A week has gone since my last post and another week to go before I head back to NJ. In the past week, two more cities added to my checked list of places to visit. A day in Bangalore and a day in Kumbakonam and hence four nights on the road on buses and trains. The weather in Bangalore was pleasant while in Kumbakonam it felt really hot and humid, no different from chennai.
Two family events packed in a single day forced to spend the entire day at my uncle’s home in Bangalore. The little I saw was a glimpse of horrendous bangalore traffic and the series of high-tech ( a lot of high raised residential i suppose) stacked buildings on either side of the hosur-bangalore highway. With so many people travelling these days, getting a train tickets to chennai or bangalore from coimbatore is perhaps as difficult as finding a timely air ticket from newark to chennai. An 8 hour bus ride from coimbatore to blore costs twice as much (Rs.350 for non A/C!) in the last 3 years. Every travels boasts of ‘Volvo’ pushback coach bus and I wonder if people care for specifically for ‘volvo’, but it must have become either a symbol of pride or a question of business for every travels, literally every, around the gandhipuram circle in coimbatore has neon lights flashnig the words ‘Volvo’ coach.
Most of our time is spent in chatter. I hardly watched TV. Even if I did, there is so many channels these days that I don’t know where to start. In the past I have read some good reviews about some talk shows and other shows on cable, but I hardly remember whats is what. Both at our house and at Harini’s place, they have a beautiful traditional indoor swings right infront of the TV. So in the few minutes I find once in a while to stay infront of the TV and browse, I tend to quickly lay on the swing and sleep peacefully with the breeze.
All across the cities, all sorts of cars have swarmed the roads. With even more motorbikes being sold, no wonder the traffic and pollution has become unruly. Just today I was reading in Hindu about how civic infrastructure development has royally failed to catch up with Auto and real estate boom. There is cell phones every where you see. And so all sorts of local business is flourishing with cell phones providing the quickest channel for information exchange. Every type of service is just a cell phone call away. The best example is the ‘call taxi’ service which I guess has made ‘Auto rickshaws’ run for their money. In the last few times I have used the ‘call taxi’, it has always been cheaper than if I had taken an ‘Auto rickshaw’. But I am puzzled how Call taxi’s use the meters while Autos has traditionally failed to use the meters. Plus, taxi customer service seems lot better: the car shows up at your door step right on dot. If I would do one thing then I would request the call taxi owners to clean up their cars and keep it clean! or may be I am mistaken, the city itself is so dusty that its what is taken for granted.
One day at Kumbakonam is well spent with visits to two temples of Oppiliappan and Swamy Malai. Back in chennai, we are catching up with some shopping and visiting the rest of family and friends.
