Jumping on a Bandwagon?

Or Going by the Picture, Jumping on an Auto-rickshaw more Likely

Social Networking or internet communities or even humble blogs seem to be the buzz word these days going by the atmosphere and news reports we get to see.

I got ranting today because of some of the comments I got recently and one in particular that I got today (all of that I delete promptly).

I like to keep my comment section open because there has been no major reason to close or moderate comments till now. I do get some amount of spam comments but then I delete it after getting the email notification.

There have been one or two days when I got around 16 spam comments from the same person (for hotels in a particular region) and when that happened for the second time my heart sank. I mean that time could have been devoted to a better use but then that was a one off incident. I forgave them because they are small operators and may lack the expertise to handle social media.

Then today I got a junk comment on an old post that was a rant against branding of a particular type. The comment was for a known company (that advertises on big TV channels too) and gave a link to its Facebook fan page (that was not even hyperlinked within the comment box).

I mean why poor me? OK I can see some fit, it is about travel bags, it went like this-

I would like to share an incident,

On my Holiday to Singpore from Mumbai we were Asked to open our Bags at the airport by the Authorities. I was thankfully carrying [------] Bags which has sorted Compartments which made the checking easier and faster.
Got out withing 15 minutes,

That’s the reason i would suggest a [-----] to any traveler.

Its user friendly, easy to handle, light in weight and pretty affordable.

The Link would be of a lot of help [-----]

I am wondering how can a company be so dumb when it comes to social media? Do they pay people to write such dumb comments on wrong kind of posts? Why that particular post? And what happens to this person's (assuming there is such a person) performance appraisal when they find that the inane comments they left were promptly deleted by the blog owners?

I mean that comment screams of being an ad for the company as it had no relevance to the post and they removed all doubt by giving a link to the Facebook fan page. Why can't they hire a good consultant? Better still why can't they think of investing long term into social media and make their own presence.

Some companies may take a long time to figure out the social media and in trying to join the bandwagon, they may not even land on an auto-rickshaw in the process.

Cost4travel- A New Website Idea

I spend a lot of my time online and particularly on the social media sites. So when I got a mail from Cost4travel (it is a beta sire as of now) one day I was not really surprised. What impressed me about the mail was the courteous tone and the feeling that I was not being bullied into linking or anything.

The premise is simple- to encourage users to share their travel costs voluntarily across the world! I mean to share costs like what did you pay for a hotel, taxi ride, trip and stuff like that.

I liked the idea. I mean we can get reviews at a lot of places but being able to compare costs with fellow travelers has an appeal for me for sure. What do you say?

I did ask them about how they came across my blog and the reply I got was-

Regarding your question, I have been spending many months searching for travel blogs and travel journalists (through links in other web sites and Google Alerts) and your site came up a number of times.

And no this is not a paid review, I have done it voluntarily because I liked the idea.

Blogging for Payment- The New US Rules

Blogging for payment or a free trip has always been a little tricky area for me. I have tried to disclose such trips and posts as openly as possible. So when I read this Blogger Payola News at the BBC yesterday that in the US it is now desired that you disclose such linkage I was not too sure what to think of it.

Then I read Robert V. Kozinets blog on the same topic I thought I would share it here.

In a long-awaited, long-anticipated ruling that surprised no one who was watching,the FTC today decided to recognize the fact that bloggers and other social media types can be celebrities, that celebrities can be social media users, and that both can be paid endorsers without being acknowledged as such online (or off).Without providing any concrete details, the new guidelines legally require bloggers to clearly disclose any “material connection” to an advertiser, including giving actual payments or free samples for an endorsement. They also hold bloggers and others responsible for telling the (gasp!) truth about their product experiences.

But what I am wondering about is (and as I have said in a comment on his blog) what happens when one of the party writing the review is outside the US. Like this post of mine about Lands End Luggage?

10th Photo, First Folder, Tagged by Sujata

Boy on a Slide, Bundi, Rajasthan

I was tagged by Sujata recently. I have to go to the first folder on my computer and then post the 10th picture here and tell you all the story.

I have so many folders all over the computer that it was a little difficult to think which is the first folder. So I decided to go with Picasa and took the 10th picture from what it thought was my first folder.

I clicked this young boy on the slide on the request on his grand dad. The grand dad told me, "it is good to see that you have a hobby."

Let me see who should I tag? I will tag Hobo, Global Madrasi, Babli and Being Bindas.

A Gift from Hobo

Overcrowded, Somewhere in India- A Gift from Hobo

I open my blog email one day and find this picture give to me as a gift by Hobo. What an apt picture for me. Many thanks Hobo, you are generous.

There was some error!

And hence no posts for the pat few days. Things will be back to normal by tomorrow. I am out of town for some work today.

Come Friday, Will Travel

Another Shot of the Rainbow at Triund

No, I am not going to the hills, but the mere thought that I would travel over the weekend makes me think about rainbows and not trucks.

Creative Rumblings- No Not Me

I got a mail from Creative Rumblings and she wish to paint a picture of mine from Barog. That picture was of sunset with my nephews walking in the distance. That post is up now and I liked it a lot. Have a look by clicking at the link above. She calls the painting 'Orange Hills'.

A Mention in the Business Standard

OKTATA and Mahindra, Is it OK?

Jai Arjun Singh has written an article in Business Standard on the Tata/Oktatabyebye standoff and Travel Tales from India has found a mention there-

As the website Travel Tales from India (http://tinyurl.com/l7p9av) puts it, “Tata owns the Jaguar and Land Rover car brands, the Taj Mahal Hotel and a very profitable software company. But do they own the English word Tata too? Looks like they think so. Even when the word has been in existence since 1823, much before the company website itself starts talking about its heritage!”

Not too many updates at the Oktatabyebye site but then I am sure there hands are full.

Feeling Lazy about Writing the Orchha Trip

Vultures at the Cenotap, Orchha

It rarely happens to me that I do not wish to write a trip account but this is one of those rare occassions. Let us see if blogging about it breaks the jinx.

Oktatabyebye.com can't use the word 'Tata'?

I thought that Tata was an English word apart from being the name of the business house controlled by Tatasons. The dictionary link above says that the word Tata has been in use since 1823 and the Tata Sons website uses 1868 as the starting point of their 'heritage'. To my readers from other countries Tata is the same company that now owns Jaguar and Land Rover car brands. It is the same company that owns hotels the Taj Mahal Hotel that came under terrorist attacks in Mumbai. They own a very profitable software company named Tata Consulting Services.

But do they own the English word Tata too? Looks like they think so. They went after Oktatabyebye.com, (owned by makemytrip.com) a travel portal telling that the website can't use the word Tata! Even when the word has been in existence since 1823 much before the company website itself starts talking about its heritage! Here is what Oktatabyebye.com is saying-

Very recently, TATA Sons filed a case against us (oktatabyebye.com) in infringement of their TATA name (as our domain name contains the 'TATA' word!). Tata Sons has contended that it is confusingly similar to its 'Tata' brand and the travel portal runner has no rights or legitimate interests to use it. The company had argued that the site infringed the right of its registered trademark/service mark 'Tata'.

And in a decision by a sole panelist, ownership of the domain OkTataByeBye.com has been awarded to TATA by WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) Arbitration and Mediation Centre.

Who would the Tata Sons like to go after next? The kids who say tata to each-other or the non-Tata owned trucks (yes they make trucks too) that write 'tata' at the back of the truck as truck art?

Hope some sense and perspective will prevail in this case and the travel portal Oktatabyebye.com remains the same.

Update 1: Found this news article on the Oktatabyebye issue in TOI.

Update 2: Wrote a mail to the address available from the 'contact us' page of the Tata Sons website voicing my opinion, if I get a reply I will append it here.

Update 3:

Fly You Fools - Indian Comics about Life.

Off Tomorrow!

Hopefully I will get to click a lot of pictures and some of them would turn out well.

Have a nice extended weekend for those who have a off on Friday in India.

Have a very nice weekend everyone.

What does 'Being Yourself' Mean to You?

I must admit Steve started it. It were his lines that made me pause-

I had devised a title, "Houston Texas: A Great Place to Be Yourself" which I liked. I think what took almost three months was the line, "Being yourself sounds like a simple proposition, but in my experience, it's not; ...

How I agree and I would say some of us may not even know what does it mean to be 'yourself'. Then I read VS and his post on accepting emotions!

I think the only place that gave me scope of showing my emotions was the playground. I could be thrilled (and jump up and down) when I played a shot well and scream to shatter eardrums when I made silly mistakes. And it would be still alright, almost always. And that too went away because of my long commute now. And nothing else gives me the same scope, to shatter eardrums I mean.

And if you want more, more musings by the sea shore by Lakshmi.

But more tricksy (as JRR Tolkien would say) to answer what does it mean to be myself. I have to say I am left scratching my head. I honestly have very little clue and I am quite bewildered with this state of affairs.

So what does 'being yourself' mean to you?

Dumb, Dumb, Dumb- That's Me!

I don't know why it took me ages to subscrie to all the blogs I read in Google Reader. I did this a few weeks ago and it has made my life so simple. I wonder how I survived without doing so for such a long time.

More Power to the Internet! Missing Person Found in India through Indiamike

On July 28, 2009 I was browsing through my favorite travel message board Indiamike. They have a section for members where you can see unanswered threads. I was answering some posts which had no replies. I had started doing it recently. I read a thread about a missing person in India. It had gone unanswered for about an hour and 20 minutes. I knew not what to say in reply. So I wrote a lame- "I am extremely sorry to hear about your plight. Any updates on the situation?"

And then came many and then a super star by the name of Ronit who said-

Meanwhile I have several friends in Airlines and even in Kingfisher also. I will call them tomorrow morning and ensure that if He boards the flight,they will inform him about your plight. Also I would like to know the details of the Ticket number and PNR (Airline-Ref) of his Travel from your country )Hamburg) Germany to Helsinki, Finland and further to (Delhi)India.

Do write back and have faith in God.

And guess what he did just that, found the guy!

At Bagdogra airport with help of Kingfisher officials.

More power to the internet.

Should I Watermark My Old Pictures

When I wrote about my Prashar Lake pictures getting copied, many of you suggested me to watermark it. I will have to go picture by picture but I am OK with it. Will it mess up my feeds completely for those who subscribe to this blog in a reader? Will it change the way google indexes them? Some of them are the first one to come up in a search and I am scared to lose that ranking. :D

To watermark I would have to download and upload it again, right? Any tips much appreciated.

Two New Words Learned Today- Ethno Tourism and Making Lazy

Came across two new words today-

Ethno-tourism (do look at the comment section)

and

Making Lazy (the word apears in the middle of the article)

No, I am not telling you anytihng more about them.

How Many Copies of My Prashar Lake Images?

Yesterday I did a google image search for Prashar Lake on a whim. And I am completely aghast. The number of times my pictures have been copied by others across the globe without any credit is depressing. So here I go. These are most of my Prashar Lake images (with the December images posted with permission from Anil).

Now look at the copycats, why so many? :( :( :( :( :(

(And don't worry all the links are nofollow.)

Indie-Reise in German, why in Germany would someone copy my Prashar Lake image?

Someone at a site called Wherein City copied my Prashar Lake image

Someone by the Name of Sachin at Merinews copied the Prashar Lake image

Another one by Sachin at Merinews He has copied so many of my images apart from the Prashar lake one. I have left a comment on each of the copied one.

Instablog copied my Prashar Lake Image

Another Copy

Would you blame me if I am hopping mad right now?

The Author of the Cold Pineapple Soup and a Blog

Cold Pineapple Soup by the Chef Manish from Taj Safari's at Banjaar Tola

And this is Manish's Blog.

In his recent post he talks about another Chef who was initially a gardener!

Therefore my first priority was to increase the production in the garden mean while the chef of the lodge usually ask for some favors like helping him in making chutneys and food etc. This regular interaction in kitchen created a interest and I started going kitchen after finishing my regular work to help the chef without his request.

More Conversations from the Rainbow Day

The Rainbow at Triund, Himachal Pradesh

After I had seen and clicked the rainbow at Triund (must I add till it had almost vanished), I went for a long walk through the meadows. I came back at dusk, slightly cold.

So the fire near the camp was the most inviting place. As soon as the sun goes down, the temperature suddenly drops. Near the fire there were four of us waiting for the dinner. There was a girl from Switzerland, a young lad from the US and the two of us. The boy from the US had been in India for the last 10 months (exiting after 180 days for a visa run to another nearby country like Sri Lanka or Nepal) and had been traveling extensively.

The amount of places he had been to in India, we have not managed to see even a fraction of it. I am, in fact, wondering that if I add all my holidays together taken till date, they may still not add up to a month. What a depressing thought!

So I asked him, "What made you choose India?" He replied, "I was attracted to the ashrams." I asked him hesitantly, "If you don't mind my asking so, did you discuss it with your family or you don't do such a thing?" He smiled, "My parents were really scared, they thought I may never come back." I was wondering if we may ask this one but then Sesha did, "We really don't hold very high opinion of Ashrams." He agreed, "Yes, many of them are a little more commercialized than I thought they would be. But there are a few serious places too. I anyway discovered that I was not really serious about it."

I then asked him, "So how have your journey across India been?" Without blinking he said, "India has taught me patience! I take a lot more things in my stride now"

Do You have a Comment Policy for Your Blog?

Do you have a comment policy for your blog? I never had a formal one and I hardly ever need to delete any comment. The few that I deleted were either obscene or blatant advertising.

But these days there is a spurt in comments that are vaguely on topic and then have links (sometimes more than 1) to a commercial website.

What do you do with such comments? I have deleted them till now but with a vague feeling. Thought I would write about it and then see how I feel.

I have till now managed without comment moderation but now I am seriously wondering.

What a Capture

No, not by me. It is by one of the Gonomad bloggers Sonja Stark. The picture is so cute, you have to go and have a look. And I am not going to tell you what it is.

Searching for Kiarighat, I Don't Like it One Bit- Yatra.in Page

Screen Shot of the Yatra.in page

I was searching for Kiarighat in Himachal Pradesh on Google. I clicked on the second link which was from Yatra.in. What manipulation it is for ranking high on search engine. I mean they repeat Kiarighat endlessly on that page out of context. Here is a sample-

While looking for 5 star hotels in Kiarighat, such as ITC Maurya, Taj Palace or an Oberoi, our site should be your first stop. Kiarighat is a vibrant city that has a rich past, and what better way to experience that than to stay in one of the heritage hotels in Kiarighat.

I mean hello! Five star hotels in Kiarighat?? Who are you kidding or is it that you understand your product so poorly?

More Tiger Tale but this time from Mexico

I am linking to Kelly's post (from Gonomad) who was on a press trip to Mexico and guess what she got to pet a tiger! You have to go and see the tiger picture to believe it.

PS. I am taking a short break. Would be back by Monday.

Walking Away!

It was my last working day at the current job. Walking away was difficult due to various reasons but I think it was about time. I spent 4 years here (OK, one month short) and played TT almost everyday after office hours. I sat down after the game today for a while and chatted, a thing I almost never do. I am starting a new job week later and looking forward to it.

Myself Ashish at Oktatabyebye.com

Ashish is traveling in India but with a twist. He is staying/is being hosted by families at the destinations he is visiting. He also has an impressive list of corporate sponsors. He is updating regularly on his travels. Check out Myself Ashish.

Sasan Gir is a great national park, if only the people who manage it are managed well. I think I misjudged taking the early morning safari to the park all by myself, just one Measly Paw Print!! My luck with wildlife remains the same, only the pockets are much lighter now.

Sasan is not really for single travelers and this I experienced first hand. Although there is a village, everything here is valued in dollar equivalents.

Jaigarh Fort, Jaipur

Jaigarh Fort, Jaipur, Picture Taken in November 2008

I had visited Jaipur in November 2008 along with my younger nephew. Our first stop was Jaigarh Fort and it makes for so many pretty pictures. But the one below is not pretty, taken by OrangeStreet and posted with permission.

Jaigarh Fort, Jaipur after a Night of Party

So imagine my horror when I stumbled upon the picture above at Indiamike (via Picasa). I mean how can we do this to a place like Jaigarh Fort? OrangeStreet writes-

On a recent visit to Jaipur this weekend, I happened to go to jaigarh fort on 28th Feb 2009. The fort was closed however. I was told that fort had been booked for a marriage function and was hence closed for the day.

Well, I went back on March 1st and the fort was indeed open. The plight of it though shivered me timbers.

What a sad thing to do.

Naina Kapur's Blog

I blogged about meeting Naina Kapur, the lead counsel in the Vishaka Judgment against sexual harassment in the supreme court. I discovered her blog. She was kind enough to drop in a line to tell me that contrary to what I wrote in my previous post she has a blog! And I am so glad to discover that.

So over to Naina Kapur's blog.

In 1997 I was lead instructing counsel before the Supreme Court of India in the case of Vishaka v State of Rajasthan & Ors.. It's perhaps better known as the sexual harassment case. ...

To have any real meaning, equality as a human rights principle needed to assert its worth. It needed to be rescued from the far flung reaches of an alien International sky and brought into the dust and dirt of domestic life.

10 minutes with Taxi Drivers at Austin- Guest Post by Kalyan Banerjee

I really enjoyed reading Kalyan's experiences with Taxi Drivers in Austin. It is so wonderful to have him as a guest blogger at Travel Tales from India. Enjoy the post.

Kalyan Banerjee has a day job and travels during weekends. You can follow him on Twitter as well.

Talking to strangers is always (well, at least most of the times) an interesting experience when you're travelling alone. More so, when they belong to a different segment of your culture, or better still, a different culture. Now travelling solo need not mean you need to pack your bags and leave for a far away kingdom. It may simply mean morning jog, bus ride to the airport to pick a friend or taking a taxi/auto to work. I do a lot of the third category.

During my short 10 min taxi (or cab) rides at Austin, and back, I've happened to meet a plethora of people - black and white, male and female, Catholic and Muslim (and even Bahai), Moroccon and Iranian. Here's an account my 5 most interesting 10 minute rides with Taxi Drivers at Austin.

Met two Brazilian folks on the same day. The first one said that he watched an Indian show on television last night and was amazed by a few things Indian. The tradition of women applying ‘red powder’ just above the forehead and within the hairs looked fascinating to him. Well, this was the most ‘different’ description of Sindoor I’ve ever come across in my life. He applauded the ‘culture’ of parents supporting the newly wed daughter and her husband. I was baffled by the statement but he backed the statement with his logic – ‘When I married my expenses shot up like anything. New house, more people to support and more responsibilities made me work like crazy. I saw that in India, when a girl gets married her father gives a car, jewellery and quite some cash to the daughter to start a new life’. Beat this logic for the menace called Dowry. He concluded with, ‘I would like to visit India sometime. I heard it is colorful’. Well, I couldn’t agree more.

Brazil # - remember the other Brazilian cabbie not for his comments on India or Indians but for his single remark. It was Saturday and since there was a deadline the following week, a lot of stuff needed attention. Naturally, I was late. Here’s what he said when he picked me up – ‘For the first time in life I'm picking someone at 2 'o clock on Saturday night and that too from office. Its so late now that you can’t even go to Downtown for a drink – everything closes at 2 am. Why is your schedule so crazy? Once, I picked up 2 Chinese guys at 4, but they had flight to catch early.’ Since the real answer was too complicated, I cooked up some garbage as an answer.

Hong Kong- He was a middle aged person whose face indicated some kind of South East Asian connection. The first things he asked, ‘You from India’. On getting an affirmative answer, he started talking about Slumdog Millionaire. Remember, this incident was before the Oscars night, so Slumdog was yet to reach its popularity peak. He continued, ‘Seems Indians like movies too much. The Indian students at the University of Texas, Austin don’t go to watch a game, but go to movies every time they get a chance. On Super Bowl Sunday, I gave a ride to 3 Indians to the theater.’ Well, with 877 feature films released only in the year 2003 alone, Indian Film Industry is the largest in the world (Source: Wikipedia). And with fans who don’t miss a chance even while studying abroad, the volume game makes sense.

America #1– Two Americans were interesting. One was middle aged Joe who asked about my country. On learning that I was from India, he started almost immediately – ‘I heard that yours is a very stable economy. Much stable than ours. Even a couple of years back, people used to come in bunches here to make a decent living. These days opportunities seem to have die down. Even healthcare have become so costly you just can’t afford it. I just hope Obama fixes things and or we’ll go back to the Depression era’. Seemed a paragraph out of any article of a downturn related blog – points out the hardship Joe faces these days. The only breather – gas prices have come down quite a bit from its peak. His rant also tells me the hopes he has with his new President.

America # 2- The second one was older. He told me was well past 66, but he didn’t look a day older than 55. He lived in Houston for two years and then moved to Austin a year back. Doesn’t live with his family, but with fellow few cabbies. It amazed me how an old fellow like that was driving a cab at 1’o clock in the night. Situation must be bad, I guess. I remember him for another reason – he is only Muslim American I’ve met in my Austin

It amazes me how could we (cabbie and me) strike good conversation in such short rides. Each cabbie was spot on in figuring out my nationality and apparently had a viewpoint on India or Indians. This could be due to several reasons. Indians come a lot to Austin and take cabs. Or, there are quite a few Indians in Austin, who either take cabs or drive cabs (I haven't bumped across an Indian cabbie though). Or, India is the flavor of the season at Austin, which doesn’t seem likely despite the Oscars.

Each cabbie helped me understand how India is perceived in several circles. It felt good that almost all of them knew something. I’m yet to meet a cabbie twice but I look forward to meeting each of these cabbies again. I also wonder, whether back at Bangalore, I can have a conversation about the with an auto-wallah. What do you say?

P.S. If you are one of the taxi drivers in this post and you see some differences from the original experience, feel free to drop me a note at aamikalyan@gmail.com

On Twitter

I recently started using Twitter. I got interested after I read Max repeatedly talking about it on his blog. Given my fascination for all things online how long could I resist it?

Then I got a Tweet about Methodspace, a research methods community space (in Beta) by SAGE and at a conceptual I just love the idea.

Not Today

Suffering from Bad Cold.

Meeting Naina Kapur

Naina Kapur, Supreme Court Lawyer, One of the Key Person responsible for Vishaka Judgment

It had to happen today when I did not had my point and shoot and the picture taken on the mobile has only this kind of clarity. Naina is one of the key persons responsible for the Vishaka Judgement that deals with prevent of sexual harassment at workplace. And I saw it first hand how difficult it is to talk about sexual harassment in India even in a roomful of women only where almost 35 out of 40 had a doctorate degree too!

I asked Naina if I could take a picture. She consented. Then I asked her if I could use it on my blog, she thought for a moment and said only if I say nice things or she would sue! On the more serious note she said yes I may use it and no, I could write anything I wanted to write about her, she would not sue me.

I have to say she is a very impressive speaker and she is quite accessible to her audience. She narrated a call center story that remained with me. She said a young girl in her cab put her feet in the laps of a guy sitting opposite and the guy started rubbing her feet. The girl filed a sexual harassment case. Naina said even though she wanted to say what an idiot you are to the girl and what a moron you are to the boy, she just asked them one question, "Do you think your behavior was professional?" The girl went back agreeing with her that her behavior was not professional, taking back her complaint. And that traning helps in behaving in a non-judgemental way in such situations.

It Felt Like Flying

Sea Bird at Surathkal

As promised yesterday, I played TT today and it felt wonderful (as if I had got wings) . In reality I was actually not able to move much (let alone fly). And in a doubles game (that is what we play mostly) not being able to move well is a huge liability.

I have said before and I repeat, long time back I have played TT competitively and represented my state. So I give people on the other side of the table a tough time. And usually all of us give our 200% while playing. But today people did consider my injured ankle and played in a relaxed manner and that was quite surprising.

One of the strategies my colleagues used was to hit on the extreme opposite from where I was standing and so many times I could just stand see the ball whizzing by! Another of their strategies was that if my partner is to pick up the ball hit it close to me, as I would be unable to move out of the way! That too was successful to an extent. But all in all it was good fun, and as I am writing this there is a huge grin on my face!

And when of my colleagues got a phone call, two of us (and let me grant it my opponent is just slightly ahead of being a beginner) quickly played a singles. Now in singles (quite unlike doubles) I can cover a lot of table by standing in the middle squarely. So whatever fond hopes he had of taking advantages of my injury, actually the outcome was not very different. I won 21-7 (yes we still play games of 21 and have not switched to games of 11 with two serves each).

But then all that is besides the point. All of us just had a good time.

Sea Shells and Pizza

Pizza and Sea Shells, is there a link? Very minor, they were part of my extremely hectic and tiring day today.

I had a long class, one where students interact a lot on their own in the seminar (with me as the mediator) and they went on for half an hour more than the scheduled time. Yes, they sometimes do that.

Then I managed to go for lunch.

No, the pizza was not for lunch.

Next I faced a table at office that is so chaotic as of now that there was not a space to put my tea cup even. The day also felt the same.

Sea Shells

Then I was looking for something in my shoulder bag (the same I was carrying on the Surathkal Beach) and two coins fell out. Irritated I went down to pick it up and then saw that the shells I had picked up at the beach, one of them had fallen out too! That was one soothing incident incident in an almost out of control day.

Then it came to dinner and I had promised my nephew that we will have pizza today and pizza it was.

Domino's Pizza

We had pizza after a very long time and it was fresh and tasted nice. Looked colorful too, so I clicked a picture as well. Brat 2 was asking why are you taking a picture of a pizza, it is not even lazy Sunday! Wonder when does he takes a peak at this blog.

But I have left the best part for the last. My ankle is almost normal now. So, I am going to play mild TT tomorrow! Yes, I am going to do it, in spite of any sensible advice that would come my way.

If I can teach standing, I can as well play TT. And it is only today I realized (again) how much I rely on TT for releasing my stress.

PS. What a ghastly background I chose to take a snap of the sea shells!

Off To A movie Today!

Probably Slumdog Millionaire.

People at work are taking pot-shots at my ankle, asking if I would play TT in the evening even after my pronounced limp and crape bandage in evidence.

The students are happy, thinking I may actually cancel a class. But they are in for a surprise, I would not cancel any!

Bits and Pieces

Block Printing Pieces at Jaipur

Sprained ankle

Classes to take

A change in schedule for next week

Plans for a movie tomorrow

Still no TT, tried walking for a small stretch and realized that no TT actually!

NO TRAVEL in FEB, it looks like!

So lots of cribbing.

When Forced to Sit Still!

Railway Tracks at Sunset

When forced to sit still (ankle sprain right now) I miss walking and traveling with a vengeance! And I am as cheerful as a bear with a toothache.

I have had sprained my ankle on numerous occasions so it is not a new occurrence for me. This one is also minor compared to two sprains I had in the past. The second time around I was in college and staying at a hostel so there was not too much scope to sulk. The first time around I was at home and studying in school. I wonder how my family would have coped with my foul mood, that one was a prolonged injury.

At present Brat 2 (my younger nephew) manages to keep me entertained. He stands near me and always behaves as if he would jump on my ankle or smash his fist on it and I keep shouting at him and release some of my pent up energy. Right now he has gone to play football and I am feeling quite irritated.

OK, he just walked in and is now fighting with me unnecessarily, that tennis (that I like to watch on TV) is a useless game and football rules the world!

I was so agitated a while ago that I looked at my blog to see what I was writing last year about same time. In 2008 aournd this time I wrote about food in Spiti and plans to head out.

Indian Railways- Always Fascinating

I was taking a stroll nearby with Sesha this Sunday afternoon. I had the Nikon Coolpix in my pocket because I had seen some beautiful and colorful Dahlias outside a house (those flowers would find a place on the blog soon). But then I spotted a goods train parked at a little distance. A colorful small car was peeking out of one of the carriages. I had to go closer to take pictures and Sesha had to drag his feet! Of course I prevailed.

Then I also remembered that Kalyan is holding the 'Train Event of the Month' and I will dedicate this post to the event. He actually class it TEM Feb - The Great Indian Train Journey.

That is Indian Railways in Hindi

This was written on the wagons of the parked goods train. There were kids crossing the railway tracks and they were quite facsinated with my camera and the idea of taking pictures. I asked if they want me to take their pictures too, but they shyly said no, and I honored their request.

The Goods Train, Indian Railways

My original plan was to walk up to the engine. But then Sesha decided to sit and wait for me to come back. Also the track next to the carriages was quite narrow and the drivers at the engine were tooting the horn. I stepped aside and took this long shot and had to be content with it.

The Coils of the Wheels

Anyone having an idea what these coils are called? Shock absorbers maybe? I wish I had framed the picture better and taken more of the coils in the shot. I wonder why am I in such a tearing hurry when I frame my shots.

The Car (strain your eyes to the left hand corner of the picture) on the Carriage

This is the best I could capture of the colorful car, the stationary train and the engine of another stationary train. I wonder why it is so fascinating to watch trains even now!

Bloggers Vs. NDTV

You must have come across it by now. A blog post criticizing NDTV and Burkha Dutt, highhandedness by NDTV and now the blogshphere up in arms.

Follow it at Blogbharti.

Follow it at Desipundit.

While I am Slogging ...

While I am slogging for a day or two more, I would leave you with this crazy idea that was floated at Indiamike by Downjim, he wants to hire an auto rickshaw to go to Ladakh-

A group of friends and I are considering getting hold of the some auto rickshaws and driving from Delhi to Manali-Leh-Srinagar-Delhi this summer. We are expecting people to say it is a ridiculous idea. We are all pretty clued up on the scene in India and in particular Kashmir and are not easily put off however- as have just come back from driving an ambulance across the Sahara and clearly the Rickshaw Run has several races across India each year all of which are 3000kms+.

How what do we say to that?

Video of a Lassi Shop from Amritsar by Hobo

I was looking at a video by Hobo and thought I would share it at my blog too. He takes a video at a more than 70 year old Lassi (an Indian cold drink made of curd) shop at Amritsar and I quite enjoyed it. To see the video head to Hobo's blog now called India.

One of the oldest halwai in the city. Kalu, the autodriver (hope you remember) showed us the shop as we were moving towards Ramtirth. Estd. 1937, opposite Regent Cinema, Katra-Shersingh, Amritsar, Punjab.

A must visit place. I love the malaie put on top of lassi. It was awesome. (italics mine).

What a Day it Was!

Surathkal Beach

The first week of the semester is the most difficult one but today was just so tiring. It is so difficult to believe that just a week before I was on a vacation and sometime last week I was also on a sea beach! Sometimes it is better not to relive a tiring day, so I would not crib about it anymore.

I was also just asking my nephew if we should go somewhere in the long weekend that is coming along January 26th but he refused, saying he does not want to miss his gym sessions!

Wish You all a Very Happy 2009!

Wish you All a Very Happy 2009

May we all travel and blog more!

I specially need to travel more than what I did in 2008!

On the new year eve of 2007 I was in a train, in 2008 I was not. For 2009 eve, I am going to be in a train again. In 2007 I traveled a lot, in 2008, I did not, so I hope in 2009 I will travel a lot again.

Meeting Lakshmi and Nilesh

I met Lakshmi and Nilesh (see the first comment, he does not blog, yet!) yesterday in Bangalore. And it had a positive side effect on the mobile phone camera and the PC relationship, my mobile phone started talking to the PC yesterday after I came back. But more about this a little later.

Lakshmi and I met for lunch in Jaynagar 4th block and she went with my choice of having Chinese (Indian Chinese food rules). We went to a place called Chung Wah in the Jayanagar 3rd block. The place was recommended to Lakshmi by her friends. The food was really good but I promise I will do a separate post.

I was telling Lakshmi that I am not really as talkative in the real life as I may seem on the blog. But I have seen this time and again that when you meet someone after reading their blogs for a long time, it is easy to talk to them. I got to hear a lot about her job and travels and time just went too quickly.

A Local Mosque in Bangalore

Then it was time to meet Nilesh in the Jayanagar 4th block (Kanti Sweets) and not only Lakshmi dropped me there, she waited till Nilesh arrived. I knew I would recognize Lakshmi because I have seen her pictures but it is not so in case of Nilesh (remember, he does not blog, yet). However, he had assured me that he would recognize me and so he did. I would have dismissed him for a college student and not an IT professional with at least 6 years of experience. With him I had coffee at Adigag, dragged him along while I shopped for my nephew (Brat 2, Sesha did some shopping for Brat1) and dad. Nariyal pani (coconut water) was the next stop and then it was time to head to the bus stop!

Pots on Sale at the Roadside, Bangalore

Nilesh dropped me to the bus stop. And right ahead was the bus that I needed to board. But when I asked the driver, he said the bus would go nearby but not the full way. I then asked him if I would get another bus, he said yes. Then I told Nilesh I would wait. He explained that the driver meant that I would get the another bus from the spot this one would leave me. I said bye to him and jumped into the bus. It took me to the place it had promised.

Then I had a little bit of fun. A lot of people were waiting where the first bus dropped me. They all boarded the next bus, so I too boarded it. When I asked the conductor for a ticket he said the bus would not go there and I should get down at the next stop. The next stop looked quite familiar, so I decided to walk to the place where I am staying. Just to confirm, I asked an elderly person about the housing complex and he affirmed that I could walk straight ahead.

And the two pictures that you see in this post have been taken while I was walking back. I am quite glad that I managed the bus journey without any hiccups as I can't speak a word of Kanadda Kannada.

The PC is now talking to the mobile phone because I using the back USB ports, earlier I tried the front USB ports and I did not know they don't work!

Before I wrap this post, let me mention that there are a lot of lady bus conductors which I have just not seen in the North India. And many of them speak English and give useful directions to helpless souls like me..

It was quite a wonderful day.

Running, Gadgets and the Like

Such a Lovely Walk, Many used it for Running (Thames Walk- Oxford, UK)

The biggest problem at blogging from another place is that your gadgets would not talk to a new computer. So, even though I have three cameras I cannot make them talk to this computer. As a result this week, the pictures are going to be from my Picasa web albums only, all old ones.

Yesterday after a very long time I went for a small jog. I have lost some weight and I do not want to gain it back with eating a lot and sleeping through the day. I have not felt like running since a very long time. It has been ages since I left athletics. I was a pretty decent athlete and used to work really hard. Running something like 10km (when I was 14-15, seems like a lifetime ago) was easy at one time. Then my coach got transferred, there was no replacement. The good person that my coach was, he would send me my training schedule in letters and I would follow it up. I was in 11th standard then. It was a tough schedule. I was a middle distance runner and would run in the morning, go straight to school and in the evening run some more. I was quite regular at studies so managed to score good marks even with all the practice and tournaments.

Then just for fun, I was playing in a basket ball match for my school. I twisted my ankle quite badly and went out of training. A year before, when I was in 10th standard I represented my state in National School Games, I stood first in High Jump, second in 800m (the girl who stood first later went on to win a bronze in Asian Games 10 years later) and third in 400m in the state meet. The next year I wanted to do even better. But with the injury my training went haywire, and during the state competitions (held in Roorkee) during the month of November, I caught bad cold, and no instructor accompanying us was willing to buy me a medicine promptly. I stood third in all the events. After training so hard without a coach third felt like such a blow at that time. I left running after the competition (I started playing TT, and I do so till date) and never really went back to it. Even at IIT I refused to train for running, even though I would play every other sport every day and win almost everything at the Inter-IIT meet. I wonder if in some sense I stopped dreaming after I stopped running.

That is why I felt so happy when I decided to run yesterday. I actually went out for a walk, telling everyone that I do not want to gain weight. When I started walking, I thought let me run. Then I thought let it be, so many people around, hardly used to a woman running alone. Then I told myself that half the time it is just me who is stopping myself from doing things that I like. And then I went for running for a while!

Hi from Bangalore- Merry Christmas

Wish you a Merry Christmas

Have You Ever Traveled on the Top of a Train or Even a Bus?

No, don't blame me for discussing such strange ideas. Blame Steven_Ber, the resident train expert at Indiamike. He has posted a photo of a young man in Assam who climbed on the top of the train to ask Steve "which country" you are from! That means Steve was traveling on the top of a train too! Now that makes me envious, really go green with envy. I wish I could post Steve's photo here but for now you have to hop over and see the image of people traveling on the top of the train on Indiamike.

Now all I can talk about is traveling on the top of a bus way back in the college days. However, that was not the age of digital cameras or camera phones (in fact there were no mobile phones even) so I do not have a picture of my journey. Instead I can share a picture of people sitting on the top of a bus at Leh Bus Stand.

People on the Top of the Bus- Leh Bus Stand, Ladakh

I used to travel for a different reason during school and college days. I used to represent my school and college (sometimes the state too) in various sports meets. We had gone to Tonk to participate in a sports meet back then when I was in college (and no, I have not explored the town as a tourist). When we were coming back, the bus was really crowded. So, 4-5 of us out of the 20 odd girls that made our squad decided that we were better off at the top of the bus rather than inside the bus. I do not remember much of the journey other than we had to duck hard when the bus went close to a tree with low hanging branches. I wonder if I would do such a thing again if I get a chance?

Not at Office!

Work, Work and Work

This is how my work table looks like these days. So, I dragged myself out of the bed in the morning (I hate Monday mornings and I wake up like a dead wish) got ready and turned the key in the car. It sputtered and coughed but refused to start. The place I live in Gurgaon has almost no public transport! Had to call office to say I would not come today! I hardly ever do it. It feels so strange to sit at home on a Monday morning when I have so much work piled up. The car has gone for repair, apparently the battery is dead.

Can't get Mumbai Out of my Mind

Alka (yes, she is my sis too) collects a lot of articles about Mumbai attacks and its aftermath.

See if you want to be the champion of a cause don’t try to look good. Your cause will suffer. Applying make up is a crime if you are carrying out a march. You don’t represent India. That what BJP’s Vice President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi thinks.

Salam NSG

Salam NSG

Looking at the commandos of the NSG at Mumbai (MARCOS, Army, Other Security Forces too) I was wondering what kind of a job it is that when everyone is running away from a place, these guys are storming into that place! Hats off to all of you out there.

A few years back I used to work at a place that was somewhat close (many miles away actually) from an NSG compound. They are said to have so many jammers (communication jamming devices) installed that our internet reception would always be patchy (at least that is the excuse IT department gave to us) and it felt quite annoying then. Now, I would say may they add 100 more jammers, if it helps their cause even a bit.

Will You Cancel Your Holidays to India?

Will You Cancel Your Holidays to India? It is a very logical question to ask and it has also been asked on Indiamike. The responses are so heartening. I know it is a very small database of potential tourists but it is still something. Below I am quoting one response by member Goanmad-

Cancelling? No way!

We're flying on to Mumbai on Tuesday 2nd December and spending 5 weeks in India.

Having grown up in Birmingham during the 1970's we were constantly under the shadow of IRA terrorism and had no choice but to live our lives as normally as possible.

Mumbai Chaos- Words Fail You!

So much mayhem, so much chaos. Words are so inadequate to describe what is happening in Mumbai.

PS. I do not have access to TV till evening but did someone even ask the Home Minister Shivraj Patil to resign?

A Chat with Arun from India Travel Blog

To the readers of this blog Arun at (India Travel Blog) needs no introduction. So I will not try to give one. I will only say he has very helpful whenever I needed any help, be it with trips or cameras, over emails and even the phone. So enjoy his views on travel and a beautiful picture of his from Thadiyandamol.

How did you catch the travel bug?
I don't think I caught it; it seems to have been there since the time I can remember. I can recall seeing pictures of the mountains, lakes and beautiful places and always wishing to be among them.

Tell us about your most special travel experience.

Nearly every journey has something special; there isn't one thing that I can pick and showcase. The best experiences are ones where predictability was minimum. For example, I did not know what to expect when I was visiting a gorge in Dandeli, and can recollect being awed by seeing a graceful flight of a Pied Hornbill over one of the most beautiful gorges I have ever seen. Similarly, when strolling along Giri River in Himachal, some superb blueness in deep water and gentle trickle of water drops from the ferns along a steep bank had me mesmerized.

Arun's Favorite Picture of the Mountains

If you are asked to share just one picture with readers of Travel Tales from India which one it would be?

Mountainscapes are something I love the most.

How is your break from IT work shaping up? What advice will you give to others who wish to take the same road?

It has been so so. Blame it on me for not spending enough time doing a few things I should be doing. I would not really advice anyone to break from their secure jobs unless you have a very clear idea of what you are up to, and willing to go through good times and bad with ease.

One thing that you would like to share with us?

I assume this is related to travel. One thing I would ask people is to travel responsibly. Unfortunately, travel is something that doesn't go too well with the environment. Ensure that you don't splurge on things that eventually contribute to garbage or pollution, or do things that can disturb the local way of life.

Where are you headed next?

Don't know, as of today.

Feed them to Crocodiles- Swiss Sentiments about UBS

For a long time I have resisted the urge to link to articles related to the financial meltdown though I have been following it to the best of my ability. But the reaction of the Swiss investors to the UBS debacle as reported in BBC is just too good to pass. Among other things, one investor offered sausages to the UBS chairman in the meeting! A poster declares them to be United Bandits of Switzerland (UBS). And this is not all, there are many more nuggets in the article.

Well, those responsible were plain to see - a phalanx of UBS chief executives in expensive suits, on a raised dais, bathed in spotlights. It was not the best public relations image.

The Swiss know that UBS bosses earned among the highest salaries in Europe. Added to that were huge bonuses which they continued to award themselves even as the financial crisis unfolded.

I think there is more irony than humor and like everyone I am also wondering, when will all this end. I would also be very curious to see if there is a fundamental change in the executive salary structure by the time this crisis has played itself out.

Thank You Arun

update- i am right now in shatabde express blogging via the nokia n96. Now this is fun. Though cant figure out how to use 'enter' of the computer! So next line is from the scheduled post I wrote at home. I would be in Jaipur when this post gets publisahed. Would try live blogging via the iNokia N96 but then not sure how fast would be the connection and everything.

As I decided on Thursday that I am going to travel over the weekend, I knocked on Arun's Rajasthan posts and then mailed him messaged him and tried calling him to get Raju's contact. I normally prefer to venture on my own but this time I am too tired and watned to have someone around who knows about the place.

Arun replied to my mails, gave me a call and finally I could get in touch with Raju today.Thank you Arun.

Weekend Traveling with Nokia N96

Nokia N96- Spurring me for Weekend Travel

No, I have not bought a new handset again and that too a Nokia N96 which is priced at Rupees 35,500 or thereabout. I was offered to make use of this cell phone till end of the month by Bloggers' Mind. In return I could blog about my experiences!

Now I have been cribbing and cribbing about lack of travel in 2008 and I took this offer of N96 as an excuse to travel this weekend with my younger nephew. Sesha is about to take his grade 8 violin exam so he can't miss his weekend violin class. And Brat 2 has almost finished his first semester college exams (only one paper remains and he has ample time to prepare for that) so he made it very clear to me that he could come only on this weekend. So this weekend it is and about time too.

First we thought of Agra but ruled it out as they do not let you carry a cell phone inside the Taj Mahal premises. And I would not like to leave such an expensive phone in the custody of the Taj Mahal lockers particularly when it doesn't belong to me. In fact, I was asking the good lady, Prerna, from the Bloggers' Mind about their liability clause this evening when she came to hand over he phone to me! She just laughed it off.

The Club Mahindra Blog and My Prashar Lake Piece

Prashar Lake and the Temple in December, Picture Courtsey Anil

I discovered Prashar Lake by surfing through the net and when I went there, I liked the place so much. I want others to go and enjoy the place before it gets too crowded. So, when I got an opportunity to contribute to CLAY (The Club Mahindra Blog) I wrote about Prashar Lake. Have a look at my about Prashar Lake article at CLAY.

PS. Finally a weekend trip looks in sight with my nephew this Saturday!

Another Case of Lifting a Picture by Mudra?

PlaneMad reports that a picture taken by him was lifted by Mudra (the Ad agency from Wikipedia)!

But when i see a big print ad for a reputed online property portal that too by a respected agency in one of the leading english daily, skimping photography charges by stealing photos off wikipedia, you wouldn’t exaclty expect me to smile about it.

Cross posted at Blogbharti.

No More Tag

I tagged Steve a few days back with a long list of books and now I got tagged back. The question in front of me is-

What if you learned that you would soon be no more and you wanted to pass along all the lessons you have learned about life to a young person you care about. What would you say (or write)?

Sounds a little scary isn't it?

Whatever I am writing would be for my nephews (my niece is too little to be bothered). I think sometimes life does not make perfect sense. Heck, at some points it makes no sense at all! It is at times like these, if you could find just one reason to stay positive, that is enough.

And whether I am able to understand it or not due to some inexplicable reason life is beautiful.

That is it folks. My words doesn't sound to be full of wisdom! Please feel free to pick this tag up if you wish.

Naini Lake at Sunset, Nainital

Naini Lake, Nainital, Uttrakhand

I rarely indulge in nostalgia but today is one of those days ... thinking about the travel of the last year, what I was working academically on ... Maybe I will swap the December mood with October!

MSM (Mint) on MSM Lifting Images from Blogs in India

Mint did an article on Mainstream media lifting images from blogs and I thought it was a good one. It didn't even spare the home publication Hindustan Times-

The Hindustan Times, which is published by HT Media Ltd, has also faced similar allegations. For instance, Archana S.R., a Bangalore-based photographer, blogged last month that a Mumbai supplement of the Hindustan Times had reproduced her photo of an eco-friendly Ganesha idol, without permission.

“We would not tolerate any infringement of copyright, be it infringement on the part of our journalists or someone else infringing on (our) copyright,” says Sanjoy Narayan, recently appointed editor-in-chief of the Hindustan Times. “There is a need for greater awareness all around about the sensitivity of copyrights. Digital media is relatively new in India, and sometimes people don’t realize that creative work online is also published under copyrights.”

Mint, which is also published by HT Media, has specific guidelines for its staff on both text and photos as part of its Code of Conduct, which says: “We don’t copy the work of others… We do not plagiarize, meaning that we do not take the work of others and pass it off as our own.” (The full Code is available on Mint’s website, www.livemint.com.)

Just Flowers

Flowers and Only Flowers

There is so much happening around, complete turmoil in the global markets, very little travel and lots of work that is only partially getting done. So flowers without any reason.

Running Scared of the Bare your Soul Tag

Emma tagged me with the 'Bare your Soul' tag questions. Hmm, I am running for cover. Here is why!

1. If your lover betrayed you, what will your reaction be?

6. Which is more blessed - loving someone or being loved by someone?

9. If you would like to act with someone who will it be? Your GF/BF or an actor/actresses?

17. If you fall in love with two people simultaneously, who would you pick?

Hope you would not blame me for running sacred. Give me to yap about travel any day! But any souls out there who feel like doing the Bare your Soul tag, just see Emma's post.

Raid De Himalaya

Image from myHimachal

If you like to drive and better still on the mountain roads, myHimachal is blogging about Raid De Himalaya, I would go take an Avomine and go to sleep, I get such bad motion sickness on mountain roads!

Cross Posted at Blogbharti.

Times of India Plagiarizes Again

Times of India seems to be in regular habit plagiarizing. This time it is a photograph by Shrinidhi in their Chennai supplement.

I’d clicked this photo few months back at Marina beach and had uploaded it to my blog. Some users have referred to this image in some forum discussions also and incidently, if you search for Chennai police car in google, this image comes first.

I also feel that if your image comes on the first page of Google images, the chances of it getting lifted are more!

And fellow contributor Jo has complied a list of plagiarism incidents by media.

Cross Posted at Blogbharti

Crib, Crib and Crib

Fall sick for one week and you end up working so hard for the next two weeks. One week is over but I can see I am going to be extremely busy the next week too. So very little time for new blog posts.

And 2008 has been a lean year travel wise and it continues to be so.

The Fever Saga!

Last week, one evening while playing TT I was telling my colleagues that maybe I need to get my eyesight checked as I am having a headache. I even lost a doubles game that day! I get a peculiar headache when I get fever too and it dawned on me while driving home that I might be having fever. I checked my temperature when I came home and sure enough my temperature was 99.7. I had a class the next day, so I decided I would take it and then see what to do next.

Next day in the morning I had 101 fever and still decided to take the class. By afternoon I was in positively bad shape. In fact, a colleague suggested that I should take the rest of the day off, but there was a meeting at 4.00 pm and I decided that if I had lasted this long, I would last till a little after 4.00 too. Thankfully some sense had prevailed and I cancelled the next days class beforehand.

The next day, I had it. Had to ask Sesha to come back from office so that we could go to the doctor and he promptly came back and took me to a doctor, my fever had reached 103.6 at the night and was hovering around 102.8 to 102.9. The young lady who attended to me said I should go for a complete blood test and that she was worried about my platelet count. Being in Gurgaon it still did not ring a bell. I was told to collect the blood test report after 6.00 pm.

My nephew was kind to us and went to collect my report where everything came as normal, only my fever was not going down. We went to the doctor the next day again and this time there was another young lady doctor who attended me and when I said my fever is not really going down, she said why don't you repeat the platelet count once again, you could be having Dengue (there are a lot of cases of Dengue in Gurgaon as of now). They were kind to me and said they would let me know the result of the blood test within half an hour. We waited for sometime at the hospital itself but then I was getting too tired and we decided to go home.

The first time around I had no idea what platelet count meant but this time I was scared stiff, I in no case wanted to go down with Dengue! Thankfully when we called the hospital they told me my platelet count was still normal and I was not having Dengue. By that time my fever had come down to 100 and it went steadily down from there.

And today I was back at office but no TT as of now. In the meanwhile we had plans of taking off during October 2 to Octboer 9 but now only Sesha will go with his friends. 2008 had not been the year of travel for me!

Fever!

103.6 down to 102.9 so no real blogging for a while. This is the nth time I got fever this year but this one is the worst by far.

Update (17/09/2008)- Thanks a lot for your wishes, my temperature is now a little lower than Radio Mirchi! Maybe I will write a new post tomorrow.

White Washed Rainbows

Non Stop Goli: White washed Rainbows

Dr. Suchitra Roy writes a very moving guest post White Washed Rainbows about a patient she met as a part of her studies. If you have to read only one post today make sure it is this.

As my mind was doing this the boy was running his hand across the edge of the table. He was turning his head from where he supposed his father must be to the other side probably trying to find him out. Nothing about him to suggest he could not have been a boy straight from the fair, who had made his father buy him the goggles from a vendor. All he lacked was perhaps a red balloon; and I could half imagine him clutching one in his left hand. Or was there a lack that dint meet the eye? Only time would tell that,and in a few seconds it did.

Times of India Downloads Picture from Flickr and then Acts Funny

Twilight Fairy wrote to me about her picture being flicked by Times of India newspaper and the editor a Ms. Poonam Singh is now acting funny. And in her comment section you can find another user saying his/her picture was flicked by Economic Times. Shame on TOI.

Well, I clearly understand that it was not the editor herself stealing my image, but some downtrodden employee. But then undoubtedly, Ms. Poonam Singh, who represents the Times of India, is not performing her job of being an editor, if her employees are violating copyrights! Who is responsible for educating employees about copyright violation and the legal ramifications of it? How come the Indian publishing industry takes this so lightly, whereas the Indian IT industry (of which I am a part) takes IPR’s, patents and copyright violations so seriously that they throw out employees who download pirated mp3’s on their machines? I have undergone trainings on ethics a zillion times in my career. We have had several instances of audits, policies stuffed down our throats and what not. Why? Because the Indian IT industry takes this matter seriously. On the other hand, nauseatingly so, the Indian publishing industry takes this as its birthright!

Mishap on Jet Airways Flight: Aditya’s Parents' Question to Jet Airways and Aviation Authorities

Aditya Mohan: Aditya’s Parents' Question to Jet Airways and Aviation Authorities

I saw this said post today. I can understand the pain of the parents, they lost their 4.5 months old infant Aditya Mohan on a Jet Airways flight from Brussels to New Delhi. More from the blog-

Deceased: Aditya Mohan. Canadian Citizen and Person of Indian Origin. Age: Approx 4.5 months(DOB: 26 Jan 2008). Declared ‘Dead on Arrival’ by doctor from Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) on board the aircraft.

Cause of death as per autopsy: Asphyxiation due to chocking

Our baby died on board the aircraft on Jet Airways Flight229 (Brussels – Delhi). After the seat-belt signs had been turned on for descent of the flight into Delhi, my wife started feeding the baby. We were advised that this is normal procedure since feeding helps the baby relax during landing. While feeding, my wife realized that the baby had suddenly stopped sucking. We then buzzed for Cabin-crew and also removed seat-belts and rushed to their station. They looked at the baby and also decided to page passengers to see if there was a doctor on board. There was a doctor on board who came and looked at the baby but he did not look too hopeful.

The Beginning of a New Semester!

Remember how it used to feel when summer vacations were about to end? I know I am very lucky there is still a phase at my work that feels like summer vacation. But I start teaching from Monday and still feel the same about summer vacations coming to an end, the way I used to feel as a student, at least for a week of so!

Selling Cashewnuts on Indigo Flight!

Shrinidhi is quite irked to discover that Indigo Airlines sells 4 to 5 cashewnuts for Rs. 50.

Without any further delay, let me come to the point. Of so many items they sell on board, ‘flavored’ cashew nut seems to be the most popular and tasty one. They sell a small packet of cashewnut for Rs 50. When I saw the packet, I was hoping it will be at least 50 gms. Only after I got one in my hands I realized that it is just 20 gms-I ended up paying 50 Rs for just 4-5 cashewnuts.

So here is what he proposes-

Now, my proposition is that I can sell better quality cashew nut, for lesser price, in higher quantity than what Indigo currently does. While Indigo sells 20 gms for Rs 50, I propose to sell 25 gms for Rs 40.
...
Hello Indigo…Are you listening? I want to sell cashew nut on board your flights-please permit!

Cross Posted at Blohbharti.

Lazy Sunday Photo- Inkfruit T Shirt

Inkfruit T Shirt

Remember the Inkfruit website? I got the promised T Shirt and I must say I liked it. Thank you Inkfruit. And apologies for no taking a better picture, with the weather being what it is many of my folks are taking turns to fall sick! Let us see if I too join the queue.

Off Topic- Thai Airways Espnstar.com Wimbledon Contest

You know, sometimes I do things on a whim, without any rhyme or reason! I watch Tennis a lot, at least I try to catch up all the grand slams. No, no watching Tennis is not what I am calling doing things without a rhyme or reason.

I tried to predict the winners for Wimbledon 2008 at Thai Airways ESPNStar.com Contest. Now that clearly belongs to 'doing things without rhyme or reason.'

But it got curiouser from there. I am using Mozilla Firefox and I tried filling out the form. Jeez it would not let me pick 'female' as my gender. And I must say that is mighty irritating. I mean in this age and time? Could be a bug? That is a stupid bug if it is.

Could be a malware/virus on my computer. But then if you have sometime to spare and if you use firefox would you please try this and let me know if it is a virus or not?

PS. I picked Roger Federer and Svetlana Kuznetsova as my winners. I am bored with Federer winning Wimbledon so many times but then he has not won anything this year and I am sure he is going to try hard. Kuznetsova I picked up on a whim! She also seems to be in form.

PPS. I am mailing to the good folks at contest@espnstar.com too. Let us see if there is something in this or if it is just my computer.

Update 1- Asked a friend who was online to try this out for me. She says she too can't pick 'female' as her gender in Firefox but can do so in IE. Now I have no idea what percent of the market is with Firefox but it is a mighty decent browser. Were the ESPN Star guys rushing when they did the site?

Reflection on the River Thames!

Reflection of a Duck on the Thames River, Oxford

It was that time of the year in Oxford, UK (June 2008) when light used to be in abundance and it was easy to catch reflections on the river Thames. I love catching reflections in my photographs.

Also, in the British college curriculum (BBA) there is a heavy emphasis on reflection as a technique of self development. I mean, in one of the courses I teach my students get video recorded while giving mock interviews (among many other things) and they can see the tapes and reflect on what went right and what needs to be changed. Now I as a student never had any such opportunity and made all my mistakes live.

I remember I once appeared in an interview for sports journalism with the Indian Express Group. I was just about to finish my Ph.D. and on a whim I made a CV and sent it across. In the interview I was asked, "Why Sports Journalism now?" And like a fool I said, "Because I wish to take a break." Now when was anyone interested in sponsoring my break? Anyway, I learned my lesson.

At the moment, I do not have to teach and I have some great writing assignments lined up. Academic writing does not comes easily to me, it is lot of hard work, slogging but it is also something that I like a lot. However the resolve to see them through wavering at times! Which would be suicide.

It is time to pause, to reflect. And get things going.

Do You Have a Flair for Designing T Shirts?

If you have a flair for designing T Shirts you may find Inkfruit an interesting site. They have an ongoing contest where you can submit your T Shirt designs and vote for others too. Here is a FAQ about this T Shirt site and design competition.

Details of the prizes for the winning T Shirt designs can be found here.

I browsed through the T Shirts and actually my nephews liked many of the wacky designs.

Full Disclosure: I was contacted by the site asking if I would blog about them. What do I get in return? Well, a T Shirt of course. I picked this T Shirt design and my nephews immediately told me that they don't like it! They wanted something more wacky but I had to remind them this one for a change was for me!

Heading Out Soon!

Self Reflection at Khrupatal

Would be heading out soon for a week in UK, mostly work. But will have a camera in hand too, actually make it two. Wish to buy a new lens but not sure if I will manage to. I need this break. Not the most ideal break but a break nonetheless.

Off Topic- Youtube and Old Hindi Movie Songs

I wonder how com I realized so late that any old Hindi movie song I desire to hear, it is there on Youtube. And some of the songs that I like a lot (rimjhim gire sawan for example, with the kind of rains NCR is getting :) I actually have never seen the videos before!

Near Abby Falls Coorg

Spotted this 'Danger Spot' board near Abby Falls in Coorg. I wonder what was the danger that this board was warning us about.

One completely unrelated danger that I can see is that if I am not careful, my travel plans for 2008 are in real danger. I mean it is May and I have gone out only once, to Lansdowne.

Oh My God!

I was browsing through my sitemeter and followed a link that led to a Hindi translation of my blog.
I mean the stuff is hilarious but only if you can read Hindi. Every other line is without context. Sample this-

In an ideal world this summer I would like to visit Ladakh again.
इस दुनिया में एक आदर्श मैं गर्मियों में लद्दाख फिर से यात्रा करना चाहते हैं .

Look at the picture at the left, can you blame me if I yearn to be there again?
चित्र में देख पर छोड़ दिया है , आप कर सकते हैं यदि मैं मेरे दोष इच्छा को वहाँ फिर से ?

Poor person, whoever s/he was and wanted to read the stuff in Hindi. I hardly ever try translating stuff on the web so this came as a surprise for me.

PS. Will follow up on the previous post soon. This post was done on the spur of the moment.

Monet Talk or Not!

Monet Picture at Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

I am very poor at appreciating art. I know of only a few big names like Monet, Van Gogh and umm, OK, Michaelangelo.

So why am I talking (or not) about Monet now? Well, it all started with this post that I linked at Blogbharti-

Kusum visits the Poppy fields in Antelope Vally in the US and her pictures are a feast for the eyes.

No no, wait, I am coming to Monet. Then came Sunil who left this comment.

Thanks, great snaps.

I suppose the only excuse for not associating with Monet would have to be death.

Now I am curious and ask him (at Blogbharti), "So is Monet associated with death?" I am curious because his comment jogs my memory that I actually have seen a Monet painting at Oxford (the one posted above) and I thought maybe that at home turf (i.e. Blogbharti) I can take the risk of asking dumb questions. Hmm the answer I got convinced me that I should leave art well alone.

Er no. My fault, the way in which i said it. I just wanted to say it reminds me of Monet’s well known poppies. And almost instantaneously one would associate the snaps with the paintings. The only reason not to is if you have died. especially for me coz one monet hangs in my bed room. ;)
Cheers

OK, now that I read it again it makes some sense because Kusum uploaded pictures of poppies and Monet painted poppies ... But then I will not go anywhere near art for quite sometime now. Scares me stiff.

Suhana Safar Aur Ye Mausam Haseen!

View While Walking from Komik to Demul

I don't know how this Spiti picture escaped my notice for such a long time. Komik to Langza was the longest walk on this trek but the day was so beautiful, there were clouds and I think the song 'suhana safar aur ye mausam haseen' (it is a pleasent journey and the weather too is pleasent is the poor translation of the song in English) fits the mood perfectly.

I found the video of the song on Youtube.

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

I started reading Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer late tonight (or should I say early morning, it is around 1.30 in the night). I am just through the back page, the snippets from the various reviews and the first chapter. I read a lot, or at least I try to. And never before I started blogging so early about any book. The first chapter starts backwards, Jon is hading back after standing on the top of Mount Everest and later discovers (while he is waiting for 'a traffic jam of climbers coming up to clear at Hillary Step') that he is left without oxygen. He also mentions at the very beginning what a disaster this 1996 expedition was going to be.

He wrote in the introduction that there are variations in his account that he did for the Outside Magazine and the book. Looks like that entire article is online at the Outside Magazine site.

Also, I have borrowed this book from my colleague (the same who took these pictures of Prashar Lake). Remember what I said there-

This is what Prashar Lake can look like in December! No, I didn't go there but Anil did ... Anil is my colleague from work, not at all active in the blog world and I guess least inclined too!

Well, he proved me wrong, he went ahead and acquired a travel blog! I hope he will update it too.

Protest by Tibetan Monks in Nepal

Sirensongs brings some disturbing pictures and news of monks being beaten up for protesting against China in Nepal.

The Nepali boys went straight for the one monk of the three protestors - -with large 2x2 wooden sticks raining blows.

"Don't take pictures! Don't take pictures!" they yelled at anyone with a visible camera. Then, "This is not a place for protest! This is our God-place! Do not protest here!" in English. Which to me, sounded very rehearsed and conspicuous. In English? The attackers were local Nepali boys (from the Tamang community, if it matters).

When I started Blogging ...

When I started Blogging ... I would blog just for the heck of it. Then I started thinking more and more about it and suddenly when I wanted to write something today, I was just giving it too much thought. Should I write it like this? Should I write it like that? Then with a start I realized I am treating it almost like work. And then it dawned that I enjoyed blogging so much because I did it for myself ... Time to go back to that mode again.

Oh Boy!

As Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes fame) would say- Oh boy, Oh boy and Oh boy again. For a while (by optimistic estimates) all you would get to see on this blog are pictures. I mean any more work my way and I feel I will simply vanish into the think air!

Time to Head Out Again

Que (rhymes with Queue) A Dish from Spiti

No, of course I am not heading to Spiti but I am heading out soon and how I am yearning for it. We realized that in the entire 2007 we never took a train (apart from coming back from New Jalpaiguri, from Sikkim). So we are not going to make the same mistake again. We take a train and head out to Uttrakhand this time.

Last few months it seems have been work, work and more work. However much I try, something remains. I have been carrying work home almost daily. I can see things being extremely hectic till the semester ends. So while we are heading out I know as soon as I come back, I will be swamped with work, work and even more work. And even now I have so much unfinished work that it is going to give me nightmares even on vacation. But as Sesha is so fond of saying ... "This too shall pass." I mean I am really tired.

I have Been Wondering!

For quite sometime now, I have been wondering if I should mix some of my academic stuff on this blog. You see, I have started using data from travel Internet Message Boards for academic purposes. And it has been a fascinating exercise. I mean I get to spend time on the internet reading about travel and do some research too! I think I will write more on this.

Sticky Post: My Photo with Credit to Someone Else- Is it Time to Ping Again

This post is sticky for a few more days, regular posts continue below. I made it unsticky today (30/01/2008)

Compensation!

Remember that post-

Yesterday I took a flight from Delhi to Bangalore. I picked up the flight magazine (December Issue). I found that in their feature article they have taken a picture of mine with a credit to someone else. And of course there is no question of asking my permission as the credit is given to someone else. I am mad.

Well, I was promised a correction in the next issue and compensation too. Now I have not heard from then in a long while. This mishap happened in the December issue and I agree their January issue must have been in the press by the time we got talking. But now it must be time for the February issue and I have not heard from anyone. Should I wait or should I bother the editor again?

PS. This time the post remains sticky till the matter is settled.

Update (27/01/2008)- I wrote to the editor and asked what was the compensation amount.

He replied that they pay Rs. 500 per photograph normally. To me they would offer Rs. 1000. I am OK with that. I have been updating this at Indiamike too. I really liked this quote by Shakti (see message 85) when I posted the same there-

There is a much larger issue here in that corporations are becoming very casual about stealing imagery from unsuspecting photographers. If the penalty for getting caught is posting a clarification on the source and perhaps a token payment to the original photographer then there's zero incentive for them to change their practices.

So I sent it across to the editor too. Oh, well after reading the quote (I had quoted the source to the editor), the editor went mad and basically tried telling me that I was too small for them to buy pictures from me (I have no issues with that but still they ended up using one of my pictures and I thought I was the wronged party).

By this time I too was running think on patience and I told him it is probably time that I name the magazine and the airline on my blog and at Indiamike.

You would not have believed the complete change of tone in the next email from the editor. Of course, they appreciated that I did not name the magazine. Of course, they would mail me a check in a day or two. Of course, they were interested in my postal address and of course they would send me a copy of the February issue.

All I can say is THANK GOD FOR THE INTERNET. That gives an option to mere mortals like me to write.

Update (29/01/2008) Got that check for 1000 rupees, as promised, on time. The magazine has been promised after 2nd February. Thanks a lot for all your support.

Jet Airways- Making a Customer Run from Pillar to Post

Recently came across a post on Indiamike about Jet Airways making a customer run from pillar to post. They lost the luggage and then they are not responding through customer care. I thought I will do this small post about Jet Airways to say I understand. The entire thread about the Jet Airways not responding to the complain is here. Following is a short quote-

Let me preface this by saying that I consider myself a patient person. However, my patience is being tested by Jet Airways after they lost my luggage one week ago and have offered me virtually no assistance in recovering it. Their customer "service" is truly appalling!!!! Any advice on how I can get my luggage back??

Cross posted at Blogbharti.

Off Topic- That Magic Drink, Tea

A Cup of Tea- Magical!

I am really surprised how come I did not wax eloquent about my favorite drink in the world. No, this was not the planned post for today. Smita is responsible for this one. She has waxed eloquent about tea and it is infectious. And I have to quote her-

Drinking tea is a form of meditation, did you know?

Just sitting there, with a steaming cup in the hand, the mind is so relaxed, so much at peace. The Buddhist monks still use it as a mode of meditation. Tea is regularly offered as means of learning, practicing, and experiencing awareness in simple, everyday activities.

I absolutely agree with her. There was a time when my daily average (read Ph.D. days) tea consumption was about 20 cups. No, this is true, I can count from one to twenty. Now it is down just to six cups of tea. But 20 or six, I do absolutely adore the drink.

Train and Travel in India

Steve has put up an interesting account of his trip through India and Nepal. I have not read all his posts and I do not know how to link to individual posts but whatever I have read, I find it interesting.

If you are ever the houseguest of friends that have traveled in India do this. Get quietly out of bed, one night at about 4:30 am , stand just outside their bedroom door and start shouting "CHAI, CHAI, CHAI" as LOUD as you can. They'll think its funny and thank you for bringing back many happy memories of their Indian travels.

Another common item hawked up and down the carriages of trains are short pencil length twigs. People were handing over money for these things and so I thought they must be of some value but I couldn't for the life of me figure out what.

I later saw a man attacking his teeth and gums with one and realized they are used instead of toothbrushes. He was really giving it beans and seemed to be quite pleased with the results, giving me a large wide grin displaying his remaining teeth.

Cross posted at Blogbharti.

Lands End Lighthouse Luggage from Lands' End- This Review is Long Overdue

Lighthouse Luggage courtesy Lands' End

Long time back (in fact, now when I look at the date of the conversation, it was my birthday!) I got a mail from a good lady from Lands' End. They asked if I would be interested in receiving a carry on bag from them (free of cost) as they plan to put it in the hands of some frequent travelers?

In reply, I asked the good lady if she had any idea that I live in India and they would have to ship it all this way? She replied that it would be no problem. And sure enough after a few days I had it!

But then when we travel within India we generally rough it out. So, the bag was not used for quite some time. The first time I used it was for my trip to Nainital (another coincidence! sponsored bag for a sponsored trip) but then didn't got around writing about the bag episode then. I took this to UK and I must say I liked the stuff. It is much more sturdy than my VIP skybag (but then this one weighs more, though it is OK as I don't have to carry it) and doesn't feel flimsy. I like the top pockets as I am one of those who need to keep things till the last moment that miraculously appear in my hand out of nowhere. Also the handle push button is more conveniently located at the top rather than requiring you to bend to operate it. Another good feature the possibility of stuffing a few things extra because of the design that lets it expand a bit when really stuffed (discovered this while coming back from UK).

And what I liked best about the episode? I am quite wary of blogging about stuff that I get free without disclosing the fact that it is a gift. So, before saying yes, I asked if I could mention that this was a gift. The reply was yes of course and I need not blog about it till I felt like it. So, that is what I have done. Now that I have used this quite a few number of times, I am comfortable talking about it.

2008 Begins on a Silent Note!

Twilight at Dhankar, Spiti, India

Due to cold somehow I have chocked my voice! Nephew is too happy, he can keep teasing me and I can only glare and not reply. Even my students would be very happy if they come to know of it! But thankfully classes begin next week only.

Methinks this is a sign that I should talk less and read and write more in 2008!

My Travels in 2007- May We all Travel More in 2008

Kanchanjanga- Pelling, Sikkim

I guess I liked 2007 a lot and would not change too many things. 2007 started on the right note as we spent the new year eve in the train coming back from Sikkim.

Shringi, Himachal Pradesh

Then in February we went to Shringi Vatika in Himachal Pradesh. I went along with my younger nephew there in March again to retrieve my cell phone from Shringi.

Prashar Lake, Himachal Pradesh

Then in May we visited Prashar Lake again in Himachal Pradesh. Both Sesha and I consider it as one of our best trips in 2007.

Magnificent Spiti, Himachal Pradesh

June was time for heading to trek in the magnificent Spiti with Sesha and my elder nephew.

Naini Lake, Nainital, Uttrakhand

In September I headed to Nanital with my younger nephew and the trip was sponsored by the Shervani Hilltop Resorts. This was the first sponsored trip that happened to me because of my blog.

Tower Bridge, London

Then in October end November beginning I was in UK and though this was related to work I did manage to roam around a lot and thoroughly enjoyed the trip.

Dubare Elephant Camp, Coorg

And then came the Club Mahindra Travel Blogger's Coorg trip. This was another sponsored trip and I guess I got extremely lucky this year.

MAY WE ALL TRAVEL MORE IN 2008!

Zilch Chances?

Marble Arch, London

I did a post long back in 2006 for some London Hotel Portal and I wrote-

They promise me a good hotel deal if I ever head to London, well chances are absolutely slim, zilch I must say, but it is fun to get such requests.

Kent had left a comment on that post-

I bet you will get there! Lve the blog!

Now here I am, I actually went to UK and London in 2007!

Now if I say chances of going to Ireland are zilch, maybe I will get there eventually?

When You See a Picture Taken by You in an In Flight Magazine with a Credit to Someone Else!

Note: This Post is sticky for the time being. The regular posts continue below. I will be updating this post as and when I get some new information.

Update (27/12/2007): I have made this post unsticky in honor of these pictures from Prashar Lake in December (pictures courtesy Anil, my colleague).

Yesterday I took a flight from Delhi to Bangalore. I picked up the flight magazine (December Issue). I found that in their feature article they have taken a picture of mine with a credit to someone else. And of course there is no question of asking my permission as the credit is given to someone else. I am mad.

After consulting a lot of people through mail and putting the same question at Indiamike, I have written to the airline but this being end of the year I doubt I will hear back soon. I will wait for a decent period of time (say January 15 or should I wait longer?) before putting a post with the name of the airline.

Update 1 (24/12/2007): I heard from the airline and the editor who handles the work for the airline. I must say they are prompt. I wrote them over on the weekend and by Monday morning I got the reply. The editor says they got the picture from the person who they have attributed it to. According to the editor the person is one of the top travel writers in India. The editor has asked for one week's time to get back to me. So far so good.

Update 2 (25/12/2007): I had googled the author to whom the picture was attributed and I wrote a mail to him asking if he had any idea how he got the credit for the picture? I got a reply. He says he was away and an assistant sent the pictures. When one of his was not opening, the assistant simply downloaded a picture from the internet and sent it to the magazine editor that turned out to be mine. He admits there has been a mistake and says he is willing to write to the editor and also pay me out of his own pocket. I agreed to writing to the editor but of course not to paying out of pocket. Looks like the thing will settled quickly? I will now wait to hear from the editor and the airline again.

Update 3 (26/12/2007): Heard from the editor again. He says they will print a correction in the next issue and pay me for the picture. Also said they would try to put a system in place so that such incidents can be minimized. I asked if I could get a copy of the issue in which the clarification occurs. I hope I will! The editor didn't mention what they would pay I didn't ask. But I think this should be the end of the matter.

I will make this un-sticky only when I see the correction. The worst part in this whole episode is the role of chance. Had I not taken that flight with the particular airline , I would have never known about this whole stuff.

Oxford City Center- If I Had to Pick One Picture!

Oxford City Center, Oxford, UK

Uber Mensch asked me to do a Meme (don't ask me what they are, I only know tags). From the blog-

Here is the new meme. It is simple, easy and gives no room for whining one usually associates with a meme. All you have to do is select and upload one photo that you have clicked this year that is special to you. Could be anything...aesthetic, technical or personal. Also, put in a short note why it is special.

I picked up the above picture for many reasons. One, I went abroad after 4 long years and it felt nice (all my trips abroad have been for work, we do not holiday abroad). It felt nice to be in a 'foreign' country again. It was a nice feeling that I again have the opportunity to work on the things I like.

I visited Leeds, Oxford and London and I think I enjoyed my stay in Oxford the most. The reason is very simple. Oxford is a very walking friendly city and I love to walk. That is the reason why I picked up the picture above. Reminds me of all the long walks that I took.

Update- I wrote a mail to Uber Mensch saying I did the post and he said the meme is not compete as I have not passed it on. Well, here are five people I pass it on to.

Paul Shoul- Ace photographer from Gonomad, I simply love his pictures. If he does this meme, then it would be really interesting to see which one he picks up.

Arun- Another ace photographer, who doesn't blogs as much as I would like to read him. Let us see what he would come up with.

Dev- The 'pizza man' has worked in/with advertising, let us see if he has time to do this and what picture is dear to him this year.

Anil- Can I miss on one of my favorite travel blogger? He too blogs far less than what I would like to read.

Arun Nair- He was asking about SLRs, so let us see what he likes to capture.

Club Mahindra Trip- Some Unexpected Responses

I went to the Kodagu Community blog because of the link they gave to my video of the dance from the region. Never thought the trip would invoke such a response in one corner of the blog world. The blogowner says in a comment on the post-

Would you like Kodava culture to be shown to the drunk-tourists at late nights? (9-10 pm) I can understand if some curious people, who really want to know about the culture, are the audience.

Well, here is what I wrote in reply.

You go on a trip and you get labeled as half drunk or was it drunk tourist. I don't think we qualify as a bunch of drunk tourist!

But did you see any disrespect in any of our posts towards the local culture?

Thanks for giving an alternative perspective. Didn't know the trip would elicit such a response in a corner of the blogworld.