Kodaikanal to Munnar

The art of getting lost, as my friend rightly called http://lostinthewinds.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.html, this trek was truly unique. We did take few wild choices and luckily none turned out to be life threatening! :)

We started our base camp in a forest rest house next to Berijam lake.

Quoting from "The Art of Getting Lost",

"In the morning we went to the lake, and 'went around' the forest. The lake was peaceful and serene with a large herd of blossomed water lilies on one side. Mani had mentioned there would be an old boat tied somewhere and that we can try it but to be very careful. Nothing on the lakeshore looked like a boat landing. We walked along the shore a bit. Only me, roop, jomy and shanti were there when we found the boat. It looked pretty shaken down, with no oars visible anywhere! But we figured the couple of wooden planks lying inside the boat were supposed to be serving the purpose. I don't think any of us were on anything like this on our own and we were skeptical about whether we should try it or not. We were no rowing experts! But there we were eventually, untying the boat, stepping in hesitantly and pushing ourselves off the shore! roop and jomy were the rowers or oarers, I was the control and shanti was the observer - she was to keep observing if the water level inside the boat was rising enough to cause alarm!"

The important aspect he missed to mention is that none of us can swim in such deep waters and we had no life jackets and no one else other than us knew that we were rowing the boat. Now I think, it was a rouge choice that we made! Nevertheless, the experience out of it was truly unique.

Roop, another dear friend of mine has jotted down his trip thoughts  too - http://blog.knurd.in/2008/01/ex-road-trip.html#more

Roopkund & Kuari Pass trek

In 2009, we a group of 6 guys and as usual, me the lone girl attempted couple of weeks long trek in Himalayas. Typically, Roopkund and Kuari pass trek are not done together as the trekking period lasts to 2 weeks. We attempted to do at one shot and were successful. However, success didn't come easy and we had to push our limits. The memory of the surreal surroundings and the painstaking attempts to reach every day destination still energizes me.

It is been few years since I trekked in Himalayas. But, those memories still brings me chill & thrill. So, once in a while, I keep going back to my friends words at
http://lostinthewinds.blogspot.in/2009/07/roopkund-and-kuari-pass-walking-over.html and relive those moments.

On this trek, we experienced various terrains and passed by many villages filled with fun loving kids and helpful mountain people. We trekked few days on lovely high altitude green grasslands at 11,000 feet. Oh, I still remember the cool winds brushing through me and help me forget all the pain!

From one of our camps, we did a hard climb to the glacial lake, Roopkund at 16,500 feet. The route to the lake was very steep covered with snow and loose rocks. We had to take every step with great caution bearing in mind that with a small mistake, we may roll over at great speed into the valley below. But, this got easier as we kept walking, the fear went off and we started enjoying the breath taking devilish foggy surroundings.

This emerald lake http://lostinthewinds.blogspot.in/2009/07/roop-kund-emerald-lake.html tested my endurance the most and it brought out my true character. The incident gave me more insight into myself.

Quoting the incident from Kumar G's blog

"It was almost 1 O'clock now. Shanti and the rest of the group have not reached yet. I doubted if she will be able to make it. But we waited. At about 1.30 we heard some shouts and Shanti and group emerged from the fog. She had made it finally! In spite of low hemoglobin, and an affliction of altitude sickness, puking and almost running out of steam she had ploughed on and did reach the top, Kudos! And as soon as she reached, she uncontrollably broke down in tears putting us photographers who were ready with flashes in a dilemma of whether to take snaps or not! :-D "

The true self comes out when we get pushed beyond our limits and without fail each of the trek brings out some!

Phuket, Thailand

From Phi-Phi, our next destination was to the popular and lively island, Phuket. This island was a good way to gradually change the tint of our trip. With so much of time already spent on the clear blue waters, we thought  it was time to experience other aspects of Thailand, say cultural! Though Phuket offers beautiful beaches, we didn't spend much time on them during our two day stay here. Instead, we visited some of the historical temples in the day and party-ed in the night.

To choose a place to stay in Phuket was a confusing job to me. It has so much to offer and that too at affordable prices. After spending sufficient time on the internet, we found a beautiful place to escape on the Karon beach; Bamboo House. The rooms were very stylish and were equipped with mac mini which was loaded with umpteen songs/movies and 32'' LCD TV to watch them. The room decor was very impressive and they had a clean and cute swimming pool. Above all, their service was brilliant. Our stay in Bamboo House was one of the highlight of our visit to Phuket.

Phuket has many temples and monasteries around it and we chose to visit only Wat Chalong. After spending some time here, we walked around the Old Phuket area and we got see many Sino-Portugese style buildings. We then entered into the market places looking for strange fruits, vegetables and species being sold. Along one of the crowded street, we saw hundreds of people dressed in white and strolling along. Upon checking with couple of localities, we came to know that it was their 8th day of celebration of Chinese Vegetarian Festival. Yes, it is Chinese, coz it was introduced by them. During this 9 day festival, people here refrain from eating meat, drinking alcohol in an attempt to cleanse their soul. We also bought a white t-shirt from the road side shop and joined the crowd in the celebration. The streets were tightly lined with small shops with each vendor selling different types of vegetarian snacks, fried stuffs and main meals. It was a scintillating environment with so many good looking eatables to choose from. We tried as many snacks as possible and loved most of them. At the end of the day, I just couldn't remember the name of each of the items we tried or even some of them or even one of them!

After-dark stroll on Patong's Bangla road was an experience altogether different for me. Music, Beer and Girls is what this place is all about. Before entering these streets, you need to be open-minded to accept that this place is raunchy and set yourself to enjoy at whatever suits you. Listening to deafening loud music, sipping beers while walking along the jazzy road, filled with fellow travelers enjoying as if it is their last day in their lives, was fun to watch and an experience to remember.

From Phuket, we flew back to Kuala lumpur, just spending a day and seeing only the most important symbol of Malaysia, the Petronas tower!

Goa, June 2012

 

To rejuvenate myself, I went for a week long trip to Goa with Jomy & Ri. We planned for a very relaxing trip, which meant absolutely no plan. We kinda stuck to it for the whole week while being there. We went out for couple of days, exploring some villages and beaches of south & central Goa. We enjoyed our time at Covla beach, drive to Madgoa and drive along the beach side road. Being true to our way of exploring, we went around the places on motorbikes. Ri who is 16 months old now, thoroughly enjoyed the motorbike ride and when she was very happy, she stretched both her arms to the sides and felt the blow of cool winds (whenever we went for drive after rains). In the initial few days when pre-Monsoon shower had not started, it was very humid and hot. But, after couple of days, with the pre-Monsoon shower, the weather was pleasant and enjoyed being on the beach.

 

Ri was very co-operative the entire trip. Oh man, this little girl enjoyed the beach so much, I felt, Like mom, Like daughter! We spent most of our time in the backyard beach in the resort. While not being on the beach, we lazed in the resort swimming pool.


We stayed in Club Mahindra resort in Varca which offered good indoor games options. Ri tried her hands at Carom with her Appa teaching. God knows, what she understood! But, she tried to use the striker.


 
Overall, a very memorable vacation with family. Of course, at the end of it, felt rejuvenated.

Phi-Phi Islands, Thailand

Oct 22nd to 25th Oct

An hour and half of ferry time from Krabi took us to Phi-Phi. It has two main islands - Phi-Phi Don, the bigger one which has plenty of accommodation and Phi-Phi Leh, the magnificent one. Leh doesn't have any accommodation except for the night camp in Maya bay organized by a single operator. It also only allows limited number of people.


More photos on facebook

On the day we reached Phi-Phi Don, the weather was clear and we decided to camp at Maya bay. The trip started in the evening with 20 of us in a big motor boat. En route to Leh was beautiful with small fine sand beaches. If you can kayak to them, you can have those amazing beaches for yourself! On the way, we stopped at a couple of places for snorkeling. It was wonderful to be in such clear blue waters! However, I didn't find the marine life to be too exciting. Later, I heard from other travelers that places near Bamboo island are better suited for snorkeling.


'Viking cave' on Phi-Phi Leh is one of the attractions. We saw the place from the boat and didn't make any attempt to explore this place! Our tour guide also seemed least interested, however, he mentioned that the cave is filled with bird's nest and the nest soup is a delicacy in Chinese cuisine.

Just before sunset, we reached Maya bay. It was a back door entry and had to swim for a small distance to get to the shore. We then walked for about couple of minutes before the beach could unveil in front of us. With gleam of light on the beach, Maya bay was stunning, breathtaking and it felt like a heaven on earth. It is truly an other-world experience. I was floating in the water viewing the sunset and I would cherish this memory forever.


In the evening, we were served with delicious supper and bucket of alcohol. Me and Jomy donated the bucket to an American who later showered us with blessings! Later in the night, we set our sleeping mats on the fine sand beach and laid watching countless stars on clear dark sky. It felt like paradise and we slept peacefully on the beach. In the morning, we woke up to the fine misty tropical rain and headed to Phi-Phi Don after the breakfast.

Trivia : The movie "The beach" was shot in Maya bay.
hi-Phi Don
For the next two days, we rambled around the island hoping from one beach to the other. We tried out the local cuisine in different restaurants and it was delectable every time. Papaya is one of the popular local restaurant serving good and cheap food and we liked it too. One of our favorite snack was the thai pancakes sold at the road side food stands. We tried it with different fruits, but banana turned out the best. They can also be topped up with some chocolate syrup for the extra yum-yum!

This island is overly developed with every inch converted to shops, resorts and restaurants. The place was more crowded than I had imagined. Also, some of the beaches were totally covered with the long tail boats! But, our resort was at the far end of the beach and it attracted very less crowd. Good for us! Among all the beaches on this island, I liked Long beach with very less crowd and very few resorts around.

In the nights, the island was very lively with loud music and parties going on in many places. But, we kept ourselves away from all the urban rituals and chose to enjoy the nature and watch the clear skies on both the nights.

Phi-Phi would always hold a special place in my heart for we celebrating our 5th marriage anniversary with a beautiful beach side dinner.

South East Asia : Krabi, Thailand

19th to 21st Oct 2009

More photos of Krabi @ My-Facebook-Album

From Langkawi, we took a ferry to reach Satun, Thailand. After getting our passports stamped at the port, we headed to Krabi by a pink double decker bus. Good roads, beautiful paddy fields view along the roadside, entertaining Thai comedy video played in the bus and a little nap in between helped me pass the time. It took us about 4 1/2 hrs to reach Krabi and it was about sunset.

Krabi has two very popular and beautiful beach areas. One is Ao Nang, a hustle bustle place with long beach and the other is Railay, a calm and more scenic beach. We choose to stay put at Railay first.

Railay beach


Railay beach is surrounded by huge limestone cliffs and is cutoff from the mainland. It is accessible only by sea and we took a long tail boat to reach here. It was already dark when we reached this place and had traveled the whole day. After relaxing for a while in the resort, we went for a brief walk along the dimly lit narrow path. The entire East Railay beach is only about a Km long and the interesting part about this path is that we need to walk through many restaurants and cafe. This place was very relaxed and less crowded, though every inch of the place is developed. It felt like we were in a small island.


The next morning, we went to Railay west to take our long tail boat for the day tour to near-by four islands. The west beach was stunning with huge cliffs on either side, calm clear blue water and fine white sand. It deserves all the praise given by the fellow travelers on other blogs. The four islands tour included Phra-Nang beach, Poda island, Chicken island and Tub island. Phra-Nang and Poda were breathtaking and I went crazy looking at the beauty. We went snorkeling near the other two islands and found variety of fishes. We had enough time to explore the under water life and go behind some fishes! Coral life wasn't exciting enough as many of them were dead and the live ones were not colorful.


In the evening, we sat along the west beach side restaurant and watched the sun set while sipping the hot Cappuccino. The color change in the sky and its reflection on the water was brilliant. We kept watching till the place went dark.

The huge cliffs in Railay makes it the one of the best destination for rock climbing. We initially planned to take a day for rock climbing. But, Jomy had twisted his leg the previous day and he couldn't do it. I for some reason decided to drop it as well (Shame on me!) and ended up watching experts climbing the rocks!!

Ao Nang beach

The next day we spent our time in Ao Nang beach. The place was bustling with people, numerous resorts and other shopping centers. The beach coastline was very long, clean and very good for swimming.

At night, with scores of bars and restaurant, Ao Nang was a party scene. But, we peacefully sat along the beach side benches and munched chicken satay bought from the late night street food shop. Ao Nang was different from Railay and I enjoyed the experience in both the places.

South East Asia : Pulau Langkawi

More Photos

On 17th day of Oct, while rest of my family & friends were celebrating Diwali in India, Me & Jomy set out to enjoy the beaches of Malaysia & Thailand. We reached KualaLumpur in the evening and flew to Langkawi after couple of hours wait.

Langkawi, one of the most popular Malaysian islands is said to have many good beaches like Cenang, Kok, Datai bay, Tengah. Without really doing much pre-work on things to do in this island, we had planned to spend only a day & 2 nights here. Only after reaching here, we found that a day was just too little to explore this island. But, I think it gave us enough time to get a feel for this place and people!

The nights were very lively with rich lights along the clean streets. Many restaurants displayed variety of fresh sea food waiting to be cooked in the style we prefer. On both the nights, we tried Malay cuisine and thoroughly enjoyed it. I found that Malay food generously uses coconut milk and is spicy with good flavours. The culinary style here has very good influence from India & China.

In the day, we went around the island on a motorbike. Motorbike & car are available for daily rental and is the most common way of going around the island. With intermittent rain and clean roads, it was pleasure driving along the coast lined up with dense trees.

We were staying in Cenang area, one of the bustling places in Langkawi. It has many good resorts and restaurants lined up along the beach side. It also offers plenty of budgeted stays for the backpackers. We started our day trip from Cenang towards Kok beach holding a detailed Langkawi map in our hand. On our way from Cenang to Kok, we stepped into the tropical forest which didn't have any proper route. While wandering here, we caught a glimpse of monitor lizard, which quickly slipped into the dense forest sensing our movements. This lizard is not as big as Komodo dragon, but it was big! Also, unexpectedly we found access to a very small beach. On this isolated beach, we met a small group of Malaysians from mainland who were camping here for few days. After chit-chatting with them for sometime, we continued our drive towards Kok.


As mentioned in many travel sites, Kok was certainly more beautiful with pristine beach and very few people. After spending some time here, we proceeded to Datai Bay in the north west corner of the island. It took nearly 30mins of bike ride to reach this place and once we reached, we found that we need to pass through a private resort to access the bay. As expected, the resort doesn't allow outsiders to stroll on their own in their premises. But, we managed to talk with the resort folks and they agreed to take us to the beach by their mini electric car. They also gave a tour of their resort! The resort is "Datai Bay" and is filthy luxurious. The cottages are build in the unspoilt natural tropical forest aging 50 million years, with clean river flowing in its backyard. They looked Superbb! The resort also has two swimming pools with one being on the beach side! And above all, the beach was an absolute beauty. I totally believe this is one of the must stay place in Langkawi, if you don't mind the pinch in your pocket.

Later in the evening, we took a cable car ride over the Machincang moutain range. The view enroute was breathtaking. With clear sky, one is expected to see a 360-degree view of the islands around. But, the time we took the ride, the sky was filled with clouds and we couldn't see the 360 degree panaromic view. But, surely the ride itself was enthralling when it glided above the virgin tropical forest and it was a unique experience.

After sunset, we decided to visit Kuah town without any plans in mind. We just ended up driving up to this place and returned doing nothing. The duty free shopping malls had closed by then and we couldn't shop!:(


In the next morning, before leaving Langkawi, we went for a early morning walk along the Cenang beach. I was totally flattered at the first sight of the beach; it was vast, fresh and clean as if new. I felt very peaceful and calm while I inhaled the pollution free clean air.

Then the time came for us to leave Langkawi and head towards Satun, Thailand.

End of Langkawi.

The Unstoppable Stopped

An unexpected, but the most awaited result came out of Roland Garros's Philippe Chatrier. Rafael Nadal was stopped from his unbeatean 31 match winning streak at French Open. The King of Clay was dethroned by the Swede, Robin Soderling 6-2,6-7, 6-4, 7-6. Soderling's best so far in any grand slam was reaching 3rd round. Today, he was totally different and played splendidly superb and stunned Nadal at many points in the game.

Soderling's win in the first set, especially breaking Nadal's serve twice made me feel that the match would be an interesting one. As part of true Federism, I supported Soderling and wanted him to stretch Nadal as much as possible. But never expected him to crush the defending champion and create a history today!

He outplayed Nadal many times and was consistent in attacking Nadal's backhand. He played marvelous cross court shots of his forehand and served well. It was a spectacular display of talent by Soderling and with his impeccable forehand shots, he demanded Nadal to pull out all his best clay court shots. Nadal might have not displayed his deadly best, but he was surely in a mood to defend his championship and put up a good fight. But, Soderling was playing the game of his life and Nadal couldn't respond to many of Soderling's immaculate forehand shots and was forced to make errors. Soderling ended up with 61 winners as against only 33 of Nadal, which many players haven't managed to do on clay court. With his scintillating game, he demolished the dream of the Spaniard to create a history at French open by winning 5 consecutive titles.

Finally, the wait is over and the Spaniard's reign on Roland Garros is over. Now, the tournament is open to any one and Fedex has a very great chance. This year, some one other than Nadal is going to lift the trophy and kiss it. I wish it is the great artist on tennis court, Fedex! Isn't this the true Federism?! :)

Kotebetta Trek

Over the May 1st long weekend, six of us (Jomy, Roop, Girish, KumarG, Abhi & Me) planned for a trek and decided to climb Kotebetta in Coorg. Kotebette is the third highest peak in Coorg standing at 5451 ft. The grade of this trek is easy and I was fine with it since I hadn't trekked in a long while. KumarG took care of organizing vehicle for travel from Bangalore.

Enroute to Coorg

We started from my place around 12 a.m and then picked up Abhi. As soon as Abhi took his seat in the taxi, he wanted a stop over in one of the CCD on Mysore highway. We stopped at CCD in Maddur at 2 a.m and the place was too crowded! After going through the menu card, each of us came up with cool names like Mochachillo,Tropical Iceberg, Cafe Frappe, Cold Sparkle except for Jomy. He ordered Cafe Mocha. After a long wait in the queue, KumarG found out that only Cafe Frappe is available. We all sincerely agreed to take it. After another long wait, we got our Frappes and found that they were warm! So, we got it exchanged it cold frappes; rather not warm frappes. Even they were pathetic; the worst cold coffee we all ever had. Only Jomy had good experience with his hot Mocha. Rest of us felt it would have been better off having Chai on the road side shop.

Along the way, most of us didn't sleep till 5 a.m. We were yapping on many things and one of the most interesting topic was the places we all wanted to travel in the world. After some time, we realized that we wanted to travel most part of the world! :)

We reached Coorg about 6 in the morning and then we rented a hotel room to sleep for couple of hours and refresh ourselves. We had our late breakfast in Coorg and then started towards Madepura village, about 16Km from Madikeri. From Madapura, we caught the jeep trail to Kotebetta at 12:45 p.m and our trek started from that point.

Climb to the top

On the jeep trail, we walked for about 2-2.5 hours through the coffee plantations and the forests. Along the way, there were lots of jack fruit trees with plenty of fruits. Yummy! We couldn't even attempt having one as the riped fruits were on the top! The route to peak has steep gradients along most of the path; the hot weather made the climb difficult. We walked at a slow pace with good number of breaks. While walking along the trail, we could see Kotebetta standing tall amongst the other small hills. It then seemed very far from the point we were looking at it.


From the jeep trail ending point, we needed to take the forest trail and cross about 3-4 hills to reach Kotebetta. At this point of time, we had run out of most of the water we had carried and was not sure if we would find water at the peak. We didn't find any water source along the way. All we saw were dried out streams. So, we were debating whether to camp at the top for the night. We all then agreed that we would leave our bags at this point and start our climb to the peak. Without our luggage, it would be faster and would be able to be back from the peak, the same evening. We had started our trek only in the afternoon as we had planned to camp on the top!

Meeting our decider

On our way to the top, we spotted movement of some cows; then we looked for some human presence there and could spot a man at far. We knew he is going to be our decider; help to decide whether we can stay at the top or not. We checked with him about the water availability on the top and he mentioned that there are two small ponds. One of it is drinkable and the other is not. We were very thankful to meet him and we decided to climb down to get our bags and then trek again through the hills to reach the top.

Rain Showers

On top of a small hill, we stopped for 5 mins to take a break from the summer heat. It was raining in some parts of the forest which we had already crossed and there were some dark clouds above one of the hills which we had crossed. What we saw then was truly amazing. The huge dark cloud above the other hill started rushing towards us and stopped right above us. We were suddenly encircled by it and it started raining immediately. We all ran towards one of the nearby bush to protect ourselves from getting drenched. The bush couldn't protect all six of us. So Jomy , Roop and me proceeded walking in the rain and started progressing forward. But, as soon as we saw another bush to hide, we three hid there. The other three guys didn't know that and they thought we had already left. So, they came out of the bush and started walking in our direction, only to find we were hiding under some other bush :) They obviously cursed at us! Then we all started walking in the rain. It didn't shower for long; but we all got drenched and it helped us to cool down from the summer heat. We reached the top around 5:45 p.m and it was completely covered with mist. The visibility was too low and we really didn't have any view from the top.


At the top of Kotebetta

On the top, there is a small Shiva temple with short stone wall boundary and a small tree within its boundary. The temple is still under worship and we could see the coins offered to Lord Shiva and his Nandi. But, obviously as soon as we reached the top, before exploring the temple, the boys went in search of water and found two small pond like water source next to a small white building. After a short analysis, they found which one could be used for drinking; but, it is drinkable only after it is boiled. Anyway, Abhi had carried a small gas stove.

We then pitched tents and then went in search of some dry woods for the camp fire. Since it had rained for sometime, it was difficult to find dry wood. After some search, we managed to find some wooden boards. KumarG broke them into right sizes for the camp fire.

Out of 6, we made 2 groups of 3 each, one for cooking and the other for setting up the camp fire! KumarG, Abhi & Me took charge of cooking dinner and Jomy, Roop & Girish started working on setting up the camp fire. Due to heavy winds, they couldn't set up the fire. So, they wanted to use the gas stove for getting started. We then found out that, gas stove is malfunctioning and we can't use it :( We hoped that we can somehow setup camp fire and use that for boiling water. But, then it started raining with heavy thundering & lightening and we couldn't do anything. We only had 1.5 litres of water for all 6 of us and we used it meagerly. After couple of slices of bread, we all went to sleep with rain pouring heavily outside.


Refreshing morning at the top

In the morning, the guys managed to find some dry woods and could make fire. We used that for boiling about 5 litres of water for our use while climbing down from the hill. We also cooked MTR 'Ready To Eat' Bisi bele bath and Khara bath and made some tea for us. I must say it was luxury! We then relaxed for a while there walking around the place. The sky was clear and the view from the top was vivid. We could see few villages around and obviously quite some hills. It was a good view, but not stunning in any way. I really loved this place when it was misty and when I could only see the clouds and mist from the top. With this, I could imagine whatever the view I wanted it to be! :)

We then started to trek back around 9:30 a.m. Before we left, we offered coins to the temple. It took us about 2.5 hrs to reach back the point at which our taxi was waiting and it was a easy walk except for the scorching sun's heat.

On the rocks, in the water

We then reached Hattihole. We all were hungry and ate stomach full of good food at a small hotel in Hattihole. After our heavy lunch, we relaxed for a while in the front porch of the hotel and then went to the river in Hattihole. The river didn't have much water, but it was sufficient for us to calmly lie down under the shades, on the rocks, in the water. We were playing stone throwing! Fixing a rock as target and throwing stones at it! :) We then moved to about 5feet deep water point where Abhi, KumarG & Jomy were trying to swim. It was lot of fun staying in the water for so long. The place was very calm and soothing. After spending more than couple of hours at this place, we started back to Bangalore.

Trek Planner
Route :
Bangalore - Madikeri - Madapura - Hattihole - Jeep trail which leads to Kotebetta (Jeep) - ~20Km
From Hattihole, you can check for the Jeep trial which leads to Kotebetta
To reach top : 4 to 4.5 hrs for slow to normal pace trekkers to reach the top
Return : 2 to 2.5 hrs for slow to normal pace

In summer, carry lot of water. Based on information from other trekkers, I have heard that the water might not be always available on the top. However, we could find water on the top.

Bhandavgarh National Park, MP

From Kanha, we moved on to Bhandavgarh and stayed there for 2 days. Bhandavgarh was our last chance of spotting tiger in this trip.

Bhandavgarh National park (26& th 27th Dec)

For the first day morning safari, we didn’t have the vehicle booked by the hotel. In the morning, we went near the park gate (Tala) to find if someone can share their safari vehicle with us. After a hard search, we found an American who was ready to help us. We thought that we were lucky to get the jeep, and now our luck of spotting the tiger would soon follow :) After 3 days of safari in Pench & Kanha, I was not very keen in experiencing the forest. The forest here is very much like Kanha with Sal trees & Bamboos and I must say that the scenic beauty of this park didn't impress me. My only interest was in spotting animals, especially tiger since that was one of the biggest reasons for this trip. It is commonly said that, in Bhandavgarh the chance of spotting tiger is 99%. Before we planned for this trip, we heard from many people that there is no way that anyone could come back from Bhandavgarh without spotting a tiger. At least, we can spot the tiger in the ‘tiger show’. All these words made me feel very hopeful about spotting tiger in at least one of the three safaris that we have planned in Bhandavgarh.

We did all the three planned safaris in Bhandavgarh and in each of the trip we came out of the forest without spotting a tiger. I must say that I was disappointed after each trip and the hope of spotting the tiger was gradually wearing out. Every trip we made, we were always close to the tiger, but could never spot it. There was a time that a small tiger cub moved into a bush (spotted for very brief moment by a guide in another jeep) and didn't bother to come out for more than an hour of our waiting. It had two other siblings and the mother Tigress was not around. All of the jeeps waited there with the hope that mother would return in the evening. But, she didn’t come. May be she chose to take a different route that day! There was another time, when we heard a loud growl of the tiger - The guide mentioned that the sound is arising not from too far, and it should be within 100-200 meters off the road. It was really thrilling to hear the wild growl of the tiger. I wished that he comes out and gives me a look :) But, that didn't happen. Some other time, there was a deer in the meadow which got alerted and started making the alert calls. We waited there for a long time only to watch the paranoid lone deer.

Anyway, after 3 safaris we didn't spot a tiger in Bhandavgarh. The reasons mentioned by many were - It is winter and the tiger can easily settle inside the forest as the water reserve is high. Due to peak season, there are too many vehicles and many more such obvious reasons. But, how can all these be true only for Tala zone in Bhandavgarh? In the same forest, due to peak season, another zone named Magdi was opened up. The general idea is that the spotting of tiger in Magdi is difficult as it is denser than Tala. However, in one safari, there were 3 sightings of tiger and all the jeeps could spot them! So, the reasons quoted are just means of convincing people and does not really apply to the happenings. I say, it is mere luck! So far, we had 7 safaris in total in this trip and the luck didn’t bother to pass by my side. I went through height of disappointment and convinced myself that I would visit in summer again. Our driver was mentioning that "In winter, people ask if you spotted tiger, whereas in summer, people would ask how many tigers you spotted!".

After all the disappointing safaris, we were just wandering in the streets of Bhandavgarh. We had another half a day in Bhandavgarh and then our plan was to go to Khajuraho. The disappointment was really bothering me and decided to take another safari in Bhandavgarh, not wanting to miss a chance. I didn’t want to blame myself for just freaking out on the Bhandavgarh roads, instead of spending the time in the forest. But, the problem was we neither had permission nor the safari vehicle. Anyway, after some hassle, we ended up sharing it with few MBA students who had come from Pune. Now, in this final trip, I didn't have any expectation. I took this trip so that I don't later regret that I should have made another try somehow. Anyway after 3 hours of safari in the last trip, I didn't spot any tiger. We were coming to the end of our safari number 8 and all I saw was wild cat and mangoose! yee... But, wait! suddenly things changed. There were hoards of jeeps waiting in one area and our driver immediately understood the cause and rushed towards it. There she was! I saw a tigress doing her 'cat walk'. It was an absolute beauty. After walking for some time, she attempted to climb a tree - All her four paws on the tree and her tail waving in the air. What a scene to watch in the wild! It was one of my dream come true. The excitement maddened me for few moments - My luck was pushed to the last 5mins of my 33hrs of total safari time. Never mind, I got her in wild and it was an extraordinary moment (No photos though, since it was slightly dark and slightly far). It is one of the most unforgettable moments in my life and we moved out of Bhandavgarh with a success story to tell!

Our next stopover was Khajuraho and we headed towards it. Rest of it in the next posting.

Kanha National Park, MP

After Pench, we visited Kanha National Park and stayed there for 2 days.

Kanha National Park (23rd & 24th Dec)

On both the days, we went around the park in the morning. The park is about 2000 Sq.Km. and each safari lasted for about 6hrs. The mornings were really cold and I was typically quivering in the first hour of safari. After an hour, with sunlight passing through the tree gaps, the temperature in the air rose and the cold became manageable. Kanha is undoubtedly beautiful with lush green forest and huge meadows. Sal trees and bamboos are the prominent vegetation here. Anytime, Jim Corbett National park is the best park in India. Anyway, who can deny Kanha was the inspiration for Kipling's classic Jungle book and it reserves a special place among the Indian national parks. After all, it is one of the well maintained park in India.

For the safaris, Saleem and his friend Anand joined us. Saleem manages few safari vehicles in Kanha and he is also a naturalist. Anand is the manager of the resort we were staying at. Both of them are nature & wildlife enthusiasts. In the first few hours of our safari, we spotted lots of birds - Some of them which I still remember are Rocket tail Dracon, Seven Sisters, Woodpeckers, Golden Back Kingfisher, Parakeets, Plum Headed Parrots, Kites, Owlets and the rare Snipe. Lots of peacocks were freely moving around in the meadows and we spotted lots of Chital, Sambar, Barking Deer and Bison. We also saw the not so common Wild dog and Barasingha . Barasingha is present only in Kanha and is preserved here from extinction.


Here, in Kanha, I wanted to incentivize myself by spotting tiger in the wild. This was a highly motivating reason for me to visit the national parks this season. At many times, I came very close to spotting a tiger in this park, but didn't manage to see any. We saw fresh pug mark of a big male tiger which according to our guide, should have just crossed the road & moved inside the dense region. I also saw deers alerting each other with their alert calls - It was in a meadow and I was dreaming that a tiger is gonna come pouncing at the deer :) There were other missed chances like in the interior forest camp area, the male tiger was walking around freely for about an hour. We missed it by about 15mins. While going along a trail, first of the three jeeps spotted a tiger crossing the road. But, our jeep was 5th in the line and we couldn't watch that.

After such a long search for the tiger, I became desperate to spot the tiger in "The tiger Show". In tiger show, elephant mahouts spot a resting tiger and take people to that place by elephant so that the tiger don't get disturbed. On the first day of safari, Saleem had very high hopes of spotting the tiger in wild and we reached late at the centre where we need to register for the tiger show. We were 58 in number and the jeeps till 55 got to see the tiger! On the second day, we were a little proactive and enrolled for the tiger show earlier and were 13 in number. But, the tiger show didn't happen that day since the forest rangers couldn't find any resting tiger! There were many such instances happening through out our presence in Kanha national park. However, these didn't disappoint me as Bhandavgarh was next in our list.


In Kanha, other than the safari times, we spent our time walking around the small village. While walking around, I saw couple of trees with all its branches, full of butterflies. They belonged to same family (same color & pattern) and they were eating the tree leaves. It is the first ever time, I saw thousands of butterflies in one place! It was truly interesting to watch.

We had some of our meals at Mohan dhabha near the Khatia gate. Parathas & Lassi were very tasty. While you are there, I suggest you to try out this place. We met Mr. Yadav while we were traveling from Pench to Kanha. He is the owner of Pugmark resort in Kanha. He had invited us for evening tea and we visited him. He is very friendly, but very talkative too. He is an ex-army and police service man and was mentioning about his service experience to us. His resort is pretty good with fine rooms charged at nominal Rs.1200/- In Kanha, there are many resorts in this price range. For people caring for budget and cleanliness, these resorts are of good choice.

Kanha to Bhandavgarh

From Kanha to Bhandavgarh, it is about 400Kms and we had all of it to be covered in a day by regular local transport buses. We took the first bus at 6:30 a.m from Kanha and had to switch over to multiple buses at different points of our journey. The experience was all tolerable till 3p.m, after that it became really frustrating. The body started giving up and the back started complaining. But, I chose to travel by bus and got to do it. It is part & parcel of experiencing the local culture. After a long day of travel, we reached Bhandavgarh at 8:30 p.m and then came to know that Gypsy for the next day safari is not booked (though we have the permission to enter the park). We tried through different people to get a Jeep booked, but couldn't. We were too tired to do anything further & decided to take care of it in the morning.

Stopping here for now. I will post my Bhandavgarh experience in next posting.

Brief details on route to & accommodation at Kanha are at How to Reach & Where to Stay

At Pench National Park, Madhya Pradesh

We visited national parks in Madhya Pradesh during last winter. We started our trip on 19th Dec with some planning done before hand. Having enough time for this trip, we decided to travel by train both up & down.

It takes about 24hrs by train to reach Nagpur from Bangalore. But, our train Bagmati Super Fast Express took about 30hrs, stopping at many stations at will letting all passenger trains, local trains pass by. Shockingly, this long journey train doesn't even have a pantry car. They supply food only from few destined stations and only mineral water & jumpins fruit drink is available on train. So, any utterance of food items at any station immediately arouse our interest. At one time, there was a vendor selling Samosas at a station. The moment the train stopped, all of us in the boogie bought Samosas instantly. When another samosa vendor entered the train and saw us all munching samosas, he was surprised and said "Arey, train abhi roka tha, magar sabke hath me samosa hai!!" :)

From Nagpur, we took a local bus to reach Khawasa. We took our seats next to the driver to have a better look of Nagpur city. The city seemed to be pretty clean. Ofcourse, it is only based on the streets the bus took us through. From Khawasa, by Jeep we reached Heaven's Garden Resort, ~5Kms from Pench National Park gate.

Pench National Park (21st Dec)

In the shivering morning cold, we eagerly reached the park gate by 5:30, an hour ahead of the park opening timing. Early at the gate means you would be one of the first few vehicles to enter the park. Most often, the animals would get disturbed by the vehicle sound and slowly move away from the trail. So, it is always better to be one of the first few vehicles in any trail.

At 6:30 sharp, the gate opened and the vehicle started moving. With the moving wind, it became even colder and I started shivering. Sweater, Muffler, Jacket didn't protect me completely from cold. After few minutes, once we entered the thick jungle, I forgot the coldness and completely got indulged in the forest. Due to winter, the park had very many dry areas. The pench river which flows in the park, didn't have much water too. These changes didn't matter to me. I was ardent about meandering in the park. Of course, only by staying in the jeep. We are not allowed to step down from the jeep inside the forest perrmises.

While maundering in the jeep, I sighted some of the commonly seen animals like Chitals, Sambar, Wild boar & Bison. Though Chitals & Sambar are common, I can never become weary of watching them in the wild. At times, watching them being very casual & careless, eating the fallen leaves from the tree, sometimes observing them to be alert and noticing them taking every step ahead with great caution, excitedly listening to their alert calls which they call out loud when some danger or threat nears them, it can never be dreary. I forget the passing of time in their presence.


I had an exhilarating moment, when I saw a herd of deers suddenly fleeing into the forest and finding that a Jackal was the reason. The Jackal was approaching towards us. For every few steps it took, it looked at us and ensured that we are of no danger to it. It hurriedly crossed the trial and quickly vanished into the forest on the other side. Another really interesting moment was when we sighted the fresh kill of a deer by a predator. It was very close to the trail and I could clearly see that the spotted deer's intestine was torn apart and was missing. The guide mentioned that the deer is killed by Leopard - Leopard first eats the intestine of the prey. Our guide was repeatedly saying that the Leopard should be within 100-200 metres of its prey and this shy animal should have been disturbed by some vehicle sound. We quietly and patiently waited at this spot for sometime, but the adamant Leopard vehemently refused to come closer to its prey. It has all the day to guard its prey and eat it in the night. But, I have only 4 hrs of safari in the morning and 3 hrs in the evening :(

Moving on from Pench (Pench - Kanha)

Early in the morning, around 7:30 a.m, we left Pench. It took us about 6hrs by bus to reach Khatia gate, Kanha National Park. When choosing to take bus in Madhya Pradesh, it is a must to be aware that the road conditions could be terrible, as worse as not finding laid roads on some stretch of the travel. Also, the buses could lack suspension. The duo could do magic to your backs! So better be aware of this before taking up this mode of transportation. I was aware of these facts and the experience didn't come out as a surprise to me.

After a hard day travel, we had a relaxing evening in Kanha. I will post my Kanha experience in the next post.

For those who want to go to Pench, I have added details at How to reach & where to stay at Pench

Filmie Freaky

In the past few months, I came to know what a film freak I am. I always loved movies but never knew that I could watch any genre & any number. I have strong inclination towards english movies and have recently lost track of tamil movies. I started being a film maniac not because I didn't have anything to do, but more because I didn't want to do anything at times. I picked it from there and that is when I discovered that I can watch movies continuously without any hesitation.

I used to watch over 5 to 6 movies over the weekends & a movie on every week day. Of course, it varies at times, based on other things that I have to do in my life. Definitely, I have been on this routine for few weeks. With the membership in seventymm (online movie rental), I could easily get access to quality DVDs of many good films released over years.

I have written quick review of most of the movies that I have watched in the past few months. Of course, I have missed some and do not recollect them now.

Shawshank redemption
A movie set in the one of the toughest prison, Shawshank in America. It is about the HOPE of a prisoner (Tim Robbins) who is sentenced for life term and also how he turns his destiny in prison to a somewhat meaningful life. Morgan Freeman plays the role of a fixer in the prison. They both become very close friends and the dialogues between them are good. Freeman's performance is excellent.

Taxi Driver
Movie is about the life of a young lonely, depressed taxi driver Travis (Robert De Niro) settled in Manhattan. Great acting by Robert De Niro - I could really sense his depression and feel for it. Movie goes along the complex/weird thoughts of Travis and you end up following him. An interesting climax and a very good direction by Martin Scorsese

Se7en
Brilliant movie with superb climax. An intelligent plot with excellent performances by Kevin Spacey & Morgan Freeman - Boy, I can still exactly visualize some of the scenes acted by these brilliant performers.

Million Dollar baby
A simple movie depicting the hard life of three people - A boxing trainer, ex-boxer and the one who want to make career as a boxer. The relationship among these is very genuine and pure. Humor is well blended in the dialogues and are enjoyable. Very fine performances by Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman & Hillary Swank and very good direction from Eastwood. Knockout punches by Hillary Swank is just awesome to watch.

There will be blood
At the end of watching this movie, I was stunned and astonished at the subject of this movie. It is about a man Daniel Plainview played by Daniel Dey-Lewis who becomes a oil tycoon with his unsympathetic behaviors & ruthlessness. The impact of the character was very powerful on me and I got engulfed by it. The intensity of the character delivered by Daniel Dey-Lewis is simply superb and was totally touched by it. It is a 'bloody' brilliant movie.

Memento
A brilliant thriller which demands the audience to think at every scene to solve the puzzle Chirstopher Nolan throws. Highly unconventional and a very bold movie. I tag this as one of my favorite and have watched multiple times and became a big time fan of Christopher Nolan since then.

Ghajini (Hindi)
Inspired by Memento - Other than this, there is no brilliance of memento. I always wonder if general public can appreciate if the original movie is fully copied -I believe not. In that case, it is an intelligent masala mix of the original. Not much change from tamil movie Ghajini. Aamir Khan's acting is superb and Asin's performance deserves an applause.

Slumdog Millionarie
My thoughts on this at
http://rshanthi.blogspot.com/2009/02/slumdog-millionarie-at-oscars.html

Death proof
Chose to watch this movie for 2 reasons - One, it is from my favorite director Tarantino and two, the rating on IMDB is good. I needed to patiently watch the movie for 1.5 hrs to get Tarantino's great touch for 20mins. If you don't mind watching people generally yapping (of course with some good Tarantino style dialogues in between) without the story going anywhere, then you can watch this movie.

Dasvidaniya (Hindi)
Do svidaniya (duh svee-dah-nee-ye) in Russian means Good Bye and the movie is about a dying person (Vinay Pathak) saying good bye to the world and his friends. Once the character understands that the exit date from the world is only few days, he lists out 10 things he would like to do before his death and ends up doing them. Story line is fine, but the dialogues aren't great to hold you on. A decent movie, different from the main stream bollywood masala movies.

Before Sunrise
A lovely romantic storyline showing the connection between a very beautiful couple who meet on the train. I loved Celine's (Julie Delpy) performance but surely not Jesse (Ethan Hawke). I think he could have definetely made the intense passionate moments better. Her mention of "I like to feel his eyes on me, when I look away" and the series of dialogues then are really really romantic :)

Before Sunset
The lovely couple in Before Sunrise meet after 9 years and spend a day together in Paris. Fine performances by Julie Delpy & Ethan Hawke. Julie Delpy is still adorable after 9 years. Definetely, I loved her more in Before Sunrise. Some of their conversations, especially the one in the car and she singing a song for Jesse are quite romantic.

Silence of the lambs
I feel the movie is over rated - May be it deserved its high rating in 1990's for its bone-chilling story line and for bagging 5 oscars. The movie is about a young FBI student trying to take help from a psychopathic serial killer Hannibal (Anthony Hopkins) to catch another serial killer. To me, the best part of the movie is the brilliant performance of Mr.Hopkins.

Glory Road
The movie is based on a true story where a coach named Don Haskins (played by Josh Lucas) led a all-black men based basket ball team to NCAA championship and creates history. The music & background score is good and a movie definitely worth watching. Josh Lucas, playing a tough coach was interesting to watch after his cute & sweet performance in "Sweet Home Alabama".

The Dark Knight
The best ever batman movie. The action is thrilling and the joker's (Heath Ledger) performance was terrific. A well deserved oscar for his performance. A must watch movie for action lovers and Christopher Nolan fans.

The Prestige
A Christopher Nolan movie - This should be sufficient to say that it is a well directed movie. The plot of the story is about two rival stage magicians (Hugh Jackman & Christian Bale) competing against each other in creating best illusion on stage. Also, it is about how far they push themselves in trying to achieve this. The movie has good twists & turns which makes it really interesting. According to me, this is another must watch from Christopher Nolan.

Die Hard 4.0
Live free or Die hard after 12 years from Bruce Willis. May be he is too old for the action(?), but the action in the movie is good. The story is not stitched well & has lot of loose ends - If you are looking only for action & the attitude of John Mcclane (only some though), then it is a fine watch.

Ratatouille (Animation)
The main character of this movie is a rat (Remy) who wants to became a chef and the movie is rightly named after a French dish Ratatouille which has "Rat" in its name :) One of the finest animation movie, with a simple story of Remy wanting to become a chef & how he does it. The composition of colors and the art sense is incredibly stunning. A pleasure to watch.

Sin City
A very inventive & artistic movie adapted from the comic graphic novel named Sin City written by Frank Miller. The coloring scheme is very unique, using black & white for most of the movie and highlighting specific objects with color. Superb, it is and the action is done with utmost grace & elegance.

Reservoir dogs
This is Quentin Tarantino's first direction and is one of the highly rated movies. The movie is about seven strangers planning to commit a robbery together. All they know about each other is their code named after a color. A set of dialogue where none of the macho guys want to take pink & arguing over their choice of color is funny. Tarantino embarked his style in his first movie and kept improvising and experimenting with it as he went along in his later movies. Note that the movie has brutal scenes and if you do not like that, then this movie may not be for you.

No country for old men
The story is about a cowboy who finds lot of money on a barren hunting land in Texas. Obviously, in reality no money comes for free and needs to be hard earned. So, to keep all the money for himself, he need to out smart a drug dealer gang. The action kicks off then, and the movie becomes fast paced and pushes you to the edge of the seat many times. However, I couldn't comprehend the end and it didn't matter to me.

Schindler's list
It is a true story based on a German man named Oskar Schindler who protected thousands of Jews during the Holocaust. It is a very fine movie directed by Steven Spielberg and received 7 Oscars. Schindler saves his Jewish employees with his money/jewelery and other material wealth. A significant number of Jews were saved by Schindler and with all respect to this great man, these Jews go by the name of Schindler's Jews. This story reminded me of how one man's good act can make a great difference in the society.

To Kill a Mockingbird
This all time classic movie is adaption of a novel of the same name. There are lots of lessons for us to learn from this movie and is thought provoking. From the movie - "Mockingbirds don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird". The story is based on this and is one of a fine drama.

12 Angry Men
A gripping, clever classic b&w film. The story is about a jury of 12 who needs to decide if a boy, charged for murder of his father, is guilty or innocent. But, the decision is not based on the majority, but on a unanimous yes or no from all the 12. At the beginning, all the jury members except for one believe that the boy is guilty and is ready to charge him for murder. The story is about whether the one person can change all their minds & how their argument goes on while trying to convince each other. A must watch classic.

The Great Escape
The story is about Prisoners Of War at Nazi camps during world war II, trying to escape. These fearless brave soldiers keep trying to escape from the prison and get caught many times. This movie is about the grand plan on their great escape and how they do it, and what happens then. The movie is long but interesting to watch.

Finding Nemo (Animation)
A very cute animation movie featuring father-son relationship of clown fish. The father fish Marlin is always protective of his son Nemo. The story is about the adventure Marlin goes through when he looses his son. On this adventure, Marlin meets a blue fish named Dory who suffers from short term memory loss. Dory's character is simply superb and she cracks too many good jokes. The movie is a delight to watch.

Fashion (Hindi)
A Madhur Bhandarkhar film. It does not come up to the mark of his other films Page-3 and Corporate. It is like Bhandarkhar has not done enough home work about Fashion Industry and has shown only about models being exploited by the influential and the models being drug addicts. Priyanka Chopra is the lead of the movie and it gives her a good opportunity to perform and she does it decently well. The movie is longer by 30 minutes and that makes it dragging and boring at times. Watch it only if you are serious about checking out Bhandarkhar's work & Priyanka's performance.

Big Fish
Big Fish is a movie adapted from a novel of the same name. The story is about a complicated father-son relationship. The father is a person who has his head in the cloud - His communication to people is through story telling and is a 'larger than life' kind of a man. The son is more fact oriented and realistic person. The son just can not accept his father's life as described by him, since they all were too unrealistic for him. When his father is dying, he thinks that he hardly knows the man and blames him for it. Finally, the son puts himself in his father's shoes and realizes what a man his father is. An extraordinarily imaginative story.

The Usual Suspects
The usual 5 suspects are arrested by police for questioning when a crime happens in New York, for which they are not responsible. So, they plan to take revenge for this and they all get involved in a crime. Only later, they realize that they were all exploited by a master mind and the story goes on to find who it is. The movie is an amazing crime thriller and the performance of Kevin Spacey is close to perfection.

Blood Diamond
Movie is based on a very serious subject. It is about smuggling of conflict diamonds from Africa to rest of the world. The diamonds are conflict 'coz they are the reason for the terrible wars within Africa. The movie tries to create awareness of buying authorized diamonds and also the situation in Africa. The subject is great, but not really well taken. The reality is not told well (exaggerated at some points). The journalist role played by Jennifer Connelly is irritating at times. Di Caprio's performance is brilliant.

21
The movie is based on a real-life story of 6 MIT nerds becoming expert in card counting and winning millions in Las Vegas casinos. The movie is a roller coaster ride of who beats whom. A general time pass.

The Edge
An outdoor adventure movie where a billionaire played by Anthony Hopkins (as Charles) and couple of his friends gets stranded in middle of nowhere when their plane crashes. The middle of nowhere is a very beautiful place and great to watch. Charles is a avid reader and has gathered tremendous theoretical knowledge. His knowledge comes very handy in their situation. A time pass action thriller.

Batman Begins
Chirstopher Nolan believes in story telling by establishing his characters first. The same is true here where Bruce Wayne, the batman played by Christian Bale is first introduced as a eight year old rich kid and what he goes through before he becomes a bat man to save Gotham. The thrill is slowly mounted and not right from the beginning, like lot other action movies. Building it up as every scene progresses, Nolan gives meaning to his character and the intensity of it.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
It is a fantasy movie with a curious case of reverse aging. As years progress, the child Benjamin grows younger. Somehow, I found that very many times, the movie was not focussed on the curious case, but on too many other stuff around. It is a very slow paced movie and I couldn't keep my attention at many points. The movie becomes interesting when the character Daisy played by Kate Blanchett is introduced and when a complicated love story develops between Daisy and Benjamin (Brat Pitt). The make up of the artists are really good - At some early part of the film, I couldn't recognize Brad Pitt. Watch it for its uniqueness.

Wall-E (Animation)
A creative concept of Robots falling in love. The mere thought of it itself is amazing. The film is about a simple love story of robots named Wall-E and Eve. Wall-E is an industrious robot working in an abandoned city with sky scrappers, but has no trace of people - A city believed not to support any form of life. Initial 30-40 mins of the movie goes on without any dialogue till Eve enters this world. At times, I got bored of the movie, without any dialogues. But, it is a unique movie and worth a watch for that.

Luck by chance (Hindi)
The movie is about wannabe actors (Farhan Akhtar & Konkana Sen) looking for a chance in the glamorous film industry. Out of these two, one gets lucky and becomes a star. The movie shows the dark side of the film industry, like how people exploit others, throw them once the need is over. It is not a heavy movie with only dark sides of the film industry. Director Zoya has taken care to mix some comedy at right places. A decent hindi movie released in the recent past.

Dostana (Hindi)
The movie is all about fun, glamour, more fun & more glamour. Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham pretend to be gay to get rooms for rent in Priyanka Chopra's apartment. As expected, all three becomes really close friends and what follows is a love story, with Priyanka falling in love with her boss, played by Bobby Deol. Humour saves the movie and do not expect you to think in any way. A general time pass.

Slumdog Millionarie at Oscars

A.R Rehman, one of the most deserving musical composer wins Academy Awards in the 81st award ceremony. He grabs oscar statuette in his both hands, one for his best original score and the other for best original song (Jai Ho) sharing with Guzar for the film Slumdog Millionarie. Resul Pookutty wins Oscar for best sound mixing for the same film. It is a great recognition for these achievers and a historic moment for India at Oscars.

Slumdog Millionarie also bagged another 5 awards in the category of Best Film, Best Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography and Best Adapted Screenplay making a total count of 8 wins out of 10 nominations.

I am truly not impressed with this film, but sincerely appreciate The Music Maestro and Resul Pookutty for winning their awards. According to me, "Jai Ho" is not one of A.R's masterpiece. Some of the greatest works of him include, starting from his first film Roja and others like Taal, Dil Se, Thiruda Thiruda, Vande Mataram to name a few. A.R stands out from many other Indian music directors with his original music composition, unlike many others who have many times borrowed (stolen?) music of other countries. I think it finally worked out right for A.R, by being at the right place (Hollywood) at right time with the right director Danny Boyle. To me, this award to A.R is a recognition for his musical work since 1992.

About the movie, Danny Boyle says that it is an optimistic movie and he brings out the hope of a slum boy who suffers through out his life. I wonder how many got inspired with this movie! I at least, didn't take away any of these when I finished watching the movie. Though the depiction of slums and the people living there were realistic, the story was not. The story is piled up with imagination, which makes it good, but can't be claimed realistic. When the story is not realistic, it becomes hard to relate to it and it is difficult to take away what Boyle is trying to say, the hope. In the movie, to me, the truly interesting part was how the director has interleaved incidents happening across three time frames.

Among all these celebration of Slumdog Millionarie, Indian film industry is celebrating it as its own victory. What bothers me is that, they truly fail to understand that in more than 50 years of movie making, with about 1000 movies releasing a year, we fail to make one such movie and take it to Oscars. Surely, Slumdog involved very many Indian artists & technicians and also story based in Mumbai slums, but shouldn't there be a limit to Indian film fraternity taking credit in Slumdog's jai ho?!

The five people you meet in heaven

This book by Mitch Albom starts of with the story of a man who is dying. It begins with words like "All endings are also beginnings. We just don't know it at the time..." The start is distinct and interesting. The story is about a man named Eddie, meeting five people in heaven. These are people who altered his life forever or whose lives were changed by him. These people reason out some of the happenings in Eddie's life and helps in finding the peace he is searching for.

I am strong believer of "everything that happens in life is for good and we just can't comprehend it when it happens..." When looked back at my life, I can now explain the reason for some of the events and some still remains unanswered. The author comforted me with the thought that they would be answered someday...

The writing of Albom is simple, but the content was definitely interesting and solaced me. His way of story telling is sentimental, but has some deep meaning in his thinking. This book is a short read and it cheered me.

One night @ the call centre, a mindless masala

I picked up one of the best selling novel by Chetan Bhagat for two reasons - One, the title sounded interesting and two, it is from an Indian author. The bollywood movie "HELLO..." definitely wasn't my inspiration.

With the intent of not revealing the plot of the story, I would try not to be superfluous, but be concise in giving my take on it.

As the title suggests, the story is based on one night's events in a call center. It revolves around 6 people working in the same group at a call center, who assist customers on home appliances. As any common person can predict, many events happen that night. With this kind of a storyline, it becomes difficult to narrate many convincing events happening over a night. So the author smartly tries to break the chronological order of events on that night and narrates the love story of a couple in the group as a flashback. But, very many pages of his writing goes in this story telling.

Though in prologue, the author's words emphasize on inspiring the youth, the book merely fails in doing it. It would have been better off, if it was not portrayed as a motivational message for the reader. May be the author is attempting to pass on the moral in a "contemporary" manner by stretching the fun (love) part & maintaining a very short narration (given by GOD) in enlightening the youth!!

The author gives a simple & powerful message of, we need to follow what we truly believe in life - Be in the life making or career decisions. But, he truly does not focus on that. The loosely stitched storyline and the less imaginative stereotype way of telling story makes the writing mediocre. At some points, the reasoning in the book becomes nonsensical - Like calling common Americans as dumb. May be I will accept it to some extent, but not to the extent that the author has depicted and uses them in trying to solve the big crisis of layoffs in the call center. At that point, the story really lacks sense and becomes unbearable to accept. No set of people in the world can be so dumb, according to me.

I think the author wants each reader to relate to one of the characters. But, the story becomes so unreal, he fails in that attempt too. Towards the end, in an effort to get some real sense, the author tries to play a trick of giving a quick alternate option - Like instead of GOD speaking, assume some real person spoke those words (may be for readers like me). But, it doesn't truly convince and at that point in the book, it really doesn't matter. However, this trick reminds me of what Yann Martel does in his book "Life of Pi", a must read book I would say. I guess Chetan got inspired by this!

Inspite of so many discontents I expressed, it remained gripping and I wanted to finish it in one go. I guess, to me the anxiety of how GOD is going to appear and how well the author can stitch that to the story kept me going. However, that part of the book really disappointed me.

One night @ the call centre, truly a masala book.