mahindra xylo - india is my home-stay, prabha & harsha koda

8/8/2019 Mahindra Xylo - India Is My Home-Stay, Prabha & Harsha Koda

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1 India Is My Home-Stay

India IsMy Home-Stay

www.WaitForSide.com

Prabha & Harsha Koda

India IsMy Home-Stay

Prabha & Harsha Koda


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2 www.WaitForSide.com

Blue, red n purplecountry cottages alonga road lined withpretty pink flowers; hispowder blue tshirtstands out against theorange n yellowpainted store. Didn'tthink travelling downSouth in midsummercan be so colorful :)

Dindukal -literally pillowrock - the hillthat gave theplace its name


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We are off on one huge trip to experience

India from the eyes of the 'every-day',

local, desi, son-of-the-soil Indian.

We have been driving across India for

over 10 years now and we have almost

always stayed at resorts or hotels (except

in towns where we have had a chance to

shack up with friends and family). We

have never experienced the Home-Stay

hospitality.

The reasons are many... we did not knowwhere to find them... or what to expect in

a home-stay... are they clean... will it be

like a 'paying guest' thing... will we share

a room with others... what will the food

be like... and the toilets?... oh so many

questions.

It's not like we have always stayed at 5

star hotels... just that we expect a little bit

of cleanliness and privacy... especially

when you are on the road half the time.

We love to experiment with local food.. .

but we also love our thayir-saadam (curd

rice).

Lot of the home-stays we Googled have

nice websites... but being in the website

business ourselves, we know that a good

website does not always mean a great

product/service... it just means a good

web-designer was hired.

We chanced upon the Mahindra

Homestays website a while ago... having

been Club Mahindra members for a while

now, we know that they are 'good' at their

job and we could expect a certain quality

if we looked at homestays associated

with them.

We spoke to some people at Mahindra

Homestays and learnt that unlike their

'time share' holiday products ( Club

Mahindra and Zest ) this was not a

membership driven venture of the

Mahindras... this was purely aimed at

introducing a centralised homestay

repository of quality 'mom-and-pop'

operations.

This trip is dedicated to live that

experience.

Also, this was going to be our first reallylooooong trip in our new Xylo -

Haliaetus, christened after the brown-n-

white sea eagle that lives in the coastal

regions. Now, our white Xylo with brown

interiors lives in Chennai with us and

glides like an eagle on the Indian

highways. Can't call it a car... feels like

one, drives like one... but it is a MUV/

SUV hybrid... love the space, love theclearance... just love Haliaetus.

Also love the fact that it is white... we get

right of way on most roads... people/cops

think that we have some 'political

connection'... helps us get to our

desination faster... :)

Day One... We drove from Chennai to

Thekkady. The road upto Trichy is

fabulous (NH45) but after that to

Dindukal and beyond needs some work...

4-laning is going on so the road is

patchy... good and bad in sectors... more

bad than good. Probably have to wait till

end of the year to be finished.

Night One... Shacked out at Club

Mahindra Tusker Trails , Thekkady. We

had to experience the Club Mahindrahospitality before we started on this trip...

after all it was Club M that introduced us

to the Homestays concept.

Tomorrow we move on to Kodianthara ,

in Kumarakom, Kerala.

India is my Home-Stay... a desi drive

We love toexperiment withlocal food... butwe also love ourthayir-saadam(curd rice).

http://www.waitforside.com/2010/05/india-is-my-home-stay.html


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The heavy sky is grey, overladen with monsoon clouds playing hide and seek and spilling on to the tall, greenVagamon hills. Green is the color of theday. God's own tourist destination isknown to have an abundance of green,but in this summer heat... the look iscool, man! Kerala and monsoons, herewe come! Gold jewellery, rubberchappals, dhotis and saree hoardings,tea plantations, coconuts, bananas andgirls with big eyes and oiled, long,black hair... here we come!

Green is the colorof the day!


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reference, at least you have something

to evaluate them by... after all we are

letting them into our home... this is not ahotel or a guest house we need to be

careful about who comes and goes", he

says.

Thankfully the all-in-one house help

Rahul came up to the main road to guide

us through the maze of canals, canal bank

homes and bridges (Haliaetus, our Xylo

did a brave job of going on these roads

and bridges which were just about an

inch wider than him). Apparently 'tipper

trucks' (used to remove the dredged

shells and mud from the canals) navigate

these narrow roads quite easily!

The '150 year old traditional Kerala

Tharavadu home, that has been in the

family for over 5 generations' is one of

only 16 homes certified by the local govt.

as a 'heritage home'. The Tharavadu

house had a unique architecture with an

inner courtyard enclosed within the

several large buildings built in the

traditional Kerala style.

Crispin's ancestors are Knanaya

Christians - he gives us a detailed history

lesson on how 72 Syriac families

migrated from the modern-day region nearIraq to the Malabar coast in AD 345,

under the leadership of a prominent

merchant Thomas of Cana (also known

as Knanaya Thommen). They built a

town in Kodungalloor with a church and

72 houses and soon spead to other parts

of Kerala over the next few decades.

Apparently the community is very well

linked with lots of inter family marriages- very similar to the Parsis - trying to

maintain our unique identity as long as

we can according to Crispin. Soni's

father has written/edited a complete

history of his branch of the family... the

book is so extensive that it covers some

1000 pages and has detailed photos of

each member of the family.

Crispin's large family of 10 siblings used

to visit the ancestral home till a few yearsago - when my mother was alive,

weekends were always spent here - and

during that time I felt the need for more

space, so we built the extra bedrooms,

says Crispin. But after her death, the

brothers and sisters got busy and hardly

visited the Tharavadu . So, Crispin

opened up the place to a homestay

experience - this way we don't miss

meeting people and the house is like a

home once again, say Soni.

Thanks to a suggestion by a friend, we

drove from Thekkady (Kumily) to

Kumarakom via the Vagamon route -

unlike the usual Kanjirapally route which

is a National highway (NH220).

The road is very picturesque and the

view compensated for the extra hour that

it took us to get to our first Mahindra

Homestays destination, Crispin and

Soni's homestay - Kodianthara.

Kodianthara is located behind the St.John's Knanaya Church (not the

Atamangalam church) and a little tricky

to find if you do not follow precise

directions. There are no sign boards but

our MapMyIndia GPS brought us to the

vicinity and with a combination of

telephonic directions and intuitive

guesswork we made it to the gate of the

church.

There are no sign boards because Crispin

believes that he does not want walk-in

guests - "you can never be sure these

days... I prefer people who come by

Kodianthara... heritage and hospitality

The 150 year old traditionalKerala Tharavadu home,that has been in the familyfor over 5 generations

http://www.waitforside.com/2010/06/kodianthara.html


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The old house has been very tastefully

restored and extended to accommodate

the modern amenities like clean western

toilets, air-cons and reading lamps while

retaining the traditional sit-outs and

central courtyards. There are elements

from every era, the ceramic tiles, the

earthenware, the brass-ware, the woodenfurniture... even the old dining table that

has interestingly been decorated with a

large coin collection.

With his extensive experience in the

Merchant navy, Crispin has many stories

to tell - from pirates attacking ships to

the experiences of living on an oil tanker,

from the politics of Kerala to the culture

of his people, from the recipe of the beef

fry to the taste of the various types of

banana chips, and where to buy them.

The place is a true homestay - we lived in

one of the rooms next to the master

bedroom, the hosts ate their meals with

us. In fact one meal was so authentically

traditional we even had it on a fresh

plantain leaf (cut from the back yard).

The beautiful part of the stay was the

constant 'music in the air' - Soni, her

daughter Midhila and all the house help

are constantly playing music, either form

the radio, the CD player or their mobile

phones... melodious music from Kishore

Kumar to the latest Malayalam and Tamil

hits... a wide variety of songs!

One morning Midhila was busy cleaning

the book shelf so we got to discuss the

writings of Enid Blyton, mysteries of

Nancy Drew, Christian fiction of Dan

Brown and the philosophies of Paulo

Coelho... Soni, who is a literature graduate

and Midhila, who plans to follow suit,

are always ready to read new books and

discuss literature.

Crispin also owns a houseboat that he

rents out to people who want to be a part

of the famous experience that is unique

to the backwaters of Kerala. In fact thereis a channel of water that flows through

the property and Crispin recalls the days

when he used to go to school in a

canoe... you can still use this route and

reach the lake he adds.

We should mention here the playful Tipu

(Sultan?) - the family's friendly

Dachshund, and the many other farm

animals that roamed around the threeacres of rubber plantation... geese, goats

and what not! In fact, watching young

goats play around and observing the

geese as they traversed the path from the

front porchto the backwaters of the house

was the only activity we chose to do.

The best part of the stay at Kodianthara

was the monsoon. The day we were

leaving it poured... and it poured... and it

poured... we were really lucky to

experience the famous Kerala monsoon

on its way in... and my! what a sight!

With our bellies full from the great 'puttu

and kadala curry' breakfast, we took leave

of the Crispins and were now on our way

to Kochi - to the Riverside Homestay at

Vyttila.

Kumarakom island - alsoknown as Vembanad BirdSanctuary, is just 3kmsfrom Kodianthara.


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If you are a true blood Malayali you

should have spent a considerable time in

the 'middle east', also known as 'the gulf',

also known as 'foreign', also known as

'the other Kerala'. Almost every second

person you meet in Kerala has at some

point of time been employed there.

This is true of Mathew too. After a good

25 years in Etisalat (the telecom giant

based out of UAE), he and Mary are back

in India and discovered the best way to

combine suburban life with 'living on the

backwaters'... Riverside Homestay is a

perfect mix.

When the house was built, its 3 bedrooms

were meant for their two daughters who

are now 'settled abroad'. So they decided

to turn the place into a homestay to 'meet

new people'.

Located just a km off the National

highway, Riverside Homestay is pretty

easy to find... also because of Mathew's

precise directions.

A look at the Kochiriverside skyscrapers.

The modern home is well equipped with

all the amenities we would want in a city

homestay. It is very well connected by

public transport and also has some

restaurants close-by. The restaurants

come in useful as Mathew and Mary offer

only 'bed-and-breakfast'... we had to look

for places to eat lunch and dinner... the

restaurant next door (MJM International)

can 'deliver' food sometimes, but that

depends on the availability of staff.

Mathew was all praise for the Xylo. They

had apparently just returned from a week-

long trip to Munnar with some friends

and had driven the entire way in a rented

Xylo - good choice to buy this car, he

told me!

The telecom background and corporate

experience that Mathew has had in the

Gulf shows... the place is wi-fi enabledand they even have monogrammed bed

linen! Incidentally, M&J stands for the

initials of his first 2 grandchildren - now

there is a third grandson and they are

Riverside... city slickers

not sure how to handle this - they are

hoping to find a solution before he

starts asking :)

Mathew takes the effort to attend regular

'contact programs' that the Kerala tourism

ministry have for homestay owners to

help them handle their guests better.

http://www.waitforside.com/2010/05/riverside-homestays.html


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Sometimes the local police also attend

these meetings to help them understand

signs to identify people who might be

potential thieves.

The drive to Fort Kochi and its many

heritage places is quite simply 'one

straight road' from here and is a great

place to catch the sunset - especially near

the Dutch Cemetery. After watching the

best sunset of the season and a

sumptous dinner at a Kochi hotel, we

rested peacefully that night to continue

our journey further into Kerala the nextmorning.

Next stop Olives Homestay, Kalpetta,

Wayanad

Fort Kochi is a greatplace to catch thesunset - especially nearthe Dutch Cemetery.

... the best way tocombine suburbanlife with 'living onthe backwaters'...


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Driving to Wayanad was an experience.

The road till Calicut was pretty much the

irritating NH 17 - with hardly space to

overtake - sometimes you can't even

overtake a bicycle!

Also, Kerala towns, villages never end...

they just merge one into the other. The

down side is that you never get a moment

to park the car on the side of the road

and stretch your legs without the fear of

being run down by a 'town bus'.

After we hit the ghats (NH 212) and

entered the fringes of the 12,000 Acre

forest we were pretty safe from the traffic

- and the weather became cooler. The

Xylo took to the hills like a charm...

prancing away with ease.

Because we were driving one day ahead

of the monsoon... we just had to look over

our shoulder and we could see the rains

coming right at us.

The Olives homestay is located in the

heart of Wayanad... but just a stones

throw from the main Kalpetta town. When

you get to Biju and Raji's home you will

not believe that you are just 1km or so

from the town.... so silent!

Biju, like any good son-of-the-soil did his

stint in 'the gulf' and came to India for a

holiday and never went back. Just felt I

had had enough of that life... wanted to

be home! he says.

Raji is a great cook and can dish out veg

and non-veg dishes with equal mastery.

The only thing that hindered the meal

experience was that she and Biju did not

join us at the dining table and insisted

they would serve now and eat later.

This meant we had to eat in a hurry to

keep pace with their overpowering

hospitality... something that brought back

memories from childhood of

grandmothers and aunts 'feeding us

during summer holidays.

That night we sat in the balcony and

watched the moon rise... full moon at that.

The next morning Biju suggested a trip

to Edakkal caves.

Biju gave us precise driving directions

to the caves from his place. But what he

did not tell us was that there was going

to be a very, very, very, steep climb.

There are two stages to the climb atEdakkal... there is a steep jeep ride (costs

Rs.70 for a round trip) and the 200-300

step steep climb to the caves. The caves

are very beautiful and really worth the

effort. With rock carvings that are over

8000 years old, they are a great revelation

as to what people were thinking in the

'Indus-vally-civilization-times'.

Though there was nobody there to

explain how or why the place got it's name

as Edakkal - Prabha's logic was that the

Eda-kal (literally meaning the middle

stone) that got embedded between the

other two stones saved these carvings

from erosion. Sounds logical.

Olives Homestay... wild and evergreen

Great advertisingon the way

at Edakal caves...

http://www.waitforside.com/2010/06/olives-homestay.html


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We were there on a sunday and the

crowds enjoying the last weekend before

schools re-opened were all jostling for

space in the narrow passages and this

was more exhausting than the climb itself.

We did not bargain for all that exercise,

but the climb helped us digest the

breakfast... and we got back to the town

hungry... for lunch.

Unfortunately there are very few food

options in small town Kerala after 2pm

and you have to be very lucky to get

good food. We called Biju and he

suggested Hotel Haritagiri (where he also

works as the GM), where we got some

egg curry and rice... but nothingcompared to Raji's cooking. Wish we had

decided to go back home.

That night Biju suggested we go for a

night drive to try and see some

elephants. So after dinner we all left...

Biju, Raji and the kids, all comfortably

seated in the Xylo and off looking for

adventure. We spotted a lone tusker...

that meant trouble, but we stayed clearof him and just watched... what a sight!

We also saw lots of deer, wild boar and

what not... but the elephant was the best.

As we were heading to Goa over the next

couple of days we decided to go to

Kuruva Island - an old bird sanctuary,

now just a 'nature spot' on the banks of

the Kabini river. The place has a good

deal of birds (in the nov - feb season)

and orchids. Nothing much to say in

words... just a great place to see...

Couple of pointers - Wear shorts... lots

of wading in the water... wear a good

walking chappal (shoes will not do - they

get very wet).

Though there is nothing much in terms

of wildlife to see there we were able to

have a good couple of hours or

'wandering in the wilderness' - with a

good guide at hand to tell us about the

various trees, orchids and few birds that

we encountered.

Tomorrow we move on the Goa - but

before that we have another day to drive

thru kerala.

Kuruva Island is just a'nature spot' on the banksof the Kabini river


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The roads and even highways in Kerala

are so narrow... it takes ages to overtake

even a bike.

There is no 'nature' it is just one town to

another village to another hamlet... On

and on it goes.

We found milestones (technically

kilometer-stones) that were written in

fractions... maybe they should be called

meter-stones ???!!???

We found hotels and

shops that had

interesting names... but

finally it was time to say

goodbye to pretty girls

selling hawai chappal...

goodbye to macho

heroes selling gold...

goodbye to bollywood

queens selling sarees...

goodbye to the

colourful hoardings

that dot the lush green

hillsides... goodbye

Kerala.

We now head to Stain Glass Cottage,

Margoa, Goa

Road of Kerala... narrow & crowded

http://www.waitforside.com/2010/06/driving-in-kerala.html

The road from Kerala to Goa passes very close to the seaat times and in someplace we had the river on one sideand the Arabian sea on the other.


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Kerala churches - an

amalgamation ofcultures


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After two days of driving thru Kerala,

Karnataka and finally reaching Goa we

had to negotiate the way to Maria Vaz's

Stain Glass Cottage in Margoa.

We got (what seemed to be) very precise

instructions on our travel voucher... but

unfortunately Goa is full of 'foreigners'

and tourists that it is almost impossible

to ask for directions. One lady took the

time to give us such precise directions

that we thought she knew what we were

talking about... but we ended up in the

middle of a coconut field. Damn!

We then navigated to the Colva beach

on our GPS and worked backwards... with

some telephonic help from Maria Vaz.

There is a simple way to get here... and

for all those who travel by car here are

the precise instructions.

You have to come by NH17 (either from

the north or south) - at the Margoa

District Court junction (which has a nice

fountain now) take the west road,

towards the Colva beach and after

passing under the railway line take a right

after the Colva Plaza Hotel. This right turn

is about 2.5 kms from the fountains. Even

if the Colva hotel changes it's name... look

out for the BSNL exchange on the opp

side.

If you overshoot this right and reach the

Our Lady of Merces Church turn back.

Once you are inside the Morais Colony

take the first right and go to the end of

the road... Stain Glass Cottage is on the

left.

When we finally go there we were

pleasantly surprised to see a modern

building designed in a very traditional

way. All the elements of a traditional Goan

house were there... the tiled roof... thelarge well... the large sit-outs...

Maria Vaz was there to welcome us and

she introduced us to the staff and after

exchanging a few pleasantries was on her

way. She did not stay here... there is

some work going on at my place... just a

few streets away she said.

Every thing about the place was spic andspan - the themed rooms - named after

the colours in the stain glass windows,

the well maintained AC, the WiFi in all

rooms, and the staff who knew when to

give us privacy... everything was just

right... however the one this missing was

the host. In our opinion Stain Glass

Cottage cannot be called a 'real homestay'

as the host lived away from the place...

even if it was just a couple of streets away!

Incidentally, Maria had been a police

officer in Dubai - looks like the gulf

between us and the 'gulf returned' people

had been bridged again! Her law-

enforcement experience probably

explained how she was able to manage

the place.

Except for the fact that the place wasactually owned by Maria's daughter (who

Stain Glass Cottage... modern Razzmatazz

A modern buildingdesigned in atraditional way...

http://www.waitforside.com/2010/06/stain-glass-cottage.html


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is somewhere abroad), and the family is

also in the process of setting up some

more properties in the area, which meant

that the place was more like a guest

house, and less like a homestay... the Stain

Glass cottage was very homely in it's

decor and comforts.

The next day we got to meet Ashley

Gregory - the new Manager, who is also

set to manage all the properties owned

by the Vaz family. Over the last month or

so, since he had moved to Goa from

Mumbai, he had brushed up on his

konkni and was able to interact with the

locals and got a lot of inside info... he

was very helpful in suggesting a lot of

happening places, hangouts andrestaurants in the area.

It turns out that Ashley has some tam-

bhram (as Tamil Brahmin's are called)

genes in him... his grand father had

converted to Christianity while all his

other grand aunts and uncles had

remained Srinivasans and Ramans ... in

an alternative universe he might be

speaking tamil for all we know! If only he

was staying in the place he would have

Even the well waswell decorated

made the perfect host.

Even though we did not get to savor the

Goan specialties at Stain Glass Cottage

(we opted to eat-out all the major meals)

we had some 'real English breakfast every

day' - toast, eggs and lovely jams and

marmalades.

Tomorrow we take a short drive up north

and move on the Nan dan F ar ms ,

Sindhudurgh, Maharashtra.

Everything was so

spic and span...


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Driving to Sindhudurgh, in Sawantwadi

district of Maharashtra was a great

experience... as you see the commercial-

ness of Goa disappear.. you get to see

and experience the raw nature of rural

Maharashtra! Our Xylo, Haliaetus

enjoyed the rural outing.

Thought Nand an Far ms is owned/

managed by Amrita Padgaonkar, we did

not get to meet her. She was apparently

holidaying in the Haimalayas... only crazy

people like us would holiday in the heat

of rural Maharashtra in the middle of the

summer heat. Her brother, Madan and

Sandeep Sawant who works with Culture

Aangan, the same NGO that Amrita is

involved with were around and made sure

we did not miss her. Culture Aangan

supports the arts and crafts of

Sindhudurg.

We were glad we had planned for only

one night there as the heat was too much

- though the nights were very cool... Ill

get to that in a little while.

The drive from Margoa was only a couple

of hours...so we reached Nandan Farms

by lunch - and were treated to some great

food, cooked from fresh organic veggies

picked from the farms all around us.

After a brief siesta we took a drive around

the area... in search or cashews, kokum

and alphanso mangoes - all local

speacialities. Sandeep first took us to a

cashew factory where we learn the

various ways that cashews are extracted

from the fruit... by boiling and roasting...

and all this work was done by women...

some of them were self-help-groups... and

some co-operatives. Need less to say we

bought some great cashews... and ate a

lot of them too.

We then went to a Alphanso pulp

extraction factory - unfortnately the

season was over so all we could do

was pick up some bottles of pulp... which

we later enjoyed with some phulkas...

yummy!

We could not visit the local toy-factories

that were so famous... but we were very

dissapointed to see that the local stores

only stocked wooden toys these days

are painted... with chemical paints...instead of the traditionally lacquered

technique.

Sandeep took us to a Vengurla... a very

local beach... that was really beautiful...

natural... untouched... pictures are better

than words.

Our cottage at Nandan Farms was a

restored outhouse with some ancient

solid wood beams supporting the sloping

tiled roof, along with a large covered

verandah that we used as a sitout.

Nandan Farms... naturally rural

Sunset at Vengurla

The restoredouthouse was wellfurnished

http://www.waitforside.com/2010/06/nandan-farms.html


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The doors were made of sold wood... and

the door stoppers were shaped like fish.

In the daytime the heat was quite bad,

but the star lit sky and the cool breeze

made the nights a great treat. Thanks to

the absence of any lights in the vicinity

we were able to look at a quite a few

constellations.

We also learnt that the fruit known as

mangostein (one of Prabhas favourites

and referred to as the king of fruits by

Prabhas dad - an eminent horticuturist)

was locally known as kokum. Kokum

juice... very popular all the way from

Managalore to Mumbai... is cooling to

the body, and also makes for a great

substitute to tamarind in rasam.

The Malvani food at Nandan Farms was

great - though it is very similar to the

konkan cuisine it had the unique taste of

kokum, dried kokum (amsul) and dried

mango (kairi) in all the dishes.

The bread fruit bajji, the cluster beans

curry, and everything with its unique

taste - ending with the Sol kadi (made

from kokum juice and coconut milk) for

digestion.

The next day we moved on to Castle Bera

in Rajasthan via Maharashtra, Gujarat...

a journey that would take us 5 days.

Red, blue & green

Haliaetus enjoyed the rural outing


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some 600 (colour, specifications and

export special) variants of the Xylo and

Scorpio are manufactured on the same

conveyor belt. One brown Xylo rolls

out... and right behind it is a white

Scorpio... the precision with which the

people work here is amazing.

Also the engineers at Mahindra have

modified the software that drives the

imported robots making them more

efficient and as a result every 4 and half

minutes one of these amazing vehicles

comes off the conveyor belt.

We had the evening free so we took a

trip to the Sula Vineyard. Got a look at

the place were some of the best wines in

india are made and got to taste a great

wine made by their master winemaker

Kerry Damskey called RaSa (named after

Sula founder Rajeev Samant).Incidentally Rasa in sanskrit means juice

or essence.

Sunset on the balcony with a beautiful

The Maha-Guj-Raj... on the desert road

Driving from Nandan farms of

Sindhudurg in Maharashtra to Castle

Bera near Pali in Rajasthan was an

interesting journey of 5 days... not that a

non-stop drive should take that long.. we

planned it that way.

We first drove 380kms to Prabha's sister's

place in Pune to do some laundry and

relax for 2 days... and the drive on the

Amboli Ghats was a delight. Being a part

of the Deccan plateau and the western

ghats whole area was beautiful and

apparently it receives the highest rainfall

in the western ghats.

We then drove to Nash ik , relatively a

short drive of 220kms, to visit the

Mahindra Xylo plant - to see the place

where our car was born. The road was

being four laned in parts and so the drive

took us almost 6 hours. The Ghat section just before Sangamner was very beautiful.

The visit to the Mahindra Xylo factory

was very enlightening and we learnt that

view of the vineyards and the Gangapur

lake in the distance made a great day even

more romantic.

The next day we were off to Ahmedabad .

The 500km drive took about 9 hours, but

the beautiful part was that the roads

improved tremendously as soon as wecrossed the border from Maharashtra...

almost instantly. At Valsad we joined the

Golden Quadrilateral and then the road

got even better... but the real treat was

still to come...

It was too bloody hot to get out of the

car and even think of eating lunch - so

we decided to get some food from a dhaba

parcelled and eat it in the car - hopefully

under a tree if we could find one. The

dhaba we found was just outside Surat

and as I went in to order I noticed that it

was run by some Muslims... and

interestingly served pure vegetarian

food.

I wonder if Chief Minister Narendra Modi

had succeeded in converting Muslims to

vegetarians or was it just business

economics that had determined that the

Oye bubbly!


18/36


demand for non-veg food was not great

in these areas.

When we reached Vadodra (Baroda) my

hands started to itch... could not wait to

drive on National Express-way #1 - the

best road in the country.

We have driven on this road a couple of

times before and each time the experience

had been really great - total adrenaline

rush. On this 100km stretch an average

speed of 120+ was easily achievable -average speed... not top speed!

But when we entered Amdavad

(Ahmedabad) we were in for a rude shock.

The cops stopped us and insisted that

to drive in Amdavad, or anywhere in

Gujrat for that matter, we should have a

'patti' on our headlight and if we did not

have that we should pay a fine of 200

bucks. We tried explaining to them that

we were tourists and we would be out of

the city the next morning... no luck.

Finally we told him that we would get thegreat 'patti' (a anti-glare sticker on the

right headlight) if he could point us to

the closest sticker shop... and the

enterprising cop Mr. H R Solanki pulled

the 'patti' (sticker) out of a concealed

pocket in this shirt and stuck it on our

car... not before he collected 200 bucks

for it.

Consoling ourselves that the 'speed-money' 200 bucks was worth it, because

we hoped that, for the next 24 hrs that we

were going the spend in Gujarat, we were

not going to waste time arguing with

cops.

Getting to Bera from Ahmedabad was a

challenge in itself... normal everyday

Gujratis would know that the best road

to get here (from Ahmedabad) was the

Mount Abu Road (via Mehsana-Sidhpur-

Palanpur).

But we South Indians like us did not haveany idea... we took the GQ (Golden

Quadrilateral - NH 8) route and half way

(at Himatnagar) had to deviate to the

Ambaji road (SH 9) - consequently we

got to drive thru a nice bit of rural Gujarat

and Rajasthan, via Idar, Ambaji and Abu

Road where we hit the nicely 4-laned NH

14.

Ambaji, as the name suggests is a 'holiplace' and had all the ingredients of

religious town... crowds of devotees, taxis

and touts... but this also meant that we

got some great food - a full fledged

Gujrati Thali... theplas, kadi and kichdi

included.

With the sun overhear scorching away

at a merry 48+ deg we were headed to our

sixth Mahindra Homestays destination,

Castle Bera .


19/36


After coming to the four lane Highway

near Mount Abu, we cut off to SH 62 at

Pindwara. Ask for the road to Binani

cement factory and follow it for about 40

kms and you will reach Bera.

Baljeet, the cheerful owner of Castle

Bera , and his brother have inherited this

ancient heritage property known as The

Rawala. Baljeet has air conditioned 5

rooms in his part of the castle and invites

people to experience the royal life in rural

Rajasthan.

Castle Bera has been playing host to

royalty, dignitaries from foreign

countries and world renowned

photographers for a long time now... and

as a homestay for 2-3 years now... but we

were the first to come there from Mahindra

Homestays.

Baljeet Singh is so detached, by choice,

from the world here... he rarely watches

the news... he probably reads the

newspaper only for the cartoons. His

only contact with the outside world is

his cell phone.

But, how can one do business like this

we ask him... my son-in-law in Bangalore,

reads and replies to my emails... so I get a

call every time that there is a booking -

works well for me!

We reached Castle Bera after our drive

thru rural Rajastan... filled with goats/

sheep and shepherds with their brightly

coloured turbans, at about 4pm and aftera quick wash and some great chai... were

off on our first drive - at that point we did

not know it was a wildlife safari.

This safari was not in the middle of a

reserve forest or anything... no wildlife

warden... no permissions... no red-tape.

The entire area is revenue land -

basically, agricultural land that may not

be used for industrial or residential

purposes".

Castle Bera is near the Jawai bandh

(Dam). Built by Maharaja Umaid Singh of

Jodhpur the dam covers an area of 500

sq. km and is the biggest dam in westernRajasthan.

This place is really in the middle of

nowhere... the nearest town is probably

Pali - some 30 kms away.

The safari started off with pleasantries

and chatter as we drove thru the village...

everyone in the village was getting up

from their work... bowing, saluting our

dear Baljeet Singh... and because we were

in the same jeep with him, made us feel

like royalty too!

Castle Bera... royal safari

Flying peacocks - straightout of Jurassic Park


20/36


The safari itself started with a fair amount

of dirt-tracking and off-roading... and we

got very excited with the few peacocks

and peahens we saw flying as they tried

to cross the road... Baljeet was not

impressed... he was nonchalantly

nodding his head... hmmmmm!!!

As we stopped next to a rocky hillock we

realised why... the place was infested with

peacocks and peahens... hundreds of

them... all trying to walk up the hillside...

to get to the peak... only to glide down...

what a sight - felt like we were watching a

scene from Jurassic Park!

The best part of the safari was yet to

come... the man who was seated in the

back of our jeep pulled out a searchlight

and in 5 minutes pointed to a small pair

of glowing eyes... a leopard. In the course

of the next hour and half we watched

open mouthed as the leopard yawned,

stretched, walked... straight... towards

us... coming close to 10 feet of our jeep!

Baljeet Singhs regular safaris in this area

have prevented poaching to a great

extent. They all know that I drive these

roads almost everyday and any hanky-

panky will not go un-noticed, he said.

The next day, morning and evening

safaris were just as exciting... flying

Peacocks, herds of Nilgai, Pelicans,

Crocodile, Geese, Storks, Robins,

Cranes... and the usual spotted deer.

Interestingly, the Nilgai (blue-cow in

Hindi) is not a cow/bull, but actually an

antelope, the biggest in Asia. For some

reason the locals believe it is a distant

cousin of the holy cow and that has

helped in conservation. Good for us!

Another interesting feature was the

landscape itself - though these hills are a

part of the Aravali range we could not

help but notice that the smooth shape of

the rocks looked like they were carved

by ocean currents. 15 minutes on Google

and I found that there were enough

theories and scientific proof that the

entire Thar desert was believed to havebeen under water - during the Jurassic

era. We had seen very similar caves near

Bhopal, Madhyapradesh on our trip to

Bhimbatika a few years ago.

Back at Castle Bera we were treated like

royalty all the time... the rooms were

plush, comfortable and well air

conditioned... our large bathroom even

had a fresco painting on the ceiling.

Because we were there in the middle of

summer when the average afternoon

temperature was 49 Deg plus... we left the

A/C on at all times on Baljeet's advice.

All the rooms were decorated with

memorabilia and pictures from all over...

of royalty... and everyone is related to

everyone. When we stand in front of a

picture (among the hundreds that dote

the walls) we are introduced to everyone

- His Higness of Somewhere... or His

Highness brother... or the present His

Highness father.....

I truly cant remember the details of theinterlinked family tree but I can tell you

one thing... somehow they are all realated

to (or decendents from) the one-and-only

Maharana Pratap.

The food at Castle Bera was simple and

royal... though we decided to have

vegetarian food for most of our stay we

were cajoled by Baljeet to taste the local

chicken - not the fake broiler chicken thatyou get in your cities... this is really tasty

- and he was right - it was the non-veg

equivalent of organic vegetables!

Armed with precise directions from

Baljeet, on how to get to Delhi (en route

to our next stay at The Hive , Nainital) we

head out to brave the heat of Rajasthan.


21/36


The road to Nainital (via Delhi) was hot...

hotter... hottest.

With 2 days to cover the distance we

decided to get an early start, but, the roads

were not in favour of this... the road from

Bera to Pali was a combination of SH 16

and NH14 - both equally good (or bad).

The road was bad after a while and did

not improve till we reached Kishangarh

(near Ajmer). The 100kms from

Kishangarh to Jaipur was the best on thatday. After Jaipur the 6-laning work was

in progress and it greatly reduced speeds

due to the deep excavations. Between

that and the traffic as we neared Manesar

& Gurgaon we made it to Delhi exhausted

after 14 hours on the road.

But the rasam and curd rice waiting at my

Crossing Delhi... blow hot - blow cold

cousin Sharmila's place kept the spirits

high. Sharmila and Nisudan run

Ciocollato, making the best Finnish

chocolates we have ever tasted. naturally

the dessert that night was a collection of

their best.

The next morning we took the road to

Nainital and it passes thru the entire city

of Delhi before exiting the NCR at

Ghaziabad. Driving in Delhi is really

'capital punishment'.

The weather was very, very hot... and

being the weekend there were hundreds

of people heading to Nainital just as we

were... so every hotel and dhaba was

packed for lunch. We found Apni Haveli

on the outskirts of Moradabad which

served us a decent meal and we were on

the way.

The road (NH 24) wasn not much of a

highway and was bad in some parts,

considerably impairing our speed...

taking us till 4pm to reach Haldwani - the

base of the Himalayas. Haldwani is

known as the "Gateway of Kumaon" and

the name literally "forest (vana) of Haldu

trees".

Haldwani is also the last place that you

can attend to any major problems in your

vehicle... after this, the entire Himalaya

range has only small mechanic shops

where they can fix a flat tyre or oil leak.

We had been here before, when we had

to change some clutch plates on the Swiftduring our 2007 trip.

We got a call from Radhika (sister of the

home owner) at The Hive and she said it

would take us 2-3 hours form Haldwani

to get to Nainital, because of the heavy

rains all over the hills. We stopped over

at a Cafe Coffee Day and picked up a hot

cup of coffee and headed for the hills.

As we ascended the ghats we found the

temperature magically dropping... clearly

stated on the bold display in our Xylos

DDIS... from high 40s to low 20s... in a

span of 20kms... we were actually feeling

a bit chill. Between enjoying the sunset

over the mountains, navigating thru the

weekend rush all over Nainital and

enjoying the first rain in two weeks we

made it to our 7th Mahindra Homestay

destination Dr. Ranjit Bhargava's The

Hive


22/36



23/36


The Hive... where everyone is a busy bee

Dr. Ranjit Bhargava's The Hive our 7th

Mahindra Homestay destination, is a very

nice heritage cottage on the Ayarpatta

slopes that used to Christopher Corbett's

house - father of the world renowned Jim

Corbett, hunter, conservationist and

naturalist, famous for slaying a large

number of man-eating tigers and leopards

in India.

Getting here is pretty simple actually,

mainly because they have 'one-way-ed'

most of the roads in Nainital. Follow the

mall road upto Jama Masjid, then ask

someone for Mannu Maharani hotel and

follow the signs to The Hive (or Silent

Trail Luxury Villa) from there.

Our room was on the first floor right next

to Shruti and Rajit Bhargava's room from

where we got a good view of the Nainital

hillside. A short walk from the cottage and

we got a birds eye view of the Naini-lake...

Dr. Bhargava is a noted environmentalist

who has been very active in lake

conservation activity. He was awarded

the Padma Shri recently for his activities

and we got to see the private side of this

public icon.

feed out for all the pigeons and sparrows.

All that free bird-feed was good for us,

we go to take pictures of the birds.

Shruti, who was very busy with her son's

music class and her INTACH (The Indian

National Trust For Art and Cultural

Heritage) work was keen to point out that

only in the last few years they have been

spotting sparrows in Nainital. this is all

a result of climate change... it's getting

hotter every year, she said.

All the deforestation was evident right

from our room... making way for modern

concrete hotels. We hope that Bhargava

and his friends are able to stop this

fighting for the bird feed.

Though we did not get much time to

interact and chat with him on the

environmental impact of all the tourist

activity in Uttarakhand we saw him

walking around the gardens putting bird-

A birds eye viewof Naini-tal - a.k.a. thelesser Manasarovar lake


24/36


irresponsible growth in the region.

There were over a dozen staff members

catering to these guests and close to a

dozen cars parked in the driveway... really

the busiest homestay we had been to till

now.

Though the first floor feels like a home-stay the ground floor rooms and lobby

feel more like a hotel. There were atleast

30 walk-in customers every day asking

for rooms. Going to show how busy the

place was... but apparently in Nainital

every rooms sells according to

Radhika, who manages the hotel part of

the homestay.

The rooms were very comfortable, with

TV, DTH, a modern heater and multi

functional shower - the kind of stuff you

see in the Kohler ads.

We had WiFi in the lobby area and

between bird-watching the pigeons, man-

watching the other guests and reading

books on Jim Corbett, we caught up on

email over cups and cups of nice hot tea

while we 'chilled out' for 2 days.

We were ready to go from Corbetts

fathers house to Corbetts house at

Kaladhungi (aka Choti Haldwani) to stay

at our 8th Mahindra Homestay, Suman

and Ome Anands Camp Corbett.

We were totallybooked

The resident(stuffed) tiger

White-eared Bulbul


25/36


Camp Corbett... naturally eco & friendly

Driving to 8th Mahindra Homestay

destination Camp Corbett at Kaladhungi

from Nainital was a mistake... after

enjoying the cool weather at an elevation

of 2000+ mts... we drove down the hills

to Kaladhungi (at just over 400+ mts)...

the heat was unbearable. In a way the

mistake was from our part... we should

not have been there during the hot

summer days.

The drive itself was great. These Sivalik

Hills are the southernmost mountain

chain of the Himalayan System... and

probably the youngest. We stopped for

some tender 'butta' (corn-on-the-cob) on

the way and enjoyed the drive along the

long and winding roads in the hills

passing the many lakes that dot the hills...

this one called Khurpa taal really looked

like a big emerald!

Ome and Suman's Camp Corbett is

located right on the mail road... cant miss

it... there is a nice small board that points

to the place. Suman had told us that she

would be busy doing our bit for the

community, by organising a free medical

camp for the local villagers at the Corbett

museum... so after a quick wash we went

to see what that was all about.

At the Corbett Museum, we got a quick

history lesson in the man the world

knows as the greatest British-Indian

hunter, conservationist and naturalist,

famous for slaying a large number of man-

eating tigers and leopards in India. Fresh

from all our reading on Corbett at The

Hive, we were able to identify the

incidents referred to here. Like any good

tourist we picked up a lot of Corbett

souvenirs... and pickles by the locals.

The Neema doll - made from Saan fibre (a

type of hemp) - is the result of a projectby Frederike from France who is working

with villagers from the nearby Ringora

BonnetMacaque,Sambar,

Wild boar andChitalKhurpa taal


26/36


village. This project helps the locat

villagers earn money and keeps them

away from the forest thereby reducing

the man-animal conflict.

The rooms at Camp Corbett are pretty

comfortable. The cottages are like a

resort... few and far apart giving us the

privacy that we need but at the same time

the dining area and kitchen are away from

the rooms. We already have so much

wild life, we don't want pests to come here

too... that is why we prefer not to offer

room service, says Suman.

All the rooms have air-coolers which kept

the heat off marginally... but the whole

place cooled down tremendously atnight... got quiet chill actually.

We spotted the beautiful Crimson Sunbird

near the central lobby-hut and several

other lovely birds... may the pictures

speak for themselves.

The next morning we were booked for a

safari at the most famous tiger reserve in

the country - Corbett. We spent 4 hours

in the park but did not see any tigers -

not that we were very disappointed... we

got to see a lots of other wildlife -

Lapwing, Scaly-bellied green

woodpecker, white rumped shama, and

hoards of other wildlife... spotted deer,

barking deer, sambar, wild boars and lots

of monkeys . The highlight however was

the beautiful Great Pied Hornbill and

Indian Grey hornbill - and my guess was

that we saw them because we were

staying in the cottage (at Camp Corbett)

called Hornbill!,

Back at Camp Corbett we had a full

fledged Kumauni lunch with Churkani (a

soup like preparation of bhatt pulses),

Jambu gaderni mutton (mutton marinated

with jambu and Arbi - seppankizhangu

in tamil), Alu Gutka (fried Potatoes),

Kaapa (spinach leaves crushed into a

paste and cooked with othercondiments), Jholi (a curry seasoned with

curd and curry leaves) and Bhang ki

Chutney (roasted Bhang (Hemp) and

cumin seeds (Sauf), mixed with Lemon

juice).

After the heavy lunch we decided to bid

adeiu to the wild life and venture into the

Himalayas while we took the back-roads

into Himachal to reach our 9th Mahindra

Homestay, Krish Rauni at Matiana.

Crimson Sunbird,Great Pied HornbillBlue-eared King FisherWhite Rumped Shama

Peacock - the national icon


27/36


There are many roads from Uttarakhand

to Himachal... and we decided to take the

most difficult of the lot to reach our 9th

Mahindra Homestay, Krish Rauni at

Matiana.

We left Camp Corbett at Kaladhungi after

lunch and thanks to a board I saw at the

Ramnagar entrance to Corbett National

Park we took a road that was on the

southern fringe of the park (via kashipura,

Afzalgarh, Nagina and Najibabad). We

got fleeting glimpses of some birds and

wildlife as we drove to Haridwar for the

night. After finding that the rooms at

Ginger were dirty we stayed at a very

decent Hari Heritage.

The next morning we continued on NH

72 to Dehradun, and beyond. In Dehradun

we took a break to pick up some wildlife

The hills are alive...... but the roads could kill you!

books at The English Book Depot on

Rajpur road, and some great hindi MP3

cds in the market near the GPO.

From Dehradun we could have taken the

'plains' road to Chandigarh (via

Herbertpura and Narayangarh) and

reached Shimla via Parvanoo. But we

chose to climb the Himalayas (again) and

Herbertpur and head north on NH 123 up

to Kalsi and then took the road to Tuni (a

small non-descript town near the

Uttarakhand-Himachal border on the

Tons river) via Chakrata.

A good part of the last leg of the day was

done in pitch darkness. Thank goodness

for that.. the narrow roads and the cliffs

were beginning to scare me... in the dark

all I could see was the white marker

stones on the cliff side of the hill roads

The landscape... ... and the land slide

Asian ParadiseFlycatcher


28/36


and I felt secure... what you can't see can't

scare you... right?

We found a small hotel (3 rooms only) in

Tuni, who served us some rajma, roti and

chaval for the night and gave us a decentroom to rest our backs in... amazing that

we actually found that place in the dark.

Uttarakahand has a lot of power problems

and sometimes in these remote villages

there is no electricity for at least 3 days.

The next day between landslides,

dangerous cliffs and lovely birds we took

off to Matiana. A few meters after we

crossed the Tons river, which is the

largest tributary of the Yamuna, we were

in Himachal Pradesh.

The roads got better (but still had it's

share of landlsides)... so we reached

Matiana (via Hatkoti, Jubbaland &

Theog).

In Himachal, the best part is that you get

to see apple orchard on the road sides

and... in season... you can pick as many

apples as you want and nobody cares!

We stopped for a breakfast of samosa

and chai and one small village... probalby

just a few hundred people. Two young

boys were staring at our car... the numberplate... us... and wondering where the

hell have they come from. Finally they

asked us and when we said Chennai...

they had no idea where that was!

We tried to explain, Chennai also known

as Madras, samandar (sea), south india...

nothing seemed to ring a bell... and then

all of a sudden his face lit us - Chennai

Super Kings he yelled.

Wow! The first real good and useful thing

that has come out of the IPL... it has

improved the general knowledge of thekids in these remote places.

Because it was not yet apple season we

decided to eat apricots - hundreds of

them... little did we know that when we

reached our 9th Mahindra Homestay,

Krish Rauni at Matiana, we would have

Apricots for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Yellow-billedBlue Magpie


29/36


Krish Rauni... apple of my eye

Our 9th Mahindra Homestay, Krish Rauni

at Matiana, is located just off the highway

(NH22 - a.k.a. the old Hindustan-Tibet

road) and has a beautiful view of the

valley.

The first thing Kishore asks us when we

call him to ask for directions is Do you

want to climb 100 steps or walk 100 steps

on plain ground... from the car park....

Needless to say, after the exhausted drive

from Corbett we opted for the plainground walk, we were not taking chances

at 8000 ft. above sea level. But what

thrilled us even more was the fact that

we were going to be staying in the middle

of an apple orchard.

Krish Rauni was among the busiest

homestays that we had been to so far.

Kishore and Shobana are great hosts and

despite having 3 other rooms bookedwhen we were there took good care of

everyone. Everyone got their privacy

and everyone got their attention. Kishore

is great fun and has a very interesting

humorous story to tell every few minutes.

Shobana is a great cook and her paneer

is among the best that I have tasted...

fresh, soft and cooked just right.

We reached Krish Rauni in the middle of

the biggest annual event of the little

village... the local deity was being

escorted back to the temple in the next

village after spending the last 24 hrs a

temple just outside gate - where we had

parked our Xylo. We were lucky enough

to get a glimpse of the deiety - very

auspicious we were told.

The rooms are very comfortable and even

had a balcony that overlooked the

valley... better than and LCD screen for

entertainment I must say. There was a TVin the rec-room but we did not even

... for the highstakes game!

... and the bulbulenjoys an apricot


30/36


switch it on... we were too busy playingcarom.

Most of the meals were served on the

terrace which over looked the apple

orchard and was arms length from a nice

apricot tree. We got to eat apricots for

breakfast lunch and dinner. The terrace

was also the centre stage for most of the

activity here. We spent most of our time

and Kishore and Shobana made it a pointto introduce each of their guests to each

other and made sure every one was

chatting up like one big family.

One excursion we went on was to Hatu

peak - the highest peak in that area. at

11152ft it was supposed to quite a

dangerous drive... but for you folks it will

be nothing... you have driven all the way

from Chennai... and across the Chakrata,

Tuni road... this is nothing... saidKishore as he explained the sights around

the place. Our Xylo took the narrow road

in its stride with ample room to help other

cars pass too!

He also had a very interesting story to

tell of a certain dentist in the nearby town

of Theog Padma Shri Dr. Rajinder Singh.

Apparently Dr. Singh had been awarded

the Padma Shri for his skills in speedtypewriting and not in dentisry... Good

thing I got to know of that fact before I

opened my mouth to him... my wisdom

and wisdom tooth... both are safe today

jokes Kishore.

Matiana is also the place where the

various Indian sports teams come for

high altitude fitness training before they

head off to international competitions.

... know any doctors?

Ultramarine Flycatcher

Needless to say the area is also famousfor the apples... that keep the doctors

away.

With a belly full of a great breakfast and

a basket full of fresh apricots we headed

off to our 10th Mahindra Homestay, Om

Mahal in kangra valley near

Dharmanshala.


31/36


Om Mahal... spiritual royalty

Our 10th Mahindra Homestay was

Jaishree & Vijay Mankotia's Om Mahal

in Kangra valley near Dharmanshala.

Crossing Shimla is such a pain. The traffic

is unbearable and despite helpful cops

standing at every turn we took a good

one hour to get out of the maze. Since we

were 'inside Shimla' now, we decided to

pay a visit the dear old Peterhoff Hotel.

In 2004 we had come to this heritage hotel

to get flagged off on the Raid de

Himalaya.

From Shimla the road is pretty straight to

Gaggal... just stay on NH 88. We took a

couple of detours because of landslides

(yes... even in the summer these things

happen) and sometimes because we felt

the off-road was more picturesque than

the highway. We finally reached Gaggal

(via Bilaspur, Hamirpur. Jwalamikhi andKangra).

Om Mahal is pretty easy to navigate to.

When you drive from Gaggal town

towards the airport (a.k.a. Pathankot road)

take the left that points to Masroor

monolithic rock-cut temples and keep

going for about 5 kms. There are no

boards so if you request Jaishree

Mankotia she will send someone to the

main gate to guide you into the estate.

When we entered the mango estate the

trees were full of ripe mangoes, ready for

harvest. And hidden between them were

some Lychee trees.

So, you ask... were the next 3 days spent

eating mangoes and lychees? Yes... and

many more nice things... all while we

looked at the Dhauladhar range of theHimalayas.

We asked Jaishree to prepare simple dal-

chaval type of meals but she would sneak

in one of her specialities in to the menu

and we ended up over eating - as usual!

Major Vijay Singh Mankotia, is an officer,

and gentleman... not to forget his roots

in royalty and politics.

Mankotia is a member of one of the

princely families of Himachal Pradesh. At

the Indian Military Academy he was

awarded the coveted "Sword of Honour",

and served in the Gorkha Regiment with

distinction. After a premature retirement

from the army he entered active politics,

where he is remembered as one of the

most versatile Tourism Ministers of

Himachal Pradesh. Unable to fight the

deep rooted corruption in the system for

long he has today quit active politics

and decided to relax, catch up on my

reading and meet interesting people like

you... he says.

The atmosphere at Om Mahal is spiritual

- there are pictures of the Dalai Lama and

Swami Chinmayananda all over the house

- some of the pictures are with the

Mankotias... our family has been

associated with all things spiritual for

generations and we continue the

tradition says Jaishree.

There are certain advantages of being theguests of the former Tourism minister -

you get to know of the off-roads to take

and the best places to see, especially if

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you are short on time.

The next day we took a quick drive to

Norbulingka , a school of Tibetian art and

craft, dedicated to preserving Tibetan

cultural heritage, located in small village

Sidhpur near Dharamsala . Mankotia

charted us of a nice forest road that

was really beautiful... especially because

the entire dharamsala - McLeodGanj area

is crowded with Tibetans and tourists.

The art and craft on sale at the

Norbulingka store is prohibitively

expensive, but I guess you have to

consider the fact that they are trying to

support about 1,50,000 refugees and run

a government in exile... so we did our partfor the cause and picked up a few

souvenirs. Incidentally the original town

of Norbulingka is in Tibet (now under

Chinese rule) and used to be the summer

palace of the Dalai Lama.

While the Tibetians are very strict about

the teaching of the traditional wood and

metal carving techniques, they have

given in to the western influences as faras the music their younger generation

listens to - the Norbulingka class rooms

were echoing with Britney Spears and

Shakira.

The 6 o clock aarti and bhajan at the

Swami Chinmayananda samadhi was our

next stop. Memories of my first school in

Kurnool came to mind as I joined in the

bhajans, remembering a verse here and a

phrase there. Some of the bhajans prayed

to the gods to give the parched lands

some rains. After the aarti, as we prepared

to take the prasaadam it started raining,

a fabulous hail storm.

Everyone was overjoyed, some started

collecting the large ice cubes and eating

them. A few of the devotees stayed back

to chat with us and we also had the

honour to meet Dr. Kshama Metre,

Director of Chinmaya Organisation for

Rural Development who was recently

awarded the Padma Shri Award for Social

Service.

The next day we decided to go to

Dharamsala and McLeodGanj to see the

Dalai Lama's personal Namgyal

Monastery. The main teaching room of

the Dalai Lama is located here and

because he was out of the county the

palace was not crowded.

We had lunch at the small Namgyal cafe

which served some tibetian soups and

italian pizzas. There were many monks

wandering about in their dark maroon

robes and shaven heads. Unless youpaid close attention to what they were

saying you could not tell if they Tibetin,

American or Indian.

Thanks to Richerd Gere and the his charm

in the western world a lot of Americans

and Europians are actively involved in

the support of the Tibetans... some of

them have even taken to the robes.

The narrow mountain roads all the way

from Gaggal to McLeodganj and back

were a breeze for the Xylo... drives like a

car, climbs like a SUV.

Back at Mankotia's place (or Palace if you

like) the rooms were very comfortable and

thanks to global warming they had just

added their first set of Air conditioners...

just this year... it has never been this hot!according to Jaishree.

The house is filled with family pictures

and memorabilia from Vijay Singh's many

travels. The library boasts of books from

Archies digest to Enid Blyton to the

teachings of the Dalai Lama or the

collectors edition of the Encyclopaedia

Britannica if you like!

Wandering about the estate, we spotted

the elusive Yellow billed blue magpie,

several bulbuls and treepies all over the

place. True bird wathcers paradise.

The silverware is actually made of silver

(... not stainless steel), truly royal. The

behaviour of the staff and the

presentation of the meals, even if it is a

simple chai with biscuits, is just as royal.

We were the first Mahindra Homestay

customers to come here, maybe the first

ever guests they have had since they

started the homestay so we felt we were

treated morel like family than guests.

If all the guests we get are like you, I

would be very happy said Jaishree as

we left the next day on our way to

Hoshiarpur to stay at our 11th Mahindra

Homestay location - Citrus County.

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Citrus County... all things King size

Because we enjoyed Vijay Singh

Mankotias knowledge of the off-roads

we asked him to suggest the most

picteresque road to our 11th Mahindra

Homestay location - Citrus County at

Hoshiarpur and he chalked out a route

via the Maharana Pratap Sagar Dam.

The Siwaliks in this region are soft and

friable. These hills are composed mainly

of clay sand, sand rocks and poorly

bedded sandstones... and unless you go

and touch the hard surface you would

think they are sand dunes.

Harkreet Singh was among the first hosts

to call us confirming our booking (over a

month ago... before we left Chennai on

this long Mahindra Homestays trip), and

was impatiently waiting to recieve us. He

was so eager to make sure we got there

quickly that he sent his driver with hiscell phone to wait on the highway to

guide us thru the village roads. But, he

forgot that the driver only spoke punjabi

and we had no clue what he was saying!

So between the MapMyIndia GPS, callsto his wife Jasveen (who was in

Chandigarh having just given birth to

their second child) and some intuitive

thinking we made it to the lovely citrus

farm.

There was a choice to stay in tents in the

lawn area or rooms in the main building...

we chose the main building, for no

particular reason. The tents were equallyplush and airconditioned!

Despite the heat - the monsoon not

having arrived as yet, the place was

pretty cool, thanks to the powerful air

conditioners. The home is set in the

middle of a Kinnow orange farm and in

the evenings it got pretty cool thanks to

the large lawn and huge trees.

The kinnow, a hybrid of two citrus

cultivated varieties, was introduced from

California to the Punjab in the 1940s and

is known for its high juice content,

special flavour, and as a rich source of

vitamin C.

In Punjab, every this in King size... the

rooms are big... the air conditioners are

over 2tons, the tents are spacious, andthe TV in our room was 29 inches... no

wonder their IPL team is called Kings XI!

We were joined that evening by Jaideep

and Pooja from Chandigarh who had just

returned from a trip to Australia and

wanted to experience Punjabi

Homestay/farmstay before getting back

to full fledged work.

Jaideep also happens to work with Indo-

Asian News Service (IANS) and decided

to spend his weekend writing about us

Sand, Stone orSandstone?


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and our travels. The article was carried in

some 20 newspapers all over the country.

Jaideep, who had been here before, took

us around the area and showed us a

factory where they made sarson-ka-saag

(Curried mustard leaves) and makkai

(corn) flour for export to the millions of

punjabis who lived in UK.

We got to eat some great tandoori

chicken and paneer butter masala - the

signature dishes of punjab at the

airconditioned little tent called the Citrus

cafe.

Harki and his dad were always around to

tell us tales of Punjab, the politics, the

culture and the religion. Food and cars

were the other favourite subjects... and

Harkis dad had a good joke up his sleve

all the time.

Rufus, the family pooch, is always around

to entertain and eager to play... when he

was not sticking his face in to the

swimming pool to cool off from the heat.

After 2 days of King size hospitality we

all headed to Chandigarh, Harki to see

his wife, Jaideep to get back to work and

Prabha and I to start the first leg of our

long drive back to Chennai.

- Prabha & Harsha Koda


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mahindra xylo - india is my home-stay, prabha & harsha koda

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