tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001464734279623622024-03-19T01:31:24.018-07:00Porcupyn's (not just travel) BlogUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger110125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-900146473427962362.post-53383695768570245652015-09-25T06:15:00.001-07:002015-09-25T06:15:37.566-07:00saakiyaa aaj mujhe niind nahiin aaegii<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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From saahib, bibi aur ghulam</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-900146473427962362.post-61716392322909323252015-06-18T08:30:00.000-07:002015-09-23T09:08:55.554-07:00A trip to Switzerland - Day Five<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Day Five:</span><br />
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We woke up bright and early. As we had the 9 O'clock travel pass, the schedule I had made up called for us to be at the Rumlang station by about nine am, to get the 9:09 train to Zurich Hbf.</span><br />
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At the lobby, we had a great breakfast buffet waiting for us. Based on comments I read on the site, the breakfast was not up to expectations for folks expecting a hot breakfast spread but for us vegetarians, it was the best we could hope to get :-). We had bread (choice of butter, margarine, jam, chocolate spread, etc to top it with), croissants, muessli, fresh fruits, a wide variety of hot and cold beverages. In other words, we were very full when we got up!</span><br />
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Remember, we had the sixpack travel passes. Based on research, I had expected these to be stickers that could be affixed to your Half Fare Card. However, it turned out to be a card that had a notch to one side with six tabs (for lack of a better word that I can think of). The card needed to be punched at the Orange machine each day prior to the first trip of the day - the machine would strip off one tab and stamp the date on the card simultaneously.</span><br />
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Well, our card was slightly misaligned and so, by the time I stamped it for the fifth time, the machine had eaten up all the tabs!! Now, I was at a loss as to what to do - try as I might, I was unable to get the machine to stamp the card for the sixth time. I wrote down today's date and hoped that it would pass muster.</span><br />
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Realizing that there were still over fifteen minutes for our train to come by, I walked under the tracks on the subway and over to the ticket office. Though the official here had a tough time understanding my English, he realized what I was saying and proceeded to print me a fresh card with one tab and wrote down the number of the original sixpack, showing that they needed to be carried together.</span><br />
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Our train was late by about five minutes or so - the platform was buzzing with folks late on their way to work (maybe?). In the meantime, a couple of freight trains went by, as did a fast express train that did not stop and also another commuter train which did - both going the other direction. We were not too worried because we had about fifteen minutes of waiting time at Zurch Hbf to board our train to Chur (leaving at 9:37 am).</span><br />
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When we got to our departure platform at the Hauptbahnhof, our train to Chur was already waiting for us and we got in and found some seats. IIRC, it was a reasonably empty train. To our left was a large lake flanked by mountains almost all around it (except to the north and the west). Along the lake were a couple of parks and a walking/bike trail at least for some part of the way. Without much ado, we reached Chur (10:52 am arrival) where we saw Rhaetian Bahn trains standing at a siding.</span><br />
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As further proof that I had not properly researched this leg, we went up the stairs to the Post Bus station, which was significantly bigger than those we had seen before - at Interlaken, at Visp, at Spiez, and at Meiringen. Of course, had I researched it better, we would have taken the train from Chur to Andermatt, which is one of the most beautiful legs of the Glacier Express.</span><br />
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We were in Chur because I had wanted to take a train that loops around itself and, having spotted a few such loops on the route south of the Gotthard Pass (for some reason, not realizing that these happen at high speed and mostly within tunnels), I had decided to take the northbound train from Bellinzona along the William Tell route. As a result, we were headed there from Chur on our next segment.</span><br />
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There were at least 15-20 "platforms" for the buses - I say that in quotes, because these are just bus spaces marked on the pavement which have the number painted on them as well. The kids and I were really enthused to see a double decker bus standing at the platform marked for our destination - Bellinzona. Our happiness doubled when we realized that not many passengers had boarded the bus and - when we climbed to the upper deck - we saw that the first row was vacant. Needless to say, we occupied the four front row seats to get a straight up view of the road and the scenery ahead of (and around) us.</span><br />
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As a first for me, the platform had a signal right in front of the bus (for each bus). Right on time (11:13 am departure), we got our green signal and our bus departed.</span><br />
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Soon after we got out on A13, we saw a train in the distance that looked like the Glacier Express (I might or might not be right on this one). Then, we travelled along a river which, I realized after returning, was the Rhein flowing in the opposite direction. Along the route, we saw snowcapped mountains as well as others.</span><br />
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One good thing about travelling long distance (i.e., 2 hours in Switzerland) by bus or train is that it gives time for the family to interact and/or catch up on their sleep. The latter was what kids preferred and so, for a big part of the trip to Bellinzona, one or the other was fast asleep.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Photos for today are in <a href="https://flic.kr/s/aHskkYhbvi" target="_blank">this album</a> (Photo Credit: Baab)</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-900146473427962362.post-77181902507731786232015-06-17T08:36:00.000-07:002015-09-23T09:07:40.359-07:00A trip to Switzerland - Day Four<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Today was the day we had to check out of the Hotel and so we had already made up our mind on what we were doing regardless of the weather - heading to Oberwald - and therefore the fact that the sun was out did not really affect our decision. Upon further investigation (i.e., stepping outside of the room), I noticed that though the sun had come out, the top of the mountains were still covered so it might not be a good idea to change plans now.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdoQpMd7u0zihEfsaAAJufWmST0ebnyHxZyv6TRpYXs9gIhPTzsQH8IjYZ0ILT4B4mo9kf8XOKl-cPIYLaKpuFE9BENXmfjqNpLkqDuHSKFO7aM2APW856jgv0e5jKKKITPfciDcuEJMio/s1600/IMG_1769.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdoQpMd7u0zihEfsaAAJufWmST0ebnyHxZyv6TRpYXs9gIhPTzsQH8IjYZ0ILT4B4mo9kf8XOKl-cPIYLaKpuFE9BENXmfjqNpLkqDuHSKFO7aM2APW856jgv0e5jKKKITPfciDcuEJMio/s320/IMG_1769.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Train climbs from Lauterbrunnen to Wengen</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOFmfFpGMNnpcNxWfL1Qf068qt201LBKrSPuKzueR6dbxy8uTShYp3cjmVdqiTXNNIUn8-pyDH9u6_dkEKi5MH1StAwp_MJw7WH_97tjzpW3uCim-gieil1lxlgzOHA4sHAR9-mZMTHZQl/s1600/IMG_1773.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOFmfFpGMNnpcNxWfL1Qf068qt201LBKrSPuKzueR6dbxy8uTShYp3cjmVdqiTXNNIUn8-pyDH9u6_dkEKi5MH1StAwp_MJw7WH_97tjzpW3uCim-gieil1lxlgzOHA4sHAR9-mZMTHZQl/s320/IMG_1773.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dining room at Valley Hostel, Lauterbrunnen</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEhbNZZF7i3l_2yvGV2dEP4TA_Ol_FW8ku-c4aQu9Wh-52Yd1IW5NnmWrNogmCFj2yIFslTmSo_nuBEIHIWo4FlmuiBMTTb33hU2vAgmNB6s1MjvN1t0aRBQ5pdj8c2dZmOkwUM0RNO4dx/s1600/IMG_1777.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEhbNZZF7i3l_2yvGV2dEP4TA_Ol_FW8ku-c4aQu9Wh-52Yd1IW5NnmWrNogmCFj2yIFslTmSo_nuBEIHIWo4FlmuiBMTTb33hU2vAgmNB6s1MjvN1t0aRBQ5pdj8c2dZmOkwUM0RNO4dx/s320/IMG_1777.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View from our bedroom window</td></tr>
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We quickly got ready and checked out. My plan was to leave on the 8:03 train to Interlaken Ost so we could be at Meiringen in time for the 9:25 am Post Bus to Oberwald. Upon checking out, we were told where to keep our luggage in storage for pick up when we returned from Oberwald.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb48dHB1FcCi4kGBBu6yWLI1xaMBv4OQcdkMNkaSFstbKJk1YTbcDgjZWvry6Qkjukv6xY9u2IXbZq8s-oTF2WlQ6NGp9EZk23k2UDAW-p3jeo4PqFCb1wCR6KgZu3bVYJtkT5L8h1nHi0/s1600/IMG_1786.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb48dHB1FcCi4kGBBu6yWLI1xaMBv4OQcdkMNkaSFstbKJk1YTbcDgjZWvry6Qkjukv6xY9u2IXbZq8s-oTF2WlQ6NGp9EZk23k2UDAW-p3jeo4PqFCb1wCR6KgZu3bVYJtkT5L8h1nHi0/s320/IMG_1786.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spot the little cottage in the mountain</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Syd_LHho_5_uv2gnT-FLD95AsnEAMGzHgClpNYuvP7QWbYGDeh3bcbKDmT8bsTBZ1Ml-fzKmNfKLY1Ri-DC-81ZIM21lZw7V9Zwgx_J2tsuvxPDygH9SUURzks_SE2w_8VQT3TH0VNRu/s1600/IMG_1791.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Syd_LHho_5_uv2gnT-FLD95AsnEAMGzHgClpNYuvP7QWbYGDeh3bcbKDmT8bsTBZ1Ml-fzKmNfKLY1Ri-DC-81ZIM21lZw7V9Zwgx_J2tsuvxPDygH9SUURzks_SE2w_8VQT3TH0VNRu/s320/IMG_1791.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Travelling along the Lutschine</td></tr>
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We had a 9 o'clock travel pass for the day, so I bought two tickets to Meiringen (one way) so that we would be covered for that segment which occurred before 9 am; the pass would cover us for the rest of the day.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO7oNf87c6KLlBcpp_Nb5vXmbhwz8ca_1pQwQBnx15vezxEAc3x0y7gl72gVeECOCdA8_grInyjvB7tNydzcisZC-yvNfBGr8Oe9Iw3VYu-MdQ2znbFXWnur2EjmC4Fi2vj7l8K5xcOgFo/s1600/IMG_1796.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO7oNf87c6KLlBcpp_Nb5vXmbhwz8ca_1pQwQBnx15vezxEAc3x0y7gl72gVeECOCdA8_grInyjvB7tNydzcisZC-yvNfBGr8Oe9Iw3VYu-MdQ2znbFXWnur2EjmC4Fi2vj7l8K5xcOgFo/s320/IMG_1796.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At Zweilutschinen</td></tr>
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Our trip to Meiringen was very uneventful - we changed trains at Interlaken Ost and passed through Lake Brienz (or Brienzersee as it is called locally) in sunshine though there were scattered clouds where we came from.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGF4UTPV-ekGsmtJN8I4EHLLSCPZztlWgFgCn7NfApOJtwLaGeTEhqLCdWoJB6L0aEM1VSpTlqUtb_ebfdm5c1BBUG_nGeXvTzcLwoxrD-nqwCxy2UKJ53Nnfnpt9UhnO8owmMDQxzhUgE/s1600/IMG_1804.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGF4UTPV-ekGsmtJN8I4EHLLSCPZztlWgFgCn7NfApOJtwLaGeTEhqLCdWoJB6L0aEM1VSpTlqUtb_ebfdm5c1BBUG_nGeXvTzcLwoxrD-nqwCxy2UKJ53Nnfnpt9UhnO8owmMDQxzhUgE/s320/IMG_1804.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our train's schedule</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimtu3knm4IRClWKLNONnLXg4ntxxmvCK_hS1gjMzHlQeeA0P8d_TnYXUR5c48jJzvTlHWOKhWT7d-wjyzqMhd2acdjKYfpDBbLKrp30SDNVEAYGxBjCl7KRxq6_Mn3TJlqSpu8Hchn_HPm/s1600/IMG_1827.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimtu3knm4IRClWKLNONnLXg4ntxxmvCK_hS1gjMzHlQeeA0P8d_TnYXUR5c48jJzvTlHWOKhWT7d-wjyzqMhd2acdjKYfpDBbLKrp30SDNVEAYGxBjCl7KRxq6_Mn3TJlqSpu8Hchn_HPm/s320/IMG_1827.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lake Brienz (Brienzersee)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNcK4fxkfjhNuTYLfvl9xRPwhsXd8iQUpmoX39PmfFPghw-yJCr9LBvuROOLUIN59ZePR8chERnpB-eMuw1vgzqa2GeQdse6PpXXqwwU6Ht89OzuHXFysK6fPiIL4jlwyO5HPjJX9fiFtQ/s1600/IMG_1845.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNcK4fxkfjhNuTYLfvl9xRPwhsXd8iQUpmoX39PmfFPghw-yJCr9LBvuROOLUIN59ZePR8chERnpB-eMuw1vgzqa2GeQdse6PpXXqwwU6Ht89OzuHXFysK6fPiIL4jlwyO5HPjJX9fiFtQ/s320/IMG_1845.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Meiringen Railway Station</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Upon getting down, I headed towards the information office that is located within the station. The agent provided me with a map of the area and told me how to get to the Sherlock Holmes Museum and how to get to Reichenbach Falls and the Aare Gorge area (if we were interested in that).</span><br />
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Right across from the station was the Post Bus stop. The indicator said that the bus to Oberwald would leave from Gleis 3, but I was unable to see 3 written anywhere. However, I saw 2 and 4 and assumed that 3 would be right around there, but there was a bus in that spot (without a lit info board). Rather than assuming, I asked the Swiss Post employees, but they (this was a first) did not understand English. Therefore, though we were not really sure, as there were other passengers who appeared to be hanging around for the bus as well, we did the same and, soon enough, the bus's info board lit up with our destination and we climbed on.</span><br />
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Now, when I checked on the sbb website entering June 17th as the travel date, I thought - to be honest, I am pretty sure - that the website gave me a schedule that gave us a break of about an hour or so at Oberwald. Taking that bus back to Meiringen would then put us in Meiringen around 2:30 pm after which we might (or might not) have time to visit the Reichenbach Falls before returning to Lauterbrunnen to pick up our bags.</span><br />
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I am saying all this because ... after we got on the bus, I noticed that the bus schedule and other brochures were available behind the driver. When I started paying attention to the schedule - by this time we had passed the Sherlock Holmes Museum and also the stop for Reichenbach Falls - that I had picked up, I realized that the schedule that sbb had displayed would only be valid starting on June 20th. For today, there would be a 15 minute (or so) gap between the bus's arrival and departure at Oberwald.</span><br />
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With that in mind, I discussed with Mrs. Porcupyn and we made a change of plans on the spot - we would get down the bus at Grimsel Hospiz and take the bus on its way back from Oberwald, an hour later (if we missed that, the next bus would be four hours later!). That hour would give us enough time to check out the area and get some photos. Besides, and more importantly, the trip up Reichenbach Falls was now definitely on as we would be returning much before 2 pm as opposed to the 2:30 pm that I had thought we would.</span><br />
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Because coming to Meiringen and on to Oberwald was a last minute change in plans (well, compared to the rest of the trip - remember that I made this plan change only after landing in Lauterbrunnen), I did/do not have a printout of the time table the way it was displayed by sbb so I can back up all this. But I sure am glad I got the schedule from the bus and reviewed it immediately, else we would have spent a couple of hours in Oberwald and not visited any of the Sherlock Holmes related spots.</span><br />
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When the bus left Meiringen station, it went past the main street (I assume) of Meiringen. By observing the bus route, we got an idea of how far (and where) the Sherlock Museum was and also where the stop for the Reichenbach Falls funicular was located. Because the bus stopped at Reichenbach Falls, I assumed we would be able to get down there on the way back, thus having to only walk back to Meiringen from there.</span><br />
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Once we left Meiringen, the scenery immediately became prettier (if I can say that!). Soon we came to the Aareschlucht stop which we understood to be the entrance to the Aare Gorge. Then, we went through a valley and climbed a bit. On the route, we passed cyclists on their exercise/practice runs :-). We also came to a sharp curve on the road - the one and only time we heard the sweet sound of the Post Bus horn (didn't happen on the way down because the bus takes a tunnel on that leg, IIRC). Unfortunately, I was too slow on the draw and so was unable to record the sound on my camcorder.</span><br />
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Soon we passed a dam to our right side, then a small lake and continued climbing. We now saw a huge dam to the right, which we got to the top of and, when the bus took a turn from the main road, we realized that we were at our destination, Grimsel Hospiz. As we were really anxious to ensure that we would not miss our bus back to Meiringen, we got down at the stop only after confirming with the driver that the return bus would be there in about an hour or so.</span><br />
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We spent a few minutes outside taking photos and generally looking around. I watched as our Post Bus climbed up the Grimsel Pass and disappeared out of sight. Now that I look at the maps of the area, the views from up top were probably prettier - but a) I was unaware of that and b) like I said before, we would not have had time for Reichenbach Falls.</span><br />
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The colours in that area are really too good. There was the blue sky with white clouds rolling in. mountains with green lichen or moss (?) and snow covering them, a greenish lake (well, two of them to be precise) and of course, those on the humans - we were not the only one there after all.</span><br />
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After some time, we thought it might be a good idea to see whether we could get inside the hotel for something warm to drink. Sure enough, we could - even if it was just for coffee or hot chocolate. We went for the latter, as we looked out at the great scenery. When we entered, we were the only patrons though before we left a couple of other tables were occupied as well.</span><br />
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The place was really stunning! I am not used to having food at high end places with great decor (except a couple of times at weddings) and this place was really up there. Even the restrooms (toilets) were spotlessly clean. It felt like a shame to be using them!! For folks not knowing German, it might have been a bit troubling to figure out the signs on the doors though ;-)</span><br />
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The indication was that toiletten were upstairs. Made sense - toilets. Then at the doors the signs were "Herren" and "Damen". It could be interpreted by someone as "her"s (as in plural of "Her" --> toilet - toiletten, her - herren, get it? ;-) and "Da men?" That was my little joke - don't know about you guys, but it certainly had my family in splits!</span><br />
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Soon, our hot chololates arrived with a small Swiss chocolate piece each, which the rest of my family loved. I thought it was OK, nothing too great.</span><br />
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When we left the hotel, we still had about ten minutes of waiting time. We could feel that it had gotten noticeably colder in the 20-30 minutes we were inside. Besides, the (light) clouds had rolled down low enough that the top of the Pass was already half covered and we could barely see the vehicles coming down the switchbacks. We were glad on our inadvertent good timing. Had we arrived an hour later, our views would have been severely curtailed.</span><br />
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Soon, we could see the Post Bus descending the Pass and in a few minutes, we were inside the warmth once again. On the way back, we could see the scenery from a different angle which was nice.</span><br />
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We heard other folks on the bus talk about a steep funicular and looked out as they did and sure enough, to the right, we could see the Handegg funicular. Some of the passengers had plans to visit, and got down when the bus stopped at Handegg.</span><br />
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The rest of the trip back to Meiringen was uneventful, except that we missed the stop at Reichenbach Falls - well, the bus did not stop; so, either it was not a stop on the way back or we were supposed to have indicated to the driver that we intended to get down (that we did not, because I didn't realize that we were there until we crossed that point). This meant that we had to walk all the way from Meiringen to Reichenbach Falls.</span><br />
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It was a very pleasant walk from the Meiringen train/bus station to the Reichenbach Falls funicular. We spent some time at the Sherlock Holmes museum (only from the outside) along the way for some photo ops. The sun had come out though there were some patchy clouds, but rain was banished from our thoughts for the day.</span><br />
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When we arrived at the station, we asked the operator where we needed to buy the tickets - he responded that he would be selling tickets. Then, I don't know if it was a misunderstanding or not, but though the funicular had not left yet, the operator asked us to wait for the next trip - in fifteen minutes. So, we waited and generally spent the time looked around.</span><br />
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Upon the return of the vehicle, we purchased our tickets - this was one of two places where I had to use cash (Swiss Francs) - for 10 Francs per adult and 8 Francs per kid. In hindsight, this is where I am a bit upset at the attitude of the operator. He saw that we were a family and could have informed us that the "family fare" was 22 Francs (I did not know this then, and only realized this only a couple of days ago - like I said, I had not researched Reichenbach Falls fully or noted down what I had read even). Cannot say for sure about USA but surely in India, I would like to think that the operator would have informed us that there was a more economical option available. I am pretty sure I had even asked if there were any discounts as we were holding the Family Card. Oh well ...</span><br />
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At the top, we were greeted by more commemorative clippings from newspapers and a photo op at a Sherlock Holmes cutout which we duly took advantage of. Climbing further - and it was a nice hike - we came upon the bridge crossing the falls, then walked up to the road. At this point, I was unsure where to go to get to the X-spot where Holmes had locked arms with Moriarty. Unfortunately, a) I had missed seeing the map after exiting the Funicular (maybe because I rushed to the cutout?) and b) none of the other folks who were making the climb with us appeared to know what I was asking about - and none were seen at the X-spot either.</span><br />
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So, we walked back down the way we came and caught the funicular back down. After a few minutes, we were back in Meiringen station, ready to take our train back to Lauterbrunnen.</span><br />
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Had I done my homework, I would have realized that a) the funicular is not the only way to get to the falls - we could have taken a Post Bus that would have dropped us off above the falls (where we saw the road after our hike) and b) therefore, we could have also taken the bus right on toward Grindelwald and returned to Lauterbrunnen that way (a totally different return routing).</span><br />
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Be that as it may, when we returned to Lauterbrunnen, we saw that the peak was almost visible. So we decided to head up to Murren to see if the clouds held - if by chance they did, we would try our luck with a trip to Schilthorn. However, that was not to be - by the time we reached Grutschalp and started on the railbus toward Murren, we could see more clouds swirling toward and around the Jungfrau. So, we abandoned any plans to head any higher and satisfied ourselves with some photos from near Murren BLM bahnhof. It was very sunny at this point in time - just that the peaks were well covered.</span><br />
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That done, we headed back down the way we had come up. Once we reached Lauterbrunnen, we collected our bags and headed down the slope to the station. I went to the ticket/information window and requested a timetable for Rumlang. That was very helpful as the timetable helped us get to Rumlang the quickest way and our connection included a non-stop run from Bern to Zurich that was really quick. I did take a few photos from the train (it was about 9 pm when we reached Bern but there was a bit of daylight left) of the bridges near Bern; because of the glare off the windows though, these were not of the best quality.</span><br />
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After waiting for a few minutes at Zurich Hbf, we were on our way to Rumlang, from where a short walk brought us to our digs for the next two nights - the Holiday Inn Express. As I had used some hotel stay points towards our stay, we were upgraded to the top floor of the hotel, which was really nice - our view of the Zurich Flughafen excited Baab :-). He was up later than the rest of us observing the airport operations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Photos for today are in <a href="https://www.flickr.com/gp/porcupyn/2RtG51" target="_blank">this album</a> (Photo Credit: Baab)</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-900146473427962362.post-49411106327000394382015-06-16T08:37:00.000-07:002015-09-23T09:06:03.409-07:00A trip to Switzerland - Day Three<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">By the end of Day Two, we had decided that there was no point in trying to postpone a trip up the mountains. Tomorrow (day four), we would need to be ready to pack up early and then do whatever sightseeing we could, come back to pick up our stuff and leave for Zurich in the afternoon (latest by evening). Besides, the Meiringen area was planned to have sunny weather for at least a couple of hours while the weather was still forecast to be dicey in Lauterbrunnen. That did not leave us with much of a choice, i.e., we got Hobson's choice!</span><br />
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With that in mind, we (parents) planned to wake up early to get prepared; as it was, we got up too early - I believe it was somewhere around 5ish. There was not much to do that early, so we took a walk in the empty streets to get to Staubbach Falls. At the entrance, a sign said that the hours were from 8 am to ... pm (I forget what). Like law-abiding folks, we decided against going further though I couldn't think of a reason why the place needed to be closed during this time of the year - the rule would make perfect sense for Autumn and Winter! We just hung around to take a few photos and returned to the Valley Hostel; on our way back, we saw some other folks going right up to the falls (maybe we should have done so as well - it was light enough).</span><br />
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Once we got back, we had breakfast and got ready by about 9 am or so. Looking up, we saw light clouds getting slightly heavier at the top. It appeared that there was no point in either a) going to Schilthorn because there would be no views (influenced by a friend's experiences) as a result of the clouds or b) going all the way up to Jungfraujoch (notwithstanding the fact that there were other things to do here besides the views). So, we decided to go up to Kleine Scheidegg and Mannlichen and return. In all the excitement, I had forgotten whether there was a discussion on the forums here about a preferred direction, i.e., Mannlichen to Kleine Scheidegg or the other way around.</span><br />
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Anyway, we walked over to the station and I got the tickets - when I asked the agent, he said that it would be the same either way, so I requested him to give us a ticket going up one direction and returning the other direction. We got on the first available train and went up the slope. It was pretty crowded and as we started ascending the sky grew grayer. By the time we reached Wengen, the valley was still clearly visible; above us, visibility was pretty limited. As we climbed the slope, out of the right side, we could see the mountainside covered with snow, but that was about it - we could not see anything that was much higher than where our train was.</span><br />
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Soon, we were in Kleine Scheidegg, and as we stepped out of the train, we encountered a slight drizzle. OK, it is just a passing shower, we are in Switzerland not in India, we told ourselves :-) especially because (I do not remember whether or not I had looked at the forecast that morning) the last time I had looked at the weather forecast, I remembered that it called for 0-2 mm of rain.</span><br />
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We walked around a bit - checked out the artificial lake (Fallbodensee) and took photos of the trains descending to Grindelwald and Wengen, and climbing to Jungfraujoch. I felt bad for the folks on the tours - at least, we had made our own decision, but they were more like captive travellers, rain or shine!</span><br />
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Talking of rain, it started pouring on us right about this time. We were already wearing our ponchos but were still caught unawares, as we had not expected the skies to open up like they do in Mumbai during he monsoon. We walked/ran as quickly as we could back to the shelter of the train station area.</span><br />
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When we got there, we saw a tourist party entering the restaurant - we did the same thing and got ourselves seated. It turned out that the seating area was reserved for a tour group, but our hostess was nice enough to let us sit in the same area as well. We were there for the next 30-45 minutes waiting for the rain to stop (it did not). While waiting, we had our only sit-down meal of our trip. We shared a plate of Rosti and Raclette, which was sufficient for us as we had not yet started feeling hungry.</span><br />
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Finally, we were ready for our walk/trek/hike to Mannlichen in the gloom. The rain had by now lessened to a drizzle, but it was enough for us to definitely need to wearing our ponchos.</span><br />
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We walked for a while, my family a troika of colour - I had a blue poncho, Mrs. Porcupyn and Baab had yellow ones and Katya wore one in pink (Hello to anyone who saw us :-)</span><br />
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We thought we would encounter a few people. It turned out the conditions had made many change their minds - we saw only a handful of groups (and based on what happened when we got to the other end, probably even fewer followed behind us in our direction). There was a family from South India (Tamil Nadu to be precise) with two sons, a young Oriental couple followed by an older one, two ladies from Canada who were nice enough to take a group photo for us (and we did the same with their smartphone), and then - like I mentioned on another thread - the Swiss version of Buddy Backpacker. This was a five-year old kid who was with his father. They live in Wengen and apparently father and son go for hikes all the time up and down the mountainside. This time they had walked all the way up from Wengen to Mannlichen ... and now to Kleine Scheidegg, and were planning to take the train down from there,</span><br />
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When we met the father-son pair, we could see what we thought was the gondola station just around the corner (relatively speaking). So, I asked the father whether that was it. No, he said, we were only at about the half-way point - bummer! It turned out that what I saw was the chairlift (??) for the winter sportsfolk. By this time, it had started to get really dark indeed. Not knowing what would be the indication of the weather changing to a thunderstorm, I got worried (though the forecasts had not called for thunderstorms) because we were on the open space at the top.</span><br />
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I started walking faster, leaving family behind, to see if I could get to someone quickly in case of any emergency. I would walk for five minutes and wait for a couple for everyone to catch up. Along the way, we encountered piles of snow - especially at one spot it appeared that the snow had been recently cleared to open up the path as there was snow right above and right below. We rested (literally sat/leaned against it) on the snow for some photo ops :-) There were also a couple of spots where it was pretty obvious that there had been landslides (don't know how recently) which was a bit worrisome.</span><br />
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Anyway, we reached Mannlichen without any incidents and were glad to get back in shelter and remove the ponchos. Needless to say, visibility was pretty poor. It was so bad that we could barely see four gondola(?) cars on the Mannlichen-Grindelwald stretch before they disappeared. In the few minutes that I observed it, not one person stepped off that station. In fact, no one came out of the Wengen-Mannlichen cablecar either. As we waited, we had some snacks and wondered if we would have the cablecar all to ourselves. That did not happen as one couple showed up just as we were getting ready to board.</span><br />
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While going down the hill, everything was white around us. It was like being in a plane as it approaches the airport and gets into a thick cloud bank. And just as suddenly as it sometimes happens with the planes, the cloud cover broke when we were quite close to the ground.</span><br />
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Upon reaching Wengen, Baab and Katya spotted some rabbits in a pen close by. They joined other kids who were feeding grass to the rabbits. From the rabbits' viewpoint, greener or not, the grass definitely was tastier on the other side of the fence and they hungrily munched the grass being offered by the kids.</span><br />
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After this slight detour, we walked over to Wengen station for some photos, then headed to the COOP for some munchies as the walking had made us all hungry (and me grumpy a bit).</span><br />
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Finally, we took the train down to Lauterbrunnen. We took off our wet socks and shoes. I crashed on the bed for a while, to relieve that feeling of frustration; besides, none of us was not wanting to go out yet again.</span><br />
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After some time, however, Baab decided that he wanted to go check out Staubbach Falls. As no one else was keen on going, he went by himself and came back after a while. At this point, I decided to check it out as well.</span><br />
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I had assumed that it was an easy walk up to it, but the climb to the viewing platform would not be trivial for folks who are not used to climbing stairs, especially older folks. It was not an issue for me and so, in a few minutes, I was at the platform and took a photo of the valley from behind the veil of water. The flow was not as large in volume as I had assumed (not that I thought it would rival Niagara Falls, where we have been behind the Falls and the sound was deafening).</span><br />
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And that, folks, was our third day in Switzerland. The wettest one we encountered. For the rest of the trip, though we encountered drizzles, it was thankfully not anywhere close to disrupting our plans. But then, we had already decided that tomorrow we would be going to Meiringen and on the day after, from Zurich, we would be heading towards - and through - the Gotthard Pass.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Photos for today are in <a href="https://flic.kr/s/aHskkRMouy" target="_blank">this album</a> (Photo Credit: Baab)</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-900146473427962362.post-8397731334905170162015-06-15T08:39:00.000-07:002015-09-23T08:13:29.362-07:00A trip to Switzerland - Day Two<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Day two came upon us bright and sunny. OK, I lied. It was not all that bright and it was cloudy! Based on the forecasts, I had decided to go the Zermatt today (Monday), and try our chances with the mountains above tomorrow (Tuesday).</span><br />
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I got out of the room to the balcony and watched the trains leaving for Wengen. As family was still asleep, I spent some time gazing at the mountain as the train ascended. Wengen being on a shelf cannot really be seen from Lauterbrunnen (well, not from the Valley Hostel anyway). After taking a couple of old-style selfies (with a self-timer), I headed down to the bathrooms to get ready. Luckily for us, it appeared that most of the other folks were either a) even earlier risers than us or b) later, much later, than us. On none of the days we were there did we encounter the terrifying (to me) scenario of there being blocked out of using the toilet facilities!</span><br />
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That taken care of, I went to the Coop right after 8 am to bring home the bacon, well, the vegetarian version of it at least! I returned in a few minutes with essentials such as sugar, milk, teabags, rice, jam, butter, chocolate, etc. By that time, the rest of the family was up and ready for breakfast. I let my wife take care of the kitchen duties - too many cooks ... and there were many cooks in the kitchen, believe me!</span><br />
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We had bread toast with jam or butter or both. In addition, we sampled the chocolates and had tea (kids had milk). By the time we were all ready to leave, I realized that we were just about too late for the 10:03 am departure to Interlaken Ost, so we hung around for some more time talking with other hostel guests.</span><br />
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After an uneventful journey to Interlaken Ost, we got onto a train to Spiez. We were glad to get into a compartment that was relatively empty. In a few minutes, the ticket examiner entered our compartment and started examining the tickets of folks at the other end from us, while I got our tickets ready for inspection. In a couple of minutes of overhearing the conversation made me realize that we had - all my train research notwithstanding, I must admit sheepishly - made a rookie mistake. In our eagerness to get into a not too crowded compartment, we had neglected to check whether it was a second class or not! Thankfully, like the other tourists, we did not get into trouble, but were - obviously - summarily evicted from first class! ;-) Well, at least we learned our lesson and were not caught in the first class afterwards. All I can say is that first class was not that big a deal compared to second class (else we would've realized our mistake as soon as we got in).</span><br />
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At Spiez, we took a fast train to Visp - through the Lotschberger base tunnel. Before we entered the tunnel, we travelled through a shower. I hoped at this point that the shower would not affect us south of the tunnel! The train did not appear to be going too fast in the tunnel, though it obviously was, because very soon we were in Visp. We then changed to the Matterhorn-Gotthard-Bahn (MGB).</span><br />
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Up until this point, we had travelled by several trains - the first day we took the plain two-tone coloured liveries from Zurich Airport to Luzern, then to Olten and back to Luzern, Next, we were in the Luzern-Interlaken Express which, though beautiful from the outside in red livery, did not have windows that opened. Of all the trains we had travelled in Switzerland until boarding the MGB, my favourite had been the Berner-Oberland trains from Interlaken Ost to Lauterbrunnen/Grindelwald. I liked the yellow livery and the fact that you could open the windows.</span><br />
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That changed when we got aboard the train to Zermatt. Bright red and white with windows that opened, this was indeed the real deal. Maybe not really a panoramic car experience, but this was the Swiss trains that I had always wanted to ride on.</span><br />
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First thing I did on getting to Zermatt was trying to figure out where the Matterhorn was! As there were clouds in all directions - and because I had not done much research on Zermatt (not in our original plans) - I was unable to figure out where the mountain was located (and even now am not really sure of its orientation relative to the MGB station). Oh well ...</span><br />
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Next, I found out where the train to Gornergrat was starting from, and we entered the building. One look at the Gornergrat webcam and I gave up the idea of considering going all the way. Instead, we discussed what might be a good alternative short trip and decided on going up to Riffelalp and then hiking from there.</span><br />
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As the train was still about 20 minutes or so later (IIRC), we decided to hang around the area - did some window shopping and got some junk food (well, it was a very delicious cake) from the COOP.</span><br />
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The train we got on was quite empty, though the views were more out of the right side (towards the direction of travel). In a few minutes, we had gained quite a bit of elevation over the Zermatt valley. Where we thought the Matterhorn was, we could only see the base of the mountain as the peak was among clouds. Very shortly, we came to our stop where we got out and took a few photos. We started walking along the trail towards Riffelberg - there was a little train track next to the hiking trail.</span><br />
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In a few minutes, we reached a restaurant and play area that even included a Tennis clay court. Had I been permitted to play with my hiking boots (no way, Jose!) and/or had there been anyone in attendance, I might have fancied spending a few minutes on the court (if not on hiking boots then barefoot). As it was, the place was closed and no one was around, so we continued on our walk/hike. In a couple of minutes, the gradient picked up and only my teen and I were keen to continue walking. Needless to say, we were a bit constrained in that we had decided to be back in Riffelalp within two hours so we could get out connections to get back to Lauterbrunnen.</span><br />
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As a result, we did not make it up to Riffelberg after all. Once we saw the elevation needed to get close to area with the avalanche shelter for the train (after which, now that I look at the map, the gradient reduces), we decided to call it quits as I could not afforded to walk slower and/or halt to catch my breath.</span><br />
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We met a few folks from Canada who were hiking down from Gornergrat;; they said that it had taken them over three hours. Apparently, they had reached very early in the morning - at about 9 am or so - but had still been unable to sight the Matterhorn peak. In retrospect, maybe we should have taken the train to Riffelberg and then walked down to Riffelalp and taken the train back from there. It would likely have taken the same amount of time and we would not have been backtracking the way we went up.</span><br />
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Anyway, once we reached Riffelalp, we had a few minutes of waiting before the return train came by. This one was not as empty as the one going up, but we were still able to sit relatively close to each other.</span><br />
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Back in Zermatt, we visited the COOP once more to get some munchies. We got some pizza slices and some milk as well as some more junk food. Then it was back to my favourite train once again. Zermatt to Visp, to Brig, then the Lotschberger to Spiez - that was the plan, which we did without any major issues.</span><br />
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I was disappointed in the Lotschberger. Nice green livery, but there were no windows that could be really opened - unless you consider the little peep of a window set really high in two places (I think) in the entire coach. However, the views were great. The train gains a good height immediately after departure from Brig and the valley looks really nice down below - we even caught sight of a mainline train speeding towards Brig over there.</span><br />
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Along the way, we were subjected to a light drizzle on and off - the train did not stop at many of the places I had assumed it would such as Hohtenn, Ausserberg and Goppenstein (IIRC; some of them were demand stops, as I realized based on the announcements). Because of the lack of windows that opened, my camera was relatively quiet on this leg of the trip though I did take some photos with reflections off the window because of lights inside the train as well as clouds outside which had blocked the sunshine.</span><br />
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Muelenen came and went, but not before I caught sight of the Niesen funicular. The pyramid mountain had been one of the destinations I had researched; as it was, however, it would not have been worth attempting a trip to because it was covered by clouds almost to its base!</span><br />
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At Spiez, we were directed to a Bus by my timetable printout :-)., At this point, it was raining heavily once more. There were others waiting in the same area, either for a bus or a train, and were staying inside the station platform to avoid getting soaked. After a few minutes, our bus opened its doors and we all trooped in, as did others who wanted to take that bus. There was an ICE train option that would have been quicker and one that my teen wanted to go on; however, I over-ruled him as I thought this would be more scenic. It was a nice 30 minute ride, and by the time we got to Interlaken Ost bahnhof, the rain had petered out into a much more manageable drizzle.</span><br />
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Unlike popular (expert) opinion on this forum, I rather liked the quaint town of Interlaken - would have been worth exploring for a half day if we had time to spare (we didn't). Yes, it definitely looked touristy, but then so do most touristy destinations, don't they?</span><br />
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After a few minutes' wait at the station and another quick trip to a COOP (we got there a few minutes before its closing time of 9 pm), it was back to our most-travelled train, the train from Interlaken Ost to Lauterbrunnen.</span><br />
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Photos for today (Photo Credit: Baab) are in <a href="https://www.flickr.com/gp/porcupyn/01hR23" target="_blank">this album</a>.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-900146473427962362.post-61638809633368345782015-06-14T08:39:00.000-07:002015-09-23T08:13:21.418-07:00A trip to Switzerland - Day One<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">We reached Zurich at about 6:30 am in the morning; however, after an eventful morning that included some unwise decisions from me, as luck would have it, we reached our destination, Valley Hostel Lauterbrunnen, only at about 3:30 pm. We immediately checked in without any issues and freshened up.</span><br />
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Looking up towards the mountains, we could see the blue sky partially covered by clouds. But as we had nothing to lose and nothing else planned for the day (plans had been squashed because we got there so late in the afternoon), we decided to take the train to Wengen. As (our) luck would have it (and as we now know), that afternoon was the brightest it ever was during our three-day stay in Lauterbrunnen. When we reached Wengen, we realized that the clouds were getting thicker at the top (we had never caught sight of the top of the Jungfrau anyway) and so decided to hang around in the Wengen area for some time. My son and I walked up the path along the railway line for about half an hour. We were able to hear the sounds coming from the cowbells as the livestock grazed along the mountainside.</span><br />
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We then walked back to the station and took a train back down to Lauterbrunnen. As it was still daylight outside, though the clouds were getting thicker at the top, we decided to go up to Murren using the Bergbahn Lauterbrunnen Murren (BLM) via Grutschsalp. There was minimal waiting and we were on our way. The sight was spectacular (obviously) but I was so sure we would be back within the next two days to go up to Schilthorn anyway (that was my destination #1 for the trip).</span><br />
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After getting down at Grutschalp, we got on the railbus (that is the best way I can describe the little train) to Murren. As we were on our way, the clouds decided that they could hold water no more. It started drizzling. By the time we got to Murren, it was a good-sized downpour. As we were prepared (weren't we?!!), we unfurled our ponchos and put them on. It was already past about 7 pm or so, and getting dark (more because of the clouds than because of sunset), but we gamely trudged on in the rain to the Schilthornbahn station at the other end of town. At this point, we were a bit anxious - if we did not find the other station or if the rain really got to us, we had to be back at the BLM station within an hour for the last connection to the gondola to Laterbrunnen. So, we did not really enjoy the sights around us but focussed on getting to the Schilthornbahn.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
It took us about half an hour to get there without further incidents, though our ponchos came through in style. They got wet, but we didn't! After a wait for a few minutes, a cablecar was ready to go down; however, I had figured out that though this cablecar would get us to Stechelberg, there was no connection from there to Lauterbrunnen for half an hour. So, we decided to wait at the station and let the empty cablecar go down. As we waited, we explored a bit. I discovered that a bach right by me (Murrenbach?) was flowing down the mountainside right next to the cablecar. Also, there is a nice water fountain at the entrance to the cablecar station where we filled up our water bottles.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
We got on the next cablecar towards Gimmelwald. There were hardly a handful of people in the cablecar. At Gimmelwald, we changed to another cablecar to Stechelberg. As we were planning to come up to Schilthorn again and as it was still raining, we did not even consider getting out and about in Gimmelwald. (In retrospect, could we have been more wrong??!!)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
From Stechelberg, we got the PostBus after a wait of a couple of minutes and a few minutes later, we were back in Lauterbrunnen. After getting down, I noticed that the PostBus was a Mercedes. Are all Post Buses in Switzerland made by Mercedes? I meant to observe - but as it turned out, I failed to do so. So, that is still a standing question! Anyone??</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
Today's photos (Photo Credit: Baab) are in <a href="https://flic.kr/s/aHskivdtYe" target="_blank">this album</a>.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-900146473427962362.post-75703672545281225742015-06-03T08:40:00.000-07:002015-09-22T08:41:02.022-07:00Sense of Humour - a Katya Tale<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It has been a while so I have forgotten the context. It had something to do with me complaining about folks in the household lack a sense of humour.<br />
<br />
Katya: Appa! You have only two senses - a sense of humour and a sense of anger.<br />
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Porcupyn [Taken aback]: What do you mean?<br />
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Katya: Well, you have a sense of anger because you are mean to me sometimes, and you have a sense of humour because sometimes you laugh for no reason at all!</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-900146473427962362.post-47112122410690088392015-03-08T08:41:00.000-07:002015-09-22T09:35:49.125-07:00A Hiranyakashipu-Prahlada moment<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Katya is learning about gravity; Mrs. Porcupyn is trying to explain that all objects exert gravitational pull against each other. I had to step in to clarify some things that, thankfully, I still remember from my undergrad education!!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Just like Hiranyakashipu points to different objects and asks Prahlada: "Is God in this object?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">similarly I was being asked whether books, animals, planets etc. exert gravitational pull!</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-900146473427962362.post-61347661105745927032015-03-06T08:42:00.000-08:002015-09-22T19:24:32.122-07:00He Man - Scavenger of the Universe?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Latest drama scene from the Porcupyn household</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Setting: kitchen area</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://i.walmartimages.com/i/p/00/02/10/00/04/0002100004694_500X500.jpg" target="_blank">Taco shells</a> are heating in the toaster oven; Katya waiting patiently for them]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">[Baab rummages through the freezer]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Porcupyn: (to Baab) What are you looking for in the freezer? (to Mrs. Porcupyn) Is he not eating tacos as well (or à ²¦à ³‹à ²¸à ³†)?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Mrs. Porcupyn: He does not want tacos.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Baab: I don't want either; I am looking for <a href="http://theysmell.com/wp-content/uploads/original-drumstick.png" target="_blank">drumsticks</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Mrs. Porcupyn: I think the <a href="http://www.deepfoods.com/images/deep-udupi.swf" target="_blank">packet</a> has only one** <a href="http://www.padhuskitchen.com/2014/06/murungakkai-sambar-drumstick-sambhar.html" target="_blank">drumstick</a>; maybe Katya has already eaten it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Porcupyn (With a guffaw): I don't think that is what he is looking for.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Katya (simultaneously and louder, with a shriek): Amma! He is looking for an icecream!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">(at Baab, an octave higher): You're sick! You cannot have an icecream!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Baab (still rummaging): Yes I can! [finds one solitary cone in the freezer and immediately rips its cover)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Katya (ready to pounce - whether on Baab or the "drumstick" even Sanjaya wouldn't know): Amma! He is SICK! He cannot have an icecream.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Mrs. Porcupyn (searching for peace, not peas): Katya, do YOU want the ... ummm ... drumstick?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Katya: No!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Mrs. Porcupyn (relieved): Then let him have it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">[a *ting* sounds in the background, diverting Mrs. Porcupyn's attention]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Mrs. Porcupyn: Whoops! How did the taco shell get burned? See, this is what happens when you kids distract me when I am in the kitchen. Now who will eat the burned taco shell?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Baab (in his role of the Sherlock Holmes of the 21st century): You should have reduced the temperature!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Katya (simultaneously ... and louder, answers the more burnt ... errr ... burning question): Appa will!! He eats EVERYTHING!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Porcupyn: *should I laugh or should I cry??!!*</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">* dosa in kannada</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">** salutations to Deep Foods quality control department. We have never had 0, or 2 or more drumsticks in one packet ever!</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-900146473427962362.post-53202799164034475382014-11-22T08:43:00.000-08:002015-09-22T09:36:14.208-07:00Porcupyn's 1st (and thus far only) Law of Conservation ... of Smartness<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Porcupyn hereby postulates that the total amount of smartness possessed by a human is a finite quantity which, should the said human acquire 'smart' objects (such as a "smartphone"), will be redistributed among the human and his/her possessions (including the aforementioned smartphone). Sample this:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Porcupyn recently acquired a smartphone (not the smartest in circulation, but certainly well imbued compared to his previous flip-up phone) and was very happy about it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">On a recent commute to drop off his daughter at school, he got stuck at a traffic light. Somehow he was inclined to take a photo of his daughter, sitting in the backseat, selfie style. Unfortunately, daughter did not want to cooperate. In an attempt to squeeze both subjects - the willing and the unwilling - into the shot, our budding selfographer forgot where he was and failed to espy the cars in front of him pulling away.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">By the time some smartness came back to him from his phone, the light had changed to yellow and he barely managed to cross the intersection in the same cycle; however, that could not be said about the cars patiently waiting behind him. He failed to get that well-deserved honk. But he did get a good data point to bear out his law!</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-900146473427962362.post-38682361191126711342014-09-01T08:44:00.000-07:002015-09-22T09:36:26.946-07:00Back to blogging once more - Katya's cousin's tale<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My niece, i.e., Katya's cousin, had gone for a vacation in India with her family and returned recently. As part of the transportation arrangements, the family engaged a driver whose name is Ghalib. Now, for the most part, kids growing up in the USA are not really used to non-Christian names. That was definitely the case with my niece.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So it was that my niece was unsure about Ghalib's name. It was a tongue-twister for her. One of the names she called him was 'gulaab' - but that was not the most hilarious. It was when she called him 'gulaab jaamun' ;-)</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-900146473427962362.post-85149093157196595382014-03-02T08:45:00.000-08:002015-09-22T09:36:56.051-07:00Humpty Dumpty ... and the coefficient of restitution<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The original Humpty Dumpty's coefficient was, obviously, 0. Mine is closer to 1. Let me explain: We were at a carrom tournament yesterday (wish I could say I won it all). The tournament was in an auditorium/cafeteria. <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=exercise+balls&amp;espv=210&amp;es_sm=93&amp;source=lnms&amp;tbm=isch&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=wzATU5zhE4bNkQeAh4DgDQ&amp;ved=0CAoQ_AUoAg&amp;biw=1280&amp;bih=699#q=carrom&amp;tbm=isch" target="_blank">Carrom boards</a> were all around the hall. On a stage were kids playing with these <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=exercise+balls&amp;espv=210&amp;es_sm=93&amp;source=lnms&amp;tbm=isch&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=wzATU5zhE4bNkQeAh4DgDQ&amp;ved=0CAoQ_AUoAg&amp;biw=1280&amp;bih=699" target="_blank">humongous exercise balls</a>. Unofficial cameraman, yours truly, was trolling around taking photos at random, when one of those huge balls leapt off the stage, ably assisted by a kid. Camera in one hand, I attempted a classic football/soccer move to kick the ball where it came from. Unfortunately for me (and for mother Earth), my planted foot slid along the ground thanks to the diffused carrom powder. In my defense, the ball would be ashamed by my elasticity, as I bounced right back onto my feet before the admiring (really?) onlookers could say my name (which, being desis, they wouldn't need a lot of time for) or come to assist me or check me out. Checking all my extremities, I counted myself lucky that my wrist is the only part that came out the worse for the wear. And the camera thankfully still works.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-900146473427962362.post-4170499227281342672014-01-14T08:50:00.000-08:002015-09-22T19:27:05.879-07:00A tale of the two walkers - Part 1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We - Baab and I - had to go visit a <a href="http://goo.gl/maps/sCEvi" target="_blank">friend</a> in <a href="http://goo.gl/maps/lswVN" target="_blank">Bengalooru</a>. It being India, the commute options were practically unlimited, the main ones being bus, taxi, autorickshaw. I had about made up my mind to take an auto when mother-in-law told me that it might be easier to take a bus to Majestic and another one to the destination. Given that she has lived in Bengalooru since time immemorial (OK, the late 1970s), I decided to take her advice.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Reaching Majestic was a piece of cake as we got a bus within 50 metres of the house. Once in Majestic, I asked a couple of bus drivers/conductors where I would get the bus to my destination. Upon being informed that the bus would be on Platform X, I proceeded towards that platform, Baab in tow. Just to confirm that the bus would be leaving from that platform, I asked the conductor of the bus on the adjacent platform. Upon being asked where exactly I wanted to go, I showed him the address. He said that his bus would drop us off close to the destination, and we would just need to take an auto to the final address, and it would be minimum auto fare from that point on.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Brave travellers that we were, Baab and I, hopped on to the bus. After a good 45 minutes of A/C comfort, we were informed that our stop had arrived and that we should take any bus from the diagonally located stop to get to our destination.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Having thanked the driver and moseyed over the indicated stop location, when we asked the folks waiting at the bus stop which bus we should be taking, most were clueless. The one auto driver who was around appeared to be confused about the address and asked if we knew the directions and could direct him to the destination. As we obviously had no clue of the directions, we decided to wait for the next bus and ask the driver or conductor for information. The driver of the first bus that came along - five minutes later - informed me that he could drop me off at a point along the way from where I would have to take another bus to get to the destination. We hopped on.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">No sooner had I purchased the tickets from the conductor than he told me to hop off and take a left at the intersection, from where we could get the bus to take me to the destination. Having waited for five minutes for a bus that we rode for about the same amount of time (a distance of maybe a km), I figured that we might as well walk the rest of the way - after all, how far could it be? My logic was that since we were told to take this bus for about a km or so, at most the rest of the way would be a km (note that we had already come from PhaseIII to Phase V and we needed to only get to Phase VII).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">How wrong I was! We started walking - after a few minutes, I decided to confirm that we were walking in the right direction. The dude I asked told me that we were on the right track and it was less than half a km away - just about a five minutes' walk. As we kept walking, we had a few buses pass us by, each of them with the number we had been told to catch.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A half-hour later, when we were about to get to our destination, after seeking confirmation from a few good folks along the way, what do we see but the same bus number stopping right in front of our destination. Not only was that irritating, but what was doubly galling was when the host informed us that the same bus comes directly from Majestic!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">PS: I did get my walking exercise for the day out of the way. ;-)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">PPS: Next time in Bengalooru, I will invest in a city map and/or bus schedule!</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-900146473427962362.post-60989414933035056602013-10-04T08:51:00.000-07:002015-09-22T09:37:49.140-07:00Cast of characters during CWG - An epic (Mahabharata) analogy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Manmohan Singh - Dhritarashtra</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Sonia Gandhi - Shakuni</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Kalmadi - Duryodhana</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">USA NRIs (pre-1980s; retired; drawing Social Security) - In swargaloka</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">USA NRIs (1980s or later; still working) - In Trishanku swarga</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">IBN CNN, ITV etc (not telecast in USA)</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> - </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Sanjaya</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-900146473427962362.post-7639077829160476432013-09-29T08:52:00.000-07:002015-09-22T19:37:27.422-07:00A Mahabharata weekend<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It all started with a ploy to get Katya motivated in her football (soccer) game. This is the third week of the current season, and - after two weekend games and a weekday game - Katya's team was still scoreless. As one of the older, taller and swifter girls on her team, the coach had put her in the center forward or flank position in all those games; however, the team was yet to score a goal.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So, in order to motivate her and to try to make her understand what she was missing (a razorlike focus on the goal), on Friday morning as the kids were getting ready for school, I decided to tell her the story of <a href="http://anustoriesforchildren.blogspot.com/2010/06/arjuna-passes-test.html" target="_blank">Drona's test for the Pandavas and Kauravas</a>; how Arjuna displayed his focus on the target and did not let outside distractions to stand in his way; how Arjuna never looked away from the target and was even unaware of the tree that the target was hanging from.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Given how well that story telling session went, that evening on a car-ride home from the local Indian grocery store, Mrs. Porcupyn decided to tell Katya a story as well. For some reason, she picked <a href="http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Abhimanyu_(Mahabharata)" target="_blank">Abhimanyu's story</a> and finished it by the time we got home - after many interruptions by my (for corrections and, in general, comic relief) and Katya (for extra knowledge). it appeared that Katya finally got the import of this story also and it whetted her desire to learn more about the great Pandava warrior.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">With the backdrop that Katya has not really been exposed to our vast treasure trove of religious texts (in any format other than Amar Chitra Kathas, which do not go too much in depth), I was surprised at the eagerness with which she devoured it all and wanted to learn more. We have the entire set of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mahabharat-16-DVD-Set/dp/B001J24HRA" target="_blank">Mahabharata DVDs</a> at home; however, until now, she had been interested in watching one and only one episode - "Krishna jumping on the snake," DVD #3. Whenever either of us parents had hitherto brought up the Mahabharata DVDs on weekends, her refrain was "Krishna jumping on the snake."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now that the opportunity appeared to have presented itself, I took the next logical step and reminded her of them. So, yesterday afternoon, after her football (soccer) game, I got her to watch the Abhimanyu episode with subtitles. There were many pauses along the way where she stopped the DVD to ask questions about what was happening and why. We watched the gruesome scene (in all blood and gory detail, Indian movie style) of the disarmed Abhimanyu being killed and mutilated by the Kaurava warriors. Later, we went shopping, daughter and I. Along the way there and back, while we window shopped in the local mall, I was peppered with question after question about Abhimanyu, why he was killed, why he was defenseless, why Arjuna was pulled away, why no one tried to save Abhimanyu, what the Chakravyuha is, etc.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">After a second (late night, for her) session with more Mahabharata episodes, Katya got started early this morning with her Mahabharata marathon. Folks who go on a James Bond or Indiana Jones or some similar all-nighter binge will appreciate her concentration and desire to sit through the whole epic. [<i><b>Latest update:</b></i> we are now at the end of the tale, only Duryodhana is alive.] Questions have been streaming from her all day; the DVD remote pause/play button has seen a lot of action. Now, I can safely (and, I must add, happily) say that my daughter has become a Mahabharataphile.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Oh, and BTW, Katya's team scored its first - and, as of now, only (but, hopefully, the start of a deluge) - goal of the season yesterday. No prizes for guessing the scorer (and I would like to hope that the story of Arjuna was the catalyst). :-)</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-900146473427962362.post-58716800127916664342013-08-14T08:54:00.000-07:002015-09-22T09:40:38.773-07:00Katya and Tennis ...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So I was at the doctor's waiting to be called in for my back to be checked up. Because of the logistics involved, I had taken Katya from her daycare and brought her with me to the doctor's office. Bad move - the office TV had a talk show going with Ellen Degeneres. Let me tell you folks - you do not want to have this show on if you have kids around you.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Anyway, I tried to distract Katya. DIdn't work. So, I had to be more forceful and ask her to read a magazine or at least look through some photos. When she did not demonstrate an inclination to do so, I picked up a tennis magazine and asked her to thumb through it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Today, as we were driving in to her day care, we come across a advertisement board for a dance class by Some Murray. She glances it and reads it and exclaims, "Murray! I know that name."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I was thinking that it was the name of some classmate of hers or something, when she explained, "I saw the name in the tennis magazine yesterday - Andy Murray!"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Looks like we have a new Tennis fan in the family :-)</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-900146473427962362.post-9950276714023451722013-08-14T08:53:00.000-07:002015-09-22T09:40:27.510-07:00A Tale ... of two kids<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">He was scared of his naughty nephew, who was prone to have 'accidents' with household objects (especially toys) that led to the decimation of said object. So, he would always keep nephew at arm's length.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Then one day, he fell off the stairs* and hurt his back. He needed hugs from his little daughter for comfort; however, daughter being the diva that she is, refused to give him one (after her tolerance limit was reached).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Seeing him pleading with his daughter thus, naughty nephew said to him, "You can hug me whenever you want!" and won him over!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">* - only three steps and all is well now :-)</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-900146473427962362.post-23591821094313208692013-08-08T08:55:00.000-07:002015-09-22T19:44:39.457-07:00To California - and back - Part 3 (Day 2 of travel - Kettleman City to Sequoia National Park)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">From Kettelman City, we drove up to Sequoia National Park. Enroute, we stopped by to get some munchies to make sure that the kids were not shortchanged :-). Even before we got to the main entrance of the park, we spotted a beautiful lake with scenic mountains in the background and decided to make a small stop. Everyone in the party got to wet his or her feet (except the one person who was wearing his shoes and was too lazy to remove them, aka yours truly). Katya fell in love with the lake because the water temperature was just right. However, we had to move along and so left the lake behind after a few minutes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">At the park entrance, after purchasing an annual pass to the National parks, we got to interact with folks who were taking a survey aimed at improving the customer service. We got out of our car, and got photos with the Sequoia chief's signpost. Also, got a good look at the stream flowing right by the road and the mountains surrounding the park.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The giant sequoias are the most massive trees on the planet and among the oldest as well. Some of them are estimated to be over 2000 years old. Can you imagine seeing trees that were just starting to sprout from seeds in the years of Alexander the Great?!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The unique environment of this area of the country lends itself to these trees. According to the guides and the signs all over the park, though the Redwood trees elsewhere in the state are taller, in terms of overall volume, nothing beats the giant sequoias. Many of the trees have been given names after hardy American generals of the past. The most famous among them is General Sherman (most massive of them all) and General Grant (most wide at the base). Tourists typically spend time walking around the Sequoia groves marvelling at these giants that dwarf the humans. What is really surprising is that apparently the roots of these trees extend only a few feet (or a couple of metres) underground. On the other hand, they do spread wide - as wide as an acre, we were informed - and the reason they go straight up is to quickly gain access to the sunlight in competition with their neighbouring sequoias.</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-900146473427962362.post-52908516254872329092013-07-31T08:56:00.000-07:002015-09-22T09:40:00.816-07:00To California - and back - Part 2 (Day 1 of travel - San Jose to Kettleman City)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The first couple of days in CA were spent in the company of relatives and extended clan. Not much travelling happened, if you discount the trip to Angel Island from Alameda on a ferry that had been booked for the junket. It was fun being on the ferry though the wind was cold even for folks who had come from as far as London, England!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://porcupyn.org/imgs/2013/img_1461.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1965" src="http://porcupyn.org/imgs/2013/img_1461.jpg?w=300" alt="Ferry in the Golden Bay" width="300" height="225" /></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://porcupyn.org/imgs/2013/img_1495.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1966" src="http://porcupyn.org/imgs/2013/img_1495.jpg?w=300" alt="San Francisco Bay Bridge" width="300" height="225" /></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://porcupyn.org/imgs/2013/img_1548.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1967" src="http://porcupyn.org/imgs/2013/img_1548.jpg?w=300" alt="Bird &quot;over&quot; the Golden Gate Bridge" width="300" height="225" /></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Once we were done with the (in)formal engagements, we left our cousin's house one Sunday morning later than I had wanted to, but late enough that others in the group were still complaining about how early they had to get ready (Baab and Katya, I am referring to you two!).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We first headed towards the coast to get onto the <a title="Pacific Coast Road Trip" href="http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/road-trips/california-pacific-coast-road-trip/" target="_blank">Pacific Coast Highway (PCH)</a>, a road that parallels the Pacific Ocean. It was fun for my mother to have her first view of the Pacific! We exited the road at Monterey and spend some time at the beach there. For some reason (maybe because of the really really gentle waves or because how the waters were surrounded by land from three sides as far as I could see), I didn't realize that we were actually on the Pacific Ocean.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://porcupyn.org/imgs/2013/img_1656.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1968" src="http://porcupyn.org/imgs/2013/img_1656.jpg?w=300" alt="Monterey beach" width="300" height="225" /></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://porcupyn.org/imgs/2013/img_1648.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1970" src="http://porcupyn.org/imgs/2013/img_1648.jpg?w=300" alt="Wave washes ashore Monterey beach" width="300" height="225" /></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Once we got back on the PCH, I unilaterally decided that we needed to go on the <a title="17-mile drive" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17-Mile_Drive" target="_blank">17-mile drive</a> next. Though this was my third time on this drive, the amazement is undiminished at the sight of the ocean and the sea creatures that you see along the drive among the many vistas. For us Floridians, the water was definitely much colder than what we were used to, based on our limited trips to our Atlantic coast. But we still had a <a href="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/img_1719.jpg" target="_blank">fun time</a>, literally getting our feet wet in the water.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://porcupyn.org/imgs/2013/img_1710.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1971" src="http://porcupyn.org/imgs/2013/img_1710.jpg?w=300" alt="Pebbles at ... Pebble Beach(?), CA" width="300" height="225" /></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Back on the PCH, we stopped every few miles along the way to take in the sights of the Pacific Ocean meeting the mainland cliffs. The <a href="http://porcupyn.org/imgs/2013/img_1832.jpg" target="_blank">Bixby</a> bridge at Big Sur is a tourist attraction and so are other similar vistas where huge rocks in the Ocean close to the shore rend the ocean waves into giant explosions of spray.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://porcupyn.org/imgs/2013/img_1787.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1974" src="http://porcupyn.org/imgs/2013/img_1787.jpg?w=300" alt="Creature" width="300" height="225" /></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We were headed towards a waterfall (almost) on the ocean that had been recommended by a couple of my friends including Sundar - the <a title="Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Pfeiffer_Burns_State_Park" target="_blank">Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park</a>. After a couple of <a title="Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park" href="http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=570" target="_blank">false alarms</a> (I thought that we would be reaching the place much earlier than we actually did), we finally found the right location. Nestled against a cliff and the Ocean is a stream of water that falls on the beach just out of reach of the Ocean - well maybe it falls into the Ocean during high tide, but we did not stay long enough to check that out.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">With darkness fast approaching, we decided to turn around from the PCH as quickly as we could; however, because of the layout of the land, there was no good way to cut across the mountains until San Luis Obispo further south, so we kept heading in that direction. While a couple of pairs of eyes were peering towards the left at <a title="Hearst Castle" href="http://www.hearstcastle.org/" target="_blank">Hearst Castle</a>, Mrs. P and I noticed a vista point on the right where a bunch of cars had parked. Figuring that something might be afoot, we did the same and it was good that we did - once we approached the beach-head, a stench engulfed us, but that led to the realization that we had probably been here before in the late 1990s ... to look at <a title="Elephant Seals" href="http://www.elephantseal.org/" target="_blank">elephant seals</a>. There were scores of them lying on the beach, throwing mud at themselves and at one another, making loud groan-like sounds. That sight alone (if not the McWay Falls at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park) made up for the long drive. We had fun looking at the animated animals, if I may say so :-)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://porcupyn.org/imgs/2013/img_1892.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1978 aligncenter" src="http://porcupyn.org/imgs/2013/img_1892.jpg?w=300" alt="McWay Falls and the glorious ocean colours" width="300" height="225" /></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://porcupyn.org/imgs/2013/img_1914.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1980" src="http://porcupyn.org/imgs/2013/img_1914.jpg?w=225" alt="Close-up of McWay Falls" width="225" height="300" /></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">After a few minutes, it was time to resume the trip. We turned on US-101 and proceeded northeast for a while. Then, we took the exit to State Road 42 that would lead towards Fresno, which is where we had originally planned to halt that night. However, because we had taken more time than planned along the PCH, we had to find a place much earlier than Fresno if we wanted to sleep at a decent time. So, it was that we pulled into a motel at Kettleman City for the night,</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-900146473427962362.post-18062153369019865762013-07-28T08:56:00.000-07:002015-09-22T09:39:42.472-07:00To California ... and back - Part 1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Kids had not been happy with the fact that though their parents had been to California, they were yet to see the state; so, when a clan convention was planned to be hosted in the San Francisco area during the summer, we jumped at the chance to plan a trip to the golden state. The planning was planned to start in January, but knowing that countless hours would be wasted in "discussions" and haggling with Mrs. Porcupyn (full confession: we are the yin and the yang of trips and/or trip planning), I was smart enough to unplan for the trip. I sent myself an e-mail titled "Preliminary Plan" which is reproduced in its (almost) entirety below; I made doubly sure that the plan did not get within sniffing distance of Mrs. P, else both the plan and I would have been history!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><div>Thursday - open day - picnic, meet friends</div></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><div>Friday - clan convention</div></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><div>Saturday - clan convention</div></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"></div></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><div>Sunday - local sightseeing and/or drive down to San Luis Obispo on the SR 1</div></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><div>Monday - leave for Kings Canyon/Sequoia</div></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><div>Tuesday - Yosemite</div></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><div>Wednesday - Lake Tahoe</div></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><div>Thursday - Crater Lake</div></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><div>Friday - Mount Shasta/Redwoods</div></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><div>Saturday - local sightseeing</div></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><div></div></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><div>On the face of it, it does look like a daunting trip plan; however, we had accomplished something very similar to this over a decade ago but for the preliminary trips to Redwood and Mount Shasta, and that too in spite of a close encounter with a full-grown buck who happened to jump across two lanes of I-5 and land up on the car's engine and windshield as I drove in broad daylight!</div></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><div>So, though it was doable, the X-factor this time around was the presence of the kids and my mother, who was visiting us for a couple of months. Either way, to be honest, I did not think we would be able to do all of this (which is why it was a preliminary plan) but I wanted to use that as a springboard for our 'unplanned' expedition out west.</div></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><div>Now that we are back, I am glad to note that we managed to visit most places listed above, except for the Redwoods and Crater Lake which, in hindsight, was really an overreach. On the other hand, we did see more places than we had done on that previous trip.</div></span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-900146473427962362.post-81705585835071687392013-03-03T08:57:00.000-08:002015-09-22T09:39:29.119-07:00Comparison of fractions - a Katya Tale<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It happened this morning. Mrs. Porcupyn was trying to explain fractions to Katya.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><em>Mrs. Porcupyn</em>: Which is larger: 1 over 2 (or one half) or 1 over 8 (or one eighth)?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><em>Katya</em>: I don't know.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><em>Mrs. Porcupyn</em>: OK, let me explain. If I divide a pizza into eight pieces, how big would each piece be?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><em>Katya</em>: One eighth.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><em>Mrs. Porcupyn</em>: If I divide a pizza into two pieces, how big would each piece be?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><em>Katya</em>: One half.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><em>Mrs. Porcupyn</em>: So, if I give one half to (big brother) Baab and one eighth to you, who would I be giving the bigger piece to?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><em>Katya</em>: Baab, (and continues without a pause) You <strong><em>ALWAYS</em> </strong>give him the bigger piece!</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-900146473427962362.post-13735622604908254782013-02-03T08:58:00.000-08:002015-09-22T09:39:15.407-07:00To India and back in ten days (part 1) - a Katya Tale<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Last year, we had made elaborate arrangements for travel to India. Baab and I would fly to India first - we would attend a 30th anniversary reunion of my Xth class passout buddies (KV HEC Ranchi) then take a train to Aurangabad. After spending 10 days with my parents, I would return via Mumbai. A week after my return, my father-in-law would come to Aurangabad and take Baab back with him to Bengaluru (where they live). A few days later, Katya and her mom would fly to Bengaluru where they would all spend a couple of weeks before travelling to Aurangabad. In the meantime, I would fly to Aurangabad and meet them there. We would return from Aurangabad to Orlando (together from Aurangabad to Munich, where we would take separate flights to Orlando - Baab and I via DC and Katya and mom via Toronto). Elaborate travel arrangements balanced on a dime, in chronological order of planning.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Ticket combo 1a (Baab and I) MCO-YUL-ZRH-BOM-DEL-IXR</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Ticket combo 2a (Mine alone) BOM-FRA-MCO</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Ticket combo 3a (Katya and mom): MCO-YUL-FRA-BLR</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Ticket combo 2b: MCO-FRA-BOM</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Ticket combo 1b: BOM-MUC-IAD-MCO</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Ticket combo 3b: BOM-MUC-YYZ-MCO</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And then it all got unhinged when my father was first admitted to the ICU, then passed away. As a result of that, we first postponed my return flight (ticket combo 2b), then cancelled it altogether, cancelled ticket combo 3b, and got a separate one-way return trip for me. Katya and mom got a whole new set of (last minute mucho moolah) tickets, which had to be coordinated with a separate one-way only ticket purchased (also LMMM) for Baab, so all three of them could return together. Because we were all back before the origination date of ticket combo 3, so we thought it would be pretty easy to just cancel them. Think again. We learned that because of the specific class of tickets that we had purchased, there was no option to cancel the tickets. The only option we had was for them to use the tickets - on the <em>same</em> itinerary - within a year of <em>ticket purchase</em>, not travel!! Consequently, instead of travelling during the summer vacation this year, they had to complete the flight by March 1 (this is where our elaborate planning of last year got me).</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-900146473427962362.post-89780938975288795252013-01-25T09:10:00.000-08:002015-09-22T09:38:56.432-07:00Targeted by Target Photo Studio<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I got an e-mail from Target Photo Studio with an early Happy Birthday greeting for Katya and some coupons. Unfortunately for us, the local Target closed down a few months back and so the nearest Target Photo Studio is nearly an hour away. So much for that.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">That said, I have a suggestion for Target Photo Studio. It would have been a nice touch to have included Katya's photo along with the e-mail instead of some generic model kid. After all, if they have the programming to use Katya's name in the subject of the e-mail, surely they could also link to the latest Katya photo that they (hopefully) have saved in their archives?</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-900146473427962362.post-39109251099918747082013-01-05T09:11:00.000-08:002015-09-22T09:38:44.790-07:00The cookie is flat - a Katya tale<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Inadvertently, Katya has come up with the title for Thomas Friedman's next book. It happened yesterday ...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">----------------------------------------</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Katya has been under the weather the last couple of days (for that matter, Orlando has been under the weather the last couple of days; this morning, finally we got to say hello to the Sun after a two-day hiatus). As school is reopening on Monday, Mrs. Porcupyn and I decided that we might as well get her checked by the doctor to ensure she is fit to go to school.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">After checking out Katya, the doctor gave me a prescription for her and added: "Make sure she is hydrated. no milk, only clear fluids; something flat like ginger ale or gatorade should be fine."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I just double checked with her (the doctor) to verify that I understood what was allowed and what was not allowed. The overarching rules translated to No Dairy and No Soda.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As we were on our long drive back home, based on her next question, I realized that Katya had started feeling hungry: "Appa, can I have a cookie when we get home?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Porcupyn: "Sure, Katya! But why do you want a cookie?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Katya: "Didn't you hear what the doctor said? She said that I should have something flat."</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-900146473427962362.post-66776780643581399242012-10-31T09:11:00.000-07:002015-09-22T09:38:31.688-07:00Dilemma for Katya - Barack Obama or Mitt Romney? [Tales of Katya]<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">On the way back home earlier today, Katya informed me that the class was conducting a mock vote for the President today. Well, she added, the teacher did not have time for the vote today, so maybe she would do it next Tuesday. "Next Tuesday?," I asked. "No, I mean tomorrow," she replied.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"Appa," she asked, "who should I vote for? Mitt Romney or Barack Obama?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"Well, " I answered, diplomatically dodging the question, "you should ask your mother."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Katya: "But who should I vote for? Who is the right person?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I replied: "There is no one right person. If there were, why are they holding the election? They should just make the right person the President."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It turned out that Baab's class had also voted. So I asked Baab who he'd voted for. Barack Obama, was the answer. At that, Katya piped up, "Lexi and Amanda are voting for Romney."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"How about Salma and Sieana?" I asked.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Katya: They are both voting for Barack Obama.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"What about Katya?" I shrewdly threw in, knowing that the answer might just be lurking there, waiting to come out.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Katya: "I am thinking of voting for Barack Obama as well, but Giovanni said that Obama says bad things."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now really curious, I blurted out, "What bad things has he said?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Katya: "Well, Giovanni says that Barack Obama said that girls can kiss girls and boys can kiss boys."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">At this point, I started to get the impression that if we were to waterboard Giovanni, all the truth will come out about how Barack Obama wants the following gifts from Santa for Christmas:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">mothers who can kill babies</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">doctors who can treat patients for free</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">a Cruella De'Vil who hands out Halloween candy</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Cinderella can ride only a pumpkin, and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Beauty cannot kiss the beast! ;-)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">[Edited to add]: Thank goodness Katya is older than <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-romney-little-girl-cry-145605083--election.html">this girl</a>!</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0