What Ho!» Train

Chilika Lake, Odissa

gautamsatpathy — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 15:24:03 +0000

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Gangtok Trip – Day 2 – A Bengali Village

gautamsatpathy — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 09:49:38 +0000

April 12, 2009, Day 2, 3.15 pm:

Falaknuma Express stopped outside a small village in Bengal. A large crowd of men, women and children quickly gathered to gape.

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Gangtok Trip – Day 2 – Mamli On Train

gautamsatpathy — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 09:43:29 +0000

April 12, 2009, Day 2, 3.11 pm:

Mamli engrossed in a third reread of the last Harry Potter – The Deathly Hallows.

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Gangtok Trip – Day 2 – Odissa

gautamsatpathy — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 06:47:19 +0000

April 12, 2009, Day 2, 11.00 am, Odissa:

We arrived in Bhubaneswar almost on time. My parents have come to the station with lunch and I am sure Odiya sweets. My mother only has sweet teeth, not just a sweet tooth! My mother-in-law was also there with upma, allu chop (another Odiya invention the marathis stole and renamed Vada, as in vada-pao) and mallai chop, a sweet made with cottage cheese like most other Odiya sweets.

The bengalis also have a liking for sweets but they don’t have a culinary tradition like the Odiyas. Rassagollas for example were first cooked in the city of Puri almost a thousand years ago. Odissa has a culinary tradition as old as the land, going back to the days of Ashoka and beyond. There is mention of Kalinga in the Ramayana. Indonesia and other parts of South East Asia were settled by Odiya traders sailing with the Monsoons.

The kids have munched through most of the food my mother-in-law had brought. No dent in the supplies from my parents yet. Maybe in another hour or so. After that crash off the few hours it will take to reach Calcutta.

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Gangtok Visit – Day 1 (cont)

gautamsatpathy — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 16:14:30 +0000

April 11, 2009, 9.15 pm:

Settled down for the night. I managed to get hold of two berths in the coupe next to ours that Padmaja and Bablu were to take. Bablu wanted the upper berth because Mamli had one. And there we were trying to convince hiim that the lower ones were actually nicer. While I was busy fighting this losing battle with the grim determination of a parent who knows that parents are always right, Padmaja convinced the other gentleman in our coupe to take the one next door. Parent child problem solved. Bablu got his upper berth. Yes I know! Parents do know best, particularly when the other parent can be handed any blame forthcoming from decisions taken.

I am lying in my bunk (upper) typing this out on my Sony Ericsson P1i. I think we are running about an hour late. The driver might make up lost time during the night when there are few stops.

I am living up to my stated intention of not letting any food vendor pass by without sampling his wares. That’s part of the fun of traveling by train across India. Tomorrow morning will bring the snacks of Southern Odissa, which will give way to the milk and cheese of eastern Odissa which in turn will give way to the popped rice snacks of southern Bengal. And of course we are all looking forward to sampling the gastronomic delights expected of Gangtok with it’s Tibetan and Chinese influence to enhance the Sikkim cuisine.

We have also placed orders with our parents for our favourite snacks. I don’t think we need to order anything for lunch. Not with the food packages I expect to see tomorrow at Bhubaneswar station, courtesy our parents. Parents always seem to think that they know best about what their child, no matter how old, should eat. And how much.

Will write again tomorrow.

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On The Way to Gangtok (Day 1)

gautamsatpathy — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 12:21:43 +0000

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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