Posted in general personal travel

The H terminal layover

The layover trilogy series has 3 parts and must be read in this order:The K terminal layoverThe D terminal layoverThe H terminal layover Experience is quite a teacher and I came up with a robust, but delicate plan (Oh! The paradox of it all). The starting point was Vellore and the destination was Kodaikanal. Rather than a lonely layover at the famed K terminal, I chose the more bustling Hosur junction – let’s call this the H terminal. I booked a combo which would give me a 1 hour break between buses. Neat! I finished work early and called Bus 1 as there was a discrepancy in the boarding times – it was 1 hour earlier than I thought. No…

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Posted in fun general personal travel

The D terminal layover

The layover trilogy series has 3 parts and must be read in this order:The K terminal layoverThe D terminal layoverThe H terminal layover Dejavu? The return from Kodaikanal was different, yet so similar (Oh! The paradox of it all!) The plan was finalised a few hours before I left. The starting point was Kodaikanal and the destination was Vellore. The first leg was in a taxi and the second leg was a train. The journey had a stopover at a place called Dindigul – lets call this the D terminal. We planned it to be a 20 minute wait after I got off the taxi. It should be OK! The ride down the hills was scenic and beautiful. We stopped…

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Posted in fun general personal travel

The K terminal layover

The layover trilogy series has 3 parts and must be read in this order:The K terminal layoverThe D terminal layoverThe H terminal layover At the outset, it was a complicated but simple plan (Oh! The paradox of it all!!). The starting point was Vellore and the destination was Kodaikanal. This route had a junction called Krishnagiri where I had to change buses. There were dozens of buses for the first leg and a handful for the second. I booked a combo that gave me a one hour ‘layover’ at the famous Krishnagiri T Junction terminal. We’ll call this K terminal. My first bus was a little late and after a short interim halt, I reached Krishnagiri at 10.30 PM. My…

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Posted in friends personal travel work

Fatehpur

A memorable 10 day visit to Broadwell Christian Hospital, Fatehpur, Uttar Pradesh. My biggest achievement was coming back with my name unchanged. Or maybe not A sprinkling of NICU, deliveries, NRP, community visits, training, opd. I felt I received more than I could give. The reality of healthcare is starker than it looks.

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Posted in Car family fun travel

Road Trip

Road trips – you end up where you started!But this 1557 km journey from Vellore to Karur, Munnar, Kumarakom, Kumily, Thekkad, Vandanmedu and back gave us enough memories to last a lifetime. Thank God for an amazing time and safety! This is our first major road trip ever since we returned from OZ and even though the drive was very different, the scenery was just as spectacular as Australia or New Zealand!

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Posted in Car travel

Cracked mirror

We had to travel about 150 KM to Sirkazhi today for the reception. I decided that it would be better that Venkatesh drove, especially as the return would be late in the night. The road was a narrow road that was winding. In an hour an oncoming car came really close and although venkatesh swerved off the road the rear-view mirrors hit and I heard a loud noise. We stopped and on inspection found that only the mirror had cracked and the whole assembly and car didn’t even have a scratch. The other car didn’t bother to stop! Just a few inches could have seen worse results!The return journey at night was safe but quite scary through the narrow roads.

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Posted in fun general travel

The Rush

After witnessing the beautiful wedding and reception we had to make a mad rush to the Bus Stand straight from the wedding reception. The taxi reached late and we actually walked all the way to the main road to catch it. The 40 minute trip to the bus stop was crazy! I had to close my eyes and hold on tight as the taxi driver drove like mad. We reached in one piece and on time. Still sweating and white-knuckled, I boarded my bus amidst a noisy crowd of humanity. I was very lucky to get on a bus as all buses were full and the only reason I got a seat was because I had booked the ticket 3…

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