Devi Temple Festival

One of my neighbours in Trivandrum is a Devi Temple. My visit this time coincided with their festival and I had 3 full days of continous music, ranging from religious songs to melodious mallu songs to racy tamil songs.

See those loudspeakers, well they are right opposite my house.

There was a pandal on our house terrace where food was served for some 400 people in the locality. The temple trustees were sponsoring it and we agreed to give our premise for the cooking and serving of food. So we had a nice free-meal all the three days.

And then this huge black guy came on the last day for the festivities. There is he standing in front of my house.


This is the best part of the festival. You can check out the video

here

Then similar to the famous Attukal pongala, we had a local pongala

Check out the Cricket Blog for the WC

Some of you who read this might be interested to read the World Cup Cricket blog, up and running from today. Its a joint effort with some friends of mine.

We will be trying to capture the WC in all its glory and try to give you some very different perspective especially with respect to our fav team - Team India as BCCI would like to call it

So may the best team win.

Matheran - Beautiful place

Matheran is a nice small hill resort on the Western Ghats, about 100 odd kms from the city of Mumbai. If you are going from Mumbai, you have to take a train and travel in the Central Line and then get off at a station called Neral and then take a taxi from there till Matheran. This taxi ride is something you will remember for a long time for the bumpiness of the ride. From the point the taxi drops you, you have to eithe walk/trek the 3-4 kms upto the Matheran village or take a Horse ride or hand cart till the village.

My Journey started from Thane station. The station I used to catch a local every morning to Currey Road. On a daily basis the total number of people coming and going from each of the Mumbai Local station must be the largest in India.

So finally got to take a pic inside the train!

Coming back to Matheran, this place doesnt allow any vehicles inside so all you find on the roads are people and horses and hand carts. The roads are dusty in the sense that there will be a layer of red soil on your shoes after your nice walk outside.

But who cares. There is no noise as such to screw you wonderful holiday. All you hear are the voices of people, animals and birds...how nice.

This is a typical street scene in the morning in Matheran!

Thats my horse "Bobby". He is 8 yrs and quite senior in this trade. He listens to Santhosh, the trainer standing on the left. His horse "Stallion" is 3 yrs and is one of the studs in Matheran according to him.
The best thing about Matheran is that this small place has some 40 points for tourists to visit and most of them are natural points. There is no man-made fencing etc to spoil the natural scenic beauty of the place.
The pic below is the echo point and is one of the more crowded places in Matheran.

This is not the sunset point, but I caught a wonderful sunset here. Most of the visitors to this place are Gujjus and so 90% of the restaurants are vegeterian. But I have to tell you that I enjoyed the veggie dishes for the 2 days I was there.
Its quite a lethargic outpost near Mumbai and ya forgot to mention that plastic is also banned in this tiny hamlet. In the hotel I was staying they had a small disco and I made most of it, dancing with kids :)...ok I also lost in TT to a 12 yr old kid. Now you know how good I am at TT!

A long break

Well I have been quite busy lately and lots of stuff to write about...
Next one is surely gonna be one about Matheran..awesome place near Mumbai
And some updates from Trivandrum where I am right now...nothing seems to change in this state
I should be able to get back to blogosphere very soon

~Sujith

There is still hope for the country, for its journalism!

187 Stories

A salute to a newspaper that reflects on a nation. They continued this crusade when the rest of the media were carrying the stupid bollywood stories to juicy gossip.

These are just 187 stories that unfolded in Mumbai every day. But there was a string of lives attached to them, their family and friends. I might not know them but each and every one of us who has taken those locals at any part of our lived would have felt the shivers that day when it happened.

Sometimes responsible journalism can get good some good deeds done by the society, like this did. This is the difference between showing skimpy clothes and making more money and showing abject poverty in the nude and touching human lives. This is where a newspaper becomes a line of thought, the conscience of the nation...

Arsenal had a ball at Anfield

In prime form, no oter team in the world entertain with their one-touch passes as Arsenal!!!
Arsenal's second string demolished Liverpool...

Happy New Year

My New Year eve was spent in this place called Danga Bay, in Johor extreme south of Malaysia. I was with my brother, cousin, his wife and their friends.

My guess is that half of Johor must have been there that nite. The roads in and around that area was jammed. There were 1-2 live bands performing, a couple of stage shows happening, music being blasted out of huge speakers etc etc.

One of the main attaraction was a ship which was docked near the artificial beach. There was food and drinks for whoever wanted to celebrate NY on the waters!!!



Then there were fun rides for kids. I like this particular ride, whatever they call it. Kids love it and its good fun.

We won a prize in one of the stalls! Proud owners posing with the prize!

As usual everything glorious in Malaysia ends in fireworks!


So Happy New year!

A long pending Football post

And what better time to write this, than when Arsenal go back to Emirates after a hard-fought 1-1 draw against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Mourinho's multi-million team could just manage to draw against a team which had Henry, Toure and Gallas missing. I do agree that Arsenal was lucky to get away with a draw but this is like a value-for-money team full of budding young talents beating a stinking rich team of over-achievers...I like it.

I am sure Arsenal dont have the firepower to win the Premiership this time, but they will give their fans a lot to cheer about by the end of the season. The match even before it started had been a controversial point for ex-gunner (C)Ashley Cole, who left the club to win more titles and have a better bank balance. I t would suit him fine if Chelsea dont win anything this year. Then I would like to know what he would like to say on that.

So with specially printed notes(I mean these English fans will go to that next level when it comes to patronising or booing their players) the fans made their point. Notes from Bank of Russia (to mock at Abrahmovich) and signed by Peter Kenyon (the CEO of Chelsea) were thrown and waved all over the field. He is a wonderful left-back but I think yesterday his under-study Clichy played better!


In the match against Tottenham, the man or should I say boy who stood out was the fabulous Fabregas. He is a class apart when it comes to passing skills, vision to see the openings and tackling. Only thing he has to improve is his shot taking. If he has a deadly long ranger to his repertoire, then he will become the finished product that Viera once was. Cashley Cole it seems has written in his book on the role of Fab to take over from Viera as "Passing the gloves of a heavy-weight to a feather-weight". I mean nobody can match the physical presence of 6 foot and more Viera but Fab proved in last years Champion's league match that he was more skillful than Viera by stealing the ball from the master and setting up the goal.

Going into this match with the back four who were aged 21,21,23 and 19 Arsenal took a big risk. But in the end it paid off. Djourou maybe in-experinced but what he will learn from this 90 mins will make him more experienced by couple of years. Toure was a towering presence not letting anything slip between him and Gallas is a strong man who will not go down under challenge. Ebouoe has his own problems of getting into altercations too easily and Clichy is a pacy left-back who commits to tackles and sometimes seems to be off guard. But they stoood the test of the great Chelsea-attack.

The goal came from the unlikeliest of the sources, Flamini. As usual Arsenal was upto over-passing around the box patiently making every fan sit at the edge of the seat. The problem with Arsenal is that there might be 10 shooting opportunities but they will only take 1 or 2!And when Flamini did, it sure was against the run of play but Arsenal deserved it for persisting so far. One look at the time and I realised that they had scored a bit early for comfort. But anyways this point at Stamford Bridge was not expected in the first place :)

But the man who stood out was Gilberto Silva. The Brazilian played the role just in front of the back four but was defending behind the error-prone Senderos often and came up with many a save. He was there defending, threading the ball to mid-field and giving his piece-of-mind to Ebouoe, who was getting into a lot of tiffs with Lampard.

So Arsenal look good to finish 3rd this season and if they do then its a good enough start for this young team. Champion's League is anybody's game from now onwards.

Indian Middle class' Hypocrisy

There are couple of Newspaper editors who do an awesome job everyday. I follow Shekhar Gupta of IE on Saturday and Vir Sanghvi of HT every Sunday. I dont even know the name of the editor of India's largest circulated Newspaper, so you can forget about the editorials. Should be as crappy!

Ok so VS wrote a very though provoking article on the Delhi demolition of illegal structures. It is an awesome read and he touches on the hypocrisy of the middle-class in India. Its a good read I am just copy pasting that part...

You would think that an urban middle class that spent so long complaining about the decline of our cities would vociferously oppose any deviation from the rules and would fight against the offenders to preserve the character of their hometowns.

On the contrary. As long as we can add illegal balconies to our houses, run offices in our basements and let out our garages to small manufacturers, we don’t really give a damn.

The complaints are made in the abstract. The offenders are people we don’t know. As long as we can bend the rules by paying off some official, we are content to hammer one more nail into the coffin of urban India.

There is no better illustration of our selfishness than in our attitude to illegal encroachments by those at the margins of our society: the slum-dwellers.

I am something of a fundamentalist (extremist, even) when it comes to urban planning. Nevertheless, I am deeply saddened by the spectacle of shanties being bulldozed out of existence; of poor people clutching their few pathetic belongings and surveying the wreckage of their homes.

But, as much as all this upsets me, I recognise that the alternative is even worse. We cannot hope to retain any sense of urban planning if people are allowed to construct illegal slum colonies wherever they want. Finally, an encroachment is an encroachment and must be treated as such. It is up to us to be humane in removing the encroachment or in resettling those displaced. But no city in the world can afford to permit the spread of slum encroachment all over its environs.

Most middle class people share my view; they hate slums, they consider them eyesores, they are worried about the security implications (even though they will cheerfully employ domestic help from those very slums) and they treat them as examples of the venality of the political class: the slums survive because they contain voters.

But why is it wrong for poor people to construct illegal structures and perfectly okay for middle class people to do exactly the same thing?

What is the difference between an illegal slum and an illegal sari showroom? Aesthetics, perhaps (though, judging by many sari showrooms these days, I am not even sure of that). But otherwise the arguments are much the same: both are encroachments, both place unacceptable strain on the infrastructure and both destroy any sense of urban planning.

And yet, such is our middle class hypocrisy that the very people who complain about slums and demand that the homes of the poor be destroyed are content to make crores out of shops and offices that are just as illegal and illegitimate.

Logic suggests that if there is any sympathy to be directed at encroachers, it should go to the poor slum-dwellers. Instead, nearly all of it goes to the traders, the shopkeepers, the businessmen and the fat cats. And that’s because they are middle class — like us. The marginalised people whose homes we want destroyed, on the other hand, are almost sub-human and worthy of no consideration at all.

Its quite true and his thoughts ring a bell when you look at it. When we built our house, we made sure that we left so many feet on either side of the house to take care of the corporation norms. There were roads on two sides of my house, which meant that we had to leave an extra feet on those two sides. I am sure a lot of law-abiding citizens do that. And it pains when you see a shop jutting out on the road or a balcony protruding out into the road. And when the Govt authorities come to demolish it, the sympathy is always with the affected. I mean if you knew you were doing something illegal and wrong, you should pay for it.

Bangkok Diary

Welcome to Bangkok - the concrete jungle. Last time I was here, I didnt get enough time to move around. I didnt get anytime in this trip also, but still made the most of it.

This is the view from Nonthaburi, a small suburb on the other side of Chao Phraya river, which is now part of Bangkok. Here is an interesting trivia of the name Bangkok. Though we foreigners use the name Bangkok, the actual name of the city is Krung Thep. Bangkok is just a part of the big city. The the city's full ceremonial name is "Krung Thep Maha Nakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udom Ratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Phiman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanu Kamprasit", which translates to "The city of angels, the great city, the eternal jewel city, the impregnable city of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukam"

Infact the full name of the city is the longest place name in the world. I do not know how the connection of God Indra etc come into the picture with respect to Thailand. In the new airport there is a huge replica of the Hindu mythical story of Samudra Manthan, the gods and the asuras churning the ocean using the snake!!!How the hell did the Thais come to know of this story and why is it so important for them to keep it bang in the middle of the new Suvarnabhoomi airport. Beats me.




The once place which I could go was th water-ways inside the city. I could catch a glimpse of them in my numerous taxi-rides, but couldnt take it. A James bond movie, I think the "Man with Golden Gun" has a nice boat chase etc in it.

And another surprise is that there is no local car company in Thailand. So all the cars are foreign. I think its pretty sad for a country like Thailand. They have the technology, the manpower and other resources, wonder why they still dont have a local car!!!


Well talking of the good infrastructure this country has built we should look at the long term vision there rulers had though you can say that, even after doing so much there is so much of traffic jams inside the city. But to think that they completed those expressways running above the city that connects most of Bangkok in and around 1995 and they have a double network of overhead transit system of trains - The MRTS and BTS.

The picture below is the new station they are constructing on the Nonthaburi line. Once this line complete, they will have farther more connectivity and hopefully the traffic constraints should reduce. The trains are much better and bigger than the LRT in KL. There is only one issue I have with the stations, they dont have any toilets! Ya so they must have saved a lot of money on that. I had to rush to the nearest mall to relieve myself:(


This picture below is taken from the Wikipedia, awesome picture this is of Bangkok and the skytrain!

The new airport is not connected to the train system but the way work is progressing in Bangkok, maybe by middle of next year that will be operational too. But unlike the old airport where you have to bargain with the taxi drivers outside the station to get into the city, here the pre-paid system is very tourist friendly. Last time I had to wait for close to 2 hours for my visa on arrival. I had to wait in a queue, fill a form, submit it along with my passport and photo and wait for my turn to be called. This time it took less than 5 mins and all you have to give is the passport and photo, no more lousy forms etc. Pretty efficient I should say.

The airport is still not completely finished in the sense that you can still see some painting jobs to be done etc. The number of shops inside the new airport must be double or triple of what you have in KLIA but I think they should have made it more spacious as the passages are a bit narrow. I have a complaint though. In the old airport there was a Nike showroom, form where I picked up my Argentine and Brazil jerseys. This time I walked the nearly 3 km long passageways leading to all the gates, trying to locate the sports shop. It seems there are no more shops/sports shops selling any football jerseys. Too less!


Talking of the coup and its after-effects, the city seems to be quite normal. There are posters of the king hanging from a lot of buildings. It is the year of the King's 60th Bday and hence this show of wishes. I remember seeing a program on TV in which they showed what all good the Thai monarchy has done to the people of Thailand. So the vote for the best monarchy in the workd should go to the Thai King and family. Much better than the ones in this country. I havent seen anything good coming from the words or deeds of the sultans of this country.

Thaksin the ousted PM seems sold some 49% stakes in Shin Corp a telecom company to temasek Holdings, which was illegal and to top it, it seems our man amended the laws just prior to the sale and saved on taxes for a sale of close to $ 1.8 Bn in stakes!!! And this is what basically led to the coup happening as the whole country was witness to this drama being unfolded.

But the other side is that it seems Thaksin for all his evil deeds also had a good side. He was the one who planned the new airport to rival the local challenges from KL and Singapore. UNfortunately he could not even attend the inauguration of this airport. He introduced a scheme where any Thai citizen could go to any government hospital for treatment of any ailment (from fever to cancer) for 30 Baht (which is equivalent to Rs.30). How I wish they do something similar for the numerous health centres in rural India atleast.

And talking about food, well South East Asia is not a place for the vegeterians. If you want to enjoy all sorts of meats this is the place. I didnt go to the place where they have grasshoppers, that would have been too much for me. This is a local roadside place selling nice fish and meat for the people who want a quick bite.

I didnt try it though, but the green curry chicken is my favourite with a-dish-i-forgot-the-name of, which is basically chicken which is roasted inside coconut leaf (I think). Thats heavenly!

I landed in one of the designer planes of Air Asia. The Man U one!

Genting & some movies

Went to Genting HIghlandswith couple of my friends recently. This place is at a higher altitude compared to KL and is a easy getaway for KLites from the heat. The avg temp is around 15-20 deg and there are intermittent showers to cool it further. I never thought I had the nerves to do some of the rides they had for offer. I was freaked out before my small and harmless roller coaster ride itself. It all dates back to a consumer expo in Trivandrum, when I sat in a ride called "Torra Torra". Well to make it worse I was sitting on the edge, which means that I was supportig the entire body-weight of the person sitting next to me!!! As soon as the ride got over I just walked to the side and puked:( Since then, I stay away from Giant-wheels, roller-coaster etc etc


This story dates back to some 11 years. So when we were in Genting, I thought I should try out some of the rides as I had stopped doing such childhood scares (throwing up when going up an altitude, throwing up when the flight was taking off) some time back :) So here I was rejuvenated and in French company and had to keep apna desh ka naam ooncha and all...I did some amazing roller-coasters and somethign called Space shot (pic below), which is some 15 storeys high and drops down, like bungee-jumping, but the difference is that you would be sitting. The whole process is less than 1 minute, but gives you the kick. I still didnt do the rotating/revolving kind of rides:)




Then we did the casino, I lost some 30 ringgits and my friend lost 300! It gets addictive I should say, but it was mu first visit to a casino and now I know how the owners of Genting, are one of the richest people in Malaysia. There are thousands of gamblers in this part of the world. Genting is one of the companies which has bid for the Sentosa Casino in Singapore.

Saw Munnabhai some time back. I think its a very funny way of looking at changing the country but not as realistically possible as RDB though. It is a tough task to make a successful sequel and they have done it. Also saw Omkara, another good Hindi movie. There are some good directors in Hindi for a change. Now can the KJ's and gang retire from the indutry. Also a parting shot on Don, didnt like it as much as the original. I would watch AB version anyday over the SRK one. And SRK can never do justice to what AB did in "Khaike Paan Banaras waala..." Impossible...

Indonesian Diary

It’s been close to a month since I blogged. I have been travelling around quite a bit, though that is no excuse, as it is part and parcel of a Sales job. The most fascinating job of sales and the most difficult part is sitting across the table and trying to convince your customer to buy your product. So there is a sympathetic corner for every sales guy I come across.

My job took me to the Republic of Indonesia. This is one country which is in the news for all the wrong reasons – Floods, earth-quakes, mud volcano and forest fires…With the fourth largest population the roads, buses, malls etc are crowded like India. As with every crowd, rules are broken on the roads, as with every poor country, corruption is rampant in every walk of life. But the new president is undoing or trying to change the scenario and is fighting corruption as much as he can. The ouster of Suharto and emerging of this new government made for some fascinating reading.

This part of the world has another similar fascination – high rises! They are all over the place. They are making the tallest/lightest twin storey apartment complex, which is supposedly one of the 50 best apartments in the world! I went for an expo and tell you what some of the best home furnishings can be sourced from this region. They do amazing work with wood, fabrics and fibres. Amazing stuff, highly recommended for home furnishing products.

The craziest thing to watch out for in Indonesia is the bus lane. They have this running on the middle of the road and at some parts they are at a raised platform, like the footpath, but at the wrong side. So you have bus-stops at the middle of the road which are connected by overhead walkways and the doors for this buses are on the right side!!! This idea has been borrowed from Bolivia/Colombia (one of these South American countries).

I took a nice train ride to a place called Bandung, which is supposedly the textile centre in Indonesia and I came to know this when I was leavingL Most of the popular brands that you wear in some parts of the world gets made here.

If you are a non-vegeterian, this is the country for you and the food is very similar in terms of your chicken curry, fish curry etc. They add turmeric and other spices in abundance and so the taste is also quite similar. In the restaurants, they keep all their dishes on your table and you can pick and choose whatever you want to eat. Once you are done, they will come and clear and charge you according to what you ate (touched). Eating with hand is not a crime. Talking about food, I had a really nice dinner at MU Café, yes Manchester United Café. I went in at 7PM and they showed me the way out as due to the Ramadan period, all the tables were booked. So went in at 9.30 and peacefully enjoyed the ambience. Got some stuff for some of the ManU-fan friends of mine.

Football Trivia for Indonesia – They have a football magazine called 4-4-2!