The Darker Side of Our J&K Tour Experiences

On Indian Tourists :Indian Tourists are the same everywhere ( within India, that is!).  ”Travel broadens the Mind ….. But you must have a Mind in the first place”,  said G.K Chesterton long time back. This statement best summarizes the attitude of an average Indian tourist! Let me explain. Even as I was dumbstruck by the majesty and beauty of the Himalayas, I didn’t miss the terrible mess of plastic wastes lying scattered everywhere. In Pahalgam, for instance, I could see  plastic bottles strewn all over the hill station. In fact when I saw a guy throwing a PET bottle in reckless abandon, I tried to reason with him with little or no effect on him!

And again, where is the need to allow so many restaurants at a hill station?  I could count at least 20 odd eating places at Gulmarg ? They are quite an eye sore in an otherwise serene environment. You can’t have beautiful nature coexisting with man made filth. Can you?

On Security: Security is still a major issue in Kashmir. Our driver from Jammu kept telling us horrible stories about Kashmir and kashmiris. Based on these stories, one can safely conclude that Kashmir still lives up to its image of a MINI PAKISTAN. I believe there are so many outfits with differing loyalties and identities, but they are all united in one thing – that is the hate campaign against the rest of India including Jammu muslims. Today Muslims  constitute 95% of  the population in Kashmir as  Hindus were driven out systematically over a period of time. No one (from the rest of India) can buy property in Kashmir. While people from Jammu are legally allowed to buy property, Kashmiris never ever sell property to them.  Kashmir is such a closed society that the law requires that outsiders have to take a local partner for doing  business. The majority stake in any business will have to be owned by a local kashmiri. Very often, while the outsider  slogs out, the local guy would visit periodically to collect his share of profits.

What will happen if you ever get into a Dispute with a Kashmiri ? Very simple. The kashmiri is always right and has the right to beat you up. Our driver narrated a shocking story of a UP vendor (a boy) selling eggs outside our hotel in Pahalgam. A local Kashmiri , also selling eggs, attacked him and threw away his cart carrying several baskets of eggs. The boy lost all his eggs in a flash even as he watched helplessly. None of the drivers around came to his rescue  fearing that they would be beaten up. That was not the end of the his woes. Unfortunately for the boy, his cart hit a parked car and  damaged it partly. As expected, the car owner now started abusing the poor boy.  God knows what happened later.

Pahalgam also has a strong taxi union which doesn’t allow any taxi from outside for local sightseeing. If any one is found violating, the driver would be beaten up.
So, as a tourist, one is advised against getting into altercation with the local kashmiris.

For all its appearances of  being calm and peaceful today, I believe Kashmir is still strife ridden. Tourists are  spared for whatever reason! There are so many groups and outfits fighting with each other.  Indian Army tries to keep peace by playing one group against the other (by the famous ‘divide & rule’ principle). This is a game of  one-upmanship between the Indian Army and their Pakistani counterpars with terrible consequences for the innocent civilians. Every day the near and dear ones of innocent families are either missing or lost thanks to this rivalry. No one knows the truth as every body is busy fabricating and spreading lies and half- truths about the happenings.

Two important Don’ts: Tourists are advised not to travel on ghat roads in dark for obvious reasons. They are also advised not to venture out to old town areas of Srinagar ( Lal Chowk being one of the areas which is highly volatile with a dangerous flash point!). The old town area of Srinagar is the hotbed of rivalry, in-fights and crime among its various groups. Therefore, it is best to stick to popular tourist destinations.
We nearly got into trouble with a local broker who booked us in a place close to old Srinagar town area.  Lucky for us we escaped into safer parts of the city before the broker could reach us to demand his pound of flesh!

The idea of writing this post is NOT to scare you away from a trip to Kashmir. It is only intended to forewarn you about possible dangers so that proper precautions may be taken.

Travel Tips for J&K Tour

The following travel tips are based on the mistakes that we committed during our trip.
Vaishno Devi :
On the Day 1, we took an overnight SPECIAL train from Delhi to go to Jammu. It was special in many ways:The train started from a remote terminal point of Delhi. The old and dirty compartment was specially picked for special travelers like us. And it reached Jammu only 6 hours late! we could see all sorts of passenger trains overtake us on the way. So instead of reacing early morning, we reached by 1pm, almost derailing our Day 1 programme. What is the lesson? DO NOT EVER MAKE YOUR RESERVATION BY A SPECIAL TRAIN.
On the Day 2,we left Katra around 3pm to go uphills to Vaishnav Devi shrine. I was planning to take the helicopter. But to my surprise, we learnt that it had to be booked through internet one month in advance. So, folks do plan in advance if you want to take the helicopter. What are the other alternatives,if you can’t book helicopter? Either walkt it out, if you have the energy and will power like my wife did or take a pony ride like me. One can opt to go half the way by pony and cover the rest by a ‘Battery Car’. Battery car option is available only from half way mark. A pony ride all the way up is literally a pain in the a…(you know where!), unless you have learnt the art of landing smoothly every time the pony gives a JHATKA(Jolt). A pony ride up to the top costs anywhere between 900 to 1200 rupees, depending upon your negotiating power (there are no fixed rates, so tourists are purely at the mercy of the ponies or rather their owners!). One can take a palanquin ride which can cost upwards of 3 to 4 thousand bucks.
At the shrine, two factors delayed us indefinitely – one is the ARATI, which lasts for more than 2 hrs and the queue doesn’t move an inch during those 2 hours. The second unexpected thing was a long line for lockers to keep our belongings(this queue was as long as the queue for Darshan!). The lessons are simple and straightforward. Do book a place for stay at the shrine to keep your personal belongings. Rooms are available from 80 rupees onwards. Also avoid reaching the shrine by ARATI time, which is done twice in a day- 6am to 8am & 6pm to 8pm.
After Darshan by midnight, we started to climb down the shrine by walk. The path is well illuminated and safe as there are a number of fellow pilgrims.
Day 3 onwards, we really wanted to relax, having gone through a strenuous day at Vaishnav Devi. We engaged a taxi for the rest of the 5 days of travel and sightseeing. This will work out cheaper than making day to day arrangements for transport or sightseeing. This is also better than packaged tours. I do not like packaged tours since one cannot enjoy the freedom of making minor or major changes in the programme. In fact we did a couple of interesting detours on the way.

SRINAGAR/ GULMARG/ PAHELGAM:
Don’t make the mistake of booking hotels on phone or internet unless the hotel management is well known to you. Either book through J&K tourism office which is available in major metros or go through a well known travel agency. The hotel descriptions regarding location and facilities could be completely misleading! This happened at two places for us – PAHELGAM & SRINAGAR. Srinagar Hotel booking turned out to be the worst of the lot. It was booked in a busy locality full of traffic all around with no place to park anywhere. Luckily for us we didn’t pay the full money and managed to wriggle out of the deal. And we were equally lucky to find an alternative decent place to stay! Later we came to know that the hotel booked for us is close to a notorios place in Srinagar called LAL CHOWK. In case you do not know, Lal Chowk in Srinagar is like Charminar area of Old Hyderabad where all communal riots start! So, it pays to know in advance that you are booked in a reasonably safe place. Mind you, wriggling out of such deals is not easy at all considering that you are in a completely strange place surrounded by complete strangers. It’s a security risk!
In Pahelgam there is a strong union of local taxis and they don’t allow outside taxis to be used for local sightseeing. Only personal cars are allowed to go around Pahalgam.
Now let me turn to Gulmarg, which is a great tourist attraction. On the day we planned our trip to Gulmatg,there was unprecedented rush for buying tickets. And the queue for boarding GANDOLA or the Cable car was also quite long. One is better off buying a ticket on internet which can be validated in a special counter where the queue is limited. Do not make the mistake of approaching touts(masquerading as guides) for tickets; they could charge you a high premium and you should consider yourself lucky if the guy doesn’t disappear with your money(in fact I found one couple desperately searching for the guy who took money for buying tickets). The queue for boarding Gandola was deliberately mismanaged as people managed to break queue through the so called Guides. The guards overseeing the queue turned a blind eye to tourists breaking the queue. It appeared that the guadrs were bribed by the guides.
Go well prepared with warm clothings, windsheeter and good shoes to walk on icy tops of Gulmarg. Other wise you will be forced to rent them at an exhorbitent cost.
It’s unfortunate that such a popular tourist spot is completely mismanaged.

Finally about food. In Kashmir(Srinagar/pahelgam or Gulmarg) be prepared to fool around a bit for choosing a right place to eat. Kashmiris are basically non-vegetarians and therefore finding a good vegetarian place is difficult and needs patience. For breakfast be prepared to eat nothing other than Parotas. Kashmiri Hotels make a variety of very tasty Parotas stuffed with potatos, cauliflower, radish and so on.

A Trip to Paradise on Earth!

As you might have guessed, I am talking about our recent trip to Kashmir! We had an exciting holiday last week to J&K – places we had been wanting to go for a long time now. In this post, I will briefly cover some of the highlights of our tour:

Day 1: Left Bombay for Delhi by flight and then took an overnight train to Jammu.

Day 2: Had a Darshan of the famous VAISHNO DEVI shrine near Katra. Total time taken for the entire trip from Katra to temple(14km uphill)& back took an unbelievable 15hours which included walking up hill, Darshan and walking downhill. This strenuous temple visit left us completely exhausted.

Day 3: Reached the Hill station PEHELGAM by road. Stayed overnight.

Day 4: Roamed around beautiful hills & valleys of PEHELGAM. The best part of sightseeing at PEHELGAM was our visit to the so called BARAF POINT(the point which is completely covered with snow and ice). Some of the scenes are, indeed, breathtaking, like for instance, the natural formation of an Ice Bridge. The beauty of this so called BARAF BRIDGE is better described through a photograph below:

Here are a few more exciting pictures of various other points in Pehelgam:

We reached Srinagar by night for a stay overnight in a BOAT HOUSE situated in the middle of the Dal lake. Here is a picture of the boat house where we stayed.

The Boat house is well furnished with furniture made out of choicest walnut wood carvings and great looking Kashmiri carpets. The SHIKARA ride(boat ride on Dal lake)was extremely relaxing as you can see from the picture below:

Day5:Relaxing tour of Srinagar Gardens – Moghal Garden, Shalimar Garden and Chashmashahi Garden and finally some shopping. You can see the beauty of the gardens in the pictures below:

Day 6: Trip to GULMARG – this turned out to be the Grand Finale of the entire tour. The picturesque Gulmarg is located at about 6000ft above sea level. But what we really enjoyed was the further climb to jaw dropping heights of 10,000 ft in the the first stage and 13,400 feet in the second stage. This was made possible by CABLE CARS, which are referred to as GANDOLAS in the local language.This is supposedly the heighest point ever reached by Gandolas in the world! Quite apart from this impressive statistic, what we saw and experienced was completely out of the world. The Gandola would lift up almost vertically and parallel to the ice capped mountains. At the point where we landed finally after about 20 minutes of exciting ride, it was ice and snow all around and there was fairly heavy snow fall. It was hazy with a visibility of no more than 10 to 15 metres. The low oxygen pressure and snow fall ruled out any possibility of roaming around on the peak. We managed to take a few snaps before heading back to our GANDOLA to go down.
Here is an attempt to capture the grandeour and majesty of Gulmarg ice peaks:

Day7: We headed to Srinagar airport to catch our flight for an uneventful journey back to Bombay.

In the next post, I will share some valuable travel tips for the sake of those who may like to make a similar tour.

Beg,Borrow or Steal – Present Day Mantra for Survival

Consider the following incidents during our recent temple tour:
Incident #1:
We were waiting at a bus stop adjacent to a small roadside temple. As I was waiting rather impatiently, I seemed to hear a very faint voice saying- ‘Sir, one rupee please’. I looked back and found no one in particular except a holy looking old man with vibhuti spread across his forehead quite prominently. I ignored the voice thinking that it was my imagination. Around that time one old woman entered the temple and I found a priest doing ‘Arati’ for the lady. After a while, I again heard a similar faint voice asking for money. This time I was determined to figure out who it was. I was stunned to find that the the same priest who did ‘arati’ for a devotee a while ago was doubling up as a beggar when there were no devotees. I paid him ten bucks and prayed to God on behalf of the priest. My anger gave way to pity and compassion.

Incident #2:
We reached ‘Nachiar temple near Kumbhakonam. As we were waiting for ‘darshan’, I happened to overhear a telephonic conversation of the priest. The priest kept so many people waiting as he took more than 10 minutes on his cell phone cribbing and complaining. This man stunned me as he brought the deity of the temple into his conversations. He said he was doing his work in the temple without any involvement whatsoever and added that he was simply moving around the temple like a dead body without any feelings. He went on to blame the God inside the temple for his misfortune.(He referred to the deity as a lifeless stone). Closing his conversation abruptly he came inside and performed ‘arti’ for us.

Incident#3:
On another day, an auto riksha driver was cribbing endlessly while justifying the exorbitant fare demanded by him. His point was that with all the complaints of so called fleecing by auto drivers, they are merely making 100 to 150 Rs per day, which is a rediculously low sum considering the cost of living. If one takes into account the loan repayment also, he said, the net take-home would be around 100 rupees. On exceptionally busy seasons like the wedding seasons, they would make over 200 Rupees per day.

Incident #4:
A Tourist taxi driver also had similar sob stories to share on another day. Apparently, these drivers work long and irregular hours(more than 12hrs per day) and make 250 rupees during busy seasons. During the lean season they would work only for half a day and make just half that amount.

Incident #5:
In another remote temple, a retired school peon cribbed about his lowly pension and extracted some money from us.

I should add to the above list my driver who borrowed heavily from me. I have no clue as to when he is going to repay considering that he has very recently added one more young member to his family. By borrowing from me, he has made sure that we are stuck with each other for good!

What is common to all these episodes? Utter poverty, deep frustration and restlessness to come out of it.
‘Beg, Borrow or Steal’ – seems to be the ‘mantra’and the guiding principle for survival for most of them. It is a matter of time before the restlessness turns into a rebellion similar to what we are witnessing in the Arab countries.

Most of the people I am talking about would fall below the Poverty Line even as per the latest Guidelines of Planning Commission, which fixed a rediculous limit of 35 rupees per person per day as the criterion.

Our nation is following the model of development of the West which is ‘welfare capitalism’(minus the welfare part). This social contract creates 1% of super rich minority supported by a large aspiring middle class. But this model of development does very little to alleviate extreme poverty at the bottom of the pyramid – the working class. We can feel the symptoms of their restlessness in all town and cities.

Temple Tours & Spirituality – Part 2

The question that intrigued me after our trip to temples down south is whether it was spiritually enriching. The answer is yes & No. Let me elaborate.
I always considered going to temples as a routine and a ritual, hoping that some day it would give some spiritual experience. I should confess that so far the experiences are far from spiritual. It is partly because of the manner in which we conduct temple worship. When we go to a temple, we are confronted with a big crowd and our focus is on how to deal with the crowd and get close to the deity as fast as we can. Having achieved darshan, we are confronted by a priest who looks least interested in the proceedings. He would casually pick up your offerings to the God and recite the names of the Gods & Goddesses present in the Sanctum Sanctorum in a very monotonous and dull tone. At the end everyone is happy and relieved that the ordeal is finally over.

Spirituality is an experience of something immense over and beyond what we see, hear and feel in the material world. Everything that we do to have that experience is a vehicle or a medium. In my opinion,the vehicle that we choose is entirely subjective. Religion(with all the accompanying practices of worshipping God))is one such vehicle. It is not clear how it evolved but I am told that there is no mention of God at all in Rigveda. Nature with all its immensity was the object of worship during the vedic period. Aurobindo captures the decline of the vedas in one sentence. He said it issues as language from sages then it falls to priests, then it falls to scholars and /or the academicians.

Besides religion there are a number of other vehicles available depending upon one’s nature. For instance, the vehicle could be any of the following: A great classical music,fine arts or even meditation. In fact there are people who experience spirituality through service to fellow human beings.

In my case worshipping God in a temple (as we traditionally do in temples)just doesn’t stir any spiritual feeling. In comparison a good piece of music(or a trip to Himalayas)does a lot of good for my spiritual longing.

Having said that,this trip was a mixed experience. Firstly, most of the places we visited were in remote villages and we had to wait for the priest to arrive. During that time we were all alone enjoying the natural surroundings in solitude. In some places, the priests showed a lot of enthusiasm and involvement in describing the deity, significance of the place, which ‘Alwar’ sang in praise of the Lord etc.
Unfortunately, on many occasions we would virtually hurry in and out of temples in order to complete our schedule of visits for the day and this reduced it to a ritual again. Add to that the fact that some priests were restless, greedy and were mainly interested in the money being offered etc. One is bound to be put off.

One very good experience we had was at the ‘avatara sthalam’(birth place) of Thondaradipodi Alwar at Thiru Mandangudi. The priest took great pains to explain the ‘pasurams’(slokas) in some detail.
When one contemplates on the highly profound ‘pasurams’ loaded with poetry and spirituality, it becomes easy to get influenced. The passion with which this particular ‘Alwar’ worshipped the Lord Ranganatha is summarized nicely in one of his famous ‘pasurams’(‘Pachai maamalaipol meni….’) wherein he says he would any day prefer an opportunity to worship the Lord over even the pleasures of ruling Indra’s kingdom (I am not sure whether ‘Indira Lokam’ in the pasuram means Indra’s kingdom or Vaikundam, as Indira means the Goddess Lakshmi, the consort of Vishnu).

I guess we need to undertake leisurely trips without feeling pressurized for time. We should visit only two or three temples per day and try to partake in the immensity of the experience of the ‘Alwars’ as narrated in their ‘pasurams’. It is an experiment worth carrying out.

A tour of ancient temples down south – Part 1

Last week we went on a tour to famous temple towns – Chidambaram & Kumbhakonam. We covered a number of ancient vaishnavite temples in several villages located in and around these two temple towns. Entire tour took us 5 days as we covered close to 35 to 40 temples. Not being accustomed to this kind of whirlwind tour to so many temples, I was initially very sceptical as to whether I would cope with the strain and enjoy the tour. However,leaving behind all negative thoughts of scepticism, I decided to venture out and experiment. This was partly inspired by highly passionate accounts of experiences narrated by some people who had earlier undertaken such trips.

Except for the onward journey and the return ticket,our travel was largely left unplanned. This meant that we were quite free to take any mode of travel on the 5 days of our temple tour. On certain days we hired a private taxi while on a couple of other occasions we experimented with bus travel.The ride around Seerkayi as well as Kumbhakonam was simply superb. There is so much of greenery all around. We drove through roads which were flanked on both sides by well irrigated lands of rice paddy, sugar cane and banana plantations. Obviously this part of Tamilnad is highly fertile. And quite interestigly,fertile lands have also produced fertile minds. We drove through villages made famous by the great people who lived there. For instance Semmangudi, Manakkal, Sikkil,Singalipuram are all well known names among people who are familiar with music,art or philosophy. These villages are known for the famous musicians Semmangudi Srinivasa iyer, Mankkal Rangarajan and Sikkil sisters. Anantharama Dikshitar, well known for his spiritual discourses, belonged to Singalipuram.
To this list I should not forget to add the illustrious names of three great music composers Thyagaraja, Dixitar and Shyama Shastri. The trinity belonged to the famous town Thiruvaroor near Nagapattinam. The houses where they lived are still preserved. We also visited Tiruvayyar(near Thanjavoor) where Thyagaraja’s ‘samadhi’ took place. Visiting these two places(Thiruvayyar & Thiruvaroor) was indeed a spiritual journey back to the 19th century. It is an amazing experience to walk through the very streets frequented by the saint Thyagaraja in Thiruvayyar. These were the streets where the saint walked across singing bhajans and collecting offerings of rice (This simple way of life is referred to as UNCHAVRITTI).

Some of our destinations were covered by bus. A couple of experiences of travel by bus are worth narrating. In one instance, we covered a distance of 20km from Chidambaram to Kattu Mannargudi temple by bus. The roads were good. The weather was nice. We had cool breeze throughout the journey. There were lovely green fields all around. To top it all, we were also treated with fantastic old tamil ‘hit’ songs of Kannadasan. With such a combination of visual and musical treat accompanied by nice monsoon breeze, we didn’t know the passage of time. Honestly I would not have minded even if we had taken more time than usual to reached our destination! And can you believe that all this incredible treat comes at an unbelievable bus fare of mere 9 Rs per ticket! You can’t beat that experience.

Of course I can’t say the same thing about our bus travel on another day. We took a bus from Nagapattinam to Kumbhakonam passing through several villages. It took more than 2.5 hours for a mere 35 kms. The day was hot. There was no music and the only deafening noise was that of the bus honking all the way to get right of way. (These mofussil buses seem to be equipped with special horns meant to produce high decibel irritating noise to keep away buffallos and humans on the road). The bus would stop at three places in each village. There would invariably be one more ‘privillege stop’ at the house of a VIP of the village. We must have passed through at least 30 villages before reaching our destination in the sweltering heat. I vowed not to undertake any more bus travel.

On the spiritual side, did I become more enlightened after the trip? My thoughts on this are reserved for the next post.

A Holiday in Paris?

If my boss(who is also the sponsor of my trip)were to see the title of this post I am sure he would feel uneasy and wonder whether he did the right thing in sending me for the business trip! But then if you are in Paris you can not help linking it to fun and leisure.
Well,last week I had been to Paris on a business trip and it is virtually impossible not to talk about it! It is indeed a great retreat – a place where one can easily combine business with pleasure.

For reasons beyond anyone’s control,I could not get my French Visa. French consulate in Mumbai was in the process of shifting and so would not care to give any visa appointments.Therefore,I had to take a SCHENGEN tourist visa to Switzerland and reach Paris via Zurich.
As one enters the city,one thing that would strike any visitor is the amazing number of smokers – boys,girls,men,women of all ages indulge in smoking! It almost looks like a nation of smokers. Women indulging in smoking is certainly a ‘culture shock’ for most of us Indians. But I understand that is their way of asserting themselves – it is a symbol of freedom that women enjoy in the society. If it is really so,what an unimaginative way of expressing one’s assertiveness!
Another thing that is equally striking to an Asian visitor is that the Fench men(and women)hardly seem to speak in public places like trains,buses etc.They go about in a highly businesslike manner while travelling. Asians (Indians,Pakistanis and Chinese) are the only ones seen talking loud in public places. I realized this behavioural trait at my cost on the very first day at the breakfast table. As I settled down at the table,a waitress came up to me and whispered into my ears inquiring my room number. As if to grab the first available opportunity to open my mouth after nearly 12 hours of my arrival in Paris,I declared(almost thundered) that my room number was FIVE ONE FIVE,to the amusement (or more appropriately shock)of all around. All eyes in the room popped up in unison as though something untoward had taken place! Having learnt that lesson the hard way,I instantly decided to join the SILENT / WHISPERING majority. I successfully practiced the art of whispering for a whole day only to throw austerity(of words) to the winds in the evening when I conveniently landed at Saravana Bhava hotel for dinner. The moment I saw the familiar Indian crowd there,I was in my usual elements as I could raise my decibel levels without being noticed. My daughter who was making fun of me for going to Saravana bhava,of all the eating places in Paris,will now appreciate the reason for my preference! Of course I must also admit that the dish with 14 pieces of mini IDLIS soaked in spicy Sambar is another good reason to dine there.
The following day,I had an interesting encounter with a young American couple who happened to be my neighbours in the Hotel. Having identified the only English speaking person in the hotel,they found a desparately needed outlet to share their horror story in the Paris Metro. They were apparently caught by French cops with an invalid ticket in hand. As I learnt later a ticket becomes invalid if you happen to travel in the metro for more than an hour or so. And the punishment for this can vary from 50 euoros or imprisonment overnight(if they suspect you to be a terrorist or something it could really get worse!). Since they were white Americans who could speak a little bit of French,they got away with a relatively light penalty of 40 euros per person. That is still quite steep by any standards! I shared this important piece of information with all my Indian friends who were equally ignorant about this silly rule. I say it is silly because even if you genuinely lose your way in a metro(as a tourist is likely to),you will have to pay up.
There is another scary tale,Ifeel,I should share here for the benefit of tourists like me. This was when I found myself locked inside a loo in a museum where I was caught after the closing hours(7.30pm). Luckily for me one of the doors of the toilet opened after several violent bangings even as I was panicking.
Barring the two scary tales ,I had an otherwise great stay. I thoroughly enjoyed the cruise along Seine river one late evening,which was completely relaxing. The scenes on either side of the river were really breathtaking especially when the bridges and the Eiffel tower were beautifully illuminated in the late evening hours. Finally, a day trip to Versailles completed my sightseeing which was just limited to one saturday(I am sure my boss will be happy to note this!).

Our Rajasthan Holiday

Holiday tourism is a great stress buster. It is especially so when one leaves it a little unplanned and is mentally prepared for some surprises and excitements. Our recent vacation to Rajasthan falls into this category in several respects. To start with,we were not exactly sure where we were going to go until a week before we actually left Mumbai. We kept going back and forth mentally between Hill stations in Himalayas on the one hand and a much drier place like Rajasthan. Finally we decided on Rajasthan as we were advised not to venture into Nainital or any other hill station where the rains could potentially spoil a holiday. Having decided on Rajasthan,we didn’t yet make up our mind as to the actual destinations for our visit. Therefore,we made only 2 train bookings – one from Mumbai to Jaipur and the return journey from Udaipur to Mumbai with a gap of 8 days. This meant that we were totally free to decide our programme within Rajasthan for the entire 8 days. We were toying with a couple of options like:
Jaipur – Pushkar – Jaisalmer-Udaipur & back or alternatively,Jaipur -Pushkar-Udaipur – Mount Abu. The thought of going to Jaisalmer to watch the famous sand dunes was very exciting and kept us motivated even before the trip started,although we were repeatedly warned of temperatures as high as 45deg.C.
We finally left Mumbai on a Saturday night (by train) for Jaipur keeping all our options open. As we got up on the following morning,we were pleasantly surprised to learn that the train would be passing through Abu station by about 10am,which is hardly an hour’s drive away from the well known hill station Mount Abu.We quickly decided to break our journey at Mount Abu and got off the train. Since it was not a planned halt,we had to explore on our own for a hotel room. Having settled for a budget hotel,we started exploring Mount Abu instantly. The weather was great – cloudy and chilly with occasional showers,typical of any hill station. We climbed and walked around some of the nice ‘view’ points even as it was drizzling and threatening to get us all wet. The foggy atmosphere added grandeur to the view as one looked into the valleys down below. We returned as it was getting dark and were ready for a hot cup of tea,which was readily served by a waiting chaiwala.
On the following day we went around various tourist places,including the famous Brahmakumaris’ world headquarters. As expected,we were treated(?)to a brief lecture on their philosophy by the local staff. This was followed by a visit to an excellent rose garden nearby,maintained by Brhmakumaris. However,here we were in for an(unpleasant)surprise as we were virtually held captive by the staff who forced us to listen to their lecture before we entered the garden. Many including us meekly protested as we felt it was not in good taste. It appears that it is this kind of aggressive preaching that has put off many local residents of Mount Abu from this cult,although their philosophy of life is otherwise practical and impressive.

Yet another great place worth visiting in Mount Abu is the famous Dilwara temple. The temple’s intricate architecture, made out of marble stones,is simply astounding for its detail,fineness and beauty.
The following day we left Mount Abu for Jaipur by an overnight ‘luxury bus’(with sleeper berths). I didn’t find anything luxurious about it,though,as we were jolted out of our sleep every now and then at a regular (and unpredictable) frequency. We reached Jaipur early in the morning and were in for a surprise as the hotel booked through internet gave a completly misleading picture. We had to compromise on ambience and location as our main focus was to see the pink city,which we did for two full days. Hawa Mahal & the Amber Fort were the two main attractions. Then we drove to Pushkar which boasts of the only temple for Brahmaji. We also visited a Vaishnavite shrine nearby and returned to Jaipur.
Very interestingly,our driver was well informed about the various pujas one is supposed to perform at Pushkar,although he was a muslim. He was a simple minded and a somewhat naive guy who had to completely depend upon his clients for calculating the fare at the end of the trip. When I tried to motivate him to learn some basic arithmatic,he retorted saying if he could learn arithmatic why would he be still driving a taxi for tourists!
And what a cultural contrast this driver provided to the Mumbai tourist taxiwalas with his genuine respect for the elderly.(throughout the tour he was addressing me as “bapuji” – a highly respectable term for the elderly. One is not used to being addressed in such terms in a highly businesslike city city like Mumbai).

We left Jaipur and reached Udaipur by train on the fifth day morning,having decided to skip Jaisalmer.
Udaipur is a city with a completely different flavour altogether – it is man made,beautiful and simply grand. The city was built around the old palaces and forts with man made lakes,which are interconnected. (Unfortunately,there is not much water in many lakes). One famous fort Kumbalgadh, near Udaipur boasts of a wall construction similar to the great wall of china,although,perhaps,not as long.
Talk to anyone in the city and you will hear a lecture on Maharanapratap Singh – whether it is the tourist taxi wala or the hotelier or a shopkeeper. Maharana is as famous as Shivaji in Maharashtra. He was one king who defied Akbar and refused to accept defeat and is well known for the famous battle of Haldighat(a suburb at the outskirts of Udaipur). There are palaces,forts,gardens and several memorials named after him.
We also visited a very famous Jain temple at a place called Raunakpur which is about 90km away from Udaipur. This temple reminded us of Dilwara temple at Mount Abu.
Following day was essentially spent in visiting the famous pilgrim centre – Nathdwara – to have darshan of SRINATHJI and that marked the end of our sightseeing.
We had one full day left for shopping which we did with a lot of zeal and enthusiasm.
Throughout the trip,there was uncertainty about food and hunting for good native food certainly did provide a lot of suspense and fun although at times very frustrating. Funnily,at each place,we explored and explored for good and decent restaurants and found something of value and taste only towards the end of our stay in each place!

The trip to Raunakpur was also full of uncertainties. Initially,it was sunny,then as our car raced through the beautiful ghat roads,there were continuous sharp showers and it took more time than we budgeted. This meant that we missed our scheduled ‘free jain lunch’ provided at the temple. As that was the only place for food in the midst of a virtual jungle,we had to skip our lunch almost. That was when something very unexpected happened. Our driver took the blame upon himself for our missed lunch and made a detour for several kilometers to find an alternative place to get us food. Finally,we found a roadside dhaba which provided very clean,simple,and hot chappatis,sabji and dal. This was in keeping with the spirit with which we undertook the tour – that is do not plan too much in advance – take things as they come – be prepared for surprises – do not complain -accept everything without feeling frustrated. Needless to say,we had lots of arguments,debates,points,counter-points etc throughout the trip,which I suppose we all enjoyed.

My Business Tour last week

Last week,official business took me to 3 completely different locations in India – different in language spoken,in culture,life-style,work-style and even the way they do business. The places are Kanpur,Chennai and Goa. While Chennai is very conservative in all respects including business,Kanpur is perhaps slightly more daring with higher appetite for risk. Goa ,on the contrary,presents a completely laid back approach in all aspects of their lives which readily permeates into business as well. In fact it is almost like visiting 3 different countries. Of the three,Goa appears to be relatively unaffected by outside cultural influences. They maintain an unique identity of their own in many respects. Apart from the beaches for which the place is well known,a drive from the airport to our hotel (which is a full 40 minutes drive)shows the natural beauty at its very best. There is so much of open space(what a pleasant contrast to Mumbai!) and the natural greenery is unmatched especially during the present season as it keeps raining continuously. Goans,I was told by our driver, do not bother to carry umbrellas as they feel it is an unnecessary bother and in any case(according to them)it does not really protect much,with so much of wind around! In the hotels as well as offices one can readily sense a feeling of warmth and comradery – service with a genuine,natural and innocent smile!
Chennai,in contrast,offers a lukewarm(or rather cold) reception whether one is at the airport ,a customer’s place,a grocery shop or a vegetable vendor. The vegetable vendors in particular are notorious in handing out their choicest abuses in case one makes the mistake to inquire about a certain vegetable and not care to clinch a deal. It may not be an exaggeration to say that a friendly smile(natural or even artificial) is conspicuous by it absence in Chennai.
The atmosphere in Kanpur,on the other hand, is completely different. One can not miss people effortlessly speaking chaste Hindi interspersed with broken English (one example will suffice – the waiter in our hotel fondly enquired:”Aap ko kaunsa esnakes chaahiye”).

Our trip to Kanpur was more or less uneventful until Air India decided to add some excitement! As we were having our lunch before leaving for airport,my colleague received a call from Air India saying that the flight was delayed by an hour. The same people called me next to give the same message as expected. Therefore,we decided to have a more leisurely lunch and ordered a few more courses. As the food arrived and we settled down to savour the dishes,there came another call from Air India. My colleague could not believe what he heard. He was informed that our flight would be departing an hour ahead of the original schedule! The same message was conveyed to me by Air India staff the very next moment. We were left speechless and in any case there was no time left for any discussion on the subject. We gulped down whatever was served on the table,paid the bill and drove straight to the airport. Luckily ,we managed to reach in time.
The airport in Kanpur is a pretty small one. I believe it used to be a military Air base which was later converted for civilian convenience.
We were just a handful of people (literally) and surprisingly the airline staff far outnumbered the passengers. Therefore,the passengers were getting a lot of individual attention. We were literally received like VIPs by the staff,who did everything necessary to make us feel comfortable. (for instance,when we asked for coffee,it was served in trays without our having to stir out of our seats!).
We were to take the flight to Delhi which in turn was supposed to connect to a flight to Chennai at 8 pm. At the Kanpur airport,though,there was yet another surprise in store for us as we learnt that our flight would go to Delhi via Alahabad. I will not go into the reasons as to why our flight had to take such a detour.(I believe it is a combination of problems of logistics,delays,inadequate number of passengers etc). Anyway,this unexpected detour meant that we touched the Delhi airport only by 8pm and missed our connecting flight to Chennai. Stranded in Delhi thus,we demanded that Air India make all arrangements for our overnight stay as well as ensure a seat in an early morning flight to Chennai. Air India did all that without a murmur. We were royally put up in a 5-star hotel for the night,thanks to the ‘Maharaja’ !

I came to know later that only Air India operates in this sector with a guarantee of connecting flights from Delhi to Chennai or Mumbai. I am certain that with the kind of operational inefficiencies that we see with Air India,passengers must be missing their connecting flights often and happily enjoying free 5 star hospitality frequently. And yet no one from the airlines seems to be doing anything about it. No wonder,the Airlines today needs a Rs 20000 crore bail out package just to keep afloat!