A Matter of Time

Hong Kong: Tour Guide for Indians

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 03:13:00 +0000

Places to see in Hong Kong for Indians( 4-5 Days)

Hong Kong:

Victoria Peak: Victoria Peak is one the main tourist attractions in Hong Kong. You can go to Victoria Peak from Hong Kong Station or from Central Station by either taking a Taxi or by walk to the Peak Tram Terminus down side of the peak. There is a Tram which goes uphill and is very famous from a tourist point of view. Up there is Madam Tussad’s Wax Museum which is a must watch if you haven’t seen that yet. There is also a Viewing Terrace called Sky Terrace which offers spectacular views of Hong Kong Harbour. You can shop something from the Peak Market if you need anything as a souvenir. It’s generally expensive as compared to Mong Kok Market.

Ngong Ping 360, Big Buddha, Po Lin Monastery: This place is near Tung Chung MTR (Metro) Station on the Tung Chung Line. Tung Chung is the last station on this line and the Big Buddha Terminus is located very near to the station. There are Cable Cars going to the peak where the Buddha Statue resides and its worth to take the Return Cable Car Tickets from the Terminus. You can club your Cable Car Tickets with the 2 Shows Monkey Trail and “Walking with Buddha” in your tickets to make it a Value Pass. There is a Vegetarian Monastery up there and the food is generally nice there. Also there is Ebenezer’s Kebabs which has Indian Food there. You can go to Tai O Fishing Village as well if you wish to see a floating fish markets and a few Dolphin Sightings if visible that day.

Citygate Outlets Mall: This mall is located just outside the Cable Car Exit from the Big Buddha so it deserves to go here after your trip on your return. Its a collection of large Brand Outlets and offers 40-70% discount on all big brands sold here in Hong Kong. There are cheap Esprit and Giordano shops which are good for retail shopping.

Hong Kong Disneyland: Disneyland is located near Sunny Bay Station on Tung Chung line of the MTR. It takes 20 mins to reach Sunny Bay from Hong Kong Station. You have to change train to Disneyland Resort line from the Sunny Bay Station to reach Disneyland. The tickets for Disneyland are 399 HKD per person. Recommended is enter around 10:00 Am and stay back till 9 PM to enjoy the Fireworks in the night.

Ocean Park: It is Largest Water Park in Hong Kong. It is located in Kowloon and you can take a Taxi from anywhere to reach the place or take an MTR to Admiralty Station on Island Line and take the Bus to Ocean Park which takes 20 mins to reach there. The tickets are around 175 HKD per person and the main attractions inside are Splash Rides and Dolphin and Seal Shows. There are huge Aquariums and other exhibitions as well to enjoy a whole day trip.

Avenue of Stars: This is a must visit place in Hong Kong and is seen best around 8:15 PM daily as there is the World’s largest Permanent Light and Sound Show called Symphony of Lights. There are Lasers in many buildings in and around Hong Kong and Kowloon and the show is synchronized in all buildings throwing lasers in water and air along with Music. You should reach Tsim Sha Tsui Harbour around 7:30 PM to watch this spectacle well in time. This is a 15 min show and the crowd can get really terrible on your return so be careful. Location: Tsim Sha Tsui MTR Exit K.

National Museum of History: Located in the same place as Avenue of Stars this is a good museum if you are interested to know history of China.

Hong Kong Space Museum: This is also located in the same complex as Museum of History and little better in terms of attractions.

Star Ferry: This is the traditional Ferry on the Victoria Harbour and you can travel from Hong Kong to Kowloon (Tsim Sha Shui) using this Ferry at 2.5 HKD per person.

Stanley Market: This is a famous market located in Stanley Bay area and is far from the city a bot. You can take train to Chai Wan MTR station and take the Green Mini Bus to Stanley Market. It’s a famous tourist spot and you can find lot of souvenirs and ladies stuff here. The market closes down at 8 PM so plan early. This place also has a few good Al-Fresco dining places on the beach. There is a Temple Called Tin Hau Temple which you can see there.

Tsim Sha Tsui: This is a famous little India place in Kowloon side of Hong Kong; you can find lot of Indian Restaurants like Branto and Woodlands nearby. There is a famous shady place called Chung King Mansions which sells Indian Groceries and Calling Cards for India. Good place if you want to eat Indian Food in a hurry. There is a big shopping mall nearby called ISquare which has some good Brands like Marks & Spencers and Mango etc.

Mong Kok Ladies Market: Located near Mong Kok station on exit D to Tung Choi Street this is a sprawling market mainly for Ladies items and Souvenirs. This is a must watch for any visit to Hong Kong as it sells many interesting stuff at negotiable prices. Always negotiate to 50% or less here to get good deals.

Temple Street Night Market: This market starts around 4 PM and goes on until late in the night and sells mainly ladies clothes and souvenirs. This is located near Jordan MTR station.

Big Bus: Take the Big Bus Tour of Hong Kong and you can see almost whole of Hong Kong in a day. They have tours in Hong Kong, Kowloon and Aberdeen areas in HK and you can travel in their Hop-On, Hop-Off Buses in any part of the city during the day. Times Square: This is the name of a shopping mall located in the Causeway Bay area of Hong Kong. This is a huge mall and a good place to shop for Brands and local stuff easily at discount prices. Causeway Bay is considered cheap shopping in the local markets like Jardine Street across Times Square.

Good Hotels to stay:

Holiday Inn, Tsim Sha Tsui

Novotel Citygate Tung Chung

Langham Place, Mong Kok

Good Indian Restaurants:

Branto, Tsim Sha Tsui

Great Indian Kebab Factory, Tsim Sha Tsui

Tandoor, Central, Hong Kong

Jashan, Central

Bombay Dreams, Central, Hong Kong

Woodlands (South Indian), Tsim Sha Tsui East

Guru, Central, Hong Kong

Things to buy first in Hong Kong:

Octopus Card for MTR Travel. It takes 150 HKD and its refundable and good to use at all stations and shopping places and malls.

Good Malls:

IFC Mall, Central

Elements, Kowloon Station

Olympian City 2 & 3, Olympic Station

Harbour City, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon

ISquare, Tsim Sha Tsui

Times Square, Causeway Bay

The Landmark: Central, Hong Kong

Retail Shops: H&M, Marks & Spencers, Zara, Bershka, Pull & Bear

Guide to Indian Food in Hong Kong

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 10:47:00 +0000

This came after a long time but yes I am writing this a detailed Indian Food guide to Hong Kong.

Many would agree that Hong Kong is essentially a meaty place, where you will face difficulty finding Indian and Especially Veggie Indian food. I proudly deny the fact and here is a short survival kit for my fellow Indie Veggies en tour de Hong Kong.

Guru: Boutique Indian Dining (Elgin Street)

A friendly place in the quiet Elgin Street just touching the legendary Hollywood Road which I live now. Guru has some of the good Indian Veggie delights and a good conversant staff which can guide you to the elegant menu that it has to offer. The Captain who appeared to be a Nepali guided very well that I won't be able to fininsh the Samosa Platter and made it Half-Portion of Samosas. It has some good Sheeshas as they call Hookas in Hong Kong from some of the Arabic Places.

Cost Meter $$

Jashan (Hollywood Road)

This place is very accessible from the Mid Levels Escalator and you just need to look around and get down at Hollywood Road from the place where Red SOHO is. Take a right and after a few steps you'll see the Restaurant Board hanging on the 1/F. Food here again is good but the decor is more classy Indian Palatial types. You'll find more westerners here than Indians becasue of the rustic Indian bistro type looks. Ambience is dark and suitable for a mild drink or two with some good fried Kebabs. Dal Tadka is highly recommended. Only thing they need to improve is guest attention and the waiting time after someone has finished his meal for presenting the Cheque. I waited nearly 15 mins before I had to request for the cheque. It could ruin a good restaurant's image in an instant.

Cost Meter $$$

Viceroy (Wanchai - Soho Delivery)

I ordered food from Viceroy and it was a Lifesaver as they have the early Brunch service on Sundays as people tend to get up late after a merry Saturday. The food is good and is not so oily as compared to other Indian Joints. Good accompaniments like free papads and chutneys. unfortunately they do not have any sets to offer. Recommended for once in a while type needs.

Cost Meter: $$

KPC: Kebab Pizza Curry (Central ferry pier no 7)

Someone gave me a menu when I was returning home from the Mid levels Escalator and I found the name interesting so I ordered from this place. This is the perfect link to cheap Indian style places with mediocre food and cheap prices. I would rate 4 out of 10 in food and 6 in delivery time.

Cost Meter: $

I also have visited some other places which are showing interest in the lavish Indian cuisine and would mention them below. This list is particularly useful when you venture out to find some good food with Indian and veggie attached:

Curry in a Hurry (Time Square Mall, Causeway Bay)

Chef Singh Negi (Citygate Outlets - Tung Chung)

Three Sixty (The Landmark - Central)

Subways (Central Ferry Pier and SOHO)

Mc Donalds (Fries and Veggie Sandwich only)

Pizza Hut (Quarry Bay, Tung Chung, Olympic and other places)

Chung King Mansions (many shops and restaurants having some good Indian food at a bargain.)

Indian Grocery Stores: The one in Chung King mansions is good and even has daily use items like Coconut Oil and India Today (old though)

Marks and Spencers Food - Has some good Indian Frozen foods and spices

City Super: Has some good spices and spice mixes. Fruits and Veggies are damn expensive. Buy them from a local Wet market or from Wellcome.

Monk's Food at Po Lin Monastery is a complete No No if you have any taste buds left. Its plain spinach soup and mushrooms..ahhh!

With these hints I think Hong Kong is a place to be for even a traditional Indian Veggie. Feel free to explore and remember if you are an Indian then you have the inborn gift of getting things Customized. Run your fantasies!

Favorites: Later you'll hear them only in an Interview!

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 15:09:00 +0000

Favorite Show: Indian Idol, Highway On My Plate

Favorite Movie: Kal Ho Na Ho

Favorite English Movie: The Matrix Trilogy

Favorite Actor: Shahrukh Khan

Favorite Actress:

Favorite English Actor: Nicholas Cage / Will Smith

Favorite Actress: Jeniffer Aniston (Friends)

Favorite English Show: Man V Food, Time Warp

Favorite Destination: Goa, Bali

Favorite Color: Red & Blue

Favorite Band: Euphoria & Linkin Park and of course Backstreet Boys

Favorite Drink: Cafe Latte'

Favorite Food: Dal Makhani and Steamed Rice

Favorite Western Food: Pasta Arabiatta with Black Olives in Olive Oil

Favorite Game: Cricket and Half Life

Favorite Website: Facebook

Favorite: Book: Haven't read many so let me buy a Kindle!

Favorite Restaurant: Bombay Blue and The Village

Favorite Airline: Kingfisher Airlines

Favorite City: Mumbai!!

Recollections

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 01:59:00 +0000

This is all a brief or I would say just a remembrance of the places I have been in India. I will start from North then South, East and West. Also includes one place or activity I loved here.

Jammu: 3 famous temples and 1 famous market + "a lovely wedding to attend"!

Haryana: Faridabad, Ballabhgarh + "The Shared Autorickshaw"

Delhi: Qutub Minar, Lotus temple, Nehru Planetarium, Meuseums, Red Fort, India Gate & Vijay Stambh (huh who can avoid it?), Chandni Chowk ki Chaat, Parathe Wali Galli, Bangla Saheb, Humayun's Tomb, Gandhi Smriti, Vijay Ghat and Indira's Smriti, Connaught place, Palika Bazaar and some other famous places. + "Lovely Chole Kulche @ 10 bucks @ Janpath"

Uttar Pradesh:

Kanpur, Agra, Lucknow (Chota Imambada, Bada Imambada and some gardens) and Allahabad. Some dhabas of great fame. + "Great forts and architecture"

Uttaranchal:

Haridwar, Rishikesh, Dehradun, Mussourie, Uttarkashi, Gangotri and Sukhitop. Lovel Snowfall and temples. "Pictursque and exotic landscape" + "Clouds inside my house"

Himachal Pradesh:

Kullu, Manali and Rohtang. Visited Byas river's origin spot at 14550 ft. and did some adventure sports there. + "Adventurous People and breathtaking mountains"

Rajasthan:

Kota (everything), Ajmer (Baba ki Mazaar and Lakes), Jaipur (All forts and some temples)

+ "Food Food Food"

Madhya Pradesh:

Bhopal, Indore, Raisen, Bhojpur, Pachmadi, Sanchi, Gwalior and Ujjain apart from smaller places.

"People + Food"

Chattisgarh:

Korba, Durg and Bilaspur "Remoteness in the air"

Gujrat:

Daman "Ahh nothing much but my friends' company"

Maharashtra:

Mumbai (From Churchgate to Virar and CST to Kalyan), Pune, Ganpatipule, Lonavala, Khandala, Mahabaleshwar, Panchgani, Nashik, Shirdi, Shani Shignapur "Everything and love"

Goa: Full Goa (Many beaches and forts) "Beaches and beaches"

Andhra Pradesh:

Hyderabad, Guntur, Surya Lanka and Kondavidoo. "Escapades and alienation"

Tamil Nadu:

Coimbatore (Valparai, Some Waterfalls and numerous temples), Chennai and Ooty + "Great Food + Simplicity of the people"

Karnataka:

Bangaluru and Mysore "Architecture"

International Places:

Tokyo and Hong Kong. "foreign yet loved Samosas at both places"

many more to come guys!

The Uber Me!

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Sat, 08 May 2010 14:24:00 +0000

Don't know why I am doing this and why I am doing this..I am making a lot of mistakes dude but hell yeah my typing speed has quadrupled since college!

The End

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:13:00 +0000

अंत

मैं नहीं कहता,

की यही होगा,

पर होगा कुछ इसी तरह

चला जायेगा कुछ, रह जायेगा कुछ

सोचते रह जायेंगे सब कुछ न कुछ

इस अंत की कल्पना भी ना की होगी

अंत सब कुछ अंत कर चला जायेगा

विलक्षण विभूतियाँ खोने लगेंगी

डर की अनुभूतियाँ होने लगेंगी

डरने लगेंगे ये मानव

जलने लगेगा ये सागर

इन्सान ही इन्सान को डारएगा

अंत सब कुछ अंत कर चला जायेगा

क्षितिज के पास न होगा

ये आसमा फिर कभी

रूठ जायेगा सागर फिर उजली धुप से

छनेन्गी न किरनें फिर कभी सूर्य की

की उन पर बादलों का पहरा न होगा

सूर्यास्त का नज़ारा कहीं खो जायेगा

अंत सब कुछ अंत कर चला जायेगा

बातें न होंगी फिर कभी चाँद की

क्योंकि चांदनी का भी निशाँ न होगा

निशा न रोशन होगी फिर कभी तारों से

की उस पर कालिमा की चादर होगी बिछी

वो समां न होगा रात्रि-विचरण का

रात ही ना होगी अख्हियाँ बिछाने को

सब इसी तरह कहीं खो जायेगा

अंत सब कुछ अंत कर चला जायेगा

सब कहते हैं बातें करो न अंत की

पर अंत ही तो रीत है जीवन की

इसे स्वीकारना ही सत्य है

क्यूंकि इससे अधिक न कुछ है न हो पायेगा

अंत सब कुछ अंत कर चला जायेगा

-अमृत भारद्वाज

Avatar: Enter The World!

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 06:29:00 +0000

Very rarely does a movie comes which turns you into a kid and makes you fantasize yourself into a bird falling from the cliff and emerging flying into the woods. Avatar is one of them!

I was waiting for this since 3 years when I heard of Terminator: Salvation with Sam Worthington being announced as one of the leads along with Christian Bale. Sam also got Avatar offered to him by James Cameron at the same time. Avatar was announced then as being the best 3D FX ever made with technology never seen before and effects never imagined ever. They say it was planned before Titanic itself and was postponed as James Cameron said Technology needs to catch up with his imagination to get the optimum effects required for filming such vivid shots.

Boy! and then finally I saw Avatar alone on an Aisle seat in 2D because I wanted to see the content rather than effects that dazzle me and make me forget the thrill of the story.

Synopsis: (Spoiler Alert!)
The story is set on the man's mission in 2154 to capture Pandora, our only hope to sustain the dying human race on the suffering and war-torn Earth. Pandora is an alien moon of the planet Polyphemus which is a part of our nearest celestial neighbors the Alpha Centurai. The life on Pandora is very simple Hunt-Eat-Sleep on the Home-Tree. Most of the native inhabitants the Na'vi live in tribes or clans and they hunt in packs on Na'vi horses and Flying Beasts called Ikrans. Jake Sully enters the Avatar program as a replacement for his brother as his brother dies in mission on Pandora. Although his brother was a scientist, Jake is selected as he is an Ex-Marine and a worthy candidate of fitting into his Brother's genome controlled Avatar body.

The Avatar program is actually human brain controlling the genetically designed bodies based on Na'vi DNA and artificial tissues. Avatar bodies can be controlled by human brains which genetically match the Avatar body but the human has to be asleep to control them. They are called Dream-Walkers by the Na'vi. Jake's mission is to befriend the Na'vi and persuade them to slowly evacuate Pandora to make room for the humans from earth. They want the large Unobtanium reserves which is found in abundance beneath the large Home-Tree the village and home of the Omitacaya Clan.

Jake enters into Pandora's forest and gets lost in the woods due to an attack by one of their primitive beasts and finds himself alone in the Pandora forest in the darkness of the night. Jake is rescued by a native Neytiri and slowly Jake finds this life as his own and finds that he can actually make use of his active mind better that what he can use with his semi-paralyzed body back on the ground at his base station.

Jake falls in love with Neytiri and they mate in front of the Tree of Voices, one of the sacred trees of Pandora. As expected the humans get involved between the love as in any other Love Story and try to separate them. Jake being a true lover defends his love and turns enemy towards the fellow humans. His friends Dr. Grace Augustine and Norm Spellman help him to in his mission to save the Na'vi from getting destroyed by the wicked plans of humans.

As we would expect all love stories to end there is some blood shed and Neytiri's father dies in combat and there is a place for the new clan leader. Jake turns to his Na'vi call and turns himself completely into Na'vi by transplanting his soul into the his Avatar body. After his transformation he becomes the clan leader and vows to protect the Omitacaya clan from any further attacks by humans or any other aliens.

Verdict:
Avatar is an interesting mix of characters and you would not imagine such an end to a human giving up his complete self to protect someone from the outside world.

Well love has its own ways!

Anyways, Avatar has brilliant effects and Sound mixing and some breathtaking shots of the Hallelujah (Hanging Mountains) and High Magnetic Flux zones at Pandora. The trees of Voices and Souls are magnificent and the Ikrans are marvelous flying beasts which remind of the Archaeopteryxes of the Paleontological age of Earth!

Go Watch Avatar with an empty mind without any pre-conceptions about it and enjoy James Cameron at his creative best!

I see You!

Bon Voyage 2009!

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 08:49:00 +0000

Here I am, writing about my various travels and transits across land and
sea crossing Bay of Bengal into the Pacific Ocean and towards the South
China Sea, all happening in this very year of the Ox 2009.

I started off from January 1st being into Hyderabad and thought I have
started 2009 off with a travel and may god keep the streak running into
the whole year. God, passing by just heard it and granted my uncanny
wish. I have already traveled 12 times this very year and travel is
again on the cards on the last day the 31st as well!

I traveled my heart out this year to various destinations including
local, domestic and International, various occasions official, leisure,
pilgrim and fun. I visited places in India like Lonavala, Ganpati Pule,
Hyderabad, Shirdi, Nashik, Shani-Shignapur, Jammu, Kota (3 times),
Jaipur, Ajmer and Pushkar along with International Cities Tokyo twice
and Hong Kong in this very year of the Ox. Passed in Transit over
Bangkok as well!

Over these travels I clicked thousands of pictures and met hundreds of
people around, now it feels like being an avid traveler. Now I can boast
off my tales of voyages across flights, trains, buses, boats, ships and
ferries, trams and rickshaws and worth mentioning the city Walking
Tours. Had at least 300 meals outside my usual place of eating and met
at least 100 new people. Kudos to 2009 for that!

The Tokyo Drifts:

Twice this year I flew over to Tokyo over an Official trip and
absolutely loved the way the city treats gaijins! The hope of getting
lost in the crowd was as fake as song and dance in Bollywood. Tokyo is a
magnificent city for Gaijins like me who like to parade the streets on
foot and look out for local wonders about food. It has a network of
multi-cuisine restaurants spread all across the city and you'll get from
Pasta to Sushi and from Dhokla to Paratha and also from Masala Dosa to
Chardonnay! Its just said that a vegetarian will face problems in Japan
but its all fake unless you are short of cash. You get excellent Indian
Vegetarian food and that too with Authentic Punjabi lassi in any Indian
Restaurants in Tokyo.

Filled with beautiful and scenic country side and also a great network
of transport to reach places like Nikko, Kyoto, Enoshima-Kamakura,
Hakone and Mt. Fuji. I would not say all this is cheap but if you have a
thirst for them they are worth it.

I just think why do Indians head west for these comforts when Japan and
China are our such good neighbors? People are helpful enough to show you
the nearest AM-PM shop and Pedestrians rule over traffic on the road.
Minimal Pollution and no dearth of trees in the city. City so advanced
that even a local needs a GPS to locate the nearest barber shop. All
this and more when you look at the fantastic Metros that operate in the
city. They have English Commentary and Signs that help even a Gaijin to
travel safely to his destination.

I know I am praising a lot but what can I say that's the way it is.
Okay, there are a few disadvantages as well. One, the Rents are too high
and you can only live there if you are on an official trip. Two, the
people are a little slow in understanding and not knowing Japanese can
be the biggest challenge (read nightmare) if you plan to live there.
Apart from that if you are okay with the cost of transport and food in a
metro like Mumbai you would hardly notice any price too out of reach for
daily household articles.

All is said and done, I rate the city a decent 8/10 on my scale of being
traveler friendly and beautifully set to make you want to come back.

Hong Kong: The Gateway to China:

Although I just went there for a week, I learnt it's a closer India than
England itself. the first experience was however not pleasant as I
struggled to reach my hotel from the airport despite having Cash in my
pocket. On Sunday there is a shortage of Public Transport and some Buses
do not operate at all. So plan a landing on either a Weekday or on a
Saturday. My hotel was fabulous and on a decent not so far list of
hotels from my Super Cool Office the 2 IFC. The Transport system in HK
is far better than what I saw in Tokyo as it was more foreigner friendly
and neat. HK is a World City and it lives up to it to the fullest. Plush
Malls and Subways people dressed in Armani Jackets, holding Louis
Vuitton Bags you've see it all in HK. Classy Restaurants a very feel of
like being in a British City, after all the roots do tell the tales of
the mighty stem that once stood over it.

HK has the famous Island mentality and boasts of a fab culture of being
living on the Island. People feel proud of being able to afford living
on the mail Hong Kong island. Others not so fortunate live in place like
Kowloon and North Point and some even more far from riches stay in the
'New Territories'. The divide is so much so that Malls are structured
based on the purchasing power of the people living there. Like Pacific
Mall at Admiralty is a No-No for foreigners with just ample money to buy
souvenirs as it is sky rockety pricy and sells only Super Designer
Brands you would only like to drool upon. On the other hand there is
Time Square Mall which is good enough to fulfill all your gift and
souvenir needs as well as not burning a hole in your Levi's. And then
there is Citygate Outlets which though being right at the Airport at
Tung Chung is the most visited and highly recommended Mall for all the
foreigners and locals also I would guess. It claims to run at discounts
of 30-70% all round the year.

I was able to buy my first Armani bag and Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren
Shirts at very neat prices here. It also has a good food court offering
Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Korean food besides serving excellent Indian
Punjabi food made by a Delhi Family.

Hong Kong also is very beautiful if you explore the country side and the
different surrounding islands. I got a chance to go to the Po Lin
Monastery on the Lantau Island built over the Tung Chung Plateau which
seats the Largest Sitting Bronze Buddha Statue in whole of the world. It
is situated an hour long boat ride from Hong Kong followed by an hour
long Bus Ride to Ngong Pimg village which is host to the Statue and the
Ngong Ping Cable Car station and loads of other museums and markets.

Recommended Course:

Boat Ride from Central Ferry Pier No. 6 to Lantau Island (60 mins) . Get
down from the Lantau Pier and board the Bus no 2 from outside Bus Stand
to Giant Buddha Statue. Walk down the Wisdom Path and get on top of the
Statue (Don't forget to buy the Meal Pass if you are not carrying any
lunch) Visit the Museum atop the statue and head out to the Po Lin. At
Po Lin you'll find different God Chambers or temples and beautiful
deities and forms of Lord Buddha, very peaceful inside it. Here you can
have the Monk Food inside the restaurant at a good rate of 100 HKD.
Leave Lantau by the Ropeway Cable Car as it takes only 20 mins to reach
Tung Chung and from there you can go to Citygate Outlets Mall and take
the Tung Chung line back to Central Hong Kong Station.

One word I would say about Hong Kong is Awesome!

I would write more about my escapades in India in my later posts, stay
tuned for now.

After all these travels all I can say is keep'em coming and I am lovin'
it!

Test Post

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 11:22:00 +0000

See if this works. Testing Posting from Email.

A Vegetarian's Survival Guide to Tokyo!

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Sun, 10 May 2009 08:35:00 +0000

I went to Tokyo on a business trip in last May 2009. I was scared by the thought of having to eat Non-Veg food because Japan is a place where you ask for vegan food and what you get is a caterpillar (believe me I had one).

So here I am presenting to my Indian friends my ordeal to eating the vegetarian food in the land of Sushi, Japan.

First thing first, don't laugh at your Gujju colleague and pack a lot of Indian Food for your trip at least to last for half of it. It really helps to carry those theplas and mithi rotis and MTRs (I carried Aashirvad's Curries and Rice Packs). Carry Pickles of different types as you can eat them with theplas when all your curries are finished. You can get bread easily in Tokyo's 7-11 stores and also at Family Mart like convenience stores for 400 Yen for a six pack. You would not want to eat out at all times at least breakfast so buy Milk and Corn Flakes at Family Mart or from an ubiquitous Vending Machine. Now the part comes where you like to dine in at some Food Joint, I have listed some great Indian Places in the Order I like them.

1.) Nirvanam

This place is minutes away from the Tokyo Tower at the Toranomon/Kamiyacho stations vicinity. We went there for a team dinner after office on a Thursday night. This place has a lovely view of the tower in red backdrop. The interiors are well done and remind you of an authentic South Indian place. The food is lovely and the staff is very well versed in all Japanese, Tamil, English and Hindi. The Biryanis are particularly good and the Hyderabadi dishes are very well presented. We had a fun time eating there and ended our meal with the very famous Mango Lassi even liked by the Japanese. You can easily find Japanese people dining here with their families and even with their girlfriends having fun. All in all a great experience.

2.) Chennai Brasserie

This was referred to me by a colleague of my colleague who belongs to chennai and did not eat non-vegetarian food before coming to Tokyo (People say he can eat anything which moves now). We were sceptical in going to this place as as there was an oppurtunity cost of going to some other place better than this one. We made to the place when it was raining at 9 PM when generally restaurantrs in Tokyo ask you for the last order. The place is in the basement of a building residential I suppose in the Akasaka area. The nearest station is Tameike Sanno Station which is a 7 minute walk. It is run by a gentleman named Amit Shukla from Haryana in India and he is an Ex-Leh employee who started this place after his long stint in Investment Banking in Tokyo. A fairly nice place with a awesome selection of dosas and south indian cuisine. The place has a lovely Sunday Brunch too. It is an ideal hang out place for Indians and Japanese alike. I had the costliest Dosa of my life here worth 3000 yen(It's not the dosa, it's about Dosa in Tokyo).

You can find some good wine here too and dont forget to take their point card if you are coming here regularly. I wished I could come here for the lunch buffet too but I had a tight schedule in Tokyo.

3.) Siddique's @ Ningyocho

This place was the closest to where I stayed in Ningyocho. The place offers good Indian and Pakistani cuisine I guess for the Meat Lovers. The place was a life saver for me as it was close to my place and open upto 11 PM. I generally ordered one curry, nan and some rice as a take away order. The taste is pretty good and they use real oil and spices like in India. Suprisingly the chain of restaurants are run by a pakistani guy and the staff is all from India/Nepal. I found a chef who is from Bombay and has worked earlier in Copper Chimney at Sakinaka in Andheri, Mumbai. The cost is very cheap as compared to other Indian joints and a Thali will cost you 2000 Yen and a Mini Thali will cost you only 1500 Yen. You can also get indiviual items and make a platter.

4.) Ajanta, Akihabara

Very strategically located in the heart of Akihabara Electric Town you can easily spot the Board of Ajanta in the locality of the Hibiya Line Akihabara Station. The restaurant is on the Basement number 2 of the building. It has a narrow entrance but the interior is quite well done and the staff is well versed in japanese, english and hindi. The place is decent enough to get your friends here and spend some good time. I just ordered some Thali platter as I had to rush home before the Metros stop at 11:30. The place is very authentically dressed up in Saris and Indian fabrics to remind you of India and the food is Delhi style chatpata and tasty.

5.) Jewel of India

The place is in Roppongi and is famous with ex-Leh employees as they can watch Indian Movies here and enjoy the customized Indin food the way they want it to be cooked like spicy or oily etc. The staff almost seems to be versed with japanese but I think most people who come here talk in English. Food I would say is okay and the decor is not very attractive. You can sit, eat and relax here till late in the night as the place is open almot till midnight. I would not rate the restauant as I was too tired when we reached on a rainy evening after visiting the Tokyo Tower and a long walk from Ark Towers in Roppongi Itochome.

Apart from these places you can get Indian food in places like Dhaba India, Rajmahal (Shinjuku)

and other not yet discovered places. I had lunch at Day Nite restaurant which only serves one Indian Vegetarian dish daily but is a surviving tactic. You can also have food at Soup Stock Tokyo which generally has one Soup Vegetarian daily and dont forget some Italian Joint like Papa Milano which might have veggie Pizzas and Pastas.

Tokyo is full of good places to eat and make merry only thing is be good and return home early as the trains stop at 11:30 PM and you can't afford a taxi unless you are a filthy rich person or on a all expense paid trip to the land of the rising sun, Japan.

Note: The information above is my personal experience and the pictures although may have been copied from websites but are not intended for commercial purposes.

Hong Kong Lunch

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Sat, 09 May 2009 05:12:00 +0000

I am in HK and it is bright and sunny out here. Although I am at the terminal yet I feel the city is all here. All the major shopping items so many people its all here.

HK airport is similar to Hyderabad I feel of course not matching the capacity in any amount.

But it feels good to have a transit for the first time.

I miss India already!!

Tokyo Drift

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Fri, 08 May 2009 02:06:00 +0000

The day has come I have my first International Travel to Tokyo today. It will be a 15 day trip (as of now).

I will be staying in Tokyo, Nihombashi Area. I am really nervous about the food there as I am a vegetarian and it is a big problem for me there.

Let's hope my trip turns out well and I get some vegetarian food, some good electronics and some Japanese Bucks from there.

Chao Guys! Saionara! Take Care Have Fun! My next post shall be from Tokyo!

Unhappy SRK returns home: Bullshit

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 04:09:00 +0000

I read in the News that Shahrukh Khan has returned from South Africa IPL because he is unhappy about his team Kolkata Knight Riders. Believe me it's bullshit!

When I read this news, I felt a bit pity for KKR and Dada especially. Shahrukh the man himself is out so how will his team perform. I felt dejected more when I heard the below rumour.

Shahrukh is not back because he is unhappy, I heard that in Kamla Mills Lower Parel there is a mega marriage event is gonna happen and our beloved SRK is gonna perform there on one of these days 30th, 1st and 2nd. Such is the power of media and opportunity of Filmdom. He is undoubtedly the biggest star on Indian Silverscreen and his on and off screen persona itself delivers a lot more than his actual self. You will believe that SRK has sympathy against the team and he can't see them loosing, but this doesn't happen the way it should.

By the way KKR is the only team I have seen which is known because of its owner rather than because of the players who actually play the game. I saw an Ad Poster at Reebok which had pictures of 4 major IPL teams. It had Yuvraj Singh for KXIP, MSD for CSKs, Sachin for MIs and Shahrukh for KKRs. Can you believe this a team is known beacuse of its owner who doesn't even play cricket.

All this and more, there are numerous controversies against you Mr. Khan and you have lost one more fan in me today. I used to follow King Khan for all these years but it seems that he has lost that magic touch!

Mumbai Tales

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 10:00:00 +0000

I complete 2 and a half years in Mumbai and now I feel like a pro at least of Sub Urban Mumbai. There are numerous tales to tell and many stories to narrate. From a Thane 3 Star Hotel to a small flat in Kanjur to Suburban Andheri to So-Called Backward Jogeshwari to a large house back in Andheri. I have been moving flats all these years primarily because I am a bachelor and a outsider.

I just feel Mumbai keeps growing with time at an exponential rate and takes the people along its growth track. Take me for instance I started off in Mumbai from Kanjur Marg and slowly moved to suburban Andheri and now aiming towards owning a flat in some more hip location. Take the example of many Share Brokers and many Sales Executives. I feel there is a certain charisma about the city and as I have already stated in my previous posts it is very sticky and makes you very picky.

People are somehow weird but when you look at them with a third person's view they are all in sync with what you are. Some complain that in train someone pushed and I broke my Sandal or my Laptop fell. Did you consider yourself about when you pushed someone for a brisk of fresh air from the sliding door of the ubiquitous Mumbai Local. It is al the same Mumbai breathes, eats, sleeps works and partys at the same time.

It is all linked. IPL, Mumbai Terror Attacks, Train Explosions, 26th July, Elections, Siddhivinayak Tuesday, LalbaugchaRaja are all instances when all people think alike at the same time. This gives the strength to stand for some cause, to breathe against pollution, to fight against terror, to protest against reservation, to lead a change.

The Slumdogs feel better after its Millionaire success. Films perform better if Mumbai's mood is better. They imitate the stars and stars try not to imitate someone else, but still want the films to be 'Hatke'.

Words like 'Jhol', 'Galata', WTF', 'Dude', 'As In', 'Cha Ayila' go hand in hand and are uttered according to the need by the youth. You can hardly keep yourself unexposed to a language fondly called Mumbaiyya.

You have a 'Horny Man Circle' here and a Church which has no gate. A place named after Santa Cruz in US. There is even a Andheri which seems to be the brightest place in Bombay. You can pronounce Bandra in 3 ways depending on your descent. Trains wait for none and the 'pilots' are allowed 3 Murders in their careers. Roads are deliberately dug during monsoons and bridges are left half way of their construction to imitate unfinished Aztec temples. Caves now occupied by Drug Peddlers and Beaches famous for Eunuchs also exist here. (You can contact Reshma the Chakka of Silver Beach very easily for any information about the area).

Still Mumbai is good ol' mumbai, you can find peace in having a Vada-Pav on the highly noisy Andheri Station or rather have Gujrati Thali in a Christmas Themed Mall in Malad West. You have it all from roots to fruits, chakkas to fashionistas, from CG to BVLI, from CST TO KYN.

Its an art to live in Bombay and it slowly teaches you to live, fight, love and enjoy a journey called Life!

Spooky, Eerie, Scary

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 06:08:00 +0000

Last night we were talking about ghosts and weird happenings which many of us have experienced. A small girl who is an Management undergrad from a college in Bombay narrated this story to us.

It was their college Industrial Visit abbreviated I.V. Don't know why I remember Poison Ivy Trilogy here. They had been to Jodhpur the fort city of India for a 3 day trip. They say the hotel was weird in the first glance and it differed from the normal conception of a building design of a traditional Indian hotel. It was designed in a rather unusual fashion where it had several duplexes connected by a common courtyard. There were 4 rooms in each duplex and a large common room on the ground floor.

The participants stayed in two adjacent duplexes and complained of strange incidents throughout their stay. The series of unfortunate incidents is summarized below:

1.) The rooms were very spooky at the night and strange sounds could be heard at all times if you keep your ears open. You can hear people talking in corners of the hallway and find absolutely no one when you check it out.

2.) A strange mishap occurred which scared the little shit out from them. A girl went out at night to meet two of her friends who were in the adjacent room. When she knocked the door, she heard the two of them talking from the outside. She knocked again and again but no one opened the door. She tried to turn the knob and found that it was locked from inside because the door latch was open. She was frantic at this and rushed to call others from the common room at the ground floor.

Once she climbing down the staircase the scene scared her to the soul. The girls whom she was calling to open the door were standing below talking to each other. They were not in the room above and they were talking slowly. There was no possibility that she was overhearing their conversation from below. She called them upstairs to find out the weird sounds. They brought the keys to open the door but as they turned the door knob they got surprised at the result.

The door was open and only latched not locked. The girls were scared to the core and slept the night in talking, no one of them could sleep after that.

3.) You don't believe unless it happens to you. The boys of the group made fun of the girls and said they are framing this story and claimed the first girl might not have checked the door properly and overheard the discussion downstairs in the silence of the night.

The boys had to pay for not believing the girls. They were drinking liquor in one of their rooms and kept ice in a ice box with them. One of them thought that Ice will not melt if kept in the washroom (don't know why). They did this with the ice box and started to drink.

After some drinks one of the boys went to pee into the washroom. He was standing in the washroom and suddenly the lid of the Ice-Box broke open the seal the boys have put in and flew ceiling high and landed over his leg. The boy screamed and ran back into the room to narrate this to his friends.

The Legend
The group later quizzed the waiter about this and the waiter told him this legend.

This hotel was constructed on a site where once used to be a farm land. There were farmers who used to live here in their small huts. The owner of the land confiscated this land and payed the farmers some money as compensation. However, there was one farmer couple who did not want to move from their patron land and stayed there disagreeing the terms of the owner.

The land owner and his men decided to kill this farmer and set his house on fire. The couple was charred to death on this land. From then they say there has been such series of mishaps surrounding this land.

A number of times when they tried to make a building design the building collapsed and killed many workers. So, they decided to make duplexes instead of a single building hotel.

The waiter said once there was a couple who stayed there for their honeymoon and there were strange happenings surrounding their stay.

The couple received the news of the man's father being ill and decided to discontinue their stay and return back home. They checked out in front of the manager and a waiter. However the manager went on leave the same day, thus leaving no news of the checkout of the couple to other staff.

It was some days later that another waiter brought the room service bills to the manager when he returned from his vacation. The manager got puzzled when he saw bills from the room where the duo stayed. He inquired the room-keeping staff and got baffled. The staff replied that they were getting continuous orders from this room and they even delivered the food onto this room to the couple.

The manager decided to go and check out for himself. When he reached the room there was a stench coming out of the room like that of rotten food. They opened the room and fond food getting rotten kept on the table and a Red Saari lying on the bed.

This was the time they declared the hotel haunted and advised the guests to be ware and not to step out at night anywhere in the hotel.

I have no idea whether all this is true or not but certainly I would say this is all linked.

Scariness is not mental alone, what if you hear someone you can't see??

It all about What If?

SAVING IS SIN, SPENDING IS A VIRTUE

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 09:10:00 +0000

Japanese save a lot. They do not spend much. Also Japan exports far more than it imports. Hasan annual trade surplus of over$100 billions. Yet Japanese economy is considered weak, even collapsing. Americans spend, save little. Also US imports more than it exports. Has an annual trade deficit of over $400 billion.

Yet, the American economyis considered strong and trusted to get stronger. But where from do Americans get money to spend? They borrow from Japan, China and even India. Virtually others save for theUS to spend. Global savings are mostly invested in US, in dollars. India itself keeps its foreign currency assets of over $50 billions in US securities. China has sunk over $160 billionin US securities. Japan's stakes in US securities is in trillions. Result: The US has taken over $5 trillion from the world.

So, as the world saves for the US, Americans spend freely. Today, to keep the US consumption going, that is for the US economy to work, other countries have to remit $180 billion every quarter, which is $2 billion a day, to the US! Otherwise the US economy would go for asix. So will the global economy. The result will be no different if US consumers begin consuming less. A Chinese economist asked a neat question. Who has invested more, US in China, or China in US? The US has invested in China less than half of what China has invested in US. The same is the case with India. We have invested in US over $50 billion. But the US has invested less than$20 billion in India. Why the world is after US? The secret lies in the American spending, that they hardly save. Infact they use their credit cards to spend their future income.That the US spends is what makes it attractive to export to the US.

So US imports more than what it exports year after year. The result: The world is dependent on US consumption for its growth. By its deepening culture of consumption, the US has habituated the world to feed on US consumption. But as the US needs money to finance its consumption, the world provides the money. It's like a shopkeeper providing the money to a customer so that the customer keeps buying from the shop. If the customer will not buy, the shop won't have business, unless the shopkeeper funds him. The US is like the lucky customer. And theworld is like the helpless shopkeeper financier. Who is America's biggest shopkeeper financier? Japan of course. Yet it's Japan which is regarded as weak. Modern economists complain that Japanese do not spend, so they do not grow. To force the Japanese to spend, the Japanese government exerted itself, reduced the savings rates, even charged the savers. Eventhen the Japanese did not spend habits don't change, even with taxes,do they?. Their traditional postal savings alone is over $1.2trillions, about three times the Indian GDP. Thus, savings, far from being the strength of Japan, has become its pain.

Hence, what is the lesson? That is, a nation cannot grow unless the people spend, not save. Notjust spend, but borrow and spend. Dr. Jagdish Bhagwati, the famous Indian-born economist in the US, told Manmohan Singh that Indians wastefully save. Ask them to spend, on imported cars and,seriously, even oncosmetics! This will put India on a growth curve.

"Saving is sin, and spending is virtue." Before you follow this neo economics, get some fools to save so thatyou can borrow from them and spend. This is what US has successfully done in last few decades.

'Princedog Billionaire'

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 03:12:00 +0000

Danny Boyle planning to make 'Princedog Billionaire' next?

After the moving story about a slum kid winning millions on the Who Wants To be A Millionaire game show and its success, Danny Boyle has embarked on a more ambitious 'Princedog Billionare' film.

The story revolves around the real life story of the death of People's Princess Diana and her ill-fated boyfriend Dodi Al Fayed. Unlike the true story. Dodi Al Fayed in survives the car crash and rises with a vengeance to become the first Muslim prince of England with the help of the People's princess! Dodi Al Fayed, son of Harrods Departmental Store chain owner Muhammed Al Fayed an Egyptian immigrant who strikes it big in England and grows to become a billionaire. His son, Dodi Al Fayed who grows up in the slums of London, also beats the odds of racism and rises in life.

The people's princess Diana is lost almost suicidal after being cheated by her husband the prince for another woman, when she meets the humble Dodi and falls in love.But as luck would have it, it is frowned upon by the scheming royal family and the equally scheming English establishment. An assortment of henchmen and henchwomen from Mi5 eventually plan an accident in Paris tunnel to kill Dodi and the people's princess. James Bond is sent by Mi5 to assasinate Prince Dodi and Princess Diana. James Bond actor Daniel Craig, who plays the role confesses "I always wanted to play the dark side of James Bond and Mi5 in a movie". "And Danny Boyle provides me with a perfect opportunity for that in Princedog Billionaire" adds Dainel Craig.T

he accident is planned in a Paris Tunnel and the stage is set to be blamed on the chasing papparazi and executed by none other than James Bond 007 and Mi5. However, things dont go exactly as planned by James Bond this time and he ends up falling into the trap he set for Dodi. "This is one movie where James Bond doesnt come off beaming" quips Daniel Craig.This is the turning point of the film and the story takes a twist from the true story of Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed's car crash in a Paris Tunnel.Dodi and the people's princess are rescued by a sympathetic papparazi who reaches on the spot and pulls them out of the crashed car. After a nearly two month struggle for life, Prince Dodi and the People's Princess eventually survive. Desperate to fight against the injustice done, they decide to reach out to the people of England to challenge the English royal family and the English establishment. In the process he also chastises the wayward prince 'Potty Harry' to give up racism.

An almost fairy tale like rise after his accident in Paris tunnel along with the people's princess, Princedog has all the ingredients of Slumdog's success recipe, though dollops more of it!Prince Dodi's rise in Princedog Billionaire is comparable to the rise of the slum boy in the movie Slumdog Millionaire. Prince Dodi starts off in a humble way in his approach to the people, but eventually becomes a phenomena in the country. The people of England embrace Dodi as the 'People's prince' along with the people's princess Diana.

Prince Dodi is eventually designated as the next heir to English crown instead of William as he has people's mandate.The Music for the film is composed by John Barry of James Bond Music fame. Daniel Craig plays the dark side of James Bond in the movie. However, despite the success, the winning star cast of Danny Boyle of Slumdog are missing from this film. Loveleen Tandon is missing from the direction and A R Rahman will not be composing music for this movie. "The cast and crew of Slumdog are not comfortable with English culture." says Danny Boyle.

"I will recreate the magic of Slumdog in Princedog with a new set of crew altogether" says a confident Danny Boyle. "I may chose Dev Patel to play Prince Dodi, but the hunt is still on for an actress who can portray the people's princess Diana" concludes Danny Boyle.

A Satyam employee writes, from the heart

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 06:48:00 +0000

This article, which has been doing the rounds on the Internet, has been written by an unnamed Satyam employee.

At a time when almost 90 per cent of my Satyam friends are cribbing about the fraud and betrayal by (former Satyam chairman) B Ramalinga Raju, I have a slightly different opinion.
I know it is bold of me to write this in black and white, but this comes straight from my heart, and experience.
Let me start by quoting an example from 2006. Most of my friends were unemployed, with 50-60 per cent plus marks, with a B.Tech degree from an average university, and madly hunting for a job. Whether people accept it today or not, the truth is that Satyam was the ONLY saviour and the only mass recruiter who was ready to accept students who had backlog. It also did not put a very strict 'minimum-marks' criterion.
And this was true not only for my small college in Lucknow, but also many such colleges across India.
Satyam is the fourth-largest IT company in India. Looking at India's population and the rising unemployment, I really want to thank Raju for giving some 54,000 Indians jobs at least for all these years.
He was the reason for the revival of confidence and the reason for the bread-and-butter for many a family.
Also, Satyam training was renowned all over India. The STC (Satyam Training Centre) created numerous love stories and unexpected rekindling of a youthful environment where girls and boys were more independent than in their colleges.
I remember most of my Satyam friends felt that they made better friends during Satyam's three-to-six month training than they did in the four years of studying B.Tech.
Unfortunately people forget to thank God in sad times. I know what Raju did is deplorable, and unpardonable. He should have treated the business more formally, and not dealt with it like it was his family affair.
He should have straightened up at least a couple of years ago. Why did he hire so many non-potential candidates and keep them on the bench? When were the managers last told that if they don't work hard, they will lose their job? Business cannot be run in such a lousy fashion.
I have a lot of friends at Satyam, both male and female. Moreover I network a lot and thus am fairly well clued into what is happening at the company.
I have seen how people tailgate to Satyam, how they give their cards to others to be swiped on their behalf, how female employees have gone home sharp at 6 p.m., irrespective of when they landed at the office. . ., how employees sit at home for months at a stretch, prepare for all kind of post-graduate entrance exams and still enjoy a full month's pay, how often they went for movies at local theatres at office hours, how often employees went to office just to sign on registers in the mornings and the evenings, how often they faked their health certificates, how often they put unlimited fake medical and house rental bills. . .
How can we blame just one man when EACH AND EVERY person was disloyal? How can we exclude the auditors like PricewaterhouseCoopers? How can we exclude the then board of directors who tried to wash their hands off of the whole affair?
How can we exclude banks who gave hefty loans without true verification? How can we exclude the Andhra Pradesh chief minister who was lenient towards Raju ahd his fellow businessmen? How can we exclude the managers who were never able to trace which bench employee under him had been away from office and for how long?
Yet, how can people forget this is the same man whose ideas and potentials gave them an identity for the past several years? How many couples found the right match at an IT industry, courtesy Satyam, and how many Andhra farmers benefited from their huge investments in Satyam shares.
How can people forget that Satyam launched its offices right at the doorsteps of a residential colony, where people could simply walk to work?
The most gruesome experience that I had was when a Satyam tag wearing person was waiting to attend an interview and I overheard him saying that he was in a business meeting at the MyHome Satyam office when he was sitting right in front of me in a totally different company (little knowing that I too was a Satyam employee).
When employees themselves show such a lousy attitude and don't care a damn for the brand they carry around their neck, how can they expect others to care?
I am not saying that ALL Satyam employees are bad. I have known very dedicated people too, but my point is simple: before pointing fingers at others, introspect a bit. There are thousands of people who have completed certifications at the cost of Satyam, got trained at Satyam, got better jobs because of Satyam. . .
What Raju did was to keep the business of Satyam going at any cost. I see a smart man in him when he realised that it would be better to accept his mistake than be caught and tried under American laws.
I see a selfish father in him too that he put a lot at stake for Maytas. However, he resigned with dignity: it does take courage to accept your mistake in public.
But one cannot deny that he did create employment, which led to many others benefiting too: the tiffinwallahs, the transport people, those who rented their houses, etc.
Today Satyamites call Raju a fraud.
Well, the true and loyal Satyamites surely have all the reasons to call him a fraud. But the rest, who sucked every rupee out of Satyam without doing any value-addition, need to ask themselves: who is the bigger fraud?

Touchscreens May Die Sooner!!

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 11:20:00 +0000

Your IPhone may soon be priceless because soon ( if the scientists are not able to find a replacement for the metal used for manufacturing a touch screen) it will go extinct!

I was reading the IEEE Journal for this month and it says that the metal that is used in the manufacturing of modern day touch screens i.e; Indium Tin Oxide or just ITO will soon be very rare or practically unavailable. The metal Indium is currently priced at 1000$ per Kilogram in the market which was 100$ per kilo at the start of 2008. Indium excavation occurs with Zinc mining and it is very inlikely that the Indium reserves are gonna last little more than 10 years.

According to the article the popular touch sensitive screen is made by two transparent plastic sheets coated with highly clear and conducting ITO layers. These sheets are then placed over the phone circuit board act as the the screen of the Phone. When the user touches the screen the sheets join due to the impact and complete the circuit because of the ITO coating. This is highly reliant of the ITO availability in the market.

Research is on to replace Indium with a transparent yet highly conducting metal to replace ITO. Some companies have however claimed of replacing ITO with a conducting polymer but not in a very reliable fashion.

So whatever be the case with Scientists, lets get prepared with our touch screens and IPhones and ITouchs and MacBook Airs, HTCs and Blackberry Storms to die their natural technological death!!

Mumbai Unforgotten

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 15:15:00 +0000

My locality has become a hub of activists and leaders trying to display their anger, grit and patriotism against terrorism. In their various acts of portraying this I have witnessed the Christmas Star which is made every year and hung up at the Society, this time bore Taj Mahal Hotel Burning and Peace Quotes written all over it.

Another such act is the Shahid Vijay Salaskar Udyan recently inaugrated by Mr. Ravindra Waikar.

It is a blessing for the locality because of its clean, green grass and pure air and it seems it has also fulfilled the cause of public awareness about the aspiring candidates of the upcoming elections. The 2.5-acre municipalised park along the Jogeshwari-Vikroli link road was planned by local Sena corporator Ravindra Waikar.

I had a stroll at late night here in the park and it bears the paintings by students of Mumbai School of Art and also a monument erected in rememberance of the Shahid Vijay Salaskar.

Another interesting fact is all the boards, signs in the park, the paintings are in Marathi. No objections here but isn't it too politicized. The message of peace must be communicated in a medium understandable to all and I guess even Marathi people are fluent in Hindi as they are with their Mother-Tongue!!

As Sarkar has rightly said "To kill is a crime, to kill at appropriate time is politics"

India is no Slumdog!!

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 04:50:00 +0000

Slumdog's Success is indicatory of the rainbow of India's vibrant colors displayed by Danny Boyle's Millionaire Brit Kid Dev Patel in the over hyped yet under nourished Indian Tale of a slum dweller who transforms from rags to riches over-night in an Indian Tele Show 'Kaun Banega Crorepati'.

We all might have seen the movie or perhaps even read the novel by now. The novel is available at INR 95/- on the streets of Mumbai. I would say if you have seen the movie or heard the storyline, you are able to believe in the reality of life in India or even in any metro city of our bejeweled country. Still every dog has its day and every cloud has a silver lining.

Many a times I notice the little girls near the jogeshwari Flyover Signal trying to insert their hands into a large metal lid of a manhole which has a very narrow opening. I stopped by once to notice what they do, they actually insert a bottle in the small hole of the manhole which has a pipe of fresh water passing through it. They might have pierced a hole into the pipe and started to use this water for drinking and washing clothes. Innovation at its best and by the most underdogs. This is what it means to be a Slumdog Millionaire.

Another example of such innovation is the Auto Rickshaw drivers pooling their passengers charging each one of them 5/- bucks for a nearest sub urban station ride. They charge 15 bucks for 3 people and make profit also the passengers feel free after jsut having to spend 5/- per head and even ladies feel safe in travelling in such Sharing Ricks since there are more than one passengers to help them in case of any untoward incident. Who wants to remember Car-Pooling here??

Sharing and Caring has been a part of Indian Culture since ages. The joint familed business minded Gujratis are excellent examples of this trait. Legacies are made in India from each step and continue till ages. Take the case of Music Maestros for instance, hardly any maestro exists who has not passed his art to his next generation.

A child near Taj Mahal Agra, who sells fans made from Peacock Wings knows 6 different foreign languages and is very fluent in all of them. All he knows is to sell a fan per customer and his success rate is almost 100%. He learnt all these languages from tourists of different origins and uses them to fulfil his and his families' hunger.

For many their talent or whit is amazement but for them it is survival tactics!!

Che Guevara

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 15:38:00 +0000

You might have seen him millions of times but you still might not know that he is perhaps the most famous photograph of the entire 20th century. He is Ernesto "Che" Guevara and he was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary and was shot on 9th October 1967 (that also happens to be my Birthday, but the year being 1984). You can see him on many T-Shirts and even on Farhan Akhtar's T-Shirt in Rock On!! Now You Know Who he is!!

Here is the famous picture of him that shot him to fame even after years of his death.

Here is the link of the Wikipedia Article that relates here.

Some view Che Guevara as a hero; for example, Nelson Mandela referred to him as "an inspiration for every human being who loves freedom" while Jean-Paul Sartre described him as "not only an intellectual but also the most complete human being of our age." Guevara remains a beloved national hero to many in Cuba, where his image adorns the $3 Cuban Peso and school children begin each morning by pledging "We will be like Che." In his native homeland of Argentina, where high schools bear his name, numerous Che museums dot the country, which in 2008 unveiled a 12 foot bronze statue of him in his birth city of Rosario. Additionally, Guevara has been sanctified by some Bolivian campesinos as "Saint Ernesto", to whom they pray for assistance.

By the way: I recently saw even a picture of his and a Quote " Che Guevara is dead, Leave him Alone"

Awesomeness 2009!!

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 10:37:00 +0000

Here We Go! March in to the chinese year of the Ox. So the Rats are out and Oxen are In!!

Sounds Weird isn't it?

If you think its time for some fun, then you are right, because 2009 is the year of some of the biggest blockbuster movies in store. Here is a sneak peak into the Year's Most Awaited Movies Hollywood & Amchi Bollywood!!

HollyWood
Angels & Demons (Prequel to The Da Vinci Code: Watch Trailer Here.)
Astro Boy
Avatar (Directed by James Cameron. Yes! Bang On Titanic Director.
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Freddy vs. Jason 2 (No Ideas)
G.I. Joe (Gung-Ho on Silverscreen)
Ghost Rider 2 (Nicholas, Please No Cage this time!!)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (This should have some serious Action. Trailer Link)
Ice Age 3 (I liked 2 better than 1. I hope 3 is better than 2)
Jurassic Park IV (Finally! JP is what I call a period film..not like Lagaan & Jodha Akbar!!)
Justice League (If this was made in India, the movie will just give footage to each superhero and a song for each heroine will make the movie well beyond 5 hours)
Magneto (Two X-men movies in one year? Hmm…)
Night at the Museum 2: Escape from the Smithsonian (Mueseusm Ke Andar Phir Se Phas Gaya Sikandar??)
Pirates of the Caribbean 4 (Bheja Fry 2 will be better)
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (Should be good as the Game Rocks)
Superman: Man of Steel (Awesomeness!)
Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins (He Will Be Back Soon!)
The Chronicles of Riddick: Return to Furya
The Fast and the Furious 4 (I haven’t watched any)
The Jetsons (This might be good)
Transformers 2 (Yo BabY!)
Watchmen
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Link to Wolverine Teaser Trailer, I'm Loving it!!)

Our Own Bollywood
Victory (Harman Baweja)
Acid Factory (Sanjay Gupta (Cap), Dia Mirza,Irrfan Khan,Fardeen Khan, Manoj Bajpai, Aftab and Danny)
Raaz-The Mystery Continues (Emraan Hashmi, Kangana Ranaut & Introducing Adhyayan. Mohit Suri is the Director & yet another jewel in the Bhatt Camp's Scary Crown)
Chandni Chowk to China: (Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone, Nikhil Advani (Dir))
Billu Barber (Irrfan Khan, Shahrukh Khan Trailers are already out)
Delhi 6 (Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra is the director and Abhishek & Sonam star in this purely Delhi Flick)
Delhi Belly (Imran Khan is back this time in an Adult Role with lot of Strong Language and
New York (Yash Raj Films presents John Abraham, Katrina kaif and Neil Nitin Mukesh in New York post 09/11)
Luck By Chance (I am looking forward to this one because it stars Hrithik Roshan and Farhan Akhtar together)
8x10 (Akshay Kumar's First Parallel Cinematic Role as a man who can look the past through the eyes of the dead. Directed by Nagesh Kuknoor.)
Alibaug (Yet Another Sanjay Gupta Flick. Expect Action, Drama, Suspense & Music)
Alladin (Don't Bet on this one Riteish Deshmukh is Alladin and Big B is Genie.)
Ajab Prem ki Ghajab Kahani (Ranbir Kapoor)
Aashayein (John & Ayesh Takia, Directed by Nagesh Kuknoor. Watch for John's performance)
Kambakth Ishq (Most Talked about film of Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor with Cameos by none other than Rambo: Sylvester Stallone and Denise Richards. Got to be deadly Action movie)
London Dreams (Salman Khan, Ajay Devgan (yes together after HDDCS) and Asin of Ghajini fame)
Hissss (Mallika Sherawat's Snake Woman act in collaboration with Hollywood)
De Dhana Dhan (Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Suniel Shetty and Paresh Rawal. You can easily guess the director now)
What's Your Rashee (Priyanka Chopra & Harman Baweja by Ashutosh Gowariker)
Kaminay (Shahid Kapur is in a double role here with Priyanka Chopra and Amol Gupte(TZP Director himself)
Wake up Sid (Dharma Productions film starring Ranbir Kapoor and Konkona)
Blue (Blue, one of the most expensive film of Bollywood ever(budget more than Rs.100 crores), has Sanjay Dutt, Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, Lara Dutta and Zayed Khan in lead roles. The action film is shot in Bahamas and is written by American writers Joshua Lurie and Bryan M. Sullivan. The movie has a lot of underwater scenes and dare devil stunts by Akshay Kumar. A.R.Rahman has given music for the film. Australian singer Kylie Minogue has been reportedly paid 1.5 million dollars to sing for Rahman, Antony D'Souza is to direct the film.)

Now you know 2009 is the most talked about year of the Human History of Film Making.

You can make entire Finance Industry feel revived if the cash invested in the movies is put in there!!!

* The Views expressed here in this blog (The Text in the () after the Movie Names) are original however I admit to collect the data from various sources on the Internet. Dude, I am not GOD!!

Who is An Indian?

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 11:00:00 +0000

Unity in Diversity

If will just add one example here of Bal Gangadhar Tilak here:

Once as a kid Bal Gangadhar Tilak was asked to join the pieces of a big jigsaw puzzle with India's map inscribed on it. He was accompanied by his entire class of the school. All the kids started to build the puzzle as soon as possible but were facing difficulty as India's Map is quite big and complex to join a Jigsaw Puzzle is made out of a picture.

The Teacher was taking a round of the class and saw Tilak making something else out of the puzzle. He inquired to what was he doing. Tilak replied that this big jigsaw puzzle had a picture of a man on the flip side.

He said joyously "If I join one man's picture in the puzzle, the picture of India on the back will be complete."

I was just thinking today, how true this statement is even today and wonder when will we shed our inhibitions and make our country truly a 'Golden Bird'.

How does it matter from which state you belong to or what language you speak or which opinion you are of if you are born in one great nation which is a matter of pride for you?

Ghajini is not Memento

noreply@blogger.com (Amrit Bharadwaj) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 05:53:00 +0000

GHAJINI IS NOT MEMENTO

Leave Aamir Khan alone for making a re-make of two different movies. I can bet on this one that at least Ghajini is not a remake of Christopher Nolan's 2005 film Memento. It is although inspired from it as you see the Tattoo Stuff which is a mere copy cat act. Still you can't blame Aamir for this as it had already been copied in the Tamil Ghajini. It's a remake of Tamil Ghajini but in a Mumbaiyya way.

It has a touch of the Action of down south Mollywood and Stunts like Cheeru Anna & Rajni Anna. If you compare the story of the two flicks Ghajini & Memento there is a similarity but not resemblance. Memento doesn't have a line in the story its just events roped into a timeline, no chronology or sensible information which can be extracted from watching it Top to Bottom.

However, Ghajini is predominantly a love story, which revolves around Aamir's intense love for his lover who doesn't even know his real identity as he pretends her to be a common man even though he is the CEO or Air Voice Company the leading Cell Phone Network Company.

Memento is something you'll have to watch it again and again because it is impossible to make sense of it in one go. It has three stories in one. First one being of Leonard Shelby, (played by Guy Pierce) who has a short term memory disorder (anterograde amnesia) and keeps forgetting things after he had been hit by a goon who killed his wife infront of him. Another Story being of Sammy Jankis whom he pretends of knowing and had a similar disorder. Sammy later killed his own wife by an Insulin Overdose because he forgets that he has already fed her diabetic wife enough of the medicine already. The last story being the Black & White Scenes where he receives Phone Calls from an Anonymous caller in his hotel room.

Ghajini is very logical Indian Made Love Story in which the Hero Wont die until he has killed the villain even though you stab him with a rod right into his stomach and hit him hard with metal chairs, rods, pillars and imaginable fighting objects. Sanjay Singhania (Aamir Khan) is a filthily rich guy who is in Town to take over the Air Voice empire after hi father's demise. He falls in love with a simple girl who works as a model in Ad Films. He pretends like a common struggler to impress her and gets her 'I Do' so easily without even telling her who he was. His investigation is not shown completely and even his tattoo scenes are not shown in the movie. A very good depiction of fear is shown in the eyes of the slain police inspector and even the goons of Ghajini are afraid of confronting full blown Sanjay Singhania.

The songs are all wrongly placed and the movie would have been better without them. The scenes where are the Heroine Asin is shown in her good light like when she helps Blind Man, Physically Challenged Children and Young Girls to be sold in Goa are all worthless and could have been avoided. I feel the director just wants to show how good Aamir's lover was that he can't forget her even if he suffers from 'Anterograde Amnesia'.

Overall a good movie, tremendous performance by Aamir & the lady Asin but direction is weak and editing could be improved and obviously the length could have been cut short.

Rating: **

I would rate it 2 out of 5 Stars.

PS: The Work out of Aamir's 8 Pack Abs is very good but is not a very healthy physique according to his counterparts like Salman Bhai & Sunny Paaji. They have challenged him to maintain this physique for at least a year more. Let's see how our Mr Perfectionist is able to prove them wrong.

Adios!!