Andaman Trip

It has been a while since I blogged. All the interesting things on returning to India started irritating me as I got sucked into the daily grind. And when I found something interesting to blog about, time was not on my side. All cribbing aside -

In this post I am going to blog about my trip to the Andaman Islands, where I went for my honeymoon. Without delving too much into geographic details, this is an island off the Indian mainland in the Bay of Bengal with tropical climate (short unpredictable spells of rain at all times during the time of the year when I visited)– about 2 ½ hours (by flight) away from Chennai or Kolkata. Port Blair is the capital city and has an Indian army base set up there. We traveled by flight & all flights to Andaman land at its capital - Port Blair.

Day-1: Port Blair

Cellular Jail - Port Blair

Our entry into Port Blair was rocking in the truest sense. I must have to say that Indians (in general – however there are exceptions) are not the most civilized travelers. The volume of background chatter in this particular flight surprised me. There was heavy turbulence in the last half hour and just before landing, the pilot had to abort, pull up again and land from a different approach. The wonderful sounds of people throwing up and prayers to appease the wrath of the turbulence gods replaced the chatter.

We reached the resort and after catching up on sufficient sleep, we set out to explore Port Blair. The first place that we planned to see was the Cellular Jail @ Port Blair and watch a light and sound show there. I must have to admit that the ride from the resort to the Jail was like being in an awesome James Bond movie in some exotic European / Italian location that had winding roads bordering the ocean. And what is the first thing we see after such an awesome ride – The Gallows of a prison to mark the start of a honeymoon (gee how romantic!!!). The light and sound show later that evening filled in on the details of the atrocities committed by the men in uniform. This was accompanied by background sounds of whiplashes / prisoners screaming etc. My wife and I could not stop exchanging glances that had - W T F???? Imprinted on our faces. That was all the awesomeness we could handle and called it a day.

Day-2: North Bay and Ross Island

North Bay & Ross Island

North Bay was called the “sports complex” where you could snorkel, scuba dive, ride a Jet boat, see corals from a transparent glass-bottom boat, go on some ride called “banana ride” that actually drives you bananas. Apparently, a group of people sit on a banana shaped raft that is towed by a speedboat and somewhere, the banana overturns dumping everyone into the water. So here, we tried to see some corals from the glass bottom boat – not much was visible due to lack of sunlight / dirty glass at the bottom of the boat / combination of both. We then did something apparently called snorkeling – we just walked on water with the totally douche looking glasses fitted with a breathing pipe and tried to see something near our feet. That is a “Coral” – we were told as the guide pointed his toe at something. I could neither see his toe nor the thing he was pointing at. It was like looking for a lost coin in a water tank that had not been cleaned for a decade. So after some spectacular fiascos, we headed to Ross Island.

Ross Island was the place where the British officers posted at Andaman lived. Man!!! I must give it to the British – they knew how to live. You could walk around this Island in about an hour. It was filled with deers & peacocks. It was a wonderful sight to see herds of deers swiftly swish past us when they heard their call for food (it was their feeding time).

The evening concluded with a “romantic candle light dinner” at a cove by the beachside. This was seriously awesome. The sound of beach waves kissing the shore was like soothing music to the ears. The food served was fantastic by a spectacular waiter whose hospitality was admirable. It was a thoroughly splendid evening to end the day.

Day-3: Havelock

On MV Bambooka & our resort beach - Silver Sand @ Havelock

I would say that this was the beginning of awsmness. Havelock is a 2½-hour ferry ride from Port Blair. We traveled by a ferry – M. V. Bambooka. I really liked the name – so I mention it here. We were there at an off season and were surprised to find out that there were ONLY 2 people in the resort – us. The rooms here had a very rustic feel to it. It was all wood and Bamboo. A beautiful beach with water in different shades of blue with soft white sand was a 2 minutes walk from our room. There were some reclining chairs overlooking the beach. Lying on one of those and gazing at the ocean felt like looking at paradise – it was quiet and the only sound in the backdrop was the sweet sound of the waves.

This place was so remote that cellphones did not work – there was a TV in our room but with very limited “doordarshan” channels – I did not even bother turning it on. It was like being isolated from the rest of the world. To the city-breds like me, who are so used to the sounds of honking and automobile pollution & spending most part of life in enclosed environments – this kind of natural purity outdoors and peace was confusing at the beginning. The brain was missing all the chaos and did not know how to react. It took a while to go to “unwind” mode but once there – the feeling of B L I S S entered. This was a lazy day where we basically did nothing but slack at the pristine beach, which on that day felt like our private beach!!

Day 4: More of Havelock and more awesome things

Scuba Diving

On this day we wanted to try something adventurous. So we decided to go Scuba Diving. My wife & I cannot swim which made us a little uncomfortable with the idea initially. But then we consoled ourselves with the thought that if a hydrophobic like Hrithik (in the film Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara) could do it, we could certainly take our chances. The movie gave quite a good glimpse of what to expect and how you would be trained. I must say the Oxygen Cylinders and the weights on our waist that would keep us below water were pretty heavy. Putting on the wetsuit, the weights and the oxygen cylinder for the first time was very awkward. It was not easy to stand straight with that weight. The actors in the film were bodybuilders of sorts, so might not have felt the weight – which is very different from the scenario of a common man. Another point of difference from the movie – you are not allowed to dive alone. Your guide drags you along – so you are supposed to do nothing (just see) and you do not even have flippers on your feet.

The scuba diving experience as such was out of the world. I am sure majority of the people reading this blog have seen the movie Finding Nemo. This was like a live version of that. And we did actually see some clown fish and their nest of eggs. When I tried to touch the nest, he would try to bite my finger and made me get my hands off. “LAY OFF OR ELSE I KILL YOU!!!!” was the spirit there. I got to hold a sea cucumber. Although I loved the idea of showing off to the rest of the world that I did scuba diving and held a sea cucumber under the ocean, that thing was squishy, nasty and gross. We got to see some fabulous fishes in every imaginable color from the palette.

Before the dive, you are trained to breath through the pipe under water and pressure builds up at your ears. If not released, it leads to a massive headache. When you get into the water, initially, for the first few minutes, you are very conscious of the way you breathe, release pressure in the ears etc. But after sometime you get comfortable and begin to draw long mammoth breaths. It is a very nice feeling to only see exquisitely colored fishes & beautiful underwater life that you have never seen before, feel the oxygen enter and exit your lungs & hear your heart beat. My wife and I were speechless for a while after the dive trying to digest everything that we saw and felt.

After some rest and food, we headed to another beach at Radha Nagar. This is listed as one of the top 10 beaches in Asia. We were under the impression that the beach by our resort was the best. Then we saw this beach and we had to redefine awesome. This beach had softer, whiter sand than the other and it actually had waves. It was quite a long stretch and there was a forest almost overlooking the beach. From a distance, it looked like the ocean blue was kissing the forest green - a divine sight to savor.

Day 5: Bicycling around Havelock

Cycling @ Havelock, Radha Nagar Beach (Top center & Bottom Right)

On the final day, we decided to rent a bicycle and investigate the island. All along, it was a splendid sight of different shades of blue to the left of the road we were on, separating a dense green of forest cover to our right. After a good half hour of pedaling, the landscape changed to paddy fields in a typical village like setting. We pedaled till our batteries ran out and felt a great sense of accomplishment. We went to the resort and decided to rest our backs at the comfortable reclining seats overlooking the ocean – and we did that were in for another shock. There was no water in the ocean for quite some distance. At the same place where there was water yesterday was now exposing the seabed. Both of us exchanged glances – was a tsunami about to lash out at Havelock? Both of us strained our ears & eyes to hear or see something remotely resembling a rumble, ready to run the fastest sprint we could run. But after a full 15 minutes, when nothing happened, we comforted & laughed off our fears for it was just the ebb of a tide.

We felt that the tour had concluded well and were all set for a peaceful journey back to Chennai not knowing what was in store next. The ride back from Havelock to Port Blair was by my favorite ferry – MV Bambooka again. The trip to Havelock was smooth and neither of us felt that we were on the ocean. However, on our way back we had the immense pleasure of traveling in a storm (or storm like turbulence at least). The sea was rough and the ride was turbulent. Very soon the only voices that reverberated our cabins was of people throwing up. So to avoid this, we stepped out to the open deck to get some fresh air. What we saw was scarier. It was like being in a smaller version of the storm that we saw in the movie, the perfect storm. Huge waves surged right ahead of us and our ferry would climb and fall into the ocean waves. Then it would climb another big wave only to fall back again. We had to make an executive decision – whether to endure the sight of our tiny ferry battling its way through a rough and scary ocean or to brave through the encouraging sounds & smell of people throwing up – which by now became much louder and stronger with the number of people joining the ranks rising.  The fact that neither of us knew swimming and the fear of falling off into the rough ocean made us reluctantly choose the second option. After reaching Port Blair, the first place we headed for was a temple to thank the gods for bringing us to the shore in one piece.

The next day we took a flight back to Chennai with lots of memories to be cherished for the rest of our lives.

Relocating & adjusting to life in India again ... PART 5

All along through my returning to India and restarting life afresh, I was trying hard to only look at the positives and not pay too much attention to the negatives. However, there comes a point when patience, & good faith lead to anger & outrage … and I had my tipping point about 2 weeks back. I was furious and royally pissed off – and sadly, a couple who had R2I’d (Returned 2 India) around the same time as I had, had to bear the brunt of my ranting.

[NOTE : If you are eating or planning to do something pleasant, reading this post now is a bad idea K … please excuse the repulsive verbiage]

Contributing factors to my rage were aplenty – however inefficiency & reckless disdain from my fellow Indians were substantial factors. Here is a sample - On the last trip to Chennai, I was travelling by an AC Volvo bus (something I totally loved till this trip) that was stinking because the a’holes that ran the travels thought that it wasn't necessary to "clean" the bus during the rainy season - gee how thoughtful. I reached Chennai, landed at the bus terminus only to find that there was stagnant rainwater everywhere. Adding to this spectacular sight, I saw people urinating in the stagnant pools at the corners of the road … which found its way to the mainstream stagnation. Adding to the delight, a couple of extremely hygiene conscious retards spit in the same (mainstream) stagnant pool that they were wading through. I was very tempted to get into the shoes of “Vallarasu Vijaykanth”(the Indian cousin of Chuck Norris / Steven Seagal) and beat the fucking crap out of the three filthy douchebags. The only place free of stagnation was the median separating the traffic on either side. So I was actually walking on a one feet wide median with huge ass Volvo buses and trucks on both sides honking with maniacal fervor. Oh and did I mention – we separated by a safe distance of less than one feet – so realistically, if I lost balance or just extended my hand – I would actually lose it. (This is a very common sight in India and I don't know what really ticked me this particular day ... the initial thrill of R2I experience had vanished perhaps??? )

One Awesome pool I managed to click

After witnessing the spectacle mentioned above, I did not get out of home the whole of next day and was bored out of brains.  Boredom got the better of me and I decided to venture out into the filthy paradise. Surprisingly, the roads were fairly dry. I was actually a bit pleased not being aware of the next surprise in store. Most of the roads were reduced to their raw materials – the thing that keeps the stones and mud and other stuff together was all gone. With the passage of every vehicle there was a huge cloud of trailing dust and a ride in a car/ bus / auto felt like a rough boat ride.

A pic from Hindu News Paper - online edition

I can think of two things – as soon as I had returned to India there was a meet of other folks who had returned to India as well. There was one experienced wise guy in the group who mentioned just this – “India during the summer and India during the rains are two different places – so wait for the rains.” I totally understand what he meant. The other thing – I grew up here and this is not new to me. I was fully mentally prepared to see the filth and dirt and nastiness that I elaborated about. But honestly experiencing it is a different league as opposed to being prepared and anticipating it. With this, I stop my rantings for the day.

Police Story - Part 2

This should actually be part 3. The second incident with the cops was fairly boring – so nothing mention worthy there. However by this time, my (evil) impression of cops had considerably mellowed down.

This time I was riding a friend’s super stylish fancy (it is a lower power version of race bike - the same one in the pic) bike near the Eliots beach in Besant Nagar. At the end of the road, there were 3 cops and they stopped me, asked me to park the vehicle and meet the Sargent. I did as instructed. The dialogue that ensued –

“License and registration documents”

I showed him my license and said, “I don’t have the documents right now.

It is a friend’s bike and I am just using it for the evening.”

“Sorry sire! This happens to be the bike that gets stolen the most. I cannot let you go without seeing the documents. Can you please call the owner and get it from them.”

“Sure – but I might need some time”

“Where does he live?”

“Besant Nagar.” (Same locality where I was pulled over)

He took my license and then went to attend other people who were pulled over. As I was a talking to the friend over cell phone, he was going over the licenses and then called out my name loud. I was not sure what it was for and I went to him.

“Sir – is this the original license?”

“Yes – it is.”

Like in the Basha film, his demeanor changed. Not sure if why – probably people in this part of the world never carry originals? I have no clue.

“Sire – you can take the bike and go and get it yourself.”

“Keys?”

“Sure Sire – you can take it … sire police are like your friends – you don’t have to be scared of us. We are just here to serve you.”

I was not sure what the original license did to him - but I was even more surprised on hearing the last couple of lines.

The friend was not there, so his brother accompanied me. It might be worthwhile to mention that his brother was in class 10. So we went back to the cop and showed him all the originals. He was convinced and just fined me 50 bucks for which a receipt was printed and issued on the spot – what technology!!! Impressive I say!!! While handing me the receipt, he mentioned that it was valid till mid-night that day and it was very possible that I might get pulled over again - and it might come in handy. I was about to throw it away - but thought will hold on to it at least till I dropped off the bike @ my friend's place. 

Then after paying the fine this is how the conversation turned out –

He asked me – “Sir, where do you work?”

“Samsung” – I replied.

“Sir, how are the Samsung dual SIM phones doing in the market?”

“I am not too sure. I just got one myself yesterday.” Saying that, I handed my phone to him. He inspected the phone – looking through the features and asking me details about how dual SIM worked and the hottest dual SIM phone in market. I spent a good 5 minutes giving him details of my research over the last few weeks on dual SIM phones.

After that, for whatever reason, he justified the reason for pulling me over mentioning that it was order from the Chief Minister and that the number of fatal injuries were growing amongst bikers etc etc …

Finally – when I was about to leave, he said to the friend’s brother – “Sir, be safe with your bike and ride safe. Next time you loan your bike to someone, also make sure you loan your documents.”

Little did the cop realize he was actually addressing a class 10 guy as Sir. And he waved both of us goodbye. On our way back both of us burst out laughing at what had just happened. And tell you what ... the cop was right. I got pulled over again 2 streets further down ... however, the receipt came to the rescue this time ... and no explanations were required. After getting pulled over twice in a span of one hour on the same day ... I am never going to borrow this "cop magnet" bike of this friend.

Relocating & adjusting to life in India again ... PART 4

Its been one month @ Samsung and in Bangalore.

I have read quite a lot about returning Indians finding it difficult to adjust to the Indian work culture in different blogs / forums. So far things are not crazy as I thought it would be.

At work - I’ve had one on one meetings with the department manager and with a HR person in charge of new recruit adjustment. Both made sure that I was getting along / adjusting well in India and the job. Both of them were very impressed when I told them that I was not going to make any comparisons with life & work culture in America vs India till I hit the six-month mark and that I was going to take things as they come.

Some differences that I see in the work culture here –

In India, you end up spending more hours at work. That does not mean you are working all the time you are in. It includes breakfast, lunch and one snack/coffee break.

It is more of quantity work than quality work.

There are more hierarchies and small requests have to go through many layers for approval.

Being a programmer (in my case), I spend more time following procedures and doing lots of non-developer work.

There are more people on a team than really required. In the US 3 people would do the work of what 8 people do here. The reason I was given - high attrition rates in India.

If you shed the “I am the America Returnee & I am the most important guy” image, colleagues / teammates are pretty friendly and helpful.

I will stop with work related comparisons here and talk about my adaptation of Zen Habits.

I had started simplifying and de-cluttering my lifestyle over the last 2 years in the US and I have managed to continue the effort here. Relocation to India has helped immensely to get rid of a lot of stuff I don’t need. In Bangalore, all I own are some clothes, a laptop (mac) with mobile Internet connection, a bi-cycle & a motorcycle, a non-smart cellphone that acts as a camera, radio / mp3 player & torch (LED flash light). Believe me when I say this – the torch has been the handiest feature in my cell phone. When I was in the US, a colleague who had relocated to the US from India had a cell phone with a torch and I remember laughing at him and he had mentioned the same thing. Now I know what he meant. It took me a long time to convince myself to get a mac. But considering the power cuts here – it is one of the best things I bought. I rented a fully furnished apartment – it saved me the trouble of buying furniture and basic home appliances. I carry my own cloth bag around and have reduced my plastic bag usage to minimum.

Most of you reading my blog now might already know that I go to work by cycle 3-4 days a week. I was scary has hell when I stepped out of the cycle shop with a bike in hand. But in the very first couple of days, I realized that it was an awesomely awesome thing that I had started. Surprisingly, there are few people in my office who commute to work by cycle. The traffic here is scary and I still don’t have the guts to drive a car.

A couple of interesting incidents with the cycle –

I went to a restaurant to get some take out food. There were a few guys sitting on their fancy motorcycles – a Bullet & an Apache. I parked my cycle right between them and turned off the rear flash-light (a blinking red light below the seat of my cycle that lets people know that there is a cyclist here) and walked in. One of the guys came to up me and asked me if it was a GPS / GPRS / some other cycling paraphernalia that I have not even heard of. He said he had seen some fancy stuff in Germany. I laughed and told him that I was less gadget savvy and it was a just a blinking light and both of us burst out laughing.

My cycle is plain simple – no gears & old school design. I had a very similar cycle when I was in my school days (wow that was in 1994-95). When I stopped at signals – on multiple occasions, people have asked me how comfy it felt to cycle. There was one guy who said the old days are coming back as more people were going back to cycling. One other guy was envious – he was telling that cycle was the fastest way to get around and I could not agree more with him.

more to follow ...

Relocating & adjusting to life in India again ... PART 3

It has been 4+ months since I returned. By now, the things that awe’d and yuck’d me don’t affect me “THAT” much. I guess I have gotten accustomed to the chaos. In the initial month, driving my motorcycle took up every ounce of my concentration and I had to rest for a while after a bike ride – not anymore. I am still learning some very interesting things here.

The meaning of cleanliness goes to the next level. Here, removing trash “out of your house” is cleanliness. I was walking on the road and I saw a small plastic bag drop out of the sky close to me. For a second I was shocked and I looked up and saw a lady at the verandah of her apartment - she stared at me like I had killed someone. Then just like the fancy English movies – after a scene – there is a rewind part where the whole plot unfolds (with the part that we missed) – I saw what had just happened. She just threw a bag of garbage from the second floor of a flat onto the road and it missed me by a few yards. It is very common to see mounds of garbage piled outside every apartment complex. When it rains … well you can imagine what happens – no explicit details needed here.

The age-old meaningless procedure crap still exists. I had an old account at C bank and I had to re-activate it. I had used it around 2001 and one other time around 2006. I met the manager and requested reactivation and online access explaining why my account was inactive for so long. I had to write a “letter” to the manager explaining everything. Few minutes later, I had to deposit a cheque, and the lady clerk at the counter rejected it stating that my “signature” did not match with what they had on record. I showed her my Indian and American driving licenses as a proof of my identity and explained to her that my account was inactive for a while and the signature had changed in the last 10 years (just a few mins back I had done the complete explanation to the manager just few feet away from her where she could hear and see everything). She insisted that I had to write “another letter” to the manager (who was sitting just two partition-less cubicles away hearing/seeing everything happening) reasoning why my signature had changed. After getting the signature thingy resolved the next complaint was that the account was inactive for a very long time and to reactivate it, she wanted me to write another letter. The manager who was watching all this was silent for a while. Then when I started to write the letter again, he said my first letter would suffice. I guess there is a letter for everything ... might not be a bad idea to carry a letter template booklet ... ;-).

There was also another incident in another bank where 2 lady clerks sitting in next-to-next desks made go to one-another - 4 times stating RULES crap. The first one would say, “I cannot do this without lady 2 approval”. On approaching lady 2, she would say “This needs to be approved by lady 1”. And they did not talk to each other – I was a victim of ………..

Getting my PAN card was an enjoyable experience (sarcastically). It normally takes 10-15 days to get it. I had proper proof of address (my dad had included my name on the ration card). I went to an office that submits the application at no extra cost (Rs. 100). The guy at the counter took my application and said he’d submit it the following day. I waited for 10 days and there was no response / confirmation/ acknowledgement. On calling him again, I came to know that my application was lost somewhere in transition. He gave me 3-4 phone numbers that I kept calling and I was circularly led to one-another. After 3-4 days of repeated calling, I got a confirmation by mobile that my application was received. After that there were no hiccups. I believe this blessed guy totally forgot to submit my application and somehow kept me entertained for a few days with some BS.

More to follow …

Police Story - Part 1

At the mention of Police, we normally relate to rude, potbellied, balding men sworn to evil, kings of extortion etc etc. My impression was not any different until …

On one of my trips to Chennai, I was driving my dad’s bike. I had to do 10 yards in a no-entry path and then join another road where I would join traffic in the correct direction. And there he was at the 10^th yard. He got a hold of me and turned off my bike and took the keys. I had just watched 2 other guys who successfully passed the same restricted 10 yards and got away. The first thing I tried to do was make up some BS. Pointing to a shop right next to me, I said, “I was just stopping here to visit this shop right here”. Not sure how many times he must have heard the same crap in a day … he was immediate to respond in proper English – “A policeman cannot run behind and catch every erring person passing this wrong way. Did you not see the HUGE board that says no-entry? So what did you think if one guy goes through, everyone can? What are rules for?”

The cops in this state are characteristically known for like their potbellies and mamool-vasool-raja qualities (forcible bribe suckers). I was very surprised that this guy was in peak physical shape and he spoke very proper English and that too with decency. I was quick to apologize and said “Sorry sire. I knew this was the wrong way and despite knowing that it was not the right thing to do I did it.” I was not sure if he was expecting a mamool (bribe) out of me. Unsure of whether the apology helped / worsened the situation I was thinking what was next – whether to reach my pocket or what. To my utter surprise this is what my ears heard – “You are a Gentleman sir! I am proud of you … ” and he let me go – just like that. Whoa!!! … I stood there for a few moments trying to comprehend what just happened.

There is no exaggeration in this post. It really happened to me.

Travel Series - Part 2

The very next week after visiting Tirupathi, I wanted to go and see another set of temples in the State of Karnataka (the state where Bangalore is located). I was told that some temples there are in pristine surroundings and add up to the wow-factor. So the plan was to go to Bangalore, spend a day in the city and then start the trip by SUV. Oh and to all the readers in America, Chevy Tavera is really “the pick” of SUVs amongst tourist operators. It came as a super-big surprise to me as GM does not have such a good track record in America in the recent years.

The plan was to take the train to Bangalore, stop at a friends place for the night and hit the road the following day, visit 6 temples - Subrahmanya, Dharmasthala, Kattil, Udupi, Shringeri and Horanadu, return to Bangalore, rest a day and return to Chennai.

See this image. Would any of my Indian friends believe it if I told you that this was a seat in a Train? My surprise hit epic proportions after entering the seater-class compartment of this train. This was a Shatabdhi express from Chennai to Bangalore. I had been on a tourism train in Alaska in the US. But to see something of comparable standards in India was a total shocker. There were adjustable lights and air-vents (like in planes). There were power plug-points and many IT guys were working on their laptops. Breakfast was also provided and the pantry service was pretty decent.




The road trip started early in the morning and for the next 3 days, most part of the day was to be spent on the SUV. I must also admit that it was scary as hell sitting next to the driver. By now I was used to crazy “city” traffic (slower speeds) but highway driving is in a different league. Roads in some remote parts were narrower than a single lane that I was used to in America and our driver was going at 80 – 100 kmph in these conditions - honking like an express train and breaking every possible road rule known to man. And believe it or not … 2 buses / trucks going in either direction managed to fit into the ultra-narrow road strip.

Another surprise during the trip was stay at my mom’s friend’s relative’s house, which was in the middle of a field. We reached there during the night and the path that led to the house was a “One foot path” (Otthai Adi Padhai) where only you could walk or perhaps bicycle if you were exceptionally confident about your balance. I am shit scared of snakes and the very idea of walking through that path and the fact that snakes love fields gave me the creeps. Images of all the giant King cobras that I had seen on Discovery Channel started flashing. With the help of the flashlight in my cellphone, I somehow managed to reach home safe (strangely, the I could not stop thinking of captain Vijaykanth who performed an operation with the light from cell phones). It was truly an old fashioned house with some modern amenities. I managed to wake up before dawn and captured some of the best photos that I have ever captured.

I must admit that the scenery in interior Karnataka was mind blowing. Alaska was barren and desolate but yet serene and beautiful. Karnataka countryside was lush green and lively and gorgeous in a totally contrasting sense.

Another interesting fact to note is that in Karnataka Temples – food is served free to all pilgrims and there are NO beggars outside the temples. The temples and temple towns were surprisingly well maintained. Another interesting incident that I witnessed – my mom decided to donate some money on the “aarathi” plate in one of the temples and the priest actually asked – “If this is for the temple, drop it in the hundi (large piggybank placed in the temple where devotees put their offerings) or leave it here if it is for me”. It was touching to see such sincerity.

India is truly a country of rich cultural heritage and I am beginning to realize it. I guess I have lots more to see and much more to learn. Overall, this was a fabulous trip that left behind some fond memories to cherish.