Malampujha Dam

Hello Friends

I am back with a new place. Well the most important point about this place is its located in the southernmost end of India. The Malampujha Dam is situated in Kerela in Pallakkad District. I and a Southy friend of mine visited dam last saturday. I felt good after meeting a familiar face after so long time. Although I had  class (office ), but it was half day. we had very less time to go Kerala and return back, therefore I ran towards home as soon as I can. When I reached, I found that I lost my cupboard key. I searched them everywhere, but they were not found. I asked our warden if she has the key, yes the keys were with the warden. Actually I forgot them at the cupboard door only. She took them, when housekeeping staff came in. Now I first reached railway station, as it was decided between me and my friend. But there was no train at that time, so we took a bus to Ukkadam Bus stand. We boarded the bus and went Kerala. En the route towards Kerala, it started raining. We reached Pallakad and boarded another bus for Malampujha Dam. At this time it was raining slowly. I was thinking that the rains will slow down and eventually stop. Now we entered the dam cum garden. The concept behind this place is that, they have created a big garden around dam, really great idea. We were roaming in that garden, with a slight fear, because then place had insufficient lights and less no of people.

 Soon It started raining heavily and we became complete wet. I had tension of my e gadgets- mobiles and cam. Soon we ran towards exit and boarded the bus for railway station. The train was after 45min, now we were waiting at the platform and we were hungry. But we were not able to find any good stuff there, so we just had Biscuits and tea. The train was late 15min and it took more time that usual to reach Coimbatore. We were tired like hell. We parted our ways at the station. I found a veg restaurant infront of station, but it was closed, another 2 restaurants were also closed. In the end I was able to search a good veg restaurant. I had my dinner and boarded a bus to Gandhipuram. From Gandhipuram to Shivananda Colony. Actually I wanted to reach Rathinapuri, but I was not able to explain conductor the stop name. When I reached Shivananda stop, he said me to de board the bus, I said next stop, but such a type of conductor he was, he made me de board the bus there only. Now I was completely exhauted, first office, then rains and now this bus conductor. The clock was showing 11:45pm. As soon as I got down I started requesting for lifts, after walking some distance I got one (Risky business at this time in a new place).

 

I still had some distance to cover to reach my home. Now I was on foot, as I was passing by the bridge I saw lots of dogs. I was scared, but I kept myself calm and cool and crossed it. Finally I reached Home. Surprise It was locked, so I jumped from the wall and got in, again the stairs door was locked, finally I called my warden, she opened the gate and I reached my flat.   

Mardmalai

Mardmalai Temple

They don’t understand my language, I don’t understand their

They don’t know me, I don’t know them.

Still both of us want to be friends.

I visited Mardmalai Temple today. I boarded bus no. 70 from Gandhipuram. I was standingin the bus, the conductor came to me and shifted me the other side.(Remember this shifting, Ill come to this part later.)

Soon I found a seat near 1 student. I started interacting with him.I asked about his studies and many other things, while interacting I got to know that he is also going to same place with his parents.

After some time, I called conductor and said him I want a ticket, till that time we had already crossed 2 stations, he asked me “where are u coming from (in tamil)”, I didn’t understood a word, what he was talking, my neighbor answered “Gandhipuram”. Suddenly he got angry and was started saying  ”asdasd asdasd asdasdf asdfasdfdkfghirogh”. Ya it seemed to me like this only, after some time my neighbor said “money”. I gave the money and conductor left us. Now my neighbor became my friend, I asked him “why the conductor was shouting”. He said “because I should have taken the ticket before time”. I was just laughing inside, thinking that “first of all it was not my responsibility to take ticket it’s the conductor’s still when I tried to buy one, he shifted me and in last If I could not have taken the ticket or have bluffed other stop, he was not be able to catch me”. It was me who being honest done all the right things and that guy was yelling at me like hell, all other passengers watching this. It was a cool incident, I don’t know what he was shouting but I didn’t understand a word.

Moral: Whenever someone says something bad/wrong to you, just think that you don’t understand a thing what he/she is talking about. It will make that incident awesome.

 We reached Mardmalai Temple. We removed our shoes at the shoe stand and I also kept my shoes with them. We went inside the main temple after covering large no of stairs. In the Temple, there was an idol of God Murugan on which lots of things such as coconut water, milk and few other things were being poured. Personally I don’t like all this stuff, giving money in big temples and pouring lots of things on God’s idol. As an add on to my thinking I had recently watched the movie OMG(Oh my God), which raises the issue of money collecting agents (Pandits, Padri, Father) of each religion. As we all(Me, My new Friend, His Father and Mother) were standing there, my friends father gave the pandit a Rs15 ticket and told the Pandit names of their 3 family members. I was thinking “what is this? They are here, pandit is here, then why give money to pandit, for calling their names in front of God, They can also do that.” Pandit is not a messenger of God or something like that. My friend’s father also gave Coconut to pandit. He divided it in 2 pieces and water was thrown, again wastage.

My New Friend

After all this, we came out of Temple. There were some rituals being performed by friend’s mother on him, she also performed on me. At that time I thought she just treated me like her son, how sweet south Indians are. We just met an hour ago and I didn’t said a word to his mother, because she dont understand me and I don’t understand her (language barrier). Still she treated me like her son.

Now we came down, she insisted me to take something from the shop, where they all were buying. I said “no, I don’t know any of the things in the shop”. But she again insisted, and gave a sweet in my hand; at this time I got the idea that she wants me to have anything from the shop from her side. I tried to say no, a lot of time; suddenly a hindi understanding guy showed up and made me sure about the thinking of mother. I thought, I would be acting rude, if I don’t take something from the shop. I took banana chips, as the sweet was looking too sweet.

Then we boarded the bus. When my stop was near, I just touched the feet of his parents, said by to my friend and came home.

They don’t understand my language, I don’t understand their

They don’t know me, I don’t know them.

Still both of us want to be friends.

Yes that’s true, weather we take my friend’s mother, my mess’s (restaurant’s) uncle and aunty, my office security guard anyone of them.

They don’t know me nor they understand my language, still they understand me, still they help me, still they become my friends.

Must say South Indians are good and helping people.

     

Ooty-The Queen of Hills continued

Please read the first part first.

After Lake we visited Botanical Garden (Must See Spot). As we already knew that we have less time and we have to cover a lot of spots. So we all agreed on a timeframe of 1hr. In this hour we had to complete Botanical garden and Lunch. 6 friends first visited Botanical Garden, I was one of them. IMPORTANT point: if you are going ooty, give maximum time to this Garden, it's the best spot in whole Ooty. Whole garden is more that awesome, there are no words to explain the garden. You can find hundreds of plants, flowers there. If you are interested in gardening, you can buy seeds from there. The Garden contains trees from different areas of India as well as the World, Spanish European all kind of flowers. At that time I was thinking that I should have given more time to this Garden rather than Lake and Rose garden (since it was no rose season, we found less roses than that garden could have).

After Botanical Garden, we had our lunch and purchased homemade CHOCOLATES from there. Chocolates are the specialty of Ooty. Then we rushed to cab, other 11 also came at the same time. Few trainees  from those were late, they were the same who came late in each and every spot. But I cannot say a lot to them, as I had to take all of them together.

Then we moved to the highest point in Ooty-Doodabeta. The view from Doodabeta was cool. Its best to visit that spot in the evening, and you will reach there in same time. The clouds, the atmosphere can only be understood if you experience it. It was a photographic spot too, we took pictures of diffrent shapes of clouds, our buddies etc.

Now the last point- The Mettupalayam View, this point is great to see in light as well as in dark. In light it's a scenic view of city while in dark lights made this view great. We took a group picture there, as it was a demand (a good one) of one friend.

After all these spots we finally reached our home. My experience: It is not easy to make so many people agree on a single point. In our trip also I tried same but one person looked angry in the complete trip. If I would have made that person happy, others 16 might have became angry, I think I made the right decision. In my thinking the whole trip was good, I learnt a lot of things in the trip, and have made a few conclusions, first understand the mentality of each and every person going with you and if your thinking matches with them, then only go with them or else make yourself adjustable or well you know this option.

You can always give comments here.       

OOty- The Queen of Hill Stations

Rose Garden

 There are many names of a single place, rather say one of the best in South. I visited Ooty to celebrate Gandhiji's birthday. Actually 17 friends visited there and had an awesome day. The planning was done in an hour only. I came home after having dinner and asked everyone who wants to join the trip. In starting 19 trainees got ready to go and we hired a cab, just after the cab deal was final, 2 trainees quitted. Well I had this in mind that's why I was taking more money from all. Just as our plan was in process, one more group plan was already set. They were taking very less than what I was collecting I justified them by saying that "I am collecting high charges because there are hidden charges in their trip such as entry and parking, I after trip some money is left Ill return you.". They said "OK, but some charge still needs reduction". Finally we all agreed on terms and conditions. I must say it is a bit difficult to make 17 people agree on same conditions because each and everyone have different taste such as some wants to cover as much as spot as he can, while other wants to be back on time, no matter how many spots are covered, while others wants to have girls no matter how much time it take or how less spots are covered. As the planner I had to take decisions which most of the people wants. Although they were hard decisions, but someone has to take the hard path.

At the Lake

We reached Ooty and everyone started making their demands such as one said "Hurry we should cover  as many spots as we can", while another said "Call the other group, just check where are they". I said will hurry and will check that is there any possibility to sych our cabs. But soon, it became clear that, if we are going to synch the cabs following problems will be there: will be late, less no of spots will be covered and some people might become uncomfortable. So we hurried and tried to complete all spots and we succeeded too.

Our first spot was the Rose garden. The name itself says that it was full of different types of Roses. Wherever your eyes can see, only roses were there, it was a marvelous view. After Rose Garden we reached Lake. Lake had the facility of boating, we hired a paddle boat, it was a cool experience, as the boat never go straight, no matter however you keep the lever. It was always going round or left or right, but never straight. I must say it was fun.

well there are three more points left, I'll write about them in the next post.

In Boat with a friend

Isha Yoga Center

Isha Yoga Center is a sacred place situated about 40kms from Gandhipuram (Coimbatore). I got to know about th place from one of our facilitators at the training facility. Last Saturday I visited this Center. I and two of my friends boarded the bus from our training facility to Gandhipuram. Gandhipuram is the main market of Coimbatore, now at Gandhipuram we had no idea of the bus no to be board so as to reach Sirovani Dam, yes dear readers we were actually planning to visit Sirovani Dam.

Shocked!!!

 But as we know that everything is not in our hands; there is one superpower. We all are puppets. He (God) wanted us to visit the Yoga Center; so he diverted us there. Actually the language played the role of God. Can you Imagine How?

 We were unable to get the bus no which would take us from Gandhipuram to Sirovani dam, we already knew that Isha Yoga center is also a good place. Its name was written in English in the display board at the Bus station. So we all thought to visit the Isha Yoga center only.

Bus no 14D travels from Gpuram to Isha, we got the bus. Now some incidents of bus:

I was gathering all the information about Sirovani dam from the conductor; he could not understand a word said by me. A Coimbatore girl was observing all this, she said tell me ill interpret it to conductor. With this instance I just wanted to tell you how good Coimbatore people are.

Now after some time, an adult man boarded the bus. He didn’t have the place to sit; he was standing there for some time. I thought I should give him my seat, but second thought came in my mind which made me practical, I thought my stop is the last one and I have to stand for like half an hour, if I give him my seat. I didn’t have up from my seat. After some time he tried to sit on floor at that time I gave him my seat.

I also took some more help from the same girl to understand more about outing places in Coimbatore. Finally we reached Isha, and saw a video telling about the temple. Shivling and how Sadhu (I forgot the name of the saint). But we were still blank to what to do and where to do. I just got to see a senior girl from my office only. I confirmed the same by asking her the name of training facility. She told us go to snan kund (Sacred Bathing place) and the main temple The Shivling. We went to tickrt counter for bathing, but it happened to be the ladies timing, so we visited the Shivling. We were said to wait outside in pin drop silence outside the main Dome of Shivling, so that people from the inside come out. As soon as they came, we went in. It was really nice feeling inside the dome, in a completely different spiritual environment; you have to feel it to understand it.

On the route to Isha one friend saw some flower farm within a kilometer distance from Isha. We decided to visit there. En route we saw tamarind trees, we plucked some of them. Its always a fun to pluck fruits from trees and eat them (as many might have done in their childhood and if not you have missed a really good activity).

After all this we went to flower farm, but the residents yelled something in tamil, which we took it as get out he he he. In the next farm, we took permission from one of the resident to took some pictures, as we were taking another peson started yelling on us, which we not took it as “get out or Ill Kill you” he he he, so we ran from the farm. These small things are a great fun; they relax us from the daily office routine. In last we board the bus which leads us to Gandhipuram. Overall the trip was Fun. Now I use those tamarind to awake me when feel sleepy at worktime.