17th Anniversary

17th Anniversary

By

Murali Murthy

It was time to create memories of our 17th Anniversary. We chose to celebrate along with Sameera and Chandrika, who also celebrate their anniversary just the next day!

Continuing our trend of creating new travel experiences for every anniversary, we first chose to cover Ajanta & Ellora caves. We booked our flight to Nanded, which is Preeti's hometown. As we always wanted to take Sameera & Chandrika to Nanded's Gurudwara, we chose to make Nanded as our hub, and cover other places by Road from Nanded.

We booked our flights to Nanded, but eventually decided to cover Pandarpur and Tuljapur instead. Though it sounded more of a spiritual trip, all were fine with it.

With Sameera and Chandrika's first visit to core Maharashtra, they were eager for this experience.

Excited for this new experience, we boarded the early morning flight to Nanded.

Nanded Airport reminded us of our old HAL Airport in Bengaluru - small, cute, chilled, relaxed Airport. One Gate, One Belt, One Flight! You just happily walk out of Aircraft and enter the Airport! It's like a mini Model Airport, you can see and wave at people waiting to receive you!

Things didn't start off well though. Sameera's Bag didn't come out. After few enquiries, because of a Power Bank that he has put in his bag, it was withheld at Bangalore Airport.

They should have announced and had the Power Bank removed, instead of choosing not to send the Bag at all!

The staff at Nanded Airport took his details, took his consent to open the Bag and to check, and promised to get the Bag the next day.

We finally reached home at Nanded and settled down. A lodge nearby was arranged for Sameera & family, but seeing the warmth & hospitality of the Maiyas, they couldn't say no to their insistence that they stay with us at home.

We started the day by visiting Kaleshwar Mandir on the banks of Godavari river. Maiya's Hyundai Exter became our transport for the next 3 days.

While driving back, we happened to see Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Temple, which was a total surprise to me and Preeti.

Since we visit a Lakshmi Narasimha Temple every Saturday, and finding the Lord there at the most unexpected place was extremely a happy and blessed moment.

Sameera also did a quick cloth shopping at Nanded to sustain for the next one day.

After a sumptuous meal back home, we rested for a while, and visited Takhat Sachkhand Shri Hazur Abchalnagar Sahib Gurudwara.

Despite being a place of worship from a different religion, the vibes, the vibration, energy that we could feel was a pleasing experience.

I believe the cleanliness, discipline, 0-commercial engagement by staff/priests and laser focus of every devotee towards spirituality is what makes Gurudwaras, a spritual power center irrespective of our beliefs.

We ended the beautiful day at "Amritsar Haveli" for sumptuous Punjabi food.

Though we did not have much hope on missing Bag sent the next day, we still visited the Airport in the morning and were pleasantly surprised to receive the Baggage intact!

We started our road trip towards Solapur, and checked into the Hotel.

It being Rayara aradhane, we found a Rayara Mutt at Solapur and did seva.

We then proceeded towards the famous Sri Sidheshwara temple at Solapur. A massive temple dedicated to lord Shiva, though crowded, we still had a good darshan.

We didn't want to miss shopping at the textile hub, and had a quick stop at Navi Peth.

We ended the day at "Sigdi" for a unique dining experience.

Day 3 was planned to be hectic, as we drove for 1.5 hours to Pandharpur. We were mentally prepared for a huge crowd and long waiting time, though we had booked online for darshan.

After going in circles, we finally found the entry for the Online Booking Darshan queue, and we reached on time for the 12:00 PM slot.

It was surprisingly organized and well managed, as the staff were strictly verifying every booking, Aadhar card was mandatory.

The chants of Vittala in the waiting halls and in the queue gave the right build up and focus to the devotees waiting to see the lord. Since Mobile phones were not allowed inside the temple, all of us were able to focus on the lord.

The sanctum santorum has been improved a lot since our last 2 visits, with Air Condition and a good view of the lord while in the Queue. We finally were at his feet, after 2 hours in the queue.

It was a goosebumps moment to see Vittala up close, literally at his feet. The energy, vibrations is to be experienced. We had a wonderful, fulfilling long Darshan of Vittala.

Darshan of Rukmini was equally rewarding, as it so happened that I was standing right in front of her, and the staff stopped the queue for some reason. For a moment, I was all alone in front of her!

We came out extremely happy, blessed and contended. The old temple town's charm, the colours could be felt in the series of ancient houses, shops.

Had a traditional meal at Hotel Sadguru, which had the apt ambience continuing to give us the Pandharpur vibes.

We drove back to Solapur, quickly got ready, checked out of the Hotel and drove to Tuljapur.

Things are not organized, planned at Tuljapur temple, as we arrived with no bookings but one contact of a priest.

I was anxious, unsure, as the last time we visited, we couldn't get darshan of Amba Bhavani. I was getting jittery, irritated, it was raining as well.

The priest tried his best, but we were sent back. I thought it's our fate and all set to return. After a brief wait, we were again called back, and this time the priest tried some other jugaad to put us in the Queue. After an hour of wait, Amba Bhavani finally gave us her Darshan, and that too at a time when abhisheka was happening.

Preeti literally had tears in her eyes, as we did our Seva to Bhavani, though the staff were rudely pushing us after a few seconds, we still managed to get a good up close darshan of Bhavani.

Built in 12th century, a Shakti Peetha, a family deity of none other than Shivaji Maharaj, yet is in a very sad state. The cleanliness, malpractices, with no proper management, safety is disheartening.

We quickly had dinner at Tuljapur and drove back to Nanded and reached home at 02:00 on the night 

The last day at Nanded was relaxing. The ladies woke up late and started packing. Me and Sameera visited Rayara Mutt as it was Uttara Aradhane.

Had lunch at a relative's house and came to Airport to catch our 5:45 PM flight back to Bangalore.

We proved a point to ourselves that Anniversary celebrations need not always be about partying, visiting romantic places. Such great experiences, spiritual contentment, binds us stronger and makes the Anniversary memorable.

The Maiya's were brilliant and were perfect hosts and hosted my friend wholeheartedly.

The shy natured Sameera also jelled well with the Maiya's, as they made sure my friend and their family were well taken care with great hospitality, which Sameera, Chandrika would also cherish for a long time.

Nidhi was the sweetheart and added the required fun element to the trip.

Govindas @ Thailand

GOVINDAS AT THAILAND

by

Murali Murthy

A celebration to remember, a trip to cherish. It was our good friend Srinidhi's 50th Birthday and it had to be celebrated in style.

It was his long time wish to take us all to Thailand and celebrate his Birthday with his favourite people. The doer that he is, put his wish to action and booked flights and a Resort in Pattaya, Thailand.

The excitement of a full scale Govindas trip and a grand celebration awaiting, we all were charged up, and eager to reach Thailand soon.

Maybe our excitement had to be tamed a bit, and many in the group felt "Kisi ki Nazar lag gaya", and the Flight got cancelled due to a technical snag! It was such a disappointing and sad feeling...the drive back home after a long night at Bangalore Airport was painful and with dejected feelings.

Preeti was even like "how can this happen to us"!

Once back home, we gathered ourselves back and started exploring options to move the schedule to next day on the same flight.

It was a Deja vu moment as the entire evening played out again...we getting ready, Goodbyes at home, booking cab to Airport, reach Airport, Security check, Immigration, boarding...the entire process was a strange feeling as if we were stuck in time!

The Flight eventually took off as we were anxious till that time.

And here we were, in Bangkok!

We started out by freshening up and some quick breakfast at Suvarnabhumi Airport, before we headed out to our Day 1 activities that included Emerald Budha and Grand Palace visits.

Though the place was beautiful and we were tirelessly clicking away pictures, since we had 2 sleepless nights, we all were tired.

We managed to end the visit and started our journey towards Ravindra Beach Resort, Pattaya.

We checked in, and quickly assembled back at the Resort's restaurant for Lunch.

After a quick walk on the Beach, we rested for a while..in the evening, we headed out to the Alcazar Show.

It was a dazzling display of dance, showmanship, lights and Sets.

We later headed for Dinner at Beer Hubb. They served some good Indian dishes, which added the "happiness" to our celebrations and made the party more delightful.

Day 2

The agenda for the first half was "The Sanctuary of Truth", supposedly a museum to showcase Thai art built entirely on Wood. It's again a visual spectacle.

We then headed to the Floating Market, a shopper's paradise. The ladies had a good time, shopping away endlessly.

Malgudi Restaurant inside the Floating Market was supposed to be an Indian Restaurant, but did not taste anything Indian, still we were ok to get some Veg items to eat.

We returned back to the Resort, slept well. At a coffee shop in the evening, we launched our Coffee Book table to mark 25 years of our friendship.

Later in the night, went to explore Pattaya's famous night life.

No doubt it is colourful, a unique experience, uncomfortable sometimes, exciting a few other times.

After exploring the Walking Street, we settled down at Boss club for the party scene.

We hopped for a quick visit to a Russian dance club to get another unique experience.

Though it is entertainment at that moment, it feels sad and depressing to see girls shredding self respect and making themselves an object. I understand it's a profession and it's their livelihood, but somewhere it hurts!

Day 3

Since we ended the Walking Street visit early in the morning, we couldn't start the day early. We did some last minute changes to our plans, cancelled our Nong Nooch visit and instead chose to spend some relaxing time at the Resort for the first half.

Some of us chose to spend time at the pool, while the ladies went to the Spa.

We then headed to the highlight of the trip - Yacht ride!

It was yet another unique, exquisite, elitist experience in the waiting.

A 5 hour ride on a Private Yacht was a dreamy affair, food and drink well stocked in the Yacht. We danced, we celebrated, we laughed, we played in the water. But the last segment of the ride back, with some nice romantic songs, sleeping on the Yacht's nose, with the Sun setting in the background were not only picture perfect, but we truly experienced some magical moments.

Back to resort, we explored couple of options to settle down for Dinner, eventually chose Bacco Beach Restaurant, to have some relaxing, calm Dinner by the beach.

Day 4

The last day of the trip, we had to checkout from the Resort at Pattaya..we drove towards Bangkok and stopped at Tiger Topia, to interact with the wild animal that is atleast 6 times more powerful than we humans!

Similar to the experience at the Walking street, it was entertaining at that moment to touch, feel and pose for cameras with the Tigers, it felt bad somewhere that such a wild, ferocious animal was lying helpless, surely drugged and tortured!

The last agenda of the trip was the Chatuchak Market. Since it's a weekend Market, that operates after 06:00 PM, many shops were yet to open. We managed to do some shopping at the JJ Mall nearby, and since we were also running late, we rushed back to Suvarnabhumi Airport, to end our Trip.

It was just a fantastic trip, we partied hard, we celebrated hard, and more than anything, it's etched as a landmark Trip in golden words and created a wonderful memory.

Long Live this group - Govindas! We yearn for many more such good memories to be created!

All thanks to Neena (Mini and Jone Hospitality) and her supplier Hema (DASH group) in Thailand, who were as usual fantastic. Hema was absolutely brilliant and took care of all our requirements and constantly coordinating, making arrangements, ensuring everything went smooth! Kudos to their dedication.