Have you visited Pheonix mall recently ?

Christmas and new year time is one when air has feeling of holidays in it. Every one kind of wants to have little relaxed time. Naturally, you need to go to places where such mood of celebration is there. Many people try to go out of places like Mumbai to enjoy the time. But then not all can go out. Some need to stay behind to run this always running city Mumbai. For such people, there are places which serve good during this time. One of the place is Phoenix mall. It is really a celebration time here. You just go and wander around. I did that just before Christmas day, and I can't believe I ended up spending close to 8 hrs just enjoying the food and environment. I had planned to catch up a movie, but once in, I did not need the feel of watching a movie. The atmosphere was astounding.

If you happen to be in Mumbai during new year eve and if nothing else is planned, then you may catch up some fantastic time in Phoenix mall. Go ahead and have a blast.

Rollercoaster ride of Gujrat election results! Did you enjoy?

Gujrat election results were declared yesterday. Whoever  had even remote interest in these results must have experienced a feeling of the roller coaster ride. I have never seen the results changing directions at such a fast pace. Exit poll results made an impression in mind that let whatever be the results, BJP is winning. And it actually started that way. For approximately first 45 minutes, impression was that BJP has a cake walk. But then suddenly things started changing. The seat gap between BJP and Congress started diminishing. I was following INDIA TV results, as I feel it is the fastest channel to bring trends in front of us.
So, at one point the tally said, BJP - 88 and Congress  - 70
And then just the next instant, it suddenly changed to BJP - 82 and Congress - 87.
I was like, what ?
Is it some typo error or something like that? But no it wasn't.
For those couple of minutes, every body whether a BJP follower or Congress follower, was surely confused. Exactly what to believe. Is it a time for joy or to be sad? No body knew.
That was just the time, I had to start for office. There was no way to stay back. Once started, my first stop or break from driving comes after 15 minutes. So, I was unsure but desperate to know what is happening.
But once I got chance, the trend had again reversed. Now BJP was marginally ahead. For next half hour, things kept moving in same way and then slowly, BJP started gaining control. Later it felt as if the worst is over for BJP and it is back on track. Slowly it even went on to 110 seats while pushing Congress to as low as 68.Towards the end though, it was clear that there is a very close tussle going on in around 12 seats. And here again, the trend reversed again giving Congress the final lead and raising their seat numbers to 80 while reducing BJP's seats to lowest in 22 years of 99.
BJP won it finally, but it surely must have made them worry the way it turned out inspite it being the homepitch of the prime minister.
Probably they will turn ultra cautious now and start making stronger preparations for 2019 elections. Congress might be a bit exuberant. Though they couldn't cross the line, but they definitely gave  a taste of medicine to BJP in their short run.
All said and done, it was a real exciting day for all politics lovers.
At the end, some how I feel

"Nobody was a looser and nobody was a winner"

Virushka wedding! and right of privacy

These are among some of the Virushka wedding photos which went viral on internet with in couple of hours of wedding. By god, I did even saw my own wedding photos this fast.

But, yes, finally the ultimate question that was troubling all the Indians and making us have a sleepless nights has finally been answered. Now, we can concentrate on some of the issues relevant to out personal lives.

Do you know, why we are in this situation where we were more worried about Virushka wedding than anything else. It is called media. It is the same media, which keeps always crying about retaining rights of privacy of an individual. This is media, which created this imaginary environment where the nation wants to know everything about Virushka wedding.

The way wedding took place, one thing is clear. Virushka wanted this wedding a personal affair. Till the last minute, they kept calling it a false news. Without disclosing any information, every one quietly went out of India to avoid any attention and tried getting married.

But media doesn't believe in maintaining any rights of privacy in such cases. They went all the way to dig out all the information about the venue of wedding, probable dates, who left India through which route. They even did not left their priest out of this and brought him too in the limelight. 

I just wonder why there is need to know all the things about a person's personal celebrations. What Virushka did is right. They kept it a private affair and later on revealed the news to all ( not just to the media) through social platforms. With this thought, hoping some saneness comes to Indian media, I wish the couple a very happy married life.

Mumbai turned Mahabaleshwar !

Mumbaikars are witnessing a strange weather for last couple. I guess, it all started with the introduction of cyclone "Ockhi". Things that never happen like rain in december was witnessed. It turned the weather altogether. For one day, Mumbai turned into Mahabaleshwar in many parts, especially in areas full of greenery. It was amazing to see a little bit of rain, along with cool ( really cool) breeze, wet greenery and a kind of mist, that enveloped the whole environment around. It was just mystical. Such days are very rare in Mumbai. I witnessed it for the first time. Thought to share with you here.

Should Congress leave its Quid Pro Quo strategy?

Amid Gujrat elections, lots of things are said and heard. Sometimes its funny, sometimes offending. Sometimes it makes one think - What exactly is happening here?
Recently two such instances happened, with major contribution coming from Congress. First instance is of calculation error to indicate price rise in BJP's tenure.

Now this could have been a good strategy by Congress, but it fizzled out for a gross calculation error of putting % increase in price by extra 100 points. People made mockery of it and then Rahul Gandhi took a big step of apologizing and accepting the mistake made. But in doing that too, he tried to look down BJP by initiating his tweet with words like "Unlike Narendrabhai, ------"

Was that really necessary? Couldn't he just accept his mistake and not try to bring BJP or relevant things in it.

Second instance just happened yesterday. Manishankar Aiyar called the PM with the word "Neech". In what context, I do not know. Compared to calculation error, this apparently is a bigger mistake made. Narendra Modi, did try to cash in on it immediately in his speech during a Surat rally. Rahul Gandhi once again came up strongly criticizing the tone and language used by Mr. Aiyar. But he again did not missed the chance to point out that BJP also use such foul language.

As such strong words are coming from the to be president of the party, they also had to act and so did they. They immediately suspended his primary membership of the party. This was announced by Mr. Surjewala and here he also tried to show off  by notifying that Congress did take the action on Mr. Aiyar but questioned if Mr. Modi has the courage to do the same. 

I am just wondering what exactly is the Congress trying to achieve through these acts. If they are sincere about these apologies and actions, they should do only that much. Every time by comparing their actions with the BJP's action, they are actually highlighting their actions as meant solely gaining popularity and show BJP as downgraded. This is not going to help in the long run. Congress is a party in crisis. They need to struggle and work hard to get back to original form rather than comparing with strong opponent party. Like BJP at different times pitched the ideas of Hindutva, development model, good governance and worked with these ideas. Same way, Congress need something original and not just comparison.

Should you eat heavy breakfast?

PC:https://www.archanaskitchen.com/tag/south-indian-breakfast-recipes

Every one around has apparently become, what we call now a days "Health conscious". You start a channel on TV, open Facebook, or even a post in Whatsapp, you come across different ways and methods to keep a good health. So, either you need to reduce weight, or gain some. You need to reduce some cholesterol.Sometimes you need to retain good cholesterol and selectively reduce bad cholesterol. Same goes for fat content. Again, you need to also bring control on carbs, but increase intake of proteins and fibres. Basically there are many norms which have come up and most of these are related to the food that you eat. Now , all the norms discussed are related to what to eat.

But then there are a separate set of norms to decide when to eat and how much to eat. A common consensus that has emerged in recent times is you should eat heavy breakfast and light Lunch and Supper. Again the Supper should again be no later than 7.30 p.m. apparently. Almost every one is advocating this. Major focus is on breakfast and that too heavy. As they say, Eating heavy breakfast would yield you a good fuel to sustain the days activity in addition to keeping your metabolism up. It apparently also helps in reducing weight.

I am not sure about above said benefits of heavy breakfast. My take on this point is little different. Recently, I started going to the gym early in the morning, instead of evening. One thing that has happened because of it is, I just feel real hungry in the morning.I decided to apply the formula of heavy breakfast. You will not believe it, but it does not good to me. Problem is, I feel hungry and I follow this rule, so I eat a heavy breakfast. Now, my conjunction is that it will sustain for atleast next three-four hours till the lunch time, which I plan to have a little light.

But in my case, I had two different observations:

i)This heavy breakfast does not sustain for that long. Very soon, within two hours time, I again feel hungry. Now I must eat, but I am wondering whether I should try to stretch it till lunch? Somehow, it doesn't work and I end up eating again. ( This time a little less.)

ii) The heavy breakfast (realizing that I feel hungry with in 2 hrs) sometimes makes me feel sleepy. So, last Saturday, I had heavy breakfast and then I decided to do some work sitting at home. I did not realize, that I went into the deep zone of sleeping for next 2 hours and got up again only to take my lunch.

After experimenting a bit here and there with my breakfast pattern, now I have designed a new format of breakfast. And this new format drags me away from the concept of heavy breakfast. What I am trying now is, I am splitting my breakfast content into two parts. Suppose earlier, I used to eat 2 dishes of poha for breakfast or 3 parathas in one sitting. Now, I split it into two parts. I eat only one dish of Poha or say 2 parathas only in my first sitting. The second dish of Poha or the remaining one paratha, I eat after an interval of 1-2 hrs, i.e. the time when I again get the craving for food. This way, I get to eat again without any guilt and I also do not feel sleepy.

This concept of heavy breakfast seems little misleading to me. What I conclude is, because you are hungry in the morning and you have a bigger appetite for food, you are not sure how much you should eat. Out of the heavy breakfast, only a small portion would actually get utilized, rest of the food taken would probably do no good. After some time when that quota is consumed, rather than using the extra food available, it sends the signal to brain for eating more food. Since you eat on already loaded stomach, the result is you end up feeling sleepy.

I have experienced it many a times, and thats why I propose this new form of split breakfast method. It not only reduces your food intake, but it also avoid you from having any food eating guilt as well as sleepyness.

Well I am no dietician. But this is a well tested method that works for me.

So, avoid heavy breakfast; have a split breakfast.

Paper Dosa, a Mumbai speciality !

 

Dosa is a dish, which almost every one in India must be aware of. It comes in all different forms and types. Every type and form have their own fanclubs. One of the form of the dosa, which I come across to know, only after coming to Mumbai is Paper Dosa.

It is one huge form of dosa, which literally covers the distance from one end of table to another end. And believe me, if you have ordered one, all the eyes in the sitting room of the hotel will turn towards you for at least couple of minutes.

Now it looks awesome to see such a huge dosa arriving at your table. One gets excited to have it. But I guess, some rules should be followed to eat this  dish. As far as possible, order only paper dosa on one table. Many reasons for this condition. First of all, it occupies major space of table. So, if more than one dosa is ordered, it will be too difficult to  accommodate all the dosas on the table.

Secondly, being such a big dosa, it is difficult to finish it by individual. It also need to be finished before it gets cold. Once cold, there is no fun in eating it. Also, it will create havoc in your mouth by pinning your soft tissues with pointed ends.

It will not fill your stomach too, if you just order sada paper dosa.

So, just order it to as a beginner and as a group activity.

Focus in photography

 Focusing on a specific object while taking a picture is one of the utmost necessary skills in photography. This can reveal some awesome features of a picture. Ofcourse a SLR camera will bring a more elaborate perspective to this. But, even a simple mobile camera can at times do some magic.
Just for an example, here is a toy car left on a bed and then clicked with it being at the core of the focus. It makes the surrounding things seem blur and give depth to the object of interest.
What made it more interesting for me to share this picture is the person behind the camera. May be a bit difficult to believe, but that is a kid of 3 years old. Recently, the kid is fascinated by cars, and there all different types of cars in our home.

Few days back, we bought a toy car Tata nano. Since it was Dusshera, I decided to have fun. So, I tried to capture it  from close range and shared it on Whatsapp saying new buy on the occassion o Dusshera. So, the process of capturing the car from different  angles to make it seem realistic was witnessed by the kid and that triggered this interest in him. Soon, during Diwali, he got another car in the gift. This time he tried his hands  and I must admit, his attempts seem to be way better than mine.
Here is another attempt  made by him to capture the car.

Diwali Rangoli - Kids special

What would you do, if you have to make a rangoli on the occasion of Diwali infront of your gate? Well, it comes with one condition, that there is a voluntary participation of a three year old kid in the process. If given full access to rangoli, one would be pretty sure of only a mess and no pretty rangoli. Moreover, the rangoli design also need to be suited to the understanding of the kid, as he is the one who is going to give the final approval.
The solution is make a rangoli with alphabets he knows very well and beautify it with the basic structure he has learnt in the school. Then, just for your sake, to put some color into it, you make a couple of flowers and leaves near by. That is the best Diwali rangoli you can make.
Hope you had a great Diwali.

Happy Diwali

It may be a little early. But I am leaving for vacations. So, without any delay, here are all my best wishes  to all of you for a very happy and wonderful Diwali festival. Diwali is a special festival for most of us in India. Most of the fond memories revolve around this festival. Because this is a festival, which bring all your friends, relatives close together. And create memories.
So, go on, create new memories.
Its the most wonderful time of the year.

HAPPY DIWALI

A city under fog

Pick up any day around this time and climb up to a nearby hill close to Pune. The view is always amazing. What mostly catch your attention is the greenery around, thanks to the monsoon showers, which bring life to quiet places. But once in a while, you experience some thing even more phenomenal. A similar experience posted here. A small colony all covered under the fog. On weekends, it seems more awesome, as the colony is generally quiet and sleepy in the morning hours. Just like a kid all covered in a blanket.

Morning walks @ Juhu Beach

Juhu beach is a different place at different times of the day. Evenings, it act as the only free space to roam around for people who share a very small place of living with others. If  a person, who has lot of space to share in the day to day life, will find it difficult to accommodate here. Because, number of such people is very less compared to those who have no option then to share the space.
For such people, probably, the mornings of Juhu beach may provide their little solitude to experience the nature in Mumbai. The crowds on the beach differ a lot in these two schedules. It is all for the morning walks, that the beach is occupied, in them mornings. A small but panoramic glimpse of one such moment. The colored version of the same, is here.

Cleansing time !

It was a long weekend. Celebrated Dussehra at home. Following Sunday, took off to places around. One of the place visited was Mahad, near Khopoli. It is one of the holy places, known for the temple of Lord Shri Ganesh. It is one of the ashtavinayak places in Maharashtra. As is the environment at such places, it was quite calm and serene. Just near the temple of Ganesh, there is a small but deep lake, which is a place  to find ducks and other water based habitants. So, this quartet just had their early morning holy dip in  the nearby lake, and then decided to cleanse themselves thoroughly, all at the same time.

Saraswati Poojan @ Dussehra

This Dussehra was pretty significant as it was a first one after a long time where we did paati pujan  at home. Dussehra is always considered auspicious for the beginning of learning process as per tradition. We recently brought this Paati at home and with this auspicious day, we have started new learning processes at home. While the paati is meant for the youngest one at home, but we all at home take this opportunity to begin learning something or the other at home. We say that we are always a student. Then, why not begin learning something new today!

Kid on the stair

Sometimes back, while in Lyon, France, I went out in the city for site seeing. There is a small silk industry, somewhere near the city hall area. All of us went in to see the place. Now the place is to be frank has its own limit to interest the people. There are couple of big frames, on which the silk clothes are put up and stretched. Now, on these stretched clothes then, hand made paintings etc are done. So, in short it will interest only those who are either in the business or in this art form. I do not belong to either of the categories. So, just a quick look inside and I was out of the place, while others were still busy in discussion on various subjects inside. Outside, there, I found another person of similar wavelength as mine. So, the kid of my friend was sitting on stairs just across the road all alone. 

One look and any body would say, the kid is unhappy, probably angry on somebody and even sad. But as they say, what appears is not always true. He was all busy contemplating his next moves and generating new ideas of mischievousness, they he can do, once we are back on the roads towards the next destination.  

But all in all, this is one of the most interesting clicks I have taken up till now.

Home grown Bittergourds and Royale atmos - ways to keep home clean

This is an ad (available on youtube on Creative Insight media channel) for the most recent product royale atmos by the Asian paints. More details here:
https://www.asianpaints.com/atmos
Now the ad hints at the kind of unimaginable pollution that resides inside our houses. When I came across this ad, I made fun of it. Thought about it as a new gimmick introduced as Diwali is approaching.
But then in my personal life I started realizing few things. Our apartment is roadside. Naturally, the heavy traffic brings in loads of dust and pollution in through the window. Results are inevitable. A couple of members of the family are suffering with cuffs entering in the zone of Bronchitis. Young people do not realize it as easily as old as well as very young ones suffer. We do not realize, how quietly this dust enters our house and gets settled at very unimaginable areas. Just try to clean you fans not regularly but say after 3 weeks. The amount of dust that settles and the extent to which the fine particles they are, makes me some times wonder, what air are we breathing. No wonder, the ads like this have started hitting our Televisions.
 We had couple of  small plants in the gallery. Never really bothered earlier to take care of those plants. Once in a while, would water them. To add, loads of pigeons and crows make the life of these plants a living hell, I guess. With so many adverse conditions around, it must be really difficult for these plants to survive. Then, recently, I came across some people who are in farming, gardening, making manure out of waste etc. A couple of talks with them made me realize, why shouldn't I also try my hands with it. Its not altogether a new thing for me. Had a big garden, way back some 20 years ago, maintained whole and sole by us.
So, I decided to try it one more time. Got some marigold flowers. Put them in a couple of flowerpots, covered under soil. Kept watering. This kind of triggered enthusiasm in my mother too. She saved some seeds(I guess)  of bittergourds, recently cooked at home. Put them in a couple of other pots. We made some manure at home too. Consistency paid off. Slowly and steadily both the Marigold plants as well as bitter gourd started growing. While the marigold plants grew in length vertically, the bittergourd one grew vertically, then horizontally and now it is growing in anywhich direction possible for it. Above picture is a result of these efforts that a couple of bittergourds have grown and ready to eat soon.
This is actually a secondary advantage. The prime one, is that these plants have kind of created a filter which cuts down loads of dust particles, unknowingly entering our home. A significant change is observed in the health conditions of the family members as a result.
But, now I am not going to stop at level only. I will go ahead and try to make the house atmosphere absolutely clean. These plants will help me to an extent to do that, but to reach an ultimate level of safe and clean air condition, now I am going to make use of this new product Royale atmos. I am sure, it  will bring about a drastic change in the overall quality of life.
Changing conditions out of our control may not be always possible, but we still can do a lot to improve things inside our premises.

Morning Walk! and a story behind the picture

One fine morning, happened to get up early. Too early and fresh, to feel like going for a quick hike. So, decided to reach the nearest hill of Ghoradeshwar, near Talegaon. A place with in reach of 15 minutes drive. A beautiful morning. Surprisingly, I was not the only person there. In fact, many of the people had already finished their climb and were now returning to the base.  Then started our climb and half way through it, Sun started playing Peekaboo. Decided to capture the moment and here it is. Now, that I am revisiting the picture, am just wondering what exactly is shining at a far away horizon. Is that the real Sun, just rising out of the sleep, or the one which is already shining in the sky? No clues really!

A dry leaf: Story of a life

  A part of the poem by Paul Pruel taken from poemhunter.com
https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-dry-leaf/

Weather Forcast ! To be or not to be!

Weather forecast system in India really seems to be a joke. It almost never come true. They say, it is a science. But, I have now started doubting it. If weather forecast is a science, then Astrology must also be. Recently there was heavy rainfall in Mumbai. I wrote a post about the same here.
I don't really remember receiving any warning about such a heavy downpour from the weather forecast department. If at all they gave warning, it definitely did not reach the common man. What happened that day of 29th August, was once in a lifetime experience for many. Now, the weather department said, the next day i.e. August 30 is also going to be heavy rainfall. They infact requested everyone to not to leave their home if not necessary. All the school, colleges, offices closed down that day. I remember staying back at home the next day, waiting for that downpour, just to experience how it feels safe at home while watching a heavy downpour. But I don't remember, even a drop of rain falling down that day.
Now this week end, once again the department released a warning, about heavy rainfall, just like that of August 29 to take place with in next 72 hours. Now, this warning came I guess on Saturday. A news about the same appeared in Maharastra times on Monday. I was about to believe and get scared and to make arrangements of food and necessary things for next 3 days and stay at home, but then I saw by mistake the comments made under the news. It has kind of relieved me and took off all my worries. Its almost 72 hours over for the warning news I heard, and now while I am writing this post, some rain has started outside. It will interesting to see, if this gears up and turns into another heavy downpour.
But I can resist form sharing the news and a couple of comments reflecting the general attitude of people towards weather forecast. The news is in Marathi, I hope you get a hang of it.

Tantrums!! The story behind the picture

What do you know about tantrums?

So, the kid while on his way to the school, with his father, is all in a good mood. His father is happy, as the school dropping task of the day seems easy today. Suddenly, things change. Just round the corner of the school, the kid decides to play a different game. He stops frozen at a place, giving no clue behind this sudden change in the ongoing good plan. The father tries all possible ways of persuasion manageable in public place and broad day light. But things doesn't seem to change.

Finally, the father tries the last possible method known to him.

                He moves a bit distance away towards the school, all the time looking at the kid. And then, from the pocket, he takes out one thing that may lure the kid to shift his base. He points the thing towards the kid....... 

and clicks!!

Yes, that works. Just the thought of getting clicked excites the kid and he moves from his place running towards the father, giving all different poses on the way. Yes! Photos and photography are the new ways of persuasion for today's kids.

Houses of Gods

Somewhere enroute Alibaug from Mumbai, took a halt for breakfast. While waiting for every one to gather to begin the onward journey, tried killing time by taking some snaps around. There I found, this construction of these houses for the Gods, made by the mortal humans. Beautiful design and the steps to climb up for the God, are the things which caught my attention. I am just wondering, if it is the Coromandel King Superior cement or the Marble, used in their construction.

Photogenic ! Yeah

Last Saturday, early morning,  I went to a garden nearby my home. It was a lazy Saturday, I guess.  While moving around in the garden, I came across this set of benches arranged in one of the corners of the garden. On one of those benches, two puppies were lying lazily. It was an awesome moment worth capturing. As I reached near them and took out my camera to take a snap, a kid from no where came in the seen and disturbed that lazy moment. He started pushing the puppies around. As a result, the position where in the two puppies were closely lying together lazily and were creating a beautiful moment was disturbed. One of the puppy, just moved a bit aside and went back to sleep mode. The other one, was an interesting character. It was lazy no doubt, to get up and do anything, but it was attentive enough to look up and give a beautiful pose. The pose compensated for the moment I lost a couple of minutes ago. Those are some deep eyes with loads of expressions hidden inside.

The bluest sea seen @ Marseille

I visited Marseille sometime back, while in France. A couple of reasons to visit the place.  I was keen to have a look at the sea at some coast of Europe. That's why earlier I tried to touch a sea coast on the north western side of the Europe at Delft. Unlike my expectation, the sea at this coast was rather bland and uninspiring. Ofcourse, it might be a wrong day to visit the place. But, we have always seen in different movies a blueish shade of color of the sea water, that awestruck you. I was in search of such a sea. And finally I found it in the Mediterranean sea. Just at the southern coast of France is this place, which kind of play a role of connecting point between France and some of the neighboring countries including a few from Africa. It can directly connect France through sea route to Algeria and Tunisia. I found people from all these countries living together in the city.
Another reason why I wanted to visit the place, was it being a connection with Vir Savarkar. One of the legendary revolutionary from India. Once caught in England and being brought back to India via sea route, he escaped through the toilet hole on the ship and swam through the rough weather of Mediterranean and landed at Marseille. Of course he was caught later on. But his attempt is marked as an attempt of great escape in history. I wanted to know, if there is any symbolic presence of this adventure in the place. But apparently there is none.

The sea as I said, fulfills the imagined blue sea version. I couldn't resist trying to capture the depth of  sea. So, a full zoom snap of nearby island form with a nearing ferry is captured. But all said and done, the sea is blue to the core. Simply Amazing

A plateau on Fort Torna - a panoramic view

Click on the photo for full frame panoramic view

Sometimes back, went to one of the famous forts near Pune, called Torna. The route to the top is slightly difficult, if you are not used to climbing. But otherwise, a very interesting route to the top. It is surprising, that even after been there many a times earlier, we lost our way and took a very long and odd route to climb up. Now, even if we try, we can not find that way again. Anyway, once up, it is full of scenic beauty. Look anywhere and the place mesmerizes you. Couldn't hold myself from capturing  all of it in one frame with the help of this panoramic  shot Enjoy the moment.

CSI Mumbai airport

This is one of the snaps taken at the Mumbai airport. It has been sometime now that this new architecture has been presented. But, even today, if we visit this airport, it definitely makes you take a minute and wonder about the magnificent architecture of the place. I really like this place and am always in an awe of the place. When ever I look at these huge pillars, they remind me of the Bodhi tree, under which Buddha sat and meditated and gained the knowledge of the world. Not that I have  seen Bodhi tree, but the way it was always pictured in our school textbooks, the structure goes very close to that. Just check this picture for instance.

 

PC:  http://threeroyalwarriors.tripod.com/bodhitree.html

And the huge very old style watch put just next to the pillar makes the snap even more wonderful. I would surely suggest you just to visit this place for the awesome architecture presented to us at the Mumbai International airport.

Mumbai rain of August 29, 2017

Heavy rain pushed Mumbai to come to the halt on Tuesday August 29, 2017. The effect was drastic at low lying areas, where all water was accumulating. But, the severity of the rain was evident even in the safe areas. The videos shows the intensity of rain at one such place.








I happen to be present in this Institute, which can be called partly safe from water logging issue. These two videos capture the intensity of the rain and the increasing flow of water collected within the same area. The water fall  apparent in the first video are no natural waterfalls. Those are actually just the route to remove some water collected on the roof. But the rain fall intensity takes it to another level.

I heard Shivsena chief mentioning that there was 9 km thick cloud on the top of Mumbai that day and we are lucky that there was no cloud burst. He also said that had that been the case, the rainfall measurements would have easily crossed 3000 mm of rain, which otherwise was restricted to nearly 300 mm.

I am wondering, if they are realizing the need of a preparation for such situations. Present conditions can not cope up with rainfall upto 300 mm in a day. Don't they think they should get ready for those adverse situations, if not completly, atleast partly. Its not that such things won't happen. Mumbai has experienced a rainfall of nearly 1000 mm in a day. So, Mumbai is becoming prone to such conditions where there could a catastrophe. It may even experience even worse conditions, with this heavy cloud building up scenarios getting more and more stronger. I think, its high time, we learn lesson and try to build up more robust model to face such critical situations. We are not doing enough !!!

Rajgadh monsoon bike trek - Panoramic view

Apt timing for putting this picture. Its raining heavily at the moment. Every road, rail route and corners are flooded and converted into small river like tributaries. Felt a need to give a glimpse of how it is, little bit away from city area. This is a picture of a temporary river flow formed on the way to Rajgadh from Pune. Just when the rainy season had reached its peak, a plan for bike trip with an intention of capturing some awesome shots at the foot of Rajgadh fort was cooked. As it goes without saying, the trip happened with lots of breaks to capture some fantastic shots enroute. One such similar snap, showing the exuberance of monsoon was captured and today shared with you all here.
Enjoy the rain!!

Ganapti Aagman procession

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID6zSkjrE8Q

A rhythmic arrival procession for Ganapati Bappa. Day to day traffic noise is usual to ears. But, once in a while, when rather than just the banging of drums, if such rhythmic and exciting conjunction of different sounds fall on ear, then, it would make any one pick the rhythm and move in unison  with it.

I am very fond of this form of procession. It makes noise, but it feels good to my ears. It excites me and make me forget for some time that I have grown older in age. A combination of Tasha, Dhol and Ghanta altogether create an environment, that brings a zing. 

A major change that is seen in recent years is the participation of Women in the act. Gone are those days, when carrying the Dhol and beating it was a domain of strong built men only. Infact, now a days it has become kind of compulsory to have equal share of Women. 

One thing,although, I am observing is, all the women participating are playing Dhols only. Probably, it is to make a noise and tell people that we are no less than men. But, I would be keen to see them playing Tasha. Dhol requires Power and the strength to hold on. But Tasha requires fluency, consistency in the  repeating act of playing as well as the pace, to keep that coherency. I know of few girls doing that already, but it hasn't spread to that extent as the Dhol.

Wishing  for the arrival of those days soon. A very happy and energetic 10 days Ganapati Utsav for all the people.

"Ganapati Bappa Moraya"

The Sun peeping through !

A quiet moment experienced on the terrains near Sudhagadh. Lying down under the shade of this tree, after a little hectic hike up the hill. Roughly, sometime after mid day, while I tried to take a glimpse and capture the vast structure of this tree, realized that a much bigger structure from far away distance was also attempting a similar glimpse at me. His gaze was much stronger than mine, so I finally shied away. But, little did he know that, I have created a memory of him gazing at me, which I can watch, anytime, anywhere.

Mont Blanc @ Grenoble

Mont Blanc @ Grenoble

One of the most serene places I have been to. You can check the temperature variation in a matter of minutes here. You can go from feeling hot situation to " need more jackets, one is not enough" situation in just couple of minute.

Essel World- Top Spin ride

This is a video I took last year, when we visited Esselworld. Esselworld rides are designed such that level of excitement would only go up and up. Durin our visit, we started out adventure with Octopus ride. Just next to that is the roller coaster. That was awesome. Then came a simpler saucercup kind of ride, which we tackled easily. Gaining confidence, we ran and sat in the bullet train.  I am not sure of others, but I had not no idea what this rides does to you. And when you try to do things without any idea about it, it has a potential to even kill you. Well, that's what almost happened to  me. It starts simple, horizontal to the ground and then suddenly, it turns vertical. It takes the breathe out of you. Don't believe ! Check this ride here:
https://drkaustubhjoshi.blogspot.in/2016/06/bullet-train-ride-of-essel-world.html

Once out of this ride, I had lost confidence and I realized, I have grown old to probably enjoy this ride. So, when my nephews ran to the next ride, I decided to first watch the ride and see if I have the temperament to go through it. The next ride was Topspin. And here is what I saw:




Do you really think, I would have tried this ride?
Forget enjoying the ride, I even did not dared to even go anywhere near to it. Well if you think, you are awesome enough to enjoy it, go for it.

Is your PAN card active?

A recent report mentioned that over 11.44 lakh PAN cards have been deactivated over the time for multiple reasons. These may include reasons of multiple issuing of PAN card to the same person, or the ones issued to non-existing person. System of generating PAN cards might have become a bit robust over the time, but I guess, few years back, it wasn't. Just like in recent times, there have been stories about issuing Aadhar cards, where it could be issued to even monkeys or trees, probably issuing PAN card had no control.
But, seems things are a bit different now. Infact, every person who is involved in some kind of monetary transactions has to have a PAN Card. Even my 80 years old father has one, although, he himself spends only Rs.5 every day to buy flowers for Puja, from the stall close to our home. Now, that attempts are being taken to crosscheck the validity of these cards, every one need to be aware of the way to check, whether their card is still valid or the government has deactivated it. Ofcourse, there is higher probability of it being valid and active, but there is no harm in confirming it. And that too when it easy.
All we have to do is to visit this page of income tax department:
http://www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/

Once on the page, your have to click on the option of "Know you PAN" .
A window will window asking for some of your details. I believe there is no harm in providing these informations here, on an official government website. In here, there is one query about status. This could be little confusing, as it tries to distinguish you as an individual or Hindu un-divided family, a trust, firm, company. But in general case, one should choose option "individual" to check your own personal PAN card status. You have to provide a mobile number. Once you enter these details, an OTP will be generated and sent to your mobile number. Enter this OTP and it will provide you with details of your PAN card as well as its present status.
The process is pretty simple. It just helps you to confirm details of PAN card, which has now become a core of all the monetary transactions.
A news appeared a couple of days back to inform people of this process, which I am pretty sure many of us must have missed. Even I checked it accidentally, a couple of days later. That's why this post.

A cloudy day at the Palace of Versailles, France

Palace of Versailles, which otherwise look so cheerful and colorful also has few gloomy days. One of those days captured here. A panoramic view of the garden on the right side of the palace.

Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya resigns: Shocking !! Why?

 I wonder, how many people know Arvind Panagariya ! I accept, even I did not really know, till couple of days back. In fact, while preparing for this post, when I tried searching for him on Google, I mistakenly entered name Ashok  Panagariya for searching a couple of times instead of Arvind, and landed up on a page of a neurologist!!
He was  the Vice-Chairman of Niti Aayog, another name, I doubt, most of the people around are not aware. Niti Aayog is a new thing in business, that has taken over the task of Planning Commission of India, back then headed by the famous Montek Singh Ahluwalia. Oh ! you must be knowing him well for at least two reasons, One for the famous Rs. 32 based Poverty line definition  and second for the renovation of toilet with just Rs. 35 Lakhs

Coming out of the shadow of such planning commission, and forming a new institution Niti Aayog, which has done pretty significant work with privitization  of a few sick government units and extending the same to Air India, bench marking reforms in medical and higher education and probably a few more tasks to talk about.
Although, Niti Aayog is still in its infancy, it seem to have done  some promising work in a short time. And all this could only because of this person, Arvind Panagariya at the helm of the Aayog. Looking at the way of his working and his sincerity, it is not that difficult to believe that he is an academician, working at Columbia University, who took this opportunity as a challange and successfully carried it for almost 3years. And now, as per news, because of the limitations of nature of his job, he needs to return to his old job, i.e. to academics. It seems intriguing to see that a person is ready to give up a prestigious position and wants to return to common position of an academician. But that is the fun, people don't realize. A person who loves to create new dishes in his kitchen, won't be happy, if asked to cater service to 1000 people. There may be lot of money in it, may it be a big challenge, but it still can not restrict him from returning to his old love, of creating something new, rather than applying already facts.
A few news items initially started coming out, where his resignation was shown as a sign of the rift between him and the government. But recently, he personally spoke about it and cleared air behind his resignation.

I guess, there may be issues between him and the government. But identifying his resignation as the response of those issues could be far fetched. I would rather believe his personal interview and rely on the words of an academician.

Artificial Intelligence: has uprising started too early?

Artificial Intelligence: two words which may sound, to a few as a solution to all kind of problems, and to few others, a reason for human extinction.

Yes, we apparently are arriving at the juncture, where this debate is going to take the whole world  in a whirlwind. What churns out of this, will probably decide the fate of the human kind.

For those, who are unware, watch this video uploaded on youtube by Coldfusion, explaining, what exactly is artificial intelligence?

There have been many movies by now making use of this concept of artificial intelligence, which begins with having it as a boon to human life, but almost all of them ending up proving it to be a curse. After watching  a movie "Rise of the planet of the apes", I wrote a post where I compared those intelligent monkeys to be another threat other than artificial intelligence, for the human race. 

Back then, movies were the only reason we felt AI's to be threat. But it seems, with time, the imaginations are turning into reality.  While many big-wigs including Elon Musk, Stefan Hawking, Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak have already hinted about the threat of AI taking over humans, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, hasn't been thinking in the same  lines as those.There have incidences of heavy arguments between Mark and Elon over the issue. And just when Elon made a comment that, Mark has no understanding of AI, very soon, news have now emerged that the two bots running on AI had to be shut down, because they stopped using the English language fed to them, and instead developed their own code language to interact with each other. As a part of training, apart from training in conversation through english language, these bots were also developed with negotiation skills. After initial conversations going properly in English language, over the time, they started developing their own language. In this, apparently attempt was made (by the bots) to put emphasis on something, making it appear very important, and then as a part of negotiation, loose this "apparently" important thing, to gain things of their interest.

 A part of their conversation is given in the news reported here:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/facebook-artificial-intelligence-ai-chatbot-new-language-research-openai-google-a7869706.html

The language to us may look English, but it has been modified by the bots as per their requirement.

The severity of this experiment was to this extent, that Facebook apparently shut down the two bots to stop the conversation between them:

http://www.firstpost.com/india/facebook-researchers-shut-down-ai-bots-that-started-speaking-in-a-language-unintelligible-to-humans-3876197.html

I would call this a wake up call for all of us to understand where the world is going, and do we really need such things to emerge in near future. We can not run away from this. Few years, Facebook was used by only computer friendly people. But now, it is present in everyone's hand and making sure, you kill your time on it. Did you ask for it? No. But it still reached your doorsteps. Similarly, AI if emerged, will unknowingly enter your home. The concept of cloning, when emerged was proposed to have many prospects, but human cloning was back then barred, realizing possible threats, which come with it. AI too, would show, many prospective benefits, but there probably are more threats hidden behind those benefits. It may initially make us feel like master to begin, but unknowingly may end up make us its slave entirely and for eternity.

Canoeing and Rowing arrangement @ Marseille seashore

A very beautiful view of Marseille seashore with arrangement of rowing and canoeing made at the store.

An inspiring video of a Japanese kid

A couple of days back, I received a video in one of my whatsapp group. A note preceding the video mentions about a Japanese kid, who fails to crossover a barrier by jumping over it, a couple of times. After four such failed attempts, all his friends gather around him and do an act of cheering him up. What follows later is just mind blowing. The way this boy transforms in later few seconds and make a successful jump over the barrier is just awesome. This video really made me happy to an extent that I downloaded it and saved a copy, to view occasionally, when ever there is a need for me to motivate myself. Today, I decided to go one step ahead, and am sharing this video on my youtube channel for all of you to enjoy and turn positive by sparing just a couple of minutes out of your busy schedule.

The quality of video may not be very good, as it is downloaded from Whatsapp. If that is a case, I searched online and came across few other copies of the same video already uploaded elsewhere. You may then watch those copies here:


Credit goes to the person, who was present at this event physically,took this video and moreover decided to share it publically with all of us.

Hard Luck Indian Women's team.

I guess, it happened for the first time, that Indians were actually following ball to ball, a women's cricket match. The occasion was the final world cup match between England and India. India was the probable winner. The match went down the wire and one thing that happens pretty much always with us, happened here too. Indian batswomen lost it under pressure.

This was a big occasion. Also an important event, as it probably is the last chance of watching two great players of the game. Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami. I have been following women's cricket partly and these two names have stuck in my mind for a very long time. I remember watching Jhulan's bowling many years ago and felt like she is the Kapil Dev of the Women's cricket.

It was unfortunate to loose the finals. Our players couldn't hold up against the pressure, although there was no real reason to panic. We were cruising fine, until Punam got out LBW. It was a genuine wicket. But what followed after that was unnecessary. There was no need for Veda to try hitting lofted shot. Similar nature of hasty decisions taken by other players. They were hitting into fielder's hand and trying to get a run. I felt like the captain failed to reach upto players and give them direction on how to approach the game. She kind of left it on them to attempt to win the game. This reminded me of a world cup game way back sometime between Westindies and Australia. Westindies were cruising to win and just required some 30 odd runs with as good as 7 wickets in hands and many many overs to bowl. But then just dramatically, Australia managed to get all the wickets and reached the final.

Anyway, it hurt to loose the game and the world cup. But it brought many positives out. Now every one know that India women's team exist and they are too good to forget or ignore. Women's cricket match got viewers to an extent that Lords was full yesterday. I was happy to see the presence of Akshay Kumar in the stadium. Atleast few celebrities follow what they say.

All in all, a good show. Now BCCI should take efforts and make sure that the Indians keep getting some or the other updates of Indian team performance around the year regularly. That will help to get people hitched to Women's cricket automatically.

I wish Indian's Women cricket team and hope they perform even better to beat India's Men's team someday.

Snow!! @ Macro mode

A closer look at snow lingered over a branch, somewhere in the shadows of Alps

Rain Rain go away! Mumbai potholes are here to stay!!

(PC:http://www.mid-day.com/articles/repair-roads-before-monsoon-hc-to-mumbai-civic-body/17173154)

Last couple of days it is raining incessantly in Mumbai. As much as we love this heavily down pouring rain of Mumbai, we equally hate the water logging situations and the worst ever possible conditions of the roads. Well, may be because of the topography of the city, it is difficult to curb the waterlogging situations in pressure situations like heavy downpours. But, how can we not improve the quality of roads to sustain such heavy rains plus heavy traffic on it. It is totally a man made thing, which can be prepared as per our requirements. Now, Mumbai rain and Mumbai traffic are no new things which changes in every monsoon. While the traffic situation continues to grow as always, the rain here also show similar nature in every monsoon. There are few bouts of heavy and constant rains for couple of days across four months. Rest of the days, either it does not rain, or it is controlled showers of 15-20 minutes at a stretch.

If we know so well the pattern and intensity of the rain, why is it difficult to take measures and make roads which can sustain this level of rain. Are we saying that, the heaviest ever kind of rain happens only in Mumbai and nowhere else? If it rains like those horror days of July 26, its a different case. But present day rain is no where close to that and still the situation is at the worst.
I happen to cross a small patch of road near Wadala bridge every day. Believe me, that patch is the best example of patched up road. It has everything. It starts with partly made cemented road. In between there is I guess Tar road. And to make up, at some places you will find patches of paver blocks, which at most places have come out. This patch has been dug across the length many a times (atleast 6-8 times) in last 1-1.5 years for some pipeline work by the work. It goes without saying, once dug, it remains in that situation for atleast 3-4 weeks. Once this pipeline work is done, the patch work done to so called levelling the road is just an another addition to all ready present patches. Crossing this patch is no less than taking an experience of trekking on the roads or driving on those wild life safari roads.

Today morning while reading newspaper, I went blank on reading "पाऊसच एवढा पडतो, त्याला पालिका काय करणार?" ( http://www.loksatta.com/mumbai-news/shiv-sena-chief-uddhav-thackeray-back-bmc-over-pothole-issues-1514074/) a quote given by Present Shivsena Chief Uddhav Thakrey. I wonder, is it the same person, who is instigating us through his editorial columns in Samaana to attack Pakistan and finish it once and for all? You sound helpless in front of a regularly occurring phenomena of rain, and how do you plan to attack and conquer a nuclear weapon owning country! I have no more words to add  to it. There is no positivity in his words or seem no intention to overcome this issue. All they can do is to fill up those potholes and be happy with that. They don't seem to have any plan to eradicate this whole problem of getting potholes itself. I wonder, if we can find and elect people who actually have a solution to the day to day problems of common man.

Rain - refreshing once again

The rain is back in the town. And so am I. Ofcourse, I was in the town all this time, but I am trying to back in the blogging world once again. It is so difficult to be consistent here. No matter, which so ever, I plan to be persistent, I consistently fail to be so. I sometimes envy people  like

http://isharethese.com/wordless-wednesday-457-captionthis/

or

https://joshidaniel.com/2017/07/17/rooftopping/

or

http://karvediat.blogspot.in/2017/07/military-ethics-then-and-now.html

or

http://magictravels.blogspot.in/2017/07/what-we-did-in-lucknow.html

or

http://www.mono-live.com/2017/07/intel-working-on-new-chips-to-compete.html

and few more like them, who are exhaustively consistent in this space. I follow them and try to take inspiration to be consistent, but all my efforts go in vain.

I have this efficiency meter installed on my blog in the form of IndiRank and Alexarank, which kind of tell me how badly I am doing on my blog.

I am not sure how exactly Indirank function, but at time I have touched upto rank 88 there, and then I dropped down to as low as 30. If we remove the quality quotient out of it, mostly the drop is related to my inconsistency in posting here.

Alexarank is something, I try to improvise sincerely, whenever I am regular here. So, while I was consistent to post, I could improvise it to touch the mark 100,000 rank, and at times, I am hardly logging in to my blog, the rank shattered down to as low as 2, 38, 87, 958th rank or something of that level. Now, again it has come below 1,00,00,000 mark.

That kind of made me take a few steps to rejuvenate the blog. I am not sure, how successful I would to keep it running in coming days, considering a very schedule for next few months, but still, am making an attempt.

So, here, I am positing an old photograph already posted, but would fit well again to the situation. Just like the monsoon has become active once again, after a gap in Maharashtra, I too am trying to get active in this space. A refreshing start is all that we want for the reason. So, a snap of a beautiful flower just bathed in the light rain, taken sometimes back in the backyard of my Paris home , is what I am offering you today.

Have a look and enjoy your day.