RANDOMNESS

Arranged Marriage - Part 3

2011-06-06T22:50:00.000-07:00

It is very similar to Arranged Marriage - Part 1 just that guy family goes to girl and same thing happens. No difference.

Hope you have enjoyed.

Arranged Marriage - Part 2

2011-06-05T20:25:00.000-07:00

Continuing from the previous post, now that both family agreed it is time for guy and girl to meet BUT they cannot meet alone...oh! NO! NO! it is one of the things what family hate that a girl and guy meeting alone talking about marriage (yes, you can meet your friends who are guy/girl alone but not this). So a neutral venue is decided which is convenient for both the parties as one does not one to feel too desperate to meet. Well someone with girl will come either Mama or Chacha (uncles) or sisters or brothers and from guy side maybe his sister/brother whoever they are close to.

The middle man will be there to introduce each other and then take a leave. So everyone sits down and there is a initial silence when someone breaks the ice. And then talks starts with what do you do, where do you work, what your job profile exactly is, will you change the city etc etc which generally elders start speaking about. So if you have to look confident answer in short sentences and do not disclose more than asked for. After sometime they will say the girl and guy to sit in another table and talk.

Now the interesting part starts....yes really interesting, it is like meeting your potential future and deciding it one meeting if you like her or not.

You go away and try to find a place to sit away from your known people so they do not overhear the conversation. Now is the important part your brain has million questions but your speech does not respond to it where you are generally blank. First question generally asked is how many prospects have each other met. If the other person has highest number tell them to take the lead or if both are same then best would be talk about movies, music, travelling, etc etc. Then come to all important topic, what do you want to see in your husband some have lots of fancy requirements as if they want a Ferrari while some are happy with a high version of Verna. Then talks move onto habits like drinking, smoking, eating non-veg (in our religion we do not eat non-veg but most do) and I must say answer those correctly because these are the things you cannot hide. Funny though you generally forget to ask about do you cook? do you believe in religion? do you pray everyday in a temple? YES for some it is a big deal. And to top it off you start talking about work, future plans in career etc etc.

After all of above discussion there is a big long silence which is the cue that talking is done and we both do not have anything to ask that is the time when you say let us go back with the folks sitting on the table. Again some discussions will happen on the table and then bill is paid because you have to eat or drink something. Everyone greets each other and says goodbye.

When you come home is another part where your folks are really really interested on what did you speak about. So wait for Part 3.

Arranged Marriage - Part 1

2011-06-05T10:43:00.000-07:00

This story is divided amongst 3 parts:
Part 1: Where girl family comes to meet to the boy family
Part 2: Boy meets the Girl with some other family members at the neutral venue
Part 3: Boy family goes to the Girl family.

PART 1:

Lot of you must be in that phase now where everyone near and dear you and those who are really not interested in your life do ask you that question "When are you going to get married?" so basically to shut up their mouth and not being asked more irritating questions, I reply them very nicely "This Year!" and they shut up and go. Really found this the most amazing answer for the most asked question in the mankind history. They are just really happy when they get a positive answer, well just try to answer in negative or neutral well they bug you again and keep on asking you more questions till you feel like ripping their hair off or just walk away (which is rude by the way).

Well my parents think, now I am old enough to get married and must do so quickly well they are more excited than me. So finally we decide who to meet a girl's family who visit our home to see where do we stay how is our house and other things like ask me few questions. This is how it goes.

There are around 4 family members of girls side who comes with a middle man (well there is always a middle man who knows both side of the family and they are very keen to get each and every single guy/girl who they know with other single girl/guy who they know). They all get seated, now the head or the senior of the group introduces everyone who they have come with (which you tend to forget after 10 mins into the meeting) and then some talks happen where the middle man tells good things about the senior (aka Father) of the single guy/girl. Now talks range from where they stay, politics, food, travel, some other non-sense while the guy just sits and looks around the room or finding a way to run away from that room (which will never happen).

After all the non-sense talks finally they start to ask the guys some questions, where are you working, what profile do you hold, what exactly you have to do there, why you did not do MBA (well for, non-MBAiets you have to face this difficult question all the time). After 5 to 10 minutes of talking they again go on some family history and their roots and then more about current events etc etc.

Well during the time the family will be served till they beg not to get more food and some are gracious enough to see the house by showing that they are not getting the network but move around the full house. After an hour of more boring talks finally family decide they have had enough and need to move so they can discuss more with the other members of the family.

End of Part 1. Await Part 2 coming soon.

Disney acquires gaming engine startup to build HTML5 games outside of App stores

2011-03-03T04:05:00.000-08:00

Disney acquires gaming engine startup to build HTML5 games outside of App stores

Marriage Proposals

2010-10-21T02:20:00.000-07:00

There is a time in life when your parents start to ask you the most dangerous question which most of you dread to hear the whole life and those are:

1. When are you planning to get married?

2. Do you have any bf/gf or should we look for a boy/girl for you?

3. You know Mr. XX son/daughter got married. When will be your turn?

And these are the times when you want to just run away from home and look for solace. The worst lots are person who do not stay with their parents but visit them after every 3 - 6 months and your conversation are on mostly about when you are going to get married.

Now fast forward a bit...you buckle down to your parents regular questions and start to look for a girl/boy (this is for who do not have bf/gf during that time)

Step 1: Create a profile up on websites or your caste has a matrimony group. Your parents duly fill up the form. With all details and an amazing profile photo of yours *smiling*. Parents tell all relatives and friends that you are ready for marriage.

Step 2: Ok for the lucky few, you get 1000 proposals and you have to select few where you can meet them. The order in which person (from now on guy and girl will be referred to as a person) is shortlisted are

1. Looks: Fair gets most views, darker people lesser until the person selecting is dark they are not much of a chooser.

2. If the person is shortlisted in looks then comes studies, it is similar to job market MBA's in finance gets higher priority then comes other big education CA, Doctor, Engineers, then BCom, MCom etc

3. You then shortlist yourself into what does the family do well the parents are more interested in that.

4. Then next part where does that person work or is in a business, in real world person likes stability and first priority goes to the person with a job.

And after the full short listing you come down to 10 or more.

Step 3: Your parents will start to get connected with the friends who know the family of the shortlisted person and try to find the history and geography of the selected person and family. Now the number comes down to very few.

Step 4: Now your profile goes to the person who you liked and selected. Now the waiting part starts, you are not guaranteed that person will approve of you. But let us talk the best scenario, that person approves to a meeting.

Step 5: Parents decide to meet at a neutral location such as a restaurant and you reach there all ready decked up to impress. The person walks in and almost you get the first impression and in your mind you decide what to say, what not to say. This is mostly like a date where you come to know about a person but with interruptions from parents if they decide to join.

Step 6: Best case scenario, so the person likes you and you that person, you continue talking on phone and meet once or twice a week to know that person better. Now here where the family are getting happy that yes there is hope. And some in few weeks and some in few months decide to slide the ring in the finger.

Now here comes my point, it is all so amazing and interesting but then we are playing a roulette betting on a number and hoping that ball lands on that, some are very firm that they want that number only while some are ready to play between the colours making them have more options.

But in the above process what we miss to see is that a BCom person is a much better than a MBA person but what is written on paper makes us go woo before even meeting the real one. And I am a believer of you know the person the best if you travel with them, take them to some resort with common friends different rooms everyone is happy but take them for some rough terrain trip and the real person is alive. This is where you know how that person will react in a real life scenario with you and friends. And 1 trip is not enough no....you will need more than one, like some are good judge people and some just take time (like me).

I seriously hope my parents make me go through the above process.......

Agra - Tourist and Touts Delight

2010-10-17T21:51:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

It was nice sunny Thursday afternoon when we confirmed on the plan of going to Agra from Gurgaon (this is where i have being staying for sometime now). Come saturday morning we wake up with our general laziness and pack our bags for the big trip to Agra and Fatehpur Sikri.

We reach Faridabad/Ballabhgarh Bus Depot which is on the Delhi Agra highway and we were on a budget trip we get a Madhya Pradesh Parivahan and we enter we see no place to sit. Never do that by mistake, never take a bus which is going to another state from your preferred location you will never get a seat. The ticket cost Rs. 120 till the outside gate of Taj Mahal after a smooth ride and good lunch at Baanke Bihari hotel which would not be my first choice to stop but note: this is where all the State Transport Bus Stops. We get down from the bus @ 5 pm after some time we realized we were a bit too late. Read below to know more.

Taj Mahal is open till 7 almost but last ticket is at 6 pm and it gets dark and no point in going inside. Well let me move back a bit, we got down from the bus and there was a smiling rickshaw (auto for Delhi people) wala waiting for us.
Now comes the best salesman pitch you can ever hear.....(let me call him Bunty)
Bunty: Good evening sir, where do you want to go?We: Taj Mahal, how much?
Bunty: Sir, only Rs. 10
We: Cool, lets get in,
Bunty (after getting into the rickshaw): Sir i would like to say that no bags are allowed in Taj Mahal. Where are you staying?
We: A friend of us told us some place (saying the hotel names reading from the sms which I had received)
Bunty: Sir, those place are not good, I will show you a better place and then you can go to see Taj Mahal once you put the bags away.
We: How much will you charge?
Bunty: Sir only Rs. 30We drive in some bylanes, mini lanes of Agra and reach a place Baluganj where we find Lavania Vilas in our budget well over our budget but in our effort to reach Taj we made the deal, put our bags and then on our way to Taj Mahal.
Bunty: So sir, Agra is a very beautiful place and there are so many things to buy and see such as Saris made from Banana and Bamboos
We: ohhhh! (we were delighted because we have never heard of saris made from banana and bamboos)
Bunty: Sir, Agra is famous for Leather shoes, there is a small market for shoes also.
We: Ohhh! (shoes, that too leather all men like it)
Bunty: Then I will take you for dinner. What would you like to eat?
We: Well, what is famous in Agra?
Bunty: Sir, everything Indian, Mughlai, Chinese etc etc
We: mmmm we will think about it.
Bunty: Now sir we have reach Taj Mahal but as the line is too big outside, I shall take you to a person who will give you the tickets but you have to pay Rs. 5 extra.
We: Rs. 5 no big deal ok.

We did our Taj Mahal trip and awwed in wonder, stories from the guide (who give exams to get UP Guide License). Tool lots of photographs and then, sir you should buy mini Taj Mahal, we go in UP handloom shop just outside Taj Mahal and bought 1 mini Taj Mahal for Rs. 100 and after just 10 steps the same product was sold for Rs. 50 (note: do not buy anything in the first store check out other shops compare and then buy)

Bunty: Sir, how was the trip?
We: It was nice. Bunty: Now sir the famous sari store.
We: Bunty, how much is the whole trip going to cost us?
Bunty: Sir, only Rs. 250

Well if you read from the second line of Rs. 10 we paid Rs. 250 and if we had taken rickshaws stop by stop it would not have cost us Rs. 100. Agra is a small place, decide a place and get down there and say bye bye to your auto rickshaw wala. Because it is like a spider web, but the spider is a smiling rickshaw driver who with good talks will take you to places which he intends you should see. If you want to read we ended up buying Saris for our near and dear without us having any knowledge of it coming up in the next post.

So as my title says, Tourist and Touts delight, there are so many things to see in Agra which millions website have shown but there are only few who write the real thing and this is the real thing.

Once Upon A Time in Mumbai - Review

2010-08-05T11:39:00.000-07:00

This is a story of a time when Peru (Guava) used to cost only 25 paise.

Sultan Mirza a person who had come from Chennai aka Madras that time to Mumbai made sure he made friends instead of enemies in his line of work which would make it easy for everyone to work. He was one of those guys who did not like bad things to Mumbai aka Bombay.

Then comes in Shoib Khan who with the attitude it is "My Way or the Highway" wants to reach the top and want to go there fast by hook or crook.

That is the background of the main character, now the movie well I was expecting some fundoo action or else some smart moves by main characters but what I got in the initial part was a Love Story of both characters which was totally baseless in the movie. What I think is director was short of story and wanted to add glam and bore the audience added Rihanna and Mumtaz. Well Rihanna aka Kangana does not know how to act (this is her first movie which I have seen) and Mumtaz aka Prachi Desai was really OK!

In second half, I thought more action would be on the way but no it was just same boring stuff and then the expected happened Shoib Khan goes to rival gang and does not like what Sultan does to him. To all fairness what Sultan did was slap Shoib, I thought now some gangwar will happen who will have the upper hand etc etc but no, Sultan wants to do a rally, I mean wtf yep he did give a good speech but no use sir.

For the background score Mr Pritam just ripped of Marlyn Manson Beautiful People song and songs were not required in this.

So all my hopes got dashed where I was expecting to see a good movie but it ended in a duh! and Bore! and and...the movie could have got over in one hour if the romance would not happen.

Visapur Trek - How to reach there?

2010-07-26T02:44:00.000-07:00

Not going to dwell on the history of the place called Visapur which is a fort next to all famous Lohaghad and Bhaje Caves. But here, will be giving you the details on how to reach there and what to do.

Best Option: Take a car and drive down towards Lonavala, take the second exit of Lonavala and move towards Pune you will find a Junction on the right is Malavali Station, go towards the station and drive down to Bhaje Village where you get an option to Pay and park.

Good Option: Take a Intercity Train from Dadar at 7 am, make sure you do the booking and get a reserved seat because it is one big problem in General will not cost more that Rs. 60 from Dadar to Lonavala. If the train is on time you should reach Lonavala at 9 am. Get down at Lonavala station and from there you have 2 options
Expensive Option: Well this one is a faster option as well, take a rickshaw from the station and they drop you near Malavali station (which is 12Kms from Lonavala Station) at Rs. 150 for 3 seats or if you want to continue take the same rickshaw to Bhaje Village which is another 4 Kms and charges will be crazy.
Cheaper Option: This one takes time because you will have to wait for a local train which runs between Pune to Lonavala every hour. Take one at 10:05 am, tickets will not cost more than Rs. 6 and in 5 minutes you will reach Malawali Station

OK Option: Take an Asiad or ST from Dadar station and get down at the junction of Malawali, which god only knows how long will it take and then take Rickshaw till Bhaje Village from the Junction.

On reaching Bhaje Village which is 4 kms from Malavali station you have lots of option to eat and drink like tea, coffee, misal pav, vada pav, bhaji pav which are very decent. There are no big restaurants but small ones which will serve you the basic.

Right now the actual trek starts, there are two ways to reach Visapur one is via Patan Village which is short but more tiring and other is via Bhaje Caves, longer but faster.
Via Bhaje, till reach a point where the trail to Visapur and Lohaghad changes it is a very simple route just and zig zag incline walk for which you can take shortcuts which are small and bit tiring but you reach faster.
After the new trail starts it is a very simple walk where you see on your left the massive Visapur fort.
There will be a small left on the way to Visapur top where you have to pass through a jungle which is a 20 mins walk up and then reach a point where water is flowing. This is tricky part where one has to be very careful of not putting your feet on the loose stones and taking care of the moss. Reaching the top from the start of the waterfall is around half an hour in good weather (which means sun is not shining hard).

The fort itself is so huge that you will need atleast an hour to survey the surroundings. You can also just relax and have lunch on the fort itself.

Coming down is a tricky part again you have to come down by the same route and be sure of your footings and look out for moving rocks. Once you are down you can go towards Lohaghad and there are many many eateries outside local people house and they you awesome food.

Coming back: If you have a car then just go back the way you have come. Other options are go to Lonavala Bus Station and get anyone of the bus which goes to Mumbai. Or go to the station and get into a train which is coming from Pune like Intercity but they arrive very early around 5:30 pm something or hire a cab, if there is a group of 7 or 8 you will get a Sumo @Rs. 1500 till Sion.

Well this is it...Visapur

Two Songs you should wake up to

2010-07-23T04:28:00.000-07:00

In this life we always want more and more, if we have a Mercedes we want a Ferrari and if we have a one bhk in the crowded Mumbai suburbs we want two bhk in upscale Bandra complex.

These two songs which i think everyone should wake up to, yes i know it is not the ideal world but the words are so simple and surely it can make you smile through the day.

Good Morning World by Dean Martin:

Don't Worry Be Happy by Bobby McFerrin

(could not embed) the video

Two of my all time favorites......which is a must on Monday Morning!!

Have a great time

INCEPTION - No Review

2010-07-21T02:22:00.000-07:00

There are 1000 post and blogs flying around the internet praising the movie and the director, well most of them had to praise about it because at one point of time even the actress in the movie got confused on what the hell were they doing and whose dream were they getting into.

I really loved the movie in one sense which is something never tried before and this has got lot of people thinking and talking about kicks, dreams, sub consciousness, limbo etc etc. What is interesting is how the concept got flowing and how it had being created into one of the masterpiece of the year where lot of people will still talk about it.

What more interesting is you can dream in a dream which people do talk about but they have taken it to another level.

Indian movies have done this a very very long time back if you do not believe me check this video out

I hope you get it what I mean here....our own Hrishi Da the legendary film-maker has thought about this even before Nolan started to learn how to pee in the loo all by himself

Power The Hotel - Eat for Free

2010-05-25T22:14:00.001-07:00

Article taken from BBC World website.

A Danish hotel is offering a free meal to any guest who is able to produce electricity for the hotel on an exercise bike attached to a generator.

36% of Copenhageners cycle to work each day

The Crowne Plaza Hotel in Copenhagen says the idea is to get people fit and reduce their carbon footprint.
Guests will have to produce at least 10 watt hours of electricity - roughly 15 minutes of cycling for someone of average fitness.
The hotel already produces renewable energy with solar panels on its facade.
Guests staying at Plaza Hotel will be given meal vouchers worth $36 (26 euros; £23) once they have produced 10 watt hours of electricity, hotel spokeswoman Frederikke Toemmergaard told the BBC News website.
"Many of our visitors are business people who enjoy going to the gym. There might be the odd person who will cycle just to get a free meal, but I don't think people will exploit the initiative overall," she added.
The bicycles will have iPhones attached to the handlebars measuring how much power is being generated for the hotel.
The plan, a world-first, will be launched on 19 April and run for a year, the hotel says. Only guests staying at the hotel will be able to take part.
Copenhagen has a long-standing cycling tradition and 36% of locals cycle to work each day, one of the highest percentages in the world, according to the website visitcopenhagen.dk
"Because Copenhagen is strongly associated with cycling, we felt the bicycle would work well as a symbol of the hotel's green profile," Ms Toemmergaard said.
US environmental website treehugger.com recently voted Copenhagen the world's best city for cyclists.
If successful, the electric bicycle meal programme will be extended to all Crowne Plaza hotels in the UK, the hotel said in statement.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8621038.stm

White Water Rafting - The WoW Experience

2010-05-20T00:29:00.000-07:00

Was always thinking of going to Kolad, near Mumbai for Rafting in the dam released water but luckily had some project in Gurgaon for more than 2 weeks and as weekend was inbetween the work days, me and my colleague decided to go to Rishikesh for the real deal of White Water Rafting in the Holy Ganges.

Rishikesh a small sleepy town on the banks of Ganges which is around 224 KMS from Delhi ISBT (Inter State Bus Terminus) is where all the major activities of White Water Rafting takes place. Now I shall describe on how we travelled to Rishikesh and what were the day schedule.

We decided to leave early in the afternoon, left around 12:30 Pm after having a good breakfast at Haldiram's in Gurgaon. After 60 Kms ride through New Delhi and Old Delhi we reached ISBT in one and half hour. Entered the massive ISBT and were asking people where will we get buses for Haridwar or Rishikesh also deep in our heart we were hoping we get a Air Conditioned bus but then we hear a sweet words "Haridwar Rishikesh Haridwar Rishikesh" from a torn down bus conductor. We ask him once and hop on.

Note: ISBT is one those massive bus terminals whe breuses ply from Delhi to almost every city 500+ kms from there. You can reach anytime and you can get a bus to anywhere 24 hours. And it is the starting point so you do get a place to sit also.

The bus had cushion seats and like an idiot I selected a window seat on top of back wheel. So could not get good leg room. Note: Always sit next on the first seat next to the door has ample leg room. The tickets cost Rs. 177 only and after 7 hours running through wrong side and off the road we reached Haridwar.

Our trip was taken care by The Great Himalayan Expedition and as we reached late we had to take a car for Rs. 600 to Marine Drive (one of the sandy beaches on Ganges). We got off after 25 Kms ride to the beach and a raft came to ferry us on the other side. Where we see lots of tents and people joking and singing and drinking.

We were assisted towards our tent which had a big cot and blankets. After having dinner which had veg and non veg fare was quite good. After relaxing a bit by the river we went off to sleep

Note: Things to carry, hand sanitisers, soaps, tissue papers, torch and medicines and top of the list should be alcohol (if you drink)

Got up around 7 am and we were told the next raft moves out at 10 am while we did our morning stuff and had a hearty meal. We were introduced to our Leader, Ram Singh who was going to guide us on the rough and beautiful Ganges.

We were first told all the things about the raft, the oar and what are the different terms.

There are around 9+ Rapids on the 25 Km Rafting trip, will try to name each of them
- Balance : one of the easier rapids where we were told to stand on the raft edge and it was pure fun to hold your balance
- 3 Blind Mice: 3 rapids one after another with difficulty increaing on each one.
- Back to Center: Another simple one with bit of bump inbetween.
- Roller Coaster: The big Daddy of all if you are right in center of it you can be hit by huge waves on your face and at times lose your balance.
- Golf Course : Similar to Roller Coaster but a bit smaller we missed out on the main surge.

There are 4 more which I currently cannot remember the name of. Icing on the cake would be the 25 feet clifff jump where we saw lots of guys reaching the edge and backing out.

And the end of the day after paddling forward and backward and swimming in the river made us a tired bunch.

The total cost for us was Rs. 1600 for Staying and rafting, traveling was around 1000 from Gurgaon to Gurgaon and all the experience was priceless.

Tel Aviv - City of

2010-04-04T22:13:00.000-07:00

First of all thanks to the company where I work for giving us an opportunity to go to Tel Aviv in Israel for training purpose.
When we first broke the news about that we will be going to Tel Aviv initial response or knee jerk questions from colleagues and friends were:
- Make sure you get yourself a bullet-proof jacket.
- Get some bullets from there.
- Take care don't go out much you might never know where a rocket would come from.
and few more which I don't remember.

So we take an El Al Airlines an Israeli National Airlines (it is not run by the government) where we have to reach the airport 4 hours before our flight which was at 11:35 PM. As we all know about the famous Israeli defense system and their security checks, we reach there by 7 PM.
Four of us together from same company were told to go in together and were separately asked questions by the El Al Airline Security Team.
Question set were as follows:
- So tell me what do you do?
- Why are you going to Tel Aviv?
- How many days you are going to work there?
- What is your role in the company?
Now things start to get weirder
- What is the role of the person standing right of you (pointing at my colleague)
- Which development tool he will work on ? (what do you know about development tools)
- How long do you know each other?
- Who are you in contact with in Tel Aviv?
Now some eyebrow raising stuff
- Can you show me the mail of your training itenery?
- Can you open the doc from this mail?
- What is a QA Process? (wow he looked at a word in a document and ask me that?)

Note: A lady next to me going back to Israel had gone to a trip to Goa (yes everyone goes there) and she had bought a pack of sausages and wrapped them very well the security made them open all the wrapped stuff....at times they can be ruthless and also they checked out her photos from the camera.

So let us get back to my trip, after the questioning the security people go over to each other and cross check if the things match and I did a small screw up saying that the laptop was mine which was not and then after few more questions they were satisfied they let me in for the boarding pass.
Then the regular stuff till we enter the plane, immigration, late Dinner at the airport, a bit of shopping from the duty free shopping.
And we enter the aircraft at 11 PM and got the back row seats, we settled down and after half an hour delay the flight takes off. We were served drinks which included alcohol/juices/wine etc and then the dinner which boiled chickpeas, chicken gravy, steam rice, bread and sweet to know more check out my other blog.

Landed half an hour late and we got off the airport pretty smooth, except for one small mishap where I thought I kept my camera in the Red Channel of the customs and it was in the bag so all in all a stupid first mistake there. Company where we were going for training had got us a car which dropped us at our apartment.

The backstory of the apartment: In Tel Aviv lot of places you can rent an apartment for a week or 2 by giving certain amount per day which depends on where you stay and how big is the apartment. You can get a studio apartment from $90 a night to $300. a night with swimming pool and other things included. The apartment we stayed in was a 3BHK near the center of the city and it was in the basement. Place was clean, self sufficient with basic things such as fridge, microwave, stove, washing machine, water heater etc etc.

Back to the story, we were taken in a Mercedes at around 5 am in the morning, first things noted big roads, no potholes, beautiful view and empty yep it was 5 am. We reached our apartment by around 6 and as not everyone could sleep properly 2 went off to sleep while the other 2 were updating the Indian Team that we have reached safely.
Note: Everyone will convert your dollars to shekels I mean everyone from a Taxi driver to a small store just know how much is the current conversion rate and take it around that.

So 2 of us decided to get some breakfast and hoped to find some stores open and we did one which we bought milk packs, kellogs, cheese, breads for our breakfast and as went further down we noted that the beach is just a 5 minute walk. As we did not wanted to be late for our first day we rushed back had our breakfast and had a cold shower with temperature outside hovering around 16 degrees as we did not know where the switch was, later discovered it was near the door.

Went out called out the taxi which was VW Passat and took our first trip to the Oberon Media office in Raoul Wallenberg or Raul Vallenberg (there are places with same pronunciation but different spellings) we reached there in 20 mins through a sea of big moving traffic and as it is written in lots of website about the erratic driving, I must say they are really cool lane crossing was not that much just a few and drive was smooth.

Reached the office and did the initial greetings and it was all meetings and presentations.We were taken to an American Eating place which was just in the parallel street, place had a well stocked bar, sandwiches, pastas, salads, burgers were on the menu and each of us tried a different thing (well few got the same stuff).
Few interesting things you will notice in a restaurant in Israel:
- They will give you something to eat before you order anything like Garlic breads, pita breads, salads just to keep you going
- In the business time they give you special deals like Business lunch, mini lunch etc etc
- Food portions are huge
- Waitresses are hot (they may be college going kids but hot)
- Very efficient if the food is ready anyone will come and serve you
- There is different Menu Card for English and Israeli speaking people.

The road has all kind of restaurants Fish, Beef special, Thai, Italian, Turkish, McDonald and most of them are full during the lunch hour which is from 1 PM to 2 PM. Well the cost and quantity go hand in hand huge quantity of food for around 60 shekels is a good deal make sure you tip the waiter as well 10% of the bill.

We asked about why the big quantity of food served in the hotel and our training head answered "In Israel we are generous with food to our guest so in a restaurant if you get a small portion of food that place would be called as cheap and no one would go there. So that is why the quantity of food is so much"

On our way back we took a bus run by the government and it is so similar to the AC busses which BEST have launched here super suspension, button doors but one thing is missing the conductor here pay the driver and they will give you the change back. The journey is so awesome where you see different kind of people going back home and we see the other part of the city which is like our suburbs but much cleaner. The cost of traveling by bus is also not that much way cheaper than the Taxi does take lot of time but makes you see new roads.

Important roads in Tel Aviv:
After I went there, I came to know English ruled Israel for around 30 years from 1918 to 1948 and that was the reason we found lot of English Road names such as King George, Allenby road, Gordon road, Tempeldor Street etc.
We stayed in Hevron/Hebron street which is connecting the famous Tempeldor street where there is graveyard of famous personalities of Israel.
Dizengoff Street: This is a shopping street where you will find super cool stores and good eating places. Also there is a big bridge kind of thing where people can relax and just gaze around. There is a flea market every Thursday and Friday
Allenby Street: This is called the Party Street, lots of clubs and disco added with strip bars and lots of pizza place.

Beach: It is a stretch of around 4.5 KMS approximately where you can just walk down or take a cycle and go till Jaffa aka Yafo. There are big footpaths where you can cycle your way and see the amazing views. On Fridays and Saturdays the beach is almost full and you can just chill where no one will come and tell you buy something.
Port: It was a real port once upon a time and then they shifted to a new place leaving this place barren but some wise people used the empty warehouse for restaurants, shops and clubs. The view is super awesome always windy and never empty.

Note: There is a shop called AM PM which is open 24x7 and they have practically everything. You can buy a beer and can give them back the bottles where you can get 1.20 Shekels per empty bottle which is super cool.

People: As it is said People make the city and I found some of the coolest people around, you be from anywhere, wear anything, do anything (it does not mean running naked and hitting people) people do not care. They just go about their business and enjoy their life. The people like to eat and drink and also exercise so you will rarely find a fat man. Met a taxi driver who is 80 year old and still goes for morning walk without fail (which actually put all us young guys in shame).

For more photos check out:
Link 1
Link 2

Will update on Jerusalem and Jaffa aka Yafo

M.A.D. Interview

2010-02-14T10:02:00.000-08:00

Yes, finally after lots of thought and after-thoughts finally tried to take a plunge into doing some social work well wanted to start with something simple and what can be more simpler than teaching English to the kids from the range of 3 years old to 15 years.

M.A.D aka Make A Difference a NGO (Non Profit Organisation) which was started in 2007 in Kochi to teach kids in Child Centers English and develop self confidence which is so very much important in this world.

It was 14th February, 2010 when I go and give my first interview to be a part of MAD and my GOD!! what a brilliant day it was, they are true to their organisation name MAD, where at one point Personal Interviews goes on and at another point people are playing some group games, if this process is done anywhere else in big companies on Sundays I would say the students would definitely want to join your company.

Well there were few interesting games which were a part of the process and I might definitely going to integrate it in my trekking trip.

After almost four hours of fun and games in which personal interview was also included, day ended and hell I did not know how the time flew by.

Final Result: Me not getting selected and the very Best of Luck to M.A.D

US Conducting Business these Days

2010-01-29T21:35:00.001-08:00

It's a slow day in a little East Texas town. The sun is beating down, and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.....

On this particular day a rich tourist from back east is driving through town. He stops at the motel and lays a $100 bill on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night..

As soon as the man walks upstairs, the owner grabs the bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.

The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire his debt to the pig farmer.

The pig farmer takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill at the supplier of feed and fuel.

The guy at the Farmer's Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer her "services" on credit.

The hooker rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill with the hotel owner.

The hotel proprietor then places the $100 back on the counter so the rich traveler will not suspect anything.

At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, picks up the $100 bill, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money, and leaves town.

No one produced anything. No one earned anything.

However, the whole town is now out of debt and now looks to the future with a lot more optimism..

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the United States Government is conducting business today.

Road Trip - Konkan Beaches Day 2

2010-01-29T20:24:00.000-08:00

The first day of the trip, read this

Day 1, we still continue driving towards Sawantwadi around 3.30 pm from Karde and we know we cannot make it to Sawantwadi that night decide to stop at a small town called Lanja (लांजा). Had a good dinner and luckily found a very cheap place for Rs. 280/- only in a lodge and luckily they are dog friendly. Kasper was enjoying the whole new experience of new place and was relieving himself at every possible stone and tyre. We get up early next day and start our trip towards Sawantwadi after good breakfast.
Distance between Dapoli to Sawantwadi - 378.0 km
The roads were again full of cars and ghats and trucks and Mr. Gautam was in full mood to reach Sawantwadi in 4 hours which should take generally 6 hours. Going up and down the ghat was super fun the view were awesome. As we were in hurry to meet up our friend at Sawantwadi we did not stop inbetween.
We meet our friend at Sawantwadi and head towards Tarkarli which is our main destination. Take a turn from Kudal towards Tarkarli which is around 30 Kms and the roads are awesome, we pass through a river and it looks like backwaters of Kerala totally serene.
Note: ST Buses from Sawantwadi, Kolhapur, Sindhudurgh run regularly to Tarkarli and Devbaug. Also Rickshaw from Kudal station to Tarkarli takes Rs. 300+
Tarkarli is just a small 2 way road nothing fancy and nothing big. You will see a big parking lot next to MTDC, we parked our car and went to the beach and we were in awe all clean and neat. After running around and swimming on the beach we were all hungry and wanted something to eat. Whats better to eat then the Malwan Cuisine in Malwan. We go to a small hotel and sit down where the food was cooked after we decide on what to eat. Food does take a lot of time to come but it was nice real home food.
Note: One can do Snorkeling for Rs. 250 per person for 30 minutes and dolphin watching for Rs. 1000 for 10 people max.
After lunch we went to see Devbagh on the way we had a tyre puncture luckily for electrical jack the car tyre were changed in quick time.
We move towards Devbagh, the roads got narrower and narrower, if two cars came from opposite direction both have to get off road. But the end was awesome we reached after sunset but it was a beauty. Tarkarli river and sea joining each other is a sight to see. After lazying around for few hours we head back to find a place to stay in already overcrowded Tarkarli.
After running around and lots of calling we get a place to stay in Hotel Visawa because someone had canceled their visit (lucky us!). Rooms for Rs. 1000 was not bad considering there was TV, hot water and big room for 3 human and one dog. Also the best part was private beach where one can go for a walk.
Note: Tarkarli is a safe beach so you can indulge yourself in a good midnight walk.
After all the traveling we go to sleep!
For photos click here

Twitter for Dummies - Not All you want to know...

2010-01-25T09:42:00.000-08:00

I use twitter in office like millions others do and some of them who don't understand what is it ask me lots of questions....and by this I am inspired to write my FAQ and few details about twitter and its features which millions of blogger's must have written about. Anyways I have to increase the number of post so here it comes....mind you it is not complete just a few of those which I can explain :)

Twitter: Twitter is a free social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. (first line in Wikipedia)

Tweets: Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers. In simple sentence, write down anything in 140 words and person who follows you will see it on his timeline.

Handle: Handle is a username which you create similar to GTalk, Yahoo IM, etc etc. Some put in real name and some do come with awesome alter ego handle.

Tweeple: People on twitter are called Tweeple

Followers: It is similar to being friend with someone on facebook. Well similar not same, here if you follow someone they can see your tweets. But the other person cannot see your tweet because he is not following you.

Timeline: This is again similar to Facebook wall where you will see tweets of Tweeples whom you are following.

RT (ReTweet): This is done when you like someones tweet on your timeline and want to show it to your friend. It is bit simple, "@XYZ says twitter is awesome" and you agree with it and want to share with your group followers you just RT it and it will show as "RT: @XYZ says Twitter is awesome"and this can continue over and over again.

DM (Direct Message): This is an interesting feature of Twitter, you cannot DM who is not following you and vice versa. So to have a private chat you have to follow each other.

List: It is bit confusing for the new user but if you want to see your favorite tweeples in one page just add them to your List which you can name anything and click on it you will see what they have tweeted about. It is like a mini-follow list.

Hashtag (#tag): This works as a subject line and things which can be put together. The best use of it was when it rained heavily in Mumbai and people wanted to know the exact situation about Mumbai Rains, tweeples at the start or end of the tweet would just type #mumbairains which others can search and know about it instead of typing Mumbai or Rains which can give lots of info.

Reply: You can reply to another tweeple tweet by just using @username, this will be seen by the tweeple and he can reply you back. But make sure when you use @username other tweeple who follow you and other tweeple can see the tweet. So there is no privacy.

And you will always say, twitter is so difficult to understand and don't know what is going on. You say these things because you are on twitter web which is the last thing you should do. There are gazzillions of apps for desktop, MAC, mobile and iPhone that you would not want to go on twitter website to tweet. You just download one of those apps and you are on twitter.

Desktop App:
Destroy Twitter
TweetDeck
Seesmic Desktop
PeopleBrowsr

MAC Apps:
MAC Lounge
Nambu
Tweetie
TwitterPod

Mobile/iPhone Apps:
Snaptu
Gravity
Dabr

ICICI website Revamped

2010-01-21T22:40:00.000-08:00

One of the biggest bank in India has revamped their website ICICIBank.com have a look here

The most hillarious part of it is the scrolling text which is displayed with profile photos of ICICI Bank users stating, love the new look and i like ICICI bank.

I mean what do they want to state here, first of all user are not allowed to upload photos on the website and then we see this. Phunny aint it...but one thing is sure they do have good web presence overall.

NASSCOM Gaming Summit 2009 – Tour Diary

2010-01-18T05:09:00.000-08:00

An article by my colleague Arjun Nair about our trip to Hyderabad 2009 GDC

The year 2009 will be remembered in the history books of Indian game developers as NASCCOM finally blessed the gaming industry with its very own “GDC-like” event to be held every year henceforth.
The NASSCOM Gaming Summit 2009 (which I’ll refer to as NGS09 henceforth because life’s too short) aimed to bring game developers across India (and some from abroad) under one roof where they could exchange ideas, stories on game dev, case studies, visiting cards and generally show off their development talents.

Here are the highlights of the event:
• We got off our plane at 8 in the morning at Hyderabad Airport - a stunning piece of architecture that manages to make Mumbai Airport look like a Dharavi slum. It made for a great first impression at the very least!

•    Ernest Adams, legendary game designer, set the tone and mood of the conference by both being frank and witty. I was surprised to see that his presentation consisted almost entirely of text – so much for the theory that successful people use eye-pleasing presentations to engage the audience! Obviously, Adams hasn’t heard of it.

•    It was refreshing to see developers giving case studies that were both honest and in-depth. This is precisely the kind of exchange that Indian developers need in order to grow and learn. Games like Pahelika, Hanuman and Gajini were covered by their respective developers and its quite interesting to see the different approaches and thinking taken by them in the development of the games.

•    When FX Labs were concluding their presentation on Gajini, which consisted entirely of “Things that went right”, someone asked them, “What about things that went wrong?”. Imran Khan, VP, FX Labs said, “Can’t think of anything that went wrong”. That should be a first in game development! Anyone who’s played the game care to comment? ;)

• During the BioShock (the 2d and 3d mobile games) presentation, VLC media player managed to crash spectacularly during playback of the video of the 3d game and hung the laptop. A surprising number of people recorded this event on their phone cameras for posterity. Sanity was restored by the combination of the good ol’ “three fingered salute”, Task Manager and Kill Process method. I suppose that’s one way of grabbing audience attention!

• The most number of laughs (arguably) in the conference were elicited when Purnima , in the course of her presentation, showed off a video (taken in the IG office) demonstrating developer ignorance about the Game Design Document. She went around the office asking people, “What is a GDD?” and the responses were hilarious! If you haven’t seen the video yet and need a good laugh, do yourself a service and ask Purnima for the video.

• A note on food and drinks at the venue: The non-veg, esp. lamb gosht was fantastic but I have it on good authority that the vegetarian food wasn’t up to the mark. A good thing I’m non-vegetarian then eh? Also, I had probably the best Tiramisu (a sweet pudding in case you didn’t know – I didn’t!) ever! Apparently there were a beer party in the evening at 6 but unfortunately, I can’t comment on how that went since we had a plane to catch. You could say though that everyone left the event in “high spirits” in more ways than one.

Nitish Kumar - Business Reformer of the Year

2010-01-16T19:25:00.000-08:00

Was watching TV yesterday morning when on Times Now News Channel ET Awards was on and Nitish Kumar CM of State of Bihar got the award of Business Reformer of the Year...please do watch the video and how he is wooing the Businessmen to come to Bihar. And also taking a potshot at Pranab Mukherjee

Parents Mentality

2010-01-10T07:15:00.000-08:00

I am very lucky to have my parents who have now understood the finer things in life and at which winning is not everything. I am taking up this topic just for one reason...how winning is important to parents which might not be so much for their kids.

Aunt from US: Hey you look tired?
Me: Yes
AFUS: Why?
Me: Was playing cricket for four hours.
AFUS: Ohh! nice! so did you win?
Me: Yes...(i wanted to say..i really don't care if I win or lose all I did was had fun.)

Yes, yes I don't have kids and don't know much about it though no formal studies on that but basic nature is...why are parents so sucked up on did you win or not?

The questions should be Did you enjoy your game? or Did you learn something new?

Here they are emphasizing all about winning and losing in a cricket match which is played in a ground with guys who just want to have fun on a weekend.

Another interesting story which I heard was this in a Parents and kids counseling room:

Counselor: So tell me what would you like your kids to become?
Parent 1: Engineer
Parent 2: Doctor
Parent 3: CA
kept on going till the last one.
Counselor: mmm interesting...so no one wants their kid to become a well behaved and helpful human being....

Look at all the things which we do today is run a rat race even which we win we are still a rat...quoted by someone which I don't remember. Parents compare ohh look at XYZ he has gone to US and you are still here...the kid would just think and say see what Mr. Nandan Nilenkani or Mr. Sunil Mittal has done and you are still here.

So to all the parents out there..I know it is a big bad world out there but if you constantly remind your kid about it surely they will be shit scared to go out there and enjoy instead just run around.

Five Point Someone Vs 3 Idiots

2010-01-02T02:54:00.000-08:00

There has being a fight going off between the writer of Five Point Someone (FPS) Chetan Bhagat and 3 Idiots team Vidhu Vinod Chopra mainly due to the reason that there was no credit given to the book in the movie.

After rave reviews, I go for my first film of the year 2010 and it turned out to be super duper awesome experience in which people were clapping and whistling at times when the characters said some awesome dialogue or some scene which actually touched the heart (that is Raju Hirani special).

Having read Chetan Bhagat book long time back but still was one of my favorite due to the style of his writing and he went downhill after that (sorry but true).

The story is not same as the book but the overall characters and plot was similar to the book but things inside it were totally not in the book. Sorry CB you should have atleast got Inspired by CB book FPS but not the full movie credit coz there was nothing else same.

But I must say Raju Hirani pulled off another masterpiece and loved every minute of it.

Last Day of 2009

2009-12-31T21:51:00.000-08:00

As our regular ritual we have to go to a party where there is booze and food on the house that means pay up and everything is yours. We end up going to a place in Andheri called Grande Imperial whose cost was steep but looked promising.

Reaching around 10.30'ish and looking at the crowd who were entering it was fun to see some college going kids getting all decked up to party. The girls were in their best clothes, high heels guys were wearing black shirt and fundoo hairstyle. I was just smiling all the way while waiting for a friend to arrive.

We go in and actually see kids who are just 17 and drinking...it is not that I mind their drinking but the organisers should not what if they get caught. So 12 am Wishing my friends people started throwing alcohol here and there which few drops fell on us. As we knew about their age status we just had to stare.

Bar was always full and alcohol was flowing...and kids could not handle their drinks. I saw the most number of people puking around in all my party years.

We had a grand exit to 2009 and making a Grand Entry into 2010.

So everyone shout out loud with me "HAPPY NEW YEAR"

Start of a New Decade

2009-12-31T01:25:00.000-08:00

And 2009 is about to end and with it a new decade starts in next 10 hours...many things have happened over the past 10 years good, bad and ugly. If we start to make a list, we would go more than 2+ pages of blog.

For me, I don't recollect the good and bad just move on and keep on learning which should be my next years resolution...starting with web designing to making pastries and travelling more.

You would say why Pastries, hey this one thing would put me in high pedestial of being cute and nice...giving free cakes to people in birthdays and making it more personal.

Losing weight which I have being putting it all through 2009 but no more of pushing it ahead in 2010. Few signs are showing so all in all have to work on it.

So let us all Glitter this year and make everyone happy.

Road Trip - Konkan Beaches

2009-12-29T23:56:00.000-08:00

Planned 3 days ahead on what to do for the big X'mas weekend and a good friend also leaving for USA early next month so decided to head down south to the beaches with his dog named Kasper

Day 1:
Started at 3 am so that we get empty roads and reach early to the first destination which was Dapoli. Around 300 KMS from Mumbai, Dapoli is a small town with beaches namely Murud, Kurde and Harnai 10 Kms away from it. To reach Dapoli you have to take NH17 and take a right turn from Khed town which looks like a diversion and then drive through the hills for 30 Kms to reach Dapoli.

Murud: Super white sand and water is clean which makes you go in without a second thought (ie until and unless you don't like water and the same sentence will be repeated in the next blog also). Here you can go for Dolphin Spotting, wind surfing and speed boat at a reasonable cost.

Karde: It is the empty cousin of Murud beach and driving to that place is pain in the ass as the roads are bad but reaching there you feel like you deserve that drive. There are lots of places to stay near the beach which looked quite good and neat. More of a family area and away from human settlement.

Had breakfast and Lunch just next to the beach.

Around 3 pm we started driving back and stopped on the way to shop for Cashew nuts which are cheap and good compared to Mumbai (as my mom told me).

Whats your Secret?

2009-12-06T20:58:00.000-08:00

This guy is super awesome and has one the best blogspots..all about your secrets a small video he made..check it out

PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death and God from Frank Warren on Vimeo.

The total number of visitors in his page is super crazy in a min almost more than 500 unique users come to his website from all over the world.

I hope he sells his books in India...

Indian Serials - How we love to Hate them

2009-12-04T01:38:00.000-08:00

Well, some of us mortals who have only one TV at home and parents do want to watch their daily dose of Ekta-ised Hindi Serials. What else can we do but watch it back, few observations I made while watching the serials...

Joint Family:
Four generations live under the same roof GrandPa, Son of Grandpa, Son of son of Grandpa and son of son of son of Grandpa....and also Mama, Chacha, Kaka and the kids. So in a typical serial you will find around 25+ living under one roof.

Business:

This will be the biggest mystery of all the Serials, no viewer knows what the family business is but they still wear the most expensive suits, silk kurta and best designed sarees.

Food:
When food is served and let us say even breakfast everyone is super decked up in again Armani suit and silk sarees as if they have to go somewhere.

Family Meeting:
This is one thing which I have never understood is family meeting has to be standing where someone will come and say a happy news in which 5 people will be happy and 2 will always be unhappy. Opposite effect for a sad news. I mean doesn't it hurt their feet standing up even if a plush Sofa made with authentic leather is made.

Slow Motion:
That takes up 25% of the showtime...happy news slow motion for every other person in the room, sad news slow motion of every other person in the room, someone coming in the house slow motion entry.

Camera Panning:
Sad news, sad face shown four times which looks like a presentation coming from left once, from bottom, from right and then a jerk motion. By the end of all the animation I forget what the bad news was.

Makeup:

Seen the most abnoxious kind of makeup which 3rd role aunt wears, massive bindi on their forehead which takes up 50% of the area..I mean who does that...

Background Score:
If you don't have a background score in the serial, you are not important in the serial. Vamps and Vampies have a background score like *tan tana* etc etc when they enter or have a bad thought in their mind. We viewers can live without it seriously.

Festivals:

Be it Diwali, Garba, Holi and even Christmas family has to celebrate in a big way.....things which will happen in a festive celebration....someone will be caught doing a bad deed, there will be some misunderstanding and someone will shout something which will stop the whole proceeding. Someone who was never seen before enters the house and creates a *ooh and aah* moment in the family. So there will be no festival without any issues.

Romance:
Girl will fall in love with someone who is poor and vice versa or she will fall in love with someone who is family personal enemy Son and vice versa...they will fight and run and lie their way around but rarely they will do talk romantically but all the conversation will be around family member. I mean get a life and talk something else.

These are the few things which I have noticed..would love if you add more...

Living out of the Box

2009-11-19T03:13:00.001-08:00

Super Ad..i think why was it never shown on tv

Super Chase Sequence - Video

2009-11-19T01:38:00.001-08:00

This is one video shot in Mumbai...you surely have to see the end of this.

AMAZZZINNGGG!!

BidPax - Save Money?

2009-11-16T09:50:00.001-08:00

Bumped onto the website called bidpax.com via facebook ads on the right where it said buy an Apple Mac for Rs. 9.58 only.

So there I was...it took me time to figure this out but they are one heck of a website...guarantee making money on all products even if they sell them at 98% discount.

So here it goes how they make money (i will go step by step):

1) They put up an product up on for say 30 mins to go and product might be an 42" LCD, MAC Book, Nikkon DSLR etc etc

2) Initial cost of the product Rs. 0.00 with 10 mins pending

3) You can bid them but before that few steps more

a) Create a login

b) Buy Bid Packages [Bid packages are the number of bids you can do but you have to pay up for that check at the end]

c) Now you can start bidding

4) Now click on the product you want to bid.

5) The bid amount will go up by 1 paise…yes yes 1 paise!!!!

6) After you bid the time also increases by 10 seconds giving other users opportunities to bid higher than you.

So at the end when the clock which finally turns to zero, the highest bidder buys the product

So you would say what I am getting to...well look at the chart below

Bids Cost Cost/Bid

30 Bids Rs. 2,160 = 72

60 Bids Rs. 3,456 = 58

100 Bids Rs. 4,608 = 46

200 Bids Rs. 5,760 = 29

350 Bids Rs. 11,232 = 32

500 Bids Rs. 14,400 = 29

1150 Bids Rs. 24,000 = 21

You can see you have to buy out bids as said before, if we calculate each bid approximately cost Rs. 65 and below as we increase the number of bids we want to buy.

So you start to think of buying a LCD 32” Samsung TV on an average around 50K. People start bidding and coz they see only that product is sold for Rs. 0.01 and to the max at Rs. 10.01 and in the end the one highest bidder say Rs. 10.01 wins.

So let me start my maths here, as you can see the cost per bid in the column above maximum being 72 and minimum being 21 so overall average is around Rs. 40/bid

Let us now calculate 10.01 is the final winning cost, so 1001 times product bidding was done. Multiply it with 40

1001 x 40 = Rs. 40040

The website got back Rs. 40040 back from the user itself plus Rs. 10.01 as a bonus.

Now doesn’t that make a good business deal?

I would like to congratulate the guys who did it all…

obligation

2009-11-04T22:10:00.000-08:00

Defination: noun 1 an act or course of action to which a person is morally or legally bound. 2 the condition of being morally or legally bound to do something. 3 a debt of gratitude for a service or favour.

After all these years I have learnt one thing...you are not obliged to do anything for others. And if you do something with your own desire, the other person is not obliged to help you back.

So never be disappointed that someone did not help you coz he is not obliged.

Go enjoy and live your life

Braid the Game

2009-10-29T02:49:00.001-07:00

Braid..super game to play where you can undo your wrong moves and move ahead in the world

Politicians and You

2009-10-28T02:14:00.000-07:00

Every time you go and vote, in the back of your mind do you vote for the politician to win your assembly or you look at the bigger picture and see who do you want at the Center?

The above question can surely will have to talk about good or bad or neutral, but I am not going to thread this part of the water as of now.

Recently concluded Maharashtra elections in which Congress/NCP were the clear winners with 144 seats and about to form the Government with Mr. Ashok Chavan of Congress as the CM and Mr. Chagan Bhujbal of NCP (Nationalist Congress Party) as Dy CM. Well everything was going well when NCP decided to split up the CM seat ie 3 years a Congressman with be a CM and next 2 years of the tenure NCP man will be the CM.

So where does this leave us as voters who cast their vote and shouting out to everyone to come out and vote for a better government and so forth and so on. It leaves us with no CM whose Oath Ceremony was supposed to happen this Thursday ie 29th October.

So what I suggest to the Election Commision, who I think should work for betterment of the people not of the politicians:

Before the elections, the Party must tell the voters who will be the CM/PM if they win the election
Before the elections, the Parties should tell the voters on who they will be in coalition with (so there will be no king makers and queen makers)
Before the elections, all the post ie Home Ministry, Defence Ministry etc the parties should declare to the voters who will they be.

This would help the voters on who would be the one taking the reigns of the State/Country and vote accordingly.
This would help people to see that there are no swapping of politicians and independents for the sake of money which we pay as taxes to the government.
This would help people to see a smooth transperent start to the Govt.

Do give me your feedback.

The Wall Project - Mumbai

2009-10-27T05:19:00.000-07:00

King of PopImage by kapil_b via Flickr

On 15th and 16th August BMC decided to make Mumbai more cooler by telling the Mumbaikars to draw what they feel and they did with super enthu and created some wicked wall paitings.

Now they decided to make it even more better by calling out Mumbaikars for painting the remaining walls and this time I would not miss it. So after partying on Saturday night and starting Sunday morning with hangover was not a good start but went through it and reached Mahim station where two of my friends were already waiting for me with the paints (i am no great painter tho). The theme which they had decided on was teach Mumbai. So wall was divided by BMC team from क to ...

So we got च, छ, ज and we made चाबी, छत्री and जहाज . The best part of all the painting and drawing was we got to meet people with cool imagination and some awesome drawing quality. I loved to draw the background paint and added few things here and there in the photo. I am all praise to BMC who helped each and everyone who were painting and had all the colours available.

So some of photos and how it is please feedback on how it looks.

Midnight Buffet - La Brasserie (Le Meridian)

2009-10-07T11:03:00.000-07:00

Immense bay windows overlook the shimmering pool. A sumptuous buffet presents familiar and exotic selection of Indian, French, Italian, Oriental, and Mediterranean specialties. The midnight buffet is especially popular for a late night haunt.

This is what they have written on their website to which I agree to the last sentence about Midnight Buffet, being to few in Mumbai and for me this one tops the list.

With 2 soups, 10 starters, 10 main course, ice creame and live kitchen. At times you do get a bottle of beer or glass of wine complimentary. The service is generally good and food does taste really good.

Damages: Rs. 550+ per person

Generally the Buffet closes at 3 pm.....

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

MidNight Buffet - Parabola (Rodas ECotel Hotel)

2009-10-07T10:46:00.000-07:00

As many would say not the best nor near the best amongst the buffet and I would seriously agree with them but this is one place where you can get food after 12 pm. So you hungry and insomniac soul who just want to sit and eat their very very late dinner in Powai so this is the place.

Cost around Rs. 350+ per person this place gives you almost everything 2 soups, 6+ starters, 6+ main course and at times an live kitchen. Service is good but not that great. Also note that they do not refill the food which is finished so make sure you do reach there by 12 or else you might miss some of the food as the place is packed (coz there is only one around)

Also check out the menu card of Parabola here

So a 2.5 star rating for Parabola

Social Gaming

2009-10-04T07:02:00.001-07:00

Once upon a time gaming was just you playing alone with your Atari or getting few friends at your place and playing 2 player games and battling against each other, laughing and shouting and giving advices on what to do and what not to do. Zoom to 2009 the gaming has changed so much that now everyone from 10 year old kid with internet access and grandparents who know PC enough are addicted to gaming.
Now it is called Social Gaming..but you do not meet your friends over the weekend but play with them the whole week and never think of calling them....send them gifts, ask for coins, help them in clearing their farm....

The thing which started the whole Social Gaming was Mafia Wars on Facebook click here for the link which you have to add your friends into your Mafia and kick other people butt...

create properties, buy weapons/armory/bonuses and create your own inventory and vault it...

But first came in Zyngas Texas Holdem Poker which is clocking over more than Million Users playing regularly.

You will now say what has this Poker done?
First of all, you can bet in as much as you want and don’t be afraid of losing your real money and still get a high by winning virtual money.
Second , be on top of the list on who is the boss in your friends list most money
Now they have taken the Poker into another level , adding a social element where you increase your level for every hand you play. Post your best on the facebook homepage….

Then they came out with a masterstroke, doing not any gaming could do before getting a big female net audience into gaming by creating Farmville…Farmville, yes Farmville where you have to create your own farm and make it big by plowing and seeding and harvesting by just clicking the mouse buttons.

Sow Sunflower, Strawberries, Tomatoes etc etc also create your own farm by buying Cows, ducks, sheep’s etc. Also purchase trees like cherry, bananas, avocados. Buy your own cottages, tree houses I mean hell they keep on adding new things every week.

So this is all about Social Gaming and now every company wants to do make sure people keep on coming by giving them new things all the time.

Current Rage on Facebook

2009-09-23T22:03:00.001-07:00

Now first thing people ask just before leaving is are you FACEBOOK, well only a few percent of urban crowd are not there on FB, some just create a login and don't do much after first few days coz it is very confusing.

But the recent rage going on in FaceBook is FarmVille and Mafia Wars these two games have captured the imagination of most of the player. Not only their viral marketing is superb as you keep keep getting updates on what your friend is doing, who he killed, what they grew and also the colour makes you just click on it and check out what the fad is about.

But these are so addictive at one point if you are a working professional and access to FB in office then it is guaranteed that you might lose few productive hours into it.

All in all an awesome concept changed how FB works.

Confused!!

2009-09-23T06:03:00.001-07:00

A new Job Profile a new Thing...after 5 years of working on Mobile Games and Mobile Phones, I was recommended by my CEO to get into Website development and work as Product Manager, its being around 3 weeks yet to get the hang of things (i know i am a slow learner). The way things work around here it at seems i am in a new company but can see my old team-mates around.

So all in all these 3 weeks have gone super slow, still learning new tricks, new things which i am not sad about but the speed at which I am told to do something about it is very alarming. One person doing 10 different things in a day, how do you keep a tab on his working hours???

So will be sitting with my Manager and need to list down questions on what to do and how to do?

Wish me luck

The all new Blogger Gadget

2009-09-22T02:25:00.001-07:00

Added the new Widget on iGoogle called Blogger Gadget. Cool new stuff where you just have to go to iGoogle page and post your blog.

Foot in Mouth Disorder Part Deux

2009-06-22T06:49:00.001-07:00

Almost a year back the same incident happened which i am about to write it down...please read this and then proceed reading....

Down at a bar to meetup with friends and bump into friends and we are getting introduced and all.
Me: handshake "Hi, i am Vishwas"
Girl: "are you Vishwas Kasat"
Me: surprised "Yes"
Girl: "do you remember me?"
Me: still in state of shock "mmm...no sorry...i cannot recollect your face"
Girl: "i am XYZ"
Me: "ohh hey how are you?"

Now the story is, i used to wish this girl on her birthdays and bumping into each other after 4 years almost of no contact with each other, really took my by surprise but here comes the best part

Girl: "how can you forget me?"
Me: "you know you have grown healthy"
Girl: Calling out a common friend "do you think i have increased weight?"
Common friend: "you are the same for past 4 years"
Girl: "see"
Me: "mmm...noo..i mean...the light is bit dull and i did not expect to bump into you in here....thought you were out of town."

So learnt two things in this encounter..
1. Never forget a girls face and name
2. Never tell a girl you have become healthy

So another of my FOOT IN MOUTH DISORDERS

E-Karva Chauth

2008-10-22T21:32:00.000-07:00

So we are talking about technology taking over our life and things becoming simple and simple day by day. On 17th October, 2008 was Karva Chauth, and my good friend decided to do a fast for her Fiance who is right now working in US.

So i had a chat with her on the same day and she was telling me that she just broke off her fast, my first question was did you see the photo and broke the fast. Zap came the reply, no i saw him on the webcam and then had my first bite.
Me: Then did you put tilak on his forehead? Did you bend over and touch his feet through the screen?

Technology...you can be anywhere and be in touch with anyone but this one i found the most bizzare things to happen.

Bakra - Invitation

2008-10-14T22:50:00.000-07:00

As we work on Saturdays and Sundays due to project work and deadlines....developers got bored and wanted to have some fun. So these 2 guys decided to make a Bakra out of one guy....well as we all know you can change the name in Outlook Express in which you have to see.

We have this hot looking girl in office and some rumor were out that she was getting married. So the developers had sent an invitation to this guy (Mind you a pseudo one of address) so we have

Guy (made fun of) - Bakra

Girl - Hot babe

Who made fun - Cyrus Broucha of our office...

This started saturday afternoon and enjoy the conversation.

Note: READ from bottom to top....

===============================================================

----- Original Message -----

From: Guy (Made fun of)

To: Girl'

Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2008 5:29 PM

Subject: RE: Invitation

Aree tu to bhag bhi gaye…

Mai clean shave karke dekha hai re ppl laugh at me. Seriously.

From: Girl[mailto:Who made fun]
Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2008 5:21 PM
To: Guy (Made fun of)
Subject: Re: Invitation

no re...ek baar try karke to dekh...bachha nahi lagega...aur agar bachha laga to next time nahi karne ka na...

try to kar 1 baar...

----- Original Message -----

From: Guy (Made fun of)

To: Girl'

Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2008 5:17 PM

Subject: RE: Invitation

Thanks yaar.

I ws about to ask u but tune tare engagement ka news de deya L

Aree u wont beliv if I‘ll shave my beard na I look very bachha.

From: Girl[mailto:Who made fun]
Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2008 5:10 PM
To: Guy (Made fun of)
Subject: Re: Invitation

tera hairstyle sahi hai..u look cool...didnt u find any gf in IG?

i think u shud shave off ur beard...

aur cool dikhega tu...its my view....

----- Original Message -----

From: Guy (Made fun of)

To: Girl'

Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2008 5:07 PM

Subject: RE: Invitation

Ya my bad luck. D biggest flirter in our studio is me and after me no1. hehehe

From: Girl[mailto:Who made fun]
Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2008 4:56 PM
To: Guy (Made fun of)
Subject: Re: Invitation

hehehehe....

i dont mind u flirting wid me....

u missed the chance....

who do u think is the biggest flirter in ur studio?since u dnt hve any gals m asking u....

----- Original Message -----

From: Guy (Made fun of)

To: Girl'

Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2008 4:51 PM

Subject: RE: Invitation

Abhi tera engagement ko bohut time hai to mai abhi flirt kar sakta hai. Shit yaar mai miss keya mareko kya malum tu mareko milne aaye thi.

jab malum pada tab tu aage chale gaye thi re. aur agar mai tare se baat bhi karta na to mera pura studio mareko question mark k saath dekhta tha. Hum log ka studio me koi ladki nahi hai na thts y ppl over here are little daravna. U knw wt we call our studio “Boys hostel” ;-)

From: Girl[mailto:Who made fun]
Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2008 4:16 PM
To: Guy (Made fun of)
Subject: Re: Invitation

hey...stop flirting..i know u Guy (Made fun of)s.....:)

kya tu bhi baat nahi karta...tere baju mein se abhi abhi gayi...

mein bolti thi lekin mujhe tera studio people ke samne baat karne ko bahut darr lagta hai specially abhi jo log baithe hai wo log and also ur studio head...

----- Original Message -----

From: Guy (Made fun of)

To: Girl'

Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2008 4:04 PM

Subject: RE: Invitation

Mareko abhi shadi ka kuch jaldi nahi re…jab bachelor life se pak jayega tab sochange.

Ha mai suna now u ppl cnt use gtalk. Kam ke time kaam nahi karoge to aisa he hoga na? aur dekho tum log ko aaj bhi aana pad raha hai.

We ppl come evry weknd re bohat kam hai. But 2dy feeling gud in office, 1^st time m seeing gud faces in office on weeknd. J

From: Girl[mailto:Who made fun]
Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2008 3:56 PM
To: Guy (Made fun of)
Subject: Re: Invitation

I thought so...

hum ladki log aisa hi hai....so whn r u gettin married?

actually gtalk ban kiya hum log ke studio mein nahi to mein gtalk mein hi chat karti..

fukut ka bulaya...i think u dont hve work..busy chatting wid me..:)

----- Original Message -----

From: Guy (Made fun of)

To: Girl'

Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2008 3:51 PM

Subject: RE: Invitation

Nahi re baba…aisa kuch nahi re..apna dono ka prob same hai na. tum ladki log bhi na kuch bhi soch te ho.

From: Girl[mailto:Who made fun]
Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2008 3:36 PM
To: Guy (Made fun of)
Subject: Re: Invitation

Great...so we share the same personality...

can i ask u 1 Question?mein itni buri hu ki tu merese baat bhi nahi kar sakta?

----- Original Message -----

From: Guy (Made fun of)

To: Girl'

Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2008 3:33 PM

Subject: RE: Invitation

Sahi paichana re tu mareko…ha re mera bhi wahi prob hai e1 I ws nt abl to tlk to u directly.

From: Girl[mailto:Who made fun]
Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2008 3:25 PM
To: Guy (Made fun of)
Subject: Re: Invitation

thts great...i was jst forcing u bcoz this wud be my last occasion in IG...

gift nahi layega to bhi chalega...

hum log ne kabhi itna baat nahi kiya na IG mein...the thing is mein bahut shy hu...aur tu bhi kabhi baat nahi kiya

tu bhi shy hai kya?

----- Original Message -----

From: Guy (Made fun of)

To: Girl'

Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2008 3:20 PM

Subject: RE: Invitation

Chalo pakka aayega. tl me wt gift u want??? J

From: Girl[mailto:Who made fun]
Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2008 3:07 PM
To: Guy (Made fun of)
Subject: Re: Invitation

aayega to achha rehga...bcoz all those to whom i hve mailed i.e tara people are going to come...so it wud be nice f u can make it

----- Original Message -----

From: Guy (Made fun of)

To: Girl'

Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2008 3:04 PM

Subject: RE: Invitation

I’ll sure try yaar.. dekhte hai chutti meltai hai kya...

From: Girl[mailto:Who made fun]
Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2008 2:59 PM
To: Guy (Made fun of)
Subject: Re: Invitation

Thanx for ur wishes...But wud u be coming or not....

Regards,
Girl.

Studio Tara.

Indiagames Ltd.

----- Original Message -----

From: Guy (Made fun of)

To: Girl.'

Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2008 2:56 PM

Subject: RE: Invitation

Hey… congrez

From: Girl[mailto:Who made fun]
Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2008 1:29 PM
To: Guy (Made fun of)
Subject: Invitation

Hi,

You are cordially invited for my engagement on 17th November, 2008 - Monday....at Sant Dyaneshwar Hall, Near DV Nayak Market, Sanpada, Sector17...

Regards,
Girl.

Studio Tara.

Indiagames Ltd.

----- Original Message -----

From: Girl

To: xxx

Sent: Friday, October 11, 2008 1:00 PM

>>Hi,

>> You are cordially invited for my engagement on 17th November, 2008 - Monday....at Sant Dyaneshwar Hall, Near DV Nayak >>Market, Sanpada, Sector17...

>>Regards,
>>Girl.

>>Studio Tara.

>>Indiagames Ltd.

============================================================================

Contemplating!!!

2008-09-13T23:37:00.000-07:00

For last few weeks i sit in front of my computer and log onto blogger and select onto new post, start writing first few lines about something which I am thinking and then start pressing backspace till the page gets cleared, stare at it for a while and then close the browser.

Just listening to Pink Floyd's one of the biggest hit "comfortably numb" i feel i have become something like that. Nothing now makes me feel astonished nothing now makes me feel energised nothing now makes me feel seek out and get it. Its not the first time i am feeling it but it has happened in the past also. So i just go about my daily routine of going to work and do it and come back home and sleep over it. Not interested in talking to anyone not interested in meeting with anyone just want to lie down and stare at the stars or at fans at times.

Two weeks back my head went crazy...started paining like crazy and when i close my eyes not to feel about it it comes back with more vengeance. Decide to go home and go for a check up...i used to have this headache when i did not eat my dinner properly and it used to subside but this time it would not relent coming back stronger. Decided to go to the doctor and got my check up done and result showed High Blood Pressure and Hypertension....i was not surprised but now starting to get back to track...doing exercise and planning to reduce my weight to 80Kgs.

Now about the heading what i am contemplating i hell still dont know, my head is working at superspeed and wants to do lotsa things but then there are forces which i cannot fight with for making me do things.

Finally my post after a very very long time

Sundarbans

2008-08-24T01:41:00.000-07:00

The Sundarbans (Bengali: সুন্দরবন Shundorbôn) is the largest single block of tidal halophytic mangrove forest in the world. It lies at the mouth of the Ganges and is spread across areas of Bangladesh and West Bengal, India, forming the seaward fringe of the delta. The forest covers 10,000 sq.km of which about 6,000 are in Bangladesh. It became inscripted as a UNESCO world heritage site in 1997, but while the Bangladeshi and Indian portions constitute the same continuous ecotype, these are separately listed in the UNESCO world heritage list as the Sundarbans and Sundarbans National Park, respectively. The Sundarbans is intersected by a complex network of tidal waterways, mudflats and small islands of salt-tolerant mangrove pawan are great forests. The area is known for the eponymous Royal Bengal Tiger, as well as numerous fauna including species of birds, spotted deer, crocodiles and snakes. It is estimated that there are now 500 Bengal tigers and about 30,000 spotted deer in the area. Sundarbans was designated a Ramsar site on May 21, 1992

"Sundarban" (সুন্দরবন Shundorbôn) literally means "beautiful jungle" or "beautiful forest" in the Bengali language. The name Sundarbans may also have been derived from the Sundari trees that are found in Sundarbans in large numbers. Other possible explanations can be a derivation from "Samudraban" (সমুদ্রবন Shomudrobôn "Sea Forest") or "Chandra-bandhe" (name of a primitive tribe). But the generally accepted view is the one associated with Sundari trees.

History

The first Forest Management Division to have jurisdiction over the Sundarbans was established in 1869. The Sundarbans was declared a reserved forest in 1875-76, under the Forest Act, 1865 (Act VIII of 1865). The first management plan was written for the period 1893-98. In 1875 a large portion of the mangrove forests was declared as reserved forests under the Forest Act, 1865 (Act VIII of 1865). The remaining portions of forests was declared as reserve forest the following year and the forest, which was so far was administered by the civil administration district, was placed under the control of the Forest Department. A Forest Division, which is the basic forest management and administration unit, was created in 1879 with the headquarter in Khulna.

The mangrove-dominated Ganges delta – the Sundarbans - is a complex ecosystem comprising one of the three largest single tracts of mangrove forests of the world. Shared between two neighboring countries, Bangladesh and India, the larger part (62%) is situated in the southwest corner of Bangladesh. To the south the forest meets the Bay of Bengal; to the east it is bordered by the Baleswar River and to the north there is a sharp interface with intensively cultivated land. The natural drainage in the upstream areas, other than the main river channels, is everywhere impeded by extensive embankments and polders. The Sundarbans was originally measured (about 200 years ago) to be of about 16,700 km². Now it has dwindled to about 1/3 of the original size. The total land area today is 4,143 km² (including exposed sandbars: 42 km²) and the remaining water area of 1,874 km² encompasses rivers, small streams and canals. Rivers in the Sundarbans are meeting places of salt water and freshwater. Thus, it is a region of transition between the freshwater of the rivers originating from the Ganges and the saline water of the Bay of Bengal.

Biotic factors here play a significant role in physical coastal evolution and for wildlife a variety of habitats have developed including beaches, estuaries, permanent and semi-permanent swamps, tidal flats, tidal creeks, coastal dunes, back dunes and levees. The mangrove vegetation itself assists in the formation of new landmass and the intertidal vegetation plays an important role in swamp morphology. The activities of mangrove fauna in the intertidal mudflats develop micro morphological features that trap and hold sediments to create a substratum for mangrove seeds. The morphology and evolution of the eolian dunes controlled by an abundance of xerophytic and halophytic plants. Creepers and grasses and sedges stabilize sand dunes and uncompacted sediments.

Flora:

The Bangladesh mangrove vegetation of the Sundarbans differs greatly from other non-deltaic coastal mangrove forest and upland forests associations. Unlike the former, the Rhizophoraceae are of minor importance. Differences in vegetation have been explained in terms of freshwater and low salinity influences in the Northeast and variations in drainage and siltation.

The Sundarbans has been classified as a moist tropical forest demonstrating a whole mosaic of seres, comprising primary colonization on new accretions to more mature beach forests, often conspicuously dominated by Keora and tidal forests. Historically three principal vegetation types have been recognized in broad correlation with varying degrees of water salinity, freshwater flushing and physiography and which are represented in the wildlife sanctuaries:

Fauna

The Sundarbans is very rich in wildlife. However the management of wildlife is presently restricted to the protection of fauna from poaching and designation of some areas as wildlife sanctuaries where no extraction of forest produce is allowed and the wildlife face few disturbances. Although it is clear that the faunal resource of Bangladesh has diminished in recent times and the Sundarbans has not been spared from this decline, the mangrove forest retains several good wildlife habitats and their associated fauna. Of these the tiger and dolphin are target species for planning wildlife management and tourism development. There are high profiles and vulnerable mammals living in two contrasting environments and their statuses and management are strong indicators of the general condition of wildlife and its management. The Sundarbans are home to approximately 500 Bengal Tigers as of 2004, one of the largest single populations of tigers.

Recent studies revealed that the Bangladesh Sundarbans support diverse biological resources including at least 120 species of commercially important fishes, 270 species of birds, 42 species of mammals, 35 reptiles and eight amphibian species. This represents a significant proportion of the species present in Bangladesh (i.e. about 30% of the reptiles, 37% the birds and 34% of the mammals) and includes a large number of species which are now extinct elsewhere in the country. Of these wildlife, Sarker has noted that two amphibians, 14 reptiles, 25 aves and five mammals are presently endangered. The Sundarbans is a paradise for the ornithologists for watching, study and research on avifauna.

Forest inventories reveal a decline in standing volume of the two main commercial mangrove species — sundari and gewa — by 40% and 45% respectively between 1959 and 1983. Also, despite a total ban on all killing or capture of wildlife other than fish and some invertebrates, there appears to be a pattern of depleted biodiversity or loss of species (notably at least six mammals and one important reptile this century), and that the "ecological quality of the original mangrove forest is declining" (IUCN 1994).

It is also having many World Records to its credit. It is the only place on Earth which is simultaneously having all these together in one place

Wildlife Sanctuary (1976)

· National Park (1984)

· Crocodile Reserve

· Tiger Reserve (1973)

· Reserve Forest (1978)

· An International Biosphere Reserve (1989)

· An UNESCO World Heritage Site (1985)

There are three wildlife sanctuaries established in 1977:

1. Sundarbans East Wildlife Sanctuary: Extends over an area of 31,227 ha. Freshwater and Sundri dominate interspersed with Gewa and Passur with Kankra occurring in areas subject to more frequent flooding. There is an understory of Shingra where, soils are drier and Amur in wetter areas and Goran in more saline places. Nypa palm widespread along drainage lines.

2. Sundarbans South Wildlife Sanctuary: Extends over an area of 36,970 ha. There is evidently the greatest seasonal variation in salinity levels and possibly represents an area of relatively longer duration of moderate salinity where Gewa is the dominant woody species. It is often mixed with Sundri, which is able to displace in circumstances such as artificially opened canopies where Sundri does not regenerate as effectively. It is also frequently associated with a dense understory of Goran and sometimes Passur.

3. Sundarbans West Wildlife Sanctuary: Extends over an area of 71,502 ha. Includes areas which support sparse Gewa and dense stands of Goran and discontinuous patches of Hantal palm on drier ground and river banks and levees.

ITENERY:

We have organized a Cruise Ship which can take in maximum of 15 people and this will be the place where you will be staying for 6 days. With the help of the cruise one can go to the remotest of the places in Sundarbans and view its beauty.

DAY 1:

KOLKOTA – PORT CANNING (BY CAR)

PORT CANNING – PAKHIR ALAY (BY LAUNCH)

DAY 2:

PAKHIR ALAY – SAJNE KHALI (Here we will stop for Permits) – SUDHARNA KHALI – DO BAKHI – PAKHIR ALAY (All of these places are having watch towers)

DAY 3:

PAKHIR ALAY – CHAMTA II – DEUL GHORANI – NETI DHOPANI GHAT – PAKHIR ALAY

DAY 4:

PAKHIR ALAY – JHINGA FOREST

DAY 5:

JHINGA FOREST – PAKHIR ALAY

DAY 6:

PAKHIR ALAY – PORT CANNING – KOLKOTA

Note:

Our star attraction will be Jhinga Forest which is never included in Regular Sundarbans trip. It is situated very near to the core area and is also close to the Bangladesh Border
Cruise Boat with overnight stay options too have to move out of the Park and Anchor outside by 5 PM, that is the reason why most of our night halts will be at PAKHIR ALAY. For night halt at Jhinga Forest, we have availed special permission.
EXTRA INFORMATION

Inclusions:

- Accommodation

- Meal

- Mineral Water

- Transport

- Coach Ticket

- Cruise Boat

- Toll, Tax, Fee

- Entry permission in Sundarban Forest

- Driver, fuel

- Guide

Exclusions:

- Personal uses

- Air Ticket/Train Ticket

- Tipping

We shall ensure all services as mentioned in the itinerary. Extra taxes for camera/video camera have to pay by the tourist.

Mail me on vishwas.kasat@gmail.com

In Love!

2008-08-15T11:09:00.000-07:00

As said in previous post about the girl who i like/love (still confused), had a chat and sms's with her for a long period of time. Then one day blurted out something which i was not supposed to do. Decided to meet her.

Zooming back to the past....i have never told a girl about my feelings to her or even proposed anyone so this becomes a very important event for me.

Decided to meet near her place and to tell her of what i feel, on my bike thinking all the way what to say and how to say and I knew there was a flower shop next to where we meet so decided to buy a Rose for her. We sit in a crowded coffee shop (not an ideal place i guess) and we chat about general stuffs here and there.....and she poses the question "so tell me something about xyz?"

XYZ is a girl name who I just randomly picked up to say that i like her so as not to give out the details online (hated it that time)

And the conversation continues:

Me: You know there is no XYZ girl
She: Ya i knew it.
Me: mmmm
She: So who is she.
Me: You know it is embarrassing......(long pause)......it is you.
She: Ok...ahaahahaha
Me: So what do you think.
She: Well i dont have that kind of feeling for you.

I just move back on the chair and take a deep breath....ok...fine.....

I am a Optimist Pessimist (dont ask me what it is...for that i would need to meet you)

I was expecting a yes answer but was not hurt after being rejected, this was the first time I proposed a girl and I guess this has lifted a big burden out of my chest.....just thinking that rejection does not hurt much.

One good thing out of this meet was...had some great muffins and made a good friend.

Cheers.....

Solar Taxi

2008-08-09T00:17:00.001-07:00

Year 2007, month October, I meet these 2 germans who have landed in India and staying at my friends place. We met at Shisha (Bandra) small talk and things then drive down to Mocha as it was a dry day. Talked in length in what they plan to do and what was their itenery.

Cut back one week before i meet them, i had sent a mail across to Solar Taxi website about me helping them in Mumbai and meeting up and showing them around.

And as we speak and they say Solar Taxi, I told them about the mail, they said they have received some but as one says world is a small place and with new research that there is only 6.6 degrees of sepration between people.

We went out for hikes, eating out and some walks and the german guys were so generous and funny that they learnt few Indian things. Lemme talk about the guys....one is Martin Gottschlk and other was Thomas Gottschlk, looking at them they are two very different to each other no brotherly traits...Martin is a shy kinda guy with tongue in cheek humour and Thomas is an outgoing personality, likes to dance and ready to eat anything.

On one of the hikes i get an invitation to go up north with them as their guide/translater, really excited I go to my boss and saying about the whole story he says show me the itenery.

The itenery was
Day 1 - Mumbai - Valsad
Day 2 - Valsad - Baroda
Day 3 - Baroda - Ahmedabad
Day 4 - Ahmedabad - Udaipur
Day 5 - Udaipur
Day 6 - Udaipur
Day 7 - Udaipur - Jaipur
Day 8 - Jaipur
Day 9 - Jaipur
Day 10 - Jaipur - Delhi

My boss said to come back from Jaipur as one project was in its critical deadline stage.

Remainder stories about my journey to be told later...

In Love!!!!!

2008-08-06T09:44:00.000-07:00

Never felt being with someone before, I am kind of a person who likes to go alone all the way be it movies, to eat food or just walk. But I guess this is for the first time I feel like walking with the someone who I know I can have fun with while I go for movies, eat or just walk.

I know this girl for a long time but was not in touch with her for but used to bump occasionally at some event or coffee shops. I have one weakness about girls which is common sense and what i know of her she has lots of that. I can walk with her for hours without saying a word and still be happy or just look in her eyes which do a lot of talking.

I for the first time hope that she becomes mine.....

School Time!!!

2008-08-04T02:39:00.000-07:00

Was running through my drawer just to find something but then bumped into one of my school photos which was taken during Teachers Day. I was not the brightest of the kids but the teachers would always get hold of me someway or the other to do something in extra-curricular activities.

So i was the vice-principal of the school during teachers day in which we have to dress up smartly (i was in my brown suit, matching shirt and tie) roaming the school and checking out how classes were going on.

At the end we served food to the teachers and after that things are hazy as what we did.

Front row left to right - Sneha, Pravita, Meena, Mamta, Dhanya
Back row left to right - Ashwin and Vishwas

Ashwin and me go a very long way....know him since i was in junior (around 5 years old). We were benchmates and always looking out for fun. Throwing chalk at the girls, slinging rubberband when teachers are not around, eating tiffin boxes of other students when teacher is in the room.

I had a good surprise it is being almost 8 years since i left school, but one day was about to meet a friend of mine near the school and reached an hour early. I thought why not see what is happening in the school, as i reached the gate there is a watchman whose name is Phatak (we have given him the name since he had a habit of stopping people), as soon as he saw me and told me how you doing, long time and i was taken aback....i guessed this guy would be the last person to recognize me. But then had small chat with him and went up the stairs in my shorts and black tee (with a skull drawn over it). Met my teachers had a small chat and fun here and there. Walked around the school, seeing my old classroom. It was a good visit...

More photos shall be uploaded

Girls and Questions????

2008-07-30T22:56:00.000-07:00

P called me around 6:30 pm yesterday and her first words were....

P: Main pak gayi hoon koi joke bol (I am bored tell me some joke)
Me: What?
P: I am really bored and don't know what to do I need to laugh.
Me: What?
P: Chal yaar tell me one joke.
Me: Ok here it goes (and i end up telling her a joke which i read it in the morning)
P: Hehehe...hehehe...thanks...
Me: When i shall leave i will call you lets meet...you are in trouble girl.
P: Ok.

Reached home and met her...discussing stuffs about her and me and things going on in our life and what we think of certain situations, generalizing people and things about girls and guys and all bull shit but fun. Time was just running fast...talking about our loveless life and then she says that I never used to talk to you that much in school. I just smiled.

Dropped her in the building and then she was telling her stories of work travel to Europe and friends. She started talking about guys and about how they visited strip clubs in Europe to enjoy, she did not like as they were married. The conversation again started like this

P: What fun do you get by visiting stripper clubs?
Me: Well not yet visited one but i guess seeing naked white girls is one of the biggest obsessions of Indian guys.
P: But still, the guys are married and they go to such places...it is cheating.
Me: Yes..but....*rolling my eyes*
P: What fun you get? Don't you feel bad?
Me: ( the words in my mind and come up with the cheapest answer i could think of) If you are not forcing the girl it is ok...you pay the money and she performs at her wish.
P: This is wrong...
Me: yes but if the girl does not mind then why should the guys.
P: What fun you get...
Me: I cannot answer it....
P: mmm...
Me: Chal bye...we need to sit with a beer and discuss about it.

I ride back to my place and thinking about the conversation...heck it was fun....

Rains!!!

2008-07-28T00:46:00.000-07:00

It was Friday when it started raining in the morning and we thought finally rain god has listened to us and poured its heart out. Everyone happy and singing as greenery set in.

Now Monday, 4th Day of unstoppable rain and good to see that no news of people getting stuck in the rain or floods in Mumbai (or news channel are all in Gujarat). Today left for office as on usual time but took a rickshaw to Goregaon station instead of regular route to Andheri. Got a fast train and got down at Bandra was feeling nice as i got a connecting train to CST.

Got onto a Panvel Train in Wadala Road and after few minutes we listen to a message that the train is canceled due to some technical problem (as A always says even if a dog pees on harbour line trains will stop). Got down went back to Bandra and thought going to office by bus (see my dedication) but when i saw the bus stop which was full and almost more than 100 people waiting for the same bus. My Dedication dwindled and left for home now sitting here and waiting for the rains to slow down so that i could do some work which was pending.

Keep falling my love...

Singing Lions

2008-07-28T00:45:00.001-07:00

The singing lions in African Safari...well made

Enjoy this video...

Who's Gonna Save my Soul Now

2008-07-27T00:03:00.001-07:00

This girl is about to break up with his boyfriend and during the conversation the guy pokes a knife around his heart and see the video to understand the full story

Lyrics of the Song:

[Cee-Lo]
I got some bad news this morning
Which in turn made my day
When this someone spoke I listened
All of a sudden, has less and less to say
Ohhhhhh how could this be?
All this time, I've lived vicariously
Who's gonna save my soul now?
Who's gonna save my soul now?
How will my story ever be tollllld now?
How will my story be tollllld now?

Made me feel like somebody
Hmmm, like somebody else
Although he was imitated often
It felt like I was bein myself
Is it a shame that someone else's song
Was totally and completely dependant on
Who's gonna save my soul now?
Who's gonna save my soul now?
I wonder if I'll live to grow old now
Gettin high cause I feel so lowwwww down

And maybe it's a little selfish
All I have is the memory
Yet I never stopped to wonder-ahhhhh
Was it possible you were hurtin worse than me
Still my hunger turns to greeeeed
Cause what about what I neeeeeed?!
And OHHHH~! Who's gonna save my soul now?
Who's gonna save my soul now?
Ohhhh I know I'm out of control now
Oooh-oooh, tired enough to lay my own soul down

Dancing Walrus

2008-07-24T01:22:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite videos from youtube...

Let me present you Wally The Walrus with its partner in Smooth Criminal.

Enjoy the video.

Fond Of Food

2008-07-22T09:21:00.000-07:00

Well started another blog which is close to my heart....fondoffood.blogspot.com

In this blog i shall be writing about places to eat in mumbai and at times about my mum's food which she never gets bored to make specially for me...

So check it out and give me your feedback

MORE NUCLEAR POWER

2008-07-22T09:10:00.000-07:00

The deal will lead to the more efficient import of nuclear technology and equipment which will ultimately translate into higher nuclear power generation.
In fact, the Lok Sabha was informed recently by the Government that construction work was already in progress on eight reactors with plans being drawn up to build more such reactors under international safeguards. The eight reactors being built would, after completion, lead to an increase in nuclear power generation from the current 3360 MW to 7280 MW.

"No Confidence Motion" just concluded with NDA losing out to UPA by 275 - 256 and 10 abstention's from the overall voting.

So this means the deal will go through and India will get more power (electricity) which it shall give it to more villages at a cheaper cost.

But more interesting things that happened today in the Parliament were 3 BJP candidates coming on the floor with bundles of thousand rupees notes in a bag and displaying in front of Indian public that they were bribed and they have proof. One BJP candidate who already has a chargesheet against him for taking a bribe on Dec 2005 regarding land case. So the channel CNN-IBN (told by Mr. Ravi Shankar, BJP Spokesperson) took the sting operation and displayed it to the speaker of the Parliament.

My point on these:
* If you were going to get bribed call the police and shoot the whole damn thing. When you get the money tell the police to catch the one who gives the bribe (as it is also a crime).
* BJP were already with the deal when Mr. Vajpayee was the PM but as they wanted to topple the govt they became against it. I say they should have joined the congress and no ugly faces would have being seen.

So all in all a good deal for India and Indian public if the politicians don't screw it up.

Jai Hind!!!

Kung Fu style Career Advice

2008-07-18T02:15:00.000-07:00

Just saw this movie and the concepts which Rashmi has come up with is really awesome, Rashmi Bansal is Editor of JAM (Just Another Magazine) which is a youth magazine...really good insight on the movie....

via Youth Curry - Insight on Indian Youth by (Rashmi Bansal) on 7/14/08

If a giant panda can become a mighty kung-fu warrior - so could you. Not kung-fu, but whatever. Ballet dancer, arctic explorer or investment banker.

I can already hear you say,"Hey, that happens only in the movies."

Well, yes and no. Here are some definite takeaways from Kung fu Panda, for all those of you struggling with questions of what, where and how to steer your career.

Lesson # 1: If you want something badly enough, you get it somehow.

Po the panda wanted to be a kung-fu warrior really really badly. He followed every kung fu teacher, every battle, every hero there ever was. The chap was a walking Kung Fu Encyclopedia!

And of course, he dreamt about kung fu too.

Ask yourself - do you care something in your life that strongly? If you do - it will be yours one day.

Lesson # 2: It could take a while but you'll get there.

So if you believe Lesson # 1 the question is 'how'? Now sometimes you may get there the straight and easy way. The way to be a kung fu warrior is to train under a great Master, right?

Well, Po got the job another way. He bumbled and tumbled up the mountain and finally literally 'dropped in from the sky'. Master Oogway then pronounced:"He is the one, the great Dragon Warrior". To everybody's surprise!

In real life there aren't enough Oogways who can see a diamond in the coal; a kung fu champion in a blubbering mass of fat.

But how many of you have struggled like the panda to even get to that mountain top where there may be a Master waiting for you?

Lesson # 3: 'A peach tree will blossom into a peach tree. It can't become an apple tree...' - Master Oogway

Why many of us come to grief is we don't know 'who we are'. Are we a peach tree, or a jasmine tree or a cactus? Every one of those is beautiful and useful in its own way. No one is 'superior' to the other.

Yet in life many of us believe that we must all be peach trees. ie MBAs and engineers. The aroma of the jasmine is lost to the world and all we have is peach, peach and more peach (fruity burp!).

Lesson # 4: 'There are no accidents in life...' - Master Shifu

Yup, the fact that you did not make it to IIT or IIM or with that cute chick on the second floor. This was the way it was meant to be.

Think about Steve Jobs being forced to exit his own company in 1985. He went through hell but was forced to think of new ideas, new directions. It led to the creation of Pixar and a whole new kind of animation.

And ultimately, he went back to Apple with iTunes and iPod.

Could he have done all this had he never left Apple? I don't know. But I think greatness is born more out of adversity than in nice hot bathtubs.

Woh Archimedes wala funda bhi theek hai but you can't run naked in the streets anymore. By the time you dress up and get out into the world, you find josh chala gaya.

Lesson # 5: There is no secret ingredient in the secret ingredient soup.

And this is especially relevant at a time when we are all on the quest for the Holy Grail. We believe that joining the right college, the right course or the right company is the secret ingredient which will spice up our soup - our careers, our lives.

The truth is, it's all about what you believe. The moment you join an IIT or an IIM you start believing,"Hey I am really really good". You get the confidence to take on the world, the chutzpah to say,"The world is my oyster".

Clearing these super tough exams is like running a lawnmower through your own mental garden. It crushes the weeds of self doubt and self pity which we've allowed to grow.

Exam or no exam, you can choose to yank out those weeds. Then look the guys who think they know better in the eye and declare,"My soup is as kick-ass as yours."

Lastly, words of wisdom from Master Oogway which apply not just to careers, but any and every walk of life: 'Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery... today is a gift'.

Have you at least undone the wrapping paper of this brand new, beautiful moment? Right here, right now, today??

Forest in the Concrete Jungle

2008-07-12T07:27:00.000-07:00

Last weekend ie 6th July went for forest cleanup (not that kind of clean up)...it was a cleanup organised by WWF. Kids of age 7 to uncle and aunties of age 50+ were there.

All we had to do was clean up the non-biodegradable things which people throw around during their trip to BNP (Borivili National Park) , we found plastic mugs, bottles, manikchand and one guy even left his shorts in the jungle. There was Mr Sushil Shinde who gave us details about the forest and things in it. His one sentence which struck my mind was

"One person needs atleast 3 trees to breath for his whole lifetime"

But at the rate deforestation is happening I think one day people will have go around with oxygen cylinder on their back and roam around as the builders are not leaving out the jungle.

BNP is called as evergreen forest due to various reasons which NIC members gave to me like the hangers or hanging branches are a good indication and pollution level is almost zero which we come to by Lychins growing on the tree.

I am planning to start a clean up drive one weekend every month in BNP so that people will understand that it is not good to throw things in the forest and it will help them.

Drinking!!!

2008-07-12T00:27:00.000-07:00

"What fun do you get by drinking?"

I just shrug my shoulder and looking around "I don't know but it is just fun"

"what kind of fun?" pat comes another question.

"mmmm..." still looking around to find the answers in open spaces to find the proper words "well i don't know what kind of fun but it is still fun"

The questions came from N who does not like me drinking or in other sense anyone drinking on this planet earth....go out for dinner in a non-veg restaurant and where drinks are served i have to just sip on Lassi or Sweet lime Soda just so that she does not make faces. G his boyfriend also is a pure veg and a non drinker (i hope)......eat a lot.

So back again to the fun of drinking...as said before it is just fun to get intoxicated and get high in a good way where one can blabber anything and laugh away. That is what we do every Friday night after a hardly working week end up in a bar with 6 friends and order vodkas and whiskeys and top it off with some fish tandoori....talking about serious matters (which actually does not matter us), sports, music, movies and making fun of each other.

Seeing the person drunk (one who does not know what he is doing) is so much fun...just stand at one corner and look at him doing weird stuff which he would not do when sober...and laughing away later...talking about what we saw. I our office party one guy became sentimental all of a sudden and kind off started to dis (disrespect) one senior...which he would not remember Monday morning...people sleeping on the floor and throwing abuses to each other.

I had to post this coz it is being time when i had posted anything original for a very long time......

DANCE!!!

2008-07-11T03:43:00.001-07:00

Got this link on a forum and i am so glad i checked it out....you should not miss it...

This guy has being traveling around the world and being doing this...

Enjoy

The lyrics which is translated in English...

Stream of Life
by Rabindranath Tagore

The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.

It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass
and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.

It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth
and of death, in ebb and in flow.

I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life.
And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.