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Stories from Bhutan - The Land of the Thunder Dragon, Sikkim and Meghalaya
Personnages Principaux
Raghavan Aravamudhan, Hari Suman Naik and Sathyanarayanan Chandrasekar
Day 0
Starting Location – Bilekahalli.
Sleepless night. Fear of oversleeping. 5AM Wakeup calls to others. Cold Coffee at Java Green. 6:15 AM. Hari Joins in. Run towards Apollo Hospital Bus Stop on Bannerghatta Road. No Sign of the Airport Bus. Climbed onto one of those blue city buses. Got down at Mandovi Motors. Magically an Airport Volvo bus appears. “Auspicious Start” – We tell ourselves. Debate about B school and value adds. Argumentative Indians indeed. Reach Bengaluru International Airport(BIAL) well on time.
Character 1 – Sajit from Spice Jet Reminded us so much about good friend Tony Thampan. Friendly guy. Walked back across the CRPF gunmen and got us 3 subway veggie delight sandwiches. Airport food is prohibitively expensive. You are better of purchasing food from outside the airport. INR 75 for Idly doesnt do much good. Leisurely chat for 15-20 minutes. Wondered if Spice Jet paid him for that chat. Valuable insights into Aircraft security and passenger screening.
Spotted senior(alum) going on one of those flights to “client locations”. Das(Guwahati) and Saikat(Kolkatta) to give us company on the flight. Spice Jet flight 528 – Bangalore to Guwahati via Kolkatta. Packed like poultry. Caught up on much needed sleep. Uncomfortable. 3:00 PM. Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport – Guwahati. Dry and Hot. City seems dirty. Shared taxi to the Railway station with Das. City filled with petrol stations. IOCL, NRL, Assam Oil. Glimpse of Bhupen Hazarika and Baichung Bhutia. One advertising for Tor Steel rods and another for a brand of via China Television sets.
Character 2 – Unknown Cab Driver Doped on cheap grass(Our Speculation). Mistook Maruti 800 for a Go-Kart. Couple of near miss situations. Lacked sense of distance and direction to say the least.
Back on the road. City surprises you quite a bit. Paan Bazaar is the biggest book market and not of betel leaves! Railway Station. Armed forces all around. Pretty unnerving rather than re-assuring. Railway Reservation Counter. Queues. Men all around. Wondered where the women were. One exceptionally long queue. Realized the reason. Pretty young lady behind the computer on that queue. Smiles.
Guwahati Railway Station. Quite clean. IRCTC Jantaa Ahaar. Nice concept. Reasonably hygienic and low priced food. Gorged on Dhal, Curry and Rice. Curd missing. 6:30PM. Guwahati Jhajha express. To disembark at New Jalpaiguri. Empty train. Moved over to a cleaner compartment. Reasonably comfortable except for the mosquitoes torturing Hari. Sleep interrupted by TTE appearing with his side kick/assistant/apprentice(summer intern?). Friendly people. Funny accent though. EOD.
Progress:
Bilekahalli –> BIAL –> Guwahati –> New Jalpaiguri
Stories from Bhutan - The Land of the Thunder Dragon, Sikkim and Meghalaya
Personnages Principaux
Raghavan Aravamudhan, Hari Suman Naik and Sathyanarayanan Chandrasekar
Day 0
Starting Location – Bilekahalli.
Sleepless night. Fear of oversleeping. 5AM Wakeup calls to others. Cold Coffee at Java Green. 6:15 AM. Hari Joins in. Run towards Apollo Hospital Bus Stop on Bannerghatta Road. No Sign of the Airport Bus. Climbed onto one of those blue city buses. Got down at Mandovi Motors. Magically an Airport Volvo bus appears. “Auspicious Start” – We tell ourselves. Debate about B school and value adds. Argumentative Indians indeed. Reach Bengaluru International Airport(BIAL) well on time.
Character 1 – Sajit from Spice Jet
Reminded us so much about good friend Tony Thampan. Friendly guy. Walked back across the CRPF gunmen and got us 3 subway veggie delight sandwiches. Airport food is prohibitively expensive. You are better of purchasing food from outside the airport. INR 75 for Idly doesnt do much good. Leisurely chat for 15-20 minutes. Wondered if Spice Jet paid him for that chat. Valuable insights into Aircraft security and passenger screening.
Spotted senior(alum) going on one of those flights to “client locations”. Das(Guwahati) and Saikat(Kolkatta) to give us company on the flight. Spice Jet flight 528 – Bangalore to Guwahati via Kolkatta. Packed like poultry. Caught up on much needed sleep. Uncomfortable. 3:00 PM. Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport – Guwahati. Dry and Hot. City seems dirty. Shared taxi to the Railway station with Das. City filled with petrol stations. IOCL, NRL, Assam Oil. Glimpse of Bhupen Hazarika and Baichung Bhutia. One advertising for Tor Steel rods and another for a brand of via China Television sets.
Character 2 – Unknown Cab Driver
Doped on cheap grass(Our Speculation). Mistook Maruti 800 for a Go-Kart. Couple of near miss situations. Lacked sense of distance and direction to say the least.
Back on the road. City surprises you quite a bit. Paan Bazaar is the biggest book market and not of betel leaves! Railway Station. Armed forces all around. Pretty unnerving rather than re-assuring. Railway Reservation Counter. Queues. Men all around. Wondered where the women were. One exceptionally long queue. Realized the reason. Pretty young lady behind the computer on that queue. Smiles.
Guwahati Railway Station. Quite clean. IRCTC Jantaa Ahaar. Nice concept. Reasonably hygienic and low priced food. Gorged on Dhal, Curry and Rice. Curd missing. 6:30PM. Guwahati Jhajha express. To disembark at New Jalpaiguri. Empty train. Moved over to a cleaner compartment. Reasonably comfortable except for the mosquitoes torturing Hari. Sleep interrupted by TTE appearing with his side kick/assistant/apprentice(summer intern?). Friendly people. Funny accent though. EOD.
Progress:
Bilekahalli –> BIAL –> Guwahati –> New Jalpaiguri
I have never known any of the Raagas, the Taalas of Carnatic Music nor with the Raags and Alaaps of the Hindustani kind… I dont even understand the concept of notes!! But I am a firm believer that you dont need to understand any of these to appreciate good music. The concept of rhythm or melody to me is just appeasing to your ears and then to the mind. Once it reaches the mind I firmly believe that it can work magic there – transporting you to mythical worlds, escaping from the mundane worries that plague you through the day. Not long ago there was this effort by TM Krishna and Bombay Jayashree to make a feature film with just Carnatic Music compositions. Top notch sound recording and an accoustic delight. You could sample the same at the embedded youtube video below. Sitting with Nam at Fun Cinemas in Cunningham road, surrounded by Silk clad maamis, Veshti clad maamas and the Fab India Kurta donning younger lot – the day was magical. Coupled with the December Chill it was a beautiful evening to just close your eyes and just hear the sound and allow your mind to do the imagination. A journey like none other!
Quick Update – Past few days have been a mixed bag.
1. Summer placements for the current PGP1 batch was a blockbuster event. 4.5 Days for 350 students is not an easy task. Last year it was 4.5 days for 250 students.
2. Been a long time since I made the trip back home. I should go home sometime in the next few days.
3. I lost my watch at L^2. Well this was even before the dancing and drinking. Felt miserable about it and continuing to feel so.
4. Sloth. Procrastination. Longing. – Have always been a part of my DNA … Major guilt trips.
Next few days
1. Submissions and assignments galore. Too much to do. Too little time.
2. Thank you for youtube. Been listening to some real nice songs. Case in Point – Aaj Jaane ki Zid Na Karo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh_UZuNUZR0&feature=related
3. Deadlines. Deadlines and more deadlines. Term V coming to an end. Should start putting things together for the Stanford trip.
4. Should go cry with Andhra Bank for loan amount to fund travel in firang land. A miserable feeling.
5. Contacting companies for the Business Visits for the visiting team from Stanford. It happening in the last week of December doesnt help considering that’s the time when corporate folks would want to go on a vacation.
6. Yes, should find time to write. Been wanting to write… Is it twitter that is killing the urge to write? http://twitter.com/csathya
…If you were me, might be you would be afraid too…might be not…
And then it was morning…When dreams had to be interrupted
PS: This slide stream’s purpose was/is to highlight the utter state of disarray of my room and not my photography skills, which btw is par excellence(insert emoticon for sarcasm here :$)
Mother of all clichés. Seems like it was just yesterday when we were young. Seems like it was just yesterday when we walked along the tree lined road adjoining that famed busy road. Seems like it was just yesterday when we spoke all night of things – some inane and many profound. Seems like it was just yesterday when we jumped in eclectic happiness. Seems like it was just yesterday …It has been four years now. Here’s looking at you…for a lifetime more.
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