Travelogue: Pachmarhi Trip - Day 2

We had planned to reach Pachmarhi as soon as possible; so second day we left the hotel room by 8:00 AM without wasting time in breakfast. I didn’t know that there are no government buses in Bhopal. Public Buses, essential for intercity transfers, were not operated in Bhopal for last 10 years. Bus stands were in complete mess and buses were running on the mercy of local transporters. I asked the conductor about the timings of the bus; conductor told me that bus would start as soon as there are enough passengers in the bus, and accordingly to bus conductor the bus would take 6-7 hours to reach Pachmarhi, hardly 200 km from Bhopal. Hell, we ditched the plans to take the bus instead planned to take the train which was running 2 hours late from the scheduled time.

Anyway it gave us the chance to taste Poha and Jalebi. Oh, but the Poha were not as good as I expected. (Later, I came to know that in Bhopal Indori Poha are not served; instead shopkeepers are misusing the name of Indori Pohas). After trying it at various shops, I gave up. We boarded in the train after waiting for 3 hours at railway station, but reached to Pipariya Junction by 1 o’clock.

It was not hard to find a vehicle to take us to Pachmarhi from Pipariya. We found a cab and within an hour we reached Pachmarhi. On our journey we were told mysterious stories on the vehicle. A guide and a family told us that a lady must not keep her hairs open and walk outside the room. Another mystery was about a pool where people die without any significant reason. According to them, there are various mysterious stories about the place and all the deities of the region must be provided enough reverence from the tourists.

We were planning to check the facilities in the hotel that is run by MP tourism. So we planned to stay with Hotel Highland, Pachmarhi. Though driver and guide tried to convince us to not to take the hotel, but we were adamant to check the facilities in the Hotel. Later we found that hotel rooms were quite good and spacious. We spoke to the manager and told him the purpose of our visit. He gave us some insightful information about the place, and rejected all the myths that locals told us.

There are numerous places to visit in Pachmarhi, so based on the time available we sorted out the important places. We were planning to start the tour in the evening but the driver asked us a exorbitant amount for the ride in the evening. So we dropped the plans to visit any place except Jata Shankar which is just a km walk from the hotel.

Jata Shankar Temple

We planned to walk to the Jata Shankar, a temple in the middle of mountains. Kids, as guides, were eager to guide us to the caves. We hired one guide to understand more about the place but later we felt that guides were fooling people, though it did not matter much. Guide told us about the quality of medical herbs present in Satpura range, and it was quite a important information to us.

My Partner in Crime and My Wifey

We visited the place and later met Jeet. Jeet, lieutenant of Indian army, was undergoing training in Pachmarhi. We went to the market with Jeet and his friend. We spend some time in market. In the market we had awesome Samosas at Laxmi restaurant. End of the day we enjoyed our dinner at Highland hotel, and retired to our room.

Travelogue: Pachmarhi Trip - Day 1

In the process of exploration, we had already covers ten and more destinations in this year. In the continuation of our exploration, we were planning to explore unseen and less explored beauty of India so we decided to visit Bhopal, the capital city of Madhya Pradesh, and Pachmarhi, a hill Station in Satpura mountain Range.

We reached Bhopal in the morning. The biggest task, after reaching Bhopal, was to find a decent hotel to rest a little. Auto drivers offered us the rides within 20 rupees to some good family hotels. But being a shrewd person, I declined all such offers. It made me struggle for almost half an hour, and finally I got an indecent hotel in cheap rate.

At 10 AM, we checked out the hotel assuming that we could cover Bhopal by lunch time, and start for Pachmarhi. We started our trip with Laxmi Narayan Temple. Though the temple is new and it’s just like any other Hindu temple, but it offers a panoramic view of Bhopal overlooking both the lakes and other important monuments. As temple didn’t offer much, so we excluded remaining temples from our itinerary.

Laxmi Narayan Temple, Bhopal.

We moved to Birla museum which is adjacent to the temple. The museum exhibits the demolished but beautiful idols, ancient art object and artillery, and other objects representing the life style of people living in ancient Madhya Pradesh. All these artifacts were found during the excavation of various sites across the state. There were innumerable items to observe; so we rushed through them after examining a few with complete intent. Oh! I do not have any photographs from the gallery, as the guard kept an eye on us only.

Our auto driver was kind enough to leave us near Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya - National Museum of Mankind which is situated next to the Bari Lake. We filled our tummy in a restaurant near the lake. Don’t expect to fill your tummy with the things you desire, because these restaurants do not operate fully until noon.

We started exploring the national museum of mankind with the intent to finish the tour within an hour. This museum can be divided in two major areas i.e. outbound and inbound. Outbound area is spread across various hectors to demonstrate the life style, home, culture of various tribes, people, and states, whereas inbound area exhibits the human evolution, living style of various tribes of India.

We ignored few of the places on the way. First major halt was at Fisherman village. It village was primarily to represent the living style of fisher mans across country. In the similar fashion, living styles of various states i.e. Rajasthani, Gujrati, Oriya, Keralite, Nagpura, and etc and its tribe were demonstrated on the way to internal museum. We were really exhausted by the time we reached to the inbound museum.

Gallery to demonstrate the Art work of various states

Poles erected in front of a tribe house, Outbound portion of the Museum

Creations of a porter

Inbound museum has 13 galleries in it. Each gallery is rich with thousands of artifacts about the style, living, fashion, ornaments, rituals, weapons, and etc. It became way too difficult to keep track of each and every artifact. Information received today was way too more than a mind could hold. Now every new area or gallery was becoming intolerable. We were looking for food as we had already spent 4 hours in the museum.

Oriya tribe's house

The only restaurant, approved by central government, was another 500 meters away from the inbound museum. To add to our existing irony, there was not any meal available for next one hour. Anyway we managed to flatter the owner and sneak out two plates for us after waiting for 30 minutes. We had already missed our deadlines, but we were still positive about leaving Bhopal. So we planned to drop by at another important sight for 15 minutes only.

Van Vihar is a zoo situated next to the lake. Animals are not sheltered into cages but they have been provided enough space to survive. We hired bicycle, provided by MP tourism, to stroll through Van Vihar. It took us around 3 hours to cover the complete zoo on bicycles. It was the ride of approximately 12 km in the zoo. We were ecstatic with the use of bicycle after so many years in such a beautiful environment.

We getting ready for our ride in the park/zoo/Van Vihar

Lake glitters with the light of Run, on the way back from Van Vihar

Now we were sure that it was not possible to leave Bhopal today, so we relaxed at the lake for a while. Gathering, in the evening, near the lake was very similar to a fair in a town. People of various ages were swarming it. Couples were sitting under a tree shade and were engulfed with each other without the knowledge of people around. Elderly folks were walking briskly to keep their body and soul intact. Ladies were all around eatery stalls, and boating facilities. Due to a little emergency, we had to leave the place little earlier than planned, but it all was fun to become a spectator of such a lively environment.

Winter is back

It left you alone to die in the summers for 8 months, to die from the heat, and to suffocate in our own sweat. It disappeared as if it never wanted to return. It was not the only one who left us on the mercy of the heat; it took the rains with it. Though Rain tried to save us from the harshness of the heat, but it did not stay longer to make any impact on the screeching heat. But now it is back, and winters are back with bang.

Oh yeah, winters were not so dear four years back. I had just arrived from Bangalore to become the victim of harsh weather conditions of the North India. I used to shrink like a bed roll under two blankets to get a good sleep in the air tight room. It was hard to survive because I did not have to face those during my Bangalore stay.

It has been four years, and I have adjusted myself pretty well. Summers have been much more punishing, and this extended period of summers has become intolerable to us. Winters are much needed comfort to end the agony and misery of summers. Winters not only bring the comfort from punishing heat but also a reason to stay at comfort bed instead going out in cold.

We have been waiting for these winters for a long time in this season. Summers were extended to an extent where people had lost the hope of seeing cold. But winters returned with a bang. Within last 3-4 days temperature has gone to 5-6 degrees. Even it has not even allowed Sun to come out and lower the intensity of cold waves.

Such sudden change of weather has brought winters clothes out for everyone. Kids as well as elderly are shut into their homes. New winter specific items are available in market to eat. Different Gajjaks are available on various shops. It is really fun to watch people fully covered with bright colors.

Such a sudden change of temperature can be catastrophic to few people, who did not take enough precautions, but all in all it is a welcoming change in life for Northern people. Now I have more time to read and work on laptop. Nobody demands me to go out for shopping or for dining out in the evening. In this I can sit tightly and read or work on things that are more important to me.

Excess is Drug

You are sitting in toilet, and you do not want to leave the toilet even you are finished long back. You are riding in an auto but you want it to keep moving at your destination. You do not want to go to office because office is not as interesting. You do not want to see the world even for a second because obstructing the flow is not acceptable.

Sometime some good books bind you so hard that it becomes difficult to come out the world that though does not exist but created wonderfully enough to miss your entire universe. It feels that you have been bitten by a worm, but you do not want to attend the wound at this moment because the writer has penned down a flawless conversation between the two main characters for her book. The conversation is so striking that you forget whether you are watching a video or imagining the sequence. Such books hurt you a lot especially when you are married.

No? If you are asking "how or why", either you are a bachelor or you are not a reader. Oh, sometimes hell breaks out on you when you nod on something, from ever complaining wife, which you ignored due to your sheer concentration in the book. It is possible that as soon as you nod, you hear an object crashing on the nearby wall. If you are still not deterred with such a violent display of emotion, door bangs with such a force that it becomes impossible to ignore the heat.

You are forced to leave the world of literature to face another melodrama of your life. You have not yet recovered from the drama that you faced last week. You are still paying for it by offering various gifts to her. That is not all; I am still cleaning the utensil for the mistake I made last week.

I twisted the knob of the door with the intent of opening it, but I stopped by the thought of flying objects. I had saved my head last time by catching a flying object just before landing it on my head. As soon as I entered the room I heard that her sobbing was converted to a full time weeping. Tears were rolling down from her cheeks. I thought “Oh man, it is going to be costlier than all the other dramas faced previously”.

After consoling her for 23 minutes, I was able to dig down the reason for today's act. Actually I did not notice her new slippers that she brought today from the market. Even though she asked me thrice whether I like it, but instead lifting my face from the book, I simply nodded with no answer. To her It was a ridiculous act of ignorance from my side. She waited for me since morning to show me the slippers but I did not even look at her instead I sat with my book.

In the end, it was not as costly as I first thought. I had to sacrifice my reading for next 48 hours, appreciate her funny looking slippers and helped her in dinner.

Oh yeah, no such things happened with me. But when I sit with Atlas shrugged, and just loses myself in the words, conversations, characters, and plots. Everything becomes unimportant and black, that time such things can turn the heaven into hell. So whenever my wife speaks, I switch off the part of mind that was enjoying the book and switch on the other part for some time to enjoy the conversation with my wife.

So excess reading is like a drug too, it may not harm you physically but it will suck your energy in resolving issues with your family.

Is India Changing - A Quora post

There are lot of questions and answers posted everyday on quora, but there are very few new questions which inspire a person whereas there are numerous questions put up in the past which have awesome answers and stories.

I read one such question today. Question is quite simple. Is India changing? From core of my heart, I can say yes India is changing, we people of India are changing. This, in theory, is correct, but, for me, it is very difficult to demonstrate such changes with data. The answers mentioned below demonstrate the data. As much I read, I became followers of the authors or people who have been doing such splendid things to shine our nation and paint it with better and stronger colors.

http://www.quora.com/Is-India-changing

There are approximately 333 answers as of now, and each one has it's own tale to share with all. There are people who have written so many great stories about their experiences. Whether it is a Rickshaw wala, or some volunteer, all of them have a passion to change our world, our experience, our passion, and everything that looked shitty earlier.

Among those many beautiful answers, one answer is about procuring food for needy people. 

In Delhi, An organization, consisting few volunteers, has tied up with different restaurants to provide the day's remaining food instead throwing it for dogs or in dustbins. All the volunteers, belonging to the organization, distribute this food to people who are homeless and needy. This organization has been growing everyday with the help of companies and restaurants. Various restaurants are coming up to help them more and providing them additional help from their side. There are 50+ volunteers who are serving at least 500 people everyday in the streets. If numbers of volunteers are increased, so they would be able to serve more number of people.

This organization is working for a noble cause, and we must support it by volunteering. Even if you do not want to volunteer, at least you can contribute in some other ways. The best possible way is to distribute remaining food at your house. Instead of throwing remaining food in dustbin, you can walk a bit and find someone who really needs that food.Wow, it is such a small contribution and it will help humanity.

Unique Ideas

Okay, there is one more in the line.

For years, I have been planting a seed of an idea which was spectacular and unique in nature. In the process, I pained myself lot of times. Whatever I thought, it was either available on net or not a selling idea. I spent years in IT industry just to dream of an unique idea related to IT. I walked into the spiral to catch my tail, but I could not find an idea.

After not able to pull a miracle of the universe, I was still not disappointed. It required little bit of head banging on the wall and required little more efforts to accept the fact that "you are not Steve Jobs".As soon as Mr Steve's soul departed from my body, I became independent; I became the original BANIYA again. I understood that I am a BANIYA by birth. I really do not need an exclusive idea to change the universe instead I need a exclusive plan to sell it to the world. I was taught to sell GHEE, BOORA, and GUD effectively. So I plan to sell something that is easy to sell and create. I did not want to sell GHEE, BOORA again (due to less margin :-) You know I am BANIYA ), so I picked up a line where my wife had some experience in past.

Oh Yeah, that's travelling. I love travelling. You give me some money and I will spend that in travel. I love to wander to different places. My wife, who was stuck at home due to less jobs in Delhi, has experience in sales in hotel. She is 5 year experience in Hotel industry. So it was not tough for me to thing about selling tours to people.

So instead of thinking of an great idea, I thought to invest in an idea which is extremely popular i.e. Tours. There are various which I am not aware but I have lot of friends to help me to remove those obstacle.

It's a start of my era and it is not going to end soon for me.

Procrastinating

There is been lot of work around but the intention and efforts are not to the mark.

There is list of things that I would love to do, but I feel lazy to complete this. Though same thing does not apply when I am writing this here on the web and boring people who are really waiting for me to write some sensible stuff.

I am sure my friend Bibek would surely love a sensible stuff from my pen but I can not control. As I am neither an innovator nor a writer. Now a days, I am dropping by here to drop my brain's shit over here.

Anyway let me list down the task that I should have completed instead of writing this post.

1. Complete the design of my site.
2. Create the required package on launch.
3. Read Google Map API.
4. Understand Pagination and create pagination for the site.
5. Create Mobile Web page for the site.
6. Create mobile application on all 3 platforms.
7.  Learn Photoshop.
8. how to sort the packages on various factors.
9. Filters - Phase 2
10. Improve the design.
11. Create Holiday Type Logos.
12. Improve the database to introduce the multiple tags in the package.

I know, I know I am procrastinating, but I have uncontrollable itch of doing something but nothing sensible.

Shit, all in all I have listed something sensible in this post. Someone please help on these items. I will appreciate your time and efforts on this. ;-)

Okay I remember more.
13. Special Offer page and database set up for marketing.
14. Newsletter.
15. Maintain a blog for the site and update continuous information on this.

I will update it more and more as it has become a important blog for me now.
Keep writing.

Edit: Test the application with Multiple browsers and multiple screens.

EDIT 2: Provide web service interface so that all applications can access it.
EDIT 3: Securing URL and DB.