Truly Mediterranean Heart

[Work In Progress]


How does one choose to visit a city or a country? This is one of the most frequently asked questions. And the answer would be - inspirations from another friend's travel, a television travel show, a photography exhibition, accidental online information or it could even be a movie! Yes, this time it was a Tamil movie called Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya. The cinematography was simply fabulous & Malta immediately made into my list of must-visits. I even kept talking to many, promoting Malta’s beauty; but it seemed a little distant before the actually travel could materialize.


Everything started to fall into place in August, when I was asked to work out of Germany for a few months & to my luck there was one long weekend I could consume within that stay. This said, work kept me busy & guessing if I could really travel. My optimism paid off on time & I landed in Malta on a direct Air Malta flight from Düsseldorf on the night of 29-Sept. Everything seemed perfect for the long weekend – weather forecast sunny with temperatures less than 25°, an annual night long cultural & art festival called Notte Bianca scheduled for Saturday, mesmerizing landscapes, delicious cuisine & fabulous scuba dive sites. I only had to unearth the exisitng great adventures at my own ease.

The night I arrived was pretty late and the last bus to my destination had departed already. The only option was to take a taxi from the airport counter at an expense of €20. It took roughly 20mins as the taxi driver knew my hostel exactly. Otherwise, it might be a little painful to locate your hotel for the first time especially if it is a night. On arrival at my hostel - NSTS Hibernia Residence at Sliema, I was welcomed by closed doors & none at the reception. Thankfully, my friend had arrived couple of hours earlier & had figured out the room which was apparently in a different building. It was clean & value for the paid fee; but could be better. Later, I understood that this hostel mostly serves the students who come to the island for English courses. After a round of discussion on things-to-do for the coming days, we decided to visit Dive Systems (reference from a dive master) & to plan our activities depending on the available dive schedule.

[Day-1]

The first morning at Malta started with a walk towards the Balluda Bay which opens up to the sea with great colors - blue sea & beige architecture. Then our walk continued along the promenade with Dive Systems right at the coast. Unfortunately, they were fully booked & we were directed to another dive center called Dive Shack. Thankfully, they had vacancies & promised us a dive on Saturday morning; leaving us behind with the first day for sightseeing! Thanks to the elderly person at Dive Systems who offered us a ride all the way to Valletta, close to the center of public transportation. The public transportation is managed by a private organization called Arriva, which is probably the most affordable I have seen till now. We picked up a day ticket of €2.60 for the main island & headed to the ferry port of Ċirkewwa. Surprisingly, the bus took nearly 2 hours & on arrival had to wait for another 20 odd minutes before we could board the ferry to Gozo. We were advised to buy the tickets on our return at Gozo & the return ferry costs only €4.60.


The ferry ride was short & comfortable for about 20 minutes. On arrival at Gozo Ferry Terminal, we boarded the bus 301 to Victoria (Gozo center) & bought a day ticket of €2.60 on the bus, for use within Gozo. We decided to proceed to Dwejra where a natural rock arch of Azure Window stands tall in its elegance. The next bus 302 to Dwejra from Victoria was scheduled to depart in another 50 minutes. That allowed us to take a leisurely walk around Victoria, the most prominent being Saint George's Basilica. Then the bus took roughly half an hour & the drive along the island was fabulous. The walk down to Azure Window is through an interesting rocky terrain that paves down to a beautiful natural arch formation surrounded by serene clear blue waters. One of the beautiful places I have been or seen & was special as I had not seen anything of such geography till then. We spent good time immersing ourselves in the mesmerizing natural beauty; must say the walk around the area was also very interesting. As the Sun sunk into colorful twilight, we retraced our day's journey back to the hostel (Dwejra > Victoria > Gozo Ferry Terminal > Ċirkewwa Ferry Terminal > Sliema).


To understand the architectural & natural beauty of the island in more detail, visit the album: The Heart of the Mediterranean - Malta.

Sunday Morning At Bangalore's Forest Backyard

Hectic work, city chaos & roller coaster life creates an urge in every soul; an urge to find a desolate natural space within the proximity of our urban occupation! A couple of us were in one such desperate search of a location, where we could escape the urban chaos; to just relax in solitude or practice bouldering or even go cycling. Thanks to my friend Swami, who got me acquainted with one such lovely place called Turahalli Forest, just about 15km from the urban center.

After having briefly visited this place once, I was at continuous efforts to get back & start a routine of training myself at rock & climbing. The plan finally materialized with about 10 folks finally signing up with less than a day's notice. It somehow seemed that everyone was waiting to get out; but within a close reach from their cozy homes. And we were all set by Saturday night!

So, the early morning of Sunday between 05:00 & 06:00, phones started ringing at their homes & folks were at South Thindies, Basavanagudi well before it could open at 07:00. As it opened, people savored a quick light breakfast & were soon set towards Kanakpura road. After driving through a bit of slow moving traffic near Banashakari temple due to Metro work, we were at our destination well before 08:00. A dad-son duo who live very close to the forest locality also joined us at the venue. For sure, everyone was charged up to get busy with the rocks!

After a brief uphill walk, Swami / Abhi (our instructors for the day) decided on a beginner's boulder for everyone to get a hang of climbing. At the first look of it, everyone assumed it to be easy & in reality it seemed a little tricky for the first timers. This was just the beginning & the entire length of 3-4 hours passed by with people sparingly realizing the speed at which the time was passing by. We got to practice at different boulders & even a couple of chimneys.

It was a great learning experience for everyone & was a interesting opportunity for few to understand their limitations. People took their time at learning & executing the climbing techniques imparted by Swami & co. The entire forest area along with the tiny hill surely gave everyone the much needed quick way to breakfree & enjoy the Sunday at ease. We concluded our stint with the Turahalli forest by briefly visiting the temple atop the hill & strolling around to estimate the lovely decent expanse of this well preserved natural bounty; very much in the proximity. Hope the upcoming concrete developments stay away from encroaching the forest space! Thanks to everyone who made it a lovely Sunday morning! Hopefully a lot more to follow.

Running World 10K Bangalore to Support Impoverished Children's Education

EDUCATION can define any human personality & facilitate her / his success! I completely believe that every kid deserves this EDUCATION.

This is Thyagaraj, an engineer with Sapient & an avid adventurer with Adivaas - an Adventure Travel Venture.

I've realized that I've been lucky enough to be educated & to have made myself a decent living. I've also been on a consistent lookout for ways to support or give back the society in need, in the smallest possible way. This fundraiser surely is one such excellent way to support the impoverished kids in Bangalore!

I'm running the World 10K Bangalore this year (my fourth year in a row) & wanted to make the smallest possible difference by supporting a cause through SDIE.

SDIE - Sahasra Deepika Foundation for Education, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to enabling impoverished children in Bangalore, India the chance to succeed through education.

Students at SDIE will be encouraged to develop their intellectual, social and academic potential for self-empowerment & contribution to the community at large.

Please join my hands in raising funds for this noble cause & proceed to my fundraiser page to donate anything small possible.

Thanks in advance for your support!

Dusk to Dawn with Fireflies Music Festival 2011

A stage, set under a banyan tree in an open air amphitheatre, adjacent to a lake and away from the city chaos - yes, this Fireflies Music Festival for every music lover! This is one place, one concert which promises to deliver excellent music of various genres. The organizers even call it an event to celebrate the relationship of oneness between man and earth!

A few of us without much convincing, decided to be at the venue on 19th February, 2011. We had witnessed this event for few years & did not want to miss this one-of-a-kind annual event! We initially had problems picking up the tickets & by the time we tried, the tickets at all the outlets were sold-out! Oops! We then contacted the organizer (Akshath Jitendranath) & he simply concluded that we MAY be able to get the tickets at the venue. After a few back & forth discussions among ourselves, we decided to take the risk of trying tickets directly at the venue. This completely worked out & indeed they were selling tickets for long, as far as I know at the venue!

The music line-up is THE winner of the festival! A few moments after 19:00 IST, the festival kicked off with Ghazals, followed by a good number of excellent new bands & repeaters. Some of them totally stole the show. The winner of the festival in my opinion was "Spinifex with Dr Mysore Manjunath". Wow, what an excellent performance! I almost lost my voice bowing to their great music! Then there were few more marvelous shows put up by "Thermal and a Quarter", "Swarathma", "Something Relevant" & "Yodhakaa". These were truly a delight to ears with excellent mix of genres! Couple of bands did not appeal to me like the "The Bicycle Days". Prakash Sontakke's troupe "MoonArra" somehow did not recreate the magic he had created in previous performances. On the whole, it was unbeatably a music festival with a difference; an excellent MUSIC event!

On the other hand, the festival also kicked off with excellent turnout, right from the start! And the incoming crowd never stopped arriving & the venue started to swell, leading the organizers to an endless trouble in controlling them. Thankfully we were early to the venue & had very decent seats. This probably is one of the improvements that the organizers can look into for the next year's event. They can surely limit the number of tickets depending on the venue's capacity & will truly be a good effort to enhance the experience.

One pathetic condition at the festival were the numerous people smoking everything possible & getting stoned! We leave behind the city pollution hoping to be welcomed by a clean environment to enjoy the excellent music. But the environment was totally unacceptable! Smoke & what not in the air! It was even a very sorry state to see the organizer smoking cigarettes endlessly on the STAGE, which deserves a lot more respect than he speaks of! I even know a few friends who stopped coming to the festival due to the growing smoke chaos at the venue. This needs to stop or the festival will only be a place for smokers to get stoned!

My hats off to the efforts of the organizers to get an excellent music line-up! I will surely continue to patronage the festival for the music it has for to offer! I also kindly request the organizers to seriously look into the growing uncomfortable situations at the venue with priority. Thanks!

Santosh Mitra's Facebook Album: Fireflies 5.0 - A Celebration of Indian Music !