Laws of Driving in Mumbai

Enough has been written about the driving skills (or lack thereof) of people in Mumbai (those in delhi are in a different league altogether, beyond description). This is my form of ranting about the same thing - better than road rage, right? usually I ignore most of the random behaviour but every once in a while, it can get to you. Hence this post.

Laws of Light

1. Headlights are to be used full beam on well lighted roads to blind oncoming traffic.
Corollary: if you own a black and yellow taxi, you will never use the headlights at anytime, as you fear getting a whopping bill from Reliance Energy.
2. Indicators are only to be used when parked in no-parking zones, as distress lights. You don't need to use them to indicate which way you are turning.
3. Traffic will magically move faster if you keep flashing the car headlights at the vehicle which is 6 inches ahead of you.

Laws of Speed

1. The faster you change lanes, the faster you will reach your destination.
2. Bursting out of a small lane onto a main road at full speed will ensure all other cars are magically scattered away from you.
3. If you scrape past cars at full speed cutting from one lane to the next, you will become Superman.
4. If you have an SUV behind you, you will lose speed instantly. Because it will run you off the road.

Laws of Sound

1. Unless you start honking at the very instant a traffic light turns green, you will never reach your destination.
2. The longer you lean on the horn, the faster the car ahead of you will move, even in bumper to bumper traffic.

Is it always about 'size zero'?

Was reading a movie review in the Times of India just over a week ago.
It was of a movie called 'Ruslaan' - presumably a flop since it has no
pre or post release buzz. But what i remember from the review is this
line - 'debutant abcd speaks faster than Basanti and reminds you of
the healthy-looking leading ladies of the same era'.

I can understand the part about speaking too fast, that makes sense to
put into a review. But the next point? How is that related to acting
calibre? Does one have to be slim to act? Even to be the female lead?
Is someone not worthy of being an actress if they are not as slim as
Kareena Kapoor? Why would a supposedly progressive newspaper like the
TOI (they certainly are proud of their lead India teach India
initiatives) print something like that, thereby endorsing the view?
Why is this not even recognised as being prejudicial?

Well, its not just the TOI alone. A few days later, saw a small
segment on 'Chicks on Flicks' where they were discussing The Ugly
Truth. I haven't seen it but here's the thing- after discussing the
storyline and what they felt about the film, one of the show anchors
says she didn't like the film all that much and that 'Gerard Butler
looks so bloated in the film'.

Again, relevance? Sure, a review is the personal opinion of an
appointed film critic, but where does one draw the line?

Trip to Bhutan - May 2009 - Punakha again & back to Paro

Leaving Wangdi we felt even sadder. Stopped en route to heading back towards Paro to visit a temple at the border of Thimphu, Punakha & Wangdue Phodrang - Chimi Lhakhang - built in the 15th century in honour of 'the divine madman' Lama Drukpa Kinley, a revered saint who taught through jokes and fun and was known for his sexual conquests. its usually visited for children, either to pray for their protection, or to pray for a child. in honour of the divine madman, phalluses are painted on many of the houses. its about a 20 min walk through the rice fields of the village of sosokha to the temple. it was a perfect day, and we enjoyed the walk.


























after this we retraced much of our earlier route, stopped at Thimphu for lunch - where the friend finally got the peanut butter and chocolate pastry again (that she had been fantasising about, i have to say the pastry was excellent), that we had at Art Cafe, we also did a little more shopping, and then headed back to Paro, taking the shorter 1.5 hour route this time. it was raining & absolutely dreamy weather. the clouds were even lower than before, and the prospect of catching a plane the next morning was not appealing. but no choice there, so driving through the Paro streets for the last time, all we could do was to take everything in and commit to memory.

the people were calm, good natured and friendly, our guide also had a great sense of humour, all the quaint places and unique culture make this a must visit, and not just once. there's more to see further east, but needs a longer trip. since the airport is only in Paro, and all the travel in the country is by road, the further away you go, you need as much time to get back.

will leave you with a sign i saw on the back of a truck - words of wisdom:

"reach (sic - rich) man never too old for young girls"

Trip to Bhutan - May 2009 - Punakha & Wangdi

After all the shopping, sightseeing and wandering around the streets of Thimphu, we felt a bit sad that we had to leave, but little did we know how amazing the next set of places was! Friend was back to being sick (I don't want to move, I can't get out of the car, Go see everything without me, Sorry face etc) so when we reached Punakha, it was upto me again. its a small town, on the banks of a river. known chiefly for the Punakha Dzong, one of the oldest in Bhutan, built in the 17th century & without a doubt the prettiest one i saw. right from the approach bridge, to the giant white stupa and bodhi tree in the courtyard, to the beautiful jacaranda trees in full bloom by the river side, it was breathtaking. i could have sat there for a lot longer!

from here, we went onto Wangdi, or Wangdue Phodrang, an area in the mountains, though our resort (Kichu Wangdi Resort, sister of the one in Paro) was about 7 Kms away from the village and quite literally in the middle of nowhere. situated at the banks of a gushing river, too dangerous for white water rafting even, with densely forested mountains on both sides. felt the closest to nature here, the rooms overlook the river, and you hear it all night. quote unquote friend "it sounds like a noisy AC" - trust an urban dweller to say that!

this place is highly recommended, but be warned, it is not for those who want 'action', there is very little cell coverage, only in certain spots, no internet, no TV (and no meat, surprisingly the one all veg resort we found - cos there is a rinpoche in the family of owners). if you expect all that, this is not the place to be! but if you want to visit a memorable, beautiful, exotic place, put this in your itinerary. it also seems to be frequented by the glitterati of Bhutan. during our stay, a group of 10 americans, guests of the king, stopped for lunch, and the health minister stopped for tea.

Trip to Bhutan - May 2009 - Thimphu

Thimphu is one of the prettiest capitals i have seen! it also helped that we had an amazing view from our hotel - Hotel River View. we could see the whole city from one side of the river. with mountains, low hanging clouds and a very pretty promenade, it had a charm to it and we could have stayed on for a few more days. its the more modern face of Bhutan, where everyone does not wear the traditional clothes, also has expat population. but the stupas, the palace and the government building don't let you forget that it is Bhutan after all.

our 2 days in Thimphu were spent exploring everything including the monasteries, the national animal, Takin, said to have the head of a goat on the bones of a cow! there are very few left of this unique animal.

apart from all the exploration, can city girls do without the bars and cafes? no, we can't! Om Cafe and Om Bar (opposite each other) provided the perfect place to relax in the evening, they even had free wifi! our first internet access in several days. with equally great food & ambience, Art cafe also turned out to be a great place for lunch.

Thimphu also had the best place to shop for curios and artefacts. while there are many shops in the main market, we found that the shop attached to the National School for Art and Painting had lovely work, and we felt more confident of the quality here. this is the place we pretty much spent all our money at, only realising later how much packing we would have to do!

at this point, we were excited to see more of Bhutan, so Punakha and Wangdi, next on the list, belied all our expectations by literally turning out to be 'saving the best for last'.

Trip to Bhutan - May 2009 - Paro - The Climb to Tiger's Nest & The Road Trip to Haa Valley

i was looking forward to the second day at Paro, cos it involved climbing to Taktshang Monastery, also called Tiger's Nest, since it was apparently created when a holy man flew to the location on the back of a tiger! its impossibly perched on the edge of a mountain, and i was told that the climb would take around one and a half hours, this meant i would take 2! i was ready for the challenge tho, i had been wanting to climb up mountain paths, especially in that glorious weather. my friend couldn't handle it too well tho, since the height also meant lesser oxygen than one is used to at sea level, so i pretty much did this on my own, just followed the path, it was quite easy. you can see it in this photo taken at the start of the climb, the white structure in the distance.






since i was not used to climbing, and the air a bit more rarified, i had to keep stopping each time there was a particularly steep section. there were other tourists doing the climb, one group of malaysians even had an old couple who used a walking stick and had guides holding an arm, but they were unfazed and continued to climb. once i reached the top and could see the monastery straight across, i hadn't bargained for the steps! stone steps cut into the hillside run round the cliff to the monastery and after that climb, make your legs feel like they are in a torture chamber. in most parts the steps don't have any safety railing, and there's just enough room for one person to pass through. i was a bit jittery in this section, wondering if i would fall off the cliff without anyone knowing! until a group of Indian army jawans came up behind me, and they made it look so easy, that i made the rest of the steps with renewed effort.


on reaching the monastery, i was asked for a permit by the armed guard. i didn't have any! the guide was still with my friend, i had gone on ahead and i didn't even know about this. he looked flummoxed at my answer and said, 'pati kidhar hai, baccha kidhar hai' and i had to try hard to not laugh - what kind of a qs is that! after some persuasion, and emotional lines like, 'i walked for so long', he let me in so i got to see . the monastery was lovely, explored some parts of it, wondered how the monks who live here go up and down constantly, had a talk with the jawans who were stationed in Bhutan for training for a few months... and then headed down. overall this was the best day of the trip!



we set off for Thimphu the next day, it's actually only about an hour and a half from Paro, but we were taking a different route. its a detour to Haa Valley, a not so known part towards the south that we got to via the Chele La, the highest motorable road in Bhutan. had loved the trip to KhardungLa in Ladakh, so wanted to see this. well, it wasn't quite as scenic as that, but pretty all the same. there's nothing to do at the top except stop for the view, which is lovely. There's no rest stop or anything. prayer flags adorn the hills and on clear days (usually in winter) the Himalayas are in full view. my friend was sick through the trip, the winding roads didn't agree with her. at one point we were about 100 kms to the Indian border at Phuentosholing, so i suggested she make a run for it! but she said knowing her luck she would land in naxal territory and get caught, strangely clairvoyant in a way considering what's happened in Bengal lately. along the route we also saw all the destruction caused by the Aila cyclone, the rivers had washed away some bridges and parts of the road. Haa itself is a very small town, some parts of which we could not see as the roads were blocked by rocks, that happened during the cyclone too. this trip took about 5 hours to Thimphu, and i loved every minute of it. also saw a yak for the first time! if you don't want to spend so much time on the road, there's the shorter Paro Thimphu route.

Trip to Bhutan - May 2009 - Exploring Paro

Paro - i loved it from the minute we set off from the airport. the mountains, the forests, the fields, the quiet roads... it was all picturesque, and so peaceful. we spent the day exploring various places, the museum - which turned out to be much bigger on the inside than it looked, the paro dzong - that's basically a fortress and houses both a monastery with the religious head and the administrative head and the courts.






there's one in every district, all with their distinctive architecture - a wide expanse of courtyard, surrounded by the main buildings in traditional style. the traditional bhutanese clothes make everyone look graceful and well dressed.








we also got to see an archery competition! this was great fun, watching 2 teams trying to hit the mark, and when an archer hit bulls-eye, his team-mates did this little song and jig. the crowd was totally engrossed. i was quite impressed with the bows, they looked so sophisticated.

















the evening we spent exploring the market! i couldn't resist taking a photo of these 2 dogs, so happily asleep. such places as always make one wonder about the dogged corporate life, the time spent on needless chasing of deadlines, while there's so much beauty out there to see; so this was no exception.

Trip to Bhutan - May 2009 - Getting There

have been meaning to do this for a while! had an amazing trip to Bhutan, though i didn't get a chance to write all about it. it still has an old world charm, and the interiors are relatively untouched by typical modern trappings, so it was a lovely experience to drive through the forest covered mountains with crisp, cool air.

to begin at the beginning though, Bhutan as a destination has been in my head for about a year(after i visited Ladakh last year) and i had one failed attempt in March, couldn't get any flight tickets and planning it without a travel agent, in the middle of a busy work schedule proved to be virtually impossible. so i had to let go, but managed to plan it all a few months later, with the help of the very efficient Odyssey Travels based in Pune.



unlike my solo trip to Ladakh, i was visiting Bhutan with a friend and we were excited at the prospect, though i am more of the mountain lover than she is. the flight to Bhutan (to the city Paro) was early morning from Cal so we had to fly in the previous night, and spend the night at the airport. when we landed at Cal tho, we found out that the airport has a women's dorm with 8 beds - and we were surprised at how clean it was!







so after quite a comfortable night, we headed off to the intl airport (5 mins walk round the corner) . Bhutan operates it own national airline, Druk, and that's the only way to go there. it's always full since there are limited flights, so booking in advance is an absolute must. you also need seats on the left of the aircraft to see the himalayas, and this plane had free seating! people cued up even before they made the boarding announcement! luckily i managed to get a middle seat on the left. soon enough we were landing in Paro! it's just a 50 min flight.





the airport is one of the prettiest ones i have ever seen! with traditional buildings and all the airport officials wearing the traditional Bhutanese dress, the Gho, it made for a pretty sight. after the testing for the H1N1, we were out to be greeted by the guide and the driver, our companions for the next week. never travelled with a guide before, but i realised that here it was helpful.

The latest perk - Sandwich with the boss!

As read in The Economist may 2-8 issue: new strategies for hiring during recession in the US - lucrative bonuses are no longer the way to market one's firm to prospects. the new selling points are (yes, its true) sandwiches with the boss, deferred start dates for new hires, say after a year (giving them an opportunity to travel - i would not have minded that!) and opportunities for advancement.

Wonder if that can catch on in India. Chilly cheese corn sandwich with me, anyone? Enough to sign the offer letter?!