travelogue

"D" and "K" said "we typed "daal" not "maal" may be an incorrect auto correction for a hindi word"

2020-09-24T00:50:00.007+05:30

MCB quizzed actresses 'J' , 'N' , 'D' and 'K', investigated their chats, grilled them , however until now, they all denied any contact with any mustard oil or wheat trador, they replied that - we typed "daal" not "maal" , it may be a wrong auto correction for the hindi word. One actress said she wanted to order more and more daal for the lockdown phase , because markets were closed

Why two sanitizers cannot kill virus 100% when they both can kill 99.99%

2020-06-22T01:03:00.009+05:30

TV advertisements on sanitizers and soaps always claim on killing 99.99% germs. So a common question arises why can't the remaining .01 % be killed by using another sanitizer same time.

Well it's a very simple reasoning, the other sanitizers too claim that they can kill only up-to 99.99% of viruses.

So in a random experiment, if one uses two different

sanitizers in same wash. In it's best case scenario, the first sanitizer/soap kills 99.99% viruses, similarly the second sanitizer too as per it's claims gives it's best performance too, and kills 99.99% of the remaining .01% viruses.

So 99.99% of remaining .01 is still 1/9999 or roughly = .00010001000.

So if one uses two sanitizers and both works at their max claimed performance , the total killed viruses will be 99.99 +.0001 = 99.9901 which is still not 100%.

Isn't the math simple ?

Disclaimer : its an attempt to write a mathematical satire

Odd even like scheme for stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana, says Kejriwal

2019-11-19T23:48:00.002+05:30

1 min read.

Odd even scheme for vehicles didn’t help in Delhi, so a similar scheme will be implemented for stubble burning from next year, says CM Kejriwal. This will be a win-win situation for farmers who burn stubble and for Delhi who inhales this smoke all the time. Because farmers are stubborn, they will never stop burning, so we are trying this revolutionary idea , requesting them to burn stubble only on odd and on even days as per their tractor’s registration number.

Poor farmers, who don't have tractors, odd even will be based on total numbers of livestock they have that particular day. Theoretically it should reduce the stubble burn pollution to its half, but lets see said CM.

Disclaimer: Content of this page is a work of fiction. Readers are advised not to confuse this page as being genuine and true.

ऑड-ईवन नहीं अब सिर्फ प्राइम नंबर वाली गाड़ियाँ ही चलेंगी दिल्ली में : केजरीवाल

2019-11-02T16:13:00.001+05:30

केजरीवाल जी ने दिल्ली के प्रदूषण पर कहा है कि - हम प्रदूषण के लिए ब्लेम करने के नए कारण ढूंड रहे है ,अब हमारे पास ग्रीन दिवाली का आप्शन भी नहीं है, अब गणेश चतुर्थी और रक्षाबंधन पर भी लोग पटाखे जला रहे हैं , सरकार को तुरंत आपातकालीन मीटिंग बुलानी चाहिए |

ऑड-ईवन पर केजरीवाल ने कहा कि ये बीजेपी वाले जालिमों ने ओड और ईवन नम्बरों वाली गाड़ियाँ खरीद रक्खी है , इन्ही लोगों ने हमारे प्लान को फेल किया था , इसलिए मैं एक नये फारमूले पर काम कर रहा हूँ , २२ दिसम्बर से वीक डेज़ पर सिर्फ वो ही गाड़िया चलायी जा सकेंगी जिनका नंबर प्राइम नंबर होगा , गणित में प्राइम नंबर को सिर्फ १ से और खुद से पूरा भाग किया जा सकता है | बाकी दो दिन - शनिवार रविवार को ओड इवन वाली गाड़ियाँ चलेंगी !

केजरीवाल जी ने कहा - 22 दिसम्बर को महान गणितज्ञ रामानुजम जी का जन्मदिन होता है , पिछले साल उसी दिन यह आइडिया मुझे आया था | मैं दिल से तो चाहता था की सिर्फ रामानुजम नंबर वाली गाडियों को ही चलने दूँ , लेकिन ये नंबर्स बहुत ही थोड़े और बड़े हैं !

केजरीवाल जी ने आगे खांसते हुवे कहा , प्राइम नंबर इस्कीम चलने से लोगो में मैथ्स को लेकर इंटरेस्ट बढेगा ,आम लोग और ट्राफिक पुलिस, प्राइम नंबर्स कैलकुलेट करेंगे इससे पढाई लिखाई का माहोल भी बनेगा और हमारी दिल्ली प्रदुषण मुक्त होगी ! मंदी के दौर में गाड़ियों की बिक्री में भी तेजी आएगी इससे, लोग प्राइम नंबर वाली नयी गाड़ियाँ खरीदेंगे !

अब दिल्ली का आम आदमी भी होगा जी !

Blank DVD of Manmohan Singh's speeches

2019-09-26T10:55:00.002+05:30

It can be used in following :

Sleeping
Listening to your high command orders
Inside exam halls
Meditating, etc

--CID Sketch artist

Traffic fines eligible for income tax deduction under section 80CC

2019-09-22T00:50:00.001+05:30

In an attempt to provide some relief from hefty traffic fines, government is all set to bring traffic fines under income tax deduction in a new section 80CC.

Chief Income Tax officer Durjan Singh on Wednesday directed Road Transport Department officials to work with income tax department , this is the first step in providing some relief to regular traffic rule offenders , stunt artists primarily students , social activists , bike wheeling kids, ladies, where they can claim tax deductions against their huge traffic violation fines under new Motor Vehicles (MV) Act. This will be applicable only if cumulative traffic fine for that FY (Fine Year not Financial year ) goes beyond 2.5Lakh rupees.

The best part of amendment is , now , repeated violations of traffic rules will not result in cancellation of driving license, such people are continuous source of income for government and police department, they help building nation, said Dr Durjan Singh.


hustle bustle in the life of a NDRF commando

social activist helping an auto to reach gas station

TFA : Traffic Fine Allowance

Primarily, TFA will be decided based on the salary and vehicle's engine capacity in CC. However, there are some other factors that also affect TFA , such as the city, marital status , age , number of children , vehicle model , eating preferences veg/non-veg/vegans etc. In case the individual resides in a metro city, then he/she is entitled to an TFA equal to 20% of the basic + 33% of Engine capacity, more details awaited.Vegans will get 0.5% extra benefit.

--tax guru Shaakal Daruwala

everything above is fake, बुरा न मानो होली टाइप्स , and beware of dogs.

Income Tax efiling Process (ITR1): A Step-By-Step Guide for AY 2017-18

2017-07-23T10:51:00.000+05:30

Income Tax efiling Process (ITR1): A Step-By-Step Guide for AY 2017-18.

So you have decided to file your ITR1 online yourself for AY 2017-18 which also means for the financial year ended in March 2017. It’s a simple process, will take maximum 1 hour, during which you can revise and preview it at least 10 times to check and correct any mistakes if any.

Assumptions:

1. You have, Form16 from your employer.

2. You know about this GOI webpage https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/ and have created a login here.

3. You are aware of 26AS details, to match all TDSs deducted by your employer or from a Bank on Bank FD.

4. You have linked your Aadhar number by visiting this page already.

5. Your Aadhar number is linked to the phone number which is in use and you have that phone operational, because your ITR1 will be verified by an OTP sms sent to this same phone number.

Keep following things ready when you start filing the application online.

Aaadhar number, Form16, details of all your Savings accounts in India with IFS Code

Following are some simple and some confusing junctures where you might need help.

1. Login, choose ITR1, and fill “Part A General Information” tab, this should be very simple, needs no help, no confusions, some of the fields might be prefilled from your previous year’s submission. Click on images to open them bigger.

2. Income Details, row B1 : The confusing part, everyone forgets every next year. But simply read your Form16. Every time one files ITR1, the question comes what to fill in row B1: “Income from Salary / Pension (Ensure to fill such as TDS1”) . Well no more confusions, simply fill the amount mentioned in your Form16 given by employer under section “6. Income chargeable under the head 'salaries' (3-5) “

Sample Form16 copy.

Income Details

3. Income Details, row B2 : So you have a house loan, you can fill the interest paid in last financial year as a loss , and this amount gets deducted from your taxable income, I wish you are aware of this already and had informed or declared to your employer. This amount should be filled with a – minus sign , it has to get subtracted from B1 amount. If you don’t have a house lone , skip filling anything here.

4. Income Details, row B3 Income from other sources: If you any bank FD and got interest in last financial year you need to fill that income here if that was >10000 and mentioned in 26AS page. This amount will get added to your taxable income, because you may or may not have informed about your employer about this in January or February.

5. Tax Details: This tab will have details of TDS deducted by employers and by Banks on any FD.

tax details page

6. Taxes Paid and Verification:

Row D12 calculates some tax is due to be paid or you will get a refund from tax department, because of the new numbers you have filled in ITR1. It can very well be the case , imagine you forgot to inform your employer about home load interest part so you may get refund. In another case one may have a bank FD amount, which should be disclosed here , so liable to pay the extra tax.

taxes paid and verification

If you have to pay some extra tax, which goes into self assessment tax, pay it online , there is separate link for it, the button appears automatically in row D12 , so pay it through net banking. Once paid get the challan number , BSR code etc from your electronic foil, fill those details

self assessed tax

As you add these details , this amount will appear in "Taxes Paid and Verification" page's row D11 (ii) "Total self assessed tax paid". As you have paid all your dues , now amount in D12 should become 0.

7. Preview & Submit: carefully read all your details, take help from more experienced ones before submission. In order to complete the submission, you would want to use Aadhar linked phone to verify your submission at the end.

If you have any questions , you can ask in comments section , I will try to get it for you.

Pune - Aga Khan Palace & nearby random mobile clicks

2012-11-01T13:52:00.000+05:30

This mobile camera photograph collection is from January 2011, our team's hiring event happened at Pune city. On last day of our visit i got this chance to see Aga Khan Palace.

the IT Park where we went for hiring

BB Bankar :)

AGP1

AGP2

utensils used by Gandhi ji

Gandhi Ji's room

kid's play school inside AGP

Thanks for watching...

When in Delhi NCR (why hate it)

2012-08-19T17:18:00.000+05:30

I stayed in Noida for almost 4 years till 2007. In those 4 years of stay I witnessed everyday almost all types of non sense on roads, inside private blue line buses , slow moving DTC buses, on my way to office, pickpockets roaming in buses , local markets , shoes lifter in all temples , lady beggar cum ladies purse lifters etc. No need to mention that I hated Delhi & NCR then and I still stand firm by my statement. Delhi & NCR are one of the worst places to live in India at least if you belong to middle class and are not always travelling in closed AC Cars and you have servants to interact with the locals. Everybody on road lacks basic sense of talking; social manners; they are abusive , loud , forget politeness or courteous or helpful behavior. Not to forget it’s dirty and filth everywhere. Strange to see it’s the home to the President of India, who never walks outside of his estate. But still it’s the National capital, it’s a Union territory and it’s a state by itself, lets forget it , everyone's sleeping.

I went to my home town this July. Unfortunately I have to go via Delhi as it’s the only airport on my way where Bangalore has one direct flight. I got down at the Airport, realized that Airport Express metro line has been shut down. This metro line connects IGI Airport to Delhi Railways station and covers the distance in just 18 minutes; otherwise this can be a 2 hours deal on road. This was one recent thing I liked in Delhi until I heard about the faulty clamps which were meant to derail the metro in time.

Anyways, I not just hate but 'm also afraid of travelling in auto rickshaw in Delhi. You never know when you will fall prey to such one robber’s gang while traveling by auto, you will come to your sense only after one or two days just in your Jockey at Nizzamudin railways station or around Lal quila with other fellow druggers (नशेड़ी), with nothing at all with you.

Because there was no express metro, I didn’t see any DTC bus to ISBT either I asked one autowala if he will go till the main road just outside Delhi airport premises, the distance is around 3 kms. I was thinking, from there I can catch a bus to ISBT. He replied 80Rs, see for 3 KMS he said 80 rupees. I saw one, 2 starred sub inspector standing there (Delhi Police); I went to him and told him that this auto is asking for 80Rs just for 3 KMS , should he not intervene. He shouted at the autowala :abey lek ke Jata kun nahi (Why don’t you go, he is asking for ?) Autowala replied , chalo ji 100Rs lagengey (lets go, fare is 100 rupees ). I laughed, police man looked even more dangerous.

I reached ISBT in around one hour. There I found that UP-Meerut- Uttrakhand buses are operating from Anand Vihar bus station, so I took another DTC bus till Anand Vihar. It was a July afternoon, very sunny and humid. I didn’t find any UP or UttraKhand buses to Haridwar, I actually didn’t see any seats, they were either overly crowded or standing stale. I was continuously hearing tens of voices from private bus operator’s pitchers about AC buses to Haridwar-Meerut –Dehradun. One old man realized it and walked to me, said there is an AC bus just ready to go, waiting outside the bus station, only 350RS per seat. I don’t know why but I got convinced by him and his old looks and asked him about the bus and available seats, probably this was the first time I was getting into some trap I thought.

After some walk, I found the bus; it looked okay from outside, dark window panes it did look like an AC bus. I gave 350 Rs to one very fat, ugly looking person, in return he gave me a fake looking ticket where nothing was mentioned, he signed it but that was just a stupid act. This ticket can nowhere be produced as a proof that you have actually paid the money to that fat ugly man , it didn’t have a seat number mentioned not even a bus number.

I walked closed to the bus, holding my bags in my hands , one teenage kid who belonged to the bus may be a cleaner/conductor asked me for 20 rupees to keep my luggage inside bus. I shouted what ? ? I just paid 350 rs for my ticket and now you are asking for 20 Rs for luggage’s safety. I turned back but the person/agent who trapped/convinced me to travel in this bus got disappeared in the crowd. I felt utterly cheated. I didn’t pay 20 . I looked at the bus from its front, it was a “Semi Volvo Deluxe bus”, what the hell is semi Volvo I said to myself and I went inside, found it to be filled with filthy looking people (if you have travelled on those Delhi-Meerut roads you know what I am saying), they all too looked cheated , sweating , further there were no seats at the front. I fortunately found one at the second last row. Helpless me, I landed there cursed myself for getting carried away by that agent’s promises didn’t realized that I was in Delhi. I believed whatever he sang.

The bus finally started after 45 minutes. It was a total mess from inside, seats were dirty, curtains were stinking, forget any cushions, no hand rests and no push back seats were operable. Because of bus’s excessive suspension at the rear side, in another 30 minutes back rest of a seat just in front of mine broke down which finally made me laugh , I was thinking about India and its Capital city...

Push back rest - before

After

bus aile

~bd

Travel personalities and behaviors.

2012-04-15T09:14:00.002+05:30

The other amazing learning about traveling I think is in knowing yourself, your limits, comfort zones, adaptability be it a seat or a bed given to sleep or the food you get on road or the weather. I said other because you already appreciate new people you see on the way, culture, the history, geography and etc of the places you are covering on the way. And how beneficial such travels are to understand behaviors, people with whom you are traveling, to know their real side, sometimes when they touch your heart or even when their acts deviate from what they always proclaim or through their talks they hurt you and they don’t realize that others are noticing and writing.

I thought I should I write down behavior or personalities I saw in such official group travels. Your list may be long or different but below is what I have observed.

The Kid:

Someone who losses his car’s insurance paper and driving license just before the day of travel, and so making him unable to bring car and puts other car less beggars in limbo. :) Stupidest excuse you see.

The Parasite:

They are like head lice, which infest a creature’s hair and suck blood from the scalp. They don’t bring their tooth paste, deodorant, face wash, sometimes soaps and even towels too. They know that others will.

The Preacher: he will be someone senior in your office, the one who preaches all the time about morality, collaboration, diversity and traveling whole world and art of giving. He will decide and prepare the sitting chart for everyone’s car and will shamelessly put himself in the most comfortable car, rest is diversity. During travel he complaints for AC all the time and ironically shares survival stories he read in various books.

The Looser: The looser is the one who doesn’t own a car, doesn’t have a voice to his choice, adjustable, and sits in the middle seat or at the back seat always. Choosers cannot be beggars.

The Paris Hilton: this applies to girls who think they are extremely beautiful ,so come in their hot party wear and bring tantrums in dusty , long and sweaty travels. I might be a little rude here but who cares and this was important.

The Shopaholic: these are specially the women who say they are earning only to live happy, specially to buy new dresses and stupid materialistic accessories every next weekend. They don’t think buying and wearing new clothes is done for men but it's just for their inner satisfaction. They buy a lot even on travel and can change dresses in filthy pub’s restroom.

The Royal kids: They are the men/women who always like others to wait for them. When everyone is ready and waiting outside to leave, these royal kids are still in their rooms, showers who knows where and they will come at least 30 minutes late. They take time even if they dress in a short, t-shirt and slippers. And they do repeat it almost always, shamelessly forgetting the past. Keep it up.

The best calendar models: They are the real travelers I believe. The moment you try to click any photograph using your personal camera, these models will jump into your frame. And then will force you to take their solo pictures, for face book. Later as a courtesy they will never even ask if you want your photograph too. The moment they get clicked in one camera they will look at someone else camera and jump into their frames.They never bring their own camera, because it’s difficult to take care and bear the pain of holding a camera all the time. And interestingly when you ask them they say, because they already knew others will bring their camera.

The hungry lot: Wherever you go whatever you order to eat these people who you know little will eat a lot from your plate, their will sip from your soup without asking as if you are childhood friends. They think this is cool and this is real bonding. They eat veg and non-veg both types of food , they are simply your manner less friends. Only after their bellies gets filled they will pass you anything, if left in serving plates if you are sitting at the other side of the table, unfortunately.

At the end: I don’t want to put everything in this blog, I have so many things to write, how people behave in such travels. I am sure you too would have observed such things , behaviors in your travels. And I've enjoyed traveling with such great personalities ;).

~thanks

Patriarchy at its finest

2012-03-02T23:17:00.000+05:30

This pic was from some hotel on the way to Chikmagalur.

My Goa Trip (Part III)

2012-02-15T21:18:00.001+05:30

Link for Part1

Link for Part2

Once again I stayed in the same room on day2 as well. Stuff from lunch (crispy King fish and Chicken Chilly) from Anjuna beach already burnt while playing volleyball , football and fun time in beach & waves. No surprise I was tired and hungry like a dead man by evening. I went to room, got freshen up and came out again after sunset. This time I headed directly to Calangute market, ate a plate full of chicken momo in a nice road side shop , two Vadapao , one bread-omelet , bhutta & one plate chole-bhature ½ ltr coke etc, bought some snacks for mid night.

Roadside bars were all packed, mostly by foreigners (I found mostly Russians), Indians youngsters , newly married , elderly old couples, everyone was having real good time in Goa. I never expected anything like this happening anywhere in India. Even in the market area , you see roadside open bars flooded with beer drinkers, smokers, eaters in beachwear, draped in just sufficient pieces of clothes , foreigners setting trend and Indian fellas chasing well. I liked it, music everywhere. I guess Goa has been like this since it's start, just me who visited it now so late :)

I must tell you ,Goans treat their guests very well. I cannot imagine in my worst ever dream foreigners and specially girls (Indians and Foreigner) roaming so casually and safely everywhere in Goa, in bikes, on roads in beaches , very appreciable. next morning (Saturday) I am going to Panjim. I have my bus to Bangalore at 6:50 pm which means I will have whole morning and afternoon to spend in Panjim and to check a few famous places and Churches.

Day3 morning @ Calangute
next morning with my backpack I left this room at 8 am, walked directly to bus stop which is less than a km away. Got a local city bus to Panjim which dropped me at Panjim around 9AM. Its all in the pictures after that.....

near, panjim bus stop

near Panjim bus stop

on the way to Miramar market/beach

great old house, on the way to Miramar market/beach

near Dauna Paula beach

Dauna Paula beach

mobile SBI ATM

near Panjim BusStop

The Archaeological Museum, Old Goa

The Archaeological Museum.

Church of St. Francis Xavier

old war cannon

daylight paparazzi

distraction, Old war cannons

IUnknown

......

photography with a background

Boys Having Fun

Why Should Boys Have all the Fun

Church of St. Francis Xavier

Yours truly & Photographer

Church of St. Francis Xavier

Inside Church of St. Francis Xavier

school days are the best

who clicked it

dosti

Not so Well

excessive modeling is injurious to health

belongs to St. Francis Xavier

@Church of St. Francis Xavier,His Coffin

near Panjim BusStation

Temple,Outside Panjim BusStation

inside bus stop, Panjim

Kadamba travels , my GOA to BLR bus,also the last photograph in this trip.

I hope you liked the photographs, do leave your comments if you didn't like or something.
Else you can also click on this Google's +1 button , it means a lot to me.

~bd

Goa travel (Part II)

2012-02-13T23:37:00.000+05:30

Link for Part1
Link for Part2

Day2 @ Calangute

I stayed in same room at Calangute, terribly tired so slept before 10 PM but woke up early next morning. I didn't want to miss the morning sun and my early morning run. So walked to the beach around 5 AM, had few cups of tea before I began running. It was perfect, to run bare footed on a beach like Calangute, many early morning joggers were already there, and this one elderly foreigner lady who was collecting empty beer and water bottles in her attempt to clean the beach.(i heard her saying stupid Indian people, so correct). Below are some more photographs from Calangute ,Candolim and Anjuna..

as early as 5AM, @calangute beach entry

morning tea at beach

ecstatic morning waves

rising sun

rising sun from behind the huts & shacks

walkers..

morning photographers

halo

ready for Dolphin Darshan

men at work

not so well, nearby my stay..

my stay..

probably around Mapusa

hairstyle

Anjuna Beach

somewhere @ Anjuna beach

@lunch, Anjuna beach

This is the beach side restaurant where we had our lunch at Anjuna beach.strangely when we asked the chef.what seafood we must try, he said he hates seafood's smell :) , however he cooked delicious chilly fish.

amazing lady with her cylinder

@candolim

footballers

golden it was.

helping hands...

tanning@candolim

life@Goa

balance

glorious sun

perfect walk

reflection

band Of Boys

later, i played with these skilled footballers

beach restaurants @Calangute & Candolim

Washing dirty linen in private since 1896

~BD..

Link for Part-I

Link for Part3.is ...here

Please do leave your comments (good oR bad) about my attempt. Else you can also click on this Google's +1 button , it means a lot to me.

Goa is the place (Part I)

2012-02-11T16:54:00.004+05:30

Link for Part2

Link for Part3

I decided to go Goa, but none of my colleagues, friends liked my plan , without any advance hotel bookings, and then I decided, to check if I can roam all alone there. It’s a beach paradise in India, a long and rich colorful coastal line, means romantic beaches but I wanted to verify with own eyes, moreover I wanted to learn how I feel roaming alone for three days with no prior plans.

26th January, India’s Republic, a Thursday this year, a national holiday, so I took off for Friday (27th Jan) and left Bangalore on Wednesday night to stay there for 3 days and 2 nights, booked my tickets through KSRTC, reliable and easy I must say.

BLR to GOA:

KSRTC Volvo, Airavat (non sleeper). Travel date 25th January - 6:50 PM.

total travel time 12 hrs, boarded from majestic bus station, ticket cost ~1300 INR, since I booked only 3 days in advance, and it was the peak season, so its expensive lucky that I got the seat #2

GOA to BLR return (redbus)

Kadamba travels, Volvo (non sleeper). Travel date: 28 Jan – time 6:50 PM, Panjim. ticket cost 850INR, travel time 12hrs.

Because of usual traffic around Majestic area we actually started around 8 PM from BLR and reached Panjim at around 9AM, through Karwar- Mudgaon route.

@Panjim :

Panjim bus station, like any other Indian station, you will find crowded, messy, sellers, vegetables, fruits cold drinks, tea , coffee, everything. Using my hand made map for the places/beaches which I had planned to visit and could be covered in two days, I decide to go to Calangute beach first.

Taxiwala said 500 RS but I knew the place is only 15 kms so I took the local city bus which cost 10 rupees and I experienced real Goa from inside a packed minibus with locals, foreigners (some in beach wears, believe me), fisher women (with basket full of fresh fishes, smelly), tourists, students everybody was in, conductor’s (drunken) dress up, hair, beard & bandana his trembling legs and shivering hands, him running in loops from back gate to front door in out of the bus to collect ticket, plus the old Hindi romantic remixed loud songs, I enjoyed every second of my travel in bus.

near Goa University &Medical college

somewhere before Panjim

somewhere at Calangute

@Calangute Day 1
I reached around 10:30 AM and got a single room on rent @600Rs/Day in someone’s house, hardly 100 meters from the beach. The bathroom was clean, had ventilation, enough water, one bucket, one double bed, neat bed sheet & pillows, glowing Philips bulb, fan what else I need in Goa, got freshen up and went to the beach, rest you can see in photographs.

@Calangute beach

evening sun @Calangute

evening sun @Calangute , beautiful this was

walkers @Calangute

kite flying @Calangute

amazing footballer

@Calangute market

Calangute main circle, loved this place, tons of variety of bikers...

Highlights:

You can get rooms/houses on rent even if its peak season, no advance booking is a fun.
People, drink less water, beer tops the chart.
Get a bike on rent.
Variety of restaurants/foods on the beach in the evening & market area.
Indian fellas please don't come with parents, because skin tanning is performed everywhere, only if you are very sure and comfortable, otherwise plan 'Vaishno Devi' or Somnath , visit.
Strictly recommended for honeymooners, rest can follow too :)
Shopaholics would love it too, beach wears, fashionable jewellery, tattoo etc, I bought few packs of Kaju (cashew nuts), its famous for it as well, 50rs Reyban goggles.
Baga & Candolim beaches are adjacent to Calangute on either sides, a must visit for real beautiful white sand and colors , water sports if you like, I didn't try water sports myself though.
play football, frisbee, volleyball, cricket or other games on beach if you get a chance...

..more pics from anjuna, baga, candolim & other places in next post... PART2

Please leave your comments (good or bad) in my attempt, you can also click on this Google's +1 button, it means a lot to me.

~bd

Gujarat Visit (Part 3) : Gir Lion Reserve

2012-01-17T00:40:00.002+05:30

Click here for Part1

Click here for Part2

Next morning, as promised, Chandu Puri Goswami (Chandu bhai), reached at our Raju bhai’s house around 7:30. I gave him a missed call around and he reached within minutes as he stays nearby in the Prabhas patan area. We are getting ready, packing our bags, had our morning bath , now sipping in tea and and some snacks we carried with us. Gupta ji & family have their train at 9 AM back home to Aamdavaad , so they are ready to leave too. We spent little but nice memorable time together, in less than 24 hours of our stay, together we became like close friends as if we had known each other for years. We invited them to visit Haridwar anytime in future and they asked us to visit their house once we reach Ahmedabad the next day. We exchanged our phone numbers, addresses and said goodbyes and thanks to each other. We offered our final Namaskar to lord Somnath, I too thanked Lord SHIVA for his kindness so I could visit this place with my parents, i am a very unplanned person.

Swayambhu Shivling

Slowly, in Chandu Bhai’s car, we left the narrow lanes of PrabhasPatan and stopped after 4-5 KMs right on the highway , a temple premises on the seashore. On this seashore situated is the, Swayambhu shivling (a natural Shivaling, self-manifested or the one which is created by its own, naturally )
Our next stop was still within Veraval area at the Bhalka Tirtha. This is the famous Lord Krishna temple, the place where Lord Krishna is said to have mistakenly shot by an arrow of a “bheel” who mistook him for a deer. The temple is called as Mahaprabhuji's Bethak.

Bhalka Tirth

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Our next stop was after another 1 hour somewhere in the small town Talala enroute to Sasan Gir. We stopped and had some famous Gujarati snacks ( dhokla, gathiya , fresh namkeen & awesome milky tea ). Chandu bhai is friendly, honest and talkative, all qualities of a perfect guide. I kept asking questions about the villages passing by , standing crops , trees , roads , Narendra Modi ji, perfect roads, house rents in local area, income , life, security , traffic police and happiness in Gujarat and he kept answering all my questions in his style. He loves chewing mava, a local made raw tobacco nicely rubbed n mixed with white lime, in local language called as mava. In every 15 minutes he spits his chewed mava and loads his mouth again with more mava, chewing mava never stops(though he hates if his son chews it in future , one day he will surely, he says and laughs)

I liked the villages and the crops reroute to Sasan Gir, I could sense the prosperity right from the moving car, it was amazing to see almost all types of agricultural and industrial setups. No surprises you are in Gujarat the most industrious, successful and prosperous state of India. Crops of Caster seed plants, Ground nuts , white flowery Cotton, Sesame , Bajara , Mango, Coconut trees and Sugar mill , I was amazed to see the verity of agricultural and industrial progress on the both sides of the road.

Chandu Bhai and me

en route to Sasan Gir

Here we come , Lions!!!

It was already around 11 AM when WE finally reached The Gir Forest RESERVE. The last 15-20 KM stretch to the forest reserve is amazing, as you see jungle on both sides; there are no escapes routes, only one tar road. After 5 or 6 PM no human traffic ,vehicles are allowed , entry is strictly banned. This is the time when King Lion looks out for his dinner. In around 1400 Km Sq area of Gir Reserved some 400+ lions live with other animals. Its mainly a very dry forest with tall dry yellow savanna like grass. If you have liked the thrills of Val Kilmer movie “The ghost and the darkness”, you would love to see such grass and a free roaming Asiatic Lion once in your lifetime. It was weekend and the holiday season in Gujarat, so the place was well crowded, but our Chandu bhai quickly bought three tickets for us (mom, dad and me), lucky we got tickets. Chandu bhai’s nephew drives his bus for the safari here in the Gir. We four boarded the same bus. I was extremely excited for the next 30 minute in Gir, the bus will take us through a predefined path inside the Jungle and if we are lucky we might see the Lions, roaming freely in the jungle, unlike the pseudo caged animals as in Bannergatta National park, Bangalore. The Lions here roam like real Kings in the open air. We saw peacocks, Chital, Neelgai (Bluebull, a type of big Asian Antelope) , one hyena easily.

Neelgai

Deer

our safari driver

Inside the bus everyone was shouting talking crazy to each other, thrilled and excited when suddenly the driver warned everyone not to make any further sound, as we were getting closer to the lions territory. Our chances to see lion were high as he was informed by the forest guards. In daylight especially in the hot sun, lions are mostly inactive and can be found sleeping, resting under shade or inside grass but they can go impatient and get irritated by loud human noise and seeing moving buses. Chandu bhai shared one story from July 2011, to add some more thrill in the air. Around July three men drove their own car into the forest after taking the required permission. Two of these men went crazy after finding the lazy sleeping beauties in the jungle, they came out of their car to get a clearer and closer shot for their lenses and for a lifelong memory. With expensive camera in their hands they bent their backs and slowly walked towards the sleeping, resting, lazy, innocent, silly big cats. Lions didn’t like this day light photo shoot and the bent men , hence jumped over them straight from their sleeping posture. Never underestimate sleeping lions, they are very good actors too. The third person somehow escaped, for god sake he knew driving and Lions got busy in their raw feast.

Lion@ GIR

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Lions@ GIR

Lion@ GIR- sleeping beauties

See, how close the other bus is.

Our memorable moment came, when he suddenly stopped the bus and pointed at the three resting male lions under a tree shade. Rest is garbage; lions are perfectly a deadly combination of beauty and strength. One of them was lying on its back, killing time and yawning. It was such an amazing , natural feeling to see them from such a close distance, he slowly moved the bus further towards them , lions remained on their place , one stood up for a second, looked around took some notes , grunt decently, said “Hi” to us( I bet he saw me ;) and then laid down again. We stayed there for 5 more minutes, silently, I took photographs using 3X optical zoom of my Sony cyber shot and so we moved away and finally came out of the Park. Watching lions like them in a real jungle is a great experience, I bet those two men would have enjoyed that too in july.

From, Gir-Forest we started for Junagarh, meanwhile Chandu bhai’s car’s horn stopped working. We couldn’t get a single car garage to get this repaired until we reached Junagarh. We reached Junagarh around 3 in the noon, so still had a whole afternoon to spend. Finished our lunch quickly and directly moved to visit temple, the city is located at the foot of girnar hills , and hosts many famous temples. On the way to Uperkot Fort, we stopped at the Shilalekh ( Ashoka's Rock Edict ) dates back to some 250 BC. This Uperkot fort is as old as Mauryan dynasty and is said to be build by Chandragupta around 300 BC . I liked the Buddhist caves at the Uperkot Fort; by this time ma and dad were almost tired, so they stayed in the car. We decided to skip “Girnar Tirth” from this trip; it’s a famous Jain Sidhh Kshetra and a holy place for Jainism and Hinduism. Situated in the 3000+ feet high hill range but we were tired and out of energy to cover those around 8000 steps to reach the temple at the peak.

ShilaLekh

Damodar kund @foot of Girnar hill

Damodar@Girnar base

Uperkot

Buddhist Caves, beautiful

Buddhist Caves

photographer

Caves & Stairs

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ColdDrinkwala@Uperkot Fort

But, we still went to see the Zoo at Sakar Bag. Once again in the zoo we saw the Gir Lions along with tigers, leopards, panthers and other inmates. By this time it was already around 6 PM, Chandu bhai dropped us to the Mahasagar’s travel’s pickup point. Our bus to Ahmedabad was at 11 PM. Chandu bhai asked me if I can put his name in internet with his phone number , so if anyone travelling to Somnath , can contact him to book hotel, and in visiting nearby place, like Daman ,Diu, Gir, Junagarh etc. I promised him and we said goodbye to Chandu Bhai , he then left for Somnath.

Well we reached Ahmedabad next morning, booked one hotel room in Paladi area till evening. We were tired so slept for few hours, we thought of visiting ISCON temple but it got closed by 1 PM. We had a fantastic lunch once again at Udupi café , slept for few more hours , then boarded our evening flight to Delhi , reached IGI around 10 PM. Reached Haridwar finally around 2AM next morning via a hired car. With this we finished our fantastic Gujarat travel on time and per schedule. This Sunday I phoned him and informed that I will be publishing his name and number soon within this week. Gujarat travel(Dwarka, Somnath and Gir )and Chandu bhai’ as a local, guide, cab owner, driver are highly recommended

View Larger Map

Best time to Visit Gujarat: Winter season, after Diwali.
Best hotel/guest house to book in Somnath is Somnath Trust.

P.S.

For actual size, click on photographs.
Please leave a comment if you liked the post.

Gujarat Visit (Part 2) : Dwarka, Somnath And Gir Lion Reserve

2011-12-09T22:14:00.001+05:30

JyotirLinga

Click here for Part1
Click here for Part3

It was around 8:30 PM when we reached Dwarka, rushed directly to the hotel room, relaxed for an hour , packed our bags and left the hotel room to catch our bus to “Somnath”. We didn’t have time for dinner plus there was hardly any place available to sit and eat, Dwarka was overly crowded that evening. I went to the travel agent’s office got the tickets which I booked early morning. This time it was in a local travel and it’s not a sleeper coach. We boarded the bus; I brought two vegetable sandwiches, few packets of potato chips and 2 big bottles of water. All seats in the bus were full, and then happened the drama. The travel agent sold more number of tickets then there were seats, many more people boarded the bus, conductor gave them small plastic stools to sit on in the aisle and confirmed their seats. This was the first time I saw something stupid happening in Gujarat in last two days. Passengers who were sitting on the regular seats started shouting at the bus conductor and travel agent and also on to the passengers sitting on the plastic stools about this mess. It was a 2 + 3 bus which now became a 2 + 1+ 3 with loads of luggage kept on the aisle it now looked a Transports instead of “Tour Travels”. I am not hesitant to say that such local travels sucks, to tell you the truth even their bus seats were lousy, smelly, full of dust and shaky and filthy. Before, you ever book your tickets through such travel agents, think twice. Well, whole night went uncomfortably, felt very sorry to my mom and dad about this jungle ride, but then there was no other option.

roadside @ Somnath

We reached “Somnath” “the holy land of Shiva” before 4 AM in morning; I had no idea where to go at this very wee hour. The bus stop was not great, but there were few tea shops open, people like us sipping tea around them. I asked Mr. Gupta where to go now. Gupta ji is of my age, has family business in Ahmedabad, now travelling with his wife and 5 year old kid. We were in the same bus to Dwarka, in the same boat to Bait Dwarka, and now we were in same boat of confusion and finding rooms. All Guest houses and hotels are booked for next couple of days, we found; there is no single hotel room available. There were a few very big guest houses in the same location owned by “Somnath Trust” a charitable trust indeed but every placed was flooded. We tired; walking half asleep entered one such guest house, spread out a bed sheet on the cement floor in front of the gate, and lied down on it to relax our back and legs. Thanks to Gupta family who were at least carrying this bed sheet. By this time our two families had gelled well together, we decided even if we get a single room we all could share it. Just forgot to tell you we are actually very close to the main “Somnath” temple hardly ½ km away. I thought , I really enjoyed this early morning madness, sipping roadside teas back to back at 4 AM, relaxing on this concrete porch in open air with others and later asking everyone, “Hey, Do you know if there is any room available ?“ we even tried adding emotions by saying that we have two ladies and a kid with us. I felt stupid for not booking a hotel room or a guest house in advance; I could see a hairline crack in my fool proof plan.

Temple

Jay Somnath

a park nearby

roadside@Somnath, Prabhas patan, Veraval

beach@Somnath

Gupta ji and I came out from our concrete porch, in search of at least one room, Jab we met one “Auto Rickshaw” uncle who said, he can definitely show us some rooms if we want. We jumped inside his auto and he drove it like a pathfinder in those narrow lanes in this place called “Prabhas Patan”, which is adjacent to the main temple’s premises. He showed us many rooms in residential houses, the owners rent out their rooms in such a peak season. It was anyways a normally looking old colony with very narrow lanes where everyone dealing with tourists for rooms. We finalized Raju Bhai’s single room for 1400 Rs for one night. Auto rickshaw uncle asked 100 Rs and left saying his name as Javed, interesting.

Room was not very big, but we adjusted somehow atleast we got a room to get fresh and sleep. The owner Raju Bhai gave us three more mattresses and clean bed sheets. I slept immediately for around 4 hours and got up at 11:00 AM. Within next 1 hour we were ready for Darshan of “Lord Shiva” the “Aadi Jyotirling Shree Somnath Mahadev”. The temple premises are just a hundred meters away so it took just 5 minutes. We went through a long queue, arrangement to control the crowd, the devotees are better here than they are in Dwarkadheesh temple. The temple is located right on the Arabian Sea’s shore; the waves in the sea, to me appeared as a great wall paper placed at the temple’s background.

The current temple was re constructed post independence, when “Sardar Patel” decided to bring temple’s glory back, which was seen as an attempt of reversal of past injustice done to Hindus in India. I hope you know the sad history behind it; the same temple was destroyed several times by many Muslim Invaders and later reconstructed by Indian Hindu Kings. As per Wikipedia in 1701 CE, the temple was finally destroyed by “Aurangzeb”, who built a mosque on the site of the temple; the Hindu sculptural motifs remained visible in the mosque. Finally around 1783, temple was rebuilt again at the same site, which reconstructed by Sardar Patel and later M.M Munshi (started after 1947). It’s past glory, Hindu legends and importantly the unfortunate history of so many demolitions and reconstructions forced me to visit Somnath this year. I was rather angry and frustrated than happy being at Somnath at our history previous generations, kings, Indian Rulers who were always divided among themselves and could not stop invaders from looting this holy Land. Even in 2011 today things have not changed much , the current rulers the political parties are virtually doing the same thing, the invaders are still here…

Well, we finished our Darshan, took our lunch and returned back to our room at Raju bhai’s house. Meanwhile we lost Gupta Family in the crowd, could not contact them till evening as their cell phone got discharged. In the real world India was playing ODI home series against England, luckily we had a working TV in our room. In the evening, we three went to Chowpati , the beach, adjacent to temple.

roadside

Did I tell you that Somnath temple comes in “Prabhas Patan” area, which is in Veraval town, which is under “JunaGrah” district? When Gupta ji & family returned around 10PM in the evening they narrated the places they visit during afternoon “all nearby temples, “Bhalka Tirth”, Diu and the safari at Gir Lion Forest reserve.

beach@Somnath

beach view

camel ride @beach,Somnath

They met an interesting person who was the Cab owner and driver and showed them these places. We booked the same cab for next morning till evening to visit nearby temples in Somnath, Gir Forest and “JunaGarh”. From JunaGarh, next day we have our late night bus to Ahmedabad. Our second day ended calmly without any more surprises. “Chandu Puri Goswami” the cab owner, will give us a call at 6 AM next morning. Goodnight and till then “Jay Somnath”.

link for Part1

~bhupendra

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Gujarat Visit(Part 1) : Dwarka, Somnath And Gir Lion Reserve

2011-12-04T20:30:00.001+05:30

Click here for Part3

Visiting Dwarka (the second home of Lord Krishna) and Somnath (one of the holiest dwadash Jyotirlinga, of Lord Shiva, in Part2) with my parents was my long term dream which finally came true this Diwali. Considering the fact that most of me is very lazy in advance planning, I got tickets easily during Diwali season, which is a big celebration time in Gujarat. Everything went comfortably smooth without us getting tired during such a long journey covered in those 5 days where we traveled 1800+ kms on road and 2½ hours in air (Delhi- >Ahmedabad -> Delhi). “Jai Shree Krishna”.

We started our journey from Haridwar on 27th October early morning and Delhi being our first stop. It’s the very next morning after Diwali, perfect time to travel northern India. We reached Delhi Railway station and then IGI Airport at around 1:30 PM to catch our 5PM flight to Ahmedabad.

Our plan for next 4 days was like this:

Day1: Reach Ahmedabad by evening on 27th, the same night start to Dwarka, the land of Krishna.

Day2: Reach Dwarka on morning of 28th, take rest and visit temples, meet lord Krishna and visit surrounding places whole day, and start for Somnath on 28th night.

Day3: Reach Somnath, (the holy land of Shiva) on early 29thmorning, take rest, visit temples and surrounding places, stay in Somnath on 29th night.

Day4: on 30th Start for Gir forest reserve, be lucky to see some lions, visit temples and places in Junagarh. In Junagarh, catch night bus to Ahmedabad.

Day5: Reach Ahmedabad on 31st morning, take rest, visit ISCON temple, Akshardham temple etc if time allows and in night fly back to Delhi. Reach Delhi; catch a bus/car/train to Haridwar/Hardwar ( हरिद्वार )

I thought I should share the etymology of the word Haridwar. “Hari” ka “dwar” and “Har” ka “dwar” both make sense and have great significance. In Sanskrit “Hari” means Lord Vishnu who resides in Badrinath Dham and Har means Lord “Shiva” who lives in “Kedarnath” . So, Haridwar means "Gateway to Lord Vishnu" and Hardwar stands for "Gateway to Lord Shiva". So, to reach Badrinath and Kedarnath, Haridwar is the place to start your pilgrimage.

tour de gujarat

Our flight landed at around 6:30 PM at Sardar Patel Airport in Ahmedabad. There is a direct train between Ahmedabad and Haridwar but takes close to 20hrs. If you have enough time and you are big group then there is no better way than railways to do overnight journey , provided you have tickets and reservations which are more like lottery tickets now a days. We hired a prepaid taxi from Airport to “Paldi”. Paldi is the place where most of the private bus operator offices are located. I had booked our bus tickets to Dwarka using Redbus website around 20 days prior to our travel, ours was Patel travels sleeping coach.

Udupi
Cafe Menu

Bus’s departure was at 11 PM so we had ~3 hours for our dinner. We left our luggage at the Patel’s office , I was quite impressed , the booking person politely said don’t worry about your baggage’s and I realized we were in Gujarat , a different state , different culture than other northern states .We found a nice restaurant/cafe near the Paldi traffic signal. It was “Udupi” café/restaurant, a clean place ,little bit crowded but they served delicious food a real value for money. Even small time restaurant in Haridwar are almost twice as expensive as Udupi café @ Paldi.

*DWARKA* is derived from 'Dwar', a door, and in ancient times its flourishing port was considered to be the gateway to the main land. As 'Ka' means 'Brahma' meaning, gateway to Moksha. So our sleeper bus started on time and reached Dwarka town around 6 AM. Road from Ahemdabad to Dwarka was fantastic , around 450kms we covered within 6 hours that’s amazing, if you want to hear , till 1 year back it used to take me around 7-8 hours to cover 200KM from Delhi to Haridwar. That’s where gujarat is shinning. Good roads, good transport , fast connectivity leads to great business.

This was Diwali season so tariff surged even in small time hotels and loadges. We found a hotel , hired a room till 10 PM in 1400 Rs ,it was small but a neat place, recently built. We rested till 10 AM , got freshed , had breakfast in a tea shop , fantastic “Milky tea”, Jalebi , hot Gathia &, dhokla, what else do u need in a place like this.

street @dwarka

@dwarka

Dwarkadheesh

The main Dwarkadheesh temple was nearby so we walked. It’s a very small town, so narrow are the lanes, similar to any other holy Hindu town in India.A walk takes you back in past , many people I saw dressed in typical white or in bright yellow , green , orange clothes just like another “Gopalak” you see in those movies and TV serials.

I could feel the “Krishna Magic” in air everywhere. Camera, cell phones were not allowed. These prohabited gazzettes were kept safe in their locker rooms outside the main temple’s premises. We then entered the Temple through a long queue passing a security check, finally after waiting for 30 minutes in that crowd in the main Hall. The hall looked like a human sea, worshipers standing on their toes to get "darshan" of their beloved “Madhav Murli Manohar”.

gomti river

Loud chants of “Krishna the Mahayogi” were easing out the long waits for doors to open and curtains to fall while it was becoming difficult to stand in that human pool. And meanwhile few “nutkhat” devotees were trying to enter and join from sides which others didn’t welcome. We had a quick darshan and then came out of temple. Took a walk nearby , had lunch and went back to hotel room till 3 PM. After 3 PM we were part of a guided tour package to visit Beth Dwarika ,Okha, with others in a bus.

On the way we visited “Rukmani Mandir”, “Nageshwar Mahadev”(a dwadash Jyotirlinga), “Gopi Talav”. I loved the legends behind Ruksmani mandir and Gopi Talav. Our guide was Brahmin/pandit cum guide an interesting person. He narrated these stories and everyone in bus believed him.

Gopi Talav

One legend for Gopi Talav(pond) says, Gopikas were unable to live away from Krishna, offered their lives to the soil of this pond , merged into the soil and turned into yellow clay, known as Gopi Chandan. The soil of the Gopi talav is smooth and yellow in color. It can be bought outside the Talav(pond).

Our guide shared a different legend which is , because thousands of Gopikas flooded to Dwarka to live with Krishna. Overwhelmed Krishna asked Arjun to send them off back to Mathura. Arjun agreed, but he was a bit arrogant on his DhanurKala(archery skills) so Krishna thought of teaching him a lesson. So he magically created some tribe people (bheels) to give Arjun a tough time on his way while he was accompanying by several thousands of those gorgeous Gopikas. Poor Mayavi bheels defeated Arjun and claimed all gopikas , so out of shame all gopi jumped in to this pond and got converted into gopi Chandan.

Rukmani temple

For Rukmani temple the leagend was narrated by the main priest, it says , once Lord Krishna and his wife Rukmini went to invite Durvasha rishi (sage) at Dwarka. Rishi agreed but on a condition that, if Krishna and Rukmini pull the chariot, later while pulling his chariot, thirsty Rukmini drank water without offering it to Durvasha. So the insulted Rishi cursed Rukmini that she would be separated from her beloved husband. Hence Rukmini temple is located few kms away from main Dwarka mandir. And just FYI as per the priest this is the only Rukmani devi temple in the whole world.

Rukmani temple, CFL

Rukmani Devi temple's holy water

Nageshvar Temple

Nageshawar : Located on the way between Dwarka and Bait Dwarka. It is one of the twelve swayambhu (self-existent) jyothirlingas. The 25 meters high Shiva statue in the temple premises can be seen far from the road side.

It’s also known as “Nagnath” temple and represents the removal of evil activities from earth and has myths about its origin.

Our Guide.

Finally we reached Okha, a small coastal town , you can see fishing village, colonies on route , the dead dried fishy smell welcomes you in this Naval town. Bait Dwarka (भेंट द्वारका ) is located on an island; local boats do ferries between Okha port and Bait Dwarka. We boarded one such boat, getting on to this boat was little scary actually, it was around 5 PM , Sun started setting down ,the unbarricaded down stairs to the boat were overcrowded, a slight stumble by any foot could have lead in a deadly stampede , I opposed to go but no one wanted to leave this opportunity to visit Bait Dwarka after coming so close. Ticket was cheap 10 Rs/person so was around 200 lives. We finally reached the other side of sea , visited the place, "Bait Dwarka temple" and returned Okha in total total dark in a different boat this time. It was scarier this time ; everybody pushing each other and wanted to board the boat first . To add more anxiety the boat’s ~~driver~~ captain stopped it in the middle of sea in dark. Unless ticket collector finishes collecting rupee 10 from each passenger Captain refused to move the boat, now this act was horribly cheap. most of us were in panic as we had buses to catch from Dwarka and it was getting late in the middle of the sea.

@boat, see the captain

port from boat, a waiting human sea

'Bait Dwarka' main gate

boat while returning from bait dwarka, it was a real bait

We finally reached Okha port, ran to reach our mini bus in that pitch dark parking. Dwarka was still 30 KMs away. From there we had to catch bus to “Somnath”. So a very tiring day well spent in visiting so many important holy places in Lord Krishna’s town.

Next day it’s Somnath , in Part2, till then "Jai Shree Krishna.Please do leave your comments (good oR bad) about my attempt. Else you can also click on this Google's +1 button ,below. It means a lot to me.

Team outing: "The Serai" Chikmagalur-Part2

2011-10-06T01:59:00.000+05:30

Day2:
Glorious morning:
The next day when I woke up , the bright morning sun was already shining through our cottage’s big glass window. It was indeed a very beautiful morning we had experienced lately, when no bad thoughts of getting up early, no traffic, no office, and no work, only concern was to celebrate every moment in that stay. Then it was around 8 AM when I completely left the bed, one of the roommates was already getting ready and another was busy preparing coffee. It was surely a morning we had the privilege to experience sun rays, of listening to birds’ chirps against our everyday electro-mechanical crazy noises around us. We had this luxury of having personal small swimming pool in our cottage. So directly from my bed after a few photo clicks, I jumped into this pool, stayed there for 30 minutes , lied on that big mattress for some time and finally got ready for 2nd day's activities.

In all other cottages where our team was staying, similar things were happening. From cottage’s boundary wall, we could see outside , our teammates running, cycling, posing for camera’s, walking in the coffee plantation, previous day’s (click Day1) tiresome activities had very little effect on our enthusiasm and energy levels. Even after our day1’s volleyball session which went for at least two hours that too in rain, no one had caught cold or fever. Such are the benefits of playing hard, raising the bar and testing your limits, especially when done collectively as in a team. We were told to assemble at 9AM, after the breakfast for tracking to the Mullayanagiri peak. So quickly we got ready, in shorts , T shirts ,shoes, caps , my friend packed his monstrous SLR camera, wrapped it in a plastic cover first and then inside the backpack. Plastic bag, in case it rains on the way. Soon after the breakfast we boarded the bus, which would drop us some 8 KM before the Mullayanagiri peak. Then we would go by walk right up till the top. There was an alternate actual short-cut-track as well but ours was planned for the road track, which was safe for novice like us who live in apartments and use lifts. If you ever get a chance to visit Chickmaglur then you must cover this trek if you have time. Just make sure you carry enough water and some light snacks to eat up there, if you are planning to cover those 8 KM by walk. We forgot water and snacks both. The breakfast we had in resort was burnt in the initial 4 KM rest 4 KM we covered by burning our preserved fats.

Walking those 8KM in that serene and scenic road in a group was fantastic, everyone covered it successfully, drinking water did become a scarce resource for some time until we reached the top, which has a temple and a small police control room in same compound ( I believe a wireless control room). On the way, our little group got little confused and climbed(conquered) a different peak hence lagged other groups by around 30 minutes, so when we reached at the peak , at the temple most of our team mates were already started descending.

This peak is the highest point in the Karnataka, 6,330 ft. The last phases to reach this temple compound at this peak are some 200 stairs , this is the place when you meet the clouds, as the altitude increases the wet clouds and the strong windy blow hit your body , you be careful and watch out for your steps there are no barricades surrounding the stairs. I must share this as well; the wind was so strong that it sometimes pushes you up in those stairs but sometimes it might blow you across the hill as well, visibility was poor too in day time and so you got to be careful in those stairs.

Meanwhile we found a place in the temple compound where we had two rounds of hot black coffee it tasted as the best on earth then, it was indeed. It was little bit cold, wet and cloudy so the coffee re-energized us. Someone talked to those holy men and asked if we can get something to eat. They said rice - Sambhar can be the only choice if we have 15 minutes, only rice had to be cooked Sāmbhar was almost ready. We now a group of five hungry guys, thought and decided to wait for 15 minutes. 15 minutes IST (Indian stretchable time) became 45 minutes, but we decided to wait. Bus would wait for us and still 8 KMS to cover down the hill was our main concern. But our hunger won and we ate rice and Sāmbhar of our lives, cooked by holy men (may be police men, I don’t know, they were wireless operator people) we gave them 300Rs for 12 coffees and 5 life saving rice-Sāmbhar plates. Everyone was happy at the end. Soon after this we started our descend and covered the stairs and further one KM very fast, to everyone's relief we saw one of our colleague came to pick us in his car. Six healthy people somehow adjusted in that Alto car, one sat back in that open diggi. Three cars were used to ferry people in groups from the stairs to the bus stop.

Back in resort:

We finally reached to the resort at around 3 PM, rushed directly to the dining hall, ate a lot again and went to our cottages for shower thereafter . Evening started once again with various activities some cricket and some football practice using the same volleyball, spent some time in kitchen garden and from there directly went to the main swimming pool, gave some swimming lessons to few others, and stayed in there till 8 pm, it was really a great fun. The resort had planned a treasure hunt activity for us which got cancelled finally , public was either tired or busy in their own engagements , drinking, billiards table , cycling, roaming around , dinning , photography or chatting in cottages. Night came and so came the end of day 2, tomorrow morning we are leaving for Bangalore, we have a plan to visit Belur temple which is somewhere on the way.

Next day once again started with a sunny morning; I repeated my stay, exercising in this private pool for 40 minutes which was a luxury in a way. How often do you get your own pool in India in your backyard. Finally around 10 AM after breakfast we left the resort and started for Bangalore, stopped directly in Belur town. It was the capital of Hoysala Empire in early 12th century and is now famous for Chennakeshava temple for its beautiful Lord Vishnu. The temple compound has beautiful sculptures everywhere considered as one of the finest examples of Hoysala architecture. The pillars, the carved three dimensional sensuous dancers everywhere in the temple walls are unmatchable, really spell bound. The guide we hired gave a quick guided tour of temple. I bet you search more history and facts about this amazing temple. We spent around 1 hour in the temple, stopped once again on the way for lunch somewhere in kamath hotel. It was a just okay lunch. Finally we reached Bangalore at around 5 PM and there ended our fantastic trip to "The Serai". So are you planning to visit Chikmagalur ? Please do visit this album below by clicking on this image, and leave your comments at the end.

ALBUM: "THE SERAI" , CHIKMAGALUR & BELUR

Team outing : "The serai" Chikmagalur-Part1

2011-09-29T21:30:00.000+05:30

It is from our office OBL trip (Out Bound Learning) happened in mid September this year. Local experts from our team selected “The Serai” resort in Chikmagalur district as the place for real unwinding. Chikmagalur is around 250km away from Bangalore on the National Highway NH 47 between Bangalore and Mangalore, I believe on the same latitude as well. Our stay was planned for 2 nights and almost 2 days. Outdoor, indoor activities, eating, drinking , volley ball, cricket, swimming pool, tracking/walking to “Mullayanagiri” peak highest of Karnataka , coffee resort visit & photography off course, everything was in our itinerary.

the blue sky

So the day came as a clear Thursday morning, at around 8:00 AM we all left for Chikmaglur from the office. We had booked an AC bus for around 45 people, others decided to come by their own vehicles. Bus was not bad, but the conductor wasn’t very good though, he kept switching off the AC in between. Bus had a nice DVD player with a good flat screen TV , okay speaker system and I was carrying “Andaz Apna Apna” movie DVD with me. This movie, dumbshellarts , antakshri and introduction by almost everyone (tenured , freshers ) kept the whole bus awake, loud and laughing.

After some 90km from Bangalore we stopped for a 30 minutes Tea break at “Mayura” restaurant. The place was fairly clean and big enough to accommodate all of us. The service was quick, everyone ordered idli-vada & tea and they served it in 5-10 minutes. Here and there a few camera clicks happened, group photographs from different angles and we started again.

bus@entrance

entrance

@entrance

reception

beauty

rain

side view

In almost six hours we reached “The Serai” at around 2 PM. The resort’s entrance is phenomenal; the big tall trees at the main gate give it a perfect forest reserve look. It felt as we were entering into Jurassic park movie ;). It started drizzling as we reached the resort gate, which added glamor to our arrival. So from our bus to reception(roughly 20 feet), we were escorted by the hotel staff under the big brown/white umbrellas. Individual cottages were planned for a group of three people. Resort staff carefully handled luggage and sent them to our allocated cottages meanwhile most of us went to the dining hall for lunch and some were already in the swimming pool. We had a pretty decent lunch, north Indian, south Indian, veg , non veg , desserts with light English instrumental music in the background. As the resort is a coffee plantation, through the dining hall’s big glass panes you can see, coffee plantation, trees, and greenery everywhere. Really you can feel great about your relaxed eyes, far away from your computer screens.

Into the cottage

towards cottages

After the lunch many of us went to our cottages and some went to the swimming pool , while it kept raining. Every cottage has a separate entrance which has a nice wooden gate. You enter your cottage and get your own personal 10feet X 18feet X 5 feet deep swimming pool, which has a porch, where you can relax on that big mattress lying there after your swim.

the big pool

The room in the cottage was a big enough place for three, had a big cozy bed for two and an extra bed for the third person. The front and side walls of room had two big glass panes fitted windows , had curtains for sure, and can get to see the rising morning sun from your bed. One 40” LCD TV, DVD player one mini bar an electric kettle and other stuff for coffee and tea. Two big wooden cupboards, an electronic safe for valuables. Now comes the grand part, the bathroom. It was big place, had big mirrors all over, one open bathtub, one toilet and a shower room with no walls in between, only glass partitions and no curtains, please don’t mind. The bath tub and the shower area had no concrete/opaque walls from outside too, so you get to take help of plastic curtains over the glass. Don’t worry each cottage is surrounded by high walls; the bath area was neat perfectly well illuminated by sunlight and artificial lights. You will really enjoy your time there. One of our roommates called his stay in the hot water in that bath tub as bath of his life.(please see the photographs at the end)

cottage for three

inside

bathtub & glass walls

your own pool side

Day1: Evening

We rested in cottage for few hours; every stupid talk in that serene silence appeared as some sacred poetry. In the evening some of us played volley ball while it was still drizzling, few were busy in indoor games room, some jumped into the pool , few went for cricket, rest either enjoyed their drinks, beers till dinner or slept in their cottages. An enjoyable place seriously , has lots of activities for everyone to do indoor outdoor, around the resort, kitchen garden walk, you can do cycling on the track around all the cottages ,you can enjoy in the kids play area , has some small rides for kids too. The place can keep you busy for a week I bet.

pool@every cottage

cottage view

volleyball & cycling

drizzling it was

that's me in the big pool

pool in day light

If you really prefer fresh air walk there is a lot of walking involved, the whole coffee plantations is in around 80 acres, carry a pair of sports shoes, socks, waterproof jacket, cap etc, it rains frequently during August and September so you need more dry shoes and socks .

open air gym

open recreation room

kids play area

carom @Indore

Foosball table @recreation room

Late in the evening we had some common team activities, interactive introductions by new employees, musical chair followed by crazy indoor kabbadi in that games room. Few people were still having their drink sessions going on while rest finished dinner.Some of us again had TT matches late night. Back in the cottage it went till late night, playing cards and gossiping. So we spent our first day with in the resort nicely , turned out to be a very memorable and exciting experience.

coffee beans

tiger spider

and beautiful sunset

We had to wake up and got ready by 8 AM by next morning for the “Mullayanagiri” peak tracking.

I hope next time I go there I will spend a bit more time around the cottage, lying idly in that silence, very relaxing for body and soul...to be continued.(Day2)

the serai

regards,

bhupendra

Please leave a comment if you liked the post.

album "The Serai - Chikmagalur"

Delhi Airport Express Metro & Windows Phone 7

2011-07-08T23:50:00.008+05:30

Last Sunday I was at New Delhi railway station’s Metro Station, to catch the “Delhi Airport Express Metro”. The Metro train had arrived and I was entering in to the coach then all of a sudden, I heard this announcement “Ladies and gentlemen, we have found one black colored cap at the ticket counter , whoever has lost it please collect it from us”. I was already thrilled by the construction at this Metro station, the corridor for Airport Metro route is unbelievably clean, as if any Ameriki airport metro station would be. From New Delhi Railway station to IGI Airport it takes exact eighteen minutes. Forget the chikchik of autowallas, nasty traffic, around 18 Kms in 18 minutes, that too in an AC coach what else an Indian can ask for, from corrupt everyone. Now, about the ticket cost , only 80 Rupees so it’s worth a ride even if you are not going to IGI Airport, have a ride if you are in Delhi anytime.

I wasted several micro seconds here and there and then finally clearly understood the announcement; it became clear and sounded familiar when the smart announcer added that Microsoft Windows Phone is printed on this cap. Without wasting any further nano seconds I jumped of the coach took a U turn and ran upstairs as fast as possible before any fellow Indian reaches there and claims for the cap. I reached near the barricades , I couldn’t go back till the ticket counter , so shouted “excuse me” and then waved my hand towards the metro employee at ticket counter , one girl (employee) came , smiled and handed me my windows phone 7 black cap. I thanked her and appreciated for mentioning “Windows phone 7” in the announcement else I must have not paid attention and would have lost it.

My take away from there, other than WinPhone7 cap was, memory of a world class Metro station, their service, attentive, smart and honest, young customer focus employees. Indian Railways should learn some lesson from Metro, and Mr. Sridharan. Nothing is impossible.

Link : Delhi Airport Metro

~bhupendra

my black cap

Inside Metro

Trip To Pondicherry

2009-01-27T16:12:00.050+05:30

Day1:

We started our Pondy trip against all odds, it was the same day (morning) when terrorists attacked Taj hotel in Mumbai and on the other side cyclone Nisha was roaming, waiting for us on the eastern coast. But we the VC team at Microsoft didn't give up and continued with our preparations and plan. We had our reservations on a KSRTC Volvo bus which started on time from Majestic bus station early in the morning. In between we stopped only once for lunch, had "Kerala Paratha", omelets and chais. It kept raining all through the way to Pondicherry; and finally when we reached, the city too welcomed us with drizzling, and an overcast sky and empty roads, some of which were water logged.

After having one small fight with auto-rickshaw men we finally reached our hotel ,Lotus Comfort, rested there for around an hour. The hotel is a best value for money hotel I must add here. It stopped raining for a while , so we came out fresh in search of hotel Rondeywoo(spelled Rendezvous), famous for its french cuisine ,however what we ate there was more of the Indian side than French.

We thought of hitting beach in the evening but were barred by the security personnel, the sea was overflowing onto the Pondy's beach side roads we could easily see the water. While returning to hotel, some of us decided to walk along the street through the French colony, walk is always preferable after such a heavy meal. This walk gave us one more chance for tea ,coffee and gossips at a road side stopover which seemed pretty popular, judging by the crowd gathered there for T. The T always taste better and less with our Bollywood gossips. It started raining heavily once again, and we were left with no option than to quickly huddle ourselves back into the auto-rickshaws and to head back to the hotel. It felt like a very long day around 9 PM when most of us decided go off to sleep.

Only four of us - Shekhar, Ravi K, Ganesh and I were alive and agile enough so we played cards till 2 AM and our night ended discussing ghosts, accidents and other scary experiences we had. I heard someone saying that " L it would have been better if we had stayed in Bengaluru, Have we come here to play cards?

Day2:

God always listens to our deepest prayers, and he didn’t let us down this time either! Day 2 was transformed to a magical clear day no rain at all. We started our morning by heading to the Promenade and later heading for the sandy Aura beach and subsequently Auroville city. Auroville, work on which started in 1968, is a must see in Pondicherry and is also called the 'Universal Town'. People from across the world, with different nationalities (around 50), backgrounds, beliefs and culture live here in perfect harmony. You can buy souvenirs and taste good organic continental food here, and great desserts. One day is definitely not sufficient for Auroville.

Matrimandir is the major attraction here, and it is a 30 meters high golden sphere. Honestly a must watch. It's the place for trying to find one's inner self, a place to learn to concentrate. Silence is maintained inside the Matrimandir to ensure the tranquility of the space and entire area surrounding the Matrimandir is called Peace area. However visitors need to do an advance booking if planning to visit inside the Matrimandir golden sphere. Unfortunately we missed visiting this on this trip.

When we returned to the main city from Auroville, some of our born shoppers headed straight for the shopping centers. It’s worth mentioning that those who didn’t want to shop, but take some rest instead were not so lucky - one of the auto-rickshaws we hired met with an accident. Fortunately no one got injured. The trip wouldn’t have been complete without this scary experience, specially post our conversation from the previous night. We didn't have much time left for our 11:30 PM bus to Bangalore so we quickly had our dinner and headed straight for the Bus stand. This brings to end our short, but excitement and fun-filled trip to Pondicherry.

..bhupendra