My house (read Villa) in Coimbatore was being vacated. I had found new tenants for occupancy but the house needed some upkeep and my uncle next door was not in town to take care. So the task needed someone to oversee the proceedings. I had already given the maintenance to my Engineer who constructed the house and he had given his word that we will be able to perform the required maintenance and upkeep in 4 days time.
So this forced me to take a couple days off and combine with the weekend of 30 and 31st of Jan for a 4 day long weekend. We checked for tickets and trains were all overbooked, these days these trains are always so. Anyways I was bent on driving and back and so did not give a thought on the buses. Pallavi decided to join me and there was no more thought. Driving it was to be...
This time around I tried a different route. Actually it is the very old way to Coimbatore before the glorious highway NH 7 was built. I took a right turn from Hosur towards Rayakottai. A pretty scenic and arduous route, will keep you in in rapt attention on the road as we negotiate the twists and turns. The highway passes through umpteen number of villages. Rayakottai to Palacode and beyond the state highway finally merges on to the NH 7 past Dharmapuri.
The sad thing is that the toll way is situated just after the re-entry and so I had to pay the toll even if I did not use the NH 7! We had ensured that we left Bangalore early in the afternoon so that by sun down we had turned right at Thoppur on the way to Mettur and then to Bhavani. We reached Erode just in time for dinner. Thoppur to Mettur, the road was ok, Mettur to Bhavani there is work in progress and from there to Erode is no distance at all.
I was scheduled to meet the painting folk at 10 AM the next day and did a pit stop at my sister-in-law's place for breakfast. That done I reached the home and met up with the painters. The painting and maintenance activities went on for another 3 days. In the mean time I met up with my tenants who were moving out to their new house down the street. We settled things and I wrote them the settlement cheque.
Given the duration of my stay in Coimbatore, I got time off to meet a lot of people. I visited Baby aunty for dinner one evening and met up with her and Santhi aunty and Logu mama. They are cousins of my dad and stay in Race course. I make a quick trip to Pollachi, stayed for the day and in the morning visited Masaniamman temple at Annamalai with my mom. Driving there was fun and nostalgic.
This time around I have been lucky. The house is not left unoccupied even for a day. I did some ground work and that clicked. I found some good tenants who I believe would take good care of the house and I spent some time showing them around and making sure that they are kept happy. Finally I handed over the property to them and signed the rental agreement and Sunday afternoon left from Coimbatore to Erode.
There was such a lot of traffic before I hit the highway and after that the ride was quick and smooth. I lunch ed in Erode and picked up Pallavi. We left Erode at around 5 after a quick visit to Pallavi's uncle place. We retraced the same route to Thoppur and made it to the highway before dark. From that it was like playing a video game. It was 10 when we reached Bangalore and just about the right time to take the elevated highway as we passed from Electronics city to Silk board. Amazing is just the word for this lovely infrastructure. It felt like driving in the US.
I think slowly things are catching up.
Given the duration of my stay in Coimbatore, I got time off to meet a lot of people. I visited Baby aunty for dinner one evening and met up with her and Santhi aunty and Logu mama. They are cousins of my dad and stay in Race course. I make a quick trip to Pollachi, stayed for the day and in the morning visited Masaniamman temple at Annamalai with my mom. Driving there was fun and nostalgic.
This time around I have been lucky. The house is not left unoccupied even for a day. I did some ground work and that clicked. I found some good tenants who I believe would take good care of the house and I spent some time showing them around and making sure that they are kept happy. Finally I handed over the property to them and signed the rental agreement and Sunday afternoon left from Coimbatore to Erode.
There was such a lot of traffic before I hit the highway and after that the ride was quick and smooth. I lunch ed in Erode and picked up Pallavi. We left Erode at around 5 after a quick visit to Pallavi's uncle place. We retraced the same route to Thoppur and made it to the highway before dark. From that it was like playing a video game. It was 10 when we reached Bangalore and just about the right time to take the elevated highway as we passed from Electronics city to Silk board. Amazing is just the word for this lovely infrastructure. It felt like driving in the US.
I think slowly things are catching up.
