Flat tyre

10 PM on a Saturday evening and departing from my relative's place and my car's front right tyre is flat. Replaced with the spare and drove back home. Happy that nothing happened because the next day (Sunday) evening, I find that the replaced tyre is also flat... Yeah my car was grounded but glad that it did not happen in the middle of no where!

Monday comes and I get both the flat tyres fixed. One is a routine puncture whereas the other is a bad tube (split mouth and bad patches) and is promptly replaced. The tyre with the new tube goes into the boot for the spare and I imagine that this will be the end of the bad weekend with flat tyres.

I am so mistaken... Ask me how. Following monday, I am driving back from office to pick her up and get back to my cozy home, when on outer ring road close to the Sarjapur road junction, an auto wala stops me. I roll my window down and he calls in... FLAT TYRE and I am thinking one thing... NOT AGAIN.

Thats not the end of things, I roll up my sleeves and quickly get the car up on the jack and replace the flat tyre (front left one) with the spare one from the boot. After all the spare tyre has got a new tube. As the jack unwinds and the car comes down to ground level, thousands of thundering typhoons! the spare... with the new tube... is also FLAT. Jeeks what in the world is happening!

At that point my worst nightmare is a simple one, two words - FLAT TYRE!
Wow... 4 punctures in 2 weeks, thats odd... I think I must take my car back to the temple for a round two of some pujas!!!

Wanna know what happened later? Wait for part 2!

Coimbatore trip - Jan end 2010

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.

Hari-Ma homestay - Coorg

It all began when we decided to do a home stay in Coorg and looked up for some options. I looked up the information on the web and read reviews from different sources and called up the home stay hosts. We zeroed in on Hari-Ma home stay close to Suntikoppa in North Coorg. Mrs Yeshu Thammaiah, the host sounded very assuring over the phone.

The place looked very much like how it seemed from the pictures on the websites. It is a beautiful  bungalow of a sprawling coffee estate owned and operated by Mr and Mrs Thammaiah. Its is about 4-5 kms off the Kushalnagara - Suntikoppa road and far far from the madding crowd. A huge open courtyard hedged by gardens led us into a front porch which has a lotus pond. The Thammaiahs are a friendly and soft spoken Coorgi couple and their hospitality made us feel very warm and comfortable.

The bungalow is two storied and houses  four bedrooms. The hosts stay downstairs and let out the two bedrooms in the first floor to the guests. A tastefully done and decorated, calm, neat and clean bedroom (with attached baths) awaited us. Separating the two guest bedrooms is a common area that opens into a terrace balcony. This is a great place to catch up with the first rays of the morning sun as it pierces the mist that shrouds the night.

It was 5 PM when we reached and Yeshu aunty treated us to a fine homemade cake, some cookies and piping hot locally produced Arabica coffee. This done, we formed a group and followed Thammu uncle into his coffee estate where he grows Arabica and Robusta coffee. He also has pepper, cardamon in his estate. We did a short estate visit with darkness closing in on us and returned back to the bungalow.

Thammu uncle had arranged for a camp fire in the open area adjacent to the bungalow and he promptly lit it up. The next two hours passed very swiftly. It was not particularly cold, chill is what I should call it. All it needs is to pull our chairs a tinge closer to the fire and keep the conversation rolling.We talked and talked and talked. Coorg is a very interesting place and Coorgis have a very long history.

Dinner was a detailed affair. Aunty had prepared a lot of dishes in traditional Kodava style. I do not remember their traditional names but there was a stuffed capsicum starter and a pepper chicken dry. Main course was roti, rice and idiyappam with sides of chicken gravy, a colocachia gravy and a mixed vegetable gravy. I liked chicken curry the best and I found Kodava style to be in similar lines to Kerala style. Aunty also had fruit salad for desert and when we finished dinner we were tired.

When morning arrived and coffee was done, Uncle took us out to a nearby backwaters of Harangi dam and it was a photo shoot spot. We started late and by that time the sun was out and we could not spend much time there and we returned to have breakfast. Breakfast was puttu but not Kerala style! It was kind of different from whatever I had had prior to this. We had puttu with peas and cauliflower gravy. Aunty suggested that I try puttu with honey and home made butter and I for sure liked this better.

All good things end and so does this home stay and it was time, we got ready packed the bags and filled up Aunty's guest book. She was so gracious to give us cuttings of a few nice flowering plants from her garden. Thus done and and a day well spent we headed back to Bangalore after a refreshing and relaxing day at Hari-Ma home stay. Wondering why the name Hari-Ma? Take a guess. 

Diwali and beyond

We have traveled to Erode for Diwali. Thursday evening we took the train out from Bangalore and by midnight we reached Erode. Spent a quiet Friday at Erode. Visited the Erode market streets in the midst of pre-Diwali shopping frenzy and it is a sight to remember.

Diwali day was spent with Pallavi's family and Saturday evening we left Erode for Coimbatore to start the wedding proceedings for Sathish. Sunday was a 'Getting-The Groom-Ready' function and my mom traveled from Pollachi to be with us for the function.

After we were done with this function, I joined my mom and Pallavi to visit Deepthy and her kid in Vadavalli. Yuvan as he is most likely to be named has already been nicknames as Chinna-Bonda. I think it is quite a fitting nickname. People who know Yuvan's dad will agree.

This Sunday has been special in more than one way. I visited the Sharadambal temple, the very location where I tied the knot more than 2 years ago. Memories came down running back as I took a walk around the temple and I should say 2 years have been eventful.

Car's first service with us

Recently we bought a used car. 2006 model white Hyundai Getz done 15k kms in good condition. Last week I took the car to the service center for the first time. It was for a general sevice - its official term is Periodic Maintainance Service (PMS). In addition I opted for wheel balancing and full interior upgradation along with under chassis protection from 3M. All together costed me 9k bucks. But going forth I think the PMS is going to cost me 3k bucks every 6 months for the periodic routine.