Delhi Darshan - 2

After the start of trips on friday, today, i.e on saturday the 11th of April, I was all set to continue exploring Delhi. I had decided to go to Qutub Minar already, alone. I started at around 11 AM from the guest house, took a bus towards Mehrauli and got down the the Qutub. It was hardly 5 kms from our guest house. A tall monument stood before me with all its elegance. I was just wonderstruck by the view of the Qutub. I purchased the tickets and entered the place. Here are a few pics of the Minar..

There are 4 floors, tapering towards the sky. Some inscriptions in Urdu were written on all the floors.

Besides the Qutub is the tomb of Imam Zamim. Itseems this guy came from Turkestan to Delhi in the reign of Sikandar Lodi and built this mausoleum in his lifetime and died. It is surmounted by a dome of sandstone covered with plaster and rising from an octogonal drum. Its sides are carved with perforated screens, characteristic of the Lodi period.

Also on the left side of Qutub is the Alai Darwaza, described as one of the most treasured gems of Islamic architecture, built by Allaudin Khalji.

Next to the Alai Darwaza, there are some broken remains of some Madrasas.

Walking along, there was the tomb of Iltumush.

Close by, there is the world famous Iron pillar, but nobody was allowed to touch it.

At some distance, was the Alai Minar, which was supposed to be double the size of Qutub, but due to the death of Allaudin Khalji, the tower could not be completed.

A pic of both the towers..

At around 12:45 PM, I completed the Qutub tour and was hungry. I checked out some hotels nearby, but couldn't find one. So, I decided to have food somewhere in Green Park and get back to the guest house and sleep for a while as it was very sunny.

Again, I had a good tour of the Qutub. Waiting for the next explorations...

For more info on the Qutub, click here and here.

Delhi Darshan - 1

Weekends in Delhi have begun. And with it, also comes my Delhi Darshan trip blogs. Friday the 10th April, being a holiday for Good Friday, and a long weekend, set the stage to the Delhi trips.

Myself and Deepti started from the guest house at around 10 AM for Birla Mandir. The previous day in office, I had looked around the Birla Mandir place for the nearest bus stop, and some site showed that the closest place was Connought Place, or CP. We got into bus No. 520 (here, over internet sites, only bus numbers are mentioned for searching and searching between start and destination is not available!) heading towards CP. The first feeling in Delhi bus I got into was not good. The conductor & driver were dressed very casually, in jeans and t-shirts! Bangalore BMTC folks are 100 times better. Also, the ticket he gave me didn't have any info. It was only 7 written all over in a hopeless thin brown colored paper. BMTC is definetly better than DTC! Anyways..

On the way to CP, I saw AIIMS, India Gate, Rashtrapati Bhavan, Central Secretariat, Rail Bhavan, Jantar Mantar and residences of many famous politicians. We reached CP at around 10:45 and from there took an auto to Birla Mandir. Here, as I heard, its better to pay the auto guys how much ever they ask with little bargaining, else if we go by the conventional meter, it would cost us double the fare he mentioned, as he would be taking us for a ride! We agreed to pay Rs. 30 from cP to Birla Mandir. We reached the Mandir at around 11, deposited camera and mobiles and went in. Photography was not allowed inside the temple :(

Birla Mandir, or Laksmi Narayan Mandir is fully constructed with marble. Only 3 prominent colours could be seen everywhere - marron, white and light yellow. In the main temple, there are 3 Gods residing. In the centre is the beautifully decorated Laksmi-Narayan, towards its left is Godess Durga and towards its right is Lord Shiva. All the 3 dieties were decorated very nicely. Outside the main temple, in 2 corners facing the Lords were the dieties of Ganesha and Hanuman. We circled round the temple and next went to Gita Mandir which is next to the main temple. Here, the main verses of the Bhagavat Gita and its explanations with pictures are written on all the 4 sides of the hall. On entering directly is the marble idol of Sri Krishna which is very cute. Besides the Gita Mandir, there was a mirror room, where a small Krishna idol stood in the centre with mirrors on all sides. It was just marvelous.

We came out of the Gita Mandir and saw the Dharmasala, and then decided to go to the park which was behind the temple. This was park was so green and was nice place to rest. There were the Sai Mandir and a small Shiva temple. In some distance was a model of Ganga pouring water, which came directly to Godess Lakshmi on the other end, along a water deck. But, there was no water anywhere. Along the path were carved some of the eminent faces of Mahabharatha, like Yudhistir, Bhisma, Arjun, etc. We roamed around the place for sometime, and found it truely amazing. This is one of the best temples I've ever visited. We came out of the park and were deciding where to go next. We crossed the road thru the subway and got to the other side of the road, as we had to pick an auto from the opposite side. It was just amazing to see again the view of the temple from the opposite side..

For more info on Birla Mandir, click here.

Next, we decided to go to Jantar Mantar, as we had seen it enroute to CP, and caught an auto. The entry ticket was Rs. 15 per head, and good - photography was allowed. There were some structures all in red, actually making no sense to us regarding how to calculate time. It was built by Maharaja Jai Singh, who at that time didn't have a watch and used precission techniques to calculate time. Also, as it was nearing lunch time, we didn't try to explore how this works. Anyways, without permission, we went to the top of the high-rise ramp, and the view from there was just superb. Here are a few snaps..

For more info on Jantar Mantar, click here, and here.

We left Jantar Mantar at around 1 PM locating a hotel nearby. All the hotels in that area seemed to be very expensive, and Deepti told that there was a McD nearby CP. We went in search of it, thouroughly exhausted. We had to encircle a portion of Palika Bazaar, and finally found the McD store. We had burgers and french fries, halted there for sometime and again were thinking where to go next. We could see a metro station opposite McD and thought that we would try this mode of transport also. The metro station was at Rajiv Chowk, and from the map, we could find that Central Secratariat was only 2 stops ahead on the Yellow Line. We decided to go there, and bought tickets. In metro, tokens work, just had to swipe the token while entering and drop the token at exit for opening of gates. This was cool, unlike London Underground where paper tickets were used. The Delhi Metro is modelled similar to London's Jubilee line, and I couldn't find much of a difference between both metros. The station was clean, well maintained and security and traffic guys were also strict. I just took a snap of the metro line, and suddenly a security guy came and asked me to delete the pic I took. Hmm.. security issues :(

It was a 5 min ride to Central Secretariat and we got off there. Walking a little distance, we could see the Parliament House. Its just fascinating to see it from outside, where inside all rubbish things happen which can be seen on TV.

Besides the Parliament House was the Central Secretariat's office. I walked to the middle of the road and as could be seen during Republic Day, I took a snap. Its just cool.

Straight was the Rashtrapati Bhavan and on the sides were the North and South blocks. We headed towards the Rashtrapati Bhavan, under the scrotching sun. We could go upto the gate and saw the place. Straight from the Bhavan was India Gate. This sight is so impressive, the Prez must be having a good time ;) Sir Edwin Lutyens has desinged Delhi superbly.

Next, we went to India Gate taking an auto. This structure is the face of India. Truely gigantic and amazing. I got a feeling of how proud is it to be an Indian looking at this. This place was often telecast on Republic Day on TV, and now I was here! The cap over the upside down gun and the words 'Amar Jawan' is good. On the walls of India Gate, many names of soldiers who died in different wars are carved. We had a look of India Gate from all the sides, and were truely mesmerized.

For more info on India Gate, click here.

From India Gate, we enquired where could we go next from the police. They told that Old Fort, or Lal Quila, or the Red Fort was just nearby within 2 kms. We decided to go there in an auto, but the auto guy charged more. So, we thought of going by bus and took bus No. 502 to Red Fort. In course of the journey, I could see the National Stadium, where Chak De India was shot and Raj Ghat's bus stop. By the journey, I could make out that it wasn't 2 kms in any way, and in many places where I'd previously asked for distances, all would tell very less distance, but in actual it was double than they had told!

The bus driver didn't stop at the Red Fort stop for unknown reasons, so we got down at the next stop. From there, walking for a little distance, we could see the post office bearing the PIN code 110006. Delhi 6 :)

From there, we took a man-driven open rickshaw to Red Fort. We reached Red Fort at around 4:15 PM. The crowd was good, and the view of the Red Fort was awesome. We took tickets and entered. For some distance there were a line of shops. Then we saw the building of Diwan-I-Aam. Diwan-I-Aam, or the Hall of Public Audience was used by the Mughal Emperors for holding Durbars and other state functions. In the centre was the throne.

Walking further, behind the Diwan-I-Aam, were the buildings of Diwan-I-Khas, Khas Mahal and Rang Mahal. Diwan-I-Khas or the Hall of Private Audience was used by the Emperors for giving private audience and state guests. It seems the celebrated Peacock Throne stood in this hall.

For Rang Mahal and Khas Mahal, here goes the description and photos..

We then entered a museum where all old daggers, clothes, vessels etc used by Mughals were displayed. Barely 10 mins after entering, the bell rung as it was 5 PM and the guards asked us to vacate the place. We just had a glimpse of everything, and moved out. We then started to exit the Ref Fort, and we saw the place where the Prime Minister unfolds the National Flag on Independence Day.

For more info on Red Fort, click here.

We then returned to the bus stop and fortunately got a direct bus from Red Fort to Hauz Khas. It took around 45 mins to Hauz Khas and finally arrived at the guest house at around 6:30 PM.

An hour later, we started for Indira Gandhi Intl Airport, as we had to pick up Deepti's sis-in-law in an auto. We reached IGI Airport, but didn't enter it. We just stood at ouside and waited for her sis-in-law. Finally she came at around 9:30, and we took a prepaid taxi to the guest house. We reached the GH at around 10:30, had dinner and crashed on bed.

Overall, it was a super day for me. Started the Delhi sight seeing! Delhi truely rocks..!

More on way... Stay tuned....

And ahoy! This is my 50th post :-)

Delhi calling...

After a 3.5 months hiatus on bench, I have finally got a project! And that too, an onsite opportunity! Where else other than the Indian capital - Delhi! Well, lots of untold stories on how I got this project, but I needed any project badly, thanks to the recession and the news about firing going around the campus. Well, with this here I am..

5th April. A first look at Delhi.. As usual, I was welcomed with a huge jam outside the Indira Gandhi Intl airport. The person at the prepaid booking counter, the cab driver, and few people whom I met at airport, - all were rude. Is this the way Delhiites are? The taxi driver was driving the Maruti van like the way I drive my bike! And dont ask fellow drivers! Autos are painted yellow and green! What a color combination that is! They claim they have the largest population of CNG vehicles, but the looks of Delhi city busses is horrible. BMTC in all ways rocks. My expectations sunk.

All thru the way to Infy Guest house, construction projects of Delhi Metro were going on. Hence, the roads were humpy dumpy, needless to say.

I arrived at the Guest House at 9:15 PM. Its behind Green Park Market, near Huaz Khas, Delhi 16. Here, already 2 girls from our project - Deepti & Geeta were staying from past 1 month. Manoj, the caretaker of the GH was ready with dinner and served us. It was the first time I had an authentic North Indian meal - Dal, Paneer masala, Basmati rice, Chapati & Curds. It tasted so delicious! I just remembered the North Indian meals served at Infy food courts and else where outside in Bangalore, its was just pathetic! It was only North Indian meals on board, but on taste - hopeless..! Nevertheless, I fell in love with the Delhi food. Hope my belt doesn't get tight ;)

6th April. The first day to office. As I approached the dining table, I was amazed and puzzled to see the person sitting on it. I checked to see if I had entered a wrong room or something, but no! I was in the correct room and the person who sat was DC head of Bangalore. With no option left out, I sat in front of her and had Upma and chutney observing table etiquettes. I hate this!

The cab had been waiting down at 7:30 AM and we boarded it. Its a 45 min journey to Gurgaon, our client office location. On the way, I saw my one time dream college IIT Delhi, and Qutub Minar. This cab driver also drove so rashly, it took my spines off! Guess, this is the tradition. Entering Gurgaon, a huge chunk of cars were piled up over signal, it it reminded me of Hosur road. I thought this road was the granddad of Hosur road!

Office was cool, met client side managers and few people. I didn't have a system to work on, and so for most of the time was loafing around the DLF area. Huge buildings stood all over, and it really made me wonder if this was India! DLF has vast premises here, no wonder they are sponsoring IPL! The girls are just smokin hot than the sun. Someone had said that the NI girls are bombs, I would rate them as explosives! ;)

Well, food was served at our client office as complimentary and it was just yummy. I am now all praises for the NI food!

The cab was ready at 5:30 PM and it took us approx 1:15 mins back to the Guest House. The traffic was no better than Bangalore's Majestic. In the eveneing, myself and Deepti checked out the Green Park Market area near the GH and had some chats and were back to GH. Around 9 PM, had my dinner, went out for a walk and called up Bangalore home and slept by 11.

Hmm... here goes my first impression. Hoping to have a great time here and visiting all the landmarks and nearby cities on weekends. The stories of the sun and health scares me, but as I said, there are other hot stuffs... ;)

Who are you..?

Whereever you come from
Whereever you go
You make my dreams
And take away yours

When you walk thru the gardens
You tell something in the ears
You are not visible to me
But you are there in my breaths

There is air and breeze everywhere
Is this life, or its shadow
Have you come to take, or give something to me
I wont ask you, where you came from

Who are you..?

Udupi trip

Finally, the much awaited long weekend for Republic Day had arrived. Jyo had already booked the tickets to Udupi when the ksrtc ticket booking window opened 15 days back for 23rd night. The return tickets for myself and Jum were booked for 25th night via Mysore, as Jum had some programs to attend over there.

We left Bangalore at around 8:30 PM and reached Udupi by 6 AM on 24th. Jyo's parents welcomed us at their house, and there were already few guests at her place. Myself and Jum went to sleep after some time, as we hadn't had proper sleep in the bus. We woke up at around 845, freshend up and had breakfast - Idli, chutney, sambhar, jamoon & mysore pak. A very heavy breakfast indeed. By this time Jyo's sister Keerthi and her husband Subramanya had arrived. Jyo was still discussing where to go for the day. Finally, she chalked out a plan.

We started at around 10:45 towards Karkala in Subramanya's car - we 3, her father, sister & brother-in-law. It was around 45 mins journey to Karkala. First, we went to Ananthashayana Sree Ananthapadmanabh Temple , which is a 400 year old temple. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take photos inside the temple.

From there, we proceeded to Chaturmukha Jain Basadi. This was located on a small hill, with around 50 steps to climb. This was one among the 18 Jain Basadi's in Karkala. Over there, idols of 3 Jain Tirthankaras were placed on all sides of a square. Also, a mirror was placed from which the Gommateshwara on opposite hill could be seen. The priest over there mentioned that the sun rays pass in between the legs of the idols on opposite sides during sunrise and sunset times. The view from outside the temple was good. Again, photos restricted.

Next, we went to the opposite hill, where a huge Gommateshwara stood. There were around 200 steps to reach the top, and the sun was right above our heads. It is the second largest monolith of Gommateshwara in Karnataka, after the one in Shravanabelagola.
After that, we proceeded towards Moodabidri. Over there, we first went to Hosanadu Sri Annapoorneshwari Temple . This I guess is a relatively new temple, as many people don't know about it and get confused with Horanadu Annapoorneshwari Temple . We went around the temple and uncle offered pooja for the diety. We were asked to remove our shirts inside the Garbha-Gudi of the Godess. After that, we had lunch over there as prasad. It was already 2 PM or so, and people over there told that the lunch would be served from 12 PM - 3 PM. The prasad was very good - rice, rasam, payasa & curds, but too much.
There were temple horses and elephant near the entrance and a huge Hanuman statue.

Next, we went to some place where Kambala festival was going on. Kambala, or buffalo race is conducted in slush fields wherein 2 buffalos are tied and a person rides it over slush, and there will be 2 tracks for the same. Whoever finishes first is the winner. I'm not able to explain it properly, but the photos will give an idea. It was the first time I was watching such an event. But I felt very angry at the men who were beating their buffalos black and blue.

From there we went to Subramanya's sister's home and had some snacks and drinks. All the snacks, I was having them for the first time - Jackfruit's happla (pappad) and Kodbele, and one new sweet. All were too good.

Next we went to the world famous Thousand Pillar Jain Temple . Obviously, we didn't verify the authenticity of 1000 pillars, but it was superb. But again, no photography inside the temple :( . I don't understand why these guys dont allow photos to be taken there! No wonder, tourism dept is bad and they dont promote these kind of places.

Anyways, after this, we left this place and started our return journey to Udupi. It took around an hour and a half to reach back Jyo's place and we reached by 6:15 PM. We thought of going to the beach, but the idea was dropped as it was already too late. After freshening up, we left for a place called Babbarya Paade. This is on a small hill and a river flows nearby. As it was already dark, we couldn't see much. Apparently, Babbarya is a ghost, and people in the coastal areas do worship ghosts I believe (!).

We returned back to her place and uncle and aunt were ready to go to shopping. We all joined them and went to Big Bazaar of Udupi. OMG! It looked like half of Udupi was there at BB! Everyone shouting for some offers, some song in speakers, people talking and standing mid-way. Ooph.. I was completely lost. Finally after an hour or so, we came out of BB and went back home. We had a very delicious dinner and finally went to sleep at around 12 keeping in mind that we need to get up early the next day for our trek.

The next day, we (Jyo, Jum & me) started from home at around 6:30 AM for Kodachadri. We took a bus to Kundapura which is about an hour journey. On our way, we read about the printouts we took on how to reach Kodachadri and so on. From Kundapur, we boarded another bus to Kollur and this was about 30 mins. At Kollur, we just saw Mookambika temple from outside and went to the busstop for catching bus towards Nittur. But by the time we went there, someone told that the bus had already gone and the next one would be after half an hour or so. Hence, we decided to have breakfast at that busstop. Aunty had prepared Idly for us and nicely packed in banana leaves. After having breakfast, we waited for sometime and the bus finally came at 945. We reached Kodachadri Gate at around 10:20. Only a small signboard indicated that this was the route to Kodachadri, and we weren't sure if it was correct. Without hesitation, we just followed the board and started our trek at 10:30.

First part of our trek was quite ok, with lots of ups and downs, like we were just walking for an hour. We came accross a hotel midway, but didn't have anything. From there, the climbing part started. Initial few kilometers were ok, but there was one section where it was too steep and no shade. Burnt quite a lot of calories climbing this part.

Immediately after this worst section, we found a juice centre and refreshed ourselves with lime juice. When asked someone over there as to how much far is the peak, he told min 3 hrs to the peak but there were some Bhattara mane where we could have lunch and take rest and proceed further, and this Bhattara mane was another 45 mins. The next part of trek was good, as it was mostly in forest. We finally reached the area where Bhattara mane was there at 1:30 PM, a good 3 hrs trek to this point, around 7 kms from Kodachadri Gate and at a height of 1200 mts.

We freshened up at their place and had lunch - rice, sambhar, rasam, and curd. It was a nominal Rs. 30 per plate and we had it to the full, as all were exhausted. We thought of climbing further up, atleast till Sarvagna Peetha, where Sri Sankaracharya did meditation, but gave up this idea as the locals told that it would take atleast an hour to go and come back to that place. Also they told that to reach the peak, it would take around 1.5 hrs one way, and from the peak, one could see the Arabian Sea . We very much wanted to go there, but due to time constraints had to pack off.
We started to get down at 2:30 PM in the scroching sun. The return path was much easier as compared to the forward path. We reached Kodachadri Gate at around 4:30 PM taking as little breaks in between, as we had to reach Udupi atleast by 6:30 PM. But, when we reached the Gate, there were already many people waiting for the bus. One of them was waiting from 3:20 PM he said, and no bus passed by from then. Luckily for us, one KSRTC bus came within 10 mins and we got a seat too in the bus. It started at 4:45 PM to Kundapura. On the way back, we munched some spicy Awallakki given by aunty. We reached Kundapura at around 6 PM and immediately got into a private bus to Udupi. We were at home by 7:10 PM.
We took bath and had dinner - Holige, Akki Rotti, rice, rasam and curds. All were too good, and we had to hurry up as it was getting late for our bus. We reached the bus stop at around 8:10 PM in Subramanya's car. Jyo, uncle and her sister had come to drop us. We thanked Jyo, uncle and everyone there for all the things. The bus came at 8:20 PM and left Udupi at 8:30.

The return journey was blisfully awesome, as I slept for most of the journey due to the strain incurred after the trek (I don't generally get sleep while travelling overnight). We reached Bangalore at 6 AM and I wasn't ready to belive that we had reached so soon. I kept claiming that we were still in Mysore , until the conductor told us to get off from the bus. We parted at Majestic and I reached home at around 6:30 AM and again hit my bed.

Overall, another awesome trip indeed..! Next, I'm looking forward to Pune for Joy... :)