Holy Land-Day2-Israel

A day of customs,immigration and security check formalities. We packed our bags and checked out of Hotel Belle Vue in Amman and boarded the bus for the 2hr long drive to Israel. First we passed through the busy streets of Amman and then reached the empth outskirts. Then it was a downhill drive with a lot of bends. Either side of the road was dry valleys and olive trees here & there.

Towards the border of Amman

Sheik Hussein bridge

Once we reached the plains, there was vegetation. Saw greenhouses and a lot of tomatoes. After 120 mins, we reached Jordan border. We had to get off the bus, take our bags and go into a room. the bags went through a scaner and then we could take them and get out and board the bus. The bus drove down a few meters and reached another building. We filled out our Jordan exit forms and stood in queue. An eye scan was done and some people had to give a digital fingerprint too. Got our exit papers signed and boarded our bus. We then crossed into Israel via the Sheik Hussein bridge-a small one.

More immigration and checking formalities. We were 'welcomed'by Israeli women who can scare men and women equally with their voice and looks. Smart, able men and women officials ordered to send our bags through the scanner.Most of us were forced to open our bags for inspection. It was interesting to note that atleast 30% of the people were stopping over in the Gulf to meet their children or relatives on the way back. So they had big bags full of rice flour and masalas and it was quite an effort explaining to the airport officials. After 4 solid hours, at the Israeli immigration, we got our paper visas and crossed into the country and boarded the buses waiting for us.

We were in Bus no.2 and were welcomed by our driver Obrahim and guide Hakeem-both Arab Christians. We drove down the highways of Israel into Nazareth. We were treated with greenery all around after the brown wastelands of Jordan. on either side of the road were huge pockets of lovely yellow mustard flowers-growing in the wild. They grew like weeds but they were a marvellous treat to the eyes. There were different unique methods of farming of other vegetation crops. We drovethrough Tiberias valley which is the most fertile plain in Israel.

Mustard along the wayside

A lot of history is required to make your knowledge of the trip complete. For starters, the Byzantine period was from 326-638 AD and the Crusaders ruled from 1099 onwards. The period in between was ruled by the Muslims.

We stopped for lunch in Nazareth at a restaurant name El Majana Nazareth is a hilly area with an Arabic settlement. Modern part of Nazareth,called Nazareth Illit is an European settlement with a good majority of new comers. Lunch was salads and Kubus and the likes. I enjoyed it probably cause I was very hungry. But the best part of it all was the really sweet oranges we got at the end of the meal.

Nazareth orange

We barely had an hour left and 2 churches to visit in the locality. We first hurried to the Orthodox church of the Annunciation. This is where Mary was supposed to have been when Gabriel first appeared to her. She was near a spring and ran from their to her house which is now the Basilica of Annunciation. The later is a few streets away. The spring that she was drawing water from is still supposed to be flowing.

The Orthodox church of Annunciation

We then walked to the basilica. This is supposed to be the house of Mary and that is where the 'Good News'was revealed to her. It is a really lovely church built on 2 floors.

The Basilica of Annunciation





top of the Basillica of Annunciation



Outside St.Joseph church



Next to this church is the workshop of Joseph which is now St.Joseph's church. It is a smaller one but with the remains of the older one and of the workshop. We were literally driven out of these churches cause it was way past their closing time.

We then headed straight to Cana.Since the church there had closed, we shopped (esp for wine) and checked into hotel King Solomon in Tiberias. A beautiful town situated on the banks of the Sea of Galilee/Lake Tiberias. This town is quieter than Nazareth. We stayed on the 7th floor. Our room had a balcony that overlooked the lake.

Check out more pics on

Pilgrimage-Day 2-Nazareth

Holy Land-Day 1-Jordan

The very first time I stepped inside the airport was in the early hours of 23rd Feb 2011. Went through the baggage screening and was asked to open my suitcase cause my laptop was in it- the 1st of the many time I was forced to open it. WE were 19 of us from Chennai heading towards the Holy Land for 9 days. We boarded Gulf Air  at 3 55am and I took off on my 1st air journey. The photo session started then itself.

The journey was quite uneventful otherwise. We were served early breakfast and then I took a nap. We reached Bahrain at 6 55am their time. Went through the transit formalities and waited for the connecting flight to Amman. We saw Ustad Amjad Ali Khan while waiting at the airport. The next flight was a 3 hr journey and we were welcomed at Queen Alia airport in Amman by the airport guide and we got into a bus that was already full of people from Kerala. In total, we were around 83 of us spread across 2 buses. The guide in our bus was Iesan(Muslim) and our driver was Hasheem. The airport is around 35 km from Amman city.

South Jordan is the Moabite kingdom and North Jordan is the Ammonite Kingdom. We drove towards the south where almost 80% of it is a desert. There are 2 roads-the Desert road and the Kings road. Though the later is longer, the kings used to travel that way cause of the availability of food, water and shelter.

We first stopped at Dana restaurant in Madaba. Madaba means 'Table of fruit'. The common names of Madaba is Carpet City, Mosaic City, Christian City and Tobacco city. Lunch was arabic and was quite thrilling cause it was different from the usual rice and sambar. Even though the journey was tiring and sleep was pending, I was charged after lunch and a face-wash session and was all set to start my pilgrimage.

We first visited the St. George Orthodox church in Madaba. This was earlier a Byzantine church and was destructed. Later on, a christian familyy built the present church on top of it in 1884. The oldest mosaic map of the Holy Land is found here. This map was made for the pilgrims by Sulaimanos using 2.5 million stones over a span of 11,000 hours. Till recent times, this map has helped in a lot of discoveries of places and boundaries.



Inside the Greek Orthodox Church in Madaba



Mosaic Map



Our next destination was Mount Nebo-the last destination of Moses (Deut 34). This place is 750 m above sea level. There is a Franscican church there, now under renovation. Mosaics from Moses's eye valley (below Mount Nebo) are found in the church. 3 springs from Moses's time still exist in the valley.

Moses's eye valley at Mt. Nebo

Òlive tree planted by Pope John Paul

In 2000, Pope John Paul II visited the place and declared it 'holy'. A statue has been erected to commemerate this and also an olive tree was planted by him. On Mt. Nebo, from where Moses stood and saw the promised land, to the left is the Dead sea, right, below the mountains is Jericho and straight ahead is Jordan valley.

We visited a charity organosation run by Queen Noor where some handicapped people and others make mosaic souvenirs and a lot of other things. We got some refreshing black tea and I could not finish mine cause I got it last.

Erected in commeration of the visit of Pope John Paul II in 2000



View from Mount Nebo

The Bronze Serpent (under construction)

The view from Mt.Nebo-Jordan valley

Artisans at work on mosaic

A completed piece of mosaic work





St.George Orthodox church-Madaba





We checked into Belle Vue hotel in Amman. Nancy and I were room mates. Prayer and a common meeting was followed by dinner.
Nancy and I did a few crazy things in the room. The fridge was stocked and we took a few chocolates. Only later did we come to know that it was charged and we had to pay for it. We also borrowed a charger from Daphene aunty and fit it into a socket creating a mark on the switchboard and getting the lights off! It was Thomas Kurian achen who came and got us out of trouble!

Day 1 is quite elaborately described. The remaining days may not be so, though I wish to research more and add them in when possible. Search Google and the Bible for more info. 

Check the below link for more pics

Pilgrimage-Day 1

Cuppa

There is a tea shop at almost every street corner in most parts of Chennai. These shops open at around 4am or even before and sales start almost immediately. And they close down at min 11pm I guess.

Taking a closer glance, you will come to realise that atleast 60% of these tea stalls are run by malayalees.I have not done a research to arrive at this number.It is just a guess from my observation.

I am not a frequent visitor to these stalls but since i've been in chennai for so long,I've noticed it quite often.Most tea shops are brightly coloured.And I have noticed that their walls are all tiled.this concept is quite interesting and I have noticed that atleast 95% of them have brightly coloured tiled walls.

Very few women visit these tea stalls.Its usually the men who are frequent visitors there. From old, retired men to young corporates, there is room for all. the older men usually sit outside the shop with the day's newspaper and the moment they have company, a hot discussion sets off.Its usually about the government and probably goes off in different tangents.

A good number (I dont have a %age count here) of these tea shops have a juice corner attached to it too.You will also definitely get some kind of eats.Biscuits,buns are common stuff. I personally love the tea shop buns.

New Year

The last two posts-the only two, rather, were carefully and thoughtfully typed out first before entering it in. But this ones impromptu.
I had even forgetten my blog id sometime back and had to call up the sister to find out. The point is, its a New Year...

New Year, New Dreams, New Hopes...is it so?or have the old dreams and hopes carried forward into the new year? But the fact is:

Everyday is a new day, every dawn is a new sunrise
Every beauty He placed here for me.
Every day is a new day, every dawn He is by my side,
Forever will I see the world same.
Its a new day.

I'm just thankful for 2010. For the mountains and the valleys. And through the mountains and valleys of 2011,I just hope to be led on.

A combat with the vending machine

One morning when Anjana and I walked into the cafeteria at office, there was a magazine vending machine placed there. It contained a couple of English weeklies, a Malayalam magazine, one for children and a few other not-so-common, yet common magazines. The Malayalam magazine- Vanitha is what caught our interest. It has been in circulation from the time of our mothers or even before. So my friend ran to the machine and decided to buy a copy of it for her.

You need to first choose the book you want and it shows you how much it costs. Then you insert the amount (only denominations specified can be entered) and confirm your choice again and the book rolls down from the rack to the bottom of the machine and it can be collected through an opening.

Our book costs Rs.15/- (I don’t have the rupee symbol on my system yet and so I have to stick to the antique way of writing it). So my friend inserted a 10-rupee note and a 5-rupee coin and chose the book. It rolled off the rack but unfortunately stopped half way. The book was stuck between the rack and the glass wall and could not fall down. We were taken aback and did not know what to do. Both of us were using the machine for the first time. We tried hitting the sides of the machine and then realized that people passing by were staring at us as though we were burglars! To our good luck, the magazine fell down after a small session of machine-hitting. We grabbed and fled from there.

This is a fortnightly magazine. And so, very soon it was time for my friend to pick up her next copy of the magazine. We kept our fingers crossed as we went through the buying process. She did not have a 5-rupee coin and so inserted two 10-rupee notes. This time the magazine dropped down without a problem but the machine refused to give us the change. We tried hitting it like the previous time but it wouldn’t budge. We did not plan to part with 5-rupees just like that and so we walked up to the duty-manager and told him the problem. He then came and opened it up for us and gave us the change.

The 3^rd time we went to the machine hoping there wouldn’t be a problem. We were wrong. It was the book’s turn to get stuck. We tried hitting and kicking but in vain. So we marched straight to the duty manager and explained the situation. With a snicker on his face, he came and pulled out the book for us. (If you are wondering why we keep going to the duty manager, it’s because he has the key to open the vending machine).

Soon my friend got used to the fight with the vending machine. Rather, she was prepared for whatever came her way. Almost always, she would have to go to the duty manager to get her book out or the change back. Soon they became friends and if he ever saw her near the vending machine, he would run to go get the key.

Of course, there were times when she would be 100% successful too. And once, she could not reach the duty manager and so called the help-number that was on the machine. The person at the other end said he would collect the book and leave it with one of the cafeteria vendors when possible and she collected it from there. There is another book (Magic Pot) that she buys for her son. She does not face this problem while buying that one. It’s the Vanitha that gives the problem. Soon, Anjana learnt the trick of getting the book out of the machine if it ever got mildly stuck.

After awhile, another friend, Roopa, started buying the Vanitha. Somehow, she did not face too many problems in getting the book, except for a couple of times. Roopa shared the book with Anjana (whenever she remembered to bring it) and thus Anjana had almost stopped buying it.

A few days back, Anjana decided to buy a copy for herself as Roopa was always forgetting to bring the book. That blessed day, when my friend decided to buy the book, she opened her purse and realized she had only 100-rupees notes. I offered her change but she decided to go ahead and try the 100. A colleague who was with us said that that the machine would return 5-rupee coins as change. Well, nothing much could be done about it as she had already put in the money and made her selection. The book got stuck as usual and she managed to get it out. In the mean time, we could hear the change falling down as coins. Only then did we realize that it was not 5-rupee coins but 1-rupee coins that were falling out. There were 85 of them.

Don’t ask me what she did with it.

I'm better off on a Monday

"Monday Blues" is a commonly used term. But off late, I've heard it from others and myself that it is called "Tuesday Blues" and not "Monday Blues".

I'm sleepier on a Tuesday than a Monday. I’m grumpier on a Tuesday than a Monday. I’m lazier on a Tuesday than a Monday.

On Monday, the memories of the weekend are fresh in the mind and it helps you get through the day. But by the end of it, you hit reality and realize the tasks that lie ahead of you and everything else at work that can put you off.

Sometime back, I came up with this little explanation about a work-week and went around sharing it to everybody because I felt it was a great finding. But then I realized that it was a negative thought I was spreading. It goes like this:

Mondays-Monday Blues

Tuesdays-Hangover of Monday

Friday-Friday fever

Thursdays-Preparation for Friday

So, in short, Wednesday is the only day we work.

While I was sharing this, somebody told me that this was an old finding. There was a book called 'Cars' that talks about buying a car that was made on Wednesday for the same reason mentioned above.

So this is a pretty universal fact. On the contrary, I knew a person who would wait for Mondays to rush to work. When I asked him, he said its because he loves the place and so waits to get there on Monday morning.

Does that mean that those who crib about getting to work after a week end don’t like their work? This could be true to an extent. If you love your work and the people you work with, you generally don’t have too much problems getting back to work after a break. At the same time, it does not mean that all those have the "Blues" do not like their workplace.

What is the conclusion we are coming to? The Blues can happen any day. It all depends on us and our attitude. If we let things around us determine our moods, then we will be controlled by our moods. I cant get very philosophical about this even though I have some matter with me cause sometimes its really hard to be that way. All this is from my point of view. There could be a whole lot of people who are much stronger than me with a broader mindset.

So for the time being, I will stick to my theory. And when I say that Tuesday is a hangover of Monday, I come back to my first point or rather the subject of this writing. When you are emptying down bottles of alcohol, you are fine. You probably get drunk and blabber and throw up. But it’s the hangover the following morning that is difficult to handle.