Cities Of The World

Great cities around the world..

Road-tripping

Being on the road (in its positive sense) is a nice feeling. While in the U.S. between 1986-1991, we went often. Some long trips, and some short. Driving was fun, mostly, and roads excellent. But in India too, we have been on some-with a driver in a couple of cases. While living in Harihar, we went to Colva beach at Goa regularly, driving there via Hubli-Karwar, a very nice road at the time.

Recently, we went to Jaisalmer via Chittorgarh and Udaipur, and also stopped over at Jodhpur's Mehrangarh fort. Belur-Halebid, Jog Falls, and Hampi were some other memorable trips from Harihar. Ooty-Coonoor with some IIM buddies was another recent one, and a couple of Golfing trips with friends from IMT Nagpur, to Munnar and Kodaikanal were good ones.

Bryce Canyon, U.S. with my parents (above). Mysore, with German students and faculty from Lubeck (below).

Yellowstone National Park, with parents.

Jaisalmer road trip.

Coimbatour

 Prof Poongodi at KCT, with guess which book? My Marketing Research book that she uses. Another pic with KCT faculty in front of their institute.

I had an occasion to go to Coimbatore on invitation recently. A bustling city, with a lot of entrepreneurs in and around. Tirupur is not too far away. Textiles are a speciality. Lots of educational institutes too. One such is KCT, where I spent some time with students and faculty. Founded by a Gandhian, the institute has an autonomous MBA program, and a couple of technical programs.

Met my friend Dhanapal, who runs a couple of schools in the town. We worked for a few years at Kirloskar Institute in the past, and have remained in touch. Golf is a common interest, and we have gone to Kodaikanal and Munnar to play too-unfortunately this time there wasn't time.

Coimbatore is also a gateway to Ooty and Coonoor, where I had been recently on a vacation trip, and to play Golf. I first went to Ooty on a KSTDC tour bus in the 70s, and remember eating my first strawberry there.

Karnataka always had a tour to Mysore and Ooty, from as far back as I remember, and they were good ones too. Unfortunately, that led to a neglect of many other destinations in the state-some of which I got to see during my stay at Harihar. Jog Falls is one such, Hampi being the other. And Belur-Halebid, which have some of the most exquisite carvings I have seen.