Rains in Mumbai

I've been in Mumbai for the past 10 days. Yesterday morning the rain started here. It has not stopped till now (literally, it was raining ALWAYS). Mumbai remains cut off, local trains have stopped working, buses are not running, many people are stuck in their offices. One of my Aunts had to sleep in the college she is teaching. Her poor two and half year old child had to be looked after by some other people. Maharashtra has declaired today as a holiday. About 5-6 people killed in Mumbai and 100s in Maharashtra. In Mumbai this happens almost every year. There will be one day in the monsoons when the rain continues for more than 24hrs and life in Mumbai will come to a standstill. But this time, this is probably one of the heaviest continuous rain falls in the recent future.

യാത്രാമൊഴി (leaving note)..........

ഇന്നു ഞങ്ങള്‍ തെക്കോട്ടു യാത്ര തിരിക്കുകയാണ്‌. നാളെ മുംബയില്‍ എത്തും. രണ്ടാഴ്ച്ച അവിടെ. അതിനുശേഷം 30-ാ‍ം തിയതി ചെന്നൈയിലേക്കു യാത്രയാകും. അവിടേയും രണ്ടാഴ്ച്ച. ഇതെല്ലാം കഴിഞ്ഞ്‌ ആഗസ്ത്‌ 15-ാ‍ം തിയതി ഇവിടെ തിരിച്ചെത്തും. യാത്രയുടെ ഇടയില്‍ എഴുതാന്‍ സാധ്യത കുറവാണ്‌. പറ്റീച്ചാല്‍ എഴുതാം. എന്തായാലും മടങ്ങി വന്ന് വിസ്തരിച്ചെഴുതാം. തല്‍ക്കാലം വിരമിക്കുന്നു...............

Leaving today for a one month trip to the south. Will reach Mumbai tomorrow. From there to Chennai (Madras) on 30th and from there to Allahabad on 13th of August. I might not write anything here during the journey. Will write in detail after I come back. Till then.............. bye

ഗംഗയുടെ പഴയമുഖം...........

ഞാന്‍ ഇവിടെ എത്തിയത്‌ ജനുവരിയിലാണ്‌. ആ സമയത്ത്‌ ഗംഗയില്‍ ഒട്ടും തന്നെ വെള്ളമുണ്ടായിരുന്നില്ല. ഒരു കിലോമീറ്ററില്‍ കൂടുതല്‍ വീതിയുള്ള ഗംഗയുടെ ഒരറ്റത്തെ ഒരു 50 മീറ്ററില്‍ക്കൂടി മാത്രമേ വെള്ളം ഒഴുകിയിരുന്നുള്ളൂ. ആ സമയത്ത്‌ (ഏതാണ്ട്‌ ഫെബ്രുവരിയില്‍) കുംഭമേളയുടെ ഒരു ചെറുരൂപമായ 'മാഘ്മേള' നടക്കുകയായിരുന്നു. കുംഭമേള ആറുവര്‍ഷത്തിലൊരിക്കലും, മഹാകുംഭമേള 12 വര്‍ഷത്തിലൊരിക്കലും ആണ്‌ നടക്കുക. ബാക്കിയുള്ള കൊല്ലങ്ങളില്‍ നടക്കുന്ന 'മാഘ്മേള'ക്ക്‌ ഇത്രതന്നെ പ്രാധാന്യം ഇല്ല. കുംഭമേളക്ക്‌ ഉണ്ടാകുന്ന തിരക്കിന്റെ നൂറിലൊരംശം ഉണ്ടായിരുന്നില്ലെങ്കിലും അത്യാവശ്യം തിരക്കുണ്ടായിരുന്നു. തിരക്കൊന്നു കുറഞ്ഞ ദിവസം നോക്കി ഞാന്‍ എന്റെ കൂട്ടുകാരുമൊത്ത്‌ അവിടേക്കൊരു യാത്ര നടത്തുകയുണ്ടായി. ആ........ അതു ഞാന്‍ പറഞ്ഞില്ലല്ലോ. ഞാനിപ്പോള്‍ ജോലി നോക്കുന്ന institute ഗംഗാതീരത്താണ്‌ സ്ഥിതി ചെയ്യുന്നത്‌. എന്നു മാത്രമല്ല, ത്രിവേണീ സംഗമത്തിലേക്ക്‌ നടക്കാനുള്ള ദൂരമേയുള്ളൂ (ഏതാണ്ട്‌ 2-3 കിലോമീറ്റര്‍). ഗംഗയിലൂടെ നടന്ന്, ഒരു താല്‌ക്കാലിക പാലം കടന്നു വേണം ത്രിവേണീസംഗമത്തിലെത്താന്‍. ഈ യാത്രയില്‍ ഞാന്‍ കുറച്ചു ചിത്രങ്ങള്‍ എടുത്തിരുന്നു. കാണുവാന്‍ താല്‍പര്യമുണ്ടെങ്കില്‍ ഇവിടെ click ചെയ്യുക. ഈ ചിത്രത്തില്‍ കാണുന്ന എല്ലാ സ്ഥലങ്ങളും ഇപ്പോള്‍ വെള്ളത്തിന്നടിയിലാണ്‌. മാഘ്മേളയുടെ arrangements കണ്ടാല്‍ അത്ഭുതമാകും. വെള്ളം, വെളിച്ചം, വീട്‌, ഹോട്ടലുകള്‍, പോലീസ്‌ ചെക്പോസ്റ്റ്‌, ആശുപത്രി തുടങ്ങിയ എല്ലാ സംഗതികളും താത്കാലികമായി അവിടെ set up ചെയ്തിരിക്കുന്നു (internet cafe കണ്ടില്ല്യ ട്ടോ)! ഇത്രയധികം പൈസ ഇവിടെ ചെലവാക്കാന്‍ ഗവണ്മെന്റിന്‌ ഇവിടെനിന്നും അത്രക്കു വരുമാനം കിട്ടുന്നുണ്ടാകുും, ല്ലേ? അടുത്ത കുംഭമേള 2007-ല്‍ ആണ്‌. അത്രനാള്‍ ഞാന്‍ ഇവിടെ ഉണ്ടാകുമോ എന്നു സംശയമാണ്‌. പറഞ്ഞു കേട്ടതും, ഫോട്ടോ കണ്ടതും ഒക്കെ നോക്കുമ്പോള്‍, കുംഭമേള എന്നു പറഞ്ഞാല്‍ നമ്മുടെ തൃശ്ശൂര്‍ പൂരത്തിന്റെ ഒരു പത്തു മടങ്ങു വരും എന്നാണ്‌ തോന്നുന്നത്‌. അത്രക്കധികം തിരക്ക്‌, ഒരു പാണ്ടിമേളം പോലുമില്ലാതെ.......... ഛെ........ എനിക്കു വല്ല്യ താല്‍പര്യം തോന്നുന്നില്ല്യ.............

മുറുക്കല്‍

സുനിലിന്റെ blog-ലെ View my complete profile-ല്‍ click ചെയ്തപ്പോള്‍ കണ്ട ഒരു കാര്യം എന്നെ വല്ലാതെ സന്തോഷിപ്പിച്ചു: അദ്ദേഹത്തിന്റെ ഒരു Interest മുറുക്കല്‍ ആണത്രെ!!! എന്റേയും........ പക്ഷേ ഇപ്പോ ആകെ പ്രശ്നമായി ഇരിക്ക്യാ.......... കല്യാണം കഴിഞ്ഞതോടുകൂടി ആ interest നിര്‍ത്തി വെക്കേണ്ടി വന്നു :( ഇപ്പൊ ഒന്നു മുറുക്കണങ്കില്‍ ഭാര്യയുടെ ഊര്‍ത്തിയ മോന്ത ദിവസം മുഴുവനും കാണണം. അതിലും ഭേദം വേണ്ടാന്നങ്ങ്ട്‌ വക്ക്യാ. ശരിക്കും പറഞ്ഞാ, എനിക്കത്രക്ക്‌ സങ്കടം ഇല്ല്യാട്ടോ. ഈ അലഹബാദില്‍ കിട്ടുന്ന പാനിനോട്‌ എനിക്ക്‌ അധികം കമ്പല്ല്യ. നമ്മുടെ നാടന്‍ വടക്കന്‍ പുകല കൂട്ടി മുറുക്കി ശീലിച്ചാല്‍ പിന്നെ ഈ സാധനം ഇഷ്ടപ്പെടാന്‍ ബുദ്ധിമുട്ടാ. വല്ലപ്പോഴും നാട്ടില്‍ പോകുമ്പോള്‍, വടക്കന്‍ പുകല കൂട്ടി മുറുക്കി ആസ്വദിച്ചു നടക്കാന്‍ ഭാര്യ സമ്മതിക്കണേ എന്ന ഒറ്റ പ്രാര്‍ത്ഥനയേ ഇപ്പൊ ള്ളൂ.

ഗംഗയുടെ പുതിയ മുഖം

രണ്ടു ദിവസങ്ങളുടെ അവധിക്കു ശേഷം, ആകാശം വീണ്ടും മേഘങ്ങളാല്‍ ആവൃതമായിരിക്കുന്നു. ഇന്നലെ രാത്രി ഒന്നു ചാറി, പക്ഷേ കാര്യമായി പെയ്തില്ല. ഇന്നു പെയ്യും എന്നു തോന്നുന്നു. കഴിഞ്ഞ രണ്ടു ദിവസമായി മഴ ഇല്ലെങ്കില്‍ത്തന്നെ, ഗംഗ ഇപ്പോള്‍ നിറഞ്ഞൊഴുകുകയാണ്‌. ത്രിവേണീസംഗമം ഇത്രയും കാലം ഉണ്ടായിരുന്നിടത്തുനിന്നു കുറച്ചുകൂടി മേല്‍പ്പോട്ടു കയറി! ഗംഗയുടെ തീരത്തുകൂടി സംഗമത്തിലേക്കു പോകുന വഴി വെള്ളത്തില്‍ മുങ്ങി. ആകെ നല്ല രസമുണ്ട്‌ കാണാന്‍. 'തിവാരിജി' പറഞ്ഞത്‌ വെള്ളം ഇനിയും കയറും എന്നാണ്‌. ഒരു 'പാതിസമുദ്രം' എന്ന വിശേഷണം കൊടുക്കാം, ഗംഗക്കിപ്പോള്‍. city-യിലേക്കു പോകുന്ന വഴിക്ക്‌ ഗംഗയുടെ പാലത്തിന്മേല്‍, നിറഞ്ഞൊഴുകുന്ന ഗംഗയുടെ ഭംഗിയും ആസ്വദിച്ച്‌ ധാരാളം പേര്‍ നില്‍ക്കുന്നതു കാണാം. bus-ല്‍ പോകുമ്പോള്‍ എപ്പോഴും നിരീക്കും, അവിടെ ഇറങ്ങണം, ഗംഗയുടെ ഒഴുക്കും നോക്കി കുറേനെരം നില്‍ക്കണം എന്നൊക്കെ, പക്ഷേ ഓരോ പ്രാവശ്യം ഓരൊ മുടക്കായി ഇതു വരെ തരായില്ല്യ. ഞാന്‍ തരാക്കും അടുത്തു തന്നെ.................

Unicode

I've made some posts using unicode font. But I have problems in unicode font rendering. Paul suggested that I change my font to AnjaliOldLipi. But the problem is that in the template, I am not able to really find out where to change it. Actually, the rendering is not very bad. Only few problems, like:

ÎI is shown as Îÿí
ÎHí is shown as ÎÃíY
ÉGá is shown as É¿¿íá
æºÏíÄá is shown as æºcíÄá.

Not many more like this. But it would be nice if I can get rid of these errors too....

Keylong - III

When we stopped at Koksar for breakfast I met another guy, Amol who was going to Leh in that bus. He is a software professional working in Patni Computers. He, as well as the conductor told us to join them to Leh as Leh is a beautiful place. I have also seen lots of pictures of Leh and I am also quite keen to go to Leh, but not this time. We had only 5 days and if we go to Leh, another two days will be gone in travel! So, for this time, we decided to stick to Keylong.

Bus started at 10am from Koksar. We reached Keylong by 12:30pm. My friends had told me that all the hotels are in the 'Mall', which is slightly below the highway. We went down and checked into 'Tashi Deleg' hotel. The room was okay, ventilation was a bit less, but manageable. We took a hot shower and came out to have lunch. Went up again and had lunch at a dhaba. Subha had dal-rice and I had mutton Mo-Mo. Mutton is covered with floured rice and boiled. That is mutton mo-mo. After the food, we just walked around enjoying the scenic beauty.

Keylong is the head-quarters of Lahaul&Spiti, a district in Himachal Pradesh, located at a height of 3340m from sea level. It's a small town, probably spread on the two sides of a one kilometer road. It's not a big tourist attraction, but tourists do come there. It is surrounded by high peaks, probably of height around 3500-3700m. At this time of the year, the peaks have some amount of snow, some peaks being fully covered with snow. We just walked around to get acclimatized. We came back to the hotel and rested for a while, went up again to see the evening sun's paintings on the snow capped mountains. After looking around for sometime, we found a nice place to get a nice view of the mountains. It was really nice to see the way colours get changed on snow capped mountains in the evening. Bright white to off-white to light yellow to golden to light orange. It was really exotic.

After the sunset, we went back to the hotel. Reaching the hotel, we wanted to plan for the next day. I had xeroxed few pages from 'Lonely Planet' of Manali and Keylong, but forgot to put them into the bag!!! So, we had no option than asking others for help. When we asked the receptionist, he asked us to contact the owner of the hotel. His name is Tashi. When we approached him, he was very happy to help us out. He showed us 'Kardang Monastery' situated in the hill right across the Bhaga river. After analayzing us and calculating how we would be proceeding etc, he said, it'll take two hours for us to reach the place. We had dinner at the restaurant of this hotel itself. The food there is reasonably good, quantity-wise and quality-wise. Also, it's not very expensive. I had Veg Thukpa and Subha Veg Mo-Mo. Noodles boiled with some vegetables (and sauce, of course) is Thukpa. It was tasty. We later had Thukpa from some other dhabas, but this one was much better.


28-06-05: "Many Many Happy Returns of The Day, Subha". It was Subha's birthday. Didn't have any special celebration. We had celebrated her pirannal (birthday according to the Malayalam calendar) here. We woke up not so early, had breakfast and started the trek by 10am. The route first goes down to cross the river and then goes up. Though the monastery is not very high up than the Keylong town, there is some amount of trek because of the route going down quite a bit. Enjoying the views around, we proceeded slowly. It was probably the first trek of Subha and it was very much clear :) Since I was stopping every now and then to click photos and take videos, she didn't have to tell me to stop many times! One nice thing about treks (in this part or in Sahyadris), you get to see a lot of wild flowers which you generally won't see (in your village too). Here also we got to see a lot such flowers. Cute little blue, yellow, white, and all combined!!! Tashi's calculation was almost precise. We reached the monastery by 12noon.

This monastery is believed to be built in 12th century. But it is renovated recently and actually the process is going on even now. The main priest of this monastery is a great painter. There are some old paintings on the walls of the monastery. In the parts where the old paintings were destroyed, he has painted it very beautifully. Most of these paintings were different stages of Buddha's life. He has painted the roof also. I can't describe the beauty of the paintings here, but believe me, they are just too good.
We had packed some bread, butter, jam, chocolates, banana and dry
fruits for lunch. Had them sitting in a shadow. While we were having lunch, a woman from the village came there. She was going to the monastery to pray. We offered her eatables and she accepted banana. She was complaining that now a days it's quite hot there! We really started laughing hearing this comment, because we were just two days away from 45 degrees. We left after some rest and it took about two hours to reach Keylong. Subha was quite tired by then. She went straight to the bed. After some rest, I decided to take walk and Subha decided to continue resting. I went out and met our hotel owner once again seeking help for the next day's plans. He told us about a place Udaipur and an ancient temple there. He phoned up the HPTC (Himachal Pradesh Transport Corporation) and got details of the bus timings, onwards and return. So, that fixed the programme for the next day, 29th. I had plans to celebrate Subha's birthday with some wine and/or beer in the hotel. We didn't get good wine and Subha didn't agree for beer. So, we just had dinner and finished the day just as usual.

മറ്റൊരു കവിത

ഇന്നലെ എസ്‌. കെ. പൊറ്റെക്കാടിന്റെ കവിത post ചെയ്തതിനു ശേഷം അദ്ദേഹത്തിന്റെ ദേശത്തിന്റെ കഥ ഒന്നു മറിച്ചു നോക്കി. അതില്‍ വളരെയധികം നല്ല കവിതകള്‍ ഉണ്ട്‌. എനിക്കിഷ്ടപ്പെട്ട ഒരെണ്ണം താഴെ ചേര്‍ക്കുന്നു:

കാലമാമഴിയില്‍ സഞ്ചരിച്ചീടുന്ന
നീലരജനിയെന്നുള്ള കപ്പല്‍
പൈങ്കിളിക്കൊഞ്ചലാമഞ്ചിതനങ്കൂര-
ശൃംഖലാഝംഝണനാദമോടെ
വന്നണഞ്ഞീടുകയായിപ്പകലിന്റെ
പൊന്നുഷന്നെന്നതുറമുഖത്തില്‍
ചെറ്റു ദൂരത്തായ്ച്ചലല്‍പ്രഭകാട്ടുന്നു
കൊറ്റി നക്ഷത്രം-വിളക്കുമാടം
അക്കരെനിന്നിപുതിയതുറമുഖം
പുക്കൊരീയദ്ഭുദകപ്പലിങ്കല്‍
പുത്തന്‍ ചരക്കുകള്‍ വൈഡൂര്യരത്നങ്ങള്‍
മുത്തുകള്‍ എന്നിവ മാത്രമല്ല
അഞ്ജനക്കൂട്ടുണ്ട്‌-ചന്ദനച്ചാറുണ്ട്
മഞ്ഞെന്ന മഞ്ജുവെണ്‍പട്ടുമുണ്ട്‌
കെട്ടുകെട്ടായി കിനാവുകളാണുപോല്‍!
മുറ്റുമിതിന്നടിത്തട്ടിലായി
ആയിരം കൈകളാല്‍ കൊള്ളയടിക്കയോ
നീയീച്ചരക്കുക,ളംബരേശ?

Romantic

When we left Allahabad on 24th evening, the temperature was in mid 40s. When we returned, it is in mid 30s with a good cloud cover and some amount of wind. I like rainy season. It's at times really romantic. Sitting in an "easy-chair", keeping both the legs on the arm of the chair sipping hot coffee with some murukku and banana chips, watching the rain drops fall, clouds moving around, hen going around looking for a place to cover itself, someone walking with an umbrella but all wet, electricity is gone and the radio which works on battery is singing some old songs........... ah......... great to think about it. I'm reminded of a poemlet written by S. K. Pottekkad. This is the most romantic poem I've ever heard/read. I am including it below. One needs to have Malayalam unicode to read.

അവളുടയവളര്‍കുടിലകബരിയിലലക്ഷ്യമായ്‌
തിരുകിയ പനീരലര്‍ തട്ടിവീഴ്ത്തീടുവാന്‍
കുറുനിരകളഴകിനൊടു തഴുകിവിഹരിച്ചിടും
ചെറുപവനനോടു ഞാന്‍ പ്രാര്‍ത്ഥിച്ചു നിത്യവും

ഇളവെയിലിലൊളിയിളകുമവളുടയ കമ്മലിന്‍
ധവളമണി ബിംബിക്കുമോമല്‍ക്കവിള്‍ത്തടം
പ്രണയനവമൃദുഹസിതകിരണമണിയുന്നതായ്‌
അനുദിനമനേകം കിനാവുകള്‍ കണ്ടു ഞാന്‍

For those who do not have Malayalam unicode, at least have Kerala font installed, here is a version for them:

¥Õ{á¿ÏÕ{Vµá¿ßܵÌøßÏßÜÜfcÎÞÏí
ÄßøáµßÏ ÉÈàøÜV ÄGßÕàÝíJà¿áÕÞX
µáùáÈßøµ{ݵßæÈÞ¿á ÄÝáµßÕßÙøߺîß¿á¢
æºùáÉÕÈçÈÞ¿á ¾ÞX dÉÞVjߺîá ÈßÄcÕá¢

§{æÕÏßÜßæÜÞ{ßÏß{µáÎÕ{á¿Ï µNÜßX
ÇÕ{ÎÃß ÌߢÌßAáçÎÞÎWAÕßZJ¿¢
dÉÃÏÈÕÎãÆáÙØßĵßøÃÎÃßÏáKÄÞÏí
¥ÈáÆßÈÎçȵ¢ µßÈÞÕáµZ µIá ¾ÞX

Keylong - II : Manali to Koksar

26-07-2005: We got up at 4am, freshened up and checked out from the hotel. Reached the bus stand at 4:45am. We had booked out seats the previous day itself and they were 10 and 11. There was a bus standing right at the entrance of the bus stand with board reading 'Manali - Keylong' and no place to keep even a single foot. We were not worried at all, because our seats are booked and hence we thought it must be a different bus. We saw another bus standing in corner with very few passengers and was carrying the board 'Manali - Keylong - Leh'. I was relived to see that. Went inside, and then to the seat numbers 10 and 11. There was a foreigner and a desi guy sitting on those seats. I showed him my ticket and told him that these are our seats. The foreigner replied "Same here, same here"!!! I couldn't understand what he wanted to convey. Then the desi guy told us that this is the Leh bus the our bookings are in the other bus itself!!! We reconfirmed it by asking in the enquiry counter. When we showed him our ticket and told him that how can we get to sit in those 'reserved' seats, he shouted us saying that it's not his responsibility. I first thought of pushing Subha inside somehow and then travelling sitting on the top. With this idea, I even went up the bus and fixed my ruck-sack there. But later on seeing some amount clouds in the sky, I withdrew from the plan. We then decided to do the six hourse journey by standing. I went up the Leh bus and put our big ruck-sack there. And then we wentup the Leh bus and put our big ruck-sack there. And then we went inside and stood there. By around 5:30am, both the buses started together.

The conductor of this bus was an extremely helpful nice guy. When he reached near us, we showed him this ticket and described our helplessness state. He told us not to worry at all and ensured us that when both the buses stop for the breakfast, he will talk to the conductor of the other bus and get us the reserved seats. He also found a half seat for Subha to sit. Then he started talking to me in general and some other passengers nearby also got interested in the talk. One person, learning that I am from Kerala, started talking great about Kerala, like it's the best state I have ever seen, Kochi is the cleanest city I have ever seen etc.... I was really happy to hear all these and also happy (as a Keralite) to know that this person has not seen the bad parts of Kerala ;)

Though I was standing, the journey has already become interesting. For sometime, I was actually worried if the idea of the conductor (to get my researved seats for me) will really work. But I didn't have to worry about it for long. We over took the other bus, which was lying dead (breakdown) on the road!!! So, in fact, we were fortunate to miss the Keylong bus and get into the Leh bus. The conductor was also happily saying that 'good that you entered this bus'. He was such a nice guy!

The pictures outside were slowly changing. For sometime, it was just pine trees on hills. There were small water falls at times. Though it was a bit cloudy when we began our journey, it cleared up quite soon. Sun was bright and up. The road is quite steep and hence the bus was moving slowly. Cool breeze was coming in through some of the opened windows. Most of the windows were shut. We could hear the roar of the river Beas, even when we had reached quite high up. At times there were big groups of goats crossing the road or walking through the road creating traffic jams. But they are quite cute to watch, some of the look dumb and some look like villains and it's the best watching those cute little ones. Not many birds were seen on the trip, except for some eagles which were crossing us at times. We could see some really big eagles! The geography was also changing slowly. Big pine trees were slowly disappearing. There were nothing more than mere grass and
some small plants. Snow started appearing on the hill tops. We were getting really excited with the views around.

This road is quite narrow. Not at every place, two big vehicles can cross each other. Probably every 200 mtrs or so will have a place to cross over. If two big vehicles meet other than these places, one of them has to go back and reach such a wider road area. Most of the vehicles through this road are regular travelers. If one see another big vehicle approaching and he feels that they is no place to cross over if he goes ahead, he'll stop the vehicle there and let the other pass by.

The bus was supposed to stop at a place called Mahri for breakfast. But our driver was not very keen to have breakfast. He wanted to pass the Rohtang top as soon as possible. The reason for this is that the Rohtang top is a big tourist attraction and because of the over crowding of tourist vehicles, the traffic gets jammed at times. So, he wanted to cross before tourists really come to the place. He was successful in that. We crossed the Rohtang without any trouble. When we reached Rohtang, many people got down. There was one empty seat, which is actually the top of the toolbox of the bus. Subha immediately shifted there. Also, the conductor could move in to his seat (seat number 1, right near the driver). He invited me to share his seat. I was more than happy to accept the invitation. The journey on the top of Rohtang (2-3kms behind Rohtang to 5kms after Rohtang) had snow walls on both side many times. Because of the ice melted water flowing throughout, the roads were not really in a good condition. But the views around were so good that the bad state of the roads didn't bother us at all. Lots of army vehicles were going (recovery vehicles, other army trucks etc) around. We were carrying some bread and butter. We 4 (we two, conductor and driver) shared the breakfast. The conductor and driver took only two pieces as they said we'll stop for breakfast soon. Though only 18kms from Rohtang, it took one hour to reach Koksar, where we halted for breakfast. It was 9:30am by then and we had covered only 69kms, another 46kms more to Keylong.

More in the next part...............

Fonts

I've been trying to get Malayalam fonts working in my Linux dubba. Thanks to suggestions by Paul http://groups.yahoo.com/group/varamozhi/message/572. Now I can use the software Varamozhi to type Malayalam (you can type 'Manglish' and get the corresponging Malayalam!). In one of the previous postings, I did put some Malayalam. If you have Chowara font, you would have been able read it. I will be using either Chowara or Kerala fonts for posting here. Links to get them are given in the Varamozhi website.

Photos

For some of the photos from our trip to Keylong,
Click Here.

Antibiotics

Last week I was at Keylong, a very beautiful small town in Himachal Pradesh (head quarters of Lahaul and Spiti). When I came back my right hand had a swelling and paining quite severely. I thought my hand is fractured, though I didn't remember any occasion of my hand hitting somewhere. The doctor told me it's an infection!!! I don't know how!!! Probably due to some insect bite. Anyway, after three days of heavy antibiotics, it is reduced now. Today I went to the doctor again. Now he has given me even stronger antibiotics. I generally hate taking antibiotics. Moreover, he has given me some ibuprofen too, which also I hate taking. I feel that the doctor has given me much more than what is required. On Monday when I visited him first, he told me that if the infection doesn't reduce, he may have to operate. I saw another patient today with the same problem (infection inside his right leg). The doctor was saying that this happens in the monsoon time. Though I am not recovered it fully, I hope to become better soon.

I generally feel that in most of the occasions, there should be a way to cure without using antibiotics. Unless it is really severe, one shouldn't be using antibiotics. It reduces the immunity of the human body. Sometime, you need to just hold the growth of the infection and then cure it. If the patient is in a hurry, of course, one can use antibiotics to cure it fast. But otherwise, if the patient has some patience, one can get infections cured without using antibiotics.

Keylong - I : Delhi and Manali

The sky was a bit clouded on 24th evening. I went up to take some photographs of the first clouds that appeared above HRI. At the same time I was praying that it should not rain, because we were starting our great journey to Keylong after an early dinner. My prayers were heard, though cloudy, it didn't rain. We started by 8pm bus from here.

Train left Allahabad station at sharp 9:30pm. The journey was quite comfortable, reached Delhi at 7:30am. Took a prepaid auto to Nangalam Anandettan's (my cousin staying in Patparganj Society) house. In my previous trip, they had charged Rs. 60, while this time, they charged Rs. 70, saying that I have more luggage!!! I didn't have a clear cut idea about the route, but thought I'll be able to manage. But towards the end, I had to call up Anandettan and confirm the route. He came down and received us at the gate. We freshened up, had breakfast and then left decided to do some shopping. Anandettan took us to Palika Bazar which is an underground shopping complex at Connaught place in Delhi. Went around there for a while, we purchased some dress items and Anandettan bought some computer games CDs for Abhay (his son). After the shopping we went out and picked up Savithrioppol (another cousin of mine) from her office and went back to Anandettan's house. For lunch, there were many people at Anandettan's house, Savithri ichamma, Jayan, Jayanthi, Mohanettan, Prasannoppol, Lekha and Rajiv (I hope the name is correct). By around 6:30pm, we left Anandettan's house and went directly to the ISBT (Inter State Bus Terminal) to catch bus to Manali.

On the way from Anandettan's house to ISBT, we traveled by the Delhi Metro. It is a nice experience. It is really similar to the Metros in European cities. Fully air-conditioned inside, welcomes you once you enter, announces well advance the next station details and also all these things come in a screen inside the train (probably for the deaf). Anyway, it was a nice experience.

In general, one can get tickets in the morning for the Volvo bus from Delhi to Manali which starts in the evening. But since it's the peak of summer in this part of the country, people were trying to escape the heat and all the seats for the Volvo were booked well in advance. We had called up Anandettan on 23rd itself and asked him to book seats for us in a 'Delux' bus. We were (un)fortunate to get two seats, which happened to be in the LAST row. I wonder in what way the bus is Delux, except probably for a 20degrees push-back for the seat. We had nice dinner (Punjabi thali) and the journey started at 8:30pm. When it stopped for the first tea break, I saw the tyre of the bus and thought how is it going to reach till Manali with this one. The journey didn't last long like that. The tyre got punctured and a part of it came out broken!!! Fortunately they found a workshop nearby and got it repaired in just ONE HOUR! After sometime it started raining and that again put some delay in the journey (since the bus can't go in high speed). After a really humpy-bumpy journey, we reached Manali at 1:30pm. First thing we did was to book our return journey tickets. We got tickets for the Volvo bus which leaves at 4pm from Manali. We also booked the tickets for our journey to Keylong. The autos and taxis were on strike due to some local problem. We randomly picked one guy from a set of guys approched us offering places to stay. This guy took us to a reasonable place. It was a bit more expensive that I would have liked, but this was the peak of the season, we both were tired and hungry and hence decided not to go hunting cheaper rooms. This was Hotel Tibet. We immediately washed ourselves and left the hotel to have lunch and see places in Manali.

The weather was quite pleasant there (obviously). We first went to the Hadimba Temple. It is up a hill, about 1.5kms away from the main market. After a while the path goes inside the pine trees, which was quite refreshing. This is an ancient temple (for more information: http://www.kullumanali.com/hadimbatemple.htm) of Hadimba, a wife of Bhima, sister of Hadimb. It really looks like the temple of a 'Rakshasi', in the sense that the outer region has some horns and skulls as decorations!!! From here, we went back to the Tibetan monastery. It is a small beautiful monastery, located right at the heart of the city. After hanging around there for a while, we went to the 'Van Vihar', a preserved forest area with full of pine trees. There were lot of crowd at the entrance and nearby area. We went further inside and selected a cool place to take some rest. There was the Beas river flowing nearby. We sat there watching the river flow. The temperature was around 20s with a light breeze, a difference of more than 20 degrees from Delhi/Allahabd. We were really enjoying the pleasant weather there. After resting in the forest for a while, we moved to the banks of river Beas.

There were lot of crowd doing lot of activities. Some putting on some typical tribe dresses and taking photographs. You can rent these dresses. They will not only rent you, but will help you in wearing and taking photographs. Of course, their rent will cover all these expenses (and more...) :) There was another 'adventure' activity going on. There is a rope tied across the river. You can tie yourself into the rope and cross the river hanging vertically. I couldn't really see any 'adventure' in it and hence didn't do it. Just watched people doing it. We spent some time there and then returned to the city. We just walked through many busy streets, watching everything around. By around 8:30pm, we had dinner and then returned to the hotel. We were quite tired after 17hrs of 'Delux' bus journey. So, we decided to sleep early. We had to wake up early the next day as our bus to Keylong was at 5am in the morning.

26-07-2005: We got up at 4am, freshened up and checked out. We reached the bus stand at 4:45am. We were stunt by what we saw there. WHAT WAS IT??? In the next part..................... :)

ahulxA egJîj]k'fý

dqjÎ -qýØ BlR Qgk jalhuR ulYf rmÙkdukÞluj; Lfjsr]kyjØkÒ ijignÍxkaluj BlR iJÞkA iglA; fH]lhA dlÙjgj]o;;;

Thinking of doing regular bloging out here. Check out for more news later.............