District Archeological Museum, Nellore.

Nellore has a Museum.Yes it does. Nobody, to whom I asked about this knew there was a museum in Nellore.Not the shopkeepers nearby my home, not the colleagues at office and not even the autowallahs. Everybody drew a blank at the mention of a Museum.Nevertheless I searched for it and made two attempts to visit it and on last Wednesday I got lucky. It was open.

Nellore District Museum is located in Saraswati Nagar on the Magunta under bridge road. It is a small red colored nondescript building. It houses some 7 sections. The first one has displays of tools of neolithic and paleolithic age which were found around Nellore. Second section has some terracotta and Bidri works.Then there is one where a number of swords and firearms are kept. For me only one section stood out. That was the one displaying coins. There were many coins of different eras and kings. The best were 6 coins of Roman period which were found near the coasts of Andhra Pradesh signifying the trade relations the people of Satavahana period enjoyed with the Romans. There are some Gold coins too on display.

The only other area of interest were a few pieces of Ming era vases and dishes.

This museum is only good for the local school kids for an introduction to archeology and History.  

Timings.

Quick Facts:
Location - Left side on the Magunta under bridge road leading to KVR petrol pump.
Timings- 10 30am to 5 00 pm.
Entry Fee - Rs3
Fee for Camera - Rs20

HAL Aerospace Museum.Bangalore,India.

Museum. A lot of people drop their plans to come along with me on a trip as soon as I mention the word 'museum'. Boring is what they label it.Which is a shame.Museums, like libraries are portals of time travel. They take you on journeys of the mind. I personally love museums and the very first thing I check out when I visit a new city is the museums there.So a few weeks back when I found myself in Bangalore to meet my friend Bhanu I decided to check out the HAL Aerospace museum. My friend thankfully accompanied me with no complaints.

The HAL Aerospace museum is situated on the Old Airport Road at the HAL premises. The parking is limited but we found a space nearby and comfortably parked our bike.We reached the place at around 10am.Our plan was to take in the exhibits slowly and spend an hour looking at everything.We were wrong. By the time we ended our tour we had spent close to 2 hours inside. 

The whole museum is divided into 6 Halls as this map displayed at the entrance shows. Hall 1 is a circular building which has 7 galleries around its circumference, which have photographs of major events of HALs journey from its inception to the present.Each gallery covers a decade. I was surprised to know that HAL was engaged in servicing of fighter jets of the allies during World war 2.There were pictures of Vultee vengeance bombers, Gnats, Maruts ,Vampires and many other planes.Also there are pictures of various dignitaries who have visited the HAL site.There are photographs of Kings of Iran,Iraq, Afghanistan and a lot of other countries.

Hall 2 has many models of Aero engines. This is a very informative area as one can see the cross sections of the engines.Also there is a Basant aircraft and a parachute ejection system model.The most interesting part for me was the Pratt & Whitney engine on display. The upper floor has two flight simulators.The on the left is for kids but from I heard even kids will be disappointed with it.  The one on the right was a bit enjoyable. The only thing that makes it different from the normal video games of aircraft is that you have a joystick in your hands and the seat tilts to the left and right as you make turns.

Pratt & Whitney Engine

The rest of the halls have many Aeroplane exhibits out of which only a MIG 21, a GKN Westland Helicopter and an Advanced Light Helicopter interested me. We wandered around all exhibits at our leisure and took our own sweet time in checking out each and every exhibit.

It was nice to see a crowd.

After this stroll of 2 hours we headed towards the well maintained cafe and had some snacks. There is a good shady place to sit and we enjoyed our break. Nearby was a small pond which had many small fishes darting around. Amusingly I found a larger crowd here than in front of any of the exhibits. That was a clear indication of the kind of interest we have towards Museum.


Quick Facts:-
HAL Heritage Centre and Aerospace Museum
Location - Varthur Main Rd, HAL GB Quaters, Marathahalli
Timings - 9am to 5pm.
Entry Fees - From HAL's website-
 

Entrance Fees(Adult)	Rs 50/-  per head
Entrance Fee(Students and Children upto 18 yrs)	Rs 30/- per head(with ID card )
Entrance Fee(Children upto 3 years)	Free
Physically Handicapped	Free
Still Camera	Rs 50/- per each
Video Camera	Rs 75/- per each
Basic Simulator Game	Rs 50/- per head
Motion simulator	Rs 100/- per head

 

Devpahri,Chhatisgarh,India.

Chhattisgarh has a many lesser known places hidden behind its vast jungles and industrial complexes.
Devpahri is one such place near the Power city of Korba.Situated around 80km from Korba lies a picturesque waterfall on a small river.This place is so remote that one of my colleagues informed that the villagers around here saw electricity only a few years back.I mean they had no idea of the outside world.No idea of electricity and power.But things have changed quite dramatically now. There are good roads there.Hospitals and schools are working and in fine order.

A few weeks before I left chhattigarh and moved to nellore myself along with my friends visited these waterfalls.The place is quaint and remote.If solitude is what you are looking for,this place is excellent.

There comes a huge reservoir on the way to Devpahri.We spent some time here clicking pics and for some fun

Downstream of the Devpahri falls

A spot of calm 

Right near the falls

Scuba Diving in Pondicherry,India. Part 2: Sea Dive Day

This is in continuation of my Scuba Dive experience in Pondicherry,India.
Here is the first Part. Part 1.

The next morning we were at the office of temple adventures by 7am. It was hard,waking up at 5 30 am on a weekend vacation where our original plan was to just chill. The thought of diving in the sea is what kept us motivated and excited. Though we were there at the office by 7 am it was around 8 am that we actually departed for the dive site. We had to keep our clothes and stuff in the office itself.Stuff meaning mobile phones and wallet. So I sent a text message to my family informing that I
wont be in contact till noon that day. So we set off wearing only the dive suit given to us and reached the point from where our boat was to start off after a ride of 30 mins. On the way one of the staff asked us if we took ay motion sickness tablet. I confidently said no as I thought having trekked and visited places in the Himalayas many times I would be okay.I was wrong.

At the site we helped out the staff in loading the stuff on the boat and we looked like a group of Navy SEALs embarking on a secret operation. We started off soon on the boat and the feeling of being on a secret mission only increased as we sat on the floor of the boat on opposite sides,looking at each other. The boat bobbed up and down as it hit the gentle waves. It made its way out of the small creek out into the vast open sea and made it to the dive site in around 30 mins. As I no longer had my watch I lost track of time. The boat crew expertly anchored the boat and we were ready to dive. The staff asked us who amongst us would like to go first. All three of us did not hesitate in raising our hands.It was decided we would be going first with a fourth person joining in. The rule was like this. Only 4 persons would be going down in the waters with the others remaining on the boat. Each person going down will have a instructor with them.So the client to instructor ratio was 1:1 which was an excellent thing and made us feel completely at ease.

I was the first one to go.The crew on the boat helped me with the equipment and in a classic James bond style I flipped over the side of the boat into the choppy waters. Everything went upside down.A hand grabbed me out and pulled me above water. Leon was there holding me. He gave me some time to relax and then gave me some pointers including a quick rerun of the basic signs.He asked me if I was ready to which I replied I was and we went in.I got out almost immediately. The same thing which happened in the pool happened here also. Instinctively as soon as I was going underwater I was holding my breath and not breathing through the regulator. Again I told myself to forget everything and concentrate on only one thing.Breathe.Which I did pretty good the second time. Soon Leon and myself descended slowly into the depths of the sea.Leon indicated to me to hold a rope,which I rightly assumed to be the anchor.We descended slowly taking stops now and then.At every stop Leon turned around and asked me if I was OK.Of course 'asked' here means asked in sign language.I replied I was 'Ok' by showing the 'ok' sign. The visibility in the water was somewhat poor.I knew it wouldn't be like the crystal clear waters they show in ads and at any rate I was here for the experience of a scuba dive and I was okay if I couldn't spot any fishes. But slowly the fishes started appearing.At first I spotted some lone fishes darting from left right in front of me. Leon had to indicate vigorously now and then pointing towards the fishes. I missed many at first but slowly I turned my attention from the 'breath' 'breath' mantra I kept repeating to myself to spotting the fishes.I spotted many.Then slowly shoals of fish started appearing.I was wonder stuck.It was a beautiful site. The fishes in the group gently swayed and moved in a graceful manner as they appeared in front of me and disappeared away into the murky depths of the sea.Now and then I put my hand near them. The group disbanded immediately and the fishes split in all directions only to regroup later some distance away.The scene was mesmerizing.

Soon we reached a depth of 12 mtrs. I knew this because we had two gauges attached to our gear.One was a pressure gauge showing the pressure in the oxygen cylinder.It was showing a pressure of 100 kg/cm2 if I remember correctly. The other gauge was showing the depth. It read 12 mtrs, the deepest we were going. We stayed around here for a some time just looking around. The whole experience was surreal. A human isn't designed to survive underwater.He cannot breathe there.He is surrounded by everywhere by something that has no breathable oxygen that we need to survive.Add to that there is the issue of pressure.For every 10 mtrs one goes downwards a pressure of 1kg/cm2 acts on the skin.That means double the atmospheric pressure every 10 mtrs you go down.So in these unfavorable conditions humans aren't designed to survive long term.But like in all field humans have come up with ways to survive for longs periods of time giving us the ability to explore the vast seas. So there I was wearing these human designed equipment in those unfavorable conditions trying to have some fun exploring the sea.I experienced first hand there an impressive resolve of humans to go beyond the normal in their quest to know the unknown.

Soon the time came to surface and Leon indicated so with the 'thumps up' sign.I replied 'ok' and slowly we started ascending.We stopped every now and then because failing to do so would cause 'bends'. 'Bends' were caused if a diver ascended too quickly.When I was a kid I had read about bends in a issue of tinkle comics. It has to do with the difference in pressures inside the body and outside in the water.Even though Leon didn't tell me why we were stopping now and then I knew the reason. So it took us a while till we reached the surface. Since there were 4 pairs of divers underwater I ran into Bhanu and we took a pic together. We looked around for Abhishek but he was not around. It would have been wonderful if we had gotten a pic with the three of us together.Anyway we had no way to search for him so we carried on and moved on to the top.I was the first to surface. Before they took off the oxygen tank I looked at the pressure gauge and it showed 60kg/cm2.

Bhanu and myself

After they removed the equipment I slowly climbed up the ladder and sat down still reeling under that out of the world experience. The others asked me how it was to which I happily replied it was awesome! Soon Bhanu and Abhishek surfaced. They both had broad smiles on their faces and as they climbed on the boat we looked at each other and nodded acknowledging the superb experience.The three of us had many wonderful trips and adventures and this was one more.We sat down and waited while two more batches of 4 people each did the dive. All the while we waited on the boat as it bobbed up and down gently on the sea. Many of us puked because of the boat's motion including myself. While returning there was a count to determine the number of persons who puked and it stood at 8 out of 13. Bhanu and Abhishek did not.

After everyone was back we started off on our return.Somebody suggested they play a scene from the popular bollywood movie 'Zindagi Na Milegi Doobara' where Hrithik comes out from the sea after his dive and theres a beautiful score playing in the background.Its a great scene really. We joked around a bit about it as our boat rode away in the afternoon sun making its way for the land.

We were back at the office soon and as we were in a hurry to catch our afternoon bus we wanted to be done with the formalities as quickly as possible.This is the part where I was thoroughly disappointed with Temple Adventures.Up till that point everything was excellent.I was impressed by their work. But as soon as we reached all of the crew and instructors got busy for their next dive I believe. There was no proper closure of our trip and for our group. I ran from person to person to get the signature on our certificates. I felt like being in a govt office as I was directed from one instructor to another. Meanwhile Bhanu tried getting the pics taken underwater. Here also we had to crowd around the reception to get our pics.And it took a long time. Abhishek left for the hotel to get ready. After a long frustrating wait at the office we finally left at 1230 pm.Temple Adventures if you are reading this please note that like you had a class when the whole package starts, have a session at the end also asking about our experience and feedback and sign our certificates without having us to ask you.

After a very uncomfortable meal in a small,congested and hot restaurant near the bus stand we left Pondicherry at around 2pm. Bhanu went his way to Bangalore while Abhishek and myself left for Chennai from where I was to take a train to Nellore and Abhishek for Ramagundam. We managed to catch our train and there ended our wonderful trip to Pondicherry.

Scuba Diving in Pondicherry,India. Part 1: The Training Day.

I read somewhere that when you are diving underwater, once you get below 10 metres depth, you can't see the color red or yellow.Our Blood looks blue at that depth. In Pondicherry,India we dived to a depth of 12 metres and no I did not cut myself to check if the above stated bit of info is true.Far from it, I did not even remember that info.In fact I was completely lost in a state of trance.Surrounded by the green of the sea water and the sound of each breath I was taking echoing in my ears I was far away from the world.The scuba diving experience in Pondicherry turned out to be extremely thrilling and it all started out with a casual plan with my friends to just chill in Pondy for a weekend.

Abhishek my friend was the one who insisted we go to Pondy and along with another friend of mine Bhanu we spent a weekend in Pondy last month.We did not come with a specific plan to scuba dive but only had a vague notion to do it if the cost and time suits us. We assembled in Pondy at around 6 am in the morning and as all three of us were tired, we just slept till 12 noon. By 2 pm we were fresh and ready.The first thing we did was go to the agency offering the scuba dive experience, Temple Adventures. Their office is situated a few minutes from the beach in a small quiet neighborhood.We had hired out two bikes from our hotel and that made the search for the office easy. As we walked in we found a few people milling around the entrance. Heaps of scuba related equipment were laid out neatly on the cupboards near the door.We inquired about the scuba package.The shortest package they had on offer was the 2 day package costing Rs 7000. It would be starting that afternoon and would end by 12 noon the next day. The time suited us perfectly, the only thing to decide was if we were ready to spend 7000 bucks for that. It took us only 5 minutes to come to a conclusion and we booked ourselves a spot.

After filling up some forms and reading some informational booklets we had a 1 hour class where our instructor Leon explained to us a few basic pointers about scuba diving.After that theory class we had a practice session in a swimming pool.Now I consider myself fairly comfortable around water.When I was a kid my dad used to take me and my siblings to rivers and lakes for a bit of water fun.In one summer vacation he even took us to the River Godavari nearby my home in sweltering summer heat for 15 consecutive days to teach us swimming. These constant rendezvous with water made me a bit comfortable around water bodies. I thought I will be fine and go through the scuba dive experience like a hot knife through butter.I was wrong.During that practice session in the pool my instructor, after having checked all the equipment on me and giving me all the instructions, told me to slowly go underwater. As I lowered myself slowly into the eater with the regulator in my mouth,I instinctively stopped breathing even with the regulator in  my mouth.This is exactly why they have this training. I raised myself up and surfaced. I took stock of the situation and told myself to breathe through the regulator. The instructor told the same thing. Breathe.Breathe. Breathe.The second time I did okay and started breathing through the regulator.After getting comfortable it was time to learn some basic underwater signs and actions. We practiced a few signs like signalling 'ok',' go up','go down' and 'something wrong' which can also be called 'all is not well' sign. The 'something wrong' sign is followed by indicating the location with our index finger. We also learnt and practiced what to do in case the regulator falls out of our mouth. All this practice was over by 6 pm. By the time it ended I was confident of doing well the next day out on the sea. 

We headed to the beach after the practice to have some sea food as all that practice had made us hungry.To our dismay there was not one seafood stall anywhere from the north end of the beach all the way to the south end. Finally at the end point we spotted one restaurant which had seafood but it was full so we just had some bhel and fruit salad in a nearby stall. We spent some time at the beach and went back to our hotel by 9 pm. We went out again for dinner.We had to be at the office of Temple Adventures the next day at 7 am so though we wanted to stay up late we slept by midnight.
The actual scuba dive day on my next post.

An interview with Bongyatra.com

A few days back I was approached by a travel portal Bongyatra.com for a interview. I gladly accepted and a couple of days ago it got published on their website.

Bongyatra's 'About us' section:

My interview

For the rest of the interview click here - http://bongyatra.com/interview-with-m-a-razzaq-siddiqui-from-razzwashere-blogspot-com

Bhutan's Druk Path Trek. Day 5.

It is a strange thing for us occasional trekkers,we wait for months for the trek and then once it starts we want it to end as soon as possible.The physical demands starts taking its toll from the first day itself. But then again this is what we enjoy. The whole thrill of trekking lies in that physical endurance that one goes through.It is a queer thing to explain.We are in pain and at the same time we enjoy every bit of it.

Day 5 bought us to the last day of our trek and we were both relieved and a bit sad.Relieved because we could sleep on a smooth mattress that night and we wouldn't have to use the toilet tent again.Sad because we were going to miss the wonderful mountain scenery and the adrenaline.

We had a wonderful night's sleep and were feeling mighty refreshed. The first thing that Ishita Didi asked us in the bright morning was if we felt any tremors the night before. None of us felt anything and we said she must have imagined it.Later when we reached Thimphu I checked it out in an internet cafe and found that there was an earthquake in Myanmar the previous night.But in our campsite there were no news of anything happening nearby or from the monks there.So we knew nothing of the earthquake. After a leisurely breakfast we started off from the campsite passing through the Monastery complex.We bid goodbye to a few monks who were out taking a stroll in the morning sun.

There was nothing much during our walk down to the end of the trail. We walked past a couple of prayer wheels and a few small structures.Nothing remarkable. We reached the end point in a couple hours. The trek trail makes it through the forest to this point and from here there is a tar road. Our coaster was waiting for us.We boarded it and we couldnt wait to go to our hotel and take a rejuvenating hot water bath.A half an hour drive bought us to our hotel.There ended our Druk Path Trek. 

In the evening we went out for a stroll in the city streets. The famous traffic booth of Thimphu was nearby our hotel and sure enough there was not much traffic in the streets.The skies above were overcast and now and then it drizzled for a bit.Enjoying this cool but comfortable weather we walked all the way to the Tashicho Dzong. This Dzong opens for visitors only in the evening at 5pm and closes at 6pm. A dzong is divided into two parts.One is for administrative purpose and the other part is for the religious purpose. We strolled inside the vast courtyard for an hour and finally at 6pm made our way back to the area near our hotel.After a few random visits to shops and cafes we went in for the night at around 10pm. The next day we departed for India in the morning. We reached New Jalpaiguri by evening. And our thrilling Druk Path trek trip was over.