Suresh C

How to close Paytm FASTag

noreply@blogger.com (Suresh) — Tue, 13 Feb 2024 10:39:00 +0000

Recently I closed Paytm FASTag account. It is very simple and sharing the steps here.

1. Open Paytm app in your mobile.

2. Click on your profile image (top left corner)

3. Click on "Help & Support".

4. In the next screen, select Fastag.

5. In the next screen, click on "Need help with non order related queries? Chat with us".

6. Now a chat window opens up. In this screen select "Queries related to updating FASTag Profile".

7. In the next option, select "I want to close my FASTag".

After this follow the directions asked by the chat such as choosing your vehicle number and other details. Once you complete the steps, it will show that the closure is successful.

After the successful message, you can remove your tag from your vehicle and destroy. Also, you can apply for a new FASTag from any other provider. Hope this information helps.

Europe Tour with Kesari - Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Suresh) — Sun, 24 Sep 2023 08:37:00 +0000

In the previous post (click here to see the review), I shared my review about Kesari Tours and Europe trip. In this post, I'll share the pictures in the order of the visit.

London, United Kingdom

London street

Double-decker bus

London St Pancras International Railway Station - from this station we took Eurostar train to Paris. Just like airport, we need to scan the luggages and go through immigration check.

London Waterloo Station, the busiest railway station in UK.

Tower bridge, a bascule and suspension bridge. It crosses the River Thames close to the Tower of London. It is one of the major landmarks in London and sometimes confused with London Bridge.

221B Baker Street is the London address of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes.

Sherlock Holmes statue

Big Ben, a nickname for the Great Bell of the Great Clock of Westminster, at the north end of the Palace of Westminster. The tower was designed by Augustus Pugin in a neo-Gothic style.

Buckingham Palace, a royal residence in London and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. There are 775 rooms, including 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices, 78 bathrooms, 52 principal bedrooms and 19 state rooms. It also has a post office, cinema, swimming pool, doctor's surgery, and jeweller's workshop.

Changing the Guard, a cermony in the Buckingham Palace where detachment of the Old Guard forms up in the Palace forecourt and is inspected. Later, the St James’s Palace detachment enters the forecourt of Buckingham Palace through the South Centre gate and takes up position beside the Buckingham Palace detachment on the South side of the forecourt.

The London Eye, or the Millennium Wheel, is a cantilevered observation wheel on the South Bank of the River Thames in London. It is Europe's tallest cantilevered observation wheel and the most popular paid tourist attraction in the United Kingdom.

There are 32 sealed and air-conditioned ovoidal passenger capsules (like the one shown below). Each capsule holds up to 25 people who are free to walk around inside the capsule, though seating is provided. The wheel rotates at about 0.9 km/h or 0.6 mph so that one revolution takes about 30 minutes. It does not usually stop to take on passengers; the rotation rate is slow enough to allow passengers to walk on and off the moving capsules at ground level.

From an Eye capsule, we get to see panoramic view of London city including prominent structures such as Palace of Westminster, Big Ben, Waterloo railway station, Thames River and many more.

Paris, France

London to Paris in high-speed Eurostar train which travels upto the speed of 300km/hr.

The Arc de Triomphe - to honor those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

Tomb of Napoleon I

The Eiffel Tower, a wrought-iron lattice tower. Constructed from 1887, it is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower.

View from Eiffel Tower. The tower has three levels for visitors. We visited the 3rd level and got a panaromic view of Paris.

River Seine cruise where one gets to see iconic Paris landmarks.

Night view of The Eiffel Tower - illumination and sparkle light show

Brussels, Belgium

Brussels streets

The Grand-Place or "Grand Square" is the central square of Brussels. It is surrounded by opulent Baroque guildhalls of the former Guilds of Brussels and two larger edifices; the city's Flamboyant Town Hall, and the neo-Gothic King's House or Bread House building.

Manneken Pis, a landmark 55.5 cm (21.9 in) bronze fountain sculpture in central Brussels, depicting a puer mingens; a naked little boy urinating into the fountain's basin.

The Atomium, a landmark modernist building in Brussels, originally constructed as the centerpiece of the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. The Atomium stands 102 meters (335 ft) tall, making it one of the tallest structures in Belgium.

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Amsterdam city - historic canals, dedicated cycle paths, trams and buildings.

Madurodam is a miniature park and tourist attraction in The Hague in the Netherlands. It is home to a range of 1:25 scale model replicas of famous Dutch landmarks, historical cities and large developments. It is named after George Maduro, a Dutch law student from Curaçao who fought the Nazi occupation forces. A must see place where entire city is created with houses, parks, office buildings, airport, train stations, power plant, shipping yard and many more.

Germany

Cologne Cathedral - the tallest twin-spired church in the world, the second tallest church in Europe. It is Germany's one of the most visited landmarks, attracting an average of 20,000 people a day

The black forest cuckoo factory in Titisee, which embodies native European bird with pendulum regulated clocks often known as cuckoo clocks

Houses in a typical Cuckoo clock shape

Switzerland

The Rhine falls is a waterfall located on the High Rhine in Switzerland. There are boat tours to the Rhine Falls' rock.

The Kapellbrücke or Chapel Bridge is a covered wooden footbridge spanning the river Reuss diagonally in the city of Lucerne.

Beautiful Switzerland

At Engelberg - all set to start climbing Titlis mountain in a cable car.

First cable car takes us to the second stage.

To reach the next stage, we need to take rotating cable car 'Titlis Rotair'.

Glacier Cave

The Titlis Cliff Walk is a pedestrian bridge along the cliff of Mount Titlis in the Swiss Alps. Built at around 3,000 m (9,800 ft) above sea level, it is believed to be the highest-elevation suspension bridge in Europe.

Ice Flyer ride. The experience was awesome.

The Lion Monument or the Lion of Lucerne, is a rock relief in Lucerne, Switzerland and it commemorates the Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution

Swiss - Some more beautiful landscapes

Liechtenstein - 6th smallest nation in the world

Drive through capital city Vaduz through this tram

Beautiful city Vaduz

Austria

The Alps mountain range in Austria offers stunning landscapes and picturesque countryside views.

Swarovski Crystal World Museum in Wattens, Austria is an experience attraction created by André Heller for the crystal glass manufacturer Swarovski, consisting of a park, art museum, retail area, and restaurant. It's a different world inside!!! Amazing display of crystal arts.

Old Town of Innsbruck

Katzung House, Innsbruck - The outstanding feature of this 15th century Late Gothic townhouse is its oriel windows.

Golden Roof is a landmark structure located in the Old Town of Innsbruck. Completed in 1500, the roof was decorated with 2,657 fire-gilded copper tiles.

Innsbruck Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral of St. James is an 18th century Baroque cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Innsbruck in the city of Innsbruck, dedicated to the apostle Saint James, son of Zebedee.

Venice, Italy

Going to Venice island in a boat.

This prominent, bronze monument was created in 1887 to honor the Kingdom of Italy's first king.

Piazza San Marco or St Mark's Square is the principal public square of Venice, Italy. One can see St Mark's Basilica, St Mark's Campanile - the bell tower, St Mark's Clocktower and buildings with shops and restaurants.

The Bridge of Sighs is a bridge made of white limestone, has windows with stone bars, passes over the Rio di Palazzo, and connects the New Prison (Prigioni Nuove) to the interrogation rooms in the Doge's Palace.

Venice gondola ride through narrow canals of Venice.

The Church of San Zaccaria is a 15th-century former monastic church in central Venice.

Pisa, Italy

The Leaning Tower of Pisa, known for its nearly four-degree lean, the result of an unstable foundation.

The Pisa Baptistery of St. John.

Piazza del Duomo or The Piazza dei Miracoli recognized as an important center of European medieval art and one of the finest architectural complexes in the world.

Rome, Italy

Ruins of Ancient Rome

The place where Julius Caesar was killed.

Monuments of Rome

Today's Rome city

Ancient structure and today's building co-exist!

The Trevi Fountain, the largest Baroque fountain in the city and one of the most famous fountains in the world.

The magnificent Colosseum, an elliptical amphitheater in the center of the city of Rome is still the largest standing amphitheater in the world, despite its age. Despite ruined by earthquakes and stone robbers, the Colosseum is still a renowned symbol of Imperial Rome and was listed as one of the New 7 Wonders of the World.

Vatican City, the smallest country in the world and also home to the Pope.

Border of Rome and Vatican City.

Inside Vatican City.

The Pontifical Swiss Guard, an armed force and honor guard unit maintained by the Holy See that protects the Pope and the Apostolic Palace within the territory of the Vatican City.

Europe Tour with Kesari

noreply@blogger.com (Suresh) — Sun, 24 Sep 2023 08:34:00 +0000

The Europe trip was always in our minds as a wishlist but it took more than 10 years to execute. When the right time arrived, my wife and I started planning for the same. There were many questions like should we go on our own or through a tour operator, should it be a customized trip or a group tour etc. We spent a lot of time researching for whatever information available so that we can make a decision. Finally we decided to go on a group tour with Kesari Tours. In this post, I’ll share the information on what to expect in a group tour and how was our experience with Kesari and of course on the places we visited. As far as places are concerned, I’ll try to share more pictures with less description. I hope this will provide enough information for anyone who is looking for a similar tour.

The first thing we wanted to decide was - whether to go on our own or through a tour operator. If we have to go on our own, we have to do a lot of planning - for places, tickets, commute, hotels, restaurants etc. Since we have never been to Europe, everything was new and to add to it - the languages are different. Considering these aspects, we decided to go with a tour operator.

The next decision was - which tour operator. We considered Kesari Tours, SOTC, and a few more. We went through a lot of reviews available on various sites. Of course there were both positive and negative reviews for each of these operators. Out of these, Kesari had more positive feedback. To add to it, my cousin and his wife had gone to Europe through Kesari. They provided detailed and valuable information about Kesari tours and their experience. These helped us in taking a decision to go with Kesari Tours.

Like any other operator, Kesari has a variety of tours - varies on places covered and duration. You need to pick the one suits best. Every tour is published on their website with a complete itinerary. I strongly suggest going through the itinerary to get the feeling of how tight/ free the tour will be. This is an important factor before you decide to choose a tour. I’ll explain further below why this is important. We chose a 12-days package which is called “P7 - Images of Europe economy”. This package covers western parts of Europe.

Kesari takes care of everything. We only need to visit their office a few times and of course visit the visa office twice (one for UK visa and the second time for Schengen visa). Kesari takes care of flight booking, visa appointment, local transport in Europe, monuments tickets, local guide (wherever required), hotels booking, restaurant booking for lunch and dinner, sticking to the time (itinerary) and of course most importantly a tour manager who will be with us all the time.

What to expect

Itinerary - 12 days for Europe means it covers some major places across multiple countries (9-10 countries in our case). As I mentioned before, we went through the itinerary in detail. We also calculated driving distance between cities to understand the amount of road travel. This helped us a lot to get the expectation clear on travel. The tour manager sticks to the itinerary.

This group tour is not for you:

If you are looking for a relaxed tour
If you are looking for a flexible itinerary
If you can’t do a lot of walking (on an average we did 11,500 steps daily with 18,500 steps the highest in Rome)

Timings - Kesari follows what they call the 6-7-8 pattern. Get up at 6 am, breakfast at 7 and then start your day at 8. Normally, we’ll be back to Hotel by 7ish and then have dinner at 8 pm. We do get sufficient time for sleep and that’s very important. We made sure that we get at least 7 hours of sleep, so that we’ll be fresh for next day sight-seeing.

Places - All the places were covered as per itinerary. In a few places, we felt the time given was not sufficient. In other places such as the Leaning tower of Pisa, Colosseum etc we had enough time. Of course, this “enough” time is very subjective. What I consider as enough may not be enough for someone else. In a group tour, this factor needs to be considered. In fact, when we went for a tour in Sikkim, it was a customized tour package exclusively made for us. We had liberty to stay in a particular place for as much time as we wanted. We will not have this luxury in the group tour. Also, we went to Europe in September. It turns out, the crowd in Sep was less compared to months like April, May and June. This also matters. The more crowd, the longer the queue in places like Eiffel Tower etc.

Extra Places - The tour manager provided an option to visit additional places (which were not there in itinerary) with whatever actual cost. We chose the Seine river cruise in Paris, Paris by night and Vatican city.

Shopping - Time was given for shopping in specific places. For instance, we got time in a Cuckoo factory in Germany, Lucerne (Switzerland), Swarovski crystal world in Austria, Venice (Italy), and Rome (Italy). In other places like Pisa and Paris, we had very limited time. Our first preference was sight-seeing and then shopping. So we planned our time accordingly.

Food - We got Indian food for lunch and dinner, so there is no problem here (except that we got maida made roti which was not good to eat continuously for 12 days). However, we get enough to fill up our stomach. As for breakfast, we got English breakfast in London and Continental breakfast in other places which primarily includes bread, croissant, cereals, fruits and coffee. For non-vegetarians, there are a few more options. Only in Switzerland, we got South Indian breakfast because the hotel where we stayed had an Indian restaurant. We also carried MTR ready to eat dishes such as Upma, Avalakki uppittu, Shavige bath, Bisibele bath which were very handy for us when we got bored of eating continental breakfast.

Commute - A bus was arranged to travel in Europe. Only from London to Paris we traveled by Eurostar train and the rest was by bus. The bus driver is called Captain and he/she will help in loading/unloading the luggage from the bus. The roads are very good so you don’t feel tired during road travel. The seats will be allotted on a first come first serve basis, so one needs to sit in the allotted seat only.

Hotels - The hotels booked were good. Every hotel had lifts so as long as you have wheeled luggages you can carry your luggage without much problem. There are no helpers in hotels, so we need to carry our luggages from the bus to the rooms and vice-versa.

Washrooms - The tour manager stopped the bus for loo breaks. He tried to stop wherever we could use toilets for free. In only a few places, we had to pay 1 Euro per head to use the toilet.

Drinking water - We can use hotel tap water for drinking. So we don’t need to worry about drinking water. We just need to carry bottles and fill up wherever possible.

Group - It’s a group tour. In our case, we had 18 families (approx 36 people). As the tour progressed, we got to know each other and we also had some fun activities in the bus.

Tour Manager - An important factor in the trip is the tour manager. He’ll be our guide and caretaker for the entire tour. Luckily we got Mr. Raj Salvi as our tour manager. He’s one of the most experienced people in this field and he managed very well. He talked about the places we are visiting, it’s historical importance, do’s and don’ts during the trip, extra caution to be taken care especially in France and Italy (to be careful from pickpockets), making sure that trip is happening on time, coordinating with hotels and restaurants to ensure food is ready by the time we reach the place, coordinating with bus driver for timely pickup and drop, and a lot more. This is the person who ensures that we have a smooth travel experience.

Complimentary Items - Kesari provides complimentary items for each traveler such as Universal Adaptor, Shoulder bag, passport pouch, cap, stroller, wet issue paper, electric kettle, poncho and snacks hamper. Only adapter and poncho are per family and the rest is for each person. The snacks hamper includes a variety of snacks (sweets, salty and spicy). These snacks come handy when we are traveling from one country to another, or whenever we feel hungry.

Overall we had a wonderful experience with Kesari tours and we thoroughly enjoyed this trip. We cherish this experience for a long time, for sure. We express our sincere thanks to the team Kesari (specifically Ms Steffi from Sales team, Mr Vinod from Visa team and Ms Divya from Airline booking team), and Mr. Raj for his excellent guidance and help during entire trip. Do we prefer Kesari for any future tour? Yes, if we have to go for a group tour!

Photos: To keep this post short, I've shared the pictures in a separate post. Please click here for the pictures.

ದೇಹ ಮತ್ತು ಜೀವ

noreply@blogger.com (Suresh) — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 08:47:00 +0000

ದೇಹ ಮತ್ತು ಜೀವ ಚಿಂತನೆಯ ಒಂದು ಲಘು ಕೃತಿ

Immune by Philipp Dettmer - A Book Review

noreply@blogger.com (Suresh) — Sat, 22 Jul 2023 16:30:00 +0000

I was scrolling through my Twitter timeline and a person had tweeted about a book titled "Immune". What caught my attention was this book is authored by the same person who is the creator of "Kurzgesagt - In a Nutshell" YouTube channel. Having subscribed to this channel, I know how good this creator/ team is. In a series of videos, he explains complicated concepts in a simple and effective way with the help of amazing animations. I checked about this book in Amazon, and I got to know that this book is about Immune system - what exactly the Immune system is, how immunity works in the body and what it takes to develop good immune system.

After Covid hit the world, this topic is being discussed in various forums and in family/ friends' circle. As with any other topic, people have varied understanding of Immunity. This was a topic of interest but on top of that I knew that this author would have explained as simple as possible with graphics. A cursory look at this book's review confirmed that. I had two options to buy - a Kindle format and a printed book. Considering the fact that this book has a lot of graphics, I chose the printed format. I did not want to buy a Kindle version as I was not sure how these graphics would render in Kindle.

This book doesn't disappoint the readers. I'm not a biology student, yet I was able to understand the concepts. While explaining the complex topics, the author brings analogy with real-life situations/ scenarios so that the non-biology readers can understand these medical topics. He starts with what exactly the immune system is, and then he explains about our cells, the two-level defense mechanism which exists in human body and how these mechanism works when the body is attacked/ infected by a virus. Towards the end he has covered separate chapters for topics like autoimmune disease, how to boost your immune system, the connection between stress and the immune system, cancer and the immune system, and the Coronavirus Pandemic.

He has used colorful graphics to help readers visualize the concepts. Even though the subject is a medical topic, I never got bored of reading this book. The author has connected the chapters through an art of story-telling. As a reader, I was curious to read next chapter to understand what's happening inside our body! I completed the book pretty quickly.

Do I recommend this book? Yes! If you are a science student, grab this book without a second thought. If you are not a science student yet want to understand about your Immune system, do read this book, preferably in Printed format.

A day with an Astronomer at IIA

noreply@blogger.com (Suresh) — Sun, 25 Jun 2023 09:36:00 +0000

This post is written by my son Supreet. In his own words...

The IIA (Indian Institute of Astrophysics) had organized a program called “A day with an astronomer” at Bengaluru for students studying in class 9 and 10. The student will be paired with an astronomer at IIA and will be shadowing the scientist throughout the day. The students can observe what the scientist is doing, ask questions, have a discussion with them etc. In this post I’ll share my experience of this program and what I learnt.

My father is a member and a volunteer at Bangalore Astronomical Society (BAS). He got to know about this program through BAS group (Thanks to Mr. Keerthi). He asked me if I was interested in it and I said I was. He then sent an email to confirm the participation. After a week or so my father received a message saying that I was chosen for the program. Only 9th and 10th class students got this opportunity and I was one of them. They gave the date, address and the scientist’s name. The name of the scientist assigned to me was Mr. Manjunath.

The timings were 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and we reached the IIA campus at 9:15 a.m. Upon reaching the campus the security person asked me to enter my name in the visitor’s book. This was the first time in my life that I entered my name in a visitor’s book. We then called the scientist to check if he had come. We were 15 min early and the scientist said it would take him 10 more minutes to come. My father and I waited, while I was looking at the small pond inside the campus. After 10 minutes the scientist came and introduced himself to me and my father.

After a short conversation with my dad, he said bye and went away and I was alone with the scientist. At first, Manjunath Sir showed me a telescope model on the campus. It was a ground telescope and its name was Vainu Bappu Telescope (VBT) and it was 2.34 in diameter. It is situated in the Kavalur in Javadi hills of Tamilnadu. Then Manjunath Sir showed me another telescope model. It was Ultra Violet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) and it was a space telescope.

Then Manjunath Sir took me to a building where he is working. He took me to his desk and I sat there beside him. It was a small room with about 16 to 22 desks. His desk was at the beginning and very near to the door. We sat and after 2 min, he asked me which class I was in and which school I studied in. I said that I was in class 9 and my school is Insight Academy. He explained about his work. He said that he was doing Instrumentation, a part of Astrophysics. There are three parts in Astrophysics. The first one was Experimental. It requires the skill of Programming and basically includes observations. The second one was Theoretical which required skill in math and physics. The third one was Instrumentation which required skill in engineering.

Instrumentation was all about instruments that are used in building robotic arms and others. The work he had to do was build robotic arms to place fibers on the focal plane. He also studied Exoplanets. He then explained to me about the types of telescopes and its uses. It was 11:45 a.m.when he decided to take a break and have coffee or tea. Then he realized that it was 11:45 and said that the cafeteria opened only till 11:30a.m. He then opened a file in his laptop and showed a few images of the spectrum. Then I asked him a few questions and he answered all my questions. When I told him that I have a few questions about the universe, he asked me to meet another gentleman who is an expert in Cosmology.

His name is Ravi Sir and I went near his desk and asked him if he could explain to me about Cosmology. He said yes and asked me to sit on a chair beside him. He asked me if I had a book and I said yes and gave it to him. He started explaining about cosmology and the first thing he asked me was “what is cosmology”? I said I don’t know and he said cosmology was the study of the universe like the big bang. He then taught me various things like what is the Big bang, how the universe started, what is dark matter, what is baryon matter and about gravity. I then thanked him and went back to Manjunath Sir’s desk. He then sent me to another gentleman called Anirban Sir and said that he is a specialist and studied about supernovae.

I went to Anirban Sir’s desk and he gave me a chair from his neighbor’s desk which was vacant. I sat beside him and he started to explain about supernovae and galaxies. I asked him a few questions and he answered all of them. Then he showed me a few pictures about supernovae and galaxies. He also showed me photos of black holes and nebulae. I then thanked him and went back to the desk. Manjunath Sir said it was lunch time and took me to the dining hall.

I ate pooris with potato curry and curd. The lunch was nice and good. We finished our lunch at 1:30 p.m.and were on the way back to the desk when we met two ladies. Manjunath Sir said that they were his seniors and introduced them to me. He then told one of them to take me to her lab. She said ok and took me to her lab. She introduced herself and asked my name, age and school. Her name is Radhika Madam and then she opened her laptop to explain a few things. She mainly works on adjustment and alignment of the mirrors and lenses. She taught me a few things about alignment of mirrors and said that even if one mirror was slightly different than the other it would cause trouble and the result would be wrong.

Manjunath Sir then came to the lab and thanked her and left with me. He took me back to the desk and said we would go to have tea or coffee at 4:00 pm. It was 3:30 pm so I had to wait for 30 more minutes. At 4:10 pm we went to the cafeteria, and I took tea and he took coffee. We sat on the table and drank our tea and coffee. After drinking he said to me that he is going to take me to his supervisor. I said ok and he took me to a big building. We went through a lift to the 3rd floor. We then walked down the hallway and after a few seconds we reached the room. We went in and then he introduced me to his supervisor Sivaran Madam. She is a professor.

Manjunath Sir spoke to Sivaran Madam about what he had taught me and sent me to other scientists who were good at their areas. Sivaran Madam then asked me a few questions and I answered them all. She then introduced me to the girl who was sitting there. Her name is Manasvi and she is job-shadowing her.

There was a nebula’s picture on the cupboard and I asked Madam which nebula it was. She said it was the Crab nebula (M1). She then opened the cupboard and gave a few pictures to me and the girl. She said that we could take any 2 pictures that we liked. There were many pictures of galaxies, nebulae, twin galaxies and stars. Manasvi took a picture of a nebula and I took two pictures which I found were good. One is a picture of crab nebula (M1) and another the spiral galaxy NGC 6946. Then I said thank you and left with the girl and Manjunath Sir.

NGC 6946

Manjunath Sir was taking us to his desk and on the way we met one of his friends, Shubham Sir. He asked Shubham Sir if he could take us to his lab. He said yes and then took us to his lab. There were all kinds of things required for machinery. Shubham Sir along with his teammate works on developing space payloads. They sent one recently and it was successful.

Manjunath Sir took us to another building and then took us to his colleague Amrutha Madam. She showed us different types of galaxies and their shapes and colors. She also taught me about galaxies and how nebulae are formed. She is also currently working on studying 16 galaxies.

Manjunath Sir then took us to his desk and he explained about his work to Manasvi. I was packing my bag as it was 4:15pm. The session ended at 5:00pm and only 45 more minutes were left. He then said that he was working on building a 30m telescope with four more countries. Total five countries are taking part in it and they are India, Japan, Canada, USA and China.

At 4:45pm we left Manasvi back to Sivaran Madam’s room and came back to Manjunath Sir’s desk. Another 15 more minutes were left. I started writing in my book about the things that I learned and were taught to me. I wrote the scientists' names and what they taught me. Finally my father called Manjunath Sir and said that he was at the reception. I packed everything in my bag and Manjunath Sir packed his bag too. He then took me to the reception and after a small talk with my dad I said thank you and said bye to him.

I had great fun and learning experience in the job shadowing program. It was wonderful and I learned many things too. I hope I will get another chance to do this someday again. Thanks to the IIA for this opportunity! Many thanks to Manjunath Sir for mentoring, help and everything. Thanks to all the other scientists as well who shared their valuable time with me.

Experiencing India's First Dark Sky Reserve

noreply@blogger.com (Suresh) — Sun, 12 Feb 2023 07:14:00 +0000

It was 1:30 AM in the last week of September. Location: Hanle, a remote place in Ladakh.

It's an open area and pitch dark. It's very cold and the temperature reads -2°C. The wind is only making it worse. The 6 layers of clothing is not helping much! With eyes, nose and mouth exposed, the cold is taking a hit on the face.

But the face is tilted upwards, the eyes are scanning the night sky. This is supposed to be one of the darkest places in India and as is evident, the milky way arm is clearly visible to the naked eye. It has spanned from horizon to horizon. Unbelievable! I haven't seen this before! Our neighbor galaxy Andromeda is no more a difficult object to locate. It's there! You can't miss that!

Milky Way

By looking at so many stars, my mind is going through a flood of thoughts. Each of those stars are like our very own Sun. How many of those stars might have Earth-like planets?! Even if there are, those planets are nowhere in the picture! If someone from one of those planets looks at the sky, is there a guarantee that our Sun is visible?! What are the chances that the Earth is visible to them! What about the countries, powerful people, the celebrities, you and me, our favorite and expensive cars, our villas…The more I look at this vastness of cosmos, the less significant all these looks.

Zodiacal Light

It's beyond imagination to even put the things in perspective. If each individual star exposes the insignificance of our pride, what about that other galaxy which is visible to the naked eye. That one galaxy itself has millions or billions of stars! But for us, it looks like a single source of light!

Where is my pride, where is my position in the society, my job title, my achievements and trophies in my cupboard, the very thought that I'm an important person in the society! Oh man! The universe is laughing at you! Did you ever look at poor ants with sympathy or care? You are not even ants for the universe. Just a shake from the universe, we are gone in a fraction of time!

The mind was restless with so many thoughts, but the body was constantly protesting that it cannot take the cold anymore. Finally it gave up. I had to pack and head to the nearest guesthouse and lie down on the bed. The coziness of the bed calmed down the body, but the mind started thinking about how it all unfolded.

It was sometime in June, the topic of going to Hanle for an Astronomy event popped up in a closed group. The star party is a common and yearly event conducted by Bangalore Astronomical Society or BAS as it is popularly called. However these events are conducted in the southern part of India and the public is invited to take part and get hands-on with binoculars and telescopes. The event in Hanle was different for the fact that it is a remote place at much higher altitude and weather would not be friendly at all. So this event was limited to a very few people who are very serious in visual observation or Astrophotography.

As a visual observer, I know the importance of a "darker" sky. The darker the place is, the better the observation is. Hanle is already popular because the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) has set up one of the biggest telescopes in India. So for Astronomy people, Hanle is nothing short of a pilgrimage trip!

I was bursting with excitement about the Hanle trip. Luckily nothing was planned on the personal front. Once the dates were finalized, I applied for 9 days leave in the company. Getting the leaves was only a part of this trip. Little I knew that the preparation would take a hell of a time!

I was going to face harsh weather. A Bengalurian doesn't even understand the extremes of weather! Ah, isn't that the reason why people like the city! We do have summer and winter, but it never goes to extremes. At Hanle, the night temperature was expected to be below zero, so I had to shop for 6 layers of winter wear! It was not only about clothes. I packed sunscreen, lip balm, moisturizer cream and what not. I also packed ORS packets, thermo flask, a bunch of medicines and many more!

Upon reaching Leh, the capital city of Ladakh, it was mandatory to stay for a minimum of 2 nights. This was to ensure that our body gets acclimatized to the altitude. Then our journey started to Hanle. Let me share a few snaps of landscapes in this route.

Once we reached Hanle, I did check my SPO2 level in the oximeter. It read 84! If it were in Bengaluru, I would be in the hospital at the very moment. But hey! It's quite normal here at Hanle! There is less oxygen, so chill!

Any extra physical task, you would experience lack of oxygen. My heart was pounding and I could hear the sound. Again I checked in the oximeter, the pulse rate was 125! My mind again reminded me "Hey, It's quite normal, just chill".

Hanle will be declared as India's first dark sky reserve and astro-tourism will be promoted by the government. We from BAS, teamed up with the Indian Institute of Astrophysics to conduct the first star party in this location. We were 15 in numbers - some of us are Visual Observers (like me), and others Astrophotographers. Our aim is to observe celestial objects such as planets, galaxies, nebulae and clusters through our eyes. Our other fellows try to capture these objects in their cameras.

The BAS Team

It was not about how many objects we observe or capture. It was about experiencing the place, enduring the cold and wind, understanding the difficulties in a remote place, and yet immersing ourselves in the cosmos and getting lost!

It was a lifetime experience and my heart and mind will cherish it for a long time for sure!

End note

Whenever I look at cosmos wide and far

It reminds me - how insignificant we are!!!

Oh Man! Your ego and pride! What the heck!

Remember, you are living in a speck!

Acknowledgements

Thanks to BAS members Sudash, Keerthi, Subendu and Shubankar for providing valuable inputs for preparation based on their previous experience.

A special mention about Sudash for arranging accommodation and logistics to transport telescopes and binoculars.

Thanks to the BAS members for helping each other in the entire trip.

Thanks to IIA for sponsoring local transport.

Night sky and milky way photographs were captured by Obuli Chandran, Astrophotographer from Coimbatore. Thanks to Obuli for allowing me to share the photos here.

Thanks to the clouds for staying away for 2 nights! :-)

Ending this write-up with a few pictures.

The Himalayan Chandra Telescope (HCT)

High Energy Gamma Ray Telescope (HAGAR)

Major Atmospheric Cerenkov Experiment Telescope (MACE)

Life after life by Raymond Moody and Hindu scriptures

noreply@blogger.com (Suresh) — Sat, 06 Aug 2022 07:34:00 +0000

The book "Life after life" by Raymond A Moody is a fascinating read, where the author describes the "Near Death Experience" encounters of many people. In this post, I draw a parallel of those experiences with what is described in Hindu scriptures.

What is Near Death Experience? NDE as it is called, is an experience a person goes through when he/she is almost died. Basically, a soul comes out of the body, experience out-of-the-body for a few minutes, and then goes inside the body. Here, that person was almost dead but resuscitated. Many people have experienced this phenomenon and have shared their experience with the author. As mentioned in the book, author has interviewed around 150 people who went through this experience. Though it may sound difficult to believe in NDEs, it is however astonishing (as the author puts it) that there is a common pattern which these people experienced NDEs and it would be difficult to dismiss these experiences as the result of anesthesia, or a drug or hallucination. Anyways, it is left to the individual to believe in it or not.

Why this post? After explaining NDEs, author also draws parallels with religious texts specifically Christian (Bible) and Tibetan text. I found that there is no reference to Texts from Hinduism which deals with the subject of Soul in greater details. Perhaps he may not have read or heard Hindu scriptures. So I thought I'll share the parallel which I have found in Hindu scriptures. Let me call out one thing very clear here. I'm not a Pandit or scholar in Hindu scriptures. I've only read Kannada translation of BagavadGeetha and Preta kanda of Garuda Purana. Preta kanda of Garuda purana deals with after death experience in greater detail. In addition to these, I have heard many discourses which discuss this subject.

Black Tunnel

The people have shared that they had to travel through a black tunnel before coming out of the body. Some people referred to this as a pitch dark tunnel and others called it as an enclosure, a vacuum and many more. Interestingly, the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, chapter 4, section 4 describes "Death and Hereafter". This section says that the soul departs from the top of the heart (as per Hinduism, soul reside in Heart), and it comes out of one of the exit points. The Upanishad mentions that it could be through the head, or eyes or any other part of the body. As per the scholars - there are 9 exit points for a soul - Head (also known as brahma randra, it is stated that a spiritually evolved soul exit from this point), two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, and two excretory points. When the soul starts its departing journey, it has to pass through the body to come out of one of the 9 exit points. What people referred as black tunnel, were they referring to this short journey?

Spiritual Body

Almost all the people experienced that when they were out of the body, they felt they had another body. This body was not as evident as they had earlier but they felt the presence of organs such as eyes, ears, arms, legs etc. They also experienced that this body was super thin and kind of cotton piece (a bit of transparent and white). The author termed this as a spiritual body. In Hinduism, the body which we have currently is called gross body (sthoola shareera) and it also states that the soul will also have subtle body (sookshma shareera). The gross body will have it's own limitations; for an example we cannot travel to outer space in this gross body (without proper protection). Whereas, the subtle body does not have any such limitations. This is exactly what people have described in their experience. They could go through the doors and walls, they could hear what others are talking even if the people are at a greater distance, they could travel pretty quickly etc.

White light

People also described that when they came out of the body, they met what they call a white light. They said this white light looked like a being but there was no proper shape as such. It was pretty bright yet not blinding the eyes. This light was gentle and assisting us in terms of this experience. Many people also reported that this white light told them that their time has not come yet, so they have to go back to the body. In Hinduism, it is stated that assistants of Yama (the god of death) comes to pick the soul at the time of the death. This is mentioned in greater detail in Garuda Purana. After the body is cremated, these assistants take the soul to the city of Yama and this is termed as a pretty long journey. I'll not get into the details here but I wanted to call out the similarities of what is mentioned by this Author and the scriptures.

Message from the white light

Interestingly, when some of the people talked to the white light, this white light stressed on importance of two things - one, doing good to others, and the second gaining knowledge. Doing good to others is somewhat universal in every religion, but the second part which says gaining knowledge is very important. It is not clear though what kind of knowledge the white light was talking about (I meant people don't recollect any specifics here). In Hinduism, the importance was always given on the knowledge - jnana yoga is one of the three ways one can attain moksha or liberation; the self-enquiry and contemplation which leads to the understanding of brahman.

I know this is a debatable topic. This cannot be validated mathematically or in a lab. My goal is not to prove a point. When I was reading this book, I could draw a lot of parallels with our scriptures. Hence I thought of sharing this through a blog post. Click here for a link to that book, in case you want to read.

Pure Vegetarian homestays in Karnataka

noreply@blogger.com (Suresh) — Sat, 03 Jul 2021 08:07:00 +0000

Whenever I start searching for homestays, I look for the homestays which serve only vegetarian food. It is not easy to get a list of such homestays. I have to literally go through reviews of every homestay (barring a few) and find out if they serve only veg or not. With that exercise, I end up having a list of such homestays in Karnataka. That prompted me to create a list and post it in my blog so that it can help anyone looking for only-veg homestays.

Of course, before you go through this list, let me call out a few disclaimers.

This list is not complete, it will be updated as and when I get information
If you know any homestay which is not listed here, kindly share it in comments section and I'll add it. Please note the comments will not get published immediately. Once you post a comment, please wait for a few days
The homestays listed here "specified" or reviews suggested that they serve only veg food at the time of my research. If they have changed that policy and you find that they are no more serving only veg, let me know through comments and I'll update my list
I'm not endorsing any of these homestays. It should be seen only as a compiled list
If I've visited any of these places and I've posted my review, I'll provide the link
It is at the discretion of the readers to check reviews of homestays and decide

Here is the list ordered by districts (updated as on 21-Feb-2026).

Chikmagaluru:

Hanakodu Homestay, Sringeri

Ibbani Heritage Homestay

Keremane Homestay, Sringeri

Krishnavatika Homestay

Kuteera

Nature Valley Resort, Horanadu

Nirvana Kutira Homestay

Vedantikala Resort

Veg Sri Manju Homestay

Coorg:

Anandavana Homestay, Somwarpet

Dakshina Kannada:

Stream of Joy, Arasinamakki, Belthangady

Hassan:

Kadumane Hills Veg Resort [My review]

Makkithitta Home Stay

Mandya:

Chukki Mane

Mysore:

Mango Mulch

Ramanagara:

Chiguru Farm

Shimoga:

AjjanaMane

Amthi

Areca Valley Stay

GundiMane [My review]

Jog Stay [My review]

Udupi:

Adigas Beach Village

Sai Vishram Beach Resort

Uttara Kannada:

Dandeli Chalet Homestay

Ibbani Homestay Siddapura

Parna Kuteera Sirsi

Pragati Homestay Sirsi

Sathwik Homestay Sirsi

Shantivana Homestay Sirsi

Suragi, Kadle beach, Kumta

Tavarumane Homestay Sirsi

Vihar Homestay Sirsi

Astronomy Visual Observation Report - 18 May 2021

noreply@blogger.com (Suresh) — Sun, 23 May 2021 10:08:00 +0000

Date: 18-May-2021

Time: 9PM to 12AM IST

Location: Bengaluru, India

Equipment: Orion SkyQuest XT8g GoTo Dobsonian Telescope; 12.5mm eyepiece

In previous two observations, I mainly concentrated on open clusters and double stars. So this time, my objective was globular clusters. But I also observed a few OCs and nebulae.

Globular Clusters:

NGC 5139 (Omega Centauri)
NGC 5286/Caldwell 84
M4
M80
M10
M19
M62
M9
NGC 6356
M107
M12
M14
M22
M24

Open Clusters:

NGC 4755 (The Jewel Box)
NGC 5460
M7 (Ptolemy Cluster)
M6 (Butterfly cluster)
NGC 6383
NGC 6416

Nebula:

M17 (Omega/Swan Nebula) - very evident in the scope
M8 (Lagoon Nebula) - not as evident as M17 but still could make out

I also spent some time on observing the Terminator on the Moon. Had to wind up at 12am due to mosquito bites.

Breath and Meditation workshop from Art of Living

noreply@blogger.com (Suresh) — Sun, 16 May 2021 07:41:00 +0000

I had watched breathing and meditation techniques in YouTube videos. But wanted to learn from a Guru (teacher) so that I get a satisfaction that I learnt with a proper technique and I get to ask questions and get clarifications. When my engineering classmate Guruprasad mentioned that the Art of Living is conducting a workshop on the same through online, I decided to enroll for this program. Especially during these covid times, it was more than necessary to learn proper breathing techniques and meditation.

This was a 4-day workshop and 2 hours program each day. Our schedule was from 6am to 8am. This program was taken by one of the Swamijis from Art of Living.

First we were given an introduction on the need of pranayama (breathing) and meditation. Then we were taught on how to do meditation. On the breathing aspect, the program covered

Ujjayi pranayama which is basically a deep breathing
Bhastrika pranayama which is a brisk breathing, and
Sudarshana kriya which will involve deep and brisk breathing in a specific pattern.

Each breathing technique will have a specific pattern and the teacher will give instructions. The day starts with a yoga where we were shown some warm-up exercises and then the breathing technique. Before Sudarshana kriya, we chanted 'Om'-kaara thrice. After Sudarshana kriya, we were asked to lie down for 5-10 mins. The teacher also talked about the aspects of life, having positive mindset, and how to respond to the challenging events/circumstances.

Overall, it was a wonderful experience. I could feel the difference in my mind and body after doing the breathing exercise. Being a coffee lover myself, I could do this workshop early morning without coffee and I was feeling fresh after the program. So you can imagine the effectiveness! Of course, my responsibility is - going forward I need to practice this technique without fail. Consistency is the key and I can share the changes in me, may be, only after a year or so.

Having said that, I will definitely recommend this workshop for everyone. Strengthening the mind and body is essential to survive and evolve in this world!

Astronomy Visual Observation Report - 7 Feb 2021

noreply@blogger.com (Suresh) — Wed, 10 Feb 2021 15:30:00 +0000

Date: 7-Feb-2021

Time: 7pm to 10pm IST

Location: Bengaluru, India

Equipment: Orion SkyQuest XT8g GoTo Dobsonian Telescope with 12.5mm eyepiece

Last time my observation was mainly focused on clusters. This time it was double stars. Here's the list of double stars observed.

19 Lyncis

38 Gemini Castor (looked beautiful)

Acamar (Eridanus)

32 Eri

Beta Monocerous (this was tripple stars)

Eta puppis

Kappa puppis

Beta Andromeda

Delta Cephei

Eta Cassiopeiae (white and reddish stars)

Gamma Ari (2 bright stars together)

Lambda Ari

Psi piscium

Zeta piscium

Rigel (beautiful sight)

Mintaka

Iota Cancri

Zeta Cancri (very close to each other)

145 Canis Majoris aka Winter Albireo

54 leonis (very close to each other)

Gamma leonis (very close to each other)

However I couldn't resolve the following double stars:

Adhara

Gamma Cet

Sigma Cassiopeiae

Astronomy Visual Observation Report - 24 Jan 2021

noreply@blogger.com (Suresh) — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 07:35:00 +0000

This is the report of the Visual Observation through my new Telescope.

Date: 24-Jan-2021

Time: 9PM to 11PM IST

Location: Bengaluru, India

Equipment: Orion SkyQuest XT8g GoTo Dobsonian Telescope

The Moon was overhead so its light affected the observation.

Aries

Mars
Uranus - The first time I observed Uranus. Mars and Uranus were visible in the same Field of View (FOV)

Andromeda

NGC 752 aka Caldwell 28 - Open Cluster

Perseus

M34 aka NGC 1039 - Open Cluster
NGC 869 and NGC 884 aka Double Cluster - Open Cluster

Cassiopeia

M 103 aka NGC 581 - Open Cluster (not much details)

Taurus

M 45 - Open Cluster

Auriga

M 36 aka NGC 1960 - Open Cluster
M 37 aka NGC 2099 - Open Cluster
M 38 aka NGC 1912 aka Starfish Cluster - Open Cluster
NGC 2281 - Open Cluster

Gemini

M 35 aka NGC 2168 - Open Cluster

Cancer

M 44 aka Beehive Cluster - Open Cluster
M 67 aka NGC 2682 - Open Cluster

Puppis

M 46 aka NGC 2437 - Open Cluster
M 47 aka NGC 2422 - Open Cluster
M 93 aka NGC 2447 - Open Cluster
NGC 2451 - Open Cluster
NGC 2477 aka Caldwell 71 (Not very evident)

Hydra

M 48 aka NGC 2548 - Open Cluster

Canis Major

NGC 2362 aka Caldwell 64 - Open Cluster
M 41 - Open Cluster

Monoceros

M 50 aka NGC 2323 - Open Cluster

Vela

NGC 2547 - Open Cluster (It resembles Mushroom shape)

Lepus

M 79 aka NGC 1904 - Globular Cluster (It looked very small)

Columba

NGC 1851 aka Cladwell 73 - Globular Cluster (It looked very small)

Carina

NGC 2516 aka Caldwell 96 aka Southern Beehive - Open Cluster (Looks beautiful)

Orion

M 42 aka Orion Nebula - Diffuse Nebula
NGC 1981 - Open Cluster

How did I choose my first telescope

noreply@blogger.com (Suresh) — Sat, 23 Jan 2021 17:30:00 +0000

This post is about my first telescope and specifically would like to share how did I choose the first telescope and what factors played a role in deciding a specific model or type.

Disclaimer

This post should not be considered as a guide to buy a telescope. The intention of this post is only to share the process I followed in choosing a telescope. This is to give an idea on factors to be considered while buying a telescope.

Context

I started my sky observation more than a decade ago. My initial observation was with naked eye. However later I bought Olympus 10x50 binocular and used it for Visual Observation (VO) for many years. This helped me in understanding the sky better as well as getting the knowledge on constellations, stars and star hopping - basically navigating the sky. Once I was sure that I can upgrade my tools, I decided to buy a telescope.

Buying Process

With all the information gathered from the experts, what I realized was there are four primary factors which helps in buying the right scope. And there is no "one" scope which ticks all the boxes.

1. Why do you want to buy a scope? - This is the fundamental question I asked myself. Why? There are two primary applications for a scope - one for VO, and the other for Astro-photography (AP). Remember, there is no single scope which meets all the needs 100%. My primary needs was Visual Observation, and AP was definitely not in the near future. With that clarity in mind, I looked at the scopes which are meant for VO - specifically Newtonian reflectors. Dobs are very popular beginner telescopes because of its easy-to-use design. So I was inclined towards Dobs.

2. Which mount? My other goal is to show the celestial objects to others. With this specific objective, I decided to go for a go-to mount. That means, once I align the scope, it will track the objects on its own. This would definitely help while I'm showing the objects to others. I don't have to realign the scope frequently. Luckily, Dobs also come with go-to mount. That was an icing on cake!

3. Portability - How often do I carry the scope for observation? How far I would need to carry? How difficult it would be to carry? These are some of the questions I had to answer myself. At home, If I need to carry the scope to the terrace I need to take steps for one floor. The scope and the mount will need to be carried wherever I go for observation. The length of the tube should fit in a car. I should be able to carry the weight of the scope without any help. These factors prompted me to go for 8 inch scope. The next version is 10 inch, whose weight is much more than 8". It would have been difficult for me to carry 10" all alone regularly.

4. Budget - The last but an important factor is budget. You will get a decent scope from Rupees 30K+ and it can go upwards in Lakhs. The budget along with portability should be factored in to decide on the scope. From the budget wise, I could have gone for bigger scope, but portability factor limited my requirement to 8".

So finally, I decided to buy an 8" Dobsonian telescope with Go-to mount and I zeroed in on Orion SkyQuest XT8g Computerized GoTo Dobsonian Telescope.

The next question was from where to buy? A popular telescope dealer in India is Tejraj from Mumbai. One of the conditions in Tejraj's website stated they will not take responsibility if a telescope gets damaged during the transportation. This clause discouraged me in going with Tejraj. I would have driven to Mumbai to get the scope delivery in person. But Covid situation dampened that idea as well. I got to know about another dealer Go Scientific from Madurai. I got positive reviews about this dealer. When I spoke to the dealer he explained how the scope will be packaged and transported and he assured that it will be delivered with utmost care. That confidence along with reviews from others encouraged me to book the scope with Go Scientific. True to his words, the tube and the mount were packed in a separate wooden boxes. Inside each box, several layers of cartons were packed to ensure the equipments are not damaged. Go Scientific had arranged a dedicated vehicle for delivery of the scopes to Bengaluru. This also ensured that there is no mishandling of the scopes by the delivery people. Overall it was very satisfactory when it comes to buying and delivery experience.

Acknowledgements

The folks in Bangalore Astronomical Society (BAS) helped me in understanding all about telescope. I would like to thank BAS for all the wonderful things they are doing to spread Astronomy to the public. I'm also proud to be associated with the BAS.

I would also like to call out names who provided me a lot of inputs on telescopes. The names listed here is in the order of my communication with the individual.

Naveen - I met him in one of the star parties. He patiently explained different types of scopes and pros and cons of each. That session opened up my knowledge into the world of scopes. Later, I spoke to Naveen several times with so many questions and he responded each patiently.

Niranjan - He owns 8 inch Dob and he showed me how Dob works and of course the power of 8". I saw Saturn rings for the first time from his scope. Later when I had many queries about Dob, he patiently answered and clarified my doubts.

Vishwa - I met Vishwa in a star party and continued the association in outreach events. He explained about different scopes especially about SCT and also clarified my several doubts on mounts.

Shubankar - In one of the star parties, Shubankar explained several aspects of Astrophotography (AP) and what type of scopes and mounts are suitable for AP. He also clarified a lot of doubts on the scopes and its applications.

Anish - Anish's YouTube video on buying a telescope is an awesome primer. He provided a lot of inputs on scopes for AP as well as Visual Observation (VO). The video is available in BAS YouTube Channel.

Komal - Komal provided his inputs on goto Dob and also helped me by providing information about other accessories required for the scope.

Keerthi - When I was frustrated for not getting the correct connector for power supply, Keerthi graciously invited me to his home and helped in connecting the power supply and also showed me on initial setup of the scope as well as on the alignment part.

Sudhash - I must not miss out Sudhash's name because he was always encouraging me in the entire process. His enthusiasm was always a motivating factor to make up my mind on the scope!

Jupiter Saturn Conjunction 2020

noreply@blogger.com (Suresh) — Tue, 22 Dec 2020 10:12:00 +0000

On 21st December 2020, people on Earth witnessed the great conjunction of the two biggest planets in our Solar System Jupiter and Saturn. Though they are separated by a greater distance, as seen from the Earth they appeared closer to each other.

Every 20 years, these two giants appear in the same line of sight but this year's conjunction was the closest since the year 1623! The next closest approach (technically not closest but in the same line of sight) occurs in the year 2080.

I wanted to capture this moment in my DSLR Canon 1300D with 250mm lens. This is all I could get with the available lens. Jupiter is in the left and Saturn in the right. If you zoom in on Saturn, you can make out the shape of its rings.

Gundimane Homestay Review

noreply@blogger.com (Suresh) — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 12:37:00 +0000

With lockdown and travel restrictions all around for almost 9 months, we were desperate to go out of Bengaluru but to a safe place. After a lot of research, we got to know about Gundimane homestay. It ticked all the boxes so we decided to visit this homestay. This post is a review of this homestay. Towards the end of this post, I have also provided more information in Q&A format.

Location

This place is near to Jog Falls in Sagar. Here's the location. The homestay is situated amidst plantations. Just imagine you would step out of your room and what you see is this!

View from the building

On the way to Gundimane

This location is very peaceful. You would hear sounds from birds chirping to crickets making sounds!

Rooms

There are two buildings. The one at the base (main building) where owners also stay and the other in a hilltop behind the main building. We stayed in the hilltop building. This house has 5 rooms - 4 in the ground floor and 1 in the first floor. The hilltop building is accessible in two ways. One through steps and other through a road.

Hilltop Building

Main Building

Road to hilltop building

Steps

The rooms are spacious and clean. A water purifier is kept so we don't have to worry about drinking water. Since this building is in hilltop, one will get a beautiful view of landscapes and at a far distance we can also see Sharavathi river. However, one has to climb down to the main building for food.

Food & Hospitality

Only veg food is served. That was one of the criteria for us as well. They serve a typical malnad food. Food was different and good, a typical home food. The hospitality of the owners Mr and Mrs Ganapathi Rao was the highlight. Whether while serving the food or enquiring about the stay, they were always smiling and ensuring that we are having a good time at homestay. It was very nice having that "human touch"!

Nearby Places

There are tourist places around. We had no plans to travel but visited a few places which were nearby and there was no crowd at all.

Watch Tower: This Watch tower is very nearer to homestay. Though walkable, you can also take the vehicle up to "forest check post" and then you need to trek for 15-20 mins to reach the tower. From the tower you will get a beauitful view of the landscapes and Sharavathi river. People are allowed to visit this place around 6AM or 5:30PM only.

On the way to Watch Tower

Forest Watch Tower

From watch tower

Another view. Gundimane is visible from here!

Sharavathi Adventure Camp: This place is near Kargal and there are water activities on Talakalale Reservoir. We went for boating for 30 mins. The place is very scenic but I felt the prices are bit costly.

Boating

In the middle of the river

Muppane Ferry Point: This is basically a ferry point for people to cross Sharavathi river and travel to Sigandur. One can spend quality time in the river side and kids can also enjoy the water.

Clean water at Muppane Ferry Point

Wildlife

The location is adjacent to Sharavathi Wildlife Sanctuary. Though there are many wild animals in this place, it is difficult to see these animals nearby. We were very fortunate to spot Bison and Lion tailed Macaque on the road side. We also spotted many birds but I couldn't capture all of them in my camera.

Bison

Star Gazing

This is for Astronomy folks. This homestay is in Bortle 2 location. Though this was a family vacation and star gazing was not the "primary" plan, I squeezed in a couple of hours to watch the sky. Fortunately the sky was clear and I had a wonderful night sky. Here are the Deep Sky Objects observed in a couple of hours with 10x50 binocular.

M31 (Andromeda Galaxy)

M34

M42 (Orion Nebula)

M45 (Pleiades)

NGC 869 & NGC 884 (Double Cluster)

NGC 752

NGC 1981

Q&As

Q. Is this place safe for families?

A. Absolutely! You can stay in this place without any worries!

Q. Is it "only Veg" homestay?

A. Yes. Non-veg is not available.

Q. Are rooms wheelchair accessible?

A. No. There are steps to reach rooms.

Q. Is parking facility available?

A. There is a plenty of space for car parking.

Q. Can I take elders?

A. Yes definitely! If climbing stairs is an issue for elders, my suggestion is to get hilltop rooms as there are 4 rooms in the ground floor. For food they can come to the main building in a car.

Q. Are mobile networks available?

A. As we checked, Vodafone is not available. Airtel was available only at a specific point and the signal strength was weak to moderate. It turns out BSNL and Jio networks are good in this location.

Dabbaguli - A picnic spot near Bangalore

noreply@blogger.com (Suresh) — Sun, 08 Nov 2020 07:25:00 +0000

During this covid time and restrictions on travel, we were looking for a place where there is not much crowd and we can enjoy the fresh air without wearing mask. We got information about this place called Dabbaguli from YouTube channels and Facebook posts. The place looked ideal (riverside as well) during these times and we decided to visit this place. As rightly mentioned in the YouTube channels, this place was really awesome and it was worth all the effort. In this post, I'll provide details about this place and tips.

Let's first have a look at this place and later I'll cover other details.

Where is this place located?

This place is in Tamil Nadu but near to Karnataka border. Click here to get the exact location. Do note that there is no network coverage. It is recommended to download the map for offline use.

How is the road condition?

Majority of the stretch has good road condition. However, do note that this place is in a forest area. Once you enter the forest check post, the last 30 mins drive has no road. If your car has high ground clearance, you will have a peaceful drive. If your car has low ground clearance, be prepared for bottom scrapes.

Is this place safe?

This place is located in a forest area. It is recommended to visit this place in weekends so that you will have company. Yes it is safe for families.

Is the river safe for children and all?

It is a Cauvery river flowing in full swing. However, the bank side is relatively safe for everyone to enjoy the water. The authorities says it is not safe to go into the middle of the river because of the depth as well as the current of the river. So it is advisable to remain near the bank.

Are there wild animals?

Yes. Elephants roam in this area specifically in late evenings. Hence one has to return by 5PM.

Are there restaurants nearby?

As this place is in a forest area, there is no restaurant. You need to pack your food before entering the check post. We had packed food for breakfast and lunch so we avoided the restaurants.

Can you take elders?

Yes absolutely. There are no steps and cars can be parked near the bank.

Anything else?

Please carry a trash can/cover to collect all the trash from your food. Please do not trash anything in that place. Carry all the trash back to your home. This place is in pristine condition, let us keep it like that.

A story behind ATM invention and why security PIN is 4 digits

noreply@blogger.com (Suresh) — Sat, 05 Sep 2020 08:47:00 +0000

How & why ATM (Automated Teller Machine) was invented and why the ATM security PIN is 4 digits by default.

Balarama's wife Revati and Time Dilation

noreply@blogger.com (Suresh) — Sun, 12 Jul 2020 06:58:00 +0000

In Bhagavata Purana, there is a story of how Revati and her father traveled to Brahma loka and due to time dilation, they lost 27 mahayugas on Earth. In this my first ever video, I will talk about this interesting story and draw parallel with the concepts in today's science.

Astronomy Poem

noreply@blogger.com (Suresh) — Tue, 25 Feb 2020 10:18:00 +0000

Recently I went to a star party at Coorg organized by Bangalore Astronomical Society. The sky was pretty clear and dark and I was able to see many deep sky objects. This experience inspired me to write a poem. This poem is dedicated to the BAS.

I went to a star party
To see the vast and mighty

The party started at dusk
Our eyes were getting adjusted to the murk

The Venus was up and so bright
We didn't have sheets to mask that white light!

The Andromeda looked like a piece of cotton
Still it brought us a feel of jubilation

Perseus showed us the double cluster
As if it was trying to muster

Taurus was up with it's Pleiades
And Aldebaran was as usual lustrous

Even in the sky you get Salt and Pepper
Oh wait! You can't eat that - be aware

The favorite of all was Orion
The Betelgeuse had kept everyone's eyes on!

Binos and scopes were glued to Nebula
Don't we know that Orion has its own fabula!

What followed was the Dog star
Let me tell you this is the brightest star

The special sight was of the Leo triplet
Three galaxies in one frame, what a sight!

As the Big Dipper showed it's trademark shape
The people asked "where's Vasishta's mate?!"

We were all waiting for the Sagittarius
Behold! That's the milky way, Amigos!

The gigantic display of dust and cloud
It will for sure keep everyone "wowed"!

Mars, Jupiter and Saturn all lined up
And they are all saying "it's time up!"

The party ended at dawn
My brain signaled the body to yawn!

Whenever I look at cosmos wide and far
It reminds me - how insignificant we are!!!

Oh Man! Your ego and pride! What the heck!
Remember you are living in a speck!

Note:
For people not familiar with night sky objects, here is the reference of objects mentioned in the poem:

Planets: Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn

Constellations: Perseus, Taurus, Orion, Leo, Big Dipper, Sagittarius

Galaxies: Andromeda, Leo Triplet (M65, M66, and NGC 3628)

Clusters: Double Cluster (NGC 869 and NGC 884), Pleiades (M 45), Salt and Pepper (M 37)

Nebula: Orion (M 42)

Stars: Aldebaran (rohini), Betelgeuse, Sirius (Dog Star), Mizar (Vasishta), Alcor A (Arundathi)

Badri yaatra - As it happened

noreply@blogger.com (Suresh) — Sat, 25 Jan 2020 09:57:00 +0000

There were so many questions popping up in my mind - Will we be able to reach Badri without any problem? Will elders have darshan with ease? Will the elders bear the cold in Badri?... My mind came back to the present when the flight attendant made an announcement "We will be descending to Dehradun in a few minutes. Please fasten your belt and do not use restrooms". It was more than 2 months when we decided to do a Badri yatra with elders. My family, my brother's family and four elders made it a 10 pax trip to Badrinath. Badrinath is one of the holy places for Hindus and its significance is much more for Vaishnavas. So naturally all of us were excited about this trip.

After almost two and a half journey from Bengaluru, we landed at Dehradun airport. From the airport, we got into our vehicle and headed towards Rishikesh, which was the first day stop.

I'm sharing a map with the list of prominent places mentioned in this post.

List of prominent places mentioned in this post

After a well deserved rest at Rishikesh, we started our journey towards Badrinath. It was very hot at Rishikesh despite a heavy rain the previous night. When you are going to Badrinath from Dehradun/ Rishikesh/ Haridwar, you have to pass through five prayags. In each prayag, two or more rivers converge. To understand it better, let me explain the direction of the rivers from where it flows.

The river Alakananda originate from the Himalayas and pass through Badrinath. At one point, another river Dhauliganga meets Alakananda and this place is called Vishnuprayag. After the convergence, the river retains the name Alakananda and she continues further South.

Vishnuprayag

At another point, another river Nandakini converge with Alakananda, and this place is called Nandaprayag.

Nandaprayag

The river Alakananda continues her journey towards south and another river Pindar converge with Alakananda and this place is called Karnaprayag.

Karnaprayag

Further south, a river named Mandakini converge with Alakananda and this place is called Rudraprayag.

Rudraprayag

Further south, a river named Bhagirathi meets Alakananda and this place is called Devprayag.

Devprayag

After this confluence, the river is known as Ganga. The Ganges flows through Rishikesh, Haridwar and continues its journey through Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Bangladesh and finally into the Bay of Bengal.

So when you are traveling towards Badrinath, you will encounter prayags in reverse order from Devprayag to Vishnuprayag. As the river gets the name Ganga from Devprayag, this place has a prominence. We decided to get down to the point where two rivers meet. One has to walk approximately 1-2 kms through a narrow road. You will get to see a lot of cows on the road, and a few two-wheelers as well. After walking for a while, you need to cross a bridge and again walk further. Once you reach the point, you have to climb down the steps to reach the river. The force of Alakananda was very strong, and Bhagirathi was calm. Still, the rivers were flowing in full, so we just sat in that place and sprinkled the water. This is a beautiful place where you can clearly distinguish two rivers due to their contrasting colors.

After lunch, we continued our journey. Normally people travel from Rishikesh/Haridwar to Badrinath in one stretch. But we had decided to take a break, thinking it would be a tiring journey for elders. And it was a good decision as I explain in a while. So our next night stop was Srinagar. Well, this is not the popular Srinagar of Jammu & Kashmir. There is another Srinagar in Uttarkhand. We reached this place by evening and retired for the day.

View from Srinagar hotel

We all had a good sleep, and we were ready and excited for the day’s journey. This day we are supposed to reach Badrinath! As we reached Rudraprayag, we could not see the confluence site due to one-way restrictions on the road. The driver said he will show on the return journey. Next we stopped at Karnaprayag to see the confluence of two rivers. There is a temple dedicated to Karna. As per the legend, this is the place where Lord Krishna himself cremated Karna after he was killed in Mahabharata war.

When we were approaching Nandaprayag our vehicle stopped. Initially we thought there must be a road-widening work and hence stopped. We later got to know that there was a landslide and the JCB machines were working to clear the debris. It took almost 2 hours to make the way, and another 1 hour to cross the spot as there were a lot of vehicles piled up from both sides.

Waiting for debris clearance before Nandaprayag

This was our first experience of the situation when landslide happens. Luckily we had some snacks brought from home like chivuda, chakkali, and apples, so these eatables were required to sustain till we cross this hurdle and reach a restaurant. While we were crossing Nandaprayag, I called the manager of Anantha mutt at Badrinath where we had booked for accommodation to confirm him that we will be reaching today evening. The manager said “Sir, how do you people come? Don’t you know the road is blocked at Lambagad due to a massive cloudburst? I think it might take 5 days to repair the road”. After hearing this, we were completely devastated. I immediately opened Twitter and searched for any information on this situation. Incidentally, one lady had tweeted about this situation. She was travelling from Kedarnath to Badrinath and her vehicle was stuck at Chamoli. I also browsed for further information and I got to know from the news reports about this Cloudburst and it turns out a half a dozen vehicles were severely damaged and a few lives were lost as well. This was not at all the kind of news we ever wanted to hear. We felt bad about those lost lives and their families. We checked with the driver what to do next and he said “Let’s go as far as we can and then we’ll see”. This very attitude of our driver instilled some hope in us. He is an experienced driver and he has seen a lot of such things during his trips. He knows better when to call it off and till which point to continue. Frankly speaking, none of us ever heard this word Cloudburst! So I googled for this word and got to know about this natural phenomenon. We had lost 3 hours due to the landslide near Nandaprayag and we were hungry. The driver stopped at a restaurant between Nandaprayag and Pipalkoti.

At this restaurant, we met a mid-aged couple. It seems they had come from Delhi by road to reach Badrinath. In their own words,
“We reached till Govind Ghat and met a family who lost their own family members in front of their eyes in that cloudburst incident. They were crying and pleaded us not to go ahead as the situation is worst. We thought may be Lord Badrinath has decided not to give darshan this time, and with a heavy heart we returned back from Govind Ghat. We are driving back to Delhi. We’ll come again, maybe next year. There is no point for you guys in going further. We strongly suggest to return back”.

Now we understood the situation from the first account. Things were really looking bleak to reach Badrinath. We again spoke to the driver. He was also enquiring with others. He said the vehicles are not allowed after Pipalkoti, so we have to stop at Pipalkoti and check the conditions tomorrow morning and accordingly decide what to do next.

We also met a person from Karnataka. It seems he comes to Badrinath every year and he was also talking about the uncertainties of the road conditions. Two buses carrying Sikhs halted at the same restaurant for lunch. We spoke to an elderly lady, and she said they are all going to Hemkund, a holy place for Sikhs. From Govind Ghat, one road/trial goes to Hemkund and the other road leads to Badrinath. She also said there is a helipad at Govind Ghat and they are going to Hemkund in a helicopter. When we heard the word “Helicopter”, it stuck our mind on the possibilities of reaching Badrinath in a helicopter for at least elders, if not for all. However, we did not know how much it costs for a helicopter ride. With so many questions and apprehension in our minds, we reached the hotel at Pipalkoti for a night’s stay. The hotel was not good enough, but considering the fact that many people going towards Badrinath would be staying at Pipalkoti, we just settled for a night’s stay.

At this hotel, we met a family from Bihar. They are staying in this hotel for the last two days as the road is blocked and they are not able to go to Badrinath. An elderly person in that family was confident that the road will be cleared the next day. It was a ray of hope in such a difficult situation. We exchanged our phone numbers to get in touch and be connected. They suggested us to leave as early as possible to avoid the rush.

The next day we got ready by 6.30 in the morning and left Pipalkoti. There was a silence in TT, in everyone’s mind there was only one wish - reach Badrinath. As we reached Joshimath, the driver stopped the vehicle at a temple. He asked us to have darshan in this temple. This temple is dedicated to Lord Narasimha. It turns out, when Badrinath is closed for 6 months in winter, the utsav moorthi is taken to this temple and kept here. We all prayed Lord Narasimha to remove all hurdles and show the path for Badrinath.

Narasimha Swamy temple at Joshimath

We later stopped at a place for breakfast. Unfortunately, there was no proper restaurant. However we met a lady from Bangalore. She had come with her mother for a visit to Badrinath. She also said she cannot risk taking her mother with her so she is returning back to Dehradun and she has to catch a flight the next day.

We met people from different parts of India, and some were returning back, and a few were moving forward to try their luck and we were one of them. We reached Govind Ghat and many vehicles were stopped at this place. We got down from the vehicle and went to a dhaba for breakfast. Meanwhile, my brother and I went to the helipad to check if there is any service to Badrinath. We were told the helicopter service is only to Hemkund. There were many Sikh pilgrimages waiting in the queue to register their names in the helipad.

Helicopter going to Hemkund

After we finished our breakfast, we continued our journey. Just 1 km from Govind Ghat, there was another landslide and JCBs were in action to clear the road. It took a while to cross that section.

As we continued, we reached a place called Lambagad. This is the place where the road was destroyed due to cloudburst. All the vehicles were stopped at this point. Asking the elders to remain in the vehicle, my brother, wife and I went ahead by walk to understand the situation and also to get the update. The section of the affected road was blocked by policemen. There was a deroute for people to walk and reach the other end of this stretch. Basically no vehicles were allowed beyond this point. So people have to walk on the detour for approximately 1 km and reach the other point. From that point, one has to catch the cabs which ply between this place and Badrinath. I walked to some distance in that detour to know how difficult it is. It was not an easy walk for the elders. As we were contemplating, we caught sight of palkis. These palkis were mainly used to carry the luggage and there were very few cases of carrying people as well.

Palki with luggage

We thought of using this palki service for the elders who cannot walk in that stretch. After enquiring and talking in length, it was decided to use the palki service for two elders. They charge anywhere between 1000 to 1500 rupees based on the person's weight. The plan was - use pakli for two people, and everyone else will walk to cross this stretch. We have to reach the other end, catch a cab to reach Badrinath, have darshan, come back to that point, walk back, and catch our TT which will be waiting at Lambagad. So we carried only warm clothes and water bottles with us to minimize the load.

The deroute had a path for walking beside a huge debris of big rocks. These rocks were the result of cloudburst. It was definitely not easy for the elders. After walking for 700 meters or so, we have to climb up another 300 meters to reach the road. This climb was basically a kind of adventurous as there was no proper steps or path. One has to cross steep climbs as well as naturally formed steps. Many pilgrimages from youngs to olds were climbing with difficulty but they all seemed to have one goal - reach badrinath by any means!

De-route due to cloudburst

By the time we reached the other end, the officials had decided to allow vehicles with only drivers to pass this stretch. That means, no passenger will be allowed inside vehicles. Now we were thinking if our driver would come with his vehicle or not. After we cross Joshimath, only BSNL sim works and we did not have BSNL connection. How do we call him up and ask him to take the vehicle? As we were thinking of the possibilities of reaching him, our vehicle and the driver appeared. Our immediate reaction was “There he comes!” and we were ecstatic! Why not?!!! At this moment, the way we were looking at the driver was as if God has appeared in front of us! We wholeheartedly thanked him and got into the vehicle and our journey resumed towards Badrinath. Since the road was open for vehicles, we all had only one thing in mind - reach Badrinath, have darshan and come back as soon as possible to cross this stretch.

Beautiful yet scary roads

At last we reached Badrinath and it was such a great relief to all. We first went to a restaurant for lunch. We called our family members to inform them about our safe reach. They were very anxious upon knowing that the road was blocked. After lunch, we headed towards the temple. From the parking, one has to walk for quite a distance to reach the temple. The sun was pretty bright, so we were not feeling cold. As we walked past the shops, we got the first glimpse of the temple at a distance. Alakananda river flows in front of the temple. She was flowing with full force. One has to cross a bridge to reach the temple.

Before entering the temple, we went to the tapt kund, a small pond where hot water emerges, and many devotees take water from this pond and take a bath. A separate arrangement is done for gents and ladies. We were not in a position to take a bath, hence we just sprinkled the water and went to the temple.

Tapt kund

There was a crowd but it was manageable. After standing in the queue for about 30 mins, we entered the inner structure of the temple and had a darshan of the Lord Badrinath! It was such a divine experience with all the uncertainties, difficulties, and apprehensions, we at last had the darshan of the Lord! We felt ourselves lucky to have reached safely and we thanked God for his blessings.

Badrinath temple

View from Badrinath temple

After the darshan, we had a few photoshoots in front of the main entrance (we were more relaxed by this time). However, we were also thinking of returning back as soon as possible so that we can cross that main hurdle at Lambagad. After a quick shopping near temple complex, we went to the parking area where our vehicle was parked. We told the driver to return as we did not want to take the risk of getting stuck at Badrinath. As we descended the mountain, and reached that spot at Lambagad, the police had stopped the vehicle movements as more stones were falling down. As it was getting dark, the workers who were clearing the debris had left for the day. That means, the road will be cleared only the next day provided it does not rain overnight. With a bit of worry, we went back to Badrinath and stayed at Anantha mutt, where we had booked the rooms for 2 nights.

In late evening, a few of us again went to the temple by walk and had darshan the second time. There was no crowd this time, so it was a very peaceful experience. Considering what we had gone through, who had thought that we will get another chance to visit this temple!

We had dinner at Anantha mutt and retired for the day. After sunset, it was very cold at Badrinath. Without a proper jacket, it would be very difficult to bear this cold.

The next day after breakfast, our driver took us to Mana village - “the last village” as it is called due to the fact that after this village, it is India-China border. While everyone stopped at the entrance of this village, my brother and I decided to go for a small trekking (walking) to visit Vyasa guha. One has to walk in a narrow path and some parts of it are steps and others are ramp. First we reached Ganesh guha - a cave where Lord Ganesh wrote Bhagavata purana including Mahabaratha.

Ganesh guha entrance

Ganesh guha

We further walked down the path and reached Vyas guha - a cave where Vedavyas dictated Bhagavata Purana (and Mahabaratha) to Lord Ganesh.

Vyasa guha

There were a few more places near Vyasguha, but as we were running short of time, we both decided to get back to the main entrance of the village where our vehicle and all the other members were waiting. Before that, we went to the last tea shop of India. We had tea and also took a few photos. The tea owner has the India Flag, which he asked us to hold it for photos. It was such a great feeling being at this place and holding our flag. Jai Hind!

The last tea shop

We went back to the vehicle and we started descending. We reached that crucial spot at Lambagad. The driver convinced the Police to take only elders with him, while the rest of us took the deroute to reach the other end. Once we crossed Govind ghat and Joshi mutt, it was all the normal route ahead.

There was an unknowing smile at everyone’s faces, a kind of relief, a sense of achieving something, gratitude to the Lord for making this journey happen. We knew that there was a (long) story to tell, an experience to be cherished, and a journey to be remembered for the rest of our lives.

It would be unethical if I don’t mention Police personnel, Indian Army jawans, and other workers who were working relentlessly to clear the debris so that pilgrimages can have a safe trip. A big salute and a heartfelt thanks to them. Also, I would like to specifically thank our Driver without whom, perhaps, we wouldn’t have got the confidence and courage to continue the journey amidst all the stories we heard. If you need his contact number, do let me know in the Comments section.

End note: A helicopter service is available from Dehradun to Badrinath and one can have darshan and come back to Dehradun in half a day. When we enquired, the cost was Rs 75,000 per person (in September month). If you are willing to take this service, just Google and you will get the booking details. Also, to focus on Badri trip, I have excluded details about the places we visited at Rishikesh and Haridwar.

Astronomy Outreach Program at Tumkur

noreply@blogger.com (Suresh) — Sat, 25 Jan 2020 06:52:00 +0000

The Bangalore Astronomical Society (BAS) had planned an astronomy outreach session in December at Tumkur. For the first time, I volunteered for this event and I am sharing my experience.

Through astronomy outreach program, the BAS reach out to students and create awareness about Astronomy. The schools or colleges request the BAS to conduct an outreach program at their premise. The December'19 event was organised at Siddaganga college of Arts, Science and Commerce, Tumkur.

Six people represented the BAS for this event. We went on Saturday evening and setup the equipments such as telescopes and binoculars at the terrace. The college students arrived around 6pm. After a brief introduction about Astronomy and what we are going to do, we opened up the observation for students.

We had setup 3 telescopes and 2 binoculars. We pointed these, at first, towards the Moon, then Venus, and then to Saturn. The students were quite excited to see these celestial objects through these equipments.

Since there were more than 200 students, we 6 people were looking after one equipment each to manage the crowd. The students had grouped and were interacting with us. I was bombarded with questions after questions from the curious minds. The questions were ranging from how the moon orbits around the Earth to how the nebula is formed to how the Astronauts avoid the risk of radiation during space travel. It was such an enriching experience to interact with the students. To he honest, I couldn't answer a couple of questions and I told them I don't know. Later I googled and got to know about those questions. That's the beauty of such interactions. In the process of teaching a subject to others, we also get to learn new topics.

The dinner was arranged at the college. After the dinner break, we explained the night sky showing various constellations, stars and how to do visual observation. In between the clouds were blocking the sky. We utilised that time to switch to presentation which was projected to the wall on the terrace and showcased some of the astro-photos and explained other concepts of the astronomy. There was a Q&A session as well where students asked many questions.

When the sky was clear around midnight, we also showed deep space objects such as nebula, open clusters and globular cluster. The visual observation went till 2 AM. When the thick clouds almost covered the sky, we called it off.

Overall, it was my first time as a volunteer for such events. I thoroughly enjoyed interacting with students and sharing whatever knowledge I had.

Uttaraayana and Makara Sankramana

noreply@blogger.com (Suresh) — Thu, 23 Jan 2020 07:25:00 +0000

As Uttaraayana and Sankranthi (makara sankramana) are celebrated almost on the same day, there is a belief that both are same and lies on the same day. However, Uttaraayana and Sankramana are two different things.

Uttara-ayana signifies the Sun's movement towards North.

Sankramana signifies the Sun's entry to Makara raashi.

Due to Earth's tilt, the Sun reaches the southern-most point on 22nd December. After 2 days, we can observe it's northward movement by 1 degree. That is actually uttaraayana.

Along it's path, the sun enters from one constellation to the other. As we take 12 constellations into account, every month the sun enters one constellation. On this day, the sun enters Capricorn constellation or Makara raashi, hence it is called Makara sankramana. As people in India celebrate harvesting festival during this time, Makara sankramana has taken the prominence. Another sankramana which is observed is "Tula sankramana" which lies on 17th October. On that day, the sun enters Libra constellation.

Actually the sun enters each constellation every month but these two have got prominence as far as I know.

Even sankramana dates change due to the planetary positions and movements. But these changes happen in several years.

In olden days, uttaraayana might have coincided with the Makara sankramana date but now it has changed. I don't know why this aspect is not updated in panchanga.

Trip to North and East Sikkim

noreply@blogger.com (Suresh) — Fri, 13 Sep 2019 15:01:00 +0000

We had not gone anywhere for more than a year. As the summer was ending, we were thinking of going to a place to beat the summer. I pulled out the map and two states stuck my eyes. Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim. I had heard a lot about places in HP from friends and relatives. However, Sikkim seems to be less heard at least from my close circle. This tiny state bordering three other nations Nepal, China, and Bhutan always created interest. I started researching every place in Sikkim and finally we decided for a 8-days trip covering North and East Sikkim including Gangtok.

Preview of Gurudongmar lake

We didn’t had time to do all the planning and execution on our own. So we decided to get in touch with a tour operator. I contacted a couple of “well known” tour operators in Bengaluru for a packaged tour. Their packages had included some of the places which we were not interested. So we decided to go for a customized tour package. Surprisingly, none of these “well known” tour operators showed any better customer service. Even after multiple follow ups, they didn’t even care to respond! With an initial disappointment, I started searching for a tour operator in Sikkim. I got a hold of a few tour operators in Gangtok who were “recognized” by Sikkim government. Only one of them was responding quickly for our queries. That was Blue Sky Tours and Travels. I’ll share my experience with this tour operator towards the end of the post. However, just want to highlight that I had multiple email communication with this tour operator to customize the itinerary to our likes and comfort. At the end everything was set. Reaching to Bagdogra airport from Bengaluru and return was our headache. From picking us up from Bagdogra airport to finally dropping us at the Bagdogra airport was the responsibility of the tour operator.

Also want to highlight here that there is an airport in Gangtok. However, the airfare to Gangtok was more than double compared to Bagdogra. Hence we decided to go to Bagdogra. If you are okay to shell out extra bucks to Gangtok airport, it will save you approximately 10 hours of travel to and fro.

Day 1: Bengaluru to Gagntok and an evening visit to MG Marg

Our SpiceJet flight schedule got advanced from 12PM to 6AM! So we had to leave home at 3AM. After 2 hours 40 mins journey, we landed in Bagdogra airport. The cab driver picked us at the scheduled time and we started our journey to Gangtok. After a few pit stops for food and refreshments, we reached Gangtok hotel post noon. We had our first surprise at the hotel. The room booked was at 3rd floor and there was no lift! We got to know from the hotel guys that, in Sikkim barring a few hotels, all the hotels do not have lifts. Though he didn’t give a convincing reply as to why is it so. If you are going with elders, do keep this point in mind. You may have to enquire the availability of lift, and if not check for rooms at lower levels.

After lunch and quick rest, in the evening, we went out to MG Marg for an evening stroll. We also met Mr. Wongchuk Bhutia from Blue Sky Tours and Travels, with whom we were interacting to finalize the itinerary. I’ll talk about this gentleman later. We gave him the copies of our ID cards and 3 sets of passport photos. These are required to get us a permit for some of the places in North and East Sikkim.

The MG Marg is a street where people come for shopping. This street also has a lot of restaurants including “pure vegetarian” restaurants so this street is always buzzing with crowd. The day we came here was Saturday. It seems on Saturdays half of the shops will be closed. We bought Tea powders and had dinner at Ananda Bhavan and went back to the hotel for the rest.

Day 2: Gangtok sight-seeing

As informed by the tour operator, we were ready in the morning and a car came to the hotel for pick-up. It was a Maruti Wagon R. You can see a lot of Altos and Wagon Rs in Gangtok used as cabs.

Our first destination was Jhakri water fall. More than the falls, the atmosphere in this place is awesome. It’s green everywhere! We spent 30 mins in this place.

Then we went to Institute of Tibetology. It is a museum to get a glance of Tibetian antics and history of Lamas.

Near to that museum, we went to Chorten Gonpa Monastery.There is a stupa here and also you can see rotating wheels.

After that, we went to Orchid house where you can see a collection of Himalayan Orchids. Frankly, if you have seen Lalbagh in Bengaluru, you can skip this place unless you really want to see these Orchids.

We then went to Enchay Monastery, another Buddhist monastery in Gangtok. We saw monks chanting and praying to God. It was interesting to see people visiting this place were offering different kinds of eatables to the monks including fruits, chips, biscuits, chocolates etc. This place was very peaceful and we spent some time enjoying the atmosphere.

Students playing football

The next stop was Hanuman Tok, a temple dedicated to Lord Hanuman. This place is situated at an altitude of 7,200 ft. This temple is maintained by Indian Army. One has to climb a few steps to reach the temple. It is accessible for wheelchairs as well. Since it is situated at a higher altitude, one can see beautiful landscapes of mountains. If the sky is clear, it seems one can see Kanchenjunga from this place. The sky was hazy and we could not see the mountain.

The next stop was Ganesh Tok, a temple dedicated to Lord Ganesh. One has to climb a few steps to reach the temple. This place is not accessible for wheelchair.

Our next stop was Tashi View Point. We had lunch at a nearby restaurant. Tashi View Point is a popular spot to view the mighty Kanchenjunga mountain. Unfortunately, by this time, it started raining and the sky was completely covered with clouds. We decided to skip this place as it was no point in visiting this if the sky is not clear. It seems, October is the best month to get a clear sky.

The last spot for today was a waterfall. The highlight of this waterfall spot is one can wear an ethnic dress for photos. They charge Rs.50 per dress. Apart from that, it is not really an impressive waterfall.

All these places are a typical tourist places in and around Gangtok. So you can expect quite a big crowd during tourist season. We returned to the hotel and signed off for the day. We knew that tomorrow it is going to be a long drive to North Sikkim.

Day 3: Drive to North Sikkim

Our tour operator asked us to get ready by 9AM. As per the plan, a small car would pick us at hotel and drop off at a taxi stand. Another vehicle (SUV) would pick us at taxi stand for the North Sikkim journey. This arrangement is done as vehicles bearing certain number series are only allowed in certain parts of Gangtok. Of course, this is applicable to yellow board cars only. A lady from the tour operator was with us from the hotel pickup till boarding the SUV vehicle. She coordinated with all the drivers and ensured we do not have to face any difficulty. I specifically wanted to mention this as it was really helpful for us as tourists.

Okay, the SUV vehicle which we got was Mahindra Maxx! I will talk about this vehicle later. But the moment we sat in this vehicle and started our journey, I sensed what we can expect in the journey ahead and hoped the roads should be good enough!

We left Gangtok at 10.30AM. The moment we come out of Gangtok city, the landscape completely changes and wherever you see it is all mountains, waterfalls, valleys and at a later part of the journey you will also get to see snow-capped Himalayan mountains. The scenes are jaw-dropping and you don’t feel like closing your eyes. It is untouched and undisturbed greenery and nature everywhere.

On the way to Lachen, there is a viewpoint to see Kanchenjunga. Again, it was cloudy when we reached this place and we didn’t get the sight of this mighty mountain. On the way, one can also see many waterfalls. Some are not reachable and few are at roadside so you can stop and spend some time.

The plastic water bottles are banned in North Sikkim region. At the checking point, one has to dispose any water bottles (Bisleri kind of bottles) you have. If you don’t dispose and at a later stage if you are caught with water bottles, you will be fined heavily. You can carry Tupperware kind of bottles.

It was 6.30PM when we reached Lachen. Lachen is a small town at an altitude of 9022 ft. In evening 6.30 in a peek summer, it was chilling cold. We had to wear jackets and gloves. Lachen is the base point to visit other places further North. After setting down in the hotel, we were served a hot tea. It was very much needed considering the cold. Surprisingly, there was no heater in the room. It seems heater is banned in North Sikkim as there is a shortage of electricity. Fortunately, geyser is available for washing and bathing. When the hotel people got to know that we are pure vegetarians, they asked us to give 30 mins to prepare food specifically for us. They were very accommodative and they asked what we would prefer and what not. We had a delicious and hot dinner and went to the room for sleep.

When our driver Kumar asked us to get ready by 4AM for tomorrow’s journey, our immediate response was “Are you sure we need to start at 4? Isn’t it too early?”. He smiled and said “Yes Sir, it’s going to be a long and tiring journey so we need to start as early as possible”. He knows better than us and there was absolutely no point in extending the talk further. We just returned to the room, but still wondering why would we need to start at 4?! Well, we got the answer the next day!

Day 4: Visit Gurudongmar lake situated at 17,143 ft altitude

It was freezing cold when we got up at 2.50AM. Without hot water from geyser, we probably couldn’t have even brushed the teeth! We couldn’t even walk barefoot in the room. We were ready by 4AM and so was our driver Kumar. He had started the vehicle engine 15 mins before! At 4AM, the light had started appearing in the sky. The majestic snow-capped mountains were visible from our hotel! Ofcourse, our camera didn’t do the justice, but our eyes had seen enough to be remembered forever! We started from Lachen at 4.30AM. The dawn brought more light to the majestic mountains and valleys and we were spellbound by the sight of the nature which was beyond our imagination and expectation! As our vehicles navigated further towards Gurudongmar lake, the road became more and more worse. We were in a dilemma - whether to enjoy the mesmerizing nature or watch out for bad roads in agony! We choose the former as we wanted to capture every bit of details nature offers in our brain. You will only get a few chances to experience these.

Sometime around 6AM, Kumar stopped at a place which is a small house and a dhabha for breakfast. When we got down from the vehicle, we could feel the chilling cold in spite of all the warm clothes we wore. We immediately rushed into the dhabha. This dhabha is run by a family where they serve maggie, bread butter jam, momos, coffee and tea. They had arranged a kind of fireplace and seats around it for customers to get relief from the cold.

We sat near that fireplace and started feeling better. We ate bread and jam and had hot tea. This dhabha also had restrooms which were neatly maintained. After the breakfast, we continued our journey towards Gurudongmar lake. One has to pass through Thangu valley to reach the lake. The road to Gurudongmar lake is in a terrible condition. As good as saying there is no road. This is where we felt the Mahindra Maxx was a bad choice. A lot of vehicles on this route were Xylos and Boleros. And a very few were Innovas. I’m not sure if suspension factor was better in other vehicles compared to Maxx (considering there was no road). But the journey in Maxx was really not something to even talk about especially on bad roads. As we pass through Thangu valley, one can see a lot of Army areas. We were thrilled to see Army tanks in running condition. Since they had put up boards not to take photographs, we obliged and didn’t get any photos. The Thangu valley offers a beautiful and scenic valleys en route. One can see more snow-capped Himalayan mountains. At the Army check post before the lake, one has to show the permit papers. We saw the Army soldiers and saluted and thanked them for their service. It is because of them, we are enjoying the trips like this. When we are around 3kms before the lake, the road is completely tarred. This 3km tarred stretch is a flat land and you get to see open lands as well as mountains. It was 9.10AM when we reached the lake.

I don’t know how to describe the Gurudongmar lake and surroundings. Should I say mesmerizing?, or enchanting? seductive? Well leave these adjectives. You got to see to experience and believe.

These were my words when I reached this place - "This is a heaven, however the road to heaven is hell !!!"

When I got excited seeing this place, I could feel that I’m finding it difficult to breathe! Then I remembered people saying that the oxygen level is low here due to the altitude of 17,143 ft! One should not get excited and remain calm so that you don’t have to take extra oxygen! I still could experience the effects of “low oxygen”. My 10 years old son was experiencing some kind of inconvenience (may be he couldn’t express it better). We asked him to stay in the vehicle and gave him popcorn to eat. Meanwhile, we were busy taking pictures as well as just feeling the atmosphere. Pictures cannot show you what our eyes can see! Still let me share a few snaps.

One side of the lake had water, and the other side was frozen. One has to descend to go near to the lake, but we didn’t go. We stayed here for 30 mins capturing the photos and also enjoying the scenery and atmosphere. We decided to leave at 9.45AM. My wife also started feeling a headache due to low oxygen. If you are planning a trip to Sikkim, do not miss this place. Yes, the road is not at all good, but all the pain/struggle is worth for this place.

On the return journey, the mind was already set for the bad roads ahead. Even though we were tired, we didn’t close our eyes. We were looking at every mountain, valley, stream and river on the way and trying to capture the nature in our minds. It was post noon when we reached Lachen. We informed our arrival to the hotel people so that they can start the lunch preparation. Meanwhile, we packed our luggage and took a short break. After the lunch, we left Lachen.

To reach Lachung from Lachen, one has to pass through Chungthang. At Chungthang, if you take left, you will head towards Lachung. If you take a right, that road leads to Gangtok. From Chungthang to Lachung, the road condition was much better compared to the one to Lachen. We reached Lachung in evening. Lachung is a mountain village. From the hotel we stayed, we could see a mountain at one side, and the Lachung river at the other side. It was a tiring day, so we had an early dinner and retired for the day.

Day 5: Beautiful Zero Point and Yumthang Valley

The Zero Point and Yumthang valley is close to India-China border, hence the entire area is maintained by Indian Army. It turns out one has to cross the Zero Point check post by 11AM. After the breakfast, we started our journey. The first checkpost is at the entrance of the valley. It turns out one has to cross this before 9.30AM. The Army will verify the permits, and then they will allow. Here also, one will get to see mountains, and valleys along the way. One has to pass through Yumthang valley to reach the Zero Point. As we wanted to cross the Zero Point check post before 11, we decided to spend time at Yumthang valley on the return journey. At Yumthang, there are some dozen shops selling clothes and other items. Here you will also get snow boots, gloves, and jackets for rent. We took boots and gloves and proceeded towards the point. It was 11.15AM when we reached the Zero Point. There was a considerable amount of snow considering it was a peak summer. It was our very first encounter with snow. It was ecstatic! It was slippery and one has to walk slowly. Temperature might have been 1-2 degrees celsius at an altitude of 15503 ft. We spent 1 and a half hour here. There was a guy who was making hot maggie. It was a great relief having hot maggie and hot tea at this freezing temperature. Took a lot of photos.

We left the place post noon. On the way back, we stopped at Yumthang valley. It offers a picturesque view of a valley with a lush greenery and a river in the foreground and mountains in the background. We could see many Yaks grazing in the green field.

We also visited a house where you can see Sulphur hot spring. In this cold temperature, the water was hot enough to take a bath. Of course, we didn’t take the bath considering the conditions of the place.

We returned the boots and gloves, had lunch and started the return journey. On the way back, we stopped at multiple places to take pictures and selfies. We returned to Lachung hotel in the evening. As per our driver, usually people return to Gangtok after visiting the Snow Point. Of course, it would be a very long journey. We had decided to stay back at Lachung so that we can have a relaxed journey. It was a very good decision considering the road conditions, the places and the toil it takes on our body. We relaxed for the rest of the day at Lachung.

Day 6: Back to Gangtok

After a much needed a half day break, we were ready to leave North Sikkim. We had initially planned a short drive to Mount Katao for today. However, the hotel Manager at Lachung suggested not to go to this place as it is not worth at this point of time and the Army would not allow after a certain point. The Mount Katao was not in the itinerary. So if we were going, we have to pay Rs.3000/- directly to the driver. We decided to skip this place.

We left Lachung at 9.30AM. Since there was no place planned, the driver was absolutely fine to stop anywhere we feel like stopping to take pictures! We stopped for a few minutes to get a view of Chungthang dam. We also stopped at Naga waterfall and we had a hot tea at a nearby tea stall. We also stopped at Kanchenjunga view point near Singhik. Unfortunately, it was cloudy and we couldn’t see the mighty Himalayan mountain. It was disappointing to miss this mountain, but I thought - let that be a reason to visit Nepal in future to get a glimpse of this mountain!

We reached Gangtok in evening. We thanked the driver Kumar wholeheartedly. He was soft spoken, always smiling, took a special interest to stop at the vegetarian hotels to accommodate us, and ensured we are feeling safe in the entire North Sikkim trip.

Day 7: India-China border (Nathula Pass)

Our car was ready to pick us from hotel at 8.30AM. It was a Wagon R. At the checkpost at the outskirts of Gangtok, our permit papers were checked. The road to Nathula Pass was in a much better condition. This road also offers a view of beautiful landscapes, valleys and mountains. At one point, there was a landslide, and due to that there was a very slow moving traffic and cars had piled up. It took a while to cross that hurdle. Somewhere before the Nathula Pass, you will get a few shops. We stopped at one such place and had maggie and tea. It was very cold. Here also we bought boots and gloves. We reached a place around 1km before Nathula Pass checkpost and we had to wait for the other party. What basically happens is - in a day only a specific number of vehicles are allowed to Nathula Pass. So multiple travel agencies club together and send tourists in 7-8 seater or TT kind of vehicles. So since we were three, we were clubbed with another family. Since we reached this point first, we had to wait for them. We had the permit papers, and they had the vehicle which is approved to enter. So that means we have to go together. With such arrangements, we had no option but to wait for almost 2 hours. It was very very cold, so we could not even get out of our car. We stayed inside the car and waited.

When the other family came in Innova, we got into that vehicle and moved towards Nathula Pass. Nathula Pass is a trade route between India and China at an altitude of 12,000 ft. Photography is strictly prohibited. If Army jawans see anyone taking photos, the camera or mobile phones will be confiscated. We saw a soldier confiscating mobile phones from many people. I want to highlight something here. When an Army says you are not supposed to take photos, there should be some reason. If we are not obeying that, you are basically not respecting our Jawans. Because of them, we are enjoying our lives and trips like this. If you don’t respect them, you don’t deserve any respect either. My humble request to all the tourists - please respect the rules. It is more important than showing off your photos in social media (sorry if it sounds blunt).

One can see the border gates of India and China. At our side of the border, we can see the tricolor, and the other side the flag of China. At such a cold temperature, our jawans are patrolling and guarding our nation. We saluted them wholeheartedly. We thanked them for all their sacrifices. They were the real heroes, our brave jawans. We’ll always be indebted to them. This place gave us goosebumps! A big salute to the Indian defense force!

There is a designated place away from the border where tourists can take photos. We took a couple of photos.

We came to a place where our driver had parked our car. We were shifted to our car. That clubbing was only for Nathula Pass.

We proceeded towards Harbhajan Singh Mandir (baba mandir). This temple is dedicated to a soldier and is maintained by Indian Army. Considering it will be very cold here as well, one can enter the temple with shoes. We paid our respects to the soldier. Opposite to this temple at a distance, there is a big statue of Lord Shiva in meditation posture besides a waterfall. People can go near to that place. But we didn’t go as we were tired of very cold weather and journey. The restrooms at Baba mandir is in a pathetic state. Wish these restrooms are maintained so that it greatly helps the tourists visiting this place.

We started our return journey. We returned the boots and gloves and had maggie and hot tea (again!). If you are wondering why we are only eating maggie, this is one of the very few options available for Vegetarians! We also visited Tsomgo lake, one of the highest altitude Himalayan lakes at 12,4000 ft. There is a Yak ride available here and our son took a small ride. We just had some photoshoots and then returned to our car.

As we were heading towards Gangtok, we were just enjoying the landscapes once again as today is going to be the last leg of our trip.

We reached Gangtok in evening. We went to MG Marg to meet Wongchuk Bhutia from Blue Sky Tours and Travels. We gave our feedback about Maxx. He understood that he should have informed us earlier and he assured he will consider this point for future travelers. He is a very nice person and was very patient with all our queries. Would I recommend this travels for Sikkim trip? Yes, absolutely! In spite of inconvenience with Maxx vehicle, everything was arranged and taken care, ensuring we don’t face any issues. The drivers provided to us were cordial and more importantly smiling and promptly responding to our queries.

We had dinner at MG Marg and then went to the hotel.

Day 8: Home sweet home!

We started Gangtok early around 7AM. We stopped at a Dosa Point which is run by ex-Army wife. We didn’t have Dosa for a week, so we wanted to have Dosa at this place.

However, Dosa was not that good. We cannot compare it with the dosa prepared in Karnataka and Tamilnadu. The same applies for a filter coffee!

At a couple of places, there were landslides causing a slow moving traffic. For the first time, we saw rocks sliding down to the road. A JCB was in action at the place. My suggestion here: if you are returning to Bagdogra airport, do keep 2-3 hours buffer as you cannot predict the landslides and the delay it causes.

We had lunch just before the airport at a vegetarian restaurant. We said thanks and goodbye to the driver. As the flight took off, our minds started rolling back a week before and how this trip unfolded! The Sikkim which we had only read in blogs, heard from other people, we had just explored ourselves!

If you ask me what stands out in this state, I would say two things: The natural beauty and the people. You have to visit to experience yourself!

Vani Vilasa Sagara Dam - A visit to the oldest dam in Karnataka

noreply@blogger.com (Suresh) — Sat, 31 Aug 2019 13:48:00 +0000

We were driving to Bhadravati to attend cousin's marriage. As Google showed the route via Hiriyuru as the fastest, we were just following that route. At Hiriyuru, our car took a left turn towards Hosadurga. This route was a typical countryside drive with green fields on both sides. The road was in good condition and the traffic was sparse, the light music in the car made it a very pleasing drive.

We might have driven around 20kms from Hiriyuru and we noticed a yellow board at the side which read we have to take a left turn to reach "Vani Vilasa dam" and it is at a 5 kms distance. We had not heard about this dam before. Since it was just a 5 kms deviation, we thought of exploring this place. And our car turned to the left.

After driving for 10 mins, we reached the dam. At the base of the dam there is a temple “Kanive Maramma Temple”. This temple is dedicated to a grama devathe (Village deity). We have to climb a few steps to reach the dam.

As we reached the top, we had to register our name in a book maintained by a policeman. After entering the details, we walked further to get a view of the dam. To our surprise, the view was pretty good. The wind was so strong that it felt like it is pushing us away!

We walked further on the dam to get a better view. One can see the water with hills at the backdrop.

We spent some time enjoying the scene and of course taking selfies and pictures.

This dam is also known as “Maari kanive”. The river which flows here is called Vedavathi. The water from this dam is used to irrigate a large area of central Karnataka. This is also the source for drinking water for Hiriyuru and Chitradurga. This is the oldest dam in the state which was built by the Mysuru Maharajas pre-independence. This dam is named after the daughter of Maharaja Vani Vilasa.

If you are going to Shivamogga or Sagara, you can visit this place en route and spend some time to enjoy the beautiful atmosphere. There is no good restaurant nearby. Either you need to have food at Hiriyuru or at Tarikere. Here is the location of this dam.