In Hyderabad

Today is my 3rd day in office. Grasping stuff. Created a first draft and had the first discussion with boss. Lets see where things head towards.

Out of Kolkata...

At last am out of Kolkata. Again headed towards Hyderabad. Got a job there as Production Manager. Quite interesting, and seems great.

Howrah Bridge

A cargo steamer got stuck beneath Howrah Bridge. For the first time in its lifespan of 67 years such incdent happened. The gateway to Kolkata.. in torouble.. lot of people went to the spot.

Its really hot this summer...

It was really hot this summer in Kolkata. The temp went upto 40 degree, with all time high humidity. We are still wating for the rains...

Aaah... back from Mumbai......

Amu
Watched Amu at Nandan. The movie is based on 1984 Sikh riot. Konkona did a wonderful performance. A movie worth viewing.

Coming back
Today I am leaving. Boarding the train back to Kolkata. It was a nice trip. Meeting old people, and specially the care Sumona di and her family took had moved me a lot. This time leaving was more difficult than the previous time.

Sankranti
Today is Sankranti. We visited Balaji temple at Chirkoor. 'We' consist of Sumona di, Ananda and me. I have never been to that temple. Its far away from Hyderabad. Quite crowded. We offered our puja and by the time we reached back home it was evening.

Visiting Companies.
I visited lot of companies in and around Hyderabad. Lot of changes. Both in the city and with the companies. Few of them had a friendly approach, as they used to have before the change in goverment, but most of them were rude. That was quite a shock for me, as am not used to such rude behaviour in Hyderabad. The city seemed to loose its caring nature as well.

Reaching Hyderabad..
I was all excited. Comming to the city 11 months after I have left it was really wonderful. Yeah, I am back in Hyderabad. Good to see it again. I had dropped Sabyasachi in a hotel, and then got to didi's house. She was there to welcome me. We met after 11 months. Though I met Rajiv da in between, still meeting Sumona di was something different.

At Kolkata.

The train was late by 2 hrs. When we reached Howrah station. But it was a happy journey.

Packing

The packing started. We are boarding the train tonight. Today is Dussera. On this day Ravana effigy is burnt. Our train was at 8:00 pm from Hatia, and the station was 15 min from MECON quarter. Still we decided to leave MECON at 6 pm. And thank god we took that desicion. Due to Ravana badh all the autos were booked, and the roads blocked by stream of people. It took us 1 hr to cover a distance of 15 mins. Just imagine.

At Ranchi.

We booked another car and went to visit falls around Ranchi. The first one was Hundru Falls.Hundru falls is about 40 km. aways from Ranchi town. The Swarnarekha river falls from a height of 320 feet making a wonderful scene known as Hundru falls. During rainy season it takes a formidable form. To view the falls one has to alight the steps. And how many ? Well one has to go down 736 steps and one small bridge.
After Hundru we visited Jonha falls. Jonha is 36 km from Hundru. It got a newly built road. There is also a hospice Tourists rest house which accommodates Lord Gautam Budha’s temple. This falls is named after Gautam as Gautamdhara. Here one can alight the steps and can go so close to the fall that it could be touched. This one looked much better than Hundru, as the falls is much broader. River Ganaga Nala flows to form the falls.

At Ranchi

Decided to take rest. This was a rest day. So, we spend singing songs, listenig to songs and playing indoor games.

Way back to Ranchi

We started our journey from Netarhat at 10: 30 am. On the way we stopped at Birsha. This place is 25 km from Netarhat. Birsha is a place on Koel River river bank. The place could be viewed from our hotel at Netarhat.

At Netarhat.

156 Kms from Ranchi is Netarhat, the queen of Chotanagpur. The name Netarhat has a history behind it. During the British periods, the British soldiers were looking for a cool place. While doing the survey they came upon a area in the hills, covered with dense forest and small streams. Seeing the sight they were very happy, and described the place as "Near the heart". The phrase "Near the heart" gradually got transformed and took the form Netarhat. It is situated at a height of 3,7000 ft above sea level and is a hill station of Jharkhand. Netarhat is a beautiful resort during summer. Dense forests, serpentine roads, cool bracing breeze, moonlit nights truley makes it near the heart.This place is an out of this world experience.

We reached Nerathat around 4 pm. The journey was quite long more than 5 hours. This is mainly due to bad roads. We boarded at Prabhat Hotel, a Jharkhand Tourism hotel. We had our lunch, and then took the car to Mangolia Point. This is a point from where one can see the sun set.
The most stunning thing of Netarhat is the silence. The place is amazingly silent after sunset.

2nd day at Netarhat.

The sunrise point was from the hotel where we had lodged. From the balcony we could see the Koel River flowing downhill, and the range of hills. Amazing view. After breakfast we visited Netarhat Dam, and Netarhat lake. Both were 2 km from our hotel, so we decided walking through the jungles. The lake serves as water reservoir for the place.
Far off from Netarhat, one can visit many falls. Among them are Lodh Falls (70 kms from Netarhat) and Sadni Falls : (35 kms from Netarhat). we had a problem with disel. The nearest petrol pump from Netarhat is 55km away at Ghagri, on Ranchi - Netarhat road. And since there was a shortage of dilsel in our car, so we decided to visit Sadni falls. To visit the falls one has to cover jungle, then bauxite mines (now owned by HINDALCO), then again the jungles. Let me mention that the jungles in Netarhat is so dense that sunlight can hardly penetrate. Also the road condition is poor,( on the way we say people re-building the roads, they should be over in another year). After travelling 30 kms we came across a team of workers. And since the road conditions were detoriating drastically as we were approaching the spot, so we decided to stop tha car and ask the supervisor. When we put forward our query, he recommended us not to go. As the place is disturbed by the extremest. In last 5 years not a single tourist went there. So, alas we had to turn back. It was very sad that we couldn't see the falls, being so near to it.
In evening we went to see Upper Ghagri Falls.

Ranchi

At Ranchi.
The train journey was good enough.It was quite cold. Actually, Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand, is set on Chota Nagpur Plateau, quite a pleasant place. The Gypsy was waiting at the station. We boarded the car and was headed to MECON staff quarters. My pisha (uncle) works at MECON.We are not supposed to meet them, as they went to Mumbai. So the whole quarter belonged to us. A huge quater was waiting for us. Spacious rooms with huge balcony. The best thing at Ranchi is the sound polluton was less, and my ears were getting good rest. After lunch we went to one of the posh locality of Ranchi, and booked a car for our onward journey to Netarhat.

The Journey Begins.
Our puja trip starts today. Our means we (my family) and my maternal uncles family. We are going to Jharkhand. A new state in eastern part of India. We will board Ranchi-Hatia Express and travel to Ranchi. The train is scheduled to leave late night.

Frames Management is ready
The first version of the software is ready. Yahoo!.... So, now I have to pack it and send it across to various studios.