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Showing posts from January, 2010

Goa 24 hour sojorn

A day visit to Goa introduced me two new places. Marriott Hotel at Miramar and Sea pebbles . At Marriott Hotel, while having breakfast overlooking barges plying across Mandovi river, a man with white flag attached to wooden pole marched between tables. I tried hard to decipher his actions and decided to ask him. It seems white flag scares crow away. I must check this fact. But Goan crows were smart, they pounced on plates when this guy reached the other end of the table. Sea Pebbles is a lovely sea food joint hidden along the parking of Dona Paula. A climb and descend of few staircases lead to the backside of open space that is along the beach . Kingfisher beer in the company of Karaoke singer who sung some nice Kishor Kumar and beetles melodies was enjoyable. I was pleased to read about the life imprisonment sentence given to Haldiram owner in Kolkatta for attempt to murder poor tea stall owner by hiring goons. This speaks highly of police officials, judicial and also pol

Mumbai airport @ early hours

Most airports have their lounge after the immigration and security. At Mumbai airport, it is before the security. Once you pass security, you can't go outside. A lesson learnt as I wait for two and half hours at the most domestic airport. Transfer from international to domestic was smooth affair as the bus goes through the inside prescient of the airport complex. A pink coloured Premier lounge card is given but it has no directions, instead mahindra holidays advertisement proclaim as ' My happiest holidays'. No one has any idea about the lounge location including jet ground staff and crew. While being in the coach, driven from international to domestic airport , I see contours of new building that extends the current one at international airport. It will look good when it gets over but the unavailability of access road joining the western express highway is the first glimpse a travellers gets of Mumbai airport. ' He must be the biggest fool, if he were to give up

Dubai visit

In Singapore, as the East Coast Highway approaches the city, match boxes of tall buildings appear well placed in a manner that structures blend with each other and create a harmonious spectrum that is pleasing to an eye. Hong kong , Yokohama too follow the pattern and so are the most US cities. I do not know if a building architect needs to get an approval from city council to ensure that his structure doesn't disturb the overall panoramic sky view of the city. It seems Dubai in hurry to build sky piercing structures overlooked this aspect or they deliberately let each building architect to create the structure that is different from its neighbour. As glass fasaade structures vie with each other on Shiekh Zayed road, an absence of structural harmony is evident. Glass Pyramid of Raffles( ex wafi ) juxtaposed with Arabian style building followed by Circular Arc of Grand Hyatt is not all that pleasing sight through the car window while driving past Gharoud Bridge. Overlo

Akshta in Jan 10 - from slide.com to photobucket

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प्रभाती सूर नभी रंगती

प्रभाती सूर नभी रंगती, दशदिशा भूपाळी म्हणती पानोपानी अमृत शिंपीत, उषा हासरी हसते धुंदीत जागी होऊन फुले सुगंधित, तालावर डोलती कृषीवलाची हाक ऐकूनी, मोट धावते शेतामधूनी पक्षी अपुल्या मधूर स्वरांनी, स्वरांत स्वर मिळिवती प्रसन्न वदनी सुहासिनी कुणी, सडे शिंपीती मृदुल करांनी श्रीविष्णुचे नाम स्मरुनी, तार कुणी छेडीती

Dubai FM

There is one thing that Indian resident carry with them when they leave Dubai. It is Dubai Hindi FM service. After a long time, I am listening to 89.1 and was glad to hear to Charu being there. She was all of giggle and paired with crack jokes with Gaurav. I also admired Gagan Mudal - a consummate performer with mellodious voice

Knowing about 'Snigdha'

What is the meaning of ' Snighda ' ? From school days, I had heard the word the word ' Snighda Padarth ‘ - a dish or an ingredient rich with contents of ' Snighda ' . Later it became part of Marathi science vocabulary and food cuisine. All these years , I presumed it to be as a Marathi word for Protein with an adjective of ' Richness in contents' . A name by the word Snighda made me curious to ascertain if my knowledge was correct. Snighda means gentle, calm and soothing. Now does that mean the food that has these three qualities make it a ‘ Snighda Padarth ? I was wrong. It is not a food with high protein content but with a fatty content. Perhaps fat means oily that is gentle, slippery and soothing. Bhaktivedanta vedabase covers the word Snigdha from references in Bhagvad Gita , Brahmsamhita and Isopnishada . It mentions the meaning as affectionate, slick, gentle, lovely, moist , loving , pleasing , attractive , glistening. It is intere

Death and Survival - all by chance

A man flung himself from the high rise building to kill himself but landed on the man who was walking on foot path below. Pedestrian died on the impact, the man who wanted to end his life survived . Today, Japan newspapers reported a man aged 93 years who had survived both Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombing passed away. Yamaguchi San was in Hiroshima on a business trip for his shipbuilding firm on August 6, 1945 and suffered serious burns when atomic bomb detonated. He returned to his hometown, Nagasaki , which suffered another atomic bomb three days later. A young man from Mumbai was not so lucky during 1992, when string of terrorist deadly bombs unleashed on Mumbai . He was at Bombay stock exchange when first bomb triggered causing many casualties . He survived and was happy. He called up his home telling them about his being safe and carried on his next visit to Oberoi hotel where another bomb blast awaited him. He didn't survive this time. I have great fascination for S

i phone : A new gadget for Akshta

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Time has come to rewrite alphabet learning textbooks for small kids . M for Mac, K for KFC , C for Coke , P for Pizza Hut and Power Rangers, D for Diaper, B for Blackberry , I for i Phone . Thanks to visible brand merchandising, Akshta has learnt alphabets well before any textbook would put into use. Add to that the tool of ' You Tube' with karaoke tagline , the learning is at rapid pace with entertainment . i phone is the hallmark of GUI. Even a child of two and half years can effortlessly use it. In Singapore , there is more crowd at mobile phone service operator's customer service center than could be at bus depot or airport. With the availability of I phone at all three service providers, it's a minimum an hour's wait to get anything done. Singapore must be one of the top countries with smart phones users per million population. Poor Nokia , it's relegated in the league of Samsung and LG. Just couple of years ago, Nokia was one of the top 10 gl

Xin nian yu kuai (Happy New Year)

Q: How do you (Indian) celebrate New Year? A: Drinking Beer! ‘wow.. Drinking beer?’.Nope, I immediately corrected myself. This must be true only with some in cities. Q: But Jan 1st is not New Year for Indians. A: Yes, It is not Q: When is the New Year? A: Sometime in March. Q: What is it called? A: There are several names in different parts of the country. And celebration too is different to the different regions. But this is just one of the New Year. We have many new years. Hindu calendar New Year, Accounting New Year ( Chopda Pujan ), Financial and taxation new year ( March 31st) and also Jan 1st universal new year. The conversation ceases. It is too much to absorb for any foreigner who is keen to understand and know the Indian customs of celebrating New Year. Y’day, at the East Coast Park, two ladies approached us to know about how we were celebrating New Year. They were doing an article for ‘resident’ - a magazine for eastern suburbs residents of Singapore. We look forward to seei