Travelogue

Well, happy to be back to the blogging days. I'll try to give you a glimpse of the experience I had for one week, during my insane road trip from Kerala all the way to New Delhi, in my Maruthi Zen LX.

Day 1 (15th Oct,'09)
The day started at 5.30AM, and the car left Trichur, Kerala by 8.00AM. First day's target was to reach Bangalore by dusk. The roads allowed us to keep a consistent 60-80km/h during the early hours, and as planned we would not raise to the triple figures on our journey for the sake of my 10yr old companion. We reached Salem by noon and had lunch from a highway 'kerala restaurant'. Since the roads in Tamil Nadu were excellent, we could cover good distance in less time and managed to reach Bangalore city by 7.00pm, and then got stuck in traffic mayhem. Some luck helped and a timely left turn from the highway helped me find a decent place for stay at Madivala. The trip meter read 504km.

Bangalore City is a likable place except for its traffic and under construction roads. The city is quite well structured and public are also quite literate and well mannered.

Day 2
Our destination for the day was Hyderabad, which was 570km away. The route was clear- to take the NH3 via Kurnool. According to our plan, this would be the longest single day route on our trip. We started off by 7.15am And the majority of the roads were excellent too. About 120km from Bangalore and the last 200km from Kurnool to Hyderabad are superior 4-lane expressways and the rest of it being under construction. The only thing which would haunt you is the lack of civilization along this path. Its like people went to these places only to build roads and never saw that place again. Many sections are deserted and sometimes you may not find markers for more than 50km which might be quite awkward at times, mind you you are travelling on a National Highway.
We could reach Hyderabad city outskirts by 7pm. We headed towards Nampally, where we found a decent place for stay. At Hyd, people on their two wheelers were absolutely crazy. Except for Hyderabad city, traffic was quite unregulated in other parts . People understood Hindi quite well and that was enough. :)

Day 3:
(17/10/09)
Day started at 7.15AM, and we left Hyderabad city by around 8.45. Destination Nagpur. This was one of the worst sections of the entire journey. Most of the sections of NH7 were under construction and at some places roads literally disappeared, with only some heavy trucks and our car travelling on pure gravel and mud. Nevertheless, we managed to cover a good 490km by dusk. Vinit, my Xth classmate, arranged stay at his place and i was blessed to be a part of Aarti n pooja for Diwali. Had some really nice Dal-rice and sweets and wished him Happy B'day the next day as well. !! Really that was divine intervention- that his b'day and diwali happened to be on consecutive days and i could be a part of both.....
Next day, we left nagpur by 9AM and headed towards Bhopal.

Day4 :
The roads were average-above average kind of. Although not convincing most of the time, the whole landscape and meadows through which the roads shaped up enthralled me. At most of the places you would find people/ vehicles or something which would make you feel a part this world. Mind the cattle/livestock which are on the roads/sides. They have equal priority when it comes to sharing roads.
Since the distance was less, there was no need to rush. But the latter part of the section was a mix of average-below average-poor roads. Anyone of these could pop up any minute.
After reaching Bhopal by 6pm, we headed straight towards Bhopal railway station, where we found a decent place for stay right in front of the station. The day ended with some good roti-sabji from a near by restaurant. Distance covered was 350km

Day 5:
Mission Gwalior (ga-va-liyar , thats how many people pronounced it!!). We hit the roads by 9.00AM and could cover good distance in short time. The roads were above average when it came to quality and width wise it was 2-lane. The cool thing was the roads were accompanied with rich flora and fauna alongside them. This made the day's trip pretty pleasant. Gwalior town was reached in 9 hours and I halted at a hotel near railway station. Total distance covered was 420km.
I really wished to have a map of Delhi city, but I was wandering through the Gwalior streets in vain, as no cafe would be open after 7pm it seems. People on two wheelers were absolutely insane, and I witnessed many bikers riding on a half a foot high footpath just as if they would do it anywhere else.
After my unsuccessful search for a cyber cafe, I finally got to my bed by 10.pm

Day 6:( Grand Finale ) 20/10/09
Destination : New Delhi

Oh gosh. It was an awesome feeling. I would be making it to the capital city, which would mark the successful end of a six day marathon. We set off by 9 AM and our plan was to visit the Taj on our way. The roads were beautiful and except for some very short stretches of lame patches, we could keep a consistent 80kays per hour and this enabled us to reach Agra by around 12.00Noon. We visited the Taj Mahal ( how marvelous she is... !) and left Agra by 3.00PM, with only another 200 more kms to make. The roads were pretty excellent but for some traffic.
By 6.30Pm, we reached the outskirts of Faridabad.
From there onwards, the journey was filled with so much of luck and chance that I really doubted divine intervention for the second time. My target was to reach the South Extension of AIIMS, from where dad would accompany us. Though it took us some time to reach there, the route we took to reach there still remains a mystery. So many left turns and right turns, majestic fly-overs, oh god this metro city really took a toll on us for some time.
From there, we took the outer ring road towards Wazirpur, from which we diverted towards Rohini, which was my final destination.
And home by 9.30PM.
Was a relieved person.
'We' mentioned above includes me, my CD player, my buddy Maruti Zen LX . And quite strictly so. Thank you.



Trip Summary:
Start Point : Trichur, Kerala
End Point : New Delhi, Delhi
Total Distance covered :2700+ km
Route :
1. Trichur- Palghat - Coimbatore - Salem -Bangalore(NH47, NH7 )
2. Bangalore- Anantpur - Kurnool - Hyderabad (NH7)
3. Hyderabad - Nirmal - Adilabad - Nagpur (NH7)
4. Nagpur -Pandurna -Beitul - Itarsi - Hoshangabad -Bhopal (NH69)
5.Bhopal - Narsingharh- Biaora - Guna- Shivpuri- Gwalior(NH 3)
6. Gwalior- Agra- Mathura- New Delhi(NH 2)

Total fuel : Rs 9000+ (Mileage 15)
Total toll : Rs 465
Total food + stay : ( depends on no. of persons and taste , any way per day a min 600)

Places of Stay :
Bangalore : Hotel Mass Residency, Madivala( its a good one)
Hyderabad : Hotel Imperial, Nampally( You can find loads of hotels at Nampally)
Bhopal : Hotel Pukhraj, Opp. Habib Ganj Railway Station
Gwalior : Hotel Mascot, Near overbridge near railway station


Advice 1. Make sure you have enough no. of good songs / cds/ dvds. AC is a must.
Advice 2. Auto/ taxi drivers are a good source of information. Mind them.
Advice 3. Best place to find a stay should be near the railway station !

Our Robot

We made a robot!

Its a cool feeling to say that, honestly. Ramakrishnan, Devidas, Arun. S and myself had decided to make one, and it wasn't long before it came to existance. A simple remote controlled Robot. Now we have a toy to play with... And we participated in a robotic event as well. We managed to finish 3rd in the event. 

Do you want to know our bot in person ?

Read more 

Home vs Hostel....

I'm a day-schi who often spends time at hostels.. I've always loved the atmosphere there, especially at nights when all the birds return to their nests and the chirruping which follows... But many a time I've, myself, questioned this idea of mine... Some of the reasons which led me to think so->

1) Mom's tasty food, yummy....where else to go..? [Home +1]

    Eating together, sharing food, MESSy.... [Hostel +1]

2) Pillows all around.. Nobody to disturb you... Where else can you sleep better..? [Home +1]

    Fantabulous night life... boozing... Rooms changing into casinos.. [ Hostel +1]

3) Mommy is there to help you out.. Washing clothes to cooking food, waking you up,...her care invaluable [Home +1]

    Grow up kid, you have to do it all yourself.. When are you going to be responsible adult if you can't do all these by yourself.. shame shame.. [Hostel +1]

4) Examzz....! Who is there to mess around? Complete concentration if you try hard.. [Home +1]

     Chit-chatting, combined study... And moreover friends are there to keep you awake late midnight [Hostel +1]

5) I hate common bathrooms   [Home +1]

     Experience the world.This is life. Live it. Learn from it. [Hostel +1]

6) Silly quarrels/debates turning  into full-fledged war, with lot of soldiers on either side eg  Mammotty vs Mohanlal( we need a warden to stop it)  [Hostel +1]

Fighting with bro/sis over a piece of cake or chocolate. Its fun. But annoying as well. [Home +1]

Score 6 : 6 

Home is where you are born and brought up. So don't miss hostel life. [ unlucky me I guess :( ]

Hai Bangalore..

Waking up at 3.30 in the morning, I found out that our room had neither water or food to be had. Back I laid on the sofa(-cum-bed for me!) ,and got to thinking about the terrific day we had yesterday.

We had started off at 6.30 in the morning(as usual,I was late). After picking Vinu from Patturaikal, we gave a sigh of happiness.. We ,five of us, (Bristow,Devidas, Ramakrishnan,Vinu and myself)were off to Mysore.. Now optimising time and distance was the first thing in our minds, so we decided to take the Perinthalmanna-Nilambur-Gudallur route to Mysore.It was a pretty cool journey, in the blue Indica we had taken for rent, with Bristow driving like a never dying soldier, never tired nor bored with it. I had my go at it too, now somebody has to

give a person who has driven 200kays some rest ,right?

That was it, we had had our lunch at a highway hotel,before we had entered the Mud

umala forests via Gudallur. After touching a small strip of Tamil Nadu, we had entered the state of Karnataka. Well, I was the driver then,

and was asked to report at the check-post.

And only to find out that I had to bribe him... 50bucks. Ahmm... no mention. Had continued our way through the Bandipur jungles and somehow managed to reach Gundalpet town. Last we'd reached Mysore just before dusk and had a sigh of relief when Devidas informed us that we'd managed a couple of Akashavani Quarters for our overnight stay. And hell good the rooms were..

Later, we'd gone to Gokulam chat house and Mukund Chats for filling our tummies. Tired we were, and sleep hadn't

waited long to conquer us.

Yawn..!

Gosh.. long day y'day I thought. Had to get ready soon and check what we had in store for the day. Departed at around 5.30 from Mysore. Slight drizzle and less daylight had made it difficult for us to anticipate a hump which was there on the 4 lane State Highway and the speed at which we were travelling made us jump out of our skins by the jerk. And unfortunately enough, that had caused a slight damage to our vehicle( though we noticed it much later). Somehow we managed to reach Bangalore and reach IISc campus by 10.15 to attend the seminar for which we had started off in the first place... :)

The much awaited moment had arrived.

The tea-break at 11.30.

Our first real meal for the day since getting up at 3.30.

Man it was so excruciating to spend just 8 hours without food...! God bless those millions who die of hunger.

Attended some good nice lectures by Khasim Syed Mohammed and some others who had arranged the program.

Aahh.. where did I mention it? It was a symposium conducted by Texas Instruments(TI) on embedded systems and embedded linux , featuring their latest product Beagleboard, which is a low cost high end chip capable of laptop like performance. And it is free to the community as well.

After the seminar, Vinu, Raman and myself enjoyed the scenic calm and cool IISc campus( of course when you get to these kinda places, you start to compare their's with ours , and thats what we did.. ) , while Bristow and Devidas went to fix the problem in our vehicle.

The damage in our car was repaired soon and we started off to Mysore, and managed to reach back before midnight.

Our final day began late. We had some of the tastiest Idli-vada-dosa-sambhars from a nearby hotel and started our return journey by 10.15AM. This time we chose to drive

more calmly and hence took the Gundalpet-SulthanBatheri-Calicut route back to Trichur. Stopped at different places to enjoy the scenic beauty and landscape of Wayanad.

Saw a herd of deers on our way and a peacock as well. We really enjoyed the way back. I took to the steering-wheel from the top of Thamarasheri hill till we stopped for our food at 4PM at a hotel near the NH-17 bypass at Calicut.

Got back to Trichur by 7PM(with some cool

happenings on the way, Im not boring you all anymore....!) and thus ended our 3day voyage...

Last Bench Warriors

" The best brains are found on the last benches of the class.. "

Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, our honourable ex-president once happened to quote these words. How true.. Why is it always that the best brains don't entertain themselves too much with the boring lectures? We can explain it by the fact that these minds want to roam around, searching for fresh ideas and thoughts. They get irritated when they are forced to stick their a** under the nose of the lecturer. They die for free space,free time and free thoughts, which help them to think creatively, rather than some stereotyped notes and lectures , which are of no use other than making your teacher happy. These are facts. Now listen to what happens in my class.


Third hour of the day begins at eleven. Students rush to the class. The fight, of course, is for the back benches. Sir enters. Some students get up and wish. Class starts.
Its 11.30 now. Heavy downpour of boredom in the last half an hour has frustrated everyone. Waste papers lying around.

And here goes our class