redbus.in #fail

After the sudden spree of agents booking of tatkal ticket, it has become an easy thing to see 64 odd tickets vanish around 8:03am (sigh!). So we decided to book the tickets in redbus.in for the travel to my home town. Soon after the failed attempts in IRCTC, we queried redbus.in, few tickets available in one or two buses. One travels called Sangita, claimed in bold letters, "executive A.C. bus with 2+2 seater". Price of the ticket was Rs 930. First, I have never seen a bus ticket so pricey, second never booked bus ticket for ages. So we took the call and booked the tickets.

Friday, 9:45 PM Koyembedu bus terminus.

As the auto was nearing the bus terminus, traffic started to move inch after inch, we got down and decided to take a walk. (nostalgia of Majestic, BLR traffic). A mob of people were waiting to board their respective buses. Soon our bus was announced and we moved to board it.

On the first sight of the bus, I did not believe it was our bus and I started to look around for another volvo. Didn't spot any. Soon I inquired about the bus and where it was heading. Was shocked, when he said 'Yes, it was the bus'. It was a normal bus with sliding window and the interiors forcefully remodeled to work as A.C. bus. Sigh! Normal push back seat. Adding to it, AC duct right above our seat was broken and it was chilling the spine. Soon I had to stuff my hand kerchief to control it. Seats that bend unevenly, broken air conditioner from which the defrost water started to drop on the head, -cramped leg space and ...

Trouble did not stop there, one passenger learnt that he had got a high priced ticket (Rs1200/-) and started to yell that he was cheated. But no one listened, soon he demanded that they screen a movie on the t.v. since he had paid so much money. So they started it at 11:00 PM, and movie ended at 1:30 AM and we had a pit stop at 2:15 AM for break. Finally tried to sleep around 4 AM and the bus reached at 8:00 AM.

So who is to be blamed for these high priced tickets?
One thing is clear, the Sangita travels guys said that he got Rs 450/- for the ticket, rest the agent kept for himself. So is it redbus.in to be blamed to hike the price on demand? Unknown! Bottom line, start planning early, redbus.in sucks and I don't recommend it and I will try avoiding it at any cost.

A walk with a mahout

Punnathur Kotta Elephant Sanctuary is 2kms ride from the Thrissur temple town. Around 66 elephants are care taken in this sanctuary. Starting from the security gate to the far corners inside the sanctuary there are elephants tied to tree trunks and big cement blocks. We decided to take a walk through the elephant sanctuary guided by a one of the mahout's there.

This is a typical sight one can find, elephants tied to the trunk of the tree. Some take the shade and some do the sun bath. They do "yo yo" moves for some jazz music to keep them warm as well away from the small bugs. Interesting to see innovative moves done by the elephants. Also some use a branch of a coconut tree to scratch their body, other throw sand on their body to keep the bugs away!

Its easy to differentiate a male tusker from a female. The male elephants have long tusks, Ah some tusks are really long as you see in the above pic (6 vidyasangal sollungal paarpom). Trust me its a really tough skin and rock solid tusk. I almost fled the spot when the elephant made a sudden movement. (@revs & @tom your requests fulfilled)

The female does have tusks, but they are very small. Like the one you see above. They are also slightly short in height than a well grown male. There are some male elephants that has a female face, ie with a shorter tusk these are the ones that will be used the circus, said the mahout.

Elephants will undergo a period (around 3 months) known as musth. During this period the testosterone levels increase in the elephants and they become very aggressive. Its identified by a thick oil like substance that's secreted on the temporal glands on the side of the elephants head. So even an experienced mahout dares to go near the elephant. Once elephant is identified for this, all four legs are tied in huge chains, food & water is supplied from distance using a hose pipe.
This is a sad part of the elephant care taking. A stick is kept behind its ear. The elephant has to stay (stand) without the stick falling down. This is said to teach discipline to them. If it fails to hold the stick, it is given some lashes with it, says one of the mahouts. Some times the elephant takes the stick thats dropped and pleads for guilty by holding it on the trunk.

Also this sanctuary has some of the elephants that were donated by film stars and politicians like J.Jayalalithaa.

A simple wedding

Yesterday I traveled to Guruvayur temple, Kerala for one of my friend's wedding. My mom reminded me that, I'm going to the temple exactly after 24 years. So ideally I would take this my first visit I can remember. :) It was a Malayali wedding that I attended and I really loved the way the whole ceremony went.

Step 0: Get the bride and groom dressed up for the occasion.
Step 1: Wait in the temple's wedding queue. Yes, there are multiple podiums outside the temple where lot of weddings happen on a given day.
Step 2: Get on the podium, the chief priest will do a small ceremony and the groom ties the mangalyam (sacred rope) to the bride and pray to lord Guruvayurappan for their well being. That's it, click few snaps and you are done. Approx time 5-8 minutes for each couple.
Step 3: Walk to the nearest wedding reception hall that's already booked.
Step 4: Exchange rings, Flowers and round the sacred grains and lamps that were kept on the stage. Finally sign the registration papers. :) Its done again. Approx time 30-60 minutes.

Then its left of the members of the family and friends to give fruit and milk to the couple. Finally each of them coming to the podium for a photo session. The whole thing called wedding is done. How simple, neat and crisp.

Instead of complex long chanting mantras, burning fire, smoke, asking the bride to change the Saree every one hour, occupying a huge wedding hall for two days, the grooms horse ride the previous day and the numerous other small ceremonies that happen, its sometimes good to keep things simple. Spending so much on the materials for the wedding. Literally the bride and groom become so tired by the end of the day. Its agreed that these are traditions in many families and they did not want this to fade out and every parent will wish their children to get married auspiciously.

Still this is something many families can think about following, except the loads of gold that the bride wears. ;)

Cool headed

News is I'm back from Tirupathi and had a good Darshan. Thanks to the volunteers - who man handled people in the queue to take a break when we were there. Also tonsured my head during the holy visit. Hence here is the aftermath of being without something after many years!

- After taking bath, I tried adjusting my hair and ended up scratching my scalp.

- Esp when few girls got down from the adjacent bus, the hand auto magically goes to adjust the hair. :-) Chinna viyasu palakam.

- Some of my testimonials said, I was a cool head. Now I know.

- One of my roomie has more hair than me as on date.

- Its a bit awkward to see my own shadow, the curves look sexy on the head.

- Never knew a potential of a "Tamil film villain" within me. What to do, once in a while movies like Shivaji also get screened.

- Even committed the sin of touching the comb.

Kids

It is hard to recollect something and write it later. But you can't help it too, pulling a laptop in a moving train and making a post is unlikely unless you are traveling in a sadapti. Sigh in this train even a short message was F hard.

I was envy, jealous and etc etc on the kid who was on the next berth who came along her grandpa. Why? I boarded the train and lied down like a old fellow with my ear plug on. The 541 megabytes of music was my *only* lonely company. She was playing around climbing berth after berth and finally getting help of her grandpa and getting down. So much energy for the physical activities. Soon after the ticket checking is done. They decided to sleep. (She has to share the berth with her grandpa.) She decided to take the cushion seat by climbing completely over him and gave a full hug of his belly and rested that smiley face. I was happily watching them. It should have been less than a full Tamil song. She slept! My god when was the last time I slept like that.

Today I had been to a saloon and was there for almost two hours. A kid was there! He was one of the relatives kid who came here for the annual holidays. (I verified, It was not child labor.) He was inquisitive. Asking, "maama yethvathu velai kudunga maama!" (uncle, give me some work uncle) Soon he asked him to clean the shelf. I was watching him and he did not even get a second distracted from him work. He got down things, cleaning them arranging them in height order for the entire 90 minutes. I think its a meditative state of the child. When was the last time I had done something so meticulously for a continuous 90 minutes.

Going South...

Dear Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav

March24, 2009

Bangalore.

Sir as I'm suffering from fever, I would like to... No its not my leave letter, Hello Lalu ji.. How are you doing? hope things are good out there. Well, have you got a chance to visit this place called Coimbatore, down south in Tamilnadu. You know its a beautiful place and you should pay a visit sooner or later. It has one the best climates I have ever absorbed through out the year. Make sure you drop by to taste my mom's pulli kolambu. :-)

I love Indian Railways. Well, right now I live in Bangalore I have a concern. Something that is under your administration. You know there is very good amount of people commuting from Bangalore to Coimbatore. So many Software Engineers, business men, families in bunch commute between Bangalore and Coimbatore. But the trains between Bangalore and Coimbatore is very less.


When I said less this is why..
1) Coimbatore Express: This train commutes from Mumbai to Coimbatore. So the train is almost full when it reaches Bangalore. Also the number of seats that we get through Bangalore station quota is less.
2) Kanyakumari Express: This train commutes from Bangalore to Kanyakumari via Trivandrum. Yes all the way through Kerala. This train now is loaded with all sorts of people other than who want to go to Coimbatore. Esp when the train goes thro three states, just think of the rush it would have.
3) Eranakulam and Trivandram express: Completely ruled out because of the not so ideal time they leave Bangalore. My boss will not be happy if I start at 4 from office every friday, to catch the train.
4) Only two train at ideal timings.

Ok, some how I booked the tickets from Bangalore to Coimbatore. Now I need to plan my return journey. This is what I have to plan my return journey. Half the apple for everyone.

1) Only one ideal train from Coimbatore to Bangalore that starts at night. So the people who travelled in two trains now have to squeeze them in one train.
2) Bangalore Express (6265) starts from Kanyakumari. So it will be loaded with people during holiday season. I have seen the TTR getting fed up with the crowd and not checking the tickets even.

Just look at Chennai. They have 3 trains starting at night. In that 2 dedicated trains that run all day! I find my Chennai friends get a ticket any time they would need. Here is the availability status to Coimbatore of some coming weekends. (You got available status on May 1st because its a long weekend and Friday is a holiday)

1 27-Mar-2009, Friday WL 102/WL 51 WL 15/WL 15
2 03-Apr-2009, Friday WL 22/WL 16 WL 135/WL 116
3 10-Apr-2009, Friday WL 77/WL 67 WL 19/WL 19
4 17-Apr-2009, Friday WL 57/WL 41 WL 12/WL 12
5 24-Apr-2009, Friday WL 31/WL 22 WL 5/WL 5
6 01-May-2009, Friday AVAILABLE- 0093 WL 9/WL 9

If you can do something useful after this general election would be to have one (just one, Lalu) dedicated train from Bangalore to Coimbatore. It would be great!

Thank You.

Yours sincerely,

I'm coming mee :)

Life is moving on.. This year again I will be in Coimbatore. Sorry guys! I miss you! also know how much you would miss me, for all those eggs and those just bake cake.. Whats the deal, You are soo good people! But yeah, I badly wanted to go home. I had been missing her smile and warmth. She also misses me double.. He has been the best for ever.. Also dicussing those small titbits with him that I had known months back is also interesting.. My taste buds are almost in the graveyard with those maggi noodles and fruit bowl.. Its time to give them some life.. I din want to disappoint them.. Paati started making her muruku today.. Amma is all exicted about the menu that she wanted to cook.. Dad as usual would have saved the internet usuage of the month for me.. they are all set for a blast.. 

Also will be hosting two other good friends this time at home.. Would be going to Dhiyanalingam again.. Thats it for now.. God bless!! 

Spinning On...

Vijesh

Chennai

Well, After 2 long years I came back to Madras city aka Chennai. My last visit was to present a project at a gathering by CII. I still faintly remembered that Tidal park road. This time it happened to be my best planned train travel so far. You know how..

2:40 AM - I don't have any dress pressed. I should go to Santy's place and do it.

3:00 AM - Packing done in a paper bag :).

...

...

8:30 PM - Calling Santy.. I forgot my camera charger bring it.

9:15 PM - Calling Santy again.. Bring my night pant also, I forgot it.

10:15 PM - Calling Santy again.. Bring me a pull over, It would be chill during the travel.

11:15 PM - Still at office, my pickup cab has not yet arrived. (Train at 11:45)

11:45 PM - Reached station..

I should accept it was a different Madras to what I had known and seen. The city has changed a lot. Significant improvement was the Hi tech Chennai Traffic police flying around in their Hyundai Accent. It was a nice sight to watch. One sight that din change is that stopping commuters for checking their License and Insurance papers. It was sorry to watch the police officer stopping vehicles for a check in one lane and the other lane was totally jammed where he should have been at the center to clear it. (Dear Traffic Police Dept: Did you know there is a survey says that enabling device identification in a mobile phone and disabling it when lost will not work out in India. Since it was predicted that around 60% of the mobile that are being used in India are either from the black market or stolen mobiles. Similar way, it applies to vehicles also. Spend your effort on better bigger problem.) In fact saw the Indian cricket team return to their hotel after end of day 3.

29c (Perambur Train Station to Besant Nagar). A travel I enjoyed after a long time. Chennai public transport buses are such a way that Men can sit in RHS of the bus and Ladies can sit on the LHS of the bus. The bus conductor is the only male who is privileged to sit on the LHS. :) It was a long journey from North Chennai to South Chennai. Enjoyed the whole ride in it, esp hanging in the foot board. Just compared to Coimbatore were buses just rally between each other and no guarantee for the person life on foot board. (s29 - Koundampalayam to PSG Tech in 35 mins is just cool, despite stopping in all the stops! Dubai shek will tell tales about this bus) The bus very slow that you can get down have a small walk and get in later. Also loved watching passengers passing money from the font of the bus to rear end asking for a ticket. Interesting travel...

Only thing that scares me of Chennai is the climate. I got to be accept it that I was `Happy` this time. Chennai treated me well this time were I hardly saw the sun and continuous breeze reminded me of my town. Adding to it was the night walk in the beach which was spectacle by the full moon and the glittering water. It was the most beautiful moon I have ever seen. (That night the moon was 30% brighter than usual full moon in 15 years :: read) But how can you go there without a camera. I was an idiot to do it. :-) Ferocious sea and Moon had contradicting nature like the roasted corn and mango we ate.

Finally meet my good old school friend. She has put on lot of weight. You know she calls me and asks, "You write more in your blog than talking to me over phone." She asks where the hell do you get time to write so much nonsense? I know I will blasted now again for writing this. :-) My first travel with no photos!

Queen of Hills! Explored one of its kind!

Ooty!
I cannot write more about this trip...
But could share some photos. May be we will climb them again soon!

Let me introduce them first from left: Ragu, Myself, Sri, Sethu(standing). Its the pine trees behind ragu's house. Great place to hang out. At the foot of the Hill is the grassland. Crossing several pine hills lead to the 6th mile.

This seems to be a nice nature photography from here. But after travelling that FOG it was scary! Have a look at the time 16:50.
It cant get worse than this! Look @ the time 17:50. See the visibility percentage. Bad it was. We came down to the foot of the hill only using certain red danger lights that were before us. Click on the image and look closer @ the comments! :(