Tamil Nadu ICCR Tour December 2006

The ICCR tour started on 24th December 2006. But I (Habib) and Nazia, we took train on 21st December evening to reach Chennai on time. We went by GT express. It took us 36 hours. We reached one day before the tour, which is on Saturday, 23rd December.

From central Chennai railway station, we went directly to Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation Ltd. For one day we had to stay in guest house. We also met some friends on that day like Charu, Lata, Showmen, Natasha, Arif, and Sanjay… most of them form Bangladesh.

Then, finally the day, which we were waiting for arrived.
Sunday morning the tour was supposed to start at 8:00 but all of our friends had not yet reached there. So, we waited for them. We stayed in Himalaya hotel in Chennai; first of all we took breakfast in Tamil Nadu restaurant. After breakfast, we all had rest.

In the afternoon, we went to take our lunch again in that restaurant. Food was good.
We had juice, veg and non-veg food, salad, sweet and dessert such as ice-cream and fruits. After lunch we started sight-seeing.

In Chennai, we visited a temple made in the memory of a great poet called Valluvar Kottam. We spent much time there, taking so many photos and all.
Then, we visited another temple. After this, we went to snake park, where there we saw many varieties of snakes, lizards and crocodiles. Finally we went to Chennai beach, but it was already evening and we couldn’t enjoy so much in the dark. After this, we went to the same restaurant for dinner. It was a very tiring day.

Next morning, on Monday 25th, we left Chennai for Mamallapuram. There, we had breakfast in Tamil Nadu restaurant near the beach. After breakfast, we went to the nearby conference room for our self-introduction. After that, we went to enjoy ourselves at the beach. We had so much fun there.
For example: HINADI fell in to the water, her clothes were in a mess. Our guide,
Mr. Annamalai had previously warned us not to touch the sea water. But, as most of us are always mischievous, we did not pay attention to him. We took so many funny pictures there, especially for Murimi (Ambassador).

On our way to Pondicherry, we stopped at two places. We visited lion’s caves and a place, where there are all types of big stones in different shapes. The most wonderful thing there was that, there was a huge stone standing fixed on a slope of a hill. It is there since so many years but it had not moved.

Finally on Christmas Day, we reached Pondicherry. We stayed in hotel Sai Ram and had our lunch and dinner in hotel Mass. On that day, we visited Ashram and temple. Afterwards, we spent lost of time on a rocky beach. The sea was very dangerous, with high tides. After dinner, we celebrated Nuridin’s birthday in hotel Mass. We didn’t celebrate Christmas. Most of the places also were closed due to Christmas.

Tuesday 26th, before leaving Pondicherry, we took breakfast in hotel Mass. We had to travel a long journey to reach Tanjavur. On our way to Tanjavur, we stopped at a place to visit a temple. In Tanjavur, we stayed in hotel Oriental Towers. Once again, we went to visit a big temple. Finally, everybody was bored in visiting so many temples.

On Wednesday 27th, we left for Rameshwaram.
There, we had to cross a bridge. Both sides there were sea. A railway line was being built in the sea there. It was really a wonderful and unbelievable thing. Everybody was amazed to see that. We had lunch in Tamil Nadu hotel near the beach. After that, we had much fun on the beach. Nazia, Murimi (Ambassador), Arif, Nuridin, Henadi, Yamuna, Irunika and me, we went for boating. Everybody enjoyed so much but Henadi was so much scared that she was yelling. In the sea, we reached a place, where one called get off the boat and stand there because there was a plot of sandy soil there. As usual, Nurdin got down there as he was always doing risky things. After that, we left for Madurai. We traveled a lot. That night, we spent in Tamil Nadu hotel, Madurai.

On Thursday 28th, we left Madurai for Kanniyakumari. It is at the ending point of India, in the south. It was a fantastic place, where the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal meet. The Indian Ocean is of blue color, Arabian Sea brown and the Bay of Bengal blue-green. The sea is very deep and rough. We went for boating to reach in the middle of the sea at a place called Vivekananda Memorial. There is even the 133 feet statue of the great poet Thiruvalluvar. We even saw the sun setting in the sea. On that day, we stayed in hotel Pioneer Paradise.

Friday 29th, back to Madurai. In the evening, we visited a big palace, where there was a light and sound show. It was really wonderful. Saturday morning, before leaving Madurai, we visited Meenakshi temple, which has thousand pillars. It is also among one of the wonders of the world. There was also elephant inside it. Then we left for Kodaikanal hill station, we stopped at a waterfall to take rest.

In kodaikanal, we stayed in hotel Tamil Nadu. We went on a hilly area for sightseeing. There was too much fog. It was cold there. We went to a view point to see two stones.
There were also gardens of flowers. We even went to suicide point. We saw so many monkeys there. Then, we went for Kodaikanal boating place. There were even horse-riding and bicycle riding.

On New Year Eve, we went to Coimbatore. We traveled a lot and finally reached Tamil Nadu hotel. We visited only a temple there. After dinner, there was a dance party in the hotel’s conference room, where we enjoyed and danced a lot. That’s how we celebrated New Year 2007.

The last day (sad day): 1st January 2007, was a very sad day, because we were leaving our tour friends. Most of them returned to there respective places form Combatore it self.
But, I, Nazia, Merwais, Charu, Lata, Hinadi, Seema and Koushik returned back to Chennai. We celebrated Eid-ul-Adha in bus it self. However we enjoyed a lot by singing.

Nazia and I stayed one more day in Chennai. Once again we went to Marina beach and enjoyed a lot.

If we did not have such wonderful friends, I am sure that we would not have enjoyed so much and the tour would have been very boring. It was really nice to have such cooperative and good foreigner friends.

Habibullah Habib & Nazia Begum.

One Day Picnic

Date 7/12/06

Today I am writing this passage about my picnic experience with my college mates.

It was Thursday morning at 8: oo am when I & my entire department students were assemble in side the campus in front of the gate, for picnic. After one and half hour we left for our picnic spot Taliyar which is situated in Haryana, one of the provinces in India.

It was about 90 km away from our college. There were two buses for the picnic and about 120 students were the part of this auspicious event. As a foreign student this is a good experience. It took around 2 hour to reach that spot because of heavy traffic in Delhi. First of all when we reached there the place we did not like because it was not a good place for students because there was limited things for enjoyment, another thing that happened with us was the food it was not good at all but what we can do we have to eat that & that was also insufficient. We seldom saw this kind of things happen in our college, but anyway at last the trip was good.

When we reached there first of all we had our pathetic lunch then after sometime we move around to see the place, we found the most interesting thing was the lake, it was big according to the place. There was the facility of boating which attracted almost all the students of our trip. We enjoyed in the lake for an hour, I took a lots of pictures of mine and my friend Mr. Aarfin. While I was boating in the lake I found many water birds were there. Many students were throwing water towards there friends, I and my friends we were there in the boat for one hour, then we came out from the boat and then we went to see the zoo. It was around 4:00pm when we were going to see the zoo, our teacher was making us hurry because we have to come back our college as soon as possible.

Then I moved along with my friends inside the zoo, it was not so big. It was surrounded on a land of 450 meters. But the interesting thing was that there were some animals & birds it was maintained very beautifully. There was a couple of leopard, lots of monkeys some birds, three crocodiles, around 5 to 6 deer, & two bears. We spend half an hour over there after that at 4: 30 pm we all get together and sat inside the bus at 5:00 pm we left for Delhi. We reached in our college at around 7:30 pm.

At last I found it was a nice trip but not very nice. I just enjoyed the boating. Many of my friends were not satisfied, but whatever it was I really enjoyed.

HABIBULLAH HABIB

more...HABIB PHOTOS

Candle Of Wishes...2007

Dreaming Of A White Christmas.
Have a nice Christmas whit the full of joy...
Happy Christmas.

"LOVE"

LOVE what is it –

No one knows _

But for falling in it_

Everyone has their heads and toes.

It’s sucha wonderful feeling.

When it happens you find your wounds healing.

At first love like a candle _

Glows in your heart _

Then it tears your life apart.

Love is a feeling filled with sensation_

It is full of passion.

It gives you laugher along with tears.

It puts in you courage.

Along with the feeling of fear.

It gifts you lots of enjoyment.

Along with some disappointment.

It is of happiness and tensions.

Along with too much of depression,

It makes dream day and night.

And you forget the difference between wrong and right.

It is a life taking fever.

So before it comes to you just say never.

But if you find someone true.

Then keep your love going on forever.

A Love beyond Definition

The only face you recognize on seeing it for the first time,
The only face that understands you as you utter your first line….
You gurgle, you murmur and yet she understands you.
You walk and talk, you eat and all that you do, is the result of hard work,
the outcome of love so tender…..
Working for you day and night, the shadow of your mother….
How can you replay the shower of affection?
My dad reminded me of an incident down memory lane:
It happened years ago, when I was a miniature myself.
I was a toddler at that time, a naughty little elf.
My mum was in the kitchen, a meal she had to cook;
I was in the corridor, mutilating an ill-fated notebook.
The beady eyes of mine caught sight of the kitchen door
It had a simple lock, but to me it was a toy and nothing more
I banged the door and began turning the key,
Suddenly something clicked and I clapped in glee.
My surprised mom was in, and now she was locked inside,
She tried to bang open the door, but it was closed all tight,
She asked me to turn the key again, to free her from the prison,
I didn’t understand a word, I was enjoying every minute of it.
The elf took me to a table and made me shake it for entertainment,
Down fell a vase and broke into a zillion fragments.
My mum heard the commotion, the snake of fear gripped her,
She thought I was hurt and to reach to me she became eager,
But she was locked inside, she could only curse her fate,
Yet she had to come out; she couldn’t just wait.
Meanwhile I had dozed off, imparting a sense of tranquility,
My silence, however, only increased mum’s anxiety.
Locked in the kitchen, she suddenly, got an inspiration,
A sunlight-inlet in the wall could be her only solution.
For my mum that inlet was Everest, it was two meter’s above,
But then, the impossible is achieved if you hold the hand of Love
She clambered onto a table; just one meter to go,
The other leg went up a shelf, and yet she was a bit low
She instinctively brought her other leg on to the shelf,
One mistake would be total, but she wasn’t thinking about herself.
Now arose the second problem the inlet wasn’t too wide.
She had to be very careful; this was going to be a bumpy ride.
Call it a miracle or a streak of luck, or call it a mother’s affection,
So far so good, but the problems were not over yet.
She now sat at the edge of the inlet, near the mouth of danger,
Stilling on the building’s exterior projection, she faced the world from top,
From her high seat top, Earth would be an eighteen-meter drop
Such was her position that she could be mistaken for a glass cleaner,
But without any safety belts, a mistake could be the end of her.
The wind rushed up her face, there was no one in sight,
She looked around herself, and decided to face the height,
My mum had never walked on a rope, nor had she ever climbed a tree,
A woman who had never exercised was doing all this, just because of a key!
To get to the corridor, she had to walk on the building’s ledge,
And all the while she advanced on her journey,
Keeping the image of the child she loved so dearly.
Her trembling legs proceeded for what seemed like hours,
And in that very hour, she was endowed with some special powers
The power of will, the power of faith; that guided her to her destination,
She reached the window and peered in, with tremors running from bone to bone,
Her child, that is me, was asleep and still like an inanimate stone,
Without thinking for a second, she collected her fingers into a fist,
A punch shattered the glass, and the glass cut her wrist,
The child woke and saw his worried mother entering the corridor, in total disbelief,
As the unscathed shield rushed towards his mother, she sighed in relief
Never mind the bleeding wrist, this was happy reunion,
She had staked her life for what was her one and only daughter….
Picking her child in her arms, she hurriedly climbed down the stair,
It was still a bit windy; the branches swayed on the air…..
The mother with the child, observed the building with widening eyes;
Eighteen meter’s above was the ledge; fragile and so high…..
And still above that was the tiny inlet through which she had wiggled.
She let out an exclaim of surprise, at which her daughter giggled.
She felt a bit dizzy and bent down on her knee,
"I mustn’t have done it – someone else did it for me…."
‘But who did it? And she closed her eyes in silent prayer,
She opened them and saw her daughter and suddenly got her answer.

Memories

I walked past the darkened hall

Where I had answered my first roll call

It was still in use by the school

As a dressing room for the pool.

I sat on the doorstep, wiped my eyes

The floor was as cold and hard as ice.

I looked all over for a sign of my childhood

All had been long sold as wood.

My companion for all these years

The comforting right that dispelled my fears

Was the banyan tree in the park

That was mercilessly cut down in the dark.

I had one last hope

When I opened the door, there she was

Old and frail she may have been

But she still looked an elegant Queen.

My teacher, My mentor, My guiding light

Who held my respect with her grand might

We sat and talked for hours on the end

And she was still waving when I turned the bend.

I’ve thought about it day in and day out

And in my mind there is no shadow of doubt

The biggest prize for me that day

Was the knowledge of where my memories lay.

Not in my desk, not in my chair

Not in the scent that fills the air

But in my teacher’s story of strife

It is people, not things that make up life.

My China Trip in 2004

China

China