Out and away

For the very first time, I would be travelling abroad in a few minutes. As happy as I am with the above fact, for this trip I have been forced to be away from my laptop and the internet world. I don't consider smartphone at par with a full-keyboard laptop. But the important reason of me getting away with that: The wife is an equally addict when it comes to our phones.

So be it... I will prove it beyond doubt to all who think I can't breathe without my laptop, once and for all, to be dead wrong.

Now, waiting at the Kolkata airport. This is my first time here, although I have been to Kolkata quite a few times before. Not very crowded, probably because its a weekday?

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A trip to Kolkata - Part I

This was on the cards for a very long time. I flew to Kolkata on 28th of February. It was an early morning flight, 6 in the morning. And for that, I had to take a cab at 4:30 in the morning. I never like to carry lots of stuff with me, so I managed to get my things packed in 15 minutes, on that very day, somewhere around 3:30 in the morning and stepped into the waiting cab.

The driver was probably busy watching India vs England world cup match earlier that day. We had a small conversation about that, and then, the cool morning breeze started lulling him to sleep. I could see his eyelids fluttering in the rear view mirror. I was a little scared, but some kind of an alarm seemed to wake him up every now and then. I tried to find out the source, and realized that the cabs were fitted with speed governors which would not allow them to go over 80 kmph. Wow!!! I am saved.

I was relieved, the moment the driver dropped me off at the airport. Come on, I still had hopes that India would qualify for the next round, and I was not going to miss that. This time around, with Sachin perhaps playing his last world cup is the best chance.

Kolkata, after so many years!!!! Yellow Ambassador Taxis!!!! breathing out thick black smoke!!! Perfect. A sign board said, "Welcome to Kolkata".

Since it was a Monday, I had to walk into the office the same day. I wasn't tired though. I dumped my luggage in my guest house and hired a "Yellow Taxi" for office which was about 5 kms away. In that part of Kolkata, traffic seemed to be much better than what I am used to in Bangalore. But, within a few minutes, I also realized that there were literally no rules for vehicles. Cars, bikes criss-crossing all over, screeching and honking all around, finally I reached office. It was a big big building, Technopolis in Salt Lake. I had heard a lot of about Salt Lake. I should say that Salt Lake was well planned, with more trees than I expected. Fortunately, the weather wasn't that bad for the whole 2 weeks of my stay in Kolkata.

Meetings!!!!! Ummm, of late, I have been attending so many of them. A short introduction with everyone, and it was lunch time. Yippee....Pizza Hut with Suman and Cameron.

To be continued...

To the Airport again

These days, the number of trips to the Airport has sky-rocketed, thanks to vacations and office work. Although I don't hate flying, reaching the airport is quite a long journey. It takes almost the same time traveling to or back from the airport as compared with the air-travel itself. I could well coin a new term "sit-travel" for this journey to and from the airport. Right now, well, I am sitting and typing this out, on my way to the airport, on a bus.

In a few days, I will be visiting the airport again. That will be an official trip to Kolkata. But the BIA buses are great. They don't tire you, and protects you from the sun, heat and the rain. Yeah, the other buses expose you to all the elements of nature. You would be better off standing under a tree instead.

I am not going anywhere though. I will be back online in a few hours. So, who's coming? Naah!!! Nobody, I busted wanted a long ride and a Subway meal. That's it. :D

Time machine. Umm, no, a teleporter please

Image Source : Wikipedia Commons

At times, I have been fascinated by the idea of Time Travel. Those movies on Time Travel were so enjoyable to watch. There have been numerous adaptations of this concept in movies, serials (Captain Vyom) and novels. No one knows yet, if it will be possible ever. But, I get a feeling that people have stopped working on it. Perhaps, they have given up, since it's been quite some time I have heard people talk or discuss about this, or new movies based on Time Machines. Perhaps, the interest, or rather the need of this generation has shifted to something else. Teleportation. :)

For some of you, it might be a new word. So, by definition on Wikipedia, Teleporation is "the transfer of matter from one point to another, more or less instantaneously."

Time Travel still brings in a sense of excitement and adventure in me, but I would prefer to get teleported to somewhere, or wherever and whenever I like. Why? Here you go:

• I want to get to office and back home without getting stuck in traffic.
• Airfares have skyrocketed beyond the volume of my pockets.
• I want to visit my parents more often, and my girl friend too (Please don't ask who)
• I want to have a fag at midnight when I am with my parents, without they knowing.
• I want to meet Sachin Tendulkar personally when he is relaxing in his balcony.
• I want to be around Mrs. Sonali Bendre for some time.
• I want to keep a chocolate for a child on the streets without he knowing it.
• I want to retrieve all the documents from their hideouts which could land all the corrupt people in jail.
• I want to spend some time alone on Mt. Everest.
• I want to wish all of my family, friends and relatives personally on various ocassions.

Well, there are more, but I guess you can figure out why a Teleporter can be more helpful than a Time Machine. And by the way, if you change something, by going into the past or present, there's gonna be a hell lot of confusion.

And now, the secret: I am trying to build one. Please contact me if you are also interested in contributing towards this.

Fright of a child - Almost lost

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 15; the fifteenth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

There will always be some stories in your life which you will never forget. And those stories or incidents can also have a deep impact on our personality. I have always believed that events in our early stages of life (childhood) determine who and what we will finally turn out to be. One of such things that still lingers in my mind is from my childhood days. I don't really remember how old I was, but I guess I was in the 5th standard.

This was our first trip outside Orissa. We were going to New Delhi. Since I was a child, I was not really a travel freak. My father loves traveling, and he still does. Perhaps, because that was our first such trip, I was excited and thrilled. My little sister was still being carried around in somebody's arms, always, and I considered myself a grown-up, ready to take care of myself, and "walked" along with them. Ah!! What a trip that was. We covered almost the whole of North India, except Jammu and Kashmir.

Well, the story is about our journey to New Delhi. It was my first journey by train, and my sister's as well. I guess, she was still too young to know what was going around. And I was very very excited. That was the trip which ingrained in my mind, the fact that "New Delhi" was the capital of India. Being an inquisitive mind, as I have always been, I was expecting this trip to be the most memorable one, and it finally turned out to be one of them. After 2 days of traveling by train, we reached the New Delhi railway station. I was told that my uncle who worked in the Army would come to pick us up.

As soon as the train halted, the whole compartment went berserk. I thought the train would be leaving soon after stopping for a few minutes, as I had been noticing for the countless stations that went past. At every station, people were always in a hurry to either get down or board the train. I sensed emergency. My father started collecting our luggage, my mom picked up my sister. I thought they needed my help. I scanned my eyes over all the boxes, and tried picking up one. It was heavy, but I managed to load it on my arms. My father started moving towards the exit. I followed him. The bag was heavy, but I still carried it with all my strength. My mom was walking besides me. My sister had just woke up amidst all the noise.

I kept following my father, never looking back to check my mother and sister. He was walking, rather pacing away. I didn't have the time to look back else I would lose him, I thought. Suddenly, I heard someone shout out my name from behind. "Bini, Bini". It sounded familiar, I turned back to see my uncle running towards me. He came running to me, and asked, "Where are you going?". I said, "Papa is looking for you", pointing in the other direction. He smiled and took my hand. We started walking the other way, away from my father. I was wondering if I should remind him again that we should be walking the other way. But I was confused. "Where's Mom, and my sister?" I thought. After sometime, I could see them, all of them together. My mother was crying, father looked really worried and my sister trying to assess and understand the situation, still in Mom's arms.

Father bent down and put his hand on my head, and asked, "Where were you going?" I said,"I was following you". Only then I realized that I was following the brown jacket that my father had put on. I might have been half asleep, and sleep walking then. I don't really remember.

Being a child, I didn't know how to react then. But whenever I remember that day, I always feel lucky. I would have been lost that day. At the railway station. The vivid memories of the brown jacket, my mom's tears and my uncle running towards me still come to my mind whenever I am at the railway station. I feel lonely and sad, whenever I am at the railway station. Whenever I visit the railway station, either to see off someone, or to go on yet another journey myself, a feeling of sadness and loneliness gets over me. The fright of a child of getting lost, the fear of going away from dear ones and the feeling of being among the unknowns still haunts me, and perhaps always will, till my last journey.

The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton and links to their respective posts can be checked here. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

Credits
Image - Alston Station by Wandering Soul
Courtesy - www.deviantart.com via www.blogaton.in

Just in time - Again

Continuing from the previous post, the journey back to Bhubaneswar on the Scooty was very very thrilling. Every 2 minutes, I used to ask Ashish to look at his watch while I was on full throttle. The Scooty was running a race of it's lifetime. I had never been in such a hurry before, well, may be I was, 2-3 times, :).

Finally, we did manage to reach the airport on time, just before the checking counter shut down. And Mr. Ashish could fly back to Hyderabad that day. What a relief!!!

People had always doubted my Scooty riding skills, but yet again, I have proved them wrong, and yet again, I won the race against time. I was in a similar situation when a friend of mine asked me to drop him at the railway station. It was in Bangalore and I had a Pulsar 180cc with me then. I made it on time then as well. A few days back I was mocking at Vishal and Gaurav for missing their flight, by 10 odd minutes. Now, I realize the importance of each minute, especially when you are running to catch a flight or a train. Hahaha, but in the end, it's the result that matters. They missed it !!! Kudos.

A Scooty’s trip to Puri

For the people who are ignorant of this word “Scooty”, let me first  introduce this to you.

Scooty is an Indian brand of scooters manufactured by TVS Motors. Basically, it was designed for women, and at one time, was the largest selling scooter brand in it’s segment. Equipped with a 60cc engine, it can hit a top speed of about 60 kmph with a single person. However, the max speed dropped to a surprisingly lower value, somewhere around 45 kmph when you add on a pillion. If you want to know more about this scooter, visit the website.

Well, mine, not exactly mine, but my sister’s scooty is 6 years old now. And whoever rides it now, vows never to ride it again. But during it’s initial days, I used to love scooty rides a lot. :) And, so, there is some kind of attachment between the two of us.

Ok, the story continues. Ashish, who was in Bhubaneswar, for  attending Sidharth’s marriage, wanted to go to Puri. I told him that we can take a car/taxi. Not willing to contribute to the already increasing Carbon levels in the atmosphere, he recommended to avail the public transport. Hmm, Bad Idea, I thought. But, I knew that I will not be able to convince him to take a taxi, he would have never agreed. So, I gave him another better (looking atleast) option. My Scooty. And he somehow agreed.

Well, there was one little constraint. He had a flight to catch, the same day, at 6:45 pm, that very evening. And so, I worked out all the calculations (taking into consideration all the factors, including the max possible speed of my scooty) and arrived at our scheduled departure time, 9:00 am in the morning. Well, true to their reputations, NITKians, never made anything on time. Or they always did something wrong. Ya Ya, I am one of them. But, I can give you some more examples. Mr. Vishal and Mr. Gaurav missed their flights by just 10 minutes who wanted to attend Sidharth’s marriage. Mr. Srinath, who is currently a student at IIM, Kolkatta, by mistake booked a train ticket for the day after when he was supposed to travel. He managed his time well, but had all the wrong data and inputs. :) And I wasn’t even expecting Mr. Ashish to make it to my house before at-least 11:00 am. And I still over-estimated. He reached my house at 11:30 and then we started.

Puri is around 60 kms from my house. And, I just did a test ride on my Scooty. A max speed of 43 kmph. Hmm, Well, at that speed, I thought it will take at-least 2 hours to reach Puri. And we did it. YAY!!!

But the return journey was more fun, exciting and tensed. For some reason, my Scooty refused to buzz beyond the 40 kmph. At the place where we stopped for food, we got a bit late and lost a few minutes there (may be 10 minutes). And, it was already 5:00 pm and there was still some 30 odd kms to cover. If at all, Rajhans misses his flight, he and only he would be the sole person responsible. He did all this, wasted time, which could have saved us a few minutes.

Did Rajhans miss his flight? Did Scooty survive the torture? Did we manage to break the NITKians record of never being on time?
To be continued… 

Old Year Celebrations - Contd....

So, we reached Lt. Ritesh's room at around 12:00 noon. The first thing I had in mind was to take a bath. Payyanur was hot, at-least by my standards. Samiran dubbed it as pleasant and comfortable while I was sweating away.

Now we were hungry. So , we proceeded towards the mess, the Navy Mess. Lt. Ritesh, as usual, had to wear formals. Hahah, and I was forced to wear shoes. :( On the way, we noticed the bar. The mere sight of it drove away all the hunger. It was ROYALE. Really, it was a great experience. We didn't spend much time in the bar, since the mess would be closing soon, Ritesh had warned us. After we finished our drinks, we headed towards the mess for our lunch, finally. Oh, I didn't mention that we didn't have the time to get something to eat before that, since last night's dinner.

Nothing much to say about the food. It was okay. After that, Ritesh wanted to take us around the campus. Though I was feeling tired and sleepy, I thought we should have a look around INS Zamorin. May be this would be a chance of a lifetime. We clicked some photos. Near the flags, in-front of a helicopter. We had saved the MIG for Kunal. :)

Well, we couldn't manage to get a Digicam. So, till Kunal arrived, we had to use our cell phones.

During all this, we were getting constant updates from Kunal. "I am here", "I reached this place", "How far is it from here", "It's very hot". :)

To be continued.... Kunal's arrival....

Old year celebrations

Don't worry, I will also celebrate the new year. But for the year that was ending, we had lot's of things to celebrate about. Samiran and 1 packed our bags to started off for Payyanur, Kerala.

Our destination: INS Zamorin
Our contact : Lt. Ritesh Kumar Parida

Well, as every Bangalorean knows well, friday evening is the worst time to travel to Majestic(Bangalore's Bus Terminus) or the Airport. It always seems like Bangalore is being evacuated. What I had heard from Samiran, was today, there were around 1200 buses scheduled to take people out of Bangalore.

We had a bus ticket, and it was a private one. We had made sure that we didn't get the back seat, since we knew that the road to Payyanur was full of pot-holes, so big, that they could have been called wells. But, when we entered the bus, and started searching for our seat number, we realized that it was going to be the worst bus journey ever. Backseat, and 6 people jammed up. There was a couple among the six. To make matters worse, the girl was fat, and so was Samiran. The girl took up more than 1/6th of the space, but since she was with her boyfriend, we couldn't have done anything. We were heading towards Kerala, and had no plans of being admitted into a government hospital, and miss the Christmas and the New Year celebrations.

We managed to sleep in a posture that was not even close to sitting. But it was fun, and we laughed all the way. Samiran's head hit the roof twice, and mine, once. We had a train to catch next morning from Mangalore at 9:00 am. And this bus was supposed to reach there at 6:00 am. But, due to the mass movement of the public, it was late by 3 hours. We thought we missed the train. But thanks to Indian Railways, the train was late by an hour and we reached Payyanur in another 1:30 hours.

To reach Payyanur, it took us almost 12 hours, which was way beyond our calculations. Well, here comes the best part. Kunal, who made up his last minute plans, decided to celebrate with us and Lt. Ritesh. I guess, I wouldn't do justice to him, if I were to describe anything about his trip. I would be stealing away his content for one more blog, now that the competition is neck to neck. And of-course, we will get to hear "Right from the Horse's Mouth" :)....  To make it short, he reached Payyanur after a 48 hour journey from Gurgaon, via Mumbai, Goa, Mangalore etc.

When we finally reached Payyanur, we were welcomed by Lt. Ritesh Kumar Parida, in a black sorts, shoes, and a t-shirt. At the sight of him, Samiran and I couldn't control our laughter. He hadn't changed a bit.

There is more to mention about this trip. To be continued....

Chennai-Hyderabad-Bhubaneswar

Airports are a fun place. Before taking off from Chennai, I was wondering how would I wait for my connecting flight from Hyderabad for 5 hours. I always wondered how people managed to wait for so long at the airports. The most painful thing being at an airport is that "No smoking". What a relief when a friend told me that there was a smoking room in Hyderabad airport, I was delighted. But then, I didn't have any cigarettes with me. I had around 5 hours to waste before my next flight was scheduled. I could have easily gone out of the airport, roamed the city, smoked a few and drunk some beer.

Well, those things are history, so I saved up so many calories, the local temperature was 30 degrees. So, I bought myself a McDonald's Happy Meal, which cooled me down (the Coke). There was a guy, who bought a Coke, and after one sip, realized that it was Sprite. I thought I would be witnessing a murder today. But the McD people replaced his Cold drink with his favorite brand without any fuss, probably sensing some danger, and that was enough to settle him down. I think, this can be a good advertising idea. :)

There was a kid, who wasn't too happy to see his food at the McD, but was just overwhelmed to see the toy that came with that meal.

I finished mine, and walked out. Now what???

Well, I walked towards the Departures, and tried to enter. The guard said that I was too early. He said that, he would allow me in, but later I will not be allowed to come out. I thought, for a moment, and inside the glass doors, I saw an advert saying, 45 minutes of free wi-fi. That was like, the TOY with the Value Meal. I said, I just had my lunch and I wouldn't need to come out.

Opened my laptop, and tried connecting to the wireless. Wasn't easy, but I always figure out these things. So, in 10 minutes I was logged into GTalk. I started conversation with a few, and after sometime, none of them were replying. Well, I have internet, but now, I can't chat, a dearth of online friend, where have they gone??? May be a bar, today's saturday, one of them has gone for a walk to the beach. :)

So, I thought, why not write a blog. It's been quite some time that I had written. So, I guess, I have used up the whole 45minutes of free braodband, and now I have to take out my Reliance NetConnect Broadband+.

Hold on guys, brb.