Let Me Speak (LMS): blog of atanu phukan...

A Traveller’s logbook

2011-10-08T09:11:00.008+05:30

“Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.” – Benjamin Disraeli

Traveling has been one of my passions I have kept alive. I made sure never to miss a chance to see new places whenever an opportunity arises. I have not been a globe trekker (as those opportunities are hard to come by :-) but have seen quite a few places in India. India is a world in itself, a country so big with cultural contrast so sharp that I sometimes wonder it is magical that this country is still so beautifully bonded together. It reminds me of those words I have studied in school – “Unity in Diversity”, so true for this country.

I was born in Assam, a state in the north-eastern part of my country India. It is one of the seven sisters (as they are sometimes called) of the north-east. North-east is a place which most people do not visit, or do not get a chance. Being born there, I had the advantage to grow in a culture so unique and different. I traveled to Arunachal Pradesh (Nirjuli, Itanagar) for my education and studied in a college situated in a valley between mountains and with a beautiful river at my backdrop. The college had students from all the seven sisters and also from all over India. This unique mixed cultural experience was enriching!

Moving to Uttar Pradesh (Kanpur) for my higher studies was a cultural shift. The Hindi heartland in the northern part of India is surrounded by 9 states (in today’s count). Being the guy with scholarships now, exploring places was much more affordable :-). I finally moved to southern state of India, Karnataka, for my job. Bangalore has been my “Den” since then. It has given me a chance to explore most of south India.

Here is a chart of the places I have visited.

It will be easier to list down the states I have not formally stepped in (as I have passed them during travel to some other states).

In the north-east – Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland
In other regions – Haryana, Gujarat, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa

Working in a global conglomerate comes with its own advantages, some amount of global travel. My globetrotting have been limited to only few countries including United States and 6 European Countries (Austria, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy and France). Austria was on official trip when I explored its neighbors.

I actually wanted to list down my top 10 picks among the places I have visited. Every place I have visited is special and I have returned back with some special memories. I would like to exclude places I have lived in, as they will weigh down the others with emotions. I cherish the travel which has some of the strongest sweet memories, more than just the beauty of the place. My list might be a reflection of the same.

Here is the list in no particular order:

1. Coorg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coorg): This place is special for two reasons. I had a memorable bike trip there with my college friends (Sujeet, Jyodi Deka and Pankaj). This was also the first place I visited with my wife after marriage…

2. Goa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goa): I have been there four times, once from college days, twice with office friends and once with my wife during my anniversary. Every time I wanted to go back for more. Goa has something that attracts…

3. Taj Mahal, Agra (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taj_Mahal): I visited it with my parents. No wonder it is one of the wonders of the world. Can’t explain its beauty, you have to see it for yourself…

4. Kaziranga (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaziranga_National_Park): Famous for its one horned rhino, I have visited it once during school days on a picnic. Lots of adventurous memories. For your information, I haven’t yet seen the rhino in Kaziranga, gosh; I have been planning to visit there again for ages…

5. Rajasthan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajasthan): I have clubbed whole of Rajasthan trip into one. Rajasthan is unique and a weeklong trip with Anil during Diwali was memorable. His house in Udaipur and the desert city of Jaisalmer was the pinnacle of this trip…

6. Manali (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manali,_Himachal_Pradesh): A visit planned with my wife before our marriage. We haven’t seen snow before and this was it. Missed the snowfall though…

7. New York (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_york): My first visit to anywhere outside India, and what a place to be. With a gang of young office colleagues, it was fun…

8. Europe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innsbruck): This was the awesomest place visited by me. Pick of the trip was Achensee, Switzerland and Paris. I have written about it in my previous blogs…

9. Kumara Parvata Trek (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumara_Parvata): This was one of the most physically exhaustive things I did. But after it was done, it felt awesome…

10. Shillong (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shillong): This was during my college days. The whole travel experience from Nirjuli to Guwahati and then to Shillong still comes in my dreams…

I know I have missed many, but unfortunately ten was what I wanted the limit to be. Hopefully many more great travel experiences are coming my way.

Sunday market @ Rum, Austria

2011-06-27T15:51:00.007+05:30

"Whoever said money can't buy happiness simply didn't know where to go shopping." - Bo Derek

Shopping, everybody loves it…. Most of the joy comes from the fact that something new is added to our list of possessions. But, during my visit to Austria I came across a joy of experiencing something else.

About Rum

Rum is a market town (since 1987) located in Tyrol, Austria, on the eastern border of Innsbruck in the administrative district of Innsbruck-Land. Since World War II, because of proximity to Innsbruck and development of an industrial area in Neu-Rum (New Rum), which abuts the Olympic Village district of the city, its population has greatly increased and it has become one of the richest municipalities in the state. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rum,_Tyrol)

When I landed in Rum, I wanted to explore the places around where I was staying. One of the good way (or the relevant way) to explore a town and meet people is to check out its eateries. So I went to the hotel reception desk for enquiring about the good restaurants close-by. She informed that the closest is a McDonald’s that is a few block’s walk down the street, the other options are a few kms away. McD is something I can live with for a few snack, time-to-time when I am hungry, and thus decided to check it out.

Checking around

McD was just few walk down the street. It was quite crowded when compared to the number of people in the streets. Checked out the menu and ordered something. My vegetarian friends had some tough time ordering as there were very few vegie options (unlike India) and also there was this BIG language problem (Austrians speak German). They finally managed to grab something and when the stomach stopped screaming, we decided to check the place around.

Rum is really a small town (I guess a village for the localsJ) and there was nothing much around there nearby. Beside the McD was a gasoline filling station, and farther down was a big Metro Cash & Carry shop (You can see one in Kanakpura road, Bangalore http://www.metro.co.in/Stores/bangalore.asp ). A big parking area for the Metro shop overlooked it. Metro is a wholesale shop which required membership for any purchase. We crossed the parking and walked down to the store. We obviously did not have membership but still wanted in to explore the shop. Upon enquiry we realized that our company had special permission to shop there and we just need to carry our company ID badge for an employment proof. We decided to come back there the coming Sunday…

Come Sunday and we were outside the Metro shop just after finishing our breakfast. Surprise was awaiting us there when we saw – “The Metro store was closed”. We soon realized that all (well should I say most) shops remains closed on Sunday in Austria. But more surprises were awaiting us – we turned around to look at the Metro parking space and it has transformed completely.

Sunday market

The whole parking was filled with what looked like “Hawker” stalls. It was something that was not present the other day we visited here. Pleasantly surprised we decided to explore.

Just after exploring few stalls, I was quite amazed by the variety of things that was up for sale. Clothes, fruits, meat, electronics, paintings, old coins, antiques, shoes, fishing net…. u name it. We soon realized they were all used items and were sold by common people who loaded their van with stuffs and spread them out in the parking area. One antique beer mug with 3D carvings took my attention. I picked it up and checked the price – “Its goanna cost you 15 euros” – The old lady said. That was something too expensive, I kept it back. “If you want to buy it, I can give it for 10 euros” – The old lady told. There comes another revelation, they do bargaining here, hmmm…. Welcome India J

Over the next weekend when we visited Innsbruck and roamed around the popular tourist shops we figured out that the prices of items in the Sunday market at Rum is much less then what has been sold in other markets. But they are used items too though.

Henceforth, the market place became a favorite hangout place for us every Sunday, not just it was priced right, but the variety of items there was mind boggling. We typically spend a lot of time looking around, spending more time exploring things that we have never seen before. The whole experience was culturally enriching, meeting common people (old and young), and knowing their culture/dress/art form. Some sellers there would convert to shoppers as the day pass by. Quite fun to hang out and watch.

Some of the unique items on sale that I remember: Old worn out door knobs, deer horns beautifully decorated on a wooden plaque, one big garden statue, guitars and bike models, African wooden arts, Arabic artwork with gold colored carvings, skating and surfing boots, fishing rod and nets, a bike model made of cane, dried meat, old Olympic medals, badges, old swords, silverwares, antique brass utensils, and many more….

Some shopping

The things that attracted me most there was the antiques as well as the things that are very traditional to Austria. I zeroed in on an Austrian beer mug with lovely Tyrolian artwork of some famous historical monuments. The colors were beautiful, bright and traditional. I was able to get a good bargain (well that’s what I believed) and grabbed it.

To be doubly sure that I am collecting the right stuff I checked with my colleague in office about the things that can be collected as a memento from Austria. The inputs I received was, “Pick some beer/wine, they are famous here”. I wanted something else, they said – “Wooden items are good here, you can grab some”.

With their inputs in mind I started exploring the market again. A wooden plaque took my attention. It consisted of beautiful 3D carvings (looked like metal) at the center with the image of a Tyrolian soldier in three different moods. I checked for the price and the person agreed to give me a good deal if I buy all of them, three pieces in total. I was apprehensive to get all of them, so I decided to move on. But as I started exploring the other stalls, the plaque stuck to my mind. As one typical shopper I went back many time to the same stall, hesitated, avoided buying it, and finally decided – let’s buy it. I paid him the money and put the prized possession in my bag.

My wife Prantika visited me in Austria during my last week stay. I made it a point to take her too to visit the market, to give her a feel of it. She liked some artwork from Africa and we purchased that too.

When I finally left Austria, I came back with some great memories to cherish back home.

“Culture is the sum of all the forms of art, of love, and of thought, which, in the coarse or centuries, have enabled man to be less enslaved” – André Malraux.

I just got another flavor of it……

Visit to Paris

2011-06-13T21:10:00.013+05:30

Preface

Paris - City of Love, Light's and Dreams. Dream destination of many, the name itself sounds excitement. Paris is also the most widely visited place in the world. So when I got a change to visit Austria on an official trip, I made it a point that I do visit Paris.

Since budget was also a constraint, a to-and-fro journey did not make sense. Visit to Paris was hence planned to happen on our return trip, as a stopover before we fly back to India.

Preparation

Once I reached Austria, the sheer beauty of the country bowled me over. The view of the Alp’s and its snow clad peaks were heavenly. The beauty of Austria though did not divert attention out of the planned trip to Paris. I had to book the train tickets as well as the accommodation well in advance to get a good deal.

The return dates were already finalized (same as to India) and the train ticket has to be booked for the fixed dates only. Over the first weekend went to the tickets booking counter of OBB (http://www.oebb.at/en/) and booked the tickets to Paris (~87 euro per person). Österreichische Bundesbahnen or ÖBB is the national railways system of Austria run by the federal government. Once the tickets were booked the responsibility of accommodation was delegated to one of my colleague, who took care of it.

Enjoyed my days of stay in Austria, and finally Prantika joined me in May. Took some time off from office and showed her around. To our luck the weather was with us (bright sunny days as opposed to intermediate showerwhich was common during that time of the year in Austria). It was finally time to say good bye to Austria, and head towards Paris; and back to India.

The journey… 13^th May 2011

There is no direct train to Paris from Innsbruck and a connecting train via Munich was the only choice. The train leaves Munich @ 10:45 pm night and we had to plan out things accordingly. My experience with European trains was that it hardly gets delayed or cancelled, so I suggested a train to Munich that reaches 15 minutes before the connecting train leaves to Paris. But my colleagues were not ready to take that chances and we left Innsbruck at 6:30 pm, well ahead of time.

The train reached Munich @ 8:30 pm giving us more than 2 hours of free time at hand. There was nothing much to do and we decide to finish our dinner. I wasn’t feeling much hungry and neither was Prantika. So we went to “Burger King” to grab some snacks. Bought some water and headed back to the platform. The train arrived 15 minutes before its departure and we quickly settled down at our seats. They were 6 of them, 3 facing each other, no fall back arrangement and wasn’t very cozy for a night journey. The arrangements also did not allow sufficient space to accommodate the large luggage we were carrying on our way back home J. Somehow managed to get everything in and when it was time the train started on its journey to Paris.

I usually can sleep almost anywhere and had no issues in the train too. It seemed not the case for everyone else. I woke up in the morning when others were discussing how I was having a nice sleep and everyone else struggled. The train was scheduled to reach Paris @ 9:30 am and we got a chance to see France on the way. There are of course no mountains to be seen now. It was nice journey through farmlands, greenery and small towns. The train reached Paris on time. We rented a cab a headed straight to the hostel where we have booked a room for our night stay.

First reaction

Paris was just planned for an overnight stay, and we have to catch the early morning flight the next day. With such a less time in hand, we decided to make it a focused one. Like everyone who visits Paris, we decided to head straight to Eiffel tower. With few hours in hand we quickly got freshened up and headed out to explore the city.

Eiffel tower was at a walking distance from where we stayed. As soon as we hit the street, I saw history staring at me from everywhere. The beautiful city architecture amazed me. Almost all of the buildings, in every street I walked had loads of beautiful architecture built in it. Everything seemed to have been built just yesterday, just to welcome us. The Eiffel tower was nowhere to be seen (surprising for such a tall structure) and we kept following the map. We reached an open street and there was the Eiffel tower staring at us from top of the trees. It looked beautiful.

The Eiffel Tower

The tower was completely visible after walking for some more distance. The sun was shining bright with a blue sky and few clouds which was a perfect setting for clicking pictures. Everyone started taking pictures from different angles, me included. I took some time, just standing for amoment and enjoying the beauty. There were tourists all around, many Indians. Hawkers were all around selling mementos of Eiffel Tower, big and small. What surprised me was many of the hawkers were Indian, trying to sell stuffs to us speaking Hindi. May be you can find Indians everywhere doing business…. J

We wanted to go to the top of the tower, but looking at the length of the queue, we decided otherwise. With little time in hand, we decided to move on. Crossed the street and then took the bridge over river Seine. It is a major river and commercial waterway. Saw many boats ferrying tourists.

On the other side of the river were the museum and an Esplanade (open space). It had a great view of the Eiffel tower, as seen besides the river. The Paris skyline and its beautiful buildings beside the tower looked beautiful.

The aquarium

The next plan was to see the Paris aquarium (http://www.cineaqua.com/EN/index.html), as recommended by one of my colleague. The aquarium is just besides the esplanade, situated underground. The person in the counter informed that it will take ~ 2 hours to see it completely. As it was almost lunchtime, we took the tickets and started hunting for a restaurant. Settled into a Chinese restaurant and had a good lunch, trying out some new dishes. After the food, we were ready to explore the world of fishes.

The aquarium had different sections for Pacific and Atlantic species. The things I loved most were the beautifully colored fishes besides the coral reef (the ones I typically see in discovery channels only). Another star attraction was the shark tank. The huge tank was filled with many sharks swimming besides other species, including stingrays. Some kids were having some great time, getting extremely excited when the shark swims by. There was supposed to be a movie show later on the day, which we skipped.

Walk to Ark De Triomphe

Arc De Triomphe is another famous monument in Paris. It stands in the centre of Place Charles de Gaull (large road junctions). The Arc de Triomphe honors’ those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars, with the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces.

The Triumphal Arch is approximately 30-45 minutes’ walk from the Eiffel Tower. The walk is through the streets with the architecturally rich buildings. The walk was long and tiring after the busy day. But the excitement of the beauty let me forget everything. When we reached there the sun was touching the horizon.

The Arch reminded me of India Gate, which also symbolizes bravery and victory. Many of the big streets meet the Arch at the centre (reminding me of Connaught place – Delhi). The streets were huge and there is a underpass leading to the Arch. The most amazing part was the traffic – it was quite chaotic with cars crossing each other at amazing precision (same as we do in BangaloreJ ). There were large pathways for pedestrians and lots of places to sit. I sat there waiting for the sun to set, and to have one special snap captured. The sun started to sink below the horizon and the sky felt warm. I captured one last snap of the Arch.

Eiffel Tower at night

We walked back towards the tower. Darkness started to cover Paris and we saw the tower getting lightened up. We decided to finish our dinner at an Indian restaurant we saw on the way and walk back to see the tower when its fully enlightened. The dinner was good, some Indian food at Paris. After the dinner we started our leisurely walk back to the tower. The tower was fully glowing by then. Bright yellow lights magnified the beauty of the tower. A bright flashlight at the top of the tower directed the focused light everywhere around Paris. After we spent some time there it was time to head back to the hotel. As soon as we lay on the bed, deep sleep took over us.

Bye Bye Paris

We woke up early in the morning next day & quickly freshened up. The cab came to pick us up at 5:30 am for the airport. Had a last look at the city. Paris with more than few hundred places to see we just got a flavor of this amazing place. Reached the airport on time and walked towards the check-in counter. Just halfway stopped for a moment, looked back and said bye to Paris.

Trek of a lifetime @ Achensee:

2011-03-27T03:23:00.017+05:30

Thursday, 17^th March 2011: Its lunch time in office and Marc (my colleague working in GE Jenbacher Austria) and I was talking about the beautiful weather. He suddenly proposed we should go for a hiking trip on the mountains near his home; and I readily agreed. We decided to do it this coming Sunday. I informed my India colleagues about this plan and they also jumped in. So we were ready for some real action for Sunday.

Sunday, 20^th March 2011: It was a bright Sunday morning and I got quickly freshened up, finished my morning duties, and headed for the breakfast. To stay afresh until afternoon, I filled up my stomach completely. I filled my backpack with some eatables and fluid for the trek. All of us got together and moved towards the railway station. Informed Marc when we boarded the train to Jenbach.

Jenbach is ~ 25 minutes of train ride from Rum. Train ride from Rum to Jenbach is really scenic with great view of the Alps. You can see the Schloss Tratzberg castle just before reaching Jenbach. When we reached the station, Marc was already waiting for us. We jumped into Marc’s car and started our journey to Achensee Lake. It was around 15 minutes ride through a curving road. The Achensee is a lake north of Jenbach in Tyrol, Austria. Marc parked his car at his home and we took a walk down to the lake. It was breathtaking view of the lake between the mountains. We also saw the railway station for Achenseebahn (http://www.achenseebahn.at/en/home.html). Achenseebahn is operational during summer (starting in May) which carries passengers from Jenbach railway station until the lake by a steam engine driven coach. After walking few distance on the tar road, we moved towards the hiking trail.

It was just beginning of our trek uphill and the trail was already covered with snow. This gave an indication of what awaited us ahead. The snow was hard and walking on it was not very difficult, but fun. As we started moving upwards, the views started getting better. We started getting full view of the lake, which looked much bigger and much blue from this height. We kept walking with some brisk breaks, regaining our energy, and also capturing the moments in our camera. It was clear blue sky and the lake looked beautiful between the snow clad mountains. After some time, we were completely surrounded by snow. The route had marks of deer foot on the snow, suggesting their presence in those mountains.

We reached a place which had a sharp vertical slope full of ice. On inquiring Marc informed that we are actually crossing a skiing route. There were few skiing marks suggesting somebody must have already passed by it. It was snow all around now, and the worse part, it was getting softer. We left the hiking trail and now had to walk straight up the hill beside the skiing route. It was steep, and really scary, as the soft snow started slipping below my feet. We walked for a small distance after which we left this sharp hike. Now it was walk through the trail left by some earlier hikers. The snow now got really deep and soft. We started falling on the knee depth snow quite frequently. It was my first experience walking on so much snow. It felt like walking on very soft sand which kept slipping away as soon as I keep my foot on it, and the energy required for each step amplified. It was fun to see everyone falling down on their knees quite frequently. I just had my normal sneakers on (big mistake) where snow has already sipped in wetting my socks. The shoes were also wet and my legs froze. Marc kept telling that the peak was nearing but it felt really far. After some distance the snow became harder. It became much easier to walk, and we knew that the peak was near and the worst part of walking on soft snow was over. The peaked seemed nearer now, and after few more minutes of walk, we were there. It was almost 3 hours of trek with fun all the way (though the feet’s were really cold by now). Picture time…

Marc took us to a place where we got the most awesome view of the lake. There were many people now at the peak, most of who came there for skiing. There was a ropeway which also carried tourist to the peak, passing by the awesome views of the Alps. Everything was beautiful everywhere, and took some time out to enjoy the view.

We were feeling really hungry now. There was a restaurant at the top and we quickly settled in. it was quite sunny now and we took one table out in the open, with great view of the snow clad mountains in front of us. Time to grab some food, and we started gulping in. Marc informed that we will be taking a different route on our way back. The hike has already been a hit for us and we were hoping for some even better scenery on our way back.

After an hour of break and a nice lunch we started on our descent. The route was surrounded by nice view of pine trees covered with a sweet layer of snow. Descent took away less of our energy and we could keep up with the speed, and enjoy everything around. This route had a nice closer view of the mountains. After some time the trail became small passing beside the mountain, reminding me of my exciting bus journey to my college in Arunachal. The route passed through couple of tunnels cut through the mountain. There was ice formation on the tunnel from drooping water, which solidified to form the beautiful structures. We finally reached a place where Marc said he would come down frequently to read his novels. It had a small bench to relax with great view of the mountains. I just felt jealous :-)

We took a short break and then continued on our descent journey. The lake started to show up, reminding us of its beautiful presence. The snow started reducing and walking became much easier. The descent was quick and we were soon walking beside Acehnese Lake. Few of us ran towards the lake to get a feel of its icy cold water. Took a last view of the beautiful lake and joined Marc to the return journey to Jenbach railway station in his car. We all thanked Marc for the great hiking experience.

It was almost dark by the time we reached out hotel. My feet felt numb and a hot shower was what I was craving for. After the nice shower jumped into my hotel bed to browse through the memories captured in my camera. What a day, something to remember forever.

Trip to Goa, an experience to cherish….

2010-09-26T14:41:00.057+05:30

A vacation is what you take when you can no longer take what you've been taking. ~Earl Wilson

That’s what has been happening to me lately when I decided to go on a vacation. It was also time for my first wedding anniversary and wanted to have some time out with my wife. Started exploring locations, when Goa came to my mind. I have been to Goa many times, but this time I wanted to make it different. Wanted to spend a whole week there and explore the places I haven’t seen before. It was the first trip for my wife and thus kept all the standard places also in the itinerary.

Booked the hotel (http://www.marquis-beach-resort.com/) as well as railway tickets (http://www.irctc.co.in/). Planned things well in advance so that it is available.

Train Journey:

Traveling to Goa from Bangalore via train is an awesome experience for couple of reasons. Firstly, you go via the ghat section and the route is very scenic with great view of greenery and forests and also few lovely tunnels on the way. The tunnels are fun when the lights go off suddenly and people scream their throat out for fun :-). Secondly and most importantly, you get to see the Dudhsagar waterfalls from the train (both from close-up and from a distance). It was monsoon time in Goa, and I had the opportunity to see the waterfalls when it was at its best. Overall the train journey was awesome and geared us up for our week-long vacation in Goa.

Day 1:

Booked a cab from the Vasco railway station. The hotel reception informed us that

a cab might cost us around INR 800; my target was to negotiate with the cab drivers for anything lesser. Finally got one agreed for INR 600 and we hit the roads. Vasco RS is ~ 30 kms from Panjim and 40 kms from Candolim. It took us an hour to reach the hotel. It’s a nice place located in Candolim. They have a nice pool and also a path that leads to the beach. It was off-season in Goa (due to monsoon) and there were renovation work going on. They hosted us in a Deluxe room (as the standard rooms we booked were out for renovation :-). It was time

to get freshened up after the train journey with a nice shower. After a light snack (that was ordered in the hotel room), we decided to get going in the evening. The hotel reception arranged for a two-wheeler for our stay in Goa. We paid an amount of INR 250 per day for that (this amount varies in Goa. It can also be hired for as low as INR 100. So check the best deals out). It was almost evening and we directly headed to Baga beach. Had a leisurely walk beside the beach. The water level seemed a bit more then my previous experience (I was wondering if it was global warming). As planned headed for “Britto’s” for our first night dinner. Britto’s is one of the popular destinations for tourists. Great ambience, nice food and awesome view of the sea. Had stomach full of seafood and headed back to the hotel for a good nice sleep. Great start for Goa…

Day 2:

The day was reserved for the famous beaches and the water sports. Planned to have whatever was available. Got freshened up and headed for the breakfast. They had Poori-sabji and Allu-paranthas along with toast/butter & omelets. I have to agree the food was quite heavy for my morning. Time to head out for the beach…

We headed straight to the “Baga Beach”. Surprises waited us at the beach when we reached there. There were no water sports, nothing at all. My wife was really upset. Really, really upset. And also a difference from my last visit was there were lots of lifeguards stationed near the beach. I checked with one of them and I was informed that due to monsoon the sea is quite violent now, so there are no water sports around. (and I thought it was global warming, ha ha).The sun was shining really bright, and it made us more upset. Rented out a beach bed for some rest. There were vendors all around trying to convince us about having a tattoo. My wife wanted to have one and choose a flower-butterfly combination to have it on her arm. It came out really pretty. We spent some time playing in the water. Without any water sports there was nothing else to do. But being in the sea is always fun. Adults becomes kids, :). We finally headed out for lunch and planned to spend the evening somewhere else. Had lunch in a restaurant called the “Fisherman’s Cove”. It is located at the Calangute – Candolim road. Nice place, but the food was awful. (I am still not sure why we saw it quite crowded all the time we spend there. May be tried the wrong menu). Headed back to the hotel for some rest.

“Fort Aguda” was very near to where we stayed. So planned to spend time out there in the evening. My wife tried out her new dress, a nice cute black skirt. “She looked great”. Fort Aguda, as the name suggests, was a place for providing ‘aqua’ to the ships at anchor. Part of the Fort is now converted into a 5-start hotel part of it a Jail and part of it open for visitors. We first went to see the Jail. On the way there was a private villa belonging to a person from Mumbai. (I think its also part of Fort Aguda. Not sure how he bought it). The jail is not open for tourists, and it looked very old and ill maintained too. Took a snap and headed back to the main fort. Fort Aguda is surrounded by sea on one of its side. The other sides have huge trenches built in and made accessible via a single path. It has open space in the middle surrounded by huge walls. The tank is situated in a corner near to the entrance. We roamed around enjoying the views and capturing the memories in our camera striking poses. The view of the sea from the fort was breathtaking. The lighthouse was also visible at a distance. Spend some more time around there and it was time to head back.

On the way back we saw a nice church and spend some time there too. It was not dark yet and so decided to check the

“Sinquerim beach”. This is the beach adjacent to the Taj Holiday Village. This beach is rocky, and the view and sound of the violent waves hitting the rocks was amazing. We can also see a wrecked ship near the coastline (this ship has been there for almost 8 years now. I was told Govt. is finally cleaning this mess up). We then headed to the

“Calangute Beach”. Was looking forward for a beautiful sunset, but clouds did not make it happen. Spent some time there and finally moved ahead for dinner. Dinner was at a place called “Stone House”. They have a nice ambiance, beautiful lighting and live music. They serve nice grilled items. After a hiccup at the start of the day (missed water sports), it ended well for the night. Great food, I love Goa…

Day 3:

Surprise waited us in the morning. Off-season surprise at the hotel; they are going to serve us the same breakfast even today (well we came to know later that they will serve us the same breakfast every day. We used to joke in the breakfast. When the waiter comes to take the order, we tell him bring the usual, ha ha).

The second surprise was monsoon. It started pouring heavily and didn’t seemed to stop. It continued on and off until lunch. We decided to have lunch at the hotel itself.

Post lunch the sky opened up and sunlight brought smiles to our faces. The plan was to visit the churches, but it was late for that. We decided to have the river cruise

instead. Took our Activa and hit the roads to Panjim. Found our way through asking peoples to reach the location for river cruise. Booked to tickets at “Royal Cruise”. We still had couple of hours in hand. Instead of waiting there we headed to the “Dona-Paula beach” (on the way got a glimpse of Miramar beach). Dona-Paula is at the extreme end of Panjim. Some of the official buildings are also located nearby. It’s a rocky beach too, with nice view. My wife was happy to finally see some water sports around, jet skiing. We first moved ahead to the viewpoint. There was the telescope guy who was charging some money to show us some important landmarks. Before we leave the place it was time for the water sports, jet skiing. My wife went ahead to tried it. She was braver then I expected (ha ha), enjoying every bit of it. We returned back to our river cruise.

River cruise in Mandovi River is an attraction in Panjim. It started at 5:30 pm in the evening. River cruise consists of dance performances by local artists and time given for the tourists to try their dancing talents (ha ha). The cruise ship (its not actually a ship, more like a ferry) was completely full. It was getting dark and the view from the ship was amazing. There were many other cruises and the brightly lit ships passing by looked beautiful. The attraction on the ship was one drunken dancer. His dance steps reminded me of my college days when we used to have some friends showing similar drunken dance skills (ha ha). Time to bid goodbye.

It’s my anniversary day, so planned for dinner at “Sweet Chilly”. It’s a nice restaurant on way to fort Aguda. It is decorated by bright red lights, which look like chilly. Nice green ambience.

The dinner was lovely, and the day that started wet ended great. Time for some nice sound sleep.

Day 4:

Planned the day for visiting places nearby Goa. Started the day with “Same Breakfast” (ha ha). Had a small walk around the resort. They have a nice small pond with fishes. A walkway from the restaurant takes us through their garden to the beach. There were renovation work going on, and the sea was also quite violent for a very small beach space. We did not move down and had a nice view of the sea from the top, and also got a closer look at the wrecked ship. Spent some time there and headed back to our room to get ready for the day.

First place on the list was “Dr. Salim Ali Bird’s Sanctuary”. It is located near Panjim at the Chorao Island. After reaching Panjim, you have to take the old goa road and stop by the Ribandar ferry ghat. The ferry plies every 5 minutes (there are couple of them simultaneously ferrying people from both ends). The ferry transfer is free of charge for people and 2-wheelers. They charge a nominal fare of INR 10/- for 4-wheelers. The view from the ferry reminded me of the river cruise. We can see the bridge at Panjim city. Chorao Island is at Mandovi river. The entrance to the bird sanctuary is located right beside the Chorao ferry ghat. There was a small government run office. When we checked out they informed us that the entry fee is INR 100/- and an additional amount for cameras. We can walk through the sanctuary, which is about 2-3 kms long. The preferred ways to visit the sanctuary was through the backwaters of Mandovi River and take a boat ride. Since it is an off-season, there are no govt. boats at that time. But he informed me that there are private run ones, and he can hook me up with them. He also asked us to visit the Mayem lake, and Arvalem Caves & Waterfalls.

Got to know Uday T. Mandrekar, a private boat owner who is also an birds watching guide. It was time to negotiate the amount we need to pay for the boat ride. He finally agreed for INR 500/- for a 1.5 hrs ride. Govt. takes INR 100/-, which totally made it INR 600/-. We followed him to his house and he took us to his boat. The boat was the thin long type, machine powered. The boat initially looked scary and tough to balance. But once we started cruising through the backwaters, the fun started to begin. It was the beginning of the season for birds to come. Saw quite a few of them, kingfisher, storks, kites, and a few I can’t remember. He took us through the mangroves trees to a place for bird viewing. There were many peacocks. Huge storks made sound from their wings when flying. He then took us to a place where we say crabs moving around the trees and branches. We saw fisherman’s hut. These are small huts, resting above the water, where fisherman stays at night during their overnight fishing trips. There were places, where fisherman, to catch their fish, diverted waters. Wind suddenly started blowing and the waters started to become more wavy (and scary). It was also times-up and we headed back to the shore. We bid him goodbye and thanked him for this great experience. He gave us his card (Uday T. Mandrekar – 0832-2239114, 9822583127).

We now moved ahead towards “Mayem Lake”. This lake is on the way to Bicholim, ~ 10 kms from the bird sanctuary. They charge an entry fee of INR 10/- for adults. It was neatly maintained and had boat ride facilities. Did not spend much time there (not interested in this boat ride after the great one we just had). We headed for Bicholim for our lunch.

“Arvalem Caves and Waterfalls” are on the way to Valpoi. You have to take a right turn just after Sanquelim (~ 7 kms). After parking our vehicle, we walked down some very slippery steps (almost falling down couple of times). There is a temple at the base, and we can hear sounds of water falling besides it. We took few more steps upwards from the side of the temple; and there was the Arvalem waterfall. I was not sure if because it was monsoon, it was violent and thus was too gorgeous.

It looked almost 40 feet tall, and huge water falling down was creating water droplets that felt like rainfall. We got completely drenched, but enjoyed it. It was time to capture it in our camera. My wife was suddenly thrilled to see a rainbow beside the waterfall, and I was excited too as I haven’t seen a rainbow in years. Time for more click, click. We next went ahead to see the caves. The caves looked as if there were from a very old time, made from porous black rock. Couple of the caves hosted shiva-lingam.

It was a lot to handle for the day and we headed back. Took the ferry ride to Panjim and then back to Candolim. Time for dinner and we headed to “Souza Lobo”. They serve awesome seafood. I ordered an grilled fish. What came to us was a surprise, a huge fish grilled and beautifully decorated. I had tough time finishing it up. I needed some real big breaks and lots of motivational words from my wife before I finally finished it. The goa trip has started getting better by the day. I love Goa.

Day 5:

This day is to check the other beaches in Goa. The famous beaches further north are Anjuna and Vagator. We started the day with the same breakfast (ha ha).

Our first destination was “Chapora Fort”, better known from one of my all time favorite movie Dil Chahta Hain. Chapora fort is located at the end of the Vagator beach, built to ward off attacks from the Maratha warriors. Parked our vehicle at the base and walked up the hill towards the fort. The fort is in quite a ruined shape. Its wall encloses a vast open area. The best part was the view of the beach, BREATHTAKING.

On one side was the Vagator rocky beach, where the water hits the beach creating beautiful white waves. On the other side is the Morjim Beach, where the waves gradually die down before entering the backwaters. There is an extension of the landscape that goes further towards the beach from the fort. We decided to go on a small trek, expecting more breathtaking views. The walk was worth it, as from the end of that, the view was even better. We spent some time there before deciding to try other things out.

The nest destination was the “Vagator Beach”. Vagator is mostly a rocky beach. There are different colors of the rocks; the distinct ones are the extreme black ones and the yellowish ones. There were some small street shops where we picked up some memories from Goa. After spending some time there we started getting hungry. Looked for a place nearby and found one. It was home made food, great taste and economical. Sorry that I did not remember the name…

After a nice lunch we moved ahead to the “Anjuna Beach”. Anjuna is also a rocky beach. The rocks are porous (we have found these porous rocks in many places in Goa, Arvalem caves, all the forts). There were crabs all around, small ones. There were fisherman’s catching fish. Unfortunately we found a rowdy gang of youth’s so we insisted that we move on.

Baga was the beach we liked most so decided to spend some time there. When we reached Baga, some of the fisherman’s boats were returning from their day’s catch. Loved the way they arranged their prized catch.

Their wives came hurrying to assist. We planned for some fun in the evening, to hit the dance floor. So moved back to the hotel to change our dress.

When it got dark we became the party animal. Went to the “Titto’s, where else”. They have a nice restaurant, good food & lovely music. After having our dinner it was time to hit the dance floor. After some initial inhibition, we started get going. We were already tired from the days travel, so did not stayed back late. Decided to head back to our hotel for a good night’s sleep. WOW….

Day 6:

Day for the religious sight seeing. Had our usual breakfast. Plan is to go to the churches. The best churches in Goa are located at old Goa.

Went to Panjim and took the old Goa road. There are three famous churches in Goa – “St. Francis of Assisi, Se Cathedral Church and Basilica of Bom Jesus”. They are all located nearby in a walking distance. The church of “St. Francis of Assisi” of 1661 is noted for its unique Manueline style choir and entrance. The “Archeological Museum” located near the church is a place of must visit. They have collections of remains from 12^th to 16^th century. Pictures of all the governors of Goa, most of them from the old Portuguese rule. Visiting museums is always an enriching experience, as it reminds me of my countries unparalleled history which no other country in the world can boast of.

The “Se Cathedral” of 1652 is the largest church in Asia dedicated to St. Catherene. This imposing structure is famous for its vaulted interiors and Golden Bell. Golden colored sculptures surrounds every parts of the church, which was really beautiful.

Built in the 16^th century, the “Basilica of Bom Jesus” is an important shrine for the Christmas in India and Goa in particular as the mortal remains of St. Francis Xavier are preserved here. It is also a world heritage site.

Further down is the “ruins of the Augustinian Monastry and Tower” which takes us back to a fascinating journey back in time. The tower must have been so huge during its time; it can be made out when we compared ourselves against it in the picture.

The next stop was “Shri Mangeshi Temple”. The temple located at Pirol-Ponda dedicated to Lord Shiva boasts of an external seven-stage tower lamp. We did not spent much time there and moved ahead to the prized destination of the day.

Next stoppage was Ponda. We had a stop over there for our lunch. Our next destination was the “Dudhsagar Waterfalls”. Dudhsagar waterfalls is ~ 80 kms from Candolim. Our next destination was Molem. Reached the entrance to the “Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary”. It was showering on and off, and we did not wanted to spend time there. We took the road to the waterfalls. This road also goes to Colem. Once we finished the last motorable location until the waterfalls, we had to look for help for going the rest of the distance. During normal season there are jeeps from the forest department that take tourists near the falls. As it was monsoon time, this facility was not available.

BUT, there are folks there who were taking tourists to the waterfalls in their 2-wheeler, via a different route. They finally agreed to take us to the waterfalls for INR 720/- for both of us (INR 120 of it is for entrance fee charged by forest officials). We sat behind two bike riders and started our journey with no idea where we were going. We finally reached the first scary part; they took us through almost non-existent roads besides the railway tracks. We quickly realized it’s the same track we came by on our train journey to Goa. We had to get down from the bike at few locations, as it was un-motorable (not sure how this guy’s drove that way). It did not lasted for long and we finally got into the road in the jungle. That was slightly better, but still quite bumpy.

There were few streams that we had to cross, which they somehow managed. This road looked like a great trekking route. The bikes finally stopped and we thought we have reached (we must have crossed ~ 14 kms). But there was few more distance to be travelled. That was through the streams of water that had really strong currents. After crossing few of them we can see the waterfalls. All I can say was WOW.

The falls looked amazing. We shot a quick video and also took some snaps. The video can be viewed at the following YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aosYVytYCOA

After spending some time there we decided to come back before it gets quite dark. We also had to travel back to Candolim. On our way back we had a chance to see our train pass by. I was wondering what the train passengers might be thinking of us (ha ha), crazy folks…

Quickly hit the road back to Panjim and Candolim. Reached back home when it was quite dark. We were dead tired, but enthralled by the days adventure. We ordered our food via the room service. We couldn’t stop discussing the fun we had and finally dead tired, slept like a baby…

Day 7:

We had seen almost everything that we had planned for. We decided to see the “Tiracol Fort”. Tiracol fort was constructed by the local king and later occupied by the Portuguese in 1746.

We rested for most part of the first half and hit the roads for lunch. Wanted to have our lunch at “Xavier’s” in Anjuna beach. Heard a lot about it in the web. This is located near the “Anjuna Flea Market”. The flea market was closed due to off-season. Unfortunately, Xavier’s was closed too. There was a beach shack called “Curlies Bar” that was opened at that time. The shack was filled with hippie crowd. It was a neat place with great view of the sea. Nice food and crowd. After finishing our food, started our journey once again. Went to Siolim, crossed the bridge there (there are also ferry service). Our next destination was “Kerim Beach”. It’s the northernmost beach in Goa.

We had to take a ferry ride from Kerim to reach Tiracol. When we reached there we realized that Tiracol fort has been converted to a hotel. They do allow tourists to visit. So we decided to go in. It was really a very small place (disappointed we came so far for this). The hotel persons informed that there is a restaurant at the top where we can get a good view of the beach. We went up and sat down.

He was right, it does have a great view of the Kerim beach. Relaxed there for quite some moment before deciding to come back. On our way back spent some time in Baga.

Too lazy to go out, we ordered our food at the room only. This ended our great trip to Goa. Checked with reception for our checkout details for tomorrow. The reception guy offered to drop us at the Vasco railway station for INR 700/-. We agreed. Had our food and went back to sleep.

Day 8:

Time to bid Goa goodbye. We asked us to be stopped by at the “Naval Museum” at Vasco. This museum was close to Vasco airport, and you will have to take a diversion from the road to the railway station.

The museum was small and neatly maintained. They had torpedos, communication devices and models of Naval Ship and helicopters in display.

In an open-air display, they had real models of airplanes and helicopters.

What a great way to end our trip. Had lunch on the way and was finally reached the railway station. The train started on time, and we bid adieu to Goa with some terrific memories.

On the way back had another view of the Dudhsagar Waterfalls from the train. Captured this last moment in my digital camera. Good-bye Goa, this will be some time for us to cherish forever……..

No wonder people love coming back to Goa. Great vacation and a great anniversary for us.

India's 100 richest are 25 pc of the GDP: Forbes

2009-11-19T13:37:00.002+05:30

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/indias-100-richest-are-25-pc-of-the-gdp-forbes/105548-7.html?from=tn?from=rssfeed#

The Billionaires Club of India almost doubled from last year to 54 members up from 27, aided by a rebounding stock market that gained two-thirds in the past year and an economy growing at six per cent.

According to Forbes Asia magazine, the country's 100 richest people have a combined net worth of $276 billion, which was almost a quarter of the country's GDP.

Last year, there were only 27 billionaires on the India Rich List. This year, the number has almost doubled to 52-two short of what India had at the peak of the stock market boom in 2007.

Highly Employed Poor Peoples

2009-11-18T11:49:00.008+05:30

Note: Taken information from wikipedia...

With the recent economic slowdown some of the new's that keeps coming often is how lots of peoples are loosing their jobs and unemployment rates are in the rise. I was curious to know the unemployment situation of the world and did a small search. I came out with the following chart which is a compilation of the world unemployment rate from CIA figures.

World rate of unemployment

Now I was surprised to see that India is comparable to most of the developed nations in terms of employment. Even surprising was we were better then the United States. We have an unemployment rate of ~ 7.5% as compared to 10.2% in the USA. Well that's like doing really good. But the hard fact is we are still a long way to go to provide proper employment, and also proper healthcare and food. I was now more interested to know how do we fare in poverty. So I went ahead and checked the poverty statistics. The first chart I checked was that of people below the poverty line as defined by the respective countries. Now we start showing up being not so good. We are just better then the African nations and comparable to the developed nations. The developed nations fared really well in uplifting their peoples above the poverty line. China surprisingly did a really good job, partly because their poverty line must be really on the lower side.

% population below national poverty line

A better way to compare countries is to put them in the same scale. So when I looked into such data I found one which gives the % of population living below $1.25/day. And the statistics revealed the status of our population. 40 - 60% of our population falls in that category. Our neighbors line China, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and developing nations like Brazil did much better with 6-20% of their population being in that category. There is a lesson to learn, we India has a long way to go. Though comparing at a single level of currency is not a proper way to look at things and we need to look into purchasing power parity, this still gives us an indication that we are a "Highly Employed Poor Nation"

% population living below $1.25/day

Earth 'heading for 6C' of warming

2009-11-18T10:28:00.006+05:30

** Earth 'heading for 6C' of warming **

CO2 emissions rose by a quarter in the last decade, setting the course for a world up to 6C warmer, according to research. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/8364926.stm

Emissions rose by 29% between 2000 and 2008, most of it came from the developing nations though a quarter of it was driven by demand and consumption in the industrialized nations. This alarming finding reiterates the need for urgency in political discussions.

China's new found development has ramped the CO2 emissions in recent years. The study said there are still possibility of reaching 2C if things are done urgently, but at the current pace - 6C is a reality we will have to face.

India adds 30 million people to hungry list in the last decade

2009-10-16T08:53:00.008+05:30

** Food Day praise for Brazil, China **

Brazil and China are praised, and India criticised, in a new report on efforts to tackle hunger, published on UN World Food Day.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/in_depth/8309979.stm

In a latest published report, India has been criticized for not doing enough to tackle hunger. When other developing nations like China and Brazil has done lots and have reduced its number of hungry people, in the last decade, India has added 30 Million more people in the hungry list.

Here are some pictures from "International food policy research institute" on global hunger index.

India is ranked as alarmingly hungry, which is in the league of the African nations (shame on our economic development).

Countries like Brazil has done a lot to reduce its hungry population as shown in the figure below.

Missions to moon:

2009-07-15T11:52:00.003+05:30

With India’s big leap into the league of countries aiming for the moon via its Chandrayan program, I was exploring the web to look into the history of mankind’s attempt to touch our only natural satellite. The complete history is given in the following link from NASA website.

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/lunartimeline.html

Some interesting observations:

Russia started the lunar race in late 50’s. USA finally overtook them and landed the first man at the moon in 1969 10 years after it all started. USA stopped most of its work in 1972 after its Apollo-17 crewed landing. USA is the only country to have people landing in the moon (having done it 7 times).

Japan entered the race with “Hiten” flyby and orbiter in the 90’s. The European space agency did a lunar orbiter in late 2003. China followed it with a lunar orbiter in October 2007. India did it in October 2008 one year after China.

India thus joined the elite group of nations to leave their mark with journey towards the moon. Well that’s what makes me extremely proud.

Ten Healthiest Sports

2009-03-04T16:23:00.021+05:30

This are the set of 10 Healthiest Sports as taken from Forbes Website:

http://www.forbes.com/2003/09/30/cx_ns_1001featslide_11.html?thisSpeed=6000

The site rates each one of them (in a scale of 5 points) on the following catagories:

- Cardiorespiratory endurance

- Muscular strength

- Muscular endurance

- Flexibility

- Calories/30 mins

- Injury risk

So if you are fucussing on something specific (among the above listed ones) , you can choose to play one accordingly.

No 1: SQUASH

The preferred game of Wall Street has convenience on its side, as 30 minutes on the squash court provides an impressive cardiorespiratory workout. Extended rallies and almost constant running builds muscular strength and endurance in the lower body, while lunges, twists and turns increase flexibility in the back and abdomen. "For people just getting into the game, it's almost too much to sustain, but once you get there, squash is tremendous," says Paul Assaiante, head coach of the five-time defending national intercollegiate champion men's squash team at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. Assaiante recommends a regimen of yoga, sprinting and distance running for preparation. Be wary of groin pulls, torn Achilles tendons and your opponent's racquet.

No 2: ROWING

One of the few non-weight-bearing sports, rowing works wonders for cardiorespiratory health, muscular strength and endurance. Sliding seats in rowing shells and on rowing machines provide a total-body workout, building lean muscle throughout. "Most good oarsmen are strong but thin," says Steve Wagner, head coach of the men's crew at Rutgers University, who notes that proper technique in the legs, backs and arms, not strapping shoulder muscles, is the most important part of rowing. While Wagner notes that most rowing injuries occur "outside of the boat," those suffered inside are typically minor, such as tendonitis or overextended back muscles. Plus, it's a great argument for investing in waterfront property.

No 3: ROCK CLIMBING

Provided you don't tumble to your death, climbing is excellent for everything but cardiorespiratory health. It's anaerobic, relying upon bursts of energy to get from one rock hold to the next. While that won't do much for your heart, it's great for strength, endurance and flexibility everywhere else. "Climbers develop long, lean muscles from stretching, then contracting," says Ivan Greene, who runs the climbing program at the Chelsea Sports Center in New York. Though weight training and pull-ups are good preparation, the only way to develop grip strength is to grab a rock. Don't let the slow pace fool you. Notes Greene, "At the end of a long day of climbing, I feel like I've been wrestling Mack trucks."

No 4: SWIMMING

The importance of technique can't be overstressed in this total-body winner, which scores in particular for cardiorespiratory health and overall muscular endurance. "It's difficult for people to maintain proper technique for 30 minutes straight," notes Michael Collins, a coach with Irvine Novaquatics, a Masters Swimming group (usms.org) in Irvine, Calif. "Without good form, many swimmers just coast through their workouts without getting any of the benefits of strength training or weight loss." Collins recommends interval training--swim two lengths, break to catch your breath, repeat--to maximize those benefits, as well as supplementing with core exercises, weight training and yoga to help maintain body alignment and awareness.

No 5: CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING

Though there's not much new or sexy about cross-country skiing, for a total-body workout it's tough to beat. Shushing through snow taxes every large muscle group, while varying terrain and conditions provide great interval training. "Just the process of the body warming itself in cold weather fires up metabolism and increases calorie burn," notes Gregory Florez, a personal trainer and CEO of the online coaching outfit Fitadvisor.com who teaches cross-country skiing near Salt Lake City. Though the legs remain in a steady range of motion, there's good flexibility for the thighs, back and shoulders. Of course, you can't always count on the weather, but that's what stationary NordicTracks are for.

No 6: BASKETBALL

Like an impenetrable zone defense, basketball has just about everything covered. Continuous movement works the cardiorespiratory system and melts calories, while quick anaerobic bursts of jumping, directional changes and fast-breaks build strength and endurance. Even flexibility can improve through hands-up defense and lunges for loose balls. The downside, alas, is the high rate of injury from stops, starts, twists and turns. And yet, "basketball doesn't have to be high risk," says E.J. "Doc" Kreis, the speed-strength and conditioning coach for the UCLA Bruins. "Most of what you see is knee and back problems from older athletes who've been away for a while and try to jump back in." Kreis recommends a holistic approach of preparatory conditioning work with an emphasis on weight training and "a healthy mind."

No 7: CYCLING

With major benefits for cardiorespiratory health, body composition and muscular endurance, this non-weight bearer is the aerobic activity of choice for many who want to avoid the injury risks of running. Funny, then, that cycling has one of the highest injury rates of any sport--accounting for more than 500,000 emergency room visits each year, according to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. While most of those are suffered by the 15-and-under set, the potential severity of tumbling off a bike shouldn't be underestimated. Nor should the hazards of unpadded bike seats. As with running, cycling won't do much for leg flexibility or upper-body strength, so plan on supplementing with some cross-training.

No 8: RUNNING

The ur-sport offers splendid benefits for cardiorespiratory endurance, the lower body and the circumference of waistline--provided you do some distance. "Long-distance runners burn plenty of calories, but if you do a few miles a day a few times a week, you won't lose much weight," notes Suzelle Snowden, a program director for former Olympian Jeff Galloway (www.jeffgalloway.com), who now operates training programs across the country. Running provides little flexibility for the legs and nothing for the upper body, so supplementing with cross-training such as swimming or weight training is key. So too is moderation, as injuries like stress fractures, shin splints and dreaded "IT Band Syndrome"--overworking the iliotibial band that stabilizes the knee--have stopped plenty in their tracks.

No 9: MODERN PENTATHLON

From the precision of pistol shooting to the balletic endurance of fencing to the lower-body demands of equestrian jumping, this holdover from the 1910s challenges as few sports do. Modeled on what a liaison officer might face behind enemy lines, modern pentathlon isn't as trendy as triathlon, but it has merits. Swimming (200 meters) and running (3,000 meters) offer cardiorespiratory benefits, while round-robin swordplay tests flexibility and endurance. Shooting from 10 meters demands focus--and you can't get much healthier than on the right end of a gun. Horse jumping, meanwhile, "is always the critical event," says Elaine Cheris, owner of the Cheyenne Fencing Society in Denver. "Horses are chosen by lot, and riders have 20 minutes to get intimate with an unpredictable beast." Sounds like good training for cold calling, at least.

No 10: BOXING

If you don't mind the occasional fat lip, the "sweet science" is a knockout for cardiorespiratory fitness and muscular endurance. Indeed, dancing around the ring for a few rounds "is like nothing you've ever felt in your life," says Devon Cormack, a three-time World Kick Boxing champ and boxing coach at Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn, N.Y., who admits he tries to "take the wind out of students in the ring." Actual time inside the ropes is just part of the boxing regimen, which includes running, rope jumping and punching mitts with a trainer and against the bag. Though punches have more to do with alignment and efficiency than strength, your upper body will get a good workout. Watch out for ruptured biceps, strained rotator cuffs--and that roundhouse right!

Sports Injury

2009-02-05T10:55:00.003+05:30

Sports are something most of us must have been played during some part of our life. In India, sport is an active part in our life mostly during the school days. With age, most of us take our self out of it and actively involve in building ones career (sports as a career is still not very lucrative in India).

I have also been into active sports during my school days. And with sports comes injury. According to some statistics, more then half of injury in children can be related to sports. As I grew up, I took myself almost out of regular sports, and in some case, completely out of it.

So why am I writing this now? Well I am back into some sports very recently. Having an active team in office makes life quite easier. We involve our self in some kind of sports in office. Cricket being the most popular sports in India; it’s a clear winner with us too. We do play soccer sometimes. I injured myself during a friendly soccer match in office. The injury kept me limping for almost couple of weeks. I wisely realized how some sports are more prone to injury then others.

Chances of injury are of course higher in sports that have direct or full contact of the players. High-speed sports also rate high on injury. I then started wondering, if there are any sports that will probably have near-zero chances of injury. Well, hmm… what comes to my mind now is Chess. The only way you can injure yourself in chess is: if you blow up your brain, fall asleep and drop from the chair, hold the pawn for 1 hour in the air before you decide where to place it. Jokes apart, most of the sports do come with some risk associated with injuring our self.

It is always advisable to go for a warm up for avoiding injuries like spraining muscles. Playing physically demanding sports without proper training and physical fitness will result in muscle damage. Most of the other sports require wearing of protective gears (martial ones, American football etc.). Knowing your limits does help.

Professional sports person do go for sports injury insurance. Healthcare coverage and loss of revenue without participation is a big overhead and insurance can bring lot more peace to mind.

As a regular guy like me, all you need to care is do play something even when you are busy with your office or business. You need not be regular, but do play sometimes. And of course keep yourself aware of the risk of injury associated with any sports you play. So PLAY and HAVE FUN… STAY SAFE.

“Runners High”…. Can we feel it?

2009-01-18T10:59:00.007+05:30

I have always heard people talk about this term “Runners High”. Reading though the Internet I figured out this is something that is not generally accepted to exist by general community. I do not exactly know what it feels like to be on a High when running. But I guess I will write down something that I felt during my longer distance running. I cannot exactly call myself a long distance runner, as I have just done some 10k runs.

When I initially started running in the beginning I wasn’t at the best of my shape for that. I usually get tired real fast and had to stop after just running a small distance. After few weeks I figured out that if I can overcome the initial resistance offered by the body (which begs you to stop after some distance), I actually continued to run a much longer distance then I thought I could. If feels like the mind has overcome the body – “Not sure if this is what we call a runners high”.

There was one day when I was feeling tremendously depressed with something. And I just felt like running (I remembered the elated feeling I have during running). I actually went out running at 8:00 pm in the night to a nearby park. And to my relief I actually started feeling much better mentally. May be I was feeling the “Runners High”.

I was watching the news in the morning today. It was showing peoples running for Mumbai Marathon. A nice feeling ran through my body, with some occasional goose bumps. May be I felt good just looking and peoples running, and relating myself to the good feeling.

Whenever I go home to Assam to visit my family, I make it a point to go out in the morning and go for a small run (however small it may be). It makes me feel good for the whole day.

I don’t quite know if the “Runners High” exist, but I do know that running makes me feel good (though tired) and it definitely is a mood enhancer.

Some of this further reading will be of help to you. Go through the links below.
http://www.lehigh.edu/~dmd1/sarah.html
http://runtrails.blogspot.com/2005/01/understanding-runners-high.html

Planning for a trekking? What should you be carrying?

2009-01-13T16:47:00.005+05:30

Ever wondered before your first trekking expedition what to carry in your rucksack. With every grams of additional weight in your back adding to your pain while walking uphill, knowing what to carry what not will make your life a lot easier.

I am not a very avid trekker, but I do have done some trekking. I will try to pen down some of my experiences here of things to carry and what is a waste which might be a starting point for an armature trekker. I would still advice you to talk to few experienced people to get more insights. This will not be sufficient for trekking to the Himalayas though J

The kind of things that you carry depends on what kind of trekking you are planning to have. Does it include overnight camping and campfire, what time of the year, how is the landscape of your trekking spot.

Lets start with few must haves:

- Water: Basic thumb-rule, carry as much you can. Every liter of water adds an additional kg of weight to your luggage. So it is always good to check if there are any sources of water available in the trekking route (and what are their locations). Is the water potable? In one of our trek (to Kumar Parvata), we had prior knowledge of water spots and we saved lot of pain by carrying limited water. Walking without water is not advisable (you keep sweating) and with overnight camps, you have additional needs (cooking, washing, bio-needs). An average human needs 2 liters of water per day, so carry accordingly and share the load. You will soon figure out that water makes almost 1/4^th of your weight at rucksack.

- Rucksack: Its good to have a good backpack. A rucksack (can be rented out from some adventure shops) is a good thing to carry. A balanced load at your back can make your life really comfortable.

- Medical kit: Carry your medication. Basic must haves: Pain balm or spray, Band-aid, Cotton, Antiseptic. A cramp bandage comes in handy. A sunscreen.

- Eatables: Carry some energy bar (low volume and weight), fruits, and biscuits. Anything you are comfortable eating is fine. For night stay things like ready-to-eat (MTR) and Maggi is comfortable to cook.

- Shoes: Wear shoes for the trek. This is basic I know, but a bad pair of shoe will make your life horrible. If a shoe does not fit well or cuts, don’t ever think of wearing it. Have some good grip.

- Dress: Comfortable clothes. Warm ones for night stay (hill tops are colder then the valleys). It is not really important to carry additional pair of clothes and the space can be used effectively otherwise. An additional pair is advised for wet trek (water bodies on the way, rainy days).

- Camera: I don’t think you want to miss your moments. Carry spare batteries.

- Light source: A torch is a must if you expect an overnight stay. LED ones are small and bright.

Luxury takes, or things to carry depending on the type of trekking:

- Tent and sleeping bag: If you are planning for an overnight stay, it’s a must. Camping location should be at a place where there is not much wind (there are instances of tent being carried away by wind, with peoples inside).

- Small tool: A Swiss knife would be a good enough tool. A dense jungle might require a bigger knife.

- Cooking tools: For overnight stay, you need to have food. Take one utensil for cooking. Paper/plastic plates/glass/spoons is a good carry. You typically get firewood at trekking spots, but carry some kerosene/petrol, matchbox/lighter and newspapers for assisting in starting the fire. Block the fire from wind.

- Guide: There are some treks that are not advisable without a guide. Check for guides in local peoples. Some blog posts by previous visitors might be of help.

Some dos/don’ts before, during and after the trek:

- Tune yourself for the trek. Go for some brisk walks/jogging in the morning at least a week before the trek. If you are an active person it will be okay, else you will end up in severe cramps. You will not only spoil yours but also others trek.

- Make a to do list a day before the trek (things you need to do or carry for the trek, like tents, food etc). You won’t end up forgetting things at the last moment.

- Always try to start your trek early in the morning. Its comparatively colder and your body can be active.

- During trek keep yourself constantly hydrated. You also reduce the weights you carry by drinking your water.

- Start your camping at least 2 hrs before sunset if possible. You can also collect firewood’s at this time. Things become doubly difficult after dark (though with sufficient torch lights supporting you, its okay).

- Give yourself time to enjoy the sunset and sunrise. Waking up early one day does not do any harm J

- Check for animals in camping locations.

- NEVER put up your camp in very windy place, or very close to end of cliffs. Being safe is more important than being adventurous.

- Keep viewing distance between team members. Important specially in dense jungle treks.

- Walking up is safer then coming down. Watch for loose rocks. Have good shoes.

- Know your limits before trying extreme stunts.

- BE SAFE.

There must be some things that I might have missed. I will try to add them up at a later date in a different post. The one thing to remember is its always fun to trek with zero weight at your back. So carry the limited necessities.

Happy trekking and HAVE FUN…

Trip to Kalavaarahalli betta (Skandagiri)

2009-01-05T16:13:00.009+05:30

I have been there before, and I knew this was good. So when my friend called me up for a trek and night camping at “Kalavaarahalli betta”, I said YES without hesitation.

Kalavaarahalli betta OR Skandagiri is a place ~ 70 kms from Bangalore near a small town called Chikkaballapura. Trekkers mainly trek here overnight to view the splendid sunrise in the morning.

There are two routes to reach this place. One is to take a turn towards Nandi Hills and go further to Kalawara Village crossing Muddenahalli. This is shorter route than the one from Chikaballapur. Second one is to go to Chikkaballapura and then to Kalawara Village. From Kalawara Village ask for Omkara Jyoti Ashrama / Papagni Mutt. There is a shiva temple and vehicles can be parked there. This is at the base of the Hills.

We were 4 of them: Me, Pankaj Jaiswal (Jassi), Jyoti Prakash Deka (Deka) and Sikha (Deka’s wife). We planned to trek to the peak in the evening (and possibly see the sunset) and camp there for the night. See the sunrise the next morning and then trek back. We decided to go on our bikes. The plan was finalized with all the logistical details and each one of them was assigned their part of the preparation work.

We started from Bangalore on 3^rd of January in the afternoon @ 3:00 pm. We all got together at the outer ring road flyover, which turns towards Hebbal from K.R.Puram. After we redistributed our weights, we started our journey towards Chikkaballapura. The roads until BIAL was really good. We had to take a left turn in Chikkaballapura town (near a temple) that lead us to the Papagni Mutt. Bought some water on the way. We finally reached the base @ 5:15 pm.

After quickly freshening ourselves, we started on our trek towards the Kalavaarahalli betta peak. The bikes were parked in the base (its quite safe). There are guides easily available (if u need one), but we didn’t take any. The loads in our backpack had become quite heavy with the tents, sleeping bags, water and food in it. With none of us in our best of physique, we got tired soon and had to take frequent breaks on the way. The trek path is well marked and frequently visited. We finally reached the peak at ~ 7:30 pm after almost two hours of trekking. We missed the sunset by quite some time.

Now its time for some surprise for me. I saw vendors at the peak selling tea and snacks (which was missing the last time I came here). There were even campsites and firewoods on sale. We were pleasantly surprised (and also annoyed at the exorbitant pricing). We took some bread omelet and went to a campsite the vendor showed. It was a nice cozy place, a bit protected from the heavy winds that were beating the peak at that time. Temperature started dropping fast and we quickly had our tents erected. With enough of woods available, we started a campfire and made some lemonade. People were hungry and all gulped the Biryani’s we packed from Hyderabad House in Bangalore. The campfire continued afterwards with occasional lemonades and baby corn barbecue along with roasted potatoes. Believe me that was fun. As the wind started getting stronger, we decided to take shelter into our tents. We had a tough sleep at night with the gust of wind constantly beating the tents to wake us up throughout the night.

Woke up early in the morning (5:00 am) and re-lit our campfire. Had a quick session of lemonade and some cup-noodles. It was still quite dark. After the sky got brighter at 6:30 am, we moved towards the viewpoints for seeing the sunrise. It was extremely misty and foggy and the visibility level was very low. We quickly lost our hopes of seeing a sunrise. The chilly wind was really hard to bear. But to our surprise, the sun smiled at a height above the clouds and the fogs cleared. We quickly got it captured in our camera.

It was time to get back. We packed our bags and the tents. Collected the garbage we created to be thrown at a common place for disposal. Cleared the bills with the vendor from which we took the snacks and firewood.

We started our trek back to the base. Captured some pictures on our way back. After reaching the base we redistributed our weights on our backpack. It was time to drive back to Bangalore.

On our way back had a stopover for lunch at Green Park restaurant. Food was average. Finally reached Bangalore @ ~ 2:30 pm.

The whole trip was an wonderful experience, much better then the first trip I had because of the wonderful overnight camping and the campfire.

Important information:

Location: Kalavaarahalli betta (Skandagiri), ~70+ kms from Bangalore

Routes: There are two routes to reach this place. One is take a turn towards Nandi Hills and go further to KalawaraVillage crossing Muddenahalli. This is shorter route than the one from Chikaballapur. Second one is to go to Chikkaballapura and then to kalawaraVillage. From KalawaraVillage ask for Omkara Jyoti Ashrama / Papagni Mutt. There is a shiva temple and vehicles can be parked there. This is at the base of the Hills.

Others: You get some tea and bread omelet at the peak, but mostly carry your stuff. Medical care will be possible at the Chikkaballapura town only.

Assam Blasts (Not a beginning I expected for the year 2009)

2009-01-02T13:04:00.002+05:30

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/5_killed_67_injured_in_Assam_blasts/articleshow/3922558.cms

GUWAHATI: Terror struck on the first day of 2009 in Assam where three serial blasts in as many hours triggered by suspected Ulfa militants left five people dead and more than 60 injured in Guwahati.

The explosions took place a few hours before P Chidambaram flew in for his maiden visit as home minister to review the law and order situation. He was escorted to the Raj Bhawan from the airport under heavy security, past one of the blast sites.

Terrorists appeared to mock a heavy security bandobast put in place for the New Year in the wake of the 26/11 Mumbai carnage and for the home minister's visit. Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi admitted as much.

``There were security lapses. Our police force needs to be modernized and trained to deal with such terror attacks,'' he said, echoing something that's become obvious since the Mumbai attack.

Year 2008, what a year it has been…

2008-12-31T11:28:00.006+05:30

This is the last day of the year 2008. The year will be remembered for many events that have shaken the world (most likely the Economic shockwave). I would probably look into some of my personal favorite events that have impacted my very own country India, and as well my state Assam.

2008 has been a mixed bag for India. This year terrorist activities have peaked with multiple serial bomb blasts in different parts of the country and also the heinous attack on innocent civilians of Mumbai, the financial capital of India. It has been a tremendous year for Indian sports. For the first time in Olympics history India has bagged 3 medals, and the first-ever gold medal in individual category by India’s ace shooter Abhinav Bindra. Cricket which is a religion in India also got a big boost with the Indian cricket team’s stellar performance which has elevated it to the world top teams in all version of the game: shortest (T20), shorter (One-Day) and longer (Test). The successful completion of Indian Premier League (IPL) was also incredible. Vishwanathan Anand made us proud by retaining his World Chess title.

India also made significant stride in the technology space by setting a world record by sending 10 satellites into orbit in a single launch. India also joined the history book by launching Chandrayan-1, a spacecraft on a lunar exploration mission. A part of the mission also hoisted the Indian national flag at the surface of the moon.

In the diplomatic front India successfully signed the Civil Nuclear deal with the United States. This provides India the unique access to world’s nuclear fuel and technology. With India struggling to meet its power demand, this will be a big boost towards achieving power self-sufficiency.

Indian business had a tough year. Though the Tata’s were successful with the deal with Ford to acquire Jaguar and Land Rover, it has to unfortunately pull out of the (hugely anticipated car of the year) NANO project in West Bengal. That was a big setback for the sentiment of the Indian business community. This added to high inflation, peaking crude prices and global economic slowdown makes it a tough year for Indian business. The stock market responded by hitting rock bottom from its peak at the beginning of year loosing nearly 60% (most peoples including me lost money). The opening of the Jamnagar refinery by Reliance was a big boost to end the year. It is the world’s largest refinery.

In the cultural front Bollywood did pulled out some big hits (though I didn’t liked most of them). Parvathy Omanakuttan brought pride to India by being the first runners up in Miss World 2008. Aravind Adiga made us proud by winning the Man Booker Prize.

I am welcoming 2009 with my fingers crossed. Wish you a Happy & Prosperous New Year 2009.

Do politicians care for common people?

2008-12-03T23:35:00.006+05:30

If you were in touch with the media and news channel in the last few days, you would have seen heavy bashing of politicians by both media and the common people. There is a heightened state of hatred for politicians after the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Politicians are also partly to blame for it. One fool CM criticizing a martyr’s parent, one politician talking against protesting public; this all has fueled further public outrage.

I was watching the news channel today and saw angry public taking on the politicians. Then my roommate made a statement that struck my mind. He said: Historically terrorists were focusing on political assassinations to make their presence felt and also for maximum impact. Politicians then responded equally aggressively to the terrorists. Now terrorists have become smarter and they target politicians no more, instead, they target the common people and get away without being violently pursued. Nobody forgot the war like situation that was created after the parliament attack.

I do not completely disagree, that is a good observation. Attack on parliament was a big thing. But no politicians got killed; yet the politicians responded violently, almost waging a war (lots of Army man would have got killed). But I do believe what happened in Mumbai is much larger then the parliament attack, lots of innocent life lost (not a single politician), and the response now from politician is not as aggressive as post parliament attack. So do the politicians care for us, the common people, or they just care for themselves?

This year has been severely violent in terms of attack on common people. After May, there have been serial blasts (mind it not bomb blast, serial means multiple bombs, more deaths) at regular intervals (almost every month, latest being Mumbai). Government has said we will take stern action, but as a matter of fact, nothing has happened. Only thing that has happened is another attack on civilians. The terrorists must have been laughing from a distance (may be they are patting on their back for figuring out the trick to get away unharmed). So will the politicians get serious only when they directly face terror? Will they wait for another political assassination to happen before responding? Don’t they value innocent life of the public?

I don’t want to believe what my friend is telling, but right now I can help thinking that it is true.

Time has come for the politicians to prove me wrong (that will make me happy being wrong) and take some stern action. Time for them to prove the public wrong, time to prove the media wrong, and all the people wrong who have been talking foul against them all along.

Just blame game against Pakistan is not enough:

2008-12-01T11:17:00.003+05:30

This is what keeps happening every time terror strikes India, the Indian government comfortably puts the blame on outside miscreants, and specifically to terrorists based in neighbouring Pakistan. I know for sure the government is not entirely untrue. It is a well known fact that terrorist organizations function from Pakistan territory. But just putting the blame on them, and doing nothing serves no good to the nation. It does not guarantee that terrorists will not strike the Indian heartland again. So what next? What are the other steps we need to take (visible and actionable steps), that will deter those militants to come back again.

So just blame gaming is not enough. In fact, its a cheap way to avert responsibility, put the blame on others. So though it is a diplomatic strategy to isolate Pakistan, its not enough.

What has come out of the Mumbai aftermaths are the weaknesses we have.

- Our intelligence sucks

- Our police force are ill prepared and ill equipped

- Our NSG takes close to 10 hours to reach the battle zone

- Out political system is not tough enough

- We do not have strict anti-terror laws

- There is no coordination among various forces (police, navy, army etc.)

- Insufficient manpower in policing system

So with so much to focus upon, lets handle them. We can make sure that we don't have to lose many more (any more) civilian lives.

Lastly on a stronger note: I would love to see India bombing the terrorist installations in any part of the world from where they are operating, may it in the heart of Pakistan. Just tell them its not just you who can strike us in my home, we can too. "Gharpe ghuske marenge"

After the strike on twin towers on 9/11 the world changed. Will India change after the Mumbai attacks? Time will say.....

India Burning: Mumbai Blasts, what has India become

2008-11-27T09:47:00.004+05:30

The blasts in Mumbai and the open firing of terrorists is a sign of change in terrorist activities this country has ever seen. Its not just the blasts now, they go out and shoot peoples at the street. They are hitting us from front.

Looking back, some statistics of this years terrorists attacks in India is astonishing. We had a serial blasts in most of the big cities almost every other month. Be it Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Guwahati. Another astonishing statistics is that we have not yet captured a single person responsible (I mean here the big guys. Some small guys caught has lead us nowhere) for those attacks on innocent civilians. That just makes me believe that the culprits are still moving around freely planning their next move, and "Worst is yet to come".

This as a common man does not make me feel good at all, not for me, not for my family and not at all for my fellow country men. Time has come that we start showing actions, visible actions, which will start discouraging those who are trying to destabilize us, terrorrise us. Lets go hard against them, whatever we might have to loose because of this stern steps. I feel we have already lost enough, and there is nothing more worse that can happen. Its the people, the police force the governmet, all working together to fight against them. India is not a country which can be defeated just like that.

I just pray that all those who are injured in Mumbai return safe back to their loved ones.

We have caught some of the terrorists. The police can use them to track down every guy until the top and bring them to justice. They have hit the heart of Mumbai, and we can't let them go. I believe the Mumbai police are not Eunuchs and they take it personally.. I take it personally..

Why can't we protect our peoples?

2008-10-30T19:37:00.004+05:30

The serial blast in Assam today is one the deadliest in this North-Eastern state of India. Assam has seen many violence in the past, but something like this is unprecedented.

When I heard about it first after news started to spill in the Internet, the first reaction was of shock. By the time I recovered, I started calling my sister who works in Guwahati. This must have been the state of mind for many of the family members.

The point is, the government had enough indication that this was coming. Situation has been tensed for quite some time in Assam lately and the government had enough reasons to stay tight guarded. But looking at the scale at which these blasts have happened (last news says >60 dead and >300 injured), looks like the government has been caught napping. How can they allow such devastation to happen. This is a pure case of negligence leading to death.

All I can feel now is frustrated and unsafe. What has happened could have been avoided, and what the government can do now is get those culprits and bring them to justice.

We want peace, everyone wants peace. I beg the government to protect my people from all these dangers.

Floods in Assam

2008-10-16T08:00:00.000+05:30

Assam is blessed with the great river Brahmaputra which passes through its heart, essentially bisecting through it. Brahmaputra and its tributaries is the largest source of water for Assam. The magnitude of its size can be judged from the fact that in some places the river is as wide as 10 kms. Though it is the lifeline for Assamese people, it is also known for the destruction it causes every year by floods.

Flood and Assam has always been in sync with each other. Come monsoon season and flood reaches its dangerous levels with widespread destruction. Every year huge destruction in agriculture, livestock and property happens.

The destruction caused by flood is not only limited to humans alone. Kaziranga, the natinal wildlife sanctuary in Assam which is famous for it's one horned rhino, gets almost completely submerged during floods. The animals are bound to move to higher grounds for safe heavens, making them vulnerable to poarchers. Local population around Kaziranga provides helping hands during these tough times. Every year many animals are drowned, some of which are part of the endangered species (like the rhino). The image shows an rhino carcass. Here is a news article on recent flood havoc in Kaziranga.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/PoliticsNation/Kaziranga_submerged_animals_flee/articleshow/3432012.cms

Unfortunately there has been very minimal effort by the state as well as the Indian government to properly tackle this disaster. Flood has been part of Assam's calender for centuries, but the kind of protection and preventive measures as well as preparedness that was expected out of the government is dissapointing. Every year lakhs of peoples goes homeless and crops destroyed, but the embankments built in has to be rebuild. The following link discusses it in greater detail: http://www.dayafterindia.com/august1/assam.html

There has been constant criticism of the central government for its step-motherly treatment of Asaam. Flood relief efforts being one of them.

http://www.nenanews.com/NEE%20July%2022-Aug.6,%2003/Cover%20Story.htm

http://www.asiantribune.com/?q=node/13437

There has been a regular effort by various organizations to influence central government to declare the floods of Assam as a "National Disaster".http://qasmi.sulekha.com/blog/post/2007/09/flood-in-assam-isn-t-it-a-national-disaster.htm All said and done, there has to be an serious effort from everyone in the state and the centre to seek an longer term solution to this problem. When we know its going to happen, why not prepare for it and try to reduce the disaster to a minimum.

Looking into the scale of the Brahmaputra, this must sound like an herculean task. I don't want to be philosophical but, "when there is a will, there is a way". And I want to see the will in the concerned people to make an effort in this regard. Until then, the people of Assam has to bear the wrath of the mighty Brahmaputra.

Ramanagaram: A trip to see Bollywood history

2008-10-15T08:51:00.011+05:30

If you ask someone about one of the most famous movie in Bollywood (film industry in Mumbai, India: Synonymous to Hollywood), you can't miss one movie in most of the lists: 'Sholay'.

Landscape of Ramanagaram

The place we visited recently has its relation to this legendry Bollywood movie. Ramanagaram is situated ~ 50 kms from Bangalore in the Bangalore-Mysore highway. Its a small town with lots of huge rocky outcrops. This place is also popular with rock climbers and adventure sports enthusists. The location was also selected for the village "Ramgarh" in the hindi movie Sholay.

I got my first car recently and my friends were anticipating a long ride (they are just scapegoats, I was actually wanting to have on long drive) in it. So one fine day decided to drive to Ramanagaram ans see the places around.

On a fine Saturday morning called up my friends Pankaj and Kshitij (they are my college friends from Kanpur working in GM). They were still sleeping, the common time pass for Bangalore techies on a Saturday morning.

from left: Me, Kshitij and Pankaj

"Hey Pankaj" --- "Kya hain" --- "Chalna hain kya Ramanagaram" --- "Chalna hain kya? chalte hain. Kab nikalna hain" --- "9:30 tak latest nikal chahltein hain" --- "Theek hain. Hey Kshitij, Phuki ka phone hain. Ramanagaram chalna hain. Chal uth jaa jaldi". And thus our trip to Ramanagaram was finalized. I quickly went to have my bath.

By the time I left home it was 10. Filled my fuel talk to full and picked up my friends. We hit the Bng-Mysore highway by ~ 11 and then started the smooth ride towards Ramanagaram. The highway is awesome for drive and you can test your vehicles performance. All said and done, there is something you should be careful of:

"I wan enjoying the nice empty roads and sudenly was intercepted by a traffic police vehicle. I was told I exceeded speed limit. I was given a ticket. The speed limit was 50 and I was driving at 70. 70, thats because its a new car dude, I sould have been driving over 100 at such roads. Anyway, I paid the fine (Rs. 300/-) and moved on. So don't get carried away and keep eyes on the speed limit boards."

We stopped over to have our meal in the middle. The day was extremely hot and we had some tough time. We were expecting similar weather even at Ramanagaram and had our second thoughts on going on a long trek. We reached there at ~ 12:40, distance covered ~ 60 kms. At Ramanagaram, take a right turn after "Ghousia College of Engineering" to hit a small road away from the highway. The road will take you upto the base of a temple. Its also passes through a small ghat kind of area. Its approx. 4 kms from the highway. We parked our car there and looked around for the roads.

Me with Ramanagaram kids. Car parking

A guide hopped in and promised us to provide the trip of a lifetime :) He was asking for Rs. 50/- and we agreed. He guided us through a route through a very small village. He started showing us stuffs (most relates to the movie Sholay). He showed us the place where the bridge was made (relate to the movie), where Thakurs house was located. One funny claim: "You remember the goat Jaya Bacchan hugged in the movie, that was mine", the guide said. He finally lead us

through to the place where Gabbar Singh had his "adda". Its was combination of some nice hillocks, spreaded uniformely around. Some small rocks are spread around and the place was surrounded by high rocks hills (looked like a ideal place for rock climbing and rappling). His claim of this place as Gabbar's den was realistic, and the place looked very similar. We started clicking pictures of the place and also enacted a small movie of the Gabbar Singh's "Kitne aadmi thein" dialouges (Pankaj as Gabbar).

Gabar's den

Its time to move on. We came back to the base of the temple and bid adieu to our guide. A set of around 400 steps lead us to the top of the hill where the temple is situated. Saw a water tap and quickly quenched our thirst. Saw the places around and took rest. The view from the top was amazing. We can get a good view od the landscape around, with small rocky hills surrounding the place.

Temple at hill top

It was around 4 pm by then and we decided to move back to Bangalore. Reached home at around 6 pm after beating the traffics inside Bangalore. Went out for dinner with Kh,Pnk and headed back home. It was tiring because of the extremely hot weather, but fun. Some new places to see, and just hang out at some places outside Bangalore (my idea of a perfect weekend).

Informations that migt help:

- Distance ~60 kms each way

- Water is available but nothing to eat. Carry eatables

- Roads are awesome, you will atleast enjoy the ride

- Turn right from the highway after "Ghousia College of Engineering" and drive until you see the entrance to the temple. There are enough parking space there for free

- Take a guide, its helps and its fun

Food we Indians eat...

2008-08-19T17:34:00.004+05:30

This image gives a good variety of local specialty cuisine from different states in India. One more display of the diversity we have in our country. So next time you visit a state, make sure you try their local cuisines.

China the next sports Superpower?

2008-08-18T09:30:00.006+05:30

I was expecting this to happen, in fact the world was expecting this to happen: "China is already leading heavily in the medals tally at Beijing Olympics". Olympics is just halfway and China has already bettered their last times performance of 32 golds (they now have 35 gold medals, equal to the ones the USA won last time in Athens).

The beauty of this years China's performance is they have grabbed medals from places where they were not considered good historically, say it womens swimming, archery. So with half of the medals still to come (most in Athletics though, USA stronghold), it will be interesting to see what final medals tally China ends up getting, AND can USA catch up?

I am also proud of the gold medal India (Abhinav Bindra) has won. But don't you think after so many years of Olympics participation, first Individual gold medal in the history of Olympics is a bit disappointing.

Added on 29th August:- Added a bit late here, China ended first with a real dominant performance winning 51 golds. Thats one of the highest in recent times (if we forget the 80/84 boycotted games). This is the arrival of the new sports superpower.

This happens only in India

2008-07-24T18:20:00.010+05:30

An funny email forward received from one of my friend.
Some unique things that only happens in India.. Just keep your logics at bay.

And you though bikes are just for riding (we can even sleep)

Boys hunting.. Guys beware

And you thought trains just runs on railroads.. See in in the roads

And you though each team have 11 players (see an additional player, the tree)

And you thought it was fun to have a farewell picture

And you thought trucks just run on roads, see it in the rail tracks

The designer never might have imagined this loading condition for the suspension (he did a good job, suspension still survives)

The best for the last, And you thought......

Arctic holds 90 billion barrels of oil: US

2008-07-24T14:33:00.005+05:30

http://www.ndtvprofit.com/2008/07/24130139/Arctic-holds-90-billion-barrel.html

News excerpts from NDTV:

"The area north of the Arctic Circle has an estimated 90 billion barrels of recoverable oil, the US Geological Survey (USGS) has said.

Included in the Artic bonanza is 1,670 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 44 billion barrels of natural gas liquids, the USGS said in a statement posted on its website.

The Arctic Circle is the name given to the region around the North Pole. It includes the Arctic Ocean, the northern parts of Europe, Asia, North America and the Russian Far East."

No wonder Russia has been making claims to all the resources in the Arctic region.

"Before we can make decisions about our future use of oil and gas and related decisions about protecting endangered species, native communities and the health of our planet, we need to know what's out there," said USGS director Mark Myers.

This is something which is very true in the current scenario. Global warming has already become a monster which is directly affecting the Arctic endangered species. The quest of energy hungry world should not cause additional irreversible damage to these ecosystem.

Visit to Golconda Fort, Hyderabad

2008-07-15T20:47:00.000+05:30

I went to Hyderabad some time back to meet my cousin who works there in an video gaming company. We went out for site seeing in the afternoon. This video was taken from one of the structures during the visit to Golconda Fort. Golconda Fort is located on the western outskirts of the city. It is known for the amazing acoustic system. During the course of the video you will be hearing sounds of hands clapping. This is part of the demonstration given by some of the guides on the acoustic system, where a simple clap at the entrance of the gate can be heard at other end on the top of the fort. At ancient times, this was used to communicate (and also send warning signals). Also at the entrance can be seen the famous "Rahban" cannon.

There is a sound and light show that happens in the evening at the fort, after sunset. We took some ice-cream and joined the show. It started raining after during the course of the show and we had to leave the show halfway.

Trip to Shivasamudram Waterfalls

2008-07-14T20:55:00.000+05:30

This visit was done quite some time back, during my initial days in Bangalore. The office team went for an off-site, and as a part of it we had a stop over to see the Shivasamudram waterfalls. I was thrilled just at the first sight of this massive waterfalls (you know why by looking at the video).

The Shivasamudram waterfalls have twin jumps, Gaganachukki and Bharachukki one km away from each other. The one you see in the video is Gananachukki.

Trivias:

Shivasamudram is also famous for the first hydro electric station in India started in 1902. This was supplied by General Electric.

Shivasamudram is the second biggest waterfall in India and the sixteenth largest in the world.

Mysore Zoo

2008-07-11T17:56:00.005+05:30

Recently went to Mysore with my friends. We also took out some time to visit the zoo. My experience at the Mysore zoo was very satisfying. The zoo is well maintained (its really crowded though, a -ve) with most of the common animals found there.

Most of the animals were kept in a environment closest to its possible natural habitat. The zoo had sufficient space, and they had the luxury to give enough to the animals. One of the main attraction, the Giraffe, is kept at the entry to the zoo which welcomes the public.

The above video was captured when two zebras were in their playful mood. It was satisfying to see the animals having fun even in their captivity. It looked like they were just kids who wanted to go out and have fun.

Well, thats the fun to be born wild......

Stupid news in the Indian Television News channel

2008-07-11T14:19:00.006+05:30

Taken from an email forward received from my friend. Its interesting to see the quality of news that is broadcasted by some of the Indian news channel :o)

News about the food menu of an Indian politician (Daal, Puri). Who cares what they eat.

News about a cat getting trapped and finally saving itself. What the hell, there are peoples dying.

An movie star got cold. For gods sake cold happens to every other person in the street. Tell me when he gets something bigger (God forbidden it should never happen).

The dog of police commissioner got lost. Well this is extreme

The rise of the prince Rafa

2008-07-06T01:17:00.009+05:30

The reign of king of tennis Roger Federer (FedEX) seems ending with the arrival of the prince at centre court in Wimbledon, Rafael Nadal. Rafa yesterday defeated FedEX in an epic five setter (6-4/6-4/6-7/6-7/9-7) and stopped Federer to enter into the history book. I have previously discussed in my blog about how Federer is loosing grounds, and how I do not support peoples opinion on the end of Federer. I still stand by it. A player of the class of Federer won't fade away so soon. Its time before he reinvest himself and come back fighting vigorously.

This win is a special one for Rafael, not because he won Wimbledon, but he has proven to the world that he is not just the clay guy. He has ruled clay court as did Federer on grass. So it will be interesting in the coming months to see how this FedEx-Rafa rivalry takes shape with Rafa catching up fast on Federer (or shall I say he is already starting to overtake).

Now it will be more fun to keep track of the coming grand slam and masters tennis championships.

DEFINE ENGINEERING

2008-07-06T00:22:00.007+05:30

This is something I read somewhere a long time ago and noted down in my diary during my engineering grad school. I am sorry for not providing the original reference, I don't have it.

"While Science has not yet completely explained the actual mechanism of fatigue, the Engineer must still design things that does not fail.

In a sense this is a classic example of the meaning of Engineering as contrasted with Science. Engineers use science to solve their problem if the Science is available. But available or NOT, the problem must be solved, and whatever form the solution takes place under this conditions is called Engineering"

Faculty quota in IIT's: Are we crossing limits...

2008-07-05T09:47:00.010+05:30

The news article:
HRD orders faculty quota, IIT directors livid
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/3173620.cms

"Buoyed by its success in pushing through a quota for OBC students in higher education, the government has now ordered IITs to introduce - with "immediate effect" - quotas in the teaching faculty for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and OBCs."

When I read this news, I was really disappointed. I feel its okay (though i do not support) with people getting a chance to get educated even if they did not had the merit for that, but teaching without merit, UNACCEPTABLE. By that was you are even ruining the students with merit and with a passion to learn.

I am not against SC, ST or OBC (I am an OBC). I know if they deserve it, they will get it. Though we sometimes need to give opportunities to peoples, the opportunity should not be to ruin someone else. I think teaching is a role with great responsibility, dignity and respect; and at a premier institute like IIT, only the deserved ones should get a chance.

I don't know why someone would want to get in through reservation. How will he feel in front of his pupils when they know he came through reservation.

Did IPL revived Indian Cricket?

2008-07-05T01:47:00.015+05:30

IPL was the big hyped T20 club cricket tournament that recently concluded in India. Beyond the entertainment it provided, did it do any good for Indian cricket?

Though at first sight it looked like an entertainment show only (involving big movie stars), and it hardly benifited Indian cricket. But to be honest, I have seen improved form of lot of our cricketers after playing in IPL which makes me happpy. The beauty of IPL was that lot's of young Indian players got a chance to play with international star's. The pressure level that comes with International cricket was also missing from IPL, and cricketers got a chance to take more risks and succeed. The Indian team selectors also identified a big pool of talented bench strength, who looked ready to perform in international level. Well time will tell how these guy's go ahead and perform in future.

Most of the Indian current players regained their form in a big way which they are continuing in the Bangladesh tour and current Asia Cup in Pakistan. Gambhir, Sehwag looks like they are in best of their form. Dhoni, Yuvraj, Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma also looks good. So though many may not like the glitters and "Masala" of the IPL, they should be happy to see the revival of form of the players.

It also impacted career of many International players. Shane Watson and Shaun Marsh, two of the starts of the IPL was called to join the Australian national team, and they are doing wonders.
Same applies to Brendon McCullum of New Zealand.

IPL is here to stay for a longer term, and hopefully it will keep benefiting our cricket; in addition to providing entertainment to the nation and money to our cricketers.

Spain rules Europe

2008-06-30T20:17:00.002+05:30

Spain defeated Germany 1-0 in the EURO 2008 final to lift the trophy after a drought of 44 years. Well I am a happy man, as they were my favorites from the lot. I saw their first match against Russia (which they won 4-1) and became an instant fan. They were so confident and their passing were just awesome. They repeated their magic game again against Russia in the semi-finals. Well towards the end of the semi-final game, they were just been casual, and having fun. That was their skill level.

I was expecting Spain to perform good in the finals, but Germany's performance was disappointing though. I expected it to be a closer fight than what it turned out to be. If Spain had not missed the chances they created, we could have seen the real score (may be 3-0, 3-1).

So all the other non European teams, watch out for them in the world cup 2010. They have a young team which will be completely available until then, fully prepared for the World Show.

India Corruption Study 2007, an eye opener...

2008-06-30T19:11:00.007+05:30

This is the third, in a series of surveys which Transparency International India (TII) has done to measure the extent of petty corruption. The niche about this study was its focus on below poverty line (BPL) households.

The scope of the study is not only limited to perceptions about corruption in general, but perception in specific context of a service and, more importantly, actual experience of paying bribe by BPL households in availing one or more of the 11 selected public services. Depending on frequency of interaction, the eleven services are divided broadly into “basic services” (PDS, Hospital Service, School Education (up to 12th), Electricity Service and Water Supply Service) and “need based services” (Land Records / Registration, Housing Service, Forest, NREGS, Banking Service and Police Service (traffic and crime)). The study does not include operational irregularities in the system and even corruption that does not involve citizens directly.
Estimation of bribe: The total bribe amount involved in a year in BPL households availing the eleven services covered in this study is estimated as Rs. 8,830 million.

Services ranked: School education is least corrupt service. Police stood number one corroborates the general impression. The Land Records / Registration and House/Plot, which are specially tailored for BPL households, stand at two and three in the rank is a matter of concern.

THIS NEXT ONE WILL BE INTERESTING...

Relative position of states on Corruption: No state is anywhere near "zero corruption" level. States are grouped into four levels to explain the extent/level of corruption based on a weightage scheme – Moderate, High, Very High and Alarming.

First thing I noticed was Assam, the state I belong to, is at the top of the list in terms of corruption. It feels bad, but this can be seen as an opportunity by the state government to improve their processes and governance focussed on the BPL households. Himachal has done good (being moderate) in all the 11 services. One common thing that I can see from it is, in general the states which are doing good economically also have lower level of corruption. Something that is not surprising. I hope the state governments take this report seriously and don't just throw it as a junk report.

Other highlights can be found at the report at the following location:
http://www.cmsindia.org/cms/highlights.pdf

When I played with the Indian Cricket team...

2008-06-28T17:06:00.008+05:30

Our office have corporate booking in the badminton courts at Chinnaswamy stadium over the weekends. Every Saturday I make it a point to utilize this facility and join my friends to play badminton. We always go over and have some fun out there.

This weekend was no different and I met my office colleagues at the stadium. We were playing our regular game and suddenly we were out for surprise. We saw two strangers walking in. I suddenly realized they weren't any strangers and looked like very familiar faces to me. It was Bhajji and Dinesh Kartik from the Indian cricket team. At that time courts were occupied by us and they were looking for one. We vacated one court for them and enjoyed seeing them playing singles with each other.

(From L-R: Me, Ramesh Powar, Bhajji, Dinesh Karthik, company friends)

Finally they (Bhajji and Kartik) teamed up and we played couple of doubles games with them. My colleagues won the first match. In between Ramesh Powar also showed up. Me and Kumar teamed up to play the next match against Bhajji and Kartik. It started off well with both giving good fight. Finally we lost the match. It was fun challenging them, and firing some good smashes at them :-)

It was their time to leave and we requested for autographs. We also requested for a photograph and they happily obliged for both.

After I walked out of the indoor stadium towards my bike, I saw some of the other members from the Indian cricket team, Zaheer Khan, Laxman, Ashish Nehra, Wasim Zafar. There is a camp happening for the test team and that was the reason I saw all these Indian team players in Chinnaswamy stadium.

Pleasant surprises....

Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw passes away

2008-06-27T22:54:00.003+05:30

Former Army Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw passed away at Military Hospital in Wellington.

Field Marshal is the highest possible rank in the military of India. Only two Army appointments have been made by the Government of India since independence in 1947. The rank of Field Marshal though, existed in the old Indian Army.

Independent India's first, and only active Field Marshal (appointed when in service), was the then Chief of Army Staff Gen. Sam Manekshaw. A much admired and decorated World War 2 officer he was conferred the rank in 1973 by the Indira Gandhi-led government, largely in recognition of his sterling leadership during the Indo-Pakistani war of 1971. He is seen as being principally responsible, in a military sense, for an Indian victory in that war, and for the subsequent split of Pakistan.

May his soul rest in peace. He will be the inspiration for tons of young army officers and jawans for years to come.

Assam tea and its GI status

2008-06-26T23:34:00.004+05:30

Most peoples do know that Assam is famous for its tea. Assam tea by itself is a huge brand and it even received Geographical Indication status.

A geographical indication (sometimes abbreviated to GI) is a name or sign used on certain products or which corresponds to a specific geographical location or origin (eg. a town, region, or country). The use of a GI may act as a certification that the product possesses certain qualities, or enjoys a certain reputation, due to its geographical origin.

Orthodox tea is the second Assam product to bag the GI label after muga silk. The GI label is exclusive to only a handful of generically identifiable products such as Swiss watches, Czech crystals, champagne, Mysore sandalwood oil and Kancheepuram silk.

There are certain requirements that the product has to fulfill before getting the GI status. The products should have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are special to that particular state or place of origin to qualify for the GI status.

The GI status is going to be hugely beneficial for Assam tea as it would now prevent replication in other parts.

For additional information on GI visit http://www.geographicindications.com/

Match fixing: No games are Isolated?

2008-06-26T11:57:00.003+05:30

Match fixing controversies have always haunted the sports fraternity. Some of them have even brought an end to big sporting careers.

Match fixing controversy created a huge flutter in Indian media when the names of Indian cricket starts was revealed as being involved in match fixing scandals. Well it ended the career of Indian players like Mohammed Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja. Hanse Conje (one of my favorite player) was banned from all forms of cricket due to match fixing.

Some of the recent match fixing news are coming from unexpected places:
- India-Malaysia Azlan Shah tie was fixed: report (PTI News)
- Were Wimbledon matches fixed? (TOI News)

Looks like none of the games remains isolated from match fixing scandals.

I guess I will end up watching The Great Khali in WWE, because I already know the matches are fixed :-)

Do Asia cup cricket need more then three teams?

2008-06-25T23:19:00.007+05:30

If you are tracking the Asia cup cricket in this Wimbledon and EURO soccer season, you might be disappointed to see the initial results. The big guns of Asia are winning by huge margins.

I wonder do we need to have six teams in Asia Cup just for the sake of making it bigger. Hongkong, UAE and should I add Bangladesh has come up with some awful performances. The initial scores say it all (Pak defeat Hongkong by 155 runs, India defeat Hongkong by 256 runs, Sri Lanka defeat Bangladesh by 131 runs). These are by no means competitive cricket. The three big guns India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are the real deserving candidates to participate in this level of competition.

We can expect some good records to be made in this competition. I wonder if anybody are watching these matches.

India in FIFA world cup

2008-06-25T21:43:00.005+05:30

With the EURO 2008 fever at complete high, we were discussing in office about India's chances of ever making it to the FIFA world cup? Well looking at the current situation, it looks impossible to me.

But most of us might not know that India did qualified for the FIFA world cup in 1950.

From wikipedia:

"India qualified by default for the 1950 FIFA World Cup as a result of the withdrawal of all of their scheduled opponents. However, they did not take up their place in the competition because FIFA demanded all players at the World Cup finals should wear football boots. A number of the Indian players refused to abide by this rule and the team was forced to withdraw. The team has never since come close to qualifying for the World Cup.

India also finished 4th in the football tournament at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, and won the 1962 Asian Games Gold medal, and reached the semi-finals in the next two Asian Games tournaments in what became known as the golden era of Indian football."

The great rhino conservation success story

2008-06-25T11:34:00.005+05:30

Something I thought worth sharing

*Information collected from the web, wikipedia

Here is a comment from the WWF website:

"The Indian, or greater one-horned, rhino is a conservation success story. Thanks to strict protection measures, its population increased from 600 in 1975 to 2,400 in 2002. But it is still an endangered animal that faces the ever-present danger of poaching for its horn."

The Indian Rhinoceros or the Great One-horned Rhinoceros or the Asian One-horned Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) is a large mammal found in Nepal and in Assam, India. It is confined to the tall grasslands and forests in the foothills of the Himalayas.

In Assam, rhinos are found in the Kaziranga National Park where it is under conservation.
Kaziranga National Park has been granted maximum protection under the Indian law for wildlife conservation. Various laws, which include the Assam Forest Regulation of 1891 and the Biodiversity Conservation Act of 2002 have been enacted for protection of wildlife in the park.

Here is the rhino population chart (from wikipedia).

Awesome isn't it??

There are still issues with poaching in Kaziranga.

Join the rhino conservation effort with http://onehornedrhino.org/

We're toast if we don't get on different path: NASA scientist

2008-06-25T08:00:00.003+05:30

An real eye opener for the skeptics not agreeing to global warming.

"Exactly 20 years after warning America about global warming, a top NASA scientist said the situation has gotten so bad that the world's only hope is drastic action.

James Hansen told Congress on Monday that the world has long passed the ''dangerous level'' for greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and needs to get back to 1988 levels. He said Earth's atmosphere can stay this loaded with man-made carbon dioxide for a couple more decades without changes such as mass extinction, ecosystem collapse and dramatic sea level rises."

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NEWEN20080054197
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Click on the link below to read the story
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080054197

For the latest news from India, visit http://www.ndtv.com/

The Extremes of Geographical Ignorance

2008-06-24T09:11:00.001+05:30

The first time I went to US was for training. It was a weeklong training with participants from all parts of the globe (Europe, Asia and Americas).

One day I saw my friend rushing to me at an angry mood. Surprise I asked, “Hey buddy, what happened?” He said, “You know John (name changed) from my team, he asked me where I am from. When I said India, he was asking if it was close to Indonesia. What crap, don’t he have this simple geographical knowledge.” I was definitely amused…

To be honest, this is not the first time I am hearing this. There should be nothing to complain about, it happens in all the places, at different scales though.

In India, I have seen that happening to my NE friends, the peoples from the seven sisters. First off all they are confused to be not part of India. I remember on of my friend from Tripura being asked, “Is Tripura part of Guwahati?” Funny huh…

I do not complain again, because, if someone tells me he is from Lesotho, I would ask him where does it belong?

For your information:

Lesotho, officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a landlocked country and enclave — entirely surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. Formerly Basutoland, it is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The name Lesotho roughly translates into "the land of the people who speak Sesotho."

Roger Federer, are we seeing the end of an era?

2008-06-23T20:49:00.002+05:30

“The end of an era?”

That’s what I keep hearing from people and media around me. But as a hard-core fan of FedEX, I don’t want to digest it so easily.

The voice of the skeptics got stronger after the recent demolition of Federer by his archrival Rafael Nadal (Rafa) in the recent French Open final. So the most favorite topic in the tennis circuit gained momentum, Rafa-FedEX rivalry.

Federer has been my favorite player in recent time, mostly because of the versatility of his style. I have been fan of many previous stars (Sampras, Becker, Agassi). I loved the powerful serve of Sampras and his volleys, Becker’s volleys and fighting attitude by trying for all the points he can reach into was mind boggling, Agassi for his great baseline play and the way he makes the ball hit baseline all the time. I was amazed when I saw all the qualities in a single player, Federer. I became an instant fan of him.

He soon started demolishing his opponents and quickly moved on to become world number one. To be honest, I wasn’t surprised. The player of his caliber deserved it. He has been dominating men’s tennis since then. Well, it sometimes becomes monotonous, but with a player of his class, I am never bored of seeing him.

This year 2008 has been different. Federer has struggled to match his own class and lost many matches (statistically speaking, 8 which is quite a bit for him), two of them in the majors (Djokovic in Aus open and Nadal in French). So the question obviously comes, is this the end of the king, FedEx?

I have a different take on this whole issue. I believe only way to beat a classy player like Federer is by sheer power. Federer has been in the international arena for quite some time now, and the younger guns are catching up with him, not to match his class but to exceed his power. This is evident from his failures in the slower surfaces (like clay) where his opponents nullify all his awesome shots. So I would partly agree of peoples catching up with him, but matching his class would take some more time for the kids in the block.

So fellas, do not get bogged down looking at the statistics you see in the news and media, the king is here to stay. I think he will silence his critics by winning the title in his favorite hunting ground, Wimbledon.

Is the fuel price hike justified? What is the real fuel price?

2008-06-05T20:00:00.003+05:30

On 4^th of June 08, the Indian government declared an increase in petrol (Rs. 5/litre) and diesel (Rs. 3/litre) prices because of the mounting losses of the oil companies. The global crude oil prices have been hovering at ~ 130 $/barrel for quite some time now and the oil companies were loosing money in crores on a daily basis. The Indian prime minister even came out to the address the nation saying that this the minimal hike that was possible looking at the current scenario.

This made me to wonder, what is the real price of fuel? Who makes all the money and who carries the losses.

I started doing some basic calculations and started hunting for data in the web. Well, first let do a straightforward calculation, what is the crude oil price (in INR)? Taking a recent crude oil price of $130/barrel and using a conversion rate of Rs.40/USD, the crude oil price becomes ~ Rs.32.71/litre. Petroleum price after the current price rise will be Rs.55/litre (average nationwide). So we are talking about a petrol price which is ~170% of the crude oil price. So somebody must be making money (and not lossi), as it’s hard to believe that refining cost would be that high. I do not have any refining cost data, so the next step would be to hunt for that information. (What’s still in back of my mind is, oil companies are making losses in crores)

I came across a gasoline price breakdown report from “California Energy Commission” website (http://www.energy.ca.gov/gasoline/margins/index.html). They showed the split of all the costs starting from crude oil price to retail price, separately showing the refining cost and also taxes charged by the federal and the state governments. I believe the cost breakdown structure will be similar in India, excluding the tax structure. Looking at the May month’s data, the refinery cost along with the profits accounts for 7.5% of the crude oil price.

Taking this scenario in India, where the retail price is 170% of the crude oil price, and refining expense (with profits) is only 7.5%. The rest of the amount must go away in taxes and other components, which is retained by the central and state governments in India. As a layman what I understand is governments do not want to loose their own share of the money, and they are trying to nail down the oil companies out of their profits, and finally they transferred part of the financial burden to the consumers.

The government should not risk loosing the stream of their revenues, as this might affect the other developmental activities as well as the fiscal deficit might climb up. But looking at the developed economy like the United States, their retail price is ~ 135% of the crude price. Thus the US consumers are paying less then what we pay in India, even after subsidies? Something hard for me to comprehend… May be I needed to go back and check my economics.

Here are excerpts from what the petroleum minister told the Rajya Sabha (pretty old data, 2005) which gives some insight:

http://www.moneycontrol.com/mccode/news/article/news_article.php?autono=193793

“Giving a break-up in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, the Petroleum Minister said the cost of production of petrol was only Rs 19.58 per litre, whereas the Customs duty, excise duty and sales tax take the retail price to Rs 43.49 a litre (in Delhi). The tax component is almost 55%.

For diesel, the tax component in the retail price is almost 34%, with customs duty of 6% (Rs 1.81), excise duty of 17% (Rs 5.07) and sales tax of 11 per cent (Rs 3.39). This takes the retail price to Rs 30.45 a litre in Delhi, while the basic cost of production of diesel is only Rs 20.18 a litre. As for cooking gas, while the production cost of one cylinder of LPG is Rs 261.97, local sales tax of Rs 32.75 takes the selling price to Rs 294.75. For kerosene, the per-litre cost is Rs 8.70, while the selling price is Rs 9.05.”

Who feel's the Inflation?

2008-06-03T20:30:00.001+05:30

There are talks of Inflation everywhere in India now (or should I say everywhere in the globe). Prices of food grains have skyrocketed, and oil prices keeps rising every other day. But how much are we each Indians affected by inflation?

The impact of inflation depends on the % of your income spent on food and essential items. This is the kind of expenses you cannot avoid, and qualifies as something we call a basic necessity of life. If this is very small percentage of ones monthly income, people do not really care about it. Inflation hit’s the poorest section of the society the hardest, as most of his/her daily income goes in fulfilling their basic necessities. Even a small increase in the food price makes these basic necessity less accessible to them, and with the current trends, the poor might have been choking!!

I wonder will any one of the richer sections of the society keep track of the prices of food grains. The price of sunflower oil has crossed Rs. 100/Litre. Rice is not available below Rs. 20/-, vegetable prices increasing beyond what someone might call logical. But I guess nobody cares until it starts hitting his or her pockets hard.

To give a personal example, I really won’t care if matchboxes start costing rs.2 in place of 1, even though the price has doubled. I won’t think twice before buying it. This can be similar to vegetables/rice or other commodities for someone else. So everyone has to ask for himself, do I feel the inflation?

Inflationary effect becomes severe when there exists a huge difference in affordability within the consumers. As for food grains, everyone in the world is a consumer. Nobody would disagree that western world has very high purchasing power as compared to the African nations. So, I believe the western nations are least affected by the rising food prices (as compared to their African counterparts). This holds true for ultra rich and the poor in India too. The section of the society who can afford it all sucks up most of the essential resources, at any cost.

Inflation has culprits in the supply side too, and also an increasing affordability of a vast population of the developing nation. But nobody can deny the fact that inflation does not affect all sections of the society equally. It hits hard the section of the society who can’t afford to compete for the same “limited” resources with the ones who can afford much more...

So step back and ask to yourself, are you affected by the Inflation? Are you choking for your basic necessity?

The best we can do is use these resources in a more sensible way, & don’t waste…

My first experience with BIAL (Bangaluru International Airport Limited)

2008-05-27T18:30:00.006+05:30

I had to travel to Mumbai for my personal work on 23^rd of May 2008. It had already been announced that BIAL will flag-off the same day. I had to catch a 3:30 pm flight. So I planned to work for the first half of the day in office. At the back of my mind, all the uncertainty involved with the travel time kept me worried as this was the first day of airport opening and there were no data to tell me the exact time it would take for me to reach the airport. The best I could do was to plan to leave office at the earliest.

Call it my luck, due to elections; the opening was postponed by a day to 24^th of May, and I comfortably spent the first half of my day in office. The HAL airport is just walking distance from my house, and I took my Kingfisher flight to land in Mumbai.

I had my return flight on Sunday, 25^th May. I knew BIAL has already started its service, and prepared myself mentally for the long trip back home. This is the first time I properly looked at the Mumbai airport. It looked beautiful. Lot of work is still going in one of the terminal and construction workers were spread around at the terminal with their machinery and equipments. I looked for the terminal from where the Kingfisher (KF) flights takes off. I figured out the auto dropped me at the first terminal and I had to walk down to other end of the airport. The KF terminal is at an unbelievable location and reaching there was a real adventure: passing under overhead construction workers, walking up staircases to the second floor and asking multiple peoples. The KF flight was delayed by 1 hour and finally reached Bangalore by 11:10 pm night.

I peeped out of the aircraft window to get a first glimpse at the new airport. To be honest it looked really impressive and huge, compared to its old HAL veteran. But soon all my enthusiasm vanished as we waited more then 10 minutes with the aircraft door still closed. This delay after reaching late to Bangalore was annoying. An naturally embarrassed flight captain announced “we no more control the disembark ladder. Its been controlled by BIAL and they has been informed about the requirement”. This was the sign that BIAL is still learning to manage its resources in the second day of its service. Finally the ladder came and we were out of the aircraft. The Volvo bus took us to the terminal building. I guess it was a rare mistake; the driver dropped us at the wrong door. Everything was closed and whole team was struggling to find their way out as everything was closed :-) We saw other busses dropping passengers further down, and we started walking to the other door. To be frank I was quite frustrated after all the delays and the mess, and others looked frustrated too..

After entering through the door, got the first glimpse of the new terminal building. The space is not that big, but naturally spacious compared to its veteran. There were LCD

panels all around displaying adds. The overhead LCD screens displayed the baggage claim details with belt no for each flight that landed at that time. I just had my hand baggage, so I won’t be able to comment on the efficiency of the baggage claim system. I directly walked towards the exit of the airport. The directions were nicely marked at all locations visibly illuminated. I followed the direction that said Bus, which lead me to the exit. There was a helpdesk right there where I enquired about the bus service. They guided me to the bus stop, which is located right outside the airport, and it can be seen even from inside. Walked down to the bus stop. When I looked back, got the full view of the illuminated BIAL terminal. It looked really great. Outside the airport there was sufficient space for parking for vehicles, each locations clearly marked. The bus conductors were calling for passengers for their respective routes. I enquired about the HAL airport route and I was guided to the route # 4 bus. It’s the same Volvo that plies in the city. The front seats were replaced with luggage compartments for ease of luggage transport. I paid rs. 150/- for the ticket. The bus started it journey at 12:00 at midnight with the bus filled with passengers.

The bus left the airport to hit the highway. The infrastructure outside looked awesome. The roads leading to the airport has been really well built, and may be because it being the second day of operation, the whole road leading to the airport is beautifully illuminated. Felt like moving out from a real international airport. The Volvo bus took to its full steam, and roads were quite empty at that hour at the night. Saw the cabs from the “Meru & Easy Cabs” the official taxi service for BIAL. It looked cool with its ash color and big taxi sign illuminated at its top. The cabs were mahindra logan vehicles. The bus traveled without any traffic interruption, something I have never experienced in Bangalore :-) It was funny that roads got worsened when it entered the city, and I got the feeling how bad Bangalore infrastructure is. The bus took the bellary road, old madrass road and finally hit Indiranagar and then airport road. When I was dropped at my place in front of erstwhile Kemp Fort, I quickly looked at my watch. It was 1:00 am at night. I believe this is the minimum time I would take to reach home, as there were hardly any traffic and the bus was at its full steam. I might have to get a more practical estimate of the travel time, as today travel was quite an ideal one. I guess, at least one and half hours looked practical. The same time will apply for reaching the airport also. I would ask people to keep 2 hours for airport travel to be on the safer side.

Things that worried me the most, the airport travel looked smooth: courtesy BMTC. Besides the operational hiccups in the new airport (they will improve that with some days of service), the overall experience was very satisfying. Only pain was the drastic increase in the travel time, but I guess I will start getting benefit of reduced traffic on the airport road from now on.

Sunfeast World 10k run

2008-05-19T19:00:00.002+05:30

Bangalore has been gearing up for the Sunfeast World 10k run, so was me. I have only once been part of a marathon, which was the BSNL Bangalore International Marathon on December last year. Believe me, the thrill of running with whole of Bangalore is just amazing. So I didn’t wanted to miss this opportunity.

The registration process was also available online (along with the many drop boxes), which made it really easy to get myself registered by paying Rs. 200/-. The simplicity of the process gave me the first glimpse of what turned to be a truly well organized event.

Training for race day:

After registration it was time to get ready for the real race day. I have done a 10k distance before (including the last marathon), so I knew I could complete it. The fact that most worried me was lack of training for quite some time with my foot injury. So started running over the weekdays in the treadmill of the company gym. Also tried out couple of 10k attempts over the weekend. The first was a failure where I had to stop with severe back pain after just 3 kms of run. I regained some confidence with the completion of the second run, with not much complication. The open 10k run (in which I participated) is scheduled to start @ 9 am. With the current hot weather of Bangalore, it is going to be real tough. I knew the problems I might face, but there is no way I can prepare myself for that. Just decided not to stretch myself by getting carried away by other runners (knowing my limitations).

Pre-race process:

We had to collect our bib# some days ahead of the race. So left office early on 16^th Friday evening for Kanteerva stadium with my office colleague who is also participating in the run. The idea was collecting the bib# much before the race was the sign of a well-planned event. This reduced congestion (due to multiple collection time for multiple days). There was also a fair happening down there in parallel where different sponsors were displaying their products. A surprise for me was a F1 car at the entrance, courtesy Vijay Mallya. The bib collection was at the end of all the stalls (very smart, as you can’t avoid the stalls). We showed our acceptance letter and ID proof to collect our bib#, my bib# is 1420. The number 420 at my chest was not very comforting J. Collected the timing chip with a deposit of Rs. 100/-. We also received a goodie bag, with loads of stuffs (water bottle, biscuits, mints, chips etc.). Well, to be honest I felt the value of the goodie bag was more then the registration fee of Rs. 200/- we paid. The line at the bib# collection counters was also small, thanks to the multiple lines for different ranges of bib#. Detailed information of the race day (route map, locations etc.) was duly attached with the bib# for the convenience of the participants.

Race day, 18^th May 2008:

Woke up early then my regular Sunday time. Took bath and got freshened up. I had planned out for a light breakfast the previous night. Prepared some fresh fruit juice and gulped some bananas. Did not want to go there with a heavy stomach, which might create problem while I run. Asked my rommie to drop me at the stadium entrance. Reached the stadium @ 8:10 am. Went directly to gate 12, which was the entrance for the participants with chip. Once in I saw many peoples already gathered there. There were music and entertainment programs going on at the middle of the stadium. Started stretching my muscles and got warmed up for the run. The women world 10k participants were completing their runs, and we all stood up to cheer them up. Unbelievably there was a photo finish by first two women participants. Athletes from Kenya and Ethiopia dominated the top 10 places. This followed the prize distribution ceremony. The times clocked by the winners in 26-27 minutes were just too amazing.

We were asked to line up at the starting line. At exactly 9 am, the run started. I also started with full josh with all the other participants. It was real hot out there and after the halfway mark the heat started to take a toll on me. At one point of time I almost decided to stop running because of getting extremely drained out. My speed reduced quite a bit and I saw peoples overtaking me. What was more frustrating was the seeing the peoples who overtook me which included ladies and senior citizens. I did not wanted to stretch, nor wanted to quit. So kept moving at a steady pace until I hit closer to the finishing line. Reenergized myself for the last 100 meter and gave a final push at least to beat some participants. The clock showed 10:06. I believe I completed the run in 66 minutes with an average speed of ~9 kmph. Will have to wait for the timing certificate to get my official timing. I was dead tired and exhausted from the heat.

Collected my refreshment pack. I was happy to see some bun and biscuits in the pack. Good thinking by the organizers, as at that time I needed them very dearly along with the water. Went to collect the timing certificate. Saw lots of peoples already standing in the queue, suggesting the high completion percentage. The timing certificates were over by that time and organizers asked up to deposit the timing chip, and the certificates will be mailed on a later date. It was time to call up family and friends to inform my completion of the 10k run.

This 10k run was more enjoyable then my previous half-marathon experience for multiple reasons:

- Great organization, easy registration and bib# collection

- The traffic was stopped for all the route, last time there was quite a bit of traffic mess up

- Water stalls were sufficiently available, last time I remember water getting over and I was begging for water from my fellow participants

- Since it was a smaller distance run, huge crowd accompanied me from beginning until the end (minimum drop off’s) and it was fun

- The only dampener for me was the race timing, it started too late (9 am) and the sun was unbearable. The run could be made more comfortable by advancing the race timing.

Added on 27th May:

Received my official timing, it's 1:04:36

Advantages of SMOKING:

2008-05-01T19:55:00.001+05:30

1) You will not live long.. This world anyway SUCKS..

2) Peoples around you do not like passive smoking, so it’s a good way to scare away peoples you hate

3) Smokers are always under controversy (eg. Shahrukh Khan vs. Ramadoss). So it is also a good way to get free publicity.

4) Restaurants provide you ash trays as additional benefit (and they charge you for that in taxes), so why not make full use of all the benefits

5) There are data suggesting it helps to perform the morning ritual (at toilet, some peoples can’t do without it)

6) You end up carrying a source of fire. If you get lost in a isolated island, you don’t have to eat anything raw

7) Specially for kids, smoking makes you look mature J

8) Tobacco industry employs hell lot of people. So you are indirectly supporting them

9) It can make your career. It helps you keep awake during your last minute overnight exams preparations. After all you have to work hard for building a career

10) It gives something for you to pass your time if you are alone

11) It can scare away mosquitoes if you do not have repellants

12) Add your own comments……

Power of Media and Indian Premier League:

2008-05-01T19:40:00.001+05:30

Indian Premier League (IPL), the greatest T20 cricket extravaganza recently started in India. It has created a hype never seen before, with the two biggest fantasies of Indian population coming together, Cricket and Bollywood.

But sometimes I wonder, the Indian media had a very big role to play for the kind of hype that has been created. There is a parallel league that runs (which started before IPL) called the Indian Cricket League (ICL). There are equally good players, both domestic and foreign, playing in that league. But there is hardly any media attention to it, and most common Indians do not know about it. Its not being recognized by BCCI (the body governing Indian cricket), and this might be a reason for this step-motherly treatment. But not even the winner of the ICL finals getting published in the premier Indian newspapers was a disappointment.

But the IPL created hype even before it got started, with the newspapers and the television news channels flooding their space with IPL news.

The media power also came into light when they made BCCI kneel down and take back the restrictive clauses put down for the media. Indian media has become quite powerful recently with news reaching peoples within seconds and people responding emotionally to what is been published or shown in TV.

Though this media uprising is a good sign, the power has to be used responsibly. May be I can quote the Spider-Man dialogue “with power comes responsibility”. They should be neutral in performing their responsibility.

I am not sure why ICL news was not seen anywhere, not even on a small newspaper column, and IPL is driving full-page reports (and in some case 2 pages). ICL has the equal right for the news space as do IPL.

Bangalore Marathon, 16th December 2007:

2007-12-19T19:59:00.005+05:30

I started running some 5 months back. I use the treadmill in my office gym. Though I am not so regular, I have tried to keep my gaps small enough to claim I have continued. It started with small tired runs at the beginning of my running expedition and improving myself with time. I haven’t seen my physique change for any better, though my stamina improved.

I run for short distances in the treadmill, usually getting exhausted in the beginning, but comfortable after the body gets used to it. Never get a chance stretch myself, as there is a 15 mins time limit at the gym treadmill, so that all peoples get equal chances. I have always seen lesser crowd on Fridays, and started stretching myself to run longet time in some of these days to see if I can go further. Running at a slower pace then usual, I was able to stretch myself to longer time.

Couple of weeks back I decided to take my run to the tar roads of Bangalore. So measured a route besides the airport (I live near the airport) of about ~10 kms long. One fine morning I woke up early at 5:30 am (I hate to wake up early), and started my run in the pre-decided route. I started taking deep breaths just after I started, but soon the body got used to it. To my surprise, I completed the 10 kms of run without stop, and I was genuinely satisfied.

Yesterday I went for the second time, despite hating to wake up early. It was again a 10 kms run. After doing it second time, I felt confident enough of repeating the same distance again if required. The same evening I was talking with my roommate and during the course of discussion the Bangalore marathon topic popped up, and the though of participation came to my mind. It’s a chance to test the limit of my distance running.

Woke up early next morning and took my bike headed towards Kanteerava stadium, from where the Marathon will start. Registered myself for the half marathon and received my chest no (#1008, wow already a 1000 participants). First, it was the full marathon that started. The full marathon had ~ 300 participants (my smart guess looking at the crowd size). Half marathon started after that @ 6:30 am with ~ 1500 runners. I started jogging at my treadmill speed, knowing I had to finish at least 10 kms which was just half the way. The marathon started at Kanteerava stadium and the route followed was ->Cubbon Park -> Dr. Ambedkar road -> Cubbon road -> Ulsoor Lake -> Old Madras Rd. -> Byapannahalli R.S. At the railway station we have to turn and take the same route back, the station being the halfway mark at 10.5 kms. I saw peoples overtaking me wondering if I was running too slow, but didn’t took the chance of going faster and tiring myself before I get to the halfway mark. It was after 1-hr and 5-mins I reached the halfway mark. The organizers threw a violet color fluid in my shirt, it was probably for marking me for completing the halfway mark. I took the turn to take my route back. I saw peoples on their way to reach the halfway mark; well this means I did better then few peoples I guess. Not that slow, mmmm..

After the halfway mark I felt my body getting drained of its energy. After a couple of more kms, I had to take a short break. After walking some distance, I started running again. But I felt the energy level dropping and my legs not that fast any more. I started taking short breaks, and the breaks started coming frequently. I saw most peoples near me taking short breaks too. I didn’t wanted to quit at this point, like many others whom I saw putting up a run after breaks to make sure that the job is not half done. It was 5 kms left and I started thinking, this is one thing I will never ever do again in my life, with legs starting to get frozen. But I still kept moving on running and taking small breaks in between. I saw the banners of kms left counting down with time, and my energy levels kept me just going close to the finish. As I approached close to the stadium, I went for the final push and just started running. Entered the stadium with peoples cheering at all of us who just came in. I thought, GOD it’s done. But after entering I was told I had to make another full circle at the track before entering the finish line. Well, some more push, and I was finally at the finish line. I saw one organizer noting down my chest number, yes # 1008. After 2 ½ hrs of grueling fight of body vs. mind, finally the mind triumphed.

I was given a water bottle and I directly headed towards the grass, lying down with tiredness and satisfaction. Within 5 mins all my tiredness was gone and I was filled with joy of completing the job half planned. I had done something I have never done before; I had beaten my expectations. Well it feels so happy.

I was among more then 500 odd peoples that finished the half marathon, many of them kid’s. Luckily I was not the last one to finish, as I saw some peoples finishing after me. Good to see good running culture among Bangaloreans.

Added afterwards:
Today I received my certificate of completion. I finished the 21 kms with timing of 2:32:08, ranked 326. The runner who finished first had timing of ~ 1:04 mins. So I took almost 2 ½ times of what he took. May be I should try to better my timings in the next marathon.