Pondicherry : Feb 24 - Feb 27 2007The lure of an inexpensive air ticket has its own vicitims. It all started from an advt. which claimed Rs 6 (thats about a 7th of a US Dollar) tickets to x destinations. So we logged in to www.airdeccan.net and after a while we had committed spending about 20 K for return ticket of myself, Smita (my wife), Pihu (my 2 year old daughter) and my bro and sis-in-laws, Aditya and Shaguna. The advt has worked for the airlines.
This was all done way back in October 2006 and the golden dates were Feb 24 - Feb 27 2007. As expected, Feb did come on time and after packing our bags and a little change in itinerary, courtsey cancellation of return flight, we were all set to go.
Day 1 - Feb 24 2007
Pondicherry is about 160 KM (more…)
The Shekhawati region named after Rao Shekhaji (1433-1488) is known with many adjectives – ‘Land of Kuber’ (the Hindu Lord of wealth); Land of warriors & Land of artists. If the wealth of a region is measured by the wealth of businessman who originated from that region, then this region is undoubtedly the RICHEST region of India. Leading businessman and media tycoons – Birlas, Modis, Poodars, Singhania, Goenka, Pilania, Piramals, Rungtas, Ruias, L.N Mittal, Khetans, Dalmias – originated from this region. This region has the tradition of sending maximum recruits for the Indian Forces & hence it is rightly & widely known as the land of warriors.
It lies in the easternmost extent of Thar Desert. In this region, small towns cuddle themselves between vast expanse of sand and a few oases.
This is an account from last year when I was still in Bangalore, and those were the days. Our vibrant theatre group, which was always up for doing “cool” things, decided we should go cycling in the moonlight! Cycling trips for groups are arranged to Savandurga near Bangalore. But if you do not want to go as part of a pre-arranged group, you can do it all by yourself, only that you will have to arrange and carry cycles all the way (motorbikes is a no-no, i mean how does moonlit thunderbiking sound anyway).
So we decided to go in a group arranged by a contact person (from Atlas cycles I think). The schedule of the night-long trip is that a group of around 20-35 people meets in the city center at around 9.30pm, from where a couple of vans carry you to Savandurga around 35-40 km out of the city off the Mysore road. Before starting, all of us were handed our own picnic hamper which contained goodies like candies, sandwiches and muffins. It was fun as everyone was already in the mood, playing antakshari all the way in the van.
The van went quite some way off the highway passing a few villages, till we reached a clearing where our bikes were already waiting for us. We were given sometime to pick and choose the bike we liked, and ride it a little in the clearing itself to get accustomed to the idea of riding a bicycle again, especially as many of us had not touched a bicycle for years! There were a few people who decided that they were frightened by the idea of riding a bicycle again, and ended up hitching on with their friends/partners but I am sure that wouldn’t have been a lot of fun. So essentially I would suggest people who want to stay away from a cycle should stay away from the trip, or agree to get carried by the van to the cyclists’ destination to enjoy the latter half of the trip.
