The scene is George Clooney has just finished a round of push ups and pull ups (shirtless, obviously) and has stepped out of the shower thereafter - a white turkey towel wrapped around his lower torso ... The only thought racing through my mind as I watched his rippling muscles was "Oh God! Please let that towel drop, please let that f*#&^%g towel drop!!!"
Phew! Wouldn't THAT sight actually complete the entire experience of Clooney on the telly and a potent almost-port Red Bhutanese wine by the bottle (depleting by the minute) being devoured in the cold climes of the mighy Himalayas???
Yes! And perhaps leave me wet in some unmentionable areas as well... Sigh! Clooney!!!
This post was written in February 2004... One month short of my son's first Birthday when I had made a trip to Kerala from Delhi on the (in)famous Trivandrum Rajdhani.
Making a train journey can be tedious. And if you have to make a looooong one, (about 38 hours), with two little kids for company, you've just about had it. AND if the train gets delayed due to "unavoidable circumstances" in the typical Indian Railways style, you can very well imagine the plight.
It takes serious effort to maintain one's cool...coz
1. You may be blessed as I was, and have the worst set of co-passengers ever possible, who can be bickering, uncooperative and unreasonable.
2. There is a four year old hyperactive kid who wants to swing betwen berths like Tarzan, causing a rise in the blood pressure of many. No problem with that except that she happens to be your daughter.
3. There is also one sweet little toddler, who is his calmest best during the day, but howls the night through, making you, his mom, stand ouside the periphery of the compartment, for most part of the night, sweating profusely (totally defeating the very idea of travelling by an Airconditioned coach), singing a baritone lullaby hoping that he shuts his mouth and his eyes (in that order) and knocks off so you can catch a wink or two....
4. The food on the train, the mighty Rajdhani, is atrocious and your daughter howls through the journey demanding Maggi Noodles, Rajma Chawal, Macaroni.....just to make your life a little more miserable.
5. Whatever you have carried, (which makes up for a LARGE part of your luggage), your children refuse to eat....turning you into an expert at 100 m dashes, rushing in and out, getting off at select stations where the train halts for an unbelievable 5 full minutes....while you look for that milk/chocolate/snack vendor (or whatever is the latest demand), get to him, pick up your stuff, pay for it, glance apprehensively at the train, the watch, the signal on the platform while he gets you your change...and make it to the coach.....just in time.
Through all this, you find one particular gentleman looking your way too often, watching... He seems to be waiting for you at every station to board the train...coz he only boards after you do, when the train is already in motion.
He is there, sitting up while you try in vain to put the baby to sleep.... You see him as you cross his berth to get to yours balancing the sleeping baby on a moving train, trying not to hurt the child (You don't want to make any wrong moves lest he wakes up!!) coz you see his lights switch off after yours, as late as 2 am (It is strange because on trains for some reason - lights switch off as early as 930 pm).
He begins to feel like a shadow...coz when you take your girl to the loo for the thousandth time, and turn around after she is through, he is right there.
Then he finally approaches you and says, "Ma'am, I just wanted to tell you that you are a very good mother. You are handling your kids so well. You are being so patient and caring. Its great."
And leaves you dumb struck. You mumble a quick "Thank you...." coz actually you don't know what to say....
Should you be rude to him and snap, "Who asked you?"...coz this may very well be the latest pick up line! But you know its not...coz he compliments you and minds his own business thereafter... Nothing further...
You arrive your destination and scan the crowd for him, but he is not there. He is the angel who disappears after his job has been done - watching over a hapless mother with two children :-)
It was a vacation we were taking with the children. And children being children wanted to explore every possible activity a child could indulge in, in Dubai. So we went hopping - from one end of Dubai to another, covering every possible unique experience the children wanted to enjoy. Most of these activities in Dubai are located inside Malls.
Malls - These huge structures have virtually redefined the way Indians shop or spend time on weekends. Outings with friends, children, shopping, eating out, cinemas and even a smattering of adventure activities are all centered around Malls.
Even in Dubai.
What is different however, is that while we see Malls in India as virtual replicas of eachother - with the same stores, similar food courts and similar modern albeit complicated architecture (ever tried to find a way out of the topmost floor in a Mall? You have a choice between taking the escalator down all two - three flights, virtually going around in circles as you maneuver your way through strolling couples and running children, or walking a couple of kilometres till you get to an elevator), Malls in Dubai, perhaps because they have been enticing retail buyers for much longer now, have re-invented themselves. And how!
Dubai Malls offer myriad architecture and therefore a different shopping-hopping experience - from the Pyramids of Egypt in the WAFI Mall, to the Ibn Battuta that has been constructed with several "courts" (areas, wings) based on the architecture of the countries visited by the Arab traveller Ibn Battuta!
Themed around the travels of Battuta, the mall’s six courts reflect the most influential places he travelled to. So they have a Persian Court, (the new template of my blog is a picture taken in this Mall), a China, Egypt, Tunisia, Andalusia and even an Indian Court with a majestic Maharaja riding his even more majestic Elephant (which is actually a clock) with the opulence Indian kings were famous for.
Not just the architecture, but in the atrium of each of the wings or courts, there exist small museums; glass panels with artifacts of the era when Battuta undertook his travels and the things he brought back to the Arab world.
Snippets of India's history - the reign of the Sultans, the map of the Sultanate of Delhi, the kind of spices available in India etc - virtual snatches on Indian history are visible for the interested.
Tired as we were walking in the Malls, we hardly had the chance to see the whole Ibn Battuta. But we also decided to leave the rest of it for another time. And perhaps another time.
A good travel post MUST give you details. Here they are:
If you are planning to visit Dubai, this site is good to get an update on the Malls worth hopping in to. The way the city is planning its upcoming Malls, I am certain its a matter of time before Mall Tourism gains popularity here! Most malls also have their own websites with online bookings options available for the cinemas as well as other mall activities.
To Mall hoppers, a few words of caution:
1. Wearing comfortable footwear is a very good idea (even though you will find most Arab women in 5 inch high pencil heels strolling as if in a park and will be tempted - after Day 1 - to saunter out of your hotel in your own... BAD idea!) because the walks around the expansive Malls will definitely kill your feet. Malls in Dubai are HUGE, especially the new ones and it is sometimes a good idea to take the paid shuttle service, especially if you'd just like to 'see' the ...errrr....mall... and not shop..
2. Most Taxi pick-up points and drop-off points in a Mall may be at two opposite ends. (Yes, they give some of us tourists a splendid experience of dragging ourselves around the mall with two children screeching 'My legs are killing me' and a lady who just decided to wear her...ahem...heels!!!)
So before you embark on the long journey across hundreds of meters, do ask the enquiry desk about the pick-up points for a cab and plan your voyage accordingly.
And if you have your own car? Well, I don't know about that but after seeing the levels of parking and the accesses to most of these malls, I'd say a taxi is a good option. Or even the Metro - that actually opens inside the Mall of the Emirates. How's that for convenience!!!
3. Malls have food courts. Which is good. Sometimes. (Only if you have been starving for Indian food for example and have, somehow, missed ALL the Indian restaurants about town!) Else, the food courts are generally exorbitant and much like their Indian counterparts, are abuzz with a strange din that dissipates the minute you get 2 meters away from the boundary! There is also, in all likelihood a clamour for seats. So grab yours (Its allowed. Its not Europe for Heaven's sake!)
In food courts too you have to walk a lot and if you are an adventurous foodie, you may end up spending a larger part of your Mall experience in one of them (with cuisines from across the world being on offer together with numerous Salad, Soups, Juices, Ice Creams and what have you's thrown in!) and long queues to get your order. (Heartening to know somethings DON'T happen ONLY in India!!!)
4. The best thing about malls? The loos. I don't like to use the word 'restrooms' - it just sounds so haughty! Good, incredibly clean with all requisite needs for the job thrown in - they're a treat. And they use water too :-)
But leave aside all the ifs, buts and the troublesome will-make-you-lose-weight-or-end-up-murdering-your-feet negativities, Dubai Malls are grand and offer a unique experience.
Back to Ibn Battuta though, as we sat in Starbucks and sipped Cappuccino, this was the overhead view:
This is an enormous dome that has "a spectacular display of characteristic arabesque ornamentation based on the design of a Persian carpet."
Gorgeous! Worth visiting, isn't it?
The video is a collection of photos taken in Ibn Battuta... Enjoy!
As we drove past the greenest of green landscapes, I wondered why we had stopped venturing in to Kerala, and discovering its hidden treasures, virgin beaches, waterfalls etc.
Along with the mist that rose from the falling waters of Athirapally, rose the mist that crowded my mind as well.
All looked well as we surveyed the crowd gathered at the Falls.
Athirapally is a beautifully located waterfall, surrounded by greenery that is refreshing and verdant even under the glaring hot sun.
The Forest Department allows visitors to access the river that falls down a height to form the waterfalls. So you can find people soaking in the stream of water, splashing others with the cold water and generally having a lot of fun.
The river bed is rocky and requires a lot of careful manoeuvring. As we decided to cross the stream, to get to the middle, (since the flow of water was better there and it wasn’t as much crowded) a bunch of young boys decided that we needed help.
They started by extended their hand to help us cross the stream, as we tumbled over rocks and tried to get a grip to prevent ourselves from falling.
One of the boys, wearing just a calf length track bottom (he had even left his fly open), looked visibly high on something. He came quite close to me and I guessed it was not liquor since he wasn’t smelling. I reckoned it was grass (marijuana), which is quite easily available this side of the country. (It actually grows in the wild.)
Soon they were following us and kept getting uncomfortably close. As my husband confronted the boy I’ve mentioned, it seemed as if they would back off. But the stares and looks in our direction continued much to our discomfiture. My husband could not enjoy the water or play with the kids as he stood watching, guarding us from these probable predators.
As time passed, the boys zeroed in on another family consisting of two girls who were with their parents. At one point, both hubby and I saw the boys lying in knee deep water and masturbating. The sight was so revolting and disgusting that hubby swore, “I hate Malayali men.”
Even as School going kids we had encountered flashers (men who raise their ‘lungis’ to show off their private parts to unsuspecting girls) and I’d thought over the years, perhaps, this phenomenon had been curbed by the cops.
But somethings just do not change.
As we packed and left the area an hour or so later, they followed us almost till the car.
As for me, as I said earlier, the mist disappeared. There is no wonder why we had stopped venturing to discover the hidden beauty of this gorgeous State.
Yes. Some of us do take the train to destinations that cannot be accessed by air and would be too tedious by road. I've always been intrigued by Indian Railways and the 'system'. This time I thought I'd click a few pictures on the station...
Ever seen a platform so empty?
The wordly belongings of an Army Personnel
Wordly belongings of this young boy's family
Waiting for Godot
Dry Murmura Chaat: Maharashtra Speciality
What a contrast!!! Pune's premier hotel Le Meridian: 5 star comfort faces the city's Railway Station
Drinking water? God forbid!! A Locked toilet benefits who you said????
From Maharashtra to Andhra Pradesh, platforms and stations look alike. Seen one, then you've seen them all. The Railways should be lauded for this model of replication across the country!!!
