Kodaikanal - Place for Summer

The Lake

This summer, surprisingly visited the cool location. The most interesting part was my car driving up and down the Kodaikanal hill. Got some expertise in the hill driving too. Actually it is more thrilling to drive down hill than to climb.

There are some good places to visit in Kodaikanal like Pine forest, Guna cave(but it is properly fenced and you will not get the same picture as you saw in Guna movie), Pillar rocks etc. We missed something called cocus walk. Boating would have been a fun, had the rain not played the spoilsport. You get bi-cycle for Rs10/hour and can go around the lake, downhill and enjoy riding. I did feel difficulties in riding a bicycle almost after 3 years. The last time I was regularly using it was when I had Hero Impact in college. Seems like I have become a full time software engineer.

It is an approx 20 km ride around the hills where you can cover all the above places. And near the lake, there is Bryant Park which is full of different colorful flowers. Nice place to spend time. There is Silver Cascade on the way uphill to Kodaikanal

Best strategy would be to reach Kodaikanal in the evening(around 3), go around for boating and Bryant park, have some shopping of spices/oils if you need, towards the night and start the next day early, take a guided tour. You can get more information in the hotels about the tour plan and places to visit.

Before buying anything, it is always better to ask in atleast 4 different shops. In our general experience, we found that the woolen blankets, oils were cheaper in Kodaikanal. But for getting oils and spices, it is better to go to the government outlets.

Potential Yeman

I was on the National Highway 7 driving my Santro from Bangalore to Rasipuram on Friday night, when the water bottle that I kept on my dashboard slipped suddenly due to some turn or bump on the road.  It went under the pedals.  I noticed when it fell, but for a minute, I did not actually care.  Then I thought what if it goes under the brake pedal and blocks it from pressing against.  I decided to take that out, applied brakes, lowered the speed, tried lowering the gears that's when I  realized I could not apply clutch.  But somehow managed to bring it to neutral and stopped the car on the road-side.  If it had got under the brake-pedal instead of clutch, probably I would not have posted this now.

Srirangapatna

Dhariya Doulat Bagh
Originally uploaded by rectarun.

Planned a visit to Mysore last saturday. Due to time and health constraints, after visiting Srirangapatna, came back home. But, Srirangapatna alone is worth one full-day visit. What you see is Dhariya Doulat Bagh which was Tipu's Summer place now converted to a museum.
First I should say about the road from Bangalore, except for some 5 km stretch scattered in-between, the road is very good. Srirangapatna is on the Bangalore-Mysore highway, roughly 10 km before Mysore. On the way, there is a Kamat hotel at Lokkurichi(at about 50th km from Bangalore) after crossing Bidadi and Ramanagara. A good choice for break-fast. Otherwise, I heard there are some good eating places in Maddur.
Here is a list of places to see in and around Mysore and Srirangapatna.

Srirangapatna Temple
Very similar to our Srirangam temple in Trichy. Infact Srirangapatna itself is an island in Cauvery river just like Srirangam.
Timings : 7:00 am to 1:00 pm and from evening 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm (Car parking : Rs 20)

Dariya Daulat Bagh
Timings : 9:30 am to 5:00 pm (Free car parking). Has lush green fields and shadowy trees.

Tipu's Gumbaz
Timings : 8:30 am to 6:30 pm (Car parking : Rs 20). Again a huge place, nice gardens. The buildings are proofs for excellent Mughal architecture. Built by Tipu himself for his mother, seems he also had deserved and reserved a place for him too.

Sangam
Timings : till 7:30 pm. This is a place Cauvery meets two other rivers, whose names I forgot. Not a great place in the non-season if there is less water.

Ranganthittu
Speciality : Birds. Season : June to October. Boating is also available here. Timings : 8:00 am to 1:00 pm and 2:30 pm to 5:00 pm. This is at a distance of about 5 km from Srirangapatna.

Palmuri falls - 6km from Ranganthittu. Timinsg might be in line with others.

Brindavan Gardens
Everyone knows what it is famous for. But it is closed temporarily due to Kavei-issue. Best time to enter is evening 5:00 o'clock. Entry is not allowed beyond 6:00 pm.

At Mysore, one can visit the Palace and the Zoo, both open between 9:30 am and 5:30 pm. If you get hold of any person in Infosys Mysore, the campus there should be in your must-see list.

Chamundi hills
About 16 km from Mysore in a different route (not the one towards Bangalore or Brindavan gardens). Speciality : Devi Temple, Timings : Morning 8:00 to Evening 8:00

More photos

SNIFT

Santro Xing
Originally uploaded by rectarun.

Yes, I need to introduce my friend... SNIFT (my Hyundai Santro Xing). I coined this name for him today, with whatever data you see in his pose. He is with me from Jul 21, 2006. But never had time to introduce. Now crossed over 4000 kms, he has been very kind to me, though on the first day itself I hurt him trying my heroics in giving him a shadowy shelter in a narrow space between a tree and an Accent.

Options

Sorry folks, if you had come to get something about the derivatives in share market, for that I would like you to visit Tamilnithi.

This is about options in life. At every moment in life we are faced with some or other kind of options. And after scrutinizing all, we choose one and later repent for what we have chosen. We always want to better ourselves or in better terms, want to better our neighbours. We tend to think we have enough resources, but the problem is in utilizing them properly. At any point, there will always be a person doing better than us. We think of undoing our chosen option, but in real life the ctrl-z rarely works. It finally comes down to "want more, learn more, enjoy more" and in all these we lose our happiness and try to find them in the desire to get more and more, in the process, losing whatever is remaining too. Contentment is the key word which is missing these days. More you need, more your time put on business, more your business owns you, less you find time chilling out, less you listen(or better to put "communicate") to your inner-self, less you find time to search your real passion, end up in an while(1).

See the other post related to this by me.

Another come back

Yes!  Back to blogging again.  But this time I hope playing consistent stint.  Everytime in the past when I attempted, I did with the same motto, but failed.  As the case with mutual funds, past performances are not indicative of the future performance.  Arunram, get going!

தமிழில் ஓர் attempt

மொதோ மொறையா தமிழ்ல ஒரு ப்ளாக் எழுதிப் பார்ப்போம். நல்லாவே இருக்கே!! higopi.com க்கு என் நன்றிகள்.

Marathon

Today almost a mini-marathon run is completed. 4 days, from friday to monday, four team members including me, day-in-and-out, spent in office. And now every body is again pulling up the socks for the real game to happen on December 31st.  :-)

Online Reading resources

Good resources for online reading, forward this to friends who are interested in reading.
On-Line Libraries

The Internet Public Library http://www.ipl.org/
The Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/
Internet Sacred Text Archive http://www.sacred-texts.com/
Books on Line http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/
Spirit Site: Spiritual Writings http://www.spiritsite.com/writing/index.htm
Thinking Allowed Transcript Library http://www.intuition.org/idxtran.htm
WWW Virtual Library http://vlib.org/Home.html
World-Wide Web Virtual Library: http://celtic.stanford.edu/vlib/Overview2.html

source BLOOTICS

Road SafeT

I witnessed an accident in the busy morning hours of Saturday.  A bike smashed on to a WagonR.  Both the car and the bike were at speeds above normal in the Banashankari residential area.  That was a cross junction and both of them blowed horn and just went on in their way.  The bike guy was able to apply the brakes at the very last moment which had prevented a major accident.  But still he could not manage to stop his bike hitting the side of the car and the bike handle-bar got twisted and a dent made on the side of the car.  All this happened in a fraction of second.  If the bike guy hadnot applied the brakes, he would have been hit on the side by the front of the car which would have caused a major damage to both him and the bike.  Lucky he was!!  You would have got surprised, from where did I get this detailed information :  I was riding the bike.

 

 

Hosur - Krishnagiri Highway

New Resolution

I had started this year with a resolution that I should maintain a blog, which I am doing currently atleast there exists a blog in my name. But of late I felt that, there had been nothing being contributed consistently from my side. So I am not going to wait for another new year to take a new resolution. Right today, I take this resolution to publish atleast one post(may it be scrap who cares) everyweek. The problem being, before posting there is too much of editing that I am doing. See, till here, I had almost done around 10 to 15 editing, too much of backspaces being hit. I feel there should be no backspace key in the keyboard. One may feel that things get complicated when there is no backspace - what to do if you type something wrong? My opinion is that if there is no backspace key, time will be saved as no one will commit spelling /sentence errors because getting it corrected will be a hell. Only if there are options, the problems arise. When there is a way to do something wrong, we always tend to, but most of the time we should analyse our thoughts, words and actions to avoid getting trapped by them. If you have time to procrastinate something, you do it 90 % of the time. I do not know anybody else, but that's what my mind tells me to do. I have to be extremely watchful in those times.

Ok, started with something and gone somewhere else. What did I start with? Resolution. Fine, one post a week seems to be possible definitely. Let me see how I am keeping up to it. But again the question comes to me, what to write every week? Let me look out for the answer everyweek.

Bannerughatta

This is from Bannerughatta Biological Park, here in Bangalore. I took my cousin and niece there. Here in Bangalore, people have a general belief that BG road is very bad. But it is not the case. At least now, the BMP has been taking steps to rennovate / relay many of the road in Bangalore city, the recent ones I encountered with are Convent Road and Museum Road. The BG Zoological park is exactly 20 km from the Brigade Road Rex theatre. They have a Grand Safari there costing Rs 110 on holidays and 85 on weekdays. One thing to note here is that the Grand Safari does not cover Elephant Safari, for which you need to go for a separate safari. Safari lasts for 50 min and if you are lucky, the tigers and lions will come and kiss your van and go. Otherwise they will be like students in a boring history class. I had a chance to shoot some one or two snaps in my RAZR. More than the safari, the zoo is maintained very good. They have installed something called info-park which is an
automatic info machine (similar to Railway Info system) where you can browse through different species of birds, reptiles and animals and get information about them. It takes around 2 hours to go around and see the zoo.

SETC - KSRTC

Last week I went to Coimbatore from Salem. We had an appointment at 12:30 pm. By the time we finished our breakfast in Saravana Bhavan - opp to MGR Central Bus Stand (the new name of Salem New Bus Stand) and reached the platform, there were two buses ready, one dabba SETC bus and a comparitively very good condition Salem Corporation bus. The SETC bus was actually destined to Ernakulam, so we thought that it would go faster, so we got into that bus. But hopeless it was. Pick-up was too poor. When it slows down, it takes almost 30 to 45 seconds to reach back its original speed. Before that something else will come infront or it happened that most
of the time, our bus followed some other vehicle in the front. Boss, you need a good pick up to overtake. One more important thing to observe here is that, almost till Avinashi, there were only 10 people in the bus including the driver and conductor. By the time it reached Avinashi, the Salem corporation bus had overtaken us. It always happens, as someone said, whenever there is 50-50 chance of choosing something right, in 90% of the cases you will choose the wrong one. While coming back, while boarding, I asked "Eppo bus eduppinga?". The driver without turning back, "apparam edhukku start panni vachirukkom?" replied. The drivers/conductors always get tensed when you ask "When will the bus reach the destination?"

Ok I deviated from the point. Coming back.... The SETC buses are far inferior quality when compared to KSRTC, their Karnataka counterparts. It is hightime that the SETC Authorities think of some rennovation/innovation in their administration.

As you sow, so shall you reap

By reading this article, just do not get into a conclusion that I am against Pakistan. It is not true. But I am not a supporter of Pakistan too. Ok, there have been many discussions about the "alleged" ball tampering by Pakistan, followed by imbroglios created by "The Father of Controversies" Darrel Hair. Though the decision he had taken on the Match was totally unfair, we shall leave him, we shall just get onto the Pakistani cricket. Pakistan Cricket players might seem to have been playing a decent and fair cricket these days, but they are always known for their skills in ball-tampering. Probably during those times, they managed to escape scot-free, though everyone knew that they had been involved in cheating. But now, no one knows what had happened and the Pakistanis are punished. The moral of the story "Somewhere down the line, you need to pay for each of your act". But no one knows what is there waiting for Darrel Hair?

Jaipur

This is the photo I took in Jaipur. Albert Hall Museum. I never believed that my Moto RAZR could take a photo of this quality. I set the camera in cloudy mode played around with exposure and took this snap. But still I am of the opinion the Moto RAZR's camera quality is much inferior to that of the Nokia. Resolution is not the only thing one should look for while getting a camera (or a camera enabled phone). The best option is look around for the features avaiable with various models directly before deciding one.

Blogging spree

Today, I am really on a blogging spree, already 3 blogs posted. I often feel that I should write something which is worthy of reading, but I think I am doing the exactly opposite. What anyone who reads this will feel? Some three or four lines are already gone and still there is nothing useful to read. But till how long can I keep the reader guessing what I am about to say in this post? Not for so much of time. If I want to say something I have to start saying it within the next 2 or 3 lines. Otherwise I am sure that the reader will definitely run away by clicking the nearest possible link. Ok coming to the topic... yes blogging spree. It really feels good(at least for the blogger) that whatever he writes there is someone who spends his time in reading it. I think this is what Newton said in his third law, "to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction". sorry again deviated from the topic. Ok ok, come back... blogging spree. In a old tamil cinema, Nagesh and one other person goes for an interview. The interviewer asks to the other person "What do you know?" He answers, "Sir I know car driving". To Nagesh he asks "What do you know?", he replies. "Sir I know that he knows car driving". This came to my mind when I saw some blogs where there are links to the original producer. Ok back to square one, blogging spree... I now wonder with what idea I started creating this post.

Interview Retelecast

I read the interview of Karan Thapar with Arjun Singh, Minister HRD in IBNlive, last monday. It is like watching Shankar's Mudhalvan. Karan Thapar was providing up-to-date updated statistics published by various government organisations supporting his side which is against the reservation policy. Arjun Singh was really in a troubled situation. For most of the questions he was totally blank, had no answers at all. Good that he didnot ask "Can I leave this question in choice?"

After so many days

Huh, after so many days, I have published a post in my blog. Always I thought of posting something and will see that what I wanted to say would already have been said by somebody else in some other blog. Of course there are several other matters in the world to discuss about. Ok, let me see, how I progress from now on, I mean in creating the posts often.

Mensa Results

Ha, finally after postponing for 2 or 3 times, the Mensa Bangalore results are out. Check out: http://www.mensabangalore.org/results.html. Rather the results, the test was acturally more interesting. The test was held sometime in mid-Feb. About 1 and half hours and 5 or 6 sections and the section timing were like 2.5 min, 3 min etc. Mostly it contained logical reasoning, finding the odd-figure out, missing the sequence kind of questions. More logical and visualisation oriented. Feeling happy about joining the Mensa society.

Mensa is actually a community with people of varied talents and interests. Seems like there are people in Mensa from various fields, various social backgrounds, various beliefs. The Mensa Chapters are all around the world. The membership is valid worldwide once you are above 98th percentile in the test conducted by any recognised chapter of Mensa. For more info, http://www.mensa.org