Know About Shares

Anybody want to study about Share and how to trade, I think this is a good writeup to start with. Read on

Best Of Luck

Regret

I really regret that I had taken a decision to leave Delhi and come to Hyderabad. First of all I did not like the climate over here, then not possible to travel anywhere. What I feel is Hyderabad is not a happening place. After staying in Pune, Mumbai and Delhi, I am unable to resist the boring life out here. One day I will get the chance to move back. Lets hope for the best.

Great News

A friend of mine is been selected by the Who's Who among students in US and will be awarded. I am really proud to say that I am a friend of him.

Veer-Zara

This is the new film of Yash Chopra, starring Shahrukh Khan, Preity Zinta and Rani Mukherjee. But I had the feel of watching a 1947 Tamil film, where you will find after every word there is a song. It is one of the horrible films that I have seen.

Diamonds Forever

India's second largest revenue making business after Software and Services. It is told that out of 10 diamonds, 8 diamonds pass through India or through an Indian. Read this article

Get Together

It was great this Diwali, that I had a get together with my friends. Three of were at Trichy and also had a conference call with another friend in US. It was a great moment after a long time. It was fun pulling everyone's legs, but still had lot to discuss. This Diwali is unforgetable.

Diwali

The festival of lights is on 11th of November and I am geared up to celebrate it with lots of fun. After a long time I am returning to my home town to celebrate this festival with my parents.

New Hoax

A new Hoax is been spread that during 10.30Pm Indian Time there is going to be a wave called rectoscalar, that will pass over India and could damage all mobiles, computers and Laptops which are kept switched on. The mail also states to switch off the devices during that hour.

Everyday morning when I wake up I think that I have to update my blog, but once I come into the office, I simply read my emails and then go to play or go about my work. I am not sure if I have lost the interest in this or have I become so lazy that I am not updating it.

Return to Delhi

I am back in Delhi for a training(sponsored by company), it was good to be back in this great city. This time my tickets where sponsored by the company and even though I was given a Economy class, as I was a frequent flyer in Jet Airways, my ticket was upgraded to Business Class. It was amazing to travel in business class. It is a real difference to travel in business class.

Will give more update after my return to Hyderabad.

Trip to God's Own Land (Kerala)

During the 3rd week of August, I had the chance to visit God's Own Land. As a part of my pilgrimage to Sabarimala I also visited some temples between Thissur and Sabarimala.

On 14th evening my journey started towards Kerala, by the Thiruvananthapuram Mail. My destination in Kerala was Sabarimala, but we headed towards Thissur so that we can visit few temples on the way to Sabarimala. We reached Thissur by 04.30Am, we refreshed and headed to the nearby Ramar Temple. As per our plan the temple to be visited was Vadakkunnathar in Thissur and then head to Guruvayr to visit the Krishna Temple. We were able to complete both these places by 8.30Am, after which the Guruvayur temple will be closed for morning poojas for 30mins.

Then we headed to Mamiyoor a Shiva Vishnu temple. This temple is also famous because of our TamilNadu CM for presenting a baby Elephant 4 years back. We visited the Triprayar Ramar temple on our way towards Kaladi. This is the birth place of Adi Shankaracharya the founder of Advaita Vedanta School. After a short break and a dip in the near by river we headed to Chottanikara to visit the Bhagawati Amman Temple. When we reached there we were told that the temple will be opened after 4Pm we were chit chatting about all topics that come into our mind. After our prayers at this temple we then headed to Vaikom Mahadevar temple, which is a Shiva temple. Then we headed to Kaduthuruthi, which is also a Shiva temple. The last temple that we visited for the day was Ettumaanoor which is another Shiva temple.

The number of temple we visited on a single day was 10 and to be frank I don't remember a single deity I visited. The reason is all images look same with very little difference that one can notice. After a good sleep in the night we got ready for the next day to visit another set of temples. The first temple we visited for the day was Ambalappuzha which is a Krishna temple. After a good darshan at this temple we headed to Haripad which is a temple for Subramanyar or otherwise called Murugan. We also visited the Hanuman temple next to this one.

As we wanted to reach the river Pampa by 1.30Pm we skipped all other temples on the way and headed directly to Pampa. After a quick bath at Pampa we started our journey towards the Aiyappan shirne by 2.30Pm. It is a 7km stretch on the ghats with steep climbs and slippery way we managed to reach the temple gates by 4.30Pm. As the door of the temple was opened at 4Pm after a month’s closure we had a good darshan with fewer crowds. Around 5.30Pm we got settled in our rooms and planned that we will visit the temple once again by 9.30Pm for the closure of the doors. When we came out by 9.30Pm we were shocked to see the crowd. With the help of a Bank Manager we were able to visit the Head guru of Sabarimala and also a close view of the god.

As the crowd was very high the next day we planned to get down eary as possible. We started back by 7.30Am and reached the base by 9.00Am. After a quick breakfast we headed towards Kottyam for our return journey towards Chennai. Since one of our travelmate had to catch the 1.30Pm Train we had to reach Kottayam without stop. We were able to reach in time because of the driver. From 1.30PM we were in the station to catch our 5.30Pm Chennai Mail.

Even though the journey was a hectic one, we were able to visit lots of places. It was a treat to eyes as everywhere it looked green beacuse of the heavy monsoons. The next day when I travelled from Chennai to Trichy it was opposite to that of Kerala. Everywhere dry land and it was looking like a desert with no greenaries. The only satisfying moment was when I saw river Cauvery was filled with water. It is told that after 3 yrs there is water in Cauvery.

Return

It has been a week since I have updated my blog from the return of Sabarimalai trip. This week I am expecting to update the trip experience.

Capital Punishment

After 15 years tomorrow India will witness a person under going the Captial Punishment. Dhananjoy Chatterjee the 39yr old convict for rape and murder of a 14 year old girl is the 55th convict to undergo the punishment. It has taken 13 years for the family of Hetal Parekh to witness the death of the murderer.

Will this be a lesson for everyone to avoid this crime?
Will the punishment for Koli be the same for rape and murder of Foster?

Place Visited Last Year

Shimla & Kufri
After the trip to Nanital we stopped traveling during the month of December and January due to bad weather. We started our travel once again during the month of February. The first place I visited during Feb was Shimla. I went there to see and feel the snow fall, but I was able to see only snow all over the mountains. From Shimla we went to Kufri which is 19Km and tried some snow skiing.

Amristar & Wagah
During the same month we visited Amristar, the city of Golden Temple. I was amazed by the temple and the lake surrounding it. Payed a tribute to Jalliavalla bagh and then visited Wagah Border. One should not miss this great opportunity of viewing the army parade.

Jaisalmer
Again after a months rest we went to Jaisalmer, the Thar Desert during the month of April. A group of 4 dare devils went to feel the heat. We enjoyed the camel drive across the sand dunes for 2 days, was unforgettable and amazing.

Ranthambore
In the same month we visited the most tiger populated sanctuary of India. This time we were able to see the tigers. Here we had the option of viewing a Tigress with its cubs.

Dharmasala, McLoed Ganj & Khajjiar
Visited the little Lassa during the month of May, where His Holiness Dalai Lama has his home. We tried to sneak in for a blessing from him but were not able to do that. Then we headed to Khajjiar which is 1x1Km stretch of green grass surrounded by huge pine trees and mountains.

Ganothri & Gomukh
End of May we went to Gangothri. Ride on the Himalayas at a height of 3600mts was wonderful. During the summer months Ganges was trying to fill itself with the melting Ice from Gomukh. The 18Km walk to Gomukh at 4000mts was a breath taking walk. The most enjoyed place in all my tours was this one. I should thank each and everyone who accompanied me for this trip making it as the most admired and enjoyed one.

Delhi
Last but not the least, visited all the important places in Delhi before leaving to Hyderabad

Gangothri was my last trip in North India, since after this I got transferred to Hyderabad. Just geting transfers will not stop me from traveling.

Places Visited Last Year

River Rafting
Tried River rafting in Ganges at Rishikesh, a week after the Agra trip. We were 7 people and got a good bargain in our river rafting and night stay. The stay was in tents on the banks of Ganges. Heart throbbing experience.

Sultanpur
After 2 long trips in a month we decided to visit this bird sanctuary near Delhi. Was good but it was not as amazing as Bharatpur.

Sariska
After doing some bird watching we went for tiger glimpse at Sariska. After a 4hr trip inside the forest we were not able to site any big cats. We then headed to a hot water spring and spent the night at the lonely guest house in the forest.

Pushkar & Jaipur
We visited Pushkar for the camel festival during the month of November. We were told that one can see around 500 to 1000 camels at a time. Since we went at the end of the festival we were able to see around 200 camels. Then we headed to Jaipur to visit the pink city.

Nanital
During the same month to enjoy the winter cold we went to Nanital. I was told that the time we went was the start of winter, but all of us were shivering in cold.

Places Visited Last Year

In another 2 days I am completing 1 year of traveling. When I was in Delhi, I kept telling to myself that within a year I should see 50% of places around North India. Today when I see my list, it looks like I have achieved my target.

The places that I had visited in North India are
Mussoorie & Rishikesh
Mussoorie a small hill station in Dehradun. Two of my colleagues asked whether I am ready to join for the trip when I entered the office. The place and time of visit was unforgettable. On our return we visited the temples of Rishikesh and then traveled back to Delhi.

Vaishnavo Devi & Patnitop
The second place we visited was Vaishnavo Devi and Patnitop, situated in Jammu. The 14Kms walk to the shrine, with heavy security was a thrilling experience. We also visited the silent valley called Patnitop which is on the Srinagar Jammu high way.

Agra
During the month of September, I had the chance to visit the most spoken place in India, The Taj Mahal. For this trip we were around 9 people jammed in a Scorpio. The drive to Agra was simply superb, thanks to our Ex-prime minister. I need not explain anything about Taj Mahal. During this trip we also visited Fatehpur Sikri, Bharatpur, Mathura and Vrindavan.

More to come...

?!

For past few months I have been reading some blogs and whenever I see a blog with a black background, it is more less belongs to a female. I am wondering why do they keep themselves in a black area. Are they trying to hide themselves in the darkness?

Is anyone out there to enlighten me on this...

India & Condoms

Read this article...

Horrible Weekend

This weekend was the most horrible weekend I had. First of all I was alone at home, then India lost to Pak and my team was no where near the podium in the German Grand Prix. I think as per my original plan I should have gone to Warrangal.

Weekend Plan

This weekend have no plans, since all my roommates are going to their respective home town and I will be all alone at home. On Sunday have plan to watch the great India-Pak match and then the German Grand prix. Hoping that this time also my team will give a fight to the Ferraries.

Positive Thinking

Michael is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!" He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Michael was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.
Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Michael and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?" Michael replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, Mike you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life."
"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested." Yes, it is," Michael said. "Life is all about choices. You cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood.The bottom line: It's your choice how you live life."
I reflected on what Michael said. Soon thereafter, I left the Tower Industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made > a choice about life instead of reacting to it.
Several years later, I heard that Michael was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care,Michael was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back. I saw Michael about six months after the accident. When I asked him > how he was, he replied. "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna see my scars?" I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place. "The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon to be born daughter," Michael replied. "Then, as I lay on > the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or I could choose to die. I chose to live."
"Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked. Michael continued, "...the paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read 'he's a dead man.' I knew I needed to take action."
"What did you do?" I asked. "Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me," said Michael. "She asked if I was allergic to anything. 'Yes, I replied." The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, "Gravity." Over their laughter, I told them, 'I am choosing to > live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead'."
Michael lived, not just due to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.
> You have two choices now:
1. Forget this.
2. Forward it to someone you care about.
As always, the choice is our own!

Weekend Update
 
This weekend had been to the Brila temple in Hyderabad. This is a shrine for Lord Venkateshwara. It is told that the idol inside is an replica of Lord Venkateshwara in Tirupati. The Architecture of temple is a combination of South and North. The temple is completely built with white marble, and looks marvel. From the temple one can get a good glimpse of the city and the most fascinating view is the Buddha Statue at Husain Sagar Lake. It almost took us around 3hrs to get the glimpse of the idol due to long queue. It is a worth visiting for 3hrs.
 
Did nothing on Sunday as usual complete rest.

Naming...The Indian Way

Recently, the Maharashtra State government announced its plans to rename the Prince of Wales museum as The Chhatrapati Shivaji Vastusangrahlaya. So now we have that in addition to The Chhatrapti Shivaji Terminus, The Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, The Chhatrapati Shivaji Domestic Airport, and who knows what else. If this trend continues, we may reasonably speculate what it will be like in 2050 AD.

>>
My name is Chhatrapati Shivaji. My father's name is Chhatrapati Shivaji. All other names have long since been outlawed. I wake up everyday at 6:30 am CST (Chhatrapati Standard Time) to go to my school: Chhatrapati Shivaji Vidyalaya. It was a little confusing getting there at first, because all schools in the city have the same name. But once I got directions, it was fine. All I have to do is go down Chhatrapati Shivaji Road, make a left turn at Chhatrapati Shivaji Chowk, go straight till Chhatrapati Shivaji Marg, until I reach Chhatrapati Shivaji School. Once I got lost and found myself at Chhatrapati Shivaji Chowk instead of Chhatrapati Shivaji Road. Silly mistake, when I think about it.

My class teacher, Mr C. Shivaji, is a good teacher. Today he asked "Chhatrapati, can you answer that question?" The whole class stood up to answer. Yesterday our school, C. S. Vidyalaya, had a cricket match with our rival school, C. S. Vidyalaya. Of course, we don't know which school won.

But that's okay. This weekend, my family and I will go to the zoo, Chhatrapati Shivaji Pranibaugh, and see all the, um... plants. There used to be animals there, but they're all dead now. They say it was due to "negligence" because the keepers were all running for government, one of them for the office of Prime Chhatrapati.

We have two main telecommunication companies, CSNL and CSNL. One provides telephone services and the other provides broadband MultiNet access via the Chhatrapati Shivaji Satellite. Sometimes we don't know whether we're accessing a website or whether Chhatrapati Shivaji (our grandmother) is calling up. I'll go online later to see if I have any new e-mail at chhatrapati@chhatrapatishivaji.cs

Foreigners are often confused which Paanch Sitaara Vishramgraha (5-ishtar hotel) to stay in, because they all have the same names. I think the Chhatrapati Shivaji Vishramgraha is pretty good, and one should stay there rather than the Chhatrapati Shivaji Vishramgraha or the Chhatrapati Shivaji Vishramgraha.

During the weekend, my family and I might go to the beach, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Samudrakinara, and after that we may go see a film. All foreign films are dubbed in Indian languages because, as we are taught in school:
(1) Nothing foreign is good, and
(2) All things foreign that are good have been stolen from us.

I go to sleep pretty early, after watching the popular TV show Kaun Banega Chhatrapati. Tomorrow will be another day... I think. Sometimes, in whispers, I hear stories told of a mythical age long ago, when places and things had different names. Stories of a time when each thing had it's own name, and of a concept called heterogeneity". It's a legend, only half-believed, of a time when places and things had a history, and the city an identity.


Date: 22 November, 450 AC (After Chhatrapati)
Place: Chhatrapati Shivaji Mahanagar (Formerly Mumbai) (Formerly
Bombay)

WHY ENGLISH IS SO DIFFICULT

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes;
but the plural of ox became oxen not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice;
yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?

If I spoke of my foot and show you my feet,
and I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,
yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
and the plural of cat is cats, not cose.

We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
but though we say mother we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
but imagine the feminine, she, shis and shim.

Some reasons to be grateful if you grew up speaking English:
1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
8) At the Army base, a bass was painted on the head of a bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18) After a number of Novocain injections, my jaw got number.
19) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
20) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
21) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?
22) I spent last evening evening out a pile of dirt.

Complex pronunciations can really mess up your mind! For example...

If you have a rough cough, climbing can be tough when going through the bough on a tree!

There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England.

We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither
from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?

Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend?

If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, What do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?

If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.

In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?

Ship by truck and send cargo by ship?

Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wiseguy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in
which an alarm goes off by going on.

Note: I got the above one when I was reading our internal database.

Formula 1

Finally my team was into the podium for the first time in this season. I am a hardcore fan of McLaren, and I am happy finally that they were able to come to the podium atleast. At home prix they were able to show off that they can be a potential challenge to the Ferrari's. Kudos to Kimi and the McLaren team.

Weekend Update

After a month this weekend I started my travel again, but this time the travel was not a long distance, but it was 25km from the city limit and the place we visited was a water theme park. The name of the park was Ocean World, but it was not as great as Black Thunder in Tamil Nadu or the Water World in Maharastra. Our plan was to reach there by 12.30Pm and stay there till 4.30Pm. It was a good plan since the Ocean park opens only at 11Am and closes by 7Pm. I am not sure what type of timing is this. Also they close the park for 30mins as lunch break. This park has very few water games and non water games. I was thrilled by only 2 games. One which slides you down in a closed tube to a bowl like container and then into the water, which is really thrilling and the other is like a mari ground wheel, but here when it starts to circle you will find yourself floating in the air for atleast 5 to 6 rounds, which is another excited trip I had.

On Sunday I was completely at home purchasing house hold items and in the evening I had been to Ayyappa Temple to start my fasting. I have planned to go to Sabari Malai this year little early with my Chennai Friends. This is my second visit to the shrine.

New House

Today Durai, Karthik and me entered into the new house. Started settling in it, found a mess near our house and everyone are very much excited about the place. Lets hope for the best.

Deepest Lake

The world's deepest lake is Lake Baikal, in Siberia, Russia. The deepest point of the lake, the Olkhon Crevice, has a depth of 1,637 m (5,371 ft), of which 1,181 m (3,875 ft) are below sea level. It is also the oldest freshwater lake on Earth, having formed between 20 and 25 million years ago. Baikal also contains one-fifth of all the world’s fresh surface water! The lake is roughly crescent-shaped, 636 km (395 miles) long, with a surface area of 31,500 km² (12,200 miles²).

The above information is from our company's intranet.

House Hunt

The whole weekend I was busy house hunting. Getting a house is not easy for bachelors within the city limits. Hyderabad has water problems and every where you go they say that water is only for 2hrs between 6 and 8 in the morning. For people like me who are in shifts will find this really difficult. Finally we got a house in an area called Banjara hills for a rent of 6k with 24hr water facility. As per Hyderabad standards this is a costly house.

I'm Back

After a short break I am back to office. It was good and relaxing visit to my home town. I am now in Hyderabad, the new IT city. Within a short period of yrs the whole of Madhavpur which is nothing but the the Hi-tech city has completely changed. The first time when I came here I was able to see lots of barren land and rocks. But today all rocks have been converted into buildings.

Goodbye Delhi

Time has come to say goodbye to Delhi. It has been a year since I came to Delhi and now saying goodbye is painfull. Delhi is a paradise for people who love winter and travelling.

My next destination is Hyderabad and I am all set to explore the city.

Century

After 8 months of writing, my previous update was the hundredth blog. I should first thank Arun Chandrasekar for motivating me to start something like this and thanks to everyone who read this blog. Most of these blogs were what I read, see and think, so if it has hurt anyone by any means kindly forgive me, but do come back and leave your comments.

Thank you all and have a great day.

Indian Movies and Sex

After movies like Kamasutra, Fire and Earth 1947 now you can see movies like Boom that portrait about a callboy, followed by the most controversial movie Girlfriend that is about lesbian. Once again the people who call themselves as cultural police has come to the streets to protest against the screening of the movie. The land which gave us the world famous Kamasutra and Khajuraho which currently has 20 temples depicts around 64000 sculptures about sex. Are these cultural police going to demolish these things also saying that this is against our culture?

People can say that movies should show about sex but not sex between lesbians and gays, which is not good for the society. But one can see sculptures of the above type as a part of the temples in Khajuraho.

Universites in India

Will any one belive that India has 8407 Universities, followed by US with 5758 and Argentina with 1705.

Yahoo Mail

I have 2 email ids in Yahoo. One in India Yahoo and the other on the US Yahoo. Today when I logged on to the US Yahoo I was astonished to see that they have increased the mailbox size from 4MB to 100MB. When is this going to happen on the other sites of Yahoo?

Expensive cities

While Tokyo is still ahead of the list followed by London and Moscow, our cities like Mumbai and New Delhi are cheaper than cities of China, Srilanka and Bangladesh. As per the Indian survey the best and cost effective city in India is Hyderabad, that is the reason I am moving to Hyderabad.

People & Places - Part II

Our guides were our chefs who prepared simple and tasty food. The menu is always Rice, Dal, Roti and Vegetable. One should appreciate the efficiency of these guys, during the preparation of food. They use to carry only some plates, 2 bowls and some tumblers, with this minimal vessel they use to prepare food. One thing can be noticed is that these are not washed by water, but by sand. As a city dweller we will find this odd, but due to heat of the sand, I think this is more hygienic than washing it by water. Also if every time they have to wash things with water then they have to walk 10kms back to the well to get water. This area is survived without rain for the past four years.

In this region there are around 20-30 villages, and each village is situated at a distance of 10 to 15kms. Each village has a drinking water well near by, which is around 2kms. I had the chance to see the water, it was actually brown in color, they draw the water, keep it for a day so that the dust settles down and then they distill it and use for drinking. These villages do business not much with money, but it is through give and take. Every four to five villages have a hospital and the nearby big hospital is 50Kms away with very minimal equipments. In most of the villages there is still no power supply. The relationship is worse between Hindus and Muslims when they are inside the village, but when they are outside the village they are like brothers. It is been told that if either a Hindu or a Muslim tries to sneak into the others territory, the intruders eyes, hands and legs could be cut off.

For the past 50yrs our great politicians have been promising these people that they would provide electricity, water and other basic needs. But the villages near Jaisalmer are lucky enough to get at least electricity and water. The remaining villages are still in the same state. For people over here getting a loan of 10k from a bank is like getting water. After bribing all the people in the bank and outside these people may get 5k for a loan of 10k, and still pay the interest and principal for the 10k.

But still these people love India.

Olympic Torch

This can happen only in India I think, how can the Olympic Association of India select filmstars to carry the Olympic torch, when there are lots of sports person. What I feel this is a disgrace to OAI, and they have not respected the feelings of sports person.

People & Places

After coming to New Delhi, I had the chance to visit few places and people. It is always fascinating to know the life style of different people at different places. After my visit to Jaisalmer, for a very long time I wanted to write about the life style of desert.

Everyone knows that life in a desert is not easy due to high temperature, water scarcity and rough terrain. During my visit to Jaisalmer we had planned to stay 2days and 1 night in the sand dunes and the guides accompanied us. We had tow guides and one was married and the other was not. We asked the second guy why was he not married and was astonished by his answer. It seems in their caste he has to give 2lakhs as a dowry to marry a woman. Four years back he was taking care a herd of sheep in the desert, due to lack of pasture and rain all the sheep died of starvation and disease. Now he is paid Rs. 500/- every month as salary for being a guide. He is 24 and survived by his parents. The question out here is how many years is it going to take for him to collect 2lakhs and get married.

The other guy is married and survived by his wife and 5 kids (2 boys and 3 girls). The other information we got about marriage was, in their caste always the bride will be elder than the bridegroom. We asked what was the reason; he simply told it is for family planning. We are talking about an age difference of 10 to 14 yrs. And normally the marriages will happen when the bridegroom is at 12 or 13 and the bride is at 26 or 27. It also seems for a hospital they have to go minimum 50kms either on foot or camel driven cart.

Both these guys have studied up till10std, which is considered as the highest education in their village. Also the schools are during only August to March, because after March it is very hot and teachers do not turn up. For these 5months kids are all alone while their parents go in search of food and some firewood, which ends up they go begging for pens, chocolates and rupees from the tourist who rarely visit these places.

More to come...

Day of The Venus

After 122yrs today is the day for the Venus to show herself to the people of Earth. I had the glimpse of Venus only through the TV and Internet, due to bad climate in Delhi. I should thank Doordarshan for this spectacular event, telecasted by them.

Taxation

The propasal of the new Tax by the current government looks like a nightmare. Read on...

Gangothri Photos

I have uploaded some of the Gangothri Photos into my webshots photo community.

Truth Behind Sonia's Sacrifice

The President is said to have informed her that according to Section 5 of the Citizenship Act of 1955, she has no right to assume the office of the Prime Minister of India and that he was seeking the advice of the Supreme Court on this issue.

Section 5 of the Citizenship Act of 1955 clearly says the rights and privileges allowed to foreigners who become citizens by application (not by birth) will only be those as are granted to Indians in the country of the concerned person's origin (in this case Italy). Which means that since an Indian cannot be the PM of Italy, even if he is granted Italian citizenship, then Indian law says that an Italian who is granted Indian citizenship cannot be PM of India. Period. The Citizenship Act, 1955 is available for all to read at this link

The President reportedly told Sonia that he had to ascertain the legal position in this matter as there was no confirmation that all the rights and privileges granted to persons of Italian origin are reciprocated by Italy in the case of Indians who become citizens of that country.

Sonia is said to have decided not to take the risk after the President's briefing. It should also be noted that the President, in his letter on Monday, invited her only to discuss assuming the post of Prime Minister, and not to assume office.

That was the reason why Sonia made such a "huge sacrifice" after "listening to her inner voice." Just two days ago she did not refuse when her party elected her the Leader of her party. Thereafter she said that the leader of the single largest party should, in her opinion, be the next Prime Minister. And two days later suddenly an inner voice told her to make a tamasha of a sacrifice. Maybe the inner voice sounded like the booming APJ Abdul Kalam, a true Indian.

Trip to Gangothri-Gomukh

The 17hr drive from Delhi to Gangothri and 6hrs of walk from Gangothri to Gomukh to see what is called the source of Ganga is real worth it. The meaning of Gomukh is mouth of a Cow. And it is true that it looks more or less like the mouth of a Cow. There is only from point the water is gushing out and one can see small streams of water from the mountain. For a person who has not seen it will find it difficult to believe that the whole mountain is Ice and only Ice. From far it looks like a normal mountain in brown color, everyone thinks it is same as the other mountains. But a closer look reveals that the whole mountain is Ice.

Even though the path from Gangothri to Gomukh is tiring, the view of the valley, the snow covered mountain peak and the waterfalls are a breath taking moments.

Weekend Trip

Time is running fast and another week has come, so I had to plan for my weekend trip. This week I heading to Gangothri, Gomukh and if possible try to visit Yamunothri.

Trip to Little Lhasa - Part III
We woke the next day with high hopes that we will be heading to view the mountaintop and the glacier, but to our dismay it was heavy raining till 8Am and hence had to drop the plan of trekking. At that moment we decided that we would head towards Dalhousie. Near Dalhousie there is a place called Khajjiar, which is a 1x1km stretch of grassland. We had to drive around 6hrs to reach this place, but it was worth it for the drive. At around 2.30Pm we had our lunch in Dalhousie and then headed to Khajjiar. The road from Dalhousie to Khajjiar is good. I have visited lots of hill stations, but the one I admired is Dalhousie.

We spent around 2 hrs and rejoiced the place. By 5Pm it started to heavy rain and we had to run towards our cab to start off from that place. This time we took the return route through Chamba valley, the road was not so good but still the view was ultimate. After an hour or two, one of our types got punctured and had to halt. The cab had an extra tyre but was not able to find any spanners, so the driver waited to get a lift to the nearby village to get the tools. By 8.30Pm the tyre was replaced and all along the route we were trying to fix the old tyre. By 12.30Am we were able to find a shop and it took us another 45mins to fix.

I should appreciate my driver for the way he drived through the hill station. The amazing stuff was he started to drive from Sunday morning 5Am to Morning 4AM with just a 2 hr rest at Khajjiar. After 4Am on Monday he took a 1hr nap and started off. I was dropped at my home by 10Am. For those 2 days we had traveled around 2000Kms, our driver had a good stamina to cover that distance.

Tips: Try to avoid driving a distance of 2000Km in two days.

Moving South

Finally I am moving southwards. My company has transferred me to its new office in Hyderabad. I am planning to move there next month end. Before next month end I am planning to visit more places in North India. Lets hope for the best.

Trip to Little Lhasa - Part II

Once we reached Mcleodganj we were very much astonished, since one could count out the Indians residing there. It was more of exile Tibetians and close followers of His Holiness. For more than ½ hr we tried getting some accommodation, but were not successful. We had to walk around 2kms from the main market to get an accommodation. By 1Pm we got settled in the hotel and I fell like a log and had a good sleep for around 1 ½ hr. By the time I woke up the others were ready and it took me another 30mins to get ready and straight away headed for lunch.

After lunch we visited the Monastery, which includes Karmachakra Temple, Buddha statue and residence of His Holiness. Then we headed to the Tibetian Museum, which depicted the life of Tibetians under the Chinese invasion. We came to know that His Holiness was at his residence and tried to meet him, but our request was politely turned down. Then we headed to Dal Lake, which is 5km from the main market, which was not much convincing, so we further drove another 3km for a place called Nandoo. This is a viewpoint of the neighboring mountains, which looked amazing under the sunset.

After spending some time we went back to our hotel rooms to take some rest. As per our plan we decided to trek 13km stretch towards Trinud-Illaqa the next day morning. Trinud is 9km walk and can have a close view of the snow-covered mountaintop and Illaqa is place where we can see glaciers. With the anticipation of viewing this spots we went to sleep.

More to come about our Sunday plan...

Trip to Little Lhasa – Part I

Last weekend the trip was planned to Gangothri, but as a last minute change we headed to Dharamsala, which is 500Km from Delhi. This trip was the one that we had not planned where and what are we going to do. On Thursday we started to search for a cab. Since our regular travels guy was not able to provide a cab for us. On Friday morning I got a call from my travel mate that he was not able to arrange a vehicle. I tried my best but was not able to get one for the rates we were searching. Finally I decided that I would speak to our company transport guys if they can provide one. After a long negotiation, they agreed to give a Scorpio at Rs. 6.75/- per km. We had asked the supervisor for the cab at 8Pm so that we can reach by 10 or 11Am in Gangothri.

At around 5Pm my friend told me that the plan to Gangothri is dropped and we are heading to Almora. I was not interested in Almora. I even thought it is better to drop out of the trip. We had a plan for Dharamsala and Dalhousie for the next week. After discussing with people who had been there, we decided to head towards Dharamsala this weekend and we could make Gangothri the next weekend.

Around 6.30Pm I called the transport guy and informed him that we will be heading to Dharamsala. The transport guy was somewhat reluctant to this idea of changing the place, but later agreed to come along with us. At around 7Pm I called the supervisor and asked him has the cab come. At that moment I found that the cab has to come from the north end of Delhi, which is around 50Km from Noida and it, has to cross the heavy traffic. Finally the cab reached us at 11.30Pm and when we told the driver that we have to pickup two of our friends in Gurgoan he was so worried because of the extra 50km we are suppose to do now. The other thing is that he had started from near this place, which would have made more sense to first pick them up and then come to us.

Around 12.30Am we managed to leave Delhi and started driving towards Dharamsala. We should thank our ex-PM for his thought of golden quadrilateral. The road was so good that we were able reach Chandigarh by 4.30Am. From there we headed to the India’s largest Dam Bhakra Nangal, but we could not see that due to time constraint. Then we headed towards Dharamsala and reached by 11.30AM. Here the roads were not so good but was able to drive at the speed of 60/70 Km/hr. Since Dharamsala did not have anything to see we directly headed to Mcleodganj which was 10km from Dharamsala.

More to come on Mcleodgang…

About Little Lhasa

Lhasa was the capital of Tibet before the Chinese occupied during 1949-50. China claims that Tibet is a part of China and not a different country. The head of Tibet is His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. After his exile from Tibet, he has made India as the new homeland and rules the Tibetians from McLeod Ganj, which is called Little Lhasa. McLeod Ganj is 13kms from Dharamsala and it has the monastery and palace of His Holiness.

Travel Mates

Each time when I do a trip, I travel with different set of people. This time my travel mates were all management guys. So the discussions where more related to management stuff. I was merely a spectator as I was very far from all this management fundas.

Weekend Trip

A last moment change in the weekend trip. The place that we are going to visit is Dharmasala. We found that it will take around 20hrs to reach Gangothri, and it requires minimum of 3 days, we have postponed the trip to next week.

Leadership

Today we had a leadership seminar conducted by our company. The speaker was Mr. Kiran Karnik, the president of NASSCOM. There were leadership seminar's conducted previously, but I had never taken care to attend those. But today I went for the only reason the speaker was NASSCOM and he was the President of that.

The speech was not convincing but the Q&A session was really good. Even though we were allowed to ask only limited questions, the questions were sharp and also got a good answers for the same.

Weekend Trip

As usual the weekend is on the way and I am geared up for another weekend trip. This time we have planned to Gangothri and Gomukh. As per our plan we will try to reach Gangothri by 10Am or 11Am on Saturday and by 2Pm start the trek towards Gomukh which is a 18Km stretch.

I am very much excited over this trip and waiting for Friday night to start the journey. This time we are a group of six people so should have more fun.

Twist In Tale

There has been a twist in tale and a clear knock out where everyone in NDA had to go silent. The way Sonia Gandhi has taken a decision. No one except for the close ones will know if she was happy for not opting the Prime Minister seat. There is always a question in her decesion. If she whas really not interested in that, what I feel is that she should have not opted for the Congress Party President, or the leader of the oposition in the previous government.

This more or less looks like she wanted to be in safe side. One has to wait and see how the tale will be twisted again.

Elections '04 and its Aftermath

This was the first election where I was closely monitoring stuffs and events. The clean sweep in TN, a broken nose for NDA and a fall of an IT czar. It also interesting about the stunts of the Left, DMK and Sonia.

The most worst of all was the fall of the sensex yesterday.

Team Building-Training

After a long time I had attended a training about what is team, the positives and negatives of a team. In this training I was able to understand more about me than about team. It was really a good 2 day session. I would really thank Mr Prabhakar Kamath for making me to understand who I am.

Main Hoon Na

It looks like there is no way for an Indian film to improve. Yesterday I had the chance to view this movie, which was sponsored by my company. There is no logic or no story. It is true that when you watch any film, it may be Hollywood, Bollywood or Kollywod one has to keep his brain at home.

But one thing I would like to appreciate about this film is that, they have taken the background story as India Pakistan friendship.

My Blog

The look and the fell of my blog has completely changed. I should really thank the Blogger team to reproduce a look of the environment. It is like from range to rich. Now my blog has a rich look, which is more satisfying to work with.

Thanks again to the Blogger Team and Goolge.

Banking

In the age of Mordern Banking, I had the chance to visit one of the Government undertaking bank, and which claims as the India's third largest Bank, the Punjab National Bank. There is no improvement in its infrastructure. There is long queue outside the bank standing and at exactly 10Am the bank doors are opened, both employees and customer enter. The employees take their own time to settle down and start their work by 10.30Am, immedialty they get thier morning tea. They spend some time to drink and then start the work. Government banks are really not borthered about the customers. The work and procedures they follow comes as a suprise. Still the ledger books, token system to get the money.

In the age of Internet why are these banks not ready to change themselves?

1 Month Chief Justice

Like the 1 day Chief Minister in the film Nayak, we have a 1 month Chief Justice in the SC. On June 1st he is going to retire. As a matter of respect the chair is shown to this new SC Chief Justice. Out of this 31 days what is he going to do? Why is the government not thinking it is spending the people's money? Yes! when the government is not worried about the India shining ad, this is really not a big expense.

Elections '04

The general elections 2004 has been giving everyday some type of surprise. The falling of NDA, the results showing as hung parliament. The worst out of all these is the Bihar incident of booth capturing at Chapra constituency. This show how notorious is Bihar, than the other states. It looks like there will be more horse riding for MP's.

Trip to Ranthambore

The trip to Ranthambore is well narrated in my travel partners blog. Read on

Weekend Trip

Last weekend we had been to Ranthambore. Keep watching more to come.

Trip to Jaisalmer-Part 5

The next day we started off early to get the glimpse of the city and the life inside the fort. After bargaining for a long time we hired a guide to show us around the fort and the important places. The important places that one has to see are the big canon, the Jain temple and the Palace. There are different sizes of canons and on all four directions they have installed huge canons. Apart from that they has have small size canons around the fort. The specialty of the fort is that, they have not used water to construct the fort. The stones are cut in a shape and placed one over the other without using any type of paste.

Also they have big balls of stones and cylindrical stones that will act as weapon once they run out of weapons or ammunition. It is been told till date they have not used those stones as weaponry. No one has ever conquered this fort. We then headed to the Jain temple, which was simply amazing. There were numerous statues and each statue looks same but every statue is a different god. They differentiate the statue by the symbol. There are around 6666 Jain gods and every god is differentiated by the symbol. There was lots of sculptural working than the Ludarva temple. They also contained some good paintings. When the religion started they did not have temples, it was only stone carving. Later on they started constructing temples.

Then we headed to the Palace, which has now been converted into a museum and the current king lives in a new palace called the Mandir Palace. The old palace just looks like a maze. If a new person is left inside he may get lost. Inside the palace they had the photos, armory, dresses, beds and the vessels that was used by the kings in the olden time. They also had the king’s throne and umbrella that are made of silver and gold.

Once we finished the tour of the fort and Palace we headed for breakfast. After our breakfast we headed to a Haveli called Pathwankot Haveli. Haveli’s look good from outside, but once entered one can see dead pigeons, lots of bats and variety of insects. Since nothing was fascinating us we headed back to the hotel to checkout.

Our tour to Jaisalmer was to end at this point because we had our train at 3.30Pm. The major problem was that our tickets were not confirmed. Later on we come to know that Jaisalmer had only 6 tickets to Delhi and ours was waiting list 1, 2, 3 and 4. Once we were at the station we checked out the ticket status with ticket collector to only find that 2 tickets was confirmed the others are still on the waiting list. But the coach was empty till Jodhpur, so the TT agreed to let us travel by the same coach. In Jodhpur we managed to get the remaining two tickets also confirmed.

Tips
1. Traveling by train is the best option, but book the ticket in a way that you don’t end up in trouble. The best option is to book the ticket from Delhi to Jodhpur and from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer and return vis-a-versa.
2. Plan for a four-day trip.
3. One should not miss the night stay at Sand dunes
4. Arrange the safari with well-known people.
5. Follow any of the travel book

Suggestions.
1. Sahara Travels is good and they stick to their word.
2. Nataraj Restaurant is an ideal place for food.
3. The second option for food is Little Tibet inside the fort.

Trip to Jaisalmer-Part 4

During our dinnertime we were joined with 2 foreigners who were working for the German Embassy and the Italian Embassy. We were talking more about our work and culture of each country. Both of them have come down here for a short stay of 6 months and 8 months. The dinner that was served was special dinner with sweets and special vegetable. The safari organizer has a policy one time food will come from their home. It made us more comfortable by the way they organized.

After dinner we were chatting till 10Pm and then decided to go for sleep. Our beds on the sand dunes were ready. The open sky and the cool breeze were soothing. I immediately fell asleep and by 3Am I woke up because of the cold. Pulled my quilt over me and again I was fast asleep.

We woke up early morning thinking that we will get some good sunrise photos, but nothing was convincing. Before we could finish our photo session we had a call from our guide that we have to leave and the breakfast was ready. The breakfast was some slices of bread with jam, a boiled egg, fruits and a cup of tea. By the time we finished the breakfast the camels were ready and we headed off to a village.

The village consists of one school and around 100 houses. But it looked like there were around only 40 to 50 houses. Our guide also warned about the people, that they may call you into their house and later they will ask you to pay some money. If you don’t pay you will not be let out. We asked our guide to accompany us, but he refused saying that they will not allow him inside the village because he was a Muslim. After 15 to 20 mins rest we were heading to the next spot for our lunch stop, which was 6kms from the village. After around 8 to 10 hrs of camel back we got the confidence of camel ride and started to make the camel to run, it was really amazing.

While we were taking some rest our lunch was prepared and we also got few bottles of chilled water form our organizer. We were taking rest till 3Pm and then headed to the Sam’s sand dunes, which is very famous around that area. That was around 10kms form our place. Once again we started making the camels to run and it ended up as if we were on a racetrack. Because of this we were totally exhausted but we reached the place well in advance. Once again the sunset was not pleasing and the sand dunes were looking like a beaches, full of footprints and crowded. The actual charm of the sand dune is their wave without any footprint.

After some time we started back to the city and reached Jaisalmer around 8Pm. We were very much hungry that we went directly to the restaurant and had our dinner. After dinner we checked into the hotel and all were like a log on the bed sleeping.

More to come…

Trip to Jaisalmer-Part 3

The two places that we visited on our route were Badabagh and Ludarva. Badabagh is the cementary for the kings. Normally the kings body is burnt and the ashes are thrown into the Ganges, after that they build a tomb like structure over the burnt area. Here the queens have their tombs on the upper mount and the Kings have them on the lower mounts. Also the king’s tomb looks like a mugal architecture while the queens are like the rajput architect. We did not go inside because we were running out of time.

Then we headed to Ludarva, which is currently a Jain temple. Long a ago this was the old capital and it had a Lord Krishna Temple. Once the Jain temple was built they also built a underground path to the fort. The Mugals had demolished Ludarva more than 3 times. This temple is considered sacred for women. In this temple there is a tree under which they have placed 5 different kinds of metal to give some kinds of power to that tree. I am not sure whether this really gives a power or it is only a myth. The sculptural work inside the temple is amazing. I was remembered of the workings that we see in the southern temples, also this is the first temple in North I have seen with so much working.

Then we headed to a village called Kanoi, form where our Camel safari was to start. We had two guides for the camel safari standing with four camels. Once all our food and water was tied on the camel back, we started off with our most exciting trip. The schedule was to travel 2hrs on the camel, then have lunch, take some rest and 2hrs more for the sunset point.

The schedule was so perfect even though we were late by an hour. The food was prepared on the open. It was a simple food but it was good. We should really appreciate them for the way they prepared the food. It was a simple desert food. We had Indian bread with Dal and some rice. After our food and rest we were still not able to ride on the camel back, because we were dozing.

We reached our destination around 5.30Pm and had to wait till 7Pm for the sunset. Meanwhile our guides prepared tea and served us. We were told that this is the place that we will be sleeping in the night. We were told the sunset on the dunes would be beautiful. But I was not convinced, because it was not much attractive and the sun was like a silver plate. We were sitting and chatting for a long time on the sand dunes. Around 8.30Pm we were told our dinner was ready and can be served any time we wanted.

More to come about our dinner and night stay…

Gmail

The option of having a email id with 1000MB is really exciting. As a user of blogger I have become a rat or a monkey for testing the functionality of this new GMAIL. I liked the look and feel of the interface.

Trip to Jaisalmer-Part 2

We woke up early having a plan that we will do some city watch till 9Am, before our excited trip is to start. The day before we enquired about what is the places to see around the city. The list of places was three Havelis, the Sunset point, the Gadisar Lake, the Fort and Palace and the Mandir palace. Once we were out of the hotel room we straight away started to the Havelis. Haveli is nothing but the living place of a top official, like a prime minister or a diwan. The three Havelis were Salim Singh’s haveli, Patwankot haveli, and the Natamlji haveli. We found out that in Jaisalmer except for teashops and schools everything opens either after 8am or 9am.

Around 8 we entered into the Salim Singh’s haveli and we found that people are living in those monuments. We had to get an entrance ticket, which they told it was for the maintenance of the monument. Salim Singh was the prime minister of the kingdom. He was first officer to come out of the fort, and live outside. The building previously consisted of nine stories. But as on date it has only 7 stories. It is been told that after the death of the prime minister the king did not want any other building which was equivalent to the fort and demolished the above two stories.

As usual the building is constructed with sandstone. One will be astonished to know the way the building is built. Since there was no water, there is no concept of pasting two stones together. The stones were carved in male female model and where locked. All the doors leading to rooms were only 4 to 4.5 ft high and the breadth was only 3ft, but it is been told the prime minister was some where around 6ft. This made difficult for the enemies to enter into the house for an attack. The carvings on the sandstone are also remarkable. It is been told the prime minister wanted to build a bridge between his house and the fort, but before he could do that he died. It is been told that this prime Minster had seven wives.

The whole tour to the haveli took us around 1 hr and end of the tour we asked the guide why was he staying in this and what is the relationship between him and the prime minister. But we only got a smile as a reply. Since we had no time we headed back to the hotel, to check out and get ready for our safari. We had a quick breakfast and headed to Sahara Travels, by which they were ready with the jeep and all our food items and food for the next two days.

On our way to the sand dunes we had the chance to visit two more places, which we will see more, on the coming updates.

More to come…

Trip to Jaisalmer

From the day I had started traveling, the two places that I wanted to visit were Jaisalmer and Khajuraho. It is like dream come true, visiting Jaisalmer.

This trip was planned for four days during the long weekend of Good Friday and Easter. We started on Thursday evening and reached Jaisalmer on Friday 1.30Pm, as usual our Indian railways was late by an hour.

Our plan was to spend more time on the desert life and some to see around the fort and the palace. So straight away we started to enquire about the tour organizers. Since lonely planet was our tourist guide, we followed it recommendation. It was recommended to check out with Ganesh and Sahara Travels for the camel safari. First we had a chat with the Ganesh Travels and then with Sahara. We were very much convinced with Sahara travels and scheduled the trip for next day starting at 9AM.

Since we had the whole afternoon and evening we checked in a near by hotel. We all refreshed and started off to check the near by sites. The first site we visited was the Gadisar lake. This is a man made lake and the only water resource to Jaisalmer. Jain temples surround the lake. Middle of the lake there are some buildings constructed, maybe for the kings and queens to enjoy the evening or even to take bath.

After spending an hour in the lake we headed to the sunset point, which is around 2 to 4kms from the lake. From there one should be able to get a beautiful view of the fort during the sunset. But I think the time we went the sky was cloudy and the sunset was not much attractive. Actually the sunset point is nothing but a cemetery for the Brahmins. After spending the evening there we headed back to the fort to do some shopping. Jaisalmer has nothing of as special. Every item is from the near by city Jodhpur. So the price of goods was also not so attractive. Since we wanted to get something as a remembrance we headed to a cloth shop and got some kurutas. Around 10Pm we were totally exhausted and headed back to the hotel for a good sleep, so that we can enjoy the next day. We were very much excited about the next day’s camel safari.

More to continue…

About Jaisalmer

The city with the living fort, or the Golden City is 857 yrs old. Maharawal Jaisal Dev founded it. The current ruler is Maharawal BRIJRAJ SINGH. Even though the city comes under Rajasthan State still they call this as Raj. Here the kings are not called Maharaja, but as Maharawal since they believe they are the descendents of Lord Krishna.

The first capital for this kingdom was Ludarva, which is around 17kms from the current capital. It is been said that Ludarva had been under frequent attacks. Previous there stood a Lord Krishna temple and that was demolished during the Mogul Invasion. Now this place hosts a Jain Temple. This temple is 150 yrs old, and it has some good carvings on sand stone.

The reason for it been called as Golden city is that the whole city is built on sand stone. The name Jaisalmer is because it was founded by Maharawal Jaisal and built over a mer (Hill) called the Trikuta Hills. The whole fort is a 5km stretch, in which the king and his queens lived. Brahmins, Kshatriyas and the relatives of the King where the only people lived inside the fort.

During an invasion or a war the ladies and children were taken to Ludarva by a secret underground path. After the construction of this fort to till date no one had been able to conquer this fort or the city.

Jaisalmer is been considered as one of the richest city, because it was one the major junction for the silk route. It is been told that even the poorest guy will have around 5kg of gold. The only costliest item during the olden times was water. The rule during olden times was if a person requires one bucket of water he had to do social work for 5hrs. They did not have the concept of buying water. Also this one-bucket of water was reused 4 times, first for bathing then for washing clothes then for cleaning the house and finally for toilet.

Jaisalmer is considered as the smallest city but as a kingdom it is the largest one. One end of the boundary to the other end it is 300Kms. The people in this region are mostly business man.

Long Weekend

This weekend is a long weekend. So planning for a weekend trip to Jaisalmer. Will update about the trip once I am back from it.

Temperature

The mercury rising has caused, hell a lot of problem for me. This month my working hours are 10Pm to 7Am Mon-Fri which means that I should be sleeping in the day. Sleeping during the day is not a new stuff for me, but it looks like a night mare due to the temperature rise. Since my home is on the second floor it is hot, that if I switch on the fan, I get only hot air. I don't know how am I going to spend another 25 days without sleep.

Yuva/Ayutha Ezuluthu

I was listening to the latest A.R Rehman's music for Yuva in Hindi and Ayutha Ezuluthu in Tamil, which is really good. It mesmerizes one, after hearing it for some time. I also liked the lyrics of all the songs. This shows how a person can utilize another. A.R's previous music was just a rubbish, all this credit goes to Maniratnam for using the right talents of a person.

Another Win

The final match between India and Pakistan was a good and healthy game. I would say it was a real example of team effort and just not a single individual. The young fast bowler should be appreciated for his tremendous bowling. I also strongly believe that Irfan Pathan should have been the man of the match for his outstanding performance.

Lets celebrate this win and also wish the team, best of luck for the test series.

Decline of an organization

1990 was the year of decline for, one of the biggest and oldest organization of India. The Indian National Congress, which created great leaders and stood at all difficult times. But running this party has become a difficult one for its current leaders. Financial crises has hard hit the Congress which is finding it difficult to meet the expenses for the general election. If congress loses this election then it will find it very difficult to come back.

Deadly Mistakes

I feel that Israel has opened its gate of death to the Hamas once again by killing its leader. For atleast sometime there was no much suicide bombers. After the yesterday's incident the peace process will be a question mark. It looks like people in that region always wanted some type blood shedding around them.

Hidden Genders in Nat GEO

Was watching the documentary about the Hidden genders on National Geographic Channel. It was about a group of people who converted themselves from Males to Females. In this documentary, they have narrated that Hinduism supports this type of transsexual or the third sex and it is a part of the religion because Lord Shiva is depicted as half Man and Half woman. The concept of Lord Shiva depicted as a Half man and Half woman has a different meaning from what I understand.

Will Nat Geo rectify this error.

Unbelievable

Here is a writing, that states that Bush and Blair are been nominated for Nobel Prize. Ridiculous!!!!

Weekend Update

This weekend I was just killing the time. I saw ab tak chappan 56 the hindi version of kaka kaka. This film is about the Mumbai Crime branch. A film by Ram Gopal Verma. Now-a-days I have sen most of his films. The film is Good. The whole of saturday went with Ind-Pak match on Ten Sports. Good win for India. Congrats to everyone.

Buses @ Hometown

During my last week vacation I had the chance to travel from my hometown to my sister's village which is around 60Kms. I had to take a bus from Trichy to Thuraiyur first and then from Thuraiyur to Sobanapuram (Sister's Village). I was shocked to see the buses that were plying between Trichy and Thuraiyur. The 48Km is covered in 1hr to 1.15mins. All these buses have two 14" TVs with a DVD player. Also the audio systems in these buses are equivalent to the surround systems that we have in multiplex theatres.

Since my father was with one of the bus company I came to know from him that they use to change these DVD players every year. In one bus I was able to see Boss speakers fitted. This is not only with the private bus players, but also with the government buses. This shows that India is really shining.

Sweet Home

After 2002 August this was the first long vacation I had which helped me to stay with my parents and sisters. I had going to my home town very frequently but it was only for Saturdays and Sundays. This time there were two functions, and had the chances to attend them. The first function was my sister's daughter naming ceremony and the second was my new home warming ceremony. Being at home was like a paradise. Now I was able to understand the meaning of Sweet Home.

Long Leave

I have given some leave to this writing because, I am travelling a lot. Next week there will be an update about my travel.

Photography

My costliest hobby is photography. Last year I was gifted by a Nikon F75 SLR by my sister. Previous to that I was using a Nikon FM10 which only lasted for 4 months with me from the date of purchase, then I gave that back once I got this new one. Till date I should have taken about 15 to 20 rolls of photos. One can imagine for the past 8 months I have used so much rolls. For the past 2 months I had taken about 4 rolls of photos, which I washed a day back to find everything is spoiled. The total photos of 141 are wasted. I had a discussion with one of my like minded friend only to find that the shop in which I gave to develop these rolls have spoilt it by using a very cheap paper. I was not able to sleep after seeing those photos.

A simple advise to readers, when developing photos try to use a standard paper like the Kodak gold if using the Kodak film.

Virumandi

Had the chance to watch the movie Virumandi by Kamalahasan this weekend. The theme of the movie is to find whether we need the capital punishment. The hero gets the capital punishment because he had raped and murdered the heroine. The movie ends as he has done a higher appeal to remove the capital punishment.

The film and the way the actors have acted are really good. Each one had tried to outset the others. At the starting they should have put an attention saying that people having heart problems and kids do not see this film. Since the violence is very high to compared in other films.

During my visit to Amristar, I had to visit a museum in which all paintings shown where of cutting people into two half’s. I was telling my Punjabi friends that this type of display should be avoided. But this film was similar to that. They had shown the butchering of human being, which Kamal could have avoided.

Photos

Check my first set of Photos, to Shimla. More to come keep watching.

Salute

During this weekend trip we were discussing about how life has changed. Everyone had read about the Golden Temple, the Wagah border, but no one even had a lightest idea that we will be visiting these places so quickly. It is a salute to the IT world and CSC that gave us this job in Delhi.

Weekend Trip

This weekend I headed to The city of Golden Temple Amristar and to the border town Wagah. I planned it for a day's trip as usual with my roommates. Like three to Tango we were three to Amristar. We had booked the tickets for the Golden Temple Mail from Mumbai-Amristar via Delhi. The train was supposed to start at 1735 and as usual it started at 2000hrs IST. The arrival time to Amristar was 0630 and it was 15mins early. Although we had booked the tickets our compartment was like unreserved. We had to fight to get our berths with the fellow passengers.

Our plan was to go to the Golden Temple first, then Jallianwalla bagh followed by the two temples around. My plan was to travel by local transports, like bus or auto, but my friends insisted that we should take a cab so that we can cover all the places without any hassles. As per their suggestion we had taken a cab for Rs. 500/- for the whole day to tour around the city, take us to Wagah and drop us back @ the station.

The Driver was insisting us to take a room and take some rest, but we were to adamant to take his words and told him to take us directly to the Golden Temple. I would tell this is more beautiful than Taj Mahal. The reflection of the temple on the water and the gleaming against the sun makes it a nectar to the eyes. The meaning of Amristar is Pool of Nectar. The temple is situated in the middle of the pond. Most of the people take a dip before entering the Hari Mandir. The whole of the complex is built of white Marble. The Harimandir is copper plated and the doom is a gold plated one.

This temple has been under many treats from the old age till 1984 during when the military entered into it to remove the Sikh extremists. After the 1984 military action the temple had been repaired and that is what we see now. This complex also has a museum in which a person can witness lots of paintings about how Sikh people were tortured by the Moghuls and how brave these people were. But once you see the paintings a normal person cannot eat or have sleep.

Then we headed to Jallianwalabagh where the 1919 Masacar by General Dier took place. It is been told that general had given only 5secs for the 20000 people to vacate through a single pathway where only 2 can move around and also that path was closed by the army personal. There had been 150 army men who had shot 160 rounds of bullet into the human flesh. In this park there is a Amar jyothi a place of honor and all the bullet maks on the wall are framed. Now this place looks like a heaven. There is also a museum inside the park, and there is a writing and painting of a woman who has narrated how the scene was with her dead husband in that ground the whole night.

Then we headed to the Durgania temple which looks like a replica of the Golden temple with very little care and then to the Matta temple. This temple is a replica of the Vaishnova devi situated in Jammu. We had finished all this by 1130hrs, so our driver told he will take to a place called Ram bargh if we pay him another Rs 100. He explained us that place is the only place where Lavakush has temple in India, also our driver told us that is a bi Sarovar(lake) which really beautifull. Once we reached there we found that the lake was dried up they were cleaning it. So we headed to Attari the border town. From Attari it is only 4kms the great Wagah Border. During our travel we were able to see one for Dlhi-Lahore Bus. It was the Pakistani bus, which was escorted by a military pilot and followed by two police jeeps till the immigration entrance. I think the bus normally travels at high speed with a red siren on the top.

We reached Wagah by 1345hrs and so we decided to wait till 1615hrs outside. We had our lunch in one of the Daba's and then waited till 1615hrs. Once the gate was opened we were escorted to the main area by a military person and then we were shown where to sit. There is no word to descibe the emotions of hunders of Indians and the Pakistanis on the other side. Both the arena's were filled by people. It is estimated that everyday there is around 5000 people gather to watch the handshake and the parade done by the BSF and the Indus Rangers on both side.

Explaining that will not be good, because it cannot be explained by words. One has too see it on his own. For me it was like an life time achivement. After watching that we returned to the station by 1900hrs and was waiting for the train.

Was back home around 0900hrs, took some rest and was back to work for the Sunday afternoon session.

Work

This is the 4th company within a short span of 7yrs, but if we look at our older generation everyone have been working with the same company for more than 30yrs. For the past three months I have been checking some logs as part as my production support, and I started cribbing to my manager that 7yrs of experince is been used to view logs which an entry level person can do it. Was there these types of cribbing by the older generation people who had been doing the same job for 30yrs+.

Is this the trend with the current generation or does the environment enforces this on them??

The Great Indian Railway

Yesterday afternoon I was watching a documentary on The Indian Railways. Which is considered as one of the largest employer with 1.6 million employees. The documentary was more about the steam locomotives and the phasing out of thos locomotives. The way it was narrated made me that I was part of that system. I was able to understand the feeling of the people who had been tightly tied with these steam locomotives. The expression on their looked like they were crying when these locomotives were phased out.

The documentary also covered the Mumbai(Bombay) suburbs train. It took me back to the time when I was commuting through those trains, the way I used to get into them, and the people around me. Now everything has become a dream.

It is true that the Indian railways is the heart line of India with the largest network.

Trip to Shimla...Continuation

On Saturday we woke up around 0800 and started getting ready to move around. We vacated the room around 0900hrs and booked a cab to take us to Kufri. It is a 19km travel from Shimla. The charge by bus was 160 per person. So we decided that we would take a cab, which cost us Rs. 400/- to take us there and drop back in the railway station. On the way to Kurfi, a person will be amazed to see that the car travels in between the snow. Near Kufri we were not able to see the brown sand, it was completely white filled with snow. Three days back there was heavy snowfall according to the driver.

In Kufri the mode of travel is either you walk around or can take a horse back. Due to lack of time we decided to take the horse back. There are 3 points around. One for Rs. 160/-, the second one for Rs. 250/- and the third for Rs. 380/- (no bargains in this). We selected the second one. The ride on the horse was like an adventure, because the road is so small that only one can walk through, because on both the sides there were heavy snow and if the horse walks on that, the whole of its leg will be immersed into that. Also since the road was so slippery, whenever the horse moved forward it use to stumble, but not one horse you can find it has fallen. While traveling, you find most of the horses eating the snow on it way. When we enquired about this, we found that it is to reduce the heat generated during its climbing.

Once we reached the point, it was a flat area filled with at least 2 to 3 ft of snow. We were roaming on the snow and playing around for 2 hrs. I tried snow skiing and found how tiresome it is and also how unfit I am for any of these sports. I booked the skiing shoes for 20mins and by 10mins it self I was totally exhausted.

After 2hrs we returned back and went to a zoo by the name Nature Park and spent around 1hr. We started of to the station to catch our train by 1700hrs. Our train was scheduled for 1805hrs. So had some food, because the last time we had food was at 1100hrs in the morning. The train started 1805hrs exactly this time, and the return journey was a boring one, since it was already dark and nothing to see around. Also there was no shops opened on the return journey. We reached Kalka by 2310hrs and saw our train to Delhi standing.

Since we had the tickets booked we thought we have to just got to the compartment S3 and start sleeping. As a precaution I checked the chart, and found that our seat #’s were also given to others. Then we cross checked with the person in that seat to only find that our ticket was booked for March 7th 2004. To our dismay all three of us were wiped out and had only Rs 400 as backup. We had to run back to the counter to see if we can cancel the ticket and get new ones. But the person in the ticket counter told it is not possible to cancel since it is already 2330hrs. Then we digged everywhere and was able to fine Rs. 471/- which was the ticket cost. By that time a police guy came to the counter and asked us if we pay him Rs 100/- per head he would allow us to travel in the military coach. Immediately one guy agreed and just followed the policeman. Since no other option we also followed the guy and took our berths. Once the train started moving we paid the cash to the policeman. There were six of us like that. After 30mins the TT and policeman came and showed all six of us and told these are my tickets, so you need not check them. After hearing that only my life came back.

Then the next question in my mind was how are we going to come out of the station the next day morning. But once we reached and there was no one to ask us either a platform ticket or a travel ticket. So the night travel costed us only Rs. 300/- compared to Rs. 471/-
We took an auto and reached home by 0830hrs happily.

Do & Don’t
It is good that all tickets and booking are done properly and also crosschecked before the journey. Do not follow the porter’s direction. During winter always get heavy woolen clothes and during summer get light woolen clothes.

Trip to Shimla...Continuation

After traveling for 3hrs we were able to see snow filled peaks, which I have already seen in Nanital. On the 4th hr of our travel I was able to see small patches of white foams, which was in the urge of melting due to high sunlight. It was so beautiful that there are no words to describe it. I was not able to believe my eyes. Once we crossed Solan we were able to see snow everywhere, ranging from 1inch to 1ft. Around 1700hrs we got off the train and walked towards the Mall Road. Most of the hill stations in N. India are built around the Mall Road. Mall Road is a highly dense shopping road. Here you get everything from gold to charcoal. Most of the hotels and restaurants are also around this Mall Road. My plan for spending that night was to stay in either YWCA or YMCA. After a short walk we were able to find YWCA, but it was closed on Fridays. So we enquired with the receptionist to know where is YMCA, the person was kind enough to give the correct address.

Due to heavy snowfall four days back, on both sides of the road there was around 2 to 3 ft of snow dumped. On the road there was a 5cm of ice formation, which was slippery. If a person does not walk carefully it is sure that he will be skating on the road. In YMCA we were able to get a bath attached double bed room for Rs. 400/-, because it was off-season. The places that one should see in Shimla are, The Rink, The Gaiety theatre and the Church, which are the most attracted places apart from the Raj Bhavan, the Summer hill resort and temples of Hanuman, Shiva and Nanda Devi.

The Rink is very famous because that is on the worlds largest and Natural Ice skating rink. The Gaiety theatre is famous for its interiors and the Church for the glass works. The first thing that enquired was about the Church since it was below the place I took the room and found that is opened only on Sundays for the weekly mass. Then I enquired about the Rink and found that was closed because of renovation work. Then finally I enquired about the theatre to only find that was also under renovation. So I had to spend the evening strolling around the Mall road and had dinner and came to room around 2130hrs. After that I was not able to roam because it was too cold. Once in room I turned on the TV and started watch the movie Ice Age in Star Movies. My friends was teasing me that I have come all the way to Shimla to just watch this movie. But still I watched and only slept.

The next day's to come...keep watching

Trip to Shimla

This weekend my travel destination was Shimla. I had chosen this place to enjoy the snow. This trip was planned during the Indian Republic holidays, due to unavoidable circumstances I had to postpone the trip. Since my weekend was Friday & Saturday I started my trip on Friday morning and returned on Sunday morning so that I can return to work on Sunday. The trip went well as planned with little hiccups, which is unavoidable. I was able to convince two of my roommates to accompany me.

The complete trip was planned to travel by train. We had taken the Himalayan Queen from New Delhi to Kalka. The 307kms was traveled in 5hrs and 20mins. Then we took the connecting Himalayan Queen from Kalka to Shimla. It is a toy train and the 96kms was covered in 6hrs. It was traveling at the speed of 20k/p. After the first hour of journey itself we got bored, because the train was too slow. During our return we had taken the Shimla Kalka express, which is also a toy train. From Kalka to New Delhi we took the Kalka Howrah Express.

Our train was scheduled 0600 from New Delhi. Form our house it takes approximately 45mins by auto, we had booked a cab at around 0430, having in mind if the cab comes around 0500 then we should be safe enough reaching the station. To our dismay the cab did not arrive and by 0510 we had to take an auto. We told the driver with our known Hindi that we should reach the station at least by 0550 so that we can be safe. After getting settled and crossing around 2kms we came to know that the auto’s speed limit is only and 40km/p. Hence we reached the station exactly by 0600 and had to run the platform #2 to get our train. Since IST means Indian Stretchable time, the train did not take off, and we managed to get seated. On the way to Kalka, we had an encounter with an Ali (Half woman Half man). We were 3 and I was sitting near the window, one friend in the middle and other on the Aisle. The Ali came into our compartment and starting collecting money from everyone around. We were quiet even after she/he came and asked to give some money. We were quiet for around 10-20mins and after that she/he leaned towards my friend who was in the middle and murmured some words. Immediately that guy took out his purse took a Rs. 10 note and gave it to her/him. We did not understand and after she/he moved away we asked that guy what did she/he tell and why did he pay that amount. The word she/he murmured was “if you itself give me money, whatever money you give I will accept it. Otherwise I will wipe out every single penny you have.” After hearing this we were not able to sustain our laughter. After that till the time we reached Shimla everything was fine.

The rest to come…

Weekends

Moving from technical support to production support has changed the complete life cycle. The concept of weekends (Saturday & Sunday) has gone. For the past three months my weekends have either been Friday & Saturday or Sunday and Monday. I have most of my co-workers having their weekends as Monday & Tuesday. Due to this change there has been a lot of sacrifice by others for making the weekend a pleasant one.

Triumph

I was able to reach century after four months. My blog has reached the century count today. Even though it has taken a long time I think this is a success for me.

Thank you all for having patience to read through my scribbles.

Request By America

Till date it was India asking US not to reduce the H1B visas for Indian professionals. Now the stance has changed and US has asked to open the market for the Americans to work in India. Read on...

Delhi Drivers

I had been to delhi yesterday. As usual there was a heavy traffic jam on my way. I was travelling by an auto and if we see outside you will find most of the two wheelers driving over the pavement. The pavement is a 2ft high and they just carry the vehicle place it over the pavement and then proceed their journey. Is that they don't have time to wait for the traffic to get cleared or they don't want to respect the people who are walking in the pavement. These people also should understand it is dangerous to them and the others on the pavement.

Ek Hasina thi

After a long time I saw a good film. There was no songs in that, it was a fast moving thriller. It from the Varma factory. Urmila and Saif Ali khan had shown their talents in this film. The story is about how an innocent person turns into a terror. The director has made the viewers to sit and watch the film till the end. A good try.

India & Mars

Today in TOI there is an article about India's vision over Mars by Our President. Are we in the path to take a mission to Mars. Even though we say that our economic has raised, still we have millions of people in the slums. I think Mission to Mars or Moon should kept aside for some time and bring our people out of the slums. Once we are able to make this possible then the dream of Mission to Mars or Moon can be easily achieved.

Great Innovation

TOI (Times of India) has done a great job by publishing their daily on the web as epaper. The epaper is the same as that you get delivered at home.

Weekend Travel

After a long time this weekend I had been to the "The Land of Mahabarat". It was really good to be there where the Song of the Lord was recited by Great Lord Krishna to his disciple and world famous Archer Arjuna. Kurukshetra lies on the bank of Saraswati. It is been told it is one of the Holy cities for the Hindus and also there are around 360 Thirtas in and around the city. The Brahmasarovar is considered the holiest lake. During the eclipse period there is a huge crowd to take a dip in the holy waters. It has a capacity of 50,000 people to dip at a time. The Banyan Tree in Kurukshetra is considered as the place where the holy Bhagavat Gita was recited. Kurukshetra is a must see place for everyone.

Delhi Climate

The Climate of Delhi is a mistry. Two days back the minimum temperature was 3.7 deg Centigrade and max was around 11 deg. Centigrade. But today the temperature is around 20 deg Centigrade. People who are born and brought up say this is not how Delhi use to be.

ICICI Bank

In our company there is a database where employees can put any type of gossip or views about anything which does not hurt others. Today there was a long mail tralier about ICICI Bank. Since I was free today had the chance to go through the complete trailer and to my suprise no one has given a good comment about ICICI Bank. A bank which considers itself as one of the leading banks in the country does not know about what is customer satisfaction or service to customers.

Is this because they have a huge customer base????

Air Fare

There is a good news for people working out of their home towns. The flight charge has gone done by Rs 1000, which should be affordable by the salaried people. This is a good move done by Finance Ministry. Read On...

Sydney Test

The following statistics is really good to read about India and Australia. Read On...

Cricket

I think this year is good for Sachin. He has started the year with a long innings. This shows that Sachin is a Master.

The way Sachin and Laxman playing it looks there is a competetion between these two guys. Lets wait for the result.

After a long time Australia has found a real oponent. Till now they use to dominate the game, but this time it is a real fight for them. Steve's last series will be a nightmare for him whole of his life.

New Year

Another year started and when we see back what have we achived!!!???? Nothing comes the answer!!! How far life is going to go like this ? Is there no solution for this !!