Our trip to the North-2

Contd...
The next day we took a tour to the local temples. We were to visit Pehelgham but because of the snowfall, all the roads were blocked towards Srinagar and we had to stay back another day at Katra. We visited few temples like Naudeviyon ka mandir and Shiv Khori caves which was around 80 kms away from Katra. It took the entire day because of the distance and the Ghat section. The next day was the beginning of the journey to the most enthralling place called Gulamrg. Its probably the most exciting place I have ever been to so far. This place is around 300 kms from Jammu. The en route to this place is equally breathtaking. We witnessed snow capped mountains and valleys shooting down from them.

On gradually nearing Srinagar we witnessed snow on either sides of the road neatly shoveled by the Border Security Force. It paves a beautiful way. Although the snow fall was minimum in comparison to what we saw at Gulmarg, we were thrilled as it was the first time we saw snow. It looked like a scene out of a postcard.

Isnt it breathtaking? In places like this the traffic is slow moving (more like snail's pace) and it took us the whole day to reach Gulmarg. We reached a place called Tangmarg  at 2am. It was freezing outside. The temperature had dropped to minus officially now. We woke up from our disturbed slumber and exerted all our guts to get out of our car. The chillness rained down our body. Our toes and fingers almost froze inspite of our heavy clothing. Thanks to our driver's friend who owned a coat and boots rental place there, we found ourselves our fur coats and rubber boots. We then took another car whose wheels were chains with spikes so that it would not skid during the journey. We then drove for another 16km at 2:15 am to reach Gulmarg. Although we were freezing our asses off we could not stop but enjoy the beauty of mother nature in the moon light.. well, who am I kidding.. the street light. It was splendid. I am at loss of adjectives to describe the beauty. The snow here was a lot more fresh and heavy. Have a look, this was the view.

My brother and cousin decided to get their pictures clicked at 3 am in that heavy snow.We then managed to pull our luggage all together and tried to walk on the snow to reach our cottages. Some of us slipped quite a few yards. ahahha it was funny to them fall. As we were 11 people we hired a 8 bedded cottage and a fancy 1 BHK cottage. The 8 bedded cottage looked something like this.

Doesnt it remind us of Snow White and seven dwarf's hide out??? It had 8 beds with electric blankets which gave the warmth. One can get information regarding the bookings and other information from this site.

http://www.tripadvisor.in/Hotel_Review-g317095-d3185017-Reviews-JKTDC_Hut_Gulmarg-Gulmarg_Kashmir_Jammu_and_Kashmir.html

it has details  of other accommodation too.There was a primitive boiler which kept the room warm by burning firewood which had to be filled once in every 3-4 hrs.It did work well. we dried out our coats and socks and gathered around like a bonfire. Surprisingly, we dint feel like sleepy at all. We then forced ourselves to sleep as we had an amazing day to enjoy. we woke up at 8 am and were welcomed with steaming hot ginger tea by the care takers. The hospitality was really great (that was because we were the only guests at the cottage) The chief, yes thats what we called him as he liked to deliver long lectures like that of a college orientation.He then explained to us about how things operated there. we then freshened up and changed. What!! you expect us to bathe in that shitting cool temperature?? No ways!! We then put on our overly sized, humongous coats and rubber boots and set out for the local activities. every place, every object was worth clicking a picture.Me being a photography enthusiast could not hold myself from clicking multiple clicks. Although I would love to post all of the pictures, I am restricting my self to post a few here...

We walked down a few furlongs to reach Gondola, where we get to ride the cable cars to reach the higher altitudes. While the tickets were being purchased, we decided to click a few (more like 100s) of pictures.As it was not snowing, we threw snow at each other and clicked pictures. It was like we were reliving our childhood again. even the elders joined us in snow bowling. Then we took to the cable cars. These cars were French made and were introduced in 2005. There were two halts, Phase 1 and Phase 2. The elders made it only to Phase 1 and we kids (ahem ahem) went on to Phase 2. The en route again was just mind blowing. The ground was covered with at least 2 feet snow. As we gradually went saw that the huts, wells were all covered up with snow. It is been told that this forms a natural track for skiing.Our guide apparently felt that Apls was just a jest in comparison to this.well, in his defense he was right. We finally reached the Pase 1 which was about 10000 ft from the ground. 

The kids, thats us, went on further to Phase 2 which was at a height of 13500 feet from the ground.This was truly a bliss.It was after this we realized why the Pakis are bent upon capturing Kashmir. Virgin white snow, clear blue sky, I felt like I was on a shooting set up. This was the view that caught our sight when we reached Phase 2.

The clouds were below our eye level. It felt heaven. The shadows also were blue because of the reflection from the snow.it took us few minutes to actually understand that we were indeed on earth. Although, the entire place wore a blanket of snow, the sunlight at that altitude provided us great warmth. It a perfect marriage of chillness with warmth. We were basking there for hours together. Our guide was a man with great enthusiasm. He volunteered to click our pictures and was quite good at it too. We clicked hundreds of pictures again.We borrowed the poses from various Hindi movies .. here are a few:

We were told that the LOC was around 15-20 kms from here. With great regret that we had to go back, we mounted the cable cars to come down. By then, the chillness started setting in. By 4 pm it started getting dark and cold. We then decided to have decent lunch and walked 2 km to find a mediocre place. We then started placing orders like crazy as we were totally drained out from the walk and the other activities at Phase 1 and 2. We gulped down food even before he could turn around or finish serving the rest.we hogged to our capacity and took a cab ride back to the room. We then enjoyed the warmth by the fire wood back at our room.The elders decided to catch up on the serials they had missed all these days on the TV at our room. After hours and hours of talking, eating, photo sessions we finally took to rest.The next day we had to get back to Jammu to board our train back to Delhi. We all left the place with great memories and were eagerly waiting to watch the photos to relive the moment. We reached Jammu again at 2am (courtesy the snow fall) and hit the sack!! rushing to the station next day we boarded the train to Delhi. 

I personally loved Delhi. The roads were wider, the traffic was under control and the pollution was reduced to almost zilch.I was allured by the means of their transport; buses, autos running on LPGs, battery operated rickshaws and metro trains.We were very eager to take the metro trains. We then went sight seeing the next day. Inspite of the limited time we rushed to Qutub minar and went shopping at Palika bazar. I personally loved the metro train rides. The icing on the cake was the food we had.We tasted almost all the delicacies of the road side food; pani puri, paneer sandwich, vada paav etc etc. Then we rushed to "haldiraams" the official noruku theeni maker. We hogged down plates of dhoklas, khandvis, gajar halwa, jelebis, samosas, another round of pani puri, masal chat and pedas. the entire platter disappeared with in minutes.

We then finally reached the station to board "the rajdhaani express" that took us back home. All  we did (atleast balu, arvind and me) through the journey was sleep. We were sleep deprived for almost a week and hence we slept through the entire journey.Realizing this, the railway pantry attenders woke us up while serving food every time and even offered to pick up our plates from our berths. It was a total bliss. 

After 28 hours of travel we reached Bangalore safe and sound and all excited to share our experiences with others.

This so far has been the best family tour I have ever taken. With a lot of wonderful and unforgettable memories I now officially sign off.

Cheers

CASTLE- The Television series

There are two kinds of folks who sit around and think of how to kill people. Psychopaths and Mystery writers. He is the one who is paid better.... Yes you are right. It is Richard Castle.
Castle is one such show which has absolutely gotten me smitten. I found the first two seasons of this show on one of my cousin's flash drive and thought let me have a look at it. Ever since I have fallen in love with this show. I have never missed a single episode since then.What makes this such a good show? Is it the characters or the stupendous script or the direction? Well, if you ask me it is a marvellous amalgam of all the three.I am an ardent fan of crime and mystery novels.So this show is my obvious favorite.
The story revolves around the following characters in NewYork.

1. Richard Castle: He is a famous crime novelist who has killed his main character called Derek Storm in one of his world famous "Storm series." Derek was his golden goose but Richard felt that the character became too predictable so he put a bullet through his head.He meets detective Kate Beckett when he is asked to (more like cajoling the Mayor and the Captain) to help them out in a case where the killer mimics the murders from one of his books. He is smitten by Beckett's work, her style and her charm and decides to make her his muse for the next set of crime novels. He lives with his mom Martha Rogers and his daughter Alexis.

2. Detective Kate Beckett: She is savvy and a highly qualified(over qualified for a detective)  detective working for the NYPD. She is a highly driven cop by passion and hence has the highest closure rates of cases in her Precinct. Though she graduated from Stanford with a degree in Law she took up a job as cop. The obsession behind this was her mother's murder.Her mother who was an attorney was killed by  anonymous mobsters/gangsters in her alley.This pushed  Kate to take up a job as a cop at NYPD and hunt down the guy responsible for her mother's murder. Also, she is a huge fan of Castle's work and has read every book.(although she does not disclose this to him directly.)

3.Detective Kevin Ryan: Irish by origin, Ryan works with Beckett's team along with Detective Esposito and is a valuable asset to the team.He is the "records" of the team. Though he portrays a softie look, he is pretty strong mentally and physically. This becomes very evident in the episode where every one comes to know that he lived as an underground mafia for seven years and was a valuable source of information to the cops.
He is more of a thinker.When Beckett and Espo got suspended he remained the inside source for them and helped them catch Beckett's mom's murderer.He has a wife who is played his real life wife Juliana and now has a daughter in the show.

4. Detective Javier Esposito: Spanish by origin, Espo is also a part of Beckett's team. Ryan and Espo are partners in crime and nagging Beckett and Castle. They have this wonderful yet funny "bromance" going on.They try their best to remain updated about Beckett's love life and claim that they are looking out for her. Well, they do. Espo is  former military and has joined NYPD. So he is  the rugged macho in the team which he often boasts of in the precinct and while hitting on girls. He plays a vital role in helping Beckett overcome her PTSD after her bullet shot injury and also in catching her mom's murderer.

Ok, now enough with the character background. I feel like WIKIPEDIA.
Coming to the reasons on why I love this show. The cast seem to blend into their respective roles so well that the viewers fail to differentiate them from their real life. I personally love the way Stana(Kate) is depicted.She is a strong, brilliant, brave yet a mysterious detective who believes in bringing justice to the victim. She is one of the very few detectives who connects with the victim and the family and helps bring them justice as promised. The way she breaks the news to the victim's family, the empathy she expresses is often talked about in the show and it is this trait that makes her an excellent detective and of course drove Castle fall in madly in love with her. Her interrogations with the suspects are also so savvy that even the notorious of the murderers fall prey to her questions and confess to their crime.Castle calls her a "Fox in the box" when she enters the interrogation room. Besides this, she is full of grace, charm and respect. The trait I like in her the most is she does not behave like a Twinkie. She has her own priorities and does not let anything or any one compromise with it.Though she is daring and dashing she does not manifest the feelings she has for Castle out loud although Ryan and Espo clearly notice it and keeps nagging her. She plays hard to get.Being the only female detective in the precinct she needs to flaunt this attitude and charm to gain  respect and status and Stana has done complete justice to the role. Her perseverance pays off when she finally catches her mother's murderer with her team's help only to find out that he is the Senator of New York. She lets him go then as she does not have enough evidence to prove to the DA.(District attorney) and challenges that one day she will drag him and put him behind the bars. The scenes where she gets affected by her gun shot and her coping with PTSD are really breath taking.It has been portrayed so beautifully.I personally see a lot of myself in Beckett's character especially the "holding on and striving until you get/make it" trait.
The episodes are of a huge varieties. The cases  range from music, fashion, reality shows to kidnapping,mafias and serial killers.The romance between Kate and Castle is kept very subtle and does not get very mushy. This avoids the story getting sidetracked.Also, the hate, wrath and sarcasm Castle gets from the new captain is hilarious.One can pick up cool words like APB, burner phone, Vic, MO etc.Burner phone is my personal favorite.
So with  a good blend of thriller,crime,comedy, romance, bromance and fun, Castle is really the first on my list of shows (infact this website is first on my bookmarks for online viewing too)and of course "People's choice" too. (pun intended)

Tamil, Tamizh, Taamil(in peter) தமிழ்

Fear not, I am not rendering any DMK speech here.Though all the above names mean the same they are different. I am a Tamilian, TamBrahm to be more specific who grew up in many states(but luckily with a sane mental state) other than Tamil Nadu. When someone asks me where I belong, I literally think about the order before I start blabbering about my origin. You see, I am an Iyer whose roots originated from Tanjore or so I am told.Though I never got a chance to visit, I am told that the only way to reach the kukgramam is exactly similar to the mode  Madhavan describes in the movie NalanDhamayanthi .My Grandfather moved out  and got situated at different places because of work and finally settled in Bangalore(thankfully).Hence I claim Bangalore to be my native although I have never stayed here.I grew up in Vijayawada, Bellary, Hyderabad and now am finally settled here at Bangalore. Enough with the history.Now you get why I fumble when you ask me this question.Of late I have started saying that I am a perfect Indian considering the different places I have lived in.
The primary intention of giving my introduction is to give you all a glimpse of how how many different Tamil slangs I am exposed to(I know you guys are looking for Coimbatore, Madurai and Tirunelveli slang. But there are others besides these.)
As a Tambrahm I mastered the aathu baashai (vaango,pongo,aathu,solrel etc. etc.) and thought that was the only Tamil slang that existed, as the only few Tamil friends I had were brahmins too and  had the same slang.Also we were not exposed to Tamil channels because only DD ruled then and our local channels were either Telugu or Kannada. And when we visited our cousins in Madurai they spoke to us in our aathu baashai and hence I remained ignorant about these other slangs. There were times even our aathu bashai was a mixture of Hindi, English,a bit of Telugu &Tamil.Here are some of the sentences composed by my brother and me:
1. Samay kuda ennoda ishara la nachardu.(Time also dances to my tunes)
2.But ana (this im guessing every one utters)
3.O andha movie  romba onnum Khas a illa. Lite eduthuku, pakaada.( That movie is not even a mediocre one so avoid it. Khas meaning (great), Lite eduthuko(combination of Telugu and tamil)
4. Mom's friend had come home one day when she was not around. This is what was told to her:
Aunty amma velila kacheri ku peirka.. ana beech la ezhundundu vanduduva innum koncham time la.(Mom has gone out for a kacheri but will leave half way as she it might get late.) Aunty was baffled as there is no beach in Hyderabad.
5.Inda galli la left edunthunda oru chourastha varum.(if you cut a left here you shall get a four 4 way route).As hilarious as it sounds, we did talk that way for a few years while getting acclimatized to  new places.

 Finally the day came when we got our  cable connection. We had been listening to the cool kids at school bragging about all the new cartoons,shows and movies they had been watching on their cable channels.We on the other hand were watching latest movies(movies that released some 10 years ago were played on DD as the putham pudiya thirai padam) on our DD channel.
We started watching Sun TV in tamil malai, Raj, Jaya etc... We then gradually picked up the Madras bashai inspite of amma and appa t(y)elling us not to follow that language. But, common it was fun. Kaida, kasmalum, poramboku etc. etc etc. Gosh, what all we picked up.Also, it was then I keenly noted the different dilects. I started meeting different people who spoke in different slangs of Tamil. For instance my athimber(brother in law) is from Tirunelveli. All I could picture when he spoke were dialogues from the movie Dum Dum Dum. Yela, ennatha cholluda ni (What are you saying)...(giggles) Then the Madura bashai. Mom belonged to Madurai and all my maternal cousins had a bit of this slang.(Although, it was only now I noticed it)Thanks to our endless viewing of Vadivel's comedy scenes I picked up some of Madura basha too, for instance, angitu ingitu (here and there), vlatuthanam(playfulness) and so on.
People at my work place also made fun of my aathu bashai (even though they belonged to the same clan as mine) I slowly picked up the way in which they spoke as in vanga, ponga, vandirchu.Well, I donot know if this helped me at work but it definitely helped me during my conversations(fights) with the auto guys when I visited Chennai. The auto guy almost all the times guessed I was from a different place because of my slang(aathu bashai) even when I told him the routes correctly.Enna ooru ma neenga, Bombay ya, Delhi yaa But, now naaah.I am actually proud of it.(patting my back).
Now coming to the confusions created in these different slangs especially the relatives' addressing.We Tamilians are very fond or perhaps obsessed with the relation MAMA. I notice that others call their sister's husband- mama, aunt's husband- mama and uncle(mother's brother) also mama and they make fun of me when I say athimber .Hey, common we atleast have different names for different relatives. Of course any unknown elderly person who comes home is also addressed Mama by us. Ambi mama, Subramanian mama, Venkatachari mama etc etc.Also, the police officers are nicknamed mama too.(beware,donot call them mama right to their face. Apprently they dont like it)
For those Northies, who think every South Indian is a madrasi, hear me out... NO!!! Here is an article which has already highlighted the important facts which I wanted to say too.

http://junktechie.com/2014/01/31/madrasis-south-india

I as a Tamilian got intimidated very easily by other groupies during a young age.There were times when I wondered why I was born a Tamilian?I found nothing cool to boast about. I did not meet the right people then. But now things have changed. I really am proud to be a Tamilian.Tamil was, is and will be the coolest language.We do have the coolest set of slangs and accents.I now see people(who are not Tamilians) call each other Macha and Machi as they sound cool and fun. Even the Bollywood seems to be obsessed with the Tamil film Industry. We have made a mark for ourselves in every field.(I would hate to mention or talk about the movie Chennai express as it was a lame, sick potrait of Tamilians and as claimed it was not stereotypical at all)
So Keep Calm and be proud to call yourself a Tamilian. Also Talavair(Rajinikanth) Rocksss and you know it!! GOD BLESS THE CABLE TV !!
Vokey machi, now slightaaa open the bottle I say!!