I came back from Kolkata just a few days ago. I had gone there to participate in a quiz. Unfortunately, we didn’t win, but the experience in Kolkata was wonderful. Let me tell you about the city first.

Kolkata:

One of the first things I noticed upon reaching Kolkata was the number of taxis there. In Pune, wherever you go, you see autorickshaws. In Kolkata I couldn’t see a single one. All I could see wherever I looked were the yellow and blue taxis. From an aircraft flying low, the streets must have looked like a river of yellow. Also, the taxis were cheaper than the autos here in Pune. Another thing about the taxis was that I didn’t see a single Indica or Santro or any of the usual taxi vehicles. All the taxis in Kolkata were Ambassadors.

One of the first and only places we went to in Kolkata was the Victoria Memorial. This was the first real journey we took on the streets in daylight and I thought that they were remarkably clean. Unlike Pune or Mumbai there were no huge garbage containers at every corner. The Victoria Memorial really impressed me. Apart from being a huge place with big, well-kept gardens it was also amazingly un-littered. No plastic bags or food items were allowed into the gardens and the paths around were not laid with cement- they were just covered in stone so whatever biodegradable waste was thrown down was decomposed and absorbed by the soil.

Unluckily the Memorial itself was closed on Mondays- the day we went there so we got to see only the gardens. All around in the gardens were about 12feet tall statues of all the governor-generals of India. While my quiz partner was taking a photo of Queen Victoria’s statue, a crow perched of the Queen’s head, another on her hand and two more on her lap. That drew my attention to a telephone wire which was covered by crows. I think that one of the main reasons for the concentration of the crows was that there was the dead body of a vulture lying in the garden. 

My idea of a good trip is that you do whatever the place offers which you don’t get elsewhere so when we had seen the Memorial, I asked if we could go back in a tram because Kolkata is the only city in India with tram facilities. We had even passed a tram station and seen two! But both the teacher and my partner said that trams were too slow and uncomfortable and that we could travel much more comfortably in a taxi and…. and… and… Basically, I was outvoted 2 to 1.

Now, I’ll tell you about the New Market. It is basically a place which is arranged like a grid with a few stray lines. It was covered, but it wasn’t claustrophobic. You felt as if you were in open air- except that you weren’t. Now I was dragged unwillingly to the place- I hate shopping and I was like walking around doing nothing for like half an hour while these people were  emptying their purses for bags. They were constantly telling me to buy something for my mom, but I knew that there was nothing there which she would like.

Oh, and I almost forgot, we went to KC Das which is this famous place for Bengali sweets. There I bought a tin of rasogullas and a small box of sandesh- both famous Bengali sweets. We have finished the sandesh but there are some rasogullas left, and let me tell you- both were awesome.

It was when we were going back that our teacher announced her intention of going sari-shopping. She got two more teachers from other schools to come with her and went off with them as we had said that we were completely bored of shopping. I think that my partner gets bored a little too fast because whereas I had done no shopping at all- she had bought some 5 bags and yet she claimed to be more bored than me.

Anyway, that was all we got to see of Kolkata.

The quiz which we had gone for is going to be broadcasted on TV so there was shooting on a set and everything.  I’ll tell you about the studio in my next post.

I am part of my school choir. A few days ago we had a presentation supporting a play. It was in Nehru Auditorium in Pune. For a few weeks before the presentation we had been practicing quite a lot. I had been missing three of my lessons everyday. So I had a lighter bag but lots and lots of homework. The song we sung was 'Imagine this world without the trees' composed by our music sir. Also we had to sing six lines of another song in Tamil. It was very weird for all of us.

The play was about a girl named Jayu who plants a mango tree which she names 'Mangy'. We in the choir could never stop laughing at the name. During the practice sessions, we had stood fairly apart but when we reached the auditorium, we realised that there was hardly space for 20 people to stand comfortably- let alone our 30. Anyway, we managed by squeezing ourselves.

For the last few days we all, especially me had been very apprehensive about the presentation. I had to sing a very high 'imagine' with another boy. There were only two of us. So if I made a mistake, everyone would know immediately. Constantly singing that in school during the 2hr practice sessions had made my throat sore. For Saturday and Sunday I was constantly drinking warm water and gargling with salt water atleast thrice a day. I was extremely worried but on the Day my voice was fine. Maybe a little sore but I could reach the high part without much difficulty.

We left from school in a bus. I wasn't very nervous now- this was the third time I was representing the choir. In the bus we played dumbcharades. It was great fun. When we reached the Nehru Auditorium, we were told by sir that we would have to squeeze together on stage. Then, we were taken backstage to wait for our chance. The wait was long one- there were two plays before ours.

In the middle, sir came and gave all of us balloons which we had to throw when the play finished. The funniest incident of the day was related to them. When our chance came, we all walked out in neat lines and took out positions. Then, the play began.

We waited for our cue and then began singing. I think we all sang very well. Then came my high portion. This was the end of the play and everybody had to throw in their balloons. When I was in the middle of the difficult part, a balloon thrown by one of my friends hit me right on my face. I had to stop singing for a moment to supress my laughter. Anyway, I don't think the audience noticed. They all clapped loudly as we trooped offstage.

Some of the students had saved their balloons and we burst them in school. It was a fun end to a fun day.

I don't know when the next choir presentation will be but I have more important things to think about - a LOT of missed maths work. Nooooooooooooooooooooo...................      

The Indian Ocean

This trip is the first time I have seen the Indian Ocean. Otherwise, it has always been the Arabian Sea for me. The water was wonderful. ‘Clear as crystal’ would describe it well. I have never seen water in the Arabian Sea as clear as this. We could actually see the bed of the sea in chest deep water! Can you believe that?!

There was lots of seaweed around and once, I even caught a real live starfish!!! I thought that it was seaweed and took it out of the water. I only realised that it was a starfish when it began to wriggle in my hand! Tiger was our friend in the ocean. Tiger is a boat. It was anchored at a spot close to the beach. We used it as a marker to determine where to wade into the water. We had a wonderful time in the Indian Ocean.

My father even tried windsurfing. You climb on to a kind of surf board which is attached to a sail. Then you try to align the mast to the sail or something. I didn’t understand a word of what my father’s windsurfing teacher told him. Anyway, I think my father became pretty good at it.

On a scale of 10, I would surely give the Indian Ocean 10 out of 10!

We went for a family vacation to the Kenyan Coast. Here is the second instalment of my diary on the trip.

The Resort

Leopard Beach Resort is a HUGE place. We got off the car at the Reception. It was very, very hot. I was sweating profusely.   So I was pleased when we were given ‘Welcome Drinks’. The receptionist told us to ‘take a seat’ because our room was not ready. We thought that we would have to wait for 10-15 minutes. Little did we know that we would have to wait for two and a half hours.

After about half an hour,  my father went to enquire about our room. The receptionist told us that it was still not ready. We left our bags at the reception and went for a stroll. We walked all over the resort. We went to the pool, the beach, the restaurants and even had lunch. Then, we walked back to the reception. But still no room!! We got really frustrated. It was very hot and also there was no fan in the reception. After waiting for half an hour, we were finally given the keys to our room (number 103).

The room was nice. It had many paintings hung on the walls. There was also a TV. We even had a mini veranda with two chairs in it. The thing I was most grateful for was that there was an AC in the room because was really, really HOT outside.

While wandering around the resort in the next few days, we saw many, many monkeys. I think they were black colobuses. One morning, when my father and I were sitting outside in our mini-veranda, a monkey actually jumped onto my armrest!! I was very startled.

I also saw a pretty big lizard (about 2ft in length) in the resort. I saw it when I was going down the stairs to the swimming pool. It slithered up around the corner. I was really surprised. We also saw a larger lizard about 3ft in length (see the pic.) I think it was the parent of the earlier one. It was re laxing in the shade of some plants near a fountain. We also saw a multicoloured lizard just outside the room.

The swimming pool in the resort is pretty big – bigger than the one we have back home in India at least. In one part, it was about 4ft deep and then, it suddenly dipped to 8ft!! The water in the 4ft deep area was warm but when I was swimming over the 8ft deep area, I felt really cold!

The resort was made really colourful by flowers whose colours ranged from blue to white to yellow to red. The flowers were really beautiful.

One thing I noticed was that the roofs of ALL the buildings are thatched! So, if there is a fire, the whole place will go up in flames!!

There were lots of entertainment facilities in the resort. They had a T.T table and a pool table. We played both these games. I think we are pretty bad at pool. It took us 30 mins to put in all the 15 balls in!! There was also a lawn tennis court and beach volleyball net. We didn’t play either of these. The resort also had a disco and a dartboard. One day when we were going to our room after dinner we could hear music coming from the disco. But we were too full to dance!

On one of the nights, we saw an acrobatics show. I think the acrobats were really good. There was an act in which one of the acrobats balanced another on his shoulders while riding a unicycle!! Can you believe it?? In another act, the same acrobat kept the front wheel of his bicycle in the air while riding at crazy speeds in a circular path. It looked (and I am sure it is) very difficult. The acrobats even did a tightrope walking stunt on a rope about 6ft off the floor. Watching the acrobatic show was real fun. After the acrobatic show, there was a magic show and I actually got to be in one of the acts! There were more entertainment programmes on other days but we didn’t go to any of them except a Maasai Dance and that was really boring.

Overall, I think it was a very good resort especially because it was right on the seashore. If I threw a stone from the Pasta n' Pizza Tornati Restaurant, it would fall in the ocean!!

We went for a family vacation to the Kenyan Coast. Here is the first instalment of my diary on the trip...

The Flight to Diani

We (my mom, dad and I), flew from Nairobi to Diani for our beach holiday on Monday. At Wilson Airport, Nairobi, I got to see many, many different types of aircraft. It was the first time I had seen so many of them at the same time. They came in all sizes and colour. The airfield was littered with aircrafts ranging from small two-seaters to medium sized jets. There were no big ones. One of my dreams is to become a pilot. So I was very excited on seeing so many different kinds of airplanes and choppers.

After checking in one of our three bags, we got into a small 12-seater. The flight was supposed to leave half an hour later but seeing that all the passengers as well as the airplane were here, the airport officials decided to let us go.

There were two pilots. We sat just behind them so that I could see the controls. It was the first time I have heard the pilot turn back and talk to his passengers. He welcomed us aboard the flight and told us to put on the seatbelts for takeoff. He also told us to look at the security card in the seat pocket in front of us. After saying this, he turned and flipped a switch above his head. As the aircraft picked up speed for takeoff, I looked eagerly at the control stick. It was the first time I have been in an aircraft in which I could hear so much noise from the engines.

It was a one and a half an hour flight. The aircraft climbed through the clouds and then I couldn’t see anything other than the clouds beneath us. I think I slept a little. When I woke up, I had an earache. My mother told me that it was because of the change in air pressure.

After some time, the pilot turned back and pointed to the right side of the aircraft. He told us that the mountain peak showing thro ugh the clouds was Mt.Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa. There was snow on the upper regions of the mountain in spite of being so close to the equator! (See my pic.) The fact that we were flying in Kenyan airspace but just to our right, maybe about 20mins flight time away, was Kilimanjaro in Tanzania was weird. We flew on and Kilimanjaro was lost to sight.

As we neared Diani airstrip, I got a pilots-eye-view of an airstrip. The pilot touched down perfectly. The Diani Airstrip is the smallest airport I have ever seen. It consists of one small building and an airstrip – that’s all. Some of the airport personnel came out with an oversized shopping trolley. They opened the undercarriage of our aircraft and took out the check-in luggage. We took our bag and went out.

Our pick up car was waiting for us. We got in and the driver drove us to Leopard Beach Resort. We had arrived! I was feeling very happy!

Day before yesterday, my mother and I travelled to Nairobi, Kenya. My father works here. We flew from Chattrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) in Mumbai to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi. We flew on flight KQ203 of Kenya Airways. The last time we flew here, it was on the same flight i.e. KQ203. But, I think it was an old aircraft that time. It didn’t have a television at the back of every seat. I was very jealous when my grandparents told me that they had TVs on the back of seats on a domestic flight! Anyways, the aircraft was probably newer this time . It had TVs on the backs of the seats.

 I watched 3 movies in the 6hr flight. But, I didn’t get to watch even a single movie fully. In between, when the TV lost signal or something like that, I had to start afresh. As you can imagine, I was very, very frustrated. I didn’t even get to watch one movie properly.  I watched most of Dabanng, The Chronicles of Narnia- Voyage of the Dawn Treader and some of Alvin and the Chipmunks. The last I stopped when the airhostesses came to collect the earphones. The first 2 were interrupted due to signal loss.

When we were coming down to land in Nairobi, there was so much cloud cover, that at one point of time, I couldn’t see the wingtip of the aircraft from my window seat! But as we went lower and lower, the cloud cover became lesser and lesser. Then, we burst through the clouds over JKIA and..... touchdown! We had reached! Yippee! I shall tell you more about my stay in Kenya in my next post.     

Some days ago, my mom, dad and I went on a safari in the Maasai Mara National Park, Kenya. The park is beautiful. All you can see is the plains rolling as far as the eye can see. Far away there were some mountains- part of the Serengeti, Tanzania. We went on the safari in an SUV whose roof could be raised. We stayed in a tented camp which is about half an hour away from the park. It is called Siana Springs. We went for three safaris in our two-day stay.

In the first one, we were very excited to see the large groups of zebras, Thompson's gazelles or swala tomi and deer called topis. The rain played spoilsport initially but let up later on. On the same safari, we came across one of the rarest animals- a leopard. It was climbing down a tree when we arrived at the scene. Our driver, a regular at the Maasai Mara, was connected by radio to his friends. He would ask them whether they had seen anything from time to time. Later, on  the same excursion we saw lions. I was very excited at first but later came to know that lions were very common. We also saw a pair of lionesses with their kill!! We actually saw them ripping out the intestines of the poor wildebeest. After the kill, we didn't see anything particularly exciting.

The next day, we decided to go for a full-day safari. We took a picnic lunch with us. We had decided to pay a visit to the Mara River and the crocodiles and hippos in it. On that safari, we saw our first hyena as well as jackal. We also saw another pair of lionesses with their kill. Our driver parked the SUV on the banks of the river. We were pretty high up. The river looked beautiful. We saw an island with many hippos. We also saw some crocodiles. On another island, we saw many carcasses of wildebeest and zebra. This was the aftermath of the Great Migration. Every year, thousands of wildebeest and zebra migrate to the Trans Mara (another section of the same plains). To do so, they had to cross the Mara river. This time of the year was party time for the crocodiles.

After looking at the hippos and crocs, we proceeded to the shelter of a tree. There, we spread a rug on the ground and sat down to eat. The camp had packed us the picnic lunches. We sat down and opened them. There were an unbelievable number of flies. They were everywhere. It was really exasperating. I was thankful when we finally finished the lunch and got into the car.

On the way back, we saw a spectacular sight. We actually saw two cheetahs kill an impala!! It was fabulous. As one closed in on  the right, the other moved in from the left. Together they succeeded in bringing down their prey and the poor impala's brothers were left without their sibling.

Then, we saw some more lions. It was amazing. They did not seem to care about the cars and just sat there - not the least bit scared or even worried. I wonder what they thought of us. We also saw the same leopard on the same tree as the first safari. But this time, it was sleeping. Then, we also passed a herd of mean looking water buffaloes. And, of course, there was the ever-present giraffe.

We returned to the camp completely happy. We had been extremely lucky. Most people don't see a leopard or a cheetah even after going on 10 safaris! We had now seen the Big 4 out of the Big 5. we had seen elephants, lions, cheetahs and water buffaloes. Only the rhino remained. We hoped to see it the next day. But unfortunately, the rhino still eluded us. On the early morning game drive the next day, we didn't see anything exceptional. After the safari, we had breakfast and returned to Nairobi. It had been a truly fascinating experience.

Here is a photo from our trip

http://www.flickr.com/photos/makarand_s/sets/72157625330672488

The ball flew high
Into the sky
It landed outside the ground
And fell into a mud mound

Mohan leaned over and got the ball

Because as you know, he’s very tall

But it was covered in muck

Yuckie YUCK

My parents and I went on a holiday to Dapoli recently. We stayed at Amrute Nisarg Sahavas. There, we stayed in a tent as well as a tree-house. Both of them were very comfortable. They had everything in them – fan, proper lighting, proper bathrooms etc. the tree house was a good 20-25 feet off the ground. It was fun climbing up and down the ladder, though I was scared at first. There was also a pet golden retriever named Jack there. At first, I was very scared of him. But soon I realized that he wouldn’t harm me. We became good friends. We stayed at Dapoli for about 2 days. In those 2 days, we had lots and lots of fun.    

I wonder what the future will be like,
When computers provide whatever we like.
I would ask for a cold ice-cream,
Made by the rays of a techno beam!!

When computers will make trees,
Forests and bees,
Then we'll be doing no-thing,
But, pro-gram-ming!!

I think I know what the future will be,
It's clear for some of us to see.
No cars, no buses, no railway stations,
All we'll have is teleportation!!