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Holiday at Andamans Oct25

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October as SW monsoon withdraws and before NE sets seemed a good time to visit Andamans. Set off with usual travel buddies Silambu and Bhavani. Used our neighboring travel agency Kumar Travels for booking.  17oct25 : A smooth mid morning Indigo flight took us to Sri Vijayapuram airport Port Blair . Beautiful view from the top. Airport is nicely laid out. Excellent lighting with transparent roofing at intervals for natural illumination. At the exit was good to see a statue of Veer Savarkar with a nice tri-colour Indian flag beside it.  Our host received us and we set off.  A two lane roadway through a crowded market place took us to our simple and neat hotel Zone Connect. Very soon we drove to Corbin's Cove Beach it's shoreline lined with coconut palm trees.  We took a half hour speed boat ride around and paused near two small islands - Snake Island and Rock Island. Though enjoyable 5000 rupees charged is a jib.  The next stop was the infamous Cellular Jail. Bu...

Assam Meghalaya trip oct24

Assam Meghalaya trip Oct24 Assam and the north east were a destination on our bucket list for long. Finally made arrangements and set forth on this tour. And what a trip this turned out to be! Had a dose of everything from temples, safari, sightseeing nature, caves, waterfalls, a trek uphill, river cruise, boating et al in pleasant surroundings amidst friendly and lovely locals. Even just walking or driving through the scenic environment is superb. Would recommend this holiday to anyone.  See my Facebook page for a selection of snaps in a series of posts. Will post a link for the photos here soon. Took the morning Indigo flight from Chennai airport. Attempts to use "digiyatra" for security didn't work but the airport wasn't too busy. Boarding after a sumptuous tasty breakfast at ID restaurant, dozed off in the quiet flight and landed smoothly. Guwahati airport was a kind of throwback to old Chennai. Small and somewhat cramped for space. It took a while for the chec...

Retirement blues

Retirement blues Written in jest and for fun only sent it to the open page in Hindu they published it with some editorial corrections and a cartoon. You can see the published article in the link below: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/those-retirement-blues/article19481594.ece Original text is: Superannuation or retirement is the time when you reach 'golden age' and are given a handshake and warm send off from your workplace. It generally is anytime from age 55+ onwards. It, one may realise soon upon retiring, creates quite a buzz. First, are messages of congratulations on having served a long career and 'survived'. This is followed by the usual query doesn't your company grant an extension? Or the next aren't you taking a post retired position elsewhere? If those were, you wouldn't declare retirement would you? Lastly you must be reaching out your contacts and 'consulting'? Next best excuse to "working from home". Yo...

Geriatric freebies

Took mom for a "geriatric package test" at a famous hospital in Chennai. The experience was interesting and long. To occupy myself as I waited there scribbled my observations. Then changed it with a touch of humour here and there. Wrote to the hospital by email on this but no response from them. Later just thought of forwarding it to the Hindu in the open page. To my surprise, they published it after some editorial touch up and included a cartoon too for good measure. Read it in : http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/Those-geriatric-freebies-and-some-testing-times-along-the-way/article16673118.ece