hyd-mum-ahd-mum-hyd

I have never been a traveler in the real sense, although i immensely desire the image. I mean its pretty cool to be a guy who's toured a lot. Thats probably why i took extra time off from office and headed off to Mumbai. Now mumbai is not a favourite holiday spot, but its pretty okay for a starter.

the preps included buying a large livea trekking bag( which goes in perfectly with the tourist image), coercing my TM into granding two days of paid leave and saving enuf money to last 4 days in 2 cities( i also decided to catch a train to ahmedabad and take a luk at the akshardham temple).

One thing i hadnt planned for was the traffic in Mumbai. Lotto ppl say that bangalore is almost as crowded as mumbai, you know wot, they suck.

all 2 days i spent there, all i saw was the infinity mall, which is some 2 km frm the flat and takes 30 min on auto, and the CCD, where i had brunch both days. I could very well be the first guy who took off to mumbai on vacation and returned w/o seeing the taj or the gateway or the marine drive or nowadays, the leopold cafe.

By the way, spent a night at Firangi Pani. Rony paid.

Took the garib radh to ahmedabad next day, and swore i'd never do it again, the moment i stepped in. That reminds me, both Rony and me got in at the last minute. just before the whistle, to be precise. That was preceeded by we both reaching a wrong station, and that was again preceeded by me waking up late, which is not very uncommon.

Someone once told me that we NITCians have this bloody habit of keeping people waiting all the time. I mean we are always late and even if we miss a flight or two, we just refuse to learn.

Missing the train wouldnt have been a big loss in any case.

Still searching for the guy who said garib radhs are a boon.

for the record, Akshardham temple luks grand.

Im somewhat intrigued by this man called Swami Narayan( pardon me if there are any followers).

he built his own temple, and has very meticulously preserved his writings, the quill/pen he used to write those writings, the clothes he wore while he wrote them, the rope he used to tether his horse, the pichook he played holi with, and what not. His preserved tooth, nails and bodyhair were a revolting sight. but again, the temple looks marvellous.

got back on monday, went straight to office. I like it when you come back from somewhere and still make it to office on the same day. Frst, it saves you a day's salary (wage seems to be a more correct term); secondly, you get approval to leave early. I did both.