Travelblog [Four]

Brrr, dont you feel cold?
Kavya asked.

Naah, I am used to such weather. It goes way below this temperature back there in Pilani.
I replied.

It was probably around 12 or 13 degrees Celsius at that time.

The cab that we hired to take us further uphill to drop us at the IIA campus, revealed to us what beauty and what charm Kodaikanal held! Wow, I was still to be shaken from my reverie. It was all so beautiful- the trees, the view, the straight drive, the breeze, the path leading to the campus!

We finally reached the Evershed Hall [one of the Guest houses] located within the IIA campus where we supposed to report our arrival. After a few signatures and introduction with the guest house in-charge, we were directed to the Annexe [another Guest House] which became my home for the next 3 weeks.

IIA Kodaikanal campus, it in itself has nature captivated in its freshest form. Totally green, with flora in abundance and beautiful pine like trees lining the roads within the campus.. reminded me of me dreaming of being in such a place and then actually being there! It was almost like living my dream. I was so excited and so thrilled. I wanted to explore the whole campus right away!

The Annexe - Almost all the female participants had already reached there and it was fun getting acquainted with them, mainly because they all belonged to such a different part of the country and i was not even remotely aware how people of Kerela and Tamilnadu were like. Most of them were mallus, muslim mallus and tamilnadu christians, so it was amazing to interact with them, to get to know them. I suggested going on a walk, but the idea was voted out so we stayed there and enjoyed!

It was a great summer school filled with so many memories, anecdotes, and what not!
Those were almost the best 21 days of my life. The best one still being the 2 months training at NIO [National Institute of Oceanography], Goa.

Travelblog [Three]

A swish of cool air!

Ah! What a nice pleasant breeze! The bus started ascending and its ascent was accompanied by huge mountaineous rocks and a very pleasant breeze. It made me happily forget about the blazing sound of Mahabharata playing on the TV.

Up went the bus..

As we reached a considerable height, the view cleared..
Tall eucalyptus trees lined up in such beauty as if exhibiting nature's perfection.. cool breeze getting chillier and giving goosebumps.. clusters of human habitation partially covered by white foamy clouds giving just a hint of their existence.. music of the leaves rustling against the wind.. was I in heaven?

Apparently, yes!

Travelblog [Two]

5 hours
Said she. "It'd take us around 5 hours to reach there, sir said".

It was a very hot afternoon and unfortunately we'd chosen seats right next to blazing sound speakers and the west side window seats. So, it was a sunny as well as a noisy bus ride [and pretty uneventful] till we reached the bottom of the hill.

Travelblog [One]

The flight was scheduled at 10:10 am on 31st of may 2007. After the security check in, I called up my dad who was seated there at the lounge. This was the my first travel alone and it felt exciting to be where I was, getting to do things on my own [yeah right, reservation all done by my dad with the flight directly landing me into chennai and my friends picking me up there - and doing things on my own I say!]. The flight was delayed by half an hour and so had to wait there till the announcement was to be made. I waited.

At last!

Reached Chennai at around 1:00 pm, Anu and Preethi had come to receive me. Oh! they looked so different in there. Anyways, it was a 2 days fun stay there at Anu's place.
Me being a town girl, the feeling of being in a City hit me as soon as i reached there, with soaring commutation costs, long distances, auto people ever ready to dupe you [had really funny experiences], busy roads, huge traffic. Travelling in local trains was a nice experience though.

2nd june 2007, 9:30 pm
I was supposed to meet Kavya [one of the participants of "Kodai Summer School for Physics 2007" conducted by IIA] at Egmore station and was apparently a little bit late. Anyways, we'd never seen each other (corresponded only through mails and calls), and it was nice to finally meet her in person.

3rd june 2007, 6:00 am
Madurai reached. As advised by Dr. Sundar Raman [the coordinator of the summer school], we were supposed to reach Kodai somewhere around the evening time so that all the arrangements would be made before our arrival. So we stayed at Kavya's house till afternoon, had lunch there [in between went to Meenakshi temple] and then caught a bus to Kodai at around 1:30 or so.