Continued from here.
Thought of taking care of some unfinished business. The earlier posts were all written using my phone, not really that comfortable. Now that I've got access to my laptop, will elaborate a bit more due to comments received on a few things mentioned in earlier posts.
1. The brats - why was I annoyed with them?
For instance, take the first day when I didn't have my earphones on. Pugal was shouting, after a few hours in the bus, "Driver uncle, stop the bus!", "Driver uncle, stop the bus!", .... He was just shouting continuously for a long time (20-30 mins, I think). People around, including his parents, had a hard time trying to calm the kid or at least divert his attention. I didn't know why he was shouting to stop the bus in the first place! I'm not sure what else he did next 2 days since I was immersed in music, except when the announcements were made (already detailed these in earlier posts). So don't know what all antics he did the next 2 days. So then, I feel that single instance should be sufficient enough to state why someone could get annoyed.
2. Kukke Subramanya - a big disappointment
I'd heard quite a lot of interesting things about this temple. Firstly, I shouldn't have had any expectations. It was quite disappointing in the end. Nothing like I'd heard. The place is situated in a valley, looks good, not awesome. The temple itself - I don't understand what's so great about it!
3. Free food at the temples
For someone serving free food, it's a very decent meal. But for me, who's quite pampered, spending a few hundreds per meal usually, it was a complete let down. Quite obvious, you'd think.
So what's the free meal all about? There's a queue usually. We're in the hall within a few minutes. Sit down in long rows, probably 100 people in a row.
Round1: Everyone gets a steel plate, or a plantain leaf.
Round2: Then a small quantity of some dry curry. Usually Bottle gourd, Pumpkin, mixed veg curries having unknown vegetables, etc. I don't usually like these, so almost wasted in every place.
Round 3: Rice, immediately followed by Rasam. Rasam is just boiled, slightly brown-colored, water, with a little salt & masala to taste.
Round 4: After about 2 minutes of the earlier round, another round of rice. Immediately followed by Sambar this time. The only difference between Sambar & Rasam being - Sambar is a teeny-weeny bit thicker than Rasam & also has some additional vegetables such as onions, bottle gourd, pumpkin, etc.
Round 5: If you've set aside some rice, you can get buttermilk. Buttermilk, is actually 1 liter of curd in 25 liters of water.
And you're done. In another 2 mins you're walking out, washing hands. 10 mins in all!
4. Veg food for 4 days, continuously
Past few years, the longest period I've eaten veg food continuously was probably just a couple of days! After a very long time, at least 3 years, I've eaten veg food for 4 days continuously!
Surprisingly, I've got a comment from one of my colleagues on Monday that I've gained weight. Couldn't believe given what I'd eaten those days! Or was it because of the 'junk' food ;)
5. Inside the temples
a) Since I walked much faster than the others, I was usually the first to go in & come out. At Adi Subramanya, for example, I was in & out twice, with a gap of 10 mins. Still people hadn't even completed 1 visit!
b) If there were long queues, I just bypassed the queue. For example, in Udipi Krishna temple. I was out of the temple, finished lunch too. People weren't done with darshan still! For me, standing in such long queues seemed pointless. People who went in the queues, waiting for hours, when in front of the shrine/idol, just closed their eyes to pray! C'mon, what's the point! Isn't all the wait to have a good look.
6. Tilak on forehead
End of 3rd day I noticed I didn't put a tilak on my forehead at any of the temples in past few days. Never! I noticed it because I observed many others sporting multiple colors, shades & shapes of tilaks! No one around to forcefully apply one on my forehead meant I was very happy in the end! I'd walked off when some of the priests offered to apply tilak on my forehead. Explains why.
7. Money at temples
Also, whenever I've taken teertham, I've dropped Rs.1 or Rs.2, whichever came to hand first when digging through the wallet. If I was going to have a free lunch/dinner, dropped some amount of Rs.10, upto Rs.30 in the hundi. Some places where the food seemed above average, walked back & put in at least Rs.10 more if I'd initially only dropped Rs.10. End of the trip, I realized I'd spent almost all the change I had. Highest denomination used was Rs.50. So all the 100s & 500s in the wallet stayed dormant. Entire expense too was quite low, about Rs.400, I think. Didn't keep track.
8. Pics
All pics were self pics. That is, place the camera somewhere, set the timer on for 10 seconds. Go run to the position & have the pic taken when the timer runs out. No one, except me, touched the camera throughout the trip. The guide had offered to take a pic couple of times, but I politely refused. I'd most trouble taking pics when it was raining. Unfortunately, at those times there wasn't anyone around I could trust who could've taken my pic. For example, in Kollur it was raining heavily & I couldn't take a self pic. There wasn't any place to place the camera such that it could be shielded from the rain & also capture the temple entrance with me standing somewhere around. Another place I can remember where I couldn't take a self pic was the Aneguddi Vinayaka temple.
9. My experiences with gadgets
a) mp3 player - croma mp4 player 16GB, although I've several cribs, the player has pretty much served its purpose
b) Phone - Samsung Galaxy S2, quite impressed with the phone & battery. Used GPRS a lot. GPS didn't work when there was a thick cloud cover, or when in bus. Haven't called anyone, although it occurred to me on the last day when I was super-bored, to call, but decided otherwise
c) Digital camera - Panasonic FZ40, extremely impressed with the battery. Hadn't charged for the whole journey. Just 1 out of 3 bars disappeared end of the trip. I might've taken a hundred pics & some HD video footage too
Thought of taking care of some unfinished business. The earlier posts were all written using my phone, not really that comfortable. Now that I've got access to my laptop, will elaborate a bit more due to comments received on a few things mentioned in earlier posts.
1. The brats - why was I annoyed with them?
For instance, take the first day when I didn't have my earphones on. Pugal was shouting, after a few hours in the bus, "Driver uncle, stop the bus!", "Driver uncle, stop the bus!", .... He was just shouting continuously for a long time (20-30 mins, I think). People around, including his parents, had a hard time trying to calm the kid or at least divert his attention. I didn't know why he was shouting to stop the bus in the first place! I'm not sure what else he did next 2 days since I was immersed in music, except when the announcements were made (already detailed these in earlier posts). So don't know what all antics he did the next 2 days. So then, I feel that single instance should be sufficient enough to state why someone could get annoyed.
2. Kukke Subramanya - a big disappointment
I'd heard quite a lot of interesting things about this temple. Firstly, I shouldn't have had any expectations. It was quite disappointing in the end. Nothing like I'd heard. The place is situated in a valley, looks good, not awesome. The temple itself - I don't understand what's so great about it!
3. Free food at the temples
For someone serving free food, it's a very decent meal. But for me, who's quite pampered, spending a few hundreds per meal usually, it was a complete let down. Quite obvious, you'd think.
So what's the free meal all about? There's a queue usually. We're in the hall within a few minutes. Sit down in long rows, probably 100 people in a row.
Round1: Everyone gets a steel plate, or a plantain leaf.
Round2: Then a small quantity of some dry curry. Usually Bottle gourd, Pumpkin, mixed veg curries having unknown vegetables, etc. I don't usually like these, so almost wasted in every place.
Round 3: Rice, immediately followed by Rasam. Rasam is just boiled, slightly brown-colored, water, with a little salt & masala to taste.
Round 4: After about 2 minutes of the earlier round, another round of rice. Immediately followed by Sambar this time. The only difference between Sambar & Rasam being - Sambar is a teeny-weeny bit thicker than Rasam & also has some additional vegetables such as onions, bottle gourd, pumpkin, etc.
Round 5: If you've set aside some rice, you can get buttermilk. Buttermilk, is actually 1 liter of curd in 25 liters of water.
And you're done. In another 2 mins you're walking out, washing hands. 10 mins in all!
4. Veg food for 4 days, continuously
Past few years, the longest period I've eaten veg food continuously was probably just a couple of days! After a very long time, at least 3 years, I've eaten veg food for 4 days continuously!
Surprisingly, I've got a comment from one of my colleagues on Monday that I've gained weight. Couldn't believe given what I'd eaten those days! Or was it because of the 'junk' food ;)
5. Inside the temples
a) Since I walked much faster than the others, I was usually the first to go in & come out. At Adi Subramanya, for example, I was in & out twice, with a gap of 10 mins. Still people hadn't even completed 1 visit!
b) If there were long queues, I just bypassed the queue. For example, in Udipi Krishna temple. I was out of the temple, finished lunch too. People weren't done with darshan still! For me, standing in such long queues seemed pointless. People who went in the queues, waiting for hours, when in front of the shrine/idol, just closed their eyes to pray! C'mon, what's the point! Isn't all the wait to have a good look.
6. Tilak on forehead
End of 3rd day I noticed I didn't put a tilak on my forehead at any of the temples in past few days. Never! I noticed it because I observed many others sporting multiple colors, shades & shapes of tilaks! No one around to forcefully apply one on my forehead meant I was very happy in the end! I'd walked off when some of the priests offered to apply tilak on my forehead. Explains why.
7. Money at temples
Also, whenever I've taken teertham, I've dropped Rs.1 or Rs.2, whichever came to hand first when digging through the wallet. If I was going to have a free lunch/dinner, dropped some amount of Rs.10, upto Rs.30 in the hundi. Some places where the food seemed above average, walked back & put in at least Rs.10 more if I'd initially only dropped Rs.10. End of the trip, I realized I'd spent almost all the change I had. Highest denomination used was Rs.50. So all the 100s & 500s in the wallet stayed dormant. Entire expense too was quite low, about Rs.400, I think. Didn't keep track.
8. Pics
All pics were self pics. That is, place the camera somewhere, set the timer on for 10 seconds. Go run to the position & have the pic taken when the timer runs out. No one, except me, touched the camera throughout the trip. The guide had offered to take a pic couple of times, but I politely refused. I'd most trouble taking pics when it was raining. Unfortunately, at those times there wasn't anyone around I could trust who could've taken my pic. For example, in Kollur it was raining heavily & I couldn't take a self pic. There wasn't any place to place the camera such that it could be shielded from the rain & also capture the temple entrance with me standing somewhere around. Another place I can remember where I couldn't take a self pic was the Aneguddi Vinayaka temple.
9. My experiences with gadgets
a) mp3 player - croma mp4 player 16GB, although I've several cribs, the player has pretty much served its purpose
b) Phone - Samsung Galaxy S2, quite impressed with the phone & battery. Used GPRS a lot. GPS didn't work when there was a thick cloud cover, or when in bus. Haven't called anyone, although it occurred to me on the last day when I was super-bored, to call, but decided otherwise
c) Digital camera - Panasonic FZ40, extremely impressed with the battery. Hadn't charged for the whole journey. Just 1 out of 3 bars disappeared end of the trip. I might've taken a hundred pics & some HD video footage too
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