Mumbai Skyline

Driving back home the other day, I turned on the Eastern Express Highway towards Powai, which is the normal route home, and I saw a wonderful skyline with a burst of orange all over. I pulled over & clicked a few snaps. Couldn't resist clicking the snaps

Another Blog

Damn, Another blog?
I know, but since I am going to try and restrict my travel related posts on this blog, I've revived by old defunct blogspot address, Musings My Dear!. So for all those taking the trouble of reading the blog, or for those who accidentaly stumbled in here and have some more free time on their hands, can stop by at my other blog which has this & that & blah blah blah.

Airport Woes

Went to Jaipur for a day yesterday. Was met with the longest queue I've ever seen at Terminal 1A. It took me nearly 30 mins after the checkin to get past the security gate.

An interesting thing happened. While I was in queue one of the security guys came & handed me a small scissor and asked me keep it in my pocket. He wanted to check if his guys were doing his job well. And guess what, the guard who frisked me missed the scissor. So I came out of the frisking area and handed the scissor to the supervisor and that was the start of a very lousy day for that guard. He got a verbal bashing like I've never heard before. All in all quite an event making the long wait to board the plane, a bit amusing. The flight was delayed by 40 mins only because passengers couldn't board the plane due to the serpentine queues.

Its really getting quite frustrating to travel by these low cost airlines for business. Its a different thing if you are on a holiday. The return flight was on Jet, and it was a breeze traveling. Jet is such a well oiled machine, all it needs is good maintenance. Having said that, I spotted a no smoking sign, right next to an ashtray in the loo. The ashtray is bigger than the signage.

Windows Live Writer

Truly something new I am trying. Checking out remote posting from Window Live Writer. Should be a good idea to blog when I am not connected to the Internet

Bye Bye

It was Deja Vu in the morning and after hitting the snooze button a few times, we put the alarm off and postponed the early morning beach trip to our next trip to Kumta. Since we would be leaving in the afternoon back to Bombay, we thought its better to laze around a bit more.

Roamed around the fields a bit more and lazed around for a while before we got down to packing up our things since we had a train to catch at 2. Holiday Special trains are usually late and so was this one. So instead of its scheduled departure at 2 pm, it finally left at 3:30.

The journey back was nice. Me, Mom & Snehal were chatting for quite a while and looking at the lovely views the Konkan Railway offers. Tea, Tapioca wafers, biscuits, Appy & Tomato Soup were consumed, not at once, but at regular intervals.

We played Kaleidoscope for a while and then got bored. The rain was a few hours late and I had to rush for office within a hour of reaching home.

Getting back to work after a holiday is always boring and more so if you have a mountain of emails to clear. :)

Chicken, Shell fish, Gadbad & Gotisoda

We were home all day long yesterday. There was a puja in the morning, an amazing spread for lunch which was promptly followed by a quick nap and then there was a tea party in the evening for close family & friends around town who were curious to meet the newly married couple, us :)

Woke up quite late and had a lazy breakfast and walked in the fields & gardens in the backyard looking at the various fruit trees around. There are close to 400 coconut trees and various other trees of mangoes, cashew, chickoo and many more. With 8 acres of fields around the house, it is a herculean task to look after the entire area. With 2 wells, one which is potable water & the other for irrigation, the water supply is self sufficient for the entire household.

We were invited for lunch at a family friends place. There was some great chicken curry, shell fish, and some other vegeterian dishes & we were quite focussed on the chicken. We overate a bit, actually Shenal pushed the envelope quite a bit (for which she paid a price in the night) and we were compelled to take a nap for a while.

After some tea we roamed around Kumta market area which is quite a hotbed of activity. We grabbed some "gadbad" and "goti-soda" at Shimla Cold Drinks. The gadbad was great and so was the goti-soda. The goti soda is an old way of bottling soda. A marble keeps the gas in place and uncorking the bottle means pushing the marble down to let the soda be poured. We also picked up liquid jaggery which goes very well with chapati & dosas.

We drove to another beach which was deserted and had a beautiful stretch of sand with huge waves coming in. We spent some time and were forced to rush towards the car as we saw a huge wall of rain approaching towards us from a distance.

After chatting till pretty late we slept hoping we would be able to wake up early to get to the beach once again.

Temple Visits

But upset stomach it was in the morning and I would be relegated to a diet to recover. We drove to Snehal's anscesteral village "Masur" where we visited a temple and offered prayers and then visited a few people who had houses at locations one would kill for. Overlooking the Agnashini river the house offered a spectacular view and tempted us to just sit by and look at the river flow gently.

We stopped by at the "Shambu Lingeshwar" temple perched on a hill top where it was windy as hell. It must have been quite a feat to build the temple at such a height and it seems to have a huge following in the surrounding areas. Lunch was buttermilk and curd rice followed by a 2 hour nap and some numerous visits to the loo.

We drove to the Kumta beach in the evening. The beach and the views around it were amazing. We strolled in the waters and admired the simple yet tough lives led by the fisherfolk who live along the beachside. We managed to capture some nice snaps and got back home after about an hour. Dinner was 3 cups of buttermilk and I was feeling optimistic that tomorrow morning would a better day for my tummy. Amen

Kumta House

The Kumta House is quite a palace of sorts. Nested at the mouth of a large plot, it has all the makings of a beautiful breakaway resort.

The main facade looks lovely with a nice sit out. Old chairs give it a quaint look and you can sit here and look into the gardens or peek into the road that goes along the boundary which carries all the thin traffic that goes by.

The plot has over 400 coconut trees and various other fruit trees of mango, chickoo and so many other that I have forgotten. It has 2 wells, 2 small outhouses and a large rice field which has not been tilled for a few months.

Barely could manage to move around the entire plot. Have earmarked a few things I need to do when I go there next. Its fun to explore

Gokarn

The plan was to go to Gokarn to pick up Mom.

Gokarn is about a 30 mins drive from Kumta. We managed to leave at about 1 pm, post a wonderful sleep and an even better breakfast. We arrived just in time for lunch at my aunts place. There was fish, 'bendi' and a whole lot of good food and dessert was "kaiholge" (similar to puranpoli but with a coconut filling). A siesta was just plan necessary and sleep we did.

Our drive back was was wonderful, thanks to some torrential rain. The salt pans near Gokarn looked like they would be swept away any moment. Driving through rains is always a wonderful experience. The rains always leave a lovely fragrance of wet soil and the fragrance was with us till the time we reached back home.

Dinner was good and I gobbled up nearly 2 mangoes, all home grown. So all in all the day was all about eating and traveling. But I went to bed suspecting I would wake up with a bad tummy the next day. I hoped & prayed that I wouldn't.

Kumta Calling

A train journey, especially in an AC compartment in the summer, is a great way to catch up on sleep. I slept like a log for 5 hours straight and was woken up by the TC. By the time I woke up, it was dinner time & I made do with a highly reccomended "omlette parotha", which did live up to its expectation and a pepsi.

Since my destination would arrive at 2 in the morning, I ended up sleeping in parts. Unfortunately the train was running 2 hours behind schedule, which meant I needed to fight harder to stay awake. Finally the train arrived at Kumta at 4:15 am and there's nothing more welcoming than your wife's warm smile and a hug to make you forget the journey. Snehal barely slept in the night, anxious that she might oversleep and was smiling from ear to ear, a sight that makes me overjoyed, the minute she saw me.

We drove past sleepy lanes and empty crossings and reached home after a 15 min drive. Old style homes have a warmth which city homes don't and I settled in quite easily. After a brief chat with my in-laws we crashed into bed, dying to catch up some sleep.

While at it, here's a bit about Kumta