Ravi the blogger

  [Excerpts from my 2003 diary on our trip to Delhi, Chandigarh, Shimla, Kullu and Manali between June 13, 2003 and June 20, 2003] June 13 We woke early, bathed, got ready and left for Meenambakkam from where we boarded an Indian Airlines flight to Palam. The journey was good; the view from the plane, extraordinary. We reached Delhi at half past nine and moved to Panikker Guest House at Karol Bagh. At six in the evening, we moved to the office of Panikker's Travels and boarded our bus. We reached Sonepat at seven-thirty and Karnal at nine. We had our dinner at Karnal. Well, our visit to the Dhaba had some embarrassing moments. June 14 Day one of our Shimla, HP and Haryana visit - We reached Shimla at four-thirty. Shimla was larger and more beautiful but the temperature range was similar to that of Ooty. We got ready, had our breakfast and left for Kufri (the highest point in Shimla at around 9300 ft.) where I had a memorable horse ride and interesting photos taken. (In one photo, I...

  We are comparatively new to Chennai city having a permanent home here only since June 1982, a year and a half before I was born. My father grew up in Chingleput while my mother lived her early life in Kumbakonam. But I was born here and spent my entire childhood here. And also, we had been familiar with Madras city for generations - both my grandfathers had done their schooling and graduation in Madras city and my maternal ancestors have had a house in Egmore since 1933. My dad did his BSc in Chemistry from A. M. Jain College, Meenambakkam commuting to-and-fro by suburban rail from Chengalpattu on a daily basis. When he took up the job with the bank, he was posted at Maduranthakam and then, Calcutta before moving to the bank's Adyar branch in 1981. The next year, he purchased a plot in the then village of Porur in the Saidapet taluk of Chingleput district. Though classified as a suburb of Madras city by MMDA, Porur, in the late eighties, as I can faintly remember, was more simil...

  John Johnson, an English sailor with a Danish ship Christian , marooned on the Bay of Bengal coast, travelled inland to Tanjore and had an audience with the Nayak king. He wrote back ... the Great Naik demands to know what the reason is that the English do not desire to trade in his land as well as the Portugal, saying they shall have the pepper and anything the land doth afford and likewise buy the commodities that they do bring with them as tin, lead, iron and red cloth is well sold. Little does our nation know how they are expected all this land, thus the Danes do trade under the name English and are marvellous well used. [1] Upon receiving Johnson's favourable report, the East India Company sent a mission from their factory at   Bantam (in Java), to negotiate with the Nayak king. Initially, the king promised a grant of the port of Karaikal free of duties. The ship Hart anchored at Karaikal on the 23rd of May 1624 and the agents proceeded inland upon receiving an i...