My first DJ set

My first ever set with few of my favorite techno tracks with rumbling, dark and progressive - techno sounds. Watch out for more. Enjoy.Drop me a note if you need the track list! Comments are welcome.

If the link given above doesn't work, you can use this link http://soundcloud.com/dj_srini/sets/17-apr-11_techno_set-1

Lotsa travelling!!

Even for a travel loving person or someone interested to explore new places, when you travel a lot continuously like a crazy zombie, you end up loosing interest in the travel itself!! That's what happened to me! That explains my disappearing act for long :)

Xmas long drive to Chikmaglur hillstation-> Trip to Native in TN->Drive to Melmaruvathur temple with family and drive back to Bangalore. Seems like lots in a week.

If that wasn't exhausting, there was trip to Mumbai followed by a return to Bangalore and drive to Tirupati which was immediately followed by Mumbai trip again. From then on it become a routine to fly to Mumbai on Monday early mornings and flight back to Bangalore->Native in the weekends, for 5 weeks continously. 7 trips to Mumbai in 8 weeks. Its exhausting man!

Too much travel ruined the actual fun of travelling itself. I lost my initial interest to visit the Elephanta caves and chowpatty beach in Mumbai too. Strangely I didn't feel like meeting any of us friends in Mumbai as well though I managed to get in touch with few. Well, I couldn't make up time.

All I need now is good rest and relax by doing nothing :-) Its time to pamper myself with some relaxation and latest movies ! Any good suggestions on how I can enjoy the break from this crazy travelling are welcome!

Paintings on walls of Lalbagh gardens

I am loving the paintings drawn on the complete periphery of Lalbagh Botanical Gardens,Bangalore. It is a very good move by authorities to paint the compound walls of Lalbagh with pictures depicting the places in Karnataka and culture of Karnataka. It definitely gives a refreshing look to the rather boring blank compound walls. I have been told that similar paintings are being drawn all around Bengaluru.

Ofcourse, it is a treat to watch whenever I step outside my house here in Bangalore. I have clicked some of the pics from my mobile when the painting work was going on the Lalbagh compound somewhere near by from my house.

Loving the North Indian food

So many varities of Paranthas, Tandoori items, Tangdi kebab, Hara bara kebab, varities of chaat items, Paneer adraki, Paneer Peshawari, lassi, rabadi, .. yumm yumm..n the list simply just grows big..Slurp! slurp!

I am totally relishing the North Indian food items and am giving my taste buds a treat. I am still looking for a chance to visit Parantha wala galli and Dilli haat in Delhi which are highly recommended by my friends here in Gurgaon and Delhi. Btw, Thanks to Rupal and Debasish for taking me to a good place in Gurgaon for amazing chaat items.

Wish I recovered faster from my ankle injury which I picked up here in Gurgaon, so that I could have gone to Jaipur over the last weekend and visited Choki dhani and other attractions in Jaipur.

Alright! Enough said about the food items. I will better stop now. Time to go and grab something to eat ;)

My trip to Taj Mahal and Aksardham

Prior to my trip to Gurgaon, I was thinking about visiting Tajmahal and Aksardham sometime during this trip itself. Yippie! I did manage to visit Tajmahal, Agra fort, Mathura (Birth place of Lord Krishna) and Aksardham in Delhi during the last weekend with Karuna. From Gurgaon, after calling lots of radio taxi cabs, I managed to get one and went to Noida on the Friday evening to Karunakaran’s place. Huh! Gurgaon has absolutely zero public transport and people rely on their own cars and cabs for everything. Taxi guys charge like hell and you need to wait for 45 minutes to 1 hour atleast when you call and book a cab. Uff!! .. Karuna is my schoolmate and it felt good to meet him after almost 9years. After catching up with Trapty (x-colleauge in Infy) and her hubby Vishal for dinner in Noida, I crashed at Karuna’s place that night.

We started at 5 am from Noida to our day tour bus pick up point in Delhi. While we were waiting for our tour bus in the cold, we made ourselves warm with the fire lit with wood outside the tea stall there and sipped hot chai. After almost 4.5 hours of journey in the heavy traffic roads, we reached Agra Fort at 12.15pm. Agra Fort isn’t that great but it has great view point to view Tajmahal which is just couple of kms away from there on the banks of Yamuna river. I bought myself a marble Taj souvenir and small marble statues for my home at a cottage industry stop. I also got a glimpse of first Taj mahal model made before actual Taj was built, in that cottage industry. This model was supposed to be designed by four architects at a cost of 7 lakhs and it took 4 years for them to show the model to Shah Jahan. Then we reached Taj Mahal around 3.45pm and after long wait in the ticket counter and entry queue, I was finally in front of Tajmahal..


My very first expression on seeing Taj was ‘OMG! Taj is just so beautiful’. I just could not take my eyes off of Taj mahal as it is so stunning. The efforts of 20000 odd workers for 22 years to build Tajmahal truly shows. No wonder, it was listed as one of the 7 wonders of the world’. After we clicked some pics and captured few video clips there, we started to Mathura. At 8pm we entered the Mathura temple which is the birth place of Lord Krishna and this is where the main Janmastami celebrations are done and telecasted from, every year. The temple has tight military security all around and stern security check in the entry. Mathura is famous for 3 things. The Krishna temple, Tulsi malas and Mathura Petha (Sweet). It was almost 2.45 am when we reached our room in Noida after the tiring trip.

On Sunday, I started with Karuna around 1pm on bike to Aksardham. I was actually excited to click some pictures and videos inside Aksardham but was taken by surprise once I entered Aksardham as I had to keep my bag, mobile phones, camera and digicam in locker. After tight security check we entered Aksardham. Aksardham is so big and is absolutely awesome. The architecture is truly stunning and I could not believe that most of the statues and sculptures inside were hand carved. If anyone is going to Aksardham in future, please don’t miss the Exhibition and musical fountain inside. Exhibition will take around 2 hours including an hour waiting time but it is worth every bit of it. It includes 50 minutes of Animatronics show of Swami Laxmi Narayan life, 45 minutes movie on giant IMAX screen and 15 minutes of boat ride inside, where you will get to see the amazingly realistic statue settings done to visually show the achievements made by famous historians of India. Unfortunately the Main Aksardham mandir was closed as some maintenance was going on. There is also a visually entertaining musical fountain show of around 20 minutes around 6.30pm inside. With satisfaction of visiting amazing places, I started back to Gurgaon on that Sunday late evening. I am gonna cherish these moments for really long time.

Awesome night drive to Nandi hills

Instant plans turn out to be great almost all the times when it comes to trips and outings. My drive to Nandi hills was one such instant and crazy plan which turned out to be awesome. For people who don't know about Nandi hills, it is a small hill around 50 odd kms outside Bangalore which includes 21 kms road stretch apart from the highway road stretch and is quite popular.

On a casual meet up with friends on a saturday evening, 2 weeks back for dinner, we initially planned to go to a disco and let our hair down. But disco plan was dropped very soon. Then we came up with the idea of night drive to Nandi hills and decided to start at 1am pr 2 am, so that we can watch the sun rise as well. I was excited too to drive my new Swift in this night drive. With my favourite collection of new hip hop music, we hit the road and within sometime, one of my friend's friend joined us with his Yamaha Rx6 and few of his friends in 4 cars. It was 10 people including us in 5 cars and a sports bike. After a small stop in the coffee day on the way to airport, we went to the Bangalore airport and were loafing around in the empty parking lots out there. I got a chance to rev up the Yamaha Rx6 in the empty airport road stretch. Trust me its always more fun to ride a sports bike than to drive a car. Thanks Naveen! If not for the Airport patrol people, we would have drove the sports bike for somemore time.

As Naveen and his friends wanted to return back from Bangalore airport, I drove with just my friends to Nandi hills. Once you take diversion from NH road to Nandi hills roads, it is too spooky to drive in that darkness. But soon I could see so many bikes and cars coming to Nandi hills. Till that date, I never knew that people come to Nandi hills in the wee hours on fridays and saturdays just like that or at 5 or 5.30 am to view sun rise. We reached the the top of Nandi hills around 3.45am, we felt as though party was going on there coz of the loud music people were playing from each of their cars and all the dancing. There were atleast 12 cars and 10 bikes there and all of them were playing music and dancing.

People had lit fire with the woodsticks coz of the chillness and were dancing all around for the loud music. We were dancing for sometime and it was fun to see people drift their cars around to show their skills. After having a blast of time, we drove back to Bangalore and reached home 6.30 am. I was damn tired coz I had been on a night drive with my friend the previous night to Bidadi coffee day at 11 or 12 in the night just to have coffee. Call me crazy or outgoing or whatever you like! But its fun to be around with friends. Place, time and distance doesn't matter when you are with friends!

Excited about my trip to Delhi

After coming back to India in August 2009, this is my first official trip outside Bangalore.
I will be traveling to Gurgoan on office work for 3 weeks by last week of October. I am all excited about this trip coz this time I will have atleast 2 weekends to roam around Delhi and catch up with x-colleagues and friends there.

I don't want to miss a visit to Taj mahal and Aksardham by any chance. I am also looking forward to the small get together with my friends out there and also the chance to hog vada pavs, pav bhajjis and the popular Delhi dishes.

Luckily I have recovered from my viral fever on time. Hoping that this trip will be good break for me, from the so become routine life in Bangalore from the past few months.

Oflate...

Workout in the gym
Getting stuck in the mad traffic while rushing to office
Boring meetings and conference calls in the office

Cup of chai ! Yep, the elixir of work life

Getting stuck in the rain and or traffic while riding back home
Stupid programs in the idiot box
Catch up with friends in direct or on phone
Small drive with nice music after dinner
Listen to FM for sometime before crashing

Wondering what are these random things? Well, these makes part of my typical week day oflate.
I'm so frustrated with the f**king bangalore traffic. 20 minutes ride of 5 odd kilometres from my home to my office takes around 1 hour these days.

When I look back at my 2 years in UK

When I look back around 2 years from now, I cherish all the different moments I have gone through in my life, the new things I have learnt and tried, things I have set right, beautiful places and countries I have visited, new people I have bumped onto, cultures I have come across and lots more!

Lots of things make you wonder when you land in UK, especially if you are a first timer.

People fill the fuel themselves.

It is miles and gallons instead of kms and litres.

In the initial days, you start converting pounds into Indian rupee every time you pay and wonder how cheap things are in India.

Brits consume a lot of beer, spirit, chicken, bacon, carbonated drinks, burger and French fries.

Grueling 15 to 20kms city drive or ride seems like a small and easy drive in UK coz of good roads and less traffic

You tend to watch the weather forecast for every weekend plan or even outing for shopping

Even if you eat in an Indian restaurant in UK, you can’t find the authentic taste in food as Brits can’t handle even our mild spice level. Most of the dishes are customized for brits.

You can’t live without thermals or without proper woolen clothing in winters
The longest day times in peak summer (4.30am to 10pm) and the shortest day times (8.30am to 3.30pm) in peak winter amaze you.

UK weather is so unpredictable. All I say is, if you think UK weather is good, just wait for 10 minutes.

A separate bin outside every house for food waste, plastic waste and recyclable waste is too good. In case if you don’t follow it properly you will get a notice from council soon.

Chicken tikka is the British national curry.

There are way too many accents within UK.

People are fitness conscious. You get to see people jogging with their Ipods almost at every hour you can think of.

Skate boards and bikes (our form of cycles) are default items with the school going teens.


Well, let me list down the things which I like and didn’t like in UK.

1. The first thing which amazed me was the beautiful country side of UK. It is so picturesque and greenish all around.

2. The second thing which I still admire in UK is the traffic infrastructure and the traffic ethics. You don’t get to see people honking and people consider you to be rude and impatient if you honk.

3. Except for the big cities with heavy traffic, in almost all the other places, people stop their vehicles anywhere when they see pedestrian(s) waiting to cross the roads, even if there is no stop signal

4. Brits are very polite and diplomatic. They greet people with hello and wishes and they expect you to reciprocate the same. If you don’t, they think you are uncivilized / rude.

5. It never pours down in UK. So you can manage even if you don’t carry an umbrella. If it rains, it will be just slight drizzle which might prolong sometimes. In the last 2 year, I have seen heavy rain only once and that too it lasted for 30 odd minutes.

6. Don’t mistake when people address you as darling or dear. Its just their way of expressing affection and respect.

7. Public transport (Bus and train) is too good and bang on time. If the bus time is 17.57, better be on time or ahead of time or else be prepared to wait for the next one.

8. Unlike US, you can manage without a car in UK as the public transport frequency and connectivity is so good.

9. People love to party and they believe in enjoying the present rather than worrying about the future.

10. I like the independence parents give to their kids but it is bad in a way as most of the teens loose hold of their lives in the early teenage itself.

11. In general, I love the Brit’s dressing sense be it any group.

12. Though things happen at their own pace, lot of things required for household can be done online or via a phone unlike here in India where you got to run around for each and everything.

13. People plan their long weekends well in advance and hardly anyone slogs beyond their work hours.

14. Roads are awesome almost throughout the UK.

15. UK has the most number of pretty girls than I have seen in countries I have visited so far.

16. People usually do not litter things around.

17. Encouragement from government and facilities for sports and town or city recreation are amazing. I miss the beautiful enclosed and well maintained swimming pools, saunas and steam bath rooms there.

18. Maintenance and the maintenance facilities of the town/city by the council people are commendable.

19. People automatically form and follow queues wherever you go.


Some of the things I don’t like in UK

1. Though Brits are diplomatic, they are not at all open to outsiders. They take ages to open up to outsiders even after they trust the newcomers. They believe in living in relationships with no strings attached than in marriage concept. No wonder there are way too many divorces and huge number of single parents struggling with kids. They believe in love but still hesitant when it comes to love marriage. They would rather prefer a living in relationship than a love marriage.

2. Brit teens especially the gals are racially arrogant. It is the teenagers and the people in early 20s who abuse outsiders racially more than the middle aged or elder Brits. I have heard of instances where people got hit by beer bottles or eggs or coke cans.

3. UK is one of the costliest places to live than US, Europe and Australia

4. UK is a somber and dull place unless and until you are living in a city with friends or family. There is not much to do if you living away from a city or in small town/villages.

5. Things happen very slowly. For eg. It takes 5 days to get most of the broadband connections if you have got a landline ready and if you don’t have the phone landline will take 2 to 3 weeks atleast

6. People don’t differentiate Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Indians. Irrespective of where you are from, you could still be called a Paki

7. Taxes are too high on most of the things. Entertainment tax of 135GBP (roughly 11k) every year to use a TV in home is just too much. Council tax of 100 to 140GBP (8k to 12k) every month depending on the house and location of house is way too much.

I kind of like the work culture in UK as you get lot of free time for yourself. Exactly why I was able to try lots of things I have always to try in my life. Few things like learning guitar, learning swimming, tennis, playing cricket in the local club in the England pace pitches, ice skating, writing poems, blogging, visiting new countries, learning cooking and trying so many new dishes,cruise ride in the english cannal, canoeing, paragliding,cross country cycling etc.. Wish i could have tried skiing and sky diving as well.

I never tried cooking in my life before going to UK but when i returned from UK i was able cook to cook too many dishes. Don't ask me whether people will survive after trying my cooking. It's at consumer's risk :-) Well I am not so bad at cooking too. My time in UK gave me a different dimension to understand myself better. I was able to perceive and understand things in my life better.

I was lucky enough to visit Scotland, England, Switzerland (Twice), Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and France. Wish I was there in UK this summer as I would have definitely visited my next must go destinations like Italy, Austria, Greece and Spain.

I will always cherish the breathtaking scenic Alps range of Swiss, beautiful Scotland, night view of Paris and sparkling Eiffel tower all my life. If any of you get a chance to visit UK or Europe, please don’t miss to visit Scotland, France(Paris), Switzerland, Italy, Austria and Spain.


When I look back my two years I spent in UK, I do miss my UK life for certain things. Life in UK life was easy and peaceful but life gets monotonous after sometime as you are not with your family/friends. Though I got to run around for everything and traffic is horrible coz of Metro constructions and population in Bangalore, I still say East or west, homeland is the best as there is so much life in my life here in India.

In love with my guitar

It just feels awesome to start with my guitar lessons after almost 8 years. Yeh! Its really long time. Out of interest, I did join a guitar class in Vellore (Tamilnadu) during my initial days of Engineering. Unfortunately my guitar tutor moved to a different city altogether within 3 weeks after I started with my classes. Don't know whether the guitar tutor was lucky or I was lucky :-)

After shifting to a new apartment with few friends from Infosys around here in Ipswich, I decided that I have to learn guitar and I have to start it right away by buying a guitar. Youtube video tutorials for the guitar chords and tabs came in handy. Best part is that my roomies, Abhishek and Pratik are getting into Guitar slowly after seeing me.

It feels great to do something which you always wanted to do from long time and I am loving every bit of it. Hope someday I will be able to play a full song flawlessly and with ease. I wish that someday is not faraway!!

No more movie reviews on this blog

Readers and followers of my blog. I am sorry to say that I have decided not to post any more movie reviews on my blog. After quite a few suggestions from friends, I have decided that I would like to keep this blog as a personal one and keep the movie reviews apart.

I might come up with a second blog strictly for the movie reviews later. Keep watching..!! Adioss!

Michael Jackon - You will be missed

Love it or hate it but you just can't deny the fact that MJ really is the king of the pop. Pop music industry revelated a new singing sensation in 1980s with Michael Jackson. MJ mesmerised millions with his songs and amazing dance moves.

Being a dance enthusiatic myself, I used to buy videos of MJ just to practice MJ moves during my college days. He was also one of the biggest inspirations for my interest in dance. There are way too many songs from MJ which speak for themselves. Leaving aside his personal life, he really is an eternal king of pop. He truly lived life like a king but passed away in debts. His debts are estimated to be around $400 million. I wish he could have performed in the concerts in July after a decade gap which could have pulled him out of everything. The whole world was looking forward for his concerts in July. Whatever be it, his demise is a big loss to the music industry.

MJ, You will really be missed!!.

My trip to India in May '09

After spending more than year abroad away from family and friends in homeland, anybody would be excited to visit the home country. So was I. From the time I booked my flight tickets, I was literally counting my days to fly back to India.

With the crammed leg space, TV panel with faulty touch screen and no volume, I had a terrible flight journey from London Heathrow to Bangalore through King Fisher Airlines which was supposed to be a 5 star flight experience. I was pleasantly surprised when I was greeted with a bouquet from my family members who had come to receive me in the BIAL airport. My mom gave a kiss on my hand and she was almost in tears to see me after 14 months.

The moment I opened my baggage, my nephew Sunil who is a 2years old cutie pie was all excited to watch a checkin bag full of toys. He was jumping around in excitement and happiness with the toys and tent I had brought for him from UK. Feels so great when you bring joy in other's faces. doesn't it?

Day 1 in India, I was like 'What the hell? Where have all the trees in bangalore gone?' at the first sight of shock in store in Bangalore. Drastic change in last 1 year mate. I did have some problems in the initial few days while crossing the roads as I had got used to the UK roads where vehicles stop for pedestrians to cross even when it is not a red signal.

With the mercury levels touching 39C, I was having a tough time in the initial couple of days in Bangalore to get adjusted to the peak Indian summer. I fell sick coz of the climate change, food change and lots of travel. Got stomach upsets and had become too weak and it took me almost 1.5 weeks to become normal. Whatever be it, I was back in India and the very feeling of it makes you feel so good.

I met my granny and 2 months old nephew of mine in my native in Tamilnadu. Itz amazing to play with kids and pamper them. It felt so good to visit my home in my native and the best part was the big swing in the house which my mom had bought for me. I love playing in the swings!!!. I wanted to take my family members out on a trip to Kodaikanal or Ooty for 3 to 4 days as it will be good break from routine and escape from the summer for all. It started with the 4 day plan to Ooty and Kerala which got dropped. All I managed in the first week of May, was a fun filled trip with my family members to Hogenakkal (Famous falls in Tamilnadu). I did have a ball of time in Hogenakkal to visit the falls, take a boat ride and taste the yummy fish fries there.

Unfortunately I had to work from my company's Bangalore office, during the whole of the second week of my India trip . I hated every bit of it to work during vacation. All I wanted was to catch up with friends, hang out, eat out, freak out and spend time with family. IPL2 coincided with my trip and it was fun time to watch cricket with family and friends. Though I could not meet most of my friends during my India trip, it was good to catch up with atleast few of them after such a long time.

3rd week of my trip was fun filled one as I took my family members, bro's family, sis family to Ooty for 3 days. We had gone to 'Black Thunder' (Theme park near Ooty) on the day one was it was so much fun. I hated the strong chlorine water in Black thunder to the core as I got tanned properly. Cottage we had booked in Ooty was so good, homely and so spacious which made things we more exciting for us. We were all literally shivering coz of the low temperature in Ooty and we needed 2 layers of blanket/rug while sleeping as even the room heaters didn't help much. I still miss the fresh carrots, famous rusks of Ooty and yummy mushroom fries I had in Ooty. Everyone of us had a blast in Ooty and Cunoor.

Well I hated the where I had to return back to UK. Well who doesn't? I was not ready to sleep in the last couple of nights. I was roaming around the whole of last few days as I wanted to enjoy every bit of my trip.

Met and freaked out with my friends. Had ball of time with family and friends. Misunderstandings with some people. Amazing trip to Hogenakkal and Ooty. Awesome home food and sweets. Few movies. Lots of travel. Gifts to family. Peak Summer time. 5 days office work in between vacation. Stomach upsets due to food infection. Dine outs. Multiple layers of tan coz of Black thunder chlorine water and freaking out in summer. What not? It was a great and memorable trip overall.

Well, you have no idea how much I was praying that I should atleast land after noticing the worst turbulence of my life at 40000 ft in the air, just an hour before scheduled landing in London Heathrow airport. Luckily the turbulence stopped after 5 to 6 minutes. I was so relieved to land safely in one piece!!. I still wish that my India trip should have been longer and never ended :-)

Masakali Matakaliiiiiii - Dilli6

Masakali Matakalli.......... Absolutely in love with this song of Dilli 6 from the very first time I heard it. This number is so coooooool and catchy! Each time I listen to song, I am liking it bit more than before. This song sung by Mohit chauhan is full of positive and happy vibes. Sonam Kapoor is looking so cute in this song.



A R Rahman is getting better with each and every movie. After rocking the world with his score for Slumdog Millionaire by winning a Golden Globe award and 3 nominations for Oscar, ARR has come up with fresh and soulful music for Dilli6. Yuvvraaj movie was another great movie composition from ARR in 2008.

The song 'Rehna Tu' from Dill6 sung by ARR and Benny, is a slow romantic number and is very good too.

My swimming endeavors

One fine day during my 7th standard days, I got into a well in my uncle's farm with my uncle, with a lot of zeal to learn swimming. Seconds after I stepped into the water, I was holding my uncle so tightly in fear that he was almost drowning and he couldn't even swim! That was the day I developed fear about swimming,deep waters and drowning.

After a bad wrist sprain in gym while lifting weights, I was advised by doctor not to touch weights for another 2 to 3 months. Just when I was wondering what to do, I was convinced by my colleague (Niranjan) that swimming will be best thing to do during my couple of months break from gym, considering the peak winter time. After so many years, finally I learnt swimming. As a matter of fact, I am able to swim better than I expected. Now don't ask me what was my expectation about swimming :-) I always used to think that floating in water without drowning itself is a big thing :).

Thanks to Niranjan, Saji, Manish and his wife who helped me to learn swimming and break all my myths and fears about drowning and deep waters. The 3 big enclosed and well maintained warm water swimming pools of Ipswich Borough Council are worth every penny of the membership fee. To my surprise, I was able to float and swim little bit on the day 1 itself. Convinced and motivated by this, I was practising more and more and I could swim well in a week. After a month, I am able to do breakstroke and free style swimming very well though I am still learning backward swimming and yet to attempt butterfly stroke. Watching and getting valuable tips from fellow swimmers and practising along with some great professional swimmers of UK, is a real pleasure.

I am now able to clock 8 laps (1 lap=50metres) in 22-24 minutes in the competition pool. It may not be a great thing for regular or good swimmers. But for a guy who feared water a lot, it really is a big achievement. I am totally enjoying each and every minute spent in the swimming pool. During my process of learning I came across very good swimming tutorials on youtube which I want to share with all, as I found them to be very useful and effective. Jimmy D Shea- Many thanks for uploading your tutorial videos on Youtube.

FreeStyle



Breast stroke

The Irony of the media

In November 2008, after lot of research and thought process, I wrote an article about the traffic situation in Bangalore (India) with facts and statistics along with lots of solutions (old and my own) to reduce the traffic. The article was written out of concern and was intended to create awareness. I have also personally experienced the Bangalore traffic for so long. Hence I wanted to publish my article in any newspaper so that there will be wider reach to bring awareness.
http://chocosss.blogspot.com/2008/11/possible-solutions-to-bangalore-traffic.html

When I approached Bangalore Mirror newspaper about my article, the initial person who was responsible for web section of Bangalore Mirror told me 'Your article is pretty good'. He also told that he is interested in publishing my article in both web and prints sections but asked me to wait for some more time as their columns were full with Mumbai terror attacks that time.

After some long wait, when I approached again, the same person told that he has sent my article to the print section editor for review. After a week or so, when I approached the same person again, I was told that editor does not want to publish my article in print as he wants 'lighter stuff for the readers' but he can publish your article atleast in the web section. I was literally taken aback to hear that from a media person. Don't readers want to read heavy or factual stuff too? I understand that a newspaper can't publish all articles written by everyone but then even when they know and acknowledged my article to be very good and relevant to Bangalore!

After some thought, I said 'Yes' to the Bangalore mirror person to get my article published atleast in the websection. When my article appeared in the website, I could see only portion of my article (only 7 out of 15 solutions were published). Even in the 7 ideas published there, the content about the Bangalore traffic police were moderated and removed.
http://www.bangaloremirror.com/index.aspx?page=article&sectid=21&contentid=2009010820090108182346527258c5851&sectxslt=

The irony is that media is the face of the public which has to highlight the reality. I am shocked to learn that the media does not want to show the reality to the public and is interested only in commercial news which generates more profit for them. As long these sort of things goes on, there are less chances that the country's gruelling problems will get resolved soon.

My new year celebrations in London

First of all, I wish you all a very happy and prosperous 2009. I just felt like sharing my 2009 new year celebrations through this blog. Well, way before the new year itself, we guys started planning for new year. Plan 1 to go to Dublin (Ireland) had to be dropped as Dublin is in Republic of Ireland and we need a separate visa for Dublin. Plan 2 was to go to Belfast (Ireland) which is in Northern Ireland and our UK visas are sufficient for that. We dropped the plan 2 as well as Belfast turns out to be a sad place to celebrate new year. Plan 3 to go to Blackpool (UK) didn't even kick start.

Finally me,my roomies (Niranjan and Sudeep) and Deepak (colleague) decided to go to London on new year eve to watch the famous London eye fireworks. I was very keen to go to London as I was not sure whether I will get another chance to watch the London eye new year fireworks again. As planned all of us left early from work, packed our bags with warm clothes and started by train to London by 5pm on 31st Dec evening.

Once we reached Liverpool station at 6.30pm, all of us took the tube (London metro rail system) tickets. I started to Paddington from there to meet Raj (friend from my native place in India) as I had plans to watch London eye fireworks with Raj and his friends and stay overnight at his place. My other friends went to their hotel. I met Raj and his friends at his place. I was kind of shocked when I learnt from Raj about how much people pay for rent in Central london. Rent for a 1BHK apartment in Central London is more than double of a what we guys were paying for a 3BHK independant house in Ipswich. After some chit chat of sometime, we guys had dinner and a small new year bash before the new year. For a moment I felt as though I was back to my old college days.

We lost track of the time and ended up starting around 11AM from Raj's place to watch the fireworks. I was my like 'Oh! my god' when I saw the madrush in the tube stations and unfortunately some of the tube stations nearby to the 'London eye' were closed. After getting down in Picadilly circus tube station, we guys had to walk a bit. By the time we reached the Trafalgar square from where we could see the London eye fireworks, it was 12AM and the fireworks had just started with a bang. We couldn't move even an inch further from there as all the roads around were blocked due to the crowd. I was told that the actual crowd was easily more than 7 lakhs. Finally we guys had to view the fireworks on the giant screens and the restricted view of the actual fireworks, available from that crowded area.

The fireworks were spectacular and went on for 12 to 15 minutes after which we guys started wishing each other a 'Happy New year'. There was one british guy who go onto to the top of the big horse statue there and was waving to everyone. Interesting the crowd was absolutely loving it. There were few drunken brawls and frenzy fights too in that crowd. After some time, we guys had to walk almost 2 miles or so till we got an open tube station, as all the other tube stations nearby to London eye were closed and people were swarming everywhere. After small party again at Raj place later, I slept with a feeling that my new year started with a bang.

I got up at 10.30 am the next day after couple of snoozes to my mobile alarm and gave a buzz to Niran. After thanking Raj, I started from Raj's place to East ham station to meet Niran, sudeep, dinesh and deepak at 1.30pm. The moment we stepped in East ham, we felt as though we were in Aamchi Mumbai. East ham is full of Indians (mostly tamilians) and Srilankans and one can see shops with vegetables and other groceries kept in and out of the shop just like what we see in the local Indian bazaars. After few enquiries with the people around, we found the way and reached the only Murugan temple in London. I was happy to see so many Indians around in the temple. After my prayers and offerings in the temple, we guys waited for almost 45 minutes in a big queue to get the prasadham in the temple.

After tasting the delicious prasadham, we guys headed to the famous Saravana Bhavan restaurant in East ham around 4pm. I was damn hungry by that time as I didn't have my breakfast. After another long wait amongst the frenzy crowd in the restaurant, we guys got seats. I ordered for a kichidi, a rava dosa and spicy fried idlis. The food turned out be yummy and was of authentic indian taste. How can i forget the famous filter coffee of Saravana Bhavan? I had one filter coffee too. Later all of us took the tube again and headed to Tower hill to try ice skating.
When I got my chance to try ice skating in Edinburgh (Scotland) during the 2008 new year time, I could not try due to lack of time. So I was really excited to try ice skating at last but had small jitters too about falling down before I learn the skating rhythm. Though I was damn scared initially when I stepped into the skating zone with the ice skating shoes on, I could manage to skate a bit after first two rounds with the support of the walls. After falling down couple of times and 40 minutes of practice, I was delighted that I could skate around better though not in the fast rhythm. Then after spending some time on the river side bridge with the beautiful night view of the London Bridge, we guys started back to Ipswich.
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Best medicine for common cough and cold problems

The old saying about common cold is that "When you take tablets, you recover in 7 days and if you don't take tablets, you recover in a week". Fortunately, our great ancestors who introduced Ayurveda to the world, have found out simple and effective remedies for most of the common health problems.

I was down with severe cold, cough and fever few days back due to the sudden change in weather here in UK. It was snowing with temperature around -7C. Luckily I got to know to a simple and effective remedy to cold and cough and I was completely back to normal in just 2 days after using the remedy. The remedy worked liked a wonder. I felt better after the first day itself and i was back to normal after 2 days. Thanks to my colleague. Definitely I feel that this remedy should be shared with all.

Remedy 1:
Required: 1 inch of ginger, pinch of turmeric powder, 3 black pepper or pinch of black pepper powder and milk.
Preparation: Cut ginger into smallest pieces as possible. Boil a glass of milk with the ginger pieces and add a pinch of turmeric powder and black peppers/pepper powder. Add sugar if required for taste and drink the preparation.
Dosage: You can have it upto 3 to 4 times as required and there are no side effects. I used it twice a day

Remedy 2:
Required: 1 inch of ginger, half teaspoon of honey, 3 black pepper or pinch of black pepper powder.
Preparation: Cut ginger into smallest pieces as possible. Boil a glass of water with the ginger pieces and and black pepper/pepper powder. Once boiled contents have cooled to be luke warm, add half tsp of honey and drink the preparation.
Dosage: You can have it 3 to 4 times as required and there are no side effects.

Medicinal values of Turmeric,Ginger and Pepper:

Turmeric - Magical Herb: Turmeric in India was always considered a magical herb. Turmeric is a blood purifier, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, expectorant and skin tonic. It is also used to treat measles, cough, sprains, and scabies. A pinch of turmeric powder added in the Indian curries is the best antidote.

Ginger - Maha aushadhi or Great Medicine: Ginger is used internally as a stimulant and carminative and is used externally as a rubefacient that is, counter-irritant for relief of muscular pain. Ginger is useful in the treatment of flatulence, colic, vomiting, spasms and other painful affections of the stomach. This herb is an excellent remedy for coughs and colds.

Pepper: Black pepper is stimulant, pungent, aromatic, digestive and nervine tonic. Black pepper is very useful in in relieving flatulence. Pepper has a stimulating effect on the digestive organs and produces an increased flow of salvia and gastric juices. Pepper is beneficial in the treatment of cold and fever and very effective remedy for cough caused due to throat irritation.

Aladdin - Experience of watching a professional pantomime

Though I have never been to a professional pantomime before, I always wanted to watch one sometime. Not that I didn't have a chance but it is just that I am not much into pantomimes and dramas.

Once I heard about the pantomime 'Aladdin' which will be performed at Ipswich Regent Theatre (UK) for the Christmas and new year season, I booked the tickets along with couple of my colleagues for saturday evening performance of 'Aladdin' to watch a professional pantomime for the first time ever. Though I was excited about the pantomime as I already knew the Aladdin story, I must admit that I had bit of apprehension that the show should not be serious and boring. The theatre was packed with almost 60% plus crowd with most of them being families.

From the moment the pantomime started it was absolute entertainment. The crowd was loving every bit of it. So did I. The pantomime was scripted in an entertaining way to keep the spectators participating with loads of jokes and dialogues. The children were cheering loudly whenever Aladdin and the comedians (Harper brothers) as chinese policeman showed up on the stage. The kids were booing whenever the villian (Abanaazar) showed up on the screen. I noticed only after sometime that I was also clapping along with everyone whenever a scene got over. I found it bit strange when I noticed that the protagonist role of Aladdin was being played by a beautiful and versatile UK actress and singer - Debra stephenson. A lady playing a male role? Weird isn't it? But she was very entertaining and did full justice to the lead role.

The performance was having lot of dances for catchy tunes throughout. The dances by the students (including kids) of suffolk academy of dance and perfoming arts with nice costumes were good. The UK TV legendary fox (Stuffed fox) character 'Basil Brush' was playing the role of the chinese emperor and he was splendid with its jokes and 'Boom boom' catch phrase. Kids absolutely loved him. I saw so many kids buying the Basil brush stuff toys and dancing with it during the interval. There was a high speed car chase scene where Aladdin and the princess were goibng in a car on roads in the video projected on the screen. It was just brilliant. The setup of flying magic carpet on which Aladdin literally was flying on the stage, was the highlight of the pantomime. Full kudos to the arrangements.

The stage setup, flying palace setup, background screens, strobe lights, sound effects, specatular costumes and were all brilliant. I was thrilled to see the kids and parents standing up and dancing to the last dance number of the show. It was a lovely sight. After giving a standing ovation at the end, I walked out of the pantomime with smiles and thoughts that I should definitely recommend 'Aladdin' to all my colleagues and friends as I don't want them to miss this joyous experience.

Sponsoring a child's education

There is no wonderful thing than helping a poor child's education. By offering few pennies to a beggar on the roadside one might feel satisfied of having helped a needy. The fact is, the pennies which you and others have offered may be just about sufficient for his meal or may be not and he will be seen begging again at the same place. I am not saying that one should not help by offering money to beggars. Instead the collection of few bucks you offer here and there in a month and few more added to it will make a significant amount that can be used in a better way to help the needy. I am talking about TRYING to eradicate the roots of the problem rather than cutting just a portion of the twig of the problem which will anyways grow again.

By helping a child's education throughout, you not only help the child learn education but you help the child to become independent and stand up on his/her own foot. Of course not everyone will be able to sponsor a child's education throughout. One can always support in whatever way he/she can. For example, one can sponsor for the child's books for that year or the child's school fees for that month or child's dress expenses for few months or child's living expenses for few months/a year or a child's weekly food expenses or a child's whole year education fee. As you can see there are a lot of ways a small but significant amount of monetary help can make a difference. If couple of friends join hands together, they can make a big difference in the life of one of millions of children who are in need of help. If not for monetary help, either one or group of friends can go to NGOs and teach in spare time or weekends or can tutor a student who cannot pay tuition fees. It need not be just children whom you can help. It could as well be your college mate or any friend who is in financial need for studies. These are just my opinions.

''Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile'' - Albert Einstein.

'No preaching without practicing'. I am sponsoring for a child's education from last year. I have chosen a 3rd standard child from a NGO and have decided to sponsor for the child's education every year till the child grows up and gets a job. I did some background research about the NGO before deciding to go ahead with the education sponsorship as I wanted to be damn sure that my help will actually reach the needy. At the end of the day, it does give me immense pleasure in making difference to a child's life and makes me feel socially responsible as well. I am also helping in other forms with whatever I can.

Ofcourse there are people other than children who are in need of help and there are other ways to help as well. I do not deny it.

For all the people who have been contemplating about social service or extending help to needy in any form, there is no better day than today to start with and make a difference. If this post can inspire even one, I will be more than happy.