MIXED BAG

By PragyanSharma Polavarapu OUR RETURN JOURNEY TO WARANGAL The train was speedily filling up. It was 5 pm. I came out of my pensive mood .It was time to enter into endless conversation with my second daughter about all things in the world and laugh and joke.My wife was silent and serious and absorbed in her thoughts but I asked her too join in our conversation. I started an endless and rather intellectual and technical conversation with my daughter about her science subjects, computer classes ,projects etc. I am myself a physics graduate and writing small articles on internet on science topics and while at home often questioned her on science topics and world politics and world history. So always liked my conversations on such subjects. Her bright and happy face drove away all specks of dejection and brooding from my mind. Into our compartment a couple entered ,sat near an old gentlemen who was already sitting in a seat near us. They sat for a few minutes,talked in ...

By PragyanSharma Polavarapu OUR RETURN JOURNEY TO WARANGAL (1) Next morning also we felt much exhausted after the long trip.At meals time we narrated our experience briefly to our son in law . He complemented us for completing such long tour smoothly without any difficulty. However he had to leave for his office as they had annual work review sessions and could not stay. After listening to us for an hour , he took his car and started for his office . We took a long rest after meals. After tea at 4pm we chatted for a long time about our trip.In the evening we went for a long walk and sat in a garden for an hour. My second daughter took several photographs. We had a fruit salad at a big restaurant . My daughter purchased two books on computer matters. She was a B Tech student. We returned home and continued our discussion about our long trip . We had to start for Hyderabad next day by the evening train at 5pm . (We had to adjust our travel as per the tour program approved...

   By PragyanSharma Polavarapu (1) I saw recently a big wall mounted canvas painting ( roughly 1.5 meters x 1 meter ) which adorns the drawing room in our relative’s house. It was nice abstract art . I do not exactly remember whether it was in a mix of red and pink colours or entirely red. I had been seeing it for three or four years . Previously every time I saw it I would stand before it only for a few minutes ,appreciate it and then move away. It was attractive but till now I could not understand the hidden meaning.Modern art both attracts and confuses. (2) During a recent visit while closely examining the canvas I was attracted by the little splashes of green, blue and white hiding in it. I also detected some faint pictures in faint red lines under the all pervading red and pink. I sat before the canvas for some time sipping hot tea . Unable to understand I took a photo of the picture into my cell phone and took home. I transferred the image to my d...

  By PragyanSharma Polavarapu A VISIT TO BRINDAVAN GARDENS -PART TWO ( 1 ) We now end the technical discussion about the dam and the garden . We now go to examine the dazzling beauty of the vast and world famous Brindavan garden. At nights the garden bathed in the glow of coloured electric lights, water fountains and bushes illuminated in coloured light looks like part of heaven . People in thousands visit in evening hours coming from the far off city even in cars to forget the day’s troubles. The rush of visitors at weekends is heavy. We were told by some passengers that there were no rains during the previous three years. We could see on our way to the dam large sand dunes in the river . It was still early in the morning and the time was about 8-30 . There was still heavy fog . We were near the entrance gate of the giant sized KR Sagar dam and purchased tickets to enter the garden. The top of the dam which is two kilometers long ( looking like a wide public road ) ...

By PragyanSharma Polavarapu MY DIARY DATED 4-3-04 (A VISIT TO BRINDAVAN GARDENS) My wife and daughters got up much against their will by 5am and got ready by 7am. We proceeded to the restaurant section below and had light breakfast (idli ,dosa and coffee). We walked to the main bus stand which was very near and found several buses of Krishnarajasagar-Brindavan route. Many were fast filling with passengers . A large part of them appeared to be people going to the villages and towns on the route. The bus station area was tidy and imposing with very straight and wide streets . Right before us on opposite side of the road to right and left there were line of imposing long buildings two or three storeyed high painted in white and bright yellow . They were old heritage type buildings constructed in old style with domes at top with long narrow front gardens before all the buildings . All the gardens were of similar appearance. A bus was ready to leave for Kris...

By PragyanSharma Polavarapu MY DIARY DATED 3-3-04—WE WERE IN OOTY- THE CLIMATE AND VEGETATION WERE DIFFERENT PART TWO (1) OOTY’S CLIMATE IS SO DIFFERENT Everywhere we could see green undulating meadows . The up and down expanses had smooth slopes . We were now in a top mountainous area with highlands with sloping green carpet like meadows. There were tea estates on the distant mountain slopes on other side of some valleys. We could see small clusters of tiled houses in green meadows. We saw also small villages on the opposite hill sides. The roads there were seen at higher level than our road for some time and were seen at lower level after some time! Even on our side, we saw below us the road sections which we travelled earlier .The houses ther which we passed by half an hour ago looked like toy houses. We entered Ooty town at about 12 noon . We thought that Ooty consisted of only small sized picturesque houses. But as our bus travelled further in to the city we saw ...

By PragyanSharma Polavarapu PART ONE MY DIARY DATED 3-3-04—DURING A LONG MYSORE TRIP TWO DECADES AGO. WE STARTED FOR OOTY ON THE MOUNTAINOUS ROAD Next morning (i.e morning of 3rd March 04 ) we woke up by 4am. We switched on TV and simultaneously started our journey preparations. Our journey to Ooty was to start around 7-30am . On 3rd March our tight program did not include Mysuru but a road trip to Ooty through jungle and mountainous roads . The distance from Mysore to Ooty --for travel by the winding mountain roads with about 35 hair pin bends---is about 150 kms. It takes about four and half hours only for the up trip and another four and half hours for the down trip. At 7am we ordered light breakfast and coffee upstairs into our room. We quickly started off to the bus stop. We also took our sweaters as per advice of the travel operator when we talked to him on phone. It may be very cold at Ooty even by 3pm or 4pm, people in the van also said. By 7-30 the Swaraj Mazda v...