Our best wishes to the little chap. May he live long and prosper.

Hey Rohan! Treat time man…

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Related posts brought to you by Yet Another [...] No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> Rohan Padhi, my brother-in-law, became a father two days ago! A bony boy… Mother and child are fine. No idea about the father

Our best wishes to the little chap. May he live long and prosper.

Hey Rohan! Treat time man…

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I am begining to fall in love with Mumbai.

Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

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Photo taken with my Sony Ericsson P1i at M. G. Road, [...] No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> “Singh is King”, the recent Bollywood movie, seems to have caught the imagination of one of our Sardar Restaurant owners in Secunderabad. And he has thought up an ingenious way of telling the world he has a son and that he is a Singh!

Photo taken with my Sony Ericsson P1i at M. G. Road, Secunderabad, on May 3, 2009.

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We left for Tsomgo Lake a little later than planned, at 9.30 am. We had booked a Mahindra Max on Monday and the Driver arrived at 8.30. He was a grouchy chap whose first words were ‘you are late’ in tones that reminded me of my old [...] No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> April 16 – Day 6 – Tsomgo Lake:

We left for Tsomgo Lake a little later than planned, at 9.30 am. We had booked a Mahindra Max on Monday and the Driver arrived at 8.30. He was a grouchy chap whose first words were ‘you are late’ in tones that reminded me of my old Maths teacher.

Anyway, we had packed far a day in snow – extra socks for everybody, a change of pants for Mamli and Bablu, extra shirt for Bablu and a top for Mamli, scarfs for Padmaja, Mamli and Bablu, sweaters and jackets etc. We also had a good quantity of finger foods, juice and water.

I should have bought another pack of Duracell for the digital camera. I am using it a lot and the new 4 Gb CF card I purchased on eBay seems to be a power hog. Also I have to keep switching off the LCD viewer otherwise I would have even bigger power drain. Anyway suffice to say that I didn’t find Duracells anywhere. I ended up paying an atrocious Rs. 60/- for 2 alkaline AA cells. I haven’t used them yet but won’t be surprised if they peter out after a few shots. I have managed so far by shifting the 4 cells in the camera and taking them out to cool down. Just allowing the cells to cool down gave me another dozen shots with the LCD on for about 5 more minutes.

We didn’t stop on the way other than the mandatory stops at the police / military check points. At the first near Hanuman Tok I had to buy 4 tickets for Rs. 10/- each. The tickets claim that the monies collected is used for conservation in the area.

The road after the first check point climbs steeply. It is in very bad shape in a good many stretches particularly in the upper regions near the lake but is well maintained for most of it’s length. There is a large military presence and the huge army trucks have churned the road into a muddy quagmire in places. Traffic is disciplined and nobody tries any tricks. No doubt with the kilometer deep drop to the river bed, none of rhe local daredevils try anthing on this road.

The second check point is about 5 km from the lake and the road from there is pathetic. Lots of construction with earth moving machinery and very heavy car, jeep and military truck traffic. But our driver was up to the task.

As a result of all that traffic the so called clean Himalayan air was conspicuous by its absence. Diesel fumes predominated and made the air foul to the extreme. The natural beauty was also somewhat marred by all the shops, at least near the lake’s approach. Further afield nature reasserted herself and I cannot begin to describe the beauty of the landscape.

We were expecting to rent rubber moccasins at the shops near the lake and as soon as we parked and disembarked we were accosted by one of the shopkeepers. We took up his offer, Rs. 35/- per shoe initially but Rs. 20/- after bargaining. We already had warm clothes and just rented shoes from him. Leaving our own shoes and the food / water basket in his shop we walked up the short flight of stairs to the lake level, to be immediately surrounded by Yak drivers offering their services for a Yak ride to ‘Point Zero’, an outcropping of rock that jutted out into the lake.

This point zero is about a about a fourth of the lake’s length from the tappering end. The lake itself resembles a sperm cell wearing a round cap. There is a narrow walkway around one side and it is narrow! About 4 feet wide and snow covered. And the Yaks use the same trail, adding their dung and urine to the snow or rather slush. At places the snow is more than a foot deep and the Yaks have churned it into a freezing slush that can catch the unwary and tip some of the cold dung laced water into shoes. Bablu and Mamli’s shoes weren’t very high and they got their feet wet. Padmaja and I gave them our socks to make sure they had dry feet. By this time we were about half way to point zero and after a small snowball fight Mamli, Bablu and Padmaja refused to go on. I wanted photographs and walked on alone. Within 10 feet of where I left them was a small stream flowing into the lake and the Yaks had churned a wide swath around it into foot deep slush. I stepped into one in spite of being careful and got a shoe full of freezing water and snow. The stuff literally froze my foot and I had to put down my camera bag on a small rock sticking out of the snow while I hopped around on one foot trying to pull the other shoe off and empty it before putting it o again.

I finally made it to point zero and it was worth the effort. The place was full of snorting Yaks and their rude handlers, with more dung and urine but at least that was isolated to one area in the center of the land mass jutting into the lake.

I took my photographs and seeing me alone with my cameras a few young couples roped me in to take their photos posing in the snow..

I also noticed two army men keeping an eye on the idiots who were capering too close to the crumbling, snow covered shores. They had whistles and used them often. I suppose there were many idiots around.

I walked back to Padmaja, Mamli and Bablu and we started back to the shop where we had left our shoes. I had Bablu by the arm but he slipped a number of times and got his feet wet again. That is when I started shouting at the Yak drivers and pushing the placid, plodding beasts away while I tried to walk as fast as I could. Bablu was crying by this time from his freezing feet and I was desperate to get him back to the shop.

The shopkeeper immediately understood the problem and quickly put some water to boil. I asked him if he had any mustard oil and he immediately brought some in a plate. I rushed down to the jeep for the bag of spare clothes after pulling off Bablu’s shoes and wet socks, leaving Padmaja to massage his feet with warm water and then mustard oil. In the meantime Mamlu had taken care of her feet and was ready for the dry socks I brought back.

The shopkeeper offered us hot Maggi and we gratefully took up his offer. The Maggi was hot and good! Rs. 25/- per plate.

Padmaja bought some souvenirs from the shop and we left after finishing our Maggi.

By then the cloud cover was lowering and visibility was shrinking. Our driver was careful and drove sedately down the mountains. We stopped at a beautiful waterfall we had skipped on the way up. By then the clouds were drifting into the car and the temperature was dropping. We took a few photos and left. Soon visibility was down to 50 feet and on a mountain road that was a frightening experience.

We made it safely back to Gangtok and it started raining 15 minutes after we reached the Mintokling Guest House. And boy did it rain! It was like the cyclonic storms we get in the Deccan Plateu. Luckily it stopped raining long enough for me to go down to M. G. Marg for a packed dinner-to-go, channa batura and masala dosa. Yes I know. But we are sick of chow mien.

It is still raining. Hopefully it will stop by tomorrow. We plan to see some of Gangtok city tomorrow before returning to the sweltering plains on Saturday.

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We arrived in Gangtok at 2.30 pm. Had a little trouble finding the Mintokling Guest House but our driver was up to the challenge. He stopped other cab drivers and got his directions.

Mintokling Guest House turned out to be a very pretty house built on multiple levels with [...] No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> April 14, Day 4, 2.30 pm:

We arrived in Gangtok at 2.30 pm. Had a little trouble finding the Mintokling Guest House but our driver was up to the challenge. He stopped other cab drivers and got his directions.

Mintokling Guest House turned out to be a very pretty house built on multiple levels with the entrance towards the top of the house and the ground floor lower down the hill side. The enclosing garden is terraced and full of flowers. There is a lawn at the nottom of the garden with a small gold fish pond, benches and more flowers.

The rooms are spacious, with wooden floors and ceiling. A wardrobe, two single sofas, a bedside cabinet, a wall mirror with shelves below, a small TV on a cabinet with storage complete the room’s furniture. Very comfortable.

We had asked for an extra bed and that turned out to be a mattress thrown on the floor with a bed sheet and two blankets.

The lady in charge, Pema L. Pulger, is very nice and efficient. We quickly checked in and were taken ‘downstairs’ to our third floor room.

We ordered lunch from room service while we all took showers. The food was tasty but in very small quantities. What we expected to feed the entire family was barely sufficient for the two kids.

After a late lunch I went ‘upstairs’ to the office to meet Pema and inquire about local tourist spots and arrangements to visit them. She had multiple options available to cover the entire day. She has a tie up with a local taxi service and offers good prices. These options include a number of ‘Points’. For example Ganesh Tok, Flower Show are two points. A day trip consists of 7 or more points and are priced accordingly. You can take a standard, pre-defined set of ‘Points’ or customize your own itinerary. The price will have to be negotiated of course. We told Pema ro book us a 7 Point trip the next day. We also asked her about Tsomgo Lake and were told that it would cost Rs. 2000/- for a Maruti WagonR with driver and that the trip would take a whole day. There could still be snow on the roads beyond Tsomgo Lake. That means the Baba Temple and Nathula Pass are inaccessible.

After that we walked down to M. G. Marg. Every city in India has a Mahatma Gandhi Marg!

M. G. Marg is easy walking distance from Mintokling. We took the alleyways or rather the stairs between houses to Tibet Road. From there it is a easy walk downhill to M. G. Marg. The marg is a cobbled street with flowers in pots and flower beds dond the middle. Large ornate lamps lit up the entire road. There are tour operators, cafes, fast food joints, grocery stores, banks, pharmacies, restaurants, souvenir shops and hotels on this road. There arw cast iron benches along the central verge. All in all a beautiful place.

Our first stop was the tourism office to ask about Tsomgo Lake trips. The gentleman there was very helpful and told us that permits are required and that rhe tour operators would handle all the details. It would cost about Rs. 1600/- to hire a car and driver. For the permits we need photocopies of some ‘ID Proof’ like A PAN Card, Passport or Driver’s License. Also required are two passport sized photographs of each person. There are a number of photography shops on M. G. Marg and it cost us Rs. 60/- for 4 photos of Mamli and Bablu, i.e., Rs. 30/- each. Photocopies of our PAN Cards cost Rs. 2/- each.

We had pastries and coffee at a Bakery cum Cafe before approaching two different tour operators. After negotiating with both we took their visiting cards to the gentleman at the tourism office for his opinion. He told us that the negotiated price of 1600/- to the lake was fair and the operator who had offered that price was dependable. We went back and booked the tour, giving an advance of Rs. 500/- and all the documents.

After that we backed back to Tibet Road and the Tangerine Restaurant for dinner. Tangerine is located on the ground floor of a Hotel which means it is 4 floors below road level. The food was delicious and inexpensive. A meal for 4 with Chicken Momos, Rice Noodles with oyster mushrooms, Chicken fried rice and a country chicken curry cooked the Sikkimese way cost me Rs. 360/-.

By the we were done it was 9.30 pm and the streets were deserted. We managed to find a taxi who charged us Rs. 50/- for the 1 kilometer uphill drive to Mintokling. We were very tired and fell asleep soon.

I am hoping to get a glimpse of Kanchenjunga tomorrow morning. Will try to wake up by 5 am for that chance.

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

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Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts [...] No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> Anupan Sachan is a Project Leader on our QA Team (Oracle E-Business Suite Application Technology Group) and we celebrated her birthday at work today. Rather belated but we celebrated it Some photos of the event:

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I am on the left of Padmaja, with Rohan, my brother-in-law, on her right. I just can’t [...] No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> My latest project is scanning old photographs to upload to my photo site, Mo Chitra. I found the photo below in a stack at Bhubaneswar. It was taken by my father-in-law, Sudhakar Padhi in March 1998 near Rourkela.

I am on the left of Padmaja, with Rohan, my brother-in-law, on her right. I just can’t believe how skinny we all were

Click for full size image

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Thanks Shobhan.

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