Kannur Trip and 70th Birthday

 

    The last 2 weeks of the year is usually spent in the quite confines of my in-law's place in Dharmsala, Kannur. This year doe to the 12th exams of Nishanth and the return of Nandita after her semester, the trip was curtailed to a 4 day visit. 

The significance of the visit was more important in that we celebrated the 70th Birthday of my MIL. The occasion was celebrated with a visit to the temple in the morning followed by a lunch at home with all her siblings present in town.

Being a very socially active personality, these gatherings mean a lot to her and can keep her going the rest of the year. 

Here is a link to the pictures taken during the occasion. 

The previous evening i.t 25th December we visited the the Chal beach with the dog. It was a fun trip and all of us had a good time. The beach had some Christmas festivities and we managed to find  isolated spot for enjoying the sunset. 

The pictures are available here. 

We had to take a RTPCR test in order to enter Karnataka, we got that done and plan to head back on the 29th AM. The next exciting event is the home coming of Nandita after her 3rd semester.

Achan Birthday 2021

 

Month of Birthdays - 2021

 

Pictures of the Celebration 

"As the years roll" which evolved from "watch them grow" was a conscious effort to chronicle the happenings of our life so they trigger our fond memories of the years that went by. Over the years as kids no longer remain kids, the years seemed to have slipped by at a lightning phase. 

May is our month of birthdays, Nishanth's birthday was celebrated on the roof keeping in mind the raging Delta variant cases around the country and the grim news that surfaced every day. 

 

 

Nandita Birthday Pictures:

 For the life of me, I cannot find a single picture from May 13th. No recollection of how we celeberated that day.

 

Vishu 2021

 

We heralded the arrival of the Malayalam New Year with a feast at home. 

The Sadhya prepared by Veena holds a special place in our armor of delicacies that she dishes up every day.  

2021 comes to an end and Not a Blog Post.. so here it is

Well, it's been a while since I have been updating my blog as you can tell, the reason is simple, it just slipped on my things to do until my wife decided to pull up the blog during one casual evening with friends. 

So here I am, making a frantic attempt to recollect the year that has passed by and all the posts for the year are backdated and all done during the last week of the year.

In many ways it's been a challenging year and the one thing that stands out is COVID in all it's fury that affected pretty much turned everyone's life upside down.

So i will start with my covid story and at the outset, I will say that I am truly blessed and here's why..

   It all started the morning of 17th April 2021, my mom and dad were living with me and it all started when my mom just collapsed after her shower. She was very week and unable to stand or sit and seemed to be in bad shape. I rushed her to "The Specialist hospital", with the Delta variant in full swing, the hospital was full and refused to admit her. Her blood oxygen levels dropped to 50 while in the casualty and with the hospital staff putting pressure to move her elsewhere, I was frantically calling various hospitals and BBMP - the government help line for a ICU bed with ventilator. After getting a cold reception in many places, I was beginning to loose hope when Dr. Prashanth - a familiar face walked in, on seeing my panicked look, he stopped by to inquire, he soon checked on amma and  seeing her state, he jumped into action. Very soon he vacated an ICU bed and made arrangements for a ventilator and the crew of doctors and nurses started to fire on all cylinders

That was a huge relief, I watch the ICU doctor hook her up  on a ventilator and try to stabilize her. Over the course of the next weeks she continued to be on the ventilator and was gradually showing improvement. Meanwhile my sister from San Diego decided to  travel to Bangalore and she managed to get on a flight, the very thought that she was on her way was some good solace for my mom and that contributed immensely to her recovery.  

A week later she had recovered enough that she was brought off the ventilator and moved to a ward on Oxygen. She began to show gradual improvement day by day. At the end of the 2nd week, the hospital ran out of oxygen and we were asked to vacate. I was advised that she needs to be on oxygen at home and then began calls to find an oxygen concentrator. The pandemic effect was seen in full swing as we were unable to find any. Luckily my sisters BIL, Ravi Chetan had a spare oxygen concentrator and that came to the rescue. 

Back home, we had the nurse drop by twice daily and provided the IV medications and took care of her. We were blessed to see her regain normalcy over the weeks. In the meantime, all international flights to and from the country were being cancelled. My sister was scheduled to fly back on 5th of May, however at the directive of the government,  all international flights were stopped from the 6th of May and her airlines promptly cancelled the flights immediately.

With responsibilities back home and Arjun's college admissions in full swing, she did not want to be stuck in India. We managed to get a AI flight for her and with RTPC tests done she managed to fly out on the 5th.

Mom has recovered and the immense support from Dad, Sister and my wife did wonders to aid her recovery process.  

Vacation 2019 - Budapest, Vienna and Prague

Pictures of this trip are available on Google photos. Click here to view.

This year's vacation was planned to the 3 cities of Budapest Hungary, Vienna Austria and Prague in Czech Republic. This trip was planned thanks to help from my good Hungarian colleague Anita.

These are the itinerary that she provided is at the bottom of the page.

We flew into Budapest on the 6th of May via Doha and landed there around 2pm. Took a cab to the Airbnb which was on district 3 by the Mercure hotel
5. Kecskeméti street, Budapest, Budapest 1053, Hungary

3 countries, 3 currencies - Hungarian Forint, Austrian Euro and Czech Koruna

Day 1 : After settling in the apartment we met Anita for dinner at a Restaurant called Vakvarju. Had some good Hungarian food and beer. The goulash soup and the duck dishes were really good.

The place was a good walk from our room and it was nice to get a feel for the city.  The down side was that it was raining and cold. After a quick shopping for warm clothes we were on our way.

The first impression was that it was a beautiful city with lots of heritage building and wide roads. The public transportation which was a combination of tram, buses, metro, bike Lanes and walkways were very well planned and laid out. People seemed to be well versed in English and friendly.

Day 2: after fixing a breakfast of eggs and bread we started by walking to the Jewish synagogue. After a quick tour we then headed to St Jacob church.

We had booked a tour of the Hungarian Parliament @ 3:30 pm. We walked around the Danube river and took plenty of pictures soaking in the beautiful sights of the city.

The Parliament was an impressive structure and the tour worthwhile. We took the tram to the Liberty bridge walked around the shopping districts had coffee and snacks along the way and took out some Thai food for dinner. We settle down for the evening with some wine and beer.

Day 3: The next morning started slow with a breakfast of more eggs, bread and jam.

We got ready and headed to the the Buda side across the Danube river. Again we decided to walk the stretch. It was a beautiful sunny day and we walked by the river taking pictures and just enjoying the company and sights. We crossed the river at the chain bridge.

We went over to the Buda castle and the fisherman's wharf. It offered some incredible views of the Parliament and the landscape of the city across the Danube.

We walked back this time taking the Elisiabeth bridge to get back to the pest side. The evening was spent shopping and strolling.

We also had to try the Palinka, a fruit infused whisky. We took a cherry infused Palinka to the apartment after a dinner outing of Greek food. 

A nice end to the day with shots of Palinka and recollection of good times spent together.

Day 4: This day marks the end of phase 1. We started the day early as we wanted to checkout the local market(City market). We packed up finished breakfast by 8 and walked to the market. Spent a few hours there, shipped small goodies and returned to the room by the checkout time of 10 AM.

The market was incredibly clean. Do check out the pictures to get an idea.

We took the metro to the Kelety station from where we boarded a train to Munch and hopped of in Vienna.

Well as I hopped of the train at Wein station I looked to pick up my camera bag that I had kept on the over head rack, it was missing. Frantically I walked around looking for it and it finally dawned that it was stolen.

It was quite depression to lose my priced procession for 10 years and more importantly it had all of our pictures from Budapest. Along with it I lost the old expired passports and the house keys.

I found a police station and filed a complaint for the record. The police were friendly and said that theft was quite common on this route. With a sunken feeling we found our way to the apartment.

Once we settled in and found. We purchased the Vienna pass and a 3 day city pass to use the metro. These passes ensured that our expenses were contained.

The evening in Vienna was spent by taking the train to the Stephan's dome. We walked around the historical church and then had some Gelato and walked around the city.

Dinner was at the apartment and it consisted of rice, dal, pickles with some roasted chicken along with some Austrian wine. 

Day 5: The day started with breakfast at the apartment and consisted of eggs, croissant, and fruits. We then headed to the Schonburnn palace. A quick hop on to the metro and we got of right beside the palace. It was quite a magnificent place and spread over a large area. We walked through the manicured lawns, beautiful fountains and it turned out to be the perfect day to be outdoors.

We took a tour of the place at 2:30 after which we head to the Nash market. It was one of the the largest markets of the city. We had some custom made pasta and Greek food seems to be every where so we had a healthy dose of gyros and falafel as well.

The evening was spent playing games at the apartment and some home made food.

Day 6: This day was spent by visiting the Belvedere palace. We then took the hop on hop off city tours. We stopped at innerstad where we had lunch and some gelato. The evening was spent cruising on the Danube canal that cuts across the city. 

Day 7: Today we head to the 3rd phase of the trip to Prague. We had breakfast at the apartment and wrapped up from our stay. We took the metro to Wien hbf from where we boarded the railjet train to Prague. It was a 4 hour journey through the beautiful European country side.

We arrived at the city Central station and our house was right across the street from the station. We stayed at

It was the most comfortable and best accommodation that we had amongst the 3 Airbnb stays. The address of the Airbnb was

Opletalova 1608/43, Prague , Prague 110 00, Czech Republic

That evening we walked to the old town square and general had a good time getting to know the touristy side of town. One of the biggest attractions was the astronomical clock.

This place was thronging with tourists and some of the spots were so crowded. We found our place to the market place catering to tourists and had lunch at one such spot.

Day 8: May 13 and a birthday in Prague for Veena. Today we headed to St. Charles bridge and walked around the place taking pictures.

The temperature was in the single digits and we had to bundle up as the wind gusts through the narrow streets made it feel even colder.

That evening we went out for some Czech cuisine at a Restaurant called Havelska Corunna by the market. It was recommended by our Airbnb person. Food was very filling and sumptuous. Dinner was at the apartment and comprised of some dal and rice.

We bought some cakes to celebrate the birthday and spent the evening just chit chatting and poking fun at each other.

Day 9: The day started out like a lazy morning. Slept in late, had toast and eggs for breakfast a we went to the Prague castle. It was a cold with the occasional shower. We saw more of the traditional churches and familiar building topology of east European architecture. The tram way was impressive and it looked like Europeans had mastered the art of public transportation and city planning to a model that many a cities around the globe can emulate.

We spent the evening at the apartment packing for the return and generally musing about the past memories and a  reinforcement of our friendship with Vivek and Nitasha.

Day 10: Adios (not so)East Europe. We headed to the airport at 5:15 to catch the shuttle at 5:30 and boarded a flight to Doha and Bangalore on Qatar airways.

Another year has gone by and another memory to relish as we watch the kids grow and reach the brink of adult hood and prepare to head of their independent ways.

*****************************

Recommendations:

To Stay

I would recommend Pest, as several attractions are there, I would recommend the 5.th or the 6.th district. Part of 7 and 8 can be dangerous, we have some ethnics and some dangerous folks there, so maybe better avoid. 13th can be good too, or if Buda then 1st district

To Visit/do

∑      Buda Castle - National Museum to visit in it ( it in a hill, you can walk up or use the Cogwheel - it 100 years old :))

∑      Halasz Bastya (in the castle area) - Really good view from here day&Night, recommend to do both

∑      Parliament - you can even visit inside, it worth! (just check the tickets - early morning for the next day)

∑      Walk near the Parlament area on the bank of Danube, or you can take a boat and have a small ride on Danube

∑      Gellert Hill - Awesome panorama day&night

∑      One of our thermal SPAs (Gellert, Rudas or Szechenyi Spa) - you can spend a half of a full day here

∑      Vajdahunyad Castle - Varosliget (if you have time we have a really nice Zoo here)

∑      Hero Square - Fine arts Museum

∑      Margaret Island - really nice to walk around or rend bike from spring till Autumn

∑      Chain Bridge/Liberty Bridge - (Really all bridges in Budapest - you can wall through from Buda to Pest)

∑      If you come on 20 August we have a our national day and have a huge firework around 21:00 over the Danube, priceless, and only once per year and on NY Eve!

∑      St Stephen Basilica - our shopping street - Vacai street (near Dear Ter)

∑      Party area -  Kiraly utca  and Gozsdu negyed - here if you want to have a night out you can go to Di Vino a nice vine place

To Eat:

∑      Raday Street (full with affordable restaurants)

∑      Liszt Ferenc Ter - Full with rather a bit more expensive restaurants I highly recommend here Menza (You can taste Hungarian dishes but in a modern way)- or if you like Fish then Big Fish nearby

∑      Brunch - nearby any cosy coffee place. There is one nice near the Parlament too- Szamos Today, or a way fancier but an old one where our famous poets use to make - Central

∑      Balna - it is a complexum of cosy coffee places further

∑      Vasarcsarnok (Local marketplace - you can also buy local food here on the first floor)

Food to try:

∑      Langos (it is like a fried bread with cottage cheese and sour cream on the top) ( you can get them in Varosliget as well near the Zoo for 2 Euros)

∑      Turosczusza - paste with cottage cheese 

∑      Gulyas Leves - a famous type of soupe

∑      Porkolt - stew (you can choose your try or meet)

∑      Paprikas csirke - Chicken with sour cream & paprika and dumplings

∑      Fokhagyma kremleves cipoban - Garlic cream soup in a bread pot (you can eat the pot too:) )

∑       

To drink

∑      Palinka (local spirit, very strong in different flavour)

∑      Wine - we have a lot of wine region most famous -Tokai, Eger, Villany, Badacsony (from these you can choose any) one of the best red vine - Egri Bikaver

∑      We have beer too - Borsodi, Soproni or some local craft one

∑       

General/Transportation

Hungarian speaks Hungarian which is not similar to any other language :), We use Forint to pay which is 320HUF - 1 Euros currently. Overall between Vienna - Prague and Budapest, Budapest is the most affordable. you can buy a coffee 1,8 Euros, in Vienna it is around 4.

Roughly 2 million people are leaving in Budapest but most of them goes out to the suburb, the city gets to big and crowded and accommodation very expensive. However we have a very good transportation, so feel free to use that when here. Buy a 1-2-3 days ticket, 1 day is roughly 4-5 Euros and valid for Metro/tam/bus. You can even download the application BKV Futar, it is also available in English and you can plan your routs with public transport and see the real time whereabouts of the vehicle.

From Airport you can use Fo Taxi (fix Rates) or take the Airport bus till Kobanya Kispeset station and then use Metro.

EXTRA TIPS FOR

Prague

You ll walk and walk and walk. Everything is in walking distance, the town center is quite concentrated.

·      Castle ( to go some more inner streets you need to pay) – nice view from here

·      Charles Bridge

·      Astronomical clock on old square

·      Any beer place (here you will find in every corner) there is an nice old and cheap one ont he way up to the castel called – Rstaurant U Glaubicu

·      Dancing house

·      Kampa

·      Black Tower

·      Old Jewish Cemetery/distric – just walk around

In Prague you want to stay within 1, on hte right side or worse case upper 5, 2 or 3 (near to district 1) so you really do not need to waist time to public transport

Also Czeck people are meet eaters and they have a special bread they serve next to there stew, they have special prinkeled cheese and cabage soup as well, try! J

Vienna

Most of the time you can Walk in Vienna if you like to walk, only use public transport to go to Schonbroune ( do nto forget you must go There for any cost! J)

You want to find accommodation within the Ring (Operating) District 1, otherwise again you lose a lot of time just to get in the town, everywhere else you need to walk anyway.

·      Stephen’s Dome

·      Hundetwasser House

·      Museum Quarter

·      Mariahilfe Strasse (Shopping Street)

·      Walk from Stephen’s done to National Museum

·      Ring street (Opera, National Museum, Major)

·      Schonbroune Castle (full day, go inside it is like little Versaille,worth every time and Penny) walk in the garden and it has a really nice Zoo (With Pandas and Koalas)

·      Prater (very old-traditional fun park)

·      Eat Sacher cake and try the famous coffe there too, and Winner snitzzel (pork meet in bread crumps with potato salad), or some wurstle

·      If you have time and you rent a car or you go by train you can visit from here Bratislava(Slovakia) it is the smallest capital in Europe. You can check it out withn a half day/day

Visitors to India - 2018

Mali and Paraman Uncle India visit

Visitors to India 2018

Onam 2018

We invited our close friends and feasted to a good sadhya.

Some pictures for memory.

 Onam with friends

Summer of 2018 - South Korea

The link to the pictures are available at South Korea 2018 .
 

This year's trip is to South Korea. Why Korea? you may ask, as did many of our friends!!

Well, the short story is the influence that digital era holds in terms of accessibility to televised stories and lifestyle of far away countries.

The idea of "Why not South Korea?" stemmed from one such televised drama Veena watched.

After much contemplation Vivek agreed to go to Chennai and get the Visa. Had he known early on that it would involve 2 trips to Chennai, this trip would have never happened.

With Nandita having appeared for her CBSE board exams, a degree of uncertainty prevailed due to the possibility of a reexamination in Mathematics.

As most things do, this eventually played out favorably and the trip was on.

Another late night flight to Hong Kong and a layover long enough to savor a global cuisine for lunch made it worthwhile.

Day 0:

Landed by 8 pm and took the cab to our apartment located in Dongguk University, Junggu district. The place was windy and cold b/w 5 to 15 c. Did some quick shopping for dinner and breakfast, cooked  noodles for dinner and crashed for the evening.

Day 1:

The next morning we woke up by 9, had some bread and eggs for breakfast and we headed out to by 11 to the spring blossom festival by the Hann river behind the Korean National assembly.

Spent a good 2+ hours at the fest. It was a struggle to find a reasonable place to eat. We ended up having some Thai food. Later that evening we found a more authentic Korean place for dinner where we savored some delicacies.

Over all it was a good day where we figured out the logistics of the cities, the subway, currencies, food and language.

Day 2:

Korea has us in awe, the subway system and the over all development has us sold. The people are friendly and cordial.

The day started with a light breakfast at our apartment and we headed to
Gyeonbokgung Palace taking the metro. The palace in itself is ok and pale in comparison to the some of the ones we have seen around world. The beauty of the cherry blossoms and the sunny day made for a memorable morning. We took plenty of pictures and started to think about food.

I was determined to find the place called Sindang-dong Tteokbokki street in Seoul for some authentic Korean food and it was a memorable adventure. Dragging the kids through the streets through the local market Street we were lost in a area of Seoul that sold everything from old washing machine, chairs and tools.

Finally we gave up and got into the first restaurant we could and unfortunately for us it was an all Korean crew and menu.

Another customer helped us in finding a items we could have that did not have beef and octopus. I randomly pointed to a line on the menu and asked for it. It turned out to be a delicacy of rice and veggies called bibimbap. This was a small shop and despite our struggles with ordering food it turned out to be a experience that was well worth it. The old lady at the restaurant was jovial and laughed through our communication issues.

The kimbap was our soul food and we pretty much had it at every meal. It was like a sushi roll wrapped in Sea weed.

After lunch we headed to an old part of town called the Bukchon Hanok village where we spent the rest of the day.

Day 3:

The day started off slow and we had a quick breakfast and headed out by 12 noon. By now we were masters of the metro and the system the Koreans have is impressive.. have I said that enough?
The first place we went to was to the Gwangjang Market. The place was our induction into Korean culture. The market was full of food stalls and goodies that could be bought, we just picked a stall and sat down. The host knew an little bit of English and that's all that we needed. We savored mongbean pan cake(bindaetteok) some spicy noodles and hand made noodles soup.

Over all we loved the food. After that we visited some of the under ground stores at the metro station and spent a few hours shopping and snacked on a few more fried foods.

From there we headed to the Myeong-dong market. This was a upscale marketing neighborhood and by 5 the whole place was buzzing with makeshift food stalls and activities. We spent a few hours over there and headed back to the apartment by 6.

Day 4: The morning started very slow with a late breakfast and we headed out by noon. This was partly because it was raining and cold as well. The first stop was at the Samsung delight store. The place was cool with some displays of technology of the future. We wanted to visit the temple but given the weather preferred to be indoors.

Spent some time finding a place for lunch.  We walked around Ganganam after that. The rains had cleared and the place was becoming lively and buzzing with activity.

We even saw the poster for the Hindi movie Dangal in Korean. After walking around and soaking the sights of the place we headed to the Namzan tower, the drive up to the tower was lined with cherry blossoms and made for an amazing site. The tower itself and the ride to the top by in itself was just a commercial exercise.

We finished dinner and headed home by 11 pm.

Day 5:
This was our last day in Seoul. We had booked to travel to Busan on the ktx train at 12:30.

Our day started early as we want to go up to the Namzan tower and walk back to take pictures of the cherry blossoms and the landscape. We captured some of our best pictures of our trip during this time.

It was timed so we were back and could head to the station using the metro.

The train ride was relaxing and we reached Busan in under 3 hrs. The cab was waiting for us outside the station and it took us to the apartment situated in ha††*****

The apartment was right by the beach and was a beautiful place. We just got familiar with the surrounding that evening and took it easy. By 9 we decided to find a place for dinner and it was a struggle as the whole place was very touristy and expensive as hell. It was finally a combination of subway and some very expensive fish dinner.

Day 6:

The morning we took the metro to the Buddhist temple located in ..... The place was serene and beautiful.
It was time for lunch and the pattern that I noticed is that we are usually looking for lunch by 3 pm when most places wind down. The team split into 2 and one group had dumplings and the other ended up having an authentic Korean lunch.

Next we headed to the cultural village and spent some time walking around and taking pictures. That marked the end of the day, we wound up at the apartment for a rice dinner - Indian style. 

Day 7:

We headed to the Centum city Mall. Supposed to be one of the largest in Korea. The place was nice and typical of any shopping mall that I had seen. The best part of the trip was the food court. It had the best assortment all kinds of cuisine including Indian. Veena and Neetu went with what seemed like Japanese. Nishant had a Korean-American type of dish with steak, pasta and rice while I went for an all Korean specialty.

Kids wanted to spend some time at the beach, so Vivek and myself took the kids back to the apartment while the ladies continued shopping.

After resting for a bit we went to the beach town of ..... It was famous for the bridge that had a colorful display of lights. We headed back home for dinner, spent some time talking and retired for the day.

Day 8:

This was the day we were heading back and had to check out by 11. We logged our suitcases and hopped on the metro and headed to the airport.

In summary, Korean has a lot to offer and it changed our perception of it totally. A very well developed society with great infrastructure and friendly people. They received independence around the time India did, however they have left us far behind in development and growth.