Mr. President appreciating the Soliga girl picture. If you look carefully, you can notice Kyata (elephant) playing around in water and monkeys (posing for a group picture) – which I was fortunate enough to see with bare eyes myself

Mr. President appreciating our tiger. Dr. Sudarshan (of Vivekananda Girijana Kalyana Kendra in B R Hills) can also be seen standing to the right (with orange striped badge and a pen in his pocket) of Dr. Kalam

Mr. President appreciating Kalyan’s latest possession

To the more important things now. Please take a few moments of your busy schedule to:

1. Read a bit more about Forest Credits idea proposed by Mr. President in Kalyan’s latest blog entry – and see if your company/firm can participate in it.
2. A while ago, I sent out an email to many of my friends about Wild Life Table Top Calendars. More information is here. If you have already initiated the required work in your company/firm, please follow it up and, if you haven’t yet done so, please remember – New Year is not too far away and that it takes a while to get them printed and very importantly, that more money earned means more money saved and more money saved meaning better programs to cause awareness in more people.

Just to clarify certain things – I did nothing to aid the sighting of that tiger (tigress to be precise) and its two cubs. It was Kalyan who spotted it, Mandanna was driving the jeep and Phillip was keeping his keen eyes open on the other side of the forest. Like an old subhaaShita goes…

guNavajjana samsargaat yaati swalpOpi gowravam |
puShpamaalaanuShangENa sootram shirasi dhaarayate ||
– subhaaShita sudhaanidhi

meaning just like a thread gets worn on/around the head (as part of a garland) because of its association with flowers, little known people get fame because of their association with well known ones…. I am quite sure that Mr. President wouldn’t have liked our tiger had he seen my picture (high ISO, grainy appearance, ….) and if you don’t trust me, have a look – and compare it to Kalyan’s picture…

Mother Tiger in B R Hills

Interaction with Bangalore University was in few parts — first, meet my teachers; second, a brief, general overview of research activities and third, provide aspiring students with a bird’s eyeview of graduate life in US. Honestly, it felt pretty good (and relaxing too) going back to visit BU – one thing for sure, there were no deadlines for assignments and/or exams

Jog Falls

In less than 6 hours after BU interaction, I was inside Rajahamsa (a.k.a. Royal Swan), higher end carrier from the state-owned ground transportation service. Surya SMSed informing that there was lesser water being let into the falls but I had already bought the ticket and I wanted to travel (in this Rajahamsa thing). True to its name, traveling in it felt as if I was being carried on the back of a swan – noticed hardly any jerks inspite of some not-so-good roads. After about 9 hours of smooth ride (with good sleep too), bus dropped me off in an area that I had only read/seen in couple of well known poems, (text) books, others’ travelogues and some documentaries. First things that catch anyone’s eyes, if awake and watching outside, are the following:

Jog Falls Welcome Board

Bridge across Sharavati river

Well, this turned out to be another of places that I had never seen during 20+ years of my stay here (there are many more such places though) and I could feel the excitement. While trying to find a place to leave my backpack and possibly get some coffee/tea (to boot myself!), one of the four branches of Jog Falls cought the corner of my eyes – what I saw in addition to the splending falls brought in lot more disappointment too… Well, you guessed it right – reckless disposal of trash

Reckless Trash Disposal, Jog Falls

I tried hard to ignore the trash and walked off to the lone restaurant in the area – fortunately enough for me, I did find a place to unpack, freshen up and more importantly, a hot cup of tea. Tea wasn’t great but just enough to start the day’s proceedings. /me decided to take a walk to the nearby village but the attraction from the mighty Jog Falls, even when in not full flow and glory, was a bit too much resist. Not surprisingly, like everyone else, I succumbed and started walking down the trail – to the very bottom. Disappointment, disgust (and any other word that reflects similar feeling) held the Welcome board every other step in my descent – plastic water bottles, juice containers, carry bags, worn-out sandals, human waste, pAn beeDa spit-outs, alcohol bottles, ….., and more such hard-to-name shitty things decorated either sides (and far beyond) the trail…

Reckless Trash Disposal, Jog Falls

Reckless Trash Disposal, Jog Falls

Reckless Trash Disposal, Jog Falls

Reckless Trash Disposal, Jog Falls

Reckless Trash Disposal, Jog Falls

As if that weren’t sufficient, I kept hearing devilish howls from below – apparently from some so-called homo-sapiens. Most tourists (travellors wouldn’t do it though) seem to be over-using, abusing and spoiling whatever they see wherever they go until such a point that, that same thing ceases to exist and begins to stink/disappear. I wish Jungle Lodges and Resorts takes over this place (and imposes an insanely high amount even to just see the falls, let alone hike down the trail) as this State Government owned/operated Jog Falls Maintenance Authority is busy maintaining itself rather than maintaining the falls (and its surroundings). I would greatly look forward to that day when such people learn to enjoy (and more importantly preserve) the majestic natural beauty in a quiet fashion – by becoming one with it. If one can sustain such crappy things (to see and hear), the descent does offer better (rather gorgeous) things too (to see and hear). Probably two of my biggest blunders (you shouldn’t be repeating them) were the following:

1. Not checking with anyone as to how long would the descent take, and
2. Not carrying any water with me

Lush green forest growth, seen while descending down to the bottom of Jog Falls

Jog Falls

Make-shift super store, seen while descending down to the bottom of Jog Falls

Jog Falls

Can’t figure out – whether it’s a stone with river carvings or a piece of very oooold wood-turned-stone, Jog Falls

Well, I reached the bottom in about 30+ minutes or so and as I walked further, /me noticed a crappy smell following me all along. It wasn’t long before /me realized that it was due to my own sweat-drenched body (and clothes) If this was my state during descent, imagine my plight after the ascent – given that Sun was out and right over my head all along. Just glad you weren’t next to me (I knew I had some advantage to travelling alone – now I know others have some benefit too…) Stop your stinking, you say? I wouldn’t blame you After a (long) shower and some food, Anil took me around – to see other worth-seeing (or not-worth-missing) places – for the next three hours. I would have loved to spend more time at some of them, but given the shortage of time I had, I wouldn’t complain…

Anil, my guide in & around Jog Falls

View of Western Ghats

Linganamakki Reservoir, built across Sharavati river

A small township near Kargal village

A typical bus station in this region

Some bird, Jog Falls

A temple, near Jog Falls

Mavinagundi Falls, composed of little streams in the hills

A Church, built in local architecture, Jog Falls

A channel of Sharavati river, that feeds water to the power generation plant. Electricity produced here feeds over 50% of state’s requirements

Just when I thought the morning ride was done, Anil took me to places that I was hoping to visit early in the morning, from the bottom of the falls. Hope was to see if I could shoot the same from the top. May be it’s the place or the guide or both – it took only few hours to turn dream into reality OK, before I go any further, I must say that Jog Falls is in four branches – RAja (the King), Roarer, Rocket and RANi (the Queen); and, that it’s pretty difficult (nearly impossible) to see all four in their full length at the same time from a given point. That said, the locations from where I shot the pictures below are quite dangerous – which wouldn’t have been possible if Jog was in its full glory – as it was 10 days ago. How dangerous, you think? In a nutshell, a simple slip of feet would not only have made me a good candidate to test the validity of gravity here but also bird/fish feed at the bottom, only 950+ feet below. But the risk, looking at the pictures, was well worth it – at least /me thinks so…

Seemingly calm river and plain geography takes a 950+ feet plunge – Raja [the King] branch of Jog Falls

Another view of same branch: you can see rainbow dots – if you see carefully

Roarer branch in its full length – rainbow at the bottom cannot miss you!

It wasn’t hard at all to see why Jog has inspired so many poets/literary personalities to write memorable works and to understand why they wrote what they wrote; MAnavanAgi huTTid mEle EnEn kanDi … SayOk munche omme nOdu jOgad gunDi… – a poem made very popluar by a Rajkumar movie! Another advantage of travelling alone – I don’t need to get anybody else’s permission to work when acting according to my whims and fancies While returning from this memorable drive, I decided to head off to Sringeri the same day – so, finished the lunch formality in Jog and caught a private bus service to another town called Sagara…

Jog Falls → Sagara → teertha HaLLi → Sringeri

Time that the bus spent going around local areas getting more & more people was used, very promptly, by yours-truly for a quite relaxing nap. I was travelling through those routes and places that I had only heard (or seen on TV) – a very memorable drive, with heavy malnAD rains only adding to the beauty.

While travelling from Jog Falls to Sringeri

While travelling from Jog Falls to Sringeri

While I tried to see around and shoot when permitted by nature, something else kept me very very busy/occupied once the Sun decided to go down. SandhyArAga – a KannaDa novel by A N Krishna Rao (popularly known as anakru) – best amongst anything/everything I have read so far in this language (more about this in my next entry). Before I could realize, I had changed a bus in Sagara; the next bus had gone through Anandapura, Rippon PeTe, teertha Halli and so on… Needless to mention, I finished reading SandhyArAga (I couldn’t keep it aside – that’s a whole different story), setting myself up with right frame of mind to the town I was entering, Sringeri…

Sringeri

Structure of Houghton-Hancock compares so very well with Sringeri that it was one of the main reasons I never fell home-sick four years ago – though the number of reasons for which I love Houghton-Hancock has grown exponentially with time… Wish my pictures could capture the fragrance of flowers being sold by street side, coffee & yummy food from houses along either side of the street, the very smell of the ground, aura of that this place has around itself, Sanskrit debates/conversations & recitals, and so on… Easier would be to just let the pictures do some talking…

Smoke out of a pipe – usually indicating the process of heating bathing-water, Sringeri

Main Entrance to the Temple Complex, Sringeri

Vidyashankar Temple, Sringeri – architectural beauty/significance of this temple is the following: on the day Sun enters a zodiac sign, its rays fall directly on one of the twelve strategically placed pillars inside – with light coming in through the front door and without the aid of any other device. Sounds strange? go figure!

Stone carvings along the temple walls, Sringeri

Bridge across river tunga, connecting temple complex with Narasimhavana, Sringeri – place where the Guru stays. This bridge wasn’t always there and the only mode of transportation used to be the hand-paddled boats

Sadvidya Sanjeevini Samskruta MahapAThashAlA, Sringeri – the Sanskrit School. Established over a century ago, people of all ages – though mostly kids/youngsters – stay and study here

View of the main temple complex from Narasimhavana

This visit to Sringeri was quite eventful – eventful in the sense that not only did I get to see the Guru at less than arms-length distance and visit a relative here, I met one of my high school Sanskrit teachers too (ASB). Original plan was to start from Sringeri, towards Bangalore, by night but owing to another mind-storm, /me decided to start the return journey around noonish…

Back To Bangalore

Biggest blunder I did during return journey was to pack my camera deep inside my bag, preventing easy access. Guess I have to wait until my next trip to shoot the coffee plantations and other picture-postcard like scenes that this road offers, though I had some fun time with school kids, between BALehonnUr and ChikkamagaLUr. However, it does not mean that I did not shoot any pictures at all. I changed couple of buses – once in ChikkamagaLUr and once again at HAsan, reaching Bangalore by 10.30pm ish.

While travelling back to Bangalore – seen between Belur and Hasan

While travelling back to Bangalore – seen between Belur and Hasan

More than anything else, this (and such trips, remember the one to B R Hills?) have given enough evidence that I am a wild man (KADu manuShya sounds better, doesn’t it?). Cough seems to have disappeared and so has my throat related issue – though my body wouldn’t complain if /me gets a massage from here

Wild Life

We adopted the outer ring road near Mysore and about 90 minutes drive, through snake-like roads through the hillish area, took us to Jungle Lodges & Resorts in Kyatadevara Gudi (popularly known, amongst the people who know it, as K Gudi). Being an ardent admirer of natural beauty, it wasn’t hard at all for me to figure out why Kalyan, Phillip (and many more) had fallen in love with this place, especially when one takes into account the variety of flora & fauna it has on its menu!

B R Hills Entrance, from the Chamarajanagar/Nagavalli route

Red Wattled Lapwing, B R Hills

One of the many views while driving up the hills

As I was slowly beginning to fall in love with the surroundings myself and food was getting ready, Kalyan was busy with something else – very pretty to see him play with (and feed) monkeys in a seemingly effortless fashion

Kalyan Varma, B R Hills

Jungle Lodges & Resorts (JLR) have done (been doing) an excellent job here – the accommodation (and other facilities) are nothing short of 5*, given the location and its remoteness. There are several log huts to sleep in and a common dining place. If monkeys keep company during daytime, wild boars take up this duty at nights While we were busy with our (very tasty and filling) food, bunch of monkeys decided to have their group picture taken!

Log Hut where I stayed with Phillip Ross, B R Hills

Other Log Huts, B R Hills

Common dining area, B R Hills

Monkeys posing for a group picture near common dining area, B R Hills

For the next 72+ hours, barring food & sleep times, all we (Kalyan, Phillip and myself) did was go on safari (with Mandanna, Thapa, Sudeesh, Dr. Prashanth), watch wild life and/or talk/discuss about it. I did few stupid things and let me explain them in detail, so that you shouldn’t repeat them:

1. Literature Search & Clothing: Very unlike of me, I didn’t do any literature search about this place and/or what it has to offer. As a result, I carried few wrong colored clothes (shades of green, brown and deep blue are the preferred ones) and was feeling dumb during many a discussions. For some reason, I didn’t carry warm clothings and the forest can get pretty nasty cold at nights. Might not have been cold cold (as in Michigan’s Upper Peninsular) but my not-so-great health forced me to buy JLR sweater and jacket.
2. Good Equipment: I wouldn’t say what I had was bad but a 70-200mm VR lens and/or 200-400mm VR lens with camera that shoots more frames per second (like Nikon D200) would have been simply great. I am still happy with quality of some of my pics. Other things that I should have carried include a decent binoculars, a compass, etc.
3. Keener Eye: During one of our safaris, Kalyan and Phillip were busy shooting a Crested Serpant Eagle and after about a minute, I quitely ask, Mandanna, where is the bird?. Keener eye would definitely have helped me shoot more birds and Birds of Southern India (or something similar) would have been a good book to read up (and use it as a reference) to help myself identify the birds.
4. Forest Manners: During the same safari, I was very very previliged to see a tigress (with two of her cubs). Well, how much lucky, you ask? It has taken some people few 10s of trips to this place to sight their first tiger and one of them, I have been told, hasn’t been able to see one even after 20 years. Actually, I wasn’t deserving to see it but people surrounding me (Kalyan, Mandanna, Phillip) were all long due to see one and I was just lucky enough to be with them at the right time That wasn’t the stupid thing I did – we drove around a bit and rest of our group saw the tigress and the cub (while /me had zoomed in and was seeing only the cub). Like a tube light, it took a while for me to see the tigress and immediately started shouting in a mellow tone, Tiger, Tiger; there is a tiger too and everybody else thought I had seen another! Failing to curtail my dumb excitement would have costed us dearly – in terms of some better shots of the tigress and did cost heavily w.r.t. shots of cubs
5. Jumping out of the jeep on the wrong side to shoot Wild Dogs
6. and so on…

Below are some pictures taken during many of our safaris – most of them were through the unusual routes that even some of the regular visitors hadn’t seen before.

Some wild flower seen during a safari, B R Hills

Caterpillar seen during a safari, B R Hills

Sambhar at night, B R Hills

Wild Dog, B R Hills

Barking Deer, B R Hills

Indian Gaur, B R Hills

Little Green Bee Eater, B R Hills

Gecko at night (shot with Kalyan’s SB800 flash), B R Hills

Kyata, playing around in a pond, B R Hills

Wondering as to how did I learn so much about these birds/mammals in such a short span of time? Phillip, Kalyan and Mandanna were kind enough to identify most of them, especially birds, for me after (or in between) safaris. Though not as crisp as any of the above and though not my best shot, following is my proud possession – shot of tigress looking directly towards us. Upon sighting this, we notified the other jeep in the vicinity and by the time they came, tigress had disappeared. One of them was so disappointed that he recorded a video clipping of this picture. Not only that, it gave us bragging rights for the rest of our stay in K Gudi and gave us a proud topic to discuss with friends/relatives

Most prized sighting of this trip, B R Hills

Apart from the fact that this 4-day stay in the forest helped recover my health while providing some awesome sights for my camera, I did learn quite a few things – mostly DOs and DONTs about the area. During some of our safaris, we saw plenty of a$$holes honking their way to glory (glory of what, I have absolutely no clue), even when there was absolutely no need to honk. A bunch of people showed up the second night turning the dining area into a Babbler Zone (Babbler is a bird, often found in groups, that can drive one crazy with its sound and hence the name Babbler) though Kalyan (and Mandanna) informed that the group was lot polite and well behaved than most others. I was also very happy to learn that sale/usage of plastic is prohibited and so is excessive use of booze & smoke – those found guilty of violation are usually hung upside down from a tree deep inside the forest & rest of your group usually gets banned for life from entering this area again! Probably, most important lesson of all was that this place is not a get-away from your mundane, busy city life (there are other places designed just for that) but only for those who have a wild orientation…

If you are wondering as to what’s the point in shooting such wild life (insects, birds, animals, etc.), you probably aren’t the first one. And, it’s probably in such situations that DVG’s Kagga comes to one’s rescue:

A crude transliteration of the above verse/hymn means: “Istn’t the major portion of creation a waste? Is there any meaning in creating millions of worms and insects? The creator is being extravagant without thinking” – is the explanation given by people with half-insight.

Back To Bangalore

The return journey was pretty much similar and we decided to try out the much talked about Nandini Infrastructure Corridor. There were couple of good things – first, there was no toll fee and second, road (and side views) is an awesome piece of work. For a while, I felt like I was zooming through some freeway in US and I just cannot wait to see this road in full glory – when one can travel from Bangalore to Mysore in just about an hour! Health seems to be better but still there are some nagging issues – if they don’t vanish soon, you probably know where I will be for much of my remaining time in India

BASE, Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, Bangalore

Interiors of Gandhinagar Higher Secondary School (GHSS), Bangalore

Drawing Class in GHSS, with my drawing teacher, B K Padmanabhachar, seated bottom left corner

Towards RanganatiTTu

As the Bangalore City Traffic (and accompanying pollution – more about this in a subsequent entry) was beginning to get me, /me decided to wander off to some remote place – a place that has water, trees and some birds – something that looks like (and makes me feel I am in) Houghton. RanganatiTTu Bird Sanctuary was a simple enough choice – mostly because it’s on the way to Mysore wherein I had some important work. OK, enough of setting up the stage and to the actual happenings now…

/me decided to travel in Kaveri Express for historical reasons (it’s a very common feature to find Indian trains named after famous rivers, mountains and warriors and it wouldn’t be an overstatement if I said River Kaveri is the lifeblood of southern part of this state). I was kind of feeling childish (in terms of excitement and not in terms of my behavior) for the length of this travel and below are few shots from my journey up to Sri Ranga PaTTana, located on the banks of river Kaveri

Towards Mysore…

Hillocks of Ramanagara, where much of Sholay was filmed

Maddur Vade

Srirangapattana, train station, with Kaveri Express passing by…

After a short stay at Sri RanganAtha Temple, I walked through the streets of town and what I saw was pretty much the same/similar to what I used to see nearly a decade ago, with minor time-forced improvements. This was the first town where I actually spoke/heard as much KannaDa as I do in Houghton (more about KannaDa in some subsequent entry)!

Sriranganatha Temple

Structures reminding local history, Srirangapattana

Structures reminding local history, Srirangapattana

Another shrine, Srirangapattana

Pictures #1 & #4 describe/portray the religious tolerance (often found pretty much everywhere and often misused by certain groups, mostly corrupt politicians, everywhere; isn’t corrupt politician an overstatement?) that has been followed (and still being followed) for centuries. I didn’t have time to visit other usual tourist attractions of this locality (or I wanted to spend more time in the Bird Sanctuary) and headed off to catch a bus/van towards RanganatiTTu. Short (about 4 km) van ride also reminded me of the olden days – seemingly spaceless van keeps getting filled with more and more people and journey continues as if everyone has their own sweet (or sweat) seat

As the van that dropped me off at the entrance of RanganathiTTu disappeared into the woods, /me too slowly started disappearing into the woods – only on the other side. After a good 20 minute walk, punctuated by short stops necessiated by my craziness for photography, I was in the sanctuary – only to learn that the boating was canceled (the dam, KrishNarAja SAgara – KRS, was filled and Sanctuary officials didn’t have the permission to conduct boat tours). Pretty disappointing but there wasn’t much that me (or anyone else) could do. So, I just roamed around shooting pictures of what I saw – some birds were courteous enough to fly in my direction too

One of the two kittens playing around, Ranganatittu Bird Sanctuary

Another crazy fellow shooting birds, Ranganatittu Bird Sanctuary

A Bird that decided to fly my way, Ranganatittu Bird Sanctuary

Few more birds that decided to fly my way, Ranganatittu Bird Sanctuary

Trash, thrown by a certain some a$$hole, Ranganatittu Bird Sanctuary

I was very pissed off to see things such as in picture #5 and just couldn’t (and still cannot) understand a simple thing – a certain some a$$hole who follows every damned rule/regulation when in a foreign country but fails to stick the same rule/regulation when in India. May be because that certain someone is an a$$hole and/or that (s)he thinks that having paid the entry fee gives them the freedom AND that freedom is their licence to destroy. Government/Forest Department (or whoever is in charge of this and such areas) needs to get a serious whipping. It’s just not this trash thing but the islands in RanganathiTTu area need re-vegetation – if birds have to come back, and many such things that still irritate me.

Enough of me letting out some steam. I asked few localites/gardeners to inform me when boating re-starts and started walking back to the main road. I was kinda lucky enough to see three main modes of transportation that local villagers use – foot, bicycle and bullock cart

Transportation Mode #1 :: Foot

Transportation Mode #2 :: Bicycle

Transportation Mode #3 :: Bullock Cart

About 15 km Ahead…

While waiting for a bus/van, a biker (motorcyclist) offered me a ride – pretty kind of him. I reached Mysore shortly thereafter (around 3.30pm ish) and it was a pretty sight to see this town retain much of its glamor. Glamor not it terms of bling-blingy streets with people wearing fancy clothes but more in down-to-earth terms. St. Philomina’s Church has been, for as long as I can remember, the tallest structure in this town and cool thing is that it still is. Almost every house still has a garden in front and there is more greenery to please one’s mind; traffic isn’t out of control yet and one can still walk long distances without getting tired much

After (while) finishing up the important work, I got some glimpses of what this town has to offer – pleasant mornings, quiet streets, artistic buildings, majestic palace and such – needless to mention, I had some awesome food in more than one place

Sunrise in Mysore, with Chamundi Hill in the background

A relatively quiet street in Chamundipuram area, Mysore

Administrative Block, University of Mysore

St. Philomina’s Church, Mysore

One of the four main entrances to Mysore Palace

The new Mysore Palace – there used to be a wooden structure here – but that was loooong before I took birth

Back to Bangalore

Probably the most (and only) entertaining part of the return journey was the quality of the road – a relatively newly laid 4 lane high way is an eye-candy for sure. I never remember such smooth road and I have been told about a more sweeter eye-candy (called Nandini Infrastructure Corridor) that cuts down Mysore-Bangalore journey time to just about an hour or so. Well, timing of my entry into Bangalore wasn’t the best (actually the worst) as our bus hit the evening rush hour traffic. Breathing in the overly polluted Bangalore outskirts brought me down completely – with severe headache (and such other feelings). It took a full day’s rest along with a short trip to a doctor and some antibiotics to partially recover from all these… This also meant that I failed to keep my scheduled appointment with a friend of mine in Tumkur and it felt shitty as I couldn’t even inform him about my no-show

Later that evening (26th Aug), I got to see a bunch of my buddies from college – Rags, Rithesh, Surya, Dr. Vathsa – all assembled at Santosh’s place. It was good time and while watching some hilariously hilarious spoofed movie, Kalyan called to confirm the B R Hills (BiLigiri Rangana Hills) trip and that we would leave next day around 6.30am ish. Well, this trip (to B R Hills) would be the perfect medicine to my beaten-up body (and mind) and expect to see some wild pictures in about a week or so…

Part Uno :: Houghton, MI → Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN

I got up around 4.45ish and Wil (Slough) was at my place sharp 5.20 (as he promised) to pick me up Owing to the now well-known incident in UK, NWA computer/system thought yours-truly needed a bit more elaborate, extra caring (a.k.a. security check). But having spoken to CMX officials yesterday and having known some of the TSA officials, made the extra caring process very smooth. Detailed carry-on luggage checking thing delayed the take off by nearly 40 minutes. However, this delay didn’t affect me as I had a pretty long layover in Minneapolis. It was after a long time that I napped much of the air-time, mostly because of 21+ hours/day work for much of the week.

One of my favorite drinks in MSP

One of my favorite places in MSP

Waiting for the next flight, coupled with 40lbs hanging on my back and lack of timely food & enough food made it pretty difficult for me to spend 6+ hours of layover in MSP. Added to this, I don’t remember fighting this hard to avoid sleep as well as to connect to WiFi. I guess I attempted at least 20 times and not once did the connectivity last more than 90 seconds

Part Dos :: Minneapolis/St. Paul, USA → Amsterdam, Netherlands

The journey started almost on time (15 minutes delay for an international flight is nothing). After another change of seats (originally I had in row 26; Tom in CMX had put me in exit row 29 and finally I sat in exit row 10) and feeling ashamed (for refusing to give up my exit row seat in 29), and some head-ache in association with throwing up feeling, I thoroughly enjoyed rest of the journey – part in sleep, part in eating, part in watching Mission Impossible III and part, as usual, in talking to flight attendants and fellow passenger. While catching up on some sleep, I missed the dinner but the flight attendants were pretty cool – they brought me food, fed me well and, were very helpful through out. I also read a part of Work and Its Secret, excerpts from Swami Vivekananda’s 1900 Los Angeles lecture. In parts that I read, he talks about working with a smile on face and expecting no return – as soon as mind wonders/wanders as to how one would accomplish this (he does talk about it too), I see these flight attendants as the classic working example of this book’s essence. There have been others who have (been) living, probably without their very own notice, similar such life styles.

Just minutes before landing in Amsterdam, I started talking to my next-seat passenger and (begin whispering) I may have met my prospective employer, for after graduation work (end whispering). Nothing’s certain yet and my resumé needs lot more reworking/refining if it has to get me a job.

Call it accident/co-incidence/luck/funny/crazy (and/or yours truly’s planning), I was in the same airport, at around the same time, four years ago by date – before embarking on my first ever trans-atlantic flight. Schiphol was the biggest airport I had ever seen till that day (11th Aug 2002) but it didn’t feel intimidating this time around, though much of the it looked the same (including the rainy weather conditions).

Schiphol, Amsterdam (pardon the glare / reflection)

Interiors of Schiphol, Amsterdam

Communication Center in Schiphol, Amsterdam

Communication Center in Schiphol, Amsterdam

Just like last time, I had about 4 hours of layover and knowing my way around here saved me quite a bit of time. WiFi connection was lot better and reliable, compared to Minneapolis. For a while, I was running around the airport and wanted to see a museum (first of its kind – at least they claim it so) but since NWA officials had mentioned that I started walking towards terminal E6 (searching it was a no brainer, MSP-AMS flight had arrived in E8) and finding / confirming that it was the right terminal couldn’t have been any easier. E6 looked like a mini-India — with people from different regions flocking together, talking in their respective languages, sharing/eating food items characteristic of their local geography, most of them not caring to smile or return it when offered and about a handful of foreigners (it’s ironic – but true from the mini-India perspective) spread around, probably wondering if they had already reached India even before they boarded the flight

Part Tres :: Amsterdam, Netherlands → Mumbai, India

Due to heightened security measures, boarding didn’t begin until few minutes before the scheduled take off time. I got to know couple of German/Swedish people, who are also coming to Bangalore en-route to attending a Sourashtrian wedding in Madhurai and later managed to get an exit row seat (yes, again). My discussions, on varied topics, were restricted to my next-seat neighbor – that being the one of the many differences. What else was different, you ask?. Lot of things – actually, I never thought they were so many until midway through the flight.

First off, the carrier itself was different – much smaller, less hi-tech. Instead of each seat equipped with its own LCD screen (with remote control), there was one big screen in each of the sections – much like a theater. So, everybody is forced to see the same damned thing, whether they like (and/or understand) it. Added to this, not everybody (whoever wants to see) can see this and the headphone socket doesn’t accept anything but in-flight-issued headphones. Guess you are going Huh, that’s it? Why am I being a b!@#$ about it??. I am not done reciting the missing things list. Food was just crappy – utterly tasteless. I was surprised that the so-called desi food was better in Part Dos than here – this one being more of a To India flight (How did I get that smart to understand this? For one, 80% of the passengers are desis; every announcement is trans-repeated in Hindi. The person who trans-repeated had one of the finest and smoothest accents I have ever heard – that was the only saving grace part of all this). I guess the flight attendants did not bring the Concept of Customer Care with them for this flight. Either they forgot to pack it or it might have been too heavy to check in. There was none with a smile (on their face) to greet people into the flight and guide to their seat (reminds me of Tech’s PH1100 Learning by Discovery labs). Anything I requested either took a very very long time (30+ minutes ETA) or never came. On couple occasions, I had to go and fetch them myself. First, it was a piece of wet-cloth I asked for, to clean the dirty/filthy food tray. 20+ minutes later, I went and got it myself. Then, after managing to eat part of the crappy food they served (partly out of desperation to avoid head-aches and partly out of the usual respect for food – people who grew it, cooked it and paid for it), I waited another 20+ minutes after which I took the tray myself to their food-serving compartments. Pressing the button & hoping that an attendant would show up and/or frequent beverage servings with a pleasant smile were just too much ask for!!

Then, a short nap later, I decide to refresh the blood circulation in my feet and check on German/Swedish friends (seated way back in the cabin) and what I saw was pretty much utterly hopeless. Not all seats were taken or there was some seat adjustment that took place, I kept seeing people occupying multiple seats – sometimes to put their stuff, often to make it serve like a bed and doze off. Every other step, I kept bumping into garbage – yes, literally garbage – news paper, plastic beverage cups, dirty/filthy paper napkins, clothes, shoes, sandals, …. decorating either aisles in the 2-5-2 arrangement. If it wasn’t a federal/aviation violation, I would have loved to shoot some pics of it and post them here! First, I thought it might have been an accident. But situation was even worse when I went for my second such walk, after another nap-break. About 3 hours of flying time was still left when I wrote this segment of the blog and I must say, I felt like I was traveling in a 3rd class, unreserved compartment of an Indian train (June 12, 2000 to be precise – from Chennai to Bangalore).

Well, some/all such things might have forced the flight attendants not to pack their usual smile and caring nature OR people (I mean the travellers) act in a weird way because they don’t receive the usual services – I am not sure which one’s the hen and which one’s the egg. But I am willing, from personal experience (of not-all, but most fellow desis’ behavior in a group. This behavior can be utterly different depending on the nationality of others in the group – cricket crowds are a classic example for this) to bet that travelers’ shitty behavior is the cause and missing customer care is the effect.

As of writing this segment, I had the feeling that booking my dates only for four weeks was a pretty good idea (I had been feeling that this duration might not be sufficient to do everything in detail that I had in my to-do list) and that I can’t wait to be back in Amsterdam (for return journey to US). Experience with customs might only add to this feeling but fellow passengers (and many friends) have convinced me that the desi customs security check in should be simple (and straightforward) as long as I stick to the green line. I am hoping that these fellas are right and that I will start feeling that staying four weeks was an OK idea, if not good or great. And with only 20 minutes of battery left in my Mac, I guess I will stop here for the moment and use it to write about the straight-forwardness of green line thing.

(9 hours later…) Well, the flight reached Mumbai about an hour late (it’s a Northwest policy, I heard) and for a change, all my luggage came in the same flight too. Immigration check was a breeze; I was surprised to see my stuff on the carousel in less than 15 minutes (this is the all time fastest) and customs check was a whirlwind (trust me, if I say it’s superfast, it’s really really fast).

Part Cuatro :: Mumbai, India → Bangalore, India

My checked in luggage was checked in again to Bangalore with Jet Airways and a few minutes later, I (along with a couple new friends from Germany/Sweden) reached the local airport via AAI Shuttle. We had some chai together and some basic Hindi lessons (for Ida) & a short shuttle later, I was sitting in Jet Airways carrier headed for Bangalore. I was pretty pleased to see young/educated/understanding personnel at various counters along the check in process and they made it a cakewalk for Barstian and Ida to carry their glassware gift from Sweden

Waiting in Mumbai, with Ida and Barstian

I was pretty surprised to see about a third of passengers being foreign nationals – signs of grow(n)ing times I suppose. Journey was again pretty smooth, food was great too – the menu offered a choice between North/South Indian delicacies and food was actually served in porceline dishes with steel silverware (isn’t this a misnomer?). The in-flight magazine, Jet Winger, was pretty informative too – covering not-often talked about places and their specialties. About an hour left in the journey, of all the passengers in the flight, one of the attendants asked me to provide feedback about their service. Honestly, I was shocked, as yours truly is only used to being selected, of all passengers, for extra scrutiny/security checks! Unlike many other desis from US, I wasn’t even wearing any clothing that explicitly gave away information about where I came from!! I filled in appropriate & honest details where applicable and their wash-room/toilets got a Poor (there was no very poor option).

Honestly, my mind/heart is a bag of mixed feelings right now – a tiny bit of excitement (thinking about 20+ years I spent here in a matter of minutes) I had when the carrier landed in Mumbai is long gone and for some reason, /me feels like I have reached in some sub-urban NYC airport…