Life: As I see it, while I live it

Mapro farm says it like it is about chocolates!

2011-12-31T12:55:00.000+05:30

Anna in Mumbai

2011-12-27T11:29:00.000+05:30

Prep work at the grounds as hundreds await Anna to show up. Traffic also far well managed. Anna should be coming in an hour or so.

Christchurch town centre.

2011-12-06T05:24:00.000+05:30

As they recover from the earthquake, Christchurch town centre has been reopened temporarily inside cool and colorful containers.

Crazy!

2011-12-04T13:41:00.001+05:30

Do you see the mountains at the back?
That is only a part of a famous walking track called Kepler track. Most people take 3-4 days to walk the track which is 67 kms. Once a Year a organize a challenge to see who can do it the fastest. The best time every year is around 4.5 hours. Yeah you read that right. Hours.

Marathons are kiddie stuff compared to this :)

Cool painting in puzzle world

2011-12-04T13:37:00.000+05:30

One of the paintings in the puzzle world. Is it fantasy painting or a children's dorm?

The following face

2011-12-04T13:36:00.000+05:30

Even though you cannot tell, this face is carved inwards not outward as it appears on the pic - although it was impossible to take a pic of it showing the inward carving.

The hall of following faces.

2011-12-04T13:35:00.001+05:30

This was insanely cool. The faces literally follow you as you move around. And yes, it really is better than the Monalisa painting- which in my opinion is the biggest marketing scam in the world.

Puzzling world in Wanaka

2011-12-04T13:33:00.000+05:30

Very cool place. Amazing illusions and puzzles!

More queenstown valley!

2011-12-04T13:31:00.000+05:30

From the crown range drive. Lovely weather. Taken few days ago on our way to paraglide!

NZ people have a sense of humor about everything. Even road signs. There was one just before a hill titled: "test brakes now!"

2011-12-04T13:30:00.000+05:30

Finally! Indian food! I missed you!!!

2011-12-01T13:47:00.000+05:30

I wish more restaurants had realistic times like this :)

2011-12-01T02:55:00.000+05:30

Sundial!

2011-12-01T01:06:00.000+05:30

Although I think the time was probably not correct. It was 12:30 when we came upon this!

Coffee before the doubtful sound cruise.

2011-12-01T01:04:00.000+05:30

And the ever present mountain+lake view :)

Deer farm?

2011-11-28T11:11:00.000+05:30

I need to research this but it looks like they have deer farms here!

En route to Te Anau

2011-11-28T11:10:00.000+05:30

En route to te anau

2011-11-28T11:09:00.000+05:30

Queenstown from up above

2011-11-28T06:56:00.000+05:30

Panoramic view from the hotel

2011-11-28T00:58:00.000+05:30

Trying to shoot a panorama on my iPhone! Came out well I think!

Celebrating the jump!

2011-11-28T00:56:00.000+05:30

Next up, skydiving from 18,000 feet :)

Another room with a view!

2011-11-27T09:28:00.000+05:30

So I just jumped from that into the river below!

2011-11-27T07:33:00.000+05:30

Paragliding!

2011-11-27T04:12:00.000+05:30

Doing this tomorrow! If I survive th bungy jump today that is!

NZ is big on Green

2011-11-27T04:10:00.001+05:30

They definitely have their priorities straight. The maximum time spent at immigration was to ensure we werent bringing in pests or food that could harm the environment in some way.

Not the usual nonsense about explosives etc. refreshing.

Every establishment and service in new Zealand is rated on of course the quality of service but also the level of ecological friendliness.

Seen here is a Prius which is used as a taxi.

So true!

2011-11-27T04:06:00.000+05:30

Wine cave

2011-11-26T08:15:00.000+05:30

This is where the wines are stored in the winery.

Apparently this is the only cave in new Zealand.

400+ barrels. Each barrel is about 300+ bottles of wine.

The southern most winery in the world

2011-11-26T08:13:00.000+05:30

Gibbston Vineyard

Wine was OK OK. The tour was good though

Breakfast!

2011-11-26T02:29:00.000+05:30

I could get used this view every morning :)

The beautiful lake tekapo

2011-11-25T12:55:00.000+05:30

The Lighthouse!

2011-11-25T06:09:00.000+05:30

There was another one 30kms uphill. But that pic is for another day!

Akaroa town from top

2011-11-25T06:06:00.000+05:30

iMMORTAL

2011-10-08T00:43:00.001+05:30

Dear Steve,

For many, you are a legend, a visionary, an innovator, and dare I say, a god. For me, you are all of that and more, so much more. Your vision, your passion and your commitment to never settle for anything less than the extraordinary inspired me to strive for better in my life - personal and professional, to challenge the status quo and to always always seek perfection in everything I now do.

Thank you for showing me that it is OK to follow your heart - no matter how absurd it may sound or appear, that there is always a better way as long as you seek it, that it's more important to build something great than chase the next pay cheque and that if there is anything worth doing, it is worth doing so well, that it becomes the gold standard.

Even today, the reports of your death are greatly exaggerated. You live on in our hearts through your products, your ideas, your spirit and your vision that truly changed the world (and me) for the better.

Thank you, for everything.

The Laughing Heart

2011-10-03T01:35:00.000+05:30

The new Levi's go forth ad has some incredible poetry - even though the audio might make it difficult to understand it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT16DcHcjRA

Your life is your life
Don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.
Be on the watch. There are ways out.
There is a light somewhere.
It may not be much light but it beats the darkness.
Be on the watch.

The gods will offer you chances.
Know them. take them.
You can’t beat death but
You can beat death in life, sometimes.
And the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.

Your life is your life.
Know it while you have it.
You are marvelous
The gods wait to delight in you.

- The Laughing Heart, Charles Bukowski

This is why I dislike "gourmet" food

2011-06-07T02:50:00.001+05:30

Looks fancy and colourful but this "appetiser" just killed my appetite. Keep it simple you chefs out there. When we are hungry we prefer edible over pretentious. Thank you.
V

Onwards to San Diego

2011-05-28T21:07:00.000+05:30

Los Angeles looks interesting but awfully dirty. Next weekend shall be spent exploring this place some more.

Right now, off to San Diego and then Dallas in the evening!

Delayed flight

2011-02-08T10:33:00.000+05:30

So I'm gonna chill some more :)

Lazy statues

2011-02-07T18:49:00.000+05:30

In Kerala, even the statues are lazy !

Treasure hunt

2011-02-07T18:47:00.000+05:30

First part of the day spent treasure hunting and 2nd part mostly spent on the backwaters!

Breakfast view

2011-02-07T18:44:00.000+05:30

Very very awesome breakfast area. The view will make u forget the excellent food spread!

In the houseboat

2011-02-07T18:43:00.001+05:30

Taking a few hours ride in a boat on the lovely backwaters. Definitely a multi-day activity for which I will return soon !!

Team building!

2011-02-06T20:26:00.000+05:30

Solve riddles, find clues, get bike parts and build a cycle.

Then, race the cycle you built!

---

Sent from my iPhone

Celebrating the success of LTE

2011-02-06T20:20:00.000+05:30

And also ofcourse the awesome work we did in 2010!!

Team exercise

2011-02-06T20:18:00.000+05:30

Solve riddles, find clues, get bike parts and build a cycle.

Then, race the cycle you built!

Infinity pool!

2011-02-06T20:16:00.000+05:30

Awesome hotel this leela. I have to come back here in cooler climes! Awesome awesome view !!

Switching to the Mac: Part II

2011-01-15T14:18:00.003+05:30

Well, the summary of the first half of my experiment it is that Mac OS is simply not ready to be integrated into a predominantly Microsoft Exchange led office environment, and frankly, it isn't Apple's fault, it is Microsoft's and no, I don't mean this as a fan boy.

The reason it is not ready is one and only - Microsoft Outlook, an application that is quite frankly the cornerstone of all things office as it seamlessly integrates email, calendar and live meetings (conf calls) which are basically 3 of the MOST used functions inside a business environment.

Having found Apple's Mail and calendar apps to be woefully inadequate, I was quite excited to see that Microsoft was releasing office 2011 with the first ever Mac version for Outlook. But unfortunately, the outlook version is largely unusable. Let me illustrate a few 'issues'

1. Just general email download is EXCRUCIATINGLY slow. It can take upto 15 minutes to download 1MB attachments. Downloading them via webmail takes about 4 seconds.

2. Calendaring: Inability to see multiple calendars at once is a pain. We have a ton of shared calendars for travel, holidays, company events etc and not being able to see them separately and/or individually is a real pain.

3. Live Meeting: There is NO live meeting plug-in for Outlook 2011 which basically means that I cannot setup conference calls with people - a more than regular feature when synching across global teams. Ughh.

4. Sent items: This is the MOST stupid implementation of sent items ever. When sending an email from inside outlook 2011, the email does not automatically move to the sent items, but it is RE-DOWNLOADED from the sent items on the server! This means that if u are on a slow connection, you have to first bear the pain of uploading a large prezo and then wait for it to painfully download on the sent items folder.

These are just some of the MANY MANY issues but while others i can live with, these are just deal breakers for me and even though I paid a stupendously reduced $9 for office, I am feeling it is not even worth THAT.

And here is the worst part - if this was Apple's fault, Microsoft could wash its hands and walk away, but it is not. It is entirely Microsoft's problem because Outlook is made by microsoft as is the Exchange server 2010 so the integration between the 2 should be flawless.

With that said, I have to sadly conclude that integrating the Mac into a predominantly exchange centric environment is largely a failure and until Outlook gets fixed, or Apple upgrades the Mail app to compete, I cannot shutdown my Win 7 notebook for good.

Stay tuned for an update on moving from my blackberry to the iPhone 4.

Preaup

2011-01-03T09:25:00.000+05:30

Built by rajendra varman in tenth century. Built of bricks.

Siem reap region has a strong Buddhist and hindu influence and ha many temples dedicate to buddha and many indian gods. Shiva is ofcourse the local fav.

The region has 512 temples and Angkor wat area alone has 255!

Banteay srei

2011-01-03T09:22:00.000+05:30

Temple of the women. Called because the locals compare the intricate carvings with the beauty of the woman.

Otherwise known as isvarahpura. Dedicated to shiva, brahma and Vishnu. Shiva is a very popular god here. Temple was built in the tenth century but was broken by the Thai and a forest fire.

Roadside dhaba

2011-01-02T11:07:00.000+05:30

More countryside

2011-01-02T10:26:00.000+05:30

Cambodia country side

2011-01-02T10:25:00.000+05:30

Looks a lot like india. Roads are like any roads in northern india. Patchy and with 2 wheelers and cattle.

2010-12-27T13:33:00.001+05:30

At bandhavgarh

2010-12-27T13:31:00.000+05:30

As the new vacation begins, this is an interesting statue face ( is there a word for such things?) thats at the resort tiger den. Apparently the owner used to work at the taj. It shows. Rooms are impeccably done.

Bandhavgarh has max tiger population for per square foot of jungle. Hopefully we will get to see some!

---
Sent from my iPhone

Switching to the Mac: The background

2010-11-13T13:49:00.000+05:30

I am an Apple fan and I am also a Microsoft fan - those of you who know me, know this.
Apple has come a long way since they did their first iPods. I think Macs are awesome for multimedia and have quite a few nifty 'work' features that make me wish Windows had them too! Spotlight for one, Quick view for another, fast boot times, awesomely fast network connectivity (ability to connect, not necessarily the speed), built in screen sharing with iChat (although OCS has it now) Time machine, Keynote etc. are just a few.

Microsoft though, also does a damn decent job of making pretty good products.
Sure they, lost their way a bit with Vista (which had huge sales btw) but hey, shit happens. They got the Zune right (sales are not necessarily a good indicator of a great product:)) , Windows 7 is pretty good, Xbox 360 is awesome. Office 2007/2010 is exceptionally good, Windows Phone 7 rocks - so, in all, they get more things right for most people than they get wrong - and for someone that dominates most of the markets they are in, that is a big statement to make.

However, the device that my life actually revolves around is from neither of these companies - it is the Blackberry. It has my emails, it has my social networking and chat clients. Being a stickler for carrying as few devices as possible, BB is also my primary 'mobile internet' devices (Opera Mini to the rescue) Having been a BB user for the last 5 years and waxing lyrical about its awesome enterprise integration, I have finally gotten fed up of how far behind it is w.r.t other devices. I mean, it's terrible. Really. The phone app is an after thought, the browser is terrible. Video playback is average at best, and its killer app of push email is becoming hygiene on other systems.

So finally after using every major BB they have made (from 79xx onwards till my current Tour - yeah, I broke quite a few of them) I decided to bite the bullet and switch to iPhone 4 - more out of irritation due to a constantly freezing up phone with a battery life that was less than a day and RIM's inability to fix issues I have been bitching about since my first BB. Plus iPhone 4 has a better camera, takes better videos and god it's beautiful :)

Then recently, I read about Outlook coming to the Mac and this led me to think about moving to Mac + iPhone entirely and really see first hand how 'ready' the Mac platform is to work in a windows dominated enterprise environment. Having been a journalist in a past life, I have used the Mac in a work environment but we weren't as entrenched into an MS environment with BBs and Outlook and Calendaring so the switch was really quite un-dramatic. Here however, we have a multi-billion dollar global enterprise running the latest greatest from Microsoft and where BBs, Outlook and calendaring are like oxygen.

Is iPhone + Mac ready to get integrated into this or is still a lot of talk by Apple with little feature implementations that really matter? This is an experiment to find out exactly that.

The Beginning
As with any deviation from standard IT issued hardware, the first challenge began by convincing them to support a non-standard device. This led to a VERY pleasant surprise where our awesome IT team basically said as long as you buy your own device, we will support the notebook and the phone plan. I was in luck, I already have my devices so this was a non-issue - yeah I am a tech junkie so I just basically have devices lying around so I can check them out - since I am no longer a journo, I don't have companies lining up to give it to me for free :)

So to summarize, I will be moving from a windows 7 powered HP laptop with Office 2007 and the blackberry tour to a Macbook Pro 13" running Office 2011, iWork 09 and and the iPhone 4. Also, my company runs MS Exchange 2007.

Stay tuned for more frequent updates as my experiment progresses!

Pastamania: over 10 millions bowls served!

2010-06-14T19:57:00.001+05:30

Singapore from the sky!

2010-06-14T19:54:00.000+05:30

Finger 'luscious'?

2010-06-12T21:44:00.000+05:30

This email sender didn't like my name

2010-05-30T10:19:00.000+05:30

Kaya skin clinic

2010-05-30T10:18:00.001+05:30

Why do so many of these skin care products/clinics show a woman on the bed wrapped up in sheets ?

I mean, is it hard to discuss skin while she is sitting in a cafe or is at work or is anywhere else - like at the beach ?

Buddha shows the finger

2010-05-30T10:15:00.001+05:30

A large statue of gautam buddha welcomes you at the U.P border as you enter Noida.

When I say welcome, I mean showing you the finger.

Hrithik Mania at GIP

2010-05-30T10:12:00.000+05:30

Hrithik roshan visits the mall in Noida and all hell breaks loose as star struck delhiites over crowd the corridors breaking the front glass at a louis philippe store.

It has since been replaced with a plywood board.

Looking for an ATM

2010-05-01T11:33:00.000+05:30

A cheeky vendor points me to this.

10/10 for humor in 43 degree c heat.

Minus several million for helpfulness :)

If only I could hear them ;)

2010-04-29T08:54:00.000+05:30

Geoffrey's

2010-04-24T15:58:00.000+05:30

Tons of coke ads but they serve only Pepsi. Stupid.

Summers are here

2010-03-19T17:11:00.001+05:30

Can't believe how hot it is today.
Been driving for 35 mins and my car's temp indicator still shows it as 36 degrees c outside. A long and hot summer just began.

Low airfares

2010-03-03T08:43:00.001+05:30

Time to think of the next holiday!! :)

Movie Review - My Name Is Khan (MNIK)

2010-02-15T02:01:00.002+05:30

Years ago (I think maybe 5) I read a book called The Tipping Point. The book discusses how small, seemingly insignificant events, actions cause things to become fads, movements and yes, perhaps even phenomenons.

A great example is the recent election of Barack Obama - a fairly unknown guy who came literally out of nowhere and won an election that had been called in favor of Hillary before it had even been conducted. But this didn't happen over night, there were a series of small dots that got connected, events that took place before that one final moment that began the snowball effect which ended with him going from being ‘the guy who stood against Hillary’ to The 44th President of The United States.

That moment is what the book calls The Tipping Point. The one all important event/action where everything comes together and things start growing exponentially, where small increments in efforts lead to disproportionately large returns.

Today I think the world in general is tired of war (I know I am), of bloodshed, of misery. We've had a pretty tough past few years, with the recession and job losses topping it all up rather cruelly. We are witness to open racial attacks and rampant religious discrimination. Wars are being waged, entire mountains are being bombed to dust and the world is rapidly getting polarized into Christianity versus Islam. This is terrible.

Put yourself in the shoes of muslims being subjected to 'random' searches at the airport every time they try to take a flight to somewhere, even if it is a domestic destination. People eyeing you suspiciously every time they are around you or calling you ‘Paki’ under their breath but not softly enough for you to not hear them. We have all heard or been part of discussions, whether wittingly or unwittingly, where people would say:

'Everywhere there is unrest in the world, muslims are at the center of it. It is how they are. Ye log aise hi hain’

Go back to your school days - 2 people bullied you an ate your lunch or didn’t let you play cricket and you felt so angry and upset that you probably punched them in the face. That was just 2 people. Muslims today have the whole world literally ganging up against them - some openly, others subtly but its there to see. If you are faced with relentless oppression, discrimination and widespread dislike, what are you going to do? I'd be pretty pissed. and if you think about it, our nation was pretty pissed years ago and we fought back to say this is wrong, we will not stand for this and asked the british to get the fuck out of our country. We call it the struggle for independence, a struggle to create our own identity. Islam today fights not for a country but for its global identity, an identity that has been turned into ‘Islam = Terrorism’ and stereotyped muslims as hardcore terrorists with bombs in their pockets, shirts and bloody hell even underwear. We are ganging up on them and we shouldn’t be. This isn’t the 5th grade and we shouldn’t all collectively be playing the role of the class bully.

That is exactly the message Karan Johar and SRK try to bring about with this wonderful and, dare I say it, sweet, film. The hero, Rizwan Khan (SRK), is a brilliant (think rancho, 3 idiots) but autistic guy who falls in love with a single mother - Mandira Rathore (Kajol), a hairstylist who dotes on her only son from her previous marriage with a guy who was ($*$*$ *#$&*&$*4 $%$ $*&$&^&^&*#$@ - her words not mine) They end up getting married and Rizwan moves out of his younger brother’s house (who doesn’t accept his marriage to a non-muslim) and moves in with Mandira. Post 9/11 their son is killed in a racial attack in the school which leads Mandira to throw Rizwan out of her life because she blames him, his religion and her decision to marry him as the reasons for her son‘s death -

“He died because he was a Khan. Had he stayed Rathore, he would’ve been alive”

When she tells Rizwan to leave her, and go away, he asks, in his infinite innocence, ‘main waapas kab aaoon Mandira (when should I come back, Mandira)’ and she says that come back when you have told the whole world that you are not a terrorist, that my son Sam (Samir) was not a terrorist, and if you can’t do that, go tell the President that you are not a terrorist - maybe he can tell the world and only then can you come back.

This starts Rizwan’s journey across the U.S to meet the President and give him this message. In between he gets subjected to the usual airport search, discrimination at a motel and even imprisonment for shouting “My Name is Khan and I am not a terrorist” - a not so subtle dig at the idiotic levels of paranoia coursing through the world - people getting arrested even if they are saying ‘I am NOT a terrorist’.

Ofcourse, since this is a Karan Johar movie, it all ends happily with him meeting the President and returning home accompanied by his wife while becoming the poster boy for the real everyday people who are muslims and are against terrorism as much as the next guy, perhaps even more because it is due to them that ALL muslims have got a bad name.

SRK is his usual awesome self. He plays the autistic guy with aplomb and manages to really give the feeling of bottled up emotions coming out in actions and not words. Some people told me this is Shahrukh’s best movie since Devdas - which is a tall claim since we had Chak De in between. I haven’t seen Devdas but I can tell you this is SRK’s best performance ever. You cannot help but love Rizwan Khan - whether he is reciting from his encyclopedic knowledge of everything or innocently telling their dinner host that the chicken is so bad she should never make it in her life ever again, or when despite being Autistic, he becomes a salesman for his brother’s products - while never lying and telling the customer that the brochure says you will get this in 7 days but we are lying, it will take 10 days. He is at once clever, funny and innocent.

Equally impressive was Kajol - an actress whose on-screen histrionics I have never quite been able to fathom or bear, leave alone like. But here she is wonderful and the performance is mature. I wish she would act this awesomely every time. The SRK-Kajol chemistry is legendary and it shows through in every scene even if they aren’t in there together. Really, it’s brilliant. The rest of the cast does a good job but the movie is about these two and they do take up most of the screen space.

But beyond the acting and the commerce, I think what this film does is bring this subject on the table and makes it relatable, maybe even personal in some cases, so the next time someone talks about terrorism, they remember this movie and hopefully SHUT UP about equating Muslim’s to terrorists.

In an ideal world, we would listen to Rizwan’s mother and believe and internalize that the world has just 2 kinds of people - those who do good and those who do bad, there is no other difference between us. But even if it cannot achieve that all encompassing goal on it’s own, I desperately hope it becomes that seemingly unimportant incident that sparks the movement, the fad, the phenomenon and becomes the tipping point.

Go watch this movie.

Metro ride!

2010-02-14T15:53:00.000+05:30

Woo hoo! Finally take the delhi metro for a spin.

Last I was on it was 2005/06

Delhi metro is the best metro in the world.

London, Paris - plz watch and learn :)

Young girls make it better??

2010-01-18T02:07:00.001+05:30

Went to the Forest Essentials Store in Khan market.

Came across this damn strange sign proudly proclaiming how their Jasmine flowers were picked in early morning - which is fine, but what I don't get is how the next line about 'traditionally by young girls' makes the product any better!

Is it just me or does it sound sleazy-ish to you too??

Rajasthan Trip photos

2010-01-11T01:11:00.000+05:30

Finally uploaded photos from the short trip to Rajasthan.

Enjoy.

Fog!

2010-01-06T08:31:00.000+05:30

Visibility 3 feet.

Finally. Lakshadweep Photos uploaded

2010-01-06T01:18:00.000+05:30

LSD 2009

Incase you are wondering, the album is called LSD because the place is so addictive that you wouldn't wanna leave. Ever.

Sunset

2009-12-30T17:33:00.000+05:30

From the ship deck

From the deck

2009-12-30T15:20:00.000+05:30

I can see some fertilizer ingredient lying around near the conveyor belt on top.

It seems to be phosphorous.

The ship

2009-12-30T15:18:00.000+05:30

MS Kavaratti.

Nice little ship, we are on the top deck! Should have nice views!

Can you see the truck unloading the luggage w/o any passengers even being present?

H1N1 checking

2009-12-30T15:16:00.000+05:30

Interesting device that measures your temperature and checks for H1N1

Apart from this stroke of intelligence, the overall boarding process was a complete mess.

First they had exactly ONE luggage screening machine for passengers of all 5 ships.

2nd, passengers and luggage travelled separately to the ship and then the luggage had to be manually identified - there were no tags - something that couldve been done since the rooms get allotted at the time of booking!

And third - once luggage was identified they had one porter to carry people's luggage to their rooms - which meant most people ended up just carrying their own luggage.

Ticket office!

2009-12-30T10:23:00.000+05:30

Cochin is surprisingly clean.

Collected all tickets for the 11 of us.

This should be fun!! Can't wait to get started!!

The most beautiful landing approach

2009-12-30T07:45:00.000+05:30

Cochin seems to be insanely pretty.

I need to visit this place.

The kids in front of me think they are landing in farmville. I hate FB even more now.

More clouds

2009-12-30T07:44:00.000+05:30

Mountain through the clouds.

2009-12-30T07:40:00.000+05:30

En-route to cochin - can you see the mountain rising above the clouds?

I would kill to be on top of that mountain and see the view.

I think this is probably Munnar.

Ancient shell!

2009-12-30T00:27:00.000+05:30

Water rock

2009-12-30T00:25:00.000+05:30

This was a mineral rock which had water trapped inside! And it has been this for hundreds of thousands (maybe even millions) of years.

This shop was recommended by lonely planet and its totally worth a visit.

They had an ancient shell as well as a rock from a meteorite!

Jurassic park DNA

2009-12-30T00:23:00.000+05:30

Remember how in Jurassic park they found amber with a mosquito inside?

See the stone in the guy's hand? It's amber with a dead mosquito inside!

Dinner at Jaisalmer

2009-12-30T00:21:00.000+05:30

The restaurant was nice, had very good food but absolutely appalling service - a trend we noticed even at the Jaisalgarh hotel.

We went w/o reservations (it isn't exactly a 5 star restaurant and even there I seldom go with reservations and have always been accomodated :) )

The manager told us that there was no way they could join 2 tables so the 9 of us could sit together - an attitude we didn't really care for. So we went and asked the travel agent on the ground floor if there were some other restaurants around since this one refused to join tables.

Turns out, he owned the restaurant and was shocked (rightfully) at the refusal. He shouted at someon and suddenly a table for 9 appeared.

I think this bad service is the result of catering to a largely french audience - they generally have lousy service too!

Onwards to cochin

2009-12-29T13:11:00.000+05:30

The damn flight keeps getting delayed.
WTF Jet!

First it was at 12:45 then 13:45 now 13:50.

Take off already! I have a ship to catch!!!

Tea stop

2009-12-28T20:17:00.001+05:30

50kms before Jodhpur.

There was a group of 20 or so peacocks but the BB cam is too lousy to capture.

But I have some on the dslr.

Will post pics later!

Funny truck message

2009-12-28T20:16:00.001+05:30

Jageshwar ki fauj karegi mauj.

More military

2009-12-28T20:15:00.001+05:30

Lots of practice going on.

Tornado?

2009-12-28T20:13:00.002+05:30

Or dust blown by tank movement.

We are divided.

I think its the tanks.

Enroute

2009-12-28T20:10:00.001+05:30

Strangely enough, we saw a TON of army movement today.

4 large convoys with tank carrying trucks - they were empty. We also saw 2 practice ranges for the military with tanks practicing whatever it is that tanks practice.

Tanks

2009-12-28T20:08:00.000+05:30

You can just about make out some tanks behind the pole.

Can you?

Goodbye jaisalmer

2009-12-28T20:00:00.000+05:30

Hello Jodhpur.

Off to Jodhpur which is the last stop before I head to delhi where vacation part II begins!

Cool villager shoes

2009-12-28T19:59:00.000+05:30

Water storage

2009-12-28T19:56:00.001+05:30

Since this is the desert, the water storage is underground for each house instead of in a big tank over head.

This is intelligent. Most houses in cities have this on the roof - which is stupid because in peak summers you end up getting hot water only.

The panchaayat

2009-12-28T19:54:00.000+05:30

In discussions with my uncle about insurance for crops and other credit/loan facilities.

Off to a village

2009-12-28T19:51:00.002+05:30

After the fossil park, now off to a small village in the real interiors of rajasthan.

It's surprising how good the roads are here. It seems the state government and the prime minister's grameen sadak yojna are bearing some fruits.

The villagers cannot really afford vehicles ( I saw 1 bike and 2 tractor total) but when they do, they have a road BETTER than most in Mumbai to take them to the big cities.

At the village we(means my relative who's a banker) talked to them about agri loans and credit stuff.

We got to see a whole panchaayat happening. Very cool. The villagers seemed to know their stuff and had lots of questions.

In the end an understanding was reached and things will improve for them. Awesome.

More village

2009-12-28T19:48:00.000+05:30

A local house.
It's made from cow dung.
Very properly done.

Solidified lava at fossil park

2009-12-28T19:40:00.000+05:30

This was at SOME point molten lava.

This is what preserved the trees.
I picked up some to keep at home :)

Cool!

Fossil park

2009-12-28T19:39:00.000+05:30

This was a bit cool.

Very close to Jaisalmer and en-route to jodhpur is this wood fossil park where you can see fossilized trees from 180 million years ago - the lower jurassic era.

Wouldve been cooler to see some dinos too though :)

However, I think the presentation was drab with very little info about the place available.

I wouldve preferred big boards showing what we should be looking at and maybe an artist's impression of what this place might've looked like 180mn yrs ago.

Gramophone

2009-12-28T19:37:00.001+05:30

Music from the 1800s?

I've seen many of these. What I'd like to see though is the place where they actually recorded this into the LPs!

Sofa set

2009-12-28T19:35:00.000+05:30

This is made entirely of silver.