Gangtok Trip – Day 2 – Mamli On Train
April 12, 2009, Day 2, 3.11 pm:
Mamli engrossed in a third reread of the last Harry Potter - The Deathly Hallows.
Gangtok Trip – Day 2 – On The Train to Kolkata
April 12, 2009, 5.30 am, Day 2:
I suppose it is the uncomfortable berths but I always wake up very early in trains. The fact that most people are asleep and I can brush my teeth without cheerleaders also seems important somehow.
Anyway, here I am, up nice and early, teeth as clean as they will get on a train. Everybody else is asleep. The sun is up though the drawn curtains don't let in much light. I have always had a fascination for staring out the window of a speedilng train, a pleasure that my kids don't seem to know exists. My daughter, Mamli, would rather read a book and my son, Bablu, would rather play a game on my mobile or watch a movie on it. I suppose they just aren't used to the fun part of travelling yet. I did a lot of travelling with my parents and sister when I was a child but between Padmaja's and my job, we don't get to take a vacation often.
So much for pleasant early morning thoughts!
Here is today's first photo, taken through the window of the train with my Sony Ericsson P1i in burst mode and then resized on the phone.
Photo taken from Falakunama Express early in the morning.
On The Way to Gangtok (Day 1)
April 11, 2009, 5.15 pm - Gangtok Trip
Padmaja, Durgesh Nandini (Mamli), Jyotiraditya (Bablu) and I are sitting in the 2nd AC coach of Falaknuma Express on our way to Calcutta. The train left Secunderabad Station at 4.00 pm. We will arrive tomorrow evening about 5.45 pm, and stay overnight with my fourth maternal uncle, Shri Rebati Ranjan Dash and aunt, Mrs. Bandana Dash. My uncle is the head of LIC East Zone.
Some shopping in Gariahat and The Esplanade, may be a visit to the Victoria Memorial before we catch the Darjeeling Express from Sealdah Station in Calcutta to arrive in New Jalpaiguri early Tuesday morning. Then a cab to Gangtok, a distance of about 150 kms. I am told this journey is very scenic and will take about 6 hours.
We will stay at Mingtokling Guest house (found and booked on the internet) doing the rounds of the local tourist attractions till Saturday, April 18, when we will retrace our steps to Calcutta via New Jalpaiguri. Then on to Bhubaneswar by Puri Express on Sunday night.. A week in Bhubaneswar before Padmaja and I return to Hyderabad on Apr 26. The kids will stay with their grand parents for a couple of weeks more before retuning to Hyderabad with my in-laws in mid May.
That's the whole vacation plan.
We started planning this in Jan 2009. In fact today's train tickets were purchased on Jan 15, 2009, only 4 days after the reservation window opened 90 days prior to the date of journey and we still got lousy berths. Anyway that should be resolved as soon as the TTE completes the RAC assignments. It is just a question of shifting berths around so that our 4 berths are together.
I intend to post regularly during this vacation. Gangtok, here we come!
Jim Butcher's Codex Alera Audiobooks
An audiobook of Captain's Fury, Jim Butcher's latest book in the Codex Alera series is now available for pre-order on Amazon. The previous three books in the same series are also available as audiobooks from Amazon (pre-order). The price in each case is steep $50! Fifty bucks for an audio CD?
- Codex Alera I - Furies of Calderon Audiobook (Release Nov 20, 2008)
- Codex Alera II - Academ's Fury Audiobook (Release Nov 20, 2008)
- Codex Alera III - Cursor's Fury Audiobook (Release Nov 20, 2008)
- Codex Alera IV - Captain's Fury Audiobook (Release March 27, 2008)
- Codex Alera V - Princep's Fury Audiobook (Release Nov 25, 2008)
Interestingly the audiobook of Book 5, Princep's Fury, will be released a full week before the hardcover release on December 2, 2008.
After waiting for a long time for the new book (Captain's Fury) to appear on Hyderabad bookstores, I finally finished reading Captain's Fury last month. As good as the first three books in the series. Now I can hardly wait for book 5, Princep's Fury.
Two Books I am Waiting For
I discovered Jim Butcher in mid 2007 and he quickly became my current favorite. I have read all the 9 novels in the Dresden Files series as well as the 3 in the Codex Alera series.
I am waiting for book 10 of the Dresden series, Small Favor due out in hardcover on April 1st, 2008.
[asa]0451461894[/asa]
The fourth book of the Codex Alera series, Captain's Fury, was released on December 4, 2007 in hardcover but it has not reached book stores in Hyderabad yet. So I am still waiting for it 
[asa]0441015271[/asa]
P.S. Please let me know if you have seen this book in any, and I mean any, bookstore in Hyderabad or Secunderabad.
del.icio.us Tags: Codex Alera, Jim Butcher, Dresden Files, Harry Dresden, Captain's Fury, Small Favor
Archives
Recent Posts
- Order Food view Twitter! Faasos!
- The Chocolate Mystery
- Rediff Mail – Forward to GMail
- Dell Puts Misleading Advertisement in Mumbai Newspaper
- Elephanta Trip
Recent Coments
- gautamsatpathy on Gangtok Trip – Day 5 – Local Sightseeing
- Debdeepa on Gangtok Trip – Day 5 – Local Sightseeing
- gautamsatpathy on Marooned in Raichur
- venkatesh on Marooned in Raichur
- gautamsatpathy on ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund – Online Services & Customer Support
Cluster Map
|
| ClustrMap Archive for 2008 |
|
| ClustrMap Archive for 2008 |
|
Blogroll
- Convergence
- Gautam
- Mo Chitra
- Oracle E-Business Suite Technology (Steven Chan)
- Ozone Welfare Association
Disclaimer
Opinions expressed here are entirely my own and do not reflect the position of my employer or any other entity.
The views and opinions expressed by visitors to this blog are theirs and do not necessarily reflect mine.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.