Travel and Learning -3

This has been an unbelievable month for me... I think I have set new standards in travel and have lived out of suitcase the entire month... atleast almost..

I started the New Year in Bangalore and since then I have been to Madras, Bombay, Delhi/Gurgaon, Kerala, Calcutta , Ahmedabad and Lucknow. I will be making a trip to Bangalore again next week. My status line for the month has been ' Transiting Bombay for the month'. .I am in Bombay only for 7-8 days this month.. I think :) ... And I am totally enjoying the travels.

Kumarakom - Kerala


There is something tranquil about this place. I was there on an offsite. I did not have my camera with me, but here are some pictures taken on my mobile.












I am an early riser and all these pictures were taken during my early morning walks. First day, as I lay on that hammock near the water, the sereneness of the place was overwhelming. My mind, not conditioned to 'nothing-to-do' state, decided to roam free amongst my thoughts. After a while, I realised that I was so lost in my self that I had not 'soaked in' the surroundings. And thats what I consciously did.

I noticed that the sound in the background was not of one bird but now, I could clearly distinguish 4-5 different sounds. A crow, a mynah, duck and two more that I could not identify. It was early morning and yet the boatsmen had got into their routine activities for the day. One boat sailed past me. It seemed to know where it was headed. I could already see the sweat on the oarsmen's forehead glistening in the sunlight that filtered through the coconut trees. These fishermen had definitely been working from quite early hours I guess. At a distance I saw, a boat opening up its sail and adjusting it according to the wind direction.

Sometimes we are so lost in ourselves and our thoughts. Guess we start liking ourselves too much, or start believing that our problems are unique and most trying, or we are planning the next race to run or the next battle to fight. This has to stop! atleast pause!

In the many travels that I have made in past 3-4 months or may be even in the past 6-8 months, I never got a chance to enjoy the place as much as I did here in Kumarakom. This time I am thrilled. Happy.
----*-----

In Cal, this time I managed to lay my hands on a lot of street food. . The veggie that I am, I couldn't eat the fish delicacies and the limited time meant that I could not go to Sourav's (I wanted to do that!). Sadly, on the day that I am in Calcutta, Dada scores a duck. Irony!

Anyways I digress. On Russell Street, just of Park street in Calcutta there are a bunch of street hawkers who sport a board which reads 'Awarded the best puchka in town during Calcutta street food festival'. I was taken there by AJ who is non bong but a Calcutta afficanado.(Difficult to find combo!). There I had some amazing puchka's and I had an orange kulfi. In the orange kulfi, the inside of it was completely drained out by making a hole at the bottom, the orange pulp then mixed with kulfi and stuffed back into the orange. This was now frozen and served.

The kulfi was awesome. Unbelievably good. I then had the chikoo and the sitafal kulfis and both were really good. Think about them as equivalent to Bombay's Naturals, but only in kulfi and one notch higher :) If you are in Calcutta, definitely try it.

---*---
In Ahmedabad, there is this small shop which sells pani-poori with 5 flavours of paani .. tamarind, pudina and 3 more ;). And it was yumm! This was at Vastrapur signal in Ahmedabad. Managed to finish my work at Ahmedabad, grab a lot of plates of paani-poori, some nice aalu parathas and I am now all smug with satisfaction.

*Lucky is wondering whether the readers think that he is paid travel to different cities to eat. Sadly his current job is not that, but he is open to such job offers*