Bitten by the cooking bug

I am planning to start cooking seriously so am on the prowl for good food blogs. Any suggestions are welcome

Back from chennai

Just yesterday night I got back from chennai.

hotels in Reims My Hogenakal Trip (Pretty Long Post)

I decided to leave home around 6:30 am so that I could escape the morning crowd and reach Hogenakal by 9:00 am because I was not aware of the distance from Hosur to Hogenakal. I reached Lal (Lakshmi Automated Looms) bus stop around 6:35 am and caught the local bus to go to the main bus stand from where I could catch a bus for Dharmapuri from where I had to change buses to go to Hogenakal. When I reached the main bus stand I was in for a surprise. The whole bus stand was crowded and all the buses which were going to Dharmapuri were jam-packed. I had to wait till 9:00 am till I could find a bus which had some standing space. While waiting for the bus I saw a guy who was a real character. He was selling rings which were supposed to bring good fortune to people who wear it. The talk he was giving about the rings was really funny. The following is the speech he gave (in brief)

“The rings I am selling is not available anywhere in the world except from his group of people because it is specially made by his Guruji who got it from God. Only people who love their parents should wear it and nobody else. I offer you a guarantee card along with the ring so that if you are not satisfied with the ring you can return it and get the money back”.



That was one of the incredulous speeches I have listened to. This is the first time I have heard anybody offer a guarantee card for a thing which is supposed to bring you luck (as he claims it will do).

So this guy kept me entertained for some time. Then again I started hunting for a bus(all this happened before 9:00 am). One thing I realized today was that these bus guys have a funny system of allowing a bus to leave a bus stand. Say if there are two buses going to the same place, only if one bus is jam-packed and the bus has left can people get into the other bus till then you are not allowed to get into the second bus and if at all you try getting into the second bus you will be showered with the choicest abuses. Finally at 9:00 am managed to get into a bus which was going to Vellore and bought the ticket for Dharmapuri.

This is how Hosur Bus Stand looked on that day

Since the bus claimed to be a DVD coach they had a movie running. So I ended up seeing “Khushi” the tamil movie for the nth time. Once the bus left Hosur bus stand it was smooth sailing because the road between Hosur and Krishnagiri is simply marvelous. Then at Krishnagiri finally got some place (on the steps) to sit. Then from that place I started taking some photos using my digital camera. I did not face any trouble since the road was smooth till Dharmapuri. Since the bus I was traveling in was a ByePass Rider (for guys who are not familiar with the above term it basically means that the bus will not enter the city nor the bus stand) the bus did not go to the Dharmapuri Bus stand but the conductor of the bus was courteous enough to stop near the bus stand.

Once the bus stopped near the Dharmapuri Bus stand I got down and stretched my limbs which were becoming numb after a 2 hr journey. I spotted a tea shop which offered lime tea. After drinking the lime tea I really felt refreshed and then asked the tea shop guy as to where the buses for Hogenakal will stop and then and went and stood at the place for 10 minutes. Then only I found out that if you catch the bus from that place you will have a harrowing journey. Then I managed to trace the actual location of Dharmapuri Bus Stand. When I went there and saw the crowd it looked worse than the crowd at the Hosur Bus Stand. Finally I managed to see a bus which was going to Hogenakal but I was not able to get in because all the seats were already reserved. After the bus left one more bus came and I managed to reserve the left most seat on the back row by flinging my bag through the back window. Then from there I started my 46 kilometers journey towards Hogenakal. The first major stop of the bus enroute Hogenakal was Penagaram(the place where Muthulakshmi, Veerappan’s widow is standing for elections.) after Penagaram the route started becoming a hilly route. The bus climbed a hill and got down the hill. I managed to see some breathtaking views since I was seated next to the window. Finally managed to reach Hogenakal in one piece. I got down from the bus and searched for the nearest shop which serves liquid refreshments. I gulped down a refreshing musk-melon juice and started my walk towards the falls. On the way I was approached by a boatman asking me whether I was interested in a one hour boat ride for Rs. 300/-. The usual rate for a group of 5 or 6 is around Rs. 600 but since I was a single guy he was ready to take me for Rs. 300. after a little bit of hesitation I decided that since I had come such a long way it does not make sense if I do not go for a boat ride. So I told him that I was game for it and he took me to the place where he had parked the boat. There we started a remarkable journey through the water. We had to pay Rs. 10 as the entrance fee to a guy who was sitting under a tree. Apparently that guy had taken the contract from the government. The experience of sitting in the boat and going for a 1 hour journey was really exhilarating and cannot be expressed in words. As I progressed on my 1 hour ride I was talking to the boatman and found out about how the boat is made. Apparently the frame of the boat is made up of cane and the bottom part is made of nylon backs roasted in tar and then painted. It is called coracle(parisal in tamil). There were some floating shops which sold everything from chips to cigarettes. I also saw two kids who will be barely 10 years old jumping from around 10 feet into the water. Apparently every time they jump they get paid Rs. 5. then we stopped at a place where they you choose the fish and they fry it and give you. You can also find people who are willing to give you a massage. I could not take much photos because the batteries in the digital camera conked out. I had forgotten to take spare batteries with me. It was really frustrating because just when the scenery was becoming better I was not able to take any photos.

One word of caution is that when you go to Hogenekkal take enough cash because the plastic card does not work there and nor is there a floating atm available where you can withdraw money.

About the Boat man: His name is ravi and he is a native of hogenakkal. His phone number is 9442824065. I highly recommend this guy because he is a very decent chap and no loose talk.



Then after the boat journey went back to the Hogenakkal bus stand to find only 1 bus to Dharmapuri and that was also crowded then I waited for a bus to come which will take me to Dharmapuri. A bus came afterwards where the route mentioned on the bus said that it will go up to hosur but when I talked to the conductor he said that it will go only up to Dharmapuri and then from there if you are interested you wait for 30 minutes after the bus reaches Dharmapuri to catch the same bus to Hosur.

I reached Hosur around 8:25 pm. On the whole it was an interesting journey because I came to know many places which I never knew that they existed.

So if at all you want to have a real experience I suggest you catch a government bus and choose a place to go and you will come to know about places you never knew about.

So if you are on a trip to Hogenakal I suggest you have a budget of around 800 per head so that you can enjoy yourself thoroughly.

For people who drink you can carry your drinks on the boat and it is not frowned upon except I think you have to tell the boatman before that you are carrying drinks with you.
Points to be noted if you are going on a trip to Hogenekal

1. Remember to carry a change of clothes because by the time you finish the boat ride you will be wet.


2. Do not wear shoes and sit in the boat because your shoes will get spoilt.


3. Remember to take lot of cash.


4. Be careful of con-men.


5. Pay the boatman only after the trip is over.

Some More Photos from the Hogenakal Trip

Flight Announcements

Just read this post by Maryamie. Truly Hillarious.

Spam Mails

Email as of today has become a necessity in a person’s life. It helps people communicate with each other irrespective of the distance between them. People could be sitting in places separated by a distance of 2000 kms or they could be sitting in cubicles next to each other. Since the volume of emails flowing on the net has increased so have the volume of spam mails increased.

 

Hotel mit Preisnachlass BourscheidI receive around 30 spam mails per day. Atleast nothing compared to the guy listed in the below paragraph:

 

The owner of the domain name acme.com is currently thought to hold the record, receiving over one million spam emails per day. This is in comparison with Microsoft founder Bill Gates who, according to Steve Ballmer, receives four million per year. (Source Wikipedia)

 

On a rough average out of the 30 mails I receive around 5 are viagara ads, some are enlargement ads and the remaining are about company shares.

 

Nowadays the spammers have stopped using text messages and have started sending the message as a picture thereby making it difficult for a content-filtering software to act on it.

Off to Madras

This Saturday night I am off to Chennai. I will be there till 8^th Night. I still have not decided whether to vote or not. That decision I will take only after knowing who are the people who are standing for elections in my constituency. I may even decide to do a 49’O (see my previous post). This time I am planning to take my Digital Camera so that I can take some photos in the night. I should remember to take extra batteries. I will be posting my hogenakal trip photos soon.

Elections in India

This morning I got a mail regarding a particular way to show your displeasure towards candidates contesting in your constituency from one of the innumerable mailing lists that I subscribe to. I have reproduced it below.

Thought this shd be useful...


People...

Please take some time to read this entire mail. You will definitely
feel its worth.
Hope some of you have already got this mail and got to know about the 49'O
..

It says :

"In a particular constituency, if a voter has dislike to all of the
candidates competing there,


Then he can show his dislike to all of them by registering for 49'O .

Steps for doing this :
while registering the name by the time of voting, convey the booth
officials that "I want to go for 49'O".
Register your signature in the 49'O form available there.


Done.

Now, if the number of 49'O count is larger than that of the winning
candidates total vote count, then a re-election is called there.

discount hotels in SienaMore than all, the shameful fact is,

This 49'O is available ever since 1960, but it is in no way conveyed
to the people.

Neither the government communicate this, nor did the election commission.

As long as the people are unaware of this one, the political parties
are enjoying by winning the election and ditching our country.

To stop this disaster to continue further, we don't need to take a
sword and fight against the government.

Just help every citizen to know that they have such a powerful weapon
which can be used for ensuring their welfare.

None of the media will be ready to publish this 49'O.

Let us do this by ourselves.

Communicate this information with all your family, friends, neighbors
as much as you can and let them know their right.

Please send this mail to everyone you know and request them to spread
it across to everyone.


Convey this information to as many people you know.

Not only, we get a satisfaction that we have done a good service for
our country's welfare.

This is very well equal to what our patriots have done for the
independence of our country.

Very less time left before the next election drama.

Before that lets make sure that everyone speaks about this word "49'O ".