Samudra Manthana

Bangkok's Suvarna Bhumi airport is fantastic, I am quite impressed ! Having seen it being built over the last two trips, its nice to see it up, running and lively. While there is a lot of real estate in the airport, I was especially interested to see several Hindu sculptures like this one -

Samudra Manthana, where the Suras and Asuras churn the ocean for Amruta. Funny contrast, seeing this in front of a Gucci store.

And then, out of nowhere, you see a fantastic Mantapa !


Quirky little things, making a modern, western looking airport suddenly localized ! I was especially pleased to see a prayer room in the middle of the airport ! To top it all off, I saw a muslim guy praying out by the check in counters anyway. He he, the attitude reminds me of India a little...

Cool places to travel

It's interesting, how my laptop gets to travel to cool locations, which I myself haven't managed to visit. She's already been to Shanghai in China, Anchorage in Alaska and Indianapolis on her journey towards me. And I bet she will travel to a couple of other nice places before coming home.

I wouldn't mind visiting any of those places. Never been to mainland China, would be fun. Alaska sounds very distant and exotic, and Indiana could give me a chance to see Obama. Darn.

Obelix says: Toc Toc Toc, these Fedex guys are crazy.

Random rambling

- Haven't felt life being this empty and meaningless before. Have to try hard to find a purpose. In general though, everything is ok. In the end, everything will be fine. If it is not yet fine, it is not yet the end. (stolen from Tarang)

- Washington DC was amazing, but I didn't get to write about it so far. Smithsonian museums, luray caverns, the white house, Capitol, Washington monument, Lincoln and Jefferson memorials, Karun's place across the street from the Pentagon, metro trains all around the place, tourists everywhere, a high security event on the lawns of the Capitol, miles and miles of walking and hot, sticky days and nights...

- I want to learn flying. No, seriously.

- I am either very efficient, or I have way too much time on hand, or just don't do enough things in my life.

Mysore, Nanjangud, road, driving, good day out

• Early morning start to a long day. Out of home by 6:15 AM. Anna, amma, Viji and I.
  
• Breakfast at Maddur Tiffanies, with the famous Maddur vade.
• Visit to Nanjangood. Crowded, extremely sweatly and hot. Almost like Tirupati now, the crowds jostling and pushing. Fights broke out in front of the Lord.
• Food at DasaPrakash in Mysore. Finally, I eat at the famous place. Everything seems to be much smaller. Serving sizes, I mean. I seem to have kept ordering. BBB, poori, one more poori, rose milk...
• Driving our new vehicle was good, the road is awesome in most places and being fixed in a few. Except fro the aggressive drivers of the Scorpio.
• Coffee in a Coffee Day just after Channapatna.

Some interesting pictures: Sumptuous mangoes, they seemed like they would fall into our car if the lorry braked. We waited for a while, but no luck.















These slow fellows brought traffic to a halt on the 2 lane express way for a minute or so.















A view of Mysore palace as we drove by. No time to stop and admire today.
















The road was awesome, except in patches where work was going on as we drove. Really cool.

Guess where ?

A few friends visited from a couple of places. The last week has been a whirlwind of trips in/around the bay area. Prachi and Ganesh, newly married friends currently living in Seattle came first. Kavitha from UVCE visited soon after.

This shot is from one of those mini tours... Near the Golden Gate, one of my favorite places on earth. I will never tire of visiting this place...