Murud - a travelogue

If you like the kind of vacation that is packed choc-a-bloc with things-to-do and sights to see, if you carry lists where you tick off what you've done and what you are yet to do, stop reading right now. This post is not for you. This is for the relaxed traveller - the one who lets a holiday play out as it will, the one who is not in a tearing hurry to get to the next tourist destination that is marked out in the guide, the one who is willing to live in and savour in its entirety, every moment that presents itself.
If you are still reading this, despite that rather lengthy warning, allow me to tell you about this beautiful slice of paradise right here on the Konkan coast of Maharashtra. Located in the Raigadh district of Maharashtra, Murud is roughly 160 km from Mumbai.
 
Getting there:
We drove down from Navi Mumbai and took the Panvel-Karnala-Pen-Alibaug-Revdanda-Kashid-Murud route. The Alibaug-Kashid-Murud stretch offers stunning views of the coast and you will be tempted to stop at quite a few place just to take in the beauty of the sea. Trust me, give in to that temptation and stop as many times as you want to. You will not regret it. It took us close to 5 hours to reach Murud, mostly because there was road work going on in several stretches along the route and traffic moved very slowly at these places.
Stay:
One of the things that can make or break a good holiday is the place that you choose to stay in. The Golden Swan Beach Resort which we stayed in at Murud made our vacation absolutely delightful. One of the major plus points of this resort is that it is located right on the beach. There is a little gate that opens out from the property on to the vast expanse of water. At high tide, the water comes right up to the steps that lead down from this gate, leaving behind a beautiful expanse of patterned sand and shells of various hues at low tide.

Our private gateway to paradise

The resort offers water sports in the form of jet skiing and a banana boat. There is also a horse and buggy ride available during the low tide.
 
 AC and non-Ac rooms as well as small cottages are available at the resort for a reasonable price. For the three of us, with all three meals included, it cost a little over 6000 Rs inclusive of taxes, for a stay of 2 days and 1 night.

Food was decent, though not exceptional. It would have helped if the fare had offered more variety. Also, the rooms were a tad small for my liking. Considering that we live in space starved Mumbai, we like to have a little more space to move around in when we go out on a vacation. That said, the resort has made effective use of the space it had by providing a loft bed in the room which the little girl enjoyed immensely. Service is impeccable and the staff were very helpful and cordial.

What to see:
Disclaimer : We didn't see any of the 'sights' listed below. The beach was so beautiful and so close and so tempting, that we spent all our time being total beach bums.

The beach itself - Unlike the crowded, touristy beaches of Kashid and Alibaug which are close by, this one, especially the part of the beach you enter from the resort, has very few people in it. The beaches of Kashid look cleaner because of the white sand, but once you decide to look past the colour of the sand, you will realize that the Murud beach is beautiful. It is not very deep in most places, the water is clear and the sea is calm enough for you to sit/stand/jump around in it for as long as you please.The little girl has a decent collection of shells now, including a small, perfectly shaped conch shell.

The main beach is about a kilometre by walk from the private entrance that our resort offered, but it is not as clean. So, other than taking a walk to the main beach early in the morning, we decided to stick to our private expanse of the water for the duration of our stay. Fishing boats can be seen in the distance, as can the silhouette of the invincible Padmadurg fort. We were told that at present, people are not being allowed into the Padmadurg fort as parts of it had broken off and it wasn't safe.

The Padmadurg fort can be seen in the distance in this pic

Idgah - About 2.5 kms from the resort, this is the highest point in Murud and offers a spectacular view of the entire town.

Janjira fort - The name Murud is closely associated with the Janjira fort which can be reached from the Rajpuri jetty which is about 5 kms from Murud. Very often the town itslef is called Murud-Janjira. We were told that old fashioned sail boats take you to the once-invincible fort.

The return journey took less time as the traffic was much better. We stopped at a store selling Konkani foods and bought coconut chikki, mango wadis, different kinds of papads, kokum agal, some konkani spice powders which I need to google to find out the uses of  and lots of farm fresh mangoes.
If at all you plan to visit Murud, I would highly recommend staying at the Golden Swan beach Resort. This is not a paid promotion or advertisement, but a highly satisfied customer opinion.

A love story

She fell in love much before most of her friends even understood what love was. An early entrant on the love scene, she loved with all her heart. Day, night, every waking moment – she wanted to spend it all with her loved one. Her parents thought that her love was distracting her from her studies, but that only made her more determined  not to give up.  She resorted to sneaking into bed with her loved one in the dark of night, snuggling under a thick bed sheet, trying not to giggle or gasp out loud, discovering all the new and exciting adventures that her love took her on.

To this day, she cannot go to bed without the love of her life – her books.

This is written for the Fifty-2 weeks of 2013, a project started by Sra of Whenmysoupcamealive

Home

Home – a word which once meant the place where I lived with my parents, the space that saw me grow up, make friends, and experience the pleasures and pains of growing up. 

Thrissur, Kerala is still the place where I can be the little girl I once was, leaving all the cares and worries of the adult world at the door step, knowing that I and mine will be cherished and taken care of for as long as we are there.

 Home - a word that came to mean the homes that I set up in the different places that I lived in. Every place has given me something to remember, something to cherish.

Jacksonville, Florida – the first place where I set up home with my husband. I love it for giving me the freedom to be who I wanted to be, without bothering about what the neighbours would say.

Chennai, Tamilnadu – When I was young, I used to go to Chennai during the summer vacations and I always used to say that I would never, never set up home in the city because it was so hot and dirty. Quite ironic how drastically that opinion changed once I started living in the city. I still think it is way too hot and humid, but there is something about the city that makes you fall in love with it. The few years that I lived there, reaching the Central station would make me feel as if I was coming back home. The cool breeze from the Kapaleeswarar tank in Mylapore, the busy Ranganathan street, Waves in Anna Nagar – I still miss all that and so much more about this much loved city of mine.

Bangalore, Karnataka – A city that endeared itself to me because of its weather and also its live and let live attitude. Nowhere else in India have I found people who don’t poke their nose into your business at every juncture.

Mumbai, Maharashtra – How do I even begin to describe how ‘at home’ this vibrant city has made me feel? Granted, it is hot, humid and extremely dirty. I still can’t get used to seeing people open the windows of their Mercedes to spit out onto the footpath. However, the people are so warm, welcoming, hard working and helpful that you cannot help liking them.

Different cities, different kinds of people, different stages of life – yet I have felt at home in every place that I have lived in. I suppose what I am trying to say is that feeling at home is an attitude. You will belong to the place that you live in if you want to and only if you truly want to. So, with the right attitude, you could turn any place in the world into your abode – your home.

This is written for the Fifty-2 weeks of 2013, a project started by Sra of Whenmysoupcamealive.

Book Review - Tantra by Adi


A book with a female protagonist is always a welcome read. What makes it sound even better is that the protagonist in question has a highly unusual profession. She is a Vampire slayer. With Tantra, India joins the vampire bandwagon, which hitherto belonged almost entirely to the Twilight series.
Anu, the protagonist has established a reputation for herself of being one of the best in the industry - she is a feared killer of some of the most dangerous vampires in New York. Following a personal tragedy, she moves to New Delhi, expecting to do more of the same kind of work, but finding that the Delhi scene is much more complicated and that vampires are not the worst things that can happen in Delhi. When children start disappearing with vampire bite marks on their faces, Anu discovers forces that are older and darker than anything she has faced before. She soon finds that the sexy, suave man she seems to be falling for is very much in danger of becoming a victim of these dark forces.
Anu finds a guru who helps her channel her mind in the right direction, who helps her discover that her mind is a mightier weapon than the steel tipped stakes that she carries with her at all times. 
Will Anu manage to overcome her personal demons and wage war on forces that at first glance seem to be beyond the scope of her understanding and belief? Will she be able to evade all the nice 'boys' that her well meaning aunt hopes she will marry? To find out, pick up a copy of Tantra by Adi today.

What I liked about the book:

• The language used is simple and the progression of events, logical and natural.
• The scene in which Anu and her guru exorcise a demon from a little boy's body was quite hilarious. 
• A strong female lead whose character is well etched.

What could have been better :

• The first few chapters progressed very slowly. It is only after a few hundred pages or so that the pace picked up. A reader less determined than me to see the book through, might have been tempted to give up on it.
• Some terms are not very clear at the outset. The word "shift", for example, has not been explained anywhere in the book and it is only after reading through a few chapters that the reader gains a vague understanding of what the term could mean.
• Anu's past, if shared in more vivid detail, might have made the first part of the book (which progressed slowly) more interesting.

Would I pick up the second book in this series when it comes out?
I would, but if that is not much, much better than this one when it comes to holding my interest and explaining abstract concepts, I would not give the third book (if there is one) a chance.


This review is a part of the biggest http://blog.blogadda.com/2011/05/04/indian-bloggers-book-reviews" target="_blank"> Book Review Program

for http://www.blogadda.com" target="_blank">Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books!

These are a few of my favourite things

When Aparna came up with this topic for this week's theme for the Fifty-2 weeks of 2013 project, I was sure that this post was going to be a breeze. There are so many things I love, putting it down in words couldn't be that difficult, could it? But then, when one favourite thing leads to another which in turn leads to several others, leaving you entangled in a web of memories, remembered sights, smells and tastes, it is a little difficult to extricate yourself and make yourself sit down and do something as impossible as capturing all those fast flying thoughts and typing them out on blogger. Here is my attempt at offering you, in no particular order, a glimpse of these fleeting thoughts.

• The smell of earth after the first rains. This is a delight to all the senses, not just the olfactory.
• The smell of kanjeevaram silk saris. It unfailingly reminds me of good times - feasts, weddings, several loved people.
• Kerala in the rains - no matter how hard it pours, people just go about their business with an umbrella over their heads. 
• Greenery in all forms - potted plants, forests, an oasis in the desert, terrace gardens - I love them all.
• Food that comforts and delights in equal measure, made by someone else :-)
• New clothes, new shoes, new handbags - every time I buy any of these and wear them, it makes me feel smart and happy.
• Open spaces.
• Vacations - On my bucket list is a trip by myself.
• Hills - can't get enough of them.
• Street food - tangy, spicy, and a certain something that makes it hard to replicate at home.
• Reading - I could live without a lot of things, but not without books.
• My childhood friends - I have been fortunate enough to study with the same group of friends from LKG to 12th Std. Needless to say, they are some of my closest friends. Even if we go months or years without seeing each other or talking to each other, we can pick up where we left off and feel perfectly comfortable.
• Sunsets and sunrises - though I don't get up early enough to watch the sun rise every day, my window offers me a beautiful view of the sunset every evening and that is something I unfailingly watch every day.
• The train journeys from when I was a child. These days, I prefer to stay closeted in the AC compartment or to take a flight, but as a child, I enjoyed looking out of the windows, feeling the rush of air against my face, watching the lush green rolling fields and the changing landscapes when travelling from one state to another. 
• Sleep - uninterrupted, deep, refreshing. I love to wake up feeling wonderfully relaxed after a good night's sleep.

Seeing red

If there is one color that is omnipresent in the city that I live in, it would be red.
When the traffic lights turn red, people go on overdrive here. The moment that light changes color, it is as if there is an invisible hand pressing the horn on every single vehicle that is on the road, urging the honkers in front to move forward, daring them to obey the one rule of road that everyone here seems to follow - the rule of chaos and non conformity.
I drive my two-wheeler very warily in this city, not because of the chaos mentioned above, but because of the other red that makes an appearance more often than aeroplanes take off and land at the Heathrow airport - the inescapable darts of liquid red that escape the mouth of paan chewers in the city. Whether traffic is moving quickly on the expressway or at a stand still during peak hour at the signals, you will see walkers, car drivers, auto wallahs, truck drivers, standers, sitters and every person in between effortlessly spewing out flecks of chewed paan, not caring who gets sprayed in the process, and nonchalantly going back to what they were doing.
So, though the theme for this week's Fifty-2 weeks of 2013 is "Gimme Red", I would say "Swallow your red.....No more for me, please".

My first time

The man I loved more than any other on earth. The one who bought me my first bicycle and also taught me to ride it when my father gave up on teaching me to balance the handle bar after umpteen tries. Once I had learned to cycle, he waited patiently in the front verandah to make sure that I got home safe. The man who bought me my first Scooty. Teller of infinite tales. The first feminist I knew. Even before the term became popular he treated his wife with utmost respect, believed in sharing household work and always, always made the first coffee decoction of the day. The man who taught me values, took me to the temple everyday, taught me to respect all people irrespective of their social standing, religion and sex.  The man who bought me bright, colourful balloons even when other people thought I was too old to play with them. The man who walked me to the gate and bid me good bye as I travelled an hour by train to start my MBA project work. The uncle that waited on the platform when my train rolled in. The confusing train journey back home. The shell of the man that I loved that remained when I got back home. In the few hours that I had been away from home, he drank his afternoon tea and went to bed to take a nap that he never woke up from. The man that brought me face to face with Yama for the first time. The man that taught me to love also gave me the first taste of my biggest fear - the fear of losing someone that I love. The man that still lives on in the stories I tell my daughter - my best friend, my grandfather.