déjà vu

escape

2010-11-21T18:51:00.001-08:00

Bennarghatta_Nov212010_3846 - Searching for an escape route, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

For different people the word mean different things...
For the Cheetah caged in the zoo, it means freedom from the cage...
For me it is the time out of the suffocating polluted smell of the city...

tea shop

2010-09-16T10:46:00.001-07:00

Tea Shop, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

A look back in to the past. Once common sight in the villages of Kerala is now a rare-to-find, amusing view...
Its not Kerala anyway, Atop Kolli Hills, Semmedu, Namakkal District of TN

kadalinakkare ponore...

2010-07-28T06:55:00.001-07:00

Glowing sun, and shadow of a boat, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

salutes to those who seek the other end of the ocean, rowing farther, netting deeper, bringing the 'tasty' ocean wealth to the seashore...

shore temple

2010-07-26T22:43:00.001-07:00

The Shore Temple, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

The historical monument at Mahabalipuram is as old as 8th century AD built by Pallava Dynasty.

tea estate

2010-02-15T20:34:00.001-08:00

The Tea Estate, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

Coorg in Western Ghats at Kerala-Karnataka boarder. Well known for its greenery, coffee and great hills for trekking. From our camping trip to Madikeri on Feb-13, 2010

about sharavathi valley

2010-01-26T18:55:00.000-08:00

My fellow co-trekker Ashish Bhanawat has written quite a nice description of the place we went. I found it very interesting:
The Sharavathi Valley
The Sharavathi river valley nestled in the central Western Ghats, Shimoga district has been an ecological paradise. The Sharavathi River, rising at Ambuthirtha in Thirthahalli taluk flows north-west and drops down in the Ghats at the world famous Jog falls.

The sharavathi Valley is home for many water falls and to some of the beautiful streams. The valley is evergreen to semi-evergreen forest along with moist deciduous type of forests that dominate the entire basin along with scrub savannah, grasslands, marshy areas and plantation of acacia, cash crops like areca and rubber providing diverse niches for a variety of taxa. Rare evergreen species such as Dipterocarpus, Syzygium, Cinnamon, Diospyros, Aglaia, endemic Palms along with the globally endangered Myrist-icasps makes this an ecologically sensitive region to be conserved and not marketed.

Sharavathi Backwater:

Sharavathi backwater is about 60 KM in length and about 15 KM wide !!!. It became backwater when dam was constructed at Linganamakki of Sagara taluk in Shivamogga(Shimoga) district to the river Sharavathi. This backwater has created lots of islands. It is so great to explore all these, where thick vegetation still exist and lot of wild life in it including some rare birds.

And he has quite a good summary of the trip as well:

Trekking bare foot,

Swimming in the baby pool,

Enjoying hot meals in the jungle,

Sitting on the edge of rocks watching small natural aquarium,

Rowing boats to home island without knowing any technical details first day and getting all detail and instruction next day :),

Playing antakshri "the symbol of unity in diversity",

Taking dinner under the shelter of stars and moon,

Asking the sun "Give me some sunshine, give me some rays, give one more chance to grow up again" in the morning,

Our toilet island/hill,

Floating just like the last leaf,

Joining graduation ceremony of Praveen aka toppler who got graduated in toppling(For master he need to topple speed boat and for PhD need to topple ship :) :)),

Hijacking the boat,

Taking mud bath at bathroom island,

Rowing the kayak a far away and realizing the cacophony of the concrete jungle,

And the photography prohibited dhaba.

PS: Quoted lines in Italics.

veegi falls

2010-01-25T22:33:00.001-08:00

Sharavathi_Valley_Jan232010_1005-Weegi Falls, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

It is so very refreshing to trek around a waterfall, down the stream of a river. Rhythmic sounds of the waterfall, soothing fresh air, crystal clear water... Along with the company of Friends that makes a perfect weekend.

hogenakkal

2009-08-16T07:22:00.001-07:00

Hogenakkal_ Tamilnadu Falls, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

Its great to have some time out of the hectic city life of Bangalore.
This time with colleagues, out to Hogenakkal falls. Really a fun time.

kanva

2009-06-07T04:40:00.001-07:00

Banyan Tree, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

It has been a while since I went out on a road trip. This weekend, we went out to see the Sunrise at Kanva Dam near Ramanagaram just about 50 kms from Bangalore.
It was too cloudy to see a Sunrise. But a nice drive, a breath of fresh air and a good morning walk near the dam, not to mention the awesome food at Kamat's...

fresh

2009-04-05T10:37:00.001-07:00

"Its Fresh", originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

When u are rise up from the Cauvery dive, here awaits some fresh river water fish for you. Everything runs on bargaining, the coracles, fish... May be you should bargain for 1500Rs coracle rides, not for a 25Rs fish...

...Water isn't really fresh, its muddy and u'll find all kinds of throwaways in it. Fish, not very hygienic. So if you are quite healthy after all these, you have a pretty good immune system. But yet, while in Rome...

dive

2009-04-05T10:08:00.001-07:00

Dive..., originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

A dive in to a refreshing waters of Cauvery river from busy days at work at Bangalore. Trip to Hogenakkal with a big gang of 11 college mates was quite bit of fun. Nice drive - good roads all the way, Nice coracle rides, "fresh" fish fried in local style...

jump

2009-03-22T08:38:00.001-07:00

The Height, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

to Fly is a dream us humans has had for generations... We have planes, copters, hovercrafts - All takes us to the sky, makes the world a global village. Yet far from the dream of flying...
Another way to fulfill the quest to defy the gravity - jump - A bungee Jump...

Over the weekend me and my colleagues went to this temperary setup in Bannerghetta for a small jump... ;)

years of experience

2009-01-08T07:48:00.001-08:00

VW Legacy, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

Only a few things pass the test of the time. When some thing does that it becomes the part of history and as the years pass by even further it becomes a legend, then a myth...
Volkswagen - The peoples car - stood the test of the time, part of the history, still lives quietly around the roads of Goa. A snap taken near the Holy Spirits church of Margao.

lighthouse

2009-01-05T21:52:00.001-08:00

Lighthouse, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

Does this light house remind you of the past year?
Like a withered leaf from a tree of life, a year has fallen to the stream of memories. As the leaf slowly crumbles down and dissolves in to the stream, we collect few drops from it and store it in our pensive forever to cherish. For me those drops are the pictures on flickr and a few notes down here in d'Ja Vu.

new year

2009-01-04T22:59:00.000-08:00

New is the year,

New are the hopes and aspirations ,

New are the resolutions...

With that renewed energy and spirits I move on to another year of blogging.

(or should I say another year of bugging my readers?)

Lines inspired from one of the sms new year wishes I got...

old goa

2008-12-26T01:03:00.001-08:00

Church Entrance, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

Basilica of Bom Jesus - literally translated to Engilis as Church of Holy Christ - was built in mid 16th century. Body of St. Francis Xavier is kept in the church...

Isn't that old enough for Old Goa?

goa route

2008-12-15T01:01:00.001-08:00

There was a lot of confusion for us to find a good route to Goa and we realised that for the directions that we get from google (or other maps site) have quite a long stretch of pathetic roads.

I just compiled a mail to send to one of my friends for his trip. Thought I will post it for future use.

Best Route in terms of travel comfort: (But worst in terms of distance)

Section 1: To Hubbali (NH4 Towards North)

Bangalore - Tumkur - Sira - Hiriyur - Chithradurga - Davangere - Rannibennur - Haveri - Hubbali (NH4 Towards Mumbai, easy to follow the directions. Roads are good and 4 Line construction going on at many places which can be misleading at couple of places. But signboards are there so you should be alright.)

At Hubbali take LEFT towards NH63

Section 2: To Karwar (NH63 Towards South-West)

Now follow through Kalghatgi - Kirvati - Yellapur - Ramanguli - Sunksal - Agsur - Ankola (During this stretch of road if you are ask for directions ask for Karwar. If you ask how to go to Goa they will send you back to Hubbali. Point is that this section is almost towards south which actually would not make sense to anyone. Only justification is that the roads are good where as the other roads are pathetic.)

Section 3: (NH17 North)

Take a right on NH17 towards Mumbai and Goa at Ankola.

Go towards Karwar - Polem - Mashen - Nagorcem - Madagaon - and Panjim!

About Karwar: Its a beautiful place if you can make it during day time. We happened to be there in the night and could not enjoy much. Essentially its Goa-Karnataka boarder and there are good beaches in Karwar as well.

There is a checkpost in Karwar border where you might have to pay some bribe (while coming back from Goa.) We paid 200.

Shorter Route: (Via Shimoga)

Section 1: NH4

Bangalore - Tumkur

Section 2: (NH206, No Idea about the current condition of this road. From my past experience about a year back there was no road at all for ~70 kms till Shimoga. Its good to enquire about any improvements if you know somebody frequently travel to shimoga)

Tiptur - Kadur - Tarikere - Shimoga - Sagar - Honavar

Section 3: NH17

Honavar - Kumta - Ankola (Where it joins the Section 3 of the first Route)

Route 3:

(This is the route that you will get if you google it, or if you ask locals on the way etc. which has very bad section of road)

Section 1 is the same till Hubbali of the first route.

Section 2

Continue NH4 till Dharwad (Do not enter Dharwad city. There is a big bypass, take it.)

When you continue further north there is a clear signboard indicating Directions to Goa (Panjim) towards Left. So once you reach Dharwad area keep looking for this signboard on your left side.

The moment you enter the road you will be welcomed with PotHoles and jungle route. NOTE: There is NO petrol pump for another 150Kms from here, so make sure that you have enough to travel this much and more. Roads are pathetic, so consider a little extra petrol as well.

There are no towns till Goa in the route and not many intersections. Follow the road, thumb rule is go straight when in doubt. :)

You should reach Londa where you will hit the NH4A. Take this road (you might have to travel a bit south - a few kms) and then the road will turn west, and then again North. (See maps)

Londa - Ponda - Bandora - Cundaim - Carabolim - Panjim (All NH4A route)

We took this route while going and we had a lot trouble. Roads are pathetic and easy to get lost in the jungle routes. The people in the section from Dharwad to Londa are not quite helpful. If you ask for route they will take you to where they want to go and the leave you in the middle - bottomline you wont get the correct route.

goa sunset

2008-12-11T09:33:00.001-08:00

First Day Sunset, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

October is the time for Holidays - Dusshera, Diwali... Festival time.
Time for another interesting roadtrip. Goa.
We didn't want to drive and took a taxi. Well, that turned out to be more interesting than self-driving. A driver who can understand only Kannada, and few words in English and nothing else... :) And he knows only one thing - go straight no matter where the main road is turning, or where we have to go.
After almost 19 hours of ordeal - figuring out the route, jungle roads, exceptionally pathetic unpaved stretch - we finally touched down on the Goan beach...

We got a room just few steps away from the Calangute beach. After brunch we stepped out to see this beautiful sunset.

Walking up north on the beach from the Candolim, through Calangute and towards the Anjuna we realized that this the same exact place we visited almost 8 years back during the college time. Talking about the memories, we spent our evening on the beach... And finally getting lost... :D

fresh green

2008-11-09T00:56:00.001-08:00

Good Bye Leh, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

The rivers of himalayas are veins that supply the white blood to the green flesh of life. Just see the importance of the river, the water that it supplies to our life and the very existence...
Save Nature, and its beauty, Save water; otherwise we just may cease to exist.

across the river

2008-11-09T00:47:00.001-08:00

Across the river, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

An innovative way to cross the river?
It was a bit heavy to pull the rope. I was finding it difficult to pull.

prayer wheel

2008-11-09T00:39:00.001-08:00

Prayer Wheel, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

the budhist prayer wheel, upclose.
A prayer wheel is said to transform the place "peaceful pleasant and conductive to the mind."

lamayuru

2008-11-09T00:18:00.001-08:00

Lamayuru Gonpa, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

On the way to Kargil from Leh. Lamayuru is a place to visit. Construction is similar to the Leh palace.

moonland

2008-11-09T00:13:00.001-08:00

Moonland Drive, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

Welcome to Moonland. The landscape here apparently close to the terrain of the moon and hence the name Moonland.

road to kargil

2008-11-09T00:09:00.001-08:00

The Way ahead, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

fine roads to Kargil are in the making. Next time when we go, its going to be a smooth ride through the paved roads...

dunes

2008-11-09T00:03:00.001-08:00

Dunes, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

Fine dust of Sand...
Lakes, colorful mountains, dunes, narrow roads. Its amazing what this place has to offer....

waves of Pangong

2008-11-08T23:59:00.001-08:00

Waves of Pangong, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

The Pangong Tso, largest in the himalayas extends all the way to the Tibet.

ride through the river

2008-11-08T23:55:00.001-08:00

River to Cross, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

Forget bridges, we have to go through the river bed to reach Pangong. This river will be flooded by noon from the melting ice. We are there early morning... Safe now. :)

a small lake

2008-11-08T23:53:00.001-08:00

Small Lake, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

Small lakes like this one in the valleys fuel the life around here. Green grass, blue sky, the clouds and the mountains... A scene that shouldn't be missed. Something that stays in the memory for a long long time...

fresh morning

2008-11-08T23:50:00.001-08:00

Good Morning, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

Don't you wish to wake up listening to the sweet sounds of the flowing stream, fresh air, and a cool climate?

thiksey gonpa

2008-11-08T23:48:00.001-08:00

Thiksey Gonpa, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

A 12 storey monastry, with a huge Budha statue inside. One of the places not to miss when you are in Leh.

never to visit

2008-11-08T23:26:00.001-08:00

Never to Visit, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

Near thiksey Gonpa, we tried this hotel but was so annoyed with the food that we actually decided then and there to post a negative blog entry for this one. If you happen to be in Thiksey, try the restaurant inside the Gonpa and NOT this hotel.

indus

2008-11-08T23:24:00.001-08:00

Indus River, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

A stop beside the mother of our civilization - Indus River

tso moriri

2008-11-08T23:18:00.001-08:00

Tso Moriri, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

A bit of sunlight hiding behind the dark clouds...
Evening at Tso Moriri

road + river

2008-10-16T11:20:00.001-07:00

Believe it or not, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

Not quite a place where we can build a bridge, rite? River meets the road :)

through the window

2008-10-16T11:17:00.001-07:00

Through the palace window, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

A view down the streets of Leh through the palace window. In picture, if you can make out, is the local Polo ground which the local people claim to be the highest in the world.

leh palace

2008-10-16T11:15:00.001-07:00

The Leh Palace, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

Not a modern marvel, a palace in clay and wood. Unfinished work in most places, some renovated, some still old... Yet its called Leh 'Palace'.

good morning Leh!

2008-09-18T08:09:00.001-07:00

Welcome to Leh, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

the golden gates welcomes us to the beautiful town of Leh.
A different Monday morning to remember!

en'chant'ed

2008-09-18T07:55:00.001-07:00

Prayer Chants, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

The colorful prayer chants is common sight in this part of the world.
Going down the valley, on Tanglang La we are almost near Leh...
...and the Sun hiding shyly behind the mountains sent us few last rays of the day to bid adieu to the day 2.

tanglang la

2008-09-18T07:48:00.001-07:00

Celebrations in Snow - TangalangLa, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

According to the claims, this point is the second highest mountain pass in the world. True or not its a great feeling to be here; for the first time in the trip all the nearby mountains appear shorter and we are on the top of the tallest...

lunch

2008-09-18T07:20:00.001-07:00

Dhaba at Sarchu, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

After one full day of journey through deepak we are at the border of the Jammu and Kashmir state crossing over to himank.
Deepak and Himank are Border Roads Org.'s project names probably for building these tough roads.
There are hardly any permanent hotels on the way; all we can find are the small tea-shops in similar tents. The not-so-well-cooked 'sabji', oooily omelet and ddry 'rotis' are tasty meals when you are hungry... :)

the temple

2008-09-17T07:34:00.001-07:00

The Temple, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

this is the temple I was talking about in my previous post.

rocks

2008-09-17T07:31:00.001-07:00

Temple on the road, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

Small rocks arranged one on top of the other. Might be some form of religious offering to the gods of the mountains?
Near a temple on Leh-Manali Highway...

mountains

2008-09-17T07:27:00.001-07:00

Zinging Bar, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

...and more of it. Covered in snow.

mountains

2008-09-17T07:24:00.003-07:00

Jispa Mountains and Valley, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

Early morning, Day 2 at Jispa.
Views down the valley is just awesome, all throughout the trip. How many times can we stop to capture it all? If we do that we'll just have to cut short the trip to Manali-Leh highway alone...

campsite

2008-09-17T07:16:00.003-07:00

The Tents, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

Our camp for the first day was ideal for the adventure trip: Tent.
No we did not make the tents, Neither did we put a campfire... But still it was fun...

By the bridge

2008-09-17T07:12:00.001-07:00

By the bridge, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

Keylong: Farther we move from Manali, the colour of the mountains changed from green to dark brown... Vegetation became thinner, and so did the O-life in the air.

Snow

2008-09-17T07:02:00.003-07:00

Snow, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

More and more spins on the winding roads, trying to catch up with the hands of our watches may be... and its almost curtains to the day one.
Far across the river, we can see the Himalayan Glaciers - First one always leaves a deep impression whether its the best or not...

River

2008-09-17T06:58:00.001-07:00

River, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

A view of the river down the valley at Rohtang.
It was too windy at this point, I was feeling like I am about to be swept off.. (Is that windy enough?) :D

Everyday is winding road

2008-09-03T00:26:00.001-07:00

Everyday is winding road, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

Till we reached Rohtang, we were right in the clouds. Atop the hill, after Rohtang we turned left to the other side of the hill - and this is the scene. No clouds!
Now we can see far down the road, the valley...
...and what came to my mind was this song by Sheryl Crow: "Everyday is a winding road... "
Yes it is, at least for the next few days in our case...

Avalanche point

2008-08-24T06:28:00.001-07:00

Avalanche point, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

Very soon, we touched the clouds. At 12 noon, it felt like a foggy december morning in Bangalore - or even denser. After around 30Kms from Manali the roads kind of disappeared, and what we were driving through was a muddy trail. I started appreciating the scorpio as a good strong vehicle that can really make its own way where no road exists...
Trucks appearing all of a sudden from the dense fog stunned us literally sometimes, but the driver was still cool.
We stopped at some place which said "Avalanche point" to stretch out a little bit after hours of bumpy ride. We are going to need a lot of Moov tonight... :P

Far away

2008-08-24T06:16:00.001-07:00

Far away, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

Streams that appeared to be wide enough to become a river, are now narrowing down to broken white lines of the green painting. We were climbing up fast.

Manali

2008-08-24T06:06:00.001-07:00

Manali, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

Our driver knew the place inside out, 14 trips to Leh and back from the beginning of the season this year. He took some shortcuts to bypass the truck guys and before we realized, we were going uphill through the hairpins...
Here is one last look at Manali...

Manali

2008-08-24T06:02:00.001-07:00

at Manali, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

Almost an hour drive from Kulu Airport is Manali town. Our stop for breakfast - first day. Town is not big, and we can identify its a tourist place from the first look itself.
Our taxi driver took us straight to an agent who was after us to pick his car. We took some time for breakfast (I should say I took some time, since everyone else finished fast. :D). Two of us went to check the taxi fares in the Taxi Association and the agents fare seemed reasonable.
So we decided to take his Scorpio. 12k for the trip to Leh.

Kulu - First view

2008-08-18T05:05:00.000-07:00

After month(s) of planning (:P) we are finally on the morning Deccan flight to Kulu. While the others are finding it hard to keep their eyes open, I was watching the view of the Yamuna river down below from the small flight. As we moved closer to the Himalayan ranges small folds of mountains started appearing, slowly increasing the size. Mountains started appearing high enough to the heights at which we are flying - ehem, we were on the descent already :)
I was wondering how did they manage to find space for a runway in the middle of the heavily packed mountains... May be at this altitude pilots have less work (I guess no pilot is reading this. ;-) ) since the runway might appear suddenly in the flying altitude, just need to park it. I didn't feel much descent anyway, and we are landed in Kulu airport.
There is a good taxi system with fixed charges to any destination you choose. We took an Omni to Manali and decided we will choose a better car from Manali.
This is the first view of the Kulu Manali road near the bridge. We follow this river all the way to Manali. We tried to ask the driver about the name of the river for which he replied in something that sounded like chinese-hindi mix. I still dont know the name of the river...

royal residence

2008-02-24T04:43:00.001-08:00

Windsor Castle @23 02 2008 14-22.34, originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

Where else to go on a nice weekend in England than the royal residence of the Queen herself? The Windsor castle is home to the queen on most weekends.
There are parts of the castle open to public visitors even when queen is there at the Castle. But most places inside photography is prohibited. We were allowed inside the church, queen's dollhouse, and around 25 of state apartments (Which we call rooms in our normal house :D). Each room, and every detail of it talks about the history of the monarch, the different kings and queens of the past, their work, passions, victories... And of course the treasures captured from different parts of the world including the Armour and the Royal Symbol (Tiger made of gold silver studded with precious stones) of Tippu Sultan of Mysore.
Pictures are on flickr as usual....

stonehenge - more pictures

2008-02-18T12:59:00.001-08:00

Stonehenge (16 02 2008 13-50.61), originally uploaded by Amal Chandran.

More pictures are on flickr...

stones from history

2008-02-18T12:56:00.000-08:00

From the first time I came here, this is one place I wanted to go. Here lies the stones that speak of an ancient history, hardwork of hunderds(?) of people, and a mysterious message from the ancestors which we still are not able to decipher. The question of why this was built stands as tall as the monument itself unanswered.

Stonehenge is near Salisbury, almost an hour's drive from our place - Fleet. It was an awesome drive, after quite a while back on to the freeways - this time with a sports car. :D And quite surprisingly we didn't get lost, at any place enroute. Thats one amazing fact since I do not have any history of finding the route right at the first time :D from the experience in road trips of US.
Stonehenge is made of Blue stones, which has specific property of keeping the warmth for longer time. Each of stones weigh almost 45-50 tons each, and the stones lying horizontally on the top are not just 'put' on the legs, they are hinged on to them with a ball and socket type of joint which is carved in the stones.
The strategically placed stones can show us the season, On the midsummer day, the sun rays falls through the stons right on to the middle stone which is called altar - no longer standing upright though. And there are strategically placed stones which marks positions during the other parts of the year.
There has been lots of speculations about what, how, why these stones are placed, and why this place... Far from the place where the stones are picked from. It will take hours to write down all that which anyway you will be able to find on wiki.
All I would say is that "One of the most interesting places I have been "...

It was rather chilly day which reminded me of the mornings of Chicago. Had it been a summer day, or evening we could have had a different view of the monument, better photographic shots! :)
Another fun weekend with friends in UK...

vauxhall

2008-02-15T12:29:00.001-08:00

Thats my new car.

My first time with a two door sports edition car. Looks awesome, and feels good to drive... :D

Roads are similar to the ones in India, small two way single lane; except that the people obey the rules. Maintaining a car here is costly affair. Insurance is costly. (I dont care, company pays!) Free parking is rare to find. (I do really care about that :D)

Speed limit rules are enforced with average speed cameras. So watch out when you really feel like speeding. :)

Nevertheless, Car is a necessity. Freedom to move, anywhere any time! As it goes: "Freedom is not Free!"

london Vs chicago

2008-01-22T14:36:00.000-08:00

Chicago is much newer city compared to London. In London there are some places as old as 1078 at which time America is not even discovered. This marks the essential difference between cities. Chicago is much better planned for the modern world in terms of wide roads, parking space, and modern buildings like the Sears tower whereas every street in London speaks aloud a history of its own. The narrow roads of London, and the statues of the great people that we see as we move along reminds us of the royal British legacy. Sometimes cruel though, the memorials reminding the way the prisoners were treated at times.

London is home to the ever lasting stories of the British Empire and the great british architecture. Chicago shows off itself in its modern marvels

I hope the pictures speak for themselves...

weekend@london

2008-01-22T14:26:00.000-08:00

Pictures speak louder than words, and hence the picture tour of London is on flickr.
It took hours to post comments on the pictures, and I would expect you would look at those...

More as we move along...

a train to illford

2008-01-19T01:10:00.000-08:00

TGIF.

Finally the weekend. Friday afternoon 4 O'clock when I came from the meeting the office was nearly half empty which is not usually the case in a normal working day. People escaping from work asap. My manager here is travelling to India next week. After he bid byebye to me, I went searching for the new mallu company I have in Nokia. Though he is also pretty new in here, he knows England very well.

Close to around 5.30 we took off from the office in the company drop to the Farnborough railway station. Not too far from the office. Since Renju (Well, forgot to introduce him and yes thats his name.) had monthly season ticket he waited for me to take ticket. I had directions from Tenny to how to reach his place - Illford. Ticket is £13.70 single journey, and £27 for roundtrip over weekend. I said I needed only single journey ticket, till Illford, which I can do split journey. There is a place to put the money on the counter. I put my £20 note on that. The attendent lady placed the change and the ticket on the other side of the round rotating thingie. The she turned it around, the £20 is now on her side and ticket and my change is on mine. Well, she is sitting in a completely closed glass door'ed cabin to which the only access is this. May be to escape from the cold wind?

Anyways, the ticket is like a flexible smart card, just a piece of paper which has a brown line on one side which contains the ticketing information. We need to feed the ticket to the access point at the entrance to get access to the station. The access machine will take the ticket in and spit it out once it allowed the access. "Please take your ticket" sign will appear on the screen.

Once in the station, the place is like the one I had described in my NYC trip. Clean and neat. Good enough signboards and electronic displays to guide you. Since I had a live guide with me it didn't matter anyways. Renju is staying in place nearby, called Woking. I would make a short stop at his place for dinner and then move on.

Woking seemed to be HIS place. He knew quite a lot of people around. So it was quite easy to get around. He took me to an Indian shop and we had Onion Bajji's for the time being. After the short stop about half an hour I moved out to the station to catch the next train to London Waterloo. The ticket is direct to Illford, but the journey by defaut is broke in to three legs one ending at waterloo station.

Waterloo station is one of the busiest in the city. Four different Underground rail lines and National Rail service (Out of city trains) intersect here. Don't get confused with Rail Junctions in India. A rail line in the London Underground never actually intersect, neither does a train from a line cross over to another line. If you need to travel to a different place, get down here and take the next one. Each line has a very good name which would confuse the newcomers - The name does not directly indicate where its going. But one good thing: From one platform the trains go to only one place. If you are at the right platform just blindly get on to the train. Its fine. You need to be sure of where you are going. Thats all!

From here I had to take the Jubilee line towards Stratford. The signboard system was so good that I did not need to stop or ask anybody at any point even though the station was quite complex place with lots of platforms (8 platforms, one for each direction of the four underground lines) and the National Rail platforms - around 13-14 of them. Is Chennai railwaystation this big? May be not...

Friday evening, all trains are jam-packed. The same is the status with all the trains. There are trains every 3-5 minutes. If we have this much traffic in each train, what is the approximate number of people using the train? How much of the traffic on the road is saved?

The journey to Stratford was good, except for the fact that I was standing all the way. I had to take train to Illford. But Tenny did not tell me which train to take from here. I went and checked the maps. I had to take the trains to Shenfield and checked the platform numbers. Things are quite easy here...

By around 9.30 pm I reached Illford. I wanted to keep the ticket just as a souvenir to the first train journey in London. But at Illford the ticket machine ate my ticket instead of spitting my ticket. Note: One way tickets are eaten at the end of the journey. ok?

Tenny came to pick me up from the station. And finally at London for the weekend...
More on that later...

shire

2008-01-17T12:22:00.000-08:00

Shire is an administrative area in England, as far as I understand like states in India. Now I am in the Hampshire county, which wiki says is a vacation place for the presence of the New Forest national park. The park is about 1 hour drive down south but I believe its not a good time to go right now due to the rainy and cold climate of this season. So lets stick with what I have now, the hotel that I stay right now: The Lismoyne:

This thing is a good old typical English building.

And my room would be around that corner of it.
The morning breakfast is included in the charges, and the restaurant is this

At morning 0830 there would be a taxi coming to pick me up to office,
On this way up

To reach this building 0ne of the Southwood office.

There are five buildings here and the third one here is the major building.

The office is good, quite like the Bangalore one, the people are nice and helpful. Typical rhythmic English, a lot of experience in the field too. Unlike my Chicago trip employees are not Indian and Chinese, they are all British.
Canteen serves typical English meal (I guess). Fish is a major part of the menu everyday. Its not spicy as we see it in India, but I am happy with it.

The sun is quite lazy around this place, shows his face only very few times a day. Wakes up only at 8 in the morning and goes to sleep around 4-4.30 in the evening.
By the time I reach the hotel back in the same taxi, it would be dark. But I would take a walk down the church road, on the fleet road market place to find some dinner.
Last couple of days, I wasn't finding any good restaurants near my place to experiment. Its cold in the evening and last couple of days it was raining almost all day. I did not go for long walks down the road.
Today it rained heavily during the day, but appeared fine in the evening. I walked down the fleet road.

This I think is the biggest shopping mall in Fleet. Don't be fooled by the picture. This is just the entrance. There is a lot to explore inside. Though not even near comparable to the Gurnee Mills its big. May be the size of Forum. But the shops here closes at 1730 in the evening. I wonder how the people here are shopping. I was planning to take a mobile connection here, which appears to be cheap compared to everything else here. But could not.
This was now farthest I have from my hotel by walk so far. Since it was not very cold, I decided to walk further down to see if I can find some good place for food. I saw Subway but was not quite interested. Two blocks further down I found "Gurgha Sqaure" - Nepali.
Okay lets try this today... :)

I went in, the waiters led me to the table here. Its a small place only very few chairs. But has a bar inside. Some nice paintings, and pictures from Nepal.

I looked at the menu, looked quite similar to an Indian menu. Rice, Rotis, and the like. I ordered a Khasi Bhutuva (Lamb Curry) and Special Rice (Egg Fried Rice).

This is what it looked like when it came. I didn't think I was going to finish it to my usual standards. But I actually did finish almost all of it, except the rice.

And this is the proof that I really did finish most of it. :)
Now that I had dinner, and good walk down the fleet road I decided to take a walk straight down the hotel. Not many people are in the street this time, I think its same almost always. Some people were jogging with florescent jackets. 15 minutes walk and I am back at my three start hotel...

namaste london

2008-01-14T13:18:00.000-08:00

After the 18 hour BA flight ordeal, now at 0600 GMT the flight is at terminal 4 of the London Heathrow airport. There were good enough number of signboards to faithfully lead you to the neat and organized airport. The arrival form that I got from the flight was already filled in, ready to enter UK. The white letters on the dark bluish cabin read
"UK Border".
I was one of the first few passengers who got out of the aircraft. So I could manage to escape a lot of queue. There were around 7-8 officers doing the job in parallel. Things were pretty fast here too.

[1830 GMT]
Now I have crossed the border and 'Officially' IN the borders of the Great Britain. As I got out, there was a cab guy waiting with my name, and the Nokia tag right at the entrance. As we walked out, the exit and the weather felt strangely similar to another airport.

[2300 PST, Nov 23 2006 LAS]
I am getting out of the airport with my weekender jacket on, not zipped up all the way dragging my black suitcase towards the Hertz bus that we were waiting for. With me are Robin and Aiklavya.

[1850 GMT, Present day: Jan 13, 2008]
Back to the present, I am taking the walk with the Station cab driver to the Kia Sedonna minivan (looks like a bigger version of Innova). I chose to sit the front seat alongside the driver. Unlike the usual cars in UK, this one had automatic gears, well equipped with carphone, CD player, etc. and extremely spacious inside.

The driver kept talking about the airport in the beginning. "...Thats the terminal 5, now being renovated and to commissioned this march..." pointing to my right side. Well the new Bangalore airport probably will be half of this terminal, close to the size of terminal 5 (international) in O'Hare, Chicago.

The cab followed the signs of Motorway M25 towards Hartford, Basingstok etc. Motorways I think are similar to freeways of the US. One major difference I saw between the US and UK roads (Other than the right hand drive) the junctions are characterized by roundabouts, to avoid signals; but of course the yield rule applies. (Yield is something that never happens in India though) So now we know why we have some number of "circles" here and there in our roads in some junctions. Some places we have humps (Not on any major roads, only in some parking areas).

The cab turned east at M3 (Another motorway) and moved through the 6 lane traffic. Lots of hatchback cars. Most common symbols read VW (Volkswagen), Renault, Audi, Peugeot(French), BMW. There were some other symbols that I am not quite familiar with. I am going to find out soon anyway.

[1940 GMT]
There was an exit to Fleet after around 40 minutes of journey on M3. and finally we are in to Southwood. "...your office is around that way" driver said pointing to the left at a roundabout. After a couple of circles we are on to the Fleet road. At the beginning of the fleet road the driver pointed me to the railway station.

The car turned right near KFC outlet on to Church road, and a few meters - there is the Lismoyne hotel.

[1955 GMT]
"The reception is right around there" the driver pointed while I was pulling my Amex card out to pay the fare. 68 GBP. The wireless machine did not want to connect to the network. "We can always fall back to the old way", he said and pulled out a machine to copy the numbers from the card. Now I know why the numbers are etched down on the card.

The room 42 (See the last number in the last post) was ready for me, and I called up Tenny from my International Roaming fone through the O2 network. He called me back to my hotel, ordered pizza for me. Just had couple of pieces of pizza and I remember closing my eyes for some time.

[0030 Jan 14]
I realized that I am asleep for some time now. So just pulled the blanket over my head and went back to sleep... Jet lag...

4 8 15 16 23 42

2008-01-14T12:32:00.000-08:00

There was breakfast (Like its still the morning) served as soon as we were at cruising altitudes. Done with the food: Upma, some other veg stuff.
Well, the flight is 11 hours. BA's in flight entertainment is good. Video on demand movies with a good collection. I started with Shrek 3, and with the first few scenes itself I identified why it was a major flop compared to the previous two editions of the ogre story. But I watched it in full and went to sleep.

I checked the games section in the touch screen panel:

This is what came into my mind when I saw the first game in the list. Now I have something to do. I never played this game before. The game is kinda easy, but it took some time for me to understand what was going on when I was playing against the computer. Played it for another one-two hours and still computer was easily beating me by one point. I was never blackgammoned :)Well, at least something to do if get LOST! ;-)

The games are always boring if you keep losing! :) So I moved on the next movie.

The movie isn't about what it looks like in the trailer. Surprise! [:)]
Its one of the best movies I had seen in quite a loooong time. Something that can stand up to Nemo.

There was one more meal (can be called 'meal' for me), in the form sna(c)kes. And another hour we will reach in London.

The numbers are not playing around (For those who dont understand the title and this statment, see LOST)

Aaayiram Kannumay...

2008-01-14T11:36:00.000-08:00

"Good Morning, passengers traveling on British Airways flight BA118 your kind attention please... The incoming aircraft is still waiting for clearance to land due to bad weather. The expected departure time is 9 am in the morning, we regret... "
This was the major update happening from the PA system every half hour for quite a long time in the Bangalore airport. I never knew Bangalore had this kind of dense fog.
All the people in the BA flight were waiting right next to the terminal and the waiting room for the International Terminals were full of people to UK and Sharja (Another flight scheduled around the same time).. So lets trace it back little bit. If you have enough patience read it full [:)]

[0300 IST]
Waking up. Mhmm, travel to UK. Tickets ready, Passport/Visa, Laptop, ID card... Well thats enough. Lets go

[0400 IST]
Done with the Emigration and security check. This is fast! There was absolutely no queue at the counters. Everything was done pretty quickly. Now started the story. There was already a note indicating the flight delay by one and half hours.

[0730 IST]
I decided to get some breakfast from the coffee day outlet. There were a very long queue since every one of the passengers were waiting for quite a long time now. I managed to get a Veg Sandwich and a cappuccino.
But still more waiting... Thats when I decided to blog from the mobile. (See my last post). Well, it was kind of disastrous effort since I typed a lot and kept losing the typed in data when I accidentally press the junk red button every now and then. Too bad we dont have a confirmation for navigating away from the page. Finally I did manage to type in that much and got tired of typing the same stuff again and again. So just posted it. Well, sort of a good time pass - almost one and a half hours easily gone. ;-)

[0900 IST]
The Gulf Air flight to Sharja arrived at the gates and people started moving. Just a hope that our BA flight will come in soon, at least in an hour. Well hopes just remain hopes and all the people just kept waiting for the giant Boeing 747 to arrive.
I met couple of people who had to catch connection flights to Boston, Chicago etc. They had already missed their connection flights, since the time they had to catch second flight was around 3-4 hours. By this time the flight was almost 3.5 hours late.
Aayirammm Kannumayy Kaaathirunnu ninne njan,
Vaanil ninnum parannu vaa ente boeing ee, british boeing eee [:D]

[1045 IST]
Finally the BA flight arrives at the terminal. My ticket is not Business class this time, but its not economy class either - something in between. Little more space than the economy but no unlimited food and the stuff, no full reclining seats either.

[1100 IST]
Now we are in the airplane.

[11.30 IST]
Okay, We ARE in the airplane. No sign of movement yet. What?

[11.40 IST]
Pilot announces, "We apologize... " (Yeah, we know) "... there has been some delay due to the customs for the cargo..." (Why did those guys wait for the plane to come in for the customs clearance??) So when are we going? "...we should be in the air shortly..."

[1200 IST]
Yeah, shortly! Started moving now. Well, moved a little bit till the beginning of the runway and more waiting. Pilot again: "We are now second in the queue, and will be cleared to take off in another 10 minutes... we apologize.... "

[1210 IST]
The pilot is true to his word. Finally the flight is taking off... Okay, off from Bangalore 9 hours after I woke up.

The Present

2007-11-27T21:15:00.000-08:00

The time is now a few minutes past seven in the morning, and I am now getting bored waiting for my flight to London in Bangalore airport.
Yes, Bangalore and in the airport. So this makes this post special as the first one ever I am doing my mobile. Thanks to British Airways flight delay, and bad weather in Bangalore.
I still have almost an hour and more of waiting. So as it usually is, even the flight gets delayed when you reach early.
I remember my last international flight, to US. My connection flight was delayed and I had to rush through the lines, break the queues to reach just in time on the AA flight.

Behind the memory lanes

2007-11-27T04:00:00.001-08:00

[Scene 9, Nov 27 2007, My home, also called YMY Base, Bangalore]
I am right now looking at the very culprit who held me behind from posting on the blog for such long time, close to a year now. The pretty black face read "Denon" with its companion "Samsung" next to it on the table**. I still love the virtual world created by the two machines and enjoy most of my time with the two when I am at home.

Its just the change of a digit in the calendar which takes me from the dusty, hot, noisy Bangalore to the quiet beauty of the Canyons of Arizona. First view of the canyons as it said was just Awwwsome. From there on the car stopped at many view points from the east entrance to the main west entrance. The canyon is a huge work of art by the nature, and from every point what we could see was almost the same view. I could see some middle-age group climbing down the canyon sides and the past-us saying:

"We should trek down to enjoy the canyons the best..."
"Yea, a friend of mine is going for a one month trek around the canyons.."
"One Month! Well, you need that kind of time there to enjoy. But we dont have that luxury at least right now."

[Thought] Robin still has a chance to enjoy the trek down the beauty since he is the only one of us still in US. Aiki got married a couple of months back and I am now in Bangalore with no clear plan to visit US in near future

Some more photos and they are leaving for a place looking out for lunch. Aiki couldn't find another Denny's for a Veg Omlette extra toast, so we just stopped at one proper American resturant for the time being.

After lunch we took the AZ64 straight down south, and to join the I40 towards LA. I dozed off in the car which I usually don't do but there was nothing else to do in the back seat. When I woke up from the seat we were just crossing the CA border to quench the thirst of the gas guster Escape. Aiki is happy this time, there is a tacobell nearby. Fill in our tanks too... :D

I took the wheel from there, the busy route to the second biggest american city at around 90 miles an hour - well all the traffic goes at this speed, so no worries. :) Traffic got heavier as we approached, people changing lanes like crazy to swift through the traffic - I just loved the drive. We just went straight to the hotel room in Hollywood drive and I just remember seeing the bed there. :P

** For those naive people who read the blog and wonder who are these Denon and Samsung, they are just part of my home theater.

las barrancas magníficas

2007-02-01T16:04:00.000-08:00

"Awesome..."
"Looks like a huge painting. right?"
"Yes. Seeing in pictures is one thing, and being here at the edge feeling the power of the wind is definitely different..."
"...and taking pictures" I thought, standing next to myself in my memories near the Grand Canyons.

[This is Scene 8, Grand Canyons, East Entrance 26 Nov 06 Sunday 1222hrs Arizona time]

Lots of clicks, and the sound of the wind blowing is the soundtrack in my memories now. Do I remember any time when I clicked so much of pictures in such short time? 15 minutes... I see my camera going around in different hands taking around 90+ pictures...
Walking through the Red Indian tribal style observatory - cum shopping place...
I still feel the near freezing wind chill...

Wild Wild West - 3

2007-02-01T14:57:00.000-08:00

[Scene 6, my Grayslake home Feb 01, 2007 1658hrs]
Not feeling very good of the cold, but nothing else to do I am here putting myself back in the pensieve of the last trip. I have been writing about reaching there, checking in the hotel... What?
Why would I even write about those when I have lots of other important things to write about?
Lets go straight to the most interesting part of the trip...

[Scene 7, Page Arizona. 7am Nov 26 Sunday]

In my memories, see a little disappointed aiki, and not-so-very-happy robin and the happy me standing at the office waiting for the tour to begin. Aiki is going to get the coffee... and the tour is about to begin. The truck is started. Aiki is coming running towards the truck and went straight in to the front cabin instead of the back seats where me and robin.
Truck started, a couple of turns from the main road stopped at the park gate.
The door is not open yet. The tour guide lady is getting out of the truck...
I listened to my memories for the words that I heard that time...
"Anybody has a mobile?"

Suddenly the scene moved fwd - Next thing in memory is the gate keeper opening the gate and us going in. The present time me is thinking about something missing from here in the memories. I turned back...

Navajo (Read as Navaho - Spanish pronunciation) power station. Who was the white old man sitting next to me in the truck? I see myself talking to him there. I couldn't hear what we are talking about. I didn't ask his name, Or did I? But I remember now that he was talking about the power station that delivers power to most of Arizona, and many parts of the west coast.

"We have a nice shot here" I see myself talking to robin. "Look that side... Reflection of the sun in ur glasses is nice..."

Gate is opened, we started moving through the muddy roads towards the antelope canyons.

This is the place we went in. I see us stepping down from the truck along with others...
I was in to taking pictures while others went in.

"Are you coming or not... ?" Robin was calling I think.

It was dark in side.
"This is the most photographed place in the canyons..." ...
"Summer time the light falls in to the place forming just a single beam which lights up this place..."
I see myself a little disappointed about not being able to come here on a summer morning.

But I continued taking some more shots...

"Dont turn on the flash the color wont look good... "
"Who cares, the only way to get a picture here is this... "

Frames are moving faster now... I am experimenting with 2s exposure...

...the next thing I see us on the other side of the 1mile tunnel like canyons... taking some more pictures.

On the way back I got myself pictured here...
back to the truck...

[...and Back to Scene 6.]
"You are now running on reserve battery power"
Mac is announcing... I am back to the real world from the pensieve in which I was seeing myself and others at the slot canyons. While I grab the power supply from the other room, I click 'Publish'

Wild Wild West - 2

2007-01-07T18:01:00.000-08:00

[Scene 4: Continuation of Scene 3, at home in Grayslake 8.20pm Jan 7 2007]
We were talking about dinner last time. The rice for my todays dinner is boiling in the rice cooker, and I have some time till it get ready. I will start from where I left off...

[Scene 5: Stratosphere hotel, Las Vegas. Night of 22nd Nov, past midnight]

"Where else in the world can we see this much of a crowd in the middle of the night"
"Yes, Casinos run usually in the night.. usually along with some kind of show for every hotel"
"Amazing place... "
"Yes. Really... "
...
"There is an automatic check in machine... "
"You know how it works?"
"Nope..."
"Okay, you try it out, I will go stand in the queue. If you figure it out how it works call us."
"Go ahead, queue is pretty long now itself..."
I fiddled with the "Check in machine" and finally figured out what to do. Since the booking was in Robin's name, I called him up... "Come here.. Its working... "
"Good..."
Enter name, card number... address authorization...
Finally in Room 73 in Level 07.

[Fast Fwd. ] Through the casinos, searching for the lift, to the room...

"Lets go party..."
"Where are we planning to go?"
"To the strip... we'll go in some casinos... "
"We'll drive?"
"We can, right?, looks like parking is free in all the casinos..."

[beep beep beep beep]
[Back to scene 4]
The laundry is done. I have to go pick up the clothes. I think the rice is also ready...
Looks like the post is too short. Well. Saving it now.

Wild Wild West

2006-12-30T17:05:00.000-08:00

[Scene 1: McCarrent Intl Airport Las Vegas 9.30pm PST Nov 28 2006]
We are walking from the Hertz car rental return to their terminal drop off bus.
"Had we taken everything from the car?"
"I think so... "
"Where are my CDs?"... Aiki was still not sure whether all the CDs are there in bag or not.
"I will go check. Please ask the driver to wait... " He left to check.
Driver was hurrying to leave: "He can come in the next bus, just 10 mins... "
"He is right here... "
Aiki came running in, nothing was there in the car to be taken. All of them were already with us.
We were not so tired even after the 6 day trip around the west coast. This time we took time to sleep properly in between the drives. Though we could have done more if had rushed a little bit, it was a relaxing vacation.
Hardly 10 minutes to the terminal from the car return place. We are pretty much ahead of time. After the holidays its better to be early... May be there is long queue in the check in counter...
No there isn't. Its good! Another 10minutes... Checkin is done.
Now we have plenty of time. The plane is leaving only at 11.54pm PST.
We are at the terminal. What do we do now? Sleep?
"Its cold outside, just like chicago. Isn't it?"
"Yes it is... But when we came in it wasn't this cold, right?"

When we came in...
[Scene 2: McCarrent Intl Airport Las Vegas 11.30pm PST Nov 22 2006 - FLASHBACK]
After a bit of trouble with Aiki's credit card we got out of the terminal to get in to the Hertz bus to pick up the car. Since his card wasn't working, I had to pay for the car which made things complicated. Since I was not 25 yet there is additional insurance charge of arond $30 per day... But there was not a choice left.
There it is Gold Ford Escape.

"Lets rock!" Aiki was in full mood to rock as he started the car off from the hertz...
"From the airport... Lemme check the map. "
Robin was directing: "Left there, Right at the next intersection.. "
..and finally the Las Vegas Blvd. Where all the casinos are located...

The amount of money flowing in the Casinos are obvious from the structure and the decorations of each casino. There are miniatures of Eiffel tower, Statue of Liberty, Sphinx... Pyramid... All those in the middle of deserted places of Nevada. Beyond the city of Vegas, the state of Nevada is almost completely desert.
"Whats the plan for tonight?"
"Lets walk around... "
"There is a Denny's there... "
"Let go for dinner... "

Dinner...
[Back to Scene 1: Waiting for the plane in terminal]
"Did I have dinner tonight?" I was thinking. I didn't. Okay, will go get something.
I was walking to the nearby store to pick up some juice. Thats when I thought about how to write all these stories in the blog. 6 days straight... If I had to put all of them in the order, its going to be tough. I have a busy week coming ahead in terms of work.
Thats when I thought of Memento. That felt to be good idea to follow that movie's style... go back and forth into the memories, as and when it crosses my mind.

[Scene 3: My home, Grayslake Dec 30 2006, 7.54pm]
So here I am thinking about the memories of the trip to the west coast...
I feel like stopping now, since I am hungry.. Need find a way for dinner.

memento

2006-12-30T15:30:00.000-08:00

is a very good movie by Christopher Nolan. If you are not aware, the movie Ghajni is inspired from this one. But Memento is far more complicated for a normal viewer. Its wonderfully pictured by Nolan as the distorted memories of the hero. [imdb]

Why is that I am writing about this in my blog now? May be you would find shortly... :)

Shedd Aquarium

2006-10-15T21:20:00.000-07:00


This is the first time I am posting a video to my blog. Dolphin show in the Shedd Aquarium - Downtown Chicago, is one of the best attractions of the place. I had this captured for some time now. But did not get a chance to post. Edited with iMovie(mac) :D Added another soundtrack instead of the noisy track it had.

St. Louis

2006-10-08T17:54:00.000-07:00

Most of us have heard about the mississippi
river, as the largest river in the United States. This fourth largest
river system in the world divides the United States in to east and west
regions. During the days of the Route 66 St. Louis served as the gateway to the west where the Chain of the Rocks bridge stood high over the mississippi river.
I
have been hearing about the St. Louis city from the time I came in
here. Since I have got a team enthusiastic enough to drive all the way,
we set forth for the city of St. Louis this weekend.
We planned to start very early in the morning. But Naveen's birthday celebrations went long enough to disrupt our sleep and we woke up late.

Starting around 8 in the morning on I94 through 294 and I55, covering ~300+ miles we reached St. Louis
around 1. If I convert this distance into kilometers its almost the
same as the distance from my office in Bangalore to my home in Kerala,
which I drive over night ~11 hrs. Compare that with the time of 5 hours
in US, and you can understand the efficiency of the road system.
St. Louis is famous for the Gateway Arch which stands 630 feet high, and equally wide on the banks of the mississippi river.

The view of the arch from the other side of the river is very beautiful.

The
river marks the border of the state of Illinois (IL), and the state of
Missouri (MO). The welcome board to Missouri stands on the bridge.

There
was a fair amount of traffic when we entered the city limits. The arch
marks the role of St. Louis as the gateway to the west. We got the
tickets to enter the arch at 1.45pm. "Mhmm, we have some time. Lets
explore the place..."
Around the base of the arch, the history of St. Louis and the arch is showcased in the form of a small museum.

History is not so very interesting at any time if you want to have some fun, so we roamed around taking photos.

The sculputures in the museum appeared so very realistic.

We quickly went around to see the museum displays before we entered the egg shaped tram to go to the top of the arch.

This
tram is designed as combination of train, lift, and amusement ride
since no conventional lift can traverse the hyperbolic shape of the
arch.
From the top of the arch, the view of the river and the bridges are quite nice.

There
are a couple of bridges across mississippi connecting IL, and MO. The
top picture is Martin Luther King bridge and the second one is the
bridge on interstate 70/55/44.

Towards the west of the arch we can see the cityscape of St. Louis.

The new busch baseball stadium is quite close to the arch.

The old courthouse (below) looks structurally similar to the capitol building in DC.

We
tried take our pictures along with the long view of the st. louis city.
But the window appears like a wall poster, rather than a real window.

The shadow of the arch is quite a sight from the top, though I could not capture it all.

Its a small room on top of the arch that lets us see the surroundings from the top.

We spent some time and decided to climb our egg back to the base through its 'legs'.

Its very difficult to capture the who of the arch from the bottom in a frame.
But we still recorded our presense there.

Some more time taking photos of the fall colors of the garden around, we stepped out of the city.

We planned to go to Meramec caves
a little southwest of St. Louis on Interstate 44. We started around
3.30 towards the caves. As usual, we got lost and went to I70 instead
of I44.

We
realized that quickly and took a U-turn back to I44. There was moderate
traffic on the way, and we reached at around 5.30 in the caverns only
to realize that the cave closes at 5. :(

But we went till the entrance of the caves and looked around.

Since
the caverns didn't give us a promising look for staying overnight, we
decided to pack our way back. We stopped near a small creek to see the
fall colors in Missouri.
From there on, it was a long 6 hour drive back home... Non-stop - well almost, we stopped for gas (Gas == Petrol in US lingo)
Back home.. Sleep.. End of another nice weekend.

&more photos at imagestation...

Fall Colors

2006-10-08T16:44:00.000-07:00

Summer has gone bye bye, and its getting colder. Not just that, the color of the nature is changing from green to different shades of yellow and red, and leaves are falling off the trees... Its Fall!
Fall colors are quite a sight to see. To see the real beauty of the nature, we set out for a drive north; where the fall colors are in its peak.
Unlike the previous roadtrips we made, this time we did not have any fixed plan of going anywhere specific. Since the travelling map Mr. Naveen Palle and his BMW were with us it did not seem to be a big issue.

We took US Route 45 towards Wisconsin. Wisconsin is the place of Dairy products - Milk, Cheese, etc. - and hence known as "America's Dairyland". Just a few minutes drive from our place we can see the Welcome to WI signboard.

We need to take picture of all of us here. Naveen volunteered to click, but he wont click until we all jump from the step at the same time. Well, okay!

We kept driving north enjoying the fall colors view. The colors were getting more beautiful as we headed towards north. It was around 1.00pm when we reached Kewaskum in Wisconsin.

Fall colors seemed to be prominent in this area. We had a small lunch and went a little more north. The colors on the right side of the road looked like they were calling us to go into the region. We took a right, towards the Kettle Moraine State Forest (a Forest preserve and camping area).

"Hey, Lets stop and take some photos."
We pulled over to the right, and got out.

"Cool weather, yar" Priyanshu was excited.

"I like this red" Robin...

"Me too... "
Enough of solo..

Lets go in groups...

By the way, if you are not familiar the left most is Naveen.
Okay, enough of this place. Lets move on...

We follwed the scenic route signs that we saw. The place looked like the "Normandie" track in NFS Porsche.

Here in real, we were in a BMW - Cool! The place was tempting us for another stop.

The proud owner of BMW...

Robin was excited to take one picture with BMW...

Okay, lets move on. Through the forest we drove around, enjoying the view of the fall colors in Wisconsin. After some turns, we moved out of the forest in to a small village when Naveen suddenly stopped the car in the middle of the road telling us "I wan't to talk to a friend of mine..."

We looked at each other when Naveen just went in to the bushes...

Okay this is your friend??
"Man, I wanted to touch an American cow"
"Is it a celebrity or What? !! "
Anyways the cow was not so willing to give in to Naveen. So we got back in to the car and drove back...

not before taking myself pictured on the middle of the road in America.

"Look man, we are back! Its just a few miles from here is where I got my first speeding ticket. That f***ing guy was hiding under a bridge... " Naveen was telling us in his natural tone when we were entering Illinois back from WI, through interstate 94. [Zoom in to see the welcome to IL signboard.]

More Photos and storyboard in imagestation.

Happy Onam

2006-09-03T19:21:00.000-07:00

Onam comes once again, with the memories of the great king.
May be the only Asura king, who is remembered more than Devas...
Doesn't matter whether he was Deva, or Asura; Onam bring in the hope for the better tomorrow, A hope for a day as in the song:
Maveli Naadu vaneedum kalam,
Manusharellarum onnu pole...
Amodathode vasikkum kalam,
Apathangarkkumottilla thanum.

The Pensieve

2006-09-02T08:13:00.000-07:00

The Pensieve
This is the first time I am linking to another blog in my post. But this was too good to ignore.
The extra-ordinary imagination of some interesting turnarounds after Dumbledoor's death in Hogwarts... :D

The respected author of the above stories, Deepak was there with me for my trip to Niagra. He has also posted the link to the photos...
Here is the link to that post.

Trip to NYC?

2006-08-29T12:02:00.000-07:00

Planning to go to NYC?
These are some info, that might help:

We felt that the city tour around the NYC was nice. They take us around the places and have a guide in the bus explaining what is what. Since we did not have much time to go around this felt to be the best option.
Link: NewYorkSightSeeing.com
There are some other city tour trips also. But the Grayline, appeared to have more buses and seemed to be running more frequently than other tours there.

In order to visit statue of Liberty we can book the ticket in Advance. There are limited number of tickets to enter the observatory just below the statue - As mentioned before public access to the top observatory is not there since 9/11. The ferry that operates to the Liberty Island is called "Circle-Line". You can book tickets online on the Circle line website.
This will save some time in the queue.
The ferry operates from Battery park in New York. We took the trip from thsi side. There is a ferry operating from the New Jersey side also.

Ground Zero, WTC memorial is quite near to Battery park. St. Pauls' Cathedral, is also near by if you like to pay a visit. We roamed around the rest of the places in the bus itself, since that provided us with the quick and easy tour of the City. If you are interested in giong more places: here is the list of places to visit. (Y!)

New York city traffic is heavy. If you dont want to drive, and waste your time hunting for parking space, the NJ Transit and the Subways can save a lot of time. We stayed in Elizabeth, NJ and took the NJ Transit rail system to come to the city and go back. We can park near the Rail Stations.

Some other useful links:
1. Empire State building: The queue in front of the building is way too long. I think it will be better to book the tickets and print them online before you go. We did not even think about going there just because we did not want to waste time in the queue.

2. Wax Museum: This is not as great as the one in London. But if you are planning to go to NYC, its worth paying a visit. This is again one of the places we could not go due to the lack of time. :)

Most of the places you can find in the Yahoo link above. Since we had done some research, I thought I will share the findings. Hope it helps some of you! :D

The Capital.

2006-08-20T17:06:00.000-07:00

A night sleep more in NYC, and the time was to wish good bye to NYC and NJ. May be never again... Who knows?
We started early morning from our hotel. The drive from there was straight down south on the Interstate 95 - the longest North South freeway in US. Eventhough there were flood warnings here and there, we got relieved when we saw the signboards saying - "No Interstates closed due to flooding".
Drive to DC was uneventful until we reached the downtown. Once in downtown, parking as always is the problem. We went through the heart of the city roads in search of one small space. But no avail. Eventually, even before we realize we were out of the city to another freeway. Now how to get out? No exits nearby.. We took the nearest exit that we saw, and went to some other road. We had to stop and gas stations, and ask for the way out. Eventually after spending around an hour and may be more of our time, and a lot of fuel... we were back in to the city. At around 330pm. Not much time left.
We had to rush. We parked near to the Lincoln memorial and went straight to it.

Lincoln was the first Amrican president from the Republican party. He is the one who ended slavery in US - that we all know. But he also played an important role in reuniting the "United States" during the American Civil War.

Washington DC hosts many of the prominent architectural icons of the US. All of them are located close to each other within a few miles walk. We can see the Washigton monument from the temple of Lincon Memorial.
The top of the statue reads: "In this temple as in the hearts of the people for whom he saved the union, the memory of Abraham Lincoln enshrined forever"

The Washington monument, which is constructed for the first American President - George Washigton - whose armies led the way for the American Independance from the British in 1776.

The places hosts memorials for those who sacrificed their lives for freedom around the world.
And it reminds us of the great truth:

The cost of the freedom is lives... of innocent people, the heros of the freedom struggle. I was thinking of Mahatma gandhi at this point.

The world war II memorial.

Here they have constructed 50 pillars representing each state of the US, and marked their names on them.

She is leaning on the Illinois pillar.. :)
Walking farther away from the Lincoln's temple, through the world war memorial, we can reach the National Mall. This is the place where we can find all the museums, which tells us the histories of the US. One end of the National Mall is the Washington Monument.

The view of the Lincoln Memorial from the Washington Monument.
Washington monument is a pillar type construction which reminds us of the Qutab Minar. But our Qutab Minar is a lot more beautiful than this. :)
We walked towards the Capitol building towards the other side of the National Mall. All the museums were closed by the time we reached there. Anyways Museums will take a long time to see and we are not that interested in history. (Mhmm... kittatha munthiringa pulikkum :D)
DC was all getting prepared for the July 4th Celebrations.

A big stage was setup in the lawns of Capitol building for the festivities of the Independance day.

This is the royal building which houses the goverment capital (Capitol in US) of the 50 United States.
The other side of the building is literally empty at that time. May be the police is watching over even though not visible...

All set to go? A final look at the Capitol building and then we'll make the move.

No, wait! Where's the White House? Yes, we can't miss it.
Thanks to Basheer, right on time he was around and drove us to the White House so that we dont have to hunt for parking again. And there is no parking near the white house.

Finally the "White House"... Is this really?

Yes. It is!
The gates said: "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further..." :)

But not to block my camera views of the great American Icon.
And that concludes the great weekend trip to Big Cities... Now back to home. One full day of drive ahead...
Ajith was a few miles away from the downtown Washinton, but could not meet him since he was south of Washington which meant more journey down. May be he will drive to Chicago once. :) This is the second time I am missing him so close by... Once in Niagra, he reached just after I left the place... :(

It took a marathon effort to put these pieces of photos and stories to get published here. And finally I am done... Almost!
More of the Washinton DC Pictures are there in my Image Station albums.
Album 1
Album 2

Around New York

2006-08-20T12:56:00.000-07:00

Once the night trip is over, we took the train back to our hotel. It was late in the night, when we finally went to bed. Thanks to the confusing roads of New Jersey, we saw Newark airport and seaport :) instead of heading directly back to the Knight's Inn. But without much trouble, finally we reached safe.
The plan was to go very early in the morning, to New York. But where to go first was still in question. When you think of New York, what comes to your mind first? One of the most sought after destinations in NYC is...

The gift from the French.

Statue of Liberty is in Island in Hudson river. The statue was given to the US, by the french in 1885. Originally made in copper the statue now looks green due to chemical weathering.
There are stairs inside the statue, which allows us to go till the the torchlight on the top. Before september 11, public were allowed to go inside. Now we can go only till the foot of the statue and we had to book in advance to reach there. By the time we reached the tickets for the day was over.
We have to wait in the long queue for around an hour (or more?) for entering the boat to the Liberty Island, and the Ellis Island. The boat ride gives a great view of the city from the river.

The only thing missing there was the twin towers which went down in 2001...
The boat take us around the Liberty Island. From the boat itself we can see the statue from different angles.

When we reached the Liberty Island itself we were tired - the climate here in summer is hot and humid. We took some refreshments, took some photos...

From the island, we can the city's skyscrappers - Is it always foggy?
We spent some more time in the island, looking aroud and deciding what to buy from the shoppe for the memories of New York, and statue of Liberty...
It was getting late and we decided to take the boat back. The boat goes to Ellis Island and only then it takes us back to the City. Well, we can go there and see whats there...

Ellis Island used to be the port of entry for Immigrants to US from many different countries for more than a half of a century till 1950s. Now the Island hosts a museum of Immigration. It shows the various techniques the country had to filter down the incoming traffic to the country. They had developed techniques to identify the talent/skill of the incoming person even if they dont know English with the help of puzzles and other symbol techniques. Some of them were kept in the Island till the decision is made...

Some memories of the old Imigrants, the stuff they left behind.

This is known as the registry room, where the Immigrants faced the Immigration law finally.

We spend some time looking around, for the American Immigration history. It was getting to the evening and still we haven't had lunch. So we decided to leave.

The city view: Where were the twin towers?

Now you can see what new york is missing... We decided to go there - Ground Zero - next, after lunch..
The second picture is taken from the net. :)

We had decided to go to Washington DC on Monday... So this is the final day for us in NYC. After having lunch from Subway near the Ferri we looked around for what we can do with the limited time we have...

Quite near was the ground zero, the memorial of the World Trade Centre, twin towers.

Ground Zero: Here it was... Now there is nothing much other than the big void...

...and the memories of the terror war, and those who lost their lives...
The names of all those who lost their lives, was printed on boards on the spot.

We walked to the St. Paul's cathedral, and took our topless trip bus once again for a final tour of the city.

Again, through the streets, avenues, amidst the skyscrappers we started moving.
We saw a number of great buildings, some with historical and international significance and some just residential or commercial complexes.

This is the United Nation's office in New York. The poles will hoist every country's flags for important events.

Brooklyn Bridge: Over the hudson river in the city. One of famous icons of NYC.

Waldorf Astoria is a famous hotel in Park Avenue, is favourite of many American Presidents like Roosevelt. The hotel has its own platform and the name is engarved in gold outside. I could not capture that, since our bus too close to the building.
We passed many famous buildings, some names I have heard before, some I haven't...
Finally a small dinner at TGIF (Small? It cost around $120 :P)

And back to the hotel in the NJ Transit train...

We passed a number of places most of which I dont remember even what they are... All the pictures from me and Biby are put in to two Image station albums:
1. Album1...
2. Album2

The night lights

2006-07-26T17:51:00.000-07:00

"Are we there Yet?" we kept asking the black guy whether we have reached near the bus. Finally from times square to the 47th street we walked, only to find the long queue waiting to board the bus.

Finally after about a half hour of waiting we got in two the "topless" double decker. By this time the sun was out to his sweet home for a sleep leaving us in the lights of the NYC streets.

Just like the images that we have seen in the movies, and pictures about the New York city, the skyscrappers were lit brilliantly with different colours of the electric lights.

I realized later that there was a guide explaining the details and history of the buildings around us. I listened to some; but as always history always goes over my head. Its so good to make you feel asleep... :D

The night lights were so brilliant of a view, which kept us awake all through the trip. The Empire State, Brooklyn Bridge, Statue of Liberty, and above all the view of the Manhattan Islands... Incredible.

Chrysler headquarters.

Empire State building.

Downtown view of Manhattan. -- Dont try to view the picture in full screen resolution. Its so shaky. :(

On right side of the picture, what you see is the famous brooklyn bridge.
From the moving bus, the maximum I could grab was these. SLR would have been better? May be, may be not... But I am not thinking about that now anyways...

The City

2006-07-16T07:21:00.000-07:00

This is the part 3 of the NYC Trip. Have you seen the other posts?
We got down at New York Penn. station. -- New York Pennsylvania station. ??
Are we in New York or Pennsylvania?

No, We can see the Empire state right there.

I asked each one, about the Penn. Station. Seems like nobody knew at that time. :D
But I know now. Penn. Station is owned by the Pennsylvania Rail Road company. Thats why.

Okay, we are in. Now start taking photos... :D

Biby is a good photographer... :D
The building that you see here is the Chase building near times Square.
Times Square is a neighbourhood in the heart of the city - 42nd Street, Broadway (Yes Broadway is here too... :) )- , which is named after the Times News Network. The New York Times had moved out of the mail building in Times Square in 1913, but the name prevails.
What next? We have already seen times Square. While we were thinking about the option one guy approached us asking about whether we want to take the city tour or not...

We took a very long time deciding whether to go or not with these tour guys.
Finally, it was getting dark, and we decided to take the tour.
We walked over to the starting point of the tour - 47th Street on broadway.
NASDAQ is right here in Times Square, lit nicely at night...

Condé Nast Building, 4 Times Square.

The city is still busy as the evening gets darker... Can't see the busy streets?
I have a long exposure shot here:

Can you feel the pace of the city?
Hey, wait a minute. What do we see here? Bhajans? In New York City?

Finally we are in the double decker bus, with open top.

There was a tour guide explaining what we are seeing Which is this building, its history etc. Sometimes the history is boring and I missed some of the histories about the towers...
More... Coming soon....:D

NJ Transit

2006-07-15T21:26:00.000-07:00

Well, Its been a week since we are waiting at Elizabeth - 15 miles from New York city. I mean, a week since I posted the last scribble.

We got enough idea about the NYC roads from Elizabeth itself. Once we take the exit and come out we can see the road splitting in to a set of other roads - One express, One Local route... And then to some other highways. By the time you read the boards and decide where to go, you would probably be in the wrong lane. :D Anyways, we did not roam around much to find out the route to the hotel.
No more roaming around for parking and hunting for roads - We decided to go by NYC-NJ transit trains. My first experience in US Trains. A mile away from the hotel was the railway station. So that option felt more feasible than the drive.

Does it look like KR Puram Railwaystation? Ehem, almost. If the KR puram staion was kept neat and tidy, it would have probably looked like this. A small platform on both sides - Typical suburban look.
Look closely, you cant walk across the rails even if you want to. There is a good fence guarding the tracks.

Finally its here. The United states Train... full Electric, air conditioned, nicely painted, stylish, neat. Good! They are all meter gauge though.

"Could you please let us sitdown? " "Yes, of course. After this photo.. :D "
Inside the train, 3/2 kind of seating similar to our trains. The only difference is that this look more modern, and of course neat.

Dont worry about missing the station. There is an announcement and large display of which station is next, and a light showing which side of the train is the platform.
...and finally:

THE CITY...

Towards New York

2006-07-07T09:23:00.000-07:00

As you might know July 4th is America's Independance Day. This year, July 4th was on a Tuesday, which gave us four days to go out. My initial plan was to go to Montana, but it did not happen due to Mr. Navee's (My Colleague) California trip. So I joined Nagaraju and team for Big Cities trip. With me was Biby and Suri. Since Biby is an expert driver here, I could manage to go.

To go, or Not to go?
Rain rain rain... Towards New York, and Pennsylvania it was raining heavily for the past one week. All the rivers are flooded, some interstates closed. We called for an All party round table conference in Nagaraju's cube to decide: "to go or not to go..." Since this is the only long weekend in the near future, we decided to be optimistic about the rains. :D Venki was still doubtful about getting stuck due to a closed interstate...
"Rain rain go away..., Don't come again please.. "

Starting off...
As usual, when we all started off late. This happens when you want to go to office the same day. Finally I was able to get out of office, and reached Suri's place just to see that he is getting up for his bath... :D - I am not the only one late. So I left him there asking Venki to pick him up, so that I can pick Biby on the way without any delays.
Delays? Myself and Biby took a route which bypasses downtown and we reached Indiana first. When we called up these guys, they are still in Downtown... "Forgot my passport yar, went back to pick it up... " I thought Biby was the most forgetful in the group. Now I changed my mind. We waited Half and Hour in Indiana, just waiting for these people to come...

This is one good way to kill the time... :D
Finally, the team reached around 7p.m. in Indiana. From there we just took off almost non-stop till we reached Johnstown, PA where our first night stay was scheduled. 2.30am -- Mhmm, when are we going to reach NYC in this pace?
The road to Johnstown was one of the most exciting routes I have ever driven. Through the hills, curly but smooth roads. I wish it was day time, since we missed the natural beauty of the roads.

Super 8
was the name of the motel we stayed for the night in Johnstown. Just for a night sleep, we never have the time to enjoy the hotel room. Few hours of sleep, just to freshen up and then we are all up for the rest of the journey.
"All have map quest print outs? Know which map to follow?"
"Yea, Ya, you guys go ahead we'll just follow. I-76E right?"
"Hey, Just wait for a snap... "

This is the team. If you have read my previous posts, the faces would not be unfamiliar. I am not repeating the names all over again.

Day 2
Even from Johnstown, the roads were scenic - Through the mountains and forests.

curves...

Tunnels...

Are we on the right track? We got a doubt when we saw this.

A truck being pulled...

We stopped by the PA100, to have Lunch - Pizza Hut. :D The only place trusted by the Veggies.

After lunch, I drove. So no more photos of the roads... :D
We could realise the roads becoming more complex as we move towards New York. Even the sign boards were confusing - One lane for I76 Express, another for Local... Complex exits... But eventually we reached the motel - Knights Inn, Elizabeth, New Jersey. 3.30pm Saturday. New York is
Finally just 15 miles away...

Malibu...

2006-06-20T18:21:00.000-07:00

I changed my car. I have been driving Ford Taurus from the time I started driving here. One of my friends took it for a drive and told me that breaks are low. Mhmm... good reason to change the car. What next? I checked with Avis - the car rental company about my options for the new car. I had Dodge Stratus, Hyundai Sonata, Chevy Malibu, and Chrysler Sebring to choose from. I wanted to drive Sonata. But when I checked the place I didn't have a Sonata available so I opted for the Malibu - I had to opt for it. :)
But once I got the car and started driving I liked it much more than I did Taurus. Its quite light to drive, and is much more comfortable to handle than the Taurus.

With ABS, and Traction control in built and a powerful V6 Engine its not technically not bad either.

By the way, name starts with M! :D
The interior also looks much more modern compared to the classic looks of the taurus.
Overall, I feel like not changing the car again. I dont want to loose this one. But when I had Taurus, I wanted to try something different.

The skydeck

2006-06-16T07:40:00.000-07:00

This is the first time that I am taking this time to blog about my trip. Its because I went out on a Sunday and came back only late in the night. And weekday I wont get enough time to write...
So here it goes:

Its quite a great feeling to get together with great friends away from the homeland. I missed a good chance to meet Ajith in Niagra. He came to Niagra while I was leaving the place. Could not meet him.
Biby is here on a business trip for her company and she is staying around 30 miles from here. One other classmates of ours Dhinu is in Kansas doing her MS there. She is on Summer vecation and out going places. With some of her american friends she came to Chicago last weekend and stayed with Biby for a week. It was her plan to go to Skydeck, Navy Pier, Magnificent Mile, Millenium Park, and Buckingham fountain - all in one day. :D
I went to meet the girls at Biby's place - Hoffman Estates, IL.

They were ready to go, so we started off to Chicago downtown. Hoffman Estatest is closer to downtown than Grayslake - my place. Its almost 40 minutes drive through I90.
We reached there around 2.30pm. As usual searching for a good parking lot was a good excercise and finally we got parking close to the Millenium park. Good... :D
We had lunch from Subway, and went straight to the park.

The millenium park hosts a number of attractions like this. The one that you can see here is the Cloud Gate, designed by an English engineer of Indian origin - Anish Kapoor. Its made of steel and finished to look just like a mirror. From this we can see the skyscrappers of Chicago in one shot, adorned by the beautiful clouds, and the sun. This one was inaugurated in last April. When I came here first, in March, the construction was going on.
The underside of the beanshaped steel ball is designed for multiple reflections, in a single piece of steel. It looks wondeful from below it.

See this. Can you find our reflections in the mirror. I am not patient enough to do that. You can, if you have time.
We walked across the park to the Pavilion

This is basically a stage, for cultural activities. Nothing was on that time though. This is called Jay Pitzker pavilion.
We walked across the pavilion, to the BP Bridge

This across the streets of chicago to the Lakeshore - Lake Michigan.
Our plan was to just walk across the the streets, to the lakeshore and go to Navy Pier. Well almost, I mean the plan emerged as we walked. :D

The road that you see in the pic is the Lakeshore drive. This is six lane highway in the quite close to the Lake michigan. On one side its the Lake, and the other side its the towers of Chicago.. (Rhyming with Tower of Hanoi eh? ;P)
We walked to the Monroe harbour where lots of boats are parked.

Can you count? one, two, three... No, Stop. We can't. :D
Parking boat is also a problem I guess.
Biby was saying last time when she was here there were no boats. Then, she was told that these piers are used by people in Summer to park their boats. Well, we can see it now.
We walked alongside of the lake, crossing the Chicago river.

The bridge across this river is multistoreyed vehicle traffic in operation. The upper storey of the bridge is US Highway 41, the lower storey is the exit to the city and Navy Pier.

This is the lower storey. As you already know, We can't walk next to highways.
We can see the Chicago trolley in the picture. Its FREE in summer. One of the quite few things that you get free, in US. :D
We can have a good view of the Navy Pier from the bridge.

We walked down to the pier where Dhinu claimed that her friends are waiting for her. She called many times, but every time she got confused (or they got confused?? ) of where we are and, where they are. :D

We waited while she made all the phone calls.
Biby was so much interested in taking the Ferri's Wheel -- The giant wheel in Navy Pier. So we walked to the wheel ride.

Are we on top of the wheel now? Not really, Look.. We are still going up.
This is the second time I am taking this ride. Each time I did not realize how high I am since I was so much in to taking photos. From the top of the wheel is where Biby got interested in this ride.

I really do not like the spinning stuff, anywhere. So I waited outside taking photos. :D So I got their photo when they were at full speed.

Its good challenge to take photos at this speed, of the people you want. I liked taking the picture more than I would have done I were in the ride.
Biby wanted to learn how to take good photos, kept asking about the aperture shutter speed etc. She wanted to know how to fit the big wheel into the frame. I gave her my camera and let her take the picture.

Good, She captured well.
It was getting cold outside. So we decided to go inside the Navy Pier mall. There was some kids game going on inside.

Dhinu met her friends and vanished just like that. We joined her when we took the trolley to the Skydeck.
After staying in US for almost 2 years, Dhinu still does not have a car, or does not have a Drivers' License. She has to rely on her foot all the time. She made us walk all the way from North Michigan avenue till the Sears tower.

This is the view from very close to the tower. Does it look like its the tallest in here? For long 28 years after it was built, it stood high as the tallest in the world.
By the way the one BEHIND is the Sears tower. Ok?
We have big security checks as we enter the building, just like we enter the Airport.
Inside we can see the models of the Sears tower...

They have a comparison of the tower with other towers in the world.

You can see it being compared to Eiffel Tower, Pyramid etc. here.

Finally at the top. Now we can see that its really the tallest. We dont see any tower which is larger than Sears.
There was a presentation about the history of the tower. Its quite hard to believe that it took only three years to build this amazing building. Just compare with the fact: For the last two years they were making a flyover in Bangalore, and is not complete yet. Huh?
The view of the city is very good from the Skeydeck. Btw, Skydeck is the one of the topmost floors of Sears tower.
Sears is a retail business group of America. They occupied this building only for very short period of time as their corporate office. But the concept of the building was concieved by the Sears group, and probably due to that reason the name still remains.
Reaching the skydeck is via a high speed lift. From the ground floor to the 103rd floor, takes only a minute. We can feel the pressure in our ears as we reach the top floor.
On top of the tower, there are small displays explaining what we see outside. I forgot the names of each tower though. But I still have the guide page with me detailing the views.
I remember we were saying that the Bangalore hebbal flyover is confusing which route goes where. May be we should try this one:

This fly over connects the two big interstate freeways passing through Chicago. I90/94, and I290. This is another long view of the highways.

In this we can see the two highways and we can also see the Mother Route - route 66. (If you have seen Cars - the new movie) This road is the diagonal stream of lights around the left top portion of the picture. When I saw the movie, I thought the route 66 was just a concept created for the movie. The route is called mother route, because before the existence of Interstate freeways, Route 66 was the road from Chicago to the West.
And as depicted in the movie, a small portion of the route 66 is still preserved near Grand Canyons and Colorado river; just because there is no other route leading to that small city: Colorado Spring. This is just another information from one of my collegues after seeing this picture.
The view from the top of the tower was nice. It was around 9 O'Clock in the evening when we got out of the tower.
Dhinu still wanted to continue walking to the Buckingham fountain.

We did reach there, only to see that the fountain was off, by that time. She was really disappointed. :(
Though I was tired walking around the city, I was happy that I got some real good night shots of Chicago city.

Another good weekend was over that way.

I am not sure whether you are seeing all the pictures that I am posting or not. Its quite difficult to post pictures to the blog. It takes long time. Some people told me that they are not seeing the albums that I post in the image station. From now on, look for the link at the end of the post to the Album where I post all the photos - No editing, No manipulation, Just the pictures, in Chronological order.
This time its HERE.

The Niagra

2006-05-29T20:00:00.000-07:00

So many people have described it, So many people have taken its snaps, from all possible angles; Then why should I write this again, and post these?
I need to, because I want the sweet memories to stay, I want to tell the experience to you, To those who I missed being with me there.

It is THE place to go if you are in a reachable distance. For us its 600+ miles from home. We could have made it in a single stretch. But we did not want to get tired so fast. We booked a room in Cleveland, Ohio (OH) which is almost half waythrough the route.

We started off in the afternoon of May 26, Friday around 3pm. The route was pretty clear for us - Straight down south alongside of the lake michigan, and then straight east. The team consisted of 12 people,

From the left: Venki, Manju, Mrs 'n Mr Basheer, Deepesh, Aiki, Deepak, Suri in the back and myself in the front row. The one guy who has only his face visible is Jithu (Jithendra). Nagaraju and Family are not in the pic.
Myself, Deepak were with Nagaraju and family for the entire drive. We were notorious for missing the routes and rejoining. :D mostly when I am driving. But we always reached ahead of the team at the finishing point.
We reached around midnight, or after midnight in Cleveland, Crossing the Indiana state. The stay was very nice in a Super 8 motel near to the freeway itself.

The morning drive was cool with this kind of scenes all the way along till Niagra. Once we reached Niagra we had touched five states: Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York; and we are about to cross the borders of Canada.

Where are the falls? From distance we can see the mist and the Niagra falls city, in Ontario -Canada.

From America, we enter from the upstream of the American falls. This is what we see when we start off to the falls. Right below, where the bird is flying is the tip of the fall.

This is the american side view. For those who dont know there are three connected falls in Niagra. The first and the largest is the Horse Shoe falls, the next is the American falls which we see in the picture. The last one is Bridal Veil falls which also happens to be in US.

The falls are in US, but to get the best view of it you need to be in Canada. If you are planning to go, try to get a Canadian Visa beforehand so that you dont miss that view. The bridge above is the rainbow bridge.

This is the best that US can offer. An observation tower. From there we can see the falls more clearly, but not as good as it would be in Canada. Anyway we missed the canada view.
The tower is around 230ft high and the falls are of around 160 ft. There is an elevator running down the tower to take us to the 'Maid of the mist'. The sides of the falls are so steep, that we cant really trek down.

Which one offers better view: Observation tower, or the Sheraton hotels in Canada? The building that you see here (left most) is the Sheratons, from where we can get the best possible view of the falls.

This is the next big thing here: "The maid of the Mist"
The boat ride that takes you in to the falls. -- Not directly below it of course.

Thanks to Mr. Prabhu of EDS Chennai for this pic. He was a good photographer. I met him on the 'Maid of the Mist' boat itself. By the way, most of the people we meet here are Indians.

This is the American falls and the Rainbow bridge. We can also see the observation tower here. The right side of the picture is US and left side is Canada. While taking this picture, we were on the International border of US and Canada.

This is the Horse Shoe falls. Due to the mist, we can't really see the full view of the falls. The mist is always there. So this is one of the best possible views we can get from the 'Maid of the Mist'

Another wider view. We can see another boat going in to the horse shoe, as we return.

American falls and Bridal Veil falls. Another view from the falls.

Why are we given raincoats? This is the reason. We go right in to the mist. Its like a heavy rain there.

From the maid of the mist boat pier, we can walk close to the American falls.

If you are not satisfied with ground views, you can also get Helicopter ride over the falls; Of course if you plan to spend that much.

This is the view from the observation tower. The Horse shoe fall is still hidden by the rock and the mist. This exactly is the reason why people say the view from the Canada side is more beautiful.

Downstream river and the Niagrafalls city in Canada. The highest tower that we see there is the Skylon towers. This is also another place to go, if you have a Canadian visa.

The rainbow bidge. This is the classical picture that most of us had seen when we read about rainbow bridge. Now I know from where is it taken - from the observation tower.

There is an island in the Niagra river, in between the American falls and the Horse Shoe falls. We have trolleys like this operating from one to the other island. From the Island we can go to the 'Cave of the Winds'

Here there are lots of ammenities for the disabled. See the trolley has an extra door for them and special space to accomodate them.

The entrance of the cave of the winds.

This is the view of the falls from right below it. We can see people going in to the falls. There used to be a cave behind the falls. But in early 20th century the cave collapsed. So there is no cave as such right now, but the name prevails.
The deck which is closest to the falls, where we can feel the force of the fall is called 'Hurricane Deck'. Its more like standing in the rain.

The days are longer here now. So the lights come on only by 9.30PM in the night.

This is another classical shot that you might have seen of Niagra. A well lit, colourful streams of water...
Done! Niagra falls, from every possible view from the US. Now its the time for dinner, already around 10.30 we went classical american resturant chain: Denny's.

Its the time to head back. We reached Cleveland by around 4am Sunday. Slept till noon in the same motel. Then started off, back to Chicago.
The great long weekend, ends as I write this. :D
More photos? Yes. Its HERE.

मा फलेषु कदाचनः

2006-05-21T20:28:00.000-07:00

Temples again! Looks like I am going to temples more than I used to be in my home town. There is a temple very next to my home in my hometown. But when I was there in my college days, if you ask me how many days a month I used to go to the temple; mhmmm I have to think about it.. :D

This is my second visit to temples in the last month after coming here in US. Ma phaleshu kadachana means do whatever is given to you with all your heart, not to worry about the outcome of the action. This time I was given a choice of going to the temples again. I decided to take it. The problem is Choice. See the link. :D

This time it was Nagaraju's suggestion to go to the temples. Since I did not have any other plan I joined the family guys for American Pilgrimage ;) We started off in the afternoon and went to the Lemont directly.

The lemont is a Rama temple. Its bigger than the Aurora temple in terms of space. The main diety here is Sri Rama with Laxman and Sita by sides. Sri Anjaneya is facing Sri Rama in the temple hall. Dasavathara is carved on the walls of the temple.

In the main hall itself, there is a sculpture of Sita swayamvara where Janaka, Sita, and Sri Rama are carved beatuifully. Though in Cement, the image looked very good compared to the ones in stones which are usually found in Indian temples. But In my opinion the stone carvings in found in India are the best - whatever may be the precision of the equipment used for making the cement sculptures.

There are smaller temples in the same building, as seperate rooms - where Venkateshwara, Sridevi, Bhoodevi on the left of the Rama temple. The second small temple has Krishna and Radha which is on the right of the main temple. There is one more small Kailash on the right side of the temple where the Lord Siva and family can be seen. Lord Ganesh, Subrahmaniya, and Sri Parvathi are there in this one.

Combined, the temple is larger than the Aurora temple and is older too. As in the Aurora temple there is a small canteen here also where very good south Indian dishes are served. Altogether a small India here. :D

We spent some time in the temple. I really wanted to take the insides of the temple in Camera. But photography was strictly prohibitted. :( We took photos outside.

Then we moved to Aurora temple (See my old post about this temple). I didn't have camera last time when I went there. So I now have pictures of this temple.

See more pictures of the trip here.

The route was very close the O'Hare international airport of Chicago. The airport in which I landed here. We can see planes landing here quite next to the road while travelling.

Oh, dont hit the lampposts please. Dont worry the pilot is an expert. :D

Landed finally. Mhmm, parking is a problem here too... :D

Well that concludes another weekend here...

Holland is here.

2006-05-07T11:42:00.001-07:00

Well, I am not talking about Netherlands right now. There is a city is US called Holland. Its on the shores of Lake Michigan. Not near to Chicago, but on the other side. To reach there we had to go around the lake, crossing the states Illinois, and Indiana. Holland is in Michigan state, and also in a different timezone.
Holland has a dutch heritage, and lots of Dutch families. Thats why the name itself. The place is known for the Tulips. And this time of the year, the tulip festival is going on which means its best time to go there...
We took off early morning before the sunrise, (Its too much rare event that I wake up this time) and had our breakfast on the way. The distance is 200+ miles from Grayslake (Did you forget, this is my place in US?). We do not feel the tiredness while travelling in Car. The roads are good and is meant for speed driving... Even across timezones.
We missed the route many times on the way, but finally reached there on time. Mobile coverage is not very good in US. We are now understanding the need for a good US map. The website printouts are good enough until you get lost. :D

Veldheer farms is one of the biggest farms there. They showcase 100s of different types of tulips each marked with its name and number in their garden. I wished to go to their real farm. Where the entrance is allowed, its a small garden. The entrance fee is $6 per head.
I expected something like we had seen in Anniyan. But the one here was just small. May be Anniyan is shot in Europe, I thought. Or did Maniratnam created in Graphics? Dont know.
But anyways, I have taken each and every tulip which I felt good enough... But these were just a few of the whole.
You can see the tulip pix here.

We went to Dutch village from there. Its quite close by. It showcases the dutch heritage of the place, the dutch architecture, pottery, candles, chocolates etc. Here also there is an entrance fee of $10. They showcase some dutch style cultural events also. All these is owned by a private dutch family for the last three generations now. Good place to go, just once :D

We had lunch from the dutch village, and came out to the beach. This beach is not a seashore, but a lakeshore. Shores of Lake Michigan, The other side is Chicago city. Lake is huge. We can't see Chicago from here. The beach is quiet, and clean. Here also there is an entrance fee: $8.
We spent some time in the beach and went to Windmill Island. But it was closed by that time. Anyways it was 6.30pm in Michigan time, so we started our way back.

This time I wan't driving on the way back. So I have some pictures. Oh! By the way where are the pictures. Its very much difficult to post 100s of photos on the blog. I have three albums in Imagestation. The links are here:
1. The main event - All pictures, of the places, and us all.
2. Nagaraju and Family - He forgot camera and I shot for him this time. I thought I will create a seperate album for him.
3. Tulips - Types of Tulips... Colours. Hope you like them.

If you are in and around this place is a good passtime. And the above mentioned palces are the togo s. Here are some addresses if you get interested:

1. Veldheer Tulip Garden

12755 Quincy
Holland, MI 4942

2. Dutch village

Corner of US-31 at James
12350 James Street
Holland, Michigan 49424

3. WindMill Island

Windmill Island
7th Street at Lincoln Avenue
Holland, MI 49423

Holland: Coming soon...

2006-05-06T21:08:00.000-07:00

Well, Just now reached home after the trip to Holland. I have a lots of photos to post; but feeling sleepy. For the timebeing a teaser is posted here.
"Is it a movie release or some thing to publish a teaser first; huh?"
"mhmm... well, just for a fun.." :D

Country Faire

2006-05-03T17:08:00.000-07:00

My temperory home for the time period of six months in America is this.
Its called Country Faire village, in Grayslake, Lake county of Illinois. A county is something like a district in India.
Google earth view here:

I am quite fortunate to have keralite neighbours here: Mr. Manoj and family.

My car. Ford Taurus, with decent power, it drinks petrol like anything. But other cars in the same class also drinks too much of petrol, except the next gen cars called the hybrids

A wider view. This apartment complex has a small park for childern, right in front of my apartment. There is a tennis court and volley ball court also quite nearby.

There is a small pond in the middle of the apartment complex, and a beautiful fountain there.
Ducks are there all around. I dont know what these birds do in winter when there is no water, just ice...

Happened to capture this... A family out for an evening walk. :D

Spring colours are everywhere. Right from the grass to the trees there are flowers everywhere...
Happened to get out of office early today. Since the days are longer now, I have more time in the evening to walk around and shoot.

Lets drive this...

2006-05-01T05:46:00.000-07:00

From Thampy's blog I got this, which sports car are you? Just for the fun. :D

I'm a Porsche 911!

You have a classic style, but you're up-to-date with the latest technology. You're ambitious, competitive, and you love to win. Performance, precision, and prestige - you're one of the elite,and you know it.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

Licensed to Drive.

2006-04-28T11:47:00.000-07:00

The driving test is cool here. Just step in to the Driver License Authority office, show your ID, SSN, take a written test, take a road test, take the license with you! Of course only if you pass the tests.

Mine went pretty fine. I answered all the questions correctly for the written test. And my road test also very good. It was an old lady who took my test. She was very impressed; "Outstanding!" she said after the test! She asked me who taught me to drive. I said my father.
"He should take classes for others" she said.
I am very happy! :D Now licensed to speed on the roads of US...

Schaumburg

2006-04-23T19:02:00.000-07:00

Spring is beginning to show its colours, everywhere. Nice weather to go out,
..and weekend again. This time we had plans to go to St. Louise, but did not work out.
We went to place where Motorola head quarters is - Schaumburg.

The office is behind the parking lot... So only the name board for the time being... :D

Just a small drive from here towards south east around 17 miles we are there. A bit bigger than libertyville, schaumburg is a nice place. The wind is not as gusty as it is in Libertyville. May be in Liv its more due to the presense of large number of lakes in the surrounding area, and its closer to the great Michigan lake.
The place is not very scenic for so many photos. I just took some snaps from the shopping mall and the surrounding area.

We had our Lunch from there...

The above was my Lunch: Roasted Turkey sandwitch with beacons...

We just roamed around the different shopping malls.

...and taking pictures here and there...

JC Penny is a retail store, for all household stuff including textiles. A snap from the Penny's.

Here an average shopping mall is much much bigger than the forum and Garuda mall combined, and it holds as many shops as well.

The parking a seperate multistoreyed building. This is actually small compared to the ones we get to see in Downtown Chicago. There the parking lot itself I suppose 10-15 storeyed building, or even more... Here its a small one...

Some views of the mall are quite good to see...

Ranforest cafe. Just a coffeshop, not a meuseum. :D

Thanks to suri for taking my photo. :-)

We went for a movie 'The Sentinel', just an okay kind of a film. Theater is good. The same complex houses 20 theaters which can hold around 270 people each. Just compare with the largest complex in India (Forum with 10 theaters). :-)

After the 1 and half hour movie, when we came out it was around 7.25 in the evening still with plenty of sunshine. Days are getting longer...

From the theater we can see the freeway IL53 that we took to come here.

Trolleys, like our Bangalore city buses. One of the very few public transport options in US. This I think is there only in Cities.

At around 8.30 we reversed our directions back to Grayslake...
Time to sleep as another week in US passes by...

Navy Pier

2006-04-16T11:55:00.000-07:00

Navy Pier was used by American navy during World war times. Now it houses some resturants, shopping malls, and big screen IMAX theater.
We started from Grayslake in the afternoon at around 2.30. Took I94 freeway. This time I drove with Aiki and Suri in my car, and Nags, Venki and their family in the second car. Both ford Taurus. We took some wrong exit and roamed around searching for the route for some time. But reached the Navy Pier before the family team - I dont know how!
The parking charge is too much here: $22 flat. I had no choice but to park since I had already entered the parking area. :D

There was cool breeze (Mhmm, a bit too cold) when we reached there. Since the family team hasn't reached so far we started roaming around taking photos. We can get a very nice view of the downtown Chicago from the Navy Pier area.

Michigan Lake
The city of Chicago is on the shores of the Lake Michigan, the fifth largest freshwater lake in the world. Here is the view of the lake

Dime Pier

There is a wooden pillar construction in the lake which is called a Dime Pier. This is used by the fishermen years back. The fishermen used to hire a boat for as low as a dime (Ten Cents) and set out for their catch. This are never let them down also. From there is the name Dime Pier.
Now the wooden stucture is almost completely under water, but still plays an important part in blocking the wave stregth to the lakeshore. How do I know? See it here:

USS Chicago.

There is huge anchor place right on the entrance of the Pier building in memory of the Series of US Navy ships named after the city of Chicago. One of them was sunk by the enemies in World War II.

The history of pier is also displayed near the lakeshore with a huge pillar as the memorial.

The lighthouse is far in the lake. I actually wanted go there, but riverted the decision considering the wind ;-) and the cold weather.

The flags of United States of America, and State of Illinois is displayed along with another flag which I think is US Navy Flag. I am not quite sure of this.

We were still roaming around when we got the call from Nags that they are near the giant wheel. The giant wheel is quite easy to spot.. :D

There is a Navy Pier park which provies a few small rides especially for children. This giant wheel is the biggest attraction there, from which you can see the whole city of Chicago, and get an excellent view of the Michigan lake.
Finally they are here...

We took the giant wheel ride, and went inside the Pier building. There is a public Art museum, and Glass Artwork museum. These are very small museums hosting only very few artwork. May be thats why its free! :D

The history of City of Chicago is displayed in the pier building. I still dont have the patience to read the full list, so I am putting it here. If the resolution is not large enough tell me. I will send you the full 8MP version.

We returned from there at around 8 and reached home after dinner at 10.30. Nice weekend once again!
Only this much of photos? No! I took around 100 photos in this trip out of which some went out of focus shaky... etc., some I felt too boring to be published and some are reserved for posting in ...d-signz... later.
The rest -around 40- you can view at Image Station here.

An American Temple

2006-04-09T19:52:00.000-07:00

Not that I have become religious suddenly, but because of a collegue who came from India this week wanted to go to a specific temple. We went to Sri Venkateshwara temple in Aurora, south Illinois.
Around 70 miles south-west from here (Grayslake), near Naperville is the place we went. From outside itself the Indian Style architecture was visible. A huge parking ground, Porsche's and Mercedez's parked here and there... This place is posh.
The temple building is a two storeyed building, with the ground floor having an auditorium, and a dining hall. The first floor houses the real temple. The major diety is Venkateshwara (Vishnu). A big Sri Kovil and big sculpture of Venkateshwara inside stands right in the middle with jaya and vijaya* as gatekeepers. To the left of Vishnu there is Sri Lakshmi, and to the right its Bhoodevi. Around the Sri kovil, and there is desavathara sculpturing. All in cement, but looked very lively.
There is one room in Ground Floor (Actually first floor in American Terms. Whatever we call Ground Floor is First Floor here, and there is no ground floor... ) is for keeping the shoes and jackets. Shoes are not allowed in to the temple, but shirt/jeans/t-shirts are allowed. I didn't see a gate keeper there. Looks like there will not be any theft from here... :D
There were the small prathistha's of Lord Siva, Ganapathi, Subrahmaniya.. towards the right and left of the main entrance. The inside of the temple looks quite like an Indian temple, except that it was all air conditioned, and fully carpetted. The walls and the pillars had the same architectural styling as Indian temples.
When we came in, Nama Japam was going on, quite a few people sitting on the floor reciting the manthras'. From the lines I couldn't find out which lines were being recited, but I noticed the famous lines ending with "...sambhavami yuge yuge".
At around 6.45, was the main pooja. The Sree Kovil curtains closed, and the pooja started; All those the same as what we see in India. The prasadam was Laddu, and Badam. I think this is the tradition outside kerala in Temples. But since this is the first time ever I am visiting any non-keralite temple, I am not really sure. There are live closed circuit TVs placed on the both sides of the main hall for devotees to clearly see the pooja in the Sri Kovil.
We came down to the dining hall. There is a small Indian Resturant operated by the temple authorities. We had dinner from there. One plate of vada costs around $4 (An average Lunch here costs only $5).
In the Auditorium there are some cultural activities dance etc. going on. We watched a group dance by some children to the lines of Kajra re... Since we didn't have much time and had to return home, we did not watch these for long.
We saw the advertisements for the temple offering Indian Language courses, and also courses in Thirukkural etc. But I did not see Malayalam there. Tamil, Telugu, Kannada etc were to be seen. There is a small gift shop in the near the resturant. I didn't buy anything since I have more time here. Will get some thing later...
That was the story of my first temple visit, in US. These people are religous, full vegetarians... They had a tough time making the sales girl give them a Vegetarian burger at Wendy's. :D
My FZ30 hasn't arrived yet. So no pix from my side. There was one camera of my friend Eki (Ekalavya). We shot some two three snaps which I will post later...
Well, a nice weekend!

An hour is gone...

2006-04-05T10:58:00.000-07:00

just like that!

This Sunday morning at around 2AM. It was 3.00 AM in the morning a minute after 1.59AM.
Not getting what I am saying? The daylight savings time came in to picture. In this part of the world the sun stay lit for more late hours in Summer. In spring the days starts getting longer. Daylight is there even after 7pm in the evening.
Ever wondered why this? Well the answer is to save the daylight - Oops I am saying the same thing again, huh? But thats what it essentially is. When the days get longer, there will be more daylight in the evenings too. So begin the work-day early, finish off early. Now we get more time in the evening when you have bright sunlight. This is the time that you have saved.
There is another aspect of this, which is reduction in Energy consumption. Evenings will be more sun-lit. So there will be no need for any electric power that time. If DST was not there, the evening time would have been an hour late which would take up that much of energy.
Did I confuse you? Or did you get something from this?
Anyways, what matters for you is that if you are not from a region where DST is not on, our times differ by one more hour beginning this Sunday, and ending last Sunday in October.
... so I am saving the Sunlight now :D

off the Freeway.

2006-03-31T17:13:00.000-08:00

"You always told me to stay off the freeway."
"Yes, that's true."
"You said it was suicide."
"Then let us hope that I was wrong. "

For those who know me, I dont have to tell that where those lines are from. If you dont understand just ignore...

Today I went to apply for SSN - Some thing like PAN in India, but I think more than that. SSN is Social Security Number.
We wanted to go for a little long drive so we went to our nearby state Wisconsin. We took the highway US94. Very nice road, 6 track, very high speed. There is a minimum speed limit also. :D
The minimum speed limit is 55MPH -- 90 Kilometers per hour and the Max limit is 75 MPH (120+ Kmph). People go way over the limit. I was at 75 and I felt I was very slow in the traffic. It was a real nice driving experience.
I wish we had some thing like this from Bangalore to Kochi. If we had, we could have easily drove over the weekend from Home to Bangalore.. (Nice dream huh?)
While we were coming back it was pretty heavy rain. Still traffic was very fast. Almost the same speed as the dry climate.

The freeways are designed to go with this speeds. There are no traffic lights stopping you at any point till you exit the freeway. There are designated exits and entrances to the free way. Flyovers and underpasses that are far complex compared to the Hebbal flyovers connects the freeway to the other roads. There is toll for most of the freeways at the exits only. There is no stopping of traffic for toll also. So once you enter the freeway, just fly. There is nothing thats going to come and hit you in the middle, unless somebody is really stupid enough to break the rules at this speeds. Pedetrians, pedalled vehicles are prohibitted from coming even near the freeway. (If at all anybody dares to do that, there is heavy fine) If you go below the the speed limits also you are fined. There are video camera's and other sensing mechanisms (I dont know what :P) which makes it easy for the police to track you remotely. So break the rule, even if you dont meet the cop on the road, the ticket (Another US Jargon: the penalty charged on you ) will be safely sent to the cars owner by post! :D

Btw, My friend Ajith has posted a very interesting article in his blog. About the US life... Probably you would like read that also here.

Into the snow...

2006-03-21T19:59:00.000-08:00

The first step in to the snow...
Soft white powder spread across like a carpet on the ground

Cars are covered in the snow all over. This is after a small snowfall.
There are places where the snowfall is in feets (Like we measure the rain in cms.)
Just imagine how would it be like...

Cleaning up the car, so that we can start. Amruth's car in the snow.

The front side of my apartment in the snowy evening of March.
Last week of winter is here. Mostly I will have some spring pictures soon.

People were out in the streets last weekend. Technically this monday is the first day of spring. Its the celebration time for all these people here. The time to come out of hibernation, time to escape from the cruel and cold winter waves. Temperature is slowly raising, above the freezing point. Hopefully a good season coming soon...

The first look

2006-03-21T19:35:00.000-08:00

My place is around 60 miles north of Chicago - Libertyville, a small american village. This is the sight from the place I stayed for the first few days: Candlewood suites.

Most of the trees don't have any leaves at all.
If at all it has, it would look like:

A night view of the same junction:

These were the views of the place for the first few days of my stay here.
Before the snow...