Drive to Pochampally Village

Pochampally is a small village located in the outskirts of Hyderabad. It is an hour drive from almost any place in the city except you are close to the LB Nagar from where it would take half an hour to reach this village. The drive is a decent one too as we travel on national highway for majority of the time and then enter a small bi-lane road to get a feel of a country side ride.

Pochampally is a small village by population and size but in terms of popularity it is not small by any means. Pochampally silks and sarees are very famous all over the state and country. Handloom industry is a major source of income for people in this village and you can feel the importance of handloom industry the moment you enter the village. Once you enter the main village area, you see handloom stores everywhere.

On our way to the village, we halted at a peaceful place in between two boulders and were lucky to be blessed with homemade Puri and Curry. Thanks to Titty for taking all the pains in arranging the same. 🙂

My Classic 350

Cleaning up after the breakfast.

View from our breakfast spot.

The view from this location was very pleasant too. After spending around 30-45 minutes here, we moved on. And our next halt was at an Ayyappa temple on the way to Pochampally. It was a pleasant experience too as the temple was empty and we were the only people in the temple. It gives a very soothing experience when you feel the calmness in the temple. 🙂

From there it was a 10 minute drive before we entered the village. Our interest on this trip was to feel the village atmosphere. So for that we entered the core village area and wanted to check out how the handloom industry works. We saw an open door on our way and we just barged in and requested if we can see how the saree is made. He was very happy to see us and welcomed with open heart. We settled down to observe the process of preparing a saree all by hand and were simply astonished for the amount of work that goes into one single saree.

The person who was working there mentioned that it takes almost 4 days of continuous work (10 hours each day) to get one saree ready. The precision with which he was working was simply immaculate. For this rigorous and precise effort that he puts in day in and day out, all that he earns is Rs. 600 per saree, which makes it a meager Rs. 4500 per month. Any guess how much would that same saree cost in the market? I am sure atleast few of you might have guessed it right. It costs somewhere between Rs. 3500-4500.

A Weaver at work... creating a wonderful saree...

Beautiful saree in the making...

Thread ready to be weaved into a saree

After spending about 30 minutes at this place, we took off in search of Vinobha Mandir and a lake to get some fresh air and relax. We were fortunate to find AP tourism guest house right opposite the lake. We had a tour around the guest house which had a demo of all the equipment used in weaving a saree. We spend about an hour there walking around the rooms and then had a very relaxing time in front of Vinobha Mandir for an hour. On our way back we went to a nice Dhaba and had a savoring lunch to end the trip with some Spices.

Overall, it has been a sweet and short trip and definitely a day away from the routine heavy traffic roads and techno-centered life style.

Thanks and Regards,

Krishna Chaitanya Emani.

Recap of 2010

Hello Friends,

2010 has been a very special year for me both professionally and personally. I feel my family and all you dear friends made this such a memorable year of my life. During the last 12 months, I had a lot going on in my life and I am pretty happy to end the year on a positive note without any regrets about anything that happened in 2010.

Is that not a grand way to sign off an year. At least for me, I cant ask for more. So I just thought of putting up a short recap of the year not just for all of you, but may be I am being selfish here to capture few great moments from the year at one place.

January: Mumbai

Started of the new year in Mumbai. Yes, it was trip to Mumbai with my childhood school friend (Amarendra). The trip has been a fabulous one with a lot of action all through the trip. Frankly, staying in Mumbai for 2 days demands action by itself. Otherwise you cannot move anywhere in Mumbai. 🙂 It was my first trip to Mumbai and in 2 days I realized that Mumbai is a fabulous city but not meant for me.In that trip I met a very close family friend of mine, a common school friend (CHV) of Amar and I, and also another friend from the US (Pravin) who happened to be in Mumbai for his Winter vacation. Poor Pravin was caught without a platform ticket and had to shed 500 bucks to please the station master. 😛

From Left: Me, CHV Chaitanya, Amar

February: Warangal

From the work perspective, January had been a hectic month. I was new to the company and had to ramp up very quickly to start being productive. The first two weeks of February was knowledge transfer on the technology I was supposed to work. The weekend after that demanded a Stress Buster. Luckily Feb12 weekend was a long weekend (Shivaratri) and it just takes two great alike thinking minds to come up with crazy ideas isn’t it. 😛

My colleague Arunlal and I were off on a bike trip to Warangal (150kms from Hyderabad). This trip was exciting too because this was the first time I took off to a destination which is more than 100km on a bike. We took a halt at the Bhongir fort, trekked to the top and then hit the road straight to Warangal. We took a nice cozy AC room and had a fabulous relaxing sleep that night. Next day we covered the few of the visiting spots (Warangal Fort, Thousand Pillar Temple) that were worth a watch around and decided to head back to pavilion in the evening.

Me and Arunlal at Warangal Fort Area

March-April-May: Hyderabad. No Trips.

These three months have been quite in terms of travel to other places but in general have been a great period as I had a great chance to learn a lot at work. Also developed very good relations at work with colleagues and turned most of them into very good friends even off work. One major achievement of these three months was me booking my dream bike, “The Royal Enfield – Classic 350“.

June: Anathagiri Hills, Vikarabad.

Another bike trip to Anathagiri Hills, Vikarabad (100 km). This time we were 4 of us who decided we have to get out of Hyderabad at any cost to kill the monotony. Here I have to introduce a very special character (Sarma Garu), who was the organizer or may be I should say the proposer of the plan. He was the person who suggested that we should go to Anathagiri hills and as usual he did not turn up for the trip. So it was (Arunlal, Praveen, Sreeja and I) who were left for the trip.

The drive was fantastic and the weather just fabulous that morning. The temple at the destination was one of the most peaceful temples I have been to. After a few minutes at the temple, we entered the forest area below the temple. Few of the trees in the forest were as scary as snakes and the cloudy sky made it even more scary at couple of places. 🙂 Once we reached the bottom of the stairs, we trekked back to the top of the hill through a different route and that experience was pretty neat. Even the view from the hill top was very nice and pleasant. We reached back to Hyderabad by evening on the same day.

Ananthagiri Hills: From Left Me, Praveen, Arun, Sreeja at the back.

August: Araku, Vizag

This was a very big plan which started off with 11 people who made reservations. But as always, only 4 of us ended up going to the trip and as they say, everything happens for a reason. All 4 of us who went on the trip are extremely enthusiastic and fun loving people. The fantastic four were (Chinamay, Leela Prasad, Vikram and I). We used only public transport throughout the the trip after a war of words with the taxi drivers in Vizag. We reached Araku at 1 P.M. and frankly we were all disappointed by what we saw in Araku after the expectations that were created about the place.

So when we all got fresh and while having lunch, we looked out of the balcony and right in front of us, stood a huge mountain. We just told to ourselves, let us climb that little thing and off we went. When we reached the top, we found out that there was a water fall between two mountains that we were able to see from that location. We decided we are going to trek to that place and so we did. Vikram took a shower in the water fall and we dipped our head in that chilly water. And then we started to stroll back to our hotel room passing by a really backward village. A person was handcuffed and tied to a current poll as he stabbed another person in that village. You can understand how backward the village could be from this small instance.

We had a very relaxing night at the hotel and next day morning, on our way back to Vizag, we covered Borra Caves and went right back to Vizag to view the beach road and the Kailashagiri view point. The whole trip was planned for a very important reason that we had to attend one of our colleague’s (Alekhya) marriage in Vizag. Thanks to her for helping us plan something like this and it turned out to be a very memorable trip for all of us.

Araku: From left - Vikram, Me, Leela, Chinamay

October: I got my Royal Enfield Classic-350

This feeling cannot be expressed in words or in a blog. 🙂 This has been my dream to own a Classic-350 and after waiting for 8 months I was able to sit on this wonderful machine and thump through the streets of Hyderabad. It is an amazing feeling to own a bike of this sort and you need to own it to experience it. So another unforgettable month in my diary. 🙂

November: Darjeeling, Kalaphokri, Sandakphu

I can undoubtedly call this month as the most exciting month of the year. Well not because its my birth month 😛 but because I went on the best expedition of my life till date.  Coincidentally, it started on the same day as my Birthday (according to the Lunar calendar). It was a trip organized by Youth Hostels Association of India (YHAI) the West Bengal chapter and it started off with reporting in the Darjeeling base camp. It was a two day journey to reach Darjeeling from Hyderabad by train and I did that all alone without any known company.

Once I reached Darjeeling, the next 5 days were in ecstasy. The group I joined was very friendly and welcoming. I got up the next morning to have tea looking at the gorgeous Kanchenjunga right from the balcony. The scenic beauty of the Kanchenjunga and the Himalayan foot hills is difficult to capture in a pic, forget about expressing in words. The temperature was subzero but the moment you see 30 youngsters (including youngsters who were 58 and 60 years old) you only want to reach the destination. 🙂

We started off the trek from Darjeeling and completed the 53km trek successfully. I was lucky to get a chance to spend time with different people all along the trek and each day I made a new friend. Not even a single time in the entire trip, I remembered about work and pressures back home. I was in a different world for all those 9 days and when I returned back, I was a completely rejuvenated person.

For anyone who want to start off trekking and also want to experience the best in their first trek, I completely recommend this trek. This expedition demands a blog all by itself, will try to put together one shortly.

Pics of the Trip: Darjeeling Trekking Expedition

Well this is how my 2010 ended. On possibly the best high that I can ask for and that trek created a new interest in me to explore India more deeply. I know I am posting this more than a month into 2011 but this year already started off with a travel to Beijing, China and had been very busy with work. Hence had no time to finish this blog and upload. 🙂

Take care friends and if anyone has plans for travel within India and exploring different places, let me know and as schedule permits will try to join.

Regards,

Krishna Chaitanya Emani.

Sankurathri Foundation: Building a better world.

Dear Friends,

It’s a tough situation to be in, when you lose someone really close to your heart. I have seen some of my friends shattered by the loss of their father, mother, brother or even friends. The grief of the loss is even more difficult to handle when the loss is not a natural one, but is a result of a malicious act of some individual who deems himself to be a warrior of god.

This is a heart touching and an inspiring documentary of a foundation in rural India. Dr. Sankurathri Chandra Sekhar garu was working as a government scientist in Ottawa, Canada when he lost his wife Manjari Sankurathri and his two kids Srikiran (7 Years) and Sarada (4 Years) in a plane crash due to a terrorist attack on June 23^rd 1985. I am sure no one can even imagine what Mr. Chandra Sekhar garu might have gone through at that moment. It took him 3 years to come out of the grief only to light up the lives of many rural kids and families in India. In an interview to CBC news, Mr. Sankurathri said:

“I never seen their bodies also, so I didn’t know. I still think they’re still out there. I used to think that for many, many years. After three years, I said, what am I doing here?”

He started the Sankurathri Foundation in 1989 with the aim of providing good health and educational facilities to the impoverished rural in the outskirts of Kakinada Town in Andhra Pradesh. Sarada Vidyalayam and Srikiran Institute of Ophthalmology are the two child organizations of the Manjari Sankurathri Memorial Foundation. The volunteers of the foundation conduct regular camps in the villages nearby to identify kids who are really economically backward (when I say really I mean it, because education is not provided free of cost on caste basis to those who are well off economically but use the reservations to gain advantage). Once the kid is admitted into the school, every facility is provided free of cost to the kids (Lunch, Transport, Books, Uniform, School Bags). They also conduct medical camps regularly to check the health related issues for villagers who do not have access to a good hospital close by. Many people do not know that they are suffering from a disease called Cataract until these volunteers educate them about the disease and henceforth admit them to the hospital and conduct surgery to cure the disease.

Sarada Vidyalayam is primarily focused on providing quality education to the rural kids and building them into good human beings more than trying to compete with this highly competitive world, where teachers hardly care about what the student is as a person. Moral ethics and discipline are built into the student’s everyday routine explaining them the importance of loving others. It was successful in providing education to 1300 students till date and a truly inspiring fact of the institute is the care taken on students who move on to get higher education. The institute continuously keeps track of the students and provides them any assistance in building their career. Srikiran Institute of Ophthalmology is dedicated to help the poor with any medical attention needed to have a better vision by conducting training and educating people about the importance of quality eye care. It was successful in conducting close to 135,000 surgeries till date which is truly a generous act.

My visit to Sarada Vidyalayam and SriKiran Institute of Ophthalmology:

I consider myself very lucky to visit a legendary institute like the Sarada Vidyalayam and Srikiran Institute of Ophthalmology. The moment I entered the campus, I was overwhelmed with the positive vibrations of the place. It reminded me of the Gurukul that’s shown in any of the mythological movies. I went to the administration office to meet Mr. B. Satyanarayana Garu. He welcomed me with a pleasant smile and asked me to be seated. He started explaining me about the activities conducted at the school and also methods of teaching used at the school. Few things that he mentioned caught my attention:

1. The assignments given to the students not just help them but also help their parents. Example: The Students of class 2 or 3 have to teach their parents how to sign and get their report cards signed in a week.
2. Class 3 student wrote Ramayana in a 20 pages including all the main events.
3. High quality lunch is provided to the students.
4. Handwriting is given the utmost importance.
5. Students are taught variety of arts and crafts (Embroidery, Painting etc) nurturing the creative side of the kids.

Please find below some of the photographs of the visit. Kindly ignore the date on the pics.

Photographs Courtesy: Ms. Lakshmi who happened to visit the institute same time as I did.

Cute Girl with her art at Sarada Vidyalayam

Nurturing the creative side of the kids at Sarada Vidyalayam.

School Assembly

The school is now expanding itself to provide education to the class 10 students also and a new building is being constructed to provide excellent facilities to the students. Computer lab, physics and chemistry labs, every facility needed to get affiliation from the government of Andhra Pradesh is included in the new plan.

SriKiran Institute of Ophthalmology has all the facilities necessary for it to be considered a world class institute. Four fully equipped and air conditioned operation theatres, resting wards for the patients before and after the surgery, specialty clinics for Glaucoma, Cornea, Retina, Pediatric Ophthalmology Microbiology Laboratory etc, are some of the facilities to mention. This eye care institute is expanding its circle of influence of reaching to people in the next levels i.e. by conducting camps in villages and towns which are farther from its base.

SriKiran Institute of Ophthalmology

Overall, it has been a fantastic experience to visit this prestigious institute and learn how one person supported with few of his friends can make wonders in improving the standards of thousands of people. The happiness was so evident on every person’s face working at these institutes and they take immense pride to say that they are working here. Why not? I feel they deserve to be proud than many of us as they see a life nurturing in front of them which would have been working in a tea stall or a cycle store otherwise.

As a responsible human being I promise that I would do my best to help this institute in whatever way I can and take the word forward about it. In many discussions with my friends I have noticed that many of them want to help the needy but just don’t know the right way or the best way to do it. I hope this blog might help them get a start if they are impressed by the work done by this organization. Some of them might come up with even modern ways to make this world a better place to live in.

Note: Your donation to MSMF in Canada, Kruti-dhata Inc. (P.O.Box 58186, Houston, Tx. 77258-8186. Federal Tax ID # 20-2411347) in the U.S. Please make checks payable to Kruti Dhata (Tax exempt organization under Section 501 (C)(3) of the Internal revenue Code) and SF in India qualifies for Tax exemption.

References:

1. CBC News Article

2. MSMF Website

3. Sankurathri Foundation Website

4. News Letters of Manjari Sankurathri Foundation.

5. Special thanks to Ms. Lakshmi for sharing the photographs to put this blog together.

Please feel free to share your thought and leave comments. Thank you very much for reading the blog.

Love you all,

Krishna Chaitanya Emani

Bis-Kur-Tchips… Bis-Kur-Tchips…

Hello Guys,

I was on a long trip (24 hours is a long trip isn’t it?) in the largest railway network in the world. Had to take a 2nd sleeper class ticket and so I got a chance to enjoy all the wonderful things that generally goes on in an Indian Train. The moment you get seated in your allotted seat, the remaining people in the compartment look at you with a question mark on their face, wondering if you have the ticket or just made yourself comfortable in their otherwise lean back place. After you place the luggage under the seat, leaning yourself back with a smile on your face, they might smile back at you or look back at you as if you ruined their entire journey.

Anyways, my journey started with almost similar emotions and expressions. I am early at the station as I normally do, but this time I had 45 minutes left before the train leaves. I took a walk around on the platform and it was so nice to see the Samosas, Mirch Bajji, Pakodas, Idli Vada, Chai (Tea), Coffee on the platform. The sounds on the platform made a perfect place for someone to pass time. You have so much action going on there that you never know where to look at. Kids in there early months to an year or two crying as their mom tries to make them a smiling doll. Parents bidding farewell to a newly married couple with Mehindi very neatly decorating their hands. Kids around 4 to 10 years, running on the platform to buy their favourite chocolates or cool drinks. Chai Chai… Chai Boliye Chai, Coffee… Coffee… Samosa… Garma Garam Samose… 10 ka 10… Biryani… Veg Biryani… Anda Biryani… it was a festival atmosphere out there.

Finally the train moved off the platform and now I am left with the seven other people in the compartment. May be people now started to belive me that I am not an illegal traveller and so they started to share their jokes with me. The Chai Wala and the Coffee Wala are now in the train moving from one corner of the train to the other shouting out in their peculiar style. The music of the train moving adds to the occassion and the best thing of all this is the wind blowing from the windows as you know the fans in the sleeper class compartment can blow a city away.

Everything was exactly the same as I saw when I last traveled in a train almost  years ago but one thing that caught my eye or may be I should say my ear is a person shouting Bis-Kur-Tchips. I am not sure if thats the right way of spelling it, but believe me I did my best. When the person came near my seat, I observed his tray and only then could I understand what he wanted to sell. It was BIScuits-KUR kure-Chips. We talk so much about punning with words and many authors or movie dialogue writers doing it to create humor or fun in their writing. But a normal sales person, who works 10 to 12 hours a day trying to sell those packets mostly probably without basic education doing it was a surprise to me. The word was definitely catchy and after all thats what you need for any sales to be successful.

This is something new and interesting I thought of sharing in my new category of Exploring India. More to come in this catergory which might not be so sweet to read.

Thanks a lot for reading this post.

Krishna Chaitanya Emani.