Trivia for the traveller....

Free Diving in Cyrpus promises an adventure. One has no oxygen mask, a dive into the mighty ocean with total breath control..all that it takes for this feat to be done is how much of breath control one can have and retain composure.



Next is Crete, the largest of the Greek islands and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.In 1941, this place was targetted by Adolf Hitler but the locals posed stiff resistance to the German attack.Pictures of some of the brave old men who survived through this war:


That's the major in his youth..


And now in his ripe old age, narrating his acts of bravery and how Hitler faced defeat in their hands.



Crete is a beautiful place filled with lot of mountains. This place has very hospitable people and they are very fun loving too. In one of their traditional ways, the men perform a dance together and at the end of which break glass plates continously. This act of breaking plates was done to help them overcome the grief of losing their loved ones during war. It is still followed by them and reminds them of the community that underwent such painful incidents in the past.

Barista, CCD v/s Dosa Camp...

Along the quiet roads of Cambridge Lyt, there is a famous hang out.Dosa Camp, the road side food joint. Ppl frm all across Ulsoor, Indiranagar flock to this place for the garma garam dosas and varieties of it..yummm...

In the recent past, CCD came off. Modernisation happened, too many "Kewl ppl" thot this is gonna turn out to be the next hangout here.And it dint end there, adjacent to the CCD a Barista came! Rivals rite next to each other..

Picture this, even after the two 'paamus' coffee shops...Dosa Camp still gets more customers than them. One can see the waiters at these places staring at Dosa Camp and wondering.."Usme aisa kya hai, ki hum mein nahi hai?" :D

Its all about PI....

Ever wondered if one could have a secured space on the web for dumping your personal information? For all of us who maintain our mail folders for picz, videos, personal details etc., there's news coming your way. PI Corp is working on handling personal information and making it user friendly too. They are using the concept of Cloud Computing.Also to handle the security of handling the data, their tie up with EMC Corp.

Looking forward to this emerging tech and to see if this could change our approach in managing our personal data.

Ek Inch Higher....

Destination: Kemmangundi, 250Km from Bangalore
Route: Via Belur and Hassan
Date: Apr26th 2008
Time:5.30am




Qualis is what came up finally and the first pick up wuz at sharp 5.30am. Teju takes the driver's seat. Then the coordination...coordination strts up wid the next pick up point where Jo n Vandana joined in. By then, i wuz only on calls n msgs and the alarm bells strted ringing loudly in my head this time.Harshi n Ammu joined in as well, next Pri n me. Lastly shilps had to be picked, by now the chit chat and all the excitement already in the air.



We landed at Kemmangundi after tht splendid drive thru the Ghat section, simbly soooooperb i say. Then we checked in, an hour late than the time we expected to.Tht day after the amazing oota and ofcourse majjige which Jo seemed to finish one after the other, we headed to hebbe falls.That as per plan, which later turned out to be a lovely trek over the deserted hill on the way to Hebbe falls. Oh tht trek wuz perfect beginning, completely in sync wid the adventure tht wuz to unfold.

Evening my idea of walking upto Shanti falls, this wuz an unexpected one.We strted walkin up and Shilps, me heading the gang. And me reminding ppl tht we were nt there to take picz of every leaf and every ant on the way. Yeah i know i wuz just too tuff on everyone askin 'em to move it all the time.



Then suddenly realised, the way back in the jungles without torches wud be too much to take in.Bcuz of the route tht we had to head back wuz way too adventurous so we made it..i mean just made it in the rite time by then we were welcomed by Glow worms on the way. Lovely sight to see! Oh reallllyyy..wonderful..And thankfully just the glow worms welcomed us and not the leeches n snakes tht the place is actually famous for ;)

Then we had lotsa drama in Room1, with the two best actors part of the nautanki.We enacted the famous Deewar dialouge with a twist. This time completely Hatke..full bollywood ishtyle.Lol..And the very famous 'back to back' picz. This highly confidential. ROFL..



Dunno when the next day began, destination Kalhathi falls. Nothing wud be predictable thts wot the whole mantra wuz, not much there so we headed to Bababudangiri. Again surprises in store, we lost our way reached Mulhangiri this time. And this by far wuz the best place in the trip, drive to the peak of this hill wuz amazing. Cant find adjectives to describe tht feelin within..Speechless..



Clouds in ur reach, and u at tht level of happiness. We walked thru the 1000 odd steps and everyone in chorus wuz in awe of this place. Wuz beautiful so to say the least..

Then on the way back halted at Belur, Halebid for few min. Headed home with a gr8 feeling and sense of achievement tht this unpredictable trip turned out to be the most exciting and fun filled. THE END? Naaah..therez lots to follow with this lovely gang who believes in going with the flow :)

So how did you come??

This dates back to my school days in Hyderabad, my usual way of gettin to school wuz like the millions of others in the School bus itself. Then bcuz of the new home far away frm school, got travellin by the local bus service. Even if this wuz the option, one of those days just decided to walk it up. And by walk i mean, reach until the Airport then mostly wud get picked by one of the Uncles there. So there has been an instance of a ride in the Fire Engine, goin thru the run way and alight at the end of airport. Then walk it up again until home, mom wud be waiting with snacks bcuz child has travelled so far with so much of difficulty(unaware of the "Fire engine rides"). During days of Sankranti, dont prefer rides in the airport but walkin just to collect the Kites lyin there :)

And this reminds me, have travelled in a police jeep also. Now most of my frenz wud ask, wotz new? For all tht i do, shud be prisoned but those were the days during the VIP movement at Hyd. Narasimha Rao wuz expected to take tht route, all the buses to tht route were cancelled and me kept waiting there even after knowing tht, hopin for a bus. Told ya, wuz school goin and had sm test on that day. Suddenly this police jeep came by, cop told me: "Bachi ghar jaao" but me dint move an inch. Later he offered a pick up to 3 of them standin at the bus stop, me hopped in too. Got dropped at school too and happily walked up. Took few yrs to realise, tht wuznt such a wise thing to do.

Also while I was at this bus stop, four of my teachers were there too. They got an Auto after waiting for a very long time, wanted to take me along bcuz it wuz too late by then. Now the prob wuz that 4 of them already, so driver suggested 'let the kid sit infrnt' and me then sat alongwith driver and reached safely.Now all this isnt such a big deal, but got reminded of all this with a trip to my old home i.e. Hyderabad after 12 yrs....

Jnanashrama, Home for the Aged...

Spoorthi relives good old days with gud old frenz!

Jnanashrama, Home for the Aged at Banerghatta Road is where we all were heading to on Mar 30th, 2008 as our activity after the last one for Xmas. As per the pilaan, we all reached Diary Circle. There Abhay with the new hippie look, Cool Kish, Dileepa and the McAffee boy had decided to lead the way to this place as we were not sure of the route.

Car wuz filled with the gifts that we had decided to give. Previous day, Suri, Rathi and Rathi's fren shopped for cotton sarees and dhotis. Must say it wuz gud wrk done with the selection of sarees! Take a bow ppl..hehheee..
We also got sm snacks for them, all this wuz loaded into the car.By now Harshi, Ambika, Me n Pri decided to travel in bus. So there we all got started, rest of them along with Jo and her cute lil cuzin went ahead in the car.Reema "Khan" joined us at IIMB and we all reached Jnanshrama easily.

As we just landed there, we were greeted by the cook of tht place. He inturn called the head of this place and then when we got talkin to him realised this wuznt an NGO but the ppl here had to pay for their stay here. Initial deposit of 10000/- and 750/- per month. Hmmm...for a min we thot mebbe it wuz a wrong place bcuz spoorthi always went to places where service to the unfortunate wuznt cmin at a price.

We were taken to Padma amma's house first, here we were told tht each of the 32ppl living there is given individual houses to stay. Padma amma welcomed us cheerfully and this lady was a storehouse of happiness and talent. Mebbe they know the predictable questions being asked first, she started off sayin..shez here bcuz after her husband's death she dint wanna depend on nethin but wanted a silent "vaathavarana". She wuz from Mysore and narrated few incidents of the Mysore history.When we asked her to sing, she said she doesnt know any of the "halli" songs but shez frm Mysore city and Blore city.

She went onto sing beautifully and blessed all of us thru tht song.There we got to see the sign of independence tht existed in her and the others which we realised in hours to come. We thot instead of meeting each of 'em at their houses, it wud be better to meet all of 'em together so the coffee time at 4pm wuz just right.

There as we started serving snacks, pop came the question from an old dignified man asking us the purpose of the visit and we did manange to convey our intentions to the crowd there. During the tea time, we distributed the gifts to the 17 ladies and 15men there also the snacks. By now it wuz raining heavily, but tht wuznt a spot of bother at all for us.

We met lotta ppl, a professor, a retd HAL employee, this old man who said who has travelled 3/4 th of the world and since hez a bachelor hez in this place.And this enthu pataks ajji from Mangalore. Such a sweetheart she wuz, said "Athe Maava avarannu Kathe kathe antha nodbaardhu, avaranna amma appa tarah nodbeku" hope me spoke Kannada :D

She wuz a bundle of fun and excitement. Asked her age, she said 18 then asked us to reverse it ;) And yes there was one ajji who poured her heart out to Jo and Jo did a gr8 job of listening to her and comforted her.

All of us got talkin to most of 'em there and realised the conversation just went on and it wuz more on their personal achievements and not necessarily abt hw their sons, daughters or daughter in laws had ill treated them.

Be prepared for the unexpected, this place is filled with Independant ppl with choice and not without choice.Quite an experience for all of us and with God's blessings everything worked out best!

Kudos to Spoorthians :)

Find of the day!

Today me wanna share this piece of info. While working on my comp(am using Windows O.S.), me bumped into a conclusion that while I drag a folder onto the right/left most edge of the desktop a tool bar is created with all the contents of the folder shown there!!

And this I shared with a fren at wrk, who is mighty pleased bcuz this would mean listing out all the contents of the folder which she has to use more often.

Yeh hai Mumbai meri jaan....

Definitely recall the B&W song abt Bombay( Now called Mumbai!! Reason? Let's nt get into tht..)

Aye dil hai mushkil jeena yahan
Zara hat ke zara bach ke, yeh hai Bombay meri jaan

(Kahin building kahin traame, kahin motor kahin mill
Milta hai yahan sab kuchh ik milta nahin dil) -2
Insaan ka nahin kahin naam-o-nishaan
Zara hat ke zara bach ke, yeh hai Bombay meri jaan
Aye dil hai..

This City and the ppl here hv always been in news for many unfortunate incidents in the recent past. But I must say, I strongly believe tht the average mumbaikar is no less than a hero literally. Yeah wot wid the entire bollywood in one place, but my definition of the hero wud be much more than the 70mm screen...

They hv seen it all, riots..blasts..natural disasters. Still not over, sm insane politicians getting cheap publicity out of the lower middle class society. The Thackerays need to be punished bcuz their war against non-marathis resulted in the death of an employee of HAL who himself wuz a marathi!!!!

So who are they fighting against??? 10,000 ppl hv already vacated the city and gone back to their "ROOTS"! At this age of globalization where does one belong???

Does it really matter??

'All I want to do, ever, is play chess.'

Bobby Fischer, who has died at the age of 64 on Jan 17th, 2008 was a talented chess grandmaster once hailed as an American hero for breaking a Soviet dominance of the game that had lasted nearly 30 years.

Volatile and impetuous

Born in Chicago in 1943, Bobby Fischer was a chess genius from the beginning, playing from the age of eight.

He was US junior champion at 13 and open champion at 14, a title he won seven more times.

He became a grandmaster at 15, but was already showing himself to be volatile and impetuous, often turning up late for or walking out of matches.

His victory in 1972 was unexpected, as every world champion since World War II had been from the USSR, and seemed a foretaste of a promising career.

But the man who once said that "all I want to do, ever, is play chess" played precious little of it at international level after he won the world championship in Reykjavik in 1972.

Instead of capitalising on his win, Fischer withdrew from competition. Three years later, the World Chess Federation stripped him of his title for failing to defend it against Anatoly Karpov.

Since then, apart from the Fischer-Spassky rematch in Yugoslavia in 1992 that provoked the wrath of the US government, America's greatest chess player made headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Reclusive

Until Fischer was detained in July 2004 while trying to leave Japan with a revoked US passport, his whereabouts had often been a mystery.

His reclusiveness, his anti-Semitic diatribes in radio interviews and - most unforgivably for his fellow countrymen - his support for the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US all tarnished his legend.

"This is all wonderful news. It is time to finish off the US once and for all," he told a radio station in the Philippines after learning of the attacks.


The former grandmaster did not age well

BBC journalist and chess expert David Edmonds, co-author of the book Bobby Fischer Goes To War, says Americans were profoundly shocked by the transformation.

"To many people, he had been an American icon in 1972. The match had been presented as a classic Cold War battle," he told the BBC News website.

"The Soviet Union had held the world chess title since World War II and chess was an enormously important propaganda tool. Lenin was a keen chess player, so was Trotsky - even Karl Marx himself played chess.

"Bobby Fischer was held up as an archetype after that, and many people view what has happened to him with great sadness. They feel he has been letting not only himself down, but the US down as well."

Certainly Fischer's behaviour in later years was irrational to such an extent that many questioned his sanity. He repeatedly claimed that he was being hounded by a Jewish conspiracy, despite the fact that his mother was Jewish.

Even in his heyday, he was known for making unreasonable demands at tournaments, complaining about everything from the lighting of the hall to the amount of prize money on offer.

Ruthless

Fischer also had a gladiatorial view of chess. "I like the moment when I break a man's ego," he once said in an interview, adding to the sense of theatre surrounding him that helped elevate the game from an obscure pastime to worldwide front-page news.


Fischer (right) was a gladiator of the chessboard

"He did enjoy humiliating his opponents. He could sense when his opponent was crumbling before him," says David Edmonds.

"But his style of playing was never flashy for the sake of showing off - it was clean, logical, ruthless and efficient. There was nothing ornamental about it," he says.

Despite the scale of his downfall, Fischer continued to inspire successive generations of chess players.

Many continued to see him as an artist with a unique charisma, and tried to overlook the flaws that have brought him low.

Until the end, the US government viewed him as a fugitive from justice - but his move to Iceland meant he escaped the endgame of a public trial that could have destroyed the last vestiges of his reputation.

Source: BBC

What would you say to the person you were one year ago?

Another long pending kelsa :D
Even if Sangee tagged me a long time ago, am sure this one is surely a gud topic to discuss netime of year...

So my turn of what would I say to the person I was a year ago...

2007 would add meaning to my life in terms of new mistakes and new lessons learnt(hopefully) ;)
Jokes apart, this has been one of the very adventurous years of my life. Adding to the list of my ever growing friends who are not just there adding numbers but essence to the bond of friendship!

One helluva journey its been wid lotsa excitement and opportunities.And its rolled up to the future as well on a very positive note.

I was tagged by Sangee on this topic

5 Point Myself

Alright Jo after procrastinating for ages, here I go finish up for being tagged with ur blog. Finally :)

As per Jo's blog: 5 things that i wud do when am all by myself are..

Assumptions-> Tht am at home, and its on a strike in the city :D
Bcuz otherwise am out with friends most of the time if am left by myself!

1.Listen to my music collection, depends on the mood that am in tht moment though.
2.Pick sm DVD or CD of the last movie not necessarily the latest movie discussed.
3.Sit on the comp, read thru smthin thts there. Watch smthin...
4.Resume reading the book which I might hv left incomplete..i knw i knw..grave mistake bt nt many books hv i completed!!
5. Am a lucid dreamer, can get into my thoughts and then link them to certain things which might be very very irrelevant but then one has all the time u knw....

I was tagged by Jo along with dileepa..