Random Musings

I've Moved

2008-01-31T23:00:00.000-08:00

Ok People, I've officially moved my blog now. You will find all future updates at http://maverikk.wordpress.com.

Adobe Contribute Experience

2008-01-29T07:54:00.000-08:00

I know it has been not just "quite a while", but "quite a long while"!!! We've really been busy here! Anyhow, this entry is just a test entry. Am posting this using a new software called Adobe contribute. Hopefully, this will help me keep the blog updated on a higher frequency (hopefully)!!

Our Trip to Point Reyes

2008-01-22T22:03:00.000-08:00

Last weekend (Saturday), the four of us - Mom, Dad, Mahi and I drove down to the Point Reyes National Seashore near San Rafael in California. It's located about 70 miles away from Fremont, and is West North West of San Francisco.

Point Reyes was originally named Punto de los Reyes ("Kings Point") by the Spanish explorer Sebastian Vizcaino as his ship, the Capitana anchored in Drake's Bay on the Day of the Three Kings (the end of the 12 Days of Christmas), January 6, 1603.

The entire Point Reyes Peninsula is a piece of the Salinian Block transported northward by the San Andreas Fault. The San Andreas Fault runs directly under Tomales Bay.

The drive to Point Reyes was quite nice. The last portion involves winding roads, and scenic vegetation. Vegetation native to Point Reyes includes Bishop pine, Douglas-fir, coyote brush, monkeyflower, poison oak, California blackberry, salal and coast redwood, among others.

We landed up at the visitor center to gather information for the local activities. We also so a 15 minute documentary on Point Reyes, local vegetation, things to do etc. Apparently, this is pretty much located right above the San Andreas fault line, and during the earthquake of 1906, the ground had shifted nearly 20 feet !!

January has plenty of activities in Point Reyes. On a nice, sunny day, the beaches and hikes are as pleasant as ever. Though once the sun goes down (which is early), it can get chilly.

January also brings unique opportunities to witness wildlife up close.

One can indulge in Whale Watching from the Lighthouse and Chimney Rock. This event is so popular that the Park Service closes the road to the lighthouse point and runs buses from the Drakes Beach Visitors Center ($5 per person). Apparently once can see the great gray whales on their migratory path. Also later in the year, the same whales migrate in the opposite direction towards Alaska with their calves, and move closer to the coast. We did try our best to see them, but sadly didn't get to see any, though a lot of people at the Lighthouse and Chimney Rock claimed seeing some.

At Chimney Rock one also gets to see elephant seals as at this time of the year, the come to the beach and breed. They are fun to watch as they lie and shift around in the sun. Pretty playful by nature, its fun to watch the young ones and their antics.

One also gets to see Tule Elk while driving from Point Reyes to the Lighthouse / Chimney Rock. A lot more information can be found here.

All in all we had a really good time. Mahi and Mom had also made sandwiches, and we had carried some juice, crackers, chips etc, so we also ended up having an impromptu picnic while waiting for the bus to go to the Lighthouse.

As for the lighthouse, this was definitely worth the visit.

Point Reyes was one one of the most Treacherous obstacles to mariners, solely due to the fact that it is
the windiest place on the Pacific Coast and the second foggiest place on the North American continent. In fact, weeks of fog, especially during the summer months, frequently reduce visibility to just hundreds of feet. The Point Reyes Headlands, which jut 10 miles out to sea, used to pose a threat to each ship entering or leaving San Francisco Bay. The historic Point Reyes Lighthouse warned mariners of danger for more than a hundred years.

The Point Reyes Lighthouse, built in 1870, and was retired from service in 1975 once the U.S. Coast Guard installed an automated light.

Here is a brief history of the lighthouse.

The Point Reyes Lighthouse lens and mechanism were constructed in France in 1867. The clockwork mechanism, glass prisms and housing for the lighthouse were shipped on a steamer around the tip of South America to San Francisco. The parts from France and the parts for the cast iron tower were transferred to a second ship, which then sailed to a landing on Drakes Bay. The parts were loaded onto ox-drawn carts and hauled three miles over the headlands to near the tip of Point Reyes, 600 feet above sea level.

Meanwhile, 300 feet below the top of the cliff, an area had been blasted with dynamite to clear a level spot for the lighthouse. To be effective, the lighthouse had to be situated below the characteristic high fog. It took six weeks to lower the materials from the top of the cliff to the lighthouse platform and construct the lighthouse. Finally, after many years of tedious political pressure, transport of materials and difficult construction, the Point Reyes Light first shone on December 1, 1870.

The Lighthouse provided mariners some safety by warning them of rocky shores and reefs and also helped mariners navigate by indicating their location as ships traveled along the coast. Each lighthouse has its unique flash pattern and mariners recognize them according to the flash pattern. On days when it is too foggy to see the lighthouse, a unique fog signal is periodically sounded to signal the location to the passing ships. Unfortunately, the combination of lighthouses and fog signals still didn't eliminate the tragedy of shipwrecks.

Because of this ongoing problem, a lifesaving station was established on the Great Beach north of the lighthouse in 1890. Men walked the beaches in four-hour shifts, watching for shipwrecks and the people who would need rescue from frigid waters and powerful currents. A new lifesaving station was later opened in 1927 on Drakes Bay near Chimney Rock and was active until 1968. Today, it is a National Historic Landmark and can be viewed from the Chimney Rock Trail.

The lens in the Point Reyes Lighthouse is a "first order" Fresnel (fray-nel) lens, the largest size of Fresnel lens. Augustin Jean Fresnel of France revolutionized optics theories with his new lens design in 1823.

Before Fresnel developed this lens, lighthouses used mirrors to reflect light out to sea. The most effective lighthouses could only be seen eight to twelve miles away. After his invention, the brightest lighthouses could be seen all the way to the horizon, about twenty-four miles as is the case in the Point Reyes lighthouse.

The Fresnel lens intensifies the light by bending (or refracting) and magnifying the source light through crystal prisms into concentrated beams. The Point Reyes lens is divided into twenty-four vertical panels, which direct the light into twenty-four individual beams. A counterweight and gears similar to those in a grandfather clock rotate the 6000-pound lens at a constant speed, one revolution every two minutes. This rotation makes the beams sweep over the ocean surface like the spokes of a wagon wheel, and creates the Point Reyes signature pattern of one flash every five seconds.

I'd like to bring to notice that keeping the lighthouse operational was by no means an easy job - it was tough and then some more. Keeping the lighthouse in working condition was a twenty-four hour job though the light was lit only between sunset and sunrise. The head keeper and three assistants shared the load in four six-hour shifts.

Every evening, a half-hour before sunset, a keeper walked down the wooden stairs to light the oil lamp, the lighthouse's source of illumination. Once the lamp was lit, the keeper wound the clockwork mechanism, lifting a 170 pound weight, which was attached to the clockwork mechanism by a hemp rope, nine feet off the floor. The earth's gravity would then pull the weight, through a small trap door, to the ground level 17 feet below. The clockwork mechanism was built to provide resistance so that it would take two hours and twenty minutes for the weight to descend the 17 feet. And as the weight descended and the clockwork mechanism's gears spun, the Fresnel lens would turn so that the light appeared to flash every five seconds. In addition to winding the clockwork mechanism every two-hours and twenty minutes throughout the night, the keeper had to keep the lamp wicks trimmed so that the light would burn steadily and efficiently, thus the nickname "wickie."

Daytime duties for the keepers included cleaning the lens, polishing the brass, stoking the steam-powered fog signal and making necessary repairs. At the end of each shift, the keeper trudged back up the wooden staircase. Sometimes the winds were so strong that he had to crawl on his hands and knees to keep from being knocked down. The highest wind speed recorded at Point Reyes was 133 mph, and 60 mph winds are common.

The hard work, wind, fog and isolation at Point Reyes made this an undesirable post. Even so, one keeper stayed for about twenty-four years, a testament to his devotion and love of Point Reyes!

The historic Point Reyes Lighthouse served mariners for 105 years before it was replaced. It endured many hardships, including the April 18, 1906 earthquake, during which the Point Reyes Peninsula and the lighthouse moved north 18 feet in less than one minute! The only damage to the lighthouse was that the lens slipped off its tracks. The lighthouse keepers quickly effected repairs and by the evening of the eighteenth, the lighthouse was once again in working order. The earthquake occurred at 5:12 a.m. and the lighthouse was scheduled to be shut down for regular daytime maintenance at 5:25 a.m. Although the earthquake caused much devastation and disruption elsewhere, the Point Reyes Lighthouse was essentially only off-line for thirteen minutes!

To get to the lighthouse, one needs to walk a half-mile from the parking lot to the Visitor Center, and then down 308 steps. The stairs are open 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Thursday through Monday. When wind speeds exceed 40 mph, the steps to the lighthouse are closed for visitors' safety.

Our trip to Vegas

2007-11-27T15:27:00.000-08:00

Well, it indeed has been a while since I last posted, so I decided to dust away the cob webs and get down to some posting !!!
Last weekend was the thanksgiving weekend, a four day weekend for us - thursday, friday, saturday and sunday. Mom, dad, Raja and Chinni had already come to Vegas the week before, and were driving around to Hoovere Dam, Grand Canyon, Page, Bryce Canyon, and a lot of other places in Nevada and Utah. while Raja and Chinni knew that we were planning to come to Vegas, it was meant to be a surprise for mom and dad.
Rather than do the same old boring routine of taking a flight, we decided to drive down in our car. Vegas is about 600 miles from home, and would be approximately a 10 hour journey.

Birthday in Downtown San Jose

2007-10-17T10:07:00.000-07:00

Well, the 14th of October was my birthday - Yay !!!!! Turned 30 !!! Some people would say that I'm growing old, but all I have to say, is that "Hey, I'm 30 and running wild!!!"
Anyhow, more than me, my better half - Mahi had plans for me. As it was the last weekend that parents would be with us, prior to leaving for Minneapolis, we took them to the Livermore temple. Apparently this was built during NT Rama Rao's time. It's a really nice temple, in the city of Livermore, about 40 minutes away from our place.
Post that, we came back home, had lunch, napped a bit, and then left for San Jose. The next stop was the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, in downtown San Jose. This was a really amazing place. They had a lot of mummy's, casks, jewellery, tools, models....the works. All in all a great visit.
This was then followed by good old chaat, at Chaat cafe, and then we went down to this place called "The melting Pot". This is THE place for desserts - primarily a fondue place. We had two chocolate fondues - one dark chocolate and one milk chocolate. We were also joined by Mayur and Purvi there. All in all, a day well spent. By the time we hit home, it was about 1:00 am !!

A quick note

2007-10-10T16:13:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been quite a while. Been busy, lazy, tied up....the works!!! Anyhow, just a quick update here, mom & dad are in town, and will be with us till the 15th of this month, post which they plan to visit Minneapolis. We've had lot of fun, while they've been here. Been to several places, such as Lombard (crooked) street, San Francisco, Muir Woods, Monterey Bay, 17-mile Drive, Pebble Beach, Big Sur, etc. to name a few. Here are a couple of snaps!! I do plan to add some more info pertaining to the 17 mile drive, pebble beach and Big Sur soon, so stay tuned...

Fireworks in downtown San Jose

2007-08-06T11:39:00.001-07:00

Hmm, this is a post I've been meaning to put up for a while, but didn't really get down to doing so. Last month, Mahi, Vikas, Kiran and I had gone down to San Jose to see the 4th of July fireworks. In a lot of cities here - Fremont included - buying, selling and using fireworks in illegal. Then again, because of the safety norms, everyone cannot really use fireworks. They have designated areas where fireworks displays take place, and everybody watches.

Personally, I feel this kinds of puts a dampener on the spirit, but then the sheer size, volume and complexity of the fireworks really takes your breath away. Most of these displays are automated, with the person controlling the automation still well away from the display.

We went to a hill in San Jose to witness these, and it was well worth it.

Technorati Tags: fireworks, mahi, san jose, 4th of July

New links section

2007-07-27T09:00:00.001-07:00

Hey People,

so as you can see, I've added a new links section on the right. Yes aunty, before your eyes pop out, it is the link to your blog!! I've been meaning to do this for a while, never got around to doing it !! The second link is www.johnchow.com. This guy is just amazing. I really like the technique he applies to his thought process. Do read through, if you have the time. It's a site brimming with fresh content - always!!!

Technorati Tags: gulshan bamboat, john chow, links, ramesh ramakrishnan

Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows

2007-07-26T15:28:00.001-07:00

Just a quick one here. My book came in on Monday, and as usual, I was up till late night - poring over it!! Finished it the second day though. Had ordered it from www.Amazon.com. What was really fascinating, was that Amazon created a separate packaging process for this. Normally, Amazon ships books out in standard brown cardboard boxes. The packaging for HP7 had a completely different print on it - it actually had a owl on it to depict the owl post, and messaging to all Muggles, not to open it before the 21st of July!!! Look at the photo, to get a better idea!

Technorati Tags: harry potter, deathly hallows, amazon, packaging

The Boston Duck Tour

2007-07-24T12:13:00.000-07:00

Boy ! Too many things, too little time!! I seem to hardly have time to write about anything nowadays. Anyhow, here's my earnest effort to try catching up with the latest stuff. Last week, Mahi & I were in Boston, attending Focus 2007, Sierra Atlantic's mid-year sales conference. We were put up at the Marriot, in Norwood - pretty close to our office there.

As part of the recreational activity, we all went out on the Boston Duck Tour. At the outset, let me assure you that it was in no way related to any ducks or birds. The Duck which is actually the DUKW is a six-wheel-drive amphibious truck that was originally designed inside General Motors Corporation during World War II for transporting goods and troops over land and water and for use approaching and crossing beaches in amphibious attacks.

Duck tours are generally very liberally spiced with humor, and ours was no less. Our driver was Seargent Meatball, and he had a Hawaiian hula skirt around him, over his clothing. He kept rattling off details about all the places that we visited as part of the tour, and had several anecdotes about each.

The duration of the tour is 90 minutes, in which he took the DUKW through several key landmarks in Boston, including the place which had the infamous Boston Tea Party. Towards the end, he drove into the Charles river, and then continued the tour from there. It's at this time that one also get a chance at navigating the DUKW. A couple of our colleagues did try their hand at it, and it was a whole lot of fun!!

Our 5 mile walk

2007-07-05T19:54:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a while since I updated, and we have been busy. In fact to an extent, Mahi & I have created a sort of reputation in office. We are officially labelled as people who love to go out, explore, be adventurous and generally have a great time. It's kind of reached a stage, where people ask us as to whether we plan to do Mission Peak over the weekend......again!!

Anyhow, a week or two back, we did the 5 mile walk near Garin Park. This was a really nice walk / trek. Unlike the Mission peak trek, where there is a complete lack of shade, this path takes you through wooded areas, over hills, across streams and creeks too. The 6 of us - Anil, Smitha, Joel (their cute little 2 year old son), Dennis (Anil's neighbour), Mahi and I took part in this. We were also joined by Vikas, Kiran and Vamsee (3 of our colleagues). Dennis was the resident pro here, as he and his wife Dana have been over this umpteen number of times.

Garin park is a part of the East Bay Parks association. The Visitor Center displays artifacts from the ranching and farming history of the Hayward area. There is a blacksmith shop, a tool shop and several ranching-related displays to explore. They also have an interesting collection of antique farm machinery outside the barn, which used to be horse driven - though is rusted now. Inside the park, they also have about 200 different varieties of antique apples. I really couldn't figure out the concept of antique apples, but that's what they are. In the months of September, they have apple picking activities as well as apple tasting activities too for the public.

The park also has a pond inside call the Jordan Pond. It's pier was constructed in 1987 by Park District crews using materials provided through the generosity of the Hayward, South Hayward and Mt. Eden Lions Clubs. the Jordan Pond is inhabited by largemouth bass, bluegill and sunfish. The Park District also plants channel catfish in the pond once or twice a year.

The attached map has the major trails marked out. To give you an idea, we started in the bottom left at the Tamarack Entrance, then moved up on the Meyer's Trail, cross the Meyer's Ranch, diverted left onto the Dry Creek Trail, went across the Jordan Pond, across the 4 picnic areas (Cattlemens, Pioneer, Buttonwood, Ranch Side), looped around, went out on the main road across that house icon, then back onto the orange trail, joined up with the High Ridge trail, all the way back to the Tamarack Entrance.....whew!!!

It's been a while

2007-06-28T10:59:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's indeed been a while. I've been quite busy over the last couple of days - working for a change (As Karthik would say). Anyhow, updates wise - both of us plan to go river rafting this weekend (on sunday) along with Mayur & Purvi. It's in a place called Lotus, in California. Will definitely dedicate a post to it, once we are back.
Another update is that parents will be coming over to the US, sometime in September - Yippee !!!!
The third update is that last week we saw a couple of movies - Shooter (Excellent), Surf's up (really nice animated one), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (quite nice), Swami (ok, ok), Hot Fuzz (terrible), Shootout at Lokhandwala (quite gory - but well made). Whew, thats a whole lot.
Nothing else to add on, so will add on later. Take care, people.

Our trip to Monterey Bay

2007-06-13T15:17:00.000-07:00

This is going to be one long post - you have been warned!!!!

On Saturday, the three of us - Aditya, Mahi & I decided to drive down to Monterey Bay. In a way, it was one of the longest drives that we have done in the US - about 100 miles each way - a total of 3 hours up and down.

Monterey Bay is located south of San Francisco, and is sort of a semicircular shape. It is home to many species of marine mammals, including sea otters, harbor seals, and bottlenose dolphins; as well as being on the migratory path of Gray and Humpback Whales and a breeding site for elephant seals. Many species of fish, mollusks such as abalone and squid, birds, and sea turtles also live in the bay. Several varieties of kelp grow in the bay, some becoming as tall as small trees, forming what is known as a kelp forest.

The prime tourist attraction here is the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It is located in a former sardine cannery and a former brewery on Cannery Row in Monterey and is one of the largest aquariums in the world. It has an annual attendance of 1.8 million and holds 35,000 plants and animals representing 623 species.

Among the aquarium's numerous exhibits, two are of particular note. The centerpiece of the near shore wing is a 33-foot (10-m) high tank for viewing California coastal marine life. This tank was the first in the world to simulate tidal currents on a large scale, enabling the aquarium to keep live California Giant Kelp (water movement is a necessary precondition for keeping Giant Kelp, which absorbs nutrients from surrounding water and requires turbidity).

The second exhibit of note is a one million gallon tank in the Outer Bay Wing which features the world's largest single paned window (crafted by a Japanese company, the window is actually 4 panes seamlessly glued together through a proprietary process). Besides the above-mentioned million-gallon tank, another of the exhibits included a school of 3000 anchovies (a fish that was once the foundation of Monterey's economy), swimming against the endless current of a toroidal tank.

We had a great time watching all the different exhibits. We also got to see the feeding of the penguins, where 18 different penguins are individually fed by two of the personnel. What is amazing is that if while feeding, one of of the penguins happened to drop it's fish, no other penguin would grab it up. Each penguin is able to identify it's own fish. Each penguin too is tagged with a clip on it's flipper, and that's how the staff are able to maintain a record of their diet.

Incidentally, in the 33 foot tank, which is also known as the kelp forest tank, we also saw the Mahi fish - and you can be sure - Mahi was thrilled to see and hear about it!!! We also saw several different types of jellyfish, including a type which emitted rainbow colored lights. We also saw a type of fish called the sunfish. The largest one that they had weighed approximately 800 pounds - over 360 kilograms.

All in all, the trip to the aquarium was really well worth it. After that we stopped for breakfast, and treated ourselves to an all American breakfast - eggs, muffins, etc.

We then proceeded towards the Fisherman's Wharf, which had a lot of stores to look through, a replica of the customs office from 1859 and a whole lot of seafood. This is where once can pick up tickets to go on whale watching trips. Ideally these trips are about 2 to 3 hours, and one goes a good number of miles away from the shore to see whales. We didn't indulge in this as we had just had breakfast, and the last thing you would want to do after having food would be to go on choppy waters!!!

We then proceeded towards the famous 17-mile drive. This is a scenic road through Pacific Grove and Pebble Beach, much of which hugs the Pacific coastline and passes famous golf courses and mansions. Entry into Pebble Beach costs US$9.00 per automobile.

The road runs adjacent to beaches and up into the coastal hills, providing scenic viewpoints. There are numerous turnouts along the road to stop, take pictures, or get out and stroll along the ocean or among the trees. Each visitor receives a small map that points out some of the more scenic spots.

There are many spectacular view points along the route; Bird Rock seems to always be covered with pelicans and other birds, seals and sea lions. Seal Rock Picnic Area is a beach area with a view of Bird Rock. Fanshell Overlook attracts harbor seals and is closed during harbor seal pupping season April 1 to June 1. Cypress Point Lookout provides a great view of the dramatic Pacific coastline along with an idea of the view enjoyed by some of the gated mansions along the route. Probably the most famous tree in the United States, The Lone Cypress has clung to its rocky perch for over 250 years and serves as the symbol of Pebble Beach Company—the developer of the 17-mile drive through Pebble Beach and the Del Monte Forest.

Just outside the lower Pacific Grove gate to the gated community of Pebble Beach is Pacific Grove's Sunset Drive (which becomes Ocean View Boulevard), which follows Pacific Grove's scenic coastline and is called by some the "poor man's 17-Mile Drive."

Pebble Beach has seven public and private 18-hole golf courses. Pebble Beach Golf Links, The Links at Spanish Bay, and Spyglass Hill are owned by the Pebble Beach Company and are all public courses. The other four courses in the town are Poppy Hills which is public, the private Cypress Point Club, and the private Monterey Peninsula Country Club's two courses, the Dunes Course and the Shore Course. Several of these courses are widely celebrated, especially Pebble Beach Golf Links, which is the most famous course in the Western United States, and the only course which has even beaten Pine Valley Golf Club to top spot in Golf Digest's biennial list of America's 100 greatest courses.

Aditya was very keen and excited to be at Pebble Beach Golf Links, so we snapped up a couple of pictures of him with the Pebble Beach Golf Links logo in the background.

We finally wrapped up by evening about 4 pm , I guess, and then drove back home. All in all a good trip.

With Aditya in SFO

2007-06-06T09:35:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note here. Aditya is in town, as in - SFO (San Francisco). Met up with him yesterday and the day before. Marriage seems to be doing good for him.

We had him over for dinner last night, and dropped him back. The previous day, we had gone over to SFO to meet him, and did a little bit of sightseeing, post dinner at Chevy's (An all Mexican restaurant). Showed him the Golden Gate bridge - though it was shrouded in mist and thick fog at that time. Also showed him Lombard street, which is the world crookedest street. Here's a photo of how it looks!!! Click on it to see it in detail....

Also, this was the first trip that I was driving in SFO, and it seemed like an altogether different ballgame. Too many one ways, signs, narrow roads, rules, lanes, by lanes.....you get the picture. But I must say, this city has character and it virtually oozes out of each of it's buildings!!!

Anniversary with Sierra Atlantic

2007-06-02T19:34:00.001-07:00

Today, I completed 7 years with Sierra Atlantic. It's been a really long and nice journey. On behalf of the company, they sent a basket of flowers home.

It was a nice gesture on their part. As you can see, I went ballistic with the photographs, as I really didn't expect a basket to be at our doorstep when we got home....

In loving memory

2007-05-30T23:32:00.000-07:00

Today wasn't one of the best day of our lives. Our grandmother passed away in India. She had been ailing for quite a while, and in a way, I feel it was for the best.....sadly, there's nothing much that we can do, sitting here in the US.

Our jaunt in San Francisco

2007-05-30T10:53:00.001-07:00

On Sunday, Mahi & I made a trip to downtown San Francisco. As she was keen to travel by the B.A.R.T (Bay Area Rapid Transport) the local metro rail, we drove down to the local BART station, parked our car and took the BART. It's about a good 40 minute ride, with the train actually travelling underwater in the tunnel under the bay. Your ears tend to receive the kind of pressure that you would get in a flight. We got down at Embarcadero station, and then decided to walk to Pier 39 - one the the major tourist hot spots.It was a good 30 minute walk - starting from Pier 1 to Pier 39. While walking we chanced opon this strange tree which had one truck, but two tops!!!

Pier 39 has over 110 stores, 14 restaurants and a whole lot of fun activities. Our first stop was at the Aquarium of the Bay. There one can see all the different types of fish that can be found in the bay including the sharks too!! We also saw the clown fish and others too from the film - Nemo. Inside the aquarium, one also gets to walk through a clear plexi-tube, with the fish swimming overhead. All in all a really nice experience.

Post that, we then checked out Turbo Ride. This is a 3D/4D ride, where people are strapped onto seats (with seat belts), have 3D glasses on, and then go on a ride of their lifetimes. Similar to a 3D setup, except for the fact, that the seats rock and roll in sync to the picture. There are primarily 3 rides here - Dino Island II, the Haunted Mine Ride and the Extreme Log Ride. Of the three of them, the Dino Island II was the easiest, while the Extreme Log Ride really rocked and rolled !!!

Pier 39 is also home to a lot of street performers. We chanced upon one of them - a gentleman by the name of Mitch Barret. He was really funny and had a great sense of humor. In fact one of his acts included balancing on a rope while juggling inflammable rods!!

Another attraction here, is the San Francisco carousel. Handcrafted in Italy, and meticulously hand painted,it depicts famous landmarks such as the Golden Gate bridge, Alcatraz island, California sea lions etc.It has about 1800 twinkling lights and is pretty impressive.

By this time, it was really cold at the Pier, owing tot he wind chill factor and the proximity to the bay - so we grabbed a quick cup of hot chocolate and headed back to the BART station, and subsequently home.

Technorati Tags: san francisco, ramesh ramakrishnan, maheshwari kapoor, pier 39, bayside attractions, aquarium of the bay, fun activities, bart

Santa Cruz

2007-05-23T10:55:00.001-07:00

Last weekend Mahi & I decided to drive down to Santa Cruz, about 50 miles away from our place. It’s a good 1 hour drive. Probably the most famous landmark in Santa Cruz is the Boardwalk. Right next to the Bay, it’s over a 100 years old, and has a lot of fun activities. The world famous Giant Dipper roller coaster (a completely wooden roller coaster), the Looff Carousel built in 1911 and the 125 feet double shot are but a few of the major attractions here. Incidentally, the Giant Dipper roller coaster has been in operation since 1924, and over 50 millions riders have experienced it! They also have rides based on the forces of nature such as the Typhoon, Cyclone, Hurricane, Tsunami. On the scarier side they have the haunted castle, and a ghost hunting ride too. One of the rides that I personally liked was the cave train ride. This took us through an underground cave subsystem, which had all characters from the dinosaur era a.k.a Flintstone style !! It was really hilarious, reading the captions. All in all we had a great time.

Technorati Tags: santa cruz, boardwalk, fun activities, ramesh, mahi, giant dipper, looff carousel
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Mission to Mission Peak

2007-05-09T12:35:00.000-07:00

Last weekend the four of us Mayur, Purvi, Mahi & I decided to scale Mission Peak, in Fremont. Mission peak - is 2517 feet at it's highest, and the total height that one scales is about 2200 feet, as you end up starting at about 400 feet above sea level. It is quite a steep trail, and is constantly demanding. Once you reach the top, you can see views of Mount Hamilton to the south, the Santa Cruz Mountains to the west, Mt. Tamalpais to the north, and Mt. Diablo and the Sierra Nevada to the northeast.

We climbed up from Stanford Avenue, and took a total of two hours to reach the top. It's a 2.8 mile hike one way, and a round trip is 5.6 miles. Coming down was faster, and that's when we actually realised the distance we had trekked. It felt as if it took ages to reach the entrance gate.

All in all it was a good hike - though we are still suffering from the after effects of the same. Planning to go again this weekend too, if possible.

The picture han't been taken by me - it's one I pulled off the internet, as we weren't carrying cameras at that time.

Pictures!!!

2007-05-03T09:16:00.000-07:00

Yup, it's definitely official now - it has been ages since I posted!! Thank you Gulshan aunty for politely knock - I know I'm way behind on my postings. Would have loved to do 100 a day (just kidding!!!), but seem to be having trouble doing even one a day!!!

Anyhow, here goes. I did promise that I would upload pictures of our car, so here they are, along with a bunch of bonus pictures. Last weekend, Chinni, Raja, Mahi & I drove down to Napa Valley (famous for it's vineyards and Wineries), Muir Woods (famous for well....the woods & forest), Lake Tahoe which as the name suggests is one huge lake and Reno - a smaller version of Vegas.

In Napa Valley we went to the Rutherford Winery and sampled their excellent wines, as well as dis a tour of the entire facility. Here are some snaps of the entrance to their wine storage area as well as of their barrels and wine bottles.

If you were wondering why I had a photograph of a rose in here - it's because of an interesting thing I learnt. All vineyards and wineries have a lot of rose bushes planted around. While the obvious reason is that they look good, and enhance the natural surroundings, the main reason is that rose plants by nature are very sensitive to the slightest changes. So if the owner notices that there is something wrong with the rose plants - it immediately sends in a warning with the help of which suitable steps can be taken to correct the problem.

These three snaps are from Lake Tahoe. Notice the snow clad mountains in the back - with the icy blue water in the front. We are jacketed as it was pretty chilly at the time of the photograph.

The third snap was later in the afternoon, by when it had considerably warmed up.

As for the rest of the snaps below - they are pretty much a mix-up of the rest - Here are the snaps of the car:

While these are some more of the lake:

A couple of the random shots include the drive to the lake, two dogs in the back of a truck (that's especially for you Karthik), the dense canopy in John Muir woods, moss covered trees, a ladybug in action!! We also saw a Giant Banana Slug as can be seen in the photographs below.

Viva Las Vegas!!

2007-04-23T18:11:00.000-07:00

Well it seems like its been ages since I've posted anything here. Lots of stuff happening. Was in Las Vegas last weekfor the Collaborate 2007 tradeshow. While everyone ooooohhhss and aaaahs about Vegas, they never bring up the topic of sore feet. If you ever happen to visit Vegas, remember to carry comfortable footwear along, and be mentally & physically prepared to walk a lot!!!!

Sleeping & not walking on air!!!

2007-04-13T15:15:00.000-07:00

Well, to continue further, we have now purchased what is known as an AeroBed here. It's this beautiful electric blue inflatable mattress (2-layered), with an inbuilt pump. As part of our home furnishing exercise, we picked this up from Costco (a large wholesale warehouse store).

All one needs to do is to spread it out on the floor, plug it in, into the wall outlet, and as they say proverbially "let er rip"!!!! The bed takes about 60 seconds to inflate to an optimum level, and the best part is that it comes with a built-in safety valve, which prevents overfilling!!

We also setup our comforter set on it, to give it a homely touch. Chinni & Raja, this is going to be your bed once you come here - so you might as well feast your eyes on it!!!

Saturday

2007-04-09T11:49:00.001-07:00

Right...so continuing where I left off. Saturday dawned nice, bright and sunny....while we did crash out the previous night, it wasn't a very great sleep - owing to the lack of pillows and a mattress!! But nevertheless we did try to grab some shut eye. Got a call from a Kim Hoang from San Leandro Honda, stating that they had a special going on for the end of the month, and that she was really desperate to sell a car.

A quick tip - the trick to buying a car in the US is to pit different dealers against each other to get the best possible rate / deal. Then again, within the dealership too, once can get two different rates for the same car - one from the retail salesman and a different one from the internet salesman. While the retail guy makes his commissions on how much the car is sold for, the internet person makes his commission based on how many cars he sells in the month. So the trick is to talk to the internet guy for the best possible rate as he/she would like to move the car off the lot - irrespective of the price, and then talk to the retail guy to see if he would go any lower than the said price.

Since we do not have any credit history in this country, all interest rates on loans were very high - upwards of 10.5%, which is a ridiculous sum of money. Anyhow, since it was a special (it's all in the timing - end of the month & end of the quarter), we managed to secure a 4.9% which is really good.

We ended up buying the Honda Civic EX with Navigation with the automatic transmission. The color is Beige. Will upload some photographs soon. From start to finish - the entire process took less than two hours - including the financing etc. The actual sale took just about half an hour!!!
While we received delivery of the vehicle, we couldn't take it off the lot, as we didn't have insurance. We finally managed to get insurance on Monday and so drove it back from the showroom on Monday. It was the first time that I drove on the Freeway, and believe me, I was gripping the steering wheel like a dead man clutching straws!!! If at all I am able to drive in this country - it's all thanks to Anil. He has been a tremendous help here.

Technorati Tags: honda civic, freeway, credit hitory, apr, interest rate, car buying tips,

Details....Details.....Details Part #1

2007-04-05T09:38:00.000-07:00

Well, am sure you all have been waiting for the details - so here they are! Am going to split this into a couple of posts for easy readability.

Anyhow, as I had mentioned in my previous post - we moved into our apartment on Friday. Mayur & Purvi came back in their Lexus RX 350 (SUV) and picked us up at 9:45 am along with two of our big suitcases, two pieces of hand baggage and two laptops - boy that car sure has a lot of space. We drove to Ardenwood Forest and there met Emerald at the leasing office. After we managed to get the lease in my name ( as it was originally in Mayur's - since I didn't have a social security number at the time when we signed up originally), she handed over all the paperwork, and asked for a cashiers check(note - it's check here as opposed to the British cheque). Apparently a cashiers check is similar to a demand draft. 'Twas a learning experience for us, as I had no clue as to what a cashiers check was! Anyhow, we went to our bank "The bank of America" (drum rolls in the background!!!), and got that made for the requisite amount, and were back in record time. It was only after that, that she handed over the keys to us, at about 11:45 am!!

With the keys in our hands, we drove up to the apartment, and had the first look.Another learning lesson: Ground floor is known as first floor here, while the first floor is known as the 2nd floor, and so on. So as per US terminology we were on the 2nd floor. Mayur and Purvi help out in moving the luggage in, and then left in a while, as technically, it was a working day for both of them. We started to unpack as much as possible, as Anil, Vikas, and Kiran were due to arrive by 1:30 pm in his Toyota Sienna Van to help us move the remaining stuff.

By the time they arrived we had managed to fill in the cupboards and ended up emptying most of the suitcases from the first trip. We then went back to the guesthouse to pick up the remainder - two more suitcases, the cookwares, dining table & chair, and a couple of cardboard cartons. Stopped for a quick bite at Taco Bell en route, and reached home by about 3:30 pm.

After moving everything in, the first thing to do was the milk boiling ceremony. Mahi carried it out perfectly and then also made some Kheer. As is evident from the photographs, all of us enjoyed it immensely. Anil, Vikas and Kiran, left by 5 pm as Anil still needed to get back to work. If there is one thing that I can say about Anil, it's this: "He goes out of his way to help you out - and it's very hard to come by his kind these days. The amount that he has helped us out is no small feat - I wonder if I would ever go to that extent myself."

Anyhow, once they left, we kind of settled down a bit, and unpacked some more. We finally crashed out in the night, looking forward to Saturday.

Technorati Tags: ardenwood, apartment, fremont, housing, friends, ramesh, ramakrishnan, lexus, toyota, sienna, van, moving

it's been a while....

2007-04-03T15:27:00.001-07:00

...and we've been busy. And I mean really busy!!! We moved into our new apartment in Ardenwood Forest on friday, went car hunting on saturday, bought the car on saturday, left the car at the dealership for the accessories and for lack of an insurance, went grocery shopping on sunday, made mountains of food on sunday, assembled the dining table on sunday, went to office on monday, bought insurance online on monday, brought the car from the dealership on monday back to the office, showed it around to colleagues on monday, drove back in the evening.......and then took a sigh of relief.

If you'd like the details on all these activities, you would need to wait, as I'm still cataloging the photographs, and these posts will be up soon - very soon....so see you soon.

First Drive in USA

2007-03-27T13:35:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, I drove for the first time in the US. Anil was generous enough to allow me to drive his car for a while, and we basically went out for lunch, and some more shopping (whew!! I wonder when all the shopping will end!!). Anyhow, to cut a long story short, it was a interesting experience. He has a black Toyota Camry, and believe me, it's once of the best colors, but a nightmare to maintain!!

Anyhow, at the outset, I sat on the left hand side of the car, and cursed the number of times that I had an opportunity to drive a left-hand drive vehicle in India, and didn't. The first instinct is for the left leg to depress the clutch prior to starting the vehicle, and that's when you realize that it's an automatic without a floor clutch!!!

Once I got it started, the next step was moving it from P (parking) to D(Drive). One needs to keep the brakes depressed, as otherwise the vehicle will roll forwards. After that it was pretty much smooth sailing. Driving was easy, also I didn't hit any of the freeways as that will take some more time.

Once we stopped, I carried out the same sequence, but in reverse - move from D to P, pull the handbrake, turn of ignition. The best part was that after all this, the left hand instinctively looks for a handbrake to pull, as the body is conditioned to do so, in India.

It was fun. We hope to purchase the car (the honda civic) probably within the next two weeks - so then I'll be sure to give more updates. Also we move into our apartment this weekend - so looking forward to that.

See's Candy @ NEw Park Mall - Indulging in Chocolate

2007-03-19T12:29:00.000-07:00

The other day, Mahi & I went down to our good 'ol New Park Mall. This mall is the one closest to our current location. It isn't a very big mall, in fact, by American standards, it's a pretty small mall. That’s where I introduced Mahi to See's Candies - my favorite candy store. The stores are typically black and white and project a very retro look. The service too is very old-fashioned - a lot of warmth and coziness, with a strict adherence to their motto - "Quality Without Compromise".

There are over 100 different varieties to choose from, and the candies have no additives / preservatives - only fresh ingredients, procured from across the globe.

The first See's Candies store & kitchen was opened on Western Avenue in Los Angeles in November of 1921 by Charles See. The sparkling clean, black and white shop was designed to resemble his mother Mary See's home kitchen.

By the mid-1920's See's had expanded to twelve shops, and further expanded to thirty shops during the depression. By 1936, See's was able to expand to San Francisco. Mary See died in 1939 at the age of 85, but the company kept growing.

Following World War II, See's Candy Shops grew as California grew, and opened more shops throughout the state. In the 50's, See's established itself with the new and growing phenomenon of shopping malls.

Today See's Candies are sold in over two hundred shops throughout the West, a true sign of their enduring popularity. And, to this day, Charles See's living motto, "Quality Without Compromise" continues to guide the company.

My personal favorite there is the Milk Almonds – these are roasted almonds, coated in chocolate – simply out of this world. We also were exposed to the remarkable service here – the sweet lady at the counter kept giving us multiple samples to try out – in fact towards the end, we had to virtually refuse, for fear of being unable to waddle out of the store !!!

300 - The Movie

2007-03-10T00:32:00.000-08:00

Just a quick one here, as it's close to 0030 hrs. We just got back from watching the "300" movie. Simply amazing.

I really liked the picturization, the theme, the color scheme - everything.

The movie is remarkably faithful to Frank Miller’s original graphic novel, which is a very stylized retelling of the true story of the 300 Spartan warriors led by their kind Leonidas, who made a suicidal last stand against an invading Persian army led by Xerxes at the Hot Gates of Thermopylae. The narrow pass allowed the 300 efficient fighters to hold off far superior numbers for days before finally being overwhelmed and slaughtered.

The director - Snyder is a visual genius. He's created several gorgeous moments, while at the same time not detracting from the action. It’s quite impressive – 300 identical looking Spartans fighting against hordes of identical looking foes would, in the hands of most modern directors, be a nightmare of confusion, but Snyder doesn’t go for the quick choppy editing technique. He allows the action moments to play out in very, very long shots, relying on speed ramping – everybody’s fast! Now it’s super slomo! – to create the dynamics of a fast edit. The long shots are especially fantastic because you are watching the actors going through multiple moves and multiple opponents.

Xerxes - the Persian king and so called self proclaimed God, is presented as a huge, effeminate figure. In a moment directly from the graphic novel, Xerxes is at his most threatening not when facing Leonidas but when he comes up behind him and places his massive hands on his shoulders.

All in all, a must see.

Our apartment in Fremont, CA

2007-02-25T20:06:00.001-08:00

Hi everybody!. We have finally managed to find a decent apartment in Fremont, CA. We have been scouting for the last 3 to 4 weeks - two weeks from India and the rest here, in the US.

We were looking for a one bedroom apartment with an inbuilt washer and dryer, as opposed to a commonly shared one. Apart from this, the other criteria that we had were a good school district, safe neighbourhood, and a convenient location - either near work or the general shopping area.

Incidentally, a lot of the rates for apartments in the US are decided on a bunch of factors. Apart from factors such as proximity to shopping areas, malls, public transport systems, the key factor is the school district. Most of the education in the US revolves around public schools and people residing in a particular district can send their children only to that district's Public school. The better the school, the bigger the influx of people in the district, which in turn leads to the rise in apartment rates in that area. We checked out a couple of places in central Fremont such as The Avalon, The Estates, Mission Peak, Presidio, Archstone, Waterstone, etc. and the rates ranged from $1245 to $1600. Astronomical and way over our budget!!!

We scouted some more, and finally managed to find an apartment in Ardenwood Forest, about 1.4 miles from work. This is a really nice place. There are a total of 862 units(apartments) here. Very well laid out. It also has basketball courts, tennis courts, swimming pools, saunas, club houses etc.

As of now we will be moving into a two bedroom apartment, as the waiting time for any of the one bedroom apartments is almost 6 months. But then again, by virtue of us becoming residents of the community, we will be placed on a priority list, and so the moment a one bedroom setup would be available, we would be intimated.

The inset photographs are the ones that I pulled off the web. Once we move in, which is next month I'll post some snaps up.

Car Hunting

2007-02-24T22:14:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!! Aloha!! Today we formally started car hunting - looked at the Honda's and Toyota's of the world. Also looked at some of the Lexus models (these are the premium segment of the Toyota group).

Incidentally, for the uninformed, in the US, virtually each car manufacturer has two segments which they market. One is the usual segment such as the Honda, Toyota, etc, while the other is the premium / luxury segments, where the same manufacturers push out luxury cars - as in Honda has the Acura, Toyota has the Lexus, in their luxury segments. I'll see if I can get a consolidated list out to you all.

Anyhow, we saw the Honda Civic (normal & Hybrid) as well as the Honda Accord. We also saw the Toyota Yaris, Corolla, Camry and Prius (hybrid). We also saw a few used Lexus cars whose pricing was kinda comparable to that of a new Camry.

The fact of the matter is that in this country one could go bonkers with the amount of choice that is available. Hopefully, within the next couple of weeks we would have narrowed down our search, and finalized our car!!!

It's all about the numbers

2007-02-20T10:47:00.000-08:00

Have you ever wondered as to how the numbers that we know so well came to be. There are primarily two major forms of number system - Roman (I, II, III, IV, ....) and Arabic (1,2,3,4,....). The Arabic number system as known so, as they were popularized by the Arabs.

While the Roman numbers are easy to understand, as evident by their usage, have we ever thought to wonder as to why 1 = one, 2 = two, 3 = three, etc., or for that matter the logic behind them?

Well the fact is that it's all about the angles !! As is evident from the image inset, the naming revolves around the number of angles which each contains when written in their older forms.

1 has one angle, 2 has two angles, 3 has three angles and so on till 9 having nine angles. Zero being a circle has no angles! I have depicted the angles with circles. Click on the image for a better look.

Our initial experiences in the US

2007-02-19T15:43:00.000-08:00

I know it's been quite a while since I posted anything here. Well the reason for that was that we (Mahi & I) were in the critical phase of an overseas transfer. What with the running around for the Visas, ticketing, travel procedures, packing etc, we hardly had any time to post anything!!

We sold our car in India, a panther black Ford Fiesta 1.6 Sxi ABS just after 9 months of purchasing it. Thankfully didn't end up taking too much of a hit on it. Also sold my XDA II mini to a colleague.

As of now, we both are based in Fremont, California, and are put up at one of the Extended Stay hotels. These hotels are designed keeping in mind the fact that people might need to stay long term here. Each room had a mini kitchen, TV, DVD, refrigerator, etc. Also there are laundry machines within the building itself, a multi-gym, pool etc. The company will put us up here for 2 weeks, post which we would need to move into an apartment. We have hunting for the same in and around the Fremont and Newark areas.

Met up with Mayur and his wife Purvi and they've been great help in taking us around. Incidentally, they have recently picked up a Lexus 350 SUV, and boy is it good!!! Amazing.

Also, did some basic grocery shopping for the essentials to get operational on the cooking front.

Traipsed around New Park mall today, taking in the sights and the sounds. Also, made the traditional stop at the ColdStone Creamery for some soulful and sinful ice cream!! The ColdStone Creamery chain was setup in 1988 (almost 20 years ago), by Donald & Susan Sutherland, and they serve up what they call "Creations". This basically means that one gets to customize their ice cream, they way they'd like it. You can choose from a range of nuts, toppings, biscuits, mints, fruits, chews, etc. and not to forget - ice creams, to make your unique creation. The ingredients that you chose are placed on an ice cold granite slab and they mixed together. That's where the name is derived from. You can read a lot more about it here and here.

Will post more details as we experience the sights and sounds here.......

The Hyderabad Derby

2007-01-30T01:17:00.000-08:00

This weekend, the six of us Murli, Vyshnavi, Shashank, Fauzia, Mahi & I went to the Hyderabad Derby at Malakpet, Hyderabad. Murli and Vyshnavi had passes to the event, and had invited us. They had also invited Sanjay & Anu Khendry.

Traditionally, while races are held every weekend, the big derby's are held only twice a year. This years' derby was sponsored by Vijay Textiles.

The dress code for any of these events is strictly formal - trousers, shirts, blazers and a tie. While I did blanch at the thought of formal wear, having worn it for 2 and a half years continuously in the NDA (National Defence Academy), I decided to go through with it, for the experience.

We all piled into Shashank's car (an Opel Astra), and I drove. Boy, I don't remember the last time I drove an Opel. Vyshnavi's father is one of the Stewards in the racecourse, and as such we managed to get premium parking.

On reaching there, we made a beeline for the main hall. Apart from the horses and races, the racecourse is also famous for the food. Simply mind blowing. We had reached the place at about 1215 hrs, and as such, lunch was already served. The non-vegetarian section was exceptionally good, and so was the vegetarian stuff too. The food included Biryani, Haleem, Mirch ka Salan, Palak Paneer, Chicken and Mutton dishes, and a few more which I don't recollect as of now. The dessert section included Khubani ka Meetha, Ice cream and Rasmalai. Quite nice.

Post lunch, we moved into the VIP area, to witness the races. I can say this with conviction, it is a completely different world out there on the field. While it took us a while, and help from a kindly old gentleman there, to learn the basics of betting on the races, the emotions that run there are really something.

Right from the time that the horses are brought out on parade, and placed at the starting gate, to the time that the take off, clear the tracks and finish in the race, emotions run high amidst the crowd. People surge to the fences and shout out ecstatically.

We too tried our hand at betting on the horses - no large sums of money, smaller sums. Thankfully, while we didn't make any money, we ended up recovering whatever we had bet, so all in all it worked out OK.

SASCON2007 - The Annual Sierra Atlantic Sales Conference

2007-01-17T23:12:00.000-08:00

Today, we formally kicked off SASCON2007 (Sierra Atlantic Sales Conference 2007) at HICC (Hyderabad International Convention Center). The tag line for the event this time was Opportunity. The last time the tag line had been "Achieve the next".

The venue is really fabulous. The HICC is part of the Accor group, and the whole setup is not even a year old in Hyderabad. Everything is squeaky clean, spic & span.

As part of the kickoff, we had an inspiration sales video running, which i put together over the last few days. Nothing special, just mixed a bunch of photographs and text together.

We also had a traditional Hyderabadi Chowki dinner on the evening of the 18^th. The Chowki dinner is symbolic of the Nizam rule, and was the royal formal dinner of that era. It involved sitting down on the cushions and eating out of silver plates and drinking from silver / golden goblets. While we definitely didn't have the golden goblets, we did have highly polished plates, and silver serving bowls. Each Chowki could accommodate six people, and all in all people had a whale of a time. The dinner was very well received and kudos definitely go out to the entire arranging committee, including us (as usual - no modesty!!!).

Will try and upload the video too that I had created, space permitting. For now, you can feast your eyes on some of the arrangements and decorations for the dinner.

Planetarium

2007-01-10T19:01:00.000-08:00

Last week, Mahi & I visited the Birla Planetarium. I was going there after nearly 15 years. A lot continues to be the same while some portions have definitely changed. It is located on the panoramic hillock of Naubat Pahad in Hyderabad and is a visual treat to the advances made in science and technology.

Inaugurated in 1985, the Planetarium offers visitors, daily sky shows, in Telugu, Hindi and English. The topics cover various aspects of the Cosmos, the beautiful mysteries of the Universe, the comets, the Hubble Space Telescope, Eclipses, the puzzling Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO's) and the very recent clash of the Titans.

When the lights were dimmed and the night sky was projected, there was a collective”aaahhhhh” from the audience as the illusion of being transported into the galaxy was complete.

Adjoining the planetarium is the Birla Since and Arts museum, which comprises of excavated architectural artifacts of the bygone era, interactive science experiments and the arts of different cultures and civilizations. While the science section does need some maintenance, it’s a good learning exercise for one and all.

The latest addition to this area is the Dinosaurium - a new wing which houses among other exhibits, a 160 million year old mounted "Kotasaurus Yamanpalliensis", excavated in Adilabad district and presented to Science Museum by the Geological Survey of India. This one exhibit was huge and was about 8 meters long and 3 meters tall and the beauty of it all – a herbivore. Apart from this highlight, the Dinosaurium also has a collection of smaller fossils of dinosaur eggs, marine shells and fossilized tree trunks. Sadly, the one thing which was an eyesore was the defacing of the posters and paintings inside with people having scribbled messages and names on them.

The image on the left is a representation of how the dinosaur would have looked in it's heydey.

In case you haven’t had a chance to visit this area, do try and look it up. You won’t be disappointed.

Japanese Acrobats

2007-01-10T03:00:00.001-08:00

Click to Play

Today Dad sent me a video clip of a Japanese Circus. Simply mind blowing!! The precision, control and accuracy with which these guys perform is something that I have never witnessed before.

Rayomand Bamboat a.k.a yeda bawa

2007-01-09T02:09:00.000-08:00

If you were wonder who "Rayo" is, as I keep mentioning him in some of my posts, well, here's a snap of him. Rayomand Bamboat, as we know him, is one of my best pals, and I've known him for donkey's years - and believe me, if you haven't seen how long a donkey's ear could be, i can assure that it is quite long!!

He's currently a master in the merchant navy, and is on leave for the next couple of months.

Incidentally, this snap has been taken in our driveway, and the hedge is coming up quite well, thanks to the gardener.

Our road trip to Srisailam

2007-01-05T19:01:00.003-08:00

On the 2^nd of January, Mahi & I drove down to Srisailam for a day or two. Srisailam has one of India's largest reservoirs, as well as the largest tiger sanctuary. Srisailam is a temple town located on a 452 meters high hill in the Nallamalais. The hill itself is called Rishabagiri and used to be on the southern bank of the River Krishna. Thanks to a 512 meters dam across the Krishna, Srisailam now overlooks a huge reservoir.

The drive was amazing. We left early in the morning by around 5 - 5:30 am, and went via Charminar. It was a dream to zip by those roads with virtually no traffic!! Crossed Faluknama and then hit the highway. The outside temperature was between 8 to 10 degrees centigrade, quite chilly.

Srisailam is about 232 kms from Hyderabad. The road to Srisailam is peppered with small towns and villages. You do need to slow down as you approach any town, lest you come across chickens, cows, buffaloes and even human beings crossing the road, oblivious of the oncoming traffic.

We made our first halt just short of the dam, where we had breakfast (sandwiches & chana batana). Washed this down with some Gatorade - lemon flavored. For those who aren't acquainted with this drink - it's really good, tangy and refreshing. I personally like it a lot.

Anyhow, we continued down the winding ghat roads to the lower bridge and then back up the ghat roads on the other side. The Srisailam town is about 16 kilometers from the dam. We finally reached the APTDC (Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation) Punnami Hotel at about 9:30 am. Checked into the rooms, freshened up and then walked around a bit.

We visited the main temple - the Brahmarambha Mallikarjuna Swamy temple. This is a Shiva temple of antiquity, which may be traced back to the Buddhist period and perhaps even earlier to the Mahayana school of the Buddhism, which is known to have flourished during the 1st century A.D. The temple is located inside a fort with stone walls which in turn had motifs sculpted on the walls. The entrance to the temple is flanked by two gaily colored guardians.

All around the main temple are a number of small shrines venerating the various Avatars of Lord Shiva, like Jalalinga, Vayulinga, etc. A bit away and beyond two flights of stairs is the temple where Brahmarambha Devi is worshipped. The temple complex also has a number of other shrines like the Panchapandava shrine and a number of Matts, prominent among them being one established by the great Adi Sankaracharya himself.

This is primarily a Shiva temple and is one of the 12 Jyothirlangas across the country. As a result, there are hordes of people who come to seek the blessing of the lord here. We bought the Rs. 100/- VIP ticket (which entitles us to a free laddoo) and made our way in. What was really disheartening was the amount of commercialism. People assume that just because they have bought the Rs. 100 ticket, they have a right to get in and shove their way through. It is quite sad to see that people are fighting and jostling amongst themselves to get into the temple. At the end of it all, when you do get to see the deity, it's for a matter of seconds only. Makes you wonder if it was worth all the effort! After the temple we went to Canteen number 1 which is just outside the temple for food. They had quite good food, simple and nice. Quite cost effective too.

After that we decided to walk down to the ropeway and Pathalganga. This is a good 2 kilometer walk from the hotel. There are about 500 steps which lead you to Patalaganga. The Patalaganga Ghat comprises of a series of steep, irregularly cut steps, which according to an inscription in the temple were build by a Reddi King of the Kondaveedu Reddi dynasty between the 15^th and 16^th century. This place is where in the good old days, people used to carry out pujas etc. In case you do not wish to climb down, you can also use the rope way. We used the rope way primarily as it gives you a great view of the reservoir. Also, at the base you can opt for a boat ride till the dam and back. There are two distinct shades to the water - Dark green (towards the center) and light Green (towards the edges). While the APTDC has powered boats, one can also venture out into the waters in a Coracle. These are round, Bamboo baskets- as big as beach umbrellas, tarred to be waterproof.

We chose one of the powerboats which needed a minimum of 15 persons. Thankfully there were a couple of other people around, owing to which the ride was possible. Post the ride, we walked back to the rope way, and that’s where we say their communication device. This is an old wind-up solenoid based phone, which they use in the event that the walkie-talkies are not operational. They kind of reminded me of one of the field phones used by the army.

Once we came back on the top, we walked back to the hotel, and then took the car and went out to see the tribal museum. The museum building is shaped like a huge Shivlinga and is completely circular on the outside. Inside, they have life-sized models of the different tribal villagers, their implements, apparel, pets etc. The guide spoke in Telugu, though it would have been great if they also had an English and Hindi translator too.

Post the tribal museum, we drove up to the Shikaram. This is a small temple located on a hill, which has a Nandi bull right at the top. According to the local lore, if once is able to spot the trident on the spire of the main temple (that I had mentioned in the beginning of the article) from here, then that person's life is blessed and he/she would be free from rebirth. The fact of the matter is that spotting the temple itself is quite difficult owing to the distance, hilly areas and the clouds and fog. Everyone was trying their level best to spot it, but to no avail. This place also has a huge outline of the shivling made from iron, which has bulbs on it. This is lit up at night, and is said to be quite beautiful. While we were there, it was broad daylight, and as such couldn't see the structure lit up.

While driving back we also stopped at Paladhara Panchadhara, a place where it is said that Adi Sankaracharya meditated for a year. This place has beautiful banyan trees all around, and is right next to the forest. In fact there is a path leading down to the forest too. The roots of the banyan trees can be seen breaking the cement surface, and some of them which are growing down, have in turn touched the ground and become as hard as trees themselves. When we came back to the road, we chanced upon a street entertainer and his monkey. Mahi had a great time feeding the monkey some chana batana, while the entertainer was gracious enough to pose for a couple of photographs. He was a very genial chap and didn't ask us for any money. We took a couple of snaps here and then drove back to the hotel (a distance of about 6 kms) and crashed out for the night.

The next day in the morning, we left back for Hyderabad with plans of visiting one of civilizations' untouched waterfalls. About 50 kilometers out of Srisailam, we took a diversion (right turn) at a village called Vaduvarapalli. Our destination was Mallelatheertham (the waterfalls). This diversion is for a distance of 6 kilometers and passes through the village of about 20 huts. Electricity has touched this village only last year, and the road has no tar on it - in true terms a Kaccha Road. We actually drove through the fields, and all we could see in the rear view mirror was the tons of dust that kept rising as a result of our journey.

At the end of 6 kms we came to an abrupt drop, where we had to park their car and walk down multiple flights of stairs. These would easily number over 250. At the base of the steps we met this fascinating gentleman who was a sage (sadhu). He originally hailed from Bangalore and was a Yoga teacher. A couple of years back, he had decided to give up everything, and that’s when he chanced upon this place and decided to settle down here. The only company that he has is the 200 odd monkeys here, and the occasional tourist (like us) who chances upon this place. He doesn't ask for money, loves to talk and converse. Apparently, a lot of people just bring rice / grain and gift it to him. He in turn cooks the same for himself as well as the monkeys. He is fluent in Telugu as well as Hindi. We had a nice time talking to him.

About this place - it is rumored that as per Hindu mythology, when the Pandavas were in exile, they spent one year here. There are a couple of idols on one side in this area. While three of them are recent and have been there only for the last couple of years, one of them is really ancient and is supposed to be from the time of the Pandavas. There is a natural waterfall on one side, the source for which cannot be seen. The water comes from the rocks only, and falls down into the pool below. The waterfall is there all year long, and even during peak summer owing to the water and dense foliage, the place is quite cool. Also there is a Shivlinga at the base of the waterfall, on which the water falls constantly. This too is supposed to be really old.There are huge trees the roots of which are gnarled and thick. We took a couple of snaps here too. In fact one of the trees had its roots all over a rock and had cracked the rock into pieces. This place has also been one of the shooting locales for a Telugu movie called Chakram. As I had mentioned earlier on, this place is virtually unknown and it is only now that AP tourism is sitting up and noticing it.

We left from Mallelatheertham in about an hour and then drove back to Hyderabad through the tiger reserve. All in all, it was a nice short trip.

New Year Celebrations

2007-01-01T08:19:00.000-08:00

We had a really small but good get-together on the night of the 31^st at our place. Murthy Uncle, Meena Aunty, Mom, Dad, Rayo, Mahi & I were the constituents of this group.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here. Had swung by Rayo's place in the evening, and since everyone else there was going over to Zenobia aunty's place for the celebrations, we (Mahi, Rayo & I) decided to head home.

We diverted via the New Food World which has opened up opposite Poulomi Hospitals, next to Sainikpuri. Picked up the Pillsbury rich chocolate instant cake mix - not for the microwave but for the cooker, as we decided to make the cake the hard way. Incidentally, the cake was an egg less one.

Headed home, initiated the baking process and sat down to watch Star Wars part III - Revenge of the Sith, as this whole month, Star Movies is telecasting the Star wars Saga every weekend.

While we were watching the movie, Meena Aunty & Murthy Uncle came over, and we all had dinner together. The dessert of course was the cake.

We all got down to a few rounds of Uno, as well as Scrabble also known as Spell-O-Fun. We finally finished the scrabble game at about 11:50 pm, followed by a small photo shoot. Murthy Uncle won, followed by Mom, Meena Aunty and Rayo.

We also called up Chinni and Raja at the stroke of 12 and spoke to them.

All in all, a quiet new year bash.

Ramoji Film City - Movie Magic

2006-12-29T06:58:00.000-08:00

Today, we (Rayo, Mahi & me) went to Ramoji Film City at Hyderabad - the world's largest film studio unit. It's about 30 kms from Hyderabad.

We set out at 9:30 am and reached there by about 10:30 am, thanks to the traffic. It has a pretty impressive gate to enter from.

Strangely, though they do have an Internet registration facility, you still need to go to counter #4 to present the generated Internet number in exchange for a physical ticket. Sadly, there wasn't anyone at counter #4, and we had to stand in the general line to get our tickets. After which there was another line to get into the public transport buses for the first stint inside. Private vehicles aren't allowed inside the Film City. We had to park ours in the parking lot just inside the main gate and climb aboard standard buses which took us a couple of kilometers inside to a staging area. This is the central area within the film city, where four bus bays have been setup. Bus Bays 1 & 2 are for internal tours, while bays 3 & 4 are for buses which take you back to the entrance and the parking lot. The internal tour buses are quite quaint and nice. Kind of remind you of the old British Raj.

The central areas have a number of small areas such as Eureka, Fundoostan, Alampana (a theatre) etc. These cater to kids amusement games, cultural shows, etc.

The first stop that we made was to see as to how a movie is made. The movie clip that they were shooting was Sholay, and the person in-charge asked for a Female volunteer to do the role of Basanti. This area was divided into three sections - The first would do just the filming, the second would add in the sound, and the third section would have the final movie projected. Quite neat. He had Basanti sit in a cart, and two other volunteers would rock it from side to side to simulate the movement.The background was a traditional blue screen, on which they superimposed the bandits on horseback chasing her. In the sound section, a couple of volunteers took over few of the instruments to simulate the sounds emanating from the horses hooves on the road, the banging and creaking from the wooden card, the whistling of the wind, etc. In the last section, they showcased the entire movie, and boy was it funny. All in all it was really good. Quite similar to the one in universal studios at Los Angeles.

After this we took the guided tour and boarded the buses. The bus took us through the various production houses, as well as gave us useful tidbits of information, such as the fact that the entire area of the Film city was 2000 acres of which 1300 had already been developed. The film city also employs 8000 employees at any given time!! That's a lot! As part of the tour we also saw 4-in-1 sets, wherein the elevation on each side was different. We had the Airport, hospital, high court and library as one of these sets. We also ambled through the London street, the south Indian sets, central jail(s), etc. The tour guide also showed us a number of gardens such as the Japanese gardens, Sierra Hills, Arizona Garden, Mughal Gardens, Maze Gardens, and the Legs Garden, etc. Our tour guide was also a jovial sort of person, and kept the crowd quite entertained. The tour ended at The Hawa Mahal at the top of a Hillock, post which people could amble down all the gardens and lawns and land back at Eureka for games or departure. We spent some time ambling back and finally reached Eureka and then subsequently through the gaming zone, to Bus Bay #4, for our trip back to the parking lot. All in all, the place is worth one visit, though personally I felt that it could do with some more organization as well as proper crowd control.

Christmas lunch at the Rao residence

2006-12-25T20:22:00.000-08:00

The three of us (Rayo, Mahi & I) swung by Jagan uncle and Rachel Aunty's place for lunch on Christmas, and before you jump to the conclusion that we gatecrashed, let me put your minds to ease by stating that Yes, we were invited!!!!

Met up with a bunch of people there - Ramu uncle, Shashi aunty, Jason, Samyukta, Lisha, Ipshita, Arvind (her brother), Ipshita's mom (I don't know her name), Rachel aunty's sister - Aunty Rhoda, Raghu, Varun.

Rachel Aunty had whipped up some mean food - Amazing the correct word for it!

We had stuffed chicken, Spaghetti Bolognaise, Cole Slaw stuffed in bread, and a pasta like baked dish.

She also had made some excellent fudge, the traditional cake (boy, were we sloshed after that) as well as her patented Tim Tams. I really fell in love with the Tim Tams - which reminds me, need to buy some cooking chocolate and hand it over to her!!

All in all, indulged in too much good food - need to work this off now!!!

Celebrations 2006 for Sierra Atlantic

2006-12-22T23:33:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, we had our organization's anniversary party - the 13^th one. Had this at the Laserium next to Lumbini Park. In true Hyderabadi style started half an hour late at 7:30 pm and went on till late into the night.

Was a pretty good show. Included a classical dance, an Audio Video Presentation, service awards, 2006 reflections and 2007 plans, a dance medley and the laser show.

If you are in Hyderabad, don't miss the laser show at the Laserium. This takes place at 7:30 pm on weekdays, and on weekends has an additional show at 8:30 pm too. It's the first of it's kind in India, and has a mix of laser & multimedia. It showcases the entire history of Hyderabad - how the name came to be, then and now. All the projection is done on an aqua screen. The fountains and the designs are mind blowing and reminded me of the fountains at Bellagio in Vegas. Quite nice.

Noodle Soup @ Rayo's

2006-12-21T19:23:00.000-08:00

Did I mention that last night we had gone over to Rayo's place for a noodle soup dinner that he had invited us for.

We had dropped the noodles over at his place in the morning, and he had started cooking at about 7 pm. It came out quite good indeed. All those long hours on the ship and cadet ship must have really paid off.

The only hitch was the quantity. It felt like he had made it to feed an army!! Each of us (Bambi uncle & aunty, Arya, Rayo, Mahi & me) had two huge bowls each, and it still looked like the serving bowl had enough for another 10 rounds!!!

Must work on estimation techniques!!!

Also saw Arya in his element while playing Need for Speed carbon. Man, he's good - really good.

More scoop on City Center and Food!!!

2006-12-21T00:57:00.000-08:00

Well yesterday we formally raised a toast to Kailash. Actually it wasn't a toast really, but in true Hyderabadi style & spirit, decided to take him out to lunch.

As all lunch outings revolve around the critical parking issue, we decided to not take our vehicles, and instead decided to walk across to the eating joints at the City Center. An initial description of the mall is posted here.

As I had mentioned earlier, it has a bunch of restaurants on the top floor. Interestingly, these all belong to the BJN Group, same guys who operate Angeethi too. The restaurants are IndiJoe (a global cuisine place), Sahib Sindh Sultan (an exclusive Indian place) and Aromas of China (as the name says, an oriental place). Apart from this, it also has a pub called Firangi Pani, as well as a conference room.

Now, I must say, that these places are amazing. If you haven't visited / seen them, do see them ASAP, and if you have already seen them, then see them again and again and again.....
The attention to detail in all these places is mind boggling.

We had lunch at IndiJoe. The buffet costs Rs.135/- plus taxes, but believe me, the variety is mind boggling. Six types of salad (veg & non-veg), 8 types of desserts, Indian, Italian, Oriental, and Continental cuisines were part of the main course in the buffet. Of course, no drinks are included as part of the food, but hey - they have the chocolate fountain as part of the dessert !!! Lip-smacking!!!

Post lunch, we decided to explore the other restaurants. Sahib Sindh Sultan, is a restaurant set in the year 1853. It has a massive train coach / bogey inside which can seat about 20 people. On either side of the coach, they have setup mirrors facing each other, so when you actually look left or right, it's looks like a long train - pretty innovative. The coach also has tracks and gravel underneath which have been suitable lit to add to the overall effect. Inside the coach, the design is similar to the trains of the bygone era. It has luggage racks above the seats which have British top hats, and women's felt hats placed there as part of the display.

The seating area out side the coach can accommodate lots more, and is setup like the platform for the train. It also has a ticket counter, a book store etc. The staff too are dressed as per the clothing of the yesteryear!!!

Firangi Paani, the pub, is again set in the era of the Raj, in India. Authentic rifles on the walls, motifs, stained glass, leather sofas, all speak volumes here. The tables are setup as huge gunpowder casks, and all in all it gives a very English feel. A whole lot of polished wood too.Towards one side, they also have a small dance floor set up.

Didn't get a chance to see Aromas of China, as that is slotted to open next month, but will definitely take a look at it once it opens up. The picture sure looks nice though. Am sure the cuisine too will be great.

All in all, a really nice experience.

Dhoom 2 @ Sangeet

2006-12-19T03:53:00.000-08:00

Oh Boy!!! Finally saw this movie yesterday at Sangeet along with Mahi, Rayo, and Gulshan Aunty.

I have only two words to describe it - "It's Different" (three if you want to count it's as "it is").

Quite unlike the first part - lesser focus on the bikes, sheesh!! Would have loved more focus on them. Who needs the babes and action - the bikes will do for us mere mortals!!!!

Aishwarya Rai is her usual plasticky self, while the lesser said about Abhishek Bachhan's dance is better !!! Hrithik does a fabulous job in his dances and prances - while the action scenes too are quite good.

The popcorn at the theatre hasn't changed for the last 25 years, and tastes the same. Somehow, as Mahi says - this popcorn sure tastes better than any Act II popcorn type!!!

Dell D600 and Norton Ghost

2006-12-19T00:41:00.000-08:00

Well the laptop finally gave up on me !!! Today we went through an exercise in restoring the Dell D600 back to it's good ol' glory. Used Norton Ghost for an image and voila - it's up and running in under 20 minutes!!! Gone are the days where you'd need to sit with the Windows XP cd and the cd drive, and then reboot half a dozen times (not really, but well at least three times).

With Norton Ghost, all we needed to do was boot the laptop using the build in network card, and load the image from the server. After that it was a just a matter of 15 minutes, to get the whole operating system, Microsoft Office, and other packages installed, all in one shot! Amazing!!

This surely makes life easy, especially if you are running a company with a number of systems and need to carry out batch setups.

Need for Speed - Carbon

2006-12-18T02:47:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I had a chance to test out the new Need for Speed Carbon PS2 game at Rayo's place. Man, it's good. Takes off right where Need for Speed underground left off. Quite thrilling and dark - all the racing is in the night, and hey - Drifting is back!!!!

It's got some pretty nifty features such as auto sculpting - which allows you to cusomize the shape, size, color and other variables of each component of your car - making it as unique as can be!!

At the start you get to choose the type of car that you'd like to drive - options being Tuner, Muscle and Exotic. Based on the choice the game decides the other parameters and unlocks in the game.

I'd give this a two thumbs up. Must try it out!!!

City Center Mall in Hyderabad

2006-12-18T02:06:00.000-08:00

Well, it was a nice Saturday afternoon, and we had finished lunch at Sadhu's Vegetarian Bistro - a new place which had opened up on Road #12, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad. Interesting place - serves South Indian, North Indian and Chinese cuisine. Apparently the owner hailed from Australia and had travelled extensively across the globe learning all about new cuisines, and then decided to set up the Sadhu's chain!!!

Anyhow the food was OK, no great shakes.

Post the meal, we decided to explore the new City Center Mall which had just opened up here in Hyderabad. The place is really nice, though shops are still up for grabs. Phenomenal parking space - it can accommodate up to 400 cars at a time! Some of the interesting stores are Globus (an apparels store), eZone (a store dedicated to electronics - my idea of heaven!!!), a food bazaar, McDonald's Family Restaurant, Health & Glow and a couple of others that I don't remember now.

It also has three restaurants on the top floor, a part of the Angeethi management. These are themed restaurants, am yet to hear about the quality of food, but I gather that the food at IndiJoe is really good.

First Start

2006-12-18T01:39:00.000-08:00

Well, what can I say. Having been involved with technology, computers (since the good 'ol Commodore 64 days), it's taken me this long to actually get down to blogging !!!

As I plod/blog along I hope to post some of the snaps that I have taken - with descriptions wherever possible.

Feel free to drop a line by / comment. Would love to hear from you all.