Making sense of the world.
Posts tagged Travel Vista
The Suit
Sep 1st
I always feel important wearing a suit at the airport. No matter how ugly looking the person wearing the suit, the suit always manages to force a smile from people at the airport. Now these smiles that I speak of are not the fake plastic ken and Barbie smiles that you get all the time these are ‘your money makes my world twirl’ kind of smiles. No matter what happens I always wear a suit when traveling. The trouble of wearing a terry wool suit and incessant heat wave that is associated with it is far outweighed by the benefits that these 3 meters of cloth bring with them.
It’s almost as if the suit says look at me I mean business, it’s a feeling that only those who are self obsessed with power can truly relish. Short men have been known to be power hungry; I claim to be no different. Last Night I had my Sunday best on, a black pin striped suit that makes me look oh so good, takes of the weight from the right places and makes me look a little fairer that I actually am, all the makings if a legend. I have traveled with this suit for years now and it has never failed me.
I was at the Bangalore International Airport a god forsaken, middle of nowhere, state of the art facility that takes too long to get to. I did the rounds, smiled at the boarding pass lady asked for the aisle seat in the front of the plane. It looked like it was going to be a good night, things were moving smoothly and it felt right.
A lot can happen over chewing gum..
Aug 31st
I took a bus from Bangalore city to the Ashram, which is like a half an hour ride towards the outskirts. All the seats but one were occupied, the one right next to the driver, there was a man sitting there. I went and sat next to him. The bus started to crawl, and i mean literally, alas! one of the signature bus rides of India, and as a cherry on top, the man sitting next to me reeked of booze, and not the mild smell of vodka, or a deep smell of whisky, but the smell of rotten organs due to heavy intake of pure ‘desi’ all through the day and night and whatever lies between these. He reeked booze through his nostrils, through his ears, through the pores of his skin, even his aura stunk of booze. ‘Oh my God’ I thought, ‘what have I done to go through this nasal, leading to mental trauma?’ I tried to slide the window open, but it wouldn’t, ‘its a conspiracy’ i thought, I put on my earphones and switched on some music on my phone to distract myself, but as the name says ‘earphones’, it just blocked my ears, my nostrils were still exposed to this intense smell of highly infectious local liquid that reeked through this man’s existence. ‘Am I going to die?’ ‘will I lose my consciousness?’ ‘will I go into a limbo?’ these crazy thoughts surrounded my mind and were seeping in and I almost went into a blur.
Ten minutes the bus had covered, it seemed like a lifetime full of broken promises of roses, daffodils and lavender. I wanted to ask him what he had for breakfast, but i thought that wouldn’t change the present that stunk, so, the good cultured me, dug into my bag and took out a pack of Wrigley’s spearmint gum, and offered two sticks to him. He looked at me as if I was offering him poison, i nodded my head like you do when you’re offering something to a small kid. He again gave me that look with his booze drenched eyes, but stretched his hand and took the gum from me, opened it somehow, looked at it and put it in his mouth. I popped two in my mouth too, to give him the notion that it wasn’t poison, and if it was, I would die with him, as if I wasn’t experiencing death anyways. I could see by the way he chewed that he never had chewing gum before in his entire life, I wish they would give chewing gums complimentary with ‘desi daaru’. So after chewing for some thirty seconds, he gave me a smile, his drunken eyes opened a bit more and he nodded his head in acceptance of the fresh flavor he had in his mouth for a change. He kept smiling as he chewed it, he seemed to love the taste and the elasticity of the gum, and he said something in Kannada. I told him i didn’t understand Kannada, so he said ‘bahut tasty’ and giggled again.
Lake Kolleru
Apr 23rd
Visit Kolleru Lake if you have an opportunity. Considered as the largest freshwater lake in India, it lies between the Krishna and Godavari rivers in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. It is connected to the two rivers by over 68 drains and channels. The lake provides a natural habitat for an estimated 20 million resident and migratory birds, including the Grey or Spot-billed Pelican. Egrets, Grey Herons, Painted Storks and Black-headed Ibises flock in thousands to this beautiful wetland.
The lake attracts huge numbers of migratory birds from northern Asia and Eastern Europe between October and March. Resident birdlife includes Grey pelicans, Asian Open-billed Storks (Anastomus oscitans), Painted Storks (Mycteria leucocephala),Glossy Ibises, White Ibises, Teals, Pintails, Shovellers. The migratory birds include Red-Crested Pochards, Blackwinged Stilts, Avocets, Common Red shanks, Wigeons, Gadwalls and Cormorants, Garganys, Herons, Flamingos, among others.
SOURCES: www.wwfindia.org / en.wikipedia.org
Twilight Street
Dec 8th

Walking along a lonely street in the heart of suburban Mumbai, one can feel the morose air of exhaustion. The wind blowing at a steady pace with nothing but cement structures to carve its way.
The faint smell of sweat and dust reminds of a busy day gone by. The street has seen it all. Happy go lucky toddlers prancing around to the distressed crawls of the down trodden. It was there before any of them first set foot and will probably outlive them all.
Posted by Wordmobi
Freedom of the Mountains
Oct 18th
The road from Manali to Spiti or Ladakh passes through awesome scenery. Pictures fail to capture the magnitude of the landscape, the colours and wild beauty.
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
Oct 14th
It is hot and humid. Endless noise rises up from a swirl of people filling the waiting hall. Dozens of large fans whirr away, adding background noise. Occasional shouts punctuate unintelligible human chatter, and a female motormouth keeps making announcements that no one seems to hear. More >
Flight Fantasy
Oct 14th
Waiting endlessly in the terminal building, I kept hearing announcements of, “regret delay because of late arrival of aircraft.” Funny. Maybe our airports are such that airplanes are just naturally tardy at landing there, what with dogs and cows on the runway, and sundry other uncouth animals in the terminals. More >

















