Wednesday, June 23, 2010

55er: Was That A Nightmare?

My first attempt at any kind of fiction, let alone 55er. It reminds me of those good old days in Xth when we had 50 words as word limit for notices and messages. Exceed the limit by 1 or 2 words, -1/2. Exceed by more than 2 words, -1. It is 55 now. So let’s see.

***

Ramesh was in a fix. Physics was tomorrow and today is Hindi. Four chapters from literature! But he thought today was Physics! Why do they have Hindi in IITs?! Now only physics could rescue him. He sat down quietly and closed his eyes. As he opened his eyes, he was back in his room!

***

PS: That is what I call true teleportation.
PPS: If only they could use technology for such useful purposes. As an aside, why don’t they simply filter out the vuvuzela frequencies instead of banning it?
PPPS: Thank God they have no Hindi in IITs.

Monday, June 14, 2010

മൂന്നാര്::Munnar

As I looked up from the book, I could see rain all around. Tall trees towering around us. We were moving through the clouds. But no Velociraptors, Dilophosaurus or T.Rex. Thank God.

It seemed we were in for a dampener with the monsoons hitting the coast just as we planned to visit Munnar. The bad weather notwithstanding, we decided to continue.

Persistence always bears sweet fruits. The next day turned out to be much better. (Better weather == better photos && wonderful trip); The tea gardens around Munnar were wonderful. This is where the Kannan Devan brand of Tata comes from. If you happen to visit this place, don’t forget to drop by at the Tata Wholesale Outlet and take all the Tea & spices home.

You would find lots of waterfalls and lots of winding roads as in any other hill station. But what I was really looking for was being atop Anamudi. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be so and we had to settle for a peak that was 200 metres shy of Anamudi.

Apart from that, the echo point was pretty good. Never expected such a good echo with so less effort. I really wonder how the cows in hill stations always look wonderful. Such a contrast to the cows in the plains (Different cultures? Different races? Who knows?!)

Other than the cows, the other animal worth mention is the Nilgiri Tahr. Finding it near the mountain peak grazing in (almost!) herds was quiet a sight.

That was about it. Nice peaceful place to spend some time. No laptop. No TV. Just peace of mind.

As usual, I’ll leave you with some of the highs of the journey.

All photos courtesy Sony Cybershot (Click to enlarge).

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  LEGEND
1 Tea Gardens
2 Echo Point
3 Cows
4 Bird’s Eye View
5 Winding Roads
6 Waterfalls
7 Rubber Plantation
8 Nilgiri Tahr
9 Jurassic Park

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