Day of Arrival At Neyveli

11:00 AM. Chennai:  I reached Kamaraj International Airport in Chennai on 17th Feb. 2011. I was seeking admission to NPTI located at Neyveli. I booked a prepaid AC taxi to Koyembedu Bus Stand, which cost me around Rs. 400/-. Within half an hour I reached Koyembedu bus stand, which was a huge bus stand. I entered the main building of the bus stand and I was informed that the bus to Neyveli would arrive at platform number 6. On platform 6, buses heading to different towns were waiting. Then I saw the board where it was written NEYVELI. I asked the conductor how much time will it take to reach there, to which he said it would take 4 to 5 hours. One who doesn't know English or Tamil would find it very hard to communicate. Tamil it seems like an alien language to me, just as Hindi is to them. I boarded the bus. By 2 o clock, the bus stopped at a common joint, where the passengers alighted for lunch. After half an hour, we resumed the journey.

4:45 PM NEYVELI: The bus arrived at the Central Bus Stand. Unlike other cities, Neyveli is actually a township, big roads, low traffic. There was only 2 good hotels which i could find. One was hotel Radha, which was 200 m to the right of Central Bus Stand. There i couldn't get accomodation, so the person gave me address of another Hotel, Blue Diamond which was near the Main Bazaar. So I took rickshaw to reach there. The rickshaws here don't have any meters, so the charges are high. Blue Diamond was a decent hotel with nominal rates for one day, for single room Rs.250 + 5% tax; for double room Rs.400 + 5% tax. For extra person Rs. 50/-.

6:00 PM: I thought I would walk to NPTI but then I decided better of it and took a rickshaw. The institute is about 3 km away from the main bazaar. I reached the office, where i saw a lady whom I asked about admission. She was Amirthavalli, who handled the admission procedure; told me to come by 10 am the next day to submit the original documents and the DD. The office timing was from 10 am to 5 pm. I had asked the rickshaw to wait so that i could return. Just for this to and fro journey i was charged Rs. 100/-. 50 rupees in one direction.

7:00 PM: Main Bazaar: If one needed anyhing this was the place one would get them. It had small and medium shops ranging from medical, bakery, household items, hardware, electricals, mobile phones, travel agency to saloon. I was hoping to have dinner soon, when i found the perfect place for that - Indian Coffee House. Here one would get south Indian food only. Rice was available only in lunch hours. Timing was 7:30 AM to 9:30 PM.So I had Parotha Kuruma. The rates here were nominal. By 8:30 pm i returned to my room. That was all for the day. The next day was the day of admission.