(il)Logical Logics...

1. We are not singers because if we were , what would happen to the loads of them who are struggling and otherwise? We would have been so good that no one else would ever get an opportunity to sing ever again except in the shaadi byah and other functions... and ditto about us not being sportsperson, models etc etc. This should explain the pathetically low fitness levels, the lack of any demonstrated singing capabilities etc etc...

2. I save a number of yours that you don't use anymore in my phone book Because, that way I would never call you and waste my money and time...

3. I don't plan my travel because if I plan I will have to go there, and because i did not plan i necessarily don't go there, so I can go anywhere... and this we actually proved on the recent MP trip...

These are just some of the things that Aro and me have discussed at length for a long time now... some more would follow...

Oh and he has written about the MP trip too... here are a few links...

Delhi - Jabalpur

Reaching Kanha

vrooom... and better...

A short long fast drive... a few good songs... some useless and useful conversation... and a nicey ice cream later I am here !

That reminds me, its been a while that I had my favorite make your own triple sundae at Nirulas... I used to love it, with two scoops of tooty fruity and one of pineapple... I am going to get some tomorrow for sure...

I am feeling much better now after I have concentrated on the thought of having some ice cream, all by myself...

Good Night week... hope the sad bad thoughts get buried with time...

You are Welcome ! (but then... may be not)

Its a debate that I have participated in, many times, over and over again... and almost every time I have failed to convince people that Chai Ki Dukaan is not a place where I force people to come and read and comment...

It started at a time, when I was not talking to a lot of people in my life, except a handful of friends and has seen me through the thick and thin of life in the last 4 years...

Still I get into discussions where my friends want to convince me of the fact that what I write effects people because it might be them that I am writing about... I completly agree to that, however I also believe that this is my ONLY space where I write... its a space that listens to me... and helps me think of whatever I did and wrote, twice, because i read it as well...

Now I have the option of either shutting up because I care about what will people think about my posts and how I am making them feel...

or I can reassure myself of the fact that rightmore.blogspot.com is a space which a small but important part of my life, it is a space where I write because this is how I clean my system, the yoga for my fingers and breathing for myself, it is a space where I do not write to prove points or get back at people, or to attract readers....

While I appreciate all the reasons why I should filter my writing, I still think that this is my page... and I should let this page continue to have the space in my life...

If something here bothers a visitor, its probably because its the truth... might be about me, or someone that I know, or something that I saw or experienced... and I would respect if someone actually decides to never come back to this page again... and when I can have the balls to face certain truths of my life and still be more than happy about it, I should also have the right to write about what i want and how !!!

p.s. This is not about one person or one conversation, this is about multiple convos and is not intended towards hurting anyone's genuine concerns for what people will think about me when they read my posts... Apologies !

So? Did you?

One of the worst things you can do after you kiss or make out with someone is :

ask them if they liked it !!!!

oh.. wait.. there is something worse..

When someone asks you, saying that you did not feel a thing !!!

The Chimpanzee Omzooz

So I am a monkey... or a Chimpanzee I guess

Why????

Because...

~ Maya Didi is very very sure that I am one...

~ I think I am one...

~ I like climbing trees...

~ I crave for attention.. and make strange noises about it at times :)

~ and when I don't get it... I can throw stones or whatever I can lay my hands on... running around my cage like a crazy.. umm Chimp...

~ I don't like being caged too :) and i keep pulling at the bars to get out...

~ Some Chimps oops... friends call me Cute.. though I don't see a reason why someone has to call me cute... ugh.. i am NOT CUTE....

~ I can be as silent as I can be, at times when you least expected it...

~ I can make a lot of noise when you really don't want to hear anything...

~ I can sing and dance like a Chimp too, though my hands don't really reach my knees :)

oh...

and more often than not... I am happy with a few nice people around me... I don't need a lot of chimps to make me happy :) I want my chimp friends to be around...

and this is how I can be when I am at my chimpiest besht :

50000 and still going strong !!!

A lot of people find me and my love for my car crazy... I don't blame them for that passion is close to insanity anyway :)

Li'il do they realize that this probably is the level of commitment that I set for myself :)

About three and a half years after I bought my car, I still feel as great as I felt the first time I went out for a drive...


and this Sunday, we reached a milestone of 50000 kms... a journey worth it !!!


We met people during these years and kilometers, we lost some, we still have some... we saw people who loved us and understood us, and we also met people who did not understand the bond between the living and the non living... At one instance, I was even asked to go to hell and make babies with my car :D hahaha.. how I wish !!! A lot of my friends would not have to wait for the lakh rupee Nano then... I would have given them a lot of smaller cars for free !!!

So me and her when look back saw a lot that has happened in the last 50000 kms and we smile together !!!

It has been a life worth living !!!

and hope it stays that way !!!

God Bless !!!

The Jungle Kilometres and back to Jabalpur....

Me and Aro talk a li'il too much when there is no walking around to do... and that means that we sleep late... and we did... Even after more than 24 hours of non stop journey, we still had some time and energy left to argue, get into some last minute fights, plan for the next trip, the next day, and then slept away to glory around midnight....

We had filled in the forms the previous night to enter the park so did not have much to do in the morning except wake up on time, have a quick cup of tea, and rush to the gypsy which was ready to rock and roll... Manoj was our driver, and he looked like a pretty quiet fella, and he turned out to be one lost character too... too bad, but never mind...

Good Morning Kanha :)

So we were at the Kisli Gate around 0600 hrs, the main gate had already opened, and we were let in quickly... 3 kms later was the main gate of the park, which is where a route and an essential guide is assigned to the gypsy.... Our park guide for the day was Dinesh Kumar Soni... a young but enthusiastic fella... was ok with admitting that he was in the second layer of the guides, but this enthu and nature made up more than enough for some lack of knowledge... not that we were taking notes anyway...

The road leading inside the Kanha National Park through the Kisli Gate...

Kanha is full of Saal Trees... and here is a small point of view about Saal..

Sau Saal Khada
Sau Saal Pada
Sau Saal Sada

Saal Tree

Stands for 100 yrs, lies does for another 100 and takes 100 more to decay...

This is the same tree, wood from which was used to make a base for the railway lines sometime back, which is now replaced by concrete and iron...

Dinesh Kumar Soni, our guide on day 1

Manoj Kumar, our Driver...

So we moved around the park on the route number 10 looking at animals, trees, dust, listening to many birds stopping and moving and stopping and moving...

Barahsingha and the Spotted Deer...

Sambhar

A Spotted deer shooing a Peacock away... A chase of its own kind... was pretty interesting...

The Indian Gaur (Bison)

In the center of the park (The Kanha Side) we took a break, had breakfast and also registered for the Tiger Show... At a fee of 100 rs. per head you are taken to a spot where tiger is seen, and then you climb the elephant back and go into the bushes to have a face to face with the jungle CAT....

Shooting with straight steady hands...

And with Steady Legs too...

Gypsys parked inside the Park; This is where we registered for the Tiger Show... The wait at times can be a couple of hours long...

We did too... and when I saw the tiger, I was hoping that he does not look at me, because I could sense the attitude in his eyes and I was having mixed feelings of excitement, fear, nervousness etc etc... but it was really sad to see how the Elephants were made to chase the tiger to make sure people who have paid get to see the tiger... and this poor animal only kept running around to avoid the crowd.. but then how can we step back... we are known to bully when the other person is backing off... so all the gypsy drivers, the 4 mahauts were after this poor guys life... I only wonder what would happen if the TIGER decides to charge... on second thoughts, this tiger show is generating a lot of revenue for the park which I feel is essential, and is also helping the park give employment to loads of local people around.... I feel a balance is what needs to be made though, these wild cats needs their space and independence and should not be bothered like I saw... it hurts...

Does this one need a caption?

People waiting for the tiger to show up... This is near the tiger show spot...

Our Safari finished by 1200 hrs, and we were back in the resort by 1230 hrs... all covered in dust, the first thing I noticed when I entered the resort was the swimming pool... and I knew what I was going to do next... so a rushed walk to the room, and a even more rushed walk to the pool... and 45 minutes of fun... Even managed to have the hippo who walks like an elephant to take a bath in the pool... And Aro loved it too :D

Much needed Sprite after the Safari...

And Tea...

Had some real good lunch and slept but not before we planned to get up around 1600 hrs to take a hike into the jungle to a few nearby villages... but we managed to wake up only by 1530 hrs and obviously the plans to walk around were to be canceled...

Some wild flowers inside the Jungle

At tea, we met Mr. Pramod Singh who manages Foreign traffic to Kanha and is a active member of loads of wildlife clubs and has been an avid trekker himself... He also suggested that he could join us for the safari next morning, which did sound like a good idea...

We had tea and got talking to a few people around the resort, one of which was a driver called Dilip, the elder brother of Manoj... Dilip had been around for a while, and that small 30 minute conversation with him was full of many interesting stories about the tigers and other wild cats making rounds of places... it was a very very interesting half hour of the trip... and then he suddenly decided to give us a night safari, and we left the resort around 1900 hrs... and kept driving around till 2130 hrs in the dark... did not see many animals but the sky was obviously wonderful, and the dark interesting...

Were finally back and decided to eat quickly and call it a day, to wake up early and be the first in the queue. Told Mr. Singh that we would be ready by 0515 hrs...

So next morning we indeed were ready by 0515 hrs, and left only to realized that we were a li'il too early for the gates to open... We still were the 3rd gypsy in the queue, filled the forms and managed to reach the main Kisli gate around 0545 hrs... I think the route number today was 14... Manoj was at his lost best, and the guide even though knew a lot, was put off by a few remarks made by Mr. Pramod when we started the safari...

Mr. Pramod Singh... a very knowledgeable man and a avid trekker...

Highlights of the day were Bisons, some spotted deer, the barking deer, and some foreigners with loads of 1Ds and L Series lenses... I think that group of 4 had 2 EOS 1D each loaded with L series lenses of different focal lengths... phew !!!

Tall Saal Trees around the jungle...

Barking Dear oops... Deer :P

Langoors eating Soil... Don't ask me why... I did, and I was told they like it... Yes, it was Soil and not insects in it...

The second day, Aro and me agreed was more or less of a waste in the jungle... and I guess to compensate we ate like wild animals at lunch... whoever said that eat light when you are traveling may please go to HELL :D

The Mahauts in the Jungle... you can see a bag with a Walky Talky used to communicate the location of the Tiger for the Tiger Show

so a stomach full as full is, and a body not ready to move, we checked out of the Mogli Resorts and rushed to catch the 1330 hrs bus, but only to realize that it had already left... and the next bus was about an hour later...

This bus ride was also very interesting as expected...

A Baby Parrot called Mitthu by everyone who saw him in the bus...

Mitthu eating some Chana out of the hands of his caretaker in the bus... he would happily sleep when the bus was moving, and make loads of noise when it stopped... Cute Kiddie he was...

We changed the bus at Mandla again, which reach Jabalpur around 2000 hrs with one pitstop at Narainkunj...

A quick pitstop before Mandla... interesting air blown Angithi at a Tea Shop there...

Mandla : Local Cinema Poster Man...

Pitstop @ Narainkunj (About 40 kms from Mandla)

So here we were in Jabalpur, with an open plan... we could stay back in Jabalpur and go to Duandhar the next morning and then move to Piparia and to Pachmadi (where we planned to stay for the next two days) or we could go to Piparia straightaway and go to Pachmadi the next morning... we knew that Piparia was about 4 hours away by train and decided to take the Overnight express (Jabalpur to Bhopal; leaves Jabalpur @ 2300 hrs and reaches Bhopal at 0615 hrs)...

We check the availability and then moved to the booking clerk (with the train number this time) who suggested that we could take the ticket from the counter at the station itself in about an hours time... This is when Aro realized that he had dropped his mobile and we rushed to the bus stand only to search the bus without any success... not too good an incident, but we could not really do much about it... so we let it be...

Came back to the station, took the tickets for the overnight, and then asked one of the guys at the counter about a decent place to have dinner and he was kind enough to walk us to the restaurant... We had our food without much talking as we were pretty tired and were only waiting for the clock to strike 11...

We finally boarded the train, and found out that the train leaves Piparia at 0230 hrs which was definitely not a convenient time to reach any new station... but the thought of doing something of that sort was exciting enough for us to change our minds anyway... and so we slept... only to be woken up by the kind hearted TC at 0130 hrs ( so about an hour and half of sleep) because the train had already reached Piparia...

We quickly walked out of the coach thinking that the stoppage was quick there, but looks like the train reached there well before time and was only waiting to leave at its scheduled time... so we sat on the platform bench, thinking if we should sleep on the platform itself ( which honestly did NOT seem to be a bad idea) or walk around and find a hotel... after a lousy cup of tea, some odomos rubbing on the arms to avoid the killer mosquitoes, and some serious thinking later we decided to walk around the town to find a hotel for ourselves :)

Chai Ki Dukaan @ Piparia Station

It did turn out to be a very good idea because it did not take us much hardships to find a decent, rather more than decent Alka Hotel with an AC room for 400 bucks a night... its a different story that i twisted my ankle bad enough to almost scream in pain in the middle of a desert lane in a town which was sleeping silently at that hour :)

Piparia Station from the Overbridge; You can also see the Overnight Express in the left

So here we were... Piparia, Hotel Alka, Room number 203, AC on.. and a TV and we talking again.. God when would these conversations finish... I don't know when I slept and when Aro did, or who slept first... all I remember is waking up the next morning, all fresh and happy happy...

............................................................

Now some travel information

Safari Costs:
900 per gypsy (Morning Safari; 0600 hrs to 1200 hrs)
700 per gypsy( Evening Safari; 1600 hrs to Sunset about 2 hours usually)
Entry per gypsy : Rs. 650 (500 entry charges + 150 guide fees)
Gates open 0600 hrs in the morning
Approximate per night expenditure in Kanha : Rs. 1200 per head to 1800 per head depending on the place you are staying in...
Kanha to Mandla : Rs. 36
Mandle to Jabalpur : Rs. 50
Jabalpur to Piparia ( 3rd AC ) : Rs. 300 something...

To Do:
Carry water
Carry Dust Brush
Cover Your Camera to save it from the dust when you are not using it
Enjoy the jungle and the sounds ( They are more then enough to make you fall in love with the place)
Ask questions (thats what the guide is there for)

Do Nots
Avoid Changing lenses ( Carry two cameras instead)
Avoid throwing stuff on the road or walking on the road except the designated areas
And blah and blah and blah...

.....................................................

What happens the day we wake up in Piparia is pretty interesting... and I am happy it happened the way it happened... so watch this page for more...

Till then... ROAR !!!!

...

I think its time to START !!!!

I have my list !!!

do you have one?

3000 kms of India : Finally it started

A few trips are exciting even before they start, and more often then not thats how it happens with me...

A plan to trek, getting converted into living a few days in towns with people to everything getting canceled, my travel plans changing to go to Mumbai/Goa, to the original plan coming to life again suddenly to tatkal booking of the exit tickets from Delhi... it all happened for the last one week, which I spent away from everything and close to myself and yes Aro was around too...

He happens to me one of my best co travelers... for reasons which are strange... We usually argue a lot when we talk, and most of the time we are not talking as we have different agendas when we travel together ( can't really say what though)... his walk pace is very different then me and that helps with some space too... the bottom line is he is one of the best people to travel with and I can find 100 best most stupid reasons as well to prove that point...

So back to the trip...

We finally decided that we were going to Kanha from Delhi and thats all we knew... rest was going to Fluid... I got the tickets on Friday, and made the bookings the same day in Mogli Resorts, Kanha on Friday....

Saturday... in the afternoon, my dear friend Aro calls me and tells me that he and Sanjit were lost in Delhi and did not know how to reach NOIDA... it was just about 90 minutes before our train was to leave... fantastic... the excitement starts a li'il earlier than expected...

and India saw the introduction of a new GPS device that day... Prashant Bhardwaj... I was with him on the phone for about 35 odd minutes guiding the ways and turns before they finally managed to reach NOIDA...

A quick lunch and 20 minutes to the departure, we rushed... thanks to the DND we were at the platform number 4, to catch the Gondwana Express well in time...

now this was one long train, 20 coaches to be exact. The reason, the train splits into 2 somewhere in MP and half of it goes to Bilaspur and the rest to Jabalpur...

Our seats 1, and 2 were in the Coach B1 which was I think third to the last coach on the looooooong train which we managed to reach after walking for a mile I guess... but we did :)

The Coach B1 of Gondwana Express to Jabalpur

Being in a train coach is a great feeling.. specially the ones in which you can sleep :) After spending sometime, I was dying to be in the train in India.. and here I was... lovely... put our bags in place... and settled...


The train moved at the right time, and we were off... yippieeeeeeeee....

Halt just before Mathura Junction...

Travelling in a train is no fun if you cannot stand at the door watching the world being left behind :) so after about 30 minutes I was out talking to our coach attendents Vinod and Vinod and sitting on the wooden plank which was there for the attendants next to the doors...

Vinod and Vinod...The coach attendants of B1 (there were 6 attendants who were Vinod on this train)

I think I must have spent a good 3 hours in all on that plank in the evening, and then again in the night just staring into space and not doing anything else...

My favorite seat in the entire coach :)

Even managed some sleep on it the next morning with the early morning sunrays kissing my face, and the colder than cool breeze reminding me of the presence of the cold weather...

The naughty friend we made, Raghav and his father enjoying the morning sun from their seats...

As expected, conversations started and did not stop during our entire journey to Jabalpur... we got a number of tips from our co passengers on what do and when... we even tried making some amendments to our plan, but managed to stick to the original which was to go to Kanha straight after getting off the train...

Oh and if you are traveling on that route, then instead of eating the food in the train, you can order food from Comesum @ Agra Cantt... the numbers are : 0562-3296410/11.. just call them about 30 odd minutes before you are reaching and tell them your train name, coach and seat numbers. The food would be delivered at your seat... Also make sure that you ask for the bill amount and arrange for exact change to pay because more often than not the person who comes with your packet would not come with any change, or less than what you should get back so that he can make some money...

I woke up at 0530 hrs to realize that the train was not moving... We were at the Katni Station (The place to get down it you are going to Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, which is about 40 kms away) Had some tea and an interesting conversation with the Tea wallah there... He was a PGDCA, however did not have steady job and decided to sell tea at the station instead of sitting idle at home... he also mentioned that the rest of the boys at the station were graduates with no jobs... not a happy situation, but what helps is that fact that they decided to work hard for a living instead of not doing anything else... Another interesting comment that he made was that put an idiot on the railway station for 3 months and he would transform into an Insaan ( read Smart Ass) in that time... giving his own example he said that he did not have a clue on how to survive there about 2 months back, but had matured and knew people by the sheer looks, and body language much better now...

We reached Jabalpur around 0800 hrs Saturday.. and our agenda was now to get a ticket for our return journey (Bhopal to Delhi)... Aro filled the form and stood in the line and was thrown out of it after 35 minutes because the lady refused to give him a ticket... well because we did not know the train numbers that will go from Bhopal to Delhi, and we were supposed to know it before we ask her for a ticket... I am wondering if there are 10 trains, do I need to fill in 10 forms and then try or once she tells us that there is no space, we find a different train number and stand in the line again.. Anyway, we decided that we go the safe IRCTC way and took a rickshaw to Russel Chawk to find an internet cafe...

A Mazaar near the Empire Cinema.. the name was interesting...

Fresh Dosas being made for us :) at Russel Chawk...

Decided to eat first, and had some nice Idli Dosa at a roadside thela before we found an internet cafe and booked our tickets from Bhopal to Delhi for the next Saturday...

Now the next stop was the City Bus Stop and we were to find a bus to Mandla, and then take a bus to Kanha from there...

Mandla Bus Stand

The distance we were to travel was about 156 kms with one change of bus... the bus left @ 1030 hrs and reached Mandla ( about 96 kms) at 1330 hrs, which is where we realized that the bus to Kanha was the bus which was coming from Jabalpur only... But this was a welcome break after sitting in the bus for about 3 hours already... so some tea, cold drinks, tea later the bus to Kanha arrived... A smaller but more comfortable bus, and was to move to Kanha at 1400 hrs... I got talking to the conductor and realised that we were still a good 2.5 hours away from Kanha... He was also kind enough to force me to eat a parantha from his lunch, and it was the yummiest thing I had eaten in the last 18 hours...


The bus moved and thanks to a seat at the back, I was able to observe much more than our previous bus in which I was sitting on the first seat... What follows are some pictures from my seat in the bus... People standing, People sitting, people looking for a seat, and people just looking, relaxing or listening to radio... loved every bit of it...



On one of our pit stops in Mocha ( not pronounced Moka, but Mocha like in Locha) I had tea with sugar and Salt... needless to say it tasted pretty different and nice... I am looking forward to having that again sometime... one of the reasons why Tiwariji liked to drink the sweet-salted tea is because it helped clean the throat after inhaling a lot of smoke and dust over the day on that route...

I was both surprised and happy at the condition of the roads in MP so far, and also was glad to see a lot of boards, signs, hoardings demonstrating a lot of work happening on the ground level in the state related to employment, child education, girl education and insurance, personal sanitation (something similar to the project I clicked in Chattisgarh)...

Many pictures, conversations, and long/short stops later, the bus managed by Mr. Srikant Tiwari reached Kanha where a gypsy from our resort picked us up...

Tiwari ji on the right...

Approximately 27 hours later, we were finally in a room.. a huge one and in the middle of almost nowhere... Mogli Resort is in the buffer area of Kanha and for all practical purpose, is a part of the forest itself... so I have to mention that walking around in the dark was pretty scary with all those freaky sounds... Aro somehow was enjoying my fear and was laughing his ass out for nothing !!!

We were to leave for the safari at 0530 hrs in the morning and we finally called it a day @ 2200 hrs... pretty long and satisfying journey this was...

The path in the Mogli Resort Lit with Bulb Lanterns in the night

Now some objective information...
How to Reach Kanha:
Take a train to Jabalpur and then a bus/taxi from there to Kanha... Delhi Kanha in a train would take about 17-18 hours and a 3rd Tier AC ticket would cost about Rs. 900.
Jabalpur station to City Bus Stand:
Can take a Metro Bus Service ( Rs. 5 per head)
Shared Auto ( Rs. 5 per head again)
Cycle Rickshaw ( Rs. 15) Auto (Rs. 20)
Jabalpur to Mandla:
Rs. 50 per head
Distance : 96 kms
Time : 3 hours approx
Mandla to Kanha:
Rs. 38 per head
Distance : 60 kms
Time : 3 hours approx

There are just about 4 buses that run between Mandla and Kanha which makes the travel time higher because they move slow and pick up as many passengers as they can...

Another alternative is to take the fast bus from Jabalpur @ 0700 hrs which reaches Kanha @ 1330 hrs.