At the Iron Hill Brewery, West Chester Fall 2012

We went to the Iron Hill Brewery almost two weeks ago while driving through West Chester to get on the scenic rail to see the gorgeous Fall colors. We stopped by the Pottstown lake to absorb the breathtaking scenary. Teddy was a little upset that morning over the enormous bill at the opthamalogist and I decided to take him out for lunch in downtown WestChester to cheer him up. Given the season, the Pumpkin Ale was the logical starter though I just had water with lemon. The menu had healthy vegetarian options though limited to one under each section.

For appetizers, I ordered the Mushroom soup with sherry. It was phenomenal. Teddy had the French Onion soup which he relished. It was my original choice, but they  used the beef stock as a base and that was obviously a no-no for me. 

For the entree, Teddy had chicken wings (6 pieces) while I settled for a Hummus platter. It was a starter which doubled up as an entree and I am a sucker for Mediterranean food anytime, any day, anywhere! 

I was so full I decided to give the Desserts a miss. But Teddy warned me that I was missing out on some tastilicious choices and that I will regret it. Now, no ones likes to have regrets. At least we try. I tried by ordering the fabulous Banana Bread Pudding in warm rum sauce, served with a scoop of Vanilla ice cream. It was amazing. It is a very sexy dessert. The rum sauce was the clincher. Teddy ordered the Apple crisp which was a little too sweet for me, but he loved it. But the Apple Crisp that Barabara, Teddy's aunt had made for us was spot on. It had just the right amount of sweetness and the apples were delicious and coming from someone who rarely cooks, the dessert was absolutely fantastic.

For USD 60 including tips, the Iron Hill Brewery in West Chester was an excellent option. Surprsingly, their branch in Media has not received great reviews.The service was great and we left with contented stomachs and heavy hearts, wishing Monday would never come.

Beautiful West Chester in the Fall, 2012

Now that I am back in the Chennai heat, I miss the chill, beautiful Fall season in Media and West Chester. During my stay, my colleague Kathleen recommended the West Chester train ride to see the Fall colours. Surprisingly, Teddy was game for it as well when I asked him if he wanted to take a weekend break to go on the train. Apparently, he loves trains and the mechanics of making it run. It seemed like the perfect choice.

What I was not prepared for was the splendor of the season and the magnificent drive through West Chester and a memorable Pumpkin train ride on the West Chester train, dating back to the 1930s. The entire crew are a host of volunteers who ensure that the show goes on every season. You are also welcome to volunteer for various activities, be it  playing the station master or manning the breakfast station or engineering the smooth run of the train. 

Since it was Halloween season, the Pumpkin train ride was a great fun ride for kids who came dressed in their Halloween costume. The kids were absolutely adorable in their  honey bee, bumble bee and lady bug costumes. Volunteers dressed in their scary outfits moved about the train with hideous stories to share with passengers, closely followed by monstrous looking Halloween goodies. The final stop was at the beautiful quaint Glen Mills station where passengers have 30 minutes to explore their surroundings before the train hoots its departure.

If you are in Philadelphia in Fall, make sure you get on this train and have an enjoyable ride through history. The crew have tried to preserve the train interiors to keep its historical significance intact, nevertheless some of the parts had to be changed due to the natural wear and tear over time.

You can also do a train ride in the Poconos mountains which is supposed to be beautiful. It reminds me of the Ooty toy train over the hills, which was yet another memorable trip I had a chance to experience.

On our way back, we stopped by the mindblowing Pottstown lake which was maintained by the local community. The reflection of the Fall colors in the lake waters is one that must be experienced with your heart. I could not help, but click away at every turn. Teddy and I spent a good couple of minutes by the lake before heading over to the Iron Hill Brewery for a delicious lunch.

My last 60 days in Media were undoubtedly the best.

Rollercoster to Tampa, Florida

I was quite intimidated at the prospect of travelling 30 hours one way from Chennai to Florida on work. I did not expect to survive that. The silver lining was my entire team, most of whom were flying to the States for the first time on work, were quite excited. A business class fare can certainly be very spoiling and we flew Emirates, my favourite air liner. I love their movie collection and was looking forward to their in-flight menu, which I hoped was better than Qatar. However, Qatar beat Emirates on their in-flight service hollow. Wonder if my favourite is losing its sheen.

We were told Florida is similar to Chennai for weather conditions. But with the recent cold wave hitting the States, Tampa, FL was terribly cold, even for the Florida folks. I loved it though. We took a day more to visit Universal Studios. While some of us preferred the Islands of Adventure, which was a thrill seeker's paradise, the other two preferred to take it easy. So we ended up at Universal, which I had already been to in Singapore. 

We started with Terminator 3D, which was so outdated and after much whining, I coaxed my team to go on the roller-coaster, Hollywood Rip Ride RockIt. For everyone, it was their first time on this thrill ride and they had no idea what to expect. By the time we were done, the adrenaline rush and a set of gleaming grinning faces said it all. We loved it, hands down!

Next, we went for a fun roller-coaster The Revenge of the Mummy. The effects were fantastic and the roller-coaster here spins and moves in the reverse, so as creepy as it feels, nevertheless left as in awe. To give everyone a chance to enjoy their day out, we stopped over at Twister, which was a simulation that started off great and ended flat. Not much of a twist to this tale!

By this time, folks were hungry and we stopped at one of the fast-food joints. For vegetarians, especially from India, this can be a nightmare. We had to settle for a slice of cheese pizza, raw salad and a cupcake followed by a soda or maybe plain water, for lunch. It was alright.

We headed over to Shred 4D, which was a pleasant experience. The team then voted for Transformers 3D. This was absolutely fantastic and nothing like what we imagined. The simulation was mind-blowing and the creativity was to die for. It was almost real!

Next we went for a Men In Black-Alien Attack that looked promising, but we realised it was not what we were expecting. You zap at aliens and score. 

As the day was drawing to a close, we decided to quickly do a ET tour based on Speilberg's movie. It was very colourful like the Avatar and the ride into the Moon was the best memory of it all. We then headed over for the Hollywood Horror Make Up Show, which started on great promises and quickly deteriorated into nothing - we were horrified!

Just as we were making our way out, the lights show and the fireworks had started. It was a show stopper and the perfect wrap to our long day. The marketing and the imagination is something we should all experience and emulate, if possible. Words can only do so much justice than what your eyes see and you heart feels.

Homeward bound, our return 30 hour trip took us from Tampa to JFK to Milan to Dubai to Chennai. What all of us enjoyed was the fabulous menu and desserts at JFK and Milan lounges. I also had a couple of hot showers in between my stop-overs to freshen up. I thought it was quite fun actually as I got ready to embrace each leg of the flight as we inched closer to home. We especially loved the landing in Milan, which was amidst beautiful snow capped mountains and to make it sweeter, the chocolate filled wonton drizzled with chocolate sauce and white chocolate shaving served just a little chilled made us swoon. 

The trip was an opportunity to strengthen existing partnerships and make new friends. The golf club for the offsite was a stunning location and the evening dinner with marshmallows on one side, a fire place on the other, a lovely glass of white wine with a friend made it all a trip to remember.

In Her Presence

God's Own Country is so true. Kerala will always remain in my heart. If I could afford to buy a miniature version of a tharavadu, one of the traditional houses, by the river, I would do that in a heartbeat. T had been inviting me for a long time and after a year and a half of procrastination, she still had a little flicker of hope that I would visit her. She made one last ditch effort to coax me to make it to the famous Chotanikara Magam festival, which is celebrated every year by the women folk. 

I was missing Nina, their boxer. She is a bundle of joy and very pretty too. She had a near death accident in which her hind legs were fractured in a hit and run late night. Her resilient spirit got her through, not to mention the unflinching love her family gave Nina and nursed her back to health. So I had a lot of things running on my mind. We went back and forth about getting tickets and finally, I went early morning to the reservation counter and managed to get a tatkal ticket.

I had a pretty decent trip and had to wait for an hour to be picked up from the Ernakulam train station since T was experimenting with the shortest route, which invariably took her longer than expected. In the meanwhile, I enjoyed the beautiful sunrise and got into a brief conversation with a family from Pune who were on a pilgrimage. T and I ended up chatting and catching up with so many things, that we missed our morning plan to go to the nearby Poornathrayesha temple, dedicated to Vishnu, who takes the form of Santhanagopala Murthy. This is one of Kerala's greatest temples and well-known for its utsavam held in Nov-Dec, known as the Vrischikolsavam. The lord is believed to be the elder brother of Chotanikara Bhagavathy. 

Later that afternoon, we made it to the powerful Chotanikara Bhagavathy temple for the magam darsanam. She is worshipped in three forms, as Saraswathi, Lakshmi and Durga at morning, noon and night respectively. The temple architecture stands out as a testimonial for the wooden sculptures, also known as vishwakarma sthapathis. She is believed to cure those who suffer from mental illness. During the makam thozal, She is given a ritualistic bath in the sacred pond and for the makam darsanam, when the temple opens at 2.00 PM, she is adorned with gold jewels, ornaments and garlands. It is believed that this was the form that Vilvamangala Swami saw after the installation of the Keezhkaavu Bhagavathy. The crowd was massive and the sweltering heat did not help. Women were jostling each other and my friend and I were beginning to wonder if we will last for the next couple of hours until we reached the main sanctum. After nearly three hours and a lot of fervent prayers, we were blessed with Her grace. It was a sight to behold and the very purpose of my last minute train ride to Kerala seemed fulfilled.

For the next day, T had organised a temple tour starting with the famous Edapally Mahaganapathy temple, which is maintained and worshipped by the royal family. The temples of Kerala and their rituals adorning the deities and worship is one of the most breathtaking experiences for a traveller. 

From Edapally, we went to the Kodungallur Bhagavathy temple in Thrissur district. This was my second visit to the temple. The last visit gave me goosebumps just seeing Her form. The temple is believed to be a dedication to Kannagi and her martyrdom, built by the Chera king, Chengottuvan. Yet another popular belief was that Shakti was installed by Parasurama on the advice of Lord Shiva, when the former was tormented by the demon Daruka. Bhagvathy in the form of Bhadrakali is believed to have killed the asura. She is the residing deity in this temple.

From here, we headed over to the Kadampuzha Bhagavathy temple in Malappuram district. On the offerings is known as Muttarukkal, where people flock to get rid of obstacles that they face by buying coconuts to be broken by the priest into two equal halves, signifying that the problem has been destroyed by divine intervention. If a coconut does not break, the devotee has to return with a  fresh coconut to break. My friend was nervous as hell and was worried sick that the coconuts may not break. What we did not know was that on a weekend, it will take us forever to reach the Goddess. We had to wait for 5 hours in the queue by which time, my acidity built up. In the end, alls well that ends well. The coconuts broke into perfect halves. The lady ahead of us was not so lucky and had to return with another coconut since one of them did not break.

After lunch at a nearby restaurant, we went to the next temple on the itinerary, the historical Thirumandhamkummu temple in Angadipuram. 

The goddess Thirumadhamkunnilamma,was believed to be the protector of the Valluvanad kings. The principal deity is Lord Shiva followed by Bhagavathy. Legends say that King Mandatha, an ardent Siva devotee asked Shiva for an idol he could worship until his end. Shiva gives an idol which was dear to his wife, Parvati as well. She sends Bhadrakali to restore the idol from the King, but she is unable to do so. Finally, Shakti takes her full form and the King hugs the idol for protection. In the tussle, the idol splits into two and the thrimurthis (brahma, vishnu and shiva) appear on the spot. Shakti says she will remain with the idol because of her affection for Him and also installs Bhadrakali for worship. The viewing of the Goddess is also very unique. The door is opened only in parts for worship. The temple is up on a hillock and the walk around the area is beautiful.

On the last day of my stay, I had planned on making some lovely chutneys and some curries for lunch. I got through it half-way and had to make a mad dash to the Poornathrayesa temple. We went there in time for the closing ceremony and our fervent prayers for His darshan were answered. It was divine blessing.

The trip was absolutely satisfying except for my gastric attacks that undid my poor system. Nina, however came to my rescue. Maybe she sensed it, I don't know. I had been

throwing up for the entire trip because of the heat, long hours and spices. When I headed home, I was all curled up on a mat resting. She came bounding out of nowhere and jumped on me and licked me all over. She is a drool girl, so I generally don't let her lick me. But this time it was completely different. I felt instantly better like instant coffee. It is so hard not to fall in love with her. 

I am just waiting to hop back on the train to see her at the gate and fall in love all over again. Yes, add Austin and Mickey to that list. I can't help myself. I just can't.

Call of the Hills, Ootacamund

My colleague's wedding was coming up and the venue was a great excuse for a few of us to escape to the hills. Her wedding was in the plains,  but the drive to Ooty-Conoor was just a few hours away at the hills. Chennai's rising mercury was an excellent need to climb over 7500 ft above sea level and chill out.

While the drive from Chennai to Coimbotore was braving an unrelenting heat wave inspite of the air conditioner, as we eased into the hills, we had the windows down and enjoyed the blast of cold breeze on our sweaty tired faces. The drive is terribly scenic, with lush green foliage, tea gardens, and beautiful view points overlooking the catchment area. The bride suggested we visit the lesser know Avalanche lake and Emerald lake, which is slowly opening up to tourists. Some of my friends who had been visiting Ooty for over 30 years barely knew of these two beauty spots! I was excited to get away from the noisy city life and incessant work schedule. 

After a tizzy spell, we reached the very quaint hotel, which was cut away from the Ooty town. At any time, you can wake up to the sounds of the sparrows and mynas and other birds that visit the property for its innumerable flora and fauna. I knocked out for a few hours, grateful for a few hours of uninterrupted sleep.

We drove over into town to explore the place on foot. It was amazing to see how much Ooty had urbanised - Dominos pizza, Cafe Coffee Day, Subway and other famous food joints had cropped up. In the same breath, I might also add how appalling it was to see how dirty the streets had become with the influx of tourists. In India, the lack of civic sense and need for maintaining clean hygienic spaces is severely lacking. While people do not mind throwing garbage on their own streets, while abroad, they comply to every possible rule including segregating waste. Why this indifference?

For dinner, we headed over to the much talked about Shinkows, a Chinese restaurant in Ooty that has been around for a very long time. It is known more for its non-vegetarian menu such as crispy rabbit, so my vegetarian offering was not too great. The price was reasonable. After a long time, I had the Casatta for dessert, while appetiser and starters included the pepper soup and vegetarian spring roll. We split the main course with a dry vegetable noodles. After chatting around with the staff, we took a walk and then headed over to the hotel in preparation for the exciting visit to the lakes in the morning.

The next morning was misty and chill. It had rained the previous night, so the weather was cozy and cold. I was praying it would not rain. The drive to the lake was through the town of Avalanchi and took us almost 2 hours to get to the forest area, but it was a beautiful drive. You also need the Forest Department's permission to drive through the Forest and stop at the Eco-tourism pick-up point. You are better off getting there early since the tour takes another 2-3 hours into the Avalanche lake area. The government has worked with the Todas tribal community who inhabit the place to act as the preservers of the ecosystem. 

We drove past the Cauliflower shola forest, which gets its name from the tree bunches which look like the cauliflower from a distance. I thought we could even add broccoli to the description. We then stopped at the Upper Bhavani reservoir source. 

It is home to the beautiful Goddess Bhavani who is the protector of the area. Right by the temple, the river flows into the deep trenches of the forest. We got off the bus and offered our prayers and admired the pristine beauty of the place. I enjoyed the cold fresh spring water mingled with medicinal plants. We drove through fields of gold - beautiful meadows of yellow flowers glistening in the sun mingled with the rain drenched greenery of the forest. 

Finally we reached the beautiful Avalanche lake. The first glimpse gives you the impression of a miniature version of the Grand Canyon, though the latter is nature's great wonder. It was a breathtaking view - untouched except for the hoof prints of the wild animals that come to the lake bed for water. We were hoping against hope to experience an encounter in the wild, but our Toda drive Prabhu Raj gave us a knowing smile. He mentioned that the our presence does not go unnoticed in the wild and the visitors come out late in the evening when the sun goes down. One of the unique traits of the place is the presence of the trout fish which inhabit the lake. The trout fish jump up in water and thrive only in fresh cold water. This concluded our trip to Avalanche and we were dropped back at our pick-up point. 

We then drove over to Emerald lake which is enroute brought back memories of Pottstown lake in West Chester, which my friend took me to in the Fall - the lake was beautiful to watch over the sunset. The driver took us for a short walk through the wooded area to see the backwaters of the lake. That wrapped up the most important part of the stay. 

Misson accomplished, we headed over to Mohans Bhojanalaya, a Gujurati vegetarian place for dinner. While the rotis were good, the side dishes were soaked in oil and I made sure I expressed my unhappiness to the staff. Post dinner, we stopped to buy the famous Ooty tea snacks, Varki and home-made chocolates from Modern Stores. On the way back, we experienced the unexpected - a huge mammoth size bison in the night. We were a little freaked out since these guys are unpredictable; even the local folks on two wheelers were wondering how to get past him. Since we were driving, we honked to scare the big guy and drove past. It was a life time experience! My wish came true. The hotel staff had a hearty laugh since the bison was a regular feature in their life. They treat him like their pet poodle!

With all the excitement, we drove back to Chennai through Conoor-Wellington and drove through the oldest and prestigious Madras regiment. You are not allowed to take photographs once you drive into the secured area. We watched the officers training for the parade and it filled our hearts with pride.

On the way, we quickly made a pit-stop at our friend's wedding reception and were off to Chennai braving the heat once again.

A Month Long Gluttony, NewPort NJ

The Burratta

Pink Vodka Pasta

The Indomitable Cheese Cake

A delicious view to devour

Balsamic Vinegar anyone?

Warm water with Lemon

Tomato juice - a Bloody Mary?

Tirupati Calling

It is quite unimaginable how out of 365 days, we find it difficult to plan a trip to a world famous Vaishnavite shrine just three hours away. It has been my plan to visit Tirupati, the hill temple, atleast once every month, but I realised even making a trip once in a year is a bit of challenge. Most spiritualists say while you must have the will to persevere, it is only on the Divine's bidding can you ever make a visit.

The trip to Tirupati happened out of the blue. My aunt called and mentioned her family was making the one-day trip over the weekend and they had seats for two more. So we jumped in. It is usually believed that when you return from Tirupati, your life also experiences a turning point. We saw Lord Venkateshwara dressed in such beautiful jewellery and adorned with flowers that the sight still sits fresh in my mind's eye.

The temple authorities have been trying to optimise the visiting process for sometime now. You have to make your booking online and visit the temple for the allotted time slot. It was all fairly well organised. We had darshan in 1.5 hours where it usually takes a minimum of three hours or more. As you edge closer towards the deity, the sense of emotion is heightened. You are allowed a fleeting minute to see Him, while some quietly snuck in money to volunteers for a few extra minutes.  From there, we drove back down the hill to visit His wife, Sri Padmavathi Ammavari, and experienced such bliss sitting in her presence, of course we took the INR 200 Kumkum seva ticket to sit close to the deity. 

The language and lack of discipline is a huge problem in most places in India. Tirupati is no exception. There is lot of corruption, language barriers and absolute lack of civic sense or respect for fellow devotees that will get to you eventually. It is surprising that the Temple authorities who had done such a fine job organising the pilgrims in a single file decided to open it up into one deluge at the main temple entrance, bringing utter chaos and frenzy. It is still not late to put their thinking to good use. Keep the single file all the way out. You can do away with volunteers and corruption. 

Temples make a lot of money by cashing in on crowds and the spiritual fervour advertising special darshan, special offerings and so on; but while they retain some of the money, most can be put to good use for temple maintenance and offering real service to the devotees. Bringing in elephants to bless devotes while made to stand for long hours  in chains should be banned. Priests asking for money from devotees for giving holy water should be reported as much as devotees slipping in money to volunteers asking for favours.

Ironic that the very place we go to for healing the soul is a treasure trove of everything one should not be. When do we rise above this?