Summer 2008: Part 2

Coming back to Chennai from the capital, I left to join Infosys on May 12. Reached the spectacular Mysore campus on the 11th . Was put up for a six week training , two weeks in HR and then four weeks in my department. The Mysore campus of Infy is one of the best corporate training facilities in India. Had the best time of my life doing a lot of things like playing tennis, swimming, bowling, Go Karting and watching a couple of movies at the Infy Multiplex every weekend.

I went to a lot of new places around Mysore with my family on the weekends.

Talakad - the place where the river Cauvery takes a turn in the direction and hence is said to be extra wide at this place.

Tirumukodal Narsipur - The only place in India where three rivers confluence.

Somnathpur – A lesser known cousin of the temples of Belur and Halebeid. Intricate rock cut temple built during the Chalukya reign.

Srirangapatna – The capital of the Mysore Tiger, Tipu Sultan, this beautiful island created by the Cauvery gets its name from the 10th century temple of Sri Ranganatha. The statute of Lord Ranganatha here is very similar to the one that comes in the first ten minutes of Dasavatharam (the 12th Century sequence).

Nanjagud – A very well maintained old temple of Lord Nanjundeswara

In Mysore, I watched Dasavatharam three times in the theater within the first week of its release, which I couldn’t have done had I been anywhere inside Tamilnadu. Its still running full house in Chennai, 35 days after release.

So, after having a gala time at Mysore, I was posted to Mahindra City, an SEZ near Chennai. So, I came back home after living in Coimbatore, Hosur and Mumbai since 2000.

Summer 2008 : Part I

I am back to blogging after 4 months. My life was in a transition mode. I formally became a Master of Business Administration, though nothing much has changed. That happened on April 26th. Left Mumbai on that night for a trip of North India.

New Delhi. After 17 years.

A lot of water has flown through the Yamuna. New Delhi definitely looks more like a capital city now. I roamed about Delhi on a bike with a map in hand. The bike ride from India Gate to the Rashtrapathi Bhavan was highly enjoyable, but for the April Sun. When I was waiting on the signal before the north and south blocks, the Prime Minister’s BMW passed by from the Parliament.

I visited the National Museum on the Janpath. Inside the museum, foreigners outnumbered Indians one to five. It is one of the most extensive museums, I have seen in India. It houses a huge collection from the Mohenjodaro and Harrappan excavations of the 1920s. The other section I enjoyed was the bronzes from across the sub-continent, across ages.

Then I left for Vaishnodevi and Amritsar. Travelled to Punjab and beyond for the first time. Enjoyed the trek to the temple and the queue less darshan (its wrong and unfair, but still I did it) at the temple, thanks to my chittappa in CRPF at Katara. Left Jammu for Amritsar and Wagah.

Saw the Jallianwala Bagh and the Golden Temple. I feel we have started maintaining our monuments and places of worship much better than what we used to a decade ago. Jallianwala Bagh is brilliantly preserved. A little more civic sense from all of us and they will be among the best preserved in the world. Left Amritsar for Wagah.

Saw the ‘lowering of the flags’ ceremony. There was a huge turnout of people on both sides to watch, with competing shouts of ‘Hindustan Zindabad’ &‘ Pakistan Zindabad’ and ‘Vande Mataram’ & ‘Quaid-e-azam Zindabad’. There was no significant difference between the people standing on both sides of the gate. I was just wondering how it would have been if India had not been partitioned. Easily the most populous country in the world, I somehow felt that managing the ‘Akand Bharat’ would have been a much more difficult almost impossible task. But imagine how strong the Indian cricketing team would have been.