Lucknow - Chambal - Orcha - Panna - Gwalior Trip - Part 1

 Feb 8 @ Lucknow:

We Puneites landed at Lucknow in the evening. We got in our tour  van after collecting our luggage & headed for our hotel. Clarks Lucknow is  a  five star hotel in Narpatkhera, Hazratganj. Anubhav our tour operator score a browny point & succeeded in creating a positive impression about them. Frankly speaking none of us expected such an accommodation on a conducted tour. 

Chetan Risbud, our tour guide greeted us in the lounge & introduced us to our four other members from Mumbai.So now we were 10 ki Toli. Gents, only two of us, were outnumbered,Yes by 8 ladies. We both realised that “ Silence would be the best policy on the tour”. 

We returned to our rooms after a sumptuous dinner and soon hit our beds.

Feb 9 @ Lucknow:

We all assembled in the dining area for breakfast. Excellent spread welcomed us. Idlies were soft & delicious & so was the dosa on the live counter. We Puneites mostly had these items, some fruits & tea. Mumbaites were on a separate table, quite understandable in the beginning. Or, was it silence before the storm? Well there are no prizes for the right guesswork, when you know 8 ladies would be tother for almost 8 days.

Our site seeing began with a visit of bara ( big ) Imambara. It was built in 1784 by Asaf- Ud- Daula, Nawab of Awadh. The design of the complex was obtained through competitive process. Kifayatulla, An architect from Delhi was the winner. He also lies buried in the main hall of the imambara.

It’s also said that the Nawab started the construction work during period of draught to help the poor earn their living. It’s also said that the well to do people too were involved in the construction. However, their work used to be demolished the next day because of poor quality of workmanship and other poor but skilled labour used to construct it again.

Red soft stones and marble were used in the imambara. Another attraction there is the bowdi, a step well of sorts. One can not see down beyond the steps but once you descend one can see the main entry. I personally felt the Rani ki Vav in Ahmedabad is much superior in architecture and intricate & fine craftsmanship. 

The main hall though is a piece of marvel in architecture & construction. Similarly the Bhool Bhulaiya is another attraction there. It has about 1000 passages and 489 gates. It’s fun to be there and find out your way out once you are there, but without a guide. However I did not opt to visit for my personal reasons.

It was already time to move out & make way for the community to perform namaz.

Our group then divided in two smaller groups, one opted for non veg food and the other who opted for vegetarian food. What the veg group had for their lunch is not known.

For the Non Veg delicacies, I had done some homework and made a bucket list of sorts and places to go to. The Veg Group had galuti kabab, parotha, veg biryani etc. Seems they enjoyed the veg delicacies.

As regards the non veg group, Our local guide took Anushri Tai, Smita Tai, Anita Tai & me to Raheem Kucha Nihari , at Akbari Gate first for nihari ( breakfast dish). We ordered 2 plates, as i recommended to all to opt for one by two or two by three to do justice to all the delicacies.  It was a mouth watering dish. we all could have had more, but restrained ourself from the temptation.

Next we went to Tunde Kabab, a hundred year old eatery. Tunde kabab, or mutton galauti kabab is a famous mutton preparation normally eaten with rumali roti like a bread roasted on a reverse conical pan. the galauti kababs lived up to Tunde kabab's reputation.

The Ladies went for sopping of perfumes near the tunde kabab hotel. We got pans packed at the  famous Pan Shop in Chowk area then topped our stomach with mutton biryani at Idris. The eatery is not hygienically maintained, Biryani too was just above average. though it ranks amongst the op biryani eateries in Lucknow. Probably Mashi biryani or the waheed's biryani would have been better.  

Finally .we all took luckhnawi paans. The other group made frantic calls  as they had finished much early. It was decided that we all would meet at the Residency after we finish our biryanis. So we headed for next attraction called residency. The other group joined us soon.   

The residency also called as the British Residency has ruins of many buildings in a common precinct in Lucknow. It served as the residence of British Resident General who was a representative in the court of Nawab. It was constructed between 1780 and 1800 by Asaf - Ud - Daulah and later completed by Nawab Sadat Ali Khan.

The Residency was subject to siege during July to November 1857. it is also called the Sepoy Mutiny or the First war of Independence. started because the Hindu & Muslim sepoys refused use of greased ( with cow and buffalo tallow )  bullets.

The revolt then spread like wild fire. What disturbs me most is that the velour of Begum Hazrat Mahal who lead in Lucknow. Rani Laxmi Bai in Zhansi. Nana Saheb Peshwa led in Kanpur, Tatya Tope & Man Singh in Central India and Kunwar Singh in Bihar, and Bahadurshah Zafar in Delhi are not glorified in our history books, much like Shivaji Maharaj. Bajirao Peshwa & Maharana Pratap. 

Indian History glorifies and presents distorted facts about all these freedom fighters. what a shame.  

Our group enjoyed seeing the ruins reflecting the revolt by Begum Hazrat Mahal. 

We came out and headed for a place after Rumi Darwaza, had Chat which lacked inquality, only blemish on the part of Anubhav. Then we had special kashmiri chaay followed by Makhan Malai, a specialty of  Lucknow then came bace to Chanakya a kulfi outlet near our hotel. Kulfi was really different and tasty. Many of us then skipped dinner and went to bed. 

Our stay lucknow thus ended on a sweet note ( that of Kulfi )

More about our trip some other day.

Trip to Kevadia & Surat - Continued - Jan 19 - 20 - 21, 2024

 

Day 3:

It was comparatively a more relaxed day as we did not have a big list of things to visit. We were to travel to Surat, However, visits to the Datt Madir & samadhi of Tembe Swami was probably  suggested by the ladies in the last minute,  Shri Madhukar strongly recommended  the Nilkanthdham Swami Narayan Temple at Poicha on the way to Surat. 

We, Ganus & Joglekars, had been to the Datt Mandir at Garudeshwar during our Narmada Parikrama. This time around Garudeshwar looked cleaner and better and so was the surrounding near the temple. Construction activities of the Ghat were in progress during our earlier visit, now it all was done, It too was neat and clean. we were pleasantly surprised to see the changes for good. A soothing sight, I must say.

We had a good darshan in the temple and the ghat. We boarded our bus and headed for the S o U. we first visited the Arogya Van. This van has ayurvedic medicinal plants based on each limb of the body. It is a must see location in the S o U complex, in my opinion. We then visited the Miyawaki forest in the same complex. This garden is developed on the lines of unique plantation technique propagated by Miyawaki of Japan. This forest too is an added attraction in the complex.

We then headed for Surat. We took a lunch break at Rajpipla and began our journey to Surat. We reached Poicha to the Swaminarayan temple. The temple complex is quite huge and the temple appeared marvelous, but unfortunately it was closed and was to open at about 3 pm, Since it was quite warm, we all decided to skip  the waiting game. Shri Madhukar brought tasty kulfi which helped us cool inside.

We started our onward journey and reached Surat at about 8.30 PM. We decided to have our dinner immediately after checking in the Rajhans Belliza Homestay apartments. The homestay apartments are good facility. We had booked two apartments. Kotwals and Ganus were accommodated on the ground floor and Gundis, Deshmukhs and Neela tai were accommodate up. Both the apartments were identical but Neela tai had to come and join us downstairs. God knows what the issue was. but finally everything was settled for good. Three ladies decided to sleep in one room and Shri Madhukar & I got in another room.

We had dinner in the restaurant of the homestay. We had a small walk round the homestay     and returned to our respective rooms. Soon we all were fast asleep.

Day 4: 

I had a good morning walk and came for tea in our room. We took tea and little snacks from our kitty and proceeded for Jwari Ponk ( Hurda in Marathi ) center, accompanied by a staff member of L & T. The center has many vendors doing the same business, We first saw the automated system of Ponk making and then came to the restaurant, owned by the same person who took us around his manufacturing unit. The ladies got indulged in tasting variety of shevs  and bought few of them each, by the time the freshly made hot Ponk Wada were served. We had one more different dish. The L & T person had organized tea / coffee too. We had a sumptuous breakfast and were ready for the next part on our agenda. 

Shri Madhukar had earlier asked us about our interests in visiting the L & T Factory at Hajira. Satish & I agreed immediately. He had made arrangements for our visit well in advance. So three of us headed for the factory visit and the ladies with Madhav decided to accompany the ladies for a visit of Shri Parshwanath Temple and the Surat Fort.

What can I say about our visit? It was as memorable one as was our visit to the S o U. Shri Madhukar is a big name there, a founder member of LT factory there. The MAN behind the project. I felt myself lucky to have known him personally through our better halves.  Otherwise, how on earth could Satish & I would have got a chance to visit one the largest Infrastructure Company in the country.

A brief introduction of sorts was done in the conference room, followed by a brief presentation video about the Hajira project. Snacks and tea / coffee was served. Then Satish & I were taken around the factory while Madhukar ji went for his work . 

The set up left me spellbound and overawed. I have refrained from writing in details. We assembled in their conference hall after the factory visit. Again there was brief introduction followed by lunch. What was striking was the fact that most of the staff there had worked under Shri Madhukar and grew up the ladder under his leadership.  Normally I have observed that once a person leaves the organization or is retired, he / she is hardly remembered. But here is shri Madhukar who is respected even now and held in very high esteem.  He certainly must have been a people's man. His persona and brilliance was amply seen on the faces of people in the conference room, without he beating about his own drums. That to my mind is a remarkable quality. 

Lines of song from the film Jewel Thief sums up Shri Madhukar very aptly " Asman ke Niche, Hum Aaj Apne Piche Pyaar Ka Jahaan Basaate Chale, Kadam Ke Nishan Banaate Chale."

Thankyou Shri Madhukar, from bottom of my heart. You made our day memorable once again. 

Satish & I left after the lunch and had a plate of famous Umbadiyu on the way back. We all met and went for dinner with one of Shri Madhukar's colleague and his wife at Hotel Zero. We had a sumptuous dinner there. 

 " Start from Zero "  is mentioned on the sign board outside the hotel.  Sadly we ended our trip there and did not start from there. 

Day 5:

We began our return journey and stopped at Navsari for our breakfast. We had Khaman, Shuddh Ghee Jilebi purchased from Tasty Khaman, Navsari. We gents then went to a big shop named Hungdana nearby, famous for Singdana, Chana etc. did our shopping and stopped for tea / coffee at a thela there. Satish ordered Fafda in a shop near the tea thela. Fafada was packed. We returned to our bus. Ladies protested when they came to know that we had tea / coffee too. I told them all that a tea stoppage is planned on the highway where adequately hygienic toilet / washroom facility would be available. That excuse worked as the ladies did not grumble later. We really stopped at a restaurant on the highway with washroom facility. 

We stopped at Assal Gajali Manor for our lunch. There some of us had non veg and others had veg lunch. That was our last stoppage. 

Countdown had begun. we dropped Deshmukhs first near the Ghodbundar road corner. then we dropped Neela Tai at Thane. Remaining of us stopped on the express highway near the toll plaza. We had snacks and tea / coffee and started the last leg of our journey. One by one our bus got emptied and finally Gundis got dropped at their residence.

Our trip which was planned in a shortest of time, well planned by Shri Madhukar & Madhurata Tai and executed well finally ended on a sad note ( so short a trip )  but with lot of happy memories, which will be engraved in our minds for a long long time.  

I feel we should have more of such trips in future too, decided without much planning. 

Our journey began  again. 

Trip to Kevadia & Surat - Continued - Jan 18, 2024

 

Day 2

We stayed in a home stay - House No/ 153, Madhav in Viraj Residency. Madhav ji & I got ready at 5 am. I went for a morning walk. There were many home stay facilities there. I could see boards of  Shroj, Rudra, Dosti Homestay but there were many more there. Its a good business there in Gaudeshwar & Rajpipla.  I returned at about 7.15 am.

 All others were ready by about 7.30 am. Our attendant bought hot water on our request. we had carried Ready to drink premix powders of Tea & coffee with and without sugar. We had tea, Then we had Gul Poli brought by Neelima Tai and a second round of tea / coffee. We were ready for the day. We reached the entry at S o U, at about 8.15 am. We saw a cabin where booking of 11 seater golf cart was to start at 8.30.  Satish ji could not resist the temptation of getting fresh poha. They say " Kharbuja Kharbuje ko dekh kar Rang Badalta Hai ". How true it was. Another plate, followed by another plate of Poha came and we all had tasty pohas. 

It was almost 8.40 am and still there were no signs of anyone opening the cabin. Madhav, Madhukar & I got restless. The person at Helpdesk came to our rescue. He contacted someone and soon someone appeared on the scene, We booked the cart and had a sigh of relief. Our waiting game did not end even after making the payment. Finally at about 9 am a cart appeared. Unfortunately it was not a 11 seater cart. So we had to squeeze in . Our Sightseeing finally started. 

We started our tour with Jungle Safari. I could get some good shots of avian friends. However, we could not go to the exotic aviary because of paucity of time. All in all we had a good time in the Jungle safari, 

Next on the list was Nauka Vihar starting at 10.30 am . it lasted for about 45 minutes. I got to capture few of the birds on the banks of Narmada and also a serpent eagle perched on a distant tree. I could also capture a purple sunbird as we came up near our cart.

A Cruise drive was next on agenda. our cruise was Unity 2 starting from Shreshtha Bharat Bhavan Jetty to the Statue of Unity. We stopped at Best View Point on the way to the jetty. Really the spot is well selected as it gives full view of the S o U. we indulged in taking few shots. we also took group photos there showing the statue standing tall over us all. The cruise took us around the Patel statue and brought us back. The 20 odd minute cruise was enriching experience as we could see the stature from a close distance. 

No doubt the Statue is a piece of marvel and anybody can hardly take off his or her eyes when you see it from a close distance. It is visible from anywhere in the campus of Ekta Nagar. L & T has done a great job in creating this engineering marvel.

We had a quick lunch in a road side dhaba opposite the S o U. Now we were ready for the grand experience of the visit to the Statue of Unity. Its here we realized how tall is the personality of Shri Madhukar is and how the L & T staff everywhere still hold him in high esteem, even so many years after his retirement.

We all got a quick VIP like entry to the campus of the S o U. A gentleman greeted us warmly and took us straight to a point where a cart took us all to the main lounge. One Mrs. Karnal ( affectionately called Colonel ) came and greeted Shri Madhukar and us all. She took us to the gallery and explained how the S 0 U work was conceptualized, planned & executed by L & T in a record time. 

A separate dedicated blog is a must to give details about the S o U.

We were escorted to the Office Mr. Shailesh Master head of  L & T unit there. A small video about the project was screened and we were served snacks and tea / coffee. We then headed for the Audio &  Laser Show about the stature. Finally we were taken to the exit point by a cart. We then went to the Ghat to attend and experience the Grand Narmada Aarti followed by laser fountain show.

All in all. we had a highly enriching experience got detailed orientation tour of the S o U. It all was possible only because we had Shri Madhukar with us. But for him our visit would have been much like thousands of visitors visiting the S o U.  Yes, we would have seen the statue and tried to assimilate information from the boards on display, but with out minutest details which we got. That made our visit of S o U a most memorable one, which will be engraved in our memory for time immemorial

Thanks giving is too small a gesture to Shri Madhukar Kotwal from us all. 

Three cheers for Madhukar - Hip Hip Hurray, Hip Hip Hurray, Hip Hip Hurray.

In lighter vein three of us gents ( Madhav, Satish & I ) would have said in  style of the movie Three Idiots  - Tohfa Kabul Ho. 

Trip to Kevadia & Surat

 

Day one of our Memorable Trip:

When Things have to go wrong, no matter whatever best planning efforts you have put in, Things will go wrong. Reverse too is true. When things have to go right , no matter how little or negligible planning efforts you have put in, Things will go right, 

Some thing like this happened in our case we 3 families, sans shri Deshmukh, met at Mrs. & Mr. Kotwal's house for a lunch at their behest, sorry it was more of a " kalkalichi vinanti - agrah ". I for one, being a foodie,  have never said No for a Lunch / Dinner. We all met and had a lovey Lunch which included fresh fish brought by Madhurata Tai. That was a heavenly treat. 

The Ladies started talking about Surat trip. Sunila Tai was the Leader. Meena & Madhurata Tai chipped in too.  Shri Kotwal & I acted as facilitators to help them with logistics. Soon we all agreed on Statue of  Unity ( S o U ) to be added to Surat. Meena talked to Neelima Tai & Neela Tai. They all agreed and the trip was finalized. The D Date  - 17th Jan was decided. Return was fixed on 21st. 

Initially we were to take our cars, which would have been a great fun and a mode of faster travel. However, the majority favored an 11 seater Traveler.  

Madhurata Tai organized the 11 seater. Shri Kotwal did the booking of SoU and Home Stays at Garudeshwar & Surat. All set and ready to go.  L O L, come Jan 17th,  Ganus reached the pick up point outside the Spires Apartments. Gundis too had arrived. Kotwals joined too and we were soon on the express highway. Our next pick up point was at Thane. 

We all Puneites were eagerly awaiting for our breakfast to be brought by Madhurata Tai. Finally the moment of truth dawned. Neela Tai & Deshmukhs joined us. Immediately Idlis & Chutney was served. we had a sumptuous breakfast. Music was put on. All the ladies started talking about Kalyan and they dug out childhood memories. Soon the Idlis had their effect on all. Music was put off,  Childhood memories deserted the ladies and all were soon fast asleep. 

Shri Kotwal is an expert at finding right places to stop for Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner & Tea. He goes in to minutest details like ambience, ratings, menu etc and gives all details in a shortest of time. We all relied on his inputs and followed his recommendations blindly. Very handy & trustworthy person, on such excursions, I must admit. 

We had our first big pitstop for Lunch at Bamboos ( I hope Meena's memory has served her right )  on the highway after Surat. Needless to say, thanks to shri Kotwal. The ambience was good, the quality of food was excellent. what more one can ask for? We started our onward journey after refueling our tanks. We then stooped only for our tea . coffee break.  

We reached Garudeshwar at bout 9 pm. talked to the attendant of the homestay and headed for Hotel Nirvan, ( near to our homestay ), for our Dinner. Its a lovely hotel. The ambience, food & service were all excellent. The icing on the cake was that  Neelima tai & Madhav, both got Baingan ( Brinjal ) which they both love in any form and taste.  A new revelation for us all. 

We reached our Home Stay at Number 153, The Ladies took charge and decided the sleeping arrangements for next 2 nights there. No arguments. Who could have dared? Gents followed the instructions like tired goats. 

That was day one of our Journey on Jan 17th.

More about our trip - shortly on Some Other Day

मौसम की पहली बारिश

अप्रेल के अंत में कर्णिकार ( बहावा ) के दरख्तों पर

सुनहरे फूलों की लडियां झूलने लगी,

और 1 - 2 महिनों में ही बारिश के आने के संकेत मिले.

बेताल टेकडी पर मोर, कोयल समर्थन में गाने लगे,

गर्मी भी अपने ऊफान पर थी, कहर बरपा रही थी !

मई के महिने ने दस्तक ही दी थी कि बजार में चहुं ओर आमों और कटहलों की महक फैल गई,

टपोरे टपोरे जामुन भी दिखने लगे गोया टोकरियों में बडे बडे काले मोती सजाए हो !

फिर आखिर बारिश आ ही गई !

इस बार ठान कर,  मैं भी 

अपनी बाहरी बूढापे की त्वचा लांघ कर 

मानो, मन से बच्चा बन गया !

सच ही उम्र सिर्फ अंक है, 

मानो तो बुजुर्ग हो, मगर ठान लो तो....

बहरहाल मैं ठान कर बच्चा बना,

पोते — पोती के साथ जमकर 

पहली फुहार में भीगा, मस्ती में उनके साथ नाचा.

अफसोस हुआ जब

हफ्ते — दस दिन रही बारिश, 

और फिर गुम हो गई 

पर  इतने ही दिनों में

धरा हरी भरी, नई नवेली दुल्हन जैसी सज गई

बारिश रूपी प्रितम की बाट जोती.

और, उसके इंतजार में सजी ही रही !!

Vaccination Drive

 It is really commendable to have achieved an average of above 65 L Covid Vaccination over last one week. We have vaccinated about 32 Crore people, some of these having taken the first shot and some having taken the second shot. However, we have a lot of ground to cover still. I propose following measures to accelerate the drive to cross 1 crore shots per day to complete remaining 90 crore plus population with both shots:

Involve Corporates to cover others too, besides their employees and their families, business partners, Contractors - Sub Contractors, common citizens around their factories in different locations etc with their families above the age of 18. Motivate them to use Mobile Vans to conduct Vaccination Camps in near by villages. Give them the benefits and consider the expenses borne under the drive under CSR ( Corporate Social Responsibility ). 

           Government should Engage NGOs in health care field , engage           Mobile vans and hand these over to them to cover interiors,                villages etc.

            Engage Junior Colleges / Large Educational Institutions in this         drive. They should ask students to bring their parents and                    neighbors and their families who have not taken the shots.

        Engage District / Jillah level schools to organize similar camps         in their localities.

Government should supply them vaccines. The State Governments should be asked to  engage retired Doctors & Nurses, Pvt Doctors, MBBS interns, and Nursing staff to all who need such help and coordinate all these activities. 

The basic idea is to reach maximum numbers in shortest possible time. The effort should be to reach the citizen in his locality / house.

Government should also ask large PSUs, Railways, Airlines, Roadways, Military and Paramilitary Staffs to take up the vaccination drive. If they can be utilized in times of emergencies like floods / earthquakes etc, why not in vaccination drive too. This too is an emergency.

The online registration process too needs improvement. There should be a provision for registering the applicant's name only once. He / She should not be required to log in every day to check availability. The system should allocate the hospital / center near the residence, based on the inputs provided by the applicant. He / She should get a system generated message. 

The Last point I would like to mention is about ramping up vaccine manufacturing units & capacities. It is good to know that few more suppliers like Biological E Ltd, Zydus Cadilla etc will start suppying vaccines very soon. Bharat Biotec is in the process of augmenting capacity, but Government should assess the supply and demand situation in coming months and take adequate steps to import vaccines in time, if required.

नई शुरुवात

 

19 मई , 2021

चार साल पहले कुछ बतियाने की, कुछ कहने की इच्छा ही खत्म हो गई थी . आज मेरी दो बहनों, सुलभा और विजया के आग्रह पर अब फिर लिखने की ठानी है. श्री धरमवीर भारती से मैं जवानी में काफी प्रभावित रहा हूं. वह , निराला, मुंशी प्रेमचंद, सुमित्रा नंदन पंत, नीरज , हरिवंश राय बच्चन, काकाहाथरसी, बालकवि बैरागी, दुष्यंतकुमार , अशोक चक्रधर आदि  कई हिंदी साहित्य  दीप स्थंब मेरे प्रेरणा के स्तोत्र रहे हैं. 

भारती जी के " बिंदु बिंदु विचार " की तर्ज  पर मैं इसी शिर्षक का प्रयोग कर अपने विचार , कुछ भूली बिसरी यादें आप सब के समक्ष रखूंगा.

आशा हे आप को भी आनंद मिलेगा

H2) stay - Part II

We got up fresh in the morning. It had rained heavily during the night. It was drizzling in the morning too. We thought we would be stuck up in the place for the whole day. We were still very happy to spend time relaxing and watching rains in such a lovely surrounding. The home stay is an understatement for such a lovely place, surrounded by hills greenery and a river tributary flowing underneath our abode. It is a perfect getaway place, pristine and peaceful. A great resort like property sans the artificiality of swimming pool, a badminton court etc and off course the maddening crowd normally found otherwise in resorts near big cities. The roaring sound of the water falling in the small pond beneath our sit out area and then flowing down to join the main river was a great sight. It’s unspoiled by garbage, littered plastic and sea of human being generally seen in resorts elsewhere.

The Roaring sound was a bit too harsh on ears, however, the sound of water would be very musical & gentle when the rainwater does not gush down from the hills. That would make the place very romantic, I feel. The river nearby is a perfect place for outing, taking bath and having snacks served there. Instead, we had hot pakodas & tea because of the drizzle, and then went out for a little walk around the place, we were lucky as the rains stopped at about 10.30 AM. We decided to visit Khajjiar, the so called mini Switzerland of India and Dayan Kund. Khajjiar is a lovely little picnic spot thronged by tourists. It’s a good spot for taking selfies and photos. We had lunch in Patil’s Restaurant there.

We then proceeded to Dayan Kund. It’s a lovely spot, though we have to walk up the hill for about half an hour to reach a pagoda and then go to the Kund. We decided to walk down to the base as we did not have enough time. I personally liked this spot much more than Khajjiar, because of lovely 350 degree view of the valley & mountain ranges.

We had sumptuous tasty dinner in the night. Next day we visited the Church at Dalhousie had tea break and proceeded to Mandi for our night halt there. Dalhousie is highly commercialized now. In hindsight we all felt that H₂O was a great selection. In fact it should not be called a home stay, but a homely stay resort. The ever polite and gentle Sunny, the attendant deserves special Compliments. And yes, how could I forget Anvaya? She had put lot of efforts and done great homework for selection of stay and sightseeing and it reflected in the results thus far. Special thanks to her for this lovely selection. We felt reassured about arrangements & stay other locations too. For sure, she deserves to be recognized in a special thanks giving ceremony, in a post trip meeting in Mumbai. She is bestowed with such great organizational talents, so she should only take the lead and coordinate with all for a high tea at Pathak’s house only, ha ha, ha… As it is, the Phataks have been complaining that we Ganus do not visit them. Ganus say " May God give us wisdom to say Yes. And hold your breath !! God said Tathastu ". Now its left to Anvaya.

H2O stay ( June 18 – 19 ) at Chaminoo - Part I

We stopped over at a nice joint for our tea break after leaving Pathankot, on the way to Dalhousie. We headed for Dalhousie after the good afternoon siesta we had till we reached this joint and with fresh energy. I had heard a lot about Dalhousie, but we were not to stay there but in a remotely unheard of place in the Chamba Valley. Luckily all of us shy away from the maddening crowds of cities and hill stations. So the selection of the place was a conscious choice, no doubt, but I for one never imagined it would be so far away from Dalhousie. We were told not to take Dalhousie road, but head for Sultanpur after Banikhet. So far so good till we reached Banikhet. We thought now our place is only a stone throw distance away because Dalhousie was only 8 KM away from Banikhet. Hence I thought our destination would be almost same distance from this junction, but on a road bypassing Dalhousie. That’s the way normally it is to avoid traffic and crowd in cities and such big towns. Hence this was a safe bet to avoid the maddening crowds, & still near the big town, I thought. How very grossly mistaken I was?

We stopped over at a Point to take pictures of Chamera Lake & the dam. 

Then we drove for eternity. It almost took about 1 ½ hours to reach Sultanpur – Sarol bypass Junction. It was almost pitch dark by then. We were tired & exhausted. Anvaya was in constant touch with the manager Vicky of the resort. Every time our driver got confused, he either stopped over to seek guidance from some persons / vehicle found on the lonely road at that hour or Anvaya contacted Vicky and handed over the phone to the driver to get directions. We were getting restless and exasperated by minute as we were so near but still so far. Vicky’s remarks that everyone else reaches the spot with the help of Google map without any difficulty added fuel to our frustrations. Finally the driver gave up and told us to call him or his person. Probably the night factor was a big hurdle. I wondered then that like Columbus, sailing Westward got to a destination, albeit wrong, as he wanted to reach Indies ( Asia ), we too might finally reach somewhere else, like the explorer. That would have been the biggest tragedy. Fortunately for us the two people came on a scooter and took us to our destination. I feel the owner of H₂O should think of Putting Fluorescent Signboards from the Sultanpur – Sarol Bypass Road at each Y – T – or square Junction on the road, till the last point. It is Convenience at negligible cost.

We were escorted to the resort in dim torch lights. Our baggage followed. Anvaya had intelligently foreseen the problems much in advance and had asked Vicky if our dinner could be arranged by him. We freshened up and relaxed. The dinner was ready. The Dining place was lovely. The hot fulkas, rice and vegetables & curry tasted great, not just because we were hungry but because of the preparation and also the ambiance.

We could not figure out what the surroundings looked like as it was really dark. We just wanted to retire ASAP. We did that and left everything else for the morrow. 

Amritsar Part II

First thing First, that is the bag story. 

We contacted Mittals after coming out from Wagha Border. They were already in the queue in the Golden Temple. Mr. Nittal suggested morning hours on the next  day. I contacted him again in the morning. He informed that his taxi was expected any time and he would come to our hotel on the way to Khajiar.  Finally we met in the lobby and exchanged our bags. Coincidentally we met again at Khajiar too.  

The Mittals & the Kid

Now coming back to my observation& suggestion on the management of system at wagha border, here it goes:.

An observation & Suggestions ( Being a consultant, recommendations are in my blood and these flow out easily, You Know ):

Frankly speaking I feel its sheer waste of 4 – 5 hours. I would love to see the same on the TV.

There is a complete mismanagement. I am told that People stand in queues right from 1 O’clock for a show starting at 6.30 or 7 PM during summer. People have to spend minimum 3 hours on weekends & holidays after getting inside, before the show really start.

I believe it’s a BSF show. They can very well paint Row & Seat numbers on all steps at
a distance of about 2 ½ feet from each other. Then they can put say Rs.5 for children below

12 & 20 for other locals. The tourists can be charged even Rs. 50 each, but given 

assured seats on any of the two sides of the stadium like facility there. Foreigners could be 

charged USD 10 or 2 Euros. The Tickets for tourists should be sold on line too. This will then 

avoid unnecessary frustration of missing out and also of sheer wastage of time. VIP Lounge 

could also be sold on line at Rs 100 per head for adults and Rs. 20 for children below 18.

Say 80 % of the seats ( in General & VIP Category ) for tourists should be sold on line. These should be sold max 2 month in advance. All Sold out indications could be displayed so that they could plan visit there on alternate day.

This money can then be utilized for improving the infrastructure there or for making some BSF owned restaurant there given on yearly contracts, which could again generate revenue for them.

The revenue can also be spent on the welfare of the jawans subsequently.

The situation was no better at the Golden Temple too. It appeared as if whole of Punjab if not India was there within the premises of the temple, and that too at about 9 PM in the night. I could see only heads in the queues for the Mathha Tek ( offering Prayers ), so much was the crowd. A volunteer told us that it could take 3 to 4 hours to be inside the sacred place. We wisely decided to opt out and wanted to see if we could easily get to have the dinner in the lunger as a Prasad. We faced similar unprecedented crowd there. We said  “better luck next time “, came out at about 10.30 PM and dinner outside in a near by dhabha.

Next day, we first went to the Jalianwala Bag and then again to the Golden Temple only to see similar crowds. After finishing the visits to these places we went to Kesar Dhaba for lunch, as recommended by a lady co passenger in the plane. You know ladies can never go wrong in matters of tastier food. We had huge glass of Lassi at Ahuja’s again recommended by her. In fact Anvaya ( our group member ) too had fished out same names from the Google’s net. The lady’s recommendation was a confirmation test as we do in the chemistry lab. We bid good bye to Amritsar with heavy stomachs and soon started snoring in our air-conditioned tempo-traveler.

Amritsar – Part I

We landed at Amritsar on June 17^th at about 1PM. We checked in the hotel and realized the one of our bags were exchanged with some other passenger. I was checking our tags to find out which tag was missing, when Indigo officials contacted us and gave contact number of the person with whom our bag got exchanged. We had opened the bag to find the contents and saw that the bag had all the baby stuffs like diaper, milk, child clothes etc. We were not as much worried now about our bag as it contained only eatables but worried more for their bag because we thought that the kid would suffer and so the family too. We immediately contacted them. However, Mittals ( the other passenger in this exchange ) were smart enough to carry some extra stuff in a separate bag with them so they were cool and chilled out. Mr. Mittal suggested to exchange the same in the evening / night, as they were already on the way to Wagha Border.

We freshened up and came out to head for Wagha Border. Our Driver Suggested to Have lunch on the way instead of the city. We agreed as we saw logic in Jang Bahadur’s Logic. What a name, we thought. His parents though gave him this name as he was born after the war ( Jang in Punjabi ) with Pakistan. I said to myself “ Simple people – simple thoughts “. We stopped over at Balle Balle Dhaba for lunch. This name too sounded funny and weird. That is Punjab – Rustic & simple straight forward. We had Lacche de paranthe with panner vegetable and lassi. The Paneer rarely taste so fresh & soft in hotels here in Mumbai or Pune.

We reached the border at about 3.30 PM. A couple of guys gheraoed ( no better word in English ) us. They all had paint and brush in their hands. They wanted to put the tricolor on our hands. The patriot in me was lured by the idea. Immediately a tricolor was on my left hand in less than 3 minutes, I had to shell out Rs.40 for it. I felt my engineering degree never gave me such returns.

We walked up to the gate and felt that we were well in time to get some vintage seats. We were in for a shocker though. We all were used to the crowds on Churchgate / VT during the rush hours, or probably coming out from Wankhede stadium but the crowd at the border took our breath out. There were separate queues for ladies and gents. Somehow Uday Kaka & I managed to get in to the main arena and hoped to see ladies in our group sooner or later. It was not to be. Poor Ladies saw the entrance door slammed on their face as they got there. Poor Ladies!! They had to console themselves by seeing the function on the large screen hung outside for such visitors. Nothing could have been so frustrating after travelling 1000 miles for only a few such places in Amritsar. They braved it out standing for 3 ½ hours and greeted us jealously as we came out at about 7 PM. We were really sorry to hear their saga. We all laughed it out had tea and headed for the Golden temple.

Rest in part II including the Exchanged Bag story.

improving railway services

Honarable Shri Suresh Prabhu,

I have a few suggestions to make to see that the railways offer better services. These are as under:

1. Just as we have the senior citizens get preference for Lower Berths, Pregnant Ladies & Temporarily disabled people like fractured leg should be given preferential treatment for lower berths. Such Passengers should get medical certificates from their gynac / orthopedic doctors.

2. Group Booking should be allowed for Tourists / Marriage groups in one compartment together. At Least 6 - 8 passengers in a group should get berths together, 2 / 3 on either side in 2 / 3 tier and 2 on sides  .They should carry a proof to show that they all are together for a reason. Railways can charge Rs. 30 / per passenger for group booking

3. Four compartments ( 2 each in 2 tier & 3 tier sleeper coaches  ) should have a provision for choosing your seats / berths. Railways may charge extra Rs. 50 - 100 / 100 – 200 on flexi time charge basis for 3 tier / 2 tier seats or berths booked on preferential basis.

4.  Wi - Fi  Seva should be given on the go. Railways may charge Rs. 50 for use up to 4 hours, Rs. 80 for use up to 8 hours and Rs. 100 for use beyond 8 hours. These should be paid while booking tickets on line. Rail - Pay can be developed by Railways like PayTM for making payments after boarding the train also. The rail pay can be used for ticket booking on line or through mobile application also.. The same app can be used for purchase of local tickets / passes in metro cities for travel by local / metros.

5. Railways should increase the fares in the range of 5 – 15 % for 2^nd and 1^st class passenger / express / super fast trains every 2 -3 years, and not once in a decade  or so. Similarly it should levy fuel / power surcharge of 2 -5  %  on 1^st class passengers for express and super fast trains.

6. Food Quality needs improvements. I have observed that same menu is served on Rajdhani / Shatabdi / Duranto day - in & day - out for years together. Passengers should be given option for food of their choice, served hot. Railways may charge extra money for this special service.  

The first suggestion is a welfare measure so no extra charges should be levied, whereas Railways should charge extra money for some additional service provided by the Railways. This would help generate additional revenue. The money so generated can be used for improving infrastructure / Safety / Signaling Systems etc.

Shri Jawdekar errs

Today I saw on TV gruesome killing of Neel Gais in Bihar. The order to do so was approved by Environment Minister Shri Jawdekar in response to a request from the state government. It might be as per provisions of Law, so what. Could the state and the center have come out with some other measure ? Certainly yes, in my opinion.

These animals could have been captured and transfer ed to other national sanctuaries where they could have lead a peaceful life till they fell pray to the big cat family or sent to some zoos. I can not see why this could not have been done. The logic and rationale of killing is beyond my comprehension. 

Animal Protectionists, if consulted, might have come out with some more practical solutions.

It appears to be a decision taken in haste, certainly.

Shivaji Maharaj on Currency Notes

Recently a message about it spread like wild fire on mobile networks. Apparently it was a signature campaign of sorts generated by RBI. Every Maharashtrian  took pride in forwarding this message further to garner more and more support. However there was a query questioning the merit or demerit of this campaign. Let me make an attempt to put my perspective on this issue.

Initially our currency notes carried King George photos till independence. Why the ashok sthamba replaced the king George photo has a rationale and a solid reason, and it does not need any explanation.

But, How Gandhi replaced Ashoka Sthamba is a big question. At Least Ahok Sthamba was and still is the symbol of RBI. So logically there was no harm in continuing with it.

RBI must have, certainly under the influence of Congress Ruled Government in that period , brought about this change and replaced the ashoka sthamba by Gandhi's photo. There is no certainty about who christened Gandi as Father of the Nation.

No doubt he stands tall in the list of freedom fighters and other Indians, but certainly he is not the only one.  B R Ambedkar, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Subhash Chandra Bose, Ravindra Nath Tagore, Maharana Pratap, Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Jawahar Lal Nehru, Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Chandra Shekhar Azad, Veer Savarkar , Maulana Azad, Guru Gobind Singh, Sant Tukaram & Sant Dyasneshwar etc are few names from a endless list of individuals who played equal roles in the History of India.

So I strongly feel that they all should have been given their due respect and recognition by all, including the RBI. It will be apt and appropriate to commemorate these Indians, recognize their selfless contribution and show respect. Commemoration acts as a reminder to a common citizen.

It would have therefore been befitting if the RBI had set up a committee to formulate a policy about printing currency notes with their photos, much like the postal department does to commemorate these People, and continue with currency notes with Ahok Stambh as a regular currency.

There is always a danger of denigration, misuse show of disrespect of the currency notes , Statues, Road Signs in their names, but then there is a system to take punitive action against miscreants. We should not stop doing certain things just for the fear of such wrongdoings. That in my opinion is cowardice.

After all lord krishna says " karmanye wa Dhikaraste Ma phaleshu Kadachanam  ".

It is altogether a different issue that the RBI has now deferred its decision. But certainly the time has come now to stop eulogizing M K Gandhi alone.

Open Letter to Shri Nitin Gadkari

The Pune  - Mumbai Express way is a death trap of sorts. Government has been doing many things of late, but still it is missing on smaller and simpler but effective means to curb accidents.

It is known that the lane discipline is not at all followed in the country so how can we talk about it for this road. But looking at the number of deaths on such expressways certain things can certainly be done as under:

The heavy vehicles should be limited to left most section of the road. You can put height barricades at certain intervals on the right side , install CC TV cameras at various locations, at least on the accident prone section of the ghat on the road and put heavy penalty to begin with followed by temporary or permanent cancellation of driver license or owner's permit depending on number of violations.

I tell you this will give you immediate results.

Similarly the lighting in the tunnels is anything but satisfactory. Combination of LED & Sodium Vapor Lights and increased number will help in a great way. Similarly the internal walls on the tunnels should be painted with white fluorescent paint and there should be curbing with lights on each side like you see on the runways at airport.

Again these are simple and doable things.

I am a retired professional project engineer and i am ready to help the ministry in improving safety of roads throughout the country, free of cost if my travel and stay is taken care off. choice is yours.

This letter is sent today on his e mail id: nitin.gadkari@nic.in