Half Moon Bay

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The wonderful thing about Half Moon Bay is that its tilted. You can see the water flowing in one direction.
That was a joke :-)

Jokes apart, I never saw those many colors on the sky before. Thanks to WeihSin (our colleague from Oracle HQ ). for more colors please refer my flickr link above.

The Day n Night

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You set your time according to the Day n Night schedule,  What if u want Day n Night according to your schedule. This is what I am observing during my flight to US. The whole Day n Night thing gets messed up. You wanna see Sun at a certain position at certain time, reach that part of world thats all.

There are many great inventions but I feel the Aeronautics thing is one of the greatest invention I have personally experienced. Last time we went to US via Singapore, Mostly the journey was in night and over the sea. This time we went via Dubai, mostly the journey was during day and we could see some wonderful landscapes. I didn't expect that, UAE n nearby countries will be that deserted, no trees at all. You hardly see any green patch. One wonderful thing to observe is great Road Connectivity, you can see that even from forty thousand feet. I guess the reason people reside at these places is Oil, saw few oil wells kind of thing ( I think :-) ). I saw few light green /brown rectangular patches. I really wonder how can they grow anything in those conditions.

This Dubai -> SFO flight takes shortcut and guess what is the shortcut It flies over North Pole. It was dark when we reached near North Pole but we could see frozen rivers of Canada. The sunrise view was very different from that height. Its like Earth is burning from below ,you can see dark orange color flames kind  of  thing throughout the horizon.

My wondering was not over yet, as we reached SFO. I wanted to take a room with more sun light .  So 
I tried to figure out where does Sun rise. Whatever the direction sense we have in India according to that, Sun rises in the east and sets somewhere in the south :-) 

Cooking Time

 

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Some background , Me n 2 of my colleagues came to Oracle Head Quarters close to San Francisco.

We are staying in a hotel nearby office n we try to cook sometimes.

Yesterday I cooked the whole dinner all by myself after around 1.5 hrs of effort, I even guided others :-) The dinner consisted rice n dal and it was a grand success, I concluded it after seeing the appetite of others :-)

All these vegetables are hybrid or whatever, everything is huge. See the onion n tomato as compared to apple.

Pics from marriages

Enjoy some pics taken during the marriages I recently attended.

Some random thoughts
------------------------------

I was reading the novel "The Zahir" from Paulo Coelho. The author mentions somewhere "Why most of the people don't enjoy watching movies based on the novel they have already read ?". I myself have seen my friends one commenting about "The Fountainhead" other about "Harry Potter" movies. The author explains, while reading the novel everyone visualize their own characters with strengths, weaknesses and qualities more relevant to the reader, and in movie they find totally different persons on the screen.

I think similar phenomenon is applicable to photographs, everyone is having their own perspective. So I will try to avoid any description or comments on the pics unless the motive is to be informative.

The Beach

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The advantage of staying near sea is you go few kilometers n you can see the all new beaches. We had visited Vizag beach many a times so this time decided to explore a new one. With the information my cousin had we ended up in Annavaram Beach in between Vizianagaram and Vizag, not famous though. I am uploading some pics of this beach and Kailash Giri (A must visit place in Vizag).

PS : Vizag is just another name of Visakhapatnam. It has another name Waltair too :-)

last day @ IBC

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My office is shifting to a new place. This older location near Dairy Circle, Bangalore was really nice. Attaching view from one of the Huddle Rooms.

Cycle Diaries

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I think Bangalore is just awesome place for cycling and I try to utilize any opportunity I get. Asked Rags (one of my roommate) if he is interested ? He said yes then I planned, didn't disclose the distance though :-).  We started for the shri Ravishankar Ashram in Kanakpura road, around 25 kms from our place. I had visited the place earlier and had liked some locations on hill top.

Google maps helped us to figure out the route, but there were quite a few. While going we choose to go via Koramangala -> Bannerghatta road -> NICE road -> kanakpura road. NICE road was really nice :-), It was just awesome for cycling. The slope was also helping us, you hardly need to use paddles.  We later came to know that bicycles are not allowed on that road :-).

Reached Ashram, there was a shuttle showing various places at Ashram. The Sumeru and Viskalakshi Mantapas are really nice places. Had lunch there (they serve free lunch to everyone) and after resting under the shade of the green trees for about an hour started our back journey.

In our back journey we choose different route, kanakpura road -> Banashankari -> koramangala. The road was in very bad shape due to rains and the Namma Metro construction work. And to add there was no mud-guard on the back tyre of my cycle so I was getting a constant spray of mud on my back. We reached our home around 5.00 PM after travelling more than 50 Kms........ huuuufffff quite a distance.

Not to mention the Bangalore's weather was very supportive :-)

Dussera @ Mysore

Dussera @ Mysore Enjoy the pics......

It was a Random plan, visited Mysore for a day during dussera, as we had heard a lot about it. We first visited Chamundeshwari Temple on the hill top. Then we are told from local people that there are various events, most notable Royal Parade at the Palace, Torch light parade at Bunni Mantapa and various shows at Vrindavan Gardens. The more important aspect came a bit later that you need passes to attend these and there is no way you can get them on the spot. We thought for a moment what to do as we didn't have any passes, then decided lets give a shot and we reached the venues on time.

First event Royal Parade at Palace, the venue was already full with people from all over India and many foreigners. We stayed at the main gate for some time, and soon the whole area was getting filled with more people like us :-). With request/force they finally allowed everyone inside. We could manage some place to sit in front, actually we tried to stand sometimes to get a better view, but the crowd behind us reacted like we asked for separate Telangana or may be more Cauvery water :-). The parade was very lively presenting various cultures and music of karnatka. The show came to an end with Elephant Balarama carrying idol of goddess Chamundeshwari.

Till we reached the second venue Bunny Mantapa it was 7.30 PM and again the same situation no passes and again the same solution :-). So they allowed us inside, It was even better we got proper sitting places in the Gold class of VIP quota :-). It was a huge ground with flood lights all around. The show started with a wonderful Laser show and performance, followed by wonderful aerobics, in between some people landed from sky in parachutes and other events went on. Then came the big event Torch light parade, this wasn't the advertisement of EverReady batteries or something as I first thought :-) 900 karnatka Police staff entered the stadium holding the torches (Mashal). It was great parade with perfect synchronization. They got arranged in various positions and displayed messages with their torch lights, It was just awesome.

We didn't have time to visit the third place as it was only one day trip. My final comments :  One should definitely visit Mysore during Dussera but better pre plan everything. The festival goes on for 9-10 days with lots of events organised daily. 

Coastal Andhra, A Glimpse from Train

I clicked some pics while I was going to my home town Vizianagaram from Bangalore. The train route covers a significant part of coastal Andhra. Enjoy the greenary.....

IISc Jhankaar 2010

I was pretty much aware that even if you go on time what happens in SDA (Satish Dhawan Auditorium), if any function is organized there. So I was there with some other enthusiasts half an hour before to attend the IISc Jhankaar 2010.

    It was just wonderful performance by everyone with perfect blend of Indian and Western dances. When I was watching The Krishna and Gopis sequence, I really got a glimpse how Krishna's presence would have mesmerized Gopis and everyone present there. I am really not a correct person to describe all the events but one thing is for sure as part of audience we enjoyed each moment of it, be it Maharashtriyan Folk Dance, Bhangra, Semi classical stuff or all the varieties of western dances Salsa, Cha Cha Cha, Rock n Roll, Jive etc. So very well done IISc Dance Club.

    I clicked some pics but I couldn't do much with my point n shoot camera from audience seat. It was bit dark and there were very rare still moments during the dance. Still putting some of them here for a glimpse of the event.

    

 

A Rainy Day

Posting some pics of a Rainy Day, From our Apartment (Navya Nest) terrace. I was very surprised to see the different patterns everywhere, tried to capture some of them.

Thats stupid ....

        I went to a tree plantation program in Domlur (nearby Koramangala) and was discussing the event with one of my friend. There were around 120 saplings to be planted that day and around 5-6 varieties of saplings were there.

        We started planting the saplings as planned, at some places creating cluster of trees of the same type,  was also part of the plan. I dig a big hole and suddenly realized that there was no sapling of the expected tree in that cluster. We didn't want to waste the digging effort so I brought some other type of sapling and planted it. The program was over once we are done with all the saplings.

        While telling about this incident to my friend I felt so happy that see whenever I will visit this place I'll be knowing that I planted this tree as that was different from the whole cluster of trees. I was happy like a kid who did some great job and my friend, she very well knew this kid needs some encouragement. I got a praise saying that you did a wonderful job, I felt even more happier.

        Once the call was over I realized, that was stupid, he he he :-)

Hiriyur Dam

We went to Hiriyur (place around 150 km from Bangalore) to attend one of my friend's marriage. First time attended a Muslim marriage. The marriage was organised in a mosque, and before the marriage there was preaching session. It was very different experience, never entered a mosque before. We also joined the preaching session for some time. It was basically simple urdu so we were able to understand that. After the preaching session ended, the procedure for the marriage started, and it took around 10 minutes to be done with the marriage formalities, so it was pretty fast.

As we had plenty of spare time, we went to the Hiriyur Dam nearby. I didn't know that Hiriyur is the oldest Dam of karnatka. Check out my flickr link for more updates about the place.

Live Life.....liked this mail

HOW TO STAY YOUNG 1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay 'them' 2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down. 3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. 'An idle mind is the devil's workshop.' 4. Enjoy the "simple" things. 5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath. 6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive. 7. Surround yourself with what you love , whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.. 8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help. 9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOTto where the guilt is. 10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity. AND ALWAYS REMEMBER: Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,  but by the moments that take our breath away.

The US Trip

It was the first time I was going abroad, a one month business visit to Oracle Head Quarters at San Francisco. It was altogether a very different experience visiting new places and meeting new people. 

Our route was 

Bangalore -> Singapore -> Seoul -> SFO 

while going and while coming 

SFO -> Hong Kong -> Singapore -> Bangalore. 

So witnessed some of  the best Air Ports in the world. 

The onward journey.

We Started from Bangalore Airport, If you think its big wait for some time.

Our flight to Singapore.

busy photographer.

Here comes the Singapore Airport, It was huge.

Nice sky trains inside Singapore Airport to connect different terminals.

good greenery inside Airport.

Schedule

In such big Airports you definitely need these.

Now Seoul Airport, Some places here were pretty authentic.

This restaurant inside Seoul Airport was beautiful.

Seoul Airport was also huge.

It was chilled outside. We never got a chance to go out of the Airport building though. Can you see the layer of ice on the runway ?

planes@seoul

The Nandi Hills Trip

For the bikers Nandi Hills is a good place to start with. Its around 70 km from Bangalore and people visit this place mainly to enjoy the Sunrise. You must reach there pretty early in the morning around 5AM. We  hardly slept during the night and started our trip around 3 AM. It takes decent time to group all the friends before leaving. Our meeting point was Mekhri Circle and we started from there around 3.30 AM. It takes 1 to 1.5 hour to reach there and all of us were there by 5.00 AM. Unfortunately the police man there didn't allow  us to get into the hills before 6.00 AM as it was dark and cloudy. But after that what we experienced was just awesome. We couldn't see the sun till 9 AM as it was very cloudy but being among the dense clouds for the whole time was a very different experience. While returning we had the breakfast at CTR Malleshwaram and their Benne Masala Dosa was very nice. Overall the journey towards nandi hills was more enjoyable, no traffic, highway and cool climate, you drive most of the time above 80-90 kmph. While coming back it was bit hot and irritating due to traffic.

Caution 

- Keep your driving license and bike papers with you, there was a police man in the way otherwise you may have to manage with some money (around 100 bucks I guess).

-  Be careful at highway signals as the vehicles used to be at very high speed.

We have to reach there @top of that mountain

Varma with his Thunderbird

Our friends are there at all places

I really wondered that day that whether nature also likes Make Up. It was like winds are putting lots of powder on face of the hill.

clouds all over

Tipu Sultan used to come here to have a bath. Man this far to have a bath :-)

Walking into the clouds.

It was great fun to drive on these roads.

Liked this view from top of the Hill.

Time to have a group pic.

The cool breeze at this place was fundoo !

Ummmy Benne Masala Dosa !!

The Hogenakkal Trip

This place is around 150 km from Bangalore and have sufficient stuff to keep you occupied for the whole day. Some of the scenes of Raavan Movie are also shot here  Hogenakkal

We got good company there :-)

The Kaveri river surrounded by mountains.

There were lots of water falls all around.

Here comes the big one !

From another Angle !

The Mushroom !

The Mushroom ! Inside out !!

Isn't it beautiful !

Man ! Yahan bhi traffic Jam :-)

Nice way to watch a Movie ...................

We often visited theaters around IISc to take a break from our studies and here is one such visit.
The other visits were not so Royal though :-)

One night @IISc

There are lots of sweet memories to cherish from IISc, one of them was to walk around IISc with friends. The days were beautiful but I personally enjoyed more of nights at IISc. The roads fully covered with trees, the cool breeze, nice fragrance throughout the campus, and the moon made it even more beautiful.

 

  

 

I got some comments on these pics (particularly for last few) that IISc is bit scary :-) he he he...........