I am lying in my second AC bunk on Howrah Puri Express enroute to Bhubaneswar from Kolkata. We arrived in Kolkata early this morning from New Jalpaiguri, returning from our visit to Gangtok. Mandal-da, my uncle’s driver was waiting at Sealdha station and took us to my uncle’s flat [...] No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> April 19, Day 9, 11.00 pm

I am lying in my second AC bunk on Howrah Puri Express enroute to Bhubaneswar from Kolkata. We arrived in Kolkata early this morning from New Jalpaiguri, returning from our visit to Gangtok. Mandal-da, my uncle’s driver was waiting at Sealdha station and took us to my uncle’s flat in the Queen’s Mansions, Park Street. We had gupchup for breakfast and then lounged around till 11.00 am. Then Padmaja and I were driven to Gariahat by Mandal-da. It was hot, humid and sunny and decided to leave the kids behind.

Gariahat was kind of deserted. At least I don’t remember it being so empty of shoppers. Maybe because it was a Sunday morning and the housewives were at home. I was of course rather disapointed. A lost opportunity. Bengali girls are rather good looking and I like to look. Sad. Maybe next time.

Padmaja was not her usual self too. We hardly did any shopping, only about 800 rupees. Well, what can I say? Women are strange. Champing at the bit to get to Gariahat and when you take them there they hardly buy anything! Or maybe it was my sighs for the missing Bengali Girls. I haven’t a clue.

We went back home about 1.00 pm to lunch and a afternoon nap. I woke up at about 6 pm to find myself sweating and only one the three ceiling fans working. And it wasn’t doing much more than stir the hot & humid air. I lay there for some time gathering the resolve to expend energy to move and generate more body heat. When I finally did, cursing whoever had switched off the other two ceiling fans, Padmaja walked in and told me that there was a power failure and the fans / lights were running on an inverter. Inverter immediately started sweating a bit more

Anyway we had dropped the plan of taking the kids to see Victoria’s Memorial and they were still sleeping. I woke them up and we joined my uncle and aunt for a cup of tea. We sat around chatting for an hour or so, waiting for the power to be restored before realizing that the power failure was a big one. Maybe equipment failure of some sort. Padmaja and I decided to complete our packing while the inverter still held out. My aunt was putting together dinner, chapatis, fish finger, fish in mustard sauce, orka fry, sweets etc. A typical Odiya dinner with three or more curries and plenty of sweets.

The inverter failed while we were at dinner and we finished by candle light. By 9.10 pm we were ready to leave. Mandal-da was waiting with the car and drove us to Howrah station in little over 20 minutes (Park Street to Howrah). Our train was to start from platform number 22, one of the new platforms that have car parking right next to the platform. Also the coach numbers were displayed even though the the train was not in place yet. That helped Mandal-da park the car right next to our coach’s expected position.

The train arrived soon after and we boarded. For this, the shortest journey in our Summer of ’09 Odyssey, we had a coupe to ourselves. If only we hd similar berths on the trip from Hyderabad to Kolkata last weekend!

We will arrive in Bhubaneswar early tomorrow morning, about 5.30 am. My father will be there to pick us up. I have set three different alarms on my phone to ensure I wake up before we reach Bhubaneswar.

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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, [...] No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> 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!

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The Lord is finally here! [...] No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> The Lord of the Universe, Shree Shree Jagannath, has finally come to Hyderabad. Yesterday, March 8, 2009, the Lord’s temple was consecrated and the idols of the Lord with his brother, Shree Shree Balavadra, and his sister, Ma Subadra, were installed by Pandas from the Lord’s temple at Puri.

The Lord is finally here! The Neelachakra is here!

The Hyderabad Kalinga Cultural Trust has worked for more than a decade to obtain the land, build the temple and bring the Lord to Hyderabad. Office bearers like Pradeep Kumar and many others have worked tirelessly over the years to give birth to this dream of the Odiyas living in Hyderabad. Many praise to them.

The temple built for the Lord is a replica of the original temple at Puri, alibit a much smaller one.

I am posting some photographs taken yesterday during the Sthapana Puja and later during the evening cultural program. These were taken with a Sony Ericsson P1i mobile phone and are of average quality but they do show the Lord in all his glory.

Shree Shree Jagannath, Shree Shree Balavadra & Ma Subadra during Prran Sthapana Puja:

The Lord’s Temple:

Cultural Program by Shilpi’s from Odissa (Odissi Dance depicting Radha & Krushna):

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The HTIS Carpool main page (Click for full size image)

The Find Pool Mates link takes you [...] No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> The HTIS web site has a Carpool section that attempts to bring together people wanting to carpool. You can add yourself to the database, giving details of start and end points, timings and vehicle type etc.

The HTIS Carpool main page (Click for full size image)

The Find Pool Mates link takes you to the search page. Here you can browse the list of registered carpoolers or enter your start and end points to locate poolers in the area. I was surprised to find that major localities like Srinagar Colony are missing from the list of places. I used Kamalapuri Colony which is adjacent to Srinagar Colony as my start point.

HTIS Carpool search page (Click for full size image)

The search is smart enough to locate poolers in adjacent areas within a 2 Km radius.

Carpool search results (Click for full size image)

The search results page lists all carpoolers found in your vicinity and allows you to see each person’s preferences.

Carpooler preferences (Click for full size image)

The preferences page has the option to send a short message to the person.

The maps on the car pool search pages were not showing up. They would help understand where each person lives.

Overall a nice little service. Too few people are on to this at this time. It will become useful as more people register and actually contact each other and start carpooling.

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The HTIS Home page provides a set of links to the various services: