Car Registration in Hyderabad

I relocated to Hyderabad from Gurgaon in Sep 2013. I have an i10 which I moved with me to Hyderabad. I had a lot of questions and apprehensions while moving to Hyderabad about car registration etc.

I also had a 6 month old (or rather new) Verna in Gurgaon which I sold before relocating to Hyderabad as I had heard that RTO is quite strict there. It would have costed me ~1.25 lakh for the Verna registration.

Below are a few experiences of my colleagues who moved to Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh) from other states:

• One of my friends paid road tax for his Gurgaon HR 26 Ford Figo diesel car in Hyderabad soon after coming using the help of a broker. The broker charged him Rs. 1,000 over and above the registration cost. Advantage: Got rid of the tension of being caught up soon.
•  I also took the quotation from the same broker but tried to delay the process as much as possible, though it was a stressful time while I was driving on roads. I was caught by an RTO officer who did listen to my excuses but impounded my DL. I paid the road tax and got my DL back. Advantage: Saved Rs.1,000 which I would have paid to the broker! I have never been caught after that.
• Another colleague has been driving his Karnataka car for about 8 months. He has paid Rs.500 so far as he was stopped by a constable twice - both times being in the last (eighth) month.
• One of our team managers has a Honda City but has not yet paid the road tax even after 6 months. He has a West Bengal car. He was also caught up initially but made excuses like he has recently arrived in the city etc. Not sure how many times he's been held up for this. In fact, he avoided coming by his car for a few days but I see him driving again.

Suggestion:

• Ask me for the RTO officer number if you are interested in paying the road tax to avoid broker charges!

Yamuna Expressway – A world class infrastructure piece is here in UP!

Thanks to a family function in Agra – I got a chance to drive on the Yamuna Expressway. I had heard a lot about it from the point when people were using it even when it was not officially opened to the news of tyres bursting due to over-speeding. We were travelling from Meerut to Agra on 23rd September. As we got on to the expressway, we spontaneously had the expression “wow”! Wide roads with minimal traffic – a sight rare in India. Even the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway which used to have limited traffic a few years back is now sometimes choked at peak hours.


The expressway is 165 km long with a 3 lane road on each side. It has 3 tolls on way to Agra. On the first toll, you need to inform the person that you want a ‘ticket’ to Agra. The cost was about Rs.320 for one way and Rs.510 for the return journey within 24 hours. At each subsequent toll, you need to show this ticket which would be scanned by the person and you’d be allowed to go through.

On every toll there are public conveniences like toilets and restaurants which you’d not find anywhere else on the expressway. Also, it would be good to get your fuel tank completely filled much before you touch the highway as currently we could not spot a petrol pump on the highway. There had been news when a car ran out of petrol on the expressway and the “victims” had to call their acquaintances from Mathura to get petrol for them. Though there are plans to set up petrol pumps on the highway.

On the way, billboards with the messages like those over-speeding will be prosecuted; Nilgai prone area; slow speed vehicles prohibited or asking commuters not to stop for picnics could be seen. The last point was very valid. The expressway was such that you would be tempted to park your car by the side and enjoy the beauty for some time. As we were driving, we could actually spot a family stopping and clicking pictures on the expressway.

The legal speed limit on the expressway is 100km/h. Again, with minimal traffic and excellent road, one would be tempted to speed past the 100 km/h mark. But provisions have been made to penalize violators at the next toll.

It took us about 2 hours driving on the expressway before we reached Agra. The drive was of the sort I had never experienced earlier. My left foot was down on the floor instead of being on the clutch. And the right one was on the accelerator. I knew that even if I had to brake, I’d be using only my right foot and left foot would not be needed. It was only at the three tolls that the clutch had to be used – just thrice in a 165 km journey.

On our return journey, we started from Agra at about 8 in the evening. ON touching the expressway it was again the same feeling – “wow”. This time because it was dark and we could see the glowing . It seemed as if we were on a runway – just that we were not taking off.

The Buddh International Circuit (the same where the F1 was held in India) could be seen from the expressway. And though it would be difficult to get to drive on the BIC, the Yamuna Expressway is a way to get close to experiencing Go-Karting live!

After having experienced the journey to and fro, I’d like to congratulate the Jaypee Infra team for such a marvelous piece of infrastructure. As I read on Wikipedia, the expressway was completed 2 years before its targeted completion date. (The reason could be political – perhaps the builder thought it was better to complete it under Mayawati’s regime than take the risk of a political tumult which would create roadblocks for the project). And though the toll may appear to be on the higher side, such infrastructure is what India needs to be able to come to speed with the rest of the world!

Gurgaon School Admissions – My Two Cents

We’ve almost finalized our son's admission in Lotus Valley International School. The experience was interesting but we had a lot of confusion while choosing the school. You can read about my thoughts on various schools on another blog I’ve written. Below are some tips for parents searching for schools in Gurgaon. My experience is based on choosing a school for pre-nursery and may differ from those seeking admissions in higher classes. Therefore, please use your best knowledge, information and judgement to arrive at a decision.

Registration – Registration means that you are interested in seeking admission in a school. If you go and visit a school and ask for the form, the school will generally charge Rs. 500 – Rs. 1,000 for giving you a school prospectus, CDs, fee structure and other material along with the registration form in which details of the student and parents are filled.

A suggestion here would be to go to different schools which you are interested in – see the infrastructure, interact with the admissions coordinator and get your queries answered. You would certainly want to have information about the fees. If you’re paying Rs.1,000, the school will give you a sheet with the breakup of the fees – admission, annual charges, refundable, quarterly etc. But if you’re not willing to shell out the money, the school may not give you the “fee sheet” (I’ve seen the receptionist refusing to give the fee breakup sheet in one of the schools, though she did allow the parents to make a note of the fees on a separate piece of paper).

In such a case, the parents may take a note of the fees by writing on another piece of paper or taking a picture from their mobile cameras. I found parents doing this and I consider it smart and sensible. Why would I want to pay the registration fees for a school which is beyond my budget or not up to my expectations in some aspect? I would also want to do a “cost – benefit” analysis for the various schools before finalizing for which I would need the fee breakup.

The best thing is to do an internet research on the schools, shortlist a few, visit them, come back home, reflect upon and then finally come to a decision. Once finalized, you can download the school form from the internet (school website or other school admission websites), take a print, fill, go to the school and pay the registration fees while submitting the form.

Some schools here in Gurgaon give admissions on a first-come-first-serve basis. If you are choosing such a school, following the above procedure will save you from spending on registration fees unnecessarily, if you start early.

I myself purchased admission forms for Lotus Valley and Shalom Hills, Nirvana. We got admission in Lotus Valley and haven’t yet filled the Shalom Hills form. Looking back, it seems we could have save the 1,000 bucks we spent for Shalom Hills…And though I read on another blog that you should keep 4-5 schools in hand, acting smart can save you a couple of bucks without taking any risk.

Please share your experiences and views in the comments.

P.S.: Experience based on admission in pre-nursery in Gurgaon

Gurgaon School Admission Experience for Pre-Nursery

It’s August 2012 and our son will be 2 in November. And though we found schools which “admitted” children as young as 9 months, we’d made up our mind to send him to school (pre-nursery) once he is 2+. And thus began school hunting. Admissions in Gurgaon begin as early as August-September even though the academic session only starts in April the following year!

The internet is the first source of information - Google…Google and more Google – for list of schools, schools close to our home, reviews, fee structure and anything else that comes to mind. Then come acquaintances and neighbours with who could provide relevant information on schools they had considered for their child. You tend to ask every kid who you see while strolling in the evening – “Which school do you go to?” Most of them would answer LKG A or UKG B. And then we’d have to clarify – “you’re telling your class ‘beta’ …we’re asking for your school”.

We are putting up at Gurgaon Sector 49, near South City 2 - D Block market and preferred to have a school close by. After doing quite some research on the internet we were able to shortlist and the ones which we visited are marked as ‘(Visited)’:

      Lotus Valley  - Nirvana Country (Visited)

      Shalom Hills – Nirvana Country (Visited)

      FasTracKids – Golf Course Extension Road (Visited) – Wunder Kinder, if I remember the name correctly, is opposite to FastTracKids but we did not visit this school neither was this in our shortlist.

      La Petite – GD Goenka – Malibu Town, Sohna Road (Visited)

      The Shriram Early Years (Near Vipul Greens, Sohna Road) (Visited)

      I Play I Learn (Though not keen, we tried to visit it but could not find this school and so came back home!)

      Xseed iDiscoveri (Though in our list initially, we left it out as it was relatively farther from our house compared to the schools mentioned above)

We also had Pathways play school in our mind as it was walking distance from our home but a relative who had been to the school said that it was too expensive specially for pre-nursery and thus it went out of the list (The relative I am talking about have admitted their younger kid in Shriram The Early Years and their elder one is in Scottish High).

FasTracKids – In absolute terms, the school was okay. It is a franchise of a US school. The teaching methodology was theme based. They had a smart (touch screen) board in some classes and had day care facility and meals. Fee was the most reasonable amongst all schools. The centre coordinator was pleasing and took us around the school, showed us classes even when they were going on. Quartery Fees ~14,400

GD Goenka La Petite – The school became operational in July 2012 only and looked promising. It deals in classes from toddlers to KG. The school follows a Montessori way of teaching. Class rooms were spacious, well lighted and aesthetically pleasing. Also offered a day care facility and meals. Since this is a new school, it offered an inaugural discount on one of the components of fees. But the admission would not be directly transferrable to the main branch of GD Goenka World school. We did not consider it further as it was only till KG and admission blues will still come to us after KG + the quarterly fees was almost as high as Lotus  Valley’s. Quartery fees ~20,000 Annual Fees ~15,000

The Shriram Early Years – The school only offered classes till Nursery which meant ‘admission issues’ would come again very soon. We were not able to see the classes as they were going on. But the school would give admission anytime you would go to them – which means they do not strictly follow a ‘session’. We did not consider it further as it was only till nursery and there was no direct transfer from this school to their main school. Quarterly fees ~Rs.19,000/-

Shalom Hills, Nirvana – The head mistress was pleasing and took us around the school. We visited the school when the classes were about to be over. She seemed to remember names on many kids in the school. The advantage with this school was that it is till 12^th. But it was written on the internet somewhere that the school follows a conventional teaching methodology. Though KG and above do have smart classes. Quarterly fees ~ 13,000/- Annual fees ~14,000/- Admission fees ~15,000/40,000

Lotus Valley: The school campus and building is nice, centrally AC. Classrooms are spacious. The school has various activity rooms like dance room, crafts room, music room. But these are more useful for grown up children. For the kindergarten students, these activities are done in their classes itself. But the fee for classes Pre-Nursery to 5^th is the same! The lady at the reception took us around the school building/floors and was very cordial. Overall, the school is good – in fact the best of all the schools that we saw.

We were also thinking from the perspective that we’d admit our son in a school which goes all the way to 12^{th –} the reason being that we’d most likely and preferably be in Gurgaon. Only Lotus Valley and Shalom Hills had this advantage. Though Lotus Valley gave us a feel good factor when we visited the school, the fees was considerably higher compared to Shalom Hills, Nirvana.

After considering most factors, we finalized Lotus Valley International School as it perhaps the only “international” school in our vicinity and within our budget!!!

Another blog: “Gurgaon School Admissions – My Two Cents”

Country Club Membership - Things to consider before enrolling

You would have come across a person offering you a lucky coupon at a store in a mall or at a petrol pump. These are the holiday club membership coupons where if you fill them, you’d be invited for a presentation and a voucher which you can use for a 6N/7D domestic and international holiday. If you have the time and patience of listening to the person detailing you about the holiday, you might consider going, listening and taking the “free” holiday voucher and come back. However, you should be very clear before going into the presentation that you’d not be buying the club membership. Do your homework – search the internet for the reviews before going for the presentation. More often than not, they’ll be bad.

Certain points that you’ll hear from the sales person (SP) and counterarguments you (U) can give to them:

1.       SP: If you buy your own holiday home, you’ll have to pay for maintenance, security of the home, limited choice of holidays (e.g. if it’s in Goa, you’ll have a holiday home only in Goa) etc. While if you take our membership, you don’t have to bother about all this stuff.

U: If I buy a holiday home, I buy it to use as a holiday home. Plus I am also looking at capital appreciation. If I buy your holidays, it’s just the holidays and nothing tangible. While if I buy a holiday home, say in Goa, I have something which will appreciate with time. It’s similar to paying rent vis-à-vis paying an EMI. If I keep paying rent, at the end of a certain time period I don’t own anything. If I pay EMIs, at the end of it, I have my own home. Which one should I prefer?

2.       SP: Our properties are 5 star.

U: Please do your home work. Most of the properties are not 5* but 3* or 4*.

3.       SP: You’ll be protected against inflation, if you book our holidays for 10/25 years.

U: But I’ll also be losing on the interest if I pay you the booking fees. I can get even higher returns, if I invest the money somewhere else.

Other counter arguments for not buying the package:

1.       We’d like to take the free coupon, use it and see how the services are. Only then we will consider buying your membership.

2.       Who would want to stay in a single place for 6N/7D when it is not worth those many days? For example, generally Goa packages are 3N/4D. Why would I want to stay only at Goa or only at Bangkok or only at Kuala Lumpur for 6N? I would rather want to cover Goa and Mahabaleshwar in that time or perhaps Phuket with Bangkok or Genting with Kuala Lumpur. These clubs only offer you to book for 6N/7D in a year. So for example, if you want to book for 2N/3D then you’ll only get 2 sets of 2N/3D which is a total of 4Nights and 6Days in a year at 2 places/2 times. And you’re at a loss of 2 nights and 3 days.

3.       Also consider whether you travel alone or with another couple family. If you take a membership, you restrict yourself to travelling alone!

4.       Only the accommodation is included in the membership. You might/will have to pay for airfare, airport/station transfers, sightseeing, meals, visa for international trip. All these can be more than 50% of the cost of your trip. Add to this the hassle of dealing with multiple people.  And some of these like food are said to be too expensive at their resorts. Please check with the company what they are offering and what they are not. In fact, if you book the same package with a tour operator (www.holidaycooker.com), it might cost you lesser than opting for the membership with much more – breakfast and sightseeing is almost always included.

5.       Flexibility: With these clubs, you have to book certain period in advance. Also the availability of the resort at the time you are planning to visit is under question. If you are booking through a tour operator, you can book even a week in advance.

Important points to note:

When one has spent almost an hour and a half listening to the sales person, one has a tendency to sign the docs without reading them. One is actually in a hurry to go out of that room. Even if one finds the plan interesting and wants to enrol for it, one should spend time to read the documents carefully before signing them. There are certain clauses which are either not told to you by the sales person or are misrepresented. For example, dates at year end 25^th Dec – early Jan might be blocked out dates and you cannot book your holidays during this period. Or the sales person has told you about club membership (start nights etc.) also but they are not marked in your form. Such things most likely will not be told to you but would be written in the documents. Therefore take you own time to read the documents and ask questions before signing and making the payment.

Have you ever faced such a situation? Are you a holiday club member? Are you happy? Or do you feel cheated? Please share your thoughts.

Issued in public interest.

The article represents my own personal opinions/suggestions.

Customer is the king, but only in marketing textbooks…

If you have ever opted for a marketing course, you would have heard the phrase ‘Customer is the king’. But how many times, as a customer, have you felt so? “Never” would be the most common answer. Even if you have had pleasant and delightful experiences, I’m quite sure that you’d be able to count them on your fingers. Some experiences which I have faced in the past:

1.       I had shifted my rented apartment in Gurgaon and so also wanted to get my internet connection shifted. It took more than 2 months to get the connection shifted. That too when I sought help from one of the legal service providers who help customers file case against companies in consumer courts.

2.       I’ve invested in a flat. It’s been 5 years since I booked it. A decent amount has already been paid to the builder but the construction has still not started. It was only when I sent a legal notice to the builder that I received a phone call from them updating me about the status of the project.

3.       I placed an order for a parenting on an online retailer site. While booking the website showed the book showed as available and was also reflecting an expected delivery date/time. After placing the order, they did not deliver the book for 2 months. I called the customer care to check the status. The person said that the book was not yet launched and that they would inform me when the book would launch! What? Why was the website showing a delivery date/time when the book wasn’t even launched? I called again 2-3 times but to no avail. Finally I asked for my money and got a refund cheque of the amount I had paid. This, when I started conversation on the company’s facebook page.

4.       I ordered a smartphone from a very famous online retailer. But my misfortune that I had a “negativish” experience this time as well. They delivered it about 4 days late. The phone was meant to be a gift to someone.

5.       I bought a refrigerator from a consumer durables retail chain. The moment I plugged it at home, it started making some rumbling noise. I called the store only to find that the store was responsible for sales and not after sales service. I told them that it wasn’t about the after sales service but a defective product that they had sold me. Nothing happened. I had to ultimately register a complaint at the company’s service centre when the guy came, told me that the fan was broken and took Rs.150 to replace the part and only to say that plastic parts were not covered under warranty. I still remember the pain of being cheated by the retail chain/company.

And it’s not just me. I’ve heard people saying that value added services have been activated on their phones without their consent. I’ve read people not getting a room on their vacation and being transferred to a property different from what was initially promised. I’ve read people lodging complaints against companies on numerous other issues. The internet is full of sites that take such complaints.

These experiences are at the top of my mind perhaps because they happened to me in the past one year. But there would me numerous other instances, if I were to strain my memory, where I have had a negative experience. The only power that the consumer has these days is the power of social media – the company against which you raise voice replies quickly if you raise the issue on their facebook page – at least that’s what my experience has been and I have been able to resolve a couple of issues this way. When someone from the company replies, if nothing else, you have that comfort – at least someone is listening to you.

But the story is not that bad. I’ve had positive experiences as well – which are like a drop in the ocean of experiences. My laptop charger had ‘broken’ and I thought that it would be covered under the (3 year) accidental coverage that I had taken. On calling Dell I found that the charger was not covered under accidental protection! I had a long conversation with the company and finally Dell replaced it as an exception (it was sort of customer delight). I truly appreciate Dell for their service and the management for exception handling. And I most certainly will buy a Dell again!

With Oberoi’s, I and my wife had a wonderful experience. We went to the restaurant in their Gurgaon property on our anniversary. It was meant to be a surprise for my wife. And even though I had not informed the restaurant that it was our anniversary, the sort of experience we had there was something we’d remember all our life. Similar was our experience in the Leela Kempinski at  Gurgaon.

The difference in services, as I can think, is due to the segment that the services cater to. Barring Dell, the Oberois and the Leelas cater to the luxury segment – the rich – something which an ordinary Indian or the common man would not have a chance to experience in his or her lifetime.

In fact, most of the times, it seems that companies think that “Customer is a fool - Let’s use him to achieve our sales”. And it actually is okay because no one really cares for the customer. So the customer has no option but to get fooled, knowingly or unknowingly.

If you have had some really good or bad customer service or product experiences, please share.

Note: This article has been particularly written in the Indian context. These are the personal views of the author. 

Lakshadweep (Agatti) & Kerala Honeymoon Tour

Kerela (Kochi – Alleppey – Kumarakom – Houseboat – Kochi)
&
Lakshadweep (Agatti)
Honeymoon Trip
18th February 2009 – 3rd March 2009

DAY 1 – 18th Feb
After having a couple of tips on the previous day from Papa and on this day from Papa ji and Baba ji, we were all set to go to God’s Own Country – Kerala.

We set out for Sethan Gali at 8:30 A.M. After spending about an hour there, we picked Rohit ji and Sonia ji and started for the airport. Accompanying the four of us were Prachi (with Rohit and Sonia ji in Honda city) and Rohan (with Priya and me in Scorpio). We had to board an Indigo flight to Kochi which was to depart at 2 P.M. We reached the airport at around 12:30 P.M. We had a quick lunch at the airport terminal – pooris and aloo matar (the same matars which I brought from Guru Nanak Nagar in my Jodhpuri suit. Imagine someone buying peas in a wedding dress! I remember other customers staring at me like anything. ) Having done with lunch, we queued up for cheking-in the luggage. Our luggage, comprising of four items, weighed a whopping 69 kgs which was 19 kgs in excess of the permitted free capacity! But since we had negligible hand baggage the airline staff allowed us to carry all the check-in luggage free of cost.
The flight was on time. It was the first flight for Rohit ji and Sonia ji. Our seat numbers were 15E and 15F. Rohit ji and Sonia ji’s were 14A and 14B. Priya was sitting on the window seat and I was in the middle. To my left was a gentleman working in BoA who was going to Hyderabad (I initiated the conversation with him!)

indiGo’s “Ek Cup Paani” Cost Cutting Strategy – Prior to boarding the flight, based on my past experience with indiGo, I had told Rohit ji that we need not take water since it would be provided in the flight. Inside, we (Priyanka and I) came to know that indiGo had done away with gicing free water bottles. They were instead giving water in thermocole cups! Slightly embarrassed (coz it was not quite what I had told the couple accompanying us), I purchased a water bottle (for Rs. 25!) and asked the air hostess to give it to Sonia ji. They did not know that we had paid for it (which was what I wanted. Later, Rohit ji told us that he was wondering whether one bottle was being supplied to each couple (!!) because neither he nor their co-passenger on the aisle seat had got it.)

All this and some other discussion as to how they could further reduce costs by supplying water in innovative ways (carrying a jug and refilling the cup, in case a passenger needed water again, instead of giving a new cup!) kept me and Priyanka engaged for about half an hour and we had a hearty laugh during this time.

We reached Kochi on time (about 6:30 P.M.) and got out of the airport only to see a Heritage India guy carrying a placard with ‘RAHUL MAHESWARI AND FAMILY” printed on it! This made me and Priyanka dad and mom respectively and Rohit and Sonia ji our kids for the next 3-4 days. All of us wondered what people would think of guys getting married now having kids of age older than the parents’!

In the cab (Tavera), I was sitting like carrying the laptop bag in my lap thinking that we would reach hotel in 10-15 minutes. But 5-10 minutes after getting in, when Priyanka asked the cab driver (Subhash) how much time it would take, we came to know that we were to travel for another 45 minutes!! I placed the laptop bag onto the floor to sit more comfortably.
On way to proper city, Kochi seemed to be a very neat and clean, quite, properly designed city. Cannot say how much of it is true as we were mainly confined to M.G. Road and had only explored Broadway on March 3, the day on which we were to return to Delhi.

The hotel was much better than I had expected in that they had taken care of any and everything that one may need – the room had sewing kit , shaving kit, comb, shoe shiner, executive kit, stationery and a refrigerator (the only hotel/resort where we had a fridge during our trip).

About an hour after we reached the hotel, Mr. Ubaid from Heritage India had come to collect the Remaining amount for the tour. He also gave me coupons which were to be shown at each hotel/resort at check-in. This was one of the greatest advantages of having a tour operator – no hassles at all during check-in and check-out (only extra bills to be paid at check-out, if at all any).

DAY 2 - Feb 19
We were to leave for Munnar today. Yesterday we were confused whether we should see Kochi today or after returning from Lakshadweep. We were also planning to skip it altogether in case there was nothing worthwhile to see. When I told the cab driver that we would leave for Munnar straight without seeing Kochi, he told me that it would take only 2 hours to see all things.

Besides, the sightseeing today was included in the package whereas it would be charged another 600-700 bucks in case we were to see it later. Finally we finished seeing Kochi before leaving for Munnar. We visited St. Francis Churh followed by Chinese Fishing Nets (What was so Chinese about them and what were they to be seen for will have to be researched on the internet). From there we went to Santa Cruz Basilica which was much beautiful than the two we had visited earlier. Then we proceeded to the Dutch Palace which was a museum and not a palace from any angle! The entry ticket for it was Rs. 2 but inside it wasn’t worth even that (may be I am biased as I rarely like any museum – Salarjung in Hyderabad was OK types). After coming out of the “palace” we had coconut wate - the only one time during our entire tour (Oops we had it once again as welcome drink at the Agatti Beach Resort).

After this we started for Munnar at about 12 noon. It was supposed to be a 4 hour journey. The driver halted at a small restaurant and asked us to have lunch there. When we asked if there was a better option ahead, he said there wasn’t any. So we sat down and looked into the Menu. There were very limited options – We ordered a paneer dish and an aloo dish. The aloo dish came out to be kind of potato wedges. Paneer was ok and so was the “parantha” (the ‘Chennai’ parantha) – These two items helped us fill our stomachs quite liberally.

On our way, we had some lean waterfalls. But the most striking sight-seeing was the Spice Garden. With Rs. 100 as the entry fee, some of us were in a dilemma whether to enter or not. But we went ahead and saw a number of known and unknown spices, fruits and vegetables. It was in this garden that I came to know that “amla” is called “gooseberry’ in English. We came to Munnar at 6:30 P.M. checked into the hotel and locked ourselves in the rooms only to see each other next morning. (We tried to wake Rohit and Sonia ji for dinner (puris) but were unsuccessful at our attempts. They had slept early only to wake up late night when they did not deem fit to wake the two of us for taking their dinner). Priyanka and I had a dim-light dinner that night (instead of the usual candle light dinner!). This was the night when I had answered one of the questions asked by Priya.

DAY 3 – Feb 20
Today I got up before Priyanka (or had I planned to?). And so I took the opportunity to write ‘I LOVE YOU’ on the bathroom mirror with red “close-up”.

We had breakfast in thehotel and left for Munnar sight-seeing. We first went to Matupetty Dam. We could have done boating there but the thought that boating was the only activity that we would be doing during the later part of our trip made us skip it. There we had candy floss (‘gudiya ke baal’) and had snaps taken in various poses. From there we went to the Echo Point. There I had to do “something” for “some” reason. Then we proceeded to Kundala Dam where we hired a row boat and spent about an hour under the sun on water in the boat.

On our way back to Munnar city, the driver spotted a snake and stopped the car for us to have a closer look. This snake seemed to be an offspring of the one I encountered while cycling in IIT Madras - same colour but smaller in size. We had already booked an elephant ride when we were going to Matupetty Dam. While returning, we got to experience it. It was for Rs. 400 per couple. Our elephant was a male and had both its teeth intact while Rohit and Sonia ji got a female (who was going off the track when she spotted the male on which we were resting!)
Our hotel Edassery Eastend was situated right in the market which gave us the flexibility to have dinner outside the hotel. This made us reach Hotel Sarvana Bhavan where we had an average north Indian cuisine today. The restaurant was, no doubt, famous in the region as many foreign tourists could be seen there. I also noted that besides our hotel, Munnar Inn, and Issacs Residency were also within the Munnar town.

DAY 4
As Priya was taking bath, I opened the box of small dairy milk chocolates which I had brought with me all the way from Meerut for this purpose – writing “I LOVE YOU” on the bed. I had written it today morning but we could not take pics as we were in a hurry to go out for sight seeing. The driver took us to a Tea Museum where we were explained (so to say) how tea leaves were processed into the tea which we get in the market. I had earlier seen the same in Ooty and my interest in it was the same – nil. We also watched a movie as to how tea estates came into being in Munnar and how finally Tata got the control over those estates. Interestingly, Munnar once had a railway and a ropeway but both had been washed out by a rain. Since we had already covered all sights, the driver took us to a ‘view point’ discovered by himself. The fact is that any point in Munnar is a view point. On our way to this ‘manufactured’ view-point we came across a forest kind of an area. This was much more interesting than the view-point. We took some snaps here. As we were were about to leave a group of college girls along with their faculty came there and started showcasing their athletic feats on a tree which had fallen down. This entertained us for about 20 minutes after which we started back for the hotel. The evening was at our leisure.
We purchased a ball, home made chocolates, coffee beans, a scrub and a coffee filter in Munnar.
The four of us had dinner at the same Sarvana Bhavan but we ordered dosas instead of the usual north Indian we had been ordering earlier. The dosas were crisp and you could gauge how much we liked it by the fact that the waiter got a tip of Rs. 20 from Rohit ji.

At night, when we returned to our room, we thought of taking photographs with “I LOVE YOU” written with chocolates. To our surprise, the chocolates had reduced in number. No doubt, the housekeeping person had pocketed some of them. He would have thought them to be a very minor thing which would not come to our notice. I was hurt. Probably she was, as well. “I LOVE YOU” turned to just “LOVE” due to lack of chocolates. We also tried to locate those chocolates in quite a few confectionery shops in Munnar but to no avail.

DAY 5

After our three nights’ stay in Munnar, it was time to bid it goodbye. The journey to Alleppey would take 4-5 hours. We left Munnar at around 10:30 in the morning. I was sleeping for most of the journey only to get up when the driver stopped at a restaurant. We went inside, had a look at the menu, got ourselves fresh, did not find anything worthwhile to order and came out. Please note that I haven’t mentioned that we had our lunch there! We started again with the hope of finding a better restaurant but to our dismay we founded none. But we realized this in time and took out our pooris and ‘achaar’ to have a meal sufficient enough to suppress our hunger for the next couple of hours. The time when we had our meal would be around 3 – 3:30 in the afternoon. The driver told us that our resort was 40 kns away from Alleppey town. It was on an island so he asked us to take any fruits, soft drinks, biscuits we wanted to as we would not get anything at the resort. We did as per his instructions.

We reached the resort at around 5 PM. It was literally on an island which was not even connected to the “mainland”. We had to load ourselves and our luggage into a boat and then reach the reception. Thankfully, the reception, restaurant and our cottages were on the same island so we did not have to take the service of the boatman often. (There were rooms which were on an island different from the one where the restaurant and the reception were located!).
In the evening, we asked the boatman to take us to another island (just opposite to ours). We sat there on the grass and started playing cards. We also took some random snaps there. Realizing that it could be late and that the boatman would leave for the day and we would get strangled on an island(!), we decided to head back for our island. After reaching back, we had dinner in the restaurant which was just good enough for us – Sonia ji as usual took out achaar to have it with ‘chapathys’. Following this, we went to our rooms to sleep.

DAY 6
This day was planned to be a “rest day”. What I had thought while planning the trip was that it would be hectic and would involve extensive traveling. So this full day in Alleppey was meant to be a relaxing day. On the contrary, we had ample time to be at leisure during the whole trip.
I remember that we had asked the man at the reception the previous day the charges for a backwater trip. It was Rs. 150 per person. Our cab driver had given us an idea that we could get this as ‘complimentary’ from the resort. On requesting to get it as ‘complimentary’, the man agreed. He asked us to be at the reception at 5 P.M. We were there before time. Four of us and another couple (six people) plus the boatman were seated in a narrow but long boat which seemed unstable. After about an hour on the backwaters, we were back on land safe and secure!
At night, before dinner, Rohit ji and I somehow had Kingfisher beer followed by a 15 minute “nautanki” which would make us get offers from Bollywood J! It was serious fun. The climax was my planned fall from the tree “swing” (donno what it’s called). After our wives were about to leave us outside the rooms for night, we decided to end it. We had dinner and went to our respective rooms.

As far as I remember, Alleppey was the place where we first played cards extensively, even at the table in the restaurant while our order was being “processed”.

DAY 7
We were to leave Alleppey today. The driver had to come at 9 A.M. We first went to the Alleppey beach. For Rohit and Sonia ji, it was their first beach trip. Priya had been to Daman during her stint at AC Nielsen. I had spent 2 years of my life just 5-6 kms from the beach. Going to the beach is always fun. You can spend as much time there as you want listening to the pleasant sound made by the waves. At least I never ever felt like returning from a beach. But there are constraints. And you have to be ‘back to work’.

On the beach, Rohit ji had taken his slippers off. A wave came and carried them with itself. The scene where Rohit ji was trying to save his slippers from going into the sea was worth a watch. As he was trying to ‘rescue’ his slippers, his goggles slipped from his shirt pocket. We all had a “LOL”!

Since it was hot, we had ice-creams. One each wasn’e sufficient and so went for a second one. We took quite a number of photos there – while having ice-creams, with something written on the sands, with different patterns of waves and waters...

After about more than an hour we decided to return to the car to move for the next and the biggest attraction of Kerala – The Houseboat. Just as we entered the houseboat, all others (the three of them) started to thank me. This was a kind of delight we were experiencing. The houseboat had 2 AC rooms with attached lat-bath, a kitchen, a lobby with a dining table and a kind of a living room. The very sight of the houseboat as well as noting the details of the interior was fascinating. The houseboat was to take us from Alleppey to Kumarakom. Our driver would leave us at the jetty and he would reach Kumarakom by car. As the houseboat started to move, we all felt elated. It was an experience of a lifetime. If I were to travel to Kerala again, it would be for the houseboat. On our way, we could spot innumerable of houseboats – it was just like traffic in a not so populated area like Udaipur (I remember it as being a famous city with least traffic I’ve seen in my life). I was able to spot a milestone on the waterway. Similar to the school buses we have generally, here we could see school-boats – children travelling in boats between school and home!! As some motorboat passed by the side, our houseboat would start to move up and down (forgot the technical word for it, there was one in mechanical engg!).

In the evening the houseboat was ‘parked’(!) by the side of a field. We took a lot of pictures witht he houseboat. We were supposed to stay here for the night. It seemed strange to us – had this been in U.P., the houseboat would have disappeared in the night with no evidence that it was there the previous night. But all states are not as “great” as U.P. We were safe till the morning. In fact, when the AC had stopped functioning, I wanted to go out. But Priya asked me to stay inside. I thought for a while and then it came to me – we were in Kerala and I would be returning safe to my room. So I went out and asked the boat wala to start the AC. He did the same. It was only then that we had a sound sleep.

DAY 8
The boat started for Kumarakom at 8 A.M. We had our breakfast on the houseboat and reached the resort in Kumarakom by 9. We entered the resort from the back side as we had come by a houseboat! Initially, we were given normal cottages. But then I realized that we had paid an extra 500 bucks for the lake-view cottages. I went to the reception and told the issue. We were shifted to the lake view rooms in about 2 hours time in which we got ready to go out to see the bird sanctuary. Till such time all four of us were to stay in the same room. Priya and I decided to venture out while Rohit and Sonia ji would get ready. We took some snaps in the meantime.
After sometime, we switched positions – Rohit ji and Sonia ji would venture out whereas we both would get ready. After all of us were ready, we proceeded to have breakfast following which we left for Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary. There was nothing much to see there and as Priya wasn’t feeling well we decided to return to our resort. There we spent the afternoon sleeping and the evening in the swimming pool. We also lost our ball which was carried away by the wind into a “drain”.

Since there was no a-la-carte system of meals at the resort we decided to have our dinner outside for which we had to specially call Subhash, the driver. He took us to Lakshmi Resorts (the same place where he had taken us for lunch) which wasn’t quite near to our place.
We packed most of the stuff at the resort at night as we had to leave for Kochi Airport next morning to catch our flight to Agatti.

DAY 9
It would have taken us about 1.5 hours to reach the Kochi Airport. It was a small but we could see many foreigners. Kochi is one of the two gateways to Kerala, the other being Thiruvananthapuram.

There was only one flight to Agatti - from Bangalore via Kochi. The plane to Agatti was smaller – an ATR 72 rather than a Boeing or an Airbus. The propeller had three wings without any outside casing which made me feel a bit jittery when I thought of a bird hit! This plane was also different from the bigger ones in terms of seating. There were two seats on either side of the aisle.
The flight took off on time and soon after takeoff we were served with goodies – pen, wet tissue and toffees followed by lunch which was better than some of what we had on land! We also took some snaps of the HIDESIGN bag shown in one of the magazines which was the same as the one which Priyanka was carrying that day. In about 1 hour 20 minutes, we were at Agatti. The view of Agatti and nearby islands from the top was amazing. I could get only a glimplse of it as Priya was sitting towards the window. She had offered me the window seat (and she also said – “dikhawa to karna padta hai” L).

After we landed we were made to stay in a room which wasn’t so comfortable. There was no AC in it. We had to wait there for quite sometime before our luggage came. In the meantime, we met the resort representative there who collected our travel permits. He told us that we would have to walk to the resort which was just a 2 minute walk away. It literally was!

We were served coconut water as a welcome drink and were allocated rooms which were not so well positioned compared to a few other ones. We had booked non-AC rooms in Agatti. We had a good afternoon nap and “warmed up” during the evening for the rest of the days to be spent in Agatti.

DAY 10
We went for a glass bottom boat ride for 1.5 hours in the lagoon and to the reef. It was a sunny day. We were to be under the sun for more than an hour. We could see a number of corals in the crystal clear water. In Agatti, one could also go for scuba diving to explore the world under water. But I did not quite feel like exploring it (I have an anathema towards sea creatures!). Initially, we were all very enthusiastic about the clear water etc. But as time passed and with sun’s fury, the ladies expressed their desire to go back to the land. Rohit ji and I insisted that we stay in the boat for some more time as we had to get value out of what we had paid! (Rs. 1000/person is not a meagre amount for an hour and a half). In the resorts list of water sports, turtle watch was listed as a separate activity for which they were charging about 400-500 bucks per person. We asked the boatman to show us some turtles towards the end of our time thinking we would save some money (or rather get some more value for what we paid!). We found that watching turtles at Agatti was no big deal. One could see them while kayaking (which is the only free water sport at the resort).

So at the end of our boat trip we were a bit happy (about seeing the aquatic life which we had never seen earlier) and a bit miffed (as the ride was long (30 minutes ride would have sufficed) and we were sitting direct under the sun (although there was a cool breeze flowing)).
All in all we were satisfied for the fact that in our life time the probability of coming to Lakshadweep again was close to zero. So whatever we were doing here was for the first and the last time, at least this place.)

It was almost lunch time as we finished our boat ride. We had lunch and then went for an afternoon nap (this was almost of a daily affair as it wasn’t very enjoyable during the hot and humid sunny afternoons).

In the evening we turned a little adventurous and ventured out in the lagoon for Kayaking (How can Indians not taste something that’s free, right!!??). I had already done kayaking once at Phookote Lake in Waynad (It was also Kerala!) Those kayaks were air-filled balloon type, bigger and looked safe. Here in Agatti, the kayaks were made of plastic and very thin (low height) and looked as if they would sink if water flowed into them which was a definite possibility given the increased turbulence in water during the evenings (water was usually calm in the morning). I was the first to kayak with an uncle ji who was already kayaking with his wife. I found it safe! So Rohit ji and I went again in another kayak. Meanwhile, Priya had also gotten ready for kayaking. Both Soniaji and Priya were apprehensive of kayaking (It looked so!).

Priya and I would have kayaked for hardly 5-10 minutes when I got to see a turtle. As already

mentioned, I have an anathema towards aquatic life (not when challenged!!!), we turned our direction towards the land. And I decided not to get into a kayak again. The irony of the kayak scene is that we did not take a single photograph sitting in the kayaks.
In the evenings the weather in Agatti became extremely pleasant. Once we came out for dinner, we did not feel like going back to our rooms. It was in Agatti that we played a lot of playing cards sitting on the “beach beds” (not sure what they’re called) after dinner under the moon light with the music of the waves.

DAY 11
We had plans to go out for an island tour this day. But when we came to know that 16 people had already registered for the same trip, we dropped the idea. What fun in going to uninhabited islands with so many people? So we decided to do something else – to take a “sight seeing tour” of Agatti. We hired an auto for Rs. 300 (the same bajaj auto which we have here). All four of us could easily fit into it. On enquiring the auto wallah he told us that there were 10 such autos in Agatti. Petrol cost was around Rs. 65 per litre. There was no petrol pump on the island. We observed that the vehicles carried a LD number (Lakshadweep registration number). We wondered how many vehicles would be there in all islands put together (we could see a jeep, an ambassador and a few two wheelers on the island).

The prior information I had about Agatti was that it had a population of about 8000 – all muslims (cannot be very sure of this as the source is ‘internet’). The length of the island was about 8 kms.

We first went to the museum. We were the only four people to visit it that time. On our way to the museum, we could see some kids waving towards us. We realized that we were like aliens to them. They would hardly get to see someone from the mainland of India or a foreigner. The reason for that being that although a plethora of visitors thronged the Agatti Beach Resort, few thought of exploring the island itself. All museums are alike to me – so was this. After the museum, we went to a jetty. We also saw a new jetty (Eastern jetty) being constructed, dredging going on, a coir factory and a sight (this was the best).

It took us about 2-3 hours to see the whole island. The most memorable experience for us was when some of the natives of the island wanted to talk to us as if we were VIPs. They asked us our names and place and tried to converse with us in whatever Hindi they could speak (we couldn’t speak Malayalam) - who would do it to a stranger at a new place!!?? Their reaction made us a bit jittery – why were they trying to be so friendly with us, we thought. Looking back one would realize that for them seeing a new person (outside of their island) would indeed have been a rare experience.

We came back to the resort before lunch time and after having lunch went to our rooms to have a routine afternoon nap. We usually enjoyed the evenings playing cards on the beach in the pleasant breeze. This evening we all “lolled” – Thanks to Kaho Na Pyar Hai and Bakhuda. I am sure all four of us would never forget that evening.

DAY 12
We had booked an island trip for this day. We were the only four people to be travelling on the boat today compared to the previous day when 16 people had gone for the same trip. It was like hiring a private boat!! We were to “travel” to four islands – Bangaram, Thinnakkara, Parali I and Parali II. The boatsman first took us to Thinnakkara and then to Parali I and finally to Bangaram. He skipped Parali II saying that both the Parali islands were similar. What was astonishing was that although there was nobody living on those islands, we received full mobile signals on Thinnakkara and Parali I (both these islands are uninhabited) as well as Bangaram (which has a resort). Hats off to Airtel! (There were only two mobile operators in Lakshadweep – state owned BSNL and Airtel). This was the only time when an Airtel customer could truly distinguish him/herself from the others! (If you’re planning to go to Lakshadweep, have either of these two connections to stay connected with your near and dear ones on the mainland of India – or else use telephone facility at the resort).

I had not anticipated that travelling in the boat could be so fearful. I was literally afraid. Initially we were in the lagoon where there were no waves. As we moved to the deep ocean, waves became so strong that sometimes the boat would leave the sea surface and ‘take-off’ in the air just to land back on the sea with a thump! Initially the ladies were feeling jittery as well but they got accustomed to this very soon. And it was only Rohit ji and I who were yelling for someone to help us! The boatmen were also laughing seeing us nearing the life jackets to ourselves. (Prevention is better than cure, isn’t it!!??)

Finally when we saw the destination island, and as we re-entered the lagoon area of the other islands, we could tone town our anxiety. The fact is that the journey back to Agatti was far less fearful.

The boatman pulled a coconut from the tree and peeled it to offer us the pulp (yes! pulp in coconut! kind of a solid cream, which we had never seen in mainland India!). After initial resistance (pata nahi kya khila raha ho, behosh kar ke paise leke bhaag na jaye kahin – this was what came to my mind – we are from UP!), on his insisting we tasted a bit of it. I didn’t quite like it.

We also saw small shells moving with living creatures beneath them. It was for the first time we had seen something of this sort and it evoked this response from me – yuckkk!!!
After visiting the two uninhabited islands of Parali and Thinnakara, we went to Bangaram. Here we had our lunch. That lunch is perhaps one which none of us would forget – such an ugly one – but we had as much as we could because we had nothing else to eat except for fruits (oranges and apples) which we had carried with us from Agatti. Bangaram was beautiful. We though that instead of staying in Agatti for four nights, we could have stayed 2 nights in Agatti and one in Bangaram (total 3 nights in lieu of four for the same cost!).

After taking snaps at the island we started back for Agatti. In the evening, we explored the area out side our resort. The beach on the other side of the island was much cleaner than the resort beach. I was regretting why we had not been to this side of the island earlier. As it was getting dark, we decided to go back to the resort t come back early next morning on this side of the island to see the rising sun.

DAY 13
This was our last day at Lakshadweep. Priyanka and I got up at around 6 O’ clock in the morning to see the sunrise. Since Lakshadweep is to the west of mainland of India, here the sun rises and sets with a delay of about an hour. After waiting for quite sometime, when we could not see the sunrise due to the clouds, Priyanka went back to the resort. I was still on the beach to capture some pictures of the sun. After taking some snaps, I also went back to the resort to catch on some sleep (getting up early in the morning was like getting up at midnight). We had made it a norm to take pics at our hotel/resort on the very last day only. So it was time for us to cover the whole resort in pics. Both the couples took innumerable snaps after which it was time to finally pack our luggage. We had lunch at the resort and moved to the airport. At the airport, unlike the arrival, we got to sit in an AC waiting room.

We were one of the first few people to get into the flight. As soon as we got in, we took snaps. The food on way back to Kochi was South Indian and it was not comparable to the food which we got on our way to Agatti. Rohit ji and Sonia ji would have filled the feedback form quite opposite to what they had filled on their way to Agatti (all because of the food!)
At Kochi airport we had a cab waiting for us. We went to Hotel Yuvarani by about 5 O clock. After resting for about an hour we got ready to go out and explore the nearby market (MG Road). I purchased the much demanded banana chips (for office guys as well as for ourselves).

DAY 14
This morning we went to Broadway to purchase massage oil. This was for the first time we were travelling there in an auto! Besides massage oils, we also got to purchase “Happy” umbrellas (there was a shop dedicated to umbrellas!), scents and aloe vera gels. As we had to catch our flights at 4, we left for the airport at around 1:30.

After landing at Delhi, the pilot “drove” (!) the plane for half an hour making us impatient. Temperature in Delhi had risen – we didn’t need to put on our pullovers after coming out.
We had dinner at Haldirams’ after which we travelled non-stop to Meerut to land in beds in our HOME SWEET HOME!!