Old is gold, but old laws gotto go.

Co-creator of Asterix Uderzo retires after 52 years as the 127-year oldest running car fetches £1.6 million while people turn up in underwear in Utah to protest uptight laws, thousands of migratory birds flock Sultanpur National park.

Old is gold, but old laws gotto go.

Co-creator of Asterix Uderzo retires after 52 years as the 127-year oldest running car fetches £1.6 million while people turn up in underwear in Utah to protest uptight laws, thousands of migratory birds flock Sultanpur National park.

Wishy-washy news

Sarkozy floored Carla with flower knowledge, obese women more likely to have fat babies, eating fish reduces risk of strokes while more youngsters call in sick than aged.

Wishy-washy news

Sarkozy floored Carla with flower knowledge, obese women more likely to have fat babies, eating fish reduces risk of strokes while more youngsters call in sick than aged.

Going to vote with all the gold on? Take the metro, darling.

Delhi Metro earns Rs.47 cr carbon credits as Barcelona bids adieu to bullfighting while Nick Mason of Pink Floyd looks forward to a reunion, Saudi women get the right to vote and China installs a gold vending machine with soaring demand.

Going to vote with all the gold on? Take the metro, darling.

Delhi Metro earns Rs.47 cr carbon credits as Barcelona bids adieu to bullfighting while Nick Mason of Pink Floyd looks forward to a reunion, Saudi women get the right to vote and China installs a gold vending machine with soaring demand.

Gizmo freaks you out

Just in case you noticed, there’s no gadget out there that gives you that digital nirvana you were searching for. Our favorite phones have issues streaming Flash content, awesome tablets don’t have USB ports, ‘affordable’ devices just don’t have the fruit company’s lust factor, the brand currently with biggest market share has a sad image and a bloated operating system, a search engine company buys out the mobility wing that started the mobile phone industry… and all this flux makes you wonder what on earth is going on out there and how good really is this device in my hands.
Television tech changes so fast you don’t know what high definition really means anymore. Do you really care if you can see cars or bullets any more smoothly than they are right now? Will 7.1 surround sound make bad music sound any better? Brand loyalty doesn’t hold any ground these days. Tech world is ruthless. Companies that ruled markets or innovated devices get copied quickly and sued by competition even before any app can get downloaded on a phone and say ‘installed’. Ads tell you how bad the competitor’s product is. So who’s taking a hit here? Their competitor or people who bought all this stuff? Where does this leave users you and me, who need devices to get stuff done in the day? How we do go about our lives without getting inconsolably depressed with what we own?

Well, here’s a way around this endless angst. Let go of the passion for devices. Stop envying your colleague for owning that awesome glistening phone you saw on the billboards on the way to work. A few generations back there were no such gizmos around. Guess how people did? Splendidly well! Get back to writing on a piece of paper. Get that awesome mind working. Talk to people face to face- and no- not on facetime. Ditch the TV, take your wife and kids out to the park if nothing else. Listen to old records. If you noticed, we have gigabytes of music we don’t listen to anymore. Compare this with the good old days when people knew all lyrics of songs on a few LPs. I wish I was born in the art deco era. Hire a horse and carriage. Let the world go by at 5 miles an hour. Ride a bicycle. Wait a bit longer at restaurants. So what if he’s taking another 10 minutes to serve you? Read something till then.

Well all these luxuries obviously apply outside our work places. But that’s where the treasure is- time. Regain your creative juices, appreciate flowers and an affectionate pet. Spend time doing nothing. And stay away from the phone. You can check your tweets later because right now there’s one coming from the tree outside your window.

Gizmo freaks you out

Just in case you noticed, there’s no gadget out there that gives you that digital nirvana you were searching for. Our favorite phones have issues streaming Flash content, awesome tablets don’t have USB ports, ‘affordable’ devices just don’t have the fruit company’s lust factor, the brand currently with biggest market share has a sad image and a bloated operating system, a search engine company buys out the mobility wing that started the mobile phone industry… and all this flux makes you wonder what on earth is going on out there and how good really is this device in my hands.
Television tech changes so fast you don’t know what high definition really means anymore. Do you really care if you can see cars or bullets any more smoothly than they are right now? Will 7.1 surround sound make bad music sound any better? Brand loyalty doesn’t hold any ground these days. Tech world is ruthless. Companies that ruled markets or innovated devices get copied quickly and sued by competition even before any app can get downloaded on a phone and say ‘installed’. Ads tell you how bad the competitor’s product is. So who’s taking a hit here? Their competitor or people who bought all this stuff? Where does this leave users you and me, who need devices to get stuff done in the day? How we do go about our lives without getting inconsolably depressed with what we own?

Well, here’s a way around this endless angst. Let go of the passion for devices. Stop envying your colleague for owning that awesome glistening phone you saw on the billboards on the way to work. A few generations back there were no such gizmos around. Guess how people did? Splendidly well! Get back to writing on a piece of paper. Get that awesome mind working. Talk to people face to face- and no- not on facetime. Ditch the TV, take your wife and kids out to the park if nothing else. Listen to old records. If you noticed, we have gigabytes of music we don’t listen to anymore. Compare this with the good old days when people knew all lyrics of songs on a few LPs. I wish I was born in the art deco era. Hire a horse and carriage. Let the world go by at 5 miles an hour. Ride a bicycle. Wait a bit longer at restaurants. So what if he’s taking another 10 minutes to serve you? Read something till then.

Well all these luxuries obviously apply outside our work places. But that’s where the treasure is- time. Regain your creative juices, appreciate flowers and an affectionate pet. Spend time doing nothing. And stay away from the phone. You can check your tweets later because right now there’s one coming from the tree outside your window.

Fictionary

Here's a collection of 10 self-cooked words and phrases for those instances or states of mind you wish had a name. If you see anything here you've seen somewhere else, then it's sheer co-incidence. Wow, let’s start with this-

Flagiarist
That person who disrupts your peace when you thought you’d get away by stealing someone else’s idea or you thought was original.

Plug-head
That blanked out state of mind when you are fumbling through your stuff looking for a laptop accessory or some connecting wire.

Smart-hash
When you're the expert but don’t have a convincing answer to someone's question but still want to answer with some bull and everyone knows you are bulling.

iGod
People who look up or away giving a 3/4 look just when a group photo is clicked.

Click buddy
That stranger you ask to click your group photo.

Cacophone
Conference calls where people don’t let you finish your sentence but you still go on and it turns out no one is listening.

Demoteed
That split-second depressing feeling when people assume your subordinate is your boss.

forget-me-knot
When you want to hang someone who forgets your name despite a previous introduction or acquaintance.

Gayed-out
That weird feeling you get when you get too close to another man in a bookstore or public place and you find yourself getting the hell out of there least he thinks you’re gay and hitting on him.

Dickhead
Person who think you’re not married because there’s something ‘wrong’ with you.

Fictionary

Here's a collection of 10 self-cooked words and phrases for those instances or states of mind you wish had a name. If you see anything here you've seen somewhere else, then it's sheer co-incidence. Wow, let’s start with this-

Flagiarist
That person who disrupts your peace when you thought you’d get away by stealing someone else’s idea or you thought was original.

Plug-head
That blanked out state of mind when you are fumbling through your stuff looking for a laptop accessory or some connecting wire.

Smart-hash
When you're the expert but don’t have a convincing answer to someone's question but still want to answer with some bull and everyone knows you are bulling.

iGod
People who look up or away giving a 3/4 look just when a group photo is clicked.

Click buddy
That stranger you ask to click your group photo.

Cacophone
Conference calls where people don’t let you finish your sentence but you still go on and it turns out no one is listening.

Demoteed
That split-second depressing feeling when people assume your subordinate is your boss.

forget-me-knot
When you want to hang someone who forgets your name despite a previous introduction or acquaintance.

Gayed-out
That weird feeling you get when you get too close to another man in a bookstore or public place and you find yourself getting the hell out of there least he thinks you’re gay and hitting on him.

Dickhead
Person who think you’re not married because there’s something ‘wrong’ with you.

Andamans, Coorg, Mysore- SCUBA and coffee

Well it was the time of the year for the big trip, and unlike last year in Ladakh, we planned things ahead for a change. We reached Port Blair airport on the 3rd and then took the government ferry to Havelock island, then logged into Barefoot resort at Radha Nagar beach.


Huge ancient Mahua trees near Radha Nagar beach, Havelock Island

5 September
7 am: On Monday, we headed for Beach no 3 at the PADI resort, filled and signed the waiver form for SCUBA diving. We put on the diving suits, carried our fins and masks, and took a motorboat to beach no 2. This is where we strapped on our cylinders and went diving to check out the world under the surface. By the way, these are not oxygen cylinders, just regular air. We went through a training session on breathing and communication skills and headed for the deeper end. Though it was raining heavily through these days, we had a spot of luck with the sun out in the first half of our diving day. The entire duration underwater was for 30 minutes and we went as far as 6 metres down. After a while I could feel my ears due to the increasing pressure. One thing about the whole experience- aqua life has to be experienced in person. Fish going about their lives in shoals of over a 100 each, just a metre away from you, huge multicolored species in visible range- this is a dwindling ecology. Carrying my camera was pointless because the moments worth capturing were underwater, and I did not have the waterproof cover. Thankfully the diving instructors- Anne, Steve and Karan had an underwater cover for their camera, so we have some photos. The fish we saw down there were parrot fish, clown fish, sea urchin and a whole lot of other species I have never seen before. Ocean life is way too vast and extensive to know what's going on down there. And thanks to evolution we will never 'cover' everything.

6 September
The next day at 7 am we headed for Henry Lawrence Island for snorkeling, which took 2 hours by ferry from Havelock to reach. Two other Australian couples were with us on the boat. This is an uninhabited island and we banked at 'Tamarind camp' which was basically just a hut and a dog on it. Since I was a total non-swimmer, I had to use the lifesaver and be guided along the corals. I could breathe comfortable with the snorkeling gear, and see the sea bed very clearly. The Aussies were experienced divers and they clearly saw much more, diving down to 5 metres in a single breath to check under the corals and fish closer to the sea bed. The water was much clearer around this island- thanks to lack of human intervention. We had some luck again with a clear day which let us see down below till the sea bed. This time we saw more types of fish and creatures. Clearly more dives were needed to understand this world down below.
We had lunch- pasta and olives, picked up some shells along the beach and headed back.


My first SCUBA dive at Havelock

7 September
9 am: We left Havelock island by Bambooka- a government ferry.
Reached Port Blair at noon and checked into our hotel. Went to Naval museum which has the history of A&N islands documented in forms of paintings, information boards, shells and relics collected from tribes, Samudrika- the aquarium museum and later Cellular prison. The sound and light show did a very standard job of recreating the history of the freedom fighters' ordeal here. There was so much scope with shadow cutouts and props. Of the 6 wings, four were destroyed and a hospital was built on the same land. The other three wings serve as a memorial.


Rainbow spotted over Cellular Prison, Port Blair


Boat in Baratang

8 September
3 am: we headed for Baratang island. 50 km from our Port Blair hotel we reached the Jirkatang checkpost. Baratang ferry point was another 50 km through the forest. Our group of 20 odd cabs was escorted by armed cops through this distance. On the way we saw the Jarawa tribals. The people have not changed through the ages. Originally of negro race and retaining the same physical features, the tribe's lifestyle remains unchanged. They still hunt and dress the same. One young man with a bow and arrows was looking out for food from passing cabs. Later we saw a youngster who had hunted wild pigs and had them on his back. Then we saw a family of three also on the road. Later two women dressed only in red head gear and red dresses were trying to get people's attention from the passing traffic in hope of food and stuff. It is illegal to interact, feed or photograph the tribals, so I have no pictures of them. At the ferry point, 4-5 young tribal men seem to be comfortably hanging around here. I got chatting with the driver to learn more about them. Their population is apparently around 500 and this tribe is protected under government law. The Jarwa people had surrendered to the government 12 years back. They looked misunderstood, misplaced and under-privileged. But then maybe thats my perspective from the warped 'civilization' I come from.

From the ferry point we took a ferry to the other side, from where we hopped into a motorboat. After an hour we got into a mangrove canal which took us to the limestone cave. Later we saw the mud volcano. This is an active volcano which is still bubbling mud.

Sept 9- Port Blair to Bamboo Flat was by ferry. Heading for Hariet peak which had a 16 km trek path but it was raining so heavily we had to pass. There is a suicide point in this park. Anyways it started raining heavily so we got out of there. There is a view from here that is apparently the same as what you see on a 20-rupee note!


Monks in prayer, Golden Temple, Kushal Nagar, Karnataka



From there we headed for Coorg and spent 4 days there in the coffee plantations. From here we moved around to Abbey falls, some local temples and to Kushal Nagar which has a huge monastery. Headed back to Delhi on the 14th.


Abbey falls, Coorg


Baby elephant in Coorg

We visited the Mysore palace just before catching our train to Chennai. The palace is currently under restoration, though visitors are allowed inside. I was honestly surprised at the level of committment shown in the preservation of the art- paintings, sculptures and personal belongings of the Wodeyars royal family. My personal favorite were these bronze leopards in various places on the palace grounds. I spotted at least eight of them.





There's also the amazing stain glass in the 'marriage hall' area-


Here's a video of the whole trip. It's a 3 minute montage of just trees and Abbey falls-

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eQJL6ZOM80]

Andamans, Coorg, Mysore- SCUBA and coffee

Well it was the time of the year for the big trip, and unlike last year in Ladakh, we planned things ahead for a change. We reached Port Blair airport on the 3rd and then took the government ferry to Havelock island, then logged into Barefoot resort at Radha Nagar beach.


Huge ancient Mahua trees near Radha Nagar beach, Havelock Island

5 September
7 am: On Monday, we headed for Beach no 3 at the PADI resort, filled and signed the waiver form for SCUBA diving. We put on the diving suits, carried our fins and masks, and took a motorboat to beach no 2. This is where we strapped on our cylinders and went diving to check out the world under the surface. By the way, these are not oxygen cylinders, just regular air. We went through a training session on breathing and communication skills and headed for the deeper end. Though it was raining heavily through these days, we had a spot of luck with the sun out in the first half of our diving day. The entire duration underwater was for 30 minutes and we went as far as 6 metres down. After a while I could feel my ears due to the increasing pressure. One thing about the whole experience- aqua life has to be experienced in person. Fish going about their lives in shoals of over a 100 each, just a metre away from you, huge multicolored species in visible range- this is a dwindling ecology. Carrying my camera was pointless because the moments worth capturing were underwater, and I did not have the waterproof cover. Thankfully the diving instructors- Anne, Steve and Karan had an underwater cover for their camera, so we have some photos. The fish we saw down there were parrot fish, clown fish, sea urchin and a whole lot of other species I have never seen before. Ocean life is way too vast and extensive to know what's going on down there. And thanks to evolution we will never 'cover' everything.

6 September
The next day at 7 am we headed for Henry Lawrence Island for snorkeling, which took 2 hours by ferry from Havelock to reach. Two other Australian couples were with us on the boat. This is an uninhabited island and we banked at 'Tamarind camp' which was basically just a hut and a dog on it. Since I was a total non-swimmer, I had to use the lifesaver and be guided along the corals. I could breathe comfortable with the snorkeling gear, and see the sea bed very clearly. The Aussies were experienced divers and they clearly saw much more, diving down to 5 metres in a single breath to check under the corals and fish closer to the sea bed. The water was much clearer around this island- thanks to lack of human intervention. We had some luck again with a clear day which let us see down below till the sea bed. This time we saw more types of fish and creatures. Clearly more dives were needed to understand this world down below.
We had lunch- pasta and olives, picked up some shells along the beach and headed back.


My first SCUBA dive at Havelock

7 September
9 am: We left Havelock island by Bambooka- a government ferry.
Reached Port Blair at noon and checked into our hotel. Went to Naval museum which has the history of A&N islands documented in forms of paintings, information boards, shells and relics collected from tribes, Samudrika- the aquarium museum and later Cellular prison. The sound and light show did a very standard job of recreating the history of the freedom fighters' ordeal here. There was so much scope with shadow cutouts and props. Of the 6 wings, four were destroyed and a hospital was built on the same land. The other three wings serve as a memorial.


Rainbow spotted over Cellular Prison, Port Blair


Boat in Baratang

8 September
3 am: we headed for Baratang island. 50 km from our Port Blair hotel we reached the Jirkatang checkpost. Baratang ferry point was another 50 km through the forest. Our group of 20 odd cabs was escorted by armed cops through this distance. On the way we saw the Jarawa tribals. The people have not changed through the ages. Originally of negro race and retaining the same physical features, the tribe's lifestyle remains unchanged. They still hunt and dress the same. One young man with a bow and arrows was looking out for food from passing cabs. Later we saw a youngster who had hunted wild pigs and had them on his back. Then we saw a family of three also on the road. Later two women dressed only in red head gear and red dresses were trying to get people's attention from the passing traffic in hope of food and stuff. It is illegal to interact, feed or photograph the tribals, so I have no pictures of them. At the ferry point, 4-5 young tribal men seem to be comfortably hanging around here. I got chatting with the driver to learn more about them. Their population is apparently around 500 and this tribe is protected under government law. The Jarwa people had surrendered to the government 12 years back. They looked misunderstood, misplaced and under-privileged. But then maybe thats my perspective from the warped 'civilization' I come from.

From the ferry point we took a ferry to the other side, from where we hopped into a motorboat. After an hour we got into a mangrove canal which took us to the limestone cave. Later we saw the mud volcano. This is an active volcano which is still bubbling mud.

Sept 9- Port Blair to Bamboo Flat was by ferry. Heading for Hariet peak which had a 16 km trek path but it was raining so heavily we had to pass. There is a suicide point in this park. Anyways it started raining heavily so we got out of there. There is a view from here that is apparently the same as what you see on a 20-rupee note!


Monks in prayer, Golden Temple, Kushal Nagar, Karnataka



From there we headed for Coorg and spent 4 days there in the coffee plantations. From here we moved around to Abbey falls, some local temples and to Kushal Nagar which has a huge monastery. Headed back to Delhi on the 14th.


Abbey falls, Coorg


Baby elephant in Coorg

We visited the Mysore palace just before catching our train to Chennai. The palace is currently under restoration, though visitors are allowed inside. I was honestly surprised at the level of committment shown in the preservation of the art- paintings, sculptures and personal belongings of the Wodeyars royal family. My personal favorite were these bronze leopards in various places on the palace grounds. I spotted at least eight of them.





There's also the amazing stain glass in the 'marriage hall' area-


Here's a video of the whole trip. It's a 3 minute montage of just trees and Abbey falls-

Sayonara... well hold it... its Banzaaai!!

Japan gets a debt rating of AA3 from AAA as India exports are up 82% while India wings of BMW and Mercedes fight it off verbally, IBM to buy Algorithmics for $387million and Anna Hazare gets a hero's welcome in his native village.

Sayonara... well hold it... its Banzaaai!!

Japan gets a debt rating of AA3 from AAA as India exports are up 82% while India wings of BMW and Mercedes fight it off verbally, IBM to buy Algorithmics for $387million and Anna Hazare gets a hero's welcome in his native village.

Pay up, m'am... else I do after 13 years.

Messi slips into Kolkata quietly, a junior engineer is punished for accepting a Rs.400 bribe he took 13 years back as 120 tonnes of squashed tomatoes fly in Bunol, Spain, while London introduces 'sex tax' on the sex workers and Lord Ganesh gets an 'Anna Hazare' look.

Pay up, m'am... else I do after 13 years.

Messi slips into Kolkata quietly, a junior engineer is punished for accepting a Rs.400 bribe he took 13 years back as 120 tonnes of squashed tomatoes fly in Bunol, Spain, while London introduces 'sex tax' on the sex workers and Lord Ganesh gets an 'Anna Hazare' look.