About Pondicherry

I was brought up in Pondicherry. Did my school and College at Pondicherry!!

Pondicherry (now called Puducherry; & I stopped calling Pondi for reasons I realized after moving out ;-)) always brings all those pleasant memories of those days. Now I have completely shifted out to Bangalore - I'm a Bangalorean!!

I get frequent enquiries about traveling to Puducherry from Bengaluru. Most folks want to spend about 2 days [ie a weekend out there] by Car. So decided to add another blog on this topic!

Over night / day buses are being plied by KSRTC and Tamilnadu Govt Transports. Checkout for the same in the respective websites. They ply Normal to Volvo buses. Advanced booking would be required for the weekends.

Following is from an excerpt I sent to a friend. Will try to make this more descriptive and useful later.

Pondicherry Tourism Website has very comprehensive information about Pondicherry. Do visit this page.

Within the town, Surguru / Annamalai / Jayaram / Ginger are pretty good and the room charges would be around 1.5K to 2K. Quite a few budget Guest houses too are available within the town.

Dune Beach Resort looks interesting - have never visited.

There are several Guest Houses in Auroville as well- these come with recommendation from my friends.

Try to reach Pondicherry on Friday night [it takes about 6 hrs of continuous drive at moderately high speed]. If leaving on Sat morning, then start at least by 6:00 am. The Sunrise near Shoolagiri after Hosur is a fantastic view.

Google Map Bengaluru to Puducherry

Route: Electronic City -> Hosur -> Krishnagiri -> Take Chennai rd and take almost immediate right to Pondicherry / Thiruvannamalai road -> Thiruvannamalai -> Gingee -> Tindivanam -> Pondicherry. Just ensure its not a Full moon day/ night - if so expect delays at Thiruvannamalai and be prepared for nasty diversions

Once you take the Pondicherry / Thiruvannamalai road, the road doesn't have median; but the traffic is pretty less in early mornings and late evenings. Be watchful for people cris-crossing the roads near villages.

En-route Eating places:

A2B restaurant inside BP Petrol Station closer to Krishnagiri in the same side as the travel. [About 60Kms from Bangalore and probably about 1.5Hrs of travel]

Hotel Saravana Bhavan [I don't think this is Original] at Thiruvannamalai [About 150Kms or 3 Hrs from Blr]

A hotel just at the Main entrance of the Tiruvannamalai temple - it has decent lodging as well [AC dbl room was about 800/- in 2007]

All of the above are Vegetarian restaurants.

En-route places of Interest:

1. Thiruvannamalai Temple [takes about 1 Hr to see the entire temple]

2. Gingee Forts [needs a bit of trek]

Once in Pondicherry, following is a good itinerary:

Day One

1. Visit Panchavati temple in the Tinidivanam road. It would be about 4-5 Kms from Jipmer Hospitals
2. Next proceed to Auroville village and report to Visitor Centre. You could do some shopping at the visitor centre - auroville handicrafts etc
3. Once done, exit from the other side of Auroville, which would be Marakkanam road. Take a right turn here to head back to town
4. Auroville beach at the above exit - though not mandatory
5. Head back to Pondicherry and have lunch at Suruguru / Hotel Saravana Bhavan
6. After lunch, head to Chunnambar Beach Resort and take an Island trip. The last trip is before 4:00 pm. This trip takes you across the backwater / river to reach a neat and clean beach. Caution: the beach is treacherous, so be careful and stay close to the shore all time.
7. Get back to hotel freshen up and reach beach road and spend evening

Day Two

0. Don't miss the sunrise at beach road. Typical Sunrise is around 6:00 am
1. Head to Manakula Vinayagar temple. Plan for break fast near the temple .. A2B?
2. Proceed to Aurobindo Ashram building
3. Central park, which is close to beach road and hosts the Pondicherry emblem
4. Visit Museum if interested
5. Could visit Jawahar Bal Bhavan garden - there used to be a toy train - not sure if its functional now
6. If interested in shopping - visit MG Road , you get good deals for cotton dress at Thiruppur summer collection near the petrol bunk in the beginning of MG Road from the temple side
7. Leave Pondicherry by around 3:00pm
8. Visit Thiruvannamalai temple. This place is about 2 Hours from Pondicherry
9. Head back to bangalore

There are stuff like Dolphin watch etc [I have never done this]. If you have more time, this might be a good activity. Contact the Pondicherry Tourism department in the Beach road. Another place of archaeological interest might be Arekemedu Excavation center. Again I have never been here - its about 1 hour from Pondicherry towards Cuddalore. You would find the excavated articles in Pondicherry Museum.

You would find most of the Hotel Names / Numbers in the Pondicherry website mentioned in the beginning.

If you would like to enter Matri Mandir, you would need prior-appointment. Else Matri Mandir in Auroville could only be sighted form a viewing point. Particular areas in auroville are motor vehicle free. You have to either walk; senior citizens can take battery-operated transportation vehicle or you could rent a bi-cycle.

If you are staying in the town, try to go around the town by walk or tempo. Finding Car parking might be tough in weekends. Try to go to the town beach either late in the night or early morning. Beach road would be crowded in evenings in weekends. Beach Road is traffic free between 6:00 and 9:30 pm. In fact try to take a bi-cycle on rent!! You could checkout in the Cycle Repair shops for renting.

Within the town our favorite would be to be take a walk in Beach road after 9:30 pm; and head to the ice-cream / coffee shop at one end of the beach road [to the right side if you face the Beach].

Food in general is good in most hotels. Non-veg you may want to try Hotel Mass; Anandha Inn; will quote a few more later.

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Started commuting!

My long awaited wish/goal of commuting to work by bike came to reality about a week back

Distance: about 11 kms one way
Traffic : medium to high
Time taken: about 35 minutes

Logistics were the only hurdles: 1. to carry the laptop bag or not 2. no shower at work place 3. Carrying change cloths/towels

Made an unplanned first commute - just took off with the laptop bag; lunch and in regular dress - carried the required inners to be changed. Decided to ride cool and slow so that I don't sweat too much. It wasn't pretty tough in my route [murugeshpalya - airport rd - inner ring road - koramangala - dairy circle] except for the road block in EGL - otherwise would have preferred going through EGL instead of Airport rd. The roads have decent ups and downs and luckily the traffic was't bad on the first day. Reached about 5 minutes earlier than my usual commute in car!

Made the next two commute trips with better planning - left the laptop / change cloths at work the previous day. It definitely was much easier - but guess I have to get used to carrying the laptop bag along.

Issues faced on the road:

1. In a traffic jam, it wasn't easy to pass through and over take the jammed traffic [unlike what I thought before]
2. Took onto the walk path [either pushing or riding] to go ahead of the regular traffic when stopped [was helping in avoiding the eunuchs - who seem to become more troublesome in traffic for bikers]
3. For sure was planning to go along with the traffic. Was a bit confused about crossing the traffic when its red - but then got comfortable to wait and move when its safe
4. Autos are even more terrible now!
5. Taking a right turn in signals - getting ahead of the stopped traffic from the left and moving to the centre seemed to be a saner choice
6. Crossing the road - decided to just go ahead and take a U-turn instead of crossing the median with the bike [I just don't get how people cross the meridian at EGL!! these folks have to get a walkover bridge!! this place is one example of gross neglect from private / govt bodies!]
7. Slow moving vehicles mostly fail to switch on indicators while already on left and are trying to park
8. All the time was travelling during peak times [9-10am; 5-6 pm] - looks like a pollution mask is a must - planning to get a totobobo next week [missed the appointment this week]. Also have to try to re-schedule my commute timing.

Thanks to all the folks who have contributed to the Commute section in BZ

Hoping to commute 2 days a week going forward

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My First Ride on ACT 110

Some how was just hesitating to go on it till everything was ok. This again was a long weekend! Decided to go for another shopping at Decathlon :-) Which motivated me enough to decide that I would take the bike and Sandy could come by car to ORR Coffee day.

Plan was to buy the front fender as well. My brother Jag too wanted to buy couple of things for his bike [Hero Octane]. We decided to take the route from Murugeshpalya - Wind tunnel road through belandur lake to ORR.

Came out of the house and realized I forgot something - oh yeah thats the helmet!! .. Didn't feel that very odd wearing the helmet -btw, this is the first time I'm using a Helmet in my life to ride any bike!!

The roads were pretty good till CABS. The handling was pretty good - except for the small ditches - the shock got directly transferred to the palms and the hands. Started riding a bit more carefully and loosened the grip whenever I hit such pot holes. [already had some discomfort in wrist - probably due to working style - have to get some ergo done]

Once we reached the lake front, there were no more roads :-( it was just rubbles of granite stones- they are just about laying a new road. Wasn't sure how my bike is, which is more of a road bike, going to take it. But then decided to go ahead anyways. Ride was peaceful enough once we crossed the lake and hit Belandur village. All the way through I was meddling with the gears to the right combination. Once inside the village, tried to speed up a bit to catch up - but landed up in gear one in the front again! which slipped and the chain came off!

Omg .. what do I do now .. vaguely remembered using broken sticks to put the chain back in olden days. Got one too, but realized it wasn't necessary, I had to just place the chain in the lower side of the small sprocket and reverse spin it in stand position. And luckily it worked.

Reached CDay and we locked our bikes together to a pole. There were a few curious kids playing around, who started to play with the levers right in front of us! They asked for a rupee, to start with, and then cake to take care of the bikes!!

We sat outside to ensure the kids don't play around too much with the gear system - which they eventually did - what can you possibly do to them? So warned them again and left them alone. They don't seem to be doing anything more. We awaited Sandy.

Observed few more arranged dates here! - Looks like with all the s/w companies and apartments around, this Cday was a popular shaadi.com joint!!

Sandy came in finally finished the coffee - gave a piece of my mind to the cday guy - the glass he served in had a big crack. And walked out.

This time Sandy opted out of riding the bike!! So took off from there all the way to Decathlon. Bought couple of Organic cotton Tees [300] and the front fender [400]. Picked up a mineral water bottle and we decided to head back - it was already dark.

Switched on the front and rear lights and started off. The front light wasn't focusing correctly. Have to align it to focus on the roads. The ride back was pretty good - with the weather being so pleasant - luckily not much traffic as well [probably holiday effect].

After reaching close to Multiplex in Marthahalli, realized its going to be a tough climb till the bridge. Had set the front gear to 2 and back to 4. Half the way moved to 1 in the front. Was moving slowly and steadily. Jag warned that the road is going to have good amount of gradient from Marthahalli to HAL.

By now my palms were paining and I was starting to feel numb - was just wondering that this cycle should have had a front suspension to take all those small bumps. After reaching the top felt relieved - there was a bit of descent [towards HAL] till we reached end of shopping places. Once we crossed this, the gradient again started to increase - very gradually. By now was totally tired and was wondering how on earth can I reach HAL!!

By now I was totally tired, every meter felt like a km! Was hungry and thirsty .. drank some water [was craving for a gatrode!] and decided to pull on as much as possible. I have always passed through this stretch in 60+. With the bike i was hardly able to cross 10kmph!! Kept on meddling with the gears to see what would be more easier. Then decided to leave the front to 2 itself and do the ascend. And once reaching the Helicoptor division, it was like some energy pumping in from some where! Got up from the seat and pressed hard to gain some speed and eventually reached HAL!! -- What a relief!! .. from then on its just descent all the way home :-)

Checked the stats - Max speed was about 32 [in descent] and total distance covered was about 34Kms!! Total time [may not be accurate] was about 1.5hrs. No wonder - never thought it would be this distance when we started off. Sat for some time, took a cold wash of the feets. Had a lemon soda to refresh and cooled down!! Had a luke warm showerand then moved on to Wake up Sid movie :-)

Had a decent sleep - the only time I felt odd was while climbing the stairs. Felt pretty cool - unlike after the majaa run in Sunfeast marathon, wherein, could feel the strain for couple of days.

Summary:

The ride was pretty good - was happy with ACT 110 [I better be :-)]. Ride was tiresome but wasn't too straining. Felt numbness in palms / fingers at the end of the ride - front suspension might have helped; was slightly uncomfortable in groin [will try some saddle adjustments]. No back / neck or leg pain so I think the height adjustments have been pretty ok.

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Bike & Accessories Story!

Next day was Pooja day .. so the bike got the required blessings :-) Evening loaded the cycle to my car. Plan was to pickup Sandy and then go to Decathlon store to buy accessories. Idea was to DIY the accessories to get familiarized with the bike.

Picked up Sandy and stopped at ORR Coffee day. Shortly Jason too joined us. It was interesting to see at least 2-3 couples on arranged date here. We had some fun watching them. Dates with their parents or relatives in the adjacent table etc!!

All of us decided to head towards Decathlon from there. Sandy decided to take a spin on the bike and eventually he rode uptil Decathlon! En-route the chain came of the front sprocket while moving to gear 1 [small]. He fixed and followed.

Sandy thought the bike was pretty good. Its only that the seats were not correctly adjusted for his height - the easy release lock didn't lock tight enough to hold his weight. He thought he would buy this bike if only it suited his height.

Eugene at Decathlon assisted us in picking up the accessories - he was quite helpful in explaining and he went ahead and tried to see if it would fit my bike [the accessories are typically for BTwin bikes]

Bought the following:

RockRider Helmet [1700]

Decathlon Wireless Comp [1700]

Lock (set of three) [250?]

Rockrider Rear fender [400]

Btwin Bike cover [600]

Light set - Front and back [850] {made Sandy to pay the same ;-)}

Rockrider Saddle bag [400]

Front fender - Eugene tried the spare ones - it didn't seem to be fitting .. so didn't take it at this time.

Took few more pictures of the bike at Decathlon and left. We had to reach movie hall soon [Wanted - hindi], so loaded the bike back to car and went back home.

It was a long weekend, so Monday was off too!! .. so decided to fix all the accessories.

What followed was very good learning. I don't know whether I have ever used the Allen keys before - even when I had a bike. Most of the parts were removable using the Allen keys. They were so tiny and it took some time to get used to positioning and gripping the same!

Was doing it very slow since the whole thing was new for me! Got stuck while trying to fix the back fender. The top screw of the V-brake kit is suppose to come off so that it can be replaced with a longer screw to affix the fender. But it had been screwed so tight the kit got unscrewed from the frame!! Even singer oil didn't help in releasing this screw.

I had screwed up the front wheel release mechanism as well [ the lock wasn't closing so banged it and bent it]. Had removed the release lever completely and wasn't sure how to put in the springs as well. With whatever fix I did, the breaks were rubbing against the front wheel.

Took some time to figure out why the cyclo comp wasn't reading any speed - RTFM - the magnet and the transmitter are to be at a max distance of 5mm at the time of contact!!, I had happily set it up about 2 inches away!!

So except for this, everything else was fixed at the end of about 4 hrs!! [what would have been a 30 min job for a pro.

Following weekdays were pretty busy and was raining too. One of the days, took the bike back to RR. Rakesh obliged to get it repaired. The service guys had some oil which helped in removing the screw from the back v-brake kit. This time they tightened the kit so that the screw on top is easily removable. That night, replaced those screws with the one which came along with the fender. Finally the fender snugged in neat!

In the shop, Rakesh had confirmed that the RockRider front fender would work fine. But he was asking me to wait until the cyclothon is completed. He thought many people broke their fenders in the initial few days. Met my colleagues there who were planning to buy ACT 110 - Rakesh seem to have quoted 10800 now. And looks like he had another two paces stacked up somewhere!

Eventually it was weekend and the home minister reminded me that the bike is inside the home [literally] and I haven't taken it for a spin yet.

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My Bike Finally!!

After lots of thoughts, decided to go ahead and buy the Hercules Ryders ACT 110. Bought the same from RR Cycle mart in Madivala [on 26th of Sep 09]

The Raja Cycle mart guy told me that the bike would arrive the next week every time I called through August. The last call I made to him he said it would take 2-3 weeks - with that I gave up hopes with that shop.

RR had only one cycle left out - which was on the display [atleast thats what was claimed!]. I was just wondering whether I'm just too desperate to get the bike .. but on re-thinking, I wasn't desperate to buy, but to start cycling at the earliest.

So went to Total Mall with kids and my friend Sandy. Kids were so amazed to see so many different bikes. They were immediately attracted to all those popular cartoons used for advt.

Say after a small negotiation, settled for INR9500 for this model. The cycle was already assembled since it was in display - the sales guy tried to cleanup whatever he can and handed the bike over to me! .. it still had l traces of dust - but didn't mind. Its of course to be dirty eventually!! I hope I make it more dirty by riding!

Said no to all the accessories - didn't get anything free as well. Rakesh claimed he could sell it at 11500, but had promised me to sell it at 9500 so he is agreeing. But thats ok - he is doing his job!

Pushed the cycle to total mall and took a small spin around the mall to load the bike to my car. And headed back home after a much at Mc D and a coffee at CD - had a movie planned that night [Unnai pol oruvan].

Act110

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Pathetic CS at Andhra Bank

Happen to take a SuryaSakthi Loan [for solar] from this bank through SV Marketing. Had pledged an LIC money back policy with them. Once the loan got closed, they were unable to trace the FD certificate of my money back they got from LIC. Have been following up with Andhra Bank, De-costa layout for the last 2.5 years!!

This weekend met the FD department - the person handling was courteous and gave the new FD Number - again she didn't have any clue about where the certificate went!! She referred me to the so called Senior Manager - who says me there are so many discrepancies in SuryaSakthi loans and that it would take lot of time - just come back some other time. Was literally furious - but just kept cool and try to get info on what I need to do. He repeated the same old things like I'm new to this branch; I don't know you blah blah. Don't know whent he hell these people would start behaving like a corporate!

The previous manager told similar stories and told me that the FD is safe so I don't have to worry. This manager says its your responsibility and you should have got the files when you closed the loan [while the loan was closed - they just wanted to push me off from their table and they didn't have any clue as to where it was]

The only good thing is - the FD seem to exist still and renewed in my name!!

Going to give another chance to these guys before doing an RTI!

How things could have been handled better

• There was no need for the manager to tell me about the indiscrepancies in the other loans - it is internal to the bank and since I had the loan closure certificate!!
• He could have given me a clear appointment or taken my details so that he can call back and update me later - ie if he was really busy and interested in resolving my issue. He bviously didn't show any respect to the Customers schedules and job
• All that he had to do is to find if my FD was still under pledging or cleared - if it was cleared he just had to tell me the procedure to get the duplicate certificate [I don't have any hopes that they would figure out where the first one went or the previous ones went!]

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Great Customer Service with Belkin!

Have been thinking of putting up some thoughts on the customer service issues I face in the shops / service stations.

Had this amazing experience with a Belkin product customer service!!

My friend had bought a Belkin 54g wireless router from US. He had bought it for $100 with a cash back of $90!! This has been working perfectly fine until recently, it broke due to a power issue.

Was looking for technical support and was very happy to see that Belkin had a toll free number for India!! Called the number provided the required details. A ticket was logged and details sent promptly with Bangalore contacts. I was informed that Belkin products have life time warranty and hence I can take the same to their frontline company to get it replaced!! I didn't have the bill for the same since my friend had bought for me [even otherwise 3+ years bill?] mentioned the same and had sent an email to the tech support. They were ok with the same as well!

Took a print out of the same and went to Accel Systems [initially there were trouble locating them since they were in the process of moving] at Townhall. They were initially reluctant saying 1. we need bill 2. product bought in US do not have support here etc. Eventually they took the kit and gave me a receipt. Waited there for some time and loosing patience checcked with them. They told me they are delaying since they have to confirm that bill is not required. Told them I would call them another day and come back.

Eventually when I found time to call, it was ready and picked up a brand new Belkin Wireless G router!!

CS Points:

• Life time warranty for the product!! Company is really serious about taking care of the customer!!
• It was good that the frontline engineers took the system - though they weren't clear whether its in the process to replace the item without bill / bought outside India
• Frontline company didn't have anyone to approve the required immediately - which causes delay for the customer
• There wasn't a call back from the frontline company once they clarified and resolved my issue - I had to call them and check. A good customer orientation would be to call the customer and inform once problem is resolved

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Hercules Ryder ACT 110 hunt!

Today went to BSA go near safina plaza. I was quoted 10,600 for this cycle. Khan traders in the adjacent street quoted 10,300 [best price with bill, as per them]. Had a chance to look at the cycle in both these places.

Cycle is pretty impressive. Almost buying this.

Awaiting the availability of this cycle in town hall - this person quoted 9K though he didn't have the bike. have to follow up.

meanwhile would be visiting decathlon store in Sarjapur road to see Btwin RR 5.1 [just for the heck of it - looks like it is 110]

+++++++++++

Sandy, Jason and I checked out the Btwin cycels at Decathlon, Sarjapur road.

BT 5.1 had Rotating gear shifts which we weren't comfortable. The speed gear shift in 5.2 and above was pretty easy to operate. 5.2 is about 15.5K out there. Test ride on 5.2 was comfortable.

5.2 felt a bit lighter vs 5.1.

So the index shift seems to be a differentiator for 110 vs 5.1. Again 5.1 had regular mtb tyres. Trek-7100 too seem to have rotating gear shifts. Btwin's had front suspension Hercules 110 doesn't have.

Have to try 110 at the earliest.

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Checking Out Cycles

bave been busy looking for cycles!! Have been reviewing the following:

Hercules Ryder ACT 110 MRP of about Rs. 10500

Trek 7100 MRP of about Rs. 20500

Bianchi Aeron Sport MRP of about 29500

At this moment it does look like the Hercules - should be deciding soon.

Have been reviewing quite some articles at http://www.bikeszone.com -> Cycling.

Not sure how imporant are disc brakes and front suspension - both of these are available in Hercules Ryders Act 109. Need to check before deciding.

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It Rains finally!!

Whole of this season there was hardly any rain. This weekend and especially yesterday night the rain was damn good.

But it does come with the side effect of traffic jams the following day. Traffics blocked in regular routes withoug any notification.

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Keeping it alive

Looks like a pretty big % of blogs are inactive!! Have to keep my blog alive for certain number of days to figure out what I can blog. One for sure is to write about the pathetic state of Roads for Pedestrians enroute my home to work.

Have been following Mint News paper for the last few days - have to get used to livemint.com as well. I liked the news format in this paper - its more like reading on the web rather than a typical newspaper. It does cover good amount of News on Finance [which is good enough for me] and covers a lot more on other news as well. For me Mint was pretty refreshing compared to the subsidized Economic Times I used to get along with the Times of India.

At the moment the panic level of Swine flu has been steadily increasing in and around me. Yesterday bengaluru reported the first death due to Swine flu.

At office, surprisingly, there has been quite some action in the last couple of days - including setting up alcohol based sanitizers!! But the biggest threat in offices might be the door handles - need to see if they can be kept sanitized.

Today happens to be an Ethnic day at work - to celebrate Independance day. Was definitely not in a great mood to dress up ethnic!

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Blogiversary!!

Interesting to find that the "wee-b-log" is 10 years old!! It was a shame hadn't gotten into this blogging stuff earlier it seems!!

So this late night started this blog :-)

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