Old times from Beach Walking

It is funny how most of us like to take a walk on the beach, but rarely get to do so in the midst of hectic schedules, though plenty of beaches are available in India. Walking on a sandy beach is a good stress-reliever and I used to enjoy it, but it has been more than 18 long months since I have been on a beach, though I live in a city with several beaches.

This time though, I decided to visit the Besant Nagar Beach in Chennai, though most visitors would normally like to go to the Marina Beach, purportedly the second longest sandy beach in the whole world, stretching for several kilometres (which is the first longest one ?). This is a smaller one, far from the maddening crowds at the Marina Beach.

The Besant Nagar beach has white sand with less crowds and at this time of the year has a pleasant cool windy breeze. The sand does not really stick to you, which is the way I like it. The beach was not dirty like most other Indian beaches, and has hardly any plastic strewn around it, which was again environmentally a good thing.

I liked it today as no hawker approached me and disturbed my thoughts or actions. Incidentally, on this beach the hawkers are all centrally aligned along a stretch leading to the beach front. I do not support hawkers at all on a beach, but no amount of protest is going to remove hawkers from any Indian beach. I do not patronize the hawkers at all, except may be the ones who are outside the beach area on the pavement. Consumption of any food or drinks should be prohibited on any beach.

A beach without plastic, without hawkers, without balloons – that is just a dream in India. But in any case, I liked the Besant Nagar Beach which was decent and met some of my criteria for being a good beach providing a decent environment for people who come to enjoy a beach.

I did not see any life guards on the beach (not surprising), but neither did I see any warning signs. The tides were a bit high, and people including families with kids were in knee-deep and some in waist-deep water, enjoying themselves. But again, that is the way it is in most Indian beaches, except may be in Goa. People could not care less about their own personal safety, they came here to get a free entertainment and they were not going to be dissuaded.

I saw a few well-maintained horses, and my son elected to take a ride for just about USD 1 per ride lasting some 5 minutes. We are allowed to take pictures, and the horse walks with my son seated on the horse along the beach and returns after a few minutes. A good stress-reliever, I guess.

The best thing about a beach walk is that one gets to forget his cell phone and his computer, gets to walk on a sandy beach with eyes focused on sea waves, with his face getting brushed by cool sea breeze. I believe that this is good stress-buster which is free of charge, and few other things can match its benefits, it is critical to switch off your cell phone though ! and, do not tolerate any disturbance of any kind !!

Enjoy the breeze and the sea ! It is free !! And, do not disturb the ecosystem !!!

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan
25th December 2011
Mumbai

It is too HOT

I just got back to Mumbai.

When I was in Singapore, I thought that the mercury was blazing at 32/33 degrees Celsius. It was rather sultry during the day, while the evenings were not too bad.

But when I returned to Mumbai (after almost two weeks of travel), I found Mumbai’s weather was sweltering, though the temperature was around the same figure. One thing I noticed is that the night time temperature in Mumbai was higher than it was in Singapore. Mumbai was almost 29 degrees Celsius at 10:30 PM on Thursday evening last week when I touched down from Singapore, some 3 degrees more than Singapore.

Nights are now quite stuffy in Mumbai, so I am switching on air-conditioner for atleast the first three hours of sleep. The fan runs simultaneously. During the day (for example, today), it was horrible. I was profusely sweating.

Even now, it is really bad (it is 6:45 PM on Saturday), I am sweating badly without fan or aircon.

Hope this is not an indication of poor rains coming up in June. I would like for Mumbai to get heavy rains (but not too heavy), so the cooling effect is good, and the greens turn greener !

Pray to the Weather God !

Cheers

Vijay Srinivasan
24th April 2010
Mumbai

Hot……and Sultry

Summer is on us.

Mumbai has turned sultry from early March itself. Now I feel like running the aircon in whichever room I go in the house. Fan does not seem to be effective at all. But it is not really very hot out in the sun – around 32 to 33 deg Celsius most of the time.

However I was in Delhi and Chennai this preceding week. When I walked out of the Delhi Airport at around 9:15 AM, the sun’s intensity hit me – though it was still mild by Delhi standard. The aircon in the car was not very effective, and so it was quite uncomfortable driving for a long time on Delhi roads, as the sunlight intensified with its heat. However, around 5 PM, it was quite OK, with the sun coming down faster, the evening was not bad.

In Chennai, summer is in full swing. It was scorching hot, and worse, humid. I heard fans humming all over the residential complex, and some aircons being used as well. Offices are fine, but once you step out, the heat is too much. Well, that is the way it has been for long time, and I think it is getting worse with earlier onset of all seasons, and probably less rains to come. The “global warming” phenomenon is clearly happening in layman’s view.

Since I travel all over the country, it is becoming clear that there is going to be no respite. Hot, Hotter, and then, hottest, somewhere around as the next 4 months progress…….

Cold lassi, anyone ?

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan
20th March 2010
Mumbai

Cold Weather

I was in Delhi the past few days, and really enjoyed the 8 deg Celsius in the late evenings, and around 14 – 15 deg Celsius during day time. In fact, I walked out of my hotel without the jacket, as I really wanted to see how it was outside, and it was great ! The only downside was the thick fog during the mornings, which was okay for pedestrians, but not so good apparently for flights, cars and even trains !!

Well, I don’t get this kind of weather even for a day at Mumbai, and so it was making a big difference to me. I enjoy cold weather and always wanted to understand how people cope with it. During my many travels, I have seen sub-zero weather conditions several times – like in Russia during February, Europe, China (Beijing) and North East United States. People there make arrangements in advance to prepare for the snow and wind, etc., and the logistics are geared up to tackle adverse conditions on roads, airports, et al.

However, in Delhi and North India, though every year it is the same pattern of cold weather, precaution and preparations are lacking. We cannot blame weather for all the mishaps. Flight cancellations and disruptions have been happening almost every day over the past fortnight or so, as the fog is affecting visibility seriously. But I thought that the aviation authorities promised “all-weather” landing when they invested in very high-tech radars for the Delhi Airport a few years ago. In fact, Delhi is the only airport in the country having such sophisticated systems for guiding and landing aircraft. But what does the average passenger experiences ? Delays and delays. In fact couple of days ago, the software for the radars failed, delaying operations at Delhi Airport for over 3 hours.

So, one logic that can be derived is that the “human training” element is lacking in its ability to prepare people to deal with tough weather conditions. May be the Indian Army knows something more, since it has dealt with even more severe weather at the Himalayas for many decades.

Nevertheless, coming back to my point, it is a great time to go to the North, may be to Gulmarg ! Skiing, anyone ??

Now back at Mumbai with its slightly windy evenings, but daytime temparatures in late twenties !

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan
16th Jan 2009
Mumbai

Some More Pics…………from Dharamshala & McleodGanj

DSC08957, originally uploaded by padmavs.

Gorgeous View of the valley

DSC08942, originally uploaded by padmavs.

Another great view……..Camera is working

DSC08938, originally uploaded by padmavs.

The German Bakery at McLeodGanj – Good food but greasy pasta

DSC08927, originally uploaded by padmavs.

Diwali Decoration at the Kangra Valley Resort…….where we stayed

DSC08924, originally uploaded by padmavs.

Great work on the eve of the Diwali !

DSC08911, originally uploaded by padmavs.

Shiva Temple surroundings……

Hope you like these pics………could not continue the upload due to the limitation on the Flickr site, limiting the upload beyond 200 photos for a month !

Cheers

Vijay Srinivasan
6th Nov 2008
Mumbai

Some Pics from Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh

I took a lot of digital photos, but I should confess that I am losing interest in the ability of pure click-n-shoot digital cameras. All the more so, after I saw some fabulous shoots of my erstwhile colleagues ET and DD recently. ET probably uses some advanced digital camera but I simply cannot believe the quality of her photos. DD has become a Digital SLR aficianado for the past couple of years – I have seen him with a Lumix and recently with a Canon. He steps out of his home with the SLR everytime, I guess.

Here are a few pics I took. More should follow soon, ofcourse. I missed taking the Dalai Lama when he was passing by, since I could not obviously wish him and take photo at the same time. And, his car was moving rather fast anyway.

Let us see below………Enjoy the pics and make it a point to visit the State of Himachal Pradesh at the foothills of the mighty Himalayas one day. It would be, I promise, a great holiday. With pure crisp mountain air and good clear water – to breathe and drink, respectively. Away from the polluting cities.

DSC08848, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

A Beautiful View of the Dhauladhar Mountain Range surrounding Dharamshala

DSC08851, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

In the Heavenly Clouds

DSC08854, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

A tree which grows at high altitudes, I guess…….

DSC08855, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

A Tibetan boy, playing with stones, at the edge of a cliff, near the Yoga Centre – nobody around him to take care……

DSC08870, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Another short-range view of the mountains………

DSC08881, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Microwave and Mobile Towers……everywhere in Dharamshala

DSC08895, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

A Tea Garden at Dharamshala, about a Km from the hotel resort where we were staying – We went on a “Tea Garden Trek” which took all of 2 hours !

Hope you liked the pics ! Have a wonderful week ahead !!

Cheers

Vijay Srinivasan
02 Nov 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

Abode of Purity

I went to Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani over the last couple of days.

This is the best place I have yet visited in Maharashtra State. It took approximately 6 hours (with some half-hour break on the way) to reach the place from Mumbai. You spend almost 90 minutes of it trying to get out of Mumbai, which is always messed up on the way out via Powai, Chembur, Panvel, Vashi, etc., All these big lorries create chaos on the road, and headaches for the drivers forced to follow them. Apart from these, one has to contend with real bad driving habits of young drivers with mini cars whizzing past from left and right. Then you have those tourist buses who refuse to move out of the right most lane. Well, I can go on and on…….

Once we hit the Pune Expressway, it was good, and even beyond…..the roads were in pretty decent condition towards Satara and even up the hill towards Panchgani. After a long time, it was a winding road experience but not for too long. I was amazed at the speed at which we gained height – all of 4,000 Ft !

The air and water are still pure in Mahabaleshwar, despite commercialization. The place is not as confusing or poorly maintained as Matheran, the other hill station which I visited several months ago – see my earlier post – “Matheran Visit”

Mahabaleshwar is known for its several fantastic “view” points on the various hills of the Sahyadri Mountain Range. There is a lot to write about the experience, but since I am out of time, I thought I will quickly put up some pictures for your enjoyment. More prose sometime later !

DSC08163, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Elephant Head Point

DSC08235, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Sahyadri Mountains – a Fabulous View

DSC08201, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

The Venna Lake near Mahabaleshwar – good for rowing

DSC08170, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

On top of the Elephant Head Point

DSC08135, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Another very captivating view of the mountain range……..

DSC08099, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

There is a fort on top of this mountain – the famed Pratapgarh Fort

DSC08098, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

The serrated ridges of the mountain range

DSC08092, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

View of a dam on the Krishna River basin

DSC08091, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Beautiful View of the Krishna basin from 4,000 feet high

DSC08126, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

The “Elephant Head” clearly visible

DSC08161, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Lodwick Point with inscription of the story of the man who made it to this spot in 1824 (see next pic)

DSC08165, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

The inscription on General Peter Lodwick

DSC08145, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

A bit unsafe – better not get excited about the view too much !

There are many more nice photos, but one had to make choices !

Have a great week ahead,

Cheers

Vijay Srinivasan
10th Feb 2008
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