I warn you about the lunch table discussions at Adobe. Never take them LIGHTLY. They can take any course like the one which took a group of 9 adventurous engineers to Sariska National Park- the Tiger Paradise, near Alwar in Rajasthan, around 220 km from Delhi. For me, the day started at 4:30 am with my mom and friend calling; trying to wake me up from my sleep. Five calls down the phone, I became fully awake although the booze’s effect (though I didn’t drink), from last night party, was still on me.
Before continuing, I just wanna make a point that I am not covering any technical details of this journey as they are beautifully covered in Nandan’s blog. Here, I am just adding some nutty things that will always make me remember this trip. These things may make no sense to you; just ignore them. (more…)
I dont know whether it was the shaking (in the shekh land) desert safari the previous evening or the spring-bed but I had a little uncomfortable lower back the next day. I was not used to of either, in general. Though people in general enjoy the desert safari, I think the jury is still out for the spring bed. It was day 3 of our short four day Dubai trip.
We were scheduled for the ‘Dubai City Tour’ during the day and later an evening with a very old friend, over the ‘water of life’ (finally) so the day looked pretty bright. Of course its alway sunny (pun intended) out there. We were to be ready by 9.30 odd for all this to trigger. (more…)
In a previous post, I had covered our trip to Jungfrau. The return was a bit of an anti-climax, since the line to the train was long, and we were tired. However, as we started the gamut of 3 trains that take one back to Interlaken, the energy started coming back (after all, the great weather and superb view have to make a difference). Soon, we had to make a decision; go back the same way that we came, or do the route via Grindelwald. We decided that since the open tickets were good on both the directions, it was Grindelwald. So, when we reached the changeover station of Kleine Scheidegg, we took a train to Grindelwald instead of Lauterbrunnen (the frequency to both from Kleine Scheidegg is pretty good).
The view from this train was pretty good, with the mountains towering to one side, and more of a plain grassland and beautiful scenery on the other side. Soon, we were to our regular routine in such sceneries, standing in the train to get a better view of the surroundings. Unfortunately, taking good photos from within the train proved to be difficult since the late evening contrasted with light inside the train, and this was reflecting on the windows (and hence preventing a good photo).
While on the train to Grindelwald, we took a look at our local itenary, and wondered whether to get down at Grindelwald, or to continue onto Interlaken and explore whether we could catch the last cruise on Lake Thun (departing from Interlaken from just behind the Interlaken West Railway Station). Thus, we missed seeing anything much of Grindelwald, and instead moved onto Interlaken. However, sad news. We reached Interlaken at around 5 in the evening, but it was too late to catch the cruise (and this was the second day when we missed the cruise due to being late).
I had never heard about Dewari Gowada, until Venkat Sunderam, the Chairman of the Lodge Elysium Masonic Charitable Trust, of which I am a member, discussed a proposal to electrify this village. Devari Gowada is located in a remote area of the Aravali Hills in Rajasthan and forms a part of the famous Siriska Tiger Sanctuary.
The Siriska Tiger
Some of you must have read about an age-old institution called Freemasonry in
Dan Brown’s best seller “ Da Vinci Code” . The Elysium Trust is a part of that organization and hence it would be appropriate to say a few words about the Freemasons in India. (more…)
