Spontaneous Serendipity

On the final leg of our winter vacation, we stopped at Nagpur where my sister Yogita was visiting with her 2 little princesses. The 3 kids together played and enjoyed every minute of the stay there and to add icing to their fun part, they had found a little puppy to play with in the neighborhood

We all went for a day out at Koradi’s Devi Mahalakshmi temple, where kids saw some monkeys and the ladies did some street shopping. On our way back, we had a wonderful lunch @ a juice shop next to the road… it was a nice little family picnic!

Other days, the kids just used to play running around the house, barely stopping for few minutes to eat something. Mom and dad were too happy to see the kids gelling together so well and to hear their laughter all around.

On New Years’ eve, we lit up a bonfire in the front courtyard and had lots of fireworks to keep the kids busy, while the elders played the game of good ol’ antakshari Few of the neighbors also joined in the fun later. It was a great way to welcome new year!

I returned early from Nagpur as I had to join office… but Nandini and Neiv stayed back to extend their fun-trip a little more. Later, all visited Telenkhedi garden and the Hamunan temple. Sis also met some of her school friends.

In the end, it was time well spent in the company of people who really matter. Cheers!

The good part of this trip to Gwalior was that we covered a lot of ground and I was amazed to know that a small town like Gwalior could have so many historically and architecturally rich sites. I reached Gwalior from Bhopal on Dec 20, Monday evening. Nandini and Neiv were already enjoying the cold winters there. Next day we started our site seeings…

Jai Vilas Palace Museum: Built in 1809, it has been the default residence of Scindhia Dynasty. it was patterned on the Palace of Versailles, combining Tuscan, Italian and Roman styles of architecture. A portion of the palace has been converted to Museum showing off the legacy of Scindhias.

The main attraction here includes 2 Chandeliers, in the Durbar Hall, which are rumored to be one of the largest in the world and the silver train which was used to serve food on the royal dining table, etc.  Picture Album here.

Tomb of Tansen (and Ghouse): The legendary 16th century music singer-composer Tansen was cremated in Agra and his ashes buried here in the complex of his sufi guru Shaikh Muhammad Ghaus’s Tomb complex.

We reached the complex at around 3PM and ate the earlier packed lunch in its lush lawns. Neiv as usual, found an opportunity to run around. Inside the tomb, we had to remove our shoes and Neiv thought we had entered a Temple. He asked the Maulvi-ji there, “Panditji, where is Ganeshji.” Such is the innocence of the childhood, but then I wonder, if a child sees no difference between a Maulvi and a Pandit or between a Temple and a Dargah, why do grown ups do? Anyways… click here for the pictures.

Gwalior Fort: Built in 8th Century, this magnificent fort is one of the largest in India. Every ruler that India has seen in last 1200 years, fought to gain control of this fort. The famous Queen of Jhansi (ki Rani), who is also known as “Joan of Arc” of India, martyred defending this very fort in 1858. Also, the first recorded use of numeral “Zero” (0) in the world is attributed a monolithic Lord Vishnu temple on the eastern side of this fort.

We reached there around 10:30AM and spent almost the entire day here. The fort has several structures built within its complex, built over a span of 1000 years. We started with Suraj Kund (Sun Pool) which as per the legend has water with medicinal powers and could cure leprosy. We had a breakfast of Samosa-Kachori-Dhokla which we had packed on our way up. We then followed up with Mann Mandir Palace built in 15th century. The back side of the palace has some dilapidated buildings like Karn Mahal, Vikram Mahal, Jehagir Mahal, Shahenshah Mahal, etc.

Saas Bahu Temple: Built in 9th century, these temples are shrines for Shahastra Bahu (The one with Hundred Arms) or Lord Vishnu. Over the years the name got corrupted to Saas-Bahu. Most interior statue of these were destroyed by Aurangzeb‘s men. The courtyard for these shrines give a very nice view of Gwalior city and the fort.

Click here for the picture album.

Colossi of Jain Tirthankers – Around the Gwalior Fort, there are several giant monolithic 5th century statues of Jain 24 tirthankars (Jainism Propagators) , carved inside the sandstone caves. Some are clearly visible on the way to enter the Fort from Uravi Gate, but the better ones and lesser known  are on the other side, locally known as Ek Pathar Ki Baoli (One stone well), as the caves are next to a natural spring where water seems to be coming out of a large sandstone.

It is very unfortunate to note that almost all the statues had their faces broken by the 15th century invaders, mostly by the army of Aurangzeb.

Click here for the picture album.

Gujari Mahal: This is a monument of love, built in the 15th century by King Man Singh for his Gujar Queen Mrugnayani. This palace now has been converted into an archeological Museum, which has some the oldest artifacts that I had ever seen.

We first visited this palace on Christmas day but, it being a holiday the museum was closed. So we visited its vicinity, there is a very old cemetery of British soldiers who died here in the Fort of Gwalior. Even though they died fighting Indians, it was very sad to read their tombstones and to know that they had died so young. There were several graves of infants and young wives, almost all the graves marked the age below 30 years.

We revisited the museum next day and saw some beautiful artifacts, most importantly the famous miniature statue of Shalabhanjika (literally meaning, breaking a branch of a sala tree) . It is a sculpture of a woman, displaying stylized feminine features, standing near a tree and grasping a branch. The museum has a nice collection of things (statues, pillars, coins, etc) as old as 100 BC. The only unfortunate part was that due to some repair work, there was no power in the complex and I could not take pictures in the darker rooms. Pictures here.

We started early in the morning by road from Gwalior, stopped en route for breakfast and to take some nice snaps of Chambal. We reached Fatehpur Sikri at around 10AM crisscrossing 3 states (MP, Raj & UP).

Fatehpur Sikri

Fatehpur Sikri: We spent around 2 hours in the Sikri complex which has some of the finest mix of Indian, Persian and Islamic architecture. We started our tour with a visit to  Deewan-e-khas (Hall of private audience), followed by the treasury, Panch Mahal (5 storied palace), Hujra-i-Anup Talao (Turkish Sultana’s house), Anup Talao (ornamental pool), Khwabgah (House of Dreams where Emperor Akbar lived), Shabistan-i Iqbal (Principal Haram), Jama Masjid, Tomb of Salim Chishti,  and Buland Darwaza (Great or unbreakable Gate).  Click here for the picture album.

From Fatehpur Sikri, we started towards the city of Agra. Had ok-ish lunch at a roadside dhaba. Though Agra was hardly 30kms from there, due to heavy traffic, it took over 1.5 hours to reach the Agra Fort.

Agra Fort: Originally built out of red bricks, this is one the most important forts of India. It was later rebuilt by Emperor Akbar with red sandstone and then Emperor Shah Jahan rebuilt some of the structures within it with white Marble. It is rumored that Shah Jahan died in Musamman Burj watching Taj Mahal from the marble balcony, remembering his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal. Click here to see the picture album.

Though there was lot to see but we spent under an hour in the fort as all were impatient to see the final and the most important leg of the trip: The Taj Mahal.

Taj Mahal: In order to limit damage to the structure, the state government has banned vehicle movement in the near vicinity and the alternative option, to go from taxi stand till the main entrance, is to take battery operated bus, horse cart or a camel cart. Neiv opted for a camel cart!

Due to elaborate (airport like) security measures and heavy holiday season rush, we had to wait in a queue for almost 1/2 an hour to get entry. Within the complex, we took some nice snaps while Neiv ran all around. We had hired a photographer as well, to take some professional clicks with his SLR.

I think we chose the best time to visit Taj (between 4-7PM) as it looked awesome in the evening sunlight and we could click some lovely sunset pictures from the courtyard of Taj. Click here for the Taj Mahal picture album.

Later, we bought some souvenirs and started our return journey around 7:30PM and Neiv slept within few minutes as he was tired by all the excitement he had and the intense running around he did all through the day. Had great dinner on our way back and reached Gwalior at around 10PM.

At long last and after 3 visits to Chicago, I was able to touch the elusive waters of Lake Michigan… all thanks to Rajesh from Motorola.

The trip was planned at the last moment as the weather Gods were smiling and it was warm enough in October for us to visit the lake front. It was a short and sweet trip with Rajesh and family, we had some good fun, took some nice photos.

Even though the weather was warm and nice,  the water was freezing enough to keep me from taking a full dive into the water… but I still managed to wet my feet and have a good time in the process

You can find the pictures here.

Videos are in this order (choose 480p for higher resolution, though loads slower):

1. Jai Ho
2. Mile Sur Mera tumhara
3. Rang De Basanti (1, 2 & 3)
4. We Shall Overcome

Here is the link to the pictures.

After missing last year’s IPL-1 Opening ceremony, I had made a resolve not make the same mistake again… so we were there, the entire family – enjoying one of the most breathtaking international entrainment package India has showcased in recent times - Champion’s League Opening Game/Ceremony. And as expected, Neiv had a gala time in enjoying the laser lights, music, sixes and of course firecrackers.

The entire ceremony was pretty engaging, Dance mix theme of east meets west was good and performed well. I think Jamilia singing her hit single “Superstar” was a high point of the ceremony. Shaggy was also there but he has kind of become stale and I personally would have preferred some Indian star to perform there instead (Rehman or Sukhwinder would have been great!)

Being a hard core supporter of Royal Challenger’s Bangalore team… I loved each and every shot hit by Uthappa or Tyler but seeing Dravid hit a six was high point in the evening and was worth every Rupee spent on the tickets Too bad the home team lost in the end… thanks to amazing batting by Duminy (99 not out!) but a close game with last ball finish under flood lights and near capacity crowd ensured that the Spirit of Cricket was the real winner!

All in all, it was a thrilling game, entertaining ceremony and a joyful evening!

Pictures have been uploaded here.

Check out pictures and video of Neiv’s Third Birthday that we celebrated last week within family.

The plan to go to Coorg was made within minutes when Angshuman & Shipra came up with a brilliant proposition to make bookings at Club Mahindra Resort for all of us. The idea was to just go there, relax and enjoy the rains… and we ended up doing exactly the same!

We originally planned to reach the place around noon but due to pathetic road condition in the fag end, we got delayed by over two hours. Initially, we were really surprised by the excellent road condition between Mysore and Khushalnagar (80kms) but the road thereafter, for the last 26kms, could be best described as “barely motor-able”.

We had a late lunch at the resort on day one, followed by some game activities in the “Fun Zone”. Neiv liked the children play area but rains played spoilsport for him. It continued to rain the entire evening and we decided to call it a day and have a quiet relaxing evening at our room. It continued rain the whole night.

In the morning we enjoyed an elaborate breakfast at the resort and then headed for Abbey falls, which is around 10kms away. The road to falls is a single lane, mountainous and very scenic.  As it hadnt stopped raining we waited for the rains to slow down before heading out towards the falls. Neiv was specially very excited while going towards the falls. We later realized that all the excitement was as he actually expected to see Dinosaurs in the forest/near the falls

The falls, which are about 300m away from the parking area, were in the full glory at this time of the year with +9% extra rainfall being blessed in the state of Karnataka this season. However, due to the increased water flow, access to the falls was restricted.  Seems you could sit under the falls during summers, when the falls are just a trickle.

We again spent the rest of the day indoors, enjoying the rains and few games of “dumb charades” while Neiv watched his Fav show “Tom & Jerry” on the DVD.

Next day, we started our return journey immediately after breakfast and though we had planned to make a stopover at the Buddhist Monastery @ Khushalnagar,  as Neiv dozed off enroute, we decided to skip it and directly head home. We reached Bangalore/home at around 5PM after almost a non-stop drive with just one coffee break.

Summary: Coorg disappoints you as a tourist place… all the sight seeing place are scattered far away from each other and the connecting roads are pathetic. But I would still rate the trip as a good one as it was a relaxing trip at a nice resort with excellent food and the entire trip was planned & executed without hassles

How to Reach Coorg From Bangalore: Bangalore – take SH17 to – Ramanagram – Chennapatna – Maddur – Mandya – Srirangapatnam – Mysore – Take right at Ring road towards Hunsur – take right/merge into SH88 – Hunsur – Khushalnagar – Medikeri (Kodagu/Coorg).

Road Condition:
- SH17: Excellent, 4 Lane, pothole free
- SH88: Excellent, 4 Lane till Hunsur and 2 lanes till Khushalnagar (80kms), pothole free. Thereafter the road becomes pathetic, 1 lane, mildly mountainous and full of potholes.

Thanks again to Angshuman and Shipra for giving us company (& of course for the free stay!).

You can check the pictures here.

Cheers!

In case you are an avid Firefox user, it highly recommended that you be cautious when you install Ask.com toolbar. Once installed, Ask.com toolbar messes with Firefox settings and adds the below given string to whatever address (URL) you type. Hence, you are not able to open any webpage and you keep getting the same error message everytime you enter an address (URL).

“Firefox can’t find the file at jar:file:///C:/Program Files/Mozilla Firefox/chrome/en-US.jar!/locale/browser-region/region.properties”

Quick Solution:

1. Uninstall the toolbar from Start >> Settings >> Control Panel >> Add/Remove Programs
2. Go to FireFox install Directory (likely,  C:/Program Files/Mozilla Firefox/Components)
3. Delete AskToolbar.js
4. Restart FireFox and you are done!

And no, this error doesn’t have anything to do with Google Chrome Browser!

Happy Browsing!

After struggling with sluggish performance of my laptop for a long time, last week I finally devoted few hours and some efforts to fix it. And, I would say I am impressed with the little tricks that I learned which improve performance.  Listed below are few things that all PC owners should perform at least once in 3 months of daily use:

1. Defragmentation: Fragmentation of hard disk is the biggest culprit.  Make sure you defrag your drives as frequently as sanely possible. I recommend using a defrag software that does auto-defrag and a lot of other things in background whenever your PC is idle, I like DisKeeper.

2. Clean up you Registry:  Clean up your registry once in 3 months using any free/paid SW like RegistryVictor.

3. Create a New Profile: This is a tricky one, not recommended for rookies. Take a back up of your settings/favorites/Outlook rules/etc and then, reboot your PC in safe mode. Go to your user profile folder (dont try this if you dont know where profile folder is!) and rename it to something else (like X.orig) . Reboot in normal mode. Next time you login, Windows would recreate a new profile folder for you. When you login, you’d notice that all your settings would be gone. But, I bet that you’d notice improved performance.  Restore settings/favorites/Outlook rules/etc. Copy Desktop, My document, etc from your old renamed profile folder. Just be careful to copy only the things you need to avoid bringing in the reason that slowed your PC in the first place. Use your PC for few days or when you are sure you’ve copied everything you needed,  just delete the old renamed folder. This you could do once in six months.

4. Run windows “Disk Cleanup” to delete Temp files.

5. Delete Junk: RegistryVictor also deletes the junk getting accumulated or do it yourself.

Note: No matter what your PC configurations are, unless you perform at least few of the things mentioned here, you computer WILL slow down with usage.

An Era ended today.

Michael would always be remembered for his music, his style, his path breaking videos and the fact that he led the entire world music scene for over a decade. Click here to view his obituary on BBC.

The world salutes the King!

In Michael’s own words:

Like A Comet Blazing ‘Cross The Evening Sky Gone Too Soon Like A Rainbow Fading In The Twinkling Of An Eye Gone Too Soon Shiny And Sparkly And Splendidly Bright Here One Day Gone One Night Like The Loss Of Sunlight On A Cloudy Afternoon Gone Too Soon

Like A Castle Built Upon A Sandy Beach Gone Too Soon Like A Perfect Flower That Is Just Beyond Your Reach Gone Too Soon Born To Amuse, To Inspire, To Delight Here One Day Gone One Night Like A Sunset Dying With The Rising Of The Moon Gone Too Soon

- from “Gone Too Soon”, Michael Jackson.

After many postponements, replanning, etc we finally embarked on the coveted weekend road trip to Ooty. We were assured of good times as Angshuman & Shipra were accompanying us.

The Journey: We started at 8:30PM and reached Mysore via SH17 at 1AM after a pit stop at McDonalds for post-dinner snacks . We were delayed a little en route as we were stopped thrice by the cops for complete vehicle search. In Mysore, Vivek and Yogesh were courteous as ever and gave us shelter for the night. Next day, as we finally left Mysore at 9AM after heavy breakfast at a local deli, I estimated to reach Ooty by 1PM. The NH212 road till Gundlupet is pretty good but was so boring that Neiv dosed off immediately. The road thereafter becomes NH67 and is potholed-to-non-existent for next 10kms.

We had expected to see some animals in Bandipur National Park and were not majorly disappointed as we saw some deer, elephants, peacock and ofcourse lots of monkeys! Before crossing Karnataka state border, forest guards stopped us for complete vehicle check… 4th time in this journey! On entering TN state and Madumalai Tiger Reserve, cops again checked our papers/license. On seeking directions, the humble cop aptly asked us to take left onto a SH67 road after 4kms instead of going straight on the longer NH67  and we heartily oblidged

SH67 is a single lane road for the most part that runs thru the deep forest till the climb starts. The road climbs at an angle of around 35 degrees involving 36 hair raising hairpin bends. Initially, I had to put my WagonR in gear 1 to make it chug along, but later on it took the load in gear 2 very easily. The best part of this stretch of road is that you could amazingly feel the steep drop in temperature and atmospheric pressure. We reached Ooty ahead of schedule at 12 Noon and were resting in our Hotel rooms by 12:30PM.

Day 1: Botanical Garden and DoddaBetta peak
We started at 1:30PM from Hotel and had a buffet lunch at a restaurant close by. We decided to finish off two of the main attractions of Ooty… it being a clear sunny day, we started with Botanical Garden, which I had seen some 10years back. To my amazement not a single thing had changed ever since… it was still the same boring garden with few good plant varieties and was hugely overcrowded. We stayed at the place for an hour or so and headed for DoddaBetta peak. The peak is around 9kms from Ooty city and the road is very scenic. The peak itself was again overcrowded and we were kind of uneasy as the temperature must have dipped to single digits and Neiv was not properly clothed. We stayed there for few minutes, took some snaps, bought stuff from street vendors while Shipra enjoyed horse riding. We were back in hotel room by 6PM, spent the evening by having dinner at the room with a game of dumb charade and long hours of gossip/discussions. We finally called it a day at 2AM

Day 2: Ooty Lake and Coonoor: Dolphin’s Nose, Lamb’s Rock

Next morning we started at 9AM and after heavy breakfast straightaway went the star attraction of Ooty – The Ooty Lake. As expected, the lake itself is/has been pretty disappointing, its just the good weather that makes it so enjoyable. We took a row boat for 5 and went for a fast sail around the lake. After boating and quick snaps, we started with fun rides – Columbus, tora-tora, dashing cars, etc. Neiv had the max fun in the Mini-Train. Later, while Nandini & Shipra were busy buying plants, Neiv and I decided to take a short horse riding trip.

We skipped lunch and directly started for the town of Coonoor from the lake. It is some 17kms away from Ooty and at a lower altitude. Seems, the lower altitude makes it fit for Tea farming and we saw plenty of them in coonoor. Angshuman inquired about the Nigiri tourist toy train at Conoor station but as the logistics weren’t working out, we completely dropped the idea of taking the train. We then headed for Dolphin’s Nose which was around 14kms from city station. The road was good but with one lane and heavy traffic. Every now and then we had to stop for several minutes to make way to some bus/van coming from opposite direction. As expected, Dolphin’s Nose turned out to be a standard view point, though made very famous by several bollywood movies. On our way back we stopped at another view point – Lamb’s Rock – for 40 secs and headed back to Ooty. Had late snacks/lunch at Cafe Coffee Day and as we were pretty tired, we called it a day by 8PM.

Day 3: Wenlock Downs, Pykara Falls and return from Ooty
We finished our breakfast and started our return journey at sharp 10AM. This time we chose to take the longer road – NH67 – so that we could cover Pykara lake and some other sights on our way back. The road was one of the best mountain (ghat) roads that I have driven in India… all with excellent lane markings, etc.

We first stopped at lake created by Kamraj Sagar Dam (Sixth mile) for few minutes and took some snaps. Few kilometer ahead we again stopped at a scenic spot called at Ninth Mile… famous for several bollywood movies  that have been shot there. 23kms from Ooty we made our final stop at Pykara Falls, where you have a tiny stream of water flowing over rocks. There is nothing amazing about the falls but the clean and chilling water refreshed us. Even though the water was chilling enough, Neiv still wanted to take a deep dive inside it…

The remaining part of the journey was scenic but uneventful… we reached Mysore at 4PM, stopped again at McDonald for dinner on the way to Bangalore… traffic closer to Bangalore was a killer… we finally reached home at 9:30 PM… Neiv was all tired and had dosed off somewhere enroute.

Summary: Ooty is a wonderful place with an amazing year round weather. Though none of the sights are breathtaking, the scenic roads, clean air and the lovely weather easily compensate for that.

How to reach Ooty: Bangalore – take SH17 to – Ramanagram – Chennapatna – Maddur – Mandya – Srirangapatnam – Mysore – take NH212 via ring road to – Nanjangud –  Gundlupet – take NH67 to – Hangala – Bandipur – Mudumalai – Theppekaddu – take left onto SH67 after bridge to – Masinagudi – Kalhatti – Ooty = 280 kms.

Road Directions and map available at Google Maps Here.

Road Condition:
- SH17: Excellent, 4 Lane, pothole free
- NH212: Average, 2 lane – 10kms between Gundlupet and Hangala is very bad
- SH67: Good, 1 lane, steep climb and hairpin bends for around 10kms

Find the Picture Album Here.

Alternate heading: Absolute waste of Time and Money

I had extremely low expectation when we visited the heavily advertised “Fun” spot – ‘Innovative Fun City’. And on reaching the site, I was amazed to see that I had to stoop my expectations even lower than I ever thought was possible.

About:
1. Location: It is very very far from Bangalore… 15kms ahead of Wonder La… It is in midst of Bidadi Industrial zone… whoever gave them the permission to base a children’s park next to Toyota Factory?

2. Entry Fee: The total package is of Rs 800/- per head or you may choose to pay Rs. 50/- as one time entry fee and individually pay for each attraction. Each attraction is between 100-200 bucks. They charge/extort Rs. 100/- for Still Camera entry fee!

3. The place: Even though the structures built are magnificent but serve no purpose and overuse of concrete makes one sweat and thirsty in the already warm & dry climate of Bidadi industrial zone. Inside, you see some branded retail shops, eateries and star attraction scattered around and most of them are still under construction.

4. The attractions: I just liked the Dyno park that they have built, rest is overcrowded, unclean, too expensive, not-worth-it kinds. You can get details of each from the official site here.

5. The questions: Why is everything so expensive? 100 bucks for camera entry, 50 bucks for a glass of Cola! Why couldn’t there be some trees to make things cooler and greener?

You can check the Picture Album here.

Wishing Everyone a splendid colorful Holi!

This was second holi at our current residence where we kick started the celebrations with the burning of Holika‘s pyre or Holi bonfire. It was nice to see lot of people turning up and performing “pooja” of the pyre. The participation in the event was more than our expectations as we were led to believe that no one was interested in performing Pooja. We had called few of our friends for dinner and it was very late when we were able to call it a day.

The next morning the first one to wake up was Neiv , all excited and ready to get drenched in the melange of colors. Even before we could go down and start playing holi, he was all soaked up in water!

The legend of Holi: In an attempt to kill his god loving son Pralhad, King Hiranyakashyap asked his sister Holika, who had a special gift that prevented her from being harmed by fire, to sit in fire with Pralhad in his lap. As Prahlad chanted God Vishnu’s name he was not hurt, but Holika was burnt to her death.

Holi celebrates the death of Holika and we see where Holi gets its name. The night before Holi pyres are burnt in keeping with this tradition. Holi is celebrated to mark victory of good over evil.

Find the photographs here

We visited the Aircraft Trade show “Aero India 2009” on the final day. Angshuman & family were having some passes for the exhibition cum air show, we chipped in one ticket to get access for all of us.

We reached Yehalanka Airbase at around 10:30AM and by the time we could park and get to the main venue, it was already 11:30AM. The guy who had arranged for passes was generous enough to have us dropped in his car till the farthest possible point

Neiv was having a great time already as he had seen enough of low flying fighter planes enroute to keep him excited for the entire day! The sight of helicopters and sukhoi’s only energized him further. I was kind disappointed to not find any F16s or 18s in the display. I reckon they were a part of Air show only. Later we came to know that one of the F16 had a flat tire while landing after maneuvers.

At around 2PM we went out to have lunch, had couple of drinks with Subway Veggie Delites and coffee day sandwiches. Meeting Ruchir during the lunch was a nice surprise

We returned at around 4:30PM after the show was over and most of the exhibitions stalls had started packing up, reached home at around 7PM beating the evening traffic. Thanks to Angshuman for the passes and the free ride

Find the pix here.

After a very hectic work week… we went to the local amusement park “Wonder La!” with my Bro-In-Law Gaurav who was here for a week. It seems the place is also hit by recession as, in spite of it being a Sunday, it wasn’t much crowded (good for us!)

The main incident of the trip was about my camera being lost and then being found in the “lost and found” counter. Good to see honesty still alive!

About: Tickets are pricey at Rs 598/- per person on weekends, it includes all the rides. You cannot take edibles inside and the tickets are single entry so make sure you do not leave anything behind in the car! Food available inside is good and not expensive. Rides look dangerous but can assumed to be safe as claimed by the management Staff is extremely helpful and always available when you need them.

How to reach: Go straight on SH17 towards Mysore for around 50Kms. Take right into Wonder La! gate in to the village road. Reach Wonder La! after 5 kms .

Road Condition:
- SH17: Excellent, 4 lane without potholes.

Check out the pix here.

Warning: You need a heart to see hard abuses to a cell phone

List of Tests:
Kicked, threw over, stood over, mashed it, drove over it, buried it in snow, hit it with a hammer, hit it with a wrench, heated it with a blowtorch, chilled it to 0 degrees F, held it under running water.

Courtesy: phonescoop

Wishes to all of you for the 60th Republic Day of India. We went down to our local community function. It included Flag Hoisting, cakes n’ refreshment and few fun games. Neiv was real happy on receiving the participation gift in the end.

You can find the pictures here.

This weekend we finally landed at the most sought after place by Neiv - HAL Aircraft Heritage Museum. Neiv had the best time as he was actually able to touch “Fighter Planes” and the “Helicopters” and could play with their “Fan” (in his words!).

I’m sure that looking at Neiv’s interest level, we would be visiting the place again soon!

About: Entry Fee for Adult Indians: Rs. 20/- and I think Rs. 25 for Still Camera. The place is clean and well kept with a collection of few interesting planes. Though it is unrelated to planes but one should not miss to check out the fish pond near the canteen.

How to reach: if coming from MG Road, It falls on the left hand side of HAL Road, 3kms ahead of the Old Airport entrance.

This must be our 6th or 7th trip to Mysore over a weekend and we finally managed to take the token tour of Brindavan Garden and Mysore Palace! I visited the same after 15 years and it was sad to note that there have been no improvements at all.

But it is always good to spend time with Yogi and Vivek in Mysore. The plan was also to cover Ranganthettu Bird Sanctuary but could never wake up on time

Click Here for the photos of the same.