Cairo

Egypt Museum, Cairo: A sprawling building with multiple sections, we managed to check only some important aspects of the museum. The place has hundreds of artefacts from ancient Egypt. Here, we got acquainted with the two famous Kings/Pharaohs Ramses II and Tutankhamun. The latter is famous not for his achievements, but because his was the only tomb that was recovered with very less damage and about 4500 items were extracted from his burial tomb. The museum contains most of these items, 6 of the 7 coffins/sarcophagus found in his tomb,face mask made of gold and other jewellery. The intricacy of the various works made about 3000 years ago is simply amazing.

The museum also has mummys discovered in the tombs. Though photography is not allowed as is, I can safely say that real mummies look very different from the ones we see in movies/TV etc. !

Egyptians strongly believed in the life after death concept. The tombs/pyramids were built as burial chambers for the kings where materials, inscriptions etc. were placed to aid the dead person to smoothly move into after life. They believed that the dead person has to undergo some challenges to make this transition and the endeavour of the burial tombs is to help the person to undergo these challenges. They had various Gods and many of the writings/ paintings refer to the king/queen praying to these various gods.


Pyramids and the Sphinx, Giza: I think most of us associate the pyramids with the Egypt more than anything else. The pyramids of Giza lie about 30 Kms away from main Cairo seprated by the Nile and both together form the Greater Cairo City.

The pyramids are again burial tombs built during the Old Kingdom period and the three main pyramids correspond to 3 kings (grandfather, father and son). The sphinx is present in front of the second pyramid.

These are majestic buildings and I believe, the actual secret chambers of the pyramids are yet to be found. The size of the structures is amazing.. and apparently each of the stones in the pyramid weigh close to 2 tonnes.

We also did a small trip into the third small pyramid and were left breathless.. a lovely experience.

The pyramids again show the belief of ancient Egyptians about after life. The majestic buildings and the sphinx show the skills of man close to 3500 years ago.

We have majestic buildings in India as well, but most have been erected in the A.D. era. The beauty of Egypt lies in the fact that most of these buildings have been build in the B.C era - many thousands of years ago.

We came back to the pyramids again for the Sounds and Light show - a magnificent presentation about the pyramids and the evolution of ancient Egypt. The sight of the sphinx and the pyramids in the lights is a wonderful sight. A must see aspect of the tour.. just ensure you carry some jackets on to handle the cold desert ;)!

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Egypt - The Trip

Our choice of Egypt is a story by itself.. The original plan for a vacation included catching up with family, but the trip got derailed due to visa issues. We kinda immediately decided we would go to Egypt without much forethought and booked our vacation with a seasoned tour operator.

Then came the advises. We came to know Egypt was under turmoil and there were agitations going on for establishing democracy in the country. We had everybody advising us against going to Egypt - family, friends, colleagues etc. Perhaps due to the fact that we desperately needed a break or because we were too tied up at work and home to think too seriously about the issue - we decided to go ahead with the trip.

S ( my husband, who BTW has never been introduced in this blog before) generally prefers to plan his trips on his own. But, Egypt was a different proposition, we generally agreed taking a group tour was the best option.

We commenced our journey and landed in Cairo by flight. Our trip started in earnest the next day. Our tour guide was the old young man Mr. Abdul Aziz - note I call him young! He was an enthusiastic old man and being an archaeologist and an Egyptologist - his insight was invaluable to form our impressions about Egypt and its ancient culture.

The subsequent blog entries will list the places we visited and some of my impressions of them.

B

Egypt

After a year long break!! I see my last post was exactly a year ago.. things have changed dramatically since then. But the reason I come out of my long slumber is not to discuss these changes, but to jot down memories of a memorable trip to Egypt, lest I forget them.

So here goes the details...

Back again!

I am back after a longggggggggggg time. It looks more like I am trying to boost my number of posts in 2010.. reckon its an useless battle!

Well, the reason for the long silence is because 2010 has been the dramatic year of change for me! More into my next post ;)

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The Body Massage

Just back from a lovely vacation at Coorg!

One of the things we did there was to go for a good massage. As the masseuse worked on me, I lay there thinking..now should I say that she knows me? Is my being defined just by my body or more by the person that I am, my thoughts, my feelings, my opinions or simply put,my inner soul. It kinda snapped on me that I was just a stranger to her.

I have heard many a times people quoting Gita about how life is not about the body, but about the soul. I can't imagine a more perfect experience of realising this aspect before than on this day. So, does that mean loved ones who have ceased being part of my life have just lost their earthly bodies and they live elsewhere. Can I go looking for them? Will I find them and If I do, would they appreciate my presence in their lives?

A tamil saying goes "Kathradu kai mann alava, kalladhadhu ulagalavu" - What I know is equivalent to a handful of sand, what I do not know is equivalent to the vastness of the world.

So there is still lots to know about in this life and world.

The woods are lovely dark and deep

But I have promised to keep,

and miles to go before I sleep

And miles to go before I sleep.

Well, the massage did rejuvenate my body and mind!

B

Madras Travel Diary!

Madrasa suthi paarka porein...

Marina vil veeda katta porein...

Light House il eri nikka porein...

etc etc etc.

For all those folks who don't understand the above lines, its a Rahman Tamil song that talks about visiting places around Madras!

First, the confessions.. I was born and brought up in Singara Chennai. We lived in the heart of the city T.Nagar, a stone's throwaway from Ranganathan Street and Mambalam Railway station. About the only place I know properly in Chennai is South Usman Road and its umpteen galli's ;). If you were to ever get lost in all that maze of shopping in those places, I could possibly be the person who could help you out :D. Wicked!!

But the other side of the truth is that I hardly know the city.With working parents and a demanding school life ;), we hardly ventured out much..a visit to thatha-patti's place on the otherside of the station at West Mambalam was the only constant outing!

So my visit this last weekend was an experience in more ways than one! I boarded the Shatapti to Chennai at 6 AM on Saturday. On my way to my chittappa's place, I was surprised to see multiple photos of Sai Ram on the pre-paid auto(has to be pre-paid ma in Chennai). I always believe that Baba has a quirky way of telling me that a visit was due :). I casually asked the auto fella where the mandir is and he suggested Mylapore.

At home, we decided I needed to complete some bit of shopping before catching up on a dear friend. Off I was to Globus in Pondy Bazaar near my alma mater where I did my standard swiping the card routine ;). Then went to my friend's place and reminisced about all those wonderful days of BITS and life thereafter!

I was back home at 7 and chithi suggested she will take me down to Mylapore to see Baba and also check out the Kapaleeshwar temple which I'd never seen before. The temple, one of the landmarks of Chennai was some place I had never visited :(. When I managed to go there later that night, I was filled with some kind of peace. There is something about old temples with their vast space and the sense of serenity. It is very difficult to feel that peace in any of the newer structures. Thoroughly loved it :).

Sunday, after lunch was shopping time! My mom, who did all her shopping in Bombay when we lived in Chennai now does all her shopping in Chennai (at T.Nagar, mind you!!) while we live in Bangalore!! She had gently hinted when I left Blore that I pick up some sarees for her. So off we went (Chithi and I) to Nalli's :). Now, I know Nalli's is a brand name which women all over India seem to know is the place to shop for sarees, I once had a friend's sister suggesting that there is a Nalli in Hyderabad. But for all that brand name, Nalli's can be real real confusing! They have 3 floors, umpteen counters and hazaar varieties...I wonder how any tourist would know what to shop around here! And mind you, this is just one shop.. they have about 3 shops on the same road!

Anyway, we picked some sarees for my mom. Now, I can't be left behind.. can I ;). I wanted to check out the designer silk sarees which meant we spent some more time looking around. If we've come so far.. must check out RMKV silks nearby also na.. ;). So after a marathon 3 hours of shopping, we landed home at 3 in the afternoon! Chithi's afternoon nap gone for a toss!

Now, we had to go to beach also ;), the government has spent crores beautifying the runway around the beach ;).. I must visit it..right ;) So, off we were to the crowded Marina beach and spent close to 45 mins standing in the cool waters :). Bliss!!

Later,Dinner at Mathura's where I realised that my childhood restaurant is no match to the ambience and food of Hyd's restaurants, I even got onto a PTC bus (:D) to finally reach home!

Monday, boarded Shatapti at 6 AM to get back to home, office and life as usual :)

Well, there goes my Madras travel diary ;).

B

Performance Appraisal

Can't tell you how happy I felt reading this article :D - http://news.rediff.com/report/2010/feb/01/fearing-zero-ministers-upset-with-pms-grading-system.htm

I've often wondered if Government employees and ministrys go through performance appraisals and benefits based on them like us! I mean why should only people in private companies(read IT) suffer this system.It can be all the more frustrating when its not done in the right sense or does not yield any benefits as such due to yada yada.. come on guys you know the reasons!

I hope the government follows this system seriously and get on with appraising the ministers in all honesty!

Tchao!

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