what do you think of it ? asked my friend while we were watching TV. Tv channels all of them were into "Team India" bashing mode then , the very media who projected them as heroes were now after them show after show , funnily in between these debates the ads featured had cricketers endorsing products ( initially !)... on tv we were flooded with images of fans going berserk ... majority demanding that the team come back right now and stop 'disgracing' us !
( where were these ppl n those who interviewed em when hockey team was playin or when any other intl sports meet where we took part was happenin .. i wonder ;-) )
well it was that time of the World Cup when a extremely cautious India was shocked by a carefree Bangaldesh. I had hopes of the team bouncing back then as i beleived (and continue to beleive that we are a good team) but it was not be. Ex-cricketers , who had given 'expert' opinions bout the greatness of current team and had rubbished Bangaldeshis before the match , suddenly discovered that the team was not good and were able to come up with a lot of flaws. More hilariously TV channels went around asking common men and funnily filmstars for advice on what was wrong with Indian cricket... comments were really hilarious ( some sick) to say the least. here are some i recollect ...universal conclusion was that it was ads which was responsoble for the 'spineless' capitulation ..."stop them from doing all these ads , then they will be better cricketers" they all quipped . They should stop doing all these ads and practise harder instead they all chimed . How easy is the life of an arm chair critic ! we are a nation of under achievers yet we expect our cricketers to do magical feats. Ads i thot meant safe n secure income and optimistic way of lookin at it wud mean that a cricketer who has a 5 yr contract wud not be very worried about getting out and can be free of pressure and hence can perform better which cud lead to more ads and more money .. translating to more motivation for ground breaking performances ! But whole country acc to media polls thinks otherwise ... Another enterprising gentleman had this formula , there some 10 point agenda to reform Indian cricket ! Another KPS Gill in making i guess :-) if they dont perform , dont pay them they thundered. ..
some ( inc TOI newspaper !) were of the view that cricketers should be given targets like sales executives ... " they should be set a target of say 40 runs ave .. to be maintained over a period of 10-15 ODIs , if u dont match it u r dropped, same for bowlers , they should have x economy rate and ave over a period of time or they r dropped".
Gosh .. how idiotic can ppl get ! now they want ppl to conc on the personal records instead of helping the team win. now if these ppl/media have their way u will have ATP style ranking system wherein the top 11 wud make it to the team and others wud work hard to earn points to make it to top 11 and enter the team ;-) one politician was quick to poune on this and demanded bannin cricket as solution to all our problems ... i guess a better solution wud be to ban all these politicians, who discuss cricket in Lok sabha instead on concentrating on graver issues n problems botherin the nation.
my answer to 'it' would be that we are a nation which is evolving fast yet some things like mindset dont change so fast. im sure we will in due course realise that our Cricketers are no heroes they are also humans like each one of us and are prone to failures like most of us !
Our society has changed/evolved a lot in last 25-30 yrs when watching sports / playing was considered criminal waste of time by most parents ... to healthy appreciation of both .. to current trend of coaching camps , tennis academies where 6-8 yr olds are dropped for coaching by ever eager parents... The cricket economy has grown at a much faster pace then the game itself in our country and hopefully sooner or later this gulf wud get bridged , this defeat i guess wud in that sense go a long way in correcting the perspectives of most and would actually do us a lot of good in the longer run ... Soon we will come terms with defeat and will realise as late Bob Woolmer said "it is after all a game" !
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Bang on Target !
They have done it ... it is yet to sink in for the 2 heavyweights from subcontinent.
It was supposed to be a walk in the park for both , but suddenly both India and Pakistan find that the park has turned into a maze and they have totally lost their way. Pak has been booted out , but India still has a chance to make it . If they come out of the mental maze they have created for themselves . As expected newspapers and news channels are full of criticism for the players , which rite now is waste of time . When one team played like tigers and other team was bleating around like lost lambs it was an uneven contest ( i was initially tempted to call this post "Silence of lambs" and lambast Ind :-) ) . yes we all do feel bad that our team remained as tigers only in the pepsi commercial ! But simply shouting @ them / attacking thier houses is not the way out ... we need to back them to come back ... on the same note , while everyone were fretting about team's chance of bouncing back we are missing a huge phenomeon ... Cricket is slowly coming of age , liberated from clutches of the elitist club of 7 top nations and others can now swing their weight equally at world stage . Now isn't that something ...
Who would have expected all this a few days back !
This was the first time we had a World Cup with so many teams and there was this talk of 2 different WC contests , round one was to be fun with minnows and then the big ones get together to fight the real world cup in a round billed as super8 !
but i guess yesterday changed it all ! WC has seen its share of upsets and tales of underdogs pulling it off like that of Kenyans last time. But politics and hence teams forfeiting matches played a role then , which is the reason why the matches yesterday are so different.
Now cricket WC has started resembling Soccer WC a bit , we are not yet there , but looks like this could be a beginning for more exciting contests . Honestly i never believed it when ppl called this group D as 'group of death' , such things happen in Soccer maybe but not in cricket is what i believed , but Bangladesh has shown the spirit and has acheieved the impossible. But what Ireland has achieved is totally unbelievable esp for a team playing its first Cup , I cant beleive it is yet to be beaten in WC !!!
And to think of it most of the ppl were looking forward to "April 15 " ( when India was supposed to meet Pak in Super 8 !!! ) , guess we need to wait another 4 yrs for that !
It was supposed to be a walk in the park for both , but suddenly both India and Pakistan find that the park has turned into a maze and they have totally lost their way. Pak has been booted out , but India still has a chance to make it . If they come out of the mental maze they have created for themselves . As expected newspapers and news channels are full of criticism for the players , which rite now is waste of time . When one team played like tigers and other team was bleating around like lost lambs it was an uneven contest ( i was initially tempted to call this post "Silence of lambs" and lambast Ind :-) ) . yes we all do feel bad that our team remained as tigers only in the pepsi commercial ! But simply shouting @ them / attacking thier houses is not the way out ... we need to back them to come back ... on the same note , while everyone were fretting about team's chance of bouncing back we are missing a huge phenomeon ... Cricket is slowly coming of age , liberated from clutches of the elitist club of 7 top nations and others can now swing their weight equally at world stage . Now isn't that something ...
Who would have expected all this a few days back !
This was the first time we had a World Cup with so many teams and there was this talk of 2 different WC contests , round one was to be fun with minnows and then the big ones get together to fight the real world cup in a round billed as super8 !
but i guess yesterday changed it all ! WC has seen its share of upsets and tales of underdogs pulling it off like that of Kenyans last time. But politics and hence teams forfeiting matches played a role then , which is the reason why the matches yesterday are so different.
Now cricket WC has started resembling Soccer WC a bit , we are not yet there , but looks like this could be a beginning for more exciting contests . Honestly i never believed it when ppl called this group D as 'group of death' , such things happen in Soccer maybe but not in cricket is what i believed , but Bangladesh has shown the spirit and has acheieved the impossible. But what Ireland has achieved is totally unbelievable esp for a team playing its first Cup , I cant beleive it is yet to be beaten in WC !!!
And to think of it most of the ppl were looking forward to "April 15 " ( when India was supposed to meet Pak in Super 8 !!! ) , guess we need to wait another 4 yrs for that !
Sunday, February 25, 2007
The Sixth Sense
I do have this tendency to name my blogposts after movie titles/TV shows (!) but in most these cases its simply because they happen to be the most apt title. Sixth sense i something i totally believe in and every now and then I can see some proof of this phenomenal power of human mind.
I normally see this phenomenon coming handy when im leaving for office ( its actually rushing to catch the last bus) in the morning. I usually have a huge paraphrenalia which i carry to office with various assorted items like gym clothes , id card , cellphone , tie , wallet et all ..
I have noticed that whenever i miss something , there will be some voice inside me telling me "u have missed something" and during the frantic process of getting ready most often than not it manages to remind me the object i have missed also !
Yesterday i saw this mind thing happening again and boy Im really thankful for all those senses !
We had gone out yesterday on a team outing to Mysore Infy Campus and got back to Bangalore @ 10 at night , some of us had dinner and a couple of ladies had to be dropped at their homes , so after dropping the last person , i was walking to my place.
The street i live which incidentally is good representation of urban India , with big posh houeses and flats at one end of the street and small shops and cluster of shabby houses/huts at the other end. Typical 'two Indias' street . Importantly for this tale it also has a butcher's shop at one end so there are lots of stray dogs in the area. Banglore these days is famous for its street dog menace with growing no:of attacks on human population. In my area i had earlier seen packs roaming around at nights and occassionaly just for the kicks , giving a few bikers a chase! Enough has been said and written about what should be done to 'tackle' this problem and who is to blame for this , since i dont have anything significant to contribute on that note , i limit my comments on another interesting 'phenomenon' i observed during a brief encounter with the canines.
Coming back to my tale ,I was walking from the 'other' end of street and before i turned into my street , i remembered last time i had come through the area so late @ night . It was a month back with my cousin and we were coming back after watching a late night movie , he had suggested picking up a couple of stones with us so that if any dogs chase us, we have some ammo to reply back ! I had scoffed at his idea then , but then while i was walking i thought of that incident and picked up a couple stones without giving it much thought.
As i was walking and reached the 'dreaded' end of my street i got a call on my cellphone and was engrossed in it and didnt notice the fact that right in front of my were 4 stray dogs. After ending the call ( which was for some issues at office , requiring me to work on weekend) and ruing my bad luck and a weekend gone waste , i moved past a pack of dogs and suddenly i was greeted by a series of barks and couple of dogs came running towards me . Though reason dictated that i should not panic and should keep still , I found that reason and logic could not hold against 5 dogs who were very close to my legs.Suddenly in a split second i had thrown the couple of decent sized stones i had collected earlier at my attackers and which kept them at bay and then at the next instant before i knew it i had started running , though something told me it was wrong to run when there are dogs around , i ran for a few seconds at the max speed i could conjure up. Fear gives you wings they say and it was true within no time i was pretty near my house and i realised that there were a few ppl walking in the streets in front of me who were now watching this spectacle ! I slowed down and noticed that dogs were no longer chasing me , i seemed to have moved out of their territory , there were some dogs much further ahead , so concluded that i must moved to no-man's land ... oops no-dog's land ! Then a guy who was walking in opp dir came up to me and told me that you should never run when dogs bark and best thing to do is to move away slowly! But when 4 dogs come towards you barking , i guess logic takes a second seat to panic!!!
Anways i think if not for those stones which repulsed them for a second or two and helped me make my getaway ... i wud have been easy target for those dogs, given that i had comminted the blunder of running when they were barking at me ...
I for sure believe it was some kind of sixth sense which made me pickup those stones given the fact that i have travelled thorough that area a number of times before this late in the night and had never been chased by dogs .
I normally see this phenomenon coming handy when im leaving for office ( its actually rushing to catch the last bus) in the morning. I usually have a huge paraphrenalia which i carry to office with various assorted items like gym clothes , id card , cellphone , tie , wallet et all ..
I have noticed that whenever i miss something , there will be some voice inside me telling me "u have missed something" and during the frantic process of getting ready most often than not it manages to remind me the object i have missed also !
Yesterday i saw this mind thing happening again and boy Im really thankful for all those senses !
We had gone out yesterday on a team outing to Mysore Infy Campus and got back to Bangalore @ 10 at night , some of us had dinner and a couple of ladies had to be dropped at their homes , so after dropping the last person , i was walking to my place.
The street i live which incidentally is good representation of urban India , with big posh houeses and flats at one end of the street and small shops and cluster of shabby houses/huts at the other end. Typical 'two Indias' street . Importantly for this tale it also has a butcher's shop at one end so there are lots of stray dogs in the area. Banglore these days is famous for its street dog menace with growing no:of attacks on human population. In my area i had earlier seen packs roaming around at nights and occassionaly just for the kicks , giving a few bikers a chase! Enough has been said and written about what should be done to 'tackle' this problem and who is to blame for this , since i dont have anything significant to contribute on that note , i limit my comments on another interesting 'phenomenon' i observed during a brief encounter with the canines.
Coming back to my tale ,I was walking from the 'other' end of street and before i turned into my street , i remembered last time i had come through the area so late @ night . It was a month back with my cousin and we were coming back after watching a late night movie , he had suggested picking up a couple of stones with us so that if any dogs chase us, we have some ammo to reply back ! I had scoffed at his idea then , but then while i was walking i thought of that incident and picked up a couple stones without giving it much thought.
As i was walking and reached the 'dreaded' end of my street i got a call on my cellphone and was engrossed in it and didnt notice the fact that right in front of my were 4 stray dogs. After ending the call ( which was for some issues at office , requiring me to work on weekend) and ruing my bad luck and a weekend gone waste , i moved past a pack of dogs and suddenly i was greeted by a series of barks and couple of dogs came running towards me . Though reason dictated that i should not panic and should keep still , I found that reason and logic could not hold against 5 dogs who were very close to my legs.Suddenly in a split second i had thrown the couple of decent sized stones i had collected earlier at my attackers and which kept them at bay and then at the next instant before i knew it i had started running , though something told me it was wrong to run when there are dogs around , i ran for a few seconds at the max speed i could conjure up. Fear gives you wings they say and it was true within no time i was pretty near my house and i realised that there were a few ppl walking in the streets in front of me who were now watching this spectacle ! I slowed down and noticed that dogs were no longer chasing me , i seemed to have moved out of their territory , there were some dogs much further ahead , so concluded that i must moved to no-man's land ... oops no-dog's land ! Then a guy who was walking in opp dir came up to me and told me that you should never run when dogs bark and best thing to do is to move away slowly! But when 4 dogs come towards you barking , i guess logic takes a second seat to panic!!!
Anways i think if not for those stones which repulsed them for a second or two and helped me make my getaway ... i wud have been easy target for those dogs, given that i had comminted the blunder of running when they were barking at me ...
I for sure believe it was some kind of sixth sense which made me pickup those stones given the fact that i have travelled thorough that area a number of times before this late in the night and had never been chased by dogs .
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
A River Runs through it ...
Its a 100 yr old debate and just like other tussles over sharing of natural resources between states/nations this one also will never get solved. But on monday 5th Feb when Cauvery tribunal was abou to to give its verdict , a lot of people where waiting for the verdict with bated breath ... Among this lot were a lot of my colleagues at office ... now how does water sharing formula of a river which runs through 2 states and primarily affects the farmers would interest the crowd of techies was kinda puzzling to me initially. But then this is city of
Along with water tussle there is another big fight in the offing a similar yet diff kind of problem ... While flowing through two states the river also seems to dividing ppl from these two states , instead of finding means to solve their problems , ppl seem content to bicker from either side of the river. Everyone has their own share of problems and actions like violence against ppl from the other state will never help in bring a solution. River seems to run through 2 set of people and dividing ppl living in the city , the war has begun with cable operators firing the first salvo; all tamil TV channels have been blocked since the day the verdict came out ! Most of the bus services have been suspended between the states since then ...Stage seems to set for anti-Tamil movement .Though most people know such measures are hardly ever going to help .. things just happen . During such times voices of reason are seldom heard, it is these moments when reason fails that as an individual you feel totally helpless ...
Last time things came to this level was in '91 when after the verdict came things changed and people changed . .. it was a totally harrowing time for the sizeable tamil population in the cosmopolitan city fo B'lore .
Ofcourse I was not there , but knew a lot of close friends and family members who were here @ Bangalore ( city they call their home) . "...it was really a situation of riots brought to
u won't understand...no one who wasn't there will understand...
being tamils was a huge thing...u could get killed for that... " was what i got when i asked one of them why is there such a huge buildup to the Cauvery tribunal verdict which came out today ...
Now suddenly a lot of us have this slight feeling of insecurity which is suffered by majority of the minority groups all over the world ...
As usual politicians and small time leaders as is their wont , have begun fishing in troubled waters and if last week's riots in some parts after rally to protest execution of Suddam Hussein ( 1 month after the execution) was any indication , there is a huge danger of this issue escalating into another widespread riots. Now the latest news is that Bandh call which was made for Thursday earlier is now postponed to monday so that they can do adequate 'preparations' !
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Day Six
It was the last day of our trip ...
if the previous few days and the trip in the morning was good , then the travel back was total contrast , the trip back to Siliguri was bad but the next journey from Siliguri to Kolkata in private bus was Ugly !
for the first time in last few days we dint have to get up very early , we left @ 8 for Rumtek Monastry which was below Gangtok (southern side) we reached pretty quickly in about 30 min , the monastry is a pretty famous and has had its share of controversies/disputes and is the seat of religious head ( who is in exlie). The place had high security with a posse of policemen around the monastry and a couple of other places in the complex . The ones near the main entrance were extremely rude to ppl ( just 3-4 visitors were around). The monastry had no specific timings and was closed when we went in the morning , we enquired in a shop nearby and were told that it would open by 8 in the morning but due to some reson it was no opened that day. There was the famous Golden Pagoda in the monastry and also it has university for religious studies for Buddists.We went to another monastry which was also beautiful in its own way , the architecture was totally different.
We reached Gangtok by 12 and then went around the main market area to pick up shawls and sweaters for ppl back home and moved to Jeep stand by 1 , we had get back to Kolkata , we had to catch a jeep t Siliguri andf from there we had booked tickets in a private bus @ 7 to Kolkata
We expected the Journey from hills of Sikkim to plains on Bengal to be another fun trip , but thanks to mad man at wheel of the crowded jeep the entrie journey was a nightmare , we were glas to reach Siliguri alive !
We went staright to railway station outside which is the busstand .The The journey was supposed to be 12 hr one , and we had flight to B'lore @ 10 so we wanted to reach the place by 8-8:30 so had booked thr bus @ 7 . But bus we were supposed to travel in had some problems and we had a delay of more than 1.5 hours before we finally got started . to add to our miseries the driver and conductor (perhaps irritated by our constant questioning) told us that it might take 14 rs to reach Kolkata which meant we may not make it in time !everytime we saw a signpost indicating distance to Kolkata we were making mental calculations about when we might reach !The roads were extremely horrible and the bus after travelling on these roads was a total wreck creaking and shaling each time we passed over a pothole , which was like every other minute . most of the seats were rickety and window panes kept shaking and moving and cold air kept coming in ... All this meant a horrible night topped by fear of missing our flight !thankfully the Airport was on the way , before we reached Kolkata city so we saved a lot of time and made it to Airport by 9 ( flight was at 9:50) and reached ontime. It was a journey which we could never forget for the sheer tension , frustration and exhaustion , i remember sleeping for some 15 hrs straight after reaching home that evening !!!on the whole it was total fun and gr8 trip given the fact that we had very little planning !
if the previous few days and the trip in the morning was good , then the travel back was total contrast , the trip back to Siliguri was bad but the next journey from Siliguri to Kolkata in private bus was Ugly !
for the first time in last few days we dint have to get up very early , we left @ 8 for Rumtek Monastry which was below Gangtok (southern side) we reached pretty quickly in about 30 min , the monastry is a pretty famous and has had its share of controversies/disputes and is the seat of religious head ( who is in exlie). The place had high security with a posse of policemen around the monastry and a couple of other places in the complex . The ones near the main entrance were extremely rude to ppl ( just 3-4 visitors were around). The monastry had no specific timings and was closed when we went in the morning , we enquired in a shop nearby and were told that it would open by 8 in the morning but due to some reson it was no opened that day. There was the famous Golden Pagoda in the monastry and also it has university for religious studies for Buddists.We went to another monastry which was also beautiful in its own way , the architecture was totally different.
We reached Gangtok by 12 and then went around the main market area to pick up shawls and sweaters for ppl back home and moved to Jeep stand by 1 , we had get back to Kolkata , we had to catch a jeep t Siliguri andf from there we had booked tickets in a private bus @ 7 to Kolkata
We expected the Journey from hills of Sikkim to plains on Bengal to be another fun trip , but thanks to mad man at wheel of the crowded jeep the entrie journey was a nightmare , we were glas to reach Siliguri alive !
We went staright to railway station outside which is the busstand .The The journey was supposed to be 12 hr one , and we had flight to B'lore @ 10 so we wanted to reach the place by 8-8:30 so had booked thr bus @ 7 . But bus we were supposed to travel in had some problems and we had a delay of more than 1.5 hours before we finally got started . to add to our miseries the driver and conductor (perhaps irritated by our constant questioning) told us that it might take 14 rs to reach Kolkata which meant we may not make it in time !everytime we saw a signpost indicating distance to Kolkata we were making mental calculations about when we might reach !The roads were extremely horrible and the bus after travelling on these roads was a total wreck creaking and shaling each time we passed over a pothole , which was like every other minute . most of the seats were rickety and window panes kept shaking and moving and cold air kept coming in ... All this meant a horrible night topped by fear of missing our flight !thankfully the Airport was on the way , before we reached Kolkata city so we saved a lot of time and made it to Airport by 9 ( flight was at 9:50) and reached ontime. It was a journey which we could never forget for the sheer tension , frustration and exhaustion , i remember sleeping for some 15 hrs straight after reaching home that evening !!!on the whole it was total fun and gr8 trip given the fact that we had very little planning !
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Day Five - Sikkim
We started early that day our vehicle was waiting outside the hotel for trip to a few sunrise view points in the city. Our Driver suggested that we miss Tashi viewpoint as it will be crowded with toursits , he said Hanuman Tok which also gives a similar view would be a better choice and we agreed and that quite set the tone for the rest of the day as our driver cum guide suggested a lot of things each one of which made the trip really wonderful , we managed to have quite a good time and avoid the crowds. We reached Hanuman Tok first and we were the only ones there. The place was temple of top of a hill and it presented a magnificent view of snow capped mountains with Kanchenjunga standing out . Next to the temple is the burial bround of the Royal family and it was resplendent with flags. The temple itself was neat much to our amusement the priest at the temple after handing us the prasad showed us a snap of the mountain he had clicked 5 min back ! Mountain is looking really beautiful today and its such a clear day u guys r really lucky he kept repeating. He also showed us the best place to take snaps of the mountain from the temple. Only when we were finished and the sun was totally up did other tourists turn up and we appreciated our driver's suggestion to go against the normal tourists route. We next went to place called Ganesh Tok , it had osbservatory built by toursim dept. the views of the mountains one one side and the scenic hills and city of Gangtok on the other side were unforgettable. We then saw the Sikkim legislative Assembly building and then went to another view point which was right on top of a hill with beautify view of the valley below. It was wonderful to watch the entire valley gettin lit by sun's rays gradually.We returned back by 8Am , finished our breakfast and set out for Tsamgo lake(40 Km) and Baba Mandir (54 Km) , the trip was supposed to take about 2 hours. There are lots check posts outside the city 5th mile , 8th mile ans so on .. to go to any place you need to get a permit stating ur detaisl and ur reason for visit , the drivers get these things done pretty quick , they help Govt track people movement int eh border state and also check any possiblity fThe journey was amazing and roads built by BRO wind through the hills , its a really marvellous feat by building such high quality roads on such a trecherous terrian.
We stopped for a warm cup of tea just before reaching Tsango lake , our driver had mentioned that there a few places which were not part of our original itenary , but could be 'arranged'. We then reached Tsango lake (called Changu ) , but did not stop there , we went past it and our destination was a place called Baba Mandir , enroute we saw snow on one side of the road and barren rocks on the other side. in half an hour we reached this place called Baba Mandir , which was built in memory of a soldier. The temple also had memorial for soldiers who lost their lives for the nation in that region. Since we had gone on sundays we were provided with prasad at the temple on sundays all visitors were provided with lunch by the army. When we were eating lunch suddenly we were hit by a cold winds and the temperature dropped very drastically. thanksfully we were well equipped with wollens and gloves. During lunch the visibility was very poor though it was one clock in the afternoon. Our driver was very sceptical about covering the next place we had planned a couple lakes a bit higher than the Mandir. He checked with a few cabbies who were back from that place and told us that though there was a chance that the trip would be ruined by poor visibility and storms there was also a chance of the fog clearing off and asked us to choose.
we decided to try our luck and were not dissapointed the next few hours turned out to be the highlight of our joureny to sikkim as we went higher and higher and soon saw snow on either side , we came across the world's highest ATM and cyber cafe ! After that it was pure heaven ! we went as much 1400 ft high and the view of Himalayas and kanchenjunga mountain was amazing . After apoint he stopped the vehicle and there small hills covered with snow , where we could play with snow , we had a snow fight and it was truly a gr8 experience.
after an hour we returned back to Tsango lake which was oval shaped and over a kilometre long , thanx to influx of tourists a lot of shops selling trinkets and offering joy rides on yaks are there.
While we were ambling about enjoying the beauty of the lake and snow covered mountains we were hit by sudden winds and mist which made it even more memorable !
We got back to Gangtok with a sense of statisfaction this particluar day made the trip and would stand out among all the wondeful memories of this trip. Missing out Nathula was the only regret.
We came back to Gangtok and did some shopping for shawls n sweaters at the local bazaars and also finalised the itenary for the next day , the plan was to visit a couple of monastries nearby.
We stopped for a warm cup of tea just before reaching Tsango lake , our driver had mentioned that there a few places which were not part of our original itenary , but could be 'arranged'. We then reached Tsango lake (called Changu ) , but did not stop there , we went past it and our destination was a place called Baba Mandir , enroute we saw snow on one side of the road and barren rocks on the other side. in half an hour we reached this place called Baba Mandir , which was built in memory of a soldier. The temple also had memorial for soldiers who lost their lives for the nation in that region. Since we had gone on sundays we were provided with prasad at the temple on sundays all visitors were provided with lunch by the army. When we were eating lunch suddenly we were hit by a cold winds and the temperature dropped very drastically. thanksfully we were well equipped with wollens and gloves. During lunch the visibility was very poor though it was one clock in the afternoon. Our driver was very sceptical about covering the next place we had planned a couple lakes a bit higher than the Mandir. He checked with a few cabbies who were back from that place and told us that though there was a chance that the trip would be ruined by poor visibility and storms there was also a chance of the fog clearing off and asked us to choose.
we decided to try our luck and were not dissapointed the next few hours turned out to be the highlight of our joureny to sikkim as we went higher and higher and soon saw snow on either side , we came across the world's highest ATM and cyber cafe ! After that it was pure heaven ! we went as much 1400 ft high and the view of Himalayas and kanchenjunga mountain was amazing . After apoint he stopped the vehicle and there small hills covered with snow , where we could play with snow , we had a snow fight and it was truly a gr8 experience.
after an hour we returned back to Tsango lake which was oval shaped and over a kilometre long , thanx to influx of tourists a lot of shops selling trinkets and offering joy rides on yaks are there.
While we were ambling about enjoying the beauty of the lake and snow covered mountains we were hit by sudden winds and mist which made it even more memorable !
We got back to Gangtok with a sense of statisfaction this particluar day made the trip and would stand out among all the wondeful memories of this trip. Missing out Nathula was the only regret.
We came back to Gangtok and did some shopping for shawls n sweaters at the local bazaars and also finalised the itenary for the next day , the plan was to visit a couple of monastries nearby.
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Day Four - Darjeeling/Gangtok
We woke up early morning and we outside the temp was 3 deg and got into our car and took off at 5:15 for tiger hill , we reached there in about 20 min , the vehicle drops u almost at the top of the hill. this is the place which affords u a brillinat view of kanchenjunga and also on a clear day a glimpse of Mt Everest ! But we were not lucky , it was a partially clouded day and we went up the hill and got into the observatory which was fast filling up with ppl. there rows n rows of chairs and glass panes arnd us thru which we were to observe the sunrise .
As time started progressing ppl started gettin restless and were bedoming a huge nuisance , outside it was real cold so we decided to stay inside the observatory where we could sip tea/coffee which were provided inside. As the first straks of light appeared on horizon ppl started standing up n clicking pictures ( God knows what they got ! ) and we decided to move out of the the observatory into the open after gettin our first glance of the rising sun.
What a spectacular sight it was ! then I heard a old gentleman telling everyone that Sun is not hat we should be looking it , we should actually be looking at the other direction Where Kanchenjunga will recieve its first sunlight of the day. We cam out and started cliking pics of sunlight and patiently waited looking at the op direction and then saw the marvelous sight of a huge mountain slowly coming into view in between the clouds , the first rays of sun falling on the whitish mountain and the resultant effect was unbelievable and just cannot be described in words ... After enjoying the sunrise and watching the entire valley slowly emrging out of darkness to a brnad new day , we started from tiger hill to the next point which was Ghoom monastery, followed by something called Bastasia loop which was a memorial. But these two turned out to be a big dissapointment as there was nothinh worth wacthing there. We returned back to our hotel some time after 8 , then got ready and went to the Mall and strolled around looking for some good restaurant and had a really yummy breakfast and then packed our bags and proceeded to the Jeep stand. We had made a big mistake in not planning this part of the travel properly , we had just enquired where the jeep stand was and had assumed that we would get a vehicle at all times. It turned out that they had only hourly service after 10 , so had to wait for a long time and finally got a jeep for Gangtok at 11 AM.
The journey was supposed to take close to 4 hours.
And we had braced ourselves for a tortorous trip as it was in a jeep. But it turned out to be quite an experience. The views were simply awesome , we passed through a few tea gardens and a lot of places where 'Terrace farming' was practiced.
The total journey itself was gr8 as the road to Gangtok was through hills and after a point we came across Teesta river and after that the entire journey the road and the river ran alongside and there lot of scenic views
There is also white water rafting on Teesta river which was attracting quite a big crowd. There was a place on the way where there were numerous resorts which offered rafting experience.
.Finally reached Gangtok which was also a city on hills at 4 and managed to locate out hotel Shilton Lodge(once again had found out about it through internet). The rooms were pretty good and very affordable .We had reached the place late afternoon around 3:30 and after checking in , asked the guy at the hotel about the places we can visit. To our dismay we were told that we wont able to visit any of the places we had planned as it was too late and places inside the city were all sunrise view points which were not worth it during evenings. So we went out dissappointed and hungry and decided to have a late lunch at a restaurant nearby , which had a band performing during nights. We had gone in arnd 4 and the band was somewhere inside practising for their performance later that night and after a point it was really irritating and they took a huge amount of time to bring the food , after waiting for 30 min we were angry tired and totallyclueless as to what to do. Everything seemed hopeless the mood in the camp was totally down. We were about to walk out of the place , then the food arrived ! I have never such good chinese food ever before in 10 min we had finished our late lunch and trooped out into the main market place. Which it turned out was very small just a couple streets ! For a capital city Gangtok is very very small. But still it was a pleasant expericence , we walked around looking for some trinkets. The weather was also very pleasant must have been 15- 20 degrees , a huge departure from Darjeeling where it was below 10 in the afternoon itself.
We headed straight to the tourist info centre ru Sikkim govt. unfortunately for us , by the time we made it the place was closed , it was around 5PM. Here also people shut shop much earlier , most shops close by 7:30. Then we started walking around the central area called MG Marg which had shops on wither side and was a busy street. We spotted a lot of Travel agencies and decided to ask a few of them the rates for sightseeing and then decide what to do the next day. The first place we entered , the guy gave us the normal tour package where you with a group of 10-15 which wud be economical but crowded and also suggested that we could hire a cab on our own ( Maruti Van) since there were 3 of us , it would be comfortable and not so hard on pocket for us. The places covered would be Tsango lake which was 40 Km from Gangtok but close to 2 hrs on road and a place called Baba Mandir which he assured me was wonderful. We also wanted cover a couple of other view points ( in this part of the country view points r meant to view the sunrise) and the cost came about 1500 for the vehicle. But he said all permits for Nathula Pass were finished so we cant visit that place. Nathula is on Indo-China border on the famous 'silk route' . You need to get prior permit to visit the place and visit is possible only on Tuesday, Thursday, Sat and Sunday. We had landed there on Saturday evening , which he said was a bit too late for permit. When we asked if it is possible somehow to procure a permit , he said that the no: of visitors on any day is limited to a certain number and he had run out of his quota , but told us that we can try with any other operator and if we were lucky (since it was pretty late) we might get , so we tried our luck at another 3-4 places each one told us the same thing , No Nathula permit. Finally we came back to the first guy and booked for trip to Tsango lake and also for early morning sightseeing in Gangtok. Tot cost was 1500.
One good thing about this place is that they treat the tourists really well , Govt stipulates a standard rate for these sightseeing trips and do a constant checking to ensure that those rates are maintained.
We had dinner at a hotel in MG Marg which served North Indian food , there were a lot of good hotels there and returned back to hotel to sleep early , the whole city sleeps by 10 ! We had planned our Sikkim sightseeing from 5:30 next morning.
As time started progressing ppl started gettin restless and were bedoming a huge nuisance , outside it was real cold so we decided to stay inside the observatory where we could sip tea/coffee which were provided inside. As the first straks of light appeared on horizon ppl started standing up n clicking pictures ( God knows what they got ! ) and we decided to move out of the the observatory into the open after gettin our first glance of the rising sun.
What a spectacular sight it was ! then I heard a old gentleman telling everyone that Sun is not hat we should be looking it , we should actually be looking at the other direction Where Kanchenjunga will recieve its first sunlight of the day. We cam out and started cliking pics of sunlight and patiently waited looking at the op direction and then saw the marvelous sight of a huge mountain slowly coming into view in between the clouds , the first rays of sun falling on the whitish mountain and the resultant effect was unbelievable and just cannot be described in words ... After enjoying the sunrise and watching the entire valley slowly emrging out of darkness to a brnad new day , we started from tiger hill to the next point which was Ghoom monastery, followed by something called Bastasia loop which was a memorial. But these two turned out to be a big dissapointment as there was nothinh worth wacthing there. We returned back to our hotel some time after 8 , then got ready and went to the Mall and strolled around looking for some good restaurant and had a really yummy breakfast and then packed our bags and proceeded to the Jeep stand. We had made a big mistake in not planning this part of the travel properly , we had just enquired where the jeep stand was and had assumed that we would get a vehicle at all times. It turned out that they had only hourly service after 10 , so had to wait for a long time and finally got a jeep for Gangtok at 11 AM.
The journey was supposed to take close to 4 hours.
And we had braced ourselves for a tortorous trip as it was in a jeep. But it turned out to be quite an experience. The views were simply awesome , we passed through a few tea gardens and a lot of places where 'Terrace farming' was practiced.
The total journey itself was gr8 as the road to Gangtok was through hills and after a point we came across Teesta river and after that the entire journey the road and the river ran alongside and there lot of scenic views
There is also white water rafting on Teesta river which was attracting quite a big crowd. There was a place on the way where there were numerous resorts which offered rafting experience.
.Finally reached Gangtok which was also a city on hills at 4 and managed to locate out hotel Shilton Lodge(once again had found out about it through internet). The rooms were pretty good and very affordable .We had reached the place late afternoon around 3:30 and after checking in , asked the guy at the hotel about the places we can visit. To our dismay we were told that we wont able to visit any of the places we had planned as it was too late and places inside the city were all sunrise view points which were not worth it during evenings. So we went out dissappointed and hungry and decided to have a late lunch at a restaurant nearby , which had a band performing during nights. We had gone in arnd 4 and the band was somewhere inside practising for their performance later that night and after a point it was really irritating and they took a huge amount of time to bring the food , after waiting for 30 min we were angry tired and totallyclueless as to what to do. Everything seemed hopeless the mood in the camp was totally down. We were about to walk out of the place , then the food arrived ! I have never such good chinese food ever before in 10 min we had finished our late lunch and trooped out into the main market place. Which it turned out was very small just a couple streets ! For a capital city Gangtok is very very small. But still it was a pleasant expericence , we walked around looking for some trinkets. The weather was also very pleasant must have been 15- 20 degrees , a huge departure from Darjeeling where it was below 10 in the afternoon itself. We headed straight to the tourist info centre ru Sikkim govt. unfortunately for us , by the time we made it the place was closed , it was around 5PM. Here also people shut shop much earlier , most shops close by 7:30. Then we started walking around the central area called MG Marg which had shops on wither side and was a busy street. We spotted a lot of Travel agencies and decided to ask a few of them the rates for sightseeing and then decide what to do the next day. The first place we entered , the guy gave us the normal tour package where you with a group of 10-15 which wud be economical but crowded and also suggested that we could hire a cab on our own ( Maruti Van) since there were 3 of us , it would be comfortable and not so hard on pocket for us. The places covered would be Tsango lake which was 40 Km from Gangtok but close to 2 hrs on road and a place called Baba Mandir which he assured me was wonderful. We also wanted cover a couple of other view points ( in this part of the country view points r meant to view the sunrise) and the cost came about 1500 for the vehicle. But he said all permits for Nathula Pass were finished so we cant visit that place. Nathula is on Indo-China border on the famous 'silk route' . You need to get prior permit to visit the place and visit is possible only on Tuesday, Thursday, Sat and Sunday. We had landed there on Saturday evening , which he said was a bit too late for permit. When we asked if it is possible somehow to procure a permit , he said that the no: of visitors on any day is limited to a certain number and he had run out of his quota , but told us that we can try with any other operator and if we were lucky (since it was pretty late) we might get , so we tried our luck at another 3-4 places each one told us the same thing , No Nathula permit. Finally we came back to the first guy and booked for trip to Tsango lake and also for early morning sightseeing in Gangtok. Tot cost was 1500.
One good thing about this place is that they treat the tourists really well , Govt stipulates a standard rate for these sightseeing trips and do a constant checking to ensure that those rates are maintained.
We had dinner at a hotel in MG Marg which served North Indian food , there were a lot of good hotels there and returned back to hotel to sleep early , the whole city sleeps by 10 ! We had planned our Sikkim sightseeing from 5:30 next morning.
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