9:40 AM Left the hotel after having the complimentary buffet breakfast(good). Headed to Vattakottai Fort.

9:56 AM Reached Vattakottai. This fort is said to have been under control of various rulers and kingdoms. It is also said that it protected the Kanyakumari Port in the earlier days. For some reason the tourists at this spot was very less and it helped us take a lot of Photos. There is no entry ticket for the fort however there is a toll of INR 20 for four wheelers in the approaching road. Spent around half hour roaming and snapping.  The fort is well maintained and clean. A must visit place. There is a nearby beach also.

Vattakottai Fort, Vattakottai, Kanyakumari.

Finishing the only place we had in mind to see for the day, we set out for the second longest drive of the trip. We took break a couple of times to re-fuel and take snaps.

NH7, Tirunelveli to Virudhunagar.

11:14 AM – NH7- Nanguneri Toll – INR 62

12:06 PM – NH7 – S.pudhur Toll – INR 40

12:40 PM – NH7- Etturvattam Toll – INR 40

13:40 PM – NH7 – Hotel Saravanas – Near Alanganallur Pirivu. The hotel was decent and food was good. It also has a separate Toilet complex and huge open car parking.  As you might have noticed we decided not to go via Madurai and kept onto NH7 till Dindigul.

14:26 PM – NH7 – Kodai Road Toll – INR 45.

There is only one toll booth between Dindigul and Trichy and that is not yet operational. Compare this to the Madurai route the additional distance is only 10 KMS maximum and the toll is less by nearly INR 120. I would suggest people take this route as there are no major places in this route and the traffic is also very minimal.  There are a couple of places near Dindigul where repair works are happening and the traffic is diverted to the opposite lane. Also Once you cross Navalur kuttappatu near Trichy the roads are in bad shape. I would happily trade this for the cost and traffic on the Madurai route.

Dindigul to Trichy, NH45

16:36 PM – Reached home at Srirangam. Went to have darshan in Srirangam temple and retired for the day.

Day 5 was uneventful as the only thing to do was reach Madras before lunch. Started from home at 7:00 AM and reached Madras by 11:30 AM.  Somewhere between Veppur and Villupuram I tried my luck for the top speed and achieved 161 KMPH for a duration of four minutes. The NH45 from Trichy to Madras is excellent till Madurantakam, after which the road condition itself is deteriorated with uneven stretches and huge local traffic jumping towards your wheels. I took the Vandalur-Kelambakkam Byepass to avoid the rush near Tambaram.

There should be some other way to reach Chennai from Chengalpet. I would prefer taking the ECR from Dindivanam had it been four laned,but that too is not good. This is the place where I lost all my built up mileage owing to huge bumper to bumper traffic and mad overtaking by Indicas and Logans. Some one find a better route to enter Madras soon!

Tirunelveli – Nanguneri – Thirukurungudi – Padmanabapuram – Thiruvattaru – Kanyakumari

8:05 AM – After some nice idlies and a cup of coffee, we left to Nanguneri.

8:35 AM- NH7 – Nanguneri Toll- INR 65

8:43 AM – Reached Vanamamalai Temple at Nanguneri. This is a very orthodox temple asking you to remove your shirt Moreover there were some hymns being recited and hence we had to wait for sometime to get darshan. Finished the darshan and went to the lake nearby. While starting back I missed to see the huge stone lying before my car and it scrapped the underbody.  Called th 24×7 helpline and confirmed that nothing is dangerous. Kept a close watch on the MID for any warning and proceeded carefully onto NH7.

Vanamamalai Perumal Temple, Nanguneri.

 9:40 AM Left towards Nagercoil on NH7. The roads here were superb and empty. I was constantly doing 120 KMPH in this road for the first time in the trip. Stopped at many places to take snaps, munch snacks and happily delayed our trip. Once I entered the route to Nagercoil the entire route was with heavy traffic and the delayed our plans.

NH7, Smooth and Straight. Near Valliyoor.

11:13 AM Reached Tirupathisaram temple, only to find it closed:( Since the traffic on Nagercoil- Thuckalay was getting slow,we decided against going to Padmanabapuram. Also since we were not sure of finding a decent hotel to have lunch, we decided to return to Kanyakumari.

11:38 AM Started from Tirupathisaram towards Kanyakumari after confirming a couple of hotels for accomodation. The cheaper ones were unclean (Triveni) and the good ones are costly (Seaview).

1.30 PM Finally had a bad lunch at Triveni and checked into Seaview after bargaining the rates. This hotel has good facilities expect it has only one lift for more than 5 floors and that is a real pain. Unlike the day before the attention comes only after you pay, we had to depend on ourselves to park our cars. Poor housekeeping.We took some much needed rest and started for the boat ride.

4:00 PM We were the last set of people to enter the boat jetty queue. It was closed at 4:15 PM. I thought the boat ride will take you to both Vivekananda Rock and Tiruvalluvar Statue. But for some reason Tiruvalluvar statue was closed to public. We were on the Vivekananda rock on 26th December. Vivekananda is also believed to have been on this rock from 25th December to 27th December. Another recent incident was the Tsunami which happened on 26th December. Weird coincidences.

Vivekananda Rock and Tiruvalluvar Statue after Sunset.

After an unsuccessful attempt to capture the sunset, mostly due to bad weather, returned to mainland and roamed around window shopping. We tried to go to Gandhi Mandapam and Wandering Monk Museum but chose to stay out seeing the huge crowd.  We then visited the Devi Kanyakumari Temple and relaxed on the outer praharams facing the beach munching groundnuts Went back to room since there wasn’t much to see after 6.30 PM.

Wandering Monk Museum, Kanyakumari.

Tuned into the News channel to hear warnings of Cyclone Thane.  We weren’t ready to face any rains, leave alone a cyclone. Hence dropped plans to go to Rameshwaram and decided to go to Srirangam to stay for the next day and proceed to Chennai. Again for the dinner we really had to hunt around for a decent Vegetarian hotel. The restaurant at the hotel we stayed was too costly. Hit the bed at 22:00 hours.

Srirangam-Tiruthangal-Srivilliputhur-Courtallam-Banatheertham-Tirunelveli.

Going by the previous day experience we left home only by 6.16 AM at Srirangam. Reached the TVS Petrol Bunk and filled the nearly empty tank with 42.5 L Petrol.

6:39 AM: Left TVS Petrol bunk near Mannarpuram.

7:03 AM- NH45B- Boothakudi Toll- INR 50

8:08 AM – NH45B- Chittampati Toll – INR 50

8:17 AM – Madurai byepass Toll- INR 10. I guess this is some random number. I asked for the lowest amount toll to be charged. Initially the toll person asked for INR 50. Not sure if there is some fishy things happening here. Looks like. Anyway the road after this toll is not worth to be described. Pathetic.

8:25 AM – Breakfast stop. (20 Mins)

9:01 AM – Madurai Tirumangalam Exit- NH7 Toll – INR 50

9:35 AM – Virudhunagar Exit to Sivakasi

10:05 AM- Reached Tiruthangal. The road between Virudhunagar and Sivakasi is a mix of good and bad stretches. You could never anticipate the bad stretch coming.  Tiruthangal is a few KMS before Sivakasi and the temple is on the road itself. We had a nice darshan of Ninra Narayana Perumal and proceeded to Srivilliputhur.

10:28 AM – Start from Tiruthangal to Srivilliputhur. This road is also a mixed bag and the traffic is bad. Be wary of local buses and Scorpios who are eager to show their road presence. Even if they sense a mild aggression from you they will ensure that you are pushed off the road. Stay calm and stick to the left most lane.

11:09 AM – Reached Srivilliputhur Temple. There are two temples to see here. Also we made a few calls to find out which is the best shop to get the famous Pal-khova. Since the time was around 12 we looked for a decent hotel for lunch. Could not find any, hence left to Tenkasi. This is where we realized that the plan started going off. We were supposed to exit Srivilliputhur by 11:30!

12:11 PM – Started from Srivilliputhur and passed Rajapalayam. There is a confusing check post/barricade near Rajapalayam which asks four wheelers to enter Rajapalayam on the left, but after making a few enquires found that misleading and headed straight. This stretch is good but got heavy traffic. Also there are some villages through which the road passes making the road very narrow. I am not sure if I missed any bye-passes for those villages.

13:54 PM – Reached Tenkasi and since we were extremely hungry and tired we stopped at the first hotel we saw. Very average looks, but passable food.  The next one hour we wasted by going from one falls to another, hunting for parking spaces among the huge Sabarimala traffic. Adding to that is the fact that it was Sunday. We were not in a mood to bathe in the falls after the lunch and hence just saw the falls and then came out.  Water flow was fairly okay.  I was slightly put off by the delay. Hence we exited Courtallam by 14:45 PM.

15:18 PM – Since we were in no mood to go to another falls (Agasthyar/Banatheertham) we took things slowly.  Near a place called Duraisamypuram we halted for around 1/2 hour to stretch our legs and take some snaps.

Inviting roads! I would pay toll for these but there isn't any!

15: 35 PM – Post this siesta, we left for Ambai only to be held up in a traffic jam! It was a small bridge and the toursit bus carrying Ayyappa devotes brushed with a TNSTC bus and both are stuck! No injuries but the traffic was halted for more than 45 minutes.

16:45 PM – Traffic jam cleared. Since it is already late, we could not make it to the dam. So left for Melaseval Navaneethakrishnan Temple. This is on the route to Nellai via Pattamadai.

Sunset at Melaseval, Tirunelveli

17:33 PM- Reached Melaseval Temple and after a quick darshan left for Tirunelveli.

18:10 PM- Boarded at Bharani Hotel. Very good service and excellent food. Rooms do not look new, but that doesn’t mean it is bad, just old.

Thus the second day ends.

The plan to buy a car was in the mind for nearly two years. You know, certain things do not materialize no matter how long you keep mulling over it. Buying a car is one such thing for me. In contrast, marriage took less than 4 months

I was so close to buying a car when marriage happened along with a job change. Things got re-prioritized and car was put in the back burner. Somewhere around September 2011, the thought came back. Then things fell into place one after another and I have my car now.

 The Plan

As soon as we decided to buy a car, the plan to make a road trip started. This was inspired in no small measure by the innumerable travelogues on Team-BHP. I started gazing the maps, chalking routes, planning places to visit etc. Few things were decided about the trip.

1. Comfort first, Cost Second.
2. Do not drive more than 500 KMS per day.
3. Do not drive from 6 PM to 6 AM.
4. Average speed for planning should be less than 60 KMPH on tolled highways and 40 KMPH on other roads.
5. Prefer longer, better roads than shorter unknown roads.

We also thought of roping in someone experienced in doing road trips to join us, but that did not happen. So it was left to me alone to do the driving. Exciting and scary!

The Team

Me and my wife. I am so happy that my wifey took to the roads spiritedly without any qualms. Looking back, the trip was more of drive than sightseeing. I should also add here that except for my wife no one else was giving encouraging comments about the trip.

The Trip

The Actual plan was like this:

Day 1 : Madras – Tirukoyilur – Thiruvarangam – Srirangam

Day 2 : Srirangam – Tiruthangal – Srivilliputhur – Courtallam – Banatheertham – Tirunelveli.

Day 3 : Tirunelveli – Nanguneri – Padmanabapuram – Kanyakumari.

Day 4: Kanyakumari- Rameshwaram.

Day 5: Rameshwaram-Madras.

As the dates to do the journey started nearing my planning ability started blurring between excitement and fear. It was hence decided that we will do the trip day by day planning for the next day only the day before. Nothing is for sure except that it should be possible to reach a safe place for rest when things go wrong. This is a decision we took considering that the driver is a newbie and there is no one to help along.

Finally the executed plan ended up like this: (Click on the days to see detailed travelogues).

Day 1 : Madras- Tirukoyilur- Thiruvarangam- Srirangam

Day 2 : Srirangam-Sivakasi (Tiruthangal)-Srivilliputhur-Tenkasi (Courtallam)-Melaseval-Tirunelveli.

Day 3 : Tirunelveli-Nanguneri-Thirupathisaram- Kanyakumari.

Day 4: Kanyakumari- Vattakottai- Srirangam.

Day 5: Srirangam-Madras.

Over all the trip was satisfying in two aspects. One we were happy at end of the trip, not tired. Second it helped us to understand the car better.

Few words about the car:

• Mine is Volkswagen Polo 1.6L Petrol Highline.
• The car has Über excellent highway manners.
• Top whack was 161 KMPH which I did for a span of 4 Minutes on NH45 near Villupuram. A better driver could actually do more.
• 100 KMPH is achieved even before you notice it. Once you slot it in 5th gear 120 is the minimum you do. This however eats into the mileage.
• It doesn’t drop a sweat when it climbs from say 40 or 50 KMPH to 120 KMPH. You will not feel that unless you see the reading.
• Braking inspires confidence like no other. High speed braking even without involving engine braking was a pleasure.
• If you do a constant 80-100 KMPH mileage is north of 16 KMPL. However in most of the stretches I did, the roads were empty and I could not achieve better mileage as I was pushing the car at 120.
• My average mileage was 16KMPL excluding the last day. Including it the mileage dropped to 15 KMPL.

Summary

Days Travelled: 5 days (24/Dec/2011 to 28/Dec/2011)

Distance: 1630 KMS.

Fuel Consumed: 109 liters.

Total Toll Damages:  INR 894.

Sweet Memories.

I would like to thank all the members of Team-BHP, HV Kumar Sir, the HV Kumar Facebook group and my wife for making my maiden trip a success. The plans for next long trips have already started

Madras-Thirukoyilur-Thiruvarangam-Srirangam

This is the only day in the whole trip where things went as per plan.

As per plan we started at around 5.15 AM from home. Fuel tank was 3/4 full. I wanted to top up in a Shell nearby or a BPCL COCO on the Highway.  But since the initial two bunks were closed forgot this completely! Starting before 6 was a mistake since the roads were  very dark and considerably reduced my vision. I also din’t know how to get rid of the fogging in the inner walls of the windshield. Later I found that I had to keep the windows open for a minute or so to make the temperature on both sides same.

Crossed the following points:

6 AM – NH45 – Paranur Toll – INR 20

6.46 AM - NH45 - Athur Toll – INR 20

7:21 AM - NH45 – GMR Ulundurpet Toll – INR 62 (Is there a way to bye pass this toll? too costly )

7:34 AM – Villupuram Govt Hospital Turn.

8:33 AM – Reached Tirukoyilur.

Between Villupuram and Tirukoyilur we stopped for around 15 Minutes to take some snaps.

Excellent Roads, Zero Traffic.

 A nice darshan at the Tiruvikraman Perumal Temple and breakfast at Arya Bhavan we started again towards Adi Tiruvarangam.

9:25 AM – Started from Tirukoyilur. There is an old bridge crossing Thenpennai river which is blocked for 4 wheeler traffic and hence there is a diversion through another route nearby.

10:05 AM – Reached Adi Tiruvarangam. The roads to this place is via Manalurpet and except for the last 2 KMS the entire stretch of 20 KMS is in good condition. The Temple is open for public from 8 AM in the morning to 9 PM in the night without any breaks and hence can be visited any time of the day.

10:26AM – Left the temple and headed back to Tirukoyilur. Just before you reach Tirukoyilur there is a diversion which says Ulundurpet Byepass to your right. Going by some blind faith I took this road. This road is really excellent and almost a straight line. Be wary of some nasty speed breakers with or without markings. They are huge and might scrap your car under body if you are not careful. It crosses the Salem Highway and I joined that route to reach Ulundurpet since the fuel was almost empty and I wanted to hit NH45. Or else one could proceed straight till Asanur to join NH45.

11:54 AM Re-fuelled at an IOCL near Veppur for INR 1000.

12:11 PM – NH45 Thirumandurai Toll – INR 40

12:52 PM – NH45- Samayapuram Toll – INR 35

1:15 PM – Reached Home in Srirangam.

Since this is my first day and my first trip I was nervous all through and I could not manage a decent speed. But at the end of day Iwas happy that I could reach safe!

Post on Quora

I’m like my mother. I stereotype. It’s faster.

- Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) – “Up in the Air”

Stereotype, as wikipedia says is a commonly held public belief about specific social groups or types of individuals.

We all stereotype. We all are stereotyped. Frankly there is a lot of truth to what Ryan says above. Stereotypes are brain’s way of caching a process. Its a gift and saves from the proverbial trouble of re-inventing the wheel.

However, things are not quite rosy when this stereotyping gets more myopic. People start applying other’s stereotypes into their situations. If your friend had a bad feel about a movie, you would tend to think the same way. If this happens to a large number of your friends, you would be so sure that the movie is bad. This is dangerous. You are not your friend. You are unique.  There is a saying in Tamil:

கண்ணால் காண்பதும் பொய், காதால் கேட்பதும் பொய். தீர விசாரிப்பதே மெய்.

This roughly means, what you see is a lie, what you hear is a lie. What you analyse and find is alone truth. This essentially advocates against the grain of stereotype.

Personally I love to see people who stereotype fail. They are essentially not stupid, but somehow they missed the rational call to verify. I have many instances in my life where people have thought I am from REC (NIT) Trichy when I say I studied in Trichy. Really?!

IIT. IIM. US of A. 3BHK. Prius. Spelling bee child. Carnatic music child. Bharatanatyam Child. Pittsburg Balaji. Mylapore.  Import Hershey kisses. Export Maavadus. Too much of same stuff. Uff!

The society is infested with stereotype generators and is always viewed via a stereotyping glass. Be wary and break as much stereotypes as you can enjoy the fun! Start with doing atleast something small in a different way. It leaves people wondering and creates an enigma around you.

P.S. This post was initially titled “I shall not buy a Suzuki Swift”.

P.P.S. This post is not to offend anyone, don’t take it seriously!

Yes, I sent a mail to myself. There is a website called FutureMe. At first look, it appeared like a desperate soul’s attempt to gain some fame and hence it did not gather much of my attention. But somehow, yesterday someone tweeted about receiving a mail she sent to herself way back in 2006. That left me wondering. What would I want my future me to know? It better be good because when I look at that mail, it should put a smile on my face and not think “Oh, dear, I sucked big time in English!”

When you suddenly start thinking in concrete terms about your future, you feel a lot of pangs, some hope, some faint pleasures, unpleasant memories and things you never want to happen. It seriously left me with a lot of  ’What if ‘ scenarios and hence was in a sense a revelation of myself. Finally I managed to finish the mail. I have set the mail to be delivered to me on my birthday in 2011. That is nearly 1 year from now.

Coming to the mail contents, I can say I was tempted to write so much that it would get me full 12 marks if it were my 1oth standard board exam paper. Then I realized, they were not required to be told, even to myself. Think of what you keep talking to others! Sorry friends, I filled most of you with my empty rants. Another essential thing is to set the aspirations of myself clear. Remember, once I hit the send, it cannot be edited. So, I should be extremely careful on what I say, because 1 year from now I will have no means to remember what I aspired and hence this mail will become my guide to that.  So keep your mail in clear terms. The last thing you want is to confuse yourself!

I promise to share the email next year.

What can you do?

• Try to do this as often as possible. Keep sending emails to yourself with clear and concise messages.
• Avoid blabbering. Trust me, it will make you feel sick when you read it in future.
• Publish the emails as public and anonymous. The best thing about sending emails to yourself is there is no need to refer to a person’s name. You can just say I , me etc.
• Don’t get over zealous and send impractical targets. Keep the target achievable.
• Good luck! See you in the future.

In the blurring boundaries between absolute and relative,

In the deafening silence of vacuum,

In the mad rush of bees,

In the warp of time,

In the striving mind for perfect equations,

In the moving targets,

In the random scents,

In the rough edges of pebbles,

In the rational mind of a theist,

In the flaw of reason,

In the frozen uncertainty of future,

In the chaos of a river,

In the anomalies of science,

In the texture of rich music,

In the random variables of life’s equation,

In the non zero manifolds of happiness,

In the surprise of asymmetry,

In the evanescence of dreams,

In the space between right and wrong*,

My life thrives.

~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Germinated by these words of Vitasta Shah:

“[In the] Space between what’s wrong and right,/ You’ll find me waiting for you…”