2011 has taken us to Pangong lake in Ladakh (one half of this lake is in China ) and to Matra the southernmost tip of Sri Lanka (from here 2000 Km is Antarctica), from the northern most tip of India to the southernmost tip of our subcontinent with a lot of travel to different destinations in between. While for others traveling comes as a leisurely and relaxing experience for us it is mostly a very stressful and exhaustive affair. When destinations start getting stressful we start enjoying the simple things in travel. Some of the most memorable travel experience of 2011 was not among the beautifully barren landscape of the Trans Himalayan deserts or at the emerald islands but came very near home at Thivim Railway Station while waiting for a local train which would take me to Kudal. It was in the early hours of the day and civilization was just waking up to the reality of modern day travel conveniences. The train I usually catch arrives Thivim at 0630hrs just at the break of dawn in...