The Air Deccan Phenomenon!

Hey.
Long ago, in 92-93 i think, my parents decided to take us all on a trip in luxury. We flew from Hyderabad to Mumbai and from Mumbai to Baroda (that exhausted the money, and we came back by train!!) and for the next one year, there was a cut on all kinds of comfort and luxuries at home due to that trip! I remember the total flight ticket figure for all 4 of us to be around 40000-50000/-. Then, in 99, we flew from Vizag to Delhi and for each person the ticket cost was about 10500/-!!
A fortnight ago, i had to go to Delhi urgently and was contemplating how to go (as the money now has to come from my pocket!) and on a whim, called travelguru (at Bangalore), whose ad i saw online. Imagine my surprise when they told me that an Air Deccan ticket for an early morning flight was available from Hyderabad to Delhi for 2200/-, incl taxes! I grabbed it and left to hyd by Volvo-overnight journey (600/-) and took the flight to Delhi. Total expenditire from Vizag to Delhi, Less than 3000/-!! No wonder more and more people are travelling by air nowadays! And even more should- an industry average says Air travel is bound to increase by 25% each year till 2010 and i'm overjoyed!! Next day morning, i caught an Air Deccan flight from Delhi to Jammu and again the fare was around 2200/-. We came back by train from Delhi to Vizag by A/c and the fare?- 2100/-! Train takes around 38-40 hrs.
Seriously, Kudos to Capt Gopinath for taking initiative in revolutionising Indian skies! Every other airline has had to slash fares and give more freebies to retain market share and this is going to become even more competitive as more and more new airlines are entering the fray!
However, there's one cause for concern too- Our infrastructure is already being stretched to the limits. The government needs to speed up it's upgradation process big-time!.
At Delhi airport, i've seen check-in lines as long as queues at Railway reservation counters during peak hours- and that too at 630 am! The security check area was not sufficient and people were standing, waiting for their flights to be called! Our flight to Jammu was stranded on the tarmac as there was no enough air-space around Delhi airport for the take-off!
Anyway, all good things come with a price-tag and i guess this tag is it!

My Find of the year- Orkut

As usual, i'm late in waking up to whatever's already woken the world up.
It's Orkut! When i was in Bangalore last month, my cousin Teja first told me about this network of friends from Google and since then, i've been trying to log on. But, a good thing about Orkut- you can't just walk into it, you need an invite from an already registered member! This makes it pretty safe and relatively spam free. Good Idea!!
Last week, my cousin in Delhi, Raji also told me about Orkut and, bless her heart, she sent me an invite. So, i'm finally in!!
For the last 3 days, i've been hunting people down on orkut and i'm not surprised to find dozens of my friends already online! One great thing i found here is that you can sort yourself into all the communities you came from (like school, college etc) and also into your interests, cities etc etc. Now, it becomes so much more easier to find people. I typed in Vizag and thousands of people came up! I found a few in know and got started.
Tons of great features like a photo album, a scrapbook, a testimonial page, separate pages for personal, social and professional life etc make Orkut even more better!
Now comes the best feature for me. You can browse thru friends of friends! I added a few friends (whom i found easily thru search) and looked thru their friend database and found more people i already knew and added them too!!
Get on gang, i'll send you an invite if you want.

Hail Coffee Day!!

Hi,
About a year ago, Cafe Coffee Day opened an outlet in our city- Visakhapatnam and i've been hooked to it right since inception. It seems like some incarnations ago, i owed a huge amount to coffee day (or whetever it was then) and now, i'm having to pay it back with interest! Inevitably, my whole life has been revolving around meetings at that place (Not seriously, i'm just dramatising things!!).
Not only at Vizag, but wherever i see that Red and Purple Coffee Day Billboard, i'm inexplicably drawn to it. Recently, i've been touring a lot. I've visited Coffee Days at 3 places in Hyderabad (without prior planning, of course) and last month, in Bangalore, we went down to Forum Mall to look around and watch a movie (These Metro-nivasis treat all others like Adi-vasis- wah-wah. As soon as i landed at Bangalore, they Tch Tch'ed me and said since you come from a kind of village, let me show you a real hang-out place and took me to Forum Mall) and there was time for Fanaa to begin. Guess where we spent that time- Coffee Day of course!
Now, Last week, we went on a huge trip to Delhi- Jammu- Vaishno Devi- Amritsar and back to Vizag.
We were all climbing Vaishno Devi Hill and imagine our shock when at 4 kms up, we find the unavoidable Coffee Day!! Naturally we took full use of it and spent a well deserved 1/2 hr there before climbing on. At Half Way point, We were ready to take another break and- no prizes- yet another red and pueple billboard loomed up ahead of us!! Don't believe me, look at the attached photo! I've taken it there so i can get all you guys to believe me!
It's a pity that i could not find a Coffee Day in Amritsar, else, my C-D Darshan of my trip would have been complete!
Kudos to the management of C-D for such a comprehensive network! I'll keep on updating this place as i go ahead with my tour of Coffee Days across India!!

Update- 11/12/06- As i said, when i'm on tour in rural places, i'm on the lookout for coffee days. During my recent trip in punjab, himachal and delhi, i've seen a lot of coffee days, but a Coffee day in Amritsar, Chandigarh, Delhi and Shimla are nothing great. The new photo is of Coffee day in Dharampur. Dharampur is a little town in the hills, on the way down from Shimla. Must be about 100 kms from Shimla or something like that and there too, youngsters sat nursing their cups of Cafe Mocha and Cappuccino!! Hail Coffee day for taking these coffees into the tea gardens of Himachal!!!
Stay tuned for more :)

1st Post

Hi,
As usual, i've been a late bloomer! The whole world has woken up to blogging ages ago and only yesterday did i feel that i should also leave my pawprint (or whatever they call it) in the wide etherland! So, here i go!
Enjoy Life!!