Remembering the travels ... 2009 !

Well here's the last day of 2009 & tomorrow begins a brand New Year..2010..!!It has been a good year & I was able to make some wonderful trips as well.

Pic 1 : Trail in Coorg

Our first trip this year was to Coorg in Karnataka. It was our anniversary celebration trip & trekking on Tadiyandamol, walking on plantation trails, relishing Coorgi cuisine was exactly how I wanted to celebrate it :) This followed by meeting up friends in Bangalore, made this trip memorable :)

Turn in the South - V S Naipaul

Another book in the travelogue genre, and this one is about the author's travels and experiences in the American south.

As opposed to my expectations, this book started on a boring tone. Instead of focusing on travel, it was more about a family, what they are eating, where and how they stay, routine etc. This was how it began. Later on however it became apparent that it is a theme based travelogue, theme being: racism, slavery, post civil war situation of blacks/whites.

ahem :D

Ghost Train to the Eastern Star - Paul Theroux

After racking my brain over the cosmos I wanted to experiment with some new genre of books, and so I ended up picking up this travelogue. All these years I never tried reading any travel books, reason being I always felt that travel is something you should be doing and not something you sit at home & read about. And so I kept my distance from the travel magazines or books. But with this book my perspective has changed a bit. I still feel that travel is something you should be doing, but I guess it is something you can read about as well.


This book is a very light read, its like chatting with somebody who is narrating his travel experiences, where all he went, how did he travel, whom he met, some conversations he had, some history about the place, how it has changed since last he was there, how he felt about the place now. The route he has taken starts from London, through Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia, Vietnam, Japan & finally via Russia back to London. So basically he has covered many Asian & some European nations. He is actually retracing his path, taken some 30-40 years back.

Trip to Raigad Fort - 04Spet09

Well for this trip, the planning part is as memorable as the trip, so I might as well pen that down. With a long weekend coming up, we (myself n my teammates) wanted to plan an overnight trip to “some” place. Now why that “some” is quoted is because, we were as sure of going, as unsure of where we will be going. Our planning began with a backup plan - Aurangabad, stay at one of the teammates place & visit Ajanta Ellora. As people got into an adventurous mood, we decided instead of going for rafting followed by visit to again “some” place. But then people kept dilly dallying and changing their mind. One day they wanted to come n next day they were “not sure”. And hence the plan hanged till just 2 days before the weekend we were at the verge of dropping the idea of going “anywhere” at all. Finally half of us[5 out of the initial 10], mustered our enthusiasm again and a day before weekend fixed that “some” place to “Raigad”, booked vehicle n were all set to leave the next day. Phew :)

LohGarh Trek - 23rdAug09

With the onset of monsoons the weather in and around Pune has become very pleasant, ideal for trekking. And so last friday me n 3 of my teammates suddenly planned on going to Malavali on saturday. We decided on meeting at the railway station at sharp 7:15, so as to take the 7:30 lonawala local to Malavali.

Saturday morning began with wake up calls to each other, as we couldnt risk anybodys oversleeping. On reaching station & purchasing tickets, we gotto know that the local is at 8. So we whiled away time in Comesum, having tea & chit chatting. Once aboard the local, it hardly took 70-80 mins to reach Malavali. We started walking from the station towards Lohagrah fort, quite excited & energetic. To our dismay the sun was merciless. We were expecting a pleasant weather and here the sun was in its blazing glory. Anyway we managed to walk n walk, with some rest breaks in between. As we gained height the weather thankfully improved n then we started enjoying our climb.

Fabric of Cosmos

You have got to take my word on this, its a fabulous book. Especially for people who love science but don't want to plunge into the depths, at least for now. I could actually feel the atoms and molecules in my brain working, or should I say the strings comprising those atoms vibrating, haha :D

I wont brag that I could understand everything explained by the author, but then isn’t it difficult to understand something that is beyond your imagination. For instance, time is not constant, it is different for everybody. For a person moving at a very high speed, time ticks slowly than the person at rest. And then, Gravitation manifests itself as the warps & curves of the space. Can you imagine space with curves & warps?? Phew!

Trip to Ladakh (4th - 11th July09)

I had always wanted to visit Ladakh & when me n my hubby had to plan a vacation this time we went ahead n booked our tickets for Leh. We left for Mumbai airport on 2nd July evening. The drive from Pune to Mumbai on express highway was quite good, weather being very plesant. On reaching airport we came to know that our flight had got delayed by 2-3 hours, so we just whiled away our time in the airport & I was half dozing by the time we boarded the flight. On reaching Delhi airport there was again sometime before the next flight, so we ate something n waited more. At around 6 am we boarded the next flight, I again half dozing. Only after the breakfast was served in the flight I was fully awake. Once we started flying over the Himalayas we just couldnt contain our happiness, it was a clear day & it was so exciting seeing those picturesque snow covered mountain tops. I had never seen such a sight before in my life. All the tourists in the plane were so excited n nearly everyone was clicking away snaps, & the pilot with his commentary was adding to all the fun.

Lord Of The Rings - J R R Tolkien

Phew...what a lengthy book :) I had started reading this book long long back , when the third part of the movie was being screened. At that time the multiplexes here also screened the first 2 parts, so that people like me who hadn't seen any part as yet, could do so , before watching the 3rd part. So I ended up watching all three parts of the movie , before I could finish reading even half of first part of the book. I really enjoyed watching the movies, and having done so, I did not feel like continuing reading the book & so left it there.

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse

He is one of my favourite authors! I simply love his work!!I would have sent him a fan mail had he been alive :)


I don't think I have read better humour than his. Off course Bill Waterson's Calvin n Hobbes is also awesome but then that is comics. Wodehouse's style of writing is so different n hilarious. His way of formulating the sentences, his analogies, his characters, everything is simply awesome :)

O Jerusalem!

... Dominique Lapierre & Larry Collins.



I had bought this book long back, but finally started reading it couple of months back. This book lists down the series of events that took place during the partition of Palestine & creation of the state of Israel..Like any other book by these authors, this book doesn't just give a narration of events but kind of introduces you with lot many people involved in the making of those events.



To summarize what had happened during the period of 1947 - 1948 : With a long history of Jewish massacre & diaspora, the Jews finally began their struggle for a separate independent state. Jerusalem being the roots of their origin [Land of Israel according to Bible], that was the place they wanted to create a Jewish state. In Nov 1947, after a voting in UN, the people of different nations decided in partitioning Palestine & creating Jewish state, in favor of the Jewish people. So they decided on what will come under Israel n what will be Palestine & they decided on making Jerusalem neither of the two, & making it an international city. This being because, Jerusalem is a holy city for 3 religions, so to ensure peace in the city its best not to declare it "Jewish" "Muslim" or "Christian" state.

Coorg

It has been so long since I have updated my blog, n reason being I am reading 3 books simultaneously & no where close to finishing any of them. Meanwhile I thought I will write about few of my travel experiences. So starting with my latest trip, this was to Coorg.

Coorg is a hill station located in Karnataka and is famous for its spices & coffee plantation. Off course from tourism point of view, it is quite green & laid back with no city hustle bustle. We happened to plan this trip out of the blue. My hubby Sayu and me were planning on taking couple of days off on our second anniversary & the “nearby place” to visit in our list was Goa. But then I was trying to find a place which we both had not visited earlier & is also not too far, as we had just 4 days to roam around with us. So stumbling on Coorg, I scouted the internet and finalized on the itinerary. I was so happy on this chance plan & Sayu, off course agreed with it.

The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins

This one is on biology - natural selection, neo Darwinism. An interesting book & written extremely well. The author has really explained the concepts & his views very well, using various analogies & examples. So best part is I could understand everything that was written :D. Second best part is I enjoyed reading it :)

The main point in the whole book is that - natural selection is the theory of evolution. Through natural selection we have been explaining evolution till now. And genetic unit is the unit of natural selection & not individual. The natural selection takes place at the level of the genes [basic unit] & so our genes are selfish. They are selfish because the only thing that matters to them is their survival & so they will do anything, just anything for their survival. Now that is being selfish at the core level, even if that seems altruistic at the individualistic level.

God's Debris by Scott Adams

What is this book? As in is it a collection of no- sense by any chance? cuz that's how it seemed to me, it made no sense to me :) According to the author, it is a thought experiment, which it might be because, its all experimental views i suppose. At times i was intrigued while reading, at times amused, at times it kinda bounced over my head & at times i just found it too ridiculous :) It seemed like author was playing with words.

In this 2 people are conversing about different topics [our free will, God's free will,science, religion, belief, reincarnation, light, luck, probability, evolution n what not ], About the different planes & levels of understanding.

The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga

Finally a fiction by an Indian author that I liked. Not that I have read many. In fact to be honest I have read very few. But somehow which ever I picked one on India/or by Indian author I ended up either disliking it like that "Mistress of spices" or getting infuriated like that "In spite of the Gods". So anyways this one was a good one.