Beeravara Betta is a hillock that is situated about 45 Kms from Bangalore and is an ideal picnic spot and a great place to relax and to become one with Mother Nature.
Beeravara is the place where you have to whisper so that you are not too loud for others’ ears. It is a very quiet place and hope it remains so.
Driving directions:
* Get onto the old Madras Road to NH7. After a 23-km-drive you will reach Nelamangala. Signal (no need to go inside Nelamangala).
* Turn left here on the Mangalore/ Hassan road. There is a big sign board and Karnataka tourism board here. This is also the road for Belur/ Shravanabelagola.
* Continue on this road for about 15 kms. You will see many villages on either sides. After you spot a small hill with a smaller temple on top, keep looking onto your left for a small temple of Bisilumaramma.
* Enquire here and take left. (I read from a blog that there used to be fairly large signboard to the left which reads ‘Beeravara - 1 km’ This is no longer there as the Mangalore road is being widened)
* Go inside for a few metres until you see a small rock pillar installed on a platform to the left and a small temple on the right. There is a rough path leading to the left till the base of the hill.
At the top of the hill is a small temple dedicated to Lord Lakshmi Ranganatha. You can spot children playing at the foot of the hills. You can reach the top via a steep flight of steps. When we went, construction activities were ongoing and we had to climb via the edges which became more difficult as the height increased. So, we abandoned the idea and returned, after a few pictures though.
We searched for alternate routes to the top though the construction workers said that there weren’t any. We took a tour around the base of the hillock and found a track going behind the hill into an open area resembling forest. We could see goats and cows grazing. We turned around and tried rappelling without any proper gear though. Ram and Satish slid down and it was fun clicking them doing this. One of the masons took interest in us and came down the hill and climbed up the hill barefoot, using his hands for the support. When we tried, we weren’t even a single step ahead. After a few more attempts, the idea of climbing the hill was dropped. We started exploring the arena for an equally interesting place. A few metres behind the hill was a jack tree which was almost picture perfect and had the coolest breeze in its shade. This vast area and the breeze instantly relaxed us.
There were a few boulders nearby and we went up a big rock which had an amazing shade at the top thanks to the trees on top. The top portion was flat and the view from here was awesome, if not more. You get to see lush green in all directions and could hear the traffic noise from the highway. The NH should be a few hundred metres away from this boulder. Though Satish complained that this noise disturbed him a bit, I was happy that we were closer to humanity and not lost in a jungle.
There was nothing much to do there, but nothing more was needed also. We sat down and started talking as we hadn’t packed any games with us. Three of us were there and each had the same experience of peace and serenity on top of this place. We regained our childhood watching a cow walking along with a crane. Whenever the cow got ahead of the crane, she would fly to catch up with the cow. They looked like friends on the way to their school. Soon an old woman came and tied the cow to the nearby bush. The crane went around her and was providing companionship to the cow and entertainment to us.Now and then, there were one or two dogs that would come to the foot-hill and stare at us. Thankfully, they never barked or did not venture up and left us to ourselves.
At lunchtime, we went around looking for a place to spread the picnic basket. We drove into the village and could see the small houses and school. There were boulders, grave tombs spread out everywhere. After a 15 minute search, we decided to return to our campJ This time when we carried the bags of food, plate, water and bedsheet, the workers looked at us with a big question mark on their face. It was a simple lunch, but tasted great thanks to the surroundings and our internal peace. We rested our backs for a while and were yapping. Those were meaningless talks but I could feel the calmness in each of us. When an old woman interrupted us for some water, we were only happy to see another human being there. She had come with her goats that were busy grazing and soon we could hear her speaking to another woman at the foot of the hill. These discussions went on for 2 hours or more amidst the chirping of birds, bleating of goats and cows in addition the whistling winds.
There was no trekking, adventure or rock climbing. Still, we were satisfied with our picnic spot.
Believe me that becoming one with nature is not very difficult here. Rest here for a while and forget any worry and erase every tension out of your mind.
It might not be a very good idea to come here in summer.
This is what I had read about the hill temple, by SRINIDHI RAGHAVENDRA L V:
“After a little distance, the stairs pass through a cave-like passageway for about 20 feet before reaching the top. It is a marvellous creation of Nature, the path giving way to a cave passage with sunlight streaming into it from the other end. The top of the hill is a small squarish plateau about 50 sq ft in area.
The temple is a small stone structure with beautiful Hoysala style square pillars. You can see a pair of large footprints, believed to be of Lord Hanuman, right in front. Inside, is a strikingly beautiful image of Lakshmi Rangantha Swamy made of shiny black granite carved on a pillar, which is about five ft tall. A pair of glittering brass eyes with stones encased appear as though the lord is staring outside. The other parts of the face are also well defined and adorned with brass ornaments.
Worship is performed only on Saturdays and special days.
The annual jatre or the fair is held on Rathasapthami day here. “
(copying the info as the DeccanHerald page link doesn’t open)
Friday, December 26
Wednesday, December 24
Mydanahalli, a weekend getaway from Bangalore
| Last Saturday, I had been to a place called 'Mydanahalli' - u read it right- or 'Maidanahalli', which is a black buck reserve forest in Karnataka bordering Andhra. A friend of us came to know abt this place and suggested it as a weekend getaway. Here is the blog that she was referred by her friend : http://ifornature.blogspot.com/2008/11/mydanahalli-blackbuck-reserve.html There are more blogs on this place and we were convinced that it would be a good idea to go early in the morning to spot the blackbucks made famous by Salman Khan. Though it was 140 Kms from Blr and the place did not have any flora or landscapes, we decided to try our luck with the blackbucks and their winged friends. 5 of us decided to leave Blr by 4.30 in the morning (in the peak cold winter) so that we can reach when the animals are out on their morning walk. We managed to get up, packed almost all brands of biscuits, fried snacks, soda and water cans, filled full gas and and left home just before 5 am. Ram was as usual behind the wheel and I next to him with 5-8 papers with the route and directions, courtesy- blogs and google maps. The early morning was definitely a different sight - dark roads covered with fog, howling & barking dogs, the roaming cops dressed like terrorists to protect themselves from cold and only a lathi for self protection! , fellow vehicles on the road - that being the beginning of xmas week, many families could be seen travelling that early. We took the old Madras road to join the outer ring road that feeds into Tumkur. As usual, Tumkur road was full of slow-moving trucks and thousands of diversions and barricades. I pity those who get to travel this road often! After an hour long drive, we reached the toll gate and were asked by our friend to look out for a board 6 kms after the toll, on the right side. 10 eyes followed the instruction and after 6 kms, we were desperate and looked out in all possible directions! It being a straight road without any turns, we were puzzled and drove on, doubting the directions given by her friend. Soon, we reached the exit of the toll gate and continued straight. We all were shot back suddenly when she shouted that she spotted the board. Time for reverse gear . Only then it became clear that the 6 kms was meant after the toll exit :-) It was fun, anyways. We had to take the Tumkur by-pass and not get into the town. But there was no signboard when we reached the deviation point. We asked a villager who asked us to go straight, whereas Satish was insisting that we should take the right turn to join the by-pass. Me being me, said that since Tumkur trucks were taking right to enter the town and insisted that we head straight, which we did. We were doubtful as the road was not wide enough for a NH and could see shops on the roadside. So, we stopped a cyclist who confirmed that it was not the by-pass and we took a U-turn. While continuing on the by-pass, there was a small board with the hand-written words 'Pune road' which made us discuss again. After discussions, we continued straight only to return to Pune road after 5 minutes. That place is the over bridge under construction. Turn right and continue for 45 kms or so towards Madhugiri. That part of the drive was wonderful - it had dawned by then and there was thick fog on all sides. Visibility was poor which made Ram apply less pressure on the accelerator. We took time to click snaps on the way (shall update this post with good snaps soon) and reached Madhugiri (which also happens to be a district). We had to go past Madhugiri onto Hindupura Road for 17 Kms to reach Puravara village. I tested my Kannada skills. And every single board in this route is in Kannada which I dint attempt :-) After a few odd Kms, we had to leave the tar road behind and there started the stress test for the car and our backbones. Inspite of directions, maps, pictures of board signs with us, we had to continue asking the villagers for help, who were not only enthusiastic, but also wrong many times. A self-proclaimed forest guard wanted lift and asked us to go back from where we came! In short, we were lost and amidst people who confirmed that the forest was a few kms ahead. That motivated us to go ahead and entered muddy roads(?) and slopes. We had entered the forest without realising. Soon, I got to see a lake with few birds and the scenery was beautiful. Stopped every person who passed us asking for the black bucks. We were told to go near the shed which was 2 kms from the lake and so we continued. We reached a point beyond which the car cannot go because of a ditch and so started walking. After a few metres, we could see a house and grazing cows. How can there be a house in a reserve area, we thought and spent some time bird watching and returned to the car. The time was 9.30 and all were hungry. We decided on a pool-side breakfast and drove back to the lake. Bread, butter, jam and ready made rotis made a smooth way inside our foodpipes. Meanwhile, we were researching the footmarks on the lake side - if they were of goats or deers ! I took a count of chances which were 3-2 with me offering to be the third vote on spotting bucks! Once, the food was in, energies shot up and caught hold of more villagers who swore that our earlier route was correct and that we simply had to go beyond. They asked us to go straight - but where is straight when you are inside a jungle without any road tracks? Well, we went ahead to the same ditch and Muku started filling it with large stones so that we could drive over them. 15 minutes later we were on our way again. Suddenly, Ram exclaimed that the fuel tank was getting emptied fast and we all looked down to check for leaking petrol. Though being an offroader, Honda CRV gulps almost a litre for each km on a road less road in the first gear. Now, the priorities shifted from animal spotting to getting out of the jungle. And that's when, we saw a shed and got down. After enquiries with the shed owner who spoke flawless English, Kannada and Tamil, we came to know that the reserve area was only a km away. We left the car there for saving petrol and trekked our way through the thorny bushes towards the fence he showed. He told about a watch tower and guards whom we dint meet till the very end. We had to cross moats to enter the fenced area(it was fenced on one side only). I wore cotton trousers and thin shoes. The bushes started poking me with their needles and I had to stop every now and then to remove them. When I say jungle or forest, please do not imagine a forest covered with dense trees that keep the sunlight away. This is a forest with only Eucalyptus trees, cactus and acres of bushes. We walked for another half an hour and reached a denser part of the forest, where we finally spotted the black beauties. We saw two of them who dint blink for a second, but ran and disappeared in no time. They were huge in size and from whatever I could see, they had amazing horns that seemed to be the work of skilled craftsmen. Only the belly was white and rest was dark brown (or black?) in color. A new rule came after this - not to speak or make noise! We went further in and was getting more holes in my body. We walked along the path of an erstwhile stream, which had dried long ago. Some of us were lucky to spot 2 more black bucks - fawns this time, but they were equally fast if not faster. It was a bit disappointing that we could not see herds of them or take pictures of the animals. We could not locate the watch tower or any human beings. There were many snake hills and were scared as we had read that there were 14 different species of them in the forest. After some more waiting and hesitation, we started our way back. We took a short cut and so got lost only to find our car soon. We quenched our thirst and went to the shed-house and used his toilet. The guy had a poultry farm earlier (that explained the shed) and was running a brick factory then. He said that there was a guest house under construction and it should be possible to stay after that. To see what, I dint ask. He talked in length about his life, snakes, scorpions, pets, politicians who promise roads and infra without delivering and offered us tender coconuts. We politely refused and thanked him for the hospitality. He suggested a shorter route to Blr via Gouribidanur. We took his suggestion and took the mud road towards Gouribidanur. A good 2-25 km stretch was difficult after which there was tar road to Dodballapur and a good ride to Yelahaka and Blr then on. We saved around 30-40 kms and also avoided the Tumkur road traffic. This is definitely a recommended route, except for the 20 km mud-road stretch. The total distance covered was around 270 kms. To summarize, it was a good drive and we were lucky enough to see the 3-4 animals and some colorful birds near the lake. Issues : Bad road conditions, missing road directions, not so green forest cover, absence of a guide or boards in the forest area and above all, it is disappointing after the real long drive. Not recommended for families with children or for lone trekkers. Even in Dec, the temp was around 27 degrees, so summers will be hotter(the probability of spotting animals is high, as they may not find grass anywhere else). The photos in the referred blogs are nice and beautiful, but I don't think Mydanahalli is worth a long drive. Well, that's my opinion :-) FULL STOP |
Tuesday, December 23
What kept me away?
Guess what happens, when u return to work after a break? Piles of work and loads of mails in the inbox !
Well, I'm in a similar position. Haven't actively blogged for a while and now, have got Kilobytes and megabytes of things to share with :-)
Let me begin with the reason for my silence as the first topic.
I took a break from work for a month, after nine years in the corporate world. You may instantly approve the need for a break! I took this time to rejuvenate myself and did what I love to do.
I simply love those days and I was happy to end the vacation as well.
All is well that ends well :-)
And when I joined work last month, the initial days kept me busy and so, couldn't take time out for blogging.
Here I am and hope to pen mythoughts more frequently.
Wish you all a Merry Christmas and enjoy your vacation too !
Well, I'm in a similar position. Haven't actively blogged for a while and now, have got Kilobytes and megabytes of things to share with :-)
Let me begin with the reason for my silence as the first topic.
I took a break from work for a month, after nine years in the corporate world. You may instantly approve the need for a break! I took this time to rejuvenate myself and did what I love to do.
- Stayed back @ home, sweet home till I got bored of the TV. I am not going to complain about saas-bahu serials and their viewers. The women at home and others watch them for lack of better options! (Plenty of time on hand and the absence of objective or goal may force things that are otherwise undersired. This is one of the lessons I've learnt.)
- Cleaned a bit (I have to say a bit, because cleaning and dusting a house are perennial jobs) and organised stuff lying all over the house. (It takes only a minute for the house to revert to its disorganised state and somehow I belive it takes no effort for this reversion!)
- Took up dieting and gymmed daily- I lost a good 4.5 inches and 1.5 kilos (The kilos have now returned back as pounds)
- Played keyboard and regularly went for my classes and practised at home as well (There was no need to dust the keyboard)
- Visited my parents and spent time with my immediate family and friends
- Went on a holiday with my hubby dear to the beaches of Mangalore and forts of Kerala.
- Rest of the time, I was busy shopping, listening to music and lazing around :-)
I simply love those days and I was happy to end the vacation as well.
All is well that ends well :-)
And when I joined work last month, the initial days kept me busy and so, couldn't take time out for blogging.
Here I am and hope to pen mythoughts more frequently.
Wish you all a Merry Christmas and enjoy your vacation too !
Wednesday, November 12
Run run run
Hi guys! Its a long time since my last post.
Well, I had been busy enjoying life :-)
One of the things I did was to participate in a Marathon training. It was a great experience. Though I would have run only 3 kms, I felt as if I had run the entire marathon! I'm sure training for a marathon will get one into the fitness groove!
Here is the link to the upcoming Marathon in Bangalore.
http://www.thefullerlife.com/index.php?id=178
Run for your life :-)
Well, I had been busy enjoying life :-)
One of the things I did was to participate in a Marathon training. It was a great experience. Though I would have run only 3 kms, I felt as if I had run the entire marathon! I'm sure training for a marathon will get one into the fitness groove!
Here is the link to the upcoming Marathon in Bangalore.
http://www.thefullerlife.com/index.php?id=178
Run for your life :-)
Thursday, October 23
Whats on news today?
For the past few months, the constant news on headlines has been the bear grip on the stock exchanges around the world! Today, Sensex dipped below 10k again...
Small investors like me have two major worries:
1. Bigger one: Should I continue to stay invested or book loss and thereby stop further losses.
2. Keep wondering whether now is the right time to invest or wait.
Well, those who are facing liquidity issues, donot have choices and thereby no confusion !
On a lighter note, here is what my friend had to quote:
"A normal balance sheet will have Assets on the right and Liabilities on the left. In case of Lehman Brother's balance sheet, there is nothing left on the right and nothing on the left is right. "
Well said, dude!
Small investors like me have two major worries:
1. Bigger one: Should I continue to stay invested or book loss and thereby stop further losses.
2. Keep wondering whether now is the right time to invest or wait.
Well, those who are facing liquidity issues, donot have choices and thereby no confusion !
On a lighter note, here is what my friend had to quote:
"A normal balance sheet will have Assets on the right and Liabilities on the left.
Well said, dude!
Tuesday, October 21
Take a break!
Well, thatz what I'm doing, right now!
A break from the corporate world after so many years ! Though it is a 3 week interval, I'm enjoying it and thats the reason I haven't written any new post.
Well, now that I have broken it, let me also tell u that the next two weeks will be hectic with fun, thanks to Diwali and a function at my parent's place.
Whats your plan for Diwali celebrations?
Wish you all a very happy Diwali and happy holidays :-)
A break from the corporate world after so many years ! Though it is a 3 week interval, I'm enjoying it and thats the reason I haven't written any new post.
Well, now that I have broken it, let me also tell u that the next two weeks will be hectic with fun, thanks to Diwali and a function at my parent's place.
Whats your plan for Diwali celebrations?
Wish you all a very happy Diwali and happy holidays :-)
Sunday, September 28
Expectations in a relationship!
Word of caution: A posting on the heavier side of life
I am a bit confused today!
Relationships have always confused me !
I realise this mainly during the troubled times!
It takes time to define a relationship, its nature and objective. Only time can tell about the longevity of a relationship and if it is successful or not and if it is ongoing or not!
And then, there are a few which fall on neither sides in both categories. We don't know sometimes if a relationship is alive and kicking or if it has ended successfully or not!
Humans are amazing - not only because each one is unique, but also each heart and mind store infinite feelings and thoughts about people and relationships with them.
We get hurt when our feelings are not acknowledged or in other words, when our expectations are not met! Feelings arise from the heart.
From where do expectations arise?
And a more critical question is - Do we have control on our expectations?If yes, to what extent?
Is spirituality a search to answer these questions?
Many religions and philosophies seem to be against expectations in a relationship!The core principle of Buddhism is to have no expectations which is also the basis for almost every other religion as well.
BhagvadGita dictates one to do the duties without worrying/expecting the results!
But, is it easily humane to be without expectations in one's deeds or in a relationship?
And my bigger question is : If there is no expectation, what defines a relationship and how does one differentiate a relationship from another?
I am a bit confused today!
Relationships have always confused me !
I realise this mainly during the troubled times!
It takes time to define a relationship, its nature and objective. Only time can tell about the longevity of a relationship and if it is successful or not and if it is ongoing or not!
And then, there are a few which fall on neither sides in both categories. We don't know sometimes if a relationship is alive and kicking or if it has ended successfully or not!
Humans are amazing - not only because each one is unique, but also each heart and mind store infinite feelings and thoughts about people and relationships with them.
We get hurt when our feelings are not acknowledged or in other words, when our expectations are not met! Feelings arise from the heart.
From where do expectations arise?
And a more critical question is - Do we have control on our expectations?If yes, to what extent?
Is spirituality a search to answer these questions?
Many religions and philosophies seem to be against expectations in a relationship!The core principle of Buddhism is to have no expectations which is also the basis for almost every other religion as well.
BhagvadGita dictates one to do the duties without worrying/expecting the results!
But, is it easily humane to be without expectations in one's deeds or in a relationship?
And my bigger question is : If there is no expectation, what defines a relationship and how does one differentiate a relationship from another?
Friday, September 26
Points to ponder!
On a lazy Friday post noon session, what do you do?
I decided to calculate my BMI (body mass Index) to figure out my health vitals.
In one of the sites, www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/, I found this pearl of wisdom :-)
Women tend to imagine their ideal weight is unrealistically low, so they diet unnecessarily. Men tend to allow their ideal weight to be higher than medically recommended. Men and Women should learn from each other.
:-)
I decided to calculate my BMI (body mass Index) to figure out my health vitals.
In one of the sites, www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/, I found this pearl of wisdom :-)
Women tend to imagine their ideal weight is unrealistically low, so they diet unnecessarily. Men tend to allow their ideal weight to be higher than medically recommended. Men and Women should learn from each other.
:-)
Tuesday, September 23
The joy of learning
Here is an update on personal stuff - after a long time!
I am the type of person who is interested in studies, as the mere act of learning gives me pleasure! My friends made a joke out of my 'Tagged' post, when they saw a tick mark against studies while almost everyone else had ticked sports :-)
Coming straight to the point - I've enrolled for keyboard classes and thoroughly enjoying them. I'm yet to get mastery on fingering and play the keys like a typewriter sometimes!
Along with the keyboard, I am also unearthing few of my blind spots - i.e. the grey areas within me about which I had been unaware earlier. One of them is that my little finger is weak! I realised it when the ring finger comes to the rescue of little finger and plays the key marked to the latter! Now, as I type this post, I notice that my little fingers are not used for typing at all !
Music has been my favorite since childhood and I was reassured of this when I felt an overwhelming joy after playing my first rhyme 'Mary had a little lamb' last night on the keyboard!
Well, the tutor had given exercises to strengthen the fingers and I wish to play more in the coming days! I love learning :-)
I am the type of person who is interested in studies, as the mere act of learning gives me pleasure! My friends made a joke out of my 'Tagged' post, when they saw a tick mark against studies while almost everyone else had ticked sports :-)
Coming straight to the point - I've enrolled for keyboard classes and thoroughly enjoying them. I'm yet to get mastery on fingering and play the keys like a typewriter sometimes!
Along with the keyboard, I am also unearthing few of my blind spots - i.e. the grey areas within me about which I had been unaware earlier. One of them is that my little finger is weak! I realised it when the ring finger comes to the rescue of little finger and plays the key marked to the latter! Now, as I type this post, I notice that my little fingers are not used for typing at all !
Music has been my favorite since childhood and I was reassured of this when I felt an overwhelming joy after playing my first rhyme 'Mary had a little lamb' last night on the keyboard!
Well, the tutor had given exercises to strengthen the fingers and I wish to play more in the coming days! I love learning :-)
Thursday, September 18
An insightful statement
Warren E. Buffet while referring to reckless corporate debt mentioned "You never know who is swimming naked until the tide goes out."
I'm sure many would be able to appreciate this insight in today's context. The financial global meltdown has exposed or started exposing the bare bodies which may not be a pleasant experience, to put it mildly! And remember that Buffet had made this statement, decades ago!!
Well, just wanted to point out that the above statement seems appropriate in many contexts, exactly like a proverb!
Tuesday, September 16
Who owns Kashmir?
Another interesting fwded mail:
An ingenious example of speech and politics occurred recently in the United Nations Assembly that made the world community smile.
A representative from India began: 'Before beginning my talk I want to tell you something about Rishi Kashyap of Kashmir, after whom Kashmir is named.When Rishi Kashyap struck a rock and it brought forth water, he thought, 'What a good opportunity to have a bath.'He took off his clothes, put them aside on the rock and entered the water.When he got out and wanted to dress, his clothes had vanished. A Pakistani had stolen them.
The Pakistani representative jumped up furiously and in support of Pakistan, he shouted, 'What are you talking about? The Pakistanis weren't there then.'
The Indian representative smiled and said, 'And now that we have made that clear, I will begin my speech'
An ingenious example of speech and politics occurred recently in the United Nations Assembly that made the world community smile.
A representative from India began: 'Before beginning my talk I want to tell you something about Rishi Kashyap of Kashmir, after whom Kashmir is named.When Rishi Kashyap struck a rock and it brought forth water, he thought, 'What a good opportunity to have a bath.'He took off his clothes, put them aside on the rock and entered the water.When he got out and wanted to dress, his clothes had vanished. A Pakistani had stolen them.
The Pakistani representative jumped up furiously and in support of Pakistan, he shouted, 'What are you talking about? The Pakistanis weren't there then.'
The Indian representative smiled and said, 'And now that we have made that clear, I will begin my speech'
Friday, September 12
Laugh out loud!
Here is a forwarded mail that sent me into splits :-)
If you have seen any Vijayakanth movie, that is an additional motivation!!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
MINDBLOWING: VIJAYAKANTH'S Dialogues in English
1) U can study and get any certificates. But u cannot get ur death certificate
2) U may have AIRTEL or BSNL connection but when u sneeze u ll say HUTCH
3 ) U can bcome an engineer if u study in engineering college. U cannot bcom a president if u studies in Presidency College
4 ) U can expect a BUS from a BUS stop ... u cannot expect a FULL from FULL stop
5) A mechanical engineer can bcom a mechanic but a software engineer cannot bcom a software
6 ) U can find tea in teacup. But cannot find world in world cup
7) U can find keys in Keyboard but u cannot find mother in motherboard.
Wednesday, September 10
Rage of Angels - A review
About the author: Sidney Sheldon - Should I say more?
About the book: This bestseller was first published in 1980 and getting reprinted till date and one of the best works by Sheldon.
Plot: The story of Jennifer Parker, an Assistant District Attorney for the State of New Yorkyoung and successful lawyer who is loved by two men belonging to opposite poles and opposing each each other - one a senator and the other, a mafia don. This tale is about her survival in New York city, against all odds.
What I liked most: Jennifer's strong character and determination to succeed. The way she challenges the system and her inner struggle when she falls in love with married men, one after another and goes on to mother a child without having to reveal his father!
The book is an interesting read its difficult to put it down even when the eyes are tired. Also, the reader gets to know about certain elements of US judicial system.
Brickbats:
I find it difficult to believe
- that her first enemy, District Attorney De Silva did not obstruct her after her first thumping victory.
- that Adam Warner goes on to become the President in a short while, similar to Bollywood flicks :-)
Summary: Suggested for light reading, time-pass and general reading pleasure.
About the book: This bestseller was first published in 1980 and getting reprinted till date and one of the best works by Sheldon.
Plot: The story of Jennifer Parker, an Assistant District Attorney for the State of New Yorkyoung and successful lawyer who is loved by two men belonging to opposite poles and opposing each each other - one a senator and the other, a mafia don. This tale is about her survival in New York city, against all odds.
What I liked most: Jennifer's strong character and determination to succeed. The way she challenges the system and her inner struggle when she falls in love with married men, one after another and goes on to mother a child without having to reveal his father!
The book is an interesting read its difficult to put it down even when the eyes are tired. Also, the reader gets to know about certain elements of US judicial system.
Brickbats:
I find it difficult to believe
- that her first enemy, District Attorney De Silva did not obstruct her after her first thumping victory.
- that Adam Warner goes on to become the President in a short while, similar to Bollywood flicks :-)
Summary: Suggested for light reading, time-pass and general reading pleasure.
Tuesday, September 2
Resort & Weekend getaway from Bangalore
Its more than a week since my last post! The weather in Bangalore is wet and hot - its not only confusing, but also flu and cold are prevalent. I was one of the victims and now back to normalcy, well, almost with the occasional cough!
To celebrate my recovery, we gathered a few friends and made a day trip to a cave resort called Guhantara in the outskirts of Bangalore- on the Kanakapura road. It is 30 Kms from HSR layout and around 50 Kms from Indirangar.4 couples and 3 kids made it in 2 cars on sunday morning and after a slow long drive, we reached the resort by 10 am. The last 3 km was a rollercoaster ride as there were no roads inside the forest-village. Another resort by name 'Angana' is also located on the way. Thanks to the monsoons, the place wore a lush green and wet look.
We had registered earlier for a day full of activity. The entrance resembled a cave and after payments, we were taken through a tunnel the interiors of which were of mud and gave a rocky feeling. The kids were thrilled with the dim light, sunlight peeping through the holes and made sounds to highlight the effect. After a 300m walk, we were led into a central room which had dinner tables made out of logs and lots of people. I would have thought for a moment that we entered a theatre, if not for the breakfast buffet counters. An artificial waterfall with a small pool of water formed the centre and against this backdrop, there were seating arrangements done like a theatre. Little did we know that our sunday would be spent in that area!
After tea, we proceeded to the play-area which had Table tennis at the corner of a cave. the table was broken and a half was lower than the other!The place was poorly lit. Still, 4 of us played TT for sometime and the rest were engaged with the dartboard which had only 3 arrows to throw! Though there was a snooker table, a board that read 'Only professionals allowed' kept us away. 3 carom boards were available for the kids. After half an hour of play, we decided to venture out to the open. Came out of the cave and realised that the entire play area was not more than 3000 sq.ft. And including us, appx. 400 persons are to enjoy the resort facilities.
Only the beach volley ball has an earmarked area, there were no cricket pitches, but 3-4 teams were already playing - some with their own bat and balls! We had to wait to get hold of shuttle rackets and played amidst fielding. Within a few minutes, the resort guy came demanding the rackets and asked all 8+3 of us to play with a single frisbee. When I refused to return the rackets, he told me that two women from our group are playing shuttle elsewhere. Inspite of me telling him that they did not belong to our group, he insisted that we play frisbee. But where?
We whiled away the time and got into volleyball by noon. Two other women joined us and we had a match. After that, again the question what next? Thankfully, the resort had organised events like tug of war, singing competition, housie etc to retain people in the auditorium and keep them engaged.
Another shock was that the swimming pool is the same as the small waterfall pool which had a rocky base! We waited for lunch and it turned out be average. It was very spicy for some of us and the housie kept us engaged. Post lunch, when it is difficult to move around, the singing competition started. It was raining out and we spent some time playing dumb charades, swing, slide etc. The auditorium also served as the rain dance area and it started by 3.30 pm and went on for an hour. Meanwhile, we slipped into the pool and played in water. We timed it just before the rain dance got over for the shower. High tea was served and time to say bye and left by 5 pm!
Well, overall, its a small place and definitely lacks sporting facilities. There were many corporate teams having their day-outing and having fun. But, this place is definitely not worth the money we pay, which is Rs.650 per head for a day!
http://www.guhantara.com/
Pictures available in the above website.
To celebrate my recovery, we gathered a few friends and made a day trip to a cave resort called Guhantara in the outskirts of Bangalore- on the Kanakapura road. It is 30 Kms from HSR layout and around 50 Kms from Indirangar.4 couples and 3 kids made it in 2 cars on sunday morning and after a slow long drive, we reached the resort by 10 am. The last 3 km was a rollercoaster ride as there were no roads inside the forest-village. Another resort by name 'Angana' is also located on the way. Thanks to the monsoons, the place wore a lush green and wet look.
We had registered earlier for a day full of activity. The entrance resembled a cave and after payments, we were taken through a tunnel the interiors of which were of mud and gave a rocky feeling. The kids were thrilled with the dim light, sunlight peeping through the holes and made sounds to highlight the effect. After a 300m walk, we were led into a central room which had dinner tables made out of logs and lots of people. I would have thought for a moment that we entered a theatre, if not for the breakfast buffet counters. An artificial waterfall with a small pool of water formed the centre and against this backdrop, there were seating arrangements done like a theatre. Little did we know that our sunday would be spent in that area!
After tea, we proceeded to the play-area which had Table tennis at the corner of a cave. the table was broken and a half was lower than the other!The place was poorly lit. Still, 4 of us played TT for sometime and the rest were engaged with the dartboard which had only 3 arrows to throw! Though there was a snooker table, a board that read 'Only professionals allowed' kept us away. 3 carom boards were available for the kids. After half an hour of play, we decided to venture out to the open. Came out of the cave and realised that the entire play area was not more than 3000 sq.ft. And including us, appx. 400 persons are to enjoy the resort facilities.
Only the beach volley ball has an earmarked area, there were no cricket pitches, but 3-4 teams were already playing - some with their own bat and balls! We had to wait to get hold of shuttle rackets and played amidst fielding. Within a few minutes, the resort guy came demanding the rackets and asked all 8+3 of us to play with a single frisbee. When I refused to return the rackets, he told me that two women from our group are playing shuttle elsewhere. Inspite of me telling him that they did not belong to our group, he insisted that we play frisbee. But where?
We whiled away the time and got into volleyball by noon. Two other women joined us and we had a match. After that, again the question what next? Thankfully, the resort had organised events like tug of war, singing competition, housie etc to retain people in the auditorium and keep them engaged.
Another shock was that the swimming pool is the same as the small waterfall pool which had a rocky base! We waited for lunch and it turned out be average. It was very spicy for some of us and the housie kept us engaged. Post lunch, when it is difficult to move around, the singing competition started. It was raining out and we spent some time playing dumb charades, swing, slide etc. The auditorium also served as the rain dance area and it started by 3.30 pm and went on for an hour. Meanwhile, we slipped into the pool and played in water. We timed it just before the rain dance got over for the shower. High tea was served and time to say bye and left by 5 pm!
Well, overall, its a small place and definitely lacks sporting facilities. There were many corporate teams having their day-outing and having fun. But, this place is definitely not worth the money we pay, which is Rs.650 per head for a day!
http://www.guhantara.com/
Pictures available in the above website.
Thursday, August 21
Yet another strike!
Yesterday witnessed another bunch of strikes - by airport , bank employees and in Bangalore the auto-drivers again applied brakes to their vehicles claiming various demands.
Are strikes right for the country? Is it a public-sector employee's right to stop work for one or more days?
Take the case of autos - though it is not a public sector, the drivers get subsidies and benefits because of their occupation! Who pays the monies for these welfare benefits - of course, tax payers like you & me! And what do I get in return ?
Almost 90% of auto-drivers simply refuse to ply to commercial areas in the morning and residential areas in the evenings! The reason said is that they might not find commuters for return journey! The only way to fit into this timetable is by sleeping at homes during daytime and goto work in the evenings! Auto-imposed shift system !
Unfortunately, yesterday I had a chain of bad experiences commuting across Bangalore. In the morning, when I took an auto towards AnilKumble circle, the driver took me Shoolay circle inspite of telling him throughout the way that my destination is in the other direction. Add one-way roads and traffic blocks - result is that I paid twice the usual fare and kept my cool.
In the evening, I had to hurry to pick up some documents from MG Road. I waited almost half an hour near the Airport(old) flyover before finding an empty auto. As expected, he refused to come in that direction. Few other drivers followed suit and some demanded exorbitant fares - more than thrice the amount, reason being the strike ! But, do they need a reason anyway?
After a while, I lost my patience and started walking with the heavy laptop and bag. Whichever auto driver met me on the way, demanded a lottery prize. When I cautioned one of them of complaining to police, he asked me if he should take me to the police station for 50 bucks!
Nexus between auto & police - would have been my title if I were a journalist! It is all out in the open for everyone to see that autodrivers can't be so demanding or cheating on meters if and only if our cops were straight!
BTW, the strike by autos was to provide better housing options and a lenient policing system - it seems! Amen!
If only we do our duties well, our rights will get their way!
Are strikes right for the country? Is it a public-sector employee's right to stop work for one or more days?
Take the case of autos - though it is not a public sector, the drivers get subsidies and benefits because of their occupation! Who pays the monies for these welfare benefits - of course, tax payers like you & me! And what do I get in return ?
Almost 90% of auto-drivers simply refuse to ply to commercial areas in the morning and residential areas in the evenings! The reason said is that they might not find commuters for return journey! The only way to fit into this timetable is by sleeping at homes during daytime and goto work in the evenings! Auto-imposed shift system !
Unfortunately, yesterday I had a chain of bad experiences commuting across Bangalore. In the morning, when I took an auto towards AnilKumble circle, the driver took me Shoolay circle inspite of telling him throughout the way that my destination is in the other direction. Add one-way roads and traffic blocks - result is that I paid twice the usual fare and kept my cool.
In the evening, I had to hurry to pick up some documents from MG Road. I waited almost half an hour near the Airport(old) flyover before finding an empty auto. As expected, he refused to come in that direction. Few other drivers followed suit and some demanded exorbitant fares - more than thrice the amount, reason being the strike ! But, do they need a reason anyway?
After a while, I lost my patience and started walking with the heavy laptop and bag. Whichever auto driver met me on the way, demanded a lottery prize. When I cautioned one of them of complaining to police, he asked me if he should take me to the police station for 50 bucks!
Nexus between auto & police - would have been my title if I were a journalist! It is all out in the open for everyone to see that autodrivers can't be so demanding or cheating on meters if and only if our cops were straight!
BTW, the strike by autos was to provide better housing options and a lenient policing system - it seems! Amen!
If only we do our duties well, our rights will get their way!
Wednesday, August 13
Bird's nest
Let me clarify that this post is not about Beijing's beautiful and mammoth stadium. Its a ramble about one's house!
Read in today's Times Of India that the area around Ranganathittu has been flooded as water has been released from the KRS dam. Having visited the birds only weeks ago, I was wondering what those birds will be doing. It seems to be funny that most nests donot have a roof! How will then they protect themselves from nature's different forces?
Well, its surprising to know that birds build nests mainly to place their eggs and to bring-up their off springs. It doesn't mean that they donot want to protect themselves or their kids to become wet in rains or blown away by gusty winds. Also, different species build nests of different types, shapes, sizes and on varied places like rocks, trees, sand, bushes, concrete structures, etc etc. Some birds donot spend their energies to build nests - they make use of others nests or simply live without homes - the common ones being pigeons who find a relatively safe place to deposit their eggs and wait for them to be hatched. Only the offspring learns to fly, the mother and baby leave their make-shift home.Humankind is no different - we prefer different types, styles of houses. The human civilization made a giant leap forward when settlements started and people built a roof above their heads and stopped being nomads. But the basic needs might have been to seek protection from the forces of nature and enemies. We have progressed beyond boundaries from there. Before long time ago, buildings and land got transformed into real estate and today, it is one of the prime reasons for recession! Unlike birds, we have to pay rentals to make use of some body's house, unfortunately :-(
But the basic difference is that we want a home where we belong to and part of our sharing, caring and serves as one's own kingdom! The problem starts when this passion turns into possession and money becomes the foundation of the building called house!
Refer my earlier post on owning a house @ http://laddoo-thinks.blogspot.com/2006/12/buying-home.html
Monday, August 4
Festive rush in trains
Its not only common knowledge, but also a very important tip that one can reserve tickets in trains, 90 days in advance. Its a boon because one can ensure availaibility earlier and plan the other aspects of the trip in advance, especially if it is a holiday or sight-seeing. Come festivals, which are plenty in our country, the trains are the first indicators even before the HR departments get ready with their planning.
I have been experiencing this with the major festivals like Diwali, Ganesh Chaturthi, Durga Pooja, x-mas or long weekends around Gandhi Jayanti, Independence or Republic days. During the past decades, the rarity of seats in public transport has only gone up by several notches. I'm sure the number of trains or seats have gone up in this period, but this number seems to have been beaten up by the number of citizens willing to take up journeys around these holidays.
My recent example is attempting a booking for Diwali, this year which falls on 27th Oct. Much in advance, my family had calculated the booking time and kept reminding me to book them on the opening day to avoid inconvenience or hassles with the public and private road transport folks. I too promptly made use of technology and kept enough reminders in Microsoft Outlook, mobile and post-its on the wall. The D-day being Saturday when I tended to extend my cosy sleep, I woke up to the alarms and reminders. It was 7.45 am and I had good 15 minutes to brush and switch on the computer. I logged into the IRCTC website by 7.55 and checked the availability for the Friday before Diwali for a train from Bangalore to Tuticorin. In 2nd AC, there were 17 seats available and that a message was displayed that it cannot be booked before 8 am. The site was behaving properly - all fair and good. Waited impatiently for the next five minutes without doing anything, lest I should use-up bandwidth. When the system clocked 8:00, I pressed the button 'Book ticket'. Well, nothing happened for 2-3 minutes which seemed like hours. I was visualising the various booking counters with mad rush of people who might have waited for hours in long queues and brokers who might be bulldozing their way through. But the website was relaxed and reluctant before the next page came up where I hurriedly entered the name of passengers, choice and id proof details and pressed the 'Make payment' button. This button was no less than the previous one and took its time to display the bank gateway where I filled the login id, password, transaction password, agreement with Terms &Conditions and pressed the button 'Confirm payment'. A message that the payment could not be done was displayed from the bank's site after what seemed to be another hour to me. I checked the time and it was 8:05. Cursing the bank and its infrastructure, I checked the availability of tickets which came out as WL15. I proceeded to 3rd AC which was also in WL and for sleeper class, it was WL200/Regret and it was 8:14 by then.
It was unbelievable, but imagined so many frantic guys in front of laptops and counters who might have got the 17+34+200 seats (it might be more) in that train and hundreds of them like me who got disappointed by the nick of time.
Forget inflation or fear of terror attacks - we want to celebrate our festivals with friends and family, our long weekends in beautiful hill stations or beaches.
Till the country gears up to handle these small pleasures of its citizens, we will continue to remain as a developing nation.
I have been experiencing this with the major festivals like Diwali, Ganesh Chaturthi, Durga Pooja, x-mas or long weekends around Gandhi Jayanti, Independence or Republic days. During the past decades, the rarity of seats in public transport has only gone up by several notches. I'm sure the number of trains or seats have gone up in this period, but this number seems to have been beaten up by the number of citizens willing to take up journeys around these holidays.
My recent example is attempting a booking for Diwali, this year which falls on 27th Oct. Much in advance, my family had calculated the booking time and kept reminding me to book them on the opening day to avoid inconvenience or hassles with the public and private road transport folks. I too promptly made use of technology and kept enough reminders in Microsoft Outlook, mobile and post-its on the wall. The D-day being Saturday when I tended to extend my cosy sleep, I woke up to the alarms and reminders. It was 7.45 am and I had good 15 minutes to brush and switch on the computer. I logged into the IRCTC website by 7.55 and checked the availability for the Friday before Diwali for a train from Bangalore to Tuticorin. In 2nd AC, there were 17 seats available and that a message was displayed that it cannot be booked before 8 am. The site was behaving properly - all fair and good. Waited impatiently for the next five minutes without doing anything, lest I should use-up bandwidth. When the system clocked 8:00, I pressed the button 'Book ticket'. Well, nothing happened for 2-3 minutes which seemed like hours. I was visualising the various booking counters with mad rush of people who might have waited for hours in long queues and brokers who might be bulldozing their way through. But the website was relaxed and reluctant before the next page came up where I hurriedly entered the name of passengers, choice and id proof details and pressed the 'Make payment' button. This button was no less than the previous one and took its time to display the bank gateway where I filled the login id, password, transaction password, agreement with Terms &Conditions and pressed the button 'Confirm payment'. A message that the payment could not be done was displayed from the bank's site after what seemed to be another hour to me. I checked the time and it was 8:05. Cursing the bank and its infrastructure, I checked the availability of tickets which came out as WL15. I proceeded to 3rd AC which was also in WL and for sleeper class, it was WL200/Regret and it was 8:14 by then.
It was unbelievable, but imagined so many frantic guys in front of laptops and counters who might have got the 17+34+200 seats (it might be more) in that train and hundreds of them like me who got disappointed by the nick of time.
Forget inflation or fear of terror attacks - we want to celebrate our festivals with friends and family, our long weekends in beautiful hill stations or beaches.
Till the country gears up to handle these small pleasures of its citizens, we will continue to remain as a developing nation.
Monday, July 28
A beautiful weekend getaway from Bangalore
Since it rained bombs in Bangalore on Friday, we friends decided to beat the terror fear by heading towards a village called Kaiwara.
Kaiwara is a nature-blessed, picturesque village near Chinthamani town in Kolar district and 60+ Kms away from Bangalore. Six of us spent our Sunday there and we enjoyed every bit of it. On Sunday morning, when we wanted a place that is within an hour’s drive, I suggested Kaiwara and few of us made calls and surfed a bit to find the route and other details of this little-known village.
How to reach: Bangalore -> Hoskote->Kaiwara. Go towards Old Madras road till Hoskote and take the left at the arch where the road forks into 3. (If you go straight, you’ll reach Kolar). Kaiwara or Kaivara (as the tourism name plate reads) is 29 Kms from this arch. On reaching the village centre which is symbolized by an auto stand and few shops, continue straight for 9 Kms. To reach the cave temple, take right where there is a Kannada board directing towards Narasimha temple.
Initially, we did not take this right turn, but proceeded ahead. You get to see lush green trees (being July end, rain gods have been blessing), boulders and hillocks of small, medium and large sizes.
We parked our car in one of the plains nearby a hillock and started our trek towards the boulders. It was a calm, quiet and very silent place – cold winds blew and soothed the body and spirit. The soil was red and the boulders were thrown all over the place. It seemed as if it was a school playground only that the game was to roll the boulders to any desired spot. There were a few trees and lot of thorns all over the ground. After a 10
minute trek, the place turned dark (it was 12.30 noon) and before we could look up to the sky, the clouds started coming down and they came down heavily. There was no time to think and all six of us started running back to the car, as there was no tree nearby. But the rain bet us and we all got drenched from top to bottom before reaching the car. Our clothes and shoes turned red with mud and still we got into the car and colored its interiors with red.
Within a few minutes, the sky cleared and after a bit of musing, we re-started the trek. By the time we reached the boulders, the clothes had partly dried thanks to the winds and we felt better
though the shoes were spoiled. Dor removed her slippery wet slippers and braved trekking on bare feet and Muku had to carry them back- he was happy to play Bharatan for his wife’s padukas. We conquered few boulders, climbed those with step-like stones and had a good time. It is a very scenic place and all you can see around are hillocks and boulders. It is a visual treat for the human eyes and camera lens. Ram was engrossed in clicking snaps. No other humans were around till we spotted a shepherd with his 65 goats grazing. After moving a bit forward, there was a woman collecting wood and a boy, probably her son sat on a boulder and was staring at the rocks for a long time. Two of them were tired by now and enjoyed a smoke from the 
hillock. Some of the rocks were big enough for rappelling. On the rock that we stood, there was enough space for spreading the picnic basket. Since the rock was wet, we decided to return to the car for lunch!
Again, the clouds overtook us and the sky opened up once more with full force. Mahesh took us to a six-foot rock behind which 3 of us took shelter. From there, we could see the beauty of the big ground that lay ahead of us, the hillocks etc. Soon, visibility was reduced to few meters and a white smoke replaced all the big objects. It was a good 15-minute rain that paved way for a clear sky. The drizzle continued and since the rock that sheltered us started getting wet on our side, we started our return journey. The rocks looked cleaner and I keep wondering why there were yellow patches on them. A stream from the rainy waters started gushing and it was
a nice sight with sun turning bright again.
It was 3.30 pm when we had the aloo and mooli parathas that Mahesh& Satish had picked up for lunch. The tiring trek, rains and the beauty of the place made the parathas tastier. Dor’s Lindt chocolates turned into desserts. Since it was wet, we could not spread the picnic blanket and used the boot of the car as the table counter. Well, it started drizzling again as expected and we rushed indoors and further soiled the car. We could
not avoid it this time as we had to drive to the cave which was shut by the legendary Bheema.
We took the same road down and proceeded to the Kannada board and took a left (Remember to go right if you are on the way from village). After a few hundreds of meters, the white temple building can be seen at the basement of a big hillock. As you can expect, monkeys ruled this area and they still are. Some of them stayed back to dry themselves and the rest proceeded towards the Narasimha temple. You have to climb around 100 steps to go up and this temple is different from the usual structures. Wondering how? It has a terrace from which you get wonderful views. There is a Yagna mantapa which has lot of small idols including the Dasavataram series of Lord Vishnu. A 8-foot statue of Lord Narasimh
a and Lakshmi(my guess) can be seen against one of the walls. Next to the mantapa is a very small entrance which is formed by the edge of the cave rock. One has to sit down or kneel to see a small idol of Narasimha inside the cave rock. Probably, it is a symbolic representation that mankind has to kneel in front of the super power. Well, aarthi and pooja was being done by a priest who was also accepting donations and giving receipt bills. We spent some more time and hurried back to the car when the rains came down again.
We were told that the road ahead has a picturesque view and a big solo rock and so drove up the cliff. The views on both sides were
awesome. After a while, we returned in the same route and there was a spot with a raised single track with small pond in red color on one side and lush green bushes on the other side. Ram went down to click some pictures with Satish protecting the camera with the umbrella. Once inside, the camera was wiped clean and dry and waited for the next click which happened a few times on our way back.
The return journey was equally wet and I was continuously reminding Ram to reduce the speed, who was enjoying the good road inspite of the waters. Temperature has reduced drastically and the AC did not help either. It was 6.30 pm when we reached the Marthahalli Coffee day to warm ourselves.
It was a memorable day full of exotic views and wet experiences and would recommend Kaiwara for those souls who want a weekend away from the maddening crowd.
Food : We carried our lunch and except for the small shops at the village centre, did not find any restaurant.
Road: 60 Kms from Bangalore. Very good road. It is NH is our guess.
Best time to visit : Monsoon and post-monsoons, winter too. Expect it to be hot in summer.
Ideal for: Mild treks, picnics.
Request: It is a very beautiful place and help it to remain so. Please do not litter and carry back all your carry-bags and plastic containers
Kaiwara is a nature-blessed, picturesque village near Chinthamani town in Kolar district and 60+ Kms away from Bangalore. Six of us spent our Sunday there and we enjoyed every bit of it. On Sunday morning, when we wanted a place that is within an hour’s drive, I suggested Kaiwara and few of us made calls and surfed a bit to find the route and other details of this little-known village.How to reach: Bangalore -> Hoskote->Kaiwara. Go towards Old Madras road till Hoskote and take the left at the arch where the road forks into 3. (If you go straight, you’ll reach Kolar). Kaiwara or Kaivara (as the tourism name plate reads) is 29 Kms from this arch. On reaching the village centre which is symbolized by an auto stand and few shops, continue straight for 9 Kms. To reach the cave temple, take right where there is a Kannada board directing towards Narasimha temple.
Initially, we did not take this right turn, but proceeded ahead. You get to see lush green trees (being July end, rain gods have been blessing), boulders and hillocks of small, medium and large sizes.
We parked our car in one of the plains nearby a hillock and started our trek towards the boulders. It was a calm, quiet and very silent place – cold winds blew and soothed the body and spirit. The soil was red and the boulders were thrown all over the place. It seemed as if it was a school playground only that the game was to roll the boulders to any desired spot. There were a few trees and lot of thorns all over the ground. After a 10
minute trek, the place turned dark (it was 12.30 noon) and before we could look up to the sky, the clouds started coming down and they came down heavily. There was no time to think and all six of us started running back to the car, as there was no tree nearby. But the rain bet us and we all got drenched from top to bottom before reaching the car. Our clothes and shoes turned red with mud and still we got into the car and colored its interiors with red.Within a few minutes, the sky cleared and after a bit of musing, we re-started the trek. By the time we reached the boulders, the clothes had partly dried thanks to the winds and we felt better
though the shoes were spoiled. Dor removed her slippery wet slippers and braved trekking on bare feet and Muku had to carry them back- he was happy to play Bharatan for his wife’s padukas. We conquered few boulders, climbed those with step-like stones and had a good time. It is a very scenic place and all you can see around are hillocks and boulders. It is a visual treat for the human eyes and camera lens. Ram was engrossed in clicking snaps. No other humans were around till we spotted a shepherd with his 65 goats grazing. After moving a bit forward, there was a woman collecting wood and a boy, probably her son sat on a boulder and was staring at the rocks for a long time. Two of them were tired by now and enjoyed a smoke from the 
hillock. Some of the rocks were big enough for rappelling. On the rock that we stood, there was enough space for spreading the picnic basket. Since the rock was wet, we decided to return to the car for lunch!Again, the clouds overtook us and the sky opened up once more with full force. Mahesh took us to a six-foot rock behind which 3 of us took shelter. From there, we could see the beauty of the big ground that lay ahead of us, the hillocks etc. Soon, visibility was reduced to few meters and a white smoke replaced all the big objects. It was a good 15-minute rain that paved way for a clear sky. The drizzle continued and since the rock that sheltered us started getting wet on our side, we started our return journey. The rocks looked cleaner and I keep wondering why there were yellow patches on them. A stream from the rainy waters started gushing and it was
a nice sight with sun turning bright again.It was 3.30 pm when we had the aloo and mooli parathas that Mahesh& Satish had picked up for lunch. The tiring trek, rains and the beauty of the place made the parathas tastier. Dor’s Lindt chocolates turned into desserts. Since it was wet, we could not spread the picnic blanket and used the boot of the car as the table counter. Well, it started drizzling again as expected and we rushed indoors and further soiled the car. We could
not avoid it this time as we had to drive to the cave which was shut by the legendary Bheema.We took the same road down and proceeded to the Kannada board and took a left (Remember to go right if you are on the way from village). After a few hundreds of meters, the white temple building can be seen at the basement of a big hillock. As you can expect, monkeys ruled this area and they still are. Some of them stayed back to dry themselves and the rest proceeded towards the Narasimha temple. You have to climb around 100 steps to go up and this temple is different from the usual structures. Wondering how? It has a terrace from which you get wonderful views. There is a Yagna mantapa which has lot of small idols including the Dasavataram series of Lord Vishnu. A 8-foot statue of Lord Narasimh
a and Lakshmi(my guess) can be seen against one of the walls. Next to the mantapa is a very small entrance which is formed by the edge of the cave rock. One has to sit down or kneel to see a small idol of Narasimha inside the cave rock. Probably, it is a symbolic representation that mankind has to kneel in front of the super power. Well, aarthi and pooja was being done by a priest who was also accepting donations and giving receipt bills. We spent some more time and hurried back to the car when the rains came down again.We were told that the road ahead has a picturesque view and a big solo rock and so drove up the cliff. The views on both sides were
awesome. After a while, we returned in the same route and there was a spot with a raised single track with small pond in red color on one side and lush green bushes on the other side. Ram went down to click some pictures with Satish protecting the camera with the umbrella. Once inside, the camera was wiped clean and dry and waited for the next click which happened a few times on our way back.The return journey was equally wet and I was continuously reminding Ram to reduce the speed, who was enjoying the good road inspite of the waters. Temperature has reduced drastically and the AC did not help either. It was 6.30 pm when we reached the Marthahalli Coffee day to warm ourselves.
It was a memorable day full of exotic views and wet experiences and would recommend Kaiwara for those souls who want a weekend away from the maddening crowd.
Food : We carried our lunch and except for the small shops at the village centre, did not find any restaurant.
Road: 60 Kms from Bangalore. Very good road. It is NH is our guess.
Best time to visit : Monsoon and post-monsoons, winter too. Expect it to be hot in summer.
Ideal for: Mild treks, picnics.
Request: It is a very beautiful place and help it to remain so. Please do not litter and carry back all your carry-bags and plastic containers
Thursday, July 24
Know Knol -from Google's stable
Time for another web tool from Google - Knol ! Already there are few hundred knols available.
Google has once again improvised on the existing Wiki model and blogging to come up with KNOwLedge share ? Is Knol derived from Know(ledge)? Or is there a meaning to it? Is it a fictional character? Could not find it in English directory as well ... Let me know the meaning/ other reasoning behind Knol, if u know!
Here is an excerpt on Knol from Economic Times.
Google Inc opened its website Knol to the public on Wednesday, allowing people to write about their areas of expertise under their bylines in a twist on encyclopedia Wikipedia, which allows anonymity.
The name of the service is a play on an individual unit of knowledge, DuPont said, and entries on the public website, http://knol.google.com, are called "knols". Google conducted a limited test of the site beginning in December. Knol has publishing tools similar to single blog pages.
But unlike blogs, Knol encourages writers to reduce what they know about a topic to a single page that is not chronologically updated. "What we want to get away from is 'this last voice wins' model which is very difficult if you are a busy professional," DuPont said.
Google wants to rank entries by popularity to encourage competition. For example, the first knol on "Type 1 Diabetes" is by Anne Peters, director of the University of Southern California's Clinical Diabetes Programs. As other writers publish on diabetes, Google plans to rank related pages according to user ratings, reviews and how often people refer to specific pages, DuPont said.
Knol focuses on individual authors or groups of authors in contrast to Wikipedia's subject entries, which are updated by users and edited behind the scenes. Knol does not edit or endorse the information and visitors will not be able to edit or contribute to a knol unless they have the author's permission. Readers will be able to notify Google if they find any content objectionable.
Knol is a hybrid of the individual, often opinionated entries found in blogs and the collective editing relied on by Wikipedia and other wiki sites. The service uses what it calls "moderated collaboration" in which any reader of a specific topic page can make suggested edits to the author or authors, who retain control over whether to accept, reject or modify changes before they are published. In its early stages, Knol remains a far cry from Wikipedia, http://www.wikipedia.org, which boasts 7 million collectively edited articles in 200 languages.
Google has once again improvised on the existing Wiki model and blogging to come up with KNOwLedge share ? Is Knol derived from Know(ledge)? Or is there a meaning to it? Is it a fictional character? Could not find it in English directory as well ... Let me know the meaning/ other reasoning behind Knol, if u know!
Here is an excerpt on Knol from Economic Times.
Google Inc opened its website Knol to the public on Wednesday, allowing people to write about their areas of expertise under their bylines in a twist on encyclopedia Wikipedia, which allows anonymity.
The name of the service is a play on an individual unit of knowledge, DuPont said, and entries on the public website, http://knol.google.com, are called "knols". Google conducted a limited test of the site beginning in December. Knol has publishing tools similar to single blog pages.
But unlike blogs, Knol encourages writers to reduce what they know about a topic to a single page that is not chronologically updated. "What we want to get away from is 'this last voice wins' model which is very difficult if you are a busy professional," DuPont said.
Google wants to rank entries by popularity to encourage competition. For example, the first knol on "Type 1 Diabetes" is by Anne Peters, director of the University of Southern California's Clinical Diabetes Programs. As other writers publish on diabetes, Google plans to rank related pages according to user ratings, reviews and how often people refer to specific pages, DuPont said.
Knol focuses on individual authors or groups of authors in contrast to Wikipedia's subject entries, which are updated by users and edited behind the scenes. Knol does not edit or endorse the information and visitors will not be able to edit or contribute to a knol unless they have the author's permission. Readers will be able to notify Google if they find any content objectionable.
Knol is a hybrid of the individual, often opinionated entries found in blogs and the collective editing relied on by Wikipedia and other wiki sites. The service uses what it calls "moderated collaboration" in which any reader of a specific topic page can make suggested edits to the author or authors, who retain control over whether to accept, reject or modify changes before they are published. In its early stages, Knol remains a far cry from Wikipedia, http://www.wikipedia.org, which boasts 7 million collectively edited articles in 200 languages.
Tuesday, July 22
Go Egosurfing
Today, I was bored (Ur guess is right - it was ciesta time!) and tried egosurfing. For those who want to refresh the memory (again being post noon session), egosurfing is Ego (ie I) + Surfing ==>browsing on one's own name - family name, nick name, pet name and u name what not - using search engines.
On one hand, I feel happy that there are lots like me searching their names in the millions of terabytes of data, otherwise, there might not have been a name for searching their own names! And today I restricted myself to blogs only! Can this process be called as egoblogsurfing ?
For a moment, I paused to think why anyone would search for his/her name?
Here are some reasons I could think of:
1. Eager/Curious/Anxious to know if something has been written abt me
2. Interested in knowing if there are celebrities or interesting people with my name
3. Trying to match interests and similarities with the same-named person
4. How common/uncommon my name is
5. Its so easy to type one's own name when bored
6. Egotistic ?
and probably more...
But, isn't the basic need is physiological? A name is not an identity tag alone, its much more than that!
Don't we tend to recognize ourselves by our name, though we were born much before/after the naming happens! Is it becoz we say our names more than any other word - this starts even before schooling, with 'My name is ' - and a name is how we present ourselves to the outside world. If I say 'I am Laddoo', am I only Laddoo (for the sweet-tooth)?
If for the argument, if my name is 'Me', then, amn't I only the name and not heart, soul, characteristics, vices etc etc? What about the branches of science(?!) numerology or nameology ? In hindu mythology, any God has numerous names and the most powerful ones have infinite names as well! In such a scenario, how can a single name stand out as an identity?
BTW, how do think Gods might egosurf ?:-)
On one hand, I feel happy that there are lots like me searching their names in the millions of terabytes of data, otherwise, there might not have been a name for searching their own names! And today I restricted myself to blogs only! Can this process be called as egoblogsurfing ?
For a moment, I paused to think why anyone would search for his/her name?
Here are some reasons I could think of:
1. Eager/Curious/Anxious to know if something has been written abt me
2. Interested in knowing if there are celebrities or interesting people with my name
3. Trying to match interests and similarities with the same-named person
4. How common/uncommon my name is
5. Its so easy to type one's own name when bored
6. Egotistic ?
and probably more...
But, isn't the basic need is physiological? A name is not an identity tag alone, its much more than that!
Don't we tend to recognize ourselves by our name, though we were born much before/after the naming happens! Is it becoz we say our names more than any other word - this starts even before schooling, with 'My name is ' - and a name is how we present ourselves to the outside world. If I say 'I am Laddoo', am I only Laddoo (for the sweet-tooth)?
If for the argument, if my name is 'Me', then, amn't I only the name and not heart, soul, characteristics, vices etc etc? What about the branches of science(?!) numerology or nameology ? In hindu mythology, any God has numerous names and the most powerful ones have infinite names as well! In such a scenario, how can a single name stand out as an identity?
BTW, how do think Gods might egosurf ?:-)
Wednesday, July 16
Innovative Film city @ Bangalore
Last Sunday, we had been to the newly opened Innovative Film city just outside Bangalore(or probably part of the greater Benaglooru) with friends. It is a huge area of fun and entertainment for the whole family. Though it is open for public, one can see everywhere that there are lot more coming up and many barren structures and make-shift arrangements. Guess, the phase1 has been opened to get money inflow to sponsor the rest of the phases. That could be a reason for the sky-high entry fees for any of the attractions once you enter the campus. That does not deter Bangaloreans from crowding this place in the weekends, esp. the kids and college students!
The main entrance has a nominal fee of Rs.50 per person and this means that you can enter the complex and do widow sighting/ shopping and only that! For each attraction inside one has to shell out an average of Rs.100 bucks per person. (The tickets vary from Rs.50 to Rs.150)
Attractions:
Ripley's Believe it or not! Its worth a visit esp. for children in 7-15 age group and the curious souls. As I haven't been to any international Ripley's exhibit, I am not in a position to compare it. My rating : 3/5
Louis Tussad's wax museum: We get to see few Indian and more international celebrities in
wax statues - only that the quality is poor. Only, Dalai Lama was realistic and others were badly done and most of them had brown skin tones. The worst one was a disfigured Diana! The height ratio was incorrect in almost all of them :-( Missing were prominent Indian celebrities like Indira Gandhi, Ash or SRK who stand tall in Madame Tussads in London. A casual look at Prince Charming's hand reveals flowing/melted wax/colors! Lot of scope for improvement when compared with its counterparts across the globe. My rating: 1/5
Dinosaur park:It comes across as a basic/ primary park with plants and a dozen creatures with minimal animations. An unrealistic dinosaur who can wag its tail or open its mouth can be interesting for the first timers or very small kids. If you want to look up in awe at the mammoth creatures, this is not the place. And its definitely not worth the entrance fee! My
rating: 1/5
There is a fossil museum next to it which we dint go and don't regret also, after the Dinosaur experience.
Artifical beach: This is what I would call as total scam! After paying 150 bucks per head, you enter only to see a very small wave pool and beach sand with benches, but a few hundreds of people on a sunday! The 'waving' happens once in half an hour and does not last beyond 5-10 minutes. The waves are too mild to have any impact!
The main entrance has a nominal fee of Rs.50 per person and this means that you can enter the complex and do widow sighting/ shopping and only that! For each attraction inside one has to shell out an average of Rs.100 bucks per person. (The tickets vary from Rs.50 to Rs.150)
Attractions:
Ripley's Believe it or not! Its worth a visit esp. for children in 7-15 age group and the curious souls. As I haven't been to any international Ripley's exhibit, I am not in a position to compare it. My rating : 3/5
Louis Tussad's wax museum: We get to see few Indian and more international celebrities in
wax statues - only that the quality is poor. Only, Dalai Lama was realistic and others were badly done and most of them had brown skin tones. The worst one was a disfigured Diana! The height ratio was incorrect in almost all of them :-( Missing were prominent Indian celebrities like Indira Gandhi, Ash or SRK who stand tall in Madame Tussads in London. A casual look at Prince Charming's hand reveals flowing/melted wax/colors! Lot of scope for improvement when compared with its counterparts across the globe. My rating: 1/5Dinosaur park:It comes across as a basic/ primary park with plants and a dozen creatures with minimal animations. An unrealistic dinosaur who can wag its tail or open its mouth can be interesting for the first timers or very small kids. If you want to look up in awe at the mammoth creatures, this is not the place. And its definitely not worth the entrance fee! My
rating: 1/5There is a fossil museum next to it which we dint go and don't regret also, after the Dinosaur experience.
Artifical beach: This is what I would call as total scam! After paying 150 bucks per head, you enter only to see a very small wave pool and beach sand with benches, but a few hundreds of people on a sunday! The 'waving' happens once in half an hour and does not last beyond 5-10 minutes. The waves are too mild to have any impact!
Good things abt the beach: Nice benches to lay lazing(Might be good to prevent the heat and light of sun on summer days)! Fine palm trees and the environmental design and setup are good. Pool has no swimming costume requirements which is good for families, but at the same time doesnot give a clean l
ook or hygienic! We could see the cleaning staff in action throughout and the guards whistling at the children left to play by themselves. Lot of balls, tubes etc to play inside water. Then, there is a mini volleyball setup. My rating: 2/5 Cartoon city: This is free to enter zone and pay-for rides where there are interesting rides for kids. I liked the cartoons at the entrance :-) My rating: 3/5
ook or hygienic! We could see the cleaning staff in action throughout and the guards whistling at the children left to play by themselves. Lot of balls, tubes etc to play inside water. Then, there is a mini volleyball setup. My rating: 2/5 Cartoon city: This is free to enter zone and pay-for rides where there are interesting rides for kids. I liked the cartoons at the entrance :-) My rating: 3/5 Mirror maze: Heard that it is very good, but the length of the queue throughout the day deterred us from venturing in!
4D Movie Theater: It was crowded all the time. The booking software had glitches(like any other s/w) and dint let us book in advance. Whenever we join the queue just before the show timing, there were no tickets. So missed this one as well :-(
Mini-Golf : Too mini !
Go-Karting : Too small to try! (Though, I am a not a pro!)
Food courts: Good variety of food - veg, non-veg, North & South Indian choices. Quality of food was good in 3 outlets that we tried. Only the place was not at all enough for the weekend crowd. My rating: 3/5
Parking facilities: When we reached the place (it is close to Toyoto @ Bidadi and a few Kms after Wonderla on Mysore road) around 10.45am, we had to park the car 300m down the entrance. And in the evening, I could see cars parked even beyond 700m and offered me solace!
The upcoming structures at the entrance are huge and definitely a way-forward among other Bangalore attractions. Model of an old theatre(talkies, should I say) showed a peep into past and the hut-shop was 100% realistic ! 
Overall I would rate this place 2/5 and its worth a visit, especially in groups and for the entire family members, though you might find the wallet screaming out loud later. If possible, avoid weekends (which is difficult while planning in groups). BTW, why is it called film city ? any clue will be of help.
Overall I would rate this place 2/5 and its worth a visit, especially in groups and for the entire family members, though you might find the wallet screaming out loud later. If possible, avoid weekends (which is difficult while planning in groups). BTW, why is it called film city ? any clue will be of help.(Added a few pictures, on request)
Thursday, July 10
Why do my investments or finance need revision?
' You need to have a relook at your investment portfolio!'
That's what every Tom & Harry, newspapers, so-called finance advisors, probably even the "parrot" astrologers say these days! How true is it? How different is the scenario now ? How does US mortgage issues affect a common man in India? (A woman is never common as she is always special :-) )
Let me try explaining in lay man's term (In my MBA exams, I had to use all jargons and even formulae while answering any question, to get those precious marks! Thank God that blogging has made life easier. lol )
Well, the major difference between the good old times and the current struggling period is that there money supply in the system is reducing and more money is being absorbed into the system by RBI. In economic terms, there was more money chasing the goods and supply went up more than the demand. To set this balance right, Govt. has evoked measures like increasing repo rate , CRR(Cash reserve ratio) which influence or force the common man and special woman. What do they respond? They are intended to consume less and save more or invest more. And with the stock exchanges being ripped apart and real estate facing its sickening corrections, the best choice is to go for debt instruments as they are more attractive. i.e. We are giving back the monies to the banks as deposits or govt. bonds to get higher returns and in economic terms, money is being sucked out of the system. This will go on till the balance between D&S returns.
If this sucking continues, there will be a stage when there is not enough money in the system to meet the demands; This is when we can say that the cycle has reached its switch-over state. Then, a good govt. will arrange for pumping the money back into the system. How? This can be achieved by doing exactly the opposite - reducing the interest rates for term deposits and making loans feasible. Now the common man is attracted to consume more and save less thereby releasing more fluidity.
Its a simple carrot and stick trick, only that there are causalities to the common man.
But why? As one can easily imagine, this is a cycle and as per natural laws,it has to go through its full cycle, even though the radius (i.e.timeperiod) can be varied depending upon other macro-economic factors (like inflation, GDP growth, Govt. policies, global impacts etc). Talking of inflation, it is an indicator of changing times and rings the bell to the people and opposition parties alike.
This scenario can be thought of as a chemical equation where the atomic number and mass number of the elements/compounds on both sides should match for any stable reaction. Add to this equation, the impending general elections and thereby populist political behavior and expectations as catalyst.
But all those who have studied chemistry know that there is an exception to this rule which is the release of energy to equate the both sides!
i.e. Nuclear equations - That is the icing to this cake and definitely not the UPA !
That's what every Tom & Harry, newspapers, so-called finance advisors, probably even the "parrot" astrologers say these days! How true is it? How different is the scenario now ? How does US mortgage issues affect a common man in India? (A woman is never common as she is always special :-) )
Let me try explaining in lay man's term (In my MBA exams, I had to use all jargons and even formulae while answering any question, to get those precious marks! Thank God that blogging has made life easier. lol )
Well, the major difference between the good old times and the current struggling period is that there money supply in the system is reducing and more money is being absorbed into the system by RBI. In economic terms, there was more money chasing the goods and supply went up more than the demand. To set this balance right, Govt. has evoked measures like increasing repo rate , CRR(Cash reserve ratio) which influence or force the common man and special woman. What do they respond? They are intended to consume less and save more or invest more. And with the stock exchanges being ripped apart and real estate facing its sickening corrections, the best choice is to go for debt instruments as they are more attractive. i.e. We are giving back the monies to the banks as deposits or govt. bonds to get higher returns and in economic terms, money is being sucked out of the system. This will go on till the balance between D&S returns.
If this sucking continues, there will be a stage when there is not enough money in the system to meet the demands; This is when we can say that the cycle has reached its switch-over state. Then, a good govt. will arrange for pumping the money back into the system. How? This can be achieved by doing exactly the opposite - reducing the interest rates for term deposits and making loans feasible. Now the common man is attracted to consume more and save less thereby releasing more fluidity.
Its a simple carrot and stick trick, only that there are causalities to the common man.
But why? As one can easily imagine, this is a cycle and as per natural laws,it has to go through its full cycle, even though the radius (i.e.timeperiod) can be varied depending upon other macro-economic factors (like inflation, GDP growth, Govt. policies, global impacts etc). Talking of inflation, it is an indicator of changing times and rings the bell to the people and opposition parties alike.
This scenario can be thought of as a chemical equation where the atomic number and mass number of the elements/compounds on both sides should match for any stable reaction. Add to this equation, the impending general elections and thereby populist political behavior and expectations as catalyst.
But all those who have studied chemistry know that there is an exception to this rule which is the release of energy to equate the both sides!
i.e. Nuclear equations - That is the icing to this cake and definitely not the UPA !
Wednesday, July 9
Food for thought
Received an interesting forward and thought of posting it here...
Before u continue to read, let me tell you the reasons for posting it
- The topic is relevant in today's scenario of inflation and ever-rising oil prices.
- This is based on Beer game which creates the same effect, only that it is studied from a supply chain perspective and here it is the end consumer perspective!
Here is the story!
A man eats two eggs each morning for breakfast. When he goes to the grocery store he pays 60 cents a dozen. Since a dozen eggs won't last a week he normally buys two dozen at a time. One day while buying eggs he notices that the price has risen to 72cents. The next time he buys groceries, eggs are 76 cents a dozen.
When asked to explain the price of eggs the store owner says, "The price has gone up and I have to raise my price accordingly". This store buys 100 dozen eggs a day. He checked around for a better price and all the distributors have raised their prices. The distributors have begun to buy from the huge egg farms. The small egg farms have been driven out of business. The huge egg farms sell 100,000 dozen eggs a day to distributors.
With no competition, they can set the price as they see fit. The distributors then have to raise their prices to t he grocery stores. And on and on and on.
As the man kept buying eggs the price kept going up. He saw the big egg trucks delivering 100 dozen eggs each day. Nothing changed there. He checked out the huge egg farms and found they were selling 100,000 dozen eggs to the distributors daily. Nothing had changed but the price of eggs.
Then week before Thanksgiving the price of eggs shot up to $1.00 a dozen. Again he asked the grocery owner why and was told, "Cakes and baking for the holiday". The huge egg farmers know there will be a lot of baking going on and more eggs will be used. Hence, the price of eggs goes up. Expect the same thing at Christmas and other times when family cooking, baking, etc. happen.
This pattern continues until the price of eggs is 2.00 a dozen. The man says, " There must be something we can do about the price of eggs".
He starts talking to all the people in his town and they decide to stop buying eggs. This didn't work because everyone needed eggs.
Finally, the man suggested only buying what you need. He ate 2 eggs a day. On the way home from work he would stop at the grocery and buy two eggs. Everyone in town started buying 2 or 3 eggs a day.
The grocery store owner began complaining that he had too many eggs in his cooler. He told the distributor that he didn't need any eggs. Maybe wouldn't need any all week.
The distributor had eggs piling up at his warehouse. He told the huge egg farms that he didn't have any room for eggs would not need any for at least two weeks.
At the egg farm, the chickens just kept on laying eggs. To relieve the pressure, the huge egg farm told the distributor that they could buy the eggs at a lower price.
The distributor said, " I don't have the room for the %$&^*&% eggs even if they were free". T he distributor told the grocery store owner that he would lower the price of the eggs if the store would start buying again.
The grocery store owner said, "I don't have room for more eggs. The customers are only buying 2 or 3 eggs at a time. Now if you were to drop the price of eggs back down to the original price, the customers would start buying by the dozen again".
The distributors sent that proposal to the huge egg farmers but the egg farmers liked the price they were getting for their eggs but, those chickens just kept on laying. Fin ally, the egg farmers lowered the price of their eggs.
But only a few cents.
The customers still bought 2 or 3 eggs at a time. They said, "when the price of eggs gets down to where it was before, we will start buying by the dozen."
Slowly the price of eggs started dropping. The distributors had to slash their prices to make room for the eggs coming from the egg farmers.
The egg farmers cut their prices because the distributors wouldn't buy at a higher price than they were selling eggs for. Anyway, they had full warehouses and wouldn't need eggs for quite a while.
And those chickens kept on laying.
Eventually, the egg farmers cut their prices because they were throwing away eggs they couldn't sell.
The distributors started buying again because the eggs were priced to where the stores could afford to sell them at the lower price.
And the customers starting buying by the dozen again.
Now, transpose this analogy to the gasoline industry.
What if everyone only bought $10.00 worth of gas each time they pulled to the pump? The dealer's tanks would stay semi full all the time. The dealers wouldn't have room for the gas coming from the huge tank farms. The tank farms wouldn't have room for the gas coming from the refining plants. And the refining plants wouldn't have room for the oil being off loaded from the huge tankers coming from the oil fiends.
Just $10.00 each time you buy gas. Don't fill it up. You may have to stop for gas twice a week but, the price should come down.
Think about it.
As an added note...When I buy $10.00 worth of gas that leaves my tank a little under quarter full. The way prices are jumping around, you can buy gas for $2.65 a gallon and then the next morning it can be $2.15. If you have your tank full of $2.65 gas you don't have room for the $2.15 gas.
You might not understand the economics of only buying two eggs at a time but, you can't buy cheaper gas if your tank is full of the high priced stuff.
Also, don't buy anything else at the gas station; don't give them any more of your hard earned money than what you spend on gas, until the prices come down..."
Just think of this concept for a while.
Before u continue to read, let me tell you the reasons for posting it
- The topic is relevant in today's scenario of inflation and ever-rising oil prices.
- This is based on Beer game which creates the same effect, only that it is studied from a supply chain perspective and here it is the end consumer perspective!
Here is the story!
A man eats two eggs each morning for breakfast. When he goes to the grocery store he pays 60 cents a dozen. Since a dozen eggs won't last a week he normally buys two dozen at a time. One day while buying eggs he notices that the price has risen to 72cents. The next time he buys groceries, eggs are 76 cents a dozen.
When asked to explain the price of eggs the store owner says, "The price has gone up and I have to raise my price accordingly". This store buys 100 dozen eggs a day. He checked around for a better price and all the distributors have raised their prices. The distributors have begun to buy from the huge egg farms. The small egg farms have been driven out of business. The huge egg farms sell 100,000 dozen eggs a day to distributors.
With no competition, they can set the price as they see fit. The distributors then have to raise their prices to t he grocery stores. And on and on and on.
As the man kept buying eggs the price kept going up. He saw the big egg trucks delivering 100 dozen eggs each day. Nothing changed there. He checked out the huge egg farms and found they were selling 100,000 dozen eggs to the distributors daily. Nothing had changed but the price of eggs.
Then week before Thanksgiving the price of eggs shot up to $1.00 a dozen. Again he asked the grocery owner why and was told, "Cakes and baking for the holiday". The huge egg farmers know there will be a lot of baking going on and more eggs will be used. Hence, the price of eggs goes up. Expect the same thing at Christmas and other times when family cooking, baking, etc. happen.
This pattern continues until the price of eggs is 2.00 a dozen. The man says, " There must be something we can do about the price of eggs".
He starts talking to all the people in his town and they decide to stop buying eggs. This didn't work because everyone needed eggs.
Finally, the man suggested only buying what you need. He ate 2 eggs a day. On the way home from work he would stop at the grocery and buy two eggs. Everyone in town started buying 2 or 3 eggs a day.
The grocery store owner began complaining that he had too many eggs in his cooler. He told the distributor that he didn't need any eggs. Maybe wouldn't need any all week.
The distributor had eggs piling up at his warehouse. He told the huge egg farms that he didn't have any room for eggs would not need any for at least two weeks.
At the egg farm, the chickens just kept on laying eggs. To relieve the pressure, the huge egg farm told the distributor that they could buy the eggs at a lower price.
The distributor said, " I don't have the room for the %$&^*&% eggs even if they were free". T he distributor told the grocery store owner that he would lower the price of the eggs if the store would start buying again.
The grocery store owner said, "I don't have room for more eggs. The customers are only buying 2 or 3 eggs at a time. Now if you were to drop the price of eggs back down to the original price, the customers would start buying by the dozen again".
The distributors sent that proposal to the huge egg farmers but the egg farmers liked the price they were getting for their eggs but, those chickens just kept on laying. Fin ally, the egg farmers lowered the price of their eggs.
But only a few cents.
The customers still bought 2 or 3 eggs at a time. They said, "when the price of eggs gets down to where it was before, we will start buying by the dozen."
Slowly the price of eggs started dropping. The distributors had to slash their prices to make room for the eggs coming from the egg farmers.
The egg farmers cut their prices because the distributors wouldn't buy at a higher price than they were selling eggs for. Anyway, they had full warehouses and wouldn't need eggs for quite a while.
And those chickens kept on laying.
Eventually, the egg farmers cut their prices because they were throwing away eggs they couldn't sell.
The distributors started buying again because the eggs were priced to where the stores could afford to sell them at the lower price.
And the customers starting buying by the dozen again.
Now, transpose this analogy to the gasoline industry.
What if everyone only bought $10.00 worth of gas each time they pulled to the pump? The dealer's tanks would stay semi full all the time. The dealers wouldn't have room for the gas coming from the huge tank farms. The tank farms wouldn't have room for the gas coming from the refining plants. And the refining plants wouldn't have room for the oil being off loaded from the huge tankers coming from the oil fiends.
Just $10.00 each time you buy gas. Don't fill it up. You may have to stop for gas twice a week but, the price should come down.
Think about it.
As an added note...When I buy $10.00 worth of gas that leaves my tank a little under quarter full. The way prices are jumping around, you can buy gas for $2.65 a gallon and then the next morning it can be $2.15. If you have your tank full of $2.65 gas you don't have room for the $2.15 gas.
You might not understand the economics of only buying two eggs at a time but, you can't buy cheaper gas if your tank is full of the high priced stuff.
Also, don't buy anything else at the gas station; don't give them any more of your hard earned money than what you spend on gas, until the prices come down..."
Just think of this concept for a while.
Monday, July 7
Why we love animal / bird-watching?
For a moment,I thought it is counter-intuitive for humans to go miles and miles for a hobby called bird-watching or crossing moutains and seas for a jungle-safari or a forest trek for hours together in search of bisons, elephants, wild cats and feel disappointed on spotting only the herbivorous deers and rabbits! Shouldn't we feel happy that we are safe to be out of the vicinity of the man-eaters or the other perils of the forest. Why do we take our children to crocodile or snake parks , when we know that they are the most dangerous creatures?
If you think through these questions, I expect the answers to vary across! Some of the probable prominent reasons are:
1. Humans are curious to know about nature and her creations
2. Search for proof of evolution theory
3. The happiness we get in connecting with nature, by spotting the wild animals which we think as pure forms
4. We are amazed by their characteristics and appearance
5. We are inspired by Nat-Geo and Discovery Channel journalists & photographers
6. The process or journey to the destination in equally interesting
7. Educational reasons
8. Business reasons - Poaching or hunting or harming
9. Journalism
10. Anything else?
These are some of the reasons I can think of!
I had been to a bird sanctuary last weekend and felt immensely happy to see so many species of birds. The mere sight of them brings in cheer and lights up the spirits!
Let me try a travelogue with the pictures I took in a separate post, soon.
If you think through these questions, I expect the answers to vary across! Some of the probable prominent reasons are:
1. Humans are curious to know about nature and her creations
2. Search for proof of evolution theory
3. The happiness we get in connecting with nature, by spotting the wild animals which we think as pure forms
4. We are amazed by their characteristics and appearance
5. We are inspired by Nat-Geo and Discovery Channel journalists & photographers
6. The process or journey to the destination in equally interesting
7. Educational reasons
8. Business reasons - Poaching or hunting or harming
9. Journalism
10. Anything else?
These are some of the reasons I can think of!
I had been to a bird sanctuary last weekend and felt immensely happy to see so many species of birds. The mere sight of them brings in cheer and lights up the spirits!
Let me try a travelogue with the pictures I took in a separate post, soon.
Friday, July 4
Significance of Sixty
I am now wondering why 60 is a significant number in one's lifetime ? There must be some reasons in the literature - In certain culture, 60th age signifies rebirth and is celebrated as the person gets to re-live the years 60 before. Well, in most of the Indian systems, 60 years form a cycle. I presume that there is an astronomical reason for the figure 60! So, once a person reaches 60, he/she enjoys the same year as that of his/her birth ! That's how it is a re-birth ! It is celebrated with family and friends and is a good opportunity for fun and merriment.
Interesting reason for the tradition, right? Well, let me also tell u the reason for choosing this topic!
This is my 60th post and I started writing that only to realise that I was not aware of the reasoning. Did a quick and brief research and found this!
Long live blogging!
Interesting reason for the tradition, right? Well, let me also tell u the reason for choosing this topic!
This is my 60th post and I started writing that only to realise that I was not aware of the reasoning. Did a quick and brief research and found this!
Long live blogging!
Tuesday, July 1
Thoda Pyar Thoda Magic & nothing else!
Another disappointing movie (last week, I was heavily disappointed by Priyadarsan's Mere Baap Pehle Aap). I remember an old children's movie that flopped- Raju Chacha and the common thing between the two is Rishi Kapoor, as per my limited knowledge!
Well, y the magic failed this time ? Because it was neither convincing nor entertaining. Then y magic? Rani as the lead was not a good choice for Angel - she comes across rather as an Aunty angel than a Didi-angel. Both weight and make-up had further spoiled her looks. Saif and Ameesha are good for skin show. Music is not inspiring and so is the screenplay. Rishi as the God brings smile, but has only a few screenshots.
In the first half, I waited for the magic and interval. In the second half, waited for the end.
Kids and parents can give this movie a miss and wait for a better angel.
Well, y the magic failed this time ? Because it was neither convincing nor entertaining. Then y magic? Rani as the lead was not a good choice for Angel - she comes across rather as an Aunty angel than a Didi-angel. Both weight and make-up had further spoiled her looks. Saif and Ameesha are good for skin show. Music is not inspiring and so is the screenplay. Rishi as the God brings smile, but has only a few screenshots.
In the first half, I waited for the magic and interval. In the second half, waited for the end.
Kids and parents can give this movie a miss and wait for a better angel.
Monday, June 30
Top Reasons for not blogging regularly
1. No motivation - due to lack of avid visitors
2. Lack of interesting subject
3. Lack of time
I am a good example for these reasons... Add urs
2. Lack of interesting subject
3. Lack of time
I am a good example for these reasons... Add urs
Thursday, April 17
Cities and associated feelings
Have you felt that we tend to develop a prominent feeling to any place we visit. For example, when I think of 'hosptial', the word that immediately pops up in my mind is 'smell' and for 'school', it is 'homework';
These are not only words, but also description of what that place means to us.
Here is an attempt to write my immediate feelings towards some of the places I have visited, worked, lived etc. Might have forgotten a handful of places I have been to - but again, this is an immediate list.
Its fun making one - try it to know !
Amsterdam Enjoy life
Bangalore liveable
Belur, Halebed Sculpture
Berlin Fun
Chennai Dirty and dry
Coimbatore Rich
Coorg Refreshing
Coutrallem mighty water
Hague Governmental
Karaikudi clean
Karlsruhe peaceful
Kerala backwaters
Keukenhof Lovingly beautiful
Kodai water pollution
Madurai crowded
Mauritius beach
Munich Romantic
Mysore Over hyped
Nainital lakes
Ooty Romantic
Paris Too much to do
Ramnad desert
Rotterdam Built differently
Salsburg musical
Shravanabelagola -Lost its height
Swiss chocolate
Tiruchendur Filthy beggars
Tirunelveli Mannin manam
Trichy Brahmins
Uttarkhand Kumoan range
Versailles home gardens
These are not only words, but also description of what that place means to us.
Here is an attempt to write my immediate feelings towards some of the places I have visited, worked, lived etc. Might have forgotten a handful of places I have been to - but again, this is an immediate list.
Its fun making one - try it to know !
Amsterdam Enjoy life
Bangalore liveable
Belur, Halebed Sculpture
Berlin Fun
Chennai Dirty and dry
Coimbatore Rich
Coorg Refreshing
Coutrallem mighty water
Hague Governmental
Karaikudi clean
Karlsruhe peaceful
Kerala backwaters
Keukenhof Lovingly beautiful
Kodai water pollution
Madurai crowded
Mauritius beach
Munich Romantic
Mysore Over hyped
Nainital lakes
Ooty Romantic
Paris Too much to do
Ramnad desert
Rotterdam Built differently
Salsburg musical
Shravanabelagola -Lost its height
Swiss chocolate
Tiruchendur Filthy beggars
Tirunelveli Mannin manam
Trichy Brahmins
Uttarkhand Kumoan range
Versailles home gardens
Tuesday, April 15
Tagged
The SEVEN Tag
Seven things I plan to do
1. Provide a home for the unsupported lovely kids
2. Make lots of money (for my comfort and for the above)
3. To be always fit
4. Travel around the world
5. Grow a garden in my home ( I live in an apartment!)
6. Understand myself
7. I'll plan the rest after I attempt no.6
Seven things I can do
1. Can spend 10 hours walking - only when I explore new places
2. Can make a friend laugh continously
3. Can sleep or not get out of the bed for 14 hours at a stretch
4. Can cook exotic dishes and search for names
5. Can untidy my room/house and control myself not to clean it!
6. Can speak for hours- over the phone or in person
7. Can watch movies back to back
Seven things I can't do
1. Can't be without thinking
2. Can't eat without watching TV, when alone
3. Can't be patient waiting in any queue
4. Can't be complacent after a chocolate
5. Can't resist buying stationery!
6. Can't sit idle for more than two minutes!
7. Can't watch a channel without surfing
Seven things I say most often
1. I
2. Lets go
3. then?
4. cool
5. wow
6. junk
7. ouch
Second one: The 10 to 1 tag
10 Favorites: (these are by-far the most difficult ones)
Favorite Season: Spring! Also, when it rains and when I am tucked inside my home!
Favorite Sport: Swimming
Favorite Time: Sleeping time ;-)
Favorite Month: used to be May - when schools were closed!
Favorite Actor: Lots
Favorite Actress: Again, lots
Favorite Ice Cream: chocolate and others
Favorite Food: idiyappam - Healthy south indian steamed noodles
Favorite Drink: Yummy hot chocolate!
Favorite Place: Home, sweet home!
9 Currents:
Current Feeling: Happy
Current O/S: Windows XP.
Current Windows Open: IE, Outlook,Excel, explorer
Current Drink: Water
Current Time: 3:40 PM CET
Current Mobile(s) Used: Blackberry Pearl, ex-Siemens
Current Show on TV: None
Current Thought: Too many to single out
Current Cloth: A cotton shirt and formal Blackberry trousers
8 Firsts:
First Nick: Paapaa
First Kiss: Don't remember - Mom's or granny's
First Crush: Classmate ?
First Computer: is still being used by my Dad - it doesn't have USB drive!
First Vehicle I drove: Tricycle
First Job: Software Engineer
First Movie: Don't remember
First Pet: None
First Shave(men)/hairstyle(women): Don't remember, I have memories of cutting short my long hair in college days
7 Lasts:
Last Chai (Tea) : An hour back
Last Movie: An odd couple
Last Time I Drove: Long back, in India
Last Time Shaved(men)/Beauty parlour visit(women): Feb 14th
Last Web Site Visited: My blog
Last Software Installed: updated Adobe reader
Last Pill I Had: Allegra
6 Have You Evers:
Have You Ever Broken the Law: Yes.
Have You Ever Been Drunk: Yes, sort of.
Have You Ever Climbed a Tree: Not really
Have You Ever Kissed Someone You Didn't Know: No
Have You Ever Been in the Middle/Close to Gunfire or Bomb Blast: No, but was on a beach when Tsunami struck!
Have You Ever Broken Anyone’s Heart: A handful of times
5 Things:
Things You Can Hear Right Now: People typing, chatting
Things on Your Computer Table: my hand bag, water bottle, post-it, diary,notebook, phone, mobile, pen and some print-outs
Things on Your Bed: Two pillows, bedsheet
Things You Ate Today: Frosties with hot milk, brown bread with cheese, a birthday cookie
Things in Mind: Filling tags, finishing work!
4 Places You Have Been Today:
Office
Home
Bakery to pick up my lunch
Sat alone on a bench near metro station and ate my lunch as it was sunny
3 People You Can Tell Anything To:
Hubby
Friends
Friends
2 Choices:
Black or White: White
Sports or Studies: Studies
Hot or Cold: Hot
1 Thing You Want To Do Before You Die:
Only one ??
Third one: The FIVE tag:
Five movies which I like the most
1. Dum Dum Dum (Tamil)
2. Shrek
3. not able to rank further
Five things I can never live without
1. Someone to talk to
2. Something to watch - TV or internet
3. Phone
4. Monies to spend :-)
5. That's all !!
Five Celebrity Crushes
1. Tom Hanks
2. Brad Pitt
3. George Clooney
4. David Bechkam
5. Surya (Tamil actor)
Five Admirations
1. My parents
2. Engineer Eiffel
3. Louis XIV's palace in Versailles
4. Mad king Ludwig's Neuschwenstein castle
5. Lovely Tulips
6. Taj in moonlight - yet to see :-(
Five things I miss now
1. Hubby dear
2. Mom
3. Ginger ale
4. nothing more
Five things I plan to do in near future.
1. Travel around denmark
2. Change my job?
3. Buy my dad a new car
4. Shopping on Amsterdam streets
5. Drinking chocolate
Last movie I borrowed to watch & still not given back.
Returned a movie without watching :-)
Five books I love: Not in any order
1. Somerset Maughm - Collection of short stories
2. Rudyard Kipling - Jungle book
3. Ayn Ryand - many
4. Arthur Hailey - Airport, The wheels
5. Kalki - Ponniyin Selvan (Tamil)
6. Paulo Coehlo - Alchemist and others
More and more...
Seven things I plan to do
1. Provide a home for the unsupported lovely kids
2. Make lots of money (for my comfort and for the above)
3. To be always fit
4. Travel around the world
5. Grow a garden in my home ( I live in an apartment!)
6. Understand myself
7. I'll plan the rest after I attempt no.6
Seven things I can do
1. Can spend 10 hours walking - only when I explore new places
2. Can make a friend laugh continously
3. Can sleep or not get out of the bed for 14 hours at a stretch
4. Can cook exotic dishes and search for names
5. Can untidy my room/house and control myself not to clean it!
6. Can speak for hours- over the phone or in person
7. Can watch movies back to back
Seven things I can't do
1. Can't be without thinking
2. Can't eat without watching TV, when alone
3. Can't be patient waiting in any queue
4. Can't be complacent after a chocolate
5. Can't resist buying stationery!
6. Can't sit idle for more than two minutes!
7. Can't watch a channel without surfing
Seven things I say most often
1. I
2. Lets go
3. then?
4. cool
5. wow
6. junk
7. ouch
Second one: The 10 to 1 tag
10 Favorites: (these are by-far the most difficult ones)
Favorite Season: Spring! Also, when it rains and when I am tucked inside my home!
Favorite Sport: Swimming
Favorite Time: Sleeping time ;-)
Favorite Month: used to be May - when schools were closed!
Favorite Actor: Lots
Favorite Actress: Again, lots
Favorite Ice Cream: chocolate and others
Favorite Food: idiyappam - Healthy south indian steamed noodles
Favorite Drink: Yummy hot chocolate!
Favorite Place: Home, sweet home!
9 Currents:
Current Feeling: Happy
Current O/S: Windows XP.
Current Windows Open: IE, Outlook,Excel, explorer
Current Drink: Water
Current Time: 3:40 PM CET
Current Mobile(s) Used: Blackberry Pearl, ex-Siemens
Current Show on TV: None
Current Thought: Too many to single out
Current Cloth: A cotton shirt and formal Blackberry trousers
8 Firsts:
First Nick: Paapaa
First Kiss: Don't remember - Mom's or granny's
First Crush: Classmate ?
First Computer: is still being used by my Dad - it doesn't have USB drive!
First Vehicle I drove: Tricycle
First Job: Software Engineer
First Movie: Don't remember
First Pet: None
First Shave(men)/hairstyle(women): Don't remember, I have memories of cutting short my long hair in college days
7 Lasts:
Last Chai (Tea) : An hour back
Last Movie: An odd couple
Last Time I Drove: Long back, in India
Last Time Shaved(men)/Beauty parlour visit(women): Feb 14th
Last Web Site Visited: My blog
Last Software Installed: updated Adobe reader
Last Pill I Had: Allegra
6 Have You Evers:
Have You Ever Broken the Law: Yes.
Have You Ever Been Drunk: Yes, sort of.
Have You Ever Climbed a Tree: Not really
Have You Ever Kissed Someone You Didn't Know: No
Have You Ever Been in the Middle/Close to Gunfire or Bomb Blast: No, but was on a beach when Tsunami struck!
Have You Ever Broken Anyone’s Heart: A handful of times
5 Things:
Things You Can Hear Right Now: People typing, chatting
Things on Your Computer Table: my hand bag, water bottle, post-it, diary,notebook, phone, mobile, pen and some print-outs
Things on Your Bed: Two pillows, bedsheet
Things You Ate Today: Frosties with hot milk, brown bread with cheese, a birthday cookie
Things in Mind: Filling tags, finishing work!
4 Places You Have Been Today:
Office
Home
Bakery to pick up my lunch
Sat alone on a bench near metro station and ate my lunch as it was sunny
3 People You Can Tell Anything To:
Hubby
Friends
Friends
2 Choices:
Black or White: White
Sports or Studies: Studies
Hot or Cold: Hot
1 Thing You Want To Do Before You Die:
Only one ??
Third one: The FIVE tag:
Five movies which I like the most
1. Dum Dum Dum (Tamil)
2. Shrek
3. not able to rank further
Five things I can never live without
1. Someone to talk to
2. Something to watch - TV or internet
3. Phone
4. Monies to spend :-)
5. That's all !!
Five Celebrity Crushes
1. Tom Hanks
2. Brad Pitt
3. George Clooney
4. David Bechkam
5. Surya (Tamil actor)
Five Admirations
1. My parents
2. Engineer Eiffel
3. Louis XIV's palace in Versailles
4. Mad king Ludwig's Neuschwenstein castle
5. Lovely Tulips
6. Taj in moonlight - yet to see :-(
Five things I miss now
1. Hubby dear
2. Mom
3. Ginger ale
4. nothing more
Five things I plan to do in near future.
1. Travel around denmark
2. Change my job?
3. Buy my dad a new car
4. Shopping on Amsterdam streets
5. Drinking chocolate
Last movie I borrowed to watch & still not given back.
Returned a movie without watching :-)
Five books I love: Not in any order
1. Somerset Maughm - Collection of short stories
2. Rudyard Kipling - Jungle book
3. Ayn Ryand - many
4. Arthur Hailey - Airport, The wheels
5. Kalki - Ponniyin Selvan (Tamil)
6. Paulo Coehlo - Alchemist and others
More and more...
Monday, April 7
Wednesday, April 2
In the journey of life...
I wanna be a globetrotter and visit 75% of the countries in my lifetime!
That's the objective of my being in the world and currently in the beautiful Netherlands. Though I had been to this country seven years ago, I did not realise the beauty of this palce.
After visiting the Dutch villages, the world famous windmills and the most lovely and beautiful Tulip gardens, I stand corrected on my views.
Another amazing factor is the cheese and milk products- never expected them to be as delicious as they are here! (Need to check my weight!)
Planning to write a few blogs on the sights and experience I am having in Holland!
Life is an enjoyable journey, isn't it?
That's the objective of my being in the world and currently in the beautiful Netherlands. Though I had been to this country seven years ago, I did not realise the beauty of this palce.
After visiting the Dutch villages, the world famous windmills and the most lovely and beautiful Tulip gardens, I stand corrected on my views.
Another amazing factor is the cheese and milk products- never expected them to be as delicious as they are here! (Need to check my weight!)
Planning to write a few blogs on the sights and experience I am having in Holland!
Life is an enjoyable journey, isn't it?
Tuesday, March 4
Know ur sleep...
Wanna post something today, but donno what: Here are some interesting facts abt Sleep!!
Reasons for sleeping and waking up early.
Evening from 9 - 11pm: is the time for eliminating unnecessary/toxic
chemicals (detoxification) from the antibody system (lymph nodes).
This time duration should be spent by relaxing or listening to music.
If during this time a housewife is still in an unrelaxed state such as
washing the dishes or monitoring children doing their homework, this
will have a negative impact on health.
Evening from 11pm - 1am: is the detoxification process in the liver,
and ideally should be done in a deep sleep state.
Early morning 1 - 3am: detoxification process in the gall, also
ideally done in a deep sleep stat.
Early morning 3 - 5am: detoxification in the lungs. Therefore there
will sometimes be a severe cough for cough sufferers during this time.
Since the detoxification process has reached the respiratory tract,
there is no need to take cough medicine so as not to interfere with
toxin removal process.
Morning 5 - 7am: detoxification in the colon, you should empty your bowel.
Morning 7 - 9am: absorption of nutrients in the small intestine, you
should be having breakfast at this time. Breakfast should be earlier,
before 6:30am, for those who are sick. Breakfast before 7:30am is very
beneficial to those wanting to stay ft. Those who always skip
breakfast, they should change their habits, and it is still better to
eat breakfast late until 9 - 10am rather than no meal at all.
Sleeping so late and waking up too late will disrupt the process of
removing unnecessary chemicals. Aside from that, midnight to 4:00 am
is the time when the bone marrow produces blood. Therefore, have a
good sleep and don't sleep late.
Reasons for sleeping and waking up early.
Evening from 9 - 11pm: is the time for eliminating unnecessary/toxic
chemicals (detoxification) from the antibody system (lymph nodes).
This time duration should be spent by relaxing or listening to music.
If during this time a housewife is still in an unrelaxed state such as
washing the dishes or monitoring children doing their homework, this
will have a negative impact on health.
Evening from 11pm - 1am: is the detoxification process in the liver,
and ideally should be done in a deep sleep state.
Early morning 1 - 3am: detoxification process in the gall, also
ideally done in a deep sleep stat.
Early morning 3 - 5am: detoxification in the lungs. Therefore there
will sometimes be a severe cough for cough sufferers during this time.
Since the detoxification process has reached the respiratory tract,
there is no need to take cough medicine so as not to interfere with
toxin removal process.
Morning 5 - 7am: detoxification in the colon, you should empty your bowel.
Morning 7 - 9am: absorption of nutrients in the small intestine, you
should be having breakfast at this time. Breakfast should be earlier,
before 6:30am, for those who are sick. Breakfast before 7:30am is very
beneficial to those wanting to stay ft. Those who always skip
breakfast, they should change their habits, and it is still better to
eat breakfast late until 9 - 10am rather than no meal at all.
Sleeping so late and waking up too late will disrupt the process of
removing unnecessary chemicals. Aside from that, midnight to 4:00 am
is the time when the bone marrow produces blood. Therefore, have a
good sleep and don't sleep late.
Saturday, February 23
Rate your life?
| This Is My Life, Rated | |
| Life: |  7.2 |
| Mind: | 7.1 |
| Body: |  8.3 |
| Spirit: |  5.2 |
| Friends/Family: |  5.8 |
| Love: | 5.5 |
| Finance: |  8.2 |
| Take the Rate My Life Quiz | |
Tuesday, February 19
I am a traveller...
Its yet another beautiful morning! Only that the sunrays have been banned and the city has been taken over by Mr.Fog and Ms.Foggy. How I wish I have come to this city for holidays instead of work! And still, do I crib? Definitely not.
It is a city where you can see people of all colors, different nationalities from all continents speaking so many languages, people practising different professions - in formals, semi-casuals,partywear and what not! Many a time I hear Hindi or Tamil and turn my head only to see that I am in Amsterdam!
Anyone will love this place and everyone would like to be here atleast once. This is my second visit here and I still have got lots to explore. I came here as a tourist seven years ago and what stayed in my mind was the trams, rains and museums. I missed viewing the most beautiful Tulips blossoming then. I sincerely hope to see them in full blooms this onset of summer.
It is a city where you can see people of all colors, different nationalities from all continents speaking so many languages, people practising different professions - in formals, semi-casuals,partywear and what not! Many a time I hear Hindi or Tamil and turn my head only to see that I am in Amsterdam!
Anyone will love this place and everyone would like to be here atleast once. This is my second visit here and I still have got lots to explore. I came here as a tourist seven years ago and what stayed in my mind was the trams, rains and museums. I missed viewing the most beautiful Tulips blossoming then. I sincerely hope to see them in full blooms this onset of summer.
Friday, February 8
Traffic(king)
I noticed two grave traffic (mis)habits we Indians take for granted.
1. A matador van with a minimum of 20 school children aged below 6, waiting at a stop for more to be picked up! It was not a school van as there was no name, but was painted all yellow. Either it is a private vehicle or the school did not risk its name! I also saw that there were a few parents waving as the van left the stop. The question is : If they are affording sky-high school fees, uniform and other additionals, why can't they ensure the basic safety of their children ? If they are also paying in thousands for the vans, why don't they raise the voices or bring it to the notice of authorities when the vehicles are not adhering to safety standards or exceeding the maximum capacity?
All the time we hear of a mishap involving school kids, we wonder how the school or parents did not bother about it earlier. I guess, we all assume that probability will be in our favour and take things light.
Responsible parents and teachers, do ask your ward how many other kids travel with him/her in the morning and evening and how he/she likes the ride? The answer will tell about his/her own safefy.
2. If it is before 7.30 am, any 2-wheeler or 4 wheeler or heavy vehicle including state transport bus, the traffic signals are ignored and violated. Reason from any of the drivers: Too long a wait when there are few vehicles on the road and no cops around to monitor.
This is not the solution as it is chaotic and the bullies get their way through inspite of red. An 'L board' or a traffic obedient waits with no other choice! There is a high risk of new drivers simply following the signal and get honked or scared by big vehicles in the middle of crossing and get to slam the brakes!
Isn't switching off the signals or an "orange" light better choice? At least people will be aware that there is no signal and try honing their skills or patience.
Of course, the best solution is to follow traffic rules and it is easier said than done
1. A matador van with a minimum of 20 school children aged below 6, waiting at a stop for more to be picked up! It was not a school van as there was no name, but was painted all yellow. Either it is a private vehicle or the school did not risk its name! I also saw that there were a few parents waving as the van left the stop. The question is : If they are affording sky-high school fees, uniform and other additionals, why can't they ensure the basic safety of their children ? If they are also paying in thousands for the vans, why don't they raise the voices or bring it to the notice of authorities when the vehicles are not adhering to safety standards or exceeding the maximum capacity?
All the time we hear of a mishap involving school kids, we wonder how the school or parents did not bother about it earlier. I guess, we all assume that probability will be in our favour and take things light.
Responsible parents and teachers, do ask your ward how many other kids travel with him/her in the morning and evening and how he/she likes the ride? The answer will tell about his/her own safefy.
2. If it is before 7.30 am, any 2-wheeler or 4 wheeler or heavy vehicle including state transport bus, the traffic signals are ignored and violated. Reason from any of the drivers: Too long a wait when there are few vehicles on the road and no cops around to monitor.
This is not the solution as it is chaotic and the bullies get their way through inspite of red. An 'L board' or a traffic obedient waits with no other choice! There is a high risk of new drivers simply following the signal and get honked or scared by big vehicles in the middle of crossing and get to slam the brakes!
Isn't switching off the signals or an "orange" light better choice? At least people will be aware that there is no signal and try honing their skills or patience.
Of course, the best solution is to follow traffic rules and it is easier said than done
Thursday, February 7
Writing style
Something that intrigued me today:
Consider these words of wisdom from the classic little guide to writing English, "The Elements of Style":
"Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts."
This tip should be useful for us in writing for day to day purposes, blogging, writing white papers and articles... maynot be for exams where marks are directly proportional to the number of pages!
Consider these words of wisdom from the classic little guide to writing English, "The Elements of Style":
"Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts."
This tip should be useful for us in writing for day to day purposes, blogging, writing white papers and articles... maynot be for exams where marks are directly proportional to the number of pages!
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