Recently in The World Around Me Category
I got my voter identification card done at last. This is the process in gist.
- Fill out Form 6. Submit at your local CMC / BMP office and get an acknowledgment.
- Check newspapers when they are publishing electoral rolls. Check that your name is in the electoral roles published by visiting the CMC office where you submitted the form. Use this link to check the status online. However I have had problems finding my name on the list even though it exists in the rolls. This link used to work sometime back but is no longer working.
- Show up at advertised venue when they call for the issue of photo id cards and get it done.
In short, the time required is about 15 minutes each for the first and the last steps. But you will spend most of the time in following up to see when the rolls are published and when you need to go for the photo session.
Rishi has a more detailed post on the process of submitting the form and the necessary documents. bangalorevoterid.org site has more information including FAQs, forms and the schedule for issuing the id card.
Go and get your voter id card done today!
me: the subject says the meeting is at 12:15, but your invite is for 12:00. what time is the meeting?
she: the meeting is at 12:15.
me: so why did you schedule it 12:00?
she: coz, i did not know how to send an invite for 12:15
How to live with such folks? There is no drop down selection for timing, but cant they use their uncommon sense to see if the text box is editable?
Am I the only one missing Vasanthi Hariprakash on Radio City. She first moved from Good Morning Bangalore to Joy Ride and now she is no longer on air. I tried asking around a few folks and no one seem to know. I have now switched from Radio City to Fever these days.
Who is your favourite RJ these days?
A little after I wrote my post about the schedule, I noticed that the official site also has the same listed. This looks better than my scanned copy. Enjoy.
The schedule for the annual Ramanavami celebrations at Fort High School, Chamarajpet is out. It runs from April 7th till May 14th. I have been having a copy of the schedule for almost month now but I was hoping to find a copy online so I can pass it along. Today, Sashi volunteered to scan the schedule and give it to me as a PDF. So here it is. Check out the schedule and be there.
It is also there on upcoming. Add yourself if you are attending.
After hearing some funny announcements made by the pilot in a heavily accented tone, I asked the air hostess, "Is the pilot a German?". Pat came the reply, "No. He is European.". :-)
I have been thinking about visiting Coastal Karnataka when Vivek mentioned about trekking to Kodachadri. So Naveen, Teja, Vivek and I backpacked and started on Wednesday, Oct 31, by a KSRTC bus to Kollur. After a bumpy drive for almost 12 hours, we reached Kollur the next day morning around 8AM. Kollur is a small village famous for the Mookambika temple. We checked into a room right opposite to the temple. Had a quick bath, visited the temple, and off we went to Udupi. The road again was very badly damaged and the journey took about 3 hours. We visited the Udupi Krishna temple first. When we were walking towards the temple, we saw a bunch of policemen and a few vehicles with flashing red lights on top. When we went in, I was surprised to see Yeddyurappa and a few other politicians.
We then lunched at Diana, a nice old hotel and then went to the Malpe Beach. The beach was awesome and there was very little crowd. Enjoyed playing in the water and took some shots of the fantastic sunset. We then headed back to Kollur for the night.
Since the bridge on the path to Kodachadry was broken, the morning bus in that route was cancelled. So we arranged for a taxi to drop us at Karakatta. We reached Karakatta around 6:30 and started the trek to the peak. After about an hour or so which was more or less plains, we started the ascend. It was a serene forest, a stream gushing below, a scenic path and sun rays falling through the trees. Somewhere in the middle we came closer to the stream. The water was very sweet. After walking for about 3 hours, around 9:30 or so, we came past the woods into a grass land. The scenery was fantastic, though the trek was very difficult since the path was very slippery. The sun rays were falling on one side and the stretch looked like a golden carpet. Another hour or so and we reached the Kodachadry village. There is a temple here called Moola Mookimbika temple and a couple of houses behind where they serve food. I went into one of the house and was surprised to see a private water falls. Again, the water was crystal clear and sweet.
After having breakfast and some rest, we started the climb to the peak, which was another 30-45 minutes away. On the way there are a couple of deviations, one to the Guha Ganesha and the other to Agasthiyar theertham. We were unable to go Agasthiyar theertham since there were lots of weeds on the path. We went to the Guha Ganesh and then started the climb to the peak.
Naveen decided to take rest amidst the clouds while the rest of us descended from there to a place called Chitramoola. Water collected from the mountains trickles through here and flows and forms Souparnika, the river that flows through Kollur. We then climbed back to the peak and then started our descend. We were planning to go to Gokarna (Cow's ear) beach that night and hence decided not to trek back. On reaching the Kodachadry village around 2PM, we had lunch and then took a jeep down to a village called Nedur. The jeep drive was also an experience in itself. At the hair pin bends, the vehicle tilts and I was thinking that I will be thrown out of the vehicle or the vehicle might even overturn
We took the bus from Nedur to Kollur and from there took a taxi to a place called Byndoor. From Byndoor we took a bus to Ankola. We got down at Gokarna Junction and from there took an auto to Gokarna. We reached Gokarna at around 11pm. We checked in immediately and then went to the beach. Vivek told that there is night life on the Gokarna / Om Beach but the beach was deserted. It was a very scary sight to watch the sea and the sounds of the waves at night. We returned to the hotel thinking of going to the beach early in the morning.
Everyone was really tired after the trek and we slept till 10 in the morning while Vivek went to the beach and came back. We then left for Om Beach from there. The beach is in the shape of an inverted "Om", is a very quiet place and has a few resorts. It was very sunny and I found it a bit difficult. After playing in the water for around three hours, we came back to Gokarna.
We had our return bus booked from Kondapur at 9:30 PM, about 120KM away. We were thinking that we could make it but thanks to some bad roads, reached Kondapur only around 10:30. We were looking for options when we found one travel agent willing to stop a bus at a nearby village if we were willing to reach there. We took a taxi from Kondapur and reached that village, got the bus and reached Bangalore the next morning around 8.
This has been one of my best trips and the most difficult treks in the recent times. I also felt very relaxed, thanks to the exhaustion, after the tip. Most of the photos taken during this trip is on Flickr. I am still in the process of uploading the rest.
A few points to note if you decide to do this trip. Every one gives their own estimate of the distance but there is no way for sure to know how long is the trek. It took us around 5 hours to reach the Kodachadri village and another hour from there to reach the peak. Try if possible to reach Mangalore or some place nearby by train. The roads are ravaged by rains and your back goes for a toss. Beware, there were a lot of leeches on the entire trekking path, waiting to take a few ml of your blood. You must be lucky to get a jeep on the way back from Kodachadri to Kollur or Nedur. If you dont get one, be prepared to walk back. Carry lots of chocolates, glucose and water. I have also heard / read that the sunset there is amazing. Also there are a couple of waterfalls nearby in case you are interested. Last but not the least, please do not litter. It is a virgin forest and let it remain that way. I was also told that they were planning to tar the path to Kodachadri but people are opposing it fearing that it will ruin the place.
Today I started driving from my home at 8, stopped at Adayar Anand Bhavan for break fast for about 20 minutes and still reached office by 8:45. There was absolutely no traffic. Wish every day was a Friday after Diwali.
Don't burn money on crackers and protect the environment. Have a save and happy Deepavali.
Yesterday we had a GPG Key Signing Party at office. People had to read their finger prints and then identify themselves.
One interesting observation was that when people where trying to read out their finger prints, atleat 3 of them said 5 when they meant to say F if it came after a few numbers. Really funny. Reminded me of the forward circulating around which says people read the first and the last letters of the word and even if they are misspelled they get the word the right.
Ram has been planning to buy a car and when he decided to survey the market, I tagged along. We tried the Ford Fiest Diesel yesterday. Drove from Cauvery Ford to Kanakpura Road and then on the NICE road. Oh! boy, this car is fantastic. For a diesel car, there is no noise, it is smooth and the pickup is awesome. He did around 140km and it was just cruising. The Sxi model has leather seats, a 6cd changer and the dashboard looks compact. We also tried the Ford fusion but I was not impressed. I had driven this in the US and there it is a sedan while here it is a hatchback. Though the ground clearance is good, looks like a bit more spacious, it makes too much noise. And I did not find the drive smooth. I am really impressed with Fiesta and if I would buy anytime soon, I will go for it.
I am back from a three day trip to Thirunelveli / Kovil Patti. On Saturday and Sunday, I spent most of the time bathing to my hearts content at the various waterfalls in Coutrallam. I have never had so much fun in water. Travelling along with a local friend helped a lot. I also had a chance to visit places like the Papanasam Sivan Temple, Agasthiyar Falls, Kalyana Theertham and some places where the crowd was very less and enjoy some scenic beauty. Also met around 10 collegemates, 4 of them after almost 10 years in a friends marriage at Kovilpatti. It was good to talk about the golden times in college. I have had one heck of a time over the weekend. I am vacationing the rest of this week as well, catching up on sleep and travelling to Chennai tomorrow for another marriage. Also, travelling to Sunnyvale next weekend for an Expo and may be to Mumbai later next month. So more travel around the corner. I cannot ask for more :-)
Via BWS on Flickr. One camera that money can't buy.
How do you change the priority of a running process?
This was a question in a recent written interview that we did in a college. This is the answer that someone wrote.
- Press Ctrl+Alt+Del
- Select Task Manager
- Go to the process tab
- Select the process for which you want to change the priority
- Right Click
- Select "Set new priority" and enter a number
- Priority of the process is changed
An excellent answer, though this was not what we were looking for. And the guy did get a mark for it.
Today was a much better day at BCB. The crowd was much less, there was space to walk around and talk to a lot of people. We had to time to do everything. Talk about life, philosophy, the world, the habitat / community, photography, mobile phones and bitch about everything including work. Interestingly there were people around with similar thoughts.
Also, spent a lot of time at the photography collective. Amogh showed how to post process an image and gave some cool tips. We tried to process a sunflower image I took and the result was amazing. I will try to get the image and post it sometime this week. It has been a fantastic two days, connecting to multiple people and interacting with them.
August promises to be an exciting month with lot of travel. I am in Hyderabad the next weekend, in Pune the week after that in Pune, and (most probably) in Coimbatore from August 15-19. A couple of my friends are getting married and I will be in Kovilpatti / Chennai during the last week of August. If anyone wants to connect, leave a comment or mail me.
I was at the Barcamp today. I reached there by about 12 and was really surprised to see a whole lot of people. The organisers put the total number of registrations at around 700 and a lot of them were first timers. Met a bunch of folks including LJers, ex colleagues and a few friends.
I spent most of the time hanging out with fellow photographers and at the photography collective. Getting some tips on how to compose a good shot, lighting, framing etc. Plan to meet again with the photography folks tomorrow. Photos up on Flickr.
Sree Rama Seva Mandali, Chamrajpet's Ramanavami concert schedule is out. Check out the star studded schedule at the link below. Enjoy!
69th Sreerama Navami Celebrations, Sree Rama Seva Mandali,Chamarajpet
Here is wishing you and your family a very happy and properours 2007. Have a great year ahead.
Though I have seen a bunch of videos on YouTube, I have not spent much time on it. But ever since I landed in Sunnyvale, I am spending a lot of time on YouTube. I have found an alternate to Comdey Time. A search for tamil comdey gets you a whole bunch of videos and time files. No ads, no blabber. And one of my favourite is there too.
And I was hearing a lot of news about Google and YouTube and then saw this video yesterday after the news about Google buying YouTube was announced.
I will save details about my weekend trip to Sacramento / Lake Tahoe / Reno for another entry. ;-)
Its been little over a week since I landed in Sunnyvale, CA and I am enjoying every bit of it. Except for that fubared Indian flight from Bangalore to Singapore, the journey was pretty good and I did not have a jetlag. Manoj, a college mate, lives here and he has been taking me around places. He did some talking at Avis and got me a free upgrade from an intermediate to a SUV. And so I am driving around a Buick Rendezvous. The next one I am going to try is a PT Cruiser. Its amazing to be driving such a big ones. Compare it with the Maruti 800, I drive in Comibatore :-(
Friday night we checked out downtown Palo Alto, partied till late night at the University Avenue. Saturday evening, we drove down to downtown San Francisco. Checked out the Golden Gate bridge, Fisherman's Wharf. I drove up on Lombard street and I think is one of the toughest one I have ever driven. Its like a 70 degree inclination uphill with stop signs all over and then run downs with sharp turns.
Planning for a vist to LA, Las Vegas and Sacremento (to meet Charan) over the next three weekends I am here. Hopefully, the work schedule remains light. If anyone is living around this area, please send me an email and we can catch up.
