Another re-factoring ?! Yes, unfortunately true ! Another blog and I would mostly be moving over to that blog. The desk of Satba would focus more on travelogues and reviews on travels. Also dont be surprised if you find more "vertical-blogs" surfacing ...
Catch you soon with something from my travel diaries !
Chao.
Our relatives had come over for a week, and they wanted to go on a sightseeing trip of Bengaluru. One day trip of places in Bengaluru ?? A couple of places like ISKCON and Bull temple came to my mind immediately, but I was not sure how to keep them occupied and interested for a day. More of the tourist sites did not help much and most of the recommendations were to places which were outside Bengaluru. It was time to come up with my own plan and using the interactive map at maps.google.co.in, I came up with the above plan.
The trip started off from Hoodi (near whitefield in Bengaluru). The first stop planned was the Bull Temple. Start at around 7:30 AM so as to beat the traffic as much as possible
The bull temple is a historic temple and one of the historical landmarks in Bengaluru. The temple is more like the neighbourhood temple and has a lush green garden at the base of the hillock. Spend around 1 hr here and proceed to point C.
This is definitely a must see and it is much relaxing to spend some time in these gardens. Going with a group helps, as this is a good place to have some nice chit-chat. Spend 2 hours here and proceed to the nearby MTR Hotel. Make sure that you reach there by 12:00-12:15 PM. The meal at MTR is one of the must-dos in Bengaluru and it is definitely a filling meal.
Unlike the Mysore palace or the Bangalore Palace, Tipu's palace is not a grand one. It is a simple palace, completely wooden taking us back to the times of Tipu Sultan and Haider Ali !
This is a pass-by stop. I am not sure if general public are given permission to visit the palace, but nevertheless you can pass by this before proceeding to ISKCON temple.
The ISKCON temple is more of a tourist landmark of Bangalore. A visit to the temple takes atleast 2 hrs and you can also club this with the Anjaneya temple right opposite to ISKCON.
Leave back and reach whitefield by 7:30 / 8:00 PM.
Add-ons: Between points D and E, you can choose your route so as to pass by Vidhan Soudha, Chinnaswamy stadium, etc.
I voted finally ! The excitement was uncontrollable as I came out of the polling booth. I had a wide grin on my face and could not control the excitement. This was after I had almost given up on getting my name into the voters list for the Loksabha 2009 elections.
It was beginning of March 2009 when an advertisement in the newspaper announced that it was still possible to get your name into the electoral roll. After giving it a pass initially, I decided to take it seriously and atleast make an attempt to get my name into the electoral list. The process was simple and hassle free. After getting the necessary documents, I decided to give it a try. My wife also joined me after the initial hesitation. She decided to join me after realizing that I was serious about it and the fact that I might end up voting and she might not !!
April first week and a couple of trips to the voter facilitation centre only led to disappointment as we could not locate our name in the voter's list. The last date had passed by and I thought to myself, "this was another election that I had missed." In an interview to NDTV the other day, Shashi Tharoor had mentioned that he had also cast the vote for the first time and that too for himself. May be I would also do a similar thing !
With just one day to go for elections in Bengaluru the election commission updated the online electoral roll and now we had the chance to search for our names ourselves and voila ... our names were present !! It was my first real chance to take part in the democratic process and did not want to miss it.
April 23rd 2009 11:12 AM; as I pressed the blue button in the EVM to register my vote, I had got one monkey off my back - of not being able to vote! I had cast my vote and I was proud of it !
It is exactly a week since we celebrated Vishu. Here is an exclusive picture from the Vishu celebration.
It was almost 3 months since we had gone on a long drive. During this period, we were content spending the weekends at home or theatre and watch the world go past us while we sat, sat, sat and did nothing ! However, on this day, we suddenly felt that it was time to change status-quo and decided to hit the road before the summer hit us hard. Fortunately there was no usual deliberation on the place to visit and we decided unanimously to undertake a long pending visit to Tirupati.
It was an unplanned trip. Nevertheless you still need to plan for an un-planned trip. We had decided to travel over the weekend and since we had no advanced booking, we had to make the visit on a working day (to avoid the huge rush). The other factor that we took into consideration was that this was the exam season and hence the rush would be much lesser. We decided to leave on Friday (6th March) so that we have 2 days at hand as buffer
At 5:30 AM on Friday, we had hit the road at K.R.Puram on our Ford Fiesta, and soon we were cruising on the highway to Chennai. The stretch from K.R.Puram to Kolar was being widened and this was an inconvenience especially before dawn ! We had a clear objective - to reach Tirupati as early as possible, so that we could get the earliest possible sudarshan ticket. Hence, there were no breaks taken and we had a light breakfast as I drove the car.
The route to Tirupati from Bangalore, passes via Hoskote, Kolar and Palamaner. Just 
before you reach Chittoor, there is a bypass to Tirupati. This might save some precious time and we took the bypass and were soon on our way to destination. At exactly 9:00 AM we had reached the first traffic signal in Tirupati. After an initial confusion and later going as per Satba Instinct, we had reached Srinivasam Complex. The complex was a huge one, and had accommodation as well as counter for the sudarshan ticket. To our disappointment, the next available slot was for 10 PM! Due to some strange change in rules, it was also not possible to book for the next day ! We took the tickets and decided to visit the temples in Tirupati rather than head for the Tirumala Hills.
So far, nothing was planned by us. Everything was ad-hoc. However I started to believe in destiny and divine intervention as the day progressed. On the way to Chittoor, an incident made me reflect on the past when a similar incident had occurred that led to an accident. This time though, divine intervention combined with Ford Engineering saved the day !
We were on the way to Tiruchanoor temple, when my mother-in-law called asking to try going to Tirumala and check for an early darshan (via certain sevas). We immediately took a u-turn and decided to drive to Tirumala. This was my first drive in the ghat roads and was excited about the same. But soon, we were in the middle of a confusion at the toll gate ! To enter Tirumala, you need to pass via a toll gate, but for this, the security 
clearance had to be obtained and this was hidden from the road leading to toll gate. After going round in circles, we managed to find the security clearance area. Soon 2 security guards approached us and asked for a ride to the hills, as they were late and had to report to duty at 12:00 PM. After clarification and confirmation that they were indeed security guards, I agreed to provide them the lift. As we were winding through the hills, the guards thanked us for the ride and enquired about the darshan timings. When we mentioned about the late night darshan, they offered to help us in getting an early darshan at 12:00 PM. I was skeptical but nevertheless decided to believe them when one of the guards offered his mobile number for any help. For me this was to some extent divine intervention, as should have never been there at the first place!
The rush was minimal and at 12:00 PM we were cleared for darshan and soon joined the queue. In 2 hrs (the darshan should have been complete in 1 hr, but there was 1 hr stoppage because of the poojas for the commencement of the gold plating of the entire temple) we had a very good darshan of both the alankara murthy as well as the main deity. After some shopping and delayed lunch at hotel woodside, we once again hit the road to visit Papavinasam and Akash Ganga. At around 5:00 PM, we were on the way back to Tirupati. The journey back was one filled with excitement as I had to drive the car over approx 40 hairpin bends (including double hair pin bends). We were once again able to do the distance in 25 mins and soon checked into the Fortune Kences hotel.
It is said that the visit to Lord Balaji temple at Tirumala is not complete without visiting the Sri Padmavathy (Alamelu Mangapuram) temple at Tiruchanoor. We headed to Tiruchanoor after visiting the Govindraja Perumal temple. The rush in these temples were much less compared to Lord Balaji temple and we could relax our way through. After a good lunch at Tirupati, we decided to head back to Bangalore. It was a relaxed drive and I took 5+ hours to cover the same distance, listening to some good A.R.Rahman music on the way. It was a satisfying journey and to some extent a journey that made me think on various aspects as well as the circle of life. No, I am not yet becoming completely philosophical, but sometimes it feels good to get enlightened and reminded on the basics of life.
