Ranganthittu : Ben Stand of Mysore

(Only Birds We Could See...)
We’ll go to bird sanctuary this weekend for sure no matter who comes or not, we were having this kind discussion for last month or so. But finally today 15July’07 we finally changed it in to reality. Five of us I, Arun, Vaibhav, Abhi and Subbu stated for Rangathittu by 2:20PM while we had a plan to start at 12.00 PM. But it hardly matters if some one is going to do/ get something.

Ranganthittu, is a Bird Sanctuary situated at a distance of about 19 Km to the north Mysore city and 3Km to the south west of Srirangapatana. This is supposed to be a good place to see birds like Bill Stock, White Libs, Little Egret, Wild Duck, Spon Bill, Peafowl and June to September is the best season to go for a visit. From few local people we also heard that it’s worth visiting.

So, finally after a drive of about 25 min on our bikes we reached to Rangathittu. As soon as we arrived he had first shock when we came to know boating was not allowed these days because of high water in side. Then we thoughts not a problem we would be able to see the birds.

We were welcomed by Chinese Bamboo Tress. As cool breezes are always there in Mysore (best thing I like in Mysore) we got to listen to nice sound of breezes passing through bamboo tress and the sound that was coming out when tress were bending a lot. Really it was nice.But the second and biggest shock that we were not expecting at all was we could not see even a single bird I described above. Yes, we got to see some local bird that we can see across India.

One more interesting and unexpected scene that we got to see was presence of a number of pairs / couples sitting around here and there; every where they could. Every bench, every shade and every corner was occupied by a couple and the garden was a great place to learn how to do PDA (public display of affection) and see live demonstration. Few of them were so busy among themselves that they did not even had a thought where they were and few families and oldies were also there to visit. (Photographs were not taken to maintain the privacy.)

Finally after spending an hour or so there we moved back and had a plan to go to Sangam and Srirangapatana again. This was the good experience of our last visit to these places (especially prison of Tepu) that made us go there and have some more fun.When we were coming out of Ranganthittu suddenly a name stroked to my mind and I renamed some thing …

Ranganthittu : Ben Stand of Mysore

I would advice it’s useless to go there in rainy season. Best time would be to go there when you can do boating because only then you can get to see some birds in bird’s sanctuary. Yeah, if you are a couple and have no place to sit with peace and you believe in PDA Ben Stand of Mysore is the place you are looking for.

Let's Go Abroad

I was watching TV after finishing my dinner and then Arun just entered the room and said,” Breaking News!” (This is a kind of favorite dialog of ours.). Without spending any further moment he said, “Ambeli got engaged”. You must be thinking this is normal news not a big thing. Yes, I agree with it. Then he said,” She is going to US as her fiancé is in US”. Again it’s not a big deal but not too small too. I know this is not a big deal in current scenario especially if you are an IT professional and usually none of us pays any attention to such news. I don’t know why I took it a little seriously and started thinking on it.

If we talk about the time of early 90’s it was really a big deal to go abroad because it was not easy to get a call for job from abroad as India was not so popular in IT field or was not a potential market for any developed country but if we come down to late 90’s till now (ignoring 1 /2 yrs of market down) it’s no longer a great deal as now as India is a potential market for them. But I till now I could not understand why people give it so much importance and take it as proud and prestige issue.

In IT industry most of the people get this chance and apart from IT in other industries too. Earlier going to abroad meant to get handsome salary and nothing more than this and that time it was true too. Even it’s true today as well but thousands of examples and professions are there in our country in which people get much better packages than the people going abroad. Even then we are always dying to leave India and to go to abroad and out mouth begins to water when ever we get to get such offers. This is some what ok thing but really ridicules and bad thing is that we pay highest importance to people going abroad and they think of them to be superior and begin to fly in sky.

After spending some time there they start seeing every thing as a drawback in their own country and see it at lowest end. I don’t know why they forget that they are a part of this county only and only because of the country’s system they got a chance to go abroad. I have also seen people who provide extra ordinary respect / treatment to foreign returned people. I saw people touching their feet just because they are foreign returned and same for the other side too they take them a superior most.

After thinking on this for long time I could not conclude that what specialty a person gets when s/he returns from abroad because of that s/he dies of superiority complex and other people who did not yet get a chance to go abroad die to get such opportunity. I am sure of one thing that it can not be all money or beauty as India it self is full of this if we have a desire to search it out for ourselves. If it is some thing a sort of spreading our talent world wide, it makes sense but as far as I am sure talent does not support superiority complex. Than how come this factor came in to picture. There is some thing other than this for sure that makes people to run in the race “LET’S MOVE ABROAD”. Is it a brain drain ?
In spite of putting my all efforts to find out some reasons or to make out some conclusions I feel helpless…

Visit to St. Philomena's Church

June 16, 2007, this morning was a little exciting. First thing was that I had to go for my first Police enquiry for my passport in Mysore after almost 15 days of submission of my application and the main reason was , finally after waiting for a long time of almost 2 months we were going to see St. Philomena's Church. Though we were a bit late as per our plan still we were excited to go to church. Pinky, our land lord’s daughter, came to us about 10 a.m. and said she would be ready for Church by 11:30 a.m. I was already ready with Arun and just watching TV to pass out time.
At 12:00 p.m. our door ball rang and Pinky was there and she was ready to go for church. Before starting she asked for candle and as obvious two of us were not having candles, than she told us to get it from there only. We kicked our bikes and we started for the church. The Church is located about 3 kilometers from the city center. The ride to church is of almost 20 minutes from our home in Vijay Nagar. The way was a little bit full of traffic.
Being a Hindu I go to temple and few of the times I have been to Jain temples and to Gurudwara but this was the first time I went to any Church। In all other places we need to take our shoes off but in church its not like that so it was a slight uncomfortable feeling but I could manage it any how. In side the church first of all we lighted our candles and then we set on bench and prayed. As I believe there is no as such standard posture to pray, but the feelings should be pure, so Pinky did her prayers in her catholic style while I and Arun did it in our style. Then we went to basement of the church where a statue of St. Philomena.
The church is really beautiful. The St. Philomena's church is a miniature replica of the Cologne cathedral in Italy. Built in the early 1930’s in the Gothic style, it is the tallest cathedral in India. Colorful stained glass panels depict the birth, the last supper, the Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ. Light filtering in through these panels imparts an ethereal ambience to the inside of the church. The catacomb houses the statue and relics of the 3rd century saint Philomena. Twin spires rise up about 175 feets to the skies and can be seen for miles around.The main thing I liked about it was the clan ness. In spite people were wearing their shoes in side the church was quite clean and second thing that attracted me was the silence there. Though much people were not there still I can say even in crowed it should be quite peaceful place and people should get relax and peace inside the church.Visiting hours are from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m... I heard not to miss to see the illuminated church in the evenings but as of now we could not see it. No doubt I enjoyed my visit to the church and it was a good experience too. Soon I will try to visit in evening time.

Chamundi-Nanjangud Visit

Friday, 20th April’07. Day was going on it’s own pace. It was almost day end and I was working on my system and I realized an alert of new mail arrival on my computer screen. As I opened the mail I found it was a weekend mail wishing all a nice weak end from Subbu. It was a kind of funky mail showing everybody in rush for home. An idea to enjoy weekend suddenly stroked in to my mind after seeing this mail and I replied that mail to all asking for their plans for the weekend. I don’t know I did some mistake or people we not at all enthusiastic about the weekend as response to the mail was nil, except Ashok bhai’s mail saying he is ready for outing. No doubt it was more than enough for people like us to make a plan to hang out. A conf chat got start after this mail among Ashok bhai, me and Abhi, that turned to a conf call later on and ended up with our plan for the approaching weekend. We had a plan to visit one of the famous temples of Mysore, ‘The Chamundi Devi Temple” and “Nanjangud Temple”.
Next day according to our plan we met at the Petrol Pump near Panchvati circle. Arun was with me and Abhi was waiting for us there. Ashok bhai reached there just after our arrival. So, we all started around 7:10 AM for our first destination Chamundi Temple. This temple is more than 2000 yrs old. Chamundi Hill overlooks Mysore and is a popular tourist and pilgrimage centre, which is topped by the huge Chamundi temple. The stairway is guarded by the famous 5m high Nandi (Siva's bull) carved out of solid rock. This Temple is dedicated to Goddess Chamundeswari or Durga. Chamundeswari is the fierce form of Shakti who vanquished the demon Mahishasura. Apart from this the view of the city from the top is really amazing and we can see entire city from the top of the hill.
One unknown fact about this temple is : Dodda Devaraja Wodeyar, who ruled from 1659 to 1673, is said to have built the steps in 1583 for the convenience of pilgrims. He is also attributed to have constructed 63 houses at the foot of the hills and called it Devarajapura and donated it to Brahmins taking care of the temples. Besides using the steps, the Maharajas also rode on horseback to the temple. However, there was a separate flight of equestrian steps for the purpose. Very few know about the equestrian pathway today. The road was built in 1916 .From there we went to visit Nandi Bull, I have already described about it with temple. After spending some time there we left for Nanjangud about 9:15 AM. It was about 25 Km from there. It is on the Ooty road from Mysore.
Nanjangud, a holy place, described as Garalapuri, is famous because of the huge Nanjundeswara or Srikanteswara temple. It is believed that sage Gauthama stayed here for some times and installed a Linga, the idol form of Shiva. Nanjangud is also known as 'Dakshina Kashi' or Varanasi of the South.
The notable temple and place of pilgrimage at Nanjangud is the Nanjundeswara temple, one of the huge temples of Karnataka. It has grown in the course of 1,000 years, beginning from the Ganga times till the 19th century. The spacious temple has minor shrines of Narayana with consorts, Chandikeswara, Parvathi, Natya Ganapathi and others. There are many cells with Lingas enshrined in them. There are 122 images in the vast prakara or enclosure. There is a vast pillared mantapa inside. The temple has many bronzes Uthsava (procession) idols and a good number of vahanas (carriages) used on different festivals.
A major event in the pilgrim town is the Rathotsava or the car festival of Nanjundeswara. Besides the 'big Jathra' (big car festival), a 'Chikka Jathra' (small car festival) is also organized every year during two auspicious days. Hundreds of pilgrims are attracted for the two Jathras (festivals). Besides cultural programmers and illumination of the temple, a colorful floating festival (The ppotsava) is also conducted during the celebrations.
A major event in the pilgrim town is the Rathotsava or the car festival of Nanjundeswara. Besides the 'big Jathra' (big car festival), a 'chikka Jathra' (small car festival) is also organized every year during two auspicious days. Hundreds of pilgrims are attracted for the two Jathras (festivals). Besides cultural programmers and illumination of the temple, a colorful floating festival (The ppotsava) is also conducted during the celebrations.
Another important centre in Nanjangud is the Raghavendra Math, situated on the road to the right of the Nanjundeswara temple. It was founded by the close of 15th century and great gurus or heads like Sudheendra Thirtha and RaghavendraThirtha headed this institution. It has a fine collection of Sanskrit manuscripts and copper plates.One strange thing that I noticed in that temple was that it was having a number of statues but maximum of them were in a group of three. Second impressing or strange thing was number of Shiv Lings. I never saw that much number of Shiv Lings before. Really it was amazing visitng there.Finally about 11:15 AM we left the temple and had out breakfast there. Food was good there in the restaurant. After food we started back for home and we reached home at 1 PM. Abhi went with Ashok Bhai to his home and me and Arun came back to our home. Really it was a fun to be there. We enjoyed the trip. I wish we will get lots of such small and good trips.
Note: Details are from the following sites:

http://www.mylibnet.org/ardmysore.html

http://www.travelmasti.com/domestic/karnataka/mysore.htm

http://www.tourtravelworld.com/city_guide/mysore.html

Few Pics Of Shimla Trip

Our Shimla Trip

Winters were approaching and we were planning our trip that winter. Few options were there for us and hottest was GOA. After checking the availability of hotels finally we fixed for SHIMLA and day was Thursday 12th Jan’07 and we left for Shimla. Shimla is at almost 2200 mts height. We (Me, Chuck, Anuradha and Balneet) left office by 8:30PM. We had out train at 10:50PM up to Kalka. Everybody reached Old Delhi Railways Station on time and train was also on time (that rarely happens in India). Though our seats we not conjugative, but we managed to sit together as that compartment was almost empty. We had great fun in the train and hardly anybody slept that day. We reached Kalka at 5:00 Am, from where we had one more train to go to Shimla. Name of train was “Shivalik Express”; yes the famous Toy train of Shimla.

The train “Shivalik Express” was really beautiful and clean. In one compartment there were 18 seats and one person to attend passengers. We had our breakfast in the train itself. The track of the train is also very small and because of hills sometimes it bends on a sharp curve and we get to see it engine and last coach all together. The journey from Kalka to Shimla was of almost 90KM that was supposed to be done in 5 hours by this train and everybody was highly excited about toy train journey.

The journey was full of natural scenes and beauty. At the start of this journey we get to see the lightning city Chandigarh and it looks damn good. It looks like stars shinning on the earth rather than being on sky. Main attraction of this train is that it goes through 103 tunnels. This longest tunnel is Tunnel No 33 and that is almost 1174 mts and the name of station is “Badog”. When we were on the way we had sun rise and that is one of the beautiful sun raises scenes in India. We took a number of photographs of this sun rise. At certain numbers of times the train becomes parallel to the road and hardy 1 or 2 heights is the difference between the two. If you can run a little fast so no big deal for you to get down from the running train and to catch it back. But better don’t show this adventure as security is the primary concern.

Enjoy few of the pics of shimla(Non of these clicked by me.)http://www.flickr.com/photos/7410683@N03/
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............... Hope you enjoyed the pics.

By 10:15 Am 13’Th Jan’06 we reached Shimla and were really excited. Two taxies were there to drop us to our hotel. In almost 25 minutes we were in hotel and had a welcome from the staff. Then we got divided to share rooms and we were supposed to get ready as soon as possible as we needed to go out to visit Mall Road. Me, Nitin and Anuj, we three were sharing t he same room. We had a balcony in our room and the view outside was really attractive, full of greenery.

We all got ready on time and left for Mall Road. We went to a place locally named a LIFT there we saw an almost 90% angle elevated small hill to reach Mall Road. First we reached “Sher-e-Punjab” restaurant to have our lunch. After grabbing our lunch we started roaming around The Mall Road. It was beautiful; especially it was full of couples and beautiful cheeks, cheeks of Shimla. Mall Road is along the side of a beautiful valley there. One of the main attractions of Mall road was it cleanness. It was really clean and nobody was allowed to throw anything there.

In Shimla there a very old and famous church. This church is again on Mall Road. We did not go inside the church, but we found it beautiful from outside itself and took few snaps of it. After roaming around the Mall for quite some time we started back for hotel. Since it was the day of ‘Lohri”. We had already told the manger to arrange for Boon Fire and some drinks. That was a full moon night and we all were sitting around the boon fire singing and making fun that time. After having fun for some time we came to respective rooms and slept.

Next morning was not that good as Nitin was not feeling well as he had some food poising and we called doctor for him. After the check up we left for “Kufri” another good place to visit and see snow. Kufri is almost 400 mts height from Shimla. It took almost 30 minutes by car to reach the place from where we got the mules to reach kufri. We took shoes to walk to snow and started on mules. It was a thrilling experience as mules were walking at the corner of valley and it was scaring us. We hardly controlled our breathes and reached Kufri.

Kufri was supposed to be full of snow but we did not find that much snow there but it was sufficient to have fun. I went deep down in valley and found more snow there. From Kufri we can see mountains full of snow and we can see China border as well. Everybody was excited and was playing in snow. They were throwing snow balls on each other. We did not spend much time there and came back to hotel.

After having our food we again went to Mall road and did shopping. I bought a number of things. I got something or the other for everyone at home. I bought a Bhagat Singh style hat there and that became an attraction there. Everyone took one’s snap in that hat. After some time we all came back and got some drinks there in hotel and had out dinner.Since Chuck was going back to US; we had a plan to give him a farewell there so we (especially Gagandeep from EA) prepared a huge grating card for him on which we captured his photographs, which were taken on different occasions. That card was very beautiful and was full of good wishes for him. We all had fun and went to our bed rooms. No doubt, everybody was sad because Chuck was going. No doubt is a nice human being and we admire him.

That was our second and last night in Shimla and around 1 AM our phone rang. Aakash was on line and he asked us to come done to be there in open area we had boon fire. When we reached there we say everybody was there and were standing silent and sad there. Then he told us that Imran was no more and his body was lying in the room. We were told to go inside the room and to see him as police was supposed to come soon. When I entered in the room I could smell something unusual, but I did not show it out. Finally when I remove the sheet from Irman’s face he opened his eyes and tried scaring. As I was expecting that so I did not scare but few of our team mates got badly scared. Rajesh was capturing all that in his camera. This was a great fun that showed in spite of lots of responsibilities we know how to enjoy in free time.

Next day we went for skating; but unfortunately it started raining and we could not do skating. Finally we came back to hotel and had our breakfast and left for Delhi. We came to Kalka by car and on the way we stopped to see Timber Trail resort. It is famous for a trail/ trolley that goes up to a good height and it goes on an elevation. Few of us went to enjoy this and some were down there only.

We reached station about 1/2 hour before the time. There we had our reservation back to Delhi by “Shatabadi Express”. There we found one exciting thing and that was joining of bogies with engine. Rajesh and Chuck shot a full video of this moment. We had our dinner in the train itself. It was 9:50 PM 15th Jan’06 and we were at Delhi railway station. By 11:30 PM I reached my home in gurgaon.

Really this was a wonderful trip and I am sure none of us can ever forget this

Pics Of Mr. President's Visit.

Mr. President's Visit

6’Th April’07, the day was going slow as it was Friday and weekend was knocking out doors. We people were about to windup our work and were planning to leave for home and were in dreams of spending weekend. I and Subbu were planning to go to Water Park to have some fun over there. Suddenly the environment got energetic and the people earlier who were almost snappy; started looking fresh. Yes, the news was something like that only. The news was, our Honorable President Mr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, were coming to our campus in Mysore on Sunday 8th April 07. Really this was great news that filled us with joy and excitement. Everybody was quite excited about his visit. Few of the people who had a plan to go out town for the week end, did not think twice to change their minds and started looking forward for President’s visit.

8’Th April’07, the day of President’s visit. In the morning news paper the entire schedule of the visit was there. Even we were already informed / instructed by management that we should be in site the campus by 2PM, because of security reasons as visit Mr. President was supposed to be in by 4PM.

As per the instructions we were there on time. Since I reached almost at 1:45pm I had to park my bike outside only, as security was not allowing people to go inside the campus as there were some slight changes in visit plan. Finally we all were in FC1 and Amphi Theater. As per expectations huge strength of Infosians was there to listen to the address of Mr. President. It was a sunny day and a little hot too. It was not so easy to sit in Amphi Theater sun shine, so people were carrying umbrella, even that was not helping much in that huge strength. But the excitement to see Mr. President was on top of everything and we were waiting for him with full enthusiasm.

On the scheduled time Mr. President came to the campus and we welcomed him with a huge applause and then we all sung our National Anthem in attention position. After the National Anthem, our Chief Mentor Mr. NRN welcomed him and called him on the stage of address. Mr. President came on to the stage and again we welcomed him with huge applause. Then Mr. President started his speech and asked us to have some oaths with him.

No doubt Mr. President is a very simple man heaving a great mind and heart. His body emits an energy that makes the environment energetic and fills up the people with enthusiasm. His words have the power to open the mind of people towards the knowledge. His passion for the country is clearly visible in his actions and words. Though Mr. President was here for about 20 minutes but even that short time was enough for him to encourage people to put in their best efforts whatever they do.

His speech is available on the link given below.http://presidentofindia.nic.in/scripts/sllatest1.jsp?id=1016We are really thanks full to Mr. President for his invaluable time and advice. We are also thanks full to Mr. NRN, who made this possible for us and we got this great opportunity. This day is really unforgettable day in our lives.