Mixed Bag

Stop bursting crackers or maybe not?

Venkat — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 05:24:14 +0000

It is sometimes said that the best of intentions of mankind might do more bad than good for the society at large.

Given that its Diwali, a relevant topic is that of whether we should be bursting crackers or not. Obviously, the movement is in support of a go-green movement, anti-pollution etc. But, will this good intentioned movement, create more problems?

If someone has read Shantaram (by Gregory David Roberts), they might understand what I am trying to say here. There is a passage in the novel, where he describes, how he used to take hot water baths twice in a day. And for that there were labourers who would manually carry pots of hot water up some several flights of stairs (this was somewhere in the 80’s). When Shantaram comes to know of it, he very quite guilty about the same and decide to stop this practice. But in doing so, as his friend Prabhakar explain, his good deed will only server to imbalance the eco-system, by snatching away the labourers livelihood.

So as I wondering about this “dont burst crackers movement”, I was also thinking about the zillions of people who are engaged in the small-scale industry. If collectively we do happen to embrace the above movement, what will happen to these above people engaged in this industry? Someone might say – rehabilitate them…but is that so easy…..most of us know how ineffective that process would be……

Before the movement can gain in any momentum, we will need to provide actionable plans to rehabilitate these people. Till then, enjoy burst crackers (but with restraint:)).

Happy Deepavali!

Europe Vacation – French Connection – II

Venkat — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 17:45:15 +0000

Second day in France, we stepped out of Paris to see Versailles and then came back to Paris to see it by night.

Versailles is famous for the famous chateau, called the Palace of Versailles. It is an imposing palace with sprawling gardens running all around the palace.

Palace of Versailles

The palace was closed down for renovation, however the gardens were open. And luckily, entry was free again. The gardens were split across – one on the left of the palace, on in front and one on the right.

Amongst the lush green, there was this beautiful flower garden with lots of colorful flowers in it.

Flower garden in Versaille Palace

Lawns on the left of the palace…..

A view of the sprawling garden on the left of the palace

The lawns in front of the palace ….what opulence…..

In front of the palace

Sham and I took considerable time out to kind of chill here, while the kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves in the lush green gardens; their parents ofcourse had a tough time!

All smiles!

We headed back to Paris around 6:30ish in the evening; the objective very clear – look for Indian food. It had already been more than 48 hrs since the folks had some desi khana. We headed to Gare du Nord (this is also where the Eurostar train station is). And as we came close to this area, there were significant sights and scenes of indian / south east asian establishments.

Indian / SE Asian restaurants .... finally some familiar food:)

We narrowed down to place called Madras Cafe. Not great, but good enough given the situation. Once dinner, was done, we decided to do Paris by night as this was our last night in Paris and for that matter in France. We drove down Champs Elysees and then headed to Eiffel Tower and were greeted with stunning views of the tower … we stayed at the tower for about an hour till 11 ish; that’s when they also put some special lighting on the tower; its beautiful…

Eiffel By Night

Down the road, Arc De Triumph, also looked majestic …

Arc De Triumph lit up

…and with that, we called it quits for the night and for Paris.

All in all, an amazing experience. Two days, by any stretch of imagination, is too short to even sniff Paris. But, then we had a good detailed trailer, and would definitely like to come back and spend some more time here. Before that, i guess we should put in some effort to learn French also!

Next on agenda – Switzerland!

Europe Vacation – The French Connection – I

Venkat — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:21:35 +0000

At its best, Paris is chic, stylish and flashy. Paris has its own share of shady parts of the town! And we tasted both. All in all, at the end of two days we were left longing for much more. And the impression that I came away with from the french land is that, for those looking for it, there is unlimited fun available!

We set out for Paris on the morning of Aug 1st. The plan was to take the ferry to Calais from Dover, and then drive from there to Paris. All in all, total trip time was to be around 9-10 hours. Since we were to gain time on reaching Paris, we hoped to reach Paris by around 10 pm local time. We left Warrington around 10 am on a wet Saturday morning, running behind schedule.

All packed and ready to go!

The drive took us longer than usual, as there was heavy traffic on the M-ways. We had to reschedule our ferry booking as we were not able to make it on the time for the original booking. Finally, we took the 5:00 pm ferry and reached Calais at around 5:30 pm, local time.

From left side to right side (driving)

The drive from Calais to Paris took us another 3-4 hours and and by the time we checked into the hotel we were quite exhausted. After check-in, there was not much to do, and we tucked in for the night, eagerly awaiting the next morning

Good Morning, Paris!

Charged on a breakfast of cereals, muffins, juices and other goodies, we set out see Paris. The weather was cloudy and chilly, but still pleasant. We walked down to the nearby train station, La Garene Colombes to catch a train to the city centre.

At La Garene Colombes station

As we got to the city, we walked around, taking in the sights and smells of Paris.

Sights in the city

Then, we came across the fashion opulence, the city is known for – a diamond and what else studded shoe

The Glamorous Shoe

The plan was to get on to one of those sightseeing buses to get the big picture of the city, initially. Later on we visited some of the more famous attractions (as much as possible in two days). The first half of the day, hence was spent in going around in the hop-on / hop-off bus. We drove by on the Champs Elysses, passed Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triumph, the Louvre, Cathedral of Nostra Damus, and others.

I loved these squares in Paris

A first look at Eiffel .. . .

Eiffel Tower - in the daytime

Once the survey was over, we decided on three attractions – Louvre (ofcourse), Cathedral of Nostra Damus and Eiffel Tower. By the time we finished off a full round on the sightseeing bus, it was lunch time, so we proceeded to one of the street cafe to scout for some veggie stuff. After a quick lunch, we proceeded to the Louvre.

Now we’ve heard and read about this place so much; t’was quite overwhelming to be there; and quite overwhelmed were we after entering the museum.

Infront of The Louvre

To even wonder whether we could cover the museum in on day would be blasphemy. The museum has three huge wings like the one in the photo above and extends several feet below the ground! Being the first Sunday of the month, there was a huge queue (on the first sunday’s of the month, entry is free). Once we got in, we two stood there like two kids lost in a huge city. Then we did what we thought most people were doing; ask the helpdesk to suggest the must see’s. Armed with the map and the key attractions marked out, we proceeded towards Venus De Milo. Amongst others, we covered Coronation Crown, The Grand Feast, and others paintings and sculpture, finally coming to Mona Lisa – the most seeked after and crowded place in the museum. We spent at best 45 minutes in the museum, enough to get a look at some of the best attractions.

FIL at the glass pyramid in Louvre

We got out of the Louvre by around 4 pm and then proceeded towards the nearby Cathedral of Nostra Damus, the great fortune teller.

Cathedral Of NostraDamus

The cathedral is also apparently famous for the beautiful glass work inside the church.

Glasswork inside NostraDamus Cathedral

The church is as beautiful inside, as outside. A service was in progress or about to commence, I guess. Hence, access to that altar was restricted, unless you wanted to participate in the service. It looked even better there.

A service in progress in NostraDamus Church

We spent some time admiring the glass work and going around the church, before proceeding to the grand attraction for the day – Eiffel Tower.

At the Eiffel tower and Guess what time it is!8 pm

It was 7ish, and still bright and sunny (refer the european summer i talk about in my ealier post). And there it stood in all its mighty glory. It leaves you breathless even to think how they would be able to put up such a massive mass of steel together

A look at all the metal

Eiffel tower has two viewing decks – one at the second floor and the other, right at the top and the views from both are amazing. You can see all of Paris, with the Seine flowing through the middle of the city. I know I have written about how amazed I am with all of this (you really can’t help but get amazed); but if you take a look at the elevators, you will be amazed again! It not straight up vertica; it glides along the strussess; simply mind boggling. And to think that they built this between 1887 and 1889!

Awesome view from atop Eiffel Tower

We spent a considerable amount of time, close to some two hours, gazing with amazement at the views of Paris below us. It was almost close to 10 pm by the time we left, and as we did, the lights on the tower came up.

Eiffel Lit ...look at the blue sky

So that was Day 1 in Paris. An attractions packed day. We still had to see Paris and the Eiffel Tower properly lit up in the night; that was planned for the next day. It became a bit of s struggle to get back to the hotel, as we took some time to find the metro, and which did not take us near the hotel; we ended up taking a taxi, which cost us 25 euros (that’s a lot by the way)! What’s a day without adventure, anyways:)

Europe Vacation – Welcome to UK

Venkat — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:53:00 +0000

You can see the first post of this series here.

First stop, immigration. The orderliness and the way things are managed in these western international airports never fails to impress me (we in India sure seem to be getting there, albeit slowly). There was a slight hiccup at immigration. The immgration officer wanted to double check on Sham’s visa as it has been rejected once earlier. We had to wait for about 5 mins, before the officer came back and approved our entry to UK. And so we passed through the gates into UK!

We had some more time on our hands to admire the airport. BIL was on his way to pick us up and he was still 45 mins away. As we waited, we filled ourselves on some muffins and hot chocolate. Finally BIL arrived, and we stepped out of the airport. As we did two things hit us – plenty of cigarette smoke with people puffing away like chimneys and the chilly morning air. We lugged our luggage some more distance till the pick up area and then loaded it into the car. After the greetings and handshakes, we were all set to head home – Warrington – a three hour drive from the airport.

The drive home was fairly nice. Driving on these freeways, or motorways as they call it in the UK, is not as exciting as driving on Indian roads:). By the way, for those who don’t know, driving system in UK is similar to that in India. The “monotony” of the drive had already put Sham to sleep and I was beginning to feel a bit dazed. So we decided to quickly break for 10 mins and pulled into an exit area. Another few muffins and a coffee later, we were on the road again. We passed Birmingham on the way, the only big city / county that we passed on the way.

Warrington is one of the sub-burbs about three hours from London. Beautiful lanes, manicured lawns and pleasant looking houses greeted us as we reached Creswell Close around 1:00 pm. The second round of greetings – mom and dad-in-law and sis-in-law. And the most exciting of them all – Honey – our very cute 1.5 year old nephew. After the general chit-chat, we freshened up, had lunch and then had a good nap, making up for all the sleep lost on the flight.

Evening I went along with BIL to pick up the car for the trip. The car was to be picked up from somewhere in Bradford, about 30 mi from Warrington. The drive gave more sights of the UK countryside. After we came back, we generally went shopping in the neighbourhood malls, purchasing stuff for the next day’s trip.

We got back around 8 pm, daylight still there in all its glory. Now this is one of the things (for better or worse) about the summer with which I was quite impressed. We ofcourse enjoyed the this aspect even more in the later part of trip. Later on, we finished dinner, finalised the packing for next day, and then settled in for the night….eagerly anticipating day break…

Europe Vacation – I – Bon Voyage

Venkat — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:12:22 +0000

With work opportunities in Europe not looming anywhere on the horizon:), I guess we decided it would not do us much harm (except financially), to make a short getaway to Europe. Aiding the decision, was the fact that, with Shamala’s bro and parents already there, it would make for good family vacation, and more importantly, a less costly one (more heads to split the cost against!). Add to that the fact that we did little or no work in planning the trip, apart from getting our visa, tickets to and from London, and investing in Lets Go Europe guide book. Rest all on BIL, the great!

The visa process turned out to be relatively easy. UK visa turned up 4 days after we submitted our application, and the Schengen visa took a week. Bottomline – provide as much information and documents as possible, and the process is generally a cake walk. We also got tickets to our liking; Jet Airways at around 54k return for the two of us

So our departure from India was planned on July 30th night. What is a trip without some adventure right at the beginning:). 15 mins into our ride to the airport, the rain came pouring down and with it came the traffic jams. For a 9:30 departure flt, we left home at 6 pm. We reached at 8:15 pm, taking 30 mins more than expected to reach; in the end it was quite safe, but there were some tense moments along the way. Maybe a little bit of judgement error on my part also, in hindsight. Shouldnt have trusted bangalore traffic so much.

So we flew out of Bangalore and landed in Mumbai. Our flt to london was at 1:45 am. Immigration was a breeze. Few things I noticed. The departure forms (and the arrival ones) look much more professional. 6 years back they looked pretty pathetic. Secondly, I was really taken aback by the amount of people traffic at the international airport. Talk about recession! I was not seeing any of that at the international airport.

Anyways, by the time we finished immigration, we were ready to board. We enviously passed the first class (full reclining), business class (semi-reclining) to our economy class seat (very little reclining!). Though I think the seats were quite comfortable and good leg room- Jet Airways is pretty decent. We took off on time. It was to be a 9 hour flt, reaching Heathrow at 6:45 am London time. We dozed on and off. I used the time to catch up on some movies – Wolverine is one of them I remember (mebbe the scotch got to me a little:) ). After a fairly comfortable flight, we finally landed in London! Ta – da!

Sunfeast10k run – May 31st 2009

Venkat — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:04:13 +0000

I remember last year that I was quite frustrated when I had to miss the first edition of the Sunfeast 10k run. It was I think on May 19th; I was traveling that weekend and so could not make it. I had planned it to be my initiation into regular long distance running. It was not to be, and I ultimately initiated my self into long distance running through last year’s bangalore ultra half marathon.

However, this year I enrolled well in advance, and made sure I was around when the day came. I had also planned to train well enough in order to lock in a respectable run timing. I was aspiring to make it a sub 60 min run which by standards would have been an improvement over the ultra last year. Though the training started off well, I could not keep the momentum going. Lot of pressure at work and shifting into our new house in the month before the run took it toll. My practice sessions were quite erratic, so much so that I could manage only a few 5k+ runs before the actual run; and most of those practice runs were indoors on the treadmill.

Now as I clearly know, road running is quite a different ball game compared to tread mill running. And it showed on the 31st. Even though I was mentally quite prepared, in the end I did not manage to run the entire 10k non-stop. I struggled quite a bit between 4th and 6th km; especially during the uphill on the 6th km. Also, I was constantly hitting my Max Heart Rate (MHR), forcing me to slow down quite often. I ended the run with a timing of approx 1 hour and 12 mins (72 mins) as against my target of 60 mins (at least).

I have quite mixed feelings about the run event experience though. Last years ultra was a core core running event (minimum frills); also the setting for the run was great…nice green surroundings..no traffic around you….you ran with a decent crowd but you had your own private space to run. … I felt too crowded out in the Sunfeast 10k. Obviously with about 8000 people running, I shouldn’t have expected any better; but at times you just had to slow down because there were too many people around you – a virtual running traffic jam.:) This especially happened on the stretch from Manipal Centre to Ulsoor Road junction.

The experience was also not so great as I was there all by myself – no Sriram and no supporters (read Pranitha and Shamala)!

Well anyways, it was a decent enough experience, and if I ask myself, will I do it again – the answer is yes! But an important learning – this year I decided to forego the Timing Chip cause I didnt think it was that important as I had my ways to time myself. What I didnt know was that participants with no timing chip were given second preference (the two sets of participant were kept in different enclosures like some stupid caste system!!)…what this resulted in was that I was already behind some 1000 people when I started my run. . .

Well, the resolution from now on is to go for a run every weekend through the RFL apart from my during the week training…i have foregone quite a few feet on the street (FOTS) event…lets see if I catch one this weekend

Calorie Counting

Venkat — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:43:29 +0000

What’s calorie counting? The art of measuring your food in calories and the ability to apportion the intake!

Well its been something that I have tried doing in the past, albeit unsuccessfully. Firstly it takes motivation to keep track of what you eat, secondly it takes patience to find the calorie count of all that you eat, thirdly you loose all the books and sheets where you keep track of these things….the reasons are umpteen.

But now, I am (infact we are) back at it with a vengeance. Ofcourse having a tool really helps – this is where lifemojo is quite useful. You just have to put in what you eat and the rest is easy!

So is calorie counting useful? Or does it amount to being paranoid, as some might say??

I personally think its quite useful. Ofcourse the added benefit is weight loss, but more importantly, its a great way to weed out the junk stuff that you eat in the day. Mind you, it not just about weight loss; its about a eating healthy – eating the right stuff in the right quantities. This automatically takes you to your weight loss goals. And if you have this perspective, its more enjoyable.

So start counting ‘em . . .

Lifemojo.com

Venkat — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:51:33 +0000

Came across this good website called Lifemojo which can help track your diet and activity levels.

Really helpful for folks looking to track their diets to loose weight. Not only that, it also helps you to track different types of activities on the workout front – cycling, running etc etc. It is also flexible enough to allow you to add your own stuff!

I guess the main USP for me is the fact that this website gives calorie count for Indian food! And since I have started using it, I have just realized how much I eat and drink in a day!

Time to tighten the belt!

If you are serious about loosing those love handles, I really recommend this site in helping you do just that!

In decent shape

Venkat — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:41:38 +0000

Flashback : Nov 16th, Bangalore Ultra 2008, 25 kms, 3 hrs, 42 mins

Cut to today – March 16th 2009

******************************************************************************************************

I decided to restart my road running from today! As I hit the road, it hit me that exactly 4 months back, Sriram and I completed our first 25 kms half ultra – marathon! What a way, it was to get initiated into marathon running!

Dunno if its a coincidence that I decided to restart today, given that I was not planning to gym after all those workouts on the weekend.

Anyways, it really felt good after running those 3 kms! The pace was good, the knees held on, and the breathing was steady! All the gymming in the past few months has really helped, I guess.

Looks like I am in good shape, though I gotta keep this regular from now on! First stop is the Sunfeast 10k run due in about 2 months time.

Yay! something to look forward to, though, sriram will miss you!

A Birdy Weekend

Venkat — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 04:12:33 +0000

Highways empty for a good part . . . your partner by your side . . . a sumptuous breakfast at Kamat Lokaruchi . . . sights of the Kaveri gushing by . . . and some eye popping sights of exotic birds and crocodiles . . . . .that pretty much sums up an excellent weekend road trip for us!

Good Morning!

When the idea is to do a leisure road trip, the “leisure” sentiment makes it tough to even get out of bed on a Saturday morning! Well 7:30 am and after a lot of alarm snoozing, we finally were ready to press on the gas! Leaving home at around 8:30, we soon were heading towards Mysore Road. This time we decided to take the Banerghatta road route. The tarring of connection between the BMIC corridor and Bangerghatta road has been completed. This is a pretty good option to reach the Mysore Road. Except for some clogging near Gottigere, traffic was a breeze. Once we hit BMIC corridor, things moved pretty fast. We cut through the traffic on Mysore Road pretty fast, and by 9:30 we were at Kamat Lokaruchi with our stomachs eagerly grumbling for the delicious breakfast buffet!

After downing generous helpings of Chow-Chow Baath, Vadas, idlis, Bisi-bele baath and shots of strong filter kaapi, we were ready to hit the road! First stop – Kokare Belur . . .

Kokare Belur

When we started out from Kamat, the distance to Kokare Belur was put around 22 kms. But we ended up doing much more than that and spent more than 2 hrs before we found the Kokare’s (pelicans)!

Firstly, the sign to Kokare Belur is pretty inconspicuous! And the sign is written only in Kannada. If you dont already know, you are bound to miss it. So much for a heritage site! The turn to Kokare Belur comes on your left (when you are headed towards Mysore) around 2 kms (approx) before the Maddur Junction (this is the junction where one road take you to BR hills, one to Mysore etc). As I said, the sign is pretty small so you need to watch out. Another thing you could do is to watch out for this sign after around 10 – 12 kms on your trip-meter from Kamat Lokaruchi. Once you take this turn, there’s another 12 kms to the village. As we passed through the village, there were pretty nice views of paddy fields -

A canal runs through the heart of the fields

We drove down through the village … 12 kms … 13 kms ….15 kms…no sign of signs to a sanctuary….and we were looking for one! Somehow we thought there had to be a sanctuary here too . . . When we asked people about the pelicans, the best we got in terms of info was “pakshis” … people did not really know or were oblivious to the existence of the pelicans.

As we retraced our path, we finally struck gold … and were really surprised with what we saw … the pelicans were freely flying around and they inhabited quite a few trees in one part the village . . .

Pelicans on a tree . . . lots of 'em

We parked our car and walked around generally watching the pelicans flying from one tree to another . . . some had created nests on the trees …. few had brought back food home . . .

and were sitting down for lunch

We spent some 20 -25 mins in this place taking pictures and then decided to hit the road again for the next destination – Srirangapatna, capital town of Tipu Sultan.

Srirangapatna

Getting to Srirangapatna again is very easy. One straight road on SH – 17, and you basically pass through the town. Turn left at a sign which lists of the places to see in Srirangapatna. In this direction, you can get to Gosai Ghat on the banks of Cauvery, Sangam – where Cauvery’’s meets back – and few monuments built in the Tipu Sultan era – his summer place and Gol Gumbaz – place where his remains are buried.

The first place we stopped here was the Gosai Ghat. It is a small ghat on the banks of the Cauvery. Very neat, only few people (at least when we went), and the water current was also very friendly. Everyone out there was beating the heat taking a dip into the cool fresh water.

Me and Sham at Gosai Ghat

We chilled here for about half an hour and then proceeded towards Sangam. There was nothing new really there, again the Cauvery, but the “switch off” was the number of people out there..it was too crowded. So we called it quits there immediately and decided to pay a visit to the Gol Gumbaz.

Tipu Sultan's Gol Gumbaz

Its a nice place with big garden, lots of trees and the monument where Tipu Sultan is buried. We generally took a walk around the place, clicking a few pictures. A small piece of trivia which I recently came to know of – Tipu Sultan is the only Indian king whose photo hangs in NASA! and the link is apparently rockets; Tipu being the first king to use them in battles.

We stayed there till 3:30 pm and decided that it was time now to hit the highlight destination of the day – Ranganathitu Bird Sanctuary!

Ranganathitu Bird Sanctuary (RBS)

This is what the trip was planned for! RBS is about 6 kms down from Srirangapatna. Watch our for signs….there is a right turn which you need to take off the highway. You pass through road thickly thicketed on both sides.

The sanctuary is itsef pretty beautiful and well kept; neatly manicured lawns, colorful flowers, and you see the birds flying in the skies above.

There are two ways to see the birds – one is to walk around and use the aerial view stands available and the other is to take the boat ride. If you want to get close to the birds, boat ride it is. For about 25 bucks a person, we get a group boat ride of half an hour. The ride takes you on one full circuit around the (small) islands inhabited by the birds.

A full view of Cauvery where birds co-habit with crocs

Hmm . . . so let see – there were birds from North America, Siberia, Italy, China, India (ofcourse) …there were birds called Open Bill Stork, Painted Bill Storks, Kingfisher . . .

A family of Painted Bill Storks, I guess

And then there were some birds which posed for us very nicely . . .

Open Bill Stork - A Natraj Pose

For more pictures from this road trip, please visit me here flickr

The only uncomfortable part of the boat ride is that you got to do it, along with crocodiles swimming in the waters. We got a view of some of them lazing on the swampy banks (of course on the other side of the human habitation!). But as per out guide/boatman, these are “friendly” crocs and they don’t attack humans! Ya right! wait till they taste one .

After finishing off the boat ride, we generally walked around the sanctuary, tried out the aerial views, and clicked lots of picture.

Sayonara!

We finally called it quits around 5:30 pm and hit the road back home. We did the 130 odd kms in about 2.5 hours and hit home around 8 pm, bringing to an end an awesome enjoyable day.

An ideal weekend getaway and enough to do to keep you busy! We are already planning a trip back to Gosai Ghat, and this time we will be armed with towels, change of clothes, and sleeping mats:)