You are as old as you look

 Thursday, the 19th of August 2021, was a clear (possibly yet another) reminder that I have started looking my age; Or may be even older. Let me share the details of why I came to this conclusion. It involved two separate incidents in the space of 30 minutes. 

On the said date, I had to visit Giri Traders at Tiruvanmiyur, to purchase the Avani Avittam set for the event that was coming up the following Sunday. As usual, parking was an issue and I had to part in front of Marundeeswarar temple. Having parked in front of his gate, I couldn’t not visit the temple. After a quick Hi to Mr. Thyagarajar and Mrs. Tirupurasundari, I walked towards the aforementioned shop for my purchase and en route, this quaint little place called “House of Annapoorna” beckoned me. 

Of course, not literally, because that would have warranted some severe movement of the ancient buildings, but it was an invitation nevertheless. I had noticed this place for a year or so, but was always wary about checking it out. But not that day. I was quite famished and in desperate need of a caffeine boost and lo behold, I walked in. 

The place is an old Agraharam house, that has been partially remodelled to suit the needs of a restaurant. It has very good ambience and the pricing is quite low. Service is decent and food is tasty too. Now that the Google review is done, let us come to the incident. 

The waiter served me Mysore Bonda, per my request and then went about his business of working other tables. After the Bonda found its rightful place in my digestive tract, I requested the waiter for coffee. This is when the first age related alert came in. 

Like I said, I asked him for coffee and told him that I wanted it a little strong. He then looked at me and asked, “Sugar podalama sir” (Can sugar be added to coffee). This is usually a query reserved for the aged folks who order coffee in a restaurant and it was the first time, to my recollection at least, that someone asked me that question. I could hear shattering glass window panes due to sudden strong winds that also brought in clouds, just like how diabetes always comes up suddenly and brings along cholesterol, BP and what not. Maybe that comparison alone makes it clear that I am old. 

With tears swelling up in my eyes, I controlled the lump forming in my throat and told him to put normal quantity. 

After this shattering experience, I walked to Giri Traders and went to the section where the Avani Avittam set was sold. Just as I was catching my breath (100 metres walk after Mysore Bonda and coffee, followed by 1 flight of stairs ok) and scanning the shelf for what I needed, the sales lady came by and asked what I wanted. 

I told her that I need Avani Avittam set and she asked me if I was smart or if I was Iyengar? I wondered why she thinks that Iyengars cannot be smart, though I do know 1 or 2 Iyengars who would fit that train of thought. I wanted to ask her if she also knew the same people and if not, why she came to such a conclusion. And all this while I was also looking at the shelf and saw that there were 2 sets and they had the label “Avani Avittam Smartha set” and “Avani Avittam Iyengar set”. 

Meanwhile, since I hadn’t responded to her query, she looked at my face and then realized that I was wearing vibuthi and kungumam from my visit to the Shivan temple. 

She then took up one packet from the “Avani Avittam Smartha set” and gave it to me. The label on the packet also said “Grihastha” and not “Brahmachari”. Usually, when I make this purchase, the sales people at least ask cursorily if I wanted Grihastha set or Brahmachari set. But not that day. The lady directly handed over the Grihastha set. Once again, the same set of shattering glass panes, strong winds, gloomy skies all came up. But by then, I was resigned to the reality that I had started looking my age and probably even older. 

So next time anybody sees me and says “Nee innum maarave illa” (you haven’t changed), there are only 2 conclusions – one they are lying or two, I was always looking old. 

I survived

It has been a while since I blogged and I thought, what better way to resume the activity, than by updating my survival story.

I had gone to watch “The Amazing Spiderman” with Raghu and Madhu last Saturday, for the 7 PM show at Santham – part of Sathyam Cinemas, Royapettah. Some 10-15 minutes after the interval, Raghu asked me if I smelt anything burning. As should be evident by my facial structure, my power of smell is probably the least potent of my senses. But despite that handicap, I did my best to sniff strongly without making a noise and I did sense a burning smell.

Even as we were debating in mild tones as to what it could be, a couple of the staff members were seen running from one door to another; from our left to right to be precise. This running happened a couple of times within a minute and that did seem to attract the attention of a lot of the audience. The others may have mistaken it for some 3D effect in the movie, though thankfully they didn’t applaud.

A lot of thoughts went through my mind about how the public would be informed about the possible fire – Raghu and I pretty much confirmed that viewpoint – and how the evacuation would be done. Would they just sound sirens and ask us to follow the Exit – and I just remembered that they hadn’t shown the customary Fire Exit slide before the movie was screened. Or would they put up some notice on the screen that due to technical issues they won’t be able to screen the movie any further and then ask us to leave?

Were their staff positioned at the right places to guide the crowd? Was the issue localised to just this theatre or all the theatres in that complex? And what happens to the ID restaurant? Won’t it add to the hazard? And if so, what happens to our plans of having dinner there? Where do we go around at 10 in the night for a decent meal?

Obviously all these things went through my head for less than 5 seconds and in the meantime, I did notice that the running around activity of the staff had reduced. As had the burning smell. Like Raghu rightly pointed out right then, the AC had been cut off. We also noticed that one Inspector type of dude walked across the passage where the staff had been running around and we presumed he was some kind of Fire Marshal. Somehow I felt that the fire was under control and started concentrating more on the movie, feeling quite relieved that my dinner at ID wasn’t going to be impacted.

You can read the report about the fire here: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/article3590467.ece. And if you can read Tamizh, check this link as well: http://www.dailythanthi.com/article.asp?NewsID=741468&disdate=7/1/2012&advt=2

The mini pilgrimage in March 2010 – Day 1 Part 1

contd. from previous post

We reached our Hotel - Hotel Dayalan - by 5:10 AM by walking from the bus stop. After we checked in, all 3 of us caught up with some pending sleep till about 6 AM. Afterwards, we started getting ready to visit the main temple on the agenda - Thirumananchery.

With the help of the Hotel guys, we hired a taxi and set out by 9ish AM. The main thing to note is that, for the first time in my life, on a day other than Aavani Avittam, I ventured out in public in a vaeshti. I had planned this even while packing my stuff for the trip.

We reached the temple by 9:40 or so. I may have mentioned this earlier, but doesnt hurt to repeat it. The temple at Tirumananchery is reknowned for having special powers that cater to the needs of the people who are having trouble getting married. Like me! And the popularity of this temple has apparently increased manifold in the last 50-60 years only.

The rituals to be followed in the temple are quite simple actually. You just need to buy a flower garland and get an archanai performed to the uthsava moorthies of the deities Sundareshwarar and Kokilambaall. During the course of this archanai, the priests first place the aforementioend garland near the deity and then they give it to you for wearing for a short while before the ritual comes to an end.

Once the prayers are all done, the head priest gave directions on what needed to be done with the prasadams. The prasadams are essentially a garland (referenced recently), viboothi, kungumam, manjal and a lemon. The viboothi and kungumam have to applied daily. The lemon is supposed to be extracted into a concentrate and that has to be consumed first thing in the morning of the day we return home. The manjal is to be used by women. And the garland has to be kept at home and the belief is that by the time it decomposes, a wedding would be fixed. And after the wedding is done, the couple is expected to visit the temple and then throw off the garland (or whatever is left of it) into a pond adjoining the temple.

Anyways, after completing the prayers, lighting of lamps at a couple of places and taking few mandatory pictures, we were out of the temple. Our next stop was Vaitheeshwaran Kovil. There was no big agenda at the temple and so it was a very business-like visit there. Once we were done with the prayers at the sannidhis of Vaitheeshwaran and Thaiyalnaayagi, we headed out for a much needed lunch.

Lunch was at a place called Hotel Sadabhishekam and we had a pretty good meal. We resumed our trip back to the Hotel and just as we left the Hotel, the driver said he was going to fill up fuel at the station next door. He asked us for 50% of the agreed amount and during the process of handing over the cash to him, my mother found out that she was missing a "loaded" purse that she had brought along from Chennai.

To be continued....

Crowning Glory

On Sunday, Raghu and I decided to go out for dinner since it has been a while since we did that. It was kind of my turn to foot the bill and so Raghu generously opted for dining at Residency Towers.

I agreed and asked him to book the table. Just before I was about to start, I got a confirmation message from him that said that the table was booked, but that they don't have any seats on the outside.

Since I was under the impression that we were going to the buffet restaurant called Main Street, I was quite perplexed reading that message. So I called him to clarify and that's when I found out that the great one had booked a table in the Crown Restaurant in Residency Towers.

For those of you who haven't gone there, please be advised that it is probably one of those fancy dining spots in the city. Really up-market setup, mostly up-market crowd and hence very EXPENSIVE.

Raghu's defence was that since it was my treat he was not bothered about the expenses and simply opted for this. And of course, he blamed me for not being clear about the venue.

Anyways, we decided to go ahead with the plan. After quite a lot of "Take Diversion" boards on the route from his house to the restaurant, we reached the venue on time. The maître d' showed us to our table and when we went through the menu card, we were reminded yet again about how up-market this place was!

We had a very light dinner and yet, the bill amount was a whopping Rs.1700. For 3 people! Though we had agreed to go dutch, this was still quite high. I realised that the amount was high enough to warrant an exclusion from the credit card statement (since that is very much in the purview of my accountant a.k.a my father) and so, I opted to pay cash.

While the ambiance at the restaurant is excellent, I was not too happy with the food and service. Don't get me wrong, the food was good. Just that, it wasn't worth the price tag it came with. And the service - again no complaints that they didn't treat us badly or anything like that. Just that the policy seemed to encourage a very laid-back atmosphere, but it was bordering the realm of "kitchen closed"!

Anyways, the crowning glory for Sunday evening was a query from my mother on Monday morning. She asked "What made you guys go there? Did you get engaged or did he win a Rs.2 Crore business deal?". THE END!!!

Old friends in a new restaurant

An old friend of mine from my previous company had come to Chennai last week. He stays in the City of Angels and had come here since his father was not keeping well.

On Saturday, I met him and 3 other friends from that circle, for dinner. We went to the roof-top restaurant in The Accord Metropolitan hotel. It was good to catch up with old friends and exchange data about who's left in the old place; where people are currently located; who has switched companies etc - basically glorified gossip.

Anyways, the restaurant was one pricey affair. The spread on the menu wasn't that great and whatever little was available was bloody expensive. And worse, the serving portions were also quite small or normal at best. But I must admit that the taste was good. This restaurant is probably the 5 star equivalent of Saravana Bhavan!

Another thing was the ambiance. The area was very dimly illuminated. There were small blue colored lamps on each pillar of the stylishly designed canopy and a couple of blinking lights on the floor. And reading the menu was quite an arduous task considering the unwieldy size of the menu card, the layout of the card (there were barely 8 pages, each written in a font size like the first letter you read out during an eye examination), the really thick material of the card (thick enough to replace a plywood plank on a cupboard) and the complicated names and descriptions given to the dishes ensured that people opted for the tried and trusted varieties.

The crowd that came there was quite up-market and from a vasool perspective it was worth the price. All in all, its a place one must visit if you are planning to mottai adichufy someone in the guise of a treat.

We then bade our farewells and went our own ways. Of course, I followed one guy till very near his house (he stays in Thiruvanmiyur) just because he had some beer. I followed him just to spite him a li'l and he finally called me and shouted at me to go away from his route. I felt that my good deed for the day was done.

Tirupati travelogue 9-Feb-08 to 10-Feb-08: Part 5

I woke up early on Sunday to give me enough time to get ready and also to pack up my stuff to check out of my room. We had decided that since all of us were going to be away for the day in the college, we wouldn’t need to retain so many rooms. We left only 2 rooms so that we could at least keep our baggage and also allow the elders to rest during the day.

We were joined by another colleague of ours, who had come late on Saturday evening. After completing our check out formalities and finishing our breakfast, we boarded the Qualis to go to the College. We reached there in around 30-40 minutes. The campus was quite big and looked very green with lots of big trees around and beautiful landscaping done in front of each building.

We were informed that only 99 people had been identified for the interview. Since the panel was now 8 members strong (we got 2 more from other places), our calculations showed that we would wrap up the session by noon.

However, we could complete only around 1 PM and then we rushed back to the Hotel. En route, we made plans to go to Kalahasthi since we had some time on our hand. We reached the hotel, regrouped everyone and for lunch, we decided to go to another Bhimas hotel near the railway station. The restaurant in that hotel was apparently more famous.

We had a good lunch there and by the time we completed the lunch, it was 3.30 PM. Now, things were getting a bit close for the return home. My supporter and I preferred making the trip to Kalahasthi by cab, but no one would have it that way. But the main thing was that neither of us broached the topic since we knew for sure that it would be shot down like the Scud missile in the ’91 Gulf War. Since it was going to be only a bus journey, I opted out of the Kalahasthi visit and decided to join the parties returning home directly.

We went to the bus stand and were informed by the transport corporations that no tickets were available for any of their services till 8.30 PM. In effect, it meant that we had to just board any of the local services to Chennai. There were even suggestions that we just get on to any bus that is headed towards any of the places on any of the routes to Chennai and then hop on to any other bus from that place towards Chennai!

We all came back to the hotel and checked out of all the rooms. The party headed to Kalahasthi went their way and the rest of us went back to the bus stand. We were able to get a “route bus” that was directly headed to Chennai. Since it had just come in to the bus stand, we were able to get better seats. By better seats, I only mean seats that were not at the back of the bus.

But by no other yardstick, could the seats be described as being comfortable. They were cramped for 2 normal sized adults to sit. The unfortunate design aspect was that, even for the seats away from the door, there was a handle at the edge of the seat. This in effect meant that the person in the aisle seat, wouldn’t have been able to swing himself and make use of the aisle. Hats off to the APSRTC bird heads for coming up with this design!

[To b concluded in Part 6]

Tirupati-travelogue-9-feb-08-to-10-feb-08: Part 2

The special darshan at Tirumala was scheduled for 4 PM that day. Since it was nearly 11.15 AM when we reached the hotel, we agreed to regroup quickly and have our lunch in the same hotel. Again, there were comments that the food in a hotel’s restaurant would be costly, but things were settled quickly since everyone was famished and we had a deadline.

The lunch turned out to be a not so expensive affair after all, costing around 70 bucks for a Thali. Meanwhile, I had enquired about the cost of booking a cab for all of us to go to Tirumala and Tiruchaanoor. The cost came to around 1600 bucks. This whopping sum was shot down instantaneously by all but me and another person. The rationale was that there are a lot of buses plying frequently to these places. Also, since the distance involved was less, the quote given by the cab guy was deemed to be too expensive.

After we completed the lunch, we (some of us) had a quick change of clothes and headed out of the hotel. While I had come up to change, enquiries had been made about the access to Tiruchaanoor and the nearest bus stop was identified. People had decided that even taking an auto was not worth it.

So all 9 of us (breakup: me, another guy, one with his father, another with his elder sister and mother and the last one with her mother) went to the bus stop which was 5 minutes away. It was not the distance or time, just that we had to cross a road which had fast moving buses and other vehicles. Being a hilly region, the vehicles were clearly making good use of the gradient road.

Even as we were reaching the bus stop, we saw a bus. The suo moto leader of the trip started running after the bus goading all of us to run and catch the bus. It finally turned out that the bus we all ran after wasn’t really the one we had to catch!

After a 5-10 minute wait, we finally got a bus and reached Tiruchaanoor temple. Thankfully, there was no objection from anyone for taking the Rs.40 special darshan ticket. I am being very cynical, but perhaps the 2 free laddus included in the ticket, helped swing the votes towards this ticket!

Anyways, we had a good darshan of Padmavathy Ammavaaru (Thaayaar in Tamil) and headed back to the hotel. Here again, my only supporter and me suggested that we take an auto. But we were informed that the bus tickets for the return trip were already procured while coming to this temple. Since we dare not waste the 8 rupees ticket, we boarded a bus.

We reached the hotel and it was decided that we had to reconvene in 30 minutes max, so that we could reach Tirumala on time. We still nurtured hopes of visiting the Kalahasthi temple after the darshan at Tirumala, since we expected the special darshan to be completed in a jiffy. Little did we know what was in store for us.

[To be continued in Part 3]

Random Observation # 034

Restaurants should imitiate the setup inside a typical commercial aeroplane. Whenever we need to draw the attention of the cabin crew, we press a button and a light glows above our seats. The crew then identify the seat easily, come to us and we can then get on with our business.
In crowded restaurants, it gets very difficult to call the maître d' or the servers and hence my proposal to install buttons and lights, a la commercial aeroplanes.

Exemplary service at Sangeetha's

Last evening my dad and I went to Sangeetha's at Adyar for a quick evening bite. We ordered Ragi Dosa, just for the heck of it.

The aforementioned dish was served. It is so dark in color that the first impression one gets is that its roasted real well. Au contraire, it is barely cooked.

One thing that both of us observed was that there was no, or at best little, salt. After the first bite, I had a good mind to cancel the stuff. But then we just proceeded to have a couple of more pieces. The supervisor came by and we somehow couldn't resist asking him about the lack of salt. He explained that since it was treated as a health food, they usually don't add much salt. He then walked away.

We went on with the job on hand and in a minute or so, were interrupted by the supervisor asking for our excuse. He said that he'd checked with the chefs and found out that the salt level was lower than normal. He then proceeded to say that we could cancel the order and get a fresh order of the same dish or anything else we require.

Since we had already eaten like half the dosai, we said it was ok and that we don't mind continuing with what was served. But the guy went on to say that our satisfaction was of utmost importance and that if we were not happy at any level, he was willing to bring anything else to supplement what we were eating. Another supervisor also joined the session and went to add that they were supposed to take care of customers and that no one should go unsatisfied.

We had a really difficult time in telling them that we were okay eating that dosai. I went on to add that I was really happy with the kind of attention they were giving to what was just an enquiry/comment about the salt content in the dosai.

It was a very different and satisfying experience. I'd never expected any restaurant folks to go so far to please their customers. This is a big restaurant with a lot of floating population. The more expensive and niche restaurants have a regular clientele and can well afford to pamper their customers. Since they don't get that big a crowd they can easily find out who is regular and who is not. And mostly, these restaurants are not open for very long hours and so can easily concentrate on anyone who visits them. And all the attention could just be to get a good tip and not a genuine wish to serve you well.

But this is a big chain in the city and even if there are regular customers, the sheer number that floats in and out when they are open, will make it tough for them to remember who comes often and who does not. And since the section where we ate has a 'payment only at the counter' policy, it is understandable if the supervisors and waiters just do their work and leave customer satisfaction out the door.

This is where, I feel, this restaurant differs. And mine was not an isolated incident. My friend Raji and her husband Anand were in an almost identical situation and were given the exact same treatment.

Hats off to the Restaurant staff.

Trip to Madurai

As part of the campus recruitment initiative mentioned in my previous post, I visited Madurai on Saturday, the 22nd of December 2007.

Actually, a bunch of us from work went for that initiative, so we all had a pretty interesting time, especially sharing all the oddities observed during the interviews.

Originally, we all wanted to travel by Paramount Airways, but unfortunately, our Travel Department refused to procure tickets on that airline quoting a significant difference in cost. We couldn't refute it either and neither could we use the ploy of flight timings, since all morning flights out of Chennai to Madurai are barely 10 minutes apart. Same holds good for the last flights out.

So, we had to make do with the Jet Airways ATR flight. Man, that morning flight was one big torture. The pilot, a Caucasian btw, was navigating it like the ubiquitous share auto driver in Chennai. The way he landed in Madurai would have converted all atheists into die-hard religious fanatics! I must actually appreciate him for having the talent to remind all of us that there 3 wheels in the plane. He also showed us how long the runway at Madurai was, coz he practically went to the edge of the tarmac before turning back!

We hired a cab and reached the venue and got on with the proceedings. We broke for lunch and found that the food arranged by the College was almost unpalatable. It was toooo spicy for our comfort and didn't look hygienic at all. After making enquiries with the watchman, we headed out to a "hotel", where after much waiting, we managed to get a table. Unfortunately, my bad luck continued there as well, since the food served was not really tasty. In fact, the curd rice I ordered seemed to have been prepared using stale rice.

Anyways, after our interview sessions got over ahead of time, thankfully due to the no-show from almost 100 candidates, we proceeded to the Meenakshi Amman temple. Ramadurai had called up his contacts and the basic understanding was that we had to stand in front of the Co-optex shop opposite the South entrance. Apparently the coded message was if anyone approached us and asked us "vellai kaaka enna color muttai podum?", we were supposed to respond by saying "karuppu muttai" whereby we would have established our credentials.

We waited for a short while before Ramadurai's contact showed up. We obviously didn't have to use the coded greetings and were taken inside the temple. Once inside, the "guide" explained to us about some of the landmark spots and escorted us along the special path to the sanctum sanctorum in a matter of a minute or so. After some deliberation with the authorities there, our contact took us inside the special darshan area. There we had a really good darshan of the Amman. Even when we had our heart's fill and started moving out, the contact kept sending us back for some more additional darshan.

The same was repeated at all other important sannidhis and all in all we had a fantastic darshan. I was so ecstatic, that while returning to the airport, I told Ramadurai that he finally gave me something useful for being his friend!

We even had a great visit in the "1000 kaal mandapam" and I was really amazed with some of the statues. There is a statue of Rathi Devi, carved in stone. Our contact asked us to feel the hand and boy, it was so smooth that one can easily be fooled into thinking that it was wood. Then there were a couple of stone statues of Lord Shiva, where one could hit certain portions of the stone and hear a good metallic sound. Then there was this giant wooden door made of Burma Teak wood. It was like 9.38 metres long and some 2.2 metres wide. Really awesome stuff.

By the time we were out of the temple, we were quite famished. Thankfully our guide took us to a restaurant called Modern Cafe. It was a quaint little joint and as we found quite soon, it served great food. I had Adai Avial and Plain Dosa. All of them were excellent. Special mention must be made of their Coconut chutney. We topped it up with one of the best coffees I have had in recent times at any restaurant.

It was getting quite late, but thankfully, the airline had issued us the boarding pass for the return journey in the morning itself. So we had enough buffer time to reach the airport. And to make thing more comfortable, one of our friends who had reached there earlier, told us that the flight was delayed by 30 minutes.

The return flight was more peaceful and the pilot ensured a really smooth landing. However, he was allotted a parking bay right at the end of the runway and to reach the terminal, we actually had a 5 minute ride on the airport bus.

All of us went our separate ways after that and I reached home at 11 PM. Since my day started at 4.30 AM, I was quite exhausted and crashed on the bed quite soon. But for some of the annoying interviews, this trip was quite a good one. I had a really good darshan at all sannidhis in the Meenakshi Amman temple, unlike my trip in Feb this year, where it was a really abridged visit.

So much so that, I have prayed to the lady of the temple that I would visit her temple once I get married - the third wedding vaendudhal I have made, the first one being a hike up the seven hills to say hi to Venky and the second one to my kula dheiyvam temple.

Hectic weekend

This weekend - Oct 27-28 - has been quite a hectic one for me.

On Saturday, I had to go to a resort near Mahabalipuram for an official project party. I had a lot of fun there, especially playing cricket.

In the evening, I went out to dinner with Raghu, Madhu and Nilu. Was meeting Nilu after almost 4-6 weeks I think.

We had a pretty good dinner at Wang's Kitchen in Adyar. Nilu and Raghu conspired to make this my birthday treat in advance. While booking the table (and occupying it first, buy virtue of arriving a few minutes earlier than us), Nilu had apparently told the staff there that he would be joined by a birthday boy and asked them to do something special.

So I was surprised when a place of salad was brought to the table. There was a carved capsicum in the middle and inside it was a small candle. I humored these guys by blowing out the candle. One of waiters had even come to enquire about who the birthday person was and after being pointed in my direction, he even shook hands with me!!!

Anyways, dinner was good, though we couldn't finish most of it. They did screw up our order of fried ice-cream. I used my negotiation skill and had one of the extra items on our order canceled out.

We had ice-cream at Arun's Unlimited in R.A.Puram. It was nearly 11 when I returned.

On Sunday, there was a small hiranya shraardham at home for my father's mother. In the afternoon, I went to Raghu's place and dragged him along to buy a watch for me. You see, my mother is gifting me a watch for my birthday and sanctioned an amount of 3k towards this.

So, I went with Raghu to Landmark at City Center. Got a Casio Edifice watch costing me 3.5K post discount.

Then, there was a dinner tonight, hosted by my colleague Rajkumar. Ganesh, Raji and Vidya had come too. The dinner was at Creame Center. The place is really good. Great ambiance. Good crowd too. However, I wont give them good marks for their Mexican dishes. It failed on all parameters - taste, quantity and price. But it was a fun evening.

After such eating binges, it comes as no surprise as to how I've managed to put on 6 kilos over the last one year and how I've increased my trouser size by 1 (pre-eating).

Road Trip to Vaitheeswaran Kovil - Part 11 ::: Return home

Once we settled the bills at the hotel and gave the tips to the room boy, we packed our stuff into the car and started our return trip. Barely 3-4 kms after we started, we saw a pretty long snake cross the road at good speed in front of us. I am sure it must have been some 8-10 feet long. It looked a bit dark brown in color. I am no expert about the species, but my mother tells me that it wouldn't have been the "big guy". She grew up in one of the villages in that district and has spent sufficient time in the fields to be able to know such details.

Otherwise, there was nothing interesting in the return trip, except for the very precisely incorrect directions given by Raghu to the Woodlands restaurant at Cuddalore. We spent a good 20 minutes in trying to locate it along a road where it was not present. After checking with auto drivers, general public and shopkeepers, we finally managed to reach the place.

After reaching there I checked with my guru and only then did he admit that it had been ages since he'd gone there!!! So he obviously forgot that in the meantime, the directions in Cuddalore had changed. At least, he was correct about the quality of food there. It was quite good and very economical as well.

We resumed our journey and after crossing Pondy, I was finally able to drive at a good speed. For quite a long stretch, I was able to maintain 100 Kmph. In fact, till I reached Mahabalipuram, I must have surely averaged 90+.

Obviously, there are many others who average much higher, but then, unlike me, they don't travel with the occupants of Fort Knox (my house in Besant Nagar). We took a coffee break at Mahabs and were finally home around 5.30.

So, all in all, I had a very satisfying trip. My long pending desire of desire of a road trip in India was fulfilled. I clocked around 550 Kms up and down. I was able to drive for a few kms at a speed of 100-105 Kmph. There were no accidents, slight brushes or even near misses. No complaints about over speeding too. :)

With this I would like to wrap up this travelogue. And if by mistake, you do remember telling something about rusk in my first part, well the deal is that, the minute I opened the gate at home and brought the car inside, Jimmy promptly came inside. I fed him the rusk that I took along on Saturday morning!

Road Trip to Vaitheeswaran Kovil - Part 4 ::: The lunch bulb at Chidambaram

As mentioned in the earlier part, we were unable to have the darshan at the Chidambaram temple. After we came out and decided to have lunch, the next logical question was "where?".

Raghu had mentioned a "fancy" restaurant called "Udupi Sri Krishna Vilas" very near the temple. He'd also said that it wasn't a very fancy looking place and was more like a typical eating place you get in those regions. I remembered him vaguely mentioning something about long tables made of granite etc.

When we came out of the temple through the eastern gopuram, we saw a board that said "Udupi Sri Krishna Vilas". From the outside, it sorta matched Raghu's description. So, we went inside.

Inside, was not actually the dining area. We entered a big hall kinda place, which was still being constructed. There were cement bags, sand piled up, tall mixing tubs etc. Further down this hall, there seemed to be another room and here, we saw a couple of people eating.

I called up Raghu to confirm if this was the joint. He now said that the hotel he was referring to was not on that road but on the other side. So, we came back to our car, which was parked on the main road which in turn is perpendicular to the road leading to the eastern gopuram. You must follow the directions very closely here, else you will not be able to appreciate the bulb we got.

To go towards the direction that Raghu indicated, I had to make a U-turn on the main road. This I managed and went some 100 metres or so. We crossed the road leading to the eastern gopuram and almost immediately, we saw a board that said "Udupi Sri Krishna Vilas". I pulled over the car to a good parking spot and all of us got down.

When we entered the hotel, it still didn't look like the right one. My mother even checked with the guy at the kalla petti about the presence of "Udupi Sri Krishna Vilas" hotels in the area and he said that this was the only one.

We ordered 3 meals at the cash counter. Curd had to be bought separately. It was Rs.20 for the meal and Rs.3 for the curd. So, for 3 of us, the total was Rs.69. I handed the guy a 100 rupee note. The cashier took it and opened the cash drawer. Something there caught my attention. I guess all of you have seen the typical cash drawer in such places. Its a big draw where the notes are kept. And at the end, there is a small setting to keep steel cups. The coins are usually kept in these cups.

So what caught my attention in this particular cash drawer, was the fact that there were toffees in one of the cups. I thought it was an odd place to keep it. But within a second I noticed the cashier's hand dip into it and take one piece out. He placed it in front of me and handed over Rs.30 in notes. I was a bit shocked at the nonchalant way in which he replaced Rs.1 with a toffee. I just took it and went towards a table.

We handed over the tokens to the "server" and also ordered bottled water. We were served pretty ordinary food. The only good thing was that the place was clean and surprisingly, totally fly-free.

We had taken up a seat towards the end of the dining hall and near our table, we saw an entrance. The kitchen was on the other side and so we got curious about this place. On closer inspection, we found a lot of cement bags and also a pile of sand. There was also a tall blue colored mixing tub.

Ta-daa.... That was the very place from which I had approached this hotel earlier. I had actually called Raghu to ask for directions from a spot next to that tub!!! We had a good chuckle.

We continued eating, all the while pitying the guy who was serving us food. The pity was because he had a look that said that he was having trouble using his exhaust pipes, but had gotten used to it.

Towards the end of the meal, the guy gave me a separate bill for the bottled water. It was Rs.13. I knew that I had few coins in my wallet and got a sudden inspiration to give Rs.12 through the instruments issued by the Reserve Bank of India and the balance Rs.1 through the instrument sold by Cadbury's or Nutrine (I don't even remember what the toffee was).

I told my parents this and they somehow seemed to be proud of my approach. We even started discussing strategies of how to give this toffee back. What to say if he refused to take it back. What kinda arguments to put forth etc. etc.

Once the eating formalities were completed, we headed out. I stopped over at the cashier's place. A bit to my chargin, I found a new guy was seated in the kalla petti. However the guy I first transacted with, was standing near him. Since it was a new guy, I was quite sure that he would object to the toffee. And I started picturing the whole discussion I was about to have with him.

I gave him a Rs.10 note, a Rs.2 coin and then gave him the toffee. The guy didn't even bother to look at me. He just grabbed everything and put it in the appropriate places in his cash drawer.

It was my turn now to act cool. If I lingered there long enough, it would indicate that I didn't anticipate his action and so it would be clear to him that he won. So I quickly started moving out of the hotel, goading my parents to come along.

I have a strong feeling that the folks at Chidambaram use these toffees as actual currency!

We then resumed our journey and at around 1.30 PM, reached Hotel Sampoorna at Sirkazhi.

Road Trip to Vaitheeswaran Kovil - Part 2 ::: Break for breakfast

We passed through quite a scenic route after Mahabalipuram. Even as we were enjoying nature's creations, I never lost sight of the need to look for a motel.

As we neared a place called "Mudhaliyar Kuppam", we were quite amazed to see such a large water body. I've actually never heard of this place and it was a really awesome sight to see. What started off to look like a small stretch of backwaters, actually turned out to be quite a big mass of water.

But unfortunately, we never did encounter a restaurant that was worthy enough of our visit! As the numbers on the milestones kept decreasing, we realised that we were close to a town called Marakkaanam. We were very sure that since it was a town's whose claim to fame was a frequent reference in some Visu movie, it would have some place where we could eat.

Alas, that didn't turn out to be the case. So without any other option, we decided to look for a place in Pondy.

After entering the erstwhile French colony, we came across a fairly decent looking vegetarian restaurant called Dwaraka. True to the Tamizh proverb of 10 things flying out when you are hungry, there was no objection to the fact the restaurant was located on the other side of the road.

The joint was quite a decent looking one. It was well lit and had a good courtyard at the back. This turned out to be part of a motel actually. It looked quite new, though the sign, made of thermocol near the cashier's desk, of "Wish you a happy new year 2007" proved that it was in existence for the last 10 months at least!

To wind up the idly vada (an order of dosai additionally for me), we ordered coffee. Since I was in the middle of the dosai, mine was scheduled to be delivered a bit later than my folks. They unfortunately turned out to be the guinea pigs of the coffee experiment. The coffee was not filter coffee and was probably made using the worst possible instant coffee powder.

My father didn't take more than 2 sips. My mother made a valiant attempt but couldn't go beyond 5-6 sips. The waiter admitted that they don't serve filter coffee, though the reason he gave was quite silly. So thankfully, I canceled my order and simply settled the bill.

Anyways, after this good break, we resumed our journey.

Explain to me what lime soda is all about

Was at dinner yesterday at Mathura's with Raghu and his wife.

I wanted to have a fresh lime soda and asked one of the waiters to get me one. He said ok and went towards the kitchen. He returned a couple of minutes later and informed me that they didn't have fresh lime soda.

Frankly, I was surprised. But I let it pass. I asked the guy to get me a 7UP. He acknowledged my request and moved away. But nothing came my way even after 5 minutes. So I called up another waiter and repeated my order.

And he asked if I wanted just 7UP or 7UP with lime. I thought for a moment if 7UP now came in some new flavor and said ok to the 7UP with lime. The guy came back a minute later, with a glass and a 7UP bottle.

Closer examination of the glass revealed what looked like an extract of fresh lime.

Ta-da! Isn't that part of fresh lime soda? The one that I was informed just 5 minutes back that they didn't have? Oh, I get it. He was out of soda.

Duh! Couldn't he have at least told me that and asked me if I wanted "Fresh Lime 7UP" or even "Fresh Lime Pepsi" for that matter? Its all the same at one point. I just wanted my version of fizz with lime juice!

Why does God make me interact with such specimens?

16-Feb 7:15PM to 18-Feb 4:30PM ::: Part 6 ::: Udupi Hotel Breakfast and Madurai

As expected, we stuck to our plans formulated the previous evening and left T'veli at 7.15 AM. If you have been reading the previous post in this series, you may remember that the time set then, was 6 AM or thereabouts. But we had to make use of the IST concept - Indian Stretchable Time.

The highway connecting T'veli and Madurai - NH 7 - was quite good. It was under construction, but the roads were well laid out and the work was more on the expansion. So there wasn't much hindrance to traffic flow.

We stopped for breakfast at a town called Saathoor. The driver took us to a posh restaurant called Sri Ramanujar Udupi Vilas. There we settled down and the waiter placed a banana leaf for everyone. We went ahead with the traditional order of pongal-vadai. It was then followed by a Rava dosai and a strong degree kaapi.

The setup of the restaurant was typical of olden times. I remember eating in small 'otels' around mayavaram in the 80s. This one had the same kind of setup. A small area. Lots of rooms - basically indicating that a house has been converted into a restaurant.

But the ultimate sign was the presence of a big wooden cupboard near the kalla petti. With 3-4 shelves that are partly sloped. So that you can keep some of your prepared food items like vadai, sweets etc. This hotel had it too. A blue framed cupboard with a tube light in the top shelf.

Once we were done eating, the waiter graciously indicated to us that we had to dispose off the banana leaf ourselves. Once again, it was something that I haven't encountered in the last 10-15 years. It was quite an interesting change in routine.

Luckily, we weren't asked to wash up the coffee tumbler and dabara. :)

We then proceed to Madurai. En route, we had a pit stop at TiruparunKundram. Which, for a few minutes I confused to be the temple where the eagles come at 10 AM. My doubts were cleared by my co-passengers.

This temple is quite interesting/different in that, there was no garba graham. There was the wall of a mountain and the statue of the deity was either carved out of the wall or was affixed to it. Either case, not a routine thing we see.

We finally reached Madurai Meenakshi Amman Temple. There our contact also joined us and got us special permission for a quick darshan. But even in that area, there were way too many people waiting to go inside. So, we quickly came to the general area itself and had our darisanam of Meenakshi.

After that, we came out and decided that we must call upon her husband as well. But his zone was equally crowded, considering that sivarathiri was just a day or two ago. And we didn't have a special pass for his area. So we just offered a quick prayer towards the sanctum sanctorum and finally left the temple.

Just outside the Western entrance (of the Sivan kovil), there is a juice shop. If you find yourself in that neighborhood, please make it a point to have a lime-soda at that joint. It was awesome.

And one other thing, there were way too many manja mandai entities there. Some of them were in saree and one or two in dhothi. Quite an interesting sight.

Finally, we decided to say goodbye to Madurai and the van started off towards the airport.