Year: 2007

Blog Updates

I realised that loads of links on my travel page were not working. Finally got around to fixing them and have also updated my 2007 travel section. I still need to add some of my latest travel reports from Agumbe and Bhutan. I often have people emailing me or leaving comments asking for suggestions etc. on travel. I’ve also created this page with travel related links that I hope you will find useful. In case you want to suggest anything useful, do leave a comment or email me (anitabora5 at rediffmail dot com). Another thing I realised is that many of the links in my blog roll were defunct or not working, so I’ve cleaned it up and also added a lot of my recent readers. If you’ve been a regular reader and want to be added, and I’ve left you out, please do let me know. I have also removed the drop down and changed them into normal links for easier access. The only problem is that it’s terribly long, but I think I’ll …

Run, baby, run!

The Bangalore Ultra is on December 16 for those of you who want to register for it. It will be held at Hesaraghatta and the distances are 26, 52, 78 and 104 kms. It is apparently the first time the ultra is being held in Bangalore (India?) and there are a few very brave souls who are also attempting the 104 kms. You can register here. The Fuller Life guys also have a “Runners for Life” (RFL) group who run on weekends at Cubbon Park, Lalbagh, GKVK, Bellandur etc. If you want to join in or you can prepare on your own as Sathish is doing. Arvind Krishnan has some interesting tips here for first time runners. I joined a couple of friends on Saturday morning at Cubbon Park for a run and of course, as expected, I couldn’t really go more than 2 rounds of the park. The RFL crowd was also there in full force and had already finished about 3-4 rounds while I puffed and panted through my second one 🙂 One …

Where’s the customer in customer service?! Trouble with ICICI Bank

Update: November 21: Finally, after more than a month of running around the BTM branch managed to return the money back to my sister. Thanks to all the readers for their suggestions and advice! And also to the reader who had left the email addresses of the concerned people at ICICI who we emailed. (He had asked for his comment to be deleted). The saga is over but it has definitely left us with a really bad taste in the mouth. Update: November 20: As of today, after about a month, my sister still awaits closure and return of her money. She has written to mostly everyone including Kamath, and someone from his office actually called, listened to her story and assured her that they will resolve the issue. We’re hoping it happens soon! This seems to be a time for sharing horror stories. But in times when you feel no one is listening, I think at least we can resort to one outlet. That is, blog about it so at least others can come …

Scary airline experiences

I’ll start with a story that actually ended well but I missed a few heartbeats in the beginning. On my return from Bhutan, I had a return flight from Bagdogra to Calcutta at 2.40 pm in the afternoon. When I reached the airport around 12.10 pm (early fortunately, I was to realize later), the Air Deccan folks told me that they had switched to winter timings. The flight had already left in the morning. Of course, they had tried to contact me but I was not available. As I was travelling in Bhutan out of cell phone connectivity range, they tried calling but couldn’t get through.

Bhutan – Sneak Peek

I was talking to Ravi when he suggested that I do a teaser on my Bhutan trip to start off with. I was telling him that since I’d taken loads of pictures (as usual!) it would take me some time to upload everything and write my travelogues. So here it is, just a little sneak peek into the lovely and exotic kingdom of Bhutan. We started our Bhutan trip from the border town of Phuntsholing and travelled to the little but charming town of Paro, where there are more street dogs than people. The scenic approach road to Paro