Nellore

Komala Vilasam, near the Gandhi Bommallu on the Grand Trunk Road is a good place to eat. Nellore has some wonderful vegetarian restaurants. Komala vilasam is a nice little place where we can have budget Dosas, Idlis and other south Indian breakfast and snacks in a very clean ambience. Self served and no chairs it is one of my favourite eating place at Nellore.

Just a few yards away from the Komala Vilasam is Sasi's C class shop. He is from Trichur and one of my first friends at Nellore. A pleasant man who spends most of the day in his shop at the cross road corner doing business. His hards work and attitude to work is indeed an inspiration for me.

The unity day relating to Sardar Vallabhai Patel, who united nearly 561 princely states to the Indian Union was celebrated in Nellore too. I did not know what it was about when I saw so many school children near the town hall. I came to know the significance only after reading "The Hindu" newspaper later in the day. 

Bay of Bengal

Most of my living years I have spent by the Arabian Sea. Moving to Nellore for a license porgram has given me the chance to taste the life by Bay of Bengal. We escaped the raging fury of Cyclone Phalin which land crashed on Odisha Coast mostly and Helen which hit 100kms away from us. Lehar too was supposed to devastate Nellore but we escaped as it hit little away from us.

It makes me wonder how life would have been pre advanced technology enhanced weather forecasting by the Bay of Bengal.

Nellore

The Saturday morning broke here with fog and dew. A very cold morning indeed.

Just a wall across from my room is the kitchen of a very big hotel. They start very early and closes very late into the night. I wake up hearing them starting the day and goes to bed with the sounds of cleaning the kitchen after a long day. In a way I have lost a sense of time, as they start very early and closes very late at night. If I wake up with them, it will be too early for me, if I go to bed it would be too late for me. Still, I enjoy listening to the voices of so many lives who make a living there and ofcourse the sweet hunger whipping  hum of the dosas frying on the hot plate.

Nellore, Andhra Pradesh has been a sweet experience for me so far. I miss my camera though. My Fuji Fine pix  S9600 fell apart after six years of rigorous use. I could have get it up again, but gave it to an enthusiast who is beginning to learn photography. Still could  not afford a new camera, yet. 

Fishing Boats

Moored during the monsoon.

The record breaking Monsoon Rain

Tough rainy days in July.

MONSOON

The colors of the rain!

Utthar Khand

Up in the North and Uttharkhand, a cloud burst did the pilgrimage tourism in. No matter how hard they try its going to be a while before they get the infrastructure back on track. The goverment declared the Chaar Dham travel to be closed for three and half years.

While the Metereology department and other related experts debate over the reality whether it was the monsoon or an atmospheric depression that caused the landslide and the flood, the fact remains, India's spiritual capital is grossly neglected. 

 Every Indian, wants to visit Kedar Nath and Bhadri Nath, its in his spirit and soul. Then, why dont we make it a national campaign to preserve and develop these locations in the most suitable way to let these faithfuls visit the place safely without damaging the environment. If not all those who wish to visit atleast in reasonable batches every year.  Why dont we make this a India public mission, citizen from all over India contributing financially, say like an IPO, and entrusting the work to the best agency in the world. Certainly there would be capable organization in the world who can develop a plan for us, if we cannot do it on our own. 

INDIA,  Please consider this suggestion. I am sure there would be millions who would be thinking the same way.

Champions trophy 2013

India won hands down. 

Won all the matches, fought well. 

But then, more than the team, BCCI needed the championship badly than anybody else. Could this be scripted, this victory, this win? Considering their money power, BCCI are like Gods, they can pull off just about anything.

Well, this is what IPL and the match fixing over the years has done to me. Could not even enjoy a great win, without considering being fooled. 

Thank you, for killing my game.

Power Cut

 Most of my picture taking is limited to home space ever since the monsoon.

 These are some pictures from the powercut session in the evening. Inspite of the monsoon, our powercuts are still on, as the rain is yet to catch up. Statewise there has been a decrease of 700,000 lakh units all put together, perhaps from the less use of Fan and Air conditioners as the temperature has really come down with the rain.

Same angle same location, low shutter speed doing the trick at night.

Monsoon

We are enjoying the monsoon after the tough and steamy summer. Usually the over powering evening rain comes with strong wind blowing up all the dustwhich has been turned dry by the crystal clear sun in the day.

A beautiful bloom the first week of rain has helped stands torn by the heavy rain drops.

Ana Hine

 The Indian news these days are often about making money the wrong way and how folks are falling from grace when they are caught. As we all know, there are so many others too in the same money pool who are not getting caught but are continuing what they are doing and still maintaining their honour and reputation.

 For honest artists of our Kerala and India, the Kochi-Muziris Biennale really opened up new vistas for getting noticed and earning their bread from their craft. But there too, its not easy for all the artists to make an entry or get noticed which is making the creatively inclined to think out of the box to do something which will make them jump straight into the main stream, just like Ana Hine who made news with her art degree project

 The Duncan school of Jordan Stone college of Art and design is the top rated art school in Scotland and the institution comes in the first four of UK. Recently few art students were awarded a first class art degree for a work which was in more ways challenging traditional perception of what make ART.

 Ana Hine's wordpress blog where she accounts her journey through the college project which earned her the first class degree. Ofcourse it may not suit our Indian Art sensibilities but for sure for an art student in our times of match fixing and scams would be an interesting lead indeed for some honest leverage.

 http://anahine.wordpress.com

Power Cut

Inspite of the Monsoon, the power cut in our province will be lifted only by June 15th. But the government had been kind enough to lift the cuts during the High School exam, well over a month.

Amway

At one point of time or the other we all have come across Amway, in Kerala and as they say all over India now. Any one with a marketing degree or doing a marketing job, while in the middle of a job switch might have checked out the Amway option.  The guy whom I spoke with in one of those switch time a few years ago, was very articulate and told me Amway do not have to be a full time option, I can do it part time, like most of the housewives and others who were eventually hooked to it.  It seems Amway took our country by storm opening up an extra means of income and an opportunity to mingle with very well trained "elegant" folks and become elegant oneself. True too. The elegance adds well to our third world fancy. 

They arrested the Amway CEO & MD Mr. W S Pnickney and few other high ranking officials of the company under the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act of 1978. It is said the multi level marketing took the form of pyramid schemes and required the members to bring in new members with a fee. The problem would arise when the base of the pyramid stops growing the the new members in the base of the pyramid gets nothing and the pyramid go bust. 

Nothing of such was happening, as the company had a product line to sell, good or bad. But one would have rather wished, rather than the entrance fee which the pyramid shared how wonderful it would have been had they shared the profit from real sale and that they could sell some real product which  an ordinary Indian would have had a real need say like a cheap electric fan (Cheaper than our "Cinni" fan before the advent of Chinese) or even solar lamps. 

As  more of our cities is going the super market way, the direct marketing was a sure way of personal interaction and the little profit earned a means of additional income to many but the idea it seems was not that broad and has been come down to be treated as a glorified Ponzi scheme.

 

Venice Biennale Art festival

For those of us in Kochi for whom the first ever Kochi biennale was an unforgettable experience would be excited to know the happenings at the famous Venice biennale. The resident evil actress Milla Jovovich teamed up with the American artist Tara Subkoff and became a living artist for five hours in a glass cage on the street. 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2332464/Milla-Jovovich-goes-braless-flesh-coloured-negligee-performance-Venice-art-festival-al.html 

Phaneesh Murthy

How sad for Phaneesh Murthy's wife, she had to go through these humiliating experience all over again. How come a smart business man like Phaneesh make such an awful error in judgement all over again. How does it feel to know, the pink flesh he fancied was not offered to him for the man in him, but for the  the power and authority that he held.

Araceli Roiz and Phaneesh, Murthy shame on you for making another woman, your wife, suffer emotionally.

SreeShanth

What a shame and what a waste.

What else to say.

The basics

The concept of love, family, home..

Summer

The summer is raging. Temprature at times is climbing up to 37 C with humidity on 60+ scale, way up the average and bearable 32-34C. Sun burns and heat waves are making news. I got burned and the whole body is itching making a "bath" in prickly heat powder necessary everyday.

The make shift shops that has come up all over are selling the summer special lemonade. Ginger, chilli, kiwi fruit everything goes into our normal "sharbath" these days. The shake is the key. Some shops have become an overnight hit with Face book coverage.

Indeed a livelihood for some and a consolation from heat for us, all.

Auto Rickshaw Run 2013

I did not know much about the Auto Run. Few days ago, I had seen some guys clearing up the yard at the Cochin United Club (Established 1890) removing debris and the creepers. Couple of days later, the Auto Run board came up and the few autos with guys and girls arrived, I thought it was the usual touristy thing.

I was wrong. I should have checked this out earlier.

From 2007 they are conducting the Autorickshaw Run across India. The League of Adventurists International Ltd, UK is organizing this Cross India Auto Rickshaw Run few times a year.

The adventurists are focused on eradicating boredom from life by devising these kinds of extraordinary adventure trips. Yes, adventure tourism. Imagine travelling across India in three wheeled 700 CC tuk tuk’s or as they say glorified Lawn Mowers.

Their website is very interesting and gives the whole information on what they are about:

www.theadventurists.com

The lady in the picture is the assistant to India Chief, she did a lot of running around coordinating the event.

Getting used to the Auto Rickshaw is perhaps the toughest/easiest part. Most of them perhaps have not seen our three wheeled wonder ever before the run.

Each of the team has to pay the entry fee like GBP 1395. They also  have to raise GBP 1000  in charity half of which goes to the official charity of the Adventurists : Cool Earth, which is about saving rain forests. http://www.coolearth.org/adventurists

"Outrageous" Claire & Daisy did took the run to their heart.

The rest they can contribute to a charity of their choice from the list provided by the Adventurists. In India mostly its  Frank water projects.

They strive to provide safe clean water by employing ultra violet and reverse osmosis technology to filter water and remove diseases causing both chemical and biological contaminants. Using different kinds of filters they remove from the water bacteria, viruses and chemicals.

They have been funding clean water projects in India since 2005.

All of these projects are considered to be sustainable, community run rural village projects for villages which are under the poverty line.

http://www.frankwater.com/contact/

The gathering of the so many Runners did arouse local as well as tourist curiosity.

The participants are mostly well to do with a blooming career and a profession who willingly take a break from their fixed rather boring routine of their life to make it come alive. The travel experience of these good Samaritans are a wonderful and inspiring read indeed.

They had with them all kinds of electronic gadgets to communicate and take pictures. The adventurist has an "App" that let the team update their social networking sites on the run.

Many of the runners took pleasure in adorning the local dress. It was a great joy for us to see them wear the "mundu" with so much of pride. Thank you.

The summer in Kochi is blazing, the temprature was 35+ with a nasty humidity. Before the take off the runners did have a feel of what they are going to face up the country.

The run is famous for its pre and post run parties, we did not get to see that, but most of the runners came wearing their costumes, which was a little outrageous for the heat!

Beautiful paint work on most of the autos did tell us what the runners had in their mind.

The band and its beat made the flag off a rhyme to rememmber.

There were games for the runner - here the runners cheering at a cricket match with the locals.

It’s a pity indeed, that I did not know about the participants and their objective before the run began. Their good hearts should be very much thanked for and their kindness very touching. Let us wish them a wonderful travelling and learning experience and pray that they complete their cross country trip safely.

The way Insurers see this run “Willfull Exposure to needless Peril” tells exactly what the team is taking up. But its all worth the experience. So says the past runners.

You can read about them here:

www.yogaslackers.com

http://rickshawrundiaries.com/

http://www.travelwithamate.com/the-rickshaw-run-an-interview-with-candace-rardon/

The show runners at Adventurists:

The institute of adventure research

MD Tom Morgan

Matt Dickens

Chief of India Branch

Vikash Pradhan

Vice Chief of India

Summer March

Starting from the second week of March our summer has picked up heat, atleast 3-4 weeks earlier than what it should be. In the Month of "Kumbh" we did not get the two rains which is customary, that added to the heat vows.

Surprisingly, those areas of Fort Kochi, where they still have trees, it was cool and pleasant. Here is a German tourist enjoying her time under the trees!

Jankar

The jankar that connects Fort Kochi with Vypeen, a boat trip right across the harbour mouth.

Old Cafes

We do not see these kind of village cafes anymore in our town. Found this yesterday on my way to the Chendamangalam Synagogue.

Mangoes

 Summer time is mango time. Mangoes blooms just before the summer hot up and ripens when it is really hot. Mangoes compensates for us the energy we loose in the heat.

 The variety of the mango I have in these pictures have a soft tone to their skin with an yellow tinge. No matter how hard I tried, I just could not get the close ups sharp.

 Jasmines are a typical tropical delight. We use the flower for worship and also on person. Our women used to wear it on their hair and as a bracelet. Well, that was before the bottled perfumes.

The shrub we have at home, grew weary in the shade. We moved it to the sun and it "leaped". A single bloom so soon!

Jasmine is my favourite , always. For its simplicity and its fragrance. After blooming it wont stay on for more than a day. What a day it has, and what an influence.

Then the squirrels during the day,and the Bats at night,they feast on the tasty ones.