Monsoon in Mumbai

I promise I will place some good monsoon pics soon on my blog ! The problem is that the monsoon so far has been quite erratic, and the camera never seems to be available handy when the rains do strike !!

So far, the monsoon has played truant - couple of heavy showers over the past 4 weeks is all what Mumbai got. That’s not good news - monsoon determines India’s agricultural output, no less ! It also largely determines the water supply and power situation in Maharashtra State, India’s most industrialised and largest state, hosting its financial capital.

It rained heavily on 1st July morning, and that heavy downpour brought the city to a halt. Metro trains could not function, and I was shocked to witness the one-foot deep water on the Western Expressway, of all places. Below the expressway, where the low-lying areas abound, it was a total mess, giving lie to the Municipal Corporation’s boasts that they were ready for this year’s monsoon. People can only get scared thinking of what would have happened to Mumbai if the rains continued non-stop, as they normally do in July. Just recall what happened in 2005 and even in 2006. The city is hardly prepared even now, given all the learnings from the past experiences. And, we are talking about one single city of India - the financial, commercial and entertainment capital of India - which pays over 40% of India’s taxes.

But, to save the Municipal Corporation and the State Government from charges of negligence and apathy, the rain god decided to further delay the rains. It has showered on and off after 1st July, nothing that could hamper even the pedestrians ! That monsoon behaviour is no good either. If the pattern continues like this for the next couple of weeks, I guess Mumbai would have water supply problem, combined with partial power cuts. At the end of the day, this only proves one thing - good governance and efficient urban management is elusive even in the best of the countries around, but in India it is a scarce commodity. It is a precious skillset lacking absolutely all around India, which incidentally is in a state of political paralysis with the Communist Party threatening to withdraw support to the ruling UPA Government at the Centre.

But the beauty of Mumbai is that its people just do not bother - I was again amazed just looking at the people on the streets - sometime quite well dressed - moving about in heavy rains as though things are pretty normal. I could not even hear raised voices cursing anyone for the state of affairs. Mumbai folks are practical and have learnt to fend for themselves, they know for sure it is no use depending on the undependable and unreliable !

Life goes on, stock market is on the mend, people appear to be positive in their outlook, so it is business as usual in the business capital of the country !

Have a wonderful weekend, and don’t miss the Wimbledon !!

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan
4th July 2008
Mumbai

Jim Corbett National Park

I had the opportunity to spend a couple of days for a retreat near the Jim Corbett National Park.

It takes 7 hours of uneven road travel to reach the Park area in the Uttaranchal State. The road from Delhi is part highway, part dusty tracks by the side - lots of dust I should say. Infrastructure cries for redemption all over India, and this area is no exception. Except I expected a better infrastructure around Delhi than in any other part of the country ! With heavy trucks, lorries, buses, cars, vans, tractors, bullock carts, and cycles (apart from the occasional pedestrians trying to cross the road risking their lives), it requires heavy concentration and ability to brake rather very quickly to manoeuvre the highway.

Nevertheless, Jim Corbett is worth a trip. Though it is rare to sight any tigers (I didn’t), or elephants, I managed to see deers and monkeys. I guess one has to spend considerable time within the forest area in order to be able to see anything more significant. There are procedures to be complied with while gaining admittance into the park. Like most publicly maintained facilities in India, there is confusion while going in - they ask a lot of questions and delay the entry while checking a series of documents, including driving licenses ! It is never smooth, coordinated, easy entry for tourists who have taken the trouble to come all the way.

However, finally one gets in on a four-wheel drive - the Maruti Gypsy. It’s a rough ride all the way, and people with back problems better be careful. The ride can’t be made smoother, there is no proper road inside - it is a dirt track all the way. The drivers are quite rough and push the vehicles to extreme performance while ensuring a rocky ride to the passengers. But, you tend to ignore all that, in the hope of seeing some wild animals.

Suddenly, the driver stops the vehicle and shuts down the ignition, and cautions all of us to be silent. We look around carefully, holding our breath. Voila, there comes a deer ! We raise the cameras, and it appears frightened. However, we manage to capture some shots……the driver now explains it would be better to go along the river stream to see the elephants, but alas, no such luck.

Here are some photos, some more in the next post :

DSC08394.JPG, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Jim Corbett National Park

DSC08370.JPG, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Road leading to Jim Corbett National Park

DSC08374.JPG, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

A poor shot of the deer…….from a moving vehicle

DSC08377.JPG, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Gypsies at the parking lot

DSC08407.JPG, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

A view of the river stream

DSC08406.JPG, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

River Stream at Jim Corbett

DSC08390.JPG, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

A dirt track in Jim Corbett - one can see the big pebbles on both sides of the track

DSC08381.JPG, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Lunch with the Tigers, anyone ?

DSC08382.JPG, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Periphery of the Park

DSC08393.JPG, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

A view of the dirt track inside the National Park

Hope you relished the pics, though nothing great. Make the Jim Corbett National Park as one of your “must-see” places.

Some of the relevant links for your further read on Jim Corbett are as follows :

“Corbett Park”

“Jim Corbett (hunter) - Wikipedia”

“Jim Corbett National Park - Spectrum Tours”

Have a great weekend

Cheers

Vijay Srinivasan
12 April 2008
Mumbai

White Water Rafting @ Kundalika

Today was it - the first time I ever overcame the fear of white water rafting !

A fabulous wet experience by any standard, and that too in this part of India (Maharashtra) - I had always thought that to get any white water rafting, one had to go to Rishikesh.

Unfortunately, no photo-taking was possible, so I am directing readers to the website of the organizers - “Wild River Adventures” . You can view the photo gallery on the site to visualise some of the experiences I went through today !

Reaching Kolad on the Mumbai - Goa Highway takes approximately 3 hours. There are small sign boards on to your right as you get into the Kolad village, and one can easily miss these - I asked why the signboards were not big and clear with necessary directions, and was told that big-sized signboards are hacked away for their material content ! So small ones are used, and there are atleast 3 companies with signboards pointing to the left direction.

So we turned left, and quickly crossed the railway crossing. It was a winding road leading all the way to Pune. We missed the turn to the Camp and drove for quite some distance before we located a small signboard on Wild River Adventures (WRA), which took us to their booking office. Finally got back to the Camp for the night rest……

This is a serene place with quiet surroundings that I really liked. The only thing I was worried about was the mosquito bombing threat, luckily in the rooms there were no mosquitoes, even though the organizers had provided mosquito nets inside the camping tents. The rooms were really large but simple, for a comfortable stay.

We headed for the river around 8:30 AM - it was approximately 7 to 8 Kms away. WRA guys are experts in white water rafting, rappelling, kyaking, et al. They explained the rafting procedures, especially the safety aspects, and advised us to follow orders. Then we wore our life jackets and helmets, grabbed the paddles, and headed to the rafts parked near the river bed.

Our trainer loaded all of us inside the raft - 9 of us - and asked us to paddle forward. After about 20 metres, he asked all of us to jump into the river ! I hesitated, but he gave no choice, and assured me that I would be absolutely safe. However, the fear of sinking was always there, and I was not alone ! The water appeared to be deep. Anyway, we all jumped in and after the initial screams we were all right, just floating on the water ! Climbing back up into the raft is tough, even when someone is pulling you up - one has to be quick and keep the legs away from the raft - pull the rope down and push the weight up. We all managed to get back ofcourse !

This exercise removes the water fear, though not completely. But it atleast familiarises one with the river and the surroundings. After some more paddling, we headed to the flowing river with the water gushing forth - the gates of the Mulshi Dam were opened around 30 minutes before we hit the river, so it was in full force. Going from the relatively still section of the water to the gushing river spooked some folks ofcourse ! We joined the river and almost immediately saw the rapids ! Were we astounded ?!

It was an amazing experience to go through even the smallest of the rapids. We must have gone through atleast 10 rapids of varying levels today. I exchanged my place to be at the nose of the boat to experience an even higher level of thrill, and it was worth every drop of water ! Great experience, hardly any safety issues. One has to follow orders of the trainer strictly and observe basic precautions to maintain the place on the raft ! At the calm areas of the river between the rapids one is encouraged to jump into the river and enjoy the peace of floating horizontally in a yogic pose. I did that for almost 20 minutes, and it was unbelievably calming and refreshing, to say the least, apart from the fact that you are in the middle of a flowing river 100 feet wide.

Now I am encouraged to seek even more thrill - may be I would wait till the monsoon time when 6 instead of 3 gates of the dam are opened up, and the water level is likely to be atleast 10 feet higher than what it was today. Or, may be one has to take the Rishikesh Challenge !

Strongly recommended for all except the most faint-hearted.

Have a great weekend,

Cheers

Vijay Srinivasan
5th April 2008
Mumbai

Udaipur Pics #2

I went around Udaipur a bit, especially around the lake. It is an enchanting place, very romantic in the evenings especially when the sun sets.

I tried my hand in shopping but that did not work out well - the paintings were overpriced.

Nevertheless, I am sure that Udaipur ought to be in one’s India itinerary. Its regal splendour would charm most people.

Some more pics here for your viewing pleasure - you can see that one needs a Digital SLR instead of ordinary Digital Cameras for such shots. But given the compactness and convenience of small digital cameras, one can’t complain too much. Here you go !

DSC07552, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

The Lake Palace - beautiful in its white splendour and solitude in the middle of the Lake…….

DSC07576, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Lovely Sunset from the banks of the Udaipur Lake - in the background is the Lake Palace

DSC07582, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Fateh Prakash Palace Hotel

DSC07586, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Beautifully lit lake palace at Sunset

DSC07587, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Garlanded landing station for boats

DSC07593, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Fabulously lit Pichola Palace on the lake

DSC07597, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Inside the courtyard of the Pichola Lake Palace

DSC07600, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Entrance of the Pichola Lake Palace

Enjoy the pics, and do visit Udaipur !

Cheers

Vijay Srinivasan
22 December 2007
Mumbai

Udaipur Pics #1 (Udaivilas)

Sometimes, one wishes to be a King.

If you are one of the folks who would like to temporarily feel like a King, then one of the best places to go (in India) would be Udaipur. Actually, Udaipur is a small town in the State of Rajasthan. The State is famous for its palaces and forts, and ofcourse, the eternal city of Jaipur also known as the “Pink City”. Jaipur is the capital city of the State.

If you wish to be a modern King, then again Udaipur offers the Oberoi Udaivilas Hotel, a modern grandeur on the lines of the traditional fortress looking structures of Rajasthan. It is a wonderful experience to stay in this Hotel and enjoy the service levels that one can only dream about in other 5-Star Hotels around the world. Oberoi is anyway known for outstanding service and courtesy. While the grand entrance astounds the senses, I was not impressed by the lobby area which was quite small for a King’s presence. The fusion of modernity with the elegance and tradition of Rajasthani palace was a bit jarring at some places around the Hotel. This is not really a King’s Palace outsourced like many others around Rajasthan to hoteliers who convert the same into grand hotels without destroying the original beauty and elegance. Udaivilas is a newly conceived palace. Take a look at the pics below :

DSC07507, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Oberoi Udaivilas View

DSC07513, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

The Swimming Pool area

DSC07516, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Beautiful Courtyard

DSC07518, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Garden View

DSC07530, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Breakfast at 8 deg Celsius !

DSC07539, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

At the entrance

DSC07541, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Intricate Structural Beauty

DSC07546, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

A view of the entrance

DSC07548, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

The Grand Entrance to the Hotel

DSC07636, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

One feels like a King !

I took more than 50 pics of the Hotel…….it’s again a great experience to visit Udaipur and stay in this outstanding Hotel, recommended strongly.

Have A Wonderful Weekend Folks,

Cheers

Vijay Srinivasan
16th December 2007
Mumbai

Udaipur Weekend

I was at Udaipur all of this weekend.

Stayed at the famed Oberoi Udaivilas, rated as the second best hotel in the world by Conde Nast Traveller, a leading travel publication “Conde Nast Gold List 2006″ . The description here states that it is a “A newly built Mewari-style palace hotel complete with gilt domes, fountains, colonnades and hand-painted murals. Located on Lake Pichola, across the water from Udaipur, Udaivilas is set in 30 acres of immaculate grounds.”

While it was a great hotel by several measures, it has its own idiosyncracies which I discovered. I will outline these along with the photographs I took in the next blogpost. The hotel website is located at “Oberoi Udaivilas” .

Cheers

Vijay Srinivasan
9th December 2007
Mumbai

Walking Vs Work-out

I discovered (belatedly though I should say) that rapid, brisk walking does good to one’s physique as well as creates a sense of well-being after every completion of the walk.

I have been more or less consistently walking for approximately 35 minutes every morning covering a distance of around 2.2 Kms. I am yet to measure the distance accurately, this is only a broad guesstimate.

Given the time it takes to hit the club from home, I can only find time for some serious work-out once a week, I am still trying desperately to increase this to twice a week. The only major benefit I see in the work-out is the muscle strengthening from mild weight lifting (I believe heavy duty stuff is unnecessary for folks who do not really need 6-pack abs). Ofcourse, every individual’s need differs at various stages of life. But I determined that there are three things that are critical for achieving a decent health status - brisk walking, moderate weight lifting, and a positive attitude at all times. The last one is difficult to achieve for most people (including me), but should be seriously attempted despite challenges in the environment and generic living/driving conditions. The mental state determines the rest of the day, I firmly believe in this aspect.

Keeping the mind clear of any work or life related issues during the walk or the work-out is also very important. The mind has to be calm and clear, and intensely focused on achieving the goal. Sometimes, you can relax the mind with some music, or by seeing some screen action on the TV in front of you at the gym. But the best would be to sync the body action with the mind, it is difficult but can be achieved with practice.

I also help myself by frequently drinking water while working out, this is again an important aspect of building the strength of the body - water is a neglected element for most of us indulging in coffee and soft drinks. I have consistently desisted from the soft drinks’ impact - except for an occasional diet coke. It helps that in India one rarely gets diet coke, you get diet pepsi in most places which I don’t like. Juices should be avoided at all times for these add calories via the sugar content - atleast the ones you get outside of your home for sure.

Not able to escape the coffee need though. Tea is a better option.

I have seen the benefit of walking, and am trying hard to increase the distance walked every morning. My estimate is that the optimal time required is 45 minutes, and the distance should be not less than 3 Kms. Jogging is not as good as brisk walking in my opinion, but opinions do tend to differ vastly on this.

Have a good walk or run (!) tomorrow morning !

Cheers

Vijay Srinivasan
2nd December 2007
Mumbai

Husband 1.0

NOTE : This is from a family friend, I thought it is hilarious, Enjoy !

Installing Husband 1.0

Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow-down in overall system performance - particularly in the flower and jewellery applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, installation of Husband 1.0 seems to have uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, and then installed such other undesirable programs as NFL 5.0, NBA 3.0.and Golf Clubs 4.1.

Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system.

I’ve tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail. What can I do ????

Signed, Desperate ============ ========= ======

Dear Desperate :

First keep in mind that Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an Operating System.

Please enter the command: “http: I Thought You Loved Me.htm” and try to download Tears 6.2, and don’t forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update.

If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewellery 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.

But remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0, or Beer 6.1.

Beer 6.1 is a very bad program that will automatically download the Snoring Loudly Beta.

Whatever you do, DO NOT install Mother-in-law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background which will eventually seize control of all your system resources).

Also, do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0 program.

This is an unsupported application and will crash Husband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance.

We recommend Hot Food 3.0.

Good Luck, Tech Support

Cheers

Vijay Srinivasan
1st December 2007
Mumbai

Apple Leopard Experience - First Cut

Following from the previous post, I upgraded the memory in the extended slot to 1 GB, that left me with 512 MB extra which I would preserve till I get my next MAC, or give it away to another MAC enthusiast friend. The system profiler showed the upgraded memory, and the machine started working a little faster, I got back my purchased configuration. Hope Apple will refund the expense to me, or repair the motherboard memory for free (which they don’t since the entire motherboard needs to be replaced !).

That done, I upgraded the MAC OS to the Leopard version (OS X 10.5). It was a simple process to upgrade, but that one would expect from Apple anyway. It took a little under an hour, but it went through smoothly. Finally, here’s Leopard on my system, just after a month of its worldwide release !

I checked out most of the features in Leopard. It is indeed an excellent operating system, much better than what was there on OS X 10.4 (Tiger). I was impressed with the “Cover Flow” and “Quick Look” features. I could not use the “Time Machine” since I had no back up disk. I am ordering one next week, so hoping to have the automatic backup facility finally !

However, the Leopard experience was not earth-shattering. It provides a better way of organizing your own stuff, and a much better way to peek into what is there on your system. Miles ahead of Windows XP for sure (don’t know about Vista as yet). The “Search” facility also called as “Spotlight” has been improved in the Leopard version, and it was really cool to save your important searches to the “Finder” tool bar. The ability to see what is residing in your “Documents” folder in a “fan” fashion was uber kool !!

I always wondered about Steve Jobs’ capacity to raise the heat on the Apple crowd and make them pay for every upgrade - hardware or software. It does not happen that easily in the Windows world. For sure, he is a great marketer. One has to just take a look at his beautiful product launches which he does atleast twice a year. The presentation, in itself, is a great piece of customer communication, which continues to awe people all over the world. The Leopard Tour which you can take at the Apple website is a fantastic product tour - even a non-Apple user would be impressed no end. It’s a whole different world, altogether.

In a nutshell, I am not very impressed with Leopard. It’s cool, no doubt. It’s functional. It’s very helpful in organizing stuff. It’s stunning in its visual impact - in its “cover flow” impact. It’s fabulous with its “fan” type of depicting the contents of folders. But, is it something very different from what I was expecting in Leopard - you can’t ofcourse define that, but yes, the answer is “No”. If you can make sense of that response……..

Finally, I guessed it is no use sticking to “Tiger” when “Leopard” has arrived. You have to keep in touch with times, ofcourse. Only it costs a bit, but never mind. Let us progress !

Have a wonderful week ahead folks,

Cheers

Vijay Srinivasan
25 November 2007
Mumbai

What makes Mumbai tick

One of the commentators in my blog site felt that it would be interesting to get an analysis of what makes this place tick. Hey, why not have a positive attitude after all - so I decided to write this post on specifically what makes Mumbai tick. I think I might have touched on certain aspects elsewhere in this site, but I am going to be cogent about listing what I think and feel about this place :

PEOPLE This is the strongest differentiator of Mumbai over other commercial cities of India. You get to work with people who are smarter, hungrier, sharper ; people who are seeing the Rupee sign constantly ; people who wish to upgrade themselves in any way possible ; people who are ambitious ; people who wish to finish the task assigned and move on to the next task without wasting time ; people who are patient yet anxious to move on ; people who tolerate the foibles of civil society and government as a necessary evil ; people who are basically migrants with drive and passion (similar to the U.S. migrants) ; people who are pragmatic, want to get things done rather than argue about what is right and wrong ; people who span the length and breadth of India ; people who want to be successful in life.

CITY By its own design, the city generates creative action from its citizens. It is difficult to navigate by virtue of its natural peninsula-like formation, with narrow roads and lack of space all around. One has to figure out constantly the best way suitable to him or her just to pass a living day successfully in the city. By itself, this is a creative activity. It reflects in the way people travel around the city, in the manner that people plan their time, in the way they choose to spend time while commuting, in the approach to total strangers (quite warm and friendly as long as you speak the local tongue), and in the attitude of the inhabitants. Generally positively orientated ! The city is what one calls a “maximum city” - an environment which drives positive energy through its people for lack of external stimulants !

LAW AND ORDER Unlike the national capital, Mumbai has much less crime, especially of the violent types. People are conscious of this fact, and ladies are able to move around without much fear. Ofcourse, when disaster hits, it hits real big - like the bomb blasts last year, or the rain-induced floods the year before that. However, general life seems to move on less turbulently than in some other cities, especially in the North. That’s good for the general well-being of society.

ROLE MODELS Mumbai is full of illustrious role models, such as the Tatas, Birlas, Ambanis, et al, that one wonders if what media writes about the crumbling status of the city is so true and starkly evident, how come so many of India’s top business leaders come from the city. The financial progress that the city is making every day is clear indication that people are not abandoning Mumbai anytime soon in search of a new place - not even “Navi” or New Mumbai. South and Central Mumbai are the financial centres of India. One needs to just look out the window to witness the variety of imported cars competing for space with Indian cars on narrow roads in South Mumbai - what ya get ? - Porsches, Porsche Cayenne SUV, Toyota Camry, Lexus LX 470, Audis, Mercedes Benzs of various capacities, and now BMWs. Volvo is just entering India, and you would soon see Volvo S70 and above for sure in South Mumbai. Mumbai in a way is more like Hong Kong - people admire success, and success symbols are left untouched.

Time to read what the Economist magazine says about Mumbai -

“Maximum City Blues”

BOLLYWOOD Surprising, but Bollywood is a strategically important component of Mumbai’s success. The world’s second largest film industry is based out of Mumbai, though it is roughly only one-tenth of Hollywood’s size in terms of annual revenues. But it is growing fast. In terms of number of movies produced, Bollywood far exceeds Hollywood. One reserves comments about quality of Bollywood Movies vis-a-vis Hollywood Movies though. Let us say that personal preferences play a role herein ! Bollywood Movies are more for relaxation of the body and sometimes soul. Thinking would rarely be required, but that is the way the audience likes it. Can we question the Box-Office receipts ? Mumbai keeps getting more than its share of newcomers to Bollywood, so the creative industry is in full swing all through the year. The legacy endures !

GOVERNMENT The Government is trying hard to make Mumbai the financial centre of the world. Let us give it a chance. 2012 should see a different kind of Mumbai, why not believe in it ?

Well, there are more positives about Mumbai, I am still thinking about these points and more, and would like to invite comments from “Mumbaikars” (or Mumbai Citizens).

Have a wonderful Sunday,

Cheers

Vijay Srinivasan
30 September 2007
Mumbai