There are 3-4 different aiports to enter Madhya Praesh - Indore, Nagpur, Bhopal or Gwalior. Depending on what you want to cover, you can chose the appropriate airport.
I had made 2 plans.
Plan A
night Indore (Dont miss street food)
omkareshwar temple - day trip night halt indore
Ujjain and back to Indore
train to Jabalpur
Kanha/Bandavgarh - 4 hours
2 nights in kanha
drive to bhedghat near jabalpur - 4 hours. Stay in Bhedghat
boat ride and relax and stay Bhedghat
morning drive to chitrakoot and stay there
4 hours drive to khajurao - see the place and stay
4 hours drive to Jhansi. stay - see the place
afternoon start towards gwalior - 3 hours
gwalior sight seeing and evening flight
Skip chitrakoot and just see khajurao to save a day.
Plan B
Morning fligt to gwalior
afternoon/evening -see gwalior
drive to jhansi see the place
start towards khajurao - see the place and night stay
chitrakoot and stay
come to jabalpur and checkin at bhedghat and stay
boat ride and go to kanha by night
2 days in kanha
Feel free to end the trip by going to nagpur for a flight to bangalore
Else, contine to Indore for Ujjain and mahakaleshware visit
I stuck with plan A.
Route map
There are 2 Jyotirlingas in MP. To reach them, it is best to start the trip from Indore. I will capture my trip itinerary
Day2:
For Day 2 travel from Indore, there are several options to book cabs - like Ola, redbus, savari.com etc. But based on my friend's recommendatin, I booked cab from https://www.gozocabs.com/
Visit 2 Jyotirlingas - Omkareshwar and Ujjain Mahakaleshwar. In 2019, the roads were not so a great, so we had start early in the morning and Visit Omkareshwar. The temple closes by 1.00 p.m. and reopens after a couple of hours. You can opt for special Darshan. Try to avoid Pundits. Finish the darshan early and head towards Ujjain.
If you reach Ujjain early, visit Harasiddhi Mata temple. This is more than 1000 years old maha kali temple in Ujjain and it is having two pillars and each one is having 1001 lamps. At the time of evening aarthi, all the 2002 lamps are cleaned everyday and lighted again.
See how this task is done perfectly and quickly.
The main Mahakala temple is open till 11 p.m. So, try to get a darshan either before or after dinner. It takes about 20 min for Darshan.
Day3:
Ujjain Mahakala temple is famous for Bhasma Arati. This Arati starts at 4.00 a.m. People stand in the line from 12.00 a.m. I am told that first 50-100 people who enter the temple will get a chance to go close to god and do Jalabhishek themselves. To get this chance, people stand in line from 12.00 a.m. If you are not particular about Jalabhishek, but want to get a good Darshan of Bhasma Arathi, it is good to get in to the line by 2.30. Any later than this, you might not get a good seat to view the Darshan. Booking can be done from temple website 30 days before the darshan http://dic.mp.nic.in/ujjain/mahakal/default.aspx
For Stay, there are multiple places to stay in Indore, but I chose the Dharmashala attached to the temple. It is not fancy. It is a very basic, but clean accomdation. Advantage is if you want to go to temple for Arati, you can get up and walk 200-300 mts to reach the temaple. Other good hotels are more than a km away. Booking can be done from temple website 30 days before the darshan http://dic.mp.nic.in/ujjain/mahakal/default.aspx
Since the Darshan gets over by 6.30 or 7, you have rest of the day to take rest and visiting near by temples. There are plenty of Auto rickshaws that you can hire for the same
My next destination was visiting National parks in MP. Most famous ones are Kanha Tiger reserve forest and Bandavgarh National Park. These national parks are more than 600 kms from Ujjain. So, instead of wasting an entire day travelling by road, I took AC train to go to Jabalpur. Jabalpur is the closest railway station to any of these National parks.
Day4:
There are a few local attractions in Jabalpur - Marble rocks at BedaGhat, Dhuadhar falls, 64 yogini temple, Jain temple, Madan Mahal fort, Sharada temple, Kachnar temple. Depending on your interest you can visit any of these places.
Enjoy the boar ride in Beda Ghat. Get a glimpse of it from the famous song from Ashoka movie "Raat ka Nasha Abhi"
Unfortunately there was an extended monsoon this year and Narmada river was over flowing. So, we couldn't go no a boat ride.
For traveling in Madhya Pradesh, I booked cabs from http://www.guptatravelsjabalpur.com/
I found them online and they gave me a good service.
Day 5:
For the next segment of my trip which was for 6 days, I booked a Tempo traveller from Gupta travels.
Roads are not great (as of 2019) and it takes long time to reach places.
We started by 8 a.m and reached BandavGarh National park by lunch time. We had booked 2 safaris. People say that tiger sighting is better in BandavGarh National park. But the best time to sight tigers is Dec-March. We had booked an evening safari (3 p.m. to 6 p.m) and a next day 6 a.m. to 10.a.m.)
Day 6:
Get up early and head to Tiger safari. The resort guys generally pack breakfast. After the safari, you can come back to hotel and get ready for next journey.
We started towards Khajurao in the afternoon. Due to bad road conditions in 2019, it took us 8 hours to reach Khajurao.
Day7:
The entire day was dedicated see different temples in Khajurao. We travelled in September and weather was still in 30s and very humid in Madhya Pradesh. So, it is better to start sight seeing as early as 6 a.m. Early morning is also good for photography.
We went to the main khajurao temple (western group of temples) at 6 a.m. It takes 2-3 hours to see the temple (depending on your interest). Return back to hotel, have breakfast, and then head to Rahen falls which is about 30 min drive from khajurao. It is a beatiful falls formed due to volcanic eruption. You can spend about an hour there and head back.
After lunch, you can take some rest. You can resume visiting eastern and southern tempples after the temperature cools down (say after 3 p.m.) Finish all temples by 6 to be back to main Khajurao temple for light and sound show (english show at 6.30 and Hindi show at 7.30)
Day 8:
After breakfast, start journey towards Orchha. Due to road conditions, we reached Orccha by lunch time. After lunch time, we visited Orccha fort. Try to finish the fort visit before sunset to visit Chattris. https://www.windhorsetours.com/sights/india/Chhatris.html
It is a beautiful view at that time.
After sunset, head towards Jhansi.
Day 9:
Start towards Jhansi fort early in the morning. Jhansi fort was not as exciting. It takes about 1.5 to 2 hours to see the place. It is even ok to skip Jhansi. Post lunch, we headed towards Gwalior.
On the way to Gwalior, if you have time visit Datia. There is a fort and Pitambar temple (Shakti Peeth). Due to Navarathri festival, the temple was crowded, so we skipped it.
We reached Gwalior by evening.
Day 10:
Start early at 6 a.m. to cover Gwalior fort. It is a beautiful fort. It takes about to cover all the places in and around the fort. In the same premisis, you can visit Gwalior fort, Saash Bahu mandir, Gurudwara and Teli ka mandir.
Return to hotel, have breakfast, take some rest. After lunch, visit Jai Vilas Palace in Gwalior. It is a beautiful palace and you can easily spend about 2 hours.
You can do some shopping in Gwalior
Breakfast - Famous Poha
Lunch/Dinner - kwality restaurant. For chats -(at your own risk), try Phool Bagh chaupti Shopping - Topi bazar, sarafa bazar, subhash market Sweets - Bahadura for Gulab Jamun, Shano-Shaukat for assorted sweets especially Boondi laddu, Daulatram Gupta, Gazak
Day 11:
Return to Bangalore
Other places of interest in MP
I didn't have time to cover it. But if you happen to go to bhopal, visit Bhimbetka rock shelters
Bhimbetka rock shelters are in Bhopal, MP. It is a UNESCO world heritage site that consists of seven hills and over 750 rock shelters distributed over 10 kilometres. At least some of the shelters were inhabited more than 100,000 years ago. Some of the Bhimbetka rock shelters feature prehistoric cave paintings and the earliest are about 10,000 years old (c. 8,000 BCE),
This was my itenirary of my recent Family trip to Gujarat covering about 2300 km
Day1 and Day2 - Ahmedabad sight seeing, shopping and Gujarathi Thalis
Day 3 - travel to Bhuj -Enroute visit Lathol (an arhcealogical site from Harappa and Mohenjadaro times, and HiraLaxmi park, Bhujodia
Day 4 - Local sight seeing in Bhuj followed by a visit to Mandvi Beach. Visit to Vijay Vilas palace (Hum Dil de chuke sanam was shot here)
Day 5 - Local sight seeing in Bhuj (Parag mahal where Lagan was shot), followed by a visit to Rann of kutch, India bridge and Kaladungar (magnetic hill and sunset point)
Day 6 - Travel to Dwarka from Bhuj - Visit Dwarkadeesh temple followed by beach
Day 8 - Sunrise, beach time, Somnath jyothirling temple visit and other local tourist attractions. Continue journey towards Diu. Relax in Diu followed by a good evening stroll at the beach
Day 9 - Visit to Diu fort and continue journey to Gir forest. Relax and go to Safari
Day 10 - travel to Ahmedabad and fly back to Bangalore
Bhuj was a clear winner with too many interesting places to see both in the city and surrounding areas. Also the beaches are clean and can spend good time as the evenings are very pleasant
Their UI is amazing. By far the best for train ticketing online in India.
Cleartrip Train Calendar provides an indication of availability for a range of dates across trains, so you can find the best date and train to travel. The availability you see here may have changed at the time you try and book.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
-----
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.
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.
Ask any Indian, what his/her fav sport is, and the answer you get is "CRICKET". It is the sport the nation breathes. Well, today I got a 5 day pass for the India-Pakistan test match at Bangalore. Ind-Pak matches are always very exciting. How could I miss a chance to watch it. Me and my cousin reached the stadium. There was a huge crowd waiting to get in. Some were busy looking for tickets. It is very difficult to get tickets for a test match in Bangalore on a weekend. In the past I have paid Rs 300/- for a Rs 50/- inspite of reaching the venue at 6.00 am to buy tickets. I have seen that sometimes the tickets are sold at the counter for 15 minutes when we see a "sold out" board. The rest of the tickets goes to black market. I stopped to get my face painted with the tri-colour. I also bought a flag outside the stadium. I managed to sneak my camera in to the stadium. But the security snatched the stick that was with the Indian flag. They think that the mob will start a fight with the stick. It was an exciting first day of cricket. Though India lost 4 quick wickets, Yuvaraj and Ganguly played a spectacular innings. Yuvi's score was the highest by any left handed batsman in Bangalore. Our statisticians collect some crazy statistics these days.
We were jumping and screaming at every shot. I was waving the Indian flag and having fun. Just then, one of my friend's called me to tell me that he saw me on TV. A few more friends and relatives called me and told me that they all saw me on TV during the match and during the highlights. I am going again tomorrow also. Hope Indian can post a big score - Amen
Yes, it is true. Today, Mukesh Ambani became the richest man in the world. It is a little hard to believe, but it is true. He makes India proud. Indian Stock market is on a continous bull run which saw reliance stock scaling new heights. After the death of Dhirubhai Ambani, Mukesh got Reliance Industries and has strived hard to reach the peak. Hope the bull run continues and he stays at top for a long time to come. He has surpassed Bill Gates, the chairman of Microsoft and Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim Helu.
Medical expenses are one killer of an expense and can leave bring you to streets. Some of the treatments can run in to lakhs of rupees. If you are not prepared (read http://mail2nagen.blogspot.com/2007/07/tips-on-medical-insurance.html ), either you will have to borrow from evrey relative/friend or let go of the patient. Time and again I had heard of Sathya Sai Super Specialty Hospitals which give free medical treatment to everyone. Today I bumped in to a nice article which talks about a patients experiece at SSSIHMS and also the research happening there (read the article here ) In a country where 70% of the people live either below poverty line or can just afford a basic life, hospitals like sathya sai hospitals are a boon. I have no personal experience with this place, but have heard that the treatment comes totally free. Downside is the waiting period. For some of the surgeries, one has to wait for a turn. I have read that the Sathya sai hostpitals are in Prashanti gram in Andra Pradesh and white field in Bangalore Some links http://www.saihospital.org/ssshhospitals.htm http://www.sathyasai.org/saihealth/content.htm http://www.sathyasaihospital.com/
The Lord surveyed the Ram Setu and said "Hanuman, how diligently and strenuously you and your vanara sena had built this bridge several centuries back. It is remarkable that it has withstood the ravages of the climatic and geographical changes over centuries. It is indeed an amazing feat especially considering the fact that a bridge at Hyderabad built by Gammon using latest technology collapsed the other day even before they could stick the posters on its pillars."
Hanuman with all humility spoke "Jai Sri Ram, it is all because of your grace. We just scribbled your name on the bricks and threw them in the sea and they held. No steel from TISCO or cement from Ambuja or ACC was ever used. But Lord, why rake up the old issue now."
Ram spoke "Well, Hanuman some people down there want to demolish the bridge and construct a canal. The contract involves lot of money and lot of money will be made. They will make money on demolition and make more money on construction. "
Hanuman humbly bowed down and said "Why not we go down and present our case"
Ram said "Times have changed since we were down there. They will ask us to submit age proof and we don't have either a birth certificate or school leaving certificate. We traveled mainly on foot and some times in bullock carts and so we don't have a driving license either. As far as the address proof is concerned the fact that I was born at Ayodhya is itself under litigation for over half a century, If I go in a traditional attire with bow and arrow, the ordinary folks may recognize me but Arjun Singh may take me to be some tribal and, at the most, offer a seat at IIT under the reserved category. Also, a God cannot walk in dressed in a three-piece suit and announce his arrival. It would make even the devotees suspicious. So it is dilemma so to say."
"I can vouch for you by saying that I personally built the bridge."
"My dear, Anjani putra, it will not work. They will ask you to produce the lay-out plan, the project details, including financial outlay and how the project cost was met and the completion certificate. Nothing is accepted without documentary evidence in India . You may cough but unless a doctor certifies it, you have no cough. A pensioner may present himself personally but the authorities do not take it as proof. He has to produce a life-certificate to prove that he is alive. It is that complicated."
"Lord can't understand these historians. Over the years you have given darshan once every hundred years to saints like Surdas, Tulsidas, Saint Thyagaraja, Jayadeva, Bhadrachala Ramdas and even Sant Tukaram and still they disbelieve your existence and say Ramayana is a myth. The only option, I see, is to re-enact Ramayana on earth and set the government records straight once for all."
Lord smiled "It isn't that easy today. Ravan is apprehensive that he may look like a saint in front of Karunanidhi. I also spoke to his mama Mareecha, who appeared as a golden deer to tempt Sita maiyya when I was in the forest and he said that he won't take a chance of stepping on earth as long as Salman Khan is around."
Jai Shree Ram
PS: Not sure who the original author of the post is. I got it as an email forward and posted it. I found a couple of links on the net posting the same article.
What a great day for Indian cricket. India won their first Twenty 20 world championship. What a great show by the players. They played as a team and held their nerve till the last. There were too many anxious moments in the match. The match was never over until the last over. I was thinking that Misbah almost pulled the match away from India. Thanks to some sensible bowling and fielding from Indians. Good catches were taken. There was heavy traffic today evening after 4.30 p.m. Everyone trying to head back home to watch the match. Mahendra Singh Dhoni has achieved a one of the greatest success in his life and that too while serving his first series as a captain of Indian cricket team. The team which won the world cup
G Gambhir Yusuf Pathan R Uthappa Y Singh MS Dhoni (captain) R Sharma I Pathan J Sharma Harbhajan Singh S Sreesanth RP Singh
I am forced to watch some of these programs like Indian Idol, Nach Baliye etc. The TV gets hogged during these shows at home. Yesterday, there was the finals of Indian Idol 3 program on Sony TV and we were all watching the show. The anchor said that people of India were voting to chose the winner of the contest. What surprised me was when he said that they had received more than 7 crore (70 million) SMS votes. First reaction would be - WOW.
But then, if you put your thinking caps on, what occurs is -
In a country of 100 crore, 70% leave in villages. So I don't think that they would vote. That leaves 30 crore people to vote. Of this 30 crore, I guess the whole of TN, Kerala and many of the other south Indian states would not be watching Hindi channels. So, we can reduce another 5 crore of the urban crowd. That leaves only 25 crore people to vote Assume that most of the people from other states, would like to watch Tele serials in Hindi and their local language. And also assuming that there are many poeple who would watch other music, sports etc channels, I can conveniently reduce the audience watching sony TV to less than 10 crore - I find this number to be very big too ( Unfortunately, I don't have any live statistics or any TPC numbers - all these numbers are arrived by me by some guess and logic). Now there are other similar programs (song and dance competition) on STAR TV and other channels which are telecast at the same time. These programs attract good number of audience as well. Many of the remaining viewers are students on prepaid and other middle class folks with a lot of them on life time free incoming scheme (this scheme doesn't have any messaging or outgoing facility). Now the voting crowd (in my opinion) is definitely reduced to less than 7 crore (which is the number of votes received). Now think, how many people out of this lot would have cell phones. With the SMS charges to these programs costing between Rs 3 - 5, how many people would send SMS to make someone win a contest. Even if we go by the logic that some people (5 percent of voting crowd) vote multiple times, 7 crore votes can't be reached.
I think, the numbers are just built up by the TV channels to generate curiosity amongst the audience. 7 crore votes NO CHANCE.
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