Water, water everywhere, Nor any drop to drink…we think after a trip round Melbourne bay areas

9^th December 2010

Our neighbour Paul offered to take Mom & Dad around the Melbourne bay areas. We were excited and surprised with his offer. However not very confident on Mom & Dad’s comfort levels of a trip with a non-Indian for the first time in their lives. Although, Dad can communicate in English with Paul we thought it would be nice if one of us can join them. All 4 of us thought it would even more fun if all of us were in that trip. Mom started praying internally and I went spoke to Paul on our intentions. Paul was more than happy to welcome our thoughts.

Every one had to get ready by 9.30 am; the plan was to go to the Shiva Yoga ashram at Mt. Eliza first, which means Mom will not wear chudidar. Not having enough time to make something to eat, forced me to prepare only curd rice with some crackers. While the others were busy getting ready, I packed Tea, biscuits, crackers, spoons etc …nonetheless ginger beer.

Everyone was ready by 9.30 am and we left home at 9.30am.

Wait a minute... I forgot to tell you this... Mom made sure pictures were taken before start as a memento. We drove for 45 minutes to reach Mt Eliza. The ashram was quiet dwelled in beauty of silence. Mom & dad highly impressed with the beauty of the place enjoyed their time there. We waited in the immaculately painted (mantras) meditation room for Swami ji. Mom made sure I capture even the minute things in our camera. After few minutes, swamiji came and we chatted with him for a while. Paul took us around the ashram and it was blissful being there.

 We headed towards Arthur’s Seat at Dromana; it was a wonderful view there. We admired the stunning scenery of the Mornington Peninsula, Port Phillip Bay and Bass Strait from different angles and elevations. It was 12 noon and every one seem to be hungry because we did not have a good breakfast . We checked the options available at the local restaurant but could not find any impressive ones. There was a picnic area amongst the trees on the peak. With the sounds of perching birds, it appeared as the birds were trying to talk to the trees and trees responded by swinging in the wind. The sun tried to peep through the leaves of the tall trees. Amidst this beauty, we opened our boxes of curd rice and crackers. We offered Paul the curd rice with pickle and crackers. Well everyone was happy as there was something to eat .While Paul enjoyed his smoke along with juice we brought for him. He liked the plain curd rice that was not spicy for him.

After 45 minutes, we set ourselves to Rose bud from where we drove past Sorrento towards the London bridge .We did not hop out of the car as we headed towards point Nepean national park. We reached there and realised there is internal guided bus tour. The park is located at the very tip of the Mornington Peninsula, with outstanding coastal scenery and panoramic views of Bass Strait, the Rip and Port Phillip Bay. We still had half an hour for the tour after buying the tickets. It was getting colder there and everyone seems to have realised the importance of chai. I served the chai to everyone, Paul loved it. He said keep it for later as well. The tour started on time and we were shown the park which runs through the tip” Nepean Point.” The audio guided us through the historical significance of the place, while we enjoyed the coastal native trees and grasses. After some time we realised we were at the tip of the Mornington Peninsula …it was hard to believe that there was just water, water n water beyond this point.

After such a relaxing tour, we had plans to take the ferry and go to the other side of the Melbourne bay. Dad’s dream of travelling in a ship came true, he was impressed with the Ferry. There were so many Titanic poses taken on the Ferry. We also had Walkers biscuits which everyone liked it. We were back on the road heading towards the place were Paul wanted to show us the sand dunes. We went to point Lonsdale, lighthouse after which we went to Ocean grove lighthouse.

We went near the waters and took many snaps. Paul could not bear the cold hence went inside the car. We head towards Geelong and it rained cats & dogs. After a while when it stopped we saw a big rainbow prominent. Have not seen such a rainbow in my lifetime. It was a blissful moment and we tried to capture in camera .Even after several trials to capture the rainbow we failed to capture its totality. We wanted to have early dinner outside as no one seem to have eaten well in the afternoon. By this time all the energy had drained and it was already 8.30 pm .Well Sravan, Dad & Mom happily slept at back .I knew how challenging would it be to drive after such a strenuous day, I had to keep talking to Paul to keep him alert. We planned to order Dominos Pizza after reaching home.

We reached home at 9.30 pm and we order Pizza. Thanks to dominos for their prompt service, we received pizza at 10 pm. I went and gave Paul’s share of Pizza and Ginger beer .The Pizza was yummmyyyyyyyyyyy… thin crust crispy …all of us enjoyed it. As always, Sravan put the slideshow of the photographs taken today. Also enjoyed, watching videos captured. Flat tired everyone could not stay awake for long and the home was encroached by attaya’s & Sravan’s snore.

Technological advancement leads to a Bombardment …thinks dad’s Antar Atman!

            7^th December 2010:

            Abiding by the routine we went to work .This day seemed to be sunny, hence we had asked mom n dad to visit the Aquarium in the city. Upon our direction, Mom asked Dad to put the camera batteries for charging. Mom and Dad tried to finish their morning activities as early as possible.

In the afternoon, it started pouring hence we asked them to carry an umbrella.Dad & Mom seem to have left home by then and reached the Glen Huntly station. We said we would give them the spare umbrella we had at office, hence asked them to meet us at the Tram stop. We kept calling every 5-7 minutes and after a while dad says he is already near the Aquarium. Assuming we were busy with work, they refrained calling us. As soon as they entered, the aquarium crew asked them if they would like a photograph taken. Looking at people getting pictures, mom asked dad to take snaps from our camera. Dad clicked, unaware of the hard reality that this click was a trigger to a missile bombardment. The camera read “Out of Memory.” This is when reality broke into and dad realised there was no memory card inside. Mom was terribly upset and she was like “I asked you to check charge, can’t you check if memory card was inside or not?”

Upset mom tried to control her anger by not talking to dad. Meanwhile, Sravan calls up and asks Dad to get a “picture of the day “done at the aquarium. Dad would not even bother to consider this suggestion as it costed dollars. This is the first time when Mom saw wonderful fishes of different species and she wanted to capture these in our camera. Dad did not let mom go for Picture of day... Moreover, they just were looking around. Sravan instant messaged me of this situation. I could imagine the degree of disappointment which mom was undergoing. I gave a buzz …to check on their situation. I suggested dad to buy a disposable camera at the souvenir shop inside the aquarium. Dad seems to be not responding properly as he did not intend to spend... Hence, he completely ignored us. I tried to empathising with mom and said “We will all go to the aquarium again as I have not seen Melbourne Aquarium”. She says again  ...” Malli vestama … mavayya illa ne chestaru”

Somehow after a while dad tried to please mom by taking pictures from the backup Sony Ericson mobile phone. Well Mom by now has gone to Mauna Vratam and she would not talk to dad. We reached the Tram stop where Dad & Mom waited for us. Mom says from now on she would not go anywhere with only dad. She says she would go only when we are also accompanying them. It was evening and mom had to drink Tea. At first we wanted to take her to the Nepalese restaurant, however we changed the plan and took them to Flora. We ordered 2 tea and 2 plates of Samosas in spite of Sravan asking me not to order Samosas as he was not interested in them. After few minutes garam garam somosas and chai was ready to be picked from the counter. Everyone including Sravan seemed to have enjoyed. We went to the federation square and Yarra river walk. All these while I tried to get mom back in form by taking multiple snaps in iphone .. and she seem to have regained her spirit. It was great to watch the busy Streets of Melbourne by sitting at the federation square.

After an hour, we head towards the beauty of silence (home) from the busy streets of the city. The still home of ours welcomed us to its interiors and everyone wanted to go to sleep as early as possible.While recollecting memories before sleeping dad's antar atman thought "its not my fault.. its the technology.. people were most happy when they had no camera's at all .. they enjoyed the real  beauty..." ...convinced by this slowly dad fell asleep.

Pokiri takes precedence over Krishna …”Okka saari movie pedte .. na mata nene vinnanu …” says megastar Chennakesava(Sravan)

5^th December 2010

  Pleasant breeze seem to have implanted pleasant dreams hence no one seems to get up early this day. Slowly the sharp rays of sun started breaking the dream of each one us. It was 9.30 am and everyone seems to have come back to reality. Intending to finish lunch early, we had our breakfast at 10.30 am. I had plans to finish my cooking at the earliest. Dad holds the greatest work of alankaran of bhagwaan, hence all of us persuaded dad to take bath first. Meanwhile mom finished her sweeping event. There were not enough fruits at home hence suggested Sravan to take mom & dad to the Carnegie fruit market while I prepared lunch. Mom & Sravan denied taking dad along with them as he was still in pooja.

I started cutting vegetables while everyone else took bath .After a while Sravan checked the bus timings to Carnegie. He found the next bus was at 12.45 pm. By this time, Dad comes out and says, “I will join you guys.” Since they had time, they waited. Waiting for them to walkout of the house, continued cutting vegetables. They left at 12.30 am after which I continued my work. After taking bath, I continued cooking n cooking rushing to finish before they come back.

They came back at 2.30 pm. The sun was harsh on them and they were tired. It was hot inside the home whereas a cold breeze blowing outside with a vibrant sun. After relaxing for a while, we started having lunch. We finished lunch and post lunch cleanup by 4pm.Well aware of the saun khoon maaf boon , Sravan very calmly played a movie in youtube.I kept asking “which movie is it?...Rakta Charitra?...Khaleja…?”.Dad on the other hand settled himself on the small wooden seat ..Promptly says “Pokiri”…I said, “Wow dad you know more than us.”Mom says “Iskcon veldamu ra… cinema pettadu”.Sravan which is polite words to mom says “Veldam mata  ... enda tagina tarvata “…Dad ,not at all responding .Well I had dual thoughts …”Lets go to Iskcon” and “Its sunny, I am tired..lets relax”. Mom tried iteratively asking Dad & Sravan but no one seems to be inclined towards that. After a while , biased mom unable to say word against her peda koduku slowly went to sleep, as she was tired with the sun.

Three of us enjoyed brahmanandam comedy …”Youngggg…Dyyynamic…Brahmi garu “.It was close to 7pm the TV screen reads “The End” and our energy level have also diminished. Unable to keep ourselves awake we relaxed our muscles and slowly everyone was asleep. At 8pm, I heard Sravan’s loud snoring that would not let me close my eyes. After the over relaxing sleep, everyone seem to have gained exploding energies .Mom says lets go for a walk .After having tea Mom, Dad & Sravan went for a walk. I wanted finish some of the activities and lighting evening lamp .After I am done with my activities I notice mom’s bangle khan khan khan khan and peeped through the window .I noticed mom is rushing towards door, as she was cold due to the cool breeze. I was overcooked in the home ….hence I wanted a relaxing walk. Dad was interested to join us.. we walked for 45 mins or so ..It was a pleasant breeze and felt refreshed.

No one seems to be getting sleep, all of us chatted until 12.30 am when we had force ourselves to sleep. Krishna conscious souls compromised with pokiri went back to Krishna in dreams asking him to bestow his grace on us .Hence every soul seems to have connected back to the live wire of the supreme consciousness.

A worthwhile 45 minutes of Safari(after a pains taking journey to Werribee Zoo in the scorching heat).Is that all? Asked my eyes O-O

4^th December 2010

           

Weather forecasts were contradictory for Saturday’s weather until the day before. However, my gut feeling and statistical analysis said it would be sunny on Saturday. In addition, it would be hot and angry sun this day. The fact remains that all the tourist places hardly have the stuff that an Herbivore eats... :) Hence, I prepared coconut rice a day before. Late in the Friday evening, Sravan with his magical abilities convinced mom & dad not to take bath the next day, as we had to leave early the next day.

We saw dad walking into the living area at 7.20 am which is when realised we had to get up. We were targeting 9.00 am start. Although every one stuck to the rule of not taking bath, each one of us seemed to be busy with their usual stuff. Dad taking his own time to freshen up. Mom wanted to sweep the house before leaving.Sravan relaxing in the easy chair watching everyone utilising bathroom. I was busy packing stuff for the journey. After a while, I insisted Sravan to help me out for packing. We packed tea in flask, cookies, coconut rice, mixture and nonetheless water. Well, it was time to decide the attire. Mom was not willing to wear her new chudidars as she hasn’t taken bath .Both of us influenced mom to wear my chudidar.Dad wore his dhila dhala formal shirt on the denim .Again our influence led him to change his shirt to Lee casual shirt. We finished our breakfast and started at 9.30 am .We boarded a 9.47 am train to Parliament station from where boarded a train to Werribee at 10.24 am. Mom and dad both looked very smart and young .We took multiple snaps at parliament station giving references to the movie “Dil Chahta hain” as couple of scenes from this were shot here.

Happy that we reached Werribee station in 10 mins to an hour, we went to the bus stop that would take us to Werribee zoo. It was a scorching sun and our thirst increased even more when noticed the next bus is only at 12.15 pm.I thought of hiring a cab would save us time. I called up the cab services asking for a cab pick up. I was told that it would not be long. Fifteen minutes past, we had no clue of the cab we hired. We decided we would finish our lunch here before we board the bus. We were not sure if the bus we boarded goes to the zoo, hence we asked the driver .The driver says, “I am quite new to this, you might have to ask the master...” Well the master appeared to be smoking outside while waiting for people to board. I am sure iphone owns my karma chips; hence, it pays me back every time we set ourselves for journey. We checked in iphone if we were nearing the zoo. We saw a big board indication Werribee zoo... and we got down there.

You can count on fingers, the people at the zoo gate lined up for tickets. We bought a ticket for the 2.30 pm safari that lasts for 45 minutes. Well we had an hour’s time. The brochures given were very illustrative with an attractive map. With the intention of seeing part of it in an hour we head towards the birds section. After few minutes, we realised we have taken another route, which is a round about of the zoo having cheetah etc.It was a lazy summer afternoon, all the animals seem to be relaxing under the shades of the tree. The speciality of the zoo being open … it seemed to be disguise to us in this sunny afternoon. We could see a cheetah sleeping... another one sitting with the face the other side. The hippopotamus seems to be chilling out in water. The only animal which we could see completely was poor monkey who was trying to bite the carrots someone has thrown .There were name labels which read wild dogs etc … but it seemed to be a deserted place with not a single fly in that space. Hoping rain can let the animals cheer up and we could see some of them as walked around the walkway. By now, everyone was disappointed and highly strained. We decided to rest for couple of minutes before we start safari tour.

Inspirational were dad’s words “I think Safari would be interesting and good.” We looked forward to the Safari. We boarded the safari bus that had AC and it was quite relaxing. The journey started with the minimal introduction of the guide. We head towards the African savannah. It was a different experience of seeing zoo animals directly. Our bus went quite near to different animals .I really do not remember some of the names... but few looked exactly like Deer but they were not. We were given the samples of the horns, hairs etc… Some were like cows with huge horns .After watching not so popular animals... we were taken to Zebra guess this was the first time of watching a zebra so closely. Slowly we went to Rhinoceros that were lazy but quite dangerous .After minutes of drive we were taken to Giraffe. They were five, few young few old. They were so pretty and had a beautiful skin. The guide asked a question on the Giraffe’s tall neck,” Human neck has 7 bones in the neck, how many does a Giraffe’s neck have?” Unable to guess every one wondered how many? The guide says, “They also have 7 but huge bones.” We were give bone samples and they were indeed huge. We saw the Giraffes walking all together in symmetry and were amazed to see their togetherness.

After watching animals in a safari tour, the thing which struck me …”Every type of animal tried to be peaceful in groups …why can’t a human be happy being together. There is always a conflict when 2 come together” Refreshed by the beauty of nature’s creation our Safari tour ended. All of us satisfied within felt “It’s worth a ticket.” It was time we should start looking for a return bus to Werribee station. We planned to head back at 4.47 pm that is when the bus can pick us up. We still had 30 minutes time…we checked the shop at the zoo. I wanted to buy something for remembrance. Mom, Dad & Sravan said “NO” out of disappoint of having not seen many animals. After a while of makhan marofying Sravan sanctions me a budget of 4-5 dollars on the item I was allowed to purchase. With the pleasant memories of beautiful giraffe, I decide to buy a lovely glass giraffe that costed 10 dollars.

With a first time safari experience, everyone seemed to be remotely satisfied and we left the zoo. With the well connecting public transport, we reached home at 6.30pm.After freshening up…dad says, “We should play a nice telugu Comedy movie to cheer up ourselves.” Seems like dad was not happy on the returns to the ticket cost. We watched “kick” movie, everyone seems to have cheered up, and the fatigue seems to have vanished by now.

Decided I would take Mom & Dad to the Melbourne Zoo that is a caged zoo and certainly would expect there would be many animals. At the dusk of this day, I guess we had a tick mark against Werribee zoo. Not so exciting but the place has its own beauty of space, peace and tranquillity that can be enjoyed best when Sun is not angry on the Earth.

Luka chupi …bahut hui …saamne aa ja … kehtein hain mom , suraj se

02^nd December 2010 :

            Melbourne streets were wet for past 1 week with the outbreak of the unseasonable monsoon.

Enough of avoiding nature’s outburst said I, decided to continue our Melbourne darshan plan. This day I was thinking we should take dad and mom to Chadstone. Sravan as always willing to stay back home, he says, “well we could watch a movie at home.” Not taking risk, I said ok .Because I knew, if something goes wrong after we reach there then no one would spare me. We checked the weather forecast and found out that Saturday is going to be fine. Hence, we decided to go to the Werribee Zoo.

Mom had an overwhelming prayer requests to be delivered to Bhagwaan.Not that dad did not have any, dad also had to help mom in delivering them. The prayer request for Vandana that everything should go well and smoothly, signing the flat agreement that they were signing today. In addition, a prayer that the LIC loan is sanctioned this month before the interests rates raise. On the other hand, Keerthan presenting his calendar for the first time to the client, should outperform, and receive client appreciation. Nevertheless, our prayer request that we should get the PR at the earliest. It was a busy day indeed for mom and dad. With the intention of going out to the groceries shop, mom and dad finished their lunch. Soon after they washed their hands, it started pouring when mom says to the sun god “luka chuppi .. bahut hui.. saamne aa ja…kahe aisi pyaas bhujaye jab hum iske pyaase na ho “

Left with no other choice than play a movie, they watched “Kavya’s diary”.I told Sravan “wldnt it be too serious  a movie to watch”. After an hour so it , it must have stopped raining when mom persuaded dad for a walk to groceries shop. They purchased Taj Mahal tea powder and dettol. Mom had been asking us to get a spare broom to use it specific to bhagwaan room. They seem to have notices a “2 Dollar shop” which is when they thought the broom would just cost a $2.At the time of payment the shop owner says not all the items here are $2 hence they end up paying $5.

It was 5.15 pm when I called up Sravan asking if we could leave early... He says “what is this.. These days you ask about leaving early so often.” We waited until 5.35 pm and started. We reached home at 6.20pm.We thought of ordering Methi Thepla in Spice n Ice for Saturday Werribee zoo visit. After placing the order that needs to be collected the next day, while we came out we saw one of our friends outside. We took her to our home. Mom & Dad were dressed as usual and it was a surprise to them .Sravan very swiftly came and stopped the DVD playing in the laptop. We tried to chitchat with her for sometime .Initially we thought mom would be comfortable talking to her, as she is from Warangal... however, she did not talk to her as much as we expected. After few minutes, she asked her husband to pick her up.

After she was gone, it was time to prepare dinner. Seems like there were many noodles left over; there was enough curry, and daal. All I had to prepare was to prepare the next day’s lunch. I decided to prepare moong dal ki kichdi. While the preparation was on Sravan tried to play “Maryada Ramana “for mom and dad. We tried to give a break after watching for a half hour. It was time to get updates from Vandana on how did her agreement signup go. We heard from Vandana that everything went fine and they were going for bhoomi pooja in the afternoon. Keerthan came late to the office and he had worn new T-shirt, which is why everyone seems to be pulling is leg. Well we spoke for 15 minutes and tried to understand about his presentation scheduled at night.

Dinnertime with lots of salad and the left over everyone seem to be enjoying .Dad says moong dal is “Fabulous” and mom says it is just like Iskcon prasadam. Well I was happy to know that khichdi turned out well. We called up Keerthan again, when in the background we heard him having arguments with someone. Mom and dad got worried and started praying Bhagwaan that everything should be smooth enough. After a while, we heard from him everything was quite normal. It was time to sleep when Sravan was almost in the bed, I aksed sravan to say good night to mom & dad and ease their tension. I could hear their conversation from the living area, Sravan trying to change the facts saying I had insisted to buy that spring bed. Well the fact was I opted for a wooden bed but it was to be picked from a far away place. Sravan opted to buy a spring bed, which was to be picked up from nearby which made our lives easy.

Excited that the next day was a Friday we wanted to get up early and reach office early. Not worrying so much about hide & seek of the Sun next day we slept at peace. It was definite that we will go to Werribee this Saturday.