smiley moon

Yesterday (1st Dec 2008), we could witness a smiling moon. I wish I had a good camera to capture it. I was crippled with my 3X optical zoom camera. I had to switch on the additional 4X digital zoom to get a hazy image of moon. I just wished that I had a better camera and a tripod.

Venus and Jupiter have appeared side by side in the evening sky over the past week or so, but yesterday was the best night to see the "face" appear. I was told that this happens very occationally (once in 4 years). I called up a few friends so that they could watch it too. The kids were delighted to see this.





Because my hand shook, the moon laughed instead of a smile

Rajarajeshwarinagar - a pilgrimage

Rajarajeshwarinagar in Bangalore is more like a temple town. If anyone visits Rajareshwarinagar, they can check out a few temples


1. Rajarajeshwari temple - Something I myself didn't know until I read the wikipedia, is that the temple was built in the late 1960s. This temple has Jnanakshi Shri Rajarajeshwari as its deity, and is maintained by the Kailasa Ashrama Trust.
















2. Nimishamba temple - The Temple contains the shrines of Devi Nimishamba, Moukthikeswara (Isvara), Siddhi Vinayaka, Saraswathi and Lakshmi Narayana. Chandika Homa is performed everyday in a specially designed Yajna Shala.






3. Shanmuga temple A beautiful temple of shanmuga on top of a small hill. It is started by the sringeri mutt. The temple has a magnificent Gopuram with the six faces of lord subramanya.














4. Omkar hills - Omkar Hills is the tallest glorious and devotional spots in Bangalore with the avowed objective of propagating. The Ashrama has a Goshala, a Sanskrit Pathashala and arrangements for training in Vedagamas. A magnificient Tower Clock, bigger than the reputed Big Ben of London, with provision to bring out Shankanada and Omkaranada along with the striking of each hourly gong, has been installed on the Hill.
5. Shridhara Gudda

The Universal brothers

One of my good friends Rohini wrote a poem for me and my friend

The great poem--:-)
THE UNIVERSAL BROTHERS
Criminal looks, diehard Image
Sporting biceps thinner than matchsticks
Oh!Here they come to display their antics
One is surely Maharishi Narad
The other no better than him
Can you guess what they are competing for
Forcing their entry amidst girls
The first competition is blading
Second is a pretty disastrous one
To obtain the title of "Krishna paramatma"
Little do they know
They are two precious ge(r) ms
Presenting Junnu bhai and Nag bhai
The universal brothers of the world

The original post can be read at
http://rohini-scribble.blogspot.com/2007/12/universal-brothers.html

Don't throw your Plastic bag

Necessity is the mother of all innovation

15,000 hits

Today I had 15,000th hit on my blog. It took 6 months to reach from 10,000 (in april) to 15,000

Saakappa september

September 2008 was a terrible month for me. A series of things happened, which were not asked for

- I left the car keys inside and had to wait for 4 hours to get duplicate key from home.
- The car front wind shield broke as a monkey threw a coconut on it. To get it fixed, I had to spend Rs 3000 from my pocket inspite of claiming insurance.
- My cousin's son dropped my Iphone and the front glass pane got cracked. Apple does not support the broken glass for a 2G Iphone.
- The cell Iphone got locked and I am still unable to unlock it.
- The side mirror from my car fell of somewhere on the road and I have to cough up Rs 4500 to get it replaced.
- Some jerk carved his name on my car. I hate the name 'Manju'
- Traffic Police caught me at the traffic signal for a wrong reason.
- Had a severe sprain in my knee and it hurts even after 2 weeks
- The external 500 GB hard disk I bought just 2 months ago is not powering up

Experience at Indi Joe Restaurant

It was my colleagues Bharadwaj's birthday and we decided to go out for lunch to celebrate. After some discussion, we decided to go to Indi Joe Restaurant (from BJN group) in Airport road. We entered the place and were comfortably seated for a while before proceeding for the Buffet. Firstly, I saw a dead mosquito on the plates kept and a while later a moth flying around. When I pointed this to the person in charge, he quickly removed the plate. Then, after picking up the soup, we proceeded further to pick up the starters. I, being a vegetarian was looking for vegetarian stuff. At that point, I saw a dish which looked delicious but looked like a non-veg dish. I mentioned that to my friend, who pointed me to the menu card placed next to it which said 'veg kabab'. So, picked it up. As I was heading back to my seat, I heard a friend of mine who said that there board which said veg-shrimps. How could shrimp be classified as veg? Without giving much thought to it, I proceeded back to my seat and started eating. I tasted the 'veg kabab' and didn't like it and kept it aside. At that point, a friend noticed that the 'veg kabab' we were eating had some meat in that. Then quickly a couple of others noticed it too. That was too much for my veggie friends. This being the dussera season, many of my colleages had given up non-veg food. The host himself was a staunch vegetarian. He doesn't even taste egg. He was very upset as he too had tasted a portion of the same dish. We called the people in charge and told them about what had happened. By now, they had even removed the board next to the dish which said 'veg kabab'. They had realized their blunder.
We decided to walk out of the place. When the manager of the place came to us and apologized for their mistake. But by now all of has had decided not to stay back. But the manager insisted that he stay back and accept their hospitality. He said that he would serve us 'A la carte'. He pleaded us to give him a chance to make up for their mistake. I think that was the least he could do for us. Our lunch which was taken care by the hotel.
What was different about this restaurant and others was that these people were polite enough to accept their mistake and make up for it. Many other restaurants would have probably just apologized and would have probably let us walk out. I have been to many restaurants where they hardly care for your feelings and their negative publicity. I really liked the manager's attitude who assigned a person to take care of our table to see that nothing else went wrong. They even gave a complementary birthday cake.
These small gestures from the hotel staff seemed to calm down the birthday boy a little, who could not eat anything after the incident. He was good enough not to spoil the occasion for others even thought he felt really bad about the whole incident.
But still this was a big act of negligence from such a big group like BJN.

Bel-Beligge Belegere

Fed up of the bak-bak by the RJ's, these days I have reduced listening to the private radio channels. Switch to the radio channels sponsored by VividBharati's akashvani and you will listen to the sweet-calm voice of the RJs. There are no SMS contests, no stupid quizzes, no idiotic jokes, but simple, to the subject compering. Many a times, the RJs give out good messages early in the morning which makes you think.
While listening to FM 101.3, I listened to the program called 'Bel-Beligge Belegere'. It is a program hosted by a noted writer and journalist Mr. Ravi Belagere.
This program is at 8.00 am every morning. He picks up day to day life examples and gives out food for thought. He talks about life, relationships, small happiness in life in a very simple way that everyone listening to him goes with the flow. If we follow many of the suggestion that he gives, which are very very simple and easy, we can avoid a lot of small fights in life.
Today he was talking about getting complements from the near and dear ones. These were things we knew but never gave much importance. He was mentioning that when we get compliments from the people close to us, it makes a lot more impact than the ones whom we don't know. If we start appreciating the small things in life (like appreciating the wife on her cooking or giving mom or dad a small compliment on the something they did at home), it motivates them to continue the good work.
If you read this article, then try to listen to this program sometime

Got Iphone

I had been trying to get an iPhone for the last 3 months. I tried buying at Apple stores and AT&T stores in the US, but none of them had any stock of the iPhone. Now finally, I procured one. I had been debating with my cousins who were biased by reading some blogs which said why iPhone was a bad buy. As per different blogs, iPhone features were far less when compared to other phones and they talked about the various drawbacks of iPhone. But for me iPhone is all about usability. No other phone can that I have seen so far can beat the user interface of an iPhone. Just use it to feel the difference. I can get scores of applications for iphone on the web too.
I am still enjoying playing with my new toy.

After the Bangalore bomb blast

On the day when Bangalore Blasts happened, I left office by 5.00 pm. I was expecting that the roads would be crowded and it would take me 2-3 hours to reach home. But to my surprise, the roads were all empty. There are lots of IT companies around Koramangala, Airport road, Bannerghatta road etc. I was thinking that people will panic and go rush home causing traffic jams. But people thought that staying in office was safer (just like me) and hence roads were very clear. As I entered the Madivala where the bomb blast had happened, I saw a huge crowd causing traffic jam. The reason was that there a few TV channels covering the news and people were interested in coming on the TV. People didn't care about the drizzle as well. I reached home very quickly.

On monday morning, bangalore is back to business. We started with Traffic jams. Bombs and other threats does not scare people. Life must go on and so does work. Leaving the bomb threats for police to solve, people are getting back to their busy normal schedule. No one has time. People once said the same about Bombay - that no one has time and the city is always on the move. Bombay was back in business the next day after the serial bomb blasts in train stations. Now it is the same about Bangalore. Time is money. And people don't have time. You can't give the little time you have to think about these scares.

Hope we can leave all the threats behind. Hope peace returns to Bangalore soon

who says cell phone is not harmful

Watch the video on how Pop corn is made usign cell phone signals

http://www.koreus.com/video/telephone-portable-mais-popcorn.html

This dude can dance

watch the entire video - it is awesome
It is an unbelievable dance performance



I think he Can Dance - Watch more free videos

http://www.break.com/index/i-think-he-can-dance.html

piclens add on for firefox 3

Full-Screen, 3D -- PicLens transforms your browser into a visually stunning experience for finding and viewing online photos and videos. Their "3D Wall" lets you effortlessly search and zoom your way around thousands of images, videos, news feeds, sports feeds, and more. See the demo at http://piclens.com/demo

Download it from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5579

Honda Announces FCX Clarity - hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles

With crude oil crossing $130 a barrel, everyone is thinking of alternate fuel. Though hybrid cars are becoming popular, people need more fuel efficient vehicles. Honda Announced FCX Clarity which is a hydrogen-powered fuel cell car. Honda claims that it gives three times the mileage of a petrol car or twice as much as hybrid car.
Honda FCX Clarity emits only water as a by-product. So, they claim that there is no global warming not pollution. These cars will take a long time to become commercially viable as there are no petrol bunks which fill hydrogen. It will take atleast 3-4 years when we will see a few of them on road. Again the car has to be rightly priced, if not, people will never buy it.

There is a nice article about the FCX clarity launch on http://www.autoindustry.co.uk/news/16-06-08
As per this article, they want to introduce the vehicle in the US in the following way

-Step 1 -- Based on respondents' residential location, the list of potential customers has been narrowed to approximately 500 people living in very close proximity to publicly-accessible hydrogen fueling stations, including planned or existing stations in Santa Monica, Torrance and Irvine.

-Step 2 -- Customers meeting the geographical criteria will receive an e-mail prompting them to take a customer selection survey if they are serious about wanting to lease an FCX Clarity.

-Step 3 - The survey will qualify customers based on driving patterns, vehicle needs, vehicle storage and financial criteria.

-Step 4 - Customers qualify for the next steps, including an interview with American Honda.

I think till Clarity becomes commercially available, Toyota Prius will dominate the US market

Have you downloaded firefox3 yet

Firefox 3 is out there for download. You can download it from
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/?p=downloadday

Firefox is trying to set a Guiness record by seting the record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours.
I am waiting to find the result myself

It is an just amazing how Firefox broke the monopoly over Microsoft's Internet Explorer. In 2004 MSIE had 95% market share and in 4 years Firefox has eaten 18.5% of it.

How Subprime mortgages work

http://docs.google.com/TeamPresent?docid=ddp4zq7n_0cdjsr4fn&skipauth=true&pli=1#0

weekend adventure

I landed in Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania state last week. This is a beautiful place. I am stationed at a small town with lots of greenery around. I was told that this place was all white few weeks ago due to lots of snow.
Last week I decided to go to Niagara falls. Niagara falls is around 4.5 hours drive from where I stay. I am still not very comfortable driving around in the US and was wondering how I would go. My friend suraj who was in NJ told me that he would also go with me to Niagara. So, I started towards NJ with my manager in my rented car. I too drove for some time to get more confidence. It wasn't all that difficult driving in the freeway. Its the city driving that is more scary for me.

My photo on Deccan herald

.

http://deccanheraldepaper.com//svww_zoom.php?Artname=pdf/2008/05/13/20080513t_004100003&ileft=612&itop=781&zoomRatio=130&AN=20080513t_004100003&path=0

Click on the image to see the the same photo

Me and my nephew Samarth are in today's deccan herald paper

Things to carry for a YHA himalayan trek

Avoid carrying too much weight

Mandatory
Good pair of trekking shoe
Sweater
Jacket
monkey cap
Regular cap (you can't always wear a monkey cap. Sometimes it gets really warm during the

day)
Gloves (preferably leather, so that it doesn't get wet when you fall on the snow and put

your hands on the ground)
few pairs of thick socks
toilet paper/tissue papers - (mornings will be cold and you won't be able to touch water)
torch
hawai chappal
toothbrush
paste (small)
soap (small)
water bottles (preferably two 1ltr bottles)
sun screen lotion
sun glasses
rain coat (thin plastic ones)
Under garments
T shirts
Track pants (preferably water proof)
thin towel
Tumbler
Plate
spoon/fork
Tiffin box
Good rucksack
a few plastic covers (in case you need to put a few wet clothes)
some important medicines
thick Needle and thread (in case the bag gets torn)


optional
camera (extra film roles/memory card/battery)
cell phone (you generally get signal only up to base camp and sometimes higher up in the mountains)
very light weight radio
energy drinks (like glucose/electrol)
other eatables
paper/pen (in case you need to take notes)
air pillow
thermals (if you have)
shaving kit
water purifying tablets


sleeping bags, inners and blankets are given by YHA

Going green

Every year, Employees of Sun Microsystems dedicate a week for Global volunteering program. India Engineering Center (IEC) is also very active during this week. One of the events as a part of the Volunteer program, was to clean up the plastic waste at 'Sangama', a popular picnic spot at the intersection of rivers kaveri and Arkavati. Close by is a 'MekedaaTu', another famous getaway from Bangalore. Lot of tourists visit these places every year and leave a lot of plastic waste. Employees of Sun along with volunteers from 'Clean and Green' go on a cleaning program along the banks of river kaveri. Last year (2007), we all had been to Muttatthi and this year they had chosen 'Sangama'. Along with my family (mom, wife, sister and nephew) I joined the team of volunteers at Sangama. The place was a big mess with plastic covers, bottles, gutka packets etc. A group of 60 volunteers worked for 3 hours in the scorching heat to collect 220 KG of plastic waste. The plastic waste was handed to a plastic company in Kanakpura who use it for laying tar for road.
Last year we had collected 303 kgs of plastic at muttatti. You can read about it on April 14 2007 - Mega Acitivity @ Muttathi

The same day evening, I had to attend a wedding reception. I met a few friends at the wedding and told them about the clean and green activity and they appreciated our effort. In most of the South Indian weddings, the guests are given 'Tamboola' (coconut and beetle leaves) as a tradition. It is believed that the guests who attend the wedding should not be sent empty handed and hence there is a tradition of giving tamboola. The practice is to give the tamboola in a plastic cover. My friend told me that in the wedding, they had decided not to use plastic and hence they gave the tamboola in a paper bag, with a very nice note on it. The note requested people to reduce the usage of plastic. click on the image to read the note.
Read A letter to Reliance Industries

Google movies

Here is another interesting service from Google. Want to know, which movie is being showed in which theater at what time?

Just enter your city name. It lists everything.

http://www.google.co.in/movies

10,000 hits

Today, my blog completed 10,000 hits.

Intersting questions

1. What programming language is GOOGLE developed in?
2. What is the expansion of YAHOO?
3. What is the expansion of ADIDAS?
4. Expansion of Star as in Star TV Network?
5. What is expansion of "ICICI?"
6. What does "baker's dozen" signify?
7. The 1984-85 season. 2nd ODI between India and Pakistan at Sialkot - India 210/3 with
Vengsarkar 94*. Match abandoned. Why?
8. Who is the only man to have written the National Anthems for two different countries?
9. >From what four word expression does the word `goodbye` derive?
10. How was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu better known?
11. Name the only other country to have got independence on Aug 15th?
12. Why was James Bond Associated with the Number 007?
13. Who faced the first ball in the first ever One day match?
14. Which cricketer played for South Africa before it was banned from international
cricket and later represented Zimbabwe ?
15. The faces of which four Presidents are carved at Mt.Rushmore?
16. Which is the only country that is surrounded from all sides by only one country
(other than Vatican )?
17. Which is the only sport which is not allowed to play left handed?











Answers

1. Google is written in Asynchronous java-script and XML, or its acronym Ajax.
2. Yet Another Hierarchy of Officious Oracle
3. ADIDAS- All Day I Dream About Sports
4. Satellite Television Asian Region
5. Industrial credit and Investments Corporation of India
6. A baker’s dozen consists of 13 items - 1 more than the items in a normal dozen
7. That match was abandoned after ppl heard the news of indira gandhi being killed.
8. Rabindranath Tagore who wrote national anthem for two different countries one is our ’s National anthem and another one is for Bangladesh-(Amar Sonar Bangla)
9. Goodbye comes from the ex-pression: ‘god be with you’.
10. Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu is none other Mother Teresa.
11. South Korea.
12. Because 007 is the ISD code for Russia (or the USSR, as it was known during the cold war)
13. Geoffrey Boycott
14. John Traicos
15. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln
16. Lesotho surrounded from all sides by South Africa.
17. Polo.

Accident movie review

I got this opportunity to watch the Kannada movie Accident starring Ramesh Aravind. Lovedale foundation - an organization which is running an orphanage, recently had a fund raising event. The event was screening of the movie 'Accident' at PVR Cinemas, Bangalore. Actor Ramesh who is one of the supporters of the organization, was present at the event. I took my family to watch the movie, the proceeds of which were given to Lovedale Foundation. There was a small ceremony before the movie began, where dignitaries like Actor Ramesh and the famous singer Kasturi Shankar spoke a few words. I took this opportunity to speak to these people and took their autograph and a few photographs with them.

The movie is Good - worth watching. The movie is about how Ramesh (who is also the director of the movie) goes about unearthing the mystery behind his wife's car accident. The movie is well paced and keeps unfolding the mysteries as the movie progresses. Ramesh has acted well. The person who in my view stole the limelight was the villain of the movie - the health minister. His dialogue delivery is very good with some rusty, blunt, local dialect of kannada.
Apart from these two actors, no one has any significant role. Actress Rekha has done her part well. Pooja Gandhi doesn't have much role to play and she has to improve on her acting skills. Ramesh should have extracted better acting performances from others in the movie.
Except for a couple of songs the music is just average.
Overall, a good job by ramesh and his team.

zyaada Akbar or Jodha Akbar.

The movie is all about how Jodha (Aishwarya) tortured Akbar (Hritik roshan) and avoided going to bed with him. The director takes over three and half hours to tell us how Akbar started his family life.
The movie should have been rightfully named zyaada Akbar, as it is a long movie. Sharukh Khan who was hosting the filmfare awards this year, asked

Q. what is the similarity between Deepika Padukone and Jodha Akbar?
A. Both are good, but a little long :)

Well, I guess he was just being a little nice on the stage when saying that the movie was good.

Hritik Roshan was a total misfit for the role. I think that the role deserved someone more commanding. No justice was done to the role of the great emperor Akbar. The seriousness was missing from the movie. Aishwarya is aging and that is very clear from the movie. She is also putting on weight and it is very evident from the second half of the movie (Abhishek Bachhan Effect). The story should have been more crisp. The movie moves at a very slow pace and at places very dragging.

I just hope that the director has not skewed with history much. I am not an expert on history, but at places I was forced to think if what was happening on the screen was true. - Like Jodha going to the battle field to witness the fight between Akbar and his brother in law ( I forget his name). Even the sword fight between Akbar and Jodha look very unrealistic.

Except for one song, there is not much to expect from the music.

I just feel that I wasted a few hours watching the movie.

how to remove dents on car with dry ice

Ponting singing 'Maa' after the loss

Some creative dude has re-written 'Maa' song from Taare Zameen Par to show Ponting's emotions. Indians have proved that Australians are no more the world champions.

Watch the video

why blame IT for traffic

Today, being Shivarathri, most of the Central Govt,State Govt offices along with a few other private offices are closed. Even Education institutes are closed. So, the working people in Bangalore today include the IT professionals and employees of other private firms. Today the traffic during the peak hour was minimal. It was lesser than the day when we had Auto strike in Bangalore.
People blame the IT industry which employs a lot of people to cause traffic jam. But thats not true. As seen today, the traffic was nearly 1/3rd of what it is every day. The only place where I saw traffic today was the Koramangala Inner ring where there are atleast 2 dozen software companies. In other places, traffic was very smooth. What I am trying to say is that the bulk of the traffic comes from Non-IT companies.

Beggars make Rs 500 a day in Bangalore

This morning, I read (In Indian Express) that beggars earn(??) Rs 500 a day in a city like Bangalore. Beggars in Bangalore make the highest money in India. Rs. 500 a day, sums up to Rs 15,000 a month and that is a huge Rs. 1.8 lakhs (tax free) a year.

I read another article which said that beggars in mumbai earn as much as Rs 180 crore annually.
Read the article on http://www.indianexpress.com/story/9154.html

Another article on rediff says that 1 out of 5 Indians can't spend Rs 12 a day!
Read more : http://in.rediff.com/news/2008/mar/10poor.htm

India is truly a land of diversity

Kirchoff's law

I have been receiving this mail for quite a few years. I thought of posting it on my blog as well.

Click on the image to enlarge

Save the Tiger

Less than 1500 tigers are left in india now and at the current rate of deforestation and poaching the day is not too far when the beautiful cat and all other wildlife will be extinct.
Please add your name and email to the "SAVE THE TIGER" Campaign started by NDTV-Sanctuary and do your bit for the tiger and the forests of india.
The tiger needs all the support it can get..Please forward it to all your friends for support.

Here's the link to support the campaign.
http://sanctuaryasia.com/save_the_tiger_campaign.php


For more details

http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/savetiger/sthome.aspx

Buying mobile phone in Bangalore

Buying a mobile in Bangalore

In the last one week, I went out with friends and family to buy 2 different handsets. This is what I realized ...
The major players selling mobiles in Bangalore are Nokia priority dealer, ezone, Univercell, sangeetha, Mobile store etc. The guys at ezone are careless. They just don't pay attention to customers. I didn't like their attitude. I have had such expereince in two different ezone stores in Bangalore. On the contrary, you get very good experience at Univercell. Each customer is taken to a separate table, where a a reperesentative displays all the mobile phones from all the companies, and, explains and compares the features of each phone. If you are trying to decide on which model to buy, you can go to Univercell and they will help you identify the phone that fits your budget.

There are some places where all these different stores are located walkable distance from each other. So, what I did was to go to each of these shops and enquire the price of a particular model. What I did to get the best deal was get the quote from one guy, then go to the next one and say that the first guy was offering the same handset at Rs 100 or 200 less. Then this guy would quote the best deal he can offer. Take this price and go the third guy and get a further discount. What I realized was, by doing this, the price of a basic phone (under Rs 2500), the price could be reduced by Rs 200 and for a phone in the range of Rs 6000 to Rs. 10,000, the price could be brought down by Rs 400 - Rs. 500. One of the handset, we bought was Nokia 6300, which was quoted at Rs 7800 in the first shop, was finally purchased at Rs 7450.
Just 2 days after buying the phone, out of curiosity, I walked in to a Subhiksha store and en quire the prices. Subhiksha is a chain of retail stores, which advertises on TV that they give the best deal in the market. When I started enquiring the prices of the phones I had purchased, I realized that the price these guys quoted were less than the best deal that the other stores could offer (and that too without bargaining). The price of the basic phone was less by Rs 50/- and higher models had bigger discount. Nokia 6300 was costing Rs 7350/- which was Rs 100 less than the best deal we could get in the market (for which we had spent 2.5 hours for running from store to store for comparing and bargaining the rates).

From Subhiksha website
----
Call "60607777" for enquiries in Delhi & NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Baroda, Ludiana, Surrat, Jullundur Patlala, Ambala, Merut and many other towns.
----
Atleast till now, I feel that Subhiksha gives the best deal in Bangalore for buying a mobile. Checkout their price before you buy your handset. Use the price quoted by Subhiksha to get further discounts at the stores mentioned above.

Gufa restaurant

On the eve of Valentine's, I was wondering, where I should take my wife out. Then one of my friends told me about Gufa in Jayanagar, Bangalore. I decided to try it out.
I called them up and reserved the table. They were not ready to hold the table beyond 7.45 p.m. So I reserved it for that time and arrived at the place in time. I was wondering who would go for dinner that early, but I later realized that the hotel was full by 8.30pm and the reason - It was an awesome place.
Gufa means cave and that the is the concept for this restaurant. The interiors looks like a cave. The place is softly lit and gives you an impression that you have come to a different era. The ceiling is low and the AC ducts in the ceiling also gels with the theme. The people who serve the food are dressed like 'Shikari Shambu' (people who read Tinkle know him - for others, he they are dressed like forest officers). There are people around who look like (are dressed like) cavemen. If you observe the walls closely you will notice some creatures like bats, snakes etc (ofcourse not real) on the walls. You will also see the roots of some trees. Occasionally, you will hear some strange animal noise in the background. It is just like being in a jungle.
We were assigned a table in one of the corners, where there was a single beam of soft light on the table. The food is also pretty good, but a little expensive.
A meal for 2 comprising of one drink, followed by 2 starters, main course and the dessert costs close to Rs 1000 (as of 2008). Non-veg might be a little more expensive. But it is worth going there once in a while for celebrating some special occasion like birthday, anniversary etc.
I tried to search for their phone number on the web and was unable to find it. So, I called Just Dial and got their number (call just dial at 080-23333333 to get any phone number)

Guffa Restaurant,
Jaynagar 3rd Block,
Bangalore
Ph: 080 - 41808777

Sachin's Records!!

Just have look at the records held by Sachin Tendulkar. No wonder why British Prime Minister is suggesting him for the honor of Sir ........
Records Held by Sachin Tendulkar
1. Highest Run scorer in the ODI
2. Most number of hundreds in the ODI 41
3. Most number of nineties in the ODI
4. Most number of man of the matches(56) in the ODI's
5. Most number of man of the series(14) in ODI's
6. Best average for man of the matches in ODI's
7. First Cricketer to pass 10000 run in the ODI
8. First Cricketer to pass 15000 run in the ODI
9. He is the highest run scorer in the world cup (1,796 at an average of 59.87 as on 20 March 2007)
10. Most number of the man of the matches in the world cup
11. Most number of runs 1996 world cup 523 runs in the 1996 Cricket World Cup at an average of 87.16
12. Most number of runs in the 2003 world cup 673 runs in 2003 Cricket World Cup, highest by any player in a single Cricket World Cup
13. He was Player of the World Cup Tournament in the 2003 Cricket World Cup.
14. Most number of Fifties in ODI's 87
15. Appeared in Most Number of ODI's 407
16. He is the only player to be in top 10 ICC ranking for 10 years.
17. Most number of 100's in test's 39
18. He is one of the three batsmen to surpass 11,000 runs in Test cricket, and the first Indian to do so
19. He is thus far the only cricketer to receive the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, India's highest sporting honor
20. In 2003, Wisden rated Tendulkar as d No. 1 and Richards at No. 2 in all time Greatest ODI player
21. In 2002, Wisden rated him as the second greatest Test batsman after Sir Donald Bradman.
22. he was involved in unbroken 664-run partnership in a Harris Shield game in 1988 with friend and team mate Vinod Kambli,
23. Tendulkar is the only player to score a century in all three of his Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy and Irani Trophy debuts
24. In 1992, at the age of 19, Tendulkar became the first overseas born player to represent Yorkshire
25. Tendulkar has been granted the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna Award , Padma Shri and Padma Vibhusan by Indian government. He is the only Indian cricketer to get all of them.
26. Tendulkar has scored over 1000 runs in a calendar year in ODI's 7 times
27. Tendulkar has scored 1894 runs in calendar year in ODI's most by any batsman
28. He is the highest earning cricketer in the world
29. He has the least percentage of the man of the matches awards won when team looses a match. Out of his 56 man of the match awards only 5 times India has lost.
30. Tendulkar most number man of match awards(10) against Australia
31. In August of 2003, Sachin Tendulkar was voted as the "Greatest Sportsman" of the country in the sport personalities category in the Best of India poll conducted by Zee News.
32. In November 2006, Time magazine named Tendulkar as one of the Asian Heroes.
33. In December 2006, he was named "Sports person of the Year
34. The current India Poised campaign run by The Times of India has nominated him as the Face of New India next to the likes of Amartya Sen and Mahatma Gandhi among others.
35. Tendulkar was the first batsman in history to score over 50 centuries in international cricket
36. Tendulkar was the first batsman in history to score over 75 centuries in international cricket:79 centuries
37. Has the most overall runs in cricket, (ODIs+Tests+Twenty20s), as of 30 June 2007 he had accumulated almost 26,000 runs overall.
38. Is second on the most number of runs in test cricket just after Brian Lara
39. Sachin Tendulkar with Sourav Ganguly hold the world record for the maximum number of runs scored by the opening partnership. They have put together 6,271 runs in 128 matches
40. The 20 century partnerships for opening pair with Sourav Ganguly is a world record
41. Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid hold the world record for the highest partnership in ODI matches when they scored 331 runs against New Zealand in 1999
42. Sachin Tendulkar has been involved in six 200 run partnerships in ODI matches - a record that he shares with Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid
43. Most Centuries in a calendar year: 9 ODI centuries in 1998
44. Only player to have over 100 innings of 50+ runs (41 Centuries and 87 Fifties)(as of 18th Nov, 2007)
45. the only player ever to cross the 13,000-14,000 and 15,000 run marks IN ODI.
46. Highest individual score among Indian batsmen (186* against New Zealand at Hyderabad in 1999).
47. The score of 186* is listed the fifth highest score recorded in ODI matches
48. Tendulkar has scored over 1000 ODI runs against all major Cricketing nations.
49. Sachin was the fastest to reach 10,000 runs taking 259 innings and has the highest batting average among batsmen with over 10,000 ODI runs
50. Most number of Stadium Appearances: 90 different Grounds
51. Consecutive ODI Appearances: 185
52. On his debut, Sachin Tendulkar was the second youngest debutant in the world
53. When Tendulkar scored his maiden century in 1990, he was the second youngest to score a century
54. Tendulkar's record of five test centuries before he turned 20 is a current world record
55. Tendulkar holds the current record (217 against NZ in 1999/00 Season) for the highest score in Test cricket by an Indian when captaining the side
56. Tendulkar has scored centuries against all test playing nations.[7] He was the third batman to achieve the distinction after Steve Waugh and Gary Kirsten
57. Tendulkar has 4 seasons in test cricket with 1000 or more runs - 2002 (1392 runs), 1999 (1088 runs), 2001 (1003 runs) and 1997 (1000 runs).[6] Gavaskar is the only other Indian with four seasons of 1000+ runs
58. He is second most number of seasons with over 1000 runs in world.
59. On 3 January 2007 Sachin Tendulkar (5751) edged past Brian Lara's (5736) world record of runs scored in Tests away from home
60. Tendulkar and Brian Lara are the fastest to score 10,000 runs in Test cricket history. Both of them achieved this in 195 innings
61. Second Indian after Sunil Gavaskar to make over 10,000 runs in Test matches
62. Became the first Indian to surpass the 11,000 Test run mark and the third International player behind Allan Border and Brian Lara.
63. Tendulkar is fourth on the list of players with most Test caps. Steve Waugh (168 Tests), Allan Border (158 Tests), Shane Warne (145 Tests) have appeared in more games than Tendulkar
64. Tendulkar has played the most number of Test Matches(144) for India (Kapil Dev is second with 131 Test appearances).
65. First to 25,000 international runs
66. Tendulkar's 25,016 runs in international cricket include 14,537 runs in ODI's, 10,469 Tests runs and 10 runs in the lone Twenty20 that India has played.
67. On December 10, 2005, Tendulkar made his 35th century in Tests at Delhi against Sri Lanka. He surpassed Sunil Gavaskar's record of 34 centuries to become the man with the most number of hundreds in Test cricket.
68. Tendulkar is the only player who has 150 wkts and more than 15000 runs in ODI
69. Tendulkar is the only player who has 40 wkts and more than 11000 runs in Tests
70. Only batsman to have 100 hundreds in the first class cricket

Anarthaa Shashthra

Click on image to enlarge

Shivaji - The Boss or The crap

Seriously, how did Rajani Kant even think of acting in such a badly directed movie. I think it is just a movie for Rajani fans and nothing else. Screen play is pathetic. This is the costliest Indian movie made till date and I wonder how the producer decide to put his money on a film which has no substance. The director has tried to bring a good message about fighting corruption (by targeting those having black money), but the narration is extremely poor.
I had to tickle myself to laugh at the comedy scenes. It is better that I don't talk about the sequences involving Rajani proposing to the heroin and trying to convince her parents for the wedding. I would expect Rajani to come out with movies with class. People have a lot of expectation from his movies. Also, I am just wondering if the heroin had any role to play in the whole movie.
After all the hype that the movie got, I am out of words to say how disappointed I am after watching the movie.
My advice to those who are planning to watch the movie is - "Leave your brain behind before watching the movie"

Blood Bath in the Stock Market

Long back, I read in a novel, "If your cobbler is talking about the stock market, then it is the time for you to get out the market". That was the case in the recent past. Everyone (housewives, small traders, businessmen, salaried etc) were all pumping in money to get a chunk of Reliance Power IPO. People borrowed money to get in to the IPO. 3 days after the IPO closed, there was a blood bath in the Indian stock market. Market has lost more than 30% in the last 10 days.
There is an interesting article on www.moneycontrol.com which talks about people forgetting the fundamentals. People are not studying the market before investing money. There is a lot of liquidity in the market and people want to stay put. They read all the success stories and go after making quick money. The retail investors have lost a lot of money now.

Udayan Mukherjee of money control writes

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The thing about life is that one makes mistakes. Many mistakes were made in the second half of 2007 and those sins have to be washed away by blood, such is the way of financial markets. Some participants will go down under and never be able to get back to the market again but most will survive. The pain will linger for many months, maybe years but lessons have to be learnt. Every such debacle has lessons for us and the sooner we forget them the more we suffer.

The first lesson is not to let stock price performance become the sole reason for buying, a mistake which was made in abundance in the last 3 months. What couldn't be explained by fundamentals was credited to liquidity. The present lost all relevance as people chose to focus on the distant future, perhaps simply because the present could never justify those ticker prices; only a hazy dream of the future could. Traders and investors had no time for fundamental analysts, in many cases they were labelled "cribbing fools". Chartists became the most celebrated tribe on the street as only they could see and predict the one way run to glory for many of the hot stocks even as fundamental watchers cringed at valuations....till the music stopped. Don't get me wrong, charts do work in trending markets but once stock prices veer away completely from fundamental value, people need to get careful. But they never are. Now that the blinkers are off, people should ask themselves why stocks like RNRL, Ispat, RPL, Essar oil and Nagarjuna fertilisers have lost 50-70% of their value. It is simply because their stock prices had snapped all connection with underlying business fundamentals, earnings and value. Their stock prices became the only reasons for buying them which works for a while but not forever.

The other big lesson, one which should have been driven in earlier in May 2006, is the danger of overextending oneself in the futures market. The lure of stock futures is easy to understand. Put in some margin, take a big exposure on a fast moving stock, make a killing when prices shoot up. Repeat exercise. Just that people forgot that prices may also come down and at a pace which noone can even imagine, maybe their friendly stockbrokers forgot to tell them that part of the story. The result : unbridled speculation that ran into lakhs of crores, excesses that we are paying for today. Even this fall will not cure investors of their love for futures speculation but if at least some amount of caution is injected it would have been a worthwhile learning. Futures are not toys for amateurs, they are time bombs in the hands of inexpert and inexperienced traders, it's only a matter of when the fuse runs out.

The other learning which I hope will play out in the future, as it has in the past, is that it pays to be brave in times of panic such as these. If I was allowed to invest myself , which I am not, I would have no hesitation in deploying serious money into the market today, knowing fully well that prices may fall more tomorrow. And I would be standing there tomorrow to buy more of the same, till my money ran out. India is going to be a terrific stock market story for many years to come, even an intermediate bearish patch cannot shake that conviction of mine. At best, one will have to wait a bit for the returns to follow. That's alright. You are happy to put money in a bank FD and then wait for one full year to collect that measly 8%, aren't you? Then why does the stock market need to give you 20% every month? In the last one year, I haven't seen so many good stocks trade at such mouth watering levels. Forget trading, avoid the duds which were fuelled up by operators, just go out and buy those bluechips. They will deliver, even if there is a global market meltdown for a while, and if you are a bit patient you will be rewarded. But do remember January 2008, as history will repeat itself again in the future. Just that our memories tend to be too short and our greed too much.

Udayan Mukherjee

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(source - www.moneycontrol.com )

Nikhil turns one

Time flies, Nikhil is already one year old. We had a small party at home to celebrate his birthday. After the birthday, I took a big cake to a school for special children. I met the principal of the school and told her that I want to share the cake with the kids. The principal of the school was very excited to see the dog shaped cake and exclaimed 'Oh, you have got Jimmy. The kids are going to love this'. I had to leave for my office immediately. I gave a call to the to principal of the school in the evening. She sounded very excited. She told me that the kids were thrilled to see the cake. They all sang 'Happy birthday' to Nikhil and enjoyed the cake. I was very happy to hear this. I wished, that I could have been present in person to enjoy the moment with the little ones. This was the most satisfying way of celebrating Nikhil's birthday.

Tare Zameen Par

I Watched Taare Zameen Par (TZP) last week and trust me, it is one of the best movies I have seen in the recent past. The concept,narration, direction are all excellent.
The movie highlights the problem of dyslexia, one thing that many people don't care about, or in many cases, people don't know about it. Atleast in India, after seeing this movie, I guess many people will be aware of it, if not act take action.
I have known children with this problem. There is an immense pressure from parents and peers to perform well at academics. Little do they care or realize that all kids cannot scale up to all the challenges. I am told that in the western countries, the schools/parents identify dyslexia at an early and put the kids through a different learning process. In India, off late, a few schools have started this, but this trend has to catch up.
This movie is a real eye opener. Amir khan has done and excellent work in bringing out the good talent in Darsheel Safari (Ishaan Awasti in the movie). Unlike other movies of Amir Khan, this movie is not 'Hero centric', but 'concept centric'. The songs are very good. I am not going to discuss the movie here. If you are reading this blog and haven't still seen the movie, then it is time to do it. It is a must watch movie

The Great Sir Edmund Hillary Dead

May his rest in peace.


What an achievement by these two - Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay.
I was reading this article on espn site which talks a lot about his life. I didn't know before reading this article that he had done a lot for Nepal.







Read the article at http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=3190797
It is quite an interesting read

Tata's Rs 1-lakh car - the Nano

So the much waited Tata's Rs 1-lakh car - the Nano is here. There were a lot of people questioning if Tata's could stick to their word of getting a car at such a low cost. Yes, they have proved it again that they can revolutionize this industry.
Thinking about this car, so many thoughts run through the mind - both positives and negatives.



Positives

This is definitely a boon to the middle class for whom affording a car is a dream of their lifetime. Thinking about the dust and heat that is present in our cities, this car is a big relief.
As the families grow and get little ones in to their family, people have to start thinking about getting 4 wheels. It is definitely not safe driving in India on a 2-wheeler. It is a scary picture when I see women sitting on 2-wheelers, balancing on single side of a 2-wheeler with a kid in her arm, where the kid is getting squeezed between the two parents. Sometimes, in bigger families, the elder kid is fighting for his space on the petrol tanks of the motor cycle when the driver is struggling to balance the vehicle. At times I see 3 kids and two adults on a single 2-wheeler. I think it is time for these people to upgrade to a small family car.
Rains are another nightmare times when it is very difficult to travel on 2 wheelers. Public transports are never reliable in such conditions.

Nano Taxi

Today, an auto rickshaw costs around 1 lakh to purchase. With the introduction of Nano, I think a lot of auto drivers will probably think of buying a Nano and using it as a taxi. I am sure, some smart company will quickly come out with an LPG kit for Nano, which can lower the cost of running. Given a choice I would prefer traveling by a Nano than an auto rickshaw. But for that the price of traveling by a a Nano-taxi should be comparable to traveling by a rickshaw

Negatives

Well, without having seen the car personally I cannot comment anything negative about the car. Ofcourse, one cannot expect too much for 1 lakh. The car doesn't come with most of the features (rather - no features). As they say, 'you pay peanuts, you get monkeys'. I wanted to bring out my thought on the implications that this car might bring on our infrastructure. In cities like Bangalore, people are already struggling with the terrible infrastructure. Bangalore has one of the highest vehicle density in the country. This city already boasts of the highest number of 2-wheelers in the city. The roads are all cramped. This car is just going to add to our agonies further. There are days when people take over 2 hours to reach their home after work, and in 2 years if there are a lot of cars on road, we can only think of reaching home the next day morning.
Today there is an auto rickshaw strike in Bangalore. It was a pleasure driving to office as there were no auto rickshaws on the road. I didn't have to use breaks much and I didn't have to change gears often. I think rickshaws constitute anywhere between 5-10% of vehicles on Bangalore roads. After removing more than a lakh of autos from the streets, the roads had decent traffic. Now imagine if around a couple of lakhs Nano's got added to our streets - "God help us please - are you listening". A few months back I read in News Papers that someone was making a few under passes in Bangalore in 3 day's time. I wonder when that project will see the light of the day. I hope it is time for the Govt to seriously has to start thinking about these kinds of projects.
I am not even going to talk about the fuel consumption which will add a burden on our reserves, nor am I going to talk about the heat and noise emitted by these cars.

Pricing

1-lakh is just the dealer price and one has to shell out atleast another Rs 25,000 to drive a car home. If one decides to add a few accessories like seat covers, better tires, AC,etc, then the car price will come close to 1.5 lakhs, which is still a reasonable.
If one can make a down payment of Rs 25,000 and take a loan for the rest of the moeny, then they can have a car for an EMI of around Rs 2000 p.m.

Happy Driving ...