Best Western Resort Country Club, Manesar, Near New Delhi

This Saturday we (from my office) went to Best Western Country Resort Club, Manesar. I was in two minds, after all Saturdays are precious and I like to generally laze around, get up late in the morning and drink a lots of tea. But, I finally went and it proved to be quite a nice outing.

The fun began as soon as reached my institute. My TT playing colleagues (there are four others apart from me, and one of them, Shibu blogs infrequently) were waiting for me and we managed to steal a few games in the morning itself. By the time we played four or five games, everyone has arrived and we left for Manesar shortly.

The resort is situated on Delhi-Jaipur Highway or what is called NH 8. But once we left the highway, the approach road to the resort is in a real bad shape. The resort is spread in a wide area and has an tranquil air to it.
I found ample opportunities to use my camera. Below are a few glimpses from the resort.

There is a camel ride available there, but I was content just to take pictures.

A fountain within the premises. But the problem is I am used to waterfalls of a different kind.

View from a small tower meant for kids.

There were other corporate parties going on and this puppet show was for a BPO operation but that never stopped me from clicking photographs. I have another photograph of the lady seen in this picture but I think I will post it on my photo blog.

A gramophone on the premises adds to the charms?

The same pond is shown in the company website too and the only difference is the color of the water, blue in their photo and not so blue in mine but still, as I said the place is tranquil. If I have to take a trip with my family this is not the place I will go for one, because it is expensive. And secondly, because we have been spoiled through trekking and I feel nothing compares with it.

But this Saturday, we had great fun. I tried my hand at Tennis and Volley Ball and had a gala of a time in general.

Do you Remember Manjunath?

Remember the brutal murder of Manjunath the IOCL employee?

The Manjunath Shanmugam Trust is asking for help.

"How can you help?

Firstly – funds are needed to pay lawyers’ fees, case costs, build an award corpus.. this will be a long and tedious battle. Please donate just one day’s salary for the cause.

Our first donors: Rs. 44,500 ($ 1000) from Sanjay Khanduri, Wharton Class of 2006, and Rs. 30,000 from Akhil Krishna, IIML 2003.

Secondly, if you can commit time and effort, please write in and be part of the team.

Thirdly, if you have close contacts in media, police, legal, judiciary who can help, please let us know.

It is heartwarming that so many people have already reacted immediately and generously – across the spectrum of media, legal, police and the IIM fraternity. Be part of that group.

How do you donate?

Write a cheque favouring ‘The Manjunath Shanmugam Trust’ , and courier it to:
2909/1, Raghavapriya, 3rd Main, V.V. Mohalla, Mysore 570 002, India

Write a cheque favouring ‘The Manjunath Shanmugam Trust’ , and deposit it in any HDFC bank drop box, with a deposit slip, account number 0651000091870.
Do an online money transfer , to the HDFC Bank a/c , from your ICICI /HDFC/Citibank a/c. Account number 0651000091870. 'Select MG Road, Bangalore' in the branch details.

Currently FCRA regulations prohibit us from accepting foreign remittances - we're working on getting special permission. For now, please route all overseas donations via your regular Indian rupee accounts.

We have also applied for income tax exemption for donors under Section 80 (G).

Please contact me for any further clarifications - anjali@corporateacademy.com."

Have some Parathas

I get people directed from google search to my blog through the keyword 'picture of parathas.' So I decided to oblige those who want to see a picture of the Paratha! This is from a restaurant called 'Satyam' in Pathankot. We sat here while going to Bharmour. It is just next to the bus station and if you find yourself at Pathankot, do give this resstaurant a try. Nothing very extraordinary but basic and clean and light on your pocket.

That, and my mind is not functioning properly, there is a 'thought jam' there, hence this post.

Tagged by JB: My Very Own List

I have stayed away from tags till date. Due to some unexplored and unexplained fear, tags tend to scare me. But when I saw JB tagging her entire blogroll, I decided to play along. What attracted me is the freedom to make my own list. Here is my list of five things that have changed since my Jobs from Hell.

5. I get to play table tennis daily with my colleagues in the evening after the college hours. There is nothing better to cheer you up after a hard day's work.

From Shibu's blog too you can see that when the semester starts, the number of posts on our blogs go down.

4. For a change, I am busy with real work these days. I reach two courses this semester and I work on the journal of my institute. I have also have managed to start thinking about my research interests again!

3. When the teaching was off in December, my head of school walked in one day to my office to discuss certain work. While she was leaving, she told me, "take a leave and go somewhere before the semester begins." That too, when I do not have too many official leaves to my credit as I have not completed one year at this new place. That is how I went to Bharatpur.

2. I have sent a paper to a conference and I am waiting for its fate! If it is not selected then I will sulk for ten days but after that I will start working even harder on it. I am officially sulking for 10 days now!

1. This is not related to my work but this is the best thing that happened to me recently and it is the day my niece was born. I stayed that night in the hospital with my sis and this bundle of joy. My sis had a C-section and was sleeping very uneasily but Vasudha, just a few hours old, was quite peaceful. I would not let her sleep in the crib but hold her in my hands while she slept.

The nurse on duty admonished me, "You will spoil her for two days and then go back home, and your sister will have to suffer after that. Let her sleep in the crib." I just could not do that! So, I was sitting on huge sofa with Vasudha in one hand and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, in another, I was so happy that the moment will stay with me for life.

She is now nearly seven months old and is full of mischief. I have seen my two nephews also this small, and today both the brats are over six feet tall! Soon, I know she too would be taller than me and start giving me funads of life! They grow up so quickly.

Have you brrreeeport?

I went to Technorati (on Feb 17, 2006) and found there top search word 'brrreeeport' bizzare, to say the least. After digging just a little bit I found the reason behind the word! Interesting to say the very least.

I wish I could investigate more but I have to grade coipes! And all the previous comments on my posts are left unanswered too. This way soon no one will leave a comment here. I think things will become less hectic after the next two days. So bear with me till then.

Internet: I almost take it for Granted

Search Falun Gong on google.cn and then search the same term on say google.co.in and see the difference. I got this idea from a BBC article and I am quoting a part that I found striking:

In some countries the controls are obvious and oppressive - everyone who wants to use the internet in Cuba must register with the government, bloggers in Iran are gaoled and their websites are blocked, and governments from Saudi Arabia to Singapore decide which websites their citizens can see.

In other countries it's a bit more subtle. Search for Falun Gong using Yahoo in China and you'll find that the results list is rather sparse and consists mostly of government-sponsored sites which oppose the group.

And will someone please tell the BBC that in their story Net Firms Face Grilling on China they have a PDF link to a 'Surveying Internet use and Impact in Five Chinese Cities' that is broken, at least for the readers from India. Can they please fix it?

Two things in News about Tourism in India

• Will President Bush visit Agra and the Taj Mahal?
• Another piece I found interesting is about medical tourism to India.
• An interesting article that contained the following quote but it is more about economic reforms rather than tourism.

At the Davos summit, Industry and Commerce Minister Kamal Nath had said, ‘‘In tourism, it’s incredible India... but in business, it’s credible’’.

Mall in Gurgaon, Inside-Outsite or How Far a Hundered Rupee Note will Go II

Yesterday, I headed toward Sahara Mall to pick my laptop that I had given for repair ages ago. When I drive alone, I always listed to FM. It is full of Valentine’s Day stuff these days. Some poor soul from somewhere called the RJ and said he would be alone on V Day, as he has no one special in his life at this point of time. The RJ was all gyan. Go to a nice place, and pamper yourself, etc.


Next, at Sahara Mall, they had this stupid apple tree and some such stuff going and a TV crew covering it. I have no problem if they make hoopla about the Valentine’s Day.

I wonder, did the TV crew notice the pavement outside the mall? This is how it looks, pretty heart wrenching, to me. I am inside the glass enclosure and I see all gloss. But as soon as I come out, I also see a lot of grime. And that puts a dampener on my thoughts and the spending spree.

A few of you may remember my first experience with a 100 rupee note that in most cases cannot buy a large shampoo bottle. It probably cannot buy a branded lipstick too these days? But it can buy food for ten people on a roadside food stall.

So, this time around I saw a family of three, mother, daughter and son. They are garbage pickers and they looked extremely weary. The girl, who must have been 12 to 14 year old, was sitting on the seat of their garbage rickshaw. Her brother was sitting on the heap of the plastic and must have been 5 to 7 year old. The mother’s face was lined and full of worry, it is very difficult to put an age to it.

I asked the girl in Hindi, if I can buy food for her? She was speechless but her mother nodded her head. I said I would buy it for the other kid and her too. We again went to a roadside stall and we waited for the food to be ready. The mother told me, she would like to carry away the food and this was the first time she clearly opened her mouth. She could barely speak Hindi with a thick Bengali accent. In fact, the word 'polythene' was the only clue I had as to what she was trying to say. All the while when we were waiting, they had a look of disbelief on their face. I moved on after handing them their food. I did not have the heart to ask them for a picture.

A little ahead, these two kids started begging for money. I told them I would buy food. I don’t know if they did not understand or what, they said no. I started to move ahead. Then they called me back and very timidly asked if I would buy a Pepsi for them! I bought one bottle between the two. I don’t know why they asked for Pepsi. Two other girls asked for a packet of chips. May be, they are part of organized begging and were not hungry. They have left me with a nagging doubt but I do not have the heart to judge two such small kids. And which kid does not want a Pepsi or chips? My total bill till now was rupees 75, 45 rupees for a meal for three, 20 for a bottle of Coke and 10 for a packet of chips.

Side story 1: A young lad at the stall from where I bought the Coke (they had no Pepsi) said Aap kahan inke chakkar mein aa gaye (why are you bothering with them?) I mumbled a reply that I do not want to give money, as I am not sure if it would remain with them.

Side story 2: As I interact with kids and others on the pavement, it attracts a lot of attention. After buying the packet of chips, as I was moving on, a driver (witness to all this) sitting on the railings in front of the DT mall spitted aimlessly and it landed quite near me. For the first time in my life, I heard someone apologizing after it. He shouted after me, “Sorry madam!”

I went inside the Metropolitan mall later. I went into Tommy Hilfiger and Marks & Spencer outlets (more out of curioisty than a genuine desire to buy and a first of sorts), looking for a long coat in the winter sale. At the Hilfiger shop, I told the sales staff, they had by mistake put an extra zero in the price tag of the coat. The guy laughed a lot. That damn coat was priced originally at 12,000 (you read it right) rupees! M&S had a similar price. I bet they pay less than this amount as monthly salary to the doorman they employ.

So, coming back to the Valentine’s Day, do go out and do spend a lot and have a nice time by yourself or with your special friend. But if possible, spend 75 rupees on the people outside the mall.

I have made a mental note to buy stuff first for people who are trying to sell something or make a living in any way and not simply begging. But for kids, I will buy a Pepsi or Coke any day.

And before I sign off, read this interesting article from Gonomad, by Mark Helyar on his experience with street kids in India.

The Dual Rates for Tourists Visiting India Might Go!

(Enlagre the image to see the entry fee differentials at the Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary, India)

Visit any monument or national park in India and you will find two rates, one for desis and the other for the foreigners. My most recent experience has been at the Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary. Now if we believe The Times of India, this may soon be a thing of past. Great, do it fast I say!

An order issued by PM Manmohan Singh will put an end to the double-tariff regime seen by foreign tourists and even expatriates as an act of hurting discrimination.

For some time now, the Prime Minister’s Office has been receiving complaints from Indian missions abroad and through other channels about the discriminatory tariff regime that visiting foreigners are subjected to.

India is one of the few countries where a foreigner needs to pay more for checking into a hotel, air travel, subscribing to periodicals and even to visit historical monuments.

Visiting Taj (but not Mahal) and watching Palash but not the Flower

This weekend , on Saturday we went to attend a party at The Taj Palace Hotel. Rest assured it was a free dinner for H and me. I bring you a photopost of the occassion.
Mirror, mirror, on the wall. Well, it gives me an interesting picture. There was a time when I used to feel attracted to 'five star' hotels. But after a while, I completely have outgrown them. The last time I spend my own money in such an expensive property was in 2002. The next time I may do it, is this year as I have promised an ex-student that if she clears all her papers, I will treat her in a five star hotel. I am eagerly waiting to take her along. She was really having a tough time and I think she needed this encouragement. One of the perks of teaching, a few students still remain in touch long after I leave a job.

Coming to food, my stop was this pani puri stand. The stuff was delicious.

These mushrooms in white sauce were my favortie, it had a Av ue kind of a name.

The dessernt again had an Italian sounding name but it was yummy!

While we were at the dessert, we came to know that the Indian band Euphoria was performing inside the main auditorium. I wanted to go in and take the photographs and H decided to wait outside in the lobby for me.

I was standing quite close to the stage and taking the photographs. There was security and they were moving people back, who got too close to the stage. But not if you had a camera, even if it was a unprofessional looking Nikon Coolpix 3200! Benny, the band member on the key board even posed for me for a while, when they were in between the songs. However, after 15 photos I decided to move on and H and I must have been one of the first few people to leave the party.

Benny at the keyboards from the Indian Band Euphoria!

DJ with the Guitar

Benny again!

Palash Sen, the lean singer of the Euphoria Band

Danish Cartoons: What do you Think?

I had been searching for the twelve Danish cartoons that have sparked such a disgusting outbreak of violence.

Here are The Danish Cartoons for you if you have not seen them before.

Now have a look of some of the nude paintings of Hindu deities an Indian Muslim painter, M F Hussain did quite some time back.

Compare the work and compare the scale of protests in both the events. What do you think?

I wish next time people go hyper over Intolerant India they get some perspective. I wonder if 'progressive' Indian newspapers will be running columns like 'Intolerant Islam' now?

Or is it that we have tolerance toward intolerance?

Have a look at BBC's Have Your Say too.

Touts Touts Everywhere?

Get down at New Delhi railway station, they will flock you and they are an aggressive lot. As soon as a 2X2 bus reaches the private bus stand in Manali they start running and pasting small piece of papers on the windows to claim the occupants as their own. You go elsewhere in India and you meet them. I am talking about touts, and if you come to India, you cannot escape them.

How do tourists react to them? I found a goldmine of information about this on India Mike. From many of the responses, I can also see, the tout issue touches a raw nerve.

Some of the practical responses on the question ‘How to Deal with Touts.’

Be polite and smile, but once only.
Don't shake hands or tell them your name or where you're from.
In built up areas, if it gets bad, threatening to call the police works well.

Stop walking and remain silent ... If you are catching a taxi in Mumbai etc, after getting the right price, get them to put it in writing (keep a small book for this or a voice recorder). This works a treat and though you may have to put up with some whining, there is no sudden increase in the price at the end of your journey. It works for railway porters, rickshaw drivers too.

Only put up with what a local would. In a very touristy area like Varenassi, have some touts adopt you and the others will stay away. Have fun. Don't lose your temper.

talskeddy at India Mike

It's hard to have a catch-all rule for touts... so often you want to avoid them, but sometimes (when you're in a remote part of the country, for example) you might want to use them.

Never had I experienced anything like the touts in Delhi on my first trip to India. Oh, I was so green and they saw it right away. I could write a story just on my experiences trying to find the New Delhi Train Station reservation office for foreigners without having a map or otherwise any idea of where it was. I got sucked in by almost a dozen touts that afternoon alone. At least I can laugh about it now.

picklepak at India Mike

Wear a BIG earphone and walk 'through' people - they will think that you are listening to music - so it will discourage people from trying to make a conversation with you.

mountaingirl at India Mike

Headphones might work but some of the touts are a bit more persistent and start touching you. That really ticks me off.
I am a lot taller and bigger than the average Indian male. I look mean to them and they leave me alone in no time. I hear the Eunuchs (Chakkas) can be quite a problem to Indians. Is this true?

oldhippie at India Mike

Here are some reactions that surprised me:

Persistent and irritating touts deserve to be manhandled, not handled !!

Just joking, of course !! The best way is to ignore them. If they are shameless enough to pursue you, then join your hands and say "Maaf karo", which is the term usually used to shoo away a beggar.

The tout will be made to feel like a beggar and if that dosen't make him slink away, then he is really thick skinned and deserves a place among the rhinos of Assam !!

SHIMLA at India Mike

Taxi and auto rickshaws: My wife made the observation that if you say "No thank you sir", then 99 times out of 100, they would leave us alone. Don't know why this works. Just make sure to include the "sir" part. "No thank you" is not good enough.

04274108 at India Mike

I usually try to look pissed off and mumble things to myself and occasionally swing randomly into the air... that seems to scare the touts away

nomadelmundo at India Mike

Pretend to try and sell them something, they soon get pissed off

goangoangone at India Mike

I agree. That also works very well. Can't say that I've seen people get pissed off but many of them will turn and walk away. Don't let them go. Follow them and bargain with them until they start to run.

Also had a great time in Delhi. With this technique One rickshaw driver wanted to take us for a ride to the Jama Masjid. I told him that I would take him there for 500Rs. We haggled for a bit and I got it down to where I would take him for free. Well needless to say, I had a blast driving him around for a few blocks. I had to stop well before the mosque though because my nerves couldn't cut the traffic. Some coppers gave us some really long unapproving glances too.

So, can you see the creativity? And I have just scanned four pages of the responses available. There are many more such gems in the discussion thread and run up to 10 pages. Explore it and you will be rewarded.

H and I have shown the whole gamut of emotions in dealing with touts. We have ignored them, we have got irritated, we have felt intimidated, we have felt cheated and angry and what not. That too, when we are Indians. I wonder how it would feel to land in a foreign country and have the Paharganj/New Delhi Railway Station experience. As our traveling experience has accumulated, I feel they trouble us less. Maybe they can guess we are not so green anymore?

But two incidents stand out in mind. When we went to Bharmour in December 2005 it was the off season and there was not one tout around as we got down from the bus. We had not pre-booked anything and this lack of touts left us completely bewildered. We did not know who to ask the directions for! We took a path (there were just two roads going into the town) and reached the Chaursai Temple Complex and the local folks guided us to a hotel.

Then again, we traveled to Bharatpur in the last week of January 2006 and we arrived there at 11 in the night. There were no touts around and this was the season. One tempo guy took us around and all the guesthouse owners were sound asleep! The tempo guy did ask for a price that may have been little more than the normal fare but he did not dump us at the first guesthouse and run away. He made sure that we got a room and only then went off. We tipped him extra for his moral support. These are my two most surprising incidents where we experienced a lack of touts.