Hubli

Time: May 11-13, 2013

Place: Hubli

Company: Wife, daughter, parents  (returned with them plus relatives-in-law)

Highlights: 

Day 1: Extreme health issue previous night made this trip almost a non-entity. But woke up at 4 am and decided to go with it. Took the car to Majestic and parked it at the railway station. Took the (again L) non-AC janshatabdi express to Hubli at 6 am. Remembered the previous trips on this train. This train works in tandem with other trains in a clock-work precision. Meaning, it arrives at Arsikere station and waits for an oncoming train. Once that train arrives at Arsikere, this train departs. Each time I have been on this train, I have noticed that this waiting time is just 2-3 mins. Same thing happens in Birur. This could be because of the single track but even so, this precision in timing is remarkable.

Reached Hubli on time at 1.30. Took it easy by having lunch at the new station café. Pretty cool setting, in fact. Checked in at the Chalukya Hotel. Relatively nice room and reasonable rate. Siesta. Wifey met pals along with offsprings. After a long wait, went to the wedding hall (wifey cousin wedding) for a quick bite and religious ceremonies. Retired early.

Day 2: Wedding day. Long hot day. Thankfully wedding hall and hotel were nearby. So did multiple trips to kill the time, and for change. Met lots of relatives, and most of them were seeing Paavani for the first time.  Paavani was tongue-tied, as expected. But tolerant of the crowd. Thankfully, it ended. Again, a siesta before heading out to the station. Comfortable train back home.

Day 3: Yeshwantpur was the place to get off, which we did. Then we hopped onto another train on its way to Majestic, since that is where the car was parked. Traveled in General Compartment, after a really long time. Not sure if I had traveled in GC before, either! Anyways, reached home at about 7.30. Car overnight parking charges in Bangalore railway station was 240 per 24 hrs.

Overview: Although we attended the wedding, this wedding was not the reason why we visited India at this time. This wedding just happened to fall in the same time period of our visit – for good or for bad. Good because we got to meet all the relatives. Bad because it added one more out station trip to our already 2 unmissable trips!