a non-government employee, 2 options are there. Mallya Residency which is just opposite to the bus stand. Simply a shop owner turned his 2 storied building into a hotel which only provide basic minimum amenity. Or you can ask Kasturi Akka who runs a home stay there. We stayed in Kasturi akka's house as in internet we read some extremely good review about.

If at all any one of them is reading it, I will request you people to be careful while writing travelogue. For me travelogue is not all about your emotion, people use your information while they travel. Here is few true facts about Kasturi Akka’s great home stay.

• Hospitality-wise it was an excellent experience. You will feel like a part of her family. Unfortunately I dislike being feeling like home while I am traveling.
• She will pretend like everything is just for fun, be careful every thing is being charged.
• Accommodation they provide, I put bet never sunlight enters inside the room.
• No attached bathroom, even no bathrooms are there in your floor you have to go all the way down outside the house for that bathroom. Keep in mind, you are in King Kobra’s territory.
• Foods are South Indian only. No complain about it. Just to provide info. No non veg.
• You can not order your food, you have to eat what they are providing.
• But with all if you really like to see one ancestral house of Karnataka this is the perfect place.
• Rate wise pretty cheap
• But I would recommend go and stay in Mallya residency atleast they are bit more professional (costwise it will not differ more).

After getting rejuvenated in Kasturi akka’s house we got some breakfast there. During that we meet one Infosys lady. She has also come here alone. She was going for some trip and offered us to go along with her(Though Kasturi Akka charged Rs 500 for this trip which we never asked for). She was going with some of Kasturi Akka’s relative in Maruti Omini that the family owns.

Kundadri

First we went to Kundadri. This is basically a hill top having a very old Jain temple. The view from that hill top was amazing. Even that Jain temple has some great sculpture. As per they told us Mughal has destroyed every temple . But they could not find this temple in hill top. People have moved those sculpture from village below to save those from Mughals.


Jogi Gundi

Agumbe has many waterfalls nearby. This is the easiest one to reach. This is the first time we realy enter inside the rain forest. Trees are really different here. Long trees causing dawn like darkness inside. If you even don’t know it is a rain forest still you can make out some thing is different from other Jungle. Here we first met with our beloved friend, leeches. Man they really suck you and so much they love you. Though this is the easiest one to go, this rainy season has thrown great enough challenges for us. Even things got more complicated where tree falls on the narrow road to the falls. Falls is small one but worth going. Somehow I was very content to trek as that falls was inside a rain forest. It was a great experience to be there.

They also took us to some near by temple. That’s all Kasturi Akka’s great tour plan. It was around 1 PM. We had no intention to take lunch there, still hardly any other option was there and more over we felt bad to ignore Kasturi Akka’s request.

Sunset Platform

Sunset point is around 3 Km from Agumbe. We started around 3:30 PM. It was a pleasure walk. But all the way through the walk, you will find many buses going towards Udupi. Stop anyone of them, get a 5 rupee ticket and they will drop you at Sunset point. One more important thing, carry some I-card while going. gurd at check post will harass you without any I-Card only for some 20-50 rupee.

View from that place is breath taking. But that platform where you will stand to watch is too dirty. Thanks to tourist like us only. Why the hell common sense is so less common I don’t know. Even that place is not big enough, authority can have some arrangement to keep it clean. But they are more than satisfied with the performance after putting one signboard. “Agumbe:- World famous Sunset spot” .
If you are lucky and that day was not cloudy enough you will get a view of Arabian sea from here. Before reaching to that platform, there's one staircase going upwards. If you follow that you will find some alternative sitting arrangement with much better view.

Barkana falls

On the first day itself we lose our hope on Kasturi Akka. We went to Mallya residency. They arrange for some trekking to Barkana falls with very minimal rate. This is the best part of our travel. Rather I can say one of the best part of our all travel experiences. From Agumbe first you have to go upto Malandur. They has provided a car drop till that point. This way was itself a memorable journey. with deep forest on both the sides.

In Malandur, we met Krishnappa. It was raining sometime. But here rain was also fun. It heavily rains for 15 mins then stops for next 30 mins. From Malandur our journey of life time began. We go inside the forest. Deep forest all through and we had a trek for around 2.5 hours. After that we reached Barkana falls view point. I was little disappointed after reaching there. We thought like we would go upto the falls but it actually is first view point for Barkana falls. It was so much foggy that we could not even be able to see anything and our guide started telling you can't see anything more than that in this weather. I was disappointed. But we decided to stay a while to test the luck and it worked. After a 30 min wait, everything got clear up for a while. View was heavenly. I never saw a valley such greenary before. Even that falls view was too good. You would even get to see Sita Nadi falls from there (not very sure of the name as our guide didn't know anything else than kannada, what unfortunately we hardly make out)

Actually from there road was completely closed due to rainy season. Even if you want travel further you must have proper gear like tent. Because if you go further it is hard to come back on same day. From there we have to go towards Narshima parvata, stay there and from Narshima parvata go further upto Kigga village. From Kigga transport will be available to Sringeri. But due to Naxalite problem police authority normally doesn’t give permission to go further from Barkana falls view point. Whatsoever, I was more than satisfied with this trek and thanks to god for clearing those fog for 30 min. Then we came back along the same way but with some other route. During this trek you have to cross tunga river fore couple of times and no need to mention - leeches are eagerly waiting for you. So be prepared.


After returning back to Kasturi Akka’s house we took our lunch and it was time to take rest. In the evening took 8PM KSRTC bus for Bangalore. We got more than expected from a weekend tour to Agumbe that too in rainy season ...

Election

Oldest memory I could recall about election is something related to cinema. Those days only 2 TV channels were there and movies were rare commodity. But during election time they used to cancel all regular programs and in between the election news there were some Hindi movies.

I hardly opt to sleep at afternoon (till Now). One fine day, just after a afternoon nap, I have found somebody has painted a big beautiful hand just on the wall of the next flat in front of my house. I am always very poor on appreciating art but that was colourful, so colourful that my brain still reserves some disk space for it.

Once Rajiv Gandhi came to Kalindi and he came in a helicopter (I doubt about it. I am getting old. Not sure about helicopter). That rally was in the field (Plot -er Math) and roof of all the houses surrounding by were completely occupied. Me, father, mother and my grand ma all were there. The distance was too far and I have no memory that I had seen Rajiv gandhi in my own eyes. Might it be just because that time I did not recognise Rajiv Gandhi. Truly speaking today's children are 100% smarter than us. That time at least I hardly had any relation with politics or cinema star. We used to live in our small world.

This year Maggi celebrating 25th anniversary. I am 26+, almost reaching 27. But I push my memory hard to recall when for the first time I tasted Maggi. Now-a-days it is almost like bread in our house. Definitely a big fight is waiting in house if I find I am hungry and we don't have Maggi. But it took some time for Maggi to penetrate our mediocre life style. I feel there were some dramatic changes in our life style in India within a very short span. I could very clearly recall that day when we got land line for first time. Just after they installed everything there was power cut in our house. All on a certain that phone started ringing leaving me much surprised about how it is ringing in power cut. I had no clues it has got no dependency with electric signal. I have seen so many electronics goods after that, handled some of them. But somehow never got the same feelings of surprise when I headr that ring tone in complete dark room. Then we had cordless, after that my father's big Nokia cell. All on a certain changes came very frequently.

Election is always a scary thing in my mind. Election meant a holiday for my parents and I can not go out side the house on that day. We are truly democratic a country. A child can not play outside on election day because somebody may be awaiting with a Bomb for him. However good part of election was, my father used to collect enough stock of snaks and sweets for that day, anticipating there might be some problem on the polling day.

I am always fascinated about the election results. It is almost like a thrilling game. Somebody is wining & some body is loosing. Those were the post Babri era. BJP was emerging in national politics though they had hardly any impact on westbengal. Then the era of high political instability started in Central. Election almost became like an annual event. The most important state political event we have witnessed might be birth of Trinuamul Congress. Obviously 2001 was the most interesting election results before 2009. I could clearly remember I have watched TV almost for 14 hours that day. But that time no regional channels are there to cover them, Is Etv is there that time? Confused!!!!!. I could remember the advertisement of Aaj tak on that election. "Kya Fireband Mamata 25 saal ki communist government ko hila payegi??????"

"History repeats himself. But only in history book". Again we are in a very interesting election phase. Great Indian political drama with 1.2 Billion people deciding the future of world largest democracy. A complete non political guy is still that much curious as he was to see Rajiv Gandhi. Still I am that illiterate in politics as I was by that time. Somehow that fascination is till there....