I happened to watch the Republic Day Parade after a really long time. For most part of it, the entire Rajpath was covered with dense fog with visibility of barely few meters. However, it was a memorable event to see the exhibits from all the wings of Indian military forces displayed.
Unfortunately I missed the distribution of Gallantry awards, but heard about it from Meghana and was filled with extreme pride. Because of such people, we all can have a sleep at night and can enjoy our time with family. But as Pranav said in one of his FB updates, even I wish to see an RD parade WITHOUT any Gallantry awards. Not sure when would that day arrive, but I surely hope it happens at least in my lifetime.
In the later part of the Parade, it had the "Rath" representing various states in the country. This was the point where I got really disappointed. I felt, most of them were doing it just because someone in the government asked them to do. For example, Tripura showcasing the contributions of S.D. Burman and an artist trying to match his lip movements with the SD's song. I completely failed to understand what is being showcased here. Something similar with UP and Bihar Raths. Bihar Rath was representing the cloth industry and UP was talking about some temples. Come on, we are celebrating 61st Republic Day and can't we show case what progress we have made in these last 60 years? Maharashtra Rath was at least okay - featuring the "Mumbai Dabbewala" theme. But I feel it failed to point out the real beauty of these dabbewalas - 6 sigma compliant delivery model - which they themselves have developed w/o any MBAs getting involved. And the irony was the song being played was in Hindi and not in Marathi whereas most other states had regional language songs in the background.
Ideally these demostrations, showcases should be displaying what progress we have made YOY in whatever area they may choose. But displaying something that most of us already know or most of us wouldn't care to know is just waste of national resources.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Sizzlers
I happened to visit the "The Place" next to West End, Arora Towers for my lunch on Saturday afternoon. While reading the menu card, I read that this was the inventor of the food type "sizzlers" and it was mainly invented to keep the food hot until you are done! The menu card had written the history of this food type, starting from 1963 till date and how it traversed various places before "The Place" was started.
I like the sizzlers served here and have come here often. Yesterday we ordered "Tandoori Paneer Shashlik" and some "Pram Gramaldi"(?). When the hot plates arrived, I felt that the quantity has been reduced and we were wondering whether to order something more. Fortunately we waited until the plate was finished and we realized that we're actually Full!!
There have been multiple outlets in Pune now which serve the Sizzlers - the famous ones those I know of include "Yana", "Kobe's". Out of this Yana on FC Road has been a favorite spot for two reasons - accessibility and Quality (food and service both). Since Yana is equidistant from my both office locations, it has become a regular place to have team parties or team lunches. The paneer here is extra soft. The Garlic Bread is amazing. However, few times, the french fries have been a disappointment. The good part is the owner/manager is very receptive of this kind of feedback.
Kobe's has been a rarely visited place for me and frankly I don't really know "why?".
"Yana" has better variety in terms of veg offerings and the sauces available if I compare it with "The Place". I felt that the overall taste at "The Place" was a bit mild than that at Yana and also the quantity of sauce is less. The ambience at Yana welcoming whereas "The Place" gives you a gloomy feeling. From the cost perspective, both of them are in the same range.
No wonder I keep on visiting "Yana" :)
I like the sizzlers served here and have come here often. Yesterday we ordered "Tandoori Paneer Shashlik" and some "Pram Gramaldi"(?). When the hot plates arrived, I felt that the quantity has been reduced and we were wondering whether to order something more. Fortunately we waited until the plate was finished and we realized that we're actually Full!!
There have been multiple outlets in Pune now which serve the Sizzlers - the famous ones those I know of include "Yana", "Kobe's". Out of this Yana on FC Road has been a favorite spot for two reasons - accessibility and Quality (food and service both). Since Yana is equidistant from my both office locations, it has become a regular place to have team parties or team lunches. The paneer here is extra soft. The Garlic Bread is amazing. However, few times, the french fries have been a disappointment. The good part is the owner/manager is very receptive of this kind of feedback.
Kobe's has been a rarely visited place for me and frankly I don't really know "why?".
"Yana" has better variety in terms of veg offerings and the sauces available if I compare it with "The Place". I felt that the overall taste at "The Place" was a bit mild than that at Yana and also the quantity of sauce is less. The ambience at Yana welcoming whereas "The Place" gives you a gloomy feeling. From the cost perspective, both of them are in the same range.
No wonder I keep on visiting "Yana" :)
Thursday, January 14, 2010
A short vacation
Albeit late, let me wish you all of my readers a very happy, prosperous and joyful New Year!! May this year starts bringing out the best in you!!
Two things have happened since my last blog post - one have entered the last year of the first decade of 21st century (or first year of second decade? doesn't matter ;)) and I celebrated my 33rd birthday couple of days back. At times it hurts to look at the number "33" but yeah that how it is...
To spend some time with Meghana and Mrunmay, we took a short vacation and headed to KarnaLa. This place is located on Mumbai-Goa Highway about 15 Km from Panvel. There is a fort and a bird sanctuary nearby. Few of you have already visited the place or might have heard about it. For those who haven't been there, this is a good weekend getaway.
We headed to KarnaLa on Friday morning and to cater for Mrunmay's hunger times, we had to take the break immediately a
fter hinjewadi - Joshi Wadewale. This outlet has grown so much since the time I had visited it around 18 months back, but the place is well maintained and clean. After this stop, we took the Expressway and got down in Panvel in about two hours. And then it was just 15-20 minutes drive to the resort which we had booked - Panoramic Resorts.
This resort is located at a beautiful place, from where one can have a the "thumbs up" view of the fort. They also have few live animals including Ostrich and Ducks. This was the first time, Mrunmay was watching these animals and it was so much fun to watch him go behind the ducks!! A huge lawn, a small water park, quite a few built-in toys (ghasargundi, Sea-Saw etc) made sure that the guests of the resorts won't get bored, specially the kids.
On Saturday, we made a trip to the bird sanctuary. It is a small walk in the jungle and hill where there are few birds/animals are placed in a cage to help the lazy tourists not going deep in the forest. Again this was the first time, Mrunmay saw the peacock in all it's glory. This peacocks shows up his plumage as soon as a guest arrives at his door!! Mrunmay also got to see many monkeys, got scared of one, loads of butterflies and yes, a rabbit and parrot too!!
While heading back to Pune on Sunday morning, we took the old NH-4 instead of the Expressway and to our surprise, it was a very beautiful drive. This was the first time I drove on old NH-4 on my own. The road is well maintained, there was very less traffic, the scenery around was very good. And what made it more memorable was a two hour uninterrupted discussion with Meghana on various subjects!!
Towards the end we wanted to get out to Ravet so as to reach Chandani Chowk, but somehow we missed that turn and landed up in PCMC area. Again this came to me as a big surprise - this part of the NH-4 has been made 8 lane road!!! Well placed flyovers, beautification, good signboards - just loved it!!
All in all the vacation was very good - a time well spent. The resort was good, the people there were very nice, Food was just about okay. The service in the restaurant was rather slow.
Some of the photographs would be coming soon on Meghana's blog - here and few I would uploading to Facebook. Watch out for them!!
Two things have happened since my last blog post - one have entered the last year of the first decade of 21st century (or first year of second decade? doesn't matter ;)) and I celebrated my 33rd birthday couple of days back. At times it hurts to look at the number "33" but yeah that how it is...
To spend some time with Meghana and Mrunmay, we took a short vacation and headed to KarnaLa. This place is located on Mumbai-Goa Highway about 15 Km from Panvel. There is a fort and a bird sanctuary nearby. Few of you have already visited the place or might have heard about it. For those who haven't been there, this is a good weekend getaway.
We headed to KarnaLa on Friday morning and to cater for Mrunmay's hunger times, we had to take the break immediately a
fter hinjewadi - Joshi Wadewale. This outlet has grown so much since the time I had visited it around 18 months back, but the place is well maintained and clean. After this stop, we took the Expressway and got down in Panvel in about two hours. And then it was just 15-20 minutes drive to the resort which we had booked - Panoramic Resorts.This resort is located at a beautiful place, from where one can have a the "thumbs up" view of the fort. They also have few live animals including Ostrich and Ducks. This was the first time, Mrunmay was watching these animals and it was so much fun to watch him go behind the ducks!! A huge lawn, a small water park, quite a few built-in toys (ghasargundi, Sea-Saw etc) made sure that the guests of the resorts won't get bored, specially the kids.
On Saturday, we made a trip to the bird sanctuary. It is a small walk in the jungle and hill where there are few birds/animals are placed in a cage to help the lazy tourists not going deep in the forest. Again this was the first time, Mrunmay saw the peacock in all it's glory. This peacocks shows up his plumage as soon as a guest arrives at his door!! Mrunmay also got to see many monkeys, got scared of one, loads of butterflies and yes, a rabbit and parrot too!!
While heading back to Pune on Sunday morning, we took the old NH-4 instead of the Expressway and to our surprise, it was a very beautiful drive. This was the first time I drove on old NH-4 on my own. The road is well maintained, there was very less traffic, the scenery around was very good. And what made it more memorable was a two hour uninterrupted discussion with Meghana on various subjects!!
Towards the end we wanted to get out to Ravet so as to reach Chandani Chowk, but somehow we missed that turn and landed up in PCMC area. Again this came to me as a big surprise - this part of the NH-4 has been made 8 lane road!!! Well placed flyovers, beautification, good signboards - just loved it!!
All in all the vacation was very good - a time well spent. The resort was good, the people there were very nice, Food was just about okay. The service in the restaurant was rather slow.
Some of the photographs would be coming soon on Meghana's blog - here and few I would uploading to Facebook. Watch out for them!!
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Google Wave - Usage and Potential
It got me really excited when I came across the introductory video of the new application from Google - Wave. It seemed to be feature rich from a truly collaborative tool perspective. The video itself was very nicely done with proper examples and how to use this new wave.
And then it was a long wait of few months before Google started distributing invites for private beta. I was eagerly waiting to get the invite as I had promptly registered and opted for beta invite when I had known about it. Finally I could manage to get an invite (although secondary) from one of my friends around 1.5 months back.
As it happens with every new toy, there was a lot of enthusiasm to try out this new tool. Meghana could also manage to get one invite for herself. And then for few days we used this tool as a "chat" application. It was really cool to see what the other person is typing in real time - his/her edits/deletes etc. The interesting part was I could add comment to any of the earlier post and the threaded discussion could start there onwards. Although never used much, the "replay" feature is also one of the attractions for this tool.
After toying for few days, I started wondering what's the real use of this tool and how other people are using it. Decided to use the "wave" itself to gather the opinion about the usage patterns. Create a new wave and added about 20 odd friends, rather whoever was available on my wavelist with a questions - How are you using Google Wave? Also posted the same thing on my FB status and also tweeted about it.
To my disappointment only three of them really responded. One was using it more as a "Group chat", the other was using it with his brother as a "web conferencing tool" for real time file edits, chat etc. And the third one claimed to use it a "lot" for personal and work related activities.
I feel that there's immense potential for this tool to turn out as the "best collaborative tool" specially for smaller groups with heavy collaboration needs. But at least from the group that I have access to, only a few of them are using it. Others, either haven't given serious attention to this tool, or haven't really got the power of this app.
Some of the features that I find extremely important:
And then it was a long wait of few months before Google started distributing invites for private beta. I was eagerly waiting to get the invite as I had promptly registered and opted for beta invite when I had known about it. Finally I could manage to get an invite (although secondary) from one of my friends around 1.5 months back.
As it happens with every new toy, there was a lot of enthusiasm to try out this new tool. Meghana could also manage to get one invite for herself. And then for few days we used this tool as a "chat" application. It was really cool to see what the other person is typing in real time - his/her edits/deletes etc. The interesting part was I could add comment to any of the earlier post and the threaded discussion could start there onwards. Although never used much, the "replay" feature is also one of the attractions for this tool.
After toying for few days, I started wondering what's the real use of this tool and how other people are using it. Decided to use the "wave" itself to gather the opinion about the usage patterns. Create a new wave and added about 20 odd friends, rather whoever was available on my wavelist with a questions - How are you using Google Wave? Also posted the same thing on my FB status and also tweeted about it.
To my disappointment only three of them really responded. One was using it more as a "Group chat", the other was using it with his brother as a "web conferencing tool" for real time file edits, chat etc. And the third one claimed to use it a "lot" for personal and work related activities.
I feel that there's immense potential for this tool to turn out as the "best collaborative tool" specially for smaller groups with heavy collaboration needs. But at least from the group that I have access to, only a few of them are using it. Others, either haven't given serious attention to this tool, or haven't really got the power of this app.
Some of the features that I find extremely important:
- Excellent tool for real time collaboration, threaded discussions.
- One can add participants on the fly and they immediately get the entire discussion immediately. No need to "forward" "all" the mails in a given thread and take a chance to miss out on some.
- Option to respond "privately", just in case something needs to be taken up outside the current thread.
- "Replay" feature to track the timeline of the discussion - who said what and when
- Distributed developer community - e.g. OpenSource project
- If Google decides, this could be the ultimate Enterprise Collaborative tool. The Enterprise edition will help the enterprises keeping data within their n/ws and hence can be used to discuss company confidential items as well.
- Family chat - given the decentralized nature of families, this app could act as a good chat app where you can share photos, videos, files and more importantly can revisit all those discussions whenever you want :)
- At a personal level, one can use it just as a notebook, to track things on a regular basis.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
A Visit to Lavasa
I had been hearing about this "city" for quite sometime - all good and bad both. Decided to pay a visit many-a-times, but never really got to it. Finally it was yesterday when we (Meghana and I) decided to take the trip.
While having lunch at McD, she suddenly got a kick to go a looong drive and so we decided to head towards MuLashi with no specific plans to visit Lavasa. But when we saw the first sign board stating Lavasa at 42 Kms in Chandani Chowk, we thought why not go to Lavasa.
The road to Lavasa is nicely maintained except for few speedbreakers towards the villages near Lavasa. This was not surprising given the big clout that the city is blessed with. The good part was that there was not much traffic, so I could drive with my pace (obviously slow :)) without getting pestered with honking. The Ghat was okay to drive with some sharp U pin curves.
En route to Lavasa, we happened to cross a Dam, couldn't figure out what it's name is (Varasagaon?). The place was serene with not much crowd around. The Dam probably was under construction or was badly placed. Not much of a backwater, some barren land with very few trees around. Happened to catch a single tree trying to survive in the middle of the water.
The clean air, clear sky and lack of sound pollution - those 15-20 mi
ns were really well spent.
And the moment, there is something to photograph, Meghana has to take out her camera, which we had this time, fortunately. She started trying her hands on the camera with various angles, views etc. And I just took a chance to capture a photographer at work :)
Another 5-7 kilometers passed and we entered the Lavasa premises. Nicely done entrance, the street with street lights, the sign boards. At couple of corners where there was space, some gardening was done with arrangement to sit for sometime, ideal if you are staying at Lavasa and just taking a stroll around.
We reached a place call "Ekant" and realized that it's the resort at Lavasa, which I happened to browse over internet few months back. Location is beautiful overseeing backwater of some other dam which was down in the valley. By this time it was almost a time to get back home, so we didn't go down in the valley to check out the water sports and other activities which might be there. We could see water sports from Ekant and the scene was looking really good. We could also see lot of construction happening down in the valley, but due to lack of time, couldn't go and check out.
On the way back, Meghana capatured some snaps of kingfishers and some spoonbills (or similar) around a water body that was nearby. And I did some mobile phtography while sitting in the car ;)
Journey back was uneventful and reached home by 5:30 PM or so.
Overall nice visit and it would be great to visit this place again in the rainy season. I have already heard of some experiences during the rainy season, which are tempting enough for me to make another round of this city in next monsoons. And yes, by that time, even Mrunmay would have grown up a further and even he would enjoy this excursion :)
While having lunch at McD, she suddenly got a kick to go a looong drive and so we decided to head towards MuLashi with no specific plans to visit Lavasa. But when we saw the first sign board stating Lavasa at 42 Kms in Chandani Chowk, we thought why not go to Lavasa.
The road to Lavasa is nicely maintained except for few speedbreakers towards the villages near Lavasa. This was not surprising given the big clout that the city is blessed with. The good part was that there was not much traffic, so I could drive with my pace (obviously slow :)) without getting pestered with honking. The Ghat was okay to drive with some sharp U pin curves.
En route to Lavasa, we happened to cross a Dam, couldn't figure out what it's name is (Varasagaon?). The place was serene with not much crowd around. The Dam probably was under construction or was badly placed. Not much of a backwater, some barren land with very few trees around. Happened to catch a single tree trying to survive in the middle of the water.
The clean air, clear sky and lack of sound pollution - those 15-20 mi
ns were really well spent.And the moment, there is something to photograph, Meghana has to take out her camera, which we had this time, fortunately. She started trying her hands on the camera with various angles, views etc. And I just took a chance to capture a photographer at work :)
Another 5-7 kilometers passed and we entered the Lavasa premises. Nicely done entrance, the street with street lights, the sign boards. At couple of corners where there was space, some gardening was done with arrangement to sit for sometime, ideal if you are staying at Lavasa and just taking a stroll around.
We reached a place call "Ekant" and realized that it's the resort at Lavasa, which I happened to browse over internet few months back. Location is beautiful overseeing backwater of some other dam which was down in the valley. By this time it was almost a time to get back home, so we didn't go down in the valley to check out the water sports and other activities which might be there. We could see water sports from Ekant and the scene was looking really good. We could also see lot of construction happening down in the valley, but due to lack of time, couldn't go and check out.
On the way back, Meghana capatured some snaps of kingfishers and some spoonbills (or similar) around a water body that was nearby. And I did some mobile phtography while sitting in the car ;)
Journey back was uneventful and reached home by 5:30 PM or so.
Overall nice visit and it would be great to visit this place again in the rainy season. I have already heard of some experiences during the rainy season, which are tempting enough for me to make another round of this city in next monsoons. And yes, by that time, even Mrunmay would have grown up a further and even he would enjoy this excursion :)
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Currently
As I have mentioned in my earlier blogs, I have quit playing Evony, TV has been reduced to a couple of hours on weekend, and this is giving me some more time at hand off late.
So what am I doing with this time?
Evening times are entirely for Mrunmay. As soon as I land up home, Mrunmay wants to take his book and makes me read through. Now, don't get it wrong, he doesn't understand fully whatever I read but he wants to keep on turning the pages randomly and look at pictures. If the book is for poems, he'll want me to sing (say?) the poem from the page he lands on. Then he also wants me to sing "naach re moraa" (marathi song) by reading English Nursary Rhymes book and every page that is featuring a "star" I have to sing "Twinkle Twinkle". So outcome, I have memorized quite a few Rhymes which I didn't know until few days back. Joy - countless :)
"baba, pushtak wachoo yaat" (Baba, let's read the book) is the tag line I hear at least 20-25 times during this period. The moment someone distracts him, he is sure to return back to book only in couple of seconds. I just hope he continues with this love for books through his life.
And then the early mornings are for my web surfing. Usually I end up reading through my Google Reader subscriptions, checkout twitter, FB, checkout the Google analytics for my blogs. And yes couple of recent things that have got added to this list are trying out Intuit Money manager for managing the money related data and working on my new professional blog "Management - Experience, Experiments and Expertise." This blog is also available in different look and feel but with the same contents on Wordpress as well.
And through the day, as and when time permits, I keep on tweeting, reading tweets or at least make some unnecessary comments on status from various FB friends... Life is going well I'd say...
Follow:
So what am I doing with this time?
Evening times are entirely for Mrunmay. As soon as I land up home, Mrunmay wants to take his book and makes me read through. Now, don't get it wrong, he doesn't understand fully whatever I read but he wants to keep on turning the pages randomly and look at pictures. If the book is for poems, he'll want me to sing (say?) the poem from the page he lands on. Then he also wants me to sing "naach re moraa" (marathi song) by reading English Nursary Rhymes book and every page that is featuring a "star" I have to sing "Twinkle Twinkle". So outcome, I have memorized quite a few Rhymes which I didn't know until few days back. Joy - countless :)
"baba, pushtak wachoo yaat" (Baba, let's read the book) is the tag line I hear at least 20-25 times during this period. The moment someone distracts him, he is sure to return back to book only in couple of seconds. I just hope he continues with this love for books through his life.
And then the early mornings are for my web surfing. Usually I end up reading through my Google Reader subscriptions, checkout twitter, FB, checkout the Google analytics for my blogs. And yes couple of recent things that have got added to this list are trying out Intuit Money manager for managing the money related data and working on my new professional blog "Management - Experience, Experiments and Expertise." This blog is also available in different look and feel but with the same contents on Wordpress as well.
And through the day, as and when time permits, I keep on tweeting, reading tweets or at least make some unnecessary comments on status from various FB friends... Life is going well I'd say...
Follow:
- Me At Twitter
- Me At Facebook
- My shared items from Google Reader
- My new blog - "Management - Experience, Experiments and Expertise."
- My revived blog - "The 65th Art"
Monday, December 14, 2009
Reality Show - Raaz Peechale Janam Ka
Yesterday, I happened to bump into the latest reality show on NDTV Imagine - "Raaz Peechale Janam Ka" (The secret of last life). Apparently some female is having some psychic powers with which she can help you see your last life. I didn't get to watch the entire episode, but whatever I saw kept me wondering with many questions.
The episode that I saw had Sekhar Suman as the person who was getting to know about his last life. Apparently, in his last birth, he was a scottish person with some Army background and he has lost his family in some some kind of fire, including his "then" kid. It was surprising to know that Sekhar's son (this birth) was afraid of Diwali crackers...
With the recent fad of reality shows mashrooming on every channel (including MTV and V TV, which once were dedicated to only music), I keep on wondering where this is heading. "Rakhi ka swayamwar", "Perfect Bride", "Pati, Patni aur Woh", "Big Boss" and what not. Where are good serials (with some definitive and acceptable endings)? Good humor? Good Detective Series? All the good things on the TV channels seems to have vanished under the cloud of "Reality shows"
Some questions that kept me wondering about this "Raaz Peechale Janam Ka" series:
The episode that I saw had Sekhar Suman as the person who was getting to know about his last life. Apparently, in his last birth, he was a scottish person with some Army background and he has lost his family in some some kind of fire, including his "then" kid. It was surprising to know that Sekhar's son (this birth) was afraid of Diwali crackers...
With the recent fad of reality shows mashrooming on every channel (including MTV and V TV, which once were dedicated to only music), I keep on wondering where this is heading. "Rakhi ka swayamwar", "Perfect Bride", "Pati, Patni aur Woh", "Big Boss" and what not. Where are good serials (with some definitive and acceptable endings)? Good humor? Good Detective Series? All the good things on the TV channels seems to have vanished under the cloud of "Reality shows"
Some questions that kept me wondering about this "Raaz Peechale Janam Ka" series:
- Why is this show restricted to celebrities? (obviously TV channels think audience has sufficient time to know about celebrities' last life even after bombarding them with the happening's in those celebrities' lives)
- What's the reason any celebrity would participate in such a show?
- What is the proof that this is actually a "reality" show and the script is not cooked up?
- Why does a celebrity like to open up such personal things in front of camera? If there would have been such a power and if I had chosen to know about my last life, I would not definitely tell about it to everyone even in my family, forget about unknown folks in the society (yes, I agree I am not a celebrity, but still ... )
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